The Joy of Erudition > Recent Status Updates

Interesting to see the early days of machine learning and neural networks.

"He saw it glistening and he thought how cold that water must be, so awfully hurtfully cold. Cold like the Pacific on that summer Sunday when he’d been standing there, empty and slightly afraid. The path from that moment seemed infinitely long."

You can say that again!

Very repetitive, and the characterisation is all over the place. Glad this is almost over.

I have to say, after 1000 pages of build-up, the <spoiler>wedding</spoiler> was rushed through without much detail. Almost a perfunctory treatment, though I suppose Rice wasn't actually trying to make it a major turning point, considering it always felt like a sure thing. But this leaves me to wonder what the actual major turning point of this book will be.

"Tharquest and the Lamia Orbiquita" was my first Brian Lumley story. This is the first actual sword & sorcery story in this magazine, and it feels like a bit of a spoof. The character is a massive rake, and he thinks this will let him survive a night with a lamia with a taste for men. The prose is over-the-top mythical style, and follows the rule of 3. It seems to be set up as a series with this character. Psyche!

"Parker Frightened on a Tightrope" was a weird story in a near-future SF setting involving full-immersion VR/cyberspace experiences with full sensory feedback, including pain. Parker's ex-GF seeks revenge on him by hacking his system and putting him through tests with the threat of pain. Mostly dialogue and it's all about their stormy relationship and breakup. Parker doesn't have much personality.

"The White Bull" was a disappointing one from Saberhagen. A retelling of Theseus and the Minotaur combined with Daedalus and Icarus, but with the minotaur being an alien. Uses the "ancient aliens" premise that humans were too stupid to have come up with science on our own, and must have had aliens teach us. In this story we see students driven insane by a basic high school/university curriculum, their minds broken.

This book was so much better than the Ravenloft book it's like night and day. Both were RPG-licensed books, but this one was written by a writer.

Lovecraft has a hard task at making stories set in North America feel as ancient as he wants, because he likes to stick with things built by European settlers. I think he would do better with European locations. This story had one surprise, where something I thought was hyperbole was actually literal!