2016 – Big project No. 1.

Good morning ladies and Gentlemen ! Bonjour Mesdames et Messieurs ! Here i am again. Sorry for the lengthy wait, the checkup took a bit after the testflight. But now the ship is cleared again for flight, so let´s take to new horizons. Today we travel to the lands of the Dying Earth. No. no, not this one, or at least not in our time. This is the one of Jack Vance, a world and work that inspired the likes of Gene Wolfe and others in creating something similar; a fantasy world that is rooted in science-fiction, most probably inspired by the planetary romances of Edgar Rice Burroghs and others. And as there are many classics I didn´t read yet, I decided as a fan of science-fiction and fantasy ( or genre literature as it is mostly mentiponed nowdays ) why not make the focus of this year something that combines both; though there will also be another great project for this year, and that is wisiting the Earthsea of Ursula K Leguin. But for starters lets stick to the Dying Earth.

I encountered the universe of the Dying Earth some time ago through the anthology The songs of the Dying Earth, compiled by G. R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. It was a tribute to Jack Vance and his strange, beautiful creation. I got mesmerize in a way i get just rarely. It  gave me a taste of Vance´s creation, so i decided that I have waited enough with the exploration of his work.

I got me the compendium Tales of the Dying Earth from Gollancz to effectuate the above mentioned exploration, but I will rather study and evaluate the body of work, one by one. In this post I will be scrutinizing the anthology – first book contained in the compendium – The Dying Earth, which contains 6 tales, ranging from short stories through novelettes to novellas, which are a somewhat strange classifications for me coming from a non english language culture, I mean we have short stories – and they bear the name novella – full blown novels, and we have stories that are bigger than a short story, but not enoguh to be a ful blown novel, so called little novels, and I have a somewhat ambiguous feelings seeing that in english they have even two expressions for these. novelettes and novellas. It´s all kind of confusing, as the novelettes tend to feel like short stories in our own language. But enough of semantics, let´s look at the content of the actual anthology.

I like the fact that the first book in the compendium is an anthology of shorter stories; firstly because I allready said at least couple of times here on the blog: I am a sucker for anthologies; secondly as it gives smaller bites to taste a variety of things awaiting in the whole body of work, so it´s easy to measure what is to our taste and what is to be expected.

So the first story is that of Turjan of Miir. A neat short story of a wizard´s endeavor on learning the art of cloning I would say, though it entails a scullduggery too. So it´s science and adventure in one pack. And the really neat part of it is that there is no literal evil, or good, the reader gets to decide that for himself. Is Turjan an evil wizard/scientist who is partaking in abhorrent actions against natural laws, or is he simply a curious disciple of sciences, or something in between ? Well who knows …

The next story is Mazirian the magician, a fellow rival wizard of Turjan. In this story – that seems to be chronologically also after the earlier one – Mazirian imprisoned Turjan so that he could coerce him to giving up information on his cloning experiments. However these efforts are not bearing fruits at the time of story. In the meanwhile Tsain, Turjan´s partner is harassing with her presence Mazirian, which ends after a time in Mazirian pursuing Tsain. In the pursuit Mazirian encounters other hostile creatures and is forced to fight them, expanding one spell after the other till he runs out, and the subsequent encounter brings his demise forth, meanwhile Tsain escapes and manages to free Turjan. An interesting story, that evokes the random encounters from my RPG sessions. So it´s not just the magic mechanics that were inspired by the work of Jack Vance.

And so comes the next story: Tsais. Tsais – whom we already met in the first story, and also sister of Tsain – a creature cursed to perceive everything as ugly and evil, now coming to Earth from Embelyon in search for beauty and love, only to find evil and horror at first, but then stumbling upon Etarr, a cursed being himself. Together they search for justice. A story resembling a fairy tale, but happening in a land far stranger, than one has seen before. I enjoyed it.

The next tale is that of Liane the Wayfarer. And although Liane is the protagonist, the real stars of this story are Chun the Unavoidable and Lithe. And it was fun reading the original, as I knew the gist of the story from the Songs of the Dying Earth.All I want to say here: “Liane, I´m sorry, I´m so sorry …”.

And so we arrive to the story Ulan Dhor Ends a Dream. Ulan – the nefew of prince Kandive, an accomplished magician and ruler of the city of Kaiin – an accomplished swordsman and budding magic user, embarking on a journey to retrieve two tablets promising knowledge and power. But ends up revealing a nasty “prank” that went on for more than a few years ( approximately 5000 years ) and finding his true love. Not a small feat.

And so we arrive to the last story of the volume: Guyal of Sphere. A story of search, mainly that of knowledge, and becoming a great adventure that we are used to experiencing in our typical fantasy pen and paper role playing games ( yes, mainly Dungeons and Dragons ). Guyal gets to travel the known world of his time, just to meet all kind of people of dubious reputation, just to find more than he bargained for. At a point the story reminden me of the action adventure games of the Legend of Zelda series, exploring a dark dungeon while fending off fiends that pop ot of nowhere. More than satisfying read.

In overall I was very pleased with this book, a read that was new and nostalgic at the same time. I can see that some of the younger readers might be dissapointed with it, as there are so many good contemporary fantasy/sci-fi writers today, and their style, brand might be a lot more complex, so that thay find that of Jack Vance´s somewhat lacking, but well that is not something that one can help with; I mean appreciating history, previous accomplishments takes a certain taste, that not everybody attains, but that is allright.

And so we arrive to the end of our today´s journey. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. We will be back soon, with new adventures. Till then be safe and merry. Captain of the I.S.S. Rover over, and out !

 

Revisiting 2015 – Books (part II)

Ladies and Gentlemen ! Mesdames et Messieurs ! The checkup of the newly installed TJE and refueling has finished. So please take your seats and fasten the seatbelts, as we will shortly continue our excursion through time with another short jump, and well it might get a bit bumpy. Are you all ready ? Well then, here we go !

Though the main focus of 2015 was british fiction, the books I revied in the last post were not the only ones I read. There were other projects, themes of interest, and the “diversification” thing. So lets see some of the more notable titles of these Others.

The first real surprise – and a treat – was The Lies of Locke Lamora penned by Scott Lynch. A fantasy adventure in the modern gritty, realistic sense, though this one does not portrait a conflict of epic scale, but rather gives us a heist story, something that is probably similar to Fritz Leiber´s Grey Mouser and Fafahrd stories. We start out in a 15th-16th century Venice like city, and follow the exploits of one Locke Lamora – a young con artist – and his merry band, the Gentlemen Bastards. The chapters alternate between the present and past, where the past chapters always center on one of the members of the gang. It´s a nice structure, as we get a bit of a relief from all the action happening right now and the characters get fleshed out, we get to know their past, without getting bogged down. I liked this very much. And for a thing there was not much magic involved in the story. Magic does exist in this universe, but it is a very potent resource, and is monopolized by a small and powerfull group, so it remains rare in application. And as the story progresses, the things escalate, even then when you think that they cant escalate any more. Well done mister Lynch. And one another strong point of this book is that though it is a first book in a series, it finishes on a note as if it is a stand alone book: there is a chance to continue the adventures of the merry gang, but you don´t have to. It was a chapter in the life of the gang, and it ends there on a perfect note as the gang leaves the town and sails into the sunset. Complete story from start to begin, and a one off book. You don´t have the guilty pleasure like craving, where you have the need to know what happens next. It is perfectly satisfactory to part the ways with the characters here. So it mitigates my main concern with the modern genre fiction works, which I expressed in earlier posts.  So this is gonna be one of those books I will keep recommending to others.

The next book that left me impressed last year – and was not part of the british fiction project, although the author is an englishman – was Waterloo by Tim Clayton. So history it is, another of my points of interest. And instead of focusing on the First World War, like I did in 2014, I rather opted to focus this time a bit on the Napoleonic era, as it was the 200th anniversary of the end of it, marked by an ultimate last ditch effort of Napoleon after all already ended for him once. And this effort culminated in the Waterloo campaign. The work of Tim Clayton is superb: it does manages to capture the minutiae of the whole campaign, and to vivdly describe not only the crucial moments, but also the many actors who partaked in it; not only the notable commanders, but also the lowly grunts, and the spectatorcivilians alike. It was written in the vein of living history, including many details hailing from personal correspondence and diary entrances, capturing the moments of the day. And I like this approach. Thank god for the work of modern historians who have seen the potential of telling deeply dramatic stories of the everyday man of the time, which due to it´s personal nature manage to connect to the todays men, and so convey the knowledge, the experience in a more personal, involving tone. We need more works in this vein, and thank God that there are plenty historians that are willing to indulge me.

The next stop of remarkable radings of 2015 was the Chess novel (?) – Schachnovella – penned by the austrian author Stefan Zweig. Firstly it picked my interest as the theme involves chess, one of my loved hobbies, and secondly it was by a german language author, and as I now live in Germany it is another deliberation of mine to expand on reading books originally written in german, and thirdly it is high literature, so expanding my horizons in multiple ways. It is a short book, a fine sunday afternoon read.  A story of a man´s descent into Hell and returning from there. A man´s struggle to maintain his sanity in harsh conditions of involuntary imprisonment, just to lose this battle, and to be able to recuperate thanks to others. And later an experiment revisiting that personal Hell that led to his ultimate demise. A story involving the viles of the Nazis in the wake of Anschluss of 1938. It was a personal experience for me on multiple levels: firstly as it involved chess, a cherished hobby of mine, secondly the protagonists experience of incarceration that resonates strongly with mine, and thirdly the cultural background, as we both hail from regions that formerly belonged to the Austro-Hungarian empire/culture – which was finally destroyed by the violent act of Anschluss – a sense of lost history.

And so came October, and with it Ancillary Mercy the final book in Ann Leckie´s Imperial Radch trilogy. An end to journey started back in 2013. And what a journey it was. A new exceptional voice in genre fiction, managing to improve on the premises of the already exceptional first bok with the subsequent sequels, an act managed by only few authors. Delving into the themes of imperialism, colonisation, gender roles in a new fashion. Not to mention that there are also musings on life, regarding what we tend to call “human rights”: who, or what is to be acknowledged as an autonomous intelligent being, who is to be treated as a living person, only biological creatures, or also artificial ones, that are able to act autonomously, make autonomous decisions ? Many things are involved in this trilogy. I would say that Ann Leckie is kind of a female Iain M Banks, so that makes it certain I will continue to follow her work. And I urge you to do the same.

For the next read I chose the second book in Terry Brooks´ Shannarra  series: The Elfstones of Shannara. A book I decided to want to read after I have seen the trailer for the now airing TV show Chronicles of Shannara. As I found out that it was based on he second book of the series, rather than the first, with which I had a dissapointing run in early in my genre reading carreer, I decided to have a second look at the series, and to so do maybe justice to it. I mean the first book of the series was practically a pure copy of the narrative of the Lord of the Rings, and although it was intended as such, it did leave me with a sour taste in my mouth, and dissapointed, as I didn´t want to read more or less the same thing, i wanted something new in the same vein. This unfortunate experience created a prejudice in my mind against the works of Terry Brooks, probably rightly so, but maybe not; and I certainly don´t want to be that person whois shunning something on a pure gut feeling, not even trying to make an educated guess. And so I read The Elfstones. And i must say that I was surprised. Though not all of my misgivings were lifted, it did contain originality at last, something that is Brooks´ own. And that changed the feel about the series also. I didn´t become a convert, I didn´t enjoy the book enough to continue reading the series, more so that the ones who read the series also tend to say that the second volume is the best; and the characters didn´t impress me that much, for me to want to know about their further fates knowing that I might enjoy the subsequent books less. So that´s it for me. Goodbye Shannara ! We might see eacch other on small screen …

And there was one more great surprise to the 2015 at this point: The Builders by Daniel Polansky. A novelett, or novella, but a meaty one at that. It involves a motley crew ensemble of antropomorphic animals – mice, rats, snakes, badgers, weasels, owls etc. – where the archetypes of the characters are reinforced by the attributes we usually tend to connect to these animals. A story of a band of mercenaries who are out for a revenge, culminating in a Dirty Dozenesque action. A story that deconstructs tropes, archetypes, just to put them together in another form, a fun experiment, and due to it a refreshing experience. Nice job Daniel, you put yourself on my radar.

And though it would be nice to finish off here the post with a nice bang, I can´t ommit a slight dissapointment that entailed the last year, I wouldn´t be honest if I didn´t write about it. A it happens 2015 was the year where the presently last installment of  John Scalzy´s Old Man´s War series was published. I already mentioned tha Scalzy  might not be a big calliber writer like Banks, or Bradbury, but rather just a decent craftsman of his trade ( he is saying the same thing too ). So the dissapointment was not all that big and surprising when I got through The End of All Things. But it was a dissapointment nonetheless, as there was a slight hope that Scalzy might find the strength, the power to overcome himself and his writing reflexes. But no, the book wa just more of the same. The life of the old friends, characters just goes on, they don´t develop. There is a slight shift in the universe, but that is also a question if Scalzy will be able to capitalise on it, as new stories in the universe have been announced. I simply don´t see it in him, to be able to evolve further. He will stay a guiloty pleasure of mine, but that makes me sad, to see that he doesn´t even try anymore to go further, but rather complacently stays where he is, as at the beginning it really seemed that he is capable of so more. But whatever, there are others to be looked out for, so I will leave him be. It was nice seeing you again mister.

And that´s it Ladies and gentlemen. I must say that the TJE works just fine. The test run ends here, and I say we return to the base for a change of pace. Do you agree ? Oh, not all of you ? Well that can´t be helped. But lets see what we can do about it next time. Till then have fun and take care ! Captain over and out !

Long time … – “no see”, “no write”

“Bonsoir Mesdammes et Messieurs, Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen !” – is what I would liket to write casually, but how could I ? It has been about a whole year since I have posted for the last time, and it might seem like I have given up on this blog, or blogging at all. But the truth is actually more prosaic: I have been lazy. Or at least lazy to write. Let me elaborate this a bit.

I was lazy to write I said: not just blog posts, but also other things. I have a friend with whom I correspond on a regular basis. That correspondence also suffered because of my laziness. And I am sorry, so sorry because of this ! I mean this blog is not only a book diary for me, more like a diary in general, a kind of a legacy, something that I will be able to show my kids in the future, or they could explore for themselves to see what I was like in a “previous life”, before I became their dad etc. – but that is only a wishfull thinking. Right now it´s still a form of expressing my new old self, so I willo go on in that fashion.

So, I was – I seem to keep repeating myself here – lazy to write, but I wasn´t lazy to pursue other things of interest to me. So yes: I continued to read modestly massive amounts of books, kept trying out new food and beverages, self made or not, kept playing board – and computer games, kept exploring my new home etc. All to a certain degree of satisfaction. The last year was amazing, just the one before it, so let me sum up some of the highlights here and now, and then we will continue in a regular fashion.

So my fellow journeyman, or simple one time passengers, welcome on board of I.S.S. Rover, and let us make our first excursion in time. This is a first for me too. The Time Jump Engine has been freshly installed, and has been not tested, so certain dangers apply. But whatever, this is gonna be fun – “They said.” – so here we go.  This is your captain speaking: do get seated and enjoy the scenery !

So what did I do in 2015 ? I did a lot of things, and didn´t do a lot more … But I will start with the books and my reading endeavors, as they are the most constant, or even significant of interest in my life.

I dubbed 2015 the year of “British fiction”, and that project was quite a succes. So what books did I read in the end ? Let me see. I could provide just a simple list, but as I didn´t manage to provide a separate post about them, and I´m unsure of having the motivation to write them so long after I have read them, I think I will write down my impressions of them, or what has been left of them here. So lets get started.

After I cleared Alastair Reynolds and Neal Asher in the search of new Iain M. Banks I turned to the other side of the speculative fiction. And so the first fantasy book I read last year was: Susanna Clarke´s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Quite a heavy book with fascinating worldbuilding, packed with interesting characters and events. What was a surprise and a delight for me was it´s style, and language. It was like opening and reading a Clarles Dickens novel: it evoked his style and language, and the whole atmosphere of the 19th century England. Pure magic, and just because the story itself is centered on magic and magical exploits of the two main characters, whose names the title bears. A true classic, and one of it´s kind. I mean a book, and is authors rarely manage to be recognised on is own merit and to be such a tribute to another author and time period. And I simply can not fathom how much effort it needed to bring forth a synthesis of such level, but I do suppose that it will stand alone for quite a time. If you are not into Dickens´ heavy 19th century realism style better leave the book aside and watch the masterful screen adaptation of BBC.

The next item on my list is Out of the silent Planet written by C. S. Lewis. Yes, the same C. S. Lewis that wrote the Narnia series. I was surprised to find out that he wrote Science – Fiction also beside the fantasy novels he is well known for, but that meant that is a one more reason to include him in the list of the year of british fiction. The story is that of Dr. Ransom, who gets kidnapped and transported to the planet of Mars by some fellow humans, just to partake in a series of adventures there. To a modern reader the book might seem weird, knowing what we know about Mars. But for a seasoned genre reader it is a delight to discover it. The story evoked in me the Barsoom  series of Edgar Rice Burroughs, probably due to the parallels bewtween it´s main characters Dr. Ransom and John Carter. But it also did remind me of H. G. Wells´ War of the World which probably inspired Lewis to write his own story involving the “martians”. An interesting book if one likes sci-fi predating the “golden age”, and the knowledge obtained on other planets of our Solar system in the later years of 20th century, which made wild and exotic settings possible in our “neighbourhood”, wildly differing from the scientifically possible exotic environments of our present.

The next in the line of british fiction was my favourite british genre author today: Iain M. Banks and the book this time was: Surface Detail. And it it delivers. It is more action oriented – just like the other two of his later Culture novels:  Matter and The Hydrogen Sonata – but it still is as thought provoking, fresh, and inventive as any other novel of his. This time the main theme is Life. Where does it start ? Where does it end ? Does consciousness outside of a physical body deserve the same treatment, rights as one contained in one ? Does it matter if things happen in reality or a virtual environment ? And what about afterlife ? Tons of things layered on top of each other with the usual flare of Banks´Culture: ships/AIs with credulous fun names, and attitudes to match the names. And on top of all this novel is a second work to feature a character that we have already seen in one of the earlier Culture novels. First it was Diziet Sma from Use of Weapons who returned in the novela State of the Art. And now another notable character from Use of Weapons returns. Who ? Go and read the novel(s), and you will find out. This single moment “put the dot on the i” on the othervise allready excelent novel, though it might be the fanboy talking, as Use of Weapons is my all time favourite Iain M. Banks novel.

And for the change of pace I went on and read Bram Stoker´s Dracula. A work regarded as a classic due to it´s influence on pop culture and later works of horror fiction. It is a story written in form of diary and news excerpts, evoking much the Robinson Crusoe of Daniel Defoe. I enjoyed the novel though it felt a bit short, and stylistically crude, not to mention that the final show down was quite anti climactic. So yes, a classic crossed off the list, but otherwise so unimpressive.

To chase off the sourness caused by Dracula´s blandness I went on to read a novel set in Michael Moorcock´s Multiverse: The Warhound and the World´s Pain. And it was a delight: a picaresque stlye adventure set during the Thirty years War, exploring morality in different contexts. Lucifer seeks reconciliation with Heaven, the protagonist seeking reconciliation with himself, a young naive idealist grown up to be a cynic and brutal tool of destruction. A piece worth calling modern classic.

And now after two short novels it was time for something meatier, Peter F. Hamilton´s -another, but alas somewhat failed contender to be the new Iain M. Banks – two parter: Commonwealth saga. Hamilton´s stlye incorporates impressive heavy worldbuilding and tons of viewpoint characters, just like G. R. R. Martin´s, but alas much of this is detrimental to the final product. Hamilton closes in to the actual story in circumstantial manner, which makes the reading of this othervise good story a tedium. He starts the book devoting whole chapters to intoduce single characters. And though separately read these are incredibly detailed and inventive peaces of storytelling, they tend to be boring, all more so when later you realize that most of the storylines, events described in these early chapters are nothing more than dead ends, having nothing to do with the main story, not to mention that due to this, the storytelling also seems disjointed, and the same aplies to most of the characters, most of them dont get to do much later on, or even they don´t appear at all at later stages. So yes, it is nice worldbuilding, intriguing to a Game Master planning to do a role playing session in the universe, but dude please stick a bit more to the point ! In the end I did enjoy Pandora´s Star  and Judas Unchained, but is highly improbable that I will ever own a physical copy of Hamilton´s works.

And after the lengthy Peter F. Hamilton experience, I took two short classics to round of the year of british fiction. First was William Shakespeare´s The Tempest. A story of exile and revenge. Much like the tale of Count of Monte Cristo, but involving magic and comedy. It is a fun work and would like to see it on stage too. Not your typical Shaekesperean drama, so it´s refreshing, but due to it´s technical quirks relating to stage adaption rarely seen and so sentenced to obscurity.

The other was Louis Stevenson´s The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, yet another piece of classic victorian horror/weird fiction. This one is better written than Dracula. Though it also feels a bit short. But it was a fair and satisfactory read.

That´s about it, the project “Year of British Fiction” is deamed succes, though I planned to include more titles than this. One could argue that I could include a bigger variety of periods and genres on my reading list, and I intended to, but I can´t deny that I am mainly a reader of genre fiction, and even the genres of speculative fiction do hold more reading material than I will be ever able to tackle. It´s a hard thing to be a reader in this modern age: every year there are more and more works of fiction to be consumed, but the averrage amount of free time we can dedicate to them stays the same, or gets even more limited, so it´s a tricky game to try and balance what we consume, as one tries to get as much pleasure out of his/her own free time, as possible. So it´s not a surprise one tends to favour his favourite themes, genres, authors to those of other points of interest. But I am ultimately trying to broaden my sight, so stay tuned.

And now Ladies and Gentlemen, we are making a short stop to replenish the fuel and do a quick checkup on the newly installed Time Jump Engine. We will shortly  continue our journey, till then you can relax in the cantine or the library of the ship, though there are other possibilities for recreation too. Captain of the ship over and out.

#JeSuisCharlie

I am a child of the modern, and many friends who know me, know me to be outspoken, rarely hiding my opinion. But yet I rarely speak out for the freedom of speach. I may not be too much of an activist soul nowdays … I´m older and have gotten a bit more easy-going with the years. But there is still a flame somewhere inside of me, so let me share the thougths of a friend which I agree with much …

caffeinated drinks, dry flowers

After the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris, most of my friends stood behind the hashtag/slogan #JeSuisCharlie. Of course, some people say, “no, you’re not, you’re not brave enough, you’re not dedicated enough”, and what can I say, they are right in a way. I’m definitely not a brave person and I’m dedicated to different things (luckily for me, knotwork animals are a rather safe obsession). Most people in my circle of friends who took up the #JeSuisCharlie hashtag are even more peaceful than me, and are dedicated to gentle things such as photography, knitting and gardening. We are ordinary people and I don’t see any fault with that.

And yet, we are Charlie. We are Charlie because we want people to be able to express their opinions without fear. We are Charlie because we want people to make fun of everything, even things we believe in or…

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Turning. Point.

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen ! Today is a special day. What is so special about october 3 ? Well, for one here in Germany it´s a national holiday: German Unity Day, or rather the day of (re)unification. It commemorates the reunification of Germany in 1990. But if that´s not enough for you I can give you another reason.

Welcome on board I.S.S. Rover !

A recurring phrase on this blog, what is so special about it ? It has been a year since I first uttered the above written phrase, and that marks the first anniversary of this blog. And what a year has that been … So, Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the anniversary post of the Keshik´s Excursions !

I hope you enjoyed the journeys we made, I certainly did. And I sincerely hope that you will continue enjoying them as I don´t intend to stop sharing my experiences and projects, be they planned or happen coincidentaly. Some of the projects announced in the “Itinerary” are still running ( The Black Company series (re)read project ), or being in preparation ( Dune “cross-media” coverage in the light of the anniversary of the 1984 David Lynch movie ), and there are some new plans and projects brewing, but about them a bit later. First let me take a look back at this past year.

It has been a year bearing many changes. First of them was this blog, for how and why I explained in the first ever post:

So let me try and explain. I already mentioned new experiences. When I decided to start this blog I was determined to do something new, where the “new” gets to a whole new level. I mean I am no stranger to seeking out new things, but I want to do it differently now.

If you want to get to know more about this, go and read the post here. As second it was the year marking the frst anniversary of my regained freedom. Thirdly: it is the year where I started to read my fiction more, and more in english, thanks to discovering Bookdepositpory.com. And not to forget the lifechanging event- that even stopped my blogging for a while: the Great Relocation Project – aka moving to live and work in Germany ( about that you can read: here ). And that are only the events I can recall not thinking too hard, as I don´t have too much time¹.

And I am proud say that I managed to fulfill my promises/goals declared in those first posts ( or at least 95% of them – editor ). Not to mention the small joy of having fifty posts in these first twelve months, a small achievement I didn´t declare openly, but still strived for; it was a bit of a pressure I put on myself, so that I remember the initial declaration and goals of this blog, the most prominent of them being: SHARING².

But that´s enough of glory and joys of the past. Lets look what holds the future. As it is said:

The only constant in this world is the change itself.

We are changing for the better or for the worst, but nonetheless: we are changing. And so is changing this blog – together with me. Don´t worry, these changes won´t be that dramatical, more like just geting in line with some new ideas, or rather impulses and promisses I made during the year. New projects are coming, lets look at them in no particular order.

Orbit (2008)

As first I am starting a new weekly read project, something I wanted to do again since I finished The Human Division of John Scalzi. So what is it gonna be ? After some thinking the choice has fallen on The Last Wish of Andrzej Sapkowsi. A collection of short stories about Geralt of Rivia ( the witcher himself ) that precede the Witcher saga, and were earlier published in Fantastyka, a polish sci-fi and fantasy magazine. It is a book/series recommended to me by Kasia We, a reader and one of the main inspirators of this blog -and yes a friend, a fellow bookworm, and child of Embercombe.

And if I´m talking about weekly read projects, there will be another one starting somewhere in the early 2015:

TOR (2015)

John Scalzi´s The Human Division is returning for  a second season. On september 19 was revealed the new cover art bearing the actual title: The End of All Things. And this project bears a big “NEW” mark with itself, as around that same time I made another decision that will dramatically influence this project. It´s not only going to be the first serialised novel I will be reading “real time” for the first time in a long time, but will also be among the first “proper” e-book reading experiences, if it won´t be the first ever. What does “proper” e-book reading mean here ? It means that the time has come for me to purchase an e-book reader: partly to be able to haul big quantities of books without having to exert myself physically, secondly to not have regrets buying books that otherwise wouldn´t be worth putting on the shelf. So now that I have a stable job and income I can finally afford to buy books regularly, which means I will be able to buy e-books too, and that warrants an e-book reader.

And not to forget some other fields of Keshik´s Excursions I came up with what seemed a brilliant idea at that moment. Let me elaborate. As I´m now living in Germany I have access to large quantities and broad choice of quality beer. Such a broad choice that I will be trying out a new beverage every weekend for a long time. And so I thought why not turn it into a culinary project, and write about these beers. At the moment I´m not sure of the format, or anything else, how this will be realised, but I´m gonna try and see ifi t works out.

And to return to the reading front a bit, before I depart. I think I have found two contenders to fill in the place left by the late iain M. Banks. As I have been searching for other inspirational, and “fresh” voices in the genre of space – opera/sci-fi I did find two names that are mentioned by many to be  worthy of Banks´ legacy. And those names are: Alastair Reynolds and Peter F. Hamilton, both of them “fellow” british writers.  I will be starting with Reynolds´ Revelation Space ( it´s already enroute – editor ). And for Hamilton, well I haven´t decided yet; his books tend to be bricks, and also parts of quite tightly knit series, so I will take a shot at him after I got my e-book reader.

Aaaaaand, cut ! Well that´s it for today´s anniversary post, ideas, news, new projects, random ranting etc But don´t be too surprised if surprises happen, like for example a Harlan Ellison christmas read project and the likes of it. Sorry for dragging on this long, or finishing so early, but I have stated my reasons already, so get over it. Now I wish you a good night, have fun, and stay safe till we meet again. Captain of I.S.S. Rover over, and out !

But before we part, we need to have some music, there is no anniversary without music. But this time it won´t be a single number, butrather a whole “album”, or rather mixtape. As I said: “I´m hooked on a feeling …” And it is a worthy tribute of an era and a device I have fond memories of.

                                                                    

1. Don´t have much time ? How come ? – Well … To be honest this national holiday of German Unity doesn´t appeal much to mee, so I was working overtime today, and so will I tomorrow, which means I don´t have all night to tinker with this post, but will have to get some sleep too. That´s it.

2. Ohh, I did forget to share something with you. Mea Culpa ! I just couldn´t find yet the time, and/or inspiration to write about it. At the beginning of september I inspected the local cinema, and watched the “Guardians of the Galaxy”. And I must say I´m hooked on a feeling, or rather the “Awesome Mixtape Vol. 1” ( And if you ask: “Yes I still do own a Sony Walkman.” )

 

Treasures hiding in plain sight

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen ! Bonsoir Mesdames et Messieurs ! I haven´t been around for couple of days. Last week I was down in Böblingen, visiting my sister and her family. We were celebrating the birthday of my nefew, and my skills and attention were needed, so I had no time to do my usual stuff. But this week there are no such interruptions, so it´s time for new adventures of I.S.S. Rover. And here we go !

Originally I planned to do a cooking post as my double deck cooking plate just arrived earlier this week. But things happened today. So let me start at the beginning.

The plan was to go down to town, and get all I need for today´s “christening” cooking event. So I frst got to the turkish store to get me some olives and some turkish coffe – not that I need them for today´s cooking, but I´m finally able to cook turkish coffe as I have a coking plate, so I got me some coffe too. And the olives are simply cheaper at the turkish store then at the other stores.

And till here everything went as planned, but then things started happening, and that is the actual topic of today´s post – not that I didn´t cook after, but that is a secondary thing now, although the chilli beans I made were good, and there is plenty left for tomorrow and the day after. But back to the morning event.

So as I left the turkish store I stopped at a gas station to pump up a bit the tires of my bycicle, and there I decided to take a small detour and take the way through the main square of the town. And what a choice it was. As I rolled into the square there was a sight I was not expecting. There were small trucks converted to stores and tables everywhere, with people behind them selling different products. A smile appeared on my face as I realised: “Finally, I found the weekly marketplace !” There were local farmers and different artisans sellng their homegrown vegetables, homemade foodproducts etc. And there were also stands selling “fast-food”, though much more delicious, than the usuall McDonalds and Co. stuff.

First I bought some eggs, as I ran out of them this week. Next I stumbled upon a stand selling cheese, and after talking with the cheese artisan, and trying some of the cheese, I bought some of it. Did I mention that I am a cheese monger ?! Yes ?! Whatever ! So after having me eggs and cheese I set out to look around a bit more, just to get the feeling, and to see and feel all the buzz around me. When the stand of a turkish baker ambushed me. I was pushing my bike when I saw something that was similar to the burek from the Balkans. Burek ( or börek in this case, as it is called  by the turkish ) is a family of filled baked pastries made of a thin, flaky dough. Traditionally filled with cheese or minced meat, but nowdays you have also burek with mushrooms, pizza filling etc.. My favourite is the cheese filled burek. And here I was standing against a börek filled with cheese, basilicum and some spinach. At first it´s a bit unusual, at least for me, as I´m not a fan of spinach – although I liked Popeye the Sailor cartoons – but whatever I had to have a bite of it. What bite ?! Give me a whole börek, right away !

And now that I had my börek I had to find a place where I can sit down and eat it in peace. It took me measly two minutes to find a free bank, so I settled and started eating. The outer crust was as crunchy as it needs to be, and as I got nearer and nearer to the middle part there was always more and more cheese in the subsequent chunks of bites, an exquisite feeling. And the taste of spinach wasnt as dominant as I feared at start. It was a harmonious and creamy experience. Something I hadn´t had for few years back.

To be more exact: something I didn´t expect to experience so far to the west from what I used to call home. But again, an experience I´m glad I made. And also one that I wouldn´t have made if I had stayed in Hungary. It feels kind of like a small wonder. Yet another since I arrived. So one more point for Kempten ! And thank you everyone who helped me to get here !

That would be all for tonight. Thanks for sticking with me ! Enjoy your night, or day, and have fun ! See you soon as the next installment of the Black Company series is coming, not to mention some surprises. Captain of I. S. S. Rover over, and out !

Old (?) habits rarely die (?)

Here I´m again. Just hours after I have finished typing the new Black Company reread post. I´m struck with the need to write about, and share my new experiences, as that was my mission statement about one year ago. This is the 46th post on this blog, and so as the first anniversary nears I am overjoyed as it seems that I will reach and maybe even surpass 48 posts in under a year, which amounts to a 4 posts/month rate, which is aproximately one post/week. And this fact makes me happy, as it means that there are quite a few moments I could share with you, who care to read any of the posts I have published.

It might be that these moments haven´t been that varied till now, as my possibilities have been quite limited due to my material constraints, but now “things have changed …”, just as Bob Dylan sings. Things have changed, in general sense for better: I´m living in Germany, have a job many would consider good. It´s better than anything I´ve had in the last couple of years, and the paycheck allows me to live on my own, not to rely on help of my parents, which gives me greater freedom than I have had for a long time – and that is definitely good. Not to mention the fact that I´m living in the mountains, which – after a few days of frustration over having to climb too much to get home after work, or a trip to the city – means that actually a dream of mine realised, became true. And I was so busy feeling sorry over having to climb too much, that I missed this little fact; and now that I have realised both facts: having a dream come true, and missing that fact in first place I can´t stop laughing. But that´s not the main point of my today´s rant. So let me get to the point.

It´s about changing habits. Not only, or mainly because I live on my own now, as I used to be pretty independent even earlier. But rather the fact that due to the change in place of residence I have to adjust to the lifestyle and opportunities given in another country.
As I mentioned in my “returning” post first I had almost no acces to the internet, only through internet caffes. Since then I managed to get myself a mobile internet connection, so I can check the mail, read some news etc. on a daily basis, but no streaming media, no big downloads. This a substantial change in my life, as I used to be 24/7 on the internet back in Hungary. This also means that I will be missing some TV shows I used to watch regularly for the past few years, like: Sons of Anarchy, Doctor Who, The Walking Dead, Justified, or some new shows like. Constantine, The Strain etc. This is an inconvenience, but will be overcome with time, and is also beside the point of this post, so let me continue.

Where did I stop ? Ah yeah: “24/seven internet access …” And now that I don´t have it, I find myself reviving some old habits from the era of 64 kbit/sec modems. I open a dozen of different websites, save the articles that I have interest in, and then go offline to read them in peace, not having to worry about the data-stream limit prescribed in the present internet service contract.

It is a cold, rainy sunday afternoon. I am sitting on my bead, having an opened bottle of bear beside me on a chair, sipping it slowly, listening to a radio station. Feeling relaxed and typing on my newly acquired notebook, and ofcourse reading the recently opened and saved various articles from all over the internet. It feels so retro, even though by historical standards at least the “internet” as a technology, a mean of communication, and source of information is quite young.

And I also have to admit that I enjoy listening to the radio more than watching – or listening in background – the TV, as it distracts less, and gives a chance for multitasking like reading, or writing ( be it a letter, or a blogpost, or anything else ), not to mention that they seem more substantial than anything I have experienced in the TV lately. And I still haven´t acquired a proper radio, I´m listening to it on my cell ( mobile ) phone through earbuds. Not as comfortable as lsitening to a radio without headphones, but good enough.

And I must admit that I enjoy the things as they are right now. Not that there aint things I don´t miss: like a cooking plate, so I could cook some more varied food than I can do with a steam cooker, or to boil me a water to make some decent tea. But it´s just a “matter of days” till I will overcome these small hindrances.

So let me return to my bear and reading. Go, have a drink – be it alcoholic, or non alcoholic beverage – listen to some good music, or some good live radio show, read an article, or a book. Slow down, and enjoy your day ! Your favourite captain out and over !

Return of the missing

And here I am Ladies and Gentlemen ! After some four weeks of being absent. Let me paraphrase the writer of Tom Sawyer:” The news of my early death are somewhat exaggerated.” – though I do know people who would rejoice if they weren`t; but then again, who doesn´t. The truth be told, this short period of my disappearance from the “ether” did sometimes feel like an experience close to death. As it was an absence not only from my blog, but from internet access at all. My whole usual routine and the communication lines were shattered ( a bit of an exaggeration is allowed here, I think ). It does sound dramatic, but it wasn´t half as bad as it sounds. There are sometimes changes in peoples lives that tend to do this.

But let me start from the beginning. In the middle of July I got a job offer I couldn´t refuse. And this job offer went with geographic relocation. But not only that, It also called for quite a number of bureaucratic actions too, not to mention the need for urgency.  I had ten days to wrap up the things in Hungary and to travel to Germany and take up the job. Luckily I had help in Germany to find accommodations, but those didn´t include a computer and internet access. But here I am now typing on my own notebook.

Though I have relocated to Germany, it is not a quite unknown country for me. I have spent some time here earlier. And I also happen to have some family members too living in Germany. So I enlisted their help. And among other accessories my brother in law did lease me a notebook that was standing in his storage. So, one problem solved. But that doesn´t mean that all the problems are solved. I still don´t have a stable internet connection. For the time being I´m hunting for wi-fi hot spots, and occasionally if needed I use an internet caffe to do what is urgent. And though it helps, it´s still not ideal: the wi-fi hot spots I found are at such places I cannot connect the notebook to a source of electricity, so my time there is limited by the capacity of the batteries, and the internet caffé is at a remote place and opens only at noon to be visited regularly.

So I will have to arrange for something with an ISP. Though, my choices are somewhat limited. I´m in the city of Kempten, in Bavaria. For the time being I live on the western slopes above the city. The owner of the flat I´m renting now doesn´t want to connect any landline internet connection, so I will have to go with a mobile-access. That will be enough for the everyday communication needs, and uploading the occasional blog posts ( as I can type the text offline in any text editor/processor and the copy and paste it – like I´m doing it right now ). Though it will still impose some limits to some other ventures of mine. But well, that´s Life for me now.

With time even these things will sort themselves out. The most important thing – that the regular communication channels are restored – is achieved. I´m back, and continuing my regular activities. I am soon going to post the new installment of the Black Company (re)read project: I not only finished reading the Bleak seasons, but due to lack of any other reasonable possibilities I read further on and finished also She is the Darkness. And not only that, but I also managed to read The Guns of August from Barbara Tuchman also. And I just started reading an anthology of early science fiction compiled by Isaac Asimov, titled. Before the Golden Age ( vol. 3). So there is going to be plenty of material up soon.

Some of my other projects are put on a halt for now. Like for example the Fantasy General replay, or the different Dune computer games replays as this notebook and other current accommodations are not suitable, or at least are not ideal for these projects. Maybe I will find a solution for it later this year, or maybe these projects will be discarded entirely, we will see what brings the season. I´m not ready to let go of these projects yet so, I will try my best to find some solution, and keep them on schedule too, but I can´t guarantee anything.

So for now welcome back on the I.S.S. Rover, and wish you further joyful journeys with the crew ! This was the captain speaking. Over, and out.

Reread of the Black Company series

Good morning everyone ! Finally it’s time to kick off one of the main projects for this year. It is time to embark on a reread of the Black Company series, penned by Glen Cook. Do I hear ” What is this Black Company series about ?” question being asked ?  Well, the series is a story of roughly fourty-some years of a mercenary company going by the name Black Company. It is the last free company of a world they call Khatovar. It portrays the every day life of soldiers waging a dirty war, and they are no saints, most of them are in for the hard cold cash. And it would be nice if you get to fight only the enemy, but the political infighting can get you attacked even by what you think is your own side. So it’s no easy game to survive on a day by day basis, and it’s easy to put down morals when you want to survive. This series drags you down to the mud, no one stays clean, but there is a chance for redemption. Will anyone from the company take that chance ? And where will that lead them ?  Well you can either read the books for yourself, or join me on my excursions here, and you might get the answer. Glen Cook as I am informed was doing “dark and gritty” before anyone thought about sticking those words together. So basically we have a military fiction, with realistic portrayal of characters and every day soldier life against a dark fantasy background. No knights in shiny armors, but betrayal and other sorts of danger lie around every corner.

So, now … Let’s get down to the details. The series consists of ten novels, of which nine deal with the actual company, and it’s members and events they partake in, and we have a tenth volume which is kind of a spin-off and deals with events concerning some former members of the company and one of it’s adversaries. For the reread I will use the omnibus editions published by Tor Books:

Tor Books (2007)

Tor Books (2008)

Tor Books (2009)

Tor Books (2010)

When I first got the idea to revisit the world of Khatovar somewhere in may last year, I was planning to (re)read only the first three novels: The Black Company ( A Fekete Sereg ), Shadows Linger (Lappangó Árnyak ) and The White Rose ( A Fehér Rózsa ) – as those were translated and published in Hungary. I had read those three novels, and regarded them as a trilogy. I didn’t know yet how much I was mistaken – that it’s not “only a trilogy” – and at that moment I still didn’t decide to start this blog, so that was a project I planned for my blog I write in hungarian language. I was not aware of how much this all will change soon.

Couple of days later  Graeme Flory began his reread hosted on Tor.com. That was the moment I realised that the Black Company series actually spans ten novels, and that I want to read them all. So, yes this (re)read of mine owes much to Graeme’s, but I don’t intend to only copy his feature. Firstly: the tempo of this reread will be slower than the that of Graeme – I intend to read one novel per month – starting in February – so that the experience spans almost the whole year. Secondly ( and this is where it will be different ): I decided to make it into one of cross-media experiences of mine –  in this case to couple the reread with replaying one of my favourite video games, namely the Fantasy General.

SSI (1997)

This game is of quite a big relevance. It is a turn based strategy game published in 1997 by SSI ( Strategic Simulations Inc. ), and it revolves around a rebelion that takes part in a fantasy world much similar to that of Khatovar. The game engine is that of the renowned Panzer General, slightly modified to accommodate the differences in style, as here your army has a leader, and there are also some spells that can be used. It is basically an operational level game, but unlike Panzer general  where each unit represents a battalion sized group, here we have a wide variety of units ranging from  single heroes to squadrons counting as many as fifteen soldiers. The game consist of four consecutive campaigns – where each takes place on a different continent – and a final mission that takes place on the Fire Isle, and the goal is to defeat the Shadowlord and his four generals.

And to make this replay more interesting I recruited a friend of mine to help me. As if I was playing alone I would be able to finish the whole game with only a single general out of the four of which the player can choose. But with the help of my friend, I hope I will be also able to analyse the differences in approach and strategy that come with choosing a different leader to your army. These playthrough posts will come separately of the book (re)read posts, and I’m not yet sure what format they will take, if it will be a simple review or a if it will be a transcript of the conversation I will have with my friend as we discuss the different details and aspects of the game. That’s it about. And as a bonus I will add the covers of the novels that were published here in Hungary. I hope we will meet in Khatovar or the Fire Isle. Till then take care, and have fun !

Valhalla (2000)

Valhalla (2001)

Szukits (2006)

The Season’s Upon Us

 

The season’s upon us, it’s that time of year
Brandy and eggnog, there’s plenty of cheer
There’s lights on the trees and there’s wreaths to be hung
There’s mischief and mayhem and songs to be sung

Dropkick Murphys – Signed and Sealed in Blood (2013)

Yes, my dear fellow bloggers, followers, minions, fellow geeks, or simply readers, the days has come again. It’s december 24th, christmas eve. So yes, the holidays have arrived ! The day on which in the so called western civilization, or world the tables are full with various foods and drinks, pine trees get decorated, and usually the family gathers to celebrate – whether they celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ or something else is a different story. And as it usually is with family gatherings, this one tends to turn into a mess too, at least in our family.  Or at least this was the tendency until couple of years back. My sister lives with her husband and kids in Germany, and as the kids were small in the past 10 years, it was always me and our parents going to visit them for christmas. And it always ended with someone being mad at one or more other family members, and as I tried to smooth out the things for the sake of calm and happy coexistenz and celebration, I tended to get in the line of fire. After couple of years I decided I don’t want to spend my christmas, arguing, bickering, and listening to others pointles resentfull rants. Since then I tend to spend the christmas eve with dear friends, or if they are not available: alone with a good book or computer game, drinking some tea etc.

And as it happens, this year I’m again not visiting my sister in Germany, for reasons I don’t want to discuss here- but to be honest it’s the messiest reason to date in the family’s 21st century christmas annals. I will still be getting together with my parents for a festive dinner, but apart from that I will be spending some quality time alone, investing it in my geek traditions. So let me introduce you to these traditions of mine.

I like to have fun. Especially on christmas, I like my fun laid back, comfortable, warm, with one word: cozy. This involves enjoying a good story: whether it be a book I can read, or a movie I can watch, or be it told by someone. But this not all there is to having fun on christmas. As a kid there was always some gaming involved: I used to play chess with my grandfather, rummy, or some boardgame with my parents and sister. I tried to preserve this gaming aspect of christmas too, beside the enjoyment of a good story. And thanks to technological development of recent decades there is a way to connect the afforementioned  two aspects of a well spent christmas, and it is the genre of adventure games on personal computers. Yes, I do alude to the point & click type adventure games, not to be confused with computer role playing games, which tend to be also heavily involving, and laced with compelling storytelling.

For this years christmas I have chosen the Syberia conceived, and designed by a belgian comic artist Benoît Sokal. It is a story that follows an episode in life of a young lawyer, namely Kate Walker, as she tries to close a deal on a matter of a takeover of a factory and it slowly turns into an adventure, where she is trying to answer some more fundamental questionsconcerning her life, and her lifestyle.

If you are interested in the game, you can get it ( as the sequell too ) over on GOG.com . And not to be a spoilsport, but tomorrow you will probably able to get it with a discount of up to 80%, but if you miss this, you can still get it with a discount of 50% till 29th of december.

But it’s not all about puzzles, and storytelling with games. I do like a good dose of humor and hillariousness in christmas gaming, and to satisfy this need I prepared another game. This time it is a remake of an old classic, but classic in it’s own right too: Lode Runner: The Legend Returns. It is a single screen platformer, where the goal is to collect all the gold pieces, while dodging the red robed figures. It can be played as a single player, but also as a cooperative effort by two players. It involves runing, climbing ladders, digging holes, setting up traps, and of course lot of laughing.

And Lode Runner is going to be the highlight of christmas eve. It’s not simple nostalgia. We have a mutual history, that began on 31st of december 1994. It was the first new years eve that I spent with a friend, and that we celebrated the coming of new year in a “most unusual” way. We played video games all night: partly on Sega Mega Drive, or Sega Genesis as it is known in the USA, and partly on a contemporary IBM PC. And the highlight of the night was the Lode Runner: The Legend Returns. Those are some fond memories, and I remember shocking my friends grandmother. She brought as cookies and tea, and in the heat of gaming I did shout out: “Come and get me you red scumbags !“, which said in serbian language, and taking into consideration the history and some other circumstances, it actually means: “Come and get me you communist bastards !“. It is a fun and clever puzzle – platformer. So it always get’s played around christmas.

Orbit (2013)

And when it is enough of action I do take a book into my hands, to relax a bit. And this year it is going to be Ancillary Justice penned by Ann Leckie. I started reading this book in november, but then came work, and I stopped around page 40, so now I’m going to start anew. If I finish too soon with this book, no need to panic, I do have a nother book loaded for christmas season. I already read The Old man’s war, and Ghost brigades from John Scalzi, and those are fast paced, humorous, military sci-fi stories. Clever yet by my standards very lighthearted, but still very enjoyable. So it was just matter of time when I will get to the last instalment of the so to say trilogy: The last colony. Well, when my november paycheck arrived I went to the http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/ and ordered the book, and last week it arrived. So I’m looking forward to finish reading it till 31st of this month.

Tor (2008)

But it’s not all. I did say that I used to play chess with my late grandfather. Him teaching me chess started me on the road, that lead me to other games: be it computer-, or boardgames, or RPGs. And now as there is no one left to play chess against, on the second deay of christmas ( or Boxing Day as they cal it in the UK ) I take out my chess set, set up some chess problems and puzzles, and try to solve them, while sipping black tea spiced with rum.

And that’s about all that there is to be said about my holiday plans. Merry Christmas to all of you ! Have fun, and spend some quality time with your beloved ones ! See you next time !