“Fiddle-de-dee’s not English.”

Weekly Geeks #5 — or, what I do when I am not working or reading. This week is about other forms of storytelling!

I like playing role-playing games. Oh, I love playing RPGs. Most of the games I play are RPGs. The first RPG I remember playing was one of the Might and Magic games for the PC — it was Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven (little brother: “Sis, what does ‘mandate’ mean?” — see, it’s educational), and it was sufficiently a long enough time ago to have pixelated graphics and really bad sound effects. Oh goblins ambushing me by the bridge going “rawrrrrr”, how could I ever forget you?

RPGs are a valid form of storytelling: I insist on this! Anyone who doesn’t agree hasn’t played enough RPGs, that’s what I think. The games tell a story, except it’s on screen and you control the characters. It’s just like reading books except there are characters moving across the screen and, uh, probably cutting up monsters or enemies with swords. Or staves. Or maybe magic. Or really cool moves. Sometimes I get so frustrated when I can’t get past a boss fight because then the story won’t go on (at least not until I’ve levelled up enough) and I am stuck there wondering what’s going to happen next. Pretty much like when you read a book, isn’t that, dying to know what happens next and patiently plodding through (or rushing; it’s really your choice) towards the ending.

Games, story-wise, that I love most are Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy X, mostly because of the characters. I liked most of the Final Fantasy games I’ve played. I’ve played VII and onwards, but not including Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core and whatever else FFVII has spawned; also haven’t played XI (because it’s online), and Tactics Advance (because I don’t have a Gameboy Advance) and the various tie-ins to XII (can’t keep track of them). I got irreversibly sucked into fanfiction by FFVIII, so I’ll always love it a little more than any other game. (Renay talks about fanfic, and also about FFVIII, here. One day, I’ll talk about fanfic. Maybe when I review Frank Beddor’s The Looking Glass Wars.)

What made we start playing the Final Fantasy VIII, though, was not the pretty opening sequence, but listening to my brother complaining about the “Junction” system the game uses. I rather liked the system — it was different than the other games I had played. Though I swear, the only thing worse than “Boost” was Vagrant Story’s “Chaining” system. I never finished the latter because of that. FFVIII also has one of the most addictive mini games ever, Triple Triad. It’s a card game, with somewhat math-based rules to it, and I couldn’t stop playing the game until I won all the cards. My brother never really understood my obsession with it, I think, XD.

Out of all the games, I especially liked FFX’s story, and the graphics are lovely — I’ve always been partial to the sea, and in Final Fantasy X the world is nothing but islands and the sea is never far away — and there’s a sweetness about first love in the game that makes me really fond of it. I think FFX-2 is cool, too, despite popular opinions.

Another series that I’ve enjoyed playing is the Xenosaga series. You want a long, complicated, detailed science fiction storyline? Then Xenosaga is the one for you. It has three games — Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht, Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse and Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra (yes, all references to Friedrich Nietzsche’s works). A lot of interesting characters — Allen Ridgeley is my favourite sidekick ever, seriously — and backstories that will leave your head whirling. In a good way. The bad thing is, even after I finished all three games, I still can’t make head or tails of some of the things that happened. One day I will try to play them all again. One day. Some of the puzzle games in this one drove me up the wall, though.

The game I like playing most is a tactical RPG called Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. Yes, tactical — basically there’s a grid and moves are limited according to character class, etc, and you move your characters around and try to outmanoeuvre the enemy. Almost like chess. See how everyone is lined up in the screenshot there, all ready to vanquish the enemy. The plot is rather cute, really — Prince Laharl of the Netherworld (he’s a demon, by the way) is woken up by his vassal Etna and he realises he’s been asleep for two years, and that his father is dead. He doesn’t seem to care much about this. Enter Flonne, an angel from Celestia, sent to assassinate Laharl’s father, only to discover that the king’s already dead. She then feels sorry for Laharl, and decides to follow him and Etna around, trying to prove that demons were capable of love. I like this game a lot because it’s really fun and cheeky, and there are multiple endings, depending on what you do in the game.

I’m currently playing Odin Sphere. See the pretty trailer here. And am still stuck at Cornelius’s story, because he keeps getting sucked into a dragon and I don’t have enough potions. Pfft.

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Other other forms of storytelling I enjoy (and a recommendation each):

• Manga: Bleach by Kubo Tite — a boy who can see spirits and a girl from the afterworld! Together, they fight crime! A lot kick-ass fighting going on! Also, very funny.
• Anime: Princess Tutu — a duck who’s a girl who’s a princess who’s a duck tries to find the pieces of the heart of a prince. I swear that that makes sense.
• TV shows: . . . I haven’t watched much TV lately, but Eureka has been interesting, and I had enjoyed Arrested Development while it lasted.
• Cartoons: this totally counts! Even though I guess it’s a TV show too! I love Danny Phantom . . . I was sad when I realised that it only ran for two seasons.

Postcards from No Man’s Land by Aidan Chambers
Definitions (2007) (First published 1999)
334 pages

My initial thoughts, some of which I typed into a text document while I was reading the book: Oh. That’s a surprising start. And I remember wondering: Will there be boys kissing later on? You can just see the good influences of certain online friends creeping into my thought process, XD. The answer, by the way, is “yes”, but it’s more incidental than being something actually important to the plot.

I don’t really know much about the Second World War. The only parts that are really familiar are often the parts where my country is involved, thanks to the (compulsory) Malaysian History subject I took when I was in school. I know the major events, and some of the major battles, but when it comes down to it, I know very little of the whole thing. (It makes me wonder: whatever did I learn during that one year of World History when I was in the Fourth Form? I vaguely remember chapters about the ancient civilizations and the rise of Christianity and Islam and the Renaissance period. Surely it didn’t stop there?)

Postcards from No Man’s Land is partially about World War II. The story begins with Jacob Todd, an English boy in the present-day (1995, I think?) Amsterdam, who’s there to visit the family that had taken care of his grandfather during the Battle of Anhem, and it’s the fifty-first anniversary of the battle. Jacob, travelling alone for the first time, finds himself facing unexpected situations and having to make difficult decisions.

Parallel to his story is the story of Geertrui, the young woman who takes care of Jacob’s grandfather during WWII. The narrative switches between Jacob wandering through the streets of Amsterdam and Geertrui struggling for survival during the war, and the stories eventually come together.

I mostly liked the book. It’s well written, a bit slow at points, but the shifting narratives between Jacob (in third person) and Geertrui (in first person) didn’t bother me, which is a really good thing because the first person POV often gets on my nerves, and the last book with dual narratives — that would be Diana Wynne Jones’s The Merlin Conspiracy — left me gritting my teeth in frustration. The ending is a bit clunky and perhaps a little hasty, but it still works for me. The later parts of Geertrui’s narrative reminded me — very sharply, actually — of Daisy in Meg Rosoff’s How I Live Now: there was something similar in the desperate, we-only-have-this-moment tone in both of the girls’ voices.

I found Jacob’s story more interesting than Geertrui’s. His self-consciousness and shyness and his trying to accept himself is rather endearing. And I rather liked following him around Amsterdam as he discovers the city (and himself) than reading about the hardships of war; besides, he ends up having rather interesting conversations with Daan, Geertrui’s grandson, one of them about art history. Curious stuff.

More than anything else, this is another coming-of-age story — about sexuality and discovering yourself, finding your way, making choices, falling in love. The book also touches on other issues such as euthenasia and fidelity and adultery and bisexuality, and you’re pretty much left to make up your own mind at the end of it.

This book won both the Carnegie Medal (1999) and the Printz Award (2003). Apparently the book is part of a sequence called The Dance Sequence, and this is the fifth book. Other books in the sequence are: Breaktime, Dance on my Grave, Now I Know and The Toll Bridge. The library only has the sixth (and last) book, This Is All: the Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn, which I’ll probably borrow one of these days. Not any time soon, though. It’s really, really thick! And so many frustrated reviewers. Hm. We’ll see.

Well, ok. So this maybe has the chance of being a weekly thing. If another post like this comes up next week, then, well, you know, the idea is a Great Success or something like that.

Yeah, right.

Library visits: why they are always so frustrating

My pubic library — or rather, the community library, as it calls itself (is there a difference? There must be, right?) — isn’t really all that close to my house, and to get there, I have to drive. I have no idea how to get there by bus and I am not adventurous enough to try anyway. Not worth trudging all the way to the bus stop/LRT station in the heat and all. The library isn’t open every weekend — on first and third Saturdays and Sundays of the month, they’re closed. I can understand that, really.

My problem is, when going on Saturdays, it’s always such a hassle to get a parking space. The parking spaces are very limited. I think I’ll just go on weekdays after seven in the evening like I always do, and brave the traffic and hope I find my books before the library closes. (Limited parking space is one of the reasons I don’t like shopping on weekends either; it just causes me so much frustration!)

Other things about the library this week: their website has been intermittently down for quite a number of days, and has been down each time I tried to access it the last few days. This makes me sad because it means I couldn’t check their OPAC and couldn’t find out if the books I wanted to borrow were available. I rather like searching for the books from home, so when I get to the library, I could just pick them off the shelves, or, if I wanted to, I could reserve the books online if they were on loan. Also it makes it easier for me to fill in the new book suggestion form. I’d hate to be redundant, really.

New books this week

Not bought, unfortunately. Just borrowed from the library. I have David Mitchell’s number9dream which isn’t exactly the first choice of mine of books of his I wanted to read — I wanted Cloud Atlas, but unfortunately the library doesn’t have that one. (There’s a picture of Mitchell on the inside cover. He’s kinda cute! :P Also, he was a teacher in Japan!) I have to wonder what is with the library and not having most of the Booker prize winners/nominees on its shelves. Especially since it’s like the major award for writers from the Commonwealth countries and all. Personally, I think they should go and add all the books in the longlist to their shelves the moment the list comes out. Quality fiction, people! Not all of us want to read romance novels (not that there is anything wrong with those)! I think number9dream made the Booker shortlist too, so this also should count for the Man Booker challenge. Poor challenge; it’s the most ignored one yet.

The other book is Margaret Mahy’s The Changeover. This one was in the Herding Cats challenge recommended books list, recced by cumuluscastle, whose reading taste I admire*, and I think I liked Mahy’s books that I read when I was younger. This book won the Carnegie Medal in 1984 — I didn’t know that until I saw the cover.

I really wanted to borrow Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora, but someone had already checked it out. Sad. I blame you, offline website! Otherwise I would’ve known that it’s already checked out and wouldn’t have been too disappointed when I couldn’t find it on the shelf.

Books finished/read this week

• Fingersmith by Sarah Waters — this was also shortlisted for the Booker prize, actually. I didn’t know how to describe this book the first time because I haven’t read it, now that I’ve finished it, I couldn’t describe it either. The first part of the book starts off with Sue Trinder, an orphan, agreeing to help Richard Rivers (otherwise known as “Gentleman”) to seduce a heiress, Maud Lilly, so that they would be able to share Maud’s fortune when Gentleman marries Maud and then commits her to an asylum for the mad. Of course, things aren’t really as they seem, and I enjoyed reading this very much. I’ll be adding the rest of Waters’s books to my list: Tipping the Velvet and Affinity.

I’m starting JG Ballard’s Empire of the Sun, and I’m only a few pages in, so I still don’t have much of an impression of the book yet. I’m still reading the same short story collection, East of the Sun and West of the Moon by Peter Asbjørnsen — well, actually I still haven’t moved from the last story I was reading, so this one is on the back burner, really, and one should just assume I’m still reading it until I say I’m done. (I can’t make head or tails of a lot of the folk tales, really. Is it just me, or I’m missing something here?)

I’ll probably leave Tan Twan Eng’s The Gift of Rain for later — I don’t think I can read two books about World War II almost back-to-back. So I’ve nudged Philip Reeve’s Predator’s Gold up on the to-read list instead, but we’ll have to see if I’ll choose Dorothy Dunnett’s King Hereafter over it instead.

Other things this week

I still haven’t written up my recaps of the books read in April! Man, I am slow. I had hoped to finish those this weekend, but alas! I am headache-y and very, very tired, thanks to spending almost the whole day either driving to or getting back from my cousin’s engagement ceremony (and being at said ceremony, of course). Yes, you read that right. There are ceremonies here. So no reviews this weekend, woe. I’ll try to put something up once I’m not asleep on my feet.

I think I’ll be participating in this week’s Weekly Geeks . . . and talk about video games and fanfiction, of course. I’ll try to have the post up by Wednesday or so. Also, there is also a read-a-thon in June. I’m not sure whether I’ll participate — I’ll have to figure out the time difference and see whether it’s feasible. Not that I already spend my weekends reading, oh no.

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* proof of great taste: she also loves Diana Wynne Jones’s Chrestomanci books.

This weekly recap will not be a consistent feature! Just sayin’.

I’m actually despairing ever catching up with my reviews. Damn unrealistic new year’s resolutions! Ah well.

Today, though, I’m going to talk about this week’s reading adventures. The only reason this week has been particularly interesting is because it’s my birthday week, so I ended up getting books for myself and books gifted to me. Sweet, isn’t it?

Part One: new books I now own

I spent a few hours last Sunday at Kinokuniya KLCC. (I generally hate shopping on weekends. Well, shopping generally, to be honest. The malls are always so crowded and it drives me nuts. However, if I take the train at 9:30 am from Kelana Jaya on a Sunday morning, I could get to KLCC when there are (relatively) fewer people milling about, and get home by lunch time and bypass the crowd of people going out for lunch. Crowds, argh.) I got myself four books and Neil Gaiman’s Endless Nights for my sister — you have to wonder sometimes who’s giving gifts to whom, really, but I don’t really mind, since I like the Sandman books as well, and I like buying books. I bought another three of Dorothy Dunnett’s books — this addiction is getting to absurd levels! Help! I haven’t felt anything like this since I was twelve and felt compelled to read all the Sweet Valley Twins books! — the first two books of the House of Niccolò series: Niccolò Rising and The Spring of the Ram; and the book about Macbeth, King Hereafter. I also picked up Shannon Hale’s The Goose Girl.

On Monday I went out with my best friend Aiza for dinner, and she bought me House of Many Ways, Diana Wynne Jones’s latest book, and it’s set in the same universe as Howl’s Moving Castle. Howl’s Moving Castle is one of my favourite books, and Sophie and Howl is my OTP 4EVA! Or you know, something like that. I didn’t realise that the new book was already out until I saw it on the bookshelves, and I was itching to get it though all I did was add a mental note that I should get it later. Aiza noticed me looking at the book and bought it for me. Nice gifts don’t really require that much advance planning, see! :D

Part Two: books I read this week

I somehow ended up reading four books this week, most all of them young adult titles. Here’s a quick recap of them:

• House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones — bookish Charmain is sent to look after her wizard great uncle’s house, and finds herself getting lost since a single door leads her to many places. As far as magical adventures go, it’s pretty good. My problem is I keep comparing it against Howl’s Moving Castle and I just prefer Sophie more, I guess. Sophie and Howl and Calcifer all make an appearance, and it’s not a sneaky-like appearance like in Castle in the Air. And I have to wonder how Sophie manages to raise both Howl and a small child at the same time, poor thing. XD
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak — it’s 1939 Nazi Germany, and this is the story of nine-year-old Liesel, who steals books. I liked the story and characters a lot, but the narrative just tripped me way too many times. Also the book is much, much, much longer than it should’ve been.
• Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr — Aislinn has always been able to see fairies, though she’s always pretended otherwise. She suddenly finds that two of them are following her about, and she can’t depend on all the rules that had kept her safe before. Uh. I had never been much a fan of urban fantasy, really, and this didn’t really draw me in. The starting half is much stronger than the ending half, in my opinion, and now I’m brooding on whether I want to read Holly Black’s Tithe, since it’s another faeries-in-a-modern-setting book.
• An Abundance of Katherines by John Green — Oh man, this certainly appealed to the geeky part of me. Mathematics! And relationships! And funny, funny dialogue! I liked this more than Looking for Alaska, which is a great book as well. I swapped my sister my copy of John Connolly’s The Book of Lost Things for this book, and I hope (though I think it’s unlikely) that she would enjoy it as much as I enjoyed Katherines.

Part Three: Books to read next, and not-required readings for not a bookclub!

Books I’ll (probably) read this month:

• Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard, since I suggested we not read it for the bookclub which does not exist. (Come to think of it, I should go and participate in the discussion that is not being held for the book we did not read last month, which happens to be The Book of Lost Things.) It’s set during WWII in Shanghai, where a young boy is separated from his family.
• Fingersmith by Sarah Waters — recommended by my friend Zu. I borrowed this from the library and it’s due on the 24th. Most probably I’ll have to renew this one. Set in Victorian London, it’s a story about pickpockets and girls and, well, I don’t really know because I haven’t read it yet. It’s one of those books that always come up when discussing lesbian fiction, so! Another incentive to read it, I guess.

There are a two books I’m “currently reading” as well. Diana Wynne Jones’s A Tough Guide to Fantasyland is, uh, I don’t know how to classify this one, but it’s pretty hilarious in small doses! Also a short story collection, East of the Sun and West of the Moon by Peter Asbjørnsen which is a collection of Scandinavian folk tales (that I don’t really get), is another book I read between novels.

Other books I might attempt: King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett, The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng.

Part Four: watching movies made from books!

I also watched Prince Caspian with two school friends on Saturday; it was a bit of a birthday treat, I guess. Neither of them had read the Narnia books and one of them hadn’t even watched The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, so it was pretty interesting! Both of them were a bit annoyed with Caspian (I’m not entirely sure why; myself, I was wondering why the actor was so expressionless at the start instead of being against his character in general), and at Peter for being so stubborn at times. I wonder what they would think of Susan if (when?) The Last Battle is made into a movie. I still rile at what happens in that last chapter when I think of her. Anyway, I think the Pevensie children were very well cast. Lucy is especially adorable, and I’ll miss her when we get to The Silver Chair.

The strange thing is I could barely remember the plot of the book, and Prince Caspian wasn’t even the book I liked least — that would be The Horse and His Boy. (I suppose logically they would have to film The Voyage of the Dawn Treader next, and uh, ignore The Horse and His Boy? Where would they slot that one in?)

Now I want to reread the books, hmm.

Part Five: other weekly activities

I didn’t participate in edition #3 of the Weekly Geeks (sad, but I couldn’t muster the energy to put up a post about my favourite childhood books) and I’m regarding #4 with some sort of alarm since I’m essentially pretty hopeless with these social commentary type of things. We’ll see if I can manage to figure something out by next Thursday.

Linking to other reviews from #2 is still ongoing, though! Drop me a line if you’ve reviewed the same books as I have! Hopefully I’ll get my thoughts for the books I’ve read in April posted by Monday — it’s a three-day weekend here this week!

Starcross: A Stirring Tale of British Vim upon the Seas of Space and Time! by Philip Reeve
Illustrated by David Wyatt
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (2007)
380 pages

Oh, this left me giggling almost the whole way. Maybe it’s because the last few books I had read before it were so serious, and it was a relief to read about the more light-hearted adventures of Art and Myrtle. I loved the narrative here as much as I loved it in Larklight, and that’s saying something because stuff in the first person often rubs me the wrong way.

My copy had three lines of titles (Starcross or The Coming of the Moobs! or Our Adventures in the Fourth Dimension — A Stirring Tale of British Vim upon the Seas of Space and Time!) and I had grinned just looking at those. What other narrator could be as droll as Art? And who else would ever use the word “amanuensis” on a title page of a book? I love the title pages and the ads on the inside covers and the chapter titles — I spent a lot of time on both Larklight and Starcross studying those inside covers and the illustrations and having a laugh over them.

As for the story itself, I enjoyed Starcross better than Larklight, though I think the story was stronger in Larklight. In this instalment, we find Art and Myrtle and their mother visiting the hotel Starcross, where strange things are happening. Some old friends make a reappearance . . . and disappear in forms you won’t expect them in. The family vacation ends up with Art and Myrtle having to save the universe. (Again.)

The patriotism and the Victorian sensibilities were absurd and relevant and fun at the same time. I love Myrtle best when she forgets to be “sensible”, and her decision at the end made me cheer. I spent some time reading this book sputtering at Jack. Pirate or not, you better learn how to treat a your lady, young man! And I wonder how Art could be so smart and yet so dense when it comes to Jack/Myrtle. The footnote about how Jack must be using How to Write Love Letters: A Guide for the Perplexed to prop a wobbly table sent me choking with laughter. The joys of being young.

There will be a sequel to this, obviously. I have reliable sources saying that the sequel, Mothstorm, will be out this year. One does not leave his readers gaping at a pirate’s behaviour towards his lady friend, when said lady friend has declared Ambitions of her own. How could you leave us with such a cliffhanger, Mr Reeve!