Books Received, June 7 to June 13

Jun. 14th, 2025 09:03 am
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Ten books new to me: 4.5 fantasy, 1 horror, 1 mystery, 3.5 science fiction, of which only two are identified as series.

Books Received, June 7 to June 13



Poll #33251 Books Received, June 7 to June 13
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 46


Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews (March 2026)
18 (39.1%)

The Swan’s Daughter: A Possibly Doomed Love Story by Roshani Chokshi (January 2026)
12 (26.1%)

Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology edited by Julie C. Day, Carina Bissett, and Craig Laurance Gidney (June 2025)
24 (52.2%)

The Storm by Rachel Hawkins (January2026)
3 (6.5%)

What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher (September 2025)
25 (54.3%)

Red Empire by Jonathan Maberry (March 2026)
2 (4.3%)

The Two Lies of Faven Sythe by Megan E. O’Keefe (June 2025)
13 (28.3%)

The Young Necromancer’s Guide to Ghosts by Vanessa Ricci-Thode (April 2024)
12 (26.1%)

The Poet Empress by Shen Tao (January 2026)
6 (13.0%)

Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky (June 2025)
24 (52.2%)

Some other option (see comments)
0 (0.0%)

Cats!
29 (63.0%)

Valley So Low

Jun. 13th, 2025 04:52 pm
marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
[personal profile] marycatelli posting in [community profile] books
Valley So Low: Southern Mountain Stories by Manly Wade Wellman

A collection of uncanny tales. Some are Silver John. Some feature other men who wander about and know some of the matters -- each one with his tales grouped -- and it's clear that it's one continuity, with their loosely knowing each other, with Judge Pursuivant the sage old man of their knowledge. Others are people who get mixed up in such matters and may or may not escape.

One can see how he was listed in the Appendix N as a D&D source.
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The embittered Martian aerialist and the nonconformist live a thousand-plus years apart, in different solar systems. What, then, connects them?

A Rebel’s History of Mars by Nadia Afifi

The Property of Hate Volume 4

Jun. 12th, 2025 06:04 pm
marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
[personal profile] marycatelli posting in [community profile] books
The Property of Hate Volume 4 by Sarah Jolley

The continuing adventure.

Read more... )
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
Very nice and punctual but they've basically learned nothing in the year they've worked at the theatre. Not where to stand, not which row is which, or the general location of a given seat. The last two really matter during reserved seating shows. Whatever side that usher is on is going to have lines, and people may end up in the wrong seats.

So I was discussing the situation with my boss and I said my current approach was that each shift would be to pick one thing that usher does not know, and do my best to ensure they know it by the end of the shift. Last shift was "where to stand", for example. My reward is, I think, that usher is now _my_ special project who I will be working with whenever I HM.

I did assure my boss I do remember a previous HM who grilled ushers on seat location and would ding them a quarter hour for minor uniform infractions and that I wasn't going to use them as a model. Well, I do, but only in the sense of asking myself if the way I want to handle something is how that person would, and if it is, I do something else.
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An artisanal cheesemaker's attempt to save her precious cheese cave lands her in the middle of an interplanetary crisis.

The Transitive Properties of Cheese by Ann LeBlanc

The true meaning of Metal

Jun. 12th, 2025 11:19 am
green_knight: (Rural Grunge)
[personal profile] green_knight
Anyone can be shouty, edgy, and black.

There seems to be more than one band with a pink logo, but this song surely features the most metal instrument of all times:

the recorder.



(For Germans: This is Torfrock. Brings back memories. I got there via Platt folk songs: Dat Du meen Leevsten büst -> Nakich bün ick gor nich mehr so schmuck (from recommendations - c'mon, I had to listen to that [*]) -> other Torfrock songs -> WTF???)


[*] There's an English language folk song, 'I just don't look good naked anymore' of which this is riffing off. And in typical Torfrock manner, it's a lot more direct. ('schmuck' is an adjective used for attractive people, so... yeah. I still understand a fair bit of it. Not all, though, which is annoying.).

The Lost and the Lurking

Jun. 11th, 2025 11:49 pm
marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
[personal profile] marycatelli posting in [community profile] books
The Lost and the Lurking by Manly Wade Wellman

A Silver John novel.

Read more... )
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
Have never worked a show run by human golden retrievers...

Of Dice and Bots

Jun. 11th, 2025 03:29 pm
green_knight: A pile of DnD dice from multiple sets (Shiny Mathrocks)
[personal profile] green_knight
I wanted to make a post about shiny math rocks, and will do so at a later time, but my experience has been marred a bit by customer service issues.

Same problem, different solutions )

I definitely need to find more opportunities to play DnD.
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Tales of dissidents, dissenters, and iconoclasts taking on the status quo...

Five SFF Books About Oddballs Resisting Conformity

The Hanging Stones

Jun. 10th, 2025 08:53 pm
marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
[personal profile] marycatelli posting in [community profile] books
The Hanging Stones by Manly Wade Wellman

A Silver John story, Works as a stand-alone.

Read more... )

From This Day Forward by John Brunner

Jun. 10th, 2025 09:00 am
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The sudden, shocking, return of Shockwave Reader. Will the living envy the dead?

From This Day Forward by John Brunner

Bundle of Holding: Fantasy AGE 2E

Jun. 9th, 2025 02:01 pm
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


The 2023 Second Edition corebook, TECHNOFANTASY, and more

Bundle of Holding: Fantasy AGE 2E
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No rules, no bureaucracy, just some randos messing around with the past, present, and future.

Five Stories About Time Travel on a Limited Scale

Clarke Award Finalists 2000

Jun. 9th, 2025 10:21 am
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
2000: The theft of an Enigma Machine comes too late to play a significant role in World War Two, Sellafield highlight British dedication to nuclear saafety, and the Conservatives, informed polling has them 2% ahead of Labour, discover that they are actually trailing by 13%.

Poll #33234 Clarke Award Finalists 2000
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 54


Which 2000 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

Distraction by Bruce Sterling
11 (20.4%)

A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
40 (74.1%)

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
42 (77.8%)

Silver Screen by Justina Robson
8 (14.8%)

The Bones of Time by Kathleen Ann Goonan
4 (7.4%)

Time by Stephen Baxter
11 (20.4%)



Bold for have read, italic for intend to read,, underline for never heard of it.

Which 2000 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Distraction by Bruce Sterling
A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Silver Screen by Justina Robson
The Bones of Time by Kathleen Ann Goonan
Time by Stephen Baxter

Timing

Jun. 8th, 2025 07:06 pm
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
I swung by Old Goat Books to pick up a book I ordered, which meant I was in the right place at the right time hear the confused customer next to me ask "What's speculative fiction?" Which, after I explained what it meant, was followed by the question. "Do you know anything about Andre Norton?"

It was only with great effort that I resisted shouting "BEHOLD! I AM Marshall McLuhan" before helping.

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