Author Archives: Alexandra

An early Christmas gift

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Christmas came early this year when I the other day got a package in the mail. Earlier this week, Massolit Publisher had a contest on Instagram where you could win the whole Stjärnklart series signed by the author if you knew the name of the third book in the series. The contest was over before I even saw the post, bummer. But I tried contacting them anyway, the contact person was the one I had been in contact with when writing my reviews. She replied very quickly that they were already on their way to me, sent from the auhor himself. So cool!

stjarnklart

They are now an important part of my bookshelf! Thank you, Lars Wilderäng!

Adventure time in the middle of the night

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Ugh, sleep deprivation is truly the worst. School is killing me! Yesterday morning I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, but by the evening it was hard to see anymore. We were finalizing our Revit project last night. So I was in school in the morning, work in Kungsbacka in the afternoon and then back to school. I didn’t think we would stay too long, but we ended up staying until 00:30. Crazy!

I took the 6 tram home because nothing else relevant was running at that time. I noticed too late that it didn’t take its usual way so I ended up somehwere I wasn’t sure where. There was one tram left going back to downtown. But I wasn’t sure if it went that way or not. But at that time, my internet completely died. I couldn’t double check. I called mom and she said she would pick me up in downtown so I wouldn’t have to wait there for 30 min for the tram back home. I would not feel safe standing there all alone in the dark… My mom is the best! Getting out of bed at 1 in the morning to drive me home. She is the best!

I had to get up shortly after 6, after 4 hours of sleep and sit through 3h of presentations at work and then back to school for meetings with everyone I am working with right now. Crazy day! I feel awful, I feel physically ill. But I can’t go to bed just yet. I have to prepare for the two presentations I have tomorrow, both in the morning in different parts of town. Yay!

That will be the end of this year, though. But two individual assignments are due the second week of January based on these two courses, but that is it, when it comes to courses at Chalmers. Then it is only my master thesis left. Shit, am I ready for this?

 

Break time is over, back to studying and preparing for tomorrow. Here are some of the rendered pictures that took forever last night. Enjoy!

3d-view-2-alexandras-strak-ljusare 3d-view-7 3d-view-marias-kvarter idas 3d-view-overview

gatunamn Here are also the names we gave the streets and neighborhoods. Mine is Mjölkdisken (~Dairy Counter) with the skyscraper Gräddhyllan (~Cream Shelf) (which I now realized after looking at Wikipedia, means a neighborhood with fancy houses) as the eye magnet to the whole neighborhood. The other neighborhood we designed (we only designed 4 out of the 14) are Filbunken (~Bowl of fil – I think fil is a Swedish thing), Glassbägaren (~Ice Cream Bowl) and Ostkällarn (~Cheese Basement). Vällingby (~Formula Village) is the name of the pre-school in the area. The roads are named:
A-Filen (a type of Swedish fil)
Strössegränd (~Sprinkle Alley)
Lattestigen (~Latte Trail)
Cheddarbacken (~Cheddar Slope)
Mejeriallén (~Dairy Avenue) which is the main, walking only street.

I guess you can see a theme here? The old dairy factory of Arla used to be there, or is actually today, but it will be torn down to make housing. For those of you who are located in Gothenburg, or know the city, this is the area on the other side of Ica Maxi in Mölndal. This is right next to Smörgatan in Kallebäck.

It has been a fun project, and I am very satisfied with the result. And especially considering I have never even opened Revit before this class started. It would have been much more fun without the stress though. Too little time, too much to do. Tomorrow we are presenting it on a special screen (I think it was about 12 square meters big!) and with the help of VR glasses. I think I will make a short video walking around in the neighborhood and post it on my instagram (AlexBemm) if you want to see the 3D-environment. Maybe tomorrow, if I figure out how to make videos directly from what is happening on the screen.

Review of “Stjärndamm” by Lars Wilderäng

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stjarnklart-03-stjarndamm-lars-wilderangTitle: Stjärnfall (~ “Stardust”)
Author: Lars Wilderäng
Series: Stjärnklart #3
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia, Post Apocalyptic, Horror
Pages: 296
Published: 2016, Massolit
My Grade: 5 out of 5 shiny vampires

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION (translated to English by me)

The civilization which was slowly  but steadily rebuilt, 10 years after the Shutdown, has been completely shredded. No bullets in the world can protect them against the enemy which was close to exterminate them all. And who proved way worse than the most horrific nightmare.

Some of the few survivors have once again gathered at Carlsten’s fortress, trapped like rats surrounded by threathingly black eyes. There has to be a way to stop this threat, even if it is the last thing they will do. The question is how will they get out of captivity, and if there are more survivors out there?

MY REVIEW

As always when I finish a series I feel sad. Especially when it is such a great series as this one. I am satisfied with the ending, it was extremely unexpected. Or maybe I have been too stressed while reading this, about school stuff that I just read it without thinking about what could possibly happen next? In either case, I found this last book in the amazing trilogy very unexpected (it was hard to guess what would come next in the first two as well). Lars Wilderäng really makes you sit on the edge of whatever you are sitting on and he totally makes it impossible to put down the book unless you fall asleep with it in your hand (yes, that has happened almost every night).

The finale was shorter than the other two and it was noticeble, but it was still full of action as the second, until the very very end.

I don’t want to spoil it for anyone and since I am new at writing reviews, I haven’t really learned how to write reviews further along the road of a book series. But, I loved this book, I loved the series, I loved all the excitment, and most of all; I loved the realism of the story. Like I said in my previous reviews, this feels feasible, this is how the world could end one day and I wouldn’t be surprised.

I want to thank Lars Wilderäng for this experience I got, reading the Stjärnklart series for the past three weeks. I hope I will be able to enjoy other books after this, haha! I also hope that Wilderäng wants to continue writing in this universe, I see great potential for more books! (I also can’t wait for the TV show!) Anyway, easy five out of five! Everyone should read these three books! I MEAN IT! READ! IT!

Spontaneous book purchase

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img_20161208_191832It was not my intention to go to Science Fiction bokhandeln (Sci-fi bookstore), but I tagged a long when my boyfriend wanted to go there. I ended up buying Siri Pettersen’s book Odinsbarn, the first in the trilogy called Ravneringene. It was originally written in Norwegian in 2013 and has a pretty high rating on Goodreads. I have also heard a lot of good words from people and reviews, so I am really excited to read it soon.

 

Other than that, my life is a mess right now. The end of the quarter is coming up and I really feel like I am done with school now. I have been enrolled at Chalmers since 2010. I am ready to move on. It just feels rotten that I don’t enjoy the end of my last two classes ever because both of them are group projects. One is going fine and we are on schedule. The other one though, the really fun one is not going so well. We have to send it in on Wednesday and we are not close to done. I am done with my part, so next step is to put our four different files together and create the space between the houses, and make the presentation for Thursday. We don’t really have time and I feel stressed. The project is to create a neighborhood in Revit, a 3D CAD program. It is really fun and I have learned a lot. But it is sad that my experience in this class falls on other people. It is also sad that I had limited time so I couldn’t do everything the way I wanted. Much of this took so long, and I would have loved to make it better. I might continue to make it better after it is done.

1This is what my part for the project looks like. This is not a rendered picture so the materials aren’t really visible. Maybe I will do one of those tomorrow and post it. The  ground was almost black today for some reason, maybe it was some setting on that specific computer, I don’t know.

I haven’t posted any pictures of my cats lately, so here’s two cute ones!

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And I finish this post with a picture from work last weekend. Liseberg might not be as fun as it was before, but it sure is pretty!

Review of “Stjärnfall” by Lars Wilderäng

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stjarnklart-02-stjarnfall-lars-wilderangTitle: Stjärnfall (~ “Shooting Star”)
Author: Lars Wilderäng
Series: Stjärnklart #2
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia, Post Apocalyptic, Horror
Pages: 395
Published: 2015, Massolit
My Grade: 5 out of 5 gas masks

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION (translated to English by me)

Ten years have passed since the doom of modern civilization, when all electronics were wiped out by a high technological attack. Slowly, life has started to stabilize, but is the danger really over? The Shutdown, as the period when all electricity disappeared is called, was probably only the beginning. Now, humanity faces an even bigger threat.

Jocke, the military man is finally back in Sweden after a long assignment in the Middle East and is hoping for a calm life. The farmer Filip Stenvik is under the protection of Västra Götaland Federation but is worried about new attacks. Maximiliam is a grown man and is doing his best to break free from his childhood home and to create his own path. At Carlsten’s Fortress, Bohuslän’s governor Gustaf Silverbane, is collecting his forces, while the head of research Anna Ljungberg is trying to analyze the opponent they don’t know anything about. But what if the enemy is already among them? Maybe closer than anyone could imagine…

MY REVIEW

If I had several emotions while reading Stjärnklart, I pretty much only had one while reading the sequel Stjärnfall: hopelessness. I thought that the first one was dark and depressing, but this one was worse. It was impossible to see how it could end in a good way. I am not gonna say if it did or not.

The first 150 pages or so were very similar to the first book. Some chapters described what happened during the Shutdown, some chapters described what happened during the first few years, and then, the last two thirds of the book was only what happened 10 years after the Shutdown. And it was filled to the top with action. Horrible thing after horrible thing happened and I couldn’t put down the book. Last night I had about 100 pages left, it was late, but I couldn’t stop reading so I finished it at 3am and am surprised that I managed to fall asleep right after. Honestly, I had a nightmare two nights ago.

Like I said, the first part of the book was very similar to the first one, it was realistic and scary because it felt like this could happen to us any day. The second part was very different from the first, because now, the science fiction of it all surfaced. It was still very realisticly written and even though I don’t have too much science fiction novels to compare it to, it felt like a different type of sci-fi book. A realistic type of sci-fi and nothing at all like Star Wars for example. I am not going to spoil anything so I will leave it at that, but it is really scary.

Despite the feeling of hopelessness being my companion throughout this book, I still loved it and recommend everyone to read it now (or patiently wait for the English translation)! Start with the first one, Stjärnklart, obviously. No question about it, 5 out of 5!!

Review of “Stjärnklart” by Lars Wilderäng

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stjarnklart-01-stjarnklart-lars-wilderangTitle: Stjärnklart (~ “Starlit”)
Author: Lars Wilderäng
Series: Stjärnklart #1
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia, Post Apocalyptic
Pages: 403
Published: 2014, Massolit
My Grade: 5 out of 5 dust particles

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION (translated to English by me)

Electronics does not have an immune system…

Johan works in a store chain for mobile phone reparations. Something is not right with more and more broken phones which have been turned in lately. They are stone dead, but filled with dust which quickly spreads and irritate airways. In the idyllic suburbs south of Gothenburg, Magnus Svensson is fighting to get his life puzzle together. When the car out of nowhere stops working, he gets stranded together with many others. The car companies are powerless, and he puts his fate to public transit. But where is the train? Food stores are empited of food and no new deliveries are in sight. Filip Stenvik has survivalism and prepping as hobbies on the side of his job as a barista on Söder, but is he really prepared to let his hobbies become a reality? The Policeman Peter Ragnhell sees an opportunity to expand his unconventional methods of crime fighting. At Karlsborg’s airport, elite soldier Gustaf Silverbane stands ready for a tour abroad when a firelight fills the sky and everything suddenly falls apart. At the same time, the programmer Anna Ljungberg makes a discovery, which threathens to change the conditions for all human life on earth. Or is it already too late?

After yet another power failure, everything changes. The dark fall enters a starlit winter where chaos rules and few survives.

 

MY REVIEW

In the past 8 days that it took for me to read this book, I have had a flood of different emotions. Most if it was anger towards the ugly human-without-tech behavior. There were some happy moments as well, relief here and there, but also fear. Is this what would happen if all electronics in today’s society would fall apart? Would humans really turn against each other in a matter of days to ensure their own survival? It is scary to think about how badly prepared I am in case of an emergency. It has made me think about my situation and how I could be better prepared if anything happened. Especially since there are posters here and there every now and then in Gothenburg asking if I could survive 72h without anyone or anything else than what I have at home. I would most likely be one of those 80% who died in the first few months of this book.

The first thing that I really liked about it was that it mostly took place here in Gothenburg, my hometown. I rarely read any Swedish books and they all take place in imaginary places. But now, as I was on the commute train to work in Kungsbacka, the guy in the book was also on the commute train to Kungsbacka! With the names of street and landmarks here in Gothenburg it was super easy to see how all this took place right in front of me. They were shooting and killing each other at Liseberg, on Gustaf Adolf’s square right in downtown a market slash massacre took place. I think that was a huge contributor to why I liked this book so much. It felt so real to me, and especially since it was so realistically written. It felt like a feasible scenario and I can imagine that this is how it would all go down.

It was a scary book, but what scared me the most were the people. After reading the first chapter about Peter the policeman (all the chapters were from different people’s point of view and most characters were recurring), I was so angry! He is the biggest douchebag ever. There are rarely any authors who make me hate a character as much as I hate that guy. So, I guess, I want to give credits to Lars Wilderäng for creating such livid characters.

As a teacher in the subject “teknik” (=technology) at a high school I think I am going to suggest to a teacher in Swedish, that for next school year make a collaboration with the two courses. The students should read this book, do all the linguistic parts about writing analyses of books and whatever. But also use that knowledge when working with technological development in the technology class. There is one very big part of the final grade, and that is to understand the interaction between society, humans and technology. That could be an interesting assignment.

Anyway, this book gets a star clear 5 rating and I will start on the second “Stjärnfall” right now. Some bad news for my English-speaking readers. This book is not yet translated. I really wish it would be, so not only Swedish-speaking people can enjoy it. But until then, keep your eyes and ears out, hopefully it will happen soon.

Review of “Resan till Ljuset” (Towards the Light) by Andrey Dyakov

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metro-universum-01-resan-till-ljuset-andrey-dyakovTitle: Resan till Ljuset
Author: Andrey Dyakov
Translator (Swedish): Ola Wallin
Series: Metro Universe #1
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia, Post Apocalyptic
Pages: 313
Published: 2010, Coltso (translated 2012)
My Grade: 4 out of 5 cannibals

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION (translated to English by me)

SANKT PETERSBURG YEAR 2033.
The Earth is desolated and the few survivors have searched for refuge in the Metro’s deep tunnels. Isolated from the rest of the world, humans are struggling and make rare exhibitions to the ground to hunt for food, fuel, and ammunition. One day, some mysterious light signals are observed from the marine base Kronstadt, located on an island outside of the city. A group of stalkers get the mission to investigate the reason behind it. Are there more survivors, and perhaps some untouched storages in the marine base’s gigantic bunker system? Or can it be the sign that the sect of Exodus priests is preaching about?

The world on the surface is an unknown wilderness and the party gets ready to face the faceless dangers that can lurk anywhere in the city’s ruins where barely any human have set its foot in over 20 years.

 

MY REVIEW

I am so glad that Dmitry Glukhovsky opened up his world of Metro 2033 so other amazing authors could write their story. Like Andrey Dyakov and his novel “Towards the Light” which takes place in St. Petersburg. But unlike Metro 2033, this one takes place above ground when a party of stalkers are going out on a mission to find out why the lighthouse all of a sudden is lighting up the city.  It does not quite meet Metro 2033 at a 5, but it was still really good and totally worth reading. It was darker and more eventful than Metro 2033. Gross things happened every now and then (especially in the end) which made me frown and it truly kept me on edge with excitement throughout the whole book.

It doesn’t really meet a 5 and that is only because I didn’t feel as satisfied at the end of it, which I do after books like Wool (by Hugh Howey), or Metro 2033 for that matter. Resan till Ljuset was incredible, but not as amazing and I didn’t finished it with any special emotions. I don’t really know how to explain why I “only” give it a 4, because it was really good. So I definitely think you should read it, but I wasn’t speechless at the end. It was a satisfying ending and kinda predictable. And since I know there is a second one, I wasn’t really expecting such an ending as in Metro 2033. I am glad there is a sequel, because I am not done with the surface of St. Petersburg in 2033.

Anyway, with this rather poor explanation for my grade, I strongly suggest you to read it. It is like Metro, but on the surface. It is really cool! Read it!

Book review copies

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The main reason why I am writing book reviews now, are because of my friend Elin (tickmicks bokblog) whom I know from Liseberg. She is as crazy as I am about books. Okay, she is probably more crazy honestly. But she inspired me and made me realize that I could contribute to the world about the experience and enjoyment I get from reading books. Now in hindsight, I wish I did this a long time ago. I have had this blog for almost four years now and I have read tons of books since then. They were a big part of my life in California and on my travels and have made me associate make books with great memories.

Anyway, Elin and I talk every now and then about books and she keeps telling me that she gets recex, which is short for recensionsexemplar, which I guess translates to review copy (=revco?). It basically means that you get books for free to write reviews on them. I decided to try this out for myself since I am actually writing reviews now. So I contacted a publisher a few days ago, and today I got it emails with links to download .epubs of the whole “Stjärnklart”-series. Unfortunately for you who don’t speak/understand Swedish: the books are in Swedish and there are no translations yet, that I know of. But if you like the review (which will be up in about a couple of weeks I guess, or sooner depending on how awesome it is) and think that the books sounds interesting, I am sure they will be translated soon enough, they are a huge success in the postapocalyptic dystopia category here in Sweden right now.

I am at the point in my blogging that I can ask publishers for review copies, but I am still waiting for authors to contact me. But on the other hand, this way I can ask for books that I really want to read, so it’s not too bad. I think I will go and lie on the couch now and start reading Stjärnklart (or should I continue with Resan till Ljuset?).

stjarnklart-01-stjarnklart-lars-wilderangstjarnklart-02-stjarnfall-lars-wilderangstjarnklart-03-stjarndamm-lars-wilderang

 

Review of “Metro 2034” by Dmitry Glukhovsky

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metro-02-metro-2034-dmitry-glukhovskyTitle: Metro 2034
Author: Dmitry Glukhovsky
Translator (English): Andrew Bromfield
Series: Metro #2
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia, Post Apocalyptic
Pages: 320
Published: 2009, Gollancz (translated 2014)
My Grade: 2.5 out of 5 flutes

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

It’s the year 2034. After a devastating war much of the world lies in ruins. Moscow is a ghost town. A few survivors retreated into the depths of the underground network to build a new civilization. They found only darkness…

At the Sevastopol station, cut off from the Metro, a man appears. Colonel Hunter. He fights a lonely war against the dark, journeying deep into the monster haunted depths of the tunnels. At his side is Homer, an old man who knows the legends of the Metro like no other and will write its history. When the two meet the 17-year-old Sasha, Homer believes he has found the found the perfect pair for his epic poem. But will they live to write the tale?

These are the voyages of Hunter.

 

MY REVIEW

I kind of want to say: finally! It took forever to read this book and I am honestly disappointed. Metro 2033 was soooo good, and this one fell flat in comparison. The first two thirds were weird. There were strange descriptions that didn’t really lead anywhere, a strange language that was gone in the last third. The story didn’t really move forward in that first section either. I just wanted it to end. I was excited to read about the mysterious Hunter, and sure he went through some stuff, but he is a totally different person in a bad way. He is not intriguing nor mysterious anymore. And I don’t feel like this is the voyages of Hunter, this is a book about Homer and his stupid imaginations that he will become like the old real Homeros. That old man is annoying and has a strange point of view in life. He is however a man with an interesting past, and I enjoyed reading about what happened to him before life in the Metro began.

Then there is the side story about Sasha, the exiled girl who finally gets to see the Metro. I don’t really know what I think of her. In some passages I found her very annoying, sometimes pretty cool.

The last third of the book was good though and it was gone in two days. Stuff happened and it was written in a whole other way which made it easier to read. Even if the ending was good, I still don’t feel like I can give it a 3. A 2 is too litte, but I did feel like some time was wasted while reading it. So a 2.5 feels reasonable.

I think this is a book I will reread one day, but the Swedish translation. I have heard that the Swedish ones are better than the English when it comes to this series (and maybe Russian books in general?).

Review of “Metro 2033” by Dmitry Glukhovsky

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metro-01-metro-2033-dmitry-glukhovskyTitle: Metro 2033
Author: Dmitry Glukhovsky
Translator (English): Natasha Randall
Series: Metro #1
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia, Post Apocalyptic
Pages: 458
Published: 2007 (translated 2009), Gollancz
My Grade: 5 out of 5 rats

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

The civilization most northern outpost, a lonely metro station, attacked by mysterious creatures that somehow have awoken in the recent war. The world lies in ruins, the surface is contaminated, and a prey to the sun’s deadly rays. One last human remnant have sought protection in the Metro, the world’s largest nuclear bomb secure bunker, where stations have been transformed into small city states with their own ideologies and governments.

Everywhere there is a constant struggle for living space, water filters, electric heaters and fungal cultures, all while darkness and terror reigns in the tunnels.

A young man is forced out on a dangerous journey through the subterranean maze of tunnels, shafts and sidings, where nobody knows what to expect around the next corner.

 

MY REVIEW

Last night when I finished this, I was both speechless and couldn’t stop saying what the fudge at the same time. Even just a few chapters in I knew I would give this a five out of five, but after reading the last four pages, I want to give it more.

I don’t really have anything to compare to (since I don’t speak Russian), but I am satisfied with the translation. As always when reading a new book, by a new author, of a different style, it takes some pages to get used to the language. And something I really really liked about this book was that the conversations between people felt so real. Usually the author gives the ability to ‘always say the right and smart thing at the right time’ to all of his or her characters. It is sometimes too perfect. But these dialogues felt real. The descriptions of the environment also were incredible. It was so easy to picture myself in the metro of Moscow, living under the horrible circumstances that Artyom and all his travel companions did.

I don’t really know what to write to make you understand the greatness of this book. It was easily one of the best ones I have ever read! And the ending just made it perfect. I am not sure I am happy with it and it was indeed a very very surprising ending. But it fit so well with the rest of this kind of miserable story.

If you haven’t read it yet, but are into post-apocalyptic stories, you have truly missed something! If you haven’t read it and don’t really like dystopian stories, read it anyway. I kinda got the feeling that Metro 2033 is this time’s 1984. I undoubtedly give it the highest grade, and I even want to give it one more rat for being so sickly awesome!!