Go here for English version. Note, this is rewritten from scratch, not a direct translation.
27oo Averil-3oo Vee ny Boadlyn
Jerrey hoghtoo shiaghtin jeig ny Shalee Lhaih. Shoh ny lhiah mee yn çhiaghtin shoh chaie:
Citadel of Fear (Francis Stevens)
She far-ennym t'ayn - screeu Gertrude Barrows Bennett y skeeal shoh.
Cha row mee shickyr er ny va mee jerkal rish, agh cheayll mee reddyn mie mychione Stevens liorish HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast. She skeealaght whaagh t'ayn ('sy cheeal sar-oaylleeagh). Hoshiaght, t'eh jeeaghyn dy ve ny skeeal contoyrtys - ny skeeal er creau shicklaagagh, foddee - agh dy leah t'ou toiggal dy nee neughooghys t'ayn. Ta'n ard-charracteyr feddyn Balley Caillt 'syn 'aasagh raad as cultoor er lheh echey, beggan gollrish obbraghyn H. Rider Haggard ny Conan Doyle. As eshyn credjal dy nee branlaadys paays as çhingys v'ayn, ta'n skeeal goaill toshiaght ass y noa bleeantyn ny s'anmey, as eisht myr skeeal er creau neughooghyssagh.
Ta Stevens gientyn aeraght vaggyrtagh as ouryssagh. Ga dy vel feanish dy liooar da'n lhaihder dy nee neughooghys t'ayn - wahll, s'cosoylagh! - ta ourys dooghyssagh er ny karracteyryn. Ta boayl garroo ny ghaa ayn, agh son y chooid smoo dod mee credjal nagh vel O'Hara kiangley cooishyn y laa rish ashlish bleeatyn er dy henney, as eshyn gyn mian dy smooinaghtyn er y traa agglagh shen noadyr. Ta aght screeuee baghtal eck ta soilshaghey magh reddyn dy cruinn, gyn çheet dy ve yl-chast (noi, m.s., H.P. Lovecraft hene). Ta ny karracteyryn neuchramp dy liooar, as cha nel monney bishaghey ayn er-nyn-son, agh t'ee cur coontey giare as baghtal daue, as ta dooghyssyn ny karracteryn scanshoil goll er soilshaghey magh er feie yn skeeal. Er lhiam dy nee y ven 'olliaghtagh ta'n karracteyr s'annooiney; er y fa dy nee folliaght ish, cha nod Stevens cur dooin monney fys urree dy leah. Ny s'anmey, ta'n skeeal roie dy tappee as lane dy anhickyrys, as dy jinnagh Stevens brishey stiagh son karracteyrys, chaillagh shin keimyragh y skeeal.
金魚屋古書店 y.l. 2 (芳崎 せいむ)
Ny smoo skeealyn beggey bentyn rish shapp shenn vanga. Ta dagh skeeal kiangley stayd beaghee peiagh ennagh, as ny cooishyn smoo oc, rish cooid vanga mie er enney. Shegin dou gra nagh dod mee toiggal y clane - cha nel skeeal erbee foast er mentyn rish manga ta lhaiht ayms! - agh ghow mee soylley jeh ny skeealyn hene. Y doilleeid smoo, shen y fa nagh vel yn ellyn lane baghtal ny keayrtyn, as t'eh cur orrym cur yn enney foasley er karracteyr ennagh. Ta ny skeealyn dy mennick goaill stiagh aachooinaghtyn as y lheid, myr shen ta eash as eddyn ny karracteyryn corragh.
Fockle s'jerree
Lhaih mee 2 lioar, va 104 aym yn çhiaghtin shoh chaie, myr shen ta 102 faagit dou nish.
English version
27th April-3rd May
The end of week eighteen of the Reading Project. Here's what I've read this week:
Citadel of Fear (Francis Stevens)
A surprisingly engrossing weird adventure story. I went back and forth on this a couple of times. The early stages have two explorers encountering a classic lost city in the desert, where Aztec gods are still worshipped. When a fifteen-year time-skip intervened, my interest waned as it usually does in those circumstances. However, Stevens soon gets things going again, now in weird thriller mode. This is good stuff, keeping things weird enough to signal the reader that it's all Aztec all the time, but equally just plain weird for the characters trying to understand it.
The decision not to use amnesia per se is fairly sound, I think. O'Hara hasn't forgotten everything, but it's been fifteen long years and he has good reason to think his whole fabulous experience in the desert was simply hallucination and dreams, brought on by a terrible journey that killed his partner, which still causes him guilt. Presumably he doesn't want to think much about it either. As such, he doesn't immediately assume a connection between that time and the present peculiar events. Meanwhile, Kennedy has changed enough that it's not surprising O'Hara doesn't recognise him. I will say, though, that there are a couple of times where O'Hara is kept in the dark because other characters don't quite manage to say something that would make all clear. I disliked this device ever since Romeo and Juliet, and I felt it was a bit unsatisfactory here too.
I have no idea how accurate any of the Aztec mythology is, but once I'd got into it, I found this an enjoyable and novel story. Stevens maintains a good foreboding atmosphere, and I half-expected it to turn into a horror story. Nevertheless, the writing remains very readable. The characters are simple and see minimal development, but play their parts perfectly well.
金魚屋古書店 v. 2 (芳崎 せいむ)
Another interesting collection of stories, tied to a used manga shop in some way, and each one themed around a specific manga and its resonance. Not knowing anything about the original manga is of course an issue for me, but I found them worth reading nonetheless. Yoshizaki depicts characters well, giving an array of new characters a touch of life even in the few pages each chapter permits. My one criticism would be that artwise, it's not always easy to tell characters apart, and this has particularly been a bit confusing when older characters recur. It doesn't help that stories often include flashbacks, and so age can also vary considerably. On the whole though, good.
Afterword
I read 2 books, I had 104 last week, so 102 are left over.
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