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Indie Crime Fiction of the Month for December 2021

Welcome to the latest edition of “Indie Crime Fiction of the Month”.

So what is “Indie Crime Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up of crime fiction by indie authors newly published this month, though some November books I missed the last time around snuck in as well. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far, most links only go to Amazon.com, though I may add other retailers for future editions.

Our new releases cover the broad spectrum of crime fiction. We have hardboiled mysteries, cozy mysteries, holiday mysteries, animal mysteries, historical mysteries, Jazz Age mysteries, paranormal mysteries, psychological mysteries, crime thrillers, adventure thrillers, historical thrillers, police procedurals, police officers, amateur sleuths, spies, FBI agents, police psychologists, con artists, vigilantes, serial killers, heists, prison breaks, organised crime, crime-busting witches, crime-busting socialites, crime-busting golden retrievers, murder and mayhem aboard ocean liners and in New York City, London, New Orleans, Maine, Texas, Arizona, Delaware, Washington state, Cuba, the Caribbean and much more.

Don’t forget that Indie Crime Fiction of the Month is also crossposted to the Indie Crime Scene, a group blog which features new release spotlights, guest posts, interviews and link round-ups regarding all things crime fiction several times per week.

As always, I know the authors at least vaguely, but I haven’t read all of the books, so Caveat emptor.

And now on to the books without further ado:

Murder Above the Silver Waves by Blythe Baker:

In the summer of 1923, danger crosses the Atlantic, as Lillian Crawford sets out on a voyage to England…

Banishment from New York aboard a magnificent luxury liner should have been the wealthy socialite’s ideal escape from disgrace, but everything changes when a moonlit stroll leaves Lillian the only witness to a shocking murder.

Could a hot tempered American millionaire be behind the killing? Or perhaps a certain handsome, blind pianist who guards a secret? And what does the victim’s bitter wife have to hide?

Determined to answer questions no one else is asking, Lillian enlists the aid of her twin brother Felix – as often as she can drag him away from the card tables. The Crawford siblings’ idyllic voyage becomes a fight for their lives, as they race to uncover the identity of a killer…before they become the next victims.

A Frosty Little Murder by Beth Byers:

Vi and friends are ready to dive into anything but London. The days have turned dreary, and these days they’re proactive about avoiding the blues. So, they pack their bags and head to the country where they’re hoping to find clear skies and cheery days.

They aren’t surprised, however, when a storm rolls in. They’re even excited when they’re invited to a local contest for the best snow sculpture. They find their way to the meadow, and they play in the snow. They drink an excess of cocoa. Except during the celebration, a body is found. A body with something they recognize. Maybe it was an accident? Evidence seems to suggest otherwise and–once again–the murderous hand of fate has struck.

Death Under the Perseids by Teresa Dovalpage:

There’s no such thing as a free cruise in Cuban American author Teresa Dovalpage’s addictively clever new Havana mystery.

Cuban-born Mercedes Spivey and her American husband, Nolan, win a five-day cruise to Cuba. Although the circumstances surrounding the prize seem a little suspicious to Mercedes, Nolan’s current unemployment and their need to spice up their marriage make the decision a no-brainer. Once aboard, Mercedes is surprised to see two people she met through her ex-boyfriend Lorenzo: former University of Havana professor Selfa Segarra and down-on-his-luck Spanish writer Javier Jurado. Even stranger: they also received a free cruise.

When Selfa disappears on their first day at sea, Mercedes and Javier begin to wonder if their presence on the cruise is more than coincidence. Mercedes confides her worries to her husband, but he convinces her that it’s all in her head.

However, when Javier dies under mysterious circumstances after disembarking in Havana, and Nolan is nowhere to be found, Mercedes scrambles through the city looking for him, fearing her suspicions were correct all along.

Winter Solstice Murders by C. Farren:

Investigating your own death can be murder.

Bea Goldfrapp runs her own magical greetings card business in the small town of Magpie Cove, Maine. She lives with her demon familiar, Widdershins, a cat that can change its breed on a daily basis, and a talking magpie that’s lived for a thousand years. She likes her life and wouldn’t change it for the world.

Then someone poisons her tea and she dies.

Luckily for Bea her father is a powerful sorcerer, and he brings her back to life, losing his own soul in the process. Bea is understandably miffed that someone wanted to kill her, and decides to find out who did it. This only brings more complications to her life, mainly because she never realised she had so many enemies. Can she find out who killed her before the killer strikes again?

Night at the Asylum by Elle Gray:

You better watch your back. You better do your best to hide.
Because at Whitehorn there are strange forces at play.
Someone or something is watching.
And the bizarre death within a secured room is only the beginning…

Within a short period of time FBI agent Blake Wilder has had to overcome many life altering events. From the relief of discovering the truth of her past and having the reunion she had always dreamed of.
To becoming suffocated by the feelings of grief and failure, feelings that nearly resulted in her death.
Safe to say, Blake Wilder is far from looking forward to the festivities to come.

Blake and her team are summoned to a small town in northern Washington to investigate the mysterious death of a patient at Whitehorn.
A case with no prints and no evidence that anyone had entered the victim’s room the night of her death.
A strangely perplexing and unfathomable death. And the patients and staff at Whitehorn believe that it was the spirit of the woman’s boyfriend—a man she’d killed—coming back from the grave to have his revenge.

When Blake discovers that the victim is not what she appears to be and the case takes a more shocking turn. Blake finds herself in an inescapable fight, a fight of the ghosts of the girl’s past and Blake’s very own ghosts of present and future to come.

You better watch out. You better hide.
Because a night at The Asylum could bring forth a darkness that may lead to an untimely demise.

Once in a Brew Moon by Lily Harper Hart:

Ofelia Archer has a lot on her plate. Between building renovations for her new business endeavor and plans to move in with her boyfriend for the duration of the construction, she doesn’t have time for anything else. All that changes when a teenage girl is almost abducted in front of her bar.

Ofelia and her boyfriend Zacharias “Zach” Sully intervene, save the girl, and believe they have the kidnapper caged in … only to find that he’s somehow escaped in plain sight. When digging further, they find there have been a string of disappearances from the outer parishes, something someone is working hard to keep under wraps.

Ofelia and Sully are on the case, but the harder they look, the more trouble they find. It seems the girls that are being targeted are from poorer areas. The only girl from an opulent family to be targeted is the one they managed to save. But why?

Ofelia may be comfortable in the French Quarter but Bywater is where she’s needed. Unfortunately, the people there aren’t open to trusting newcomers. As she tries to ingratiate herself, she befriends a local artist … who may just be a target herself.

Ofelia lives in a magical world, a world where she’s often the queen. This time, she may be in over her head. The stakes are too high to abandon the mission, though, and she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth … even if it will leave a scar on the city she loves so much.

Buckle up, because it’s going to be a bumpy – and magical – ride.

Friends in Low Places by Lily Harper Hart:

The Morgan family is taking their first family vacation, and since they let their youngest member pick the place, that means Mammoth Cave National Park is on the menu. Ivy Morgan-Harker and her husband Jack aren’t exactly excited about exploring caves, but they’re committed to making sure the vacation is a success.

The first stop on their trip is Casper Creek, a cosplay western town perched atop a mountain. There Hannah Hickok, a witch like Ivy, runs things. The Casper Creek workers have their hands full. It seems local kids are going missing – three in only a few weeks – and the cause of their disappearances might be supernatural in nature.

Ivy’s nephew JJ is the one who uncovers the biggest clue when he inadvertently stumbles over one of the missing kids. Unfortunately, the child who returned isn’t the one who disappeared. There’s something off about him, although nobody can ascertain exactly what.

Hannah and Ivy recognize each other for what they are on first meeting, and it’s a good thing, because they’re going to have to work together to solve a huge mystery … and keep JJ safe in the process.

There are more than witches and demons haunting the hills surrounding Casper Creek. Ivy and Hannah are going to find out exactly what sort of horrors are being hidden in one small community.

They’re determined to make things right. They just have to survive to do it.

Murder and the Mermaid by L.B. Hathaway:

Sometimes the truth is as slippery and hard to grasp as a mermaid…

December, 1925

A dark, smog-filled London doesn’t seem very Christmassy, or exciting, but then Posie Parker, London’s premier female Private Detective receives an urgent call from one of her oldest friends; Rufus, Earl of Cardigeon.

Summoned to ‘The Mermaid’, an ancient hotel in Rye, on the Sussex Coast, in the heart of smuggling country, Posie, together with her husband, Richard, finds her friend in a real state.

Rufus has been promised answers about his missing wife, Dolly, but instead there’s simply a bizarre string of events: a priceless car mysteriously driven off a cliff; a missing Frenchman, and telegrams from men who simply don’t exist. While Richard Lovelace, Chief Commissioner of New Scotland Yard tries to work out if Rufus himself is the target of a complicated plot, Posie has her own investigations to make.

The local tragedy of a missing dancer has been dealt with by local police as an open-and-shut case. But Posie soon discovers it is anything but. And she suspects foul play.

And as the snow falls, and Christmas lights go up, secrets are revealed, and Posie becomes involved in perhaps her most personal case so far. She becomes aware that danger lurks at ‘The Mermaid’, and not just for Rufus.

A murderer is on the loose.

The Answer to His Prayers by Ellen Kirschman:

WHO READS PEOPLE BETTER—A COP, A CON, OR A VERY SHREWD SHRINK?

A down-and-out, wheelchair-bound lonely man calls 911 from a trailer that’s just burst into flames. The tragic fire claims the man’s life. It seems like an accident until the cops find a few arguments against that theory. And another puzzler — the dispatcher seems to be keeping some dangerous secrets…

Police psychologist Dot Meyerhoff, on call to counsel police station employees, soon finds herself trying to help the traumatized dispatcher. But as the action-packed investigation accelerates, Dot can’t help but get drawn into an ever-expanding series of crimes seemingly orchestrated by the scariest prison mastermind this side of Hannibal Lecter.

As Dot helps track down the possible arsonist, she proves herself a sensitive yet doggedly persistent sleuth — even when ordered to mind her own business. The gripping case drags her through the seedy underbelly of her small town, and finally to the local prison. During a couple of risky trips to the lockup, she becomes reacquainted with the imprisoned puppetmaster, who also happens — coincidentally? — to be a menacing old friend…

Colleagues and friends keep warning her away from the ruthless and powerful criminal, which is excellent advice, right? If only good advice were easy to take…

The Wendigo Whoop-De-Doo by Amanda M. Lee:

Charlie Rhodes has the one thing she always wanted but was afraid to admit. The parents who gave her up for adoption are back in her life, but the transition from orphan to adult child isn’t going to be an easy one. Before she can commit to the process, however, a new job pops up for the Legacy Foundation and she’s whisked away to upstate Washington.

A group of teens celebrating graduation and preparing for college have gone missing in Nighthawk, a former boomtown that has exactly one resident, a crazy old bootlegger who wanders the area dropping ominous warnings before disappearing into the darkness.

The Legacy Foundation is called out when several bodies are found, all with the sort of injuries that can’t be easily explained, and local law enforcement officials find themselves stumped. From the first day at the town, Charlie knows they’re in trouble as the memories of one of the missing teens threaten to overwhelm her. Is the girl still alive? Did she fall with the others and simply hasn’t been found? More importantly, what are they dealing with?

The specter of an evil witch hangs over Charlie and she’s eager for something else to focus on. Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done when it becomes apparent that Sybil knows exactly where they are.

There’s more than one killer in the Washington woods, and both serve as a significant threat to Charlie. She’ll need to overcome two threats to keep her team safe … and figure out the one thing that’s so far evaded her.

What does Sybil want? You’re about to find out, and the answer might shake the foundation of everything Charlie believes she knows.

The Truth Lies by Duane Lindsay:

FIRST FIRE ALL THE LAWYERS — THEN PLAN A PRISON BREAK

While unwinding from her most recent criminal masterwork, one-of-a-kind con artist Dani Silver receives some harsh news: her much beloved brother has gone missing. Dani immediately uses her ample resources to dig up his whereabouts: it turns out he’s stuck in prison after being framed as a drug dealer. After being railroaded, the poor guy got doomed to a life sentence in solitary confinement.

Dani won’t stand for this—he’s her favorite brother, after all, and and not only that, just about everybody’s favorite person. A great guy who’s the exact opposite of Dani and her infamous grifter father—an honest man.

And sure enough, it turns out he not only saw something he shouldn’t have–he has proof. Hence the infinite jailtime.

Easy peasy, then—all Dani has to do is assemble a crack team to perform the most unthinkable of cons: a jailbreak. And then clear her brother of his alleged crimes. And incidentally somehow make some cash while doing it—because crack jailbreak teams don’t come cheap.

A recipe for a truly rollicking ride.

Slow Burn by Terrence McCauley:

New York City – August 1932

Caught between the Great Depression and a massive heatwave, New York is a city on the edge. Businesses close up shop, breadlines grow longer, and riots are almost a daily occurrence.

When corrupt NYPD Detective Charlie Doherty is assigned to investigate a dead body in a flophouse, he knows there’s more here than meets the eye. He quickly discovers that the girl’s death is tied to one of the most powerful families in New York, and a kidnapping case that could tear the city apart.

In a chase that takes Doherty from the mansions of Fifth Avenue, to the slums of the Lower East Side, all the way to City Hall itself, Doherty is in a race against time to find the people responsible for putting his city on a slow burn.

Dusk Corners by Dan Padavona:

It takes a killer to catch a killer.

Logan Wolf was the Behavioral Analysis Unit’s most-respected profiler. Then a serial killer murdered his wife and tore his life apart. Now he’s a vigilante fugitive, hiding from the FBI while he hunts the nation’s deadliest criminals.

When a college student and her boyfriend vanish in West Texas, Wolf suspects the Devil’s Rock killer. But the FBI hasn’t captured the murderer, and after a decade of terror, the trail is turning cold.

Posing as the missing girl’s uncle, Wolf investigates the tiny town of Dusk Corners, the last place anyone saw the students alive. But the local sheriff doesn’t trust Wolf, and it’s just a matter of time before he learns Wolf’s true identity.

To solve the mystery, Wolf must dodge the FBI and power-hungry sheriff. But a killer deadlier than any he’s encountered lies in wait.

In Dusk Corners, danger lurks in every shadow.

Dog’s Waiting Room by Neil S. Plakcy:

Two parents die and two families mourn, in very different ways.

Amateur sleuth Steve Levitan and his clue-sniffing golden retriever Rochester face two deaths in the 12th full-length novel in this long-running series. An Alzheimer’s patient slips away from home on his own and tumbles into the Delaware River. And then Steve’s love Lili suffers the crushing loss of her mother in a Miami Beach hospital.

Eckhardt Lalor left behind a fortune in real estate, a fractured family, and a bitter legacy as a city slumlord. Does that add up to murder? There’s no question of what killed Benita Weinstock—a dodgy heart—but her death rocks her daughter’s world, and Steve’s.

It will be up to Rochester to solve the crime and heal his humans in this new mystery with heart — and fur!

Jingle Spells by Christine Pope:

Sweet baby Jesus, someone’s stolen a lot of Christmas dough!

All is calm and bright as Globe, Arizona’s holiday celebrations approach. Selena Marx should have known it wouldn’t stay that way. The painted snowflakes on her shop window are barely dry when her best friend, Josie Woodrow, bursts in with news that the baby Jesus is missing from the crèche in front of St. Ignatius.

Selena has enough on her mind without having to use her psychic powers to suss out the culprit. Her boyfriend Calvin Standingbear’s parents are still on the snow-covered fence about accepting her, which throws a dimmer on the town’s highly anticipated Festival of Lights. And when Calvin springs a surprise on the solstice, Selena realizes she has some work to do to reconcile the two men in her life: Calvin, and her cursed cat, Archie.

The last thing she needs is a spontaneous vision that indicates the baby Jesus theft was more than just a prank. And if someone doesn’t spill the beans soon, someone’s getting away with…well, not murder (this time), but a whole lot of dough — and we’re not talking cookies.

All Ahead Full by Wayne Stinnett:

Jesse McDermitt discovers an environmental nightmare of deception and greed taking place in Central America. A cartel is branching into smuggling things other than drugs. And they’re doing it quite effectively.

The Honduran rain forests and its inhabitants are at peril. The cartel needs hidden places to grow coca, used in the manufacture of cocaine. The exotic and endangered hardwood trees are cut and sold on the black market, along with any creature found dwelling deep in the humid jungle.

Environmental activists in the area who try to intercede are swiftly dealt with in the manner the cartel deals with anyone who stands between them and the almighty dollar—with a sharp machete.

Having so many moving parts and numerous smuggling routes, can Jesse and the crew of Ambrosia, on a dive vacation in the Bay Islands of Honduras, be able to make a difference? Or will the beautiful reef surrounding the island of Utila be Ambrosia’s grave?

The 2021 Darth Vader Parenthood Award for Outstandingly Horrible Fictional Parents

It’s almost the end of the year, so it’s time to announce the winner of the coveted (not) 2021 Darth Vader Parenthood Award for Outstandingly Horrible Fictional Parents. T

Let’s have a bit of background: I have been informally awarding the Darth Vader Parenthood Award since sometime in the 1980s with the earliest awards being retroactive. Over the years, the list of winners migrated from a handwritten page to various computer file formats, updated every year. Eventually, I decided to make the winners public on the Internet, because what’s an award without some publicity and a ceremony? The list of previous winners (in PDF format) up to 2017 may be found here, BTW, and the 2018 winner, the 2019 winner and 2020 winner were announced right here on this blog.

Warning: Spoilers for several things behind the cut!

Like last year, it took several months for a likely candidate for the 2021 Darth Vader Parenthood Award to emerge, while once again we had plenty of candidates for the Jonathan and Martha Kent Fictional Parent of the Year Award, which will be awarded tomorrow. We seem to be in the middle of a paradigm shift in how parents are portrayed in popular culture, because we are seeing far more positive portrayals of parenthood and fewer negative ones.

This summer, an unexpected candidate in the form of King Randor of Eternia threw his hat or rather his crown in the ring. Now Randor has never been a stellar parents by any means, as chronicled in more than 100 episodes of the original Masters of the Universe cartoon. He not only completely fails to notice that his son Prince Adam is also the superhero He-Man despite the fact that in the original cartoon, He-Man is basically Adam with a tan and his clothes off, but also constantly berates Adam for not being whatever Randor expects from his son.

In Masters of the Universe: Revelations, Randor turns out to be an even shittier father than in the original cartoon. Not only does he still fail to notice that Adam is He-Man and still berates his son for not being what Randor wants him to be, no, literally the last thing he says to Adam before Adam goes to off to get himself killed to save all of Eternia is that he has never ever had any occasion to be proud of Adam. And once he finally learns the truth – after Adam got himself killed (don’t worry, he gets better) – Randor takes his anger out on the people in whom Adam did confide. Duncan a.k.a. Man-at-Arms, the person who was actually there for Adam, when his own father wasn’t, gets the brunt of it and is not only stripped off his rank and banished, but also threatened with execution. However, inept wizard Orko and Adam’s beloved tiger companion Cringer are banished as well.

Darth Vader Parenthood Awards have certainly been won for less (a lot of the soap opera winners from the early years like Hans Beimer from Lindenstraße were objectively not all that awful compared to genuine supervillains, but won anyway because I intensely disliked them) and the main reason Randor does not win this year is because he actually learns better and apologises to Adam and finally does tell his son he’s proud of him. So it’s no award for King Randor of Eternia.

Masters of the Universe: Revelations also yielded another unexpected candidate in the form of Evil-Lyn’s (or just Lyn at the point) terrible parents, who wanted to eat their own daughter, because they were poor and starving. However, while Lyn’s parents were undoubtedly awful, we also only see them on screen for less than a minute.

In the end, it came down to a close race between two candidates. So let’s start with the 2021 Honourable Mention, which goes to…

DrumrollXu Wenwu

As portrayed by Tony Leung in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Xu Wenwu is the despotic leader of the Ten Rings criminal organisation as well as wielder of the titular rings, which bestow superpowers.

When his wife Ying Li is murdered by a rival organisation called the Iron Gang, Wenwu decides to take bloody vengeance on the murderer, which is understandable. However, Wenwu drags his children Shang-Chi and Xialing into his quest for vengeance. He subjects Shang-Chi to a brutal martial arts training and sends the boy out to kill the leader of the Iron Gang, when he is only fourteen years old. Meanwhile, Xialing actually does want to learn martial arts, but is forbidden to do so by her father, because women are not supposed to fight. Wenwu terrible parenting causes both his kids to run away from him while still teenagers.

When both his children are adults, Wenwu sends Ten Rings operatives after them to capture them and retrieve a pendant they inherited from their mother. As for why Wenwu needs the pendant, he believes that his wife Ying Li is still alive and calling to him and that she has been imprisoned in the mythical village of Ta Lo. Wenwu wants to free her, which again is understandable. However, in order to do so, Wenwu is willing to go through everything and everybody who stands in his way, including his own children. Worse, the voice he’s been hearing is not that of Li at all, but of a monster called the Dweller in Darkness…

Wenwu was the clear frontrunner until very shortly before the end of the year, when another favourite emerged. And in the end, the reason why Wenwu receives only an honourable mention is that while he is certainly a bad father, most of his actions are motivated by love for his wife and grief over her death. Wenwu may be a villain, but he is also misguided.

Applause

Since Xu Wenwu died in the final battle with the Dweller in Darkness, his daughter Xu Xialing, clad in a striking gown of burgundy silk, accepted the award (which is really just an ugly vase found at a flea market, since we can’t afford a proper trophy) on his behalf and delivered the following acceptance speech:

Thank you. I know this award is not an honour for my father. However, it is well deserved. For much as it pains me to say so, my father was not a good parent. He held my brother and me prisoner for years. Worse, he refused to see us for who we were and tried to form my brother into the fighter he never wanted to be, while completely ignoring me and forbidding me to learn, even though I would have been a better fighter and better leader than my brother.

And then, when my father died, he bequeathed his rings of power to Shang-Chi and not to me, even though I would have been much more worthy.

Anyway, I shall rebuild the Ten Rings organisation and restore it to its former glory and also abolish the sexist policies that kept women warriors out of our organisation for centuries. Also, I wish to let the world know that the Ten Rings were in no way responsible for the wave of terrorist attacks committed by a man who called himself the Mandarin in 2013. This man was an imposter named Trevor Slattery and…

Thank you, Miss Xu, but I think this is quite enough, since this is not the moment to restore the honour of the Ten Rings. So please return to your headquarters for some more plotting.

***

And now, with the Honourable Mention out of the way, let’s get the the grand prize.

The winner of the 2021 Darth Vader Parenthood Award for Outstandingly Horrible Fictional Parents is…

DrumrollEleanor Bishop

As portrayed by Vera Farmiga in Hawkeye, Eleanor Bishop is a New York socialite, head of Bishop Security and mother of Kate.

In 2012, tragedy struck and Eleanour lost her husband and young Kate her father during the event known as the Battle of New York. Unfortunately, the late Mr. Bishop not only left Eleanor a spectacular Beaux Arts building in Midtown Manhattan, but also a mountain of debt with crime boss Wilson Fisk a.k.a. the Kingpin of Crime. The body of the late Mr. Bishop was barely cold, when Fisk came to collect

Wilson Fisk is a very intimidating man and so it is perhaps understandable that Eleanor did not go to the police, but agreed to work for Fisk to pay back her husband’s debts.

However, Eleanor did not just use the resources of her security firm to keep Fisk one step ahead of the law and to create shell companies for his various criminal enterprises. she also actively engaged in murder, mayhem and deceit.

Eleanor personally murdered Armand DuQuesne III, when he got wind of her dealings with Fisk, and then framed her fiancé, Armand’s nephew Jack DuQuesne, for the dastardly deed. She also hired an assassin to murder Clint Barton a.k.a. the Avenger Hawkeye, who had become a mentor to her daughter Kate.

What gave Eleanor the edge over Xu Wenwu in the end was that while Xu Wenwu is misguided and motivated by love and grief, Eleanor may be motivated by love for her daughter as well, but she absolutely knows what she’s doing.

That sort of villainy deserves an award and so Eleanor Bishop is the winner of the 2021 Darth Vader Parenthood Award for Outstandingly Horrible Fiction Parents.

Applause

Even though she was arrested for murdering Armand DuQuesne III, the justice system works differently for rich people and so Eleanor was out on bail and could accept her award in person.

She took the stage in a gorgeous bias-cut red silk evening gown, side-eyed the ugly vase she was given and delivered the following speech:

Thank you. Thank you very much.

I think everybody here who has children knows how difficult parenting can be. We do everything in our power to keep our children safe and to make sure they have the life they deserve and all the funds they need. And how do they thank us?

Well, I can tell you how my daughter Kate thanked me, namely by having me arrested on suspicion of murder on Christmas Day. Her own mother, can you imagine that?

But then, Kate was always impulsive and ungrateful. Rather than doing something sensible like going into finance, the silly girl decided she wanted to be a superhero and help people and not be donating to charitable causes either. A superhero, can you imagine it?

At this point, Xialing yells from the front row, “Women can be heroes, too, you know.”

Oh, of course, I did not mean to imply that women were physically incapable of being superheroes. What I meant to say is that superhero is such a silly career choice, because it just doesn’t pay. But then, my Kate has always been a spoiled brat, literally born with a silver spoon in her mouth.

But otherwise, I agree with Ms. Xu. Men are trash. Take my husband, for example. He, too, was born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth and what did he do with it? He squandered his wealth on bad investments and gambling. And when he ran out of money, he didn’t go to a bank or – heavens beware – cut down on expenses, but went straight to the worst crime lord in town for a loan.

Really, what should I have done? I had to repay Fisk somehow, so I went to work for his organisation. And I was good at it. Does anybody think that Wilson Fisk would have been so successful, if not for my hard work behind the scenes?

As for the charges against me, they’re all false, of course.

Eleanor theatrically dabs on her eyes with a silk handkerchief.

Wilson Fisk blackmailed me into aiding him. He threatened my daughter, my one and only. As for Armand DuQuesne, I did not murder that old toad. His nephew Jack, the man I was going to marry, murdered him and then framed me. Honestly, I am the victim here. You must arrest Jack. And Wilson Fisk, of course.

Finally, I absolutely did not attempt to kill Clint Barton. Yes, that cad stole my daughter from me and seduced her with his talk of heroism, but I did not try to murder him. Is it my fault that some Russian assassin with a grudge decided to off Barton just before Christmas…

Thank you, Ms. Bishop, that’s quite enough out of you. This is not your trial, this is an awards ceremony and you have overrun the time limit for your acceptance speech, so please return to your penthouse or your summer house in the Hamptons and leave us alone.

***

And that’s it for the 2021 Darth Vader Parenthood Award. The companion prize, the Jonathan and Martha Kent Award for the Fictional Parent of the Year will be handed out tomorrow.

Who will win next year? You’ll find out in this space.

***

Disclaimer: I don’t own any of these characters, I just gave them an award and wrote an acceptance speech for them. All characters and properties are copyright their respective owners.

Hawkeye realises “So This Is Christmas”

Here’s my review of season 1 finale of Hawkeye, somewhat belated due to the double whammy of Worldcon and the holiday season. Review of previous episodes may be found here.

Warning! Spoilers under the cut!

When we last met our intrepid archers, Kate had just found out that the person who hired Yelena Belova to kill Clint Barton is none other than her mother, Eleanor Bishop. Worse, Eleanor is working for Wilson Fisk a.k.a. the Kingpin of Crime himself and has been working for him for years. Eleanor is also the one who murdered Armand DuQuesne III and framed her fiancé Jack DuQuesne, who really is innocent and nothing more than a somewhat goofy rich dude who’s really good with a sword. Nice bit of misdirection there, considering Jacques DuQuesne’s backstory in the comics.

As for why a socialite like Eleanor is hanging out with a career criminal like Wilson Fisk, well, it turns out that her husband, Kate’s father, had financial troubles and was indebted to Fisk. This was also what the argument between her parents that little Kate overheard, before it was so rudely interrupted by the Chitauri invasion, was about. After Kate’s Dad died during the Battle of New York, Fisk showed up at Eleanor’s doorstep and demanded that she repay his debts. Which she has done, tenfold, as she points out.

However, Eleanor also tells Fisk that Kate is back at home now and that she is asking questions and getting too close to the truth. Therefore, Eleanor wants out. However, Wilson Fisk is not a man you can just walk away from, as he makes amply clear. Eleanor tells him that she has insurance – recordings of all her interactions with Fisk – which turns out to be a spectacularly bad idea, because you don’t threaten Wilson Fisk.

Bonnie McDaniel points out that walking out on Wilson Fisk and threatening him, too, is not only a spectacularly bad idea, it also doesn’t make sense that an intelligent and shrewd woman like Eleanor would be so stupid to think that Fisk would let her get away with this. Just as it’s not very likely that Yelena would be able to record the whole conversation between Fisk and Eleanor in HD quality.

Fisk’s troubles aren’t over yet, because this is clearly the day that women walk out on Wilson Fisk. For after Eleanor has left, Maya shows up at Fisk’s hideout. She apologises for letting her hunt for Ronin get out of hand and getting into a high-profile and very visible fight with an Avenger, drawing attention to Fisk’s operations. She also tells Fisk that she’ll stop hunting Ronin, because killing him won’t bring her father back. Finally, she requests a few days off to clear her head.

Now Wilson Fisk genuinely seems to like Maya, whom he’s known since she was a little girl, but he’s not buying her excuses. “She wants out,” he tells Kazi. And as Eleanor is about to find out, you don’t walk out on Wilson Fisk, especially not when you’re a woman.

Vincent D’Onofrio returns as Wilson Fisk, a part he already played in Daredevil and the other Netflix Marvel series, though Sam Barsanti points out that it’s still not clear whether the Marvel Netflix shows are now canon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe or not, since they might well take place one universe over. Personally, I suspect that Marvel will just take whatever worked from those shows – Vincent D’Onofrio, Charlie Cox, Krysten Ritter, Mike Colter – and ditch what didn’t work (Finn Jones as Danny Rand). Besides, D’Onofrio makes for a brilliantly creepy Wilson Fisk, so I’m glad to see him back in the role. In general, I find Vincent D’Onofrio a brilliant actor who usually plays deeply unlikeable people. Not just Fisk, but also Edgar the alien cock roach in Men in Black and the comatose serial killer in The Cell. Even when he was supposedly the good guy, e.g. in Law and Order: Criminal Intent (which my Mom used to watch a lot), I always found his character unlikeable. The Whole Wide World is the only film where I ever actually liked a character played by Vincent D’Onofrio and that’s at least partly because I was a fan of Robert E. Howard and his work well before I ever saw the movie. And according to Novalyne Price Ellis (who was still alive when The Whole Wide World came out and should know), D’Onofrio absolutely nailed Robert E. Howard, so The Whole Wide World is probably the best physical look we’ll ever have at what Howard was like as a person.

Kate is understandably horrified that her Mom has been working for the Kingpin of Crime all those years and that she murdered Armand and would have had Clint murdered as well. She tells Clint to go home to his family. This is Kate’s mess and she will deal with her mother and Wilson Fisk. Clint, however, isn’t having any of that. “We’re partners,” he tells her.

However, before going into battle against Wilson Fisk, Eleanor Bishop and the tracksuit mafia, Clint and Kate first need ammunition. So they sit down and make trick arrows – at the kitchen table of LARPer Griff. I loved the down-to-Earthness of the whole scene. Unlike Tony Stark or Hank Pym (who do provide special arrow heads for Clint’s trick arrows), Clint doesn’t have a tricked out lab or workshop – all he has is someone else’s kitchen table. I also loved Kate using a (very old-fashioned, since the new ones look different) Dymo label-maker to label the arrows. io9 reviewer Germain Lussier also has a lot of praise for the arrow-making scene.

Making arrows also gives Clint and Kate a chance to have a heart to heart. Clint warns Kate of the costs of being a hero – it’s inconvenient, it’s lonely, you have to make tough decisions and will get hurt – and asks her if she truly is ready.

Kate responds by opening up. She tells Clint that seeing him during the battle of New York, fighting aliens with a stick and a piece of string and jumping off a building, even though he can neither fly nor has any other superpowers,  showed her that she didn’t need to be afraid and that Clint inspired her to become a hero.

“You showed me that being a hero isn’t just for people who can fly or shoot lasers out of their hands. It’s for anyone who’s brave enough to do what’s right, no matter the cost,” Kate says, delivering the mission statement of the Marvel Cinematic Universe right there.

Because the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies have always made it very clear that it’s not the powers or the suit that makes a hero, it’s the attitude. Thor spends much of his first movie depowered, Steve Rogers is already heroic before he gets the serum, Tony Stark is deprived of his suit, wealth and power several times across three movies. If there’s one consistent message that unites all the Marvel movies, it’s, “Everybody can be a hero. You don’t need superpowers, though they help.” And who better to encapsulate that message than Clint Barton, the Avenger whose superpower are his archery skills?

There is also a neat parallel here in the very different ways that Eleanor and Kate reacted to their shared trauma of the Battle of New York and losing their husband/father. It’s very clear that both Eleanor and Kate are motivated by trying to keep each other safe, at least initially. However, while Kate decided to train to become a superhero, Eleanor responded by going to work for a supervillain. AV-Club reviewer Caroline Siede also notices these parallels and is disappointed that Hawleye didn’t play up that angle more.

Clint and Kate dress up in a tuxedo and evening gown respective and head for the Bishop Security Christmas party, which just happens to be held at 30 Rockefeller Plaza a.k.a. the RCA Building, leading to a big final showdown at what is probably New York City’s most iconic Christmas location. Though Eleanor’s Christmas party does not take place at the famous Rainbow Room, which seems to be a missed opportunity.

Clint and Kate also have some back-up in the form of the LARPers they befriended, who are posing as waiters. Everybody else is there as well: Jack DuQuesne is there, out of jail (well, he is innocent) and wearing a sabre with his tuxedo. Young Armand DuQuesne VII is there as well, being a pain in the backside. Yelena Belova arrives presently, still on her mission to kill Clint. The tracksuit mafia are on their way in their Trust a Bro moving vans and Kazi is in a building opposite with a sniper rifle. In fact, that’s probably why they didn’t use the Rainbow Room, because it would have been too high up for a sniper to hit anything, because the adjacent buildings are not tall enough.

The only one missing is Eleanor. Once she shows up, clad in a gorgeous green velvet and lace gown (honestly, Eleanor has the best gowns not just in this show, but in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe), Kate intercepts her, steers her into the kitchen and demands to know what the hell Eleanor was thinking to work for Wilson Fisk and hire an assassin to kill Clint. Eleanor tries to give Kate the “I had no choice” spiel, but Kate isn’t buying it. Jack also shows up and – since he apparently figured out just why he spent a few hours in jail and who framed him- wants to talk to Eleanor as well.

However, before anybody can talk to Eleanor, Kazi makes his move and tries to shoot at Clint and LARPer Wendy through the windows. Luckily, Clint spots the laser target reflected in a glass of champagne and manages to pull Wendy to the floor just before Kazi can fire. Clint then tells the LARPers to evacuate the civilians – Armand VII has to be carried to safety by Griff – before heading off to locate and deal with the sniper.

The commotion causes Kate to rip off her dress and reveal her new purple archery suit underneath. Then she runs off, not without telling Eleanor and Jack to stay put and also letting Eleanor know that this whole mess is her fault. But of course, Eleanor does not stay put, but sneaks out via a side entrance. Jack doesn’t stay put either, but draws his sword and wades into the fray, duelling with the tracksuit mafia. Again, this moment provides a nice echo to Kate’s earlier remarks about what makes a hero. Because here Jack – the guy Kate (and we) thought was a villain – decides to be a hero.

Kate spots Yelena and goes after her, which leads to some delightful banter – cause Kate and Yelena get along really well, when they’re not trying to kill each other – as well as to a fight which starts in an elevator and then continues across a suite of offices – complete with late-working IT-guy – before Yelena makes her escape out of the window via grapling wire and nearly manages to shoot Clint, who’s on another floor, before Kate warns him just in time.

Clint shoots a gas arrow at Kazi, forcing him out into the open, while Kate tries to descend via Yelena’s wire and makes a not very graceful landing in Rockefeller Plaza, just as it is being swarmed by tracksuits. Those moving vans must be TARDISes, because there is no way that a limitless supply of tracksuits can fit into just four not very big vans. Kate uses her martial arts and archery skills against the tracksuits and also has a hilarious exchange with the tracksuit bro to whom she gave relationship advice back in episode 3. The tracksuit bro is grateful, cause Kate’s advice worked, though not grateful enough to drop his gun, so Kate knocks him out. Meanwhile, Jack is enthusiastically trying out his swordfighting skills on the tracksuits.

The LARPers have suited up as well – because New Yorkers apparently take people in faux medieval armour more seriously than people in waiter uniforms – and are directing civilians away from the danger. “What about him?” Wendy asks Kate and points at Jack who’s fighting the tracksuits. “He’s on our side,” Kate says, “But we’d better get him out of here as well.”

Clint fights off a bunch of tracksuits (apparently, 30 Rockefeller Plaza has no security, so a bunch of tracksuit wearing gangsters can just waltz in) before an angry Kazi ambushes him. Clint gets knocked out of a window and lands directly in the famous Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, where he meets a cute owl.

Meanwhile, Kate has taken up station inside the F.A.O. Schwarz store and fires arrows at the tracksuits. And yes, the famous giant walking piano puts in an appearance. Now I had no idea that F.A.O. Schwarz is at Rockefeller Center these days – when I visited it was in the General Motors Building on Fifth Avenue at Grand Army Plaza. Apparently, F.A.O. Schwarz has been in Rockefeller Center since 2018.

Kate gets Clint out of the tree by shooting the guy wires that hold it upright, so the tree and Clint land on the famous ice skating rink, just narrowly missing the Prometheus statue. Clint also narrowly escapes being impaled by the Daniel Liebeskind designed star on top of the tree. Clint also takes off his tuxedo shirt, revealing his new LARPer designed suit underneath.

Kate joins Clint and we are treated to an “Archery on Ice” spectacular, as Clint and Kate fight a sheer limitless supply of tracksuits, using every trick arrow they have, while the camera performs a Michael Ballhaus style circle shot around them, echoing the iconic circle shot in Avengers. By the way, here is Michael Ballhaus’ original circle shot from Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1974 film Martha, featuring Karlheinz Böhm, Margit Carstensen in an amazing outfit and lurking in the background, El Hedi Ben Salem. There were no steadicams at the time, so Ballhaus used cameras on rails to achieve this amazing shot.

The final two tracksuits are about to crash their van onto the ice skating rink, when Clint fires one of his Pym arrows and shrinks them to toy size. “What will become of them now?” Kate wants to know. Clint admits that he has no idea and that he needs to ask Scott Lang. But before he can, the cute little owl appears to carry off the toy-sized van. I guess we know what became of the tracksuits, namely owl fodder.

However, the fight isn’t finished yet. Kate finally finds her mother, who has just been ambushed by Wilson Fisk, leading to Kate fighting the Kingpin of Crime inside F.A.O. Schwarz. And while Fisk may be massive, he’s far from flabby. He also snaps all of Kate’s remaining trick arrows in half, but Kate manages to set them off by throwing a cufflink, just like Clint showed her. The resulting explosion knocks out Fisk.

Meanwhile, Clint finds himself faced with Yelena, who refuses to believe that Natasha sacrificed herself and is sill hellbent on killing him. She likely would have succeeded, too, if Clint hadn’t persuaded her to stop by whistling the secret code Yelena and Natasha shared. When Yelena asks how Clint knows, he tells her that Natasha talked about Yelena all the time and how much she missed her sister. It’s touching moment to see those two very different people bonding over their love and grief for Natasha in the ruins of the Rockefeller Plaza ice skating rink. “You had so much time with her,” Yelena says at one point, revealing what her issue with Clint really is.

I’ve said before that Hawkeye is a show about trauma, grief and coming to terms with it and this scene encompasses all that. It also offers closure for both Clint and Yelena, allowing them to move on with their lives, and also finally gives Natasha’s death the weight it deserves, since it was overshadowed by Tony Stark’s death in Avengers: Endgame. Tor.com reviewer Annika Rollock and AV-Club reviewer Caroline Siede also praise this scene and how it addresses something that Endgame glossed over.

While all this is going on, Maya confronts Kazi about her father’s death. There clearly is a connection between Maya and Kazi, though it’s not clear whether they’re a couple or just really good friends. At any rate, Maya just wants to get away and wants Kazi to come with her, but Kazi doesn’t want to. He’s in too deep with Fisk now. “This was never supposed to be your life,” he tells her, “But it was always mine.” The fight ends when Maya stabs Kazi with an arrow, likely by accident. At any rate, she’s heartbroken, as Kazi dies in her arms.

With Fisk dealt with for now, Kate finally confronts her mother and hands her over to the police to be arrested for the murder of Armand III. “Is this what heroes do?” the ever-manipulative Eleanor asks Kate, “Have their mother arrested on Christmas?” Kate, however, is through with Eleanor’s shit once and for all.

The police also try to arrest Wilson Fisk – can’t pass up a chance like that – but Fisk has escaped again. However, while limping away, he runs into Maya who pulls a gun on him. Fisk tries to give Maya a speech on the importance of family, but Maya isn’t having any of the crap anymore than Kate is. The camera pulls away as we hear a gunshot. Though I doubt that Maya killed Fisk, since I’m sure we’ll see him again, especially since Maya is apparently getting her own show.

Wendy invites Jack, who clearly enjoyed himself playing hero and fighting the tracksuits, to join the LARPers. I really hope he does and that we will see him and of course the LARPers again.

The episode ends with Clint finally returning to his farmhouse on Christmas Day with a bunch of presents as well as Kate and pizza dog, now named Lucky, in tow. The Barton kids are thrilled to have a dog and Lila is clearly happy to have a girl closer to her own age as a companion/friend/foster sister. Clint and Kate also burn the Ronin suit, putting that chapter of Clint’s life finally to rest for good.

Clint also returns the Rolex that the tracksuits had stolen to Laura, who turns it over to reveal the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo and the number 19. So yes, Laura was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and not just any old agent either. Because as Annika Rollock points out, in the comics, Agent 19 is codenamed Mockingbird and was married to Clint for a while, though their marriage was less happy than the MCU Bartons. Now comic Mockingbird is a woman named Bobbi Morse, who actually does exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and showed up in a few episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., played by Adrienne Palicki. But then, the multiverse can explain all those difference.

There have been some complaints that Laura Barton is “only” a wife and mother. However, this episode confirms that Laura Barton used to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in her own right, something that was actually hinted at as far back as Age of Ultron, when she was introduced. Laura clearly made the choice to stay at home with the kids, while Clint was out heroing, and anybody who has an issue with that is showing their internalised misogyny. Plus, Laura is incredibly supportive, taking in any stray Clint picks up, whether it’s Kate and Lucky, Natasha or the Avengers. I still wish she had gotten more screentime, but then Linda Candellini apparently had other commitments.

This being a Marvel show, there is a mid credits scene as well, featuring the full version of the song “Save the City” from the fiction Rogers: The Musical. The song is not only incredibly catchy, it also perfectly illustrates the expenses to which only Disney can go. After all, they commissioned a Broadway songwriter and composer to write the song, hired singers and dancers (and there’s at least twenty to twenty-five people on that stage) to perform it, built sets, rented a Broadway theatre (at least I think it’s a real theatre, not a soundstage) and filled it with an audience – all for a scene that less than two minutes long. I suspect Disney may be trying to gauge if there’s interest in an Avengers musical, but I still don’t want to imagine how much money they spent on this short scene.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed Hawkeye. It was not as beautifully weird as WandaVision or Loki, but it was solidly entertaining throughout and perfectly hit the balance between action, emotion and forthy holiday fun. In fact, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was the weakest of the Marvel Disney+ shows to date and even that was fun enough.

In many ways, Hawkeye is the Marvel Netflix done right. Hawkeye took a lot of what worked about those shows – a street level threat, a strong sense of place, good disability representation, great fight choreography, Wilson Fisk – and discarded what didn’t work, namely the padding, the gloominess, supposed heroes torturing people and Iron Fist.

And while Hawkeye was clearly conceived as a Marvel holiday spectacular, it actually has something to say about trauma, loss, grief, what makes a hero and the price of heroism. It also gave Clint Barton, who was the least fleshed-out of the original Avengers, his moment in the sun and confirmed what sort of person he is, namely the everyman Avenger, the husband and father who doesn’t have superpowers, but picks up his bow and arrows to help people, because someone has to. I also enjoyed that Jeremy Renner plays Clint as the fifty-year-old who’s a litle too old for superheroics that he is. Superhero movies often have the issue that actors age, while superheroes do not, so it’s great to see aging incorporated into a superhero story.

Kate and Yelena are both great additions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and I’m sure we’ll see more of them in the future, probably in the next Avengers or maybe a Young Avengers movie.

All in all, this was a highly enjoyable holiday treat.

Two new historical horror tales just in time for the holidays: The Witchfinder’s Apprentice and The Solstice Horror

The much delayed Hawkeye and Star Trek Discovery reviews are coming, but first of all, here is the final new release announcement for 2021. And it’s even a double new release announcement for what turned out to be a new series entitled Witchfinders.

The genesis of this series was this post by horror author Grady Hendrix at com, wherein Hendrix say that the depiction of criminal profilers in popular culture is closer to 17th century Puritan witchfinders than to actual profilers. So I thought, “Why not write a story that’s Criminal Minds, but with Puritan witch hunters?”

That story was The Witchfinder’s Apprentice and features a quartet of witchfinders that is very loosely based on the male members of the Criminal Minds team. Matthew Goodson, the titular appretice, is based of Dr. Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) and sticks closest to the character in the TV show. Gideon Jacobs is based on Jason Gideon (Mandy Patinkin) with a dash of Inigo Montaya from The Princess Bride (also played by Patinkin) thrown in. Master Caine Hopkins is based on Aaron Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) and Fear-God Moody is based on Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore), though in the case of the last three nothing except the physical description remained of the Criminal Minds characters (and in the case of Fear-God not even that, because Shemar Moore is handsome, while Fear-God is scarred), largely because the Criminal Minds characters are heroic figures, while the witchfinders are very much not.

Criminal Minds is a mystery show at heart, so I gave my witchfinders a mystery to solve and sent them to the small Massachusetts town of Redemption, which is beset by a wave of mysterious illnesses and deaths. There is a natural explanation for these illnesses and deaths, but to a witchfinder, there can only be one solution to every mystery, namely “witches did it.”

And so the witchfinders arrest two teenaged girls, including Grace Pankhurst, whose torture and impending execution plunges Matthew into a crisis of conscience and faith.

So prepare to meet…

The Witchfinder’s Apprentice
Massachusetts in the Year of the Lord 1695: Matthew Goodson, eighteen years of age, is apprenticed to a team of experienced witchfinders, who travel from village to village and town to town to uncover witchcraft, examine the evidence, interrogate suspects and stamp out evil.

When a wave of mysterious illnesses and deaths hits the town of Redemption, the witchfinders are called in and quickly arrest a suspect, a teenaged girl named Grace Pankhurst.

Matthew has long been having his doubts about the witchfinders and the righteousness of their mission. The interrogation of Grace brings those doubts to a flashpoint. But is Grace truly innocent or has Matthew fallen under the spell of a comely witch?

This is a historical horror story of 5500 words or approximately 20 print pages by two-time Hugo finalist Cora Buhlert.

More information
Length: 5500 words
List price: 0.99 USD, EUR or GBP
Buy it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Netherlands, Amazon Spain, Amazon Italy, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Japan, Amazon India, Amazon Mexico, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple iBooks, Google Play, Scribd, Smashwords, Thalia, Weltbild, Hugendubel, Buecher.de, DriveThruFiction, Casa del Libro, Vivlio and XinXii.

The Witchfinder’s Apprentice came out in October, though I forgot to mention it here. It was well received and readers were asking about a sequel.

Meanwhile, I was trying to come up with an idea for my annual holiday and came up empty, because I just didn’t feel the holiday spirit and wasn’t in the mood for a fluffy Christmas romance. Instead, my brain wanted to write horror or sword and sorcery.

Since sword and sorcery tends to have prehistoric or secondary world settings, a sword and sorcery Christmas story was out. However, a holiday horror story should be possible. Matthew and Grace were also still very much on my mind, so I came up with the brilliant idea to write a historical holiday horror story as a sequel to The Witchfinder’s Apprentice.

This plan quickly ran into a problem, because it turned out that the Puritans, notorious killjoys that they are, did not celebrate Christmas and that Christmas was actually banned in Massachusetts for several years. However, there were not just Puritans (and witches) living in Massachusetts, so I could have a Christmas celebration after all and also give Matthew yet more reason to question the prejudices installed by his Puritan upbringing.

Of course, the witchfinders – now reduced to a trio – reappear as well and they’re as dogged and fanatical as ever. We do learn a bit more about Fear-God Moody – who, even though he is the executioner and torturer, is the most sympathetic of the three witchfinders – and how he came to join the witchfinders in this story.

While I was writing The Solstice Horror, I was rereading the adventures of Robert E. Howard’s Puritan avenger Solomon Kane (who is a fascinating character, about whom I should write a standalone post some time), so there is a bit of Solomon Kane in this story as well.

In The Witchfinder’s Apprentice, the only supernatural element was that some witches are real. The Solstice Horror, however, introduces a more overt supernatural element in the form of Lovecraftian monsters. For where would you find them, if not in New England?

So follow Grace and Matthew, as they face down…

The Solstice Horror
Massachusetts in the Year of the Lord 1695: Apprentice witchfinder Matthew Goodson, and condemned witch Grace Pankhurst have been on the run from Matthew’s former masters for months now.

Shortly before Christmas, Matthew and Grace find shelter with the Whitelaw family in the town of Cold Hollow. But the witchfinders are on their trail, so Matthew and Grace have to flee again on the day of the winter solstice.

Many dangers lurk in the dense woods of Massachusetts Bay Colony. But which is the greater threat, the witchfinders or the thing from beyond that dwells in the woods and hunts on the darkest nights of the year?

This is a historical holiday horror novelette of 11100 words or approximately 40 print pages by two-time Hugo finalist Cora Buhlert.

More information.
Length: 11100 words
List price: 0.99 USD, EUR or GBP
Buy it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Netherlands, Amazon Spain, Amazon Italy, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Japan, Amazon India, Amazon Mexico, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple iBooks, Google Play, Scribd, Smashwords, Thalia, Weltbild, Hugendubel, Buecher.de, DriveThruFiction, Casa del Libro, Vivlio and XinXii.

Some Thoughts on the 2021 Hugo Award Winners and the Ceremony in general

The latest Star Trek Discovery and Hawkeye reviews is coming, but for now, let’s talk about the 2021 Hugo Award winners. I’d hoped to get this post up a few days ago, but I was busy, so it’s a few days late.

This is not quite the post I hoped to write. The post that I hoped to write was, “Hey, I won a Hugo. Go me!” However, Elsa Sjunneson won and a most deserving winner she is, too. I came in second. But then, the whole Fan Writer category was full of awesome people, everyone of whom would have been a highly deserving winner.  And in fact, the speech I never got to hold would have specifically said that as far as I am concerned, everybody in the Fan Writer category is a winner.

The full list of winners is here and the voting and nominations break-down is here. Also check out the Hugo commentary by Nicholas Whyte, Font Folly, Doris V. Sutherland as well as multiple posts by Camestros Felapton. There’s also an article by David Barnett about the Hugos in The Guardian, which focusses only on the winners in the fiction categories.  I’m happy that mainstream newspapers like The Guardian report about the Hugos, but would it kill them to print the full list of winners.?

As you probably know, I was a Hugo finalist for Best Fan Writer this year. However, due to the continuing covid pandemic and the generally terrible timing of having a Worldcon on the fourth advent weekend, I couldn’t attend in person. Luckily, DisCon III was a hybrid event and while the virtual components didn’t always work as well as they should have (a full DisCon III report is coming, though likely after the holidays), DisCon III did a really good job taking care of the Hugo finalists both virtually on on site.

Due to the six hour time difference between Washington DC and Germany, the ceremony was supposed to start at 2 AM my time. An added complication was that I had a German class in the morning, so no sleeping in, and a Worldcon panel in the afternoon, so no afternoon nap either. I did manage to take a nap from 8 to 9 PM, but I was still pretty tired.

In the late afternoon, I did dress up in my full Hugo outfit – evening gown, tiara, jewellery, etc… – so my Dad could take a few photos. Unfortunately, he’s not nearly as good a photographer as Olav Rokne and Amanda Wakaruk of the Best Fanzine finalist Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog who did the official photos this year, which you can see here.

Meanwhile, here are the pics my Dad took of me in my parents’ living room:

Behold my Hugo gown and tiara. I think I look like I just stepped out of the cover of a late 1920s issue of Weird Tales.

And here is another photo, where you can see the necklace and tiara better.

Here’s a close-up look at my Hugo tiara/circlet. It’s flexible, so it fits around the head, though I had to fasten it with hairpins.

Once my Dad had taken the photos, I changed to regular house clothes again, because the ceremony was still several hours away and while the gown is not uncomfortable, it’s also for those wide sleeves to get caught on something. Plus, the tiara tends to slip after a while.

The Hugo ceremony was supposed to start at 2 AM. Sometime during Saturday evening, I got an e-mail that it would be delayed and start an hour later, i.e. 3 AM my time, due to a technical issue, which later turned out to be a small electrical fire in the ballroom where the Hugo ceremony was due to be held.

The pre-Hugo reception was still supposed to start two hours before the ceremony and there was a virtual version via Zoom. So I dialled into Zoom at a little after midnight and hung out with Best Novelette finalist (and eventual winner) Sarah Pinsker, who tested positive for covid (thankfully asymptomatic) on the day before the con and couldn’t attend in person, Best Editor finalists Navah Wolfe and Sheila E. Gilbert, Best Pro Artist finalist and friend Alyssa Winans, Best Short Story finalist John Wiswell and Brandon O’Brien, poetry editor of the Best Semiprozine finalist (and eventual winner) FIYAH as well as Alyshondra Meacham, who played hostess for the virtual finalists. We admired each other’s outfits, Alyssa’s freshly baked crab bread and the antics of Sarah’s dog.

The Zoom party was beamed into the main party via a tablet or laptop, so we could see our fellow finalists in Washington DC and could talk to them. Plenty of people came over to say hello and good luck. Outfits were admired – and honestly, the Hugos have the best range of outfits. It’s like the Oscars, only crazier. After all, we had two of Santa’s elves there, otherwise known as John and Krissy Scalzi. And best of all, you have a lot of people with realistic bodies at the Hugos. The masks made it a bit difficult to recognise people, even if I knew them, though thankfully Sarah was really good at recognising people under their masks. The noise level in the ballroom also made it difficult to talk, so we made signs to hold up saying things like “Good luck!”, “Great dress/suit/outfit” and – this was John Wiswell’s – “I’m rooting for you and only you, I promise.” I enjoyed the whole set-up a lot and hope that future Worldcons adopt this idea, so even finalists who cannot be present in person get a taste of the ceremony.

About 45 minutes before the ceremony was due to start, we were transferred to the finalist Zoom green room. I did a mike and light check, redonned my gown and tiara and waited for the show to start. There was a brief announcement that the Hugo Awards were sponsored by Google and another company whose name I did not catch, though my Dad did and remarked, “Raytheon Technologies: They make radar systems.” And this was literally all I noticed about what would turn out to be the night’s biggest scandal until I woke up the next day around noon and saw people deeply upset about a sponsor. Though I did find it a little weird that sponsors were named before the start of the Hugo ceremony, because I had never experienced this before.

If you were on the ground in Washington DC, the Raytheon sponsorship would have been a bit more visible, since there logo appears in the Hugo ceremony program and was also plastered all over a red carpet photo area. Though most finalists failed to notice this, because if you’re a Hugo finalist, you’re nervous and the sponsor name and logo are the least of your concerns. Even if you notice the logo and sponsor name, you’re unlikely to google them in the middle of the ceremony, simply because you have other concerns at the time. And indeed, the sponsor never even came up in conversation during the virtual after-party (more on that later), most likely because no one had registered what sort of company was sponsoring the event at the time.

Considering how little the Raytheon sponsorship pinged on my radar and anybody else’s at the time, it’s ironic that now that’s the only topic everybody is talking about, overshadowing the actual winners, which is a pity. You can read a not very good article about the Raytheon sponsorship controversy at io9 and a much better one at Andrew Liptak’s newsletter. Camestros Felapton also goes into DisCon III’s very frustrating lack of explanation regarding how the fuck this sponsorship came to be, even after several finalists had been harrassed about their supposed association with a weapons manufacturer and for not distancing themselves from Raytheon quickly enough.

I don’t really want to talk about the sponsors of the Hugo ceremony here, but about the wonderful winners. However, since we’re apparently obliged to offer our two cents on the Raytheon controversy, here are mine: Having a company like Raytheon Technologies, even their Space and Intelligence division, sponsor a Worldcon and the Hugo ceremony was a spectacularly bad and tone-deaf decision. Worldcon is an international convention and its membership includes people from countries, whose inhabitants have found themselves on the wrong side of a Raytheon made missile. Honestly, how could anybody ever think that this decision was remotely acceptable. It was also apparently illegal, because an individual Worldcon can’t sell sponsorships for the Hugos, only the WSFS can and they had no idea about the sponsorship until the ceremony.

Also, none of the finalists were informed about the sponsors in any of the umpteen e-mails we got from DisCon III. Pretty much all finalists are angry to utterly furious about this decision. There are finalists whose religious beliefs are violated by being associated with a weapons manufacturer, finalists who are getting massive pushback from their fans, finalists who worry about professional consequences, because they work for peace and human rights organisations in their day job. If the Raytheon thing had been known beforehand, there would have been massive pushback, and part of me suspects that this is precisely the reason why no one knew until the night of the ceremony. Yet, now the finalists and winners are being harrassed about the whole thing and suddenly associated with a company none of us want anything to do with. See this open letter by Worldcon member Jake Casella Brookins who wonders how complicit the Hugo finalists are in the Raytheon thing.

However, what makes this whole Raytheon thing even more infuriating – beyond the fact that it happened in the first place – is that it’s sucking all the air out of the room. Instead of celebrating the many great works that won a Hugo, we’re arguing about Raytheon and giving them free publicity. Yes, it’s mostly bad publicity, but even that is giving them attention. Plus, much of the harassment of Hugo finalists is coming from a clique surrounding what is essentially a troll with an agenda that I’m pretty sure goes far beyond outrage about a weapons manufacturer sponsoring the Hugos. Especially since the same clique was involved in another harassment incident less then a month ago. Personally, I think that we should no more feed trolls than feed Raytheon.

Now I’ve wasted way too many words on DisCon’s bad decisions and a terrible company, let’s get to the actual ceremony, which was very good indeed, especially after last year’s complete and utter disaster. Hosts Sheree Renee Thomas and Andrea Hairston did a great job and made the ceremony move along at a snappy pace. And after last year, we all appreciated a snappy pace.

So let’s finally get to the actual Hugo winners:

Best Novel

The 2021 Hugo Award for Best Novel goes to Network Effect by Martha Wells, which wasn’t exactly a surprise, considering how beloved the Murderbot series is by pretty much everybody. A look at the voting breakdown shows Network Effect leading by a large margin from the start, but then everybody loves Murderbot. I’m a bit surprised that Harrow the Ninth finished in last place, but then it was not only a sequel, but also something of a Marmite book.

If you look at the nominations, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia barely missed the ballot, which is a pity, since I enjoyed it more than some of the books that actually made the ballot.

The usual suspects who worry about the lack of men on the Best Novel ballot will be pleased to note the presence of Kim Stanley Robinson, John Scalzi and T.J. Klune on the longlist. The longlist also offers something of a surprise, because at No. 14 there is a novel called The Rude Eye of Rebellion by one J.R.H. Lawless. I had never heard of either the novel or the author, which is extremely unusual for the Hugo longlist. A look at the EPH distribution also shows that there was little overlap with other novels nominated in the same category. I guess this is a case of enthusiastic fans of one author buying Worldcon memberships to nominate them, especially since J.R.H. Lawless also shows up on the longlist for the Astounding Award.

Best Novella

The winner of the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Novella is The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo. I have to admit this win surprised me, because while I have read the novella, I remember barely anything about it only a few months later. There usually is one Hugo finalist like this for me – a book or story I read and promptly forget, so that come voting time I have to remind myself what that one was about. It’s usually not a story I dislike, because I do remember the ones I didn’t like.

There are no real surprises on the longlist except maybe for The Stone Weta by New Zealand author Octavia Cade, which wasn’t on my radar at all. But then, Worldcon was theoretically in New Zealand last year.

Best Novelette

The 2021 Hugo Award for Best Novelette goes to Sarah Pinsker for “Two Truths and a Lie” and a most deserved win it is, too. But then, the novelette category was very strong this year with only one story I didn’t like.

The voting breakdown shows that the infamous “Helicopter Story” by Isabel Fall was leading after the first three rounds, but was then overtaken by “Two Truths and a Lie” and two other stories to finish in fifth place. I guess this is due to the fact that it’s very much a Marmite story. Those who enjoyed it love it very much indeed, but it generated little support (and even intense dislike) outside its fanbase. I’m one of those who disliked the story, though I’m glad it was not no awarded, because Isabel Fall doesn’t deserve that. Especially since she was also dragged into the Raytheon controversy due to the theme of her story.

The longlist doesn’t offer a lot of surprised, though a story from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction made the longlist, something which is rare for the formerly Big Three print zines these days.

Best Short Story

The winner of the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Short Story is “Metal Like Blood in the Dark” by T. Kingfisher a.k.a. Ursula Vernon, who also regaled the audience with fascinating facts about slime mold in lieu of an acceptance speech.

This was another extremely strong category and indeed, any one of the six finalists would have been a most worthy winner.

If you look at the longlist, you see at No. 12, nestled inbetween C.L. Polk and Martha Wells, my story “The Cold Crowdfunding Campaign”, which makes me very happy. Thank you to everybody who nominated it.

Also on the longlist, we have “The Eight-Thousanders” by Jason Sanford, a story from Asimov’s, which proves that the so-called Big Three print mags can still make the longlist. Further downward, there is a story called “This is New Gehesran Calling” by Rebecca Fraimow, which was published on AO3, which is a first I think. Judging by the EPH data, this seems to be another case of a story was a fervent, but limited fanbase.

Best Series

The winner of the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Series is… Murderbot! But then, as I said, everybody loves Murderbot, who has won four Hugos by now, making Martha Wells one of the comparatively few people to win two Hugos in the same year.

I have said several times that IMO the Best Series Hugo (which was voted a permanent Hugo at the DisCon III business meeting) isn’t working the way it was originally intended, namely to award popular long-running series, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. We do have one such series – October Daye – on the shortlist and several more – The Dresden Files, Peter Grant/Rivers of London, Foreigner or the Liaden Universe – on the longlist. But all too often, the finalists are trilogies, often ones where one or several volumes were nominated for Best Novel, or cases of “If you squint really hard, these novels set in the same universe form a series.”

But even though I’m not always happy with the finalists for Best Series, the winners so far have all been beloved and most worthy series.

Best Related

The 2021 Hugo Award for Best Related Work goes to Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley. This wasn’t my favourite in this category – that would be A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky by Lynell George – but it’s a win I’m very happy with.

It is my fervent belief that the Best Related Work category should be more non-fiction books as well as the occasional essay or documentary. In practice, however, it is increasingly turning into a grab bag category for Best Fannish Thing.  Therefore, I’m happy that an actual book – even if it was not a non-fiction book per se, but something which would not have fit any other category – won this year.

This year, there were two edge case finalists – the virtual conventions FIYAHCon and CoNZealand Fringe – on the ballot (three, if you count The Last Bronycon documentary) as well as one highly controversial finalist, Natalie Luhrs’ sweary essay about last year’s never-ending Hugo ceremony from hell. As a result, Best Related has an extremely high No Award count this year, particularly Natalie Luhrs’ essay and CoNZealand Fringe.

Meanwhile, a look at the longlist reveals just what a mess the Best Related Work category is. There are five actual non-fiction books on the longlist, several of whom would have been highly worthy finalists, as well as three articles/essays (I would be okay with those, though I prefer meatier books to articles) and two more finalists – the Concellation 2020 Facebook Group and the Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom – which, though worthy projects, don’t really belong here.

A lot of great SFF related non-fiction books have been published in 2021 and I do hope that we see some of those on the Hugo ballot next year rather than yet more Best Fannish Thing finalists.

Best Graphic Story

The winner of the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story is Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, written by Octavia Butler, adapted by Damian Duffy and illustrated by John Jennings. This is not particularly surprising, considering Parable of the Sower is a beloved (and timely) work by a beloved author.

Best Dramatic Presentation Long

The 2021 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form goes to The Old Guard, which made me very happy, since this was hands down my favourite in this category. But then, I was quite underwhelmed by the other finalists in this category.

A look at the nomination data reveals that season 2 of The Mandalorian would have made the ballot , but was disqualified due to gaining more nominations in short form. Further down the ballot, we have several TV show seasons – often better TV shows than what made the ballot in Best Related Short, including the German made Netflix show Dark. The movies that missed the ballot – the delightful Wolfwalkers, scrappy indie flick The Vast of Night and a feminist take on The Invisible Man – are better than what was actually nominated, too. I’m a bit surprised that Wonder Woman 1984 didn’t even make the longlist, because I actually enjoyed it more than the first one. But then a lot of people really seemed to dislike it.

Best Dramatic Presentation Short

The winner of the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation is once again an episode of The Good Place.

This is the one Hugo win this year I’m really unhappy with. Yes, I know a lot of people really, really love The Good Place (though a lot of people, including me, also really hate it), but did it really need to win four years in a row? Especially considering that we’re in an unprecedented age of excellent SFF TV.

And indeed, a look at the longlist gives us several episodes of Star Trek Discovery and Star Trek Picard, one episode each of Lovecraft Country, What We Do in the Shadows and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as well as additional episodes of The Mandalorian, She-Ra and Doctor Who.

Best Editor Short

The 2021 Hugo Award for Best Editor Short Form goes to Ellen Datlow. Now Ellen Datlow is undoubtedly a most accomplished editor and worthy winner. However, she has also won in this category seven times already, so I would have been happy to see someone else win.

I’m also surprised that C.C. Finlay finished in last place, since he did a great job on The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, plus this was the last chance to honour him.

Best Editor Long

The winner of the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Editor Long Form is Diana M. Pho and a most deserving winner she is, too.

A look at the nominations reveals that due to the magic of EPH Toni Weisskopf of Baen Books would have made the ballot, but declined the nomination. Now Toni Weisskopf was originally announced to be one of the Guests of Honour of DisCon III, but after Best Fan Writer finalist Jason Sanford reported that the Baen Books‘ forum Baen’s Bar hosted hate speech and incitement to terrorism on a subforum, something which got Sanford inundated with harassment and which Toni Weisskopf defended as free speech, Weisskopf withdrew from her Guest of Honour spot.

The people who nominated her for Best Editor were either infuriated by this – since Worldcon Guest of Honours withdrawing or being uninvited almost never happens – or they are die-hard Baen Books fans or both. The EPH data also shows that there was very little overlap with other finalists in this category, confirming that Baen Books has an almost cult-like following in its niche, but increasingly less relevance in the wider genre.  Personally, I also think Toni Weisskopf was probably wise to withdraw, because the chance that she would have been no awarded again is pretty high, especially after her response to the Baen’s Bar incident.

Best Professional Artist

The 2021 Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist goes to Rovina Cai.

This was probably the most difficult category for me to rank, because all of the finalists did amazing work. And indeed, the artist I placed last only ended up there, because he had won in this category before, while the others hadn’t.

Best Semiprozine

The winner of the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine is FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction.

I was in the bathroom, getting into more comfortable clothes, when this category was announced and my cheers were so loud that the neighbours probably woke up, because this win made me so happy. FIYAH has been doing stellar work for several years now. They’re also lovely people and I’m so happy for them that they finally won. Besides, much as I like Uncanny, there are other semiprozines doing great work out there.

Looking at the longlist, the Escape Artists podcast empire did really way with Escape Pod and Podcastle making the ballot and PseudoPod and Cast of Wonders making the longlist. Two of the magazines on the longlist, Lightspeed and Clarkesworld, are pro mags and therefore ineligible. It’s great to see Anathema recognised.

Finally, I’m very happy to see Space Cowboy Books presents Simultaneous Times on the longlist and not just because they produced several of my stories, but also because it’s a very good fiction podcast.

Best Fanzine

The 2021 Hugo Award for Best Fanzine goes to nerds of a feather. This is a highly deserved win for a fanzine that has been nominated several times, but never won so far. Plus, they’re friends.

On the longlist, we see that my other blogging home Galactic Journey just missed the ballot. There are a lot of other good fanzines on the longlist as well such as SF in Translation, Salon Futura, Women Write About Comics and The Drink Tank.

Best Fancast

The winner of the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Fancast is The Coode Street Podcast. This is another win that is not only highly deserved, but has also been a long time coming, because The Coode Street Podcast has been nominated many times, but never won so far.

The longlist has a lot of great podcasts like Octothorpe, Hugo Girl!, Hugos There and Our Opinions Are Correct. However, there are also many podcasts I’ve never heard of, even though I interviewed a whole lot of podcasters for the Fancast Spotlight project. It seems we really are in the golden age of SFF podcasting.

Best Fan Writer

As mentioned above, Elsa Sjunneson won and she is a highly deserving winner and also delivered a great acceptance speech. I finished in second place and actually led in the first round.

There are 57 Hugo voters out there who hate all of us so much – probably because we don’t write for traditional paper fanzines – that they no award the entire category. You can’t help these people and I don’t worry about them. Meanwhile, I’m happy that not a lot more people hated me personally so much that they no awarded me than no awarded the whole category.

The longlist reveals a lot of worthy candidates, including Athena Scalzi in what would be one of the very few cases (the only other one I can think of are Mike and Laura Resnick) of two generations of the same family earning Hugo nominations.

Best Fan Artist

The winner of the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist is Sara Felix. This is the other Hugo winner that made me cheer out loud – not just because Sara does excellent work, though she does and I love her tiaras, but she is someone who has been nominated many times and even designed several Hugo bases as well as the Lodestar Award and pin and has yet never won.

The nomination data reveals that the excellent Thai artist Tithi Luadthong, whose amazing work graces the cover of my In Love and War series and several Kurval stories, actually had sufficient votes to make the ballot, but had no eligible work produced in 2021. I suspect this is due to the labyrinthine (and in dire need of an overhaul) rules for the Best Fan Artist Hugo, because I personally saw new Tithi Luadthong artwork in 2021.

Best Videogame

The 2021 Hugo Award for Best Videogame goes to Hades.

This was a one-of special Hugo awarded by DisCon III, probably as a trial to see if there is sufficient interest in a permanent videogame category.

I’m not a gamer, so I was initially sceptical about this category. Besides, there already are plenty of awards for videogames, so do they really need a Hugo, too?

However, I chanced to chat with Hades developer Greg Kasavin at the virtual Hugo after-party for a while and he was lovely and also absolutely over the moon to have won, which made me a lot more positively inclined towards that category. For even though I don’t particularly care about videogames, the Hugo Award really made someone’s day and that’s great.

Lodestar

The winner of the 2021 Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book is A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher a.k.a. Ursula Vernon, making her the second double winner of the night after Martha Wells.

I loved A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking – after all, it has magical sourdough – so I’m thrilled to see it recognised here.

The Lodestar was also reratified at the DisCon III business meeting and is now a permanent not-a-Hugo.

Astounding

The 2021 Astounding Award for Best New Writer goes to Emily Tesh.

I have to admit that this win astounded me. Not because Emily Tesh doesn’t do good work – she does – but because this category was extremely strong this year.

The runner-up on the longlist is Caitlin Starling, who would be highly deserving, only that I’m not sure she is actually eligible, since she has an active horror career.

Our friend J.R.H. Lawless shows up further down the longlist again with seventeen of his fans nominating him.

All in all, there are some excellent Hugo winners this year with only one winner (The Good Place) I’m not happy with. Even though I lost, I finished in second place again, which is great as well.

***

After the ceremony, I went for a quick walk and then attended the virtual after-party (the name Hugo Losers Party has thankfully been retired). The set-up was similar to the set-up of the reception with the virtual finalists being beamed into the main ballroom.

And so I had a great time with Sarah Pinsker and her sister Amira, Navah Wolfe, Alyssa Winans, my fellow Best Fan Writer finalist Charles Payseur, Hades developer Greg Kasavin and Brandon O’Brien with whom I have hung out at three Hugo after-parties (Dublin, CoNZealand and DisCon III) in a row now.

Around a quarter past six, the virtual party broke up and I went to bed, only to awake to the Raytheon controversy.

Still, the Raytheon thing aside, I had a great time. Besides, we have a most excellent set of Hugo winners this year and I wish we would talk more about that and less about the weapons company which managed to sponsor the Hugos.

A full con report of DisCon III is coming in a few days, once I’ve gotten past the TV show backlog.

Comments are open, but if anybody wants to troll about Baen, Raytheon or anything else, I shall be moderating with extreme prejudice.

Hawkeye Grapples with the Dark Legacy of “Ronin”

It’s time for my review of the latest episode of Hawkeye. Review of previous episodes may be found here.

Warning! Spoilers under the cut!

Like previous episodes, this episode begins with a flashback featuring a character who is not Clint Barton. In this case, we see Natasha’s foster sister Yelena Belova and fellow ex-Black Widow Sonya on their mission to free the other Black Widows from mind control, as seen in the Black Widow movie. They invade a country mansion, fight a Black Widow named Anna and give her the antidote.

However, it turns out that Anna didn’t need the antidote. She was already free from mind control and has been working as an freelance assassin, because it pays well and is the only thing she knows how to do well. Yelena excuses herself to go to the bathroom and suddenly dissolves into ash – the now familiar effects of the “Blip” – and seconds later reforms again, while the room changes around her. When Yelena emerges from the bathroom, five years have passed. Anna is still there, with her new husband (that’s an opportunity for the spin-off “I married a contract killer” right there) and young adopted daughter. Nice call back to the fact that Black Widows are forcibly sterilised and can’t have children, which was a great source of angst for Natasha in Age of Ultron.

Back in WandaVision, we already saw the Blip happening from the perspective of a victim, Monica Rambeau, and it was terrifying. But Hawkeye does that scene one better and portrays exactly terrifying and disorienting the “Blip” must have been for those who were dusted and then came back, having lost five years of their lives. io9 reviewers Germain Lussier and Charles Pulliam-Moore as well as Tor.com reviewer Keith R.A. DeCandido also praise that scene. I’m still not convinced that the Blip was a good idea, but at least Marvel addresses the trauma in its various TV shows.

Flash forward to the present, where a bruised and thoroughly dejected Kate (after Clint told her to go home and forget about him, because they are not partners) shows up at her mother’s apartment. Eleanor is understandably shocked at Kate’s wounds, but Kate tells her that it’s not Clint’s fault, that he protected her and that they’re no longer partners.

Next we see Eleanor cleaning, disinfecting and bandaging Kate’s various wounds and telling Kate that it’s okay if she will never be an Avenger and that she’ll find her path in life. This made me wonder how annoying it must be for parents who live in a world where “When I grow up, I want to be a superhero” is not as completely impossible as in our world. Because there are actual superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so of course children (and others) want to emulate them.

Kate tells Eleanor that Jack is the CEO of a Sloan Ltd., a company that’s a front for the tracksuit mafia, and she believes he was involved in the murder of Armand. Of course, Jack might still be innocent, but Kate begs her mother to look into the case.

Eleanor apparently does so, for in a later scene, we see Jack being arrested and taken away to be questioned by the police. “That’s impossible,” he says when confronted with his position in Sloan Ltd., “I’ve never worked a day in my life.” I have to admit that line made me cracked up. Jack also insists that he has been framed and that he will be back in time for Eleanor’s Christmas party. In the light of revelations later in the episode, I think it’s actually possible that Jack was framed.

Meanwhile, Maya is having her injuries from the rooftop fight last episode treated and bandaged by Kazi. A lot of superhero stories and action adventure tales in general tend to shrug off injuries as if they’re no big deal and we rarely see action heroes needing time and care to heal. Therefore, it’s notable that Hawkeye puts a focus on battle injuries in general and on the cleaning, disinfecting and bandaging of wounds in particular, cause we so rarely see those things. One exception are oddly enough the stories of Robert E. Howard where you frequently have scenes of Conan, Kull or Solomon Kane cleaning and bandaging their own or someone else’s wounds. But then Howard was the son of a country doctor in the pre-antibiotic era and knew a thing or two about the dangers of infections. That’s also why the whole “Khal Drago [who is a sort of Conan stand-in and Jason Momoa even played both of them] dies because he didn’t properly clean his wounds” thing in A Song of Ice and Fire annoys me, because that sort of thing would not have happened to Conan.

Kazi also tries to persuade Maya to let go off her quest for vengeance against Ronin, but Maya won’t rest until Ronin is killed. “But once we kill him, you’ll stop,” a hopeful Kazi signs. There’s a lot of tenderness in the relationship between Maya and Kazi, though so far we don’t know if they’re a couple or just sibling-like very close friends.

Our third wounded warrior Clint shows up equally dejected and bruised at the apartment of Grill, the LARPing fire fighter. Talking of which, am I the only one who finds it strange that Kate and Clint are able to walk with bow and arrows through the crowded streets of New York City without raising any eyebrows nor getting arrested. Cause I’m pretty sure if anybody were to walk through a German city with bow and arrows not packed up like sports archers do, they would get at the very least questioned by the police. After all, arrows are deadly weapons.

Griff takes Clint in and offers him his couch (or even the bed, if Clint wants it). He also tells Clint that the costumes for him and Kate are ready, though we have to wait until next episode to see them, because Clint falls asleep, cuddling Pizza Dog, who still eats canine inappropriate foods like pizza and snack mixes.

Meanwhile, Kate returns to her burned out apartment (after it was firebombed by the tracksuit mafia in episode 2) to retrieve some things and finds herself faced with a surprise visitor, because Yelena is there and has even made herself some instant mac and cheese*, because it’s just so good and besides, she got hungry waiting for Kate.

Kate is of course shocked – what is Yelena doing there and how does she even know where to find er? – but Yelena tells Kate to relax. If she wanted to kill her, she would have done so once Kate came through the door. What follows is a fascinating scene where Yelena, who not only is younger than Natasha but also seems younger, alternately gushes about mac and cheese and shares New York City tourism tips with Kate and very matter-of-factly talks about killing Clint, cause she has been hired to do so. Florence Pugh is amazing in this scene (and she was great in Black Widow as well) and indeed reviewers German Lussier, Charles Pulliam-Moore, Keith R.A. DeCandido and The AV-Club‘s Caroline Siede all praise her performance.

Kate defends Clint – she idolises him, after all – and tells Yelena that he saved the world and that superheroics sometimes cause collateral damage (which is something that both superhero comics and movies rarely address, though Marvel at least shows scenes of civilians being evacuated, while DC hardly ever bothers). Yelena corrects Kate that it was her sister Natasha who saved the world and that Natasha definitely was not collateral damage. She is absolutely correct, too, Natasha did save the world, though I wonder how Yelena knows what happened on Vormir. After all, it’s not as if characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe had the chance to watch Avengers: Endgame.

Kate is not deterred. Clint is a hero, so whoever hired Yelena to kill him must be a bad person and maybe Yelena should look into that. Yelena thanks Kate for the girls’ night and leaves in a ridiculously show-off way.

Meanwhile, Clint has rested a bit and decides that he needs to deal with Maya once and for all, because she’s not just threatening Clint but his family. We next see him at Grand Central Station at a memorial placque commemorating the Battle of New York and the Avengers who saved the city. It’s telling that Clint is listed dead last, even though he would come second in alphabetic order. He switches off his hearing aid and talks to Natasha, asking her blessing/forgiveness for what he is about to do. It’s a beautiful scene – and Jeremy Renner once again gets to show that he is a multiple Oscar nominee for a reason – and also a stark reminder that Natasha doesn’t even have a grave where Clint can mourn, so he remembers her at the place where they both went from agents to heroes.

Next, we see Clint retrieving his Ronin gear and calling Laura to get her blessing/forgiveness. Laura tells him that she supports him and always will. I know that some people have issues with the fact that Laura is primarily portrayed as a supportive wife and mother, but I for one love Clint and Laura’s relationship, simply because characters who support their partners who work in a high-risk, high-stress job are so very rare in pop culture. If every superhero significant other in the Marvel Cinematic Universe were a supportive housewife and mother, I would complain, too, but Laura is the only one who’s currently primarily a wife and mother.

There is a hilarious scene of two tracksuit mafia goons driving around town in one of their Trust a Bro (no thanks) moving vans and discussing cool pop culture figures (Tony Soprano, Run DMC, The Royal Tennenbaums) who also favour the sort of old-fashioned tracksuits they were, when a message arrow hits their windscreen. Honestly, you couldn’t just call, Clint? The message summons Maya to the place where she first met Ronin… alone.

Of course, Maya does not come along, but brings the full force of the tracksuit mafia to the used car lot, where her father was killed. Clint takes them out one by one and then fights Maya in his Ronin garb. It’s a hard fight, but Clint wins and knocks Maya to the ground. Maya expects that he will kill her, but Clint does not kill young women in need of a parent figure. Instead, he takes off his mask, shows her his face and says that he wants her to know who he is, that he doesn’t want to kill her, but that he will, if she harms his family. He also tells Maya that her father’s boss – the Big Man – tipped him off that night and that apparently wanted Maya’s father dead and maybe she should look into that.

Keith R.A. DeCandido praises how this scene handles Maya’s deafness, since we see her confrontation with Clint from her POV without sound, especially how lipreading isn’t perfect and she doesn’t get every single word. Hawkeye is offering some very good disability representation here.

While Clint is dealing with Maya, Kate has been bombarding him with messages, thanfully delivered via phone rather than arrow. Finally, she decides to track his phone and shows up just in time to save Clint with a well-placed arrow, because Maya of course refuses to accept that her Dad’s boss – the man she called “uncle” – is responsible his murder and attacks Clint.

Afterwards, Clint and Kate escape in a Uber, while a suddenly suspicious Maya confronts Kazi about why he was not at the garage on the night her father was killed, even though he was his number 2.

Reunited, Clint and Kate head back to Grill’s for breakfast, when Kate receives a message from Yelena. Yelena really did look into who hired her – I thought it was Valentina, but apparently she’s just a broker – and sends Kate a picture. Surprise, it’s Kate’s mother and the blurry photo shows her with a very familiar massive bald and white-suited figure. Yup, Wilson Fisk, New York City’s Kingpin of Crime in back and – as the end credits reveal, because the picture is too blurry to make out much – he is played by Vincent D’Onofrio again, who already played Fisk in Daredevil and did a really great job, too. But then, D’Onofrio has been great in everything I ever saw him (and he was brilliant as Robert E. Howard in The Whole Wide World) in except Law and Order: Criminal Intent, where I hated his character. So I guess the Marvel Netflix series – of whom Hawkeye is reminiscent in more than one way – are canon again and we will maybe see other characters from those shows again, too. Which I for one would welcome.

Meanwhile, Eleanor Bishop decides to throw her hate in the ring for the 2021 Darth Vader Parenthood Award for Outstandingly Terrible Fictional Parents at the last minute. There’s a reason I only announce the winners on the last few days of the year, because there are often eleventh hour entrants. That said, I already have decided who will win the 2021 Jonathan and Martha Kent Fictional Parent of the Year Award, unless Geralt of Rivia really impresses me, once The Witcher starts up again this Friday.

Hawkeye doesn’t have the sheer weirdness of WandaVision and Loki, but it has been consistently good and enjoyable. So let’s see if the final episode sticks to the landing.

*The American mac and cheese obsession is one thing I don’t get. I’ve made mac and cheese – from scratch, because the instant stuff isn’t available here and also looks dodgy to me – but it’s not something I particularly love. My go-to pasta dishes are pasta with tomato sauce or puttanesca or aglio olio or various versions of pantry pasta.

Fancast Spotlight: The Dark Crusade

It’s Worldcon weekend, so the Hawkeye and Star Trek Discovery reviews may be delayed this week. If you’re at DisCon III, either on site or virtually, here’s where you can find me.

In the meantime, I have another Fancast Spotlight for you. For more about the Fanzine/Fancast Spotlight project, go here. You can also check out the other great fanzines and fancasts featured by clicking here.

Today, I’m pleased to feature The Dark Crusade, a podcast about the life and works of Karl Edward Wagner.

Therefore, I’m happy to welcome Jordan Douglas Smith of The Dark Crusade to my blog:

Tell us about your podcast or channel.

The Dark Crusade is dedicated to the life and work of writer/editor/publisher Karl Edward Wagner. We are systematically moving through his work, discussing it from a historical and literary lens. In addition to the podcast, we have a companion blog that covers additional facts about the stories, links to scholarship, and overviews of some of the collections Wagner has edited.

Who are the people behind your podcast or channel?  

I would say I’m (Jordan Douglas Smith) the driving force behind the project. In the first season, I was joined by F. N. York. After that, Jonathan Gelatt came on as co-host.

Why did you decide to start your podcast or channel?  

It started as an obsession with Karl Edward Wagner. I was enthralled with his ability to wear the three different hats of writer, editor, and publisher. On top of that, he was a book collector!

The more I learned about him; I began to see an emerging narrative where he was a champion of the unknown writer, both new writers on the scene and writers who were fading into obscurity. My own experience of Wagner was that he was fading into obscurity, and folks from my generation and younger weren’t familiar with his work.

I want to spread the word and make sure he remains in the conversation. And if folks want to learn more about him, they have a place to go, a place to start looking deeper. The podcast also gives me the structure to continue my research of Wagner as I try to paint my own picture of who he was.

What format do you use for your podcast or channel and why did you choose this format?

We examine his stories one at a time, dedicating a whole episode to each tale or several episodes to each novel. I build each season around a book or two. Season one was his horror collection In a Lonely Place. In season two, we switched to his gothic fantasy character Kane, covering Night Winds and Bloodstone, and in season three, we returned to Kane covering Dark Crusade and Death Angel’s Shadow.

The idea is that if you can get your hands on a copy of his work, you can listen to a whole season of the show. Since a lot of his work is hard to find, especially the horror, I didn’t want to jump around a lot among his collections.

I love the individual story format. I have a background as a theater actor; one thing you do in theater is repeat the same story over and over and over, night after night. Something really unlocks when you keep examining the same story again and again. In the prep for these episodes, I try to recreate that feeling and peel the story apart, line by line, looking for every kernel of influence and nuance.

The fan categories at the Hugos were there at the very beginning, but they are also the categories which consistently gets the lowest number of votes and nominations. So why do you think fanzines, fancasts and other fan projects are important?

So many reasons. The most important reason is community. Fans can go to these focal points and meet other folks with similar interests. So many times, my base of knowledge and my exposure to work is expanded and enriched.

These fan communities can also become a breeding ground for the future editors and writers of their genres. I have seen several editorial relationships spring from these areas. It’s also the perfect realm to cut your teeth and begin building experience producing your own media and writing.

To be crass, fan projects are also helpful to sales. Fan movements tend to snowball and become large marketing machines. Honestly, that is in the back of my mind. If we can get enough Wagner fans talking about him and bring on enough new folks, someone will see the dollar signs and reissue the work in affordable versions.

In the past twenty years, fanzines have increasingly moved online and fancasts have sprung up. What do you think the future of fan media looks like?

Hard to say. I think it’s going to continue moving into the digital realm. We’re going to see more fan YouTubers and more podcasts. At the same time, I feel like I’ve seen a yearning for physical media. Cracking the nut of funding something like that will be a determining factor, I’m sure.

I have also recently begun to go back to cons. They have been wonderful but also not nearly as packed as before. Many of the programming has been hybrid, which allows fans to experience some of the cons from home. I think some of that community fan experience will also transition online. I’m not sure if cons will be as well attended as in the past.

The four fan categories of the Hugos (best fanzine, fan writer, fan artist and fancast) tend to get less attention than the fiction and dramatic presentation categories. Are there any awesome fanzines, fancasts, fan writers and fan artists you’d like to recommend?

I have been obsessed with the Whetstone discord recently. It has a welcoming vibe and a ton of enthusiasm for sword & sorcery. It is a sort of companion space to Whetstone magazine (which I’m loving).

I’m also a regular listener of Appendix N, Rogues in the House, Lovecraft eZine, and for film fans Fragments of Fear, a Giallo podcast! Can I also add Oliver Brackenbury’s podcast So I’m Writing a Novel…? It is a mix of interviews and episodes about his journey writing a novel. Oliver himself has been a champion of other folks in the community spreading the good word of fandom and helping connect people.

I also read James Maliszewski’s Grognardia and Brian Murphy’s The Silver Key.

Where can people find you?

The central hub and blog are https://thedarkcrusade.wordpress.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darkcrusadepodcast/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darkcrusadeKEW

Just look for The Dark Crusade wherever you listen to fine podcasts!

Thank you, Jordan, for stopping by and answering my questions.

Do check out The Dark Crusade, cause it’s a great podcast celebrating an author who should be better known than he is.

***

Do you have a Hugo eligible fanzine/-site or fancast or a semiprozine and want it featured? Contact me or leave a comment.

Cora goes virtually to DisCon III, the 2021 Worldcon

Due to the generally bad timing and the ongoing covid pandemic, I can’t attend this year’s Worldcon, DisCon III in Washington DC, in person, but I will be there virtually.

If you’re a member of DisCon III, you can see me on the following panels:

Honoring Charles Saunders’ Sword and Soul

Congressional On-Site Viewing (Virtual), Thursday, December 16, 1:00 pm EST

Available Online

In honor of his recent passing, our panelists explore the continuing influence of Charles Saunders’ inversion of sword and sorcery — “sword and soul” — on current writers and publishers such as P. Djeli Clark, Nalo Hopkinson, Troy Wiggins, and Sheree Renée Thomas. Learn how FIYAH Magazine and others are continuing Saunders’ work of encouraging Black speculative fiction writing collectives. Hear about the efforts to turn the Imaro books into a TV series.

Type: Panel

Panelists: Carl Cipra, Sheree Renée Thomas, Milton Davis, Cora Buhlert

The late Charles R. Saunders is a writer I wish more people would read, but as happens so often with writers from marginalised backgrounds, he is not nearly as well known as he should be. I’m very happy to be on this panel and talk about his work, so drop by to learn more about Charles Saunders and then go out and buy all of his books.

 

Kaffeeklatsch — Cora Buhlert

Harris (Virtual), Friday, December 17, 10:00 am EST

Available Online

Online small group conversation with Cora Buhlert.

Advance signup is required to attend this session. Please use the “Access Virtual Link” below to register through SignupGenius. A Zoom meeting link will be emailed to registered participants 24 hours before the Kaffeeklatsch begins. The email you use to sign up must match the email associated with your DisCon III registration.

Type: Kaffeeklatsch

This is the first time I’m doing a Kaffeeklatsch (and for me it will actually be coffee time), so sign up and drop by to chat with me, so I won’t be sitting there all alone drinking coffee and eating holiday cookies.

 

Writing About the Thing We Love: Fan Writing.

Congressional On-Site Viewing (Virtual), Saturday, December 18, 10:00 am EST

Available Online

Writing passionately about our genres is, for many of us, what it’s all about. The internet has supported an explosion of fan writing in many forms, on many topics. Good-quality fan writing can now be found about almost every thing. In this panel Hugo-nominated authors will talk about their fan writing, why they write it, and what they think makes good fan writing.

Type: Panel

Panelists: Chris Garcia, Natalie Luhrs, Jason Sanford, Elsa Sjunneson, Paul Weimer, Cora Buhlert

I know everybody on this panel and they’re all awesome people, so I’m sure we’ll have a lot of fun. So why don’t you join us?

 

Finally, as regular readers of this blog will know, I’m a Hugo finalist for Best Fan Writer this year,  so of course you’ll find me (virtually) at the Hugo ceremony.

Hugo Award Ceremonies

Regency Ballroom, Saturday, December 18, 8:00 pm EST Available Online

The Hugo Awards are science fiction’s most prestigious awards. We gather together for the most prestigious ceremony in science fiction to discover the winners of the 2021 Hugo Awards.

Star Trek Discovery realises that “All Is Possible” in a Tilly-centric episode

It’s time for the latest installment in my series of episode by episode reviews of season 4 of Star Trek Discovery. Reviews of previous seasons and episodes may be found here.

Warning: Spoilers under the cut!

The opening of “All Is Possible” finds the Discovery still in orbit around Ni’Var a.k.a. the planet formerly known as Vulcan, while Stamets and the Ni’Var Science Institute try to learn more about the planet-eating Dark Matter Anomaly, DMA for short. The crew is stressed out, Book is still traumatised and griefing and Dr. Culber persuades Michael to mandate downtime for everybody, though not every crewmember avails themselves of this opportunity.

Hugh Culber is filling the position of both physician and ship counsellor now. And while Deanna Troi was the first ship counsellor to play a prominent role in Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Original Series actually did have a psychiatrist on board, Dr. Helen Noel, who appears in the first season episode “Dagger of the Mind”, though like so many female crewmembers, she mainly seems to serve as a love interest for Captain Kirk and doesn’t do much in the way of counselling.

“All Is Possible”, on the other hand, has a lot of therapy and counselling scenes. io9 reviewer James Whitbrook points out that the whole episode is about therapy and he’s not wrong. Which might explain my issues with this episode, because I dislike extensive therapy scenes. For starters, psychotherapy is much less common in Germany and I only know one person who ever went to a therapist, so therapy scenes feel culturally alien to me. Besides, they tend to be lazy writing, because therapy scenes give the characters an excuse to talk about their feelings without the writers actually having to do the work to show us how the characters feel. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that Wilson Cruz is given more to do in season 4, since he’s rapidly becoming my favourite Star Trek doctor. And this episode even tapped into his Latinx heritage. Though I still wish that the script found things for Culber to do that are not sitting around, holding therapy session. Deanna Troi regularly got to do a lot more than holding therapy sessions as well.

One of the crewmembers who are receiving counselling from Dr. Culber is Tilly, who is still feeling lost and adrift. On Culber’s advice, she is trying out new experiences, but it’s not enough. Tilly still feels lost. Luckily, Dr Kovich (a most welcome reappearance by legendary director David Cronenberg who appears to be a Star Trek fan) is looking for a Discovery crew member who is willing to lead a team building exercise for some cadets of the newly reopened Starfleet Aacademy, so Culber recommends Tilly for the job. He also asks Tilly to take Adira along, since Adira is having problems making friends – unlike Gray, who not only has decided to adopt a goth look, now he has a body again, but is also befriending random crewmembers.

So Tilly and Adira set off on a routine training mission – to scan an M-class moon – with a pilot and three cadets, Val Sasha, a human who had never seen any aliens before joining Starfleet Aacademy, Taahz Gorev, a tusked alien who hates Orions, because the Emerald Chain exploited and murdered his family, and Harral, an Orion who feels he has to work twice as hard to be accepted, because of the sorry history of his species. The conflicts pretty much write themselves.

As is common with routine training exercises in Star Trek, things go wrong almost immediately. The shuttle crashes and the pilot (he does get a name, but I don’t remember it) is killed. So Tilly is stuck alone with Adira and a bunch of cadets in a damaged shuttle on a moon. Worse, they crashlanded on the wrong moon, so the USS Armstrong (they really missed the chance to insert an Easter Egg and callback to earlier Star Trek series here), which is supposed to pick them up, will be looking for them in the wrong place.

From this point on, this plot strand basically becomes a replay of the Original Series episode “The Galileo Seven”. Tilly takes charge and assigns everybody to various tasks to repair the shuttle. The flight conhtrols are fatally damaged, the coms aren’t working, but Adira succeeds in getting the sensors online again, only to pick up some strange readings. There are a lot of lifeforms on this moon and they are converging on the shuttle. The lifeforms promptly attack and it turns out they are big, ugly monster things. Tilly realises that the monsters have them mistaken for their usual prey and that they are attracted to the frequencies emitted by Starfleet equipment, so she orders all equipment switched off, so the monsters can no longer “see” the shuttle. I initially assumed that “the frequencies emitted by Starfleet equipment attract alien monsters” thing also happened in the “The Galileo Seven”, but the plot summaries don’t confirm this, so maybe I’m misremembering things.

Now Tilly and her flock have a problem. They can’t lift off and they can’t call for help or use any of their equipment, because this would attract the alien monsters. So Tilly has the brilliant idea to head outside and climb a ridge, which is hopefully inaccessible to any alien monsters, and call for help from there. As plans go, this one doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Wouldn’t they be safer inside the shuttle, which can withstand monster attacks at least for a little while? Also, it would make more sense to send just two people to the ridge to contact the Armstrong, but since this is supposed to be a teambuilding exercise, they all go together.

Of course, more trouble finds Tilly and her flock. There’s an electric storm, Taahz Gorev refuses to work with Harral, because he hates Orions, until Tilly reveals that Harral’s father was an Orion dissident who spoke out against slavery and was killed for his troubles. Next, Adira gets trapped in some kind of fast-freezing quicksand ice (I really don’t know how else to describe it) and everybody has to work together to pull them out. Finally, they make it onto the ridge, but the alien monsters are gathering below and will attack once everybody switches their communicators on and tries to hail the Armstrong. A distraction is needed. Adira offers to distract the monsters and lure them away, but Tilly insists that as the senior officer in charge of this mission, that’s her job. So Tilly tries to lure the monsters away, while Adira and the cadets hail the Armstrong. But Tilly stumbles and is about the get eaten, when the cadets fire their phasers at the monsters. The Armstrong finally responds and beams everybody to safety.

In itself, the “Tilly’s teambuilding exercise” plotline is fun enough and I liked that it gave characters who are not part of the main cast the chance to shine, similar to the Next Generation episode “Lower Decks”. However, the plotline is also too close to “The Galileo Seven” and full of holes as well. The whole plot is also really heavy-handed. Everything that happens requires the cadets, Adira and Tilly to work together as a team, i.e. exactly what this exercise was supposed to be about. At one point, Harral, the Orion cadet, asks Tilly if the crash is part of the training exercise. Tilly says “no”, but the whole thing could just as well have been a holodeck training exercise to teach the cadets the value of teamwork and not judging others by their appearance or species. Tor.com reviewer Keith R.A. DeCandido declares that the shuttlecrash plotline uses every cliché in the book, which is absolutely correct. The result is very Star Trek and also very heavy-handed, as AV-Club reviewer Zack Handlen points out.

Once they are safely back at Starfleet headquarters, Adira is thrilled that they have finally made friends. Dr. Kovich praises Tilly and tells her that she would make a great teacher and that should she ever decide to teach at the Academy, there will always be a place for her. Now the past two episodes made it clear that Tilly is looking for something new in her life and here the opportunity to do something new arrives literally on a silver platter, born by David Cronenberg no less. So Tilly decides to take up Kovich’s offer and teach at the Academy. In a tearful good-bye to Michael, Tilly also says that she desperately wanted to be a Starfleet captain to impress her overbearing mother. But now she is 900 years in the future, there really is no need to impress her mother anymore, so Tilly is reevaluating her life decisions.

In my review of last week’s episode, I wondered whether Tilly’s feelings of alienation were not a precursor to Mary Wiseman leaving the show and it appears that this is indeed the case. I suspect the reason that this whole “Tilly is feeling unmoored” plot comes a little out of nowhere (last season, Detmer was the one troubled by their one-way trip into the future) is that the writers didn’t have a lot of advance warning that Mary Wiseman was leaving and therefore only had a few episodes to writer her out. And as send-offs go, Tilly gets a pretty good one plus the option to return in the future. I hope we do get to see her again, because I liked Tilly a lot and her bubbly personality brought something to Star Trek we don’t normally see there.

The B-plot of this episode involves Ni’Var and the negotiations for them to rejoin the Federation (Ni’Var left the Federation after the Burn, even though they were a founding member). The agreement that will bring Ni’Var back into the Federation is about to be signed and President Rillak requests Michael and Saru’s presence at the signing as a substitute for Admiral Vance who has fallen ill. They are supposed “to keep their mouths shut and look official”, as Rillak puts it. Of course, expecting Michael to keep her mouth shut is about as fruitful as expecting Tilly to keep her mouth shut.

Michael doesn’t want to go – she dislikes politics, as the show has made amply clear – but she doesn’t have a choice. So Michael and Saru sit at the negotiation table, looking official, when President T’Rina of Ni’Var drops a bombshell. Ni’Var will only sign the agreement, if they are granted an exit clause. President Rillak is of course not willing to grant this, because if Ni’Var gets special terms, other worlds will demand them as well. I suspect I’m not the only one who imagines that future negotiations of the UK to rejoin the EU post-Brexit (cause you know that they will sooner or later) will go very much like this.

Michael has been explicitly instructed to keep her mouth shut, but of course she speaks up anyway and displays the one quality a Star Trek captain needs, namely the ability to hold inspirational speeches. And so she implores Ni’Var not to walk away, because doing so would not be logical. Ni’Var does not walk away just yet, so President T’Rina calls for a break and leaves to meditate.

Michael and Saru now split up to persuade Rillak and T’Rina to return to the table and compromise. Saru is sent to persuade T’Rina, who seems to have taken a liking to him. Meanwhile, Michael talks to Rillak. Rillak tells Michael that she can’t offer a compromise, because she can’t back down. But if a third party – like, say, Starfleet – were to offer a compromise that is acceptable to both Ni’Var and the Federation that might be a way out.

Meanwhile, T’Rina confesses to Saru that she was forced to push for the exit clause, because this was the only way of getting the Vulcan purists (likely the descendants of the Vulcan logic terrorists from season 2) on board. And since Ni’Var is a democracy, T’Rina needs their vote. However, a compromise proposed by a third party would allow her to save face and satisfy the Vulcan purists.

So Michael and Saru get everybody back to the negotiation table and propose just such a compromise. It is understandable that not all worlds rejoining the Federation will fully trust the Federation again, so an independent committee will be set up to discuss any issues and grievances member worlds might have before they become too big to resolve. Furthermore, Michael offers to serve on this committee, because as a Federation citizen and Starfleet officer, who was raised on Ni’Var, attended the Vulcan Science Academy and also happens to be the adopted sister of Spock, the great unifier, she is in a unique position to understand both sides. Everybody agree that this compromise is acceptable, the agreement is signed and Ni’Var is a member of the Federation again.

Afterwards, Michael goes to see President Rillak and tells her point blank that she knows that Rillak only requested her and Saru’s presence, because she knew such a situation might come up and because she also knew that Michael’s human and Vulcan heritage as well as her customary bluntness and her bad case of saviour syndrome would come in handy. Rillak doesn’t deny this – turns out T’Rina tipped her off about the exit clause amendment. Michael tells Rillak that if she needed her help she should have just asked and that she hopes Rillak will be more transparent in the future. Rillak nods.

To tie up some loose ends from last episode, T’Rina informs Michael that J’Vini, the wayward Qowat Milat nun who murdered a Starfleet officer, will be going on a meditation retreat in a secluded location under the supervision of Michael’s Mom and that she will also “make amends” to the family of the murdered Starfleet officer.

While it’s nice that the planet formerly known as Vulcan is part of the Federation again, I found the whole Ni’Var plot rather dull, to be honest. In many ways, it felt like watching EU membership negotiations, where several member states all want their little extra clauses, and the whole thing was also about as thrilling as watching a EU parliament debate.

Another issue with the Ni’Var plot is that the solution once again comes down to Michael being super-duper special. Now I like Michael and she is the star of the show, so it’s only to be expected that many episodes will center on her. However, Discovery makes Michael the pivotal figure in all sorts of galaxy-shaking crises. In four season, Michael singlehandedly started and then ended a war with the Klingons, she saved the universe from a rogue AI that wanted to eexterminate all organic life, she travelled into future and solved the mystery of the Burn, was largely responsible for rebuilding the Federation and now is the only person who can bring Ni’Var back into the fold. Even if you like Micheal – and I do – it’s all a bit much for one person. And indeed, Keith R.A. DeCandido, James Whitbrook and Zack Handlen all make similar points in their reviews.

The C-plot of this episode involves Book and his continuing struggle to process his grief over losing his family and his homeworld. Book is having regular therapy sessions with Dr. Culber now and if one person aboard Discovery could benefit from therapy, it’s Book. Dr. Culber starts off by putting Book at ease by telling him about the funeral of his uncle and the struggle to put playing cards (the uncle was a poker player) into the embalmed hand and how it made him laugh, even though Culber missed his uncle very much, and that there is no wrong or right way to grieve. Then they try a Kwejian healing ritual involving a mandala drawn into sand – only that the sand is programmable matter and not the right kind of sand from Kwejian, cause Kwejian doesn’t exist anymore.

Those scenes are well acted by David Ajala and Wilson Cruz and I also liked that the writers incorporated Wilson Cruz’ Latinx background via the uncle story. That said, I’m not a huge fan of therapy scenes, as I’ve said above, and this episode had way too many therapy scenes for my liking. Also, the therapy scenes with Book don’t really go anywhere. He’s clearly still grieving and traumatised.

Last season, Book was my favourite new addition to the Discovery cast. Space rogue, cat owner, all around good guy and smoking hot, too. What’s not to like? This season, however, Book has turned into a walking, talking embodiment of the five stages of grief and I find his character much less compelling. It’s doesn’t help that we only saw Book’s brother and nephew in two episodes, so we have no real connection to them. Yes, the destruction of Kwejian and the deaths of Kyheem and Leto are sad, but we barely knew them and their planet.

Meanwhile, the Dark Matter Anomaly plot has not advanced at all and we’re still no closer to knowing what the DMA is than we were last week. I also still don’t find the DMA particularly compelling as an overarching season plot, because it’s basically just a bigger and badder version of a bog-standard Star Trek anomaly.

Star Trek usually shines in standalone rather than arc episodes, so I don’t mind if the writers ditch the arc plot for a standalone episode once in a while. However, while both “Choose to Live” and “All Is Possible” largely stand alone, they’re not all that interesting.

So far, season 4 of Star Trek Discovery definitely feels like Star Trek – which is an improvement compared to season 1, which barely felt like Star Trek at times. However, it’s also very middle of the road Star Trek, comparable to a solid but unremarkable mid-season episode of The Next Generation. Star Trek is very much comfort viewing for me and season 4 of Discovery certainly delivers that. But I still think the show could do more than that.

Hawkeye wonders whether it’s “Partners, Am I Right?”

It’s time for my review of the latest episode of Hawkeye. Review of previous episodes (well, just one so far) may be found here.

This Monday, I was also over at Galactic Journey to talk about “The Space Trap”, the penultimate episode of Space Patrol Orion, so check it out.

Warning! Spoilers under the cut!

When we last saw our intrepid archers, they had just snuck into the apartment of Kate’s Mom, which was supposed to be empty, in order to access her computer to get some intel on the tracksuit mafia. However, the apartment was not as empty as they assumed and so Clint finds himself with his own retractable Ronin sword at his throat, courtesy of Jack Duquesne.

As cliffhangers go, this one is resolved very quickly. First, Kate shows up, yelling at Jack to leave Clint alone, because he’s with her. Then Kate’s Mom Eleanor appears and wants to know what on Earth an Avenger is doing in her apartment, whereupon Jack recognises (or pretends to recognise, since I don’t trust Jack any further than Clint could throw him) Clint. Kate replies that she’s helping Clint with a case and that they really need to go now, but her Mom isn’t having any of that. First, they’re going to sit down and have a chat.

This results in an uncomfortable conversation over coffee. Eleanor quizzes Clint, who clearly wishes he were somewhere, anywhere else, while Kate gushes that they’re partners, which Clint half-heartedly denies. Jack manages a “Thank you for saving us”, which sounds as rote as the “Thank you for serving” that US soldiers commonly hear from random civilians.

Clint finally manages to extricate himself from the situation, though Kate is still trapped with her Mom and stepfather-to-be. Eleanor accompanies Clint to the elevator and explicitly tells him that Kate is no superhero, no matter how skilled she is. She then invokes Black Widow, which is a low blow, and asks Clint if he has kids (“I assume you have kids.”) which is another low blow. I also wonder how Eleanor knows about the connection between Clint and Natasha (especially since Natasha is not the only dead Avenger, yet she doesn’t invoke Tony Stark or Vision) and how she can guess that he has kids. Yes, the Avengers are public figures and celebrities in this world, but Clint always kept a low profile. Even his own team mates didn’t know that he was married and had a family for a long time. This is just another moment that makes me wonder whether Eleanor is really just the concerned mother she appears to be or whether she is the villain (or one of them) behind all this. Further evidence in that direction is provided by a mysterious phonecall where a panicked Eleanor talks to an unknown person.

Eleanor asks Clint to drop the case. Clint tells her he can’t do that, but that he will keep Kate safe. Clint also appropriate the Ronin sword, but then he is its legitimate owner. Next we see him talking on the phone to Laura, asking her to check out Sloan Ltd., the company which appears to be a front for the tracksuit mafia. She also notes that the CEO of Sloan Ltd. is none other than Jack Duquesne. Laura abruptly switches to (not very good) German and also asks about a Rolex watch that was found at the Avengers compound, the same watch the tracksuit mafia stole at the illegal auction in part 1. The two oldest Barton kids, Lila and Cooper, immediately know that something is up.

Daily Dot reviewer Gavia Baker-Whitelaw criticises Laura Barton for being a cypher and having little personality aside from being a wife and a mother. I still think this is unfair, for even though Laura doesn’t get a lot of screentime, we still learn things about her character. As I pointed out before, Laura knows that Clint is Hawkeye and that he was Ronin. This is not a case of a superhero keeping his identity secret even from his loved ones, a trope that I hate (and that Masters of the Universe: Revelation just brilliantly interrogated). Nor is Laura the nagging and whining “Oh no, how can you go off to save the world, when today is our anniversary? You don’t care about Meee” wife, another trope I really, really hate. And yes, sometimes the whining partner is male – see Rhys from Torchwood – but mostly it’s a woman. Laura knows what Clint does and she supports him and that alone is rare enough.

But this episode actually hints that Laura likely was a S.H.I.E.L.D operative herself, as Tor.com reviewer Emmet Asher-Perrin points out. And this makes sense, because not only do most people meet their partners at work, but particularly people in high pressure professions tend to choose a partner in the same profession. The hints are also there all the way back in Avengers: Age of Ultron, where Tony Stark remarks upon first meeting Laura, “She’s an agent” and Clint says that Nick Fury set up the quiet and safe house for his family for him. Tony was very likely right. Laura was a S.H.I.E.L.D agent. She also is Clint’s wife and the mother of his kids. I still wish that Laura got more screentime, but she is an interesting character.

Meanwhile, Kate is subjected to her Mom and Jack talking about her (“She idolises Clint Barton”, Eleanor says) and then to Jack serenading and dancing with her Mom). Even for someone who’s not related to either of them, that display of affection was cringeworthy, so Kate takes the first chance she has to flee. She returns to her aunt’s apartment, where she finds Clint cooling his myriad injuries with packages of frozen fruit juice or ready-mixed cocktails or whatever that stuff is. One thing I like about Hawkeye is that unlike the other Avengers, Clint and Kate get hurt and their wounds take time to heal. They may be superheroes (or about to be in Kate’s case), but they’re not superhuman.

Kate also brings a bunch of bags with her to have an impromptu Christmas party with Clint, since he has missed much of the Barton family’s pre-Christmas celebrations. There are goofy Christmas sweaters and holiday movies, since Kate apparently overheard that the Bartons were planning to have a holiday movie night with Christmas sweaters. We also see Clint and Kate decorating the Christmas tree – one of those silvery aluminium foil trees with colourful lights – putting all the frozen fruit juice or whatever it is packs to good use and just generally hanging out together with Pizza Dog. The apartment of Kate’s aunt feels lived in, something TV homes rarely do. Plus, the aunt has a menorah (suggesting that she won’t be too keen on having her halls decked with boughs of holly) and a “Thanos Was Right” cup, which Clint of all people drinks from. The aunt won’t be pleased either that Kate messed up one of the posters on her wall by using it as an improvised dry-erase board. Finally, Clint teaches Kate how the flip a coin, so he can use it to switch off the lights and the TV (and potentially take an opponent out), which is playing It’s a Wonderful Life, of course.

Now I don’t particularly care for It’s a Wonderful Life, but I know it’s hugely popular in the US. It also is public domain due to a copyright registration error, so it makes sense that so many holiday themed movies or TV episodes include characters watching It’s a Wonderful Life. However, Marvel is owned by Disney and Disney is a behemoth which owns loads of copyrights, including likely very many beloved holiday movies. So why go with the unadventurous choice of It’s a Wonderful Life? Maybe it’s because the movie is about a man and the relationship to his family, but then many, if not most Christmas movies are about family.

The festive scenes of Kate, Clint and Pizza Dog hanging out in the apartment of Kate’s aunt also give the show a much needed breather and the chance for some bonding and character development, as both AV-Club reviewer Caroline Siede and io9 reviewer Germain Lussier point out. And so Kate asks Clint about the best shot he ever took and he replies that was the shot he didn’t take, the one that should have taken out Black Widow. Clint, however, saw something in her, decided to spare her and they became lifelong friends. Kate also realises that Clint lost his whole family in the blip and that he used to be Ronin. Those scenes are quieter than usual for this show, but really well acted by Jeremy Renner, whose grief for Natasha is literally edged into his face, and Hailee Steinfeld. Also, I love it that Jeremy Renner is allowed to look fifty.

That night, we see Clint having nightmares about Natasha’s death, losing his family and his time as Ronin. The next morning, Clint and Kate split up. Clint sends Kate to retrieve what’s left of his trick arrows from the NYPD, enlisting the aid of their LARPer acquaintances, most of whom happen to be first responders. Then he goes to see Kazi.

So Clint pays a visit to Kazi, Maya’s lieutenant in the tracksuit mafia. He lies in wait for Kazi in the backseat of his car and divests Kazi of his various weapons, too. Then he tells Kazi that by the (admittedly low) standards of the tracksuit mafia, Kazi is actually intelligent (Way to make a compliment, Clint) and more importantly, Maya listens to him, whereas she would not listen to pretty much everybody else. So he tells Kazi to tell Maya to stop going after Ronin. Maya is chasing ghosts and it’s going to get her killed, if she doesn’t stop. It’s certainly telling that even though he killed a shitload of people as Ronin, Clint doesn’t want to kill Maya. Probably because he realises that she has a very good reason to be angry at him.

Meanwhile, Kate approaches the LARPers, introducing herself as a friend of Clint’s. Consindering the LARPers are all cops, firefighters and other first responders, they are remarkably easy to convince to help Clint and Kate, even if it involves stealing objects from the evidence room. However, they want something in return. This something turns out to be material for new costumes, which Kate can apparently get for them (Does she have her credit card back or does she have connections to fabric wholesalers?). The LARPers even promise to make new costumes for Clint and Kate as well.

When Clint returns to the apartment, he finds it full of LARPers. Grill, the fellow he fought in episode 2, is baking cookies, Kate and the woman with the blonde braids are trying on costumes. Most importantly, a black police officer named Wendy has retrieved Clint’s arrows, though she is very reluctant to give the bag the arrows are in to Clint, because the bag is personally embroidered and was a gift from her wife. The LARPers are supporting characters and most of them don’t even get names, though I like it that the show gives them a bit of characterisation and also injects some diversity into the still very white and straight Marvel Cinematic Universe. Gavia Baker-Whitelaw, on the other hand, is not a huge fan of the LARPers and calls the fact that they are mostly first responders a very weird example of “copaganda”.

Now “copaganda” definitely is a thing that exists, though you’re far more likely to find it in shows like The Shield, Bosch, The District and Blue Bloods, the first two of which literally let their police officer protagonists get away with murder, while the last two rigged its storylines so that the police was always right. However, I don’t see what’s so bad about having a handful of goofy LARPers who also happen to be cops and firefighters.

Clint gets a text message from Laura confirming that the mysterious Rolex watch (which is equipped with a tracker) was not destroyed and that it is in a certain apartment in New York City. So Clint and Kate set out to retrieve the Rolex. The apartment where the Rolax is located does not look particularly impressive – in fact, it looks a little like social housing – which suggest that whoever has the Rolex now is not one of the wealthy people who were going to bid on it. Never mind that we last saw the Rolex in the hands of the tracksuit mafia.

Clint and Kate watch the apartment from the opposite roof. Clint wants to break in, but Kate preempts him and gets into the building by helping an old man carry his groceries inside. It’s effective, charming and also shows the different approach that Kate and Clint have to things. Then Clint berates Kate about not following orders, Kate replies audibly and then tells the very confused elderly man that she has an Avenger in her ear, which persuades the old man that Kate is nuts.

Kate manages to break into the apartment without problems, but suddenly she triggers flashing strobe lights, which she takes out with two of Clint’s putty arrows. Kate finds the Rolex and – more worryingly – a handwritten list with details about Clint and his family. Kate warns Clint about this, just as Clint realises what those flashing strobe lights were. They’re a silent alarm. The apartment Kate broke into belongs to Maya Lopez. “Get out!” Clint tells Kate, but it’s too late. Kate is attacked by Maya.

Meanwhile, on the rooftop opposite, Clint has problems of his own, when a black-clad woman with a nightvision mask attacks him. He assumes it’s Maya, but since Maya is fighting Kate on the other side of the street, how can that be?

The situation quickly turns into a roof-top free for all. Clint is fighting the black clad woman on the roof and still manages to shoot a grapling line arrow to the other side of the street, allowing Kate to escape via a zip line. Only that Kate gets stuck dangling above the street and that Maya also knows how to use ziplines.

At one point during the fight, Kate gets knocked off the roof and is dangling only on a ropeline. When Clint bends down to pull her up, he isn’t the only one who realises how very similar the situation is to Natasha’s death on Vormir in Avengers: Endgame, a death which still haunts Clint.

Natasha never really had a choice to get involved first in the shadow world of espionage and later in the world of superheroes. Clint probably did have a choice, but he made that choice a long time ago and is only now beginning to realise the price. So he decides to make Kate’s choice for her. He won’t lose her like he lost Natasha and she won’t have the regrets Clint has. So instead of hauling her up, Clint cuts the line and lets Kate fall to the street below. Luckily, her fall is broken by several strings of Christmas lights strung out over the street. The shot of Kate dangling above the Christmas lights was brilliant and perfectly encapsulates what this show is about.

But just because Clint made a decision doesn’t mean Kate has to accept it. And so she makes her way back onto the roof and breaks up the brawl with a sonic arrow, knocking everybody out. Kate wounds Maya with an arrow, which causes her to run. Then she aims another arrow at the mystery woman in black, but does not shoot, when the mystery woman takes off her mask and reveals herself to be none other than Yelena Barakova (Florence Pugh), Natasha’s adopted sister.

The suprise appearance of Yelena would have worked better, if we hadn’t known it was coming. However, Comtessa Valentina explicitly sends Yelena after Clint in the post-credits scene of Black Widow, so it was only a matter of time before she would catch up with him. Never mind that Yelena uses the very recognisable widow’s bite shockers that Natasha always used. Their fighting styles are similar as well.

Clint is shocked that he not only has an angry gangster orphan after him, but a Black Widow assassin as well, though it’s not clear if he recognises Yelena. At any rate, he tells Kate to go home and forget about him. They’re not partners and never were.

Two episodes from the end, Hawkeye feels more and more like the gritty and lower stakes Marvel Netflix series of a few years ago, only with a higher budget and sprinkled with a bit of holiday cheer. The rooftop fight was very reminiscent of similar scenes in the Daredevil series. Like Daredevil, which handled Matt Murdock’s blindness very well, Hawkeye also has good disability representation. Though unlike any of the Netflix series except season 1 of Jessica Jones, Hawkeye also has things to say about PTSD, grief, aging and the cost of being a superhero.

In The Guardian, James Hanton notes that Hawkeye has the lowest viewing figures of all Disney Plus Marvel series and that the Marvel machine seems to be in trouble. Personally, I don’t think Marvel is in trouble, even if its 2021 movie drew fewer viewers than usual. But many people are not comfortable going to a movie theatre during the covid pandemic and sometimes, theatres are not open or they require a negative test in addition to proof of vaccination, which makes going there a hassle. Also, while I liked the Black Widow movie, the movie came out about five years too late. Eternals was always going to be a gamble, since those characters are very hard to like. And Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings seems generally well regarded.

As for Hawkeye, I suspect the reason it’s not performing as well as the other Disney Plus Marvel shows is that the streaming services are drowning viewers in good SFF series.  Star Trek Discovery, Doctor Who, The Wheel of Time, the live action Cowboy Bebop, Lost in Space and The Expanse are all running concurrently with Hawkeye. It’s too much for one person to watch, especially in the busy run-up period to the holidays. But then I suspect the streaming services assume that all of their customers are young men with nothing to do, while the women are supposed to watch stuff like The Great British Bake-off or The Crown. Also note that there are very few soap opera-ish series aimed at women running right now, probably because the streaming services know that their target audience is too busy to watch much TV.

Though I wish they would also realise that there are plenty of women who love SFF shows, but would not be caught dead watching The Crown or Bridgerton or The Great British Bake-off.