Experimental Colonies and Dead Dragons
Review: The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi This just got…interesting. Unity is an experimental, secret colony that’s designed to stress test different...
Brrr
I wore a long sleeved shirt for the first time this week. That makes it officially fall. Got my COVID shot yesterday and it is absolutely kicking my rear. I...
Bad Mythology and...Lobster?
Cinema Disaster: Prisoners of the Sun You know a movie is bad when it actually feels like an insult to von Danikenism – and I have zero patience with von...
Real History Had Child Marriages – So My Fantasy World Should Too
Okay, first of all, you absolutely can have child marriages in your fantasy world, and whether I judge you for it depends on how you write it. But using...
Space Soldiers
Review: The Human Division by John Scalzi In case you misread the title the same way I did, this book is about humanity splitting into factions, not a...
Pretty Quiet...
Don’t have much news this week. I have two books in the Beauty of Dragons bundle on Itch - check my social media for the link as links in email can get it...
Spies and Assassins
The Avengers 3.22 “The Outside-In Man” Oh, this one is a tangled web. Somebody who defected to the classic fictional, somewhat evil country is now returning...
A Brief History of Chocolate
Chocolate. Most humans love it. Not all, and some unfortunates are, of course, allergic to it. Most other animals find it at least somewhat toxic…and cacao...
POV Switches and Duets
Review: Wicked Problems by Max Gladstone Gladstone’s world counts, in my mind, as urban fantasy despite being wholly a secondary world. This book...
Capclave, Ho!
Got my Capclave schedule: Start Time Duration Room Name Session ID TitleFri 5:00 PM 1 Hr Washington Theater 13 Forbidden Books Fri 8:00 PM 1 Hr Eisenhower 73...
Movies Good and Bad
Cinema Disaster: Rollergator As a note, the alligator is never, at any point, actually skating. It’s a Scott Shaw movie, so its all women doing the skating....
Are We the Only People Who Get to See Solar Eclipses?
Earth’s not that unique…and we probably aren’t unique either. Given the sheer size of the universe, likely there are other people, on other planets, looking...
Space Colonies
Review: The Last Colony by John Scalzi The first two books of the series are military SF. The Last Colony takes a side step into something more like a...
On my Way Home
In theory I should be back by late afternoon today. In practice, I’m not going to jinx it. I’d rather not spend my entire birthday in Detroit airport. There...
Warning, Spiders!
Daredevil 2.6 “Regrets Only” When superhero shows…when any show that isn’t a courtroom drama visits a courtroom, they typically get it wrong. This one...
Storyteller to Novelist – When Did We Start Publishing Fiction?
The oldest work of fiction is generally considered to be The Epic of Gilgamesh. But that’s an arguable case because it is mythology – did the audience at the...
Fear and Blood
Review: Holy Terrors by Margaret Owen And…book three. And man is this one of the most dysfunctional couples in the history of fantasy. I want to lock them in...
Even More Reminders!
So, I’m still on the road! Hopefully having fun…when this goes out I should be at the state fair, possibly hunting down mini donuts, because there must be...
Trains and Politics
Cinema Disaster: Bullet Train Down In this asylum special, it is fairly clear the script was originally written to refer to a plane. When it was changed to a...
Climbing to Stop Fires - A History of the Fire Tower
If you’ve traveled in rural America, you may have encountered a fire tower. Sometimes, when we don’t need them to fight fires any more, we use them as...