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Angela Korra'ti

Trilingual Harry Potter Reread

Announcing my next Trilingual Reread: Harry Potter!

Now that I’ve FINALLY finished off the Trilingual Hobbit Reread, I’m going to do another one–and this time I’ll be doing Harry Potter! This has been inspired in no small part by the Harry Potter reread they’ve been doing on Tor.com, and how I never did actually get around to reading book 7. But before I read book 7, I need to reread 1-6. (Oh DARN whatever shall I do.)

Thanks to the ease with which I can get multiple language editions of the stories off of Pottermore, I have the English, French, and German editions of Book 1 of the series all in ebook form now. (I think it’s pretty neat, actually, that Pottermore sells ebook copies of the series in so many languages–they’ve got several others besides French and German, and I gotta say I’d be tempted by the Japanese if I had the first clue about how to read the characters!)

(However, important note of interest–Pottermore did NOT let me buy the UK English editions of the ebooks, even though it did let me get the French and German. The site has some sort of geoIP checking in place that saw I was in the US, and one presumes that Rowling’s publishers have territory agreements in place to dictate where the English editions are sold. Which is weird given that the ebooks aren’t being sold with DRM on them, but territory restrictions are NOT the same thing as DRM. So.)

And in the interests of seeing if I can whip through the posts faster, I’m going to change the format of them a bit. I’m going to include a general commentary section for overall reactions to the action, as I did with most of the latter Hobbit posts. But I’m going to prune down the language commentary and will keep it to a few general sections:

* The longest bit I’m able to read in both French and German, and a breakdown of what that bit means
* Five vocabulary words that leap out at me in both languages
* Anything that leaps out at me as unique to either translation, particularly in regards to character names or interesting handling of story events, and particularly if one edition handles it differently than the other

I have books 1-4 of the UK editions of the stories in print and will be using those as my English edition for purposes of this story–though I will be comparing them against the US editions to see where they differ, and because I want to see what the French and German editions key off of, too.

This’ll be fun, and I hope y’all will enjoy this as much as I will!

March 10, 2015 by
Books

And now, a Harry Potter-ish book roundup

Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen

Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen

Bought in print from Barnes and Noble:

  • Skin Game, by Jim Butcher. Already read this in ebook form, but I’m grabbing the paperback for my hardcopy for my library.
  • Pocket Apocalypse, by Seanan McGuire. The latest installment of her Incryptid series!

Bought from Pottermore:

  • Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen and Harry Potter à l’École des Sorciers–which are, of course, the German and French editions of Book 1 of the Harry Potter series! I’ll be using these to launch the Trilingual Harry Potter Reread very soon! I do rather like how you can grab the Harry Potter books in multiple languages from Pottermore, which will make it rather easier for me to conduct a multi-lingual reread of the series! They have several more languages besides French and German, too, though this’ll do me for now!

Ten for the year so far.

March 9, 2015 by
Trilingual Hobbit Reread

Tri-lingual Hobbit re-read: Chapter 18

HOLY ILUVATAR, has it really been over a year since I originally drafted this post? Apparently! This is what happens when I’m so caught up in working on my own books, and then trying to finish up all the backlogged stuff that got shunted aside while I was writing the Rebels of Adalonia trilogy, that I wasn’t able to finish these Reread posts. But now with The Battle of the Five Armies having finally having come out and indeed now hitting digital home release, it’s about time I cleared my slate of the last of the Hobbit Reread posts!

It’s weird, after the longer chapters at the beginning of The Hobbit, to see how fast the final chapters go. Chapter 17 is not very long at all–and barely after the Battle of Five Armies has begun, you get into the aftermath, where Bilbo (and the reader through him) learns what he missed. And in which, finally, Thorin stands down from being an asshole.

I’m not going to get into comparing how this chapter ties into all the bits in the movie–because I talk about that in my movie review posts! But that said, there’s a lot here over which I must go *sniff*. This is the aftermath of the Battle of Five Armies, and it’s a hard aftermath for the survivors, with Bilbo front and center among them.

In-depth notes behind the fold!

Continue Reading

March 7, 2015 by
Boosting the Signal

Boosting the Signal: Chaos Station, by Jenn Burke and Kelly Jensen

One of the reasons I signed on with Carina Press for the Rebels of Adalonia trilogy was their willingness to publish same-sex fiction. Bonus if it’s SF–like Chaos Station, the new release by author team Jenn Burke and Kelly Jensen! Even more bonus when a character named Julian is involved. As y’all know, I do like me some Julians! But Jenn and Kelly’s Julian is rather more of a clotheshound than mine. I can hear Nine-fingered Rab coveting his wardrobe now. And as for what this Julian wants, he definitely appears to be a man with acquisition on his mind.

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Chaos Station

Chaos Station

Julian pulled at his shirt cuffs until an even centimeter of fabric peeked out on either side. The satiny gold offset the blue of his suit perfectly. It was a very particular blue—like the light captured within an arc of electricity. The smart fibers embedded in the material added just enough shine. He would stand out in this suit. He would be a commanding presence.

It was a pity the only notice he might attract would be the scruffy crew of that most annoying corvette. What did they call it again? The Chaos? Who in their right mind would christen a ship with anarchy!

Breath whistled between his lips. Julian shut his mouth and adjusted his cuffs again, aware the strain across his shoulders had pulled them askew. Then he tweaked the collar of his shirt to make sure the deep vee aligned with the point of his pendant. He caressed the solid gold cocoon and it warmed beneath his touch. When he let it flop back against his abundant thatch of chest hair, the heat was pleasant against his skin.

He was no uncouth mercenary. He was a man of substance and stature. He would not be bested by a ragtag team of bounty hunters. They couldn’t even dress sensibly. Well, the one… The tall, dark and handsome one. Zander Anatolius. He obviously had taste, but he’d been keeping the wrong company. He did not belong aboard a ship like the Chaos. No, a man of his pedigree had a much greater worth. A much greater value. With those skills and that name…

A slow smile stretched his mouth. Yes. Emma might have seemed like a prize, but she had merely been his entry ticket. And now it was time to cash her in.

He checked his reflection one more time and took a moment to admire what he saw. A man had to dress for success, did he not? What lay beneath might count for something, but when it came to first impressions, surely clothes made the man.

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Buy the Book: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Nook | Kobo | iBooks | Carina Press

Follow the Authors On: Official Site

March 6, 2015 by
Publishing

Bad news about Barnes and Noble

Dammit, B&N, are you people trying to shoot yourselves in the feet? Because it sure looks like you’re hunting for bigger and bigger guns to do just that.

Spotted on Dear Author today: news that Barnes and Noble secretly partnered with Author Solutions to sell print on demand and other services to self-pub authors.

Why is this a problem? Because Author Solutions, as detailed here by David Gaughran and here on The Digital Reader, Author Solutions has a terrible reputation in the writing community. And they are in fact being sued for their practices of upselling useless marketing crap to authors who sign on with them.

What particularly pisses me off about this is Gaughran’s description of how all Nook Press users are at risk of having their data handed to Author Solutions.

I was already cranky at B&N for taking down the Download buttons off their portal on the web site for Nook users to get to their libraries. But as a Nook Press author, I am deeply disturbed by this news, enough that I will seriously be considering removing Faerie Blood and Bone Walker from Nook Press, deleting my account there, and using Smashwords to deploy to B&N in the future.

Fellow indie authors, I urge you to get up to speed on this development, and to stay far away from B&N’s Author Services, and from Author Solutions in general.

March 5, 2015 by
Victory of the Hawk

Seeking reviewers for Victory of the Hawk

And in other news: I have finally received the shipping copy of Victory of the Hawk! Which means I’m going to start needing reviewers for it. So if you’re inclined to leave me a review, on Amazon, Goodreads, and/or on your own site, please talk to me and I’ll set you up with a copy.

IMPORTANT NOTE: this is book 3 of a trilogy, and will make best sense if you’ve already read books 1 and 2. If you haven’t read the first two books and you’re up for reviewing the trilogy as a whole, I’ll get you copies of all three books.

Reviews and rankings on Amazon and Goodreads are most useful to me, but in-depth reviews on personal sites are also helpful. ANY word out there about the book will help raise its visibility. So if you can commit to doing a review, contact me. I can offer EPUBs of all three books, and I have PDFs for the first two. (Carina has not provided me a PDF for Victory.)

March 4, 2015 by