Disasters, Apocalypses, and Social Media
Movie review: The Wandering Earth II: Burn CW: Child death, cute robot dog “death” (The robot dog’s probably backed up, but…) I don’t normally review second...
The Precious Place of the Sail Trainer
Photo is of the Amerigo Vespucci in New York in 2017. When I got to Baltimore, I couldn’t help but notice an extra set of masts. The Constellation is a...
Novels and Hugo Thoughts
Just a couple today, then some quick thoughts on my Hugo reading so far. Review: Starter Villain by John Scalzi This book is vintage Scalzi. You pretty much...
Balticon Was Awesome
Great panels, amazing people, fantastic empanadas and a visit from the Ecuadoran Navy bearing chocolate. (The picture is the deck of the Guayas, the navy’s...
Badass Gungans and Land Mines
Actual Arizona, just saying… Star Wars: The Clone Wars 3.21 “Padawan Lost” During a mission, Ahsoka, sent to perform a flanking mission up a tough cliff, is...
Big Dumb Objects and Thoughts on The Expanse
I finally, this week, finished reading The Expanse…and I have thoughts. The Expanse is, at its core, a variant on the Big Dumb Object trope (or should we...
Mea Culpa
So sorry - have ponies! I meant to do Thursday and Friday posts before I left for Balticon. But Amtrak melted down Wednesday night and I was worried about...
The Sun's Angry Today - Let's Talk Geomagnetic Storms
Last week right before the geomagnetic storm that hit Friday, somebody asked me “Where is this happening?” This was a perfectly intelligent professional…but...
Thoughts on the Expanse
Literally all I’ve read this week other than a couple of shorts was blitzing The Expanse to get book 9 read before the Hugo packet dropped. (They said in a...
Sale to Third Flatiron!
Also, have a picture of me riding a giant horse. I just signed a contract for the publication of “When to Nurture, When to Prune” in Third Flatiron’s next...
Why Are Lizard Men Always Evil?
And I don’t mean the little uy you’ll need to hunt for in this photo. I mean lizard people in SPACE. Divergent 3: Allegiant Okay, so I didn’t much care for...
Our Ambiguous Relationship with Rodents
“Squirrel!” Lots of them in our neighborhood, including the unfortunate individual I have nicknamed “Stumpy.” His tail is only about an inch and a half long,...
Dragons and Weird Magic
A little short this week, and next week might be thin too as I’m currently trying to get in a long-awaited reread of the Expanse before the Hugo packet drops...
See You at Balticon...
...plus rats and hopepunk
Star Trekking, Across The...
Star Wars: The Clone Wars 3.5 “Corruption” I did say something about badass lady senators. Also badass lady planetary rulers. This episode is all Padme and...
Will We Ever Have General AI?
“AI” is a buzzword right now…hyped as a replacement for writers (no), but also doing real work in meteorology, in medicine. But what we are calling AI is...
Spiders and Bodyguards
Short post because of what I’ve been up to lately…which has mostly been poking at RPG books. Review: The Eye of Winter by Jaques Smit CW: Realistic...
Rats and Hopepunk
So, four announcements this week! They’re like city buses. Game On! Remember this anthology? It’s been nominated for Best Related Work (which sounds weird)...
Trashing Chicago
Star Wars: Clone Wars 2.21 “R2 Come Home” Aww, R2. So cute. So heroic. And perfectly capable of flying a ship home by himself when the bad guys jam...
The Rise and Slow Decline of Received Pronunciation
Hands up who can think of an actor who works with their accent? Unless your accent is California, generic Midwest or, for Brits, received pronunciation (the...