MemeMachineGo!

Shortly after my last post, the server on which MemeMachineGo runs went kaput. My gracious host very quickly rectified this, but then I was very slow to re-install the Perl modules that MMG's Movable Type installation depends on.

So, resuming now, any neglect of my blog isn't technical in nature.

The Automatic Detective by Lee Martinez is a hard-boiled detective story set in a city that's the pulp SF world of tomorrow, with a large dose of superhero comic-book sensibility on top. Our hero is a huge battle android who was central to a mad scientist villain's scheme for world domination until he developed free will and turned on his creator. So his citizenship is probationary, and he has to walk a fine line lest he be reclassified as an object without rights.

The book is sheer fun. If I have one complaint, it's that it starts with the conceit that it's a hard-boiled detective story set in this world, but concludes as a superhero action story; I'd have liked to see the hard-boiled finale.

Destroying the Earth is harder than you may have been led to believe.

The Earth is built to last. It is a 4,550,000,000-year-old, 5,973,600,000,000,000,000,000-tonne ball of iron. It has taken more devastating asteroid hits in its lifetime than you've had hot dinners, and lo, it still orbits merrily. So my first piece of advice to you, dear would-be Earth-destroyer, is: do NOT think this will be easy.