Autumn's approaching breath

[dolorosa_12]

By way of a life update, have a few scattered bits and pieces from the past week or so.

It's autumn, at last! Autumn is my favourite season of the year: scarves, gloves, coats and blankets, the cold bite of the air, the smell of the changing, falling leaves, and that indescribable quality of the light. The northern summer just went on and on and on, and I'm so relieved to finally experience some cold weather. It hasn't spread across all of Europe — my mother, sister, and parents-, sister-, brother-in-law and nephew are all in Italy (not together — my sister's at a wedding in Lake Como, my mother is in Verona, after which she and my sister will meet up in Milan, and my in-laws are all on holiday together near Lake Garda), and it's still very summery there, but it is well and truly autumnal in Cambridge, and I am very happy about it.

Apart from a quick foray out to the alumni event for my former academic department (it happens this weekend of September every year, and mainly consists of drinking glasses of wine in the departmental common room, and generally the only people who go are people who still live in Cambridge, such as Matthias and me, ienthuse and her husband, and those who are still affiliated with the department as postdocs), I barely left the house, and have spent most of today curled up in my chair reading Naomi Novik's glorious Spinning Silver, which I think I like even more than Uprooted, although I'm only about a third of the way through. Normally I read a lot faster than this, but I've loved it so much I've been deliberately slow in order to savour the magic. Novik's Temeraire books really don't work for me, but I adore her fairytale-inspired fantasy.

Reading-wise I seem to be all about the Eastern European inspired fairytale retellings at the moment; last weekend I devoured the second of Katherine Arden's Winternight Trilogy books, which are set in a fantastical version of fourteenth-century Russia and seem written to my exact specifications. I posted a review of the first two books in the series here, and highly recommend them.

Matthias and I binge watched the entire first season of Killing Eve, which I adored. The whole lot is on iPlayer if other UK people want to watch. The plot and premise is frankly ridiculous, but if you accept that it's taking place in a sort of melodramatic, soap operatic reality, it's very enjoyable. The two lead actresses are great, the soundtrack is excellent, and there's a lot of gorgeous scenery porn in various picturesque European cities. After all our travelling this summer, it's been good to be back at home and just spend some time binge watching TV. I'm not sure what we'll move on to next — possibly the second season of Luke Cage, which should give you some idea of how behind we are in terms of TV series!

The weekend is drawing to a close, and the last few hours of it will be spent cooking a cosy and delicious Polish goulash, watching the last episode of Bodyguard (which I've liked, but not loved as much as Line of Duty, partly because the acting and writing in the latter is just a bit sharper), and reading more of Spinning Silver. I feel like I need a third day off to be fully refreshed after the work week (huge amounts of teaching and lots of wrangling of confused new medical students) I've just had, but alas it is not to be.

Comments

[auroracloud]

I love autumn, too!

I very recently read Katherine Arden's first book, and it was gorgeous. I definitely want to read the second one as well. I'd like to try Naomi Novik's fairytale-inspired fantasies as well, because I've heard a lot of good things about them. Though like you, the Temeraire books didn't work that well for me - I enjoyed the first one fairly well, but couldn't get far with the second one, and just stopped trying.

[dolorosa_12]

If you like Katherine Arden, you will probably like Novik's fairytale fantasies, as both have a lot of very similar qualities. I highly recommend both of those books, as well as the second Winternight book.

Autumn is just the best time of year. I love it so much!

[merit]

I also started Spinning Silver this weekend! Though I'm only about a tenth of the way through. I'm quite liking it as well. I gave up on the Temeraire series mid way through book 3, it felt rather like the plot was being stretched terribly thin.

And I am a big fan of the Winternight series! hopefully I'l be able to request it for Yuletide again this year.

Have you read Vassa in the Night? It may interest you!

[dolorosa_12]

I only ever read the first Temeraire book (and that only because it was a gift), but I find it really hard to warm to stories where almost every character is male, so they were never going to work for me.

I have about fifty pages of Spinning Silver left. I was reading it over breakfast this morning before I left for work, and had the option to finish the whole thing in a rush, or wait until this evening and stretch out the enjoyment, so I chose the latter, but now I'm really distracted thinking about how it might end!

I'm hoping both Spinning Silver and the Winternight books are in the tagset for Yuletide, but whether I request either will depend on which characters are available (I like het, femslash, and female character centric gen).

I just looked up Vassa in the Night on Goodreads, and I think you may be right

[merit]

It actually gets worse in the next book. I know, who knew that was possible but there you go. That was also a factor that drove me to give up over 50% through a book.

I'm not sure about Spinning Silver, but I believe some Winternight characters have been nominated per a spreadsheet a looked at! I sadly ran out of noms this year (I nominated them last year!) and there's always chocolate box in a few months ^^

The Bear and the Nighingale and Vassa in the Night kickstarted my Eastern European fantasy reading! hopefully there will be more in the future.

[dolorosa_12]

I'm glad it's not just me, and also glad I was right in my decision not to continue with the series.

I'm very excited to know that Winternight at least has been nominated for Yuletide, and I guess I'll know before too long whether Spinning Silver made it in there too. I hadn't read Spinning Silver before nominations closed, so I couldn't have nominated it, and in any case I'm very happy with the fandoms I did end up nominating, but it would be great to have as many things as possible to request.

By the way, is your icon one for the Old Kingdom series? It's fantastic!

[merit]

Hopefully more is written this year!

It sure is! I'm a big Old Kingdom fan :)