A wilding

I have finished the last (for now apparently) book of The Thursday Murder Club series, The Last Devil to Die, and have been ruminating over it. The series combines two widely disparate elements. On the one hand a light hearted crime caper series with a high body count and numerous twists; on the other hand a serious novel about old age and death. Both these elements are well written and well done in themselves, but to me they just don't combine well. For example in this last book compare and contrast (spoiler) the difference is jarring, to say the least.

Well to engage with the substance of this: ASoS is widely considered the best ASoIaF book. However if you look "north of the wall" in the ASoIaF threads then you might see that there is a theory that it threw ASoIaF of track, and that the series has never recovered from it. (As you will know, the later books have come out at increasing intervals and are considered weaker by many people.) Basically the idea is that rearranging the plot to create a strong mid series ending in ASoS messed the story up. This relates to the "five year gap" issue. So your confidence that "the best is still in store" for your series may be misplaced!

Its a sad world. There are users and exploiters out there, and so people generally ignore phone calls from unknown numbers, brush past people accosting them in cities, and yes, also ignore random people on the internet praising some product. And people sometimes get tired of such approaches and get sarcastic or rude. And occasionally this leads to honest genuine people getting rebuffed, but most of them understand the world that we live in and understand. So my answer is that you probably do indeed need to "post stuff here for a few months on many other subjects just to create an illusion of credibility before recommending something". Because that is something that an influencer would not be willing to make the effort to do and so weeds them out. Though I would tend to give doing so a more positive spin and call it building up social capital. This site is after all a community where members tend to know a fair bit about each other, not least whether their tastes in literature are likely to align. If doing that does not seem worth while to you, then you might do better just posting your opinions on a site such as Goodreads.

Unless you are very naive you will know that the internet contains a large amount of deceptive advertising and promotion of all sorts of products. Sadly it is a jungle and everyone needs to be careful. Bluntly, nobody here knows anything about you other then that you have just joined this forum, and that every single post you have made on it is promoting this relatively obscure series. That is enough to set off the bullshit detectors of most people and make them heavily discount what you are saying. Edit: Also you "regularly drop by here to scan for reading recommendations, and have picked up some good suggestions", but nothing in your posts demonstrates much knowledge or interest in fantasy beyond this series. However, if you want a laugh on this subject, try googling the chequered career of fantasy author Robert Stanek.

He failed with this audience. I started skimming about 1/3 of the way into Heroes Die because I found Caine such an unlikeable character. I have no desire to try the sequels.

Also saw it when it came out. I was in my mid teens I think. A weekday afternoon in the school holidays. It blew me away My first experience in a cinema of a really good film.

A very disappointing match. It could have been a classic between two players who do much more than just hit the ball hard. Instead Jabeur was way off her game, even taking into account that she was obviously unsettled by playing an opponent very different to the ones she beat to reach the final.

Hmm. For the record, in any normal relationship, if you were working on the computer in your room then your partner would leave you in peace to get on with it. They might perhaps stick their head round your door to ask if you fancied a coffee break or something similar. Certainly they wouldn't come in and engage you in casual conversation or do random stuff around you when that was clearly distracting you. And peering at your screen without explicit permission is considered way beyond the pale - there might be confidential stuff on it. I love my wife dearly, but in the unlikely event that she were to start doing that sort of thing then I might well minimize all my tabs and sit there waiting for her to go away as well. She would quickly get the point I am sure. Though I would be more likely simply to say I was going to be busy for the next however long and ask her to go away until then - but clearly your mother would react badly to that.

A shame. I remember reading his Eon soon after it came out in 1985 . An exhilarating hard SF ride at the time, despite its flaws, with several books worth of ideas packed into it..

It is a long while since I bothered to follow what has been going on in any detail, but I had the impression that he had lost his way with Dunk and Egg as well. Hasn't The Wolves of Winterfell repeatedly been postponed?

Well to say the obvious: It has been a rough few years for shares, but not investing in them typically means keeping your savings in cash, and historically shares have always beaten cash savings accounts by a wide margin in the long term, i.e. when investing for retirement. Of course, who knows what might happen in future ... But really a SIPP is no more work than an ISA to invest in. The only wrinkle is that you need to tell the taxman you are doing so to get the higher rate tax rebate from them. And if you are that wealthy you need to keep an eye on the maximum lifetime amount of pension investment you can make (about a million at present.)

@BigFatCoward Depends a bit on whether she is a higher rate taxpayer. If not, I personally would forget about a pension scheme. Just pay a regular sum into a low cost ISA investing in a range of tracker funds. You can of course put up to £1666 a month into an ISA. The advantage of an ISA is that you can access it as and when you want and there is absolutely no tax to pay. As a higher rate tax payer you could do the same, but you might want to wrap some or all of the investment in a SIPP instead of an ISA. A SIPP is basically a type of pension. Here you are taking advantage of the SIPP higher rate tax rebate - you get your tax reduced. However there is no point in paying more into a SIPP than you get higher rate tax rebate for (i.e. at most pay in the amount of salary that you go past the higher rate threshold by). The disadvantage of a SIPP is that there are rules on how and when you can take your money, and it gets taxed when you do take it (though only at the basic rate unless you are taking out > £40K per year). Though as a freelancer I think that there are some additional options, particularly if she needs to set up her own company. In that case she will need an accountant, you might want to have a chat with them. Hargreaves Lansdown is one big company that provides cheap ISAs and SIPPs, and has a website with explainers. but there are plenty of others out there.) Disclaimer: I Am Not a Financial Advisor.

The first SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch since 2019 is due to happen in about 30 minutes time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY628jRd6gM

I think that technically, that was a quote from the Peter Jackson films, rather than by Tolkien himself. Though it does include phrases lifted from the books, used slightly out of context.

Our German relatives also make heavy use of it. They seemed to be visiting somewhere almost every other day.

If it helps, neck pain is often caused directly or indirectly by stress. Reviewing your posture, especially when seated, might be a good idea. I also suggest consulting a physiotherapist if possible.

Ouch, that sounds very unpleasant. They do seem to reduce the weight of some of there components down to the point where sometimes they only just have structural integrity don't they?

Agreed about making provision for your retirement. But I still say generally, unless your employer offers one, steer clear of pensions, particularly personal pensions. You may get a tax break when you pay in, but that is offset by your money being taxed when it comes out. There are also various rules of how and when you can access the money, and a future government may well tighten up those rules (they are concerned about people burning through their pensions too quickly and then needing to be supported by the state). On top of that the pension provider will be extracting charges out of your pension every year which can have a substantial cumulative effect. (Things do change somewhat if you are a higher rate taxpayer with larger amounts to save though.) Also be very wary of professional personal financial advisors. The industry has a long and shameful history of outright mis-selling, and a consistent practice of flashy misdirection and giving advice that maximises the benefit to the advisor, but that is not necessarily the best for you. Even in the best case, they will take a significant cut of your savings to offset the doubtful benefit they provide. Far better to do your own homework.

I will join in. In the UK saving is a no brainer for the average person (assuming you have paid off any debts and have a sufficient rainy day chunk of cash somewhere). Put in in a stock market ISA, invested in a spread of lost cost index tracking funds. Forget about a pension unless (as is often the case) your employer offers a good one as a job perk, in which case you probably want to do whatever is needed to maximise their contribution to it. If you want to save more than the ISA limit of £20K a year, then you are certainly a higher rate taxpayer so start looking at a SIPP, or perhaps a buy to let property.

<pedant mode> Wasn't it G. K. Chesterton? Certainly I am sure that Oscar Wilde himself would have shuddered at the word "someplace". </pedant mode>

It does occur - I can see Mrs W's point in wanting to be careful - but is still relatively rare.

Interesting. Ticks are a problem in the Scottish Highlands also. My wife has to be very careful there (she has a special tool for pulling them out of your skin in one piece) but I also have never had one.

I fear I cannot share in your confidence that GRRM will ever finish the books, sadly.

We may have been lucky with ASoIaF being finished as a TV show after all?

Hah, I never win anything. (Should have voted for Brexit.) Still nvm, I will read it anyway.