Beware the Military-Industrial Complex...

What does $456 Billion buy?

I especially like the fact that we could convert our nations fleet of cars to ethanol (with enough cash left over to make ethanol readily available at gas stations), but it only pays for 1 year of medicare.

cripes
Tom

Beware the Military-Industrial Complex...

What does $456 Billion buy?

I especially like the fact that we could convert our nations fleet of cars to ethanol (with enough cash left over to make ethanol readily available at gas stations), but it only pays for 1 year of medicare.

cripes
Tom

Reviews Return

Hi,

Just finished reading Saturn Returns by Sean Williams.

This books suffers from the "clearly a trilogy" problem. Obviously the book is one part of a larger whole. Which means that all the major plot points the book offers up are completely and utterly unresolved by the end of the book. In addition, the book ends on a point that isn't terribly cliffhanger or in the middle of the action (which is good), but that is a little weak. It's a bit like this whole book was a prologue and *now* stuff can start happening.

However, it suffers from no shortage of cool ideas. It postulates a galaxy spanning trans-human civilization where the light speed barrier hasn't been broken, but human mortality and metabolism has been. Takes thousands of years to make it to the next star? Just slow down your temporal experience and you'll only experience a few hours. There are Primes (mostly regular humans), singletons (enhanced humans who have multiple copies running around) gesalts (combined minds) and Forts (slow tempo, massive intelligences).

Our hero Imre Bergamasc is reconstructed from a floating drum of iron whose interior has been etched with a thin line of copper that's recorded all of his data...well, most of his data. Someone nuked the drum. But a gesalt mind scouring the edges of the galaxy for traces of God finds the debris and reconstructs it as best it can. But sometimes it has to guess...like at Imre's gender (it was a 50/50 shot and it's something that can easily be changed later on).

Imre tries to rediscover himself and in the process learns that the Continuum (the galaxy spanning society run by the Forts) has pretty much fallen to pieces. He sets out to find the people of his past and figure out what's going on.

and...that's pretty much what happens...except for the whole "figure out what's going on". Oh, he does a fair amount of that, but he's left with more questions than answers and only a vague sense of what to do about it. He does find a few "friends" although most of them have an axe to grind with "him".

Like I say, suffers greatly from "clearly a trilogy" syndrome, but there's some really spiffy transhumanist stuff going on under the hood. I'm sufficiently interested that I'll probably look into the next book in the series.

later
Tom

Reviews Return

Hi,

Just finished reading Saturn Returns by Sean Williams.

This books suffers from the "clearly a trilogy" problem. Obviously the book is one part of a larger whole. Which means that all the major plot points the book offers up are completely and utterly unresolved by the end of the book. In addition, the book ends on a point that isn't terribly cliffhanger or in the middle of the action (which is good), but that is a little weak. It's a bit like this whole book was a prologue and *now* stuff can start happening.

However, it suffers from no shortage of cool ideas. It postulates a galaxy spanning trans-human civilization where the light speed barrier hasn't been broken, but human mortality and metabolism has been. Takes thousands of years to make it to the next star? Just slow down your temporal experience and you'll only experience a few hours. There are Primes (mostly regular humans), singletons (enhanced humans who have multiple copies running around) gesalts (combined minds) and Forts (slow tempo, massive intelligences).

Our hero Imre Bergamasc is reconstructed from a floating drum of iron whose interior has been etched with a thin line of copper that's recorded all of his data...well, most of his data. Someone nuked the drum. But a gesalt mind scouring the edges of the galaxy for traces of God finds the debris and reconstructs it as best it can. But sometimes it has to guess...like at Imre's gender (it was a 50/50 shot and it's something that can easily be changed later on).

Imre tries to rediscover himself and in the process learns that the Continuum (the galaxy spanning society run by the Forts) has pretty much fallen to pieces. He sets out to find the people of his past and figure out what's going on.

and...that's pretty much what happens...except for the whole "figure out what's going on". Oh, he does a fair amount of that, but he's left with more questions than answers and only a vague sense of what to do about it. He does find a few "friends" although most of them have an axe to grind with "him".

Like I say, suffers greatly from "clearly a trilogy" syndrome, but there's some really spiffy transhumanist stuff going on under the hood. I'm sufficiently interested that I'll probably look into the next book in the series.

later
Tom

[Lions and Hyenas] -- Creation Myths

Hi,

Some background stuff for the Lions and Hyenas game I'm planning:

( Creation Myths )

Note -- I like this origin story for Vampires and Ghouls (and it pretty much popped into my head fully-formed), but it's really just background. The game itself isn't likely to focus heavily on Judeo-Christian symbolism/imagery unless the players have a real yen for it. For the most part, Vampires are the ultimate Athiests ("there is no god, because we killed him -- and we'll do it again if we have to") and ghouls know that all human religions are just shams to fool people while they have the one true faith ("our god is real because we have magical powers"). Various NPCs on both sides of the fence may use religion to further their plans, but for the PCs, rooting out the schemes of the ghouls and putting a stop to them are all that's required.

Oh, which reminds me that sometimes PCs may be asked to help out in some Vampire project designed to help improve humanity. Mostly their job will be to prevent Ghoul disruption, but there could be other tasks. Ambitious PCs might have a pet project of their own to work on between investigations.

fun stuff
Tom

[Lions and Hyenas] -- Creation Myths

Hi,

Some background stuff for the Lions and Hyenas game I'm planning:

( Creation Myths )

Note -- I like this origin story for Vampires and Ghouls (and it pretty much popped into my head fully-formed), but it's really just background. The game itself isn't likely to focus heavily on Judeo-Christian symbolism/imagery unless the players have a real yen for it. For the most part, Vampires are the ultimate Athiests ("there is no god, because we killed him -- and we'll do it again if we have to") and ghouls know that all human religions are just shams to fool people while they have the one true faith ("our god is real because we have magical powers"). Various NPCs on both sides of the fence may use religion to further their plans, but for the PCs, rooting out the schemes of the ghouls and putting a stop to them are all that's required.

Oh, which reminds me that sometimes PCs may be asked to help out in some Vampire project designed to help improve humanity. Mostly their job will be to prevent Ghoul disruption, but there could be other tasks. Ambitious PCs might have a pet project of their own to work on between investigations.

fun stuff
Tom

Now, we own a piece of Baltic Avenue...

Hi,

The closing is slated for June 7th.

And then the moving
Tom

Now, we own a piece of Baltic Avenue...

Hi,

The closing is slated for June 7th.

And then the moving
Tom

I am Heavy Weapon Guy...

...and this is my weapon.

heh
Tom

I am Heavy Weapon Guy...

...and this is my weapon.

heh
Tom