Superman vs Witcher

YOU SAID WHAT ABOUT MY BOY GERALT??!

Well. Honestly. I don't hate it. Please Netflix, don't fuck this up.

The Hutt Recommends: The Name of the Wind

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.

First of The Kingkiller Chronicles.

   The road of life has been long, winding and most arduous for Kvothe – adventurer, famous musician, arcanist and living legend - now living out his life quietly and as anonymously as possible as an innkeeper in a rural town. He's been across the world and seen many things, been hunted by demons, studied the arts of magic and swordsmanship, spent time with the fae and is even rumoured to have killed a king...

So when Chronicler is attacked by demons on the road and Kvothe saves him (which also leads to Chronicler realising just who his saviour is) he offers to put Kvothe's story on record as thanks. After some consideration, Kvothe agrees and with that our story begins.

   I really enjoyed this novel. It's a story within a story within a story, because while we're listening to a life as told by the old Kvothe, young Kvothe is chasing a completely different story - the layering is excellent. Sure, we might have heard the story before; brilliant young man becomes hero, but it's still a welcomed story and Rothfuss actually does something quite new and exciting with it despite the predictability that experienced fantasy readers might feel. It leaves you wanting for the next part of the story.

My big weakness nowadays, especially with fantasy and scifi fiction, is finding the major female characters and analyzing them to bits. In this case we have in our main girl a variation of Sexy Lamp with Manic Pixie Dream Girl syndrome. Lets be frank; I hated her. The story could have gone on without her and been better off for it. I know Kvothe would be better off without her, that's for sure.

   The novel's on the heavier side with 700+ pages so if you're not in to  that you can download it and instead listen to 40+ hours of Kvothe's adventures. In either case, I recommend it.

   With the immense success of Game of Thrones I'm very surprised that the rumours from several years ago that Kingkiller Chronicles were going to be adapted into a tv series haven't given results yet. I guess we'll just have to give them a few more years...

...just like we seem to have to give Rothfuss a few more years for the continuation of the Kingkiller Chronicles.

Djinni

I must have started reading the Bartimaeus trilogy around the age of seventeen. I was in the middle of my moody hormonal teenage years and fled to the fantasy genre for comfort. And found Bartimaeus. Equal parts sarcasm and vindictiveness*, Bartimaeus really spoke to me**. So much so I have all four books written*** about this little djinn****. They are described as children's books but I still think they have elements even adults can enjoy*****.

Obviously, I had to grab the opportunity to meet Jonathan Stroud as he visited Gothenburg last week and so I did. Such a wonderful man.

*both Bartimaeus and I

**well, not me personally

***Amulet of Samarkand, Golem's Eye, Ptolemy's Gate, Ring of Solomon

****Bartimaeus wouldn't agree on the "little"
*****and bring your enjoyment of footnotes to a whole new level

The Hutt recommends: Chicks Dig Comics

THIS.

"Chicks Dig Comics - a Celebration of Comic Books by the Women Who Love Them"
edited by Lynne M.Thomas, Sigrid Ellis

In these times of GamerGate, the Fake Geek Girl meme, and everything else the male dominated nerd community can come up with to scare women out of even trying to get into comic books and other nerdiness, this was a rather uplifting read. A group of nerdy women that really MADE IT in the comic book and graphic novel business share their stories of growing up to become nerds. Their stories point in the direction that becoming a nerd seem to be getting easier but diversity and representation remain a HUGE issue within the comic book world, or rather, the lack of it is rather distressing. Representation is one of the issues often mentioned throughout the book and the comic books the writers grew up with are problematised and brought forth as something that used to be but need to change apace with the changing audience.

A good read.

On a related subject - look what I've got in the mail! Look at the pretty! It's available for free online but I really want to support this artist on so many levels. The art is breathtaking, the characters lovable. and the story is altogether engaging.

"Sunstone" by Stjepan Sejic

What I've just finished:

Or rather:

Slightly upset.

"The Blade Itself" by Joe Abercrombie

HOLY COW BATMAN. A grand collection of highly interesting characters but none of them female (two women in total through the book given any sort of attention, one could have been substituted by a lamp and the other... well, she's not been along for long enough yet to make much of a mark) but aside from that a very good story. Had me glued to the pages. I'll get back to you when I've finished the whole trilogy as The Blade Itself is only the first part.

Problem

I still find it strange that some people find it to be "unrealistic" to have people who aren't white and/or straight in works of the fantasy and sci-fi genre while dragons, trolls, aliens and talking snowmen are just fine.

10 years of being a legend

R.I.P. Douglas Noel Adams

Now ten years passed from us, a legend then as he is still. A decade since he was ripped away from us but always a frood who knew where his towel was. In our hearts, in our minds. We love you.

Don't Panic.

Kirk vs. Tanis

I'm reading the Dragonlance trilogy as I'm writing (it's an audiobook, very convenient) and have reached the third book by now. At first I had great difficulties to accept one of the heroes of the series since he was just... such a Marty Stu. I'm talking about the unstoppable red-haired Tanis Half-Elven. With time, I've begun to feel a certain appreciation toward Tanis but it took some time (quite the reverse from how I felt about Tasslehoff Burrfoot whom I liked from sentence one). Now I sort of know why.
Tanis is based on James Tiberius Kirk. From Wikipedia: "In the beginning, Margaret Weis had problems depicting Tanis Half-Elven in the novels. Tracy Hickman finally told her "He's James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise." After that explanation, Margaret had no more troubles while writing about Tanis."
My issues with Captain Kirk are insoluble I'm afraid.

Random vardagsinlägg...

...för att det slutat vara snöstorm, solen skiner, jag är ledig hela helgen, jag äger just nu 32 par skor, det är två veckor till Sci-Fi-mässan i Gbg och vi är redan halvvägs till Medeltidsveckan.
Dessutom har jag redan suttit en stund i mitt kalla lilla sy-rum idag och börjat sy om en lång väst jag har liggande. Det är en julklapp som jag aldrig använt så nu efter två år så syr jag om den för att den ska passa. Till något.
Promenaden på en timme med hundarna (och Paolini's bok Brisingr i öronen) var också välbehövd (även om boken är rätt dryg och förklarar varför fantasyn ofta räknas till ungdomslitteraturen).
Jag ignorerar min förkylning med oväntat effektivitet och det faktum att jag verkligen behöver tvätta, färga och klippa (möjligen raka av helt och hållet) håret. Pronto. Jomenvisst, för det kommer ju att hända.
Å andra sidan har jag kommit igång med min födelsedagspresent till en viss Fröken Fisk och fortsätter lyssna på Magician's Gambit av Eddings medan jag försöker varva Torchlight.
Busy, busy, busy.
(Lägg dock märke till att inget av ovannämnda har med c-uppsatsen att göra. Den har jag inte tid med mellan de stunder då jag gör mitt bästa att glömma den.)

Tillägg:

Drömde om gamla klasskamrater från högstadiet idag på morgonen. Det var både roligt och dåligt - roligt för att vi var samlade för att äta en enorm buffé (mat är alltid bra, buffé ännu bättre) och dåligt för att högstadietiden knappast var en tid man saknar nu (då envisades jag med att vara blond och försöka passa in trots att det aldrig fungerade men man lär sig med tiden).

The Hutt recommends: the Witcher

Andrzej Sapkowski - The Last Wish.
It's the first of the novels about the witcher Geralt of Rivia. Years ago I watched the Polish tv series Wiedzmin (that's Polish for "witcher", and the film is just a cut version of the series, no joke) and have admired the RPG computer game since it came out in 2007 (oh well, mostly the booklet and the special edition artbook that came with the game a friend of mine bought, and this year The Witcher 2 is out in stores - whoopie!) so I figured that I should complete the circle and read the books that all of it is based on. I have. I'm not disappointed. Far from in fact. If I'm in the situation where I have to choose between one of the three (now four, but forget that for a moment) I'd choose the books. Why? Mainly because there's was a lack of funding with the series/film(seen from Western standards of course) and with the game I'd actually have to do something to make the story move forward. I'm lazy and Sapkowski makes fairytales so much fun. Snow White suddenly turned into a vicious mercenary out for blood and the Genie in that bottle... isn't as well-behaved as you remembered him to be in the Disney film.


What still sort of strikes me as odd is how I when I watch game trailers see this strange similarity between Geralt and a certain bitter (yet extremely handsome) elf prince (I'm talking about Nuada from Hellboy II here).
It's worth at least a thought.

Boooooks!

Like I’ve claimed before; nerd will be nerd and to prove it I’ve read a few novels in the last two weeks that mainstream Swedes (and other) might not quite fight to get a hold of...

Bareback, by Kit Whitfield
To be what’s to us a normal human being (you know, bipedal humanoid originating from Earth), a creature in this novel rudely called a “bareback” or “skin”, is in fact being abnormal. Turning into a creature with fur and sharp fangs every full moon, a werewolf, now THAT’S normal; at least, it is in Kit Whitfield’s world of lycanthropes and it is under these circumstances that we find our noir thriller where barebacks, all employed by the underdog (sorry) agency called DORLA, cleans up the mess during and after moon nights.
I really enjoyed the originality of the story and the first 75% of the book when it still had a clear purpose, a purpose that was slowly yet undoubtedly lost somewhere along the way. People who’ve read Michael Collins would probably agree with me when I say what I say about the stumbling plot, but all in all it’s an awesomely good idea poorly executed.

The Bartimaeus Trilogy, by Jonathan Stroud.
OK, I know it’s three books but they’re quite childishly funny in that awful giggly sort of way, so I went through them a second time around.
Imagine a world where magic exists, not like Harry Potter, mind you, but rather, a world where an aristocracy is so much more powerful than the commoners (the non-magical crowd) because they're trained to become magicians and therefore able to summon demons to do their bidding, wicked as it might be. London and the rest of the great British Empire are governed by magicians (just like Old Egypt, Babylonia and Prague once was), presently under the rule of Prime Minister Rupert Devereux and his ministers. It’s from this basis we follow Nathaniel, in the beginning a young boy and magician-to-be, who on his journey to seek justice meets demons of every kind, ambition, cruelty, crime, resistance, power-crazy lunatics and unexpected friendships.
It’s a well thought through plot with plenty of characters you can’t sort in the normal stereotypical fantasy categories; “The Hero”, “The Bad Guy”, “The Minions”, "The Love Interest" and so on. Everyone in Stroud’s books has at least two sides – there is no black or white. It’s all a lovely shade of grey ambiguity.
The absolute highlight of the novels is the djinni Bartimaeus as he comes up with new inventive ways to insult humanity and magicians especially.

I highly recommend the audio version read sy Simon Jones. Easy on the ears and easy to follow.

Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, by Seth Grahame-Smith (and Jane Austen)
Basically, it’s precisely what Pride & Prejudice would have been if zombies existed. Instead of embroidering, our heroin Elizabeth Bennett now enjoys cutting the heads off the so called ”unmentionables” roaming the whole country with her katana. If you like the original novel, like I do, you’ll be able to appreciate this as well. If you like zombies, say, like I do, you’ll like it as well. If you’ve read Pride & Prejudice just to find it a bit tedious, look at this as a parody and just laugh at the pure absurdity.

More corn!

What's the use of having a camera if you don't use it? I think today would have been kind of memorable...

...because I picked sweetcorn. No, I didn't get lost though the corn stood high above my head but one of my nephews might have gone missing if he didn't always shout and shriek like a small alarm clock gone mental all the time (considering murder has never been so easy...).
Moo-Pa was disturbingly excited about the whole thing. I think he's planning something.

The sixth season of Supernatural started airing yesterday and both House M.D. and Castle (our own Capt. Tighty-Pants aka Nathan Fillion is back!) are airing again. Hurray!

Don't we all love tv?

I would also like to remind everyone that (finally) The Lord of the Rings trilogy is now out on Blu-Ray, so go out there and make a hobbit happy! Buy it!

Wut?!

Jag har precis insett att Chuck Bartowski i andra säsongen av Chuck förmodligen, trots mina våldsamma protester, är min drömkarl (om jag nu var tvungen att ha EN). Om det inte var så att han var en påhittad karaktär i en tv-serie alltså.



Och nej, jag kommer inte att skriva särskilt ofta i sommar. Jag kanske kommer att skriva om jag har en stark åsikt jag behöver uttrycka. Jag har dem ibland.
Eller om jag är arg/förbannad/överlycklig/läser en bok/whatever.
Håll koll.

LotS

Ja, jag VET att tv-serien The Legend of the Seeker är INSPIRERAD utav bokserien The Sword of Truth av Terry Goodkind. Jag understryker ännu en gång att den är INSPIRERAD utav den, den är alltså inte som det påstås utav produktionsbolaget (vilket är Disney och ABC kan jag påpeka) BASERAD på bokserien, vilket är ren och skär lögn om man ser till handling, detaljer, karaktärer osv etc. Detta vet jag eftersom jag fick det påpekat för mig av någon som faktiskt läst böckerna (vilket jag inte gjort).
Att man måste se skillnad på och hålla isär de båda begreppen är självklart och i den tid vi lever i är det viktigaste oftast inte att hålla sig till storyn utan att ge människor, och speciellt då fans, något spännande i en förpackning de känner igen - karaktärsnamn, platser och dylikt - alltså inte att vara korrekt.
Se bara till alla de löjliga serier och filmer gjorda av Robin Hood av Howard Pyle, Harry Potter av J.K. Rowling, Sherlock Holmes av Sir Arthur Conan Doyle och vad Disney har gjort med The Little Mermaid, The Beauty and the Beast, Pinocchio och även då just Robin Hood och Sherlock Holmes.
Även spelvärlden har känt av den här trenden, speciellt Blizzard som har baserat en hel uppsjö av böcker på sina spel Diablo och Warcraft. Diablo-böckerna som Richard A. Knaak har skrivit är dessutom ruskigt bra.

Men det är ett rent nöje att se Craig Horner utan tröja.

Ahem

...and as inevitable as the fucking tide, The Legend of the Seeker is recorded in New Zealand like all other fantasy related series and films are these days.
Det är Craig Parker som spelar ondingen i serien ifråga - det är alven Haldir från the Lord of the Rings för den som undrar (jävligt otippat måste jag erkänna) - och lille Craig Horner - som var med i Blue Water High innan - har äntligen vuxit upp och skaffat skägg!
Ursäkta, men jag håller på att skratta ihjäl mig här borta (jag börjar hosta tills jag inte har luft när jag skrattar och jag har redan hostat bort den lilla röst jag hade kvar i morses så jag är väl stum imorgon).
Men om man ser serien över det stora hela är jag grymt imponerad. Kostym, manus, rekvisita och skådespelare. Hot damn.

GLAD PÅSK.