It's Time... It's Time... It's Dragon Time!

(Author's Note: For those that missed it, the Dragon Awards are a fan based science fiction award show. They're the best of the year as decided by the people who love the genre. Basically,  they're what the Hugo Awards used to claim to be before they admitted that they were only for the people who attend Worldcon. The Dragons are also part of a con (in this case DragonCon) but there is no requirement to buy a membership to vote. If you love Science Fiction and Fantasy (and otherwise, why would you be here?) you should nominate and eventually vote.)

Oops,

I just realized this was probably still earlier than it should have been, but for some reason I thought the deadline was July first when it's actually the nineteenth. Oh well. Hopefully, I don't read anything worth nominating in the next few weeks. Or, hopefully I do? I mean, I love a good book but like, I don't want to miss anything...

Ya know?

At any rate...

Is anyone interested in seeing what I nominated for the Dragon Awards this year?


Well, here you go then:

I'm thinking that's not really good enough, so let me help you out with why I picked what I did.

Uncompromising Honor is the culmination of a series of books that I, as a relative newcomer, have only been following for about fifteen years. It was amazing. It was everything I hoped it would be. And, although it is the end of the official "main line" series, it's not necessarily the end of Honor Harrington. I loved this book.

My review for Come, Seeling Night is coming soon. I sat down to write that review and then ended up writing this. Paxton Locke is a bad man. This thing cooks. I'll be sharing my thoughts in the next day or two.

The Mask Shop of Dr. Blaack is a fun little Halloween story. It's got suspense and the beginnings of romance. I need to get my daughter to read this.

Aries' Red Sky was everything I love in a Mil SF: It was realistic. It was dark. It was gritty. And most importantly, it showed the way warriors think and that they don't all have the same beliefs and values. James Young is a vet and it showed when he wrote this book.

The World Asunder was amazing. It turned a character I had hated into a character I loved. The historical research that went into this was intense. I loved it.

I don't read a whole lot of horror, but I've read everything in Declan Finn's Saint Tommy NYPD series so far because it's that damn good. (Okay, so I haven't finished Crusader yet, but I just got it.) My pick was Hellspawn because it's the best of the bunch, and I'm not even a "The First One is Always the Best One" nerd. I promise.

Deadworld: Requiem for the World is good old fashioned ass-kickery with a plot. It's a reboot and I'm not usually a fan but this one is good enough to make an exception.

Good Omens: I haven't read the book, but I love the show. I haven't done a review because lazy.

Mortal Engines didn't do as well at the box office as it should have because there just aren't that many steampunk fans. It's still the best SF/F movie I've seen this year. If you love steampunk SEE THIS MOVIE. If you're curious about Steampunk, SEE THIS MOVIE. I loved this flick. For the record, I have yet to see Endgame and my GF is probably gonna kick my ass for not nominating it.

I'm hoping that World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth is eligible since it's an expansion and not an entirely new game. The new patch looks awesome. I know I never took time to review it but that's because I was too busy playing it.

In looking over my picks, it comes to my attention that I need to read some new comics. I've done some comic reading, but even the stuff I bought at the comic con from the guy who wrote it is copyright 2016. So it's time to get to my LCS.

I've been doing a lot of tabletop gaming, but all of that is stuff that's too old to nominate and I guess I just don't play enough games on my phone. Actually, that may be a good thing. I've got enough things to eat up my time.

So there's my list for the year. What does your's look like? I'll be waiting for the cheers, jeers, and thrown crockery. Leave your comments below.

Some of the products listed above are available at the links below:




 

Kacey Ezells' The World Asunder (The Psyche of War Book II)

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Dammit Kacey Ezell! I didn't want to like this chick. I mean I really, really, didn't want to like this chick. They thought she was dead in the first book. I thought she was dead in the first book. I was HAPPY about that fact. But not only did Adalina Sucherin survive in Minds of Men, she is the main character of Ezell's newest work, The World Asunder. I knew that going in and it almost made me not buy the book. Why? BECAUSE I HATED THAT BITCH! Of course, I'm a member of the CKP Facebook Group, and I mentioned this there and was reassured by none other than the factory boss himself.

Apparently, I'm even more forgiving than even I thought I was because I honestly did end up liking this chick. Of course, it helps that the only thing worse than a Nazi is a Communist and chick starts out the story being oppressed by Communists. Enemy of my enemy and all that. Oh, and she's helping to take care of a family of innocents caught in the aftermath of World War II. I guess that makes up for a lot, especially since there were a bunch of daughters. I have daughters, so I therefore have a soft spot FOR daughters.

Okay, so maybe there was more to Lina than I saw the first time around. Maybe, just possibly, she wasn't the ginormous [redacted] I thought she was. I mean, I could have missed something. Things happen and sometimes I don't reach my normal heights of absolute brilliance. I guess.

I'll say this much though: Having read her story, which starts in East Berlin during the Berlin Airlift, I am actually a big fan of one Miss Sucherin. It took her a bit to win me over, but that's not surprising. I wasn't ready to give this character the benefit of the doubt. What I'm going on about here is that Mrs, Ezell has done one hell of a job building a very flawed and believable character and making her believable. Seriously. Lord knows if she were my girlfriend I'd never allow her around a body of water bigger than a Dixie cup.

Lina is also a woman who has been through a lot. That makes sense. If anyone knows what the Soviet troops did in Berlin after they conquered it that makes sense. Any conquered city is going to suffer, but Berlin had one of the worst fates of any city in modern warfare and it's women suffered worse that its men. Russians raped every woman they could get their hands on and were perfectly happy to rape young girls if they couldn't find a woman. (Seriously, if you don't believe me, read A Woman in Berlin. )


Of course, Sucherin is not the only character in the book. This is a good thing. Characters grow a lot more when they have other characters to interact with. A lot changes for Lina throughout The World Asunder. It's actually pretty amazing how much she remains herself after all of the changes. Lina is a strong woman and that hits home for me. When my daughters were little, I used to ask them what kind of person they were. I made them tell me that they were Proud, Strong, Smart, Tough, and Brave. I wouldn't leave them alone until they did. Lina is all of the above and that makes her the kind of woman I really respect.

I want to be careful here. There is a family that Lina is staying with at the beginning of The World Asunder. They are totally believable. There are a lot of other characters too, but I don't want to go too far into them because the way this thing is laid out, I'd have to reveal the plot to show where everyone fits in. Suffice it to say that  they all make sense in context. Even when someone  did something I did't want them to do, I knew why they did it. I like characters whose actions make sense according to their own motivations. Ezell apparently gets human nature. And actually, the girls in that family have all of the traits I taught my girls to have too. Maybe that's why I liked them so much.

Speaking as a historian with a fancy sheepskin, I'd like to compliment the author on her historical research. The backdrop of this story is about as perfect as you're going to get from a work of fiction. There were many things that went on after the Second World War that the average American doesn't know much about. Many of them are things that I find regrettable. In The World Asunder, Ezell features some of them. The United States really did bring people into the country who were complicit in some of the Nazi atrocities perpetrated during the war. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't right. I happened though, because it was necessary. Ezell gives about as balanced a portrayal of these actions as I've ever read. Kudos to her.

I will, however, stress that you should not go into a novel like The World Asunder thinking you already know what's going to happen. As a matter of fact, a smart reader will keep their head on a swivel because you never know what's coming next. I'm not saying that the book takes a lot of weird jumps. It's written in a logical manner, but there are surprises aplenty if you're paying attention.

Paying attention....

Hmm...

Not going to spoil anything.

It's possible that I missed something somewhere though. This is actually a good thing for the author. It's good for The World Asunder as a work of literature. I'm just saying that it might be possible that one of the surprises would have been a little bit less surprising if I hadn't had my cranium inserted into my third point of contact. Then again, since I am a member of the Facebook group, I've seen other people post vaguely, and have reason to believe that they missed the same things. It was a lot of fun once I figured it out, and someone out there is the note-taking type who is going to figure it out early, but if you're not that one percent of all nerds supernerd, it will come as a shock and it's more fun that way.


So, I enjoyed The World Asunder so much that I'm afraid I'm going to be forced to nominate it for the Dragon Award for Alternate History. I'm afraid that I have not consulted Mrs. Ezell to find out if she has room for one on her mantle, but that is quite frankly not my problem. If she doesn't have room, I guess I'll just store it for her. Or sumfin.

Seriously. Buy it. Read it. Nominate it. Thank me later.

Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Boiling Beakers

The World Asunder (The Psyche of War Book II)
Kacey Ezell
Theogony Books, 2019

The World Asunder (The Psyche of War Book II) is available for purchase at the following link:



Oh, and I meant it when I recommended A Woman in Berlin. You can pick up a copy of that here:

Interview with George Phillies

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(My words are plain text. George's words are in bold.) 

Believe it or not, someone once thanked me for “all I do for the genre.” I found – and still find- myself a bit perplexed by this, as I'm just some random dude who types up a thousand words or so as my time allows. Seriously. That's the secret to being Jimbo: Plop butt into chair and don't stop typing till the word count gets to where it's supposed to be. That's also why I don't review shorts: Have you ever tried to write a thousand words about something that's only two thousand words long to start with?

At any rate, I'm not sure how comfortable I am taking credit for supporting an entire genre of fiction. So I decided that maybe, just possibly, I should try to highlight some of the people that actually deserve that credit. That I think I'm probably comfortable with.

I want to make this a regular thing here at Jimbo's and we'll see how that goes, but for today I've found my first vict...errr... volunteer. Yeah, that's what I meant to say. Volunteer. That sounds much better. George Phillies, president of the National Fantasy Fan Federation (the N3F) has graciously agreed to give us some of his time and insight.

Thank you so much George for stopping by, George. First, let me acknowledge that I have received the book you sent me to review. I just started reading Eclipse: The Girl Who Saved the World  today. I love the fact that it's about a twelve year old girl. I'm going to see if I can talk my thirteen year old daughter into reading it so that I can have a book that we have both read and can discuss that's not Hunger Games or Harry Potter. Wish me luck and  say hi!

Hi, Jim. Best of luck with this effort. I viewed as an honor to be the first person to be interviewed. Hopefully it will not turn out like the honor as described by one of our great 19th-century wits, who said of tarring and feathering that if it were not for the honor of the thing he would rather have done without. As your first victim, err,  volunteer, I certainly hope to make your effort a success. I have sent you my other novels, including The One World, Minutegirls, Against 3 Lands, and most important Mistress of the Waves. I say that Mistress of the Waves is the most important of the set because we have in it another 12 or 13-year-old girl (she gets older) who is the heroine of the piece. Perhaps your daughter will prefer Amanda to Eclipse. Amanda Kirasdotr is in no sense a superhero, and her successful competition for the most part does not involve violence. Well, there were the two assassins, the not-at-all competent pirates, and the mythical giant ship-eating squid, but for the most part Mistress of the Waves is a tale about economics and business competition, not about violence.

We'll get to more about your fiction in a bit George, because that's what I'm really about here at Jimbo's but first let's get to your work as the president of the N3F. Tell us a little about the organization itself and how you came to be the person to run it.

The National Fantasy Fan Federation or N3F is the world’s oldest non--regional science fiction club. We were founded in 1941. While some of our founders were fen about whom very little is known, many of our founding members were very well known, including EE Smith, Donald Wollheim, Forey Ackerman, Damon Knight, Cyril Kornbluth, Harry Warner, Jr., and Ray Bradbury.  One of the founding members, Robert Madle, is still alive. Membership in the N3F has ebbed and flowed. We have had hundreds of dues-paying members. At one point we were apparently down to a single dues-paying member. I had been a member of the N3F for some time, ran for the N3F Directorate, became Chair, and eventually ran for President, successfully.

I have focused my efforts on reviving and enhancing the club’s activities.  When I became President, we had a newsletter, the National Fantasy Fan, that was published quarterly, and a review and letter zine, Tightbeam, that produced truly beautiful issues on occasion. I encourage the notion that you will get out of a club something resembling what you put into it.  If we are sufficiently successful with this project, every SF fan will want to join us.  I have encouraged publishing as one of our activities. In addition to TNFF and Tightbeam, we now publish Ionisphere (which does reviews with fen and pros), Origin (which covers fannish history and research), Mangaverse (which reviews primarily anime), Films Fantastic (which covers historical films and filmographers), Eldritch Science (our semiannual fiction zine), and our very long-lived APA N’APA.  With some regularity, we also publish Fandbooks on various aspects of fandom, for example cooking. The next fandbook will focus on famous N3F members and their contributions to science fiction.

One of the reasons that we can publish all these zines, some of which are 40 or 70 pages in length, is the Internet. While TNFF is published in paper format, our other 7 zines are produced as PDF files and transmitted electronically to readers. Electronic transmission enormously reduces the burden of printing and collation that would otherwise exist. It’s also relatively cost-free. As a result, I was able to persuade the Directorate to add a new class of membership, the Public Membership, which costs nothing but which allows Public Members to be sent all of our 8 zines, for free.

The N3F also has a wide variety of bureaus, groups of people interested in different fannish activities. I’ve encouraged these to stay active, and have tried to find people interested in reviving some of the bureaus that had passed from the scene. In doing this, the N3F has been blessed with a long list of volunteers who do wonderful work for our club. I certainly have to start with my predecessor as President, David Speakman. Despite being extremely busy with his own professional activities, David has for many years served faithfully as our Treasurer and keeper of our membership records. He is also responsible for our webpages and other software. What other bureaus do we have? The very long-lived Round Robin bureau promotes circular letters that rotate between members and allow discussion of different topics. Curiously, transferring the Round Robin bureau to email has been very difficult to accomplish. Many years ago we had a member who was very seriously physically challenged but wanted to do something for the club. He created the Birthday Card bureau, which still sends birthday cards and renewal notices to the dues-paying members.  The Writers Exchange Bureau and Pro Bureau support writing activities among our members, some of whom have been accused of writing novels. A Membership Recruitment Bureau tries to lure new members into the club. The Fan-Pro Coordinating Bureau publishes Ionisphere. The Gourmet Bureau generates the interviews for Read This While You Eat That and Food of Famous Authors. A Video Bureau occasionally generates a list of forthcoming television shows. The Games Bureau, which has been around for many years, reviews games. Origin is the magazine of the History and Research Bureau, which is now large enough that it has its own internal newsletter. The Welcommittee greets new members.

That takes us to the original purpose of the N3F: Fanzine distribution.  The idea was that zine editors would mail us copies of their zines. We would aggregate them by subscriber, and send each subscriber a regular packet including all of the zines that they had as subscriptions.  The scheme worked well via particular features of period postal rates.  Readers will readily see ways in which this approach is seriously unstable.  However, under modern conditions we have revived the zine distribution service, as the N3F Franking Service.  Zine editors send us PDFs of their zines.  We send them out electronically to all of our members.  One of the N3F’s original purposes is thus fulfilled through the wonders of modern technology.

We support writing and creativity.  The N3F gives 2 sets of prizes. The annual short story contest, for non-professional writers, is judged by Jefferson Swycaffer.  The Neffy Awards honor work in novels, short stories, films, television shows, book editing, and more. The Book Review Bureau has as its objective reviewing every science fiction book that is published. We are a long way from meeting that objective. I’ve tried to persuade our reviewers to cover nominees for the Hugo, Neffy, and Dragon awards, but have had more success with the Dragon awards than the others.

That's awesome. I'd imagine that a guy in your position has probably gotten a chance to meet several authors and/or actors who've worked in the genres of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Who have you really enjoyed meeting? Were they really cool? Do you have any fun stories?

I don’t have as much to say here.  For many years, until he passed away, I was good friends with Hal Clement.  While he lived in Boston, Isaac Asimov sometimes appeared at the MITSFS picnic. (I was MITSFS President for three years.)  I did hear John Campbell give a speech at MITSFS.  Arthur C. Clarke also came through MITSFS, many years ago.  We found the issue of Amazing Magazine with his clever diving invention, the air pump on the small raft that is towed by the diver.  Like the geostationary communications satellite that he also invented, the device is now a commercial success in some parts of the world. Melissa Scott and Lisa Barnett both lived in Boston for a while; I met them.

Wow. That sounds a like a really good time. I'm a member of the N3F myself but I'd rather get the information straight from the horse's mouth as it were. What are the benefits of membership? If someone out there is interested and wants to join the org, where can they go to do so? Feel free to include a link if you'd like.

To join the N3F, go to http://N3F.org/join.  Please do fill out the membership form.  Dues are $18 if you want TNFF by paper mail, $6 if you want TNFF by email, and $4 if you share an address with a regular member.  All zines other than TNFF are mailed electronically to all members.  To join as a public member, for free, just send me an email at phillies@4liberty.net.

What do you get out of being a member?  You get eight fanzines:  The National Fantasy Fan.  Tightbeam. N’APA. Ionisphere. Origin. Mangaverse.  Eldritch Science.  Films Fantastic.  Some are monthly.  Some are semimonthly.  One is semiannual.  You get the support of all our bureaus for your fannish activities.  You can vote for the Neffy Awards.  As a member, you are a link between the distant past and the infinite future of SF fandom. You enjoy the support of all of our volunteers doing work for the N3F, including:

Five Directorate members, President,  Treasurer, Editor - TNFF, Art Editor, Editors - Tightbeam  Editor - Ionisphere,  Editor -  Eldritch Science  Editor - Mangaverse,   Editor - Films Fantastic,  Editor - Origin,  N’APA Collator,  Keeper of the URLs,  Host  of the Web Site,  Anime/Comics, Artists Bureau, Birthday Cards, Book Review Bureau,  Correspondence Bureau:, Election Teller, Fandom History/Research Bureau, Fan-Pro Coordinating Bureau,  Film Bureau, Forwarder,  Franking Service,  Games Bureau, Gourmet Bureau, Historian, Information Technology,  Lord High Proofreader, Membership Recruitment, Neffy Awards Bureau, Pro Bureau, Round Robins, Short Story Contest, Social Media, Video Schedule, Welcommittee, and Writers Exchange.  Each Bureau has a Bureau head and perhaps other members. If you want something we don’t offer, speak up and we’ll help you set it up.

Yup. That's why I joined. Now, help me out here George. I believe I heard you mention this somewhere else, but the word Fantasy has morphed in meaning somewhat over the last few decades. Someone out there is going to see the name of the National Fantasy Fan Organization and assume it only applies to sword and sorcery novels. Walk us through exactly what genres and/or subgenres the club promotes.

When founded, “Fantasy” referred to the fantastic, things that did not exist: Trips to other worlds, lost civilizations, swords and sorcery, fairy tales for children, tales of horror and the occult, even a few Elliott Queen mysteries, all were subsumed into fantasy. Fantasy now includes science fiction, space opera, paranormal romance, swords and sorcery, alternative history, tales of horror, works of the mythical occult, books, films, videos, comics, poetry, running and attending conventions, fanzine publishing, art and animation, role-playing games, cosplay, gaming and gourmet events, computer games, and more.

Right. Don't get me wrong, I love fantasy works but it's awesome to see that, despite the name, you're an organization that defines itself more broadly. Something I pride myself on here at Jimbo's is being accepting of a broad range of things that fit into the Science Fiction and Fantasy categories. What do you and the N3F think about including games like HALO or comic books like Green Lantern or Superman under the umbrella of Science Fiction and Fantasy? How about manga and anime?

Let’s see.  We publish a manga/anime/comics zine, Mangaverse.  The BuHead of the Anime and Comics effort, Mangaverse editrix Jessi Silver, also has her own anime web pages, S1E1.com.  I write superhero novels and certainly think that comics are part of SF fandom.  We don’t currently have active splay or computer game bureaus, but it would be nice to have them.

Are you doing any cons this year? I'm just curious. I don't suppose you'll be at Libertycon in a few weeks? If so, your first round is on me.

 I considered attending LibertyCon, but all slots were sold before I saw the announcement.  Perhaps someday.  It’s a three day drive or switching planes several times for me to get there.

Gotcha. So, now that we've heard all about your work with the N3F, let's hear a little bit about your writing. I have copies of both Minutegirls and Eclipse: The Girl Who Saved the World for review. What else do you have available? I'm not saying you HAVE to throw in a link to your Amazon author page or any personal website you might have, but if you wanted to I think that would be awesome.

I’ve actually written more than 20 books, not all SF

Novels
This Shining Sea  (2000)
The Minutegirls (2006) (Now second edition)
Mistress of the Waves (2012) https://www.amazon.com/Mistress-Waves-George-Phillies-ebook/dp/B008J4NLWI
The One World (2012) https://www.amazon.com/One-World-George-Phillies-ebook/dp/B008OB88R4
MinuteGirls, Second Edition  (2017)   https://www.amazon.com/Minutegirls-George-Phillies-ebook/dp/B075974K2V
Against Three Lands (2018) https://www.amazon.com/Against-Three-Lands-Thousand-Isles-ebook/dp/B079M1GM9S
Eclipse: The Girl Who Saved the World  (2019). https://www.amazon.com/Eclipse-Girl-Saved-World-Shining-ebook/dp/B07M9X3QYR

Short Stories 
Nine Gees (2000)
A Sea of Stars Like Diamonds (2016) George Phillies and Jefferson Swycaffer, Editors

Physics Books
Elementary Lectures in Statistical Mechanics, Springer-Verlag(2000) (textbook)
Phenomenology of Polymer Solution Dynamics, Cambridge University Press (2011) (research monograph)
Complete Numerical Tables for Phillies' Phenomenology of Polymer Solution Dynamics (2011) (research monograph)

Game Design Textbooks
Contemporary Perspectives on Game Design (with Tom Vasel)  (2006)
Design Elements of Contemporary Strategy Games (with Tom Vasel)  (2006)
Designing Modern Strategy Games (with Tom Vasel)  (2012) ( second edition of ``Design Elements of Contemporary Strategy Games``)
Modern Perspectives on Game Design with Tom Vasel)  (2012) (second edition of ``Contemporary Perspectives in Game Design``].
Stalingrad for Beginners (Studies in Game Design – 3)
Stalingrad Replayed (Studies in Game Design - 4)
Designing Wargames - Introduction (Studies in Game Design - 5)

Libertarian Political History and Strategy
Stand Up for Liberty! (2000)
Funding Liberty (2003
Libertarian Renaissance (2014)
Surely We Can Do Better (2016)

Awesome. Last question, I promise: I don't want you to walk away thinking “That darn Jimbo guy should have asked me this other question,” because I appreciate the time you've taken for this interview, so here's your chance: What did I fail to ask that you wanted me to? Don't forget to include the answer to your own question.

What were you trying to do in Eclipse?  What works do you have in the pipeline?

The first Eclipse novel is actually This Shining Sea, available from Third Millennium, 3mpub.com.  Eclipse, the Girl Who Saved the World, is actually the prequel. However, This Shining Sea is now being rewritten as Airy Castles All Ablaze and Stand Against the Light, with Of Breaking Waves as the 4th book in the series. I’ve actually written the closing paragraphs of Stand Against the Light and Of Breaking Waves. Eclipse has a considerable number of challenges to face, and puzzles to solve. She actually doesn’t know that all those puzzles exist yet.

I started to write This Shining Sea in order to try to break several tropes. The first trope was the notion that if the book is about children of particular age, the story must be being written for children of that age, and it really should only be read by them, not anyone any older. I am writing a series of books in which a not-yet-teenager is the heroine of the work, but in vocabulary and structure and plot the book is written for grown-ups. There are older books that leaned hard against this theme. A High Wind in Jamaica comes immediately to mind; modern readers into film and comic books would point out Hit-Girl. This Shining Sea, to be viewed for the moment is a 4-book series, is focused on a group of tween-age children.  At the time I started writing, the word “tween” really did not exist. The volume is adult in the sense there’s a lot of politics, people taking responsibility for their own deeds, and so forth.  The heroine and her friends try to do the right things, not because they have an adult telling them what to do. The volume is not adult in the sense that folks looking for written child pornography are going to get absolutely nothing out of the volumes, because no such things occur, except in the febrile imaginations of Comet’s parents. Someplace I have an extended series of notes on my other objectives with the novel which I may send you a future date, if I ever find it.

There were several other tropes that get stomped into the ground.  Hollywood for many years had the trope that if you had a child, and it was told clearly and unambiguously what not to do, the child would do it, usually in the worst possible way.  There are points where adults try to tell Eclipse what to do, and she doesn’t, but she was clearly right in her decisions.  There was also the long-time trope that if you had a child or teenager, they had a much older adult, a parent or sensei, to whom at key points they would trun for advice.  Eclipse does not have one of them, either, she very carefully (and wisely) keeps her distance from the Wizard of Mars.  Some readers have expected me to copy tropes from Marvel or DC. None of the five has a “kryptonite’ in the DC sense.  Their powers are not organized along one theme or another.  In terms of the Champions rolegame rules, Eclipse has a very large cosmic power pool.

So what am I working on now? 

I’m not actually working on all of the books listed below, but I am working to some extent on some of them. The primary focus at the moment is Airy Castles All Ablaze, which is the sequel to Eclipse. It’s up to 193,000 words, but that includes some things that are going to be trimmed out and some things that are going to be displaced to Stand Against the Light, which is the next book in the series. However, I do have other novels that are to some extent being written.

Invasion Tibet is, so to speak, the Buck Rogers prequel in which the aliens are landing in Tibet and preparing to expand. Actually, they don’t land, in fact they don’t have space travel. They have hyperspace tubes that take you direct from planet to planet, with severe mass limits on how much stuff you can move in one lot. To make life even more amusing for them, there is a large scale rebellion on the prior world, and the fellow who is planned out the invasion has the embarrassing difficulty that most of his military units have been redeployed from under his nose, so at first he is basically stuck launching an invasion with a collection of Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. Of course, it is 1880 or 1900, and the Boy and Girl Scouts do have disintegrator rifles, but nonetheless his position leaves much to be desired. There is a completed section in which the British invasion of Tibet in 1903 is wiped out, and another section in which the invaders shoot up a passenger ocean liner under the mistaken assumption that it is carrying the survivors of the British expedition and certain Tibetan technology they captured. I am not sure how far forward the invasion will advance. Surely they will invade Sinkiang, grab at least large parts of China, and at a guess occupy Siberia. They may even invade Japan.

There is a sequel to Against Three Lands in which the hero of the book through a series of events and a major tragedy becomes the Baron of the MacDonald domain. He now gets to cope with the invading non-Europeans. One segment I have thought out in some detail involves an object that is obviously not a Chinese junk, exactly, having an encounter with a European Galleon that attempts a boarding action. The Europeans are somewhat nonplussed when large numbers of not-Samurai warriors stage a counter boarding to capture not-European ship.  There’ll also be border wars between several of the domains, and some effort by the Hundred Isles, or at least the MacDonald section of it, to take advantage of European technology. An astute reader will have noticed the interesting coincidence that the MacDonald sigil bears a remarkable semblance to the Satsuma Mon.

The 4th book in the Eclipse series,   Of Breaking Waves is up to 27,000 words but I’m not really working on it, at the moment.  The novel ends with Eclipse on her 3rd-floor deck leaning back in a deck chair on a cold spring evening, carefully wrapped in a quilt with a barn cat on her lap, eating cookies and sipping mocha, contemplating a beautiful sunset.  So far as she knows, she has nothing she needs to do at the moment.

The Merchant Adventurers is interstellar travel, folks who lost a large chunk of technology realizing that it might be useful to recover it, local politics between the various countries on the home worlds, and a certain amount of technology and housekeeping and the like.

The Eddorian Lensman is space opera; readers on some of my websites will say that it is based on the Christian message of redemption. Of course, the serial numbers are going to be filed off, so this will not be a book about Eddorians and Lensmen, not quite, but a core part of the book will be a character study of the not-Eddorian who works out that his culture is based on bondage, sadism, and degradation of subject species, that this approach really doesn’t work, and redeems himself.

Hold High The Banner (Chinese Communist platoon of 1940 enters not-D&D world);is vaguely based on a plot I had many years ago for a Dungeons & Dragons series of games. There is an oppressed class of beings, the small giant class, which is trod upon and looted by everyone because small giants do not have magicians. The rulebook said so. However, the small giant class comes up with, or is given by the Chinese, the notion of asymmetric guerrilla warfare, and launches a revolutionary liberation struggle for the freedom and dignity of small giants, such as kobolds. To make life different, no one in the Chinese group has any idea at all how to make gunpowder, so the tedious “we have cannon and they do not” plot line is not going to function.

Adara's Tale is about magical university studies. The heroine makes a vigorous effort to organize what is known about magic, makes a whole variety of discoveries, some based on real pure mathematics, and steps across the line she doesn’t really know is there. The secret society that runs her culture therefore realizes they have to kill her, which they do not quite pull off. Readers of the This Shining Sea will indeed meet Adara, at least at 2nd hand, since she plays a significant role in what is going on. She also, even though she has fled the scene, is going to give Eclipse her heart’s desire, a desire that some people will find a bit strange and that many children will think is absolutely wonderful. (Eclipse already owns 2 ponies, so you will have to try again to figure out as to what her heart’s desire is.)

DisUnion is a political novel set in the near future United States in which the current idiocy reaches its natural peak, namely Americans emulate the people of Czechoslovakia and agree that their country needs to be partitioned, as it happens into 6 parts, which it has been. We managed to do this peaceably. The novel is set after the partition took place. There is a captured flying saucer.

No Tears for a Princess at; 89,000 words is classic fantasy with swords and magicians. I wrote most of it in the late 1970s. At the time, the notion of a female hero who was highly effective with sword was extremely radical. It isn’t so radical anymore.

Two new technical books, 'Theory of Polymer Solution Dynamics' and 'Modern Phenomenology of Polymer Solution Dynamics', are under way, as are a stack of research projects.

I have a few bits for sequels to Minutegirls, Mistress of the Waves, and  The One World


Perfect! Thanks for taking the time, George! I'll be sending you some reviews for publication soon. Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help out.

Declan Finn's City of Shadows

I'm looking at a map right now. It's a map of the Boroughs of New York. I'm searching hard. I've looked to the north, south, east and west. I even checked the back of my computer monitor. No matter how hard I look or which pair of reading glasses my old ass wears, I can't seem to find London anywhere. And since Declan Finn's latest novel is City of Shadows, Saint Tommy NYPD Book 4 I find myself confused. Uhh.. Yeah. London does not equal New York.

That's not to say that it's a bad novel. Hell, I enjoyed it. I mean it even kind of makes sense that Detective Tommy Nolan is across an ocean because he was ordered there by the Vatican. Saints are, by definition, part of the church. London makes a good backdrop, it's just not New York. Maybe I'm really seriously confused here. Maybe I'm just joshing you by pretending to be confused. I guess we'll never know what the truth is.

Either way, St. Tommy is up to his neck in trouble this time around. Things are not well in the British capital and our hero smells a rat. Or maybe something worse. What smells worse that a rat? Oh, yeah. London. London smells worse than a rat. Seriously, Tommy thinks it stinks. Oh, and without giving too much away, the title of the book fits. For the purposes of the novel, London really is a City of Shadows.

The honorable Detective Nolan once again finds himself in more trouble than anyone this side (or maybe the other side) of a Dan Brown novel. There is a lot going on here and none of it is good if you're on the side of right and decency. That's what Tommy is for though. He fixes wrong stuff with the use of powers provided by God and sometimes a bit of temporal firepower. Oh, and maybe just a smidge of good, old-fashioned asskickery, bare knuckle style. Seriously. Nobody mess with the saint. He will very kindly and with the blessing of God reduce you to a non-obstacle.

He's good at it too, and Finn does his usual awesome job of describing in painful detail exactly how it happens. When things start to happen, they really happen. The action is logical and well paced. Things happen the way they should given the fact that Tommy has the abilities that he has been granted by God. A lot of this is based on Catholic belief and abilities displayed by saints in the past, so there is some logic to it.

Interestingly, Finn also seems to get that weaponry is neither good nor evil but can be used as a tool for either. I don't want to give too much up here but there is a very important object in City of Shadows that starts out perceived as evil. It may or may not end up that way. There is a point made though. I just wish that uhh...

Never mind.

When one is backed by God, one must be opposed by Satan. That's almost like a law of nature. Finn does a good job of giving his villains a number of satanically provided powers. They don't always understand precisely what the nature of their powers is, but that makes sense as well. Satan is known as the Great Deceiver for a reason. Most of the villains believe in what they're fighting for. That makes sense as well. It's one of my favorite things to see in a novel, because we're all the hero of our own story. They think they're doing the right thing.

And the guy who doesn't? He is the worst villain. He freely admits that he is in the fight only for what it can gain him personally. That also makes sense. It is often said that absolute power corrupts absolutely. It does. I, however, would argue that the pursuit of absolute power is even more corrupting. Finn's ultimate villain is that guy. He's the one who chases what he wants regardless of its cost to others. He is what is truly wrong with the world and its desires. In short, he's a damn good villain.

I've review a lot of Finn's work here, probably more than anyone else's. There is a reason for that: It's because no matter how good his characters are (like St. Tommy) or how evil they are (as the one in City of Shadows) they always seem to be human. Even saints aren't perfect. Even villains think they're doing the right thing. People react the way they do because they have motivations and they react accordingly. Finn doesn't forget this.



Of course, the threats in City of Shadows are both manifold and insidious. Finn features real world problems in the work. I like that. Nothing in this world works one hundred percent the way it was intended to and Finn points out some of those errors. He does not see fit to play nice either. I approve. The British government has done several things in recent years that have been damaging to their citizens. At least on this side of the Atlantic we're free to point that out. Good for him.
I would be careful of your timing while reading City of Shadows. I was having a slow day at work one day (I'm a Lyft driver) and I was parked in a parking lot reading the book on my phone because why not when my phone went off. I got stopped at a rather suspenseful part of the novel. I'm a afraid I may have found myself more interested in completing the ride and reading the next little bit than I was in continuing on with my shift afterward. This is a threat posed by every good book, but with Finn it's a stronger compulsion than with most. Don't let that stop you though. If you're not looking to get lost in a book why would you read one anyway? This one is worth your time and money. Go get it.



Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Stolen Artifacts



City of Shadows

Declan Finn

Silver Empire, 2019

City of Shadows is available for purchase at the following link:

Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton

Yeah, I know this isn't really a SF/F post but hey, I'm the one in charge here. I'll write about what I want to write about, because I can! And what I want to write about is Lin-Manuel Miranda's masterpiece Hamilton. And yes, I did say masterpiece, because it is one, in the modern sense. Nobody remembers when a masterpiece was literally a project you had to build yourself in order to achieve Master rank in a trade guild.

*SIGH*

Great. It's the first paragraph and I'm already off-topic.

Welcome to Jimbo's! I'm so glad you could come!

I originally  heard about Hamilton from my theater addicted girlfriend (Wuvs you Honey!) but it was my theater crazed daughters who actually forced me to listen to the music and learn the words to most of it. They're the ones who assigned me the role of Peggy in The Schuyler Sisters. I don't really have the voice for it, but hey it's car karaoke, right?

So it was a really cool experience for me, especially since I got my ticket by winning the ticket lottery. I paid twenty dollars for two tickets in the second row (no, none of that is a typo) when the person four seats over from me in the same row paid five hundred dollars for theirs. It was a great time. I was so close I could see the spit flying from the actors' mouths while they were rapping. I kid you not.

First off, I want to talk about the acting. The part of Alexander Hamilton was played by Edred Utomi. This guy sold his part so well it hurt. I could literally see tears in his eyes at some points. Don't ask me how he did it. I'm not an actor. I just know he did. Chaundre Hall-Broomfield played both Hercules Mulligan and James Madison. Mulligan is my favorite character in the show and he rocked it. He just had the attitude that the character required. Peter Matthew Smith played King George III and he was a creep. That's exactly what was needed. Now that I've seen the play, he just might be my favorite character. I've never seen such a psycho stalker ex-boyfriend type in my life. The cast was amazeballs. The others were awesome as well. Those are just my favorites.

Of course I loved the music. It was that as much as anything (other than possibly my daughter and my Stephanie) that inspired me to see the play to begin with. It's an awesome mix of a classic show-tunes sound and some awesome hip-hop. I can't tell you every rapper or rap group that Lin-Manuel Miranda ever listened to, but I will guarantee you that he likes at least the Notorious BIG and Bone. If you love old school hip hop and you haven't at least listened to this soundtrack (and it's available for free on both Youtube and Spotify) you are DEAD WRONG. Seriously. Take a couple hours and listen through it. You'll love what you hear. Guns and Ships has some of the fastest rapping known to man. Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down) has some parts that are better lyrically than anything being made currently. If you like Biggie Smalls and you can listen to Ten Duel Commandments (or if you can even see the title) and not know what it was inspired by, then you're not really a fan. The cabinet battles are written in the style of classic battle raps, although they're obviously not true freestyles. Miranda has a future in hip hop if he ever decides he's made too much money from the theater and needs something else to occupy his time.


If, on the other hand, you're more of the show tunes, there's plenty here for you too. All of King George III's songs have a creepy stalker ex-boyfriend feel to them that made my skin crawl. The Schuler Sisters and Helpless are as good as anything I've heard from a womens' ensemble. The only thing that the show is missing is a true aria, but it's not like it needs it. There is plenty here to keep your mind occupied and music lovers will be amazed regardless.

My daughters have both been involved in dance for several years and would be much better placed to give a detailed breakdown of the dancing. Suffice it to say that it looked good to me. There was always someone doing something and it looked amazeballs. I just admitted that I don't know much about dance, but I was in marching band once upon a time and I know intricate choreography when I see it. This was it. The amount of work that it took to get that all blocked in (if that's what dancers call it. It's the marching band term.) and movement coordinated must have been grueling, but these were some true professionals that did it. I find myself in awe.

Of course, a good musical is more than the sum of its parts and that's where Hamilton truly excelled. I was enthralled from the moment the lights dimmed until the curtain call. I couldn't have gotten out of my chair and walked away even if I tried. Well, except for the intermission. Getting up then was good. After the lights came on I noticed that I had to pee and I was thirsty, but here's the thing: I hadn't realized that five seconds before they came on. I was that into the show. My daughter (it was her second time seeing it) had informed me that the second act was a little slower than the first but if it was, I didn't notice.

I'm a big, proud, strong, smart, rough, tough dude. I don't ever cry at movies or plays. Miranda wanted to change that fact, but I'm strong than that. Also, if my daughter had seen me cry I would've heard about it till my dying day. I therefore held it together. Barely. Listen folks, if you can follow a man like Hamilton through an entire show and watch him get married, fight a war, almost destroy his marriage, lose his son and negotiate the beginnings of the American Republic and not be effected by his death at the end of the show, you're not human. If you can watch Alexander and Eliza lose their son and not feel something, you're not a parent for sure and probably not a human being. My heart bled for these characters.

But there was humor too. Whether it was Thomas Jefferson  hamming it up for the cheers or anything George III did, there was plenty of laughter. The look on Washington's face at the begging of Cabinet Battle #2 is classic and I'll never forget it. It's not all doom and gloom. There's plenty of fun here as well.

And that's what I think makes Hamilton so special. I mean, I love the music and yes, it's the first major musical to feature hip hop. That alone would not have made it this popular. What makes it so awesome is Miranda's ability to tell a story.  Hamilton is the story of a life, with it's good and it's bad. Our hero goes through ups and downs. He makes some major mistakes and has to recover from them, at least until he catches a musket ball to the chest and loses his ability to do so permanently. Seriously. I know tickets to this thing are hard to get. I failed to get them twice and had to rely on winning the lottery on the last day the thing was in town to be able to go. The fact remains that thousands of people did get tickets. If you get a chance, go. There is a reason that this play won eleven Tonys.

Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Betsy Ross's Flags

Hamilton
Lin-Manuel Miranda
2015

Some Hamilton related items are available at the links below:

Chris Kennedy and James L. Young Present Those in Peril (The Phases of Mars Book 1)

Welcome to the third and final installment of this year's Memorial Day Event, Day Late/Dollar Short Edition. My apologies, but as a Lyft driver in Detroit during the Movement Music Festival weekend, I was wiped by the holiday and, seeing as I hadn't done my review ahead of time the way I had planned it out months ago, I ended up sleeping when I should have been writing. I assure you I hadn't intended for that to happen, but I also had slept an average of about four hours a night for three days in a row and, when I got home from a memorial service on Memorial Day I sat down for "just a minute" and woke up five minutes after I should have left for work. Oops.

At any rate...

Today's review (that should have happened yesterday) is Those in Peril, and anthology edited by Chris Kennedy and James L. Young. I did Chris's Bio on Sunday and I'm extremely lazy, so you can feel free to look there if you want to know more about him. If you haven't read it, you probably should. He's an impressive guy.

The other editor of the anthology is James L. Young. He served in the Army after completing his degree at West Point. He served from 1997 to 2003. He was an armor officer, attaining the captain at the end of his career and was the Executive Officer of the First Stryker Brigade (C 1/14). He says he was stationed in both Korea and Germany. I wonder if he got any cool electronics for cheap, being that close to Japan. I would have if it would've been me.

Oh, and just to take note, the following authors of stories in Those In Peril are veterans or currently serving:

Kacey Ezell (her bio is actually here) is active duty US Air Force.
Stephen J. Simmons is a veteran of the US Navy.
Joelle Presby is a US Navy Veteran.
Phillip Wolrab is a veteran of the US Army.
Doug Dandridge is a veteran of the US Army.
Philip S. Bolger is a veteran of the US Army.
Justin Watson is a veteran of the US Army and a West Point graduate.

If I missed anyone, it is because I didn't see a reference to your service in your bio and I didn't do any real research. If this happened it is totally my fault and I apologize.


So first, a few thoughts on Those in Peril as a whole: I really enjoyed it. Then again, it's an Alternate History anthology featuring navies and naval combat and I've loved Alt Hist since I was first introduced to the concept. With the exception of the first story, it appears to have been set up in chronological order. I loved that about it. There is no continuity per se as each story has a separate Point of Departure and they don't work as a continuous story. That's okay though, and it's a lot easier to follow a bunch of different stories if they're in a definable order and you can get your brain to follow things in a logical order, if that makes sense.

Anyone who follows this blog ought to know that I'm a big fan of the Dama. She's one of the main authors in the Four Horsemen Universe and I'm a member of the fan club.  So when Those in Peril opened with "Naked," a story by Kacey Ezell I got excited, especially since I really liked Minds of Men, the first book in her Pscyche of War series and this is a story set in the same universe. I was not disappointed. Psychic women and warfare go together like peas and carrots or Forrest and Jenny. I read this one twice just because I could.
her Pscyche of War series and this is a story set in the same universe. I was not disappointed. Psychic women and warfare go together like peas and carrots or Forrest and Jenny. I read this one twice just because I could.

Up next is "Captain Bellamy's War,"by Stephen J. Simmons. a story in which the English pirates in the Bahamas declare independence and found their own nation. You can't beat a story that includes the phrase "Admiral Blackbeard." It's just not physically possible. But...

But...

It's a short. It needs to be a novel.

I WANT THIS TO BE A NOVEL.

*POUT*

*SIGH*

I guess Mick Jagger was right.

I can't always get what I want.

*WHINE*

NOT FAIR!!!

Well...

If Stephen J. Simmons gets it written and published, I promise him one guaranteed sale.

After that, we get "A Safe Wartime Posting" by Joelle Presby. It's the story of a guy sent out to keep the president's nephew from getting himself in trouble and features a setting with the US and Germany allied in fighting World War I. I really enjoyed this one. I could totally see Woodrow Wilson pulling a stunt like this, too.

"Beatty's Folly" by Philip Wohlrahb is another story about the US fighting against the British during World War I. It features an angry Theodore Roosevelt and that's a concept that should be more than a little bit frightening. It's predicated on the fact that France assisted the South during the US Civil War and kept the fighting going until 1867. The US supports a rebellion in Ireland. Lots of stuff goes boom. It's a good time.

"Martha Coston and the Farragut Curse" by Day Al-Mohamed is the story of Martha Coston and her invention of signal flares. I like this story because it brings up a good point about naval warfare and history in general: It is often the usung person that saves the day. In this case, it's a woman who knows a lot of chemistry. It also helps that she's no one's fool and pays attention to what is going on around her. Hold on: Could I have enjoyed this story so much because I like sciency females? Nahh...

"The Blue and the Red: Palmerston's Ironclads" is another story about the English and Americans trying to kill each other on the water, only this time with a twist: The main character is a reporter who gets captured. I had fun  with this one. Often in military history and/or fiction we read about the bond between all warriors but something that nearly always gets left out is that people outside the military form bonds too. This is a story (at least in some ways) about the bond between reporters. It features plenty of fighting to keep your bloodlust sated too.

"Far Better to Dare" by Rob Howell is the US vs. Spain ala the Spanish and American War only later in history and with better technology. We get a view from the deck of an American battleship. I find it interesting as well that they Americans in the story are able to identify only the class of their enemies and not the exact ships. It's the type of thing I'd seen in Star Trek a million times but I hadn't considered that it would work that way in the real world. That's a good bit of added realism that was really cool.

"Off Long Island: 1928" by Doug Dandridge is the story of a British and American war set in the late 1920s and a particular battle contained therein. I like this story a lot, both for the action and because the author included a conversation at the beginning that really helped place this story in context of a war that never actually happened. I really wish that there was a novel to go with this one.

Ahoy! A new Sarah Hoyt novel has been sighted off the port bow! That has me excited because I'm a fan and it's been awhile. "For Want of a Pin" is the story of a young girl from Portugal (where Hoyt grew up) fleeing an invasion by France and headed to Brazil. It's more character driven than combat driven, but I've always liked that about Hoyt's writing and this story is no exception.

"Nothing Sufficient Can Be Said to Describe It" by Meriah Crawford is the story of a man and his Grandaughter conversing about a battle he has been researching. Maybe it's just the historian in me, or maybe I'm going soft in my old age, but I really enjoyed this one. This story really has an episodic feel to it because of the letters and the breaks between them. I enjoyed it.

"Corsairs and Tenzans" Philip S. Bolger is the story of the US and Japan united in Alliance against Nazi Germany. I find the concept of an "Oahu Pact" to be fascinating. This is another one I'd like to see turned into a novel. I don't really like Germany's chances in a naval war against either country, quite frankly, but it'd be fun to watch them get taken down. Yamamoto Isoroku having a conversation with Chester Nimitz gave me goosebumps.  Well done Bolger!

"For a Few Camels More" by Justin Watson is the story of a Japanese submarine and her crew doing mercenary work after the end of the Second World War. This one has plenty of suspense and intrigue to go along with some actual combat. I have a soft spot for mercenary stories to begin with but this is a good story because of more than just that.

NATO Capitalist Running Pig-Dogs versus the Soviet Red Menace! "Per Mare Per Terram" by Jan Niemczyk is a story of the fight I wanted as a kid. It is also the story of the fight I feared would come as a kid. I'm from Detroit and we were a major industrial target. The thought of extreme heat followed by a mushroom cloud was on that freaked me out from way before I was old enough to actually be thinking of any such thing. Niemczyk may have set his story a couple of decades later, but it still scratches that itch for me.

Reading the blurb after the story, I realized that this was part of a novel. I went to Amazon to buy said novel. Then I realized that it wasn't there because it's a web novel, so I clicked the link. I couldn't get access. Does anyone know how I can access this novel? I need to know how it ends.

Anyone who reads the blog knows that I'm a James Young fan. Stories like "Fate of the Falklands" are why. The Falklands War is not something that is well known by American audiences but it should be. The fight doesn't turn out the way you'd expect (I mean, it's alt hist right?) but this is a damn good story. I've read it twice. I'll probably read it again.

All in all I really enjoyed this anthology. There may have been a few more stories centered around a war between the US and UK than was technically necessary, but I think that's just me whining because it made the work harder to review. (Seriously, two stories about the US and UK fighting are easy to differentiate if you've read the whole story. They're not so easy to differentiate in a paragraph as part of a review. Hopefully I did a decent job.) That much having been said, it's still a great book that's worth your time and money. I'm really looking forward to To Slip the Surly Bonds, the next anthology in the series.

Bottom Line: 4.5 out of 5 Sixteen Inch Shells

Those in Peril (The Phases of Mars Book 1)
Chris Kennedy and James L Young ed.
Theogony Books, 2019

Those in Peril (The Phases of Mars Book 1) is available for purchase at the following link:

My apologies

To anyone looking for the Memorial Day post of my three part Memorial Day event:

Sorry.

I fell asleep after I went to a memorial this morning and was supposed to leave for work an hour ago. I'll get it tomorrow. I'm really embarrassed.