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In other news, I'm just wondering if anybody ever mentioned to the British parliament that they can't actually make any real decisions about Brexit, because whatever they vote or don't vote on, May will still have to go back to the EU, and the EU has already said they're done.
What I've recently finished reading
Ta Nehisi Coates: Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet vol. 2.
I can't really seem to like this series. It's pretty, yes, but - at the end of the day we're talking a storyline about an absolute monarch whose citizens are rebelling against him, wanting democracy, and the rebels are presented as deluded and wrong, because the monarch in question is the superhero of the series. And just - no.
Brian K. Vaughan: Saga vol. 9
Geoff Johns et al.: 52 vol. 3.
James Tiptree Jr.: Her Smoke Rose Up Forever
I quite enjoyed several of these short stories. I have to say - usually, science fiction feels like the most easily dated genre, as in, you can almost always make a fairly accurate guess when it comes to when it was written. Some of these stories - not all, some are very 70s, but some of them I wouldn't have been surprised to see in an anthology published now.
Frank Madsen & Sussi Bech: Dr. Lidegaard og Mr. Hyde
Seanan McGuire: Beneath the Sugar Sky
Kieron Gillen: The Wicked + the Divine: Mothering Invention
Ginn Hale: Champion of the Scarlet Wolf volume 2.
Marjorie Liu: Monstress: Haven
Malene Ravn: I dine øjne
This book is written well enough, but - it didn't feel like it has anything new to offer. The first part follows Lai Fun, magician who comes to Denmark from China for the 1902 China exhibit in Tivoli, meets a Danish girl and stays - which might have been interesting, except we already got that same narrative from Wung-Sung's novel about his great-grandparents, where he actually focused squarely on them and their story. This novel ain't half as detailed or evocative - instead, after a while that story turns out to have been an extended prologue, and we get to the story of the girl Lai Fun gets pregnant and the boy Erik, who grows up mixed-race and a bastard in a hard knock life in working class Aalborg in the first half of the 20th century - and you'd think that might be interesting, what with the mixed race bits and how WWII happens during those years, except. No. It's another re-telling of the stereotypical bullied and unhappy working class boy. You see certain parts of the story coming from miles away, and as for Erik being half Chinese? I dunno - the kid gets bullied, but all kids in this genre gets bullied, for one reason or another. I'm disappointed, because it is a well-written book.
Chapuzet & Corbeyran: Cognac 1.: La Part des Démons
Christopher Perkins: Curse of Strahd
What I've recently watched
3. Solo: a Star Wars story
Well. That was underwhelming.
4. Aquaman
Maybe not the best superhero movie out there, but the visuals are gorgeous and I adore Julie Andrews the giant lovecraftian sea monster. I'm also a little curious about the story of Arthur's father pre-movie - how did he end up a lighthouse keeper in Maine?
5. Pacific Rim: Uprising
Well, that was disappointing. The Kaiju don't work half as well in bright sunlight as they do in the dark and rain. The characters? Mostly dull. I had been spoiled for Newt the villain, but even that wasn't really used for much - nobody really getting worked up about it, not even Herman. And what happened to drift compatibility? When did it become - just something that some people have, no bond at all, no - anything? It felt so - empty.
What I'm reading now
Henrik Pontopiddan's Lykke-Per, which I really ought to finish soon, Kathryn Ormsbee's Tash Hearts Tolstoy, and Steen Langstrup's Frygt fabrik fælde vol. 2., which should never have been split into two books, there's no reason or space in the narrative, and it's not even that long.
Total number of books and comics read this year: 18
What I've recently finished reading
Ta Nehisi Coates: Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet vol. 2.
I can't really seem to like this series. It's pretty, yes, but - at the end of the day we're talking a storyline about an absolute monarch whose citizens are rebelling against him, wanting democracy, and the rebels are presented as deluded and wrong, because the monarch in question is the superhero of the series. And just - no.
Brian K. Vaughan: Saga vol. 9
Geoff Johns et al.: 52 vol. 3.
James Tiptree Jr.: Her Smoke Rose Up Forever
I quite enjoyed several of these short stories. I have to say - usually, science fiction feels like the most easily dated genre, as in, you can almost always make a fairly accurate guess when it comes to when it was written. Some of these stories - not all, some are very 70s, but some of them I wouldn't have been surprised to see in an anthology published now.
Frank Madsen & Sussi Bech: Dr. Lidegaard og Mr. Hyde
Seanan McGuire: Beneath the Sugar Sky
Kieron Gillen: The Wicked + the Divine: Mothering Invention
Ginn Hale: Champion of the Scarlet Wolf volume 2.
Marjorie Liu: Monstress: Haven
Malene Ravn: I dine øjne
This book is written well enough, but - it didn't feel like it has anything new to offer. The first part follows Lai Fun, magician who comes to Denmark from China for the 1902 China exhibit in Tivoli, meets a Danish girl and stays - which might have been interesting, except we already got that same narrative from Wung-Sung's novel about his great-grandparents, where he actually focused squarely on them and their story. This novel ain't half as detailed or evocative - instead, after a while that story turns out to have been an extended prologue, and we get to the story of the girl Lai Fun gets pregnant and the boy Erik, who grows up mixed-race and a bastard in a hard knock life in working class Aalborg in the first half of the 20th century - and you'd think that might be interesting, what with the mixed race bits and how WWII happens during those years, except. No. It's another re-telling of the stereotypical bullied and unhappy working class boy. You see certain parts of the story coming from miles away, and as for Erik being half Chinese? I dunno - the kid gets bullied, but all kids in this genre gets bullied, for one reason or another. I'm disappointed, because it is a well-written book.
Chapuzet & Corbeyran: Cognac 1.: La Part des Démons
Christopher Perkins: Curse of Strahd
What I've recently watched
3. Solo: a Star Wars story
Well. That was underwhelming.
4. Aquaman
Maybe not the best superhero movie out there, but the visuals are gorgeous and I adore Julie Andrews the giant lovecraftian sea monster. I'm also a little curious about the story of Arthur's father pre-movie - how did he end up a lighthouse keeper in Maine?
5. Pacific Rim: Uprising
Well, that was disappointing. The Kaiju don't work half as well in bright sunlight as they do in the dark and rain. The characters? Mostly dull. I had been spoiled for Newt the villain, but even that wasn't really used for much - nobody really getting worked up about it, not even Herman. And what happened to drift compatibility? When did it become - just something that some people have, no bond at all, no - anything? It felt so - empty.
What I'm reading now
Henrik Pontopiddan's Lykke-Per, which I really ought to finish soon, Kathryn Ormsbee's Tash Hearts Tolstoy, and Steen Langstrup's Frygt fabrik fælde vol. 2., which should never have been split into two books, there's no reason or space in the narrative, and it's not even that long.
Total number of books and comics read this year: 18