Lynne M. Thomas's Blog, page 5

Book review: Siren Queen by Nghi Vo

The cover of Siren Queen by Nghi Vo. Old Hollywood Style glamour closeup of the main character.

I received this novel as an E-ARC via NetGalley. I’ve read Nghi Vo’s short stories, but this is the first longer work of hers I’ve read.

This novel blew me away. The plot is straightforward: Luli Wei enters a version of the early Hollywood studio system, and becomes a film star. The system that she enters, however, is explicitly, overtly monstrous. This novel is about how we survive and find some happiness or satisfaction in monstrous systems. Elegantly crafted prose and emotionally truthful moments on Luli’s journey make this an absolutely breathtaking novel about finding your way in a system that is literally designed to chew you up and spit you out, if it even lets you enter in the first place.

Highly, highly recommended.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…

Uncanny Magazine is running its Kickstarter for Year 10. Lots of swag, subscriptions, and shenanigans. You know what to do!

Uncanny Magazine is a Hugo Award Finalist!

The Hugo Awards ballot was released this morning, and we are thrilled that Uncanny Magazine is up for Best Semiprozine, and that stories by John Chu and Samantha Mills are also finalists.

The full ballot is here!

And here is the Official Uncanny Magazine post about it.

It is an honor to be recognized. Thank you.

Book review: The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Read this for The Infinite Loop book project.

Cracking time travel novel where there are “edit wars” of the timeline by opposing groups, with the bulk of the edits being related to abortion and women’s rights and autonomy in general. Anthony Comstock is the villain of the piece (as is right and proper–he was a complete wanker in the current timeline). Tess, the protagonist, is both compelling and complicated. She is surrounded by an ensemble cast of friends who work with her to try to ensure women’s bodily autonomy along the timeline, all the while supporting one another, even amidst loss, danger, and fear. Like many time travel novels, this one skips around to different times and places, including the Chicago World’s Fair (1893) and the 1990s music scene in Irvine, CA.

Strongly recommended.



View all my reviews

Book review: Starter Villain by John Scalzi

I received an advanced ARC of this title via NetGalley.

This is a wild ride, in the best way possible. Charlie Fitzer, flat-broke laid off journalist and substitute teacher, inherits his late uncle’s businesses, both legitimate and less so, and he is dropped abruptly into the world of supervillians.

Thus begins the adventure.

Charlie is dropped into an enormous corporate structure he knows nothing about, and watching him learn about his new colleagues — many of whom are genetically engineered, hyper intelligent animals in addition to humans — and his new life, is a joy and a wonder because it’s so dang fun, even when it’s deadly serious.

Charlie is not particularly villainous himself, but he now has a seat on a secret council and a lot of people who want him dead for a long list of reasons. The biggest joy of this book is watching Charlie navigate the world of ultra-wealthy people, and the sycophants and acolytes who want to become ultra-wealthy, ideally by taking down Charlie. Charlie is kinder and more pragmatic than all of them put together, and he ultimately triumphs by being a good judge of character, figuring out whom to trust, and whose advice he should definitely listen to, and simply not being a dick to anyone who isn’t actively trying to kill him.

Scalzi, as is typical, offers a) witty dialogue b) excellent action and pacing and c) characters that I’d be happy to hang out with. The genetically enhanced animals (including cats and dolphins, well ahead of the yacht-destroying Orcas now taking over the internet) and the humans that they work with are both a lot of fun, and excruciatingly accurate judges of character.

I adored this. It’s both funny and humane in the most delightful manner. The scene at his uncle’s funeral had me wheezing with laughter. The large gathering of the council and its acolytes has some particularly hilarious methods for dealing with failure. And what we learn about cats (including the one on the cover) makes WAY more sense than it really should, but should not surprise anyone who has ever lived with cats.

Highly recommended, loads of fun.

Book Review: The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

I’m clearly the target audience for this book, since the tag line is “The Thin Man in Space” and I adore The Thin Man.

(CONTEXT: For those of you unfamiliar with this film from the 1930s, it’s a comedy where William Powell, Myrna Loy, and their dog Asta solve a murder. Everyone is witty and elegant and there is some power drinking. Technically, it’s also a holiday movie since much of it is set in late December and there’s a major party scene. Absolutely worth your time if you enjoy people being smart, fashionable, and witty on film while solving murder.)

OKAY. The book. Tesla (famous in her own right as a wealthy heiress & engineer/inventor, disabled after a major accident) and Shal (handsome, sweet retired detective who embroiders) are a delight, trying to travel incognito on a starship to Mars on their honeymoon. Gimlet is Tesla’s Westie service dog.

The murder and the mystery setup itself is well set up and follows the Usual Mystery Tropes strongly, but with the added challenges of doing it in space with variable gravity. Every chapter opens with a cocktail or mocktail recipe geared to the action in the chapter.

Tesla starts the story with every possible advantage, and as each of them is stripped away from her, we see her innate strength, too. A strong cast of supporting characters as well, although I’m particularly attached to Francine, Tesla’s lawyer who crochets so she doesn’t stab people for herself.

This novel is sparkling, witty, well-paced, and keeps the pages turning as the mystery unfolds and we learn more about the characters. Highly recommended.

www.goodreads.com/review/show/5064737148

The Non-ARL Survey Article is Live!

Since this article began as a series of blog posts on here, I thought it would be good to post the results on here. BEHOLD: after five years, several major family health crises, and a pandemic, I’m thrilled to share Special Collections on a Shoestring: A Survey of Non-ARL Libraries Servicing Rare Book Collections. (This is open access!)

Thomas, Lynne M. “Special Collections on a Shoestring: A Survey of Non-ARL Libraries Servicing Rare Book Collections.” RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage [Online], 23.2 (2022): 75. Web. 29 Nov. 2022

Abstract

This article reports the first national survey that creates a baseline for documenting the experience of working with rare books in libraries without Association of Research Libraries (ARL) membership: a group of libraries that make up about half the field of librarians working with rare books. Scarcely studied despite decades of comparable studies of their ARL library colleagues, librarians working in non-ARL rare book collections have comparable demographics, professional training, and standards for their work as their peers in ARL libraries. Their experiences doing the work in non-ARL libraries demonstrate a significant disparity in resources for acquisitions, security, staffing, and fundraising. These experiences of half of the special collections professionals in the field require further study, reintroducing their narratives into our understanding of “what rare books librarianship looks like.”

Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the survey, and thanks especially to the following colleagues who were instrumental in guiding me in the preparation of this article: J.J. Pionke, Thomas H. Teper, Karen Hogenboom, Karen Retzer, Laura McCullough, Mary Lee Kennedy, and Richard Saunders.

A brief note re: Twitter verification

I was once verified on Twitter. This is the official website of me, Lynne M. Thomas.

I also exist on Mastodon (server: wandering.shop) and IG under the same username.

I talk about my daughter Caitlin, libraries, Doctor Who, science fiction, and frocks a lot.

My hope is that I’m not worth spoofing, but just in case, here we are. Proof that I’m the one and only.

ChiCon/ WorldCon schedule!

:dusts off blog:

Firm Schedule:

*The Works and Legacy of Eric Flint 9/2/22, 11:30am, Michigan1

*Get to Know Short Fiction Publications, 9/2/22, 4pm, Crystal Ballroom A

*Hugo Award finalist rehearsal 9/4/22, 1:30pm, Grand Ballroom

*Table Talk 9/4/22, 2:30 pm, Crystal Foyer.

Woo! (Please be sure to sign up for the Table Talk so I have someone to chat with!)

DisCon III/ WorldCon schedule!

As many of you know, I’ll be in (very masked) attendance at DisCon III in person.

Here’s my schedule!

Thu 5:00 pm Hugo Awards Finalists Reception

 Start Time      Duration            Room Name          Session ID                      Title
Fri 4:00 PM    1 Hr          Forum Room                 608         The Small Press Takeover of Short Fiction 

     
Sat 11:30 AM   1 Hr          Forum Room                 558         The Finances of Running a Small Press             
Sat 1:00 PM    50 Min        Suite 325 Main Room        983         Kaffeeklatsch with Lynne M. Thomas 

Sat 8:00 PM Hugo Awards Ceremony etc.

             
Sun 11:30 AM   1 Hr          Blue Room                  560         Assembling an Anthology 

Even masked, I’m a very social creature; PLEASE feel free to say hi (and consider signing up for my Kaffeklatch so I’m not staring morosely into space…)