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Letter #16 Delivered 28 Nov 21

Hi Craig,

I expect this will be my last letter to you by this means, as you look forward to your release in a few days time. Hopefully we can continue our dialogue by email, though I expect your time and attention for the next few months will be mostly on family and catching up on the things you’ve missed. Out of habit I’ve attached a reply sheet, though I’d be surprised if you have the time to reply. It was nice to get a bonus reply this week to one of my earlier letters :)

This week has been a nice return to normality after the disruption of getting an air sourced heat pump installed last week. The dogs just wouldn’t settle with the installers coming and going, which then made it hard to concentrate on much else. At least the system was in place before the recent cold snap. My wife’s very happy to return to a nice warm home after spending her day in a freezing classroom with doors open to the outside to keep Covid at bay.

Thanksgiving week is also a special time for anybody working with Americans as it means a couple of precious days without the interruption of meetings, which provides a good opportunity to focus on stuff and get things done.

My son asked me this morning what we’re going to watch now that Foundation season 1 has come to an end. I think we’re going to try Wheel of Time, as the reviews seem pretty positive, though I’m totally unfamiliar with the source material.

Apart from writing to you, last Saturday ended up being completely consumed with finishing Anne Currie’s ‘Heliotrope’ (the latest in her ‘Panopticon’ series of a near future post climate disaster world where society gets along with ubiquitous video surveillance). I was only 20% into the advanced review copy when my pre order landed, and I’m not sure I’ve ever read a novel so fast, but in the end it was a fun read, and I was on time for a launch day review. I’ve now started on Stross’s ‘Dead Lies Dreaming’, which so far seems to take the premise of his earlier ‘Laundry Files’ series – what if magic is real, and founded on a branch of maths, then we’d need a covert government agency to keep the lid on things – the Laundry; and then throws it at – what if the people in power got there by wielding paranormal abilities? Or put another way, what if Priti Patel really was an evil witch? It’s been very entertaining so far, and I can feel my engagement with it gathering momentum.

Best of luck for release day on Tuesday. I look forward to what you have to say and write.

Regards,
Chris