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

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

Andrea, with G33z33r gone, for whatever reason, that leaves you as the sole moderator of the group - which is not an ideal situation. When you have time, you may want to consider finding another moderator to help share the load - which I expect is not particularly onerous in a group like this - and act as a backup.

In my case I doubt it was hackers - there was $300 or $400 in my PayPal account at the time - money which PayPal said they would keep for 6 months just in case someone disputed some of the sales I had made on eBay. I expect hackers would have taken the money, or at least tried to.

I finished Norse Myths. Compact, but providing reasonably broad coverage of Norse mythology. However, the final chapter convinced me to drop my rating from 4 stars to 3 stars. It is a comparison of Norse and Greek myths, showing the similarities between them. For some inexplicable reason, the author decided to use the Roman names for a number of the gods, instead of the Greek names - so Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, and Mercury are used instead of Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, and Hermes. Apollo is correct, but Diana is used instead of Artemis. Highly irritating.

I used to use PayPal all the time - it cost me hundreds of dollars of sales through my eBay store. It's still an inconvenience because there are websites that only accept PayPal, so I can't buy from them.

That has happened to a friend of mine also - Facebook just closed her account. It happened to me with PayPal - they permanently limited my account (meaning I can't use it to send or receive money), said I had violated their terms of service but refused to tell me what I had done that violated their terms of service. I appealed the decision - both with PayPal and through a government regulatory board - but they didn't change their decision.

That is very surprising news

I have finished the novella Ironclads. Very enjoyable.

I read a few more stories in the anthology Rogues - about halfway now. I have started the novella Ironclads by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It's military sci-fi set in a future in which America is a libertarian state run by corporations.

I finally finished Foundation and Earth, which brings to an end my reread of Asimov's Future History series. It took a ridiculously long time (both this book and the entire series) as work is really cutting into my reading time at the moment.

I read a few more stories in Rogues. While most of the ones I have read so far have are fantasy, including a story from Westeros from George Martin, a sequel to Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, and a Patrick Rothfuss story, not all have been. The story by Gillian Flynn is a very dark psychological horror.

I have now started the last book in the Foundation series - Foundation and Earth.

I finally finished the penultimate book of the Foundation series - Foundation's Edge. Well-written but too many inconsistencies - both within the book and with the earlier books of the series.

I read Iron Man: Crash. Of some historical interest as it is the first computer generated graphic novel (at least, by a major Western comics publisher), but it hasn't aged well. Even though it features Iron Man, it's far more of a cyberpunk story than a superhero story.

I have started on the penultimate book in Asimov's Future History series - Foundation's Edge

I finished Invincible Vol. 2: Eight is Enough, the second 4-issue compilation that was available to borrow for free through Amazon Prime. It expands the world but has some odd jumps in places. I am finding that the story development in the comics is sufficiently different from the story development in the TV series, that it's making it difficult to follow both properly. I will wait until season 1 of the show has finished before I read the third compilation volume.

I have started watching the Amazon Prime animated series Invincible and I noticed that being an Amazon Prime member allows me to borrow the first 3 collected volumes (the first 13 issues of the comic) for free.

The first volume doesn't start as explosively as the TV series, but that's not really surprising as a monthly series has greater ability to indulge in world-building, whereas the TV show has to be more explosive to grab an immediate audience.

So far, I am enjoying both.

I finished Lovecraft Country. The TV series emphasised the supernatural elements more than the book does - and added or expanded some - but is generally a good adaptation, so if you enjoyed the show, I expect you will like the book. The depiction of the racism of the society of the time, while accurate, certainly makes for an uncomfortable read at time.

This also fills my Bingo slot for Book Adapted for TV/Movie.

I've watched the first 3 episodes and have enjoyed it so far.

I have started to read Lovecraft Country, the book the TV show is based on, which I enjoyed. Not far into it, but so far the show has been accurate to the book.

G33z3r wrote: "Depends on if you want to count the plot changes."

Yeah, I was thinking it would be the way to go to get a good idea of how different it is.

I read some more of Norse Myths and Rogues. I have now read 4 of the 21 stories in Rogues, and enjoyed all of them.

I read the short story The Beast of Space, which was originally published in the July 1941 issue of Comet magazine. Very much pulp sci-fi and featured many of the tropes common to that genre. It was ok, but nothing special.