Carol Hall (1944-2005)
So, there is a reason I didn’t post on schedule and it wasn’t because I forgot (although the fact that I was doing a reading might have made that happen)On...
Seriously, Parthenogenesis in Dragons?
The Avengers 2.11 "Traitor in Zebra" "Who's side are you on?" "Yours" (after Steed intentionally angers a suspect to try and see if they slip up.""I'll take...
Do Plants Have Gender? It's Complicated
If you're anything like me, you're not a fan of plants having sex. Especially those cherry trees. KN-95 masks are a great invention. But do plants have...
Classic SF Time
Review: Power Challenges by Ben Bova Ben Bova's last novel was published in 2021, a few months after the author's death, by Caezik SF & Fantasy, an imprint...
Some Upcoming Events
Mea culpa. I had a bit of a day yesterday and forgot to post this. So, I do have some stuff coming up! October 3 The Strong Women, Strange Worlds multi-...
Poison and Bad Decisions
I couldn’t find a good pig… The Handmaid's Tale 4.1 "Pigs" June and the other fugitives are now disguised as Marthas on a farm owned by a highly oblivious...
The Drive to Play
Boring people don't play. Except it's actually worse than that. In fact, play appears to be as fundamental a drive as, well, sex. And we don't fully...
The Earth is...Not a Good Place?
Review: Litany For A Broken World by LJ Cohen Multiverse books are often hard to write and this one is a multiverse in more ways than one. The book centers...
Capclave!
Kinda craving the desert today. Where I am going is Capclave. Please swing by the Rantings of a Wandering Mind table and buy a book or three from me and/or...
Relax, The Dog Doesn't Die
The Handmaid's Tale 3.11 "Liars" Ooh, boy. Serena arranges a meeting with the American spy, who apparently claims he can help her get Nicole back. How does...
XX is Boy, XX is Girl - Not Always!
Sex and gender is something we keep arguing about, and one of the central arguments of those who think it's immutable is that XY = boy and XX = girl. I could...
Language and Emotion
Review: Overmorrow by Lancelot Schaubert So, where do I start with this book? It's well written, the prose is beautiful, but it comes over to me as trying a...
Fall Fun?
Will be spending this weekend attending Small Press Expo. Next weekend is Capclave! Not a huge fan of them being back to back, but the wonderful people who...
We Can Be Useful
The Handmaid's Tale 3.8 "Unfit" This episode focuses on Aunt Lydia. We find that she was a teacher before...in an environment that was already showing signs...
Everything You Know About Vampires Is Wrong
Ah, vampires. A staple of not just horror fiction but dark fantasy, urban fantasy and, of course, romantasy. Sometimes they're evil monsters. Sometimes...
Cyberpunk, Old Style
Review: Iconoclast by Dave Walsh This book is a cyberpunk romp. Yes, it deals with identity, but it never gets that serious about it...or, to be honest,...
Ravencon, Here We Go!
So, Ravencon 2026 is kind of special. It’s the 100th anniversary of the coining of the term science fiction, in its current context, by Hugo Gernback....
Canada, But Not Quite
The Handmaid's Tale 3.5 "Unknown Caller" Serena arranges a trip to Toronto to meet with Luke and Nichole in a safe, public space. And doesn't try to snatch...
Why the Dark Ages Weren't So Dark
It happened again. Some less than educated person on social media started talking about the "Dark Ages" and kept doubling down when actual historians told...
Jewish Vampires and Interdimensional Weirdness
Review: Transmentation|Transcience by Darkly Lem Darkly Lem is a pen name used for collaborations between no less than five authors - Josh Eure, Craig...
You are...Useful
The Handmaid's Tale 3.2 "Mary and Martha" Marthas, it turns out, have their own catch phrase...and substantially more freedom than Handmaids. They're still...
What is a Population Bottleneck - and How It Might Have Affected Us
Genetics is an interesting topic. Our genetic code is a mechanism for natural selection and evolution. It also determines things like our hair and eye...
Double Trouble
Review: Impostors by Scott Westerfeld This trilogy is a sequel to Westerfeld's hugely underrated (IMO) Uglies post-apocalyptic YA series, and gets even more...
I Can Still DO It...
Just as a note that I can still do it at my age. We hiked from Harpers Ferry to the Maryland Heights overlook (there’s proof) and then went all the way up to...
Light and Dark
The Avengers 2.1 "Mr. Teddy Bear" Sometimes, I go off on a 60s spy fi tick. Especially The Avengers given Emma Peel...let's just say as a girl I couldn't...
The Importance of the Mill - Water, Wind, and More
Remnants of the mill race of a major pulp mill, Harpers Ferry, WV, USA You've probably, at some point, met a "Miller." It's a pretty common English surname....
Sharks and Serial Killers
Review: His Selachian Majesty Requests It took me a while to warm to this book. There is perhaps a bit too much explicitly Christian imagery in it…countered...
Heading For the End of Summer
So, it’s approaching the end of summer. Not close to being fall yet, but the lesson barn horses are about to go on their annual vacation and back to school...
Shattered Relationships
The Handmaid’s Tale 2.10 “The Last Ceremony” The handmaids get a new source of gossip when a Commander drops dead (presumably of a heart attack) while in the...
Unmoving Predators - the Peculiar Evolution of Carnivorous Plants
It’s a general rule. Plants don’t eat. They survive entirely off of photosynthesis. Except that’s not actually true. Plants also, as any gardener knows, draw...
Changing American Stories
Review: The Island of Dreams by Jaye Viner On the list of things I’m not particularly fond of – Neverland riffs. I always found the original vaguely creepy,...
Happy Summer!
So, first of all, I need to direct all of your attention to The Halfling & The Spaceman, who interviewed me for their video podcast. Unfortunately, the video...
Lies Will Out
The Handmaid’s Tale 2.9 “Smart Power” I think the writer’s room messed up…because there’s filler content at the end, stuff that wasn’t necessary to show....
You Sank my Battleship – Or Not – A History of Ships of the Line
The term battleship comes from line-of-battle-ship or ship-of-the-line. This basically means that a battleship is a large warship designed to fight other...
Lizard People and High Flying Kites
Review: Shadow of the Eternal Watcher by Josh Mendoza The tone of this book is noir. The plot, however, is pure pulp. Duster Raines (a noir name if there...
Wilmington!
I admit that I’d never thought of going to Wilmington, but we were looking for some place close to Greg’s parents. But we had a lot of fun! Highlights: The...
Cracks in the Dystopia
The Handmaid’s Tale 2.7 “After” The bombing kills a number of Commanders and Handmaidens. Fred Waterford is seriously injured and is replaced by another...
The Rise and Fall of the Shopping Mall
There’s a prediction that most malls will close in the near future due to online shopping. I’m personally not convinced, but certainly the shopping mall has...
The West Passage and The Pandora's Box
Review: The West Passage by Jared Pechaček I’m calling this fantasy even though there’s hints of a more technological past. The author is calling it epic...
Summer Calm
It’s always hard to queue multiple updates. When you get this, I’ll be in Wilmington, NC, getting some much needed R&R. Almost through Astounding at this...
Kaboom!
The Handmaid’s Tale 2.6 “First Blood” The first blood here is Serena Joy’s…we see a flashback of her being deplatformed and then shot in the time before. Or...
The Queen is the (Is)land - Female Power in Black Sails
Black Sails is a series about pirates. As I mentioned in another blog, there were very few women pirates in historical reality (many more, of course, in...
Drift Compatible...Dragons?
Review: So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole Apparently, mecha that bond with their pilots is…a fashion now? Although, unlike in Moonstorm, the mecha aren’t the...
Musings on the Hugo Awards
This is a queued post - and the picture is from Pittsburgh. I’m ALMOST done with my reading for the Hugos at the time of writing. I only have Astounding to...
Fire Bad
Black Sails 4.9 Fire on a sailing ship is bad. Shame. I liked that ship. I was highly amused by the Highlander-style interspersed training montage.Also,...
Dangerous Currents - Beaches, Tides, and Rips
Ever swum in the ocean? I have. It’s not the safest thing to do. But thousands of people jump in the ocean (or, almost as bad, a very large lake) every year,...
Is it Science Fiction or Fantasy?
Review: In Spite of the Inevitable by Morgan Biscup First of all, this is a competently written book, solidly executed. It belongs to that subset of science...
Summer? Not Always A Fan
It’s been awfully muggy this week…although a bit better today. Lots of storms, though. Including a massive clap of thunder and lightning with opened heavens...
Bad Decisions and Broken Hearts
Black Sails 4.6 CW: Sexual assault Bad decision to end all bad decisions: Allying with Spain. And giving them permission to sack Nassau And who pays the...
Are Dogs Really Our Best Friends?
Dogs. Love them or hate them…few are indifferent to them. And most people find it hard to resist a wagging tail and big eyes. Many of our dog breeds bear...