Just before the long weekend...

Books:

• The Short Victorious War by David Weber. Another Honor Harrington novel. I wasn't really all that thrilled with the first one. Great battle scenes, but rather ham-handed with the characters themselves. The second one was better, but there was less character development and more action and he still had a tendency to use his characters for exposition (and not always believably). This one is better yet. Honor goes through some believable changes, action from conflicting viewpoints reveals a good sense of the characters, again the action was excellent. Hmmm...I have no idea how long ago these were written (obviously a while since there's quite a few of them), but he's clearly applied himself to the craft and tried to improve. Maybe Ashes of Victory will improve in context when I get there. Or maybe it was a low point comparatively. A long series will sometimes suffer from those.
• Changer of Worlds - Worlds of Honor #3 by David Weber. Hey, blame Darren. He came home with both of these and promptly lent them to me. Some good short stories (really more of the novella length, in fact), but no real surprises. By that I mean that the quality of his writing is not significantly affected by the shorter length. Of course, he's writing in the same universe and he can afford to leave a lot unsaid, just focusing on story.
• Water Touching Stone by Eliot Pattison. Damn this guy is an amazing storyteller. A completely believable mixture of mysticism and detection. An excellent sequel to his first book, The Skull Mantra. I think I would happily read any fiction this guy wants to write.

Music:

• Nothing to say here

Movies:

• The Score. A very well done little scam movie with some awesome jazz in the background. Filmed in Montreal. Robert De Niro has the squarest French I've heard in a while (although I shouldn't throw stones, my French was abysmal before I forgot it entirely). And Edward Norton (of Fight Club) has an amazingly plastic face. I didn't recognize him at all the first time he appeared on screen in this flick. A fun movie.
• Collateral Damage. A nearly typical Arnie flick. The most interesting thing they did in the movie was having the bad guy question the good guy's decision to seek revenge. But you don't really get the impression that Arnie takes the question seriously. This movie would have been a lot more interesting if that idea had been played out properly. Oh wait, it was an action flick. Nevermind.
• XXX. This is Bond for the next generation. And I loved it. It's not taking itself seriously as an action flick, but it doesn't let up much either. And way better one liners than the last Bond flick I watched. Great soundtrack, too.

Games:

• Neverwinter Nights. To the exclusion of all else just now. Need I say more?

TV:

• Nope. Still nothing on.