The Engines of God

I picked this one up at my local used book store. I'm glad I did, what an adventure, for only $4.00. The Engines of God scratches a very specific itch: ancient alien mysteries handled with actual care and patience. No cool stuff. Ruins, dead civilizations, and the creeping sense that something very bad happened to a lot of species a very long time ago. Gloomy!

The alien archaeology angle is where the book really shines. The monument builders and vanished races. Lots of mysteries. You're piecing things together alongside our heroes, and the enigma of OZ — this ancient, inexplicable structure — is exactly the kind of thing I find compelling. It's not explained right away. It just sits there, out of place, old and fascinating.

Pacing is solid. There's a survival sequence at some point that lasts a little too long — minor complaint, here. Nothing deal-breaking at all. The rest of the book keeps you excited and engaged.

If you like the idea of humanity stumbling through the ruins of civilizations that somehow didn't make it, this is worth your time. It's quiet sci-fi with a dark undertone.

Anyone else read this one?

At the Mountains of Madness

Man, I didn't stop to read a book in ages. I hope this will last. 

I'll be honest. I don't scare easily when reading a book. But Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness fascinated me and gave me chills. What a ride!

What makes it work so good is what it doesn't show you. The horror is always kind of out of frame. You get bits here and there, impressions, suggestions… and your brain fills in the rest. That's scarier than any detailed description could ever be, period.

The other thing that hit me was the sheer scale of the evil at hand, here. We're used to monsters our heroes can fight, villains they can outsmart. The ancient eldritch forces in this story don't care about us. They predate us by geological epochs... We're not even a footnote. That kind of cosmic indifference is deeply unsettling in so many ways I never thought of.

And excellent story. Streamlined, atmospheric, and quietly devastating. Highly recommend if you haven't read it.

WH40K Warpforge Shutdown Notice

 Yep, after only 2 years. That's greedy and lazy. 

Well, at least it was fun. It was a good card game, that's unfortunate to see it go down like this. 

Everguild announced that Warpforge will shut down permanently. In-game purchases were disabled immediately, and servers will go offline in about two months. Once servers close, the game becomes completely unplayable. There is no offline mode, no LAN option, no self-hosted server support, and no preservation plan.

What makes this worse:

• A major raid/event just concluded before the shutdown notice.
• Players were led to believe more content was coming.
• No long runway warning before monetization discontinued.
• Many players spent money on packs, cards, and battle passes expecting ongoing support.
• They didn't even make it official on most platform.

My point isn't about forcing infinite live support. It’s about the fact that a product people paid for will simply cease to function, with zero fallback option.

This is a clean example of a live-service game being destroyed rather than sunset responsibly. And a textbook example of a greedy studio that's a shame to the gaming industry. 

This game had some of the most predatory monetization we've ever seen. Yet, some asswipe up there at Everguild decided it didn't make enough money to ensure its survival? Yeah, right...