Any Dan Simmons fans in my tiny Bluesky circle? Hyperion never added up to more than the sum of its parts for me, but the current accolades make me want to give him another go (despite his politics). Any suggestions where to start?
The guys who write SNL skits should never be allowed to see this.
A young black & white cat looking pleased to be on the top of a cluttered ornamental shelf where he's not supposed to be. You can just about see an old microscope in the bottom right corner.
"I'm not supposed to be here."
Getting strong Texas Book Depository vibes from your photos, Matt.
MST does all the classic stuff of elves, swords and scullery boys with a destiny but *well written*, which is all I ever wanted from 80s-90s fantasy and never got. Deserves the Wheel of Time slot a hundred times over.
'Lucid Dreaming, Plain and Simple', because it's something that's always intrigued me. Just finished Ramsey Campell's ho-hum 'An Echo of Children' - I owe the guy a huge debt but his late novels are increasingly disappointing.
He's a great bad writer.
'PODCA$H'
I'm done.
'Catching Flac'
This thing just writes itself.
'Maximum Gain'
Wait. A black comedy TV crime thriller where the implausibly popular podcast of two feckless slackers is actually a money-laundering operation for the mob? Dude, you have to write this.
Always seemed like a cynical landgrab to me. Buy the exclusive, global licence, then rebrand that high-level generic campaign setting you couldn't sell as 'set in the bits Tolkien never mentioned'. Meanwhile cockblocking anyone else from making the game people might actually have wanted.
Sickening.
Pretty much nothing. There's a great, sad, SF story by Poul Anderson, 'The Man Who Came Early', where a 20th century engineer stuck in 10th century Viking times finds his skills useless. His metalworking expertise is no good for working a charcoal forge, he ruins his host's valuable iron, etc, etc.
Have you tried Sable? As part of your tribal coming-of-age you free-roam a mysterious alien world on your jet-bike, helping people. Moebius-inspired graphics. Got me out of my head when I needed it.
True story: I saw this in my local cinema when it first came out. It was raining and the roof leaked. Water was literally dripping into a bucket in the aisle beside me during *that* scene.
No, that's too sweet. I can't cope.
Thank you for posting this, Freya. It arrived just when I needed some good news.
“And I would say based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is get the hell away from Black people. Just get the fuck away. Wherever you have to go, just get away.” Scott Adams, 2023
Dude finally took his own advice.
Shed 6.
Damn. If you thought Neil Dudgeon was just the harmless old duffer who played DCI Barnaby in Midsomer Murders, listen to him reading Philip Larkin's Aubade. Dude absolutely nails it.
thepoetryhour.com/poems/aubade/
Pro-tip: anything you do not put up, assemble or paint during this crucial stage will never happen. Once the Enthusiasm Fairy dies, the only way to get another one is to move.
A young cat sits in front of a monitor that shows him as a kitten sitting in front of a monitor that shows a cat that's gone now sitting in front of a monitor that shows that cat when it was younger sitting in front of a monitor that shows that cat when it was younger sitting in front of a monitor that's just pixels because that's all we are in the end.
Change/continuity.
One magical night at a New York masked orgy, Bill and Alice discover the true meaning of Christmas...
Mine cost £144 in October, but it's £390 now, so I'm calling that a win.
Wow. Congratulations, that's amazing!
Yeah, it's heart-breaking that the hare was eventually won by an absolute cheating dogturd. :-(
Actually, I've just finished my last read. OK, bought.
If we were back in the office I could still afford to buy books not sold on discount. :-)
This. One of the dirtiest, grindiest covers ever.
You should read the original short story, We Can Remember It For You Wholesale. One of the details I always liked was that the company provided set 'packages' of props authenticating your memory, like finding an old bus ticket in your sock drawer.
