Kings and Empires
Review: Oathbound by Tracy Deonn I still hold that Tracy Deonn’s Legendborn series is the best work of contemporary Arthuriana of recent years. Oathbound...
Some Reminders
Summer’s starting to draw to a close. I’ll be out of town from August 22 through September 4, inclusive (posts queued). Herding Cats will be fully available...
Journeys
The Avengers 3.16 “The Little Wonders” Steed does not look good in a clerical collar. I just don’t buy it. There’s a crime syndicate called Bibliotheque...
Clank! Some of My Favorite Fictional Robots
The term robot didn’t originally mean what it means now. The word started as robotnik, a Czech word that essentially meant slave. In the now famous play,...
Coffee and Ravens
Review: Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe I’ve noticed a couple of mini-trends in YA lately. One is necromancy. Another is cross-dimensional lesbians (can...
Dear Amazon
…the Mists of Cairn Gorm is not a graphic novel just because it has an illustrator listed. Sigh. I did let the publisher know to see if they can get it...
Parties and Elephants
The Avengers 3.13 “Death a la Carte” Emir Abdulla Akaba is making a trade visit to London. He’s in very poor health, so it isn’t a surprise when he drops...
Shakespearean Conspiracy Theories – All the Things we Say About the Bard of Stratford
Shakespeare is a weirdly divisive figure, because people like to say all kinds of things about him, some benign, some ridiculous. Another one has been...
Galactic Issues
Review: Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear This is very much the kind of space opera I like. There are big dumb objects. There are big smart objects. There...
Bookish Stuff
So, first up the news - I’m confirmed as a program participant for Philcon. The Mists of Cairn Gorm will be featured in the eSpec launch party (which will...
Monsters!
Avengers 3.11 “The Golden Fleece” What happens when Steed picks up the wrong coat? He finds a ton of money..and an illegal gold smuggling ring. An illegal...
When the Trope is a Spoiler – Talking About the Earth All Along Trope
One of my favorite tropes is “It was Earth all along.” And its variants. The touchstone example is, of course, the original Planet of the Apes. The problem...
Airship Explosions and...Necromancy
Recap: The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison I read this book some time ago, but re-read it again for this year’s Hugos. It remains very good of its type....
Phewf
This is one of those weeks when I don’t have much to say. Sometimes, my life just isn’t that interesting. It’s my anniversary this weekend, but we’re still...
Fascists and Explosions
The Avengers 3.10 “The Grandeur That Was Rome” I have to admit, a tainted food episode was…a tiny bit on the nose for this week. Oops. But it also involves...
Take me to the Stars – Thoughts on the Sentient Starship Trope
We’ve personified ships for a long time. They’re gendered female in English and the Latin languages, but male in Russian. This is part grammatical gender,...
To Fairyland
Review: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett This book falls into the niche subgenre of “fake naturalist narrative in which the...
Summer Heat
It’s too hot again. And wildfire smoke. None of this is particularly fun. To think I used to like summer. Now I like fall.(Honestly, I’ve never much liked DC...
Monsters and Medicine
The Avengers 3.7 “The Gilded Cage” This aired in 1963, and for once it shows. We have a guy in a wheelchair and a Black guy. They are both bad guys. John P....
Government By Lot? What Is Sortition - And Could It Work?
I’ve been exposed to government by lot twice in my reading lately – first as a speculative proposal in Elizabeth Bear’s Ancestral Night, second in real...