Archive for shipwreck

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

Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Running, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 11, 2023 by xi'an

Read the (paper version of) L’art du naufrage by Pascale Quiviger. Very light and rather YA, but still with enough creativity and originality to be enjoyable. Which made me read the second volume as well, Les filles de Mai, which proved an improvement in the scenario and its tension, even though the island-universe is most unrealistic. Nice covers of the Folio edition as well. Two more volumes to appear (and already written). And (again a paper version of) The House of Shattered Wings a relatively old book by Aliette de Bodard. A British Science Fiction Association Award and for once (!) a rather impressive horror story taking place in an alternative 1900’s Paris partly destroyed by a war between magical Houses run by fallen angels. With connections with French occupied Annam. The construct is quite original, with some great characters, if over-prone to introspection. Some components of the scenario remain obscure till the end, though, maybe due to my rushed read. Currently reading the next volume…

Finished harvesting an amazing year of figs, turned mostly into compotes even though I tried a fig pie that did not held well enough to carry. Had an epiphany after purchasing new running shoes with a carbon plate. As I noticed a significant impact on my lap times when training. I hope the impact will last till the next half-marathon! However I fear the lack of flat roads near Fort-de-France will definitely not help with the training..!

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

Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Running, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 21, 2023 by xi'an

Read Jen Williams’ The Winnowing Flame trilogy, induced by two British Fantasy Awards associated with the first two volumes. This is quite a disappointing series, the more one goes through the story. At the start, while I found the story rather simplistic in its world building and in repeating the all-too-common pattern of a very few individuals saving the planet from a recurrent alien invasion (and even more the blob nature of said aliens!, as I am adverse to blob scenari, ever since as a teenager I wrote a terrible short story on a blob invasion!!), I appreciated the character of Vintage (!), both vigneronne and femme savante. A most unusual combination in fantasy books. However, I disliked the mix of fantasy (multiple kingdoms, swords, dragons, and a mostly primitive society) and science-fiction (spaceships, magic-driven trains). The cliffhanging final chapter of each of the volumes was rather heavily predictable and the inconsistency in the characters’ psychology a major flaw, including interminable back-and-forth between their respective feelings. And a poor ending to the trilogy due to the ever changing nature of the invasive creature(s) that survives all attempts at destruction until it doesn’t. Plus laughable mundane parts worrying about clothes and picnics while the entire world is under existential threat.

Had consecutively whitlow and singles, which gave me the opportunity to seek the English version of those viral infections. The former was possibly caused by gardening barefoot and quickly got away, while the later was a bit of a mystery, since it is not contagious (even though I cannot but relate to the fact my mother got it two weeks earlier). It got circumscribed to one eyebrow, but a general itching along the cranial nerves that has not yet vanished. Fortunately, it did not impact my running times!!

Watched Glitch, a Korean sci-fiction series, so absurd it is hilarious. Painfully slow as usual, but with a surprising ending. And the second season of The Wheel of Times, loosely following the second volume, The Great Hunt, still burdened with a kitch rendering of the WoT universe, predictable twists, caricaturesque characters (Liandrin!, Matt!) and too much inner questioning.

Hitch’s tricks

Posted in Books, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 27, 2020 by xi'an

As I was watching the first minutes of the 1944 under-rated Lifeboat by Alfred Hitchcock (and John Steinbeck as the script writer!), a series of objects floating by the lifeboat to convey the preliminary mutual sinking of an Allied boat and a Nazi U-boat contained a cover of the New Yorker. Which while being iconic sounds like a weird inclusion, given that this is the very first issue of the magazine, in February 1925, hardly the first thing I would carry across the Atlantic at war time! Maybe being iconic was the reason to keep this issue rather than a more recent one, another mystery about the great Hitch allusions and clues interseeded throughout his films.

art brut [no!]

Posted in pictures, Statistics, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 27, 2019 by xi'an