![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I had friends drop by to visit last weekend - for talking fandom and hunting pokemon, mostly. And going to Hillerød to see the current photo exhibits at the castle - the historical one by Lee Miller was interesting, all photos of Denmark immediately after the liberation in 1945, but honestly, it was the other photo exhibit, with photos of Søren Solkær, that I found absolutely gorgeous.
Apart from that - well, for purely personal reasons I am relieved that the strike/lockout was postponed a fortnight. I'm not convinced it's averted yet - Løhde talking all over the media as if the difference in pay offered by the employers and demanded by the unions were the biggest Gordian knot, when really it was 1.5 percent points, which is a pathetic difference to have negotiated so long over, really. They've still got the two huge principle matters to discuss, and I really do think we'll be getting a full-blown conflict before this is done. Honestly? I want it - not that I want the conflict, but if we don't take the fight now, I worry that this is just going to be how the union/employer negotiations are going to be in the public sector year after year.
In other news: I'll be going to see the Midt om natten musical tomorrow. *bounces*
What I've recently finished reading
Don Rosa: Hall of Fame vol. 2.
Don Rosa: Hall of Fame vol. 3.
Don Rosa: Hall of Fame vol. 4.
Don Rosa: Hall of Fame vol. 5.
Yes, I've been (mostly re-)reading Duck comics. I'd somehow forgotten how brilliant they are. I mean, I remembered, but - not really.
N.K. Jemisin: The Stone Sky
I was somewhat surprised to find that, while in many ways bittersweet, this trilogy has a mostly happy ending.
I found this book's pace considerably faster than the previous two - and, unlike them, which showed us the world as seen through the eyes of the present day characters, broken and hard, this gives us access to the past, to the whys and wherefores and secrets behind things. Almost too much for me, frankly. It's just that bit too neat, too much tell.
Still, I enjoyed following the stories of Nassun and her mother to their end.
Jeppe Facius & Anders-Peter Mathiasen: Fra Edderkoppen til Makrellen
Alas, reading this book left me underwhelmed as far as the excitement potential of 20th century organized crime in Denmark. And a little worried about corruption in the police, to be frank.
Charles Stross: The Delirium Brief
Well. That's was one of the most depressingly realistic versions of "what will happen when the rest of the world finds out about the supernatural" I've read so far.
I quite enjoyed this book. While it's been fun to see this world and its characters through other eyes for a couple of books, I was glad to be back with Bob Howard the by now extremely scary necromancer again. It's great that this book brings together so many of the surviving main characters, and while it's very much a cliffhanger, I liked the ending and I'm looking forward to the next book. Why is it so far away?
Jason Aaron: The Unworthy Thor
Anybody else think that Beta Ray Bill is the creepiest character in Marvel? Not his behaviour or personality or anything like that, just - his face looks like a horse skull. It's creepy.
Egon Clausen: Hvide pletter: kritik af statens udflytning
It's not that I don't mostly agree with the author, but it was fairly obvious that this book started life as a number of newspaper articles, or that's the impression the foreword gave me.
Elizabeth A. Lynn: Dragon's Winter
I ended up being incredibly annoyed with this book.
The main plot is fairly standard fantasy fare. Two brothers, one of them a sorcerer who turns evil and steals the other's birthright of being able to turn into a dragon, and then the second has to lead a group of warriors to stop his brother and save the land. There's some interesting world-building, mostly involving this world's animal shapeshifters, and I actually quite liked several characters, including the temperamental Dragon Lord Karadur and his lover Azil.
Sadly, the things I disliked about the book eventually outweighed the good stuff. Partly - for an epic fight against the ancient evil rising one more to threaten the land, it's downright tiny and anti-climactic in its scope. The bad guy barely has an army and the forces Karadur leads to defeat him number less than a 100 men. Then there's how the book keeps switching main character - not POV character, that's not what I mean. I mean - after the prologue we're left assuming that Karadur will be the main character, except then the first third of the book is spent focusing on the shapeshifter Wolf. After that, it settles down in more straightforward changing POV characters narration, but still. It annoyed me. Finally, the book is simply poorly plotted - the main plot is resolved 3/4 into the book, and we're left reading some sort of awkward extended epilogue, which I understand is a lead up to/elaborated on in the sequel - but it feels so out of place that I've actually lost all desire to read that sequel.
Oldtidssagaerne vol. 3.
So, the saga of Rolf Gøtreksson had a few too many "and then they went of to ask this girl to marry this guy, but she and/or family refused, so everybody fought and there was a wedding in the end" for my taste.
What I've recently watched
12. Retten indefra
For someone who has only seen the inside of the Danish Supreme Court on a guided tour on a culture night a few years ago and never a court in action, I found this documentary series quite interesting. Well, okay - I found the first couple of episodes interesting, after that it already started to get a bit repetitive. (I really should get a grip and apply to be a juror next time they open the lists.)
13. Legion season 1.
Okay, I'm sold. I mean - it's a mindfuck and a half - which is to be expected from a story that is halfway set inside the mind of an insane person (or is he?) But I like it. And oh, what do you know, season 2 is starting in a bit.
What I'm reading now
Just finished one, actually.
What I'm reading next
I'm thinking Kingdoms of Elfin by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Total number of books and comics read this year: 56
Apart from that - well, for purely personal reasons I am relieved that the strike/lockout was postponed a fortnight. I'm not convinced it's averted yet - Løhde talking all over the media as if the difference in pay offered by the employers and demanded by the unions were the biggest Gordian knot, when really it was 1.5 percent points, which is a pathetic difference to have negotiated so long over, really. They've still got the two huge principle matters to discuss, and I really do think we'll be getting a full-blown conflict before this is done. Honestly? I want it - not that I want the conflict, but if we don't take the fight now, I worry that this is just going to be how the union/employer negotiations are going to be in the public sector year after year.
In other news: I'll be going to see the Midt om natten musical tomorrow. *bounces*
What I've recently finished reading
Don Rosa: Hall of Fame vol. 2.
Don Rosa: Hall of Fame vol. 3.
Don Rosa: Hall of Fame vol. 4.
Don Rosa: Hall of Fame vol. 5.
Yes, I've been (mostly re-)reading Duck comics. I'd somehow forgotten how brilliant they are. I mean, I remembered, but - not really.
N.K. Jemisin: The Stone Sky
I was somewhat surprised to find that, while in many ways bittersweet, this trilogy has a mostly happy ending.
I found this book's pace considerably faster than the previous two - and, unlike them, which showed us the world as seen through the eyes of the present day characters, broken and hard, this gives us access to the past, to the whys and wherefores and secrets behind things. Almost too much for me, frankly. It's just that bit too neat, too much tell.
Still, I enjoyed following the stories of Nassun and her mother to their end.
Jeppe Facius & Anders-Peter Mathiasen: Fra Edderkoppen til Makrellen
Alas, reading this book left me underwhelmed as far as the excitement potential of 20th century organized crime in Denmark. And a little worried about corruption in the police, to be frank.
Charles Stross: The Delirium Brief
Well. That's was one of the most depressingly realistic versions of "what will happen when the rest of the world finds out about the supernatural" I've read so far.
I quite enjoyed this book. While it's been fun to see this world and its characters through other eyes for a couple of books, I was glad to be back with Bob Howard the by now extremely scary necromancer again. It's great that this book brings together so many of the surviving main characters, and while it's very much a cliffhanger, I liked the ending and I'm looking forward to the next book. Why is it so far away?
Jason Aaron: The Unworthy Thor
Anybody else think that Beta Ray Bill is the creepiest character in Marvel? Not his behaviour or personality or anything like that, just - his face looks like a horse skull. It's creepy.
Egon Clausen: Hvide pletter: kritik af statens udflytning
It's not that I don't mostly agree with the author, but it was fairly obvious that this book started life as a number of newspaper articles, or that's the impression the foreword gave me.
Elizabeth A. Lynn: Dragon's Winter
I ended up being incredibly annoyed with this book.
The main plot is fairly standard fantasy fare. Two brothers, one of them a sorcerer who turns evil and steals the other's birthright of being able to turn into a dragon, and then the second has to lead a group of warriors to stop his brother and save the land. There's some interesting world-building, mostly involving this world's animal shapeshifters, and I actually quite liked several characters, including the temperamental Dragon Lord Karadur and his lover Azil.
Sadly, the things I disliked about the book eventually outweighed the good stuff. Partly - for an epic fight against the ancient evil rising one more to threaten the land, it's downright tiny and anti-climactic in its scope. The bad guy barely has an army and the forces Karadur leads to defeat him number less than a 100 men. Then there's how the book keeps switching main character - not POV character, that's not what I mean. I mean - after the prologue we're left assuming that Karadur will be the main character, except then the first third of the book is spent focusing on the shapeshifter Wolf. After that, it settles down in more straightforward changing POV characters narration, but still. It annoyed me. Finally, the book is simply poorly plotted - the main plot is resolved 3/4 into the book, and we're left reading some sort of awkward extended epilogue, which I understand is a lead up to/elaborated on in the sequel - but it feels so out of place that I've actually lost all desire to read that sequel.
Oldtidssagaerne vol. 3.
So, the saga of Rolf Gøtreksson had a few too many "and then they went of to ask this girl to marry this guy, but she and/or family refused, so everybody fought and there was a wedding in the end" for my taste.
What I've recently watched
12. Retten indefra
For someone who has only seen the inside of the Danish Supreme Court on a guided tour on a culture night a few years ago and never a court in action, I found this documentary series quite interesting. Well, okay - I found the first couple of episodes interesting, after that it already started to get a bit repetitive. (I really should get a grip and apply to be a juror next time they open the lists.)
13. Legion season 1.
Okay, I'm sold. I mean - it's a mindfuck and a half - which is to be expected from a story that is halfway set inside the mind of an insane person (or is he?) But I like it. And oh, what do you know, season 2 is starting in a bit.
What I'm reading now
Just finished one, actually.
What I'm reading next
I'm thinking Kingdoms of Elfin by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Total number of books and comics read this year: 56