SERIES SATURDAY: Hexworld

This is a series about … well, series. I do so love stories that continue across volumes, in whatever form: linked short stories, novels, novellas, television, movies. I’ve already got a list of series I’ve recently read, re-read, watched, or re-watched that I plan to blog about. I might even, down the line, open myself up to letting other people suggest titles I should read/watch and then comment on.

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Jordan L. Hawk’s most well-known series is likely their Lovecraftian Whyborne & Griffin series, which ended recently after 11 books and several novellas and short stories. W&G took place in something very close to our own world, where only a select few people know that magic and Elder Gods are real. In Hawk’s Spirits series, the existence of magic is a bit more widely known but still not commonplace. Of all Hawk’s historicals, the Hexworld series is the most removed from our world and definitely qualifies as alternate history.

In the 1890s New York City of the Hexworld books, there exists the Metropolitan Police, which handles every-day crime, and the Witch Police, which handles magic-based crimes. “Witches” here is an umbrella term for anyone who can wield magic, regardless of gender. But for a witch to reach their full potential, they must be bonded with a familiar. Familiars are shifters – people who can turn into a specific animal – and they are the conduits through which magic flows to witches. The bond, once forged, is difficult to break. While any witch and familiar can be bonded, the bond works best when the witch-familiar combo are meant for each other; a witch comes across “his” familiar, or vice-versa. The implication is that for most witch-familiar combos, it’s a working relationship, with the partners going home to their own lives when the work day is over. But the bonds can be romantic, and for the main characters in the books they pretty much always are. (Hawk’s hallmark is historical m/m paranormal romance with plenty of sex tossed in the mix.)

The general public (worldwide, not just in NYC) is aware of magic and in fact dependent on it. Shop-owners rely on hexes to keep thieves out of their stores, for instance. But they also distrust familiars. Prejudice runs deep, especially towards unbonded, or “feral,” familiars, who are often the first suspects when a magic-based crime has been committed. There are those among the Witch Police who would force-bond feral familiars, even though it’s illegal, and it’s a fair bet a portion of the general public feels the same. The prejudice rears its head in sometimes very subtle ways, but it’s always at least in the background of each book, and it’s not always easy to read.

Each book focuses on the beginning of a different witch-familiar pair. They usually come across each other in the course of investigating (or in one case, committing) a crime. Sometimes the familiar realize he’s found his witch first, sometimes the other way around. Romantic and sexual tensions increase as the investigation of whatever crime is at the center of the story goes on, and in the end the main pair of the book are not only bonded professionally, they’re paired romantically. Again, these are m/m paranormal romance from an author who believes in happy endings – so I’m not really spoiling anything major by telling you that out of four novels and two novellas, Hawk has yet to introduce us to a pair who don’t end up together. The romance/sexual side of the books is a bit more formulaic in that regard than either of Hawk’s other two historical series, but I don’t really mind. Knowledge that whatever romantic misunderstandings and trials the characters encounter will be overcome by the end of the book allows me to concentrate on the surprises and twists of the crime plots.

Those crimes range from murder to a feral-child-trafficking ring. The clues to each crime/mystery are laid out very well throughout each book, along with red herrings to keep the reader guessing. The crime introduced at the beginning of each book is resolved by the end, so each book is “one and done” in that regard. But there is an over-arching conspiracy our growing group of heroes becomes aware of that will need to be resolved before the series ends (and I do believe that as with the Whyborne and Griffin series, Hawk is working steadily towards that resolution and already has an end-point in mind).

Even though each book focuses on a different witch-familiar pairing, the main characters of previous books don’t disappear. Most of these pairs end up working for the NYC Witch Police, but not all. We get to see their romantic relationships continue beyond the end of the book they star in, as they provide support for the new focal pairing. Hawk is essentially building a large “found family” of characters who come together to support each other (and deal with that pesky over-arching conspiracy). This is something intrinsically recognizable to queer readers: building a family around yourself when your own family has let you down or abandoned you. It’s interesting to see this play out in a world where being a familiar, and especially a feral familiar, seems to be more disdained than being gay. (I’m not saying there’s no anti-gay sentiment in Hexworld, just that it seems less of a threat that anti-familiar sentiment.)

It should also be noted that at least as of book four, the short story/novellas “A Christmas Hex” and “Wild Wild Hex” do not tie into the main continuity but do give us a look at witch/familiar pairs outside of the NYC Witch Police. They are nice bits of world-expansion and are equally as romantic/erotic as the main books. (Also, full disclosure: I suggested the title for “Wild Wild Hex.” Yes, I was and am a fan of the Wild Wild West television series.

The alternate history worldbuilding is spot-on, the 1890s milieu perfect for the story Hawk is telling. The characters are endearing, interesting, aggravating, and, yes, sexy (in their varied ways). If you like alternate history m/m paranormal romance with a thriller/crime aspect, these books are for you.

The books in the Hexworld series are:

·         “The 13th Hex” (prequel short story)

·         Hexbreaker

·         Hexmaker

·         “A Christmas Hex” (short story)

·         Hexslayer

·         “Wild Wild Hex” (novella)

·         Hexhunter

Reading Round-Up: May 2020

Continuing the monthly summaries of what I’ve been reading and writing.

 

BOOKS

To keep my numbers consistent with what I have listed on Goodreads, I count completed magazine issues as “books.” I read or listened to 8 books in May: 6 in print, 2 in e-book format, and 0 in audio format. They were:

1.       Lightspeed Magazine #120 (May, 2020 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams. The usual fine assortment of sf and fantasy short stories. This month’s favorites for me were C. Robert Cargill’s “We Are Where the Nightmares Go,” Millie Ho’s “The Fenghuang,” Charlie Jane Ander’s “Rager in Space,” and Adam-Troy Castro’s “The Time Traveler’s Advice to the Lovelorn.”

2.       Sal & Gabi Fix the Universe, by Carlos Hernandez. The second installment in Carlos Hernandez’s Sal & Gabi series, in which Sal & Gabi realized that Sal’s father’s efforts to discover a way to close the holes between the Universes may actually be endangering the multiverse, is as inclusive, fun-filled, and love-filled as the first. Full Review HERE.

3.       Zlonk! Zok! Zowie! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Guide To Batman ’66 Season One edited by Jim Beard. Episode-specific essays discuss casting, trivia, and behind-the-scenes facts. The tone of the essays varies from Very Scholarly to Very Silly, but they’re all enjoyable. Fans of the television series should check this out, and be on the lookout for volumes about seasons 2 and 3 in the future.

4.       The Shadow Hero by Gene Leun Yang and Sonny Liew. The Shadow Hero is a really fun re-imagining of an obscure Golden Age hero called The Green Turtle. The current creators move the character from the Asian theater of World War II to San Francisco’s Chinatown district, and the plot involves gang activity. The social commentary is interwoven with the character development. The graphic novel also includes an essay by Yang about the original comics character, and a reprint of the original Green Turtle’s first appearance.

5.       DC Comics: First Issues Specials, edited by Gerry Conway. A hardcover volume reprinting the short-lived and varying-in-quality DC Comics series called “First Issue Special.” It includes work by Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Marty Pasko, Walter Simonson, Mike Grell, Gerry Conway, Bob Haney, Ramona Fradon, Steve Ditko and others, featuring characters DC was looking to return to prominence (The Creeper, Metamorpho, Manhunter, Doctor Fate, the New Gods) and newly-created characters (an alien Starman, Atlas, and Grell’s Warlord). Full review HERE.

6.       Dead Girl Blues by Lawrence Block. Block’s latest self-published novella (still on preorder as I post this, but due to release in mid-June) is not an easy read. It starts with the murder-rape (in that order) of a young woman and then follows the life of the murderer/rapist to the present day. It’s a deep character study of a particular mind and thus may not be for everyone. Full Review HERE. (I received an Advance Review Copy from the author.)

7.       The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo. Vo’s novella from Tor.com details the rise to power of a twice-exiled empress, through the eyes of a cleric documenting the contents of the Empress’s home-in-exile and the elderly woman the cleric meets there. Full review to come.

8.       A History of the Philippines: From Indios Bravos to Filipinos by Luis H. Francia. A concise history of the islands-nation from prehistory to the near present. Informative without being too granular.

 

 

STORIES

I have a goal of reading 366 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) this year (366 because it’s a Leap Year). Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it:

1.       “The Time Traveler’s Advice to the Lovelorn” by Adam-Troy Castro, from Lightspeed Magazine #120 (May 2020 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams.

2.       “One Hundred Sentences About the City of the Future: A Jeremiad” by Alex Irvine

3.       “Melting Like Metal” by Ada Hoffman

4.       “Rager in Space” by Charlie Jane Anders

5.       “I Bury Myself” by Carmen Maria Machado

6.       “The Fenghuang” by Millie Ho

7.       “We Are Where the Nightmares Go” by C. Robert Cargill

8.       “Destinations of Love” by Alexander Weinstein

9.       “The Proper Thing” by Seanan McGuire, on the author’s Patreon page.

10.   “Perilous Blooms” by Beth Cato, from Daily Science Fiction, edited by Jonathan Laden and Michele-Lee Barasso

11.   “Job Placement” by Jim Butcher, from the author’s website

 

So that’s 11 short stories in May. Once again way under “1 per day,” putting me further behind for the year so far. (May 31th was the 152th day of 2020.)

 

Summary of Reading Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 3 of 14 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  11 read; YTD: 95 of 366 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 1 read; YTD: 10 of 52 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 8 read; YTD: 58 of 125 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 2 read; YTD: 6 of 24 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 0 read/watched.

Complete the Series Challenge: This month: 1 books read; YTD: 6 of 16 read.

                                                                Series fully completed: 0 of 3 planned

Monthly Special Challenge: May was Asian-Pacific/South Asian Heritage Month, so my goal was to read some poetry. Three books fit this goal (The Shadow Hero, The Empress of Salt and Fortune, and A History of the Philippines) and one short story (“The Fenghuang” by Millie Ho). Not as good as I’d have liked to have done, but better than I did with the poetry challenge last month.

June is Pride Month, so my goal is to read a number of authors from across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum.

Sunday Shorts: Two by Beth Cato

Sunday Shorts is a series where I blog about short fiction – from flash to novellas. For the time being, I’m sticking to prose, although it’s been suggested I could expand this feature to include single episodes of anthology television series like The Twilight Zone or individual stories/issues of anthology comics (like the 1970s DC horror or war anthology titles). So anything is possible. But for now, the focus is on short stories.

 

Recently on Facebook, I commented that Beth Cato is one of those authors who expertly breaks this reader’s heart on a regular basis, and yet I constantly go back for me. This was precipitated by reading two of Cato’s stories almost back-to-back, one a recent publication and one a reprint. Both stories are about struggling with the impending loss of a loved one, making hard decisions about whether it’s better to try to delay the inevitable or give in to it, and about what good may come, in time, from such a loss.

“Perilous Blooms” (Daily Science Fiction, May 26, 2020) takes place in a world where super-abilities are just common enough to be taken advantage of by a government that only wishes to remain in power. People who develop these extra abilities are corralled up, shipped off to war off-planet. The narrator of the story, a grandmother now, lost her own mother in such a way. We realize very quickly that she has reason to fear losing her very young grand-daughter the same way. Mother and grand-daughter are both struggling with the impending death of the woman who connects them. Grand-daughter thinks she can heal her mother, keep her from dying. Part of grandmother wishes this could be true, but most of her hopes her grand-daughter is just imagining the ability as a way of coping with the fact that her mother is dying. I won’t spoil the outcome, as I think the spooling out of what is true and what is imagined is part of what makes the story so heartbreaking. Cato keeps the POV very tight, gives us no more world-building than is absolutely necessary to understand the narrator’s quandary and the threat to the grand-daughter in a world where even pretending to have a super-ability is enough to get you snatched up by the authorities.

“The Sweetness of Bitter” first appeared in Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show’s September 2013 issue and will be reprinted in an upcoming anthology I had the pleasure of proofreading. The setting is post-apocalyptic: what the apocalypse was is vague, but there’s little in the way of electricity, communities are barren, and what people the main character encounters are distrustful of strangers. The main character, Margo, and her daughter, Tara, are making their way towards a facility Margo hopes will stop her daughter from dying a second death. Second, because we learn very quickly that this daughter is a “sim,” an android recreation of the daughter she’s already lost once to leukemia. In the days before the collapse of society, repairing sims was fairly easy. But now, Margo’s only hope is a headquarters of the company that made the sims in the first place. The signs of Tara’s impending system failure become more apparent as the story progresses and the two encounter unexpected roadblocks. Those roadblocks made the story even more poignant to me, made me feel Margo’s anguish at yet another delay in healing her daughter. Backstory (where is Tara’s father? what else has Margo tried before getting to this point) are sketched in as the story progresses as well.

Back in December 2004 through February 2005, I was primary caregiver for my mother, who was slowly finally succumbing to the cancer she’d been fighting for the previous four years. In restrospect, the end was more apparent in December and even early January than I wanted to see – in fact, it was probably more apparent months earlier than any of us, even her doctors, wanted to admit. I see that struggle of mine to accept the inevitable, to make peace with it and start deciding what positives could come from her passing (for instance, we caught my own colon cancer just seven months later thanks in part to me “listening to my body” in a way my parents hadn’t), reflected in the main characters of these two stories. Neither of them wants their daughter to die. Neither of them wants the world to be the way it is. But both also find strength, to do what needs to be done (for me, that need was to acquiesce to my mother’s wishes to die at home surrounded by loved ones instead of in a hospital). There is hope even in their despondency.

And that is why I say that Beth Cato, especially in her short fiction, has the ability to rip a reader’s heart out and yet keep us coming back for more. In the past few years, largely due to her Blood of Earth trilogy, she has become one of my favorite writers.

Series Saturday: The Crossover Universe

This is a series about … well, series. I do so love stories that continue across volumes, in whatever form: linked short stories, novels, novellas, television, movies. I’ve already got a list of series I’ve recently read, re-read, watched, or re-watched that I plan to blog about. I might even, down the line, open myself up to letting other people suggest titles I should read/watch and then comment on.

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As regular readers of this blog will have noticed by now, there are a number of things I’m obsessed with: series, short stories, Dracula (and the rest of Bram Stoker’s works), King Arthur, Macbeth, novellas, book series published with a “trade dress” of some kind, television series that last only one season, making lists, redheads, pistachio ice cream (okay, maybe those last two are not quite as obvious if you haven’t been around me in person) … and crossovers. I love when characters from different shows/movies/books appear together in whatever form: full on crossovers, or wink-wink-nudge-nudge passing references.

But as much as I love crossovers, I have friends who love them even more. Friends who love them so much, they’ve written entire books chronicling them. In other words, they’ve written a series about crossovers between literary characters, including Dracula and King Arthur, from movies, television, novels, novellas, short stories and comic books. That combination obviously pushes a lot of my buttons.

The series is called Crossovers: A Secret History of the World. Volumes 1 (from the Dawn of Time to 1939) and 2 (1940 to The Future) were written by Win Scott Eckert and published by Black Coat Press in 2010. Win passed the very heavy baton to Sean Lee Levin, who wrote Crossovers Expanded Volumes 1 and 2 which were published by Meteor House Press in 2016. Crossovers published since 2016 have been chronicled by Sean Lee Levin in a Crossovers Universe group on Facebook.

There is some impressive scholarship and dedication that went into producing these books. The average length of each volume is 450 pages. That’s a lot of reading, viewing, checking sources, and cross-referencing. Every entry includes a synopsis of the crossover, indicates where the characters/settings/objects in the crossover first appeared, and identifies the creators of said characters/settings/objects.

This is not just a random collection of chronologically-organized entries featuring every crossover in existence. There are rules to this Crossover Universe that Win and Sean have curated, rules that help organize the entire idea and present a cohesive whole despite how disparate the source material and authors referenced are.

Win built the concept off of Philip Jose Farmer’s “Wold Newton Family” literary biographies of Tarzan and Doc Savage, where the idea was that Burroughs and Dent (and many other authors) simply fictionalized true events that took place in “the world outside our window.” Thus, the basic tenet of the Crossover Universe: if it changes the history we know or presents the world we know as technologically more advanced than it really is, it doesn’t fit in this particular CU. So first instance, there are very few costumed, highly-powered super-heroes in the mix, and what few there are usually have notations that in the Crossover Universe, those characters are not as powerful or as world-changing. There are a lot of “street level costumed crusaders” in the mix, though – from the Lone Ranger to the various iterations of The Green Hornet and Batman to more recent folks like Luke Cage and Iron Fist. This is vital to maintaining the basic conceit of the Crossover Universe: costumed crusaders in trench coats or martial arts gear might get a lot of notice at the local level, and may even become “urban legends” (I’m looking at you, Batman), but entire teams of gaudily-costumed flying, fiery, winged, giant super-heroes and their super-tech crafts would be way too much for the “world outside our window.”

Likewise, Kaiju are also effectively off the table as their movie rampages destroy whole cities, but there are notations that some smaller version of Godzilla, for instance, exist in the CU with less world-devastating events. And of course Skull Island and King Kong exist here. There are no full-scale zombie outbreaks, but smaller localized zombie events that are quickly quelled and pass into being urban legends have happened in the CU. Vampiric, demonic and alien convergences the entire world notices are out (sorry, Independence Day fans), but smaller vampiric communities (The Lost Boys), deals with the devil (too numerous to list) and hidden aliens (hi, X-Files) are all frequent reasons for characters to crossover.

What else is in? Prehistoric characters from Conan to Ayesha to Hadon of Opar. Historical fiction characters like King Arthur, Solomon Kane, The Three Musketeers, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and Dracula. Famous detectives like Holmes, Miss Marple and Lincoln Rhyme are included, as are occult/paranormal detectives from Thomas Carnacki to Carl Kolchak to Buffy Summers and the Mulder-Scully team. Slasher flicks are rife with crossovers. And because it would be unprofessional not to mention it, one of my own stories is included: “So Much Loss,” taking place in 1897, in which Arthur Holmwood and Jack Seward, having moved in together and declared their love after the events of Dracula, mourn the loss of Lucy Westenra and team up with French occult investigator Sar Dubnotal to deal with one of Lucy’s unfortunate legacies. (The story also features a sneaky tie to the television series Lost, just for the heck of it.)

More stories featuring crossovers are published weekly. Not all of them fit the continuity established by Win and Sean; some of them purport to tell the “true story” of an earlier work in a way that doesn’t fit with the original works timeframe or facts while some repeat stories already told by others. There are, after all, only so many times Holmes can have met Dracula or Jack the Ripper “for the first time.” There are only so many times Mars can invade Earth before the general public begins to notice it’s not just mass hysteria. There are only so many disparate futures a universe can have. If the contradictions are small and easily reconciled, the authors engage in a bit of “creative mythography” to make them fit. If the details are just too incongruous, the stories are relegated to “exciting alternate universes.” The idea has always been to be as inclusive as possible while still keeping some organization to the whole, and Eckert and Levin succeed at making it all consistent.

Of course, anyone can create their own universe which characters crossover. Want more superheroes in your mix? Want none at all? Want to completely remove the works of authors you don’t like? Go for it, make it your own. I love reading different people’s takes on what is or isn’t in their particular head-canon of crossovers. But I have to give, and will always give, Win Scott Eckert and Sean Lee Levin for creating such a comprehensive, creative, and consistent Crossover Universe through these four books and Sean’s ongoing Crossover Universe Facebook page.

Top Ten(ish): Stephen King Books

Top Ten(ish) is a new series on the blog, in which I list of ten or so of my favorite things that have something in common: books by the same author or editor or publisher; music by the same band/performer, etc. Feel free to suggest topics (although if I don’t have a deep enough catalogue of experience with the category, I may choose not to post about it). The (ish) allows me to run slightly higher or lower, because exactly 10 is often hard for me to decide. Note: they’re MY favorites, for a variety of reasons not always having to do with quality alone. I’m not saying they are The Best (in fact, I never make that determination, about anything). Your Mileage May Vary (YMMV). Please, don’t yuck my yum and tell me how I’m completely wrong about anything on this list.

 

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Today’s inaugural Top Ten(ish) post: Stephen King Books, in no particular order other than #1:

1.       ‘Salem’s Lot: I sincerely doubt anything will ever knock this novel from the top spot. I’ve read it about as many times as I’ve read Dracula. I love the sweep of the narrative, the sense that the infestation is so much bigger than the rag-tag band that is fighting it. I love the main characters. And every time I read the scene where Danny Glick shows up at Mark Petrie’s second-floor bedroom window I find myself back in 13-year-old Anthony’s panicked mind – when I first read the scene, it was a windy night and something scratched at my window; I looked and saw red eyes for a second. It turned out to be a raccoon on a tree branch, but I don’t think I’ve ever thrown a book across a room so quickly nor screamed quite so loud.

2.       Cycle of the Werewolf: I’m a bit of a sucker for books that are set up to match a calendar of some kind, whether it’s a chapter per day, per week, per month or per year. This one works so well on that level and as a novella, which is my favorite length to read. And of course, in the edition I have, the Bernie Wrightson art just makes the whole thing even better. (Admission: pretty sure I saw the movie Silver Bullet before I read the book on which it’s based. I like both, but when push comes to shove in this case, I think the book is far superior.)

3.       The Dark Half: I’m also a sucker for books where the main character is a writer, especially if that writer gets involved in supernatural or criminal shenanigans (See: ‘Salem’s Lot previously, and also the next entry on the list). Thad Beaumont may be one of my favorite characters of all time, and definitely one of my favorite King characters. I love the pacing and the reveals on this one, and the glimpses into how Thad wrote versus how George Stark wrote. Interestingly, when the book was released it was touted as the first part of King’s “final Castle Rock trilogy,” followed by the story “The Sun Dog” (which I read and liked) and the novel Needful Things, which is among the King books I haven’t read yet.

4.       Misery: Oh, Annie Wilkes, perhaps one of King’s greatest creations. As a play lover, I’ve always been fascinated by how a writer keeps the audience’s interest up when there are only two characters in the entire story, and I think this novel is something of a masterwork in that regard. Yes, there are the chapters with the new Misery novel Paul Sheldon is writing under duress, but otherwise for the most part it’s just Annie and Paul in a house. And every page is riveting. (Even moreso the movie, which may be one of the few times I like the movie slightly more than the book.)

5.       The Dead Zone: My memory’s getting rusty, but I’m pretty sure this was the second King novel I ever read (after ‘Salem’s Lot and before Cujo) and it has always stuck with me: Johnny’s sense of loss and disconnectedness after his five-year coma turning into a sense of mission as he realizes what he can do; the look into the seedier side of politics (very impressionable on a 13- or 14-year old small-town boy); the apocalyptic nature of the whole thing. I am way overdue for a re-read of this one.

6.       Night Shift: I am a short story fanatic (someday maybe I’ll write a post about why). I may not have read every Stephen King novel, but I have read every short story and novella collection and this was the first (and may have been the second King book I read; I know I read it around the same time as The Dead Zone and Cujo but can no longer remember the exact order). I know people love King’s dictionary-size works, but I think he’s a master of the short form. In this particular volume, favorites include “Jerusalem’s Lot,” “Sometimes They Come Back,” “Quitters, Inc.,” “Children of the Corn,” and “One for The Road.”

7.       Different Seasons: I might have to credit this volume for instilling my love of novellas (alongside Robert Silverberg’s To Open the Sky). Three out of the four included in this volume blew me away, showing me how a writer could step outside of their identified-with genre and still be fantastic. There’s barely a hint of horror at all in “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption,” and no supernatural element to the horror of either “The Body” or “Apt Pupil” (which contrast two very different childhoods to great effect). And all three captivate me from start to finish. The only novella herein that I rarely re-read is “The Breathing Method.” When I first read it, it felt too much like Peter Straub’s Ghost Story in terms of set-up (I was young, opinionated, and unaware of the tradition of “gentlemen’s club stories.” Sue me.); I really should try to read it with fresh eyes.

8.       Nightmares and Dreamscapes: So yeah, there are a few themes among this list, as you can tell. More great short stories (perhaps I should do a separate post about Top Ten(ish) Stephen King short stories?). Favorites in this particular collection include “The Night Flier,” “Popsy,” “Home Delivery,” “Crouch End,” “The House on Maple Street,” “The Doctor’s Case,” and “Umney’s Last Case.”

9.       Cujo: Either the third or fourth King book I ever read (again, that pesky rusty memory). Another time I saw the movie before the book. In fact I almost didn’t read the book because the movie holds a not-pleasant memory for me: a friend and I went to see it and for various reasons got there late and ended up sitting in the second row. I developed a headache throughout the movie, and when we got to the scene where Cujo circles the car, the constant eye-view motion got to me, and I ran out of the theater to puke up my popcorn (the first of two times that’s ever happened to me). And of course got teased mercilessly. Pretty sure I never went to a movie with that friend again. The book was phenomenal, partly because another thing I love is books where the characters (and sometimes the reader) are unsure as to whether events have a basis in the supernatural or have a mundane explanation.

10.   Lisey’s Story: I had taken a long break from Stephen King novels, for no apparent reason, but December of 2006 brought me back to it, with almost back-to-back reads of The Colorado Kid (the first Hard Case Crime imprint release I read, leading to my love of that line and thus covered in a future post) and Lisey’s Story. I was in a rough place at the time: unexpectedly between jobs, still not quite over the death of my mother almost two years earlier, with heavy depression, questioning my abilities as a teacher and as a writer … and Lisey Landon’s loss and memories resonated with me. And look at that – another book in which a writer and his secrets take center-stage (or close to it), although this time we see that all through the lens of the writer’s wife/widow.

11.   Skeleton Crew: Have I mentioned how much I love short stories, and how much I love Stephen King’s short stories in particular? I’m not sure that’s been made clear enough in the preceding 10 entries. (That’s a joke, son. Poking a little fun at myself. All the best writers and bloggers do it.) In this volume, the stand-outs for me personally are “The Mist,” “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut,” “The Raft,” “Word Processor of the Gods,” “The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet,” and “The Reach.”

12.   The Stand Complete and Uncut: Look, I don’t hate King’s doorstop-size novels. If I did, there’s no way the uncut version of The Stand would be on this list at all. I just in general struggle with 1,000+ page books: they’re a big investment, and I find they often take a long time to really “get going.” But The Stand is an exception to that trend: it starts with a bang, and then the swell of characters and locations carries you along until the characters come together and shit really starts to happen. Images sit in my mind’s eye years after reading it: Trashcan Man’s irradiated skin; the mystery of Mother Abigail, the skeeviness of Harold Lauder, the connection between Franny and Stu, the sacrifice of Nick Andros, and of course the big final confrontation.

Okay, Constant Readers: your turn! Hit the comments and tell me what your favorite King books are – put please do so without denigrating what other people love.

Series Saturday: DC's FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL

This is a series about … well, series. I do so love stories that continue across volumes, in whatever form: linked short stories, novels, novellas, television, movies. I’ve already got a list of series I’ve recently read, re-read, watched, or re-watched that I plan to blog about. I might even, down the line, open myself up to letting other people suggest titles I should read/watch and then comment on.

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As much as the size of my comic book collection has fluctuated over the decades, there are certain series that I have just never been able to part with. It is nostalgia and sentimental value that drives these decisions rather than monetary – anyone who has seen my collection knows that I’m all about readability and favorite characters and not about getting the most value. I can’t imagine the day will come that will see me purchasing a “slabbed-and-graded” copy of any comic book. All of this is why there are what some would consider to be real “quirky gems” in my boxes.

And one of those quirky gems is the 1975-1976 DC series called First Issue Special. The idea, as explained by series editor Gerry Conway in the recently-released hardcover reprint volume, came from DC publisher Carmine Infantino: since new first issues sell better than anything else, why not a series that was all first issues, and anything that really caught readership attention would get spun off into an on-going title? I won’t reiterate the logistic issues Conway explains in his hardcover Introduction. I will say that the concept made for one of the most eclectic mixes of characters and creators one is likely to find under a single title.

The idea of “try-out” titles was nothing new by the mid-70s. DC’s Showcase title, defunct by this point but due to be revived in 1977 for a short run, was the book that launched the Silver Age with try-out revivals of The Flash, Green Lantern, and others. The Justice League and the Teen Titans got their try-out in the pages of The Brave & The Bold. Over at Marvel, try-out series included Marvel Premiere (which launched Iron Fist, Warlock, and a Doctor Strange revival, as well as an Alice Cooper issue), Marvel Spotlight ( which gave us Werewolf By Night, Ghost Rider, Son of Satan, and Spider-Woman), and Marvel Feature (which introduced The Defenders, and launched Red Sonja as well as the Thing’s team-up title, Marvel Two-in-One). What set First Issue Special apart was that no character or concept was given more than one issue to prove itself, because featuring a character in more than one issue would contradict the idea that every issue was a “first” issue.

The line-up of creators alone is impressive: three issues written and drawn by Jack Kirby, two written by Joe Simon, work by Marty Pasko, Walt Simonson, Steve Ditko, Mike Grell, Robert Kanigher, Bob Haney, Ramona Fradon and Conway himself. Not all of these folks were necessarily at the top of their games here, but that was probably as much from the rushed production schedule as anything. According to Conway’s introduction, it sounds like concepts were picked as much because they could be executed quickly as because they might be any good.

The characters were a mix of previously-established properties like Doctor Fate, the Creeper, the New Gods, Manhunter, and Metamorpho and new concepts. The newly-introduced concepts ran the gamut from solo super-heroes and teams (Codename: Assassin and The Outsiders) to boy gangs (The Green Team and The Dingbats of Danger Street) to fantasy (Atlas), pulp-adventure (The Warlord), gritty crime drama (Lady Cop) and science fiction (a new version of Starman).

Of the three Kirby issues, his revamp of classic Gold Age character The Manhunter probably holds up the best, a “passing of the mantle” type story that I think gets unjustly overshadowed by the Archie Goodwin-Walt Simonson Manhunter revamp that debuted in Detective Comics around this same time. The Goodwin/Simonson was more spy thriller than super-hero, while this Kirby issue features classic Kirby throwbacks to Golden Age over-the-top-ness (the villain in the first half of the story has a Hall of Talking Heads to taunt the hero!), and there’s really no reason both could not have been successful. The Kirby Manhunter, Mark Shaw, did eventually show up in issues of Justice League written by Steve Englehart. The Kirby issue that intrigued young me the most, though, was the very first First issue Special: Atlas. It always amazed me how Kirby managed to make even “high fantasy” concepts looks science-fictional, and that’s totally true here. Young me loved Greek mythology, and didn’t seem to mind (and still doesn’t) that this version of Atlas is nothing at all like his Titan namesake. Sadly, the character didn’t catch enough interest, although he’d be used later and to lesser effect in Superman stories written by James Robinson.

It’s also of interest that both Jack Kirby and Joe Simon took First Issue Special as a chance to return to their heyday as creators of “boy gang” characters (see The Newsboy Legion, the Boy Commandoes, and Boys’ Ranch). Kirby introduced The Dingbats of Danger Street (which apparently had been given the go-ahead as an on-going but then was yanked from the schedule with only the first of three completed issues seeing print here) while Joe Simon wrote (with art by Jerry Grandenetti) The Green Team. Talk about taking concepts in complete opposite directions! Kirby’s Dingbats are street-level kids fighting costumed supervillains, while Simon’s group are all young millionaires whose biggest concern is a crowd trying to shut down a project they’ve backed (also, awkwardly, the token black kid only becomes a millionaire by accident while the others are born into – and their privilege shows. Even in the 70s, this was obvious to me and made the Green Team my least favorite issue of the run). The Dingbats eventually showed up in some Superman stories and the Green Team in work by Grant Morrison in the 2000s.

Other than Atlas, my two favorite “new concept” issues were The Warlord and Starman. The Warlord was Mike Grell’s take on the classic pulp-adventure “hollow Earth” concept, following in the footsteps of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Jules Verne but putting his own distinct spin on it. Warlord is the one First Issue Special character to successfully spin out into a long-running series, but moreso because it was planned that way from the beginning rather than from immediate reader response. Regardless, I loved everything about the character, the world of Skartaris, and the series that followed. Grell has also always been one of my favorite artists and he’s at the top of his game in this issue. The science-fictional Starman, about a lone alien rebel looking to protect Earth from invasion by his own warrior society, had lots of promise that never got the chance to shine. I’d like to think if the character had had a multi-issue tryout in Showcase a few years later he might have taken off (although then much of what James Robinson eventually did with the character in his own Starman revival decades later might have been vastly different).

At the time of publication, I can’t say that the Lady Cop, Codename: Assassin, or The Outsiders issues made any strong impressions on me. Rereading them now, the first two are pretty solid character introductions with potential. I can see the appeal to some of The Outsiders as an ersatz Doom Patrol, with the main characters even less “passing-for-human” that Robotman and Negative Man, but to me the story seems to be trying too hard.

Of the previously-established characters given berths in First Issue Special, the return to Metamorpho by Bob Haney and Ramona Fradon is probably the most fun, a ridiculous non-stop romp through Washington DC’s landmarks to stop a vengeful ghost. Some of Haney’s dialogue is over-the-top, especially for lovesick goon Java, but Fradon’s art is spot-on. The Creeper story attempts to establish a new norm for the hero. It’s a good enough story, making use of a little-remembered (at the time) Batman villain, but I think it loses something by not having original creator Steve Ditko write as well as draw the story. The “Return of the New Gods” (also the series’ final issue) is pretty much one long fight scene and feels a bit rushed story-wise (trying to do too much to establish that these are the classic Kirby characters but also different) and art-wise (Mike Vosburg’s pencils feel much more dynamic in the Starman story the preceding issue), almost like the creators were pushed to hit a deadline.

The stand-out among these previously-established characters is clearly the Marty Pasko-scripted, Water Simonson-drawn Doctor Fate issue: a great story that builds on Fate’s history and lays the groundwork for later Doctor Fate solo features. I really wish this one had gone to series.

First Issue Special may have varied in quality across its short run, but conceptually it was more hit than miss for this reader, and I’m glad I still own all of the original issues as well as the new hardcover reprint. Now if DC would just get on the ball and give us hardcover or trade paperback collections of the one on-going series that successfully spun out of First Issue Special, Mike Grell’s The Warlord, I’d be really happy.

Reading Round-Up: April 2020

Continuing the monthly summaries of what I’ve been reading and writing.

 

BOOKS

To keep my numbers consistent with what I have listed on Goodreads, I count completed magazine issues as “books.” I read or listened to 11 books in April: 5 in print, 5 in e-book format, and 1 in audio format. They were:

1.       Lightspeed Magazine #119 (April 2020 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams. The usual fine assortment of sf and fantasy short stories. This month’s favorites for me were Yoon Ha Lee’s “Always The Harvest,” Andrew Dana Hudson’s “Voice of their Generation,” Celeste Rita Baker’s “Glass Bottle Dancer,” and Fred Van Lente’s “Neversleeps.”

2.       The Long Goodbye (Philip Marlowe #6) by Raymond Chandler. Marlowe makes a friend, and the friend commits murder and goes on the run, leaving Marlowe to figure out what really happened while he’s arrested as an accomplice. Listened to the abridged audiobook narrated by the always excellent Elliot Gould.

3.       The Burglar in Short Order by Lawrence Block. Finally, a collection of every short story, vignette and non-fiction piece featuring or about the writing/creation of Block’s burglar/bookshop owner Bernie Rhodenbarr. Not a bad piece in the bunch, including a new essay about how certain characters don’t age but do sometimes fade gracefully from the spotlight.

4.       Miles Morales: Spider-Man Volume 1: Straight out of Brooklyn by Saladin Ahmed, Javier Garron, others. Like I said about Seanan McGuire’s “Spider-Gwen” runs last month: Saladin Ahmed has gotten me invested in a character I knew almost nothing about before he started writing the character. I knew vaguely who Miles Morales was because of all the press when he succeeded Peter Parker as the Ultimate Universe Spider-Man and again when he was merged onto the main Marvel Earth, but otherwise my only familiarity was from the Into the Spider-Verse movie. Now I’m totally on board with Miles, his family, and his friends.

5.       Miles Morales: Spider-Man Volume 2: Bring on the Bad Guys by Saladin Ahmed, Javier Garron, others. A solid second collection, continuing Miles’ adventures and increasing the tension surrounding what new villain in town Ultimatum wants with Miles.

6.       Common Source (John Simon Thrillers #3) by Bryan Thomas Schmidt. Schmidt’s third near-future-SF buddy cop thriller lowers the city-wide stakes slightly (no terrorists looking to destroy major landmarks) but increases the personal stakes, as android cop Lucas George must deal with several of his brethren gone rogue and his Maker going missing. Full Review coming closer to the book’s May release date. (I received an Advance Review Copy from the publisher.)

7.       How to Flirt in Fairieland & Other Wild Rhymes by C.S.E. Cooney. I am really not a strong poetry reader, and I usually don’t feel equipped to judge poems on anything more than an “I liked it” scale. I can say that I enjoyed this collection of fantasy poems, all of which tell stories one wants to fall into.

8.       Carson of Venus: The Edge of All Worlds by Matt Betts. Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. launches an official, canonical new set of books starting here: the first new official Carson of Venus novel in decades. New canonical Tarzan, Pellucidar and John Carter novels will follow over the coming year. A longer review is forthcoming next week, but suffice to say I loved it and want more! (I received an Advance Review Copy from the publisher.)

9.       A Sinister Quartet, edited by Mike Allen. A wonderful collection of fantasy-horror novellas by C.S.E. Cooney, Jessica P. Wick, Amanda J. McGee, and Editor Mike Allen. I loved every part of this book, but can’t give a more detailed review at the moment pending possible review publication elsewhere. (I received an Advance Review Copy from the publisher.)

10.   The Adventure of the Naked Guide (The Blood-Thirsty Agent #3) by Cynthia Ward. Ward’s third, penultimate, adventure of Lucy Harker takes her from war-time Germany into the hidden world beneath the Earth’s crust for a reunion with family and with old foes. Non-stop action from start to finish.

11.   The Klaus Protocol by Frank Schildiner. A most excellent Russian spy thriller set in the Asian theater of war in the days before World War Two. Full Review HERE.

 

 

STORIES

I have a goal of reading 366 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) this year (366 because it’s a Leap Year). Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it:

1.       “The Least of These” by Veronica Roth, from Lightspeed Magazine #119 (April 2020 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams.

2.       “Always The Harvest” by Yoon Ha Lee

3.       “Voice of Their Generation” by Andrew Dana Hudson

4.       “A Subtle Web: A Tale From The Somadeva Chronicles” by Vandana Singh

5.       “Bow Down Before The Snail King!” by Caleb Wilson

6.       “Glass Bottle Dancer” by Celeste Rita Baker

7.       “Neversleeps” by Fred Van Lente

8.       “The Witch Sleeps” by Rati Mehrotra

9.       “In The Land of Rainbows and Ash” by Seanan McGuire, on the author’s Patreon page.

10.   “How To Submit” by Don Redwood, from Daily Science Fiction, edited by Jonathan Laden and Michele-Lee Barasso

11.   “A Bad Night For Burglars” by Lawrence Block, from The Burglar In Short Order

12.   “Mr. Rhodenbarr, Bookseller, Advises A Young Customer On Seeking A Vocation”

13.   “The Burglar Who Strove To Go Straight”

14.   “Like A Thief in the Night”

15.   “The Burglar Who Dropped In On Elvis”

16.   “The Burglar Who Smelled Smoke”

17.   “The Burglar Who Collected Copernicus”

18.   “The Burglar Takes A Cat”

19.   “Monsters” by Jim Butcher, from Parallel Worlds, edited by L.J. Hachmeister and R.R. Verdi

20.   “The Dark of the Sun” by Christopher Paul Carey, from Carson of Venus: The Edge of All Worlds, edited by Christopher Paul Carey

21.   “The Sinister Quartet (Introduction)” by Mike Allen, from The Sinister Quartet, edited by Mike Allen

22.   “The Twice-Drowned Saint (Being A Tale of Fabulous Gelethel, the Invisible Wonders Who Rule There, And The Apostates Who Try To Escape” by C.S.E. Cooney

23.   “An Unkindness” by Jessica P. Wick

24.   “Viridian” by Amanda J. McGee

25.   “The Comforter” by Mike Allen

 

So that’s 25 short stories in April. Once again under “1 per day,” putting me further behind for the year so far. (April 30th was the 121th day of 2020.)

 

Summary of Reading Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 3 of 14 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  25 read; YTD: 84 of 366 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 2 read; YTD: 9 of 52 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 11 read; YTD: 50 of 125 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 4 of 24 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 0 read/watched.

Complete the Series Challenge: This month: 1 books read; YTD: 6 of 16 read.

                                                                Series fully completed: 0 of 3 planned

Monthly Special Challenge: April was National Poetry Month, so my goal was to read some poetry. I am notoriously not a reader of poetry, but I did manage to read one poetry collection by C.S.E. Cooney.

 

May is Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, so my goal is to read a number of authors either from or descended from that part of the world and maybe squeeze in some non-fiction about that part of the world.

Sunday Shorts: Two Dark Portal Fantasies

Sunday Shorts is a series where I blog about short fiction – from flash to novellas. For the time being, I’m sticking to prose, although it’s been suggested I could expand this feature to include single episodes of anthology television series like The Twilight Zone or individual stories/issues of anthology comics (like the 1970s DC horror or war anthology titles). So anything is possible. But for now, the focus is on short stories.

Portal fantasy stories – where a child passes through a door/window/wardrobe/tornado/etc. and emerges in a fantasy land – are all the rage again these days, especially in short story and novella form. In April, I read two short stories almost back-to-back that approached portal fantasies from a very dark angle.

Seanan McGuire (author of the “Wayward Children” novellas that explore what happens when those portal kids come back to the mundane world) posts a new short story every month on her Patreon for folks who subscribe at a certain level. April’s story was “In the Land of Rainbows and Ash.” You can tell from the title, perhaps, but definitely from the second paragraph (“They are the skeleton keys which, when turned, can open wide the world, because they do not know any better.”) that this is not going to be a happy, light frolic into a fantasy world. The narrator (a gryphon, although her family prefers to be called “griffin”) manipulates the young arrival from the get-go, pushing her towards her destiny in this land. The griffin’s twin natures (nurturing bird and predatory cat) war within herself as she works at the behest of a higher power. The internal conflict is palpable throughout, as is the growing sense of dread that this is not going to end well, all juxtaposed with a fantasy world that is sunny and beautiful, as are the creatures within it.  As is my usual wont, I won’t spoil the ending. I will say that, as with the unconnected-to-this “Wayward Children” books, McGuire’s incredible ability to subvert tropes, her intricate wordplay, her ability to get to you love a character you should be hating with a few small turns of phrase, are all used to full effect here. To read the story, though, you’ll need to subscribe to Seanan’s Patreon at the “short story per month” level.

C. Robert Cargill’s “We Are Where the Nightmares Go” appears as a reprint in the May issue of Lightspeed Magazine (Issue #120. The story will be free on the Lightspeed website on May 21, or you can buy the ebook edition of the issue and read it right away.) Again, we know we’re in for something dark not just from the title but also from the very first paragraph when the author tells us “But those are the children who came back. No one talks about the other children, the ones who walk through basement doors and rabbit holes never to return…” We can be pretty sure that whatever happens, our unnamed protagonist child will not be journeying home again (and shouldn’t the fact that the heroine of the story stays nameless also be a hint we’re not meant to get too attached?). Where the portal world of the McGuire story is a sunny fantasy world with dark secrets, Cargill shows us a nightmare world of killer clowns and a Thing on the Other Side of the Doorway who speaks in obtuse language meant to confuse as much as lead. There’s a gauntlet to be run, mazes and carnivals of dark intent and a series of lost, maimed children to be encountered. The plucky heroine never loses her motivation. Maybe she’ll be the one to break the cycle and make it home after all? Again, I don’t want to spoil the wonderfully dark turn at the end. But I will say Cargill lays the clues out very well along the way. I read the story twice, just because I had to see where the seeds were dropped after reading the ending.

Reading Round-Up: March 2020

Continuing the monthly summaries of what I’ve been reading and writing.

 

Going strictly by these numbers, March was a slow reading month for me. Except not really. It’s just that a good chunk of what I read in March was proofreading, copy-editing or beta-reading on books that won’t be out until later in the year: one novel, two novellas, a memoir, and a large pile of short stories. They’ll be added into the tally for whatever month the books actually come out in.

 

BOOKS

To keep my numbers consistent with what I have listed on Goodreads, I count completed magazine issues as “books.” I read or listened to 8 books in March: 5 in print, 2 in e-book format, and 1 in audio format. They were:

1.       Lightspeed Magazine #118 (March 2020 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams. The usual fine assortment of sf and fantasy short stories. This month’s favorites for me were Kristina Ten’s “Tend To Me,” Tahmeed Shafiq’s “Love and Marriage in the Hexasun Lands,” and A.M. Dellamonica’s “Living The Quiet Life.”

2.       The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark. An intriguing novella set in an alternate Cairo in which magic works and supernatural creatures interact with humanity, with a very steampunk feel. And it’s a mystery, featuring two detectives trying to figure out exactly is haunting the titular tram car and how to exorcize it. Interesting characters, strong world-building.

3.       A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djèlí Clark. This is actually the first novelette set in Clark’s alternate history magic-imbued Cairo, but I read them out of order. The order doesn’t really matter – there are two characters from this one who play supporting roles in the other, but otherwise they are stand-alone tales in the same setting. I really, really loved the lead detective in this one and hope to see more of her. This is a very “fair play” mystery – all the clues are there for the reader to follow.

4.       Choke Hold (Angel Dare #2) by Christa Faust. This made it onto my To Be Read Challenge for 2020 because I should have read it a long time ago. It’s a sequel to Faust’s award-winning first Angel Dare thriller, Money Shot, and it’s every bit as intense and full of violence and sex. The sex isn’t particularly graphic, but it’s also not completely off-screen. Faust is one of only two female authors to appear under the Hard Case Crime imprint, and I have to assume low sales are why we haven’t seen a third Angel Dare book, as this one ends with a strong hint that Angel’s story isn’t over. Sad, because for noir/crime/thriller fans this should be an ideal series.

5.       Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Recommended by my friends Dan and Mikayla, I finally listened to Ali’s first memoir, narrated by the author. What an incredible story of indoctrination and rebellion at the personal level and how it can also affect the larger picture. I find that I get much more out of memoirs when I can listen to the actual author read/perform their own story.

6.       Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider Volume 1: Spider-Geddon by Seanan McGuire, Rosi Kämpe, others. I have been out of touch with most Marvel and DC Comics for a long time, including the Spider-Man family of books. I started buying monthly issues again largely because of the comics work Seanan McGuire, Saladin Ahmed, and Kat Howard have been doing the past two years, including Seanan’s Spider-Gwen runs. I have to say Seanan did a wonderful job introducing me to a character I was completely unfamiliar with and getting me to care about her quickly. And the art is fun, even in the midst of a line-wide crossover event (Spider-Geddon) for which I was not reading ANY of the other titles.

7.       Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider Volume 2: The Impossible Year by Seanan McGuire, Takeshi Miyazawa, others. The second and final Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider volume collects the second half of McGuire’s initial run at the character, setting up the title’s relaunch.  More solid characterization, and lots of “let’s blow up everything in Gwen’s world” scenes.

8.       Ghost-Spider Volume 1: Dog Days Are Over by Seanan McGuire, Takeshi Miyazawa, others. A new, shorter, series title for a relaunch that sees Gwen taking advantage of her status as one of the only Spider-folk who can cross dimensions on her own to go to college on Marvel’s core-Earth where nobody knows who she is. Except the Jackal does, and he wants her as he’s wanted every version of Gwen. McGuire writes the creepy stalker character very well.

 

 

STORIES

I have a goal of reading 366 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) this year (366 because it’s a Leap Year). Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it:

1.       “Giant Steps” by Russell Nichols, from Lightspeed Magazine #118 (March 2020 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams.

2.       “Living The Quiet Life” by A.M. Dellamonica

3.       “Many Happy Returns” by Adam-Troy Castro

4.       “Reliable People” by Charlie Jane Anders

5.       “Viewer, Violator” by Aimee Bender

6.       “Tend To Me” by Kristina Ten

7.       “Three Urban Folk Tales” by Eric Schaller

8.       “Love and Marriage in the Hexasun Lands” by Tahmeed Shafiq

9.       “Another Beautiful Day” by Seanan McGuire, on the author’s Patreon page.

10.   “The All-Night Horror Show” by Orrin Grey, from The Dark #58 (March, 2020), edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Sean Wallace

11.   “The Summer Is Ended and We Are Not Saved” by Natalia Theodoridou

12.   “Escaping Dr. Markoff” by Gabriela Santiago

13.   “Casualty of Peace” by David Tallerman

14.   “Goodbye” by Jim Butcher, from author’s email newsletter

15.   “Whoever Fights Monsters” by Cynthia Ward, from Athena’s Daughters, edited by Jean Rabe

 

So that’s 15 short stories in March. Once again way under “1 per day,” putting me further behind for the year so far. (March 31th was the 91th day of 2020.)

 

Summary of Reading Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 1 read; YTD: 3 of 14 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  15 read; YTD: 58 of 366 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 3 read; YTD: 7 of 52 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 8 read; YTD: 39 of 125 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 1 read; YTD: 4 of 24 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 0 read/watched.

Complete the Series Challenge: This month: 0 books read; YTD: 5 of 16 read.

                                                                Series fully completed: 0 of 3 planned

Monthly Special Challenge: March was Women’s History Month, so my goal was to read primarily female writers. Of the eight books read in March, five were by female authors (okay, yes, three were by Seanan McGuire.) (Also, of the 15 short stories read, 8 were by female authors.)

 

April is National Poetry Month. I am notoriously not a reader of poetry, but I’m going to try to read at least a little.