The Garden of Discordia

Watched the fifth One Piece movie, The Curse Of The Sacred Sword, because it was about a cursed sword and Zoro.

Not really worth all the effort I had to go through to download the darned thing. For one, the animation is pretty bad, the female lead is such a wishy-washy meh character and the plot is full of characterization errors.

( Review, relatively spoiler free )

But I've also been re-reading the One Piece manga! And that gave a lot more ^_^

DM's unorganized One Piece re-read: From the beginning towards Little Garden
I have a feeling that I need to "clean up" my impressions of One Piece as compared to all the fanon one gets clogged down with, so I thought I'd go back to the beginning and see what happens, now that we're entering the New World. Also, school holidays and it's bloody hard to download anime here, why not re-read One Piece?

- Zoro and Luffy express an interest in fishing between Whiskey Peak and Little Garden. They're still wildly enthusiastic about this hobby two in-series years and half a world later. I go "awww".

- I remember that I found Usopp's introduction, and the Black Cat pirates pretty boring. I like Usopp better this time round, but the fights d-r-a-g. Might be because only the Captain is there for a reason, and that reason is that he's giving up on the pirate dream. Heck, cowardly and greedy old Buggy has more dreams than that! Compared to the fights against Don Krieg (which, admittedly, I skipped some pages of) and Arlong, there's also far too much effort spent on quirky mini-bosses who don't really interest me and don't even fight in a fun way.

- Sanji and Zoro don't really argue at first, until Zoro "insults" Nami. And in the manga at least, they're not even fighting that much at the beginning of the Grand Line. I get the image they don't interact all that much yet - whiich changes pretty rapidly once Zoro drops a line about being a better hunter than Sanji. Poof, rivalry is born.

It's quite interesting to see this too, because it's such a thing (especially in fandom) that you kind of don't remember how it started or who does what, only that it exists. Both cases seem to be a bit of Zoro being thoughtlessly rude (he ttly is, loads of time. Mostly at the start/end of fights, but in general as well), Sanji taking offence, then it leads to aimed insults. After a while, they're both much more quick to take offence but here at the start, the fights are clearly escalating step-by-step.

- I forgot how cool a character design Bellemere had *starry eyed gaze at ex-soldier punk mom* Also, Nami's background is so sad ;_____;

- A lot of Luffy's silent rages, "weird instincts" and so on that we see here (and which sometimes confused people, including me, since he was so silly otherwise) make oodles of sense once you have the childhood flashback backstory.

- "A hero only dies once, a coward dies a thousand times". Or he overcomes his fears ten thousand times...
I had completely forgotten Usopp's stand against the kissy-faced fishman in the Arlong arc, but it's actually a really nice scene, despite a pretty boring enemy. Usopp wavers back and forth a lot, but when it matters, he's there for his friends. This is the first times Usopp goes back to take it up with a scary opponent solely for the sake of the crew. Well done!

Then a bit of opinon.
I've seen, on TVtropes and elsewhere, that people claim that Zoro gets more grumpy as the series processes. True, he's openly laughing more often back in East Blue, in the very first chapters, but that seems to cut down already by Usopp's island and almost feels like Oda getting a handle on his characterization.

There's also a distinct lessening of freak-outs, from Zoro but I think Sanji too. When they try to enter the Grand Line, everyone goes completely OMGHOHSHIT!!! with huge cartoony eyes and whatnot. There are still such moments later, but Zoro rarely participates (Robin, never). And Sanji, while more easily flustered, doesn't end up in the same amount of panic over unforseen wheather and weirdness either.

Part of it is simply that they've gotten used to weird stuff, but part of it is also how they react in crowds, I think. Will keep an eye on this later.

But, my point was mostly, is that it's not true that Zoro's lack of happy faces directly connects to his defeat at the hands of Mihawk. As I said, he's doing the whole open-mouthed laugh a lot less once they've picked up Usopp already.
In Logue Town, he's getting a new cursed katana = Happy Zoro (they're all really happy in this town, aw so cute~). And then there's the Whiskey Peak fight, where he's clearly internally doing the manly version of "squee! fighting mooks with my new swords! yay fun!"
In retrospect, I really like this scene because it shows how much Zoro enjoys swordfighting. The Strawhats are usually up against such odds that it's hard to judge how much they enjoy their various martial styles, but here, it's obvious that Zoro really likes it. It's like when Sanji gets to cook that elephant tuna shortly before, he's in his element and he's apparantly having fun with this new, interesting thing :)

My theory is that Zoro's gotten more mellow after the timeskip, more balanced, although he's if anything even ruder and rougher... but I really can't remember all of this massive amount of canon to judge that, nor can I really remember how Usopp developes through the series (which are basically the two things I'm most curious about), so, back to the basics it is!

I also want to see all the leads and little details that Oda drew some eight years ago (there's a mention in something like book ten, omfg, about how One Piece has been going for two years. Ancient History, dude), which leads to my next point...

OMG! Such an early mention of Jimbei and Fishman Island! And it's Zoro's bounty-hunter pal who knows something about it!! Hm, Mihawk's words about Zoro being almost frighteningly ignorant about the big world make a lot of sense. Luffy at least seems to have made a consciouss choice in this direction: he doesn't give a damn. Zoro is just clueless.

Hacchan also talks about being the second-strongest Fishman swordsman and, indeed, that was picked up recently. Heh, you can really see how the plot has expanding on Oda while writing. The beginning of One Piece ties to tightly to the 'geographical middle' of things, which we've just left, where a lot of slightly later stuff feels much more side-questy.
I knew there would be parallels between the East Blue beginning and the "second Romance Dawn", but I had no idea there would be THIS many.

It also explains a lot of things about Arlong. ( Cut for Fishman Island spoilers )

- Whoa, Luffy, you broke the mast off Merry to deal with Laboon? No wonder the poor thing is in such a bad shape if that's how you handle her... No, but it becomes sadly clear very early on that poor little Merry isn't made to handle the Grand Line. (Never have I felt so much for an inanimate vehicle ;_; Oda you bastard)

- I totally forgot that Mihawk and Shanks have had some kind of alteration in the past. Huh, wonder what that's about! Actually, with this and the later big fight and the whole training thing, Mihawk is totally acting like a (semi-willing) mentor to the Strawhats. It makes me curious about his motivations, because this really goes against his Icy Cool I Don't Give A Damn persona.

Yesterday I spontaneously visited the cinema round the corner with my roommate/landlady. Since we were both a bit bored, we decided to see what ran in the nearby cinemas*. Lucky for us, a movie that E. had heard good things about ran in the Babylon-cinema which is two streets behind our flat. It has a nice big screen too, although it must've been severely full of dust or something, because I kept coughing throughout the movie (but not loudly enough to disturb, I think, since E. said she didn't notice).

We saw This Must Be The Place To Be, a quite brilliant movie which I have not heard a peep about from, uh, anyone before E. mentioned it. An understated, touching movie with excellent acting from pretty much all corners. Throw in an interesting plot, told in a captivating, not too on-the-nose-writey manner and some excellent cinematography and it had me from about three minutes into the film. I highly recommend it - though try not to read too many previews, I went into the film completely blind and somehow, I think it made it even better?
The very barest bones of the story: An aging rock-star is bored and disillusioned with life. Change happens, truths are revealed and people open up.

Then today the international club at the university offered us discounted tickets for a concert with the Berlin Symphonic Orchestra. It was their 65th Anniversary concert, being played in the Berliner Philharmonie - quite the impressive building by the way! - which I had somehow missed so I was a bit underdressed. Whoops.

I also almost missed the entire thing, because the bloody bus didn't run on time! There was supposed to go a bus seven minutes past the hour, then another one at sixteen minutes past. When it was twenty past and no bus in sight, I hailed a cab... Still got there last of everyone in my group, but not too late. On the way back, at least the subway co-operated nicely.

The pieces were:
Olivier Messiaen - Les offrandes oubliées
Frédéric Chopin - Klavierkonzert Nr. 2 f-Moll
César Franck - Symphonie d-Moll

Because I am a classical music dunce, I can't say more than that I enjoyed it, had a good time, and recognized bits of Chopin from movies and the radio.

Tomorrow, there's a literature day which I wish to visit. Which means I should really try to get some sleep if I want to be awake enough to enjoy it.... Double-hopefully, I'll actually be able to sleep with my ear feeling this tender. At least the friggin seven o'clock in the morning roof-repair men don't work weekends.


*Berlin utterly pwns Sweden when it comes to cinemas; At home, there's one chain + like 2 "arty" cinemas if you're lucky enough to live in a large city a.k.a. Sthlm. Here? There's like fifteen, at least, and they all show different movies. Colour me impressed

I've increased my social life with, like, 245% since I got to Berlin. The downside is that when I'm not doing anything, I'm utterly exhausted. I think the evening stuff go down a bit now that university is starting, although I'll certainly try to be active and do something at least once a week. However, I can also feel a marked improvement in my mood compared to how it usually is in October- ( Winter depression talk cut )

ERASMUS-party
On Friday, the evening started in Steffi's new apartment, where I made the happy discovery that if you mix the sparkling whine from Lidl with peach juice, it is not only tolerably but actuallly good. Considering that the sparkling wine costs ten cents less than the peach juice, I had some serious doubts about the drinkability of the stuff...

After that, we made our way to Kino International, where they had a party evening for ERASMUS students. Since I'd messed up my schedule on Friday and thought I had more classes than I did, I failed to buy tickets before and so had to pay a horrible 6 € at the door.

Entering this club, btw, was a very "German" experience. First we had to show ID. Then they checked the bags. Then a girl took our money/pre-booked tickets, checked that we were students, stamped us and gave us a little ticket. Three steps behind her a man took that little ticket back and finally, once you got up the stairs, you could stand in line for the wardrobe. Despite that, it was pretty efficient (except for the wardrobe, but that is an international problem afaik)

Unfortunately, the music turned out to be less than great. I'm no expert on club music, but I found the beat hard to dance to and the clubbing expert in our group agreed. Hopefully next party will be better, though I think we've agreed to skip the ERASMUS events as they often seem to suffer from dreadful DJ's.

E.G.A.L.
Tonight, I visited an amateur show wherein a friend took part: The theatre troop Stageink's "Eine Gala aus Liedern (und mit allem, was dazugehört)".

It was quite entertaining and the advanced level of tech was a positive surprise! They even had a full live band with drums, guitar, bass, cello & piano. The cello in particular lifted some pieces miles above a playback experience.

My favorite pieces were the (German) Scrubs song, that is, J.D & Turks "Guy Love Duet", or whatever it's called, it was unfortunately not introduced. Several of the Elizabeth pieces were also very good (the singer in top hat had a good voice and an impressive stage presence), of which the only ones title I remember was "Milch". Good song and Oscar, the girl in the uniform did a spiffing job. To my great surprise, I got to hear a very nice performance of the wolf song, from Ronia the Robber's Daughter!! I totally didn't connect the title with that song when they introduced it, but from the first tones all the memories came back (and most of the lyrics too). Impressive, considering I haven't seen the films since I was like twelve. Otoh, I watched it maaaaany times before that ^_^

They also performed the Time Warp, which was alas a bit ruined by the microphones not working for everyone, including the male lead singer. Luckily, they did it again as the extra song at the end, and that time everything technical co-operated much better. (is there an English word for "zugabe"? Or do they use encore, perhaps?)
Which reminds me of the only really negative thing about the evening (except the lack of a program I could buy; Matt, plz improve to the next show? Some of us have a scrapbook to fill ;) - a loudspeaker or something made a really annoying buzzing sound. Sounded like my old speakers, actually, before I manage to ground them. Luckily, while annoying the sound wasn't too loud and during most songs I could forget about it

All in all, the show was varied, entertaining and the singing provess of, well, everyone impressed me mightily. With a glass of champagne, it was quite a nice way to spend a Sunday evening and I look forward to the spring show.

Oh, and from a pure geek bias, I of course approve of opening any gala with two Harry Potter choirs ;)

I bought John Ajvide Lindqvist's book Lilla Stjärna (Little Star*) months ago, read a bit and loved it. And then I lost the effing book somewhere. Looked in all the bookshelves, all my bags, at work, in the bathroom etc etc but no Little Star. Hoping that it would turn up when I moved I mentally shelved it and read other things, only occasionally wondering where the crap I managed to lose a book in my one-room apartment.

Wellp. Turns out I forgot it at mom's, in a bag beneath some papers. I found it two days ago and raced through it so I wouldn't have to wait an entire year.

Ajvide Lindqvist, for those not familiar with this exemplary good writer of modern horror, is a Swedish author who 1) scared the crap out of at least half the country with Låt den rätte komma in (Let me in) and 2) instantly made the bland Stockholm suburb Blackeberg a place as connected to vampires as the US state Maine is to murdering clowns, dogs and other unmentionable monsters from Stephen King's subconscious, in most people's opinions.

After that, he continued to turn Täby and Danderyd's sjukhus (where I have been several times) into places you cannot pass during swelteringly hot summer nights without a shiver down your spine due to the undead you know are about to wake up. Etcetera with making the archipelago of Stockholm into a potential hiding place for some rather "Old ones"-ish beings which can reanimate unruly bikers and steal children that come too near the lighthouse.

Ahem. Yes, thank you, Mr Ajvide Lindqvist, for helping to turn my mental map of Stockholm with surroundings into a far scarier place. I like you too...

In Little Star, he takes the cosyest of cosy Swedish television shows, Allsång på Skansen (which actually has an English wikipedia article, I am baffled) and the most boring of Swedish music, schlager from "Svensktoppen"* and makes it into a really HORRIFYING splatter book. With a lot of social realistic commentary, careful portrayals of painfully ordinary humans whom you still come to care for, pity and despise as they show off all their little admirable and disgusting traits.

It is also a book about bullying and how it tears into someone and twists them, killing something. It's the story about the ordinary girls and women (because although the first part of the story is much driven by a father and a son, it is really about the girl, the "little star" and the lonely, abused mother of the family. And then comes the other girl and everything really begins to take shape), the girls that weren't pretty enough but at least kept silent and were forgotten and how much that hurts. Them and those around.

It's a very sad book - it brings to mind an otherwise unmemorable book about film theory, which talked about the "elegiac mood" of some movies. The melancholia, the poem for the dead.

And that's what Lilla Stjärna is, a sad book written about those that are, either physically or spiritually dead from the very beginning of the book and how they bring over this deadness to the little girls until they are as broken as the adults around them. It is this by telling the story of an uncanny girl with the most perfect voice imaginable and the tragic massacre that happens when others keep trying to mold her into a money-making tool - and it does it very, very well.

If you can, read Lindqvist, he is one of the most interesting writers (horror and otherwise) I have encountered lately.

* as in the lullaby, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
** Svensktoppen charts the most popular Swedish music and, since it until recently only played songs in Swedish, it was dominated by "dance band" music. Which is the spiritual twin of country, basically, though they don't sound very alike.

Ahhh I am slipping behind with my reading blog. I've pretty much given up on writing something about all the manga I read, because I read too damn much manga (also, what to say about wol 14 of umtpysomething of 20th Century Boys - or worse, Chi's Sweet Home? Still good, still buying, next!)

Anyway. To start off with, Jim Butcher's Ghost Story is not properly published and the short article I wrote for work is up on the homepage of the geeky bookstore (in Swedish). I've written a longer one too, which will go up as "Tip of the Month: Urban Fantasy" soon(ish), if I remember I'll link to that one too =)

Talking about urban fantasy, the other day I finally had the time to sit down and finish a book that has been on the "To read"-list for an embarrasingly long time. ( I read Udda Verklighet )

The reason I finished Udda Verklighet was btw that I spent about three hours waiting for poor _shown_ at the Central Station. Where did he spend these hours? Stuck on a train - in Gnesta of all places! Someone threatened to jump down onto the tracks that go into Stockholm, so they had to stop all traffic and it was a massive brouhaha. The first hour and a half went buy quickly, as I spent it with lanjelin and Maria at a café, but I was reeeally glad to have a good book when they had to go home :)

And today? Today, I carried books. LOADS AND LOADS OF BOOKS. One bookshelf emptied and moved down into my basement, only 3 left to empty ;_; At least tt's the only bookshelf I have to actually move, since I'm renting out the apartment furnished.

However, in the evening, my mother treated me (Well, actually Sho. I just got to come along too ;) to a fancy dinner, so all's well that ends well.

I usually am of the "you will have to take this from my cold, dead hands" when it comes to computers. But as mine is borked and mother was kind enough to lend me her, it felt a bit awkward to start complaining when she needs it returned. I'll just move into the school library for a week or two Also, I have a ton of books to read so it's just good for me to go offline

Yesterday I delivered the computer and watched Moon which almost completely lives up the hype. Interesting, thoughful science fiction movie which manages to tell an engaging story and uses its setting perfectly, without drowning in effects or techno-babble. I mean, what I love about sci-fi movies, is when they manage to tell a story which you really couldn't tell with a completely realistic scenario, but treat the issues and the characters with as much respect as any other character. Something like Avatar, which was basically Pocahontas Dances with Wolves in Space, doesn't really use the technological advances and presence of another species to tell a new story. It only throws on a lot of (beautiful, granted) visuals to re-tell something which could pretty much be told in a historical drama. Sure, you can't put the legs back on an amputee in that setting, but it's not like the movies spends much time thinking about that issue

Moon, otoh, uses two sci-fi elements to discuss one timeless and one extremely modern issue:
- The utter isolation of a station on the moon - could be replaced by, for instance, a lighthouse
- ( Spoiler )

- The timeless issue: Isolation, alienation and existenial terror. What to do if I see myself, truly?
- The modern issue: Ultra-capitalism, slimmed productions and what that means

The technology carries the plot, but the plot isn't about these techs - they're not pointed out as "OMG!! How fresh and new!" It's not like a moon base is common in the movie either, but you can clearly see that it's been there for a while, it's not an experiment or so. Especially not the the poor bastard living there...

Anyway, really good movie! And nice use of silence in some parts! The use and not-use of music was a bit destroyed for me because my sister insisted on playing her radio loudly and my mother's house is about as sound-proof as a tent, but I noticed and liked it.

Um. I am also reading a lot of books for class. I bought another Eyeshield 21 lately, and I think that'll have to be the last one. We've got the Hiruma-Agon-Kid moment in the car, so what's left is tedious filler games, some disconcerting racism and... that's about it. Absolutely an issue of manga artists drawing a few extra volumes more than they have inspiration for, just for the bucks.

I'd like to preface that I am, actually, occasionally a mature and responsible adult. See, justs this week I met up with alitna to write. Alas, I was just exhausted after working a full day while still a bit ill and couldn't think of anything to write. But! Instead of faffing around on the net, I checked up things with CSN and filled in forms for my exchange year, quite responsible of me, yes?

And then there's times like yesternight, when I sat up to 03:33 (yep, exactly, I checked my clock) because I couldn't put down Elizabeth Moon's Kings of the North. No, I did not wake up at nine o'clock like planned to do laundry and go shopping early...

This is the second book in the Paladin's Legacy trilogy which is a sequel to the trilogy The Deed of Paksenarrion. The original trilogy is a real classic and a well-deserved one. Excellent female main character, manages to have religious themes and characters that don't bug the hell out of me, interesting plot, detailed world-building with a lot of attention to soldiers and more regular people (Moon has thought of how the plumbing works. Extensively) and enchanted me when I was a teen and still holds up very well for adult readers who have read several good works in the high fantasy genre.

And Paks - Well, Paks was just awesomesauce cool to my younger self. Her, and Kushana from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind were what I wanted to be if I ever got transported to magic land and learned sword fighting XD (only, with less background angst than Kushana, plz)

The Paladin's Legacy books are... weeeell, the first one was nice but a bit confusing since we don't follow one focus character in the same way as in the first books. And Kings of the North? I'm sorry to say that, while I had no problem keeping all the people apart, the overall plot structure in especially the later half of the book disappointed me a bit.

When I can start to see patterns and guess what's going to happen past 02:00, you're heading into dangerously easily-solved territory, ok?

I mean, there are a lot of concepts in this book I like - how things were set in movement by Paks, and not neccessarily by those events that impacted her personal development the most. Dorrin is a great character, and a very unusual type! A somewhat older woman (40-45ish) who gains a great amount of power and yields it with power, compassion and cool logic. That she is the second most prominent character in this trilogy so far makes me very happy.
And then there's Phelan, whom I just adored in the original books. He then had slight hints of Vetinari's characterization around him, although not at all as brilliant and all-knowing. He also has a very interesting backstory and many faults, which of course really come into play here as the books focus a lot on him.

But. Exactly like with the end of the Serrano Legacy* things just... fall into place far too easily during the final. We get new characters who more or less drop into the plot and wrap things up, we get a very rushed romantic subplot and a character makes some weird good-to-evil/no wait!/heel-face-turn I don't even really know journey.

Take the romance, (which, all righ, was slightly hinted): But that minor hint somehow morph into an almost shoujo manga-esque Love at first sight!! thing. Take note, Moon and JKR: Just because you know the characters love each other, doesn't mean the readers do. Have them bloody interact a bit more. At least this couple talks on a few pages and have a practice fight)

( Spoilers ahoy )

The portrayal of the Pargunese was also a bit bwuh to me, but to be honest, I was too tired to properly consider the exact implications at that time.

Also, let's talk about the cover for a moment! Because, see, this is a rather high-profile fantasy book. Not quite as big as the latest Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson, but large enough that they ship an impressive stack of hardcovers. They're also for some unknown reason (which I much appreciate :) release the trade paperback at the same time, so I don't have to wait six months to read about Phelan and the others' adventures.

All that taken to mind, it really surprises me that they couldn't fix a cover which contains a character actually in the book. See the picture there? That's Aragorn It's definitely not Paks, nor is it Dorrin, seeing as how they are women. (though Dorrin is probably on the cover of book one, Oath of Fealty, at least it's close to her colors).
Taken together with the title, I would assume the cover to contain either the king of Lyonya or Mikeli, the king of Tsaia. The latter, alas, is a young man just grown into maturity and he doesn't do any fighting in this book. ( Spoiler for the Paksenarrion trilogy )

So, all right, I've whined a lot about Kings of the North now. However, Paladin's Legacy is still 2/3 into the series, absolutely among the better half of fantasy literature that's out there to read. It's not as good as the amazing first trilogy, but until the big wrap-up which contains a bit too much fixit moments for my taste, it is quite interesting. What Moon does well is, among others, that she does not forget the non-kingly characters - the soldiers, the servants, the elderly who remember things. We also meet characters like the Duke of Andressat again and, I have to say, I never expected to like the old snob as much as I did now. Actions from the past have consequences, such that can't be just removed with a bit of magic.

Will I buy the next book? Oh yeah. Will I rec this book series to people? Oh yeah - And I usually anti-rec the Gird prequel to Paksenarrion, because that is just dull in great bits. But, for all the faults here, there are still many great characters and an underlying highly interesting plot thread that I think might remake the world of these characters a great deal.

And now I really gotta go and buy a fuse because one blew yesterday and I have no light in my (windowless) bedroom.

*I only bought one of the omnibuses, dunno exactly which books it contains

As the header says, Christmas is over and I feel fine =) Nah, it was really low stress this year, at least from the Yule-ish part. The rest of my life is a bit too stressy, I think, as I'm getting tension headaches and have trouble falling asleep again. Will try to go swimming and relax a bit more soonish

While at mom's, we watched Die Päpstin (int. title Pope Joan) about Johanna from Ingelheim who disguises herself as a man and becomes pope during the ninth century. It was good, but pretty damn depressing in bits, although it also contained some funny scenes. And Faramir was in it! Basically reprising his role (alright, he got a romance here) as the somewhat smart guy who walks around angsting because everyone is either a creep or a hero ^_^;;

Anyway, recommended, though beware ( spoiler for the beginning of the movie: )

The lady pope also looks very otherworldly and cool in the final scenes, they really make her shine with some kind of "inner strenght"

Then I watched the Swedish black comedy Tomten är far till alla barnen (eng. Santa is father to all the children). Yes, like ten years after everyone else in this country... We're not much for Swedish film in my family, tbh.

In a misguided attempt at holiday cheer, Sara invites her three ex-partners and their families to celebrate Christmas with her new partner and the kids (who seem to come one from each partnership?) Then, as people start drinking, secrets are revealed, jealousy rears its ugly head and it all becomes utterly horrible.

It is interesting that with a few exceptions, the only tolerable Swedish comedies are the ones that are also tragedies. And this one is both 1) good and 2) very tragocomic

[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.

(With unfailing precision, the internet died when I just hit "post" for this entry yesterday... so you get it now instead. Recycling = win, y/n?)

I don't have time to write proper reviews and whatnot right now, but I have the feeling that if I start putting my "book logg" off, it'll wither and die before February has passed. And at least two months I should manage, darn it.

So, on to the preview copies!

First off is Jim Butcher's latest Dresden Files, Changes. Oh, this one was a very intense page turner. I felt that the last book was too much plodding around and too little happening, until the very end when there was a huge mess of shit happening which could influence the overall outcome of the series - but by then, the book was mostly done so very little reflexion on those events could take place.

It's somewhat similar here, although the action is better paced and the foreshadowing works. The threads from older books, from the very beginning of the series up to much more recent events, are nicely (if somewhat predictably) picked up again. Oh, and this book does definitely change things around in Harry's world, on a both personal and more general level.

Good stuff. Less good is that Butcher now intends to carry the series into the "lower twenties" apparantly, because I want to get to the end some time :/ preferably before I'm tired of reading about Harry Dresden, thanks.

Then I read something-Sniegoski's Where Angels Fear to Thread, the next part in the Remy Chandler series. It's urban fantasy/mystery with an angel living on Earth as the main character. And that's probably where it fails the worst, because the fact that he's an angel doesn't matter one fucking bit for the plot. Remy/Remiel's Seraphim self is violent, threatens to "burn his humanity away" if he lets go of it and... is violent. That's it, basically. Oh, and Remy mopes about this a bit.

I tried to imagine what would have changed if Remy was a demon who'd somehow left hell and decided to be good, with a violent, destructive demonic side he supressed... Not a thing would be different as far as the in-book action. How people react to him, sure, somewhat but when he might as well have come from another planet or be his complete opposite without it messing up the plot. Nah, not good.

Otherwise the books are bland; a step up from most urban fantasy, which is horrible. That's why I keep reading them, so I can feel that I have some insight into the genre without having to suffer through the worst drivel...

Anyway, the books are bland, but not too shabbily written. There's a lot of old Bible characters running around, although, once again they don't feel very Biblical. I don't mean the story has to be preachy - for instance, in Angel Sanctuary, the characterization and plot are both very much driven by what the characters are, without it in any way being a respectful treatment of Christianity. I like that - I like Marianne Fredriksson's books, also, "Paradisets Barn" and whatnot, where there is also a feeling that, yes, these people don't just share names with someone from the Bible they are that person. They have met God, angels, demons etc, great otherwordly forces and that has in one way or another affected them.

I have also read Black Butler which is awesome. Yayness.

Of the books on my current reading list are:
- Uncle Dynamite by P.G. Wodehouse, something I borrowed from grandma
- Dwarves, a German fantasy book (though I read it in English, free copy from work) about... well, guess. Am almost finished, decent so far
- At the Mountains of Madness collection by Lovecraft. Have read the title story and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward so far, and yes, the old man knew how to craft his horror...
- Some African fantasy, a preview book I picked up because African fantasy is rare.
- Some shitty vampire romance book by J.R. Ward which I'm reading because it's part of a topic on the symposium. It is AWFUL!.