RogerBW's Blog

No Time Like the Past, Jodi Taylor 30 April 2021

2015 science fiction, fifth in the Chronicles of St Mary's series. Max tries to get down to the business of investigating major historical events in contemporary time (don't call it time travel), but old enemies are an ongoing problem, even out of order.

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Jesus Loves You 29 April 2021 - 7 comments

Is a catch phrase of the sort of evangelical who tries to go out actively recruiting. Which is fine if you're already in that mindset. But if you aren't, it can have unfortunate implications.

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Perl Weekly Challenge 110: Transpose Numbers 28 April 2021 - 1 comment

I’ve been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. The latest involved transpositions. (Note that this is open until 2 May 2021.)

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Less perforation, more perfer et obdura 27 April 2021

(Guest post from Gus.)

Put down your chow mein now. I only say that because the friend to whom I chose first to vent inhaled some of hers: apparently that's rather painful.

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Zero Sum Game, S L Huang 26 April 2021

2014 action/SF, first of a series. Cas Russell is a retriever of missing things in a world of action and adventure. Naturally, her latest job is going to get terribly complicated.

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More of the AdvancedCut 25 April 2021

Yes, I've been playing with the chainsaw again.

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Street Concept 24 April 2021

I quite enjoy Concept but the official teamwork rules are tedious. So this is a variant invented by Oliver of the Marlow gaming group, which works rather better.

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Marlow Tabletop and Board Games 19 April 2021 23 April 2021

This Meetup-based boardgames group remains on-line for the moment; as usual we got together on Jitsi and then played some games on BGA.

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Podcast Recording in Isolation 22 April 2021

Now that I'm involved in a boardgaming podcast as well as the role-playing one, and all recording is remote, I've been recording multiple tracks and editing them together.

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Space Sandboxes 21 April 2021 - 2 comments

There are three space sandbox games (i.e. with multiple things you can try to do in order to win) that I've tried. Which is best?

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Perl Weekly Challenge 109: Chowla Squares 20 April 2021 - 1 comment

I’ve been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. The latest involved another numerical sequence and permutations. (Note that this is open until 25 April 2021.)

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Fatal Thunder, Larry Bond and Chris Carlson 19 April 2021

2016 technothriller. As China and the rest of Asia recover from the war in the previous book, an Indian conspiracy plans to shift the stalemate in Kashmir.

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Exciting Choices in Gaming Typography 18 April 2021 - 10 comments

Someone sent me a link to a fan-made Traveller setting based on a USSR-derived interstellar power. And it's pretty interesting, except for the Cyrillic Thing.

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Boardgames in Isolation: April (part 1) 17 April 2021

More boardgames played from home. Fewer games, but a bit more diversity, or at least that's the way it feels.

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The Avenger, E. Phillips Oppenheim 16 April 2021

1907 thud and blunder. Herbert Wrayson finds a young lady rifling the desk in his flat. It turns out that she was after the fellow upstairs. But later that man turns up murdered…

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Back to the pub 15 April 2021

As many of you know, the landlady of our excellent local died at the start of December, so they didn't open in the short window before Christmas. Now it's possible again.

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Tales from Outer Suburbia, Shaun Tan 14 April 2021

2008 children's fantasy, illustrated short stories loosely based on suburban life.

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Perl Weekly Challenge 108: Memory Bell 13 April 2021 - 3 comments

I’ve been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. The latest involved bad things and triangular numbers. (Note that this is open until 18 April 2021.)

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Stories of Other Worlds, George Griffith 12 April 2021 - 5 comments

1901 SF. Lord Redgrave has built the first spaceship, and with his new wife (the daughter of the late inventor) goes on a tour of the solar system.

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Destiny's Shield, David Drake and Eric Flint 11 April 2021

1999 alternate-history war story, third of six books. Belisarius takes an army to help the Persians throw the invading Malwa out of Mesopotamia; his wife Antonina suppresses civil unrest in Alexandria.

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Cultural Artifacts, MaryAnn Johanson 10 April 2021

2021 SF, fantasy and horror anthology, 30 very short stories.

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Returning to Barbecues 09 April 2021 - 9 comments

I've been thinking about what it'll take to start running barbecues again.

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Marlow Tabletop and Board Games 5 April 2021 08 April 2021

This Meetup-based boardgames group remains on-line for the moment; as usual we got together on Jitsi and then played some games on BGA.

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Perl Weekly Challenge 107: Self-Descriptive Methods 07 April 2021 - 1 comment

I’ve been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. The latest involved several sorts of introspection. (Note that this is open until 11 April 2021.)

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The Space Between Worlds, Micaiah Johnson 06 April 2021

2020 SF. Humanity can travel to parallel worlds! But only pretty close parallels; and the only people who can do it are people whose other-world counterparts have died. Which means that the high-tech city has a use for people from the warlord-run town next door…

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Murder on Cold Street, Sherry Thomas 05 April 2021 - 3 comments

2020 mystery story, fifth of the Lady Sherlock series. Inspector Treadles, the Lestrade of this parallel Sherlock setup, is found in a room with two dead men, one of them the supposed lover of his wife. Everyone assumes he did it, and he won't speak up in his defence. Charlotte Holmes to the rescue!

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Roko's Basilisk is Pascal's Wager 04 April 2021 - 1 comment

Only without the mathematical literacy.

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Boardgames in Isolation: March (part 2) 03 April 2021

More boardgames played from home.

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Finder, Suzanne Palmer 02 April 2021

2019 SF, first of a series. Fergus is a finder, a probably-reformed thief turned repo man for (in this case) a stolen starship.

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March 2021 Trailers 01 April 2021 - 6 comments

Some trailers I've seen recently, and my thoughts on them. (Links are to youtube. Opinions are thoroughly personal.)

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