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?"

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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.

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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.

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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.