Xi'an's Og

Read part of another Hugo best novel contender, Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor, which is about a writer getting suddenly famous for an original novel of (voluntarily) rusty robots, but this was too much of an infinite mirror (and too little speculative fiction) that I gave up a third of the way, before anything speculative happened…. And the Hugo (hopeful) novella The Summer War by Naomi Novik, nice tale à la Grimm if not particularly deep. And another Hugo nominated novel The Incandescent by Emily Tesh, a magical boarding school à la Harry Potter, enjoyable enough if missing in villeins besides demons! However, the constant whine of the head teacher about her duties, the glorification of the English boarding school model, and the fixation on the A levels and on getting to Oxford are weighting down my vote… And the Hugo novelette The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For by Cameron Reed, with little appeal. Lots of books, thanks to this long-lasting spell of jetlag!

Cooked cold soba noodles for the week in Nagoya, And (alas!) enjoyed eels in the local histumabashi format. Alas because I discovered afterwards that eels are dramatically threatened to extinction. Given that the fisheries rely on wild eels for the most part.

Watched the whole season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms in the plane to Tokyo, set in the Game of Thrones universe and quite engaging, even though the (edge) knight’s naïvety is exaggerated, while the scenario shifts suspend belief way too much and too often. The absurd brutality of medieval jousts and tournaments is rendered in strongest terms (but I did not faint!). Reminding me of Scott’s Last Duel.

Read another Hugo best novel contender, A Drop of Corruption, by  Robert Jackson Bennett, although I had to buy it since it was not part of the LACon package. (At a negligible price for Kindles on Amazon.) Even had it been out of the shortlist, I would have read this book as soon as I became aware of its existence! At this stage of my reading through the shortlisted novels, it figures at the top. It continues on the highly original construct in volume #1, with enough originality in the structure of the land, the organisation of the Empire, the role of leviathans as providers of drugs and treatments, and the past story of both investigators, Ana and Din. The idea of the Shroud is brilliant and having to wait for hundreds of pages to get an insider’s view so frustrating! The hunt for the central villain runs the entire book and the omniscient character feels a bit over-stretched at times, with much infodump, but the final impressions I got from this fantastic book remain highly positive and I am eagerly looking forward the incoming third volume.

Cooked mostly cold salads to cope with the heat waves, except for a batch of vegetable samosas to make use of leftover filo pastry and ageing potatoes. And repeated bowls of rhubarb preserve since this is the time of year when they are readily available at the local market. On said market, my favourite fishmonger gave me a monkfish liver just to try and it proved quite the delicacy, while easy to prepare.

Watched Season 3 of Night Agent, the Bournesque Secret Service action series, which is as addictive as a bowl of peanuts!, despite the many suspensions of belief required by the convenient coïncidences and the repeated red herrings. Possibly better than Season 2 thanks to the depth of several characters.