So, not much (other than yummy Bday dinner involving trout, which I can smell cooking). Battling with a short that refuses to lie down, and thinking on revisions to the horrendous novella after my crit group’s been there (and they are truly made of awesome).

And working on a short story that refuses to cooperate, but that’s as expected and should be solved soon.

As far as the Vietnamese goes, my mom finally figured out that I had issues with two tones (the neutral, and the huyền, which is one of the two descending ones. I do fine with the ascending tone if I pay attention, and the falling-ascending ones are pronounced the same way as the accent on “phở”, so I got a lot of practise with it. And the other descending one, for some reason, never really bothers me, at least comparatively). Damn, there goes my last refuge–I can foresee that I will get drilled extensively… On the plus side, I now know a lot of fruit names. Some nice ones are “apple” (“táo tây”, ie “Western jujube”), “asparagus” (“măng tây”, ie “Western bamboo shoot”), and my absolute favorite, “star-apple” (“vú sữa”, ie “mother’s breast milk”, because the fruit is sort of spherical, with a little stem that sort of looks like a nipple, and has a cloudy white juice. Pragmatic, if nothing else).

I also tested out my new-found vocabulary for fruit and various other edibles by translating a Vietnamese recipe into French (the one for bì cuốn, aka rolls with pork skin. I know how to make the rolls, but not the pork). More accurately, I relied on Google translate to do the bulk of the work once we got out of the ingredients stage, and then corrected the thing by hand with the missing vocabulary. But still–I’m irrationally proud. I wouldn’t have been able to do that a year ago.

Tomorrow, London!! Aka the city of perdition where I will spend my birthday allowance on too many books…

Been meaning to post about this for a while–among the stuff that I read when younger were several bandes dessinées–many of which haven’t been translated, and I thought I’d do a post (and yup, this also explains the icon). Yoko Tsuno was one of the BDs I enjoyed most (the other being a tie between the very first volumes of heroic fantasy Aria, and Gaston Lagaffe). Furthermore, I was happy to see recently that they still held up quite well to reread years afterwards–and it’s not the case for all BDs, because they were primarily written for a child audience and some of the plots can clunk quite painfully when you’re an adult.

It’s a bit hard to describe the series. Like a lot of BDs, it’s actually written by a Belgian, Roger Leloup–and has been going on for a while, since 1970 and with more than 26 volumes published. It basically follows the adventures of the eponymous character Yoko Tsuno, a Japanese Electrical Engineer living in Brussels–and most of the modern-day series is set in Belgium. However, Yoko is soon embroiled in different categories of trouble: she meets the blue-skinned Vineans, aliens who have taken refuge on earth after their planet was destroyed (and later returns to help settle Vinea); she travels around in time from Indonesia to an alternate future in which Earth was destroyed; and she is generally embroiled in shennanigans ranging from scientific experiments in cryogeny to giant iguanas within the Hong Kong Bay.

She’s assisted in this by Pol and Vic, two boys who start out as her cameramen and later graduate to official sidekicks (and love interest). Other recurring characters include Rosée (“Morning Dew”), Yoko’s adopted daughter; Monya, a girl from the future who inherited a time machine; Khâny and Poky, the Vinean twins (albeit slightly time-dilated, since Khâny is an adult, and Poky a child about the same age as Rosée); and Ingrid, the German organist who has a gift for getting embroiled in Gothic intrigues.

There are lots of things I love about this series: the art is very often stunning, especially when drawing on real-life settings (one of my early favorites, The Edge of Life aka “Frontière de la Vie”, takes place in Rothenburg, a lovely German town that retains most of its medieval buildings). The charaters, considering it’s a BD in 47-page installment, are well-drawn (I especially like Vic, who desperately tries to appear competent and manly, but is frequently outclassed by Yoko). The BD touches on several themes from the morality of changing the past to the ethics of biomanipulation, but never preaches; and the latest episodes are still very strong–a pretty rare feat considering how long the series has been going on.

And of course, there’s Yoko herself, who’s the multi-competent badass (but it’s a nice change to see that she solves problems more through science than through action); who never hesitates to let her sense of what is right guide her; and who straddles several worlds from Asia to Europe [1]. Of course, all that never goes very far because it’s a BD and not a novel, and there’s not much room for character introspection, but still… still, no fan service, strong women characters, awesome worldbuilding, and strong plots. What’s not to like?

ETA: I’ve discovered that Cinebook, the same guys who translate Blake and Mortimer and Thorgal, have translated a couple of eps. You can read about them here, and they should be available on amazon, too! I’d recommend “The Time Spiral”, “The Dragon of Hong Kong”, and “On the Edge of Life”. “The Time Spiral” is pretty much one of my series favourite.

(and yes, Yoko and Rosée are my newest icon 🙂 )

[1] I have no idea how much of all that stuff is accurate. I haven’t seen anything horrendously wrong, but quite possibly the Japanese and Chinese characters are off (the French/Belgian stuff is pretty accurate, but that’s not surprising). Still, the series gets points for pretty much taking the ethnicity of its main character(s) for granted, and being generally so strong on actual ethnic and gender diversity (a lot of Franco-Belgian BDs can be awfully parochial, and considering the first few eps date back to the Seventies, the record is pretty impressive).
ETA: though, given that the BD was translated into Chinese by a Hong Kong publisher, the depiction of Chinese people can’t be that horrendous…

Hum, OK. Mostly I went to see this movie because friends dragged me, because it would normally be pretty low on my list of things to watch. I have to say, before we get into the snark, that the spirit of it (the ridiculous caper, casual adaptation of history to suit the plot and general sense of fun) would actually have pleased Dumas quite a bit, I think. Also, I didn’t expect to quite like Matthew Macfadyen quite that much in the role of Athos (way better than Kiefer Sutherland in the Disney 1993 version).

Now that the good is out of the way…

Well, it would have been nice if the movie hadn’t quite been so ridiculous, or quite so predictable–or, indeed, quite so creative with, you know, actual French history and geography? I don’t know where the French court is supposed to be, and clearly the movie is in a state of terminal hesitation as to whether it should be the Louvre or Versailles (the placement with regards to Paris sort of looks like a badly located Louvre, but the actual shots suggest Versailles). Which is interesting considering that Versailles was a nice hunting lodge in the middle of the woods at the time Louis XIII was on the throne.
Also, about those nice opening shots on dark green hills with huge, twisted trees that have seen many winters? All I have to say is: Gascony. As in, south of France. Sun-drenched, mild winters, wonderful light, all that is patently missing from said shots. (I think this was shot in Bavaria, and boy, does it show).
And finally, I do want to point out that “musketeers” means one definite thing that the scriptwriters chose to completely ignore: a “musketeer” is a guy with a musket. Someone who used the very first (and admittedly unreliable) firearms of French warfare. You do NOT get to present musketeers as some kind of nostalgic uber-swordsmen set aside by the march of progress. They’re not that. They were never that, and the original novel is indeed pretty clear on the fact that musketeers are called to the war front at La Rochelle, and that they must have their equipment, which includes the firearms.

Other than that… The movie was full of the usual Hollywood conceits that realism should be thrown out the window in the service of good storytelling (whatever that means): I’m sorry, but you cannot swim in the canals of Venice, and then fire crossbows in the minute that follows (your weapon mechanism is probably completely clogged by then). You do not plummet from admidst cloud-cover height into the sea and survive: at this altitude, the sea is going to hit you like a concrete block. For that matter, you do not swim in full court clothes (which would have included very cumbersome underwear in addition to all the frills).
I’ll skip over the usual casting of the Cardinal as the villain plotting to take over France, all the skimpy fan-service that the script parades in the person of Milady, because it’s only predictable from that kind of movie (if really sad); but I’ll admit some final puzzlement as to what the heck all the maps and little figurines were doing in the movie? They were grossly inaccurate in most cases (bonus points especially for the “presentation” of the European politics just after the title roll, which wins a prize for getting absolutely nothing right of the 1625-1633 geopolitics), and they made the movie look like it was made by a really clueless Warhammer adddict.

But that’s not the worst thing. No, the worst thing is the last five minutes or so of the movie, which promise a sequel.

Excuse me while I go tear my hair out, and start a search of a decent movie adaptation of the novel… (any recs welcome, btw. I could use good movies)

Missed it (it was yesterday), but Master of the House of Darts is now out in the UK as well. If you want a UK shiny paperback, now is the time!

Hope to see some copies when the sis and I hit the UK for my birthday next week.

Also, bonus interview from Jessica Strider, mainly on the writing process, bonus reviews from Jonathan Crowe, Lawrence at Electric Well, Marissa Lingen, and, in lieu of book sightings, a special stand at the World’s Biggest Bookstore on Obsidian and Blood (many thanks for the opportunity and pics to Jessica Strider)

-The tireless Charles Tan puts together a links roundup for WFC, which includes several recordings of panels as well as reports. Really annoyed I missed it this year, especially as it didn’t conflict with Utopiales (which I end up missing for another reason entirely, mind you). Ah well, maybe next year. Toronto sounds nice.

-Several people, including Kate Elliott, Juliet McKenna, Sherwood Smith, report on the WFC “The Glass Ceiling” panel about women vs men in the field. Nothing very new, sadly, but I find the concept of male vs. female gaze fascinating (even though the dynamics that are used here are, I suspect, mostly US or UK. It’s occurred to me recently that French and Vietnamese culture probably don’t have quite the same sexual dynamics or problems, though I’d be hard pressed to pinpoint the bits that are different. Bit hard when you’re submerged in the culture to analyse it) . Also, see an older postby N.K. Jemisin, which raises some interesting questions on the same topic, especially RE sex scenes. (I tend to avoid sex scenes in my writing because reading them bores me, but I can totally understand why other people would want them in their books)

First off, a big round of thanks to everyone who entered–reading all those Aztec recipes was awesome (and made me really hungry), and it was really interesting to see who your favourite Obsidian and Blood characters were. I hadn’t expected Acatl to be quite so popular, but I guess it makes sense because his is the only POV within the book… At any rate, thank you so much. You made me so proud 🙂

So, the sorting hat has performed its magic, and the winners are:
1st prize: Lee Hallison
2nd prize: starlady38
3rd prize: Cécile Cristofari, who hit about every way to get points 🙂

I’ll be in touch with the winners to get them their prizes.

So, not much was accomplished, other than:
-the novella now has a (semi-definite) title: “Three Visits to a Space Station (to the Tune of ‘Shattered Dreams’)”. Yes, I spliced up Dream of Red Mansions semi-intelligently…
-started work on an SF short set in the Mekong delta in the near future. Currently stopped dead because I realised I needed more info about how rice cultivation actually works (my only knowledge of how to plant rice comes from fairy tales…)
-I’m nano-ing this year–well, sort of. In order to keep up a daily wordcount, I’ve joined up with a fictional novel as Aliette de Bodard. I have to write a couple blog posts, two short stories, and to start up work on a third. I reckon I can bang up words on that as a part of a single project, called “Aliette is writing…”
-also (can’t remember if I’ve posted this, but I don’t think I have), for any Francophones reading this, I will be a guest at Les Rencontres de l’Imaginaire de Sèvres on Dec 10th. I’ve never actually been, so I’m not sure what’s involved, but I think I’ll be basically hanging around signing books and gossiping. The lineup includes around 50 authors from Pierre Bordage to Mélanie Fazi, and various associations; and the theme this year is “uchronie” (aka alternate history).

(with a few that are a bit old, but I’d missed them before…)

–Keyan Bowes on “Why I write American”, chiming in on the differences between Asian (where she used to live) and American fiction as she perceives them
-Amal El-Mohtar on “Towards a Steampunk Without Steam”, a great discussion on why imposing Victorian values on steampunk is a bad idea (and yes, it’s an old post)
-Gabrielle Gantz interviews me for The Faster Times
-Lawrence M Schoen interviews me for his feature Eating Authors
-Val’s Random Comments weighs in on Master of the House of Darts (aka, thank God, the book is working)
-Jaoob at Drying Ink reviews Master of the House of Darts

In other news, huge congrats to the Angry Robot overlords Marc Gascoigne and Lee Harris for winning the World Fantasy Award last night! (even though a bit sad there wasn’t a Bragelonne win, as this would have been the very first win of a non-Anglophone) The complete list of winners is here.

And Happy Halloween everyone–we don’t celebrate here, so I’m going to stick to some phở…

Just a reminder that you have until Nov. 1st to enter the Master of the House of Darts competition, which comes with lots of neat prizes . You can enter via a comment or a repost, but for the best chance to win, don’t forget you can make up an Aztec recipe! So far, we’ve had prickly pear juice, chicken mixiotes, Aztec brownies, poultry with spicy fruit sauce, and gummy hearts that look like real hearts (not a recipe per se, but good enough as Aztec food 🙂 ). Come and join in the fun, either here or here!

(the less experiences cooks can also tell me who their favourite character in Obsidian and Blood is 🙂 )

Officially, Master of the House of Darts should be on sale today (the downside to living several thousand kilometers from the bookstores is that I won’t see it, but I’m sure it should be around physical bookstores. Otherwise, ebooks work too 🙂 )

Now I can stop blogging like crazy, get some sleep, and research rice cultivation in Asia (don’t ask, it’s for a story…) Also, I am proud that I have finished sorting out my books!!!
(it bugs me, though, that I seem to have lost two of the buggers somewhere in the move. We have absolutely *no* idea where they are, and I don’t think anyone would want to steal a book of Vietnamese fairytales and an Ancient Vietnam mystery book).

In other news, H and I are enjoying the anime Ergo Proxy, though we’re mostly at the “crazy theories” stage…