The Garden of Discordia

För det första, jag är så j-kla sämst på organisation. Har stressat sönder mig mer eller mindre i onödan p.g.a. detta, men ska nu försöka ta mig i kragen. Vissa volontäriga/fanniga stressmoment har jag helt kort och gott dumpat, andra har lättats.
Raison d'être är iaf allting klart med för min del och med Geikai har vi äntligen fått ett alldeles tvättäkta kontrakt på vår lokal \o/ Det blir ett B.L.Y.G. 2011 och det blir i Skogås, den 17-19 juni. Och nu när det är på g så kan vi faktiskt komma igång med saker ordentligt, wheehuuu~

Och så har jag betalat räkningar, go me.

---

My RL = stress, so let's talk books instead.

( Read: Girl Genius, Urusei Yatsura, One Piece etc )

[insert maniacal laughter of the Mwahahaha- variant here]

With school, and work, and tons of other brain-exhausting things that needed to be done this autumn, my reading really slowed down. Now, I am addicted to texts, so it's not as if I stopped reading altogether - but I chose easier fare than books (not counting the school stuff). Thus it took me months to finish Der Schrecksenmeister by Walter Moers, which is a record for me if one only counts books I liked.

Because I did like this one, a great deal even. While not quite as perfect a blend of nonsense, thrilling moments and overwhelming book-nerdishness as his Die Stadt der Träumenden Bucher, it was still very funny and engaging.

The plot is rather simple; Echo, a talking magical cat-like animal (a Kratze, or Crat in the English translation) is on the verge of starving to death when his mistress dies. The Schrecksenmeister (Alchemaster) sees him and realizes that Echo is just the ingredient he needs to fulfill his life work. Thus, they make a deal: For one month, Echo will be given the best of foods one can imagine and when the time is up, he'll end up in the alchemical soup, after a fast, painless death. Of course it isn't as simple as that, but the plot on the whole follows this line.
What makes Moers so fascinating (and DIFFICULT for a German-third-language speakers such as myself) is the way he plays with words. Put it like this: I almost think he could teach Pratchett a trick or two...

Take the title; Schrecksenmeister. The Master of the Schrecksen - and what is that? Well... it's a fantastical being that only exists in Moers fantasy-world Zamonien. They're are part witches, part horrible dragon-thingies and culturally very much like the jews of Medieval towns - blamed for all kinds of ills, forced to follow special laws and generally treated quite badly, though the populace still buys their services.

The Master of the Schrecksen then, is the man that keeps them "in line" and Eißpin, the Schrecksenmeister of this tale, is one of the most horrible creations of fiction I've seen- An utterly ruthless genius alchemist who does not stand above cheating, lies, torture and murder to get what he wants. Manages to be both so evil and impressive that you don't know whether to hate and despise or hate and admire by the end of the book.

This is not a book for those who want straight to-the-point prose; Moers obviously loves his Zamonian details, wordplays and flights of fancy. It is, however, enjoyable to follow along with all the little side-roads in this story, because his sense of style is perfect and he evokes plenty of images with a few well-chosen words. Like the name of the town where it all takes place: Sledwaya, the unwholesomest city of Zamonia. To me, the description and the name of the story immediately woke images of the polluted cities of Eastern Europe, and as the story unfolds and we learn of Eißpin's cruel reign over the citizens, the image only felt more true.

To be honest, though I haven't read it, I am highly mistrustful of the English translation.

( Translation thoughts )

But hey - in whatever language you can get your hands on this book, do give it a try. It's not every book that keeps my interest (and memory of the plot so fresh!) that I keep reading it, nibble by nibble, for several months. It's also got lots of wonderfully creepy illustrations, wicked humor and some rather fantastical culinary images.

Most of my reading time has gone to school books lately. This of course means less time to read the stuff that I usually do. However, I did manage to hurry through the latest Terry Pratchett, I shall wear midnight* but... that wasn't really the right way to read this book. There's less action and more reflection than in the first two Tiffany Aching books - fitting, as it wraps up the series - which means I feel like I missed whole chunks. Will have to re-read it at a later date and more sedated pace. One of my favorite glimpses of it were the connection to one of the early, early Discworld books, because it's nice to see the circle close in a way (Tiffany is likely to remain "the newest witch" in Discworld canon and so when we with her meet one of the earliest witches again it's completeting a tapestry that has grown enourmously in depth and vibrancy since Pratchett began the series). I also liked the acknowledgement that witchiness isn't the same for all, and the small interaction with the forces of law. Other than that, my judgement as a whole must wait until later for this book.

I also read the Doctor Who novelisation The Stealers of Dreams by Steve Lyons. I think this must be my favorite so far! It's a Ninth Doctor adventure, with Captain Jack alongside the Doctor and Rose, and it's entertaining, suitably creepy and wraps up well. It's about a planet where the populace doesn't dare dream and are hunted if they use their imagination at all. Of course, the Doctor and his companions come to set things right, but soon they realize that in this place, dreams can become frighteningly real. The "anti-dream proecdures" at the asylum are creepy in their understated well-meaningness, the supporting characters (a fiction geek who dreams of big-busted women saved by superheroes from medieval zombies, a tough cop chick and a rebel urging people to imagine from the static of the TV channels) were well-rounded. This book also felt a bit meatier than the Eleventh Doctor novels I've read, yet sufficiently quick to go through that I didn't feel I missed half of it when reading so quickly. Recommended.

It also contains the epithet The Armoured Shark Liar for Captain Jack and that's just wonderfully fitting, don't you think?

*unfortunately, only after I got to do a mini-presentation of it for work. Plz ignore the Dali-esque Frodo in the background

I begun reading this book in 2009, then gave it to my mother and forgot about it. Now, cleaning up among the books, I found it again. It's been badly treated, poor thing; I don't know what mom does to books, but she can abuse them like nobody I know.

Most memorable story in this collection was, for me, Arkfall by C. I. Gilman. It's also the first and one of the longer stories. To borrow some words from the editors:
The ark Cormorin is a bio-ship, a partly biological submarine habitat for humans, in the dark seas of a very alien planet that is being colonized. A volcano eropts and the ark is lost in foreign depths.

It's a lovely story, with vivid and beautiful imaginary. The foreign sea on the other world, the culture that has been established there, all was perfectly described and the story itself intrigued me. This is a story I read months ago, and it's still the one I recall best.

I actually bought this book for the Neil Gaiman story "Orange" but that was. Meh. Not his best, felt mostly like an experiment in style.

Boojum by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette was also a good story. Again, semi-sentient, biological ships. This time in space, however, and there are brains in jars and rebellish engineers. Good stuff.

Last time I read Alastair Reynolds, I really dislike the story (it was Diamond Dogs) because it felt not only hopeless, but denying the positive part of curiousity and discovery. And that's basically what I love about sf. So I was more than a little hesitant going into this story, but Fury was a slightly old-fashioned tale about robots, their rebellions and how certain loyalties go deep even in machines.

This was a good sf collection, I might buy the one for 2010 too.

First of all, I have a new icon! Whee. Cobbled together in a GIMP, but at least it contains books.

The quote on it is also the flipside of this quote:
Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.

True, true - but there is still never enough shelf/floor/bedside table space. Alas

Second, I finished Side Jobs! It helps that I've read several of the stories already (or, helps and helps, but it did go faster) but I admit - I raced through it. Will re-read more slowly soon

I like the Dresden novellas, especially the ones focused on other characters. Since the books are all written from Harry's first-person POV, it's really interesting to see how other people think about things.

The best story was "Aftermath" which takes place just hours after the latest novel, Changes. Partly because the POV character is officer Murphy and she's WAY COOL. Partly because it's got an interesting little mystery, good action and really takes place 'in' the world.
I mean, the mead story or some of the other little tidbits are just like free-floating fanfics, nothing to change the status quo. This one deals with major events in the overarching plot and, especially together with another short story, could potentially be the first hint of some very interesting developments in the Dresden-verse.

Also contains one my fav characters (yep, additionally to the Murphy-love!) Good stuff.

I was however a bit disappointed in the Thomas novella, "Backup". I've been wanting to read it for ages, but it's been out of print, so that didn't work. Partly it is because I found the voices too similar - Thomas in the books is very fake-laidback, sarcastic and has some greatly self-ironic moments (I swear to you, by my own stunning good looks and towering ego, that I'm not lying to you) - but reading Backup was not very different from reading a story told by Harry, actually.

Also read the novel Torchwood: Almost Perfect, which takes place sometime between the end of season two and Children of Earth. Written by James Goss, plays around with chapters and formatting in a bit of a weird way (tries to be Facebook-quoting hip) and a so-so read. Ianto is turned into a woman; yes, this is published crackfic.

Of course he uses woman's clothes (heels, skirt etc) but at least they bother to explain where he found the stuff. Although, partly because the book is written so weird, I can't quite figure out if it's just Ianto refusing to wear jeans and t-shirts (being a woman doesn't mean you have to wear frilly blouses and heels, honestly, but he's also a bit of a clothes snob...), he got hit with some mind whammy or it's just bad writing. Er, and Gwen comes off as quite shallowly petty in several scenes. Although considering her "god, lose the jeans-in-boots look already!" thought to Tosh in the episode "Greeks bearing gifts" I suppose it's plausible characterization.

The first Torchwood books were much better *nodnods*

There is something wrong when your spin-off books have a more coherent plot than your actual episodes. This may be because the books are more about detective work and fighting aliens, and less about snogging.

Love,
DM

Something in the Water has mucus-monsters that dress up as water-hags. They are teh yuck, and one shouldn't read this book when one has a sore throat. As I do...

Day 3 of Närcon, and I'm bloody tired. So I shall le book blog and try to ignore the headache and general yuck-feeling I have... You know, I am mostly in favour of the Swedish style cons; cheap and DYI, taking place at schools so younger fans can afford to come too. But the lack of comfortable beds and showers do feel after a while. I've stayed at hotels lately, but I just didn't have time/money to fix something for Närcon. Oh well, going home this afternoon

Anyway, I bought three Doctor Who books while in England, because they had a signing with the authors at Forbidden Planet. Gave two of them to lanjelin and Tess, but since Miko-chan also bought them, I could borrow hers. She also found a whole heap of Torchwood novels in a second-hand store and the filled up with the rest from Forbidden Planet, so I've been reading one of those during Närcon

So far I've finished Oli Smith's Nuclear Time. It's in a way quite Stepfordish. It is another way a really bad book. I mean, there's some interesting timey-wimey wibbly-wobbly things going on, which I always like because they expand the canon, but it's not exactly engaging. (Also rather similar to the final episode, but less clearly written) The Doctor, Rory and Amy are there, as are a gaggle of murderous robots and nuclear testing in the shadow of the Cold War. But there's no excitement, nothing really... Mostly, it feels just like a great big filler. The best thing about the book is the previously mentioned t-w w-w things, since it's an interesting idea at least...

Then I also read Peter Anghelides Another Life, a Torchwood book set some time between episodes 2 and 4. This one surprised me, because it's a much better book. Not only does the entire story feel a bit more grown-up (and no, I just don't mean the spinal-fluid drinking monster) but the characters do things, they interact in ways there wasn't time to show in the show and that I really like. Sure, some things are a bit off, like a character from Owen's past which doesn't quite match his given backstory, but considering how early in Torchwood canon it was set I guess the writer might not have known those details story?

To that, there's some clever glimpses to things that will happen, which I always like and there's a bunch of tiny but nice Ianto scenes. Also, Tosh is a lot harsher on Owen than I remember fromt the episodes, good for her!

Seen not as a Torchwood story, but just a sf-thriller/mystery, it still holds up decently on its own. Nothing I would've bought, but if I'd borrowed it I'd definitely finished the book. Not sure I'd have bothered with Doctor Who (oh, who am I kidding, I read it in like a day) because it's just too simple in the text. From what I've heard this doesn't go for all the books, and since Virre bought a bunch of the old ones from a second-hand shop I might have the chance to test it out.

Anyway, all the books have really nice covers! They're also cheap for hardbacks, so if one is enough of an obsessed fan I guess they're good =)

I have a slightly embarrasing confession to make - I think I have developed a celebrity crush. On John Barrowman. (Yes, only some years after everyone else...)

But it didn't just come from watching Torchwood, although that was definitely the start. Went to London this weekend, see, and among other books I picked up his second biography/essay-collection on family and fame "I am what I am" and... he's really funny. Possibly exhausting to be around, but entertaining to read.

So now I've spottifyed one of his albums (John Barrowman Swings Cole Porter) which, I have to admit, wasn't really my thing and I'm downloading his show thing. Although, the song Miss Otis Regrets has brilliant lyrics, so that was totally a find. I'll also borrow the first biography from V. later on

Anyway, I don't know if it'll stick, but right now I'm trying to torrent everything he is in that seems the least bit interesting. Tips and warnings very much appreciated!

By the by, a warning for anyone who reads this - avoid the Swedish Torchwood boxsets. They don't contain all the extra material that is listed on the box. Among the missing things are the bloopers and deleted scenes, as well as the comments track :/

I've worked a lot recently, but at least I've had the time to read on the bus. And during lunch, sometimes...

So, my impressions, cut for lenght and potential spoilers:

( Eoin Colfer's And Another Thing... )

( Catherine Asaro's Diamond Star )

Now I'm reading Dragon Soul, Metro 2033 (as soon as I find it again...) and Udda Verklighet.

I really don`t have time for this (and the keyboard is borked) as I`m only supposed to check my bank account, but hot damn if John Ajvide Lindqvists Hanteringen av odöda (Handling of the undead) isn`t worth a quick rec.

It`s a much faster read than any of his books, not counting Lilla stjärna and the short story collection Pappersväggar, which I haven`t read yet. There are news items, blurbs, `cuttings` from the papers and such between the regular chapters and this really helps speed up parts that might otherwise have slogged the narrative down. And it is one AMAZING narrative. Couldn`t put it down yesternight

The dead are returning, it starts at Danderyd`s hospital and continues all over Stockholm. It`s gross, it`s creepy and it`s very, very touching. How does one deal with the loss, and flawed return, of a loved one?

Great book. could make a cool movie too, I hope they find an equally skilled director as to Let the right one in, if they do make one.