Author: Erin Penn

Book Review: Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

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Amazon Cover

Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by K.J. Parker (a pseudonym for Tom Holt)

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON

K. J. Parker’s new novel is the remarkable tale of the siege of a walled city, and the even more remarkable man who had to defend it.

A siege is approaching, and the city has little time to prepare. The people have no food and no weapons, and the enemy has sworn to slaughter them all.

To save the city will take a miracle, but what it has is Orhan. A colonel of engineers, Orhan has far more experience with bridge-building than battles, is a cheat and a liar, and has a serious problem with authority. He is, in other words, perfect for the job.

Sixteen Ways To Defend a Walled City is the story of Orhan, son of Siyyah Doctus Felix Praeclarissimus, and his history of the Great Siege, written down so that the deeds and sufferings of great men may never be forgotten.

 

MY REVIEW

I love military sci-fi and/or fantasy, especially when it isn’t traditional forces. In Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, the protagonist isn’t a solider per se, but an engineer. The book also isn’t exactly a fantasy sci-fi, as no magic or wizards appear in the first book of the series, other than tech wizards/engineers – but the whole world has a fantasy feel with non-human mixed with human races in a medieval-like setting rife with emperors and gladiators.

That said (1) the SNARK – pitch perfect for engineers dealing with normal soldiers and civilians; (2) the SEIGE of a capital city and the resources available within; (3) the FRIENDSHIPS between slaves and non-slaves, between enemies and allies, between haves and have nots; (4) the TOOLS of walls and sapping and siege engines and ships – so many lovely tools; (5) the HORROR of tools of war used on humans.

This book, though first of a series, completely works as a stand-alone. I have looked at the blurbs of the other two books of the trilogy but have no urgency to read them. But Sixteen Ways also is a gateway hook into everything and anything by K.J. Parker – as soon as I have time and money I want to read everything by them! The author is amazing. The story is amazing. The concept is amazing. Be amazed. It’s like being pummeled by stone balls; the story will break you with loving engineering.

REPRINT: Creative Attribution

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This is a reprint of a 6/30/2016 posting.

Ballet Dancers by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Image courtesy of the Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Foundation
Painting entitled: Ballet Dancers
Shared under the Creative Commons attribution

Creative Attribution. Giving credit where credit is due. You may notice, I always post where I get my pictures for my blog, even if it is from the Internet Hive Mind or Facebook posts. Creative attribution is important, not only because it is the (copyright) law, but by acknowledging the hard work of others you encourage them to continue and others to attempt.

Copyright is important. Economic and sociological studies have shown that in countries where people have their property protected from confiscation, physical or intellectual property, they are more likely to create beyond bare needs. If people don’t realize any gain from the hard work of creation, planting crops or developing software for example, they aren’t going to continue doing it. They are going to pour effort into those items where they or their family has gain, or at least meets the necessities.

At the end of the day, the priorities for people are food and shelter. If their work does not gain these items, and they have no other means of gaining them, they will switch work … or die.

A no-brainer decision.

If they have food and shelter, and leftover time beyond that, they may invest it in creative activities which don’t put food on the table. But if they have a choice between creative activities with different levels of profit, so they can get luxury items like clothing, Internet, and transportation, they will choose toward the greatest profit and personal enjoyment. For some people, like painters, the personal enjoyment comes from the activity.

By always acknowledging the personal efforts of people, and following the copyright levels they choose, you are supporting them … and they will create more cool stuff. Modern life allows a lot of free time, granting people the ability to post stuff online just to give away. Wikipedia is just one of the phenomena related to modern life’s free time.

In closing, I would like to mention posting the Creative Attribution is just good manners. Like writing a thank you note. Someone took the effort to make something you can use for free. Putting their name to it is a big thank you shout out.

Needless to say, this subject is important to me … as an painter, calligrapher, editor, writer, meme maker, and embroiderer. I do a lot of free stuff I share; I also do a lot of stuff just to keep a roof over my head. Thank you for recognizing my work, for buying those things I do sell, and for sharing what I give away for free. I appreciate it. Without you, I would be doing my arts a lot less.

Flash: Patchwork

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Photo by Nathan Bang on Unsplash

Inspired by the June 5th delay of repairs (yet again) of the air leaks in the Russian segment of the International Space Station (https://www.michaelrcronin.com/post/update-iss-astronauts-ordered-to-shelter-in-spacex-crew-dragon-as-worsening-air-leak-triggers-evacu). And the Spain wildfires in July threatening the ESA antenna and NASA’s Deep Space Communication Complex (https://www.cosmosrocket.com/en/journal/wildfires-in-spain-threaten-two-critical-deep-space-ground-stations-40mk-en)

“Just slap a patch on it.” Bill instructed.

Tim bit back the first five reactions and finally responded with, “It’s an air leak.”

“Yep, slap a patch on it and get back to work.”

“Ground control, would you like to come up here with a compromised air containment system?”

“Not my problem,” the man on duty responded. “Not our problem. Our problem is the contracted work in order to have the money to bring you back down, so slap a patch on it and return to the experiment for the Japanese and make sure the medical one for FreeZone is still running smoothly.”

Tim had been applying the patch the whole time he was arguing and really didn’t like the implied threat of not being picked up after a month-long orbit, but since the US had gone full-out capitalist, where one couldn’t tell if the corporations were running the government or the government was running the corporations, or was that full-out communism? Anyway, nothing in orbit was being maintained. New stations were being built, because there is no money in saving things, only buying new things. Not that there were enough rockets to get the new stations into orbit nor “entry-level” astronauts trained to assemble them. Tim eased his aching back and crawled back out of the hatch leading to the leaking seam. He was part of the last graduating astronaut class of ’28.

“Fine. Patch in place, but note that it is on top of seam sealant from the last year.”

“Good enough.”

“Mr. Roach, did you make the note?”

“Sure, sure. Making it now.”

Somehow Tim doubted Bill made the note, and since “they” decided to stop recording all communication to save on computer processing and electricity so the nearby data center could work 24-7, no one will follow up. Welcome to America, land of the free and home of if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it and if it is broke, just replace it.

Soon the station would be overflying the relay station which had burned in the August wildfire, so no communication would happen for thirty minutes. Starlink promised to patch something together soon, back in September.

Tim remembered when patchwork was his great-grandma’s carefully handmade quilt, lovingly repaired by his mother. Today’s patchwork was shoddy business.

(words 381; first published 8/11/2026)

BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 7: This Inevitable Ruin

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Amazon Cover

Comments I wrote during a buddy read of THIS INEVITABLE RUIN

Page 12 – And I thought Carl’s Doomsday Scenario, stored in his inventory, was a big, bad boom. These idiots went and made CARL!!! the bomb. (He was always “the bomb”, but now, for real, for real.)

Page 24 – Crawler count 32,429 … down from 8 billion people. The countdown toward extinction continues.

Page 106 – The All-Tree roots connecting to everything. Could be useful…what can Carl do with that?

Page 189 – One of the others on the Buddy Read: “Sooooo tedious. I’m not into war strategies.”

My response: ”I’m trusting Carl to blow something up really, really big by the end.”

Page 210 – “He was real. A real life snuffed away.”
Every time I see something like that, I see red. Like, what is the entire planet of Earth humans (and dolphins and other sentient creatures)????
(And this, boys and girls, is why you never should dehumanize anyone. You can consider them monsters, but they are human monsters. They are always real.)

Page 233 – “Welcome to the party, pals.”
Sooooo, that happened.

Page 318 – “WARLORD CARL: Unleash, Tina!”
Go-go tutu little-big girl. Sparkle the world!

Page 347 – Another person on the Buddy Read: “This may be my least favorite book so far.”

My response: “Yeah, I’m here for the characters more than the strategy…but this level has long been promised, so I just got to get through it.”

Page 400 – A question from the Buddy Read: “What is with the metaphor the AI just used?? Also wtf does he mean he had a family?”

My response: “I think the other AIs from previous crawls can communicate, and that would be his family. As for the metaphor – seems like two people are giving the AI advice, one is Agatha (she is sharing the Residual stuff with him – I don’t know if her ex- is a previous AI, or maybe a full primal?)…and the other? Hmm, who does Agatha hate – would it be the other part of the residual community or something else. Likely something else if the “old boyfriend” and the “other woman” are from the same “community”. I don’t know…yet. Well, we all have our limitations.”

Page 424 – “Warning: Scolopendra Stirs.”
Does it also cook and bake?

Page 495 – “I promised I wouldn’t poke at those outside the original primary zone without a good reason.”
Who did the AI promise? Was it Orren, who wanted to make sure all the previous agreements are still in place. Was it his family, the other AIs? Was it a promise he made himself, to not get hurt by the edges of his programming to keep him in check (everyone has their limitations)?

Page 589 – “DONUT: SAY THE WORD, AND DEATH WILL RAIN IN MY NAME.”

Do you remember this cuteness from Book 2 “Carl’s Doomsday Scenario” (see below)? I thought it was just a delightful joke and a bit overdone by the programmed bad guys. Little did I know Matt’s plan.

“…now this great deceiver, this devourer of all that is holy, has a name. She is Donut the Oak Fell. The Death upon Us All. She Who Ends.”

Page 651 – Action item three: “During the Peeling phase, revert to the rules of the original Faction Wars. Warlords and all soldiers of the defeated team should automatically die if they lose during the peeling phase.”

Wow, isn’t that going to change things a bit. Does anyone else have emergency action items left to revert this? I don’t think so. Can’t remember, but I don’t think so.

Dang…just dang. And with the “die for real” in place on top of the “die in game”, all the outworlders who had been holding back, hoping to survive this by not being in the front lines, are going to go ballistic. And the changelings…could they just replace the people on the crawler team as they die? Not kill them, just replacement. Although, they do tend to be more proactive than that.

This is going to be a blood bath.

Page 695 – I hope whoever Samantha is, her real self is as unhinged as her present one.

Page 718 – From the Buddy Read: Somehow I thought Ferdinand was a chonky boy 😅 I just read he’s skinny? *sigh. remodeling mental image*

My Response: Whatever he is, he is an orange cat.

Page 719 – 120,000 children??? There are less than 32,429 crawlers left (how many started the book). That isn’t a glitch, that is a hostage situation.

Page 744 – Called it, The Oak Fell.

Page 753 – Well that battle scene is vividly gory even by Matt standards. Do I even want to know how he is going to outdo this in book 8?

Page 754- The Lorena B. (abbreviated for spoilers) achievement. LOL.

Page 771 – He still has the bucket of glitter, and I still want a glitter bomb made.
That particular Chekhov’ s gun had better get used at some point. I’m just saying!
P.S. And it will need to involve Tina’s magical wand.

Page 791 – “We all have our limitations.”

Page 810 – “Reward: Toasty Food” – Oh, that is a quest I am going to fulfill. I love me toasty food…starting with s’mores, then grilled cheese, and other sandwiches, savory toasted cheese, …the list goes on.

Page 821 – Crawler Count: 20,221
Wow, that is amazing for the end of 9th level.

Page 823 – He.let.the.ring.go.
HE LET THE RING GO!!!!!!!
I didn’t think he could/would do that. I thought the claw was in too deep.

Page 830 – Suspect everyone.
Oh no, is Jamal a changeling?
No, they can’t do that with a tattoo, can they? Hmm.
On the other hand, imagine some poor changeling assigned to recreate Jamal.

Page 840 – Go Katia, save the children!!!!
The stakes just got raised impossibly high…

Page 845 – FOR YORK (he needed poetry)
Death doesn’t count.
Unnumbered children in orbit
and on the ground.
Death doesn’t count.
Crawlers, all numbered, providing
entertainment televised.
Death doesn’t count.
AIs, gods, CEOs, and pets,
gathered in the black embrace.
Death doesn’t count.
The breath of atoms and
the planets holding life.

Page 859 – (Last page, last paragraph, “normal” section, hardback edition)
Oh. That’s not good. Not good at all.
That is outside the sphere of influence.

Page 870 – (Last page of Backstage at the Pineapple…)
Oh, that is going to get messy too.
(The mimics going a level down.)

Series of Transcripts for Dungeon Crawler Carl

  1. Book Review (SERIES): Dungeon Crawler Carl Books 1-3 (12/16/2025)
  2. BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 1 (12/17/2025)
  3. BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 2 (12/19/2025)
  4. BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 3 (12/20/2025)
  5. Book Review (SERIES): Dungeon Crawler Carl Books 4-6 (2/17/2026)
  6. BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 4 (2/18/2026)
  7. BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 5 (2/20/2026)
  8. BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 6 (2/21/2026)
  9. BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 7 (7/25/2026)