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  • Day Three

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    Posted by jukkahoo

    Today we drink American beer. Anchor Brewing's 2012 Christmas Ale is a very smoky, spicy and wonderfully malty dark ale. Really wintery affair that suites this time of the year more than merrier. It has a sweetly bitter taste that follows up nicely. Good for xmas table and pretty much everywhere. Couple of these should get the evening going on smashingly.

    I like K. J. Parker a lot, even though I never finished the first book (Colours in the Steel of the Fencer trilogy) of her/his (those who are in the know, have their lips sealed) I started. I blame the font, which really gets on my nerves in the copy (Orbit) I have. Still, I wanted to like Parker and after I read The Company, I knew s/he was going to be one of those authors I would read everything from now on.

    Parker's The Hammer is the real deal. It has some similarities with The Company (an island of industrious free-minded individuals), but I don't think the location is the same. The feel of the two books is still very much the same: rough living, hard working, proper engineering. In The Company pretty much everything that can go wrong, goes. Veterans in look for some peace and quiet and prosperity are dealt really sucky cards and the experiment goes pearshaped. In The Hammer the noble family that rules the island manages to fuck up everything so royally, that their comeuppance is almost deserved one. But only almost, as nobody really deserves what they get.

    Very much in the vein Parker writes: strong, problematic main character; really well-thought secondary chars; interesting problems to overcome; added engineering; superior adversary; and lots of history, geography and politics that are not explained, only hinted. I would really like to see a proper map of the world these stories take place, with some historical notes attached.

    The Hammer is not without it's problems, but the language Parker uses is just so strong and stark, that I find it impossible to let go. I see more than a hint of Gemmell here, only even more pessimistic so. The eventual fall of the protagonist is always there, Parker does not write comfort fantasy, thems are some cynical fantasy as its best. Recommended with a caution.

    Tracker (2010) is a New Zealand historical (set in 1903) thriller of a chase of a murderer. Keremea (Temuera Morrison), a Maori gets wrongly accused of killing a British soldier. Van Diemen (Ray WInstone), a recent immigrant Boer gets involved and he sets out go catch the alledged killer. The game is afoot. Catch and release ensues.

    This was a really nice little film. Filmed on location in NZ, the look of the land is bare and untouched. Two main actors are terrific, Morrison is suave and open freeminded spirit, while Winstone is a gruff, stoic and determined Boer, a master tracker and commando leader from the 2nd Boer War. Neither of these man love the British, more likely they both hate them, passionately even. The relative low budget of the production shows occasionally, but doesn't take anything away from the strenght of the story and the brilliant display of acting prowess these two men portray. Strong stuff.

    The song of the evening is Sleater-Kinney's The Fox, I don't think I need to explain the obviousness of this song? "Land Ho!" Thems rock. 

  • Day Two

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    Posted by jukkahoo

    Tonight's beer is Weltenburger Kloster Winter-Traum. A nice little wintery beer, decent fruitiness on the nose, slightly bitter aftertaste, but that could also be the sauna and changes in temperature in me. Oh yes, as I decided to warm up the sauna, this was then also my sauna beer. Perhaps not the most suited for, but all in all, I liked this little easyly-drinked darkish winter beer.

    Today's book is Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch.
    PC Grant is a young policeman, who happens to interview a peculiar witness in a murder investigation. The witness in question is a ghost. Soon Grant is whisked on a journey where he joins the magical mystery police department, lead by the last wizard in Englan, Detective Inspector Thomas Nightingale. Solid, well-written and genuinely interesting little urban fantasy with nice creatures and beings, especially them rivers as gods. Cracking stuff. Recommended.

    As the beer was good and the book even better, I thought that the film of the day should be best. And it is. The film of the day is Shooting Party (1985). Based on a novel of the same name, it tells of an age soon gone, as a group of lords and ladies are invited to participate in a partridge massacre shooting in 1913.

    Great ensemble cast with James Mason (in his last role), Edward Fox (BRILLIANT!), John Gielgud and host of others talk and shoot and talk some more and the shoot even more. It is a bravura script, with hints of the impending end of an era. Proper class divide, sumptuous locale and chilling end: simple, yet effective and oh so evocative. Am amazed that they haven't done this as a six-part tv-series yet, as it is JUST what the British TV is currently churning out, for better and for worse. Hightly recommended.

    The song is Don't Stop the Dance by Bryan Ferry Orchestra from the album Jazz Age. Now, the most elegant artist in the pop music clearly has a love for the age roughly around the time of the Shooting Party (give a decade or so and a bit less Edwardian). Bryan Ferry has written and performed tons of classic songs and this one is at the same time truly Ferry as well as truly Jazz. Thanks to Tapani Bagge for the last one.

  • Day One

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    Posted by jukkahoo

    I thought that I might do a bit of a kharismacy calendar kinda-thing: share a thought or two about various books and films I've read/seen in this past year, and drink a bottle of beer while writing about them. And perhaps add a song for good measure. This is unlikely going to be very insightful or deep or thought-out, but we'll see how it goes.

    Beer du jour: Kaiserdom Hefe-Weißbier Naturtrüb. A light-weight wheatbeer, nothing special. Easy to drink, but I cannot see me drinking too many of these. Cheap plastic imitation of the real thing.

    Book du jour: Sam Eastland: Eye of the Red Tsar. I bought this 1929 Soviet-era murder mystery on a whim. Mainly due to the fact that it had a character called Pekkala in it. A Finnish name, spe-fi-cally familiar from His Dark Materials as the surname of the witch queen from Lake Enara. In this book, inspector Pekkala is a former super-special private jamesbond aka. Emerald Eye of the last emperor Nikolai II. After the revolution Pekkala has been living in an Siberian gulag, where he has done the impossible: stayed alive.

    When the titular Red Tsar, comrade Džugašvili is in need of a great detective, he calls on Pekkala. Solve what happened to the royal family in Ekaterinburg, as well as find out where the bloody hell is the treasure they managed to hide from the bolševiks, and became a free man. Easy-peasy. Armed with the mind of a super-sleuth and the assistance of his personal spy Kirov, Pekkala sets out to find out the truth.

    This is a nice little novel with decent mystery and several good parts where Pekkala's past is revealed, his abilities are used efficiently and the relationship he had with the tsar is shown. Eastland gives out a good explanation and visceral literal execution of what happened in Ekateringburg that day the Romanov's were taken care of. Pekkala is a great character and the era depicted is filled with such opportunities, that it is sad to see the book isn't as exciting and interesting as it should be. But as a book for a lazy summer day or two, it is perfect. Cold, gruelling Siberia goes well with a glass of something cold and refreshing.

    There seems to be two more Pekkala novels, but them take place in 1939. Why? I wanted to read more of the wild and crazy years of the early 30's. Author's blog seems to indicate more books are coming.

    Film du jour: Dylan Dog: Dead of Night. This is a fairly recent American film (2010) about the Italian comic book, of which few issues came out in Finland a decade or so ago. The comic book was a delightful horror detective affair, which I could've read more provided the price would've been right ie. cheapo. The film isn't all bad, but it lacks most of the charm the comics have by being so.. American.

    Now, there are good parts to it, too. A sidekick is funny as a zombie that has trouble believing that he is one of the undead ones and the various creatures of the night are delightfully buffyish, but the plot is stunningly boring and really just a weak excuse for building up suspense for a massive monster mash finale. Which is really lame. Lame-o. Slightly better than Constantine (starring Keanunununu, shudder), but nothing to write home about. Once you've seen it, you've forgotten the most of it. Optimal for lazy hangover layabouting in front of the tube. 

    Decent book, so-and-so film and a plodding beer. Song du jour is then: Things Can Only Get Better by Howard Jones. I remember being less that inspired by the man in the days of yore, but after I found his solo live record Live Acoustic America, I seem to have found new insight to his artist. Things can apparently get better. Not so sure about "only". Really fine clean slap-bass line.

  • Hava splurge on ebooks, and you don’t even need that much money!

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    Want to try out some really good books
    ridiculously cheaply? Head over to Wizard's Tower Books, an ebookstore
    specialising on speculative fiction and run by the wonderful Cheryl
    Morgan. Give it a try, it is easy. The books are DRM free, and you
    can read them on any platform you like. I've got them on my phone,
    laptop and Jukka's iPad and they work swimmingly. I'll even give you
    tech support if this is your first time at the ebook rodeo.

    There is a Finnish shopping spree thing today, which is why I
    will head on over there to get some more much needed reading
    materials, but first I like to recommend stuff that I already have,
    most of it bought from Wizard Tower Books.

    1. Karin Tidbeck: Jagannath

    I have read Karin's swedish collection
    of short stories "Vem är Arvid Pekon?", and fell instantly
    in love. To put it mildly, short stories are not my thing, but
    Karin's weird and wonderful stories instantly grabbed my imagination.
    There has been nothing this wonderful published in the genre for
    ages. Karin has translated the stories to English herself, so you get
    an authentic experience even with the english stories.

    2. Sherwood Smith: Stranger to Command

    OK, the cover is not inviting, I grant
    you, but inside is a great YAish growing up novel about a young noble
    who has to reorient his life when he goes to school to a neighbouring
    kingdom's rough military academy. I have a soft spot for school
    stories, and this prequel to Court Duel and Crown Duel (no previous
    knowledge needed, though) is a corker. The dynamics between
    character, the politics of the situation and the learning process of
    the students are all well depicted and there is even a dark menace
    lurking in the backround.

    3. Melissa Scott and Lisa Barnett:
    Point of Hopes, Melissa Scott: Point of Knives

    These are the best fantasy detective
    stories I know. I love the world, I love the story telling and I am
    not let down with the mystery. The murders and other crimes are all
    solved within the rules of the fantasy world (which includes
    astrology, ghosts and alchemy), and the reader never feels cheated.
    Besides, Rathe and Eslingen are great detective team and their
    romance is wonderfully understatedly real.

    4.  Lucy Sussex: Thief of Lives

    Some of Sussex stories are so
    borderline genre that they aren't. But they are all interesting, well
    written tales of womens lives, relatable even when they tell about
    ancient Babylon or soulsucking vampiric writers. Again, even thought
    short stories aren't my thing, these were well worth the time.

    5. Helen Merrick: The Secret Feminist
    Cabal

    You know how fannish histories
    sometimes are a bit grandiose? Seven people have an argument and
    three of them go to another hotel room and you have a major fannish
    split? (I am exaggerating but not that much…) This isn't one of
    them. Merricks book is important, well written, engaging, thought
    provoking look at feminisms in Science Fiction through writers, fans,
    editors.

    6. R.A MacAvoy: Death and Resurrection

    One of my favourite writers returns
    after a painful illness with this well written story about an
    artist who dies for a bit, and finds he can travel the land between
    life and death. What I have always loved about McAvoy's writing is
    how she writes about big fantastical, life changing action stuff in a
    way that makes it seem real and even mundane. I believe her.

    Also you can support editor
    Neil Clarke by buying his Clarkesworld magazines from Wizard Tower
    Books. It is a very good magazine, I appreciate especially because
    its commitment to great non-fiction articles about the genre
    (remember what I said about the short stories…).  I'd go for example for issues 70 (Ekaterine Sedia: The Exceptional Smurfette),  60 (Daniel Abraham: Another World: Assimilation, Multiculturalism and Me), 58 (Daniel M Kimmell: So This is the Way the World ended) , 44 (Ryan Britt: Stranger than Science Fiction: Into the Alternative Dimension of Mainstream Literature) or 31 (Joyce Frohn: Where Is My Flying Car? The Future of Personal Aviation)

    So Click!

  • I do get out of the house, sometimes…

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    I have been a shameles Simon
    Rattle fangirl since late 1980s when he was the poster boy of English
    classical music, doing amazing work with the Birmingham Philharmonic City of Birmingham Symphony Orchastra. So when I got a chance to go to see and hear him with Berlin Philharmonic, I jumped at it. This was the first time I was in the new
    Musiikkitalo, and I have to say that while I still think that it is
    architecturally downright ugly on outside, and increidbly boring from
    the inside, the hall itself is excellent. The vinyard form works both
    visually, and more importantly acustically – at least with orchestral
    music and with an orchestra that knows how to use hall to best of
    its advantage.

    The concert was divided in
    three parts. The Orchestra opened with Ligeti's Atmosphéres. It is
    an uncomfortable piece, abandoning as it does conventional harmonies
    for sound clusters that sound even more random and structureless than
    your average serial composition. Rattle and Berlin Philharmonic  segue straight from
    the long last fade of Atmosphéres to Wagner's ethereally
    romantic Lohengrin overture. It is an inspired idea, riffing off from
    Jurowski doing the same with Athmosphéres and The Rite of
    Spring    . On structural level there is an interesting juxtaposition
    between the somehow motionless soundscape of Ligeti and Wagner's
    Grail theme moving through the orchestra from one group of
    instruments to another. On emotional level, there is a sense of
    relief and recognition when we move from something alien and
    disturbing (in a good sense) to familiar and intensly emotional. One
    could even draw thematic parallels as Lohengrin overture
    depicts something transcendental: the revelation of the Grail, and
    Atmosphéres is most famous as the soundtrack for Dave
    Bowman's equally transcendental meeting with the Monolith in 2001
    Space Odyssey    . Both pieces defenitely gained someting extra with
    the coupling.

    The second part of the
    concert consisted of two pieces written for Ballet Russes in early
    20th century. Debussy's Jeux was coreographed by Nijinsky, and
    Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé by Fokine. The lush impressionism of
    the works really brought out the colour and depth in the sound of the
    orchestra. Jeux has never been one of my favourites, I don't
    seem to be able to divorce the music from the idea of dance, and keep
    missing the movement to go with the sound when I am just listening it
    meandering onwards with very little structure. Though the Debussy was
    indeed expertly played, I enjoyed Ravel's second
    orchestral suite from Daphnis et Chloé with its evocations of nature and
    changes from almost hollywoody romanticism to primal rythms much
    more. The colours exploded from the orchestra, every note was
    exquisitely articulated, and everything was in perfect balance.

    After the interval we got
    nearer the orchestras comfort zone with Schumann's 3 rd symphony. It
    was the first time I heard the piece, and really think it needs few more listenings to open properly. I loved the flow and the rich
    sound conjured by the orchestra. I have no idea if Schumann really
    meant to depict Rhein in this symphony nicknamed Rheinish, but for me
    the music did bring up images of a mighty river.

    All in all, the night was
    challenging and sublime. It is so very nice when ones idols live up
    to their reputation. And though recording is never the same, you will be able to listen the concert in Yle Arena for the next thirty days. Have at it.

  • Åcon 5, part II

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    I have lots of books and films and whatnot to write about, but my brain has turned to mush, thanks to Åcon crud. Though in the interests of full disclosure I think patient zero in this case was either my mom or Jukka, so I most probably would have had this plague even without awesome Åcon. Also apologies for other suffering people for spreading the germ.

    IMG_2968I have little – well, a lot – to add about this con to Jukka's report. I love the concept to bits, and have never had a bad or even mediocre Åcon. As noted in earlier reports Åland as a location rules, weather was was sunny if not warm, and the trip was pleasant and well organised (thank you again Hanna!). On the minus side hotel and bar were exceptionally sloppy with us this year. I kind of like the little dilapidated 1980s thing the place has going on, but room assigments were not done as per request which lead to all kinds of difficulties. I can also understand that the bar was overwhelmed with both ice hockey WC and us, but again, if you charge good price for the high end stuff then it would be nice if you could make sure you have the stuff to sell. It is not like this was the first time Åcon was in Adlon.

    As for the content, our Guest of Honor Catherynne M. Valente was funny, smart, engaged, enthusiastic and our kind of people. So that was kind of nice. Also, she is an excellent writer. For me, the absolutely best thing about her work is that (maybe because of her backround as a poet?) that she engages in trying to transmit how things feel, what it is like to touch. As one of those people who do not see stories in their minds eye, that approach is extremely satisfying.

    Programming, well, um. OK, the thing is I don't much care for panel programs. I like to listen to a well argued paper or clear lecture, or take part in group discussions. But panels, not really my thing. Thus my normal Åcon consists of catching few programming Items, doing my own stuff and spending the rest of the time in the bar or at the patio with friends. This time, the programming was on time, there were no real breaks and obviously the programming was interesting enough that people spent most of their time watching it. Silly things. Also the stupid awning was down all the time so it was cold on the patio, and thus the hanging out part of the con was a bit truncated.

    I saw Never Mind the Bus, Aldrin, absolutely mad props to Ben for saving the day, well done. Cat's reading was also very good, both the story and her reading of it Nene, as I knew from Eurocon, is an excellent interviewer and she and Cat seemed to find each other well in the author interview. Loponen's Sapir Whorf paper was good stuff, mapping as it did, the ways SF-writers use Sapir Whorf on top of how the position of the hypothesis has changed in linguistics. Mekku does pretty complicated literary philosopy, that relies on very specific vocabulary, and heavily engages with work of others in the field. And twenty minutes is not enough time to open that up for people not familiar with it. But at least it was exactly what was ordered 🙂

    What else: the panel on postmodern fantasy. Look, obviously the panelists all had slightly different views on what constitutes postmodernism, and that is fine (as it is actually one of the hallmarks of postmodern thought to constantly question the nature of everything), let postmodernism defy all efforts to pin it down, let it float and sting, flollop and vollue around us. But if the panelists do not have a working definition for modernism when they talk about postmodernism, confusion ensues. Now I was left with a feeling everybody understood modernism a bit differently and then tried to discuss postmodernism through their own understanding of modernism which lead to people talking past each other.

    Actually, I would really love to read a paper on modernism in fantasy. It seems to me that early genre fantasy (Tolkien, Dunsany etc.) and modernism were born both as hugely different reactions to realism and naturalism. Modernism reacting to and developing from naturalism, going from outside world to inside of human mind, and developing stylistical tecqhniques to break down and reshape narrative, and Fantasy marrying the novel form to old medieval romance. So if that is the case (and even if it isn't) where is modernistic fantasy? Where are Proust, Joyce, Woolf or Faulkner of fantasy?

    IMG_2982In the mornings we again took dogs and Jeeves and went around the island. Eckerö post and customs office does look incredible all on its lonesome, and both Martti and Mogens got lovely long walks on the rocky beaches. I did take part on organised excursion to Järsö island at the southern tip of the main islands where there is a lovely café and handcraft store Stickstugan. It sells both yarn and stuff you can make from it. The yarn is lovely, hand-coloured and spinned from the wool of Åland sheep. It is a bit tricky to knit as hand spinned yarns often are, but end result is gorgeous. Next time I need a proper budget.

    Next Åcon is 9.-12.5.2013, GoH Tricia Sullivan. Sign up, you won't regret it!

  • Åcon 5

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    Posted by jukkahoo

    It has been a while. There are number of reasons, the most obvious one being the lack of need for the original purpose for this blog ie. The Sickness. SoMe is also to blame. And one should never under estimate the power of Lazy. Or work.

    The last one is really depressing. Not as work, that I can handle and mostly get by with. It's just the realization that work takes so much more of my time than it used to. In the Olden Days, when salad was green and less rockety, I could squeeze in some personal stuff to the daily humdrum of work place. Today, less so. A lot less. And back home I'm often far too tired to do that Fun Stuff as much as I'd like to. Bummer.

    But.

    I got back here to talk about Åcon 5. Which was excellent, though not brilliant. For that, I blame myself and/or whomever gave me the blasted cold I'm still having. It is possible that I may have given the bug a way in previous Monday when I decided that it IS Summer and strutted in the city in shorts. When it most definitely was not Summer. Sunny? – yes, but other than that, bloody cold.

    Therefore, Åcon 2012 was "just" excellent. The weather could've been a bit better ie. sunnier and warmer. There was fairly little in the way of sitting in the terrace, sipping malted drinks and smoking cigars. And what was that deck cover about? Was it ever open? Did anyone ask about that?

    Adlon was as usual: shabby, erratic and challenging, but friendly words and pretty smiles are often all it takes to make customers happy. Though service is always appreciated. The Sports Bar another thing altogether. Again thay managed to fuck up their cider and beer orders, prices seemed to have been amped up to mainland level and closing time came way before the time we had agreed upon. Essentially, nothing has changed.

    Since I was pretty fluuey during the con, I slept through most of the ferry trip and later didn't see much of Mariehamn, other than Saturday dinner at Indigo (muy tasty, muy expensive). Which was a bit of a shame. Next time, then.

    I did witness most of the programming items (when I was asleep), since I was sort of in charge of it. Though we did spent quite some time thinking about it during our Åconplancon cruise a month or so ago. Otherwise we wouldn't have seen for example Torill Kornfeldt or Karin Waller on stage. Which would've been most unfortunate.

    I'd like to thank each and every program participant. I was most impressed by the way you guys took the stage and delivered your parts, hooray! I belive that this year's programming was the best I've been involved with and I'm looking forward to seeing you all in many a future cons! Special mention must go to Ben Roimola, who took the torch and handled presenting Never Mind the Buzzaldrins like a real pro, after I realised I was in no condition to do it myself! I may have to start scripting these things more, it was great to be in the audience for change!

    In hindsight, It might've been wise to let someone else do the Just a Speculative Fiction Minute as well, since I was pretty close to collapsing afterwards. Or on Monday. 'Twas fun, though.

    But what can I say about our Guest of Honour? Cat Valente was brilliant, funny, charming, interesting, interested and all-encompassing force of nature. Jetlagged, as one might expect, but eager to hear things, lear´n new stuff and meet new people. And there was hardly a program item she wasn't witnessing or participating: "What, you have knitting program! Can I be in that, too?" 🙂

    Bless.

    All in all, a lovely con with lovely people. Excellent con committee and GoH. Brilliant program participants and general attendees. Win over USA. Lemsip Lemon. NoFF auction. Lavender Man. Jura Prophecy. Sleep. Must do this again.

    Yes, we must do this again, soon. Hey, how about THIS!

  • Historicals

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    Posted by Sari

    As I was temporarily widowed on new year's eve because Jukka worked the whole night through, and couldn't  really leave the apartment as I have a wee puppy dog and an adult dog scared of fireworks at home, I thought I'd gobble together something on books I read last year. I ended up reading somewhere around forty books which is actually more than last year, so hurray! On the other hand, I managed to write about only very few of them, so boo!!!  To rectify the situation, here are a few:

    All the historicals I managed to read this year are mysteries, written by a woman and take place in late 18th or early 19th century. It is all quite unintended, but not really surprising. I have always had a soft spot for regencies, and historical mysteries are my favourite comfort reading.

    Rebecca Jenkins: Duke's Agent
    This is a historical mystery set in county Durham during the Regency era. Our hero, the retired army officer Raif, arrives to small town of Woolbridge to be the agent for non-resident Duke of Penrith. He is viewed by suspicion by the locals, is attacked, accused of murder and stumbles upon financial irregularities in his predecessors accounts. Duke's Agent is interesting in that it has some romance and mystery tropes familiar from regency romances, but its milieu and cast of characters is a bit off the beaten path. The management of great estates and Raif's problems with local elite and his duke's tenants are the most interesting part of the novel. The murder/mystery plot didn't really hold my interest, and Raif himself was just a bit too generic for a hero.

    Anna Dean: A Moment of Silence
    Another historical mystery from the beginning of the 19th-century, this is a bit more familiar affair. Our detective, Miss Dido Kent tries to unravel strange occurrences in a country house where she is staying to witness the engagement of his niece to the only son and heir of Sir Edgar Montague. Things get quite knotty when the fiance disappears and a body of a woman is found in the shrubbery. I found A Moment of Silence quite entertaining and fun, it was a Christie country house mystery moved back in time to 1805, and as such it works quite well. The mystery plot is unraveled quite satisfactorily, and Dido both has a great name and is a a fitting if a little too Miss Marpleish detective. I think I will pick up the next installments to the series at some point, when I want some fluff to go with a hammock and/or red wine and chocolates.

    Tracy Grant: Secrets of a Lady
    Tracy Grant blogs at  http://historyhoydens.blogspot.com/, and as I have enjoyed her take on historical romance over there, I have also been looking for her historical novels. The Secrets of a Lady is a beginning of a series of a romance/mystery series set  – you knew it – during the Regency, but interestingly the protagonists are already married with children when the novel opens. Mélanie and Charles Fraser are toas
    t of London when tragedy strikes and their son is kidnapped. As both of them are competent and experienced people (they met on the continent during Wellington's Spanish campaign), they look for they boy themselves instead relying solely in authorities. During the case Mélanie has to reveal things from hist past to Charles that could end their happy marriage. Again, like with The Duke's Agent, I liked the premise a lot. It is nice to see an established, equal partnership between the protagonists at the centre of a historical romance/mystery instead of the usual boy meets girl thing. The plot seems to be a bit subservient both to the entertaining but very dramatic back story, and the tensions Mélanie's secret causes. However, that is counterbalanced by the nice depiction of the milieus of regency London. I think this is a series which actually might get better further it gets.

    Barbara Hamilton: The Ninth Daughter
    Fantasy author Barbara Hambly has written historical mysteries under the name of Barbara Hamilton. The Ninth Daughter is a first in series where Abigail Adams, wife of the later president John Adams solves crimes in colonial Boston. In this one, Abigail finds a dead woman in the rooms of her friend, the said friend missing. The murder might have something to do with the revolutionaries, and John Adams ends up as a suspect. As political tensions rise on the eve of Boston Tea party,  and Abigail must find her missing friend and exonerate her husband. I am a fan of the Founding Fathers, American Revolution and John and Abigail Adams, so this was one of those must-have books. It could have been a terrible disappointment, but luckily this was not the case. The novel was well plotted, the historical Boston nicely depicted, and the characters were not caricatures of themselves. In the light of Abigail's and John's famously companionable and by the day's standards equal marriage, it is nice that themes of women's autonomy were addressed in the plot. Again, a series I am going to continue reading.

     

  • Hyvää Joulua! God Jul! Merry Xmas!

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    Posted by Martti & Mogens

     

    Joulukortti2011

  • Suzanne Collins: Hunger Games, Catching Fire

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    Posted by Sari

    Collins' best-selling series tells about post-apocalyptic America, divided into twelve districts of different status and affluence, and controlled by sinister government in Capitol. Every year, each district will send two teenagers as tributes to compete in Hunger Games, a reality TV-show where they have to kill each other, and winner gets fabulous prizes in addition to keeping his or her life. Our heroine Katniss is from the poorest district and the first novel follows her efforts to survive the games. She and a fellow tribute Peeta act out a romance to get support from the viewers and ultimately refuse to kill each other preferring to suicide. Capitol lets them live and announces them both as winners. In the second novel Katniss' actions are fermenting rebellion, and to neutralise this capitol arranges a sort of ”all star” Hunger Games where previous winners have to fight each other, including Katniss and Peeta.

    I have really mixed feelings about the series so far – I have not read the third novel Mockingjay. I liked the first book a lot and was very pleased that WSOY decided to buy the rights. I thought it was passionate and clever and interesting look at how the “non-scripted” reality shows have changed our engagement with entertainment, and how people pushed to the limit might react. I liked Katniss as a protagonist, she was no passive victim but clearly aware of the ways she could manipulate the bad situation. The world was a bit sketchy, but as I read the novel more on the level of metaphor, that did not bother me.

    The second book was a big disappointment. I thought the plot was not as coherent as in the first novel, I did not like the repetition brought by yet another go at the Games, and I thought he romantic entanglements between Katniss angsting over her two boyfriends was boring beyond words. But most of all, I found that Katniss had apparently had a lobotomy between the two novels. As the books are written in first person, Collins has to give us all information through her eyes and at the same time keep her ignorant of what is happening. The result is that Katniss seems to be thicker than the big print edition of complete works of Charles Dickens, and just wanders through the novel without any idea what is going on around her. She has much less agency in this book, and that really turned me off. I will read the last book because I care enough of to find out what happens, but it better be a real page turner to redeem the series after Catching Fire.