Posted by Sari
Category 11, A book about playing games: Ernest Cline: Ready Player One
Somewhere near future, when climate change has eroded the society, people are spending most of their time in the virtual world called OASIS. The founder of the OASIS has left all his fortune to the first player who solves the puzzles he has left in the VR. Everybody is trying to crack the puzzles, including a totally amoral company which wants to take over the OASIS and monetize it further.
This should have been right up my alley. A novel filled with references to the 1980s which was my defining decade. But, but but: firstly, I am not a gamer so all the references to Pac Man and Galaga and other early games went right over my head. Secondly, it was also full of description of movies, games and TV-series and I don't deal well with description. Thirdly, it is very dialogue-heavy novel and as I read it in Finnish it was pretty cringe-worthy - nothing to do with translation, everything to do with Finnish language. And lastly the main character and his stalkery behaviour really turned me off. So once again, a bestseller I really did not like.
Category 20, a book by a Finncon Guest of Honor: Lois McMasters Bujold: A Civil Campaign
This Hugo, Nebula and Locus -award nominated novel is part of Bujold's popular space opera series about Miles Vorkosigan, a diminutive scion of a noble house on planet Barrayar. Barrayar has just in few generations reconnected with galactic civilization and has a culture similar to 19th-century Russia or France. This is a delightful romantic romp where Miles tries to woo a widowed noblewoman and does it so very badly. But he learns!
This is not a good place to start the Vorkosigan series, but it is great fun if you know what has been going on. It is dedicated to Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, Dorothy L Sayers and Charlotte Brontë, all my favourites and this is a great homage to all of them. It is a romantic comedy but it has a more serious sub-plot: what happens in a society which still relies on primogeniture when it gains access to galactic technology like gene-scanning and ex-utero gestation. This was a re-read, I can't even begin to figure out how many times I have read this.
Nordqvist Lady Green Tea
Green sencha with cherry and vanilla aromas. 75-80 degrees, brew for 1-2 minutes. The tea-flavour is quite delicate, and vanilla overpowers rest. The fragrance has cherry in it. One of the more successful Nordqvist teas, this, if a bit bland.
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