Posted by jukkahoo
Bottoms up! Wait, no. Entire Butt, a very nice English Porter by the Salopian Brewery. Smells nice, but the real gist is the taste: creamy, smooth, roasty, coffee-like buttery mix that melts in your mouth into one rich masala of flavours. Very interesting and recommendable porter indeedy.
Saladin Ahmed: Throne of the Crescent Moon There are plenty enough non-traditional fantasy around, but the sad fact is that the interesting stuff that defies the conventional pseudo-medieval pseudo-European faux-Tolkienesque High Fantasy formula gets the short end of the stick in the genre-reading circles. It's not that the readers are bad or indifferent, it's more likely that the publishers dare not take the risk. Hence I've been pleasantly surprised by some new authors that have been using non-traditional settings in their High Fantasies. There has always been Arabian Nights fantasies, but there's plenty room for more. Like Saladin Ahmed's novel Throne of the Crescent Moon.
I'd like to say I loved the book, but I didn't. I like it, a fair amount in fact and will be reading the sequels, if and when. In the novel, a ghul hunter and his assistant are drawn into a pretty big conspiracy that threatens the well-being of the realm. Dark forces and mystic powers are conspiring against the legitimate ruler, but while the guy in charge is a tremendous asshole, would the usurper be any better, or even worse, much worse...
I liked the protagonist Doctor Adoulla Makhslood a great deal, he's too old for this shit and would really like to retire, but since he is pretty much the only ghul hunter around and his apprentice Raseed bas Raseed is still young, inexperienced and perhaps still looking for something else in his life, retiring doesn't seem likean option. There's good action, nice imaginaries and culture that hopefully gets a bit more deeply examined in the future books. And then there's the writing. Which isn't bad, really, it's just a bit formulaic, simplistic and perhaps the worst of all, unremarkable. I hope this is something that experience will rectify since there's definite promise here.
Ironclad (2011) is a bloody, muddy and ruddy film very loosely based on a historical siege of the Rochester Castle and the little known historical document of Magna Carta. James Purefoy is great as the grumbling Templar with some issues with his faith and life in general, Paul Giamatti phones in his King John, but does it well enough and who couldn't love a movie with Brian Cox and Charles Dance? A keeper, this one is.
Simply the best cover band in the Mundo! DMK with Enjoy the Silence.
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