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Earthdivers, Vol. 1: Kill Columbus by Stephen Graham Jones

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I wanted to love this because I love Jones' work and the art was great but there were some world building issues for me that were hard to get past not to mention the convoluted time traveling story line (CW, lots of violence including child murder) So it's 2112 and the world is all but dead and much of humanity has taken off for the stars. Later its stated white people left but I see no African, Latinx, Asian etc people in this. It's a hundred percent indigenous people of varying groups, which okay Jones is Indigenous and he's dedicated to telling the stories of those peoples.

Somehow they know that this cave somewhere (we're not sure where) can time travel back to a certain destination if you bring something to represent that time period but otherwise have to go Terminator-style, i.e. naked. Their plan is to break up Sosha and Tad's marriage so they can send Tad back to do the titular action, kill Columbus so that America is never created and the world is saved. Sosha would have a much harder time being a woman given the restrains of women then and Tad has the cool bonus of being a polyglot. I very much liked that touch.

And this where I stumble hard. How do they know how this cave works? It seems like its a one way trip because the group left behind keep checking the ever changing history books to see if Tad manages it so I'm assuming he can't go back once he kills Columbus. Let's say they did the math or experiments or something and know what the cave does, the idea of killing one man to change the world seems naive. It's the whole 'Let's Kill Hitler' trope of alternative history stories (though I suppose killing him might have saved a whole lot of lives)

I don't buy into the idea that in killing Columbus, no one will ever interfere with the Indigenous people and America (or whatever it would be called) will be this happy egalitarian country and all of humanity won't be destroying the world with pollution and greed. For one the industrial revolution didn't start here but America sure embraced it and made it worse. Two, there are countries that pollute far worse than America (not many but they're out there) And three, for pete's sake Europeans were sailing all over the world. You kill Columbus and another European will take his place with most likely the results and I suppose you could argue they learned from Columbus (provided he got to America and was killed there) and killed any new foreigners, let's remember Columbus wasn't the first, just one of the worst. And the world isn't that small. Eventually America would be brought into the world stage no matter if we kill Columbus or not.

That is a big hurdle to get over so that's why I rated it three stars. That said, Tad and company are interesting. Tad's infiltration of Columbus' crew does not go as well as he'd like. People die. Lots of them. (same with what's going on in 2112) Tad is earnest. His descent into violence is interesting to watch. I did get a laugh when they were sure he was demonic because he didn't grow facial hair in the two weeks they had him locked up. Really? What about the fact that he went back to the past with one side of his head shaved and that never grows in....

I wanted more of the people in the past which I swore were all female at first (Emily being a transwoman) but might be wrong about the Blackfeet character, Yellow Kidney (we get some cringy are you Indigenous enough stuff with them) How did they meet? How did they learn about the cave? Why didn't they leave on the space ships (I think that might have made more sense if we changed one word about who left, the rich left, the poor were left behind)



I got this at the library. Would I read more? From the library yes.



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Minstrels in the Galaxy: Stories in the Key of Tull, Volume 1 by M.C. Tuggle

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is a fun anthology with stories inspired by Jethro Tull's amazing discography. Each story comes with a little write up as to what song the author picked and why. I loved that (full disclosure I'm a Tull fan and am annoyed they aren't - at the time of writing this review - in the rock n roll hall of fame)

As always anthologies are a mixed bag and no story hits the same for all readers but all of them were good. there weren't any I regretted reading or DNFed. Some of the stand outs to me are Demons, Occassionally about portal travel bounty hunting sort of deal, The Path to Transformation when a young prince's life is exploded but the starship rescuing him is being stalked by a killer, pleasure in the leaving, which explores VR being used to ease people's passing in hospice (something that hits home right now with me having relatives in hospice)

We also have sentient mice being used to explore themes of fascism and experimentation on groups of oppressed people and so much more in these pages. It's worth picking up, if nothing else you can get to know Tull's music including some rarely heard deep cuts.



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Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth Uncensored by John Wagner

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I was starting my comic book collection at the time this originally came out but I never collected Judge Dredd. I suspect if I had tried my parents might have frowned at ten year old me picking this up and they'd be right. This dystopic SF offering is geared to the somewhat older reader. And outside of some funny parodies, it's honestly not very good. It makes zero sense and Dredd himself is boring with a flat character arc of zero growth (and no, I don't think that's asking too much of a comic book character)

Let me set the stage, it opens up with Dredd being brought up to speed by scientists, his superiors and a man who landed his strat-brat airplane (space capable?) in Mega City Two. Basically L.A. and NYC have become monster cities taking up either coast. The rest of the country fell victim to the atomic wars and have a lot of mutants and other forgotten people trying to survive (while the Mega Cities seem to care little). A plague has broken out in Mega City Two and plague ridden men have taken over the airports so Dredd has to DRIVE all across the 'cursed earth' America to bring the vaccination to save the city.

I'm already mentally checking out and we're only about five pages in. I'm expected to believe that they can't set a plane down anywhere outside the city? Can't taxi it on a flat desert floor? Later we learn (and if we were already fans probably knew) that we're capable of mining operations on distant planets and obviously we're not setting down on an airstrip. And somehow we can't set a vehicle capable of flight down somewhere outside Mega City two? No, we have to drive for days through mutant country. That's just lazy writing. Even ten year old me wouldn't have been impressed. Tell me they are capable of shooting down planes or something. Geez.

So Dredd goes and liberates Spikes harvey Rotten (no doubt inspired by The Sex Pistols Johnny Rotten) a criminal because he's the best biker alive. That's the only reason we're given. Why this is needed isn't clear because there's also the Kill Dozer and other judges following Dredd with the vaccine. I wish they had left them at home and so does the writers because how many times did Dredd get caught and NO other judge comes to help, like the writers forgot they were there.

This is called Uncensored not because of sex or gore (in fact women barely exist in this thing to the point I was wondering where all the mutant humans came from because where are the women?) No it took some parodies a bit far and they are probably the more entertaining of things, watching the cults of Burger King and McDonald's killing each other over who is better. We get to see Dredd fight the Michelin Man to save the Alka Seltzer Kid. About the best story line might be the 'vampire' one in Kentucky.

Dredd exists to utter nonsense like 'by strom' and 'drok' and spout about how the law is all important and he is the law. As a character he's as deep as a rain drop and that's pushing it. I see very little reason to invest in this guy. The art isn't much better. I can't even call this misogynistic as really, women aren't in it. The only women with any importance was in one story as scientists in Barbarella outfits for some reason ffs.

I'm not even sure why I finished this. Maybe I was hoping to see Dredd break into Coca-Cola's It's the Real thing song or see the Kool-Aid pitcher come busting in.



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The X-Files: Perihelion by Claudia Gray

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I was on the fence about requesting this from Netgalley. On one side I love The X-Files and I'm acquainted with the author from our fanfic days. On the other, it's set in the parts of the X-Files that I actively dislike. I always hated chain smoking man and the alien arcs, especially disliked the ending of the second series and this is enmeshed in it. At the end of the day I wouldn't have jumped on this if it had been any other author. This was a 3.5 read for me but I rounded up because it was less the writing that I didn't like and more I didn't care for the setting.

Let me get this out of the way since it’s in the blurb, Scully is having a late in life pregnancy which is 95% of this story so of course William has to be brought into this. Here’s the thing, grief is tidal and large. Naturally they’re thinking about William but that’s all they’re doing, chapter after chapter. While this isn’t unrealistic it also slows the pacing to a crawl in many places, especially over who really fathered William and what happened to him in the end.

There are a couple of story lines. The three major ones are 1. A serial killer who is cutting fetuses out of their mothers and may be able to affect electricity, exploding phones, computers etc. He is also hunting very close to Scully’s location in D.C. (my preferred plot) 2. The Shadow Man who can turn into a mist and teleport and is killing former Syndicate members (my least favorite simply because it plays into that alien arc crap that bored me in the show itself ) 3. Someone is doing things to DNA (I don’t want to say more than that and be spoilery)

There is dovetailing of all three plots so that was good. The lagging pacing however made the endings feel rushed (and it’s open ended which I find personally annoying but I’m sure the powers that be wanted it that way to set up the next book). What I did love was how Gray worked in what Clyde Bruckman prophesized for Scully. It was very clever. Scully and Mulder definitely felt in character which I loved.

Overall, I enjoyed this in spite of the rather repetitive angst over the pregnancy and William.



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BLAME! MASTER EDITION 1 by Tsutomu Nihei

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


When you get more information from the cover blurb than you do the book itself there are problems. I first ran into Blame! years back when I got a T-shirt for it in Loot Crate and went looking half heartedly and then my library got this this month. It's dystopic (already not my favorite) and it's set in a city that appears to be one giant building. Kyrii, the main point of view character wanders the city looking for non-mutated genes because I guess humans have been mutated by a plague of some sort but who the hell knows because the manga isn't about to tell you. In about 400 pages there are probably 20 of dialogue and the main important dialogue is in the last 15 pages. By then I was bored.

There are silicon based creatures that look like cenobites or the handbots from The Girl Who Waited. There are monsters. Mostly Kyrii roams and shoots things with his special gun. Why? He has no choice because everything wants to kill you in this world. I have no idea why he wants the genes, who is he taking them too because Kyrii's personality is shallower than a teaspoon.

In the final arc when he meets a scientist who can help (and finally has some dialogue that's interesting), something happens to him, something major and he has such a non reaction I have to wonder if he's even alive. It's not believable. The library has more of this but I'm not sure I'll bother.



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Elixir by Frank Barbiere

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


More like a 2.5 read. I see a lot of reviewers liked the art but I wasn't thrilled. The muddy chiaroscuro style isn't to my tastes. The idea here is we're in the point of view of the 'Druids" is some future setting where the Techies are ruining the world. There is nothing much new to this story line and others have done it better.

Because the world building is muddy too. We don't get a good grasp on why the Druids hate tech other than it's bad and exploitive. The blurb tells us this but we honestly don't really SEE it in the story so that's a failing. When one of their members, Claude's, son needs a mechanical heart he's ostracized and goes rogue (and seriously WHY does his fake heart look like he's trapped in an iron lung? We have better artificial hearts currently). Claude was the mentor of Mara (and her sister and her best friend) so of course Mara has to go after him.

Her mother specializes in gas lighting and is the leader of the Druids. Claude (and Mara/Mara's mother) are after the titular elixir as it's a panacea to destroy all tech or all magic depending on which group gets it. Where it is from, why hasn't it been used etc are all questions you're not getting answered. I'm sure more happened but it wasn't memorable enough for me to work it in to this review. I'm just glad it was a library book



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Wraith Squadron by Aaron Allston

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This was absolutely duller than dish water. You know that part in the heist movie where they put together the team? I hate that part in general (though I know people love that trope) that's exactly what this book is except no one has one ounce of personality. The closest any of them comes is the one who hates Wedge Antilles' second in command for killing his family (but this is so boring I can't even remember his name). A 100 pages in and we're still assembling and training the titular Wraith squadron on simulators so there's no tension, no real end goal (other than to let Wedge win a bet that this type of team is possible), nothing that makes you want to read on.

I'll be honest, I wasn't much of a fan of the X-Wing series to begin with (I'm reading them more for the X in the title for a book challenge than for any other reason). As much as I love Star Wars, I have to admit, Wedge is such a minor character he never really engaged me (though I can see why someone would want to center a series around him, so much room to play without the constraints you'd have with Han, Luke or Leia).

All I remember of this is Wedge wanted to squadron capable of ground fighting too and.... that is as close to tension we get in the first third of the book. There are no stakes and without stakes there is no reason to bother.



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The Joy Machine by James E. Gunn

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This was so slow and plodding. As others said maybe if this had been an hour script it might have worked but there just wasn't enough of it to make this exciting. The basic plot is Timshel, a vacation bright spot in the Federation has gone radio silent and two investigators sent to find out why have also not reported in, including a woman Kirk, in theory, loves. Kirk also has a family he's close to there, the kids call him Uncle.

So he's a natural to go down and find out why. It doesn't take long. Everyone but the kids have been hooked into the titular Joy Machine (two words you will get exhausted reading by the end) including Dannie, the woman Kirk 'loves.' The Joy Machine can give you perfect happiness and that's all anyone wants. They are working nominal jobs (like sweeping nothing) to earn that PayDay. Even sex has fallen to the way side (no babies in a couple years).

Naturally Kirk gets hooked into the machine as does Spock, McCoy and Uhura (and I'd be lying if I said I even remembered why those three had beamed down) but he's kidnapped by resistors to the machine, including a scientist, Linda, for whom he promptly forgets his love Dannie....

Let's be honest Kirk is NOT the guy you think of when it comes to fighting computers. And when has making a computer virus ever been interesting? The doomed rebels have some sort of whale creatures, the wampuses, that we spend a lot of time on only to have them not be important later (way to load a gun and not shoot it). There is a very moralistic tone to this with religious undertones. And for most of the novel Spock, McCoy and Uhura are forgotten. We get a little of Scotty on the ship as the Joy Machine tries to take over the Enterprise.

It's so dull a day later I can't even remember how Spock talked the thing to death, almost literally. The Joy Machine is joyless.



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Inhuman by Kat Falls

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was in a basket of books I won from my library a few years back and I put it off because its blurb mentioned dystopia and romance two things I do not like very much. However it fit a Popsugar prompt so I decided why not? I might have liked it better if I didn’t wait to read a book about a pandemic until the tail ends of one I just lived through. It was a 3.5 read for me. I didn’t round up because of some weirdness that bothered me.

Also can I just say to all the YA authors, if you’re going to give us a love triangle if it doesn’t end up in a polyamorous relationship, why bother? It’s old. It’s not that exciting any more and having a character say hey I’m leaving this triangle doesn’t make the triangle any better (and this one ended up weird and ending even weirder)

Lane is a pampered girl growing up west of the Wall. It was erected a few decades back after a pandemic wiped out most of America (what happened in the rest of the world we have no idea. It’s like the rest of the world either disappeared or exiled all of America) I thought that she was living in California but it was less than 3 days bike ride to Chicago and back so I’m lost (that was one of the reasons not to round up) Her father is an art dealer who travels a lot so she thinks, mom is gone.

She is brought in by the government because her father is a Fetch, someone who sneaks out beyond the walls trying to bring back stuff people left behind (and in his case bringing food/meds etc to the people trapped on the other side. The government official wants her to get her dad to do a fetch and all will be forgiven. Naturally Lane tries and ends up on the island just outside the wall where a doctor is working on a cure. Almost immediately she’s stopped by two men, Rafe another fetch and manimal hunter, who is rude and rough and Everson, a line guard who is courteous and kind.

Both know her father. Both end up helping her on her quest. Both naturally end up as her would be love interest. Another reason I didn’t round up: toxic masculinity as being preferrable to the kindness. Can we just stop with this? Can we stop handing young women the idea that the rude, abusive, toxic masculine dude as being the better man? That he'll always beat out the nice guy. It is such a disservice. At least Rafe does get better as he goes.

The virus they built a wall over is capable of splicing animal genes into other animals including humans, spread by salvia like rabies. It’s man made, sort of Jurassic Parking it, trying to make a zoo of hybrid animals (why isn’t very clear) it naturally got away from them. There are some fifty possibilities. And all humans who are bitten (left behind in the feral zone) take on the animal they’re bitten by like tiger, bear, wolf etc. The author did a good job with explaining viral genomic transduction but on the other hand, it’s less likely something by animal bite would go this badly (else rabies would be worse than it is) as compared to a respiratory droplet spread (like Covid) Regardless that’s the plot and the infected humans almost always go totally feral killing everyone in sight. Meds can slow this down.

Naturally gentle-raised Lane doesn’t want to see manimals hunted and killed and interferes with Rafe (which naturally will bite them in the butt). Rafe has a very complicated and interesting relationship with her father.

The story is interesting enough. And while it does tie up the plot, it does end on a cliffhanger for volume two. I’d get it from the library but unlikely to buy it.




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Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I really wanted to love this novel, a mash up of SF/urban fantasy, trans female lead (by a trans female author) but I never connected well with any of the characters.

Before I begin let me begin with the triggers because this thing is nothing but a few hundred pages of triggers leading off with trans phobia (in major ways, huge gobs of it) self loathing, body dysphoria, homophobia, abusive parents, selling your body to survive, racism and there's probably more I'm forgetting because I waited weeks to do this.

Katrina Nguyen is a transgendered violin prodigy (and the center of 98% of all the above mentioned triggers) she's on the run from her family, trying to survive, when Shizuka Satomi hears her play. Satomi has made a deal with the devil. She has to give seven souls to him or he takes hers. If she does it she'll get her own music back.

Also in this is an alien family pretending to be Asians and running a donut shop that's a front for their star ship as they flee intergalactic war and other horros.

No, these stories don't mesh perfectly but they are interesting but the real issue for me isn't the two genre mash up. Satomi's sapphic relationship with the ship's captain is interesting. My issue is Katrina doesn't grow one iota. She's so mired in her trauma and her bad transitional experience that she seems incapable of change and that was disappointing.

I wanted more from this than I got but I think it's more of a me not it thing.



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