Friday:

I have just finished reading The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 2, and the first thing I can think of saying is – ****!! ****!! ****!!

Truth be told, this is the second time I finished reading it. The first time was today afternoon, when I was suffering from major pre-weekend Blues and longed for something to do other than compiling servlets and JSPs. Oh the horror! I had downloaded five of the six CBZ files, and now they are gone. A hasty mail to vrikodhara, and things started getting done in right earnest. He, smart fellow, had downloaded all of them the moment I had posted the links, or thereabouts.

I remain awed by Alan Moore’s storytelling. Though this volume does not come close to the greatness of the First compendium, it’s still – to use the cliche – awesome. Kevin O’Neill’s artwork is in a class of its own. I think of how much time it will take me to actually figure out all the Victorian characters and places and events Moore acknowledges in every panel, and – it’s humbling. My salutations, Mr Moore and Mr O’Neill.

Isn’t Victoriana fascinating? The kind of pulp fiction these people churned out in that time and age would put today’s hacks to shame. And these are books that are now regarded as classics. There is a lesson to be learned somewhere from all this, you know.

A strong recommendation to people interested in Victoriana and pulp fiction from that era and alternate storylines would be Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula trilogy. The three books in that series, Anno Dracula, The Bloody Red Baron and Judgement of Tears all deal with three timelines – the first being set in the late Victorian era, Book 2 in the First World War and Book 3 in the Cold-war afflicted 1950’s. The first book begins with an alternate setting – the premise being, what if van Helsing and his cohorts had failed to contain Count Dracula? What if the Count had gone on a rampage and infected not just Lucy and Renfield and a child or two, but the upper crust of Victorian society – including the Queen herself? it does not come as a surprise when human society becomes divided into “bloodsuckers”, the new-born Undead, and the “warm”, those who choose to disregard immortality in the favour of a normal life. With characters ranging from GB Shaw to Lord Ruthven to Professor Moriarty to Fu Manchu to Jack The Ripper ( ah, you can’t imagine the twist Jack brings into the picture. Think silver. ), Anno Dracula becomes a dazzling white-heat read of a book.

The rest of them are equally good, but like I said, Victoriana has a charm of its own.

Saturday:

Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game was terrific. A story to be proud of, and I am sure he will ruin the experience for me with the sequels. So I promise myself that I’ll skip them. Also saw That Thing You Do, and now there is this urge to go buy the soundtrack album just for the hokey songs by the Chantrellines and Diane Dane.

Went to a concert by Pt Vishwamohan Bhatt at ICFAI. The recital, though short, was quite a virtuoso performance, I tried watching his hands as they played the mohan-veena, it was just too good.

I am gushing again.

There’s a bug in the PC version of Halo:Combat Evolved. The flashlight does not light up when I press the F-key. No, I mapped the key correctly.