geekery

Whatever I’m geeking out about at the time.

📚 Queen Wallis by C.J. Carey

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55/2023 – ⭐⭐⭐

A sequel to Widowland, one of this year’s Philip K. Dick Award-nominated books, set in an alternate-history UK where Germany won WWII, and the UK is now an allied protectorate of Germany, under the nominal reign of Queen Wallace Simpson, entirely reduced to a figurehead. Following the events of Widowland, and in anticipation of the first diplomatic visit from the United States in years, England is under even tighter control. The importance of literature and poetry are important threads again, and the book does a good job of continuing the story after the climax of Widowland, picking up threads and quite believably ratcheting up the tension. I’ll definitely be interested to see if the series continues on.

Me holding Queen Wallis

Spooky Season Redesign

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Just because I can, and I haven’t done anything like this in ages, I’ve given my blog a minor redesign for spooky season. Just color and font tweaks, nothing major, and this site is so low-traffic that I doubt many people other than me will notice, but hey — that’s okay too.

Screenshot of this blog, showing the design with pumpkin-y ornages and yellows, and headers using classic creepy fonts.

Enjoy spooky season, everyone! Less than a month until Goth Christmas! ;)

📚 The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold

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54/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1991 Hugo Best Novel

Miles’s adventures continue, with all the twists, fun characters, double-crosses, and humor that make this series so enjoyable. The adventure is fun, but it really is the characters and how they relate to each other that impress the most. Four books in, and so far the only disappointment is that I didn’t find this series earlier.

Me holding The Vor Game

📚 The Warrior’s Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold

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53/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This series continues to surprise and satisfy me. Lots of adventure that’s somehow both ridiculously improbable and entirely believable within the story, and characters that feel much more real than in many other books. There’s an underlying humor throughout, but also manages to handle resolving one troubled character’s fate in a way that respects their past and the present they had built. I’m increasingly glad my Hugo reading project started me reading these books.

Me holding The Warrior's Apprentice

📚 The Romulan Prize by Simon Hawke

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52/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️

A better-than-average Romulan villain and a quest for a mysterious quarantined planet make this one quite enjoyable. Wraps up a bit quickly at the end, but even so, does so while bringing in some fun threads that could lead to more stories down the line (though I have no idea if the author wrote more Trek or followed up on any of those threads).

Me holding The Romulan Prize

📚 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: The Making of the Classic Film by John Tenuto and Maria Jose Tenuto

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51/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A very nice “coffee table” book covering the making of TWoK. For someone with a long-time interest in both Trek and behind-the-scenes tidbits and interviews, there isn’t a lot in the text that’s brand-new to me, but there were some things that I hadn’t heard, and the book gives a lot of nice capsule biographies of many of the principal people involved in the film. The look of the book is excellent, much like Titan’s earlier look into the art and effects of TMP. Definitely worthwhile for fans of TWoK.

Me holding ST2: TWoK: The Making of the Classic Film

📚 Cyberbooks by Ben Bova

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50/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Not really that great of a book, but entertaining now as a bit of retro-tech kitsch. A bit of noir mystery and a lot of needling of the publishing industry, all based around the then-SF idea of publishing books electronically. In some ways somewhat naïve about the progression of technology, but in other ways remarkably prescient about the upheaval that electronic publishing and distribution would cause in the traditional publishing world. An entertaining curiosity if you come across it, but not good enough to be actively sought after.

Me holding Cyberbooks

📚 Uncanny Issue 54 edited by Lynne M. Thomas, Michael Damian Thomas, and Michi Trota

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49/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Standouts for me this month are Catherynne M. Valente’s “Can You Hear Me Now?”, Grace P. Fong’s “We Do Not Eat Much Fish”, Sarah Monette’s “The Kingdom of Darkness”, and AnaMaria Curtis’s “The Coffin Maker”.

Me holding my iPad displaying the cover for Uncanny issue 54.