Reading Wednesday
May. 6th, 2015 10:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dhampyresaI haven't had time to read as much as I wanted this week. I'm currently having to shuffle my schedule and I'm still struggling to fit in my writing/drawing/reading time in this new situation. I've managed not to take too big of a hit on the writing front and I'm still drawing every day in May so far (even though the last couple of days it's been an exercise in drawing something as fast as possible, but then that's a good skill to practice anyway), but reading-wise... Yeah, that's not been doing so good.
Likewise, commenting. Sorry. I'll get back to everyone eventually.
I have good hopes, though! I think I've figured how to make a couple of things work out.
What did you finish reading
Nous les morts, T.1: Les enfants de la peste, by Darko Macan (scenario), Igor Kordey (art) and Yana (colour): This is a French comic book. It takes the premise that the Black Plague was actually a zombie plague that ended up turning everyone in Europe into zombies. 500 years later, an expedition from the Inca Empire travels to Europe in airships that are very similar to zeppelins.
The bulk of this volume is focused on Inca internal politics. I don't know much about the Inca, so it's possible that some of the things that struck me as iffy representation-wise have a historical basis. Still, several things struck me as iffy. I'm not sure how I feel about the female characters or the LGBT(?) characters, either.
It feels a lot like set-up and I wasn't going to check out the next one, right up until the last page ended with A JAPANESE PILOT IN A FIGHTER PLANE.
Masqué, by Serge Lehman (Scénario) and Stéphane Créty (Art): This is a French comic series. It is a finished series of four books: Anomalies, Le jour du fuseur, Chimères et Gargouilles and Le préfet spécial. I've read this several times and it is excellent every time. It is both by the same scenarist and set in the same universe as La Brigade Chimérique, which is also excellent.
The simplest way to sum up this series is: Paris does superheroespowers.
It's set in a near-future Paris that borders on dystopia and in a future in which 'anomalies' have started happening all over Europe. The anomalies cannot be observed by science (although Cléo Vilanova is trying. It's her life's work, in fact) but they're there alright and they are affecting things.
And then they start affecting people.
In particular, they start affecting Frank Braffort, freshly back from war. Braffort makes the COLOSSAL mistake of listening to and obeying Prefect Beauregard. COLOSSAL MISTAKE. Things go from back to worse as the anomalies worsen and worsen, affecting more and more people, including things that were not previously people.
Eventually, Beauregard goes full dystopia. YOU NEVER GO FULL DYSTOPIA.
And then! Things get worse.
I'm not going to spoil how or why, but man, that ending is great!
We learn why Beauregard and his right-hand man, Assan, did the things they did. Beauregard is a complete nutjob and I have to admit that the slow reveal of just how broken his entire thought process is over the whole series is one of the most terrifying things about the whole thing. (He's basically a Nice Guy: "I broke Paris for you, why don't you love me back?")
Assan, on the other hand... I never expected to get backstory for why he did the things he did and why he supported Beauregard for so long before turning on him (as a result of Beauregard going FULL DYSTOPIA), but we do! And I love that whole reveal so much. SO MUCH.
And then! AND THEN! There's the ending, the real ending, the way the book closes. And those lines:
I don't know, I just really love the whole thing? Like, even to myself I don't really explain it.
There's something so French, so Parisian, about the whole thing. Like, you can argue that Beauregard is the who set the whole plot in motion, or Vilanova, or especially Assan. Or. Or you could say it was Paris who reached out and made the superheroes it needed. (I'm angling for the Surfeur Mirage to be the hero it deserves.)
The entire thing is great. And there's apparnetly going to be two more volume as another complete cycle in this verse and I AM SO EXCITED.
I'm not counting either of those for the reading bingo, because it's late, I'm tired, Masqué is a reread and Nous les morts an aggressive skim.
Currently reading
Still stalled on The Art of War, The Kick-Ass Writer, La véritable histoire de Carthage et de Hannibal, Les Fleurs du Mal and Métronome.
Made very negligeable progress on Rome's Revolution and Ghosts of Cannae.
L'aigle et le safran, by Sen: (You can buy it online or read it online. I'm reading the paper version, so I don't know if the online text is the same, but at a glance it looks like it is.)
OH MY GOD. Not only is the language gorgeous, but the plot has turned into even more of my thing. Sen, I don't know you, but you apparently know me really well. How did you know the only way to make me love it more would be for both of the two men in the romance to end up on opposing side of a war? HOW DID YOU KNOW.
So, yes. This book. I don't think I could not love it if I tried, but why the hell would I try? I love it! It's a book! In French! And the writing is gorgeous and slow and and and graceful and the plot is exactly my thing and the characters are such idiots for people so smart and I love it.
I really hope to get a happy ending here, no lie. But also I don't want it to be over? Aaaaaaah what do.
Also, have I mentionned that it has illustrated title pages? Because IT DOES and they are WONDERFUL. The amount of details in them is impressive, especially as it by no means sacrifices clarity (which is really ahrd to do, especially when you only have lineart to go on). And when the latest title page I've read was almost entirely blank, it was an amazing way to convey wordlessly that SHIT WAS ABOUT TO GET REAL, YO. (And shit did.)
This book. Seriously. This book. I'm kind of incoherent and giddy over how much I enjoy it. I feel like shoving it into all your faces and going "here, read this!". (As it stands, I'm going to pointedly shove it in![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
_profiterole_ 's general direction, because I am about 90% convinced it's the kind of book they will enjoy.) It's been ages since I felt that way over a book in French that did not include pictures. (I also feel this way about Masqué, as you can probably tell. The latest books I felt this way in English were City of Stairs and Days of the Dead. I can't remember what the last book-book in French I felt this way about was.)
I love it so much.
What are you reading next? (aka the to-read list)
THERE'S A NEW VOLUME OF LES QUATRE DE BAKER STREET COMING OUT TODAY. (BEST SHERLOCK HOLMES ADAPTATION BAR NONE.) I'm going to buy it tomorrow and read it SO HARD.
Yes, this is also a series of comics where I get the "shove its greatness at everyone" feelings. Don't judge me, okay?
I will also be reading The Grass-King's Concubine! Because Kari Sperring is a wonderful human and I will fucking fight you if you suggest otherwise and has sent me a copy of the book, with the name-that-is-also-the-name-of-someone-I'm-close-to replaced, which means that I will in fact be able to read the book.
Old list:
Books that I have already: Pyramids of London, by Andrea K Höst, Prisoner (Echo's Wolf, Book 1) (Werewolf Marines 2) by Lia Silver, Darkness Over Cannae by Jenny Dolfen, Taking Stock by Scott Bartlett (yuleswap book 1), February by Lisa Moore (yuleswap book 2), The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan, The Skull Throne, by Peter V. Brett,Hostage by Sherwood Smith and Rachel Manija Brown.
Books that are out and that I haven't got: Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen, by Garth Nix, Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie, Melting Stones and Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce, The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, The Beginning Place by Ursula Le Guin, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex, The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, the last two books of Kate Eliott's Spiritwalker trilogy, The Missing Queen by Samhita Arni, Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed and whatever's out of the Craft Sequence series.
Books that aren't out yet (and when they're out): The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan (Autumn 2015), The Sleeping Life (Eferum, #2) by Andrea K. Höst (2015), Benjamin January #14 by Barbara Hambly (no idea), the Tris book by Tamora Pierce (2015), , The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard, Dogs of Peace by Ada Palmer and whatever Jenny Dolfen's next project is (THAT ART!).
Books what I'm not sure if I want to read them: City of Blades, by Robert Jackson Bennett: Still IDK.
This turned out more French and more excited than these entries usually do, but hey, I ain't complaining.
Likewise, commenting. Sorry. I'll get back to everyone eventually.
I have good hopes, though! I think I've figured how to make a couple of things work out.
What did you finish reading
Nous les morts, T.1: Les enfants de la peste, by Darko Macan (scenario), Igor Kordey (art) and Yana (colour): This is a French comic book. It takes the premise that the Black Plague was actually a zombie plague that ended up turning everyone in Europe into zombies. 500 years later, an expedition from the Inca Empire travels to Europe in airships that are very similar to zeppelins.
The bulk of this volume is focused on Inca internal politics. I don't know much about the Inca, so it's possible that some of the things that struck me as iffy representation-wise have a historical basis. Still, several things struck me as iffy. I'm not sure how I feel about the female characters or the LGBT(?) characters, either.
It feels a lot like set-up and I wasn't going to check out the next one, right up until the last page ended with A JAPANESE PILOT IN A FIGHTER PLANE.
Masqué, by Serge Lehman (Scénario) and Stéphane Créty (Art): This is a French comic series. It is a finished series of four books: Anomalies, Le jour du fuseur, Chimères et Gargouilles and Le préfet spécial. I've read this several times and it is excellent every time. It is both by the same scenarist and set in the same universe as La Brigade Chimérique, which is also excellent.
The simplest way to sum up this series is: Paris does super
It's set in a near-future Paris that borders on dystopia and in a future in which 'anomalies' have started happening all over Europe. The anomalies cannot be observed by science (although Cléo Vilanova is trying. It's her life's work, in fact) but they're there alright and they are affecting things.
And then they start affecting people.
In particular, they start affecting Frank Braffort, freshly back from war. Braffort makes the COLOSSAL mistake of listening to and obeying Prefect Beauregard. COLOSSAL MISTAKE. Things go from back to worse as the anomalies worsen and worsen, affecting more and more people, including things that were not previously people.
Eventually, Beauregard goes full dystopia. YOU NEVER GO FULL DYSTOPIA.
And then! Things get worse.
I'm not going to spoil how or why, but man, that ending is great!
We learn why Beauregard and his right-hand man, Assan, did the things they did. Beauregard is a complete nutjob and I have to admit that the slow reveal of just how broken his entire thought process is over the whole series is one of the most terrifying things about the whole thing. (He's basically a Nice Guy: "I broke Paris for you, why don't you love me back?")
Assan, on the other hand... I never expected to get backstory for why he did the things he did and why he supported Beauregard for so long before turning on him (as a result of Beauregard going FULL DYSTOPIA), but we do! And I love that whole reveal so much. SO MUCH.
And then! AND THEN! There's the ending, the real ending, the way the book closes. And those lines:
J'ai toujours été là. J'ai dormi mais c'est fini. Je suis réveillé. Et j'apporte une bonne nouvelle. Il y en a d'autres comme moi. Ici et dans toutes les villes d'Europe. Ca ne fait que commencer. Je suis juste le premier. L'optimum.
I don't know, I just really love the whole thing? Like, even to myself I don't really explain it.
There's something so French, so Parisian, about the whole thing. Like, you can argue that Beauregard is the who set the whole plot in motion, or Vilanova, or especially Assan. Or. Or you could say it was Paris who reached out and made the superheroes it needed. (I'm angling for the Surfeur Mirage to be the hero it deserves.)
The entire thing is great. And there's apparnetly going to be two more volume as another complete cycle in this verse and I AM SO EXCITED.
I'm not counting either of those for the reading bingo, because it's late, I'm tired, Masqué is a reread and Nous les morts an aggressive skim.
Currently reading
Still stalled on The Art of War, The Kick-Ass Writer, La véritable histoire de Carthage et de Hannibal, Les Fleurs du Mal and Métronome.
Made very negligeable progress on Rome's Revolution and Ghosts of Cannae.
L'aigle et le safran, by Sen: (You can buy it online or read it online. I'm reading the paper version, so I don't know if the online text is the same, but at a glance it looks like it is.)
OH MY GOD. Not only is the language gorgeous, but the plot has turned into even more of my thing. Sen, I don't know you, but you apparently know me really well. How did you know the only way to make me love it more would be for both of the two men in the romance to end up on opposing side of a war? HOW DID YOU KNOW.
So, yes. This book. I don't think I could not love it if I tried, but why the hell would I try? I love it! It's a book! In French! And the writing is gorgeous and slow and and and graceful and the plot is exactly my thing and the characters are such idiots for people so smart and I love it.
I really hope to get a happy ending here, no lie. But also I don't want it to be over? Aaaaaaah what do.
Also, have I mentionned that it has illustrated title pages? Because IT DOES and they are WONDERFUL. The amount of details in them is impressive, especially as it by no means sacrifices clarity (which is really ahrd to do, especially when you only have lineart to go on). And when the latest title page I've read was almost entirely blank, it was an amazing way to convey wordlessly that SHIT WAS ABOUT TO GET REAL, YO. (And shit did.)
This book. Seriously. This book. I'm kind of incoherent and giddy over how much I enjoy it. I feel like shoving it into all your faces and going "here, read this!". (As it stands, I'm going to pointedly shove it in
_profiterole_ 's general direction, because I am about 90% convinced it's the kind of book they will enjoy.) It's been ages since I felt that way over a book in French that did not include pictures. (I also feel this way about Masqué, as you can probably tell. The latest books I felt this way in English were City of Stairs and Days of the Dead. I can't remember what the last book-book in French I felt this way about was.)I love it so much.
What are you reading next? (aka the to-read list)
THERE'S A NEW VOLUME OF LES QUATRE DE BAKER STREET COMING OUT TODAY. (BEST SHERLOCK HOLMES ADAPTATION BAR NONE.) I'm going to buy it tomorrow and read it SO HARD.
Yes, this is also a series of comics where I get the "shove its greatness at everyone" feelings. Don't judge me, okay?
I will also be reading The Grass-King's Concubine! Because Kari Sperring is a wonderful human and I will fucking fight you if you suggest otherwise and has sent me a copy of the book, with the name-that-is-also-the-name-of-someone-I'm-close-to replaced, which means that I will in fact be able to read the book.
Old list:
Books that I have already: Pyramids of London, by Andrea K Höst, Prisoner (Echo's Wolf, Book 1) (Werewolf Marines 2) by Lia Silver, Darkness Over Cannae by Jenny Dolfen, Taking Stock by Scott Bartlett (yuleswap book 1), February by Lisa Moore (yuleswap book 2), The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan, The Skull Throne, by Peter V. Brett,Hostage by Sherwood Smith and Rachel Manija Brown.
Books that are out and that I haven't got: Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen, by Garth Nix, Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie, Melting Stones and Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce, The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, The Beginning Place by Ursula Le Guin, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex, The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, the last two books of Kate Eliott's Spiritwalker trilogy, The Missing Queen by Samhita Arni, Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed and whatever's out of the Craft Sequence series.
Books that aren't out yet (and when they're out): The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan (Autumn 2015), The Sleeping Life (Eferum, #2) by Andrea K. Höst (2015), Benjamin January #14 by Barbara Hambly (no idea), the Tris book by Tamora Pierce (2015), , The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard, Dogs of Peace by Ada Palmer and whatever Jenny Dolfen's next project is (THAT ART!).
Books what I'm not sure if I want to read them: City of Blades, by Robert Jackson Bennett: Still IDK.
This turned out more French and more excited than these entries usually do, but hey, I ain't complaining.