Sparkplugs

My birthday weekend was a little annoying -- spent an hour and a half in line at the DMV to renew my license, among other things. And then chased all over town in search of the photo printer I wanted, only to discover that a) the Photosmart B8850 is only available online (and my Best Buy birthday discount card is only valid in stores), and then that b) my second-choice printer, the equally good Canon PIXMA 9000 -- which is on sale! -- is out of stock in every Best Buy store except one inconvenient one (which has only one left). Waugh! (I will be heading off to pick up the printer after work, however.)

But I did get an advance copy of the upcoming Victory of Eagles for my birthday, and have been finally resolving the Cliffhanger of Doom that Empire of Ivory left us on. And I can honestly say that while I love all the Temeraire books, my favorite was the first. But without spoiling anything this one recaptures all the things I loved from His Majesty's Dragon; I find myself just grinning in some chapters. I stayed up rather too late last night reading the first half, and fully intend to finish it off tonight. Things are coming to a head in this book, and it looks like all our plot threads will finally be tied up.

I have a feeling I need to finish it off quickly anyway, because several folks will want to borrow it. I'll have to buy the normal edition anyway in July, since I want to make sure my set still matches. As I'm a dork. (But actually the ARC doesn't fit on the shelf where the rest of the Temeraire books live, so this is a practical concern anyway!)