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The Measure of All Things

Wave Without a Shore

By C J Cherryh 

6 May, 2025

Meetpoint

8 comments

C. J. Cherryh’s 1981 Wave Without a Shore is a stand-alone science fiction novel set in the Alliance-Union universe.

Sculptor Herrin Law is Freedom’s foremost artist, a creative genius without parallel on the thinly populated, backwater planet. Waden Jenks (friend) and Keye Lynn (occasional lover) might consider themselves his peers, but surely Law is superior to Jenks and Lynn.

At least, that’s how Law sees it. If there is one thing the people of Freedom are good at, it is perceiving reality the way they want it to be.


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The Easier It Looks

The Continent Makers

By L. Sprague de Camp 

4 May, 2025

Because My Tears Are Delicious To You

14 comments

L. Sprague de Camp’s 1953 The Continent Makers is a collection of his early Viagens Interplanetarias stories.

In the wake of World War Three, Brazil became Earth’s foremost power1. Thus, it fell to Brazil to deliver relativistic star flight. First contact with the surprisingly large number of alien civilizations in neighboring star systems was followed by the formation of the Interplanetary Council.

Why was the Interplanetary Council needed, when contact, being sublight, was a matter of years and decades? In part, so that technologically backward, aggressive cultures do not get their hands on starships and nuclear weapons. However, there is another consideration.

Let us discuss Planets of Hats.

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Hourglass On The Table

The Psychology of Time Travel

By Kate Mascarenhas 

2 May, 2025

Doing the WFC's Homework

1 comment

Kate Mascarenhas’ 2018 The Psychology of Time Travel is a time travel murder mystery.

In 1967, four geniuses — Margaret Norton, Barbara Bee” Hereford, Grace Taylor, and Lucille Waters — emerged from their Cumbrian laboratory and presented the world with a functioning time travel machine.

Margaret, Lucille, and Grace founded the Conclave, an elite quango with responsibility for all time travel missions.” Margaret graciously accepted the position of director; a position she would ruthlessly cling to for the rest of her life. Her colleagues accepted positions within the Conclave suitable to their lofty status (but less than Margaret’s).

As for poor Barbara…

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For Whom The Bell Tolls

Usotoki Rhetoric, volume 8

By Ritsu Miyako 

30 Apr, 2025

Translation

1 comment

2017’s Usotoki Rhetoric Volume 8 is the eighth tankōbon in Ritsu Miyako’s historical1 mystery manga series. Usotoki Rhetoric was published in Bessatsu Hana to Yume from June 26, 2012, to March 26, 2018. The English translation of Volume 8 was published in 2024.

Living lie detector Kanako Urabe and her mentor, indolent detective Iwai Soma, have been trying to discover who framed Soma. So far their investigation has led the pair to Soma’s estranged half-brother Atsushi. Rather than the answers they sought, the pair became entangled with a different puzzle: who wants to break up Atsushi’s marriage?

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Don’t Create the Torment Nexus

Hardwired  (Hardwired, volume 1)

By Walter Jon Williams 

29 Apr, 2025

The Realized World

29 comments

1986’s Hardwired is the first volume in Walter Jon Williams’ Hardwired cyberpunk series. To my surprise, the title is not camel-capped.

Having decisively won the Rock War, the Orbitals provided the defeated Earth with a bold New World Order. Key axiom: that the Orbitals should extract as much short-term wealth from Earth as possible.

This state of affairs provided Cowboy and Sarah with very different careers, careers fated to intersect.


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Banquo At Your Banquet

The Wall of Years

By Andrew M. Stephenson 

27 Apr, 2025

Because My Tears Are Delicious To You

10 comments

Andrew M. Stephenson’s 1979 The Wall of Years is a stand-alone science fiction novel.

In 2011, the Commissariat of National Integrity launched Project Damocles to protect the British Republics1 from the deleterious effects of time travel, specifically the possibility that events in nearby timelines could affect the home timeline. This is a serious concern given that neighboring timelines were marching to a final War. The simple answer: murder every outside analog of time travel’s inventor, Frobisher. With no outside time travel available, existence would remain local causality for local people.

The CNI’s models were flawed. Their actions set off a series of time storms. End result: the Earth was reduced to a nearly lifeless, radioactive wasteland2. Humanity perished… at least in 2011.

The 26th century is another matter entirely.

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Full Time Help

The Ministry of Time

By Kaliane Bradley 

25 Apr, 2025

Doing the WFC's Homework

8 comments

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley is a stand-alone time travel novel.

Commander Graham Gore was just one of the hapless explorers in the Franklin Expedition1, which was attempting to find a Northwest Passage across the top of Canada. He appears in the history books as one of the casualties of the ill-fated expedition. In this novel he is given an afterlife… of sorts.

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Shining Bright

Insomniacs After School, volume 9

By Makoto Ojiro 

23 Apr, 2025

Translation

0 comments

Insomniacs After School, Volume 9 is the ninth tankōbon in Makoto Ojiro’s contemporary manga series. Serialized in Shogakukan’s seinen manga magazine Weekly Big Comic Spirits, Insomniacs After School has been ongoing since May 2019. The English translation of Volume 9 was released in 2025.

Companion insomniacs Ganta and Isaki have contended with official and parental roadblocks to their quest to restore their high school astronomy club, whose observatory is the only place either of them can sleep. Now they face a development outside the club’s previous experience.

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