When Did Humans Start Breeding Mules?
The “humble” mule is living technology. An intentional hybrid between two related species that, ideally, gets the best traits of both. Mules tend to be...
Is it real life or...
Review: It’s Real Life by Paul Levinson This is an expansion of a short story. Here’s where I confess one of the ways in which I’m a bad Brit. I’m not a huge...
Welcome to 2025
Book four is out! Ebook and paperback, and I will hopefully have copies for Farpoint. Book five is finished. I just handed the blurb over to my cover artist...
Witchy Stuff!
Doctor Who: Joy to the World “And even in your world, that is not what a star is, only what it is made of” – Aslan, the Dawn Treader. The Christmas special...
“Ritual Purposes” – How We Misunderstand the Technology of the Past
My degree is in archaeology. It’s remarkably useful for a science fiction writer, because at its heart is the intersection between culture and technology and...
A Selection of Strangeness
Review: The Catalyst by Nat Bickel I’d call this paranormal romance, but the fantasy elements are honestly pretty light. It mostly reads like a contemporary...
Happy New Year
My standard New Year’s blessing is this: May 2025 be better in all ways than 2024. I know quite a few people for whom that is a sadly low bar. Seems that...
What Have You Done, Wanda?
WandaVision 1.7 “Breaking the Fourth Wall” Or rather, the wall around the Hex. Hello, Photon. I’ve been waiting to meet you. Hello, Agatha. I was wondering...
When a Color Gene is a Defect
The latest news on the animal genetics front is that we have found the gene that makes orange cats orange. It’s a deletion mutation (and they all have the...
Happy Holidays!
Merry Christmas. Happy Kwanzaa. Happy Hanukkah. Blessed Yule. You get the picture. Every society that has to deal with winter has some kind of midwinter...
Just Who Is Piotr, Really?
WandaVision 1.4 “We Interrupt This Program” This episode takes place almost entirely outside poor Wanda’s fantasy world. As I suspected, Geraldine is Monica...
“Neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire” – the Holy Roman Empire and the Idea of Elected Royalty
This one is for you Medieval-ish fantasy types. I was thinking earlier today about elected kings. An elective monarchy is often seen as a contradiction in...
Let's Go Fantasy
Review: Shadows of the Sorcerers by Joan Marie Verba This is in the same series as Secrets of the Sorcerers, which I read in the past. It’s a pretty standard...
Sorry, Not the target Audience
Review: The Working by BrightFlame I’m going to be honest. Religious fiction seldom does it for me, regardless of the religion, and The Working is very...
Smashwords Sale!
The Smashwords End-of-Year Sale is on. I have all of my books set to a 50% discount if you want a DRM-free .epub that you can update if the text changes....
All Superhero Channel
Superman & Lois 4.6 “When The Lights Come On” Okay, Lex, that’s at least a three stress flashback (sorry, Blades in the Dark reference, not sorry). When did...
Queer Visions: What is a Queernorm World?
If you read my reviews you might stumble across the phrase “queernorm world.” If you aren’t caught up on queer SF/F, you might not know quite what that...
Is This MilSF or Portal Fantasy?
Just one this week. Review: The Runes of Engagement by Tobias S. Buckell and David Klecha So, this is military portal fantasy clearly written by D&D people....
Winter is Kind of Here
Well, yes and no. It’s not snowing. They did promise us snow showers, but I didn’t see so much as a flurry. On the other hand, I did have to get out my hat...
X-Men Go Dark
X-Men 5.7 “Old Soldiers” This episode punches Nazis. Actual Nazis. It’s a flashback to a mission Logan went on with Captain America during World War II, and...