Book Review: Equoid by Charles Stross
Equoid by Charles Stross My rating: 5 of 5 stars My daughter has just brought home a sparkly unicorn, and I am very This is a Laundry files short story featuring Bob Howard. In this outing Bob has to deal with a report from a well qualified DEFRA vet who harbours suspicions of a potential outbreak of Equoids. The file Bob is given as briefing contains the letters of one HP Lovecraft that tell of HPL's own experience of contact with an Equoid outbreak. This is a highly entertaining story that provides a twist on unicorns and gives them an interesting life cycle which is truly horrific. It also has some laugh out loud points too. UPDATE: this has been nominated for a 2014 Hugo Award, which is well deserved. One of the best I read in 2013. View all…
Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/html/themself/wp-content/themes/mesocolumn/lib/functions/theme-functions.php on line 502
Imperfect: Scene 09 – Free
Imperfect Free I had spent over five hours in the police station and still hadn’t been arrested. It was quite late and I wanted to go to sleep, so I rested my head on my arms on the desk in the interview room and nodded off. Not the best plan for staying alert under interrogation, but better than staying awake for days, and also in character for Huw. As I was dozing blue pinstripe reappeared, with Fletcher just behind him. I woke with a start and then remembered where I was. Blue pinstripe looked uncomfortable, which was odd. He sat down opposite me and Fletcher remained standing at the open doorway. “Mr Powell, I’m Inspector Smeeton. I’m sorry we’ve kept you this long, it has taken some time to check your credentials.” “Inspector, I’m always happy to help the guardians…
Imperfect: Scene 08 – Plans
Imperfect Plans With breakfast out of the way we got down to planning how we were going to get Mark, Geoff and Charlie out of police custody. The first step was to find out on what basis they were being held. Once we knew that we could get some lawyers to work on getting them out. The cell had plenty of money for that sort of thing, and while we needed to co-ordinate it, it was by far the easiest way of getting someone out of a police cell. That said we had some pretty wild back-up plans just in case bail was refused. We’d heard some pretty unsavoury things about where people like us went when we were detained indefinitely on public safety grounds. Those were all just rumours, because no-one had returned to deny them. That in itself…
Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/html/themself/wp-content/themes/mesocolumn/lib/functions/theme-functions.php on line 502
View from the window
This is a view that I could get used to and write quite a lot between glimpses out of the window. Not least of which there is almost no Internet connection down here in Cornwall. I managed to finish off the first assignment for A215 yesterday. All I need to do now is find somewhere I can connect the laptop to the Internet from to upload it!
Imperfect – Scene 07 – Hiding
Imperfect Hiding The first thing we did after we’d been shown our hiding place (a room at the back of the pub, up two flights of stairs and at the end of a corridor) was to get some sleep. The room was basic, obviously not used often but ready should there be a sudden influx of guests. It had all the usual features you’d expect, just a little older than you’d have in your home. It was like they’d furnished it from a second-hand shop rather than buying new. There was a double bed in the corner and a sofa with a small pull-out underneath it which faced the screen area. Above the sofa was a window with heavy net curtains and even heavier duty light-blocking curtains at either side. In the corner next to the bed there was a…