Break out the snow tires and boots and de-icers, people

Heads up, folks, we have a winter storm watch on our hands.

The areas north of Seattle (i.e., the Murkworks, oh joy) seem to be the main target zone; Seattle proper may not see as much action. Still, everybody be prepared. Whatever's coming in seems to be aiming square at the Friday evening commute.

Times article here

PI article here

The thing to note especially is that they're saying that it's going to get the coldest it's been since December of 1990.

Book Log #74: The Heart of Valor, by Tanya Huff

Tanya Huff's Confederation novels are still maintaining combat readiness as of the third one, The Heart of Valor. This time around we've got Torin Kerr, newly promoted to Gunnery Sergeant, being grilled in depth about her adventures in Book 2--and leaping at the chance to escape endless debriefings even if it means she has to babysit a convalescent major and a platoon of Marine recruits on a training planet. Problem is, the planet's supposed to train the recruits, not kill them.

Heroine Torin Kerr has been compared a lot to Sigourney Weaver playing Ellen Ripley, and yeah, that's still about right. The level of military action in this series in general and this novel in particular is certainly comparable to what we see in Aliens, as is the romance. In fact, Torin and her love interest Craig Ryder spend most of the book apart. (Which is what demonstrates that yeah, Craig Ryder is clearly the Intended Series Love Interest; he gets extensive POV time and a whole subset of the plot to himself.) There are several stock character types that you get in any SF scenario involving Marines, but they're entertainingly executed. And while Huff doesn't top Julie Czerneda for me in her development of alien species, she's nevertheless got some fun going on with the species here, both with the di'Taykans in the platoon (complete with a particularly amusing excuse to take out the recruits' regular Staff Sergeant so Torin has to take command) and with the alien that's the driving cause of the plot.

A light read all in all, but it moves well and things explode on a regular and satisfying basis, and sometimes that's all you really need to ask out of a book. Three stars.