Month: October 2022

Book: Olga Gromyko “Karma”

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I feel like by the ninth book in the “As*troheds” series by Olga Gromyko, I’m starting to repeat myself in my reviews. Yes, Karma is the ninth installment of the series that Olga Gromyko began with Andrei Ulanov 11 years ago. Though Ulanov co-wrote only the first novel with Olga, the rest of the series has been written by her alone.

In short, the series takes place in the not-too-distant future, where humanity has ventured into space, colonized numerous planets, established diplomatic and trade relations with other races, and — importantly for the series — started producing cyborgs by growing living bodies and implanting them with electronics and cybernetic enhancements.

Essentially, the entire series revolves around the theme of sentient cyborgs — their plight running like a white thread through the otherwise reckless and humorous adventures of the book’s characters.

The earlier books told the story of the crew of the starship The Space Brain-Eater, although at times separate stories and novellas featured different protagonists. Eventually, Olga stepped away from the original crew and focused more on parallel events. The result, in my opinion, was mixed. The Cyborg and His Forester was interesting, but I liked it less than the others. The follow-up, See You on Cassandra!, was much more enjoyable, largely thanks to the colorful avshur character, Sarah.

Where the previous book was a sort of ensemble piece, bringing together heroes from various novels, novellas, and stories, the new novel titled Karma sees Olga Gromyko once again focusing on a small group. The main character is the cyborg Kai, who was “adopted” by a former soldier nicknamed Shooter — a story told in one of the cycle’s short stories. Kai has grown up (by cyborg standards) and no longer sees himself as a child. He’s left Cassandra and works as a mercenary. However, he does this with a measure of contempt for regular humans, who still see cyborgs as soulless machines, despite the ongoing movement for cyborg rights. Slowly, though, Kai begins to change his attitude toward the team that hired him — especially as his childhood friend (and secret love) joins the mission. Especially since her father’s life is at stake.

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Cyprus: Is Learning to Drive Hard? (with Help from Cypriot Smurf)

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I often see the same question: is it hard to learn how to drive in Cyprus, since the steering wheel is on the other side? I actually wrote about driving in Cyprus a few years ago — Cyprus: Driving. But in that post, I went straight into the details.

If you already have driving experience anywhere else, you can just start driving without any help. There are limits on how long you can drive with a national license (varies by country). And if you’re just exchanging your license — it’s just a matter of going and replacing it. But to get a license “from scratch,” you need to take lessons with an instructor. Or if you want to improve your practical driving skills — that can also be helpful.

I took a few lessons with an instructor, since Belarusians can’t simply exchange their licenses. For us, the process is as if we have no license at all (even if you’ve been driving for 20 years). The most useful thing I got out of those lessons was: just relax, and everything will be fine. Also, the experience of driving with a Cypriot instructor explains a lot about the island — the local driving style and even the mentality.

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Book: Jean-Christian Petitfils “d’Artagnan”

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Ah, who doesn’t know d’Artagnan?! Every boy should know him from childhood! I also saw my first Three Musketeers film when I was just a little kid — it was some foreign, black-and-white, almost silent movie. And shortly after that, they showed the Musketeers on TV again — I happily sat down to watch, and then — bam! — disappointment, it was a completely different movie. But one that I came to love for many, many years. It was D’Artagnan and the Three Musketeers by Georgi Yungvald-Khilkevich. And even though it probably strayed further from Dumas’ original novel than any other version, its swashbuckling adventures and brilliant songs did their job.

I dreamed of being the Gascon, I wanted to be like him. And in third grade, I confessed this to a classmate who sat next to me at the same desk — and she decided to mock me and loudly revealed my secret to the entire class!

A bit later, when I was around 13, one of my classmates asked if I had listened to Kino (movie). Of course, he meant the band Kino, but I took it as a joke, even laughed — but when I got home, I turned that joke into reality. I bought a reel of magnetic audio tape at a store, and the next time my favorite three-part film was on, I recorded it using a reel-to-reel tape recorder. That way I could enjoy the songs I loved, and even the movie itself (I knew it by heart, so the sound alone was enough for me) anytime I wanted. That was a huge leap forward in those days.

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Book: Ilya Ilf, Yevgeny Petrov “The Golden Calf”

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Earlier, I wrote that I had decided to reread the duology about Ostap Bender, which I had previously read only as a teenager. After finishing the “most complete” version of The Twelve Chairs, I picked up a similar edition of the second novel, The Golden Calf. This one is also presented as “The complete version of the novel without omissions or cuts.”

According to legend, the authors hadn’t planned to write a second novel—the first was self-contained, and Ostap Bender dies at the end. The authors even claimed they flipped a coin to decide whether he would live or die. But after the wild success of the first book, it would have been odd if they hadn’t gone ahead with a sequel. Although there is an opinion that the continuation had been planned much earlier, and the rest is just a neat and officially supported legend.

In the first novel, there were two main characters—Kisa Vorobyaninov and Ostap Bender himself. But it was clear who was playing the first violin, who was the thinker and driving force in the duo. Without Ostap, Kisa likely wouldn’t have recovered a single chair. That’s why the second book has no connection to the “leader of the Russian nobility” and instead puts the resurrected Ostap fully in the spotlight, now accompanied by new helpers who are significantly more useful (though still no match for him). As for his death, Ostap mentions it only in passing: someone did try to kill him, but brave Soviet medicine managed to save his life. The only reminder is a clearly visible scar from a razor cut on his neck.

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Euronet ATMs: A Relatively Honest Way to Take Money from Foreigners

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In Cyprus (as in many other European countries, by the way), you can often come across Euronet ATMs. I remember someone once told me to be wary of them, but didn’t go into much detail about why.

I hardly ever saw these ATMs in the capital, Lefkosia (Nicosia), but in tourist areas, they’re on almost every corner—brightly designed to catch your eye and offering the option to withdraw large amounts of cash. That’s appealing, since most ATMs have withdrawal limits. And when you’re abroad, cardholders usually pay an additional fee for each transaction, so it’s more cost-effective to withdraw less frequently but in larger sums.

For a long time, I didn’t really look into what made these ATMs so problematic—especially since I live far from any tourist zone and don’t have any of them nearby. But I kept hearing negative feedback, so at some point I decided to dig into the issue.

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Song: Noize MC x Yegor Letov “Everything Like the Others”

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I’m going to say something that might sound sacrilegious to some: I was never a fan of Yegor Letov or his band Grazhdanskaya Oborona (Civil Defense). Even though I’ve listened to pretty much all of their albums. Sure, I know some of the songs very well—but I never felt the urge to go back and listen again.

And then, a few months ago, I stumbled upon a music video by Noize MC. The song had the same title as one of Letov’s most famous tracks—“Vsyo kak u lyudey” (“Everything Like the Others”). And that’s no coincidence. This track was written for a Yegor Letov tribute album as a kind of homage. But Noize MC didn’t just cover the original—he wrote a completely new, original song. The only part preserved from Letov’s version is the chorus, sung by Letov himself between Noize’s verses.

And this version really hit me. Maybe because it feels so much closer to the present moment, while fully preserving the spirit of Letov’s original message.

Interestingly, the video came out in 2019—but if you look at Noize’s outfit, you’d think it was filmed during the madness of the current war. The colors of his jumpsuit are very fitting.

In short, highly recommended.