RogerBW's Blog

The Weekly Challenge 197: Move with a Wiggle 31 December 2022

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved list filtering and a perverse sort. (Note that this is open until tomorrow.)

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Breaking the Lore, Andy Redsmith 30 December 2022

2019 comic fantasy, first of the Inspector Paris series. Paris is a hard-drinking Mancunian detective, but he's not prepared for a beautiful woman crucified in a suburban garden. Or for her to be fifteen centimetres tall.

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Games in Reading, 8 December 2022 29 December 2022

Boardgames at a friend's place again, on a frosty night.

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All That Lives, James Oswald 28 December 2022

2021 supernatural mystery in modern Edinburgh, twelfth in Oswald's Inspector McLean series. People are overdosing on a strange new drug, and long-buried bodies are being dug up on construction sites.

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4.50 From Paddington 27 December 2022

1997 audio adaptation by Michael Bakewell of Christie's 1957 mystery, in one 90-minute episode. A friend of Miss Marple's, travelling by train, sees a woman being strangled in another train running alongside; but nobody reports having found a body.

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Rocket to the Morgue, Anthony Boucher 26 December 2022

1942 mystery. On the eve of the USA joining the Second World War, self-important literary heir Hilary St. John Foulkes insists that someone is trying to murder him, and there's certainly no shortage of people who would profit by his death. Then he's found stabbed in the back in a locked room… Originally published as by "H. H. Holmes".

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The Weekly Challenge 196: Pattern and Range 25 December 2022

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved looking for patterns in arrays. (Note that this closes today. Merry Christmas!)

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Marlow Board Games 5 December 2022 24 December 2022

This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet in the Britannia.

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Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir 23 December 2022

2022 fantasy, third of what was going to be a trilogy but has now expanded. Nona is a child living in a city at war, but still just about managing to go to school, while Camilla and Pyrrha look after her.

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Thirsty Meeples December 2022 22 December 2022

Back to the boardgame café.

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Love Lettering, Kate Clayborn 21 December 2022

2019 romance. Meg Mackworth hand-letters journals and planners, and spots patterns in things; last year when Reid Sutherland and his fiancée came in for their wedding stationery, she got a Feeling, and couldn't resist working a hidden message of M-I-S-T-A-K-E into the invitation. Now he's back…

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Inglourious Basterds 20 December 2022

2009 war, dir. Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent: IMDb / allmovie. Dakka dakka dakka aieee for you Tommy ze var is over.

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Nine Goblins, T Kingfisher 19 December 2022 - 3 comments

2013 fantasy novella. Goblins don't make very good soldiers, but there are lots of them. After an incident with a wizard, nine of them find themselves deep behind enemy lines. Fortunately, they run into a veterinarian…

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The Weekly Challenge 195: Frequently Special 18 December 2022

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved integer filtering. (Note that this closes today.)

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Series Tagging on a Kobo Libra 2 17 December 2022

I recently got a Kobo Libra 2, after my Aura ONE died. And I've been looking into its series tagging features.

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Heads You Lose, Lisa Lutz and David Hayward 16 December 2022

2011 comedic metafiction. Lacey and Paul are pot-growing siblings in rural California, who find a headless corpse on their property. "Lisa" and "David" are struggling authors who are alternating chapters of the mystery they're writing, but still have significant issues to work out from their former relationship…

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More Xia at Home 15 December 2022

Another gathering for Xia: Legends of a Drift System.

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Magician's Hoard, Celia Lake 14 December 2022

2019 romantic fantasy, third of its loose series. Proserpina Gates, widowed bookseller, is helping a client find a rumoured Roman treasure on her land. Ibis Ward is the scholar she engages to assist with the research…

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Peril at End House 13 December 2022

2000 audio adaptation by Michael Bakewell of Christie's 1932 mystery, in five 30-minute episodes. While "retired" and visiting a Cornish resort, Poirot finds a young woman who has already survived several murderous attacks.

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The March Hare Murders, Elizabeth Ferrars 12 December 2022

1949 murder mystery. David came to a small seaside village to live with his sister after his nervous breakdown, only to find as his neighbour Professor Verinder, whom he holds responsible for the suicide of the girl he loved. Sure enough, the professor is soon murdered; but David's far from the only person with a motive.

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The Weekly Challenge 194: Digital Equaliser 11 December 2022

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved expanding a search space and running a character frequency test. (Note that this closes today.)

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Marlow Board Games 21 November 2022 10 December 2022

This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet in the Britannia.

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Flying Colours, C. S. Forester 09 December 2022 - 1 comment

1938 Napoleonic naval fiction, third written but eighth by internal chronology. Captured at the end of the previous book, Hornblower is to be taken to Paris for a show trial and execution.

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Red Cliff 08 December 2022 - 1 comment

2008 war, dir. John Woo, Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro: IMDb 1 and 2 / allmovie 1 and 2. A true historical epic, based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

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The Zenda Vendetta, Simon Hawke 07 December 2022

1985 SF, fourth of its series. After Rudolf Rassendyll gets poisoned on a train in Germany, our heroes have to provide a substitute double for Rudolf V of Ruritania.

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More Wolvercote Games 06 December 2022

The Oxford Meeples had another quarterly games day (I've missed a few thanks to clashing events).

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The Janus Stone, Elly Griffiths 05 December 2022

2010 mystery, second in the series. After the events of the first book, Ruth Galloway is pregnant, and not quite sure how to tell anyone (particularly the father). Oh, and there's another archaeology-related crime to solve.

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The Weekly Challenge 193: Odd Binary 04 December 2022

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved a binary expansion and string analysis. (Note that this closes today.)

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Operation Medusa, Glynn Stewart 03 December 2022

2017 space-navy SF, sixth of its series. The Federation is doing a good job on the battlefield, but it's simply a smaller economy than the Commonwealth, and those numbers are starting to tell. So Admiral Kyle Roberts comes up with a plan to end the war now, win or lose…

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Princess Charlotte General Knowledge Paper 2022 02 December 2022

In the spirit of the King William's College General Knowledge Paper, released each December for completion over the Christmas break, I offer my own set of questions for the holidays.

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November 2022 Trailers 01 December 2022

Some trailers I've seen recently, and my thoughts on them. (Links are to youtube. Opinions are thoroughly personal. Calibration: I want a trailer to tell me what's different about this film; the marketers want it to tell me why it's like all the others…)

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