Veneration for the Past

“Veneration for the past has always seemed to me reactionary. The right chooses to talk about the past because it prefers dead people: a quiet world, a quiet time. The powerful who legitimize their privileges by heredity cultivate nostalgia. History is studied as if we are visiting a museum; but this collection of mummies is a swindle. They lie to us about the past as they lie to us about the present: they mask the face of reality. They force the oppressed victims to absorb an alien, desiccated, sterile memory fabricated by the oppressor, so that they will resign themselves to a life that isn’t theirs as if it were the only one possible.” ― Eduardo Galeano

"The Trouble with Peace" review

The Trouble with Peace by Joe Abercrombie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think this is the best book in the Age of Madness trilogy. It reminds me a lot of the Heroes, but with better characters. A civil war is brewing....everyone knows it. Different groupings of the elite plan how to divide up power and make allegiances with foreign powers. What this book does well is set up a narrative that feels like it is gaining speed as it goes.

Ricka is a pure delight and I never tire of her wiseass retorts as well as those of the northman clover. In fact, much of the best scenes in this take place in the North. That being said, the political rumblings and bureaucracy of Adua give it contrast and this book is a tapestry of such back and forth.

Abercrombie continues to amaze and his books never feel stale or repetitions. Everything follows the historical trends and mythos of the prior books to a bloody end.

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Chinese Lunar New Year

I was able to eat a really nice Chinese New Year meal in Cambridge, MA. Three orders of soup dumplings, some buns, an interesting take on scallion pancakes, mapo tofu, chow fun, dan dan noodles, and some other things as well. :D We also did a Lunar New Year presentation and discussion at the Racial Equity Group at my work. Did you know there had been 2 different China towns in Providence in the past?

Snow and More Snow

New England is expected to have approximately 2 feet of snow tonight and tomorrow and some potential for even more. We ended up canceling our normal board game night and instead will be prepping to turn into Siberia for a weekend. To this end, I have enough food, water, entertainment, and if electricity goes out, books!!!!! Keep safe everyone and try not to venture outside this weekend unless you want some excercise shoveling or you have a decent tauntaun and believe that anything at all will be open.

Two Weeks in Iceland

Originally, me and 2 friends had planned a Scandinavian trip to Sweden (for Midsommar), Norway, and Iceland, but it had been canceled due to the Covid Pandemic. As a result, we were stuck with travel vouchers (for me with Iceland airlines). As a result from July 25th to August 7th, I traveled to Iceland instead as it was the only country which would take US travelers who had been vaccinated.

The first thing I instantly confirmed was how expensive everything in the country was. Most meals will cost $20-$30 even at fairly cheap places when ordering a bowl of soup or a small sandwich. Getting past that, the food was pretty decent. The bread in particular, was to die for. They had a rye bread that tasted like a rye version of banana bread; slightly sweet, but very rich and tasted homemade.

(Seen here is a meal at Cafe Loki) Other must try foods: -Lamb stew -Lobster Soup -Rye Icecream -Cinnamon rolls -Ice Cream at Valdis The fish is pretty decent and there is a lot of fine dining everywhere you go, but those particularly are the best in my opinion. The Hakarl (fermented shark) is overrated and is not even that strong tasting, the hardfiskur (fish jerkey) is kind of hilarious and worth a shot, and the Skyr (Icelandic yogurt) is quite good.

(Ian Chinich eating Hakarl, fermented shark)

Of the things I did, The glacier hike was probably the most fun.

(Ian Chinich hiking a glacier in the South of Iceland in August 2021) Followed by the Phallic Museum in Reykjavik

And the National Museum and Saga Museum.

The scorcery and witchcraft museum is interesting but a long drive unless you are heading in that direction

While I think that Iceland is new to tourism and still developing institutions to support it and things to see other than small random sites hours away, some of its greatest charm is that it still has many areas that are off the beaten path.... there are dirt roads, very little night life, and sheep everywhere you go. If you like good bread and hiking in scenery out of A Song of Ice and Fire, check out Iceland for yourself!

The King Beyond the Gate

The King Beyond the Gate by David Gemmell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked this book even better than the first book in the Drenai saga. Again it follows characters resisting impossible odds in a struggle that comes 100 years after the events in the first. While still being slightly formulaic in that the action tends to take place in defense of fortifications, the opposing factions and character motivations are much better in this book. It also further develops the cultural regions from the first book, Legend, and contains some memorable heroes who are faced with the ultimate sacrifice.

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My review of "Legend"

Legend by David Gemmell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had not heard of this book until a few weeks ago, and saw it recommended as a series in the vein of Dark Company, Game of Thrones, and First Law... which is a good enough recommendation for me. Sure enough, the series has a dark foreboding quality to it of a coming clash which is unwinnable.

What I liked about it are its visceral quality to both the battles and in its regional geopolitics. Most of the characters motivations also didn't seem forced, the love story...short as it was, didn't seem as 2 dimensional as a story from the early 80s could have. Lastly, its use of magic was also very thin and focused, like many of the books I had mentioned.

My only critique are that despite its nihilistic look at war, it seemed to simultaneously glorify in war/violence as something that makes people feel alive and brings out qualities in them. I am deeply uncomfortable with how this gets done in fantasy and its even weirder in situations where there is not a good/evil binary.

Still, I cant wait to read the next book in the series!

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