STG's

 Stormblood, by Jeremy Szal, is a SF thriller, and first in a series. I actually got it because Neal Asher recommended it in a tweet. There are some very interesting ideas, which do remind me of Asher's book - the lead guy has alien "tech" inside him, humanity has spread to many planets and is in contact with many alien races. It was just ok for me, however. Feels like more could have been done with the alien tech (which mostly just heals, makes people stronger and faster, and pretty much crazy). Not sure exactly how it gets used as a drug (might have forgotten, was it supposed to feel good? the main character doesn't seem to think so). Also he gets captured by the bad guys several times, and escape every time - felt very repetitive. Several typos and grammar errors, too... Overall, ok, but I will not be following the series.

 I just realized that I haven't posted a book review in months. Now that the books are nowhere near as fresh in my mind, posting reviews seems even more pointless than usual. Thus I will be only listing what I read and how much I liked them from 1-10... This is how you lose the time wars 8.5 Red team blues 8.5 The name of the world is forest 7.5 Upgrade 8.5 Antimatter Blues 7.5 Critical mass 8

Season of Skulls, by Charles Stross, is his latest book in the Laundry-adjacent fantasy series that covers Eve (mostly her, in this case), her brother and friends (all of which have magical powers) and her "husband". This was a very different book from the rest of the series, as it mostly takes place in a made-up dream reality created by magic, a couple of centuries ago from the present, where Eve goes to try to stop her husband from getting a powerful book and trying to raise a dangerous god. Overall, really enjoyable.  

Lockdown Tales 2, by Neal Asher is a collection of shorter SF stories, which (all?) take place in his Polity universe. I was struck by how good these were, although I shouldn't be surprised - Lockdown Tales was also excellent. Naturally many stories cover a smaller situation than his books (specially given the latest trilogy format he used), and are still very compelling. I particularly liked that the Quiet War finally got a story, as well as the anti-aging bits of the universe (of course, that might seem quaint given the golem style mind transfers). Mildly entertaining for me was seeing the several ways SuperIntelligence is possible while reading Nick Bostrom's book, as well as the Prisoner reference, which is a series I never saw but got a lot of references while reading Season of Skulls, just before this one. Overall, excellent.

 The Shotgun King is a roguelike strategy PC game rooted in chess. What that means is that you get (mostly) chess pieces, moving in the usual way and in the usual board, but with the king you command with a shotgun, and rules being modified by cards, which can change the game completely. Cards change rules - completely - some pieces may move in another way, kings might be replaced with a set of bishops you must kill, the king might have a hidden pawn heir (that only appears after he is dead), they can add/remove/change pieces, bishops may be able to heal other pieces, etc. This is roguelike part of the game. You also get some unlockable guns and modes. This gets quite clever, as the game you are playing can change completely as new cards are added, and so must your strategy. Graphics are good, for what they propose, which is a retro CGA look (which works pretty well). What feels retro too is the lack of pretty much any tutorial in the game rules. I'd say that was the weakest part o...

Introdução aos Investimentos Alternativos , com o prof. Humberto Gallucci , é um curso do LIT - plataforma online do Saint Paul. Sinceramente, quando vi que esse curso era novidade, pensei em dar uma olhada, sem grandes expectativas. Mas gostei muito. Tem uma breve introdução de cada categoria, e uma boa explicação dos riscos e estratégias de cada um. Na verdade já tinha investido em várias dessas categorias, mas mesmo assim aprendi bastante. Tempo: 4h Boa apresentação em PDF (também tem uma apostila), mas ainda teve várias coisas interessantes nas aulas em vídeo. Categorias cobertas: - Private Equity - Venture Capital - Infraestrutura - Real Estate - Crédito Privado - Ativos Jurídicos - Commodities - Hedge Funds

 The Institute is an horror (?) book by Stephen King. The main hero is an off-the-charts genius, who just happen to have telekinetic powers. Because of his minor powers, he is kidnapped, and taken to the institute, where they do research on kids with powers, and also a lot more (mentioning what would be a spoiler). As you might expect, getting a genius there does not go well for them (as is required for this type of book, if you don't want the ending to be super frustrating). Typical SK, not really "monster" horror, but that isn't uncommon for him either. Ending is quite satisfying.

Shareware Heroes, by Richard Moss, covers what was called shareware for many years, specially on the games area. I found out about the book because one of the game authors interviewed (Thomas Warfield) is a friend on FB. I used to be an ASP member for many years (not a game developer, though, and I still sell my "shareware" today), and I talked to him there, as well as several others that appear in the book. I also used BBSs and the web in the 90s, so this was a very interesting trip down the memory lane for me. Lots of details about products I used, and how they happened. I agree in part with the author's conclusion - in a way, the core of shareware (free games where you pay for extra content) certainly has a big part of the market today. But of course, the "share" part is now meaningless, since it is trivial to download anything you want in minutes (if not seconds).

 Mickey7, by Edward Ashton, is a SF novel. The premise is based on non-FTL galaxy colonization, with a lot of emphasis on printing people and downloading their memories. Thus creating the Expendables - people who are sent on dangerous missions, as they can just get a new copy later, a big deal on a colony with limited resources and population. Having multiples is a big no-no and only acceptable in the most dire conditions. There is also a big faction that thinks these are soulless and unacceptable in any circumstances. Mickey7  is an expendable. He is left for dead, but comes back... After his duplicate was made. And thus the story begins. Overall, quite enjoyable, even if the obvious alien detail is carefully ignored till convenient for the plot. Perfectly pleasant ending.

Valuable Humans in Transit, by qntm, is a collection of quite clever short stories. Overall, excellent, possibly one of my favorite short story collection over the years. Mostly stories are very short, but use different concepts or narration forms. The ending of the last story strongly reminded me of  The Turing Exception , for reasons that should be obvious.

Ed, by qntm, is an SF novel that looks like a themed short story collection till the end. I thought it was a short story collection focused on the one guy, Ed, the genius. It was nice how so much got integrated in the last few chapters, which were particularly good. Lots of interesting concepts. It is pretty short, so it was very much worth the time.

 I read Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman because William Gibson mentioned it on Twitter (on a thread asking for cyberpunk recommendations). When starting, it seemed a bit boring, but it quickly improved, and was cyberpunk in a way, while being completely different from the typical Cyberpunk book. It mostly concerns an executive taking care of the extinction industry as it applies to the mining company he works on, and a research that certifies species intelligence level (as it costs more if you cause an intelligent species to get extinct). Not a whole lot of new tech overall, although there are a lot of drones and autonomous factories. I have seen some reviews that complains about the long bits about a couple of (made up? looks like it) species - I agree that it was longer than necessary, but was still interesting. I really liked both epilogues, which are great on their own way (The first for the little twist from the formulaic end, and the second for changing the story quit...

 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.