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challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia, Violence, Grief
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Dementia, Kidnapping, Stalking
Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, War
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I wouldn't recommend this book to someone who isn't already interested in the world of Disco Elysium. Although it does provide a lot of interesting insight into The Pale and the world outside of Revachol it is quite difficult to read at times. This is no doubt due to the fact that this is a fan translation. I wish we could get an official translation but I don't think that will come any time soon considering what is going on between ZA/UM and the original creators of Disco Elysium. Alas.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Pedophilia, Blood, Grief, Alcohol, War
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Death, Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Classism
Minor: Animal death, Child death, Genocide, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Car accident
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Is memory created by perceiving reality? Or is reality created with our perceptions and rememberances?
This is not a thriller nor a mystery, though it centers around one. Do not read it if you want concrete solutions and satisfying endings.
I have never played Disco Elysium and in fact I knew nothing about it when starting the book (and I still know barely anything). I was interested in how a person with no previous contact with the world would get on with this novel.
I read the Truri translation ( https://gofile.io/d/XR6BKy ) with the Group Ibex ( https://suricrasia.online/elysium/?dark#ftnt_ref63 ) open alongside to occassionally compare and so that I'd have access to both sets of footnotes. Apologies to my book club, but I have to say both of these are kind of bad translations. Plenty of awkward word choices for prepositions, articles, and idioms. There were also issues converting third person pronouns from neutral estonian to gendered english which contributed to an overall difficulty attributing dialogue to the correct person in some places.
I've seen people say Ibex (machine translated and then edited by humans) is superior for phrases that shouldn't be literally translated, but I encountered different examples of this in each as well as mistranslations (from what I can tell, as I don't speak estonian) in both of them.
examples (emphases mine):
Truri
This is not a thriller nor a mystery, though it centers around one. Do not read it if you want concrete solutions and satisfying endings.
I have never played Disco Elysium and in fact I knew nothing about it when starting the book (and I still know barely anything). I was interested in how a person with no previous contact with the world would get on with this novel.
I read the Truri translation ( https://gofile.io/d/XR6BKy ) with the Group Ibex ( https://suricrasia.online/elysium/?dark#ftnt_ref63 ) open alongside to occassionally compare and so that I'd have access to both sets of footnotes. Apologies to my book club, but I have to say both of these are kind of bad translations. Plenty of awkward word choices for prepositions, articles, and idioms. There were also issues converting third person pronouns from neutral estonian to gendered english which contributed to an overall difficulty attributing dialogue to the correct person in some places.
I've seen people say Ibex (machine translated and then edited by humans) is superior for phrases that shouldn't be literally translated, but I encountered different examples of this in each as well as mistranslations (from what I can tell, as I don't speak estonian) in both of them.
examples (emphases mine):
Truri
Traffic reflects from the windows of buildings and closed shops until a motorway rises above the sidewalks. The passing city flashes through the cracks of the stone edges, and a little boy waves to Machejek from the window of a passing car.
Ibex
Traffic is reflected in the windows of houses and closed shops, until the motorway rises above the footpaths. The passing city flashes through the cracks in the stone traffic barrier, and a small boy waves to Machejek from the window of a passing motor carriage.
Truri
Drops of water sparkle on the glass, the hermetic cap hisses open, and a small, vaporous stream of carbon dioxide rise from the bottle’s mouth. The apple cider foams and bubbles, the froth accumulating around the bubbles.
The girls’ mouths water, but little Maj looks confused and sips her lemonade with bits of lemon floating in it.
Ibex
Drops of water shimmer on the glass, the hermetic cap hisses open and a small vapour of carbon dioxide rises from the mouth of the bottle. The apple cider fizzes and foams from the bubbles.
The girls’ mouths are on fire; only little Maj looks confused and drinks her lemonade with pieces of lemon.
Truri
“So, is it buzzing?” he asks Jesper. “It’s buzzing for me.”
Jesper is buzzing a little, but not much.
“It’s good, the point of courage is not to get hammered. Just the edges need to be sanded down,” Tereesz pontificates.
Ibex
“Well, how is it, you buzzed?” he asks Jesper. “I’m buzzed.”
Jesper is buzzed, but not much.
“It’s good that way, the idea is to get some confidence, not to get knocked down. It’s just to take the edge off.” Tereesz tries to sound smart.
Ibex for the most part has a more "readable" flow, though I've been told the original text is quite dense so that may not be ideal. It also has occassional awkward word choices that don't seen to fit tonally (ex: "fiddy" vs "fifty"). There was one instance where "he" was used instead of "she," causing it to sound like the incorrect character was speaking. The Truri translation sometimes misses DE terminology or translates it in different ways (ex: both "car" and "motor carriage" are used), whereas Ibex had a translation guide for these terms so they are consistent both internally and with the game (according to the translation group). I also noticed a couple of formatting mistakes in the Truri version.
This is a novel that shoves you headfirst into the details of the world without any indication of if they will be important, and then later on refers back to them without fanfare. It assumes you are paying close attention. Nothing is steady. You are jumping back and forth between POVs and timelines with little indication. And yet, those are important choices rather than flaws, keeping you off-balance as the world of the characters figuratively and literally falls apart.
I think I liked it. It took me about 75% to really get invested, though, which I'm not sure whether to attribute to the writing or the translation. I would like to read it again if an official translation is ever released.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Torture
Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Gun violence, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Alcohol
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Rape, Dementia, War
state violence, mental/psychic assault
note: there are fictional racial slurs in the book but I included a cw bc there was also a real life racial slur
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Disclaimer 1: I read the fan translation by Group Ibex and, while it's clearly a labor of love, there is some jankiness to the prose that's clearly the product of machine translation. Not enough to make it hard to understand, but it did take me out of the story a couple of times. It's hard to judge the book's prose or style, because I'm unable to separate what's a product of the author and what's a product of the translation.
Disclaimer 2: I read this after playing (and loving) Disco Elysium and was already aware of some of the concepts that are central to the world, but that the book isn't concerned with explaining. I probably would have got the important bits just from reading, and it would have been fine, but I can't say if someone new to the world would get frustrated if this book was their point of entry.
That said, I enjoyed the book! It follows three men, still investigating the disappearance of their high-school crushes, decades after the case went cold. Kurvitz is not shy about following flawed people doing ugly things and he is nothing if not thematically consistent. The main characters of Sacred and Terrible Air will feel familiar to anyone that has embodied Harry Du Bois. Pathetic, fuck-up losers, stuck in the past, unable to move forward and, instead, desperate to drag everyone back with them.
Disclaimer 2: I read this after playing (and loving) Disco Elysium and was already aware of some of the concepts that are central to the world, but that the book isn't concerned with explaining. I probably would have got the important bits just from reading, and it would have been fine, but I can't say if someone new to the world would get frustrated if this book was their point of entry.
That said, I enjoyed the book! It follows three men, still investigating the disappearance of their high-school crushes, decades after the case went cold. Kurvitz is not shy about following flawed people doing ugly things and he is nothing if not thematically consistent. The main characters of Sacred and Terrible Air will feel familiar to anyone that has embodied Harry Du Bois. Pathetic, fuck-up losers, stuck in the past, unable to move forward and, instead, desperate to drag everyone back with them.
Content Warnings
Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Pedophilia, Suicide, Blood, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Classism
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Stalking, Alcohol, War, Classism
Moderate: Death, Racism, Torture, Police brutality, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Genocide, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Vomit, Dementia