Fine. When can I go home?

[usuallyhats]

Working late again tonight, extra hours for extra moneys. Doing Friday evenings isn't too bad, usually, since I can go home and still have the whole weekend to myself. Saturdays means coming in for an extra day, not so good.

I listened to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for about the 893659127th time last night as I was coding trek_news. This time round I decided that I love Arthur and the way Simon Jones plays him most of all: his delivery of lines like "Ford, what's this fish doing in my ear?" is fab. I also love the bit in the TV series when the waiter says "Actually, sir, your monkey has got it right" and his face goes from "AHA!" to "...hey!" in the background. The sequence about where, exactly, the plans are on display is my favourite, I think (quoted from memory, apologies for any mistakes):

Arthur: You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to draw attention to them, had you? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.
Prosser: That's the display department.
Arthur: With a torch.
Prosser: The... lights had probably gone.
Arthur: So had the stairs.
Prosser: But you found the plans?
Arthur: Oh yes. They were 'on display' at the bottom of a locked filing cabinet in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'. Have you ever thought about going into advertising?

♥ ♥ ♥

Currently I am reading The Night Watch, which is excellent so far. It's giving me that lovely feeling that I get when I'm reading something very good which is also completely new to me. Hopefully it will not suddenly go downhill in a distressing fashion. Speaking of excellent books, recently the_smut_fairy lent me China Mievile's The Scar. Very well-written, incredibly inventive and imaginative - brilliant. I absolutely loved the main character, Bellis. Highly recommended: it got better and better the more I read of it.

Comments

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Oh! I will have to snag The Scar from the library then!

[everlasting-day.livejournal.com]

I love The Scar, it's probably my favourite China Mieville book. Fabulous characters, a unique setting, sea monsters, pirates... it's just wonderful and I desperately need to re-read it. Perdido Street Station which is set in the same world, is really, really good too, although it's a bit less focused and more sprawling. It takes a while to get going (although the setting of New Crobuzon is so fascinating I didn't really mind), but if you liked Mieville's creatures and ideas then you should really enjoy it.

[usuallyhats]

Hope you enjoy it!

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Ta! I've got to go into the little branch library tomorrow - I'll check the catalogue and see if (by any remote chance) they have a copy!

[usuallyhats]

I forgot to mention the setting! Such a fantastic idea, beautifully realised.

I've read Perdido Street Station already! It was very good, but I didn't love it as much as The Scar - slightly too gruesome for me, and I think you're right about it being less focused. Have you read his other books?

[everlasting-day.livejournal.com]

I've read King Rat (a bit dated thanks to all the drum and bass music stuff and a bit first novel-ish at times, it doesn't read much like his other books) and Iron Council (I can't remember a thing about it, for some reason - I think I quite liked it, but it wasn't The Scar). I started Un Lun Dun, his young adult novel, but it got lost by the wayside thanks to exams and stuff. It had a very good start though, so I'm planning on returning to it.

I've got his new one The City and The City to finish, but it's nothing like his other books. More of a crime novel, but with a fantasy conceit to it.

[usuallyhats]

Ooo, that sounds interesting.

[the-smut-fairy.livejournal.com]

I bought China Mieville's short story collection this week, by way of "end of the month and in cash surplus!"-related retail therapy. I already have the novella that's in there, but quite looking forward to the rest of it.

I liked Iron Council an awful lot, although it did have a bit of a cop-out ending as far as the Council itself is concerned. There were several scenes which were made entirely of awesome, one of the scenes towards the end (the end of the Pretty Brigade, you'll know when you read it) actually made me shiver.

You can tell that Un Lun Dun is a kids' book because it has a) no swearing and b) hardly any body count at all! Still very enjoyable, although the plot is signposted rather too obviously, even for a kid (a kid that will happily tackle a big fat book, in any case). Forgot to add: it was only towards the end of the book that I noticed that the author had managed to write a fairly prominent character who's completely gender neutral. As in, doesn't have one specified, and you don't even notice that no third-person pronoun is ever used in relation to the character. Which I thought was quite an achievement.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I shall add the China Mieville to my to-read list! I need some new stuff on it and I'm due to order more books from the library.

One I enjoyed recently was The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. Fantastic characters and world-building! I look forward to the next one.

[usuallyhats]

That is impressive! I will have to track down Un Lun Dun - there were two copies in Oxfam for ages, but as soon as I decided to buy one of them they both disappeared.

[usuallyhats]

I haven't read that one, but it sounds good! And it looks like the library has it - I'll have to go down and get it later in the week.