Reviews and Comments

I had an "Alien"-phase, where I saw through the entire DVD boxset with all its extras. After that I didn't hear much about Giger before the Dune-documentary about the movie that never was. But then, that was it.

This book is obviously dated now. It's from 1996, and its about the films he was involved him up until that point. It talks of Species as a brand new film. There's no mention of the Alien franchise after the third movie. But: it's still a good read for his work (in film) up until then. And it does give an impression of what's important for him as an artist.

A big chunk of the book is dedicated to a film project of his that never was: "The Mystery of San Gottardo". It's an idea that he seemed passionate about, but I have a really hard time taking seriously. A dystopian tale about Switzerland evolving into a country controlled by arms connected to feet.

I was not much familiar with Le Guin nor the Earthsea-series before diving into this book. And it wasn't before the latter half of the fourth book in it, that I realized that I really liked both the setting, the characters and the stories. Individually, I would probably not rate them all this high. But reading them together did really improve the experience.

The first book, "A wizard of Earthsea", is almost like an origin-story that you'd expect seeing late in a series. The next three books all has the wizard Ged in them, but always as an older, mysterious figure. It's seldom his viewpoint you follow, but someone that meets him om their way, or that is taken away on an adventure by him. Almost like Gandalf or Dumbledore. But the first book explains his backstory, and you see him go from a young boy to a wizard. So reading the other stories, you know all about the old wizards mysteries. Which is a bit unusual.

But it's the fourth book, "Tehanu", that is going to stay with you. Le Guin has through the first 3 series explored different themes through the fantasy setting she has created. All of them are in some ways about a society in change, most likely mirroring her own view on how society ought to move forward. This was in her original trilogy of books. Many years later, 1990, she revisits the world, and now her rage over injustice on society has taken a new form, and she forces us to understand both Earthsea and our own world in a new way. While I'm sure some would rather have her be more subtle, I really enjoyed how she made me reinterpret the world she had created.

I would not reccomend getting this specific edition of the work though. Not only is it only four books of what eventually became a six book(?) series, but it's also a poorly printed, obviously done in a cheap way. I have not read the last novel or any of the short stories, but the edition that includes all of it is surely the one to get.

Einar Landmark er åpenbart veldig god på å finne og forfølge ulike kilder, noe som gjør at det er mye spennende i denne boka. Hovedfokuset er Ibsens innsamlingstur i 1862, hvor han forsøkte å samle inn folkeeventyr i Sunnmøre. Boka er også på sitt beste når Landmark tar oss med gjennom hva vi vet om denne turen. Prosjektet er godt: han kombinerer det Ibsen selv skrev og illustrerte fra turen med utsagt fra folk han har møtt underveis. I tillegg trekker han inn beskrivelser av områdene fra andre som reise i noen lunde samme periode, i et forsøk på å få frem hva Ibsen møtte. Han spekulerer også litt i det vi ikke vet.

Men det er på det siste punktet boka av og til skurrer litt. Landmark spekulerer veldig mye, og det er flere koblinger som virker tvilsomme (noen ganger anerkjenner Landmark det selv). I tillegg er han veldig glad i trekke passasjer fra Ibsen-stykker inn som relevante forklaringer for Ibsens situasjon og følelser. Dette kan fungere som eget prosjekt, men passer ikke helt inn i gjenfortellingen av turen.

I tillegg har boka lange kapittel som egentlig ikke har så mye med denne turen å gjøre. Noen av dem er mer eller mindre interessante sidespor, men nesten en tredjedel av boka er biografisk informasjon om Ibsen frem til selve samlerferden.

So there seems to be more than one collection of Hemingway shorts with this title. The one I read is really just the 1930-edition of In Our Time with "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" added.

Most of the short stories in this book is great, and somewhat what I expected from Hemingway, having only heard about his writing style. Most of the stories seem to somehow be about people wanting to find peace and/or relaxation in a difficult time, but there are stories that also don't fit this mold. Love, friendship, appriciation (and respect) for nature and death go through all of these, but all seen from a similar perspective - which makes sense, as I understand that many of these shorts are autobiographical in nature.

I struggled a bit connecting the vignettes to the short stories they were attached to, but reading up on it now afterwards, I see there's no clear connection between them.

The last installment of the Don Rosa Library does not have any of my favorite stories from his, but all of the stories in it are among his best. But especially "A Letter From Home or The Old Castle's Other Secret" and "The Prisoner of White Agony Creek" shows how Don Rosa is able to treat his cast like actual characters, and not just puppets for his stories. Both stories made me teary eyed, just when Rosa intended me to be so. At the same time: I doubt these stories would have had the same effect on me if I had not gone through his previous stories first. Having (re)read all of Rosa's duck stories, it's his insistance of these silly animals being human persons (with all that goes with it) that makes him and unforgetable author. The silly animals makes the slapstick work, but the personalities makes the stories work on an emotional level (when he intends them to).

Don Rosa is still alive, so I hope he will some day return to telling stories (with Ducks or others).