Three Parts Dead

For a spot of variety, something from the list of Campbell nominees in the form of Max Gladstone's Three Parts Dead. As already this was one of this year's real discoveries: a fun steampunk fantasy that combines magic and technology and complicated credit obligations that take a clear swipe at the problems of the global financial sector.

The story opens in the early hours of the morning with Novice Technician Abelard keeping up the constant litany of prayers to his god, Kos the Everburning, in the city of Alt Coulumb. Initially Abelard isn't worried about the lack of response; the god's responses his prayers have been slow for a while. But when the endlessly burning flame goes out and all sanctum's alarms sound simultaneously, Abelard finally realises that something is seriously wrong. When the church finally realises that their god is dead and that something needs to before his influence disappears, leaving the technology of Alt Coulumb at a standstill, they call in Elayne Kevarian and her assistant Tara Abernathy of the crafting firm of Kelethras, Albrecht, and Ao.

Digging into the mystery the crafters soon realise that the god most likely died because his obligations exceeded his resource and, unless they can prove that his church did not negligently over-commit his strength, Kos' creditors will be able to control the reconstitution of the god's remains. With Abelard's help, they discover that the god should have been sufficient to cover his obligations and that something else must have been sapping his strength. As if all this wasn't enough, they also have to resolve the death of a powerful judge who also happens to have been one of Elayne's principal allies and to confront an manipulative professor from Tara's School days.

Three Parts Dead is extremely sure-footed and its world building is excellent — doubly impressive for a debut novel. Magic and technology are treated in a similarly logical fashion, thus the priests of Kos know all about the laws of thermodynamics and how to get as much energy as possible from a steam turbine even while as the energy in question is supplied by the ever-burning spirit of their god. Likewise in a world where magical soulstuff acts as currency, magic is constrained by complicated binding obligations, its exercise owes as much to law as it does to wizardry, and creatures made of nothing but soulstuff — gods — act as banks, loaning out power and transferring it from place to place.

Excellent. I wouldn't be surprised if Gladstone swipes the Campbell...

Cat + shark suit + robot = adorable

A cat in a shark suit riding a roomba? Surely the very reason the internet was invented!

Mainly overhangs

Crossed off a couple more target routes today, including a 5+ nemesis that completely defeated me when I last attempted it back in April and which today barely seemed to trouble me at all — the overhang didn't bother me in the slightest but I did pause just before the top to consider my foot work for the final push. I also tried and messed up another long standing challenge in the form of a crimpy, overhung 6a that I just can't seem to crack — I know I need to change the placement of my right foot but I'm not quite sure how to do it.

Working on the overhangs made me realise that it's an area of that could do with some work — both in terms of technique and brute strength. Trouble is most of the really overhung routes are lead climbs and none of us are signed off for that — although we've got a lame master plan to sign-up en bloc for one of the courses in autumn. But in the meantime, maybe we ought to dedicate some sessions to working on some of the bouldering problems...