Stuff I've read lately

"Fireships" (David Drake) - This is the third book in a Sir Francis Drake-like future setting. The second was "Through the Breach". I will have to read the first. It was very good. I usually consider Drake to be light on characters. But the characterization was very well done. The ending is tidy, without feeling contrived. And Drake continues to pull off the "history repeated" without damaging suspension of disbelief.


"Essential Truths of the Christian Faith" (R. C. Sproul) - Reviewed on my faith blog.

Stuff I've read lately

"The Independent Command" (S. M. Stirling) - It's a shame the trilogy has come to an end. Stirling had finally come to grips with the universe and characters. This book is a big improvement over the other two. It has a good treatment of an alien culture and first contact scenario. The ending felt a little rushed and pat, but I have seen far worse. About forty pages from the end, I was thinking, "I need a gianormous space battle right about now." There were plenty of opportunities, but Stirling didn't go there. Not sure why.

"Drawing Near" (John Bevere) - Reviewed on my faith blog.

New Stars Status

Things are moving, slowly but surely:


Here I have taken the colonizeTest (turn zero, player one file) and removed the colonize order. I then added it back through the GUI and saved. A diff of the files yields:

$ diff guiout.xml colonizeTest_P1_Y2402.xml
246,247d245
< <NONPLAYERFLEETDATA>
< </NONPLAYERFLEETDATA>
295a294,295
> <NONPLAYERFLEETDATA>
> </NONPLAYERFLEETDATA>

For some reason the GUI places NONPLAYERFLEETDATA before the universe planet list, while the newStars -r command places it after. Not sure why... But that is close enough for non-technical people...

Next step is to add starbase designs and create new game. Then let the bugs commence!