Review of Dark Benediction by Walter M. Miller Jr.

Walter M. Miller Jr.'s name has gone down in history as the author of A Canticle for Leibowitz. 'Landmark' feels too strong a word to describe the novel, but it certainly is one of the noteworthy novels in the context of science fiction's evolution, particularly the genre's early period. Essentially Miller Jr.'s only novel (a sequel to Leibowitz would be released post-humously), however, most people overlook the fact the author published dozens and dozens of short stories prior to Leibowitz. Bringing some of the author's best work into one collection in 1980 is Dark Benediction (originally published as The Best of Walter M. Miller Jr.)

The collection kicks off with a nicely voiced story which ends on a note that reminds the reader this is old school sci-fi (or enhances the story, depending on expectations). “You Triflin' Skunk!” is an excellent mood piece built on bayou heebie jeebies of the uncanny variety. It tells of a scrappy loner and her son living in a swamp as a storm sweeps over their rickety home. Prior life choices (corn squeezin's!) come back—not to haunt the woman, but to challenge her. “The Will” is a heart-touching tale about a boy named Kenny with an illness doctors cannot cure. In love with a tv super hero named Captain Chronos, Kenny slowly becomes more obsessed with a cure existing in the future, and despite his parents protestations, is determined to get there. The ending rips your heart out with the claws of hope.

Review of Gaze Long into the Abyss by Dalan Musson

We all have different ways of internalizing stories while reading. I'm a visual reader/imaginer. Not only do descriptions and exposition put images into my head, but the author's style defines the backdrop and frames—the visual mood of the piece. Gaze Long into the Abyss by Dalan Musson (2023) was for me a graphic novel with a black and white simplicity to the panels.

Gaze Long into the Abyss tells of the cross-country journey taken by an old man and boy to challenge a mysterious evil. Set in an apocalyptic setting swathed in darkness, the two's foot quest has eyes in the shadows, strange noises, and an air of cosmic evil hanging over it. Their interaction full of contention, the pair attempt to come to terms with one another and their histories as they walk. It all leads to a black place where nothing is certain.

Review of Consider Pipnonia by David Marusek

Glassing the Orgachine, second book in the Upon this Rock series by David Marusek, was something of a semi-controlled explosion. Blowing the series' storyline in multiple directions and significantly expanding the possibilities of the setting, it was a jump from first to fifth gear. Getting a grip on the steering wheel, the third book in the series, Consider Pipnonia (2021), calms and soothes the series in satisfying fashion.

Picking up directly where Glassing the Orgachine left off, Consider Pipnonia opens with the world in uproar. The “little nudge” having failed, the rogue planetoid is still on a collision course with Earth. People are fleeing the lower 48 for Alaska, and local town leaders are taking the opportunity to implement new rules, rules that are harshly authoritarian resulting in civil bloodshed. The strange alien presence telling Jace he needs to go on an out-of-body trip to the planetoid to change its course, he recruits Deut Prophecy, and hand in hand in the pair take a trip into the unknown to try to save the world from Jace's bedroom.

Cardboard Corner: Review of Earthborne Rangers

Since the early 90s, expandable card games have become a major niche of table top gaming. But it wasn't until 2011 that the first cooperative game of the type came onto the market, Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. Slow to take off and slow to see iterations in other games, to date there are still very few cooperative card games using the expandable model. That being said, what few games that are available are extremely popular, Marvel Champions and Arkham Horror: The Card Game among them. Looking to expand this sub-genre in a unique way is Earthborne Rangers (2023).

A cooperative game for 1-4 players, Earthborne Rangers uses the base model of almost all expandable card games (deckbuilding, resource management, heroes, events, upgrades, etc.) but injects its own identity in a few key ways. First is the emphasis on storytelling. Where Lord of the Rings and Marvel Champions are primarily about using the game's mechanisms in effective and intelligent fashion, Earthborne Rangers gives players open-world choices for the direction in which they want to take the game/story. Like Choose Your Own Adventure, each round in the game is a day in which players encounter various beings, features, and obstacles as they try to complete main and side missions. Yes, Arkham Horror is also a narrative-based cooperative card game, but Earthborne provides more of an open world feel. It also places more emphasis on exploration and discovery.

Reviw of Know No Fear by Dan Abnett

For those who read The First Heretic by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, fourteenth book in the Horus Heresy series, they will remember that the story kicks off with the Emperor sending the Ultramarines to Khur, the Word Bearer's home planet, to cleanse it of abomination, i.e. raze it. The Word Bearers in disbelief, they seek the darkest roads to understand how they fell out of favor with the Emperor, and ultimately are sucked into Horus' rebellion through their seeking. Know No Fear by Dan Abnett (2012), a book-long battle, tells of their revenge on the Ultramarines—at least its first chapter.

The architects of Horus Heresy fiction have done their best to change up the formula with each book so that the series does not devolve into repetitive bolter porn. Know No Fear follows the lead and changes things up by offering a book length battle. A battle from beginning to end, it tells of the destruction of the planet Calth. On top of this, Abnett writes in the present tense to give a sense of urgency and action to the scenes. And further still, the narrative changes point of view many, many times, giving readers a massive, widescreen view to the downfall of Calth.

Review of Children of the Night by Dan Simmons

In a strange case of life imitating art, Dracula has emerged from the imagination of Bram Stoker to occupy our reality. Go to Romania and you find the black hood and sharp fangs on merchandise everywhere, with many people (mostly tourists) believing the legend is somehow based in history. And indeed in Romania you find the gray history of Vlad Tepes. A brutal leader famous for impaling his enemies on stakes, he also had a role to play in pushing back the Ottoman empire and preventing its incursion deep into Europe. Dan Simmons mixes these elements (with a strong helping of 90s communism) to create in the action adventure novel of Children of the Night (1992).

Children of the Night starts in Romania in the time immediately following the Ceauescu regime and its concurrent fall with the iron curtain. An American blood scientist named Kate Newman is visiting the country's orphanages for research. But her work soon turns to motherhood as one of the infant children strikes her heart and she decides to adopt the boy, naming him Joshua. In a parallel storyline, Dracula, now a rich aristocrat, is aging. Making the decision to end his reign, he foregoes feeding, thus beginning the process of becoming mortal, and names an heir. And still further uncanny machinations are afoot deep in the ancient mountains and castles of Romania, leading to a clash that will decide the fates of all.

Review of The First Heretic by Aaron Dembski-Bowden

If you were like me, then you read the second book in the Horus Heresy series, False Gods by Graham McNeill, asking yourself: who is this Erebus guy, where did he come from, and what is his agenda? And while information is revealed the further the reader gets into that novel, a number of questions still remain. The First Heretic by Aaron Dembski Bowden (2010), fourteenth book in the Horus Heresy series, blows the doors off all questions.

And so where the first three books published in the Horus Heresy series describe how Horus started his rebellion, its origins lie beforehand in The First Heretic. The novel opens on the Word Bearer's planet Khur where the Ultramarines have been sent to raze it by the Emperor's command for reasons of heresy. The boys in blue allow one communication to leave the planet, describing their actions and why, then destroy it. Feeling wronged, Lorgar and his fellow Word Bearers set their sights on understanding why the Emperor has betrayed them and getting revenge. And when you want to get revenge on a larger, stronger opponent, desperate tactics are needed. Just what effect said tactics will have in the long term, however, not even the Word Bearers can foresee.

Culture Corner: Romania - The Castles

 This is Part II of my photo post on my family's vacation to Romania this summer.  (Part I is here.)  This time around, castle, of which Romania is not lacking.

1. We'll start with a minor castle—one of many gypsy palaces we saw, in fact. A unique contributor to Romanian culture, it never grew tiring seeing their colors and panache.  The horse and buggy are a major contrast to the home (and the Porsche and Land Rover just out of view).

2. This is Corvin's Castle. Unlike most castles I've been to, visitors to Corvin have access to the majority of the grounds. Set in a picturesque place (and secure from barbarians), it was a nice afternoon of exploring knights and ladies (and torture).

Culture Corner: Romania - The Countryside

The following is the first of two posts capturing some of the photos my family took during our summer holiday in Romania in August this year. (Part II is here.) Despite spending 10 days and covering about 2,000 kms (1,250 miles) in country in a camper, there were many things we missed: castles, Brasov, and Bucharest among them. But we did meet many nice people and see many nice things. I've broken the content into two things we saw the most of (besides asphalt): the countryside and castles.

1. Romania's population is organized in a fashion I, as an American living in Poland, am unaccustomed to. Clumped in villages, towns and cities, there are very few homes outside these areas. There are minimal houses and buildings in the countryside, leaving the country feeling a little wild. Here is one of the villages: dense and quiet.

2. For those familiar with Romania, this is the region of the transalpina highway. Picturesque, it invited us out of the camper for several day hikes. This is myself and the kids on one of the hikes.

Review of Age of Darkness ed. by Christian Dunn

Entering the Warhammer universe of fiction I was skeptical about the quality of the franchise's fiction. Dan Abnett's Horus Rising gave me pause, and the handful of books I've read since have, generally speaking, not seen my doubts realized. But that didn't stop me from being skeptical entering my first anthology, Age of Darkness (2011). Where Warhammer novels can devolve into blaster porn, a series of short stories seems to shift that possibility almost to a guarantee. After all, doesn’t each story need a bit of action? And the next? And with +/-10 stories in an anthology, isn't that 10 spots of bolter blasting action in a row—a deluge of 400 pages? Let’s see…

They say the army is the only non-democratic organization in the West, and “Rule of Engagement” Graham McNeill puts the idea to the test through the primarch mastermind of Roboute Guilliman honing his Ultramarine’s battlefield command. Unfortunately, a story that can be read only once, it's also a story that fulfills my concerns about blaster porn and then some. The second story, "Liar's Due" by James Swallow, is a Horus Heresy version of a KGB operation on a backwater planet. Swallow could/should have spent more time on scenes depicting the human element of the story's morals, but it remains a decent spot of atypical space marine fiction with a nicely gray conclusion.