Theodicius
Good. Evil. Bratwurst.

This entry from Candace Robb’s series about the medieval one-eyed Captain, Owen Archer, is a bit of a departure from previous entries. When the series started, Owen began to serve the Archbishop of York, and he used his brain and his experience to solve murders.

As the series went on, the deductive skills were emphasized less and less, until we reach this volume, in which they are barely needed at all. This book is more suspense than mystery, which is a bit of a disappointment to me, as I enjoy matching wits with a good puzzle.

The Redeemer of the title isn’t a churchman, but is rather the Welch prince, and we’re supposed to wonder for a while if Owen will leave his post to join him and fight to free Wales. The book is fairly well done, with enough plot complications and crises to keep me in suspense to the end. But it left me a little unsatisfied. It’s been too long since I picked up a book and was swept away off on an adventure that fully occupied me. I need to find another one that will; I need the adrenaline shot that only a book can deliver.

Sounds like an old joke, but you gotta see this: a Technology Review article about using micro jet engines to generate the electricity needed to run a portable device. Claims 10 hours of power generation off a diesel fuel pack the size of a D-cell.

I don’t know, but it just seems so wrong to me to be looking for new ways to burn something that is already causing a problem because it’s being burned in such large quantities. How long, I wonder, before laptops come with Surgeon General’s warning labels?

Then again, maybe it’s for the best. The quicker we burn all the oil we can find, the quicker we can get on with moving to a better energy source.

(Hat tip: Tomalak’s Realm)