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+++ b/config/_default/menus.en.toml @@ -101,6 +101,22 @@ pageRef = "/emacs" +[[sections]] + name = "Reviews" + pageRef = "/reviews" + weight = 1190 + [[sections.params]] + section="reviews" + submenu = "sections-reviews" + +[[sections-reviews]] + name = "Books" + weight = 10000 + pageRef = "/reviews/books/" + + + + [[sections]] name = "Star Trek" pageRef = "/star-trek" diff --git a/content-org/brain-rot.org b/content-org/brain-rot.org index 9e935a2..c1b3066 100644 --- a/content-org/brain-rot.org +++ b/content-org/brain-rot.org @@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ #+HUGO_SECTION: -* Brain rot :@brainrot: +* jBrain rot :@brainrot: :PROPERTIES: :EXPORT_HUGO_MENU: :menu "brain-rot" :EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-r img-c rating image @@ -628,309 +628,6 @@ They are, in very small doses. Oshii certainly did! -** Witcher -:PROPERTIES: -:EXPORT_HUGO_SECTION: fantasy/witcher -:EXPORT_HUGO_MENU: :menu "brain-rot-wicher" -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :primary_menu "brain-rot-wicher" -:END: - -*** DONE Time of Contempt (Andrzej Sapkowski, 1995) -CLOSED: [2024-03-24 Sun 22:27] -:PROPERTIES: -:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: time-of-contempt -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract My review of the second book in the Witcher saga -:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-r rating -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(/blog/2024/andrzej-sapkowskis-time-of-contempt //brain-rot/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-time-of-contempt/) -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 3.5 -:END: - -It's a stain of my honor - I am a Pole, but I've never read The Saga. -It's not that I've never read any of The Witcher, but somehow I always stopped after the short stories. -Last year I've decided to finally fix this. -I am a proud nerd for crying out loud! - -#+attr_shortcode: 3.5 "sapkowski-time-of-contemt.jpg" -#+begin_rating -The classic cover -#+end_rating - -/Time of Contempt/ is the second part of The Witcher Saga, but it's also the 4th book about Geralt and his world. -Let's ignore the short stories for a second and let's talk about this book in context of The Saga. -Here it suffers from being the middle child: Andrzej is developing the characters and story, but it lacks a impactful begging and an end. -I haven't felt like that after finishing the /Blood of Elves,/ as it had a /begging/ and the ending was emotional. -Geralt reunited with Ciri. -The story is clearly not over, but we have a kind of closure. -We know she is safe and ready for what's coming next. - -Here? -Here we have no beginning as it follows the last book. -It was to be expected. -But I fail to notice anything new created here. -Yes, we've got /amazing/ development of Ciri (I can't wait what how her blood heritage will screw over everyone), but nothing more. -It just moves from scene to scene[fn:st], not spending any meaningful time anywhere. -After 300 pages of this, it ends with Ciri joining some random group. -I guess I will get to know them in /Baptism of Fire/, but I am not yet there. -Are they good? -Are they cool? -Who the hell they even are? -For me it was a huge let down. - -But the biggest thing missing in The Saga is humour. -Both, /Sword of Destiny/ and /Last Wish/ were hilarious. -It was not on Pratchett's level of humor, but Geralt was amazing when it came to deadpan. -Moreover, I have no idea how well it translated to other languages, as it was based on Polish humour, but: -the books were written for Polish reader who was expected to know /Szewczyk Dratewka,/ and therefore the way Geralt dealt with dragon was a funny refernce. -But this aspect is now completely missingm[fn:enemy-mine], but it was what made the short stories for me. - -The biggest problem for me however was the fact I saw two seasons of The Witcher TV Series[fn:netflix]. -It was terrible and had nothing to do with the book (luckily for me!), but the TV versions of Ciri and Yennefer were irritating at best. -Their book counterparts are not like that - Ciri is extremely cool and Yen is, well, not so bad - but the visual image is etched in my brain. -I finally start to have a separate personnas for them, but it was difficult. -Yes, to some extent Netflix ruined the books for me. - -I was never a fan of /fantasy/, as I always preferred /SciFi/. -Give me a blaster or give me death[fn:rand]! -If I found /Time of Contempt/ as a random book, I would not care for the rest of the series. -It was ok, but nothing to write home about. -Sapkowski has a great style and I very much want more, but he has not told anything interesting here. -I will continue reading The Witcher, but mostly because it *is* The Witcher. - -I liked reading /Blood of Elves/ much more. - -I give it 3.5/5. - -[fn:rand] If you get the refence know, that I am no longer that type of a person. -[fn:enemy-mine] We've got *huge* reference to /Enemy Mine/ in the single best part of the book, but it's not funny at all. -Sad, scary - sure; but not funny. Just like the movie. -[fn:st] ... /No one had a chance to interrupt/. -/It was really quite hypnotic/. -[fn:netflix] And not an episode more. -It was already too much. - - -*** DONE Baptism of Fire (Andrzej Sapkowski, 1996) -CLOSED: [2024-04-25 Thu 16:27] -:PROPERTIES: -:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: andrzej-sapkowskis-baptism-of-fire -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract My review of the third book in the Witcher saga -:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: rating -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(/brain-rot/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-baptism-of-fire/) -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 4.25 -:END: - - -/Baptism of Fire/ is the third novel in the /Witcher/ saga. -While I had not that positive reaction to /Time of Contempt/[fn:toc], this time I loved every page. - -We start where we left last time: Ciri joins Rats in the middle of nowhere, while Geralt tries to find her. -Reads like every novel in the series. -Andrzej seems to have a template for a book at this point. - -But I *loved* this book. -And it comes to who is it about. -Yes, we've got Ciri. -Yes, we've got Yennefer. -They exist, but we spend almost the entirety of the book with Geralt, Jaskier and a band of mischiefs who form a fellowship. -We've got Milva, an archer. -We've also got Zoltanm, a dwarf. -And we've also got Regis, a vampire. - -#+attr_shortcode: 4.25 "sapkowski-baptism-of-fire.jpg" -#+begin_rating -The classic cover -#+end_rating -Having spent quality time with an interesting, diverse crowd made it very enable ride. -They even joke sitting by fire! -I think lack of such interactions is why I disliked the last book. -It was full of Ciri, Yennefer and other sorceresses while Geralt was ignored most of the time. -And sorceresses are so up-tight and irritating, so it was not what I would call a nice time. -Also, here, whenever the action moved to, either Rats or mages, my enjoyment went down significantly. - -I don't know why, as I generally don't read fantasy. -Maybe they are written poorly? -I don't know the standards. -For sure the female characters here have nothing to show compared to /Game of Thrones/'s ones. -It is very hard to write powerful characters who are also female. -Most of the time, they are male characters in skanky clothes. -R.R. Martin was able to create menacing woman, who were still woman. -Sapkowski? -Not so much. -And they are not even funny! - -They look as a poor rendition of older hits. -As an example, the sorceresses have a multi-generational plan to mix genomes from selected people in order to create a very specific being. -It's /Dune/, but while Bene Gesrit so much more involved, twisted and multidimensional, here it comes out of nowhere (I think?) and disappoints. - -But let's ignore the woman for a moment, and we've got ourselves an awesome little book. -I loved how, in one introduction to a chapter, we see the same legend told from both sides - Humans and Elves. -This is where /Witcher/ shines. -It's a great commentary about racism and hatred. -No wonder it comes from Poland, with our complex history. -It's as subtle as a bulldozer, but it's not that type of story. -It's obvious, blunt and takes no prisoners. -History is never easy, there is never a clear split between the good and bad guys. -Most likely everything you know is wrong, as it was written by victors. -This is the overarching theme in the /Witcher/. -Even a vampire may be a good person! - -So, for me Witcher is a moral series /dressed/ as fantasy. -The magic system is barely there, no one explains /how/ Witchers work. -And I think it's a plus. -The meat of the story is not diluted by mechanics of the world. -The fact that we've got that lovable bunch here is just icing on the cake. - -Also, the ending here is much better. -I finished my review of /Time of Contempt/ assuming that I will get to know the Rats in the follow-up. -I didn't know anything about them (nor I cared about them), but I assumed they will be the focus. -I was wrong. -I still have no idea who they are outside superfluous facts the short burst of their story the book has. -I /know/ Regis and I want to spend more time with him. - -So, I left very satisfied. -I found charm and a lot of substance. -I hope that Ciri's plot will develop in interesting ways, as her teenage rebellion may be the end of me. - -[fn:toc] vide [[/brain-rot/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-time-of-contempt/][my review]] - - -*** DONE Tower of the Swallow (Andrzej Sapkowski, 1997) -CLOSED: [2024-05-25 Sat 22:11] -:PROPERTIES: -:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: andrzej-sapkowskis-tower-of-swallow -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract My review of the 4th book in the Witcher saga -:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: rating -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 4.25 -:END: - -It's hard to overestimate how popular the Witcher books were amongst polish youth in the 90s. -Everyone talked about it, the books were borrowed everywhere[fn:nerds]. -And yet I have never read it. -Now, in 2024, I am so close to no longer being a /bad Pole/. - -/The Tower of Swallow/ starts with throwing out the window everything I was expecting after reading /Baptism of Fire/. -Rats? Nope. -Mages? Some. -Ciri? Lots. -Geralt? Lots. -Sapkowski's craft improves with every book and I could not be happier. - -Let's start with the bad. -This book ignores most social commentary, which is a huge letdown. -With each passing book there's less and less of that. -Instead, we're getting better story, characters become more interesting and the story is actually gripping. -They are /better/ stories, but /worse/ books. -If it wasn't for the huge increase in quality of the story, I'd be disappointed and my day would be ruined. - -Now, the good. - -First thing that may surprise the reader: chronology is also thrown out the window. -We learn most of the story from Ciri's gossip /after/ it happened. -Guess Sapkowski became a bit bored with winning all the awards by just being there, so he tried to make it more difficult. -At first, I though that this will remove all the suspense - we know that Ciri will survive, but it fits the story. -It's not about if she gets through, but rather who she will be afterwards. - -And this is the second thing. -/Tower of Swallow/ aimes at different audience, I guess? -Not only is it not about social commentary, not only is not about things Witchers do, but it is no longer an adventure story (for a huge chunk of the text). -Ciri is having a very terrible time here. -She is captured, tortured and abused. -And even though Sapkowski makes it very clear that no sexual abuse is happening, it's still far from what I would expect. -#+attr_shortcode: 4.25 "sapkowski-tower-of-swallow.jpg" -#+begin_rating -Cover -#+end_rating -The character of Ciri is also changing. -She is (rightfully) angry, spiteful and thirst for vengeance. -Basically, a teenager with a sword. - -The books becomes more and more gruesome. -Now, I love edgy stuff so every time Sapkowski describes mutilation, I am all for it. -It is, however, a stark change from the early Witcher stories. -We've got no humor, no fun. -Just pain and suffering. -Even Geralt at one point says that he is no longer a Witcher hunting monsters. -It's a completely different story. -And even if it's less adult oriented, with all the subtext removed - but it's more serious at the same. -The stake are higher, the risks are bigger. -I dig it. - -But the biggest problem at this point is CD Projekt. -We've got the games which take place /after/ the books. -We know that all the destruction, that everyone is talking about, will not have real consequences. -But even if this makes the entire series a bit pointless, it is still a pleasure to read. - -[fn:nerds] at least amongst us, nerds. - - -*** DONE Lady of the Lake (Andrzej Sapkowski, 1999) -CLOSED: [2024-06-15 Sat 22:06] -:PROPERTIES: -:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: andrzej-sapkowskis-lady-of-the-lake -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract My review of the last book in the Witcher saga -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image covers/sapkowski-lady-of-the-lake.jpg -:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: rating -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 3.75 -:END: - - -I had a /blast/ with the Witcher saga. -There were ups, there were downs. -But all in all, it was great. -I have now finished the *most important* Polish series of books[fn:fight], and therefore I no longer feel like a bad pole. -Unfortunately, I did not like the last volume. -My biggest gripe with /Lady of the Lake/ is that it's not an ending, but rather loosely-connected series of endings. - -It starts with Ciri talking with Galahad from King's Arthur court, so yeah. -There's a wild ride in front of us. - -The first significant chunk of the book is a continuation of Ciri's torment. -Everybody wants to either impregnate, take body parts, or simply kill her. -I know life was terrible for her since she got disconnected with Geralt. -I get that it's kind of /the point/ - she is not treated as a person but rather as a (depending on who is on the other site) force or part of a bigger plan. -But come one, give her /some/ break! -At this point I just wanted her to get a break, sit back, and relax. - -This happens (because it needs to), but only in one of the 25 endings that follow. -We've getting an ending of the war plot, a dedicated subplot dedicated to love affair's of Dandelion, yet another plan to get Ciri's DNA, and so on. -It doesn't feel like Sapkowski had a plan to finish every plot he opened, so he just makes a series of endings. -If I hadn't been reading a dead-tree version, I would have assumed that the story will end in a few pages after /every freaking such semi-ending/. - -But at the same time I enjoyed every story from /Lady of the Lake/. -Sapkowski is at top of his game. -He may go overboard with non-linear story telling, but once I /yet again/ understood when I was, I was having a blast. -It's all here: the story, the characters, the style. - -Taking look at the saga as whole, I was expecting something completely different. -It started as a series of funny stories, but most of the saga is dead serious. -I was expecting a lot of the Witcher's huntsm, however through most of the saga, Geralt is solely focused on finding Ciri and has no time for monsters. -I was expecting a lot of nods to Polish reader, and while there were /some/, the books take place in their own world[fn:netflix]. - -Every book is different, author changes the dynamic and puts focus on a different place. -Sapkowski learns from each book and tries (and then mostly succeeds) to correct mistakes with the next one. - -#+attr_shortcode: 3.75 "sapkowski-lady-of-the-lake.jpg" -#+begin_rating -Cover -#+end_rating -But, like with the previous one, tension is removed by the knowledge that the games take place /after/ the saga. -We know that main characters will live, because we meet them in the game. -And even if we don't care about computer games, it's impossible to not see some random picture and as a result spoil the book. -We know that Ciri will not reign fire and destruction upon the world. -Sapkowski may never approve of the story CD Projekt came out with and not treat is a /part/of the cannon, but the fact stands: we know that the world still exist. - -It's a strange situation, where the world knows the books from the games, but the saga is lessened by their very existence. -However, even with knowing that the story is, ultimately, pointless, the saga is well worth a read. -I'd say it's great. -And the last volume I am attacking here is still /good fun/, just not good as an ending of such great saga. - -[fn:fight] Yes, I said it. -No Nobel, but it's the most known piece of Polish culture. -Fight me. - -[fn:netflix] I blame witch-hunt after the Netflix series dropped. -Seems most of the die hard fans never read the saga. - ** Persona :PROPERTIES: @@ -1239,91 +936,6 @@ Those were simpler times. -** Discworld -:PROPERTIES: -:EXPORT_HUGO_SECTION: fantasy/discworld -:END: - -*** DONE Interesting Times (Terry Pratchett, 1995) -CLOSED: [2024-02-13 Tue 21:06] -:PROPERTIES: -:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: interesting-times -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract A very short review -:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-r rating -:EXPORT_HUGO_MENU: :menu "brain-rot-fantasy" -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(/blog/2024/interesting-times/ /brain-rot/discworld/interesting-times/) -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 3.75 -:END: - -Cover blurp: -#+begin_quote -Mighty Battles! Revolution! Death! War! (and his sons Terror and Panic, and daughter Clancy). - -The oldest and most inscrutable empire on the Discworld is in turmoil, brought about by the revolutionary treatise What I Did On My Holidays. Workers are uniting, with nothing to lose but their water buffaloes. Warlords are struggling for power. War (and Clancy) are spreading through the ancient cities. - -And all that stands in the way of terrible doom for eveyone is: - -Rincewind the Wizard, who can't even spell the word 'wizard' ... - -Cohen the barbarian hero, five foot tall in his surgical sandals, who has had a lifetime's experience of not dying ... - -...and a very special butterfly. -#+end_quote - -#+attr_shortcode: 3.75 "pratchett-interesting-times.jpg" -#+begin_rating -Cover -#+end_rating -I am, what one could call, an old school /nerd/. -All I care about are old operating systems, ancient editors and old SCIFI[fn:manga] -Ah, and some text based game where you are a cute "@". -/Of course/ I like Pratchett. - -I started reading him /years/ ago in the only way acceptable - chronological[fn:wrong]. -And I had a few years long pause. -Now, after a series of reading /only/ technical books I am returning to fiction. - -/[[https://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/books/interesting-times/][Interesting Times]]/ is an ok-level Pratchett book. -It's not close to his best, it's not close to his worst[fn:worst]. - -This time Rincewind has to travel to Counterweight Continent and help a rebellion. -There he reconnects with old acquaintances - Twoflower, and Cohen to Barbarian. - -The problem is that there is not much more. -We've got a lot of Chinese things, which is new. -But the story itself is extremely straight-forward. -Nothing memorable happens. -I finished it 2 days ago, and already I would have a problem recollecting any standing out moment. -I still remember moments from other /Discworld/ books a decade after I read them! - -But Terry's writing makes me not care and just enjoy the journey. -He is able to make a boring story interesting, and his characters are always great. -I was reading the book while putting my son to sleep, and I almost gave him a heart attack with a laughter attack. -This alone makes it worth it! - -Not the best place to start with //Discworld// (the best is, of course, /Colour of Magic/) but as n-th book in the series it's very enjoyable. - -I give it a =3.75/5=. - -**** Meta -- Read as EPUB on Onyx Boox Note Air 2. -- Read in Polish translation -- Next up: back to Andrzej Sapkowski's with "Time of Contempt". I am not a good pole, having not read the entire saga. I promise to do it before my 40th birthday[fn:fort] - - -[fn:wrong] It's ok to disagree, just like it's ok to be wrong. -[fn:worst] Being a bad Pratchett's book still means being a very good one. -Most authors would love to reach the level of one of those at least once. -[fn:fort] Which is closer that I expected -[fn:manga] And manga&anime, but that's beside the point. -Not American comics though. -Never cared about those, and it seems I never will. - - - - - - ** Dragon Ball :PROPERTIES: :EXPORT_HUGO_SECTION: anime/dragon-ball @@ -1905,54 +1517,6 @@ CLOSED: [2024-04-14 Sun 18:10] Dune #+end_menu - -*** DONE Heaven Makers (Frank Herbert, 1967) -CLOSED: [2024-06-19 Wed 12:06] -:PROPERTIES: -:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: heaven-makers-1967 -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract My review of an early Frank Herbert novel -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image covers/herbert-heaven-makers.jpg -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 3 -:END: - -Chems are a race of aliens being who learned technology allowing them to live forever. -With everlasting life comes boredom. -To mitigate it, they watch and record lives and history of /lesser/ races, one which being humanity. -They can not intervene, but current team foreseeing operation on Earth may have broken this rule. -Therefore, Kelexel is sent to investigate if this is the case, but he is pretending to be just a tourist. - -At the same time we are observing humans whose lives are being recorded and (maybe) manipulated. - -/Heaven Makers/ is a 1967 novel written by Frank Herbert about an immortal race of space beings who treat humanity as a toy. -OK, there's more to that, but it all boils to this - it's a simple story which gives no indications that just a few years before Herbert published /Dune/. - -Let's get this out of the way: /Heaven Makers/ is not a great book. -It's not bad, by any means. -The plot is decent, the twists are cool, the characters are (mostly) OK. -It's not insulting, but it's never great. -It's also short, so all the underdeveloped or missed parts of the book never develop into real frustration. - -#+attr_shortcode: 3.0 "herbert-heaven-makers.jpg" -#+begin_rating -Cover -#+end_rating -And while I have enjoyed reading it over the course of 2 evening[fn:slow] and would not call the time /wasted/, I'm afraid in a year I'll have very little recollection of the events that I've witnessed. -If anything, it reminded me that I really need to watch /Twilight Zone/. -/Heaven Makers/ is very much like an episode of that type a show. -We've got an interesting question (what would you do with eternity?) with added twist (what if you are the victim of such creatures) developed into a full story. - -One thing reader needs to keep in mind is the age to this book. -Your life being subjected to constant surveillance was something not only seen as scary, but also incomprehensible. -We're now treating is as entertainment (/Big Brother/) or even a way of living. -As always, SciFi comes with a twisted idea and warns us about it. -What we do with it? -Of course! -Let's build our lives around it! - -If /Heaven Makers/ finds a way in your hands, sure - it's a nice read. -But I would not propose people actively search for it. - -[fn:slow] I am a slow reader *** DONE Running Man (1987) CLOSED: [2024-06-24 Mon 23:45] :PROPERTIES: @@ -2161,148 +1725,6 @@ Anyway, a masterpiece. I encourage everyone to at least /try/ to experience it. -*** DONE Hard to be a God (Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, 1964) -CLOSED: [2024-07-07 Sun 22:41] -:PROPERTIES: -:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: hard-to-be-a-god-strugatsky-1964 -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract A short review of an absolut marvel of a book -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image covers/hard-to-be-a-god-book.jpg -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 4.5 -:END: - -I remember, back in high school when we were tasked with reading /The Master and Margarita/. -Teenage me loved this book about devil and demonic stuff. -Then they told us that all of that /cool/ stuff is just a cover to hide the real meaning of the book: commentary on the Soviet Union and communism[fn:teen]. - -#+attr_shortcode: 4.5 "hard-to-be-a-god-book.jpg" -#+begin_rating -Cover -#+end_rating -/Hard to be a God/ is a novel by the famous Strugatsky brothers. -In the undefined future, humans are capable of space travel. -A group of scientists in sent to an alien planet to observe and report back. -The planet is populated by beings living in a society that reminds us of the Middle Ages. -However, the power shifts and a violent, hateful revolution starts taking place. -Intelligentsia is killed by angry crowd, and Don Reba getting more and more powerful. -That alien world is going into revolution. -Coincidentaly, this is how communism overtook Russia. - -This is a hard book to get through. -The subject is very dark, and the form doesn't make it any easier. -One of the biggest problems here is: should observers interfere -The reader /wants/ a gun-blazing ride on Don Reba, but would it be ethical? -The observers have guns and flying machines. -They are able to crush anyone. -But this would only lead to more bloodshed and a circle of violence. - -Which is another interesting aspect of this book - mediation on human condition. -Violence is /inherent/ to human race. -We see it all the time, and the writers put a mirror to our faces. -How many wars were fought not for survival, but for power? -World War I was called "The Great War" and was supposed to be the last war. -Humanity saw the absolute worse it can do, definitely we will learn from it. -We know how it ended. - -/Hard to be God/ is, most definitely, an intelligent SciFi novel. - -But I was not invested emotionally. -It's not visceral book. -It is disgusting, but you comprehand it more with your mind than heart. - -At the same time, it's an easy read. -You could think that with this subject matter, the book would be offputting, but it's not. -I /had/ problems following names at some point, as every male character tends to be Don freaking something, but that's all. -It's an ejoyable read, if you don't focus on what's it actually about. - -But when you do start thinking about the meaning, it becomes a completely different beast. -Authors don't spare the viewer. -There is a scene, where two young adepts are talking about torture methods, like it was nothing. -It' almost funny, if it wasn't so real. - -/Hard to be a God/ is a short book, which is a great but challenging piece of art. -I'd call it a masterpiece, if I were emotionally invested. -As it stands now, it's closer to /Gulag Archipelago/ in a form of story. -Highly recommended, even if this would be your first encounter with Russian speculative fiction. - ---- - -Movies based on /Hard to be a God/ are also amazing! - -[fn:teen] Teenage me hated that, but as I mentioned occasionally, he wasn't very bright. - - -*** DONE Roadside Picnic (Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, 1972) -CLOSED: [2024-07-15 Mon 21:35] -:PROPERTIES: -:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: roadside-picnic-1972 -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract A short review of an absolute marvel of a book -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image covers/roadside-picnic.jpg -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 4.5 -:END: - -/Roadside Picnic/ has a very particular heritage. -There is a book. -It was then made into a movie, which took the last 30 pages and went its own way. It's great. -Then they made it into a game, which takes some ideas for the basic premise, and then the authors went their own way, creating an antithesis of the book. I've been told it's good. -But this time: the novel. - -In the near future, aliens have landed on Earth. -No one knows why, but they came and went without much ado. -Their landing site is now called /the zone/. -Before leaving, the aliens left some artifacts. -We don't know what they are, but there is the promise of giant leaps for mankind. -Therefore, a new occupation is born: - /stalkers/, who venture into the zone and try ans retrieve some alien leftovers. -The zone is dangerous, and stalkers often lose their lives upon making the smallest mistakes. - -But /Roadside Picnic/ is not a book about that. -It's depressing and full of commentary on humanity. -Very often, people call it the best book by the Strugatsky brothers, and who am I to disagree? - -But it is not a book about aliens, or the zone. -Those things exist, but first contact went and gone. -Stalkers are not the heroes of humanity, they are expendable criminals. -We think we may someday understand what happened, but we may as well not. -The aliens visited Earth, but most likely haven't found anything of interest. -What people are dying for, what may change the entire planet, may be nothing but some trash left on the side of the road. - -The cosmos is not something to explore or conquer. -It's vast, and our planet is insignificant. - -And this is what the book is about. -The Zone occupies very small portion of the novel, it's just means to an end. -Red, the main hero, is just trying to make a living. -He is not shy about drinking, visiting a bordello or cheating on his wife. -At the same time, he is not shown as an evil person, because his existence doesn't matter. -Even though he is one of the most experienced stalkers, his death would mean nothing. - -#+attr_shortcode: 4.5 "roadside-picnic.jpg" -#+begin_rating -Cover -#+end_rating -The novel is also much less adventurous than one could expect, knowing the movie or the games. -We spend just a handful of pages in the Zone, the rest happens in the nearby town. -/Roadside Picnic/ is beautiful as anti-SiFi story. -Everything we were taught to believe by western SciFi, the authors ignore. -There is nothing /there/ for us. -We are /nothing/. -Space exploration? -Meeting aliens? -We don't even have any hopes or dreams left. - -But this makes the novel timeless. -Our entertainment is no longer optimistic. -We are not going into /Star Trek/, we missed that ship. -Maybe hope in our insignificance is better than thinking we are our own worst enemy? - -/Roadside Picnic/ gets my high recommendation. -Similarly to /[[/brain-rot/eastern-block-scifi/hard-to-be-a-god-strugatsky-1964/][Hard to be God]]/, the reader may breeze through it. -It's short, and it's easy to read. -But then we reach the last pages, where the weight of the story is passed us. - -There was to be an American TV series based on /Roadside/. -All that we got was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dts0rjp5V8][trailer]] which clearly shows, that it is impossible to make an Americanized version. -In it, a shot of people saluting the stalker is shown, which is a complete antithesis of what the Stugatsky brothers are telling us. - ** European SciFi :PROPERTIES: @@ -2799,112 +2221,6 @@ You wage wars, murder, cheat, lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our :EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :menu_order name :END: -*** DONE Fantasy -CLOSED: [2024-04-14 Sun 18:10] -:PROPERTIES: -:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: _index -:EXPORT_HUGO_MENU: :menu "brain-rot" :weight 2000 -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :primary_menu "brain-rot" -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract The Witcher series -:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-r menu menu-info -:END: - - -#+attr_shortcode: "brain-rot-fantasy" -#+begin_menu -Witcher -#+end_menu - - -*** DONE Witcher (Andrzej Sapkowski, 1990-2018) -CLOSED: [2024-04-14 Sun 18:10] -:PROPERTIES: -:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: _index -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :primary_menu "brain-rot" -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract The Witcher series -:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-r menu menu-info -:EXPORT_HUGO_SECTION: fantasy/witcher -:EXPORT_HUGO_MENU_OVERRIDE: :post "series" -:END: - - -#+attr_shortcode: "brain-rot-wicher" -#+begin_menu -Witcher -#+end_menu - -*** DONE Chronicles of Amber (Roger Zelazny, 1970-1991) -CLOSED: [2024-04-14 Sun 18:10] -:PROPERTIES: -:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: _index -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :primary_menu "brain-rot" -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract The Chronicles of Amber series -:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-r menu menu-info -:EXPORT_HUGO_SECTION: fantasy/chronicles-of-amber -:EXPORT_HUGO_MENU_OVERRIDE: :post "series" -:END: - -#+attr_shortcode: "brain-rot-fantasy-amber" -#+begin_menu -Witcher -#+end_menu - -*** DONE Good Omens (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, 1990) -CLOSED: [2024-08-31 Sat 21:47] -:PROPERTIES: -:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: good-omens-1990 -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract My short revoew -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 3 -:END: - - -But in the dark days o 1990, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman decided to co-write a book - /Good Omens/, which itself will be a parody of the /Omen/ horror movie. -It was quite the popular movie back then, but nowadays, it may be a bit forgotten. - -Pratchett & Gaiman seem like a great combo. -The first one is a great story /teller/, while the later tend to provide better /stories/. -They are also both imaginable authors of speculative fiction. - -The general idea of the story of the book follows the one from the movie: due to Satanist -shenanigans, the antichrist is born to a family in power. -The end of times in near. -But, unlike the movie, it is not to be stopped by a detective but by an unlikely pair of an angel and a daemon. -None of them want to see the apocalypse, so they join forces to stop the antichrist - who turns out to be quite a nice kid. - -For me, a computer nerd, the process of writing such a book is fascinating. -It's 1990, so no cooperative tooling exists yet, therefore Terry and Neil had to send diskettes to each other. -How cool is that! - -#+begin_quote -I think this is an honest account of the process of writing Good Omens. -It was fairly easy to keep track of because of the way we sent disks to one another, and because I was Keeper of the Official Master Copy, I can say that I wrote a bit over two thirds of Good Omens. --- Terry Pratchett -#+end_quote - -and it shows. -/Good Omens/ does not read like a joint venture, it's distinctly Pratchett. -You get Gaiman's love for the macabre and over-convoluted story, but if he were removed the cover, I would have never guessed. -There is a scene of mass shooting, which is something fitting /American Gods/ but it's written like we're in Ankh-Morpork. - -It's not part of the /Discworld/ world, but on the surface it could have easily been. -The humour is there, the seemingly unrelated descriptions which turns out to be an introduction to related thingies and so on. -But the world of /Discworld/ is far more interesting, crazier. -In that series, we've got an insane world and insane characters which try to remain sane. -/Good Omen/ however happens in our, boring world and most of the characters are "normal", but they act insane. - -#+attr_shortcode: 3.0 "good-omens.jpg" -#+begin_rating -Cover -#+end_rating - -Nevertheless, since it's got two authors, it is a bit on the longer side. -Just enough to overstay its welcome by just a bit. -Pratchett is a master of the word and characters, but his stories he tell are rarely interesting - and I was never a fan of Gaiman. -I didn't find what is told here much interesting, I was not curious how they will stop the apocalypse. -Nothing unexpected happened. -If it was 2/3 of the current size, if some of the crust was removed, it would be a better book, as the general idea is very cool. -But even in current state, it's very enjoyable and well worth the read /if/ you love Pratchetts style. - ** Modern Games :PROPERTIES: :EXPORT_HUGO_SECTION: modern-games/ @@ -3357,177 +2673,15 @@ Not bad for a 6 hour game. :EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :primary_menu "brain-rot-fantasy-amber" :END: -*** DONE Nine Princes in Amber (Roger Zelazny, 1970) -CLOSED: [2024-07-22 Mon 23:21] -:PROPERTIES: -:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: nine-princes-in-amber -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract The fastest fantasy book in the wild west -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 4 -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image covers/nine-princes-in-amber.jpg -:END: - -That's one confusing novel. - -Corwin wakes up in a hospital in New York with amnesia. -But the cover of the book has castles and swords![fn:cover] -Well, as it turns out Corwin is one of nine princes of Amber, the greatest city that has ever been. -It is medieval-Europe, but it is said to be the greatest, so who am I to argue? -He will need to get back there and fight for the crown with his siblings. - -That's the basic premise. -What threw me off the guard (except of starting in modern-day NY) is the pace. -I'm no fantasy know-it-all, but it appears that this genre likes to take it's sweet time. -Authors describe every tree by every road[fn:tolkien]. -They love to build their worlds, lore, characters. -Zelazny doesn't care about any of that. -A huge battle where 20 000 people die? A paragraph seems like a proper length. -Magic system? Yeah, let's throw a few sentences here and there. -The main character background, looks and goals? Let's not bother. -This is a short book (my version had just over 200 pages), but with standard wordiness, it could be a thousand pages long leather-bound brick, that would serve as a nice weapon. - -#+attr_shortcode: 4 "nine-princes-in-amber.jpg" -#+begin_rating -Cover -#+end_rating - -This also means that /Nine Princes in Amber/ is extremely shallow. -There is nothing underneath - just a few awful characters, a few OK, and our Corwin. -If there is any subtext, I must have missed it. -And yet, I loved it. -It's pulp, but it goes /so fast/ that I never got tired of it. -It went /so fast/ that I had no time to get bored or lost[fn:tolkien]. -Guess that's why /The Chronicles of Amber/ is one of the most popular Fantasy sagas out there. -It is inoffensive, not challenging in any way, but it's cool. -It knows it, and doesn't pretend it. - -I enjoyed it for what it is. -It's the greatest mindless fun I've had in ages. -It's not /hardcore/ fantasy, and this may be why I liked it so much as I did. -If anything, it's /Magnum P.I./ of the genre. - -[fn:cover] or whatever your edition has -[fn:tolkien] hello Tolkien - -*** DONE Guns of Avalon (Roger Zelazny, 1972) -CLOSED: [2024-08-31 Sat 22:25] -:PROPERTIES: -:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: guns-of-avalon-1971 -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract My short review -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 4 -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image covers/guns-of-avalon.jpg -:END: - -The fastest fantasy in the wild west continues where we left off. -Corwin escaped his prison, and armed with newly regrown eyes, is ready for his revenge. - -/[[/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/][Chronicles of Amber]]/ are like nothing I've ever read. -Mostly because I've never been into fantasy, but still. -At no point of /Guns of Avalon/ nor of /[[/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/nine-princes-in-amber/][Nine Princes in Amber]]/ have I felt that I'm reading a published book. -It's rather what I would imagine as a synopsis of the book that one sends to an agent would look like. - -#+attr_shortcode: 4 "guns-of-avalon.jpg" -#+begin_rating -Cover -#+end_rating - -Characters? Screw them, they only serve a purpose. -The world? Screw it, let's create it as we go. -Magic system? I am sure not even Zelazny has any idea how it works at this point. -But at the same time, I can't stop reading it. -From outside, those two books I've finished sound like pulp. -I should hate it. -But there is so much going on, and those things happen fast. -Corwin's goal this time is to buy carbines from the Royal Air Force and retake Amber. -Yup - this magical being, from an eternal family, who is able to travel between dimensions[fn:shadows], whose eyes just regrown, is planning to retake a magical land using firearms. -And somehow it all makes sense. -/Guns/ serve as a direct continuation of the first book, but the ending paints a different route the series seems to be heading. -I am very much invested and I interested what's going to happen. -I should hate this book, but I love it. - -Zelazny, you were a strange writer indeed. -This series reads like a creation of some D&D infused teen, and yet I can't put it away. - -[fn:shadows] or whatever Shadows are - -*** DONE Sign of the Unicorn (Roger Zelazny, 1975) -CLOSED: [2024-09-07 Sat 22:14] -:PROPERTIES: -:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: sign-of-the-unicorn-1975 -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract My short review -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 4 -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image covers/sign-of-the-unicorn.jpg -:END: - -We are halfway through the Corwin's saga, and Zelazny decides to step up the game. -Sign of the Unicorn is much slower than the previous ones, which is a welcome change. -But it also marks the point when Roger finally convinced me that he understands the word he creates. - -After the battle with his brother, Corwin is faced with a murder of a yet /another/ brother. -This does not lead to a run through the Shadows to buy nukes as I would have expected. -In fact, most of this volume is spent talking. -We have a mystery, the family secrets are coming out. -It's a wholly different experience than what we've had before. - -#+attr_shortcode: 4 "sign-of-the-unicorn.jpg" -#+begin_rating -Cover -#+end_rating -We've got intrigue, we've got drama, we've got betrayal. -We even learn who stands behind Corwin's accident, which happened before the start of /[[/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/nine-princes-in-amber/][Nine Princess...]]/. - -This may the best book of /[[/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/][Chronicles of Amber]]/ yet because Zelazny seems to address most of the downsides the earlier books had. -Characters became actual persons now, with motivation and aspirations. -In fact, the world building is sidestepping for character building, and I, for one, am fully for this. - -As a result, the stakes are also different. -We assumed that all of the /Black Road/ problems resulted from Corwin's curse, but now we learn that there are multiple layers below that. -In fact, a lot of what we thought we knew turns out to be wrong. - -The only downside I see, at leat at this point, is that everyone important is either Corwin's relative or acquaintance. -I get that if you got your position of power purely from the family, the same family will be the centre of your life, but /come on!/. -I want to get to know someone else! - -So, volume three of /[[/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/][Chronicles of Amber]]/ looks more of a correction from the author, than a direct continuation. - -*** DONE Hand of Oberon (Roger Zelazny, 1976) -CLOSED: [2024-09-22 Sun 22:42] -:PROPERTIES: -:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: hand-of-oberon-1976 -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract My short review -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 4 -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image /covers/hand-of-oberon.jpg -:END: - -The plot thickens! -We end where we left of: turns out that Amber is the home of the original Pattern, which is badly damaged, and we need to fix it. - -I think I start to understand why I find /[[/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/][Chronicles]]/ so particular, yet I can't put it away. -The volumes here are not distinct parts with an an beginning and an end. -It's closer to modern-day TV, where you get an interesting hook at the beginning, the middle is ok-ish, but the end makes you hungry for the next episode. -As much as I hate that /binge-watching/ formula, I have nothing against it here. -Fantasy books rarely make anyone rich, but a man's got to eat. -The length of each volume here also doesn't make it any worse, as they all about 200 pages long. -Brandon Sanderson's signature is longer than that. - -#+attr_shortcode: 4 "hand-of-oberon.jpg" -#+begin_rating -Cover -#+end_rating -Story wise, /Hand of Oberon/ is more of the same: scheming of Corwin's family and deepening the world. -The world is not redefined again, but we're once again getting something surprising. -However, since it's the 4th book, it comes a bit predictable[fn:exp]. -While I was not expecting the Avalon not to be /the real/ Avalon in the /[[/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/sign-of-the-unicorn-1975/][Sign of the Unicorn]]/, here the surprise came both, less unexpected and a bit and less important. -But we will see in the next book. -All in all, while I had /loads/ of fun, /Hand of Oberon/ is only the 4th book of the series. -If you've read it until this point, you'll have a blast one more time. -I surely had! -Now, this one of the first /fantasy series/ I've read but, I am surprised by the stability of quality. -While Zelazny has made some changes to the formula since /[[/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/nine-princes-in-amber/][Nine Princess...]]/, they were not significant enough to have any impact on my joy. I like the later volumes more than the first two, mostly due to the slower pace, but I have the same level of satisfaction. -I've got one last chapter of Corwin's story and I can't wait! -[fn:exp] make that "very" if you read a lot of such stories +* TODO +- Moskwa +- monkey 2 +- poniedzialek zaczyna sie w... +- internet's own boy +- diff --git a/content-org/reviews.org b/content-org/reviews.org new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d65e12a --- /dev/null +++ b/content-org/reviews.org @@ -0,0 +1,808 @@ +#+TITLE: Blog +#+AUTHOR: Michał Sapka +#+URL: https://michal.sapka.me/blog/ +#+STARTUP: show2levels indent logdone + +#+HUGO_BASE_DIR: ~/ghq/michal.sapka.me/mms/site +#+HUGO_WEIGHT: auto +#+HUGO_SECTION: review + + +* Reviews :@reviews: +:PROPERTIES: +:EXPORT_HUGO_SECTION: reviews +:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: _index +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract Reviews2 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :reviewSection '(Books) +:END: + +** Reviews + +My reviews of fun things! +* Books [0/0] :@reviews: +:PROPERTIES: +:EXPORT_HUGO_SECTION: reviews/books +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :reviewSection '(Books) +:End: + +** Book reviews +:PROPERTIES: +:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: _index +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract Reviews of books +:END: + +*** Book reviews + +This is a list of books reviewed on my site. +It's mostly all speculative fiction - SciFi or Fantasy, as those the genras which get me going! + +** DONE Nine Princes in Amber (Roger Zelazny, 1970) +CLOSED: [2024-07-22 Mon 23:21] +:PROPERTIES: +:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: nine-princes-in-amber-1970 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract The fastest fantasy book in the wild west +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 4 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image reviews/covers/nine-princes-in-amber.jpg +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :related '("Chronices of Amber: Corwin cycle") +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :relatedName Nine Princes in Amber +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(/brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/nine-princes-in-amber/) +:END: + +That's one confusing novel. + +Corwin wakes up in a hospital in New York with amnesia. +But the cover of the book has castles and swords![fn:cover] +Well, as it turns out Corwin is one of nine princes of Amber, the greatest city that has ever been. +It is medieval-Europe, but it is said to be the greatest, so who am I to argue? +He will need to get back there and fight for the crown with his siblings. + +That's the basic premise. +What threw me off the guard (except of starting in modern-day NY) is the pace. +I'm no fantasy know-it-all, but it appears that this genre likes to take it's sweet time. +Authors describe every tree by every road[fn:tolkien]. +They love to build their worlds, lore, characters. +Zelazny doesn't care about any of that. +A huge battle where 20 000 people die? A paragraph seems like a proper length. +Magic system? Yeah, let's throw a few sentences here and there. +The main character background, looks and goals? Let's not bother. +This is a short book (my version had just over 200 pages), but with standard wordiness, it could be a thousand pages long leather-bound brick, that would serve as a nice weapon. + +This also means that /Nine Princes in Amber/ is extremely shallow. +There is nothing underneath - just a few awful characters, a few OK, and our Corwin. +If there is any subtext, I must have missed it. +And yet, I loved it. +It's pulp, but it goes /so fast/ that I never got tired of it. +It went /so fast/ that I had no time to get bored or lost[fn:tolkien]. +Guess that's why /The Chronicles of Amber/ is one of the most popular Fantasy sagas out there. +It is inoffensive, not challenging in any way, but it's cool. +It knows it, and doesn't pretend it. + +I enjoyed it for what it is. +It's the greatest mindless fun I've had in ages. +It's not /hardcore/ fantasy, and this may be why I liked it so much as I did. +If anything, it's /Magnum P.I./ of the genre. + +[fn:cover] or whatever your edition has +[fn:tolkien] hello Tolkien + + +** DONE Guns of Avalon (Roger Zelazny, 1972) +CLOSED: [2024-08-31 Sat 22:25] +:PROPERTIES: +:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: guns-of-avalon-1971 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract My short review +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 4 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image reviews/covers/guns-of-avalon.jpg +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :related '("Chronices of Amber: Corwin cycle") +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :relatedName Guns of Avalon +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/guns-of-avalon-1971/) +:END: + +The fastest fantasy in the wild west continues where we left off. +Corwin escaped his prison, and armed with newly regrown eyes, is ready for his revenge. + +/[[/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/][Chronicles of Amber]]/ are like nothing I've ever read. +Mostly because I've never been into fantasy, but still. +At no point of /Guns of Avalon/ nor of /[[/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/nine-princes-in-amber/][Nine Princes in Amber]]/ have I felt that I'm reading a published book. +It's rather what I would imagine as a synopsis of the book that one sends to an agent would look like. + +Characters? Screw them, they only serve a purpose. +The world? Screw it, let's create it as we go. +Magic system? I am sure not even Zelazny has any idea how it works at this point. + +But at the same time, I can't stop reading it. +From outside, those two books I've finished sound like pulp. +I should hate it. +But there is so much going on, and those things happen fast. + +Corwin's goal this time is to buy carbines from the Royal Air Force and retake Amber. +Yup - this magical being, from an eternal family, who is able to travel between dimensions[fn:shadows], whose eyes just regrown, is planning to retake a magical land using firearms. +And somehow it all makes sense. + +/Guns/ serve as a direct continuation of the first book, but the ending paints a different route the series seems to be heading. +I am very much invested and I interested what's going to happen. +I should hate this book, but I love it. + +Zelazny, you were a strange writer indeed. +This series reads like a creation of some D&D infused teen, and yet I can't put it away. + +[fn:shadows] or whatever Shadows are + + +** DONE Sign of the Unicorn (Roger Zelazny, 1975) +CLOSED: [2024-09-07 Sat 22:14] +:PROPERTIES: +:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: sign-of-the-unicorn-1975 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract My short review +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 4 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image reviews/covers/sign-of-the-unicorn.jpg +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :related '("Chronices of Amber: Corwin cycle") +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :relatedName Sign of the Unicorn +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/sign-of-the-unicorn-1975/) +:END: + +We are halfway through the Corwin's saga, and Zelazny decides to step up the game. +Sign of the Unicorn is much slower than the previous ones, which is a welcome change. +But it also marks the point when Roger finally convinced me that he understands the word he creates. + +After the battle with his brother, Corwin is faced with a murder of a yet /another/ brother. +This does not lead to a run through the Shadows to buy nukes as I would have expected. +In fact, most of this volume is spent talking. +We have a mystery, the family secrets are coming out. +It's a wholly different experience than what we've had before. + +We've got intrigue, we've got drama, we've got betrayal. +We even learn who stands behind Corwin's accident, which happened before the start of /[[/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/nine-princes-in-amber/][Nine Princess...]]/. + +This may the best book of /[[/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/][Chronicles of Amber]]/ yet because Zelazny seems to address most of the downsides the earlier books had. +Characters became actual persons now, with motivation and aspirations. +In fact, the world building is sidestepping for character building, and I, for one, am fully for this. + +As a result, the stakes are also different. +We assumed that all of the /Black Road/ problems resulted from Corwin's curse, but now we learn that there are multiple layers below that. +In fact, a lot of what we thought we knew turns out to be wrong. + +The only downside I see, at leat at this point, is that everyone important is either Corwin's relative or acquaintance. +I get that if you got your position of power purely from the family, the same family will be the centre of your life, but /come on!/. +I want to get to know someone else! + +So, volume three of /[[/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/][Chronicles of Amber]]/ looks more of a correction from the author, than a direct continuation. + +** DONE Hand of Oberon (Roger Zelazny, 1976) +CLOSED: [2024-09-22 Sun 22:42] +:PROPERTIES: +:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: hand-of-oberon-1976 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract My short review +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 4 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image reviews/covers/hand-of-oberon.jpg +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :related '("Chronices of Amber: Corwin cycle") +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :relatedName Hand of Oberon +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/hand-of-oberon-1976/) +:END: + +The plot thickens! +We end where we left of: turns out that Amber is the home of the original Pattern, which is badly damaged, and we need to fix it. + +I think I start to understand why I find /[[/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/][Chronicles]]/ so particular, yet I can't put it away. +The volumes here are not distinct parts with an an beginning and an end. +It's closer to modern-day TV, where you get an interesting hook at the beginning, the middle is ok-ish, but the end makes you hungry for the next episode. +As much as I hate that /binge-watching/ formula, I have nothing against it here. +Fantasy books rarely make anyone rich, but a man's got to eat. +The length of each volume here also doesn't make it any worse, as they all about 200 pages long. +Brandon Sanderson's signature is longer than that. + +Story wise, /Hand of Oberon/ is more of the same: scheming of Corwin's family and deepening the world. +The world is not redefined again, but we're once again getting something surprising. +However, since it's the 4th book, it comes a bit predictable[fn:exp]. +While I was not expecting the Avalon not to be /the real/ Avalon in the /[[/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/sign-of-the-unicorn-1975/][Sign of the Unicorn]]/, here the surprise came both, less unexpected and a bit and less important. +But we will see in the next book. + +All in all, while I had /loads/ of fun, /Hand of Oberon/ is only the 4th book of the series. +If you've read it until this point, you'll have a blast one more time. +I surely had! +Now, this one of the first /fantasy series/ I've read but, I am surprised by the stability of quality. +While Zelazny has made some changes to the formula since /[[/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/nine-princes-in-amber/][Nine Princess...]]/, they were not significant enough to have any impact on my joy. I like the later volumes more than the first two, mostly due to the slower pace, but I have the same level of satisfaction. + +I've got one last chapter of Corwin's story and I can't wait! + +[fn:exp] make that "very" if you read a lot of such stories + +** DONE Time of Contempt (Andrzej Sapkowski, 1995) +CLOSED: [2024-03-24 Sun 22:27] +:PROPERTIES: +:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: time-of-contempt +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract My review of the second book in the Witcher saga +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(/blog/2024/andrzej-sapkowskis-time-of-contempt /brain-rot/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-time-of-contempt/) +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 3.5 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image reviews/covers/sapkowski-time-of-contemt.jpg +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :related '("Witcher Saga") +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :relatedName Time of Contempt +:END: + +It's a stain of my honor - I am a Pole, but I've never read The Saga. +It's not that I've never read any of The Witcher, but somehow I always stopped after the short stories. +Last year I've decided to finally fix this. +I am a proud nerd for crying out loud! + +/Time of Contempt/ is the second part of The Witcher Saga, but it's also the 4th book about Geralt and his world. +Let's ignore the short stories for a second and let's talk about this book in context of The Saga. +Here it suffers from being the middle child: Andrzej is developing the characters and story, but it lacks a impactful begging and an end. +I haven't felt like that after finishing the /Blood of Elves,/ as it had a /begging/ and the ending was emotional. +Geralt reunited with Ciri. +The story is clearly not over, but we have a kind of closure. +We know she is safe and ready for what's coming next. + +Here? +Here we have no beginning as it follows the last book. +It was to be expected. +But I fail to notice anything new created here. +Yes, we've got /amazing/ development of Ciri (I can't wait what how her blood heritage will screw over everyone), but nothing more. +It just moves from scene to scene[fn:st], not spending any meaningful time anywhere. +After 300 pages of this, it ends with Ciri joining some random group. +I guess I will get to know them in /Baptism of Fire/, but I am not yet there. +Are they good? +Are they cool? +Who the hell they even are? +For me it was a huge let down. + +But the biggest thing missing in The Saga is humour. +Both, /Sword of Destiny/ and /Last Wish/ were hilarious. +It was not on Pratchett's level of humor, but Geralt was amazing when it came to deadpan. +Moreover, I have no idea how well it translated to other languages, as it was based on Polish humour, but: +the books were written for Polish reader who was expected to know /Szewczyk Dratewka,/ and therefore the way Geralt dealt with dragon was a funny refernce. +But this aspect is now completely missingm[fn:enemy-mine], but it was what made the short stories for me. + +The biggest problem for me however was the fact I saw two seasons of The Witcher TV Series[fn:netflix]. +It was terrible and had nothing to do with the book (luckily for me!), but the TV versions of Ciri and Yennefer were irritating at best. +Their book counterparts are not like that - Ciri is extremely cool and Yen is, well, not so bad - but the visual image is etched in my brain. +I finally start to have a separate personnas for them, but it was difficult. +Yes, to some extent Netflix ruined the books for me. + +I was never a fan of /fantasy/, as I always preferred /SciFi/. +Give me a blaster or give me death[fn:rand]! +If I found /Time of Contempt/ as a random book, I would not care for the rest of the series. +It was ok, but nothing to write home about. +Sapkowski has a great style and I very much want more, but he has not told anything interesting here. +I will continue reading The Witcher, but mostly because it *is* The Witcher. + +I liked reading /Blood of Elves/ much more. + +I give it 3.5/5. + +[fn:rand] If you get the refence know, that I am no longer that type of a person. +[fn:enemy-mine] We've got *huge* reference to /Enemy Mine/ in the single best part of the book, but it's not funny at all. +Sad, scary - sure; but not funny. Just like the movie. +[fn:st] ... /No one had a chance to interrupt/. +/It was really quite hypnotic/. +[fn:netflix] And not an episode more. +It was already too much. + + +** DONE Baptism of Fire (Andrzej Sapkowski, 1996) +CLOSED: [2024-04-25 Thu 16:27] +:PROPERTIES: +:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: andrzej-sapkowskis-baptism-of-fire +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract My review of the third book in the Witcher saga +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(/brain-rot/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-baptism-of-fire/ /brain-rot/fantasy/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-baptism-of-fire/) +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 4.25 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image reviews/covers/sapkowski-baptism-of-fire.jpg +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :related '("Witcher Saga") +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :relatedName Baptism of Fire +:END: + + +/Baptism of Fire/ is the third novel in the /Witcher/ saga. +While I had not that positive reaction to /Time of Contempt/[fn:toc], this time I loved every page. + +We start where we left last time: Ciri joins Rats in the middle of nowhere, while Geralt tries to find her. +Reads like every novel in the series. +Andrzej seems to have a template for a book at this point. + +But I *loved* this book. +And it comes to who is it about. +Yes, we've got Ciri. +Yes, we've got Yennefer. +They exist, but we spend almost the entirety of the book with Geralt, Jaskier and a band of mischiefs who form a fellowship. +We've got Milva, an archer. +We've also got Zoltanm, a dwarf. +And we've also got Regis, a vampire. + +Having spent quality time with an interesting, diverse crowd made it very enable ride. +They even joke sitting by fire! +I think lack of such interactions is why I disliked the last book. +It was full of Ciri, Yennefer and other sorceresses while Geralt was ignored most of the time. +And sorceresses are so up-tight and irritating, so it was not what I would call a nice time. +Also, here, whenever the action moved to, either Rats or mages, my enjoyment went down significantly. + +I don't know why, as I generally don't read fantasy. +Maybe they are written poorly? +I don't know the standards. +For sure the female characters here have nothing to show compared to /Game of Thrones/'s ones. +It is very hard to write powerful characters who are also female. +Most of the time, they are male characters in skanky clothes. +R.R. Martin was able to create menacing woman, who were still woman. +Sapkowski? +Not so much. +And they are not even funny! + +They look as a poor rendition of older hits. +As an example, the sorceresses have a multi-generational plan to mix genomes from selected people in order to create a very specific being. +It's /Dune/, but while Bene Gesrit so much more involved, twisted and multidimensional, here it comes out of nowhere (I think?) and disappoints. + +But let's ignore the woman for a moment, and we've got ourselves an awesome little book. +I loved how, in one introduction to a chapter, we see the same legend told from both sides - Humans and Elves. +This is where /Witcher/ shines. +It's a great commentary about racism and hatred. +No wonder it comes from Poland, with our complex history. +It's as subtle as a bulldozer, but it's not that type of story. +It's obvious, blunt and takes no prisoners. +History is never easy, there is never a clear split between the good and bad guys. +Most likely everything you know is wrong, as it was written by victors. +This is the overarching theme in the /Witcher/. +Even a vampire may be a good person! + +So, for me Witcher is a moral series /dressed/ as fantasy. +The magic system is barely there, no one explains /how/ Witchers work. +And I think it's a plus. +The meat of the story is not diluted by mechanics of the world. +The fact that we've got that lovable bunch here is just icing on the cake. + +Also, the ending here is much better. +I finished my review of /Time of Contempt/ assuming that I will get to know the Rats in the follow-up. +I didn't know anything about them (nor I cared about them), but I assumed they will be the focus. +I was wrong. +I still have no idea who they are outside superfluous facts the short burst of their story the book has. +I /know/ Regis and I want to spend more time with him. + +So, I left very satisfied. +I found charm and a lot of substance. +I hope that Ciri's plot will develop in interesting ways, as her teenage rebellion may be the end of me. + +[fn:toc] vide [[/brain-rot/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-time-of-contempt/][my review]] + + +** DONE Tower of the Swallow (Andrzej Sapkowski, 1997) +CLOSED: [2024-05-25 Sat 22:11] +:PROPERTIES: +:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: andrzej-sapkowskis-tower-of-swallow +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract My review of the 4th book in the Witcher saga +:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: rating +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 4.25 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image reviews/covers/sapkowski-tower-of-swallow.jpg +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :related '("Witcher Saga") +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :relatedName Tower of the Swallow +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(brain-rot/fantasy/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-tower-of-swallow/) +:END: + +It's hard to overestimate how popular the Witcher books were amongst polish youth in the 90s. +Everyone talked about it, the books were borrowed everywhere[fn:nerds]. +And yet I have never read it. +Now, in 2024, I am so close to no longer being a /bad Pole/. + +/The Tower of Swallow/ starts with throwing out the window everything I was expecting after reading /Baptism of Fire/. +Rats? Nope. +Mages? Some. +Ciri? Lots. +Geralt? Lots. +Sapkowski's craft improves with every book and I could not be happier. + +Let's start with the bad. +This book ignores most social commentary, which is a huge letdown. +With each passing book there's less and less of that. +Instead, we're getting better story, characters become more interesting and the story is actually gripping. +They are /better/ stories, but /worse/ books. +If it wasn't for the huge increase in quality of the story, I'd be disappointed and my day would be ruined. + +Now, the good. + +First thing that may surprise the reader: chronology is also thrown out the window. +We learn most of the story from Ciri's gossip /after/ it happened. +Guess Sapkowski became a bit bored with winning all the awards by just being there, so he tried to make it more difficult. +At first, I though that this will remove all the suspense - we know that Ciri will survive, but it fits the story. +It's not about if she gets through, but rather who she will be afterwards. + +And this is the second thing. +/Tower of Swallow/ aimes at different audience, I guess? +Not only is it not about social commentary, not only is not about things Witchers do, but it is no longer an adventure story (for a huge chunk of the text). +Ciri is having a very terrible time here. +She is captured, tortured and abused. +And even though Sapkowski makes it very clear that no sexual abuse is happening, it's still far from what I would expect. +The character of Ciri is also changing. +She is (rightfully) angry, spiteful and thirst for vengeance. +Basically, a teenager with a sword. + +The books becomes more and more gruesome. +Now, I love edgy stuff so every time Sapkowski describes mutilation, I am all for it. +It is, however, a stark change from the early Witcher stories. +We've got no humor, no fun. +Just pain and suffering. +Even Geralt at one point says that he is no longer a Witcher hunting monsters. +It's a completely different story. +And even if it's less adult oriented, with all the subtext removed - but it's more serious at the same. +The stake are higher, the risks are bigger. +I dig it. + +But the biggest problem at this point is CD Projekt. +We've got the games which take place /after/ the books. +We know that all the destruction, that everyone is talking about, will not have real consequences. +But even if this makes the entire series a bit pointless, it is still a pleasure to read. + +[fn:nerds] at least amongst us, nerds. + + +** DONE Lady of the Lake (Andrzej Sapkowski, 1999) +CLOSED: [2024-06-15 Sat 22:06] +:PROPERTIES: +:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: andrzej-sapkowskis-lady-of-the-lake +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract My review of the last book in the Witcher saga +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image reviews/covers/sapkowski-lady-of-the-lake.jpg +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 3.75 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :related '("Witcher Saga") +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :relatedName Lady of the Lake +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(brain-rot/fantasy/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-lady-of-the-lake/) +:END: + +I had a /blast/ with the Witcher saga. +There were ups, there were downs. +But all in all, it was great. +I have now finished the *most important* Polish series of books[fn:fight], and therefore I no longer feel like a bad pole. +Unfortunately, I did not like the last volume. +My biggest gripe with /Lady of the Lake/ is that it's not an ending, but rather loosely-connected series of endings. + +It starts with Ciri talking with Galahad from King's Arthur court, so yeah. +There's a wild ride in front of us. + +The first significant chunk of the book is a continuation of Ciri's torment. +Everybody wants to either impregnate, take body parts, or simply kill her. +I know life was terrible for her since she got disconnected with Geralt. +I get that it's kind of /the point/ - she is not treated as a person but rather as a (depending on who is on the other site) force or part of a bigger plan. +But come one, give her /some/ break! +At this point I just wanted her to get a break, sit back, and relax. + +This happens (because it needs to), but only in one of the 25 endings that follow. +We've getting an ending of the war plot, a dedicated subplot dedicated to love affair's of Dandelion, yet another plan to get Ciri's DNA, and so on. +It doesn't feel like Sapkowski had a plan to finish every plot he opened, so he just makes a series of endings. +If I hadn't been reading a dead-tree version, I would have assumed that the story will end in a few pages after /every freaking such semi-ending/. + +But at the same time I enjoyed every story from /Lady of the Lake/. +Sapkowski is at top of his game. +He may go overboard with non-linear story telling, but once I /yet again/ understood when I was, I was having a blast. +It's all here: the story, the characters, the style. + +Taking look at the saga as whole, I was expecting something completely different. +It started as a series of funny stories, but most of the saga is dead serious. +I was expecting a lot of the Witcher's huntsm, however through most of the saga, Geralt is solely focused on finding Ciri and has no time for monsters. +I was expecting a lot of nods to Polish reader, and while there were /some/, the books take place in their own world[fn:netflix]. + +Every book is different, author changes the dynamic and puts focus on a different place. +Sapkowski learns from each book and tries (and then mostly succeeds) to correct mistakes with the next one. + +But, like with the previous one, tension is removed by the knowledge that the games take place /after/ the saga. +We know that main characters will live, because we meet them in the game. +And even if we don't care about computer games, it's impossible to not see some random picture and as a result spoil the book. +We know that Ciri will not reign fire and destruction upon the world. +Sapkowski may never approve of the story CD Projekt came out with and not treat is a /part/of the cannon, but the fact stands: we know that the world still exist. + +It's a strange situation, where the world knows the books from the games, but the saga is lessened by their very existence. +However, even with knowing that the story is, ultimately, pointless, the saga is well worth a read. +I'd say it's great. +And the last volume I am attacking here is still /good fun/, just not good as an ending of such great saga. + +[fn:fight] Yes, I said it. +No Nobel, but it's the most known piece of Polish culture. +Fight me. + +[fn:netflix] I blame witch-hunt after the Netflix series dropped. +Seems most of the die hard fans never read the saga. + + + +** DONE Interesting Times (Terry Pratchett, 1995) +CLOSED: [2024-02-13 Tue 21:06] +:PROPERTIES: +:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: interesting-times-1995 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract A very short review +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(/blog/2024/interesting-times/ /brain-rot/discworld/interesting-times/ ) +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 3.75 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image reviews/covers/pratchett-interesting-times.jpg +:END: + +Cover blurp: +#+begin_quote +Mighty Battles! Revolution! Death! War! (and his sons Terror and Panic, and daughter Clancy). + +The oldest and most inscrutable empire on the Discworld is in turmoil, brought about by the revolutionary treatise What I Did On My Holidays. Workers are uniting, with nothing to lose but their water buffaloes. Warlords are struggling for power. War (and Clancy) are spreading through the ancient cities. + +And all that stands in the way of terrible doom for eveyone is: + +Rincewind the Wizard, who can't even spell the word 'wizard' ... + +Cohen the barbarian hero, five foot tall in his surgical sandals, who has had a lifetime's experience of not dying ... + +...and a very special butterfly. +#+end_quote + +I am, what one could call, an old school /nerd/. +All I care about are old operating systems, ancient editors and old SCIFI[fn:manga] +Ah, and some text based game where you are a cute "@". +/Of course/ I like Pratchett. + +I started reading him /years/ ago in the only way acceptable - chronological[fn:wrong]. +And I had a few years long pause. +Now, after a series of reading /only/ technical books I am returning to fiction. + +/[[https://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/books/interesting-times/][Interesting Times]]/ is an ok-level Pratchett book. +It's not close to his best, it's not close to his worst[fn:worst]. + +This time Rincewind has to travel to Counterweight Continent and help a rebellion. +There he reconnects with old acquaintances - Twoflower, and Cohen to Barbarian. + +The problem is that there is not much more. +We've got a lot of Chinese things, which is new. +But the story itself is extremely straight-forward. +Nothing memorable happens. +I finished it 2 days ago, and already I would have a problem recollecting any standing out moment. +I still remember moments from other /Discworld/ books a decade after I read them! + +But Terry's writing makes me not care and just enjoy the journey. +He is able to make a boring story interesting, and his characters are always great. +I was reading the book while putting my son to sleep, and I almost gave him a heart attack with a laughter attack. +This alone makes it worth it! + +Not the best place to start with //Discworld// (the best is, of course, /Colour of Magic/) but as n-th book in the series it's very enjoyable. + +I give it a =3.75/5=. + +**** Meta +- Read as EPUB on Onyx Boox Note Air 2. +- Read in Polish translation +- Next up: back to Andrzej Sapkowski's with "Time of Contempt". I am not a good pole, having not read the entire saga. I promise to do it before my 40th birthday[fn:fort] + + +[fn:wrong] It's ok to disagree, just like it's ok to be wrong. +[fn:worst] Being a bad Pratchett's book still means being a very good one. +Most authors would love to reach the level of one of those at least once. +[fn:fort] Which is closer that I expected +[fn:manga] And manga&anime, but that's beside the point. +Not American comics though. +Never cared about those, and it seems I never will. + +** DONE Good Omens (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, 1990) +CLOSED: [2024-08-31 Sat 21:47] +:PROPERTIES: +:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: good-omens-1990 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract My short review +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 3 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image reviews/covers/good-omens.jpg +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :alias '(brain-rot/fantasy/good-omens-1990/) +:END: + + +But in the dark days o 1990, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman decided to co-write a book - /Good Omens/, which itself will be a parody of the /Omen/ horror movie. +It was quite the popular movie back then, but nowadays, it may be a bit forgotten. + +Pratchett & Gaiman seem like a great combo. +The first one is a great story /teller/, while the later tend to provide better /stories/. +They are also both imaginable authors of speculative fiction. + +The general idea of the story of the book follows the one from the movie: due to Satanist +shenanigans, the antichrist is born to a family in power. +The end of times in near. +But, unlike the movie, it is not to be stopped by a detective but by an unlikely pair of an angel and a daemon. +None of them want to see the apocalypse, so they join forces to stop the antichrist - who turns out to be quite a nice kid. + +For me, a computer nerd, the process of writing such a book is fascinating. +It's 1990, so no cooperative tooling exists yet, therefore Terry and Neil had to send diskettes to each other. +How cool is that! + +#+begin_quote +I think this is an honest account of the process of writing Good Omens. +It was fairly easy to keep track of because of the way we sent disks to one another, and because I was Keeper of the Official Master Copy, I can say that I wrote a bit over two thirds of Good Omens. +-- Terry Pratchett +#+end_quote + +and it shows. +/Good Omens/ does not read like a joint venture, it's distinctly Pratchett. +You get Gaiman's love for the macabre and over-convoluted story, but if he were removed the cover, I would have never guessed. +There is a scene of mass shooting, which is something fitting /American Gods/ but it's written like we're in Ankh-Morpork. + +It's not part of the /Discworld/ world, but on the surface it could have easily been. +The humour is there, the seemingly unrelated descriptions which turns out to be an introduction to related thingies and so on. +But the world of /Discworld/ is far more interesting, crazier. +In that series, we've got an insane world and insane characters which try to remain sane. +/Good Omen/ however happens in our, boring world and most of the characters are "normal", but they act insane. + +Nevertheless, since it's got two authors, it is a bit on the longer side. +Just enough to overstay its welcome by just a bit. +Pratchett is a master of the word and characters, but his stories he tell are rarely interesting - and I was never a fan of Gaiman. +I didn't find what is told here much interesting, I was not curious how they will stop the apocalypse. +Nothing unexpected happened. +If it was 2/3 of the current size, if some of the crust was removed, it would be a better book, as the general idea is very cool. +But even in current state, it's very enjoyable and well worth the read /if/ you love Pratchetts style. + + +** DONE Heaven Makers (Frank Herbert, 1967) +CLOSED: [2024-06-19 Wed 12:06] +:PROPERTIES: +:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: heaven-makers-1967 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract My review of an early Frank Herbert novel +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image reviews/covers/herbert-heaven-makers.jpg +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 3 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(brain-rot/american-scifi/heaven-makers-1967/) +:END: + +Chems are a race of aliens being who learned technology allowing them to live forever. +With everlasting life comes boredom. +To mitigate it, they watch and record lives and history of /lesser/ races, one which being humanity. +They can not intervene, but current team foreseeing operation on Earth may have broken this rule. +Therefore, Kelexel is sent to investigate if this is the case, but he is pretending to be just a tourist. + +At the same time we are observing humans whose lives are being recorded and (maybe) manipulated. + +/Heaven Makers/ is a 1967 novel written by Frank Herbert about an immortal race of space beings who treat humanity as a toy. +OK, there's more to that, but it all boils to this - it's a simple story which gives no indications that just a few years before Herbert published /Dune/. + +Let's get this out of the way: /Heaven Makers/ is not a great book. +It's not bad, by any means. +The plot is decent, the twists are cool, the characters are (mostly) OK. +It's not insulting, but it's never great. +It's also short, so all the underdeveloped or missed parts of the book never develop into real frustration. + +And while I have enjoyed reading it over the course of 2 evening[fn:slow] and would not call the time /wasted/, I'm afraid in a year I'll have very little recollection of the events that I've witnessed. +If anything, it reminded me that I really need to watch /Twilight Zone/. +/Heaven Makers/ is very much like an episode of that type a show. +We've got an interesting question (what would you do with eternity?) with added twist (what if you are the victim of such creatures) developed into a full story. + +One thing reader needs to keep in mind is the age to this book. +Your life being subjected to constant surveillance was something not only seen as scary, but also incomprehensible. +We're now treating is as entertainment (/Big Brother/) or even a way of living. +As always, SciFi comes with a twisted idea and warns us about it. +What we do with it? +Of course! +Let's build our lives around it! + +If /Heaven Makers/ finds a way in your hands, sure - it's a nice read. +But I would not propose people actively search for it. + +[fn:slow] I am a slow reader + + +** DONE Hard to be a God (Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, 1964) +CLOSED: [2024-07-07 Sun 22:41] +:PROPERTIES: +:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: hard-to-be-a-god-strugatsky-1964 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract A short review of an absolut marvel of a book +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image reviews/covers/hard-to-be-a-god-book.jpg +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 4.5 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(brain-rot/eastern-block-scifi/hard-to-be-a-god-strugatsky-1964/) +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :related '("Strugatsky brothers") +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :relatedName "Hard to be God" +:END: + + +I remember, back in high school when we were tasked with reading /The Master and Margarita/. +Teenage me loved this book about devil and demonic stuff. +Then they told us that all of that /cool/ stuff is just a cover to hide the real meaning of the book: commentary on the Soviet Union and communism[fn:teen]. + +/Hard to be a God/ is a novel by the famous Strugatsky brothers. +In the undefined future, humans are capable of space travel. +A group of scientists in sent to an alien planet to observe and report back. +The planet is populated by beings living in a society that reminds us of the Middle Ages. +However, the power shifts and a violent, hateful revolution starts taking place. +Intelligentsia is killed by angry crowd, and Don Reba getting more and more powerful. +That alien world is going into revolution. +Coincidentaly, this is how communism overtook Russia. + +This is a hard book to get through. +The subject is very dark, and the form doesn't make it any easier. +One of the biggest problems here is: should observers interfere +The reader /wants/ a gun-blazing ride on Don Reba, but would it be ethical? +The observers have guns and flying machines. +They are able to crush anyone. +But this would only lead to more bloodshed and a circle of violence. + +Which is another interesting aspect of this book - mediation on human condition. +Violence is /inherent/ to human race. +We see it all the time, and the writers put a mirror to our faces. +How many wars were fought not for survival, but for power? +World War I was called "The Great War" and was supposed to be the last war. +Humanity saw the absolute worse it can do, definitely we will learn from it. +We know how it ended. + +/Hard to be God/ is, most definitely, an intelligent SciFi novel. + +But I was not invested emotionally. +It's not visceral book. +It is disgusting, but you comprehand it more with your mind than heart. + +At the same time, it's an easy read. +You could think that with this subject matter, the book would be offputting, but it's not. +I /had/ problems following names at some point, as every male character tends to be Don freaking something, but that's all. +It's an ejoyable read, if you don't focus on what's it actually about. + +But when you do start thinking about the meaning, it becomes a completely different beast. +Authors don't spare the viewer. +There is a scene, where two young adepts are talking about torture methods, like it was nothing. +It' almost funny, if it wasn't so real. + +/Hard to be a God/ is a short book, which is a great but challenging piece of art. +I'd call it a masterpiece, if I were emotionally invested. +As it stands now, it's closer to /Gulag Archipelago/ in a form of story. +Highly recommended, even if this would be your first encounter with Russian speculative fiction. + +--- + +Movies based on /Hard to be a God/ are also amazing! + +[fn:teen] Teenage me hated that, but as I mentioned occasionally, he wasn't very bright. + +** DONE Roadside Picnic (Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, 1972) +CLOSED: [2024-07-15 Mon 21:35] +:PROPERTIES: +:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: roadside-picnic-1972 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract A short review of an absolute marvel of a book +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image reviews/covers/roadside-picnic.jpg +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 4.5 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :related '("Strugatsky brothers") +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :relatedName "Roadside Picnic" +:END: + +/Roadside Picnic/ has a very particular heritage. +There is a book. +It was then made into a movie, which took the last 30 pages and went its own way. It's great. +Then they made it into a game, which takes some ideas for the basic premise, and then the authors went their own way, creating an antithesis of the book. I've been told it's good. +But this time: the novel. + +In the near future, aliens have landed on Earth. +No one knows why, but they came and went without much ado. +Their landing site is now called /the zone/. +Before leaving, the aliens left some artifacts. +We don't know what they are, but there is the promise of giant leaps for mankind. +Therefore, a new occupation is born: - /stalkers/, who venture into the zone and try ans retrieve some alien leftovers. +The zone is dangerous, and stalkers often lose their lives upon making the smallest mistakes. + +But /Roadside Picnic/ is not a book about that. +It's depressing and full of commentary on humanity. +Very often, people call it the best book by the Strugatsky brothers, and who am I to disagree? + +But it is not a book about aliens, or the zone. +Those things exist, but first contact went and gone. +Stalkers are not the heroes of humanity, they are expendable criminals. +We think we may someday understand what happened, but we may as well not. +The aliens visited Earth, but most likely haven't found anything of interest. +What people are dying for, what may change the entire planet, may be nothing but some trash left on the side of the road. + +The cosmos is not something to explore or conquer. +It's vast, and our planet is insignificant. + +And this is what the book is about. +The Zone occupies very small portion of the novel, it's just means to an end. +Red, the main hero, is just trying to make a living. +He is not shy about drinking, visiting a bordello or cheating on his wife. +At the same time, he is not shown as an evil person, because his existence doesn't matter. +Even though he is one of the most experienced stalkers, his death would mean nothing. + +The novel is also much less adventurous than one could expect, knowing the movie or the games. +We spend just a handful of pages in the Zone, the rest happens in the nearby town. +/Roadside Picnic/ is beautiful as anti-SiFi story. +Everything we were taught to believe by western SciFi, the authors ignore. +There is nothing /there/ for us. +We are /nothing/. +Space exploration? +Meeting aliens? +We don't even have any hopes or dreams left. + +But this makes the novel timeless. +Our entertainment is no longer optimistic. +We are not going into /Star Trek/, we missed that ship. +Maybe hope in our insignificance is better than thinking we are our own worst enemy? + +/Roadside Picnic/ gets my high recommendation. +Similarly to /[[/brain-rot/eastern-block-scifi/hard-to-be-a-god-strugatsky-1964/][Hard to be God]]/, the reader may breeze through it. +It's short, and it's easy to read. +But then we reach the last pages, where the weight of the story is passed us. + +There was to be an American TV series based on /Roadside/. +All that we got was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dts0rjp5V8][trailer]] which clearly shows, that it is impossible to make an Americanized version. +In it, a shot of people saluting the stalker is shown, which is a complete antithesis of what the Stugatsky brothers are telling us. + diff --git a/content/brain-rot/american-scifi/heaven-makers-1967.md b/content/brain-rot/american-scifi/heaven-makers-1967.md deleted file mode 100644 index 6dd9ea1..0000000 --- a/content/brain-rot/american-scifi/heaven-makers-1967.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,57 +0,0 @@ -+++ -title = "Heaven Makers (Frank Herbert, 1967)" -author = ["Michał Sapka"] -date = 2024-06-19T12:06:00+02:00 -categories = ["brainrot"] -draft = false -weight = 3007 -image_dir = "screenshots" -image_max_width = 765 -primary_menu = "brain-rot-ascifi" -abstract = "My review of an early Frank Herbert novel" -image = "covers/herbert-heaven-makers.jpg" -rating = 3 -[menu] - [menu.brain-rot-ascifi] - weight = 3007 - identifier = "heaven-makers-frank-herbert-1967" -+++ - -Chems are a race of aliens being who learned technology allowing them to live forever. -With everlasting life comes boredom. -To mitigate it, they watch and record lives and history of _lesser_ races, one which being humanity. -They can not intervene, but current team foreseeing operation on Earth may have broken this rule. -Therefore, Kelexel is sent to investigate if this is the case, but he is pretending to be just a tourist. - -At the same time we are observing humans whose lives are being recorded and (maybe) manipulated. - -_Heaven Makers_ is a 1967 novel written by Frank Herbert about an immortal race of space beings who treat humanity as a toy. -OK, there's more to that, but it all boils to this - it's a simple story which gives no indications that just a few years before Herbert published _Dune_. - -Let's get this out of the way: _Heaven Makers_ is not a great book. -It's not bad, by any means. -The plot is decent, the twists are cool, the characters are (mostly) OK. -It's not insulting, but it's never great. -It's also short, so all the underdeveloped or missed parts of the book never develop into real frustration. - -{{< rating 3.0 "herbert-heaven-makers.jpg" >}} -Cover -{{< /rating >}} - -And while I have enjoyed reading it over the course of 2 evening[^fn:1] and would not call the time _wasted_, I'm afraid in a year I'll have very little recollection of the events that I've witnessed. -If anything, it reminded me that I really need to watch _Twilight Zone_. -_Heaven Makers_ is very much like an episode of that type a show. -We've got an interesting question (what would you do with eternity?) with added twist (what if you are the victim of such creatures) developed into a full story. - -One thing reader needs to keep in mind is the age to this book. -Your life being subjected to constant surveillance was something not only seen as scary, but also incomprehensible. -We're now treating is as entertainment (_Big Brother_) or even a way of living. -As always, SciFi comes with a twisted idea and warns us about it. -What we do with it? -Of course! -Let's build our lives around it! - -If _Heaven Makers_ finds a way in your hands, sure - it's a nice read. -But I would not propose people actively search for it. - -[^fn:1]: I am a slow reader diff --git a/content/brain-rot/eastern-block-scifi/hard-to-be-a-god-strugatsky-1964.md b/content/brain-rot/eastern-block-scifi/hard-to-be-a-god-strugatsky-1964.md deleted file mode 100644 index 1b19536..0000000 --- a/content/brain-rot/eastern-block-scifi/hard-to-be-a-god-strugatsky-1964.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,79 +0,0 @@ -+++ -title = "Hard to be a God (Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, 1964)" -author = ["Michał Sapka"] -date = 2024-07-07T22:41:00+02:00 -categories = ["brainrot"] -draft = false -weight = 3003 -image_dir = "screenshots" -image_max_width = 765 -primary_menu = "brain-rot" -menu_order = "name" -abstract = "A short review of an absolut marvel of a book" -image = "covers/hard-to-be-a-god-book.jpg" -rating = 4.5 -[menu] - [menu.brain-rot-ebscifi] - weight = 3003 - identifier = "hard-to-be-a-god-arkady-and-boris-strugatsky-1964" -+++ - -I remember, back in high school when we were tasked with reading _The Master and Margarita_. -Teenage me loved this book about devil and demonic stuff. -Then they told us that all of that _cool_ stuff is just a cover to hide the real meaning of the book: commentary on the Soviet Union and communism[^fn:1]. - -{{< rating 4.5 "hard-to-be-a-god-book.jpg" >}} -Cover -{{< /rating >}} - -_Hard to be a God_ is a novel by the famous Strugatsky brothers. -In the undefined future, humans are capable of space travel. -A group of scientists in sent to an alien planet to observe and report back. -The planet is populated by beings living in a society that reminds us of the Middle Ages. -However, the power shifts and a violent, hateful revolution starts taking place. -Intelligentsia is killed by angry crowd, and Don Reba getting more and more powerful. -That alien world is going into revolution. -Coincidentaly, this is how communism overtook Russia. - -This is a hard book to get through. -The subject is very dark, and the form doesn't make it any easier. -One of the biggest problems here is: should observers interfere -The reader _wants_ a gun-blazing ride on Don Reba, but would it be ethical? -The observers have guns and flying machines. -They are able to crush anyone. -But this would only lead to more bloodshed and a circle of violence. - -Which is another interesting aspect of this book - mediation on human condition. -Violence is _inherent_ to human race. -We see it all the time, and the writers put a mirror to our faces. -How many wars were fought not for survival, but for power? -World War I was called "The Great War" and was supposed to be the last war. -Humanity saw the absolute worse it can do, definitely we will learn from it. -We know how it ended. - -_Hard to be God_ is, most definitely, an intelligent SciFi novel. - -But I was not invested emotionally. -It's not visceral book. -It is disgusting, but you comprehand it more with your mind than heart. - -At the same time, it's an easy read. -You could think that with this subject matter, the book would be offputting, but it's not. -I _had_ problems following names at some point, as every male character tends to be Don freaking something, but that's all. -It's an ejoyable read, if you don't focus on what's it actually about. - -But when you do start thinking about the meaning, it becomes a completely different beast. -Authors don't spare the viewer. -There is a scene, where two young adepts are talking about torture methods, like it was nothing. -It' almost funny, if it wasn't so real. - -_Hard to be a God_ is a short book, which is a great but challenging piece of art. -I'd call it a masterpiece, if I were emotionally invested. -As it stands now, it's closer to _Gulag Archipelago_ in a form of story. -Highly recommended, even if this would be your first encounter with Russian speculative fiction. - ---- - -Movies based on _Hard to be a God_ are also amazing! - -[^fn:1]: Teenage me hated that, but as I mentioned occasionally, he wasn't very bright. diff --git a/content/brain-rot/eastern-block-scifi/roadside-picnic-1972.md b/content/brain-rot/eastern-block-scifi/roadside-picnic-1972.md deleted file mode 100644 index cbda2e8..0000000 --- a/content/brain-rot/eastern-block-scifi/roadside-picnic-1972.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,82 +0,0 @@ -+++ -title = "Roadside Picnic (Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, 1972)" -author = ["Michał Sapka"] -date = 2024-07-15T21:35:00+02:00 -categories = ["brainrot"] -draft = false -weight = 3004 -image_dir = "screenshots" -image_max_width = 765 -primary_menu = "brain-rot" -menu_order = "name" -abstract = "A short review of an absolute marvel of a book" -image = "covers/roadside-picnic.jpg" -rating = 4.5 -[menu] - [menu.brain-rot-ebscifi] - weight = 3004 - identifier = "roadside-picnic-arkady-and-boris-strugatsky-1972" -+++ - -_Roadside Picnic_ has a very particular heritage. -There is a book. -It was then made into a movie, which took the last 30 pages and went its own way. It's great. -Then they made it into a game, which takes some ideas for the basic premise, and then the authors went their own way, creating an antithesis of the book. I've been told it's good. -But this time: the novel. - -In the near future, aliens have landed on Earth. -No one knows why, but they came and went without much ado. -Their landing site is now called _the zone_. -Before leaving, the aliens left some artifacts. -We don't know what they are, but there is the promise of giant leaps for mankind. -Therefore, a new occupation is born: - _stalkers_, who venture into the zone and try ans retrieve some alien leftovers. -The zone is dangerous, and stalkers often lose their lives upon making the smallest mistakes. - -But _Roadside Picnic_ is not a book about that. -It's depressing and full of commentary on humanity. -Very often, people call it the best book by the Strugatsky brothers, and who am I to disagree? - -But it is not a book about aliens, or the zone. -Those things exist, but first contact went and gone. -Stalkers are not the heroes of humanity, they are expendable criminals. -We think we may someday understand what happened, but we may as well not. -The aliens visited Earth, but most likely haven't found anything of interest. -What people are dying for, what may change the entire planet, may be nothing but some trash left on the side of the road. - -The cosmos is not something to explore or conquer. -It's vast, and our planet is insignificant. - -And this is what the book is about. -The Zone occupies very small portion of the novel, it's just means to an end. -Red, the main hero, is just trying to make a living. -He is not shy about drinking, visiting a bordello or cheating on his wife. -At the same time, he is not shown as an evil person, because his existence doesn't matter. -Even though he is one of the most experienced stalkers, his death would mean nothing. - -{{< rating 4.5 "roadside-picnic.jpg" >}} -Cover -{{< /rating >}} - -The novel is also much less adventurous than one could expect, knowing the movie or the games. -We spend just a handful of pages in the Zone, the rest happens in the nearby town. -_Roadside Picnic_ is beautiful as anti-SiFi story. -Everything we were taught to believe by western SciFi, the authors ignore. -There is nothing _there_ for us. -We are _nothing_. -Space exploration? -Meeting aliens? -We don't even have any hopes or dreams left. - -But this makes the novel timeless. -Our entertainment is no longer optimistic. -We are not going into _Star Trek_, we missed that ship. -Maybe hope in our insignificance is better than thinking we are our own worst enemy? - -_Roadside Picnic_ gets my high recommendation. -Similarly to _[Hard to be God](/brain-rot/eastern-block-scifi/hard-to-be-a-god-strugatsky-1964/)_, the reader may breeze through it. -It's short, and it's easy to read. -But then we reach the last pages, where the weight of the story is passed us. - -There was to be an American TV series based on _Roadside_. -All that we got was [trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dts0rjp5V8) which clearly shows, that it is impossible to make an Americanized version. -In it, a shot of people saluting the stalker is shown, which is a complete antithesis of what the Stugatsky brothers are telling us. diff --git a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/_index.md b/content/brain-rot/fantasy/_index.md deleted file mode 100644 index 6194c29..0000000 --- a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/_index.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,18 +0,0 @@ -+++ -title = "Fantasy" -author = ["Michał Sapka"] -date = 2024-04-14T18:10:00+02:00 -categories = ["brainrot"] -draft = false -weight = 3001 -primary_menu = "brain-rot" -abstract = "The Witcher series" -[menu] - [menu.brain-rot] - identifier = "fantasy" - weight = 2000 -+++ - -{{< menu "brain-rot-fantasy" >}} -Witcher -{{< /menu >}} diff --git a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/_index.md b/content/brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/_index.md deleted file mode 100644 index 10c1157..0000000 --- a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/_index.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,19 +0,0 @@ -+++ -title = "Chronicles of Amber (Roger Zelazny, 1970-1991)" -author = ["Michał Sapka"] -date = 2024-04-14T18:10:00+02:00 -categories = ["brainrot"] -draft = false -weight = 3003 -primary_menu = "brain-rot" -abstract = "The Chronicles of Amber series" -[menu] - [menu.brain-rot-fantasy] - weight = 3003 - identifier = "chronicles-of-amber-roger-zelazny-1970-1991" - post = "series" -+++ - -{{< menu "brain-rot-fantasy-amber" >}} -Witcher -{{< /menu >}} diff --git a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/guns-of-avalon-1971.md b/content/brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/guns-of-avalon-1971.md deleted file mode 100644 index 1a66495..0000000 --- a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/guns-of-avalon-1971.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,52 +0,0 @@ -+++ -title = "Guns of Avalon (Roger Zelazny, 1972)" -author = ["Michał Sapka"] -date = 2024-08-31T22:25:00+02:00 -categories = ["brainrot"] -draft = false -weight = 3002 -image_dir = "screenshots" -image_max_width = 765 -primary_menu = "brain-rot-fantasy-amber" -abstract = "My short review" -rating = 4 -image = "covers/guns-of-avalon.jpg" -[menu] - [menu.brain-rot-fantasy-amber] - weight = 3002 - identifier = "guns-of-avalon-roger-zelazny-1972" -+++ - -The fastest fantasy in the wild west continues where we left off. -Corwin escaped his prison, and armed with newly regrown eyes, is ready for his revenge. - -_[Chronicles of Amber](/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/)_ are like nothing I've ever read. -Mostly because I've never been into fantasy, but still. -At no point of _Guns of Avalon_ nor of _[Nine Princes in Amber](/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/nine-princes-in-amber/)_ have I felt that I'm reading a published book. -It's rather what I would imagine as a synopsis of the book that one sends to an agent would look like. - -{{< rating 4 "guns-of-avalon.jpg" >}} -Cover -{{< /rating >}} - -Characters? Screw them, they only serve a purpose. -The world? Screw it, let's create it as we go. -Magic system? I am sure not even Zelazny has any idea how it works at this point. - -But at the same time, I can't stop reading it. -From outside, those two books I've finished sound like pulp. -I should hate it. -But there is so much going on, and those things happen fast. - -Corwin's goal this time is to buy carbines from the Royal Air Force and retake Amber. -Yup - this magical being, from an eternal family, who is able to travel between dimensions[^fn:1], whose eyes just regrown, is planning to retake a magical land using firearms. -And somehow it all makes sense. - -_Guns_ serve as a direct continuation of the first book, but the ending paints a different route the series seems to be heading. -I am very much invested and I interested what's going to happen. -I should hate this book, but I love it. - -Zelazny, you were a strange writer indeed. -This series reads like a creation of some D&D infused teen, and yet I can't put it away. - -[^fn:1]: or whatever Shadows are diff --git a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/hand-of-oberon-1976.md b/content/brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/hand-of-oberon-1976.md deleted file mode 100644 index ab5b691..0000000 --- a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/hand-of-oberon-1976.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,49 +0,0 @@ -+++ -title = "Hand of Oberon (Roger Zelazny, 1976)" -author = ["Michał Sapka"] -date = 2024-09-22T22:42:00+02:00 -categories = ["brainrot"] -draft = false -weight = 3004 -image_dir = "screenshots" -image_max_width = 765 -primary_menu = "brain-rot-fantasy-amber" -abstract = "My short review" -rating = 4 -image = "/covers/hand-of-oberon.jpg" -[menu] - [menu.brain-rot-fantasy-amber] - weight = 3004 - identifier = "hand-of-oberon-roger-zelazny-1976" -+++ - -The plot thickens! -We end where we left of: turns out that Amber is the home of the original Pattern, which is badly damaged, and we need to fix it. - -I think I start to understand why I find _[Chronicles](/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/)_ so particular, yet I can't put it away. -The volumes here are not distinct parts with an an beginning and an end. -It's closer to modern-day TV, where you get an interesting hook at the beginning, the middle is ok-ish, but the end makes you hungry for the next episode. -As much as I hate that _binge-watching_ formula, I have nothing against it here. -Fantasy books rarely make anyone rich, but a man's got to eat. -The length of each volume here also doesn't make it any worse, as they all about 200 pages long. -Brandon Sanderson's signature is longer than that. - -{{< rating 4 "hand-of-oberon.jpg" >}} -Cover -{{< /rating >}} - -Story wise, _Hand of Oberon_ is more of the same: scheming of Corwin's family and deepening the world. -The world is not redefined again, but we're once again getting something surprising. -However, since it's the 4th book, it comes a bit predictable[^fn:1]. -While I was not expecting the Avalon not to be _the real_ Avalon in the _[Sign of the Unicorn](/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/sign-of-the-unicorn-1975/)_, here the surprise came both, less unexpected and a bit and less important. -But we will see in the next book. - -All in all, while I had _loads_ of fun, _Hand of Oberon_ is only the 4th book of the series. -If you've read it until this point, you'll have a blast one more time. -I surely had! -Now, this one of the first _fantasy series_ I've read but, I am surprised by the stability of quality. -While Zelazny has made some changes to the formula since _[Nine Princess...](/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/nine-princes-in-amber/)_, they were not significant enough to have any impact on my joy. I like the later volumes more than the first two, mostly due to the slower pace, but I have the same level of satisfaction. - -I've got one last chapter of Corwin's story and I can't wait! - -[^fn:1]: make that "very" if you read a lot of such stories diff --git a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/nine-princes-in-amber.md b/content/brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/nine-princes-in-amber.md deleted file mode 100644 index bb10712..0000000 --- a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/nine-princes-in-amber.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,59 +0,0 @@ -+++ -title = "Nine Princes in Amber (Roger Zelazny, 1970)" -author = ["Michał Sapka"] -date = 2024-07-22T23:21:00+02:00 -categories = ["brainrot"] -draft = false -weight = 3001 -image_dir = "screenshots" -image_max_width = 765 -primary_menu = "brain-rot-fantasy-amber" -abstract = "The fastest fantasy book in the wild west" -rating = 4 -image = "covers/nine-princes-in-amber.jpg" -[menu] - [menu.brain-rot-fantasy-amber] - weight = 3001 - identifier = "nine-princes-in-amber-roger-zelazny-1970" -+++ - -That's one confusing novel. - -Corwin wakes up in a hospital in New York with amnesia. -But the cover of the book has castles and swords![^fn:1] -Well, as it turns out Corwin is one of nine princes of Amber, the greatest city that has ever been. -It is medieval-Europe, but it is said to be the greatest, so who am I to argue? -He will need to get back there and fight for the crown with his siblings. - -That's the basic premise. -What threw me off the guard (except of starting in modern-day NY) is the pace. -I'm no fantasy know-it-all, but it appears that this genre likes to take it's sweet time. -Authors describe every tree by every road[^fn:2]. -They love to build their worlds, lore, characters. -Zelazny doesn't care about any of that. -A huge battle where 20 000 people die? A paragraph seems like a proper length. -Magic system? Yeah, let's throw a few sentences here and there. -The main character background, looks and goals? Let's not bother. -This is a short book (my version had just over 200 pages), but with standard wordiness, it could be a thousand pages long leather-bound brick, that would serve as a nice weapon. - -{{< rating 4 "nine-princes-in-amber.jpg" >}} -Cover -{{< /rating >}} - -This also means that _Nine Princes in Amber_ is extremely shallow. -There is nothing underneath - just a few awful characters, a few OK, and our Corwin. -If there is any subtext, I must have missed it. -And yet, I loved it. -It's pulp, but it goes _so fast_ that I never got tired of it. -It went _so fast_ that I had no time to get bored or lost[^fn:2]. -Guess that's why _The Chronicles of Amber_ is one of the most popular Fantasy sagas out there. -It is inoffensive, not challenging in any way, but it's cool. -It knows it, and doesn't pretend it. - -I enjoyed it for what it is. -It's the greatest mindless fun I've had in ages. -It's not _hardcore_ fantasy, and this may be why I liked it so much as I did. -If anything, it's _Magnum P.I._ of the genre. - -[^fn:1]: or whatever your edition has -[^fn:2]: hello Tolkien diff --git a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/sign-of-the-unicorn-1975.md b/content/brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/sign-of-the-unicorn-1975.md deleted file mode 100644 index af99328..0000000 --- a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/sign-of-the-unicorn-1975.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,49 +0,0 @@ -+++ -title = "Sign of the Unicorn (Roger Zelazny, 1975)" -author = ["Michał Sapka"] -date = 2024-09-07T22:14:00+02:00 -categories = ["brainrot"] -draft = false -weight = 3003 -image_dir = "screenshots" -image_max_width = 765 -primary_menu = "brain-rot-fantasy-amber" -abstract = "My short review" -rating = 4 -image = "covers/sign-of-the-unicorn.jpg" -[menu] - [menu.brain-rot-fantasy-amber] - weight = 3003 - identifier = "sign-of-the-unicorn-roger-zelazny-1975" -+++ - -We are halfway through the Corwin's saga, and Zelazny decides to step up the game. -Sign of the Unicorn is much slower than the previous ones, which is a welcome change. -But it also marks the point when Roger finally convinced me that he understands the word he creates. - -After the battle with his brother, Corwin is faced with a murder of a yet _another_ brother. -This does not lead to a run through the Shadows to buy nukes as I would have expected. -In fact, most of this volume is spent talking. -We have a mystery, the family secrets are coming out. -It's a wholly different experience than what we've had before. - -{{< rating 4 "sign-of-the-unicorn.jpg" >}} -Cover -{{< /rating >}} - -We've got intrigue, we've got drama, we've got betrayal. -We even learn who stands behind Corwin's accident, which happened before the start of _[Nine Princess...](/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/nine-princes-in-amber/)_. - -This may the best book of _[Chronicles of Amber](/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/)_ yet because Zelazny seems to address most of the downsides the earlier books had. -Characters became actual persons now, with motivation and aspirations. -In fact, the world building is sidestepping for character building, and I, for one, am fully for this. - -As a result, the stakes are also different. -We assumed that all of the _Black Road_ problems resulted from Corwin's curse, but now we learn that there are multiple layers below that. -In fact, a lot of what we thought we knew turns out to be wrong. - -The only downside I see, at leat at this point, is that everyone important is either Corwin's relative or acquaintance. -I get that if you got your position of power purely from the family, the same family will be the centre of your life, but _come on!_. -I want to get to know someone else! - -So, volume three of _[Chronicles of Amber](/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/)_ looks more of a correction from the author, than a direct continuation. diff --git a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/discworld/interesting-times.md b/content/brain-rot/fantasy/discworld/interesting-times.md deleted file mode 100644 index 8567dbf..0000000 --- a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/discworld/interesting-times.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,81 +0,0 @@ -+++ -title = "Interesting Times (Terry Pratchett, 1995)" -author = ["Michał Sapka"] -date = 2024-02-13T21:06:00+01:00 -categories = ["brainrot"] -draft = false -weight = 3001 -image_dir = "brain-rot/screenshots" -image_max_width = 765 -abstract = "A very short review" -aliases = ["/blog/2024/interesting-times/", "/brain-rot/discworld/interesting-times/"] -rating = 3.75 -[menu] - [menu.brain-rot-fantasy] - weight = 3001 - identifier = "interesting-times-terry-pratchett-1995" -+++ - -Cover blurp: - -> Mighty Battles! Revolution! Death! War! (and his sons Terror and Panic, and daughter Clancy). -> -> The oldest and most inscrutable empire on the Discworld is in turmoil, brought about by the revolutionary treatise What I Did On My Holidays. Workers are uniting, with nothing to lose but their water buffaloes. Warlords are struggling for power. War (and Clancy) are spreading through the ancient cities. -> -> And all that stands in the way of terrible doom for eveyone is: -> -> Rincewind the Wizard, who can't even spell the word 'wizard' ... -> -> Cohen the barbarian hero, five foot tall in his surgical sandals, who has had a lifetime's experience of not dying ... -> -> ...and a very special butterfly. - -{{< rating 3.75 "pratchett-interesting-times.jpg" >}} -Cover -{{< /rating >}} - -I am, what one could call, an old school _nerd_. -All I care about are old operating systems, ancient editors and old SCIFI[^fn:1] -Ah, and some text based game where you are a cute "@". -_Of course_ I like Pratchett. - -I started reading him _years_ ago in the only way acceptable - chronological[^fn:2]. -And I had a few years long pause. -Now, after a series of reading _only_ technical books I am returning to fiction. - -_[Interesting Times](https://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/books/interesting-times/)_ is an ok-level Pratchett book. -It's not close to his best, it's not close to his worst[^fn:3]. - -This time Rincewind has to travel to Counterweight Continent and help a rebellion. -There he reconnects with old acquaintances - Twoflower, and Cohen to Barbarian. - -The problem is that there is not much more. -We've got a lot of Chinese things, which is new. -But the story itself is extremely straight-forward. -Nothing memorable happens. -I finished it 2 days ago, and already I would have a problem recollecting any standing out moment. -I still remember moments from other _Discworld_ books a decade after I read them! - -But Terry's writing makes me not care and just enjoy the journey. -He is able to make a boring story interesting, and his characters are always great. -I was reading the book while putting my son to sleep, and I almost gave him a heart attack with a laughter attack. -This alone makes it worth it! - -Not the best place to start with __Discworld__ (the best is, of course, _Colour of Magic_) but as n-th book in the series it's very enjoyable. - -I give it a `3.75/5`. - - -## Meta {#meta} - -- Read as EPUB on Onyx Boox Note Air 2. -- Read in Polish translation -- Next up: back to Andrzej Sapkowski's with "Time of Contempt". I am not a good pole, having not read the entire saga. I promise to do it before my 40th birthday[^fn:4] - -[^fn:1]: And manga&anime, but that's beside the point. - Not American comics though. - Never cared about those, and it seems I never will. -[^fn:2]: It's ok to disagree, just like it's ok to be wrong. -[^fn:3]: Being a bad Pratchett's book still means being a very good one. - Most authors would love to reach the level of one of those at least once. -[^fn:4]: Which is closer that I expected diff --git a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/good-omens-1990.md b/content/brain-rot/fantasy/good-omens-1990.md deleted file mode 100644 index 7e33edc..0000000 --- a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/good-omens-1990.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,61 +0,0 @@ -+++ -title = "Good Omens (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, 1990)" -author = ["Michał Sapka"] -date = 2024-08-31T21:47:00+02:00 -categories = ["brainrot"] -draft = false -weight = 3004 -image_dir = "screenshots" -image_max_width = 765 -menu_order = "name" -abstract = "My short revoew" -rating = 3 -[menu] - [menu.brain-rot-fantasy] - weight = 3004 - identifier = "good-omens-terry-pratchett-and-neil-gaiman-1990" -+++ - -But in the dark days o 1990, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman decided to co-write a book - _Good Omens_, which itself will be a parody of the _Omen_ horror movie. -It was quite the popular movie back then, but nowadays, it may be a bit forgotten. - -Pratchett & Gaiman seem like a great combo. -The first one is a great story _teller_, while the later tend to provide better _stories_. -They are also both imaginable authors of speculative fiction. - -The general idea of the story of the book follows the one from the movie: due to Satanist -shenanigans, the antichrist is born to a family in power. -The end of times in near. -But, unlike the movie, it is not to be stopped by a detective but by an unlikely pair of an angel and a daemon. -None of them want to see the apocalypse, so they join forces to stop the antichrist - who turns out to be quite a nice kid. - -For me, a computer nerd, the process of writing such a book is fascinating. -It's 1990, so no cooperative tooling exists yet, therefore Terry and Neil had to send diskettes to each other. -How cool is that! - -> I think this is an honest account of the process of writing Good Omens. -> It was fairly easy to keep track of because of the way we sent disks to one another, and because I was Keeper of the Official Master Copy, I can say that I wrote a bit over two thirds of Good Omens. -> -- Terry Pratchett - -and it shows. -_Good Omens_ does not read like a joint venture, it's distinctly Pratchett. -You get Gaiman's love for the macabre and over-convoluted story, but if he were removed the cover, I would have never guessed. -There is a scene of mass shooting, which is something fitting _American Gods_ but it's written like we're in Ankh-Morpork. - -It's not part of the _Discworld_ world, but on the surface it could have easily been. -The humour is there, the seemingly unrelated descriptions which turns out to be an introduction to related thingies and so on. -But the world of _Discworld_ is far more interesting, crazier. -In that series, we've got an insane world and insane characters which try to remain sane. -_Good Omen_ however happens in our, boring world and most of the characters are "normal", but they act insane. - -{{< rating 3.0 "good-omens.jpg" >}} -Cover -{{< /rating >}} - -Nevertheless, since it's got two authors, it is a bit on the longer side. -Just enough to overstay its welcome by just a bit. -Pratchett is a master of the word and characters, but his stories he tell are rarely interesting - and I was never a fan of Gaiman. -I didn't find what is told here much interesting, I was not curious how they will stop the apocalypse. -Nothing unexpected happened. -If it was 2/3 of the current size, if some of the crust was removed, it would be a better book, as the general idea is very cool. -But even in current state, it's very enjoyable and well worth the read _if_ you love Pratchetts style. diff --git a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/witcher/_index.md b/content/brain-rot/fantasy/witcher/_index.md deleted file mode 100644 index 0045f20..0000000 --- a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/witcher/_index.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,19 +0,0 @@ -+++ -title = "Witcher (Andrzej Sapkowski, 1990-2018)" -author = ["Michał Sapka"] -date = 2024-04-14T18:10:00+02:00 -categories = ["brainrot"] -draft = false -weight = 3002 -primary_menu = "brain-rot" -abstract = "The Witcher series" -[menu] - [menu.brain-rot-fantasy] - weight = 3002 - identifier = "witcher-andrzej-sapkowski-1990-2018" - post = "series" -+++ - -{{< menu "brain-rot-wicher" >}} -Witcher -{{< /menu >}} diff --git a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-baptism-of-fire.md b/content/brain-rot/fantasy/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-baptism-of-fire.md deleted file mode 100644 index 38bbce5..0000000 --- a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-baptism-of-fire.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,89 +0,0 @@ -+++ -title = "Baptism of Fire (Andrzej Sapkowski, 1996)" -author = ["Michał Sapka"] -date = 2024-04-25T16:27:00+02:00 -categories = ["brainrot"] -draft = false -weight = 3002 -primary_menu = "brain-rot-wicher" -abstract = "My review of the third book in the Witcher saga" -aliases = ["/brain-rot/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-baptism-of-fire/"] -rating = 4.25 -[menu] - [menu.brain-rot-wicher] - weight = 3002 - identifier = "baptism-of-fire-andrzej-sapkowski-1996" -+++ - -_Baptism of Fire_ is the third novel in the _Witcher_ saga. -While I had not that positive reaction to _Time of Contempt_[^fn:1], this time I loved every page. - -We start where we left last time: Ciri joins Rats in the middle of nowhere, while Geralt tries to find her. -Reads like every novel in the series. -Andrzej seems to have a template for a book at this point. - -But I **loved** this book. -And it comes to who is it about. -Yes, we've got Ciri. -Yes, we've got Yennefer. -They exist, but we spend almost the entirety of the book with Geralt, Jaskier and a band of mischiefs who form a fellowship. -We've got Milva, an archer. -We've also got Zoltanm, a dwarf. -And we've also got Regis, a vampire. - -{{< rating 4.25 "sapkowski-baptism-of-fire.jpg" >}} -The classic cover -{{< /rating >}} - -Having spent quality time with an interesting, diverse crowd made it very enable ride. -They even joke sitting by fire! -I think lack of such interactions is why I disliked the last book. -It was full of Ciri, Yennefer and other sorceresses while Geralt was ignored most of the time. -And sorceresses are so up-tight and irritating, so it was not what I would call a nice time. -Also, here, whenever the action moved to, either Rats or mages, my enjoyment went down significantly. - -I don't know why, as I generally don't read fantasy. -Maybe they are written poorly? -I don't know the standards. -For sure the female characters here have nothing to show compared to _Game of Thrones_'s ones. -It is very hard to write powerful characters who are also female. -Most of the time, they are male characters in skanky clothes. -R.R. Martin was able to create menacing woman, who were still woman. -Sapkowski? -Not so much. -And they are not even funny! - -They look as a poor rendition of older hits. -As an example, the sorceresses have a multi-generational plan to mix genomes from selected people in order to create a very specific being. -It's _Dune_, but while Bene Gesrit so much more involved, twisted and multidimensional, here it comes out of nowhere (I think?) and disappoints. - -But let's ignore the woman for a moment, and we've got ourselves an awesome little book. -I loved how, in one introduction to a chapter, we see the same legend told from both sides - Humans and Elves. -This is where _Witcher_ shines. -It's a great commentary about racism and hatred. -No wonder it comes from Poland, with our complex history. -It's as subtle as a bulldozer, but it's not that type of story. -It's obvious, blunt and takes no prisoners. -History is never easy, there is never a clear split between the good and bad guys. -Most likely everything you know is wrong, as it was written by victors. -This is the overarching theme in the _Witcher_. -Even a vampire may be a good person! - -So, for me Witcher is a moral series _dressed_ as fantasy. -The magic system is barely there, no one explains _how_ Witchers work. -And I think it's a plus. -The meat of the story is not diluted by mechanics of the world. -The fact that we've got that lovable bunch here is just icing on the cake. - -Also, the ending here is much better. -I finished my review of _Time of Contempt_ assuming that I will get to know the Rats in the follow-up. -I didn't know anything about them (nor I cared about them), but I assumed they will be the focus. -I was wrong. -I still have no idea who they are outside superfluous facts the short burst of their story the book has. -I _know_ Regis and I want to spend more time with him. - -So, I left very satisfied. -I found charm and a lot of substance. -I hope that Ciri's plot will develop in interesting ways, as her teenage rebellion may be the end of me. - -[^fn:1]: vide [my review](/brain-rot/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-time-of-contempt/) diff --git a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-lady-of-the-lake.md b/content/brain-rot/fantasy/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-lady-of-the-lake.md deleted file mode 100644 index e7abb00..0000000 --- a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-lady-of-the-lake.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,72 +0,0 @@ -+++ -title = "Lady of the Lake (Andrzej Sapkowski, 1999)" -author = ["Michał Sapka"] -date = 2024-06-15T22:06:00+02:00 -categories = ["brainrot"] -draft = false -weight = 3004 -primary_menu = "brain-rot-wicher" -abstract = "My review of the last book in the Witcher saga" -image = "covers/sapkowski-lady-of-the-lake.jpg" -rating = 3.75 -[menu] - [menu.brain-rot-wicher] - weight = 3004 - identifier = "lady-of-the-lake-andrzej-sapkowski-1999" -+++ - -I had a _blast_ with the Witcher saga. -There were ups, there were downs. -But all in all, it was great. -I have now finished the **most important** Polish series of books[^fn:1], and therefore I no longer feel like a bad pole. -Unfortunately, I did not like the last volume. -My biggest gripe with _Lady of the Lake_ is that it's not an ending, but rather loosely-connected series of endings. - -It starts with Ciri talking with Galahad from King's Arthur court, so yeah. -There's a wild ride in front of us. - -The first significant chunk of the book is a continuation of Ciri's torment. -Everybody wants to either impregnate, take body parts, or simply kill her. -I know life was terrible for her since she got disconnected with Geralt. -I get that it's kind of _the point_ - she is not treated as a person but rather as a (depending on who is on the other site) force or part of a bigger plan. -But come one, give her _some_ break! -At this point I just wanted her to get a break, sit back, and relax. - -This happens (because it needs to), but only in one of the 25 endings that follow. -We've getting an ending of the war plot, a dedicated subplot dedicated to love affair's of Dandelion, yet another plan to get Ciri's DNA, and so on. -It doesn't feel like Sapkowski had a plan to finish every plot he opened, so he just makes a series of endings. -If I hadn't been reading a dead-tree version, I would have assumed that the story will end in a few pages after _every freaking such semi-ending_. - -But at the same time I enjoyed every story from _Lady of the Lake_. -Sapkowski is at top of his game. -He may go overboard with non-linear story telling, but once I _yet again_ understood when I was, I was having a blast. -It's all here: the story, the characters, the style. - -Taking look at the saga as whole, I was expecting something completely different. -It started as a series of funny stories, but most of the saga is dead serious. -I was expecting a lot of the Witcher's huntsm, however through most of the saga, Geralt is solely focused on finding Ciri and has no time for monsters. -I was expecting a lot of nods to Polish reader, and while there were _some_, the books take place in their own world[^fn:2]. - -Every book is different, author changes the dynamic and puts focus on a different place. -Sapkowski learns from each book and tries (and then mostly succeeds) to correct mistakes with the next one. - -{{< rating 3.75 "sapkowski-lady-of-the-lake.jpg" >}} -Cover -{{< /rating >}} - -But, like with the previous one, tension is removed by the knowledge that the games take place _after_ the saga. -We know that main characters will live, because we meet them in the game. -And even if we don't care about computer games, it's impossible to not see some random picture and as a result spoil the book. -We know that Ciri will not reign fire and destruction upon the world. -Sapkowski may never approve of the story CD Projekt came out with and not treat is a /part/of the cannon, but the fact stands: we know that the world still exist. - -It's a strange situation, where the world knows the books from the games, but the saga is lessened by their very existence. -However, even with knowing that the story is, ultimately, pointless, the saga is well worth a read. -I'd say it's great. -And the last volume I am attacking here is still _good fun_, just not good as an ending of such great saga. - -[^fn:1]: Yes, I said it. - No Nobel, but it's the most known piece of Polish culture. - Fight me. -[^fn:2]: I blame witch-hunt after the Netflix series dropped. - Seems most of the die hard fans never read the saga. diff --git a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-tower-of-swallow.md b/content/brain-rot/fantasy/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-tower-of-swallow.md deleted file mode 100644 index d7d5e66..0000000 --- a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-tower-of-swallow.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,75 +0,0 @@ -+++ -title = "Tower of the Swallow (Andrzej Sapkowski, 1997)" -author = ["Michał Sapka"] -date = 2024-05-25T22:11:00+02:00 -categories = ["brainrot"] -draft = false -weight = 3003 -primary_menu = "brain-rot-wicher" -abstract = "My review of the 4th book in the Witcher saga" -rating = 4.25 -[menu] - [menu.brain-rot-wicher] - weight = 3003 - identifier = "tower-of-the-swallow-andrzej-sapkowski-1997" -+++ - -It's hard to overestimate how popular the Witcher books were amongst polish youth in the 90s. -Everyone talked about it, the books were borrowed everywhere[^fn:1]. -And yet I have never read it. -Now, in 2024, I am so close to no longer being a _bad Pole_. - -_The Tower of Swallow_ starts with throwing out the window everything I was expecting after reading _Baptism of Fire_. -Rats? Nope. -Mages? Some. -Ciri? Lots. -Geralt? Lots. -Sapkowski's craft improves with every book and I could not be happier. - -Let's start with the bad. -This book ignores most social commentary, which is a huge letdown. -With each passing book there's less and less of that. -Instead, we're getting better story, characters become more interesting and the story is actually gripping. -They are _better_ stories, but _worse_ books. -If it wasn't for the huge increase in quality of the story, I'd be disappointed and my day would be ruined. - -Now, the good. - -First thing that may surprise the reader: chronology is also thrown out the window. -We learn most of the story from Ciri's gossip _after_ it happened. -Guess Sapkowski became a bit bored with winning all the awards by just being there, so he tried to make it more difficult. -At first, I though that this will remove all the suspense - we know that Ciri will survive, but it fits the story. -It's not about if she gets through, but rather who she will be afterwards. - -And this is the second thing. -_Tower of Swallow_ aimes at different audience, I guess? -Not only is it not about social commentary, not only is not about things Witchers do, but it is no longer an adventure story (for a huge chunk of the text). -Ciri is having a very terrible time here. -She is captured, tortured and abused. -And even though Sapkowski makes it very clear that no sexual abuse is happening, it's still far from what I would expect. - -{{< rating 4.25 "sapkowski-tower-of-swallow.jpg" >}} -Cover -{{< /rating >}} - -The character of Ciri is also changing. -She is (rightfully) angry, spiteful and thirst for vengeance. -Basically, a teenager with a sword. - -The books becomes more and more gruesome. -Now, I love edgy stuff so every time Sapkowski describes mutilation, I am all for it. -It is, however, a stark change from the early Witcher stories. -We've got no humor, no fun. -Just pain and suffering. -Even Geralt at one point says that he is no longer a Witcher hunting monsters. -It's a completely different story. -And even if it's less adult oriented, with all the subtext removed - but it's more serious at the same. -The stake are higher, the risks are bigger. -I dig it. - -But the biggest problem at this point is CD Projekt. -We've got the games which take place _after_ the books. -We know that all the destruction, that everyone is talking about, will not have real consequences. -But even if this makes the entire series a bit pointless, it is still a pleasure to read. - -[^fn:1]: at least amongst us, nerds. diff --git a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/witcher/time-of-contempt.md b/content/brain-rot/fantasy/witcher/time-of-contempt.md deleted file mode 100644 index 9a1a1eb..0000000 --- a/content/brain-rot/fantasy/witcher/time-of-contempt.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,78 +0,0 @@ -+++ -title = "Time of Contempt (Andrzej Sapkowski, 1995)" -author = ["Michał Sapka"] -date = 2024-03-24T22:27:00+01:00 -categories = ["brainrot"] -draft = false -weight = 3001 -primary_menu = "brain-rot-wicher" -abstract = "My review of the second book in the Witcher saga" -aliases = ["/blog/2024/andrzej-sapkowskis-time-of-contempt", "//brain-rot/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-time-of-contempt/"] -rating = 3.5 -[menu] - [menu.brain-rot-wicher] - weight = 3001 - identifier = "time-of-contempt-andrzej-sapkowski-1995" -+++ - -It's a stain of my honor - I am a Pole, but I've never read The Saga. -It's not that I've never read any of The Witcher, but somehow I always stopped after the short stories. -Last year I've decided to finally fix this. -I am a proud nerd for crying out loud! - -{{< rating 3.5 "sapkowski-time-of-contemt.jpg" >}} -The classic cover -{{< /rating >}} - -_Time of Contempt_ is the second part of The Witcher Saga, but it's also the 4th book about Geralt and his world. -Let's ignore the short stories for a second and let's talk about this book in context of The Saga. -Here it suffers from being the middle child: Andrzej is developing the characters and story, but it lacks a impactful begging and an end. -I haven't felt like that after finishing the _Blood of Elves,_ as it had a _begging_ and the ending was emotional. -Geralt reunited with Ciri. -The story is clearly not over, but we have a kind of closure. -We know she is safe and ready for what's coming next. - -Here? -Here we have no beginning as it follows the last book. -It was to be expected. -But I fail to notice anything new created here. -Yes, we've got _amazing_ development of Ciri (I can't wait what how her blood heritage will screw over everyone), but nothing more. -It just moves from scene to scene[^fn:1], not spending any meaningful time anywhere. -After 300 pages of this, it ends with Ciri joining some random group. -I guess I will get to know them in _Baptism of Fire_, but I am not yet there. -Are they good? -Are they cool? -Who the hell they even are? -For me it was a huge let down. - -But the biggest thing missing in The Saga is humour. -Both, _Sword of Destiny_ and _Last Wish_ were hilarious. -It was not on Pratchett's level of humor, but Geralt was amazing when it came to deadpan. -Moreover, I have no idea how well it translated to other languages, as it was based on Polish humour, but: -the books were written for Polish reader who was expected to know _Szewczyk Dratewka,_ and therefore the way Geralt dealt with dragon was a funny refernce. -But this aspect is now completely missingm[^fn:2], but it was what made the short stories for me. - -The biggest problem for me however was the fact I saw two seasons of The Witcher TV Series[^fn:3]. -It was terrible and had nothing to do with the book (luckily for me!), but the TV versions of Ciri and Yennefer were irritating at best. -Their book counterparts are not like that - Ciri is extremely cool and Yen is, well, not so bad - but the visual image is etched in my brain. -I finally start to have a separate personnas for them, but it was difficult. -Yes, to some extent Netflix ruined the books for me. - -I was never a fan of _fantasy_, as I always preferred _SciFi_. -Give me a blaster or give me death[^fn:4]! -If I found _Time of Contempt_ as a random book, I would not care for the rest of the series. -It was ok, but nothing to write home about. -Sapkowski has a great style and I very much want more, but he has not told anything interesting here. -I will continue reading The Witcher, but mostly because it **is** The Witcher. - -I liked reading _Blood of Elves_ much more. - -I give it 3.5/5. - -[^fn:1]: ... _No one had a chance to interrupt_. - _It was really quite hypnotic_. -[^fn:2]: We've got **huge** reference to _Enemy Mine_ in the single best part of the book, but it's not funny at all. - Sad, scary - sure; but not funny. Just like the movie. -[^fn:3]: And not an episode more. - It was already too much. -[^fn:4]: If you get the refence know, that I am no longer that type of a person. diff --git a/content/review/interesting-times-1995.md b/content/review/interesting-times-1995.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b3b84e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/review/interesting-times-1995.md @@ -0,0 +1,77 @@ ++++ +title = "Interesting Times (Terry Pratchett, 1995)" +author = ["Michał Sapka"] +date = 2024-02-13T21:06:00+01:00 +draft = false +weight = 1002 +abstract = "A very short review" +aliases = ["/blog/2024/interesting-times/", "/brain-rot/discworld/interesting-times/"] +rating = 3.75 +image = "reviews/covers/pratchett-interesting-times.jpg" ++++ + +Cover blurp: + +> Mighty Battles! Revolution! Death! War! (and his sons Terror and Panic, and daughter Clancy). +> +> The oldest and most inscrutable empire on the Discworld is in turmoil, brought about by the revolutionary treatise What I Did On My Holidays. Workers are uniting, with nothing to lose but their water buffaloes. Warlords are struggling for power. War (and Clancy) are spreading through the ancient cities. +> +> And all that stands in the way of terrible doom for eveyone is: +> +> Rincewind the Wizard, who can't even spell the word 'wizard' ... +> +> Cohen the barbarian hero, five foot tall in his surgical sandals, who has had a lifetime's experience of not dying ... +> +> ...and a very special butterfly. + +
+ +Cover + +
+ +I am, what one could call, an old school _nerd_. +All I care about are old operating systems, ancient editors and old SCIFI[^fn:1] +Ah, and some text based game where you are a cute "@". +_Of course_ I like Pratchett. + +I started reading him _years_ ago in the only way acceptable - chronological[^fn:2]. +And I had a few years long pause. +Now, after a series of reading _only_ technical books I am returning to fiction. + +_[Interesting Times](https://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/books/interesting-times/)_ is an ok-level Pratchett book. +It's not close to his best, it's not close to his worst[^fn:3]. + +This time Rincewind has to travel to Counterweight Continent and help a rebellion. +There he reconnects with old acquaintances - Twoflower, and Cohen to Barbarian. + +The problem is that there is not much more. +We've got a lot of Chinese things, which is new. +But the story itself is extremely straight-forward. +Nothing memorable happens. +I finished it 2 days ago, and already I would have a problem recollecting any standing out moment. +I still remember moments from other _Discworld_ books a decade after I read them! + +But Terry's writing makes me not care and just enjoy the journey. +He is able to make a boring story interesting, and his characters are always great. +I was reading the book while putting my son to sleep, and I almost gave him a heart attack with a laughter attack. +This alone makes it worth it! + +Not the best place to start with __Discworld__ (the best is, of course, _Colour of Magic_) but as n-th book in the series it's very enjoyable. + +I give it a `3.75/5`. + + +## Meta {#meta} + +- Read as EPUB on Onyx Boox Note Air 2. +- Read in Polish translation +- Next up: back to Andrzej Sapkowski's with "Time of Contempt". I am not a good pole, having not read the entire saga. I promise to do it before my 40th birthday[^fn:4] + +[^fn:1]: And manga&anime, but that's beside the point. + Not American comics though. + Never cared about those, and it seems I never will. +[^fn:2]: It's ok to disagree, just like it's ok to be wrong. +[^fn:3]: Being a bad Pratchett's book still means being a very good one. + Most authors would love to reach the level of one of those at least once. +[^fn:4]: Which is closer that I expected diff --git a/content/reviews/_index.md b/content/reviews/_index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6a8c662 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/reviews/_index.md @@ -0,0 +1,13 @@ ++++ +title = "Reviews" +author = ["Michał Sapka"] +categories = ["reviews"] +draft = false +weight = 1001 +abstract = "Reviews2" +reviewSection = ["Books"] ++++ + +## Reviews {#reviews} + +My reviews of fun things! diff --git a/content/reviews/books/_index.md b/content/reviews/books/_index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a2d97f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/reviews/books/_index.md @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ ++++ +title = "Book reviews" +author = ["Michał Sapka"] +categories = ["reviews"] +draft = false +weight = 2001 +reviewSection = ["Books"] +abstract = "Reviews of books" ++++ + +## Book reviews {#book-reviews} + +This is a list of books reviewed on my site. +It's mostly all speculative fiction - SciFi or Fantasy, as those the genras which get me going! diff --git a/content/reviews/books/andrzej-sapkowskis-baptism-of-fire.md b/content/reviews/books/andrzej-sapkowskis-baptism-of-fire.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5ba624e --- /dev/null +++ b/content/reviews/books/andrzej-sapkowskis-baptism-of-fire.md @@ -0,0 +1,84 @@ ++++ +title = "Baptism of Fire (Andrzej Sapkowski, 1996)" +author = ["Michał Sapka"] +date = 2024-04-25T16:27:00+02:00 +categories = ["reviews"] +draft = false +weight = 2007 +reviewSection = ["Books"] +abstract = "My review of the third book in the Witcher saga" +aliases = ["/brain-rot/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-baptism-of-fire/", "/brain-rot/fantasy/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-baptism-of-fire/"] +rating = 4.25 +image = "reviews/covers/sapkowski-baptism-of-fire.jpg" +related = ["Witcher Saga"] +relatedName = "Baptism of Fire" ++++ + +_Baptism of Fire_ is the third novel in the _Witcher_ saga. +While I had not that positive reaction to _Time of Contempt_[^fn:1], this time I loved every page. + +We start where we left last time: Ciri joins Rats in the middle of nowhere, while Geralt tries to find her. +Reads like every novel in the series. +Andrzej seems to have a template for a book at this point. + +But I **loved** this book. +And it comes to who is it about. +Yes, we've got Ciri. +Yes, we've got Yennefer. +They exist, but we spend almost the entirety of the book with Geralt, Jaskier and a band of mischiefs who form a fellowship. +We've got Milva, an archer. +We've also got Zoltanm, a dwarf. +And we've also got Regis, a vampire. + +Having spent quality time with an interesting, diverse crowd made it very enable ride. +They even joke sitting by fire! +I think lack of such interactions is why I disliked the last book. +It was full of Ciri, Yennefer and other sorceresses while Geralt was ignored most of the time. +And sorceresses are so up-tight and irritating, so it was not what I would call a nice time. +Also, here, whenever the action moved to, either Rats or mages, my enjoyment went down significantly. + +I don't know why, as I generally don't read fantasy. +Maybe they are written poorly? +I don't know the standards. +For sure the female characters here have nothing to show compared to _Game of Thrones_'s ones. +It is very hard to write powerful characters who are also female. +Most of the time, they are male characters in skanky clothes. +R.R. Martin was able to create menacing woman, who were still woman. +Sapkowski? +Not so much. +And they are not even funny! + +They look as a poor rendition of older hits. +As an example, the sorceresses have a multi-generational plan to mix genomes from selected people in order to create a very specific being. +It's _Dune_, but while Bene Gesrit so much more involved, twisted and multidimensional, here it comes out of nowhere (I think?) and disappoints. + +But let's ignore the woman for a moment, and we've got ourselves an awesome little book. +I loved how, in one introduction to a chapter, we see the same legend told from both sides - Humans and Elves. +This is where _Witcher_ shines. +It's a great commentary about racism and hatred. +No wonder it comes from Poland, with our complex history. +It's as subtle as a bulldozer, but it's not that type of story. +It's obvious, blunt and takes no prisoners. +History is never easy, there is never a clear split between the good and bad guys. +Most likely everything you know is wrong, as it was written by victors. +This is the overarching theme in the _Witcher_. +Even a vampire may be a good person! + +So, for me Witcher is a moral series _dressed_ as fantasy. +The magic system is barely there, no one explains _how_ Witchers work. +And I think it's a plus. +The meat of the story is not diluted by mechanics of the world. +The fact that we've got that lovable bunch here is just icing on the cake. + +Also, the ending here is much better. +I finished my review of _Time of Contempt_ assuming that I will get to know the Rats in the follow-up. +I didn't know anything about them (nor I cared about them), but I assumed they will be the focus. +I was wrong. +I still have no idea who they are outside superfluous facts the short burst of their story the book has. +I _know_ Regis and I want to spend more time with him. + +So, I left very satisfied. +I found charm and a lot of substance. +I hope that Ciri's plot will develop in interesting ways, as her teenage rebellion may be the end of me. + +[^fn:1]: vide [my review](/brain-rot/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-time-of-contempt/) diff --git a/content/reviews/books/andrzej-sapkowskis-lady-of-the-lake.md b/content/reviews/books/andrzej-sapkowskis-lady-of-the-lake.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b70f7b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/reviews/books/andrzej-sapkowskis-lady-of-the-lake.md @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ ++++ +title = "Lady of the Lake (Andrzej Sapkowski, 1999)" +author = ["Michał Sapka"] +date = 2024-06-15T22:06:00+02:00 +categories = ["reviews"] +draft = false +weight = 2009 +reviewSection = ["Books"] +abstract = "My review of the last book in the Witcher saga" +image = "reviews/covers/sapkowski-lady-of-the-lake.jpg" +rating = 3.75 +related = ["Witcher Saga"] +relatedName = "Lady of the Lake" +aliases = ["brain-rot/fantasy/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-lady-of-the-lake/"] ++++ + +I had a _blast_ with the Witcher saga. +There were ups, there were downs. +But all in all, it was great. +I have now finished the **most important** Polish series of books[^fn:1], and therefore I no longer feel like a bad pole. +Unfortunately, I did not like the last volume. +My biggest gripe with _Lady of the Lake_ is that it's not an ending, but rather loosely-connected series of endings. + +It starts with Ciri talking with Galahad from King's Arthur court, so yeah. +There's a wild ride in front of us. + +The first significant chunk of the book is a continuation of Ciri's torment. +Everybody wants to either impregnate, take body parts, or simply kill her. +I know life was terrible for her since she got disconnected with Geralt. +I get that it's kind of _the point_ - she is not treated as a person but rather as a (depending on who is on the other site) force or part of a bigger plan. +But come one, give her _some_ break! +At this point I just wanted her to get a break, sit back, and relax. + +This happens (because it needs to), but only in one of the 25 endings that follow. +We've getting an ending of the war plot, a dedicated subplot dedicated to love affair's of Dandelion, yet another plan to get Ciri's DNA, and so on. +It doesn't feel like Sapkowski had a plan to finish every plot he opened, so he just makes a series of endings. +If I hadn't been reading a dead-tree version, I would have assumed that the story will end in a few pages after _every freaking such semi-ending_. + +But at the same time I enjoyed every story from _Lady of the Lake_. +Sapkowski is at top of his game. +He may go overboard with non-linear story telling, but once I _yet again_ understood when I was, I was having a blast. +It's all here: the story, the characters, the style. + +Taking look at the saga as whole, I was expecting something completely different. +It started as a series of funny stories, but most of the saga is dead serious. +I was expecting a lot of the Witcher's huntsm, however through most of the saga, Geralt is solely focused on finding Ciri and has no time for monsters. +I was expecting a lot of nods to Polish reader, and while there were _some_, the books take place in their own world[^fn:2]. + +Every book is different, author changes the dynamic and puts focus on a different place. +Sapkowski learns from each book and tries (and then mostly succeeds) to correct mistakes with the next one. + +But, like with the previous one, tension is removed by the knowledge that the games take place _after_ the saga. +We know that main characters will live, because we meet them in the game. +And even if we don't care about computer games, it's impossible to not see some random picture and as a result spoil the book. +We know that Ciri will not reign fire and destruction upon the world. +Sapkowski may never approve of the story CD Projekt came out with and not treat is a /part/of the cannon, but the fact stands: we know that the world still exist. + +It's a strange situation, where the world knows the books from the games, but the saga is lessened by their very existence. +However, even with knowing that the story is, ultimately, pointless, the saga is well worth a read. +I'd say it's great. +And the last volume I am attacking here is still _good fun_, just not good as an ending of such great saga. + +[^fn:1]: Yes, I said it. + No Nobel, but it's the most known piece of Polish culture. + Fight me. +[^fn:2]: I blame witch-hunt after the Netflix series dropped. + Seems most of the die hard fans never read the saga. diff --git a/content/reviews/books/andrzej-sapkowskis-tower-of-swallow.md b/content/reviews/books/andrzej-sapkowskis-tower-of-swallow.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dfb6b15 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/reviews/books/andrzej-sapkowskis-tower-of-swallow.md @@ -0,0 +1,70 @@ ++++ +title = "Tower of the Swallow (Andrzej Sapkowski, 1997)" +author = ["Michał Sapka"] +date = 2024-05-25T22:11:00+02:00 +categories = ["reviews"] +draft = false +weight = 2008 +reviewSection = ["Books"] +abstract = "My review of the 4th book in the Witcher saga" +rating = 4.25 +image = "reviews/covers/sapkowski-tower-of-swallow.jpg" +related = ["Witcher Saga"] +relatedName = "Tower of the Swallow" +aliases = ["brain-rot/fantasy/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-tower-of-swallow/"] ++++ + +It's hard to overestimate how popular the Witcher books were amongst polish youth in the 90s. +Everyone talked about it, the books were borrowed everywhere[^fn:1]. +And yet I have never read it. +Now, in 2024, I am so close to no longer being a _bad Pole_. + +_The Tower of Swallow_ starts with throwing out the window everything I was expecting after reading _Baptism of Fire_. +Rats? Nope. +Mages? Some. +Ciri? Lots. +Geralt? Lots. +Sapkowski's craft improves with every book and I could not be happier. + +Let's start with the bad. +This book ignores most social commentary, which is a huge letdown. +With each passing book there's less and less of that. +Instead, we're getting better story, characters become more interesting and the story is actually gripping. +They are _better_ stories, but _worse_ books. +If it wasn't for the huge increase in quality of the story, I'd be disappointed and my day would be ruined. + +Now, the good. + +First thing that may surprise the reader: chronology is also thrown out the window. +We learn most of the story from Ciri's gossip _after_ it happened. +Guess Sapkowski became a bit bored with winning all the awards by just being there, so he tried to make it more difficult. +At first, I though that this will remove all the suspense - we know that Ciri will survive, but it fits the story. +It's not about if she gets through, but rather who she will be afterwards. + +And this is the second thing. +_Tower of Swallow_ aimes at different audience, I guess? +Not only is it not about social commentary, not only is not about things Witchers do, but it is no longer an adventure story (for a huge chunk of the text). +Ciri is having a very terrible time here. +She is captured, tortured and abused. +And even though Sapkowski makes it very clear that no sexual abuse is happening, it's still far from what I would expect. +The character of Ciri is also changing. +She is (rightfully) angry, spiteful and thirst for vengeance. +Basically, a teenager with a sword. + +The books becomes more and more gruesome. +Now, I love edgy stuff so every time Sapkowski describes mutilation, I am all for it. +It is, however, a stark change from the early Witcher stories. +We've got no humor, no fun. +Just pain and suffering. +Even Geralt at one point says that he is no longer a Witcher hunting monsters. +It's a completely different story. +And even if it's less adult oriented, with all the subtext removed - but it's more serious at the same. +The stake are higher, the risks are bigger. +I dig it. + +But the biggest problem at this point is CD Projekt. +We've got the games which take place _after_ the books. +We know that all the destruction, that everyone is talking about, will not have real consequences. +But even if this makes the entire series a bit pointless, it is still a pleasure to read. + +[^fn:1]: at least amongst us, nerds. diff --git a/content/reviews/books/good-omens-1990.md b/content/reviews/books/good-omens-1990.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa3ceb4 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/reviews/books/good-omens-1990.md @@ -0,0 +1,53 @@ ++++ +title = "Good Omens (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, 1990)" +author = ["Michał Sapka"] +date = 2024-08-31T21:47:00+02:00 +categories = ["reviews"] +draft = false +weight = 2011 +reviewSection = ["Books"] +abstract = "My short review" +rating = 3 +image = "reviews/covers/good-omens.jpg" +alias = ["brain-rot/fantasy/good-omens-1990/"] ++++ + +But in the dark days o 1990, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman decided to co-write a book - _Good Omens_, which itself will be a parody of the _Omen_ horror movie. +It was quite the popular movie back then, but nowadays, it may be a bit forgotten. + +Pratchett & Gaiman seem like a great combo. +The first one is a great story _teller_, while the later tend to provide better _stories_. +They are also both imaginable authors of speculative fiction. + +The general idea of the story of the book follows the one from the movie: due to Satanist +shenanigans, the antichrist is born to a family in power. +The end of times in near. +But, unlike the movie, it is not to be stopped by a detective but by an unlikely pair of an angel and a daemon. +None of them want to see the apocalypse, so they join forces to stop the antichrist - who turns out to be quite a nice kid. + +For me, a computer nerd, the process of writing such a book is fascinating. +It's 1990, so no cooperative tooling exists yet, therefore Terry and Neil had to send diskettes to each other. +How cool is that! + +> I think this is an honest account of the process of writing Good Omens. +> It was fairly easy to keep track of because of the way we sent disks to one another, and because I was Keeper of the Official Master Copy, I can say that I wrote a bit over two thirds of Good Omens. +> -- Terry Pratchett + +and it shows. +_Good Omens_ does not read like a joint venture, it's distinctly Pratchett. +You get Gaiman's love for the macabre and over-convoluted story, but if he were removed the cover, I would have never guessed. +There is a scene of mass shooting, which is something fitting _American Gods_ but it's written like we're in Ankh-Morpork. + +It's not part of the _Discworld_ world, but on the surface it could have easily been. +The humour is there, the seemingly unrelated descriptions which turns out to be an introduction to related thingies and so on. +But the world of _Discworld_ is far more interesting, crazier. +In that series, we've got an insane world and insane characters which try to remain sane. +_Good Omen_ however happens in our, boring world and most of the characters are "normal", but they act insane. + +Nevertheless, since it's got two authors, it is a bit on the longer side. +Just enough to overstay its welcome by just a bit. +Pratchett is a master of the word and characters, but his stories he tell are rarely interesting - and I was never a fan of Gaiman. +I didn't find what is told here much interesting, I was not curious how they will stop the apocalypse. +Nothing unexpected happened. +If it was 2/3 of the current size, if some of the crust was removed, it would be a better book, as the general idea is very cool. +But even in current state, it's very enjoyable and well worth the read _if_ you love Pratchetts style. diff --git a/content/reviews/books/guns-of-avalon-1971.md b/content/reviews/books/guns-of-avalon-1971.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..43ecbed --- /dev/null +++ b/content/reviews/books/guns-of-avalon-1971.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ ++++ +title = "Guns of Avalon (Roger Zelazny, 1972)" +author = ["Michał Sapka"] +date = 2024-08-31T22:25:00+02:00 +categories = ["reviews"] +draft = false +weight = 2003 +reviewSection = ["Books"] +abstract = "My short review" +rating = 4 +image = "reviews/covers/guns-of-avalon.jpg" +related = ["Chronices of Amber: Corwin cycle"] +relatedName = "Guns of Avalon" +aliases = ["brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/guns-of-avalon-1971/"] ++++ + +The fastest fantasy in the wild west continues where we left off. +Corwin escaped his prison, and armed with newly regrown eyes, is ready for his revenge. + +_[Chronicles of Amber](/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/)_ are like nothing I've ever read. +Mostly because I've never been into fantasy, but still. +At no point of _Guns of Avalon_ nor of _[Nine Princes in Amber](/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/nine-princes-in-amber/)_ have I felt that I'm reading a published book. +It's rather what I would imagine as a synopsis of the book that one sends to an agent would look like. + +Characters? Screw them, they only serve a purpose. +The world? Screw it, let's create it as we go. +Magic system? I am sure not even Zelazny has any idea how it works at this point. + +But at the same time, I can't stop reading it. +From outside, those two books I've finished sound like pulp. +I should hate it. +But there is so much going on, and those things happen fast. + +Corwin's goal this time is to buy carbines from the Royal Air Force and retake Amber. +Yup - this magical being, from an eternal family, who is able to travel between dimensions[^fn:1], whose eyes just regrown, is planning to retake a magical land using firearms. +And somehow it all makes sense. + +_Guns_ serve as a direct continuation of the first book, but the ending paints a different route the series seems to be heading. +I am very much invested and I interested what's going to happen. +I should hate this book, but I love it. + +Zelazny, you were a strange writer indeed. +This series reads like a creation of some D&D infused teen, and yet I can't put it away. + +[^fn:1]: or whatever Shadows are diff --git a/content/reviews/books/hand-of-oberon-1976.md b/content/reviews/books/hand-of-oberon-1976.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a3ca13f --- /dev/null +++ b/content/reviews/books/hand-of-oberon-1976.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ ++++ +title = "Hand of Oberon (Roger Zelazny, 1976)" +author = ["Michał Sapka"] +date = 2024-09-22T22:42:00+02:00 +categories = ["reviews"] +draft = false +weight = 2005 +reviewSection = ["Books"] +abstract = "My short review" +rating = 4 +image = "reviews/covers/hand-of-oberon.jpg" +related = ["Chronices of Amber: Corwin cycle"] +relatedName = "Hand of Oberon" +aliases = ["brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/hand-of-oberon-1976/"] ++++ + +The plot thickens! +We end where we left of: turns out that Amber is the home of the original Pattern, which is badly damaged, and we need to fix it. + +I think I start to understand why I find _[Chronicles](/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/)_ so particular, yet I can't put it away. +The volumes here are not distinct parts with an an beginning and an end. +It's closer to modern-day TV, where you get an interesting hook at the beginning, the middle is ok-ish, but the end makes you hungry for the next episode. +As much as I hate that _binge-watching_ formula, I have nothing against it here. +Fantasy books rarely make anyone rich, but a man's got to eat. +The length of each volume here also doesn't make it any worse, as they all about 200 pages long. +Brandon Sanderson's signature is longer than that. + +Story wise, _Hand of Oberon_ is more of the same: scheming of Corwin's family and deepening the world. +The world is not redefined again, but we're once again getting something surprising. +However, since it's the 4th book, it comes a bit predictable[^fn:1]. +While I was not expecting the Avalon not to be _the real_ Avalon in the _[Sign of the Unicorn](/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/sign-of-the-unicorn-1975/)_, here the surprise came both, less unexpected and a bit and less important. +But we will see in the next book. + +All in all, while I had _loads_ of fun, _Hand of Oberon_ is only the 4th book of the series. +If you've read it until this point, you'll have a blast one more time. +I surely had! +Now, this one of the first _fantasy series_ I've read but, I am surprised by the stability of quality. +While Zelazny has made some changes to the formula since _[Nine Princess...](/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/nine-princes-in-amber/)_, they were not significant enough to have any impact on my joy. I like the later volumes more than the first two, mostly due to the slower pace, but I have the same level of satisfaction. + +I've got one last chapter of Corwin's story and I can't wait! + +[^fn:1]: make that "very" if you read a lot of such stories diff --git a/content/reviews/books/hard-to-be-a-god-strugatsky-1964.md b/content/reviews/books/hard-to-be-a-god-strugatsky-1964.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e072be --- /dev/null +++ b/content/reviews/books/hard-to-be-a-god-strugatsky-1964.md @@ -0,0 +1,71 @@ ++++ +title = "Hard to be a God (Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, 1964)" +author = ["Michał Sapka"] +date = 2024-07-07T22:41:00+02:00 +categories = ["reviews"] +draft = false +weight = 2013 +reviewSection = ["Books"] +abstract = "A short review of an absolut marvel of a book" +image = "reviews/covers/hard-to-be-a-god-book.jpg" +rating = 4.5 +aliases = ["brain-rot/eastern-block-scifi/hard-to-be-a-god-strugatsky-1964/"] +related = ["Strugatsky brothers"] +relatedName = "Hard to be God" ++++ + +I remember, back in high school when we were tasked with reading _The Master and Margarita_. +Teenage me loved this book about devil and demonic stuff. +Then they told us that all of that _cool_ stuff is just a cover to hide the real meaning of the book: commentary on the Soviet Union and communism[^fn:1]. + +_Hard to be a God_ is a novel by the famous Strugatsky brothers. +In the undefined future, humans are capable of space travel. +A group of scientists in sent to an alien planet to observe and report back. +The planet is populated by beings living in a society that reminds us of the Middle Ages. +However, the power shifts and a violent, hateful revolution starts taking place. +Intelligentsia is killed by angry crowd, and Don Reba getting more and more powerful. +That alien world is going into revolution. +Coincidentaly, this is how communism overtook Russia. + +This is a hard book to get through. +The subject is very dark, and the form doesn't make it any easier. +One of the biggest problems here is: should observers interfere +The reader _wants_ a gun-blazing ride on Don Reba, but would it be ethical? +The observers have guns and flying machines. +They are able to crush anyone. +But this would only lead to more bloodshed and a circle of violence. + +Which is another interesting aspect of this book - mediation on human condition. +Violence is _inherent_ to human race. +We see it all the time, and the writers put a mirror to our faces. +How many wars were fought not for survival, but for power? +World War I was called "The Great War" and was supposed to be the last war. +Humanity saw the absolute worse it can do, definitely we will learn from it. +We know how it ended. + +_Hard to be God_ is, most definitely, an intelligent SciFi novel. + +But I was not invested emotionally. +It's not visceral book. +It is disgusting, but you comprehand it more with your mind than heart. + +At the same time, it's an easy read. +You could think that with this subject matter, the book would be offputting, but it's not. +I _had_ problems following names at some point, as every male character tends to be Don freaking something, but that's all. +It's an ejoyable read, if you don't focus on what's it actually about. + +But when you do start thinking about the meaning, it becomes a completely different beast. +Authors don't spare the viewer. +There is a scene, where two young adepts are talking about torture methods, like it was nothing. +It' almost funny, if it wasn't so real. + +_Hard to be a God_ is a short book, which is a great but challenging piece of art. +I'd call it a masterpiece, if I were emotionally invested. +As it stands now, it's closer to _Gulag Archipelago_ in a form of story. +Highly recommended, even if this would be your first encounter with Russian speculative fiction. + +--- + +Movies based on _Hard to be a God_ are also amazing! + +[^fn:1]: Teenage me hated that, but as I mentioned occasionally, he wasn't very bright. diff --git a/content/reviews/books/heaven-makers-1967.md b/content/reviews/books/heaven-makers-1967.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b91dd83 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/reviews/books/heaven-makers-1967.md @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ ++++ +title = "Heaven Makers (Frank Herbert, 1967)" +author = ["Michał Sapka"] +date = 2024-06-19T12:06:00+02:00 +categories = ["reviews"] +draft = false +weight = 2012 +reviewSection = ["Books"] +abstract = "My review of an early Frank Herbert novel" +image = "reviews/covers/herbert-heaven-makers.jpg" +rating = 3 +aliases = ["brain-rot/american-scifi/heaven-makers-1967/"] ++++ + +Chems are a race of aliens being who learned technology allowing them to live forever. +With everlasting life comes boredom. +To mitigate it, they watch and record lives and history of _lesser_ races, one which being humanity. +They can not intervene, but current team foreseeing operation on Earth may have broken this rule. +Therefore, Kelexel is sent to investigate if this is the case, but he is pretending to be just a tourist. + +At the same time we are observing humans whose lives are being recorded and (maybe) manipulated. + +_Heaven Makers_ is a 1967 novel written by Frank Herbert about an immortal race of space beings who treat humanity as a toy. +OK, there's more to that, but it all boils to this - it's a simple story which gives no indications that just a few years before Herbert published _Dune_. + +Let's get this out of the way: _Heaven Makers_ is not a great book. +It's not bad, by any means. +The plot is decent, the twists are cool, the characters are (mostly) OK. +It's not insulting, but it's never great. +It's also short, so all the underdeveloped or missed parts of the book never develop into real frustration. + +And while I have enjoyed reading it over the course of 2 evening[^fn:1] and would not call the time _wasted_, I'm afraid in a year I'll have very little recollection of the events that I've witnessed. +If anything, it reminded me that I really need to watch _Twilight Zone_. +_Heaven Makers_ is very much like an episode of that type a show. +We've got an interesting question (what would you do with eternity?) with added twist (what if you are the victim of such creatures) developed into a full story. + +One thing reader needs to keep in mind is the age to this book. +Your life being subjected to constant surveillance was something not only seen as scary, but also incomprehensible. +We're now treating is as entertainment (_Big Brother_) or even a way of living. +As always, SciFi comes with a twisted idea and warns us about it. +What we do with it? +Of course! +Let's build our lives around it! + +If _Heaven Makers_ finds a way in your hands, sure - it's a nice read. +But I would not propose people actively search for it. + +[^fn:1]: I am a slow reader diff --git a/content/reviews/books/interesting-times-1995.md b/content/reviews/books/interesting-times-1995.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..024a80a --- /dev/null +++ b/content/reviews/books/interesting-times-1995.md @@ -0,0 +1,73 @@ ++++ +title = "Interesting Times (Terry Pratchett, 1995)" +author = ["Michał Sapka"] +date = 2024-02-13T21:06:00+01:00 +categories = ["reviews"] +draft = false +weight = 2010 +reviewSection = ["Books"] +abstract = "A very short review" +aliases = ["/blog/2024/interesting-times/", "/brain-rot/discworld/interesting-times/"] +rating = 3.75 +image = "reviews/covers/pratchett-interesting-times.jpg" ++++ + +Cover blurp: + +> Mighty Battles! Revolution! Death! War! (and his sons Terror and Panic, and daughter Clancy). +> +> The oldest and most inscrutable empire on the Discworld is in turmoil, brought about by the revolutionary treatise What I Did On My Holidays. Workers are uniting, with nothing to lose but their water buffaloes. Warlords are struggling for power. War (and Clancy) are spreading through the ancient cities. +> +> And all that stands in the way of terrible doom for eveyone is: +> +> Rincewind the Wizard, who can't even spell the word 'wizard' ... +> +> Cohen the barbarian hero, five foot tall in his surgical sandals, who has had a lifetime's experience of not dying ... +> +> ...and a very special butterfly. + +I am, what one could call, an old school _nerd_. +All I care about are old operating systems, ancient editors and old SCIFI[^fn:1] +Ah, and some text based game where you are a cute "@". +_Of course_ I like Pratchett. + +I started reading him _years_ ago in the only way acceptable - chronological[^fn:2]. +And I had a few years long pause. +Now, after a series of reading _only_ technical books I am returning to fiction. + +_[Interesting Times](https://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/books/interesting-times/)_ is an ok-level Pratchett book. +It's not close to his best, it's not close to his worst[^fn:3]. + +This time Rincewind has to travel to Counterweight Continent and help a rebellion. +There he reconnects with old acquaintances - Twoflower, and Cohen to Barbarian. + +The problem is that there is not much more. +We've got a lot of Chinese things, which is new. +But the story itself is extremely straight-forward. +Nothing memorable happens. +I finished it 2 days ago, and already I would have a problem recollecting any standing out moment. +I still remember moments from other _Discworld_ books a decade after I read them! + +But Terry's writing makes me not care and just enjoy the journey. +He is able to make a boring story interesting, and his characters are always great. +I was reading the book while putting my son to sleep, and I almost gave him a heart attack with a laughter attack. +This alone makes it worth it! + +Not the best place to start with __Discworld__ (the best is, of course, _Colour of Magic_) but as n-th book in the series it's very enjoyable. + +I give it a `3.75/5`. + + +## Meta {#meta} + +- Read as EPUB on Onyx Boox Note Air 2. +- Read in Polish translation +- Next up: back to Andrzej Sapkowski's with "Time of Contempt". I am not a good pole, having not read the entire saga. I promise to do it before my 40th birthday[^fn:4] + +[^fn:1]: And manga&anime, but that's beside the point. + Not American comics though. + Never cared about those, and it seems I never will. +[^fn:2]: It's ok to disagree, just like it's ok to be wrong. +[^fn:3]: Being a bad Pratchett's book still means being a very good one. + Most authors would love to reach the level of one of those at least once. +[^fn:4]: Which is closer that I expected diff --git a/content/reviews/books/nine-princes-in-amber-1970.md b/content/reviews/books/nine-princes-in-amber-1970.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d998ada --- /dev/null +++ b/content/reviews/books/nine-princes-in-amber-1970.md @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ ++++ +title = "Nine Princes in Amber (Roger Zelazny, 1970)" +author = ["Michał Sapka"] +date = 2024-07-22T23:21:00+02:00 +categories = ["reviews"] +draft = false +weight = 2002 +reviewSection = ["Books"] +abstract = "The fastest fantasy book in the wild west" +rating = 4 +image = "reviews/covers/nine-princes-in-amber.jpg" +related = ["Chronices of Amber: Corwin cycle"] +relatedName = "Nine Princes in Amber" +aliases = ["/brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/nine-princes-in-amber/"] ++++ + +That's one confusing novel. + +Corwin wakes up in a hospital in New York with amnesia. +But the cover of the book has castles and swords![^fn:1] +Well, as it turns out Corwin is one of nine princes of Amber, the greatest city that has ever been. +It is medieval-Europe, but it is said to be the greatest, so who am I to argue? +He will need to get back there and fight for the crown with his siblings. + +That's the basic premise. +What threw me off the guard (except of starting in modern-day NY) is the pace. +I'm no fantasy know-it-all, but it appears that this genre likes to take it's sweet time. +Authors describe every tree by every road[^fn:2]. +They love to build their worlds, lore, characters. +Zelazny doesn't care about any of that. +A huge battle where 20 000 people die? A paragraph seems like a proper length. +Magic system? Yeah, let's throw a few sentences here and there. +The main character background, looks and goals? Let's not bother. +This is a short book (my version had just over 200 pages), but with standard wordiness, it could be a thousand pages long leather-bound brick, that would serve as a nice weapon. + +This also means that _Nine Princes in Amber_ is extremely shallow. +There is nothing underneath - just a few awful characters, a few OK, and our Corwin. +If there is any subtext, I must have missed it. +And yet, I loved it. +It's pulp, but it goes _so fast_ that I never got tired of it. +It went _so fast_ that I had no time to get bored or lost[^fn:2]. +Guess that's why _The Chronicles of Amber_ is one of the most popular Fantasy sagas out there. +It is inoffensive, not challenging in any way, but it's cool. +It knows it, and doesn't pretend it. + +I enjoyed it for what it is. +It's the greatest mindless fun I've had in ages. +It's not _hardcore_ fantasy, and this may be why I liked it so much as I did. +If anything, it's _Magnum P.I._ of the genre. + +[^fn:1]: or whatever your edition has +[^fn:2]: hello Tolkien diff --git a/content/reviews/books/roadside-picnic-1972.md b/content/reviews/books/roadside-picnic-1972.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4f67711 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/reviews/books/roadside-picnic-1972.md @@ -0,0 +1,73 @@ ++++ +title = "Roadside Picnic (Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, 1972)" +author = ["Michał Sapka"] +date = 2024-07-15T21:35:00+02:00 +categories = ["reviews"] +draft = false +weight = 2014 +reviewSection = ["Books"] +abstract = "A short review of an absolute marvel of a book" +image = "reviews/covers/roadside-picnic.jpg" +rating = 4.5 +related = ["Strugatsky brothers"] +relatedName = "Roadside Picnic" ++++ + +_Roadside Picnic_ has a very particular heritage. +There is a book. +It was then made into a movie, which took the last 30 pages and went its own way. It's great. +Then they made it into a game, which takes some ideas for the basic premise, and then the authors went their own way, creating an antithesis of the book. I've been told it's good. +But this time: the novel. + +In the near future, aliens have landed on Earth. +No one knows why, but they came and went without much ado. +Their landing site is now called _the zone_. +Before leaving, the aliens left some artifacts. +We don't know what they are, but there is the promise of giant leaps for mankind. +Therefore, a new occupation is born: - _stalkers_, who venture into the zone and try ans retrieve some alien leftovers. +The zone is dangerous, and stalkers often lose their lives upon making the smallest mistakes. + +But _Roadside Picnic_ is not a book about that. +It's depressing and full of commentary on humanity. +Very often, people call it the best book by the Strugatsky brothers, and who am I to disagree? + +But it is not a book about aliens, or the zone. +Those things exist, but first contact went and gone. +Stalkers are not the heroes of humanity, they are expendable criminals. +We think we may someday understand what happened, but we may as well not. +The aliens visited Earth, but most likely haven't found anything of interest. +What people are dying for, what may change the entire planet, may be nothing but some trash left on the side of the road. + +The cosmos is not something to explore or conquer. +It's vast, and our planet is insignificant. + +And this is what the book is about. +The Zone occupies very small portion of the novel, it's just means to an end. +Red, the main hero, is just trying to make a living. +He is not shy about drinking, visiting a bordello or cheating on his wife. +At the same time, he is not shown as an evil person, because his existence doesn't matter. +Even though he is one of the most experienced stalkers, his death would mean nothing. + +The novel is also much less adventurous than one could expect, knowing the movie or the games. +We spend just a handful of pages in the Zone, the rest happens in the nearby town. +_Roadside Picnic_ is beautiful as anti-SiFi story. +Everything we were taught to believe by western SciFi, the authors ignore. +There is nothing _there_ for us. +We are _nothing_. +Space exploration? +Meeting aliens? +We don't even have any hopes or dreams left. + +But this makes the novel timeless. +Our entertainment is no longer optimistic. +We are not going into _Star Trek_, we missed that ship. +Maybe hope in our insignificance is better than thinking we are our own worst enemy? + +_Roadside Picnic_ gets my high recommendation. +Similarly to _[Hard to be God](/brain-rot/eastern-block-scifi/hard-to-be-a-god-strugatsky-1964/)_, the reader may breeze through it. +It's short, and it's easy to read. +But then we reach the last pages, where the weight of the story is passed us. + +There was to be an American TV series based on _Roadside_. +All that we got was [trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dts0rjp5V8) which clearly shows, that it is impossible to make an Americanized version. +In it, a shot of people saluting the stalker is shown, which is a complete antithesis of what the Stugatsky brothers are telling us. diff --git a/content/reviews/books/sign-of-the-unicorn-1975.md b/content/reviews/books/sign-of-the-unicorn-1975.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a9d9e48 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/reviews/books/sign-of-the-unicorn-1975.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ ++++ +title = "Sign of the Unicorn (Roger Zelazny, 1975)" +author = ["Michał Sapka"] +date = 2024-09-07T22:14:00+02:00 +categories = ["reviews"] +draft = false +weight = 2004 +reviewSection = ["Books"] +abstract = "My short review" +rating = 4 +image = "reviews/covers/sign-of-the-unicorn.jpg" +related = ["Chronices of Amber: Corwin cycle"] +relatedName = "Sign of the Unicorn" +aliases = ["brain-rot/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/sign-of-the-unicorn-1975/"] ++++ + +We are halfway through the Corwin's saga, and Zelazny decides to step up the game. +Sign of the Unicorn is much slower than the previous ones, which is a welcome change. +But it also marks the point when Roger finally convinced me that he understands the word he creates. + +After the battle with his brother, Corwin is faced with a murder of a yet _another_ brother. +This does not lead to a run through the Shadows to buy nukes as I would have expected. +In fact, most of this volume is spent talking. +We have a mystery, the family secrets are coming out. +It's a wholly different experience than what we've had before. + +We've got intrigue, we've got drama, we've got betrayal. +We even learn who stands behind Corwin's accident, which happened before the start of _[Nine Princess...](/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/nine-princes-in-amber/)_. + +This may the best book of _[Chronicles of Amber](/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/)_ yet because Zelazny seems to address most of the downsides the earlier books had. +Characters became actual persons now, with motivation and aspirations. +In fact, the world building is sidestepping for character building, and I, for one, am fully for this. + +As a result, the stakes are also different. +We assumed that all of the _Black Road_ problems resulted from Corwin's curse, but now we learn that there are multiple layers below that. +In fact, a lot of what we thought we knew turns out to be wrong. + +The only downside I see, at leat at this point, is that everyone important is either Corwin's relative or acquaintance. +I get that if you got your position of power purely from the family, the same family will be the centre of your life, but _come on!_. +I want to get to know someone else! + +So, volume three of _[Chronicles of Amber](/fantasy/chronicles-of-amber/)_ looks more of a correction from the author, than a direct continuation. diff --git a/content/reviews/books/time-of-contempt.md b/content/reviews/books/time-of-contempt.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad86a9f --- /dev/null +++ b/content/reviews/books/time-of-contempt.md @@ -0,0 +1,73 @@ ++++ +title = "Time of Contempt (Andrzej Sapkowski, 1995)" +author = ["Michał Sapka"] +date = 2024-03-24T22:27:00+01:00 +categories = ["reviews"] +draft = false +weight = 2006 +reviewSection = ["Books"] +abstract = "My review of the second book in the Witcher saga" +aliases = ["/blog/2024/andrzej-sapkowskis-time-of-contempt", "/brain-rot/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-time-of-contempt/"] +rating = 3.5 +image = "reviews/covers/sapkowski-time-of-contemt.jpg" +related = ["Witcher Saga"] +relatedName = "Time of Contempt" ++++ + +It's a stain of my honor - I am a Pole, but I've never read The Saga. +It's not that I've never read any of The Witcher, but somehow I always stopped after the short stories. +Last year I've decided to finally fix this. +I am a proud nerd for crying out loud! + +_Time of Contempt_ is the second part of The Witcher Saga, but it's also the 4th book about Geralt and his world. +Let's ignore the short stories for a second and let's talk about this book in context of The Saga. +Here it suffers from being the middle child: Andrzej is developing the characters and story, but it lacks a impactful begging and an end. +I haven't felt like that after finishing the _Blood of Elves,_ as it had a _begging_ and the ending was emotional. +Geralt reunited with Ciri. +The story is clearly not over, but we have a kind of closure. +We know she is safe and ready for what's coming next. + +Here? +Here we have no beginning as it follows the last book. +It was to be expected. +But I fail to notice anything new created here. +Yes, we've got _amazing_ development of Ciri (I can't wait what how her blood heritage will screw over everyone), but nothing more. +It just moves from scene to scene[^fn:1], not spending any meaningful time anywhere. +After 300 pages of this, it ends with Ciri joining some random group. +I guess I will get to know them in _Baptism of Fire_, but I am not yet there. +Are they good? +Are they cool? +Who the hell they even are? +For me it was a huge let down. + +But the biggest thing missing in The Saga is humour. +Both, _Sword of Destiny_ and _Last Wish_ were hilarious. +It was not on Pratchett's level of humor, but Geralt was amazing when it came to deadpan. +Moreover, I have no idea how well it translated to other languages, as it was based on Polish humour, but: +the books were written for Polish reader who was expected to know _Szewczyk Dratewka,_ and therefore the way Geralt dealt with dragon was a funny refernce. +But this aspect is now completely missingm[^fn:2], but it was what made the short stories for me. + +The biggest problem for me however was the fact I saw two seasons of The Witcher TV Series[^fn:3]. +It was terrible and had nothing to do with the book (luckily for me!), but the TV versions of Ciri and Yennefer were irritating at best. +Their book counterparts are not like that - Ciri is extremely cool and Yen is, well, not so bad - but the visual image is etched in my brain. +I finally start to have a separate personnas for them, but it was difficult. +Yes, to some extent Netflix ruined the books for me. + +I was never a fan of _fantasy_, as I always preferred _SciFi_. +Give me a blaster or give me death[^fn:4]! +If I found _Time of Contempt_ as a random book, I would not care for the rest of the series. +It was ok, but nothing to write home about. +Sapkowski has a great style and I very much want more, but he has not told anything interesting here. +I will continue reading The Witcher, but mostly because it **is** The Witcher. + +I liked reading _Blood of Elves_ much more. + +I give it 3.5/5. + +[^fn:1]: ... _No one had a chance to interrupt_. + _It was really quite hypnotic_. +[^fn:2]: We've got **huge** reference to _Enemy Mine_ in the single best part of the book, but it's not funny at all. + Sad, scary - sure; but not funny. Just like the movie. +[^fn:3]: And not an episode more. + It was already too much. +[^fn:4]: If you get the refence know, that I am no longer that type of a person. diff --git a/layouts/partials/reviews/.#metrics.html b/layouts/partials/reviews/.#metrics.html new file mode 120000 index 0000000..8a2a5d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/layouts/partials/reviews/.#metrics.html @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +mms@voyager.local.23203:1731088680 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/layouts/partials/reviews/metrics.html b/layouts/partials/reviews/metrics.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..08c9c9a --- /dev/null +++ b/layouts/partials/reviews/metrics.html @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +
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