For a school project each student in the high school class has to undergo one of the various adversities that has since been eradicated. Comedy ensuesFor a school project each student in the high school class has to undergo one of the various adversities that has since been eradicated. Comedy ensues. When I say this reads like a short story from Connie Willis you should understand that I consider that highest possible praise.
I bought it.
Merged review:
For a school project each student in the high school class has to undergo one of the various adversities that has since been eradicated. Comedy ensues. When I say this reads like a short story from Connie Willis you should understand that I consider that highest possible praise.
Scientists of every type will require two copies in order to careful unbind the books and post on the lab or office door: joining the tradition of LarScientists of every type will require two copies in order to careful unbind the books and post on the lab or office door: joining the tradition of Larson and XKCD in nerd humor. Of course, without a patent or two in their name they can't possibly afford two copies, so friends and relations can feel safe buying it as a gift.
Alternatively, scientists could just clone it. I mean, copy it.
Come to that, they could all just borrow copies from university libraries. Possibly they have been following the Guardian, the New Yorker, and New Scientist, and collecting from those sources with or without copying.
Dear New Yorker If you offer a booking with a Tom Gauld cartoon on books or science, I will actually subscribe. And by "subscribe" I mean "request as a gift" because without any patents, am unlikely to be able to afford a subscription regardless of the discount. I'm not complaining, though, because so much job satisfaction and a sense of purpose that outweighs the occasional existential despair caused by catching up on the news. Or if not one of the cartoons, then just a reproduction of the custom endpapers. Thanx!
Final thought: it's an excellent size for taking up space in a Christmas stocking if that is a need you have. ...more
I was trying to find out if an author tour is planned, so I could pick up a hardcover copy from a local bookstore nearish hosting an eve03 April, 2023
I was trying to find out if an author tour is planned, so I could pick up a hardcover copy from a local bookstore nearish hosting an event where I could say "I love your work" and get a copy signed. Did not find. Checked the publisher website and saw "Category: Romance."
WTH? To be clear, I read a lot of romance, so I am not ragging on the idea. I just can't reconcile having only one Category tag for an author with crossover appeal. But also: did anyone in marketing look at that cover? That cover says "for fans of
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and
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, and
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" That cover says humorous scifi, not Romance.
Am I wrong?
***
4th July, 2023
And today I finished reading it, coincidentally over the July fourth weekend during which I also saw Asteroid City. Not the only good time to read it, but pretty good.
The book is better than "pretty good" by a lot. Classic screwball comedy which does require a little love interest, but is more about putting sane people in a maelstrom of amusing absurdity for comic effect. Willis is brilliant at that maelstrom. And at the cinematic references. So many movies are named checked, that one should probably not read it without an interest in movies. A delightful read, and one lending itself to dream casting: there aren't any bad choices no matter when or where the cast is selected.
Before rereading the story, a note about what comes to mind about it now. And the answer is "nothing except the awful discovery."
*** 219 December 2022
Before rereading the story, a note about what comes to mind about it now. And the answer is "nothing except the awful discovery."
*** 21 December 2022
I mean, the Jesuit astrophysicist was kind of a dick, since he only cared about this civilization because they made graceful stuff. God slaughters innocents all the time in the Old Testament, including his son, in the New, but that's cool because....? He doesn't mention other civilizations that people interact with, but notes that remains of other extinct races have been discovered, and those don't bother him. Pretty clear who is the asshole in this story.
In looking for a copy to read I came across "Rebbutal" by Betsy Curtis, which is available from Project Gutenburg. It ran in the same magazine, sometime in the year after Clarke's. It has a unique point to make, but fair warning, it is even less a story, although presented as a diologue.
To my mind, both of these stories suffer the same deficiency: they both are based on the same premise: that the god of a culture of a certain place and time, one who implies the existence of others in his insistence on primacy, and one who seemingly did not reveal himself to any other culture at the same or earlier time, that god and no other is indeed the Supreme Ruler of the universe, and that humans cannot go on without him despite ample evidence that a great many humans have managed to go on no better or worse without that god.
Charlie has lost almost everything: his career is gone with newspapers amidst corporate takeovers and the internet and Google taking up all the ad spaCharlie has lost almost everything: his career is gone with newspapers amidst corporate takeovers and the internet and Google taking up all the ad space. He came back to his hometown to look after his father. All he has left is his father's house, his cat, one suit, two ties, and a sense of humor.
And, oh, how I enjoyed this book. I loved the interplay between characters, the snappy conversations, and Charlie's very middle class American point of view. He keeps plugging away, with a dream to restart his life. Then his essentially unknown billionaire uncle dies and he discovers there really are supervillains. Charlie is everyone who is hanging on to the vanishing middle class as billionaire robber barons assemble monopolies and fire workers who think a union might get them a living wage.
Charlie's struggle is real, and then his life becomes chaos, which is every bit as funny and action-packed and relatable as The Kaiju Preservation Society.
Library copy because the minimum wage has been held down in spite of reason, productivity, inflation, soaring housing costs, and soaring corporate profits. Support the strikers!...more
Before rereading the story, a note about what comes to mind about it now. And the answer is "nothing except the awful discovery."
*** 219 December 2022
Before rereading the story, a note about what comes to mind about it now. And the answer is "nothing except the awful discovery."
*** 21 December 2022
I mean, the Jesuit astrophysicist was kind of a dick, since he only cared about this civilization because they made graceful stuff. God slaughters innocents all the time in the Old Testament, including his son, in the New, but that's cool because....? He doesn't mention other civilizations that people interact with, but notes that remains of other extinct races have been discovered, and those don't bother him. Pretty clear who is the asshole in this story.
In looking for a copy to read I came across "Rebbutal" by Betsy Curtis, which is available from Project Gutenburg. It ran in the same magazine, sometime in the year after Clarke's. It has a unique point to make, but fair warning, it is even less a story, although presented as a diologue.
To my mind, both of these stories suffer the same deficiency: they both are based on the same premise: that the god of a culture of a certain place and time, one who implies the existence of others in his insistence on primacy, and one who seemingly did not reveal himself to any other culture at the same or earlier time, that god and no other is indeed the Supreme Ruler of the universe, and that humans cannot go on without him despite ample evidence that a great many humans have managed to go on no better or worse without that god.
The joy of reading YA is that stories about young adults, written for young adults, often veer off in unexpected directions. This is a s6 January 2023
The joy of reading YA is that stories about young adults, written for young adults, often veer off in unexpected directions. This is a story about five teens and a dog living in yet another small town hollowed out by catastrophe and no future. Two have just graduated, but this summer will be spent with time carved out from between their jobs at Walmart and the YMCA shooting video of themselves ghost hunting. And then one night something amazing falls from the sky...
You can shoot your own trailer from that. There's danger and excitement and mystery in the best Scooby-Doo tradition, although these kids can't afford a van. There is ever increasing creepiness and un-put-downable suspense. And then there's more.
The beginning, the grim reality of their lives, drags on the reader as much as on Franny. But Henry knows how to raise the stakes. So worth it.
Hendrix is amazingly good at poking fun at people he sees, understands, and feels kindly toward. He's also adept at looking at a picture and seeing whHendrix is amazingly good at poking fun at people he sees, understands, and feels kindly toward. He's also adept at looking at a picture and seeing what's wrong. In his horror fiction he uses that perception and magnifies that which is wrong in the world into the nightmare world of a few characters. And he can totally creep me out with that shirt. In this case he understands just how little late-stage capitalism has to offer a small town in SC. He gives them an audacious plan to save a hometown hero that can't possibly work. The real world gave them Oxycontin and death. I prefer his vision.
Special props for capturing the spirit of "Hey, hold my beer. Now y'all watch this" the classic intro to a million painful videos without ever actually saying it.
Kowal makes some bold choices and I loved them all. Tell The Thin Man with Nora as the primary character? Send the leads on a honeymoon trip to Mars? Kowal makes some bold choices and I loved them all. Tell The Thin Man with Nora as the primary character? Send the leads on a honeymoon trip to Mars? I mean, most cruises seem like hell to me, but a space cruise is cool, and succeeds at recapturing the glamour of Murder on the Orient Express, or cean crossings via first class. The most amazing feat is to make the leads just as rich and privileged as Nick and Nora but not the kind of egomaniacal super-rich assholes we've come to accept they mostly are. Of course, the cute dog helps. Literally. Gimlet is a service-animal, and everybody loves a good dog. The only disappointment I have is that reading a novel I was deprived of what would surely be fabulous costumes in the film. Well, that's something to look forward to, right?
Kowal has amazing range in tone and mood. There's action, crime, mystery, humor, fairy tales, several stories have a twist in the tale. There is some Kowal has amazing range in tone and mood. There's action, crime, mystery, humor, fairy tales, several stories have a twist in the tale. There is some darkness, some pain, but not cruelty or paranoia. The cumulative impression is of a writer fundamentally well-adjusted, clever, but practical. Also Kowal could be a successful fight director.
I'm on page 32 and having a fabulous time, wish you were here.
This is the Scalzi-est sounding Scalzi book so far with lines such as "It's like the ForI'm on page 32 and having a fabulous time, wish you were here.
This is the Scalzi-est sounding Scalzi book so far with lines such as "It's like the Foreign Legion for nerds." I love the representation that neither defaults to straight white dude, nor has to point out that there are non-white characters by describing their skin tones (and only their skin tones) in terms of comestibles. The utter lack of physical description is so refreshing: I am anosmic and aphantastic and tone deaf, so all that sensory stuff is just filler to me anyway. Hmm, maybe that's why I enjoy reading plays, and why everyone enjoys reading Austen.
Also, it's time to reread Snow Crash apparently, since I can't recall anything except one character name, and yes, it is an excellent name, but not enough to conjure with.
***
It will no doubt be the work of future graduate students to review the books that were written during 2020 and 2021 and fashion some kind of taxonomy for them: the ones that completely ignored the pandemic, those that acknowledged it; those that focused on any of the myriad shocks people suffered, from the intensely personal to the global, as well as other recurring themes or motifs or subtext that I can't imagine. It'll be interesting work, if you enjoy a dissertation. There will also no doubt be a lot of popular work on the art and culture of the plague years. Whatevs. This novel including the acknowledgements will be chief among my personal memories of the books read and written in those years. Scalzi is just so damn entertaining to me that he is a natural choice for diverting text. He is also a person with an amazingly lengthy and public diary, and I wouldn't be surprised if it is the Whatever that lives longest in people's interest. I would be surprised if I get to see this prediction come true because, fifty years on from now would be an impressive age to achieve as a person of no wealth or importance or even decent insurance in these United States of which mine is only among the best of those still considered Southern, generally ranked worst in everything, and boy does it not seem likely that anything is going to improve in the near future, because Citizen's United, and gerrymandering, and a Supreme Court majority so partisan and extreme as to be laughable if one could stop crying. Perhaps something good will come of all this and a way will be found to actually pass the laws that the vast majority of the citizenry are begging for, like another assault weapons ban, and an end to the death penalty, and states actually having to equitably pay for the public education they are legally required to provide, and the right of people to make their own decisions about their bodies, who they are, and who they want to marry. Sorry for that digression.
Anyway, Scalzi writes a damn good story, lots of damn good stories in fact, and if you haven't read any of them then you should. Fun for the whole family. And this is one that is going to make a fun summer movie one day.
Wells did a fabulous job withNetwork Effect, enlarging the Murderbot universe, introducing new characters, twisting a whole lot of spaghetti of plot, Wells did a fabulous job withNetwork Effect, enlarging the Murderbot universe, introducing new characters, twisting a whole lot of spaghetti of plot, motivation, etc. As much as I loved it, I get that the longer format pulled in the common stuff of a mystery series that is often less appealing: relationships. Murderbot doesn't want to be human and much of the time, neither do I.
Today I was pleased to deal with just the mystery.
I missed the controversy because I miss everything. I have no problem understanding why people were offended by the title, that is after all, always tI missed the controversy because I miss everything. I have no problem understanding why people were offended by the title, that is after all, always the problem with reclamation: it's hard to know which side something is on. I find it harder to imagine that *after* reading the story anyone would think it transphobic. Not everyone is going to love anything, of course, but I thought it was effective as hell.
And yes, if they could find a way, the US military would happily weaponize gender in this way.
I sincerely hope Fall has a gloriously happy and long life, and that she won't stop publishing despite horrible people doing horrible things. But she must do as she will to protect herself. I hope very much she has strong support to help her with whatever choices she makes.
Last week was a conference that left me totally burned out by the end of each day. So I caught up on Murderbot. The first four books are nOctober 2021
Last week was a conference that left me totally burned out by the end of each day. So I caught up on Murderbot. The first four books are novellas, then there's an interstitial short story and then a full length novel. I recommend reading them in order at least the first time through. After using #1 for paint it Black, I'm putting #2 and #3 together for one Halloween Bingo square, and then #4 and #4.5 for one, and then #5 on its own. There's less snark and more about the universe, lots of complexity.
Read for Dystopian Hellscape
***
December 2023
This series re-read is preparation for reading the newest in the series, which is up to 7. It's hard to imagine that I could ever grow tired of this series. It has the same sort of moral tone as many classics of mysteries golden age. There are people doing horrible things, of course, but the ubiquitous evil is recognized as such.
And as fond as I am of a romance, I really appreciate a protagonist who isn't interested in any of that emotionally and physically messy stuff.
Very short, but cool. I am in awe of the ability to tell a complete, cogent, satisfying tale in hardly any space. The craft is elegant. It's almost ceVery short, but cool. I am in awe of the ability to tell a complete, cogent, satisfying tale in hardly any space. The craft is elegant. It's almost certainly taken me longer to write this stupid review as it took Kowal to write the story.
Available online.
Happy birthday, Alyshondra! The Teddy Bear Habit is a favorite from my childhood that isn't especially well known. It has a kid who lives in The Village, and who actually gets to audition for a boy band, and when I was eight and living in the back of beyond, it was so sophisticated and contemporary and hip to me who had mostly read books already established as classics, which meant terribly dated.
Three geeky friends in their last year of high school have the chance to attend SupaCon together, because one of them is a vlogger who landed a film rThree geeky friends in their last year of high school have the chance to attend SupaCon together, because one of them is a vlogger who landed a film role that went big. There is so much fandom in the best possible way: new friendships, new experiences, new romance. There are struggles, laughter, tears, etc., and lots of bonding. Unusually for a contemporary romance, we don't get two POV characters alternating their two versions of the same romance, but instead we get two POV characters who are best friends, alternating their two separate romances. But really, this is much more a romance between two young women and fandom-at-large. There's cosplay, and games, art, and comics, vloggers and big studio film promotions, writers and the adoring readers who stand in line for hours to get a signature. It's also very much a story about young women and the culture they have created and enjoy. It doesn't pass a reverse-Bechdel I don't think, which is such a refreshing change. Seriously it's the most girl-powery thing since Spice World and the same heady mix of empowering and just plain fun.
I have never read anything by Blake Crouch who invited writers to join his effort. But the three stories I've read so far are excellent. Crouch has reI have never read anything by Blake Crouch who invited writers to join his effort. But the three stories I've read so far are excellent. Crouch has really good taste. I am going to have to read the rest, but I decided to save Crouch for last. So next will be amor Towles, whom I haven't read but everyone keeps recommending.
The Forward stories are free with Amazon Prime, or a dollar each without. A good deal either way.
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