It ended up being Miyazaki's son's first movie, and is a mashup of the entire series and some other stuff. Famous for this tidbit (quoted from Wiki):

During a private screening prior to the film's release, Gorō's father, Hayao, was asked what he thought of the film. He said, "I was looking at my kid. He's not an adult yet. That is all."

Le Guin was also not a fan, so....

Finished A Wizard of Earthsea for bingo. I wasn't really in the right headspace for the narrative style, which made reading it more of a slog than I think it deserved, but I did enjoy the story. It's not hard to see why Hayao Miyazaki wanted to adapt it: the themes, presentation, and all the little slice of life moments really feel tailor-made for a Ghibli film. (I haven't seen Tales from* Earthsea.)

Definitely qualifies for: Now a Major Motion Picture, Older Than You Are (1968), Local to You hard mode (Oregon), (alt) A Change in Perspective

_

Started The Last Gifts of the Universe by Rory August last night. Only a few pages in, but it's light and quippy so far, without being annoying.

I found full matches on youtube! I was expecting like an hour-long, large-scale hockey brawl, but most of what I watched was players standing around, squaring up, or on the ground in wrestling holds, punctuated by brief moments of the ball-holder actually trying to score. It sounds like the current rules (rightly) forbid a lot of the stuff that would get people too badly hurt. The ref and pre-game procession wear period clothing, though, which is cool.

Excellent, ty!

Powered through the second half of Stargazy Pie over the weekend. Tentatively starting Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin tonight for bingo.

Does "One Less" hard mode include alternate squares, or just the base card?

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie, with the caveat that her early work is a bit racist. Styles, for example, I recall having an n-word casually dropped into a conversation, along with a couple of antisemitic remarks. If you don't mind reading around that, however, it's a nice little Poirot case.

Have read and enjoyed:

• Iron Truth by S.A. Tholin - space opera with horror elements
• Leech by Hiron Ennes - gothic sci-fantasy horror, set in some kind of post-apocalypse
• The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison - fantasy of manners mystery
• The Mister Trophy by Frank Tuttle - fantasy mystery
• The Monsters We Defy by Leslye Penelope - historical fantasy
• Ghosts in the Snow by Tamara Siler Jones - fantasy mystery
• Priest of Bones by Peter McLean - fantasy organized crime
• When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger - cyberpunk mystery

I would love some suggestions for awards to look up, that you'd consider big for your country or preferred genre. I've looked up lists of awards, but they tend to be pretty US-focused, and it's hard to tell what's actually significant.

I'm familiar with the Hugos (SFF), Nebula (SFF), Bram Stoker (horror), Edgars (mystery), Pulitzer (lit), Booker (lit), and Newbery (kids).

Just a quick note, Jaymes and I seeded the Storygraph challenge they built with literally hundreds of literary and genre fiction books (some of which they've crossposted here), in case you're looking for ideas and prefer a more visual browse. (No account required!)

I barely got any reading done this past week, so I'm still on Stargazy Pie by Victoria Goddard. The tone and overall story so far remind me a bit of the Cemeteries of Amalo series by Katherine Addison, which is a pleasant surprise.

It's been a pleasure to work on book bingo with Dresden and Jaymes; hope you'll all find it a worthy addition to the community!

If it helps, I found books 5 and 6 of The Expanse less obnoxious than the show re: the whole family drama thing (if, like me, that's where your biggest hangup is). I didn't enjoy them as much as previous entries, but book 7 (imo) goes back to being pretty solid.

Finished Southern Gods from last week on Sunday (it was ok), and spent last night picking out something new. Ended up with Stargazy Pie by Victoria Goddard, which seems pleasantly light and cozy so far; should be just about long enough to last a week.

Also, grats Jaymes!

I started Southern Gods by John Horner Jacobs. Not really far enough to get a good feel for it yet, but I couldn't pass up a Lovecraftian-Southern-gothic-noir-horror kind of thing.

Seconding the excellent prologue in The Gone World. I had a couple of quibbles with the rest of the book, but overall really liked it when I read it. Hope you end up liking it, too!

I'm just about to hit the climax at the end of Finder by Suzanne Palmer, first in a four-book space opera. It's been enjoyable so far, so if she sticks the landing, I'll probably add the next book to my TBR list. Not sure what I'll end up reading next.

Since you mentioned Duviri, I'm gonna assume you've done some circuit/orowyrm, so you're already getting an idea of frames/weapons you might want to have for your collection. Everyone jives with different stuff, so if it feels good to play, or sounds good on the wiki (and the grind seems reasonable), go for it. Worst case, you end up selling it after leveling it to max.

• A lot of mods are worth collecting (although some are too rare or niche to bother with). Check the wiki, look at build sites for equipment you already use, and see if anything you don't have (and can access easily) could make a big difference.
• Faction rep is always worth getting at some point (especially the ones SolOrion mentioned). When you hit MR8, you might want to grab the helminth segment from the Deimos family at rank 3, as well.

Sidenote: since the anniversary's going on right now, make sure to do any weapon alerts that come up in the next few weeks: they come with their own weapon slots (which you keep even if you delete the weapons later), and are pre-installed with catalysts.

Absolutely. It feels to me like it's trying to fill a niche that doesn't need filling. Sometimes I like a gun like that anyway, but this one's going in the guns-I-never-use pile.

So I had the same first impression (and I'm still not sold on it, tbh), but I just did some testing, and here's some things:

• the punch-through evolution works on both modes
• fire rate mods/evo make it feel a lot better
• the last evo that gives crit per/stack in incarnon mode (devastation cascade) seems to be the key, paired with...
• a grouping ability like pull, airburst, or bastille is super helpful
• a lot of builds I saw used ruinous extension, as well, to help hit more targets; if you're not using a grouping ability, this might be helpful, but otherwise, I'm not sure if it makes a big difference

I feel better about it than I did, but there's plenty of less fussy weapons I'd rather use instead. Maybe I'm missing something, too?

Would love to. Hit me up whenever!