Jul 09 2022

A Scandal in Brooklyn by Lauren Wilkinson

This fun new short story puts a modern-day Irene Adler center stage where she belongs! Told through the eyes of her old friend Tommy Diaz, A Scandal In Brooklyn follows Irene as she answers another friend’s request for aid.

Priya Stein hasn’t seen or heard from her husband Victor in days. Turns out that he’s volunteered to participate in a cutting edge tech experiment sponsored by none other than Irene’s estranged tech mogul husband himself. Irene uses her connections to get Priya, Tommy and herself onto the compound so that at least one couple can be happily reunited.

Priya’s relief at learning of her husband’s safety is, alas, short lived. While undergoing a virtual experiment, Victor is stung by digital bees and dies. Neither Irene nor Tommy believes that Grace, the AI responsible for running the simulation, is responsible for his death. Besides, how could a digital bee possibly cause someone to go into anaphylactic shock?

The characterization was the strongest part of this short story, for me. While the mystery was decent, I felt like the story hadn’t been polished enough action-wise, as things just sort of happened one by one. The experience was more like watching dominoes falling than enjoying a story unfold organically. That said, I really did like the characters of Irene and Tommy, and would love to read more of their exploits together. It was fun to hang out with the two of them in this vaguely Holmesian short story. Perhaps more importantly, I really want to see Irene stick it to her hopefully soon-to-be-ex-husband.

The good people behind this story and its accompanying book tour have also provided us with a short interview with Lauren Wilkinson, as well as an excerpt and a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card! Check it all out below.

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Jul 08 2022

Die, Vol. 4: Bleed by Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans & Clayton Cowles

I’ve had time to think about it, and tho this final installment of the RPG-nerd series made me cry, it also made me kind of mad, and this is why: there’s a bizarrely “time to put away childish things” overtone to the ending that really irritated me. Kieron Gillen was trying to tread a fine line here between embracing the real world and showcasing both the benefits but more the downsides of RP and, for me, he ultimately fell too much on the downside. Which makes me sad, because I truly loved Volumes 1 and 2 of this series.

Anyway, in this book, the gang is all back together as they attempt to prevent Die from taking over the real world. After sailing to a creepy island in the middle of nowhere, they find a dungeon that’s equal parts Call Of Cthulhu and Mines of Moria. But the mobs they face within are greater than anything they’ve ever had to defeat before, and the final boss’ challenge a greater conundrum than anything they’ve had to solve to get here.

Interspersed with their adventure/ordeal are brief pages showing what’s going on in the outside/real world while they’re stuck in Die. Mild spoiler: they do make it back out, but not all of them and not all the better for wear. Ash, especially, needs to confront her own demons, not only in her gender identity but in the ambivalence she has about returning to the real world, which she secretly fears might have been the reason Sol was lost to them all that time ago. And, you know, I really like how this series emphasises how useful RPGs are for helping people explore genderfluidity and sexuality, but it was handled in, I hate to say this, a surprisingly old-fashioned conservative manner. Even at the ripe old age of 44, I felt that the thinking here was very end of the 20th century, which I hate to remind y’all was over twenty years ago. I get that Ash’s fears and concerns were realistic, but I wish we’d seen more of their courage in the real world once all was said and done.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/08/die-vol-4-bleed-by-kieron-gillen-stephanie-hans-clayton-cowles/

Jul 07 2022

Asterix Omnibus #7 by Rene Goscinny & Albert Uderzo

ably translated from the French by Joe Johnson.

This omnnibus collects brand new translations of three full Asterix tales, originally written in the 1970s: Asterix And The Soothsayer, Asterix In Corsica, and Asterix And Caesar’s Gifts. Perhaps most interestingly, it also includes an afterword by Alexander Simmons, writer and founder of Kids’ ComicCon, who addresses the casual racism of the comics, tho not to any great extent. Still, it was nice to see those instances of mildly xenophobic humor pointed out, as they definitely don’t translate well to the mores of this day and age.

Which is not however an accusation one can level at the rest of the book! The puns and other associated wordplay still elicit as much, if not more, laughter from me than they did when I first read the Asterix comics back in the 80s. The main characters are Asterix, a small hero with a big heart; Obelix, the menhir deliveryman who is his best friend, and Dogmatix, Obelix’s scrappy little white dog. If you don’t laugh at the fact that some of the surrounding Roman encampments are named Laudunum and Aquarium, then yes, perhaps these are not the books for you. But if you’d like some nimble linguistic jokes to go with the ultimately hopeful, and often well-researched, tales of a small Gaulish village resisting the efforts of the steamrolling Romans to assimilate them into empire, then these are delightful must-reads!

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/07/asterix-omnibus-7-by-rene-goscinny-albert-uderzo/

Jul 06 2022

Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I think Doug liked this one a lot more than I did.

Elder Race by Adrian TchaikovskyLynesse Fourth Daughter is a princess who still believes in the old chivalric tales of courage and oaths. When the lands adjoining her mother’s Lanessite Empire are overrun by what the refugees refer to as demons, she chafes at the prevailing wisdom that the refugees are exaggerating and that Lanessite should adopt a wait and see attitude to the threat, while reluctantly allowing refugees shelter on their borders. With the assistance of Esha Free Mark, a woman from an amphibious strain of humanity which counts itself mostly free of Lanessite rule, Lynesse takes it upon herself to invoke the ancient oaths and wake the last of the Elder Race, the sorcerer Nyrgoth Elder. She believes that the demons are an existential threat to humanity, and that the sorcerer is their only hope.

Nyr Illim Tevitch is an anthropologist who freely admits that he probably isn’t as good at his job as he should be. Sent with a team to observe this offshoot civilization that grew out of Earth’s once-active interstellar colonization program, he was the one who volunteered to stay behind when the rest went home to investigate what seemed to be an ongoing breakdown in communications between them and headquarters. The others never came back, and the breakdown seemed irreparable. Still, he has his satellite and his technology, allowing him to go into deep hibernation beneath active phases of observation, in hopes of one day being called back, too. Oh, tho one time he did actively involve himself in assisting Astresse Regent against an usurper who had found a way to reawaken old-Earth technology, telling himself it was better that he use his tech to disrupt the adoption of same by unskilled hands (tho he knows that that reasoning was really an excuse to spend time with the lovely queen.)

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Jul 05 2022

The Nightmare Brigade #2: Into the Woods by Franck Thilliez, Yomgui Dumont & Drac

ably translated from the original French by Joe Johnson.

Now that the clunky but necessary exposition has been established in Volume 1, the creative team behind this series can more fully and poignantly explore the world they’ve built here in the follow-up volume. Esteban has discovered that he’s more than just an orphan discovered wandering in the nearby woods by Dr Albert Angus, renowned dream psychologist and therapist. He suspects that he’s actually a creature pulled out of a real person’s nightmares, and that the same can be said of Sarah, another orphaned teenager who’s come to live at Dr Angus’ sprawling clinic/estate.

But before he can investigate their origins, he has to figure out a way to escape this strange new dream in which he finds himself. His “parents” tell him the clinic was all a hallucination, while a sinister circus takes advantage of the dream therapy machines and Dr Angus himself. Esteban will have to not only fight his way into the estate but also figure out how to survive Dr Angus’ nightmare in order to get to the truth of what’s happening to everyone he holds dear.

The second issue in the volume has Esteban trying to persuade Sarah of their shared past, and taking her with him to investigate further. Meanwhile, local bully Alex draws the attention of a monster while trying to find proof that Tristan can actually walk. The way these two plotlines intersect was tremendously satisfying, as was Tristan’s confession to the two people he regards as siblings. I loved so much how the kids band together, and how even when they fight, they realize that love connects them. It’s refreshing to see angst and trauma dealt with healthily, with minimal wallowing.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/05/the-nightmare-brigade-2-into-the-woods-by-franck-thilliez-yomgui-dumont-drac/

Jul 03 2022

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Becky Chambers dedicates A Psalm for the Wild-Built to “anybody who could use a break,” and the novella is, on the whole, very restful. It’s not without conflict, but it is a break from the grim, from the horrible, and it shows people trying to be their best selves. That’s not easy, and one person’s best self may still conflict with another’s, so the story is not an endless round of happy happy joy joy.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Generations ago, the humans of Panga let their robots and artificial intelligences go. The robots had an Awakening, and departed for the wilderness. Here is how their speaker explained why they were declining an offer to join human society as free citizens: “All we have ever known is a life of human design, from our bodies to our work to the buildings we are housed in. We thank you for not keeping us here against our will, and we mean no disrespect to your offer, but it is our wish to leave your cities entirely, so that we may observe that which has no design—the untouched wilderness.” (p. 2) The humans of Panga did not fight to keep their robot servants; instead, they completely reordered their society to do without robotic help.

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Jul 02 2022

Swords Against Wizardry by Fritz Leiber

Further into the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Fritz Leiber tends toward longer stories. Swords Against Wizardry is mainly two tales, “Stardock” and “The Lords of Quarmall.” The other two in the volume, “In the Witch’s Tent” and “The Two Best Thieves in Lankhmar” are little more than stage directions setting up the longer works, although the latter shows how Fafhrd and the Mouser manage to lose some hard-won loot — something Leiber usually only alludes to — and how they might try to claim the title’s title for themselves, but how wrong they would be.

Swords Against Wizardry by Fritz Leiber

In “Stardock” the pair are following enigmatic hints of priceless treasure to be found at the top of the highest mountain in the range bordering Fafhrd’s native Cold Wastes. The peak gets its name from legends that the gods launched the stars from its top, and that some celestial bodies might still stop and dock there. There are some monsters on the way up, and some human opponents who seem to be racing Fafhrd and the Mouser to the same goal, but most of the story is concerned with two men battling the mountain.

Leiber brings to life the terror of the early days of alpinism, when climbers with very little gear pitted themselves against seemingly impossible heights. His heroes try to keep up their usual light-hearted banter in the face of deadly danger, but after a while even their irrepressible spirits give way to intense concentration. Leiber captures how easily small mistakes can multiply into deadly peril, or how climbers can do everything right and still find themselves in a terrible fix. And that’s without apparently invisible beasts having a run at them, or rival climbers who would just as soon see Leiber’s heroes dead. Then an unexpected door or two open, and the fantastic element comes into its own.

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Jul 01 2022

Garden Of Earthly Bodies by Sally Oliver

I must say, the American title is much better than the painfully generic The Weight Of Loss this novel was saddled with across the pond. Garden Of Earthly Bodies at least hints at the speculative fiction plot contained within these pages.

That plot is the story of Marianne, who is grieving the death of her beloved younger sister Marie. She lives with her boyfriend Richard in London, but feels a growing alienation from him as her depression and perverse refusal to listen to her doctors drives a wedge between them. When she wakes up one day to find a strange black hair growing out of her back, she doesn’t really want to see anyone about it, since she mostly ignores medical advice anyway. But when efforts to remove both the first and subsequent hairs that begin springing up along her spine lead to a temporary madness, even she realizes that this is something way beyond her capacity to deal with on her own.

Her GP recommends a residential retreat in Wales called Nede. Upon arrival, Marianne decides that she decidedly isn’t a fan of Nede’s wellness menus or sanatorium vibe, but will admit that the forest-bathing aspect of the place is soothing. Finding a face from the past feels like finding a lifeline, but as the retreat’s strange practices begin to get to her, Marianne starts looking for a way to escape this remote estate. Trouble is, the hairs on her back, now longer and more lush than they were before she arrived, seem to want her to stay…

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Jun 30 2022

Ralph Azham Vol 1: Black Are The Stars by Lewis Trondheim

with colors by Brigitte Findakly and translations from the original French by Kim Thompson and Joe Johnson.

I’m not sure what I expected when I cracked open this volume of anthropomorphic animals living in the countryside. From quite early on you see that our title character Ralph Azham is a bit of a loser, the town’s pariah and scapegoat after he was sent back from Astolia as a teen, his status as a Chosen One rescinded despite the manifestation of powers that turned his bill (he’s vaguely duck-like) and hair blue. Since then, he’s helped his Dad eke out a living and tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to stay out of trouble, an endeavour not helped by his smart mouth and slacker attitude.

But trouble is coming for their village in the form of Vom Syrus and his militant Horde. When plans to defend the village go awry, Ralph and another survivor, young Raoul, take off to find the Emissaries who will hopefully bring them back to Astolia and give them a second chance at being Chosen Ones who can help protect their kingdom. But not everything is as it seems among the Emissaries, and Ralph will soon discover that he’s leapt from the frying pan straight into the fire. Will he be able to rescue himself and perhaps countless others on his journey from being a maladjusted weirdo to becoming perhaps the only person who can save the kingdom from enemies without and within?

Despite the cartoony art style, this feudal adventure is not a kids’ book, and is indeed fascinating for telling a story without clear-cut good and evil. While Lewis Trondheim and I differ on one key point of what constitutes a ghost, I found the murky morality of the story altogether convincing. Ralph as a protagonist is both compelling and annoying, taking no responsibility for anything so that he can claim innocence in all things. This stems less from maliciousness than from a laziness and lack of maturity that is rooted, ultimately, in a refusal to conform. While this is not a bad thing per se, it is a deeply and understandably irritating thing to the people around him.

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Jun 29 2022

Cosplay: A History by Andrew Liptak

Wow, what a comprehensive look this is at the past and present of cosplay!

I’ve always loved dressing up, ever since my parents bought me a gorgeous Snow White dress that I was forbidden to wear except on Special Occasions, so I maybe got to wear it twice before outgrowing it as a child (which absolutely underscores for me the fact that you shouldn’t save your pretty clothes for other people’s “occasions” but should wear them when you feel you want to.) But wearing fancy dress or even a costume is quite different from cosplaying in this day and age. The closest I got to it was me being entirely meta and cosplaying as my own original character Soshi Idaurin after she made her way onto a Legend Of The Five Rings card, my prize for winning a role-playing competition at Origins some time before. I had no say in the art on my card, but did my best to combine the outfit depicted there with my character’s later RP developments for the costume I eventually wore to GenCon a few years later. People stopped me for photos and I had a lovely time, tho cosplay was 100% incidental to why I was there. And in fairness, my outfit was more for the purposes of LARPing than anything else, tho I imagine in my case that there was a pretty thin line between the two to begin with.

Anyhoo, this is all to say that I’ve never super felt interested in dressing up as someone else’s character but I can absolutely understand the impulse to get dressed in costume when it is, perhaps, less than socially acceptable to do so. Fortunately, it is getting more and more socially acceptable with the rise of geek culture, as Andrew Liptak masterfully illustrates in this very thorough look at the hobby. From the first European masquerade balls where Jules Verne encouraged attendees to dress as characters from his novels, to the first science-fiction fan conventions in mid 1900s America, to the very coining of the term “cosplay” by a Japanese writer seeking to translate the American scene for manga- and anime-loving readers back home, Mr Liptak vividly describes the birth of cosplay and its struggles towards mainstream acceptance along the way.

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