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Monday, January 29, 2018

Musical Monday - You Got Lucky by Tom Petty


So this Musical Monday isn't really about the song, although the song is a good one. This Musical Monday is about the video, which for no real reason that I can discern, has a science fiction-related theme to it. In the case of You Got Lucky, the video presents a post-apocalyptic kind of Mad Max atmosphere. There's nothing in the song that is really thematically connected to the video, so I can only surmise that Tom Petty was a fan of the genre.

The interesting thing is that there are a number of other music videos that also bear a seemingly inexplicable science fiction theme. The songs themselves don't really have anything in them that suggests a science fiction or fantasy style video presentation would be appropriate, and yet they still have those themes. I can only assume that these sorts of videos are made because the performers are fans of the genre, because it has to be more expensive to make a video that has a bunch of science fiction props and a few special effects in it than it is to make one that is just a performance video, or some other mundane presentation of the song.

One would think that if they wanted to make a science fiction video, then more mainstream artists would write songs that relate to the genre. But even though science fiction music videos are not all that hard to find, a science fictional piece of popular music is almost vanishingly rare. There are a few songs here and there, but they are often deep cuts on an album, or the science fictional element is buried so deep in metaphor that it slips by a lot of listeners. I'm not complaining about this, but it is an oddity that I have noticed over the years - many pop performers seem to like the look of filmed science fiction, but don't seem to know how to make it actually part of their music.

Previous Musical Monday: Just My Imagination by the Cranberries
Subsequent Musical Monday: Magnetic by Earth, Wind, and Fire

Tom Petty     Musical Monday     Home

Saturday, January 27, 2018

Book Blogger Hop January 26th - February 1st: Pu-239 Is the Most Common Isotope of Plutonium


Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: Do you ever go back to older posts and change things?

I do sometimes make edits to older posts. The most common edit is to correct a typo or grammatical error that I notice if I am looking at an older post, but I do sometimes make corrections or updates to posts. During the controversy surrounding the Hugo Award nominations over the last couple of years, I updated the nominations pages when new developments occurred as people were either disqualified or withdrew their nominations and replacements were added to the ballot. I recently updated a post I made a couple of years ago about Harry Harrison's passing to note that despite my optimism that it might happen then, I never got the chance to actually meet Ursula K. Le Guin before she also passed away. Once in a while I edit an older post for clarity if I find something that I expressed in a particularly clumsy way.

My goal here is to try to pass on correct information or convey my thoughts effectively, not to adhere to some sort of strict standard concerning leaving blog posts as an artifact of the moment they were written. I don't go back and specifically look through old posts trying to find things to rewrite, but if I notice something, I'll make the change if it will make the post clearer or more accurate.


Book Blogger Hop     Home

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Random Thought - Farewell Le Guin

When I was planning what I would write and post today, I thought about writing a post about why the Federal government sometimes shuts down. I thought about getting my review of The Wicked + the Divine: The Faust Act posted. I considered some other possibilities. And then I found out that Ursula K. Le Guin had died, and I didn't want to write about any of those things.

I have made no secret of my love for Le Guin's work - I don't really "rank" authors, but if I were to pick a favorite author, she would definitely be on the short list. Every piece of her writing that I have come across has been nothing short of brilliant. I've said before that being a science fiction fan means saying goodbye to your heroes on a regular basis. All of the losses hurt, but this one is going to hurt more and hurt longer.

I haven't reviewed much of Le Guin's fiction here - only two of her works of short fiction - mostly because I've never really felt bold enough to step up and evaluate her work that way. There are a handful of works that I have shied away from reviewing on that ground, but Le Guin is the only author whose entire body of work I have mostly left alone because of this. Sometimes I think this has been the wrong call. I love Le Guin's work, so maybe I should write about it to express that love. I don't know.

I do know that I'm going to be rereading some of her books in the near future, because that's all we have now.

Random Thoughts     Home

Monday, January 22, 2018

Musical Monday - Just My Imagination by the Cranberries


This has been a trying week to be a Federal employee. Given that even after today's deal to reopen the doors, the government is only funded for three weeks and McConnell is almost certainly going to renege on his promises setting up yet another budget show-down at the end of that time period, things don't really look like they are going to get much better in the near future. Here's something cheerful to take your mind off of it.

Previous Musical Monday: Zombie by the Cranberries
Subsequent Musical Monday: You Got Lucky by Tom Petty

The Cranberries     Musical Monday     Home

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Book Blogger Hop January 19th - January 25th: 238 Is an Untouchable Number, Someone Call Eliot Ness!


Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: When reading a mass paperback book, many people fold the cover back, as if they were reading a magazine. Doing this will eventually create creases in the spine. How do you feel about this common bookish habit?

I think it is an abomination. It isn't quite at the level of putting stickers that can't be easily peeled off onto books, but it is unnecessarily destructive. I know that mass market paperbacks aren't supposed to be treasured objects, but breaking them that way is just pointless.


Book Blogger Hop     Home

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Review - Captain Marvel: Stay Fly by Kelly Sue DeConnick and David Lopez


Short review: Captain Marvel gets her ship back, finds out her cat is an alien, foils and then accidentally enables a royal wedding, gets letters from home, and gets a favor from Santa Claus.

Haiku
Cat is a flerken
Royal wedding is in rhyme
New York swamped by rats

Full review: Stay Fly is the second volume in Kelly Sue DeConnick's run of Captain Marvel, and it is a gloriously silly book made up of three nearly ridiculous stories that are, at best, only loosely connected to one another. Many graphic novels are deep and meaningful, with political and social commentary conveyed through their characters and stories. This is not one of those graphic novels. This is a graphic novel that revels in the goofiness of the Marvel interstellar universe, with teleporting rock stars, arranged royal marriages, Santa Claus, and cats who aren't cats that can access extradimensional space.

The book picks up shortly after the conclusion of Higher, Further, Faster, More, with Captain Marvel, also known as Carol Danvers, having a disturbing dream about Rhodey's death, blaming herself for his loss. The atmosphere lightens up shortly thereafter when Tic trying to convince Carol to allow her to continue to travel with the hero, making her case by providing breakfast and suggesting she could serve as Captain Marvel's second in command - a role that Carol reminds Tic that Spider-Woman already fills.

This somewhat playful banter is interrupted when the two manage to track down Carol's missing starship and find that it is under the care of none other than Rocket Raccoon. Given that Rocket had previously attempted to kill Carol's cat Chewie claiming it was actually a member of an incredibly rare and dangerous species called the "flerken", Carol is somewhat nonplussed by this revelation. She is even less pleased when she discovers that Rocket has reprogrammed the AI in her ship to speak in meows in an attempt to communicate with Chewie and apparently sent a message out to the universe that he had a flerken for sale. This, quite predictably, results in somewhat hostile fortune-seekers showing up to try and claim the rare creature, leading to some rather hilarious action sequences as Carol and Rocket try to hold off the mysterious attackers while dealing with an incomprehensible AI and sniping at one another as Tic tries to deal with a somewhat recalcitrant Chewie who lays a couple hundred eggs during the fight. And that's more or less the punchline to this portion of the book: Rocket was actually correct and Chewie is in fact a flerken. Nothing that seems to be of lasting consequence really happens in this segment, especially once Carol decides that she will simply ignore the fact that Chewie is actually a flerken. This kind of ultimate triviality seems to be a running theme in this volume, as three out of the four stories essentially amount to little of import.

The second story in the volume starts with Carol and Tic's shared love of teleporting interstellar rock star Lila Cheney, a love that winds up causing Lila to teleport onto Carol's ship. After Carol and Tic fangirl a bit over Lila, the mutant rock star tells them about how she got accidentally betrothed to a prince on an the alien world of Aladna when she was younger and jaunting about the galaxy before she mastered her powers. In short order, Cheney recruits Carol and Tic to help her extricate herself from this betrothal - and by "recruits" I mean she simply teleports them to the faraway planet and asks that they help her now that they are there. This is the point where Cheney reveals that everyone speaks in rhyme on Aladna and that Prince Yan, the man Cheney is betrothed to, cannot ascend to a position of leadership without being married. There is some humor made of the fact that Carol is terrible at rhyming and everyone assuming that she is Cheney's mother (which doesn't stop Yan from making romantic overtures in her direction), but things become temporarily serious when Marlo of Sleen shows up to try to claim Yan's hand by force. Carol handles the problem with her usual rough diplomacy but things seem to be headed towards an unwanted union between Carol and Yan before Tic steps in and offers herself as a bride, reasoning that due to the short lifespan of her species, this will be her best chance for a fairy tale wedding. As with the first story, there isn't anything of much lasting consequence here - even Tic's marriage is little more than a marriage of convenience with no real long-term impact on the heroes.

The third part of the book takes the form of a series of letters from Carol's family back on Earth as they recount their adventures dealing with the machinations of the nefarious Grace Valentine. The first letter is from Kit, also known as "Lieutenant Trouble", and recounts how Valentine fooled the prison authorities into thinking she had reformed while she set her plan to take control of the city's rats into motion. The second letter is from the rat-phobic Spider-Woman, detailing her efforts to fight off and (with Barbara Kawasaki's help) neutralize the threat of the swarming rats. The third letter is from Rhodey, as he details trying to get Valentine to disclose where she planted her bombs and take her into custody, an effort that also involves Kawasaki's help and includes a brief detour into outer space to dispose of an explosive device. The final letter is from Barbara Kawasaki telling Carol that Tracy Burke is not doing well health-wise, a revelation that drives Carol to return to Earth for a brief visit. Other than the note concerning Tracy, everything else about this section of the story is essentially ephemera - there is a problem, Spider-Woman and War Machine deal with it, and the world is reset back to the status quo ante.

The last section of the book details Carol's visit to Earth to see the comatose and dying Tracy Burke, a visit that is interrupted by Grace Valentine and June Covington. After they slap some power-dampening cuffs on Carol and knock her out, they then proceed to trying to steal Captain Marvel's powers with a plot that seems to involve a handcuffed grungy mall Santa Claus. After some heroics on Carol's part, the whole fracas is interrupted by the actual Santa Claus who puts an end to the villains' plots and saves the day. Carol then asks Santa for a favor and puts on a rather explosive light show for Tracy as a farewell gift and the volume ends.

Stay Fly is not much more than four kind of silly stories strung together, but they are all pretty fun to read silly stories. There's not really anything profound about these stories other than possibly showing what the day-to-day headaches that an interstellar super-hero might have to deal with in between the big missions. That isn't to say that Carol's heroics are trivial here, even though they are combating relatively small-scale problems, they are definitely important to the people involved. There isn't anything Earth-shaking contained in this volume of Captain Marvel, but it is an enjoyable read.

Previous volume in the series: Captain Marvel: Higher, Further, Faster, More
Subsequent volume in the series: Captain Marvel: Alis Volat Propriis

Kelly Sue DeConnick     David Lopez     Book Reviews A-Z     Home

Monday, January 15, 2018

Musical Monday - Zombie by the Cranberries


Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I feel like I should have a Musical Monday that reflects that.

Delores O'Riordan died today. I feel like I should have a Musical Monday that reflects that.

Marin Luther King, Jr. was, along with his work as a civil rights and antipoverty activist, an antiwar activist who fought for justice and equality, so here is Delores singing a song that amounts to nothing less than a plea for peace.

Previous Musical Monday: The Lumberjack Song by Monty Python
Subsequent Musical Monday: Just My Imagination by the Cranberries

The Cranberries     Musical Monday     Home

Saturday, January 13, 2018

Book Blogger Hop January 12th - January 18th: "Room 237" Is a Documentary About the Meanings in Kubrick's Version of "The Shining"


Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: What upcoming titles are you looking forward to reading in 2018?

In most years, I look forward to reading a collection of new publications from a variety of science fiction and fantasy authors, hoping to find an array of worthy works that I can nominate for the Hugo Award. I'm not doing that this year. To that end, I usually spend a fair amount of time paying attention to release schedules and publication dates. For a variety of reasons, I am stepping back from participation in the Hugos this year and am instead going to try to cut into the ridiculously large backlog of review copies that I have simply not gotten to yet.

That said, there are a handful of books that are due to be published this year that I am definitely going to try to get to:

Apocalypse Nyx by Kameron Hurley: I love Hurley's work - The Stars Are Legion was my favorite book of 2017 - and more about her morally compromised genetically engineered assassin living in a nightmarish post-apocalyptic world is definitely something that should be good to read.

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire: Set in the same fictional universe as Every Heart a Doorway, this is more about the children who escape our world through portals into fantastical realms and then return, often to their sorrow. Given McGuire's history, I expect a beautiful story set in a world that is lush and inviting but turns out to be melancholy and haunting.

The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander: Bolander has sharpened her craft over the last few years with some brilliant short fiction, but this is her debut novel. I am really looking forward to seeing what she can do in a longer format.

Pride and Prometheus by John Kessel: I am looking forward to this book based solely on the premise - the spinster Mary Bennet meets Victor Frankenstein and her encounter with him doesn't go smoothly. Then she meets up with the Creature and they share stories about how difficult Doctor Frankenstein is to deal with.

Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee: The final book in the Machineries of Empire series that started brilliantly with Ninefox Gambit and continued with Raven Stratagem, this book looks to be a brilliant conclusion to a series that revels in the weirdness of its setting.

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente: Take the Eurovision song contest and set it in outer space. That's Space Opera. And it sounds like it will be incredible.


Book Blogger Hop     Home

Challenge - Science Fiction vs. Fantasy Bingo 2018


Pretty much every year I try to find a science fiction and fantasy oriented reading challenge, because for the most part, I'm going to read a lot of science fiction and fantasy anyway. One of the challenges I am trying out this year is the Science Fiction vs. Fantasy Bingo 2018, which challenges participants to read science fiction and fantasy stories that fall into a particular set of categories. The list below shows all of the categories and will (eventually) list the books I have read and reviewed in the upcoming year that fall into each of them.

African
TBD

AI

Alien Invasion
TBD

Alternate Reality
TBD

Asian

Bite Me
TBD

Cyberpunk
TBD

Demonic
TBD

Dystopia
TBD

Epic
TBD

Fantastic Beasts
TBD

Haunted

Immortal
TBD

Independent
TBD

It's the End of the World as We Know It

Kings, Queens, and Long Lost Relatives
TBD

Plague
TBD

Portal
TBD

Rebellion
TBD

Re-Telling
TBD

Space

South American
TBD

This Is Totally Going to Happen One Day

Undead
TBD

Wibbly Wobbly Time Travel
TBD

2018 Challenge Tracking Pages
11th Annual Graphic Novels and Manga Challenge 2018
2018 Blogger Shame Challenge
2018 Review Writing Challenge
2018 Swords and Stars Reading Challenge
Beat the Backlist: A Reading Challenge
Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2018
New Authors: A 2018 Reading Challenge

Multi-Year Challenge Tracking Pages
101 Fantasy Reading Challenge
Read All the Books Challenge

Not a Challenge:
The Big List of Everything I've Reviewed in 2018

2018 Challenges     Home

Friday, January 12, 2018

Challenge - 2018 Swords and Stars Reading Challenge


Because the bulk of my reading is in the science fiction and fantasy genres, every year I try to find a science fiction and fantasy oriented reading challenge. This year I am participating in the 2018 Swords and Stars Reading Challenge, a challenge aimed at reading twenty books containing a particular set of science fiction and fantasy themes. The hashtag #SwordsnStars is associated with this challenge. The list below shows all of the themes and will (eventually) list the books I have read and reviewed in the upcoming year that meet each theme.

A Book with Dragons in It
TBD

A Book Over 500 Pages
TBD

A Science Fiction or Fantasy Novella
TBD

A First Book in a Series
TBD

A Science Fiction Classic
TBD

A Fantasy Classic
TBD

A Book Whose Title Matches the First Letter of your Last Name

A Book That Has a Weapon on the Cover
TBD

A Book That Has a Spaceship on the Cover

A Book That Has Been Adapted
TBD

A Book with Time Travel in It
TBD

A Book That Has Been On Your To-Be-Read Shelf for Over 2 Years
TBD

A Book Whose Cover Has Stars in It or Whose Title Has Any Variation of the Word Star in It
TBD

A Book with Magical Realism in It
TBD

A Science Fiction or Fantasy Graphic Novel

A Sequel

A Diverse Science Fiction or Fantasy Book
TBD

A Random Science Fiction or Fantasy Book

A Fantasy Book Inspired by Another Story, Fairytale, Myth, or Something Similar

A Book with a Map
TBD

2018 Challenge Tracking Pages
11th Annual Graphic Novels and Manga Challenge 2018
2018 Blogger Shame Challenge
2018 Review Writing Challenge
Beat the Backlist: A Reading Challenge
Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2018
New Authors: A 2018 Reading Challenge
Science Fiction vs. Fantasy Bingo 2018

Multi-Year Challenge Tracking Pages
101 Fantasy Reading Challenge
Read All the Books Challenge

Not a Challenge:
The Big List of Everything I've Reviewed in 2018

2018 Challenges     Home

Thursday, January 11, 2018

Challenge - New Authors: A 2018 Reading Challenge


In part because I am planning on making a concerted effort to read through the backlog of review copies that I have this year, I am also participating in New Authors: A 2018 Reading Challenge, a challenge aimed at reading new authors. A lot of my review copies are books written by authors that I have not read before, so this is a natural dovetail with this challenge.

New Authors: A 2018 Reading Challenge:
The Wicked + The Divine: The Faust Act by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie
Star Brand: New Universe, Vol. 1 by Jim Shooter and John Romita
Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir by Stan Lee, Peter David, and Colleen Doran

2018 Challenge Tracking Pages
11th Annual Graphic Novels and Manga Challenge 2018
2018 Blogger Shame Challenge
2018 Review Writing Challenge
2018 Swords and Stars Reading Challenge
Beat the Backlist: A Reading Challenge
Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2018
Science Fiction vs. Fantasy Bingo 2018

Multi-Year Challenge Tracking Pages
101 Fantasy Reading Challenge
Read All the Books Challenge

Not a Challenge:
The Big List of Everything I've Reviewed in 2018

2018 Challenges     Home

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Challenge - 2018 Blogger Shame Challenge


Another challenge I am participating this year is the 2018 Blogger Shame Challenge, a challenge aimed at getting people to clear out their backlog of review copies of books. I have far too many review copies of books that I simply have not yet gotten to reading and reviewing. I have let this slip for much longer than I should have, so I am going to make 2018 the year that I make a concerted effort to clear out this backlog and get caught up.

2018 Blogger Shame Challenge:
Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon by Matt Fraction, David Aja, and Javier Pulido

2018 Challenge Tracking Pages
11th Annual Graphic Novels and Manga Challenge 2018
2018 Review Writing Challenge
2018 Swords and Stars Reading Challenge
Beat the Backlist: A Reading Challenge
Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2018
New Authors: A 2018 Reading Challenge
Science Fiction vs. Fantasy Bingo 2018

Multi-Year Challenge Tracking Pages
101 Fantasy Reading Challenge
Read All the Books Challenge

Not a Challenge:
The Big List of Everything I've Reviewed in 2018

2018 Challenges     Home

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Challenge - Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2018


This year I am participating in the Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2018, another challenge aimed at making inroads at the pile of unread books in the collections of the participants. I have a mountainous to-be-read pile, many of which have been in my collection for too many years without having been read. I hope to be able to make some progress in reducing the size of that mountain this year.

Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2018:
The Wicked + The Divine: The Faust Act by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie
Star Brand: New Universe, Vol. 1 by Jim Shooter and John Romita
Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir by Stan Lee, Peter David, and Colleen Doran
Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon by Matt Fraction, David Aja, and Javier Pulido

2018 Challenge Tracking Pages
11th Annual Graphic Novels and Manga Challenge 2018
2018 Blogger Shame Challenge
2018 Review Writing Challenge
2018 Swords and Stars Reading Challenge
Beat the Backlist: A Reading Challenge
New Authors: A 2018 Reading Challenge
Science Fiction vs. Fantasy Bingo 2018

Multi-Year Challenge Tracking Pages
101 Fantasy Reading Challenge
Read All the Books Challenge

Not a Challenge:
The Big List of Everything I've Reviewed in 2018

2018 Challenges     Home

Monday, January 8, 2018

Musical Monday - The Lumberjack Song by Monty Python


This is a story about assumptions.

In the social circles I have been involved with for most of my life, Monty Python has been one of those baseline pieces of culture that everyone simply knows. Among role-playing gamers, Monty Python references are so ubiquitous that many groups have established a house rule to ban them lest gaming sessions get completely derailed. One only had to make the briefest reference to a Monty Python skit or song and everyone around would know exactly what you were talking about. It felt like familiarity with Monty Python was essentially ubiquitous.

So the other day when I was riffing on the Lumberjack Song while playing a game (it made sense in context, but it would take too long to explain how), I discovered that the Redhead had no idea what it was. She thought I was just making something goofy up on the fly. The realization that she was completely unfamiliar with something I just took for granted was somewhat disconcerting.

The salient point here is that even those things that you think are universally known probably are not. I recall seeing Robert Sawyer speak when the new Battlestar Galactica was on the air. He pointed out that even though everyone in the room had probably seen the show, based on its ratings, if you went out on the street and asked passers-by about it, only one out of every couple hundred people or so would have seen it. Or I think about the time I made a reference to Jim Henson and one of my younger coworkers had no idea who he was. The things you know are not the things everyone knows, even the things you think are so commonly known that everyone knows them.

Previous Musical Monday: Talking with My Father by Dougie MacLean
Subsequent Musical Monday: Zombie by the Cranberries

Monty Python     Musical Monday     Home

Sunday, January 7, 2018

Challenge - Beat the Backlist: A Reading Challenge


As I did last year, I am participating in Beat the Backlist: A Reading Challenge, a challenge aimed at making inroads at the pile of unread books in the collections of the participants. I still have a mountainous to-be-read pile, many of which have been in my collection for too many years without having been read. I hope to be able to make some progress in reducing the size of that mountain some more this year.

Beat the Backlist Challenge:
The Wicked + The Divine: The Faust Act by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie
Star Brand: New Universe, Vol. 1 by Jim Shooter and John Romita
Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir by Stan Lee, Peter David, and Colleen Doran
Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon by Matt Fraction, David Aja, and Javier Pulido

2018 Challenge Tracking Pages
11th Annual Graphic Novels and Manga Challenge 2018
2018 Blogger Shame Challenge
2018 Review Writing Challenge
2018 Swords and Stars Reading Challenge
Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2018
New Authors: A 2018 Reading Challenge
Science Fiction vs. Fantasy Bingo 2018

Multi-Year Challenge Tracking Pages
101 Fantasy Reading Challenge
Read All the Books Challenge

Not a Challenge:
The Big List of Everything I've Reviewed in 2018

2018 Challenges     Home