Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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The condition of media tie-in

“This novel is one you will live like a 3D movie. […] I loved it, it’s like the most vivid videogame!”

This is from a real review of a real novel.
And yes, together with the author’s admission he had “researched” the book by playing Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed, it sort of caused me a certain depression.

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The depression comes from the realization that the market (and many readers with it) moved on, and I was left behind.

I love doing research for my stories, and I have already bored you enough with this.
I need to get my facts straight – or as straight as possible before I bend them.
And I do not want to write stories that feel like 3D movies (wobbly, out of focus and causing headaches?). I want my stories so that they are vivid, but not like videogames.
I’m old. Continue reading →


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Where’s the Remake: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

I swear I was ready to do it.
I took the Sky Captain anfd the World of Tomorrow DVD from the shelf, and I slipped the disc in my PC – and the frigging thing won’t run.
Not on VLC, not on Movie Player.
Now this is a true disappointment, because I wanted to watch it again, and then try and pinpoint what doesn’t work. Because admittedly this movie looks like a million dollars, it has a great cast, and it thoroughly bored me quite a bit1.

The fact is that it should not bore me.
There’s action and adventure, super-science, evil robots out of an old Fleischer Superman cartoon… the opening scenes with the airship docking on top of the Empire State Building are breath-taking.
There’s a stellar cast, too!
So what’s the problem? Continue reading →


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Knocked out by the Mummy

My friend Silvia reminded me this morning of this movie:

This is the last film I remember that put me to sleep halfway through.
And I know it sounds crazy.
C’mon, it’s a high-octane action-adventure flick, it features Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh, it uses Chinese history and folklore, there is a snowbound monastery with yetis in it… Continue reading →


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Getting away from it all – sort of

So today it transpired I needed a LONG vacation.
I will not bother you with the details – let’s just say that periodically my unbound love for humanity sort of becomes less-unbound-than-usual.

And because I can’t afford a vacation right now – nor will I be able to afford it in the foreseeable future – the only way to do it is to drop everything and pick up a good book.
Two, actually.
One paper-bound and another in digital format.
Something different and good and diverting.
I always keep a good stock of “in case of need break the glass” books – and when depression and sadness reach the limit, that’s exactly what I do, and that’s where I go. Continue reading →


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Gmail is the devil

OK, sorry guys, I’m going to rant a little here.
Fact is, I’m beginning to seriously hate Gmail.
First, there was the matter of the digital magazine subscription – every month for one year the publisher sent me a copy of the download link in a mail, and every damn month the mail was filed as spam, and there was no way to teach the frigging filter that the thing was emphatically not spam.
Throughout 2013, I got my copies of Apex Magazine a few weeks later than everyone else – literally picking my copies in the dustbin.
And one supposedly does a digital subscription to save on delivery time…

brokengmail

Then there is the issue of the guy with my same name, and a very similar email address – and I get a copy of everything that is sent to him because Gmail decided we are the same person, and his email is a backup account of mine.
And by everything, I mean everything – including special offers on diapers, off-color exchanges between him and his football teammates, and work email.
I contacted the guy the day I received a payment receipt with all of his personal data on display. He reacted by insulting me, and by sending along with his abusive reply an attachment with a virus.
Weird chap…

Then, less than one month ago, Gmail again decided a message to me was spam – and thus I lost a great job opportunity. This was extremely embarrassing, and a big financial loss for me – but apparently there’s nothing that can be done.

Today once again I subscribed to a digital magazine.
And again I had to go and pick the payment receipt and the assorted welcome mails from the trash basket.

I know, I know – I could simply check the spam folder every evening just to be on the safe side. But if I am to go through pages and pages of spam every day to see if Gmail just decided to kill an important, legit message… what’s the use of a spam filter?

Or we could go back to the old local practice: I just called to tell you I sent you an email.

This is ridiculous.