“The Poet does not flee from reality; she expands it in her flight.”
— Olaf Bull,
(my translation).
Posts filed in Literature
I think the etymology of this word has to to with putting letters (liter) together. In any case, it’s fictional prose or poetry (preferably the former, but I’m an open soul), and I like it. After all, only morons think reading books is stupid.
The mission
So true
“I have profound admiration for myself. Is this ‘vanity’? The point is debatable.”
— Twisk the Fairy,
Lyonesse III: Madouc, by Jack Vance, page 635.
Starship Troopers
I was supposed to go watch Elizabeth: The Golden Age with two of my flatmates, but it seems it’s on its way out. And as there wasn’t really anything else that was all that appealing, we decided to watch a DVD instead. After a lengthy discussion, we (meaning my two male flatmates and myself; out [...]
Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi
Published in 2005 by Tor Books. Paperback, 313 pages.
A couple hundred years into the future, Earth is a backwater. Humans have long since mastered interstellar travel, but this technology is kept away from the humans on Earth, whose society don’t really seem much different from that we live in today. Excepting of course that people [...]
The Dragon Waiting, by John M. Ford
First published in 1983,
this edition (365 pages, Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks) in 2002.
Winner of the World Fantasy Award in 1984.
In Wales, the boy Hywel rescues a wizard, and travels to the City — Byzantium — with him to become his apprentice.
In Byzantine Burgundy, an old imperial family arrives as governors, and their eldest son — Dimitrius [...]
Beowulf
Beowulf, the movie adaptation of the Old English poem, was a fun experience, especially as it was the first movie I’ve watched in 3D.
I only knew of the content of the poem from John Gardner’s Grendel, which is told from (surprise) the monster’s point of view, and that one pretty much ended with Grendel’s death, [...]
Security precautions
“We stood in the center of a football field-size dome that the Consu had constructed not an hour before. Of course, we humans could not be allowed to touch Consu ground, or be anywhere a Consu might tread; upon our arrival, automated machines created the dome in a region of Consu space long quarantined to [...]
Scalzi likes Sandman
“The three other new guys, Watson, Gaiman and McKean, all got the same treatment [...]“
— Narration,
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi.
‘Tis been a good day, so far…
First, I took my NwN Dwarven monk through a couple of levels. Which is always fun, as they get so many feats and special abilities, it’s a treat to play them. Then, just as I had cleared level 7 and killed Head Gaoler Aelfinn, I was roused by my flatmates who desired my company for [...]
2007-11-28 — Quote of the Day
“In the second century C.E., Loukianos of Samosato wrote, ‘Everyone’s writing history now, and I don’t want to be left out of the furore.’ Loukianos, who was also known as Lucian the Scoffer, then produced a fantasy story called True History.”
— John M. Ford,
in the “Historical Note” to The Dragon Waiting.
Night of Knives, by Ian C. Esslemont
Night of Knives,
by Ian C. Esslemont.
2005.
Bantam Press.
282 pages, hardcover edition.
Even though I enjoyed the book, and ripped through it faster than I have ripped through anything since I had a severe cold about two months ago, I am not sure if I see Esslemont as an independent author. Sure, he is the co-creator of the [...]
Slaughterhouse-5, by Kurt Vonnegut
Slaugtherhouse-5, or the Children’s Crusade. A Duty-Dance with Death.
By Kurt Vonnegut.
156 pages, Torstein Bugge Høverstad’s Norwegian translation from 1970.
First published in English in 1969.
How to describe Slaughterhouse-5? Some other random site that had a review of it simply raved on about it being the brilliant ramblings of a madman on LSD, but I feel that [...]
The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss
The Name of the Wind,
by Patrick Rothfuss.
2007.
662 pages.
Gollancz trade paperback.
This is the tale of Kvothe, a legend in his own time, as he tells it to Chronicler, a man who records the truth. Apparently, the book’s only the first third of a novel which ended up too long to be published as a single unit. [...]
2007-11-13 — Quote of the Day
“It was in midsummer, when the alchemy of nature transmutes the sylvan landscape to one vivid and almost homogenous mass of green; when the senses are well-nigh intoxicated with the surging seas of moist verdure and the subtly indefinable odors of the soil and the vegetation. In such surroundings the mind loses its perspective; time [...]
A Case of Tolkien Hommage
“I tipped an imaginary hat to him. ‘At your service.’
‘Yours and your family’s,’ he replied politely.”
— Kvothe and Stanchion,
The Name of the Wind, page 374.
2007-09-30 — Quote of the Day
I snatch a time when I crouched outside the meadhall hearing the first strange hymns of the Shaper. Beauty! Holiness! How my heart rocked! He is dead. I should have captured him, teased him, tormented him, made a fool of him. I should have cracked his skull midsong and sent his blood spraying out wet [...]
Ullr, the onion of war!
From Wikipedia’s kenning article:
Bárum Ullr, of alla
ímunlauks, á hauka
fjöllum Fyrisvalla
fræ Hákonar ævi;
nú hefr fólkstríðir Fróða
fáglýjaðra þýja
meldr í móður holdi
mellu dolgs of folginn
Simply based on meaning, i.e. without kennings, the passage runs: “Accursed King Harald! We carried gold in our arms during all of Hakon’s life; now the enemy of the people has hidden gold in [...]
Gudenes Fall
Gudenes Fall, by Cornelius Jakhelln.
2007, 428 pages.
Now, this might be a little weird. Gudenes Fall (The Fall of the Gods) is a book that most likely never will be translated into English, and yet, I choose to review it in English. But hey, my English is still worse than my Norwegian.
In the year 1000 AD, [...]
Sigh…..
I haven’t reviewed a single book in two months, while I at the same time haven’t read as many books in as short a time in years.
Luckily, about half of these books were Harry Potter books, which I’ve read before, and I don’t review books I’ve read before. I probably could have left off terry [...]
Seventh term of higher education — what’s up?
So. I’ve been attending NTNU for over three years now, and thus I ought to have completed at least one degree. But, as has been reported here before, no such luck. Or, rather, no such skill, as this has more to do with my laziness, really.
However, I was still supposed to have finished my bachelor [...]
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