Eric Mesa > Recent Status Updates

Still unsure if Novik is going in a different direction than history. There's a famous phrase about Napolean and Russia. But unsure whether it is true in the world of Temeraire. I don't want to look ahead in case things will still realign with our world's history

Great Crocus chapter. The part about Hephaistes reminded me of Sanderson's work with Stormlight Archive and how healing powers are tied to your self-conception.

As I believe I've said before, I think I would be getting even more out of this if my history geekery extended to Napoleonic Europe. I don't know if these battles are going according to history or against them. I know Elba sticks out in my head, but I don't know enough to know if that's going to be a good or bad place to fight next.

I will say that I am really continuing to enjoy the series.

Interesting move for the story to go semi-SF

We're past the intro of this 9 book series. No one is safe.

Temeraire and crew have gotten themselves into a pickle!

I'd forgotten about the relocation. This first chapter leaves me definitely curious about what's going to happen!

Well, that went all kinds of interesting ways. Almost certainly will finish later today

About the famous opera scene

Supers as the equivalent of nukes is very interesting. Like taking the premise from Watchmen a step further. Even carries it forward to 11 Sept attacks being a super. I'm curious if this will end up being satisfying on its own or only as part of a series. Time will tell.

Discussion of everyone's Leitmotifs

Starting off with a very interesting premise...

We rewind the clock a bit from entry #8 to get to the arrival of the new governor. The opening dialog seems very similar to the opening in the novella that gives Amos' backstory

This continues to be a very different way of approaching the game. It's very interesting.

Stayed up way too late because each chapter demands you read the next one

A focus on the music of the FF series in general and comparing Uematsu to other artists contemporary and from the past.

Seems a bit more setup than the previous 4, but I'm enjoying the additions to the mythology.

I've long stopped wishing my books would be made into tv shows or movies, but if this was re-adapted into a good TV show by Amazon, Netflix, or HBO I think my wife would enjoy the supernatural elements

Very close to the climax

Author Spotlight: Garrity - About the inspiration for the character in Almanac ...kill you

Sigler - A little more background on Prawatt and where she came from and her motivations in "God Complex"

Chiang - How a Philip K Dick short story was part of the inspiration for "Exhalation!"

Machado - The origin of the egg story.

Heuvelt - The author's experience with grief led to the story and its extended metaphor.

Artist Gallery/Artist Spotlight: Remi Le Capon - a mix of steampunk and SF images. His description of an ideal art project sounds like The Witcher meets Steampunk.

Author Spotlight: Linda Nagata - Looks like I was slightly off in the inspiration. Apparently the short story is providing POV to a character from one of her novels.

Interview: Scott Sigler - Wonder how well Pandemic the book squares with the reality of pandemic in 2020-2021. Man, this is hard to read during COVID.

Interview: Darren Aronofsky - An interview about the movie and graphic novel adaptations of Noah.

The Myth of Everyman - An essay on why it was problematic that the entire Noah cast (in the movie) was white. A good, short essay to show someone who doesn't understand the concept of why it's bad that "white" is assumed to be the "default".

And we reach the author's convergence point: the Avatar movie

Steles of the Sky - An excerpt from a novel that takes place in a fantasy-tinged Mongol empire. Thanks to having read The Mongoliad I recognized the names as Mongolian immediately. Story seems fascinating. Perhaps I will give the author another shot. (I didn't like the first novel of hers I read)

Mihael Shea: No Form is Eternal- A tribute to Mr. Shea and The Autopsy.

Afterparty - An intriguing novel involving (essentially) 3D printed drugs. The character of The Vincent cinched it for me and I added this book to my To Read List (long though it is)

Pratchett begins to introduce "horror" characters to the Discworld.

The Autopsy - A science fiction horror novella that has a bit of a Lovecraftian bent to the narration. The plot has a few unexpected turns, but they are executed quite well. Reading the first paragraph of the next section of the magazine, an author feature, mentions this story is a classic. It definitely deserves that award.

Will definitely have to come back to the debugger chapter if I'm ever writing Perl programs that complex. The CPAN chapter provided some nice history and overview of how things work. Onto Perl as Culture! The security chapter is great. I wish more programming books had chapters like this.

Interesting that the District 9 director was chosen for the Halo movie and MS was upset because, since he hadn't made D9 yet, he was an unknown. What a difference a few years makes in perception.

GTA III changes the game