Book Review: Raising Steam

Book Review: Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett Moist von Lipwig has come a long way since his days as a petty con artist.  He’s a (mostly) respectable married man who manages the Ankh-Morpork Post Office, Mint, and Bank.  True, his management is mostly just taking a friendly interest in the employees who do all the… Continue reading Book Review: Raising Steam

Book Review: Lambda I and Other Stories

Book Review: Lambda I and Other Stories edited by John Carnell New Worlds was a British science fiction magazine that started professional publication in 1946.  Despite some financial hiccups, it was a reasonably good seller, and was still going in the early 1960s when the stories chosen for this anthology were published.  The editor picked… Continue reading Book Review: Lambda I and Other Stories

Book Review: Seven Come Infinity

Book Review: Seven Come Infinity edited by Groff Conklin The title of this anthology refers to the phrase “seven come eleven” from craps, referring to the ways you can win.  In the preface, it’s mentioned that there are a finite number of possibilities for the outcome of rolling two dice.  But when you write a… Continue reading Book Review: Seven Come Infinity

Magazine Review: Science Fantasy #4 Spring 1971

Magazine Review: Science Fantasy #4 Spring 1971 edited by Sol Cohen Science Fantasy was a short-lived (this is the final issue) reprint magazine from Ziff-Davis Publishing, which should not be confused with the long-running British magazine of the same title.  The stories in this issue come from the late 1940s/early 1950s, and reader tastes had changed… Continue reading Magazine Review: Science Fantasy #4 Spring 1971

Book Review: The Marsco Dissident

Book Review: The Marsco Dissident by James A. Zarzana It’s a Marsco world. Much has changed by the last years of the 21st Century.  The rot started to set in with the Abandonment Policy (euphemized as “Divestiture”) where countries with prosperous sections and not-so-prosperous bits split off the not-prosperous sectors as “another country now, not… Continue reading Book Review: The Marsco Dissident

Book Review: Chameleon 2: In Garde We Trust

Book Review: Chameleon 2: In Garde We Trust by Jerry LaPlante One of my reading addictions as a teen was trashy series hero paperbacks.  The Executioner, the Destroyer, Nick Carter Killmaster…much like the old pulp heroes but grittier and with more sleaze.  The more successful series are still published to this day in one form… Continue reading Book Review: Chameleon 2: In Garde We Trust

Comic Strip Review: Still Pumped from Using the Mouse

Comic Strip Review: Still Pumped from Using the Mouse by Scott Adams Dilbert is an engineer who works for a poorly-managed mid-size corporation.  His co-workers are hostile, his boss is pointy-haired, and Dilbert himself is less than competent with anything other than engineering.  Such as dating. The Dilbert gag-a-day comic strip has been running since 1989;… Continue reading Comic Strip Review: Still Pumped from Using the Mouse

Anime Review: Argevollen

Anime Review: Argevollen When Tokimune Susumu’s sister Reika is killed in a mysterious “training accident”, the boy decides to join the Arandas military as a Trail Krieger (basically walking tanks) pilot to work his way up the ranks in hope of eventually having enough access to learn the truth about her death.  He’s still very… Continue reading Anime Review: Argevollen