July Happiness
Jul. 28th, 2025 08:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingThis is what’s been making me happy in July:
A good book:
Patrick Süskind’s Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (originally published in 1985) is beautifully written but difficult to categorize. It’s about a man in eighteenth-century France with a superhuman sense of smell who murders a bunch of teenage girls in order to extract their essence into a perfume, but that’s really only the last 40 pages; most of the book is about the guy’s life leading to that point, which is strange enough even without the murders. Probably the best way to describe this book is that it’s kind of like Silence of the Lambs, but if Silence of the Lambs were actually good. So more like the tv show Hannibal, I guess. At the same time, it’s less of a thriller than a historical novel with subtle elements of fantasy. Whatever it is, the writing (and translation) are gorgeous.
Another good book:
I have vague memories of reading and enjoying Anne McCaffrey’s novel Dragonflight as a kid, and I was curious to see if it’s actually any good. It is!! The conceit is that human settlers of an alien planet genetically engineered Actual Literal Dragons to help combat a recurring environmental catastrophe, but the planet has passed so many years in isolation and peril that civilization has regressed back to the dark ages. This book was originally published in 1968, and it shows its age in a few minor areas relating to gender representation, but I was surprised by how well it holds up. As far as heroic fantasy novels go, Dragonflight is relatively short and snappy, and I think I might actually prefer its rough edges to the overedited gloss of contemporary fantasy.
A good anime:
Apocalypse Hotel, whose 12 episodes aired during the Spring 2025 season, helped maintain my sanity this month. This is an original story about a group of robots keeping a hotel running after the apocalypse, as well as the various (alien) guests they welcome. The opening theme song isn’t great; but otherwise, everything about this anime is remarkably well-produced. There are a few brief touches of darkness and existential dread, but it’s very relaxing overall. I haven’t seen anyone I know talk about this show, but I suspect it might be a sleeper hit. Everyone who’s watched it seems to love it, and I love it too.
A good “game”:
Psycholonials is a free-to-play visual novel about two social media influencers who go batshit insane during the pandemic. It was written and drawn almost entirely by Andrew Hussie, the guy who created Homestuck, and it’s a reflection on the toxicity of online subcultures that quickly goes off the rails into speculation about American political collapse. This is less a game than a comic you can read on Steam Deck, and it takes about four hours to finish. The dark humor of the writing probably isn’t for everyone, but this is by far the best “story about the internet” I’ve encountered.
A good graphic novel:
Darkly She Goes is a high fantasy story of a mixed-raced princess who has inherited incredible destructive powers from her mother and spends her days isolated in a lonely castle with her monster friends so that she doesn’t accidentally hurt anyone. As revenge against her father, servants of her mother hire a disgraced knight to “rescue” her, and this ends up starting a minor war. Despite its big themes, this is a short book that tells a small story about the love that develops between the princess and the knight. The art is gorgeous, grisly, and highly erotic, and it’s definitely not for a YA audience.
A good book:
Patrick Süskind’s Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (originally published in 1985) is beautifully written but difficult to categorize. It’s about a man in eighteenth-century France with a superhuman sense of smell who murders a bunch of teenage girls in order to extract their essence into a perfume, but that’s really only the last 40 pages; most of the book is about the guy’s life leading to that point, which is strange enough even without the murders. Probably the best way to describe this book is that it’s kind of like Silence of the Lambs, but if Silence of the Lambs were actually good. So more like the tv show Hannibal, I guess. At the same time, it’s less of a thriller than a historical novel with subtle elements of fantasy. Whatever it is, the writing (and translation) are gorgeous.
Another good book:
I have vague memories of reading and enjoying Anne McCaffrey’s novel Dragonflight as a kid, and I was curious to see if it’s actually any good. It is!! The conceit is that human settlers of an alien planet genetically engineered Actual Literal Dragons to help combat a recurring environmental catastrophe, but the planet has passed so many years in isolation and peril that civilization has regressed back to the dark ages. This book was originally published in 1968, and it shows its age in a few minor areas relating to gender representation, but I was surprised by how well it holds up. As far as heroic fantasy novels go, Dragonflight is relatively short and snappy, and I think I might actually prefer its rough edges to the overedited gloss of contemporary fantasy.
A good anime:
Apocalypse Hotel, whose 12 episodes aired during the Spring 2025 season, helped maintain my sanity this month. This is an original story about a group of robots keeping a hotel running after the apocalypse, as well as the various (alien) guests they welcome. The opening theme song isn’t great; but otherwise, everything about this anime is remarkably well-produced. There are a few brief touches of darkness and existential dread, but it’s very relaxing overall. I haven’t seen anyone I know talk about this show, but I suspect it might be a sleeper hit. Everyone who’s watched it seems to love it, and I love it too.
A good “game”:
Psycholonials is a free-to-play visual novel about two social media influencers who go batshit insane during the pandemic. It was written and drawn almost entirely by Andrew Hussie, the guy who created Homestuck, and it’s a reflection on the toxicity of online subcultures that quickly goes off the rails into speculation about American political collapse. This is less a game than a comic you can read on Steam Deck, and it takes about four hours to finish. The dark humor of the writing probably isn’t for everyone, but this is by far the best “story about the internet” I’ve encountered.
A good graphic novel:
Darkly She Goes is a high fantasy story of a mixed-raced princess who has inherited incredible destructive powers from her mother and spends her days isolated in a lonely castle with her monster friends so that she doesn’t accidentally hurt anyone. As revenge against her father, servants of her mother hire a disgraced knight to “rescue” her, and this ends up starting a minor war. Despite its big themes, this is a short book that tells a small story about the love that develops between the princess and the knight. The art is gorgeous, grisly, and highly erotic, and it’s definitely not for a YA audience.
no subject
Date: 2025-07-28 01:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-28 02:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-28 03:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-28 09:50 pm (UTC)I remember Dragonsong (the one about the teenage girl who adopts a bunch of baby dragons and becomes an apprentice harper) being good as well. I love how Anne McCaffrey was like, "I will write as many Mary Sues as I want, and you will love them," and she was correct.
no subject
Date: 2025-07-28 06:56 pm (UTC)There was a movie a decade or two ago? I don't remember much about it, probably it wasn't bad but they couldn't really capture what made the essence of the story as well as when you have paragraph after paragraph describing a smell, in my opinion.
no subject
Date: 2025-07-28 09:47 pm (UTC)It's also very cool to hear that you had a high school teacher who was comfortable sharing this book, by the way. Even with the climactic citywide orgy, it's definitely not as salacious as it could be, but still. It amuses me to think of the fiction purity police getting their hands on this one.
no subject
Date: 2025-07-30 04:29 pm (UTC)The bit the teacher had picked was when the protagonist lives alone in a cave for a while... I sure was in for a treat when I picked up the book and discovered all the *gestures wildly* everything leading up to that scene and afterward XD
no subject
Date: 2025-08-02 12:06 am (UTC)