Hey ho, virtual companions

[delphipsmith]

Well hello there, LJ, long time no see!

I have been AWOL for quite some time lately. Partly this is because Fearless Leader of my dept is leaving has left and we are all busy sorting out who does what until we get a new Fearless Leader, partly it's because the semester has started up again so I suddenly now have lots of editing clients beating a path to my door, partly it's because the deadlines for minerva_fest and luciusbigbang are LOOMING HUGE on the horizon, and partly it's because I got my grubby little hands on the third in Lev Grossman's Magicians trilogy (squeee!) and I decided that I wanted to re-read the first two before getting into the third one so I wouldn't miss anything. So I've been submerged in The Magicians and The Magician King for the last four days (and WOW I'd forgotten how good they are!) and as of yesterday am deep into The Magician's Land. Yay!

While my dad was here a couple of weeks ago, we saw Lucy, with Scarlett Johansson and a VERY sexy French guy. Has anyone else seen it? All three of us thought it was just tremendous (probably because it's not a Hollywood movie, therefore has some originality to it). I only wish that it had been based on a book so that I could have had a deeper/longer version of it. An intriguing exploration of what a superintelligent being might be like and what they might choose to do. It has some similarities with Ted Chiang's novella Understand but the main character makes a very different set of choices.

On the fandom side of things, I've signed up for the always-fun low-stress mini_fest (yay!), but does anyone know what's happened to hp_holidaygen? It appears that reveals were never posted last year, and the comm has basically been silent since last December. I hope it has not been abandoned.

Finally, I am VERY happy to say that we have 46 participants for the inaugural sshg_giftfest!! We have not only attracted some experienced "old salts" to the ship but some new sailors as well, and I look forward to the wonderful stories, arts and crafts that will result :)

Comments

[toblass.livejournal.com]

I think this is a huge hint that I need to read that trilogy. I was just having a conversation with my neighbor last week and Harry Potter came up and she suggested I read The Magicians. That good, eh?
And I'm excited about Giftfest and am nervously chewing through my nails as I wait for my assignment.

[delphipsmith]

Somebody else -- maybe teddyradiator? -- said the same thing the other day. I think the books must be getting extra mentions because the third one just came out. But yes, do read it! Some people have criticized it as a Harry Potter knockoff, or said that it reads like fanfic. As to the first, although the first part of The Magicians is set at a school for magic, I didn't find it remotely a knockoff (though there are some nice little nods to HP, and to any number of other classic fantasy novels). As to the second, how is that a criticism lol?!

I think Grossman is a terrific writer and he clearly just had so damn much fun writing these. He was interviewed last week in the New York Times and talked about how he didn't really find his true writing voice until he started writing fantasy; I think it shows :)

[kellychambliss.livejournal.com]

Welcome back! So glad to see you're still in the fanfic harness; so many of my favorite writers have pretty much stopped writing now.

I hope things get straightened out at work.

[delphipsmith]

Oh yes, I'm still in there scribbling away :) As to work: we have an Interim Leader, who though not Fearless is grimly Determined, and I think Determined Leader will capably hold the fort until we have a new Fearless Leader. I just hope whoever we get will be as good as the last one. I shall truly miss working with him; our personalities and work styles meshed nicely and there was mutual respect, which is always pleasant, and he was genuinely Fearless which meant we got to do a lot of neat things during his tenure :)

[iulia_linnea.livejournal.com]

Here's Olympia LePoint's review of Lucy, which is worth reading to get oneself up to speed on where the science fell down. In spite of the inaccuracies, I found the movie entertaining. :)

[delphipsmith]

Thanks for the link. I knew the 10%-of-your-brain thing was wrong, but it's interesting to see where it originated. She kind of lost me with the God stuff, but the science part was fascinating :)

[ennyousai.livejournal.com]

I finished Magician's Land in about 24 hours. Loved it. :). Am eager to hear your thoughts.

Are *you* going to be the fearless new head?

[delphipsmith]

Ha! No -- and really, there isn't money enough on the planet to make me want that job. It's all meetings and agendas and schmoozing, with no time to do the lovely hands-on work with old letters and diaries and photographs and notebooks etc. It's all paper-pushing -- but the entirely wrong kind of paper-pushing for me :)

I'm having trouble putting ML down; I can see why you ripped through it in a day. Flying carpets, whales -- and Asmodeus, woo-hoo!!! They're just to the part now with Rupert's journal (how much do I love epistolary novels? Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much) and I very much fear that I will be up well past my bedtime...

[anemonen.livejournal.com]

I've never heard about that trilogy, sounds great! I
Might have to check it out :)

[delphipsmith]

Do! It's really, really good.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

Lucy is one of those films i do want to see. Hopefully soon. No, not heard of this book trilogy although it does sound intriguing.

[delphipsmith]

It was quite a good movie -- mostly because it was NOT your typical Hollywood action thing (those are sooo boring). If you see it, let me know what you thought of it.

[haruhi-fan.livejournal.com]

I need to see Lucy on my growing to do movie list as I rarely go see movies or even rent them anymore. And I enjoy Luc Besson movies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_(2014_film) Not sure which French actor you meant and I tend to follow some French cinema too being bilingual. Have fun with the fandom stuff and take care with your workload then!