Something to do with swords

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When I was in Melbourne, I planned to spend a day strolling around the city, and so after spending a leisurely hour in my cousin’s apartment eating breakfast and straightening my hair, I walked out into the windy squally day, and thought, “Oh. Bugger.” Hopping off the tram on Flinders Street, my hair rapidly becoming less straight, I began my day of wandering, thinking to myself, “I won’t look at the map - I’ll just explore organically, wander the lanes and alleyways, and let the city reveal herself to me.” (Yes, my brain is a wanker.) I did so, turning left and right at random, recognising the one street I knew (Collins Street! Hi!) and moving on. Trotting through one of a million little arcades, I gazed in the window of a science fiction bookstore, and decided that as I didn’t want to be carrying books around all day, I would come back later. Don’t you love the confident way I thought that, given that I hadn’t looked at any street names for the last half hour?

Meeting my cousin for lunch, I wailed at her, “I found a really cool science fiction bookstore, and then I lost it! I’ve been through every arcade I can find again and it’s gone.” She asked me what it was called, and I frantically looked up at the ceiling. “Um. Swords? It had something to do with swords. Space and Swords? Swords in Space? Something like that.” She promised to look it up for me when she returned to work and send me a message if she was successful. A few minutes later, I got it - “Of Science & Swords, The Strand Arcade, Elizabeth St.”

It was a cool little bookstore, and I was terribly excited to find the next three books in Karen Traviss’ Wess’har War series which I have looked for everywhere unsuccessfully. The dude at the counter engaged me in conversation, which was awkward because I’m so terrible at defining my tastes in reading. So in response to “What kinds of science fiction do you like?” I said, “Um? Like, not too heavy?” Which made me sound like I enjoy reading about fluffy pink unicorns in space, and also like I’ve never heard of finishing a sentence with a full stop.

Thankfully, I did not get hurled out of the store while Counter Dude shouted, “And take your fluffy pink unicorn with you!” But I did get talked into buying a local author’s vampire novel, and also couldn’t resist Elizabeth Bear’s Hammered, because I’ve heard she’s fabulous and yet for some reason my library doesn’t have any of her books. In any case, after browsing around for some time I was in a merry book-buying mood, and such moods are hard to resist.

I took my haul, found a convenient sofa in an arcade, and plunged into The World Before for half an hour. Then my aunt appeared and whisked me away for a reviving coffee, before taking me to check out her new (to me) apartment, with its two little mezzanine levels and airily high ceiling. While I adore my semi-rural block and looking out my window at the bush, it’s awfully fun having little tastes of city lifestyle - all that apartment living and everything-you’ll-ever-need a few blocks away. I can see the appeal.

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