Yoo's World

The Anger of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの憤慨), the eighth book in the Haruhi Suzumiya series of light novels, was an enjoyable read. It's basically two stories: the SOS dan as a literature group and a potential ghost spooking dogs.

The first story is about Haruhi fighting against the school council which is trying to shut down the literature club, and given that the SOS dan uses the literature club's room, it's also a fight for the SOS dan's survival. It's actually just an exciting conflict prepared by Koizumi to make sure that Haruhi doesn't get bored, lest the mind of Haruhi cooks up things that would be painful for the rest of the world. We also get to see an interesting look at some of the character's minds as they need to write out literature for their self-published literature magazine.

The second story is about dogs being spooked around a specific area. This is a case brought on by a classmate of Haruhi's who remembered that the SOS dan solicited cases that could potentially show the existence of the extraordinary such as ESP, aliens, time travelers, and ghosts. The rumor is that it is a ghost spooking the dogs, but the other members of the club, who really are an ESPer, an alien, and a time traveler, are dubious about the existence of ghosts ...

Now I'm off to the ninth and latest book in the series, and at this rate, I might actually finish reading the book in its original language just at the moment the tenth book is published.

Using the free time thanks to the holidays as it is New Year's day on a lunar calendar, I managed to go through Incandescence, Greg Egan's latest science fiction book. As with most of the other science fiction he has written, it is indeed hardcore science fiction with a special emphasis on the science. I just love it when a story manages to be interesting while staying within the boundaries of plausible laws of physics, and this story is no exception.