The Recent Windows 11 Upgrade and Related Technology

 The Recent Windows 11 Upgrade and Related Technology Shenanigans That I have Known and not Loved 

We have just passed the Day of Doom for Windows 10 computers (Oct 14, 2025), wherein they will no longer be supported by Microsoft, via updates to the operating system. There is the possibility of getting a reprieve for a year, if you pay a $30 shakedown fee and diligently sign on to your MS account (which must now have, even if your system is a standalone one). To compound the high-handed nature of this MS move, EU and UK users will not have to pay the $30 fee.

So, what happens if you just ignore all this and go ahead with using your W10 computer without the benefit of upgrades? There is a potential cost and benefit:

• Cost – you may get hacked, as you don’t have the Microsoft updates, which are (in part) meant to block such attacks.

• Benefit – You won’t have to pay 30 bucks, be forced to have an MS account or have to suffer through bad upgrades of Windows 10 or 11.

Bad Windows upgrades are a problem. Within the past few months I have lost the Bluetooth drivers for two devices – one a radio/audiobook device and the other a wireless mouse. A Windows 10 update blew away the radio/audiobook drivers and a Windows 11 upgrade blew away the wireless mouse upgrade. I still haven’t got the radio working and I switched to a regular cabled mouse to solve that problem. (I do have a Windows 11 machine in the house as well as my regular Windows 10 machine).

To compound the Windows 11 problem, my HP printer (Laserjet Pro MFP M227 fwd) won’t work with W11, due to driver incompatibility. HP has discontinued this model of printer (its about 7 years old, lightly used, works fine), so there are no drivers available.

A Solution

The most obvious solution to these problems is to just desert the Windows system, in favour of some version of Linux. So that’s what I did with the orphaned Windows 10 machine.

To be precise, I set up a dual boot on that W10 computer that can’t be updated to W11. There seemed to be no point in getting the one-year extension for $30, as Microsoft has said that this is a one-year shot and nothing more. After that, you are on your own, against the hacker ecosystem.

I put Linux Mint on one partition and W10 on the other. The machine has a big hard drive, so space isn’t a problem. It took a while, but it seems to be working. We will see if that continues.

I had a dual boot Windows7/Linux system on a laptop some years back and liked that. But eventually neither Windows nor the version of Linux that I had would recognize the internet. The hardware was too old to upgrade to new version of Linux and/or you needed an internet connection to do so, which of course, I no longer had on that machine. However, at about that time I had to get a new computer to work from home (i.e. Covid lockdowns) so it wasn’t actually an issue anymore. That said, I might try to rescue that old laptop out of curiosity, now that I have more experience with the Linux install. Of course, that might be impossible by now. 

Earlier Operating System Computer Shenanigans

This stuff has been going on for a long time. Here are some examples from my past experiences:

• My Microsoft Surface tablet quit working after I had attempted to use an aftermarket power supply unit, when replacing the original unit, as the cord had frayed badly. I don’t know if MS even makes these anymore. Besides, had W8 on it, which Microsoft has cast to even farther outer limits than Windows 10.

• My Apple iPad quit working, for the most part. Its Amazon app was good for reading books, but it and/or Amazon quit supporting it, so it was no longer useful for that. Then, it went into some weird loop upon opening it up, telling me that "AppleTunes space is full", over and over again. So now, all it is good for is as a clock and alarm. It lets me know when it is 8:00 a.m., since I set up the alarm to do that long ago. Basically it has died (or been killed), with only the ghost of the alarm clock duck remaining (on weekdays). I guess that’s something.

• An ink jet printer quit working when I used a recycled ink unit some years back. It (the ink) was sold by the University of Alberta bookstore, so presumably it was not a sketchy ink unit. But it seems as if some of these printers had a way of identifying a non-OEM ink supplies and were programmed to shut down when that happened.

I could add more, but you get the point.

Summary

Big corporations routinely decide that your device is no longer to be supported, regardless of what condition it is in (e.g. the Windows 11 forced transition). Added to that, there is issue of Bluetooth drivers constantly being clobbered by updates (MS has a notoriously poor Bluetooth stack). Consumers have a natural wariness of technology because of these practices.

Consider the so-called "Internet of Things". Imagine that one day you discover that your refrigerator or oven stopped working because it doesn't have the latest software or chip. But, hey, you can just buy another appliance from the company that discontinued your current one. And it will be great because there has been some trivial change that you didn't want or need. Ditto for your furnace, your water heater, your AC, your toaster, your light bulbs, your dishwasher, your wall clock, etc.

So not only is this stuff not needed, it also makes you captive to forced obsolescence on a huge scale. I think most consumers know this explicitly, or at least intuit it. So, they simply don't trust the concept of internet of things.

This feeds into cynicism about corporations and governments. For example, why do governments insist on banning plastic bags and plastic straws, but allow corporations to force people to throw a way hundreds of millions of working computers, printers and other peripherals? From an ecological standpoint, it makes no sense.

Anyway, I could continue the rant, but I will leave it at that (for now). Though I could go on and on about how we are having unwanted AI shoved at us constantly...

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And here is a somewhat related book which I wrote, that deals with what might happen if and when computer companies really take AI to the logical limit:

Energy and Other Constraints on a 3I/Atlas Type Object, if it is of Artificial Origin

 Energy and Other Constraints on a 3I/Atlas Type Object, if it is of Artificial Origin

There have been speculations that the interstellar object 3I/Atlas might be of artificial origin, rather than being a natural object. This is obviously highly contentious, but I thought it would be interesting to see just how likely it would be for a civilization much like the Earth’s to send an object on an interstellar journey.

Even now, we know that Earth has already sent an interstellar object or two on their way out of the solar system. These are rather small probes, such as Voyager, Pioneer or New Horizons, that were sent to study the outer planets and as a result of those missions, are now proceeding out of the solar system. So, clearly it can be done, though it must be kept in mind that gravity assists (so called sling-shots) increased the velocity of these craft, such that they were significantly faster than they would have been with launch energy alone. That required some very specific orbital manoeuvres and planetary alignments – those conditions would not necessarily exist for other hypothetical journeys out of our solar system or out of any similar solar system.

Energy Constraints

So, I did a very high-level (i.e. approximate) analysis of the energy budget possible for a craft, using the energy various sources that we now have or could soon have, here on Earth. Those are:

Energy Available

Fuel                                              Mass Density (Kg/M3)     Energy Density MJ/Kg

Methalox (Methane/Oxy)             810                                         10

RP-1 with Oxidizer                     2074                                          12

Hydrogen, Liquid & LOX             641                                         17

U-235 (25% enriched)                 4000                                     3,900

Hydrogen, Fusion (DT)             4000                                     15,600

Here are the escape velocities from some points within the Solar System.

Energy Required to Escape the Solar System

Initial Point     Escape Velocity (km/sec)

Earth             42.1

Mars              34.1

Ceres             25.3

Jupiter          18.5

Saturn          13.6

Uranus           9.6

Neptune         7.7

Pluto             6.6

The basic idea is simple (below is the example of a 10 km radius "spacecraft", similar to the 3I/Atlas speculations):

• given a radius for the object, calculate the volume (assuming a sphere)

• make some of this the fuel mass and some of it the object mass, using representative densities for both.

• This example postulates a very high porosity in which a metholox (liquid methane and liquid oxygen mix) fuel supply could be contained.

Radius

- km 10

- m 10,000

Volume (assuming sphere)

- km3 4,189

- m3 4.19E+12

Mass (kg)

Fuel Methalox

- mass density (kg/m3) 810

- porosity 90%

- total fuel mass 3.05E+15

Non-Fuel (rock/metal)

- mass density (kg/m3) 3,000

- pct non-porosity 10%

- total non-fuel mass 1.26E+15

Total Fuel & Non-Fuel Mass

- porosity 90%

- Mass 4.31E+15Energy

Energy density (MJ/kg) 10.0

- Total (max avail, MJ) 3.05E+16

- porosity 90%

- Total, given porosity est. (MJ) 2.75E+16

For a very rough estimate of the velocity that could be obtained by burning this much fuel, given the mass of the object, a simple kinetic energy calculation is used. This assumes that all of the available energy could be "somehow" converted to the kinetic energy of the object:

Escape Velocity (km/sec)

- from solar system

Starting at Pluto

- km/sec 6.6

- m/sec 6,600

Escape Velocity – Kinetic Energy Required

- from solar system

Earth

- 6.65E+16 MJ

So, about 6.6 X 10E16 megajoules would be needed, but only about 2.8 X 10E16 megajoules would be available, even given simplistic and unrealistically optimistic estimates of the theoretically available energy. That gives an Energy Available/Required ratio of only about 0.41, not even half of what is needed to escape the solar system, even from the distance of Pluto.

Perhaps a significant payload could be launched out of a sun-like star’s solar system with a long series of gravity assists, though that would probably be extremely complicated and time consuming. Perhaps a long series of "stepping stones" might work, moving slowly to the outer parts of the system, always making use of local resources, such as dwarf planets, comets and asteroids.

However, if nuclear energy could be used, the situation would be dramatically different, due to the huge energy density of nuclear energy sources. Even from Earth distance, it could probably be done if enough enriched uranium was available and the object was assembled far from the Earth’s gravitational influence. I think the surface or near-surface of the object would have to be festooned with nuclear reactors, at least of the power of hundreds of nuclear submarines. At any rate, the energy would potentially be there, if it could be converted into kinetic energy (maybe by accelerating ions in a strong electric field).

The case is improved further, if the object was powered by fusion energy from deuterium-tritium reactors, should those actually be feasible. The main advantage would be availability of fuel. That would be even more true for deuterium- deuterium reactors. Again, the object’s surface and near-surface would probably have to contain hundreds of such reactors and devices for accelerating ions in strong electrical fields.

Detailed calculations for several fuels and several solar system distances from the sun are given in an appendix at the end of the blog.

Other Constraints

The next obvious question is "who would want to do this, given the vast expenses and the long time scales involved?". After all, even at fantastic velocities (e.g. 1000 km/sec) it would take millennia to get anywhere interesting. (e.g. at about 30 billion km per year, it would take about 1000 years to get to Alpha Centauri).

I think it would have to be a long-lived species, very possibly a non-organic one, that could make plans and then execute those plans on time scales like this. That assumes that members of a machine species could actually exist without breakdown for those kinds of time scales. On Earth, I don’t think we have kept any machine running for even centuries, let alone millennia.

So, my conclusion is that something like 3i/Atlas could conceivably be artificial, but it would indicate many technologies that we have still not achieved and planning horizons and motivations that we can’t even begin to comprehend.

That said, I suppose if something is possible, it might well be done, eventually.

Appendix

Below is a table with back-of-the-envelope calculations for various types of fuel and various distances from the sun-like central star.

Assuming Asteroid Radius=10 km
Starting from 1 AU (Earth Distance)
Initial Point	Earth	Earth	Earth	Earth	Earth
Initial Point escape Velocity	42.1	42.1	42.1	42.1	42.1
Fuel	Methalox	RP-1 with Oxidizer	Hydrogen, Liquid & LOX	U-235 (25% enriched)	Hydrogen, Fusion (DT)
Porosity	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%
Energy Available:	2.75E+16	8.47E+16	3.68E+16	5.29E+19	2.12E+20
Energy Required:	2.71E+18	6.93E+18	2.14E+18	1.34E+19	1.34E+19
Energy Index (Avail/Required)	0.010	0.012	0.017	3.96	15.84
Starting from 1.52 AU (Mars Distance)
Initial Point	Mars	Mars	Mars	Mars	Mars
Initial Point escape Velocity	34.1	34.1	34.1	34.1	34.1
Fuel	Methalox	RP-1 with Oxidizer	Hydrogen, Liquid & LOX	U-235 (25% enriched)	Hydrogen, Fusion (DT)
Porosity	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%
Energy Available:	2.75E+16	8.47E+16	3.68E+16	5.29E+19	2.12E+20
Energy Required:	1.78E+18	4.55E+18	1.40E+18	8.77E+18	8.77E+18
Energy Index (Avail/Required)	0.015	0.019	0.026	6.04	24.15
Starting from 2.77 AU (Ceres Distance)
Initial Point	Ceres	Ceres	Ceres	Ceres	Ceres
Initial Point escape Velocity	25.3	25.3	25.3	25.3	25.3
Fuel	Methalox	RP-1 with Oxidizer	Hydrogen, Liquid & LOX	U-235 (25% enriched)	Hydrogen, Fusion (DT)
Porosity	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%
Energy Available:	2.75E+16	8.47E+16	3.68E+16	5.29E+19	2.12E+20
Energy Required:	9.77E+17	2.50E+18	7.73E+17	4.83E+18	4.83E+18
Energy Index (Avail/Required)	0.028	0.034	0.05	10.97	43.87
Starting from 5.2 AU (Jupiter)
Initial Point	Jupiter	Jupiter	Jupiter	Jupiter	Jupiter
Initial Point escape Velocity	18.5	18.5	18.5	18.5	18.5
Fuel	Methalox	RP-1 with Oxidizer	Hydrogen, Liquid & LOX	U-235 (25% enriched)	Hydrogen, Fusion (DT)
Porosity	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%
Energy Available:	2.75E+16	8.47E+16	3.68E+16	5.29E+19	2.12E+20
Energy Required:	5.23E+17	1.34E+18	4.14E+17	2.58E+18	2.58E+18
Energy Index (Avail/Required)	0.05	0.06	0.09	20.51	82.05
Starting from 9.6 AU (Saturn)
Initial Point	Saturn	Saturn	Saturn	Saturn	Saturn
Initial Point escape Velocity	13.6	13.6	13.6	13.6	13.6
Fuel	Methalox	RP-1 with Oxidizer	Hydrogen, Liquid & LOX	U-235 (25% enriched)	Hydrogen, Fusion (DT)
Porosity	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%
Energy Available:	2.75E+16	8.47E+16	3.68E+16	5.29E+19	2.12E+20
Energy Required:	2.82E+17	7.23E+17	2.23E+17	1.39E+18	1.39E+18
Energy Index (Avail/Required)	0.10	0.12	0.16	37.95	151.82
Starting from 19.2 AU (Uranus)
Initial Point	Uranus	Uranus	Uranus	Uranus	Uranus
Initial Point escape Velocity	9.6	9.6	9.6	9.6	9.6
Fuel	Methalox	RP-1 with Oxidizer	Hydrogen, Liquid & LOX	U-235 (25% enriched)	Hydrogen, Fusion (DT)
Porosity	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%
Energy Available:	2.75E+16	8.47E+16	3.68E+16	5.29E+19	2.12E+20
Energy Required:	1.41E+17	3.60E+17	1.11E+17	6.95E+17	6.95E+17
Energy Index (Avail/Required)	0.20	0.24	0.33	76.17	304.69
Starting from 30.0 AU (Neptune)
Initial Point	Neptune	Neptune	Neptune	Neptune	Neptune
Initial Point escape Velocity	7.7	7.7	7.7	7.7	7.7
Fuel	Methalox	RP-1 with Oxidizer	Hydrogen, Liquid & LOX	U-235 (25% enriched)	Hydrogen, Fusion (DT)
Porosity	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%
Energy Available:	2.75E+16	8.47E+16	3.68E+16	5.29E+19	2.12E+20
Energy Required:	9.05E+16	2.32E+17	7.16E+16	4.47E+17	4.47E+17
Energy Index (Avail/Required)	0.30	0.37	0.51	118.40	473.60
Starting from 39.5 AU (Pluto)
Initial Point	Pluto	Pluto	Pluto	Pluto	Pluto
Initial Point escape Velocity	6.6	6.6	6.6	6.6	6.6
Fuel	Methalox	RP-1 with Oxidizer	Hydrogen, Liquid & LOX	U-235 (25% enriched)	Hydrogen, Fusion (DT)
Porosity	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%
Energy Available:	2.75E+16	8.47E+16	3.68E+16	5.29E+19	2.12E+20
Energy Required:	6.65E+16	1.70E+17	5.26E+16	3.28E+17	3.28E+17
Energy Index (Avail/Required)	0.41	0.50	0.70	161.16	644.63

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And here's a book promotion for a book that is premised on (guess what) an invasion of the solar system by an AI entity that plans to destroy humanity with an asteroid, among other methods.

The Magnetic Anomaly – A Science Fiction Novel

The novel version of The Magnetic Anomaly is now available onAmazon (ebook, print version to come soon, also audible version).

This novel began life as a short story, similarly by not exactly titled The Magnetic Anomaly – A Science Fiction Story (note “the novel” vs “story”). Some reviewers were interested to know where the short story would go, once it was turned into a novel.

To be honest, I didn’t know myself, until I started writing it. But often the process of writing takes on a life of its own. I think it turned out quite nicely, in my humble but obviously not disinterested opinion. Fortunately, my beta readers agreed with that assessment. I hope other readers agree as well.

Summary

Below is an excerpt from the short story, which is also the first chapter of the novel:

“A geophysical crew went into the Canadian north. There were some regrettable accidents among a few ex-military who had become geophysical contractors after their service in the forces. A young man and young woman went temporarily mad from the stress of seeing that. They imagined things, terrible things. But both are known to have vivid imaginations; we have childhood records to verify that. It was all very sad. That’s the official story.”

As the summary above indicates, the main characters, geophysicist Alex and geologist Mary, survived their ordeal in the northern exploration camp. However, there was much more involved, behind the scenes, than they could imagine at the time.

The novel version of the story expands greatly on this.

Alex and Mary get caught up in a vast conflict and exciting adventure, one of literally cosmic proportions. During this time, they encounter a variety of enigmatic persons, as well as other entities, all of whom are also engaged in this struggle. With some of them they end up allying; with others, they contend in deadly conflict. The struggle takes them around the world, and eventually to the far reaches of the solar system.

During this time their relationship continues to evolve and deepen. Circumstances demand that they grow in courage and confidence, though within the scope of (mostly) normal people, as has been the case for countless people throughout history.

The story also showcases some historical events, relating to different versions of what went on in Antarctica, shortly after World War 2. Several versions of these events, official and unofficial UFO lore are given. This becomes a springboard to much of the action. Some philosophical and scientifica ideas are also explored, though not in such a way as to get in the way of the action for long.

Amazon:

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Some Interesting (and Somewhat Spooky) Events, Concerning Clocks

Sept 2025: In the evening, my wife Helena and I were standing near the drip coffee maker in the kitchen. She wanted me to put coffee in the filter and water in the reservoir, as she wasn’t feeling all that well and thought she might spill something if she did it herself. However, she did stick around to make sure that I wouldn’t automatically turn the machine on after refilling it, as I often did, just by habit. The coffee was to be used in the morning, we were just setting it up that evening, for that purpose.

As a joke, I pretended I was going to turn it on after filling it up and pointed my finger at the on switch, as if I was about to turn it on. I said something like "now I stab at thee, on switch", riffing off the quote from Moby Dick ("From Hell’s heart I stab at thee").

At exactly that moment the clock on the wall suddenly fell down, with a loud thud as it hit the floor. The clock was in the same general direction as I was ‘stabbing’, as it was behind the coffee maker, a bit above and to the left. However, my finger was still a good foot away from the wall, as was my wife’s hand.

The timing was so precise that it was hard not to think that there was some significance to it. Helena wondered if it presaged a death. If nothing else, it presaged purchasing a new wall clock.

Some time in the 2010s: We had had a similar experience some dozen or more years earlier, while watching a TV show late one night. A comedy skit came on, featuring some black humour about a funeral. Just at that time, a different clock fell off a bookshelf near the TV. That clock had been owned by my mother, who had passed away a few months before.

Related to this was another occasion, when a book about War Brides fell off the bookshelf at another strategic time, again one that had significance my mom, who had been a war bride. Unfortunately by now my memory is a bit vague on the details around that one.

 

Perhaps all clocks are really time vultures in disguise. 

 

 

 

 

Race Track Diary, Entry Number One

Introduction

This blog and some following blogs are sections from an informal diary of “visits to the race-track” at a particular time and place, by a person who has followed the races with varying levels of participation over a long period. These relate primarily to some visits to the track and/or off-track betting venues in the 2025 period and onward. They contain observations about the activity, both specific and general. Although these remarks are personal, they also reflect general cultural and historical trends, as they have impacted horse-racing, wagering and culture in general.

The setting is Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (population of about one million). However, I imagine that the observations would apply to many places in the world, as they are a reflection of how changing trends in technology, globalization and culture in general have affected this ancient and honourable activity of horse-racing.

For now, I will use what I call “polished point-form” for the narrative.

1 – Fitzgerald’s Pub (Feb 20, 2025)

• This off-track betting site is located on a secondary road in the south-side of Edmonton, which is not generally a very busy road. There is a farmer’s market about a mile down this road, as well as a nice little driving range (golf) a little ways farther. In addition, there is a habitat for humanity recycling place nearby (handy for projects). These are all places that I visit quite regularly.

• Fitzy’s is sort of a neighbourhood bar, though it is in an industrial area of the city. I think that if one was to become a regular, one would probably get to know some people, have a few laughs, that sort of thing. The crowd generally seems pretty friendly.

• The place is basically a pub/restaurant, with the off-track horse-race betting area representing a smallish proportion of it (maybe about one-quarter). There was often some background music, as would be expected in a pub, but it didn’t seem to have constant blaring music (or at least it was not too loud).

• As might be expected, there were a number of large wall-size TV screens – some showed sports, with about 8 or 10 showing racetracks. Those tended to be some of the bigger tracks in the U.S., as well as Woodbine in Toronto.

• There were some dart boards, though nobody was playing at the time we visited. The wall featured pictures of hockey players (mostly Edmonton Oilers, for example Mike Comrie) and jerseys. That said, there was also a rather old Geordie Howe photo. He could have visited during his WHA or late NHL days (later 1970s to 1980), I suppose.

• Perhaps some of the Oiler players were regulars in the past? Or perhaps the owner got to know a few NHL players in some other way? Owning race horses can be a good in, as far as meeting athletes is concerned, or so I have heard. Golf courses are also good.

• My brother Craig pointed out a strange machine on one wall. It turned out to be one of those blood-alcohol testers. I wonder how well those readings would stand up in court.

• Since it was a Thursday, it was not very busy at the time of day that we visited. I had a lunch of fish and chips, which were pretty good. The beers tended to be the usual corporate beers, no craft beers as far as I cold tell. So, I had a Keith’s, which I find to be better than most corporate beers.

• The waitress was quite pleasant. I gave her a somewhat generous tip; she seemed surprised and appreciative of that. When we left, she was outside smoking a cigarette. She waved and said hi. A decent tip can have that effect.

• There were only a few scattered few horse players, mostly older in age, while we were there. They varied by ethnic background and were almost entirely male.

• There was a group of older boisterous patrons (male and female) in the tavern part of the pub. It must have been an after work crowd, by the sounds of it. But it was good; they were having fun without being annoying.

• As for the horses, I won a few bets, and came away from the day in the black, I think. To be honest, I wasn’t keeping super-diligent records. But I did have at least one fair-size win, which would have overcome any losses on other races.

• I hasten to add that I did no real handicapping; it wasn’t much more scientific than throwing darts. I did look to link a relatively sure thing with a longer shot that had showed decent speed in the past. Those are often overlooked by the casual bettor, so you can get a good price.

• It made me wonder if careful handicapping (with evidence-based statistical analysis) might once again be a workable program. In the 1990s, I developed a computerized statistical system which worked fairly well for about three years. Then it conked out (quit working), coincidental with the “dumb money” shifting over to VLTs and similar types of easy gambling.

• My hypothesis was that when the non-handicapping bettors left, the easy money left with them. At that point there was a much reduced information advantage to sophisticated handicapping. Thus, there were far fewer overlooked horses (i.e. their odds of winning were better than the odds that they went off at).

• So, is the something like that happening with multi-track horse-racing, but in reverse? In other words, is the multiplicity of race-track opportunities resulting in more cursory handicapping? Is the “dumb money” coming back? Also, is there some advantage to sharing bettor pools across many venues?

• Anyway, those were a few things to ponder, as we concluded our visit to Fitzgerald’s on a winter’s day.

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Since I am running a book publishing blog, here is a plug for a horse-racing oriented short story that I wrote.

A Dark Horse

In “A Dark Horse”, a gambler’s desire to hit a big win seems to lead him to make a Faustian bargain with a supernatural evil.  Or is it all just a string of unnaturally good luck?

The story is just $0.99 U.S. (equivalent in other currencies) and about 8000 words. It is also available on Kindle Unlimited and is occasionally on free promotion.

U.S.: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

U.K.: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

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Spain:https://www.amazon.es/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01MDMY2BR

Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Here’s an interesting review from Goodreads

(BTW, the writer has never met the reviewer and was not even aware of the review until very recently – You can look up the review on Goodreads, if you like)

A Dark Horse

Every gambler is bound to run out of luck eventually, right?

By far my favourite type of horror is psychological horror. I was quite pleased with how Mr. Olausen frightened his audience without spilling a single drop of blood or so much as hinting at anything gory. He knew exactly what hints to drop for us that made us deliciously dread the next scene simply by throwing out hints about who or what the dark horse might actually represent. This is the kind of stuff I love getting scared by, especially as Halloween approaches.

It would have been helpful to have more character development in this short story. While I certainly wouldn’t expect to see as much time spent on this as I would for a full-length novel, I did have trouble connecting to the main characters due to how little I knew about them and how much their personalities seemed to remain the same no matter what happened to them. If not for this issue, I would have felt comfortable choosing a much higher rating as the plot itself was well done.

I must admit to not knowing much about gambling at all, so I appreciated the brief explanations the narrator shared about how placing bets works and why some people have so much trouble walking away from a bet. While I will leave it up to experts on these topics to say how accurate everything was, I did enjoy learning more about the main character’s addiction and what he hoped to gain from betting on just one more game or race. It gave me a stronger sense of empathy for folks in his position.

A Dark Horse – A Gothic Tale was a deliciously chilling story for the Halloween season and beyond.