TV, politics, fiction
Once Upon A Time: Ugh, Jiminy survived. At least that means I can uncomplicatedly despise him for ratting Regina out. No, Jiminy, just giving generalities of how your conversations are going does not mean you’re keeping confidences. Actually it’s the opposite. Also, Snow, taking the position “killing is wrong!” is not very persuasive after you’ve just broken an opponent’s army. Nice try on execution v. ambush, or whatever, but … no. That said, Snow’s been so consistently a proponent of terrible decisions that I’m starting to see it as a feature rather than a logic bug. Also, I loved Regina’s “trouble in paradise?”-let’s face it, Charming’s not really capable of keeping that one pinned down for long.
Republican Angry at Trillion-Dollar-Coin Solution: “There turns out to be no serious economic or legal argument against the platinum coins…. The main drawback is that it’s hilarious…. See, here’s the thing. The United States government is not like a small business. Small businesses routinely go out of business. That is something we’d rather avoid as a country.” I will admit, the rule lawyer in me kind of wants to see this happen. The rest of the world already knows we’ve gone off the rails, so why not?
Menial: Skilled Labor in Science Fiction, ed. Kelly Jennings & Shay Darrach: Free LibraryThing Early Reviewer book. The stories tend to play with skilled/unskilled (scutwork in space can get you killed if you do it badly or if you’re unlucky), but there weren’t many surprises. The best was Jasmine M. Templet’s variation on the Cthulhu mythos: Who sweeps up while Cthulhu fhtagn?
Kevin Hearne, Hounded: The Iron Druid Chronicles: Ancient Druid hanging out as twentysomething in Arizona fights other superpowered beings from multiple cultures over a sword he has and they want. Too powerful for me to worry about, too self-satisfied for me to care about. But if you like dogs, he has an Irish wolfhound who he talks to a lot, often about food and sex.
Jim Butcher, Cold Days: I devour the Harry Dresden books like bags of peanut M&Ms, and this was no exception. Now the Winter Knight, Harry takes on bigger and badder enemies, and gets closer to the Big Conspiracy that’s been emerging over the course of the last few books. Once you roll with him always being just barely powerful enough to survive whoever’s coming for him, it’s all good. Except that it’s a mistake to lampshade that Harry can’t use the internet and then have him utter the line “Awkward conversation is awkward.” On the other hand, any book whose tough-guy lines include “Wizard, please” in exactly the way you’d expect “Bitch, please” to be used gets some leeway from me.
David Brin, Existence: I missed Brin, it turns out! This is century-spanning space opera (though largely set on Earth), with big time-jumps, multiple species of humanity (including Neandertals, “auties,” and AIs along with dolphins), and attack memes from outer space. As with much big idea sf, it’s about our present problems: climate change, the apparently unstoppable power of wealthy elites, and more generally whether we will make it as a technological species over the medium term. The people are recognizable but outsize, and they hold different viewpoints; each is the hero of their own narrative. In short, it’s fun and a little bit thought-provoking (did I mention the attack memes from outer space?).
Sarah Rees Brennan, Unspoken: The Lynburn Legacy, Book One: Kami Glass has always had an imaginary friend, Jared. Then one day the Lynburns return to her small English town, and it turns out that she was talking to Jared Lynburn all along. Unfortunately, there’s plenty more magic than that around, some of it dangerous to life and limb, and Kami is a born investigator. The quip factor is turned up higher than Buffy, which is a little harder to take on the page-as witty as each super-clever line is, even just after a near-death experience, the combined effect is a bit like being sandblasted-but I still enjoyed the banter on an individual level, and the magic/mystery and romance were well balanced, particularly in Kami’s ambivalence about being mentally linked to someone against her will (and his).
comments on DW | reply there. I have invites or you can use OpenID.
Republican Angry at Trillion-Dollar-Coin Solution: “There turns out to be no serious economic or legal argument against the platinum coins…. The main drawback is that it’s hilarious…. See, here’s the thing. The United States government is not like a small business. Small businesses routinely go out of business. That is something we’d rather avoid as a country.” I will admit, the rule lawyer in me kind of wants to see this happen. The rest of the world already knows we’ve gone off the rails, so why not?
Menial: Skilled Labor in Science Fiction, ed. Kelly Jennings & Shay Darrach: Free LibraryThing Early Reviewer book. The stories tend to play with skilled/unskilled (scutwork in space can get you killed if you do it badly or if you’re unlucky), but there weren’t many surprises. The best was Jasmine M. Templet’s variation on the Cthulhu mythos: Who sweeps up while Cthulhu fhtagn?
Kevin Hearne, Hounded: The Iron Druid Chronicles: Ancient Druid hanging out as twentysomething in Arizona fights other superpowered beings from multiple cultures over a sword he has and they want. Too powerful for me to worry about, too self-satisfied for me to care about. But if you like dogs, he has an Irish wolfhound who he talks to a lot, often about food and sex.
Jim Butcher, Cold Days: I devour the Harry Dresden books like bags of peanut M&Ms, and this was no exception. Now the Winter Knight, Harry takes on bigger and badder enemies, and gets closer to the Big Conspiracy that’s been emerging over the course of the last few books. Once you roll with him always being just barely powerful enough to survive whoever’s coming for him, it’s all good. Except that it’s a mistake to lampshade that Harry can’t use the internet and then have him utter the line “Awkward conversation is awkward.” On the other hand, any book whose tough-guy lines include “Wizard, please” in exactly the way you’d expect “Bitch, please” to be used gets some leeway from me.
David Brin, Existence: I missed Brin, it turns out! This is century-spanning space opera (though largely set on Earth), with big time-jumps, multiple species of humanity (including Neandertals, “auties,” and AIs along with dolphins), and attack memes from outer space. As with much big idea sf, it’s about our present problems: climate change, the apparently unstoppable power of wealthy elites, and more generally whether we will make it as a technological species over the medium term. The people are recognizable but outsize, and they hold different viewpoints; each is the hero of their own narrative. In short, it’s fun and a little bit thought-provoking (did I mention the attack memes from outer space?).
Sarah Rees Brennan, Unspoken: The Lynburn Legacy, Book One: Kami Glass has always had an imaginary friend, Jared. Then one day the Lynburns return to her small English town, and it turns out that she was talking to Jared Lynburn all along. Unfortunately, there’s plenty more magic than that around, some of it dangerous to life and limb, and Kami is a born investigator. The quip factor is turned up higher than Buffy, which is a little harder to take on the page-as witty as each super-clever line is, even just after a near-death experience, the combined effect is a bit like being sandblasted-but I still enjoyed the banter on an individual level, and the magic/mystery and romance were well balanced, particularly in Kami’s ambivalence about being mentally linked to someone against her will (and his).
comments on DW | reply there. I have invites or you can use OpenID.