Fewer people than normal (is there a “normal” after only three?) asked what to get Samuel for his birthday this year – perhaps they all asked Olyvia and she didn’t mention it, or perhaps people know him better, or perhaps it’s just easier to buy for a three-year-old. My stock response (which I tried, fairly [...]
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
16 Apr
“Santiago” (Mike Resnick)
This was in the collection of second-hand books that I bought a few years back, and which form the bulk of my unread stack. To be honest, I wasn’t really expecting much, judging by the age and the cover (yes, I know the cliché, but without the cover, what’s left to judge by?).
However, I really [...]
16 Apr
“The Healer’s War” (Elizabeth Ann Scarborough)
I wonder if stories about Vietnam are only of interest to Americans. I certainly can’t recall any that have been interesting to me. This started out reasonably promising, but trailed off into a rather dull story that didn’t go anywhere. Characters come and go, and none are particularly captivating. Can’t really recommend this one.
16 Apr
“The Return of Santiago” (Mike Resnick)
I really enjoyed “Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future”, so I was quite hopeful about this sequel. However, while this was a good story, this wasn’t great. It was pretty obvious how it would turn out all along, and the characters weren’t as interesting as in the original Santiago story.
I would still recommend reading [...]
16 Apr
“The Science of Discworld III: Darwin’s Watch” (Pratchett, Stewart & Cohen)
I really liked the first Science of Discworld, and enjoyed the second as well. I’ve always liked the idea of mashing up educational material and fiction – here it’s loosely interspersed (odd chapters are lightly educational, even chapters are a related Discworld story), and I thought these were fairly well done.
This one, however, wasn’t that [...]
16 Apr
ta-meyer@ihug.co.nz, t-meyer@ihug.co.nz, tameyer@ihug.co.nz
I was ihug customer #377024, and signed up 20 Aug 1997. However, as of a couple of years ago, I wasn’t actively using my account (they finally made me angry enough to switch to someone else). I kept the account alive to keep these email addresses – in particular ta-meyer@ihug.co.nz had been active since 1997, which [...]
15 Mar
Wolfskin (Juliet Marillier)
The main reason that I bought Wolfskin was because I noticed that Marillier was a New Zealander (or at least was born here, although she lives in Australia now), and there’s not really very many NZ sci-fi/fantasy authors or books, and I’d like to support the locals as much as possible. (As an aside, my [...]
19 Feb
S92A, and other thoughts on the revised Copyright Act
There is quite a furore (e.g. #blackout) at the moment about the eminent arrival of the updated Copyright Act in NZ, pretty much all surrounding section 92A. 92A doesn’t appear in the official online copies (either HTML or PDF) – I don’t know if that is because it only takes effect from the end of the month, or [...]
13 Feb
Talking Toasters
At least once a week, I put bread in the toaster, put it down, go back to work, and then forget about the toast for an hour or so. The toast is never that great re-toasted.
Why doesn’t someone make a Bluetooth-enabled toaster (or maybe wi-fi, for a bit more range) that could pop up [...]
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