Whoo!

[altivo]

After spending the morning puzzling out Microsoft's abominably complex directions for applying fixes to Win2K to deal with this idiotic change in daylight saving time, I decided I'd had enough and left after lunch, pleading my cold (which is still dragging me down.)

Thinking I'd probably just fall asleep but would try anyway, I settled down with The Prisoner's Release and Other Stories by Kyell Gold (kyellgold) just released from Sofawolf. Well, there was no falling asleep until I got to the very end. If you liked Volle and Pendant of Fortune you can't miss this collection of tales.

"The Prisoner's Release" has appeared before, of course, and tells of events in between the two full length novels. All the other stories have connections to the same world and characters, as well. From "Inside the Cage," first and longest of the four tales, we find out exactly what happened to the young cougar Jonas when he ran away from The Jackal's Staff, and the tribulations he went through as a result. In another story, we learn the next phase in the life of that sweet wolf Richy, Volle's favorite at The Jackal's Staff. Is there life after the Staff? Indeed, there seems to be. "The Prisoner's Release" itself has been revised a bit, with more details added. Cameo appearances by various characters criss-cross between the stories. We see the skilled tailor fox Mikka, who plays a large role in Jonas' survival, selling Volle a shirt in the marketplace of Caril during "Home Again," which tells of Volle's arrival back in Ferrenis and how he and Streak were settled on their little farm. We get to meet Lord Fardew's unruly whelps and learn of the mischief they get into in "For Love or Family." There the incorrigible villain Dereath Talison makes a reappearance, as we learn more of the events that shattered Lord Fardew's life and eventually allowed Dereath to take his place.

Some of these characters I find irresistible from their first appearance. Streak, of course, is nearly everyone's favorite, but wait until you meet Fardew's son Cef. Jonas deserved a follow up, and does himself proud (along with doing lots of other males of various species.) Best of all, Richy turns out to be even better than anyone could have thought, revealing his heart of gold and then giving it to... No, I won't tell you to whom.

I hope the author intends to tell us more. I'd love to learn about Tally's past, for instance. Or something more about Volle's classmate Reese. From whence did Lord Tistunish come and how did he arrive in the position in which Volle met him? How did Lord and "Lady" Barclaw meet and arrive at their rather interesting accommodation to the Court's expectations in Tephos? What really happened when Xiller went to Ferrenis? What was Prince Gennic's back story? There were some interesting hints when these two appeared in Volle and then they were gone. In any case, this book was a page turner that kept me awake in spite of doses of cold medicine, all the way to the end where I wanted still more.

Oh, and I should mention the illustrations too, by a different artist for each story. Vince Suzukawa, Taurin Fox, Leo Magna (of Fur-Piled,) and Adam Wan all make distinctive contributions. Sara Palmer has not completely vanished either, as she provided an adorably romantic picture of Volle and Streak for the cover.

This book is a must for Gold's readers. If you are new to his work, though, I strongly encourage you to read Volle first. That novel provides background that enriches the four stories in The Prisoner's Release and they will not be as powerful unless you know those prior details.

Rating: 5 of 5 possible apples

Comments

[lobowolf.livejournal.com]

I patched all the Win2K ("Wintoque") machines using "tzedit." Apparently this was on the Windows NT resource kit CD. Since Microsoft's official position is that everyone should be running XP by now, they're not officially supporting it, but it it supposedly works. I was able to edit the time zone and change the beginning and ending of DST..that part of it worked fine. We'll see if actually works.

(Note: After you edit a time zone with tzedit, you need to select another time zone, and then reselect your current time zone).

I just picked up a copy of The Prisoner's Release at FC, and I'm hooked on the trilogy. I actually went back and read Vollle again so I can read everything in order, and I will follow it up with a reread of Pendant of Fortune.

I'm trying to figure out who that is...he's obviously in the furry fandom, as there are several characters in the book that are named after furs that I know :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yep, I used tzedit as well. The directions for that were about four lines buried in the middle of a long, tortuous article with many dumps of registry entries and the usual warnings about how if you edit your registry they won't support you any more. Like they ever support you anway.

Kyell Gold? Well, we have a few hints. He apparently lives in California, with a (presumably male) partner, and certainly must be involved in furry fandom.

Yes, I need to re-read the other two books in order to pick up on more of the details and the delicate web that binds all these stories together. Besides, I'm in love with Streak myself, and especially that romantic scene where Volle risks life and limb just to hold paws with him through the barred window of his cell. What a movie that would make! XD

[wolfgrowl.livejournal.com]

I just finished "The Prisoner's Release" last week after picking it up at FC. I had already read Volle, and am looking forward to starting "Pendant of Fortune". Very enjoyable books!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

In case you didn't know, there are more stories by Kyell Gold available on FurRag, ready for immediate injoyment. Look for author name "kyell".

[bariki.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine showed me a copy of Pendant of Fortune a couple of weeks ago, and my interest was peaked within the first few pages. I just hope that he finishes it soon enough for me to be able to borrow it!

Luckily, the DST issue hasn't raised it's head for me since none of my managed systems are in the US, or use US time zones. I understand that it's been something of a headache for legacy systems, though, but that's hardly a surprise for MS, eh? "What? You mean you're not running XP yet?"

[altivo.livejournal.com]

No, I run Linux, remember? I have switched the majority of the library's equipment to Linux now. They get their time from an internet time source which will undoubtedly make the switch for them.

I inherited two servers running Win2K Server and two staff workstations with Win2K. Five other staff workstations in daily use have indeed been switched from Win98 to XP, since I can't get these people past the terror of the unknown that crops up at any suggestion that they be moved from Windows to anything else. No matter how horrible Windows/Microsoft may be, you know there's almost no getting past that. It doesn't matter that they've seen me running the same software on Linux for nearly three years now, because they're convinced that I know "magic" that they can never learn. Nor does it convince them that I have at various times swapped Linux-based machines in for shared workstations at the circulation desk, or that one they use every day has been running Linux for over a year. They just know that the world will come to an end if Windows is taken away from them.

One of these people has been using an ssh-based text interface to add and update catalog records because that's what she learned six years ago. It was long ago made obsolete by a much smoother, easier, and more powerful graphical interface but she resists learning that because it looks "too hard" (meaning not familiar.) This week I lied to her and said that the next upgrade to the catalog software, expected this summer, was going to disable the interface to which she continues to cling. She's in a quandary whether to quit her job or bite the bullet and try to use something new.

They already know that I am not under any circumstances installing Vista anywhere. In spite of this stubborn refusal to give up the chains of Microsoft Market Dominance, I have cut the library's software and support bills in half in the last year. The director loves that, but still refuses to give up her own Windows environment. She uses Quicken and Microsoft Publisher and is convinced she can't live without them. Never mind that support for Publisher appears to be coming to an end.

Pendant of Fortune is a superb mystery suspense novel. I don't recommend starting with it if you haven't read Volle though. There is a huge amount of plot background assumed. In fact, the author wrote the two pretty much as one huge novel, as I understand it. They were separated into two parts because of the necessity of keeping costs under control.

[kyellgold.livejournal.com]

First off, thanks for the very nice review! Much appreciated. Second, agh! Stop giving me more ideas for stories! :) I will say that the story of what really happened with Xiller is one that is partially written (sort of) but stalled because of structural/character issues. I do want to pick it up again, though. It does make me happy that so many ideas occur to you; that means the characters are as engaging to you as they are to me.

And last... Volle was actually written well before Pendant, though I believe both were finished before Volle actually saw print. So while they were written separately, I had the chance to go back and fix details to work between the two, which no doubt accounts for the impression that they form part of a whole.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, thank you for sharing these wonderful characters. They are indeed engaging, in fact, I'd say captivating.

In truth, I have so many ideas and curiosities about Argaea and its lands and cultures, that I'm resisting the urge to write about the place myself. Since I haven't seen you offering permission for anyone to do so, I will overcome the urge. I promise. ;D

I am fascinated by the religious setting and variations. I can imagine an entire series of novels dealing more closely with that too.

[kyellgold.livejournal.com]

There are a couple fan-fics floating around. If you have an idea, shoot me an e-mail. I'd just want to make sure you have all the info that isn't in the books if you're touching on areas I've thought about but haven't written out.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Thanks for indulging my temptation. Now we're even. ;p

I'm working to meet the submission deadline for Fang #5 right now but I'll send you an idea or two soon. I'd love to write about Argaea, but have no desire to steal your characters or settings in any explicit way. Perhaps something set during the reign of Bucher, or even farther back in history...

[bariki.livejournal.com]

It's a rare thing to be able to get 'direct' access to an author so easily, so for that alone I'm grateful to our resident Clyde for pointing you out. ^)^ I look forward to reading the rest of your work as soon as I can get my hooves on a copy of Volle.

[kyellgold.livejournal.com]

Well, thanks! Feel free to friend my LJ--I use that mostly for writing announcements and such, but I also answer questions pretty regularly.

As to shipping "Volle" to the military, the Sofawolf guys did tell me at one point that they sent a copy to a US army base in Kuwait...

[bariki.livejournal.com]

MS: Linux? Is that some kind of code name for a beta service pack or something? Ooh, maybe it needs you to buy extra licenses!

You've put an interesting idea into my head: the concept that users see their IT support people as 'magical', able to divide a partition, raise dead systems once again and bring calm to turbulant networks. Hehe. In the 21st century, there's not that much room left for such thoughts, especially not in the world of IT. Hmm, it might form the basis of an interesting story...

I have the sight to see beyond your corrupted SYSTEM hive.

Publisher still lives in Office 2007, so it'll be around for some time yet. FrontPage, on the other hoof, has been finally put to sleep and replaced with Sharepoint Designer (if you use SharePoint) and Expression Web (if you don't).

I still have little to no GNU/Linux demand to contend with, nor does it seem that any of my customers are interested in even considering it. Not even my larger contract client in London, to whom I just wrote up a licensing proposal for the next three years of Microsoft commitments: 25 users with Windows XP Pro and Office 2007 Pro, two Exchange & 2 ISA Servers and 25 Core CALs for Windows Server 2003. The cost? £8,900 over three years. Ouch.

I think that Volle costs about $20 from kyellgold's web site, but that's $20 that ain't available right now, but hopefully next month. Heh, better be next month, because I think that the royal Navy might not take too kindly to gay-themed furry fiction being posted to their nval bases. :P

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, they still refer to us as "wizard" and "guru" (which I dislike.) However, this is a manifestation of Clarke's third law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

In my case, it doesn't take much in the way of advanced technology. My fix for a corrupted registry is to format the drive and install Linux.

My observation about Linux and the unwashed masses is that they appear to be perfectly happy using it as long as they don't know what it is. Tell them and they throw a fit.

That's about the right price for Volle I think, yes. I did think the RN was moving into more advanced and liberal thinking about gay enlistees, like most of the other armed forces in Europe. The US is the one that lags the world on this. Doesn't mean your peers wouldn't abuse you for it, though, just that the official authorities would look the other way. When Fang #4 comes out, around the time of Anthrocon, it should cost you the same amount for that book (only it will have a story in it by myself.)

[bariki.livejournal.com]

But if I installed linux on their machine, how would they get their email to work? The disc from their ISP only works on Windows. :P

Heh, that's rhetorical only, and I'm sure that we've both heard better/worse excuses than that for being a Windows whore.

Indeed, the RN's perhaps the most liberal of the Branches here: they even have a practicing satanist on board a destroyer somewhere. I had no intention of running in rainbow shorts anyway, and certainly for the training part of this, I think that keeping my private life *gasps* private makes the most sense. ^)^

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It amazes me at times how much people get wedded to some particular application, often some dime-a-dozen thing with features easily duplicated by several replacements. E-mail is an example of that.

Worse, because they've only ever used one particular program, they think everyone else uses the same one, and are constantly spouting instructions to the world: "What? You can't figure out how to.... Well, just presss F7 and then choose the address from the list it gives you.... What do you mean, F7 doesn't do anything? Your e-mail program is broken."

I missed some features of Pegasus mail when I first went to Linux, but that's because I substituted pine. Thunderbird has it all and more. Even so, when I replaced my desktop last year I never got around to installing Thunderbird because I'm just using my ISP's webmail interface. It's quite sophisticated, nearly as good as gmail. Sometimes I think these folks who refuse to deal with change just need to be told "Tough, you have no choice."

Some 15 years after leaving DOS behind, my mate is still complaining about the loss of a text editor he liked, something called "EC". It appears that Micro-EMACs could do all the same things, but he'd rather bitch about not having his old favorite than learn to use the one that's still around.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I'd get it just for those artists work :D
All uber good and very distinctive styles.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes. In this case, I particularly like Leo Magna's drawings and Taurin Fox's drawings. But all are good. Sara Palmer did the internal illustrations for the other two books, as well as all three covers.