Lynne M. Thomas's Blog, page 2

Worldcon Schedule!

I will be in attendance at the Worldcon being held in Seattle!

Here’s my formal schedule of where to find me at the convention:

THURSDAY:

20 Years of New Who

BritCon; Popular Media; Streaming; Virtual
Room 443-444, Thu. 4:30–5:30 p.m.

Twenty years ago, Doctor Who burst back onto our small screens with a quicker pace, better special effects, and a larger American audience. Let’s reflect on our adventures through time (from 2005 to 2025) and space. Brought to you by Britcon.

Dan Murphy (M), Eric Gjovaag, Kathryn Sullivan, Lynne M. Thomas, Moriko Handford

SATURDAY:

Magazines in the Modern Age

Editing/Publishing
Terrace Suite (4F), Sat. 10:30–11:30 a.m.

Short fiction magazines are a vibrant and crucial area of our field, showcasing new and veteran writers, bold fiction, and a broad range of authors, stories, themes, and ethea. For magazines seemingly always clinging to survival, the past year has brought new challenges in publishing, revenues, and even ownership, along with new voices and brilliant stories. Panelists will discuss how they see short fiction magazines in the current age and going forward.

Scott H. Andrews (M), Neil Clarke, Mur Lafferty, Lynne M. Thomas, Sheila Williams

Table Talks

Table Talks
Room 430, Sat. 4:30–5:30 p.m.

Have an intimate discussion (up to six participants) with your favorite creators. Advance sign-up is required (sign-up info coming soon).

Lezli Robyn, Lynne M. Thomas, Michael Nayak, Sheila Williams, Shiv Ramdas

INFORMALLY:

I will be in attendance at the Hugo Awards Ceremony, and chances are decent that you will find me at one or more of the dances being held in the evenings. (All the Sunday morning dance cardio classes I’ve been doing are finally going to pay off!)

Please feel free to say hi if/when you see me!

Book Review: The Folded Sky by Elizabeth Bear

Cover of The Folded Sky by Elizabeth Bear. Space ship battle and a disintegrating outpost over a star getting ready to go nova.

I received this book as an eArc via NetGalley. Order link.

It has been a minute since I last read an Elizabeth Bear novel, simply because my TBR pile has become overwhelming over the last decade. I picked up this novel initially not realizing that it was third in a series (Machine and Ancestral Night are the other two titles). The good news is, I can confirm that even coming late to the party did not keep me from enjoying this novel.

Dr. Sunya Song is an archinformist (futuristic cross between an archivist and a historian with a side of space archaeology; her job is to both document and analyze history), headed to the edge of nowhere (space station named Town) to work with a dying alien artificial intelligence, the Baosong, to try to document its language and knowledge before it goes extinct because the star it is near is dying. This is a long and complex assignment, and Sun is looking forward to a bit of focused work and a bit of a break from parenting her two children, although she misses her wife Salvie.

Sunya Song is having a series of very bad days, even before she arrives at Town. The shipmind of her transport to Town really doesn’t like her. Her ex Vickie (also an archinformist) has beat her to Town, and happens to be on the same ship as Sun’s family, who have arrived to surprise her. While Sun is pleased to see her family, she is NOT happy to see Vickie, who was not only emotionally abusive but also stole Sun’s work and passed it off as her own.

Oh, and the star near the Baosong is sending out massive radiation and is going to collapse and kill everyone on the station of Town, humanoid and alien alike. And there are anti Artificial-Intelligence pirates trying to kill anyone trying to get to Town, leave Town, or generally existing while using AI in their vicinity. And also, Vickie’s assistant Trevor has been nearly murdered with brain-eating amoebas. And then there’s another murder.

It’s up to Sun to figure out how to save herself-and everyone else- from everything falling apart.

With tight pacing, pitched space battles, and thoughtful and engaging characters both human and non-human who are doing their best against impossible odds, it’s lovely to spend time in this universe.

Strongly recommended.

Book Review: Slayers of Old, by Jim C. Hines

The cover of Slayers of Old by Jim C. Hines, which features the bottom half of a person using a cane, and a black cat that has been crossed with a shoggoth.

I received this title as an ARC via NetGalley. Here’s a Preorder Link from the publisher.

I’ve been a fan of Jim’s work for over a decade. His humor is gentle and sly. His characters are always engaging, and his plots are fun. This novel is no exception.

The tag for this novel is “Buffy meets Golden Girls.” For those of you who didn’t have the pleasure of seeing TV from the previous century, that means that the main characters in the novel are older–Jenny, a slayer for Artemis, Temple, a wizard, and Annette, a succubus, are all approaching retirement age or well past it. Retired from active heroism, the three of them have been living together and running a bookshop in Salem, MA for decades. And then one of them is attacked, and weird, bad stuff starts happening to their loved ones.

What I loved about this novel is that these characters are wise. They have scars, both physical and emotional. They think before they act and they encourage everyone else they are working with to do so as well. They fight smarter, not harder. When they make a sacrifice, it hits harder, because it’s intentional, and in the full knowledge that what they’re doing matters to their kids, grandkids, and everyone who has come after them, since they won’t be here to see it. They know what they are giving up, because they have survived high stakes before, and they are choosing to take that on so their loved ones and community don’t have to.

They are choosing hope over cynicism, because they’re wise enough to know that cynicism is way less fun to live through.

This is a book that holds both sides of your face gently, looks you squarely in the eye, and says “we will get through this. Together.” And it means it.

Now, more than ever, that’s what we need.

Strongly recommended.

Book review: Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan

This book made me cackle.

You know how actors talk about how much fun it is to play villains, especially the over the top kind? This is that, in novel form, with razor-sharp wit, good banter, and characters that are self-aware enough to understand when they are turning into caricatures, and choose differently. It’s a portal fantasy, and it will hit slightly harder if you’ve read any other fantasy before, because it plays with and subverts a lot of the most common tropes of the genre. The portal leads to the world of a fantasy novel, but it’s one that Rae doesn’t remember that well. When the story she thinks she knows starts changing… things get even more surreal.

Highly recommended.

Book review: Lessons in Magic and Disaster

The cover of Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders. The tile and author are in yellow. Thiere is a purple background that looks like cracked concrete, with small scattered daisies pushing their way through.

I received this novel as an ARC via NetGalley. You can preorder it here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/lessons-in-magic-and-disaster-charlie-jane-anders/21751603?ean=9781250867322&next=t

I’ve long been a fan of Charlie Jane Anders’ work, and this novel is exactly what I needed it to be.

Jamie is a literature grad student in the Boston/Cambridge area, working on the 18th century novel. Jamie and her mom, Serena, are both grieving the death of Serena’s wife Mae. Serena’s grief is devastating, and Jamie decides to teach Serena about doing magic as a way to try to bring Serena back to focusing on the present.

This… does not go well (hence the title).

The story bounces back and forth between the present, the 1990s when Serena and Mae were younger, and the 18th century works that Jamie is studying. Found family and the challenges of building community when things are hard are front and center, as it’s a predominantly queer cast of characters.

Heartfelt and heart-wrenching in the best ways, this novel is about grief and belonging, recovery, healing, and love. Even when you aren’t exactly perfect. It is full of messy but well-meaning people trying their best, screwing up, and figuring out how to do better and move forward, even when it hurts. Especially when it hurts. Because the space between surviving and living is huge, and the best way to fill it in is with people who love and accept you for you.

Because it turns out that there’s no way to make grief not hurt, even with magic. The fact that it hurts is proof that the grief comes from love, and leaning into that love is the way to keep living.

Highly recommended, like the most comforting of hugs from a loved one at a difficult time.

New Verity! Features more opinions.

The Intertextual Song Contest

New Verity on “Lucky Day” for you!

Lucky Day Tripper

New Verity! “The Well”

Diamond Well Blues

Book review: The Viscount St. Albans by Natania Barron

The cover of The Viscount St Albans, featuring a country home and silhouettes of the main characters on a dark blue background.

This is a sequel to Netherford Hall. We’ve moved from Pride & Prejudice & Witches to Sense & Sensibility & Vampires. As one does.

This book opens where the previous book leaves off, only it focuses on the relationship between Poppy’s sister Viola and Silas, the eponymous Viscount St. Albans. The cast of characters remains compelling, and the plot clicks along at a bright pace without ever losing hold of the emotional impact of the choices the characters are making. Utterly delightful and worth your time. Pick up the first book, too.

Strongly recommended.

New Verity!

Lux Actually