Will Nassau Burn?
Black Sails 4.2 Bad decisions: Mutiny. It’s always a bad decision. Long John Silver is caught by somebody with a grudge against Teach. “You talk too much.”...
Herbivores are not Vegetarians
Horse people are constantly shocked when they find out their beloved grazers are not, in fact, above supplementing their diet. Herbivores are optimized to...
Fighting the Darkness
Review: The Failures by Benjamin Liar This is the kind of debut novel you know has at least a dozen novels in the trunk behind it. The Failures reminds me of...
Hi, From Origins
Another queued post. This time I’m in Columbus hanging out and attending Origins Game Fair. The next issue of Last Girls Club drops today - please check it...
Bad Decisions and Dirty Fighting
Black Sails 3.9 Bad decisions: Underestimate Eleanor Guthrie, trust Eleanor Guthrie, execute pirates. Vane is dead. This is a bad thing for the English not...
There Are No Wild Horses - Equines, Domestication, and Living Free
If I make the statement “There are no wild horses,” people look at me like I grew an extra head…or possibly a set of horse ears. Then people go “What about?”...
A Left Turn to Finland
Review: North is the Night by Emily Rath I’m not hugely familiar with Finnish mythology and the Kalevala, although Rath does admit she takes a fair number of...
Nebulas Retrospective
My impressions of Kansas City: Barbecue, giant shuttlecocks (trust me, the dragon is not nanotech. That is a seriously large shuttlecock), a weird electicism...
Bad Decisions Abound
There really should be a ship in this show called the Bad Decision. Black Sails 3.6 Bad decisions: Rackham returning to Nassau to get pardons for himself and...
Who is Bigfoot? Is There a Truth Behind the Legend?
I’ve gone Bigfoot hunting. Honestly, lots of people have. It’s not, of course, about finding Bigfoot. It’s an excuse to go out into the woods and explore,...
Bloodsuckers Unite
Review: The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas Science fictional vampire stories are less common than the fantastic or supernatural kind. Although to be...
Hi From Kansas City
Okay, to be honest, I wrote this before I left because I don’t think I’ll be stopping for a moment on Friday…when I will be in Kansas City, Missouri. (The...
No Saints, Just Sinners
Black Sails 3.5 Today’s bad decision: You always walk away with the money. So what if you have to change your name. She’s somewhat smart. You aren’t,...
That's A Kissing Book - Except...
We in the west think of kissing as inherently sexual. Wait, we in America. In Britain when and where I grew up it was acceptable for parents to kiss...
We Reap What We Sow
Review: Parable of rhe Sower by Octavia E. Butler This is where I confess that I haven’t read as much Butler as I should have. Parable of the Sower is a less...
Hi, I'm a Book Reviewer
Okay, I know. I review for this blog…but now I’m also going to be reviewing for Dirty Magick Magazine. This means I’m now specifically looking for urban...
Cliffhanger!
Doctor Who 2.7 “Wish World” Well, guess who’s back. I wasn’t one of the fans who guessed right on the identity of Mrs. Flood…who both is and is not the Rani....
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...