66/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Favorites this month were “The Buried People” by Nigel Brown, “The Children of Flame” by Fiona Moore, “Fractal Karma” by Arula Ratnakar, and “Midnight Patron” by Mike Robinson.
Books
I read…a lot. Here’s where I ramble about books and printed media.
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
65/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1999 Hugo Best Novel
A really funny time travel story, as historians attempt to prevent the unraveling of the universe after a seemingly impossible accident. Romance, confusion, rare goldfish, a remarkably ugly Macguffin, and a lot of laughs, to say nothing of the dog.
No Man’s Land by Kirsten Beyer and Mike Johnson
64/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Somehow I missed the bit in the blurb telling me this was a script for an audio play, so that was a bit of a surprise, though not a bad one. Short and quick, this follows Seven and Raffi just after season one of Picard as they deal with saving artifacts and a senile historian from a Romulan…though it’s really more about the first steps of their relationship. Fun to read, and I’m somewhat tempted to find the audio production to see how some of the more visual elements of the script translate.
Agents of Influence by Dayton Ward
63/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A trio of Federation spies must escape the Klingon empire after being uncovered, and Kirk and company are brought in to assist. An enjoyable fifth-year TOS adventure.
Failure to Launch: A Tour of Ill-Fated Futures edited by Kel McDonald
62/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Really good anthology of short comics about historical moments, ideas, and efforts that were unsuccessful. I’d forgotten the premise between the time I ordered this one and when it arrived, so it was a peasant surprise to discover it was all non-fiction, and while a couple of the stories I’d heard of before, much of these little tidbits of history were new to me.
Uncanny Magazine Issue 60 edited by Lynne M. Thomas, Michael Damian Thomas, Monte Lin, and Betsy Aoki
61/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
This issue’s standouts were “The 6% Squeeze” by Eddie Robson, “A Stranger Knocks” by Tananarive Due, “¡Sangronas! Un Lista de Terror” by M. M. Olivas, and “A Menu of First Favorite Meals” by Jo Miles.
What Fresh Hell is This? Perimenopause, Menopause, Other Indignities, and You by Heather Corinna
59/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
While I wasn’t born with a uterus, roughly half of the people I know and encounter throughout my life were (including my wife, who handed this book to me after she read it), and as most of the ones I’m most familiar with are within a few years of my age (51 as of this moment), this seemed like good info to have. The book is great; very readable and often quite funny, with a wealth of information. I certainly had no idea how much research into menopause has only been done in the past couple decades; I’d guess that even people who think they know what’s up are likely to find something new. This is an excellent, informative, and likely quite validating resource for anyone with a uterus who is approaching or experiencing menopause, who is planning on yeeting their uterus and facing sudden menopause, who never had a uterus but values understanding (as much as possible) what those who do are going through. There’s also a postscript chapter addressing what trans women may expect as they age.
Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
58/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Shakespeare, more or less, by way of Pratchett’s Discworld, and quite a lot of fun. Particularly enjoyed the recognition of the power of the word, and how it can bend history out of joint if used unscrupulously.
The Higher Frontier by Christopher L. Bennett
57/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Set between TMP and TWoK, this adventure primarily ties together three threads: The Medusans as introduced in TOS, the Aenar as introduced in ENT, and the New Humans as introduced in Roddenberry’s novelization of TMP. Those three threads are woven together with elements, references, and in-jokes from throughout the Star Trek screen and literary universes, as Bennett so often does in his books. It’s also interesting when reading these more recently written books that are able to find ways to drop in references to the newer shows. All in all, another good adventure with some really neat approaches to tying together previously unrelated parts of Trek history in unexpected ways.
