1 A 3 O R N

2020 August Updates

Created: 2020-09-01
Wordcount: 0.2k

Fiction

  • Read Stormlight Archive 3, "Oathbringer" Have not reviewed. Plot just doesn't stick in my head.

  • "Emperor's Soul" by Brandon Sanderson, still one of my favorite things by him.

  • "Tyrant Baru Cormorant" by Seth Dickinson. I really, really wanted to love this. The first two books in the series are among my favorite. Alas, I just didn't like it as much as the first two. I am not sure I can say why. In part, I think, it was because for several scientific bits I could identify the precise source -- "Oh, you got this information about specific traditional knowledge from this book." In places, it just felt way more preachy than the first ones; I felt like Aminata's crisis over her heritage was tacked-on, at least as far as the lead-in provided from book II. And there was a place where Ulyu Xe just gave the author's opinion on magic, which kinda sucked. It was still well written, with some really beautiful parts, and some really nice plotting. But yeah, overall, it doesn't slot into the same segment of my soul as "Traitor" and "Monster".

Movies

  • Watched "Princess Kaguya" which was quite sad. A good example of how people trying to do "good" for others fail to actually consider the happiness of those others, in her father. And a wonderful vision of the banality of the beatific view at the end.

  • "Being John Malkovitch" was pretty good, but didn't blow me away.

Music