Episode 1322: Stomach Flu Woes...

Finished reading Robopocalypse, which was definitely reminding me of Falling Skies by the end. It was a nice touch, the revelation of Archos's motivations for starting the New War. I'd more or less figured that was going to be the explanation for its actions, but I liked how in Wilson's novel, it didn't feel like technology was being demonised, given the crucial role played by cybernetically enhanced transhumans and sentient humanoid robots in defeating Archos. The structure of the novel also seemed like it would lend itself really well to TV adaptation, although science fiction fare tends to struggle to find an audience these days, at least on the American Big 5 networks. I suppose a film adaptation would work too, but it would have to be handled by someone who can be really smart about genre, like Joss Whedon. (Really want to see The Cabin In The Woods and The Avengers!) Am now returning to Leo Benedictus's The Afterparty because the family's on a staycation at the Swissôtel Merchant Court. Suffering from a bout of stomach flu at the moment, so couldn't really enjoy the lunch buffet earlier today. Also using not feeling well as an excuse to put off writing my outstanding reviews, but I should hopefully be back on the job in a day or two. Going to use this week to catch up, and then I'll spend the rest of the month getting on with essay and dissertation reading. Not sure if I'm going to actually aim to write anything before I get back to the UK. I really should, I suppose, so maybe just a few thousand words to expand on sections of my conference paper? Going to have to look into visiting the National Archives at some point, to try and find documents relating to the creation of the Merlion. Would be nice to be able to cite primary source material like that in the introduction of my dissertation, right?