sheriz6, I looked in my old SF collection and there it was! I love a lot of his stuff but this is pretty grim. You got the chorus right! Robin Valkyrie Ride The clouds are black and heavy as they lie upon the earth And the wind is howling madly at the moment of my birth And the sky is split with lightening as I draw a trembling breath And my mother realizes that her son was born for death (chorus) I grow to bloody manhood and my name is called The Grim And I steal for my amusement and I murder on a whim And the women fright their children with the stories that they tell Of the many sorry warriors my sword has sent to hell I lead a band of hillmen now, I lead them with my blade And we rape and kill and pillage as we ply our bloody trade And they say I am a demon, yes, and tremble all the while And they say no man alive or dead has ever seen me smile (chorus) Six hundred sons of Loki now are ready to my side And a multitude have faced us and and a multitude have died We have sacked the Seven Cities and the villages between And I slay the king and court and to my men I give the queen And the Sorcerers conspire and against me set their hand But I pray to Father Loki and I slay them to a man Then my journey to my weirding place is finally begun As I lead six hundred killers to the City of the Sun And they send a host against me and we meet upon a plain And the world will never see such awful slaughtering again For they came with but a single thought: that even as they fell An attacker of their city would preceed them into hell (chorus) And I fight with savage fury and before me none can stand And a score of mighty warriors have died before my hand When I see beyond the battle, flying high above the plain A woman dressed in black upon a horse without a name She raises in the saddle and she cocks a mighty lance And the fighting stops around me as they catch her in their glance And it seems to take forever for her arm to make the cast As we wait to see which one of us is going to breath his last And her arm is down and now the spear is flying straight and true And we wait in silent terror for there's nothing else to do And there's a roaring in my ear and there's a fire in my eye As the warhead smashes though my chest and finally I die. (chorus)

Blimey, it's too long since I've been on here....note to self - must visit more often! Sheri - I read Your Inner Fish about six months ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. This month, I've read a couple of books which might interest you. First, I decided that I'd see what the creationists have to say about everything (or, at least, one of them), and read Evolution - The Fossils Still Say No! by Duane Gish. He follows the story of life as written by evolutionists and just finds holes in the arguments; his main argument being that there are no real transitional fossils. It's a very frustrating book - it just picks holes in evolution and evolutionary theory over and over again without putting anything except "Goddiddit" as an alternative. To someone with a scientific bent, it's very tedious. I was able to spot a few of his flaws, but I'm not an expert on paeleontology, so the book does give the impression that evolution is dubious, to say the least. Then I turned to Evolution - What the Fossils Say and Why it Matters by Donald R Prothero. Prothero is a professor of geology, & a fellow of the Paeleontology society. Basically, he knows what he's talking about - and boy, does it show! In the first part of the book (entitled Evolution and the Fossil Record), he discusses the scientific method and why creationists cannot be considered to be scientists (basically, it comes down to the fact that if the evidence leads you somewhere, that's where you have to go - even if the bible tells you something else). He also discussed the history of evolutionary and geological theory, and systematics - the way living things are related to each other and how they are sorted out. In the second part of the book (entitled Evolution - the Fossils say Yes!), he more-or-less follows Gish in discussing the evolution of life on earth from the beginning. The difference is that he demonstrates, with dozens of examples, that the fossil record is far more complete with literally hundreds of transitional fossils between "kinds". He also takes the time to bad-mouth creationist quote-mining and their misapprehensions about evolution - he goes as far as accusing them of downright dishonesty in a lot of their books. It's a magnificent book, and I frankly don't understand how anyone could read it and still believe in young-earth creationism and flood geology. I'd thoroughly recommend Prothero - it's one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read on any subject. If you wanted to read just one book about evolution, to understand exactly what it's all about, and why the creationish arguments are so flawed, I can't think of a better one. It's worth reading Gish in parallel to see how dishonest a so-called scientist (he has a PhD in Biochemistry) can be - more-or-less HAS to be - when they are starting from a premise which they are not allowed to challenge. (The only down-side to Prothero is the fact that it's a BIG book - it's not one you can slip in your...

In the last few days, I finished the third book in Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. I thought the books were very well written and imaginative, and I loved every moment. Yesterday I read a book I read about somewhere here on RP. I'm thinking that perhaps it was Cindy who recommended Mary Modern by Camille DeAngelis, so when I saw it sitting on the new acquisitions shelf at the library, I grabbed it. The book definitely depends on the reader's willingness to suspend disbelief, but what a wonderful reward it was. I very much enjoyed it. If it was you that recommended it, Cindy, I thank you. Today I finished a book that I even hesitate to mention since it is not at all my usual reading fare and I only have it in my possession because it was on the library sale table for a quarter. After the stress of the holidays, though, I must have needed something light and fun and have to admit that I actually became totally engrossed in Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder, which is about a young woman granted a reprieve from execution if she agrees to become a food taster for the Commander (in a very fictional medieval-fantasy-era setting) to make certain that he is not assassinated by poisoning. Evil plots abound and magic flows, and I have read compulsively only to find that there's a sequel. Sigh. Sometimes it's nice to overdose on sweets, so I suppose I don't feel too terribly guilty about indulging in something that's pure entertainment.

Last night I finally finished Paul Murray Kendall's famous biography Richard the Third. It was a fascinating, sympathetic biography of a controversial figure. I found myself agreeing with Kendall's hypothesis that Richard was defeated at Bosworth, not as the result of some sort of poetic justice, but rather due to the betrayal of self-serving nobles, who in turn found just as much to grumble about during the reign of Henry VII. I found it poignant how hard Richard III worked to cultivate and favor the very people who meant him the most harm. Fundamentally, Richard seemed to have an inability to maneuver and pirouette through the politics of court life. Kendall finds countless examples of traitors whose were left off easy by Richard, only to redouble their efforts to conspire against the King. Kendall raises many interesting points, but often lacks the objectivity needed in the biography of such a complex subject. In an afterword regarding whether Richard was responsible for the murder of the "Princes in the Tower", Kendall argues that the boys may have met death at the behest of other figures at court, most likely the Duke of Buckingham. Though ultimately unsolvable (mostly due to the Tudor historians who apparently destroyed countless records portraying Richard in a positive light), I still feel that he had the most to gain from the murder of his nephews.