17 Mar, 2022
Miscellaneous Reviews
R. B. Lemberg’s 2022 The Unbalancing is a secondary universe fantasy, set in Lemberg’s Bird universe.
Erígra Lilún isn’t at ease in social situations. They would rather engage in solitary artistic pursuits. This doesn’t sit well with their ancestor Semberí, long a ghost, who has a strong conviction that Lilún should be the new keeper of the Unquiet Sleeper. “What is that?” you ask. Let me explain.
16 Mar, 2022
Translation
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2015’s A Bride’s Story, Volume 7 (retitled from the original Otoyomegatari) is the seventh tankōbon for Kaoru Mori’s historical manga series. The English translation has lagged Japanese publication by only about half a year.
Wandering British scholar Henry Smith and his long-suffering guide Ali make their way to Persia. There they are hosted by a fabulously wealthy Persian man who has a lovely bride, Anis, whose existence Smith will have to take on faith, as they will never meet.
The focus of this volume is the story of Anis.
15 Mar, 2022
Special Requests
2000’s Inca is the first volume of Suzanne Allés Blom’s Inca alternate-history trilogy.
Exemplary Fortune — or Atahualpa, as he is known to history — is a loyal prince of the Four Quarters, serving the Unique Inca, Young Majesty. Young Majesty has ruled for more than thirty years. Now, however, disturbing omens suggest that Young Majesty’s era of comparative peace1is at an end.
News is received from the town of Recognition: peculiar strangers have arrived in a bizarre boat. EF is dispatched to investigate.
14 Mar, 2022
Translation
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2019’s Kaiju Girl Caramelise, Vol. 2 is the second of six volumes in Spica Aoki’s Kaiju Girl Caramelise (Otome Kaijū Kyaramerize) manga series. Kaiju Girl Caramelise has been serialized in Monthly Comic Alive since early 2018.
Social outcast Kuroe Akaishi has, to her own astonishment (and that of the other students at her high school), caught the eye of high-school model Arata Minami. In many stories, the handsome student’s apparent romantic interest in Kuroe would be a cruel joke. But in fact Arata is quite sincere.
As flattering as this is, Kuroe dreads what will happen when Arata learns the truth about Kuroe’s unfortunate medical condition. Whenever Kuroe is stressed, she becomes an office-building-sized kaiju.
A first date with dreamboat Arata is just the sort of experience that could well stress Kuroe.
13 Mar, 2022
Because My Tears Are Delicious To You
Donald R. Bensen’s 1978’s And Having Writ… is a stand-alone comedic alternate history novel.
Due to mechanical failure during re-entry, first contact between humanity and the crew of the starship Wandererseems certain to come in the form of a high-velocity impact near the location known to humans as Tunguska. This catastrophe is avoided, thanks to skillful piloting and cutting-edge tech. The Wanderer is able to divert and set down in the Pacific.
On board: Captain Dark, Recorder Raf, Metahistorian Ari, and Integrator Valmis.
Explorers have been given strict non-contact guidelines, but these do not take into account being marooned on alien worlds. The guidelines particularly do not cover this particular case: primitive locals, having retrieved the extraterrestrials crewing it, accidentally sink the starship in the Pacific.
If Dark, Raf, Ari, and Valmis are to get home, they will need to use local resources to do so. Local resources are, alas, currently insufficient.
11 Mar, 2022
Doing the WFC's Homework
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Darcie Little Badger’s 2021 A Snake Falls to Earth is a contemporary fantasy.
Nina’s great-great-grandmother Rosita dies at an advanced age, leaving Rosita’s grieving descendants with questions that the ancient Lipan Apache woman can no longer answer. For example, how is it that Rosita turns out to have been at least 150 years old, if not older? Modern medicine is good, but not that good.
Rosita was a rare survivor of Texas’ campaign of Lipan genocide1. Her descendants are therefore cautious of any involvement with officialdom and don’t investigate this anomaly in any way that would attract official attention.
Nina thinks there might be an answer in the Lipan lore that Rosita shared before dying. Surely a little private investigation won’t attract unwelcome attention. But it does.
10 Mar, 2022
Miscellaneous Reviews
Nicola Griffith’s 2022 Spear is a stand-alone Arthurian fantasy.
The nameless girl yearns to know who she is … but her mother Elen won’t reveal her name or the name of her father. The pair hide in a cave in remote woods, far from any other habitation. Elen wields magic and owns a powerful artifact, but she lives in fear of discovery. The girl will never be belong to any community in post-Roman Britain if her mother has her way.
8 Mar, 2022
Damon Knight's Orbit
1978’s Orbit 20 is the 20thand second to last volume in Damon Knight’s series of original SF stories.
7 Mar, 2022
Doing the WFC's Homework
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2022’s Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances is the second entry in Aliette de Bodard’s Dragons and Blades series.
Visiting his shape-shifting relatives in their kingdom under the Seine, Prince Thuan ventures to babysit, on the entirely correct assumption that his bloodthirsty husband Asmodeus is poorly suited for the task.
A family outing to a nearby ruined shrine takes an unexpected turn when a ghost appears.
6 Mar, 2022
Because My Tears Are Delicious To You
Robert A. Heinlein’s 1980’s Expanded Universe: The New Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein is a greatly expanded edition of 1966’s The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein.
New Heinlein collections were not exactly common in 1980. News of an impending collection, which would include post-1966 published material and never-before-published material new to this volume, was a big deal to Heinlein fans forty-two years ago. Publisher Jim Baen of Ace did his best to make sure fans knew what was coming.
I was one of those fans.
Did the collection live up to the hype? Well … it was better than Number of the Beast.