Archive for Terry Pratchett
about 100’s lists
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel with tags 100 book lists, book list, book reviews, Douglas Adams, Fiodor Dostoïevski, First Dog on the Moon, he Guardian's Best Novels, John Steinbeck, library, mole, Terry Pratchett, The Guardian, The Road, webcomic on June 14, 2026 by xi'an
a journal of the chaos (en cuisine) year
Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Travel, Wines with tags Black Plague, book reviews, COVID-19, cuisine, Daniel Defoe, Discworld, fantasy, gardening, gratuity, homegrown, Joseon dynasty, Journal of the Plague Year, K dramas, Korea, Le Monde, macarons, MIchelin starred restaurant, murderbot, Paris, Quartier Latin, rice, rice pudding, Russian invasion, Terry Pratchett, tipping, Ukraine, ze kitchen galerie on October 31, 2025 by xi'an 
Read Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy by Martha Wells, part of The Murderbot Diaries (#2.5) and fun as usual but so short (34p) that it does not even feel like a short story. And How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, by Django Wexler. Which illustrates afresh my blockage on humorous fantasy, as previously experimented with Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. There is humour and wit, but the universe and the scenario and the characters all are terribly thin. And of limited interest…
While taking advantage of the remaining vegetables and fruits at the local market, like having radish, coriander and lemon salad at every meal, and garden tomatoes as well, and making daily breakfast compote from rhubarb and figs, plus the customary skyr and buckwhe(y/at) pancakes, the culinary experience this round was outside, with a dinner at Oktobre, a restaurant we had visited a few times, in the heart of Quartier Latin, and recently mentioned in Le Monde M(agazine). (The K stands for the previous name of the restaurant, Ze Kitchen Gallery bis.) The surprise entrées were a fabulous mix of Asia-inspired dishes with miso and raw fish, while the tagliatelle were al dente and perfectly (if mildly) spiced. The lobster bits were however superfluous, as soaked in cooking water and hence almost indistinguishable from sashimi sticks. The rice pudding also failed to deliver, with undercooked grains, an heresy for rice pudding. But the most surprising feature of the meal came with the strong insistence of the server that we add a tip to the bill when the menu stated service was already included, as compulsory by French law. Which we pointed out only to more arguing. Definitely annoying if this signals an incoming trend in touristy places, as tipping is definitely one of the most puzzling aspects of US life! (Another appalling US food story is how Trump imposed his ghastly culinary tastes on his hosts during his Asian tour…)
In continuation with the culinary theme, I also speed watched a rather silly K drama called Bon Appétit, Your Majesty (The Tyrant’s Chef), which sends a modern Michelin starred chef to 14th Century Joseon to be a cook for the current and tyranesque king. The plot is paper-thin but the cooking bits are pleasant (if overly inspired by French dishes, like bœuf bourguignon and macarons!)
a journal of the conquest, war, famine, death, and chaos year
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Running, Travel with tags Australia, Benoit Mandelbrot, book review, books, Charlotte Bronte, chili pepper, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, Discworld, dystopia, 경성, film review, four horsemen of the Apocalypse, Jane Eyre, Japanese human experiments, Journal of the Plague Year, mad scientist, Mandchuria, miso, Oxford, oysters, Russian invasion, St Kilda, teen culture, Terry Pratchett, Ukraine, Unit 731 on February 15, 2024 by xi'anHad to find a fifth horseman of the Apocalypse for 2024, and figured out that Terry Pratchett was the ultimate expert on these characters, witness
“The Four Horsemen whose Ride presages the end of the world are known to be Death, War, Famine, and Pestilence. But even less significant events have their own Horsemen. For example, the Four Horsemen of the Common Cold are Sniffles, Chesty, Nostril, and Lack of Tissues; the Four Horsemen whose appearance foreshadows any public holiday are Storm, Gales, Sleet, and Contra-flow.” Terry Pratchet, Interesting Times
Hence followed suit when he signaled Chaos as the fifth (part-time) horseman. In Thief of Time. (Incidentally, I do not remember ever finishing a single book from his Discworld series, despite several attempts and encouragements from fellow readers.) With the precision of “not [being] the chaos which can be used to draw pretty Mandelbrot patterns”.
Read The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon. While I did not like much the author’s later The Priory of the Orange Tree, bought in one of the many Montréal bookstores and read by Lac Saint-Jean, which I found very shallow and predictable [the book, not the lake!], with most of the tropes of the genre (e.g., ninja-like fighters, heroes uncovering long-lost magical artefacts, super-evil entity about to return to life/power, a few predestined characters saving the Universe), unrealistic events, all-too-convenient coincidences, with little efforts put in the construction of the world, of the magical rules, or of the political structure, I still picked this rather heavy volume in a St Kilda bookstore, in [misguided] prevision for the flight back to Paris and read it later over the Winter solstice break. It is actually much better and enjoyable, in terms of world building for certain, involving a modified history of our World, mostly Britain and Ireland, with a non-human dominant species in the background, a no-man’s land gothic Oxford surrounded by zombies (?), and a part of humanity endowed with paranormal powers. The characters have some depth as well, even when remaining somehow predictable and often repetitive, and the scenario is mostly solid, apart from the unraveling finale. (The Guardian pointed out a direct filiation to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, which I certainly did not see coming.) I am unsure I am ready for the next six volumes in the series, though!
Watched Gyeongseong, a Korean TV series that is a mix of horror, period, WW II, sadistic, mad scientists, nationalist, colonialist, family, survival, love, comical, soapy, teary stories all at once! Gyeongseong [경성, capital city] being the name of Seoul during the Japanese occupation and the entire series takes place in a recreated city that resembles the one in other period series I watched. Still enjoyable with a complete suspension of belief (as the scenario accumulates convenient coincidences, clueless Japanese occupiers, and bullet proof main characters) and the acceptance of the cartoonesque nature of fights and innumerable deaths.
a journal of the conquest, war, famine, and death year
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags book review, books, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, dark fantasy, farmers' market, film review, four horsemen of the Apocalypse, grimdark, Isle of Lewis, Journal of the Plague Year, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, Korean cinema, pandemics, peatbogs, rhubarb, Russian invasion, squid, Terry Pratchett, tuna, Ukraine, waguy beef, war orphans on June 25, 2023 by xi'anRead both following volumes of Peter May’s Lewis trilogy, The Lewis Man and The Chessmen. The stories remain focussed on the same few characters as in the first volume, with some predictable developments and a rather heavy borrowing to the local history in the shape of a peat-bog mommy or a plane crash. And of the terrible early 20th Century policies of dispatching orphans throughout Scotland without ever checking on their well-being. Rather disappointing in the end with way too many convenient coincidences, implausible twists of fate, and larger than life characters. (And very artificial dialogues of teenagers, either in the 1980’s or in the 2010’s.) Read also two remarkable Tanizaki’s short stories, Fumiko’s feet and The mermaid’s lament. Which demonstrate impressive writing style. And his Diary of a mad old man, written in a completely different way, about an hypochondriac old man obsessed by his son’s wife, who negotiates glimpses at the highest price. It reminded me of Kawabata’s Sound of the Mountain, although the later is much more ambiguous on that relation. (Obviously not the only one to note the similarities.)
Moved the title of this recurring post to add another horseman for another year. Next round, if any, I will have to borrow a fifth horseman from Terry Pratchett!
Had another great lunch at KGB, in the Odéon district of Paris, which stands for Kitchen Gallery Bis and has no obvious Russian connections. Both the surprise collection of primi piatti (incl. a wagyu bouillon and a cold squid salad) and the half-baked tuna were original and an avalanche of flavours. I skipped the desert, centred on rhubarb, as this is our current fare, making fresh rhubarb [from the farmers’ market] marmalade once or twice a week (with a heavy spoonful of ginger).
Watched part of The Mother, a total waste of time as another action movie with implausible situations, a complete disregard to real life constraints, and the permanent glorification of guns.
a journal of the [downplayed] plague and [endless] pestilence year
Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Running, Travel, University life with tags book review, books, CNRS, comic fantasy, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, face mask, fantasy, film review, Fred Vargas, Game of Thrones, Hokusai, Journal of the Plague Year, Norman church, Normandy, pandemics, public health system, Russian invasion, Terry Pratchett, Tokugawa, Ukraine on November 13, 2022 by xi'anRead another novel by Fred Vargas, the early This Night’s Foul Work which carries the usual Vargas’ themes more focussed on the psychology of the characters than on the police work, with no pretense at realism (from police work, to ignored regulations and procedures, to superhuman abilities of the improbable villein), and a rather simplistic (and surprising for a CNRS researcher) vision of regional idiosyncrasies. Again. (Maybe I am being thin-skinned because Normans are the targets this time.) Adamsberg, the main detective gets positively (or rather negatively) sleazy when spying on a romantic rival.
Read [in planes] The Traitor God sounded like an interesting plot when I picked it: a rogue mage, having left its order and city ten years ago, and coming to the rescue of old friends in trouble. However, the blob-like evil behind said trouble got particularly grotesque and absurd, till a ridiculous finale that was only the premise to a second volume. While sounding similar in concept, Paladin’s Grace proved much more enjoyable [in the same planes], if pure mindcandy (and hence hardly at level with a Hugo or Nebula Award). More a form of fantasy sleuthing than anything of a cosmologic scale (and no explanation as to why the god died), with a perfume-maker as the scientific police equivalent! (But this is definitely not Süskind’s Parfum.) A bit heavy-handed on the romance part, though, with endless internal debates of both central characters. And also read The Maleficent Sevens, whose most redeeming quality is its title, as otherwise, I found little to enjoy there: the characters are not compelling, even in their maleficiency (facade grim only if this qualifies as grimdark fantasy), their motivation for (re)banding together is unconvincing, the magical abilities and actions hold no coherence, usual plot u-turns aplenty (like walking dead, krakens, subterranean demons), the naval battle is beyond stretching belief, contrary to the other (anti)heroes, the orcs are discriminated against in being the only ones to miss salvation in the final chapter, the dialogues are far from witty (far far away from Terry Pratchett if this qualifies as comic fantasy).
In contrast with my earlier light encounter with COVID, I attended a COVID funeral in Normandy a few weeks ago, which, besides the deep sadness of seeing a relative depart, made me question the general laisser-faire attitude about COVID, despite the dozens of thousands of daily cases (in France) and more than an hundred death. With hardly anyone wearing a mask in public transportation for instance. (In a cruel if not unexpected irony, some people attending the funeral later tested positive.)
Watched Hokusai in the plane to Santiago, and back, which I found a little bit stiff in its historical reconstruction and somewhat missing in getting the uniqueness and genius of Hkusai’s paintings. But interestingly bringing to light that paintings and sketches became somehow prohibited unless restricted to actors and courtesans, after the demise of the Tokugawa shogunate, during the Meiji Restoration. And un-enthusiastically completed the House of the Dragon, still lacking in scope. And in dragons.
