Book 28 (and movie too) - The Martian

I love my scifi. I really do. It's the genre I tend to go to most of all.

(There's usually a "but" here isn't there .... not today !)

Book 28 is The Martian. I've already read this book a few times and it's a testament to how good I think it is that I keep going back to enjoy it again. This time, I reversed the order and watched the film before reading the book.

They are essentially the same story, although some of the scenes occur out of order and there are scenes that are in the book but not film and vice versa.

It's a consequence of a film having between 2 hours and 3 hours to tell its story. A book like the Martian is more like 8 to 10 hours. There's a lot more scope in there to explain and just add more content.

One huge criticism I have of the film, after reading the book, is that elements of it just don't make sense. The trek in the rover is the biggest example here. 100+ days cooped up in that rover ? Won't work. Plus where does the extra kit go. The life support equipment. Where does it go ? It's touched on in the movie but so much is glossed over.

Other scenes are added into the movie which are either just plain bad (the explanation of the slingshot) or are unnecessary (the metaphorical "let's kill Sean Bean's character again"). I did think that the movie's Watney teaching scene at the end was an excellent addition though, I'll say more about that in a bit.

What is The Martian ?

The book opens with astronaut and botanist, Mark Watney, writing his log on Mars, a sol or so after being left behind during an emergency evacuation and stranded on our neighbour planet. It's an inhospitable place, with barely any atmosphere and extreme cold. All he has to survive with are the rations left behind, the equipment in place and his wits. The communications with Earth are cut off and it will take 2 years for any assistance to arrive.

The book swaps between the point of view of Watney, as he writes about his escapades in his log, the mission controllers and administrators back at NASA, the rest of his crew and a selection of other places. But it's mostly about Watney.

He's a likeable character with his most important resource being his brain. He'll look up answers and figure things out through science before getting stuck in to sort out the issues he's facing. From food, to life support, to communications, to driving a few thousand miles across a desolate planet, away from his base of security.

There is a lot of humour in the book and it takes the time to explain what's going on in terms that I hope everyone reading can understand. I'm cheating there because I'm an engineering graduate with interest in the other sciences on show in the book and I've been reading fiction about space since I was a kid, so I probably understood the engineering and technology a bit quicker than most. With the language and prose in this book though, I don't think anyone will be left behind by it.

And the science bits are wrapped up in that humour that runs all the way through the book. You can figure out what's going on before the reveals, which just makes it all the better.

There is some unnecessary drama plopped into the story but ... if the author didn't do that, you'd have an Arthur C Clarke lecture. (Legendary author ... but I found his books to be a bit lectury) And the drama causing scenes are very plausible.

As a scifi story goes, this is utterly rock solid in its plotline, the technology and science on show. This is in contrast to a story like Interstellar, where it has an amazing storyline but the technology, science and stuff around that plotline is so bad it's insulting to the space geek. The Martian has an excellent story, supported by accurate science and the characters are varied and charming.

I loved this book. I've already read it a few times and I enjoyed reading it this last time just as much as the first.

Highly recommended.

Book 27 - The Walk of Titanicus

Another book complete !

This one is Titanicus by Dan Abnett, set in the very dark future of Warhammer 40,000. (Attribution for a splendid picture must go to AmazingTrout at the link)

What is Warhammer 40,000 ? For the uninitiated, it is an incredibly dark gaming universe set 38,000 years in our future. When I left it, the Immortal Emperor had been encased for 10,000 years in his Golden Throne on Earth/Terra ever since his body was broken as part of the Horus Heresy which split humanity between the Imperium of Man and the corruption of Chaos.

As a gaming setting, it has everything going for it. Faster than light travel through the warp, which is also where the demons live. Humanity encompasses large areas of the galaxy, although areas are off limits due to the incursions of Chaos, predations of the Orks or the mystery of the Eldar. I gather that there are a few more races joining in now like the Tau, Necrons and they've always had the Tyranids (who ended up owning the Genestealers too for some reason) who are your classic Devouring Swarm.

(The place I got this pic from don't own the copyright, so no attribution for them. This time it's from Pacific Rim)

Oh ! The setting. The Warhammer 40k universe has many worlds, from agricultural, to backwater, to trade to .... industrial hive world. Worlds like Orestes, the setting for Titanicus, have been overtaken by industry. The atmosphere is polluted and everyone clusters together in huge city hives holding millions. The hive spires are above the clouds.

Orestes has several hives, however there are also the slum areas outside the hives. Areas left behind. Areas where the dispossessed and evicted live. The book does a wonderful job of painting all of this, as well as the interaction between the unaltered Imperium society and the mechanically enhanced Mechanicus who work the machines, build the machines, repair the machines.

And this book is all about the machines. And they're big ones ....

Way bigger than that one. (Again, no attribution cos the site I got it from doesn't own the copyright, that'd be the movie, toys and comics people).

Titanicus unleashes the Titans. They are the masters of the WH40k battlefield, standing between 10 metres tall for the scouts, to 23 metres tall for the mainstay Warlords, to even bigger for the Emperor Titans. (I think that scale is wrong but there's wikis for you !)

Picture ? Actual Titans this time ?

There we go. It's from the wiki.

The book does a fantastic job of dramatising an incursion by Chaos Titans onto the world of Orestes. The defenders are vastly outmanned and outgunned, having had their strength drawn away by the eternal wars. To their aid rides the Legio Invictus with their Titans.

The best parts of this book bring out the contrast between the ordinary infantry soldier or tank drivers, going up to the scale of the massive Titans. It's a vastly uneven fight and, be warned, the book does not hold back on the descriptions of what Titan scale weaponry can do to ordinary humans, while the Titan shields barely notice the impact of human scale rifles, with the Titans casually sweeping aside even formations of vehicles.

You feel the terror of the characters involved in the fights and are riding along with them as the explosions and impact of the battles. Dan Abnett is very good at drawing that out in his book. And alongside that, there is the battle going on at home inside the main hive city.

Will Cally and her crew survive ? What will become of the remnants of the tank formation ? How about the engines (Titans) and their crews ? Will the Imperium hold off the forces of Chaos this time ? What will become of the Mechanicus ?

It's an excellent book, although I have to say at least 100 of its 600 pages are lost to a sub plot which distracts away from the main action a little too much. Apart from that and to borrow a phrase from Cyberkitten about the film Battle: Los Angeles, this book is start to finish : Pure unrelenting combat.

Would recommend if you're interested in the Wh40k universe, although probably not for the faint hearted. I read it before a few years ago and enjoyed it as much this time, getting caught up in the ride not knowing whether the characters would survive or if they would face sudden annihilation at the hands on the God Machines.

Next up is The Martian, which I'm enjoying just as much this time as the other times I've read it.

Book 26 and an Iron Fisted Wraith

Back to books !

It feels like it's been a long time. Quite spookily coinciding with the cricket season and the reactivation of the Warcraft sub.

(Picture unattributed - it's from Pinterest and they don't play nice at all with attribution. Let me know if it's yours, if you'll let me keep it there and it you want a note/link).

To the book ! More natter later.

This one was Iron Fist, the second in the X Wing Wraith Squadron books by Aaron Allston. It picks up on an excellent start from the first book and runs from there. There are new characters to replace those lost in the first book. Not all of the squadron survives this book either ... It's part of why these books have a certain compelling factor to them, you don't know who is going to survive out of the characters that don't have Plot Armour*.

*Plot Armour - a device where certain things have to happen, certain characters have to be in one piece for later. Like Picard could get captured (multiple times actually), Data could have his head blown off ... but they'll be back for the next episode.

Anyway. The story in this one follows the first, where the Republic born from Rebellion is trying to track down and deal with the Warlord Zsinj. He's an elusive one .... with a very powerful and nigh on unchallengeable Super Star Destroyer, the Iron Fist of the title of the book.

Just for chuckles ... Lego Super Star Destroyer build video ! I'd love to put one of these together but ... It's still £550+ for an unopened one on That Auction Site Everyone Knows About.

To the book !

Yep. The Wraiths are set up this time as a pirate band, with them even stealing the fighters they use to prey on a star system. The hallmark of these books is clever tactics and strategy, where it's believable that the squad have everything in hand for the plan .... and then react as the plan falls apart around them.

Oh and the characters have a lot of fun throughout the books and you, the reader, are invited to share in that totally free form fun.

I won't put too much more but I'm looking forward to reading the last book of this three and then there's Isard's Revenge if I can find where I buried it in the mountain of books.

I'd say that's me but ..... I suspect Cyberkitten got there first and stole the chair.

Actually no ! The shadow off to the left is Cyberkitten's mountain of books ... towering over mine.

I may acquire more Stuff tomorrow. Legoland ! Looking forward to it. On a school day too. (I have tonnes of flexi credit built up and I need to burn some of it down).

I haven't been posting much lately, the ideas haven't been flowing like they can do. Hopefully another post soon !

Haha, I suspect a Legoland post may appear over the weekend.

Books 24 and 25 - Classic Wraith Ships

Haha. Not Stargate Atlantis, although the Wraiths in that were a fairly decent (if over melodramatic) enemy.

Nah. Two more books completed, Wraith Squadron by Aaron Allston and something I picked up called Classic Ships. I enjoyed both of them and the Classic Ships book was a nice little in between one before I dive into the next Wraith Squadron book.

What is Wraith Squadron ?

It's a book that I feel is very definitely inspired by the X Wing games and the successors that were so excellent for their time on the PC.

They're from the first age of space games on the PC and the X Wing series had massive competition from games like Wing Commander (never played) and later Freespace (own but too busy with Tie Fighter). The screenshot above is from X Wing Alliance, which was a fairly late entry in the series, almost the last game actually.

The systems from the games are interwoven into the series of XWing books. It doesn't restrict the books at all, it somewhat adds to them as the game mechanics give them a skeleton to build up good space combat action sequences. But the stories aren't all about that.

Whereas the Rogue Squadron books were about a squadron of elite pilots, Wraith Squadron is about a far more interesting set of misfit characters who are on their last chances before losing their chance to fly space fighters. And it's not just about the space combat, the characters are brought together for their covert intrusion skills.

It all makes for a quite packed book where you really don't know where it's going to be going next. And that's just the plot. It's jammed full of character interaction too. The characters grow throughout the book. They change in more obvious ways than is usual for a book, at least the books I've been reading lately. Oh and the author has huge amounts of fun with his characters as well, with a few running jokes going through the story and relentless humour brought out when you're least expecting it.

If you understand Star Wars, you will definitely enjoy this book. If you're coming into it without reading too much of the old Star Wars Expanded Universe (the one that's been written out now!) then I think you'd enjoy it as well.

One thing about Wraith Squadron is those characters ... Outside of a couple of the regulars, they are all unknown. Which means no plot armour .... (Plot armour is when you have a major character like Luke, Leia, Han who has to stay around for future books, they won't be dying). And no plot armour and the style of this particular series means that death can happen at any time to the characters involved.

I like that. It adds in a certain uncertainty that adds a lot of interest to the book for me. In fact, one particular superbly dramatic scene had remained in my memory from my last reading which must be many, many years ago.

Next up is the second Wraith Squadron book, Iron Fist.

I quite enjoyed racing through Book 25 yesterday evening as well. It was Classic Ships, which I picked up thinking it would have lots of lovely pictures in (it does). A short book of just 123 pages, it goes from Tall Ships, to working ships, to ocean liners and gives you a few words about each.

It's curious to see how the ship designs changed over the years. I was especially curious about the low, thin and very long designs of the tall ships and the earlier steam driven ships. It feels like we started with clean lines, went all bumpy around the two World Wars and now we're back to cleaner lines again.

An enjoyable read.

In other news ...

Tap is still winning. I get the feeling it needs the old adaptor and its pipe chopped off and a new fitting applied. That's a job for a professional plumber.
Me ? I am super tired but I've booked a week off work in 3 weeks. If it gets cooler then that'll help. The heat wipes me out. This weekend will be chilling out with a few domestics to do.
And more healing too. Almost there.

And reading ! Around streams and Warcraft that is. Never go adventuring without a great looking hat.

That's Tashmetu, Shaman in Training.

Book 23 Between Planets, between ..... taps ...

Short one tonight cos I'm behind on these book posts again !

Book 23 was Between Planets by Robert Heinlein, not one of his best. Not quite as bad as what Farnham's Freehold turned out to be (a great premise but went in a really bad and highly racist direction). But nowhere near the standard of some of his other books like Starship Troopers, Time Enough For Love and The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. Oh and Friday too. Friday is an exceptional roller coaster of a book, may have to read that one again.

This one follows young Don Harvey as he escapes Earth just at the .... spoilers redacted ... Ok. Less spoilers. The story is about attempting to get between Earth and Mars, to reach his parents .... while ending up in other areas of the solar system.

The books dates somewhat, as a book written in 1951 is missing much of the innovation that followed. That rarely matters in a Heinlein book though, he writes exceptional scifi about characters, political systems and the somewhat shady arms of enforcement (not necessary legal enforcement) that back up what the political systems are attempting to achieve.

One consistent factor in Heinlein books is that his characters have to survive by either application of force or they have to evade force being applied to them. And often his characters are on the wrong end of Who Has The Bigger Stick.

That's definitely the case in this one where our Don has to escape Earth mostly on his own resources and across the solar system definitely by his own initiative.

A bit of a slog this one, even for a 170 page story. I wouldn't recommend it but do check out the books above, plus a few more in the Lazarus Long sequences and the multiverse sequence. The Cat Who Walked Through Walls may well find itself in my reading list soon.

Oh ... the reason why I'm somewhat squeezing out this post is because I've already read Book 24. But that's one for another day.

Taps ?

Not that kind of tap.

I've been doing the plumbing again ... I think the mains water pressure has gone up over the weekend as a consequence to them fixing something and I believe that's too much for one of my old taps. It has been dripping ...

I have the replacement tap and know how to fix it but. The new pipes are the wrong size ! And I can't use the old pipes because they're brazed into the old tap !

Grr.

It has defeated me tonight but I shall return anew. With different pipes. I've left things in a state where there are no drips so the old taps will be good for a few more days. Water pressure is a bit low though.

And it's still too warm ! Also humid. Hopefully it'll cool down soon but after doing a little walk to Arnos Vale cemetary on Friday for another Gromit viewing :

That's number 6 for me, Dias De Las Perros. Oh ... after realising that my jeans are a little too heavy a material to go walking long distance in. Will have to investigate options before embarking on the very long walks.

Film was good too. I saw Skyscraper as the only person in the showing (Avonmeads is like that and it's why I keep going back there). I'd sum it up as enjoyable garbage. Dwayne Johnson does have a habit of making highly enjoyable films to watch. Sure, the plotline and background is complete garbage ... but they're fun to sit through and they cheer you up.

Mindless fun if you will and it set me up well for the weekend.

Book 22 - A Mercy Kill (and other things!)

Book 22 - Mercy Kill by Aaron Allston.

This one is another Star Wars book, picking up the story of Wraith Squadron in the old (non-canon) Expanded Universe about 10 years after the conclusion of the Yuuzhan Vong war. I have to admit, I stopped reading the Expanded Universe books sometime around the middle of the Yuuzhan Vong books, so I've missed a lot.

But that doesn't really matter that much here. There are a series of flashbacks that bridge the gap from the earlier (up to about 5 years after RotJ) books up to this one and it's centred after one returning character in particular with a couple of cameos from older characters as well.

I really enjoyed this one. It's a worthy successor to the earlier books and is a great addition to the series. The really sad thing is : the author died a few years ago at an early 53 so there won't be any more ! He didn't write many books outside of Star Wars EU but this book made me remember the earlier Wraith Squadron books and I'll be reading those again sometime soon.

What is Wraith Squadron ?

Whereas the normal Star Wars thing is about heroes, this one is about the misfits. The original trilogy picked up from the earlier Rogue Squadron books, by having Wedge Antilles (ace pilot) recruit a set of misfit characters who were decent pilots but what he really wanted was intrusion specialists. So whereas Rogue Squadron had elite pilots with average intrusion skills, these were characters who could operate behind enemy lines with minimal support and get the job done.

And along the way, much fun is had with these very special characters. You get attached to them, you laugh at the unexpected japes that pop up throughout the books and the books always surprise you with their humour. And then they'll also surprise you with how you feel for the characters when they get hurt, trapped or ... die ... Yep. While the normal Star Wars characters like Han Solo, Luke, Leia, Chewie have a certain plot armour*, these characters definitely don't ... And that adds a certain tension to the books.

*Chewie's end in the first Yuuzhan Vong book is spectacular - you're unlikely to read it so spoilers : he's left behind on a planet which is having a MOON dropped on it by the Yuuzhan Vong. The Falcon leaves, with Han Solo unable to rescue his life buddy leading to PTSD through the next few books. Chewie howls his rage at the moon before being engulfed.

Yep. Wraith Squadron Mercy Kill - great book. I'd thoroughly recommend it for the Star Wars fan but .... definitely read the earlier Rogue Squadron books by Michael Stackpole and the other Wraith Squadron books first.

Other things ? Here's a taster :

And ....

 Shiny things were looked at yesterday. It is darn hot though :

See that 34 degrees C ? I've seen hotter temperatures from the sensors in the car but not that much hotter. To be fair, this was taken when coming back to the car after Bristol Aerospace and the car was facing the sun.

Let's just say I checked phone stuff for a few minutes before attempting to drive so that the cooling systems could cool the cabin (and the steering wheel) down a bit. Safety note - picture was taken while the car was technically engine on (Ready light) but if you take a peek, the P says it's in Park mode (not going anywhere) and the red indicator is for the parking brake. Oh and the EV on the left is declaring that the engine isn't on too ! Running on battery at that point.

I have a few posts lined up for writing too - I'm almost through Book 23, which is a Heinlein book and I have a good few more pics to show from Bristol Aerospace.

Apart from that - busy viewing today with cricket, Formula 1 and .... perhaps even football on. Oh and the new washing machine has arrived !

Book 21 - Afterlife and a ... fair few semi random things

Book 21 !

Cracking through them still, although I sense a slowing in the summer with the heat we have now. Car was reporting 30 degrees C in the covered car park at the Mall earlier.

Book ?

It's Blake's 7, Afterlife written by Tony Attwood who compiled the Programme Guide. The book was publised in 1984, following up on the series which ran from 1978 to 1981. It was one of the classic 70s/80s sci fi series. Good stories, little bit (often very) weird, minimal budget to support it but keeping it all about the characters who were an edgy bunch for this one.

This one only has 5 characters returning from the series and concentrates on a much smaller cast. It picks up on and explains what happened at the end of season 4 (spoilers!) and then carries on a story from there.

The good parts of this book were that the characters were instantly recognisable. From ruthless Avon, to cowardly Vila and then tyrannical Servalan (plus 2 more!). When reading the dialogue, I had that minds eye picture of the original actors playing out the scenes. And I haven't watched Blake's 7 in years.

The bad part was that it felt like a miniseries worth of episodic sections, all pretty separate from each other with tenuous linkages between them. It felt like the author didn't really know what to do with the great characters or where he wanted to take them.

That said though ... this is a far superior book to Lucifer which didn't belong in the Blake's 7 universe. Oh - I remembered what the other thing I labelled like that was : Alien Covenant, although that was a decent movie (unlike Lucifer) that shouldn't have had the Alien tag on it.

Next book ?

XWing Wraith Squadron - Mercy Kill by Aaron Allston. Enjoying it so far after 63 of 414 pages. I didn't want to put it down to go to bed last night. Honest ! More later.

Random stuff ?

Washing machine - need a new one. It's been wearing down for quite some time now but on Saturday it went the WHAM of a probable failed bearing and the drum doesn't really want to turn any more. So I'll buy one of those and get it in over the next fortnight. I got away with it on the wash ... there was only about 2 minutes to go before WHAM occurred.
Music buying - tonight's Mall run saw cds from Jack White, Chvrches, Snow Patrol and Banks appear. Looking forward to listening to those.
Waiting for music buying - Kasey Musgrave's album is wanted and listening to Gorillaz Humans yesterday has changed my mind on getting their next. (Still not getting Arctic Monkey's new one though). Still waiting for Ed Sheeran's latest to go cheaper. It's taking a while !
Not cable buying - Jessops guy didn't want to know. I found them a tad rude and I won't be going back any time soon. Besides, there's a camera shop in town who were very helpful when I acquired my camera.
Not laptop buying - no issues, the John Lewis lady who has answered my questions a few times is very helpful. They just don't have what I want. Although the Dell XPS reduced to £880 in clearance was VERY shiny. Too expensive.

What else ?

It's warm out at the moment. Looks like we'll have this for a week until it breaks into rain. In the meantime, pass the ice cubes !

Right - too hot to play the games at the moment (and I'm wary that opening Stellaris now will lead to closing it at 1.30am. Or later). Book plus videos, possible stream watching if an interesting person comes online !

Oh and ... sneak preview of a later post :

Could that be part of Book 22 ?

Book 20 - a Story of Battletech (plus more from the weekend)

Is it cheeky claiming the story of a game as a book ?

Perhaps. Some games are blurring the line there though. Either it's a game that's more about the story or it's a visual novel with gameplay elements within. And then there are the old Fighting Fantasy style books that were a game in a book.

But Battletech ... a common element of strategy games like this will be to use a story to tie together the missions perhaps with a good few randomly generated missions thrown in too for either padding the game length out or to give your people something to do between story missions to make them stronger.

I'm going to start off with a : The story isn't awful.

That's a really bad thing to say about it isn't it .... The story in Battletech starts off brightly with you having to flee the planet where you are employed, escaping just ahead of a coup. It is a classic set up where the bad guys take over at the start and your role is to gather strength so you can counter usurp them later. Oh and the bad guys are really really bad. Our people are plucky mercenaries pretty much on the neutral side of neutral. But we're getting paid the big bucks to help out the former leader of the Aurigan Reach.

I definitely enjoyed the game ... but there is some real boneheaded stuff in the backstory leading through. Sometimes it feels like characters are doing stupid things just to kick off elements of the story.

Mind you, the movie Interstellar was just like that as well and that's a film I'll watch repeatedly. Sure, the set up is nasty but what they do with that is fantastic.

There's good voice acting here, I actually thought it was Maggie Q playing the leader for a while.

So Battletech - a great game, story could have been better as it reached its end but then the aim of the story in these games is to set up great missions and I think it does that. It may actually prompt me to look at some Battletech books. A while ago, I read the Mechwarrior Dark Age - Ghost War book by Michael Stackpole and highly enjoyed it.

But I'm not likely to go straight back in to replay the campaign. I'm actually more likely to replay MechCommander 2 from a good few years ago.

To the weekend ?

I needed the recovery time from Lords. My legs were definitely feeling that. And then I go straight into an all nighter watching Le Mans. Not as good a race this year as the racing has been. Let's see :

Toyota were unchallenged and their only reliability issue this year was an error in the head of one of the drivers when he missed his "You need to pit now" and almost ran out of fuel.
Jenson Button's car decided to throw a bad sensor, which put them 50 laps behind. They were racing hard when they got back in the race but the car expired about 90 minutes before the end. A shame. Hope he's back next year.
Aston Martin's car just didn't work for them this year. They said it was very good with speed and handling up to a certain point ... where it felt like it was hitting a brick wall. So the Aston Martins came nowhere. Hope they figure that one out.

Gaming - finished Battletech ! See above.
Finished Motorsport Manager too, with the last few races of the season. The other teams were keeping me honest by making sure I couldn't get away without thinking through strategy for the last few races but my team still reigned supreme. This is a snowballing type of game, where if you set things up right, the team will continue to march ahead of the competition. That gets boring ...

All nighter ? I managed to stay awake for the whole of the race ! I wouldn't recommend that. I think the hallucinations were starting to come in at about 9pm last night and I was definitely feeling it even by around 4pm yesterday.

I may have ordered more Lego too.

The laptop replacement is being pushed right again. The place I'd get it from have pushed the price up by £50 and that definitely tips it over into "ain't worth it". Oh and one of the issues with the last one where I thought the screen was burning out has been fixed by ....... turning the brightness up.

Back to work tomorrow ! More chill out tonight.

Book 19 - A Luciferian Tragedy

Hmm.

Book 19. Oh dear ...

Blake's 7 was a series I was hooked on as a kiddie. It was about a band of intergalactic freedom fighters ... well ok, a bunch of criminals who were on the run from the all powerful and totally evil Federation who wanted to take them down.

There was a lot of nonsense in Blake's 7 with the storylines, as is typical for 70s/80s scifi but you had excellent characters, a classic ship and a couple of remarkable computers. It lost a bit in series 4 (spoilers) but it was still a massive highlight when it came on. I must watch the dvds again at some point.

The theme tune was magic too.

This book is about one character in particular, Kerr Avon and is written by the actor, Paul Darrow. It's published by Big Finish Productions and I'm now incredibly wary about reading any more of their books. The only thing consistent with the series here are the names of the characters Avon and Servalan. Servalan is consistent ... but then it doesn't take much to portray true, ruthless and vicious evil. Avon is a bit different. The series Avon could handle himself in a fight but preferred to avoid fights ... This Avon is a one man unstoppable army.

The setting is different, almost nothing of the technology and universe of the series is carried through to the book. Instead, we have technology that doesn't make sense. A galactic current that carries ships. Helijets going between planets. And other daft stuff that's just .... rubbish.

So if Big Finish have allowed this book to come out ... and it's part of a series, what are they doing with their other books ? Are their Doctor Who books actually Doctor Who ?

At the moment, I'm not too interested in checking them out. You could say that the disastrously bad novelisation here is the fault of the author. But I'd prefer to point the finger at the quality control. This particular book shouldn't have been released with the Blake's 7 label on it.

The story is actually fairly reasonable ... but it doesn't belong in the Blake's 7 universe. I seem to remember saying that about another film/series too quite recently ! Wish I could remember what :-).

On a better note ....

Book 20 is Blake's 7 Afterlife by Tony Attwood who compiled the B7 Programme Guide. When the characters were introduced, they were instantly recognisable. I haven't seen B7 in years but when ... characternameredacted ... spoke, I pictured him in my mind saying the words with the character's mannerisms.

More about Afterlife later. Gotta read it first ! :-).

Book 18 - Babylon's Ashes ... and a holiday

Feels weird to be going back to work tomorrow !

Also hot. It feels a bit too warm at the moment.

Book first. I'm up to Book 6 in the Expanse series. I'll slow down now though because 2 books haven't been written yet and the 7th is still more expensive than I want to pay. (Handy tip - don't rush to spend cash if you don't have to).

I'm always a bit wary about doing the book reviews because of the spoiler potential. Nobody wants the spoilers. That reminds me ! Must check what someone thought of the Solo movie. I was underwhelmed, although that could have been due to being in the low side of my particular mental cycle. It felt like a movie that was out to tick as many lore boxes as it felt it had to, without any particularly good inspiration of its own. Rogue One was a far better movie for me, I must watch it again soon.

Anyway ! The Expanse.

Book 6 moves on the story with more in the tale of the Free Navy. It feels like these books are going to be in a series of 3 acts, with each act being 3 books. This book and the previous one massively redraw the map of the Expanse universe and this one wraps up a few threads from before ... including a death of a major character. That's one thing about the Expanse novels, you never really can tell if people are going to be safe although I get the feeling that the core 4 characters will survive all the way through to the 9th book which may owe a lot to the series origins as a role playing game.

I felt that Book 6 was a better book than number 5, which had a particular job to do ... and I'll be looking forward to when book 7 goes a little cheaper.

I need to figure out which book is next actually ... as I suspect that I'll finish my current book tonight if I get to the reading of it. More on that another day.

Holiday stuff :

Should have done some work around the house - didn't. (This is probably what generates the low mood - guilt).
Healing up - to an extent, although I really need to leave my legs alone so they have a chance to heal.
Games - Battletech is still awesome and ... I have reactivated Warcraft.
Addiction - Warcraft is very addictive. I'm almost at level 110 already and somehow managed to find a Legendary item. That's two for my characters !
Video watching - I've caught up on the youtube watching ... Well, at least as far as I take it. I avoid watching multiple series of the same game at the same time. It gets confusing.

And general me - I feel a bit more rested, although heat tends to beat rested feelings out of me quite quickly.

Anyway - Expanse Book 6. A worthy continuation of a very good series of books so far. It evolves its situation and its world but doesn't break it like some series of novels I know.

Recommended !

Book 17 - Redshirts

I have to admit, I'm falling behind on the books again.

But I'm still reading far more than average :-). It's been good to get back into the regular reading again.

The latest book is Redshirts by John Scalzi, which I actually finished about a week or so ago.

Great book ! I shall be checking out more from the author. I'd thoroughly recommend this one as a light hearted bit of fluffy scifi.

What's it about ? You know the Star Trek trope where the Captain and his Bridge Crew go down to the planet, dive into the dangerous situation and they all come back alive except for the security people wearing the red shirts ? Yep. This book is about the people wearing the red shirts.

It introduces its premise straight away, with an ill fated away mission. And then it bridges forward to a future where the main characters, new recruits to the ship, are introduced.

The characters quickly figure out what's going on. Their ship, the Intrepid, has a vastly higher death rate than the rest of the ships in the fleet. Except for core members of the crew that is. This leads to the rest of the crew attempting to avoid those core members as much as they can. Because if they are noticed or become part of an away team, death is likely to follow.

The book is heavily about our set of red shirted lieutenants and ensigns and enlisted and how they figure out what's going on with the story then leading them into what they plan to do about it. Can they change their fate before they too join the ranks of the red shirt fallen ?

That's for the book. I could see where the book was going but the fun bit was in the what do they do about it ? I didn't really see that coming and it was highly amusing.

But the author is a massive troll ! I'm not saying why. Ok. The ending is ... a tad different to the normal for a book like this. Kinda ... sudden :-D. I've said too much there.

It's a fun book ! And I bet any Trekkie would get a kick out of it.

Next up is Babylon's Ashes, book 6 in the Expanse series and the last one I'll read for a while. I'll hold off on getting the rest until they get cheaper. No need to pay £10 on a book that will be much cheaper in a few months, especially as there are another couple in the series afterwards. I can wait.

I don't think I can wait until leave happens though. I didn't think I was burnt out this time around but I think it's crept up on me. I'll be glad to chill out for next week, although there are things to be sorted out. Definitely looking forwards to Comic Con on Sunday and there will be pictures ....

I wonder what we'll find there ?

Books 14, 15, 16 Hot Legionary Lego

First up,

More books ! I finished reading those Last Legionary Of Moros books again. I enjoyed them yet again but more of that in a bit.

Yeah, it's gone warm again today although I was in my pooter chair instead of being on the sofa. Back to work tomorrow again. Haha, admit it, how many of you resemble the picture above on this cold, warm and hot Bank Holiday weekend ? Probably more than a few.

I'm feeling the tireds again (already!) so I planned a quiet weekend again chilling out and intentionally not doing too much. Sooo ...

Friday - work until lunchtime (I work extra in the week for effectively a 4.5 day working week ... but will hang around on the Friday if tasks demand it). And then it was me disappearing into town for a lunch and a chill out wander around the centre. Didn't buy anything but objective achieved. (The canteen at work happened to be closed so it was a wander in town or the local coffee shop. I should really check them out at some point).

And then a bit more chill out before heading out for weekend supplies and .... pizza. Pizza is good. It just happens that the better pizza shop is by the place I get my supplies from. Convenient.

Saturday had me watching the 6 hour race at Spa, among doing other things (like the laundry!). It was a good race. I'm wondering what will happen at Le Mans because the LMP1 non-hybrids were closer to the Toyotas than I expected. That could be good at Le Mans with the longer straights where the non-hybrids will have an advantage on the straights when the batteries on the hybrids hit their charge limits. And the rest of the field had good battles all day too.

That's the thing about endurance racing, there are usually good battles all day and all the way down the field. They're still very dependent on aerodynamic assistance for going around the corners but not nearly so much as Formula 1, which is wrecked (in my view) by the cars having their cornering performance severely hampered by following other cars closely. So overtaking is very difficult in Formula 1 and lessens it as a spectacle.

The weekend has gotten hotter as it's gone too and I'm not one who subscribes to this theory :

I do tend to suffer in the heat. It's much tougher to cool down than it is to wrap up warm.

Still, it's cricket season so the rain will be back soon.

Lots of game playing has happened this weekend with Idle Champions occupying the PC a fair bit but also a few others :
Motorsport Manager - a couple of races and getting the Backmarker to Best achievement where you deliberately start a car at the back of the grid and come through to win. You need hefty superiority over the rest of the field to make that one work. One issue is that when you get that kind of superiority, the challenge and fun goes out of the game somewhat. Not many races left in this playthrough.
Skyrim - a little today and a few more quests done. My hybrid of a stealth archer and sword and board character is doing nicely.
Battletech - a few more missions completed, although I'm considering restarting my game so I can level the characters differently. I want characters who can shoot straight and I'm feeling that the current ones miss too much.
Kotor 2 - continues to be enjoyable escapism but it feels very linear compared to the original game and most Bioware adventures of its type. Maybe it's just taking a while to crack it open.

Lego is intriguing at the moment. It's the May the Fourth Be With You Star Wars discount weekend and I'm feeling deprived of Lego. I actually have a bunch of it but I want more. But I have no clue as to what I want to get. None of the sets on sale at the moment really appeal. I want the Star Destroyer key chain thing though.

Book ? Book !

Books 14, 15 and 16 are the second, third and fourth in the Last Legionary Quartet by Douglas Hill. This is a tale of Keill Randor, who is the last of his kind. The last Legionary of the Planet Moros. The rest of his people have been murdered by mysterious forces and our boy is out for answers and ... revenge.

This tale is told over the first book and then :

Deathwing over Veynaa - a first infiltration of where the Galactic Warlord is attempting to influence a conflict.
Day of the Starwind - a race against time to accomplish a dangerous mission before all is swept away by extreme atmospheric conditions (massive wind forces) induced by the close approach of a wandering planet.
Planet of the Warlord - the conclusion of the tale where Keill finds his nemesis.

I've intentionally not said too much there to avoid too many spoilers but the books are still worth a read even after all these years. They are short and sweet. There is recap at the start ... but instead of being chapters long (I'm looking at you Mr Turtledove !), the recap is done inside a couple of pages and then it's into the story.

At just over 100 pages a book, these are quick reads but still pack a fair bit in. There's probably more than enough here to fill out a miniseries or a 12 episode or so TV series. It's good stuff where the action and the story rattles along at great pace.

They are dated somewhat by mention of things like magnetic tape but ... these books were written in the early 80s when the compact disc hadn't been invented and I'm not sure that hard discs were in too wide operation either.

It was good to go back to these old ones. I may read some of the other series written by Douglas Hill again soon too.

Time to disappear again now though into the remains of that long weekend. And I'm totally not about to watch a Brickbuilder video about the Lego Snowspeeder ...

Maybe.

Books 12 and 13 - The Last Expanse

2 books today !

I'm still behind on the 52 books after getting held up a bit on Revelation Space but I'm catching up again with the aid of a few shorter books. Totally not cheating.

The two books share something actually, they both lean well to being adapted into TV type series. One already has ...

Book 12 is the 5th book in the Expanse series, Nemesis Games. I'm wondering where they are going with these books. I'm not convinced the authors really do know ! That's not fair really, they've said there is a plan for the 9 books in the series and after that, no more. So the story should be all done and dusted in the next 4 books.

This one feels a bit like a bridging book. The style of the books has the chapters split up between central characters and in this one, it's the crew of the Rocinante splitting up to do their own thing across the solar system while the usual star of the Expanse (the ship !) is getting fixed up. So whereas some of the crew can seem to be a bit bitpartish, they get their centre stage again in this one.

And it adds a lot of background to all of these characters while moving the background story on quite considerably with some earth shattering events and the emergence of a new power. The sad thing for me is that it does start feeling a bit contrived in the "How come no one spotted this building up ?" kind of way.

Still well worth a read though and I'll be picking up book 6 at some point soon.

Not yet though ... I'm reading a series of books from my childhood. It's the Last Legionary Quartet by Douglas Hill, first published in 1980 through 1982. The edition I have is all 4 books together in one paperback.

Book 13 - Galactic Warlord opens with our hero and central character Keill Randor searching for those who murdered his world.

He is the Last Legionary of Moros, an elite soldier, quite possibly the best human soldier in the galaxy. Yeah, that sounds a bit contrived ... this is a series mostly aimed at young adult so they do take far more liberties with the science side of the fiction than a series like The Expanse does. More believable than Trek or Star Wars though.

Anyway. This one sees Keill finding out about the great galactic conspiracy and teaming up with a mysterious group of scientists who save his life in return for him becoming their emissary.

I'll be charging through reading the remaining 3 in the series, although I don't think I have the prequel book which saw Keill growing up.

The Legionary series always struck me as books that would be ideally suited to a TV adaptation. You have a galactic conspiracy, you have the martial arts fights so favoured by TV now, you have space, you have scifi and the timing is well suited to telly as well.

Perhaps this will be the latest series of books to be mined for the telly ...

Douglas Hill did more series too, his Huntsman trilogy telling of the aftermath of an alien invasion of Earth was good (we lost badly) as was the Colsec trilogy. He's definitely aimed at young readers but Galactic Warlord has aged well in the 30+ years since I first read it.

Whereas some books overdo the description and end up padding out their books unnecessarily (I'm looking at you Revelation Space !), the Douglas Hill books are stripped right back to narrative while still giving enough description to keep you in the picture of what's going on.

A great light read for a younger reader. (Although the Fraxilly Fracas was a bit pants)

Book 11 - A Book of Art, a Game of Mechs

Perhaps a cheeky one this but ...

It's a 454 page art book !!! There were huge numbers of pictures but I think that counts.

What was it you ask ? I've done what you shouldn't really do with gaming (again). Preorder. The game in question is the new Battletech game, where you are in charge of a Mercenary corporation hiring out your Battlemechs to those who are willing to hire you.

Have Mech, Will Travel.

I've definitely been enjoying the game so far and I have an EnterElysium episode going in another window. The Merc company is going well so far. I think in the last mission, it was my 4 against 2 enemies sure but we came out unscathed. Which means barrelling straight into the next mission. Tomorrow. Or Friday. Or at the weekend. Tired now so I've come out of the game.

Pictures ?

As usual, click for bigger.

The idea is, Big Robots, Big Guns, Lots of Missiles and a few lasers too. I really enjoyed playing Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries in my first years with a PC and MechCommander 2 was another highlight of a strategy game. Starsiege was a good one as well for Big Robot Fights, although that was set in another universe.

The book ?

I picked up the Digital Collectors Edition (disclosure note - I paid, wasn't a free copy) which had the art book with it, plus a 60 track soundtrack. Lots of value there. What's in the book ?

A decent amount of concept art;
Drawings for the stars of the show, the Battlemechs;
Building concept art;
Character art ... including a few spoilers;
Spaceship art.

You can probably predict that I quite liked this art book. 454 pages !!! Of course I'm gonna like that :-).

I am knackered now though or I'd have stayed in for just one more mission ... I'm in early days so far. I have managed to name my mechs though.

There we go.

Yeah, I need to work on my names and maybe even look up a few of the names from my last post. From left to right it's :

Shadowhawk class : Peregrine Avenger
Blackjack class : Fury Iceangel, this is my character's (Iceangel) ancestral mech so the name followed
Vindicator class : Zen Liberator, a few lasers
And the Spider scout : Panda Avenger

Too many avengers perhaps. And that movie is definitely one I want to watch before the spoilers come out. Maybe tomorrow evening depending on how I'm feeling !

Legoland is a possibility on Friday too. I have a bunch of flexi credit saved up and I don't think I need to be in on Friday.

We shall see. For now though, Enter Elysium video, iTunes music, HeyChrissa stream and a bit more reading of The Expanse.

Oh ! Back to the games I abandoned at the weekend. I was finding them annoying and tricky to play. An interface that got in the way instead of being intuitive (especially with Satellite Reign !). I've gotten on well with the Battlemech interface so far. It's properly turn based so it gives you time to do what you want to do.

That's for another evening though. Back to the Kindle !

Book 10 - Star Wars, A Rampage and A Bonus Ball of LEGO

Watched Rampage tonight with the work-ish mob. Great film. Terrible film. Highly entertaining. You know the type, the story is so bad it ends up actually being great fun to watch. Recommended.

What's the book ?

There we go. It was the Star Wars Galactic Atlas which is going cheap (ish) with The Last Jedi movie. It covers all of the movies up to (but not including) The Last Jedi as well as the Clone Wars and Rebels animated series. There are lots of artist drawings of the various planets that Star Wars has visited along with words about what happened there through the various series. There are a couple of character sessions too and a timeline.

I quite enjoyed barreling through this one last night. But this post isn't really about a film or a book. Take another look at the picture. What lurks in the background ...

Except for a hungry looking dragon. Keep your eye on that one, he looks like he's up to no good.

Smile for the camera boys ! I think that's all the BB-8's I own (there might be another one somewhere ...) A curious kit. There's a lot of near duplication because he's basically a sphere with a lid with the sphere calling for a lot of symmetry. There's a little bit of movement with the kit with a lighter appendage that pops out plus the head rotates and tilts. Nifty.

Wait.

BB-8 - did you see what 4D did with your littler brethren ? Maybe if we click for bigger we'll find a trace of them.

Mind you, 4D the dragon is looking hungry.

OH MY GOD. 4D ate BB-8's head. SPIT IT OUT ! I shall have words with this one. He shouldn't recruit friends (in the shape of my pug-like monitor duster!) to molest the Lego.

And there we go. It looks like the monitor duster got eaten as well and 4D is getting to grips with the next item on his menu. I don't think he realises that Lego isn't good for him and that it'll only lead to bricks on the floor.

 It doesn't look like we can stop him. That's one hungry dragon. One side gone ...

Both sides gone ... When will this end ?

BB-8 your parts are showing. And that dragon looks far too proud of himself.

That's an evil look.

Getting down to the bones now.

Not much to go now, just the mechanism to consume on the inside and the remains of his sphere.

 I think something in that mechanism disagreed with 4D and he's gone off somewhere. I have a suspicion that he'll be back.

BB-8 is more like BB-0.8 now.

Just a naked frame.

Can BB-8 be saved ? Let's see. I've had words with the dragon now and he looks repentant. It sounds like he's been busy in the background too.

We're saved !

But it looks like BB-8 doesn't trust 4D. That lighter is definitely not being brandished in a friendly manner ...

Book 9 - Spherical Mysteries

Book 9 happened over the weekend !

(credit for pic is at this link)


It was Sphere by Michael Crichton. You'll have watched or read at least something that Michael Crichton was involved with while he was alive. I was a definite fan of the medical drama series E.R. Cracking series. Then there's the Jurassic Park novels. There's Congo. The Andromeda Strain and The Satan Bug.

Need to watch/read The Satan Bug. It was one of those films I knew about but have never seen.

To the Sphere ! I watched the film a few years ago but can't remember it in the same way as I can recall a lot of The Andromeda Strain.

Something has crashed in the ocean and the Navy has gone into investigate what has ended up on the ocean floor. Good people the Navy. At least ours are. This one has the Americans in charge and they've called in our man Norman, central character and chief protagonist as the psychologist of the expedition.

As is normal for Michael Crichton fiction, he leans a huge amount on known science. So we have a habitat where he explains the theory behind surviving at 1000ft below in terms hopefully anyone can understand without feeling as if they're being baby talked. I was similarly impressed with the set up of The Andromeda Strain, indeed it seemed like that film was more interested in the How than the What.

Around the science, most of what this book looks into is perception and imagination. How do we perceive the environment around us. What tricks will our subconscious pull on us when we are exposed to a stressful scenario.

An interesting book. Perhaps a weak story with a rushed ending ... but an ending that wrapped up the story nicely. The end forms the impression with which you leave the book. And this one left me with a wish to read more from the author.

And that's what's important isn't it !

One odd thing there though. The book I borrowed was in very poor condition and may only survive one or two more readings before the spine disintegrates (I don't think I degraded it any more!). I was looking to acquire a Kindle version so I could enjoy the book without opening it and damaging it. You can acquire it on softback, hardback, audiobook ... but not e-book. This is very strange. (Can't get it on Apple's store either). Same with books like Jurassic Park. Can't get that in e-book either (English version at least). I could pick up Jurassic World ... but not the first book.

This is very odd ! Seems like half of Michael Crichton's books have been denied sale via e-book.

Commerce is good. Blockage of commerce is bad. I have no idea why they'd prevent people buying a commodity like an e-book when the other methods are available. I could buy it as an audiobook ! But not e-book.

Weird. Very weird.

Next up was going to be a little book of ships but ... I've been drawn back into the galaxy of The Expanse instead with Nemesis Games. A promising start so far. Time to get back to it while watching a Paradox video on the Battletech game !

Book 8 - Ready Player Revelation Space

Film watching tonight !

Book reading yesterday. Book 8 in my attempt at reading 52 books in the year was Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds.

I have to be honest, I nearly gave up on this book before getting halfway through ...

There is a huge amount of scene setting at the start of the book to get the various characters into the place where the action starts to happen. That takes up maybe 45% of the start of the book and it was a struggle to get through that. That (and Idle Champions) was probably why it took me so long to get through this one.

Would I recommend it having said that ? Actually yes, because when it does spark into life and get going, it's an excellent book. The threads set up in that first half of the book combine together at the end for .... dare I say it .... revelations.

What's it about ? It's set in the same dysfunctional scifi universe as Chasm City, after that system was wrecked by the Melding Plague. We start off by following a superior archaeologist in his quest to find out what happened to the long dead previous inhabitants of the planet he has ended up on. And that's not superior in terms of archaeology skill, it's superior in terms of his attitude to the rest of the world. It makes him a compelling but definitely not lovable character.

There is Khouri, the assassin with an unfortunate past, a definitely superbly murky present and a future ? (Read the book to find out about that future !)

We have the lighthugger (big interstellar space ship) Nostalgia for Infinity commanded by a moribund Captain who is a victim of the Melding Plague, plus the Triumvirate of Sajaki, Ilia and Hegazi along with a few more characters.

And more going on as well ....

A great book when it gets going, I was finding it hard to put down the iPad (Kindle app!) at a suitable time for going to bed. But it does take a long time to get its characters into the place where amazing things happen.

My next book isn't on the Kindle, it's a paperback (Michael Crichton, Sphere). I watched the film a few years ago and enjoyed it, I'm very curious to read what the original was like.

Tonight's film and birthday outing for Cyberkitten (happy birthday for the weekend CK !) was Ready Player One.

I didn't have high hopes for this one, I thought it was going to be a cash in on the nostalgia of 30+ years of gaming. In other words, not much story and a lot of raiding of other people's work.

It didn't feel like a raid, it felt more like a love letter to all of that pop culture that some of us have lived through for all that time, with actually quite a decent story wrapping it all up. It was a joyous trip through this future world as the characters were carried along by the narrative.

A lighthearted tale and one that I will definitely enjoy again at some point in the (possibly near?) future.

There weren't many people in the cinema though, perhaps people have been turned off this one by its marketing. Perhaps people are avoiding it due to feeling that it might have been a shameless, faceless, charmless cash in (I'm lookin' at you Pixels and Emoji Movie which I've never seen but am commenting on anyway!). It'll be a pity if people miss out on this one because it was genuinely good fun.

That's it for me for tonight, since wrenching my shoulder again last week I've been on and off with pain coming and going. But I'm feeling ok now. A decent feel good movie can have that effect !

Book 7 - Cibola Burn and a little bit of space empiring.

7 down, 45 to go !

I suspect I'm not going to hit that target of 52 books in the year. But I'll enjoy trying to get there.

Picture first !

Yep.
I'm at it again.

I have no shame when it comes to borrowing memes. Book ?

Book 4 of the Expanse series is Cibola Burn. Humanity is expanding and this book is about the interaction of 3 parties. A group of original colonists who are actually squatters, the second wave who got permission to inhabit the planet and our hardy crew again. (I'm trying to avoid the spoilers for the other books !)

What can I say ? Another enjoyable book in the series. It didn't outstay its welcome for me like Abaddon's Gate did. I felt it was allowed to tell its story in just about the right amount of time. I'm looking forward to the next one now but I have a case of WHAT NEXT before then. It may well be an Alastair Reynolds novel and I have Revelation Space on the Kindle app. I also need to finish the How To Destroy The Universe book.

The onrunning theme in the Expanse books is that they adhere to the rules they've set up. That means no cheating with things like warp drive ... Time spans like a couple of months to cross a solar system, things like that, limits of human physiology instead of cheating by having inertial dampeners to allow higher acceleration. The science fiction is not so much fiction as future science fact. I can see the universe of The Expanse (the human derived side of it at least) becoming science fact in the time scale of the books. The only techs we don't have yet are : cheap spacesuits, accessible fusion power, the massively efficient Epstein thruster and the power armour.

I'm wondering what book 5, Nemesis Games, holds in store.

About that other space empiring thing ...

A game I massively enjoy and am utterly addicted to at the moment is Stellaris. It has a one more turn/month/year factor about it that keeps me glued when I should be doing other things, like going to bed. It's a very pretty, well realised space strategy game and it'll hold my attention for a while yet I'm sure. Here's how my last game finished :

My people are the Elaaminid Prime hive mind race in the SW. We own maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the galaxy. There is an independent federation in the light blue and a race of Fanatic Purifiers (they're out to murder everyone else) in the dark blue. My hive has become a signatory to the other green empire in the NE.

That's a cunning plan actually ... I wanted to go as far in this game as the end game crisis, where invaders from within, from another galaxy or from another dimension come to try and murder everyone. The end game crises are tough, so I stopped in my conquering in order to keep some allies around ...

The end game crisis didn't occur though, so that's how the game ends. A very satisfying game which was closely balanced between the 3 power blocs ... until I was able to outmaneuver the enemy and start taking chunks of their territory. Patch is coming Thursday though, which I suspect will make this save game unplayable.

I'd want to launch into the new patch mechanics anyway.

But not this Thursday. Gonna be busy / otherwise occupied.

See you at the weekend or next week !