Now nine chapters into Book IV, and Ben-Hur has just run into Messala, whom he recognized almost instantly. Messala, on the other hand, didn't recognize him, assuming he'd died a galley slave. And yes, this is the build-up to the chariot race that people who haven't actually read the book (or seen the movie) associate with the title.
Though it's off-topic, I feel morally obliged to mention that early in his career Rockne O'Bannon wrote "Wordplay," an episode of the 1980s Twilight Zone series which (in my estimation of course) has a legitimate claim on greatest episode of sci-fi or sci-fi adjacent television of all time, and that dramatizes existentialist thought better than Sartre or Camus could have done in a dozen novels. I hope that doesn't make it sound bleak; it has uplifted me on many an occasion. (Honorable mention for anyone else who wrote that series off as an ersatz throwaway not worthy of the name: "To See the Invisible Man.") I defy you to watch those two (they're on YouTube) and come back and tell me I'm wrong.
Closing in on the midpoint of Ben-Hur, and in the chapter I just finished, Messala's friends have been feeding him clues (at a party that is explicitly said to turn into an orgy) about the provenance of the new Jewish Roman in town (i.e., the young Arrius, i.e., Ben-Hur), and he's still apparently as clueless as ever. I don't remember at what point he actually puts the pieces together, but Wikipedia says he does, and that he does it before the chariot race. Which would tend to raise the stakes just a bit.
Funny you should bring up the hyphen. They say that if you look hard enough, you'll find a web page for anything . . .
I just finished First Frontier by Diane Carey. I loved it. It was an exciting read. I am in the midst of A Grave Robbery by Deanna Raybourn. I'm kind of disappointed in this one--I've read the entire series. It's just not as much fun as the previous ones (although I might just be getting tired of them.)
Interesting. Probably the only Diane Carey TOS novel I don't remember. That may be next after I finish Ben-Hur. Closing in on the mid-point (and no, CLB, I don't mean "the hyphen"). Judah, and the owner of the horses he is to drive in the impending chariot race, have just had a most interesting dinner. With Balthasar. Yes, that Balthasar. Whom we met in back in Book I, Chapter I. Who suggests that the Pharisaic vision of the Messiah, as a worldly king, a new Maccabee, a new Saul, a new David, a military leader bringing eternal restoration of the Hebrew Empire to the Jews (and eternal servitude to the Goyim) is about to be contradicted. Ben-Hur is, after all, a classic work of religious fiction. And its subtitle is "A Tale of the Christ." Even if some (who presumably haven't actually read it) don't realize it.
Now past the midpoint (which coincides almost exactly with the end of Book IV), and one chapter into Book V of Ben-Hur, which consists almost entirely of an extremely obsequious* letter from Messala to his patron (the same man knocked off his horse in Book II). The whole upshot of the chapter is that he's finally gotten it through his dense little skull that Judah Ben-Hur is still alive. What he doesn't realize is that Ben-Hur doesn't want to kill him; he wants to publicly humiliate him, then force him to spend the rest of his natural life knowing that he'd been bested by the man he'd betrayed. _____ * Steve Martin's "Grandmother's Song" includes the line, "Be obsequious, purple, and clairvoyant": I don't know about clairvoyant, but Messala was certainly being both obsequious and purple in his letter.
Finished Gemini by Mike Barr last night. At first, I didn't like it much, but as I got into it, I found it to be a pretty darn good read and good Star Trek TOS. Also reading The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden. I like reading books set during WWI, and I have enjoyed several of Arden's previous books. This one moves quickly and I like the characters and situations.
Just finished To Kill A Mockingbird for the first time. (Debra's favorite book in "Everybody Loves Raymond") A very good read.
Very good. Strap in, it's a wild ride. Book 3 in particular turns the weird up to about a 17 out of 10.
Judah Ben-Hur is now training the sheik's horses for the chariot race. And getting along very well with them. And also getting along well with Balthasar's daughter. Meanwhile, Messala is spying on him.