Reviews and Comments

Picked this up at the Black Cat bookstore in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Story about Skye at Deception Well. A good story about her and her other 14 / 15 year old friends. Introduces some of the history of humanity and the technology from the Nanotech Succession series.

After Lady Abigail Irene Garrett dies of old age her long time wampyr companion decides to return (alone) to New Amsterdam after 60 years ago. He makes new and renews prior acquaintances to help pull him from a deep ennui after long centuries of being undead.

I read all fourteen of the Mongo the Magnificent books starting in the mid 1990s. I'm currently reading Chesbro's Prism and decided I need to read them all again.

The Night Watch is growing and expanding who is eligible to serve because there is lots of work and cases to solve. They are even delving into forensic analysis (via alchemy). Meanwhile the Patrician is being poisoned so Commander Vimes leads the investigation. Meanwhile, meanwhile Captain Carrot and Angua are investigating crimes related to golems. And it seems maybe we should have been pronouncing "nobby" as "noble" due to his bloodline.

Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax end up at the Ankh-Morpork Opera. Lots of chaos with an operatically for finale. The Librarian makes an appearance to ensure the show goes on.

A good set of fiction and non-fiction entries this month. I highly recommend buying an issue to try it out and then subscribing if you like it' clarkesworldmagazine.com/ For fiction I particularly liked "The Best Version of Yourself" "Stellar Evolutions in Pop Idol Artistry" and "Aktis Aeliou, or The Machine of Margot's Destruction"

For non-fiction I really liked "Hive Minds and Drones: Bees Earthside in Futuristic Tech and Science Fiction" .

Note: The movie includes the characters in the book but the plot is different. A good book overall with interesting character development and plot. The main negative to me was the odd repetition several times of nearly identical exposition text. The first time it was presented made some sense and helped move the story forward. The later inclusions jolted me out of the story when I realized I'd already read the same text before.

A very good collection of stories and essays. I particularly liked the stories: Down in the Bottomlands Under St. Peter's Hoxbomb

Perspectives on Chanukah was informative and especially meaningfully having been written so soon after September 11th, 2001.