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I will post this post and then I'll go hope that the entire train strike thing tomorrow is going to turn out to be an elaborate April's Fool.
What I've recently finished reading
Åke Ohlmarks: Tolkien och den svarta magin
So. This is a book dating back to the general 80s media hysteria about all things rpgs, fantasy, etc. Specifically, this book is about the dawning Swedish Tolkien fandom, with the twist that the author was actually the man who translated LotR into Swedish the first time. Apparently quite badly, which started an entire feud between him and Tolkien himself and his estate. As happens.
The book is somewhat disjointedly written, but can roughly be divided in two halves. First are some chapters dedicated to explaining that Tolkien fandom is a) a ruthless money making machine on behalf of the Tolkien estate and b) evil human sacrificing, orgy-loving Satanists. The latter he seems to mostly have decided due to a brief notice in the official Tolkien Society newsletter around this time, involving - well, according to Ohlmarks, the case of a boy (reading the chapter dedicated to it, you end up assuming it's a small child - at one point he's referred to as "the little one") who was kidnapped by Satanist LARPers, abused and tortured, and then he later committed suicide. Taking five minutes to google, you'll be able to conclude two things: Ohlmarks sucked royally at research, and the case in question was the story of James Dallas Egbert III, a college student who was never kidnapped by anyone. Considering that Ohlmarks clearly thinks this was a small child, the entire chapter comes across as downright sleazy, especially the bits where he fantasizes in writing about oh, maybe he was tortured this way, and oh, maybe he was raped as well...
The second half of the book tells of Ohlmarks own encounters with the young Swedish Tolkien fandom, which - seems to have been a terrible fit for him. The old and arrogant academic who clearly demands respect and admiration from all and sundry (and is married to a woman half his age, who he refers to like she was a child most of the time), meeting a fandom that was - well. How dare they question his obviously amazing and flawless translation?! How dare they in general care so much about these obviously childish books?! How dare they amuse themselves by dressing up as ents and hobbits?! Obviously a sign of bad parenting! And then the last couple of chapters devolve into a personal attack against a specific person and his quest to get someone to pay for damages for an accidental fire.
Honestly? If you like 80s media panics, this is an interesting read, but man, somebody should have stopped the guy from publishing this. It might have been therapeutic to write, but honestly...
Hans Scherfig: Den forsvundne fuldmægtig
Ahmed Akkari: Mod til at tvivle
Kendra R. Parker: Black female vampires in African American women's novels, 1977-2011
*adds Gomez's "The Gilda Stories" to my TBR list*
Mike Mignola: Abe Sapien: Sacred Places
Sussi Bech: Aida Nur: I Anubis' skygge
Pernille L. Stenby: Inkarnation
I found this book a very frustrating read, and at the same time, I think it's one of the better and more original Danish fantasy novels I've come across. The setting is a school of magic in a fantasy universe of about our own tech level (at least they've got internet), and the plot starts when the main character and narrator wakes up in the school morgue. Said main character is - utterly confused. They don't know where they are, their name, their gender, how to eat - let alone how they managed to wake up in a previously dead body. Are they a spirit summoned to inhabit the corpse, or the person who were possibly horribly murdered?
The frustrating part - which I actually like - is that the author sticks to a first person pov, meaning that come the end of the book I was left with so many questions about the universe. Most fantasy novels, there'll either be things around the narrative (maps, word lists, etc.) that gives you hints about the setting, or at some point there'll be an info dump to get you up to speed. Not this one. Oh, a few questions get answered, and some deductions can be made, but mostly - I'll be looking forward to the next novel, because there are so many things that I want to see how works. Some of the things we are sound horribly dystopic, and yet most of the characters seem like this is business as usual.
What I was less enthusiastic about was how the main character barely has time to figure out how eating works before being thrust into a teenage sexuality love drama mess plotline with their new friend. I mean, the whole book happens in one day, so that part feels - rushed and slightly squicky, as it came across to me that the new friend projected a hell of lot onto the protagonist.
What I'm reading now
The Darker Side of Slash Fan Fiction.
Total number of books and comics read this year: 72
What I've recently finished reading
Åke Ohlmarks: Tolkien och den svarta magin
So. This is a book dating back to the general 80s media hysteria about all things rpgs, fantasy, etc. Specifically, this book is about the dawning Swedish Tolkien fandom, with the twist that the author was actually the man who translated LotR into Swedish the first time. Apparently quite badly, which started an entire feud between him and Tolkien himself and his estate. As happens.
The book is somewhat disjointedly written, but can roughly be divided in two halves. First are some chapters dedicated to explaining that Tolkien fandom is a) a ruthless money making machine on behalf of the Tolkien estate and b) evil human sacrificing, orgy-loving Satanists. The latter he seems to mostly have decided due to a brief notice in the official Tolkien Society newsletter around this time, involving - well, according to Ohlmarks, the case of a boy (reading the chapter dedicated to it, you end up assuming it's a small child - at one point he's referred to as "the little one") who was kidnapped by Satanist LARPers, abused and tortured, and then he later committed suicide. Taking five minutes to google, you'll be able to conclude two things: Ohlmarks sucked royally at research, and the case in question was the story of James Dallas Egbert III, a college student who was never kidnapped by anyone. Considering that Ohlmarks clearly thinks this was a small child, the entire chapter comes across as downright sleazy, especially the bits where he fantasizes in writing about oh, maybe he was tortured this way, and oh, maybe he was raped as well...
The second half of the book tells of Ohlmarks own encounters with the young Swedish Tolkien fandom, which - seems to have been a terrible fit for him. The old and arrogant academic who clearly demands respect and admiration from all and sundry (and is married to a woman half his age, who he refers to like she was a child most of the time), meeting a fandom that was - well. How dare they question his obviously amazing and flawless translation?! How dare they in general care so much about these obviously childish books?! How dare they amuse themselves by dressing up as ents and hobbits?! Obviously a sign of bad parenting! And then the last couple of chapters devolve into a personal attack against a specific person and his quest to get someone to pay for damages for an accidental fire.
Honestly? If you like 80s media panics, this is an interesting read, but man, somebody should have stopped the guy from publishing this. It might have been therapeutic to write, but honestly...
Hans Scherfig: Den forsvundne fuldmægtig
Ahmed Akkari: Mod til at tvivle
Kendra R. Parker: Black female vampires in African American women's novels, 1977-2011
*adds Gomez's "The Gilda Stories" to my TBR list*
Mike Mignola: Abe Sapien: Sacred Places
Sussi Bech: Aida Nur: I Anubis' skygge
Pernille L. Stenby: Inkarnation
I found this book a very frustrating read, and at the same time, I think it's one of the better and more original Danish fantasy novels I've come across. The setting is a school of magic in a fantasy universe of about our own tech level (at least they've got internet), and the plot starts when the main character and narrator wakes up in the school morgue. Said main character is - utterly confused. They don't know where they are, their name, their gender, how to eat - let alone how they managed to wake up in a previously dead body. Are they a spirit summoned to inhabit the corpse, or the person who were possibly horribly murdered?
The frustrating part - which I actually like - is that the author sticks to a first person pov, meaning that come the end of the book I was left with so many questions about the universe. Most fantasy novels, there'll either be things around the narrative (maps, word lists, etc.) that gives you hints about the setting, or at some point there'll be an info dump to get you up to speed. Not this one. Oh, a few questions get answered, and some deductions can be made, but mostly - I'll be looking forward to the next novel, because there are so many things that I want to see how works. Some of the things we are sound horribly dystopic, and yet most of the characters seem like this is business as usual.
What I was less enthusiastic about was how the main character barely has time to figure out how eating works before being thrust into a teenage sexuality love drama mess plotline with their new friend. I mean, the whole book happens in one day, so that part feels - rushed and slightly squicky, as it came across to me that the new friend projected a hell of lot onto the protagonist.
What I'm reading now
The Darker Side of Slash Fan Fiction.
Total number of books and comics read this year: 72