Max Samuel

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• Commented on Read an Excerpt from Season of Skulls
  "Then the floodgates opened, and in the tumultuous wake of a major incursion that killed tens of thousands, the security services made a very explicit pact with a lesser demiurge. They pledged their support to a strong political leader who...
• Commented on Strong and Stable!
  Huh, I'm seeing more and more "I'm a republican but now I would be perfectly fine with the king dissolving parliament and calling new elections" kinds of comments here and there on social media....
• Commented on The gathering crisis
  Oh hell. I'm reading that the BBC has gone black tie....
• Commented on Quantum of Nightmares
  "Rupert kept blackmail files on everyone, Eve included, and the New Management's laws prescribe the same punishment for just about every infraction." That sounds mighty familiar: Chen Sheng and Wu Guang are leading an army to a rendezvous point, and...
• Commented on Because I am bored ...
  If you're looking for crypto that isn't bad for the environment, proof of stake exists. Those kinds of cryptos, unlike proof of work ones like bitcoin, don't guzzle electricity like a hog. Ethereum, the second biggest crypto around, is in...
• Commented on Dead Lies Dreaming: Spoilers
  Charlie, I have a question about another book of yours, The Nightmare Stacks. I tried to find whether or not someone had asked you a similar question before, but couldn't turn up anything. Why was First of Spies and Liars...
• Commented on The Laundry Files: an updated chronology
  Huh, well that's disappointing to hear, that Bob really died for good in the third book. And I thought you were keeping coy on whether or not Bob was still himself with an addon, or just the Eater thinking it...
• Commented on The Laundry Files: an updated chronology
  "Note also that Bob is powering up (the Bob of The Atrocity Archive wouldn't exactly be able to walk into a nest of vampires and escape with only minor damage to his dignity)." I'm probably missing something here, but the...
• Commented on All Glory to the New Management!
  If I remember correctly the Mandate needs to be quite close to people to brainwash them, so I'm curious as to how he turned all of Britain into a dictatorship featuring massive piles of skulls in London without sparking a...
• Commented on Crawling from the wreckage
  Since positive news was requested: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-no-kill-eggs-are-now-available-berlin-supermarkets-180971117/ They've come up with a way of sexing unhatched chicken eggs (using lasers, of course. Pew pew pew). If this practise spreads through the industry, billions of male chicks won't be fed alive to...
• Commented on Happy Halloween!
  Out of curiosity, where do meat-eaters who butcher their own meat instead of buying it at the supermarket fit into this metaphor?...
• Commented on Happy Halloween!
  Got a number of thoughts about the story, but for now, what I'm most curious about are BLUE HADES and DEEP SEVEN. What was the Black Chamber's plan for holding off them? Because never mind the necromantic blood in the...
• Commented on The Labyrinth Index: sneak preview!
  It was me who pointed out the Queen Elizabeth/John Dee thing, plus the underfunding thing. :D What kinda baffled me was that while their enemies were leaking, the Laundry wasn't counterleaking. They could have sunk the Home Secretary easily with...
• Commented on The Labyrinth Index: sneak preview!
  Worse than say, Warhammer 40.000? That takes some doing. :D Also, I wonder how far-ranging the Mandate's mind-control whammy is, because a lot of what I see going on here seems like the kind of stuff that'd have a lot...
• Commented on Test Case
  My mom used to have a big red volvo, and it saved our lives when a truck driver didn't look carefully enough in the mirror when changing lanes. Big red bastard got a huge dent, but a lighter car would...
• Commented on Why I barely read SF these days
  ...It will be interesting to find out why, say, the French don't make the UK glow in the dark the moment they realise who's in charge over the tea-sippers now....
• Commented on Why I barely read SF these days
  Avoided everything to do with Star Trek after the original series. Avoided everything to do with Harry Potter after the third book. Hmm... At terminal risk of sounding cheeky, this gives the impression of not finding SF to one's liking...
• Commented on New Book Week!
  Been wondering a bit about the nuking that ended the previous series. This book states that the Washington attack caused red state America to go insane, but what about the blue states? I doubt they'd be immune to the hysteria...
• Commented on We get reviews (contd.)
  I wonder how much we'll get to see of the world beyond the United States in Timeline 2. After all, they'd be affected too if the US and the Commonwealth bathe each other in Oppenheimer's light......
• Commented on Crib Notes: Empire Games
  Something I've been wondering about for a while: What the schnozzle is wrong with Agent Gomez? I'm not talking about her being an a-hole, but about her repeatedly making idiotic suggestions and not realising what's wrong with them until someone...
• Commented on Crib Notes: Empire Games
  I'm curious regarding the rest of "the West" in Timeline 2. Have they gone down the same Stasi-police state path as the US, or do they see it as an American madness to be avoided?...
• Commented on Crib Notes: Empire Games
  ...Looks like I derped out when phrasing my question. With the United States, I meant the one where Rita grew up....
• Commented on Crib Notes: Empire Games
  Just how severe is the political repression in Empire Games-United States? Aren't you even allowed to point out in public that the Bill of Rights looks like a dead letter without the Stasi coming down on you?...
• Commented on Empire Games gets a price cut in the UK
  I've been thinking about this, and I'm not sure about the comparison. For one thing, the nuke attack was far more devastating than 9/11 and did involve, you know, weapons of mass destruction. Plus, you know, Cheney being deep in...
• Commented on Empire Games gets a price cut in the UK
  Isn't that standard play for former colonialist powers? My dad's Dutch, and since moving to the Netherlands a few years ago I've kind of gotten the impression that almost nobody here really knows about the shit the jolly tulip-farmers perpetrated...
• Commented on Empire Games gets a price cut in the UK
  So I shouldn't be holding my breath about the American people finding out that Cheney was a Clan contact and that he nuked them before they nuked DC?...
• Commented on Empire Games gets a price cut in the UK
  As luck would have it, between the two nearest libraries I managed to get my hands on the first six books, and now I've started on my freshly bought Empire Games. Rita and her grandfather captured my interest immediately, but...
• Commented on A bright and shiny hell
  For some reason the current mess with Catalonia makes me picture the Spanish Prime Minister as Chancellor Palpatine just as he says "it's treason then," and lunges forward while shrieking like a lunatic....
• Commented on Radio silence
  One thing I'm a bit puzzled over is how the Black Chamber is supposed to have pulled off a hostile takeover of a nation that has more intelligence agencies than the average Irishman has cousins. Keeping your dastardly plan hidden...
• Commented on Book day!
  Huh, I guess that makes sense. And here's my (not so modest) question list: :D Well, that's done with. I finally got my hands on the book late yesterday, and thought, “gee, maybe I'll read for an hour or so...