Cav's Place

Yesterday’s announcement about a potential planet about ten times Earth‘s mass on a highly elongated orbit in the outer regions of the solar system caused quite a stir. However, it’s worth remembering that we’re merely talking about the result of simulations based on what is currently known about the orbits of a number of smaller and relatively recently discovered bodies and no direct evidence of the existence of this massive planet exists. And, if the results are accurate and it’s on average 20 times farther from the Sun than Neptune, but that distance varies greatly over the 10000 to 20000 years it requires for one full orbit, such evidence will be difficult to gather with the current technology.
That obviously doesn’t mean that the findings are wrong, and in fact another planet of significant mass was in recent years suggested as the explanation for the orbits of those other bodies by other scientists as well, but at the same time previous models tended to rule out the possibility. Of course, knowledge accumulates, technology improves, and new models and simulations are more likely to be more accurate than the older ones they may contradict, but this also means that they may be proven wrong as well in the future, especially when they are in fact based on relatively little data.

If true, it would be an exciting find, and at the same time not particularly surprising, the article even stating that such a planet would mean that our solar system isn’t as different from the others we’re currently aware of as it currently seems. But models and simulations based on the data gathered from observing tiny parts, possibly even less than one percent, of the orbits of a few other bodies aren’t exactly hard evidence, so let’s see whether actual proof can be found… Preferably before the fact that such a claim is rather hard to disprove with our current technology will prove detrimental to any efforts of finding alternate explanations, which may happen if a significant amount of time will pass with no clear resolution. Plus that it’s already offering even more fuel for crazy conspiracy theories.

Full disclosure: I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway. This has in no way influenced the opinions expressed in this review.

The Cavalier Club starts well enough, but presenting it as an adventure may well be seen as false advertising since, past the first chapter, actual action scenes are rather few and far between, and the main character may not even play an important role in some of them, at times being a mere observer. In addition, the writing style and quite a number of the words used show that the book doesn’t cater to an adventure readership, or that it definitely fails in the attempt if indeed one was made.

In terms of the writing style, it does show that this is the author‘s first book, and not only because of the often odd and at times clearly incorrect use of commas. For instance, there are a fair number of repetitions, and descriptions in particular give a feeling of striving to reach a certain word count at the cost of going well beyond painting a picture and helping the reader “see” the characters, places and events, and instead merely stating more or less the same things multiple times, in only slightly different ways. Also, the dialogues often don’t flow or don’t seem reasonable, being information dumps thrown into the reader’s face or making characters reveal too much too soon to each other, especially under the circumstances. And then there are the even worse information dumps, appearing to describe actual historical events, which rather shove themselves into the story and suspend it until they exhaust themselves, which may only happen after going well beyond that particular point in time and the events which may reasonably be considered relevant.
I could probably compress much of the above paragraph into one word: verbiage. Yet that’d hardly paint an accurate picture without also stating that the author seems to make a point of frequently using difficult words that add nothing but confusion. I’m not referring to terms describing parts of fortifications, weapons, armor or clothing, which may be unfamiliar to some readers yet definitely belong in a story set in that period, but about words such as agminate, ebulliently, effulgent, fuliginous, hirsute, indurate, insouciant, lambent, mellifluous, operose, saliferous or strepitous, to name but a few. And the reason why I have the list I selected those from is that I actually wrote down these words I was picking up while reading a few of the chapters and happened to send them to an English major, who also passed some on to an English teacher, the reply being that even they didn’t know some of them and, where I also quoted the context, agreeing that their use was unnecessary at best, and in a couple of cases even incorrect.
Now I don’t know if this is how the author usually expresses himself or it’s the result of a misguided belief that writers should show off their extensive vocabulary, but unless he actually intends his works to only be aimed at a rather specialized audience, he should strive to allow a more general one to understand him with less effort. I mean, I am quite bothered, and at times very bothered, by how dumbed down most things are these days, but something that’s unnecessarily highbrow without even presenting itself as such isn’t a breath of fresh air, but instead almost as bad. Once again, this doesn’t enhance the story or presentation in any way, but is at best unnecessary and often detrimental.

With that out of the way, let me get back to the lengthy information dumps and detailed descriptions and state that, while I’m not exactly in a position to say whether they actually are as well researched and accurate as they appear, they certainly seem to be and they make sense. There are a few times when the characters’ actions may not, but the whole is internally consistent and, for a fantasy reader like myself, neither used nor exactly wishing to check against our world’s reality, that’s the main requirement from this point of view. If the accuracy is as high as it appears, those who care more about real events and have a keen interest in the period in question will likely appreciate this book more than I do.
Unfortunately, all of that leaves too little room for the advertised “story of adventure, bravery and love”. In fact, that last element is barely worth mentioning, seeming to have been added largely to tick another box and perhaps as another method to generate the series of fortunate events that at times all too conveniently take the story forward. Likely worse, there are a few moments when such events are used to skip or completely ignore scenes of action and adventure which should have normally followed. Add what I already said at the start of this review, namely that the main character isn’t a particularly active participant in some of the action scenes that do exist, and you’re left with what, at least for my tastes, is far too little adventure and character development, too few reasons to feel involved and care… Which may not necessarily be such a bad thing for me at the moment, considering the impact the last book I read had on me, but definitely is a bad thing for the book.

Overall, The Cavalier Club is slow and fragmented, focusing on lengthy and at times repetitive descriptions of events and places, and on little and at times rather irrelevant details, but it may well be a better book than reading the above review would lead one to believe. It’s probably also a case of not quite knowing what it wants to be, or of trying to be too many things, especially for an author’s first effort, but regardless of intent, the result seems mainly aimed at those with an interest in the period in particular and in actual historical novels in general, and who at least tolerate, and preferably even enjoy, verbosity and a lofty vocabulary.
If it does indeed accurately depict the events of the period and the life of the higher parts of the society of the time, it may be better to present it as a rather soothing tale meant to transport the reader into that atmosphere instead of a potentially thrilling story where one would expect to be excited about the events and worry and cheer for the characters. In case of those stories, I tend to feel a need to pace back and forth while reading, but I read much of The Cavalier Club in bed, at times under the blanket, and the image it invoked more than once in my mind was that it wants to be read in a large room of an old house, behind a massive, antique desk, surrounded by old books in antique bookshelves, and under the glow of a soft light. Possibly even candlelight.

Rating: 3/5

Since Monday I finished The Cavalier Club but still didn’t manage to review it, I’m just going to quickly post a personal update now and then leave the weekend for that. Not exactly looking forward to it, but it’s a book I won, after all, so I want to write a proper review for it, not just a quick one, and that may take a while.

Tuesday and Wednesday were more or less dedicated to spraying the walls in my room, since mold had appeared once again quite some time ago. Unlike before, I didn’t do it all in a single day anymore, instead moving the bed and the bookcase and spraying all the areas where nothing was visible, just to be sure, on Tuesday and then asking dad to move the desk the next day, when he also sprayed what was left before leaving for work. This may not be the best way, since it gives the mold a chance to move from one area to another when it’s not all sprayed at once, but it was more manageable and, either way, it’s been a while since I’ve seen any behind the bookcase or bed.
The computer did give me a bit of work to do after putting it back in the desk, however, and not only because of all the cables. The headphones came apart again when I probably held them somewhat strangely as I was putting them back on the desk and one of the screws holding the monitor’s cable in place initially refused to screw in and then came out with the part that was supposed to hold it there. So I simply glued that part of the headphones back on and then struggled with that screw, first managing to pry the two apart again and then, since the tools I found didn’t help me do it otherwise, use the one from the plug to screw the other one in well enough to stay in place. Not sure what’s going on with the fans though, as they kept reporting staying at 70%, which seems to be the minimum for the “performance” setting, ever since the weather got cooler, while now the percentage changes with the CPU temperature even at these values, seeming to aim for 75% at 50°C, 70% I believe being only at 40°C or less, but at the same time the actual speeds don’t seem to have changed much, and in fact I’m quite sure they didn’t change at all for the front and side ones, as 1000 rpm is a very easy value to remember.

Considering the once again higher temperatures, reaching around 10°C, I also ran twice this week, Monday and Wednesday, so I can still say I didn’t actually miss any week so far, the two I skipped before this having been covered by the two when I ran twice last year, and this week’s second run covers next week as well, when highs should again fall well below freezing. The times were 21:24, with intermediates of 4:44, 10:12 and 16:32, respectively, on Monday, and 21:45, with intermediates of 4:40, 10:12 and 16:39, respectively, on Wednesday. Did have some hope to get back to only 5% slower than the record, so to 21:22, but after just missing that target Monday, likely only because I only checked the time at the intermediate points and didn’t know I needed to push just a little bit harder at the end, I seemed to simply be too tired on Wednesday, after moving furniture, little sleep and considering that I went to run after coming back from buying a few things.

And yes, I did finally manage to purchase a license for Emsisoft Anti-Malware, though it wasn’t easy, as they don’t have any resellers here, I don’t have access to any card that may be used for international purchases and the wire transfer option would have carried fees exceeding the actual cost of the license because they don’t accept RON as a currency and banks from here charge insane transfer fees for international payments in other currencies, the reasonable ones being limited to international RON transfers and exchanging money here, without sending them abroad. Still, though I felt terribly awkward about it, I asked Alma if I could ask dad to send her the money so she’ll be able to order it for me and she readily agreed, so after I was unable to get on-line before she went to bed on Wednesday, it was all done last evening. So now the choice is truly final and, after a year spent testing, I have a properly activated security solution, valid until January 14, 2017.

According to yesterday’s announcement, which was also sent by e-mail to users, ShinyLoot will be “going dormant” soon, the last date when purchases will be allowed being January 31, downloads and support remaining available until March 17. After that, they say they’ll maintain the rights to the domain and, if they will remain active at all, are considering switching into only a game discovery service, without the retail aspect.

Of course, considering the lack of activity over the past year and the wording of the message sent after the last sale, this is hardly surprising. Doesn’t make it any less sad, however, not only because reducing competition is always bad for users or because they had a few interesting games I didn’t find elsewhere, but also because, from all I know and in spite of the number of titles with DRM added in recent years, they kept trying to be nice and do things more or less the right way, not giving in too much to market pressures. And, of course, this brought them to this situation, but I do believe them when they say that any offer which would have allowed them to continue would have carried unacceptable conditions, so better die with your head held high than live on your knees.

The one reason why I see this as more notable than simply a small distribution service shutting down is that they still held on to the flat pricing principle, and I’d sure like it if somebody’d correct me on this but, as far as I know, they were the only ones to still do so. Couldn’t make any purchases from there myself since they didn’t accept any payment method that I could use, but I did keep an eye on them, not only in case that changed but also simply because they seemed to be the last ones holding their position in this battle, which now seems completely lost even though, for several years, GOG.com led it with apparent success, before suddenly waving the white flag close to two years ago.

In short, the future of the digital distribution of games looks ever bleaker, with the publishers and major retailers, and likely also those who provide financial services for independent developers, pushing the few who had, at one point, tried to change things into either submission or defeat, while the vast majority of users, of consumers if you will, willingly allow themselves to be herded instead of fighting back. But the same goes for the future of the Internet or, well, for the future in general. So, once again, nothing surprising, but that doesn’t make it any less sad.

If last week started with highs up to 15°C and ended with temperatures staying below -5°C throughout the day, this one began with a few centimeters of snow on the ground. Not more than that and it won’t last long, as by now it’s already melting and the rain is turning everything to muck, but it counts as a sign of winter, about which I can only say better late than never. However, we may be getting as much as 10°C again next week, so there’s little reason to hope for more at the moment.
Did go out on a good day from this point of view though, as Tuesday I went to pick up the book I won from the post office. Didn’t stay out longer than I needed to, so I was only outside for the half an hour or so needed to get there and back, but at least I used the opportunity to get a little taste of winter before it started warming up again, even if the snow was too soft and too little for the feeling I’m looking for. Wasn’t cold enough to tax my old winter jacket and sweater either, as by the time I got back I was even sweating.
As for the book, I already started it yesterday and definitely mean to finish it next week, hoping to write the review then as well. I’m yet to touch it again today, however, so I’ll be getting back to it after I post this, leaving playing some more Tropico 4 for later, even though I seem to be doing well lately, finishing a mission per day. Don’t see how I’ll maintain that pace today as well though, and that may more or less be the rule until I’ll be done with the book.
Obviously, didn’t run this week and not planning to, but if we actually will get up to 10°C next week, I may just make an attempt then. Not a clear plan, but I’m considering it, in which case it’s a good thing I still didn’t take my running shoes to be fixed. May do so after that, especially since I do have a plan to check a number of stores soon and may therefore get there anyway, but I want to send them a message first and ask for details, to be sure I won’t end up having more trouble than such a relatively easy fix is worth.