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...
Blooming Devils
Review: They Bloom At Night by Trang Thanh Tran CW: Body horror. They Bloom at Night combines two horror trends. The first is body horror for adolescents,...
On the road again
Flying out to Minneapolis tomorrow. I’ll be back on September 5 (posts queued). I’ll probably put on a few pounds because we are going to the State Fair...
Trojan Horses
Retro Review: The Odyssey (1997) So, time for a compare and contrast! After seeing Nolan’s blockbuster, we realized we had never watched this version. Made...
Helicopters on Mars...and in All Kinds of Other Places
Somebody asked me on Threads about airlines I flew that didn’t exist any more. I had to go for the prize and go for British Airways Helicopters. 1978. St....
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...