danbensen

[danbensen]

[danbensen]

I'm imagining those amphorans singing: "yata yata da-da-da!"

a glimpse at the broader biome of this story, for some of the extra pages im sneaking in as back-matter for the tale...

[danbensen]

A drawing from 2009 that I am currently using as the basis for the cover of a new book (coming to kickstarter next year). An amphoran warrior and a human trooper, posing for a candid photo

[danbensen]

Like a pilot in a squall, I set my jaw and tightened my grip. There was no light to aid me and the traffic was going out. My only chance was a U-turn. So I hove to, and rounded the meridian. From my October Newsletter.

[danbensen]

Invading the System by Inadvisably Compelled I have a weakness for Progression Fantasy, where the protagonist gains skills and levels up like a video game character. Take the gamification too far, though, and you have a LitRPG. Compelled gets that. In this book, post-singularity Earth was invaded by the System and turned into a deadly game of wizards killing monsters (and civilians and each other) in return for power. Survivors in space used biotechnology to fight back, and managed to drive the perverse incentive structure off Earth. But just as the last portal to the other System worlds was closing, one post-human super-soldier slips through. He calls himself Cato, and it is his mission to pursue the System to its source and annihilate it. A fun, fun book. From my October Newsletter.

[danbensen]

When the hero of Wealthgiver meets the heroine.

[danbensen]

Remind me later.

[danbensen]

Може ли водката да отдели парите от портфейлите на глупави западняци? Представяме ви най-обикновената водка. Има технология, се нарича фотосинтеза, която превръща въглероден диоксид от въздуха в етанол. С помощта на патентован патат се улавят CO2 емиси�� чрез казан за преобразуване на въглерод, захранван от възо��новяеми джибри.

(via 🍸 This vodka is made from air! - YouTube)

@danbensen 

[danbensen]

I usually give up on bad books quickly and don’t bother to write reviews of them. This book, however, wasted enough of my time that I feel it my duty to warn you off. It was very disappointing. The premise is excellent, but I suspect McCarthy tried to stretch the first act of his story into the first novel of a trilogy. We end up with a book that is mostly filler: digressions, characters who have nothing to add, meaningless sex, and a protagonist who keeps not getting it. Because the author doesn’t allow her to see what’s in front of her face, she comes off as clueless and bitchy. Corcoran’s Aristillus series is much better, and so is McCarthy’s earlier work. From my October Newsletter

[danbensen]

The climate in this region is usually hot and dry, punctuated by sporadic torrential downpours. After such events, the ground flourishes with a dense interconnected web of growth taking advantage of the temporary hydration. Once all the water dissipates, the soil is left to crack in the heat of the day. During these times Ponderosus are on the move, searching for the last remaining vernal pools. They used the times of plenty to fill up on nutrients, but now during a drought they switch primarily to photosynthesis to meet their energy needs. The smaller, dish-faced Lanx are not so lucky. Embedded in the ground unable to move, they must simply go dormant if the rains do not arrive soon enough. For now they point their open frills at the sun and gather energy while they still can. A Stealthspring prowls the scene looking for unfortunate small creatures who may not be faring well in the heat. Their predominant walking style requires a different gait for front and back sets of legs, but if needed their whole body becomes a giant spring, allowing them to burst forward for great distances. In an environment where major features like the ponderosus can move, it can be difficult to navigate from day to day, so the stealthspring must be ready to take flight at any time, should danger come calling.

[danbensen]

When Pavlina pulled out of our driveway on her way to work, the front tire on the passenger side of the Leaf made a noise like a wet tarpaulin dragged across gravel. She turned right back around and stowed the car, which she’d deal with later.

By God, I vowed, she would not.

Read on

[danbensen]

When Pavlina pulled out of our driveway on her way to work, the front tire on the passenger side of the Leaf made a noise like a wet tarpaulin dragged across gravel. She turned right back around and stowed the car, which she’d deal with later.

By God, I vowed, she would not.

Read on

[danbensen]

The best anthropology is the kind that tests hypotheses. In The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, Benedict's posits that the apparent contradictions in WWII Japanese society were caused by a basic desire to be respected, and what is worthy of respect is to act wholeheartedly, holding nothing back. It's a good explanatory model, and more importantly it produces prescriptions that seem to have worked. Benedict unapologeticaly offers advice to Douglas MacArthur's SCAP government on how to best govern Japan according to American interests. It seems to have worked.

From my September newsletter

[danbensen]

The best anthropology is the kind that tests hypotheses. In The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, Benedict's posits that the apparent contradictions in WWII Japanese society were caused by a basic desire to be respected, and what is worthy of respect is to act wholeheartedly, holding nothing back. It's a good explanatory model, and more importantly it produces prescriptions that seem to have worked. Benedict unapologeticaly offers advice to Douglas MacArthur's SCAP government on how to best govern Japan according to American interests. It seems to have worked.

From my September newsletter

[danbensen]

We are approaching the maximum of images you can post here so I thought it was time I make a little showcase of all the formation pieces we covered so far on the streams.

For people who don't know: for several months now I draw one formation or fossil locality every Saturday. The next place we visit is chosen by a wheel of names, which we also constantly fill up again when a new formation is picked.

I try to make it as interesting as possible in my composition and choice of animals and I can tell you this series has been a great training when it comes to constructing these, how I call them, Menageries.

I have to thank a team of friends and colleagues who help behind the scenes with research, creation of size charts and conversation partners when it comes to deciding on the compositions of these pieces. Their help has been invaluable!

[danbensen]

Athos Lone is the son of a pair of resistance fighters (one royal, the other a scalawag) who joined a wandering mystic to help overthrow an evil, interstellar empire. Okay, you got it. Except this couple had more kids than just the one.

To avenge his brother’s muder, Athos joined the government force tasked with hunting space pirates. We join him on the job as he breaks into a ship, The Devil’s Delight, with the aid of his ultra-tech space-cloak, his myth-tech lion's mask, and his courageous, heroic nature.

Wright plays his usual trick of packing an epic trilogy's worth of detail into the backstory, of which very little appears on the page. There was a robot in a top hat and a winged pirate queen, but we don't get to hang out with them because we're mostly on that ship with Athos.

To be fair, Wright dumps so much punishment on his protagonist that we spend most of our mental energy wondering how the boy's going make it out of this one. Athos escapes one deadly challenge by diving into another, solving past mysteries and uncovering larger conspiracies as he goes, sometimes with supernatural aid.

read on

[danbensen]

"At the graduation ceremony," she said. "I was backstage with Ellie and I overheard some seniors talking. One of them asked, 'what will we do with Russian after we graduate? We can't go to Russia. We can't work for a Russian company.' But another one said, 'we know a whole language. We can find something to do with it. We don't know what will happen in the next twenty years.'"

From my September newsletter