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I was just thinking about Thomas Harris the other day, and wondered if he's written anything new lately...



YEP! 2019, about 20 years after 1999's Hannibal.
I jumped on eBay and grabbed the first copy I found. It's really good so far.
None of the "Hannibal" cast are in it, as far as I know. It kind of reminds me of Black Sunday, his pre-Hannibal novel (terrorists attempt to set off a bomb over the Super Bowl).

Before that, I was reading a few comics. Mostly Archie and Asterix.

Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett.

Time to get to the bottom of this Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle thingie doodad hoojamaflip whatchamacallit...

The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion

Happy Hour in Hell by Tad Williams.

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder in Northern Ireland

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

The power of Now Eckhart Tolle

They All Love Jack: Busting the Ripper
by Bruce Robinson

'I do solemnly promise, vow, swear, that I will always and at all times love the Brotherhood heartily and therefore will charitably hide and conceal and cover all sins, frailties, and errors of every Brother to the utmost of my power.'

I'm only 56 pages in, but it's no-bullshit dry humor pushes it up there as my favorite Ripperology book. Robinson contextualizes the hypocrisy of the Victorian England elite by getting to the bottom of cover-up scandals and other such muck involved in the famous case.

I'm still working on this one, and I love it. I wish I had my good glasses to read faster. The character of Aurora is clearly influenced by "The Captain" (Shirley Keeldar) from Charlotte Brontë's Shirley, who is based on Emily Brontë.

It's an incredible book!!

I lost my good reading glasses

I bought a magnifying glass to lay on my book, when also wearing my old / weaker glasses.

It's working OK but I can't read much at a time, because I stim too much to hold the magnifier.

H.P. Lovecraft: Against The World, Against Life, by Michel Houellebecq.

Essay on H.P. Lovecraft's literary achievement, as well as his pessimism, his racism, and his sense of alienation. So far so good.

Strongly recommend reading this if you want to blow your mind wide open

THE TERRAN CONFEDERATION

  For I dipt into the future, far as
human eye could see,
  Saw the Vision of the world, and all
the wonder that would be;
  Saw the heavens fill with
commerce, argosies of magic sails,
  Pilots of the purple twilight
dropping down with costly bales;
  Heard the heavens fill with shouting,
and there rain’d a ghastly dew
  From the nations’ airy navies
grappling in the central blue;
  Far along the world-wide whisper of
the south-wind rushing warm,
  With the standards of the peoples
plunging thro’ the thunder-storm;
  Till the war-drum throbb’d no longer,
and the battle-flags were furl’d
  In the Parliament of man, the
Federation of the world.

-- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Locksley Hall (1842)

For most of the Interstellar Wars era, Terra and those worlds under Terran control were under a single governing body -- the Terran Confederation.

The Terran Confederation grew out of the old United Nations organization.  The UN began its history as an almost-impotent forum for international debate; for several decades, real power remained with the nation-states of divided Terra.  However, in the course of the 21st century a series of global crises proved impossible for even the strongest nations to handle without close cooperation.  Imperfect and unpopular as it often was, the UN was the only global institution in a position to consistently resolve international disputes and provide the coordination necessary to keep civilization afloat.

By the end of the 21st century, the United Nations had been reformed several times and was functioning as a world government.  The world’s nation-states were still in existence, but the center of power had shifted upward to the UN.  Only the most powerful nations could pursue any form of independent policy.  For the smaller states, national sovereignty was as dead as the divine right of kings.  The UN was widely resented, but few Terrans could suggest a viable alternative, and the stability of Terran civilization had come to depend on the UN’s rule.

After the near-debacle of the First Interstellar War, the UN was once again reformed and restructured, admitting representatives from the off-world colonies for the first time.  The new governing structure, renamed as the Terran Confederation, provided leadership for the rest of the Interstellar Wars era.  By the end of the Interstellar Wars period, the Confederation holds uneasy sway over thousands of inhabited worlds.

The Terran Confederation provides a veneer of social and political unity for Terran civilization.  Still, even at its height the Confederation is not perfectly unified.  There are a number of significant divisions -- between major and minor nation-states, between the Terran homeworld and the colonies, and between Terran-dominated worlds and those that had been conquered from the Vilani Imperium.

•••

The preceding excerpt is from GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars, pages 7 and 8.  GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars is copyright © 2006 by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated.