Monday: Happy President’s Day!

A few years ago, I got a copy of Jasmine Silvera’s witch and werewolf trilogy (well, the first book anyway), set in Prague. I bought it because someone on Twitter said it had a great sf book conversation between the characters and Jack Williamson’s Dragon Island was mentioned. I had never heard of Dragon Island and I got it and it was every bit as terrible as one might imagine from a surface description and I still loved it because for whatever reason Jack Williamson absolutely does it for me.

Anyway. I read the rest of the witch and werewolf series as they came out but did not go back and read the godsdancer books. I finally have now read all of those, and I gotta say, what a delightfully gory and yet fun universe. I really like Prague-the-city-as-a-character, and I love the many ancillary characters at Praha Dance and the many members of Azrael’s Aegis. I love that we finally got a better sense of wtf is going on with Gregor. His backstory creates a really surreal almost time-travel-tale element to the story (only going the slow route and only forward, but still).

A lot of supe stories have characters who have a parent who is of one supernatural type and another parent who is of another (generational sagas will really mix things up). It has always been clear that this operated as a metaphor for all kinds of Forbidden Couplings, whether that was ethnic, racial, religious or whatever. But Silvera’s stories are delightful because she explores the human side of mixed pairings and what it is like to grow up as the child (grandchild, etc.). She forthrightly presents evolving prejudices over time, and the exquisite cruelty of a parent who keeps the kid around but gets rid of the other parent and never recognizes the child as their own officially but uses them for labor instead. And not field labor, either. So, so, so much representation here that has been missing in many stories. Silvera does not make it possible to ignore the material but it is contextualized in a life well lived, even tho seriously impacted by that trauma.

Great stuff. The best kind of Happy Ending, especially since it is not an end, but rather a beginning.

Monday: Transition Day, Disney Springs, Fireworks, Villains Lounge

Transition day. J and the kids were super prompt at 11 am and we headed out in a very full van. I had delivered a plate of croissants and fruit and deli meat around 9:30 or so. If I had been smart, I would have been doing that the previous two days as well. Live and learn. Also, the Jurassic Park Kids Suite beds are now too short for N.

We dropped bags at hotels (note: BLT now has its own luggage services. Ooops) and us at Disney Springs and then R. went for a long bike ride because this is the first not rainy day. B. slept every time we were seated. It was eerie. I moved the Morimoto up to around 2 and when we were done, our rooms were ready so we took buses over and checked in and settled in for the evening. I got a slice of marble teacake at Erin McKennas; it was good. But we had leftovers from Morimoto, which R had for dinner. Then we all met up at BLT and watched the fireworks and then went up to Villains Lounge for drinks and charcuterie and cake. They had an apple dessert from Steakhouse 71 that was really good.

When we got to Disney Springs, I just deferred to J because he had really wanted some time there. I had no idea why. There is not really much to do there except shop and eat (hence Morimoto reservation and Erin McKenna — we got a pretzel, too). It turns out that when we all went to Morimoto a year or so ago, he was rushed through there and only saw it slightly in the dark and wanted to get a good look at it. This is a weird thing to want to spend any time on, but it was transition day so whatever.