Re: Bright of the Sky

I heard Kay Kenyon present at Readercon and liked her, so I went looking for Bright of the Sky. The book has a very cool opening, in which a quantum AI grew obssessed with evidence for another universe. I wanted to know more about the AI, but the story is really about the other universe.

First fruits

Here’s the first batch of daffodils cut. They’re now on my desk, exuding so much soapy scent, I’m sneezing. And my fruit trees arrived!

Re: The View From the Center of the Universe

In The View from the Center of the Universe, Joel Primack and Nancy Ellen Abrams attempt to create a new mythos, that is, a story that explains our world, based on science. Actually, I think they did a better job of explaining what they are trying to say in their various interviews than in the […]

Re: Stars Seen Through Stone

Vernon is a small-time regional music producer who landed in Black William, Pennsylvania with his (now) ex-wife, Andrea, when their car broke down. Perhaps because he’s recounting events that happened ten years before the main action of the story, the opening passage of “Stars Seen Through Stone,” by Lucius Shephard, sounds stiff in its formality […]

Re: A Handbook of American Prayer

In the opening of A Handbook of American Prayer, by Lucius Shepard, Wardlin is tending bar when a woman walks in before opening hours. He gives her a hard time, but her boyfriend gets it even rougher, when they get in a fight and Wardlin accidentally kills him. Though Wardlin isn’t the nicest guy in […]

Re: softspoken

Do you go to cons only to discover that the Guest of Honor is someone you’ve barely heard of? That certainly makes me feel stupid. For instance, last year Lucius Shepard was the GoH at Readercon, and had interesting things to say in his interview. I decided I needed to do my homework. Now I’m […]

Re: Kiosk

The Secret History of Moscow gave us a glimpse of the kiosks filling the streets. In “Kiosk,” by Bruce Sterling, we see into their hectic world. Borislav runs a little kiosk that’s so sucessful, a woman from the EU buys him out. His customers are heart-broken at the loss of the source of their hair […]

Re: The Secret History of Moscow

In 90s Moscow, where the streets are filled with kiosks “selling everything and manned by loud men who wouldn’t leave you alone,” something even stranger than capitalism is happening. Galina’s sister Masha is transformed into a jackdaw, sending Galina looking for her. She meets a cop, Yakov, who is assigned to track down rumors of […]

Spring countdown

The garden countdown to real spring continues. There’s… …one, two, three–many daffodils… …two orchids… And…um

Re: The Universe in a Single Atom

Much has been made of the Dalai Lama’s stance that if science can disprove any tenets of Buddhism, then they would accept it, since Buddhism is an experiential and experimental religion. The Universe in a Single Atom, by the Dalai Lama, accepts modern physics and cosmology, hopes the combination of monks and scientists will expand […]