How was Slewfoot? It’s been on my TBR for ages, but I’ve never gotten around to it.

I’m about halfway through Death in the Spires by K.J. Charles. It’s not as detective-y as I was hoping for, but I’m still finding it quick and absorbing.

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Finished Auberon by James S.A. Corey, which was good.

DNFed A Man With One of Those Faces by Caimh McDonnell about 25% through. The story seemed interesting, but I wasn’t vibing with the writing.

Good to know, thanks!

Currently breezing through Auberon by James S.A. Corey, the story between books 7 and 8 of the Expanse. Not sure what I’ll read next.

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Finished Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky. The world-building around the Zone was as cool as I’d hoped, and I appreciated that expeditions into it were realistically strenuous, grimy, and dangerous. The overall tone is a bit bleak, though, and I didn’t find the characters particularly relatable. There’s a cool afterward from one of the authors, describing how difficult it was to get the book published (and when it was, how censored it had to be).

Bingo squares: Older Than You Are (1972), It Takes Two, Now a Major Motion Picture, (alt) Translated (hard).

Will it give me arachnophobia, if I don’t like spiders, but am not at the level of full blown phobia?

Mmm if they give you the ick, then maybe avoid it. I don’t think it’s too bad, but YMMV, and I’d rather not mislead you accidentally.

Ring Shout sounds interesting, but am not a fan of racism and slavery in the (fiction) books, specially the ones that go to dark places. Does it end well? 😀

The author actually uses a much lighter touch on the racism and mentions of slavery than I was expecting. It’s there, and it ties into the story, but the focus is really more on fighting literal demonic creatures. Like I said the other week, it’s really more of an action-adventure than disturbing horror. It ends mostly well, with room for a sequel.

Iirc from my time on kbin, posts are for the “microblog” part, i.e. the part that interacts with mastodon.

Just started Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky. I read somewhere that they purposefully wrote Stalker (which I’ve seen) as very different to the book, so it’ll be interesting to compare.

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Finished Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark. In the afterward, the author asked why a sword-wielding fantasy hero couldn’t exist in the US, which I think sums up the tone pretty well. Some fun body horror, while also touching on the real horrors of slavery and racism.

Bingo squares: Award Winner (hard), Mashup, Minority Author

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Also read Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud, which was great. Sort of a mashup of lots of things (1920s in a mental asylum, on a version of the moon that has forests, with some gothic, medical, body, and cosmic horror thrown in). Sadly too short to explore the world, though I’m hopeful the planned sequels will rectify this. Avoid if you have arachnophobia.

Bingo squares: New Release, Mashup (maybe hard?), Among the Stars (technically), (alt) A Change in Perspective. Not sure about Institutional (hard) since it’s a for-profit asylum.

True, but I think maybe you missed this being about additive and subtractive color mixing.

100% agree; I was so bummed Riddick was just inferior Pitch Black. The animated one, Dark Fury, was fun, though, iirc.

So, I feel like 2, maybe with 3 in certain high-traffic areas, would be a good idea, for a couple reasons:

1. increased visibility for vehicles, particularly in places with a lot of pedestrians, who might not all have their own lights or be too inebriated to use them.
2. nighttime socializing outdoors, such as markets, streets with lots of nightlife, plazas, etc. Sure, small personal lights could become incorporated into fashion, but those also need to be powered, and would have to illuminate faces without blinding anyone. Public lighting just seems easier.
3. less isolating for night shift workers (if that’s a thing in the world you’re writing).

Could even have 2 shut off in quieter neighborhoods that have no open businesses during the wee hours.

Not Gamescom-related, but there was a Nintendo Direct that showed off some indie/partner games on the 27th, and a CoD thing today (the 28th), if either of those were what you were thinking of?

Only other thing that comes to mind is maybe the Future Games Show, but that was last week (list of trailers here).

I’m at 13/25 books for bingo, but that’s all I’ve been reading since May.

Currently a third of the way through Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark. I was craving a horror read, and this worked for bingo, so I picked it up. It’s good so far, but seems more like an action adventure than the grim spookiness I wanted.

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Finished Malice by Keigo Higashino. A surprising number of lies got revealed in the second half, though I did get part of it right. Not jumping to read more by this author, but not opposed to it, either. Sidenotes: this is listed as #4 in a series, but the first 3 aren’t in English, and it reads fine as a standalone; also, you may want to check content warnings for this one.

Bingo squares: What’s Yours Is Mine, Bookception (hard), There Is Another (hard, if you count untranslated entries), Now a Major Motion Picture (a J-drama from 2001), Minority Author, (alt) Translated (hard)

I’m about halfway through Malice by Keigo Higashino. It’s unusual in that it’s not a who dunnit, it’s a why dunnit, and that half of the book (this is not a spoiler) is the murderer’s unreliable written account, interspersed with chapters of the detective’s report. The prose is a little dry (not sure if that’s a translation issue, or if it’s that way in the original Japanese), but it’s short and engaging.

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Finished Weak Heart by Ban Gilmartin. Sort of an urban fantasy on a remote Scottish island, dealing with Scottish folklore and a missing friend/ex. There are some monsters and apparitions, but I wouldn’t call it horror (although you might want to check content warnings, as there is some reliving of past traumas). Very much a peek into the two main characters’ heads as they investigate, learn to tolerate each other, and grow over the course of the story. Kind of a YA vibe, but not. Recommended if that sounds like your jam.

Bingo squares: Independent Author, LGBTQIA+ Lead (hard). (Maybe also Family Drama, if you count unrelated-but-raised-together.)

It sounds like this was the receiving party: letters from Orwell to his publisher (and other papers related to publishing his work, like contracts and internal memos). if Orwell had kept copies for his records, I suspect they would already be properly archived, yes.

This is correspondence and such that’s been sitting around in a warehouse for however many years, untouched.

I picked Weak Heart by Ban Gilmartin back up, and am now about 2/3 of the way through. It’s a fast read, and I’m enjoying it, despite my irrational dislike of first person present tense.

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Finally finished On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers. If you like Pirates of the Caribbean or Monkey Island, with a random dude getting caught up in a swashbuckling pirate adventure, this ticks (almost) all the boxes (it’s not humorous). I was pleasantly surprised that the magic system makes reference to actual vodou, rather than just the pop culture version, and that there’s a bits of history in the background you may recognize if you like pirate stuff. The pacing is a series of lulls and swells of action, rather than a steady build to a single climax (although there is a final culmination of events); I was never bored, but I also didn’t find it un-put-downable, and I’m not sure how much of that was the writing, and how much was being too sleepy to read more than a few pages a night.

Bingo squares: Water, Water Everywhere; What’s Yours Is Mine (probably hard mode?); Eazy, Breazy, Read-zie; Stranger in a Strange Land (hard mode); (alt) A Change in Perspective

Had another week of not reading much, so I’m still trying to wrap up On Stranger Tides. It’s still enjoyable, but I’m impatient to move onto something new.

I’m fine with articles, but would prefer them to be informative about process or history. It’d also be nice if any posted article included a piece of art in the thumbnail, so everyone still gets something to look at.

Ah, gotcha. Yeah, something not being the kind of sci-fi you were expecting is always rough. I hope you find On Stranger Tides more enjoyable!

I’m liking it pretty well (haven’t read anything by him before). There’s a big, foreshadowed event coming up pretty soon, I think, and then I’m not sure where it’s going to go, beyond “save the girl”.

Did you have issues with Three Days to Never besides the first half being slow? This has been fairly quickly paced so far.