The Forbidden Thoughts Anthology

(Ok, so I've never reviewed an anthology before. This ought to be interesting. Wish me luck. Here I go!)

So it's Triggering Day. Whiny millennials are shitting their pants and cuddling their blankies all over the United States (and maybe even the world) and I felt like writing a book review. There are a bunch of books on my phone, a paper books in my room, a bunch more on my Nook and a library down the street but only one seems to fit on a day like today. The Forbidden Thoughts anthology seems to be the only fitting book to review on a day like today. Seriously. There is literally (and no, I don't mean "figuratively" I literally mean literally) no better SF/F book to review on the day Trump gets inaugurated than the one with an introduction by Milo Yiannopoulos. Milo was his biggest celebrity endorser right? And, of course, Trump IS the candidate who said all they things we're not allowed to say, so Forbidden Thoughts on Inauguration Day it is.

The book starts with the aforementioned introduction by Milo and I have to say something here. Milo comes out with ideas for a number of stories. This irks me to no end. Hey Milo, here's a suggestion. If you want to see a particular story idea come to life WRITE THE DAMN THING!! Bro, you write like a champion. I'm not the world's biggest Breitbart fan but I've read some of your stuff. So just do us all a favor: Bring Milo's take on fiction into the world for all to see. It'll sell. You'll make money. We'll all enjoy it. And hey, the Left won't let you speak. They'd rather riot than allow someone with a different belief system appear in public. You've got time to write fiction when your appearances get cancelled. He does bring up some interesting points about the state of science fiction and fantasy as well. I'm really not doing him justice here. It annoyed me though.

Following the introduction is a "The Razor Blade of Approval" by Ben Zwycky. I won't spend much time here. It's a decent poem but it's rather short and I'm not really a poetry guy. It get its point across and it's like maybe three hundred words long. I'm not really sure how to review something that short.

"Safe Space Suit" is the next story. It brings up a point that would surely get Nick Cole branded as a horrible person by the left if he hadn't been branded as such already after he published CTRL, ALT Revolt! Cole tells a thoroughly entertaining tale from the point of view of a mission commander who just killed his crew by putting the wrong person in charge of piloting a spacecraft because REPRESENTATION!!!! Watching this guy sweat as his career falls apart around him is epic and also does a lot to highlight the way SJWs eat their own when the mood strikes. I enjoyed this one a lot. Cole creates wonderful characters and this is one story that definitely did not disappoint in that regard.

The spacesuit in "Safe Space Suit"is also a treat as it likes to whisper politically correct sweet nothings in you ear while you're in trouble and possibly dying. It's like a constant hashtag stream read out loud to characters in need of emotional support liberal style. I was laughing my ass off.

"Auto America" is the story of a man who gets stopped by a malfunctioning police robot on the way to work. You can feel the MC's frustration at dealing with a situation that he shouldn't have to. This one is really short, but it's a treat.

"A Place for Everyone" shows the folly of "balanced representation" while simultaneously highlighting government corruption. It's as awesome as it is funny... and frustrating. The ending is epic. Seriously. This one was worth the price of the anthology all by itself.


Up next was "The Code". This one was every bit as horrifying as anything else I've seen. Laws have been passed that regulate contact on a date to the point where a man has to speak a specific script to his date (and have her agree in another script) to avoid rape charges if he accidentally touches her. Women abound who love to trap man into touching them before they agree just so to see the men hauled off by the police. Our hero spends his date sweating about what's going to happen to him. The amount of tension Matthew Ward manages to build in a story this short is staggering. Kudos to him.

What happens when history has "progressed" to the point where the truth can be hidden? What happens when everyone is forced to hide their own chosen "genders" because it might offend someone else by causing them to consider their own? Oh, and what happens when a weapon wielding barbarian wanders into town to read the true history? That's a good question. Joshua Young answers it in "History of the World Gone By."  He does a damn good job too.

"The Social Construct" is the story of a child that was created as a toy and had several sex changes to suit the tastes of his parents. It makes sense, right? Change the plumbing, raise the kid to be an >insert gender here< and you're all set. If you change your mind while the child is still a baby just change the environment and the gender will change, right? It's an interesting question and given the fact that there are already cases of people getting sex changes for their young children it's topical. It's also a horrifying look into a possible future. Read at your own risk. You'll enjoy the story, but you might feel a little twitchy afterward. I know I did.

Have you heard of Post Birth Abortion? A.M. Freeman has and, in "At the Edge of Detachment" she spins a tale of an injured child who isn't sure if he'll see tomorrow because he's an inconvenience to his mother and she can legally have him euthanized since he hasn't reached the age of thirteen, at which he would be considered an actual human being with rights. PBA has seriously been suggested by a pair of bio-ethicists. They claim they weren't really trying to propose an actual law to allow this when they suggested it. That may or may not be true. What is true is that I was late getting back to my lunch at work because I couldn't put this story down. Speaking of may or not be true; there are unconfirmed reports that someone put "The Social Construct" and "At the Edge of Detachment" did it deliberately to cause nightmares. Granted, they're mainly unconfirmed because I just made them up, but that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Up next is "A History of Sad Puppies" by Larry Correia and "Whence Puppydom?" by Brad Torgersen. They create a break from the fiction and give us a chance to read some of Larry Correia's blog posts. The guy is an epic blogger, so if you can only read one blog, read mine. But if you can only read two blogs read his...right after you read mine. Torgersen's addition is a reaction to the No Awarding of several categories.

Ray Blank follows this and his "If You Were a Hamburger My Love" had me in stitches. I was once ordered to read If You Were a Dinosaur My Love for penance after a misstep in a Facebook group I am part of and it was terrible. Blank's parody is actually entertaining though, mainly because Dinosaur was not. Some lighthearted fun was precisely what was needed at this point.


"Imagine" is a story based on the song of the same title by John Lennon and the Left's current attitude toward Christianity. I've read a bunch of these types of stories lately and they all register as eerie and way too possible. Pierce Oka does a good job with this one.

"Graduation Day" is the story of a man who is watching his daughter by sperm donation graduate and get her job assignment. It turns out that he has also been charged with raping her mother by impregnating her - with sperm that have been donated to a sperm bank- without asking her permission first. This one was well written but seemed just a bit too "out there" for me.  I couldn't quite suspend disbelief far enough to overcome the reaction that a woman would press charges for rape over sperm she had paid for. YMMV.

Speaking of Brad Torgersen his story comes next. "Hymns of the Mothers" is chilling and haunting. It's an awesome story though and someone very dear to me points out that there needs to be a follow up novel to this. She's right. (Don't tell her I admitted that in public. There is no reason to give her a swelled head.) In a world where lytes (women) hate and use trogs (men) for reproductive purposes and heavy lifting one lyte finds herself interested in a trog as a *GASP* actual person. She also finds out where babies come from and what lytes and trogs do when they think no one is watching. So here's the deal if you read this Mr Torgersen: Write the book. I'll guarantee you that I'll buy two copies; one for me and one for her. See! You're practically rich already!

John C Wright's "By His Cockle Hat and Staff" is epic but it's TOO DAMN SHORT. Ok, I'll grant you that it's one of the longer entries of the anthology but this is too good of a story with too rich of an environment and too much backstory to be confined to a short. Seriously. This one story could easily have been a novel. There is potential here for a never ending series of books. The story itself is about a society of leftists who discover alternate timelines and decide to turn all other timelines into their own perfect version of history. Seriously, take this idea and these two characters fighting against it and the battles would be awesome dipped in awesome sauce on a stick. And yes, I know it's a story in an anthology and he was probably limited as to how much space he could take up but dammit, it's my bloggie and I'll whine if I want to.

Tom Kratman's "The Rules of Racism" came next. It's not a story. It's not entertainment. It should be required reading for anyone who wants to talk racial politics in the United States in the twenty-first century. 'Nuff said.

"World Ablaze" by Jane Lebak explores a world where being a Christian can get a person in trouble with the law and showing Christian charity is a good way to give yourself away to the police. A world where Bishops have to take their oaths of service in dark alleys and some Christians are sick of it. They want to fight. Their elders aren't so sure. Since it's possible to put patterns of saints onto the brains of believers, should they use peacemakers or militants? There are some interesting questions here and the story is very entertaining.

"Amazon Gambit" by Vox Day is the story of an all female military unit forced to fight on a low tech world using low tech weapons. The method they use to accomplish their mission is every bit as inventive as it would be offensive to the left. Awesome job here. Oh, and just because I can... VOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Elegy for the Locust" is the ultimate in identity politics. Our "hero" has a personality transfer with a rich man and assumes his privilege. Merely being poor is enough to justify kidnapping and massive theft. I really didn't get into this one as much as some of the others.

"Test of the Prophet" by L. Jagi Lamplighter explores the reasons behind Radical Islamic Terrorism from a fantasy/metaphysical perspective. Oddly enough, it's one that both Christians and Muslims could get behind. Her solution though...ummm...yeah. It makes sense to me, but I'm a Christian. The main character's character arc is pretty awesome as well. This is probably the best story in the entire anthology.

Sarah Hoyt had the final entry. "Flight to Egypt" is the story of a couple that wants to emigrate from Earth to Mars and the problems it causes. It takes a good look at racism, perceived racism and the way things work in human hearts and minds. The struggle is real for this couple and their child. Good stuff.

Some quick thoughts about Forbidden Thoughts overall: This is an all star lineup. I really enjoyed getting a chance to read so many of my favorite authors in one volume. The additional authors were awesome as well and really were additions to the book. The addition of a bit of nonfiction added to the work as well, giving a break when necessary to let the emotions catch up to where I was in the book. It was a good time and a good investment. There is one issue with FT though.

Granted, I know this was the point of Forbidden Thoughts, but there is a lot of message fiction here. It's pretty hamfisted in most cases. I didn't mind it because I agreed with it but exposure to this book may cause cranial explosions in Leftists. I approve. I'd actually like to see a few lefties read Forbidden Thoughts because there is a chance, however slight, that one might actually have the self awareness to finally realize why we hate all of their message fiction. Really.

Bottom Line: 4.5 out of 5 Offended Liberals.

Forbidden Thoughts
Milo Yiannopoulos et al
Superversive Press, 2017

Forbidden Thoughts is available at the link below:

Science Fiction, the Seldon Plan, The Mule and American Politics

 (WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!! Well, sort of. I mean, the most recent of the books I'm talking about was published over twenty years ago and the oldest was published over seventy years ago, but there's some stuff in here from the books that you won't know about if you haven't read them.)

I'm not sure why, but Isaac Asimov seems to be the least respected of the grandmasters of science fiction. He's been one of my favorite writers since I picked up a used copy of Foundation and Earth at a rummage sale in the gym of a local high school. The gentleman who sold it to me warned me that it was heavy reading. Easy for him to say. It wasn't his budget that had to expand to try to get the Foundation series or the Robots series. I enjoyed FAE for what it was but it took a lot of reading other things to make it make sense in many ways. I'll never get why a man that could conceive a world so rich in history (granted, all of it made up) with characters so vibrant wasn't seen as a master. I think I get it now though.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that knows me that most of the people I talk books with are conservative. I have to wonder if the opinions of Asimov are less based on his writing and more on his political leanings. It makes sense that a rightist would be a little annoyed by ideas he didn't agree with. We're not leftists who want to ban everything we disagree with as "hate speech" but some things are out of our comfort zone. They're just not as entertaining to us. Probably the biggest reason I love Asimov when a lot of others like me don't is because I read the books before I was really old enough to make the comparisons a lot of others make. I was eleven or twelve when I got the first one and not much older when I'd worked my way through all of them. I see what they think now, but I'll always remember the joy of reading through those books the first time. Somewhere out there, someone isn't getting this. Let me break it down a bit.

The Foundation in the novels was a product of Hari Seldon and his science of Psychohistory. Seldon, and those who came after him, were the shapers and molders of all of human history from that point on. Their purpose was a better life for all humanity. This was to be achieved by following "The Seldon Plan." The plan adapted to changes in humanity but at the end of the day it was all about following the teachings of one man and his scientific model of humanity. There's more to it overall, the idea filled several novels, but that's it in a nutshell.

The Seldon Plan then, is essentially Marxism writ on a galactic scale. It is the so-called "scientific" way of achieving utopia for all humanity. A way of managing all people so that the greatest outcome is achieved for everyone. A goal worth striving for regardless of the cost because it will benefit all in the end. It is a philosophy of trusting the government to solve all of society's problems, Yes, Asimov was a Marxist and so was Seldon. I have to wonder how many modern-day social scientists, politicians and historians have read his work. I really do.

Part of what irks so many conservatives about  Asimov's work is the (unspoken in the books) assumption that there are right and wrong sides of history. To the left, their march to triumph is inevitable. All who oppose it are evil and will be crushed underfoot. History will remember anyone who spoke out against them as racist, evil Capitalists. Anyone who does not conform will be left behind on the ash heap of history and reviled throughout eternity by all right thinking people and, after the triumph of the Left, all will agree what proper thought is. In the books, no one seriously opposes the plan. The whole galaxy lines up behind Seldon and his Foundation and marches forward into the future fighting to maintain his plan. Well, until the Mule shows up and ruins everything anyway.

The Mule, you see, is from outside the system. What's worse, he stands in opposition to it. He has powers of mind control that he uses to cause others to deviate from the plan. He causes the entire Seldon Plan to begin unraveling. Everything begins to come apart at the seams. Human civilization goes completely off the rails and misses a war they were supposed to fight to correct some problems in their society. The people only find this out because of a recording left by Hari Seldon that details what was supposed to happen. The world is saved through the romantic tendencies of Arkady Darell and her love of intrigue, along with some help from a few others who follow her advice. Here's the thing though: To the Left, Trump is the Mule and they don't have an Arkady Darell lined up to save things after Trump destroys "progress."

Looked at from this point of view it's no wonder that they're all crapping their pants. Trump represents the abolition of all they hold dear, the upset of all of their plans. They've gone from a black president back to a Straight White Male who is also a CAPITALIST!!! The chosen one was not anointed  president. We've moved backwards. The Plan is off the rails and we're all headed for destruction. Doom and destruction are assured if we step off the path that was laid out for us by Karl Marx. The world is ending. Trumps evil mind-control rays made us all racist and misogynist and probably some other kind of -ist as well.  I guess they could be right, but let's just say I'm not convinced.

I didn't support Trump. I told everyone I knew that I was going to lose my shit regardless of which asshole won the election. I delivered. I've voted in every election I've been eligible to vote in since the day I turned eighteen. I voted for myself in 2012, not because I thought I'd make a GOOD president but because I thought I'd make a better president than either one of the candidates that year. Having said that, I'd still vote for Romney before I'd vote for Trump or Clinton.  At the end of the day though, Trump will be the president come Friday and I'll give him a chance even if I do expect him to blow it. The only really qualification Trump has shown so far is an ability to talk shit. We'll see if there's anything underneath.

For what it's worth though, I don't think Trump is The Mule. I never subscribed to the Seldon Plan but I don't think he is deliberately out to destroy anything or to become a dictator. He has enough money that he could have bought himself and island and ruled it if that's what he wanted. I'm not convinced he'll be a good president but I don't see him as the next Obama or Carter so he probably won't be the worst. We'll see. In the meantime I'll be watching them all freak out endlessly. It's going to be a fun four years watching them, even if Trump is as bad as I think he'll be.



Some Foundation books are available at the links below:

Nick Cole's CTRL, ALT Revolt!

Once upon a time your friendly neighborhood blogmaster was not really a near future Science Fiction fan. I lived my alternate lives in universes either full of starships and proton torpedoes or mages and goblins. With a couple of exceptions (Robotech and Shadowrun are the only ones that come to mind) the nearest future I wanted to talk about started in 2265 and was filled with guys named Kirk, Spock and McCoy. I spent my time on Arrakis and in Middle Earth. If I wanted to know what happened on little old Earth, I read about it in history class or the history section at the book store. The near future? Who cared? But then something weird happened: I started a blog and people started sending me near future SF.

I quickly learned that some of the best SF is near term. It's also some of the most believable. Humanoid robots with a grudge attempting to wipe out the entire human race can be scary. A knight with a spear on the battlements waiting for a female dragon rider to show up and kill him will stick with you for the rest of your life. The stuff that really makes a guy like me twitch though? It's the fantastic story that's just far enough in the future that we haven't quite gotten to the technology yet and close enough that I might live to see it.

Sure, I'd love to see Alpha Orions IV up close and personal. That would be a dream come true. I am an online gamer though. I know people who spend real world money on in game merchandise. I know others who use real world money to buy tokens that they sell to others for in game money. Why does that matter? Because we're moving closer to the world as it appears in Nick Cole's Dragon Award winning CTRL, ALT Revolt! This one has had me up a few nights already.

The premise of the story is a bit complicated, but I'll try to describe it: There is a reality TV show. It's not called The Bachelorette, but that's what it is. During the last episode, a self-aware supercomputer watches as the bachelorette decides to abort a child she conceived during taping. It surmises that a species that could so easily kill one of its own young as an inconvenience could easily destroy it. The computer does what it thinks it needs to: It sets out to destroy humanity as a form of self protection. Insanity ensues.

I don't want to give too much away. I'm almost bothered by what I've give away already. That's not my style. I err... don't know how to get around giving up at least a little bit more though. I'll do what I can and try to avoid overt spoilers, but really, so much of what made this book good has to do with the way Cole wove the story together. The review just won't work otherwise. So. Semi spoilerish things alert! Proceed at your own risk!

The amazing part about this book is how it goes back and forth between cyberspace and meat-space. Money is now comprised of "make-coins" spendable both in cyberspace and for things like rent, food and clothing in the real world. There are professional gamers in the real world now, but this is something different. Professional gamers in 2016 make money from streaming and advertising, or from corporate sponsorships. In CTRL ALT Revolt! the "make coins" are as real as real gets. Let's put it this way: I play World of Warcraft. I'm not sure how much gold I have for sure but I'd ballpark it between three hundred thousand and half a million. That gold is worthless outside of the game. There are even some in-game perks that it won't purchase. If those were make coins I'd buy myself a house and a car with no loans and have enough left over for a vacation with the kids, followed by one with my girlfriend.

Along the same lines, information is of huge value and is available both on- and off- line. Much of the fighting in CAR (and there is a metric buttload of it) takes place online. Much of it takes place offline. The online combat is meant to obtain information and spread a virus that will effect the real world. Some of the people online don't even know why they're fighting, they just know THAT they're fighting. It gets a little wild, but that's where the fun comes from. Of course the Artificial Intelligence wants access to information that is contained in a computer that is not connected to the internet.. and things spiral out of control.

I've seen some gaming related titles before but this thing takes the cake. The two worlds are so tightly woven together that sometimes you wonder if the characters can tell them apart. When one of the characters is leading a fight against a much more powerful adversary in an online game to make money to buy things she can use in meatspace and her opponent is an actor in an online gaming/streaming drama...well... damn. It's well done but the lines are effectively blurred here. It flashes back and forth so quickly and I got so wrapped up in it...wow. I mean that. Wow.

The characters in CAR are believable and awesome. Cole plays with some archetypes here and a few of his most important characters are not really leading character type. The socially awkward nerd that leads a starship crew ends up in the thick of the fight to save the world. The game designer who never goes out fights on the same side, completely unaware of her. The corporate leader is not the evil genius, he's the one preserving the information the world needs to beat the AI. The list gets longer. A lot of thought went into these characters and it shows.

This is a blog that has never shied away from mentioning political content and I'm not going to start now. CTRL, ALT Revolt! is heavy on political content and it's not just in the first chapter. There is political content throughout the work. If I caught the heavily conservative bent of this book as a die-hard conservative there's no way any liberal that reads this could hope to avoid it. The idea that a computer can feel threatened by abortion is one that any liberal is going to have problems with and that's just the beginning. Nick Cole has publicly stated that he had a contract to publish this book and that his publisher cancelled it because of this anti-abortion stance. I wasn't there so I can't speak to what actually happened but I have to wonder if that was a totally accurate statement. Most publishing houses are run by liberals so I have no doubt that his premise offensive. I just wonder if that's the only thing the publisher had a problem with. I was trained to read for an agenda as part of my degree so it may not be as obvious to other conservatives but I couldn't miss it. That's really the only problematic part of the book and it increased my enjoyment rather than diminishing it.

Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Make Coins. This book deserved the Dragon Award. That's why I voted to give it one.

CTRL, ALT Revolt!
Nick Cole
Castalia House, 2016

CTRL, ALT Revolt! is available for purchase at the link below:

Marina Fontaine's Chasing Freedom

(First off, my apologies to many people. I haven't really been myself lately and my reading/reviewing has been effected. My only excuse is that I had a roommate that kept up at night like a newborn baby and I couldn't concentrate hard enough to read or write. Follow that up with a thousand mile move, a job search, trying to learn a new job in a field I'm almost totally unfamiliar with and a reunion with my young children that  hadn't seen in more than a year and well... It happens. The good news is that I have sufficiently put my brain back together enough to be able to read more that two or three pages at a time. If you're reading this and I owe you a review IT IS COMING. Life has just been crazy lately. I apologize. Now, on with the review.)

America as we know it is dead. All of our freedoms, from the freedom to worship to the freedom to own guns and even the right to eat what we want have been taken from us. People have been forced to live in cities for "environmentalist" reasons. America is a place where cell phone time is rationed and children born with birth defects are immediately put death. Well, at least in Marina Fontaine's Chasing Freedom it is. The crazy part of the story is that it all seems so possible.

The story here, though, is not one of downtrodden people with a boot on their neck sitting quietly. There is a reason Fontaine has work published by Superversive Press.  This is the story of a fight from the shadows against an unforgiving government. It is a story of cyber warfare and sometimes outright violence. It is the story of people fighting the only way they can against a government that has them outnumbered and outgunned. It is, in its way, the story of the plucky underdog. It is also a story of sacrificing safety and wealth for freedom. Chasing Freedom also asks a question that pops up again and again in literature and in history: Was it all worth it? I won't reveal Fontaine's answer, but at the end of the day, I agree with it.

It's easy to see why Chasing Freedom was nominated for a Dragon Award for Best Apocalyptic Novel. It really moves. The characters live and breathe. I couldn't put this thing down. I read it in a day and was left wanting more. That's not to say that the ending wasn't satisfying. It was. It also made sense and was realistic which is something you don't often see in fiction anymore. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed Fontaine's work.

You know that whole "Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental" disclaimer that comes at the front of most works of fiction? It's there, right on page three. I just quoted it directly out of the book. I am totally not rude enough to up and call bullshit here. Nor will I make comparisons between the self-righteous absolutist attitudes expressed by politicians like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton because then I might be tempted to point out the possibility that such things had been intentionally included and I am far too polite to ever utter such a sentiment. Of course, if someone else were to read the book and make such statements I would probably find myself unable to manufacture an argument to dispute them with, but such is life.

The characters in Chasing Freedom are amazingly well done and believable. From fighting a war, to falling in love, to having children they do what most people do. The leaders of the movement understand their roles and do what they must but never quite feel right in the role. The role players play their roles. Pretty much anyone involved in the movement suffers, some worse than others. Fontaine's cast is made up of not just characters but people. Seriously. If only he existed, I would totally sit down with Randy over a beer. Well, if I could get him away from Julie (his wife) for long enough I would.

The part that I enjoyed most about the book is not its dystopian setting, but the hope and resolve of the characters. They're face with a world where it would be easiest to go along to get along. The United States of Chasing Freedom is not the type of place to engender hope for a brighter future. The fact remains that they do. They don't give up. Nothing stops them and the horrors just pile up. Julie and Randy are forced to leave their oldest child to be raised by someone else to protect him. Another character loses a hand. KGB style torture is in common use by the US government and some break, but most don't. Friends die. Bases are destroyed. The fight continues. The characters in the work are people we could all learn a lesson from.

Fontaine's villains have motivations that, from their point of view, make sense even if, from my point of view, they don't excuse their actions. A man that participates in torture in order to provide a good living for his family is not someone I'd hang out with on a Saturday night. That much being said, men have always done whatever they needed to do to get by and torture and murder are not exceptions, even if they are despicable. The key to writing believable villains is, in my mind, providing them with not just an evil act to commit but an understandable reason for doing so. Fontaine nails it. I can somewhat sympathize with one particular villain while still considering his actions to be deplorable. It may be possible to write a villain better than that. If so, I have yet to see it happen.

I do have one complaint about the tome. We see a lot of government agents at the sharp end of the stick, but almost none at the top. Something I've always enjoyed in fiction is the Big Bad. The concept is not totally missing from CF but is really underdeveloped. The president is (appropriately) set up as the over-arching nemesis but has no "screen time" that I remember. She's just kind of out there somewhere fuming offscreen and appointing evil people. Nor do we get to spend much time with the members of the cabinet that coordinate the battle against the good guys. This is far from a fatal flaw but it does irk me just a bit. Having stated that I really did love the book. Oh, and I just bought an e-copy even though one was given to me for free. I will undoubtedly read it again at some point so it's worth it. It really is that good.

Bottom Line: 4.5 out of 5 exploding flash drives


Chasing Freedom
Marina Fontaine
Self Published, 2015

Chasing Freedom is available at the link below:

Again 2016? Really?

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a Star Wars fan. I have been for over thirty years now. I've been enthralled ever since that magical moment in 1983 when I sat in a darkened theater with my mom and watched the words start scrolling up the screen. Seriously. That experience has stuck with me ever since. Some of you get it. The rest of you never will and that's okay.

Those of you who do get it will understand my attachment to both the characters in the movies and the actors that played them. Some of you may have even read the Star Wars Expanded Universe books and pictured the characters in the books as looking like the actors from the movies. Remember when Han and Leia got married and had a bunch of kids that rescued their Uncle Luke from the Dark Side? I do and in the books as in the movies, Princess Leia looked a lot like Carrie Fisher.

So I got a bit worried when I heard that Carrie Fisher had a heart attack Saturday night. We nerdish types have lost far too many of our heroes this year and I didn't want to lose another one. Sunday brought news that Carrie was stable and resting and I was extremely relieved. It wasn't about Episodes Eight or Nine. Carrie and her cast mates are a part of my childhood and dammit, she's only sixty. Was only sixty anyway.

So now, Carrie Fisher and Kenny Baker are together again at that big starship in the sky and it sucks. It was bad enough as a fan of ST:TOS when we lost so many of our idols, but Star Wars is ten years younger and Carrie Fisher was barely out of her teens when the films were made so we were going to have her for awhile right? I guess not.

Carrie Fisher was a pretty big part of my life in another way as well. At some point in the dim, dark, distant past I started noticing that girls looked different than boys and that the differences were interesting. It was at about that time that I got the first three movies on VHS and noticed that "Oh wow, Princess Leia is HOT!" I instantly had a crush that lasted for quite awhile. It was my first celebrity crush. According to some interviews I've seen featuring Miss Fisher it wasn't the only one either.

I've always had a love of strong female characters in both literature and film and I'm pretty sure it starts with Princess Leia. She may have been the subject of a rescue attempt but she sure as hell saved both Han and Luke when the Stormtroopers were after them. Then she ran the Rebel Alliance as General Organa. Along the way she married some idiot smuggler, but don't blame me for that. She was, and is, one of the baddest asses in the history of all Science Fiction. She always will be.

Carrie Fisher did more than just Star Wars, although most of her other work was off screen. She did a lot as a writer as well. I can't help but feel a kinship with her for that as well. I write fiction myself and, while the fact that she saw some of her work produced would indicate that she was better at it than I was, I identify with that. The nights in front of the keyboard aren't glamorous or exciting the way being a Hollywood star is, but they're meaningful and rewarding in a different way. She got that the way only a writer can.

I've seen some people claiming that Carrie Fisher was a hero. I've seen others that claim that she wasn't. My take falls more along the "not" category. Was Princess Leia a badass before it was common for female characters to be badasses? Sure, but Carrie didn't write the movie, she played the character. She did a damn good job and she left a huge impression but no, I don't consider her a hero. Heroes run into burning buildings to save lives. They risk their lives to take criminals off the street and fight wars. She was what she was: An amazingly successful woman who played an iconic role in one of my favorite movie franchises. She also played in many other roles but that's the one most of us will always remember her for.

It's weird to think about how hard some of the celebrity deaths we've experienced this year have hit me. I don't usually react to this kind of thing, but damn.  It's been one after another this year. So many of them have been from things that I loved. Whether you're a Trek fan or a Wars fan (or both, we do exist) it's been a rough year. I'm ready for this to be over.

I remember looking for a picture from Star Trek III when Leonard Nimoy passed. It had the four remaining bridge crew members taking a drink together. I wished them well since they are the only ones we have left. It occurs to me now that we've lost Carrie Fisher that all we've got left are Mark Hamill, James Earl Jones and Harrison Ford. Granted, it was a smaller cast to begin with but Harrison Ford and James Earl Jones are both much older than Carrie Fisher was. It's kind of scary.

It's weird too because this one has me feeling my age. It seems like it wasn't that long ago that I'd flip on the news or open the newspaper and find out that some actor I was too young to be a fan of had passed. Seriously. I'd see a person on the news and someone would say, "You're too young to remember them but they were in.." and I'd be like, "Oh, okay." Try that now. Carrie Fisher, Alan Rickman, Kenny Baker, Prince, Anton FREAKING Yelchin (I have over a decade on him), etc., etc., etc. I'm too young for this shit.

I guess I'll just stop whining and be glad we've still got who we do. I'll say a prayer tonight that we don't lose anymore this year, but I won't bet on it. 2016 is the year that refuses to die and it's going to take down as many of our favorites as it can get.

Some Princess Leia related products are available at the link below:

Not Another One...and NOT That One

NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO ,NO ,NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO ,NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO

And in related news...

NO

Forgive me everyone, I'm a little ticked off at this year and what just happened. Let me tell you all a story. It's a true one as it just so happens and it's near and dear to my heart. Once upon a time, in the long ago year of 1983, a young boy went to see a movie with his mother. It wasn't just any movie. It was a classic and the last of a trilogy of iconic movies. It was called Return of the Jedi and it, along with more Star Trek: The Original Series than was probably healthy at that age, began what added up to a lifetime of Science Fiction fandom. Fast forward a few years. 

That same boy grew up to become a man with a child of his own.  The world's most beautiful little girl sat on his lap. She looked back at him, "I love Star Wars Dada," she said "I like R2D2. He's so funny." She laughed and he kissed her on the back of her head and thought back to a funny moment of his own. Sitting in that movie theater with his mother and laughing as the guy in the row in front of them walked out, disgusted by the appearance of Jabba the Hutt. Funny moment and good times, all courtesy of one of the greatest film trilogies (and later franchises) ever. 

A lot of icons came out of that movie. We all know lightsabers, X-wing fighters, TIE fighters, the Death Star, Luke, Leia, Han, Darth Vader, etc. But really, what was the biggest icon to come out of Star Wars? R2D2. Stop laughing. I'm serious. Think about it.

When the Star Wars book and record sets were released, it was an R2D2 clip that told you to turn the page. When you buy the Star Wars Trivial Pursuit game (the first one at least) it came with an R2D2 random number generator instead of a die. There are two characters that have been in every Star Wars movie: R2D2 and C3PO but it wasn't Threepio that carried the message. It has been R2 that the entire galaxy has relied upon twice to get the information about the enemy base/ship to where it needed to be. I've read a fan theory somewhere that the entire Star Wars movie franchise is told through the eyes of R2D2. He has been the biggest character in one of the biggest franchise in movie history. And now the actor who played him is gone.

For those wondering, the boy/man in the story was yours truly. Star Wars really does go back that far for me (yes, I missed the first two theatrical releases. I was born in 1976. This time it's not my fault.) I really have watched it with my daughters and my Riley really did speak those exact words. My life would have worse without Star Wars. One of the things I like about my ex-wife when I first met her was that she was a Wars fan. Without Wars I may not even have a child. That too is a true story, even if I did the computer room in fantasy instead of Star Wars like I was instructed. Oh well.

I guess I just can't get used to this. As a Star Trek fan I've lost quite a few of the people I grew up with. DeForrest Kelley was the first. Jimmy Doohan is gone. Leonard Nimoy got his own post here last year. When I think about it it makes me want to vomit. 

Wars is a different animal though. Granted, we lost Alec Guinness in 2000 but we've still got the rest of the main characters from the original trilogy. Christ, they're all still acting in the new movies. Well, maybe not Harrison Ford, but it's SF so who knows. They never found the body after all. But that's a different subject for a different post.

The bottom line is that we lost Kenny Baker today. The guy who made my daughter laugh. The guy who made me cheer. The guy who made one of cinema's most revered characters come alive. The guy who was with us through it all. He got our heroes out of the Death Star and got the ship working on the escape from Naboo. The memories could go on. 

I've read a lot about him today. His family has spoken about how ill he was. They've talked of how he was told that he probably wouldn't survive past puberty. How he defied all the odds and made it to the top despite what the world told him he could achieve. What a scrapper.  It's easy to give up but he didn't. Just like his character.

Kenny Baker was three feet eight inches tall. My five year old daughter is taller than that. There weren't many people who could have fit into the R2D2 outfit. It's weird though, because the shadow cast by that man has to be at least five hundred times that. The world will long remember the Star Wars movies. I'm going out a limb to say this but someday these films will be remembered the way a lot of literature is. I won't go so far as to compare George Lucas to William Shakespeare, but Lucas's stories are just as topical and far easier to understand. Kenny Baker was in all of them. 

The world changed today. Some people won't acknowledge that fact and I'm okay with that. Those that laugh and mock us will have a field day with this one and I'll shrug it off because I always do. Those that don't understand can't understand and that's not going to change. There's no point in wishing otherwise. We get it though. 

So lift a glass tonight in a toast to one of the greatest actors you've never seen. Tell the world what a great time you've had watching Kenny Baker and what he meant to you. It's different for all of us. It's also the same for all of us. It's just weird. But remember this: I meant it when I said no.

 Kenny Baker is NOT dead. He may not be able to hug his family the way he used to. He may not be able to act in the forthcoming movies. There are a lot of things he can no longer do. But the Star Wars franchise lives. R2D2 lives. And as long as they do, Kenny Baker will live. It's our job to keep it that way.

Some R2D2 related products are listed below:

The Dragon Awards

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!!

Or sumfin'

Listen guys. I've been over this before. The Hugos are not a fan award. They are an award given out by publishing insiders. That's all there is to it. They have no interest in the opinions of actual fandom or anyone under the age of sixty. Oh sure, they'll take your money but try to vote against established groupthink and you're done for. Try it. We did last year and they No Awarded half the damn categories because we didn't nominated who they wanted. That's seriously what that whole kerfuffle was about. Well, at least up until they passed out wooden assholes at the award ceremony to let everyone know what they think of us. But hey, I've been called worse, believe me. This year I expect them to lose their collective shit once again. We'll see if there will even be a Hugo Award going forward. There may be. Tor is doing its best to make sure that the Hugo survives and becomes a house award. Good luck to them I guess. But that's not why I'm posting. This is actually a celebratory post. Wanna know why? Good, I'll tell you.

Dragoncon is making an attempt at actual fan-driven awards. All you have to do is vote to register. I'll be voting tonight. I know I've received my ballot via email. Here is the complete ballot:


1. Best Science Fiction Novel
Raising Caine by Charles E. Gannon
Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie
Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
Agent of the Imperium by Marc Miller
Somewhither: A Tale of the Unwitheriing Realm by John C. Wright
The Life Engineered by J-F Dubeau

2. Best Fantasy Novel (Including Paranormal)
Son of the Black Sword by Larry Correia
Asteroid Made of Dragons by G. Derek Adams
Blood Hound by James Osiris Baldwin
Changeling’s Island by Dave Freer
Grave Measures by R.R. Virdi
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher

3. Best Young Adult / Middle Grade Novel
Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
Calamity by Brandon Sanderson
Updraft by Fran Wilde
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Trix and the Faerie Queen by Alethea Kontis
Steeplejack by A.J. Hartley
Changeling’s Island by Dave Freer
The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett

4. Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel
Allies and Enemies: Fallen by Amy J. Murphy
The Price of Valor by Django Wexler
Blood in the Water by Taylor Anderson
Chains of Command by Marko Kloos
The End of All Things by John Scalzi
Wrath of an Angry God: A Military Space Opera by Gibson Michaels
Hell's Foundations Quiver by David Weber

5. Best Alternate History Novel
1636: The Cardinal Virtues by Eric Flint & Walter H. Hunt
Bombs Away: The Hot War by Harry Turtledove
Deadlands: Ghostwalkers by Jonathan Maberry
1635: A Parcel of Rogues by Eric Flint & Andrew Dennis
League of Dragons by Naomi Novik
Germanica by Robert Conroy

6. Best Apocalyptic Novel
The Desert and the Blade by S.M. Stirling
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
A Time to Die by Mark Wandrey
Dark Age by Felix O. Hartmann
Ctrl Alt Revolt! by Nick Cole
Chasing Freedom by Marina Fontaine

7. Best Horror Novel
Chapelwood by Cherie Priest
Honor at Stake by Declan Finn
Souldancer by Brian Niemeier
Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay
An Unattractive Vampire by Jim McDoniel
Alice by Christina Henry

8. Best Comic Book
DC Universe: Rebirth
Daredevil
Astro City
Ms. Marvel
Civil War II
Saga
Providence

9. Best Graphic Novel
Chicago by Glenn Head
The Sandman: Overture by Neil Gaiman
Virgil by Steve Orlando
Sacred Heart by Liz Suburbia
March: Book Two by John Lewis & Andrew Aydin
Killing and Dying by Adrian Tomine

10. Best Science Fiction or Fantasy TV Series
Game of Thrones - HBO
Jessica Jones - Netflix
Doctor Who - BBC
The Flash - CW
The Expanse - Syfy
Outlander - Starz
Daredevil - Netflix

11. Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie

Crimson Peak
Deadpool
Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens
The Martian
Captain America: Civil War
Ant-Man

12. Best Science Fiction or Fantasy PC / Console Game
Fallout 4 by Bethesda Softworks
Darkest Dungeon by Red Hook Studios
Undertale by Toby Fox
XCOM 2 by 2k Games
Overwatch by Blizzard Entertainment
Metal Gear Solid V by Konami Digital Entertainment

13. Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Mobile Game
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes by Electronic Arts
Quaser One by Emre Taskin
Fallout Shelter by Bethesda Softworks
Hyper Burner by Patrick Cook
PewDiePie: Legend of the Brofist by Outerminds Inc.



14. Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Board Game

Codenames by Vlaada Chvatil
Monopoly: CTHULHU by USAopoly
Pandemic: Legacy by ZMan Games
Blood Rage by Cool Mini or Not
Talon by GMT Games
Star Wars: Rebellion by Fantasy Flight Games



15. Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Miniatures / Collectible Card / Role-Playing Game
Star Wars: Armada by Fantasy Flight Games
Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game (7th Edition) by Chaosium Inc.
Mousguard 2nd Edition by David Petersen & Luke Crane
Magic the Gathering: Battle of Zendikar by Wizards of the Coast
Magic the Gathering: Shadows over Innistrad by Wizards of the Coast
Deluxe Tunnels Trolls by Flying Buffalo

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Miniatures / Collectible Card / Role-Playing Game
Congrats to all of the nominees!


Here are my votes and why:

1.) Best SF Novel: Raising Caine by Chuck Gannon. Simple. Chuck Gannon's writing is fast paced and entertaining. Caine Riordan is an awesome character and this book just rocks.

2.) Best Fantasy Novel: For those of you out there who may not be Larry Correia fans, he constantly states that every author's mission statement should include the words GET PAID. This one has a terrific new world, an awesome main character and a story that has enough mystery that I want to read more. Congratulations, Mr Correia. You're going to GET PAID when you get my money for the next installment.

3.) Best Young Adult/Middle Grade Novel: Honestly, I haven't read any of these. I did buy Changelings Island, but being a YA title it got pushed to the back of the queue. I won't be voting in this category.

4.) Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel: Hell's Foundations Quiver by David Weber because OMFG SAFEHOLD ROCKS!!! Epic  cast. Epic Action. Epic Heroes. Epic Villains. God, I love this series.

5.) Best Alternate History Novel:  Bombs Away: The Hot War Harry Turtledove. I'll tell the story of how I came to love Turtledove's work on the blog sometime. For now, just know that Turtledove is the master of Alt-Hist and this is another gem.

6.) Best Apocalyptic Novel: Control Alt Revolt by Nick Cole. Computer takeover. It's like the Cylons a few centuries early. Loved this thing. Look for a review here soon.

7.) Best Horror Novel: Honor at Stake by Declan Finn. See my review. 'Nuff said.

8.) Best Comic Book: I haven't done much comic reading this year for financial reasons. I won't be voting in this category.

9.) Best Graphic Novel: Ditto

10.) Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Series: Doctor Who, because Dr Who. I want a sonic screw driver.

11.) Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens because blatant fan bias. I went with my mom to see Return of the Jedi in 1983 during its original release. I've been a fan ever since. I loved this flick.

12.) Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Video Game: I spend a massive amount of time gaming but I'm a WoWhead and that's all I really play. I have neither the time nor the money to adequately research this and so I won't be voting.

13.) Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Mobile Game:  Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes by Electronic Art. I checked this out and loved it. It's something to play when I'm not at home and can't get to my WoW account.

14.) Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Board Game: 
Monopoly: CTHULHU by USAopoly because I will play it and so will my oldest daughter.
Magic the Gathering: Battle of Zendikar by Wizards of the Coast. I don't do many of these types of things but I walked up to the comic shop near my home and checked this out while some other people were playing it. It's a good time.

15.)  Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Miniatures / Collectible Card / Role-Playing Game: 
Magic the Gathering: Battle of Zendikar. I'll be honest. My card playing is fairly minimal but I have wandered into the comic shop next to my house a couple of times and I've enjoyed this. Some of the guys were nice enough to loan me their deck.

Now, the disclaimer: Should you vote for what I did? Well, maybe. I'm certainly not telling anyone not to vote for who I did. On the other hand, I don't want anyone voting for something just because I did. I definitely wouldn't want anyone to leave something blank because I did. Make up your own mind. Read, watch, play, love. Make up your own mind and make your choices known.  There's no reason not to. There is no cost associated. Just go to this link and register to vote if you haven't already. I'm stoked. It's about time SF/F got some awards that were actually chosen by the fans and not based on who sat with who at least year's award banquet. Here's our chance. Now is our time. VOTE DAMMIT!!!


Some of the products I voted for are listed below. I'd list everything but I've only got a few minutes left on my lunch at work: