I just bought Dead Lies Dreaming. Kobo.com in Germany is selling both the UK- and the US-version ebooks, although the UK-version isn't supposed to come out before Thursday, I thought?
Anyway, as I've bought only the UK-versions of your books so far, I've stuck to that. Also, for some reason it's a lot cheaper (11,99€ compared to 15,95€ discounted from 19,85€).
I thought that may be interesting for you.
And I'm looking forward to reading it, of course!
]]>Thanks for the fascinating insights about the deep ones and the various implications of their presence in the Laundryverse. I remember that I'm waiting for their re-appearance in the story ever since The Jennifer Morgue.
By the way, on the topic of sub-marine alien intelligences and their ability to use huge oceanic landslides to deal with the land-dwellers there's also Frank Schätzing's best-selling 2004 novel Der Schwarm, which may not be as well-known in the anglosphere, although it has been translated.
I always wanted to know whether Charlie was aware of it when he was writing TJM.
]]>It's conjecture of the handwavium variety, but does seem like something the early church was good at. Tasked with converting pagans, they'd co-opt the existing mythology and revise it for devotional purposes, a strategy lasting centuries. Which explains how druid oaks were recycled into Christmas trees, Halloween was derived from Celtic festivals for the dead, and pagan fertility symbols became Easter eggs and Easter rabbits.
Once Christianity became Constantine's official state cult, images of any supernatural figure with a trident could be particularly discouraged by having it linked with extreme evil. Merchants and sailors' families who routinely made offerings to invoke Neptune's protection on sea voyages could be accused of trafficking with infernal powers, which might even provide a ready source of converts.
"Your guy stilled the waters, you say, guess we'll give him a try. Here, take these coins, we were just throwing them in the sacred fountain anyway now the temple priestess got run off. Gotta have protection from SOMEbody, if Neptune really let himself go to hell." Too bad it wasn't the inspiration for actual marine insurance policies, that might have promoted trade and commerce, Rome would have stayed capital of the empire. Must have been too hard doing statistical calculations with Roman numerals.
]]>It's also useful for looking at pigeons, even though they don't do it themselves; the reason there is mainly that human eyes are so bloody big compared to a pigeon and they prefer them at a more relatable size. Especially wood pigeons, who are not the same as town pigeons and find it more significant.
]]>A child disappears on Halloween (not so much Halloween related other than it's this week). I think the dream was more because of the Peter Pan thread. But I digress ...
A pair of intrepid sleuths investigate à la Agatha Christie's Tommy & Tuppence. Turns out there have been a lot of disappearing children and have been for years.
Sounds like a job for the Dead Boy Detectives if someone could let them know there's a mystery afoot.
Although now I have a bit of dialogue in my head:
DBD: "We haven't found the missing children yet but they're all still alive." Client: "You're sure?" DBD: "If they were dead we'd know more."
]]>US Ace paperback edition:
Then it hits me.
"What if they weren't injecting something, but "removing samples?" I look at Dr. Wills speculatively. "Are the injection sites consistent with blood donation?"
"Well yes, now that you mention it, but why―"
"Office cleaners. Blood samples. The two with bite marks ...
As hard as I searched, I haven't been able to find prior mention of bite marks?
]]>That sounds somewhat similar to the premise of Crime Traveller.
]]>But our T&T have an advantage other investigators don't have - a TARDIS, so they can go back in time to find out what really happened to the disappearing children.
That sounds somewhat similar to the premise of Crime Traveller.
That it does. Never heard of it, but that's cool. I hadn't given any thought to how our intrepid duo acquired their time machine and the program's writers apparently did.
]]>As hard as I searched, I haven't been able to find prior mention of bite marks?
I noticed that, too.
]]>