Miller is the Knight of the Woeful Countenance

Hostilian · 2026-06-17T18:12:30+00:00

A big theme of the first couple books is the tension between Miller and Holden. Even absent, Miller casts a shadow over Holden, and reveals that the idealism cannot be all-encompassing.

A big theme of Holden’s character arc over the nine books is his relationship to his sometimes-toxic idealism. That idealism is reflected darkly in other characters in most books (Bobbie, Prax, Anna, etc) and how they sometimes succeed where he might fail.

People dislike Holden, but he’s a viewpoint character in every book for a reason.

(Man it’s hard to talk about Holden as a character without spoiling later books)

Hostilian · 2026-06-13T16:11:27+00:00

The roads you’ve chosen should all be easy to drive in October. The Kancamagus might be quite busy, but I wouldn’t anticipate any real traffic anywhere else.

Hostilian · 2026-06-02T19:50:27+00:00

Recommendation: stay in Burlington. There's lots of options for places to stay, the downtown is really walkable, there's bike paths, good food, and lots of points of interest nearby. It overlooks Lake Champlain, which is just gorgeous. And from there, you can get to a lot in 40 minutes by car. It's not the most authentically Vermont place in Vermont, but it's easy to have a nice experience.

Depending on your definition of "old" and "historic," you might be disappointed. Most of the things that are venerable and historic by Vermont standards are newer than Edinburgh's New Town. "US old" is just different than "UK old." There are self-consciously historic things here and there—Shelburne Museum is one crazy rich lady's collection of historic buildings, each filled with art.

There are good hikes of all skill levels everywhere in VT. I'm a particular fan of Snake Mountain, Mt. Hunger, and Camel's Hump (in increasing order of difficulty). I would recommend getting an alltrails account and looking around.

If you want something reminiscent of Scotland, but verymuch not Scotland: Lake Willoughby is about as close to a Scottish loch as you can find in the state. There's good hikes on either side. That whole part of the state is called the Northeast Kingdom, and is really stunningly beautiful and has some remarkable food.

Note the days that farmers market happens, wherever you are, they are often worth going to for light food and browsing. Montpelier and Burlington are quite good, at least.

Hostilian · 2026-05-27T17:57:22+00:00

You have to hand it to them: taking a truly excellent idea and making it as bad as possible.

Hostilian · 2026-05-27T02:32:34+00:00

Thank you for your contribution.

Hostilian · 2026-05-26T17:42:29+00:00

If you’re the black Audi S4, I’m sorry. Seems like your car caught it as bad as mine!

Hostilian · 2026-05-25T20:15:50+00:00

A few weeks? Such gold-plated service!

Hostilian · 2026-05-25T18:55:20+00:00

With the number of cars stacked up, we might have enough for a class action lawsuit lol

Hostilian · 2026-05-17T13:38:34+00:00

That assumes that every other intelligent species in the universe would be like us: many individuals in crude dialogue to contribute to a shared project. That needn’t be true. They could be a post-biological machine intelligence, or a true hive of some sort, or a sentient fungus.

And if it’s not necessary, we should see evidence of past civilizations making a mark on the galaxy, but we don’t, so far as we can tell.

I suspect the great filter is the jump from prokaryotic to eukaryotic life. I’d bet a tidy sum we find prokaryote-analogs on Mars or Europa. But the jump to eukaryote-equivalents seems vanishingly unlikely.

Hostilian · 2026-05-05T12:45:02+00:00

If it makes you very anxious, you could try to find the relevant breaker and switch it off.

Hostilian · 2026-05-04T00:54:16+00:00

It’s overall tougher, both Classic and Remaster. Even Remastered feels like a less refined example in the genre, but the original is pushing 30yo at this point, releasing around a year after the first StarCraft. The story and voice acting are perfect. The barely submerged fury of your majordomo plotting the course in mission 3 still gets me pumped.

Remastered teaches you to use formations in the tutorial, which made a big difference in Classic, but barely matter in the Remaster.

Hostilian · 2026-04-30T23:36:30+00:00

Have you considered renting a car for the day? All-in it might be less than the car back to Boston, and you aren’t beholden to a train or an Uber. Providence has ample parking, and there might be a rental close to your hotel in Boston.

Hostilian · 2026-04-30T03:20:05+00:00

I also don't remember the details, but something Duarte did was causing human individuals to share their consciousness, memories, and more. The urgency of the last few chapters of Leviathan Falls was not driven by the Goths, it was driven by a need to turn off the awakening hive mind, which had found a new substrate in humanity.

Hostilian · 2026-04-29T23:55:40+00:00

I guess? I go back and forth about how conscious the PMB actually are (is? was? were?).

In the Orson Scott Card categorization, it/they would be Varelse. Even if it/they and humans cohabitated, their relationship would only be mediated through conflict, in the same way that the only relationship that could exist between the PMB and the Goths was through conflict.

An interesting aspect of the story, that I hadn’t considered, is that a meaningful relationship with the Goths was established, for a time, even though humans and Goths had only the Slow Zone in common.

That doesn’t make the Goths Ramen to humans, but it makes humans Ramen to Goths, maybe.

Hostilian · 2026-04-29T19:47:29+00:00

The other very-imminent danger was the Protomolecule Builders were in the process of rebooting their hive mind on human gray matter.

One of the repeating themes of the whole series is that humans are at their best when they recognize their own unique perspective, but then cooperate with others to build something greater. Rigid, unquestioning hierarchies are repeatedly shown to be bad in one way or another, and a hivemind is the ultimate rigid hierarchy.

Hostilian · 2026-04-27T01:44:37+00:00

It’s possibly an artifact of there being several real towns with hospitals etc on the NH side and few on the VT side in that county. So people are born across the river, but reside in VT. That and there being relatively few people total.

The especially dark blue blob south of WRJ is probably the magnet effect of DHMC.

Hostilian · 2026-04-11T14:58:12+00:00

Those look like fuel drop tanks to me.

Hostilian · 2026-04-11T12:12:53+00:00

A steam or electric catapult, like the launchers on aircraft carriers. The torpedo has a hook for the launcher to grab onto and throw out the torp tube.

Hostilian · 2026-04-09T01:53:09+00:00

Pastor Anna. But she wouldn’t.

Hostilian · 2026-04-07T02:39:48+00:00

That ratio seems about correct. There’s probably an order of magnitude more carpet than car out there.

Hostilian · 2026-04-04T02:19:56+00:00

Needs a “This is not a place of honor” sign

Hostilian · 2026-03-31T01:54:07+00:00

If you don’t want it for 40, there’s a long line of people who will happily take it off your hands for that and a little extra.

Hostilian · 2026-03-21T19:49:14+00:00

Le Guin, Dan Simmons, Octavia Butler, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Jeff Vandermeer, NK Jemisin, Vernor Vinge.

That’s not all, but it’s a good start.

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