'If faith can do that for a man, there must be something in it.'

- Captain Les Gehres, Commanding officer of the USS Franklin, 1945

I have just finished reading I was Chaplain on the Franklin by Father Joseph T. O'Callahan for the second time, and I can confirm that it remains one of my favourite books on warfare.  It's a short work, barely 150  pages, padded out with artwork and an appendix, and it tells a very simple story. But, it is a powerful tale.

In 1945, as the American fleets were closing in on Japan, Father Joseph T. O'Callahan received orders to report aboard the aircraft carrier USS Franklin to serve as one of two chaplains. One month later, on page 56, the carrier was hit by a pair of Japanese bombs, which turned the ship into a fiery hulk.  The rest of the book is given over to the fight to save lives, save the ship, or, in the chaplain's case, to help see dying young men into the next life.

The book is packed with incredible feats of heroism.  Despite Father O'Callahan winning the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions on the stricken ship, the Catholic priest spends most of his narrative talking about the actions of his shipments, always attempting to give credit where it is do.

It's an usual war story. There is little actual combat, but there is an incredible fight for survival.

Highly recommended.

Miniature Friday: Heroes of Rohan

I guess it isn’t surprising that with the release of The Hobbit film, and my own re-reading of The Lord of the Rings, I have gotten back into Lord of the Rings miniatures in a big way.  Middle-Earth has always been my favourite fantasy world, I have no doubt I’ll return to it many times again.

This week I am showing off two of my latest figures, Hama and Eowyn, both of which were released in the wake of the Two Towers film. A few general observations.  These are, without a doubt, some of the best miniatures I have ever seen.  The level of detail, at a scale which is smaller than normal these days, is really incredible.  The quality of these figures made me want to do my best possible paint job, and really that is how it should be.

The first figure I painted was Hama.  I’ve always had a soft-spot for Hama is a secondary (probably tertiary) character in The Lord of the Rings.  He is captain of King Theoden’s guard, and his only real scene of note comes when he demands that Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli leave their weapons outside of the Golden Hall.  However, he does allow Gandalf to keep his staff, and it is certainly implied that he knew exactly what this meant.  In the book, Hama is killed off-screen during the Battle of Helm’s Deep.  In the movie, he is killed by a warg during the journey to Helm’s Deep.

There is a wonderful amount of detail on this figure: intricate armour and greaves, belts and sash, hair and beard.  I had so much fun applying careful brush-strokes to this figure, it single-handedly helped bring back the joy of painting that I had found flagging a bit beforehand.

Next up is Eowyn, who I don’t needs any introduction.  In a book filled with dramatic battles, she gets probably the most dramatic battle scene of all when she slays the Witch-King and the fell beast he flew in on! This is a slightly odd figure in that she is wielding a big sword, but is not dressed for battle.  In fact, this figure is really simplicity personified.  There is actually very little detail on it, and yet it is just as nice a figure as Hama.  Without the distraction of numerous little bits, the craftsmanship in the folds of her dress and the waves of her hair really come to the fore.  While it makes perfect sense to paint her wearing a green dress (the colour of Rohan), for some reason I gave her a silver belt. I don't think description actually appears in the book about Eowyn, but it is used for Goldberry.  Anyway, it seems to work.

Really great figures.

'Books ought to have good endings...'

Bilbo Baggins, The Fellowship of the Ring

From Hobbiton to the Old Forest

With all of the excitement about The Hobbit at the moment, I decided to get into the action and re-read The Lord of the Rings (it makes sense to me!).  Although I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve read, or been read, the story, it has been at least six years, and my memories have become clouded by the movies.  Also, this will make the first time I’ve read the book in Oxford (a.k.a. Tolkien-town). I don’t know if that is significant, but it might be.

So, I slid my copy of The Fellowship of the Ring out of the slipcase and got to work.  My copy is part of the tenth printing of the second (revised) edition put out by Houghton Mifflin Co.  It is copyright 1965, but I’m not sure of the printing date. I bought it while working in a used and antiquarian bookstore in Chapel Hill.  I don’t think it is in anyway valuable, but it is a very nice edition.  The dust jacket has only the title and author, in a runic box, on a mottled background.  The book itself is bound in cloth boards, with a foil embossed graphic of the ring and the Eye of Sauron surrounded by Elvish script.  Each of the three volumes has a roughly folded map attached to the inside back cover.

Over the last couple of days, I’ve managed to read the first hundred pages or so, and it has been like revisiting an old friend.  Many people, when they first read The Lord of the Rings, find the opening long and dull.  I can understand this. There is so much action to come, it is easy to get impatient to get there; but now that I’m a bit older, wiser, and more learned in the ways of Middle-Earth, I am able to take it as it comes and enjoy the beauty of Tolkien’s prose and his powers of creation.  This part of the book shares a pleasure similar to putting your feet in front of a warm fire on a cold winter’s evening.

Although I’ve been blessed with a pretty good memory, especially when it comes to reading, it is amazing how much I’ve forgotten in just six years.  Do you remember that at one point Gandalf actually holds the ring? Yup, he picks it up out of the fire to reveal the writing.  Do you remember Rory Brandybuck, the one hobbit at the birthday party who doesn’t take Bilbo’s disappearance as prank, but thinks there is something bigger at work? Do you remember that over seventeen years  pass after Bilbo leaves before Frodo sets off?  Well, if you don’t, it’s probably time for another reading!

I accept and understand why Peter Jackson left so much out of the movies, especially the sections set in Hobbiton, but there is a lot of richness there.  The first encounters with the Black Riders, the Hobbits meeting Gildor Inglorion, the generosity of farmer Maggot. I do also give credit to Peter Jackson for working back in little elements of pieces that had to be left out.  In The Return of the King movie, Pippin sings a song to Denethor, the words of which come from a song sung by the Hobbits as they are walking in Hobbiton.  In my opinion, it’s one of the best moments in the movie.

I'm only just setting out.  It makes me happy to know that I’ve got 300 pages more in this volume and two more volumes to follow.  I plan to finish The Fellowship before Christmas, and leave the other two for 2013.

Crashed Out

Well, I’m done cycling for the week and possibly for the rest of the year.

I came off my bike again this morning.  I was rounding a corner at the bottom of a hill when I hit a patch of invisible ice, and the wheels went out from under me.  My left knee hit first, followed by my hands, and I ended up sliding a on my belly for a meter or two. Thankfully, it was on an infrequently used backstreet, and there was no traffic.

My first thought was to panic over my recently healed shoulder, but a quick check seemed to confirm that it was fine.  My knee and right wrist, however, were not so good.  I dragged the bike off the road and sat down on a nearby bench, just as the shock set in.  For a few minutes, I was light-head and nauseous, but it passed.  Then I checked my parts. My knee had a serious bruise but seemed to work okay.  My wrist had full movement but hurt when I applied pressure. 

I pushed the bike the last mile to work, where I gratefully collapsed into my chair.  A few painkillers got me through the day, and now I’m safely at home, banged up, but I think uninjured.

For now, I’ve had enough.  Earlier this year I was very lucky that when I broke my shoulder it didn’t prevent me from going to Africa.  Considering how much I’m looking forward to flying home for Christmas in a few weeks, I just don’t want to risk it.  Even more than usual in the winter, Oxford is a very wet place at the moment.  At 7AM when I set off to work, there is a lot of frost on the ground, and thin sheets of ice everywhere.  My cycle route is mainly over back roads and little used cycle paths, which are prone to puddles and standing water. 

I will reassess if the weather warms up a little, but for now, I’ll grab my book and take the bus.

The Postman by David Brin

While perusing the bookstore this weekend, I noticed that Orbit has released a new edition of David Brin’s The Postman. Since I have been meaning to read the book for years, I figured this was a good excuse to pick it up.  

While I enjoyed the book, it fell far short of the classic for which I was hoping. The first half of the book is a fun, tense story of survival, discovery, and the dawning of hope for new future, but the second half bogs down in a mish-mash of different themes and ideas that don’t completely seem to fit together. I got the impression that the author didn’t fully know where the book was going, and perhaps forced it to its conclusion instead of letting it fully develop.

Still, I read the book in less than three days, so it certainly pulled me along and kept me entertained.  In the rather thin sub-genre of post-apocalyptic works, it probably stands as one of the better ones, but in the larger world of science-fiction and fantasy, it certainly doesn’t crack the top 100. 

Water, Water Everywhere...

As predicted, the Thames burst its banks yesterday and has made a mess of some parts of Oxford. On my cycle to work, I passed by vast fields which had become shallow lakes and the river itself, which had wiped away the footpath next to it, and spread wide in all directions. At one point, the road was flooded away, although thankfully at a point that I could easily go around. Several other side roads had been closed because of flooding.

Thankfully, it looks as though the Thames has peaked. No more rain is expected in the next few days, either here or to the west from whence the Thames originates.

The news, however, is not as hopeful for the English Midlands.