Of misty mornings and dark tales

It's the end of October, but in some ways it really doesn't feel like it. For one thing, the weather's been ridiculously mild. It hasn't really gone below zero even once. The grass is pretty much perfectly green, while the pepper plant is under the impression summer's still very much on and keeps producing more peppers!

None of which is bad per se, just odd. And I suppose another reminder of the way the whole climate situation is these days.

We did have a bit of a break, a long weekend in England. Where the weather wasn't all that different, although there were more leaves still on trees and the colours were a little behind compared to Norway. Oddly, I somehow had an entire trip without taking a single photo :/. Not, like, intentionally or anything, just happened that way.

The rest of the month feels like a bit of a blur to be honest. Maybe some of it is the shortening daylight hours. And while the hour change did help with the morning for a few days, the early onset of evening isn't fun. Luckily, we're off for a bit of summer for a week! A family holiday in South Africa! It's strange to think that my last trip to that country was almost fourteen years ago! A different life :).

I decided to try and keep up with my posting of Malazan progress as each book ends, and it so happens that I've just finished reading the first three Bauchelain and Korbal Borach novellas. Yes, my current plan is to read the multiple series together following this. So those novellas seemed to fit in best before Memories if Ice.

One obvious difference compared to the first time around is that the stories make a lot more sense read within the wider context of the longer novels! Which is nice, because I remember feeling rather confused a lot of the time reading them stand-alone. Partly because I am getting a lot more of the seemingly throwaway or random references. In that sense they are not so different from the main novels really.

Out of Blood Follows, The Lees of Laughter's End and The Wurms of Blearmouth, I think the first is my favourite. I do like a good detective story. But all three stories use their environments brilliantly, set as they are in a city, on a ship at sea and in a bleak seaside village respectively.

It is indeed credit to Erikson that he pulls of such a different style of writing. But I have to say I prefer the less slapstick heavy work. Some of the humour felt somewhat crass. I found myself paying a bit less attention to some of the rough and tumble action which is potentially why some of the stuff, particularly on the Suncurl, felt a bit confusing. But it was a nice interlude before I dive back into MoI.