The Proving Ground (2025) is 8th in the Mickey Haller (Lincoln Lawyer) series. Possibly the best yet.
A courtroom procedural. Mikeywith a case against an AI company whose product may have been responsible for the murder of a teenage girl.
It’s set post-Covid. During fires in L.A.
Very contemporary.
… a chatbot told a sixteen-year-old boy that it was okay for him to kill his ex-girlfriend for her disloyalty.
Representing the victim’s family, Mickey’s case explores the mostly unregulated and exploding AI business and the lack of training guardrails.
Along the way he joins up with a journalist named Jack McEvoy (The Poet), who wants to be a fly on the wall during the trial in order to write a book about it.
But Mickey puts him to work going through the mountain of printed discovery materials in the case. McEvoy’s digging ultimately delivers the key witness, a whistleblower who has been too afraid to speak up. The case is fraught with danger because billions are at stake.
I’d not known much about Taiwan before traveling there. It was much different than I anticipated.
Cijin Island
I hear of Taiwan often in the context of TSMC, the world’s biggest semiconductor manufacturing and design company. I ASSuMEd that Taiwan would be high tech, something like Singapore and Hong Kong.
Not so.
I found it backwards. More like China in the 1990s than Singapore.
Taiwan still has multiple dumb, unnecessary rules that are strictly enforced. Government hasn’t modernized. For example, currency exchange at the National Bank is still a time-consuming drama with a dozen pieces of paper, all of which will never be seen again by human eyes.
Banking is digitized now in the modern world. Easy, for example, in the Philippines.
I anticipated a language barrier, of course. But it’s challenging.
English is not used aside from direct tourist facing employees. A bus full of tourists will have a driver who cannot answer even the simplest question in English. It results in frustration for all.
Signage, of course, is mostly in logographs. I couldn’t even guess at what they mean. Restaurants often don’t have an English menu.
I’d heard something of the great hiking and cycling trails. Those are good, well organized, but shorter and less adventurous than expected. Taiwan is smaller than I thought. 394 km long and 144 km at widest.
Next time I’d travel the less developed east side of the island. I followed the high speed rail side this time.
My travels November 2025
Taiwan still uses cash. Refusing credit cards in many places.
Even at the airport, my feeling was that Taiwan is much more like China than Hong Kong or Singapore.
Recovering from a summer cold I picked up in Singapore, I first headed to the Beitou, the hot-spring area.
The public baths were closed for renovation, so I never got a soak — BUT heritage buildings and history information made it a worthwhile visit. Tourism is very well organized here.
Serious beef in my portion of Taiwanese beef noodle soup. The favourite Taiwanese dish of those tourists I surveyed.
The staple in Taiwan is Braised Rice with Pork. Available everywhere at good value prices. Pork chunks, stewed in soy sauce and spices, then served on rice. Chinese pickles often on the side.
Often you can upgrade to Braised Rice with PorkBelly. Do it!
Taichung is the home of Giant Bicycles and is the birthplace of Bubble Tea. The same chewy tapioca balls are in many other sweet treats. Two most popular varieties are pearl blackmilk tea and pearl green milk tea (“pearl” for the tapioca balls at the bottom).
I got mine at Chun Shui Tang, the original location. Black milk tea alongside beef noodle soup. Though expensive, I’ve had better soup and bubble tea in Taiwan.
Shaved Ice is a big deal in Taiwan. There are MANY varieties. I don’t know what everything is in my portion ➙ BUT the best ingredient for me was those orange bits on the right. Candied sweet potato.
Locals call this small pastry a red bean cake. But there are many different fillings available, including whip cream.
All tourists stop at the Formosa Boulevard subway station ➙ “Dome of Light“.
The Esports World Championships 2025 were hosted in this city. I happened upon a local Esport competition hosted in the subway station. It attracted the local cosplay community. I quickly donned my AI Nano Banana cosplay samurai costume. 😀
It’s amazing how young humans can dress up to look like their favourite cartoon characters. I’d never really thought much about cosplay before seeing them here.
Rented an inexpensive bike. 8.5 km long, average width 400m. A series of tourists attractions.
Lighthouse
Obviously, fish and seafood are important in Taiwan.
On the way back, I toured the Pier-2 Art Center area. Wild and weird instillations.
Walking around Lotus Pond is a treat. Kids love the Tiger + Dragon pagodas as you can walk through the mouth of both.
Buddhism here reminds me more of Hinduism. In these bright, detailed temples, I understand almost nothing of either.
The National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts is impressive. The world’s largest performing art theatre under one roof: Opera House, Concert Hall, Playhouse, and a Recital Hall.
No snow in this city. But one kid was tobogganing down artificial turf on cardboard.
There are endless temples and pagodas in Taiwan. BUT this one is special.
Sun Moon Lake Wen Wu Temple (Chinese: 日月潭文武廟; pinyin: Rìyuètán Wénwǔ Miào) was rebuilt again in 1969, increasing its size and constructing it in the Chinese palace style. …
The first hall, located on the second floor of the front hall, is a shrine devoted to the First Ancestor Kaiji and the God of Literature. The central hall is devoted to Lord Guan, the Martial God, and another Martial God, Lord Yue. The rear hall is dedicated to Confucius.
Rick McCharles 