Jennifer Brozek's Battletech: The Nellus Academy Incident

(Author's Note: This review is dedicated to the memory of friend, grognard, and brother-in-gaming Jason Caldwell.)

WARNING, WARNING, WARNING: Blatant fanboying ahead. I've loved Battletech for twenty-fivish years. I make no apologies for it, but you have been warned.

I have, in the past, admitted to possessing a love of both Young Adult literature (I blame J.K. Rowling) and Science Fiction. You were just warned about my fascination with the Battletech universe. (It occurs to me that I haven't been to the Battletech Universe website in far too long.) I guess that's why I'm in love with Jennifer Brozek's Battletech: The Nellus Academy Incident. Seriously. Those are some hardcore cadets. The plot moves. The kids perform in combat and action abounds.

I'll be honest: The beginning of this thing had me a bit worried. B:TNAI starts out as a bunch of cadets from the Nellus Academy find out that they'll be touring a refueling station in space. It sounded like a photo op kind of thing. I immediately became concerned because Battletech novels have always been about fighting.  It's not Knitting Tech, it's Battle Tech. Actually, that's not totally true. Ilsa Bick did a BT novel that was a detective story. It was good but I wanted a more traditional BT novel. I wanted to go to war. I wanted to see some serious action. I got over it quick. This book is action packed.

I don't want to get into too many spoilers because that's not my style but suffice it to say that things take a left turn at one point. What seems like a joyride is actually not a joyride. I hate to use a comparison to Scooby Doo, but I think I'm going to have to. The gang shows up in town, things aren't how they originally seem and then everything goes to Hades. That's awesome though. I didn't see things going the way they went but it actually made sense than it did.

Also at the beginning, The Nellus Academy Incident really felt like it was going to be a mystery novel. When the big plot twist hits that changes quickly. This thing goes from a whodunit to a canwesurviveit at the drop of a hat. The kids adjust quickly and that makes sense. The Nellus Academy is a military academy. It's what they've been trained for.

I like the way these kids work together. It feels real. One would expect an author to show her cadets in a panic. It's not realistic when you've got a trained group working together but it's the cliche. Brozek is better than that. I wonder if she's had actual military service because these kids react correctly. They use their advantages unashamedly. They instantly know what their hierarchy is based  on existing rank. They don't always agree on a course of action but they do follow orders.

Another reason that I suspect that Brozek may have some military experience is her firm grasp on the principle of Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome. Brozek's little unit manages to find ways to do what they need to do even when they don't have the tools that they're used to. These kids don't screw around. If an opportunity to get closer to their objectives shows itself they do what they need to do.

That's not to say that the cadets are perfect. They do make mistakes. They don't always move precisely when they need to. They find themselves having trouble dealing with losses. They're people. That's what I want to see in any work: Believable protagonists worth rooting for. And believe me, these cadets are worth rooting for. It would have been way too easy for them to just go with the flow and hope the enemy would show some mercy. They didn't because they were trained better than that. Good for them.

Of course, one of the biggest thrills of Battletech is the 'Mechs. I don't want to spoil too much here, but we do get to see some 'Mech action. We get dropships and aerospace fighters too. This thing goes a bit bonkers at one point and that's not a good thing. It's an AWESOME thing. There is nothing so pleasing in a Battletech novel as when it all drops in the pot and things start to explode. Brozek does a good job of keeping the action that we need to see crystal clear and sharp and the background violence where it belongs... in the background.

Something else that Battletech has always done well, and that Brozek does well, is political intrigue. There are troubles brewing on the border of the Free Worlds League and the Lyran Commonwealth. It's about to get ugly and the opening moves are occurring. This is what our heroes find themselves dropped into. It's the foundation of the entire story. It works.

Oh, and since I mentioned the Free Worlds League...

It's nice to see something set in the FWL. We don't see much of them. They weren't involved much before the Clan Invasion. They weren't really part of the Clan Invasion. I don't remember hearing anything about them in the Mechwarrior: Dark Age either. I mean, they exist but we don't hear a lot about them. So kudos to Brozek for putting her story in an area that really needs a story. I'd love to see more.

Oh, and by the way, I'm excited. Brozek has a Young Adult Battletech Trilogy coming soon. I can't wait to read it. The e-book that I received had an excerpt in it but I don't do excerpts. I will say that if she writes this well in this universe I have more than enough confidence in her to lay down some loot (err... ok, plastic some loot over the internet. I miss having easy access to a local bookstore.) for a copy. I want to see more stuff go boom! Brozek has more than proven that she's got the skills to make it happen and keep it entertaining. I do find it a bit strange that Battletech: Rogue Academy will be the first YA BT trilogy. I did read the blurb though. That looks good. I'm geeked.

I don't really have any major complaints about the book. Brozek did a really good job here.  Usually a blatant fanboy such as myself can find an excuse to bitch about a book because it's not perfectly perfect but I don't have one. So good job, Jennifer Brozek. Take a bow.

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 ER PPCs

Battletech: The Nellus Academy Incident
Jennifer Brozek
Catalyst Games Lab, 2018

Battletech: The Nellus Academy Incident is available for purchase at the link below:

Memories Surface: A Celebration

(Author's Note: This post and the review with shall follow shortly are dedicated to the memory of friend, grognard, and brother-in-gaming Jason Caldwell. There are a lot of Battletech terms listed below. I haven't taken the time to define them. Sorry to anyone who gets confused but it is what it is.)

Recently I received a request to review a Battletech novel (The Nellus Academy Incident by Jennifer Brozek). It's a good book. The review will be up in a day or two. I really enjoyed it. But, at it's core, the book is not what this post is about. This is a post about memory. It's a post about missing someone you haven't thought about in a long time. It's about something SOOO cool happening that you have to share it with one specific individual... and that individual is gone. Very few people will get all the specifics of this post, but many will get the gist.

Back in the early nineteen-nineties I first met a guy named Jeff Caldwell. He was, and probably still is, a really cool guy. What that actually means is that he is (or at least was, I haven't talked to him in awhile) as geeky as me. We had biology together. I got sent to Locker 19. It was fun. I mean, I never want to see another microscope, but whatever. Between us and John Morris, who sat on the other side of me, we had a riot. We made up stupid songs about our teacher (That's my science teacher's name Doo-da, Doo-dah [It was actually Duda, but close enough.]) John made drawings. Jeff introduced me to the Dragonlance Chronicles and inadverdently caused my lifelong love of fantasy and cost me thousands of dollars in book purchases. My nickname was Scribble. If you've seen my handwriting that makes sense. Not long after, Jeff introduced me to his brother Jason.

Jason was even cooler than Jeff, by which I mean geekier. And yes, I said was because we lost him a few years back. It had to do with a kidney condition. I'm not sure of all of the details because I hadn't spoken to him in years. Don't get me wrong. I wasn't mad or anything. It's just, well... Jason wasn't Jason anymore. He had left his house to walk to mine (it was less than a quarter mile) and collapsed. It was that same kidney thing, only it caused his heart to stop. His family immediately called 911 but he had suffered severe brain damage due to lack of oxygen to the brain by the time the paramedics got there. I don't blame his family. They did everything they could. I don't blame the paramedics. They got there as soon as they could. I don't really blame anybody. It just sucks that it happened.

I received a letter from his mother that I never answered. I'm sure it hurt her, but I didn't know what to say. I'm basically a coward who pulled a total bitch move. I was seventeen and didn't know what to say, so I didn't say anything. I'd apologize if I could get hold of her. But that's not what this post is really about. That's all just background. I know. I know. I'm getting there.

See, Jason is the guy who introduced me to a thing called Battletech. I fell in love with it. Giant 'Mechs duking it out on the field of battle with the fate of all humanity hanging in the balance. I came in right around the time of the Clan Invasion with all of its associated fiction and Technical Readouts. There was new tech available! The most powerful foe in history was invading the Inner Sphere! It was time to go to war. With an implacable enemy headed straight for Terra and hell bent on conquest there was an enormous need for warriors to stop them. Enter the Jolly Rogers mercenary company, Jim McCoy commanding, Jason Caldwell as the executive officer.

We did it right. I kept a Table of Organization and Equipment. Jason kept the unit history. We fought battle after battle. We'd set up the board on my bedroom floor and it would sit there until we were done. We'd fight each other for hours. One of us took charge of the Jolly Rogers. The other took Opfor. It was kind of ironic. My favorite faction in BT has always been either the Federated Suns or the the Federated Commonwealth, depending on era. But, being the GM as well as a player, I decided that I could have a one of a kind 'Mech that I had designed with the appropriate rules. It was called the Renegade and it was a prototype liberated from the New Avalon Institute of Science when Jim (and yes, we really did use our real names for our characters) decided he didn't want to be a member of the Fedcom military anymore. So not only did we have to deal with the Clans and their invasion, we had to fight off the odd Fedcom raid with them trying to get their 'Mech back. It was a hoot but I'm afraid that I never made Victor Steiner-Davion's list of favorite people.

We did the whole "growing unit" arc thing. We started off with a company of 'Mechs fighting off water raiders from the Periphery. By the time Jason was no longer able to continue the campaign, we were a mixed-arms unit with a full regiment each of 'Mechs, armor and infantry to go with multiple dropships and two squadrons of aerospace fighters. We even had our own jumpship.  We had gone from fighting weak-ass water raiders to reconnaissance-in-force of Clan held worlds. We even took one from second-line forces and returned it to  the Free Rasalhauge Republic by "accident". (Oops, sorry guys. Thanks for the bonus! Oh, and we're keeping that mostly undamaged Behemoth. I'm sure we can find a cockpit somewhere.) We were openly talking about a future attack on Strana Mechty. Those were heady days my friends.

And please believe me when I tell you that when the Jolly Rogers showed up to conquer your planet, we conquered the bloody fucking shit out of your planet. We'd fight you to break out of the jump point. We'd fight you in orbit. We'd fight you on the ground. We'd invade your cities. We'd get in bar brawls with the citizens of your world. We straight up kicked every ass we could find and went looking for me. And bro, you don't know what it's like to take an ass-kicking until you've had your position strafed by a Leopard-CV class dropship and its aerospace fighters and then weathered the follow-on assault by 'Mechs upgraded with captured Clan tech. It got ugly. We came loaded with Gauss ammunition and massive amounts of Fuck You. We didn't lose. (Whaddaya mean GMing and leading the unit was a conflict of interests? I would never...*GAG* *COUGH* *CHOKE* I can't say that.  I can't even type that. I think my fingers just cramped.)

Jason had a pretty decent BT collection, but he traded it all to me in exchange for other things. I think he did it on purpose because I wrote the scenarios and I needed the stats and rules so that I could set things up. By the time we were no longer able to play, I had the original BT box set with the cardboard cutouts for 'Mechs, BattleForce, Battletroops, Aerotech, Battlespace (WARSHIPS!!!) and the original Mechwarrior pen and paper RPG rules. We used them all. I used to set up the game on my bedroom floor and it would stay there for weeks. We stopped using Battleforce after we lost a whole lance in like two rounds. Wargaming a battle between company sized elements with a game intended for lance sized units at best took time. It was cool. We played a lot and we played for hours. Unfortunately, I lost my collection when I lost a storage unit and it got auctioned. I want to just look at it right now.

We didn't just play though. We read the novels. We bought the sourcebooks about the Clans and the various houses.  We knew the lore. We talked about where the books were going. I remember telling Jay that they should publish a Battletech novel called Malicious Intent. We both knew it was never going to happen, but then it did. Seriously. This was in the pre-internet days. I didn't know that the thing existed until I rond it at the bookstore. You should have seen the look oh his face when I showed him the book. His eyes got real big and we laughed for like ten minutes. Thank you Michael Stackpole. You made my life.

Dude, I didn't cry when Jay had his heart attack. I didn't cry when he passed. Why am I crying now?

You know, my mom always referred to wargaming and RPGs as "sit on your butt dice games." I can't say she's wrong. That's on one hand. On the other hand, fuck that attitude. There was a friendship build through BT, just like many others have been built through all kinds of gaming. If you've been there, you know what I mean. If not, try gaming. It's fun and you'll never forget the good times you have or the people you had them with. I know I'll never forget Jason.

So, Jason, my friend, rest in peace. Wait for me where the old grognards go. Set up the board. We're gonna hit Strana Mechty and we're gonna hit it hard. Screw the house militaries. We're gonna burn in hard and we're bringing Wolf's Dragoons and whatever remnants of the Gray Death Legion we can find. We're going to win this Trial of Possession and we're going to look good doing it. I'll pilot your Hatchetman into the bay myself before I load up my Renegade. Let the Kerenskys know it's on. The Jolly Rogers are here and we came to kick ass and chew bubble gum. Too bad the quartermasters forgot to load the bubblegum and it's hundreds of light years away. And don't worry. It might take me a minute to get there, but once I do we've got eternity to win this fight.

Redcaps Rising: A Walter Bailey Misadventure by P.A. Piatt

Somebody call Piers Anthony, because I found an author who actually knows how to do humorous fantasy and it's not the way he did it. Seriously, I read two of the Xanth novels. One on purpose and the other because I was book starved and in a position where I couldn't get more. One of my friends gave it to me for free. I almost asked for my money back. I mean, it sucks because I really loved his Bio of  Space Tyrant series but Oh my God, did the Xanth novels suck. Every joke was a bad pun. At least they eventually ended and I was able to get somewhere to buy a new Battletech novel. Now that I'm done nerd raging about something that has nothing to do with what I'm writing about...

I recently received a copy of P.A. Piatt's Redcaps Rising: A Walter Bailey Misadventure. He warned me that it would be funny, and he wasn't wrong. I love a good comedy, but very rarely have I seen it done well in a novel length work. P.A. Piatt managed to knock it out of the park though. I'll be honest. I found P.A. asking how to get more reviews in a Facebook group and told him to send me a copy. He sent me one, then told me it was humor. I got a little nervous and flashed back to dandy-lions and hypnogourds. I mean, dude's intials were even P.A. I was about to get Anthonied. The Xanth bomb was dropping. Oh God. Oh God, Oh... Wow. I'm actually enjoying this. How did that happen?

Seriously, the humor is well done and not always tasteful. That's okay, tasteless humor is my favorite kind. I'll say this much: Don't ever get hit with a curse in a Walter Bailey Misadventure. The cost of breaking it is just too damn high. Oh, and I'm not a fan of anything that involves a mullet. Really. Even if I end up with a curse sticking to my achy, breaky ass. I just couldn't do it. I'd have to live the rest of my life like that.

Redcaps Rising also turns into a written version of one of my favorite movie genres: The roadtrip flick. I have to admit that I've never seen a movie with quite as motley a crew as Redcaps Rising but  it works. Our main character, Walter Bailey ends up in situations he never anticipated with friends and enemies he never would have believed possible and ends up traveling cross-country on the run. There are food fights and shenanigans. There are serious, worrisome moments. There is hijinks and hilarity. It's really well done.

And then Boosh farted.

BAM!

Anyway...

It occurs to me that Redcaps Rising included one of a very few prologues that I have ever enjoyed. It was entertaining. It set the stage for the story and it included characters that were in the rest of the story. Ordinarily prologues are against my religion, but I'll make an exception here. It's actually relevant.

Redcaps Rising started off like a mystery novel, but that only lasted a couple of chapters. I like that though. Not only does it show a bit of range as writer on the part of Piatt, but it was a good lead-in to the rest of the book. Walter needs a reason to start on his journey of laughs and the first couple of chapters do a good job of getting things headed in the right direction.

The cast of characters Redcaps Rising is slightly non-standard, but I  mean that in a good way. The garden gnome is nutty. The elves that live in the shed are... well... not Tolkien-esque to put it mildly. The main character doesn't really seem to be the Chosen One. Seriously, Walter is just a guy doing what he can in a situation that he never really wanted. I don't want to spoil too much but the supporting cast isn't exactly archetypal either.  He does an excellent job here.

I really like the way that Piatt brings fantasy races into the modern world. He is hardly the first author to write urban fantasy, but he gives an interesting take on the way the classic races would act in a modern world. His non-human  races are not just cardboard cut outs either. They're real people who just don't happen to exist. They do things for the own motivations. From orcs to elves to gnomes to all kinds of crazy stuff. I kind of wish he had included a dwarf but that's just me. I have a thing for dwarves in fantasy stories.

This novel cooks. Something is always happening. There is no downtime and even a stop for dinner can turn into a riot. You never know what's coming next but it gets here quickly. I loved that aspect of this book. Redcaps Rising is far from being the longest book I've ever read, but it has more action than a lot of longer books. It doesn't take long to read and I never got bored. This one had me hooked all the way through.

My only real beef with Redcaps Rising is that I needed to see our chief villains more. My favorite part of any fantasy is hating the villain. The Redcap sisters are portrayed as evil and power hungry. Their minions are out for blood. It would be fun to spend more time with them though. I'd like to get to know them more. There is the potential for these three to be every bit as classic as the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz but he just hasn't taken them there yet. Then again, the series is The Misadventures (plural) of Walter Bailey, so maybe we'll get to know and hate them a bit more in future novels. Here's hoping anyway. 

You know what? Yeah, I'm going to take it there. I was going to nominate Declan Finn for the Dragon Award for Best Fantasy. I think I'll still nominate him, but I'm going to move him down to Best Horror. He writes vampires after all. That makes it horror, right? I'm going to nominate Redcaps Rising for the Dragon Award for Best Fantasy Novel. I would urge all of you to buy and read the book and if you agree with me to nominate Piatt as well. How cool would it be to see someone you nominated on the final ballot. Help your boy out! Let's get this thing done. This work is that good. Take a bow, P.A.

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Cursed Elves

Redcaps Rising
P.A. Piatt
Self Published, 2018

Redcaps Rising is available for purchase at the following link:

SF Awards That Do Matter, SF Awards That Don't Matter, and Why

First off, let me begin by stating what this post is not: This post is in no way meant to denigrate females, minorities, LBGT+ individuals or any damn other person who thinks they have an excuse to whine. I mean that. I want to see the fields of Science Fiction and Fantasy expand. I want to see people of all races, colors, creeds and all of that other crap come together over a really awesome hobby and have more fun than they know how to handle. Seriously. I review books, movies and comics. If you produce any of the above and would like to see your work reviewed here then please see the top right corner of the page and submit your work for review.

Oh, what's that? Right. You're reading this on your phone and can't see what I'm talking about because blogger shrinks things to make it all fit on your phone. Gotcha. That happens to me too.  It's annoying as all get out. Well, here's what it says:

All submissions must be in .epub, .mobi or .pdf format. Only novella length or better works will be reviewed. All entries must be in the science fiction or fantasy genres. All submissions should be formatted in exactly the way they will be (or have been) released. Any exceptions to any of these rules will be deleted without reading. Please send any and all materials to thatjimboguy@gmail.com.

That's simple. It's easy. And I won't delete your work without reading it if you follow those guidelines. Nor will I ask you what your race/orientation/age/whatever else you think matters. I'm looking for good stories. That's all. If your story is good, you will get a good review. If it is bad, you will get a bad review. It's that simple. That's the way it should be. If you want equality, well, that's what it looks like. Same rights, same rules, same standards.

Unfortunately, it seems that neither the Hugos nor the Nebulas get this. Both seem to think that their awards should be limited to members of a small slice of the population. Both would have you believe that they're trying to be more inclusive, but they're lying. You don't become inclusive by excluding large segements of the population. That's not how it works. If you want to make an award "inclusive" then by all means allow PoCs and women and whoever compete. That's the way it's supposed to work. But handing someone an award simply because they're a female PoC (I'm looking at you Nebulas) is not "inclusion" it's EXclusion. Seriously. No, it's not a response to historical injustices. It is an injustice. Really.

Look, I know that the Nebula Award was limited to white writers for a long time. I'm aware that no woman won a Nebula the first three years they were given out. (The first female winners were Anne McCaffrey in 1968 for her novella "Dragonrider" and Kate Wilhelm for her short story "The Planner") And yes, I fully acknowledge that was sick, twisted and wrong. Yes, I'll use the word racist (and this was a racist practice) although that word is so overused that it no longer has meaning. In this case, it's actually true. Here's the thing Nebulas: You're acting the same way.

Yes, you read that right. There is no difference between excluding minorities and excluding white people. None whatsoever. I mean, you can make whatever excuses you want, but that's what it boils down to. The worst part about limiting the field (and that's what you've done) isn't even that you're leaving out talented people, although that's bad enough. No, the truth is even worse.

You're wronging your winners. When you deliberately excluded anyone who was not a female PoC in 2015 what you were in fact stating is that they couldn't write well enough to win an award if they had to compete with other demographics. Seriously. I'll be honest in stating that I don't know what percentage of SF/F authors are Female PoCs but I'm guessing it's pretty small. How many deserving authors who were not Female PoCs got screwed out of their chance to win an award because of their race and/or gender? I'm guessing it happened. What that means is that we have no  way of knowing if those women actually deserved their award or not. Seriously. They didn't win that award for writing the best story in their category that year. They won their Nebulas for having dark skin and a vagina. Maybe their stories would have been good enough to win in a year with the full field competing, but maybe not.We'll never know. Oh, and when you've limited the field that far, it's not really a victory for "diversity" either. There's no "diversity" in a group of all PoC women. That's one demographic, not many.

Once you've destroyed an entire year's worth of your own awards you no longer matter. Sorry Nebulas, but you're irrelevant now. It's sad too, because when I first started shoveling snow for cash (no, my parents didn't pay me for that, but my dad let me borrow the snow shovel and go around the neighborhood) and later started making money with my first job in June of 1991 (I was fourteen) I used to look for books with a Nebula logo on them because it meant that I was getting a good book. Now publishers don't even bother putting a logo on the cover because the logo doesn't boost sales. Why? Because winning a Nebula no longer means that you've written a good book.

Okay, sidebar: Yes, there is a long history of women in SF/F. No, there was no need for a work entitled Women Destroy Science Fiction because women have been in the field for decades. For those that missed it, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was the first ever Science Fiction novel published in English and probably first ever period. Happy anniversary, ladies. Women have been making contributions in the field of Science Fiction since 1818 at the latest. That's two hundred years of inclusion. Anyone telling you otherwise is lying. Anyone publishing a collection claiming that they're "destroying" SF is either lying or an idiot. I'm guessing idiot since most of the people who push that kind of drek don't bother to learn the history. They just assume. But honestly, that's a different subject for a different blog. For further reference, see Kristine Katheryn Rusch's Women of Future's Past: Classic Stories.

Now, the Hugos. The Hugos lied to us for decades. They told us that they were the peoples awards. The were "voted on by the fans." Ummm...No. They're the awards of a cabal of self-interested individuals who give each other awards for having the correct political opinions. When Larry Correia started the Sad Puppies movement he remarked on this. He talked about the political bias of the voters because of the way he was treated at the Hugo Award Banquet as a nominee for the John W. Campbell Award. (For those who may not be aware, the Campbell Award is for Best New Author and is given out at the Hugo Awards Banquet.) He wanted to expose the awards for what they were. He succeeded.

Once "the Peoples' Awards" found out the wrong people were voting, they lost their minds. Larry Correia urged people to nominate his novel, Monster Hunter Legion. His goal was to make the establishment freak out because an author who did not push the correct political agenda had been nominated. It didn't attract much attention. The next year, however, it got ugly.

Correia put his own book, Warbound up for nomination, along with some other books that he had enjoyed.  The Hugo voters lost their minds. Controversy flared. How dare this upstart author who had owned a gun store and supported the incorrect political causes encourage the great unwashed to vote in their awards? This guy was a *spit* conservative. He didn't belong here.

Then it got worse. The next year, the Puppies put together a strong campaign and dominated. Once again, the voters and officials lost went crazy. They decided to trash their own awards. The Pups had put forth more votes in the nominations than had ever been cast in one year in the history of the award. There were record numbers of memberships purchased. (A membership in WorldCon is required to vote. There is a cheaper membership offered for those who wish to vote but will not be attending the convention itself.) The members of the convention voted for no award to be given in most categories rather than allow someone who was nominated by people with the wrong politics to win.

And there you have it. Another award that practices inclusion by exclusion.  Not only was the Hugo not the award of the people as they claimed to be they decided that they'd rather lock people out because they didn't conform to an archetype.Not only that, they risked destroying their own awards ( If the No Award result is elected in two straight years in a single category, the category is scrapped. They didn't know what would happen the following year. If the Pups had dominated the nominations again they could have ended up with no Best Novel award.) in order to keep people they didn't like off of the ballot.

 Oh, and after decades of claiming to be the award of the fans, they exposed themselves as liars. The Hugo Award is an award given by the elites in the field to the people they like on a personal level. If you eat at the right table at the banquet and support the right causes you can win the award. It's not a Science Fiction award. It's a circle of people awarding their own for loyalty. It is not given for producing a good story and therefore has no relevance to the general public. Seriously, these awards are beneath notice and I'd like to thank Larry Correia, Brad Torgersen and Kate Paulk for their work in pointing that out.

It sucks. An award that was once prestigious has turned into a shadow of its former self. I used to search for Hugo Award winners on those same trips to the bookstore when I was looking for Nebula winners. Now I'd be more likely to leave a book on the shelf if I knew it were a Hugo winner than I would be to buy it. It's not an SF/F award anymore. It's a political award.

The only award that  matters in a modern sense is the Dragon Award. Why? Because it is truly an award given by the people. Don't get me wrong. A black transwoman lesbian in a wheelchair could very well win the award, but so could a straight white male, or a gay Arabic male, or a genderfluid Asian person, or well.... you get the idea. The catch is that they would have to write a good story, invent a good game, be in a good movie, etc. to win the award. You're not going to get the votes just because of your demographic

There is no requirement to vote except an email address and you can get one of those for free. I would know. I have multiple email addresses and I don't pay for any of them. Most public libraries have computers you can use for free as well. That's if you don't have/want to use a smart phone to vote/nominate. (I personally don't like to use my phone. I've got fat fingers and the fields are too small and close together.Then again, I have a desktop computer.) Having said that, if you're the person nominating and you want to see your favorite genderqueer Native American then by all means nominate them! If you want to see them on the list of finalists though, you'd better get some friends to nominate along with you. If they're fans though, it shouldn't be hard to do. It won't cost them anything either and they should be happy to support the person/project they're a fan of.

This is an award that hasn't been spoiled by politics. It doesn't go to the same small clique of content producers every year. It goes to whoever the fans want it to go to. This really is the Peoples' Award.  Anyone can win it if they can attract a big enough following. Anyone can get their favorite content producer nominated if they can organize a movement to do so. Seriously. Don't believe me? The nomination form is here. Go nominate some good stuff. If you want to nominate in every category, do so. If you don't want to nominate books and nothing else do that. You don't have to nominate in every category. I personally haven't played any new SF/F board games so I can promise you I won't be voting on that, but I will be voting in some other categories. I may share my slate, I may not. I'll nominate what I like. You nominate what you like. That's how it works.

Nominations are open until July 20, 2018. Not long after that, finalists will be named and the award will be given out at DragonCon which, according to the World's Most Awesome Girlfriend (TM), takes place at the end of August on the first weekend of college football season. I uhh... don't have the date handy, it's five thirty in the morning and I want to get this written and go to bed. I'm sure the dates are easy to google, but I'm just not feeling up to it.

So, just to quickly recap, if you freeze people out of your award for political or racial reasons (even if those people are white) you suck, you're irrelevant and you're not worth acknowledging. This includes both the Hugos and Nebulas, specifically. An award that accepts all (and all includes minorities, women and liberals but it also includes men, whites and conservatives) is worth voting for and getting excited about. Now go forth and vote! Err...Nominate now, vote later. Let's enjoy this thing together with everyone.

The Prince of Artemis V Written by Jennifer Brozek Artwork by Elizabeth Guizzetti

Long ago, in a decade now remembered as "The Eighties" my neighbor Dennis brought open a large box. I wasn't sure what was in it, but once he saw me playing in the yard, he made me carry it into the house. Once there, he opened it and showed the contents to my father. They were comic books. On those pages of wonder were stories of mutants, stories of transforming robots, stories of beings with power rings who could travel the stars through the force of their will...

I fell in love. My love of science fiction and fantasy broadened. Then, in the fullness of time, I started a blog. I went out on a limb with my first post and stated that comic books were indeed part of the universe of Science Fiction and Fantasy (which I consider to be an incontrovertible fact but others disagree with) and proceeded to...

Never do a review of a comic book, Well, at least until now. What you are reading is a moment I've been waiting for since I started this blog. I GET TO REVIEW A COMIC BOOK!!! And it's a good one too.

The Prince of Artemis V is a pretty awesome story. It goes quickly, as comics are wont to do, but it's full of action. I find it kind of ironic that the story takes place in dreams but it's so entertaining. Actually, maybe I don't. It's not like A Nightmare on Elm Street was ever boring. At any rate, the story is a good one and asks a lot of questions.

There is a mystery with this book, but it's not one that is solved/revealed by the end of the story. That's okay. The characters themselves know who the villains are.. sort of. They know that they're older brother was a victim, but not why. The weird thing about this comic is that, while there is a name for the villains, no one knows who they really are or why they do what they do.

I'm really hoping that there is a sequel coming to this story. There is so much here that is unknown that I'd love to see revealed at some future date. Note that this is meant as a compliment to the author of the piece. I want to see more! I want to know more! This is a good thing. If I ever get something published (Don't hold your breath waiting) it's the response I want. There needs to be more here. I want to know more.

Ok, so this one ends on a cliffhanger and I'm not a fan of cliffhangers. I've stated that many times before. The fact remains that they're a good marketing tactic because they make you want to buy the next book and/or watch the next episode. This one is no exception, or it wouldn't be if I knew there was a sequel coming to answer some of these questions. We'll see what Brozek, Guizzetti and Apocalypse Ink decide to do, but I think it's fairly obvious what my suggestion would be.

When talking about a comic, one must always mention the art. Elizabeth Guizzetti has done and outstanding job here. This book is beautiful. The people come alive on the page. The facial expressions do an awesome job of portraying emotion. There is a picture of a castle (supposedly drawn by one of the characters) that just sings to me. Guizzetti has created an amazing world with her drawings. Seriously. I want to travel to the planet of the Takers (assuming that it's accurately represented in the dreams) and I damn sure don't want to be anywhere near the misery of Artemis V, the dark, dreary world where life sucks, everything is dreary and kids disappear. Granted, both were created by Brozek with her writing (and she did a damn good job) but it's Guizzetti's artwork that really brings it to life. She really needs to take a bow.

The majority of the action in this story takes place between the members of the royal family on Artemis V. It feels real. The family has suffered a horrible loss and it shows. Hurt feelings and resentment abound. Through it though, the fact that they love each other is obvious. They look out for each other, tying their legs together to avoid being taken. Mom makes her kids wear their coats. In a weird way, the mundane things about the story and the family interactions are what make the fantastic elements of the story work. All of the normal stuff is so believable that everything else just fits in place around it.

My only complaint is that this work doesn't really provide the satisfying ending I wanted. I was really hoping that something would be revealed about the Takers. I wanted to know more. So, I guess my main complaint is the same as my chief compliment: There needs to be more here. If the Takers are taking kids, why? What do they hope to gain by it? They state that they're doing it for the good of the children, but are they really? I mean, they could be but that doesn't mean they are.

All in all though, I really enjoyed this comic. I can't wait to see more from the creative team that came up from this one, whether together or separately. I'd pay for another installment.

Bottom Line: 4.5 out of 5 Awesome Illustrations

The Prince of Artemis V
Written by Jennifer Brozek Artwork by Elizabeth Guizzetti
Apocalypse Ink Productions, 2018

The Price of Artemis V is available at the following link:

Warner Brothers Ready Player One

So I went to see Ready Player One today. Fans of my blog will remember that I recently reviewed the book. This time, it's the movie and I kind of have an odd reaction to it. I'm going to try to keep the spoilers to a minimum, but a lot of my reaction to the movie was based on where it differed from the book. Basically if you haven't read and seen both and you don't like spoilers...Uhhh.... I've done some other posts you might like, I guess. I'm not saying you're not welcome to read. Everyone is welcome here. I'm just saying you may not want to. Spoilers start in the next paragraph.

If Ready Player One were a standalone movie, it would have been freaking awesome. The 80s nostalgia was was again excellent, even if there wasn't as much of it. Then again, it's just not possible to fit as much into a movie as it is into a book. I get that. It was just kind of weird. Don't get me wrong. I really enjoyed this movie. It just felt like it was missing a lot of the background.

Actually, let me get this out of my system now. They changed A LOT of the book for this movie. A whole lot. A huge, quivering mass of lot was transformed from what it was in the book to what it became in the movie. I don't know if I can remember it all, but I'll try.

First off is the relationship between the characters. Somehow, Parzival, a lone gunter, ends up in a semi-alliance (not a clan, because "I don't clan up") in the first five minutes of the movie. In the book, Art3mis is a blogger that Parzival (he's our hero) has a thing for. At first she wants nothing to do with him. Then they meet and fall in love in the Oasis. They don't meet until the last couple of pages of the book though. In the movie, they're in each other's physical presence in meatspace for a good chunk of the movie. Daito and Sho work together for the whole book but Parzival doesn't know much about them until they get onto the scoreboard. In the movies they're all chilling on Planet Doom together at the beginning. Aech and Parzival do hangout throughout the book and the movie, so I guess that stays the same.

It's not just the relationships either, although that is probably the biggest thing. Stories are about characters. There are a lot of other differences as well. The wrong character infiltrates the IOI stronghold the wrong way. Odgen Morrow doesn't show up until the challenges are over. That's a major subplot that gets thrown to the wolves.  It drives me bonkers. Probably the biggest problem I have with the movie is what they've done, not to Wade Watts the human, but to Parzival the avatar.

In the book, Parzival is a broke-ass n00b. He has to hitch rides to low level planets to kill kobolds to make copper to try to level a little and get some coins. I really don't see how he could have paid for that Delorean. It really sucks to be him. He wouldn't last five seconds in player versus player combat in a place like Planet Doom. He's too weak and way too undergeared. For all of my WoW players out there (and others who will probably still get the reference) he's basically a level six toon in gear with no gear gifted from another toon and Planet Doom is a max-level battleground. Yeah, deadski. Game over man! Seriously. Parzival is the kind of toon that you would roll up on with your caster and kill with your staff because he wasn't worth the mana. But somehow he has a high enough level with good enough gear to go to Planet Doom to make money off the enemies he kills. The fact that he's able to level up his toon after getting the first key is a major thing in the book. The movie completely cuts it out.

Oh, did I say key? That is another huge change. In the book, the first key has been hidden for five years. No one knows where to go to get it. Parzival ditches his hangout time with Aech when he figures it out and heads to go get the first key. After he gets the first key, he has to solve the clue to the whereabouts of the first gate. He has to get to the first gate and solve the puzzle there before continuing and so on for the next two keys. In the movie everyone knows where to go to get the first key, it's just a matter of doing what needs to be done. Once Parzival gets the key, the gate appears in front of him. He puts the key in and that's it. Credit achieved. It takes a lot of the suspense out of the story. Ok, now I'm done whining.

Wow, I just realized that I totally nerd raged about a movie that I really freaking enjoyed. Sorry if I gave the wrong impression.

At any rate...

Viewed on its own terms, this really is a good movie. The plot moves. It's action packed. The characters are believable. I'm really getting into SF that goes back and forth between  the "real" world and the online universe. This is the type of thing that makes sense in a modern context. How much time do people in the here and now, Planet Earth, 2018 spend online? How much more time do gamers spend online? Dear lord, how much time have I spent gaming online? It just makes sense that this will continue into the future. I don't see it ever quite getting to the point that it gets to in Ready Player One but it could. With the appearance of Bitcoin, it even seems realistic that online currency would have real world value as well.

Ready Player One is visually gorgeous, except in the instance when it is intentionally ugly. I went and saw it in 3D (which I highly recommend if you can come up with an extra few bucks) and it was stunning. Seriously. Explosions, gunfire, magic, drones, mecha, it all looks wonderful. There is so much here and anything that is meant to be recognized is easy to recognize. Seriously, I saw the 1970s Batmobile, a Gundam, the Iron Giant, Mechagodzilla, you name it.

Not all of the graphics were licensed from other products either. The avatars in the movie were amazing. I-Rok was awesome. Sorrento looked sweet. Honestly, Parzival didn't but he wasn't supposed to. Being broke has its drawbacks after all. All in all though, the unique aspects of the story were amazing. I loved it.

The acting was good as well. When Wade finally got to kiss the girl I wanted to cheer for him. When Art3mis gets taken by IOI the freak out on her face looked real. If that was really Tye Sheridan in those last couple of chase scenes then that kid can take a sick bump.

All in all, this really was a good movie. Others have complained that it was too long but it needed this much time. There really wasn't anything they could have eliminated that wouldn't have made Ready Player One worse by its absence. One of my college professors used to have a saying about a story, "It needs to be like a woman's skirt, long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to keep things interesting." I think two hours and twenty minutes fits that description to a T. It just worked.

I may have been a bit harsh earlier as well. Although the movie does abandon many of the particulars of the book, it does retain a large part of the spirit of the book. This is still the story of a bunch of plucky freedom fighters trying to keep the corporation from taking over their playground. It still combines danger in the real world and the Oasis. It still holds your attention and won't let go. It's still a great story.

Bottom Line as a Stand Alone Movie: 4.75 out of 5 Easter Eggs
Bottom Line as a Translation of the Novel: 3.5 out of 5 Easter Eggs

Ready Player One
Warner Brothers Entertainment, 2018

Ready Player One is available for purchase the following links:



 

Denver Moon: The Minds of Mars by Warren Hammond and Joshua Viola

(First off, I'd like to again thank Warren Hammond, co-author of this Denver Moon:The Minds of Mars for his guest post. You rock Warren! Also, there is a review of the Denver Moon trade paperback coming, but I'm waiting until I get the third comic as I plan to review the whole thing at once. Also, the ARC of the novel that I received came with a copy of the short story that got turned into the TPB, I'm holding off on reviewing that until I can review the TPB itself.I did enjoy it. It's just not time to review it yet.)

I grew up on far-future science fiction. Humanity had colonized the stars. Whether it was (ironically) long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away or the final frontier, humanity had spread far beyond the limits of the Solar System and into the far reaches of space. What humanity found among the stars varied widely of course. Usually it was aliens but not always. Always though, we were outside of our Solar System and among the stars. It wasn't until I got older that I experienced SF and the struggle to make things much closer to home work. What I've found though, is that I've thoroughly enjoyed the battles that I first became aware of as a result of reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy. It's not all that surprising that I thought of that either, given the fact that I'm reviewing Warren Hammond and Joshua Viola's Denver Moon: The Minds of Mars. This book has all of the fun of near future SF and some unique twists as well. I had fun with this one.

Denver Moon is our title character and she is a bit unusual. For one, she's a colorblind private eye. This makes things a bit unusual. I was skeptical that this would work when I first realized it, but as I was reading it didn't  harm the story at all. As a matter of fact, Denver actually needed to be a monochrome because of some later parts of the story.

As befits a story about a detective, DM:TMOM is a mystery. The great thing about this being a mystery is that it's an EPIC mystery. I recently reviewed Ready Player One and this Denver Moon is out to solve a mystery that is every bit as big and as important as the mystery in RPO but even more important... even if our heroine doesn't realize that at first.

Probably the best part about this book is all of the twists and turns that it takes. Every time you think the mystery is solved it gets deeper. I've read mysteries since my days as a fan of the Hardy Boys and you don't see this in a lot of places. Lots of mysteries are murder mysteries (ala just about every police procedural on TV) and once you know whodunit the story is over. Not so much here. It actually reaches the point where the solution to the initial mystery just introduces the next one, which morphs into another one you didn't even know existed. This thing doesn't stop and it doesn't rest.

Things are not always as they appear here either. The people you think are your friends may not be. The people you believe are the villains might just be heroes. You'll know who is who by the end of the book (at least I think I do now) but it's not until the last few pages that everything sorts itself out... probably.  I think. Unless I'm wrong. Which I may be, but there's a sequel coming and once I read that... Well, who knows. This thing has a bunch of twists and it's intended as a series so there could be a bunch more coming. I'm not making any guarantees here, except to buy the next one. Oh, and I also promise to stay

Speaking as a man who fired his first BB gun at the age of five and his first rifle at the age of eight, I have to give props to Hammond and Viola for placing Moon's person AI in his pistol. Smith, as the AI is known is a mix between a high powered computer, a best friend and a tactical advising/targeting system. Oh, and toss in a smartgun feature ala the first (and possible later) edition(s) of Shadowrun. Smith is freaking awesome. I want like six of these things. It doesn't get any better than this. Putting an AI in a private eye's gun makes every bit as much sense as giving Tony Stark access to Jarvis in his Iron Man suit. Both AIs are integral parts of the characters they partner with as well as being characters in their own right.

One of the key aspects of the mysteries that Moon tries to solve is "The Feve". The feve is a disease that effects the brain and causes extreme violence. No one is sure what causes it. Everyone knows that only monochromatic individuals are immune to it, but no one is sure why. It could be because so much of Mars is red or it may not be. All that they know for sure about the feve is that it comes randomly and without warning. People are scared and they should be.

Hammond and Viola manage to avoid two of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to mysteries: They don't bring in a solution out of nowhere that makes no sense. They didn't telegraph the eventual ending of the book in the first then pages. Those two facts combine to make this mystery worth reading. I want a mystery that keeps me wondering and DM:TMOM definitely does. I could read this all day long. Actually, I did read most of it during a slow shift at work. Thank God for cellphones and their lit up faces. I drive a cab on the midnight shift and this book gave me something to focus on and stay awake. It kept me interested when I got fatigued. That's about the biggest compliment I know how to give to a book.

Now, I don't do spoilers, so I'll just leave this here and let the reader figure out if they can figure out why I wrote it. Ready? I have a very strong and visceral dislike for cliffhanger endings, especially in books when you don't know when the sequel is coming. I get the fact that they're somewhat entertaining as well as a good business move. I just don't like them. That much being said, this is still a really good book. I can't wait to read the next one.

Bottom Line: 4.5 out of 5 Martian Rocks

Denver Moon: The Minds of Mars
Warren Hammond and Joshua Viola
Hex Publishers, 2018

Denver Moon: The Minds of Mars is available for purchase at the link below: