Blog & White

A novel by Lois McMaster Bujold published in 1989.

After their operation on Dagoola IV, the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet is badly in need of repairs, and especially of money. The park in orbit around Earth where Miles goes to the Barrayaran embassy, hoping to get his mony from ImpSec. The consulate has not enough credits to cover such large expanses, and Miles has to wait for a courier to go and come back. In the meanwhile, Miles is affected to the staff of the embassy along with his cousin Ivan… Trouble begins when Miles is recognized as Admiral Naismith by a reporter; Miles then makes up a clone of himself to explain why Miles Vorkosigan looks so much like Naismith. Some time later, Miles' commanding officer at the embassy disapears mysteriously, while Miles wonders why his money hasn't arrived yet, and is not even mentionned in the message from ImpSec. And right after that, Miles is kidnapped and locked up with his C.O. He is interrogated by a Komarran rebel who happens to be Miles' C.O.'s father, who wants to take revenge over Count Vorkosigan, responsible for the invasion of Komarr almost thirty years ago. The rebel had had a clone of Miles made by House Bharaputra, and then trained as a mole and a killer, whose goal is to pose as Miles, kill the Count, become the new count, and from there jump the the imperial throne. Miles is freed by his fellow Dendarii just in the nick of time and manages to expose his clone (who, according to Betan philosophy, he considers as his brother and consequently names Mark, following Barrayaran tradition of naming the sons of Vor families). Miles more or less convinces Mark that the plot against Barrayar cannot work and that the real plot is about provoking a political chaos on Barrayar that could allow a revolution on Komarr, by exposing the Emperor as a fake. This would inevitably lead to the death of the Emperor i.e., Mark. In the end, the old rebel is killed by Mark, and the latter disapears with the help of Miles.

Three not-so-short stories by Lois McMaster Bujold, wrapped into one book, where Miles explains Illyan why the Dendarii have been costing ImpSec so much money lately.

In The Mountains of Mourning, Miles investigates the murder of a “mutant” baby in a small village in the backcountry of Barrayar, where infanticide for such a reason is still common. The mother accuses her husband of the crime becaus he was seen near the house where the baby was sleeping while the mother was picking berries at some distance. The murderer happens to be the mother of the mother, who had had several “mutant” babies and had killed them herself. The husband knew that she was the murderer, didn't say anything to protect his wife.

In Labyrinth, Miles conducts a covert operation on Jackson's Whole in order to help a geneticist of House Bharaputra to defect. The scientist won't leave without taking some vauable samples with him, but these are currently hidden into virus residing in the calf of a genetically engineered super soldier that he helped creating. Alas, the super-soldier has too much physiological drawbacks to be useful, and the project has been canceld; the only surviving specimen has been sold to House Ryoval for the Baron's collection of weird creatures. Miles then tries to enter Ryoval's facilities by night, but he's caught and locked up in a cellar with the super-soldier, who happens to be a female teenager, admitedly 8 feet tall and with sharp nails, but very friendly if you are friendly with her. Miles manages to escape with the creature he named Taura, just after destroying the whole collection of Ryoval's tissue samples that is the core of his business.

In The Borders of Infinity Miles is a prisoner of war of the Cetagandans. The prison camp is on Dagoola IV under an everlighted dome. The prisoners are all living together, and organised as gangs; only the stronger survive. Miles manages to organize the weaker people to control the distribution of food (which appears twice a day in a random location of the dome as a heap of space rations). Once he managed to organize all the prisoners, the Dendarii arrive and extracts all the ten thousand people within two hours, the delay needed by the Cetagandans to get their fleet to defend the place against the attacker.

© Amazon.fr

Traditionalist dwarfs are mining under Ankh-Morpork. On the surface, dwarfs and trolls prepare to re-enact the Koom Valley battle for real, in the streets of Ankh-Morpork. A dwarf is murdered in the mine, obviously by a troll. Sam Vimes thinks that the truth is not that obvious and starts to lead an investigation, which leads to the discovery of other dead dwarfs in the mine. These have been killed because they found the item that the traditionalists had been seeking (a voice recorder that tells what actually happend at Koom Valley, a thousand years ago), heard what it had to say, and the traditionalist didn't want the truth to be revealed. Vimes and others watchmen chase the traditionalists who have fled to Koom Valley and discover the cave where the troll king and the dwarf king (now fossilized as stalagmites) had met, ages ago, to discuss peace between the two species. The traditionalists are defeated and taken into custody.

Français

• hipoutam = hippopotame
• iskineu = dictionnaire
• paté moulé = pâte à modeler

Suomi

• nenä räkässä = räkää nenässä

© WSOY

Arto Paasilinnan uusin kirja kertoo Antti Kokkoluodon elämän, syntymästä Ykspihjalassa ennustettuun kuolinpäivään asti. Antilla on monia seikkailuja: lapsena hän melkein kuoli kylmään, koska hän halusi mennä kävellen Ruotsiin (hänellä oli paljon kuumetta). Myöhemmin hän salakuljetti pirtua isänsä kanssa kieltolain aikaan. Hän myös pelasti isänsä hengen, jonka fasistit halusivat ampua koska he olivat päättäneet että hän oli kommunisti. Antti meni myös salakihloihin tytön kanssa joka kuoli vähän myöhemmin. Hän pääsi sitten armeijaan, tapasi lotan, jonka kanssa hän meni naimisiin juuri ennen lähtöän talvisotaan. Hän sai pari lasta, ja meni sitten taistelemaan jatkosotaan. Venäläiset ottivat hänet vangiksi ja hän vietti kuusi kuukautta vankileirillä. Kun hän tuli takaisiin Ykspihlajaan hän aloitti liikemiehen uran, ja hänestä tuli myöhemmin poliitikko ja Ykspihlajan kansanedustaja. Kun hänen ennustettu kuolinpäivänsä lähestyy, hän järjestää isot juhlat ja kutsuu kaikki ystävänsä (poliitikkoja, ministereitä, toimittajia, jne.)

“… a hearty amber-brown color and a warm, rounded nutty taste.”

Mild and tasting a bit like nuts, maybe. Made of barley, wheat, rye and oats.

Ridgeway Brewing, Oxfordshire, England. 6% alcohol.

© Moviearts.se

Frank Wayne, the big boss of the mafia, is movig all his money to Switzerland, costing much to the State. The IMF attempts to stop him. Jim Phelps plays an investigator from the Senate who harrases Wayne and finally arrests him. Wayne is switched with Rollin Hand, disguised as Wayne. Rollin is then gettin his real face back under the cover of instant aesthetic surgery performed by Cinnamon Carter, who is actually only removing his makeup. Againts the will of the Organisation's council, Wayne/Hand orders his henchman to kill the investigator by exploding his car. Phelps escapes the attack thanks to a trapdoor in the bottom of the car, leading to a sewer opening on top of which the car was parked. Meanwhile, Hand manages to open the safe of Wayne's office in which all the Organisation's ledgers are hidden. Wayne's is then sentence to death by a full council, but Wayne/Hand manages to escape through one elevator. Barney Collier had previously fixed the elevator so that it is synchronized with the one just next to it. Hand crawls into the second elevator while both are descending, rejoining his associates, and the real Wayne (sedated until then) is put back into the first one and reanimated. When the elevator reaches the underground parking lot, Wayne wakes up just in time to be killed by his henchman. The IMF members leave the place unnoticed just as the police arrives, called earlier by Cinnamon.

“This golden amber ale has a generous aroma of tropical fruit. The fruity flavour has hints of mangoes, oranges, lemons and sultanas.”

I haven't really noticed the tropical fruits, but this ale is better than the usual production of Shepherd Neame. Its' rather flowery than fruity. Contains malted barley.

Shepherd Neame, Faversham, Kent, England. 5.5% alcohol.

“… derived from a traditional Celtic recipe. Wickedly smooth chocolate dominates the flavour…”

I wouldn't call that taste “chocolate”, but rather flowery with something of berries? Anyway, it is slightly bitter and quite good.

Harviestoun Brewery, Clackmannanshire, Scotland. 6.0% alcohol.

“… brewed to an original 1795 Thames Valley recipe, with a very special pale amber malt that is rarely used nowadays, and balanced by a modest addition of English Fuggle aroma hops.”

Very flavourful, quite mild. Very good.

Ridgeway Brewing, Oxfordshire, England. 7.5% alcohol.

© Imdb.com

James Bond's first mission as a 00 agent. A mission in Uganda fails lamely when Bond wrecks havoc in an embassy while supposed to spy on a terrorist. Asked by MI6 to take some time off, he continues his investigation which leads him to the Bahamas, and from there to the Miami's Airport, where a new prototype plane, scheduled for test flight is the target of another hired terrorist. The attacks are ordered by Le Chiffre, the banker of the world's terrorist organizations, who invests his customer's money in hasardous financial gambles. Because of Bond's intervention, he just lost all the money of an Ugandan rebel chief. In order to regain money, Le Chiffre organizes a high stakes game of poker in a casino in Montenegro. MI6 sends Bond there, since he's the best card player of the service and Le Chiffre's loss would destroy his organization, accompanied with Vesper Lynd, from the Treasury, who is assigned to keep an eye on Bond's spendings. The game is interrupted by pauses, during which Bond is almost killed by the Ugandan rebel wanting his money back from Le Chiffre and poisoned by Le Chiffre who doesn't want Bond to win the game. Bond barely escapes the latter attent to his life, and finally wins (thanks to Felix Leiter, a CIA agent who extended Bond's credits after Lynd refused). Vesper Lynd gets then kidnapped by Le Chiffre and Bond rushes to save her, but he gets caught and tortured by Le Chiffre who wants the password that would give him access to Bond's bank account that was setup for the poker game. Bond's life is saved just in time by an unknown third party. He then leaves to Venice with Vesper (with whom he desperatly fell in love). She however betrays him, withdrawing all Bond's (and Her Majesty's) money and brings it to an unknown character. Bond follows her, but is attacked by the henchmen of the unknown one. He doesn't get the money back, and fails to save Vesper's life who commited suicide rather than facing Bond. He then learned that she was trying to save the life of her fiancee, who was kidnapped by terrorists (the same ones she made a deal with that saved Bond's life when tortured by Le Chiffre). Vesper however had left Bond a note before leaving to the bank, setting him on the trail of Mr. White, the one who took the money in Venice. Bond tracks White down, gets the money back and his takes hie revenge on him.

The script is quite similar to Ian Fleming's Casino Royale novel (although terrorists, poker and Montenegro replace respectively the russian spies, baccara and the french riviera, not mentioning the abusive usage made of mobile phones, the Internet and electronic gadgets). The movie is quite different from the others by its structure (the poker game is central to the story although there is no action, except during the breaks) and the fact that Bond fells in love. Also, it is definitely a prequel to the series, but at the same time, it is clearly set in time after the previous episodes…