The show’s done the usual cutting, streamlining, or tweaking that adaptations do, like making Lamb less of an offensive jerk and River a little more competent than in the books. Otherwise, I think they’re pretty similar, tbh; same story beats, very snarky, fairly quick-paced. There’s something about the first 3 that I liked better than the next couple (which is why I put this one on pause), but I can’t put my finger on it.

Ooh, awesome! I hope you end up enjoying Relic. It wasn’t my favorite book ever, but I thought it was fun.

Thanks for the recs!

Finished Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett. Discworld books are always a delightful read.

Currently reading London Rules by Mick Herron, which I put down about halfway through, a long time ago, and never got back to. I’m trying to kill time til new bingo starts, and this is going to be the new season of Slow Horses, so I figured now was a good time to finish it. It’s fun.

I don’t see people mention the Budayeen series very often, but I remember it being great!

Not sure how good these are (or how truly cyberpunk-y they are), as I haven’t read them, but here you go:

• Club Contango by Eliane Boey (Singapore)
• Stormblood by Jeremy Szal (Australian by nationality, Middle-Eastern/Slavic ethnicity)
• House of Gold by C.T. Rwizi (Zimbabwe/South Africa)
• The Ten Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan (India)

It’s on my watch list, although I’ll probably end up waiting til it’s streaming to see it. Glad to hear it’s good!

( [email protected] and/or [email protected] might appreciate this post, too.)

Nice! You could move AltC to 4D and 2C to 5D (or just use your substitution square and put AltD in there), and get D column. (Demon Crown’s military thriller + scifi might count as unusual for 4D hard mode, idk.)

I looked up some of these because of your summaries. Did you have a favorite?

Did you end up liking The Butcher of the Forest? I thought it was wonderful, even though the last couple of pages felt very tacked-on.

Any clear least favorite from your reads?

John Le Carré is on my list, but I haven’t read him yet. What did you think?

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was great. I can also recommend Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, although I bounced off the sequel (YMMV, ofc).

Here’s my list:

• 1A: Older Than You Are - The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
• 1B: Water, Water Everywhere - The Bell in the Fog by Lev AC Rosen
• 1C: What’s Yours is Mine - The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré
• 1D: Family Drama - Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
• 1E: It Takes Two - Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky
• 2A: New Release - Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud
• 2B: Plays With Words - Dark Star by Oliver Langmead
• 2C: Independent Author - There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm
• 2D: Bookception - Malice by Keigo Higashino
• 2E: Disability Representation - Death in the Spires by KJ Charles
• 3A: Eazy, Breazy, Read-zie - Hold the Dark by Frank Tuttle
• 3B: Stranger in a Strange Land - On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers
• 3C: FREE SPACE: One Less - A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
• 3D: There is Another… - Auberon by James S.A. Corey
• 3E: LGBTQIA+ Lead - Weak Heart by Ban Gilmartin
• 4A: Now a Major Motion Picture - To Catch a Thief by David Dodge
• 4B: It’s About Time - The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed
• 4C: Award Winner - Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
• 4D: Mashup - City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
• 4E: Local to You - Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
• 5A: Debut Work - Neuromancer by William Gibson
• 5B: It’s a Holiday - Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge
• 5C: Institutional - Relic by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
• 5D: Minority Author - The Spite House by Johnny Compton
• 5E: Among the Stars - The Last Gifts of the Universe by Riley August

Stats I thought were interesting: 10/25 were off my TBR pile; 18/25 hard mode. Most read category: horror, followed by scifi (including multi-genre works).

This was fun!

It’s not there if you’re trying to do professional printing: I still see people complaining about messed up color profiles, exporting, etc. Otherwise, I’ve found it fairly ok, although pelespirit’s right about the clunk here and there.

Reading Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett. 'Nuff said.

Finished The Orb of Cairado by Katherine Addison. Set in the world of–and very similar to–her Chronicles of Osreth series; in other words, if you want more Goblin Emperor or Witness for the Dead, this is a nice little tidbit. Works as a standalone, but the societal naming conventions will probably confuse you if you start here.

Just started The Orb of Cairado by Katherine Addison, as a palate cleanser. I expect it’ll be cozy.

Finished Fever House by Ken Rosson. This started very fast-paced, but (imo) got bogged down by (interesting) flashbacks. I enjoyed it, but would have liked it to be shorter, somehow. Not sure I’ll read the sequel, since this one swerved into a sub-genre I don’t usually go for.

Finished I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle. In general, I think it has pacing and tonal issues (be aware that it’s not cozy all the way through!), but it was also cute in, like, an 80s-YA-fantasy kind of way. I don’t regret reading it, but I think there are better books to recommend.

Currently reading Fever House by Keith Rosson. I guess I’d call this action horror? There’s a severed hand that makes people near it want to be overly violent, and various players trying to acquire or get rid of it. Fast read, enjoyable so far.

I did tweak a couple of the curves slightly in the file I sent Mem, but nothing really noticeable.

Yay, glad you like the changes!

Did you recreate this from scratch?

I just traced over your version with vectors. Only changes I made were pointy book corners and slightly flatter ears on the sides (b/c I’m lazy). I’ll DM you the file to do with as you please.

I like the idea (and it’s very cute!), but it feels a little busy. I think that could be solved by simplifying the book shape, if you’re down to give that a shot (feel free to ignore me, ofc). Two suggestions to try, not sure if either will work:

• Get rid of the inner black line and the orange, and use a single black line down the middle for the crease instead. If the book shape isn’t strong enough at that point, you can always try thickening up the edge, or coloring the whole shape.
• Alternatively, remove the black outline (and the orange fill) entirely (apart from a center book crease), and just have the ears, nose, and whiskers (maybe also eyes?) be a different color. Let the book be the highest contrast shape, so it’s obvious.

EDIT: Ok, look, I was impatient to see what it could look like, so I did it myself. (I may have gotten a little carried away.)

@[email protected], YOU DID SO GOOD! LOOK HOW CUTE IT IS.

Hackers.

Fanart of artist rendition:

I have the sound of this stuck in my head now, thanks.

Oh shit, actually written by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden, not just story credits. Tentatively looks good?

Awesome, thanks!