• Review,  Writing Resources

    Reviews for Nikki 2.3

    My story ‘Nikki 2.3’, currently available at The Journal Of Unlikely Entomology, has had a couple of reviews come in. Most recently, there’s a positive review from Sam Tomaino at SFRevu: “Our narrator here, is also “female”, a sexbot A.I. that is stuck in a computer, abandoned by he boss, HotDawg. She finds a way to get out, using a sex toy that had been left lying about.” You can read the full review at SFRevu. There was also a review by Lois Tilton, over at Locus!

  • Review,  Writing Resources

    Read this month

    Yesterday I wrote a bit about not writing reviews anymore. But I still definitely want to hightlight *what* I am reading and since I’m busy packing up books right now I figured I should mention some work I’ve recently read before it disappears into a cardboard void. I had a backlog of unread On Spec Magazine issues but I’m now caught up, having read On Spec #84, #85, #86, and #87. Some fantastic stories in these. I think issue #85 in particular may have just become my favorite On Spec issue, at least in the past few years. Though I am also partial to #87 since I have a story…

  • Review

    Read this Week

    As part of my heroic attempts to wrestle my to-read pile into submission I’ve finally gotten around to reading ‘Rage of the Behemoth‘ from Rogue Blade. Overall this is a fun read! Some of the stories in the anthology were really first-rate, full of heroic action adventure. I’ll be looking eagerly for more stories from some of the authors I discovered inside the anthology. If you are interested in traditional sword and sorcery stories well told, check the anthology out.

  • Review

    Read This Week

    Finished reading Murky Depths #11. Always a good magazine… loads of artwork throughout complementing the superb stories. My favorite story this time around is probably ‘Heart of Clay’ by DK Thompson… I really enjoy the writer’s weird world of ghost detectives and golems.

  • Review,  Writing Resources

    Read Again: On Spec #81

    I don’t often reread anything because I have such a back log of unread books and stories but one story has been stuck in my head for a while and I checked it out again. The issue is On Spec #81 and the story is Greg Wilson’s Still. I mentioned it a while back. Anyways I read it again and was reminded of how powerful this story is. And it is about puppets. Seriously. Of course the core conflict in the story is a parallel to terrible things that happen to real live non-puppet people and I won’t get into that. The story has charm and magic and I found…

  • Review

    Read this week

    Warrior Wisewoman #3 Edited by Roby James This is an annual anthology of stories featuring women protagonists. This is the first volume of the series I’ve read but after reading it I’m going to pick up the others. A range of stories… most of them I liked, some of them quite a bit. My favorites? Sustain Nothing by Paul Abbamondi was really good, a bizarre story where a woman is a guide, with access to all the information that exists in the world and people ask her questions, directions and such. One day she figures out how to turn her connection off and much chaos ensues. I also really enjoyed…

  • My Life,  Review

    Review Black Gate Magazine on the iPad

    I promised the Black Gate folks a review of the pdf version of Black Gate #14 and with all the excitement this summer it took me longer to read it than I had intended. Many apologies for the lateness of this. Earlier in the year I changed my print subscription to Black Gate into an electronic one. This was done mostly to save postage expense, I love the print magazine and have every issue and so this was my first time reading it digitally. I transferred the PDF through the iTunes Books folder and read it using the iBooks app. As you can see the text and images look sharp…

  • Politics,  Review

    Read this Week – The Assault on Reason

    Finished reading The Assault on Reason by Al Gore. Overall I enjoyed this book. I know very little about the United State’s system of government and I thought this a good primer, though probably biased a little. But Mr. Gore’s reasoning behind what he feels were the intentions of the Founders and why they wrote the Constitution the way they did were well structured and I agree with most of his points. Certainly the previous administration in the States did terrible damage to the United State’s reputation worldwide and more alarmingly has removed too many freedoms (wire tapping, internet snooping, ignoring human rights). Regardless of where you sit on the…

  • Review,  Writing Resources

    Review Present at the Future

    Present at the Future by Ira Flatow was a book I saw recommended by several sci-fi authors as being a nice overview of some of the big topics in science in the last couple decades (cloning, string theory, nanotech and such). Overall I enjoyed it… a nice idea fest. Many topics I’ve been exposed to previously but haven’t really followed up since their original announcements. I thought the sections on Alternative Energy quite interesting as were sections on medical advancements I wasn’t aware of. Some of the writing was a little rough — you’ll notice this complaint on Amazon reviews — though I think I’d blame a lot of this…

  • Review,  Writing Resources

    On Spec #80 Review

    Another one of my quick reviews. Just finished the latest On Spec (a great magazine and I’m not just saying that because I’ve had a couple stories published in it or because it is produced here in Edmonton… I’ve been a subscriber for many years). This issue we have: A Thousand by Leah Bobet This is a strong urban fantasy story by Leah Bobet who has been featured in On Spec before and has numerous published stories elsewhere. I wasn’t completely drawn into this myth tale as some of her other stories but it was beautifully written and very evocative. Zebedee the Giant Man by Tina Connolly A well written…