It's time for another Review of Reviews! Since it's the last day of Women's History Month, I figured I'd include reviews of books by women authors. Is it too cheesy to call it "Women's Future Month" as I have before? I'll let you decide. Anyway, here are my reviews of The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson, Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse, Houston, Houston Do You Read? by James Tiptree, Jr., and Primary Inversion by Catharine Asaro. The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson The Space Between Worlds has a fascinating premise, but I admit I found the execution a bit o ..read more

  For the last few years, I've made posts on the pandemic anniversary, or "pandemiversary," days. Here is one for March 11, 2024. It’s our fourth pandemiversary. It was four years ago today that the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic.  Tomorrow I’m heading to Lobby Day for organized labor here in Tennessee. I’ll be joining my union, United Campus Workers, to lobby state legislators at the capitol in Nashville. For a bit of symmetry, the last time I went to Lobby Day was March 10, 2020, the day before the pandemic was declared. We knew COVID was an issue. We w ..read more

  Last year I wrote a post called "So I Watched All the Oscar Nominees for Best Picture." I didn't set out to do so, but at some point I realized I had seen a few of the nominations and figured I might as well complete my tour. So I did! And it was mostly pretty fun. It didn't hurt that my favorite, Everything Everywhere All At Once, was the winner. Well, dear reader, as Britney Spears once said, "Oops, I did it again."  Like a lot of other people, I was caught up in the Barbenheimer craze last summer. And I caught a few more of the movies at home and a few more in theat ..read more

  Earlier tonight I was lucky to be able to catch the early IMAX premiere of Dune Part Two five days before its official US release date of March 1! Like a lot of Dune nerds, I've been eagerly (obsessively!) anticipating this one since 2021. For those who haven't seen it yet and who aren't Kwisatz Haderachs, here are my 100% spoiler-free initial thoughts on the film! The show I attended was almost entirely sold out. I think there were a few open seats in the front row, but choosing a seat off to the side didn't spare me from sitting in a full row. It's probably been four or five years ..read more

  Me at Connooga in 2017, which was apparently as blurry as the pre-pandemic years now feel. After taking a few years off for the pandemic, I returned to Connooga last year (or at least for Saturday in a somewhat diminished capacity). This year Connooga is this weekend: Feb. 22-24!  For Connooga 2024 I might try Friday and Saturday, and maybe Sunday, although duty requires I be elsewhere later that evening... for the early premiere of Dune, Part 2! (I'll be sure to share some preliminary nonspoilery thoughts of this movie I've been eagerly anticipating for three years.) Thi ..read more

  The Thing Itself by Adam Roberts has been on my list for years, and a cold snap in January seemed like the best time to read it. As a philosopher and science fiction fan, I was already on board for science fiction with a Kant angle, but the obvious links to Lovecraft and John Carpenter's The Thing made it so much MY THING (itself?) that I'm shocked it took me so long to get to it. I'm sure I would have read it sooner if I realized it was so funny (not quite as outright zany as Douglas Adams or The Illuminatus Trilogy and not quite on an Iain M. Banks wavelength, either, but in so ..read more

  Godslayer is the sequel to Carey's Banewreaker, or really it's more of a continuation of one long story. I felt about this second one much the same as the first one: I love the idea of it, but didn't find the execution quite as compelling as I hoped. Also, sometimes authors' styles just don't click with you, and that's probably part of it for me (your taste may vary).  I think another part of it is that there are so many characters (the Dramatis Personae helped immensely!), and I didn't feel like many of them were really fleshed out much. I maybe feel like I got to know Tanaros ..read more

  I was recently in the mood for some unabashed utopian science fiction. I had been saving the second volume of Becky Chambers's Monk and Robot series for the right moment. And I've been meaning to reread all of Iain M. Banks's Culture series ever since I frequently gushed about it so much on this very blog back in the mid-2010's. I need some time to mull it over, but I think Chambers's Monk and Robot series may be one of my all-time favorites. I’d say I want to give it a million stars if that sort of hyperbole didn’t feel contrary to its entire ethos. I loved it so much that I couldn't ..read more

  I had a great time at Chattacon this weekend, which included a fun panel on Dune and Philosophy! Today is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day here in the US. I was looking forward to following up my Chattacon experience with my local MLK Day march and parade, but today we're having some winter weather. The local MLK Day festivities have been postponed. So, I'm home thinking about some of the many great ideas and turns of phrase in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s writings, especially his "Letter From a Birmingham Jail" (which you can read here and includes a lot of great material on the philosop ..read more

  I'm excited to be attending Chattacon once again this year! Chattacon 49 will take place this weekend (Jan. 12-14, 2024) at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee! I've been attending Chattacon for almost a decade now, and for the last six or so years I've been a panelist. I even have a panelist page on the website! I'm really looking forward to seeing friends, acquaintances, and those-people-I-see-at-Chattacon-every-year-but-haven't-gotten-around-to-talking-to-yet. I'm also excited to meet the Guest-of Honor Mary Robinette Kowal (I really loved her Lady Astrona ..read more