Review of A marvellous light by Freya Marske

Only days after I decided to buy less new books I went out and bought this one. The rule would be not buy anything by an author that I haven't read before. Unless I couldn't get it through a library. This decision mostly came after cleaning out my bookshelf and seeing how many bad purchases I have made made.

Anyway less than a week after this decision I brought this one, mostly because it was recommended in the bookstore. But I can't say I regret it, quite the opposite. 

Plot

Turn of the century London and the young baronet Robin Blyth starts his new job in an unknown office of the government. Taking over after his predecessor Reggie Gattling disappeared (he dies in the prologue but they don't know that) he only accepts to help his family's financial situation. At least until he, on the first day meets Edwin Courcey and finds out what the job is actually about. Acting as liaison between the the British government and the magical society in their midst. Edwin being the Liaison for the magical assembly.

But Reggie took his secrets to the grave and his killers aren't giving up. Assuming Robin knows anything about this they curse him to make him find what Reggie had hid. Instead Robin enlists Edwin for help and the two of them leave London for Edwin ancestral home and the magical library there. Leaving Robins work in the hands of his Secretary the excellent Miss Morrissey who unlike Robin actually knows what shes doing.

It doesn't take long for feelings to develop between the outgoing and athletic Robin and the bookish and closed of Edwin. As they working together to break the increasingly painful curse and find out what Reggie had gotten himself involved with it becomes clear that the assailants are not far behind. 

My thought

 I like the characters a lot Edwin hiding in the library using precision and knowledge to make up for his comparative lack of magic. But mostly just hiding to avoid his thoughtlessly mean sister and his deliberately cruel brother. being standoffish and pushing people away to protect himself from hurt. And yes this does cause trouble with his budding relationship with Robin. 

There is a bit of a theme in the book about low-or non magical people in a magical world and how they handle it and the pitying scorn form the rest. How having a non magical person in the family is seen as a source of embarrassment. Even when Reggie is found to be dead his family doesn't seem to care that much. It is also heavily implied that Edwins father did nothing to stop Walter (his brother) from bullying him because Walter had so much more magic.  

There is also Flora Sutton who for being a woman was also denied formal magical education and responded by creating a whole other system of magic in secret. All these and many other characters all responds in different but all very believable ways.

Robin too but as a newcomer is mostly...not indifferent but doesn't see it as a lack in himself. To him its more like a nice parlor trick they can do but feels no need to emulate them. He's generally secure in his identity. Athletic, social and good at being the person others want to see. Something he developed as a response to his narcissistic parents. 

The plot is quite good even if more focus is given to the characters and slowly revealing the magic system. That being said it's not obvious who the antagonists are before they are revealed, expect from a meta perspective there are only so many named characters. Then again they were more focused on solving the curse rather than figure out who put it there. There are magical police in this world and it's assumed that they are solving the murder though we never hear from them. Why they didn't bring the cures to them on the other hand is never clear.

The book takes place at the very beginning of the suffragette movement, and has a number of excellent female characters. Many but not all chafing under the lack of opportunities but doing things anyway. Along with the insistence that women really shouldn't be taught magic. Most of this weight is carried by Robins younger sister Maud who are running a persuasion campaign on Robin to be allowed to go to university. 

That people with little or no magic gets looked down on and yet women supposed to be taught any more than the most basic of magic, does sound like a contradiction. But it's not in a way that feels unbelievable. 

As for Robins and Edwins relationship, it's good they complement each other well and bring some emotional support that they both clearly need. Edwin more than Robin but I feel he made the most character growth in the story. The inevitable end of second act argument is convincing. It stems from something that Edwin actually planned to do and was made worse by their respective insecurities. They also even in the argument doesn't try to hurt one another and does attempt to work through the issues. It doesn't work but an attempt was made. I have realized that as a reader for me to like a book the characters needs to try to solve things, they don't have to succeed but they have to make the effort.

There are sex scenes in the book but only three. They are a bit long for my taste but they had enough character development or exposition woven in that I didn't feel the need to skip them. Also not so spicy that I was uncomfortable reading the book in public.

All told I'm definitely going to read the next in the series even if, from what I understand, Edwin and Robin wont be the main characters. Also I'll probably reread this one someday. 

If you have read it what did you think? Leave a comment. If you haven't read it you can check it out here Marvellous on Amazon.

Culture Night in Lund

I'm uncertain if that's the right translation or if there is a specific phrase that's used regardless every year at the end of september Lund, a city close by, has a city wide event showing of art, culture, music and since it's a university town various lectures. 

It's this Saturday and I'm going.

While it might be called night this is not entirely true since the first event starts at 9 in the morning with the majority of things happening in the afternoon. Having checked the program I could conclude that nothing I'm interested in starts before 1. This gives me enough time to bake some bread and do some cleaning also eat lunch at home.  

It's unseasonably warm right now but my apartment has heating issues so it's rather cool which means that I made the decision to wear both a sweater and jacket. This  meant that the brisk walk to the first even left me a bit overheated. But I justify my actions by thinking that I'll need it later in the evening.

As I said I had checked the program in advance and had everything planned out. At the first place (the Pufendorf Institute) I saw two lectures, they had a theme of food and sustainability. I should say, all the lectures I watched were about 20-30 minutes I realize there are a few of them.

The first was about using liquid carbon-dioxide as a green solvent for oil extraction in the food industry. With the aim to replace hexane. 

The second one was about Using yeast and plants to control pests in crops. Rather using yeast or genetically engineered plants to produce pheromones more cheaply than creating them artificially. Then using the Pheromones to disrupt the insects mating.  This also included and explanation of how the moths make their pheromones in the first place.

The next lecture here was about food that makes your teeth whiter but as is usual at this types of events  there are many things happening at the same time and there were a lecture about ancient Greek robots that sounded more interesting. So I headed of to the Lux building (this is one the main humanities building at the university). 

Here I had a bit of a time gap so I took the time to get a soda hoping the caffeine would help my headache. By the way did you know Pepsi has artificial sweeteners in their cola. And I'm not talking about the sugar-free version it had both sugar and sweetener. I'm fine with the sugar but I don't like the taser of sweeteners hence why I don't buy sugar free things. This makes me feel distinctly cheated. 

Anyway here I did run into my aunt that were here for a different lecture. 

The robots (technically the title for the lecture was AI in the ancient Greece and Rome) were mostly in Homers Iliad and Odyssey. Basically the gods doesn't have slaves but also can't be doing manual labor so there are just automatic things like doors and ships. Homer liked things doing thing by themselves. unlike Virgil who doesn't have any.  

The next lecture here was Space archaeology. Using different methods to see how the landscape has changed in the last couple of thousand years. How sedimentation can cause a harbor to now be miles inland or below the water.

At this point I meet up with my family they had made the decision to not come here until three. As I suspected this upset my carefully constructed schedule. They being of the, we'll go somewhere and see whats there strategy. In previous years this has resulted in many hours of aimless wandering.

They wanted to go to the Astronomy house to listen to the science lectures there. I just need to point out how badly they had handled their ques. Mainly how the ques for looking at the sun through a special telescope filled the access ramp and covered the door. The lecture here was about dendrochronology (measuring time through tree-rings). Also all the things one can learn not just about the climate but also things like frequency of forest fires. It can also be used for dating buildings, paintings or other wooden things. 

The last lecture I wanted to see was unfortunately canceled which I didn't find out until we had gotten there, but I also had seen quite a few by then so it wasn't a huge loss. I feel I should say, there are a lot of other things to do and see not just lectures but that was what I chose to do.

At this point my plan was to go to a cafe and eat dinner while listening to stand up comedy. But when we got there it was full so we had dinner from a food truck instead. The things I ate were quite underwhelming it was filling but terribly bland with no spices or even salt but a very hot sauce. The sauce didn't really make up for it since it was hot but didn't really have much taste.  As is usual there were no seating so we ended up sitting on some steps to eat.

A few short stops. There was someone teaching about coffee but it turned out to be mostly selling their brand. I asked them about which coffee is the least bitter but didn't get any good answer(they claimed coffee shouldn't be bitter) and their coffee when I tried it was very sour so not an improvement. 

A quick look through a bookshop buying the poetic Edda not the thing I was looking for but something I have been meaning to read. 

Then home. It's nice that I now almost never need to wait for a train. I did unfortunately forget to take any pictures. So this post is looking a bit dull. And no even as I was walking home it was warm enough that I didn't really need my jacket. I had been carrying it around all day for nothing.

What I did this summer part 1

This is a collection of various things I've done lately, Smaller things that don't warrant an post by them self but that I still wanted to share.

29 June

This day I went to a concert in the park. A free concert organized by the city. I'd seen about it while looking up whats happening at work. I'd written down time and location Willow pond park but not what or listened to how they sounded. 
I honestly didn't really feel like it. I'm introvert and I'd had a lot of things happening that week between  work, and celebrating my sisters birthday the day before. Visiting my parents to cut their lawn meeting a friend. All in all I'd had a lot of social interaction and at this time I mostly wanted to lay on my couch and watch Youtube with some tea and cinnamon rolls. But I can do that every day so I decided to go anyway. After all if I didn't like it I could just go home. 
I did take the time to fill a thermos with cranberry juice and ice to bring and doing some more involved makeup trying out my eye-shadow. I then ended up wearing sunglasses the whole time so the effort was completely wasted. 

I arrived there late partially because google said it would take 10 minutes, I had assumed 15 and it took 20, but also because I had to stop and check where I was going. I got slightly lost on the way but on the plus side I found a place where you can pump your bike so that's good.
I have been to this park and this stage before but had apparently forgotten what it looked like. I thought it would be basically unlimited space, forgetting it is an amphitheater. Between that and getting there late all of the seats were taken and I got to sit on the slope to the side and slightly behind the scene. Also looking almost directly into the sun.

There I found out that it was Ida Nielsen & the funkbots.
Apparently funk is that one melody in Seinfeld but in this case as a full song with lyrics and also better. Unfortunately all their songs sounded like that plus or minus some freestyle rap. The songs were all good but very samey. So 45 minutes I left. 
As a bonus since the event had started at 19.00 by the time I got home there were still plenty of time for tea and cinnamon rolls before bed.
This is why I wanted to live in the city. Travel adds an hour to everything and I probably wouldn't have gone if that was the case but with the barrier to entry so low I did.

13 July

For my birthday last year I got among other things a gift certificate for a Sherlock Holmes themed escape room. And now that people have time me and my sisters went. The place also has a cocktail bar again Sherlock themed, the menu looked like an old newspaper and some of the drinks were named after characters. It was very nice and a place I might go to just for drinks. Or to try one of their other games.

As a feature you could take drinks with you into the rooms and on the way there we made fun of it. Why would anyone think alcohol would help with puzzle solving. Jokes on us as we all got drinks. It was a nice drink though. 

The game was meant to be 45 - 60 minutes. We did it in 30. Proving what we all knew. We only needed a hint on one part though even after we couldn't figure out what the system had been. The hints and exposition was all prerecorded conversation between Holmes and Watson. All in all a fun time.

3 August

Nothing much happened. I took a walk in the park because it was nice weather and I needed inspiration for an up coming project. My plan was to draw pictures of different landscapes scenes. But I ended up only drawing two and taking pictures with my phone for the rest. It's hard to draw while standing and holding everything.

10 August

I haven't done much so far, mostly I've just been working. But yesterday was my last day of work and will be for a long time. I took a bit of an easy first day. I finished writing a post, started reading a new book, then lunch, some cleaning and I'm off. There's a festival in the city this week and I'm going down to see a thing about green cities. On the way taking a picture of the book I'd just finished. I'm hoping that if I take pictures of the books I've read rather than copying the cover I can trick the google algorithm into liking me. Update the algorithm still hates me but I like the pictures so I'll continue with it. There was some music on the way so I stopped to listen to some thing called Rydm crew. It was sort of advertisement for a longer gig they were playing later that day. unfortunately it was at the sale time as another thing.

The green city's thing was a disappointment, it was literally just a container with information on placards and some trees in flowerpots. Wandering around aimlessly I walked by the main stage. They were preparing for the next event which was an opera. I went in search of my other goal for the day ice cream. My plan for this day had been to make a mojito but my mint had Aphids so that idea got scrapped and ice cream seemed like a good substitute. I found some lemon sorbet and pistachio ice cream that was quite delicious and sat on a fountain eating it listening to the ungodly noise that is an orchestra warming up.

This went on for about an hour while the audience grew. But finally it started. The opera was an abridged version of Giuseppe Verdis opera Giovanna D'arco. It became more interesting once I realized that they provided subtitles on a screen.
It was enjoyable until halfway through when it started to rain and half the audience left along with the musicians who scrambled to protect their instruments. At which point I went home. Because I was starting to get hungry and was not dressed for any cold.

For the rest of this week I have been down there most days. I didn't listen to any music because most that seemed interesting was too late. On the other hand I listened to some of the actual green cities lectures that was interesting. 

22 August

I found a fossilized coral in a pile of dirt and stone. Sometimes the thought just strikes you that you have become like your parent. I didn't set out to looking for it either. I was on my way to a larger thrift store, where I wanted to look for kitchen chairs (there wasn't any) I found some blackberries. On the way back I picked some and looking for some more I found a  parking lot. At least it was a place where people had parked their cars it did not look in any way official and was tucked next to a train track. There wasn't any more black berries but glancing at a dirt pile probably left over from some construction that I passed I found two coral pieces. They now live in my bookshelf. 

24 August

I've decided there is a limit to how much time I should spend inside. So far I have used most of my vacation for errands and proofreading my next book. Hoping to remedy my shut in ways I took a trip to the park partially to take pictures of some books.

There I found some berries and considered picking them but apparently the seeds are poisonous so I decided against it they did look tasty though.

This it the closest park to where I live and is next door to the gym I used to visit. Despite this I have never been here before. Its a very functional park. There is a pool for kids, place for dogs, an outdoor gym, a playground. With neither kids nor dogs less useful for me and the rest is mostly a lawn with trees along the edges. I still stayed for a while enjoying the late summer warmth and reading. On the way back I found a hidden path which was nice except for the dead rat. 

And that's all. then September arrived and although it was nearly 30 degrees several days i do not count it as summer. But stay tuned for the projects I did.

The utterly uninteresting and unadventurous tales of Fred the vampire accountant by Drew Hayes

 Plot

 Recently turned vampire Fred Fletcher is disappointed to realize how little how little this changes things. He can no longer go out into the sun or touch silver he is also still socially awkward and scared of any kind of conflict. 
For lack of anything better to do he also keeps his job as a accountant though now freelance since nine to five isn't an option. 
Dismayed by how mundane his unlife is he decides to take a risk and go to his high school reunion.   
The reunion goes bad his former bullies are there and he didn't actually have any friends back then to reconnect with, even fellow former social outcasts Krystal disappears on him after a few minutes of conversation. It's not looking great and then it gets worse as the light cuts out, the doors are looked and the party is attacked by werewolves. 

But this is the start of a whole new unlife for Fred filled with wereponies, LARPing mages and jovial zombies but most importantly friends.

My thoughts.

Written as a memoir by the titular Fred the book contains five chronological stories. The plot part above mostly just describes the first of them the rest is mostly him getting dragged into trouble by mostly Krystal. Forcing him to get out of his shell and be a bit more social.
Sounds harsh but its good for him. 

Although I described him as as scared of conflict he also doesn't back down even when faced with opponents a lot stronger than himself as long as its to help someone. I was going to say to help his friends but its more friends of friends or strangers he just meet. This does help to make him more likable at least for me.

It's a clever book most of the solution to the trouble facing Fred gets solved not by force but by thinking outside the box and being clever, which I like. It's also an interesting mix of the fantastical and the mundane. In a way that's very refreshing, there aren't many uncool vampires in fiction which clearly is a shame. 

The book is a very quick read. This is partially down to it being several short stories. I like stopping at the next chapter and even more so at the end of a story. Also you are never more than 50 pages from a climax so that too helps. 

If you have read it what did you think? Leave a comment. If you haven't read it you can check it out here Utterly.

Making some pajama pants

 I needed new pajama pants because the ones I have are starting to look a bit ragged. 

While browsing for some fabric for another project I came across some black flannel. Which is nice. I like flannel as a fabric but there is a limit to how much plaid patterned I want in my wardrobe. I did consider getting it in dark blue but black worked better since I'll be for using parts of it for two other projects.

The pattern I used is one I made a few years ago and is very simple. This version is only three square pieces since I'm using a drawstring instead of a waistband. The easiest is to use a ruler to measure it all out.

The width of pieces 1 and 2 is you at the widest divided by two plus seam allowance. Maybe a bit more depending on how loose you want them to be. The length is however long as you want them to be. Plus five cm for cuffs and drawstring. 

Piece 3 is the diameter of your thigh plus seam allowance and the length of the inseam times two plus a bit for the cuffs times two.

Truly, this is the most detailed of patterns.

Mark the halfway point of piece 3 and attach it to the long sides of piece 1 making a tube. Start at the bottom and work your way up until you reach the halfway mark. Attach the rest of piece 3 to piece 2 same way starting at the bottom.

In the end piece 3 will run up the inside of one leg and down the other. There should also be parts of 1 and 2 left loose at the top.

Attach the loose pieces of 1 and 2 together in the back and the front. The front is optional if you are planning on putting in buttons or a zipper, but for this I fit everything together. 

Then it's just a matter of sewing everything together.
I usually prefer sewing by hand but this is literally just a bunch of long straight seams so I made an exception. I was also in a bit of a rush since I had arbitrarily decided that my current pants wouldn't be kept for another laundry day. And yes my sewing machine is an antique singer. It works excellently but unfortunately it doesn't do zig zag so I had to hand finish the seams to keep them from fraying.

Then fold the bottom pant legs and sew around it. Mostly to make it nice and keeping them from fraying.

Fold down the top to make a channel for a drawstring. Cut openings in the fabric for the drawstring, sew around it and finally run a ribbon through it. 

Results

I might have made them a bit tight. Because they are a bit difficult to get on and of but in general they are comfy. Also being black they don't immediately look like pajama pants. One could conceivably be seen with them in public or at least wear them to take out the garbage or similar. The place I bought the fabric from had flannel in a few other colors as well, maybe a dark blue pair would suit. The only problem is that this fabric apparently attracts all the cat hair. 

A Review of Space captain Smith by Toby Frost

Captain Isambard smith has finally after far to long working behind a desk been given a mission and can do his part to protect the British space empire against aliens and foreigners. Bringing with him his long time friend Suruk the slayer a Molok (think the  predator who speaks like old theater) who is excited for the chance to add to his head collection. The pilot Carveth who unbeknownst to Smith is an escaped sex bot. Whose "owner" wants  her dead. And last but not least is Gerard the hamster. 

He is disappointed to learn that the ship Jon Pym is not a warship and is more rust than he'd have wanted. Also the mission, picking up Rhianna Mitchell from the New Francisco space station and delivering her to the empire, is not as exciting as he'd hoped. But between fighting void sharks, Ghast storm troopers (nazi ants), and Republic of Eden fanatics evidence start to pile up that Mitchell perhaps is more important for the war effort than they thought. Which would be fine until they realize that they were not chosen for this mission for their skill. Rather they are the lure in a trap. But with the ship sent to swoop in and save them destroyed they are truly alone stranded on a backwater planet.

My thoughts

This book is a lot of  funny and very weird. 

I wouldn't call it fast paced so much as problems appear and gets solved within just one or two chapters. Someone gets kidnapped in the next chapter they are rescued, staring down a Ghast Warship some Moloks Suruk befriended shows up and kills them. Thinking about it usually the answer to their problems is violence. This may sound like a bad thing but it's to charming for me to be annoyed at it. It's very turn your brain of and enjoy the ride sort of thing.

Similar to the plot the setting is... everything, as long as it's a reference. So every planet or people is almost a new setting; the British is in the 19th century, New Francisco is 70s hippie era. But plenty is inspired by fiction, Rick Dreckitt a stimulant hitman who's horrified that he can no longer tell the difference between humans and robots and worrying that he might accidentally kill a fellow robot. It's clearly a reversed Bladerunner situation, but there are also quick glimpses or war of the worlds, the matrix and a clockwork orange (the youths gets beat up by a predator). Despite all this it feels cohesive if only because everything is equally as out of place. 

Victorian England wasn't known for being progressive not really about anything but here that mostly manifests as Smith saying he dislikes foreigners and aliens. Though he shows no actual dislike for any he meet and neither does his superior have any problem with Suruk tagging along. When it comes to women it's mostly shown by Smiths inexperience with sex. Instead the Republic of Eden (right wing USA) gets to be evil for their patriarchal ways. It's an interesting choice. 

Now don't get me wrong I don't want my main characters to be upholding the patriarchy but it does feel like it's trying to have it's cake and eat it too.  

The book is a lot, but it's fun and the characters are...I hesitate to call them likable but entertaining. 

If you have read it what did you think? Leave a comment. If you haven't read it you can check it out here Space captain

The dollar bill game

This post is inspired by and in reply to this Bitches get riches post. If you haven't read anything by them then I can highly recommend them. 

The idea is that rather than asking what would you do if you had infinite money you increase it by a factor of ten. People have a hard time visualizing infinite and by breaking it up it gets more manageable and can show your priorities.

I remember the question being what would you do if you had a million kronor I remember us saying gall kinds of things castle and jets. Only later realizing that one million is not actually infinite money and it will maybe buy you a house. 

1

Meh, nothing put it in a pocket and forget about it.

10

Still nothing really put it in my wallet and forget about it then buy something the next time I'm at one of those weird stores that only accept cash. They are few and far between but still exist and causes trouble every time. Alternatively I put it in my pepper cash purse for the day solar storms crash the internet. I'm a very inconsistent pepper.

It is interesting how I'm clearly assuming its physical money we are talking about. 

100

Well, there's a bookshelf I've been meaning to buy next month as part of my aim to make a nicer workstation for myself.

1000

No idea invest it probably, buying a dishwasher. A tiny one that fits on my counter. This is a bit of an odd number of money too big for most things I regularly buy but not enough for any of the big things life changing stuff. 

10 000

My plan for the next two years is to take time of work to study and get a masters degree, this would go to pay of general expenses during the years without a salary. At least I wouldn't need to take as much from my savings.

100 000

This would pay for probably half an apartment in the area I want to live. When I moved last year it was with the plan to only stay here for a year or two mostly to find out if I like the city or the area. I have decided that I do, the area at least. The apartment has some issues mostly that it's on the fourth floor with no elevator and it has bad insulation. But I like the area and has decided to keep living here though maybe a street or two closer to the city center. In this case it would be more permanent and I plan to buy the apartment. 

1 000 000 

Mostly that same but probably a nicer apartment or maybe one of those cute little houses that sometimes exist in cities (I think my cats would appreciate having a small walled in garden). Anything that's left I would invest allowing me to start working part time or full on retire to focus on my writing.

10 000 000

This is where it gets difficult and as an aspiring FIRE this is something that I've thought a lot about. At this point I could quit work and spend my days reading and writing. I could do that in the earlier stage too if I went for a less expensive house. While I do want more free time I don't know if I want to quit work. I worry that I would spend too much time at home alone never meeting anyone and generally getting isolated. But part time sounds good, maybe study something just for the fun of it (not as a strategy for career advancement). But as I said I could do that at 1 million dollars as well. That's the nice thing with fire knowing exactly how much you actually need. 

Thoughts

Most of these are things I already plan to buy or do. The bookshelf purchase it slated for august. The apartment for two years from now. I like to plan things out to the extreme and a sudden windfall would only speed up those plans, not fundamentally change them. A factor might be that apart from the last one they are all sums of money that I already have or that I will conceivably get in some years if I want it so I have spent some time planning this.