fivemack | Dr Fivemack, I presume

Dr Fivemack, I presume

This afternoon, at about 4pm, wearing reddish-purple robes trimmed with turquoise and a hood of the same material, I had my name announced by Professor Buttery, Dean of the Faculty of Science; walked, in front of an audience (nay, a Congregation) of perhaps two thousand, across a stage tiered three-deep with gowned academics; gave a shallow bow to Professor Fujia Yang (Chancellor), because I didn't think I could quite pull off a deep theatrical one; and received a bit of paper certifying me as a Doctor of Philosophy. My parents were very proud.

This concludes my twenty-year stint in full-time education.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Didn't they give a speech in Latin?

Modern universities, I don't know.

Well done Dr. Tom!

My congratulations.

Congratulations!

(btw, we also presume you found the Forbidden Planet open on Sunday?)

Yes, I found it and stayed there until it shut. Bought The Sundering and Peshawar Lancers; the latter was a guilty pleasure, and provided you think of it as set in alternate-Kim rather than anything actually resembling India, is a very good Boy's Own adventure. Much less on-page sex than most of Stirling. I do need some kind of explanation as to why SMStirling thinks Confederate-style plantations (whether run by Draka with slave workers, or by Englishmen with Indian workers overseen by Sikhs) are the highest form of civilisation.

The Sundering is Walter Jon Williams' sequel to The Praxis, and I read it on the train today. The Praxis I thought was very good, as a space opera written with O'Brien-style pacing; this one doesn't seem to have got the pacing quite right, it head-hops slightly distractingly, and it repeats itself &em; many events from the previous novel are explained more than once.

The Draka books have plantations. The estates in "The Peshawar Lancers" are run by tenant farmers who pay rent. Quite different, and much more like Victorian England.

Glad you enjoyed the book, though.

Yours,
S.M. Stirling