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The Waking Engine

2014-04-15 00:00

Cover for The Waking Engine

Review:

I re­al­ly want­ed to read this book, but some­thing just did­n't click for me. I sus­pect I now un­der­stand how those who dis­like Chi­na Miéville feel.

Al­so, some­times the au­thor us­es words strange­ly. He spent a chap­ter writ­ing "cate­nary chain­s". Cate­nary means ei­ther "chain-­like" or some­thing in a spe­cif­ic curve. Since these chains are just ly­ing on the ground he's say­ing "chain-­like chain­s" over and over again, and it just both­ered me way more than it should.

The con­cept of the uni­verse where the book takes place is cool. The pace picks up a lot in the sec­ond half, al­though some char­ac­ters seem to just dis­ap­pear.

Off to Be the Wizard (Magic 2.0, #1)

2014-03-27 00:00

Cover for Off to Be the Wizard (Magic 2.0, #1)

Review:

It's geek ful­fill­ment fan­ta­sy. But like with ev­ery­thing there's good geek ful­fill­ment fan­ta­sy and bad. This one is rather good!

It does have some­thing I love: the at­ti­tude. So, we are all sub­rou­tines in a pro­gram? Ok, so let's have fun with that, no need to get all glum­my and down­beat!

Al­so, good se­quel set­up at the end.

One bad thing: it de­scribes C64 text as white on blue. WTF Scott Mey­er???? That's CYAN on blue!!!!! ;-)

Three Princes

2014-03-19 00:00

Cover for Three Princes

Review:

Can a book have too much world build­ing? It's not that it's ex­pos­i­to­ry or any­thing, but the ac­tu­al plot seemed some­what su­per­fi­cial com­pared to ob­vi­ous love and care ap­plied in the char­ac­ters and the de­scrip­tion of the al­ter­nate his­to­ry.

Liked it any­way, I'd love to read a se­quel that was a bit more plot-­driv­en.

Nikola Logo Contest!

2014-03-11 13:14

So you have de­sign skill­s? Want to make a lit­tle mon­ey while do­ing a good thing? Then join the con­test! there is a 200 US dol­lars guar­an­teed prize, and the con­test will be judged by a group of Niko­la de­vel­op­er­s.

Some guid­ance:

  • The name Niko­la comes from Niko­la Tes­la, so think con­­cepts con­nec­t­ed to that

    • The War­­­den­­­clyffe tow­er

    • Tes­la Coils

    • Light­n­ing

    • Elec­tric­i­­­ty

    • Ear­­­ly 20th cen­­­tu­ry

  • I hope the lo­­go works well in a va­ri­e­ty of for­­mats so, keep it sim­­ple. B/W is good.

  • A draw­ing with­­out the word Niko­la is good, but a good de­sign with the word in it could be good al­­so.

The con­test lasts a week, you have 4 days for the qual­i­fy­ing round.

And re­mem­ber: it has to be bet­ter than these

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