(If this isn’t my best review, please bear over with me; it’s been over two months since I read this book.)
2001 (1970, 1962, 1970).
165 pages.
“Induction” (2 pages)
“The Snow Women” (74 pages)
“The Unholy Grail” (27 pages)
“Ill Met in Lankhmar” (62 pages)
Swords and Deviltry is the first collection of short stories in the Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks series’ [...]
Posts filed in Disappointment
Sometimes, I get so worked up over something I want to see, read or listen to, so that the actual thing is unable to live up to my expectations. And then I’m disappointed. Even worse are the cases where I don’t have any expectations at all, but still end up disappointed.
Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber
A Plague! A Plague on Our Houses!
In my Last.fm shoutbox, I was recently asked by one of my readers to post more frequently in my blog, and seeing as your whim is my law, I bring you this: an essay of sorts about the last topic you’d expected me to write about!
One of the things you might not know [...]
The definition of preaching to the choir
You need to have flashplayer enabled to view this YouTube video
Seriously, I don’t know why these people bother. I mean, I agree with much of what the guy said, but jeez, does he honestly believe he is going to win many religious people over by antagonising them? Is this rational behaviour?
And what’s up with the islamophobia of these prominent atheists?
(On a concluding note, I’d like [...]
The Sword and the Sorcerer
The Sword and the Sorcerer is one of the many fantasy movies produced in the early 1980s, most of which have in common that they are so full of cheese and plot-holes you might think they’re Swiss.
In this particular case, the plot revolves around the kingdom of Eh Dan (Edain, anyone? Or Eng Land?), peaceably [...]
Superhero Movie
Rather out of the blue, I ended up seeing Superhero Movie with a friend last night. And man, am I sorry. But I’ll get back to that. First, a plot synopsis.
Rick Riker is Peter Parker, only more (exaggeratedly) so and with more unmotivated and unfun slapstick accidents happening to him. He is in love with [...]
The Golden Compass
I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time, but it wasn’t until earlier this week that I finally got around to getting myself to a screening of The Golden Compass.
In a parallel steampunk universe, the Catholic Church-like Authority is trying to suppress all competition and innovation, in their belief that this is what’s [...]
Another one of GRRM’s ASOIAF fantasy references?
So far, I’ve noticed references to at least two other writers of Epic Fantasy in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. The first was quite simply the use of the name Vance on one of Westeros’ noble families, and the second (which I admittedly didn’t discover myself, I’m ashamed to say) is [...]
Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings
1982.
346 pages, Corgi/Random House paperback.
Several thousands of years ago the seven Gods created the world, and chose a people to care especially for. All of them did this, except Aldur, who became the God of magicians. He also created a powerful Orb which the evil God Torak coveted, and later stole. The sorcerer Belgarath and [...]
Curses! Or constructing next term’s schedule
I checked my course registration page at NTNU (ooh!) about an hour ago, and much to my delight I discovered that I’ve been registered for not two but three courses this spring, and that these three combined fill my required term quota of 30 study points.
English Linguistics gives me 7,5 points if I pass it; [...]
Help! A “challenge”
So. I had an exam in English Language Proficiency just over two weeks ago, where one of the tasks were “language correction: identify, correct and briefly explain the grammar ortography mistakes in the following text”. It was supposed to be 13 mistakes here, but I only found eleven. Can you help me locate the last [...]
I’m concerned for my university
I had my fifth and final exam for the term today, and unfortunately, I thought it was just like the four previous ones.
You see, based on the curriculi and the lectures in the courses I’ve been taking this fall, I’ve been expecting to be satisfied with a straight Cs. Global English had a lot of [...]
w00t!
Finally! Almost two years since I bought and started playing it, and some five or six years since the game’s release, I finally finished Neverwinter Nights!
I was close about half a year ago, too, when I had this rather nice Half-Orc Paladin going for me, but unfortunately, he proved to be no match for the [...]
Concerning music and laziness…
I used to like Minor Majority. I considered them to be one of my favourite Norwegian bands of all time, and there were few things in the world that could soothe me and calm my nerves more effectively than the first couple of chords of “Think I’m Up For You And I”. And the album [...]
Dogma
Watched Kevin Smith’s Dogma again, for the thrid time or so, last weekend. I was hardly as enthusiastic as I was the first time I watched it, but that was three years ago, so I take this simply as a sign that I have matured somewhat. And also of me having watched it before, of [...]
Oh, the shame! The shame!
During my medieval history exam on Monday, I managed to confuse the Battle of Poitiers with the ditto of Agincourt.
I feel like I’m going to melt; at least that would allow me to forget that a professor of history will read my mistake and shake his head in disappointment and disbelief at my folly…
I feel mighty clever!
Because, you know, it took my until yesterday to think of subscribing to TOotS and xkcd through RSS…
Concerning Documentaries
I just watched an Australian documentary about Mullah Krekar (whose real name is Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad), one of the founders of the militant, Kurdish, Islamist organization Ansar al Islam, and an asylum seeker in Norway. The guy whom the Americans tried to use to link Saddam Hussein to Osama bin Laden a couple of years [...]
The Crow
I watched The Crow earlier tonight, and I have to say I very much doubt that it would be as famous as it is today if Brandon Lee hadn’t met such an unfortunate end during the shooting of the movie. Cos boy, this was mediocre stuff.
First of all, the plot. Eric Draven, only described as [...]
The Princess Bride
In the latest issue of SFX (that I’ve got my hands on, at any rate), Neil Gaiman said something along the lines of, “Stardust will fall into that same genre in which The Princess Bride has been hanging around in all by itself for the past 20 years.” That’s the gist of it. And seeing [...]
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
A Midsummer Night’s Dream seemed like a really boring play, at least when compared to the splendid Othello (Iago for teh win! ), so I decided to skip reading it, and just go to the showing of the 1999 movie that was arranged as part of this course I’m taking.
The movie didn’t exactly make [...]
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