The first book was good. Humour was there, and I can tell why it got famous enough to have a film adaptation. It was exactly Douglas Adam's nonsensical style that made it such a unique book. Basically, he turned everything that made no sense into futuristic technologies and alien practices. For example, the ship they used in the book and the movie called the Heart of Gold was powered by the Improbability Drive, which derived its energy from insane improbabilities. Makes sense? Precisely.
However I had mistakenly ordered the wrong book next. Instead of getting The Restaurant At the End of the Universe, I clicked on Life, the Universe and Everything.
In this book though, there was a noticeable contrast in style. While the first book had nonsensical humour, the third book was merely nonsensical. Not completely unexpected, but nevertheless disappointing. I kind of think that Adams was secretly mad. Wouldn't be the first man with an unhealthy mind to author successful books. Just look at H.P. Lovecraft. If you're not familiar with this name, what he did for the horror genre was akin to what Tolkien did for the fantasy genre.
Now onto Shadow and Claw, the first part of The Book of the New Sun. It's essentially four novels turned into two, so Shadow and Claw is really a 2-in-1 book.
So far I've gone through half the book and I have to say that the author writes too much compared to the more modern authors. In spite of this, the plot is still interesting so far, probably because the protagonist is a so-called "torturer". He specialises mainly in torture but also does executions, hence my quotation marks.
This means that even though he isn't trained in combat, he can still handle himself in fights. It's like the way doctors can theoretically defend themselves if they had paid attention during certain classes. Similarly, since he's trained in stuff like peeling skin off a human without breaking any vein or artery, he also knows where the important nerves are in the body.
The setting of the story is also very unique. I had completely forgotten what the description of the book was on the website and I did not read the back cover before opening the book. When I was reading it I thought it was in the fantasy genre, especially since there were strange monsters and the medieval settings.
However there were things in the story that did not belong to the fantasy genre, like the torture device that utilised electricity and had could be adjusted to such specific conditions it felt kind of sci-fi. But a sci-fi machine in a medieval castle? What?
It was only later when I paused and took a look at the back of the book that I finally noticed that it was described as science fiction. In fact, the book describes our world in the very far future when civilization is dying after a glorious golden age, at the same time as the Sun begins to expand, hence the gradual descent to barbarism and hence the medieval setting mixed with futuristic technologies and lore.
It's like what is going to happen to the Space Marines in Warhammer 40k when they finally lose all their spaceships and space travel becomes a legend.
Was going to warm up my taste buds by drinking my normal Cupparoma coffee before trying out the white coffee I bought in Malaysia. If I had gone straight to it I probably won't be able to compare it with anything because I haven't tasted coffee for almost a month (and I didn't even drink coffee regularly before that).
But instead I took a packet of Super. It was only when I was done stirring and bringing my cup back into my room when I noticed I had taken my coffee powder from the big red bag instead of the blue one. Then I looked at my coffee and saw it was light brown even though I had also forgotten to add creamer, which I usually do when I drink Cupparoma.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
Blogs are probably the only places where whining about drinking the wrong brand of coffee is considered acceptable behaviour. At least by me.
If anyone reading this never had really long fingernails and considering the idea, I'll just state here that it's not a wise decision if you have to type often. There are two complications when you type with long fingernails.
First, the more common problem is that they may break.
Second, the constant force hitting on your finger nail may eventually cause it to begin to separate from your finger. Of course it won't just peel off suddenly (and that would be very disturbing), but it begins with pain in the flesh under your nail.
I have never encountered the first, but the second is my fingers' way of reminding me to cut my nails. So if you have long nails and you feel pain under it or even notice infection setting in at the side of your nail, this is why. Cut it short asap because an infection under the fingernail is rather hard to ignore.
Civilization V coming out September, one month before the release of New Vegas! Woohoo!
This guy is a genius! Why didn't I think of that?!???! Fucking whites and Chinese! Why so racist?
There's also a less obvious implication here - he's insulting the intelligence of everyone of the same skin colour as him.
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