Archive for
January, 2008
January 10th, 2008
So far so good, 3 books in 10 days, it’s fast enough to be able to finish before the end of the year. This time, I’ve taken a book in a new category, which will be the “books I’ve already read before”. And to begin this category, I just had to pick something by my favourite author : Jean-Michel Truong. And it’s not “Le successeur de pierre” (I’m saving it for later…), but the other novel that I have from him : Eternity Express.
If Eternity Express is much shorter and more predictable than “Le successeur de pierre”, it remains that it’s really well constructed. About halfway through the book, you start to confusely feel what’s going on, and yet you keep hoping that it isn’t true until the very end of the story. And it’s perhaps what I like best about Jean-Michel Truong’s books. They present stories that are staged in the near future, but that are still really plausible. It’s sometimes almost frightening. Sometimes, you’re following a character’s reasoning, and when the conclusion - however horrible it may be - is explained, you stop and realize you’ve not really disagreed so far…
Well, this last paragraph was perhaps not very clear, but I’ll give some example when I’ll write about “Le successeur de pierre”. So now, remember that : if you can read one of Mr Truong’s novel, DO IT !
888 Challenge Status :
Category 1: “Books suggested by friends”
#1 Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
#2 Ni d’Eve ni d’Adam (Amélie Nothomb)
Category 2: “Books I’ve already read before”
#1 Eternity Express (Jean-Michel Truong)
January 6th, 2008
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Grungi Ankhfire
Yes, that’s right. Two posts on the same day ! And this time, it’s to bring you some music for the long evenings of this cold month of january. And what’s best : it’s free music. So, as I can sense you’re all dying to know what is this music I’m talking about, let me introduce “Thieves of Fate”.
This album is made of 15 tracks (and 2 bonus not listed on the official tracklist) that are new versions of tracks taken from the (kinda old) video game “Radical Dreamers”. You may not know this game, as it was only released in Japan, but you may know Chrono Trigger. Chrono Trigger is a really great roleplaying game, and it’s music has been composed by Yasunori Mitsuda. And as it happens, Radical Dreamers is like a sequel to Chrono Cross. Or, more exactly, it’s even more like a prequel to Chrono Cross. The good news is that Mitsuda has been responsible for the music of all three games, and that the scores (and stories for that matter) for Radical Dreamers and Chrono Cross share many similarities.
If that doesn’t convince you that this disc is worthy of your attention, let me add this fact : Chrono Cross has some of the best music ever composed for a video game. Yes, it’s that good. So you can imagine how delighted I was when I saw, yesterday, that this remix album was released by OverClocked ReMix. If you’re familiar with the site, you know the quality of the music that’s usually posted there. And if you’re not, please go and have a look: OC ReMix brings together really talented musicians that take songs coming from various video games and reinterpret them in usually very different ways.
Now that you’re aware of where the album comes from, let’s get to what really matters, I mean the music itself. It’s not the first album of this kind released on OC ReMix (there have been aroud ten albums so far), and this album share a common trait with some of its predecessors : the styles used by the different artists are really varied. The first track (one of my favorite) blends a violin into what could have been a track by a math-rock group like toe or LITE (albeit less technical), whereas “Sexy Boy” has a r’n'bish feel woven into a melody not unlike the work of Kashiwa Daisuke (use of “glitches” to break the structure of a sample). There’s also a track which uses only wind and brass instruments, and more conventional rock or electro tracks.
But on the whole, this is really some great music, as expected from guys like Geoffrey Taucer, Darangen or Christian Pacaud, who are amongst my favorite remixers. It was also really fun to hear what better musicians than me could do with “Strange Presentiment”, a track I once tried to do a remix of myself, but never got around to finish. To be honest, it even made me want to try again some time in the future. Who knows…
So, it doesn’t matter if you like video game music or not, if you’re used to instrumental music or not (most of the track are vocal-less), or if you even know Yasunori Mitsuda, Chrono Trigger or Radical Dreamers : give Thieves of Fate a chance, you won’t regret it. And it’s free !
Where to find it :
Official site
Torrent or streaming on OC ReMix
Tracklist :
01 Days of Summer V2 (Days of Summer) 4:46
02 Thieves of Fate (Days of Summer) 6:49
03 Fury and Tears (Gate) 4:50
04 starbright (Under the Moonlight) 2:55
05 Loneliness (Strange Presentiment) 5:37
06 Sexy Boy (Strange Presentiment) 4:00
07 Thrash’s Snakebone Pit (Snakebone Mansion) 4:29
08 Scar Sealing Girl (The Girl Who Stole the Star) 6:20
09 Running After You (Distant Promise) 5:00
10 Requeim for Another World (Requiem) 4:46
11 Fuego Frío (Frozen Flame) 2:51
12 Hallucinogenic (Facing) 3:54
13 Confronto Finale (Final Confrontation) 5:56
14 Summer’s Dream (Epilogue) 7:42
15 Le Trésor Interdit (Ending ~ Le Trésor Interdit) 3:57
B1 Bipolar Popsicle WIP (Frozen Flame) (Bonus Track) 1:46
B2 Cold as Hell WIP (Frozen Flame) (Bonus Track) 5:08
Total time : 80 minutes
January 6th, 2008
Hmmm… Some might say I’m reading a bit too much considering I have my first exam tomorrow, but the book was really short. And I’m glad that it was. It’s the first book by Amélie Nothomb that I read, and I probably won’t be opening another for a while.
I may sound a little harsh with my previous statement, but, well, I just don’t like the character of Amélie. Some time ago, I saw the film based on her novel “Stupeur et tremblements”, and I couldn’t help but to think that the way she was portrayed in the movie made her look as if she was… dumb. Or something along the same line.
Even so, when one of my aunts told me to read her latest book, which is about her life in Japan before the events of the movie, I tought that it could be interesting. And indeed, I had many reasons to want to read this novel : she is fascinated by Japan and its culture, and so am I. She also is from Belgium, another thing we have in common.
But no. Definitely, I don’t like the kind of person she is. The last part of the book was particularely responsible for this judgement…
Anyway, there were some things that still made the book enjoyable, mainly the way it offers an example of what the life can be in Japan for a foreigner. What I regret is that these aspects were often put in the background, hidden by the character of Amélie (even if it’s normal, as the book is an autobiography). Also, she needs to stop using “extase”, “exulter” and “s’exclamer” once each page. It gets tiring after a while ^^
Well, now to another book, 62 to go !
888 Challenge Status :
Category 1: “Books suggested by friends”
#1 Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
#2 Ni d’Eve ni d’Adam (Amélie Nothomb)
January 5th, 2008
Some weeks ago, Pascale introduced me to something she had herself found on another blog, the “Triple Eight Reading Challenge”. The goal is to read 8 books, from 8 categories (which you can choose as you please) in 2008. Quite simple, isn’t it ? And, as we both like reading, we found that it’s a good way to finally get to read this pile of books that are always meant to be “read soon”, but aren’t because we don’t take the time to read them.
But I just can’t make a complete list, yet even choose the 8 categories I’ll pick from. So, I decided I would build the list and the categories as I go. And the first category I’ll inaugurate will be…
(You can add some drumrolls here if you like. That’ll make the announcement a little bit more… dramatic.)
“Books suggested by friends”
… So, finally, drumrolls were perhaps too much, oh well…
And I already read the first book from this daunting list of 64 I’m supposed to read. It was Orson Scott Card’s “Enders’s Game”, a sci-fi novel first published in 1985. I read it mainly because two of my friends read it and recommended it to me independently. And one of them gave me such a review of the book that I was already eager to read it, after what the other one spoke of it, and leant it to me. So that was a coincidence, but in a good way.
And I think the last time I read a whole book in a little more than one night was when I read “Le successeur de pierre” by Jean-Michel Truong (which is my favorite book of all times, by the way). I opened the book at 1 am, and wasn’t able to put it down until 6:30 am, when my eyes were closing themselves whether I liked it or not. And this morning, the first thing I did was pick up the book and go through the last 70 pages…
I’m not saying it was as good as “Le successeur de pierre” (but then, for me nothing can be), but it was one of the most enjoyable book I read in awhile. And I just finished to read The Hitch Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, so you can’t say it’s because I’ve been reading boring stuff before. I was just really eager to follow Ender, this little boy sent to a military academy and always put to test, struggling to find some peace as he is trained to become mankind’s savior.
Because the main protagonist of the story is a kid. A really gifted child who has been selected to become a commander of an interstellar spaceship, or even the commander of the whole fleet, as he soon discover. I won’t say much more about the story, because I wouldn’t want to spoil those who’d want to read it. The bottom line is : it’s a quick read, but the story is engaging and the characters (especially Ender, of course) were great.
And I learned that a movie was being made after the book. That could be really great, I think the story would make a great movie scenario… But wait and see, they could also screw it up. Badly. I’m also glad that Ender’s Game is the first in a serie of 4 books. I’ll definitely join Ender and the others again some time, probably soon !
888 Challenge Status :
Category 1: “Books suggested by friends”
#1 Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
