No, no, no, it's not supposed to be a girl with a head that kinda looks like a giant beetle, it's a girl whose head actually is a giant beetle. Nice try.

I think cover art is one of the casualties of the collapse of the publishing industry. Back in the day, a big publisher could count on selling enough copies to justify paying an artist for a bespoke painting for the cover. These days, even a bestseller is only gonna sell a dozen copies, so mash up a couple bits of…

I thought The Scar got a little old after a while. My other Mieville favorite is Iron Council. Because if you're gonna do socialist allegory, it should totally have a train.

Agree. One of the worst mistakes a fantasy author can make is to decide a few books in that "oh btw the magic here is actually science". It's a boring overused trope, and nine times out of ten the author doesn't have the tech background to make it even remotely plausible.

Mieville's not an author for cheerful adventure and happy endings, that's for sure.

The summit of Pike’s Peak is higher than anything in America east of itself

"You wrote a paper on Scrooge McDuck?"
— The Academia Club

Late update: powered through the last three episodes of Season 1 of Person of Interest. Hot damn! The season finale in particular had, what, nine different people and groups all surveilling each other, and yet you always knew who was where. Great writing.

Yeah, I've read Best Served Cold which was great and Red Country which was fantastic. I've also started his Shattered Sea series, which is good but not quite as good, IMO.

stories of bodily fluids and depression

For years when I went to professional conferences, I did these frantic emails and awkward schmoozing to make sure that I always had somebody to go out to lunch or dinner with. After twenty years of this, I still make an effort, but I've decided not to give a shit if I end up alone for lunch. Table for one, please!

Not a lot of good pop culture for me lately, I've mostly spent the evenings constantly refreshing Facebook and Disqus and waiting for y'all to entertain me.

Let us know if that plays out

You call that a fancy iPad case? *this* is a fancy iPad case (which I got my wife for Christmas)

So question for you guys: a friend of mine said she was happy Moffat was leaving, and I made some catty remark about I dunno, Dr. Who seems like it's just as shitty as it's always been, and she went off about how Moffat's a sexist misogynist asshole.

According to the adorable movie Song of the Sea that I just watched, @norahemlock:disqus is right.

Littlefinger is like Sylar from Heroes: he gains power by absorbing the accents of the people he's killed.

when supposed allies point guns at each other, then don't shoot and still remain allies instead of becoming enemies for life

The first step is getting 2/3 of congress to agree that water is wet, so it's not really an issue.

Interesting theory! They were definitely hinting at something with the bird, but I'm not quite sure what…