juliet: Part of a Pollock artwork in the Tate (art - pollock)
Yesterday my sister and I went to the Barbican (which is a very comfy theatre!) to see their production of Jesus Christ Superstar (which apparently is the same as the 2016 Regent's Park outdoor one).

spoilers for staging etc if you mind about that )
juliet: Part of a Pollock artwork in the Tate (art - pollock)
L has now reached the age where if I say "Do you want to come with me to...?" he says Yes, enthusiastically, without asking any more about it (I am choosing to take this as an indication that my previous suggestions have largely hit the spot so he now trusts me, rather than as an indication that he has no discernment), so yesterday morning we went off to see the Olafur Eliasson exhibition currently on at the Tate. (He was responsible for 'The Weather Project', still my favourite ever Turbine Hall installation.)

Art! )
juliet: Part of a Pollock artwork in the Tate (art - pollock)
On Tuesday P & I went to see Midsummer Night's Dream at the Bridge (which is conveniently a 15 min walk from me, now they've re-opened the St Saviour's footbridge), and it was AWESOME.

(Note: I don't think 'spoilers' really apply for a 400+ year old play, but I'm going to talk about staging details & at least one significant script decision & so on, so if you are going to see it and want to come to that stuff fresh, don't read on.)

tldr: loved it )

Overall though it just felt really fun, and immersive (even from the seats), and magical. As they got to the last few speeches I found myself feeling genuinely sad that I was going to have to leave this place they'd created -- and it did feel like leaving, not just sadness that the story was coming to an end. I'd very happily go back again (I mean, I probably won't, because time & money are constraints and there's lots of theatre to see, but I would).
juliet: Shot of my bookshelves at home (books)

Mirrored from Twisting Vines.

The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison, has been on my to-read list for a while. This is partly due to seeing generally positive things about it in many places, and partly because Katherine Addison was previously known as Sarah Monette. Sarah Monette wrote Melusine, which I read and thoroughly enjoyed, but by the time I discovered this, the remaining three novels in the series were annoyingly out of print.* The Goblin Emperor finally got bumped up to the top of the list after reading this review by Justin Landon, which mentioned both that it’s a work of genius, and, more importantly, that the protagonist, Maia, is actually nice.

As Landon observes, good-person protagonists are an increasing rarity in spec-fic. One of the other books I read recently was God’s War (Bel Dame Apocrypha #1), by Kameron Hurley. It too, in a different way, is an excellent book, but it’s a grim read, and protagonist Nyx is a long way from any descriptor like “nice” or “good”. I freely admit that I prefer my reading matter a bit on the positive side, and recently that seems to have been in short supply.

Anyway. I started out on The Goblin Emperor, and I fell in love, ooh, about three pages in. Maybe two. I galloped greedily and joyously through the first 3/4 of it, and then I slowed way down in the despairing knowledge that it was going to run out, and there are no sequels or anything (yet? please let it be ‘yet’). Then I did come to the end, and I stared thoughtfully at my Kindle, and then I hit the “go to start” button and I read it all over again. I managed not to read it a third time after that, but it was a close-run thing.

For a more thorough review, try Strange Horizons or The Book Smugglers or Tor (spoiler: they all loved it too). But what did I love about it? I loved the detailed world-building (airships and court politics and social structures and all the rest of it), and the gradual reveal of new parts and new aspects to existing parts. It’s beautifully handled, with confusion created and resolved at just the right rate. I loved Maia, the protagonist. (I really loved Maia.) He is, as Landon said, genuinely a good person. Not a perfect person; but someone trying to do their best, trying to do good in the world. I loved the racial and gender politics; again, beautifully and lightly handled. I loved the court politics and the wonderfully-observed government structures. I loved the interpersonal relationships. I also loved that it didn’t go for the “race to the grim” option; bad things happen, but they don’t feel gratuitous, and they don’t feel like the author is trying to demonstrate how TOUGH they are**.

Above everything else, I loved the feel of it; as several of the reviewers above mention, it is a warm, satisfying book that left me feeling better about the world.

I cannot recommend this highly enough, if you’re remotely into fantasy. And I really, desperately hope that there’s a sequel. In the meantime, I might just have to read it again.

* After reading this book, I now finally have them all on their way second-hand.
** I have this beef with quite a few recent spec-fic novels.

juliet: Grown-up Bramble rat with baby Ash and Rowan rats (ash bramble rowan)
Finlay-the-dog appears to be settling in reasonably well (he is currently snoozing over the other side of the room). dog behavioural details! )

ION, last week I went to see the Orbital band (seriously awesome! Here is doop being glowy and me being less glowy.), & Aphex at Matter (bit rubbish, although he picked up in the second half of it. Nowhere near on-form, though.).

Yesterday evening Pete & I went to the opera. Specifically, La Grande Macabre at the Coliseum. Fantastic cast, musicians, and staging; shame about the godawful crap that they were saddled with singing. Ligeti, musically, is Not My Thing. The staging was genuinely brilliant, though, and probably worth staying just for that. Also there was a splendid disco background in the penultimate scene which I found entertaining enough that I have no idea what the people who were supposed to be in the foreground were doing at the time (on reading the Times review (not of the ENO version, but the same staging etc), I think they were getting Death drunk). I was also somewhat disenchanted with the casual misogyny, although P didn't see it as being as bad as I did.

(Reading the Times review, I see that the ENO changed the androgynous lovers from Clitoria and Spermando to Amanda and Amando. How ridiculous.)

December 2024

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