Archive for fantasy
books of the year²⁵
Posted in Books, pictures with tags 2025, Bansky, Banu Mushtaq, BD, book list, book reviews, fantasy, Far North, goodreads, India, Louis Ferdinand Céline on January 11, 2026 by xi'an
a journal of the [end of the] chaos year
Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Running, Travel, Wines with tags Agatha Christie, BBC Radio n4, Berlin, Black Plague, book reviews, California, Cambodia, COVID-19, crow, cuisine, Daniel Defoe, detective stories, fantasy, Frankenstein, horror, horror story, Indian food, Japan, Japanese cinema, Jotunheimen, Journal of the Plague Year, King Olaf, Kumano Kodō, Lancashire, Lenin, melodrama, North Korea, Norway, NSF, olive tree, restaurant, Russian invasion, Scandinavian Mountains, short stories, South Korea, Tokyo, Trondheim, Ukraine, Yatagarasu, Yorkshire on December 31, 2025 by xi'an 
Read the delightful Barrowbreck by Andrew M Hurley, a great collection of short stories is made coherent by its unity of place, a lost, dark, valley between Lancashire and Yorkshire. The stories unfold from the Bronze ages till a near and disastrous future. While the book is often presented as horror fiction, I rather see it as an exploration of an alternate reality, a fantasy just outside our own world. Not inducing dread or unease in the reader. The author demonstrates great skill in setting substantial characters and situations within a few pages, in translating the inner feelings of highly diverse people and, above all, in refraining from providing a definite conclusion to his stories. Some of them are striking enough to remain in my memories for a while!
Apart from an Indian-style vegetable six dishes feast, did not experiment much in the kitchen, in part due to my travelling one week out of two between November and December. But harvested and prepared my olives after collecting about 3 litters of them. (I also tasted a Banh Chhev (in Petit Cambodge, Paris but it failed short from my expectation, neither crispy nor sizzling. And cold.)
Watched As You Stood By, a Korean drama about domestic violence. And then Last Samurai Standing. Adapted from the novel of the same name written by Shogo Imamura. And the rather hilarious movie Good News, a South Korean disaster black comedy film playing a similar trick to Good bye Lenin. Gave up watching an unlucky series of terrible films and TV series. From the cheezy A Man on the Inside (which surely makes Agatha Christie cringe in her grave), to Ichikei’s Crow (a highly unrealistic sequence of near-judicial errors in a Tokyo tribunal, with the redeeming feature of a three-leg crow logo, Yatagarasu, also a guardian on the Kumanokodo), to the pretentious Frankenstein by Guillermo del Toro (where over-prefect Victorian tableaux and crepuscular lighting games kill the scenario even before it is brought to life by Dr. Frankenstein’s steampunk apparatus, aka, the mélo chokes the drama!), to Troll 2, even worse than Troll, pulling on the very same strings as the first film, with the very same house eviscerated again by another strolling troll!, as well as a complete disregard for archaeological dig rules and with the ultimate lame resort to holy water! Catching a few views of the Jotunheimen peaks, though (which we hiked 35 years ago).
a journal of the chaos (en cuisine) year
Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Travel, Wines with tags Black Plague, book reviews, COVID-19, cuisine, Daniel Defoe, Discworld, fantasy, gardening, gratuity, homegrown, Joseon dynasty, Journal of the Plague Year, K dramas, Korea, Le Monde, macarons, MIchelin starred restaurant, murderbot, Paris, Quartier Latin, rice, rice pudding, Russian invasion, Terry Pratchett, tipping, Ukraine, ze kitchen galerie on October 31, 2025 by xi'an Read Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy by Martha Wells, part of The Murderbot Diaries (#2.5) and fun as usual but so short (34p) that it does not even feel like a short story. And How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, by Django Wexler. Which illustrates afresh my blockage on humorous fantasy, as previously experimented with Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. There is humour and wit, but the universe and the scenario and the characters all are terribly thin. And of limited interest…
While taking advantage of the remaining vegetables and fruits at the local market, like having radish, coriander and lemon salad at every meal, and garden tomatoes as well, and making daily breakfast compote from rhubarb and figs, plus the customary skyr and buckwhe(y/at) pancakes, the culinary experience this round was outside, with a dinner at Oktobre, a restaurant we had visited a few times, in the heart of Quartier Latin, and recently mentioned in Le Monde M(agazine). (The K stands for the previous name of the restaurant, Ze Kitchen Gallery bis.) The surprise entrées were a fabulous mix of Asia-inspired dishes with miso and raw fish, while the tagliatelle were al dente and perfectly (if mildly) spiced. The lobster bits were however superfluous, as soaked in cooking water and hence almost indistinguishable from sashimi sticks. The rice pudding also failed to deliver, with undercooked grains, an heresy for rice pudding. But the most surprising feature of the meal came with the strong insistence of the server that we add a tip to the bill when the menu stated service was already included, as compulsory by French law. Which we pointed out only to more arguing. Definitely annoying if this signals an incoming trend in touristy places, as tipping is definitely one of the most puzzling aspects of US life! (Another appalling US food story is how Trump imposed his ghastly culinary tastes on his hosts during his Asian tour…)
In continuation with the culinary theme, I also speed watched a rather silly K drama called Bon Appétit, Your Majesty (The Tyrant’s Chef), which sends a modern Michelin starred chef to 14th Century Joseon to be a cook for the current and tyranesque king. The plot is paper-thin but the cooking bits are pleasant (if overly inspired by French dishes, like bœuf bourguignon and macarons!)
At last out!
Posted in Books, Kids, Travel with tags book cover, daemon, fantasy, His Dark Materials, La Belle Sauvage, Lyra Bellacqua, Magisterium, not a book review, Oxford, Philip Pullman, The Book of Dust, The Rose Field, The Secret Commonwealth, trilogy on October 26, 2025 by xi'an
a journal of the cha(ca)os (and fig) year
Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Travel, Wines with tags Adam family, Basse-Terre, Black Plague, book reviews, buckwheat, cast iron pan, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Celtic noir, Chamonix, Chennai, chili pepper, cocoa, Cold Case, COVID-19, crêpes, cuisine, Daniel Defoe, domestic violence, E.M. Forster, Edinburgh, fantasy, galettes, gardening, griddle, Guadeloupe, gun violence, homegrown, India, Japan, Journal of the Plague Year, kako, Outer Hebrides, Paris, Russian invasion, Scotland, Scoville scale, The Cramps, Ukraine, whey on October 1, 2025 by xi'an Read the last part of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, which still takes place in the early 1800’s at the Dutch East India Company trading post Dejima in Nagasaki, as the historical aspects—like the attempt by a British ship to take over the outpost—beat the weakest features of the story. The end does feel rushed.
I made my first attempt at a chocolate tablet by mixing the cocoa—cacao in French—paste (kako in Créole) I brought back from Guadeloupe—made from the cocoa seeds I had bought at the market, roasting and crushing them—with crushed biscuits and a tiny bit of butter. The result was keeping with the bitter chocolate flavour I enjoy in 100% cocoa tablets, if presumably richer in fat and sugar, and more on the chocolate biscuit side! As the fig tree is now delivering at full speed, I am making compotes and office deliveries on most days, along with picking great tomatoes (which survived the heat waves) and the second chili pepper that grew from the chili tree this summer—sadly so low on the Scoville scale that it didn’t much differ from the peppers that also grew there—. In a bountiful year, the only failure was the buckwheat attempt, since no single flower came to deliver. Expert advice is thus sought for next year! This did not prevent me from resuming cooking whey (from skyr) and buckwheat, rye, or chestnut crêpes (on the Amazon iron griddle that no longer sticks!).
Watched and enjoyed the series Dept. Q, a gritty, depressing, and engrossing detective story that mixes cold cases, domestic violence, PTSD, sexism, several levels of guilt, and a variety of Scottish accents, from Edinburgh to the Western Isles. Despite the captivity thread in the scenario that I always dislike as a weak option in this kind of story, albeit making more sense as the episodes unfold. The grey areas surrounding most characters keeps the series at quite an acceptable level of engagement, as does the range of personalities thus displayed. This includes most victims that could have fallen into the poor-dear trap, but remain ambiguous and equally guilty to maintain the balance. Looking forward new seasons (not in the Scottish sense, where most days usually cover all four of them!). Also watched the second season of Wednesday, enjoyable enough if on the light and repetitive side. With Jenna Ortega still running the show, along with a stronger presence of Catherine Zeta-Jones. Just missing the Cramps moment of Season 1!
Xi'an's Og 