WorldCon trying a consultative online vote

Scrolling Mastodon on Dec. 19, I saw a post from Nicholas Whyte about the 2024 Glasgow WorldCon planning a consultative (nonbinding) online vote about a proposed change to the Hugo Awards, which would add two categories.  

I was pretty excited about this, and posted threads about it on both Mastodon and Bluesky. I got a few favorites on Mastodon and a lot of favorites and boosts (and a few new followers) on Bluesky. I'll recap here:

This is pretty exciting and potentially important for SFFH fans! Glasgow Worldcon is holding a consultative ONLINE vote between the close of award voting and the start of the convention, about a proposal to create two more Hugo Award Categories. But this will also test online Hugo voting in general.

The onsite-only voting process does require a demonstration of true commitment from voters (I can attest to this, having attended several lengthy Business Meetings). But as I noted, it's far from inclusive.
Per @nwhyte 's press release for Glasgow2024 Worldcon: "In 2016, the idea of an approval vote for Hugo finalists, as a third round in the nomination process, was passed at the Business Meeting but not ratified in 2017. We therefore propose to test the operation of a consultative vote..."

So while this consultative online vote will be nonbinding for this particular Hugo Awards resolution, it could help to eventually lead to WSFS members voting online as a *part* of a future three-step ratifications process (with the other two steps presumably being on-site votes at successive cons).

I'm excited by this idea, which would help make the World Science Fiction Society amendment-ratification process more inclusive every time, instead of swinging between the populations of whoever can make it to the onsite, multi-day WSFS Business Meetings at two successive Worldcons for each change.

I think trying to move to online-only voting (with no onsite steps) would be far too drastic a change to the WSFS amendment process for now. But adding an online voting component absolutely seems appropriate to me. Participation in this nonbinding vote will help bring that future possibility closer.

On a personal note, I'll certainly be participating in this vote. I'd been planning to attend the Glasgow Worldcon this summer, and participate in the business meetings, until I found out that neither masks nor vaccinations will be required. Now I'm torn, but at least my opinion will be seen online.

For the record, I'll be voting against the proposed change to the Hugo Awards, which would add two more categories to an already long list of awards. But I think adding an online component to the voting process is a great idea.

Duolingo 2023 Year in Review

 Duolingo sent me its 2023 Year in Review assessment (despite there being nearly a month left of 2023, grrr). I'm a top 1% Spanish learner! My streak of days in a row doing language exercises now stands at 576. 

This year, I focused on Spanish. In 2022, I had started off dabbling in Latin and German, then switched solely to Spanish after being laid off, partly in hopes of making myself more marketable. That hasn't produced any professional results yet, but I'm enjoying the process and keeping my brain sharp with this course.

The chart says 3,838 words learned, but that's a bit ambiguous. First of all, it's total words learned, not just Spanish; second, I think Duolingo means individual words, not lexemes (e.g. "be" would be a lexeme that includes am, are, is, was, were, etc.). So female and male versions of adjectives would each count, as well as each variant (person and tense) in a conjugation. Spanish also has declensions in pronouns, for subject vs. object vs. possessive. So what I really have learned so far in Spanish is probably between 2,500 and 3,000 word variants. 

Experts differ on how many words it takes to be considered fluent; I've seen anywhere between 1,000 and 5,000 words for basic conversational functionality, from 4,000 to 10,000 words to live and work in another country, and 10,000 to 20,000 to be considered native-level fluency. I am not sure whether this means words or lexemes. Anyway, I have a long, long way to go toward fluency, but I am confident I could visit a Spanish-speaking city and get around as a tourist without too much trouble, after adjusting to whatever accent is prevalent there and getting people to "hable más despacio, por favor" (speak more slowly, please).

Besides Duolingo, I've started watching some shows and movies with closed-captioning in Spanish, where that's available, to try to increase my familiarity with the sounds of the language. So I'll hear the dialogue and try to match it with what's printed on the screen.

Meanwhile, my phone has started showing me some ads in Spanish. Sometimes I understand a whole sentence, but more often I'll just catch a word or two. I think it'll be quite a while before I try the reverse audio exercise of watching an English-record show in Spanish with English captions -- unless I start watching something made originally in Spanish. I'd rather not just try random telenovelas, so recommendations are welcome!

 

 

Book Review: Uncanny Times, by Laura Anne Gilman (with light spoilers)

Skiffy and Fanty was offered an electronic Advanced Reader Copy of Uncanny Vows (The Huntsmen, Book 2, out today, Nov. 28) for review, but I hadn’t read Uncanny Times (Book 1) yet. Although I strongly believe that a book up for an award should stand on its own, I think a reviewer should try to experience a book in context, rather than jumping into the middle of a series and then complaining that they don’t understand what’s happening. 

Of course, a mid-series novel should contain enough back-references for someone plucking it off a library’s New Books shelf to be able to enjoy it without feeling lost, but most people read a series from the start. I think that’s better for reviewers, too, when possible.

Luckily for me, my lovely local library had an audiobook of Uncanny Times via Hoopla, so I was able to listen to it first, before starting the sequel.

I ended up feeling slightly lost anyway. I was a little annoyed by the beginning of Uncanny Times, which started off “Four. By the time the Harkers made their way back to the boardinghouse, darkness was creeping its way back through the treetops.” Rosemary and Botheration were named, so it seemed like these were the Harkers, but then “they” took Botheration to his kennel. So Botheration was a dog -- or a watch-wher, for all I knew at the moment, but that was enough to be going on with. Then "Aaron" laughed, so he was the other Harker, but it took a while longer to understand that Rosemary and Aaron were brother and sister rather than husband and wife, and even longer to figure out why they were at this boardinghouse (to investigate a mystery in the town).

I am not a reader who demands to be spoonfed information. Part of why I love speculative fiction is the enjoyment of figuring out how a world works; for example, I felt shocks of joy when things started coming together and making sense in Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice and Yoon Ha Lee’s Ninefox Gambit. However, when reading a gaslamp fantasy, what I want to be figuring out is the mystery, not the book’s structure.

What could have been a perfectly good framing device was only revealed later in the book, in Chapter 1 (the second in the book, after 4) – the brother and sister received a help-me letter from someone who’d aided the Huntsmen organization before with information. But for some reason, Gilman opened the novel after the story was already in progress.

It’s fashionable these days to start novels in the middle of the action: a fight, a chase, an argument. This method reveals some of the tone of the book, and promises that it’s not going to be too heavy on exposition. Preferably, there’s enough revealed during this action scene that the reader can start caring about the result, rather than just waiting impatiently to find out why it matters. But simply moving Chapter 4 to the first position in the book strikes me as a very bad choice.

I was also annoyed by some other early elements in the book. The Harkers appear to unquestioningly accept all the lore and governance handed to them by the Huntsmen, in whose service their parents had died when they were fairly young, and seem completely accepting of the view that humans are mostly good and everything else is unnatural/evil. However, I loved Gilman’s complex and nuanced Devil’s West trilogy (Silver on the Road, etc.), which is why I had jumped at the chance to review Uncanny Vows. I couldn’t believe that everything was going to continue so simplistically black-and-white, so I kept reading, and my patience was justified.

MILD SPOILERS FOLLOW:

It turned out that the mysterious killings that drew the Harkers to this town had some human complicity, and the villain had gotten involved out of entirely understandable motives. The Harkers got assistance from some totally unexpected quarters, and their final report to the Huntsmen ended up shading some of the truth to protect some allies.

So I was pleased to see the Harkers’ worldview expanding, and I fully expect to see more of that in the sequel.

I did quite enjoy the relationship between the Harkers, with their love and trust, and making allowances for each other’s bad habits, intermingling with teasing, small frictions and secrets. Their relationships with each other and with the Huntsmen reminded me more than a little of Sam and Dean Winchester and their (looser) association with the Hunters in the Supernatural TV series.

So far, I’m not as impressed with the opening of the Huntsmen books as I was with The Devil’s West, but Uncanny Truth was an entertaining light read, once I got past the beginning. And anyone who would like to read something that feels like early Supernatural episodes certainly might want to give the Huntsmen series a try.

Content warnings: Violence, deaths, drug abuse, era-accurate sexism

Comparisons: Supernatural TV series (early seasons)
 
Disclaimers: None (library book) 

UPDATE 12/14/23: My review of the sequel, appears at Skiffy and Fanty. "I’m sure I’ll continue to like the Harkers’ relationship, and although Uncanny Vows ties up most of its plot elements in a satisfying way, there are plenty of intriguing hints left to be explored in future books."
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-review-uncanny-vows-by-laura-anne-gilman/

Review: Marcie R. Rendon’s Cash Blackbear mysteries and forced assimilation

I saw Marcie R. Rendon’s Murder on the Red River on the New Books shelves at my lovely local library (written in 2017, republished in 2022), and picked it up and wolfed it down. I whizzed through the series via Libby, continuing with Girl Gone Missing and Sinister Graves.

I don’t have much in common with the protagonist, Renee “Cash” Blackbear, at least in the beginning, but I found her compelling. As the series starts, in the 1970s, she’s a freelance farmworker in the Red River Valley who loves playing pool. A 19-year-old Ojibwe, she was taken from her reservation so young that she barely remembers anything from there, and her time in the foster-care system was so traumatizing that she now drinks herself to sleep most nights. But she’s friends with Sheriff Wheaton, who helped her when she was younger and still checks in with her every once in a while. She helps him to identify the body of a Native American found in a field, and this leads her to get involved in other mysteries.

Despite Cash’s trauma, she is capable of empathy and more. She tries to save some orphaned kids from getting split up into the foster system; when she starts going to college in the second book, she starts making friends, or at least acquaintances, and leads some strangers out of serious trouble.

She’s sensitive, although she mostly hides it, acting out on occasion, and intelligent, although this too gets her into trouble. She also has dreams, visions, and occasional out-of-body experiences, which are not always as effective at warning her as she would prefer. It could be argued that she may not have mystical powers and is just putting facts together subconsciously, but at least while reading, I prefer to take her word for it.

By the end of the third book, she has cut down on her drinking, moved through a couple of empty relationships and found someone who seems to truly understand and appreciate her for what she is instead of just using her. She has made some other life changes that seem very positive, although I won’t give any more spoilers than I already have. If these three books are all we get of Cash Blackbear’s story, I’m satisfied with her arc.

Besides Cash’s story, a major throughline of Rendon’s books is the mistreatment of Native Americans, particularly children. Individual crimes against individual Native Americans are easily swept away and unnoticed. Broken foster-care systems in the Midwest are depicted as a pipeline for forced agricultural labor, and abuse is routine.

In foster homes, there were days and nights that were hell on earth–times she would fall asleep hoping to not wake up, or almost convincing herself life was a dream and dreamtime was the real time. Her one respite during all those years was compulsory education. That was a rule even the foster families didn’t dare break. – Sinister Graves

Of course, compulsory education has itself been used as a systematic tool of oppression and erasure of Native American culture. Between 1819 and 1969, more than 500 indigenous boarding schools were operated in the U.S., many with explicit goals of assimilating children into majority-white society, by taking children from their parents, renaming them, forbidding them from speaking any language but English, and disallowing their local hairstyles and clothing; moreover, many of these schools were also associated with churches and missionary societies and exerted considerable pressure for Christian religious observances.

A 2022 U.S. Interior Department investigation “found that 19 boarding schools accounted for the deaths of more than 500 American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children but the number of recorded deaths is expected to increase.”

The Author’s Note at the end of Sinister Graves says it was written before 215 children’s bodies were found in unmarked graves at the Catholic-run Kamloops Boarding School grounds in Canada. Thousands more died while attending Indian residential schools in Canada, according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

Coincidentally, around the time I was finishing Sinister Graves a few weeks ago, news broke on multiple outlets about Tibetan boarding schools that appear to be enforcing assimilation into Chinese culture. According to the Associated Press, “China has shuttered village schools across Tibet and replaced them with centralized boarding schools over the last dozen years.”

About a million Tibetan children, which is most of the school-aged population, including preschoolers as young as 4 years old, are estimated to be studying at these schools. Chinese authorities claim that’s voluntary, but with former local schools closed and penalties for non-attendance, it’s not much of a choice.

I doubt that international calls to disband these boarding schools will have any effect on Chinese policy, any more than protests have had against their Uighur re-education camps. It took the U.S. and Canada well over 100 years to realize how wrong they were to attempt forced assimilation of indigenous populations into the dominant cultures, and unfortunately, many people still believe in this policy, or at least see little harm in it (e.g., efforts to overturn the Indian Child Welfare Act).

Books like Rendon’s help bring the impact of this horrible policy into emotional reality for readers. Moreover, this series is interesting and occasionally very exciting. Sometimes the villains are a little predictable, and I’m not so sure that things would always turn out as well for Cash as they do, but she earns it. On the whole, I’m cheering for Cash, and I recommend these books.

Review: Random relevancies in two stories by Beagle and Lovecraft

Yesterday, I happened to hear two podcasts in immediate succession that had some unexpected congruencies. The first was LeVar Burton Reads' rendition of "Mr. McCaslin" by Peter S. Beagle. The second was The Drabblecast's version of "Cool Air" by H.P. Lovecraft. These stories have no relation to each other, yet it turned out that their coincidental pairing drew some interesting highlights. I'm going to give plot summaries for them both, so if you've never read them and want to avoid spoilers, please listen to them first.

I'd never read "Mr. McCaslin," but I'm a longtime fan of Beagle, from his classic fantasy "The Last Unicorn" to other books including "A Fine and Private Place" and "The Innkeeper's Song," to short stories like "Underbridge," about a wandering adjunct professor who has an unusual encounter. Many of his stories involve people in modern times encountering elements of the fantastical. Some of his early stories are a bit callow, like "Lila the Werewolf," but many are richly deep and moving.

In "Mr. McCaslin," some boys in New York City help their cranky old neighbor fend off death, or at least his family's traditional messenger of death, for a few days during a hot summer so that he can get one final task done. The Black Dog is a monstrous creature in Irish legend, but here the Black Terrier is not too terrifying, although unnaturally cold; the boys are actually able to catch it and confine it in their apartments until it eventually escapes and carries out its psychopompic role. Afterward, the narrator grows into a man, and occasionally thinks he hears the terrier's claws clicking nearby, although he's not too bothered by it.

As for "Cool Air," I had read it before, along with many other Lovecraft stories. I think all of his works are nominally set in the real, modern world (well, modern in the 1920s and '30s), although there are eerie and horrific things happening. But since he loved archaica and history, and many of his stories contained references to shadows from the past, along with his blatantly racist and classist attitudes, they tend to feel even older. (For a modern sequel to this story, from the perspective of the Mexican landlady's family, you may want to listen to Pseudopod's reading of "Bitter Perfume" by Laura Blackwell.)

"Cool Air" is actually one of his most modern-feeling stories, as one of its most prominent features is the futuristic (for the 1920s) air conditioner that keeps a New York City brownstone apartment cold during a heat wave. The narrator, who lives in the apartment below, is annoyed by an ammonia leak from upstairs, but later has a heart attack and is helped by that upstairs neighbor, Dr. Muñoz. When the doctor's air conditioner breaks, the narrator tries hard to get it repaired, but is too late; he makes the horrifying discovery that his neighbor had died years ago and had been keeping his apartment cool to keep himself from decaying. Afterward, any "draught of cool air" leaves the narrator shuddering with horror.

So, each story is set in New York City during a heat wave, each one is narrated by a helpful (or would-be helpful) neighbor, and each one involves someone trying to delay death (or its results). However, the tone of each is very different.

In "Mr. McCaslin," the boys are friends and part of a vibrant community. Their neighbor may be a cranky old guy, but he's THEIR cranky old guy. The boys work together to fulfill their pledge to help him for a few days, so he's able to write a letter to his daughter (it takes him a long time because he's not used to writing to her, but he needs to tell her something), and then finally to let the Black Terrier in, and be at peace when he dies. Despite being about death, the story is actually fairly lighthearted and hopeful.

In "Cool Air," the narrator, a writer, is isolated and rather contemptuous of most of the immigrant residents of his building, and he and Dr. Muñoz are drawn together partly because they feel superior to their fellows. Although the doctor has harmed nobody, and helped many before he deteriorated too much, the other neighbors and workers who come to the apartment become so terrified or disgusted that they refuse to help (and won't even deliver ice), so the doctor's end is lonely and awfully pathetic. (His long fight against death is apparently for no other reason than that he doesn't want to die, which is reasonable but not exactly altruistic.) The writer's lingering horror implies that he's sorry he ever got involved, or at least that he's sorry he found out the truth.

According to "The Cool Air" narrator, "the abnormal always excites aversion, distrust and fear." This may be sadly true of much of humanity, and certainly of Lovecraft. However, I much prefer Beagle's vision of people who take an oddity like a supernatural death dog in stride and focus on the task of being good neighbors, with no regrets. 

I was pleased to hear during LeVar Burton Reads' podcast that Beagle will have a new book coming out in 2024. I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons is about someone who hates the exterminating job that he inherited, and finds himself dragged into royal complications. It was originally supposed to be published in 2008 or so, but that publication deal fell through; now it's getting a new chance. Good luck to it and to Beagle!

Review: The Hopkins Manuscript, by R.C. Sherriff

I spotted The Hopkins Manuscript on the New Books shelves at my local library. This is actually a 2023 trade paperback version of a 1939 novel. I'd never heard of the author, R.C. Sheriff, or The Fortnight in September, the other book of his that's mentioned on the cover, or other books by him. However, he worked on scripts for a bunch of movies I've seen and found pretty interesting: The Dam Busters, No Highway, That Hamilton Woman, The Four Feathers, The Invisible Man, and Goodbye, Mr. Chips, among others. 

I didn't know that when I checked it out, and I don't know why the book has been republished now (although, having read it, I certainly can see some relevancies to current times in governments' behavior and citizens' reactions), but I thought the description on the inside front cover looked interesting: Edgar Hopkins, a retired math teacher and member of the British Lunar Society, learns that the moon is on a collision course with the Earth. He's sworn to secrecy, but eventually the truth can no longer be denied.

I always find these conspiracies of silence a bit maddening, whether they're in books or on TV, about looming environmental/astronomical catastrophes, alien invasions, or whatever. Various governments in the book take some proactive measures, such as digging shelters (but saying they're against bombs, for the next world war), but they don't want to people to panic or have their lives spoiled. 

A little more than half the book is devoted to the lead-up to the event. Everything is filtered through Hopkins' eyes, as he goes to meetings, reads reports, and tries to influence events, while breeding chickens and winning shows. As it turns out, he has little effect on what happens.  He thinks a lot of himself, but other people don't see him as much of a leader. He's really rather narrow in his viewpoint, snobbish and classist, although he means well. He proudly keeps the secret and merely drops some advice that is ignored, since nobody knows he has inside knowledge. 

Once the looming, reddened moon is apparent to the naked eye, Hopkins' neighbors fall into three basic groups:  Those who think it's all just a scare and won't affect England at all, those who think the moon will graze the Earth but not cause much damage, and those who think the end is nigh. Some people quit their jobs and run wild, but many Keep Calm and Carry On (so to speak; that didn't actually become a slogan until the real-life World War II, and actually the saying wasn't really popularized until the 21st century), or join the digging projects and other preparations.

As it turns out, England is not destroyed by the moon, although there are great changes in the world. This is not a spoiler, since the opening frame in the "foreword" of the book is that Hopkins' manuscript recounting the lead-up, the event and its aftermath has been discovered by a scientist from a subsequent civilization, long after Hopkins' final days, sealed in a thermos and hidden in a wall.

After the event, much of the second half of the book is taken up with recovery and rebuilding efforts. Hopkins, who has always been a solitary man, builds a small community. However, although people work together at first, the world once more slides toward war, in a seemingly inevitable competition for resources and access, with tensions stoked by politicians to gain power, or simply out of fear and pride.

There's actually a lot of wry humor in this book, comparing Hopkins' views and expectations with what actually happens. There are moments of quiet heroism. Relationships range from condescension to mild hostility to respect to quietly affectionate caring. However, the end is certainly a bit depressing, even though given some of the events of the last decade, it does not seem at all unrealistic. Sherriff, of course, would have seen the rising tensions of his own time, as World War II began in Europe the year this was originally published.

The Hopkins Manuscript fits the "cozy catastrophe" label for the most part; indeed, I've seen it listed as an influence on John Wyndham's later "cozy catastrophes" such as The Day of the Triffids. Although events affect the world, the narrative is tightly focused on one man's point of view; moreover, although things go badly for many mostly unnamed people, humanity does survive.

I can't recommend this book for everybody. If you're interested in period pieces between World War I and World War II (with a somewhat ironical flavor of classism), if you're interested in disaster fiction, if you're interested in the genre history of science fiction, you may want to give this a try. It's definitely well written; it's just a very particular flavor. Many people will find it dreadfully slow. But I enjoyed it.

Content Warnings: Offscreen deaths, classism, insularity.

Comparisons: John Wyndham's The Kraken Wakes, Arthur Conan Doyle's The Poison Belt.

Disclaimers: None.

 

UPDATE 9/18/23: I really enjoyed the conversation about this book at https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-752-readalong-the-hopkins-manuscript-by-r-c-sherriff/, by Jesse, Paul Weimer, Bryan Alexander, and Terence Blake, except for about 10 minutes of anti-vax diatribing by the host, about 2.5 hours or so into the podcast, after the main discussion had finished and they were digressing.

Review: Grease Monkeys: The Heart and Soul of Dieselpunk, edited by Danielle Ackley-McPhail and John L. French

I requested Grease Monkeys: The Heart and Soul of Dieselpunk from NetGalley on a whim, despite my towering TBR pile, firstly because of the great cover illustration (credited to Mike McPhail), secondly because because I like stories about keeping machinery and infrastructure going, thirdly because the title implied I'd be looking at stories about little folk instead of titans of industry, unlike a fair number of steampunk stories that focus on great inventors instead of having much "punk" flavor, and fourthly because an anthology is a low-commitment reading project -- if I didn't like a story, it wouldn't take much of my time. It turned out to be a quick read with several interesting stories and ideas. 

I hadn't heard of either of the editors, Danielle Ackley-McPhail or John L. French, and only a few of the authors sounded faintly familiar. The 12 stories are by the two editors and David Lee Summers, Aaron Rosenberg,  Heather E. Hutsell, Ken Schrader, Misty Massey, James Chambers, Derek Tyler Attico, Maria V. Snyder, and Bernie Mojzes. 

Summers' "The Falcon and the Goose" is about railroad mechanics vs. airship innovators in the U.S. Southwest. Rosenberg's "Nobody's Hero" is about a mechanic for a team of capes. French's "No Man's Land" is a grim story about an innovator during World War I trench warfare. Ackley-McPhail's "The Impossible Journey" is a grease monkey's coming-of-age story. Schrader's "Storm Spike" features airship warfare and sabotage. Massey's "My Mechanical Girl" is about a robot entertainer, espionage, and an unexpected guest. Hutsell's "On the Fly" is another coming-of-age story, about a farm mechanic thrilled to work on planes. Chambers' "The Maps of Our Scars" is about an aircraft competition with espionage and war machines in the wings. Attico's "The Harlem Hellfighters" is another trench warfare story, with mechas. Snyder's "Under Amber Skies" is about a girl who idolizes her absent inventor father but learns some unpleasant secrets. French's "The Return of the Diesel Kid" was about cops, crooks, capes, and a mechanic. Mojzes' "Hyena Brings Death" is about an angry eternal scavenger who wants to go to war with Heaven for allowing war to devastate the Earth. 

I really enjoyed "Nobody's Hero" and how "Lady Linkage" (the superhero team's mechanic) performed during some unexpected crises, and how her teammates and partner appreciated and supported her. "Storm Spike" was also vividly told fun. I was intrigued by "Under Amber Skies" and really liked a developing relationship in it, although Zosia's stern mother could have used more character development.  

But the story that interested me most was "Hyena Brings Death." The worldbuilding sketches felt appropriately mythic, while the cobbling together of war machines felt appropriately grounded (although Hyena's chimeric plane probably shouldn't be able to get off the ground without magic). I also really like how the British pilot she kidnapped came to believe in Hyena's cause, or at least in her, and she eventually sees him as a person rather than just an aide. I love her crazy goal too, although in this short story, we just see the beginning of her attack on Heaven, not how things turn out. It's a very rich and engaging story.

Grease Monkeys: The Heart and Soul of Dieselpunk is slated for publication on Sept. 1 from eSpec books, starting at just $3, or from Barnes&Noble currently on sale at $2.99 for the ebook or $15.95 for the paperback. I can recommend the ebook if you're in the mood to dip into some dieselpunk, but it's probably not worth the price of the paperback unless you're a collector -- and that cover really is appealing!

Diversity count: Only one or two of the authors appear to be BIPOC from their author photos that I found online, and only one protagonist was definitely Black. Despite the majority of authors having male-coded names, about half of the stories featured female protagonists.  Several stories featured same-sex or queer relationships. (There was also an apparent interspecies relationship.)

Content Warnings: War, violence, death, tangential implications of sex (none graphic).

Comparisons: The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk (2015), which has 21 stories as opposed to this book's 12, including several well-known, award-winning authors.

Disclaimers:  ebook provided by NetGalley, with some expectation of a review in return.

Skiffy and Fanty Blog is Back!

(Hit the link above, then scroll down to Updates for my latest reviews posted on the Skiffy and Fanty blog!) 

I joined the crew of the Skiffy and Fanty Show, a blog and podcast that reviews speculative fiction, in 2014, first as an occasional review, then as a review editor. I started appearing on podcasts in 2015. Eventually I stepped down as a reviewer and editor, but started doing occasional audio edits of podcasts. 

The person running the blog ran out of spoons to schedule and edit reviews in March 2021. Since  then, all that has appeared on the website has been podcasts, announcements, and occasional surveys. 

This summer, Skiffy and Fanty has decided to gear back up again. Daniel Haeusser has stepped up to become the chief scheduler, including scheduling text book and media reviews. I've agreed to read reviews and post them on the blog/website.

Reviews began appearing on the blog again on August 7, with Daniel's review of Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejidé. Since then, we've published another review by Daniel and one by Paul "Prince Jvstin" Weimer. I am not fond of the WordPress platform from which we publish these reviews, but I am relearning how to make it work.

Today, my first review in years for the Skiffy and Fanty Show appears, about The Unbalancing by R.B. Lemberg. Here's how it starts:

I found R.B. Lemberg’s The Unbalancing to be curiously satisfying and soothing, despite my unfamiliarity with the setting and despite the rising tensions felt by the protagonists and their people. I felt drawn to the mythology of Lemberg’s Birdverse and was intrigued by the structure of the Gelle-Geu island society, but most of all, I enjoyed the well-developed characters, their contrasts, and where their interactions led — to a relationship, to magical discoveries, and to a struggle for survival amid upheavals.

Please check out my review here! 

You can see some of my older Skiffy and Fanty reviews (but nothing before 2017, due to a site revamp) at https://skiffyandfanty.com/author/trishmatson/, but the "My Superpower" essays are guest posts that I put onto the site for other people.

UPDATE: 8/28/2023

My review of Valerie Valdes' new book, Where Peace Is Lost, went live on the Skiffy and Fanty blog at  https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-review-where-peace-is-lost-by-valerie-valdes/ on Monday. 

"I really enjoyed Valerie Valdes’ Chilling Effect trilogy, so I’ve been eager to check out her new novel,Where Peace Is Lost, which debuts on Aug. 29. It was every bit as good as I had anticipated, but for somewhat different reasons: Although the Chilling Effect books are basically tasty popcorn in the form of space opera, Where Peace Is Lost feels a little more chewy and substantial. ..."

UPDATE: 9/14/2023
My review of Malka Older's delightful The Mimicking of Known Success appeared at https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/review-the-mimicking-of-known-successes-by-malka-older/ on Sept. 14.

"Malka Older’s The Mimicking of Known Successes is a lovely cozy mystery and sapphic romance in a tonally nearish-future SF setting. If, like me, you struggled a bit with author Malka Older’s Centenal Cycle trilogy (I admit I haven’t made it past the first book, Infomocracy), please consider giving this novella a try. It was one of my favorite things to read this year. ..."

UPDATE: 10/23/23
My review of C.L. Polk’s Even Though I Knew the End appeared at https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-review-even-though-i-knew-the-end-by-c-l-polk/ on Oct. 2. 

I adored C.L. Polk’s Even Though I Knew the End, a sapphic noir novella set in an urban fantasy version of 1941 Chicago. It opens strongly, unwraps the mystery as a relationship drama unfolds, and includes some breathtaking prose along the way. I’m completely unsurprised that it won the Nebula Award and was nominated for numerous others.

My review of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Silver Nitrate (2023) appeared at https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-review-silver-nitrate-by-silvia-moreno-garcia/ on Oct. 16.

Montserrat’s research pulls them in dangerous directions, but she’s clever and creative, and Tristán ends up acting beyond his own concerns for once, and the book ends in an exciting and satisfying way. Especially the bit at the very end, which I won’t spoil, but I loved it!

UPDATE: 10/30/23:
My review of Vampires of El Norte (2023) by Isabel Cañas went live at https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-review-vampires-of-el-norte/ on Oct. 26.

I enjoyed reading Vampires of El Norte. The young lovers’ misunderstandings feel natural, not artificially belabored, and the problems they’re dealing with, of trying to negotiate societal and familial expectations and demands to find some degrees of choice, are depicted with understanding, compassion, and warmth. The monsters are scary, the action scenes are exciting, the love story is sweet, and I found the conclusion very satisfying.

My double review of Fritz Leiber's novella Ill Met in Lankhmar (1970) and S.M. Stirling's and Shirley Meier's novel Saber & Shadow (1992) went live at https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-reviews-ill-met-and-well-met/ on Oct. 30.

Recently I reread Fritz Leiber’s novella, Ill Met in Lankhmar (1970), for a podcast. Immediately after finishing it, I dug out S.M. Stirling & Shirley Meier’s novel, Saber & Shadow (1992), from a box and reread that. I’d love to go on and reread the rest of the Fifth Millennium series right now, by Stirling, Meier, Karen Wehrstein, and combinations thereof, but I have too many other commitments. Sadly, I am not feeling a similar impulse to reread other Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories at this time.

UPDATE: 12/4/23:
I reviewed the first 3 issues (Nos. 0-2) of New Edge Sword and Sorcery Magazine. Issue 0 came out in 2022, and Issues 1-2 came out this fall. There were quite a lot of things I liked about NESS, from most of its stories and artwork, to many of its stories. My review was posted on Nov. 30 at https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/review-new-edge-sword-sorcery-nos-0-2/. The editor, Oliver Brackenbury, emailed me his thanks afterward and said he'd screenshotted parts of the review to send to several authors and artists.

Last year, I became aware of a debut magazine called New Edge Sword & Sorcery, which aimed to revive the “outsider protagonists, thrilling energy, wondrous weirdness, and a large body of classic tales” of this old subgenre of fantasy with a focus on inclusivity and diversity (of both characters and creators). As a longtime fan of sword and sorcery stories, I checked out Vol. 1, No. 0, Fall 2022, which was an unpaid labor of love for all concerned (free to all to download at https://newedgeswordandsorcery.com/). I mildly enjoyed it, but I had a lot going on then, so I didn’t back the Kickstarter to fund NESS Nos. 1 & 2 (Fall and Winter 2023). Now that those have been released, I decided it was time for a fresh look. ...

UPDATE: 12/7/23:
I reviewed A Death at the Dionysus Club, by Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold, which was re-issued by Queen of Swords Press on Dec. 7. I enjoyed it as much as the first Mathey & Lynes gaslamp fantasy, Death by Silver, and was pleased with the expansion of the worldbuilding in this book, with a plot involving how "non-conforming metaphysics" reacts badly with modern practices. 

I don’t want to spoil how the mysteries or the romantic issues get resolved, but the puzzles are intriguing, the perils are exciting, and it’s great how the lovers end up standing for and standing by each other.

UPDATE: 12/14/23:
I had reviewed Uncanny Times, the first Huntsmen book by Laura Anne Gilman, here on my own blog on Nov. 28. My review of the sequel, Uncanny Vows, was published at Skiffy and Fanty on Dec. 14.

I’m sure I’ll continue to like the Harkers’ relationship, and although Uncanny Vows ties up most of its plot elements in a satisfying way, there are plenty of intriguing hints left to be explored in future books.

UPDATE: 1/8/24:
I've reviewed two collections for Skiffy and Fanty in the last few weeks. My method for these is to take notes as I go, which slows down the reading but makes review-writing much easier, once I figure out how to organize my impressions.

My review of Rosalind’s Siblings, edited by Bogi Takács, was published Dec. 28, 2023. "It’s a very interesting anthology of speculative fiction and poems, containing some fascinating ideas and characters and some really beautiful language. Edited by Bogi Takács, it features both new and established authors from around the world. Calling it Rosalind’s Siblings is a salute to scientist Rosalind Franklin, a chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was fundamental to understanding DNA, along with important contributions to knowledge of viruses and coal..."

My review of Resurrections, by Ada Hoffman, was published Jan. 8, 2024. This is a collection of short poetry and fiction by the author of The Outside trilogy. "It shows a wide range of subject matter, themes and topics; nearly all of the pieces are interesting and engaging, and some of them are breathtakingly gorgeous and moving."

UPDATE: 2/7/24:

My review of The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older was published Jan. 22, 2024. It's the second book in the Mossa and Pleiti series. "Happily, for anyone who longs to return to the gas-fire rooms and dumbwaiter-delivered scones, the academic bureaucracy, the ecological speculations, the journeys, and perhaps most of all, the intermittent, somewhat difficult but definitely rewarding relationship of the first book, this one should also be rewarding."

What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher was also a sequel, and again I found it quite satisfying, although not as striking as the original. "I think a reader could conceivably start the series with this second novella, although that would mean missing some of its impact and a fair number of references. However, although this is labeled a horror series, I found this sequel significantly less horrific than What Moves the Dead; it’s more of a dark fantasy."

UPDATE: 2/25/24

My review of Sun of Blood and Ruin by Mariely Lares was published Feb. 19, 2024. It's sort of a gender-flipped Zorro, where La Pantera (The Panther) is both a swordswoman and sorceress, whose parents were Spanish and Nahua, struggling for self-control and against oppression and her own cursed destiny. "(L)ike xocolatl, the original chocolate drink, this book is a rich, frothy brew, and the conclusion, although it has its bittersweet elements, goes down smoothly. "

UPDATE: 3/8/24

My double review of What Grows in the Dark, by Jaq Evans, and Terror at Tierra de Cobre, by Michael Merriam, was published March 7. "It’s interesting to watch those choices and consequences unfold, and What Grows in the Dark offers the most of that; however, if at the end of the day you just want to see some people simply stand up against evil and win, even with heavy losses, you can consider giving Terror at Tierra de Cobre a try."

UPDATE: 3/21/24
My review of Sheine Lende by Darcie Little Badger was published March 14. "I happily devoured the nearly 400-page novel within one day, although I had to stay up a few hours late to finish it. I just couldn’t put it down. ... Shane had lost her home and most of her family in the aftermath of a hurricane, so when her mother goes missing herself while trying to find two missing children, it’s up to Shane to find out what happened..."

UPDATE: 4/16/24
My review of The Navigating Fox by Christopher Rowe by Christopher Rowe was posted on April 4. "...I really enjoyed this book. The style is fairly simple and direct, vivid and descriptive but not so much as to slow things down. Characters are distinctly drawn and interesting (although some definitely lack charm). Worldbuilding details are placed carefully throughout the book, not dropped in stumbling blocks of information. The pacing is somewhat complicated by flashback chapters, but the parallel structures of the current journey and the vanished expedition do make sense..."

My review of Immortal Pleasures by V. Castro was posted on April 8. "...I was pleased to sink my teeth into Immortal Pleasures by V. Castro, about an ancient Nahua (from what’s now Mexico) vampire roaming the modern world. Some elements of the book weren’t to my taste, but it was fairly interesting and entertaining..."

UPDATE: 5/9/24
My review of Archangels of Funk by Andrea Hairston was posted today. I adored it and I hope it sells well. "This is a fantastic near-future book that combines magic and hopepunk with vibrant, joyful optimism, where a diverse community works together to survive and thrive as an independent cooperative amid an increasingly corpocratic world."

UPDATE: 8/19/24
I fell behind on updates here! 
My review of  Lost Ark Dreaming, by Suyi Davies Okungbowa, was published on May 20. "I had forgotten the publisher’s description of Lost Ark Dreaming, by Suyi Davies Okungbowa, by the time it surfaced atop my to-be-read pile. So I went in cold, and it turned out that the water was fine! This is a gripping novella that starts fast and keeps moving with swift assurance, amid brief interludes and “historical excerpts” that give more context to the action, while deftly building characters whose revealed motivations make even some surprising decisions feel natural. I enjoyed it quite a lot."
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-review-lost-ark-dreaming-by-suyi-davies-okungbowa/

My review of "Liberty's Daughter and Thoughts on Worker Bees" was published on May 23. I started off reviewing Naomi Kritzer's Lodestar-finalist short novel, which I liked very much, and went on to make comparisons with Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky, the streaming show Severance, and other works.
"These days, of course, that implied desirability of always concentrating on work is far closer to reality. Even without worker-bee drugs or Focused/Severance-type modifications, increasing numbers of jobs include the expectation that employees will be available 24/7 by text and email, and on-call for just-in-time scheduling even for ordinary, non-emergency shift work."
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/libertys-daughter-and-thoughts-on-worker-bees/

My review of Masquerade by O.O. Sangoyomi was published on June 27. "It’s an interesting work of alternate history in which a naive young girl has to grow up fast when she is abducted and installed in a foreign court as the intended bride of a warrior king. Ignorant at first, Òdòdó learns fast that kindness can conceal cruelty, and tenderness can be a distraction from tyranny; eventually, she learns how to make allies and take control of her own life, and more."
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-review-masquerade-by-o-o-sangoyomi/

My review of Alisa Alering’s Smothermoss was published on July 11. "Smothermoss is entrancingly immersive, with entirely evocative language, fascinating fantastic elements, exciting action, and two very vividly drawn protagonists, sisters who have little in common and feel a lot of friction but eventually come together, with a bit of supernatural succor, to face a fearsome foe."
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-review-smothermoss-by-alisa-alering/

My review of The Thief and the Wild by Seann Barbour was published on July 18. "This is a self-described “independent author” whom I had never encountered before he reached out to Skiffy and Fanty. I will not be surprised at all if he gets picked up by an agent and/or publishing house before very long, though, because this Southern-flavored steampunk fantasy is as easy to sink into as a hammock, with a nice breezy tone most of the time, narrated by a sympathetic protagonist with a wry point of view, relating an exciting plot that moves around a bayou town, up and down, and eventually strikes out into the wilderness, with a cataclysmic confrontation at the climax."
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-review-the-thief-and-the-wild-by-seann-barbour/

On August 15 I did something different. I read Natania Barron's novel Netherford Hall, the first book in a new Regency romance-style fantasy series, and emailed her a list of 11 questions with some follow-ups. She emailed me back a couple of days after the Glasgow WorldCon, and I was able to post the interview with her responses, and a book photo and a photo of her that I had cropped from the C.C. 2.0 Glasgow WorldCon photo gallery, just two days after her book was published.
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/interview-natania-barron-author-of-netherford-hall/

On Aug. 19, I published a review of Ken Liu's translation of Laozi's Dao De Jing. "For Western SFF fans who don’t know much about China, or translation, or the history of philosophy, or comparative religions — or those who have some familiarity with these but want to know what SFF luminary Ken Liu has to say — I recommend giving this book a try."
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-review-laozis-dao-de-jing-ken-liu/

UPDATE: 8/22/24
On Aug. 22, I published a review of Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan. "I love how Chan presents all these facets of setting and character and weaves them together. I love how the characters face difficult choices (some arising from false pride, many imposed on them by external and developing factors but in a way that’s entirely believable), sometimes drifting with the metaphorical tides but often acting with empathy and courage (although sometimes misguided)."
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-review-fathomfolk-by-eliza-chan/

On Aug. 26, I published a review of Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford. "I loved Cahokia Jazz’s blending of noir mystery, mysticism and religion, worldbuilding, action, and as signaled by the title, music."
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-review-cahokia-jazz-by-francis-spufford/

UPDATE: 9/3/24
On Sept. 2, I published a review of "Batman: Caped Crusader", a 10-episode animated series running on Amazon Prime Video. "It’s not essential viewing, but I found it refreshingly entertaining and intriguing, although it does go dark at times."
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/show-review-batman-caped-crusader/

UPDATE: 9/23/24
On Sept. 23, I published a review of The Naming Song by Jedediah Berry. "I really enjoyed following the courier’s journey in this book, both physical and mental, through mysteries, through self-knowledge and growth, and through understanding of her world. It has interesting ideas, and it’s a really good read with a very satisfying conclusion."
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-review-the-naming-song-by-jedediah-berry/

UPDATE: 10/17/24
On Sept. 30 I published a review of Inheritance of Scars, a debut novel by Crystal Seitz. "It’s labeled dark fantasy by the publisher, and it certainly includes peril, difficult choices, and dark history and consequences from the past, but I found the ending very satisfying, and the journey there was interesting and well written."
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-review-inheritance-of-scars-by-crystal-seitz/

On Oct. 14 I published a review of The Woodsmoke Women’s Book of Spells by Rachel Greenlaw. "I had some frustrations with each of the viewpoint characters, and I’m uneasy with some of the conflict resolutions, but overall, it was an easy and mildly spooky read."
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-review-the-woodsmoke-womens-book-of-spells-by-rachel-greenlaw/

UPDATE: 10/21/24
On Oct. 21 I published a review of The Improvisers by Nicole Glover. "Glover’s prose (third person limited, past tense) doesn’t often soar to poetic heights, but it’s direct and practical and a breeze to read. There’s a lot going on in this 443-page book, but it doesn’t feel nearly that long; Glover keeps it all racing along together and lands the ending with a very satisfying touchdown."
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-review-the-improvisers-by-nicole-glover/

UPDATE: 11/7/24
On Oct. 24 I published a review of Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell. "All that sounds as though this book must be dreary, but the perspective of the monster (who doesn’t much like words or names, but goes by Shesheshen and takes other aliases) casts a resonantly ironic light on events, and when she meets a uniquely likeable and caring woman, Homily, and tries to help her and communicate with her instead of just eating her, readers like me end up cheering for both of them." 
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-review-someone-you-can-build-a-nest-in-by-john-wiswell/

On Oct. 28 I published a review of Songs for the Shadows: A Sauútiverse Novella, by Cheryl S. Ntumy. "I really enjoyed getting immersed into the Sauútiverse, learning a few things about how it works and how many elements of it are tied together, through following Shad-Dari’s literal and emotional journeys. She wasn’t always easy to identify with, but she was intense and interesting, and the revelations and transformations that she underwent felt rewarding in the end."
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-review-songs-for-the-shadows-a-sauutiverse-novella-by-cheryl-s-ntumy/

On Nov. 7 I published a review of Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory, by Yaroslav Barsukov. "What initially seems like fairly standard science fantasy, combining feudal lives in cities where people walk around open markets with tech like airships and massive building projects, turns into something akin to a trip to a dangerous, mysterious part of the Dreamlands. Back in this world, things keep getting weirder and more wondrous, as machinations on both sides of the border heighten court politics and plots. Shocking secrets and memories are revealed, and Barsukov sticks the landing in a way that surprised but greatly satisfied me."
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-review-sleeping-worlds-have-no-memory-by-yaroslav-barsukov/

On Nov. 11 I published a review of Wheel of the Infinite, by Martha Wells. "I adore this book for its great, middle-aged female protagonist, her very capable romantic partner/sidekick, the fascinating worldbuilding (including making dark-skinned people the center of civilization), the plot, the elements of weirdness that arise when the Wheel goes awfully awry, the teamwork and interplay between characters, and the eventual dramatic revelations that finally make sense of the mysteries woven throughout the book. Wheel of the Infinite is superb."
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-review-wheel-of-the-infinite-by-martha-wells/

On Nov. 25 I published a review of Grimbold's Other World (1963), by Nicholas Stuart Gray. "Raised by a farming couple, he’s a dreamer, poet and storyteller who acts as the village goatherd. He is kind and likes to be useful. Sick at home one night, he’s visited by a talking cat who asks for his help, tells him how to ask the fire to cure his cold, and takes him across into the night-world to free another boy who’s trapped in a bad situation."
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/into-the-wardrobe-grimbolds-other-world-by-nicholas-stuart-gray/

On Dec. 2 I published a review of We Are the Beasts by Gigi Griffis. "I highly recommend We Are the Beasts. Its great plot is heightened by compelling characterization and carried through with punchy and pungent prose, and I love how everything resolves by the end."
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-review-we-are-the-beasts-by-gigi-griffis/

On Dec. 12 I published a review of Robert Jackson Bennett's The Tainted Cup: Shadow of the Leviathan: Book 1. "Even though it wasn’t quite the book I’d been expecting, I found Robert Jackson Bennett’s The Tainted Cup (2024) to be a solid read, entertaining and intriguing. It wasn’t much like “a Nero Wolfe mystery in a fantasy setting” (as I’d seen it described) to my way of thinking, and it didn’t blow my mind like City of Stairs, the first of Bennett’s books that I’d read. But I like the protagonist, the worldbuilding becomes increasingly interesting, and the complicated plot has a very satisfying resolution, while leaving me eager for more."
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blog/book-review-the-tainted-cup-by-robert-jackson-bennett/

Review: LITTLE NOTHING, by Dee Holloway

Dee Holloway's Little Nothing is a really enjoyable novella that combines sapphic romance, alternative history, and low fantasy. Despite the magical elements, it feels grounded with immersive details of daily life in Florida in the lead-up to the U.S. Civil War. The story is also full of suspense and action, and the conclusion is very satisfying. My only complaint is that it's short, although the length fits the story being told; I want more from this author. 

Cover of Little Nothing, Dee Holloway

"Little Nothing" is a nickname that, while belittling, also provides protective cover for Johnnie,  the daughter of an escaped slave, Maria. Also, "little nothings" are what Johnnie's mother and Bess, the narrator and the daughter of Maria's employer, call the minor charms and curses that they weave into braids, ropes, and clothing in order to guard their loved ones and their secrets.

Aside from her innkeeping family, Bess loves Johnnie, who makes her living by catching and somewhat taming limerunners. Limeys are water horses with cloven hooves and sharp teeth; they spawn in the wetlands and start out as swimmers but eventually run on land, too. Some people call them demon steeds.

I really like their relationship. Bess and Johnnie respect each other's strengths, and while Bess is nervous about Johnnie's work and terrified of the risks that Johnnie runs as a message-bearer for the Union, Bess does her best to protect Johnnie. However, it turns out that Bess herself is also at risk, as a tool to be used against her sweetheart. But they work together as a very effective (and loving) team.

Each of the lovers also has strong family relationships, although those characters are less fully developed. Most of the other characters are basically sketches, from the local madame to the trappers who frequent the inn to the Confederate soldiers who want Johnnie to provide and control limerunners as a weapon in their arsenal against the Union. As it turns out, the Rebels are arrogant to think that they can control Johnnie and Bess so easily.

Along with the central relationship and plotting, I also really enjoy the worldbuilding in this book. Aside from the limerunners and the plaiting magic, there are also references to a community of runaway slaves and a spirit or goddess who looks over them. I grew up in a town in North Carolina, and I've never visited the Everglades, but I have walked around some wetlands and paddled a canoe on the Black River, so I have some familiarity with swampy terrain and enveloping heat. Everything feels authentic.

The language is also great, whether slow and thoughtful, simple, complex, pulse-pounding, or lyrical. Here's a paragraph that expresses some of the tensions throughout the book, along with the romance:

My heart ached to see her: girlish, suddenly just seventeen, my age. She liked people to think she was older, though the whole town knew her age, that Maria had fled down Florida's length with Johnnie growing inside her. She liked to be thought tough, capable, dangerous as any of the trappers, and those things were true. But the ticklish softness at the hollow of her throat was true, too, and the scars on her arms from feral limeys' teeth, and her face when she was praying at night before we slept.

Here's an interview with Dee Holloway and an excerpt of her reading from the first chapter of Little Nothing:
https://queerwords.org/2023/07/11/dee-holloway/

And here's where you can buy the novella:  https://queenofswordspress.com/product/little-nothing/

Content warnings: Violence, death, sexism, racism, slavery, sexual scenes although not graphic 

Comparisons: Sarah Gailey's River of Teeth; Eden Royce's Spook Lights: Southern Gothic Horror

Disclaimer: I received a free e-ARC of this novella for this review from Catherine Lundoff (a friend of a friend) at Queen of Swords Press. 

Audio/Video/Gaming Roundup

(Scroll down to Updates for my latest online activities, except for my Skiffy and Fanty reviews, which are posted separately!) Rather than adding another update to my Jan. 4 post, I'm starting a new roundup here:

Hugo Awards: I'll nominate for these by the deadline, April 30. I've heard I should NOT wait until the deadline due to some problems with the site that may slow me down, as they've slowed others. (UPDATE: Yes! I finished voting around 2:30 a.m. EDT today.)

GAMING: I've now played three sessions of Star Trek Adventures, GMed by Paul Weimer, with Shaun Duke and Arturo Serrano. These are not being streamed, they're just for our own entertainment. I'm playing a Romulan science officer (and XO, now acting Captain) from Diane Duane's The Romulan Way alternate universe who accidentally went through a portal to the game universe. An Andorian here sponsored me into Starfleet Academy just to tweak the Vulcans. The adventures have been fun so far, but the office politics are quite a bit more challenging than I'd anticipated!

I've also played two sessions of the Stargate RPG by Wyvern, GMed by Andrew Pontious (whom I podcast Stargate SG-Fun with), and including David Schaub (another SG-fun podcaster), Paul Weimer, and two other guys whom I'm not sure would want to be mentioned here. I'm playing an Aturen engineer who is not quite a pacifist anymore. This one is also a lot of fun. We recorded our voices in the first session and will probably put that on the SG-Fun podcast eventually, after I edit it.

Tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern, I'm playing a one-shot of the Fifth Season RPG based on N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy. I answered a casting call in the Rem Alternis Productions channel on Discord for this. If I'm interpreting everything correctly, this will be broadcast on GenConTV's Twitch channel. (UPDATE 5/1/23: It was! But due to Rem's busy stream-a-thon weekend, this has already dropped off her and GenConTV's Twitch channel's list of videos, so I have a YouTube link instead:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9os3PWnwXx8 ). Summary: It's an interesting world and system, but it dragged at the beginning as GM Teslan kept looking up rules and our "longstraws" [drafted investigators for the community] tried to figure out the mystery. However, I really liked how what most campaigns would consider extremely low stakes, tools that had gone missing, was a vital concern for our farming comm (community), since life in NKJ's Broken Earth is so very precarious.) 

I also signed up for two more one-shot games this weekend, for a multi-game weekend event being held on the Rem Alternis Twitch channel. At 9 p.m. Saturday, I'll be playing the location scout for a ghost-hunter TV show in Destination Investigations. (UPDATE: Macabre but light-hearted; mine was the second character death, but GM Panabon had pretty well implied that casualties would be heavy, and at the end we did a "rewind" segment, so no worries. I liked the surprise that was revealed about the setting! We had a good time playing a semi-quarrelsome crew with conflicting agendas. My costume was a T-shirt of a sort of phantom figure who used to roam the hallways at Balticon, and a headstrap flashlight that I thought looked a little like the GoPro webcam my character was supposedly wearing. The Twitch replay starts about 25:30 minutes into the stream:  https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1807260063 )

At 5 p.m. Sunday, I'll be playing an inventor/trick shooter in Through the Breach, set in the world of Malifaux, a sort of steampunky Weird West portal game. (UPDATE 5/1: I had a great time! Interesting setting, GM Jester kept everything running at a good pace without feeling railroaded, going with a narrative focus and basically ignoring mechanics helped with that; everybody got dressed up and got into good character roleplaying, and we managed a satisfying conclusion. My costume was a black cowboy hat with a black feather, a black leather vest, and a pink corduroy shirt. The Twitch replay starts about 30 minutes into the stream:  https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1808018830 )

On Monday night, if all goes well, I'll be resuming the Community D&D campaign, The Dragon of Icespire Peak, on Arvan Eleron's Twitch channel! We're hoping to wrap up this campaign during ArvCon, Memorial Day weekend, the annual fundraiser for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. (UPDATE 5/1/23: It now looks as though we'll probably resume on Wednesday, May 10, instead, 8:30 p.m. EDT, and play again on Monday, May 22, at 8 p.m. EDT.)

Video: Nothing new so far, except the games posted above.

AUDIO: As mentioned above, our Stargate SG-Fun podcast has resumed! Actually, so far we've just been editing and releasing audio that was already in the can, and recording a game we played. But we do intend to start recording SG-1 Season 3 show reviews soon.
The old episodes released via The Incomparable are here (podcasts 1-6, ending on the S1 cliffhanger:  https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/stargate/
All our episodes, including new episodes as well as the old ones, now being released independently, are here:  https://sgfun.space/
And we're now on Mastodon: @stargate_sg_fun@podcasts.social
These are the new ones: 
7. The Daniel of This Civilization (released Jan. 29): We discuss the movie that kicked it all off, and look back at Season 1. With special guest Mandy Self!
8. Chekhov’s Sarcophagus (released Feb. 12): Season 2 begins and it is not bad, not bad at all.
9. Can’t Leave the Planet Wrecked (released Feb. 27): We marvel at how many messes SG-1 has made. At least they’re trying to clean them up. With special guest Eric Scott!
10. The B-Plot Is Actually the A-Plot (released March 22): We watch and discuss the Jacob Carter trilogy, some unexpected meet-cutes, and how the writers just don’t like Teal’c and Sha’re.
11. Bathe in the Light of That Pretty Lantern (released April 17): We discuss the gravity of Stargates, how to win alien friends, and influence the weather.

I have also been on a couple more SFF Audio podcasts:
The SFFaudio Podcast #728 – Ministry Of Disturbance by H. Beam Piper – read by Phil Chenevert for Librivox. "This is a complete and unabridged reading of the novella (1 hour 55 minutes) followed by a discussion of it." With Jesse, Paul Weimer, and Evan Lampe. (released April 2) 
The SFFaudio Podcast #729 – The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain – read by John Greenman for Librivox. "This is a complete and unabridged reading of the novel (6 hours 42 minutes) followed by a discussion of it." With Jesse and Paul Weimer. (released April 10) 

UPDATE 5/15/23:
The SFFaudio Podcast #734 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Black Stranger by Robert E. Howard  -- read by Connor Kaye.  "This is a complete and unabridged reading of the novella (3 hours 30 minutes) followed by a discussion" hosted by Jesse, with Paul Weimer, Connor Kaye, Alex, Cora Buhlert and me. 

UPDATE 5/25/23:
AUDIO: The SFFaudio Podcast #735 – READALONG: A Night In Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny. Actually, it's A Night in the Lonesome October. Hosted by Jesse, with Paul Weimer and Tony DeSimone. One of my favorite books; I usually listen to each day's diary entry each October. Released Oct. 22, 2023.

AUDIO: Skiffy and Fanty #737. S&F CLACKS #2: DUNGEONS, WORLDCON, AND AFTERLIVES, OH MY! I joined Shaun Duke, Brandon O’Brien, and Paul Weimer on the Twitch channel for Skiffy and Fanty on April 7 to discuss the D&D Creators Summit and the future of the game, the Chengdu Worldcon and the Hugo Awards, and the passing of Rachel Pollack. This was turned into a podcast that was released on March 23. 

AUDIO: Skiffy and Fanty #738. TIMELINE (2003) — TORTURE CINEMA #130. From the episode discussion: "Shaun Duke, Paul Weimer, and Trish Matson join forces to tackle a time travel “classic” — Timeline! Together, they try to make sense of its plot, make fun of its treatment of medieval France, fawn over Gerard Butler, and get lost in thought about strange things that will make you giggle." 

In addition to participating in this discussion, I did extensive audio editing for it, by filtering noise; synchronizing tracks; sliding tracks around in time or muting parts of the conversation to fix crosstalk issues; picking a section of conversation to highlight in the cold open; and adding the usual musical intro and outro.

GAMING: The Shadowcrew resumed our campaign of Community Dungeons & Dragons: The Dragon of Icespire Peak, on https://twitch.tv/arvaneleron on Monday, May 22! We almost, um, killed the equivalent of Ori, Nori, Dori and Gloin. Sort of. We'll see how that resolves on Saturday night from 10 p.m. EDT to midnight! You can see the YouTube replay on (51) Arv streams Day 30 of Community D&D: Dragon of Icespire Peak--Into Icespire! - YouTube .

UPDATE 6/6/23:
AUDIO EDITING: I edited Skiffy and Fanty #742. LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION (SEASON 2) W/ MICHI TROTA — SCREEN SCOUTS. I wasn't on this episode, but I did all the editing for it, unless our fearless leader Shaun Duke did something subtle. His tweet about it thanked me for the editing, not for helping with the editing. This time, I watched a half-hour YouTube video about NoiseGate before I started, and I understand the attack/decay aspects much better. So the noise filtering was easier, but as usual, I spent much more time on snipping out stutters, ums, and other verbal fillers, and sliding tracks around to fix people talking over each other -- about six hours of editing for 1:22:15 of polished audio. Released June 4.

AUDIO: The SFFaudio Podcast #737 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Cosmic Computer by H. Beam Piper. Hosted by Jesse, with Paul Weimer, Tony DeSimone, and me. I found it to be an enjoyable tale, despite some quibbles, but not Piper's best work (my favorite remains his novelette Omnilingual).

UPDATE 6/12/23:
AUDIO: The SFFaudio Podcast #738 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain. Hosted by Jesse, with Paul Weimer and David J. West. I believe this is the longest single-total podcast I've been on yet, at 21:23:33, although 19 hours and 23 minutes of that is the audiobook. So it's not the longest podcast discussion in which I've participated. I do not recommend subjecting yourself to the audiobook unless you're a Twain completionist; skim the text instead if you want -- not that the narration is terrible, but many of the attitudes expressed are, so why undergo that? It may be that Twain himself is not as prejudiced as the opinions he expresses, but is instead making fun of those attitudes, but the fact that I'm in doubt indicates that it's not well done. Or maybe he was just being that subtle in order to slip it past his editors and the part of his audience that wanted to feel that way, but it made me cringe a lot.

UPDATE 7/11/23:
TWITCH: I was a major organizer for the prize giveaways during ArvCon, ArvanEleron's annual gaming marathon that raises money for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. This year we ran from Thursday, May 25, through Sunday, May 28, and raised $6,100.01, which although a bit less than last year's total, is still a very respectable sum.

GAMING:
Community D&D: The Dragon of Icespire Peak held its thrilling conclusion on the Saturday night of ArvCon! None of the ShadowCrew characters died, but we were left with the decision of what to do with the egg left behind by the ice dragon. My Tabaxi bard, Grace of the Refreshing Breeze, convinced the others that we should try to find some good dragon who'd be willing to raise the egg. Here's the replay: Arv streams ArvCon 2023, Day 3--Community D&D: The Finale of Dragon of Icespire Peak!

The following month, on Saturday, June 24, the ShadowCrew convened again on Arvan's channel for a postmortem discussion that lasted for four hours, actually longer than the finale episode. We talked about possible epilogues for our characters, favorite interactions and other moments from the campaign, reasons for decisions our characters made, and much more. It was great having a chance to wrap things up like that. Here's the replay: Arv streams Community D&D: The ShadowCrew discusses their Dragon of Icespire Peak campaign! 

This past weekend, July 6-9, was A Weekend with Good Friends, an online horror gaming convention organized on the Discord for the podcast The Good Friends of Jackson Elias, which focuses on the Call of Cthulhu and other horror roleplaying games. The games were played over Discord channels, with strict prohibitions against streaming or recording. I played three games during this, none of them Call of Cthulhu, although one of them used the Mi-Go as antagonists. The first game was Mothership, a science fiction RPG that felt very similar to the Alien RPG; the crew I was with investigated a derelict spaceship, and things did not go well, although three of us survived. We used pre-generated characters, and the GM guided us through the minimal rules. It was fun!

My other two games were a bit lighter in tone, played in the system Moonlight on Roseville Beach and GMed by its creator. From its itch.io page: "Queer pulp meets cosmic horror! It's 1979, and you're spending the summer working in Roseville Beach, the queerest little town on Rose Island. You might have come here looking for an escape, some fun, a little extra money, or even love, but now people are seeing phantasms, strange animals—and stranger old gods—wander the woods, mysterious monoliths appear randomly, and that strange music is coming from somewhere." These games also used pregens, and the rules again were minimal, but we had a slow start on both nights as people felt their way into their characters, flirted with NPCs, realized that there were mysteries, and investigated those mysteries; however, the final hour of each game was full of excitement and action, so I was happy to have played them.

UPDATE 8/17/23:
AUDIO: I appeared on July 17, 2023, on The SFFaudio Podcast #743 – READALONG: The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper, with host Jesse, Paul "Prince Jvstin" Weimer, and Alex of "PulpCovers." I actually reread four books and read the fifth of The Dark Is Rising sequence. My favorite this time through is Greenwitch, the third in the quintology. 

GAMING: I roleplayed again in Star Trek Adventures (I think this was our fifth game together) on Saturday, Aug. 11. Our GM said we keep challenging him by going off the rails; I picked up early on his clue that we had "returned" to the wrong universe when the Starfleet captain referred to the Unified Federation instead of the United Federation. My character thought aggrievedly, "I thought we were back home! ... Wait, when did I start thinking of that place as home?" Clue drop (to the other players, not to their characters)!

I have also played in a couple more pick-up games (voice only) on The Good Friends of Jackson Elias Discord channel. The first was Call of Cthulhu, set in 1979 San Francisco, investigating an archaeological dig sited in an old ship that had been used as a warehouse, and buried after a fire. We all made it out alive and sane!  

The second was "The Murder Shack" on Aug. 11. I'd heard an actual play podcast of this Call of Cthulhu scenario earlier on Ain't Slayed Nobody, so I was pretty sure we weren't going to make it out alive or sane, but I was in the mood for some roleplaying, and the time was convenient. The GM posted the next day that "I'm still thinking of the level of emotional engagement that all of you brought, [My character] at the meeting talking about her mother sends shivers down my spine." (The scenario started with a group therapy session for people who'd lost loved ones.)

Our Stargate RPG resumed on July 29, "The Most Dangerous Game," set on a dinosaur world. We play again this Saturday.

UPDATE 9/5/2023

GAMING: I appeared on Shaun Duke's Twitch stream in an RPG named Call of Catthulhu or Cats of Catthulhu. I played an Abyssinian housecat, a Pampered Baby, with cats played by Shaun (alphabetstreams), Jen Zink (Loopdilou), and Josh (Talidos). Paul "PrinceJvstin" Weimer was our Cat Herder. It was a lot of fun, and we may play again sometime! Shaun's channel is live now, so I can't link to the specific video, but here's his Twitch stream:  https://www.twitch.tv/alphabetstreams

UPDATE 9/27/2023

GAMING: Here's that Cats of Catthulhu link:  https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1913787507

And our SG-13 roleplayers did play Part 2 of the dinosaur world episode of the Stargate RPG, but again, it was a private game, so there's no link.

 

PODCASTS:

AUDIO: I streamed on Skiffy and Fanty's S&F Clacks #3 show, a discussion of genre news, a couple of months ago on Twitch.  Here's the podcast that got released on Sept. 17:  https://ia800508.us.archive.org/0/items/sand-f-745-clacks-3/SandF_745_Clacks3.mp3

I was also on Clacks #5 a couple of weeks ago, but there's no VOD, so I'll try to link the podcast when it's released. But it'll be outdated, again.

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-753-audiobook-readalong-the-golden-slave-by-poul-anderson/  -- Released on Sept. 18, this was hosted by Jesse, with Paul Weimer and me. It was quite readable, with an interesting twist at the end. I don't think anyone needs to read/listen to the book to enjoy our discussion.

 

UPDATE 10/23/23

GAMING: On Saturday 10/22 I played another session of the private Stargate RPG. This was set up as a humorous episode, and we had a lot of fun. The GM enjoyed the writeup I had done of the five Great Houses of Aturen. Coming up with five flavors of pacifists was a little challenging, but he liked how I did it, and it helped add to the gameplay.

Yesterday (10/22/23), I also played another episode of Destination Investigations GMed by Panabon on the new Shadows of Nox channel on Twitch. Things went poorly for me and the other players, but it was a lot of fun anyway. Bonus: In addition to playing with Paul Weimer, I also got to play with Jennifer Brozak and her husband! (Update 11/13/23: This episode is now on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGorAIAdS0o)

 

AUDIO:  Shaun Duke and I recorded an interview for the Skiffy and Fanty Show that was released as a podcast on Oct. 19. It was with Wole Talabi, centering on his new book, Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon. It's his first novel, although he has published a short story collection. I really enjoyed the book and the discussion.  747. Wole Talabi (a.k.a. The Dreamer) — Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon

UPDATE 10/30/23

AUDIO: An episode of the Skiffy and Fanty Show's Twitch stream Clacks, which discusses current events, that was streamed several months ago finally got converted to audio and published as a podcast on Oct. 26. Shaun Duke, Paul Weimer, Daniel Haeusser and I talked about Hugo nominees (long before the winners were announced), writers' strikes, and other issues.

748. S&F Clacks #4: Hugos, Strikes, and Simon’s Schuster, Oh My!

 

UPDATE 11/5/23:

AUDIO: The Stargate SG-Fun podcast that I'm on with Andrew Pontious and David Schaub released its 12 episode today: Token Tok'ra. We discuss Season 2, episodes 17-20. We enthuse over Serpent's Song and talk a little about Holiday and One False Step, and a little more about Show and Tell. sgfun.space/token-tokra/

UPDATE 11/6/23:

AUDIO: The SFFaudio Podcast #759 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: Star Born by Andre Norton  -- I liked Star Born much more than her terribly disappointing Star Hunter, and I enjoyed the discussion with Jesse, Paul Weimer, and Alex (PulpCovers.com). (The book is the first 6 hours and 34 minutes of the 8-hour, 16-minute podcast.)

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-759-audiobook-readalong-star-born-by-andre-norton/

UPDATE 11/14/23:  

AUDIO: The Skiffy and Fanty Show, Patreon episode: Speculative Dispatch #33: SFF Romance, released 11/7/23.  "Shaun, Jen, and Trish joined forces to talk about the contours and meanings of SFF Romance. What is it? What makes it a compelling genre? And what are some good ones to check out?"

https://www.patreon.com/posts/92487046?pr=true

 

The SFFaudio Podcast #760 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Poison Belt by Arthur Conan Doyle: Horrible classism, sexism, racism, etc., but a really interesting, enjoyable, wide-ranging discussion with Jesse, Paul Weimer, Bryan Alexander, and Terence Blake. Bryan Alexander thanked me enthusiastically for bringing up The Comet by W.E.B. DuBois, and I made some other good points. The audiobook is 3 hours, 17 minutes, and the podcast totals 5 hours and 26 minutes. Released 11/13/23.

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-760-audiobook-readalong-the-poison-belt-by-arthur-conan-doyle/

 

UPDATE 12/4/23:

STREAMING/FUTURE AUDIO: On Friday, Dec. 1, I discussed the 1964 stop-motion claymation Christmas classic, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, on Shaun Duke's Twitch channel, alphabetstreams, with him and Paul Weimer. We all love it, despite the cringy moments, and support its ultimate message against conformity. Eventually, our discussion will be edited into a podcast.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1992574976

(Edit: The podcast was released Dec. 23: https://skiffyandfanty.com/podcasts/757rudolph/ )

The SFFaudio Podcast #763 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The City Of The Singing Flame by Clark Ashton Smith, read by Tommy Patrick Ryan. This is a complete and unabridged reading of the book (1 hours, 30 minutes) followed by a discussion of it. Participants in the discussion include Jesse, Paul Weimer, Trish E. Matson, Connor Kaye, and Tommy Patrick Ryan. I haven't re-listened yet, but I do recall (from recording this half a year ago) that it was an interesting book and discussion. Released 12/4/2023.

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-763-audiobook-readalong-the-city-of-the-singing-flame-by-clark-ashton-smith/

UPDATE 12/13/23:

AUDIO: The SFFaudio Podcast #764 – READALONG: Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, discussed with host Jesse, Paul Weimer, Cora Buhlert, and Jonathan Manfred Weichsel. Released 12/12/23. This was a wide-ranging discussion that somehow lasted about 3.5 hours, although I believe I bailed earlier. I haven't had a chance to re-listen yet.

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-764-readalong-logans-run-by-william-f-nolan-and-george-clayton-johnson/

UPDATE 12/21/23:

GAMING (not public): I played another session of the Stargate RPG on Saturday, Dec. 16. It was a good time -- our Cleanup Crew, SG-14C, returned to the planet from "Brief Candle" and guarded a rapidly-aged-to-adolescence Charlie. We fended off an attack by Jaffa, but it turned out that they were fake Jaffa on a mission from Col. Maybourne, who'd wanted to take Charlie and his Tok'ra companions off to a secret base, for nefarious purposes of his own. We sent him off vowing that we'd be sorry one day.

I'll be playing a futuristic Call of Cthulhu one-shot next Thursday, via The Good Friends of Jackson Elias Discord, run by Zoekitten (was this the San Francisco GM?). This is the first time on that server that someone has messaged me ahead of time to be an invited player, instead of me just signing up for a pickup! The scenario is At the Gates of Carcosa. My pregenerated character is the traumatized Capt. Anna Chang. (Not being broadcast or recorded AFAIK.)

UPDATE 12/25/23 (actually posted 1/8/24):

AUDIO: The SFFaudio Podcast #766 – READALONG: Invitation To The Game by Monica Hughes, discussed with Paul Weimer and host Jesse. I think this may be the shortest SFFAudio podcast I've been on, at just 1:14:54. I read this back in 1990 when it was published, and although I think this is a TERRIBLE way for a government to (plot spoilers), I found it a pretty interesting story. Preferable to Robert Heinlein's Tunnel in the Sky, anyway.

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-766-readalong-invitation-to-the-game-by-monica-hughes/