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This…is wrong tool.

Finished burrowing through Gateway. As with almost everything I’ve read by Frederick Pohl, it was once again a great pleasure, with a fascinating situation, humor that’s funny, and drama that’s dramatic. For those who don’t know: the future is not so good. 25 billion people live on Earth...

Well, y’know, I’m very shy about expressing opinions about my reading. But I’ll make the effort because you asked.

I started Deadhouse Gates and am loving it. I’m also finding myself more rattled than expected by the current round of Neil Gaiman news and needing to weave in some comfort-food reading. Frederick Pohl’s Gateway at the moment, maybe some 40k fic after that. @Whizbang Dustyboots : Wow. Way to...

Okay, but how about “a” or “will”?

Those of us allergic to fish oil, among others, aren’t answering the phone. It gets really old sometimes explaining that “something that contributes to the aroma of normal Thai cooking makes me so sick I throw up and pass out” contains no hyperbole whatsoever. Then I get tired of explaining why...

Dad used to joke about the guy who traded in his 40 for two 20s. Alas, not a joke but a goal for too many.

Oh heck yes. Besides obvious cases like Steven Brust, there are so many somewhat less blatant ones. “Spot the post-breakup story” is a hardy perennial topic in various fandoms.

I’ve got that sitting here, but I need a moment when the present state and recent past of the US aren’t already horrifying me, so it may have to wait a while. I am just too damn fragile right now.

Dammit, I’ve made myself cry. Off to regroup.

Your final paragraph is on point. We do come to know people at a distance. Imperfectly, sure, but that’s true in person, too. See Ann Rule on Ted Bundy, or anyone who discovers they’re in a relationship in a domestic abuser. There are many people who share a lot of their lives in various online...

I’ve just wrapped a couple audiobooks on the Roman republic. The Storm Before The Storm, by Mike Duncan, read by him. This must be the 4th-5th time I’ve started this, but I kept getting interrupted by life stuff. Not this time! It runs from the aftermath of the Punic Wars (about which I’ll say...

Blood magic is thinking of you, too.

[David Cronenberg has entered the chat.]

It was the zeitgeist. The accumulation of close misses and leaders in whose good judgment it was sensible to be skeptical didn’t lend themselves to happy extrapolations, coupled with the reality over history and prehistory that weapons get used. We’ve been unbelievably lucky with nukes and...

That’s my expectation. Patrick Nielsen Hayden of Tor Books points out there’s a really long tradition of sf fans enjoying Napoleonics like the Hornblower series, and later the Sharpe series, and O’Brien getting the same enthusiasm. Patrick figures that it’s partly the competence porn and partly...

Flip a boat upside down and armor it….

Have you seen Metal Weave Games’ Baby Bestiaries? They’re invaluable for fun pets and companions. Just wonderful game aids.

After I read Gotham By Gaslight, I tinkered with a Legion of Super-Heroes by Gaslight founded in 1900 when three young supers save R.J. Brande from assassins as they’re arriving in New York City. I drew inspiration Donna Barr’s amazing Stinz for inspiration in handling little Ruritarian...

Sounds fascinating. Probably not something I’d want to play myself, but fruitful inspiration even so.