Video: Historical Body Mechanics: Walk Medieval

Roland Warzecha from the History Park Bärnau in Bavaria, Germany, talks about differences between how we walk now (with thick heeled shoes on paved roads) vs how people walked in the past (ball to heel in thin leather shoes). He also mentions what that means for posture.

Book Review: The Core by Peter Brett

Pros: lots of action, character development, satisfying series ending

Cons: at a disadvantage if haven’t read the novellas

This is the fifth and final volume of the Demon Cycle. A lot has happened as Arlen and Jardir finally take their party down to the core. Their captured mind demon alerts them that the hive is close to swarm, but it’s too late for them to help their friends and loved ones who are about to be overrun at the new moon. All they can do as they journey below is hope they’ve prepared those they leave behind well enough to survive on their own.

There are a lot of point of view characters, some for the first time. This allows the reader to see events all over Thesa as the demons attack. And they attack hard. The book does a fantastic job of consolidating all of the people and places that have been visited in the series. 

Having said that, I was surprised that the people and events of some of the novellas were referenced without preamble. Derek from Brayan’s Gold shows up with no introduction and I’m assuming the novella Messenger’s Legacy (which I haven’t read) explains why Ragen and Elissa aren’t in Miln when The Core begins. While I felt Briar was properly introduced in The Skull Throne, when Regan and Elissa showed up it felt like I’d missed a chapter, as there’s no explanation of what they’ve been doing though there are a few cryptic hints that they were in Laktown looking for Briar. Once they were back in Miln I found their political situation quite interesting.

There is a lot of action both with the defenders up top and those penetrating the deeps. The battles are varied, as the mind demons fight dirty. Once or twice we’re shown the after effects of a scene rather than a scene itself, which lessened the impact of some tragedies. But on the whole it’s a whirlwind of battles intercut with preparations for surviving the next battle. 

I liked that Arlen and Jardir continue to develop as people. Seeing Jardir start to question his beliefs as he learns more about Kaji’s own descent while Arlen starts to realize there may in fact be a Creator after all, was kind of neat. I thought that the birth of Leesha’s child and the politics surrounding its identity were handled well.

There are a number of touching, heartfelt moments in the book. I particularly liked when Jardir says his goodbyes.

The final battle was hard fought and gave a very satisfying ending for the series.

Nuit Blanche 2017

In addition to the Netflix Red Forest installation, here are some other things my husband and I saw at this year's Nuit Blanche in Toronto. This year's theme was "Many Possible Futures" so there was a definite SF twist to some of the exhibits.

The first one we went to was the Nature Deficit Disorder Clinic. After meeting with reception we got to look at the various posters explaining the dangers of this future where interacting with nature is at a destructive minimum. Brought into the first treatment room, we watched a short video that led to us deciding if we were best served by interacting with a tree, water, or rock. We could see other treatment rooms where some people were given a second 'treatment' with those items, but were told we didn't require immediate treatment and were sent on our way.

On the left is  Manitowapow,
speaking to the moon, an exhibit with dome tents lit up with nature scenes instide.

On the right is Laxa’ine’ gigukwdzikasi’ gigukwas Hayałiligase’, The Many Large Houses of the Ghosts, a light display on Old City Hall's clock tower.

At City Hall we found the Hendrick's Gin hot air balloon, giving rides to people who won golden tickets. This is where we lined up for 2+ hours for the Red Forest, after which we didn't feel much like waiting in another line. Which is why I only have an outside photo of the Monument to the Century of Revolution - an installation made up of several shipping crates that discussed specific revolutions as well as aspects of revolution (printing flyers, feminism, prisons, etc). 

The final installation we saw was Photon Gallery 3.0. 

There were several cool things to see here, like an audio modulated gas fire display (more base = higher fire).


Nuit Blanche: Photon Gallery 3.0 fire from Jessica Strider on Vimeo.

They also had a strobe powered falling water display.

Nuit Blanche: Photon Gallery 3.0 water from Jessica Strider on Vimeo.

And this really cool artwork by Alex Poutiainen.

Shout-Out: The Goblins of Bellwater by Molly Ringle

Most people have no idea goblins live in the woods around the small town of Bellwater, Washington. But some are about to find out.

Skye, a young barista and artist, falls victim to a goblin curse in the forest one winter night, rendering her depressed and silenced, unable to speak of what happened. Her older sister, Livy, is at wit’s end trying to understand what’s wrong with her. Local mechanic Kit would know, but he doesn’t talk of such things: he’s the human liaison for the goblin tribe, a job he keeps secret and never wanted, thrust on him by an ancient family contract.

Unaware of what’s happened to Skye, Kit starts dating Livy, trying to keep it casual to protect her from the attention of the goblins. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Kit, Skye draws his cousin Grady into the spell through an enchanted kiss in the woods, dooming Grady and Skye both to become goblins and disappear from humankind forever.

It’s a midwinter night’s enchantment as Livy, the only one untainted by a spell, sets out to save them on a dangerous magical path of her own.

Waiting for The Core

I spent all of September rereading Peter V. Brett's Demon Cycle. That's four books of demon awesome. I planned my reading so that I would finish just before book five, The Core, came out on October 3rd.

On September 26th I got a shipping notification from Indigo saying my pre-ordered book was on its way. I was half way through The Skull Throne, so it was perfect. I'd get the book a bit early and be able to start reading it on Monday (I don't generally read on the weekends and I wanted a good stretch of uninterrupted time to read this).

Three days passed and the book, which started out in Toronto, which is where I live, hadn't been scanned at the Toronto depot yet or arrived at my home. Strange... Friday night I finally see an update. My package was scanned at the depot in Richmond, British Columbia. I live in Ontario. For some reason my package was sent to the other side of the country.

At this point I realize that if I'd just gone to a store to buy the book I'd have it already and my pre-order started to feel like a teasing punishment.

In order to send in a service ticket with Canada Post to figure out why my package was sent on a scenic detour, I needed the sender's postal code. So I called Indigo customer service where I was told they couldn't give out that information (really not sure why). The lady looked at the shipping info and was just as confused as I was as to why my package had been sent to BC. So she told me she could ship a replacement copy if I wanted (with the understanding that if both showed up I'd return one to a a store). I said sure, and she shipped copy 2.

Copy 2 was picked up on October 2nd, to be delivered on the 3rd. Yesterday I waited at home for my package. Usually my Indigo packages are just left at the door so I figured I'd have to wait for regular delivery, which comes around 4:30. Just after that I check the mail and find a pick-up slip for getting my package at a local post office on the 4th after 1pm. The mailman didn't even try to deliver the package, which it seems requires a signature (it was sent by a more expensive means than the other one) (ETA Got a message saying it's on its way to the post office today, so it may not have even been in the postal van).

Now, I know packages arrive at the post office the night the notices go out, so I tried calling in the evening on the off hope that it had been scanned there already. But I was told that their system was down and they couldn't do anything until tomorrow when their tech person could come and fix the problem.

So here we are, October 4th. Copy 1 is set to arrive today (will probably be left at my door), while I'm hoping to collect copy 2 at the post office just after 1pm. With any luck a few hours from now I'll be happily reading The Core. Assuming nothing else goes wrong...

Update:

At 1:30 I walked to the post office to learn that they'd JUST gotten their system running again. I handed in the notice and gave an approximate package size and the worker found it lickety split! I am now going to sit down and read this beautiful book (I mean, what a cover! I love that there's a second image under the dust jacket).

And at 2:30 copy 1 arrived at my door.

Book Review: The Little Red Wolf by Amelie Flechais

Pros: adorable wolf, pretty artwork 

Cons: some scary images 

A little wolf cub is given a rabbit to bring to his ailing grandmother and warned away from an area of the forest where humans live. But little wolves, like little girls, don’t always follow instructions.

I’m not sure how to describe the artwork. It looks like watercolours, with most pages having a slight fantasy look to them. There’s lush greenery of the forest and strangely stylistic birds and bunnies. The wolves walk upright and have adorable cloaks. The wolf cub himself often poses in ways that show both attitude and emotion. The guard looks rather terrifying and there are a few scarier images though it’s on par with other fairytales in this respect.

I liked the little wolf a lot. While he’s portrayed as arrogant, he’s pretty typical of a child who wants to show some independence but isn’t quite as aware of the dangers of the world as he’d like to appear. He also faces some consequences for actions he chooses and has a dreadful moment when he’s done something bad and is worried his family will hate him for it. I felt for the little guy.

The story is very much in line with other fairytales. Obviously this one draws upon Little Red Riding Hood, but includes some innovations to the story. You can draw several messages from it or read it for fun. 

As an adult I enjoyed this and I suspect children will too.

Nuit Blanche 2017: Stranger Things "Red Forest" Installation

Last night Toronto had its all night modern art celebration, Nuit Blanche. As part of the event, Netflix set up a Stranger Things interactive installation of the upside down called Red Forest. My husband and I showed up about an hour into the program only to find a huge line - that got longer as we stood in it. We thought it might take 1-1 1/2 hours to get to the front, but we ended up in line for over 2 hours.

Towards the front we started seeing people wearing haz mat suits - which they then handed out to us (we got to keep them). This is when the exhibit got my heart pounding. Trying to stand and put this thing on was funny, but being in costume made it feel more sinister and real. This increased the closer we got to the exhibit proper.

Finally it was our turn! The exhibit was built in an underpass bridge between two buildings. There were three paths, one lit up blue in the middle with reds ones to either side. Hidden in the trees were bicycles, maple sap buckets and other oddities. Around the bases of the trees were a number of eggo waffles. 

Here's a short video I took walking around. All in all it was a really cool installation. Not sure I'd have stood in line knowing how long it would finally take, but it was a lot of fun once we were there. I'll upload some photos of the other exhibits we saw later this week.

Nuit Blanche 2017: Red Forest from Jessica Strider on Vimeo.