STG's

I already had an Echo Show 8 for a few months (old model), and when I saw an Echo Dot (3rd gen) on sale, I decided to get one. Just now I tested both for my biggest use - listening to music. I was quite surprised about how close the 1/4 price, tiny Echo Dot was to the Echo Show. Yes, the biggest one does have a bigger bass and is louder, but I certainly wouldn't choose one over the other just for that at 4 times the price! Commands seem to fail slightly more frequently on the Dot, and it doesn't have the camera (useless where it is, but could be useful on another place). The screen is cool, but I don't use it enough for the difference. Overall, right now I would just get the Dot. The Echo Show is cooler in a number of ways, but unless you plan to use the screen to actually watch something (and then you will get into limitations about the apps), it doesn't seem worth the difference. It also takes a whole lot more space.

The Singularity Trap, by Dennis E. Taylor, is a SF novel. Funny that it took me a month to go through Rainbow Six, and then I read two books in two days... It starts pretty slow and generic. The main character is in financial trouble providing to his family, in an Earth that is collapsing (from basically, the path it is right now), and he goes to be a space miner. Then comes a very generic segment, till he touches an unknow substance, which starts turning him to chrome. It continues pretty well till the end. Overall, very enjoyable, and I am hoping for sequels.

 Hammers on Bones, by Cassandra Shaw, is a very Lovecraftian horror book. I really, really liked it. It is pretty short (around 100 pages), and the writing is just delightful.  A lot of what is happening is not very clear. The main character is a PI that is some sort of creature inhabiting a dead body. And that is the good guy. In the first page, a kid asks him to kill his stepdad, who is a monster. Overall, strongly recommended for fans of the genre.

I have just finished reading Rainbow Six, by Tom Clancy, published in 1998. It is pretty long, at 900 pages. It doesn't feel like it has a lot of filler, though. I thought the main plot was interesting enough to mention. It concerns a anti-terrorist black ops organization. Now for the interesting part - SPOILERS! In the main plot, a group of eco-terrorists create a ebola-based virus that can kill most of the world's population (so that nature can heal) and plan to distribute in the olympics, and after that, as a fake vaccine. I am surprised the conspiracy theorists didn't mention this one... Overall, pretty nice.

 Neon Abyss is a retro rogue-lite. It has a few weapons, although you don't get specs, plenty of upgrades you pick up, and a persistent upgrade tree. Shooting is ok, but I'm sort of neutral on the whole game - it is ok, but I don't particularly enjoy anything about it.

 Ghostrunner is a cyberpunk parkour game. I have just played for an hour or so, and it sure is intense. I haven't played many of the parkour style games, just a little of Mirror's Edge, but I found Ghostrunner to be a little tiring. There were certainly a LOT of reloads on my part... It does look great, but I'm not sure if I like the action or not.