(no subject)

Jul. 6th, 2025 10:17 pm
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[personal profile] jhetley
Thunderstorm rolled and rumbled through this evening. Moved on now but hasn't cleared the air, still hot and sticky out there. Waxing moon shines through the murk.

Predicted weather

Jul. 6th, 2025 09:34 am
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[personal profile] jhetley
Back from walk, 78 F out there and damp. All cat friends had enough sense to stay inside. First thistles, bell-flowers blooming, nightshade, bindweed. Even birds mostly silent, but we have seen some juvenile robins about.
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Can the American King's uncanny military genius best an enemy so cunning the enemy loses every battle?

The Steel, the Mist, and the Blazing Sun by Christopher Anvil

Wimping out again

Jul. 6th, 2025 07:03 am
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[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 66 F before 7 AM, wind south about 8 mph, partly cloudy. We are headed for a high of around 90 F and rising dew point. Think I'll skip the bike ride and swap in a walk. After all, I do want to live to see the apocalypse.

Wild Cards checklist

Jul. 5th, 2025 09:35 am
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
This is much easier for Martin's New Voices series....

Read more... )
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Four works new to me. One is SF, two fantasy, and the magazine (which I have not yet looked inside) likely both. Two of the novels are series novels, one does not seem to me.

Books Received, June 28 — July 4



Poll #33326 Books Received, June 28 — July 4
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 35


Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

FIYAH No. 35: Black Isekai published by FIYAH Literary Magazine (July 2025)
18 (51.4%)

Aces Full edited by George R. R. Martin (November 2025)
2 (5.7%)

Only Spell Deep by Ava Morgyn (March 2026)
6 (17.1%)

The Damned by Harper L. Woods (October 2025)
3 (8.6%)

Some other option (see comments)
0 (0.0%)

Cats!
29 (82.9%)

No web-footed friends

Jul. 5th, 2025 07:00 am
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[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 63 F, wind west about 7 mph, partly cloudy. Dew point 53 F, so the humidity hasn't kicked back up. Yet. Tomorrow is supposed to revert to hazy hot and humid. We live in the frozen north to avoid that shit . . .

(no subject)

Jul. 4th, 2025 10:21 pm
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[personal profile] jhetley
Be kind to your web-footed friends.

Friday floral report

Jul. 4th, 2025 11:49 am
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[personal profile] jhetley
White sweet clover, rabbits'-foot clover, and rambling roses now blooming. Definitely both yarrow and Queen Anne's lace. Cattails and sumac flower spikes up but not open yet. Almost all the lupines have gone to seed.

No roadkill identified, not even a squirrel. Several blotches on the asphalt, but the cleanup crew has been active.

Got out on the bike, upriver and then back through the bog. Paving project on hold for the weekend, but they have advanced and may get done in a week or two. Did not die. Ride takes me over 200 miles for the year, half of what I would like to have done by this point.

15.59 miles, 1:31:35
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Ninety years after her grandmother's family was stalked by a witch, international student Minerva Contrera's studies land her in a similar position.


The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Squirrel sabotage

Jul. 4th, 2025 08:05 am
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[personal profile] jhetley
Power out for about an hour this morning, after a boom up the street. Back on now. Found a corpse in the sidewalk on my local survey.

Air temperature 64 F, wind northwest gusting to 21 mph, partly cloudy. Should be able to get a bike ride in.

Every time I run something

Jul. 3rd, 2025 10:34 pm
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
I embrace new tools. In Fabula Ultima, for example, the order in which characters go in combat varies. I found it hard to keep track of who'd gone, so I went out and got poker chips and little round labels. Now, I can just toss the chips representing characters into a bowl once they've gone. Order!

OK, except it turns out I can't tell blue from green under the ceiling light in the room where I DM and the names on the labels need to be bigger.

(no subject)

Jul. 3rd, 2025 10:05 pm
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[personal profile] jhetley
Hazy gibbous moon
Cooler, storm has moved the heat
Scattered fireflies

(no subject)

Jul. 3rd, 2025 12:53 pm
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[personal profile] jhetley
When you read about Fearless Leader attacking the Fed for not cutting interest rates, remember that F.L.'s empire is built on borrowed money.

(no subject)

Jul. 3rd, 2025 12:41 pm
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[personal profile] jhetley
Severe thunderstorm warnings and watches stalk the state. Nothing directly dire here yet. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode . . .

A walk to the sea

Jul. 3rd, 2025 05:35 pm
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[personal profile] heleninwales
Our weather has been very pleasant for the past couple of days. Warm, but not too hot and with a cool breeze from the west. There is more rain forecast for the weekend, but I don't mind a mixture. It's when it gets stuck on one type of weather for too long that I start to moan. So we had perfect weather today for a walk to the coast. As usual we drove to the tiny car park by the Mawddach Trail and set out to walk to the seaside.

We know from experience that if the tide is high here, then you need to take the inland route to Fairbourne rather than following the track that runs beside the estuary along the base of the cliff. Today it was safe to take the coastal route.

Low tide

We followed the footpath sign to the right. The bridleway is the track that leads to the whimsical sentry boxes and then onwards to join the path to Fairbourne. More photos here... )

We didn't walk all the way to Fairbourne because I'm trying not to eat snacks so I declined G's suggestion of buying ice creams. As it was, the walk out and back was 5½ miles and if we weren't going to buy anything, the extra distance along the sea front was pointless. We had reached the sea and enjoyed the pollen-free sea breeze.

(no subject)

Jul. 3rd, 2025 10:47 am
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[personal profile] jhetley
Full length walk logged. No cat friends met. Mockingbird seen but not heard, so I must not have been too near a nest or fledglings. Did not die.
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Director of the nation formerly known as Canada Quinn Atherton is determined to deliver much mass murder as it takes to achieve peace, order, good government. Why do so many ingrates object?

Blight(Sleep of Reason, volume 2) by Rachel A. Rosen

Prelude and fugue day

Jul. 3rd, 2025 06:47 am
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[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 65 F, wind near calm, sunny. Dew point 63 F. Another day where a leisurely stroll will supplant more vigorous pursuits. Scattered showers and thundershowers on the schedule for afternoon and overnight.

My alt-Mummy film

Jul. 2nd, 2025 11:51 pm
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
The inspiration being the 1999 Mummy movie is not without problematic elements.

Imagine an Egyptian film company wanting to make a movie about idiots waking a horror in Canada that only the Egyptian lead can resolve.
Read more... )

(no subject)

Jul. 2nd, 2025 10:18 pm
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[personal profile] jhetley
Half moon low in south.

(no subject)

Jul. 2nd, 2025 06:29 pm
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[personal profile] jhetley
“I did not attend his funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.” Mark Twain

Meanwhile, back at the ranch

Jul. 2nd, 2025 05:12 pm
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[personal profile] jhetley
Item on the evening news that the Senators from Texas are trying to extract a space shuttle from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and transfer it to Houston . . .

First pillage, then burn.
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


The June 2023 Dark Eye Megabundle featuring the English-language edition from Ulisses Spiele of the leading German tabletop roleplaying game of heroic fantasy, The Dark Eye.

Bundle of Holding: The Dark Eye MEGA (from 2023)

(no subject)

Jul. 2nd, 2025 02:30 pm
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[personal profile] jhetley
Our hostas are just starting to bloom. May have a chance to see the hummingbirds again, and bees. Neither hummers nor bees seem to have any interest in the day lilies.

Yucky icky air

Jul. 2nd, 2025 10:34 am
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[personal profile] jhetley
Back from my stroll around the neighborhood, no cat friends seen. Air temperature was 78 F when I headed out, 82 F now, dew point 68 F, got damp enough to justify my slacking off from that bike ride.

Discouraging world

Jul. 2nd, 2025 07:00 am
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[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 70 F with dew point 68, wind west about 3 mph, fog at the airport but sunny here. I had vague hopes of a bike ride this morning, but now it looks as if it will warm up too fast. Already soupy out there. As Wife has been known to say, exercise is supposed to *improve* my health.

(no subject)

Jul. 1st, 2025 06:32 pm
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[personal profile] jhetley
"Everglades" by the Kingston Trio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0TtIRpG-jE

2025 CSFFA Hall of Fame Inductees

Jul. 1st, 2025 06:02 pm
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
The quotation below is a quotation


CSFFA (The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association) is proud to announce the 2025 CSFFA Hall of Fame inductees.

Clint Budd, fan, convention organizer, modernized CSFFA and created the CSFFA Hall of Fame
Charles R. Saunders, author, journalist, and founder of the “sword and soul” literary genre
Diane L. Walton, editor, mentor, and a founding member of On Spec: The Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic

More information here.


Congratulations to the Inductees!

Robert and Gracia Fay Ellwood

Jul. 1st, 2025 10:03 am
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[personal profile] sartorias
I think one or two old Mythies might still be reading here; at any rate, these old friends had been on my mind this spring. Came back to discover that they died a week apart at the end of May/beginning of June.

They met in the very early sixties at the U of Chicago, where both were studying. Robert was a bit on the spectrum; he said, and he stuck with it, he would never date anyone who couldn't read and love Lord of the Rings, which had blown him away when it came out. In retrospect I don't even know how he stumbled across it because to my later knowledge of him he didn't read fiction. Maybe he thought it was a northern saga when he stumbled on the first volume? Anyway, his field was religion and Japanese literature, and I remember him sitting in his rose garden reading copies of ancient Japanese texts for pleasure.

She was also blown away by it, but not especially by him. But he'd fallen hard for her, and when she also loved LOTR, he wasn't about to give up. They married around 1963, I think; by the time I met them in 1967, they were living in West LA, he a professor of Religious Studies at USC. They used to host many meetings of the early Mythopoeic Society; he'd disappear while she socialized with us gawky teens. She was a great role model for us; she was a scholar, married to someone who respected her brains, which was tough to find during the mid and late sixties.

I was on hand to deliver both their kids, now middle-aged. He married my spouse and me in 1980. They became Quakers later; they were firm pacifists and human rights advocates.

Time is just so relentless! But they used theirs well, living gently and kindly, always loving beauty, grace, and laughter.

Memory problems

Jul. 1st, 2025 11:28 am
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Okay, we don't drive a lot. And we don't have a lot of car air-conditioning days in Maine. But it does help to actually punch the AC button on the dash if you want cool air to come out of those vents.
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Only the brave, the arrogant, the naïve, or the desperate Men trespass in Arafel's Ealdwood. Into which category does the latest visitor fall?

The Dreamstone (Ealdwood, volume 1) by C J Cherryh

July 2025 Patreon Boost

Jul. 1st, 2025 08:58 am
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Jealous of all the people who support Aurora-finalist James Nicoll Reviews? Want to join them? Here are your options:

July 2025 Patreon Boost

Another one bites the dust

Jul. 1st, 2025 06:56 am
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[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 62 F, wind southwest about 7 mph, fog at the airport station. Can see across the park, so we're apparently under it. And we close the book on another month, for good or ill. Your mileage may vary.

Bundle of Holding: Broken Tales

Jun. 30th, 2025 03:44 pm
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


The English-language rulebook and supplements for Broken Tales, the tabletop fantasy roleplaying game of upside-down fairy tales from Italian game publisher The World Anvil Publishing.

Bundle of Holding: Broken Tales

Still hanging around

Jun. 30th, 2025 03:34 pm
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[personal profile] jhetley
Had a catbird regarding me from the front walkway outside my office window. No way to tell if this is one of last year's azalea brood or last year's parents.

Monday floral report

Jun. 30th, 2025 10:37 am
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[personal profile] jhetley
Maybe first scentless chamomile blooming, brown-eyed susans, brambles about done. Maybe yarrow, otherwise Queen Anne's lace -- hard to tell the difference in the early stage of bloom, with bicycle botany. Some variety of wild pea dotting purple in the weeds.

No fresh roadkill. Even most of the corpses I reported on my last ride have vanished, whether via 2-legs or 4-legs is unknown. Desiccated lump of skunk fur remains.

No metal birds to report at my water stop but I think the runway is open -- saw a small corporate jet come in for a landing and a high-wing private plane take off. Of course, neither of those would need the full length of our runway.

Got out on the bike, 67 F when I headed out and 77 F when I returned. So I dodged the worst of the heat. Did not die.

15.59 miles, 1:32:08

Clarke Award Finalists 2003

Jun. 30th, 2025 10:28 am
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
2003: PM Blair embraces hilariously transparent lies to justify the invasion of Iraq, two million Britons reveal the power of public outrage when they protest the Iraq War to no effect, and the Coalition of the Billing (UK included) faces an occupation of Iraq that will no doubt be entirely without unforeseen challenges or consequences.

Poll #33305 Clarke Award Finalists 2003
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 60


Which 2003 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

The Separation by Christopher Priest
10 (16.7%)

Kiln People by David Brin
18 (30.0%)

Light by M. John Harrison
16 (26.7%)

The Scar by China Miéville
26 (43.3%)

The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
30 (50.0%)

The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
32 (53.3%)



Bold for have read, italic for intend to read,, underline for never heard of it.

Which 2003 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
The Separation by Christopher Priest
Kiln People by David Brin
Light by M. John Harrison
The Scar by China Miéville
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson

June 2025 in review

Jun. 30th, 2025 09:06 am
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


I survived another dance season. Go me.

21 works reviewed. 11 by women (52%), 9 by men (43%),1 by non-binary authors (5%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (0%), and 8 by POC (38%).

More details at the other end of the link.

Soon June departing

Jun. 30th, 2025 07:01 am
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[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 61 F, wind near calm, partly cloudy. City crew started mowing in the park about 0530, one of the unexpected consequences of our location. Maybe trying to beat the heat. Along those lines, I'm unsure if I will get out for a bike ride.

Survived another dance season

Jun. 29th, 2025 10:43 pm
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
Final show: a 5.5 hour bhangra show that was only 6.5 hours long.

Among my final achievements this season, discovering as I hoisted the last of many garbage bags into the dumpster that the bag was leaking coffee. My last achievement was ducking to the men's to wash my hands, discovering someone had plugged the sinks and turned on the taps, and stopping the flood in time.

To Walk The Night by William Sloane

Jun. 29th, 2025 09:03 am
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Jerry's romance with the brilliant, beautiful, eccentric Selena is book-ended with death: first, Selena's husband's, then Jerry's.

To Walk The Night by William Sloane

Not as we know it

Jun. 29th, 2025 07:08 am
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 58 F, wind near calm, cloudy with rain showers moving on. Should be the end of those for the day. May attempt a bike ride when the roads dry off.

“No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session.”

Missed me by *that* much

Jun. 28th, 2025 10:55 am
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[personal profile] jhetley
Consulted the road surface and the weather radar and decided to risk a walk. Met up with Ms. Sasha, who seemed glad to see me. Home now, and the roads are turning shiny again.
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Three books new to me, all fantasy (Although the Stross is an edge case), and only one is clearly part of a series.

Books Received, June 21 — June 27


Poll #33298 Books Received, June 21 — June 27
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 56


Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

Until the Clock Strikes Midnight by Alechia Dow (February 2026)
18 (32.1%)

The Regicide Report by Charles Stross (January 2026)
34 (60.7%)

The Beasts We Raise by D. L. Taylor (March 2026)
5 (8.9%)

Some other option (see comments)
3 (5.4%)

Cats!
36 (64.3%)

Watching the downward

Jun. 28th, 2025 07:08 am
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[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 54 F, wind southeast about 6 mph, raining. Which is likely to continue for much of the day. I continue to fiddle while Rome burns. Or, since the fiddle had not yet been invented in Nero's time, I'll play fiddle tunes on CD. Don't tell me to fix society -- I don't have the tools for that.

June 2025

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