Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen ARC (no spoilers)

We're in Cordelia's head, which is an utter delight; she's acerbic and incisive and realistically grieving. (It's three years since Aral died.) I'm halfway through, and I'm struck by how annoying she finds Miles; she loves him, but as written she doesn't particularly like him. She seems to be much fonder of Ekaterin than of Miles. I have difficulty taking this as anything other than authorial viewpoint.

There are several exposition dumps of "this is what happened in the last nine novels", usually when a character is introduced. I'm not sure whether these are intended for new readers -- IMHO a hopeless cause -- or to remind long-time readers of what's happened.

I can see the action plot coming, but I'm enjoying the day-to-day "running Sergyar" plot.

Oh, that'll help

The only front-page story in the SF Chronicle about what is projected to be one of the worst Pacific tropical storms ever is headlined "Bay Area travelers bracing for monster hurricane in Mexico". Here's an inspiring quotation from the body of the article:

Salvador Tovar, a 42-year-old Castro neighborhood resident, was one of the hundreds holed up Friday across town in an elementary school doubling as a shelter for vacationers at the resort he was staying at. He’d come for a wedding, but thoughts of that are long gone now.

The erstwhile vacationers have got food, water, and generators stored up, and are fearing the worst.

“It’s like we’re back into elementary school - in the desks waiting for instructions, they’ve been really good communicating,” he said about the shelter organizers.

Tovar got to the school at 10 a.m. and described an anxious crowd waiting for the hurricane.

At one point he and his friends, who are members of Cheer San Francisco, a non-profit philanthropic cheerleading group, decided to liven up the somber crowd by doing stunts outside on a basketball court.

“We decided to try to change the spirit here, getting people to clap and get happy, to stop thinking about the storm for a little while and give them a sense of team spirit and the ability to smile for a bit and not worry,” he said. It worked — a bit.

By late afternoon, hours before predicted impact, Tovar said the crowd of about 30 in his classroom — groups were huddling in several rooms — was anxious again.

If there's one thing that will ease my mind about high winds, storm surges, and landslides, it's being invited to clap along with a cheer display.