Bourbon Penn 30, August 2023

Bourbon Penn 21, July 2020

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

As previously mentioned, I've been aware of Bourbon Penn from the Submissions Grinder, but I hadn't actually seen a copy until a couple of conventions ago. Now I have three print editions (perfect for pool reading). A quick check tells me that the stories in this issue are available online for free (https://www.bourbonpenn.com/issue/30), so I could read these whenever I'm at my desk, which isn't quite as good as in the pool.

This was another interesting collection (over 150 pages long), and I enjoyed most of them (as well as pool time). Not all of these stories had "speculative elements". Some were just odd.

A quick rundown of the stories:

• "The Demon Lord of Broken Concrete" by Alex Irvine seems to be a standard white-trash, coming-of-age story of a young man, Zack, who gets smacked around too much by life and his father. There's a slow kid named Tim that Zack knows, and Tim is killed by the second page. The story isn't about Tim. It's about life sucking. There is no real Demon Lord of Broken Concrete, but you can see why someone would create him along with the Marquess of Daddy's Eighth Beer, Our Lady of What Did You Just Say to ME?, He Who Reigns over White Panel Vans, Our Lord of Kindly Men Who Want to Show You a Puppy, the Archfiend of This Will Hurt Me More Than It Does You, the Earl of The Looks You Get When You Use Food Stamps at the Grocery Store, the Duke of Home from School to an Empty Fridge. Also mentioned are the Viscount of Rust and the Baroness of Shattered Glass.
  I'm not making fun with that passage. Actually, I admired how creative it was and how smoothly it read despite extending the metaphor well past the point other writers might've stopped. It shows both the mindset of Zack and the life of those around him. Unfortunately, there wasn't much more to the story. I didn't hate it, but there isn't much I remember about it a couple of weeks later.


• "Polar Shift" by Mir Seidel also is less speculative and more weird. Unless I missed something, it's about two Russians who are stationed in a cabin near the magnetic north pole who have to track the pole whenever it shifts. Their relief has been delayed and their are freezing and starving. The only thing speculative is that one of them is convinced that he's met the other before, and I didn't understand what was going on there.


• "Bachelard Forgets the Kitchen" by Cedric May is another odd entry that isn't exactly speculative. It stats with a woman (she tries out a few names) having a bad dream, which is what "He" grunts before rolling over and going back to sleep. The narrator that philosopizes about Jorge Louis Borges who belived that the waking world and the dream world were pages of the same book. The woman ponders how things would be better it we knew what kind of book it was and if we could jump around the pages. (This actually is a decent setup for an urban fantasy story, but alas...) Seven scenes follow, and she doesn't like what she sees. She's awoken by the man, who says, "Holy sh*t, Janie. You're were screaming." He goes back to sleep and (oops, spoiler), she goes to the kitchen to get a knife. (The implied subtext is that she's going to stab her husband who's obviously the root of all evil in her life.) I had to look up Bachelard to find out what kind of philosopy he practiced and wrote about, and it wasn't anything that I could summarize in two sentences.


• "Strange Eons" by Keira Perkins gives us a Lovecraftian horror in the sky. Time has stopped except for the things that haven't stopped without rhyme or reason (or whatever doesn't fit into the story, which actually doesn't bother me, but it's addressed). Again, a good setup, and then it goes into something about abortion -- the narrator (I scanned for a name, I didn't see one) had an abortion and she believes the monsters in the sky are her punishment. Since time is frozen, she hasn't fully healed and she's still bleeding. This leads her to believe that her blood is feeding the cicadas that are waking up and flourishing way ahead of schedule. They swarm of to join the elder god. Her boyfriend, Jaxon, arrives and protests that he could've taken care of her and the baby even though he's going away to college -- he's basically shallow and clueless. The author works in a dig at Lovecraft calling him "a racist and giant weenie" who got some things right about giant space aliens that drive you a little mad. I guess people like to write Lovecraftian but if they acknowledge him, the disclaimer needs to be added.
  Shockingly, I've never read any Lovecraft. (I once picked up a book of "Lovecraftian horror" and it turned out to be an essay about what makes good horror along with a collection of stories he mentioned or ones that were similar in nature.) I will at some point.


• "Partial Transcript from the Great Brexit Baking Show" by Rich Larson: when I saw the title, I thought that there's no way that this isn't going to be something political and that there's little chance this might be some middle-of-the-road, burn-all-sides, screwball comedy. Well, it wasn't exactly. It was supposed to be a future reality baking show when the heat outside is ridiculously hot and where one of the judges is a spheroid AI version of a deceased judge. No one is allowed to criticize anything British nor complement France or other places. The story is told in script form, which I compliment the magazine for accepting (although you can't accept these often), but the story itself is of an unscripted bake-off. A "transcript" would've made more sense.
  As for the story itself, like the competition itself, falls flat and leaves a bad taste. It just ends with a random fire and some smoke.


• "It Tastes of Rot" by Margaret Roach is the second "experimental" format story in a row, this one being told as journal entries starting at Day 40 since she last left his apartment to venture out into the declining state of the outside world. She makes an allusion to the Lord in the desert, and that sets the stage. Her husband (the wonderful Mr. Wright!) is long absent and returns wearing a hazmat suit that he doesn't remove.
  The woman, who later becomes Jezebel, is the quintessential unreliable narrator as she is slowly going nuts from her isolation, which could've been inspired by Covid as much as by environmental disaster. (There's black sludge.) In the beginning of the story, she's making bread and considers the dough her son. The son grows and even bites a finger off her hand, which the "mother" gives up willingly. She gets a job with an orgazination with the acronym SATAN, which has nothing to do with newts. She is supposed to release the rot onto the world. This is the way her live is supposed to be. Until it isn't.
  It was an interesting story as her sanity flees and the threat increases. It actually ends before one year passes, which is something I expected, so points for subverting expectations there.
• "Clown’s Balloons" by Sam Rebelein is the kind of story that I'm glad I didn't read when I was younger. It starts off well enough with its premise: a clown shows up one day on the corner across the street from Selene's office on her birthday. She assumes its an office prank, but no one admits to it. The clown has three helium balloons he holds all day and just stares at her all day. Others can see the clown, and people on the street walked around the clown to avoid it. He continues to appear daily, and she can't explain something -- maybe he's getting helium every night, and maybe he can train himself to stand there, but he doesn't ever blink. Selene takes time to figure out how he's doing everything to the point that she can almost do this herself (at her office, mind you), but her solution to the non-blinking is a bit extreme and thankfully happens off-camera. She does return to the office (at this point one wonders how she still has a job) to "watch" the clown. Along the way, we discover from the clown's POV that it's an alien and it isn't even biological, at least in the alien sense. When it landed, it thought trains were sentient and the passengers were parasites. Its world has been destroyed by worms. Anyway, it started off interesting but didn't have a payoff, or rather, it did, but not one that I was looking for.

Once again, I didn't recognize any of the authors' names from any other magazines or from conventions. (One of them had a story adapted for an episode of Love, Death, Robots, which won an Emmy.)

Once again, the cover doesn't go with any story. Amusingly, I was so focuses on the bear's face as it growled (and I wasn't exactly sure that it was a bear) that I never noticed that the creature hiding behind it was a piglet standing on its hind legs wearing a pink jumper. And the bear is wearing a short ill-fitting red shirt. Bom K.'s cover art is entitled "The Real Winnie" as Winnie the Pooh entered into the public domain in (I'm inferring) 2023, and the artist wanted to get a horror feel for the characters. (Piglet's holding a sharp, pointy weapon.) This is a little confusing because the clothing indicates the Disney versions, which are NOT PD yet.

Final words: I started writing up stories as I read them, so I wouldn't forget the details (which is part of the point of this blog in the first place).

I almost read this issue first because, I think, it was the first one I picked up. Then I realized that one of the others came first sequentially, not that it should matter. However, in this case, it might have because this issue was not for me. Had I read this first, I would've put the others on the bottom of the TBR pool magazines pile. (So to be a Subway TBR pile, or a pile that gets shoved away until next summer.)

I have one more of these, but I'll probably switch magazines.

This one will be going into a Little Free Library in the neighborhood, but not the one in front of the elementary school.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

American War

American War
Omar El Akkad (2017)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a Pandemic Book Club selection. The vote was about even for this and Model Home, so we picked Model home for July and American War for August. I finished this a while ago and just haven't gotten around to posting. The discussion was postponed (it should've been a few night ago).

I listened to the book twice and then read it. I know I miss stuff listening to books while I'm out walking, but it seemed to just end on me, so I listened again. I was a little confused about the narrator as this story is something that happened mostly before he was born. But the biggest thing I missed out on with the audio was the future map of the United States that's included in the book. The oceans have risen enough that Florida is almost completely under water, leaving basically as island or two. Note: I checked and this means that within a hundred years the sea level will rise nearly 100 feet. Furthermore, the United States seems to have disintegrated a bit territorially.

Okay, so climate disaster, let's run with that. But then there's a second Civil War with the "South" fighting the "North" (again, this is worse without a map), with the South being essentially Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, which doesn't seem to be much of a threat for much of a war. (Mississipi was where the president was assassinated.) Louisiana apparently isn't included in the South, and, of course, Florida doesn't exist any more. Also, South Carolina is quarantined because of a biological agent that the U.S. government released there to quell succession.

Now it starts getting needlessly complex: the reason that these three states broke away is that the United States banned gasoline. This immediately had me curious why these states had such a problem with that and why isn't Texas involved? (Again, see the map.) One explanation for the oil states not being included is because they could sell their products overseas, unless things were banned worldwide. We don't know what the rest of the planet looks like.

A final straw was when the author refered to the line separating the north and south as the MAG line (from the three states). Why not just go with MAGA line? Maybe I was reading too much into it, but later, instead of them being the Blue and the Gray, they were the Blues and the Reds.

The oil angle also falls flat in that its mentioned that refineries have shut down, but there still seems to be a lot of things available that are made with petroleum products. There are some problems with the world building, in general. As someone in the club pointed out, they have tablets but no one has phones. There appears to be at least some satellites available. Granted, we see the world through a bunch of refugees barely surviving, but if they have tablets, would it be strange for someone to have a phone? What exactly is the level of technology in this world?

Okay -- now let's put all that aside and get to the actual story which has NOTHING to do with the environment.

The story opens with the narrator (a man) living in a warm, new Alaska telling us that he was born in the generation between the war and the beginning of a pandenic that wiped out much of the United States (Covid on steroids, from the sound of it). It then flashes back to Louisiana and the time of his grandparents living in Louisiana who were afraid that the war was coming to them and wanted to move north. (I don't remember if that meant "to the north" or just farther north in the Free Southern State (MAG).)

The father is killed by a suicide bomber, and the family (mother, Simon the son, twin daughter Dana and Sarah (called Sarat because of a typo)) makes its way into Camp Patience on the Mississippi-Tennessee border. They live there for six years before a militia raid kills the mother and Dana. Simon becomes a soldier and Sarat is radicalized by agents of the Bouazizi (Bwah-zizi) Empire, comprised of North Africa and Middle East nations, that wants to keep the U.S. weak so the Empire can become strong.

Sarat becomes a capable soldier who changes the course of the war with one of her assassination. However, she is later captured and spends years in a Florida prision where she's tortured (including waterboarding) for information that she won't give up. She realizes that they don't know what she actually did while they're accusing her of other things. She also realizes that their information they have on her isn't correct. She's finally released, broken, and finds her brother, who was wounded in the head in the war and a folk hero. He's now married to the woman caring for him, and they have a son.

The war is over and there is going to be a treaty. Representatives from the South squabble over inconsequential things while ignoring major grievances. Sarat returns to fighting after taking some revenge for past wrongs. Then she goes on a suicide mission to bring down the government which will start the pandemic that we know is coming. Before this, she kidnaps her nephew and gives him to outlaws to get him to Alaska along with a package to give him we he's a man.

He reads the note on his 18th birthday that has some numbers he doesn't understand and doesn't think about it for 40 years. Then when revisiting it, he realizes that they are coordinates that bring him back to the south for Sarat's final message to him.

I don't know what to make of this book. It was a bit frustrating because some of it just didn't make much sense, but it was background for the main story so I let it slide. I kept wondering why those three states and why the rest of the country didn't roll over them. And why it was all "north" and "south" -- where's the midwest and west. (Again, the map would've helped.) Despite being so far in the future, it seemed like too much of today was being forced into the story. It's a cautionary tale, but the war itself never made much sense to me. Aside from that, the story of the radicalization of this one woman and its repurcussions weren't bad. And, let's face it, the book after "Model Home" was going to get a boost just from not being "Model Home".

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my new book series that starts with, 7 Flashes of Science Fiction, seven glimpses into possible futures for our world and the worlds around us.

West With Giraffes (Rutledge)

West with Giraffes
Lynda Rutledge (2023)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a Pandemic Book Club aleternate selection. It was my month to select three books, and I immediately put the books, ebooks, and/or audiobooks on hold at the libraries. This book, however, was only available in hard cover and when it arrived, I only read about half of it before it had to be returned. I thought about keeping it late and returning it, but I didn't want to rush it, and I had other things to read, I'm sure. So I returned it and got it back a couple months later.

There is one thing about this that reminds me of Titanic, and that's the fact that this historical drama involves an event from so long ago that the narrator involved needed to be over a hundred years old. It's a framing device to make the story more compelling, I guess, but I wonder if it'll seem a little odd to folks who check this out a decade from now. Maybe not.

The other good thing about using this technique is that the narrator doesn't need to get everything exactly right. On the other hand, there are newspaper clippings which support the story.

First, the history lesson, during the Depression, two giraffes arrived by boat to New York City, and they needed to be transported to the San Diego Zoo. There was a terrible storm when the ship made port like hadn't been seen in NYC in a long time, and one of the giraffes ("Girl") injured her leg. This meant that the injury had to be watched closely and that time was of the essence to get them across the country.

Some of the characters in the book are based on living people. The protagonist, Woodrow Wilson Nickel (aka Woody Nickel) is the author's invention. He's a young teen, who fled the Dust Bowl and death and had nothing going on for him. He sees the giraffes and follows them through quarantine. The giraffes like him, and the Old Man (if his name is mentioned, I've forgotten it) hires him temporarily, but he ends up making it most of the way across the country.

They get into a few scrapes along the way. And they are followed by a young, female photographer who reportedly stole the car she's driving. Woody is quite taken with her, and she seems to like him. She is married, however, if only for the time being, and Woody is just shy of his 18th birthday (which occurs along the way).

History tells us that the giraffes made it to San Diego, but what happens to the major players?

This was an enjoyable book, so there's no reason to spoil it. But you know that Woody will end up in a nursing home at 105 where he'll quickly scribble what he remembers while he still can. (He even "sees" giraffes out his window, so his mind is going a little.)

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my new book series that starts with, 7 Flashes of Science Fiction, seven glimpses into possible futures for our world and the worlds around us.

The Three-Body Problem (Liu Cixin)

The Three-Body Problem
Liu Cixin (2008)

[AUDIO ONLY -- no image]

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I've had this ebook for a long time. I started it once or twice and didn't really get into it. It's been suggested by Libby before, and I thought, why not just listen to it? If I like it, maybe I'll read it after. I listened. I don't know if I'll read it.

I know that the Three-Body Problem deals with three objects in a stable orbit about one another. If you were to look at an animated .GIF file, it would be interesting to look at. Adding to this is a fourth object, which would be a planet in such a system. All of this appears to the main character as a very realistic interactive game. She witnesses several civilizations fall as stable eras become chaotic eras when the population needs to dehydrate themselves so that they can be brought back in the next stable era.

(Another piece of confusion -- the book starts at the time of the revolution in China but jumps ahead to the present time. This was lost on me in the sporadic listening I was doing. Also, it was narrated by a male, so I wasn't always aware when the character speaking was female.)

I honestly couldn't tell you what was going on it the rest of the book outside the game. She is a scientist in China, so everyone needs to toe the party line or at least keep it in mind.

We also find out that Trisolaris (if I remember correctly) turns out to be real and when they are contacted, they insist that Earth not contact them again, lest they be invaded. But Earth does. What will the next four centuries bring?

I listened to the opening chapters twice (which is getting to be a habit). And I listened to the ending twice, just to make sure that I heard the ending. It did just seem to stop to me. But I probably just missed stuff along the way.

The book was okay. I don't know if I'm reading it later. I might watch it on Netflix though.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my new book series that starts with, 7 Flashes of Science Fiction, seven glimpses into possible futures for our world and the worlds around us.

On Earth as It Is on Television (Jane)

On Earth as It Is on Television
Emily Jane (2023)

[AUDIO ONLY -- no image]

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was a random audiobook selection that I found in a library app. It suffered from being an audiobook on a few fronts. First, the multiple POV shifts made it confusing to follow when I started and stopped too often, so I had to listen on longer walks (not to the subway in the morning). Second, it was just difficult keeping track of the characters and I wasn't always sure where I was. Third, some of the voice work, particularly the kids talking about "Mr. Meow Mitts" were really, really annoying. Really.

Whatever everyone had going on in their lives, and there was something for everyone, it all took a strange turn when alien ships enter the atmosphere. And then, even stranger, the ships all left, and no one knows why. Why did they come all this way and then just leave?

Also, any time someone acts a little strange, there's talk of trying to peel their skin off to see if they're really an alien. The kids think their dad might be one. (Not really a spoiler: He's not, but Mom is.)

We later learn that aliens have been living among us for some time. They were supposed to be watching and not interfering, but they didn't know how long they were going to be her, or even if they're stuck here, so they joined humanity. (They don't actually look like us, but they were "downloaded" into human bodies.) Some of them know about each other even though they aren't supposed to. One of them was even a "Jeopardy" champion and met Alex Trebek. (They've been here a while.)

The main characters all seem to be on the move for one reason or another, and all of them seem to have cats with them, some of which can talk to their companions.

As far as I can tell, the original dropping off aliens was 20 years earlier and went unnoticed. The ships arriving now was basically sending a message that they'd be coming back soon. Things work out somewhat for most of the aliens although we never actually learn how many are hear because, again, they aren't supposed to know.

The book was okay, except for the annoying kids (and "Mr. Meow Mitts"). I don't think I'm come back to reading it unless my book club somehow chooses it, and I'm not recommending it.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my new book series that starts with, 7 Flashes of Science Fiction, seven glimpses into possible futures for our world and the worlds around us.

Bourbon Penn 21, July 2020

Bourbon Penn 21, July 2020

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I've been aware of Bourbon Penn from the Submissions Grinder, but I hadn't actually seen a copy until a couple of conventions ago. Now I have three print editions (perfect for pool reading). A quick check tells me that the stories are available online for free (https://www.bourbonpenn.com/issue/21), so I could read these whenever I'm at my desk.

This was an interesting collection (over 150 pages long, so I can count it as a book) of odd science fiction and fantasy, and I enjoyed most of them (as well as pool time).

A quick rundown of the stories:

• "To Inherit Hunger" by Crystal Lynn Hilbert starts off with a child being able to see her mother's hallucinations. It's a condition that her mother inherited from her father. They become more real and tangible as time goes on, causing brain damage and finally death. Jillian starts to figure out that her mother's condition could be something else, and she tries to solve it logically, but her mother doesn't cooperate. At one point, she forces her mother's hands above her hand to see if she can touch the birds flying overhead -- and her mother tells her that there's nothing there. Jillian is showing symptons. There is a puzzle to solve and a twist in the conclusion.
• "Patchwork" by Maria Dones confused me a little, switching between two worlds: a princess and a dragon, and the popular girl sitting on the bus next to a dorky kid who can help with an assignment. The ending left me scratching my head a little as to which was which.
• "Unnamed Government Agency" by Josh Pearce suffered from my reading it in two parts over two days. The second day, I was having trying remembering the first. You have "Men" in black, codenamed Eye, Ear, and Voice, which name the function that the mainly serve, investigating some weirdness or other. There were also characters named Aural and Iris, unless they were Ear and Eye, or maybe a different Ear and Eye. I didn't follow this one, and it left me confused but not in a good way. It wasn't quite as X-Files as I would've liked. But I did like that someone was Eyes of the group, etc.
• "Carrion Coast Highway" by Barton Aikman is a post-apocalyptic tale (I assume) with the two main characters searching for a farm that they'd heard about. There's a bit about beached whales and another with animals on the mountains jumping off and ascending (which was unexplained, except that it doesn't work for humans). It just ends in a less than satisfying way. It also ends with a plot hole, or a plot gaffe. It mentions in the closing pages that they stole the car, and that they used a rock to break a window. However, when they arrive, they say they don't need the car any more and toss the key on the seat. Okay, so then why did they need to break a window if they had a key? This was also just a subplot to show that they weren't nice people. (In fact, they're bad people.)
• "Blow Flies" by Erin K. Wagner doesn't seem to have an obvious speculative element in it unless I'm oblivious, or unless the guy that I thought was dead was actually undead. A woman gets a message for her husband from his parents that he never wants to see that see to come quick because there isn't much time. She goes instead. She isn't exactly welcome as it isn't her house and the note wasn't for her. This one didn't do anything for me.
• "Disappearer" by Jason Baltazar had it's good points and dull points. It did manage to go in a direction that I didn't expect, which was nice, but the plot after we learn of Maddox's condition -- he accidentally makes things disappear -- is a bit cliche to the point of embarrasment. Granted, the author is Salvadoran, so I can assume he's writing the half-white, half-Salvadoran Maddox from some kind of experience, but the behavior of the drunk cop in the story (who used to date Maddox's mother) would've been over the top in the 1950s. Maddox has a smart mouth, and Officer Ferrin isn't just going to arrest him, he's ready to put bullets into him for resisting arrest. The officer even calls in that Maddox is armed without giving a location. I don't remember him taking a backup weapon from anywhere (glove compartment?) to plant as evidence of that. The bright spot is that Maddox doesn't make Ferrin disappear, which one might expect as he's trying to escape.

I didn't recognize any of the author's names from any other magazines or from conventions. Their bios indicate that they've all been published elsewhere in magazines that I've heard of although not necessarily have read.

The cover doesn't go with a story. It's by Fintan Magee and is titled "The Plague". There's no story (meaning an explanation) behind it, but Magee does get a much longer bio than the authors do.

Final words: I enjoyed a few of these, but it didn't really give me any idea what kinds of stories to write for this magazine, but I'm pretty sure that the ones I have available wouldn't be accepted if I sent them. (They are a lower paying market, but they do pay.)

And I'll probably read the next one of these instead of switching magazines.

This one will be going into a Little Free Library in the neighborhood.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

The Fourth Consort (Ashton)

The Fourth Consort
Edward Ashton (2025)

[AUDIO ONLY -- no image]

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was a random audiobook selection that I found in a library app. It was pretty good for walking around. As I mentioned in a different write-up, I may recommend this along with Between Two Fires and Dragon Teeth for my book club if I get another turn soon. (I also said that this review was coming soon -- and then promptly forgot about it!)

Not exaggerating -- since I listened to this, I listened to another book twice, plus another sci-fi book, and I'm in the middle of one more. I need to catch up.

Imagine that there's a federation of planets, except that Earth doesn't run it. In fact, there are only a couple of Terrans involved, and they work for giant snails of Unity. These Terrans are left on a planet of insectlike minarchs to start arranging a treaty. Their mother ship is destroyed in a confrontation with the Assembly, and they're waiting for a rescue. The Assembly's representative is Breaker, a giant stickman or sorts.

The intrigue comes not only from two rival factions of galactic confederation trying to win a planet, but from political intrigue with the minarchs themselves. First Among Equals meets with the human Dalton and gets named her Fourth Consort, which is unheard of and problematic. Dalton now has protected status but cannot leave the compound. He meets the Second Consort and Third Consort and discovers that the First Consort has been consumed by First Among Equals.

Also, escaping and hiding can be a problem because that would basically turn the planet over to the Assembly, and the snails would be so unhappy that the two humans would lose everything they have and be banished somewhere.

The clash of cultures plays out, especially considering that the minarchs are matriarchal, and that the stickman holds humans responsible for the death of his partner (translation confidence is low on that word). Dalton basically has a target on his back despite protections. He winds up as a second in a challenge for a disgraced minarch because no other minarch would stand by her, and as a result of his actions ends up in a duel of his own that will likely lead to his torture long before his death.

Spoiler: it does not. However, he's still not exactly safe, and he has decisions to make regarding his future as well as Neera's. (She's the other human, who has worked for the snails for much longer.)

This was enjoyable to listen to and I wouldn't mind reading it at some point in the future, if I don't forget about it.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

The Last Letter (Lehn)

The Last Letter
by Fiona Lehn (2011)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a freebie I picked up on a table either and World Fantasy Con in Niagara Falls or Philcon near Philadelphia. I'm thinking it was the former. It's part of a series of books (Conversation Pieces) by different authors. This was the 31st listing in the series with no mention of anything coming after that (either "coming soon" or because this was a reprinted edition). I was surprised that this book was so old given the condition it was in. Also, it was more than likely that I saw a pile of them and took one rather than taking this book in particular from a random collection of books.

This book is a "conversation piece" in that the book is a letter from one scientist to another. She's writing the letter as she is dying, and she's recounting what happened in the time that they'd spent together on the island of SG-7 (which has nothing to do with the Stargate franchise, a notion I quickly put out of my head whenever it popped up). Peta is called to the island because of a problem in the forest of webworms who are eating the leaves of the forest and stringing up webs. The forest is out of balance and it's her assignment to bring it back into balance. The situation isn't helped by the "solutions" that the islanders have already tried and what they demand that she should try, which are things that likely would cause more harm than good. In particular, these webworms seem to be mutated from the usual form that are seen.

Worse, the population is starting to grow fearful and superstititous about them to the point that Peta has to pull rank and enlist local law enforcement to institute curfews and arrest people.

While she is there, she meets another scientist, Helmut, who is there studying geese guano on the idea. He has a secret agenda that involves a species of toad, which is why he accepted this assignment (or why he choose this island for his geese assignment, actually). The two meet, help each other, and form a connection. Unfortunately, both of them are married (in loveless marriages) and Helmut even has a daughter. But they can't deny the attraction for each other.

As the book progresses, the worms don't ask as expected, which makes dealing with the crisis more difficult until Peta finds something unexpected which was causing the imbalance. Her part in this assignment comes to an end and we find out what happened with their lives after this and why Peta is dying.

It's a pretty long letter, but not a long book. I found it enjoyable. It was a "pool book" for me, so I likely started it last August and didn't get very far into it. I picked it up without a bookmark in it but found roughly the place I'd left off. I finished it in a few days. (I actually finished it on a train because of the iffy weather ahead and I didn't know when I'd get more pool time.)

Generally, I read old science fiction/fantasy magazines in the pool that I find at conventions in case I drop it while sitting in a tube (or it just gets wet while I'm trying to get out) but I've read other books that are either old or that won't bother me too much if they got wet.

From the description, I'm not likely to search out any more of these Conversation Pieces, but I'll check them out if I spot them anywhere at other convnetions.

This one will be going into a Little Free Library in the neighborhood.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

One Piece, Volumes 41-42 (Oda)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

The Water Seven story line has moved to Eines Lobby where Nico Robin is being judged (more than tried) for her crimes, and nothing will stop Luffy of the rest of the pirates from saving her, even if Nico doesn't wished to be saved.

The new twist comes as Nico is handcuffed with shackles that cancel out fruit powers and are unbreakable with the correct key. Each of the villains has a key and takes off in different directions, so the pirates have to split up and try to take each of member of CP9, a highly elite government organization, down. And they have to do this before Nico Robin is whisked away to someplace where all hope will be lost.

The fights are slow moving and a bit repetitive but we get to see more of the CP9 agents in actions. The highlist of these two volumes is seeing Nico Robin's past and learning what it is that she's supposed to have done or what it is that she's capable of doing. Her quest for knowledge will not only be her undoing but will undo the world government.

Something happened nearly a millenium ago that isn't talked about or written down. It's the missing century in history. But the answers are out there if one knows where to look. This seems to be something as valuable to find as the One Piece itself that the series is named for (that I doubt we'll ever see, along with a return of Red-Haired Shanks.)

I'll keep reading, but I'm reading more regular graphic novels, and I wouldn't mind sampling other manga as well. I know this series goes on nearly forever. (I had an interesting conversation with my adult son who's been binging the cartoon so he can catch up with his friends. I believe he's at episode 1100, or a number equally ridiculous.)

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Crown and Chronos (Letha)

Crown and Chronos
by Rosa Letha (2026)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

This book had a short page count -- it was in fact fewer than 20 pages as a PDF, including all the front matter and blank pages. It was basicaly a short story. I was so shocked when I got to the end, I double-checked the email with the file, and I wrote the author asking if it was supposed to be so short.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

This is a short story that reads like the prologue to a much longer novel that wasn't included. I got to the end and thought, "That's it?"

---

I can't say anything else because there was no story there to say anything about. But at least I finished both of this month's Library Thing books quickly. I still have a couple of older ones to catch up on.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Everyone Kept Quiet So I Did Too (Djukičin)

Everyone Kept Quiet So I Did Too: Tales of a Reluctant Soldier:
A Graphic Novel About the Balkan Wars of the 1990s
by Đorđe Balmazović (Author), Aleksandar Djukičin (Author) (2026)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

I saw that there was a graphic novel, so I requested it even though it's an ebook and not something that I can share with my classroom.

As I noted on the LT page, this is more of an illustrated memoir than it is a graphic novel in the usual sense but it's still enjoyable.

The artwork changes sometimes but it fits the story.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

This is more of an illustrated memoir than a proper graphic novel, but that's a minor distinction that doesn't distract from the story at hand, namely the absurdity and futility of war and its effects on the people fighting it. In this case, it's the story of a soldier fighting in the war between Serbia and Croatia in 1990 and managing to survive it.

The artwork isn't as simplistic as the cover might suggest. That style (where the soldiers look almost like bowling pins, or old-style bottles of soda with the tops still on them) is used in certain situations while more traditional artwork is used elsewhere.

This was a quick read and I enjoyed it.

---

There isn't much more to add. It was a quick read. I was done before sooner than I expected to be.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Heracles: Lion of Nemea (Kin)

Heracles: Lion of Nemea
by kin (2026)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

I usually avoid series books, but this was based on the 12 Labors of Heracles (Hercules), so I didn't really worry about it being open-ended. And it is the first book in the series. (The second was offered the following month.) It also helped that it was a short book.

I will say that while I'm familiar with the idea of the 12 labors, I couldn't name them all any more than I could name all of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. I didn't watch that many movies or read that many books.

Note that the author's name is given only as "Kin".

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

This was a fun little read although it was long on introspection and short on action until the final third of the book when Heracles fights the lion. I enjoyed this book and look forward to the next one.

---

I realize that this wasn't much of a review but it was a short book and not a lot happens.

I enjoyed the book, but it was slow and there wasn't a lot of action until the last third of the book. In the prologue, Heracles' wife is dead and he had her blood on his hands but that's all we get. Then he's on the road, traveling, going somewhere or nowhere. He confronts one village who won't let him stay a night or have anything to eat. Later, he's beset on by bandits whom he dispatches quickly enough, getting hurt along the way. It's not until the end where he's climbing a mountain that he seeks out whatever creature is up there (We know: it's in the title of the book!), and to rescue a father and son.

There is a lot of detail about the mountain and you almost just want him to get there already.

Finally, there's so action where Heracles, wounded and bleeding, kills the lion with bare hands and the strength in his battered body.

He returns to the town the boy is from and tells them the lion is dead and the man is covered in rocks in a cave to protect his body from vultures. Then he walks on without asking to stay.

End of story.

I guess you would classify this kind of writing as "literary" although that usually means that there isn't a speculative element. Not that any are mentioned here, but this is Heracles we're talking about.

It was enjoyable, and I'd read the next one if I won it.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Model Home (Solomon)

Model Home
Rivers Solomon (2024)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a Pandemic Book Club selection. I listened to it, and then read it. It was mostly hated and ripped about by my book club. It rivaled Anger is a Gift as a benchmark to mock other books by.

It didn't help that I listened to this book right after listening to Parable of the Sower. I make no comparisons because that's too high a bar, but, damn.

There are spoilers below because there is no way to discuss this book without them.

The title "Model Home" refers to the house that the family bought. Model homes are a showcase and usually have hidden flaws. Buying this home could almost be like a bait and switch, except every buyer should know that there's less than meets the eye.

This term could also apply to the family that occupies the home as well. (More below.)

But the real flaw belongs to the book itself where one might expect a malignant spirit haunting this house, when in fact the real problem is much more mundane but just as malignant. There is nothing supernatural about the horrors of this house. Every problem has a manmade cause.

Basically, this is the most messed up version of Scooby Doo that you could possibly imagine. And they would've gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling kids.

Instead of a story about a haunted house, we get the twisted, messed up lives or a bunch of twisted, messed up people. The main character isn't sympathetic, and neither is anyone else. Like Anger is a Gift, all the checkboxes are checked, including the sudden inclusion of diabetes halfway through the book.

This story takes place in the present (and over the past 30 years) but the attitudes seem quite dated to decades before that. Except of course, that it couldn't be decades earlier because (aside from obvious indicators like tech) no one has a problem with a young boy who suddenly becomes nonbinary and uses "them" pronouns *in the late 90s*. It's hard to take the story seriously when people are supposed to have problems with a black family in a white community but they take non-binary and transgenderism in stride. At the very least, you'd expect more misgendering and misuse of pronouns three decades ago.

Basically, this could've been better if it picked and chose which issues it would stress. And possibly if there actually had been a Lady Without a Face haunting the place.

No, I didn't enjoy this book. I would rate this book 1 star, which I normally reserve for poorly, written self-published work, not because this is poorly written but because it's just that bad.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Between Two Fires (Buehlman)

Between Two Fires
Christopher Buehlman (2012)

[AUDIO ONLY -- no image]

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was a semi-random audiobook selection. At least one person listed on their reading list on Tik Tok and the cover was intriguing enough that I looked for it on Libby.

This is the Google AI summary of the book: a medieval horror-fantasy novel set in 1348 during the Black Death, following a disgraced knight, Thomas, who escorts a young girl, Delphine, across a plague-ridden France to Avignon, as she claims to be on a divine mission to confront evil in a second war between heaven and hell. The story blends grimdark fantasy, historical fiction, and religious mythology, featuring a journey through a depraved landscape filled with angels, demons, and the risen dead, exploring themes of faith, redemption, and the struggle for humanity's soul.

I didn't give it the best of chances because there were many times that I listened for less than 15 minutes at a shot, so I was sometimes a little lost when I started again. The narrative also shifts between current day and events in the past, and I sometimes wasn't sure where I was supposed to be. When the final conflict happened, I was a little confused as to what was going on.

Still, I enjoyed it. I don't know if I'll get around to actually reading it (I have a bunch of things that I need to get to) but I might suggest this one the next time it's my turn to pick books for the book club. (Other books are likely to be Dragon Teeth and The Fourth Consort, which will be reviewed soon).

If I had a favorite scene that I think would play well on a big screen (or streaming as a series), I would pick when the fallen knight meets up with the man who took his land (and who even has his horse with him). This happens not long after the knight found a bunch of French fighters who are momentarily helpless and he backs out of the room without killing or harming any of them. The knight's battle with the lord and his men is interrupted by French attacking and massacring everyone on the field. One of the Frenchmen finds Thomas and is about to kill him when he recognizes him. He hollers to all the combatants while pointing his sword, "NOT HIM!" Thomas is the only one to survive.

I'd like to read this one.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Two Catwings Books (Le Guin)

Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings, by Ursula K. Le Guin (1994)
Jane on Her Own, by Ursula K. Le Guin (1994)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

These were two kids books that were inside a Little Free Library. I saw the author's name on the cover, and I knew that I had to borrow them.

I hadn't heard of "Catwings" before, but I can't say that I'll well-read with the author's work. And even if I were, I'm not exactly the target audience for these books.

There were four books, and these were the final two. They're short, but between the two of them, they're as long as some of the books that I picked up at World Fantasy Con or Philcon, so I gave them a combined entry.

In brief, in the first of these two, a regular kitten named Alexander decides to explore what's beyond his yard and the tree past them and gets lost. He climbs a tree for safety and is stuck up there. He is aided by a cat with wings named Jane. Jane leads Alexander to the rest of her family of Catwings. Jane suffered trauma and doesn't speak. Alexander is happy in his new home.

In the second, Jane flies off and flies and explores. She flies into a man's apartment and he shuts the window. He shows her off as an amazing animal. She eventually gets away.

These were cute and I have to put them back. I wish I'd done so before school let out. These would've been fun for some child to find.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Defenders: Reign of the Bugs (Greenwood)

Defenders: Reign of the Bugs
by Leslie Greenwood (2026)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

It seemed like an interesting enough premise, so I requested this book (along with maybe ten others), and this was one of the two that received last month. I was a bit behind with some other books, so I didn't get to it right away. And then when I did, I was a little sorry that I picked it.

Aliens take over the Earth, and give certain people superpowers so that they can defend the plaent from 20 invasions of the planet. This is book one, so there is a series planned from here.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

The comparison to Dungeon Crawler Carl is unavoidable, but instead of aliens creating an underground fantasy computer roleplaying game that Earth's survivors are pulled into, these aliens have created a reality show where some of Earth's population have been giving superpowers to defend the Earth from wave upon wave of invasions. Doing well gets you sponsors and better powers but not for a while. And this becomes a problem.

For one thing, a lot of the book deals with negotiations for better powers that won't come until a later round. This means that the main character, Chad, whose power is healing himself, has little to offer his team, and he tends to die a lot in the meantime. He's looked after by a Bigfoot, and android, and a leech monster (who gets refered to as literally "lecherous", which might be more amusing if she weren't a kid).

After the first space bug boss is killed, the rest is anticlimactic (with much of it happening "off camera"), and even the aliens agree. They want the heroes to fight and defend their planet, not shoot missiles at targets from afar.

There's a final side quest in Antarctica, not involving alien invasion, for a more exciting ending, and then everyone has to get ready for the next wave.

---

Basically, this is not a great book. And I can't even say that there's a good story under it, so if an editor stepped in to suggest a rewrite, it'd probably require a thorough redesign from the start.

As I told the author in email (and I will refrain from revealing email stuff), it reads like the two of us are at a con and Greenwood is telling me about this great story rather than telling the story. I realize that this might not make sense, but my first problem is in the narrative structure.

Other things that might've caused me to DNF the book if it wasn't an ARC: when the aliens invade, there's a very long info dump about the invasions, the tiered structure of superpowers, the frequency of each tier and their relative strengths, and other stuff; this dump ends with the alien "hanging a lantern" on the info dump, which is really just a sign of giving up on figuring out how to write it coherently and working it into the narrative when necessary; there are things other things that don't work.

In Carl the dungeon crawlers are living in a computer game, so everything acts like a game, including getting information on things. Here, everyone has information hanging over their heads with their names, their tiers, and their power set. This makes no sense because it's a reality show and these graphics would be on screen, not visible in real life. Consider the yellow lines that appear on TV at football games -- they don't appear on the field! Toward the end of the book, one character looks up at them and says, "oh, I keep forgetting about those." I don't see how any of them could forget about them, but I could see how the author (and the reader) might.

The four main heroes manage to take out the first bug boss (which was described as a space bug like in the movie "Starship Troopers", which, oddly, I haven't seen). After that, they get caught up with the military to go to South America and then to Antartica. Chad convinces them to practice their powers with a tournament, which would help them discover and develop their abilities and get an audience. While this is going on, five of the other six bugs are destroyed offscreen by missiles, annoying the showrunners. The military and the defenders, now with an indestructile superdog, sail to Antarctica along with a whale with mind powers, to find the last bug.

SPOILER: While the group of defenders is making their way through an ancient alien base under the ice, they receive word that the whale killed the bug. Done. First wave over. HOWEVER, a group of them are caught behind an unmovable wall and Chad figures that there's something that the producers would them to face, so they continue -- and find NAZIS. Except that they're not just Nazis, they're genetic clones of Nazis from WWII, including several clones of Hitler. And one Hitler has a S-tier level mecromancer power. ("Technomancer" might've been a better term, but then it couldn't be confused with "necromancer".)

Everything is televised on channels that the characters can view. These are shows on various networks (of which there are many) but they'll concentrate on any group that is doing something interesting. This means that this reality show has real-time cameras literally everywhere, but there are no cameras anywhere. I guess it's Microbots or Nanobots "or whaterver".

Through the entire book, there are side conversations with an agent trying to get good deals with sponsors (but not until the third level) which would add extra superpowers or abilities to each character, and another one trying to arrange interviews and instruct them with general tips how to survive longer. Again, a clumsy copy of Carl missing the logical structure to place these things.

My pettiest pet peeves: I had an ebook, so I couldn't toss the book across the room when I encountered the over-overuse of "or whatever" at the ends of sentences and responses of "Oh, I see." Both of these could be forgiven if each was confined to a single character that could be identified with it. Further, "or whatever" should only appear in dialogue and not in the narration. Either give me another option or delete those two words."

This was an ARC, and not a final copy, so I tried to ignore the typos, but there were a lot of them and some were some atrocious examples of misuse of language. (I didn't highlight these, so I can't reference them.)

One last thing: the only reason I had an email exchange with the author was because Greenwood emailed me asking if I could post a review by June 1 when the book launched (I was barely 20% in at the time), and I was offered the second book to review, which is launching July 1. I didn't respond to that, and I'm glad I didn't because I can't see how it could be better when they had to be written at the same time or at least during the time when the first one was being edited.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Everything Is Ok (Tung)

Everything Is Ok
by Debbie Tung (2022)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I saw this book listed as a recommended graphic novel. I don't remember where, or if it was in one of the lists of nonfiction that I was scanning (probably). It mentioned it was from the author of "Quiet Girl in a Noisy World", which sounded familiar. I requested both from the library. This one arrived first, but I waited for the first one before reading both. What I didn't realize is that Tung has published several other books in between the two, but this one continues the themes of the first book.

And it takes those themes to a really dark place.

Tung gives an account of living through a panic account and the stress, anxiety, and depression that accompany it. She details the ongoing troubles continuing to work her first job when trying to earn commissions for her artistic work. It goes well beyond just being shy and introverted.

Unlike Quiet Girl in a Noisy World, this book isn't episodic. Each page doesn't have a (self-deprecating) punchline or even a conclusion. The narratives continue for pages at a time, particularly in the beginning of the book. We are included in her therapy sessions, and we are witnesses to her internal thoughts.

I can see why this book came so highly recommended, and I'll add it to my recommended reading list next year if I get to teach this course again. Hopefully, I can acquire a couple of copies.

I'll also check out some of her other books that are more about her life as an introvert. (One is about books.)

Note: I added "memoir" as a tag to this one because the panic attack is central to the book. I didn't add the "biography" tag because it's not really a life story.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Quiet Girl in a Noisy World: An Introvert's Story (Tung)

Quiet Girl in a Noisy World
An Introvert's Story by Debbie Tung (2017)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I looked for recommendations online for nonfiction graphic novels that I could mention to my class to show them that that not everything is superheroes. I did have an interest in history -- anything that they could tie into their studies. I've mentioned George Takei before. And I was hoping to find examples about the American Revolution with America 250 coming soon. (Side note: anything from that time period would be works of fiction. "Creative nonfiction", whatever that actually is, would be the closest thing. I've seen such books at the Dyker Heights library.)

Among every list are Persepholis and Maus, though it took time for the latter to be nonfiction because of the imagery used. A lot of other nonfiction books seemed to deal with tragic issues like war in their homeland, poverty, emigrating to America, racism. It almost made me wish for run-of-the-mill teen angst -- almost. But, I had to be honest, what tops the nonfiction charts for regular books? Usually issues. Graphic novels combine these with compelling stories to varying degrees, and the trick is to get you to care, even if for only a couple hundred pages.

Quiet Girl in a Noisy World: An Introvert's Story caught my attention as it was something that I thought I could relate to. Most people who know me would say I wouldn't know anything about being an introvert. Some people who really know me, might say otherwise, maybe. There was a period were I thought my awkward extrovert moments were covering up for my introverted tendencies. And sometimes it was the reverse.

However, over the years, I've met some real introverts, and I'm not sure that I could count among their numbers, so maybe there's something else going on.

And that digression brings me back to the book at hand. I actually got the second book first from the library, but I waited to get this one to read either one.

Debbie Tung is a cartoonist. This self-referential book is more episodic than an actual story, but it does move forward with life even if even page (or two) seems to be a standalone strip. It's more cohesive than the recently read Huda F book, Yes, I'm Hot in This. (Side note: I was attracted to the title "Huda F Cares" and then went back to the first book in the series.) The Huda book just seemed with endless "gag" strips, many of which seemed to repeat, at least in theme. Granted, that repetition could stem from the fact that she hears those comments constantly.

In Tung's book, any repetition seems to reinforce what she's already feeling, even as she moves forward with her life, or as she retreats back into the familiar in her life. And she celebrates little victories even while she's completing major achievements.

I enjoyed this book. I might buy a copy of this for my classroom next year if I'm given this class to teach again.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

A Silent Voice #01-03

A Silent Voice, Volume 1-3, by Yoshitoki Ōima (2015)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I was out for a walk when I came across a Little Free Library on a one-block-long side street between Atlantic Ave and Herkimer Street. Inside were six of the seven Harry Potter paperbacks, a copy of the Once and Future King, and three manga books from a series called A Silent Voice. A quick scan showed by it was a teen drama and I didn't see any images that would be awkward in my classroom. (Yes, I know they've seen worse, but I don't have to bring them in.)

I read one, and then decided to read all three. I've since discovered that there were seven books, which appear to be available as ebooks. Also, there was a movie based on the series that covered the main plot lines. (A student of mine told me.) However, it seems that Netflix won't show it to me because I have Netflix with ads and their licensing agreement won't allow it to be shown on a platform with ads.

The books follow Shoya Ishida, a bully who get ostracized by his friends and years later seeks redemption. The target of his bullying is a deaf classmate,Shoko Nishimiya, who he tormented so much that she switched schools. They meet in high school. He doesn't think he deserved to be forgiven or have anything good in his life (in fact, he's contemplating suicide but doesn't go through with it), and Shoko starts to like him as he starts to care about her.

I'm enjoying it so far, and I'll probably continue reading this during the summer when I have more time. (I have other things to catch up on.)

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Dragon Teeth (Crichton)

Dragon Teeth
Michael Crichton (2017)

[AUDIO ONLY -- but I added the picture anyway -- maybe I'll read it later]

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was a random audiobook suggestion from Libby. I hadn't heard of it before, and from the cover I was thinking that it was something connected to Jurassic Park. Nope, it's connected to dinosaurs, but to the hunt for their fossils, including the discovery of the brontosaurus, with teeth so large, like giant rocks, that scientists were forced to rethink the size of the animals that help such teeth in its mouth.

The story starts with a Yale student named Johnson who makes a dumb bet with another student about going on an expedition during the summer of 1876 with one of the school's professors to find dinosaur bones. Prof Marsh originally refuses Marsh because he's made his selections already but allows him to come when he discovers that Johnson is a photographer. Johnson doesn't know anything about photography but he takes classes and gets good at it.

Marsh is delusional and paranoid, and starts to believe that Johnson is a spy, so he abandons him in Cheyenne when he allows him to oversleep while everyone else catches their train. With nowhere else to go, Johnson joins the expedition of Edward Cope, Marsh's rival who Marsh believes to be a criminal, thief, and lowlife.

I was not aware while listening to this that these two paleontologists were real people who had a real rivalry during the "Bone Wars". (Johnson is a fabrication, as is the story in general.) Also, although it was published in 2017, after Crichton's death, the book was written in 1974.

Marsh causes trouble for Cope and his men. Marsh bribes officials, poisons water, and plans ambushes to steal Cope's bones.

Johnson finds the "dragon teeth" without realizing what he found, which causes Cope to rethink how large dinosaurs could've been -- given the size of the jaw that would be needed for those teeth and the size of the head that would be required for that jaw, and so on. The timing is after Custer's Last Stand, and everyone wants to put distance between themselves and the Sioux, who will be on the move soon.

Johnson, another student (Toad), and a Snake scout named Little Wind are separated from the rest of the men when Sioux scouts approach. Little Wind drives them west. Johnson is wounded when the wagon arrives in Deadwood with the bodies of Toad and Little Wind, whom he buries.

Johnson leaves his wallet in his room, which is robbed, leaving him penniless. He wants to get out of there and get the boxes back east. (Everyone in Deadwood believes that these boxes must be valuable. No one believes that they are animal bones.) But he has no money and will be stuck there for the winter if he can't figure something out. Luckily, he still has his photography equipment and opens a studio.

One thing that annoyed me: The army comes through, and Johnson sees a way out. But Johnson is also a witness to a crime and the sheriff locks him up to prevent him from leaving. It didn't add anything to the story, except to add some false hope. (This did explain something that happened later -- how someone could've heard a rumor.)

Wyatt Earp shows up later on and plays a part in the narrative.

This was a good book to listen to. Marsh was annoying before I knew that he was a real person and that his behavior might've been toned down. And I generally dislike when someone is conveniently robbed, with no recourse, and has to continually struggle with having nothing. It makes more sense in this scenario, of course, instead of a random druggie jumping out of an alley. When I clear a few other books from my "Holds" at the library, I might borrow a copy of this one to read.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

One Piece, Volumes 30-40 (Oda)

One Piece, Volumes 30-40, Eiichiro Oda, 1997-2003

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

Sometime in 2017, I made an entry for the first 29 issues of One-Piece. I read more after that, but I never made another entry. I guess I was waiting until I read another bunch of issues. For whatever reason, that didn't happen.

I will say that I took a break from the comic for a while because it did seem to drag quite a bit. This is by design. Manga unfolds slowly. But the pacing was really slow.

The break lasted long enough that when I started rereading sometime in the past year, I couldn't remember what issue I'd been up to. The first couple of guesses were incorrect. I had no idea because I hadn't posted anything. And yet I didn't fix this then, either.

Just recently, I finished Vol 41, and I'm starting volume 42. There are waits for the ebooks, but I got Volume 40-42 in one big book, so I had two choices.

In brief:

The Sky City arc finished and the Straw Hats come crashing back down to Earth -- or rather sea.

There's a short arc where the Monkey Go is challenged by another pirate to a Davy Back Fight where the losing ship must give a member of its crew to the winner.

And, finally, there's the Water 7 Arc with the Galley-La Shipbuilding Company, which is winding down, except that many people from the Water 7 arc carry over to the Eines Lobby arc and the rescue of Nico Robin.

Next update soon. Not nine years from now.


If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Jen & Gary's Infinite (Quantum) Entanglements (Gregorio)

Jen & Gary's Infinite (Quantum) Entanglements
by Nick Gregorio (2026)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

I've read my Book Club books (and the meeting was delayed because of the holiday), so I had time to catch up on other books. This should've been a quicker read but I didn't read it as quickly as I expected to. I couldn't point to any particular reason for this.

Still, I gave it five stars on Library Thing because I thought my quibbles were minor, and because I started the next book I won, which looks like it's going to be terrible. I seem to be a bit judgy with many of these Library Thing books. On the other hand, I haven't had the best of luck picking books based on the small descriptions. I would hope anyone looking at my reviews believes I'm being fair and consistent.

I'll probably give it four stars on Good Reads.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

Jen & Gary's Infinite (Quantum) Entanglements is a romantic sci-fi novel that doesn't take itself seriously... until it takes itself seriously so it can resolve the plot. When Gary tells Jen he loves her, the result sends him spiraling through the multiverse, landing in other versions of himself. But unlike, for examples, "Sliders" or the MCU, the worlds Gary lands in are occupied by dinosaurs, killer robots, living islands, and even crazier. And through it all, Jen is always there.

Running parallel to this, in yet another multiverse, Jen and Gari are a couple who watch over the multiverse. Gari knows its going to be a long night as she watches a version of herself tumbling through universes, wreaking havoc and leaving a path of destruction if they can't wrangle him and find a patch. Gary then procedes at a right angle to what he should do when it starts to get more serious.

The story is fun and enjoyable. If I could ding it for one thing it would be the overuse of parenthetical asides (the kind that can be funny while providing extra information (and which can be nested for humorous effect (and sometimes drop three levels deep))).

---

The fact that the first alternate Earth Gary landed in was a world of sentient dinosaurs, which had analogue identities to the people from his original Earth caught me offguard. I found it funny because he didn't start with something similar but a little different and then skirt off into ridiculous realms. It was there from the beginning. And if that didn't set the tone, jumping into killer robots solidified it. (To be fair, the robots had absorbed the identities of people they'd just killed.)

After this, we get Jen and Gari, who are overseers -- sort of like characters that I wrote about four or five years ago in a story that I need to get back to.

We find out that Jen and Gari is a gender-swapped universe, but Jen had a procedure to be female. This is the first instance where we see that Gary and Jen could work out together. We also find out that the original Gary was from a universe that actually did revolve around him, so when he professed his love for Jen in that world, it caused him to be propelled into null space and cause his universe to leak out into null. I never quite bought that explanation that he couldn't be with Jen in his universe.

If anything, I would've preferred seeing a bunch of different universe when something prevents them from being together until he finds one that works, or until he realizes why he's in his own way (so that there's character growth or an "arc").

Another quibbly thing: each section (not chapter) is label case file #001, #002, etc. But each world takes many of these case files, some of which are only a couple of paragraphs long. I will give credit that each case file has a title, even if it's just a sentence from one of the paragraphs. I don't know the purpose that those served.

Anyway, I enjoyed the book although I think it could've been better. I have to remind myself that these are ARCs and not final copies, so there will be typos, but occasionally I wonder if another round of editing mightve helped.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

1634: The Baltic War (Weber / Flint)

1634: The Baltic War, David Weber and Eric Flint (2008)

I found a draft for this entry that was dated Jul 25, 2018.

I found it on May 18, 2026.

Apparently, I read this and never wrote it up. I honestly don't remember reading it. However, as I type this, I vaguely recall how this book had only half the cast of the previous books because this was the point where Flint started publishing multiple books per year -- year as in 1634.

What makes this discovery more amusing is that I picked up a copy of this at Philcon last November. Charles E. Gannon was doing a "coffee talk" that I attended and he had freebies that he gave away. Someone got the "Gazette" before I could reach it -- these have stories by various writers that are set in the world of the Ring of Fire, and some of these stories are incorporated into the main timeline. It's a way to find out what else is happening in the world without burdening the main books. Anyway, with that gone, I went with the book with the earliest date, so I could get to it sooner. It's sitting on my dresser, waiting to be read.

I guess I don't have to read it now.

The funny thing is that I wanted to read more of this series because it is interesting. There was too much of it to absorb to get to write for the shared world portion of it -- and now with Flint gone, I don't know what's going to happen with that anyway. But the books are thick, and it'd be a while before I could reread those first three books to get ready for book four. With a book club and Library Thing plus my own interests (and graphic novels), there just isn't time.

There isn't anything to add. I don't remember the book at all other than that I enjoyed it and planned to read more -- which I haven't done in the past six years.

Luminous Beings (Arnold)

Luminous Beings, by David Arnold, illustrated by José Pimienta (2024)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was another graphic novel that I picked up at random at the library based on the cover. At this point, I'm looking for interesting panels that I can incorporate into a class slide presentation or worksheet or just something that I could recommend to the students.

This book isn't one of those things. I could use it as an example of poor dialogue placement, but I already have several of those. What I mean by this is that the tails of some word balloons go behind other word balloons to the point that you aren't sure who is speaking.

Other than that, I have no complaints about the layout, which seems to be standard with many graphic novels.

The book is about a "faux-pocalypse". They don't call it that. I just did. It looked like it was going to be about more than it actually was.

The story takes place over the course on one night. There are pink streaks coming out of the sky. Everyone is wearing hazmat suits, or "hazzies". The hoods have face masks that can be opened to use an inhaler (one character has for no stated reason, and it never comes into play) or to take a drink or just about any reason outside. Also, one guy (not shown) urinated behind a dumpster outside a club.

The only thing that this apocalypse seemed to do was turn all the squirrel into zombies with glowing red eyes that attack humans -- except that none are ever struck. The squirrels are always batted down and crushed behind someone's heel.

Of the four main characters, two are budding filmmakers, making a documentary about the squirrels, the end of the world, and a missing friend who went to live off the grid (and claim a reward for finding him). One of them has a secret -- she's decided to move away to go to Brooklyn College to study film-making. (Side note: I am a BC alumni, and I know that BC has one of the two best Film Departments in the city. The other is at NYU, which is about 10-20 times more expensive. One had Robert Redford as an advisor; the other had Paul Newman.)

The other two boys are friends and one of them secretly has a promise ring that he has to work up the nerve to give. As far as B stories go, it's pretty pedestrian. There are no complications, tension, drama in this.

The four follow a few clues and find the guy, who already knew the world wasn't actually ending but wanted to disassociate from the world anyway, and they make it back home by morning.

The artwork is pretty cool, primarily with pinks and purples for the night sky.

One scene that stands out was when two of them are in the club -- the boy who's 18 and the girl who's underage because the club lets in underage girls. The other two boys are outside (by the aforementioned dumpster). The couples are mixed, so everyone is free to spill what's on their mind. And here's were it goes wrong. The writer tries to do a movie trick of intercutting the two scenes and mixing the dialogue. This sometimes works in movies, because the jump cuts are obvious. It's less obvious here with the dark, near empty backgrounds with the "camera" close-up on whichever teen is speaking. It jumps from inside to outside back inside again to give the impression that the outside teen is responding to the inside teen's dialgoue. It doesn't work.

Luminous Beings was an okay read, and not something that I'll recommend. I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading it -- maybe it'll mean more to them.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

The Parable of the Sower (1993)

Parable of the Sower
Octavia E. Butler (1993)

[AUDIO ONLY]

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was a random audiobook suggestion from Libby. I've heard of this book, and of Octavia E. Butler, but hadn't read it. For some reason, I thought this book was older. Then again, I find it hard to believe that 1993 was over 30 years ago.

The book is narrated by Lynne Thigpen. Normally, I don't pay attention to this, but I saw the name and remembered her from TV. She did a great job.

The timing of listening to this book was ironically amusing (it's not supposed to be). The setting is a dystopian California in 2026 where the poor huddle together behind walls for protection against the really poor who will rob, steal, burn, and kill to get want they need and take what they want. (They commit more unspeakable crimes to women as well.) Cops and firemen are next to useless, or worse. Criminals rarely get caught, and innocent people get punished.

In this instance, the country has been ravaged by climate change, wealth inequality, and social collapse. Climate change was a little ahead of its time in the early 90s, but it was typical scifi cannon fodder to set up a novel.

Jobs are hard to come by, particularly ones that pay cash. It's hard to imagine that there are still stores, and that those stores can be supplied, but they have security. Some jobs are basically indentured servants (paid in room and board, so you can never leave). And some pay in "company scrip" which can only be spent at the company store, and worthless elsewhere. The allusions to slavery are noted.

Lauren Olamina starts off as a 15-year-old. (She'll age at least three years over the course of the book.) She's also an empath. She has a condition, as others will have in the book, that she can feel other people's pain to the point where it can be debilitating. If she were to punch someone, she would feel it. This becomes problematic later on when she needs to shoot someone. She hides this condition.

The first part of the book sets up Lauren's home and family life and how bad it is. At the same time, she narrates her discovery of a new religion. She was baptised a Baptist, but she doesn't identify with that God. She writes poetry about her philosophy, which she calls Earthseed, and she refers to her writings as The Book of the Living (as opposed to the Books of the Dead).

People live together for safety. People who live alone are more likely to be robbed and killed (and raped). When a fire starts at one house, the community comes out to help, which leaves houses empty for thieves. Lauren wants to leave, and she has a to go bag. Her father says that to go bags are a bag idea because it puts everything valuable in one place for a thief to steal quickly.

The book switches gear when the really poor, the homeless, attack and burn down the entire community. It's their way of sticking it to the rich. No one here is rich, but some are richer than others.

Lauren escapes with her bag and then returns the next day along with the looters to get more of her stuff. She can't find the rest of her family, who she hopes escapes but comes to belive they're all dead.

The rest of the book concerns escaping and traveling north, trying to find someplace safe. The roads are dangerous and so are the towns. Getting into Oregon will be difficult and getting into Canada would be nearly impossible. Lauren and others that can be trusted try to form a larger group for safety as they travel north.

I enjoyed listening to this. I don't know if I would've stuck with it were I reading it.

I might listen to the sequel at some point.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.