Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
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Book 2 of 2025: Clarkesworld Issue 219, edited by Neil Clarke. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Favorites in this issue were “Souljacker” by Shari Paul, “Driver” by Sameem Siddiqui, and “The Coffee Machine” by Celia Corral-Vásquez.
I realized last week that somehow I got a month behind with my Clarkesworld reading, so this is actually the December issue, and the January issue is coming up next.
Since I went to the trouble of actually straightening up my office (well…mostly…there are still a few random piles here and there, but that’s par for the course here), I figured I’d record it for posterity here.
My desk is actually an old drafting table, 3′ deep by 6′ wide. To the left is my work laptop and secondary screen, with an old wired Apple keyboard and a Kensington trackball.
At center are the two screens for my personal Mac Mini, which can be seen under and to the right of the monitor stand on top of a Blu-ray drive; under and to the left of the monitor stand is a four-bay external drive. The Mini uses the wireless trackpad and keyboard, along with the wired Wacom art tablet.
To the right of the Mac Mini is a printer (a reliable, no-fuss, Brother black and white laser printer — “Just get a Brother, they’re fine.“) under a cassette deck from when I was digitizing audiocassettes; on top of the cassette deck (along with a pile o’ crap) is a small amp to drive the speakers mounted on the wall.
The art directly above the monitors is a cartoon sketch of me by Shari Chankhamma; the art on the wall to the right is the logo of my brother’s punk band Beefadelphia from back in the ’90s alternative scene in Anchorage, Alaska, painted in ’94 by Aaron Morgan. That painting used to hang on a wall at Gig’s; when the club closed, I was able to snag it for myself.
And here’s looking the other direction, showing the shelves that are my backdrop most of the time I’m on Zoom from home. The furthest to the left is primarily graphic novels, oversize books, and books that don’t fit the categories of the other shelves. The next two shelves are all Star Trek, and have my Star Trek DVD/Blu-ray library sitting on top. The next two shelves are all science fiction and fantasy, with my camera and lens collection sitting on top.
And here’s what that ceiling track is for — when I’m doing something where I want something other than my bookshelves behind me, I can just pull the green curtain around to form a nice curved green screen behind me. Works great, and if you regularly Zoom from home and are looking for an easy way to manage a green screen, I can highly recommend this setup. It’s just the ceiling track and a photographic green screen backdrop that I punched holes in and added grommets to hang from the track hooks. Simple and effective!
Book 1 of 2025: Uncanny Magazine Issue 62, edited by Lynne M. Thomas, Michael Damian Thomas, Monte Lin, and Betsy Aoki. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Favorites this month were “Kaiju Agonistes” by Scott Lynch, a hilarious take on kaiju stories, and “Six People to Revise You” by J.R. Dawson, which was perhaps a bit predictable, but very nice.
76/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A fun, quick read, as two of Miles’ current and former staff uncover a plot to foil Miles’ wedding.
75/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A two-century prequel to the Vorkosigan saga, as the Quaddies — humans genetically engineered for zero-G, complete with a second pair of arms rather than legs — make a break for freedom. Not quite as good as later Vorkosigan books, but also one of the earliest written, and still very enjoyable, with some neat feats of sci-fi engineering balancing out the less well-developed characters.
74/2024 – ⭐️⭐️
Though officially a TOS adventure, this is really mostly a part of the Vanguard spinoff book series, which I read so long ago as to have forgotten both characters and key points. As a result, it felt like I was reading a mid-series book, and missing much of the necessary context. The primary foe is so overwhelmingly powerful that there’s an extended battle sequence in the latter half of the book that feels very out of place; perhaps it works within the greater Vanguard storyline, but to me, it was just troubling and very un-Trek. Klingon characters include pre-“Day of the Dove” Kang and Mara, which does expand their characters in interesting ways and hints at background motivations for future Federation/Klingon developments, but also doesn’t really mesh with what I remember of Kang and Mara’s actions in the episode (though, admittedly, it’s been a few years since I watched it, and I’m relying partially on Memory Alpha’s plot summary here). All in all, an uneven Trek adventure, and not one of my favorites.
73/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Interstellar travel spanning centuries, plans and plots spanning decades and more, first contact, an alien civilization presented in both very relateable and very alien ways…all sorts of good stuff here. Technically in the same universe as Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep, but so removed in space and time as to be standalone, with only a few connections to the other. Really enjoyed how Vinge presented the Spiders, and the revelations towards the end that I didn’t guess at all. An excellent read.
72/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
As always, Trek is at its best when it’s looking at modern issues through an SF lens. On the surface, this is about Pike and Number One at Starfleet Academy, paired with a later mission that ties back to those experiences. But when dealing with minority ethnic groups reacting to years of oppression, there’s a lot more there as well. Plus, of course, some very entertaining ties to wider Trek lore.
71/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Favorites this issue were “Woodmask” by Adrian Tchaikovsky and “Ancestor Heart” by Naomi Day.
70/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Favorites this month were “LuvHome™” by Resa Nelson, “Luminous Glass, Vibrant Seeds” by D.A. Xiaolin Spires, “Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being” by A. W. Prihandita, and “Unquiet Graves” by Michael Swanwick.
