Hey Otherlanders!
After a shortish pandemic interruption we're back with the Otherlander's blog featuring English recommendations. Savor and enjoy!
We are Otherland
Do you remember THE scene in Alien? The crew is sitting around the table munching on spaghetti, there's orange juice, one of them is smoking a cigarette, and suddenly... Hrrrrrnnghghghghghshout scream zappel PFSCHTSCzappelHLOschegjarhoeag the XENOMORPH !!!!!!
Today’s topic, however, is not about the alien in particular, but about the condition that makes this scene so special! Namely the meal. The pesky xenomorph invades one of the most private spaces in fiction, making this alien intrusion (or rather out-rusion?) all the more impressive. How often have I wondered whether the main characters in my beloved fantasy novels actually sleep in their clothes. When do they go to the toilet or brush their teeth? And, above all, what do they eat? Thanks to all the nerdy chefs out there, this question has now been answered many times over through (unofficial) cookbooks specializing in fictional cuisine! Some are inspired by the world of Harry Potter, some by Middle-earth, and yup, there’s even a "Necronomnomnom" (you read that correctly). Not to mention the (official!) Game of Thrones cookbook. The recipes are mostly quite simple ("mostly"), sometimes spectacular, and always interesting. (I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to my dad, who gave me a thumbs up while shovelling my completely botched Creme Bastard into him.)
The fact that there is a GoT cookbook at all is mainly due to the virtuoso descriptions of its master chef George R. R. Martin. Some fans find this silly because it seems to "hold up" the story. Go crawling back into your holes, you ungrateful orcs, I want more opulent descriptions, because let's be honest: food is not only a pleasurable part of our lives, but also culture and gives the opportunity to give those big fat Fantasy Books a tad more immersion. A lemon cake garnished with violets makes your mouth water as soon as you start reading and turns the wonderful escapism just a tad more real. Or think about butterbeer and pumpkin juice. Do we really want to try that? A definite "NO" before the mental visit to the Boar's Head, but when we do conjure ourselves there with Harry, Hermione, and Ron, it's all part of the flair. Food in novels makes them more complex! And not only that, certain foods often have certain functions and form metaphorical layers that begin to resemble puff pastry.
There are entire treatises on the role of food in the works of Shirley Jackson, especially in "We have always lived in the castle". Or think of the Turkish delight in Narnia, which the evil Snow Queen uses to lure Edmund into her clutches. Who is strong enough to say "no" to something like that, really? Things are also sweet in Wonka's famous chocolate factory in Roald Dahl's classic "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" - although I guess here it's more about social norms than gummy worms. Too cheap for your tastes? If you're more into fine dining, we recommend "Land of Milk and Honey" by C. Pam Zhang. It combines a dark dystopia with ... food! As I said, food is life and passion! In the cozy fantasy hit "Legends and Lattes" (the second part is here!), an orc warrior opens a small cafe with exactly this attitude ...and meets a cute succubus who makes the best latte in the fantasy world. And if one coffee isn't enough for you, you should pick up "The Light of Unusual Stars" by Ryka Aoki again. Here, the main protagonist bakes heaps of donuts. Good donuts, bad donuts, giant donuts, Alaskan donuts. Stargate-Donuts...Ah! The bell is ringing and I'm called to the table.
Hope your mouths are watering now - have fun cooking and reading and reading cookbooks!
Yours hungrily,
Esther from Otherland
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Science Fiction
It’s
a simple story about an alien-invasion and a bunch of characters trying
to save their planet. The way in which it is told is the opposite of
easy. Dickinson dives deep into mathmatical theories and physics and
philosophical ponderings on morality. Many will throw it in the corner,
because of this, but others will love it – at least that’s what I grasp
from other readers’ experiences. I personally am very intrigued! The
characters sound interesting (one POV, the woman Anna, is in a
relationship with Ssrin, a female eight-headed snake alien. I mean, come
on!) and apparently they’re all not very likable, but each has a
believe-systems that justifies their actions very well, especially when
it comes to military actions. Someone said, people who like The
Three-Body-Problem should like this one very much – we’ll see. If I do
not like it, I’ll just close it and look at the hypnotizingly beautiful
cover some more!
“It came on great oiled, resilient,
striding legs. It towered thirty feet above half the trees, a great
evil god, folding its delicate watchmaker’s claws close to its oily
reptilian chest…”
Dinosaur Tales comprises six of Bradbury’s dino-related tales, each illustrated by some of the industry’s best sci-fi artists, so that’s William Stout, Steranko, Kenneth Smith, Moebius, David Wiesner, Gahan Wilson, and Overton Loyd. As Ray Harryhausen says in his foreword, these are tales that “stretch the imagination, excite wonderment, and above all, give one hours of stimulating entertainment.”
The tale “Besides a Dinosaur, Whatta Ya Wanna Be When You Grow Up?” follows twelve-year-old Benjamin Spaulding, growing up with his Grandpa and Grandma after his folks disappeared at a young age. Benjamin becomes fascinated with the idea of becoming a Tyrannosaurus Rex as a job. Not a digger, scientist, or artist: an actual dinosaur. (“No other job worth having.”) But when the dog refuses to come home and chewed up bits of meat turn up in the kitchen in the mornings, Benjamin’s Grandpa decides he needs to help out. Emotional, a little wild, loveable, and rich. The legendary “A Sound of Thunder” is one of my all-time favourite short stories (I think only Bradbury’s “The Small Assassin” trumps it…). It tells of feckless businessman Eckels, who uses his wealth to go on a Time Safari – any time in the past – “You name the animal. We take you there. You shoot it.” The instructions are very clear: Don’t go off the path. For any reason. Eckles feels pretty confident in his own bravado. But when faced with a towering behemoth, he loses his cool and threatens the whole expedition. Cue one iconic butterfly, and a sci-fi motif that would run and run.
Other stories include the poignant and uncanny “The Fog Horn”, which would inspire the film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. Here two lighthouse keepers are holding vigil on the loneliest night of the year, manning the foghorn to ward off passing ships, when something from the depths of the ocean and the depths of time calls back to them in answer. More relatable monsters feature in “Tyrannosaurus Rex”, where we are faced with the darkest horrors of the modern world: Hollywood movie executives. Facing them is one very downtrodden special effects technician with a delicious revenge up his sleeve (or at his fingertips). What more can I say. The whole collection is a purely escapist Sunday afternoon. 142 pages of pure nostalgic entertainment. If you enjoy this then your next stop is Everyman’s Library’s The Stories of Ray Bradbury, which has exactly 100 of Bradbury’s best and brightest.
[Tom]
(Audiobook from libro.fm)
After watching the series on Netflix a few years back, I was immediately in love with the concept and planned on reading the book(s) shortly after. Now it is just a teeny tiny bit later than I intended but hey, better late than never.
And although I have to say that the plots do not have that much in common, the concept which I fell in love with stayed the same and I absolutely adored this book.
It is absurd and completely hilarious, peppered with nerdy references and overall just a great, quick read for anyone in need of lighthearted Sci-Fi.
The Main character gets roped into a series of weird happenings that have seemingly nothing to do with each other but of which an old fellow student (Dirk Gently) is convinced are interconnected. It contains ghosts, aliens, time machines and centuries old beings.
Definitely a recommendation!!!
[Louie]
Fantasy
Borne
HarperCollins UK: €12.5
I cannot begin to explain what Borne did to my brain...
Borne takes place in a post apocalyptic world, in a city which is shaped by rogue bio-engineered animals which stem from "the company". This city is ruled by a giant bear, called Mord, who floats above it through the air and goes to sleep in the ruins of the old company building. When the main character finds a strange object in Mords fur that calls to her on one of her scavenging missions and takes it home to her partner, she has irrevocably changed the fate of the city as a whole. This object begins to not seem like an object at all, but more like a living thing: first a plant, later an animal? And while she begins to feel an incredible connection to it, her partner doesn't trust the way this thing is pretending to be something it is not.
This is another certainly feminist, incredibly weird and amazingly intricate book by Jeff Vandermeer. It made me question so many parts of itself and the ending definitely hit me harder than I thought it would.
For anyone searching for an immersive bio-engineering, weird Science-Fiction book that you can devour in the shortest time because you will not be able to put it down once you've picked it up.
(Louie)
Shadow of the Leviathan#1
The Tainted Cup
Hodder & Stoughton: €24
(Audiobook from libro.fm)
Horror
Valancourt Books: €29.5
When the young scholar Bjørn Werner disappears on a trip to a remote log cabin in the Norwegian woods, his friends and relatives set out to investigate what happened to him on their own.
Before long they discover strange superstitions surrounding the remote “Dead Man’s Cabin”. 110 years before, a madman murdered his sister and her lover, threw their corpses in a nearby lake, and then drowned himself. Ever since, his ghost has supposedly haunted the woods, sending any foolhardy enough to stay there longer than a few nights insane. Will the six visitors be able to get to the bottom of Bjørn’s disappearance, or will the lake take them too?
André Bjerke’s De dødes tjern was first published in 1942 to great acclaim in its resident Norway. It is the second of Bjerke’s books to feature his Sherlock Holmes-esque investigator Kai Bugge, as well as his narrator and thinly-disguised authorial alter ego Bernhard Borge (the penname was a well-known secret at the time). Surprisingly, although the book continually ranks amongst the best Norwegian books of all time, and its film adaption likewise, this is actually the first full English translation from the original text. An award-winning polyglot translator whose work includes the superb two-volume Valancourt Book of World Horror, James D. Jenkins presents The Lake of the Dead as a crime-thriller with strong horror aspects – comparing it with works such as Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Shirley Jackson’s Haunting of Hill House, or Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw as a novel in which the reader is pulled between a rational and a supernatural explanation of events.
Anyone who likes a good, old-fashioned Christie-style murder mystery will probably find this up their alley, and it certainly has elements of classic horror to it too – I was reminded a little of psychological horror films such as Clouzot’s Les Diaboliques. The period style and faithfulness to the classic plot are arguably the most enjoyable elements, plus the chance to read some classic Norwegian horror in English. It is also at times the most abrasive element. The introduction admits the text’s chauvinist language can be off-putting at times, particularly the narrator’s repeated references to the “weaker sex”, or the stereotypical depictions of the two female characters, all of which leaves a sour taste. But then, as Jenkins argues, any English-language thriller of the time (and plenty of contemporary additions) displays the same, and the narrator himself is shown to be an untrustworthy fool, so his reading of events is not entirely surprising. If you can take it for what it is, it is an interesting glimpse into Norwegian crime-horror history. If not, (re)read And Then There Were None.
[Tom]
Peter Topside
Love and Pieces: A Supernatural Horror Story
Ingram UK: €17
At the same time Camille seemingly survives a catastrophe, but she has been touched by the supernatural and is not unscathed.
The path of these two confused characters will cross in ways that seem predestined and miraculous, but not really good for either of them in the long term. So, what's it gonna be?
I have read the first two books of Topside's Preternatural series and was delighted to realize Love and Pieces is set in the same universe – though, by no means do you have to know the other books to enjoy this novella, it's just merely background. Knowing books in the previous series, I was blown away by how Peter's writing was perfected in this last book – a much more relaxed, easily flowing style, plenty of humor, characters so convincing...
I loved reading this complex mess of a situation turning into a fun, relatable little story about loss, grief, dead flesh and letting go and can't wait for the next Topside book.
Kids Books
Arkspire#1
Arkspire
Penguin Books UK: €11.5
The main character is called Juniper. She’s cool and she has a friend called Thea. Juniper is brave and clever and has a really cool coat. They explore a really cool place and find magic things there – I’d like to be there. There are also a gang of bad guys with dark clothes and masks. I think my friends would like this book.
[Freya, aged 8]
Jamie Littler's new illustrated middle-grade novel is a feast for the eyes and fun too. We follow young arcane thief Juniper Bell as she struggles against an all-powerful set of magical overlords, helped out along the way by her plucky friends and a weird shadowy creature called Cinder which exploded out of one of the relics she pillaged... Lots of adventure, mysterious spells, dungeon crawls, and powerful artifacts. The humor is great and it looks really swish.
[Tom, aged slightly more than 8]
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