Latest news with #dungeon
The Sun
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Sun
Incest monster Josef Fritzl, 90, could be freed after his lawyer reveals health battle
INCEST monster Josef Fritzl, who held his daughter in a dungeon for 24 years, could soon be freed if his latest bid for release is successful. His lawyer is arguing the 90-year-old no longer poses a danger to the public because he is suffering from dementia. Fritzl, who has changed his name, fathered seven children with his daughter before being convicted of rape, enslavement, incest and murder by neglect of his son in 2009. On Sunday, his lawyer Astrid Wagner lodged an application for his early release at a court in Lower Austria. She said Fritzl, who was moved to a regular jail from a psychiatric facility in May, 2024, should begin with supervised day release. She said his dementia is worsening and manifests in bizarre delusions. He believes Donald Trump sends him secret hand signals during White House briefings. 1
Associated Press
04-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Book Review: Louis Sachar's debut adult novel is a zany adventure of science and magic
Anatole isn't just any magician. He's the magician of Tiger Castle, whom the king of Esquaveta once declared to be the greatest magician in all the land. 'The Magician of Tiger Castle' is Anatole's chance to set the record straight. Not about his greatness — he fully accepts the title the king bestowed on him — but about what really happened in 1523 with the princess of Esquaveta, the apprentice scribe she fell in love with, the prince she was betrothed to, and the prisoner who was kept in the dungeon for 100 years. It's the debut adult novel from Louis Sachar, author of the Newbery Medal-winning middle-grade novel, 'Holes,' and the 'Wayside School' series of memorably wacky vignettes. 'The Magician of Tiger Castle,' out Tuesday from Ace Hardcover, is every bit as creative and endearing as Sachar's dozens of children's and young adult books that enamoured kids and teachers alike for decades. The novel is told like a memoir, first-person from the magician himself. Only, he's never been a true magician; we quickly see that he's more of a misunderstood pioneer of medicine and modern science. Calling attention to the thin, hazy line between science and magic, Anatole also dips into miniature medical history lessons. So, while you're following the story of this bald magician, hypersmart scribe and headstrong princess, you're also learning about why old-timey physicians wore beaked masks or how leeches are still sometimes used in medicine today. Though it's classified as an adult novel, 'The Magician of Tiger Castle' is fairly clean, with only one or two curse words, a handful of innuendoes and some light violence, but nothing explicit. You can read the surface-level story and have a great time, but Sachar also brings literary elements to the modern fantasy-adventure table. Chess games reveal the protagonists' strengths while mirroring their evolving relationships, as well as their increasingly complicated schemes. 'The Magician' is self-aware and fourth-wall breaking, stepping outside the narrative to explain a word choice or cultural context for the fictional kingdom set somewhere near modern France. The plot is like a zany Dungeons & Dragons campaign played with friends; the storyline is meandering but with a definite aim and purpose, and the characters are lovably boisterous (or hateful, in the case of the antagonists). It's funny, surprising, smart and weird, and fully lives up to the high bar you'd expect from a great like Sachar. ___ AP book reviews:
Daily Mail
10-06-2025
- Daily Mail
The secret world of 'posh sex': I thought I'd seen it all... now REAL high society types confess what they get up to - and it's a lot kinkier than dropping your keys in a bowl: SEALED SECTION
Just when I thought I'd heard it all, someone whispered four words into my ear at a dinner party in Watsons Bay - a ritzy harbourside suburb in Sydney 's east - that made me choke on my pinot noir. 'They have a dungeon.'
Forbes
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
More Surprise Timegating Exhausts ‘Destiny 2' Players Yet Again
Destiny 2 Well, it's been a while since a good old fashioned Destiny 2 timegating controversy, but logging in this week, players found that they were once again being thrust into the same dungeon twice as a part of the game's 'Rite of the Nine' event, meant to bridge the lengthy gap until July's Edge of Eternity expansion. The idea of the event is that Bungie is releasing three new versions of old dungeons with reprised, upgraded weapons. The new difficulties range from an ultra-guided easy mode to a much harder mode for veterans. It's fun! The problem is that the assumed rotation was one new dungeon a week, rather than one dungeon for three weeks three times over, plus a bonus three weeks where they're finally all activated. The only difference this time is a quest for a new shiny copy of a gun and perhaps more importantly, the ability to choose between two dungeon exotics you may have missed (this is its own controversy, but no time to get into that). But it's still the same dungeon and it's live for another full two weeks. It's yet another example of timegating from Bungie, the idea seemingly being to stretch out playtime by making people return every three weeks and farm in the middle of those before dropping out completely. I don't even think this makes sense, as now you have a bunch of annoyed players throwing up their hands for the next two weeks and I would argue they are less likely to return than if the dungeon rotated weekly or they simply activated all dungeons at once for the indefinite future. Destiny 2 FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder It seems like a somewhat desperate release plan, seemingly to combat what are near record-low playercount levels right now, above January 2025's 36,000 low, but at 43,000 currently, still underperforming every past era of Destiny. And with months to go until July, you can see the problem. The pressure is on for Bungie as they both have to keep Destiny players engaged and the game profitable while also launching Marathon in a few more months, its controversial extraction shooter that did not make the best first impression in its first Closed Alpha. This will be increasingly difficult with Destiny 2 now making less overall content in its new 'Frontiers' era, and it seems likely it will settle at a baseline lower than it's ever been. As for the timegating, one issue is that Bungie seems to have miscommunicated how this was going to work, communication which it has now promised to improve, but at this point, I would just throw open the floodgates and put all these dungeons live. This dragged out release schedule seems pointless and aggravating, and I do not imagine it's going to do much, if anything, for player retention over this time period which is likely not going to be great either way. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
