Tokamak Oxford

Shrove Tuesday I was at Tokamak Energy. All bundled up because it was freezing cold in Oxford. The whole machine is housed inside this huge warehouse, which has structures and cranes inside it to move machinery around the building.

 

We got an introductory talk about Tokamak's spherical Tokamk from the chief engineer, and one of the senior data analysts. 

Here's what the boards had on them. 

If I understood what I was told, the fusion reactor is very much a science experiment, requiring the complicated machine to be partially disassembled to allow them to upgrade parts for the next round of tests, which are going to be run next year.

Here's the core of the Tokamak.

I did ask about the whole fusion has been 50 years away promise, and while they said they can deliver a prototype working fusion reactor by the late 40s, early 50s, it's going to cost big money, and that might be a problem for profitability.

Anyway, it was a fascinating tour. 

Merry Xmas 2025

Merry Xmas. I once wrote Xmas in an email to an American friend, which confused him greatly. Now Kylie Minogue has this number one Christmas song, I should be able to use the abbreviation Xmas without fear.

So, Merry Christmas to one and all.

Now, indulge me while I recap the state of the year's writing.

Back in May I reported I was sending out my completed draft of The Bureau. I have had both of my trusted Beta readers report back on the story. One totally loved it, with caveats that the ending might upset people in the current political crisis. The other struggled with the story until it became clear what year the story was set in.

The former reader was British and inferred the setting and time period from the text. My American reader was lost at sea with all the British cultural call outs that set the story in time and space.

It is what it is.

So, I'm going to re-edit the order of the narrative, which will make the time and place more obvious, and add a couple of things to clarify some descriptions, and make things clear to those who haven't been brought up in Britain as to what is what.

That just leaves me to wish everyone a good holiday break, and here's to a prosperous and happy New Year.

LIVE CHAT With Author Ashley R Pollard

 

It only goes to show how out of it I've been recently that I forgot to post this. Dirtbaggery Book Reviews invited me for a live chat, which I've shared elsewhere, but I thought it might be good to also link to the explanation of Quantum Mechanics that I mentioned during our talk.

The part I referred to starts around the 7.30 mark.

As I said, this illuminates how our understanding of reality is at odds with Quantum mechanics.

That's all for now, catch you all on the bounce.

The Errorist Strikes Again!

I found this YouTube channel, and it made me laugh. So, I'm spreading it here, and suggest if you like this sort of humour, go subscribe to her channel.

As for me, I'm still dealing with health issues, which are probably related to living long enough to be classed as old, but I am writing again. Spending a couple of hours each day butt in chair, hands on keyboard. Reading through a story I left unfinished, and making sure to finish the work.

What does this mean for my readers?

The next book will be The Bureau. My homage to Lovecraft and the TV series The Professionals. I'm currently near the end of editing Act 3, and I'll finish the rest in due course.

Note, weasely words avoiding a hard deadline, because I don't make promises I can't keep.

Once finished, I'll have my Alpha reader check for typos, and then look to what formats I'll release it in. I'm not sure I can justify the cost of setting up paper versions, so I might only release it as an ebook. It is what it is.

Once done, it's back to Two Moons, which I need to redraft. Basically, throw away the old versions and start from scratch. The good news is, I have a much better idea of where I want the story to go.

It still won't be the action fest of Bad Dog, because Anderson is not that kind of character, but it's going to reveal more of what's going on behind the appearance of the pillars. Insert evil chuckle.

That's all. Catch you on the bounce.

Shock, Horror!

Today I discovered, quite by accident that Waterstones have a page for my books. How cool is that?

I must be a real writer now.

Bad Dog by Ashley R. Pollard - Military Sci-Fi Book Review

Another YouTube book reviewer has put up a post on my first novel. If only the trilogy had gained more traction, but that's down to luck. You can write a good book, but it doesn't guarantee it will go big.

Still, it makes me want to finish writing Two Moons, if only because I get the chance to revisit the Gate Walker universe for one more adventure.

The 5 Novels That ELEVATE Women in Military Sci-Fi

 

Sharing another super positive review of my MilSF novel Bad Dog, which stands in illustrious company with the likes of Kameron Hurley.

I'm Back

Been going through a bit of a life roll after coming down with shingles, which meant I ran out of 'spoons' to do anything other than the bare essentials to make it through each day. It is what it is.

So, the pic above is my new computer, an earlyish birthday present from my beloved.

My old MacMini is still going strong, but oh so slow, but it's good enough to become my writing computer. Susan is going to set it up for me so I can run it on here monitor at her desk. This is all part of a plan to separate my work from the general demand of being connected in today's modern world.

Obviously, I'm behind on everything. Posting the summary of what I read last year. Talking about my progress with the next story (progress has been made), which makes me happy.

Catch you all later.

Walking Robots with Wheels

This demo of the Unitree B2-W came up on YouTubewith the shot of the guy sitting astride the robot, and I thought wow! Why wow? Well, because there's a set of discussions that center around the usefulness of mecha.

These evolve around things like ground pressure, height and volume of vehicle that walks, and why oh why would you have walking mechs with wheels? It's that last discussion I'm addressing, with a shout out to my friend Roger who isn't convinced why you'd have legs if you've got wheels.

Mecha are specialized platforms. They'll be used where terrain makes the deployment of conventional wheeled or track vehicles difficult or impossible. There role will be to act as armoured support for infantry.

Think how gun Portée's were used by the SAS during WW2.

I'd had that thought too when when I was thinking out a plausible way for the introduction of purpose built mecha. They would start as field expedient platforms developed from exoskeletons that become big enough that you change from wearing the armour to a suit that's driven instead.

I'm thinking useful in urban environments wrecked by war, or traversing steep terrain where deploying anything other than  infantry is a real slog.

So, that's all for now. I've been remiss in posting stuff due to health issues, made worse by starting the new year with shingles.

Catch you all on the bounce.

I Don't Know

 

I'm sharing, "Fine, I'll Talk About the Drones..." because it nails down the issue of the drone sighting in New Jersey, without me having to do any of the work that writing about it would have required. Life is short, and it's hard work debunking things that people want to believe in.

Remember, it's perfectly acceptable to say, I don't know to any question you're asked.

It's like the 1906 adage from Maurice Switzer, "It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it."

Another post as proof of life, which has been a bit difficult for the last month or so. Catch you all on the bounce.

Two Reviews by my Peers

Review from Amazon

Two authors have reviewed Bad Dog, which is a great compliment. Neither of them were sent complimentary copies, which means they bought it on their own dime, and neither did I ask them to write me a blurb to promote my novel.

The review above is from Blaine Pardoe, who has written some of the core canon novels for the BattleTech universe, and is currently writing the Land & Sea SF series that runs to eight novels covering the invasion of Earth's ocean by underwater aliens.

The review below is from Tim Taylor who has written a whole bunch of great Mil-SF books.

Tim Taylor

Excellently handled, this novel of near(ish) future mech combat starts off as a gritty military sf tale with plenty of realism and dark humor. It carries that through to the end too, but also slices it through with something completely different: the holographic multiverse and a day that won't let the main character complete. I didn't know how this was going to finish until the last pages. Recommended for fans of Cole & Anspach's Galaxy's Edge and the Four Horsemen Universe. 

Consider this post proof of life, as Real Life (TM) has diverted me from blogging. I'm working on my next post reviewing the books I've read this year which I'll publish over the Christmas period. 

That's all for now. Catch you all on the bounce.

Contact: Sagan Addresses Fermi

Enrico Fermi  asked, why haven't we seen signs of alien civilizations at a conference in the summer of 1950. This led to the so called, The Fermi paradox, which really isn't a’ a paradox in the traditional sense of the word.

In Contact, Jodie Foster plays Dr. Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway who Carl Sagan based on the real life astronomer Dr. Jill Tarter, gives one answer: we're not ready yet.

SF as a Proper Name

 

This video discusses Proper Names by John Searle. My reason for posting this is to ask the question should SF or science fiction be considered a proper name?

Searle's Theory

1. Names can be a single word, or a cluster of words, that define the name

2. When descriptive names no longer describe the original thing they're still valid

3. Names don't have to be statements, or necessarily true; they're contingent facts

4. Names have a unique and plausible use within language

5. Names can describe non-existent objects or persons

6. Objects or persons can have more than one name and be the same object or person

TL;DW:  Or in this case, does the name science fiction make science fiction, science fiction?

The Games Behind Your Government's Next War

The YouTube channel People Make Games just released this piece presented by Quinn called, The Games Behind Your Government's Next War. I'm sharing because it is both entertaining, and educational.

My opinion, for what it's worth, know what you can control, and know what you can't.

It's fine to have ideals, hold oneself to a moral standard, or examine the ethics of what we do, but without an understanding of human nature, the evolutionary pressures that drive our behaviours. Arguably, everything we do is determined by a combination nature and nurture.

So, my take away... a renewal of enthusiasm to work on my wargame.

Mil-SF with Mecha!

Some recent acquisitions that I acquired. The Partlow books are highly recommended as being for being so very moreish. The stories grip you by the throat and won't let go.

Splashdown is the first novel for the Land & Sea series, which is a new mecha based tabletop wargame coming soon. More info here, miniatures and more are coming too.

Pardoe starts the story very much in the style of Tom Clancy. Then about halfway into the first book he takes the story up to the next level, making you feel the hurt and pain that the characters are going through.

Book three, chapter twenty-eight really moved me. I'll say no more. I will leave reviews when I have time on Amazon and Goodreads. Again, recommended.

Spammers Gonna Spam

It seems my blog has become a popular site to spam. God only knows why, I'm hardly a high profile site. Of course I've always had some spam, along with spam of course, but in recent weeks there has been more than usual.

Must be spammer time on the internet. Cue for a ditty...

Spam time for Hackers everywhere

Spamming links makes them happy and gay

They're spamming to a faster pace

Look out, here come the spammer race

Or it's just spammer time! Do the dance.

Anyway, the point of this post is to report that I not only found the spammers that got through, who I then reported to Google for spamming –because service brings citizenship – but I also found a whole lot of posts marked as spam in a spam folder that I didn't know I had.

I should add, Google changes things around, and I knew I could no longer see a tag for spam and wondered where it had gone, but I couldn't be arsed to search for it. 

What can I say? 

Life's too short to be chasing irritating as fuck nonsense when I can be doing other stuff. Also, I've allowed all the non spam through, just because. Be rude not to..

To add some value to this infodump.

I've started a new draft of Two Moons (the next Gate Walker story). That's it. Catch you on the bounce.

Dark Places

Okay, I have an old scenario of mine, Body & Soul, featured in Dark Places published by John Curry.

You can get your copy from Amazon. 

What can I say, go buy a copy.

Who The Hell Is Lovecraft?

Moid does a great job of discussing and explaining Lovecraft. The best summary of Lovecraft I've ever encountered.

Second Order Consequences

The title 'Generative A.I - We Aren’t Ready' just about sums up the possible problems with AI generated work. The possibility that it will make the internet a thing full of trivia and or affidavits for stuff is no big stretch given what we've seen so far, just with the volume turned up to eleven.

Oh well, if something is too good to be true it probably is.

Still, grist for the mill, and in my case why AI is not the thing we imagine it will be in my Gate Walker setting, where it's very much constrained by law from widespread use.

No Excuses, Just Busy

The title says it all. So, no excuse needed.

You can see all the stuff I've been doing on my other blog.

I've also been helping a friend edit their first novel. And I've been slowly editing 'The Bureau' going through and deleting filter words. So busy.