This week my father asked me to get ChatGPT to write a two-page report on the efficacy of green leucaena seeds for controlling gastro-intestinal parasites (worms) in children. He could have done it himself but you how oldies are with new technology so I duly obliged. ChatGPT spat out a report that was very good […]
The mysterious case of the missing reference
So, the AI has learned to lie to us. Skynet is coming folks!
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Mansions of the Gods
Series: Asterix #17
Authors: Goscinny & Uderzo
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 53
Words: 3K
Caesar has the VERY clever idea of surrounding the Gaul’s village with luxury roman apartments and thus subsuming the Gauls culturally. He sends his best architect and a whole galley of slaves (former pirates) to cut down the forest and build the Mansions of the Gods.
Of course, the problem is that the Gauls can regrow trees overnight, beat the stuffing out of the roman soldiers AND give magic potion to the slaves. Not even this though is enough to overcome Caesar’s plans and a mansion is built and tenanted (even if it’s that or the circus maximus!). When Cacofonix the bard empties the building of regular tenants, the soldiers move in and then the Gaul’s attack en masse and destroy the building. The architect gives up and the gauls replant the forest over the ruins.
I thought the idea was quite a workable one (culturally subsuming a small group of hold outs) but it can take generations. The Amish are a good example. They have held out (and continue to do so) against modern civilization, but as a group they are slowly shrinking and are being forced to make changes simply to continue to exist.
Goscinny and Urderzo make this a quick, funny event and everything turns out ok for the Gauls this time, but my cynical adult self realizes that what was proposed here is what would eventually happen if this were real. Since it is NOT real however, I can laugh at Obelix accidentally planting a magic acorn in the middle of Asterix’s house and them all eating dinner 100 feet up in the air 😀
★★★✬☆
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The City of Water, Water Seven
Series: One Piece #34
Arc: Water Seven #3
Author: Eiichiro Oda
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 230
Words: 10K
The Straw Hats win the Davy Back Fight and sail on to the island of Seven Waters where there is a whole city of shipwrights to work on the Merry Go. The shipwrights show their power and the Straw Hats convert all the gold into ready cash and immediately start having robbery attempts on them.
While the end of the Fight was stupid, the introduction to the shipwrights was as madcap as I could want in the One Piece world. And Luffy’s response was just what I would expect from him, as evinced by this panel:
I now have higher hopes for this Water Seven arc than I did when it started out. That makes me happy.
★★★✬☆
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Conan the Defender
Series: Conan the Barbarian
Author: Robert Jordan
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 193
Words: 65K
This is a direct sequel to the previous Conan book, Conan the Invincible. More in terms of characters than in plot. Conan gets together with the prince of the bandits from the previous book and they go to some city and try to earn gold as guards. There’s a revolution brewing and a sorcerer is the prime mover and shaker and Conan works out said sorcerer is using the revolutionaries (who are the spares of rich royal families and thus have nothing to do) as patsies. When he reveals they get all butt hurt and toss him out. He goes to work for the king and runs across the Queen of the Bandits from the previous book. He also comes into conflict with the sorcerer and with wit and mighty thews bests him. Everyone realizes Conan was right about everything and peace reigns supreme. The end.
My goodness. Jordan knows how to write some pulp here. If I had been in a more scathing mood I’d probably have trashed this 6 ways from Sunday. But as I was rather raw inside at the time of reading, the simple hack, slash and bash of Conan outpowering everyone was like a balm upon my heart. Conan’s ability to literally cut his way through any and all problems is what I WISH I could do today. Sadly, it just doesn’t work that way. And it really doesn’t work that way for little chubby bald guys who don’t like people 😉
This stuff is pure wish fulfillment and I enjoy it as such.
★★★✬☆
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Vicar of Nibbleswick
Authors: Roald Dahl
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Childrens Fiction
Pages: 6
Words: 1K
I have no idea how this story got to be on its own instead of being folded into some sort of collection. Be that as it may, this feels like a good ending to my Dahl re-read. Short and sweet and amusing.
The Vicar says words backwards and Dahl has a blast figuring out language tricks to make things sound not just nonsensical but actually correct grammatically while being totally wrong in what the poor Vicar is trying to say. One funny instance is him trying to tell the congregation not to “park” their cars alongside the front of the church but to use the back parking lot. I laughed, as it comes out like telling them to not krap in front of the church, hahahhaa. Good stuff!
Having started my Dahl re-read back in December of ‘21 with Matilda, which is close to being one of his longest books, like I mentioned at first, this short story felt like a great way to finish things up. I’ve enjoyed this almost year and a half journey of exploring Dahl all over again but I’ve realized that I probably won’t do it again on my own. I feel like Dahl has a magic circle that his books work in and I’ve simply aged out of that circle. They are still wonderful and amusing stories and I’ll remember them very fondly, but I am now done.
★★★✬☆
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Return of Santiago
Series: Santiago #2
Author: Mike Resnick
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 278
Words: 122K
So, a hundred or two years after the first Santiago book, some small time thief discovers the original manuscript from Black Orpheus and decides that he wants to become his successor, a Dante. So he realizes that he needs a Santiago to center the continuing poem around sets out to find one. With the help of some colorful characters he attempts to recruit various bigger than life characters to become Santiago only to realize that each one is pretty flawed each time. Eventually, with the help of his co-horts hitting him over the head with it, he realizes HE is the new Santiago.
Santiago was published in 1986 and was a completely standalone novel. Return was published in ‘03 and did a bit of fancy dancy stuff to make it possible to need a “return of Santiago”. While I still enjoyed this, it simply wasn’t in the same league as the first book and really felt like Resnick was trying to recapture the magic (and failing). Thankfully, he doesn’t recycle the same set of characters as was presented in the first book, so that was good. But none of them quite lived up the engaging’ness of the cast of characters we met in the first book.
If you liked Santiago, then I would recommend Return if you really need to be a completionist. However, I would strongly caution you to think twice, as this just isn’t as good. Not bad, but not as good.
★★★✬☆
After I had gotten permission to court Mrs B (Miss Librarian at the time), we decided it was time for her family to meet me. So we all (Mr and Mrs Parental Pod, Sir Grumpy, Miss Librarian and me) went to Hawaii for a week. The incident described above really happened. Mrs Parental Pod was driving us and I had nervous energy from being on the plane and me and my friends had always played the points game. Basically, you would describe how you would/could hit a pedestrian or bicyclist and we made up rules about how many points. Old ladies were worth the most but if you could convince everyone else in the car that you could make a bicyclist bounce or even double hit them (car doors were very popular in the game), you could get triple points, thus increasing your score very quickly. Unfortunately, if you don’t have a dark sense of humor, well, the game cross across as very macabre at best and downright psychopathic at worst. It was probably one of the worst blunders I made in our relationship and it had barely begun.
But it was Hawaii. So between the sunshine and everything, it was ok. We went traveling every day and packed in a lot of sight seeing. We visited the Polynesian Cultural Center one day and that is what the title is based on. They had these big man-made waterfalls with tiki torches all along them so you had fire and water all together and it was beautiful. I took a ukulele lesson and Miss Librarian sang “You are my Sunshine” while I bravely tried to accompany her on said ukulele. We visited Pearl Harbor, some beaches and the Dole Plantation. We also visited Admiral and Mrs Stamps, which was great. Admiral Stamps had been a freshman during my senior bibleschool year and we had a good bond. Throw in that Miss Librarian and I had met at their wedding and well, they had a lot of gratitude from us.
And that is our little adventure in the Land of Fire and Water. Stay tuned when we return next week with a life changing visit to The Libraricus!
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Full Moon
Series: Blandings Castle #8
Authors: PG Wodehouse
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Humor
Pages: 200
Words: 78K
A full novel with the further (mis)adventures of the residents and guests of Blandings Castle. Ther_e is the usual crossed lovers denied entry to paradise by disapproving aunts. There are wayward sons doing stupid things. There are in-laws and Uncles calling everyone else pigheaded. There are artists. Of course there is the Empress, the Queen (pig) of the Castle. And jewelry.
Throw it all together into a blender, select high speed to take the edge off that chunky jewelry, blend for 1minute and voila, another perfect Blandings Castle story. I mean, that is all Wodehouse really does. He takes various well-used but still amusing ingredients and simply mixes them together in new ways. It is genius.
Now, most of Wodehouse’s works are just plain silly and if you’re not ready for it or feel in the need of some big fat literary literature, they probably won’t tickle your funny bone. But I was not in the mood for big fat literary literature with out of touch snobs telling me lies about crap that didn’t matter, so this hit the spot exactly. I was tempted to give it 4stars for how much I enjoyed it, but that was more down to circumstances (that hopefully won’t be duplicated) than to the book itself. So 3 ½ it is!
★★★✬☆
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot, by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Quarry
Series: Groo the Wanderer #14
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 23
Words: 2K
Groo gets lost in the desert, passes by an oasis of comely babes and ends up working in a quarry. Where he does everything wrong, everything. He pushes when he’s supposed to be pulling. He threatens the slaves with his sword. He gets crushed by a massive stone block. He ties up the ship wrong so it floats away and crashes and sinks. Eventually, he destroys a massive edifice to the local king and runs away. Of course, the destruction revealed a cave of jewels that was enough for the local folks to all buy their freedom.
Despite Groo’s inability to do anything correctly, Aragones has the knack of giving us that twist right at the end. It is almost always there and it is impossible to predict. I love that! It’s like a tragic comedy version of the Twilight Zone, except Groo is the butt every time, hahahahaa.
This comic is keeping me entertained, every time. Unlike certain Mutant Turtles, I haven’t had a bad experience yet. They’re not all top notch, but not a one where I question if I should continue or not. I guess Aragones and I have a shared sense of the ridiculous 😀
★★★✬☆
