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Not even remotely close to wednesday, but what can you do?
Life goes on. I should start planning - I'll be going to the Netherlands with my Mom in a couple of weeks. That's going to be nice. Admittedly, it's a guided trip / river cruise, so I don't expect that much on our own time, but still - having read the guidebook, if/when we do get a couple of hours to ourselves will be good.
What I've recently finished reading
Mette Sejrbo: Vampyrens pagt
I was under the impression that this was the third in a trilogy, but I guess not.
Jean Dufaux: Complainte des landes perdues: Moriganes
Bo Bomuld Hamilton-Wittendorff: Det okkulte Danmark
Zidrou & Homs: Shi: Au commencement était la colère...
Meg-John Barker: Queer: a Graphic History
Jason Ciaramella: The Cape
A man discovers he can fly if he wears a play pretend cape from his childhood and proceeds to horribly murder everybody he feels ever hurt him. It's just - oh look, a sociopath. How boring and unpleasant.
Penélope Bagieu: Skamløs - rebelske kvinder der ændrede verden bind 1.
Marie-Louise Rønning: Tusmørkebørn
I mean, it's fun seeing vampires and witches running around in Hillerød, but - maybe if I hadn't read Sejrbo's novels. As is, this feels too similar - and yeah, a lot of that "similar" is genre conventions, but still. Also, the entire construction with angels and religion doesn't suit me, and the plotline where the witch heroine and her vampire/angel hybrid boyfriend have to claim their hereditary right to a council their respective parent / ancestor got elected to??? Does not compute.
Sussi Bech: Døden i Cairo
Aida Nur, a dancer in 1920s Egypt, gets in over her head after selling some antiques on behalf of a friend. I followed the mystery right up until the supposedly poisoned chocolates. Since, if the neighbour's dog eats chocolates and then dies, the chocolates being poisoned shouldn't be your first thought - but on the other hand, I don't know if that is Sussi Bech not knowing that, or if the next album will reveal that it was just chocolate and that people in 1920s Cairo didn't know that.
J.D. Robb: Conspiracy in death
Mike Mignola: The Pickens County Horror and others
Rasmus Wichmann: Enkemagerne
Fantasy or possibly science fiction set in Ancient times (we start during the time when Israel was in Egypt's land, and more than a millennium later), about the fight against the Widowmakers, horrible warrior monsters bent on conquest. Except - maybe it's because we get too many chapters following the monsters and their rulers, complete with palace intrigue, or maybe it's because, for all that they are supposed to be nearly invincible monster warriors, we keep following an intrepid band of not-quite-heroes who keep succesfully killing them, but they just feel underwhelming. It's all talk.
Nnedi Okorafor: Binti: Home
It's nice and colourful and evocative - but am I terrible if I feel that this series portrayal of humanity is one of the least diverse in a newer science fiction novel I've seen in ages. I mean, the humanity is different, but it still seems to be reduced to just - three peoples?
Marta Breen & Jenny Jordahl: Kvinder i kamp
Dennis Gade Kofod: Folkemøg
Aka the fantasy novel that had that one reviewer claiming it was redefining the fantasy genre bla bla bla.
It's not. It's - a fairly standard dystopia novel, except it uses fantasy trappings instead of the more usual science fiction. As far as fantasy goes? It annoys me. It uses plenty of tropes, even subverts them once or twice, but - the story is too thin. The Kingdom built on dead and suffering children? Yeah, we've all read Le Guin. Then there's the author's obsession with filth and bodily fluids, which - I suppose it's literary, but the only other place in fantasy I've encountered anything similar is in novels aimed at young boys. Those usually don't spend quite as many pages on very detailed sex scenes, mind you. Really, the whole book screams "literature", including the annoying changing font and format to script every time somebody speaks. It's decent enough dystopia about the surveillance society and the refugee crisis, but it's not going to be remembered in ten years, let alone redefine any genres.
Anne-Marie Vedsø Olesen: Dronningens dame
Alexandro Jodorowsky: Bouncer: Det fordømte guld
Alexandro Jodorowsky: Bouncer: Dragens rygrad
Raymond Khoury: Den sidste tempelridder: Koden
What I've recently watched
14. Captain Marvel
I really hope Endgame is going to end with Goose eating Thanos.
15. Detour
Tiny noir B-movie about a hapless man who accidentally kills a man and ends up blackmailed by a femme fatale. Or is he that hapless? Or am I just too big a fan of unreliable narrators?
16. The Umbrella Academy season 1.
This was fun. Not particularly original or groundbreaking, as far as superhero stories go, but fun.
17. American Horror Story: Cult
18. Den blomstertid nu kommer
Sweden is under attack - probably by Russia - in this movie. It's got some lovely visuals and some very excellent action scenes. The problem with it is that I disliked pretty much each and every character in it. It's hard to like a movie, when you can't stop cheering against the heroes, you know?
What I'm reading now
Åke Ohlmarks' Tolkien och den svarta magin, aka the book by the guy who was pretty nuts and a sour old man at that.
Total number of books and comics read this year: 65
Life goes on. I should start planning - I'll be going to the Netherlands with my Mom in a couple of weeks. That's going to be nice. Admittedly, it's a guided trip / river cruise, so I don't expect that much on our own time, but still - having read the guidebook, if/when we do get a couple of hours to ourselves will be good.
What I've recently finished reading
Mette Sejrbo: Vampyrens pagt
I was under the impression that this was the third in a trilogy, but I guess not.
Jean Dufaux: Complainte des landes perdues: Moriganes
Bo Bomuld Hamilton-Wittendorff: Det okkulte Danmark
Zidrou & Homs: Shi: Au commencement était la colère...
Meg-John Barker: Queer: a Graphic History
Jason Ciaramella: The Cape
A man discovers he can fly if he wears a play pretend cape from his childhood and proceeds to horribly murder everybody he feels ever hurt him. It's just - oh look, a sociopath. How boring and unpleasant.
Penélope Bagieu: Skamløs - rebelske kvinder der ændrede verden bind 1.
Marie-Louise Rønning: Tusmørkebørn
I mean, it's fun seeing vampires and witches running around in Hillerød, but - maybe if I hadn't read Sejrbo's novels. As is, this feels too similar - and yeah, a lot of that "similar" is genre conventions, but still. Also, the entire construction with angels and religion doesn't suit me, and the plotline where the witch heroine and her vampire/angel hybrid boyfriend have to claim their hereditary right to a council their respective parent / ancestor got elected to??? Does not compute.
Sussi Bech: Døden i Cairo
Aida Nur, a dancer in 1920s Egypt, gets in over her head after selling some antiques on behalf of a friend. I followed the mystery right up until the supposedly poisoned chocolates. Since, if the neighbour's dog eats chocolates and then dies, the chocolates being poisoned shouldn't be your first thought - but on the other hand, I don't know if that is Sussi Bech not knowing that, or if the next album will reveal that it was just chocolate and that people in 1920s Cairo didn't know that.
J.D. Robb: Conspiracy in death
Mike Mignola: The Pickens County Horror and others
Rasmus Wichmann: Enkemagerne
Fantasy or possibly science fiction set in Ancient times (we start during the time when Israel was in Egypt's land, and more than a millennium later), about the fight against the Widowmakers, horrible warrior monsters bent on conquest. Except - maybe it's because we get too many chapters following the monsters and their rulers, complete with palace intrigue, or maybe it's because, for all that they are supposed to be nearly invincible monster warriors, we keep following an intrepid band of not-quite-heroes who keep succesfully killing them, but they just feel underwhelming. It's all talk.
Nnedi Okorafor: Binti: Home
It's nice and colourful and evocative - but am I terrible if I feel that this series portrayal of humanity is one of the least diverse in a newer science fiction novel I've seen in ages. I mean, the humanity is different, but it still seems to be reduced to just - three peoples?
Marta Breen & Jenny Jordahl: Kvinder i kamp
Dennis Gade Kofod: Folkemøg
Aka the fantasy novel that had that one reviewer claiming it was redefining the fantasy genre bla bla bla.
It's not. It's - a fairly standard dystopia novel, except it uses fantasy trappings instead of the more usual science fiction. As far as fantasy goes? It annoys me. It uses plenty of tropes, even subverts them once or twice, but - the story is too thin. The Kingdom built on dead and suffering children? Yeah, we've all read Le Guin. Then there's the author's obsession with filth and bodily fluids, which - I suppose it's literary, but the only other place in fantasy I've encountered anything similar is in novels aimed at young boys. Those usually don't spend quite as many pages on very detailed sex scenes, mind you. Really, the whole book screams "literature", including the annoying changing font and format to script every time somebody speaks. It's decent enough dystopia about the surveillance society and the refugee crisis, but it's not going to be remembered in ten years, let alone redefine any genres.
Anne-Marie Vedsø Olesen: Dronningens dame
Alexandro Jodorowsky: Bouncer: Det fordømte guld
Alexandro Jodorowsky: Bouncer: Dragens rygrad
Raymond Khoury: Den sidste tempelridder: Koden
What I've recently watched
14. Captain Marvel
I really hope Endgame is going to end with Goose eating Thanos.
15. Detour
Tiny noir B-movie about a hapless man who accidentally kills a man and ends up blackmailed by a femme fatale. Or is he that hapless? Or am I just too big a fan of unreliable narrators?
16. The Umbrella Academy season 1.
This was fun. Not particularly original or groundbreaking, as far as superhero stories go, but fun.
17. American Horror Story: Cult
18. Den blomstertid nu kommer
Sweden is under attack - probably by Russia - in this movie. It's got some lovely visuals and some very excellent action scenes. The problem with it is that I disliked pretty much each and every character in it. It's hard to like a movie, when you can't stop cheering against the heroes, you know?
What I'm reading now
Åke Ohlmarks' Tolkien och den svarta magin, aka the book by the guy who was pretty nuts and a sour old man at that.
Total number of books and comics read this year: 65
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Do let me know if it's entertaining!
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Of course, all of this is irrelevant, as the book has also taught me that people with political views left of the middle - Marxists, communists, etc. - absolutely do not like Tolkien's work. Only child-minded young people from the learned classes (who are never left wing?) will read the books, have their brains rotted by it and end up having satanic orgies while playing dress-up. Or something.
The man was supposedly an academic. Supposedly. This book leaves me very unconvinced.
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Amusing that he thinks left-wing people don't enjoy Tolkien, though. Hee.