I'm at a big chain bookstore in Union Square, Manhattan, typing this just a few hours before seeing Blind Guardian tonight at the Nokia/Best Buy Theater in Times Square. I took the shuttle over to NYC from New Jersey a few hours ago, and after lunch at Yoshinoya, walked a few blocks to the theater. I'd never been there, and wanted to learn where it was, precisely (I vaguely knew more or less where to look for it). I also hoped that, just maybe, I'd bump into some of the Blind Guardian guys. SevSon1 and I were lucky enough to meet Hansi, Marcus and Fredrik before the Denver show four years ago.
I found the Nokia without difficulty, and across the street from it was the fourth member of Blind Guardian, Andre, using his video camera to film the animated marquee above the theater, which at certain moments was announcing Blind Guardian's show. He was very friendly and gracious when I approached him. We chatted a bit, and he signed my At the Edge of Time and Imaginations From the Other Side booklets (I made sure to bring several booklets and a sharpie with me, for just such an event). I decided not to bother him further by asking for a photo, since he was preoccupied in trying to get the video he sought, and I was distracting him.
Strangely enough, I'm not listening to Blind Guardian as I type this. I'll listen to them later, soon before the show, to psych myself up (make that, further psych myself up!). But yesterday I picked up the new Dio-related releases. These are the Dio band double-CD set of their Monsters of Rock shows at Donington in 1983 and 1987, and the Heaven & Hell concert from the 2009 Wacken Open Air Festival. The latter is available as separate CD and DVD, and I have the ripped-CD playing through my MP3 player. Finally, a modern show that captures Dio sounding as good as he could late in life! He was sick for the Holy Diver Live (2005) and Radio City Music Hall (2007) concerts, but was in magnificent voice when I saw Heaven & Hell later in 2007 and again in 2009. This Wacken concert is just like those, with Dio sounding great and the band far tighter and in-synch with each other than they were for the RCMH DVD.
Surrender to the Will of the Night is out. Officially, the release date is Tuesday, three days from now. However, someone on the Glen Cook email list already picked up a copy at Borders, which often puts books on the shelves early. I have had no luck in a finding a copy in my wanderings yesterday and today, just as I failed to find an early copy of Gilded Latten Bones.
Speaking, or writing, of Gilded Latten Bones, I defied a nasty case of food poisoning to get to the store and buy a copy on the day of release. I then read the book gradually, over the next two weeks. Why rush it? I savored it, since for all I know it could be the last-ever Garrett book. I expect that it isn't, and I certainly hope for more, but I try not to take things for granted. I have some thoughts on the book, but they are full of spoilers, so I'm going to leave some space below, for anyone who wants to avoid them.
Ok, still with me? Gilded Latten Bones is a fine addition to the Garrett saga, but is a really lousy place for newbies to jump in. Not that much actually happens, the mystery is really just a background catalyst and motivator. The book is really about advancing the interactions between the numerous characters in the Garrett universe. They have aged and changed over the 23-year course of the series, and Cook was wise to not have them acting static, as if time was not passing. I'm a big fan of ratgirl Pular Singe, and she is shown to be becoming an adult, and a very responsible one for what it's worth. I've never much cared for Tinnie Tate, but even she is beginning to realize how difficult a person she is. Garrett gets swept away by a Furious Tide of Light, literally and figuratively.
That was the biggest surprise, for me. The in-progress title for the book was Gilden Latten Lovers, and I thought the "Lovers" portion referred to Garrett and Tinnie. Instead, Garrett basically gives up on Miss Tate, and instead starts an affair with Windwalker Furious Tide of Light. She had a small role in the preceding Cruel Zinc Melodies, in which she did nothing to hide her attraction to Garrett. I found her the most memorable part of that book, but it was completely unexpected that she would return in this new book to shake up Garrett's life. Even Tinnie's relatives like her, so perhaps Garrett has found a keeper! We'll see in the next book, if there is one. For now, fans of the series will probably greatly enjoy Gilded Latten Bones, but the merely-curious should go back to the start and read their way up to this one. It's a great ride, and well worth the trip!
