helen-louise's journal

What am I reading now?
Nothing (!). I finished the book I was reading yesterday and haven't started a new one yet. I have six library books out right now, and a further three (?) to pick up once the library opens.


What have I read recently?
As predicted last time, The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold (re-read). And then I went onto Paladin of Souls (also a re-read). Oh gods, I absolutely love that universe.

I have a distinct feeling I've written about the religion in Chalion before, but I can't seem to find it. It's remarkably similar to the religion in the Elder Scrolls games, at least to the Aedric part of it. ( Read more... )

Other novels:
Dragon's Bones and Dragon's Blood by Patricia Briggs. More re-reads.

The Hob's Bargain by Patricia Briggs. A Christmas present. I would say that while it's not as good as Dragon's Bones, Dragon's Blood, Masques or Wolfsbane, it was certainly worth reading. I'd recommend one of those other books first though.

Bones Are Forever by Kathy Reichs. It's a Temperance Brennan story, or if you prefer, a "Bones" book. If you can swallow your disbelief about the job of a forensic anthropologist, and believe that she can travel 3,000 miles on a whim with the police who are investigating the case which she provided consultation for - and believe that as a highly-qualified intellligent woman she would go putting herself in direct danger, again, when she's already been killed several times by previous villains - well, then it's a good book. I like Tempe, but she needs a good slapping. Which she isn't likely to get in a first-person story. It has a better story than several of the other "Bones" books, and each of the separate threads come together nicely. (As opposed to at least one of the previous books, where they were still working out who did what while recovering in hospital).

Doors Open by Ian Rankin. This is not an Inspector Rebus book. It is about a self-made multi-millionaire who is bored, and gets himself involved in a massive art theft. It's described as a "heist thriller", and I read the entire thing in one sitting, without even skipping to the back to see how it ends (!). Which is pretty much unheard of for me - I skip ahead in books all the time. But it was good enough and fast-moving enough that I didn't want to spoil the story for myself. Nor do I want to spoil the story for anyone else. If you like crime fiction, you should read this. End of.

A couple more short-story collections:
Chicks Kick Butt, edited by Rachel Caine and Kerrie L. Hughes. Who on earth named this book? I mean, seriously, who wants to be caught on public transport or in a cafe reading a book called Chicks Kick Butt?! So, the theme of this collection is clearly Women Being Capable. About half the stories were nauseatingly chick-lit, complete with obligatory heterosexual romance with the Perfect Man (TM). However, I particularly liked Hunt by Rachel Vincent, Vampires Prefer Blondes by P.N. Elrod, Nine-Tenths of the Law by Jenna Black, and Beyond the Pale by Nancy Holder.

My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding, edited by P.N. Elrod. You'll never guess what the theme of this book is! I enjoyed most of the stories, but particular favourites were Spellbound by L.A. Banks, Dead Man's Chest by Rachel Caine (which is rather the opposite of most chick-lit), and All Shook Up by P.N. Elrod.


What am I going to read next?
Haven't a clue. Something from this pile of library books, most likely.

The first six chapters of my NaNoWriMo novel (including one which only came into existence on Tuesday) are now up on Archive of Our Own. Feel free to read it and comment.

I cannot honestly tell you how much knowledge of the Elder Scrolls universe it needs. I think it should be entirely comprehensible to people who have only played Morrowind or Skyrim, but I don't know how it reads to someone who hasn't played the games at all. I hope it's at the level of Generic Fantasy, where there are names of creatures and places and ethnicities and gods which you're not familiar with but which are eventually explained somewhere in the plot. Hard to know considering that I wrote it, so feedback on that would be interesting.

Now I've reached the part which needs extensive editing, and it's rather difficult. I need to throw away material that I personally like because it lags the plot unnecessarily. It almost reads as "Look how clever I am - I've done so much research into the game Oblivion, I'm including so many minor characters." I don't want people to read it and think that I'm trying to show off! So it needs scrapping, and URGH.

In other news, I have woken up today with a raging sore throat. I think I must have slept with my mouth open for hours. Well, I hope it's just that and/or allergies, and not going down with anything. I'm not aware of any BiCon Lurgy, and that's usually spread by snogging rather than simply being in the same place, but I'm now sneezing and ARGH. Do Not Want!

Yesterday, I discovered you can jump on the bed in Skyrim! I may have put my game into third-person mode and bounced up and down for about 5 minutes watching my character flap his arms like a lunatic and pretend to fly... *shifty eyes*

I don't know if I mentioned this already, but I've just restarted Skyrim with Reincarnated Martin Septim as my Dragonborn. My character doesn't look perfectly like Oblivion Martin because Skyrim's graphics don't suck (ha!), but nor does he look perfectly like Fangirl Martin because you're limited in terms of hairstyles and textures when you're on Xbox 360. He looks enough like Martin to be recognisable though, being an Imperial with light brown skin, floppy brown hair, and blue eyes; and I'm training him to use the same abilities that I'd expect Martin to have in Skyrim. It's pretty funny though, deliberately roleplaying a character and making the choices he'd make.

For example: Martin quite literally spends half of the game Oblivion reading (he's trying to translate the Evil Book of Evilness written by the Main Bad Guy). As the game progresses, he acquires books from the library and sits at his table with more and more books in front of him. This is easy enough to roleplay: Martin cannot leave a book unattended and unloved. If there is a book in a dungeon area (or even a friend's house!), and it says "Take" rather than "Steal" when you pick it up, Martin will take it home and add it to his collection. He's now filled all four of the shelves in Breezehome, which is the first (cheapest) house you get in the game, with no duplicates. He's storing the duplicates in a chest ready for his next house :D

Also, last night the game was seriously trolling me. I know that my character is supposed to be the Dragonborn, but honestly, this is ridiculous - three dragons in under an hour's play time! Only one of them was a fixed location dragon, too, the other two were random spawns.

And I was playing while on irc, and several of my friends were talking about the plotline of Oblivion. One of them said "and since Martin was dead" - and literally AT THAT SAME MOMENT reincarnated Martin got killed in my game. To a Draugr Death Overlord, of all things. Martin was most unimpressed to be killed in that way.

As is well known, I do not possess Skills of An Artist.

But my dear friend stellarwind keeps saying Very Funny Things on irc, and as a result of a conversation we had, I was compelled to draw this little Elder Scrolls: Oblivion comic. It took me nine and a half hours because I can't draw, so no bitching about the lack of backgrounds or the fact that Martin's Emperor robe isn't perfect please :D

If you know nothing about Oblivion, the one piece of information you need in order to enjoy it is that "septim" is both the name of the currency of Tamriel, and the surname of its Emperors. And possibly that the big red thing with four arms is the Big Bad Guy of the game who is trying to take over/destroy the world.

65,607 + 1 Septims
Featuring my character Alix de Feu and Emperor Martin Septim.
Also random Trogdor from nowhere since he's the only dragon I can draw.
( 700 pixel wide image below the cut - this *should* be small enough not to break anyone's LJ style )