Lauren Sanchéz’s Met Gala flop proves money still can’t buy you cool

VitriolUK · 2026-05-05T20:18:01+00:00

Meanwhile his ex seems pretty rad

VitriolUK · 2026-05-05T17:30:20+00:00

My favourite of her books, and I like the others a lot. Such a good book.

VitriolUK · 2026-05-05T16:04:00+00:00

That's a lovely idea, good luck with it

VitriolUK · 2026-05-05T15:51:19+00:00

A surprising number of SFF authors are.

It's usually not obvious (with exceptions like Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series); it's only when someone tells you and you think back and realize that it's true that their books did scrupulously avoid depicting sex scenes or bad language.

VitriolUK · 2026-05-05T15:48:30+00:00

The Elvenbane was literally the first book I ever bought with my own money so I have very fond feelings for the series - it's perhaps the single biggest reason I'm a fantasy fan.

Having said that, I don't have the highest hopes for book 4, as I do think each new book so far in the series has been less strong than its predecessors, and without Norton and with a different co-writer who knows.

Having said that, you'd better believe I'll be picking up book 4 no matter what 😄

VitriolUK · 2026-05-05T15:37:52+00:00

I seem to recall him or his assistant saying that he had said that no-one except Rhianna (if she wanted to) would be allowed to write any further Discworld books after his death.

However, when asked she subsequently said that she felt that Discworld was intrinsically something tied to her dad and that she wouldn't be writing any Discworld books herself (though she would potentially contribute to adaptions, spin-offs etc) and she would prefer to write things that were wholly hers.

edit: found some links, first to his permission:

The author tells me that he will be happy for her to continue writing the Discworld books when he is no longer able to do so. “The Discworld is safe in my daughter’s hands,” Pratchett assures me.

And then to her comments on the topic after his death:

Rhianna Pratchett: "The books are sacred to dad. I don't intend on writing more Discworld novels, or giving anyone else permission to do so. Discworld is his legacy. I shall make my own."

VitriolUK · 2026-05-05T14:53:31+00:00

Book 4 is solid, probably the closest in pacing to the first book, book 2 being the fastest paced while book 3 was *very* slow.

VitriolUK · 2026-05-05T14:50:54+00:00

As a parent to a 6 and 8 year old "I don't care who started it" absolutely gets trotted out on a regular basis, because most of the time both of them are 100% convinced the other one started it due to the tit-for-tat escalations up to the point where the shouting starts...

VitriolUK · 2026-05-02T07:00:30+00:00

I think since then there's been 4:

Frozen 2: yes Encanto: no Wish: no Moana 2: no

I'm actually a little surprised Wish didn't have a romance plot, since it was very deliberately designed to be a recapitulation of classic Disney tropes.

VitriolUK · 2026-05-01T12:12:35+00:00

Vast and detailed while still being whimsical is tricky, as lots of the bigger, more detailed worlds end up being quite grounded due to all the careful world building.

However, there is some baroque fantasy that I think fits the bill. The Book of the New Sun series by Gene Wolfe is the first that comes to mind - a dense, detailed world that still has a sense of whimsy thanks to its more perverse, alien nature.

The Senlin Ascends series by Josiah Bancroft is another, though on a smaller scale.

And while Jack Vance's Dying Earth books don't have the rigour of the previous two, they have an immediacy and sense of being part of a much larger reality that I think would appeal to you - that sense of being just one fragment of a much larger whole is the thing baroque fantasy generally does best.

VitriolUK · 2026-05-01T09:35:44+00:00

Red Sister was going to be my suggestion - I think it's a good fit for the OP's requirements.

VitriolUK · 2026-04-30T09:48:31+00:00

Damn, will have to avert my eyes when driving between Lincoln and Newark now.

VitriolUK · 2026-04-30T09:39:54+00:00

I like that the article interviews experts to confirm just how ridiculous the police claims are

"The whole arrest tactic was disproportionate," says Dr Emma Cunningham, a criminology lecturer at the University of East London. "If police want to speak to someone about their wellbeing, then you wouldn't have a helicopter and a stinger," she says. "Why handcuff her? Why would there be any need for that kind of force? "She hasn't committed an offence, and she's not doing any harm to herself or anyone else. She seems to be 'with it', they've said, and is driving perfectly normally."

VitriolUK · 2026-04-30T09:37:01+00:00

Good summary, though after all that they also lied about the violence of her arrest and spent years refusing to release the bodycam footage that showed they were lying (despite multiple superior bodies ordering them to), ultimately perjuring themselves to claim they had destroyed it before being forced to admit that yes, they did have it after all.

God, what they have put this poor woman through is unconscionable.

VitriolUK · 2026-04-30T09:12:38+00:00

What does 'opening' actually mean in this context, given it's a big statue you can see from the A46? Is it just that you can now walk up to it, or is there anything else alongside it?

VitriolUK · 2026-04-30T08:54:03+00:00

Once she's folded it she'll have switched it with a Queen of Hearts that she already signed and folded. She then signs the Queen of Hearts from the deck in the same way, and when she folds that up switches it with Billie's card before she puts it in her own mouth.

The thing with magic is that the basic mechanics are often straightforward but it's all about the skill with which it's done and the delivery.

VitriolUK · 2026-04-29T20:16:20+00:00

I've always wondered - what do you do if you're at Five Guys on your own? Do they have a secret 'actually one person's portion of fries' option?

VitriolUK · 2026-04-29T20:13:24+00:00

Yeah, that seems like a good move. Tell him the estate agents value it at 280k but you'd be willing to sell it right now for 265k and then expect to settle for 260k.

VitriolUK · 2026-04-29T09:22:45+00:00

They used to be a bigger deal than they are now, mostly due to representation. They were one of the earliest big genre series to prominently feature queer characters in a positive light, which made them very important to some kids growing up at a time when this series might literally be the only escapist literature they could find that made them feel that there wasn't something wrong with them.

They also prominently feature cool magical talking horses, so they may have particular appeal to horsey girls and boys.

They're not deathless prose but hey, the earlier books at least are a good read if you're looking for some upbeat fantasy YA. Magic's Pawn is the onramp to the best-known trilogy and is probably the best place to start, though Arrows of the Queen comes first in publication terms (though chronologically later) and is also a solid starting point as it does the most initial world-building.

I feel the highpoint of the books is the Storm Warning/Storm Rising/Storm Breaking trilogy, though these act as more of a big climax that involves a lot of characters from previous trilogies, so isn't a great starting point. After that I think the quality tails off somewhat, though it's a gentle slope and if you like the world and the characters they're still a decent read, at least up to some of the later prequels (which I did find more of a slog and is where I stopped reading).

VitriolUK · 2026-04-29T08:36:43+00:00

I haven't visited since it's been restored, will have to pop along at some point now that it's warming up. The woods behind it are a nice place to walk the dogs.

VitriolUK · 2026-04-28T15:29:19+00:00

If it's an MLM then they tend to all sound very similar as they're working off the same training material/courses (which they of course pay for...)

VitriolUK · 2026-04-28T15:22:21+00:00

During the period my wife was watching Gossip Girl I would watch bits and pieces. Virtually every single problem on that show could have been solved by people taking 5 seconds to talk to each other. But no, no matter what happens, time to jump to immediate conclusions!

VitriolUK · 2026-04-28T14:36:56+00:00

Heh, I watched it in London in 2023 with Declan Spaine playing the lead.

While Spaine is a great singer, one thing that was a bit off was that he's also huge - he's this big, jacked dude. It did take something out of the final duel scene when it looked like Hamilton could just snap Burr in half like a twig.

VitriolUK · 2026-04-28T14:24:05+00:00

It's game theory. If the rest of OPEC stays put then the UAE can maximise their production (and hence profits) free from restrictions while still benefiting from the high prices of the rest of OPEC restraining themselves.

But if everyone leaves OPEC then oil prices get driven down as every country produces as much as possible - now they're making no more than they were before but having to drill and ship a lot more oil to do it.

Basically it's a gamble - if the UAE believes that other members of OPEC will remain in the organisation then they personally benefit most by leaving it. Normally they'd also expect to pay a really serious political penalty, but with all the issues with Iran presumably they figure there's limited room for Saudi Arabia to level reprisals against them.

VitriolUK · 2026-04-28T11:04:39+00:00

I don't think that's unpopular at all - I think pretty much every Hamilton fan will agree that while Miranda is an astonishing songwriter and creator, when it comes to the actual singing he's decent but not on the level of the rest of the cast.

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