Scifi with a dash of body horror, and yet another story that is hard to describe. In some far away future humanity is female only, spread over a number of ships (?) where everything is alive and build using the same basic components (variations on human genetics?).
Although this is the first book in a series, it's also a perfect standalone. It's a dark fantasy, medieval when it comes to technology, where the main character is a down-on-his-luck, bad-mouthing 'black captain'. Which means he's doing the dirty jobs that nobody else wants to do, like hunting deserters in the no-men's land called 'The Misery'.
The 2012 movie Dredd has no right to be entertaining, and yet it is. Also, it may be one of the few movies that's actually good in 3D. For the record, I pretty much hate anything 3D (can't stand the glasses) and this is one of the few exceptions. I normally pick the regular versions when visiting the cinema, but back then I accidentally picked the 3D version.
To my surprise, it's even entertaining when re-watching it, years later, in 2D. Just don't expect anything to exercise the brain 😅
There are many sites that can do this. Here's just another one producing 3D cover mockups... When reading through the small print it seems this one hasn't any strings attached, and some of the others did.
Street orphan fights her way up to local ward boss, and has managed to hide her magical talents from the rest of the world... until they catch her, and send her to take control over the largest ship in the world, a 500 year old ghost ship that shouldn't exist.
We had some angels last month, so let's add another one...
(Click image to enlarge.)
I have absolutely no idea if this post is going to be useful in any way 😊 but I was revising the novel I'm working on, and trying to decide if I should do a change or not... just before completion.
I shouldn't, because it took me long enough to get this far, but I'm in doubt...
Discontinued on NBC, continued on Netflix. A bit similar to Lost, but Lost never did it for me. Thus far, the first two seasons of this show are available on NetFlix NL, and those are good. Season 3 isn’t available in NL because some Belgian station is still broadcasting season 3. So I’ll have to wait a bit longer even for season 4. Oh well.
Another take on Ready Player One, another love song to the eighties. Well written, but frankly I find this new take on the same trip down memory lane a little shallow. It's well written, but it's well-written fan fiction. Yet... where some fan fiction dazzles with new ideas and fresh characters I found Armada to be somewhat meh.
Definitely (?) an indie writer, and one who isn't afraid to use real people, like Obama and Musk, as characters in his book. I'm not so sure that is a smart thing to do, because it will date the book rather quickly. Otherwise the book is more a technotriller than plain SF, with plausible technology.
Mister Harbinger (a blend of Philip Marlowe and Harry Dresden) finds out what actually happened in Paris, discovers his dad blocked certain memories, works together with a vampire to fight a horde of zombies / skeletons, and ends up asleep on his own lawn.
I recently watched the first two seasons of Manifest, and this book starts in a similar vein: an airplane that departs, only to arrive years later.
And that's where the similarity ends 😎
A displaced mind (transplanted from a human body into a spaceship’s central computer) is part of a salvage team, and tries hard to keep its human compagnons / workers / assets alive.
Read by Nathan Fillion, who does a fairly good job, and the story ain’t half bad either. The ending is a little rapid, but otherwise a fine book, and a tad different from all the other stuff out there.
A ‘reverse world’ novel, where the men are rare, and thus valuable. It isn’t bad, but there’s little new in there except for the reversing of roles. It’s very well written, but halfway I gave up: there’s simply not enough happening.
(From Dapper / TellTales #110.)
Space Opera / Military SF, but with one twist: no artificial gravity thus far, which has a lot of impact on the scenes in space. Thus far it follows a predictable pattern (rogue starship flees because it’s captain was betrayed by the space navy’s top brass) but the alien races are interesting, the setting is interesting, and it’s completely without teen angst. (After sampling as many first person present tense works as I could I can only conclude that those are mainly targeted at YA / NA, and include lots of whining.)
(Click on the image to enlarge.)
I’ve been searching for more first-person present tense material to understand what I’m doing right and wrong myself. This is another YA that isn’t too bad, except for one specific scene, where the (hurt) protagonist (a 17-year-old girl) climbs onto the landing gear of a space shuttle, and then literally travels half the world, 16000 kilometers, at 600 kmph.
The fourth book in the Mindspace series, and again a very good one.
I’ve read two short stories by his (her?) hand that bridge the gaps between the larger titles, and now have started this one. I liked the short stories, but prefer the full sized novels.
As I said when reviewing the earlier installments, the narration is very good, and the somewhat seedy mix of a drug addicted ex-guild telepath, working in a post-tech-war world for the local police office just kind of works, surprisingly.
Brilliant. I want more.
Semi post-apocalyptic setting with a strong romantic vibe. Falls a little flat because it’s not as post-apocalyptic as suggested at the start.
Why I read it? Well, it's part of my endless quest for first person present tense references... It was mentioned on a list of present tense books, but it was wrongly listed.
Update: finished all four. They're okay, but not exceptional. I think the world would have been a much bigger hell had the famish as described taken place.
(From TellTales 109)
Subtitled The Last 49 Days, it’s the modern day equivalent of A Matter of Life and Death).
This isn't a bad movie either. Nothing earth shattering, but still interesting to see a Korean take on the ‘defend the good / bad guy against gods and their lawyers’.
(Click to enlarge.)
This is probably my last post this year, but who knows what can happen in the next seven hours 😁
So, let's work on the average self-publisher's depression... It's hard to get some hard numbers, so take the next bit with a bag or two of salt.
So here we go...
Google Chrome has profile support, allowing you to use different 'identities' when browsing the web.
A practical example is to use one account to write a blog, and a second account to test the functionality of that blog with a user name.
Touch Portal and OBS Studio are the (low cost) alternative to Elgato's Stream Deck and other Elgato solutions.
This page offers a quick overview of how to install and migrate both apps.
Every writer has a different approach to writing and editing. Every successful writer is probably going to tell you editing is an essential.
Every great writer without the money to afford an editor has to edit him / herself. It is my firm belief that if you don't edit, then you'll get nowhere. Period.
So, here's my current approach, until I'm rich enough to afford a real editor...
I've been trying to find a good explanation to help ease the pain, but thus far I haven't been able to write up some decent explanation, sorry.
Below's the best I could come up with thus far.
Nothing better than a morning wood... I mean, the woods in the morning...
This is a digital rendering of an early morning forest, but I can't remember where I found it, only that I like it. Works great on dual monitor setups.
(Click to enlarge.)
Touch Portal is a low-cost alternative to the Stream Deck.
Here's a little example on how to cycle through different pictos when pressing a button.
Multi-monitor setups are fun 😁
Use an old laptop or tablet an additional monitor? Not a problem, and with SpaceDesk you can mix and match iOS, Android, and Windows devices (!).
And best of it all: it is (still) free.
To show what this little tool does I decided to create a little video. Which was a little more complicated than expected, and I got distracted along the way 😁
So I learned OBS (to grab the screen), Magic Window (tracking the mouse pointer in OBS), looked at Stream Decks but opted for Touch Portal, added some features to WallX to simplify the handling and creation of icons, then had to learn how to edit videos in HitFilm Express.
Three 'direct to TV' movies. What can I say... Frank Grillo does his thing, and the monsters are nice. Everything else is meh. Think of it as a B- version of Independence Day, spliced together with a low budget fan-made scifi flick and you know what you're dealing with.
Verdict? Skip it.
I like Touch Portal but found the conversion of .ico to something Touch Portal can understand a pain, so I modified WallX a bit to make the process easier.
Well, nothing's ever completely done but WallX now runs smoothly and hasn't crashed on me yet. I've worked on importing files / exporting graphics, faster response to user action, and added some fail safe handling when writing files. Either Windows or some virus scanner was blocking my write access now and again. Also removed a bunch of smaller and larger bugs.
But... what has that to do with Touch Portal?
OBS is a nice tool, but it's more focused on streamers (seriously? 😁) than other types of users. I like OBS. I use it to record some presentations, make instruction videos with one or more screens, etc.
Combine OBS with a stream deck (an old tablet with Touch Portal will do) and it's gadget nirvana. Unfortunately OBS wasn't designed for non-streamers, and there isn't a way to force a single instance. Time for some tricks...
Of course you can buy a Stream Deck. They're actually quite nice and are great to use. Or you could use some software package and turn your tablet or phone into a stream deck. But what if your desk is already full, or you're out of cash? The Shuttle it is then.
Just like Christopher Nuttall, Bella Forrest is sometimes accused of plagiarism. I think that's not entirely fair, because she wrote some interesting stuff, but it's clear that she's sometimes - strongly - 'inspired'.
Then again, it is impossible to write something entirely original, so let's just shrug.
Another day, another update.
But I think it's a good one... No, a great one 😁
WallX is no longer merely a wallpaper manager, it's now also a mini launcher. Why? Well, 'because'... Seriously though, the new version included a systray icon, and I thought it a handy place to store my own custom shortcuts. Which, actually, works. More information or download it here.
Guild Wars 2 may have better graphics, better monsters, better frenemies, more content, easier skillsets (not sure if that's an improvement, but okay) but Guild Wars 1 had attitude.
If you never played an MMO, then download the (free!) Guild Wars 2, and enjoy!
(Click the image to enlarge.)
Remember both Pacific Rim movies? Well, here's an anime series set in the same universe, which isn't that bad. The animation is okay, the monsters are fine... though not exceptional. The story is okay, mostly.
If there's anything bad about this one, it's the ease with which the main characters accept they are responsible for murdering a village full of friends and family, that just doesn't sit well with me. Otherwise, it's fine...
