the background noise

Haven't done a book review for the blog in a while, not since the dark days of 2022 and that William Gibson trilogy I endured. Instead here's some assorted thoughts on a book I just finished, 1987's On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers. Expanded and revised from the review I posted recently on Amazon and Goodreads, all ill-judged opinions are my own. The short version: It's a rollicking yarn full of pirates, ghouls, dark magic and bloodshed, I really enjoyed it, thanks for coming! Oh you want the longer one do you?

Picture the scene if you will... It's the early 90's, precise year unclear but possibly 1992? A young boy comes home from school to find that most special of surprises awaits him but not all is as it seems. For you see said boy was indeed myself, and the gift in question was a machine that could play video games but there was a catch... Was it the Nintendo Entertainment System I hear you ask? A Game Boy perhaps? A Sega Mega Drive ? A Jaguar even? No my friends it was none of those, for you see I grew up in a family that was not flush with cash so I had to make do with what I got. What I got was a hand-me-down Amstrad CPC 464 .