Books
2024
Weeknotes for 2024-05-02
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Weeknotes
Personal
Django
Python
Explorers Wanted
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Travel
Tv
A busy week full of work, development, podcasting, and touching grass.
Intrigue, murder, and infrastructure meet in Bennett's The Tainted Cup
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Articles
Books
Reviews
Fantasy
Mystery
Robert Jackson Bennett
Robert Jackson Bennett has been one of my favorite authors for a while now. His fantasy worlds are realized in stunning detail, with rich characters and intricately woven plots. His latest book, The Tainted Cup, a fantasy murder mystery that kicks off his new Shadow of the Leviathan series, is no exception.
2023
Yellowface (R.F. Kuang) is a nail-biter
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Today, I’d like to tell you about Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. I finished this one a few weeks ago, and I’ve found that the more I’ve marinated on it, my feelings about it have changed.
Weeknotes for 2023-02-17
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Weeknotes
Personal
Explorers Wanted
Travel
Books
Movies
Hi there. It’s been a while.
I had a whirlwind of activity over the last few weeks, both on the work and podcasting front, and quite frankly getting around to writing up these update posts was beyond my available bandwidth.
Weeknotes for 2023-01-20
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Weeknotes
Personal
Books
Horror
Explorers Wanted
Another week of work in the Netherlands is wrapping up. I’m publishing today’s weeknotes a bit early as I’m about to board a flight on my way back the US, and I strongly doubt I’ll have the energy to write this up after two flights and a long layover at LHR.
Weeknotes for 2023-01-13
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Weeknotes
Personal
Explorers Wanted
Obsidian
Books
Movies
D&d
Ttrpg
Horror
Assorted Geekery
This week I’ve been in the Netherlands for work, so between jet lag and meetings I’ve been pretty wiped out. Still, I’ve managed to get a few non-work related things done as well.
New Arrivals Jan 2023
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Ttrpg
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Horror
Art
Workbooks
I try to post cool new arrivals from Kickstarters and pre-orders when they arrive, usually to my Mastodon account,1 but with the business at work and with the podcast it slipped past me.
2019
Umberto Eco on the appeal of the cliché
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Film
When all the archetypes shamelessly burst in, we plumb Homeric depths. Two clichés are laughable. A hundred clichés are affecting–because we become obscurely aware that the clichés are talking to one another and holding a get-together.
NY Review of Books: A Universe of One's Own
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Quotes
Sff
Books
History
[Joanna] Russ had no patience for a genre predicated on the notion of speculative technologies but unable to imagine social institutions and women’s roles in them as freely. She would surely have objected to some of the stories in The Future Is Female.
The Terror of a Future America in Vigilance
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Vigilance by Robert Jackson Bennett
In his latest novel, Vigilance, Robert Jackson Bennett shows us the plausible terror of an America which has utterly given up preventing gun violence and instead embraced it.
2017
The Delirium Brief: the magical deep state is here to save you
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The Delirium Brief by Charles Stross ⭐️️️️️⭐️⭐️⭐️️️️⭐️ / ⭐️️️️⭐️⭐️⭐️️️️⭐️ It’s hard not to love Charles Stross’ Laundry Files series as a concept. A clandestine government agency of computational demonologists defend the world from horrors beyond space and time, all while trying to keep up with their expense reports.
Star.Ships: Your ancestors were smarter than you think
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Star.Ships by Gordon White ⭐️️️️⭐️⭐️⭐️️️️ / ⭐️️️️⭐️⭐️⭐️️️️⭐️ Gordon White’s exercise in using data analysis to speculatively reconstruct ancient belief systems is a mind-bending journey through our most ancient history. In this book, he tracks our species’ first departure from what we now call Africa, and the beginnings of both the Laurasian mythological “novel”, as well as the Gondwana “grandmother myths” that came with us.
Review of The Night Ocean
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The Night Ocean by Paul La Farge ⭐️️️️⭐️⭐️ / ⭐️️️️⭐️⭐️⭐️️️️⭐️ This is a book where my opinion of it has changed the longer I’ve been away from it. It’s a strange book, and honestly its structure was nearly its undoing for me.
River of Teeth, or why the hippo is my new spirit animal
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River of Teeth In the early 20th Century, the United States government concocted a plan to import hippopotamuses into the marshlands of Louisiana to be bred and slaughtered as an alternative meat source.
2011
The Mechanic Muse — From Scroll to Screen
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Tech
Culture
Great piece from Lev Grossman on the radical changes that the codex introduced into reading, specifically the ability to interact with the text in a non-linear manner. He makes a valid point that e-readers make similar interaction a clumsy affair.
2010
Review: The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro & Chuck Hogan
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Books
Horror
Reviews
I recently read The Strain by the creative team of Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan on a recommendation from a friend. I didn’t know anything about Chuck Hogan but I was of course familiar with the films of Del Toro, which I had enjoyed.
Review: I Am Not A Serial Killer & Mr Monster by Dan Wells
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Books
Horror
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A review double-feature! Excitement abounds!
I just recently finished reading the second book in Dan Wells’ clever and compelling John Cleaver series, and since I’ve had an unfinished review of the first book sitting in my draft folder for the last few months, it seems like a fine idea to merge the two together into one post.
A Very Lovecraft October
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Assorted Geekery
Board Games
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Games
Lovecraft
Reviews
There’s something about Halloween that always draws me back to H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. I’m not alone in this, of course. My good friend Quentin Lewis has taken to releasing recordings of himself reading stories from Lovecraft each Halloween as a podcast, which I highly recommend you check out.
Review: The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
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Assorted Geekery
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Epic Fantasy
Fantasy
Reviews
What’s that you say? Another epic fantasy by Brandon Sanderson? Sold.
I swear, the rate at which Brandon Sanderson produces his massive books is a bit intimidating. The added fact that they are so consistently good marks it as an indicator of an almost terrifying amount of talent and skill.
Review: Sandman Slim
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Books
Reviews
Richard Kadrey
What do you get when you combine the genres of hard-boiled detective noir, spaghetti-western and urban fantasy set in L.A.? You get Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey.
This book was recommended to me by my friend Quentin, and my fiancé had also mentioned to me that she had read a promising review of the novel.