A^3's Cube

Two more lost Doctor Who episodes found

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 02:52:54 GMT

Paging purplecat
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g7kwq1k11o

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Halcyon Years by Alastair Reynolds

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 04:11:18 GMT

I've always liked Al Reynolds' books, although I can often only read them when not in a depressed state. For quite a while I got far behind on his writing because of that. I've only read the first of his Revenger series (YA steampunk in space) as that didn't really speak to me. His latest novel last year was Halcyon Years, which I just finished. It was fairly enjoyable but not I think one of his best. The main reason is that it seems rather like a mish-mash of things he's done before without much of a new idea. There is one hiding there, but while it's the BIG REVEAL most of the way through, it's not unexpected for anyone who knows his work.

( possible mild spoilers )

So, enjoyable, but a bit repetitive, perhaps if you've read all/most of his previous work.

When he was a guest at our local con he was in the middle of the Poseidon's Children series. In that, he did a slight variation on one of the main ideas from House of Suns, one of my favourites of his books. When I mentioned this he said it hadn't been deliberate, and when it was pointed out by his agent or editor (I forget which) it was too late in the process to re-write that aspect of the book. I'm not sure how much he was aware of re-treading ground this time around.

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Stick a fork in me, I'm done

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 09:11:08 GMT

In both senses, I am done for the calendar year with Universities work. Still lots of household work to do before and through Christmas, but having hoped to get finished with Marking Hell(TM) on Saturday I still had three essays to mark today. It seemed like Xeno's paradox at times, taking twice as long for each essay as the last. Having finished only two in two and a half hours this morning, I needed to take $OFFSPRING to the dentist, but finished the third while they are at a piano lesson just now.

Now, so very tired....Zzzz.

I may post the rest of this year's reading before the end of the year, or that may get left to January.

One note about watching. If you enjoy Japanese Anime at all, I highly recommend Dandadan. Such amazing fun I've watched the first two seasons multiple times already. The next season won't be until 2027 (though work on it is underway).

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Mansions of Madness

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 07:48:46 GMT

While visiting purplecat last year and this, $OFFSPRING and I enjoyed playing the Cthulhu Mythos game "Mansions of Madness" with her and B (and maybe G last year, too). We also enjoyed a game with $NEPHEW this year. Having discussed the possibility of a remote game with $NEPHEW and taken advice from purplecat I have bought a copy. The second edition of this game introduced a program to take on the role of the "Keeper" (aka dungeon master) which in the first edition meant someone had to run the game for the other players. The program now tells you what you can do and provides guidance on things like how the monsters move about the board, and keeps track of monster health. It also includes some fun puzzles. Nice for me is that it plays fine on the Steam linux program, which uses a Windows emulator under the hood to allow Windows-based games to play on linux. This game is one of those that works perfectly according to the database of game support. As it's not a heavy 3-d action game or anything, it's not that surprising, I suppose.

Looking forward to playing it with the family here. $WIFE likes Cthulhu Mythos so may be willing to play with us. We probably won't get to a remote game with $NEPHEW until the Christmas/New Year holidays, though, with the time zone issue making the timing awkward. The way we play (semi-role playing, heavy co-op discussion of actions) it was taking much longer than the suggested times. It will probably get faster as we become more familiar with the game, but even so, the time difference UK-Japan is long enough to make scheduling tricky, though not impossible.

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Up to date!

Sat, 19 Jul 2025 08:09:02 GMT

I have completed the semester's marking and mark returns for both University of Tokyo and Tokyo University of Science.

I am up to date on all the marking from Meiji University, though there will be some more essays submitted next Friday and the Friday after, for marking while I'm on "holiday" and I can then submit the marks to Meiji (one module out of three has been done).

I've completed the advance bookings for the holiday $OFFSPRING and I are going on next week.

I've complete a thing for the 2020 Worldcon admin, though there is still a big job ongoing with that to be done. The urgent one is completed, though.

I still have to pack for the trip.

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Ah, the joys of prsonal recommendations

Sun, 06 Jul 2025 06:12:59 GMT

One of my discussion/assignment topics for students on Information Science at Meiji University has long been "Personalised Recommendations: Useful or Creepy". Lots of the academic publishers track what you read and try to recommend things. Due to my teaching at University of Tokyo being for students on Japan and East Asian studies, and on Environmental Science, I have been pulling up at least the abstracts and often the
full paper (via U=Tokyo subscription where Meiji doesn't have it) for lots of papers relevant to those topics. Particularly Environmental Science this semester because in teaching academic presentation and writing to the Env Sci students I've got them basing a presentation and a grant proposal on an existing paper, so of course i need to skim the paper to check the validity of their work. Not my field, but I can blag it well enough for the level needed. So, of course Science Direct, who track what I look at, have now started recommending Env Sci instead of Information Ethics papers to me.

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Upcoming buuuuusy week

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 08:24:56 GMT

Just looking at my calendar for the week of the 14th April and it's going to be busy. Teaching at Meiji and at Tokyo University of Science (TUS) starts on the Thursday (10th) the previous week. University of Tokyo has an entrance ceremony on the 11th so Monday 14th has Friday classes start that day. I found out about this only because I emailed the office there to check my understanding of the schedule. Luckily I don't teach Mondays at a different university or there'd be a clash. Friday classes run as normal from Friday 18th so that week looks like this (all classes at TUS and U-Tokyo are 90 minutes, while Meiji is 100 minutes.

Monday:
One class before lunch, one after (U-Tokyo, online)

Tuesday
My own Japanese language class in the AM (90 mins)

Wednesday
One class before lunch, one after (Meiji, online)

Thursday
Two classes before lunch (Meiji, one in person, one online)
Two classes after lunch (Meiji, online; then TUS, in person)

Friday
One class before lunch, one after (U-Tokyo, in person)

Our local convention is the weekend of the 12th/13th and I'm the liaison (as usual) for our International Guest, Suzanne Palmer, so the weekend before this will be fun but busy, too.

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2025 Reading

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 07:01:47 GMT

In our last episode I'd read these books before.

An Inheritance of Magic by Benedict Jacka (re-read)
An Instruction in Shadow by Benedict Jacka
The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso
We Have Always Been Here by Lena Nguyen
Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard
Harbinger of the Storm by Aliette de Bodard

Since then I have mostly been reading Victoria Goddard's Greenwing and Dart series.

Clary Sage (Novella) by Victoria Goddard
Stargazy Pie by Victoria Goddard
Bee Sting Cake by Victoria Goddard<\li>
Whiskeyjack by Victoria Goddard
Blackcurrant Fool by Victoria Goddard
Love-in-a-Mist by Victoria Goddard
Plum Duff by Victoria Goddard
Balancing Stone & The Saint of the Bookstore (Novellas) by Victoria Goddard
The Secret Life of Bots/Bots of the Lost Arc/To Sail Beyond the Botnet (novelettes/novella) by Suzanne Palmer

I liked the Greenwing and Dart quite a lot (hence reading up to date in the series, though I've skipped a couple of novelettes). I picked up the recommendation of these as fantasy detective and while they do have a bit of a mystery feel, they're not quite mysteries. Fun, though. Cozy-ish fantasy of manners (ish). They're set in a common multiple worlds with many of her other books which I might pick up at some point.

As I think I noted when I read the Finder series last year, Suzanne Palmer is our GoH at the local convention next month, so I wanted to read her award-winning Bots shorts before then.Halfway through the final Bots story just now. The three add up to a short novel length, I think. Maybe one more and there'll be a collection (these three are all in online magazines). I've got another of her shorts also on the list (Surf). After that I am thinking about The Principle of Moments or maybe Alastair Reynolds Merlin's Gun sequence of novellas.

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2025 Reading

Sun, 16 Feb 2025 06:15:42 GMT

So, having caught up on posting about my 2024 reading, here's my 2025 reading so far.

An Inheritance of Magic by Benedict Jacka (re-read)
An Instruction in Shadow by Benedict Jacka
The Last hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso
We Have Always Been Here by Lena Nguyen
Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard
Harbinger of the Storm by Aliette de Bodard

The AdB are two of a trilogy. I'm not certain I'll continue with the third book. The first was OK, but the second is dragging a bit. I'll probably finish the second but unless it picks up, life's too short to try and push through things I'm not that interested in. These are billed as fantasy detective, but the mystery side isn't that much of a mystery. It's more of a fantasy thriller, but unfortunately not really thrilling enough.

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Belated 2024 Reading

Sun, 16 Feb 2025 06:08:22 GMT

When i last posted about my reading last year (in APRIL!) I'd almost finished my 25th book of the year. I then didn't post anything about the further reading last year. This wasn't helped by getting a new phone as I remember what I've read (or DNF'd) by checking my ebook reader which handily records which files I open, though not how much I read of it.

An Inheritance of Magic by Benedict Jacka
Felix Castor 1: The Devil You Know by Mike Carey
Felix Castor 2: Vicious Circle by Mike Carey
Felix Castor 3: Dead Men's Boots by Mike Carey
Felix Castor 4: Thicker than Water by Mike Carey
Felix Castor 5: The Naming of the Beasts by Mike Carey
Felix Castor 6: The Ghost in Bone by Mike Carey
Murderbot Diaries 1: All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Murderbot Diaries 2: Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
Murderbot Diaries 3: Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells
Murderbot Diaries 4: Exit Stragegy by Martha Wells
Murderbot Diaries 5: Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells
Murderbot Diaries 6: Network Effect by Martha Wells
Murderbot Diaries 7: System Collapse by Martha Wells
The Stranger Times 4: Relight My Fire by C. K. McDonnell
Mossa and Pleiti 1: The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older
Mossa and Pleiti 2: The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older
The Midsolar Murders 2: Chaos Terminal by Mur Lafferty
The Warden by Daniel M. Ford
Rogues of the Republic 1: The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes
Rogues of the Republic 2: The Prophecy Con by Patrick Weekes
Rogues of the Republic 3: The Paladin Caper by Patrick Weekes
Kingdom of Grit 1: The Thousand Deaths of Ardor Benn
Kingdom of Grit 2: The Shattered Realm of Ardor Benn
Kingdom of Grit 3: The Last Lies of Ardor Benn
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark
Wicked Problems by Max Gladstone
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison
Grief of Stone by Katherine Addison (also connected short Lora Selezh)
Melusine by Katherine Addison
The Virtu by Katherine Addison
The Mirador by Katherine Addison
Corambis by Katherine Addison
Witch King by Martha Wells
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
A Desoation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
Rose House by Arkady Martine
The Element of Fire by Martha Wells
Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells
The Wizard Hunters by Martha Wells
City of Bones by Martha Wells
The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells
Finder by Suzanne Palmer
Driving the Deep by Suzanne Palmer
The Scavenger Door by Suzanne Palmer
Ghostdrift by Suzanne Palmer
Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman
Starter Villain by John Scalzi (also un-related novella The Dispatcher)
Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
Throne of The Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed
The Prefect aka Aurora Rising by Alastair Reynolds (re-read) (also un-related Novella The Thousandth Night, connected to House of Suns)
Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds (also Open and Shut related short story)
Machine Vendetta by Alastair Reynolds
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

DNF's:
Infinity Gate by Mike (M. R.) Carey
Forbidden Magic by Angus Wells
Any Other Name by Emma Newman (sequel to Between Two Thorns)
Jade City by Fonda Lee

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Still no luck with full-time job

Fri, 13 Sep 2024 08:07:18 GMT

On 1st May, I applied for a post at Temple University Japan (a US university with a major Tokyo campus). I can't recall the deadline for submission, if indeed it had one since the job advert is still posted but has no deadline on it. Anyway, today three and a half months later I got a rejection letter(email) from them. Nicely worded, but still a rejection letter. At least they had the courtesy to send a rejection email, which so many places don't do. They claim it's because they get so many applications, but the cost of sending a rejection email to all unsuccessful applicants is so small if you set it up properly, that it's just laziness on their behalf, really.

So, the search goes on. There's a position at Tokyo Tech (soon to become Tokyo Institute of Science) and possibly one at Hosei University. Tokyo Tech is definite, I just have to get to it. Hosei is slightly annoying. They mention business strategy in the advert but when I asked if that was a complete requirement I got a "we can't help anyone individually" reply. Sigh. So, annoying though they are, I need a job and it's a decent university so I need to keep applying.

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Attractions in London

Fri, 17 May 2024 07:11:54 GMT

A friend of mine will be visiting London for a few days this summer with his 15 year old daughter. He asked me for recommendations on the best things to do in London for them together, but I'm actually not that well up on London these days, so any suggestions from those with recent teens living in/visiting London would be much appreciated.

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Travel

Tue, 16 Apr 2024 08:42:22 GMT

As noted just above, I was travelling in March. First to Spain for a conference. Then back to Japan for less than a week, during which I was diagnosed with Influenza A that I must have picked up in Spain. Sorry about anyone I infected on the plane, though at least I was masking for most of it. Then to the UK for $NEPHEW's wedding. Really enjoyed that apart from being somewhat convalescent from the flu. Then back to the beginning of the academic year. Just about recovered but now planning more travel.

End of May/beginning of June I do a round-the-world trip to Brussels, Ljubljana and Boston (MA). Three conferences in two and a half weeks. Not as intense as the four conferences, three cities, two continents trip I did in 2011 (opposite direction that time, to the US first, then Europe). I'm hoping the direction of travel and the slightly more downtime will make it less hard on my body. Planning to pre-record online lectures this time rather than trying to fit in fifteen make-up classes (five classes per week for three weeks of teaching days away). That will provide some other scheduling issues, but will be easier, I think.

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Tue, 16 Apr 2024 08:37:26 GMT

Reading:( previously reported )

The Warden by Daniel M. Ford
Rogues of the Republic 1: The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes
Rogues of the Republic 2: The Prophecy Con by Patrick Weekes
Rogues of the Republic 3: The Paladin Caper by Patrick Weekes
Kingdom of Grit 1: The Thousand Deaths of Ardor Benn
Kingdom of Grit 2: The Shattered Realm of Ardor Benn
Kingdom of Grit 3: The Last Lies of Ardor Benn

I haven't quite finished the Last Lies of Ardor Benn but I'm on the last 5% so there's no doubt I'll finish it.

As reported last time The Warden by Daniel M. Ford was fun and I'll keep an eye out for the sequels.

Rogues of the Republic was the fantasy heist I was looking for. Lots of fun. Great semi-amoral characters with a good reason for pulling a heist in the first book. Continues to be well-justified in books 2 and 3. Moves from a story of national politics in the first book to international politics in the second and world-ending threats from inter-dimensional forces in the third. Nicely woven word-building on multiple levels combined with fun characters and satisfying hijinks and capers. Recommended if that sounds good to you.

The Kingdom of Grit shares some of these characteristics. Again there's a well-established world-building which gets explained by the third book, which builds up to a potentially world-ending scenario. Each book is around twice the length of Rogues of the Republic and I'm not sure that much extra length is justified. Book 1 trotted along nicely, but 2 seemed a little bloated and 3 started to feel dragged out by about two thirds of the way through. Not quite as enjoyable characters. The main character in this one is a conman ("ruse artist" in his own words) pulling cons but often as part of heists of various kinds. Multiple heists per book. OK but not as good as the Rogues.

Next up will probably be Robert Jackson Bennett's fantasy Holmesian (from reviews) The Tainted Cup. I enjoyed his Divine Cities and most of his Founders Trilogy (not fond of the ending). The next Max Gladstone Craft Wars is now also out so that might be next but one.

Watching

Between travel and being ill (I picked up flu [not CoViD, properly diagnosed after I got back to Japan] in Spain, was just recovered enough to go to $NEPHEW's wedding in the UK after that, but quadruple jetlag on top of flu recovery has left me with limited energy lately). Re-watched Gravity Falls with $DAUGHTER. Started a re-watch of Whittaker NuWho, but only got one episode in. Re-watched a bunch of other stuff, including persuading $NEPHEW and friends to watch The Legend of Vox Machina first couple of episodes and first episode of Lockwood and Co. Have things like the second half of Constellation (might finish it, night not) to go.

Finished Halo season 2. Unlike many critics I didn't like season 2 as much as season 1 (many critics preferred 2 thinking it worked better, but it dragged out a bit for me). I'll still watch season 3 when it drops, probably in two years time, maybe a bit quicker if there are no more strikes disrupting production.

Looking forward to Dr Who starting a new run, although I'll be travelling again during part of that run.

Playing

As with watching, limited energy. Some more advance Portal stuff. Finally got into Pikmin 4, though I still think Pikmin 3 is better. $DAUGHTER finished a first run-through of Undertale. She'll probably go back through the different methods of finishing it, later.

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Academic Update

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 07:23:19 GMT

The submission to "late breaking work" at CHI was accepted. Some quick turnaround for dealing with reviewers comments (four reviewers, including an obligatory "Reviewer 2" who recommended rejection, but the other three liked it).

Panel proposal to CPDP was accepted. Working on finalising the panelists to that.

Related presentation accepted for the Surveillance Studies Network biennial conference the following week in Ljubljana. Looking at whether my lab's research funds can cover a further add-on to this with an event in Cambridge, MA immediately after. This might also be a bit much time away my teaching (I could teach some of my courses remotely from Brussels and Ljubljana since I teach them with live online lectures anyway). I'll have to think about that.

Grant proposal to JSPS reected again (fourth, maybe fifth year in a row - getting fed up of this but I need to keep applying).

Deep in unpaid work developing an EU grant proposal at present.

Off to Madrid for a conference in a week.

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Reading, Watching, Playing

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 07:07:30 GMT

Reading

( Read more... )
3. Felix Castor 2: Vicious Circle by Mike Carey
4. Felix Castor 3: Dead Men's Boots by Mike Carey
5 .Felix Castor 4: Thicker than Water by Mike Carey
6. Felix Castor 5: The Naming of the Beasts by Mike Carey
7. Felix Castor 6: The Ghost in Bone by Mike Carey
8. Murderbot Diaries 1: All Systems Red by Martha Wells
9. Murderbot Diaries 2: Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
10. Murderbot Diaries 3: Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells
11. Murderbot Diaries 4: Exit Stragegy by Martha Wells
12. Murderbot Diaries 5: Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells
13. Murderbot Diaries 6: Network Effect by Martha Wells
14. Murderbot Diaries 7: System Collapse by Martha Wells
15. The Stranger Times 4: Relight My Fire by C. K. McDonnell
16. Mossa and Pleiti 1: The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older
17. Mossa and Pleiti 2: The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older
18. The Midsolar Murders 2: Chaos Terminal by Mur Lafferty

As previously reported I re-read the Felix Castor series by Mike Carey, enjoying his return to the unfinished ("larger" world-building plot, the smaller "personal" plot was finished in the original five) series, though this was a shortish book for him and an update. Hopefully he'll now go on to complete the world-building plot which goes on top of the personal plot he finished in the original five books.

I then noticed another new book in a series I like, the latest Murderbot book. I like these so much that I just re-read the whole sequence (I re-read the two shorts stories "Compulsory" and "Home, Habitat, Niche, Range" as well). The latest one is a worthy addition. Apple TV are supposed to be developing a TV version of this. I'll be interested to see how they manage. There's various things they could screw up (Murderbot's agendered and completely asexual but caring nature hidden behind self-loathing [hence the self-given name] and sarcasm) and some things I'll be really interested to see how they do (shows-within-shows will be fun if they do them since Murderbot is addicted to future "TV" shows it downloads in an unauthorised manner as part of its general cracker/hacker nature).

Continuing with previous series, the latest The Stranger Times came out. I'm really enjoying this rather different take on urban fantasy.

Malka Older's previous work was very much in my academic area (The Centenal Trilogy). She's written a standalone novel which I haven't tackled yet but I decided to give this "cozy Space opera mystery" series a go, after coth's positive review. Nice Holmes-like set in human settlement on Jupiter. The mysteries are nicely tied in to the setting. The setting is interestingly Victorians-in-Space for moderately adequately hand-waved reasons. The characters are enjoyable. Cozy, but fun. The economics and the worldbuilding are light with a few odd things such as the abundance of energy due to living on a planet of "gas" - but while Jupiter's atmosphere does include a lot of hydrogen and some methane, it's unclear where the oxygen for the humans to breathe and to combust with the H and CH4 comes from). Just don't look too deeply and these are fine.

Another series mystery, with the second of Mur Lafferty's Midsolar Murders. Again, a satisfying SF-nal mystery with the murder being tied to the circumstances and human (and alien) nature. Some nice working with the original setup (which explains how and why someone ends up living like a classic murder mystery character due to alien influence), and some great use of the "Babel-fish" to cause as much confusion as it solves.

I'm now reading "The Warden" by Daniel M. Ford. I went looking for recommendations of Fantasy Heist novels having enjoyed Dragon Age: Absolution and D&D: Honor Among Thieves last year. Halfway through this is not a fantasy heist novel but it's enjoyable and readable. Nice magic system, well-enough explained without getting lost in the detail. Nice characters, probably the setting for a longer series as long as it sells well enough. I'm enjoying it enough to return to the series if it becomes one, even though it wasn't what I was expecting.

I have a couple of series which look like they actually are fantasy heists coming up next.

Watching

Finished NuWho rewatch with $DAUGHTER after completing Capaldi's run (she remembers Whittaker) and then catching the Christmas Special we skipped by mistake (A Christmas Carol). Watched a bit of Echo with $DAUGHTER, and most of the live action Avatar: the Last Airbender. $DAUGHTER has completed her intense prep for junior high school and is less busy but is losing some interest in what she watches with me. Not surprising given her age. She may grow out of, or back into, SF&F. She shows little interest in my other more adult SF&F shows like recent Star Trek. Soon she'll be old enough for Supernatural which she expressed interest in before, but may or may not be interested in when she's a little older.

Watched Pixar's Elemental as a family which was really fun and shared themes with Zootopia so we re-watched that shortly after.

I finished A Certain Magical Index and am now watching the spin-off A Certain Scientific Railgun (internal chronology is a bit confusing, but this is parallel to a lot of earlier Index, but fun enough to watch anyway). There's another short spin-off (A Certain Scientific Accelerator) which I'll watch after Railgun.

I finally watched the second half of "The Nevers". OK, but the second half of the season doesn't live up to the first half. Whether this was due to Josh Whedon's departure or just a flawed payoff from a major reveal in ep 6 I'm not sure. Not terribly disappointed it didn't get renewed.

I re-watched Halo Season 1 and am in the middle of Halo Season 2 as it comes out. Enjoyed Season 1 re-watch. Season 2 is a little slow in moving the plot forwards but has interesting character development.

Playing

A little bit of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, completing almost all of the DLCs and some missed side-quests from earlier in the game. Just the main boss battle to come, really. Stalled on that as I started Portal 2 in local co-op mode with $DAUGHTER who now has time after her JHS entry. I got the Portal/Portal 2 double-pack on Switch so I also played Portal on my own. Completed the main story and optional maps. Now deep into trying to complete the additional challenges. Just remember: "The Cake is a Lie!".

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Reading, Watching, Playing

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 08:47:08 GMT

Reading

$WIFE was reading Kathrine Arden's The Bear and the Nightingale (in the Japanese translation) so I decided to give the original English a go. I DNF'd it after the first five chapters. I quite like Russian folk magic tales, and folk tales retold are fine, but this was was just so slow getting started with anything happening. It was all scene setting for five chapters, and actually no real sign of things getting going soon after that. So, I bailed. As per my new policy of "I read fiction for fun. If it's not fun, stop reading." I then moved onto another re-read of a series with a new book. Back in the 00s Mike Carey (who I knew then mostly as a comics writer from Lucifer and Hellblazer) had a series about Felix Castor, an exorcist from Liverpool based in London. Tortured bloke who normally wears a Russian army greatcoat but in the latter part of book 1 ends up in a trench coat... if you're familiar with Hellblazer you can see that this is basically Carey writing his own version of Constantine in novels. I've no idea if he originally pitched this idea to DC for a Hellblazer run or as Hellblazer novels, or if he just decided to "write what he knows" as he added novels to his output. He's since expanded his novels into a variety of forms, including an SF duology of which the first came out last year and the second is due late this year. He wrote five novels in the Felix Castor series and the end of those five did NOT complete the ongoing storyline. In fact, it left things rather up in the air. I enjoyed these (I'm a Hellblazer fan, so, you know) but was disappointed that he stopped. I was never sure if he ran out of steam or the publisher didn't want more or what. Anyway, he finally picked up this series again again The Ghost in Bone came out in summer last year. So, I've started a re-read of this series with "The Devil You Now" and am onto book two "Vicious Circle".

Watching
Continuing NuWho slow rewatch with very busy $DAUGHTER. About to start the double ep finale of season 10 (not my favourite as I've mentioned). Rewatched the first six episodes of The Nevers and am just about to start the second half of the only season. I was in two minds about bothering since HBO unceremoniously dropped the show half way through and the second six finally appeared on a different platform ages later. Behind the scenes stuff with Joss Whedon and allegations of workplace bullying seems to have killed it. Continuing to watch season 3 of the anime "A Certain Magical Index" with English subtitles, but trying to listen to the dialogue as ear-training for my Japanese study. Rather silly anime at times, but fun enough to watch but light enough that I can treat it as ear training. Watched The Flash movie. Lots of fun if you know previous DC movies/TV shows. Nice to see Michael Keaton as Batman again. Final cameo by (Spolier-redacted) was also fun. I'm not sure on the status of Blue Beetle as part of this failed DCU set of movies or whether it will be rolled into the new version Aquaman 2 also to come soon. The DC movies have been very varied with only a few good ones (I though The Flash was fun but not great) and a fair number of lemons. Maybe the new version will be better. The MCU continues to be consistently good or better, with (for me) only a few lemons. Not seen The Marvels or Echo yet. Still working through What If... Season 2 as well due to $DAUGHTER's study load.

Playing
Continuing with the DLC for Zelda:BotW, finshing off some missed side quests as well. I'll soon finish the main story on this. I'll have to see what I move on to then.

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CHI Submission (upcoming)

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 03:03:54 GMT

A bit of a first for me in that I'll be a co-author on a CHI submission this week. CHI is one of the largest conferences around. It's on Computer Human Interaction (or HCI as it's more usually called in the UK). Not my field particularly, but I'm broadly collaborative. This came out of a cold contact I did with a Western (Canadian as it turned out) researcher at Tokyo Tech who appeared on NHK news. They work in the deceptive design research area, analysing what deceptive design is, how it works, how to avoid it and how to help users not be affected by it. After meeting up with them for a chat about mutual areas of interest they invited me to join them in working with a new PhD student of theirs on an analysis of the theoretical basis of the deceptive design literature, to help suggest appropriate solid theoretical bases for this field which up to now has been primarily empirical in nature with a very limited theorisation. The result is a "late breaking work" submission to CHI which should be submitted in the next day or so. We plan to continue working together on developing a more in-depth examination of what the theoretical framing should be for this area. This paper is mostly about showing that the current literature lacks a good presentation of this and laying out an initial set of ideas (that was my primary input) for the future work that's needed. This is unfunded work on my side, but the workload was light and it's all grist to my CV.

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Reading, Watching, Playing

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 08:27:01 GMT

Reading
To round off 2023 I finished Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence re-read the Dead Country, the start of "The Craft Wars", a follow-up trilogy with books two and three to come. I read them in publication order, which is definitely not internal chronology order. There's a lot of discussion of why he did that (including some "Word of God") and a discussion of the best reading order, with internal chronology and publication order not necessarily being the only orders that make sense. I like five of these, and struggled a bit but finished the one I don't particularly like. The new one was a bit odd. It follows on from the final one of the original sequence in detail, picking up one of the main viewpoint characters from the first published book, who also features in many but not all of the others. The previous book set up a world-threatening situation (hinted at previously) and while this one does progress that major plot somewhat, it also features a very narrow plotline with conceptual and plot threads across to many of the other books, but it was a bit too focussed for me and not as enjoyable as some of the others. I'll keep an eye out for the rest of this series when he puts them out, but I may wait for book 3 of the follow-up trilogy before reading 2 and 3.

To start 2024 I started Gladstone's standalone Last Exit but DNF'd on it. A possibly intriguing mix of Lovercraft, Amber and some Howard Waldrop elements in here. It's a much bigger book than his Craft Sequence ones. I enjoyed his Empress of Forever and his previous Lovecraftian short Crispin's Model, but this one did nothing for me. Too much horror for me, I think. I enjoy dark fantasy and shorter Lovecraftian horror can be fine, but this was too much emphasis on the horror making the story too slow, and I just couldn't be bothered to wade through the last 60% of the same to get to the storyline.

i then thoroughly enjoyed, and finished in about three days, Benedict Jacka's start of a new series. I re-read the earlier books and caught up on the last couple of his earlier 12 book Alex Verus series, which I really enjoyed. This new one is again urban fantasy but in a completely different world with a very different magical setup in both mechanics and society. The only problem was that this is a fairly new book, so I've got to wait a year or so for the next one. Recommended if you liked his earlier stuff or like good urban tantasy.

Watching
I binged through two Japanese manga/anime inspired series over the winter break. Yu Yu Hakusho (in Japanese,watched with English subtitles, because my Japanese still isn't good enough to follow properly without) and One Piece. Both fun in very different ways. Caught up on new Dr Who with $DAUGHTER and continuing a slow re-watch of NuWho, up to the middle of Capaldi's final season with Bill Potts. Enjoying the season, but I didn't particularly like the ending for Bill. Twice Upon a Time is good, though so looking forward to that. Mostly liked the special and new Doctor, though the Christmas Special was good for the performances of the new Doctor and new companion, but the story was a bit "meh". Watched/re-watched a bunch of movies such as (all four of) the Chronicles of Riddick, the last Witchhunter and Merry Little Batman, plus a rewatch of one of my all time favourite old movies Arsenic and Old Lace. "Ye Gods, there's another one!!!". Re-watched Dragon Age: Absolution Season 1. Have been hoping for a season 2 of this, but no sign yet, not even a confirmation they'll be making it (or a cancellation notice) and watched through Dragon's Dogma (probably a one-off season since it finishes the story, though they might do more set in that world).

Playing
Gave in and bought the DLC pack for Zelda: BotW and am playing through those elements before doing the final boss battle sequence. Bought a few other games for the Switch because they were deeply discounted (Dragon's Dogma, Portal 1/2) but haven't played them yet. $DAUGHTER is deep in final prep for/taking junior high entrance exams so not doing any coop play with her until Feb after her exams finish.

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How Tea Saved Lives

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 01:41:02 GMT

A fascinating bit of history, human geography and public health research demonstrating a strong argument that the rise in tea drinking (driven by the availability of cheap tea, which of course was driven by colonial exploitation and slavery) in the UK saved lives (in the UK, but at the cost of how many in tea-producing places?).
https://volewica.blogspot.com/2023/12/how-tea-saved-lives.html

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Music

Tue, 14 Nov 2023 06:41:36 GMT

I went to the Triphony hall in Kinshicho today for a concert by four of the local Sumida-Ku primary schools' sixth years. Each school did an approx 10-15 min piece. They were good quality. One thing I noticed was that three of the four (the exception was a marching band, who didn't march much as this was a stage) had anything from five to twelve piano-key accordions which look very much like vivdunstan's icon photo one (the biggest group had some green as well as red). $DAUGHTER's school, including $DAUGHTER, took part. She was part of a choral performance and then played the bass organ in an orchestral piece. $MOTHER-IN-LAW, $FATHER-IN-LAW and $WIFE also attended.

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Shonan Meeting (Vegetarian Cooking's Biggest Failures)

Fri, 03 Nov 2023 09:16:14 GMT

So, from Monday morning (actually Sunday night) until Thursday morning I was at an NII Shonan Meeting. This is explicitly an attempt to replicate the Dagstuhl Meetings that purplecat has blogged about. I'm not sure it is as successful as the Dagstuhl Meetings in attracting attendeed. This one on "Privacy's Biggest Failures" was actually conceived by a few people (including a Japanese prof) who attendeda "Security's Biggest Failures" Dagstuhl Meeting.

The academic content was good and the people were worth meeting. I'm hoping there will be some output afterwards in the space of both academic papers and some advocacy-oriented materials. We certainly have some plans.

What was not good at all was the food. Having registered as "vegetarian" for the event, they came back and asked about "milk, eggs, fish and fish broth" in an email. However, for lunch and dinner every single day the main meal for me was some form of fake soy meat in a variety of forms ranging from fairly unappetising to downright off-putting. I know no vegetarian who actually uses these kinds of fake meats by choice. it's the lazy solution for a meat-eating cook who can't be bothered to learn how to cook vegetarian.

On the Wednesday, after a half-day excursion to Kamakura (well worth visiting if you're in Japan) we had a meal out at a local restaurant, which really showed what can be done for vegetarians. That meal had as much as possible of the menu shared with the others, but either did a substitution of something other than fake meat for an ingredient or did a different (tasty, appealing) vegetarian dish. It was all both Japanese ingredients and pretty traditional Japanese cooking. It was also a well-balanced meal with tofu (not soy-based meat substitute, just tofu), miso and a variety of mushrooms providing the protein. The Shonan Village Centre really need to send their chefs to that restaurant to learn how to make tasty, balanced meals with Japanese ingredients and dishes.

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Reading, Watching, Playing

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 04:51:01 GMT

Reading

As noted last time, I enjoyed T L Huchu's Edinburgh Nights starter, so I caught up with books two and three of the series. These filled in a little more of the current situation in the world, but I'm still confused as to how that world relates to the real world. There's a fair amount of overlap, but it's unclear if this is a parallel history with magic or if it's a post-apocalyptic future where magic is a hidden history until the apocalypse. Despite that, I enjoyed the main stories. If you liked the first one, these continue quite well in the same vein.

After that I went back and re-read Lev Grossman's The Magicians Trilogy. As I've noted elsewhere, the TV version of this is one of my favourite shows and I regularly re-watch it. I've only read the original books once, though. The TV version is definitely "inspired by" rather than "adapting". While many of the simple versions of plot points in the TV show are drawn from incidents in the books, there are substantial differences as well. The first book in particular is much more of a condensed parody/response to Harry Potter (Brakebills), while the second half is a parody/response to Narnia (Fillory). It really is a book of two halves. The TV show leans far more heavily on the Fillory stuff from the start, with the Brakebills elements being more of a backdrop, albeit with some episodes focussing more on that side of things. I enjoyed the books on a re-read, but I still prefer the TV show. There're some comics which follow the books rather than the TV shows. The first shows many of the events of the books from Alice's point of view. One of the criticisms of the first book is that it's told almost completely from Quentin's POV. The second reveals Julia's story from the timeline of the first, in flashback, covering about a third of the book, with some other viewpoints, but still about half Quentin. The third book shares Quentin's and Janet's viewpoints about equally. So, Alice's story should be interesting and I mean to get to it. Then there's a sequel of a "new class" at Brakebills which I'll get to at some point.

Having finished a re-read I went on to Ann Leckie's latest Raadchai (how many "a"s I can never remember) universe book "Translated State". This was an interesting continuation in a minor way of some of the main plotlines from the original trilogy, but the focus of the story is on showing the human-derived Presger Translators. This made somewhat uncomfortable reading at times, but Leckie did a good job of, for me at least, not going over the line in pushing me into someone's head where I really didn7t want to be. I was reminded of my review of one of Juliet McKenna's early-ish books where she puts us in the head of a not-as-bad-as-the-rest member of a vicious society. I found that one really hard going because she really put us into his head and it wasn't a nice place to be. Leckie did a better job os this, I think.

Now I've started a re-read again, this time of Max Gladstone's Craft series. He's recently published the start of a sequel series which will "complete" the story of that world. I remember the world generally, but it was good enough for a re-read and that was on my agenda to be re-read at some point, so I decided I'd do the re-read before the firsts book of the new series.

Watching

Continuing a re-watch of NuWho with $DAUGHTER. We went through just the specials of Tennant in preparation for the upcoming sequences in November. Then we went through almost all of Smith (we skipped A Christmas Carol by mistake but didn't go back when we realised) and then continued through into Capaldi. Not loving the treatment of Danny Pink by the Doctor. The really deep antipathy to soldiers seems to come out of nowhere with this doctor, just to generate the tension with Danny. Some of it really is just over the top. Skipped "Kill the Moon" episode because it's just too ridiculous even for Dr Who.

I caught up on season 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Mostly enjoyable. I sometimes quite like musical episodes (Buffy! The Magicians (multiple times)) but I couldn't get on with the musical episode of SNW. Maybe it was the style of music. Maybe the songs were just too long. Maybe a combination. I mostly skipped the songs. The season ends on a huge cliffhanger. They've no introduced most of the main cast of TOS except for Bones, Sulu and Chekov. I'm definitely expecting to see Bones introduced, and probably Sulu and Chekov as well. The crossover episode with Lower Decks was fun, even though I don't watch that show.

Finished the Wheel of Time S2 and the Witcher S2 re-watch (didn't re-watch S3 since I'd only just watched it for the first time).

Playing

Continuing with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Close to beginning the final battle against the bid bad. Brief couple of sessions of local coop play with $DAUGHTER on Human Fall Flat's most recent extra level. Some very tricky platform and laddering in a game where the imprecision of character movement is a big part of the base. We're probably on the last or next to last section of what's turning out to be quite a hard and involved level. Thinking about what I might play after BotW is finished. There's a DLC for BotW or I've been looking at the Switch port of The Witcher III: The Wild Hunt, which has had good reviews as an RPG.

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Reading, Watching, Playing

Fri, 15 Sep 2023 04:18:45 GMT

Watching

Caught up with The Witcher Season 3, then decided to do a rewatch of S1/2. Finished S1 but distracted by other new things before moving on to S2.

Re-watched Tennant Dr Who Specials so $DAUGHTER can remember his main aventures. Then moved on the a re-watch of Matt Smith because he's $DAUGHTER's favourite Doctor. Part way through Season 6 now. Amy's fleshbot just got dissolved.

Staring Watching The Wheel of Time S2, which is what distraced me from The Witchers S2 re-watch.

Bunch of other stuff watched recently, too.

Playing

A new level of Human Fall Flat dropped so I've half-finished that collaboratively with $DAUGHTER. Other than that I've been blasting my way through The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Switch. Really enjoying it. For those who've played, I've done 110 shrines, all fours Divine Beasts and opened all the maps. I know where a few more shrines are but hanve't completed their shrine quests yet. Only found about 240 Koroks so far (of the 900! in the game). Still enjoying the challenge and it's a fascinating open-world game.

Reading

I finished the main Chronicles of Amber, but didn't read the short story collection. The Corwin stuff (1-5) was great, the Merlin stuff (6-10) so-so. I re-read This Immortal/...And Call me Conrad, which is some other people's favourite Zelazny. It's OK, but for me nowhere near as good as Lord of Light. One of the main things I love about Lord of Light is that it provides a solid explanation/justification for the re-telling of the myths. By the end, one knows where the people came from, how they got their "powers" and how they became gods. The motivations are believable and apart from an unfortunate bit of sexism (Zelazny fails the Bechdel Test in most of his books, I think) the whole thing still holds together amazingly well more than half a century after it was written. This Immortal left me with more questions than answers, the mythic elements were not as clear and were certainly not as well justified as in LoL. How old is Conrad? Pre/Post Disaster? Who knows... Nope, LoL is still my favourite Zelazny.

"Yama poured more tea. Ratri ate another sweetmeat." Probably my favourite quote from LoL, although "and then the fit hit the Shan." comes a close second.

After that I was Zelazny'd out so I moved on to The Stranger Times, recommended by vivdunstan. A very enjoyable comic fantasy. He acknowledges his love of Pratchett which comes through in some of it. I found there were already two sequels (This Charming Man and Love Will Tear Us Apart) which satisfactorily continued the tales. There's a fourth due out in January, so I'll look for that one then. Some resonances with the Grimm TV show in there for me, which I really enjoyed back when so that added to my enjoyment. A little bit of resonance with Oddjobs and Oddjobs 2 I thought, in tone and a little bit in theme. The darkly comic tone is definitely similar.

Now started the most recent Rivers of London non-PC Grant novella (Winter's Gifts as long as many novels from the 60s and 70s) starring the US FBI agent introduced in an earlier PC Grant novel. From the title I was expecting a followup to The October Man (whose non-PC Grant protagonist is a German police office called Winter, who ends up paired with another officer called Sommer (i.e. Summer)).

I also found that there are two more in T. L. Hochu's Edinburgh Nights series. I liked the first one so these two are on the list next. I remember the first one well enough to no need a re-read, I think, though I'll decide whether or not to go back when I finish Winter's Gifts.

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Reading

Sat, 15 Jul 2023 06:05:50 GMT

Again, just a round-up of reading. Not much interesting going on in the watching or playing.

After Kunsken's Quantum trilogy, as discussed in the last reading post, I continued with the heist and read Megan Whalen Turner's "The Thief". This is listed as a young adult series, but doesn't strike me as particularly young adult fare.

The Thief is, indeed, a fantasy heist book and a fun one, with some nice twists. Although one of the main characters (apart from the titluar thief) is called "The Magus" he seems to be just a well educated person rather than one who can actually do magic. Indeed, this is the lowest of low fantasy with no apparent magic in the late medieval/early renaissance style. Oh, except there are gods who do interfere in things occasionally. This is the first of a six book series of which I read all of them. Despite four of them featuring the titular Thief as the main viewpoint character, only the first is a heist novel. The rest are political military thrillers set around a pseudo mediterranean sea, with the action mostly set in a sort of Greek peninsula under threat of domination by European and Middle Eastern empires. My interest varied a bit but they just about kept my interest.

I then tried a book at least one, maybe two, of my online circle here recommended or at least mentioned, "Her Majesty's Royal Coven" by Juno Dawson. I uttered the 8 Deadly Words about a quarter of the way through and gave up.

I then tried Walter Jon Williams Quillifer (again, the start of a series). I've enjoyed WJW work in the past, particularly the Drake Maijstral comedies and his cyberpunk (Hardwired) and Space Opera (Dread Empire's Fall, though I've only read the first three). He's also written a bunch of historical adventurer books and this one is a very low fantasy rather like The Thief, with no magic except Gods apparent. I got about a third of the way through this before giving up. I just didn't like the first person narrator enough to keep on with it.

So, that was two DNFs in a row. I needed a pick me up after that and turned to an old favourite, Roger Zelazny's "Doorways in the Sand". My second favourite Zelazny book after Lord of Light, which is my favourite book by anyone. It's a light, fun, read with a likable academically-oriented first person narrator and a wonderful setup of a galactic civilisation. A bit Cold War influenced, but it was written in '76/'77. Apparently one of Zelazny's own favourites of his own work. I'd like to see someone take this on as a movie or tv show.

I then continued with Zelazny by finally reading "A Night in the Lonesome October" which I've had a copy of for years but never actually read, though I kept meaning to every recent October when vivdunstan does her annual October read of it. This was published in 1993, not long before Zelazny died far too young in his mid-fifties (not long after being the GoH at the Leeds Uni Unicon where I had the privilege and pleasure of briefly meeting him). I really liked this. A great Victorian fictional character mashup with Lovecraftian elements, a sentient dog narrator and lots of twists and turns.

I then turned to another Zelazny that I've read before and that many rate as his best, or one of them. So far as I can remember I've read this once having failed with it a couple of times before. I failed again this time: Creatures of Light and Darkness. I just can't get past the vicious torture of the first chapter. While Doorways has a torture sequence it's told in an interesting way without becoming horror or torture porn. The Creatures one, to my reading, is both.

I didn't give up on Zelazny re-reads though and am currently working my way through the Amber series. Currently on book 4 (The Hand of Oberon) having zipped through Nine Princes in Amber, The Guns of Avalon, and Sign of the Unicorn. I've read the ten novels before though not the short story collection that I also have, which I might read after the novels if I'm not ambered-out by then.

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