STG's

 Heard about this one because it was available to vote for in one of Steam's 2022 awards. This is a pixel art mining game with what I guess could be called tower defense aspects. Mostly you mine the land below your dome for a few different elements (iron, water and cobalt), and after a very short time, you have to go up to defend your dome from monsters. There are a few upgrades (better drill, jet pack, dome laser, etc, etc) and a few gadgets (lift, digging companion, automated laser, probe, etc), which can also be upgraded. The goal can be getting resources (prestige mode) or getting an specific relic. The game works well, but there a few annoying choices: - tutorials are minimal, and sometimes you have to guess what a gadget does - music plays just sometimes. There is a setting, but I can't recall ever seeing someone do it this way??? - no mini-map  - even basic indicators are upgrades you need to buy - even if you like specific gadgets, you can't choose them (mostly) . T...

 I read Delta-V, by Daniel Suarez (which I liked from other books, specially Daemon) last month and forgot to review it (seems common lately). This is a common theme for SF books - near future, add some mild advances, go mine asteroids, which is obviously a big step for humankind. Higher Education and The Billion Dollar Boy come to mind, although I seem to recall both had way more SF tech (I believe the second is mostly outside the solar system). Delta-V uses more realistic, currently available tech, and it does it in a very believable manner, with nice amounts of action and betrayal (technically a spoiler). It was quite enjoyable, and I happened to get it when I heard about the sequel, so when I finished (at about 2 a.m., I believe), I happily went to buy the sequel. Which was when I realized it was only on pre-sale, 2 months away. :-( Oh, well, it should be available next month, at least...

 Just got Marvel Spider-Man Remastered, which I understand is originally pretty old. This follows the open world game recipe book pretty well. It really reminds me of Just Cause 4, even the tower unlocks to scan a region is similar (Just Cause did it a lot better - the wavelength mini-game is pretty silly, and I am pretty sure I have seen it a bunch of times since at least the 90s, if not the 80s). Graphics are pretty good. I have to mention the start-up time, which was VERY surprising. It is not only really fast, but you can even skip all the logos. Combat is nice enough, there is an ok stealth component, plenty of gadgets, skills, suits, and suit add-ons. I also like that the suit powers are choosable, as opposed to locked in a suit. Also plenty of activities. The research stations missions can be a little annoying, though. Overall, very nice, I really like it so far.

 A Desolation called peace, by Arkady Martine, is the sequel to "A Memory called Empire" (which I read, and liked, but forgot to review). Here we have the consequences of the last book - the empire is fighting the big bad aliens. Three Seagrass and Mahit, the main characters from the first book, manage to get themselves inserted in the action as negotiators. A good part of this one moved quite slowly. There are a few parallels with Ender's Game, ********SPOILERS******* since both have aliens with "magic" communication, although I don't recall if the ants had a sense of self. They also fight because they didn't think their enemies had any importance (only queens mattered in Ender's game, on Desolation conscience is apparently distributed and anyone not connected was not considered a person. /********SPOILERS******* Overall, this one was OK but I liked A Memory called Empire a lot more.

I have been playing Deathloop for about a week, and I am still not sure if I like it or hate... What I like: - looks great (minor point, though) - lots of clever stealth opportunities, specially after you can shift into roofs. - powers, in the same way Dishonored did - story is somewhat interesting - there are plenty of puzzles, with various levels of rewards (some recurring, due to the loop part). What I don't: - can't save inside a level. That does create extra tension, sure, but now you can't experiment with things you want to in the same way, plus can't just shut down instantly, so now I can only play if I have a large amount of time where I think I won't be interrupted. This combined with how easy you are to kill means a minor mistake, like bumping in a single enemy can easily kill you. And if you loop, you lose everything you acquired in both that level and previous levels on the same loop. - not a lot of levels. There are just a few (4?), but they change a lo...

Basically Fallout 3, space themed. I have found this quite enjoyable, and the variety of side quests is mission is pretty nice. Graphics are good, but nothing fantastic. So far it doesn't feel very repetitive (21 hours in, did all side quests I found). There is a lot of story, and I like how powerful the hack/lie/intimidate skills are in some missions. Having just finished Sniper Elite 5, the stealth part feels a little weak. UI could use a lot of improvements, though... I really wish I could filter for specific gun powers, and some sort of sets you could instantly equip would be great, given how armor and guns can be much better in specific situations. Instead you need to find them in a big list of items, all alike.  Overall, pretty nice, if on sale.

 Eversion, by Alastair Reynolds, was one of the rare books I bought on pre-order. There are just a few authors that I trust enough to do that. I did not regret it. The story begins in a sailship in the 1700s. The narrator is Dr. Silas Coade, and the ship is searching for a mysterious structure. Soon the doctor is killed... And next he wakes in a steam ship, with just fragments of the memory of what happened. Everyone else is the same as in the last ship. Next time it happens, it is an airship going to the hollow earth, searching for a structure... It was interesting setup, that I feel as well developed, and much cleverer than similar tropes. It pays very well in the end, and comes to a quite satisfying conclusion. Overall, very much recommended.

Os Segredos do Investidor de Valor, de Bruce Barbosa, foi um bônus de uma assinatura da Nord Research. Ele fala do conceito do investidor de valor e de como utilizá-lo. No meu caso, desconfio que foi menos útil, já que li recentemente o livro do Howard Marks (The Most Important Thing, muito bom) e visto alguns cursos no assunto. Também tem trechos repetitivos. Fora isso, achei muito bom, e extremamente recomendado, ainda por cima sendo bem curtinho.

Experimentei o telegram premium (recebo muitas mensagens longas de voz).  As transcrições são excelentes, em português (ouvi que usam a API do google). Demora um pouco. No telegram web não funciona, no desktop sim. O bizarro é que texto não entra na procura... que seria uma das partes mais úteis. Tem dois jeitos de assinar, via Google (mais caro), ou via o site deles. Por enquanto usei o Google, porque tenho mais confiança de cancelar quando quiser.

 I decided to read  The Time Traveler's Wife , by Audrey Niffenegger, after I heard that the series was cancelled. I really liked the series (and the movie, but the series was better - much easier with all the extra time), and it felt like a logical time, while it was still fresh in my mind. The book was pretty good, but the series was better in a number of small ways, specially the dinner scene - which is just a plain dinner in the book, but very memorable in the series. ***SPOILERS FOLLOW*** I think I see some of the reasons the series was cancelled. There isn't all that much to get an extra 6 episodes. And most of what there is, is pretty dark. The nice part, of course, is their daughter Alba (which is also a time traveler and maybe, some day, will have her book - apparently the author is pulling a GRRM and have been writing it for 8 years now). Henry's big plot points are losing his feet and dying. "At least" Clare can still meet Henry sometimes, but that seem...

 O Jeito Warren Buffet de Investir, por Morgan Housel, é um finbook da Finclass com cerca 78 min. Esse curso fala de princípios genéricos, como usados por Warren Buffet para investir. Eu concordo com tudo que foi falado, mas não achei muito útil porque já tinha visto quase 100% em outros lugares. Bonzinho, especialmente para quem não tem muita experiência.

 Rogue Legacy 2 is obviously a sequel to Rogue Legacy - a rogue-like platformer with progression. To be honest, I don't recall enough of the original, having playing years ago, to compare both. This one has a ton of progression possibilities, but some are very, very tiny (2% of a stat), which gets tiring fast. There are a ton of different characters, and each play differently - one cute example is the Chef, which has a frying pan that can bounce projectiles back. The platform annoyince (if you are not into that) is HUGE. Lots of places where you have to leap precisely a dozen times in a sequence. Fortunately, you can just go to house rules and get the option to fly (or get the artifact), which help things somewhat. Still, at least one door is very annoying jump-kick-dash-kick with no older gamer margin. Overall, I like it, but probably not as much as I would without it being as much plataform-ey as it is.

Uplift War, by David Brin, is part of his first Uplift trilogy. I have already reviewed Sundiver and Startide Rising, which I didn't think were as good as this one. In this book, aliens are still mad about the big discovered humans/dolphins made in Startide Rising. One of them decides to keep a human colony hostage. Naturally, guerrilla (and gorilla) warfare follows. This was my favorite from the trilogy by far. There is a nice view into the uplifted chimpanzees, some other aliens, and a few of the galactic customs.

 Startide Rising, by David Brin, is: - a SF novel - The second book in the Uplift Saga (I just read and reviewed Sundiver) In this book, a starship with uplifted dolphins (mostly), humans and an uplifted chimp made a huge discovery, and now a lot of alien enemies are after them. They go to a quite interesting water planet to hide for repairs.  This book is from the early 80s, and sometimes it feels like it. Thankfully, the big ideas are more important and shine through the rest. Middle felt a little slow, but the conclusion was satisfying enough. There is a very mild connection with book 1, Sundiver. No need to read it first, nor would I recommend reading it - it was just ok.

 Sundiver, by David Brin, is a SF novel and part of his original Uplift trilogy. In Sundiver, Earth has met the galactics, and there a ton of them, in constant war except for some institutions such as the library, that contains all they know (supposedly). There is barely any research - it is considered bad to not just look things up in the library. Now humans and a bunch of alien go dive into our Sun, to make contact with living sentient creatures there. Chaos ensues. Overall, good, considering it is a 1980 book. In SF sometimes being old is super obvious, sometimes not. This one is in the middle. The Uplift part - where almost all sentient life in the galaxy is uplifted by a patron, which usually gets 100,000 years of slavery (ouch!), is interesting. In this book, mankind has already uplifted chimps, and is working on dolphins.

 I have played Sniper Elite 4, 3 and 2 (in that order), and I was a big fan of 3 and 4.  Sniper Elite 5 is quite similar in many aspects, and it keeps the game loop where you probably want to be stealthy, as well as taking advantage of opportunities (such as noisy places) to snipe. But it also adds nice progression elements, such as useful skills you can unlock, as well as weapons and weapon parts. As on the others, sniping can be trivial or a bit hard, depending on the difficulty you pick. There are also extra difficulty option. Graphics are much better (although cutscenes still look sub-par), and there are a few extra modes, including multiplayer. Problems were minor - sometimes FPS will drop (using a 3070 at 4k) to 20s for a few seconds (mostly always at 60FPS with VSYNC), I get a weird flicker on movement, and the pre game setup is slightly broken with large fonts. So far it seems like a major advance, and a great game. Update: finished in about 24 hours (including the Hit...

A Psalm for the wild-built, by Becky Chambers  Pretty much amazing. Frankly, when I read the description I wasn't very interested, but there was so much praise for the book I read it anyway. The story is mostly about a non-binary tea monk, which goes around cities providing tea and conversation for distraught people in an eco-friendly world. Robots disappeared a while ago - they went sentient, asked people to go away, and they just said fine (probably the least believable element here, but quite refreshing). The monk meets a wild robot, that is trying to understand how humans are now. A very pleasant road trip  (well, at least for the reader) ensues. Can't wait for the next book!

Vi o curso Finclass Imposto de Renda, de Jhonny Martins. Faço meu imposto de renda faz décadas, mas investi em renda variável pela primeira vez ano passado e achei que o curso seria interessante. Pelo tempo gasto, gostei. Obviamente falta muita coisa (por exemplo, não falou nada do IR pré-preenchido, ou de opções que fazem o IR por você), mas aprendi várias coisas que não sabia. Por 2 horas de tempo, se você já assina o Finclass, bem interessante.

 The Ophiuchi Hotline is a 1977 novel by John Varley. I happened to get this one because of a book discount newsletter. Most days I just ignore it, but when I saw John Varley, I immediately went and bought it. The story is interesting enough - it mostly covers a geneticist who is condemned to death, and then saved. She lives on the Moon - one of the 8 planets that have most of the remaining human race, after invaders took over the Earth.  The geneticist is rescued by Tweed, who is dedicated to fighting the invaders and regaining Earth, and apparently have very soft ethical boundaries. She proceeds to get killed and cloned several times (I imagine no one will be impressed in SF by cloning by at this time, and they also have memory recordings). Part of this tech was given to humans by the Ophiuchi Hotline, which is a signal that comes from 17 years away with lots of tech humans can use. There are a lot of tech novelties like advanced surgery, nullfields and use of quantum black ...

 I recently got Watchdogs in a sale, but when I tried to play it, Uplay would fail at start with a libcef.dll error. The solution is simple - look for Ubisoft Connect (not adding the link, you really should not click links to download software from blog posts...), and install the latest version. I imagine Watchdogs installed an old version, which would normally update but failed for some reason on Windows 11. Then the game ran just fine.

 Os Axiomas de Zurich é um livro já tradicional sobre investimentos, que foi comentado por Bruno Perini numa Finclass de cerca de 2 horas e meia. O livro trata de "princípios filosóficos" quanto a investimentos. Obviamente, a interpretação é importante para uso prático: (obviamente meus comentários são sobre o que foi abordado no curso) Vários dos princípios já deveriam ser óbvios se você investe: - Risco - precisa ter risco para ganhar algo. Cuidado ao diversificar, considere o anti-frágil do Taleb - Não espere até a última hora para realizar lucro, a chance de errar é boa - entre sabendo quanto quer ganhar, e quando chegar lá, saia - Abandone o barco quando começar a afundar (venda mesmo com prejuízo, se os fundamentos sumiram) - Não acredite em previsões, e cuidado com as ilusões de ordem. Achei essa parte e seus exemplos mais interessantes. - Cuidado com a liquidez, para poder se adaptar as mudanças.  - Cuidado com o custo de oportunidade (saia de algo pior se algo melhor...

 Memory's Legion, by James S.A. Corey, is a collection of novellas in The Expanse universe. I read it just after I finished all the books, and it was very interesting, specially as it features some of the minor and major characters from the regular series. Well worth reading.

Middlegame, by Seanan Mcguire, is an interesting fantasy book, which mostly concerns itself with alchemy. In this alchemical world, alchemists are capable of pulling Frankestein like feats, constructing beings, and things like immortality and others. One of these wants to take over the universe by embodying important concepts into pairs of children (such as math and language). These children, not surprisingly, are the main characters in the book, and their fight to survive and get out of their creator's control. Overall, very interesting, and very unusual in several ways.

Bonzinho, não é bem do meu interesse. Tem um e-book que contém uns 90% do que é falado no curso (recomendo ler antes e fazer suas anotações), mais uma planilha. O método dela parece razoável em princípio, apesar de vários ítens serem só uma sugestão geral e uma anedota - como a parte de negociar seu valor. Achei que foi bom que pelo menos ela mencionou da importância de você pedir um aumento ou não dependendo do valor que entrega para seu cliente, é muito comum o pessoal querer aumento porque precisa, o que não é um argumento que faz muito sentido.

Bom, cobre boa parte do The Most Important Thing em bem menos tempo.  Ainda acho que vale a pena ler o livro.  Especialmente uma das coisas que achei mais importantes não foi no curso - que só um bom investidor pode saber se um investimento foi bom, porque mesmo tendo um bom resultado, existiam um monte de possibilidades de dar errado, cada uma com seus riscos, e só ver o resultado ignora completamente se o cara teve sorte. Post geral de review da Finclass

 Recentemente assinei a Finclass, que estava trocando o preço e adicionando algumas funcionalidades (uma comunidade, sugestões Spitis, alguns cursos extras). App Android = bonzinha. Download é rápido, tem controle (limitado, 1x, 1.5x e 2x) de velocidade. De vez em quando dá umas travadas Chrome/Firefox (Windows 10 e 11) - de vez em quando funciona bem, de vez em quando não quer funcionar de jeito nenhum (por isso testei nos dois). Nos últimos dias funcionou bem normal, então pode ter sido algum problema de carga com a troca de preço. Finclub/Comunidade - Não está ruim, mas para quem usa fóruns de mensagens desde os anos 80 como eu, é bem fraquinho. Podiam ter usado um Reddit open source ou coisa parecida. Quantidade razoável de comentários. Limite por comentário meio irritante (300 comentário, acho que 1K chars nos posts). No momento acho que prefiro o /r/investimentos. Cursos (vou tentar adicionar conforme vejo): Howard Marks - Sabedoria Financeira - bom, cobre boa parte do The M...

 Tiamat's Ashes, by James S.A. Corey, is the 8th book in the series. It has now been a while since I actually read it, so I might mix it up with the other books in the series. So Duarte goes and decides to tease the aliens beyond the gates. It doesn't go well. At all. And now they are trying to kill everyone... Overall, great battles and ideas, well worth the read, like every book in the series.

 Leviathan Falls, by James S.A. Corey, is the final (9) book in the Expanse series. In the previous book, the human/alien hybrid god emperor got his groove back, so to say, and decided to go fight the aliens beyond our universe. Now everything is coming to an end, and the aliens are experimenting with changing our reality, to murder us all. Again, the Rocinante crew has to go and save everyone, together with Dr. Okeye and the Falcon.  Overall, excellent, and a great, hopeful ending, with a surprise survivor.

 Loop Hero is an interesting card-based strategy (? not sure what the right category would be) game. It uses really lo-fi pixel art (I'd say it'd PC XT, maybe 286 era?), but is still quite adequate. Your character (you start with warrior, but can unlock others) goes around a loop, and when it kills enemies (automatically - you can't interfere at all, except changing equipment), you get cards or equipment. Equipment is what you'd expect - new weapons, armor, rings, etc, which give you certain stats, such as attack, defense, vampirism, etc. Cards can be a whole lot of things, which have good effects (giving resources when placed, when you pass them, or each day) or spawn enemies (and then still have good side effects, as giving you resources - otherwise, why would you place them). There is also a build phase, where you can place different buildings that unlocks cards, character types, weapons,etc. Overall, interesting. I do wish building didn't take so much time, thou...

 Crypto against all odds is very heavily cryptocurrency themed tower defense game. It seems to have mostly what you'd expect from a TD game - different towers (which are so far Bitcoin, Ethereum and Monero), and powers you can use (such as mining rigs to get you the money to buy extra towers, and lightning to kill enemies). It feels a little slow (including the mission system, which is a bulletin board), but my biggest problem is that sometimes the cursor locks up completely, while the game continues... This, with the rest of the gameplay, makes it not worth it to continue trying the game.

 Made to Order is an anthology book, with several short stories on a topic - robot revolution. It came up on my book offers, and when I read Peter F. Hamilton, I just said oh, OK and bought it. It was pretty much awesome. Some stories were nice, but many were just great and pretty memorable. I had given up on doing that, but I can't help but mention some: (watch for spoilers!) A Guide for Working Breeds - Vina Jie-min Prasad The story of a new robot and his mentor. It has a nice model I've seen before - robots are sentient, and they have to work to pay for their hardware, at which point they are free. The new robot really likes dogs, which is pretty cute (and I imagine would make a great Love, Death  + Robots episode), and the other is a little more violent. I like that the tradition of robot names based on serial/model numbers is still going. Test 4 Echo - Peter Watts Very famous author, nice, I particularly the way the sentience (and robot architecture) was approached, and h...

 I just bumped into Motherland: Fort Salem in the Star+ menu. I never had heard anything about it before. This is a fantasy(/horror?) series where in an alternate past, the Salem trials went very different when Alder, a powerful witch, did something before getting hanged (not sure what it was, frankly), and America did a deal with the witches, where they became their armed forces, and were required to present themselves for training on Fort Salem when they turn 18. The magic scheme for the series is almost all based on singing (thankfully not Disney style, just specific "seeds", or notes). That looks quite good in practice, IMHO. I am on the middle of the second season, and I quite like it so far. Very enjoyable, and while it does have obvious plot consequences, overall it feels new, and not a re-hatch of other movies/books/series, which is unfortunately rarer than I'd like.

 Desperados III is an old West themed stealth tactical game. As usual for this kind of game, each mission feels like a complicated puzzle, where you have a few elements to use - different characters with each different skills/weapons, and points on the map. Graphics are pretty good, load times are reasonable, and in particular reloading is very fast. It is so tuned toward experimenting and reloading when it fails, that it has timer reminding you of your last save. There are also a reasonable amount of options on how you finish objectives, although most felt like you had a single reasonable course of action. Tutorials felt sufficient so far, and it even has a nice screen with tutorials explaining game concepts. Overall, I really like it so far.

 I decided to use my bluetooth headphone on Windows (usually I use it with Android devices), and sound was horrible. Turns out that the regular usage in Headset mode - with simultaneous microphone and headphone - doesn't have enough bandwidth, which really mess up the sound (seems a bit absurd to me, but ok). An easy fix is just going to Sounds (right-click on the speaker, choose Sounds) and then pick Ear Phones instead of Headset, and click default. It clips the start of things sometimes, but it sounds normal.

Babylon's Ashes is book number 6 in The Expanse series. This one takes place in our solar system. The free navy is still being a major problem, and the Rocinante is helping, as usual. A lot of battles ensue, ending with the retaking of Medina Station. No direct alien/alien tech appearance (seems a little forced that the alien station wouldn't mind what happens there), except for the portals acting up, as they already have. Overall, pretty good. I also liked the Filip evolution. I expect there will be a surprising reunion (for Naomi), which would have good symmetry with Filip's surprise (obviously avoid spoilers here). 

Acabei o curso do Clube FII - Fundos Imobiliários: Um Jeito Inteligente de Investir em Imóveis. O curso tem cerca 10 horas de vídeo, mais um e-book de 277 páginas (mas com estilo de slide show, então muitas páginas só tem 1 linha de texto com fonte enorme). Achei o conteúdo interessante no geral, e com partes bem práticas, com demonstrativo de como comprar e como analisar alguns fundos. A parte que não gostei foi a específica de cada setor e a de value investing - bem curtinhas, as do curso do Expert XP foram melhores. O curso tem um certificado, verificável online e que você pode imprimir. Achei o custo benefício, tanto do valor (R$160, mas peguei dois descontos - aniversário do clube E de ser membro) e do tempo (8h, acelerando bem os vídeos - ambos professores falam relativamente devagar), muito bom. Claro que isso depende dos valores que você tem/quer colocar em FIIs.

 Run program, by Scott Meyer, is a SF/comedy novel. The topic is now a classic - people create AI, it goes sentient (at least this time it is on purpose), something bad happens. There is a slight twist, though, they decided to create the AI as a brain simulation (not really new - Charles Stross did a couple of books on this, which were pretty good), which is child like when it escapes. As other Scott Meyer books (like the Magic 2.0), comedy is a big part, and there were a lot of funny bits. Overall, good, but not great.

 Ziggurat 2 is an old school FPS, which I imagine is supposed to be based on Hexen and others of the 90s. Graphics are good enough (although the enemies are just OK and pretty repetitive). Movement is pretty fast, and very fluid - I really like it in this aspect. Unlike Hexen (as far as I remember, at least), you can collect weapons and many upgrades on each level, which carry on even if you die. You also get a couple of characters with different powers. Overall, fun so far, but I imagine I will get tired quickly. If I don't, I'll update this post. Update: the short levels are fun, but the long ones are way too long, and I get sick of playing them half-way through. 

HomeWorld Deserts of Kharak is a strategy/tactical PC game, which is supposed to be a prequel to the HomeWorld series. It takes place in the desert, mostly using land units, with a mobile carrier base. Graphics are adequate, although it always seem too zoomed in for me (unless you use the full screen map). There is no mini-map, which seems like a silly thing to do. There are a bunch of aggravations: - all units move slowly - ESC, for some reason, won't call the menu, it uses the Pause button (WTF?) - you specifically have a way to attack multiple units. Nice. You can't use that way to repair multiple units, nor will they be repaired automatically when near repair vehicles. - music is pretty underused - cutscenes are super slow, with lots of dialog, but can't be sped up or skipped. I do like the explicitly mobile base, and the fact that you have options to configure it (more power to guns, armor, sensors, etc). Overall, barely acceptable at a large discount. Even worse, most...

 Grand Theft Astra, by Scott Meyer, is mostly a multiple heist SF novel, with plenty of comedy. It still has the strong comic tone of the Magic 2.0 series, but with most of the entertaining in the way the techie thief goes around the jobs, as well as the ongoing plot. The only thing that bothered me is that I don't recall seeing any mention of a FTL comm system, but the main character goes around the solar system talking to everyone in real time.

 Gunfire Reborn is an interesting rogue-lite FPS, where you accumulate "talents" (upgrades) and unlocks guns/characters/etc between runs. The art style is very distinctive, and the enemies are very generic after a while. The main loop is fun, and the shooting feels nice. There are a few weapon types. It is heavily compared to Borderlands, but the biggest shared elements between them are, well, elements (guns can shock/burn/corrode/etc) and the fact that guns can have extras, just like Borderlands. English is a little broken, but it is just annoying, not a problem. Overall, nice and enjoyable, but feels a little grindy.

 Delver is a FPS dungeon crawler roguelite, in a very Minecraft style. I have played for a short while, but I didn't get it at all...

 Quantum of Nightmares, by Charles Stross, is another book in the Laundry series universe (Lovecraft horror/fantasy), as it carefully points out in the cover, but it doesn't have what used to be the main characters - which I imagine are harder to use now that Bob is super powerful. The Eater of Souls is  only mentioned once in the whole book, as a major threat the government dangles. However, as in the last book, that doesn't make it worse, just different. The gang from the last book is back (Eve, Imp, Doc, Game boy, Wendy, Deliverator, etc), and they have to undo a gigantic mess that was started by Rupert, before he disappeared in the end of the last book (it is still unknow if he actually died). I really like the big plan - feels a little silly but pretty grandiose use of the author's rules for the reality.  Overall, pretty much great.

 Vampire Survivors is a shooter like Llamatron, except that the graphics are worse than the early 90s version I used to play - and it is not a twin-stick shooter, some guns work on their own, and the others follow your last move (on the keyboard - maybe it supports controllers, I didn't try). But for some weird reason, I like it. Sure, it is not chock-full of content, but then I paid like US$1.50 for it, so I can't complain.  There are at least a couple of levels (not sure if more can be unlocked), a lot of guns that you can upgrade inside a run, persistent upgrades you can buy, and quite a few unlocks, including different characters, each with their own default gun and powers. Overall, pretty nice, specially considering it is on early access and super cheap.

 Nemesis Games is the fifth book in The Expanse series. As in the fourth book, it starts kind of slow. The Rocinante crew is back on the solar system, and it will take months for the ship to be fixed. Everyone suddenly has their own errands, and they all spread throughout the place. We get a little background on everyone, and it is nice but a little slow. Eventually, all their errands connect (well, in a sense) and major disasters strike the whole of humankind.  Naomi got a lot of action in this one, including some major McGyvering. Bobbie comes back, too. Overally, really good, specially towards the end.

Nova Drift is a shooter, with a ton of upgrades and unlocks. Never heard of it, it was on a Steam sale (and pretty cheap, too, I think about US$2.2 in local currency). I really like it! Graphics are pretty much great, the variety of weapons and enemies is amazing, and not just graphical variety, completely different behavior, attacks, etc. You also get a ton of possible strategies, you can have a stronger, slower ship, turrets, drones, mines, auto-homing missiles, and more. I'd never guess this was in early access.  The only thing I miss is side thrusters, my left hand keeps going to WASD to control from the keyboard...

 Vesper is a platformer/puzzle. The art style is very interesting. It can be quite confusing. It seems to focus on someone that downloaded into a robot? There are bits spread across the landscape that seem to explain the story. The game doesn't feel like most, and have some interesting mechanics. It is a platformer, but seems very forgiving on jumps. Mostly you go around while being hunted and avoiding being killed by several kind of robot sentinels. Story start was crazy slow (like several minutes without almost any action). Even the game itself is a little tiresome, probably a bit because the landscape barely changes, and music is a bit minimalist.

 The Dispatcher, by John Scalzi, is a fantasy (or SF, depends on your point of view) novella, which takes place in a world where people who are murdered almost always pop out of existence, and back in a place they think is safe. I had already read the sequel (unknowingly), and I wanted more. They are both pretty much as good - relatively simple fantasy novellas where something changes in the universe, and the author explores the consequences in a story, playing with the rules he created. Pretty good, and very short.

Love, Death + Robots: the Official Anthology: Volume One, by John Scalzi, is a collection of the stories used in Love, Death + Robots, the Netflix series. I actually had read quite a few of those before the series, but there were quite a few more here. If you like short SF, you really should check this one out. There were several excellent ones. And if you like SF at all, you really should check out the series. Not only are the stories excellent, the animation is beautiful, and the style changes from episode to episode. 

 The Part about the Dragon was mostly true, by Sean Gibson, is a fantasy-comedy book, which tells the story of an epic (supposedly) fantasy quest, as viewed by the bard. It was pretty funny, and I liked the silly characters. My main complaint is that there is a literal pulling the ending out of your a** finale. This is not that unusual, and one of my favorite authors (Peter F. Hamilton) did pull this a few times, but not the literal part. Still good, but not great.

 Cibola Burn, by James S.A. Corey, is the fourth book in The Expanse series. I actually stopped reading the series because they decided not to have it available for Brazil, for whatever reason. But recently I saw the release of the series final, and decided to try again, and all books are available (and much cheaper, of course!) in the BR Kindle store. It starts kind of slow, in the first colony after the gates were opened. It then gets much better and has plenty of stuff happening with the protomolecule creator's tech. Overall, strongly recommended for fans of the series.