Reading Thursday!
Entirely on purpose this time.
READING
Finished reading
I'm going to slowly make my way through this list, one book at a time. See if I don't!
2015
Chats d'oeuvre
Le Jardin des silences
Lucifer v1 (Vertigo comic)
Prince of Cats
Sandman Overture
Spider-Gwen v1
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl v1
Magnus Chase and the Sword of Asgard
The Red Pyramid
Le papyrus de César
Tumulte à Rome
2016 (finished)
Marie des dragons intégrale
volume 4 of Les aigles de Rome
Star Wars Shattered Empire
Star Wars Princess Leia
D'un monde à l'autre (La Quête d'Ewilan, tome 1) by Pierre Bottero (read in 2015): The last time I tried re-reading a book I loved from my childhood, it was the Livre des Etoiles series and it didn't go so well.
So I was kind of apprehensive with rereading the La Quête d'Ewilan trilogy, but there was no need! THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING.
The book follows Camille and her best friend Salim, teenagers from a small French town. Camille semi-accidentally discovers that she has magical powers and is in fact the titular Ewilan. In an interesting twist on the "normal teenage girl discovers she's from another world" trope, she is not the heir to a throne (or two, like Tara Duncan is -- kind of what that crossover now, ngl). She's the child of two very powerful magic users who sacrificed themwelves to save the kingdom from the Ts'liches.
The Ts'liches are the main antagonists of this trilogy. They are a cross between a giant lizard and a giant praying mantis, they're two meters tall at least and they are fucking terrifying. I love them, they're amazing fantasy villains.
One thing I didn't notice when reading these books the first time was how racially mixed Gwendalavir is. The first three people met in Gwendalavir are Bjorn (blond), the next one is described by Salim as "as dark as he was" (Salim has Cameroonian origins, fyi) and Edwin who I imagine as looking like Alexander Siddig because that's exactly what he's described as looking as.
Also, Ellana appears in this book and I love Ellana a lot! I especially love that while Ellana ends up falling in love with Edwin and taking Salim on as her apprentice (she's a Marchombre, a rogue/thief type of thing), the friendship between her and Ewilan is given a lot of narrative weight.
The plot of this book involves Ewilan going on a very dangerous quest to the Beaux-Arts of Paris to find her older brother, so he can fight in the war against the Ts'liches in her stead. Normally I would be angry to have a girl hero be replaced by a boy hero, but here it's framed pretty explicitly as the adults going "EWILAN YOU ARE A CHILD your brother is an adult. We're not involving children in this war if we can avoid it" which is an entirely reasonable stance for responsible adults to take.
As it turns out, Ewilan's brother (a) has not inherited his parents' power, (b) wants nothing to do with this war, holy shit are you people bonkers and (c) actually enjoys life on Earth, by contrast with Camille and Salim who have no reason to stay, as they are friendless and neglected by their families -- part of the reason they go looking for Matthieu is even that they think they can leverage that into being able to stay in Gwendalavir.
In light of (a), (b) and (c), the adults reluctantly agree to let Ewilan help with the war effort. She is both The Ultimate Magic User (their magic is called Drawing -- "le Dessin" -- and I really like how it works) and one of very few people who can not only teleport, but teleport between worlds, but she is also only thirteen and they really were hoping they wouldn't have to involve a child in this war.
I need to read the other books already. There's another two in this trilogy, another trilogy and then the Ellana-focused trilogy.
Still reading
Contes et récits de l'histoire de Carthage by Jean Defrasne
Le Déchronologue by Stéphane Beauverger: I read a whole chapter of this this week and omg this book is batshit in THE BEST POSSIBLE WAY.
I had to flip back to the first chapter to remind myself who a specific character was and in the process remembered that I am shipping Henri Villon/Yves Brieuc pretty hard and also, wow, I love all the research that went into writing this book. The siege of La Rochelle! Motherfucking Richelieu's siege of La Rochelle (yes, the one from the painting)! Villon was there and he is so sketchy about the whole thing.
I want to do a chronological reread at some point. The book is in non-linear order.
Things that happened this chapter: someone was talking about "gaudy, mismatched furniture [from the future]" and so I am choosing to believe that tense scene happened in a room entirely furnished with cheap IKEA knock-offs, Villon arrived in Tortuga while blaring some (iirc country) music through speakers on his boat as you do and Villon and Le Vasseur's conversation basically boiled down to "I'm not threatening you, I'm just saying I know how you die AND YOU DON'T neerneerneer".
I just really love all the clever things it's doing with the concept of "Pirates of the Carabbeian + time travel".
Partial list of comics I am following, which I will add to as I remember them:
Lucifer
Scarlet Witch
The Wicked + the Divine (sort of. When I remember it exists)
Reading next
Changes: I have decided I would read City of Blades and I've added Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds via a rec from
yhlee . I have also decided that I wouldn't read two books by men in a row (comics somewhat excluded from this, because tracking down authorship of comics is a hassle).
Books that I have already: Pyramids of London by Andrea K Höst, Prisoner (Echo's Wolf, Book 1) (Werewolf Marines 2) by Lia Silver, Taking Stock by Scott Bartlett, February by Lisa Moore, The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan, The Skull Throne by Peter V. Brett, Hostage by Sherwood Smith and Rachel Manija Brown, Le Graal de l'Inframonde by Vanessa Callico and Diana Callico.
Books that are out and that I haven't got: L'armée furieuse & Temps Glaciaires by Fred Vargas, Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen, by Garth Nix, Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Melting Stones and Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce, The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, The Beginning Place by Ursula Le Guin, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex, the last two books of Kate Eliott's Spiritwalker trilogy, The Missing Queen by Samhita Arni, Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed, whatever's out of the Craft Sequence series, Chroniques du Pays des Mères by Elisabeth Vonarburg, Lord of the Two Lands by Judith Tarr, Fortunate Fall by Raphael Carter, Barbara Hambly's vampire series, Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho, The Sand-Reckoner by Gillian Bradshaw, The Idylls of the Queen by Phillys Ann Karr, Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman, The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar, City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett and Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds.
Books that aren't out yet (and when they're out): The Sleeping Life (Eferum, #2) by Andrea K. Höst (2015), Benjamin January #14 by Barbara Hambly (no idea), the Tris book by Tamora Pierce (2015), The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard (caveat), Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer and whatever Jenny Dolfen's next project is.
WATCHING
This is as far along in these shows that I have watched. I would love to talk about any of these. No spoilers for currently airing shows, please, but I don't care about shows that are complete.
Jessica Jones (s1e2 00:00)
Supergirl (s1e3 00:00)
Agent Carter (s2e3)
Lucifer (s1e11 23:00)
Legends of Tomorrow (s1e11 00:00)
Clone Wars (s3e11 00:00)
Underground (s1e6 00:00)
Shannara (s1e6 00:00)
Daredevil (s2e1 00:00)
Lucifer: MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZE! I am fascinated by every single interaction she has with everyone, be that Dr Linda (I ship it), Chloe, Lucifer, Amenadiel or Trixie.
Legends of Tomorrow: I am really enjoying this team of losers. That's right, you have superpowers! Good on you for remembering this time.
Clone Wars: I keep boggling at how bad at politics Anakin is, seriously. He's a very all-or-nothing kind of guy and as Aaron Burr would say politics is "the art of the compromise / Hold your nose and close your eyes". (I have a file of Clone Wars notes, lmao.) Ahsoka's new duds are cool.
Underground: THIS SHOW IS SO GOOD. Seriously, it has the best twists.
OTHER STUFF (Reading related)
I seem to be mostly in a "fanfic" phase, reading wise. If I were to post about the fics I was reading, would anyone be interested?
Also, I occasionally find interesting stuff on the internet, I probably should toss them in these.
This entry was originally posted at http://dhampyresa.dreamwidth.org/133731.html and has
comments over there.
READING
Finished reading
I'm going to slowly make my way through this list, one book at a time. See if I don't!
2015
Chats d'oeuvre
Le Jardin des silences
Lucifer v1 (Vertigo comic)
Prince of Cats
Sandman Overture
Spider-Gwen v1
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl v1
Magnus Chase and the Sword of Asgard
The Red Pyramid
Le papyrus de César
Tumulte à Rome
2016 (finished)
Marie des dragons intégrale
volume 4 of Les aigles de Rome
Star Wars Shattered Empire
Star Wars Princess Leia
D'un monde à l'autre (La Quête d'Ewilan, tome 1) by Pierre Bottero (read in 2015): The last time I tried re-reading a book I loved from my childhood, it was the Livre des Etoiles series and it didn't go so well.
So I was kind of apprehensive with rereading the La Quête d'Ewilan trilogy, but there was no need! THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING.
The book follows Camille and her best friend Salim, teenagers from a small French town. Camille semi-accidentally discovers that she has magical powers and is in fact the titular Ewilan. In an interesting twist on the "normal teenage girl discovers she's from another world" trope, she is not the heir to a throne (or two, like Tara Duncan is -- kind of what that crossover now, ngl). She's the child of two very powerful magic users who sacrificed themwelves to save the kingdom from the Ts'liches.
The Ts'liches are the main antagonists of this trilogy. They are a cross between a giant lizard and a giant praying mantis, they're two meters tall at least and they are fucking terrifying. I love them, they're amazing fantasy villains.
One thing I didn't notice when reading these books the first time was how racially mixed Gwendalavir is. The first three people met in Gwendalavir are Bjorn (blond), the next one is described by Salim as "as dark as he was" (Salim has Cameroonian origins, fyi) and Edwin who I imagine as looking like Alexander Siddig because that's exactly what he's described as looking as.
Also, Ellana appears in this book and I love Ellana a lot! I especially love that while Ellana ends up falling in love with Edwin and taking Salim on as her apprentice (she's a Marchombre, a rogue/thief type of thing), the friendship between her and Ewilan is given a lot of narrative weight.
The plot of this book involves Ewilan going on a very dangerous quest to the Beaux-Arts of Paris to find her older brother, so he can fight in the war against the Ts'liches in her stead. Normally I would be angry to have a girl hero be replaced by a boy hero, but here it's framed pretty explicitly as the adults going "EWILAN YOU ARE A CHILD your brother is an adult. We're not involving children in this war if we can avoid it" which is an entirely reasonable stance for responsible adults to take.
As it turns out, Ewilan's brother (a) has not inherited his parents' power, (b) wants nothing to do with this war, holy shit are you people bonkers and (c) actually enjoys life on Earth, by contrast with Camille and Salim who have no reason to stay, as they are friendless and neglected by their families -- part of the reason they go looking for Matthieu is even that they think they can leverage that into being able to stay in Gwendalavir.
In light of (a), (b) and (c), the adults reluctantly agree to let Ewilan help with the war effort. She is both The Ultimate Magic User (their magic is called Drawing -- "le Dessin" -- and I really like how it works) and one of very few people who can not only teleport, but teleport between worlds, but she is also only thirteen and they really were hoping they wouldn't have to involve a child in this war.
I need to read the other books already. There's another two in this trilogy, another trilogy and then the Ellana-focused trilogy.
Still reading
Contes et récits de l'histoire de Carthage by Jean Defrasne
Le Déchronologue by Stéphane Beauverger: I read a whole chapter of this this week and omg this book is batshit in THE BEST POSSIBLE WAY.
I had to flip back to the first chapter to remind myself who a specific character was and in the process remembered that I am shipping Henri Villon/Yves Brieuc pretty hard and also, wow, I love all the research that went into writing this book. The siege of La Rochelle! Motherfucking Richelieu's siege of La Rochelle (yes, the one from the painting)! Villon was there and he is so sketchy about the whole thing.
I want to do a chronological reread at some point. The book is in non-linear order.
Things that happened this chapter: someone was talking about "gaudy, mismatched furniture [from the future]" and so I am choosing to believe that tense scene happened in a room entirely furnished with cheap IKEA knock-offs, Villon arrived in Tortuga while blaring some (iirc country) music through speakers on his boat as you do and Villon and Le Vasseur's conversation basically boiled down to "I'm not threatening you, I'm just saying I know how you die AND YOU DON'T neerneerneer".
I just really love all the clever things it's doing with the concept of "Pirates of the Carabbeian + time travel".
Partial list of comics I am following, which I will add to as I remember them:
Lucifer
Scarlet Witch
The Wicked + the Divine (sort of. When I remember it exists)
Reading next
Changes: I have decided I would read City of Blades and I've added Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds via a rec from
yhlee . I have also decided that I wouldn't read two books by men in a row (comics somewhat excluded from this, because tracking down authorship of comics is a hassle).
Books that I have already: Pyramids of London by Andrea K Höst, Prisoner (Echo's Wolf, Book 1) (Werewolf Marines 2) by Lia Silver, Taking Stock by Scott Bartlett, February by Lisa Moore, The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan, The Skull Throne by Peter V. Brett, Hostage by Sherwood Smith and Rachel Manija Brown, Le Graal de l'Inframonde by Vanessa Callico and Diana Callico.
Books that are out and that I haven't got: L'armée furieuse & Temps Glaciaires by Fred Vargas, Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen, by Garth Nix, Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Melting Stones and Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce, The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, The Beginning Place by Ursula Le Guin, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex, the last two books of Kate Eliott's Spiritwalker trilogy, The Missing Queen by Samhita Arni, Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed, whatever's out of the Craft Sequence series, Chroniques du Pays des Mères by Elisabeth Vonarburg, Lord of the Two Lands by Judith Tarr, Fortunate Fall by Raphael Carter, Barbara Hambly's vampire series, Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho, The Sand-Reckoner by Gillian Bradshaw, The Idylls of the Queen by Phillys Ann Karr, Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman, The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar, City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett and Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds.
Books that aren't out yet (and when they're out): The Sleeping Life (Eferum, #2) by Andrea K. Höst (2015), Benjamin January #14 by Barbara Hambly (no idea), the Tris book by Tamora Pierce (2015), The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard (caveat), Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer and whatever Jenny Dolfen's next project is.
WATCHING
This is as far along in these shows that I have watched. I would love to talk about any of these. No spoilers for currently airing shows, please, but I don't care about shows that are complete.
Jessica Jones (s1e2 00:00)
Supergirl (s1e3 00:00)
Agent Carter (s2e3)
Lucifer (s1e11 23:00)
Legends of Tomorrow (s1e11 00:00)
Clone Wars (s3e11 00:00)
Underground (s1e6 00:00)
Shannara (s1e6 00:00)
Daredevil (s2e1 00:00)
Lucifer: MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZE! I am fascinated by every single interaction she has with everyone, be that Dr Linda (I ship it), Chloe, Lucifer, Amenadiel or Trixie.
Legends of Tomorrow: I am really enjoying this team of losers. That's right, you have superpowers! Good on you for remembering this time.
Clone Wars: I keep boggling at how bad at politics Anakin is, seriously. He's a very all-or-nothing kind of guy and as Aaron Burr would say politics is "the art of the compromise / Hold your nose and close your eyes". (I have a file of Clone Wars notes, lmao.) Ahsoka's new duds are cool.
Underground: THIS SHOW IS SO GOOD. Seriously, it has the best twists.
OTHER STUFF (Reading related)
I seem to be mostly in a "fanfic" phase, reading wise. If I were to post about the fics I was reading, would anyone be interested?
Also, I occasionally find interesting stuff on the internet, I probably should toss them in these.
This entry was originally posted at http://dhampyresa.dreamwidth.org/133731.html and has
comments over there.