A Hugo Review: Best Novelette - "The Tomato Thief", by Ursula Vernon

"The Tomato Thief", by Ursula Vernon is about a woman determined to help others in the desert.

Ah, Ursula Vernon. One of my favorite writers now. This story revisits a character from Jackalope Wives, a great story if you haven't read it. However, it stands completely on its own with references to the events of the former story lending a little flavor. Quite a few of Vernon's stories are like folk tales you might tell around a fire late at night - you aren't expected to take it too seriously or believe every word, but on the other hand, you know the events happened because the story is being told. It feels very real and American to me. The Grandma Harken stories are set in a desert which hasn't quite left the Old West behind, and a world in which the environment plays a much bigger part of life than in ours.

The good: This story is tightly plotted, with Grandma just wanting a ripe tomato fresh from the vine, only to fall into an adventure when the ripe ones disappear. The train-gods were just... wow. Amazing history and oddly fun. Or course a universe that has jackalopes would have trains that are more than trains. I love the way they are capricious gods, but very good about delivering letters, which they consider to be prayers. As usual, Grandma herself is a fantastic character who knows a lot about a lot of different things, and the introduction of Anna was more perfect than I expected. I also liked the big bad and was amused how Grandma finally dealt with the problem - it always pays to follow the rules of the desert.

The bad: I suppose, if I'm really reaching for a nit to pick, then I'd ask why the big bad wanted the tomatoes. However, that's a seriously silly nit.

Conclusion: An excellent story, as is usual from Vernon, and definitely at the top of my ballot now. We'll have to see if either of the other two I'm going to read can knock it out of first place.

Best Novelette: I've read "The Art of Space Travel", "You'll Surely Drown Here If You Stay", and "The Tomato Thief". I need to read "The Jewel and Her Lapidary" and "Touring with the Alien". I do not plan on reading the sixth finalist.

Reviews of 2017 Hugo Finalists

Patreon Thoughts

I very much like the idea of Patreon. It allows people to support their favorite creators directly, becoming literally a Patron of the Arts, and provides that money (minus a 5% fee from the website) to help support people who want to create.

I was thinking about this last night as I read Namesake until 3:30 a.m. The creators of that worthy Oz-related webcomic have a Patreon account, and I would absolutely throw in money if Eric and I were in a better financial place.

Another one of my favorite artist/writers, Ursula Vernon also has an account. Again, if I were in a better financial situation, she'd get something from me.

Other great creators like Brad Guigar, Tom Siddell, Shawn Lenore and Gordon McAlpin also take advantage of the system. Unshelved, Wasted Talent and BattlePug have accounts.

It seems to work best for people who already have a large following and hope that they can get some support. The best folks still provide everything for free to all users, but might provide early access to supporters, or sometimes sketches and such that they normally wouldn't have posted.

I do not have a large following, nor do I suspect that this would get me any money at all, but I still have this irrational urge to start my own Patreon account and see if anyone cares enough about my blogs and websites to bother supporting me. I looked through a lot of accounts and saw a few people making enough to live on, but most people are making $50 or less a month. Still, $5 a month would buy bread and milk. And maybe people would support me giving out Halloween comics again someday. My IndieGoGo campaign was a serious pain in the butt, so I know I don't want to try that again.

But, deep down, I have no desire to benefit from Patreon. I want to be a Patron, and give to my favorite creators.

So, what do you folks, my readers, think of Patreon? Any of you on it as either a Creator or Patron? What's it like?

A Sunday Review

TV this week:

• Gotham: "Azrael" - He's back! Death just isn't what it ought to be in the DC Universe. In this case, I wonder who else will appear who was thought dead (hint: no, I'm not actually wondering, I'm pretty sure I know). Anyway, this was a brilliant episode in one particular way: We now know how the various Gotham villains got their themes. Hugo Strange is pretty sick, but it was Ed who gave him the clue. Seeing Strange flipping through and quoting from Alice In Wonderland was a squee moment. I also liked the way the various storylines were pulled back together with the news of Azrael's identity. I have to wonder where Penguin's tale is going next. He's almost a sympathetic character, until you think of how many people he's killed. Yikes.


• The Flash: "Rupture" - I wonder if Cisco will ever embrace his abilities? I liked how he was shocked and overtaken by the events in this episode, even while retaining his humor and general nerdiness. Another good moment was when Eric and I realized that Wally and Jesse, two characters that have speed powers in the comic book DCU, were about to get hit by something from the speed force. We were both, yeah, this is gonna happen, isn't it? I am sure the show is going to fool us somehow, but the mere idea of both of them getting speed powers makes me impossibly happy. Caitlin also showed off her intelligence, but... ug... she kind of paid for it later. It's interesting to see the interplay between Barry's three "dads" while he's making up his mind, and almost strange that he follows the will of the one who has betrayed him. Then there's that cliffhanger. Nicely played, and nicely done.


• Arrow: "Genesis" - So Oliver has to learn how to channel his bright and happy side if he has any hope of defeating Darhk? He's doomed. Seriously, though, the show is coming down to whether or not Oliver is a good man, and that's a decent question to ask. He's a serial killer who claims to have reformed, fighting people that are only a little bit nastier than he is. This is a dark show, and Green Arrow is a dark hero for it. Moving on, Genesis... I seem to recall this being the plot of a Doctor Who episode or something. Let's kill off everyone except some survivors in an ark, who will then repopulate the world. Ug. Another plot that really is too much. And the last plot of the episode is Andy and John Diggle... I really didn't expect that resolution, if it is a resolution. But the threat remains, and the show has three more episodes in which to handle it, unless there's going to be some big cliffhanger at the end of the season.


• Legends of Tomorrow: "River of Time" - I knew from the moment Rip said they were going to take him to the Time Masters what would happen once they got there, and unsurprisingly, I was right. However, the other bits were good. Stein's choice to save Jackson, Rory and Snart deciding to bail, the Kendra/Carter/Ray love triangle. Yeah, it was all to be expected. Did anyone else think the Vanishing Point held a distinct resemblance to the Time Lord's prison in Trial of a Time Lord? The only downside of this episode was Ray being goaded into being really stupid. I mean, he's a smart guy, he should have seen right through Savage's trick. I guess he's just blinded by love. Now there's only two more episodes before the conclusion, and I'm hoping this whole Vandal Savage plotline goes away at that point. There are a lot of different things these guys could do.

---

Here are reviews of the DCBS comic books that I've gotten around to reading and reviewing, sorted by the original shipping date:

• Apr 6th
• Justice League: Darkseid War Special #1 - Ok, I'm mildly interested in the Power Ring plotline. The rest of this is just pretty boring for me. I'm hoping this whole thing ends soon and we get back to the Justice League. Darkseid is one of the most boring villains in the DCU, and there are plenty of boring villains to choose from. The Amazons are always interesting, but an evil half-Darkseid Amazon? No thanks. I'd rather read about Superman saving a kitten from a tree than this storyline.
• Green Lantern #51 - So Hal has gone too far into the green? Who can help him? I'd completely forgotten about his allies until they reappeared, as well. I suspect this storyline will be wrapping up soon, and I'm not sad about that.
• Batman Beyond #11 - And the Justice League is back, complete with Aquagirl. If I were in Gotham when they appeared, I'm not sure what I'd be thinking. They have a heckuva lot of rebuilding to do. I wonder how much we'll see in the book and how much will be done off-camera. If the reboot... er, rebirth... starts with a clean Gotham, I'll be disappointed.
• Spider-Man 2099 #9 - Wow, Miguel is really not fooling around, but that means he's going to invite a whole lot of trouble as time goes on. As for Tempest's mother... whoa. I was ready for a number of different excuses, but that story was not something on the radar. It kind of makes sense in a superhero universe, but it stills seems like the mother ought to have told her daughter. Crazy, but it explains just about everything while making the mother less of a nasty.
• Doctor Who 10th #2.8 - Gabby still has some issues to work out, and Cindy appears to need some counseling as well. I'm curious to see where that relationship goes as this crew travels. There's a reason the Doctor doesn't usually pack a crowd into the TARDIS, I think. Relationships get complicated fast. As for the location and story... oooh, a paranormal festival at a haunted well! Nice. I am looking forward to how this problem gets solved. And I haven't forgotten the other mystery involving the sketchbook pages.
• Doctor Who 12th #2.4 - Nice solutions to the problems, although I suspect there will be plenty of clean-up for UNIT to handle. The fish was a funny addition to the team. Overall, it was ok. Fun but not fantastic. With these kind of stories, you wonder just how the government/UNIT manages to keep the populace from going nuts. I think conspiracy theorists in the Doctor Who universe must be very busy.
• Rough Riders #1 - Ah, the old "gather the team" issue, with another one coming, since I think we didn't get more than half the crew in the first one. Teddy is fun in this, but then, he was fun in real life. He hardly needs to be practically a Batman as well to make him awesome, but if anyone historically fits the role, he's a good one. This could be a really good book, or it could crash and burn, but I'm already thinking it's headed toward the really good side. Definitely one to watch.

---

Fortean Times #34 (Winter 1981). A nice old-fashioned cover, which is a bit depressing in its possible racism, though I tend to read it a bit differently. The native to the area is smart enough to run while the European explorer is fascinated and soon to be eaten by the bear/ape/dinosaur/whatever... that's how I read it. The cover "story" is the official report of Dr Roy Mackal and James Powell of their trip into Impfondo, Republic of Congo, Africa, to determined whether or not stories of a fantastic beast from the area were myth or based on a real animal. Their conclusion was that there is some kind of real animal at the base of the stories, but many fantastical elements had been added in the retellings. They recommended another expedition as well as a highway between Impfondo and the village they visited, Epena, to make research easier as well as improve the lives of the locals. The highway seems to me to be something added in gratitude to the folks who helped them... a kind of "oh, by the way, these folks could use a highway" kind of thing. It makes me feel like the rest of the report is down-to-earth, but doesn't make me trust it any more than I would have. The conclusion is clear enough: like most strange animals, there's something there, but no one is really sure what. Local tradition held that talking about seeing the animal meant death, so that made it even harder to research. A good read.

The editorial states that, as of this issue, there are 907 paid subscriptions and about 100 necessary freebies. To break even, the magazine needs to sell 1200 copies... Since the previous issue, 202 subscriptions had lapsed and not been renewed, while 113 new subscriptions had started. The editorial also says the entire staff is unpaid, voluntary and spare time labor, which makes it impossible to guarantee four issues a year, despite trying to be a quarterly. I can only imagine the struggles of putting out the magazine then. It was definitely a labor of love.

Once again, letters appear early in the book, this time with an objection to one of the previous issue's incomprehensible book reviews. The author and the reviewer both get their say, and the author comes out making more sense... not that either writer covers themselves with glory in this spat. The rest of the letters are much better, including a personal tale of golf balls appearing in a strange spot, a request for readers to go out and check local newspaper archives for fun fortean stories, and two letters of support after Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World failed to credit a number of Fortean researchers, including people from the magazine, that helped with a story.

An interview early in the book is with Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen, and is fairly trippy in some respects. It's about synchronicity and the connectedness of the universe. Another piece about naming aquatic lake and river monsters is actually more of an index of said monsters. Then there's the piece on disappearing hitchhikers, including some from around the time and area of Mt St Helens. I vaguely recall hearing the story of people picking up hitchhikers who told them to avoid Mt St Helens in the days leading up to the big eruption, but I can't remember if the stories were told prior to the main eruption or after. I suspect they were all told after. It was an exciting time to live so close to a volcano.

There's a nice piece about a puma in Powys, Wales at... I'm not making this up... Pant-y-Drain farm. It's got first-hand accounts from the witnesses, photos of the paw prints, and a great photo of the farmer with a foot on the box he covered the prints with to protect them from the rain.

On the Trail is about the giant squid. Words from the Wizard is mostly incomprehensible stories of Doc Shiels enjoying his life. A column called the Trashkashic Records is a lovely mind-bender that will give you a headache if you try to make it fit into reality, but still has plenty of oddness to offer.

In comix, Telly Kinex got an entire page instead of his usual half-page in this issue, and it's all about snow. Turns out Telly's powers work pretty well with snowballs. Facts You Might Forget is part two of the alien mentors plotline, which is mildly amusing. The second alien talks about a wardrobe of funny costumes, which the aliens put on and "go stand outside their windows"... reminds me of the figure(s) my brother and I saw outside his bedroom window when we were playing as young children once. Years later I have no real memory of it except being surprised, running out to tell someone... beyond that it's lost in the mists of time. In retrospect I wondered how we could see out the window (it was dark outside, if I recall correctly) and when I talked about it with my brother, he didn't remember the same thing I did. Ah well. The mysteries of life.

Phenomenomix is the two-page start of a multi-part story on The Borders of Buffoonery, in which the hero of the tale finds a mysterious badge on the beach, then keeps getting pounded on the head after talking to folks in a pub to try and figure out what it is and if it's worth anything. It's very much the usual kind of tale for this comic, in that you know it's going to go to some odd places, but you have no idea what will happen next.

In the Notes... Synchronicities has some fun stuff, including a stage production of Dracula forced to change rehearsal sites after learning a blood transfusion service had pre-booked the location, and a bunch of thieves in Hollywood getting away with a heist because people believed it was part of a film shoot. Out of Place has more about big cats where they ought not to be, including a lion in New York. Mystery Attacks is about mice, rats, rabbits, squirrels, pigs, rooks, insects, worms, mackerel and other creatures enjoying encounters with humans. Marine Mysteries has a listing of whale beachings. Falls covers reports of ice coming from the sky, including photos of the damage some of the larger block did. There's also a section calls "Dooms" that basically reports on really dumb criminals.

There are some decent book reviews in this issue, including a couple that I put on my list to hunt second-hand shops for someday. I count at least 47 magazines in the classified exchanges, listed under the headings "Fortean", "UFO's", "PSI", "Earth Mysteries" and "Others". The News section lists a new TV series based on a Kit Pedlar book, and a few other new book and pamphlet projects. This issue also has a crossword and what I think is the first collection of crazy headlines.

I still wish I could get more issues of my favorite magazine, but I'm enjoying the reading I'm able to do so far.

Fortean Times Wishlist: FT1-FT24, FT40-FT163, FT194-FT211, FT219-FT222, FT229-FT238

---

My book this week was Castle Hangnail by Ursula Vernon.

This is a MUST GET. If you've got a girl in your life, any age below 18, and maybe even above it, who isn't a princess-y type, get her this book. Boys will probably enjoy it too.

It's about a 12-year-old witch who takes possession of a castle that desperately needs a master in order to not be torn down and de-magicked by the Board of Magic. This isn't even a coming-of-age story, properly, but it's about learning how to handle the world on your own terms and dealing with what life throws at you. So, really, get a copy.

Ok, spoilers ahead... Zbyyl'f fgbel pbzrf bhg n ovg ng n gvzr, ohg bar bs gur svefg guvatf jr yrnea nobhg ure vf gung fur'f na rivy gjva, naq gung guvf jbeyq unf fhpu guvatf. Jr nyfb yrnea gung fur unq na byqre sevraq jub gnhtug ure n ovg nobhg zntvp, bayl gb svaq bhg gung byqre sevraq jnf hfvat ure. Gung'f bar bs gur yrffbaf fur yrneaf naq qrnyf jvgu va gur obbx, ohg gur nohfr nyzbfg unq gentvp erfhygf sbe Zbyyl. Naq ure nohfre.

Gur neg vf terng, nf hfhny. Zbyyl unf fglyr... V nterr nobhg gur obbgf. Gur inevbhf punenpgref ner snagnfgvp, rnpu bar unf n uvfgbel gung lbh ner whfg qlvat gb urne nobhg. Cvaf, va cnegvphyne. V ybir ubj Zbyyl jbexf jvgu gur erfvqragf bs gur pnfgyr gb svk guvatf. Vg'f n fubpxvat qrirybczrag jura Rhqnvzbavn fubjf hc. Gur pbagenfg orgjrra ubj fur gerngf crbcyr naq ubj Zbyyl unaqyrf bguref vf fgevxvat, nf vg bhtug gb or.

V ybirq gur fzvgvat bs Byq Zna Uneebj, naq rfcrpvnyyl ubj gur qbaxrl pnzr ubzr jvgu ure. Naq gur anzr, un! V nyfb gubhtug jbezevfr jnf terng.

In fact, there weren't any moments I didn't like, and while writing this review I started to reread and got caught up in it again. I can highly recommend this book for anyone with a quirky sense of the world, and particularly for girls who are feeling insecure in life.

---

Past Sunday Reviews -- My Kindle Wishlist

Linkdump

Hugo Recommendation Weeks are coming. Get your thoughts in gear for trying to post some great works.

Another cool Smokecane photo from Sasquan.

Never give fans an opening... A comment left open-ended on File 770 led to a hilarious thread of things fandom says while facing the Balrog. It continued for some time.

Some people are complaining about diversity in Science Fiction and Fantasy... they seem to forget. We've always been here. We just didn't get respect until recently.

Photos from Sasquan by Olav Rokne.

A very stupid book was published, and prompted a parody called "John Scalzi Is Not A Very Popular Author And I Myself Am Quite Popular: How SJWs Always Lie About Our Comparative Popularity Levels" by an author who is not John Scalzi. However, someone thought it would be really funny if Scalzi read the audiobook... and Scalzi agreed to do it if $2,500 was raised for a fan charity that helps people get to conventions. Fans contributed more then $10,000 and the audio is up.

Halloween is coming

A book that provides clean water. Literally. The pages are water filters. A single book can filter water for one person for four years.

The Birdwatching Narwhal by Ursula Vernon.

A Sunday Review

My book this week was Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear.

This book was recommended in the comment sections on File 770 and in Renay's Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom.

Like last week's book, I came to this one completely cold. I didn't even know it was steampunk until I got a few pages in. I haven't been in the habit of simply trying books without finding out it they are "my type", but with a desire to nominate for the 2016 Hugos, I feel like I just have to try some new stuff out. So far, I feel I'm doing ok taking other people's suggestions.

First up: the completely non-spoiler review. If you don't like steampunk, you may have some issues with this. I, personally, love well-done steampunk and found this to be a great read. In addition, if you have any hang-ups about sexual issues, you'll probably want to avoid this book, as it's set in a *ahem* seamstress's shop in a frontier town. A shop with a nice parlor downstairs and a lot of men who visit regularly. It took me some time to get into the book, as the first-person voice is idiosyncratic and the word usage is intentionally wrong in places to convey it. But I came to really enjoy the main character the more I read, although my writer instincts sometimes flinched at the use of language.

Ok, Spoilers ahead (use rot13 to read). Bx, gur svefg guvat V bhtug gb zragvba vf gung V irel zhpu rawbl fgbevrf frg va sebagvre Frnggyr. V qba'g xabj jul, V whfg qb. Naq juvyr Encvq Pvgl vf abg, grpuavpnyyl, Frnggyr, gurer vf ab bgure cynpr vg pna ernyvfgvpnyyl or. Vg'f tbg gur Nynfxna Tbyq Ehfu, vg'f tbg gur Fbhaq, vg'f tbg fxvq ebj, vg'f tbg gur envfvat bs qbjagbja naq vg'f whfg irel zhpu Frnggyr. Fb gur frggvat fhpxrq zr vg irel dhvpxyl, rira vs V unq n uneq gvzr trggvat vagb gur fgbel vgfrys. V'yy abgr gung Obarfunxre jnf nyfb frg va n fgrnzchax Frnggyr, juvpu znqr zr yvxr vg rira zber guna V zvtug unir bgurejvfr. Frnggyr naq fgrnzchax frrz gb jbex jryy gbtrgure, sbe zr. V erpbtavmr gung bgure crbcyr qba'g unir gur fnzr srgvfu, ohg guvf vf qrsvavgryl bar bs zvar.

Frpbaq, V qba'g zhpu pner nobhg gur frkhnyvgl bs punenpgref nf ybat nf gurl ner cbegenlrq nf erny crbcyr. Guvf obbx qbrfa'g, gb zr, znxr n ovt nqb nobhg gur punenpgref' cersreraprf, vg whfg gnyxf nobhg vg naq zbirf ba. Naq gur ybir orgjrra Xnera naq Cevln vf angheny naq, V gubhtug, jryy-qrirybcrq. Lrf, gurer'f ybir ng svefg fvtug, gur byq pyvpur, ohg Xnera jbexf cnfg vg. V yvxr gung.

Gurer'f fbzrguvat greevoyr naq terng nobhg n obbx gung pna znxr lbh srry fb fgebatyl sbe n zvabe punenpgre gung lbh trahvaryl uheg jura gung punenpgre qvrf. Guvf obbx znantrq gung. V jnf ebbgvat sbe gur tbbq thlf orsber gura, ohg nsgre gung? V jnf pynzbevat sbe n fbyvq cnlonpx jvgu xnezn gnxvat vgf gbyy.

Hagvy V tbg gb gur Nhgube'f Abgr ng gur raq, V jnf abg njner bs gur fgbel bs Zbgure Qnzanoyr, naq abj V'z tbvat gb or fcraqvat ragveryl gbb zhpu gvzr ybbxvat hc Znel Naa Pbaxyva gb svaq bhg jub fur jnf.

This book has a decent chance to make my Hugo nomination list. I feel it was a pretty slow read, which counts against it. However, it was nicely goofy, very well told and fun in a way that only steampunk is truly capable of being. I'll be thinking on it for awhile, I can tell.

---

A novella I read recently but haven't yet reviewed is "Penric's Demon" by Lois McMaster Bujold. I bought it as soon as it was available and read it as soon as I was able. Bujold is, at the moment, the only author I would buy a work from by the strength of her name alone. I learned about this novella from Bujold's Goodreads Blog.

Did I like it? Oh yeah. Penric is a good character who is, like many of Bujold's characters, hemmed in by other people's expectations. He's able to break out of it entirely by the unhappy/happy accident. In short, it's a typical Bujold story in a lot of ways. I found the story to be the perfect length, covering just what we need to know about both Penric and his new guest. The promise of potential untold stories is often the most frustrating part of Bujold's work... this is no different. I'd love to revist Penric in the future in some manner, but I know that this is the story the author chose to focus on, so it's probably the best one in Penric's life. This will be on my Hugo nomination form.

---

And here's a novelette I read:

• "Folding Beijing" by Hao Jingfang. It is in the nature of science fiction to be fantastical, but I really found this one hard to swallow. The world, as presented, just doesn't make physical sense to me. The whole "folding" of space just doesn't work for me. The rest... well, I have mixed feelings. The main character is a bit of a cipher until the end, while the others are all cardboard cutouts he's just dealing with. Yeah, it's a novelette, not a novel, and there's little time to develop characters - but I didn't feel much of a connection with any of them. And the political situation as described, which leads to the folding city, also doesn't seem realistic or believable to me. I can suspend my disbelief as well as anyone else, but this particular story did not work for me. No, it won't make my Hugo nomination form.

---

I've also read short stories:

• "Pocosin" by Ursula Vernon is a heartbreaking tale about death, second chances and people who know a lot about the world. Like "Jackalope Wives", it's told in a gentle, folksy way. And it has some deeper meaning in it, as well. I'd be lying if I didn't say I wish I could write half as well as Ursula does, but she writes about things I'd never think to write about, so I don't even stand in envy of her so much as happy awe. This one has a very good chance of being on my Hugo nomination list.


• "You Have Always Lived in the Castle" by Cat Rambo is a chilling little piece. Very short, and frightening in its implications. It's told in second person narrative. For some reason, it reminds me of Doctor Who: Warriors Gate. Part of me wants to learn more about this universe, most of me thinks of it as a horror tale. I'll think on it a lot more before deciding if it goes on my Hugo list.


• "The Parliment of Cheese and Curds" by Camestros Felapton is a parody based on one of the awful works nominated for the 2015 Hugos by the puppies. This short story is actually readable, unlike the original, and funny, also unlike the original (which was just a pathetic attempt to be pompous). No, I won't nominate this for a Hugo, but I did find it oddly refreshing, if a bit cheesy.

---

For my current list of Hugo 2016 readings, check out my Hugo 2016 Posts page.

---

Here are reviews of the DCBS comic books that I've gotten around to reading and reviewing, sorted by the original shipping date:

• Jul 8th
• Earth 2 Society #2 - Ah, well, that's why Sloan crashed the ships. But I'm not sure I get all the nitty-gritty about it. I'm guessing we don't know who caused the attack that Sloan was reacting to? And I'm not sure what Sloan's "current" action is going to do to the planet. Ok, I'm interested.
• Justice League of America #2 - I'm not quite as cynical as Aquaman is portrayed here, but I'm kind of with him on the notion that powerful beings from other worlds who arrive and declare they are gods aren't really the kind of thing you can trust. And, looking at what happened to Wonder Woman, I think he may have dodged a massive bullet there with that cynicism.
• Justice League United #11 - That is one bizarre team-up. I found the collection of the team to be neat, with each one being pulled in by a different method. That has got to be the most muscular version of Mera I've ever seen. She's clearly been weightlifting. I'm a little confused by some of the other choices, but... well, I'll have to wait and see.
• Arrow: Season 2.5 #10 - Slade knows far too much. He's like Ollie's dark side. Overall, I'm happy this series is coming to a conclusion soon. With the season after it already over, there are bits that just don't work for me.
• Star Trek/Green Lantern #1 - The visuals of the crew of the Enterprise really threw me for a loop. I don't know if the regular series has switched to the movie version of the crew, but I sure wasn't ready for it. The rest? Good set up. I'll wait and see how it goes before judging the series.
• Secret Wars 2099 #3 - I really don't like this version of Miguel. In fact, I'm not sure I like anything about this version of the Marvel Universe, although Sub-Mariner and Hercules going at each other had its moments.
• Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency #2 - Deadly ancient Egyptians, crazed serial killers and Dirk... I don't know which is the most frightening. It's nice to see an Oz reference.
• Doctor Who 11th #14 - Wait, so is this the end of the Arc arc? Also, nice cliffhanger.
• Grimm Fairy Tales: Oz: Reign of the Witch Queen #3 - Well, in this issue there's a fairly solid narrative of setting up the trap and battle plans, and some little jokes and call-backs to other events... not too bad. I still find this book hard to follow, but this issue holds together fairly well.
• Oddly Normal #8 - I want a closet that big. Heck, I think almost anyone wants a closet that big. Inkwell would sure enjoy it. Anyway, another good issue as Oddly learns just how much normal is appreciated.
• Rebels #4 - I feel like I need to go read the previous issues again because I felt like I'd lost the plot thread in this one. It's a good enough book, and the description of the battle and the famous "whites of their eyes" quote was lovely. But I also felt like I'd skipped an issue or something.
• Mage Inc. #1 - Keira is an intern at a mage's union and her first assignment is to go out with another mage to collect union dues. This was surprisingly good. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I liked how she handled the mundane tasks without fear and took the less mundane in stride. I'm looking forward to the next issue.
• Spongebob Comics #46 - Ooooh, a slightly educational issue! And more of the usual stuff. If you like Spongebob, you'll like it. If not, skip it.
• Extra Review
• Doctor Who: San Diego Comic Con Exclusive - A friend picked this up for Eric and I and I've finally had the chance to read it. Clara wants to go to Comic Con International, and so the Doctor takes her there... only to find out there's a nasty entity that appears in reflections and photos every 1021 years while trying to get back into reality. Fun stuff, and interesting to see what the Doctor was becoming as the entity affected him.

---

Past Sunday Reviews -- Comics at Amazon.com -- Previews -- My Wishlist -- My Kindle Wishlist -- My Camera Wishlist

Linkdump

The blob is causing the strange weather in Washington state. Also, it's NOT simply global warming run rampant.

Aquaman? Seriously, copy-editing is an important skill. I feel sorry for the writer, who probably had little to do with the headline.

Yes, I admit it. I bought the new Lois McMaster Bujold novella literally the first day it was available. And yes, I've read it. I will read it again soon. It's very good. It will be on my Hugo nominees list.

I'd like to get my hubby a copy of this role playing game. Sadly, I can't get to Sasquan.

Ah, the infamous Max Headroom hack, right in the middle of one of my favorite episodes of Doctor Who, The Horror of Fang Rock.

I'm delighted by the Eisner Award Winners, particularly Beasts of Burden and Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland. Generally speaking, the list of nominees is a good "recommended reading" list, as well.

I must say, I'm looking forward to this crossover, and I really hope Jeff Parker gets to write it.

The reaction of Ursula Vernon to being put on the World Fantasy shortlist is lovely, but the best line is definitely "three times--there had been rum". Congrats Ursula! Jackalope Wives deserves the nomination!

Adam Savage had a special guest cosplayer with him at San Diego this year: