I'm having a hard time evaluating the series as its own thing so far; my mind is constantly thinking about the ways it differs from the books and wondering where they're going to go with it. The latest episode takes a big departure; they've seemingly skipped a significant chunk of The Eye of the Wor...

Very good show. May be the best and most successful video game show or movie to date?

Don't bother trying to get into the game because you liked this, though - LoL has no story, is entirely multiplayer and is one of the least accessible games for new players.

I think it is pretty fair to say that the current vaccinations help, given that, last I heard, the vast majority of the hospitalisations related to Omicron were among unvaccinated, partially vaccinated, or immunocompromised people. Vaccinated people are having the mildest symptoms, as expected.

I expect it's largely representation for its own sake, which imo doesn't really detract from anything. There's likely an in-world justification along the lines of them being descended from the remnants of the earlier, much more advanced society that was destroyed in the Breaking, which was apparentl...

It's alright so far. The cast are decent enough, at least. It's hard to really tell what it's going to be like; at this point it might stick relatively close to the books or it might veer off wildly and I can't say which is more likely from these episodes. (Though a straight adaptation of the series...

Or it's just an acknowledgement that everyone in the audience already knows they'll make another Bond film, probably as a reboot, and doesn't need to mean Craig's Bond isn't dead.

My "favourite" thing in the current Tory spin is the idea that they'll be ready to lower taxes just as soon as the books are balanced and government finances in a healthy state. Which is pretty transparent since if the only way they can get those books balanced is through raising additiona...

There was definitely going to be an opportunity for you to get into the Guild on your own and go looking for those records. I needed to give you all something to do so it wasn't all just waiting for Paula; Bela was probably going to get mugged while trying to deliver a bribe for Hestor.

Oh, there wasn't really much backstory there, and I'd have tried to keep it accessible. Shimone literally did nothing in the previous game; Syl signed up, created a character, then fell completely off the radar. His starting village became neutral then got swallowed up by Jove's expansion. I just ra...

Even if their positions are better than the Tories' (and they generally are), the whole Starmer leadership is just giving off an overall vibe of "Tory-lite", without much to make them stand out, and I don't see why anyone who switched and voted for the Conservatives in 2019 would switch ba...

I admit to being a little baffled by Starmer's latest moves. Where did all this law and order, more police, more surveillance stuff come from, why is it suddenly the focus of his policies? He must have some sort of internal research saying this is what will get people to support him but I don't see ...

An additional component to the "Brexit did it" side is something called cabotage - this is the system where a delivery driver taking a shipment from X to Y can then pick up a new shipment at Y and deliver it to Z, then get a third to take from Z to X. This system is what makes haulage effi...

I tried not to plan ahead much with The Outsiders. I truly wanted the story to be player-driven, and for there to be freedom to take it in whatever direction their actions decided. For example, when the Magistrate - a character I had to invent on the spot simply because people kept trying to interac...

The first sign I've seen so far of the food shortages we're hearing about is that all the local Greggs have been out of stock of Sausage, Bean & Cheese Melts for the past week or so. Hoping that's as much as I see of it but of course expecting things are going to get worse.

My mind has been wandering back to this again and I feel like just ripping the bandaid off and revealing some of the secrets. The biggest but also possibly least consequential: The Heart of God has always been a trap. Whether in the original game or in The Outsiders (where attempting to reach it was...

Recently finished reading Muse of Nightmares, sequel to Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor. Liked it a lot.

2021 Dragon Award Finalists

https://www.dragoncon.org/awards/2021-d ... rd-ballot/
(I noticed that Cyberpunk 2077 got a nomination for best video game and I can no longer take these awards seriously at all. Ready Player Two already wasn't helping their case.)

Yeah, we've gone from "everyone in lockdown" to "only people confirmed exposed have to isolate" so the media of course had to rebrand it and give it a catchy name to make it sound like it got worse.

It's a hell of a thing to write Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, almost disappear for over a decade (apparently in part due to ill health), then storm right back onto the awards lists with her second novel.

2021 Seiun Award Winners http://www.sf-fan.gr.jp/awards/2021result.html (page is Japanese but also lists results in English) 2020 Kitschies Winners https://locusmag.com/2021/07/2020-kitschies-winners/ Official site http://www.thekitschies.com/ but they don't seem to have posted the winners there. 2...