Welcome all,
Another highlights version this week. Without further ado:
- AUDIO: I continued to churn my way through Swordheart by T. Kingfisher. I stayed up late one night listening to it. Big fan. 4.5 stars. Very funny. Very sweet. The ending dragged a bit, with almost two endings. But that didn’t affect how much I enjoyed the first 12hrs. As expected, I almost started Paladin’s Grace immediately after finishing this. I think I have a problem…
- DEAD TREE: For r/Fantasy Bingo purposes, I realised I need to read Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk by the end of the month, so that I can participate in the bookclub discussions. I’ve heard a lot of good things, and it’s got some critical buzz, but I wasn’t sure if it would click with me. Not sure why I was worried given I really liked Witchmark. Suffice to say, my concerns were ill-founded and I’ve read half of it in the past two days. A strong MC, lovely prose, and fun soft magic system. I’ve also flirted with the audiobook this week (to get a jump start on the bookclub discussion) and I’ve greatly enjoyed Moira Quirk’s narration.
- EBOOK: I came across DMR Books, a publisher that focuses on sword and sorcery stories. My first experience with one of their books was…not good. But I love S&S so I was willing to try them again. I went with Renegade Swords, a short story collection that opens with The House of Arabu, a lesser known story from Robert E. Howard. Without checking the timeline, this story seems to be a progenitor of the Conan stories. It has an uncivilised protagonist who is trying to survive in a ‘civilised’ city; they may have the trappings for civilisation, but they’re portrayed as luxuriating in excess. Placing this story in alt. version of Earth makes the everyday racial elements of Howard’s stories feel substantially more icky.
- TV: Another week another episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Actually, since I watched the most recent episode today, it’s two episodes since the last blog. I really enjoyed both of these episodes for different reasons. In episode one, we see the birth of an antagonist (presumably the main antagonist for the show) and, in the second episode, we dig more into the idea of a Black Captain America. Both them have some really strong imagery relating to the former. The ending of the first episode in particular is pretty iconic for the MCU.
- FOOD/BOOZE: This week the girlfriend and I ordered in an ‘at-home’ ramen kit. It was a Shoryu Ramen that came with all the trimmings (BYO egg). It was a good ramen with a generous serve of chashu pork, so I can’t complain. It also came with a lychee dirty martini, which as far as I can tell wasn’t very similar to a martini… Tasty though.
That’s it for me. Have a great weekend!
Cheers,
Shannon
Two Pints and a Paperback 