Yes! Another Avatar series!

Can't wait. Looks like the Avatar world set in the Republican Shanghai period. With a bit of steampunk clockwork contraptions thrown in.

A Song of Ice and Fire - book 5

Finished A Dance with Dragons and came away not satisfied with the un-GRRMesque cliffhangers. For example, A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Storms all have their plots and resolutions; ACoK with destruction of several of its pretenders and ASoS with the Red Wedding. Feels like ADwD needed maybe another 200 pages?

I do like how the dreams and prophecies are continuing to play out. Coincidentally, a friend tells me the HBO adaptation of the first book doesn't have any of the dream sequences. I guess it's something that doesn't translate well into the other medium; unfortunate, because they are some of the reasons why the writing is great.

The HBO adaptation, however... appears to have upped the sex without conveying the sense of female agency in the novels. I suppose the more narrow purpose of the TV adaptation is to entertain and not to overturn conventions. Regrettably, one can watch the TV series and utterly miss this dimension of the novels.

If I have to pick one favorite part of the book, it would be this chilling passage:

...A shadow fell across them both, blotting out the sun. The queen felt cold steel slide beneath her, a pair of great armored arms lifting her off the ground, lifting her up into the air as easily as she had lifted Joffrey when he was still a babe. A giant, thought Cersei, dizzy, as he carried her with great strides toward the gatehouse. She had heard that giants could still be found in the godless wild beyond the Wall. That is just a tale. Am I dreaming?

...

Cersei never saw where Qyburn came from, but suddenly he was there beside them, scrambling to keep up with her champion's long strides. "Your Grace," he said, "it is so good to have you back. May I have the honor of presenting our newest member of the Kingsguard? This is Ser Robert Strong."

"Ser Robert," Cersei whispered, as they entered the gates.

"If it please Your Grace, Ser Robert has taken a holy vow of silence," Qyburn said. "He has sworn that he will not speak until all of His Grace's enemies are dead and evil has been driven from the realm."

Yes, thought Cersei Lannister. Oh, yes.

Controls

"One day when I was a junior medical student, a very important Boston surgeon visited the school and delivered a great treatise on a large number of patients who had undergone successful operations for vascular reconstruction. At the end of the lecture, a young student at the back of the room timidly asked, “Do you have any controls?” Well, the great surgeon drew himself up to his full height, hit the desk, and said, “Do you mean did I not operate on half the patients?” The hall grew very quiet then. The voice at the back of the room very hesitantly replied, “Yes, that’s what I had in mind.” Then the visitor’s fist really came down as he thundered, “Of course not. That would have doomed half of them to their death.” God, it was quiet then, and one could scarcely hear the small voice ask, “Which half?”

"Half of X is pointless, we just don't know which half"

Prerogative of the harlot

"... power without responsibility, the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages."

Clash of the press titans

Collapse & Rescue

Morality, public opinion, and punishment

"道德不能代替法治，舆论不能代替法治，而严厉的刑法更不能代表真正的法治"

仲伟志 - 明史、海瑞、主旋律

"Morality cannot replace the rule of law; public opinion cannot replace the rule of law; severe penal codes cannot represent a true legal system."

Zhong Weizhi - Ming history, Hai Rui, and the main theme

The Last Space Shuttle

What if mankind, realizing he will never reach the stars, builds himself a digital universe to spite God?

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - opening title, closing credits