Just finalising my not an award for 2023. Windblown SF mysteries! Final books in fat fantasy series! Gonzo SF thrillers! A cozy/grimdark maskup! Genre-straddling doorstopper! A gorgeous, gauzy jewel of a novella! A great return to fantasy from SF! (Feel free to guess at titles; out this weekend)

An interesting wikipedia rabbit hole. Economic stress & authoritarian responses to dissent haven't historically ended up where governments would prefer. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolut...

Fight AI slop. Support local creativity. Win-win.

I think this is less a press gallery thing than it is just a "politics is hard and lots of people are innumerate" thing We see the reverse from Labour-led govts when they talk about increasing funding of various initiatives, as if the spending is the point, even when the outcomes do not follow

One of the worst things about our press gallery is almost without exception - and please, point me to any that don't do this so I can give credit! - they accept completely uncritically the framing that "cuts = savings". Which *extremely obviously* are concepts which are not 1:1 equivalents.

Decent chance yes it's AI, but my bigger question is how on *earth* this came across as prize-winning to the judges' critical faculties. Tortured metaphor colliding with overwrought simile. All atmosphere, no story or character. Prose so purple its verging on exiting the visible spectrum. Come on!

But fwiw this is indicative of something that has been driving me nuts about "literary" prose in recent years. Goopy, purple syntax, clogged with mixed metaphors. It's bad writing, but in an era of declining literacy, we seem to think more words=better words.

This is such interesting work at the intersection of all the things we are turning away from in our research system right now - work that tells us about our history, that integrates mātauranga and other knowledge systems, that can only be done here in AoNZ.

Player misunderstands Arse nal.

I don't think there's a magical right size for the public service, it may indeed be that it should be smaller than it is now. But the consultancies the govt trusts to tell them the right size don't understand the public service, & the CEs tasked with cuts oversaw it growing to its current size so 🤷.

Book Review: A Fire Beneath the World, by Jas Treadwell Demons and castles and the French Revolution. @ergative-abs.bsky.social reviews this sequel to The Infernal Riddle of Thomas Peach at the NOAF blog: www.nerds-feather.com/2026/05/revi... #blueskybooks #books

So I get frustrated with Goodreads' UI every few months & check alternatives & end up back at Goodreads. Most of the meaningful alternatives - especially storygraph - have gone in on AI both explicitly (there are AI summaries) and aesthetically; the whole UI *looks* like slop whether it is or not.

Automating "serious research" by way of going to a journal's site, searching with a few terms and then citing the one with the title you like best.

In the screenshot replies we have, in order, an econ prof and two machine learning researchers. "I shouldn't have to understand the things I cite" - their base position - says something pretty appalling about the norms of their institutions and/or disciplines.

Made the cutoff by one year! Grindr was released a couple of weeks before our first anniversary.

Sir Ken came back to Vic from the ICJ at basically the exact same time I started as a lecturer. He was a constant presence in his office down the hall on a near daily basis until very recently. Reliable attendee at faculty seminars, and free with feedback (solicited and otherwise, it must be said!)

We’ve had a dreadful run the past 18 months with staff, I have 20 this term to do the work 14 did in term 4. We have someone sick tomorrrow and can’t cover them (Its a regular occurrence but if I hire more staff at the moment there are not permanent hours for them). Anyone up for some work?

One of my favourite games of last year, Battle Suit Aces, is currently on steep discount on Steam. Late 90s/early 2000s mech anime storytelling, quirky but satisfying deck building gameplay, and self-confidently casual queerness everywhere. A couple of minor indie game rough edges, but a great time.

This (and the thread above). No real confidence the new approach will be better - and having experienced the previous system myself it wasn't better for a *lot* of kids - but NCEA has never quite stuck together. & has generally served kids doing further study poorly.

Too real.

I'd like to see a shadow list composed solely of books that were each recommended only once. I think that would capture something interestingly intersubjective about greatness as it is perceived. More interesting than just reiterating the uncontested fact that Morrison, Nabokov, and Sebald are great

I like the guardian list considered as a window into the minds of the polled, some of whom are more interesting than others, and especially where the books that *didn't* make it to the averaged-out final list are concerned.

I'm incapable of not overthinking this, heh. Because I want to share favourites and in think that's a different question to 'best'. My best list would be all firmly down the literary end of things in an overlapping venn diagram with my favourites which stretch from there down towards the commercial.

This is great. Genuine step forward

Subnautica 2 has digs about AIs misleading people because they have no concrete model of reality… in like, the first fifteen minutes of play. Delicious intersection of real-world legal consequences and hokey scifi narrative design, A+ would publisher lawsuit again, get rekt Krafton

Of all the elements of the current polycrisis, making it more likely than not that I'll end up a Linux user by the end of the decade if I want to run shit on a local PC may be the one I personally resent the most.

This series is a lot of fun. Gently playing with/skewering Isekai tropes & doling out chill cozy-adajcent fantasy plotlines.

Listening to Michelle West on audiobook in parallel with picking up up & quickly putting down a bunch of more recent fantasy is crystallising for me just how *hard* it is to do the Mountains of Proper Nouns and Widescreen Exposition school of fantasy well (or at least in a way that works for me).

See the last two RTs. Usman Malik! Tade Thompson! & we also have a new Kai Ashante Wilson out in early 2027! Some novels I'm reasonably confident will be outrageously good coming next year.

Welcome @tadethompson.bsky.social and the superb Antara, an historical fiction novel, on the pre-Islamic warrior poet of renown 😍 Big thanks to Alexander Cochran at @greyhoundliterary.bsky.social! Antara will be out in 2027. Cover by @alisonsampson.bsky.social. @publishingscotland.bsky.social

I need to make sure you all heard that right because this did not make enough noise the first time around—THE Crawford, Stoker, World Fantasy and British Fantasy award winning Usman T. Malik, who has published incredible short fiction for over twenty years, will have a DEBUT NOVEL out NEXT YEAR

Love this for them #subnautica #videogames #gaming

Looks like some other countries might end up changing their minds? (Ireland) Probably read that eSafety report that showed the ban was not working and forsaw too much litigation in the works for a ban, decided better to spend it on better regs. Nice!

a) Yes, wow! b) On quite narrow grounds (Jehovah's Witness case study outside RC's ToRs) c) Given narrow grounds, real risk of Streisand Effect for the JWs surely - complaints about process and quality of evidence were not upheld. d) Quite interesting on discretion to withhold relief.

If you don't know about it already, Standard Ebooks is a great site for downloading free ebooks of public domain works. What sets them apart from Project Gutenberg is that Standard puts in the extra effort to make sure they're formatted and typeset properly. They also give their books cover art!

The #NZ Government just announced it will bar tort claims arising from climate change damage, for both current & future cases. That's not just bad climate policy. It's a rule-of-law problem. New piece w/ Graeme Austin in @aunz.theconversation.com: theconversation.com/changing-cli... #ClimateLaw

Wellingtonians, the new section of Te Ara Tupua from Ngauranga to Petone opens on Saturday🚴 There will be cloud, and a possible shower, but nothing to stop you walking or biking if you’ve got a warm jacket. Southerlies also provide a good tail wind for the ride north to Petone 💨

I always tell students and people in Industry, when you see a summer course or 6 week special topic that interests you, *always* take it if you can. They are often the most engaging, concentrated, fun and memorable courses, where everyone is there for the right reasons.

well, for my sins, I have read Fourth Wing. it is not a good book + Rebecca Yarros should donate all her money to the Gaelic world. anduilleaggheal.neocities.org/leirmheasan/...

This is a ringing endorsement

1 more exciting work thing; from mid July to the end of August, I'm teaching a 6 week, 1 evening a week grad course on the theory, law, & practice of reason-giving in govt. Can be taken standalone or part of a certificate, diploma, or LLM. Good for lawyers in or around govt or senior policy folks.

Also a note out in NZJPIL imminently on cases which suggest courts have recently been taking a closer look at evidentiary burdens on govt. Then in July presenting an expanded version at the Public Law Conference in Cape Town arguing where govt justification is weak, more court intrusion may be ok.

So hey let's talk about this nerd stuff I like; some good news on a couple of those fronts over the past few days! I've had a paper accepted on remedial discretion as tertiary justiciability in NZ - an important way of calibrating intensity of judicial review. Forthcoming in the NZ L Rev.

Subnautica 2 releases today! I've been working on this game for 2 years now and I'm really excited for everyone to finally get to see it. I have a few things I want to mention regarding the music in the game, so thread incoming:

Book Review: Mortedant's Peril by R. J. Barker Grimy murder mystery in gaslamp Minas Tirith @dreddieclark.bsky.social has our review at the NOAF blog www.nerds-feather.com/2026/05/book...

They sure do. I am not sure of the original source of this clip but what a champ!

god I have a much bigger platform now, and I've deleted the twitter where I posted it – I think it's probably time to repost the Jermaine Clement Sewer Goblin Incident. This will be a thread.

New small press column up at ARB today, diverging a little from the norm to cover one of the novellas from the Nebula shortlist (and to also have a few grumbles about it).