Game of Thrones Season 7 Recaps: Episode 2, “Stormborn”

Hi everyone and welcome to the second of the weekly episode recaps I’m doing for the new season of my favourite television series, „Game of Thrones“. These recaps contain MASSIVE SPOILERS, so please proceed with caution: DO NOT READ if you haven’t seen the episode yet and intend to do so later.

Dragonstone

Tyrion, who famously remained silent in last week’s episode, the first time to do so since he appeared on the show, has one of the first important lines, discouraging Daenerys from taking the direct approach: “Conquering Westeros would be easy for you, but you’re not here to be Queen of the Ashes.” Varys puts in a history lesson about her father and Robert Baratheon after Dany questions his loyalty: “There have been few rulers in history as cruel as the Mad King. Robert was neither mad nor cruel; he simply had no interest in being King.” He assures Daenerys that he will be the best advisor she can ever hope to have: “The one the Realm needs. Incompetence should not be rewarded with blind loyalty.” Melisandre arrives at Dragonstone, discussing the possibility that Dany might be “The Prince that was promised” from the prophecy (Missandei points out that the Valyrian word has no gender; it can easily mean both Prince or Princess). Both Melisandre and Tyrion advise the Queen to ally with Jon Snow. Dany agrees. “Send a raven north”, she says to Tyrion. “Tell Jon Snow that his Queen invites him to come to Dragonstone – and bend the knee.”

In a war council, Yara Greyjoy and Ellaria Sand try to convince Daenerys to attack Kings Landing at once with their joint fleets and the dragons. Tyrion dislikes the proposal, claiming tens of thousands of innocents would die. When Ellaria counters that “it’s called war”, he reminds her how she poisoned his innocent niece Myrcella. “She was a Lannister. There are no innocent Lannisters”, she says to Tyrion, still grief-stricken about her lover Oberyn’s death as Tyrion’s champion in the trial by combat. Dany reminds her, however, that he’s also Hand of the Queen and has to be treated with respect. She will not attack Kings Landing because she’s “not here to be Queen of the Ashes.” Instead, she decided to follow Tyrion’s plan to lay siege to the capital – without Dothraki and Unsullied (because Cersei could use that to appeal on Westerosi patriotism), but with the combined Tyrell and Martell armies; the latter will be shipped to the capital by Yara’s fleet. Meanwhile, the Unsullied will conquer the Lannisters’ ancestral seat, Casterly Rock. All three Ladies – Yara Greyjoy, Ellaria Sand and Olenna Tyrell – eventually agree to the plan.

In a private conversation afterwards, Olenna tells her that she outlived many clever men by ignoring them. “The Lords of Westeros are sheep. Are you a sheep? No, you’re a Dragon. Be a Dragon.”

Missandei and Grey Worm say goodbye to each other because he will sail off to Casterly Rock the next day. He declares his love for her by saying that she is his weakness – unlike any other Unsullied (who are subjected to brutal “therapies” to either overcome their fears or die in the process) he never was afraid of anything until he met her. In the first intimate scene of the new season, they act upon their mutual love despite the fact that Grey Worm was castrated at a young age, like all Unsullied. But the very tasteful scene shows that true love knows more than one way.

When Yara’s fleet has sailed off, she can be seen drinking and then making out with Ellaria. They don’t get anywhere before their fleet is being attacked by Uncle Euron’s. The first real battle of the new season breaks loose, and for the first time, we’re getting a taste of the crazy pirate who was promised. He slaughters sailor after sailor while laughing happily, and also kills two of the three Sand Snakes. The third one and Ellaria are captured alive by his men. We also witness live how Euron cuts someone’s tongue out, something he has allegedly done to all of his crew (who never talk, in line with that claim). When he finally captures Yara herself and holds a knife to her throat, her brother Theon snaps back into Reek mode, with the fearful look upon his face. He cannot hope to help Yara, and so he jumps over board, followed by his uncle’s maniacal and very amused laughter. The episode ends with him in the water, looking at the burning remains of the sunken fleet and Euron sailing off.

The North

Tyrion’s message arrives (and is nothing like the one Dany asked him to write). Jon, Sansa and Davos consider the options: should Jon go and meet the new Queen, or should they stay at Winterfell?

Then a raven arrives from the Citadel with a message by Samwell, telling Jon about the mountain of dragon glass under Dragonstone. This convinces him to go there for real with Davos, to mine the dragon glass and to ask Dany for assistance in the war against the White Walkers. For once, even Lady Lyanna Mormont agrees with the other Lords; they all think he shouldn’t go there because they think it’s a trap, “a Targaryen can’t be trusted”. Lyanna adds that they need the King in the North to stay in the actual North. Sansa, too, isn’t too fond of the idea, until Jon assures her that he’s going to leave Winterfell in good hands: hers. This earns another smirk from Littlefinger, who is subsequently down in the crypts with Jon. He tries to assure the King that he is not one of his “many enemies”. But when he says that he loves “Sansa as I loved her mother”, Jon confronts him, almost exactly mirroring Ned’s “You’re a funny man” moment from way back in the first season. “Touch my sister, and I’ll kill you myself”, he swears.

Kings Landing

Queen Cersei tries to win over more allies, including sworn Tyrell Bannerman Randyll Tarly. He reminds her and all the summoned Lords that Dany has three dragons, “the same as Aegon when he conquered the Seven Kingdoms”. Qyburn assures him and everyone else that they’re working on a solution. Jaime pulls him aside and tries to convince him to be the principal General in the coming war. Randyll is very reluctant because his oath to House Tyrell means something to him as it always has for his family. Jaime tries to depict Daenerys’s army as “foreign savages” and finally appeals on Randyll’s ambition: “When the war is won, the Queen will need a new Warden of the South, and I can think of no better man than Randyll Tarly.” This will be interesting, given the fact that his Liege Lady agreed to helping the other side.

In the dungeons below the Red Keep, Qyburn and Cersei look at the dragon skulls and talk about how to defeat a dragon. Qyburn uncovers a device and asks Cersei to pull a lever. Surprisingly, the spear that is released with full force easily runs through the skull of Balerion the Dread, Aegon’s largest and most dangerous dragon.

Oldtown

The Archmaester is convinced that Jorah’s greyscale is far too progressed to be stopped – and indeed we can see that it now covers half his chest. “You should have cut off your arm before the infection spread”. The next day, he says, a ship will take Jorah to the ruins of Old Valyria to live out the rest of his life with the Stone Men. During the conversation, Sam learns that his last name is Mormont.

Later in the Library, Samwell tells the Archmaester that he may have found a way to cure Jorah in the works of Archmaester Pylos. His modern-day successor is aware of the procedure but also states that it has been forbidden since because it is too dangerous: Pylos himself died of greyscale.

At night, Jorah spends what he thinks of as his last night in civilisation to write a letter to Daenerys, when Sam comes into his room with a trolley full of medical supplies. He makes the knight drink a lot of rum because the procedure will be painful. It consists of removing all of the infected tissue and then applying some ointment. It is incredibly painful, but Jorah must not scream for fear of the forbidden treatment to be discovered. It also looks quite disgusting.

The Riverlands

In a tavern, Arya meets her old friend Hot Pie who is treating her with a very tasty, well, hot pie. She compliments him because it’s much better than the ones she prepared recently (and she doesn’t go into details of their main ingredients). When she learns from him that the Boltons are dead, defeated by Jon who is now King in the North, she postpones her Queen-killing plans and decides to ride north instead. Hot Pie keeps calling her “Arry”, but also concludes: “I can’t believe I took you for a boy — you’re pretty.”

Resting in the woods and shivering by a small campfire, she notices that her horse is growing more and more restless. Soon, they are surrounded by a large pack of wolves. It looks somewhat menacing until the alpha arrives, a huge direwolf: Nymeria! They haven’t met since the season 1, when Arya had to chase her wolf off to avoid her being killed by Cersei (who then had Sansa’s direwolf Lady killed instead). When Nymeria refuses to come with her, Arya decides: “It’s not you.” She sounds somewhat sad when she says that.

Takeaways

  • The meeting of Jon and his aunt Daenerys is now well under way, but Jon left Winterfell before Bran arrived there. This means he has no idea they’re related. How will it play out?
  • The conflict of interest Randyll Tarly is heading into will be interesting: the Lannisters asked him to switch allegiance (or to support the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms) while his Liege Lady wants his armies to lay siege upon Kings Landing. He doesn’t know the latter yet, but a message will probably wait for him once he arrives back at Horn Hill. Also, in this episode we learned that there’s more to him than the racist asshole we met last season – he’s a loyal bannerman (“I’m a Tarly […] We are no plotters and schemers”) and a competent military leader, too.
  • Randyll’s son Samwell has meanwhile proven beyond all doubt that he is one of the bravest people in Westeros: he knows full well that he could be killed by greyscale (“or worse, expelled”, my inner Hermione Granger whispers) if he applies Archmaester Pylos’s cure to Jorah, but he still goes along with it. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that he will be rewarded for his bravery and not attract the disease himself.
  • Now that Jon has left Winterfell and Sansa is in charge, will Baelish plan his ultimate move on her, in terms of relationship and/or power? And if so, how will she respond? Is she finally fed up with him?
  • What will happen if Bran arrives during Jon’s absence and tells Sansa about Jon’s true parentage. He is half a Targaryen, after all, and many Northern Lords believe that this family “cannot be trusted”.
  • One of the greatest differences between books and show is finally confirmed: while all Stark children are wargs in the novels, only Bran seems to be one on the television series: Arya cannot really communicate with her former direwolf Nymeria. Or is her wolf simply as stubborn as she is and will make her own decisions?
  • When Euron sails away, someone is pierced by a spike on the ship’s bow (Ellaria? The last of the Sand Snakes?) and someone else is hanging from it. I don’t know whether anyone has properly identified them, but it might be important.
  • Has Theon switched back into Reek mode for good, or has he made the right decision, knowing that he couldn’t possibly help Yara aboard the ship? Could he plan to get help and be able to do it?
  • Will Qyburn’s device shoot a living dragon from the sky? On the one hand, it is strong enough to pierce a dragon’s skull, but on the other hand, a flying dragon is incredibly fast. It will be interesting to see the outcome of this.

Conclusion

More and more wheels are being set in motion for the upcoming wars, and we were treated to the first battle, and it looked fantastic. We also got the first taste of Uncle Euron’s alleged brutality and madness. And finally, there were two very heartwarming but bittersweet reminiscences of season 1: Jon confronting Littlefinger Ned-style, and Arya meeting Nymeria again. This episode has once again earned four out of five seven-pointed stars: all in all it was great, but some parts feel a bit rushed while others take too much time. Extra kudos for the cut from the very graphic greyscale treatment to someone cutting a meat pie in the tavern.

Posted in English, Fantasy, Game of Thrones, Review, Television | 2 Comments

Game of Thrones Season 7 Recaps: Episode 1, “Dragonstone”

Hi everyone and welcome to the first of the weekly episode recaps I’ll be doing for the new season of my favourite television series, “Game of Thrones”. These recaps contain MASSIVE SPOILERS, so please proceed with caution: DO NOT READ if you haven’t seen the episode yet and intend to do so later.

The Riverlands

The new season starts with a cold opening, and we first think it’s a flashback. Old Walder Frey, who was killed by Arya Stark in the season 6 finale, is in his Hall, giving a feast for his large family. He is also delivering a speech: “The finest Arbor Gold – proper wine for proper heroes. … Butchered a woman pregnant with a baby… But you didn’t slaughter every single one of the Starks… leave one wolf alive, and the sheep will never be safe.”

Walder toasts, everybody drinks the wine he gave them, and we see that something is wrong when they start to breathe heavily, to retch and to fall to the ground. During their last, dying breaths, Walder tears off his face, and Arya tells Frey’s latest young, shivering wife with her own voice: “When people ask you what happened here, tell them the North remembers. Tell them winter came for House Frey.”

It’s remarkable how very much in character Arya’s Walder performance is; most of the criticism could have been the real man’s, and even more so the line with which “he” refuses to have the new wife drink the wine: “I’m not wasting good wine on some dumb woman”. It all reminds me of Barty Crouch jr. posing as Mad-Eye Moody in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”: he doesn’t need to play his hatred for Draco Malfoy, he does indeed hate him with all his heart: he thinks the Malfoy family are traitors who abandoned his Lord and Master Voldemort.

Later in the episode, Arya rides through the Riverlands and hears someone sing. You may recognize the singer’s voice before you see him and even if you haven’t heard beforehand that he would make a guest appearance: Ed Sheeran plays one of a few young Lannister soldiers who sit by a campfire, roast squirrels and sing. They are a quite friendly lot; poor Lannister foot soldiers are by no means the Lannister family. They offer Arya food and drink. One of them says that his wife just had their first baby, and that he hopes it’s a girl: “Girls take care of their poppas when their poppas grow old. Boys just ride off to fight someone else’s wars.” She tells them that she’s on her way to Kings Landing, and when asked what she’s going to do there, she says: “I’m going to kill the Queen.” After a moment of surprised silence, everyone laughs, including Arya. Seems like the best place to hide something is still in plain sight.

Somewhere else in the Riverlands, the Hound and the Brotherhood camp in the house where Sandor once stole a poor family’s little purse of silver after they allowed him and Arya to eat dinner with them and to stay over night, back in Season 4. Father and daughter are dead, assumedly the father killed both of them before they would starve to death. For the first time, Sandor learns that his careless deeds can have consequences. He still wonders why the Lord of Light keeps bringing Dondarrion back when better men than him stay dead. Instead of a direct answer, Thoros of Myr invites him to look into the flames — with Sandor’s life story it is like asking an arachnophobe to take your pet spider into their hands, but the Hound is a very brave man, braver than even he himself thought, or he may be ridden with guilt over the little girl’s death. So he looks into the flames in earnest for the first time, and he discovers a surprising talent: he can see faraway places and events in the flames, just like the Red Priests, in this case Eastwatch-by-the-Sea and the army of the White Walkers. To do what little atonement he can for the poor family, he digs graves in the frozen ground and buries them. He even tries to say a formal prayer over them but can’t remember it properly, so he settles with a heartfelt: “I’m sorry you’re dead. You deserved better, both of you.”

The North

Once again, we can see the endless armies of the Night King, slowly coming closer and closer to the Wall. We find out that we’re sharing Bran’s latest vision when he snaps out of it while Meera and he have arrived at the Wall. Bran tells the new Lord Commander, “Dolorous” Edd Tollett, what the latter already knows. “You were at the Fist of the First Men”, Bran says. “You were at Hardhome. You’ve seen the Army of the Dead. You’ve seen the Night King. He’s coming for us, for all of us.”

Jon wants every Northerner to dig for dragon glass, and he wants every man, woman, boy and girl to train for the war to come. He wants the Free Folk to man the castles at the Wall. The first open conflict with Sansa arises and has Littlefinger smirk with delight — she should have taken attention in Management 101 where they should tell you in lesson 1 that you don’t criticise the CEO in a public board meeting, but pull them aside before or after it to tell them what you really think of their decisions. Unlike Sansa, Jon doesn’t want to strip the Karstarks and the Umbers of their ancestral homes. Instead, he makes clear that he does indeed punish treason with death (and has done so as Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch), and asks these houses’ surviving heirs, Lady Alys Karstark and the quite young Lord Ned Umber, to renew their families’ oaths of fealty. As usual, the most impressive performance in the meeting is delivered by young Lady Lyanna Mormont who shuts down Lord Glover over the question whether the latter should put a spear in his granddaughter’s hand, making clear that at Bear Island, all women and girls train to fight just as much as the men and boys.

Privately, Sansa later tells Jon that she still thinks he’s a great ruler, “but…” Jon remembers how Ned used to say that “everything before the word ‘but’ is horse shit”.

As usual, Littlefinger tries to whisper to Sansa, but she’s not having any of it (yet?). “No need to seize the last word, Lord Baelish – I’ll just assume it will be something clever.” Ouch, the burn.

Kings Landing

Cersei sees “enemies everywhere, we’re surrounded by traitors”. Jaime is sure that Daenerys’s forces will land at Dragonstone for a lot of reasons. Jaime says that no one would ever want to fight on the losing side. “Right now, we look like the losing side.” Cersei reminds him: “I’m the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.” But Jaime corrects her: “Three Kingdoms at best.”
Behind his back, Cersei has invited Euron Greyjoy’s armada to Kings Landing. Jaime is not convinced. “How are they different from the Freys? They both broke their promises and murdered their former friends as soon as it suited them.” He also seems distressed about the idea that his twin sister and lover could accept Euron’s hand in marriage.

Cersei reminds Euron: “You murdered your own brother.” Euron encourages her: “You should try it. It feels wonderful.” Even though she might think of Tyrion, the camera shows her other brother, and his look is even more uncomfortable than before.

Euron eventually leaves, but he promises Cersei to come back with a gift. We can only wonder which gift he wants to give her. A dragon? In the books, he possesses a dragon horn that is believed to bend a dragon to the horn blower’s will. That horn has never been mentioned on the show, so maybe he wants to give her a dead dragon’s head instead? Or a dead Lion’s (Tryion’s)?

Oldtown

We are treated with a great, accelerating suite of Sam placing books back into library shelves, emptying chamberpots (retching and nearly vomiting each time) and dishing out soup. Then he admires the restricted section of the library but can’t enter yet.

He talks to the Archmaester who is performing an autopsy, who once again refuses him entry into the restricted section, but believes his tale of White Walkers since he knows a great number of tales about them and doesn’t think that this many tales can be made up.
“In the Citadel, we live different lives for different reasons. We are this world’s memory, Samwell Tarly. Without us, men would be little better than dogs. Can’t remember any meal but the last, can’t look further forward than the next. And every time you leave the house and shut the door, they howl like you’re gone forever.”

Eventually, he takes the key to the restricted section from the sleeping librarian and unofficially lends out a few books.

In the small hours, Sam and Gilly read the books Sam has borrowed, and they learn that there is a whole mountain of dragon glass under Dragonstone. Sam sends a raven to Jon.
When he next collects empty bowls from what looks like the sickbay of the Citadel, a hand reaches out of the hatch, startling Sam. The hand is attached to an arm with greyscale getting worse and worse, and a well-known voice asks for news of “Daenerys Stormborn, the Dragon Queen”, but sadly, Sam doesn’t have any.

Dragonstone

Meanwhile, said Dragon Queen lands at Dragonstone with a boat and her inner circle of advisors. In a long sequence without dialogue, they can be seen entering the castle where Dany tears down Stannis’s banner and retakes her ancestral seat. Her only line is the last of the episode: “Shall we begin?”

Takeaways

  • Soon, Jon will have to ask Dany for cooperation because of the dragon glass. Davos’s words from the trailer seem to fit with this scenario: “If we don’t put aside our enmities and band together we will die, and then it doesn’t matter whose skeleton sits on the Iron Throne.” (There is also a hint in it that Jon will know about his true parentage by then, which makes sense because Bran has reached Castle Black and will soon continue to Winterfell.)
  • Arya hasn’t crossed Cersei off her list yet, and given her recent success in ridding the world of Freys, we can be sure that she means what she says, even though the young Lannister soldiers do not.
  • How long will Sansa remain immune to Littlefinger’s whispering? There will definitely be further disagreements with Jon, and Petyr knows how to use something like that. But Sansa has grown up to be a successful player of the game, too, so I wouldn’t cross out the possibility that, one day, she’ll be fed up with Littlefinger and get rid of him.
  • What is the gift Euron wants to bring Cersei? Will it impress her enough to say yes to marrying him? And if so, what will Jaime do? Will he fulfill the Valonqar prophecy and strangle her? For a long time, I’ve been sure that he would one day kill her and then himself — but what about Arya?

Conclusion

All in all, a great start to the new season. I’ll give it a solid 4 out of 5 seven-pointed stars. With only seven episodes in this season, you wonder whether they aren’t wasting some time. But on the other hand, Game of Thrones has always been about human interaction. You wouldn’t want a season consisting solely of battles – and looking back at the trailer, we will get quite a few of them anyway. Another small drawback is that this episode lacked true surprises, mind-boggling “what the hell” moments. The only one was in the cold opening when Walder turned out to be Arya wearing his face.

Posted in Books, English, Game of Thrones, Review, Television | 2 Comments

Blame the Left V20.0 [English]

Just as I thought: Hamburg is being used as the alleged proof for yet another “left-wing radicals are far worse than right-wing radicals!!!!1!!!11!” narrative.

While “Alt Right”, i.e. white supremacy, is sitting in the White House and other governments while the NSU murders weren’t investigated for years and tons of documents were destroyed because “agencies” were involved, while thousands of refugee shelters burned down and only by sheer luck nobody died, now the unison cry of “The enemy is standing on the left!!!!1!!!11!!!” can be heard again over a few hooligans.

Agents provocateurs and false flag operations have happened before, but of course you have to assume that they didn’t happen here until real evidence occurs, despite Gladio, despite the Celle Hole, despite the NSU complex, despite a chokingly long chain of evidence.

For the stupid who are unable to differentiate: no, it’s not cool to burn down your neighbour’s car because you’re “against capitalism”; they’re probably living just as precariously as you are anyway. It wasn’t cool in the Paris banlieues several years ago either. Besides, I refuse to acknowledge hooliganism tourists as politically left, or political at all.

G20 in Hamburg has done to the public perception of leftists and progressives just what New Year’s Eve 2015/16 in Cologne has done to the public perception of refugees and migrants. And the way politicians, police spokespersons and the media have been handling it will give AfD a few percents more in the upcoming election and, as soon as Angela Merkel eventually retires, a coalition with CDU/CSU who will drift to the right for good after that. Winter is coming.

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Blame the Left V20.0

Wie ich es mir gedacht habe: Hamburg als vermeintlicher Beleg für das neueste “Linksradikale sind aber viel schlimmer als Rechtsradikale!!!!1!!!11!”-Narrativ (vgl. http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/g20-gipfel-politiker-fordern-europaeische-extremistendatei-a-1156922.html) :/

Während “Alt-Right”, d.h. White Supremacy, im Weißen Haus und in anderen Regierungen sitzt, während die Morde der NSU jahrelang nicht aufgeklärt wurden und massenhaft Unterlagen vernichtet wurden, weil die “Dienste” mit drin hingen, während Tausende von Flüchtlingsunterkünften brannten und nur durch unglaubliches Glück niemand dabei starb, wird jetzt aufgrund einiger Radaubrüder wieder unisono “Der Feind steht links!!!!1!!!11!!!!” gebrüllt.

Agents Provocateurs und False-Flag-Operationen hat es auch schon des öfteren gegeben, wobei man bis zu einem eindeutigen Beweis natürlich davon ausgehen muss, dass dies hier nicht der Fall war, trotz Gladio, trotz Celler Loch, trotz NSU-Komplex, trotz einer erdrückend langen Kette von Beweisen.

Für Doofe, die nicht differenzieren können: Nein, es ist nicht cool, das Auto deines ebenso prekär lebenden Nachbarn anzuzünden, weil du “gegen den Kapitalismus” bist – das war es in den Pariser Banlieues auch schon nicht. Und ohnehin weigere ich mich, Krawalltouristen als politisch links, oder überhaupt als politisch, anzuerkennen.

G20 in Hamburg ist für die öffentliche Wahrnehmung Linker und Progressiver das, was die Silvesternacht 2015/16 in Köln für die öffentliche Wahrnehmung von Flüchtlingen und Migranten war. Und die Art, wie in Politik, Polizeistatements und Medien damit umgegangen wird, wird der AfD ein paar Prozentpunkte mehr und eines Tages, wenn Angela Merkel abdankt, sogar eine Koalition mit der dann endgültig deutlich nach Rechts rückenden CDU/CSU einbringen. Winter is coming.

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“Lukas” – Kurzgeschichte von Thomas Sillmann, zz. kostenlos

Der Autor Thomas Sillmann hat etwas mit mir gemeinsam: wie ich schreibt er sowohl IT-Fachbücher (in seinem Fall vornehmlich über Mobile Development) als auch Belletristik.

Bei Amazon gibt es zurzeit seine Kurzgeschichte “Lukas” als kostenlosen E-Book-Download — und es lohnt sich, diese Geschichte herunterzuladen und zu lesen. Ich zumindest habe dies heute getan und meine Begeisterung in der folgenden – auch bei Amazon veröffentlichten – 5/5-Sterne-Rezension zusammengefasst:

Lukas ist das klassische Schulhof-Mobbingopfer – jemand, der als Punching-Ball auserkoren wird, weil er “anders” ist. Und das kann ein Schläger (und letzten Endes eigentlich Loser) wie Timmy nicht zulassen, weshalb er ihn reizt und beleidigt, sooft er kann, stets flankiert von seinen beiden Minions. Als er es nun nicht mehr dabei belässt, Lukas selbst zu peinigen, sondern auch noch dessen Mutter beleidigt, ist es, als würde in Lukas ein Schalter umgelegt, der etwas Unerhörtes und Ungeahntes in ihm freisetzt.

Die Begegnung auf dem Schulhof und ihre Folgen haben mich sehr an die Szene mit Harry Potter und der widerlichen Tante Marge aus “Harry Potter und der Gefangene von Askaban” erinnert – eine sehr hohe Auszeichnung, da dieser von all den großartigen Potter-Büchern bis heute mein uneingeschränkter Lieblingsband ist.

“Lukas” ist eine sehr schnell zu lesende Kurzgeschichte, die sich lohnt und Appetit auf weitere Werke von Thomas Sillmann macht. Wie der Autor sagt, wird es noch weitere Geschichten und einen Roman geben, die in derselben fiktionalen Stadt spielen. Ich würde mich sehr freuen, Lukas dort eines Tages wieder zu treffen.

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20 Years of “Harry Potter”, And No End in Sight :)

In the beginning, I was somewhat sceptical because it seemed just too overhyped. Then, in 2000, I started to read Volume 1, more or less accidentally – and was hooked right from the start. After that, I devoured the available volumes (2 and 3) immediately, bought each and every subsequent volume on the day it came out and read them as fast as I could. I have reread them a few times since then, watched all of the movies in the theatre, and time and time again on DVD/Blu Ray Disc, and also enjoyed all of the additional works from the Potterverse (Cursed Child, Fantastic Beasts, Pottermore, etc.).

J.K. Rowling is the greatest living (word) magician who, despite being fabulously rich now, has never forgotten her humble beginnings, which makes her both generous and socially progressive.

So, from the bottom of my heart: Happy 20th Anniversary to my (and many people’s) favourite Wizard Apprentice! It looks like we can look forward to many years of more stories.

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20 Jahre “Harry Potter” – und kein Ende :)

Nach anfänglicher Skepsis, da einfach zu overhyped, habe ich im Jahr 2000 eher durch Zufall angefangen, Band 1 zu lesen, und war sofort Feuer und Flamme. Danach habe ich sofort die weiteren verfügbaren Bände (2 und 3) verschlungen, jeden jeweils neuen Band am Erscheinungstag auf Englisch gekauft und so schnell wie möglich gelesen, später mehrmals wiedergelesen, alle Filme im Kino und zigmal auf DVD/Blu Ray geguckt und auch alle “Nebenwerke” aus dem Potterverse (Cursed Child, Fantastic Beasts, Pottermore usw.) verschlungen.

J.K. Rowling ist die größte lebende (Wort-)Magierin, die trotz ihres inzwischen fabelhaften Reichtums nie ihre bescheidenen Anfänge vergessen hat und daher freigiebig und gesellschaftlich fortschrittlich eingestellt ist.

In diesem Sinne: Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Zwanzigsten an meinen (und vieler anderer Leute) Lieblings-Zauberlehrling! Wie es aussieht, können wir uns auf viele Jahre mit weiteren Geschichten freuen.

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IT-Handbuch für Fachinformatiker: 8. Auflage erscheint heute!

Der offizielle Erscheinungstag ist gekommen: das IT-Handbuch für Fachinformatiker ist ab heute in seiner 8., erweiterten und aktualisierten Auflage lieferbar (zumindest beim Verlag, während der Erscheinungstermin bei Amazon Montag, der 26.06. ist).

Auf der Verlags-Webseite zum Buch könnt ihr bereits eine sehr ausführliche Leseprobe erhalten (PDF, 8,4MB) – sie enthält Kapitel 4, “Netzwerkgrundlagen”, die erste der drei Programmiersprachen (C) aus Kapitel 8, “Grundlagen der Programmierung”, sowie Kapitel 14, “Server für Webanwendungen”, wo der neu geschriebene Abschnitt zur Virtualisierung und der ganz neue Abschnitt zu Software-Containern mit Docker enthalten sind. Auch das vollständige Inhaltsverzeichnis des Buchs ist in der Leseprobe enthalten, ebenso wie der gesamte, über 50 Seiten umfassende, dreispaltige Index.

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Wie Arte einmal ohne jede Not fast dafür sorgte, dass “Bild” fast gut wegkam

Antisemtismus ist eine der entsetzlichsten Äußerungsformen von Rassismus, die gerade durch deutsche Täter mindestens 6 Millionen industriell ermordete Menschen zur Folge hatte und dennoch in Deutschland und anderswo weiterhin ihre hässliche Fratze zeigt. Nun gibt es eine Doku über Antisemitismus in der heutigen Zeit, die Arte sich zu zeigen weigert. Offenbar ist ausgerechnet “bild.de” eingesprungen und zeigt die Doku nun auf der eigenen Website. Schade, dass es Dummköpfe in ÖR-Programmredaktionen zu geben scheint, die “Bild” nun die Genugtuung geben, als “freieres Medium” dazustehen als diese ÖR. “Bild” (dieses eklige Schmierblatt war hier bereits Thema)! Aus demselben Axel-Springer-Verlag, dessen massive Lobbyarbeit dafür gesorgt hat, dass sie die meisten Inhalte ihrer Mediatheken – die aus den Rundfunkbeiträgen der Allgemeinheit bezahlt wurden – nach 7 Tagen “depublizieren” müssen.

Aber tut mir leid; “Bild” bekommt von mir keinen Klick und erst recht keinen Link. Angeblicher Philosemitismus war bei denen schon immer bloß Masche, um nicht als das wahrgenommen zu werden, was sie sind: rechte Hetzer. Die übrigens nicht das geringste Problem haben, einen selbstverständlich stramm antisemitischen Nationalsozialisten zu feiern, wie man hier im “Bild-Blog” nachlesen kann.

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Interview im Anwendungsentwickler-Podcast

Vom Anwendungsentwickler-Podcast war hier bereits des öfteren die Rede, denn Stefan Macke hat darin im Rahmen seines Buchclubs in 14 Folgen alle Kapitel des IT-Handbuchs behandelt. Nun hat Stefan mich zur neuen Auflage des IT-Handbuch für Fachinformatiker interviewt. In der 105. Folge seines auch sonst absolut empfehlenswerten Podcasts könnt ihr euch anhören, was wir über das Buch, die IT-Ausbildung im Allgemeinen, Programmierung und viele andere Themen zu sagen hatten. Gegen Ende kommt dann auch mein Roman “Göttersommer” zur Sprache. Viel Spaß!

Sascha Kersken über sein IT-Handbuch für Fachinformatiker – Anwendungsentwickler-Podcast #105

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