Definitely fat, I was thinking shaggy/unkempt hair and beard though. But he is about 50 years old IIRC, so bald is definitely possible. Bald + beard = crazy.

Not only are the comments great, but the attention to detail on the page layout is amazing. I was really hoping the links to the "Multimedia" and "Related Stories" were real though.

Yeah I don't know about that either... Haymitch strikes me as a guy that would be living under an overpass if he didn't have a house provided for him, not sure Woody can pull that off.

Makes sense... I think we were "introduced" to the Culture here in a similar way, but through an simple outsider rather than an enemy. Maybe I'll check out a couple others first and come at it with a different perspective. Thanks!

Actually it seemed like we didn't see too much of the Culture in this book either, except for one ship (that apparently is a military juggernaut) we spent most of the time among "less advanced" civilizations. I especially liked the idea of sentient ships (Himerance was a little crazy-Hedonismbot when we first met him…

My first one as well... I did feel a bit of "Four Lines All Waiting" at the beginning but I thought everything came together nicely as the story went on. I think most of the Vatueil thread was "exposition" (as you put it); it gave us some insight into the way the war was being carried out but I ended up being more…

@Ruthless Genius... I'm glad we were able to clear that up. Can you believe there are actually people out there that think Greedo shot first? Nonsense, I tell you!

Maybe slightly #offtopic, but I cried a little when I noticed that the main picture is of Greedo shooting first. (you can see the smoke by Han's head). I'm changing my vote for number one handgun to the walkie-talkies the government guys carried in ET.

If there has to be a Firefly gun I vote for the Lassiter. It's an antique!

I agree... I'm also looking forward to see how alt-Lincoln will respond to Walternate throwing Fauxlivia in a cell (and I'm sure he'll find out eventually). The Other Side seems to be heading towards a "civil war" of sorts.

I would look into that too, but if everything gamewise has changed so much I don't know if my Jester's Cap is still useful or worth anything...

It is indeed... I saw the name as I was about to get on and decided I had to get a picture.

Consolation prize?

Dr. Goldberg... paging Dr. Goldberg...

Thanks... I don't like lengthy exposition any more than you do (judging by your replies to some of the other questions) but I did find myself wanting to know a bit more about the larger world. I felt like we were getting there when the mission to find Nikodem really took off (not that that is a bad thing, but it will…

The book is now available for free in eBook format through Barnes and Noble's website (through 14 April). If you search for it under the "NOOKBook" category it should come up.

So first off, thank you for giving us the opportunity to discuss your work and taking the time to answer some questions... I think we got a pretty deep look into the world in this book, but I am curious about the beginnings of the war and how the different groups came to be what they are in the "present" as the story…

So is her next book definitely going to be set in this world as well? Like most of the other commenters, I would be interested to learn a bit more about the world that I don't think was touched on in this story. How did the different countries evolve/develop their specific abilities? (seems like a combination of…

What about regular ScoreMobile? Fast, quick access to all scores and easy to get more details on a specific game. It also has the same widget as shown for ScoreMobileFC if you want a ticker-like view. You can also "favorite" teams so they will show up on the top of schedules (which are usually sorted by time) and…

Unfortunately, if you show this to people right after they watch the news, it still won't stop them from stocking up on potassium iodide tablets that we don't even know are necessary yet. I'm not saying there is no potential danger, but a rational look at the facts (like what we have here) is better than inciting…