Muninn
"Dick Laurant is dead."
Burnt out, over the hill autistic IT nerd and longtime SSC lurker
User ID: 3219
Muninn
"Dick Laurant is dead."
4d ago
You say UI doesn't matter, but Amazon's enshittification of the Kindle OS is a crime. My library is buried beneath ads.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS. I have a huge Kindle library that I read through, and I personally find that Fire tablets are cheap and serviceable enough to serve as my readers but even with the ability to cut out the ads the experience has steadily declined. I still love to buy books to support the "independent" authors that I like rather than subscribing to Kindle Unlimited but even so, Amazon seems to have their fingers in every piece of that pie as well, be it books from 47 North or serials from Royal Road curated into Kindle books, and the bookstore itself is utter shite to browse now that every. Single. Damn. Page. Consists of about 25% of the same four "sponsored" books at the top and bottom of each page.
Muninn
"Dick Laurant is dead."
4d ago
Thanks for the write-up! That was indeed long but I still read every word of it and found it highly enjoyable. I appreciate how immersive your travelogues are as well as your appreciation of the places you visit!
Muninn
"Dick Laurant is dead."
11d ago
It's been years since I've read Casino Royale but FWIW, ISTR coming away from it thinking that the movie was a good overall adaptation of the book.
Muninn
"Dick Laurant is dead."
11d ago
The Neon Court (Matthew Swift #3) by Kate Griffin. Fun series, I'd probably love it even more if I were a Brit and I might absolutely adore it if I were a Londoner. Or perhaps in that case, I'd think it was shite.
Muninn
"Dick Laurant is dead."
12d ago
Thanks for this, it's amazing what a boost a simple fragrance can be when it's suitable. I've been mucking about for years now trying all different sorts of things ever since my one cologne (Clinique Chemistry) went away. CK One has been the closest I've gotten but even so, it's just not the same.
Muninn
"Dick Laurant is dead."
13d ago
I finished book six last night and I just have to say: holy shitsnacks did some major stuff go down! I was sorely tempted to start right in on number 7 although I chose a different book, I'll be tempted tonight to put that choice down and go back to the Hollows anyway.
Muninn
"Dick Laurant is dead."
13d ago
I did think that Dotson had more upside potential than Zacchaeus, as much as I liked the latter, but it's hard to say that the trade paid off when looking at Dotson's stat line. Regardless, I have to agree that it's hard to care too much about Dotson's production or those future picks given that we could just feed Saquon the rock and reap the rewards for game after game. Never thought I'd get to see good old-fashioned NFC East smash mouth football win a ring in today's modern game.
Muninn
"Dick Laurant is dead."
17d ago
Interestingly, I was going to reply in the opposite. I greatly enjoyed the original with all of its exploration of Rama and the wonders therein and couldn't get past all of the characters and their various agendas in the sequel, which made it the rare DNF for me. Can you tell me more about what you liked in Rama II and if it ever really gets going?
Muninn
"Dick Laurant is dead."
18d ago
Muninn
"Dick Laurant is dead."
19d ago
I liked your piece! I'm more than a little bit of a hopeless romantic so I can't help but appreciate the echoes of Courtly Love in it. That said, I can't help but wonder if I'm misreading the last line on your notes, "imagine a world where things had no backs" Regardless of whether or not I got that right, my brain, too, has turned to mush trying to decipher those notes, but then, I never was a big English guy, even the idea of taking a course like Modern Criticism feels like the mental equivalent of the proverbial nails on a chalkboard for me.
Muninn
"Dick Laurant is dead."
24d ago
Sure! I'll start by saying that I can be easy to please with books in general, especially when I'm getting them for a couple-few bucks a pop at the Kindle store. On top of that, I have a soft spot for Urban Fantasy thanks in no small part to Shadowrun and Anne Rice novels when I was a teenager and, more recently, The Dresden Files. But yes! I like them so far and have been having fun getting to know the world and the characters, and when I saw that a whole bunch of them were on sale for a few bucks each, I got all of the cheap ones for my Kindle.
I'd say that thus far, The Hollows books are, in a general way, reminiscent of the earlier Dresden Files books to me, which is to say that they have a strong MC narrating in first person, they aren't too heavy/grimdark despite both MCs having issues with their respective authorities, they have the mystery novel aspect to them, they have good worldbuilding, and they are centered around a Midwestern city. The Hollows seems to be a little bit more lighthearted and whimsical overall, although there is plenty of double dealing, death, and hair-raising adventure to be had in each book thus far, as well as plenty of relationship drama. For me, it's the development of the various characters that I'm really enjoying and where I feel the writing shines, including the will-they-or-won't-they situations, the snags, imperfections and complicated interplay between the various characters and factions that are slowly but surely drawing our MC into deeper and more troubled waters. I particularly like how Harrison has developed and deepened the relationship between MC Rachel Morgan and her roommate and business partner, Ivy.
If you like the looks of it, I'd encourage you to pick up Dead Witch Walking and give it a try. Also, I stayed kinda general here to try and keep away from spoiling anything significant but if you want to hear more/have more specific questions, fire away!
Muninn
"Dick Laurant is dead."
25d ago
For a Few Demons More (The Hollows, book 5) by Kim Harrison.
Muninn
"Dick Laurant is dead."
1mo ago
I'm now reading Gateway (Expeditionary Force 18). 12 Miles Below: Warlock was good and interesting, can't wait for book 6 there!
Muninn
"Dick Laurant is dead."
1mo ago
I have done this on and off for a couple of decades now and for your exact reason. I have a PS2, several different DDR games, and 3 different dance pads in varying states of disrepair for this purpose, and IME doing x amount of minutes on standard/heavy step songs can indeed give me a great cardio workout. I love it! That said, for the last couple of years I've been taking advantage of the greenway trail right down the road from where I work and walking that after work when I can.
Muninn
"Dick Laurant is dead."
1mo ago
I am intrigued by your idea and wish to subscribe to your newsletter. Seriously, I did a post once on my working life and I've got another one brewing on my experiences with my community from a small HOA-like perspective, but even so, I'm interested in contributing more to The Motte, it's just that IDK what the larger forum would find interesting and what it wouldn't.
Muninn
"Dick Laurant is dead."
1mo ago
Forgive me for hijacking your post but I just recently discovered that actual croissant bread is a Thing thanks to Costco and I have to agree that it's incredibly, decadently delicious when toasted and buttered IMO. I've also done grilled egg and cheese sandwiches with it that are decadently divine. I want to do some straight grilled cheese and maybe even french toast with it before it's all gone. If I had the recipe and was feeling grave, I might even go so far as to try cinnamon strudel french toast with it, but the resulting sugar high/crash scares me. Anyway, carry on!
Muninn
"Dick Laurant is dead."
1mo ago
Just finishing up Ardneh's Sword, by Fred Saberhagen. Next up is the latest in the 12 Miles Below series, which I hadn't realized was released!
Muninn
"Dick Laurant is dead."
1mo ago
Agree, I actually liked A Deepness in the Sky even better than A Fire Upon the Deep, which was damn good in its own right. In fact, although I've only read several of his books, I've thoroughly enjoyed every single one of them. A shame I can't say the same for some other hard sci-fi authors that I favor... cough nealststephenson cough
Muninn
"Dick Laurant is dead."
1mo ago
Oooh, I haven't read City yet but it's a comment much like yours that got me to check out Time is the Simplest Thing in the first place. I'll have to check it out next time I get a chance!
Muninn
"Dick Laurant is dead."
1mo ago
Time is the Simplest Thing by Clifford Simak. Interesting read and I appreciate the additional character added by the zeerust.
Muninn
"Dick Laurant is dead."
1mo ago
Long Live Evil: Time of Iron Book I. It's a fun fish out of water trope where the twist is that the MC is a terminal cancer patient transported into a fantasy realm from books she enjoyed with her sister and where she inhabits the body of a villainess that is to be executed the next day.
I totally agree with this. I know I'm nitpicking in that particular complaint! Also, the detail about Mormons prizing leadership is one I hadn't thought about. Thanks!
Good question! I think from Ender's perspective the answer to that question would be a qualified yes. Explanation follows.
I referenced Xanatos with the trope of the Chessmaster in mind, and the main dramatic conflict of the original Ender's Game, ie the fate of the third invasion, just isn't a good fit for that style of character to begin with. It is true, however, that adults and leaders are repeatedly portrayed as a bunch of Manipulative Bastards shamelessly forging Ender into a weapon capable of defeating the buggers formics. This is absolutely a major theme of Ender's Game, as is his awareness and understanding of that even as he resentfully accepts its necessity. The motivation for this, however, is the survival of humanity itself; the formics are, in the parlance of the sequels, varelse for all intents and purposes. It isn't until the Biggest Reveal of the novel that we learn that
Now I'm going to slag on Ender's Shadow in a little more detail to show more of my overall thinking. One of the major challenges of telling Bean's tale is that the backstory of Ender's Game is a known commodity and so the dramatic tension of the original is absent. Achilles can't hold a candle to the extinction of humanity here. A second challenge to telling Bean's tale is that Bean and Ender share a lot of similarities in their overall character, which I think makes it exceedingly difficult to make Bean's story strong and compelling enough in its own right without diminishing Ender's character arc from the original book. Card fails to thread that particular needle,
Just finished The Universe Within (Amaranthe book 22) by G.S. Jennsen and have moved on to Girlfriend in a Coma: The Novel by Douglas Coupland.
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