This book starts with yet another character viewpoint, but I was expecting it this time.
I’ve started to notice little world building things that nag at me because of the character switches. Maybe my brain is looking for something to hold onto when I’m getting a third or fourth story that ties together with the others? One small example of this is the use of French doors. Everyone that reads that understands it based on THIS world. IF there’s no France in your world, how do you have ‘French’ doors?
I know it’s nit-picking. I suspect that’s the underlying irritation in me about switching characters and realigning story stuff in my head.
This story does bring a number of the story lines together, and I am interested to see how the whole story plays out. I’m clearly in for the 4 book series at this point. I will get the next one and see how it all turns out.
There were a couple of things that caught my attention right away with this story. The first was it didn’t start with the story, the book started with an explanation of the fact that it was slightly alternate history. The next thing was that the wizard was named Merlin.
I almost put the book down right then. Merlin is so deeply, desperately overused I almost stopped.
I pushed on and finished the book. I enjoyed the story once I got past a couple of things, and the world building had some interesting bits. I don’t know that I’ll go any further in the series, but I’m glad to have checked this one off the TBR pile at least.
Bonus bit for anyone who actually reads my review stuff here rather than directly on Goodreads. Once I got past the fact that the “Merlin” of this book was NOT in fact yet another Arthurian remake, I still couldn’t shake it. I could only picture the actor from the movie remake of the story from 2019 where Angus Imrie plays Merlin as a gangly, hyperactive teenager who uses a lot of hand-wavium and snapping to make things happen. Here’s a clip for you to enjoy:
This is one of those posts where I put it here, on my site so that when anyone questions it I can say definitively that I own it.
The weekend before Thanksgiving I headed to Cherry Hill (yes, the Philadelphia con is in NJ) for the annual science fiction convention put on by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society. I’ve gone to Philcon for many years, and have been invited to be on panels for many years as well. This convention is the home of a couple of the most legendary convention stories, including defend the pizza, and Yes – I realize that was 9 years ago.
Blame to me. I glanced at the convention requirements, but I did NOT read them as thoroughly as I should have. I see this now, I saw it then. It still didn’t make me at all happy. You see, the convention, as a private organization, can make any requirements it sees fit for entry into their event. They did. They required a Covid vaccination update that fell within certain parameters. IF you were just vaccinated back in ’22, that wasn’t good enough. You’d need a PCR negative test if you didn’t have a booster dated this year (basically).
They’re not wrong. *I* am the danger vector. Since the CDC declared an end to the public health emergency back in May, and even before then, I have been traveling for work. I’ve been from Georgia to Oregon. In 0 of the places I’ve been since May has anyone asked for proof of vaccination, let alone very specific versions of the vaccine. I haven’t even seen a mask in months. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not out there trying to catch anything, I just haven’t given things much more thought than basic precautions. I even still keep my CDC card with me. Proof of vax, even if I don’t really need it anymore. Except now I did, and it wasn’t good enough.
Imagine my shock when the convention staff told me I wasn’t allowed in.
I’d booked a hotel, I’d made the drive, I’d set up things for the panels I was going to speak on and even ordered (and pre-paid for) a t-shirt for the first time in years. Nope, you’ll have to go away.
Once I got past my initial shock, I was actually angry at this rule. Again, not their fault I didn’t know, and I know that. I was as much stunned they made the rule more than anything. It was excessive, at least to my way of thinking. I shared my opinion with a friend and he suggested I just go to the local pharmacy and get tested. Excellent plan.
I drove to a local Walgreens and headed to the pharmacy counter. The worker there kindly explained that a PCR test required lab work and there was no way I was getting that at this hour on a Friday night. I looked around, trying to figure out what to do with my rapidly building level of frustration. As I looked around, I realized there was almost nobody in the store. I looked back at the girl behind the desk and said, “What are you doing right now?” She was taken aback so I added, “You’ve got boosters, right? I want one.”
So, 15 minutes later I had a shot in the arm and a newly signed and dated entry on my CDC vaccination card. I drove back to the hotel, parked the car and headed back to the check in desk. I plunked the card down on the desk and asked for my entry badge. The very same person who refused me before glanced at the card, saw the date that ended with ’23, smiled and welcomed me.
That’s the part that really bothered me later. It was the same person that felt it was so important to turn me away previously. It looked like I met their rules, so they were happy and welcoming. The part I’m glad she missed was that I had literally been gone for about a half an hour and still didn’t meet the requirements for entry. You see, those shots technically require a 2 week time period to become effective… and the rules said that too. A shot in the arm that day didn’t actually help anyone in the immediate time frame. They could have just as easily turned me away again…
I’m glad they didn’t. Laying out the money for the trip was a doable thing, but not for absolutely no return and no access to what I came there for. What it did was cement in my mind that this convention wants to never change, and if that means dying then so be it. In my personal experience over the past decade the attendance, the panel variety, the guest list and many other aspects have been dwindling. This year I was shocked at the lack of people. I’ve said the crowd was thinning before, but I saw so few people there I didn’t believe the attendance was more than about 200. It was dismal. The panel list was smaller, the guest list was smaller and the principle speaker wasn’t able to attend (last minute illness). Part of me can’t help but wonder if the policy had a bigger hand in that dip in attendees than just the rumors I heard. Yes, I know of at least 2 guests that said they weren’t coming back based on the rule. If I know of two, how many more were there? How many attendees just didn’t bother? What was there to draw them in?
The hotel hasn’t changed in all that time either. Admittedly, they’re working on remodeling the place, but I think this photo was symbolic of my weekend.
Worn, broken and barely hanging on. That’s it. That’s what I got from the weekend and even after waiting a week to get past the immediacy of my feelings, the impression has not improved. If anything, it’s gotten worse.
My panels, and my fellow panelists, were good. There were never more than ten people in any panel I was on (or that I attended), but the people that were there still held some enthusiasm. I was able to connect with a couple of con attendees, so that was great. I got to see my friends and may have even weaseled my way into a couple of short story anthologies for next year.
Still owning the fact that it was my screw up in not practicing what I preach and failing to read the fine print, this year just left a bad aftertaste. This wasn’t a good con. I had witnessed struggles in an indirect way with this con before, but I went with the benefit of the doubt. I wasn’t there in person to witness the challenges, so I could just try to keep things going. Not so much anymore. I’m glad I made the connections I did. I’m glad I saw my friends again, but I’m going to have to wait until next year rolls around to decide if I’m actually going to attend Philcon again. Ever.
I have learned over time that I prefer characters that are at least a little bit heroic. I understand the preference and try to keep it in mind when I’m reading books containing anti-hero types.
I don’t think I would classify this characters in this book as anti-hero types. I would classify them as horrifyingly narcissistic. They can’t get past their own hang-ups and it costs them, and all of the people around them everything.
I really struggled with this book. I wanted to like it, and I just couldn’t stand these characters. I liked different world building and different myths, but it wasn’t enough for me.
I picked this book up as a book club selection. I wouldn’t have known about it otherwise.
This collection is aimed at fans of the Jane Yellowrock world. It’s various shorts from various places all pulled into one book. That’s great – if you’ve read all the other stuff. The most challenging part of this book is that the majority of these stories are muted at best if you don’t know all the character back stories, histories or where all this fits into the larger world.
It’s not that this isn’t well written. It’s fast and easy to read. It’s like asking somebody to watch Avengers Endgame without watching any of the other movies. The impact just won’t be there. You don’t have the history. This book is for fans to get all the juicy in between bits, but it really wasn’t for me.
This post was originally published in Watch The Skies June 2023 edition.
Andromeda Strain (1971)
I’ve been going back and re-watching some older science fiction films, or in some cases watching them for the first time. I had never seen The Andromeda Strain so I grabbed some popcorn and hit play.
There are a number of things I noticed while viewing this 50+ year old film.
There are aspects of the film style that place it squarely in the era of the late 60s / early 70s. Unavoidable things like changes in film making, the quality of the picture (at least compared to modern, high definition sets), special effects without CGI and updates to sound. There are minor turns of phrase that might raise eyebrows today. Some things the characters say or how they respond to things can be very different than a viewer of today would expect.
Beyond simple style or dated cultural issues there is technology. Some tech you simply can’t avoid seeing changes in. Cars, helicopters and planes are all mechanical items that we have contact with or at least passing familiarity with, so those are easy things to spot. Interestingly, the computer technology has made an unexpected change. In part, the attempts to be ‘futuristic’ have made of the tech in the movie actually look spot on to things we have today. Using a stylus on a computer screen in 1971 was so far in the future as to seem unreachable or at least something movie goers wouldn’t expect. These days we have a stylus for our personal tablets and phones that are so common we barely think twice about losing them. The computers themselves were a surprise to me. The ‘main frame’ driven tech is very old in the way the movie makers were likely thinking of it, but to those outside the computer industry it’s almost passable as an AI or super computer, so it would still fit the bill as ‘science fiction’.
Certain special effects make me wonder if the film makers actually killed lab rats and monkeys to get this movie made. Those scenes were definitely not for the squeamish. Any scene like that today would require disclaimers at the start of the film and would be ruthlessly scrutinized. I didn’t see the note at the end of the credits stating that no animals were harmed in the making of the film. Perhaps I missed it.
The version I watched had an interview with Michael Chriton. I was fascinated to hear about his drive and sense of humor (one of his pseudonyms meant dwarf when he was actually 6′-9” tall). The scope was broad for this movie but still had a tight run time. There’s a more modern (2008) remake that was broken into two 90 minute films, but I suspect it won’t land on my watch list. If there’s such a thing as a spoiler alert for a 50 year old movie, this film is a bit of a downer. The biological space thing escapes into the world at large. It is mutated and non-lethal, but it’s out there and there’s a secret science department in the government working constantly to stop it from mutating and killing people again. That part was a lot less entertaining after living through the pandemic and seeing how people reacted.
In the end, I’m glad I went back and checked out this classic. It’s good to have a sense of where things come from, knowing the roots of thing. If you’ve got the chance, you should watch this version of the film.
Doing this a little differently than I have in the past. Much more a “as it happens” thing ~ or as close to that as I get. I’m writing this while in the middle of day 2 at the con. We’ll see how it all shakes out (and if I actually get back to this before I have to go all the way home).
Getting to the con from home was a challenge. There are 0 things the con can do about travel distance or traffic challenges, but it was certainly part of my experience. the 3.5 hour drive that was supposed to get me here took about 5 when I finally got here and got checked in. That was… not ideal. It was a difficult way to start.
Once I was actually here, at the venue, I discovered their wayfinding / signage to be lacking. Getting around here is not an easy thing when you’ve never been here before. There are actually 3 buildings containing various aspects of the convention and NONE of that is clear from the entry drive or signage from the parking area(s). I realize that wayfinding signs are part of my day job / professional life, but it makes such a huge difference to a persons experience. Bad signs meant it was hard to find the hotel registration. Then it was hard to figure out the right parking area / path to my room in the building next door. THEN I had to go and figure out con registration in the third building.
I figured it out, but by the time I got through all that I was just beat. I was done, I just didn’t know it yet.
I grabbed the person I’m rooming with and grabbed a bite to eat at a local sub shop, then came back to find 0 parking spaces available at the hotel lot near my room. Very frustrating.
I headed off to a panel that said it was about role playing informing your writing. What I got from the panel was a lengthy discussion about story telling informing your gaming. NOT the sort of panel that overwhelmed me and filled me with a desire to go and do more.
In the end, I decided that I was well and truly exhausted from the combination of a long work week and a miserable drive. I turned in early… missing out on the kind of fun you find at cons, like light up ice cubes for your party drinks!
Hopefully day 02 will bring more and better things…
This is another book I would not have picked up on my own. This was a recommendation / selection from the Watch The Skies fan group / book club. I’m quite glad I did get it and read it.
I would place this story in the same category as “The House in the Cerulean Sea” and “Victories Greater Than Death”. The main character is trans, and Asian. Not anything I relate to, but this book is written in such a way that the empathy is there. I was pulling for Katrina. I wanted Satomi to help her.
The characters are interesting. The setting has the feel of a place the author knew well. The story has a lot of hope in it, and that feels like something we could use more of. You should pick this one up.
I picked this up for two main reasons. First, I was between a couple of science fiction reads and wanted something unlike either. Second, I am an old school lover of sword and sorcery stories. Oath certainly fit the bill for old school sword and sorcery.
I really enjoyed the simple fact that the paladin Bahzell was NOT what one might expect from the modern depictions or presumptions about what it means to be a holy warrior. This holy warrior also happens to be a berserker with an physical presence that can’t be ignored.
The world building here is solid. The magic system plays within the rules that are set out. The travel between places and the hardships involved with that travel all rang quite true. I would quibble with the way the characters spoke, but it was consistent throughout the book. Once you got the hang of how the words were flowing it was easy to read.
IF you’re a fan of old school sword and sorcery novels I’d recommend you pick this one up.
I read, finished and enjoyed this one. It was a very real feeling set of characters who moved through and met the very Lovecraftian challenges arising in New York City together. As a reader I clearly got the mental struggle each of them went through as their lives changed when the spirit of the city itself became part of them. It was refreshing to see the wide variation in points of view as well.
I likely would have enjoyed this story a lot more if I were in some way involved or invested in NYC. Honestly, being a Boston person my whole life, it made a lot of the ‘feel’ a little bit off for me. I could easily see a reader diving deep into this story and being in love, but that wasn’t ever going to be me.
If you’re a fan of existential horror, you’ll probably like this book quite a lot.
