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It's probably cold as a Norse hell outside, because all our radiators are kicking heat like mad. Supposedly the maintenance people are going to be 'balancing' the heating system, today, so they asked for all the radiators to be turned on. Consequently I have the kitchen window open or I would die. With the fresh air and sunshine coming in, though, it feels quite nice. :)
In productivity news, I haven't been, at all. I finally decided to not wait for Eor and watched the first eps of Victorian Romance Emma and Chevalier D'Eon by myself. Quite good, very enjoyable! :) Though yes there were a few WTF moments in D'Eon. He's wounded, then turns into a woman and all his wounds are healed? I think my preference is for Emma, though for once, I think the product might be improved by dubbing into English. I don't usually feel that way, I'd rather get the original intonation and read subtitles, but the Japanese voices - and random odd noises (what is it with all those grunts and gasps?) - are so bizarre with the English setting.
I also finished the Robot Novels - "The Robots of Dawn" (Isaac Asimov) - whooooo! The robots rock! Now I know why Asimov felt he had to write another novel for Giskard and Daneel (Robots and Empire). Not to mention that the slash subtext between the main character, Elijah Baley, and his investigative partner, Daneel, is so damned thick you can cut it with a knife. Elijah throws his arms around Daneel's neck on several occasions, has an urge to bury his face in Daneel's chest (but resists), has an urge to pull Daneel closer and gets all bashful and confused. (But then he pretty much does it, anyway.) Not to mention a parenthetical reference: "(when did he start thinking of his eyes as gentle?)" That reads just like it's torn straight out of a slash fanfic! And outright saying to someone "Would you dare test the bonds between us of ... love?" Yeah, yeah, this was supposed to be a love story for Elijah and Gladia, according to Asimov's introduction. Riiight. Eor disagrees with me of course, because he doesn't want to see the bonds of loving non-sexual friendship between men sullied by my insistence that they want to be at it like rabbits. But the point is, I don't even care if they have sex, actually. The declaration of love and the snuggling was quite enough for me. Oh it would be nice if it went further, because I'm totally a best-friends shipper - I can't help it, it's my little kink - but it doesn't really have to. Even better because I had to get into the third novel for that, though Elijah's growing affection is evident through the first two.
Yes, well, story and writing. I seem to have forgotten that in my squee. The writing is both clunky at times and challenging (good lord that man must have had a vocabulary three times the size of mine), but the story really pulled me along and I was confused as to who the killer could be right up until the end. And amazed that Baley EVER figured it out. But mostly the sociological viewpoint of the book (of all the books in the series) - it's really all about differences in culture and problems in communication and understanding which arise because of the differences, as well as the limiting of people's experience because of expectations they have set up. For just one instance, what seems basic is never explained because it's never even noticed by the people IN the culture. At one point Baley gets trapped in a car because nobody ever saw a need to explain to him how to open the door.
Yes, the clever and observant reader will notice that I didn't post anything about books #3, 4, 5, 6 & 7. They were:
#3 - "Sick Puppy," Carl Hiaason
#4 - The August 2006 Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine
#5 - "Look Into The Sun," by James Patrick Kelly
#6 - "Caves of Steel" (the first of the Robot Novels), Isaac Asimov
#7 - "The Naked Sun" (Robot Novel Two), Isaac Asimov
And, no, I have no particular reason for not listing them at the time. Just laziness. Didn't feel like writing reviews. If I ever get around to writing anything I'll try to insert them in the proper place in timeline. Also, pretty much what I said about "Robots of Dawn" also goes for the first two novels, with a little less slash subtext squee.
I note a huge preponderance of the name Asimov and the word Sun.
Real life? What? Things I should be doing? Oh, don't bother me with that stuff.
In productivity news, I haven't been, at all. I finally decided to not wait for Eor and watched the first eps of Victorian Romance Emma and Chevalier D'Eon by myself. Quite good, very enjoyable! :) Though yes there were a few WTF moments in D'Eon. He's wounded, then turns into a woman and all his wounds are healed? I think my preference is for Emma, though for once, I think the product might be improved by dubbing into English. I don't usually feel that way, I'd rather get the original intonation and read subtitles, but the Japanese voices - and random odd noises (what is it with all those grunts and gasps?) - are so bizarre with the English setting.
I also finished the Robot Novels - "The Robots of Dawn" (Isaac Asimov) - whooooo! The robots rock! Now I know why Asimov felt he had to write another novel for Giskard and Daneel (Robots and Empire). Not to mention that the slash subtext between the main character, Elijah Baley, and his investigative partner, Daneel, is so damned thick you can cut it with a knife. Elijah throws his arms around Daneel's neck on several occasions, has an urge to bury his face in Daneel's chest (but resists), has an urge to pull Daneel closer and gets all bashful and confused. (But then he pretty much does it, anyway.) Not to mention a parenthetical reference: "(when did he start thinking of his eyes as gentle?)" That reads just like it's torn straight out of a slash fanfic! And outright saying to someone "Would you dare test the bonds between us of ... love?" Yeah, yeah, this was supposed to be a love story for Elijah and Gladia, according to Asimov's introduction. Riiight. Eor disagrees with me of course, because he doesn't want to see the bonds of loving non-sexual friendship between men sullied by my insistence that they want to be at it like rabbits. But the point is, I don't even care if they have sex, actually. The declaration of love and the snuggling was quite enough for me. Oh it would be nice if it went further, because I'm totally a best-friends shipper - I can't help it, it's my little kink - but it doesn't really have to. Even better because I had to get into the third novel for that, though Elijah's growing affection is evident through the first two.
Yes, well, story and writing. I seem to have forgotten that in my squee. The writing is both clunky at times and challenging (good lord that man must have had a vocabulary three times the size of mine), but the story really pulled me along and I was confused as to who the killer could be right up until the end. And amazed that Baley EVER figured it out. But mostly the sociological viewpoint of the book (of all the books in the series) - it's really all about differences in culture and problems in communication and understanding which arise because of the differences, as well as the limiting of people's experience because of expectations they have set up. For just one instance, what seems basic is never explained because it's never even noticed by the people IN the culture. At one point Baley gets trapped in a car because nobody ever saw a need to explain to him how to open the door.
Yes, the clever and observant reader will notice that I didn't post anything about books #3, 4, 5, 6 & 7. They were:
#3 - "Sick Puppy," Carl Hiaason
#4 - The August 2006 Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine
#5 - "Look Into The Sun," by James Patrick Kelly
#6 - "Caves of Steel" (the first of the Robot Novels), Isaac Asimov
#7 - "The Naked Sun" (Robot Novel Two), Isaac Asimov
And, no, I have no particular reason for not listing them at the time. Just laziness. Didn't feel like writing reviews. If I ever get around to writing anything I'll try to insert them in the proper place in timeline. Also, pretty much what I said about "Robots of Dawn" also goes for the first two novels, with a little less slash subtext squee.
I note a huge preponderance of the name Asimov and the word Sun.
Real life? What? Things I should be doing? Oh, don't bother me with that stuff.