Sanna Nyqvist , Outi Oja: Kirjalliset väärennökset - Huijauksia, plagiaatteja ja luovia lainauksia

Kirja, jossa käsitellään kirjallisia väärennöksiä laajalti ja perusteellisesti. Väärennöksiä tai vahvasti sellaiseksi epäiltyjä on ollut lähes yhtä pitkään kuin kirjallisuutta. Väärennöksien motiivit ovat vaihdelleet, samoin se, ovatko ne väärennökset välttämättä aina olleet vahingollisia edes sille, jonka teoksia on väärennetty – jos sitten väärentäminen on kohdistunut johonkin kirjailijaan. Väärennös on voinut olla kokonaan keksitty, vaikka kansalliseepoksen luomiseksi, kuten Skotlannissa, jossa kansanrunouden “kerääjä” kirjoitti “keräämiensä” runojen pohjalta eeposmaisen sankaritarinan. Paha vain, että mitään alkuperäismateriaalia ei koskaan osoitettu olevan olemassa. Toisaalta Oscar Wilden sai jonkinasteisen kunnianpalautuksen ja ainakin säilyi tunnettuna nimenä palautuksen, kun hänen kiellettyjä kirjojaan julkaistiin kopiona ja hänen nimissään tehtailtiin tiskin alta myytäviä väärennyksiä. 

Entä onko kirja, joka koostuu pelkästään lainauksista, väärennös? Ja kuinka paljon postmoderni kirja voi pohjautua lainauksiin ja aikaisempien kirjailijoiden tuotannon uudelleensovittamiseen? Kuinka paljon tieteellistä tekstiä saa lainata kaunokirjalliseen teokseen ilmoittamatta lähteitä?  Ja mitä ihmettä Sariola aikanaan teki - hän kopioi toisten tekstiä, väärensi tekstejä puolisonsa tekemäksi, hänen tekstejään kopiotiin ja vielä hänen kuolemansa jälkeen hänen leskellään oli todella kummallinen järjestely toisen kirjailijan kanssa - josta sitten tuli jopa tuomioistuimen rangaistus - joka kirjojen kopiointi/väärennys asioissa ole ollenkaan tavanomaista. 

Varsin kiinnostava ja mukaansatempaava kirja kaikesta siitä, mitä kirjallisuudessa voidaan tehdä väärin – jos sitten nämä tekemiset aina niin väärin edes ovat. 

319 pp

Solvej Balle: Tilavuuden laskemisesta 2 (Om udregning af rumfang #2)

 

Seuraava osa sarjassa, joka kertoo marraskuun 18.päivään juuttuneesta naisesta Tarasta. Tara on jättänyt kotinsa ja kotipaikkakuntansa. Hän matkustaa pitkin Eurooppaa etsien eri vuodenaikoja luodakseen itselleen vaikutelman ajan ja vuoden kulumisesta. Hän pystyy löytämään talven pohjoisesta, kevään Englannista ja alkukesän Ranskasta. Lopulta hän asettuu Düsseldorfiin elämään hiljaista ja yksinäistä elämää. Hän kokee tyhjyyttä ja kokee maailman ympärillä olevan ohentumassa. Päivät sulautuvat toisiinsa, ja aina tulee uusi samanlainen marraskuun 18. päivä, jona hän seuraa ihmisten tekevän samoja asioita aina uudelleen. Hän mietti ajan ja elämisen olevuutta ja todellisuutta, Rooman valtakuntaa ja elämää siellä, kuvitteli, millaista olisi ollut elää Roomassa ja miltä tuntuisi, jos aika taas liikkuisi. Hän mietti puolisoaan, mutta oikeastaan yllättävän vähän, ilmeisesti hän torjuu tätä koskevat ajatukset. Kirja on erittäin kiinnostava kirjaksi, jossa ei oikeastaan tapahdu yhtään mitään. Tara pohtii asioita tarkasti ja miettii ajan ja elämän olemusta, kokee ahdistusta siitä, että on ulkona oikeasta elämästä, hirviönä, joka kuluttaa maailmaa.  Hieno lyhyt kirja, oikeastaan pienoisromaani, jonka jatkoihin pitää kyllä myös tutustua.

The next installment in the series about Tara, a woman trapped on November 18. Tara has left her home and hometown. She travels around Europe in search of different seasons, trying to create the impression that time and the year are passing. She manages to find winter in the north, spring in England, and early summer in France. Eventually, she settles in Düsseldorf, living a quiet and lonely life.

She experiences a sense of emptiness and feels that the world around her is gradually becoming thinner and more insubstantial. The days merge into one another, and there is always another identical November 18, when she watches people doing the same things over and over again. She reflects on the nature and reality of time and existence, on the Roman Empire and what life was like there. She imagines what it would have been like to live in Rome, and what it would feel like if time were to start moving again.

She thinks about her husband, but surprisingly little, apparently because she is suppressing thoughts about him. The book is extremely interesting for a story in which, essentially, nothing happens at all. Tara reflects deeply on things and considers the nature of time and life. She feels the anxiety of being outside real life, like a monster consuming the world around her.

A wonderful little book—really more of a novella—and I will definitely have to read the subsequent installments as well.

175 pp. 

Marianne Cedervall: Saapuu luokse syntisen (Samuel #1)

 Itselle uuden sarjan ensimmäinen osa. Samuel on kaupunkilaispappi, joka on ottanut lyhyen työpestin pieneltä pohjoisruotsalaiselta paikkakunnalta. Saavuttuaan ensimmäistä kertaa paikkakunnan kirkolle, hän löytää lumisateiselta hautausmaalta hautamuistomerkkiin sidotun kuolleen miehen. Mies on paikkakunnalla hyvin tunnettu liikemies, joka on laajentanut hotelliaan ja hankkinut itselleen vihamiehiä liiketoimillaan. Hän on myös vaihtanut puolisoa nuorempaan ja hänen vaimonsa ei tästä luonnollisesti varsin ilahtunut ole. Testamenttiaan mies ei ollut ennättänyt muuttaa ja ex-vaimo onkin ensimmäisenä epäiltyjen listalla ja jopa tunnustaa murhan. Tunnustusta poliisi ei usko, sillä nainen ei oikein osaa kertoa, miten murha on tapahtunut. Rikosta tutkii viehättävä naispoliisi Maja-Sofia, johon Samuel kokee välittömästi yhteyttä, vaikka hänellä onkin kotipaikkakunnallaan tuore kihlattu. Samuel ajautuu itsekin tutkimaan rikosta, ja osasyynä on niin kovin viehättävä poliisi. Poliisilla on tosin omat ongelmansa, kliseinen päällikkö, joka ei hänen tutkimuslinjojaan oikein hyväksy. Vähitellen rikos tietysti ratkeaa kärsivällisellä tutkimustyöllä, jossa pappi osallistuu  aika lailla sallittuja rajoja venyttävässä määrin.  

Mukava dekkari, joka oli selvästi parempi kuin edellinen kuuntelemamme ruotsalaisdekkari, Taimitarhamurhien ensimmäinen osa. Kirja oli sujuvampi, paremmin tahditettu ja henkilöt olivat kiinnostavia, vaikka papin moraalinen taju ei nyt kaikkein korkeammalla tasolla kyllä ollut,sillä kovin, kovin helposti kihlattu unohtui uudella paikkakunnalla. Poliisipäällikön käytös on äärimmäisen dekkarikliseistä: miksi IHAN jokaisessa dekkarissa on poliisipomo, joka ei ole tutkimuksien tasalla, on vallasta juopunut ja pistää kirjan päähenkilön, joka asiassa on tietenkin parhaiten ajan tasalla, ulos aktiivityöstä. Ei taida montaa dekkaria olla, jossa tätä juonen käännettä ei olisi. Tämä juonenkäänne on aika laiskaa dramatiikan luomista.  Myös se, missä määrin Maja-Sofia otti täysin ulkopuolisen henkilön poliisityöhön mukaan, ei ollut oikein uskottavaa, olipa se vain romanssin (joka oli vähän enemmän kuin arveluttava sinällään) rakentamisen kannalta tärkeää. Kokonaisuutena kirja oli kuitenkin hyvä ja mukaansatempaavakin. 

396 pp. 

My Hugo award votes 2026, Part 3: Novellas

 The novella series was pretty good this year, not perhaps as good as it has been in the best years. The top three stories were easy to decide; they were all very good. The rest weren’t exactly bad, but weren’t on the same level - mostly due to plot points, not the writing. Fantasy was once again more popular with four nominees against two science fiction ones. 

Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite (Tordotcom)

The story happens in a generation spaceship, where people are periodically “rebirthed” into new cloned bodies. Their memories and personalities are stored separately and are loaded into a new body when needed. A woman who works as some sort of police inspector has been taking some time off from living. She wakes up in a new body, which, to her surprise, isn’t her own. There has apparently been a murder, and some of the personality recordings have been destroyed, leading to the true death of a person. The recording of the detective was also destroyed, but there was a backup which was automatically uploaded to the closest available body if the original was damaged. So, she must find out who the murderer was and who destroyed the recordings. It soon starts to look like the culprit was the person whose body she is wearing… but why? Ok detective story, which was a bit too long with too much ”sightseeing” of the habitat. There were some strange practices which were not explained: for example, why delay getting a new body if you have dementia until the memory recording has decayed? 

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz (Tordotcom)

There has been a civil war between California and the rest of the US. One of the dividing things has been robot rights, as California recognizes sentient robots as individuals with rights. Some rights - of course, nowhere as many rights as humans. Mostly they have the right to work under human supervision at menial tasks, but that is more than in the rest of the US. A group of robots has worked in a restaurant. The restaurant closes suddenly, as the company that owned has gone under. No one has told the robots what to do. They decide to establish a new restaurant, this time a good one. But robots cannot officially own things, and they can work only for humans. Well, obstacles have been created to be overcome. They start a noodle restaurant with hand-drawn authentic noodles with savory assortments and manage to produce excellent food - even when they are review-bombed for being robots. Light story which mostly fizzled out at the end. They manage to establish a restaurant. And then what? I wasn’t a great fan of this story; I felt a bit detached from the characters, and the events weren’t really engaging, 

Cinder House by Freya Marske (Tordotcom; Tor UK)

Fairy tale retellings have been popular for a few years now. Now it was Cinderella's turn. Ella is abused by her stepmother and stepsister. Her time is largely filled with chores. And she isn't even alive; she and her father were killed by the stepmother. She haunts the house and is practically a part of the house. If it is untidy, she must put everything in order. And if the house is harmed, she feels intense pain - which her stepsisters used to control and torment her. She can’t leave the house, and no one but her family can see her. She can move things only inside the house. As she finds a way to leave the house, her life opens up a lot. She can listen to lectures at university; she can go see ballets and observe other watchers. She pays attention to a man who seems to love dancing and immerses himself completely in the shows.   She even gets a friend - she writes to the neighboring country where the best authority of the ghosts lives. Their correspondence turns into a long-distance friendship. Then the prince announces a three-night-long ball, where he will choose his new wife. Ella is determined to go at any cost and finds a way with some magically loaded wooden shoes covered with pieces of a broken mirror. Her sisters are also going and are planning to snare the prince. As Ella arrives at the ball as a real young woman, she meets the prince, who happens to be the lonely man from the ballet. They talk, and he has two secrets: one - the ball is just a formality - his new bride has already been selected and is a princess from a neighboring country. And the prince is cursed: if anyone sees him dancing, they will hopelessly fall in love with him. That had caused at least two suicides already. At the ball, he is wearing leg braces which prevent him from dancing “really” and he isn’t causing an epidemy of crazy love. And his bride-to-be is someone Ella knows…

An excellent, moving, exciting, and well-written story with a fresh take on the Cinderella story. 

What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher (Nightfire; Titan UK)

The story continues the series, where a retired soldier with “her” (the pronoun situation in “her” language is overtly complex; there is a pronoun for a female who has abandoned her gender and started a military career). This time they travel to the US, where their friend has bought an abandoned coal mine. The friend’s cousin has disappeared after he saw strange red lights inside the mine and followed them deeper. They examine the mine and eventually see strange lights; at the same time, someone seems to visit the camp while they are away. Is something living inside the mine? Is it some malevolent being? What are its aims? How can it move almost undetected? A pretty good, exciting, and even scary story, which derives inspiration from the classic story At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft. There is also a fairly similar being in some books by Brian Sanderson. 

The Summer War by Naomi Novik (Del Rey US; Del Rey UK)

Celia is a daughter of a nobleman who practically singlehandedly saved the kingdom from the periodic attacks by summerpeople, elf-like creatures with a tendency to party and celebrate and wage ruthless war against people living in the north - when it occurs to them. They are fighting to avenge a princess of the summer people who was married to a northern king, who killed herself.  Celia has a big brother, Argent, whom she loves; he is handsome, kind, smart, and brave. She has another brother who everyone ignores. The big brother has a disagreement with their father (He isn’t interested in marrying any princess, as his tastes went another direction) and leaves the castle forever. Celia is hurt and accidentally (this was the first time she actually had magical power) curses his brother to a loveless life. She soon realizes what she did but can’t take the curse back and can’t even contact her brother. She connects with her other brother, who turns out to be a nice person, even if he has some confidence problems after being ignored by everyone. As Celia grows, she is supposed to marry the prince, but it turns out to be a diversion; she actually is shipped to Summerland to marry their prince and to be the target of summerpeople’s resentment. A very good story written very well, as all Novik’s stories I have read. 

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar (Tordotcom; Arcadia UK)

Two sisters live by a river which is filled with magic “grammar”. (I think it was a bad choice of a word - I was trying to think what the magic had to do with language, especially as “nomine” was another word used in connection with the magic. The sisters sing beautiful songs and people upstream (?) enjoy them. One of those magical people falls in love with one of the sisters, and they decide to get together. However, a local businessman had wanted to marry the sister and throws her into the river, and she drowns. However, because the river is magical, she doesn’t entirely die; instead, she is rescued in the magic lands by her fiancé. She can’t return to human lands as a person, however, but she can return as a harp. And as a harp, she can sing and is able to tell who killed her. A fairly good fairy-tale-style story. The magic was pretty vague and seemed able to do whatever the plot needed it to do. There were many similarities to Naomi Novik’s story: a magic land where carefree but very strange, practically immortal beings live. And romance between humans and those humanoid elf-like beings. The language was good but perhaps bordering on pretentious. Not among my top choices. 

My voting order:

1. Cinder House by Freya Marske (Tordotcom; Tor UK): 1

2. What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher (Nightfire; Titan UK): 2

3, The Summer War by Naomi Novik (Del Rey US; Del Rey UK): 3

4. The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar (Tordotcom; Arcadia UK): 4

5. Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite (Tordotcom): 5

6. Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz (Tordotcom): 6

Adrian Tchaikovsky: Shroud

Humanity has achieved a dream of Musk and Bezos. It has expanded to outer space and is extremely commercial and geared for expansion; humans are used for utilitarian goals, and if your work isn’t needed just now, you are put in storage. Other systems are exploited as raw materials with little regard for any biosystems there might be, except as a source for possible advances in medicine and chemistry. 

An expedition happens to a solar system where they find a large planet with a very high level of EM activity. The planet's atmosphere is very thick and hydrogen-based.  The gravity is high, and the atmosphere is thick, and no light gets to the surface. It turns out that there is a lot of life that communicates with electronic signals. There should be a lot of raw materials around and perhaps some new chemistry to be utilized! A small group is tasked to evaluate if there would be any useful scientific knowledge to be gained. The plan is to land and build one, but after an accident, three people are stranded on the planet in two landers. They find that there is a lot of life. Another lander is taken apart by local animals or inhabitants, causing a big explosion when oxygen reacts with hydrogen. Another escapes with locals in close pursuit. Is there any chance for survival - perhaps if they can get to the other side of the planet where the surveying equipment is situated? But they must get there through an inhospitable planet filled with strange life, with possibly hostile beings following. 

Most of the book talks about that travel and the increasing exhaustion and despair of the two survivors. They start to think their followers are sentient, but can’t be sure - perhaps they are encountering instinctive behavior, as sometimes the actions are strange. At the same time, their follower has pretty much the same thoughts: could anything that behaves so strangely be intelligent? 

While escaping, the humans happen to show how flying happens, and Shroudians learn that pretty much instantly. Later, when they are rescued and the utilization of the planet truly starts, the Shroudians learn fiber optics and how they reduce EM interference, and there is practically a technological (and mental) singularity. And humans must learn how to really communicate with a new, truly intelligent and powerful being fast, or else. 

The book was interesting, but perhaps my least favorite by this author so far. The middle part with the trip on the planet was far too long and not really engaging; it was mostly a description of strange things and sights, and the actual plot moved slowly. The writing was ok, but the characterization didn’t really shine; the people didn’t really feel different or real. As a whole, the book was a slight disappointment, even if it presented a really interesting life form – but the most interesting part of the story would start at the endpoint of this book. 

436 pp.