Latest / Pick Up and Deliver / Reading Roundup, Q1 2024
Transcript
- 1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,580 (birds chirping) 2 00:00:02,580 --> 00:00:06,080 Welcome to Pick Up and Deliver, the podcast 3 00:00:06,080 --> 00:00:07,400 where I pick up my audio recorder 4 00:00:07,400 --> 00:00:09,840 as I step out my front door and deliver an episode 5 00:00:09,840 --> 00:00:11,280 to you while I walk the dog. 6 00:00:11,280 --> 00:00:12,340 I'm Brendan Riley. 7 00:00:12,340 --> 00:00:14,920 (upbeat music) 8 00:00:14,920 --> 00:00:22,600 Well, good morning, listener. 9 00:00:22,600 --> 00:00:25,080 It's a lovely day here in suburban Chicago. 10 00:00:25,080 --> 00:00:27,560 I'm out walking, still cicada time. 11 00:00:27,560 --> 00:00:29,320 We've got another couple weeks of it, 12 00:00:29,320 --> 00:00:33,080 but they seem less intense than they were like a week ago. 13 00:00:33,080 --> 00:00:34,200 So that's nice. 14 00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:37,160 I'm out for another walk with Abby, the dog, 15 00:00:37,160 --> 00:00:40,400 who is visiting us while my daughter is traveling 16 00:00:40,400 --> 00:00:41,600 with my in-laws. 17 00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:43,240 So fun to have someone joining me. 18 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:45,000 And if you hear me mutter something, 19 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:48,240 like I say something like, "come on now" or "we're not stopping there," 20 00:00:48,240 --> 00:00:50,040 I'm talking to the dog. 21 00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:52,040 I try to cut those things out of the podcast, 22 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:54,800 but I could very easily miss one in which case, 23 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:57,120 I'd rather you understand what I'm doing. 24 00:00:57,120 --> 00:01:00,040 When I was looking back over the recent podcast episodes 25 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:04,800 and I realized it's been 33 episodes since I last did a check-in 26 00:01:04,800 --> 00:01:08,000 on reading, which is about eight past the norm. 27 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:10,720 The idea is I check in every quarter, 28 00:01:10,720 --> 00:01:14,120 so every 25 episodes or so, I do one about reading. 29 00:01:14,120 --> 00:01:19,000 Now, last time I did one was episode 590, 30 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:23,840 and I was talking about fourth quarter of 2024 31 00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:25,800 and my reading in that time. 32 00:01:25,800 --> 00:01:30,800 Thus, now I'm talking about the first quarter of 2024. 33 00:01:30,800 --> 00:01:33,800 Fourth quarter of 2023 was the last one. 34 00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:36,400 So this is the reading roundup. 35 00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:39,120 For those of you who haven't listened to the podcast 36 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:40,880 since I've done or you're new to the podcast 37 00:01:40,880 --> 00:01:42,680 since the last time I did a reading roundup, 38 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:45,800 basically what I do is talk about the books that I've read 39 00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:49,040 since the last time I did one of these episodes. 40 00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:53,360 And if relevant, I give a little context for a game, 41 00:01:53,360 --> 00:01:55,280 but mostly this is a book review episode. 42 00:01:55,280 --> 00:01:59,240 So if books are not your thing, well, so be it. 43 00:01:59,240 --> 00:02:02,480 All right, let's jump right in. 44 00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:04,320 The first book I read, oh, by the way, 45 00:02:04,320 --> 00:02:07,560 I do consider audiobooks reading. 46 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:09,880 So if you don't like that take, 47 00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:11,840 well, I guess you could email me about it 48 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:14,120 and I'll explain to you why I consider it reading, 49 00:02:14,120 --> 00:02:15,520 but whatever. 50 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:17,200 That's just the heads up that some of the books 51 00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:20,160 I'll be talking about are audiobooks. 52 00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:22,680 (laughs) 53 00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:27,640 Like he's playing a prank on me, there is a cement mixer truck 54 00:02:27,640 --> 00:02:31,880 backing up along the road to keep pace with me. 55 00:02:31,880 --> 00:02:33,280 What in 56 00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:35,480 tarnation is going on there? 57 00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:38,400 Well, the first book I read this month was called 58 00:02:38,400 --> 00:02:39,760 The Rhesus Chart. 59 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:41,560 This is another Charles Stross novel 60 00:02:41,560 --> 00:02:42,800 from the Laundry Files. 61 00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:43,960 I've been enjoying this series 62 00:02:43,960 --> 00:02:46,520 and I think I'm gonna continue to read three or four 63 00:02:46,520 --> 00:02:48,840 a year until I've finished the series, 64 00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:52,200 which I think I'm about halfway through maybe. 65 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:54,200 At the beginning, each of these novels was written 66 00:02:54,200 --> 00:02:57,400 like a different in the style of a different classic 67 00:02:57,400 --> 00:03:01,480 British spy novelist, but I think that Stross has moved 68 00:03:01,480 --> 00:03:03,160 beyond that now. 69 00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:07,160 In this one, we find our hero Bob and his wife, 70 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:10,080 Mo, struggling with their relationship 71 00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:14,760 as Bob finds himself menaced by an acquaintance 72 00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:18,080 from the past, an abusive ex, who is now a vampire 73 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:21,000 and is has managed to get herself employed 74 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:23,760 by the Laundry again, even though she had been fired before. 75 00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:25,320 I liked this one quite a bit. 76 00:03:25,320 --> 00:03:28,040 I think Stross was stretching his legs 77 00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:30,280 and really trying to find what he could do 78 00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:32,800 with the Bob Howard character. 79 00:03:32,800 --> 00:03:35,840 And this one, we see the character growing 80 00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:36,600 in different ways. 81 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:38,520 We see nuance. 82 00:03:38,520 --> 00:03:40,120 We see interesting adventure. 83 00:03:40,120 --> 00:03:41,880 We also see him acting the fool, 84 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:44,800 but that happens in every episode. 85 00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:48,400 The premise of this one is vampirism, 86 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:55,240 the idea that vampires exist in the world of the Laundry. 87 00:03:55,240 --> 00:03:58,160 The clever bit about it is that the way vampirism works 88 00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:01,120 is that when in this world, when somebody feeds, 89 00:04:01,120 --> 00:04:03,160 when a vampire feeds on a person, 90 00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:06,560 they get infected with a trans-dimensional parasite 91 00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:08,160 that eats their brain. 92 00:04:08,160 --> 00:04:10,840 And the vampire, as it drinks the blood, 93 00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:13,120 is giving the trans-dimensional parasite access 94 00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:16,600 to the brain and in exchange they're getting power from the blood. 95 00:04:16,600 --> 00:04:19,680 So the more of the blood they drink, the more damaged 96 00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:21,640 the person gets from the parasite. 97 00:04:21,640 --> 00:04:24,080 More importantly, even drinking from somebody once 98 00:04:24,080 --> 00:04:27,120 damages them from the parasite and then they get, 99 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:29,600 over time they will be fully eaten by the parasite 100 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:31,080 and they will die. 101 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:33,040 The vampires don't know that's how this works. 102 00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:36,880 At first they think it's just mythical vampire vampirism, 103 00:04:36,880 --> 00:04:39,600 but Stross does a really interesting job again 104 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:42,920 of thinking about the nature of what if magic 105 00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:46,480 had a set of rules and what if everything in human culture 106 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:49,040 that could be explained that we used to call magic, 107 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:51,600 could be explained in the context of these new rules. 108 00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:54,360 In the context of all the laundry files and novels, 109 00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:56,600 I found The Rhesus Chart to be kind of middle of the pack. 110 00:04:56,600 --> 00:05:01,520 It's not my least favorite, but it's certainly not in the top two, 111 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:04,320 I guess of the, I think I've read six of them now. 112 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:07,480 I read, I've read these five and I read one 113 00:05:07,480 --> 00:05:10,440 that's a couple more beyond, not realizing 114 00:05:10,440 --> 00:05:13,960 it was a Laundry Files novel when I started reading it. 115 00:05:13,960 --> 00:05:16,640 There aren't, I mean, there aren't a lot of games 116 00:05:16,640 --> 00:05:19,240 that I think walk this interesting line. 117 00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:23,800 Maybe the two closest games I would say are A Study in Emerald, 118 00:05:23,800 --> 00:05:27,480 which imagines the Cthulhu monsters part of the world 119 00:05:27,480 --> 00:05:34,080 in the Victorian era, but has a really interesting take 120 00:05:34,080 --> 00:05:39,040 on the mix of Cthulhu mythos and human beings. 121 00:05:39,040 --> 00:05:41,800 Or the other one would be Cthulhu definitely die, 122 00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:45,640 which also has a sort of interesting take on the idea of the modernity 123 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:49,240 and the intermixing of the Cthulhu monsters. 124 00:05:49,240 --> 00:05:54,280 I guess Arkham Horror probably would also need to be in the running there, 125 00:05:54,280 --> 00:05:59,240 but the other two feel like they engage in a way that's more interesting. 126 00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:01,240 Maybe it's just I'm too familiar with Arkham Horror 127 00:06:01,240 --> 00:06:03,720 and see it as its own thing, so I don't see it 128 00:06:03,720 --> 00:06:05,600 as interacting in the same way. 129 00:06:05,600 --> 00:06:08,400 All right, the next book I want to talk about is Bubble. 130 00:06:08,400 --> 00:06:11,760 Bubble is a graphic novel, which I encountered first is a podcast, 131 00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:13,920 and I'm not sure whether it was written as a podcast 132 00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:17,520 and then refashioned as a graphic novel 133 00:06:17,520 --> 00:06:19,520 or if it was written as a graphic novel first 134 00:06:19,520 --> 00:06:21,840 and then made into a podcast. Either way, 135 00:06:21,840 --> 00:06:24,000 I really thought it was pretty good. 136 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:25,960 The premise is: it's the future. 137 00:06:25,960 --> 00:06:28,000 There are monsters everywhere and human beings 138 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:33,480 live in these bubble cities, and if you're outside the bubble cities, 139 00:06:33,480 --> 00:06:35,800 there's monsters that come get you, 140 00:06:35,800 --> 00:06:38,440 but sometimes the monsters get into the bubble cities 141 00:06:38,440 --> 00:06:41,440 and people need them expunged. 142 00:06:41,440 --> 00:06:45,520 And so the book is about a kind of postmates 143 00:06:45,520 --> 00:06:52,520 or driving in the food, I can't remember what's called. 144 00:06:52,520 --> 00:06:56,840 The thing where you have somebody go get your food from a restaurant. 145 00:06:56,840 --> 00:07:00,080 It's sort of like one of those, but it's to call people 146 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:07,280 to come kill the monsters that have landed in your yard or whatever. 147 00:07:07,280 --> 00:07:11,240 It's a funny commentary on the gig economy. 148 00:07:11,240 --> 00:07:16,160 The characters are all sort of 20-something, cool people 149 00:07:16,160 --> 00:07:19,160 with interesting backstories and good costuming. 150 00:07:19,160 --> 00:07:23,120 The art is good, although pretty straightforward. 151 00:07:23,120 --> 00:07:26,480 I didn't find the art particularly compelling one way or another, 152 00:07:26,480 --> 00:07:27,880 sort of more. 153 00:07:27,880 --> 00:07:31,760 What I would expect a graphic novel to have, 154 00:07:31,760 --> 00:07:34,200 I don't know what that means, that was fine. 155 00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:35,600 So I don't know that I would recommend it. 156 00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:36,760 It was fine. 157 00:07:36,760 --> 00:07:39,720 I'm glad I got it from the library and didn't buy it, 158 00:07:39,720 --> 00:07:41,000 but it was entertaining. 159 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:43,120 That's Bubble, by Jordan Morris. 160 00:07:43,120 --> 00:07:46,040 I did not know the name of the artist, I apologize. 161 00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:49,560 You can check the show notes for a link to my 162 00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:51,680 Goodreads page about that. 163 00:07:51,680 --> 00:07:56,720 I don't know that I could think of a game that fits this mode. 164 00:07:56,720 --> 00:07:59,200 Is there a game about being gig economy workers? 165 00:07:59,200 --> 00:08:00,520 I don't think so. 166 00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:03,480 There must be, but I can't think of one off, stop in my head 167 00:08:03,480 --> 00:08:05,520 where you're trying to get gigs and manage. 168 00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:09,200 I think it'd be too close to real life for too many people, perhaps. 169 00:08:09,200 --> 00:08:11,160 Man, I cannot get away from this garbage truck. 170 00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:13,040 I don't know if you've been hearing it in the background. 171 00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:15,480 I've been trying to stay away or slow down or maneuver 172 00:08:15,480 --> 00:08:18,400 so that you don't have to hear it too much, 173 00:08:18,400 --> 00:08:21,120 but seems like no matter where I go, there it is. 174 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:23,280 Slamming and banging and making noise 175 00:08:23,280 --> 00:08:25,440 when I'm trying to record a podcast. 176 00:08:25,440 --> 00:08:27,040 Where do they get off doing hard work? 177 00:08:27,040 --> 00:08:28,640 While I'm podcasting. 178 00:08:28,640 --> 00:08:30,680 Well, the next book I read is called "Mickey 7." 179 00:08:30,680 --> 00:08:32,560 This is by Edward Ashton. 180 00:08:32,560 --> 00:08:35,120 This is one of those ones where I saw it 181 00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:36,600 at the bookstore and thought it looked good, 182 00:08:36,600 --> 00:08:38,000 but decided I didn't want to buy it, 183 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:40,160 so I got to find the library instead. 184 00:08:40,160 --> 00:08:42,160 I do feel a little bad when that happens 185 00:08:42,160 --> 00:08:45,360 because I think part of what you're paying for at the library 186 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:46,840 are part of what's going on at the bookstories 187 00:08:46,840 --> 00:08:49,200 you're paying for the privilege of browsing books. 188 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:53,480 And I don't feel good about seeing a book at a bookstore 189 00:08:53,480 --> 00:08:54,880 and then getting it from the library. 190 00:08:54,880 --> 00:08:58,240 That said, I did buy a book or two books 191 00:08:58,240 --> 00:08:59,680 at the bookstore when I was there. 192 00:08:59,680 --> 00:09:01,760 So it's not like I didn't end up supporting them, 193 00:09:01,760 --> 00:09:03,880 but I can't buy every book I see that I would like. 194 00:09:03,880 --> 00:09:06,040 So that's "Mickey 7." 195 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:08,120 I didn't even talk about what it was about. 196 00:09:08,120 --> 00:09:10,560 I also listened to this in audio book form. 197 00:09:10,560 --> 00:09:14,120 Did I or did I read it as a paper? 198 00:09:14,120 --> 00:09:16,160 No, I got an audio book form. 199 00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:21,160 So in "Mickey 7," the main character is a person 200 00:09:21,160 --> 00:09:25,640 who was trying to get away from the planet they lived on 201 00:09:25,640 --> 00:09:28,040 because they owed a lot of money to somebody 202 00:09:28,040 --> 00:09:30,600 and they didn't have any way they could see to pay it back. 203 00:09:30,600 --> 00:09:35,360 And so they were able to apply for a job on a ship 204 00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:40,360 to be the, I don't know what they call, the name of the role. 205 00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:45,440 But it's a, it's a dangerous engineer. 206 00:09:45,440 --> 00:09:47,800 So the premise is that there's a colony ship 207 00:09:47,800 --> 00:09:51,120 that's gonna fly for, I don't know, 10 or 15 years 208 00:09:51,120 --> 00:09:53,000 to a new colony. 209 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:56,440 And there are things that need to be fixed 210 00:09:56,440 --> 00:09:59,480 on the colony ship that are really dangerous. 211 00:09:59,480 --> 00:10:03,480 And there is no easy way to fix some of those things 212 00:10:03,480 --> 00:10:05,520 without putting someone in danger. 213 00:10:05,520 --> 00:10:08,440 And of course nobody wants to go into a potentially life 214 00:10:08,440 --> 00:10:12,440 threatening situation if they don't have to. 215 00:10:12,440 --> 00:10:16,120 And it's well known that there will be life threatening 216 00:10:16,120 --> 00:10:18,360 situations that come up. 217 00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:20,440 And so one of the things that they, 218 00:10:20,440 --> 00:10:22,560 that one of the solutions they've come up with 219 00:10:22,560 --> 00:10:25,760 is that they do have cloning technology. 220 00:10:25,760 --> 00:10:27,120 It's expensive. 221 00:10:27,120 --> 00:10:28,560 And the big thing is it's very expensive 222 00:10:28,560 --> 00:10:30,400 to clone someone's mind. 223 00:10:30,400 --> 00:10:33,600 The body they can do, the mind, very, very expensive. 224 00:10:33,600 --> 00:10:36,800 So they can't just copy everyone's mind. 225 00:10:36,800 --> 00:10:39,160 They can only cut a forward to copy 226 00:10:39,160 --> 00:10:42,560 like one or two mines per trip, generally one. 227 00:10:42,560 --> 00:10:44,760 So they do is they have the cloning machine 228 00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:47,920 and then they have one person who is the, 229 00:10:47,920 --> 00:10:49,240 I don't think they call it the clone. 230 00:10:49,240 --> 00:10:51,280 I don't remember what they call the role. 231 00:10:51,280 --> 00:10:55,880 So they have one person who's job is to do those dangerous things. 232 00:10:55,880 --> 00:10:58,800 And then when they die, they clone them again. 233 00:10:58,800 --> 00:11:03,280 And the idea is that they wait until the last possible second 234 00:11:03,280 --> 00:11:06,720 to scan their mind so they can remember everything that happened. 235 00:11:06,720 --> 00:11:08,600 But often the last mission they went out on, 236 00:11:08,600 --> 00:11:10,680 they don't really know what happened to them 237 00:11:10,680 --> 00:11:12,240 because they died. 238 00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:14,760 So the main character is named as Mickey 7 239 00:11:14,760 --> 00:11:17,800 because he is the seventh incarnation of himself. 240 00:11:17,800 --> 00:11:19,240 And I don't think I'm spoiling anything here. 241 00:11:19,240 --> 00:11:21,280 It's on the back cover of the book. 242 00:11:21,280 --> 00:11:23,920 Any how, he goes out on a dangerous mission, 243 00:11:23,920 --> 00:11:26,600 he is thought to be dead and left for dead. 244 00:11:26,600 --> 00:11:28,640 But in fact he survives and comes back. 245 00:11:28,640 --> 00:11:31,200 By the time he gets back, they've already cloned a new one. 246 00:11:31,200 --> 00:11:34,120 And they certainly don't have the resources to have an extra person. 247 00:11:34,120 --> 00:11:37,840 So then there's this thing of what to do with him 248 00:11:37,840 --> 00:11:38,960 getting that there's a new one 249 00:11:38,960 --> 00:11:41,680 and neither of them nor his new self 250 00:11:41,680 --> 00:11:43,960 want to sacrifice themselves for the other. 251 00:11:43,960 --> 00:11:45,200 It's an interesting premise. 252 00:11:45,200 --> 00:11:47,080 The book is somewhat funny, 253 00:11:47,080 --> 00:11:48,480 but also somewhat dramatic. 254 00:11:48,480 --> 00:11:52,040 It is a sci-fi adventure story 255 00:11:52,040 --> 00:11:54,320 with decently told. 256 00:11:54,320 --> 00:11:56,200 I thought it was pretty fun. 257 00:11:56,200 --> 00:11:59,080 I'm not sure I'm going to read any more of them. 258 00:11:59,080 --> 00:12:01,360 The main character was kind of annoying 259 00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:03,240 in some of his decision making, 260 00:12:03,240 --> 00:12:06,520 but generally pretty entertaining. 261 00:12:06,520 --> 00:12:08,800 Yeah, if you get a chance to play Mickey 7, 262 00:12:08,800 --> 00:12:10,160 By Edward Aston. 263 00:12:10,160 --> 00:12:12,440 Or Edward Ashton, yep. 264 00:12:12,440 --> 00:12:16,000 If you get to read that, I would give it a chance. 265 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:17,400 And then if you're going to play a game afterward, 266 00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:21,160 obviously the game to play is the role-playing game Paranoia. 267 00:12:21,160 --> 00:12:25,480 Paranoia is a role-playing game set in the far future 268 00:12:25,480 --> 00:12:30,360 where everybody lives in a giant machine-run compound 269 00:12:30,360 --> 00:12:32,640 and answers to the machine. 270 00:12:32,640 --> 00:12:35,160 Every person gets born naturally 271 00:12:35,160 --> 00:12:38,360 and then when they hit adult age, they get cloned 272 00:12:38,360 --> 00:12:41,480 and there's a thing in your brain that backs up your brain. 273 00:12:41,480 --> 00:12:43,080 I don't know how quickly or how often 274 00:12:43,080 --> 00:12:45,080 it's been a lot since I played Paranoia. 275 00:12:45,080 --> 00:12:47,360 But the idea is your brain gets backed up 276 00:12:47,360 --> 00:12:50,040 and then you get pulled out of that again 277 00:12:50,040 --> 00:12:51,880 if you get killed. 278 00:12:51,880 --> 00:12:54,000 The thing is, each person only gets seven clones. 279 00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:56,960 So you have to sort of manage it. 280 00:12:56,960 --> 00:12:59,520 The point of the game is you can die pretty easily 281 00:12:59,520 --> 00:13:03,800 and the other thing is secret in this society, 282 00:13:03,800 --> 00:13:06,520 which is a little fascist because the computer is in control, 283 00:13:06,520 --> 00:13:08,800 it's illegal to be in a secret society, 284 00:13:08,800 --> 00:13:10,680 but everybody is in a secret society. 285 00:13:10,680 --> 00:13:14,600 So there's some fun elements to be had for that as well. 286 00:13:14,600 --> 00:13:16,160 That's the Paranoia role-playing game. 287 00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:19,840 I know that it was republished sometime in the last decade 288 00:13:19,840 --> 00:13:22,000 as opposed to the version that was published in the 90s 289 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:25,040 or the early 2000s, which is the one I played, 290 00:13:25,040 --> 00:13:27,760 well worth checking out if you can. 291 00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:30,960 Next up is Where the Black Stars Rise by Nadia Shammus. 292 00:13:30,960 --> 00:13:35,720 This is a graphic novel, sort of built around the idea, 293 00:13:35,720 --> 00:13:38,280 the story or idea of the king and yellow. 294 00:13:38,280 --> 00:13:39,040 I thought it was good. 295 00:13:39,040 --> 00:13:40,800 Honestly, I don't remember it very well. 296 00:13:40,800 --> 00:13:43,160 I did read it three months ago, 297 00:13:43,160 --> 00:13:45,600 but you would think I remember more than I do 298 00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:48,520 given the recency of the story. 299 00:13:48,520 --> 00:13:49,880 The art is really striking. 300 00:13:49,880 --> 00:13:54,360 It's got a kind of stark angular feel to it, 301 00:13:54,360 --> 00:13:57,760 and it's all black and white and yellow as fits, 302 00:13:57,760 --> 00:14:01,320 because it's sort of around the king and yellow story 303 00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:06,240 or stories that we see from the H.P. Lovecraft mythos, 304 00:14:06,240 --> 00:14:09,600 but based on a play, I can't remember who wrote the play. 305 00:14:09,600 --> 00:14:11,640 So that's Where the Black Stars Rise. 306 00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:12,880 I'll say check it out, although I don't know 307 00:14:12,880 --> 00:14:14,440 like I said, I don't remember the plot. 308 00:14:14,440 --> 00:14:15,720 I'm gonna have to go look again. 309 00:14:15,720 --> 00:14:17,640 Next up, speaking of not remembering the plot, 310 00:14:17,640 --> 00:14:19,880 next up we have a Wizard of EarthSea. 311 00:14:19,880 --> 00:14:21,120 I saw this on my shelf and I thought, 312 00:14:21,120 --> 00:14:22,360 "Oh, I've always wanted to read that. 313 00:14:22,360 --> 00:14:23,600 I should check it out." 314 00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:25,200 And I went to read it. 315 00:14:25,200 --> 00:14:26,040 I read it. 316 00:14:26,040 --> 00:14:26,880 I thought it was fine. 317 00:14:26,880 --> 00:14:27,920 It's like a young adult novel 318 00:14:27,920 --> 00:14:29,440 before they really had young adult novels, 319 00:14:29,440 --> 00:14:33,680 but it's very much the sort of adventure tale 320 00:14:33,680 --> 00:14:35,760 of a young wizard who turns out to be really good at 321 00:14:35,760 --> 00:14:38,040 wizarding, gets himself over his head. 322 00:14:38,040 --> 00:14:40,240 I mean, if you were to take something more recent 323 00:14:40,240 --> 00:14:42,920 like Patrick Rothfuss' In the Name of the Wind 324 00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:44,440 and cut out all the flashback stuff, 325 00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:47,080 so it's just a straightforward story. 326 00:14:47,080 --> 00:14:50,280 It feels an awful lot like the Wizard of Earthsea. 327 00:14:50,280 --> 00:14:51,440 Very similar. 328 00:14:51,440 --> 00:14:53,880 That said, I got to the end of the first one, 329 00:14:53,880 --> 00:14:56,040 which is part of a series, I guess. 330 00:14:56,040 --> 00:14:58,280 And I thought it was all right, not amazing, 331 00:14:58,280 --> 00:15:01,200 but all right, and I went to log it in Goodreads. 332 00:15:01,200 --> 00:15:03,440 And discovered I read it like eight years ago. 333 00:15:03,440 --> 00:15:05,920 I had zero memory of reading this. 334 00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:06,960 Yikes. 335 00:15:06,960 --> 00:15:09,440 So maybe in eight years I'll read it again 336 00:15:09,440 --> 00:15:11,120 and give you another review. 337 00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:12,080 But at Wizard of Earth Sea, 338 00:15:12,080 --> 00:15:15,800 you started standard young wizard learning stuff story. 339 00:15:15,800 --> 00:15:17,520 So in terms of games, I would say any of the games 340 00:15:17,520 --> 00:15:20,440 that embody the young wizards at Wizarding School 341 00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:21,440 kind of story. 342 00:15:21,440 --> 00:15:24,240 Just because of the impish nature of the main character 343 00:15:24,240 --> 00:15:26,680 and his desire to get knowledge he shouldn't have, 344 00:15:26,680 --> 00:15:30,800 let's say Big Book of Madness would be the accompanying game. 345 00:15:30,800 --> 00:15:33,720 Finally, the last book I read was called Suburban Hell 346 00:15:33,720 --> 00:15:35,320 by Maureen Kilmer. 347 00:15:35,320 --> 00:15:38,360 I'm probably not the target audience for this book. 348 00:15:38,360 --> 00:15:40,520 This book feels very much targeted like targeted 349 00:15:40,520 --> 00:15:42,000 at Suburban Moms. 350 00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:44,560 It's about like a Suburban Moms group 351 00:15:44,560 --> 00:15:48,480 who gets disrupted because ancient demon possesses one of them 352 00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:52,000 and slowly inhabits the neighborhood, 353 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:53,440 turns everything terrible. 354 00:15:53,440 --> 00:15:55,480 And I thought that was a good story. 355 00:15:55,480 --> 00:15:56,840 It was interesting there were parts of it 356 00:15:56,840 --> 00:15:59,280 that were genuinely creepy. 357 00:15:59,280 --> 00:16:03,840 The physical description of the monster was pretty horrific 358 00:16:03,840 --> 00:16:05,520 and I liked all of that stuff very much. 359 00:16:05,520 --> 00:16:07,360 I read it as an audio book, by the way. 360 00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:10,880 What I guess what I found just sort of a little tiresome was 361 00:16:10,880 --> 00:16:15,120 the level at which the men in the story were buffoons. 362 00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:16,680 And there you go. 363 00:16:16,680 --> 00:16:19,640 Welcome to representation 101. 364 00:16:19,640 --> 00:16:24,200 The fact that the male characters were all such obnoxious a-holes 365 00:16:24,200 --> 00:16:27,400 was I guess not surprising for a story that's focused 366 00:16:27,400 --> 00:16:30,600 on the notion of Suburban Moms and the troubles, 367 00:16:30,600 --> 00:16:32,320 the difficulties they face, 368 00:16:32,320 --> 00:16:34,840 but I still found it pretty tiresome 369 00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:36,080 over the course of the book. 370 00:16:36,080 --> 00:16:37,960 And there were just one too many times 371 00:16:37,960 --> 00:16:41,680 where the novelist showed us rather than telling us 372 00:16:41,680 --> 00:16:44,480 that our herione was frustrated by the way 373 00:16:44,480 --> 00:16:48,040 that her husband was acting in the novel. 374 00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:50,560 While I like the horror stuff in it, I found that actually 375 00:16:50,560 --> 00:16:52,040 got pretty tiresome. 376 00:16:52,040 --> 00:16:54,000 In the end I found it. 377 00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:55,640 Made the book so much less enjoyable to me 378 00:16:55,640 --> 00:16:57,520 that at the end I didn't really enjoy the book. 379 00:16:57,520 --> 00:17:00,000 Again, probably not target audience. 380 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:01,960 Maybe this speaks to the question of representation 381 00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:05,640 or I would suggest a poor variety in the way 382 00:17:05,640 --> 00:17:08,200 that the author crafted her male characters. 383 00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:10,560 But maybe the point was male characters were absent. 384 00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:11,640 That was the idea. 385 00:17:11,640 --> 00:17:13,880 Either literally or spiritually. 386 00:17:13,880 --> 00:17:19,120 I don't really have a game to suggest to a company, 387 00:17:19,120 --> 00:17:20,000 Suburban Hell. 388 00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:22,560 I don't really have a game that fits that. 389 00:17:22,560 --> 00:17:24,480 I mean, there's an old Nintendo game 390 00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:27,640 about your neighbors being zombies that feels apropos 391 00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:32,680 or maybe Zombie 15' is the game about kids running through suburbs 392 00:17:32,680 --> 00:17:34,480 and being harassed by zombies. 393 00:17:34,480 --> 00:17:35,520 That's the closest we can get. 394 00:17:35,520 --> 00:17:37,080 So I'll stick with that one. 395 00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:39,080 Well, that's about the end of my time today 396 00:17:39,080 --> 00:17:41,200 and the end of the space I have for my walk. 397 00:17:41,200 --> 00:17:43,240 So I will thank you for joining me 398 00:17:43,240 --> 00:17:46,200 and hope that your next walk is as pleasant as mine was. 399 00:17:46,200 --> 00:17:47,040 Bye-bye. 400 00:17:47,040 --> 00:17:49,620 (upbeat music) 401 00:17:49,620 --> 00:17:52,200 [out take beep] 402 00:17:52,200 --> 00:18:09,100 - Can you stay on the left this time? 403 00:18:09,100 --> 00:18:13,020 Could be on my left side over here, right here, great. 404 00:18:13,020 --> 00:18:14,180 [out take beep] Welcome to Pick Up and Deliver, 405 00:18:14,180 --> 00:18:16,180 the podcast where I pick up my audio recorders 406 00:18:16,180 --> 00:18:18,340 I step out on the street. 407 00:18:18,340 --> 00:18:19,540 [out take beep] Welcome to Pick Up and Deliver, 408 00:18:19,540 --> 00:18:21,340 the podcast where I pick up my audio recorder 409 00:18:21,340 --> 00:18:23,660 as I step out with the dog and delivering. 410 00:18:23,660 --> 00:18:25,180 But they are a... 411 00:18:25,180 --> 00:18:27,500 (laughs) 412 00:18:27,500 --> 00:18:28,340 [out take beep] 413 00:18:28,340 --> 00:18:29,180 [startled gasp] *explative* Cicadas. [out take finished beep] 414 00:18:29,180 --> 00:18:32,620 Brought to you by Rattlebox Games 415 00:18:32,620 --> 00:18:35,220 (upbeat music) 416 00:18:35,220 --> 00:18:43,440 [MUSIC]