Welcome to those of you who I have recently "met"! My policy is to give all subscribers access, as pretty much the only posts I lock are uploads of things that I don't want generally available, or things that I want to limit to a specifically fandom audience.
I just noticed that LJ has not crossposted my DW entries since this spring. Well, I guess that's a message. This journal's now defunct. If you want to read my entries, I'm at Dreamwidth.
I'm about halfway through A Very Stable Genius, which is an account of the presidency-so-far of the man currently in the White House written by two Washington Post investigative reporters, Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig. I had read a pre-publication excerpt in the WaPo, and decided I wanted to read the book when it came out. I forgot about it until a few weeks ago, when my sister-in-law turned 50 and requested in lieu of gifts, she wanted people to buy books online from the bookstore where she works, so that it would be able to stay in business and she'd continue to have a job. (Incidentally, my brother - her husband - works for Amazon, on Alexa tech stuff. It's a source of great amusement and exasperation in the family!) Anyway, I ordered this book, and I'm really enjoying it so far, for a value of "enjoy" that is a bit grim as it's mostly confirming how ignorant Trump is about the job he's in, and how the administration is basically divided between those who gleefully use this to push their agenda and those who set their teeth and tried to mitigate things to keep the country running. I've just read about the firing-by-tweet-while-in-Africa of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who is not someone I ever thought I'd sympathize with but who seems to have been in the latter group. Anyway, it is actually perfect reading for me right now, because I hadn't been able to concentrate on fiction due to current events, but this is entirely pre-Covid while still being relevant and newsy and interesting.
What I'm currently watching:
We are in the home stretch of Outlander - two more saved episodes to watch, and then the end of the season is on Sunday night, I think. The last three episodes have really underlined just how female-gazy this show is, with a lot of manly men having emotional problems that they finally talk about with their manly men friends, or physical problems that are solved by the women in their lives who are more capable than they are. B gets kind of teary watching it, which makes my heart just go awwww, but then again he is a manly man who doesn't shy away from emotional talk, and also gets turned on by his wife's competence, so.
What I'm watching next:
The new season of The Last Kingdom! Or possibly the new season of Westworld! So much out there to watch!
What I'm currently playing:
Still TSIOQUE and Star Stealing Prince. I'm finding myself unable to progress much on either without hints and walkthroughs, which is a bit annoying, because I love the feeling of figuring stuff out on my own. Some of the TSIOQUE puzzles remind me a bit of Day of the Tentacle, stuff that is weirdly obscure, like turning up the volume on a magic TV to annoy the wizard to get him to come shut it off and put the magic wand into a hidden drawer, so you can open the drawer later to get something else.
Crossposted from isis at Dreamwidth where there are comments. | Comment at Dreamwidth
As I mentioned a few days ago, I participated in the Minigame: Round 1 flash exchange for video game fandoms. My gift was this delightful Neko Atsume story, which you don't have to actually know the game to enjoy:
First Contact (1948 words) by fayharley Fandom: ねこあつめ | Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Odd-san | Pepper, Original Characters Additional Tags: Fluff, Aliens, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Space Summary: Zigba Zarxon is hired by the Human Conservation Experimental Environmental Recreation Committee to study the mysterious Earth animal known as 'cats.'
Little Trouble in Big Sky (1664 words) by Isis Fandom: Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon & Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia Characters: Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Original Characters Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Western, Weird West, Song: Toss a Coin to Your Witcher (The Witcher), Witcher Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon, Witcher Contracts, Together They Kill Monsters!, Period-Typical Sexism Summary: Killing the monster was the easy part. Getting the sheriff to pay the bounty - that wasn't so easy.
Someone (not me!) put this up on ffa's 3T1L thread, and it got a little pushback for a few things. First, the character only referred to as 'the whore', which, yeah, I kind of felt weird doing that - I don't like 'whore' as a word, even - but it felt like an important piece of set dressing, and I deliberately didn't name any of the characters, since it was such a short story and I didn't want to do too much extraneous worldbuilding I wasn't going to use - though maybe that makes it less interesting, I guess. Second, someone commented that it seemed odd to set a fantasy-west-with-monsters story in a place in (actual) Montana. The funny thing (to me) is that this was a kind of last-minute choice: I started out calling the saloon the Silver Salamander (which is an actual Witcher game inn), but when the story climax started coming together I realized I had to give the place a name with 'Sky' in it, so I could make the obvious pun/reference (that nobody seemed to notice, or at least, nobody pointed out, so I guess not so obvious!) and that brought to mind Big Sky, which is an epithet for Montana (and the name of a ski resort) so I used it for my town as well as my tavern. Oh, well!
I also wrote a pinch-hit, a teeny bit of femslash for CorinaLannister:
Practice Makes Perfect (462 words) by Isis Fandom: Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Triss Merigold/Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg Characters: Triss Merigold, Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg Additional Tags: Sparring as foreplay, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Summary: Yennefer and Triss blow off some steam and get in some practice. And other things.
Crossposted from isis at Dreamwidth where there are comments. | Comment at Dreamwidth
I finished The Westerosi by Mal3, the novel-length A Song of Ice and Fire fanfic that I mentioned last week. ( To recap:Collapse ) I really did enjoy it, although it could have used a bit of editing toward the end. Not sure if I'll read the sequel, as it appears to be a (perhaps permanent?) WIP.
What I'm currently watching:
Outlander! I forgot to mention it last week but I really dislike this season's version of the theme song. Boo.
What I'm currently playing:
Still TSIOQUE. Also, I went back to Star Stealing Prince, which batman had recommended a while back - I'd played a bit of it but somehow hadn't managed to save it, oops, so I had to start over, but I think I got the hang of it. So far the best part is talking to snowmen.
Crossposted from isis at Dreamwidth where there are comments. | Comment at Dreamwidth
I wrote a pinch hit for Smut 4 Smut, the exchange which sprang up this year to take the place of Smutswap; partly because I hadn't written anything rated over T in well over a year and wanted to see if I still could, and partly because I really liked </a></b></a>cousinshelley's prompt involving Maeve adjusting Hector's attributes resulting in great sex, and let's face it, Maeve and Hector are v. v. hot:
her omens of tempest and of calm (1963 words) by </a></b></a>isis Fandom: Westworld (TV) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Hector Escaton/Maeve Millay Characters: Hector Escaton, Maeve Millay Additional Tags: Porn with Feelings, Cunnilingus, Attribute Matrix, Episode: s02e06 Phase Space Summary: “I was wondering, though. Anything else you changed, while you were messing around with my head?” // “No, I didn’t change anything else.” A sudden thought struck her. She lifted a hand and caressed his face, feeling the hard lines of his chin under the softness of his beard. His gaze did not waver from hers. “Would you like me to?”
I also picked up a pinch hit for the Jukebox fest, again mostly because the prompt immediately sparked ideas. These ideas have yet to be actually written down, though. I want to finish my Sutcliff Swap fic first, as it's due in two weeks, aie!
But even with both of those hanging over my head, last Thursday I signed up for Minigame, my very first flash exchange! I'd considered flash exchanges in the past, but for various reasons had never taken the plunge. I've always been a little overwhelmed by freeforms in exchanges that use them, which is why I've never signed up for one before. This particular exchange uses freeforms, but only as a way of prompting - it doesn't match on them - so it was kind of liberating to pick through the freeforms and add the ones that described the sort of things I like, which was way easier than actually writing prompts or details or a letter! And then I didn't have to actually pick any to offer, so, win. (Especially since I'm sure I wouldn't have chosen the particular freeforms that my recip chose - but they were super helpful in giving me ideas!)
Anyway, my assignment is in, reveals are tonight after I am asleep but I hope to wake tomorrow to a gift. Which isn't guaranteed in a flash exchange, but there will at least be a few works in fandoms I know that I can enjoy, anyway!
Crossposted from isis at Dreamwidth where there are comments. | Comment at Dreamwidth
I don't know if this is limited to US listeners only, but in honor of Independent Bookstore Day, Libro.fm (which is affiliated with Powell's) is offering two free audiobooks: Wanderlust, USA by Flula Borg, and On Cats by Charles Bukowski. You need to create an account and use their app and apparently the app is not required.
ETA: I listened to the first 30 minutes of On Cats this morning while running, and it's, uh, weird.
In general reads news, the 2020 SYNC Audiobooks for Teens lineup has been announced. The first downloads will become available April 30th. This year, however, they're using a new app called Sora, rather than Overdrive, and honestly I'm not sure I'm going to do it because I've got enough damn apps for books and audiobooks, and I don't like proprietary formats (previously one would download the mp3 files), and there aren't any books this year that I'm super interested in. Still dithering on this.
What I'm currently reading:
Yes, I'm reading something other than news! But still not an actual book, though as I downloaded it as epub and am reading on my phone, there's not much of a distinction: The Westerosi by Mal3, a novel-length A Song of Ice and Fire fanfic that is a sort of crossover with Star Trek (in that the protagonist is an original character who is a Starfleet Ranger, and there is mention of some concepts from Star Trek and of Winona Kirk) with a few references to The Martian (though it's not a crossover in that way, or even really a fusion, just an homage). This was recommended by vaznetti, and I am about halfway through and enjoying it so far. It's basically the events of A Game of Thrones as observed by a Starfleet Ranger who crash-landed near Winterfell shortly before King Robert's visit, and of course you can't observe without altering, so it's much more than a simple retelling. My favorite thing about it is the worldbuilding: it's basically a fanwank (in the old-school sense) of the ASoIaF worldbuilding from the POV of a member of a technological society reverse-engineering the apparent magical aspects of an unusual planet, with science-fictional explanations for weirwoods and greenseers and the cockamamie seasonal cycle.
What I've recently finished watching:
We're caught up with Peaky Blinders! I really like the confluence of the fictional Shelby family and the real history and historical figures of the 1920s and 1930s, it's like a Michener novel. The cast is pretty amazing and the cinematography is breathtaking.
What I'm currently watching:
Continuing the historical theme, we've started in on the current season of Outlander. Also I finished S2 of Castlevania and am several eps into S3, though this is going to be slow going because now that the weather is decent I'm not spending time on the stationary bike, which is how I have been watching it.
What I've recently finished playing:
I completed the Jaws of Hakkon DLC for Dragon Age: Inquisition, hooray! Ugh, I hate fighting dragons. Now I'm taking a break before hitting Trespasser, which is The Real End, I guess.
What I'm playing now:
A few days ago started playing Myst (or, as the version I have is called, "realMyst: Masterpiece Edition") and...I started getting nauseated again. I think I'll try the point-and-click setting instead of the free-roam setting, but if that doesn't help, I'll have to tap out.
Last night I wanted to play something, though, so I fired up one of the other GOG.com games I bought with my Dishonored refund: TSIOQUE, which is pronounced "Chock", and is the name of the character you play, an angry little princess who has been imprisoned in her castle by the Evil Wizard. It's a point-and-click adventure, beautifully drawn and animated, a bit dark, a bit funny. There's a friendly tentacle! There's a helpful spider! So far most of the puzzles have been easy enough to get with the aid of the glow that surrounds important objects/people if you don't immediately figure it out, though I did look at a hint page for one bit of information. Anyway, I'm enjoying it.
I've periodically mentioned Underwood & Flinch, a series of novels written and performed for podcast by Mike Bennett that I've been following for a couple of years now. He's made the original novel free as e-book on Amazon for today and Monday:
From a fandom perspective: I would rate this M but more for violence than for sex; there is some not-very-explicit sexual content, but there is no f/f or m/m other than a little implied in an orgy scene. I also remember there's a bit of alluded to past f/m incestuous thoughts. There's very little romantic content overall as it's mostly adventure/action/horror with a little humor that mostly comes from the fish-out-of-water aspect of Underwood dealing with the modern world.
I will say that Bennett does an extraordinary job with the podcast, the equal of any professional audiobook I've listened to, and his intros and outros are also enjoyable, so if you like audiobooks I would recommend the podcasts, which I believe are free for book 1 (the same one that is free as ebook). The rss feed on his site seems to be borked, but perhaps the various app versions work? (He's currently on the fourth book, which is Patreon-only.)
Humanoids are enslaved by a race of evil rabbit wizards Find the magic chalices! Defeat the wizard and his wicked minions! Save humanoidanity!
HaggaD&Dah is an adventure for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition made to be played on Passover, either during the day while munching coconut macaroons or under the table during the seder (DC 16 DEX Stealth check or be spotted by your Uncle Morty). Basic rules for Dungeons & Dragons are available for free at the Wizards of the Coast website or you can use the D&D 5th edition core books. With a little bit of set-up in advance, you can play without writing if that is important (DC 14 WIS Religion check to know why writing on a holiday might be a problem). HaggaD&Dah is designed to be a one-off adventure that you can complete in 3-4 hours or as a side quest you can add to an ongoing campaign.
It's adorable, and you don't need to be Jewish to be entertained by it, though it helps to get some of the jokes (and the easter eggs, which are here called matzoh balls).
Worldbuilding 2020 has revealed authors, so I have learned that my amazing gift was written by Sheliak. And I wrote something, too:
A Game of Cyvasse (1870 words) by Isis Fandom: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Tyrion Lannister & Daenerys Targaryen Characters: Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen Additional Tags: Cyvasse (ASoIaF), Post - A Dance With Dragons, Vignette Summary: “I see this is a war game,” Daenerys said, turning the piece over in her hands. “Will it make me a better tactician when I go to war?”
I am not crazy enough to try to invent a chess-like game! But I can at least come up with some rules for the movement of pieces.
...is brought to you from #HamAtHome via jesse_the_k. When you're stuck at home with nothing else to do, why not record yourself doing karaoke to "Nonstop" and then send it to the Hamilton people to edit into a single video?
Fox Fires is a cute and sweet 6-minute animation inspired by a Finnish folk tale about the origin of the aurora borealis. It made me all weepy in a good way. yhlee, you will love it! Thanks to extrapenguin for bringing it to my attention!
Podcasts! I still subscribe to Underwood and Flinch (which the first books are free to listen to) - Mike Bennett has just begun to write and podcast the fourth book, and so far I'm enjoying it just as much as the previous ones.
I am still listening to the NYT podcast series The Argument, as I mentioned last week. I also found that Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History series had a couple of bonus eps; one of them, a followup to his "Divide and Conquer" episode about the possibility (and constitutionality) of Texas dividing itself into multiple states, was actually an episode of the Deep Background podcast by Noah Feldman (a professor at Harvard Law School specializing in constitutional law) in which Gladwell and Feldman talked about a Law Review article that jokingly proposed to make Washington DC into 127 small states, so as to shift the Senate decisively to the Democrats, and it was entertaining enough that I decided to start listening to Deep Background as well.
The next Deep Background episode I chose to listen to - he produces these multiple times weekly, so there is a big library of episodes available - was "We Testified for Impeachment and It Made No Difference", in which Feldman and University of North Carolina School of Law Professor Michael Gerhardt discussed their experiences as two of the three legal scholars who testified at the Trump impeachment hearings. (Gerhardt also testified at Clinton's impeachment hearing.) After that, though, it's been pretty much all coronavirus all the time. ( Most interesting to me, cut because bleak:Collapse )
What I'm currently watching:
Peaky Blinders - halfway through season 4, and holy crap that's Aiden Gillen! And Adrien Brody! I am particularly enjoying the themes of ethnicity and family loyalty (we've had, what, Romani and Irish and Jews and Russians and now Italians) and the complexities of navigating life while beset by PTSD, and the glorious artsy filming, and the grittiness of lower-class life contrasted with the luxuries of the rich.
Castlevania - halfway through season 2, and I agree with thistle_chaser and hamsterwoman, I don't like it nearly as much as S1. I think that (for me, at least) it's because I care about Belmont, Sypha, and Alucard (who I totally OT3) and I don't care about Dracula's goons. (I liked the implied arc of Lisa turning Dracula into a more nuanced person with an understanding of humans, but the reverse is less interesting!)
What I'm currently playing:
Still plugging along on the DA:I Jaws of Hakkon DLC. I love the treehouse camps! Also, despite pretty much keeping the same party the whole time, I'm still getting entertaining banter.
Thread and Web (1226 words) by Anonymous Fandom: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Arathim Ascendency & Tavra (Dark Crystal), Brea & Seladon & Tavra (Dark Crystal) Characters: Arathim Ascendency, Tavra (Dark Crystal) Additional Tags: Arathim Ascendency - Freeform, Dreamfasting, Worldbuilding Summary: This is not threading; this is not dreamfasting. This is something new.</p>
Okay, I should say first that I only recommend this if you are familiar with the fandom, because it doesn't make sense otherwise (and contains spoilers), but if you are? Read it, it's great! It is is everything I wanted from this request, and actually, everything I wanted from my similar request for Chocolate Box. It connects Gelfling dreamfasting with Arathim threading, and explores how a hive mind incorporates a new perspective.
I also enjoyed: Avert, an Outcast fix-it AU in which Beric's tribe does not reject him, and builds on what we see of his clan in the book to create a picture of life in Dumnonia.
Rivers of New York and New Jersey, in which Abigail writes to Peter and her thesis advisor about her fieldwork (though I recommend turning off the creator's style, which I found gimmicky and hard to read).
I know, I'm not supposed to touch my face, so I'll let Sandra Oh facepalm for me. As you may recall, I'm watching Castlevania, and the other day I saw S2E2, "Old Homes", in which the following exchange happens, and I don't even have to watch it again because it's famous enough to be on the wiki:
Sypha: ...if you two can manage not to kill each other while I'm gone. Alucard: Oh, please. We're not children. [she leaves] Trevor [in a totally deadpan voice]: Eat shit and die. Alucard [in a totally deadpan voice]: Yes, fuck you. [Both bust out laughing.]
I mean, it was hilarious - when Trevor and Alucard first meet, they try to kill each other, but they very quickly realize that they have the same objective and ought to be allies. But my heart sank like a stone. You probably don't remember, but in my Yuletide reveals post and subsequent discussion I mentioned that I deleted a comment on the Dark Crystal f/f I wrote, and elaborated by saying Basically it was "they would never kiss, they would be yelling obscenities at each other!" and I was - how can you leave that on a gift for someone, who specifically asked for these characters developing a relationship? You're not just insulting my writing, you're insulting the recipient. So I deleted it.
Want to guess what their comment was? Yeah, it was the above dialogue (with characters switched out for the ones I wrote, and without the bracketed info that gives context). I feel terrible for so completely missing the point that I made an angry reply, then deleted both reply and comment. The comment disappeared from my AO3 inbox (I don't think I deleted it) so I have no idea who it was who left it, but if you happen to be reading this, I am so very sorry that I didn't know the context and misinterpreted your comment! I feel like a terrible person!
Anyway. So that this post isn't entirely about my stupidity, have a plague meme, first seen chez ambyr and hamsterwoman. I've adapted their version to list things that are relevant to my own life, which I think is the point of this meme, right? (Like, others are listing Last time I went to the office, but I work from home full-time so not bothering with that one.) ( The last time I...Collapse )
News. Social media. News. Scary graphs. A few more chapters of The Flight of the Heron.
What I'm currently listening to:
I couldn't focus on audiobooks so I downloaded the past month or so of the NYT podcast The Argument, and listened to that while running. It was sort of surreal listening to discussion of the current crisis from the point of view of weeks ago. I had forgotten, though, that my new (as of late October) phone doesn't have a headphone jack, and so I had to get clever and figure out how to find the actual files downloaded from Podbean, and then copy them to Dropbox, and then copy them from my computer to my little mp3 player. That done, I have also ordered a pair of inexpensive bluetooth earbuds for the future!
What I'm currently watching:
B and I are midway through S3 of Peaky Blinders. Exiled Russian aristocrats woohoo! I'm also five episodes into Castlevania, which I watch while riding the stationary bike. (The weather's been crap lately, which I don't mind running in but won't ride in.) I can see what the big pairing has got to be, which I admit is perfectly set up to appeal to me - yep, though I'm pleasantly surprised upon checking AO3 that the obvious OT3 has nearly as much fic. ("Both. Both is good.")
Speaking of fic, I am also pleasantly surprised that people are reading a lot of fic right now, and commenting on it - a couple of days ago I got THREE comments (from different people, on different fics) and today I got TWO, from completely different people and on different fics than the previous! Even more amusingly, all five stories are in different fandoms. I am filled with delight at this!
I hope you are all doing well out there in internet-world ♥
ETA because I forgot it originally: Also, I'm really enjoying the take on the virus situation by the Australian political/contemporary cartoon First Dog on the Moon (at The Guardian, which has no paywall, but I subscribe to it online partly because I appreciate the lack of paywall!)
Ostensibly, still The Flight of The Heron, but really I'm mostly just reading news articles obsessively. Ugh. I tried listening to the first bit of Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor on my run today, but YA (and actually, this seems to be MG) just isn't appealing right now, so I went back to music instead.
What I'm currently watching:
Still Peaky Blinders! We finished the first season (the last episode was a bit over the top, I thought) and are two eps into S2. I'm still really enjoying the layeredness of this show, and also the marvelous filming.
What I'm currently playing:
Mostly just the Jaws of Hakkon DLC for DAI. Every time I tried to play Dishonored I got nauseated, apparently because first-person games often do that to people, so I've given up and returned it for a store credit.
I was supposed to race a half marathon on Saturday, but (unsurprisingly) it was canceled; we decided that maybe we'd go skiing today instead - we have weekday passes at the local resort and it rained here, snowed there all day Friday - but our governor closed all the ski resorts for at least a week, just in time for Spring Break. I mean, on reflection I think that's the right thing to do, but our tourist town is still rebuilding from the summer of forest fires two years ago, so I'm concerned about local small businesses and the people who work in them.
I've been working from home for the past 15 years, so it's nothing new to me, though some cow-orkers are slightly freaking out. sholiohas some working-from-home tips - I don't agree with all of them, but they may help you if you're not used to it. My best advice is that when I find myself excessively goofing off on the internet instead of working, I set an alarm to give myself another 10-15 minutes of goof time, and when the alarm goes off, I go back to work. (The problem with a timer, as opposed to an alarm, is that I look at the actual time and it is, say, 10:23, and so I say to myself, "well, I'll just goof until 10:30, then," and I look up again and it's practically 11. I set my alarm for a nice even quarter hour time, 10:15 or 10:30 or 10:45 etc, and then I have no excuses when it goes off.)
In fandom news, I've been writing - finished my Worldbuildingex assignment, need to get started on the Smut4Smut PH I picked up and my Sutcliff Swap assignment. Also, for my run the other day I had a rather short podcast episode to listen to, so to pad it out I also put sisi_rambles's podfic of my Rivers of London OC-centric femslash story Healing Waters onto my mp3 player - I'd downloaded it ages ago - and it was awesome! I kept thinking what a great story past-me had written, and how do I manage to do that again? It's funny how the distance of a few years and also someone who isn't me reading it aloud changes things.
And some links:
There's been a surge in spam followers on Dreamwidth; if you get followed by an empty journal with a .ru link in its profile (or any other suspicious-looking user) place a support request and choose the category "anti-spam". I did this today, when I got such a follower, and the account was suspended within an hour! (Info via dw_antispam.)
STELLA'S BEST LEAF JUMPS OF ALL TIME (Youtube) - I've watched this a bazillion times, because it's just so adorable. Stella is a yellow lab who really, really, REALLY likes jumping into leaf piles.
ETA, and argh, I can't believe I forgot to post this: Tor has a collection of short fiction by women for free download in honor of International Women's Day, and unlike their e-book club you don't have to be in the US or Canada (I think): Nevertheless, She Persisted.
What I've recently finished reading:
The Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa. The one in which a half-kitsune orphan girl raised in a temple and a cursed-sword wielding samurai trained from birth to be emotionless go on a road trip across fantasy-Japan and fight monsters and fall in love. Two stars on Goodreads means "it was okay," and that's how I felt about it; I probably wouldn't have finished were it not an audiobook, though I liked the fantasy-Japan monsters and culture, and the ronin Okami who is fantastic comic relief and reminded me a bit of Varric from Dragon Age. Weirdly paced, a rather peculiar MacGuffin, and although things came together near the end, I felt as though a lot of threads were not obviously going places until then.
Irritations: Tatsumi was hit by the stupid stick early on, though (again) the presumable reason for this is revealed near the end. The writing is repetitive, with a lot of boring angsty introspection, and Kagawa overuses the verb "stated" (characters "state" their dialogue rather too frequently) and also uses "greet" frequently, always intransitively, which just sounds wrong to me. (That is: "Hello, samurai," the woman greeted.)
It ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but I don't feel inclined to seek out the next book.
What I'm reading now:
I'm almost done with Imagine the Ocean by Damkianna, the ATLA AU in which Katara is the Avatar. Also I've started The Flight of the Heron by D. K. Broster, and it's got a definite Sutcliff vibe, what with the scenery porn (though I'm a bit offended that Windham hates mountains! How can one hate mountains??) and the close male friendships and the slight edge of the numinous that could be supernatural or could be simple coincidence.
What I'm watching now:
B wanted to watch Peaky Blinders, which I think I'd suggested a while back but neither of us knew anything about other than that it was about a 1920s era street gang (and I think for some reason I thought it was set in New York rather than Birmingham). I was instantly riveted! I didn't realize the story would be so deep and intricate, with strong threads of politics (Communists! Romani!) and set very firmly within the post-WWI trauma of both the men who fought and England as a whole. Also, it's beautifully filmed, conveying the essential grittiness of a working-class industrial city in an almost elegant way.
And Alfred the Great and Brian de Bois-Guilbert are both in it! Uh, I mean, David Dawson and Sam Neill. And of course Cillian Murphy's cheekbones. My favorite character so far (we've seen the first 4 eps of S1) is Aunt Polly, the iron matriarch behind the Shelby family.
What I'm playing now:
Uh, games? I have started both 1bitHeart and Dishonored, but haven't done much with either. I've also been poking at the Jaws of Hakkon DLC for Dragon Age: Inquisition.
Still Imagine the Ocean by Damkianna, the ATLA AU in which Katara is the Avatar. I've also been reading a bit of fanfic here and there. Honestly, mostly I've been reading news articles lately.
What I'm reading next:
As luzula has discovered a source for free and legal (well, uh, not strictly legal in the US) ebooks of D. K. Broster's Jacobite Trilogy (that is, The Flight of the Heron and sequels) I guess I'll be reading that. :-)
What I've recently watched:
sovay had recently recommended Julia Hart's Fast Color (2018), which turned out to be free to stream on Amazon Prime, so I cadged B into watching it with me. The relationship among three generations of mysteriously-gifted (cursed?) women was the best thing about it, for me, the difficult prickly emotional connections between Ruth (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who voiced Seladon in Dark Crystal: The Age of Resistance) and her mother (who she barely trusts) and her daughter (who she barely knows) - and also, the connections between the larger environmental disaster of a terrible drought and the smaller and more intimate disaster of these women's lives. sovay's review is more eloquent than I can be, so read that instead. (I will add, though, that it was filmed in northern New Mexico, at the edge of my metaphorical backyard, and also, David Strathairn is in it: he played Klaes Ashford in the TV version of The Expanse, and B recognized him before I did.)
We also watched the Netflix documentary series Night on Earth which is narrated by Samira Wiley and features low-light and infrared camera footage of nocturnal animals all over the world, searching for and eating food, mating, and caring for their young. We also saw a special on the equipment used, and the scientists and filmmakers climbing trees and cliffs and going into caves etc to set it all up. Highly recommended, as long as you don't mind the occasional shot of animals eating other animals (it's edited to not be particularly gory, and such that the viewer's sympathies are generally with the predator rather than the prey, but still). Each episode highlights a different sort of habitat, and shows different animals around the world (some of which I'd never even heard of before, like the colugo).
As you probably know (because I rarely shut up about it :-) I live in Colorado, which in addition to being The Most Awesome State is also "voting" in the Super Tuesday primary - "voting" in quotes because Colorado is a universal absentee ballot state, so most vote by mail/drop-off before Election Day. I actually dropped off my ballot just yesterday, because I was waiting to see what happened after South Carolina's primary on Saturday, and I suspect a lot of people felt the same - and for good reason, not that the drops affected my vote.
Anyway, if you're in the US and in a Super Tuesday state, and you haven't voted yet, go vote! It's the primary, so ignore the pundits and predictions and vote your heart. (My feelings can be summed up by this t-shirt design: she's electable IF YOU FUCKING VOTE FOR HER. But vote your heart, not mine.) And if you're in a state that hasn't voted yet, I might be texting you in the future. (And if you're not American - and also if you are - cross your fingers that November will bring a change.)
A short update, as I'm not feeling well: we went skiing on Monday and I fell onto my head (helmet) which possibly precipitated a neck and head-ache which began yesterday afternoon and has not yet dissipated.
What I've recently finished reading:
The Queen of Nothing, which is the fairly solid conclusion to Holly Black's "Folk of the Air" series. Most of the hanging threads were resolved, and I liked the tension and high stakes, though I'm still not a fan of the breathless first-person present tense, and also not a fan of teenagers, whether mortal or fairy. I was happy to see characters from the previous books I think, though I would have enjoyed it more had I re-read the previous books just before reading this one.
I also read Across the Bough Bridge by Mackenzie Kincaid, who I used to know via fandom (I think redroanchronicles?) A story about all the precautions and rituals and preparations needed for going shopping in Fairyland; I saw the ending (which was okay but not really my thing) coming, but I enjoyed getting there.
What I'm reading now:
After discovering that my wonderful Dark Matter gift for Chocolate Box was written by Damkianna, whose pseud I recognized from a few original f/f works I enjoyed from previous exchanges, I poked through her back catalog and found the Imagine the Ocean series, an ATLA AU in which Katara is the Avatar, guided by Aang's ghost. It looks like book 3 was last updated in 2016, so I'm guessing this is permanently unfinished, but I'm enjoying the first novel-length story, anyway. It's not a fandom I'm into as a fandom, but the concept is delightful.
Still greeting and stating and listening to The Shadow of the Fox.
What I've recently finished watching:
We finished the fourth and final season of The Man in the High Castle, and all I can say is what the everloving fuck was that??? It felt to me as though the showrunners went, "well, we have an ending for the Japanese stuff, but not for the Nazi stuff, so let's just just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and call it good." Rocks fall, weird things happen, the end?
What I'm watching now:
In a surprise move, B decided it was time for a documentary, so we're watching the Netflix series Night on Earth. Very cool so far.
I was browsing the Dark Matter tag on AO3 for more Two/Nyx stuff (after falling in love with these characters all over again due to my lovely CB gift fic) and found the amazing multifandom video Space Girl by AurumCalendula, which is basically WOMEN OF COLOR IN SPAAACE! and I loved it and you should watch it, too. (If you haven't already - it's from last year's Escapade vidshow.)
Chocolate Box 2020 is revealed! I wrote two things, an assignment and a pinch hit. My assignment was for sewn:
Petals and Thorns (8807 words) by Isis Fandom: Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Astrid | Skjall's Sister/Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon Characters: Astrid | Skjall's Sister, Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon, Original Characters, Jaskier | Dandelion, Priscilla (The Witcher) Additional Tags: Post-The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Witcher Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon, Minor Jaskier | Dandelion/Priscilla, Novigrad (The Witcher), Canon-Typical Violence, Action/Adventure, Backstory draws on Witcher book series canon Summary: Ciri had thought Novigrad, with its bustling streets and crowds of people from all over the Continent, would be safe. But Astrid had recognized her in an instant.
So, about three years ago I wrote the first Astrid/Ciri fic on AO3. And now I've written the - well, it would be the second, except there's a Ciri/all the women in Skellige WIP, so I guess it's the third.
I picked up tablelamp's PH because their prompt made me giggle: "What if an action movie hero (James Bond, Dominic Toretto, Batman, etc.) is having car trouble and calls the brothers Magliozzi? Are Click and Clack excited to have a really fancy or unusual car to talk about, or do they mock the caller for having one?"
Turboencabulator Trouble (1480 words) by Isis Fandom: Car Talk (Radio Show), James Bond - All Media Types Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: James Bond, Tom Magliozzi, Ray Magliozzi Additional Tags: Humor, Ridiculous Invented Car Parts, I don't know why James Bond is in Montana either, Crack Crossover Summary: “Hello, you’re on Car Talk,” said a man with a strong Boston accent. // “This is James Bond,” he said. “I’m currently in a rather heavy snowstorm on an unpaved road somewhere in Montana.”
I loved Car Talk, and I especially loved the way the brothers played off each other and made gentle fun of everything, including their poor callers. The prompt immediately made me think of a basic plot: James Bond calls, they make fun of Bond cliches and come up with some ludicrous solution to his problem, which turns out to be the ACTUAL solution. I googled A LOT to get made-up car parts names, and hit paydirt with the Turboencabulator, from which I took most of them.
As several people noted in comments, in this story James Bond is both a real person AND a movie character. ( This sort of duality is something I love.Collapse ) Thanks to thisbluespirit for Britpicking and for inadvertently providing one of the funnier (to me) lines.
Sword Song by Bernard Cornwell. Not my favorite of this series. Aethelflaed has no agency - she's basically just a MacGuffin who gets beat up a lot - and although this is admittedly a mostly-male-centered series, this seemed particularly bad. I mean, I still love Uhtred, and I enjoyed the "dead man" plot, but in general this was mostly a boring fighting book. I noticed a lot of places where the TV version did things differently, and I can see why. (Osferth, for example, is really a sad sack in the book, and Aldhelm is as mean as Aethelred. Not to mention that in the book, Aethelflaed is 14, half the age of Aethelred; the actress is in her late 20s and the TV character is presented as late teens, while Aethelred seems to be in his early 20s, not much older.)
What I'm currently reading:
Still listening to The Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa, though in addition to the intransitive greeting she also uses the "he/she stated" construction enough that it's noticeable. Also I find Emily Woo Zeller's voice rather grating, and the love interest seems to have been hit with the stupid stick. But I don't hate it, so....
Also I got The Queen of Nothing from the library! It's easy to read, though I sort of wish I'd reread the first two books as I only vaguely remembered some apparently important plot points.
Also, we are plugging along on the fourth and final season of The Man in the High Castle, which I'm still enjoying.
What I'm watching next:
Outlander has started airing again, but we don't like watching things once a week, so we'll probably hold off until hiatus. B has expressed interest in Peaky Blinders so maybe that. I'm still holding out for Gentleman Jack. We'll see.
What I'm playing now:
Nothing, actually, but GOG.com has the Dishonored series of games on sale, so I bought that. Maybe I'll play it.
Chocolate Box 2020 is open! (Well, it's been open since the 14th, Valentine's Day.)
I received two gifts: a cute fantasy-humor ficlet for the Tempur-Pedic "Agent of Sleep" Spec Commercial, Sleeping Beauties, and Nyx and Two sparring and going from antagonists to friends to maybe-lovers over the course of the second season of Dark Matter, a girl you knew (in a day or two).
I also wrote two things! I feel that both of them are totally guessable for different reasons.
Some other things in the collection I particularly enjoyed:
Needlework (Game of Thrones), an Arya and Tywin ficlet set at Harrenhal, because it's Arya still on her (metaphorical as well as literal) journey, not who she was any more, but not yet who she will be.
centerfold (Gideon the Ninth), comic-book artwork of Harrow finding Gideon's titty mags, and a parody titty-mag-style drawing of them.
All the Vorkosigan stories, particularly lean on which is Simon and Aral bonding-slash-commiserating over their shared concern for Miles.
While I'm reccing, I should also mention another country by venndaai which was written for Past Imperfect 2019, a Dragon Age story in which Iron Bull gets accidentally sent backwards through time and meets a (much) younger Dorian. I'm not particularly a Bull/Dorian shipper but I love time travel, and the tropes in this one are delightful, mostly because Dorian's past is so very different from his Inquisition-period future.
I keep thinking about posting stuff but can't seem to get it together, oof. At least I have reads n' things!
What I've recently finished reading:
Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, by Mary Roach (audiobook). I have mixed feelings about this book. The subject matter is fascinating, and I appreciate that Roach goes off on interesting tangents, exploring the human dimensions of...human dimensions, so to speak. I enjoyed learning about how we sense taste, what saliva does, how the different parts of the digestive system contribute to the essential job of getting nutrients to the body, and the theories, both correct and wildly incorrect, about how digestion works (and how doctors studied and tested them back before modern medical tools). I really liked that Roach asked questions that might not have been strictly on topic - how and why is pet food flavored? why do we crave crunchy things? could Jonah have survived in the whale, really? - and found the answers fascinating.
I am less of a fan of Roach's coyly humorous asides, which unfortunately were made even more annoying by Emily Woo Zeller's reading. Also, Woo Zeller's attempts at accents (for dialogue and quoting from historical sources) were uniformly terrible and distracted me from the material.
What I'm reading now:
About 3/4 through Sword Song by Bernard Cornwell. Wow, they really changed things for the TV series (The Last Kingdom)!
In audio, I've started Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa. So far, fairly standard YA with fantasy-Japan setting. Also, partly narrated by Emily Woo Zeller, who is not on the list of my favorite audiobook narrators.
What I'm watching now:
Surprisingly, B decided we should watch the last season of The Man in the High Castle, and even more surprisingly, I'm really into it despite (skip major spoiler) my favorite character, Tagomi, being killed in the first episode. Things are clearly careening toward a dramatic close, and the themes of people trying to hold to their principles and be good despite the world around them - or alternatively, to seek power no matter what - are sadly relevant today. We've seen the first four episodes, and every one has been gripping.
What I'm playing now:
I fired up DA:I again to do the DLCs, though it's rather disconcerting that I was leveled up enough to make the final boss battle relatively easy, yet Jaws of Hakkon is hard again! Also, I've started playing 1bitheart on batman's recommendation. So far I have no clue what I'm doing.
This crosspost is for the benefit of friends who read only from livejournal.
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