Not that it hadn’t been blatantly obvious all along, but the way “the West” responded to Iran’s attack on Israel, even scrambling to get actively involved to protect the country that may well have the best defenses against missile and drone attacks in the world, while Ukraine is left to run out of air defenses while getting pounded, just underlined the striking and plain wrong difference in the support given to Israel and Ukraine. And the US Congress is set to rush a special law “dedicated” to Israel after putting off the aid package for Ukraine for months. And let me just discard any comments about any treaties or agreements that some might claim would require other countries to protect Israel, because there is one that should have guaranteed the security of Ukraine as well, and they even gave up their nuclear arsenal for it, but nobody cared! And Ukraine is not to blame in the least for what they’re going through, and what they’ve been going through for at least a decade, while things are quite different in case of Israel, and I’m not even just referring to the current stage of the war and its terrible toll on Palestinians. But, of course, “the West” doesn’t give a fuck about Palestinians.
Don’t get me wrong, Iran and its associated groups are a major, real and present threat and must be stopped. And, while its impact and area of interest are localized, Hamas is a terrorist organization that must also be stopped. But for Europe and NATO Russia is the worse problem, the bigger threat, by far! On top of the angry and threatening speeches, the support for armed groups, and the barrages of missiles, they started and are actively engaged in an ongoing war in Europe, a war that “the West” is currently all too willing to allow them to win, and they have already annexed territories. And this ongoing display of weakness emboldens them to become a real and present threat for EU and NATO countries directly, going past the “hybrid warfare” that they’re already engaged in and the control that they’re extending over politics and society.
To return to the actual wars started by Russia in Europe, this is hardly the first time it happens, the moment when this truly began, and which remains the one when Putin’s regime could and should have been stopped, being when Russia took what it wanted from Georgia. And let’s not forget Moldova’s situation with Transnistria either. And all of these things are happening when the countries in question are trying to get closer to “the West”, which then “rewards” them by letting them fend for themselves. The difference is that, this time, Ukraine was able to fight back, to some extent. And yes, that was in part thanks to the support that they did receive. But, even more so, it was thanks to their preparedness, determination and ingenuity, and to a president who unexpectedly proved himself to be a statesman of a level that the world probably hasn’t seen in decades. But all of that can only go so far when that support, which was completely inadequate to begin with, is drying up, and they’re left to face the world’s second military force, and a regime with a complete disregard for human life or rules of engagement. Or, in fact, for rules of any kind.
So, again, is it right to act to stop Iran and Hamas? Yes. Is it right to act to protect Israeli civilians, on their own territory? Again, yes. But it’s at least as right, and as required, to protect Ukrainians and their territory, in at least the same manner and with at least the same ferocity, if I may use the term. And the fact that it’s not happening doesn’t just display weakness before Russia, but also openly displays duplicity and hypocrisy before the rest of the world. And that’s made far, far worse by the fact that, despite occasionally expressing some “concerns”, that unwavering, “ironclad” support also extends to the Israeli military, which is now engaged in a war of conquest and which commits atrocities against Palestinians. And let’s not forget about the “civilian” Israeli settlers who have for so long committed their own atrocities against Palestinians… But it seems that even speaking out about these matters is a crime.
If I was saying that the previous post from this series might have been one of the most rushed but nevertheless one that really deserved the title, since it only contained particularly new finds, this one is at least as rushed but definitely far less deserving of the title, the only actual recent find being Shondha, which I stumbled into a month ago, when they posted Queen of the Witches, which seemed interesting enough for a first effort, so that will be my first pick. However, when they released their first album, a week ago, I noticed that the vocals sound “broken”, for lack of a better term, on most of their other songs. Still, I was able to pick a second song, Lone Dreamer, that’s somewhat better, so I could include them here. This one also has some faint male vocals, and while I’m assuming that they’re so faint because they’d definitely be bad if they’d be louder, as they are, they actually help, so maybe they could do this more often, at least until they manage to improve the female vocals.
The next band is Opera Magna, which I initially stumbled into quite some time ago. The fact that they have male vocals already makes them somewhat unusual for me, but what’s far more so is that I decided to add them to the list even though their songs were in Spanish. However, I needed material in English before actually considering including them in such a post, and last year they did release an album in English. It doesn’t include new material, the songs being the English versions of what they released five to ten years ago, in three parts, but I’ll nevertheless select my first pick, Where Once Was Beating My Dark Heart, from it. And, seeing as that can technically count as an older song, my second pick, La Muerte de un Poeta, is from their recent album, even if it’s once again in Spanish. That’s also in order to make it easier for myself, so I won’t have to go through their older releases and select something else, but I checked a couple of those old songs as well and they’re also competent efforts, and they’re all posted officially, so you can listen to them as well and see which you prefer.
As for the last band, Alhena, I wonder whether their recent release, Scarlet, which seems to be their first actual new material in several years, will be enough to reverse Metal Archives’ decision to blacklist them. Either way, I’ll make it easy for myself and go with Like a Doll as the second pick, since that’s the old song that they have a video for. I can see an evolution between the two, so if they are actually going to release more new material soon, it could be even better. But I also listened to parts of some of their older songs and I’d say that those show a fair amount of confidence as well. If you want to check, I can point you to them.
While it’s becoming increasingly obvious that the Mistborn series is where all of the Cosmere will eventually come together, this remains not only “light” Sanderson, but even “light” Mistborn, if you compare it to the original trilogy… Or even to the previous two books. Yes, these books are meant to be something of a fantasy western, presenting a world undergoing its Industrial Revolution and most likely being lighter, shallower stepping stones towards something much greater, so you shouldn’t expect anything like the level of worldbuilding and character development and portrayal, the social analysis and commentary, that deep understanding of how people and societies work, and what I’d even call the wisdom that shines through The Stormlight Archive and a few other works. However, this time I’m tempted to say that the author is making too much of a point of holding back, allowing some details about another layer of complexity to seep through but mostly indirectly, delaying what would be more notable revelations but doing far from enough to fill the remaining void… Not even with thrilling action, seeing as not much happens during the first quarter of the book, which serves mainly as a reminder of the characters’ personalities, with the exception of the chapter that’s essentially an information dump about the more complex aspects of the magic system. A thrilling action scene does follow after that first quarter, but it’s only one of two, or three if you’re feeling generous.
This doesn’t make The Bands of Mourning a bad book. I recognize that it’d still be a competent effort by other standards, especially if you come with the right expectations, and I’m being undeservedly harsh, but it’s underwhelming when it’s written by an author who’s obviously capable of so much more, in absolutely every way. The action, the character development, the worldbuilding, the detailed magic system, the commentary and analysis, every aspect is present but muted, held back, leaving something that’s mainly a slow-paced detective story that doesn’t even benefit from a relatable antagonist and may be said to culminate with a huge serving of hero’s luck.
Rating: 3/5
It has happened in the past, but for a very long time I managed to throw something on here in order to have two posts, on two separate days, each week, without needing to resort to something so pointless, and to such a waste of a personal “slot”. But I only barely managed to finish the post about planting trees today, and I also had to cook something, and I also must finish The Bands of Mourning tomorrow and write the quick review, to have the week’s second post, so I at least read one more chapter, which still leaves me with 175 pages to go. But at least I posted something, after two weeks that were particularly tiring, so I’ll leave it at this for now… And I’ll see when I’ll manage to actually write about these two weeks.
I found something about a study about the best route for a spacecraft intended to leave the heliosphere while looking for space exploration news, and this reminded me of the serious problems that have been preventing Voyager 1 from returning any usable data for quite some time, and which may well lead to the end of the mission of the most distant spacecraft that remains in operation. Of course, if that will happen, Voyager 2 is still out there, but it’ll need close to a decade to reach the same distance, by which point it’s quite likely that it’ll also be unable to return much, if any, usable data, plus that the trajectory is also different. And, while it’s still making new discoveries about the far reaches of our solar system, New Horizons can’t even be considered from this point of view, seeing as it’ll take some four decades to get as far as Voyager 1 currently is, by which point the chances of it still being in operation are pretty much zero.
But, of course, the bigger problem is that there are no replacements, not even when it comes to the exploration of the outer planets, much less when it comes to going farther. So, while the developments reported earlier this month, after a long period of silence, may offer a glimmer of hope for Voyager 1, the situation is just one more reminder of the stark difference between how far we were looking decades ago and how much we’re currently stuck at staring at our own feet and shuffling about, forgetting that we are, or should be, building the future. Which, of course, applies on every level, and is a process that probably began, at least at the highest levels, not long after the Voyagers were launched. But that’s another topic, I guess…
