Dyor

I can already imagine (not visualize of course or suggest any details) Charlie 29 or 30 (actually 30 and 31, counting Pacha'Ka adventure) involving Minerva. Plot thickens.

That I have no problem with. The longer, the better.

Oh, more Charlie goodies, and WHAT a beginning of a plot! Geron Kees at his finest in the sixty ninth time, and not disappointing.

Now, for all the praise… the more I’m reading this, the more I get an impression that this whole story, contrary to the previous one in the series (that also had this trait but not to such an extent), was “AI Enhanced”, which didn’t do it any good. I’m scrolling through repetitive description paragraphs that don’t add anything to the plot or to the quality of narration. I’d like to be mistaken on the AI part, but even it’s not there and all of it is the original writing, the substance is more important than the volume, particularly in the adventure story. Readers have their own imagination.

I never went and have my notifications set

New Charlie, yay!

One more brilliant and captivating story by Geron Kees, who is long and firmly in the list of my favorite authors overall, not only on GA, and ranked high. Another setting, another — and plausible this time! — twist of physics and biology. Yet another set of charismatic characters and serious enough challenges. Frankly speaking, I would really like to see human civilization governed by the law that is pivotal for Jem-verse. Indeed I want to read more stories from this world. Little chance of crossovers with Booniverse and Magick-verse, but the latter could be possible. It is very interesting what happens next, and there’s enough material for at least one sequel, let alone a cliffhanger that begs for it. An anime series would be great as well, but that, alas, is a wishful thinking.

I asked for age 16..18. And I kinda fancy the idea of him looking more boyish, although after, what, 7 years in the sea all over the world he would be really weathered.

I guess that for the uniform you need a real artist with relevant historical knowledge. Neural networks are demented autists (and specific proportion of autism and dementia is unpredictable every time), the thing kept feeding me with something like American/Russian/Japanese visor cap from the late 19th century when asked for a portrait of St.Vincent. I can PM or email you everything I gen'd. I think it will be a huge time waste for me to find Calvert's portrait description in the text, so I'll appreciate if you provide some reminders, here or in private. I hope Winkler and LeFavre are more to the point. At least I really like this look of Winkler. As in all meanings of “like“, he-he :).

I AI-generated portraits of Granger, Winkler and LeFavre some time ago out of curiosity. I wonder if the neural network guessed at least faces correctly.

Depends. Moscow is actually a bustling megalopolis, highly advanced in many aspects (public transport, service industry, residential comfort, telecommunications, digital services — you name it); although winter here is like… well, imagine NYC transplanted into Quebec City and with thrice less sunny days, for the lack of any better example at hand. Although Moscow Metro is at another level. Much cleaner, more reliable, and safer, although not as sterile and faceless as systems in Hong Kong, Busan, or Tokyo, and more orderly than London or Paris (because of the privilege of not repeating the majority of pioneer mistakes). Won’t say that public transport system here is second to none, especially with first-hand experience of Switzerland, Hong Kong and Vienna (as well as knowing a thing or two about Amsterdam, London and Tokyo), but with annual universal unlimited extended pass now costing $250 at the current rate, and constant improvement, I don’t mind occasion mishaps. Moscow is seriously different from the rest of Russia in terms of standard of living at least, many things are same or better than Western Europe or East Coast, politics aside. My friends who left Moscow years ago and now live in urban areas of Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Australia, Argentina, and even the East and West coasts, still miss some Moscow perks, let alone those who fled to Tbilisi and Yerevan in 2022, those latter feel like thrown about 15 years back (although it wasn’t necessarily worse here in 2008 in regards of at least freedom of speech and expression). Hope dies last, as they say, and my hope is that I’ll live long enough to see positive changes yet again, but odds are high that it won’t happen in another ten or so years, so I’m pondering about spending my retirement years, if I get any, in places less inclined to major political U-turns. Slovenia maybe, as small and seemingly boring it is, although moving from here is complicated at least financially.

Nah, just 20 countries and half of Russia (which makes 20 countries in and on itself). At that I never left Moscow for more than 3 months at once, which is quite a shame. But I’ve been to places and in circumstances one may consider exclusive, thanks to being a journalist for a number of years (now retaining that title only within the limits of general aviation, filming a strictly apolitical online program on the subject, that has a small but dedicated following here).

I’m no Elphberg, sadly, though I diligently follow Mike Arram — I like his version of Ruritania/Rothenia much better than the original one. I know where his inspiration comes from because I’ve been to Wrocław, Prague, Vienna, and Ljubljana, had a glimpse of Brno… Strelsau/Strelzen is actually an amalgamation of those. Myself, I happen to be from Moscow, probably one of very few, and probably the only as involved, reader of English-language gay fiction here, starting with Nifty 25 years ago in my mid-teens, then iomfats, Dude, GA… I can probably call myself an expert in this kind of literature. I can imagine your books being printed these days in English — but not in Russian, even if I (for the lack of any other candidates) took on the Herculean task of translating those. If anything, there is a very real prospect of a full-blown jail term now for publishing a gay fiction book in Russian here since recently, so I’d rather be under the radar than behind bars (at least they don’t care what people read in English while keeping it to themselves). Also, Russian language, while being no doubt rich and flexible, offers surprisingly few instruments (compared to English and all sorts of Chinese, for instance) of conveying sexual depictions in non-derogatory, mild, respectful (to reader) and at the same time not cheesy manner. Actually, I could translate the Doors and even publish it — but only as long I omit all gay context, making it an adventurous summer of twelve year-old best friends rather than two fifteen year-olds in gay relationship. That, though, would raise all sorts of questions, and I don’t feel like jeopardizing your copyright while taking on couple years of essentially unpaid work. Doing this with Booniverse is totally out of question because it is absolutely impossible to make Kip and Adrian girls for the sake of yielding to insane local rules that would make even Victorians cringe, or exclude gay theme. Same goes for Mike Arram, London Lampy, Cole Parker, Nigel Gordon, or any other author one may think of. If anything, I can consult on all things Russian and Soviet (some are and were not as gloomy here as it may seem, and some are much worse, particularly in the recent couple of years and then couple of months). Recently I encountered one rather long vampire story here that could very much use my expertise on the subject matter…

Indeed those are — but not exactly. They barely visited the Eastern hemisphere of this Earth, that's what I mean, and barely touched the Southern one. They never walked the streets of London, Paris, Vienna, Tbilisi, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo — literally and figuratively. I understand why — I have three and a half chapters of my own story deep in the desk (or, rather, Google Drive) because I've been to Hong Kong, Istanbul, dozens of European and Russian cities, some Asian — but not between Hong Kong and Istanbul. So I can't convincingly send my characters flying from Kowloon to Bosporus in a DH.84 — because I covered that route myself only in a jet airliner, entirely skipping Vietnam, India, Thailand, Pakistan, Iran, the Persian Gulf... And omitting two weeks of a juicy dieselpunk East to West air travel across the always-sunny empire as “uneventful” is the closest thing to a crime I may consciously commit, at least in literary field. Well, I have some signs that I'd better re-read some stories. Or the whole series from the beginning.

Oh, sure, I already forgot that, between time, my workload and other stuff I read. But they almost didn’t interact with present-day local humans from different (if slightly) culture there. They didn’t actually travel like us regular folks do, save for intra-Chilean movements on a chartered transport, and where they did, they interacted with people that were sort of aware. The Nekton crew didn’t need any explanations, the Boone posse didn’t hide Browbeat onboard her, etc., which by default makes the crew (Robins’s people at that, and of course English-speaking) belong to the same culture of power users or supporters of those. The kids seen other dimensions and non-humanoid races but they haven’t been even to Ireland, the Netherlands, or Sweden, let alone Russia, Turkey, Japan, China, Thailand… Of course they can now teleport and avoid the hassle of borders and passports (an ability I could use indeed), but I think they have to leave the comfort zone of everyone around speaking English and thinking more or less alike, even if they have their otherwordly translation devices. And, well, unless there are elves to move them around for the first several times, or Kip is given some access to the elven location directory, they have to use airlines or ships to move around Earth.

Umm, more Booneverse goodness shortly? Nice. What I didn't say in my previous comment though, was that I sort of knew the reason and the core of the whole case as soon as it was disclosed that the Lugh house placed itself on top of some old structure (after all those genius loci cases that was pretty evident). Still, the pleasure was in the process of reading and seeing the story unravel. That's why your books are a real treat for me — in my regular life I'm a result man, but reading your works makes me savor them like a gourmet connoisseur savors a delectable piece of culinary, or a tired man enjoys a hot bath, or maybe even something close to an ”endless summer” of prepubescent boys (even if it's rather harsh winter now where I am physically, both in terms of weather and politics), and crave for longer form. Shame on me for exploiting your talent and skill, but I wish for another (and not one) Charlie Boone book as long as The Case of the Short, Short Prince. I think I'm not alone in desiring that. Your settings are so convincing and charming (when I read the Mooi and the Doors, which happened well after I stumbled upon Charlie Boone, I had a blissful smile akin to that evoked by Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine) that there MUST be a crossover at some point. Eén dikke hint: de Boone-troep was nog nooit buiten de VS geweest.

That was a pleasure… leaving the the reader rather anxious for yet another story… Christmas, hopefully, or Valentine’s at the very least ;).

I wouldn’t trust a cockpit crew of a 787 BBJ with an overland, much less an SVX-JFK flight, if the captain has 300 hours and the FO 250 hours, both on 747. If one would want to impress passengers with pilot experience and reliability, I’d say they have 3000 and 2500 hours on a Dreamliner, and on top of that at least 5000, rather 10k, hours on a Jumbo (747). 250..300 hours is what any fresh holder of a CPL can do, and CPL is not an ATPL, you can’t go jetsetting a corporate Dreamliner across the Atlantic or North Pole with a CPL and that kind of hours in your logbook, even it’s just another addition to your impressive list of type ratings.

They called it Kefir, but it was still a pancake. Nope. Kefir is kefir — a sourmilk product produced by particular fungi (otherwise known as kefir grains or kefir corns), not dissimilar to one you find in Türkiye. In Russia and around, the closest thing to American pancakes is olád’yi. What is true though, that olad’yi dough is often made with kefir, so that’s kefírny’ye olád’yi. What is called bliný in Russia and mlincý in Ukraine, and is translated by Russians and Ukrainians themselves as pancakes, is not pancakes but crêpes, very similar to the French variety of the product — a big and thin round made of batter that is poured over a shallow pan or even a special electric appliance without raised borders.

Also, you can’t just rent a Viking, or any other bigfoot. Those are quite exotic. What they could rent would be a Land Cruiser or Expedition at most.

It’s Vnukovo, not Knukovo…

Well, Yekaterinburg is the fourth major Russian city (after Moscow, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk), and it’s not Siberia but Ural mountains. Tyuméñ, though, which is a 2-hour drive from Yekaterinburg to the east, is Western Siberia all right. There isn’t a private airfield in or immediately near Asbest as well, for there are very few people there who can afford even an ultra-light that doesn’t really need a hard-paved airfield. Asbest is a so-called mono-town, which means that population and everything else there depends on a single industrial enterprise, or, at best, a single industry — think Detroit and cars, Gary and steel, Las Vegas and gambling. I.e., remove that — and the place decays or, worst, dies, which Asbest almost did, particularly because it isn’t the only chrysotile mine in Russia. The other one (Yasnyi, Orenburg region) is, while similarly a mono-town, is much better managed since 1998, and the standard of living there is way higher — less problems with liquors and addictions, better wages, better climate…even though Yasnyi is more remote, a 5-hour drive from Orsk and 7 hours from Orenburg. Chrysotile is asbestos, but different from amphibole, the other and really dangerous kind of asbestos that was extensively used in the US, Canada and Europe. The difference is that chrysotile fibers are water-soluble and are not as taxing on lungs. Chrysotile just dissolves, while amphibole leaves a residue of what’s essentially iron needles. When made into final product (roofing, piping, construction panels), chrysotile products are no more dangerous than limestone or red bricks, even safer. Another thing is that while Ural Mountains are indeed not that short on caves, chrysotile mining is open-pit.

Just stumbled upon this story at Storylover and went to the source after running out of reading material there. Also, you have issues with formatting there, but that’s probably because of the site’s weird engine… and, well, I guess it’s still fixable even here…

Nice it was. Yet… while I’m no expert in Romanian, in Russian I am. And you fell into the trap called “50 types of declensions and inflections in Russian language, including gender-specific nouns, adjectives, and verbs”. Lucian says “любимая”, while Ilya (who doesn’t need the second i in his name according to traditional transliteration) was definitely “любимый”, for he was a man and not a woman, unless, of course, they did role-playing with Lucian in bed (and anyway it was rather Lucian who’d be a lady of the manor in this case…). Then, in another place there was an indefinite form, and stiff sounding at that, very official, when Colin said to Ilya that they should stick to Russian. Fane Jacobs doesn’t sound right to me, by the way. Fane is a diminutive of Ştefan (Shtefan, equivalent of Steven, in Russian the equivalent is Stepán, Степан), and you don’t usually address a ranking officer of national security by diminutive first name. It’s also unlikely for him to be Jacobs by family name. Considering he is about 60 in 2020s, he was born in Ceaușescu times, and there was little to no tolerance to English-sounding last names in that time and place. His career should have been started before the fall of the dictatorship, and he would not be admitted to the state security with such ancestry. Iacovescu, Iacovi — but not Jacobs. So I urge all authors and readers to avoid blindly trusting machine translation, or at least use ChatGPT or DeepL, they are better versed in Russian grammar. Or seek a human expert, which I am, and I’d gladly help.

Geron Kees is a master writer without a doubt, and this is another confirmation. Twisty plot, sweet characters, well thought-out setting with a huge potential for development into something close to Booneverse of the same author. Actually I already see an option of crossover, and a huge one. Jamie Grimmstone absolutely must meet Charlie Boone.