Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I definitely can see what all the hype was about. This was a book that always left me guessing at what was coming next. Perhaps my usual trope detection failed me, but it seems to at Tamsyn Muir was able to keep things constantly fresh with plot twists that I mostly didn’t see coming. Even the one that they kept telegraphing (relating to one of the necromancers) turned out to be different than what I was expecting. We’re almost left with more questions than answers, but yet I felt like they did a perfect job creating a story filled with satisfying character arcs.

Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is my second time reading the book. Reduced rating from 4 stars to 3 stars

We’re back to The Watch and this is the Watch I remember - not just a detective/police procedural, but also a play on office politics/political correctness. This comes from the non-humans now being allowed on the force and female dwarves wanting to take advantage of living in the city to express their femininity. (Until now Pratchett always made a joke that it was hard for dwarves to figure out if the person they wanted to date was the opposite sex)

The Hugo Awards (Science Fiction and Fantasy award given out at WorldCon; anyone who bought a ticket can nominate and vote) were given out this past weekend. Here is a link to all the awards and winners. I just wanted to share a few of my thoughts, organized by category.

Best Novel - I’d read and enjoyed Becky Chambers’ The Galaxy and the Ground Within, so it was a bummer it didn’t win. I’ve heard a lot of good things about P. Djèlí Clark’s A Master of Djinn. I hope to get to it some time in the next few years.

Cyborg Legacy by Lindsay Buroker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I got this book as part of a StoryBundle.com bundle - I wouldn’t have otherwise bought book #8.6 out of a series I’ve never read. But the description said it worked as a standalone story. In the intro to the book, the author confirms this. So I jumped in.

This book did not disappoint. It was an incredibly fast read - I think my ereader (Kobo) marked it as 155 pages. But Buroker does a good job of quickly setting up the world and our characters before jumping into the main plot. I don’t know if the main series is like this, but the narrative is a lot more fun than you’d think based on the cover (I know, I know…. don’t just a book by its cover) or the description. There are heavy topics discussed and there’s death and violence. But there’s also a sweet married relationship that involves flirting and innuendoes. There are pilots who make wry comments. The main characters don’t take themselves too seriously except when it makes sense to the plot.

The Sins of Our Fathers by James S.A. Corey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This novella occurs after the events of the last novel and brings us up to date with the ONE person who we didn’t get a conclusion for in the main series. I remember wondering if James SA Corey had forgotten about this person. But no, they were just saving them off for their own novella. It’s a very fast read and I really like the mixed message of the ending. It also must have been interesting writing this (I assume) as COVID raged around us and showed JSAC how well it could and couldn’t unite us.

The Autumn Republic by Brian McClellan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s the conclusion to the Powder Mage Trilogy and so things generally move fast once we get past the first few chapters that catch us up to where everyone has ended up since the end of book 2. Each chapter definitely left me wanting to continue reading. For that reason I forbade myself from reading at night because I knew I’d end up reading too late into the night.

Maskerade by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is my second time reading Maskerade, the rating remains a 3/5 stars

We have another outing with the Lancre Witches. Pratchett moves us from parodies of Shakespeare to a parody of Phantom of the Opera. In true Pratchett fashion, this is not really the point of the narrative. Instead it’s about the silliness of Opera and about Agnes Nitt finding herself. I believe Anges was a bit character in the last Witches story - part of the emo-coven that the older witches found so silly. She’s moved to Anhk-Morpork to be out of Granny Weatherwax’s influence and joins the Opera. Nanny, noticing that witches have to exist in triplets - “the maid, the mother, and the….other one” - contrives to find another witch in Lancre. Unfortunately, there aren’t any maidens to be found in Lancre. And so Granny and Nanny head out to Anhk-Morkpork to provide comic relief while Agnes has her story.

Attack Surface by Cory Doctorow

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was a Kickstarter backer on this book/audiobook

I think there’s a side novella or short story I haven’t read in the Little Brother series/universe, but as far as I know, this is the first one that isn’t from Marcus Yallow’s perspective. Instead, this one is from Masha Maximov’s point of view. She was mostly an antagonist to him in the previous books, although meant to be a sympathetic one vs her bosses at DHS, or whatever agency she was working at.

The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture by Glen Weldon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Glen Weldon takes us through Batman’s history and evolution and how it was affected by the culture in which it was written. I knew bits and pieces of the story from other histories of comics, but this was the first time I’d read one focused on Batman. There are many ways to tell this story and I think Weldon’s is a very good strategy.

August was a programming-filled month for me. It focused entirely on Python and I mostly continued working on established projects. Let’s jump in!

Amortization

I wanted to re-calculate the amortization table for my home loan for the first time in about a year. As a refresher, I created this program (vs using Excel or an online form) because we are not consistent in the amount of extra principal payments we make. For example, if I get a bonus at work, I might throw all of that bonus into the loan payment. So this program takes variable extra payments into account when creating the amortization table.