News You Can Bruise for 2001 April 22

I recently discovered that Games Magazine, beloved of my youth, has resumed publication. They even still have the "spot the fake ad" feature, although it's not very difficult because it's the only ad in the entire dang magazine!

Finally done with The Pope's Rhinoceros. Not so much a novel as a number of set pieces which are tied together at the last minute and in the last fifty pages. But what a tying together. If the whole book were as spectacular and farcical as the ending, it would be as breaded clams for my endorsement mill. But as it is, I am left uneasy about telling other people to slog through these same 600 pages in search of the nuggets of brilliance. I feel like someone might feel after playing Degeneracy for the first time. Is that really all there is?

Also, it is interesting to note that the only place the word "rhinoceros" appears in that book is in the title. Presumably this is for reasons of historical accuracy.