Basically, our new alien best friends find slang references to copulation really offensive (who knows why);* their proposal is that if humanity would like to continue receiving the plentiful benefits of Guru knowledge and technology, it'd be nice if they stopped with all the f-bombs, OK?

Just finished this one myself and I have to agree with most of what you say. I get that Bear is trying to portray Venn as the sort of stoic, non-introspective type of Jarhead that you find in plenty of military fiction (plus he's juiced on state-of-the-art alien / military-supplied psych drugs), but that does make him…

Oh man - yeah, it was. I didn't catch that last night. :D

Yes, they do, when Lamson's escape means jeopardizing the whole hostage exchange and removing the stealth option. The last thing Rick's Roughnecks needed was Dawn's cop squad having time to prepare for their arrival.

Like many here I'm really torn on this. Spike?

You're incorrect. The first WTC bombing happened on Bill Clinton's watch in 1993.

...except for that part where we invaded the wrong country on trumped-up false charges and deposed its dictator for our own selfish interests, and then wasted 10 years and thousands of lives on a war that no one really wanted (with no plan to pay for it), then sure.

Oh man, I envy you. Binge-watching makes the show even better in my opinion. The monster-of-the-week episodes are easier to take. Also you get to watch all of the characters develop (which they do, thankfully).

...and she was already the most annoying of many annoying characters, too- kudos to the writing staff for going all out to make me mutter "thank god" when Lexi (currently the 2nd most annoying character) finally offed her! :D

I'm sure they were, since the 'blood' was actually (SPOILER) some kind of acid or something - I dunno, at that point my eyes glazed over and I may have blacked out for a moment or two...

Week before last it rained blood, if that gives you any idea of how things go under the dome. :D

Oh man, you just reminded me of when Karl Kerschel lost his whole Abominable Charles Christopher site. He had all his artwork and files backed up of course, but it was still weeks before he had his replacement Tumblr site up and running.

Oh- other things happened; several of them, actually.* But none of them made a damn bit of difference to either the plot or the characters, which is a big part of the problems with the show.

Yes it did, and very well if I recall. I think It's possibly Delaney's best novel, and I'm still waiting for the promised sequel. I need to go reread it (again).

Pics! From frame 8 of the .gif:

You should be able to r-click it and save it if your browser won't open it. Here's the RAS page link, which might also work better: RAS: Puffing Sun gives birth to reluctant eruption

Best I could do (so far), an OMG huge 2045 x 2045 animated GIF:

Always remember: proper hyphenation is extremely important.

Yes! And the timeline does cover the transition from STL to FTL space flight, most pointedly in Downbelow Station where it's fundamental to the culture clash between Pell's World's inhabitants and the Earth Company's 'enforcers', the Company Fleet.

>Rebooted Bob's legs :D