I’d like to ceremoniously welcome Ian McShane to the DGAF Club

All this could be avoided if they were just locked in the war room from Dr Strangelove.

And now it is time to get my shuttlecock!

Just thought I would increase the quality of discourse here...

Whose genius fucking idea was it to make all ten vines plus the ones in the replies play automatically?

I think Inoue might be suffering from ball damage...

These look quite similar to some paintings by David Hardy about 25 years ago. I think they are pretty close to reality given that all he had to draw inspiration from were fuzzy blobs and best scientific guesses of the time.

OK but it will take me a while to get back to your universe.

Yes please. I would like to keep collateral damage to a minimum.

I don’t know, I am tempted to rod you from orbit...

“I think we’re going to start showing Earth-One and Earth-Two in the near future. There will be kind of different dimensions going on.”

Yes I am rather novel thanks!

For anybody still on the fence, the first 26 pages are on Stephenson’s site:

I have almost finished H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald.

Hasbro’s before ho’s!

All 26 episodes of Helix. I lost count of the number of bone-headed decisions each character made somewhere around the middle of the first season.

I am constantly amazed at how that one book created such a rich a fully formed universe that feels as genuine and real to me as Middle Earth or Iain Bank’s Culture. After further consideration I would certainly be up for a prequel set during and in the aftermath of the “Terrible Events”.

Even though this is my favourite book of the noughties I think this is a case of a perfectly self-contained story. The ending doesn’t leave much need for further expansion. Unless the story is told from a the point of view of a different worldtrack, which would make it a “sidequel” I suppose.

Honestly, unless Nicky’s performances improve, I cannot see him continuing to race past this season.