Archive for fantasy

a journal of the chaos, conquest, war, [not] famine, and death year

Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Running, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 17, 2024 by xi'an

Read Le Tournoi des Preux, by Jean-Philippe Jaworski (author of the fantastic and fantasist Gagner la Guerre), a medieval fantasy in the same universe than Gagner la Guerre), but more intricate and with more magics. I had not realised the book was part of a tryptic, with close to 2000 pages total, so I am unsure I will undertake the remaining reading marathon! Despite an enticing scenario, great characters, the same fascinating universe, and a more than decent writing style. which I hadn’t realised was only the first tome of a series. As for the fabulous Gagner la Guerre, which I read during the first COVID lockdown, I appreciated very much the flowing style, the complex characters, and the compelling scenario, set in a pseudo-medieval society with magical aspects (at the right dose). If I remember correctly, the author started working on role-playing games, before embarking on writing books, which explains for his great story telling skills. But also the propensity to long and branching novels, with two more volumes to go! (I do not think any of his books have been translated into English.)

Made [a while ago!]  half a dozen blueberry jam jars, along a blueberry pie, as a stall at the local market was getting rid of crates of them (with a 20% damaged percentage, but at 1/8th of the initial price!). And [again a while ago] a few litres of guacamole to freeze, as the same stall (but another weekend) offered crates of avocados at 1/6th of the standard price).

Watched some episodes of Military Prosecutor Doberman: another Korean series on the hardships of military service in Korea, with little realism if any, a strong lack of ethics, repeated violence and sadism,  hence not worth pursuing, just as I got very quickly tired of The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More (Roald Dahl’s stories), which carries the same absurd humour as the original, but is somewhat too pretentious for my taste.

road to freedom is out!

Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , , , on August 15, 2024 by xi'an

Rome’ing around (& around &…)

Posted in Books, pictures, Statistics, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 5, 2024 by xi'an

My trip back to Paris from the 4th Italian Meeting in Probability and Mathematical Statistics was somewhat horrendous, with a much delayed Transavia flight, due to technical issues in Orly that set us back more than two hours. That I could have spent at the conference or strolling through Rome…

Instead, I waited at Fiumicino, indulging into a cannolo (dinner) that was reasonable for airport standards. Then, as the repaired Boeing plane had just left the gate in Fiumicino, the staff informed us a passenger has had a vasovagal syncope and needed be evacuated, which proved relatively efficient, but nonetheless setting us back another two hours and cheery on the cake!, forcing the plane into rerouting to De Gaulle airport as Orly airport closes earlier at night for being in a denser urban area (and much closer to home as well).


When we arrived after midnight, there was of course no train home running and as usual very few taxis or Ubers around. I eventually got into one that had trouble managing the overnight road closures that plague Paris prior to the Olympics and ended up reaching home by 2am…. Resulting in an overall trip duration of 11 hours, longer than flying to Seattle or Réunion Island!

While this long trip allowed to finish in one go The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik, and hence the Scholomance trilogy, which was definitely below par when compared with the previous novels, maybe because it was taking place out of the boarding school, and hence barely sufficiently engrossing to cut the airport noise and visual pollution at bay (but with the side effet of me believing I had lost my wallet for a few minutes), I was still tired enough the following day to fail to finish a local evening 10k, dropping out after 5k (and 19’26”, which was a great time but impossible to sustain for another 5k…) The Athletics Championships were definitely and already far away!

a journal of the conquest, war, famine, death, and chaos year

Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Running, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 28, 2024 by xi'an

Read (in French) L’Anomalie (2020 Prix Goncourt) with difficulties as the time travel paradox behind the story is extremely shallow and uninteresting, with caricatures of mathematicians and of about any other category in guise of characters. Lazy writing at its worst, floors below a standard Paasilinna. On a whim, decided to read Le Grand Meaulnes (in French) which I had not fully read as a teenager, but was remembering as a “classic” I should have read. Ended up being highly disappointed by the book, except for its literary style and the insights on the daily life of in the French countryside before World War I (during whose first days the author, Alain Fournier, was killed in action). Indeed, the setting is puzzlingly fantastic, with the highlight of a costumed and doomed wedding in a remote castle that Meaulnes stumble upon, but with no clear intention and on such a scale as to be completely implausible for a small rural community, plus other glaring inconsistencies like getting lost in one’s own vicinity and reuniting some characters at the end against all odds and logic. Maybe I should have read it as a teenager! I am still bemused it was ranked in the top 101 French favourite novel list… unless readers share the same phantom memory as I of the book being a “must-read”, rather than of the book itself. As a side story, the edition I read dates from 1967 (number 1000 in Livre de Poche!) and looks its age, presumably one of the few books we had at home, courtesy of a family member with duplicates in her library, just like my version of David Copperfield. printed in 1965.

Cooked more of the seasonal vegetables, had oysters with no consequence (despite the current contamination scare on Atlantic and Channel fields, due to heavy rains saturating the nearby sewage systems), and celebrated our son’s 30th birthday (!) in a nice, friendly, and tiny 8ième restaurant with enough Italian roots they did not blink when I asked for an (off-menu) affogato! Which they made with a miso ice cream, surprisingly well-suited to the espresso. The dishes were all pleasantly surprising, with one of the best sweetbread preparation I have ever eaten. Great meal before a (rather arctic!) stroll to the Musée Guimet.

Watched The Night Agent delivering a moderately convincing conspiracy hunt at the core of the US government with improbable escapes and unlikely hunches and obvious red herrings, but an interesting couple of evil killers. Watchable on a lazy, wet weekend, maybe. Also had a go at Leave the World Behind poor and shallow, adapted from a 2020 bestseller with the same title by Rumaan Alam, heavy going, poor characters, poor actors, unbearable music. Only positive point for being included here, its connection with the (horsemen of the) Apocalypse.

Hugo[red] Awards 2023

Posted in Books, Kids, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on February 23, 2024 by xi'an

Here are the 2023 awards [connected to my read & to-read lists]. As the votes were made by participants to the 2023 Chengdu Worldcon, Chengdu, China, censorship later came to light, regarding authors critical of the Chinese government, like Kuang, Zhao, and Gaiman, who did not make it to the shortlist…

Best Novel

Best Novella

Best Series

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form