Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Dark Elves and Dogfish

I finished of the final book in Salvatore's Dark Elf Trilogy yesterday, and overall, I liked the books more than I expected. A nice amount of fast-paced adventure, with more introspection from Drizzt than I expected. There really wasn't any suspense regarding whether or not Drizzt would survive his trials, but I still thought a bit more tension would have made the overall storyline a bit tighter. I'm still churning through Pandora's Star, but for more of my thoughts, go to the SFFW SF Book Club. In paperback this book is 988 pages, so that may explain why I've not yet finished the book. In the next day or two I'll be starting The Door Within by Wayne Thomas Batson, a YA fantasy I will be reviewing for sffworld.com.



On the beer front, one microbrew/craft beer I've really been enjoying the past few months is Dogfish Head beer. One of the earliest craft breweries, Dogfish started in 1997 and is known for their three hoppy ales (60 Minute IPA, 90 Minute IPA, and 120 Minute IPA), but they do brew a wide variety of beers. The Raison D'Etre is very good as is the Chicory Stout. Word of warning on the Raison D'Etre it is 8% alcohol, almost double that of normal beers. They are both full bodied and very distinctive tastes. During the fall, their Punkin' Ale is one of the best cinnamon-spiced beers on the market. During this past Christmas Season, they started a limited run of Fort beer, which is brewed up with "a ton" of mashed up raspberries. Despite that I didn't find it too fruity, unlike some of the other fruit-spiked beers, and I'm not sure how long the beer will be available. The label is a piece of artwork by Tara McPherson, an artist known in comic circles for her various covers for Vertigo Comics.

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