![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(EDIT 2) I've since read the Group Ibex translation, and I believe it is indeed better, or at least more readable, than the one I initially read, as mentioned below. It's also somewhat more consistent, terminology-wise, to Disco Elysium. (/EDIT 2)
Or Püha ja õudne lõhn in the original Estonian, written by Robert Kurvitz, of Disco Elysium fame. The book, written before the game, shares the same overall world/setting, but otherwise has little to do with the game. I.e. you won't be seeing Harry or Kim in this book, or even mentions of them. While Revachol is mentioned, the story never actually goes there, outside of one seemingly unrelated, added-after-initial-publication epilogue. Available in English via unofficial fan translation, here. If an official translation ever became available for sale, I might consider buying it, but only if the money actually goes to Kurvitz, and not to the current ZA/UM asshats. (EDIT) As it turns out, it seems that I read an earlier translation, different from the one above, which is, apparently, inferior to the one linked above? Well shit. Guess I'll need to read it again with the later translation at some point. (/EDIT)
I just finished reading it last night/this morning. I'm honestly not sure I would recommend it to anyone who hasn't played Disco Elysium, but I liked it well enough. It was interesting seeing references to places and historical figures mentioned in DE, and things like the Pale are definitely involved, but other than that, there isn't anything to connect it to DE (not that that should be the only reason to read it, but I probably never even would have heard of the book, let alone read it, without the existence of Disco Elysium).
Plot summary, without spoilers. Four young girls, the Lund children (Maj, 5, Anni-Elin, 12, Målin, 13, and Charlotte, 14), disappear pretty much into thin air, as far as anyone can tell. Twenty years later, three men named Inayat Khan, Jesper de la Guardie, and Tereesz Machejek, all of whom were around the same ages as the Lund girls when they disappeared, are still obsessed with finding out what happened to the girls. Over the years, there have been vague clues/hints/leads that keep hope alive for them, so to speak, on which they follow up. The story is told in a very back and forth way, splitting time between the present, where the three men are still searching, and the past flashbacks of their interactions with the Lund girls. Along the way, there are also shorter chapters of world-building tidbits of some obscure history or concepts that may seem unrelated at first, but which usually come into play in the following chapters, or which provide context to otherwise no-context references in earlier chapters, at least a little.
On a technical level, though... the book... uh... well... it's not the best book I've ever read. Let's go with that. It's rather obtuse, in a lot of ways. That may be a translation issue, though, I don't know. (EDIT) See above edit about different English translations floating around out there. (/EDIT) In any case, the writing of (the English version [EDIT] that I read [/EDIT] of) Sacred and Terrible Air does not hold a candle to the writing in Disco Elysium.
Also, the book was, apparently, intended as a sort of prologue to a much longer series of books, which never got written, because of how poorly this first book sold. That... well... puts the ending of the book in a different light, if nothing else. Also, if Kurvitz had wrote more books, that means Disco Elysium probably wouldn't have ever existed, and I may or may not have ever heard of the book series, as a result.
I won't say more, for spoilers, but I will say that it has made me want to play Disco Elysium again, even if the specifics of the story of Sacred and Terrible Air has little to do with the story of DE overall.
I might watch/listen to the Woolie VS "Let's Read" of the book at some point, as well, as I'd avoided doing so until now, since I hadn't read it myself yet.
Also, considering what "ZA/UM" means in the actual book (which I won't say here, because spoilers), it's kind of ironically appropriate that the company that made Disco Elysium was named ZA/UM, given what ended up happening with that. ¬_¬ (That's a new tag there, only created today, so while I think I got all of the posts I made about ZA/UM and DE there, I might've missed some. In any case, most of the ZA/UM related bullshit is there, anyway.) Seriously, current ZA/UM needs to die, with extreme prejudice, and the entire Elysium IP needs to revert back to Kurvitz, et al.
"Capital has the ability to subsume all critiques into itself. Even those who would critique capital end up reinforcing it instead."
Or Püha ja õudne lõhn in the original Estonian, written by Robert Kurvitz, of Disco Elysium fame. The book, written before the game, shares the same overall world/setting, but otherwise has little to do with the game. I.e. you won't be seeing Harry or Kim in this book, or even mentions of them. While Revachol is mentioned, the story never actually goes there, outside of one seemingly unrelated, added-after-initial-publication epilogue. Available in English via unofficial fan translation, here. If an official translation ever became available for sale, I might consider buying it, but only if the money actually goes to Kurvitz, and not to the current ZA/UM asshats. (EDIT) As it turns out, it seems that I read an earlier translation, different from the one above, which is, apparently, inferior to the one linked above? Well shit. Guess I'll need to read it again with the later translation at some point. (/EDIT)
I just finished reading it last night/this morning. I'm honestly not sure I would recommend it to anyone who hasn't played Disco Elysium, but I liked it well enough. It was interesting seeing references to places and historical figures mentioned in DE, and things like the Pale are definitely involved, but other than that, there isn't anything to connect it to DE (not that that should be the only reason to read it, but I probably never even would have heard of the book, let alone read it, without the existence of Disco Elysium).
Plot summary, without spoilers. Four young girls, the Lund children (Maj, 5, Anni-Elin, 12, Målin, 13, and Charlotte, 14), disappear pretty much into thin air, as far as anyone can tell. Twenty years later, three men named Inayat Khan, Jesper de la Guardie, and Tereesz Machejek, all of whom were around the same ages as the Lund girls when they disappeared, are still obsessed with finding out what happened to the girls. Over the years, there have been vague clues/hints/leads that keep hope alive for them, so to speak, on which they follow up. The story is told in a very back and forth way, splitting time between the present, where the three men are still searching, and the past flashbacks of their interactions with the Lund girls. Along the way, there are also shorter chapters of world-building tidbits of some obscure history or concepts that may seem unrelated at first, but which usually come into play in the following chapters, or which provide context to otherwise no-context references in earlier chapters, at least a little.
On a technical level, though... the book... uh... well... it's not the best book I've ever read. Let's go with that. It's rather obtuse, in a lot of ways. That may be a translation issue, though, I don't know. (EDIT) See above edit about different English translations floating around out there. (/EDIT) In any case, the writing of (the English version [EDIT] that I read [/EDIT] of) Sacred and Terrible Air does not hold a candle to the writing in Disco Elysium.
Also, the book was, apparently, intended as a sort of prologue to a much longer series of books, which never got written, because of how poorly this first book sold. That... well... puts the ending of the book in a different light, if nothing else. Also, if Kurvitz had wrote more books, that means Disco Elysium probably wouldn't have ever existed, and I may or may not have ever heard of the book series, as a result.
I won't say more, for spoilers, but I will say that it has made me want to play Disco Elysium again, even if the specifics of the story of Sacred and Terrible Air has little to do with the story of DE overall.
I might watch/listen to the Woolie VS "Let's Read" of the book at some point, as well, as I'd avoided doing so until now, since I hadn't read it myself yet.
Also, considering what "ZA/UM" means in the actual book (which I won't say here, because spoilers), it's kind of ironically appropriate that the company that made Disco Elysium was named ZA/UM, given what ended up happening with that. ¬_¬ (That's a new tag there, only created today, so while I think I got all of the posts I made about ZA/UM and DE there, I might've missed some. In any case, most of the ZA/UM related bullshit is there, anyway.) Seriously, current ZA/UM needs to die, with extreme prejudice, and the entire Elysium IP needs to revert back to Kurvitz, et al.
"Capital has the ability to subsume all critiques into itself. Even those who would critique capital end up reinforcing it instead."
