Review of Zeppelin City by Eileen Gunn and Michael Swanwick

Different readers have different reactions to stereotypes and cliches. Some forgive, ignore, or even embrace the overt depiction of communal cultural phenomenon. Not this blog. It's difficult, painful to read “the thing” laid bare exactly as the lowest possible common denominator would have it. Ready the tylenol with Michael Swanwick and Eileen Gunn's novella Zeppelin City (2011).

Zeppelin City is the story of Radio Jones, Amelia Spindizzy, and Rudy (no catchy last name; he's the commie). Jones is a plucky electronics wiz who has an idea how radio signals can be overheard, an idea she hopes to bring to reality so she can make a dime off listening to the autogyro operators and their crews during the big races. Spindizzy is an autogyro pilot, and a damn good one. But she has her rival—her “Red Baron” in the skies—who may or may not have her number. And there's Rudy, a single-minded lad if ever there were. He spouts commie logic all the way to the halls of the brains in jars who rule Zeppelin City. Yes, brains in jars...

Culture Corner Morocco: Part II – Erg Chebbi, Meknes, and Essaouira

 This is Part II of our Morocco photos.  Part I is here.

We spent three days at Erg Chebbi, including this obligatory camel photo.

Culture Corner: Morocco Part I - Marrakesh and Atlas Mountains

No other way to start this post than: what a pleasant surprise Morocco was! Due to past experience visiting certain Middle Eastern countries, I went in with certain preconceived notions. I was wrong. WRONG. Our two weeks in Morocco were fantastic. The people we met were amazing and everything went off splendid on the 2,200 km journey. From markets to deserts to hospitality to palaces to camels to madrasas to riads to tajines to oranges to snow-capped mountains to flocks of sheep to the genuine smiles and openness of Moroccans, it was an amazing trip.

This post will be the first of two showing various scenes from our trip. No AI, filters, or any of the stuff the kids these days use to spice up photos was used. Just a boomer with a mobile phone.

First stop was Marrakesh, perhaps Morocco's most famous city. And it's for a reason. Just ask the mule.

Review of North Sun, or the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther by Ethan Rutherford

The thimbleful of faithful Speculiction readers will be aware we love and hate taxonomizing fiction. It's a fun exercise and can be helpful for a certain type of reader, but overall fiction is fiction, and when you get down to brass tacks, there is a lot of subjectivity what is what (Derrida, cough, cough). Ethan Rutherford's North Sun, or the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther (2024) is a bucket of brass tacks.

North Sun is split in two parts. (Technically it's split in three, but the third acts more as an epilogue.) The first part will have readers breaking out comparisons to Moby Dick. A wealthy magnate, in the twilight of New England's whaling industry, equips the Esther with captain and crew, and sends them out to the seas to reap whales. Day to day life aboard the ship, from crewmen to first mate, captain to steerer, deckhands to cook, are portrayed in brief scene after brief scene, giving readers a glimpse into life aboard such a ship. (Astute readers will note the extreme brevity compared to Melville.)

Review of The Book of Lamps and Banners by Elizabeth Hand

She survived a serial killer on a lonely island in Maine. She escaped the cold wilds of Iceland. Britain chewed her up and spit her out. But Cass Neary lives on, on to what may be her final, unintended adventure: The Books of Lamps and Banners (2020).

As with all Cass Neary novels, The Book of Lamps and Banners picks up precisely where the prior novel left off. Neary is back and London after her escapades on the sandy, pagan shores of Cornwall. She tries to find out what happened to her former lover Quinn, still hoping to get back to the US. After a spot of convenient pickpocketing, she runs into an old acquaintance at an antiquarian book store. He has a lead on an esoteric volume sought by the most avid of collectors, and invites Neary along for the appointment. Shit hits the fan in the wake of that visit, and Neary finds herself with a torn manuscript page and a handful of neo-nazis a little too close on her heels.

Review of Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett

In 1987, Terry Pratchett published Mort, and by doing so introduced Discworld readers to what would become one of the series' most iconic characters: DEATH. Looking to build on the success and throw in an alien invasion (as one does), Pratchett returned to the character in 1991's Reaper Man.

Before going off the rails, Reaper Man tells two parallel stories, the first of which is of Windle Poons. Unseen University's oldest member, the wizards gather one evening to celebrate what is to be his last day alive. But things don't go as planned, and Windle finds himself with newfound life and the strength of the undead—which will be needed when aliens invade (as they do). The second is of Death. Where he normally attends to the hourglasses of ordinary mortals, at the story's outset he finds himself attendant to his own. His days are numbered, and Death decides to get the most of his final days. He abandons the robe and scythe and becomes an ordinary farmhand living on an ordinary farm on the ordinary outskirts of Ankh-Morpork. Windle lives on borrowed time and Death on finite time, the rest is Pratchett.

Review of Pagans by James Alastair Henry

It is the case, unfortunately, that identity has become a point of hyper focus the past decade. Much ado about nothing... Nevertheless, for some people ethnicity, nationality, gender, religion, and self-perception of those ideas have taken over a large chunk of cultural discourse. Wallowing like a pig in identity mud is James Alastair Henry's Pagans (2026).

The twist? It's an alternate modern world where the tribes of the British Isles never united. Celts, Saxons, Picts, Scots, and Norse abound, each with their own distinct culture, religion, behavior, fashion, etc., as well as territory they claim as their own. The heart pumping blood through this fictional setting is a murder mystery. A man is found nailed to a tree in a Celtic forest, exsanguinated, and due to the fact he is of Saxon blood, a Saxon investigator is called in for assistance. What follows is a dark journey into the shadows of fundamentalist religion and cultural identity.

Review of The Melancholy of Mechagirl by Catherynne M. Valente

Is there anything she can't do? Catherynne Valente's oeuvre not only covers a swathe of genres and sub-genres, but does so in a variety of styles and approaches that make putting her fiction in a box impossible. Ensuring that task is truly out of reach is the Japan, Japan-adjacent, Japan-inspired, and Japan touched short story collection: The Melancholy of Mechagirl (2013).

The Melancholy of Mechagirl kicks off with the eponymous poem. The zig-zag of the title becomes inherent as Valente takes the reader on a mini-journey through the soul of a Japanese teen girl. “Ink, Water, Milk” is a 3x3 grid, columns and rows the same names, or as Valente describes it, like three cells from a film roll, one laid on top of the other on a light box. More stories than story, it is a short but brilliant interplay of color, history, emotion, myth, procreation, all bleeding one into the other, separate yet part of the same whole. One of the best of the collection.

TCG Resource Systems (aka, How I Met Your Mother)

Captain Obvious says, economy is one of the three pillars supporting every TCG. Lieutenant Apparent adds, economy must be considered in every decision made and every card played. And Private Plain squeaks: economy is to blame for not being able to splash all my hardest hitting cards in one turn! (Umm, Private, that game is Yu-Gi-Oh...) Invisible yet influential, economies can make some TCGs stand tall, and others hang noodle limp. At the risk of hyperbole, it is the spine of every TCG.

As such, I thought it would be fun to look at some of the economies—resource systems—that have developed since Magic: the Gathering appeared 35+ years ago (and cursed us with the shittiest resource system known this universe—and all the universes beyond).

And there have been a number. From simple to complex, static to dynamic, inherent to abstract—the ability to pay and play those sweet-sweet cards has appeared in many iterations in TCG and TCG-esque games. (If you consider yourself a purist of the definition of “TCG”, run the other way. I will discuss TCGs, CCGs, LCGs, ECGS, UCGs, etc., etc. without a fig given to taxonomy.) A variety of systems will be discussed here, and in the closing paragraph I will draw some conclusions—objective conclusions, naturally.

Review of Colossus by D.F. Jones

It's an understatement to say AI has undergone significant shifts in perspective. Undoubtedly cavemen would have furrowed their foreheads at the idea, industrialists of the 19th century, also. But when machines entered everyday life in the mid 20th, it was allowed as a possibility. And when computers appeared, it became an inevitability. The interesting perspective to that perspective is: the context was always 'the future'. AI is in the future. Guess what, it's 2026 and the future is here. AI, or something resembling AI, is in our homes and in our pockets. Beyond inevitable, how could we not have seen it come when it did? Why was it a far future thing? That's what people ask in hindsight. Looking back to the era between 'possibility' and 'inevitability' is a novel portraying a Cold War AI, Colossus by D.F. Jones (1966).

Charles Forbin is the US government project head, leading the team of people designing and building the world's first artificial intelligence. In the opening pages, Forbin has put the finishing touches on the massive project and enters the president's office to inform him of the green light. A gregarious, determined man, the president praises the project and the next day holds a press conference to announce to the world that the US would be downsizing its military by 70% and turning over control of the armed forces to Colossus, the AI. Almost simultaneously, the Soviet Union announces its own AI, an entity they call Guardian. What happens next turns the world upside down and puts humanity on the back foot for the first time in history.