In effetti lo sento più invernale, ma è venuto fuori stamattina durante un laboratorio di haiku in una terza media, da uno spunto di una delle ragazze.


tracce di gocce
sui vetri appannati
lachrimae rerum

Fascinating and moving video on BBC news, a tetraplegic lady taking part in a cyber-medical study drinks coffee on her own for the first time in 15 years.

See the video

Is a very interesting fantasy/alternate history novel by a three-writer team, Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint and Dave Freer.

I'm often wary of collaborations, but in this case as I was reading I kept forgetting that the book has more than one author, no mean feat, in my opinion.

I picked The Shadow of the Lion from the Baen Free Library, I was intrigued by the premise, a fantasy set in 16th century Venice, and I figured that, it being free, at worst I would just lose a couple of hours before deciding it wasn't for me (I'm past the phase in which I forced myself to finish each and every book I started).

In that couple of hours, or even less, I was hooked. The alternate history is intriguing (also 'alternate theology' if you wish, thanks to the conversion of Saint Hypatia), the characters are nuanced and three dimensional, there are as many intriguing and strong females as males, and it manages to completely sidestep one of my biggest turn-offs in fantasy (the 'big, bad, fanatic church' and 'poor, persecuted magic users/pagans' trope) here there is bad and good on both sides. I loved equally the dottor Marina (a family name here) the strega, and father Eneko Lopez, a Basque former soldier of venture turned priest who, I believe, is the fictional alter ego of Íñigo López Loiola

The plot is complex, many of the major players on the European checkerboard of the time are there (but for France, the rival of the Empire is different in this story), it may not be your cup of tea if you don't like politics in your fantasy but the politics is neatly balanced by the action, in my opinion, and neither feels overdone.

And, most of all, Venice feels real. That in the book is the city were I studied, with its pride, its history, its special mix of sea and island that sets it apart from any other city in Italy, the strong esprit de corps of the workers at the arsenal, the strenght and world-view of the canalers, the pomp and sense of duty of the best of the aristocracy... I could go on for hours. Venice is a character in the novel, and not a minor one.

This is not to say that the book is perfect, but my problems with it (if that's even the right word), are definitely minor.

I did a couple of double-takes reading of the Swiss guard of the Doge and of the Scaliger of Verona as an enemy of Venice in 1538 (in this world the Scaligers were thrown out of Verona in 1387 and Verona gave itself to Venice in 1405), but I think it likely that these aren't mistakes but points of divergence (note to writers of alternate history: please, please put a note on historical matters somewhere in your book spelling out what is intentionally different , this reader, for one, would be grateful) .

All through the narrative there are Italian words for flavor, I've no doubt they work fairly well for readers that don't know Italian, for me... the mis-spelled words were like a constant itch I could not scratch.
Giaccomo for Giacomo, Polestine for Polesine, Caesare for Cesare, Fruili for Friuli, Veneze for Veneziani, capi (a plural word) used also as a singular, in one instance slices of prosecco on a platter (prosecco is a wine, neither cheese nor salame) and why should Kat, a scion of one of the 'old houses' of Venice bear the definitely non-Venetian family name Montescue ?

They are all small, silly things, but an Italian beta-reader would have weeded them out, and I believe an already good book would have been made even better by it.

BTW, if any of my writer-friends on Live Journal needs an hand with Italian words or details, I'm happy to officially volunteer.

haikujaguar has this interesting post about speculative fiction that doesn't fit the mold of 'inspired by such and such culture' (which is a thing I love and I'd like to see more of, but it appears publishers like better playing it safe).

The post links to this list of 'Non-european Fantasy by Women' (sic), connecting nicely with this previous rant byla_marquise_de_ .

I went to read the list out of a mix of interest (I'm always up for discovering new-to-me authors) and a masochistic streak (all those 'everything by Europe, please' posts and lists make me feel a bit like I and my fellow Europeans are plague-carriers, moreover no setting on its own guarantees a good book), and I found a couple of interesting things:

First of all: the list includes books set in Eastern Europe and Byzantium, because 'those are less known' and ' in fantasy, Europe mostly means Western Europe, the protestant and catholic countries'.

..But it also includes at least a book, Silver Wolf , set in Rome at the time of Charlemagne and another, Lavinia, set in pre-Roman Italy. It looks like Italy moved while I wasn't looking...

It is a pet peeve of mine, but my hackles rise really fast when people manipulate data like...,you know, geographical and cultural boundaries, because they don't fit the theory (European settings must be stale and overdone, so let's mutilate Europe of anything that hasn't already been done to death), besides, as many have said better than me, most of what generally passes for 'Standard European Setting' is McFantasyland, a bland, flavorless pap of uncertain composition.

So I'd like to start a list of mine: speculative fiction set in Europe-inspired or European settings written by Europeans (Europe , not the EU, both female and male authors, if dead, deceased not earlier than 20 years ago )
suggestions are welcome.

Ben  Aaronovitch

Sarah Ash

Petros Ambatzoglou

Pierre Bordage

Maite Carranza

Mike Carey

Mark Chadbourn

Susanna Clarke

Michael Ende

Valerio Evangelisti

Alan Garner

Kerstin Gier

Markus Heitz

Paul Hoffman

Wolfgang Hohlbein

Ju Honisch

Rhys Hughes

Tanith Lee

Stanisław Lem

Suzanne McLeod

Sergei Vasilievich Lukyanenko

Stan Nicholls

Milorad Pavić

Pierre Pevel

Otfried Preußler

Cecilia Randazzo (aka Cecilia Randall)

Jessica Rydill

Andrzej Sapkowski

Ekaterina Sedia

Johanna Sinisalo

Kari Sperring

Jonathan Stroud

Thorvaldur Thorsteinsson

Licia Troisi

Freda Warrington

Diana Wynne Jones

Last year was the year of the ponds (one of which, sadly didn't work out and has been turned into a flowerbed), this year we discovered that the big plant nursery nearby has a wonderful choice of peonies (in both the herbaceous and tree varieties) and English roses (I think both mother and I are madly in love with David Austin, the man is a genious).

Given that the prices are affordable, mom and I went crazy, and all our new plants have taken well and are prospering. Today I've taken a couple of pictures of the first flower our English ladies have given us:

( Have a look... )

Thanks to this post by haikujaguar I learned that Paper Mage is now available as an ebook, I had read of it some time ago and was intrigued, I don't know of many Chinese-themed fantasy books and the idea of one where a mage folded paper to do magic, bringing back origami to its Chinese roots intrigued me even more.

I started Paper Mage yesterday, and finished it a short time ago.


( Read more... )

The 11th Panchen Lama turns 23 years old. 

Gendhun Choekyi Nyima was 6 when he was recognized as the 11th Panchen Lama, one of the most important figures in Tibetan Buddhism, 2 months later he was abducted by the Chinese governement and wasn't seen or heard of since.

Today many people are acting, in different ways, to demand Gendhun's release, if you want to join them you may sign this on-line petition

NOTE: if for any reason you don't want your name to appear, the petition CAN be signed anonimously.

Signal boosting is appreciated.

Hubby's contact in Fantasy Flight Games asked their legal department about Zazzle's 'infringment of copyright' claims, the results are in:

It appears that HBO owns ALL rights to 'A Game of Ice and Fire' merchandising, no matter what. Fantasy Flight's products are protected but, even though they have a pre-existing license, own the art and granted artists the right to sell prints of the commissioned art in their contracts...

...if the artists actually do so they are in breach of HBO rights.

Unless they remove any reference to the IP in the titles and blurbs, for instance turning 'so and so' named character into 'knight'. 


Honestly for a split second I thought it was a joke, it feels like we have landed in Kafka-land

As some of you know, a short time ago my husband opened a Zazzle shop, one of the reasons was the possibility to offer for sale prints of his 'A Game of Thrones' works in sizes which we aren't able to print at home.

Well, we received an email from Zazzle saying that all those works are in violation of policy and will be removed, we pointed out that that is official game art, that the client is the owner of the license for the game, that the contract allows T. to sell prints and that the pieces have no relation whatsoever to the HBO show, so there was no infringiment of copyright.

They answered today that HBO asked them to remove offending materials (well within their rights) and hubby's prints will stay out of Zazzle until HBO tells them they are OK.
As if...

So an official license from the owner of the I.P. doesn't matter...unless the owners of a totally different license say so.

BTW, we do understand Zazzle's position, they are plaing it as safe as they can to avoid the possibility of legal consequences, what I can't stand is a company setting a blanket ban on an I.P. even though the products in case have noting whatsoever to do with their share of the license.