Dialing Home – Stargates and Interstellar Portals in Science Fiction
One of my favorite Heinlein novels is Tunnel in the Sky. It’s one of his juveniles and features a group of young people who are training to be interstellar...
City of Last Chances
Review: City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky Is this book a socialist manifesto? Is it cosmic horror? Is it a ghost story? It almost tries to be too...
At Balticon
Okay, this one is queued and by the time you see it I’ll be in Baltimore getting ready for the con. If you want to buy books, hit me up. I have a suitcase...
Sails and Songs
Black Sails 3.2 Bad decisions this week: 1. Underestimating Eleanor Guthrie. 2. Thinking Eleanor Guthrie is dead (which is also underestimating Eleanor...
Arr Pirates Speculative Fiction?
On November 14, 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson published The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys. You’ve probably never heard of it. Or rather you have, because it is...
Areas of Broken Reality
Review: Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer This short novel makes no sense. Which is good, because it’s clearly not meant to…and there’s likely an unreliable...
Balticon Schedule and More
First of all, here’s my schedule for this year’s Balton: Friday 5:30pm - Reading with Randee Dawn Saturday 10am - Underutilized Bases for Magic Systems...
More Bad Decisions
Black Sails 2.8 Oh, well…how about some bad decisions. Okay, here’s the thing? Eleanor had to rescue Abigail, it wasn’t a bad decision even if it does seem...
A World Without Childhood
Childhood is an important part of the human experience. Our extended maturity period has been cited many times as part of why we are the smartest species on...
Alchemists Rule
Review: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett It’s rare to get an entire fantasy world where the primary magic system is alchemy, but Bennett does this...
Flap, Flap, Flap!
So, this has not been a fun week. Instead of working, I spent last Friday…having emergency eye surgery. Look up posterior vitreous detachment. Or don’t. You...
Is This Your Lucky Day?
Black Sails 2.6 Don’t listen to Max. Just don’t. It looks very much like she’s selling prize locations to multiple crews now, with predictable results. Billy...
Two Popes, No...
Tomorrow, all of the Cardinals who haven’t achieved the age of 80 go into conclave to choose a new Pope. Supposedly, God guides them. In reality…ideally...
Robots and Time Travel
If you’re wondering what happened to Friday’s post…guess who spent all of Friday getting emergency laser eye surgery. I’m on a bit of a screen time...
Nuke It From Orbit...
Doctor Who 2.3 “The Well” Doctor Who is at its best when it leans into horror. “Nuke the site from orbit.” We all finish the sentence…well, the older viewers...
Hugs, Not Kisses - the Importance of Non-Romantic Relationships in Spec Fic
Many years ago, somebody told me as a baby writer that I had to have a consummated romance involving my main character or “Nobody would read my books.”It...
Alien Horrors?
Sorry this is a little late in the day…I had to get a bunch of con stuff done! Review: Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky I haven’t read much Tchaikovsky....
Not Here! Nope, Not Here...
Not there either, although I wouldn’t mind. Actually, I don’t mind where I am…when this goes out I’ll be at RavenCon waiting for registration to open. I’m on...
Content Warning: Torture
Black Sails 2.2 Ow. All I can say is ow. We have torture in this episode, just saying. We also have goat f**king. Maybe. Possible. I mean, not on camera,...
Global Trade is Not New
Okay, so there’s an ongoing myth that our ancestors only traded very locally. And it’s true that a lot of people never traveled more than a day’s walk from...
Nebula Novel Finalist Thoughts
I spent the last week rereading Murderbot, so I don’t have any reviews. So, I thought, instead I’d give my analysis for the Nebula Award for Novel and who I...
Ack! Crows!
The crows have a new game. It’s called “take turns buzzing the human.” There are no eggs yet. They only do it when I’m working out on the balcony. They are...
Revolutions
Yes, there’s a bit of a theme this week. The Handmaid’s Tale 1.5 “Faithful” This episode is about sex. And who has it better. The new Ofglen was a street...
Dire Wolves? We've Seen That Movie
News broke last week that a genetics company had successfully genetically engineered three healthy dire wolf pups. Yes, dire wolves were real. They lived...
Moons, Ghosts, and Mood Ring Hair
Review: Moonstorm by Yoon Ha Lee In Machineries of Empire, the Hexarchate’s technology is controlled by rituals. Change the rituals, change the laws of...
Ravencon, Poe!
Okay, so I have part of my schedule for RavenCon. Subject to alteration, as such things are. Friday, 4pm: A Panelist’s Guide to Panels Friday, 5pm: I’ve Got...
Arrr...and Argh
Black Sails 1.5 Actual piracy! This show is much more about piratical intrigue than actual theft on the high seas. That’s probably because piracy is...
The Tales of Robin Hood
I recently experienced a disappointment when a book entitled Sherwood Nation turned out not to be about Roin Hood (but only stealing some imagery from the...
Puzzled
Just the one book this week. Partly not having much weekend, partly the fact that the first two Andre Norton entries were books I already read and reviewed....
AwesomeCon!
So, why didn’t I post yesterday? Because my brain went “It’s a local con, you’ll have time.”Uh-huh. Yesterday was 11 hours door-to-door, 7.5 on the floor,...
What If...Not Sure I Care
…and some truly terrible flicks. Black Sails 1.4 When somebody says the beach is too steep for careening your ship…listen. Oh, that was so predictable....
Welcome to the Crowborhood
On March 3, I noticed a crow perched in the ash tree next to my balcony seriously contemplating…a twig. On March 4, a crow gave me three quiet croaking caws,...
Deep Into The Weird
Review: Asunder by Kerstin Hall Weird gods that…well…eat their most favored worshippers. Which are gods? Which are demons? Asunder pretty much puts them all...
Con Season Ramping Up
Ponies! The ponies are to cheer me up. I decided I didn’t want to fly to Kansas City under current circumstances relying on whatever pre-MMR measles shot I...
What if...
Very light week because I’ve been busy with other stuff. I’ve started watching 2025 stuff, though. Marvel’s What If 3.1 …the Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers?...
A Brief History of Lighthouses
Eagle Bluff Lighthouse The Patara lighthouse in Turkiye is being restored. The goal is to put a light in it when it’s done. This lighthouse was built during...
All Kinds of Love
Three books about…love, in some way, shape or form. Review: Someone You Can Build A Nest In by John Wiswell This is a monsterf*ing story. Except it’s an ace...
Achoo!
I hate living in DC during the spring. I’m allergic to cherry pollen, and don’t respond, shall we say, well to antihistamines. In other words, sniffle...
Robots and Pirates
Cinema Disaster: Robot Riot Things this movie has: Robots Things this movie does not have: A riot. A group of soldiers sign up to train with the “mechs.”...
Thinking about Bodies, Horror, and Puberty
Middle grade horror is a strange beast. In some ways, kids can tolerate certain kinds of horror better than adults. Kids also still live in a world where...
Hopes and Cures
Review: Sherwood Nation by Benjamin Parzybok CW: Domestic violence, weird politics The title of this book intrigued me, because anything to do with Robin...
Nebulas Are Out
The Nebula finalists are out and I have mixed feelings. My favorite novel of 2024, The Wings Upon Her Back by Samantha Mills did not make a cut. Only one of...
Cinema Fails
Review: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) This installment of the franchise attempts to instill the one thing it absolutely did not, under any...
Men Bad, Women Good - Gender Essentialism in Feminist Science Fiction (copy)
Last year somebody gave me copies of Native Tongue and The Judas Rose, the first two parts of a feminist trilogy by Suzette Haden Elgin. These are reprints...
Apocalypses?
Review: Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace Growing up, I was very much “Not like other girls.” Buffy spoke to me, although that speaking is colored by...
AwesomeCon Prep
After being waitlisted twice, I got my table for AwesomeCon DC (picture is from a prior year). I’ll be selling books in the Author’s Lane segment of Artists’...
Aping Around
Review: Planet of the Apes (2001) So, here’s where I confess my dim memory of the originals. In fact, the only thing I actually remember is the nuke at the...
What Tech Level is Your Fantasy Part 6
And this is the last part, but I’d like to talk about misconceptions about what technology people had. What things were invented well before we think they...
Gender...forget it
Review: The Judas Rose by Suzette Haden Elgin This is book two. I wasn’t given book three and won’t be looking for it. Bluntly, Elgin doubles and triples...
Convention News!
Woot! I’m going to be busy. First of all, I got my invite to be on programming for Balticon and signed up for 24 panels. We’ll see how many I’m eventually...