Zoom ...

Hands are better, playing more guitar, but I still seem to be reading more. Watching almost 0 TV, 1-2 movies/month. I'll prolly start watching some college basketball soonish. Reading-wise, a lot more novella length stuff (plus 1 very short story).

1. "Firewalkers", by Adrian Tchaikovsky, 2020, 165 pages, 45k words. Book 2 of the Terrible Worlds: Revolutions series. Book 1 was blogged here. In a globally warmed world, venturing outside of the air conditioning is a perilous occupation. But, for those with nothing to lose, eh, it's a job. A quick and targetted read.

2. "Flint and Mirror", by John Crowley, 2022, 292 pages, 90k words. There have been so many works of Crowley's that were things that gave me hope. Here's the query of my blog for his stuff. This novel makes you turn the pages, but, overall, I didn't find the content that interesting. And, what should have been the defining turning point of the book, faery rides in support of the Irish vs the English, is a total shit sandwich. :-( Characters, etc., are of course well done. Set mostly in Ireland, towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth I of England.

3. "Precious Little Things", by Adrian Tchaikovsky, 2021, 26 pages, 7k words. Wow, a very short story, apparently the prequel to a novella level piece. A really nice concept, that a moment frozen in time with a wizard casting a spell provides the magical energy for many generations of puppets to animate their puppet children. The Zombie Apocalypse via Pinocchio. :-0

4. "Dogs of War", by Adrian Tchaikovsky, 2017, 264 pages, 82k words. Book 1 of "Dogs of War". Just purchased book #2 in the series "Bear Head", starring Honey, FTW! Anytime I meet a dog, I immediately ask "What is his/her name?". And then it's "Good boy, Gambino!". "What a good dog, Gambino!". "Good dog!", "Good boy!".

   So now we have the cyborg dog Rex with lots of human DNA, 7' tall at the shoulder, with laser-targetted cannons mounted on his shoulders. And Rex REALLY REALLY wants to be a good boy! Plus his teammates Honey, the uplifted bear/philosopher; Bees, the honeybee group mind; and Dragon, the 12' long iguana/gecko/who knows, who likes to climb buildings to get a nice sniper vantage point for his back-mounted sniper rifle. Plus the sadist who conditioned them all to kill whomever he says, in exchange for a "good boy". Very compelling, very well-paced.

5. "Starling House", by Alix E. Harrow, 2023, 367 pages, 114k words. Harrow has written some really great, compelling stuff lately. Here is the query for Harrow in my blog. I am so sad that Harrow is no longer my neighbor, 30 miles to the SE in Madison County, KY - I read where Harrow was relocating the family to Virginia. :-(

   Well, before they left, they left a gift to their old KY neighbors. This book is set in Muhlenberg County, just like in the John Prine song "Paradise", but in a town called "Eden". The magical Starling estate has some very nice coal seams below it, so, civilization ho! Time to revisit verse 3 of "Paradise".

   Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
   And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
   Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
   Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man

   My friend, excellent singer/guitarist Marty Nelson, was playing this song, I got up to sing harmony on the choruses. But, verse 3 came along, I was screaming these lyrics as loud as I could, and crying.

   So, point is, my KY sensibilities were inflamed by this book. It is a great story, not a haunted house, but, maybe, a possessed house, with a purpose.

   I just today was talking with a bridge engineer who had designed a bridge to carry the 250,000# dump trucks carrying coal ash to whatever location they have decided to environmently destroy. He said he always liked to go look at the bridges he designed, but, not that one :-(

   My wife was active in Sierra Club for many years. Maybe ~10 years ago, we went to a site in far western Louisville/Jefferson County, KY. On the east bank of the Ohio River, LG&E had mountains of coal ash: 10 stories tall x 1/4-1/2 mile. The extent of these coal ash mountains was completely jaw-dropping.

   There was a residential community nearby. Their kids would go outside to play, and come back inside covered in coal ash. They complained. LG&E hired "scientists" to come study the problem. "What problem? That coal ash on your children is totally harmless! No problem!". Yeah, fucking right. Driven To Tears.

6. "The Dispatcher: Murder by Other Means", by John Scalzi, 2021, 137 pages, 37k words. The Scalzi novella "The Dispatcher" came out in 2017, blogged here. How was I not notified of these 2 follow-up novellas being published? Kobo is normally pretty good about this, as opposed to Apple & Amazon, who salivate for me to subscribe to their streaming music and all-you-can-eat ebook services. WHICH I WILL NEVER, EVER DO, ASSHOLES.

   Anyway, the premise of these novellas is totally odd and off-the-wall, but, it makes for an interesting universe in which to have murder mysteries. A quick and fun read. The King of Snark almost never disappoints (I didn't like "Red Shirts" much - so of course, it won the Hugo Award).

7. "The Dispatcher: Travel by Bullet", by John Scalzi, 2023, 133 pages, 41k words. Well, I liked #2 in the series, and it was short, so I decided to plow on through to #3. More of the same, a well-paced, enjoyable read. The protagonist has just a little bit too kind of a heart. Good for him.

8. "After Many A Summer", by Tim Powers, 2023, 62 pages, 19k words. What an odd book, but it totally felt like vintage Tim Powers. Short and punchy, and then ... it just ends! Better than the last of his I read.

9. "The Power", by Naomi Alderman, 2017, 343 pages, 106k words. Not sure where I got this from, but, OMG, must read! (Mostly) Women develop the abiity to deliver up to and including lethal electrical shocks from their hands. Mmm, does the balance of power between males/females shift, maybe? We'll find out 5,000 years in the future, when this mess sorts itself out?

   I recommended to my wife, who started watching the Netflix series version. Not sure if she is going to continue. But I told her, as bad as some episodes of "Breaking Bad" were, there will probably be episodes of this show much worse. OMG, I get it, but, well, damn, I'm lying curled up on the floor, kick me in the head, back, wherever a few more times, for good measure.

Okay, removed these 9 books from the Unread collection in the Kobo eBook app on my iPad, Unread collection is down to ... 147 books. Well, I got that going for me. It's always good to have things going for you.

Volatile Memory

"Volatile Memory", by Seth Haddon, 2025, 160 pages, 45k words.

I will NEVER trust another recommendation by Alix E. Harrow. I loved her latest "The Everlasting" & predicted it would win awards, which it did, per Wikipedia:

The novel won the 2026 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and is a finalist for the 2026 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

But she totally did me wrong with this book.

Looking it up, here's how it is listed on Kobo:

#237 in Romance, LGBT, Lesbian

#1085 in Science Fiction & Fantasy, Science Fiction, Adventure

#2332 in Romance, Science Fiction & Fantasy

So, OK, another sapphic romance, between a trans woman, & a cis woman who is dead but has been captured in a "mask". The main technology of this future is "masks", which you wear, & which interface with your brain, & give you superpowers. Very comic book.

The main thing about this is, that its highest ranking is in Romance. It is indeed a bodice-ripper.

I generally don't read those. I'm sorry Alix E. Harrow sent me down this path. The prose is so ... twee, maybe? Trite? Barf-o-rama.

You had wavy hair the color of a stormy night; lightning streaked through in grays and whites, though you couldn't have been more than twenty-five. You were so young, but when you looked at me, I saw the hurricane in your eyes, gray and tired, and when you sold me for parts, whey you finally chose your own happiness, I decided I wouldn't fault you.

...

And you kissed me.

Your lips, slightly chapped, pressed against the chilled byronnicum. You kissed me, Wylla. If only I could faint.

Seriously? You don't want to faint, you want to swoon!

This novel is such drivel. So the personality saved in the experimental mask shares the body of the trans female, who was already having body image problems as it was. But, they are in love! Swoon!

& when they merge, they become a super assassin! & they murder people without particularly thinking about it, or regretting it. Nice! Amoral murderers are some of my fav characters.

Ugh, ugh, ugh. Alix E. Harrow, formerly my neighbor in Madison County, KY, you owe me.

There is a 2nd novel in The Volatile Memory Duology. I will definitely not be reading it. This 1st installment is 1 of those books where you wish you could do a memory purge. But, even if you did, it would probably still give you nightmares. Ugh.

The Everlasting

"The Everlasting", by Alix E. Harrow, 2025, 400 pages, 121k words. There is a cover blurb: "A Legend. A Lie. A Love Story."

Harrow was a neighbor for a while, living in neighboring KY county Madison. Harrow has since moved to Virginia.

This is 1 of those books that remind you what fantasy is at its very best: it is mythic, but it also has an incredible heart.

It is also a meta story. 1 of the 3 main characters is a historian writing a history of another of the main characters. We are given many exerpts from this history.

This book just continued to amaze me. How creative it is! I really don't want to say much about it, I don't want to spoil 1 iota of anybody else's reading pleasure. I may already be saying too much.

I will list the titles of the 5 sections of the book, to give you an idea.

1. The First Death of Una Everlasting
2. The Second Death of Una Everlasting
3. The Third Death of Una Everlasting
4. The Fourth Death of Una Everlasting
5. The Last Death of Una Everlasting

Interesting, this was the 2nd book in the last few months that incorporated redaction in the text. Here's a sample:

But the use is completely different. The 1st use, in "There Is No Antimemetics Division", had mass redaction to show that memories have been eaten & are gone. In this use, the redaction shows our historian/chronicler choosing to protect the name of his subject.

So it looks like redaction is now a tool in the author toolbox?

This book deserves awards, I hope it wins some.

Lots

Well, this post is long delayed, behind the last 2 posts on the climate crisis & MMT. It's nice to be getting caught up.

#1, "Mythago Wood", by Robert Holdstock, 2003, 331 pages, 95k words. I suspect this was a cheapie from BookBub. So, virgin growth forest somewhere in rural England has magical powers: it instantiates corporeal instances of archetypal figures from the subconscious of humans living near it. A bad parent father & his 2 sons of course fixate on the warrior-princess Guinevere & succeed in creating several instances of her. I don't think you could write something more masturbatory if you tried. I won't be continuing with the series, LOL!

#2, "The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories" by Susanna Clarke, 2008, 243 pages, 66k words. 8 short stories set in the universe of "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Morrell". In general charming and, given Clarke's known issues with chronic pain which greatly limit her output, I was very appreciative to get to read these. And, again, "Piranesi" was 1 of the best books I have read in the last few years.

#3, "The Iron Dragon's Mother" by Michael Swanwick, 2019, 402 pages, 109k words. Swanwick was 1 of my favs Back In The Day. "Vacuum Flowers" was totally iconic when it 1st came out in 1987. This story is not bad, faerie overlapping with the mundane world, lots of plot, yak yak yak, etc. But, a bit too feudal for my current tastes.

#4, "The Once and Future Witches", by Alix E. Harrow, 2020, 555 pages, 151k words. What a great read! Totally conflating the women's suffrage movement of the early 20th century with a movement to restore women's witchcraft to public life! I'm so proud of Harrow, a fellow Kentuckian, who I believe lives in Madison County, 30 or so miles SE of me. How has no one else ever remarked on the fact that witches instantiate most effectively as trios of sisters: the 3 witches in Macbeth, in Cinderella, in Hocus Pocus! Oops, I have 3 daughters!!! A really great read, I was sorry when it was over.

#5 & #6, "The Dreamblood Duology", by N.K. Jemisin, 2016, 948 pages, 257k words. The original 2 novels were "The Killing Moon" and "The Shadowed Sun". A very unique mythos, with a monkish sect which has a few different flavors who manage life, health, dreams, and death. A very compelling read.

#7, "Robot Artists & Black Swans", by Bruno Argento (aka Bruce Sterling living in Turin (Torino) Italy), 2021, 311 pages, 84k words, 7 stories. This is a totally great collection of stories. I really wish Sterling were more productive, he has written so much groundbreaking SF over the last 35 years. And he actually follows me on Twitter, FTW, thanks Bruce! 1 thing I love about this collection is that several of stories have quantum endings: is the cat alive or dead? It doesn't matter! IT DOESN'T MATTER! What a great storyteller!

#8, "Little Brother", by Cory Doctorow, 2008, 399 pages, 108k words. I bought this in hardback several years ago (so I could pass it on), I think that contributed to my just getting around to reading it. What a great book! I read it in 1 day, I totally haven't done that in a while! Teenagers vs the fascist Department of Homeland Security - who are you going to root for? Kudos, next up "Pirate Cinema". Doctorow is indeed the Bard of the Revolution! Preach it!

Yay, caught up on blogging books read! What can I get caught up on next?

Variety!

As threatened, I did go for something different and read a mystery - in fact 2 of them.

1st, "The Case of the Crumpled Knave" by Anthony Boucher, 1939, 244 pages, 66k words. The Fergus O'Breen Mysteries #1. Fergus O'Breen is a likable enough young cheap detective.

I think this was on sale for $0.99 or $1.99. Anthony Boucher was also a science fiction author, and was the editor of the 1959 2 volume "A Treasury of Great Science Fiction" which was maybe the 2nd or 3rd sci fi book I read Back In The Day - from the Jeffersonville Public Library.

It's not a bad mystery, and an easy read. It's set in LA, with Hollywood connections. It was a pleasant diversion. It was weird how it was pre-WWII.

Next up, "A Spindle Splintered" by Alix E. Harrow, 2021, 109 pages, 29k words. That length would make this a novelette? This looks to be the 1st book of the Fractured Fables series.

A very fun read: Sleeping Beauty in the Spidey-verse. Proud to see a neighbor - Harrow lives ~40 miles from Lexington in Berea, I think - writing such great stuff.

OK, maybe time for some easy science fiction: "The Galaxy, and the Ground Within" by Becky Chambers, 2021, 324 pages, 88k pages. Wayfarer #4. So, aliens from 5 races are stuck together in an inn by a communications system failure. Different species learn about each other. It is tied to the other books in that 1 of the aliens is the lover of the captain of the Wayfarer. There is a little bit of excitement - a medical emergency, and the doctor who comes is human, yay us! Still, I guess these are character/personality stories in this series. This novel has the least action yet.

Penultimately, our 2nd mystery, "The Case of the Solid Key" by Anthony Boucher, 1941, 298 pages, 81k words. The Fergus O'Breen Mysteries #2. Another diverting tale, with some mistaken identity stuff and more Hollywood tie-in. There is a locked room murder, and, despite going back and rereading Chapter 18 (of 20), I still didn't quite get the point of the solid key.

Finally, "Leviathan Falls", by James S.A. Corey, 2021, 589 pages, 160k words. The 9th and final novel of The Expanse. A well done conclusion, some good symmetry with the beginning.

I was also current on the TV version of The Expanse. It's very well done. But in the last season, the actor playing Alex, the pilot of the Rocincante, got hit with several accusations of sexual harassment. So he was fired, but not before an episode in which Alex dies of a stroke during a hard burn.

I understand that the actor had to go, but Alex and the other 3 core Rocincante crew members - Jim, Naomi, and Amos - are pretty much a family throughout the whole series. So I was relieved that Alex is still alive and figures with a normal prominence in this novel. After all, the actor was the problem, not the character.

The TV Expanse I think got through the 1st 3-4 novels. They could come back and pick with the next big plot pivot and get the rest someday if they choose to.

The magazine stack is cleared, not sure what I want to read next. A good problem.

5 More

Well, I did start writing the review of the economics book. Got maybe 1/4 of the way done. Then, my wife came down Saturday Feb 10, & Saturday we drove to Miami & flew to St. Martin for a week's stay. Our 1st time back at Grand Case Beach Club in 15 years! After visiting Martinique & Guadeloupe, it was amazing how small St. Martin/St. Maarten is! But Grand Case was as funky as ever. Our favorite restaurant Il Netuno was gone, as was Le California. The FishPot was now Seaside 82 or some such. The French food did us in tho. You have got to be in training to eat that rich stuff. We found a place with a good seafood or shrimp or nicoise salad & ate there 3x.

Unfortunately, either during the ~1 hour I waited (unmasked) in Punta Gorda airport for my wife, or during the (masked) trip to St. Martin from Miami International, I finally caught the COVID. Symptoms Sunday, miserable Monday night, tested positive Tuesday. Still symptomatic, mostly mild but variable, I hope to be over it soon.

But enough brain fog that I don't think I'm up to trying to disentangle / refactor the economics book, so I'll grind through the easy books I've read since last time. I may go on and do another Music In batch too.

1st, "Imperium Restored", by Walter Jon Williams, 2022, 510 pages, 138k words. I think this is the last book of this series! I always enjoy Williams' writing, but, enough of this feudal, classist universe already! I looked back through my comments on the other volumes of this series and there is definitely ambiguity in my views. A little bit of a twist at the end, and, we're done!

2nd, "A Mirror Mended", by Alix E. Harrow, 2022, 132 pages, 33k words. More on the multiversal versions of Sleeping Beauty/Snow White, this time featuring the Evil Queen trying to escape her narrative. Quick & easy read, creative ideas. Harrow was my neighbor for a while, ~40 miles away in KY, it appears she has moved to Virginia :-(

3rd, "Children of Memory", by Adrian Tchaikovsky, 2022, 406 pages, 125k words. The 3rd in the series. It started with uplifted hunter spiders, then uplifted octopuses & a bacterial race with atomic memory encoding. This installment ... CORVIDS, FTW!!! Uplifted 2' tall crows with yet another very odd model of intelligence. Plus a very complex, very rewarding framework. Tchaikovsky continues to delight, he has done really well with this series. Just preordered the 4th book, out in June, yay!

4th, "Lady of Mazes", by Karl Schroeder, 2005, 402 pages, 116k words. Schroeder has some of the most interesting ideas out there, somehow I have found it hard to engage with his writings. Hence just reading this 2005 release. A future post-scarcity utopia, with AIs ruling the solar system & preventing humans from becoming post-human, although there are some "gods" who used to be humans. Virtual reality tech allows multiple, technologically incompatible worldviews to coexist and overlap. But, is it a utopia or a dystopia? A very good read.

5th, "Hopeland", by Ian McDonald, 2023, 495 pages, 153k words. What an odd novel! It starts out reminding me of John Crowley's "Little, Big" - high praise - with 2 "magical" "families" finding each other, plus electromancy with Tesla coils used to fight demons, & winds up a work of climate fiction?!?!? A great, if strange, read.

Dear Mr. Fantasy

It seems like deconstructionism is taking its toll on me. Even just reading for escapism, I can't seem to get loose of politics and economics.

1. "Quillifer the Knight", by Walter Jon Williams, 2019, 643 pages. The 2nd of this series, the 1st is blogged here. Court intrigue, dragon slaying, etc. Williams is reliably enjoyable. But, another novel that is, if not glorifying, at least spreading the memes of feudalism. Sigh.
2. "Ninth House", by Leigh Bardugo, 2019, 643 pages. I kept seeing references to this on various lists, so I decided to give it a try. Who knew that Yale was secretly Hogwarts??? Did we really need a book about Yale secret societies? The author is a Yale grad. Gee, I'm so disappointed we didn't have secret magical societies at MIT. It is a good read.
3. "The Ten Thousand Doors of January", by Alix E. Harrow, 2019, 417 pages. I was reminded at 1st of "The Never-Ending Story" - a good thing. A very nicely constructed story of the multiverse.
4. "The Scar", by China Miéville, 2002, 767 pages. The 2nd of the Bas-Lag (the name of this world) series. I think I read the 1st, "Perdido Street Station", shortly after it came out in 2000. I have come to appreciate Miéville's writing more in recent years. More horrorish than I prefer, but very impressive world-building and bizarre races and creatures. This is an interesting story, but the protagonist/narrator is fairly unlikable. It still works though. I have purchased the 3rd book of the series, "Iron Council".

On to some short stories, I think.