27 Feb 2011

Review: The Habitation of the Blessed

by | posted in: Reviews | 0

The Habitation of the Blessed (A Dirge for Prester John, #1)The Habitation of the Blessed by Catherynne M. Valente

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Yet another wonderful read from Catherynne Valente, this time the first volume of a trilogy dedicated to the mythical Prester John, fabled king of the three Indies. Once more Valente recounts the story through the words of many characters: John, the befuddled but not so innocent priest; Hagia, the blemmye and his future wife; Imtithal, the panoti, who told tales to three children in a … (Read more)

22 Jan 2011

I reject your fantasy and substitute my own

by | posted in: Blog | 0

A few months ago someone suggested to me to read Brandon Sanderson’s Warbreaker, as it was available online for free on his website. The novel was pretty good, nothing to remember in the centuries to come but a nice high-fantasy based about a peculiar magic system and that reads very easily. I liked it enough that I decided to dish out some money to buy his next book, The way of kings, which is now sitting on my … (Read more)

22 Dec 2010

Review: Fair Play

by | posted in: Reviews | 0

Fair PlayFair Play by Tove Jansson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A different way of looking at love, through the small and normal things, the little idiosyncrasies, difficulties and compromises of a relationship between two older, temperamental persons. Though at the beginning of the book the relationship between Mari and Jonna might appear strangely detached, it doesn’t take much to understand the complexity and the unseen between the words and to warm up to their rapport.

View all my reviews… (Read more)

20 Dec 2010

Life Flashes By

by | posted in: Reviews | 1

Weeks later from when I actually promised I would, here I am writing a review of Life Flashes By, Deirdra Kiai’s latest and possibly most ambitious game to date.

I played it through as soon as it was released and I admit that, even though I liked it, I didn’t feel completely blown out. Since it is a very particular kind of game, I waited until I could play it a second time and see whether the problem was … (Read more)

20 Dec 2010

You should believe in your frakking song

by | posted in: Blog | 0

So, since I don’t watch Glee and I rarely listen to the radio, I found out only the other day that Cee Lo Green’s “Fuck you!” has a pg-13 version under the more subdued title of “Forget you”; they call it a ‘radio edit’ but, where a radio edit is usually edited for length, this one is just edited for language.
I’m not one who usually thinks it’s particularly interesting or challenging to put a ‘fuck’ right there in the … (Read more)

13 Nov 2010

Review: The Summer Book

by | posted in: Reviews | 0

The Summer BookThe Summer Book by Tove Jansson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The wonderful story of a small child and her grandmother, living together a long summer on an isolated island, learning to know and adjust to each other. Tove Jansson’s style is, at least in this translation, short and to the point, quite matter of fact, and that oddly contributes to make this collection of short vignettes even more poetic in its simplicity.

View all my reviews… (Read more)

16 Aug 2010

Review: In the Cities of Coin and Spice

by | posted in: Reviews | 0

In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2)In the Cities of Coin and Spice by Catherynne M. Valente

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It always takes me forever to read through Cat Valente’s books. Maybe because I don’t really ever want them to end.

The second and last volume of the Orphan’s tales is identical in structure to its predecessor but different in its tales: the stories seem to lose their ‘high adventure’ quality to become more personal, intimate, dirtier, and the sense of loss permeates … (Read more)

28 Jun 2010

Review: Fragile Things

by | posted in: Reviews | 0

Fragile Things: Short Fictions and WondersFragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Collections are difficult beasts to handle, especially when they bring together material that ranges from the very short to the novella, touching different genres and subgenres, often out of the original context they were written for.
It is easy, when rating such a book on the whole, to base yourself on the parts you didn’t like rather than the bits you liked – and there … (Read more)

15 Jun 2010

Review: In the Night Garden

by | posted in: Reviews | 0

In the Night Garden (The Orphan's Tales, #1)In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Stories within stories like matryoshka dolls, intertwined within a complex tapestry. The tales of the titular orphan will bring you into a world of fantasy and wonders, perils and mysteries, witches and wizards, monsters and princes, heroes and sailors, saints and stars. Cat Valente at her best.

View all my reviews… (Read more)

4 Mar 2010

Still alive

by | posted in: Myst Online: Uru Live | 0

Far from triumph and huge successes, though. Surface life has kept me extremely busy, and I barely managed to visit Payiferen in time to get my last pod portal.

I came back yesterday with a feeling of “did I leave the gas on?” and found that, in fact, I had forgotten to turn the main power off. I expected the battery to be depleted but the pod windows were clear and there was still enough power to turn the lights … (Read more)

26 Feb 2010

Book review – Thomas Riley

by | posted in: Myst Online: Uru Live, Reviews | 0

Oh Ahnonay, how much I loathe thee? Let me count the ways.
Well, not many actually, but it’s extremely annoying when you find you missed one cloth and have to go through the whole thing again. Aargh.

On other news, I was in Negilahn waiting for the portal to appear and decided to pass the time by writing a short review of a steampunk YA book I read recently. So here you go:

“Thomas Riley”, by Nick Valentino

Plot recap: … (Read more)

24 Feb 2010

Spinning around

by | posted in: Myst Online: Uru Live | 0

(spoilers for Ahnonay follow)

Dnì has now given up trying to find a variation of his name that the Nexus won’t block out, and is now going by the alias of Lancaster Drew.

We spent last night working through his Ahnonay; since it was his first time there I let him work out how the puzzle worked, nudging him here and there when he missed some important clue (I didn’t really want to spend a week there). In the end … (Read more)

19 Feb 2010

Chirping

by | posted in: Myst Online: Uru Live | 0

I haven’t been much down to D’ni lately, mostly touch and go visits, though I tried to take a few hours off my schedule to visit the pods. I didn’t get to see much wildlife (apart from Dereno) but it seems to me there are a lots more sounds and activity than in the last few months. Or maybe it’s just my memory playing tricks on me.

I also dug up my very very old KI, the one I was … (Read more)