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Books Tech

GNU Terry Pratchett

The news is a little old now, but I wanted to acknowledge Terry Pratchett’s passing.

He meant a lot to many of us, and his was the first celebrity death that affected me emotionally. His brand of fiction shaped the way I think about the importance of fantasy to our humanity. That phrase – “where the falling angel meets the rising ape” –  is crucial to the way I see myself, and humanity. If we have the humility to see ourselves as closer to earth than heaven, then we are moving upwards to greatness. That’s a positive message, and gives me hope for myself.

As my own little remembrance, I am offering a little code snippet. Webmasters can all contribute to an ongoing commemoration by setting the following HTTP header: X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett

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Books

Congratulations to Studio Foglio

Girl Genius - Adventure Romance MAD SCIENCE!

Their work on Girl Genius has been awarded with the inaugural Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story.

I generally don’t follow literary awards of any kind, not even ones for sci-fi and fantasy, which is probably an oversight. Nonetheless, this is great news, as Girl Genius is a fantastic story. I highly recommend reading from the start. There’s an amazing depth to the world and characters, and the intricate story has obviously been plotted out in advance quite craftily.

There’s an amazing level of wit, humour, emotion and intelligence, and it presents a fantastic brand on the broad steampunk culture.

Categories
Books Movies and TV

Happy Hogswatch

Just finished watching Hogfather. The adaptation is great. If you haven’t read the book, you should; if you have read it, then you need to see the movie. It’s almost entirely faithful, and there are no deviations, only omissions that had to be made for the sake of brevity.