Tony’s Comments (group member since Dec 19, 2018)

Tony’s comments from the Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy group.

There doesn't seem to have been any posts in this group for about 2 1/2 days - which strikes me as unusual. Am I just not seeing new posts? Or is no one posting?

I have finished The Andromeda Evolution, which I thought was a worthy sequel to The Andromeda Strain, and may well be a case in which the sequel is better than the original.

While I was returning The Andromeda Strain to the library, I was browsing the shelves and noticed The Ottoman Secret, which looked to be a Dan Brown-style thriller, with the focus on hidden Islamic secrets rather than hidden Christian secrets. However, reading the blurb revealed that it's set in a 21st Century Europe which has been part of the Ottoman Empire for 300 years - so it will fill the Alternate History slot in my Bingo.

IMDB has three listings for Vampire Academy - two TV series, each only 1 season long, made in 2016 and 2022, and a movie from 2014. I believe all of them are based on the Richelle Mead books.

Continuing my read through of The Boys series, I have started the 4th graphic novel collection The Boys, Vol. 4: We Gotta Go Now, which collects issues 23 through 30.

After finishing The Andromeda Strain, I have started The Andromeda Evolution, the sequel written 50 years later.

I have finished The Andromeda Strain, and I'm pretty certain that it wasn't a reread that I had forgotten reading - I expect I knew the story from the movie.

This was his first novel writing under his own name (although he had previously written 4 or 5 crime novels as John Lange) and it's fair to say that he would grow into the genre of scientific thriller. For a start, it's not much of a thriller, as reports from a month or so later were mentioned early in the novel, letting the reader know that there wasn't going to be an extinction-level catastrophe.

The first book I'm actually reading, as opposed to listening to

"A man with binoculars. That is how it began: with a man standing by the side of the road, on a crest overlooking a small Arizona town, on a winter night."

The Andromeda Strain

I have started reading The Andromeda Strain because late last year I picked up a copy of The Andromeda Evolution and thought I should reread the original first. Although now that I have started, I'm wondering if I actually have read it before, or just seen the movie.

Strangely, Amazon didn't have an ebook version of Andromeda Strain, so I borrowed it from the library. It turns out that if one doesn't use their library card for 3 years, it gets cancelled - so I had to sign up again.

That's a novel way of looking at it

I have finished listening to The Cthulhu Casebooks: Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows. I enjoyed it - Lovegrove does a good job of making it feel like a Sherlock Holmes novel, and the introduction of Lovecraftian horrors is handled in such a way that doesn't require an excessive amount of suspension of disbelief. The narration from Dennis Kleinman is good. This will fill the alternate form slot in my Bingo.

Maybe trapped in ice means that the crew were frozen as well? I have the first 3 novels of the series in my Kindle, but I haven't read them yet. The description on Amazon DOESN'T mention the Chinese satellite launch, hence my not being sure about it.

Anyway, Tod, it sounds like the Seventh Carrier series is what you are remembering.

In Australia, the Australia Post delivery people won't usually leave a parcel on the front porch - but they won't usually bother to ring the doorbell either. I work at home, but I often get a text message stating that they were unable to deliver my package, and it has been left at the local post office for me - even though I was home at the time and no one rang the bell.

The Seventh Carrier was my initial thought as well, and it's the right timeframe - I hadn't realised it was written so long ago - but I'm not sure if the lasers fit in.

"In the spring of 2014, I received an email out of the blue." That's the first line of the preface.

"I'm an old man, a tired, frightened old man." That's the first line of the foreword.

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." And, finally, that's the first line of Chapter 1.

The book is The Cthulhu Casebooks: Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows.

I finished my first book of the year - Batman '66 Meets the Man From U.N.C.L.E. a fun nostalgia trip for two classic 60s TV shows.

The Update button has returned

Andrea wrote: "If you enjoy Holmes vs Lovecraft you should look for Gaiman's A Study in Emerald"

I have listened to 13 of the 33 chapters so far, and it's only in the last couple that Cthulhu Mythos has entered the story. James Lovegrove has done a pretty good job of making it feel like a Sherlock Holmes story, and Dennis Kleinmann's narration has been good.

Learning how to deal with players who are goofy, or who choose to ignore all clues provided to follow the plot, is something that only comes with experience as a Dungeon Master - at least, learning to deal with it in a way that doesn't cause undue stress 😆 It's something, that after 40+ years as a DM, I still don't get right all the time.

It's already 10 and a half hours into the new year in Sydney (and after midday in New Zealand), so I'll get this started.

I'm listening to The Cthulhu Casebooks: Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows which, because of the involvement of Lovecraftian themes, will count as SFF.

And I'm reading Batman '66 Meets the Man From U.N.C.L.E. which is a bit of fun, tying in two "classic" 60s TV shows. I actually have 5 of the 6 issues that make up this graphic novel - purchased on Comixology back before Amazon absorbed it - but I had only read the first. Now, of course, issue 6 is no longer available as an individual issue, so I had to buy the graphic novel to complete the series.

I have finished The Handmaid's Tale, which fills the Award-Winning slot in my Bingo, and completes my Bingo.

My review is pretty heavily political (so I would recommend not reading it if that sort of thing will upset you), but I find it's a book that it's hard NOT to be political about, particularly with the political landscape in America at the moment.

I am planning to start Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows, which will run into next year and , as an audiobook, fill my Alternate Format slot for next year's Bingo.