Tootfinder

Just finished "Beasts Made of Night" by Tochi Onyebuchi...
Indirect CW for fantasy police state violence.
So I very much enjoyed Onyebuchi's "Riot Baby," and when I grabbed this at the library, I was certain it would be excellent. But having finished it, I'm not sure I like it that much overall?
The first maybe third is excellent, including the world-building, which is fascinating. I feel like Onyebuchi must have played "Shadow of the Colossus" at some point. Onyebuchi certainly does know how to make me care for his characters.
Some spoilers from here on out...
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I felt like it stumbles towards the middle, with Bo's reactions neither making sense in the immediate context, nor in retrospect by the end when we've learned more. Things are a bit floaty in the middle with an unclear picture of what exactly is going on politics-wise and what the motivations are. Here I think there were some nuances that didn't make it to the page, or perhaps I'm just a bit thick and not getting stuff I should be? More is of course revealed by the end, but I still wasn't satisfied with the explanations of things. For example, (spoilers) I don't feel I understand clearly what kind of power the army of aki was supposed to represent within the city? Perhaps necessary to wield the threat of offensive inisisia use? In that case, a single scene somewhere of Izu's faction deploying that tactic would have been helpful I think.
Then towards the end, for me things really started to jumble, with unclear motivations, revelations that didn't feel well-paced or -structured, and a finale where both the action & collapsing concerns felt stilted and disjointed. Particularly the mechanics/ethics of the most important death that set the finale in motion bothered me, and the unexplained mechanism by which that led to what came next? I can read a couple of possible interesting morals into the whole denouement, but didn't feel that any of them were sufficiently explored. Especially if we're supposed to see some personal failing in the protagonist's actions, I don't think it's made clear enough what that is, since I feel his reasons to reject each faction are pretty solid, and if we're meant to either pity or abjure his indecision, I don't think the message lands clearly enough.
There *is* a sequel, which honestly I wasn't sure of after the last page, and which I now very interested in. Beasts is Onyebuchi's debut, which maybe makes sense of me feeling that Riot Baby didn't have the same plotting issues. It also maybe means that Onyebuchi couldn't be sure a sequel would make it to publication in terms of setting up the ending.
Overall I really enjoyed at least 80% of this, but was expecting even better (especially politically) given Onyebuchi's other work, and I didn't feel like I found it.
#AmReading

Sony unveils a cheaper, Japan-only PlayStation 5 Digital Edition for ~$350, a ~25% discount, following a similar move by Nintendo with the Switch 2 (Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/f6edb22a-0b19-4073-9e28-ec29b096dde3

Sony launches cheaper Japan-only PlayStation 5 console
Region-locked version at 25% discount in move to boost domestic sales

if i had to pick a favorite thing by yoko ono its prolly this

These days you can simulate anything you want
Driving a train or truck, flying a plane, surgeon, hotel assistant, motel operator, influencer, OF model, goat simulator, power wash simulator, football team manager, breakup simulator
When I was a kid, we barely had sim city, sim ant, flight stimulator, crazy taxi, and katamari
Now you can simulate being a tree or a rock, or a corporate slave tearing apart spaceships

One baby Jesus lies in a manger in the snow, wrapped in a silver emergency blanket with his wrists zip-tied.
Mary stands nearby outside the Lake Street Church in Evanston, Illinois, wearing a plastic gas mask and flanked by Roman soldiers in tactical vests labeled “ICE.”
In another Chicago suburb, not far from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility that has drawn protests over detentions, a sign at the manger outside the Urban Village Church says
“Due to ICE activit…

Church nativity displays on immigration draw praise, outrage in Illinois and Massachusetts
Nativity scenes at some churches are sparking fierce debates. At Lake Street Church in Evanston, Illinois, the baby Jesus lies with zip-tied wrists in the kind of emergency blankets given ICE detainees. At St. Susanna Parish in Dedham, Massachusetts, the manger sits empty, beneath a sign reading “ICE was here.” Supporters say Jesus, Mary and Joseph were refugees, comparing them to immigrant communities facing federal raids. Critics call the displays political and sacrilegious. The controver…

„Aber China!”
China's CO2 Emissions Have Been Flat Or Falling For Past 18 Months, Analysis Finds - Slashdot https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/11/11/0119210/chinas-co2-emissions-have-been-flat-or-falling-fo…

SN 2021lwz: Another Exotic Luminous and Fast Evolving Optical Type Ic Broad-Lined Supernova ?
F. Poidevin, S. L. West, C. M. B. Omand, R. K\"onyves-T\'oth, S. Schulze, L. Yan, T. Kangas, I. P\'erez-Fournon, S. Geier, J. Sollerman, P. J. Pessi, C. M. Guti\'errez, T. -W. Chen, K-Ryan Hinds, R. Marques-Chaves, R. Shirley, C. Jimenez Angel, R. Lunnan, D. A. Perley, N. Sarin, Y. Yao, R. Dekany, J. Purdum, A. Wold, R. R. Laher, M. J. Graham, M. M. Kasliwal, T. Jegou Du Laz

SN 2021lwz: Another Exotic Luminous and Fast Evolving Optical Type Ic Broad-Lined Supernova ?
Context. Current large-scale, high-cadence surveys, such as the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), provide detections of new and rare types of transients and supernovae whose physical origins are not well understood. Aims. We investigate the nature of SN 2021lwz at a redshift z=0.065, an overluminous supernova (SN) of absolute magnitude, $M_{g} \sim -20.1$ AB, falling in the lower range of superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) luminosities, and discovered in a faint dwarf galaxy with an absolute magni…

Aurora as seen from Florida

A profile of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, whose estimated 11% stake is now worth $1B following ICE's $2B investment, as its rivalry with Kalshi intensifies (Forbes)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/aliciap…

Crypto’s Fastest-Growing Startup Mints World’s Youngest Self-Made Billionaire
A $2 billion investment from NYSE parent ICE vaults Polymarket’s 27 year-old founder Shayne Coplan into the three-comma club and intensifies its rivalry with prediction market competitor Kalshi.