Posleen. Not Antonia Shimerda and Jim Burden, nor Tom Joad and Rose of Sharon. Natasha Rostov and Boris Drubetskoy aren’t anywhere to be found. Edgar Rice Burroughs’ works are nestled in boxes and stuffed somewhere in the garage. They keep Verne and Voltair company, as well as entertain the Bronte girls with gingersnaps and piping hot tea. No, we have Polseen.
Apparently Posleen are hermaphroditic, genetically engineered centaur-like lizards bent on galactic domination and eating their way through every known species (the universe is their salad bar.) I’m bent upon actually finding decent reading material.
It isn’t that I do not like scifi. I do. In fact, John Ringo’s scifi is particularly engrossing if one is into quantum physics. I have never before embarked on this particular lizard-centaur series, although my Better Half has gone on about it for years.
“Read gust front,” he says.
“Mmm? Must Front?”
“
Gust Front. John Ringo wrote it. It’s a book.”
I roll my eyes. “
Obviously, if someone
wrote it and if I’m to
read it, it
must be a book. What’s it about?”
His face lights up like Christmas at Tim "The Toolman" Taylor's house. “Aliens. Military. Military aliens with God Kings. Humanity kicking some serious ass.”
“Oh hooah.” My eyes roll skyward again.
“Very funny, Ms Civilian. Just read it, since you’re bored.”
“I’m not bored. I just want to read something… different. Hand me the book.”
“I don’t have the first book.”
It’s at this point that I roll my eyes with such force as to cause them to burst out of my head, roll down the hallway, and whack into the shepherd’s leg. Said beast picks up those now-fur-coated eyeballs and sucks upon them like a wayward child with an ill-gotten gum ball.
“Just hand me the damn book and tell me what happened in the first.”
Thus do we have the sepia scene snapshot of the week. The book’s cover was inhaled by a cat. The pages are curled from years of use. I haven’t read any further than page 22, although that is mostly due to watching Deadliest Catch on television tonight.
I added some harsh edges to the picture, and some color to my spare glasses. I was tickled to find “luckless God King Posleen” unmistakably present on the page.