Recent content by Dante Dases

Lord

The BBC have released their trailer for the new series based on William, Harold, and events of 1066. The one where Hayden Christensen was supposedly involved, and was meant to be a Saxon on Senlac Hill. That one. I can see what the BBC have gone for. It's a real Game of Thrones bereft of dragons...

I've finished Iron Council and Miéville's Bas-Lag cycle. Maybe I'm getting old, but it didn't hit the spot for me this time round. Maybe I knew what was coming and it all felt a little futile. I felt a distance from the characters - which I also felt in The Scar - which I don't feel helped how I...

Unironically enjoying a bit of Dragonforce. Sometimes a bit of stupidly extreme power metal is the only thing that'll hit the spot. Their drummer has to be an android. Has to be. Oh, and it's worth pointing out their cover of My Heart Will Go On (the Celine Dion one) is incredible for making me...

Health and safety standards

A really little one, among the bigger ones which make up life. I've finally updated to the new Mac OS. I don't like it. It beeps at me to let me know I've done things. I don't appreciate things that beep at me. I know you've done something. I did it myself and I watched windows open and close. I...

Probably The City and the City. It's as conventional as Miéville does, but still chock-full of ideas that make you go 'wow'. It's a difficult question because everything he does is different. I think more than most writers, his work is highly subjective to the reader. You'll either love it or...

Teaching and parenthood have not been good for my sleep. Working late, up in the night, up early to be in work for 7am, and the end result has been years of sleep deprivation. Not good at best, but as an autistic man who needs 8 hours to function, it has been something of a living sensory...

It isn't! It's from the first edition in 1965. Subsequent reprintings seem to veer between its use and non-use. My version (2006 Hodder) uses it. In my UK browsings, every edition of Dune I've seen has it, but I don't know about elsewhere in the world. I had a look into it - Dorothy De Fontaine...

Embroider

I couldn't for a long time. Stick in there. You'll get a good night soon. The kids sleeping through was a big step in the right direction. Then the end of term. Then the adjustment to the holidays. It's meant that today's chapter has been more snappily written than almost anything I've written...

A first proper night's sleep in months has left me feeling a new man. 9 hours of unbroken rest, as much as it has meant I have overslept into my writing time, will do me the power of good. I've been subsisting on half to two-thirds of that since about March.

The edition I have has a map at the front. It has to be said, not the most referred-to of maps despite my frequent re-reads. Going back to the original question: it's always up to you. I quite enjoy a good map, but I don't think they're absolutely essential in most cases. When I read Joe...

Me neither. I don't want your name to be Kelvin.

Not a fan of either to be honest. Existence in perpetuity, against the second law of thermodynamics, would be my preference.