Re: The Cambist and Lord Iron

Olaf Neddelson is a humble cambist, a money changer, whose life is changed when the notorious Lord Iron comes to his exchange window. Lord Iron demands that he exchange convertible guilders from the Independent Protectorate of Analdi-Wat for pounds sterling. If Olaf fails to do so within 24 hours, his license could be reviewed under […]

Re: Dark Integers

I was really looking forward to “Dark Integers” by Greg Egan. After all, one character says: Dark matter, dark energy . . . dark integers. They’re all around us, but we don’t usually see them, because they don’t quite play by the rules. How cool is that? I really like the parts where it plays […]

Re: Glory

An ingot of metallic hydrogen… Whoa, wait a second. An ingot. Of metallic hydrogen. Okay, I see what kind of story “Glory,” by Greg Egan is going to be. Old school, hard core, science fiction. That hydrogen gets put through some outrageous changes, which are mind-bending beyond the point of disbelief all the way back […]

Re: Finisterra

In the world of Sky, island-sized living zaratanes float through the upper layers of the atmosphere. A zaratán is so big, whole towns live on their backs and go unnoticed. So naturally, people fly to get about, in balloons or anemopters or starships lurking in orbit. It seems like just the place for an ambitious […]

Native flowers for native bees

Today, this mystery shrub has been entertaining a varied host of bees and wasps. Some were so small, I could barely see them. Some looked like half-size honeybees with long eyelash-like antennae. The biggest was a middling bumblebee. There was also some sort of red bug, though definitely not a ladybug. All of them were […]

A quick note about The Big Rip

Today’s episode of Quirks & Quarks ends with a discussion of The Big Rip, the driving idea behind “Last Contact.” And I’m trying to write an inchoate story about Mars, so I was also interested in their discussion of the Phoenix Lander, due to land on Mars next Sunday.

Re: The Sociopath Next Door

We are often told in writing that no one sees themselves as the villain. You should set your antagonist at cross-purposes with the protoganist to create conflict. Each sees themselves as good people, but they cannot both win. According to The Sociopath Next Door, by Martha Stout, there are people who just don’t think the […]

Re: Tideline

As with “The House Beyond Your Sky,” what impresses me most about “Tideline,” by Elizabeth Bear is the sound and imagery of the prose. Here’s the opening: Chalcedony wasn’t built for crying. She didn’t have it in her, not unless her tears were cold tapered glass droplets annealed by the inferno heat that had crippled […]

Re: Last Contact

In the classic mode of Big Idea impacting little people, “Last Contact,” by Stephen Baxter opens with two women in a garden talking about the end of the universe. The mother, Maureen, tends to go on a bit about her garden, but speaking as one who tends to go on a bit about her own […]

Re: A Small Room In Koboldtown

I have to say I’m finding the Hugo-nominated shorts disappointing so far. Another slight tale, “A Small Room in Koboldtown,” by Michael Swanwick, is set in your basic tough-guy, mixed ethnicity neighborhood, where the ethnicities are mythical creatures. The characters draw on multiple traditions, but the overall tone feels somewhere between Chicago, New Orleans, and […]