Read Recently
Keeping to short entries for now:
Cyberspaces of their own: Female fandoms online by Rhiannon Bury
Professor Bury hung out for a while with the David Duchovny Estrogen Brigade and the Militant RayK Separatists--online groups of mostly women who are big fans of the X-Files and Due South, respectively. The MRKS are also fanficcers, so I thought reading this might help me understand the process a little better. Nope. Still, this is a well-written, interesting look at online community-making. Recommended.
The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie
Poirot is challenged by a letter signed "A.B.C." that he will do something in Andover on the 21st of the month; shortly thereafter a woman is murdered. Her name starts with "A". Then comes another letter, Bexhill-On-Sea, and a "B" murder. Meanwhile, Mr. Alexander Bonaparte Cusp is having some nasty headaches since coming back from the war. Can Poirot put it all together? Of course he can. Recommended.
Sliding Scales: A Pip & Flinx adventure by Alan Dean Foster
After all his adventures lately, Flinx decides he needs a vacation. His ship's AI suggests a small, little known planet in nuetral space between the Commonwealth and the Aan, where no one hunting for him is likely to find him. Unfortunately for Flinx, the planet has no tourism setup, so he is assigned a paranoid Aan officer to show him around. This guy is so paranoid that he accidentally tips Flinx into a canyon, and report him as dead (he's pretty sure Flinx is dead). This leaves our hero wandering around the planet amnesiac and lost in the desert, while the Aan deal with an unprecedented terrorist outbreak that they suspect Flinx may have been behind . . . good SF fun, and recommended for those who have read the rest of the series. You could start here, but you probably shouldn't.
Cyberspaces of their own: Female fandoms online by Rhiannon Bury
Professor Bury hung out for a while with the David Duchovny Estrogen Brigade and the Militant RayK Separatists--online groups of mostly women who are big fans of the X-Files and Due South, respectively. The MRKS are also fanficcers, so I thought reading this might help me understand the process a little better. Nope. Still, this is a well-written, interesting look at online community-making. Recommended.
The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie
Poirot is challenged by a letter signed "A.B.C." that he will do something in Andover on the 21st of the month; shortly thereafter a woman is murdered. Her name starts with "A". Then comes another letter, Bexhill-On-Sea, and a "B" murder. Meanwhile, Mr. Alexander Bonaparte Cusp is having some nasty headaches since coming back from the war. Can Poirot put it all together? Of course he can. Recommended.
Sliding Scales: A Pip & Flinx adventure by Alan Dean Foster
After all his adventures lately, Flinx decides he needs a vacation. His ship's AI suggests a small, little known planet in nuetral space between the Commonwealth and the Aan, where no one hunting for him is likely to find him. Unfortunately for Flinx, the planet has no tourism setup, so he is assigned a paranoid Aan officer to show him around. This guy is so paranoid that he accidentally tips Flinx into a canyon, and report him as dead (he's pretty sure Flinx is dead). This leaves our hero wandering around the planet amnesiac and lost in the desert, while the Aan deal with an unprecedented terrorist outbreak that they suspect Flinx may have been behind . . . good SF fun, and recommended for those who have read the rest of the series. You could start here, but you probably shouldn't.