Tuesday Swelling
Jul. 31st, 2007 11:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
erastesHappy Birthday ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lamardeuse, jefffunk, danxsunday!
I've been bitten by a mosquito last evening on the forearm and it's horribly swollen. The swelling is six inches long and four inches wide and HARD. I've often wanted a swelling like that, but I never envisaged it as being part of my ARM.
I've been reading "Mortal Engines" by Philip Reeve over the past few days - Book one with the same name and I am half way through book 2 (of 4) which is Predator's Gold.
So GOOD. Nothing pretentious, just a breakneck adventure story with great characters, and a world which makes you think WTF where the hell did he get that from? Tom is great, brave and cowardly at once, and I love how he really cares (so far) for Hester. Hester is a wonderful character, scarred inside and outside with her upbringing.
But hell - it's incredibly dark! I always had a feeling about Harry Potter, that JKR shied away from the real darkness of the world, yes there were dark bits but quite a lot was Enid Blyton messing about on brooms, and that's fine in a way. But these books are excellent, you are thrown into a terrible nightmare dystopian world from the word go - and (of course) everyone thinks it's perfectly normal, that they live on travelling cities and the bigger cities "eat" (chase trap and dismantle) the smaller cities. It's called Municipal Darwinism and is perfectly acceptable. But it's a dreadful concept to us, and we watch with horror as the inhabitants of London hang over the railings and cheer as it gobbles up smaller prey in its way.
Thanks tozehavit_lamasu for recommending it!
Oh well, better get to work on something.
lamardeuse, jefffunk, danxsunday!I've been bitten by a mosquito last evening on the forearm and it's horribly swollen. The swelling is six inches long and four inches wide and HARD. I've often wanted a swelling like that, but I never envisaged it as being part of my ARM.
I've been reading "Mortal Engines" by Philip Reeve over the past few days - Book one with the same name and I am half way through book 2 (of 4) which is Predator's Gold.
So GOOD. Nothing pretentious, just a breakneck adventure story with great characters, and a world which makes you think WTF where the hell did he get that from? Tom is great, brave and cowardly at once, and I love how he really cares (so far) for Hester. Hester is a wonderful character, scarred inside and outside with her upbringing.
But hell - it's incredibly dark! I always had a feeling about Harry Potter, that JKR shied away from the real darkness of the world, yes there were dark bits but quite a lot was Enid Blyton messing about on brooms, and that's fine in a way. But these books are excellent, you are thrown into a terrible nightmare dystopian world from the word go - and (of course) everyone thinks it's perfectly normal, that they live on travelling cities and the bigger cities "eat" (chase trap and dismantle) the smaller cities. It's called Municipal Darwinism and is perfectly acceptable. But it's a dreadful concept to us, and we watch with horror as the inhabitants of London hang over the railings and cheer as it gobbles up smaller prey in its way.
Thanks to
zehavit_lamasu for recommending it!Oh well, better get to work on something.
