Why has Yoko Kanno never released a CD with the song the Tachikoma sing at the end of Gits:Sac - Second Gig? I was really hoping the end of OST4 would be it, but no go.
It’s one of the most touching moments I’ve seen in a series so dedicated to shredding sentimentality, and SSS completely ruins the moment, but it’s still beautiful, and I’ve always wanted that song.
Oh well.
Saw this on a friend’s live-journal, let’s see how I did. As a side note, even though it’s not a book I’ve read, I did get a kick out of seeing Iain M Banks’ The Wasp Factory on this list, since Banks is one of the most famous living SF authors out there. It’s easy to forget that not all of Banks’ work is SF.
I have to admit that I lust after the newly-announced Dell Studio laptops that have been announced. If I miraculously make tons of money in the next two months, I will buy one. I will buy one so hard.
The thing about writing fantasy is that it lets me write things like this:
The captain of the ship was a vile little man, an expatriate from the free city of Lagasham in the east. He wore his forehead shaved, but the rest of his hair was bundled into a long thick queue. He had silver bells tied to the end of it, so that whenever he moved his head sharply they tinkled. Liran thought privately that the bells sounded more like silvered tin, tinny and cheap.
His name was Shian. At least, that’s what Liran thought he said; his Dyrenan was so thick as to be unintelligible (though Liran suspected it made a great dip for fried tortillas), and Liran’s collection of languages did not include much in the way of minor tongues. They communicated haltingly in a pidgin of Southric, Northric Trade, and something that might have been High Ashindas but probably wasn’t. A lot of confusion had been had at the beginning of their business relationship when they established that Liran thought the word “Nas” meant very, while Shian believed firmly that it meant “not.”
Upon reflection, telling a man he was “very much able to pay” in a language he didn’t speak fluently was probably a bad choice on Liran’s part.
The ship in question, the Unquestionable Mercy of The Lady of The Sea, was a Fluyt – scarce worthy to cross open ocean. It was a good thing the Isle where the Circle had been built was nestled firmly in the bosom of the calmest sea in the world. Liran wouldn’t have trusted the Fluyt otherwise; in addition to being a large, top-heavy ship with barely enough maneuverability to get out of port, the specimen in question was dilapidated and shabby. It sails were patched, its railings splintered, and its hull badly in need of a scraping.
A floating deathtrap, in other words. Liran, already suffering from a pathological fear of the sea, was certain he was going to go insane during the voyage.
The other thing about writing fantasy is that i like fantasy, and I want to write what I like.
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I have in my posession the Ghost in the Shell O.S.T. 4 which is a single track, 49 minutes long. It’s an interesting listen. Not as good as O.S.T 3, though which I think might be my favorite.
There comes a time when I am forced to admit that I haven’t the faintest idea what i’m doing when it comes to things like resumes, cover letters, and similarly-important job-related documents which I am expected to produce whenever I’m looking for a job.
Still, there’s a job in emeryville that I think I’m qualified for, and I want it, and hopefully I’ll have my application filled out by tomorrow so I can send it in.
Failing that, I am still looking for a job within easy commuting distance. Preferably on a BART line, or in emeryville, or something. Bleh.
You know, as a fan of Radiohead, it surprises me a lot that I’ve never heard the live version of electioneering before. I absolutely love this song, it’s one of my top-ten Radiohead songs and definitely my second-favorite song from Ok Computer. I’ve never understood why it’s never really been a fan-favorite, though admittedly the general tastes of Radiohead fandom seem to lean more in the direction of brooding acoustic pieces like “subterranean homesick alien” than their more rocking stuff like “electioneering” or “optimistic” (another personal favorite).
I just finished reading Axis, the second novel in a series by Robert Charles Wilson. While technically the sequel to his earlier work, Spin, the two books share nothing other than setting and one character. There is very little overlap between the novels, and frankly Axis just isn’t as good as Spin. some of that might well be because the paint has started to wear off of the universe. Axis did not inspire the kind of pure visceral enjoyment that Spin did; what Axis did do, on the other hand, was remind me just how good the first book was, and also keep me enthused for the future release of the third book in this series, Vortex, which I believe comes out at the tail end of this year (which means I’ll probably pick it up sometime around mid-2009, when the mass-market paperback hits and keeps my wallet a little less pained).
I might not have liked Axis as much as Spin, but that’s somewhat akin to not liking A New Hope as much as Empire Strikes Back. One is better than the other, but that doesn’t keep the other from being good in its own right. To be honest, as well, while this book is about the same Hypothetical-influenced universe as the last book, all reviews have pointed out that it’s a different beast altogether – and even keeping in mind this warning, I still found myself moderately disappointed that this book wasn’t, as RCW put it himself, “Spin redux.” Even putting that aside, howeve,r there is something about the novel that just doesn’t feel as good as its prequel, something disappointing about the way the author has structured this book and the revelations within. Almost all of the revelations in this book are anticlimactic, not being what you expect for the most part. Or, rather, they are what you expect, but not for the reasons you expect. for me that lessened the emotional impact that this book might have otherwise had.
I also felt that the plot line regarding Brian, one of the protagonists’ ex-husbands, was improperly concluded. But it’s entirely possible this was done deliberately, to set Brian up for a return in Vortex. Somehow I doubt it, however.
So, in the end, I still recommend Spin to anyone and everyone who wants thoughtful speculative fiction, fiction that’s about the people affected by technology rather than the technology itself. Spin ranks highly as one of my favorite science fiction novels, and indeed as one of my favorite novels. It’s precisely constructed, thoughtful in the extreme, and challenges the reader with questions about just what sort of power the government ought to have, and what it means to be human. It deserves a 9/10 if you need a number rating.
Axis is a good book, despite my disappointment – a 7/10 at least, maybe even an 8/10. But It’s not as good as Spin, and in no way the kind of required reading that Spin was. But if you liked the first one – and I hope anyone who decides to take my recommendation does – and want to see another side of the universe, pick up Axis. Maybe you’ll be less disappointed than I was – and while it fails in following up the stellar Spin, it still stands on its own as a good novel.
I forgot how little I like Honeycomb cereal. Especially when it’s stale.
Seriously, no honey cereal tastes anything like honey. can’t we just call it “sugar glazed cheerios?” They don’t make frosted cheerios any more (do they?), so it’s not like they’re muscling in on the business or anything.
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Is there a “drama free lj” pledge I can take, I wonder? This’ll show up on Logomachy first, but of course everything is cross-posted to Logomachy: LJ edition, so more or less everything I post will show up there in one form or another. In any case, I’m sick of putting my personal life on display for people who I barely know, or don’t know at all, so the chances of drama that isn’t directly related for the Concerned Students for Social Justice is unlikely in the extreme. You probably are going to get the negative aspects of my travels across the internet though, so don’t be surprised to see blog post titles along the lines of “vaginal lubricant is made of snot!”
It is.
Shut up.
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Primal Scream is such a weird band.
And why isn’t weird spelled wierd, anyways?
Review:
I watched the entire Seirei no Moribito anime series in something like a week after I picked it up over a year after it aired. When I tried to watch it in weekly installments on its first release, I found the series to be almost unbearably slow, fighting the urge to turn it off every time. The few battles that livened things up in the early episodes were over almost before they began, and seven or eight weeks in, depressed at the prospect of continuing to struggle with a show that had so impressed me with slick visuals and consistently high-quality animation, I stopped watching it.
Number ten on Entertainment Weekly’s list of 12 things they learned from BSG this year:
10. SAUL TIGH DOES NOT SHOOT BLANKS
which, really, is something I didn’t want to think about; but they make a good point. He’s still got it – what remains to be seen is how Six is going to deal with a bun in the oven, so to speak, and whether Saul will be as awesome a dad as he is everything else. 2009 can’t come soon enough.