#Elizabeth haydon

[haveyoureadthismgyabook]

Series info...

Book 1: The Floating Island

Book 2: The Thief Queen's Daughter

Book 3: The Dragon's Lair

Book 4: The Tree of Water

[yesimgoingthatdeep]

Any journal heads out there...

NOTE: i am talking about a specific set of journals; the lost journals of Ven Polypheme

HAS ANYONE SEEN ELIZABETH HAYDON?!??. she is the author of this series and she dissappeared before the series was finished.

This is a call out to any tumblr detectives who will be paid for their work

[threeravenspublishing]

The Best Fantasy/Sci-Fi Romance to Fill Your Day

[editoress]

4, 18, 25: Krelyss :3

>:( Are you proud of yourself? Huh?

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

Krelyss is built for high fantasy. It's the elven lifespan, the solemnity, the longing for a lost family. There's something so classic about it.

So I'm thinking Elizabeth Haydon's Rhapsody series. One of the main characters is half Dhracian, so he's visibly different and an outcast. They make good assassins, Dhracians. Fantastic senses. So Zaresh escapes the destruction of a continent that kicks off the plot of the first book. And Krelyss tries to follow him. But the time shenanigans separate them. Krelyss doesn't know if Zaresh even made it to the main setting, and it's hard to search when he has to hide his face. Also there's something charming to me about combining a setting in which music is magic with a character who is not a noted singer or musician.

18. How about a relationship they have in canon with another character that you admire?

You know this already, but I am so interested to find out what kind of dynamic could exist for Krelyss and Vaela later on. There's a lot of potential there, but it could easily be lost if they decide to be too cautious with each other.

Otherwise, the answer is uhhh all of them. No, listen. Krelyss is so eternally fond of babygirl Riven, to the point that he believes with his whole heart that she wasn't a difficult child. "I've never done anything wrong, ever, in my life " / "I know this and I love you" dynamic. By nature of being older and wiser, he gives Erosen someone to lean on and stops him from pulling his retired cranky old man act. Delethil puts on his best, most charming manners for Krelyss specifically, mostly because it annoys Erosen, and so Krelyss finds him a nice young man. Eravin asks for melee training and they're in the Home Depot club together, so while they're not close, Krelyss does get to know Eravin from an interesting angle that no one else gets. And of course the other Home Depot club member is Vaela's dad, with whom there's a lot of complication but only on one side.

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

I am trying my best to remember my first impression. I feel like I was thinking gremlin DM thoughts above all else, fitting the pieces together for my own purposes. My interest was in whether I could slot him into Riven's backstory, and voila!

Now. Now I'm in love. He's hot, everything he does is hot and tragically beautiful. I'm kicking my feet and giggling. I'm weeping into my hands. Can you believe there was a point in the campaign when I had his character sheet ready in case you mistimed the Zaresh news and would have had to fight and kill him. I would have died. We're married. That's my husband. One million me/Krelyss fic

[missmcspooks]

THE CHILLING CASE OF THE SNOWTOWN MURDERS

In 1999, Snowtown in South Australia became labeled as the location of where the remains of eight bodies were found. All the remains were found inside barrels of acid, located inside an abandoned bank vault. Even though most of the bodies were all found in Snowtown, only one murder happened there. All other victims were killed around the outer northern suburbs of Adelaide, and none of the four perpetrators were locals from Snowtown either. There were twelve victims in total.

The motives for the murders remain unclear, but it seems as though the group's ringleader, John Justin Bunting, made them believe that the victims they were targeting were either pedophiles, homosexuals, or anyone who appeared to seem “weak.” He also chose his victims due to things he hated, such as drug users, or people who were obese. Some victims were killed quickly, while others were tortured and degraded. The killers also made an effort to take the victims' identities to have access to their bank accounts and social security payments. The murders took place between August of 1992, up until they were apprehended in May of 1999. 

THE PERPETRATORS

John Justin Bunting: (born September 4th, 1966). The ring leader. When he was eight, he was beaten and sexually assaulted by a friend's older brother. This led to his hatred towards homosexuals and why he felt to take matters into his own hands regarding anyone who he suspected as being a pedophile. He also enjoyed weaponry, photography and anatomy. At age 22, Bunting worked at an abattoir, and reportedly bragged about slaughtering the animals, and how much he enjoyed it. In 1991, Bunting then moved to a house in Salisbury North, South Australia, and befriended his neighbors, Mark Haydon and Robert Wagner. 

A forensic psychiatrist, Professor Kevin Howellsat, believed that his behavior suggested he lacked emotion and the capacity to empathize with his victims. It showed that he was a psychopath who felt great satisfaction from controlling his victims. His victims were forced to call him ‘God’, 'Master', 'Chief Inspector' and 'Lord Sir'. During the murders, he had fashioned a "rock spider wall" on a wall of a spare room in his house. He created a chart by using paper notes and wool, and on that chart was an interconnected web of names of people that he suspected to be homosexuals or pedophiles. He would select a name from the wall then call and threaten the person, insinuating they were pedophiles, and claimed that they "would get what's coming to them".

Bunting was convicted of committing 11 murders, and was sentenced to 11 life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Robert Joe Wagner: (born November 28th, 1971). There’s not a lot to report on Wagner, besides the fact that he was befriended by Bunting in 1991, and was convinced to assist in the murders. He only confessed to killing three people, but was convicted of killing 10, and was sentenced to 10 life sentences without the possibility of parole.

James “Jamie” Spyridon Vlassakis: (born December 24th, 1979). James, along with his mother and half-brother, Troy Youde, lived with Bunting, and overtime was convinced to assist in the murders. Yes, Vlassakis helped torture and murder his own half-brother, along with his stepbrother, David Johnson. He confessed to four murders, including the murder of his half-brother and stepbrother, and became a key witness for the Crown (public prosecutors to the legal system of Australia). Evidence, along with the details he provided, helped convict Bunting and Wagner. He was sentenced to a minimum of 26, and was held in isolation in an unidentified South Australia prison. Vlassakkis mother, Elizabeth Harvey, also knew about the murders, and with encouragement from Bunting, she even assisted in one of them. However, once everyone was taken into custody, she passed away from cancer.

Mark Ray Haydon: (born December 4th, 1958). Haydon was an associate of Bunting, and was initially the subject of "suppression orders or statutory provisions prohibiting publication” and thus could not be identified as anything other than an alleged perpetrator. In January of 1999, he reportedly rented the abandoned state bank building in Snowtown. The jury deadlocked on the murders of Haydon's wife, Elizabeth Haydon, along with Troy Youde. The murder charges were not retried when Haydon pleaded guilty to helping the serial killers dispose of the bodies of Elizabeth and Youde.

Haydon only confessed to assisting with disposing of two bodies, but was convicted of five, and was sentenced to 25 years with a minimum of 18 years before being eligible for parole. 

THE VICTIMS

Clinton Douglas Trezise (20): His body was found buried in a shallow grave at Lower Light, north of Adelaide, in 1994. He was bashed in the head with a hammer by Bunting, after being invited inside for a social event. Once inside, he accused him of being a pedophile. 

Ray Allan Peter Davies (26): He was an intellectually disabled man, who in 1993 had an intimate relationship with Bunting's ex-girlfriend, Suzanne Allen. Suzanne’s grandsons alleged that Davies had made sexual advances towards them, which ended his relationship with Suzanne. Bunting later admitted to Vlassakis that he had killed Davies on December 25th, 1995. He explained how Vlassakis's own mother and Bunting's wife, Elizabeth Harvey, had stabbed Davies in the leg, right before Wagner strangled him to unconsciousness with a jumper cable. In court testimony, Vlassakis stated that, according to Bunting's story, Bunting and Wagner loaded Davies’ unconscious body into the trunk of a car, and had driven 90 minutes to a home in the town of Bakara. Then they threw his body into a bathtub, and proceeded to bash him in the genitals with the end of a pole which resulted in his death. On May 26, 1999, the body of Davies was found in a grave filled in by Bunting and Wagner with bricks, soil and concrete on property previously occupied by Bunting in Salisbury. 

Suzanne Allen (47): Was found buried at Bunting's house, and wrapped in eleven different plastic bags. Her death was concealed by Bunting and he continued to collect her pension, claiming a total of $17,000. Bunting claimed she had died of a heart attack although law enforcement suspect that she was murdered when her relationship with Bunting deteriorated. Murder charges regarding the death of Allen were eventually dropped by the prosecution due to lack of evidence and the perpetrators were tried but not found guilty as a result of a hung jury. Her case was never tried again.

Michelle Gardiner (19): She was a transexual, who was also the cousin of Wagner’s wife. She was very open about who she was, and Bunting hated this behavior and labeled her as “the biggest homo.” Right before her disappearance in 1977, she was outside playing with Wagner's children in their front yard, where he witnessed her grabbing one of his children and placing her hand over their mouth. Seeing this, Wagner became filled with rage, and he and Bunting took her to the Murray Bridge, where they strangled her to death, inside of a shed. There they forced her to stand up every time she collapsed. After her death, they staged her home to make it look like she was robbed. They kept her body in a barrel inside the shed, until they moved it to the Snowtown bank vault. Her right ear was covered by a slipknot in a rope that was wrapped around her neck, and her left foot was cut off in order to be able to close the barrel. 

Vanessa Lane (42): She was Wagner’s ex-partner, and was a “pre-op” transgender woman who was in a relationship with Wagner during the time Bunting moved in nextdoor. Bunting was okay with being her friend, simply because she kept him updated about the pedophiles around the area. However, when she was accused of sexually assaulting a local boy, he became enraged. The couple then broke up. She was tortured to death for information regarding her bank accounts, and then was strangled to death after having her toes crushed by a pair of pliers. Bunting took control of her vehicle and collected her welfare payments. Her body was found dismembered and put into a barrel in the Snowtown bank vault. 

Thomas Eugenio Trevilyan (18): Vanessa Lane’s last partner who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and hallucinations, which led him to believe that he was a soldier, so he always wore army clothes. From April to October 1997, Trevilyan lived with Vanessa for five months, and helped Bunting and Wagner kill her. On November 4th, 1997, Wagner's girlfriend's son was playing with a dog when Trevilyan began chasing it in an attempt to kill the animal with his knife. He was stopped but that afternoon Bunting told others that Trevilyan had started to "go mental" and that he would be a liability to them. On November 5th, Trevilyan was then driven to Kersbrook in the Adelaide Hills, by Bunting and Wagner. He was forced to lean against a box and had a noose put over his neck. He was discovered hanging from a tree in Humbug Scrub the next day. Due to his history of prior suicide attempts, the coroner determined that he had killed himself

Gavin Allan Porter (29): Was a diagnosed schizophrenic who spent many years in mental institutions, and who was also Vlassakis friend. Both Porter and Vlassaki were heroin addicts, and Bunting referred to Porter as “a waste,” and after accidentally being pricked by a syringe that was left on the couch, he decided Porter would be their next victim. Porter was sleeping in his parked car on Bunting's property when Bunting and Wagner attacked him. When Porter woke up, he managed to stab Bunting in the hand with a screwdriver before being overpowered and strangled. Porter's body was displayed to Vlassakis before disposing of it into a barrel.

Troy Youde (21): He was the half-brother of Vlassakis. Vlassakis had earlier confided in Bunting that Youde exually abused him when he was 13. Bunting and Wagner woke up Vlassakis while he was sleeping in his bed and told him they were going to murder Youde. They beat Youde while he was asleep in bed and then Vlassakis handcuffed him while the others tied him up. They then dragged him out of bed and forced him into the bathroom, where they beat him once more and demanded his financial information. Bunting used pliers to crush Youde's toes as he coaxed him to repeat a string of numbers, words, and sentences that he had recorded. He was then strangled to death. Bunting created messages from Youde and afterwards from subsequent victims to inform friends that they would be going away using the recordings.

Frederick “Fred” Robert Brooks (18): Was the son of Jodie Elliott who was the sister of Haydon's wife. Bunting became obsessed with the idea that Brooks was "touching up" young girls and repeatedly told others that something had to "happen" to him. In September 1998, Brooks was notified that he had been accepted into the Australian Air Force Cadets, and was invited to join Bunting, Wagner and Vlassakis at a party. The three of them tortured him in a bathtub and was handcuffed and thumb cuffed. They inserted lit cigarettes into his ears and his nostrils, and a lit sparkler was shoved up into his urethra. He was then forced to speak into a recording device, giving up his banking information. A syringe was used to inject bleach into his testicles, which were wired to a Variac, sending electrical surges through his body. His toes were also crushed by pliers before he choked to death on his gag.

Gary O’Dwyer (29): He was Buntings neighbor and was both physically and mentally disabled, and was repeatedly called a “fag” by Bunting. Vlassaki informed Bunting of O’Dwyers financial situation and whether he had family or not. He was informed of O’dwyers disability benefits, which made him a financial target. The two, along with Wagner, invited him over for a social gathering to have drinks. They got O’Dwyer drunk, and Wagner grabbed him around his throat and proceeded to torture him for several hours. His remains, like many others, were placed inside of a barrel. 

Elizabeth Haydon (37): She was Mark Haydon's wife and Frederick Brooks's aunt. Bunting was informed by Haydon that he had informed his wife about the murders. Bunting detested Elizabeth and warned Vlassakis that she was an issue due to being aware of the murders. Wagner had similar feelings about Elizabeth, considering Haydon's wife to be “a whore” and “a low-life.” On November 21, 1998, Bunting and Wagner arrived at her home, and her husband and children had gone out for the night. She was dragged to her bathroom, tortured, and then killed. A rope was left around her neck, and a gag had been taped into her mouth. Allegedly, later that day, when her husband was shown her remains, he laughed. Elizabeth's body was then placed in a barrel.

David Johnson (24): He was Vlassakis stepbrother. . Bunting didn’t like Johnson because he was fastidious with his cleanliness and appearance and Bunting consistently referred to him as a "yuppie,” and a "faggot". Bunting began talking about "getting" Johnson and suggested that Vlassakis find a way to get him to the bank vault in Snowtown. On May 9, 1999, Vlassakis told Johnson that there was a computer for sale in Snowtown, and he agreed to go with him to buy it. He was overpowered as soon as he entered the building. Johnson was the only victim who died in Snowtown. Additionally, a piece of flesh from Johnson was fried and eaten by Bunting and Wagner.

[commonbard]

made my friends pick out my february (!!!!) tbr and didn't touch it in the last two months so choose which book from that i should attempt this week

[antifragilejpn]

the lovely @natsukashenby tagged me earlier this month! thank you so much! sorry it took so long to reply lol

1. 3 ships: caitvi (of course), griddlehark, howlsophie 

2: first ship ever: it’s been awhile so hard to remember but wesley/buttercup has my entire heart

3. last song: lay low by yooa (i’m addicted, it’s so good)

4. last movie: the lord of the rings trilogy (extended edition)

5. currently watching: waiting for the third episode of the last of us! and then pokemon in french lol

6. currently reading: rhapsody by elizabeth haydon

7. currently consuming: pokemon legends arceus! absolutely getting destroyed in battle right now but i like the challenge.

8. currently craving: a sense of belonging, another tattoo, tiny pancakes, a trip to a country i’ve never been to

tagging: @scarletheart, @cookiecrow, @theslumberthatcreepstome, @zepiglet, @xthescarletbitch, @reveluvdive, @sanaz ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡

[willowstea]

23 books I want to read in 2023

Tagged by @peregrination-studies

Thanks for the tag! My main goal is to continue chipping away at my TBR and to finish off some series.

In no particular order these are the ones i really hope i get to:

Loud Mouse by Idina Menzel and Cara Mentzel

The Bone Queen by Alison Croggon

Reread: Graceling by Kristin Cahsore

Reread: Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

A Winter's Tale by Mark Helprim

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

Destiny: Child of Sky by Elizabeth Haydon

The Merchant Emporer by Elizabeth Haydon

The Hollow Queen by Elizabeth Haydon

The Weavers Lament by Elizabeth Haydon

Reread (ish, want to read the new published edition, not to og ebook): Morrighan by Mary E. Pearson

Seasparrow by Kristin Cashore

In the Sperpents Wake by Rachel Hartman

The Secret of the Delvers by Bruce Coville

The Invasion of Luster by Bruce Coville

The Falconer by Elizabeth May

The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaimon

Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

Prince of Val-Feyridge by Helen C. Johannes

The Winners Kiss by Mary Rutowski

The Dragon republic by R. F. Kuang

[2oldbear]

Izza myth. According to Wikipedia, "

The name Marathon[a] comes from the legend of Philippides (or Pheidippides), the Greek messenger. The legend states that, while he was taking part in the Battle of Marathon, which took place in August or September, 490 BC,[3] he witnessed a Persian vessel changing its course towards Athens as the battle was near a victorious end for the Greek army. He interpreted this as an attempt by the defeated Persians to rush into the city to claim a false victory or simply raid,[4] hence claiming their authority over Greek land. It is said that he ran the entire distance to Athens without stopping, discarding his weapons and even clothes to lose as much weight as possible, and burst into the assembly, exclaiming νενικήκαμεν (nenikēkamen, "we have won!"), before collapsing and dying.[5]

The account of the run from Marathon to Athens first appears in Plutarch's On the Glory of Athens in the 1st century AD, which quotes from Heraclides Ponticus's lost work, giving the runner's name as either Thersipus of Erchius or Eucles.[6] This is the account adopted by Benjamin Haydon for his painting Eucles Announcing the Victory of Marathon, published as an engraving in 1836 with a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon.[7] Satirist Lucian of Samosata gave one of the earliest accounts similar to the modern version of the story, but its historical veracity is disputed based on its tongue-in-cheek writing and the runner being referred to as Philippides and not Pheidippides.[8][9][full citation needed]

There is debate about the historical accuracy of this legend.[10][11] The Greek historian Herodotus, the main source for the Greco-Persian Wars, mentions Philippides as the messenger who ran from Athens to Sparta asking for help, and then ran back, a distance of over 240 kilometres (150 mi) each way.[12] In some Herodotus manuscripts, the name of the runner between Athens and Sparta is given as Philippides. Herodotus makes no mention of a messenger sent from Marathon to Athens, and relates that the main part of the Athenian army, having fought and won the grueling battle, and fearing a naval raid by the Persian fleet against an undefended Athens, marched quickly back from the battle to Athens, arriving the same day.[13]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Pheidippides

In 1879, Robert Browning wrote the poem Pheidippides. Browning's poem, his composite story, became part of late 19th century popular culture and was accepted as a historic legend.[14]

Mount Pentelicus stands between Marathon and Athens, which means that if Philippides actually made his famous run after the battle, he had to run around the mountain, either to the north or to the south. The latter and more obvious route matches almost exactly the modern Marathon-Athens highway (EO83–EO54), which follows the lay of the land southwards from Marathon Bay and along the coast, then takes a gentle but protracted climb westwards towards the eastern approach to Athens, between the foothills of Mounts Hymettus and Penteli, and then gently downhill to Athens proper. This route, as it existed when the Olympics were revived in 1896, was approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) long, and this was the approximate distance originally used for marathon races. However, there have been suggestions that Philippides might have followed another route: a westward climb along the eastern and northern slopes of Mount Penteli to the pass of Dionysos, and then a straight southward downhill path to Athens. This route is a bit shorter, 35 kilometres (22 mi), but includes a very steep initial climb of more than 5 kilometres (3.1 mi).

Please contribute to Wikipedia.

[lostmeadowjade]

taking a look at my activity and i noticed that someone liked a post i had made a while back about reading the Symphony of Ages series by Elizabeth Haydon. and i thought i should probably add to that post, because i did finally get my hands on the last three books. and oh boy let me tell you...

i hated how that series ended! absolutely hated it.

like, yes, okay, i get it. they are effectively immortal characters. unless they are killed outright (and not even then) they were going to live forever. and they were not species who were supposed to even live exceptionally long. except for ashe (but only by taking on a completely different form).

but what she did to grunthor? that was horrible.

and i don't mean just the nature of his death, or why he died. the stories never shied away from those kind of things. but it was the way it was address on page. on one hand, i hated it. that was never the way it should have happened (not to him, not to anyone honestly). but on the other hand, it was a very good representation of the diminishment of heroes from one generation down to the next and the next and the next...

i am very glad that his actual death wasn't show on the page. but the description of what they did to him, how they probably tortured him in order to kill him. and then the desecration of his body after? even grunthor would pick the bear, i think.

rhapsody's visceral grief, horror, and rage was very real. it was exactly how you would expect her to react. a woman who survived prostitution as a child, and the terrible sadism of possessive, obsessive narcissist? learning that one of her oldest friends, her very first protector, had been so savagely murdered and his remains so abused... all because of a misunderstood and off hand comment her husband made? oh yeah, i would be seeking the title of "widow" before "divorcee" as well.

fine, that also gave ashe what he wanted. gave him his moment for transformation (and thus condemned him, too, to a solely earthly existence. burning away what was human in him and any chance at moving to an afterlife). his execution satisfied the firblog. the fact that their First Woman, their king's assumed consort even after she married ashe, was the one to dispense that justice was right in their eyes.

but after that... after losing grunthor and then ashe... and her children not yet ready to hear or listen to what had actually happened... she was given, what? a few days? just a few days to go "yep, nope, this is it for me"? and to turn to achmed and ask him to do it for her? after he had lost his oldest friend and ally, here was his second oldest friend, the woman he had been in love with for millennia (who knew he was in love with her, and was also in love with him - just not from the stupidity of childhood)...

he would have given her the world. waited any amount of time she needed. been supportive (tho possibly distant at times, because yeah sometimes he had healthy boundaries, sometimes none of them did) of her through her grief. but no... we can't have nice things. so out comes some re-written scrap of prophecy from an undone timeline to kill her instead.

and then achmed's story! omg! they undid every bit of growth and development for him! literally sent him all the way back to the very beginning of his journey both mentally, physically, and developmentally! he was sent on a suicidal self imposed mission! he left his new born baby behind! (if rhapsody hadn't died, she'd have killed him just for doing that!).

and opening that real but metaphysical door at the underside of the world to drain the ocean into the hallows of the earth? bullshit. bullshit bullshit bullshit.

i have more i could say. a lot more i should say. but i just don't have the mental energy for it. and honestly, i haven't re-read the last book in a little while. i am still so fucking mad about it. fuck her for destroying the characters we loved because she was bored and probably under contract to finish the series.

[alexilulu]

Books I Read in 2024 #10: A Legacy of Spies (John le Carré, Viking Press, 2017)

Long after the end of the Cold War, the favored protegé of Circus spy-bureaucrat George Smiley is forced to reckon with the death of his close friend when the modern British spy estate looks backwards at his death on the Berlin Wall (the full events of which are the subject of The Spy Who Came In From the Cold).

I love John le Carré. A former British intelligence agent turned author after the smash success of his third novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (though he also was forced out by the high profile British traitor Kim Philby, who later inspired the character of Bill Haydon in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy), le Carré has a simple, biting grasp of human nature and interiority. His protagonists live full lives and loves in their own heads, and some of his best work brings a tragicomic angle to the tense drama of simple spying.

Not to belabor the point, but his spy novels are low-action, high stress. You find yourself pacing alongside his protagonists, working through the facts as they stand to you and trying to divine the way things will fall with fallible information and clever opposite numbers. The novels frequently question the utility of spying as a national endeavor, the equivalence of humanity on both sides of the Cold War despite the harsh rhetoric around Communist repression and capitalist exploitation that was standard at the time. Hell, George Smiley, the protagonist of many of his most popular novels, is an overweight bureaucrat who had long ago given up the game after the war, drawn back only by old ghosts of his failures.

What makes A Legacy of Spies so interesting as a novel is that it is a very pointed retrospective on the George Smiley 'trilogy' (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, followed by The Honest Schoolboy and Smiley's People) from the point of view of a key secondary character from these novels, who is in effect working alongside George for all of it and is now being called to account in his absence.

Peter Guillam is a character who is almost a shadow in the previous novels; a lamplighter and functionary who stepped into becoming George Smiley's right hand protegé during Tinker Tailor and had been long before his original departure from the British spying establishment. He's integral to the events, but he's not really all there, if you follow my meaning. A character who exists, but whose life is scarcely known by George or the reader.

Here, he is given full voice, a sardonic, caustic wit that was much more subdued by his secondary role before now. Here, he's funny, uproarious even, with asides to himself (rarely voiced, of course) about all manner of things. He's a product of two worlds, an English-raised Frenchman from Brittany (literally Little Britain once upon a time, it must be pointed out), fighting for the English in the Cold War after his father lost his life in World War II, also as a spy. Raised in the climate of the time, he is a man of the needs of the time more than anything else, and felt results mattered above all. And yet, despite this, he remains as haunted as Britain itself is by its past here, living as a landlord in France but looking backwards at his life all the while.

The novel itself is retrospective, as well! Set in the unnamed present day, MI5 is calling Peter in from his ancestral home to demand a full accounting of his role in the death of his friend Alec Leamas and Communist sympathizer Elizabeth Gold during a failed escape from East Berlin that ended with both of them shot dead on the Berlin Wall, feet from George Smiley and safety. The government is not keen on the Circus standards of the time, nor the role that George Smiley (and Peter) played in preventing Alec from knowing that his mission in Berlin was intended to fail to pull off an assassination on one of their own deep-cover moles in the German Stasi, thus securing his place in the hierarchy and increasing his access to sensitive intelligence for years to come.

The mess we made of the past is a significant focus of the novel. And it's clear that le Carré, on some level, wants us to face the past and recognize how wrong it can have been, to account for wrongdoing and recognize sin not as a necessary consequence of realpolitik, but simply what it is. The novel ends with Peter escaping from England on his French passport after it becomes clear that things will land on him if he remains much longer. He resorts to seeking out his old mentor Smiley in Germany; I feel compelled to note here Germany's role as a central pillar of the EU government.

The story ends with Peter asking if it was worth it, and George finding it hard to answer. Did they do it for queen and country? Ostensibly, yes, but as the Britain that existed as part of Europe. The novel was published in 2017, shortly after the Brexit vote of 2016 that badly split English politics for the next half-decade. Following the passing of Brexit, le Carre chose to invoke his Irish citizenship and moved there in the aftermath, where he remained until he died. It's pretty obvious how he felt about the whole thing.

In the end, it feels like a strong coda to the whole thing, both Smiley and le Carré's career. One last look back with a more modern eye, a wish that things could have gone another way, a cleaner future than the one we face.

[historybannedonfacebook]

SNOWTOWN MURDERS

1992-1999            SNOWTOWN MURDERS Bodies in the Barrels - Snowtown is in South Australia, Australia. In 1999 there was a gruesome discovery in a disused bank vault. The bodies of 8 victims were found in plastic barrels of acid, along with various tools that had been used to torture the victims. The last murder took place inside the building, the victim was David Johnson, half-brother of James Vlassakis, one of the four to be tried for murder. Vlassakis lured him there. The killers thought it would be a nice quiet place where no one would notice. The fact that Snowtown was such a quiet town is why the bodies were discovered.

Three days later, 2 more bodies turned up in a backyard in the Adelaide surburb of Salisbury North. Altogether, there were 11 murders. Only 4 of the 6 people involved were still alive to stand trial. One, Elizabeth Harvey died of cancer. The other, Thomas Trevilyan, who helped with one of the murders, became a victim himself.

The leader of the group was John Justin Bunting. As a child he enjoyed burning insects alive in acid. Later, he used acid to dissolve human bodies. All of their victims knew their killers. The murderers made about $95,000 by claiming their victims pension money, but Bunting simply enjoyed the killing. He also enjoyed torturing his victims before he killed them.

The others who were tried for the murders was Robert Wagner, Mark Haydon and James Vlassakis, whose mother, Elizabeth Harvey, had helped with one of the murders. Haydon wasn’t convicted of murder, but he did plead guilty for helping to get rid of the bodies.

The bodies in the yard of Bunting’s house in Salisbury North were those of Suzanne Allen, a friend of Buntings, and Ray Davies, a mentally disturbed man who lived in a caravan behind her yard. The killers later alleged that Allen died of a heart attack.

In 1998, Bunting and Wagner killed Mark Haydon’s wife, Elizabeth in her home while her husband was out. Killing her was one of their mistakes, her brother wouldn’t accept Mark Haydon’s excuses for her disappearance and she would never have left without her two children. It was also suspicious that her own husband didn’t report her disappearance. The police kept their eye on the suspects. They even bugged Mark Haydon’s home.

The barrels were moved around to different locations before finally being taken to the Snowtown vault that Haydon rented under the name of Mark Lawrence. Locals were suspcious, anys tranger bringing barrels there to stash in a vault was asking to have it checked out. The police found the bodies later described as something of a nightmare. During the trials, 3 members of the jury were so sickened that they had to drop out. The trials went from 2001 to 2004. Vlassakis pleaded guilty to 4 murders and received a life sentence. In 2003, Bunting was convicted of 11 murders and Wagner of 7. The judge sentenced them to imprisonment for life and never to be released. After the discovery of the barrels, there were tourists who were interested in the crimes. People wanted to go to Snowtown to see where the bodies had been kept. Some wanted to even take a sniff at the bank vault, and others took photos. The house in Salisbury North was knocked down.

(Sue Bursztyneki)

[etoiline]

I have a special place at home for these books. Just about anything Carol Berg (but especially Restoration and Breath and Bone). Jim Butcher's Changes. Pat Rothfuss' Name of the Wind. Gael Baudino's Strands of Starlight. Brent Week's The Burning White. Robin Hobb's Assassin's Quest. The Forever King by Molly Cochran and Warren Murphy. Destiny by Elizabeth Haydon.

Every so often I pick up my favorites and find the line that makes my stomach swoop or my breath catch.

y’all ever read a book that’s so good you just have to close it and b r e a t h e for a moment?

yeah that’s the stuff

[highly-opinionated-nerd]

Read in 2023:

Seven Against Thebes, and The Persians (~525-456 BCE), by Aeschylus- his works were surprisingly fun to read!

Strip Tease (1993), by Carl Hiassen- I grew up in Central Florida, so of course I’m a fan of Hiaasen’s. My first time reading one of his adult works- I enjoyed it! There was only one glaring moment of ‘female character poorly written by a man’, for the most part it was fine, haha

The Bacchae and Other Plays (484-406 BCE), by Euripides- the Bacchae was my favorite, because the women-hating man got ripped to shreds at the end! But they were all interesting I have many thoughts about all of it

Ven Polypheme novels 1-3 (2014), by Elizabeth Haydon- absolutely delightful, love the world building and the way she talks about magic.

Homestuck (200-2016)- my 4th or 5th reread I think? and I still haven’t read Rose’s sburb walkthrough. This is so lame but I got great entertainment from reading out loud to myself, using character voices.

Ouran High School Host Club (2002), by Bisco Hatori- also one of many rereads. It’s one of the first manga I ever read. My family moved states when I was in high school, and the library where we ended up didn’t have the last couple volumes for me to finish the series...so I bought the box set, haha! No idea where I got the money for that at age 16. I kept catching myself smiling while reading. I’m still madly in love with Mori.

Tiger, Tiger (2018-present), by Petra Erika Nordlund- I used to read a ton of webcomics all the time, but I stopped for some reason. Most of the ones I’d been following ended and I never bothered to start new ones, I guess. While I was in the process of moving and all my books were packed seemed like a good time to start a new one. And I was not disappointed. The art? Awe-inspiring. The story? Delightful. There are a lot of really good names, too. If you’re insane about names, like me, just know, there’s a dude named Rakkatak. Highly, highly recommend.

Treasure Island (1883), by Robert Louis Stevenson- quick read, and highly enjoyable! GOD I love pirate stories. Treasure PLANET has long been a favorite of mine, but this was my first time reading the original. The line towards the end ‘I think we were all pleased to be so cheaply quit of him’ will stick with me as a succinct summary of the differences between the two tellings, I think.

Shadow Raiders (2012), a novel by Margaret Weis and Robert Krammes- I picked this one up at a book sale because it had a dragon on the cover. It is a completely unnecessary 700 pages long, and it doesn’t even end at the end, it’s part of a series! It took a long time to get into it, but the part in the middle where the two main story lines converged and there was a big battle was very compelling. Then it got slow again immediately after. I like the concept and worldbuilding, I have mixed feelings about the storytelling, and I have serious doubt that the characters were written to their fullest potential. Not sure if I’m gonna go looking for the rest of the series, hmmmm

Sakana (2010-present), by Mad Rupert- longtime favorite webcomic started updating again after a long hiatus, so I did a reread so I’d be refreshed and ready for new pages. God, I love Sakana, Sakana is so good

Metamorphoses (8 CE), by Ovid- took a little bit of a hiatus in the middle of this one but I finished it! I still have a hard time believing that this work is considered a comedy- there’s a lot of individual tragedies on parade here if you ask me. But it was an interesting read, I liked it

Holes (1998), by Louis Sachar- first reread in (checks watch) 16 years. I’ve thought about this book a lot ever since first reading it in fifth grade. I saw it at Target one day and it was in my basket before I could even blink. I still love it, I couldn’t put it down. Finished it in like 3 sittings.

Wayne Family Adventures vol. 1 (2021), by CRC Payne and Starbite- love, love, love the art style and all the colors. The individual episodes themselves were very short but still highly entertaining, fun quick read.

Darth Bane trilogy (2006-2009), by Drew Karpyshyn- to say I was obsessed with reading Star Wars books as a kid would be a grave understatement. Before I had a personality, I had Star Wars. Now that I’m an adult and building up my own book collection, I’ve been slowly bringing a few back into my life. The Bane books truly captured my imagination when I was younger, and I still love them so unbelievably much. I could go on all day about outwardly opposing philosophies and Force specialties and the way wielding power changes and harms you and, and, and... not quite done yet, so this series’ll be finished up in 2024!

[littlemissskuld]

Time for some Skuld ramblings;

I see all these posts of the books people have read, but it's what is considered "classics" growing up. Where I on the other hand grew up purely on Fantasy and Science fiction.

My Mum read to me for a loooooonnng time and she introduced me to some of the best- in my opinion- best authors.

Here is as many as I can remember; with examples

Diane Duane - Book of Night with Moon is my fave

Mercedes Lackey- By the Sword,The Oath

Anne McCaffrey- The Dragon Riders of Pern

Tamora Pierce - The Woman who rides like a man, The Bone Doll's Twin

Pierce Anthony- The Xanth series ( this was one of the earliest I can remember)

Gordon R Dickson - The Dragon and the George

Jim Butcher- The Dresden Files

Zenna Henderson - The People series

Tad Williams- Otherland

Marian Zimmer Bradley- The Dark Over series and the Chick's in Chainmail short stories

Naomi Novak- the Temeraire series

Robin McKinnley- Spindle's End

Neil Gaiman - Coraline, and The Sandman series

Elizabeth Haydon - The Rhapsody series

And that's barely scratching the surface.

Feel free to add your non conventional childhood authors.

[antifragilejpn]

tagged by: @scarletheart ❣️

favorite color: jewel tones, like emerald green or deep purple

currently reading: caitvi fanfiction lmao but i’m trying to read rhapsody by elizabeth haydon

last song: july 7th by dreamcatcher

last movie: the lord of the rings: the fellowship of the ring (extended edition)

last series: the last of us has been on repeat for weeks

currently craving: a nap with the windows open, cool weather with a light breeze and the wind chimes, with my cats by my side

tea or coffee: tea 100% because coffee gives me anxiety

currently working on: trying to get my life in order, but also a new caitvi fic 

tagging: @natsukashenby @cookiecrow @xthescarletbitch @reveluvdive (only if you’d like to!)