Cora Buhlert's Blog, page 33

Hawkeye realises it’s better to “Never Meet Your Heroes” or pop culture deals with trauma and grief, take 3

This weekend was a long holiday weekend in the US, so the various streaming service thought it was a really great idea to throw out as much SFF content as humanly possibly, since apparently the people who actually do the cooking and cleaning on Thanksgiving don’t watch TV or at least not SFF shows, while everybody else has nothing better to do than watch TV all weekend long. Never mind that outside the US, it was just a normal weekend.

Thankfully, I never cared the slightest bit about The Wheel of Time, because Masters of the Universe: Revelation, Star Trek Discovery and two episodes of Hawkeye (cause why have just one – someone might be moved to help with Thanksgiving preparations after all?) provide more than enough TV SFF for one weekend.

As I noted in my Star Trek Discovery review, all three shows deal in some way with trauma, grief and PTSD and how to overcome it, while also fighting some kind of huge universe-endangering threat. To my infinite amazement, Masters of the Universe: Revelation handled its subject matter better than Star Trek Discovery did. So let’s see how Hawkeye does.

Warning: Spoilers under the cut!

Quite well, it turns out. At any rate, I thoroughly enjoyed the first two episodes of Hawkeye. So far, it’s not as wonderfully weird as WandaVision or Loki, but delivers a more coherent story than the often messy The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. The fact that the setting actually looks like the place it’s supposed to be – New York City at Christmastime – doesn’t hurt either.

So far, the Disney+ Marvel TV shows have focussed on characters like Wanda, Vision, Sam, Bucky or Loki, who were sidelined in the Marvel movies (though Loki actually got a lot of screentime and often stole the show). Of the six original Avengers, Hawkeye is probably the most underdeveloped. He is introduced in a cameo appearance in the first Thor film, then spends most of Avengers under Loki’s control and only acquires a personality and backstory that’s more than “He’s Natasha’s best friend” in Avengers: Age of Ultron, when his secret family is introduced. “You have a branding problem”, new character Kate Bishop tells Clint at one point and she’s right. Even after five movies, we still don’t know who Clint Barton really is. Family man, murderous vigilante, Natasha’s best friend, crackshot archer?

The Marvel movies also threw out most of Clint Barton’s backstory from the comics, where he starts out as a villain, has a troubled on-off relationship with fellow superheroine Mockingbird (who appeared in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., played by Adrienne Palicki, though her troubled relationship with Hawkeye is given to Lance Hunter, a completely different character) and is generally something of a mess. Clint in the movies is first and foremost a father and family, who mainly superheroes, because someone has to, but who’d rather be at home with his family and is devastated, when he loses them to Thanos snapping out half the universe. Personally, I find this version of Clint Barton a lot more likeable than the often jerky comics version.

Another issue is that even though Hawkeye is a longterm member of the Avengers and has had a few solo series, he hasn’t really had a lot of memorable comic arcs. The most memorable of those is probably the acclaimed Hawkeye run by Matt Fraction and David Aja and it is this story arc that the series adapts. Matt Fraction is given a producer credit and I really hope that he gets paid well for the adaptation of his storyline, since we all know that Disney is not particularly great about paying writers.

“Never Meet Your Heroes”, the first episode of Hawkeye, opens with a flashback to the Battle of New York from the first Avengers movie. Though this time, we see the Battle of New York from the POV of the most innocent of innocent bystanders, namely young Kate Bishop, a little girl living in a multimillion dollar spacious New York City penthouse with her Mom and Dad, when her world quite literally comes crashing down around her. We see a terrified Kate dashing from room to room, calling for her parents, until she comes into a part of the penthouse where the exterior wall has been blasted away. A Chitauri warrior on one of those Skysled things (yes, I’ve still got He-Man on the mind) flies towards little Kate, until he is shot down by a well-aimed arrow from none other than Hawkeye. Yes, Clint has just saved the life of young Kate and he most likely doesn’t even remember it.

However, in spite of the Avengers’ best efforts, the Battle of New York is not without casualties and one of those casualties is Kate’s Dad, so we next see little Kate and her Mom at her Dad’s funeral. When her Mom asks Kate if there’s anything she needs, Kate says a bow and arrows.

Even though Hawkeye was sold as a cheery holiday action romp, it’s still a show about trauma – which puts it in a line with the latest episode of Star Trek Discovery as well as Masters of the Universe: Revelation – and Kate processes the trauma of having the safety of her home shattered and losing her Dad by emulating the one person she saw standing up to the Chitauri, namely Hawkeye.

The animated title credits show Kate growing up, excelling at archery, fencing and martial arts and gathering medal after medal. When the show skips to the present day, Kate is twenty-two, played by Hailee Steinfeld and a college student who is about to commit a silly stunt to ring the bell of her college’s clock tower by firing an arrow at it and managing to destroy the clock tower in the process. As the opening scene hinted, Kate’s family is filthy rich – but then anybody who owns a whole building in Manhattan, let alone a gorgeous Beaux Arts building, is filthy rich. So Kate’s Mom (Vera Farminga wearing a gorgeous red gown) can pay for the repair of the clock tower, though she’s rightfully angry and promptly cancels Kate’s credit cards. She also forces Kate to accompany her and her new boyfriend Jack Duquesne to a charity auction.

Kate is clearly suspicious of her Mom’s boyfriend and she’s absolutely right to be. For starters, anybody named Duquesne is almost inevitably a villain – blame E.E. Smith for naming the main villain in his Skylark series Marc DuQuesne. The only non-villainous fictional Dequesne that I know of is Calleigh Duquesne from CSI: Miami. As for Jack Duquesne, there is a character in the Marvel comics named Jacques Duquesne, a circus performer and villain named the Swordsman who introduced a young Clint Barton to a life of crime before eventually reforming and becoming an Avenger himself. Jacques Duquesne also won a joint honourable mention at the prestigious (not) Darth Vader Parenthood Award for Outstandingly Horrible Fictional Parents in 2012 together with Howard Stark, Odin Allfather, Joseph Rogers, Brian Banner and Ivan Petrovich, i.e. the parents/parent stand-ins of the Avengers (that was before the movies gave us anything about Clint’s backstory). The 2012 winner was Tywin Lannister BTW. As I mentioned above, the movies threw out Clint’s comic backstory, but Jack Duquesne is a nice hat tip to that backstory. Plus, this Jack has a thing about swords, just like his comics counterpart.

Things quickly turn tense at the charity auction. Kate, who decides to defy her mother by wearing a tuxedo rather than the evening gown her Mom wants her to wear, finds herself talking to one Armand Duquesne III, uncle of her Mom’s new boyfriend Jack (in the comics, Armand is the father of Jacques Duquesne). Armand III is played with great gusto by Simon Callow, so I of course expected him to turn out to be the main villain, because normally you don’t hire an actor of Simon Callow’s calibre for what is basically a cameo. On the other hand, if you’re Marvel, you can do anything.

Armand casually lets it drop that Jack isn’t just the new boyfriend of Kate’s Mom, he is her fiancé. Kate is about as happy about this as you can imagine. Armand isn’t happy either, since he thinks Kate’s Mom is not good for Jack. And so, Kate witnesses a tense confrontation between Armand and her Mom not long afterwards. She watches Armand and Jack slip away through the kitchen and decides to follow, grabbing a tray to pose as a waitress (luckily she is wearing a tuxedo).

Kate promptly stumbles upon the real auction (not for charity and selling illegally acquired, but unique high ticket items) in the wine cellar, where she overhears Armand III and Jack arguing over money and Armand outbidding Jack on an item he really wants just out of pure spite.. The lots include the skull of a triceratops (Is it wrong that I want that?) as well as the retractable sword (Is it wrong that I want that as well?) and ninja-like suit of the vigilante known only as Ronin, who terrorised the underworld of New York City by flat out murdering them just after the blip.

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the true identity of Ronin is a mystery, but those of us who’ve seen Avengers Endgame (and since it’s currently one of the most successful movies of all time, that means everybody who watches Hawkeye has likely seen it) know that Ronin was the identity Clint took on after losing his entire family to the blip. As AV-Club reviewer Sam Barsanti points out, Avengers: Endgame quickly glossed over the fact that Clint spent five years killing a shitload of people (even if they were bad people), but in Hawkeye, his past come back to haunt him.

Kate, meanwhile, seems to be a true magnet for bad luck. She almost gets caught, when one of the real waiters challenges her and she tells him the manager sent her, only for the waiter to get the manager himself, who of course has no idea who Kate is. Kate manages to bluff her way out of that one (“See, Gary, that’s the problem with you. You can’t even remember my name.”), but more trouble is coming her way, when an explosion rocks the wine cellar and vaguely Eastern European bad guys clad in red tracksuits stream into the cellar, interrupting the auction. The bad guys are called the tracksuit mafia (“Isn’t that a little too on the nose?” asks Kate at one point) and they are looking for one of the artefacts to be auctioned off, a certain watch. However, in order to get that watch, they cause a lot of chaos.

In the confusion, Kate grabs hold of the Ronin suit, puts it on and proceeds to use her considerable martial arts skills and various priceless wine bottles to beat up the bad guys. She manages to hold her own quite well and escapes. Kate even rescues a one-eyed dog who had heroically attacked the tracksuit mafia. But unfortunately the tracksuit mafia know who Ronin is and they’re not fans of his, so Kate has now painted a target on her back. After a brief interlude at Kate’s apartment, where she feeds pizza to the dog she just adopted, Kate sneaks out again, still wearing the Ronin suit, to get some answers from Armand III. However, once she gets to his house, she finds him dead on the floor, stabbed through the chest with a sword. So now Kate not only has the tracksuit mafia after her, she’s a murder suspect, too.

So far, I have talked more about Kate than Clint and that’s because Hawkeye is more Kate’s story than Clint’s, as Guardian reviewer Lucy Mangan and AV-Club reviewer Caroline Siede note. Because Clint doesn’t really want to get involved in any adventures at all. He has retired from the superhero business and just wants to spend time with his family. And right now, this means enjoying Christmas time in New York City with his three kids Cooper, Lila and Nathaniel Pietro. Clint clearly means well and tries to be a good Dad, but Cooper and Lila – now both in their teens – are too old for that sort of Christmas cheer and only go along with it to make their Dad happy, while Clint is visibly struggling with the physical and psychological injuries caused by years of being a superhero.

The three Barton kids are played by the same young actors who portrayed them in Avengers: Age of Ultron (except for Nathaniel, with whom Laura Barton was pregnant in that movie) and Avengers: Endgame. It’s nice that Marvel allowed the Barton kids to grow up rather than recast them with younger actors. Even if Cooper is now taller than his Dad, but then Jeremy Renner is not particularly tall. Also, I loved the moment where Nathaniel, the baby of the family, signed “I love you” to his Dad.

When we first see the Barton family, they’re in a theatre, taking on Broadway’s hottest show, Rogers: The Musical, which literally is a musical based on the Battle of New York. The result is just as terrible and corny as you imagine it to be, even though Marvel brought in some top Broadway talent for that brief scene and the “Save the City” song is actually really catchy to the point that I’m wondering if Disney isn’t secretly testing whether there would be an audience for an Avengers Broadway musical.

Daily Dot reviewer Gavia Baker-Whitelaw notes that making a musical about the Battle of New York, an event which killed hundreds of people, is as if there were a contemporary Broadway musical about the September 11 attacks – i.e. completely inappropriate. However, there are some very weird, inappropriate or outright terrible musicals – after all, The Fields of Ambrosia, a musical comedy about executions in the American South in the early 20th century with cheery tunes like “Step right up to the electric chair”, exists and Sweeney Todd, which is almost as inappropriate, not only exists, but was hugely popular. Seen in that light, I don’t find the existence of Rogers: The Musical that unlikely, though it should be Avengers: The Musical. Nonetheless, this is about the worst show that Clint could have gone to see with his kids.

It is well known that survivors of crimes, disasters and other terrible events can be retraumatised by watching documentaries and dramatisations of said events. Even if you’ve only been tangentially touched by such an event, watching a movie about it, especially if it happens unprepared, can be painful. A few years ago, I chanced to see a trailer for a TV drama based on the so-called “Gladbeck hostage drama” (the bulk of which did not take place in Gladbeck but in Bremen) and was utterly furious that the TV station would air the trailer without a trigger warning. Even after thirty years, seeing that trailer disturbed me deeply and I was just only very tangentially affected by those events (I had passed through the station where the bus was hijacked the day before and Silke Bischoff, the young woman who was murdered, went to the same school as me and was the friend of a classmate’s sister). The closer you are, the worse it gets. For example, Ignes Ponto, widow of banker Jürgen Ponto who was murdered by the Red Army Fraction, complained vehemently (and absolutely justifiedly) about the movie The Baader-Meinhof Complex and particularly about the trailers which showed the murder of her husband. And considering that those trailers were on TV all the time, the poor woman basically couldn’t even switch on the TV without seeing her husband shot over and over and over again. Rogers: The Musical does this to Clint and his kids, only that everybody is singing and dancing, too, which must be even more painful.

This pain is only too clearly edged on Clint’s face, as he sits in the theatre. When Black Widow begins to sing and dance, Clint switches off his hearing aid – yes, Marvel finally remembered that Clint is deaf in the comics due to the many traumatic injuries he suffered over the years and decided to incorporate this fact into the show – but even that doesn’t make the pain g away. He needs to get out of there now. But even the bathroom offers no relief, because Clint first sees a “Thanos was right” graffitti scrawled onto a urinal and is then accosted by an annoying fan who wants to take a selfie, literally while Clint is peeing. In the end, the entire Barton family leave the show halfway through. And no, it’s not just Clint for whom the experience is painful. Look at the faces of Cooper and Lila, who after all knew all the original Avengers, two of whom are now dead while one has travelled into the past, and who used to call Natasha “Aunt Nat”. The experience is not pleasant for them either (and Nathaniel doesn’t get the concept of musical theatre). And indeed it’s Lila who notices how much her Dad is suffering.

So far, we’ve only seen Clint’s wife Laura (still played by Linda Candellini) in brief clips when she’s on the phone with Clint, since Laura didn’t come along on the New York trip. Gavia Baker-Whitelaw complains that Laura Barton’s main role is supportive wife and mother, but there’s really nothing wrong with that. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has featured quite a few formidable superhero significant others. Pepper Potts is CEO of Stark Enterprises, Jane Foster is a world class astrophysicist, Peggy Carter is a soldier, secret agent and co-founder of S.H.I.E.L.D. Then we have heroing couples like Hank and Janet Pym or Wanda and Vision. So where is the problem when one superhero has a significant other who’s a stay-at-home Mom and who supports her husband in his choice of career? Also, it’s notable that Laura is completely aware of what her husband does, when he’s not home. She knows he’s with S.H.I.E.L.D., she knows he’s Hawkeye and she even knows that he used to be Ronin, which is a far cry from the usual superhero love interests who have no idea of their partner’s secret identity. and Masters of the Universe: Revelations just spent much of its runtime exploring the toxic consequences of secret identities. Though to Marvel’s credit, they have largely abandoned that annoying plot device in their movies.

That next stop on the Bartons’ New York trip, a Chinese restaurant, goes somewhat better, though Clint is deeply embarassed when the manager lets them have dinner on the house (and the Barton kids, like all kids, eat a lot), because “You saved us”. But things are about to get worse, because back at the hotel, Clint chances to see a news report about the reappearance of Ronin, complete with smartphone. Clint definitely knows that he is not wearing the Ronin suit, but who is?

So Clint goes out to find and question the fake Ronin and shows up just as the tracksuit mafia has caught up with Kate. He beats them up, grabs Kate by her collar, pulls down her mask and is just about to punch her out, when he stops, once he realises she’s just a kid not much older than his own.

This encounter, which happens at the end of the first episode, leads to a delightful dynamic between Kate, who fangirls Hawkeye and really, really wants to impress him, and Clint, to whom she basically is a kid who needs his help. Hailee Steinfeld and Jeremy Renner have great chemistry, so we get exchanges like Kate informing Clint that she has been studying martial arts since she was five and Clint responding, “When was that? Last year?” Later, an indignant Kate informs Clint that she’s already twenty-two and very much an adult, thank you very much, whereupon Clint mumbles, “A 22-year-old vigilante, Christ.” Of course, Clint likely wasn’t much older than Kate, when he set out on the path to superherodom. Based on Jeremy Renner’s age, he was around forty when he joined the Avengers and he’s clearly had a lengthy career as a S.H.I.E.L.D. operative before that.

Clint takes Kate home and tries to determine whether anybody saw her face or knows her name or where she lives. Kate says no, but then the tracksuit mafia shows up at Kate’s apartment and proceeds to burn the place down. Clint, Kate and the dog escape, but they have to leave the Ronin suit behind. They hole up at the apartment of Kate’s aunt who’s on holiday and we get yet more gruffly paternal Clint, when he cleans and patches up Kate’s wounds, since she didn’t do it properly.

Clint then goes back to Kate’s apartment to retrieve the Ronin suit, but the suit is gone. Clearly, one of the first responders took it. One of the firetrucks has a sticker from a LARP group, so Clint googles the group and finds a video of a member bragging about his brand-new ninja suit. So Clint puts his kids on a plane home (“And don’t forget Nate”), escorts Kate to work in her Mom’s security company and then goes after the suit, which leads to a hilarious scene of Clint being forced to join the LARP event. Of course, Clint could easily take the suit by simply punching out the man who appropriated it, but in the end he makes a deal to let the LARPER win a duel with him in exchange for the suit.

While Clint is getting the suit, Kate has another tense confrontation with her Mom’s fiancé Jack. During what’s supposed to be a family dinner, Kate suggests a friendly fencing match and manages to goad Jack into revealing that he is a master swordsman. She also sees Jack eating a monogramed butterscotch like the one she saw at Armand’s house, suggesting that Jack murdered Armand. She tries to call Clint, only to be answered by a stranger’s voice that he’s busy.

Clint, meanwhile, stashes the suit in a locker and decides to deal with the tracksuit mafia by allowing himself to get captured in a callback to Black Widow’s first appearance in Avengers, where she has allowed another group of East European gangsters to capture her, so she can figure out what they know. Clint’s attempt at using the same tactic is somewhat less successful than Natasha’s. For starters, the tracksuit mafia are really supremely stupid – it’s like talking to furniture, Clint notes at one point, while demanding to speak to their boss, Maya Lopez a.k.a. Echo. Then, his plan is interrupted by a well-meaning rescue attempt from Kate, which only gets them both captured and tied up in a children’s play area, because gentrification has also hit the underworld hard, since all of those abandoned warehouses that are ideal for criminal activities are being transformed into lofts. I had to admit that I laughed out loud at that.

So far, Hawkeye is curious mix of frothy holiday romp and meditation on trauma, grief and aging, which makes it the third pop cultural take on trauma and how to deal with it I watched in as many days after Star Trek Discovery and Masters of the Universe: Revelation. Hawkeye is a lot more low-key than the other two, if only because Kate and Clint don’t have to deal with universe-destroying threats (that’s reserved for the Avengers movies), but only with a bunch of idiots in tracksuits and a murderous master swordsman. The fact that the villains are more low-key gives Hawkeye more time to focus on character development.

In their own way, Clint and Kate are both traumatised and still processing their trauma. Kate lost her father at a young age and responded by modelling herself after the person who saved her and probably could have saved her Dad. Kate is clearly skilled and brave, but she’s also overconfident and cocky, which gets her in trouble again and again. Meanwhile, Clint bears the scars – both physical and psychological – of a lengthy superhero career. Yes, he saved the world, but he also lost several friends and almost lost his family. Clint also knows that what seems like a great idea at 22 – namely to be a superhero – will probably not seem like such a great idea at 50. We rarely see superheroes grow old – Logan is the only filmic example I can think of – so it’s nice to see Hawkeye address what happens when a superhero ages. Finally, I also love the dynamic between Kate, the girl who’s lost her father, and Clint, the gruff Dad whose first instinct is to protect her.

It’s also notable that Hawkeye offers yet another positive portrayal of parenthood. Considering that there are so many terrible parents in fiction that I had to create an award to honour them, I find it a heartening trend that we’ve been seeing a lot more good and loving parents, both biological and not, in recent years. And indeed, all three SFF TV shows that I watched in recent days, i.e. Masters of the Universe: Revelation, Star Trek Discovery and Hawkeye, feature several examples of supportive and loving parents.

All in all, Hawkeye is off to a good start, especially considering that I didn’t expect much from this show to begin with.

Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month for November 2021

It’s that time of the month again, time for “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”.

So what is “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up of speculative fiction by indie and small press authors newly published this month, though some October 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.

Once again, we have new releases covering the whole broad spectrum of speculative fiction. This month, we have urban fantasy, epic fantasy, paranormal mystery, space opera, military science fiction, science fiction romance, post-apocalyptic fiction, cyberpunk, alternate history, horror, Norse mythology, Greek mythology, werewolves, zombies, aliens, cyborgs, psychics, elf rangers, space marines, the afterlife, first contact, alien abductions, crime-busting witches, killer clowns, witchy weddings, roadtrips with aliens, post-apocalyptic mermaids and much more.

Don’t forget that Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month is also crossposted to the Speculative Fiction Showcase, a group blog run by Jessica Rydill and myself, which features new release spotlights, guest posts, interviews and link round-ups regarding all things speculative 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:

Woman of Destiny by Michele Amitrani:

Not all gifts are meant to be opened.

In the workshop of the blacksmith god Hephaestus, the first woman comes to life. The Olympians name her Pandora, ‘All-Gifted,’ since each of them has endowed her with a gift: beauty, poise, self-possession and cunning, among others.

Zeus gives her two gifts: a burning desire to learn—and a jar she is ordered never to open.

Pandora is fostered by gods but raised to live among men. When she marries the Titan Epimetheus—brother of the gods’ worst enemy, Prometheus—her fate appears to be sealed.

Although her life with Epimetheus is full of happiness, Pandora is besieged by nightmares carrying omens of dark things to come: destruction, famine, death and the end of the young race of mankind.

With the fate of humanity at stake, will Pandora surrender to the destiny that haunts her, or challenge her nature and become what no god ever imagined she could be?

Stone Magic by Thea Atkinson:

She’s a fraud. She’s a crook. But she’s no killer. Even if she’s being framed as one.

When three well-known psychics are murdered in her city, Brie Duncan starts to wonder if pretending to be magical is such a great idea after all. She’s no witch, but she does make good money using her fake powers to read her clients’ futures. Money that’ll do her no good if she turns up dead next.

So far, she’s managed to keep up the pretense, but when a gruff detective enters her shop, she fears she’s about to get busted. Unfortunately, his reasons for being there are far worse than she imagines.

Since she’s a member of the psychic community, he thinks she should be able to provide some insight into the murders and the victims. The trouble is, all the evidence seems to point in one direction, and unfortunately for Brie, those roads all lead to her…

Captain’s Call by Odette C. Bell:

Two captains, one chance.

Misty Rogers has a problem. She has run into ancient alien technology – and it has… altered her. When Special Captain Matthew Armstrong runs into her on a dirt-bucket world, he’s thrown heart-first into the adventure of his life.

The Coalition faces a new threat, an emerging technology from a far-flung realm that threatens to destabilize the little peace they still have. When Matthew and Misty join forces to track it down, they face a threat like no other – an ancient force and one charming admiral standing behind it.

They will have one chance – and so will the rest of the universe. Team up, thrust their petty disputes and playful hatred aside, or die at the hands of the greatest threat the multiverse has seen.

Drone Rider by Ginger Booth:

A new-made cyborg, with laser-eyed attack bunnies.
A sentient AI with a secret.
As the AI Wars begin…

Betta Graham loves her work as a drone rider. By day, she operates animal drones remotely from her cubicle in dismal 22nd century Chicago Dome. She herds human migrants via her laser-eyed recon bunnies and attack dogs. By night, she meets her boyfriend in virtual. He’s too good to be true.

He claims his work is ‘classified.’

When Betta discovers rebels infiltrating her herds, an injury forces her to become a cyborg. Her world turns upside down. Nothing is as it seems, including Valentin.

Malicious AIs have gained control of cyberspace. They launch rocks in a kinetic strike against the Northern League domes. Only Betta and her cyborg team realize the danger in time, thanks to her renegade AI lover.

In the opening salvo of the AI Wars, can they deflect the rockfall and save Chicago?

Gritty non-stop cyberpunk action you can’t put down, with a likable kick-butt anti-hero. A miserable future collides with overpowered sapient AIs.

An Alliance Reforged by Jonathan P. Brazee and J.N. Chaney:

This is a new kind of war.

The MDS and allies have withdrawn from the CoH, and they now want to become the center of gravity for humankind.

The goal is to obtain localized wins, draw in more allies, and achieve victory no matter the cost.

With the alliance undone, Rev must fight a seemingly unwinnable war.

But Marines never quit. They never falter. They never give up.

Humanity is about to experience a pivotal turning point in its history—one that will culminate in a discovery so profound that it may very well change everything.

Any Witch Way by Lindsay Buroker:

Thanks to her grandmother’s legacy, Morgen Keller has spent the summer learning about her witch heritage. She’s also spent the summer falling for the sexy werewolf next door.

As an unemployed divorcée, she never expected to find love again, but the gruff Amar has been her protector since she arrived in Bellrock. He’s fierce, loyal, strong, and he hardly ever rolls his eyes at her vegetarian ways. He’s a keeper.

There’s just one problem:

Witches and werewolves are mortal enemies.

When her mentor turns her back on her, and the coven delivers an ultimatum, Morgen must choose between her heritage and the man—the werewolf—she’s falling in love with.

Cold Eyes by Peter Cawdron:

Cold Eyes is an original First Contact novel, written as a tribute to the 1974 science fiction classic, The Mote in God’s Eye, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

The UN warship Magellan is twelve light-years from Earth, exploring a cold eye, a tidally-locked super-earth called Bee. At least two advanced, intelligent species evolved on the planet, but the crew’s attempts at radio communication result in garbled replies. No one is waiting for them in orbit. The crew has to figure out why. Any misunderstandings could lead to war.

Warning: The most absurd part of this story is true and accurately portrayed.

High Water Mark by Evelyn Chartres:

“When humanity has been driven into the sea, what lurks above the waves?”

Anna is a humanoid mermaid who spends her days with the local timekeeper until a podmate comes to her with a proposal. They hatch a plan to head out into the watery ruins of humanity in search of lost technology and materials. For a young mermaid living in the dredges of society, the promise of riches from such a find is just too big to pass up.

Armed with nothing more than an old map and some rusty road signs to follow, they are soon reminded that adventure often brings forth more than its fair share of rough waters. Her friend gets captured, leaving Anna alone in a world where mermaids are nowhere near the top of the food chain.

Follow Anna as she makes landfall and learns why her ancestors abandoned the surface. Lost in a world that is perpetually covered in a thick fog, Anna must navigate through what remains above the high-water mark. What will she find? An ally? A foe? Or will she find nothing more than death and destruction?

So You Survived the End of the World by K.C. Cordell:

Earth may be a nightmarish landscape, but that’s no reason to stop the music.

Generations after civilization crashed and burned, life ain’t all doom and gloom for eighteen-year-old Sebastian Yun. He’s got his brilliant but prickly traveling companion, an epic tour bus to call home, and an endless supply of dope tunes.

From behind the wheel of his sweeeeet, double-decker ride, Sebastian lives for broadcasting his music to the end-of-world-weary masses. When making a pit stop at a small, dusty town, the self-made radio DJ runs into a shady old nemesis who totally kills his good vibes. This seasoned flimflam woman claims she can send the bloodthirsty creatures that prey on mankind back to hell.

But when Sebastian’s completely-not-selfish attempts to unmask the phony hit the wrong note, the very real danger is cranked all the way up to 11.

If you like charismatic characters, offbeat humor, and killer monsters, then you’ll love this YA twist on a post-apocalyptic future perfect for fans of Zombieland.

Steal the Wind by Jocelynn Drake:

Everything Caelan knows about his world is a lie.

A war is brewing. As the crown prince of Erya, it’s only natural that Caelan is sent on a secret diplomatic mission to support one of the kingdom’s allies. With his advisor, his bodyguard, and his best friend as traveling companions, what could go wrong?

Everything.

Everything goes wrong.

Now they are on the run, dodging assassins, setting secret meetings, and even making deals with a sleeping god.

So, this is probably a really bad time to cave to feelings he’s been fighting for his best friend. But Drayce has owned his heart for more years than he can count and if he’s going to die, shouldn’t he have just one kiss?

The fate of the world is on the line, and only Caelan holds the power to save them all.

Steal the Wind is the first book in the six-book Godstone Saga fantasy series and is not a standalone. The story contains explosions, secrets, cranky gods, hidden romance, a prince on the run, a possessive ex-boyfriend, magic, and lots of delicious angst.

Eli: A Ranger’s Tale by Marc Alan Edelheit:

A dangerous mission. A war of the Gods. An epic destiny.

When elven rangers Eli’Far and Mae’Cara are dispatched to hunt down the dangerous criminal Mik’Las, the mission seems simple enough. Mik’Las has committed the unthinkable crimes of murder and kidnap, and though he’s a former ranger and skilled in the deadly arts, Eli is confident they will bring him to justice.

But after Mik’Las flees into the human kingdom of the Castol, Eli and Mae find their mission suddenly wrought with complications. Lord Edgun, an oppressive man grinding his people under the heel of his boot, has left its people desperate. Things grow even more complicated when the elves run into Jitanthra, a strange human girl being hunted by Edgun’s men, and who has connections to a mystical outcast, an elf currently imprisoned by Edgun.

Soon, Eli and Mae find themselves unexpectedly drawn into the middle of a rebellion, a struggle between gods, and the opening stages of the dreaded Last War.

Madame Antic’s Hotel Grotesque by Milo James Fowler:

In an alternate Victorian era, factory worker Anthony Reynolds seeks to improve his station in life for the sake of his young bride-to-be. Against his better judgment, he joins Richard, a gregarious coworker with social connections, for a night on the town after their late shift. Richard leads them deep into the city’s underworld to a brothel of sorts specializing in the illegal art of mutilation. There Anthony witnesses victims skinned, broken, and mangled without lasting damage due to a special drug that returns them to their original state. Anthony immediately wants to leave, but before he can, Constables raid the establishment. While trying to flee the scene, Anthony runs into a giant tumor of a man who spills a viscous fluid on him. Anthony is disfigured by the strange substance, and when the authorities capture him, he is unable to identify himself, let alone speak. What follows is a mind-bending adventure of mistaken identity, multiple realities, and paranoia as Anthony fights to reclaim a simple life he never truly appreciated but now wants more than anything else. Once he learns the truth of his world, nothing will ever be the same again.

Obviously, Aliens by Jennie Goloboy:

This is not how anyone expected their day to go…

What happens when Dana drinks the wrong soda on her way to Spokane? Before she knows it, she and Jay O’Toole are sharing the same body. Jay’s boyfriend, Adam, wants him back at any cost, and Dana just wants to find a new body for Jay so she can get to Spokane and pitch her new line of Doge of the Month collectibles to Rainbow Daydreams.

To do that and stop the bad guys, they’ll have to embark on a wild and hilarious road trip where they’ll meet up with a lot of aliens, the clone of Dana’s dead rock star dad, evil plumbing executives and their minions, government agents and talking corgis. Will Dana manage to get Jay out of her head, sell her Doge designs and maybe meet a decent boyfriend? Can Adam turn his skills as a thief and a hit man into a force for good and settle down with Jay and Jay’s new alien pals? Will the aliens be able to rebuild their lives on Earth? What are the corgis up to? Hop in and ride along to find the answers to these questions and more!

“Goloboy takes us on a delightful, madcap adventure full of fights, heists, schemes, riffs on pop culture, love, moments of self-discovery, and one of the most unconventional found families I’ve had the joy to encounter. You’ll never look at Queen Elizabeth’s corgis the same way again. Fans of Valerie Valdes’ “Eva Innocente” books and Catherine Valente’s “Space Opera” will love this too.” – John Appel, author of ASSASSIN’S ORBIT

“OBVIOUSLY, ALIENS is zippy, clever, and full of hilarious surprises, with a warm heart and an edge as sharp as cut glass — or the perfect meme.”
– Karen Osborne, author of Architects of Memory and Engines of Oblivion

Wicked Forever by Lily Harper Hart:

Ivy Morgan-Harker has everything she’s ever wanted, including a devoted new husband and an upcoming break from her nursery business for the Michigan winter. Then the unthinkable happens.

Upon arriving at Morgan Nursery early one morning, she finds a body strung up in the middle of her happy sanctum … and there’s a message attached telling her that she’s next. The victim is the son of a well-known bar owner, a bar that Ivy helped bring down when she broke up a local prostitution ring.

Worried and afraid, her husband Jack Harker digs in deep, and what he finds has him terrified for his wife.

Somebody is holding a grudge regarding what happened at the bar, and the number of potential suspects looms large. Ivy and Jack must work together and follow a dark trail if they want answers … and it’s a trail that seemingly leads right back to them.

Ivy is a target. Jack is determined to keep her safe. Together, they’re an unbelievable force.

Ivy may be learning how to master her magic but it’s the darkest form of human nature working against her this time. To survive, she’s going to have to figure out who has the most to lose from the bar going down, and then she’s going to have to fight the enemy she didn’t see coming if she expects to get her happily ever after.

The big finale is finally here!

Starfighter Down by M.G. Herron:

A rogue Overmind is on the loose.

A million souls hang in the balance.

The Solaran Defense Forces make the difficult decision to evacuate the colony of Robichar in order to avoid a direct confrontation. But when Captain Elya Nevers gets shot down during the evacuation, his squadron and the admiral in charge have to think fast to rescue their pilot before the Kryl overrun the system.

Fighting to survive in hostile territory, Captain Nevers discovers what the rampaging Overmind is really after—and it changes everything.

An extinct species known as the Telos fled the galaxy eons ago. What caused them to vanish in such a hurry? And more importantly, what ancient relics of alien power did they leave behind?

Exiles’ World by Robert I. Katz:

Rann McGaran and his older brother Gerald are the heirs to the McGaran dynasty, the traditional rulers of Garan, a small but wealthy city on the recently re-discovered world of Carnelian.

Rann’s telepathic abilities are weak, while Gerald is a prodigy. Gerald is the Director of the Garan Corporation, and he intends to keep his position, no matter what it takes. In three weeks, Rann will attain his majority, and must fight his brother for control of the Corporation, a fight he has little hope of winning, or leave Garan forever.

Thaddeus Franklin is the Imperial Ambassador to Carnelian, charged with bringing the new world into the Second Empire, and if that proves unfeasible, to help destroy it. The Empire is at war with an alien race that has so far proven to be unstoppable. Franklin is expendable, and he knows it.

Behind the scenes, plots are being hatched and ambitious men are weighing the odds, and Franklin and Rann McGaran find themselves suddenly major players in an unexpected game.

Garan seems an unlikely place to serve as the center of an Empire wide conspiracy, but what happens here could prove to be the Empire’s salvation…or its destruction.

Beneath the Veil by Martin Kearns:

In a battle between two ancient evils, can one naïve young man become the last hope against powerful creatures of legend?

David Dolan thinks he’s already got the world figured out. But when a collapsed bridge plunges him into the icy Hudson, he’s pulled deep into the deadly realm that exists between life and death. And with his earthly form trapped in a coma, he’s vulnerable to the horde of demons hell-bent on his utter destruction.

Traversing the road to the afterlife, David seeks the wisdom and skills he needs to fight the demonic forces reigning havoc on his allies above ground. But as one hellish threat closes in on his defenseless body, David must defeat another terrifying fiend waiting in the shadows to use him…

Can David escape the world beneath the veil in time to stop the bloodshed?

Beneath the Veil is the gripping first book in The Valor of Valhalla dark urban fantasy series. If you like reluctant heroes, infernal myths, and bloody epic clashes, then you’ll love Martin Kearns’s formidable foray into the unknown.

My Big Fat Witch Wedding by Amanda M. Lee:

The big day is finally here.

Bay and Landon’s wedding day has arrived.

Unfortunately, a tragedy stands in the way of their happily ever after, and it comes in the form of reports of an armed gunman at the local high school. Bay, ghosts at her side, braves the scene to save the kids … and uncovers something horrific.

She. The boy with the gun says he needs to find her. The teacher in the room with him says the same thing before taking his own life. There’s a magical being in Hemlock Cove, and she’s wielding a great deal of power as she forces people to kill in her name.

Bay refuses to back down, convinced that the magical explosion they can’t get under control at Hollow Creek is partially to blame. The problem is so big, another witch needs to be tapped to help them solve it.

Scout Randall, part of the Spells Angels group in Hawthorne Hollow, is more than happy to lend her services. She owes the Winchesters a favor after all. She simply might not be enough.

Bay and Landon have been through more than any couple should have to survive … and they’re not done.

Here comes the wedding … and Clove’s baby … and the worst enemy they’ve ever fought.

The Winchesters are strongest together, and this time they’re going to prove that there’s no keeping a good witch down.

I do? It’s coming, because nothing can stop these witches when love and family are on the line.

A Curse for Christmas by P.A. Mason:

Christmas back home in Arkansas sounded like a chance to put my feet up for a few weeks. Little did I know that a magical calamity would threaten the big day.

You know the real kicker? It was Mom—a renowned magical healer—who came down with a mystery malaise on Christmas Eve. I couldn’t remember a time where she had anything worse than a sniffle. To see her bedridden scared me to my core.

To examine the facts and solve the case, I had to think fast before Mom’s condition got any worse. With a new werewolf beau in her life, half the town of Tumbling Springs were whispering behind Mom’s back, the loudest of them a hex witch with a nasty view of weres. On the other hand, a new business rival in the next town over had Mom’s healing services on the rocks. The question was—did either witch have enough motive to do something as awful as all that to Mom?

If you enjoy paranormal cozy mysteries with a seasonal Christmas flare, this holiday special is for you.

Defiant Space by Richard Rimington:

One starship against the galaxy.

The crew of Fidelity are the only hope to save their planet from destruction.

When an armada of predatory warships comes to annex their world, the inhabitants of planet Vale Reach are forced to confront the dreaded threats that stalk their galaxy. Terrors lurk in the uncharted depths of space, ready to crush their world and enslave its people. A lone starship is sent on an impossible journey. But is it already too late?

Caladon Heit wants to prevent the destruction of everything he knows. Together, the ship’s crew must overcome the ferocious marauders and brutal empires that seek to eradicate them all.

In space, they will discover a harsh and remorseless environment. Unimaginable enemies await behind every moon and asteroid. The starship Fidelity will demand sacrifices from every crew member to reach its destination, as they encounter horrific enemies across unknown star systems.

Will they emerge with their resolve and their starship intact? Or will Fidelity and their homeworld be annihilated?

This is the first novel in the Infinite Void Series.

Send In the Clowns by David J. Schmidt:

Javier is a professional ghost-hunter who doesn’t believe in the paranormal.

When his editor asks him to visit a haunted “Clown Hotel” in the Nevada desert, it sounds like easy money. Sure, the hotel is hundreds of miles from civilization. Sure, it’s next door to an ancient cemetery and is full of hundreds of clown dolls—dolls that seem to have a mind of their own, according to some employees. Still, what’s the worst that could happen?

As Javier travels to the remote Clown Hotel, he learns of a strange outbreak of “clown sightings” across the nation. This is a time when things make less and less sense. When logic no longer applies, even for a skeptic like Javier.

This is when things fall apart.

Evasion by Glynn Stewart:

A captain on the run from the horrors of his past
A girl on the run from the trap of her present
A ship that will bring them together

Captain Evridiki “EB” Bardacki was once a nova fighter pilot for a nation he truly believed in. Betrayal and failure sent him into exile and flight. Now owner-operator of the freelance star freighter Evasion, he treks the edge of human space, taking cargos that lead him ever onward—but there are lines he will not cross.

When those lines are challenged, EB makes enemies of the most powerful crime syndicate for a hundred light-years. When one of their victims stows away on his ship, he finds himself pursued by an enemy with assets everywhere he turns.

Caught between the devil and the deep dark void, EB has run out of places to run—but in a child looking to him for salvation, he may have found something to fight for!

CONTENT WARNING: This novel deals with themes and details of human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

An Impossible Abduction by Ed Teja:

Investigations take a strange twist in southwestern New Mexico

When things blow up on Matt Cramer, they can be messy. This time, the mess might be blood. Or not. But he is a private investigator… or will be if he can ever get his office open. Right now that bloody mess is all over the walls.

Josh, the painter is missing and that’s not a good sign. Nor is the ominous attitude of Officer Ravenwalk, or the fact that the local coffee shop is owned by witches, or that Matt somehow has found himself partnering with a shaman and the blood, if it is blood, is somehow tied to a woman’s disappearance—a disappearance that might involve aliens.

After all, this is Silver City, New Mexico, where things are seldom truly wrong, but never quite right, either.

Indie Crime Fiction of the Month for November 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 October 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 cozy mysteries, holiday mysteries, humorous mysteries, historical mysteries, Regency mysteries, Jazz Age mysteries, paranormal mysteries, science fiction mysteries, psychological mysteries, crime thrillers, action thrillers, adventure thrillers, spy thrillers, legal thrillers, police procedurals, noir, police officers, amateur sleuths, spies, district attorneys, con artists, assassins, hitmen, human traffickers, serial killers, crime-busting witches, crime-busting socialites, crime-busting psychics, murder and mayhem in New York City, London, Boston, Dublin, Louisiana, Wyoming, Michigan, New Mexico, Florida, 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:

Stone Magic by Thea Atkinson:

She’s a fraud. She’s a crook. But she’s no killer. Even if she’s being framed as one.

When three well-known psychics are murdered in her city, Brie Duncan starts to wonder if pretending to be magical is such a great idea after all. She’s no witch, but she does make good money using her fake powers to read her clients’ futures. Money that’ll do her no good if she turns up dead next.

So far, she’s managed to keep up the pretense, but when a gruff detective enters her shop, she fears she’s about to get busted. Unfortunately, his reasons for being there are far worse than she imagines.

Since she’s a member of the psychic community, he thinks she should be able to provide some insight into the murders and the victims. The trouble is, all the evidence seems to point in one direction, and unfortunately for Brie, those roads all lead to her…

An Inelegant Death by Blythe Baker:

When Miss Jane Pemberton joins her uncle’s household as a companion to her invalid cousin, she does not realize what a dangerous world she is stepping into.

From the moment she enters the house, Jane senses secrets and unresolved tensions hanging like a shadow over the Pemberton family. Worse, citizens of the sleepy, seaside town of Ebonport do not lead the peaceful lives Jane expected. They seem to hide beneath shadows of their own, motivated by avarice and revenge.

When a shocking murder rocks this uneasy society, Jane vows to protect her uncle’s family—whether they deserve it or not.

Thing of Darkness by Beth Byers:

Smith knows a lot of things. He knows about crimes and why they occur. He knows where to find the best pint of ale and the coffee houses that cater to the criminal class. He knows where to find people who don’t want to be found. And he has–somehow–come to know about the lives of the spoiled and well-connected.

What he doesn’t know is how someone even he finds objectionable has also slithered into the lives of his friends. Nor does he know when they became friends or why he’s worrying about them. Or what to do about their antics when it comes to his enemy.

He only wishes he were surprised when his wife, Beatrice, knows exactly what to do.

Dead for Life by Stacy Claflin and Nolon King:

Caught between a CIA sting and a boss who may want him dead…

Brad Morris has finally been promoted at work. It seems like his hard work and talents have at last been recognized. But nothing is ever simple when you’re an assassin.

Especially not when you’re also secretly working for the CIA to spy on your boss and colleagues. And your oldest daughter will go to jail for murder if you fail.

When poor Hadley starts to crack under the pressure, Brad is forced to check her into a psych ward — but she’s still threatening to confess. Meanwhile, the CIA sting gets more complicated by Agent Bancroft’s insistence that Brad hire her to be BlueBlade’s newest assassin.

Can Brad and Hadley keep their stories straight long enough to get Bancroft the answers she’s looking for? And will Brad finally solve the mystery of his own father’s murder?

Swamp Sweets by Jana DeLeon:

Just Desserts?

It’s November in Sinful and everyone is gearing up for Thanksgiving. But when Fortune, Ida Belle, and Gertie bag a body on their turkey hunting trip, the quiet enjoyment of fall is over. No one really knew Miles Broussard well, and as he’d recently sold the building his business was in to retire in another state, no one could explain how he’d ended up murdered and dumped in the bayou.

Ally Lemarque has been waiting her entire life to open her bakery, and that day finally arrived when she purchased the building from Miles. But when she visits the site late at night and interrupts an intruder, she comes away with a crack on her head and concerns about why someone would break into an empty building.

Fortune doesn’t think for a minute that Miles’s murder and the attack on Ally are unrelated. And Swamp Team 3 won’t rest until they’re sure Ally is safe.

Unknown Assailant by J.L. Doucette:

Dr. Pepper Hunt and Detective Beau Antelope team up again to investigate a tragic murder/suicide in a prominent ranch family in the small town of Farson, Wyoming. As they explore events leading up to the night of the disturbing crime they are drawn into the dark heart of a troubled family touched by a legacy of trauma.

 

 

 

Lettie Portman: The District Attorney by John Ellsworth:

Like the victims who pass through her office, this attorney’s own past demands justice.

When an eleven-year-old girl is savagely attacked by her mother’s live-in boyfriend, attorney Lettie Portman is called to the hospital. She meets a sweet, young girl whose only goal is to go to school and come home to a safe environment. But the abuse gets worse, the case goes to trial by jury.

And Lettie stumbles. To help this girl in need, she must first deal with her own abuse from years before.

Meanwhile, Detective Antonio “Tony” Reedy lets her know he’s interested in more than just investigating the abused girl’s case. But Lettie’s background makes it all but impossible to trust again. As Tony slowly begins to gain her confidence, can she learn to love again?

Mystery Woman by Mike Faricy:

US Marshall Jack Dillon, assigned to An Garda Síochána, Special Branch, and his partner, Paddy Suel, are sent down to County Cork to investigate the murder of American gangster Dennis ‘Punchy’ Sheehan. Things turn out to not be as suspected. CCTV evidence moves the investigation to Dublin where the body count begins to grow on an almost daily basis. The killer seems to be a step ahead of the investigators. With barely a handful of clues can Dillon possibly find whoever is responsible?

 

Wicked Forever by Lily Harper Hart:

Ivy Morgan-Harker has everything she’s ever wanted, including a devoted new husband and an upcoming break from her nursery business for the Michigan winter. Then the unthinkable happens.

Upon arriving at Morgan Nursery early one morning, she finds a body strung up in the middle of her happy sanctum … and there’s a message attached telling her that she’s next. The victim is the son of a well-known bar owner, a bar that Ivy helped bring down when she broke up a local prostitution ring.

Worried and afraid, her husband Jack Harker digs in deep, and what he finds has him terrified for his wife.

Somebody is holding a grudge regarding what happened at the bar, and the number of potential suspects looms large. Ivy and Jack must work together and follow a dark trail if they want answers … and it’s a trail that seemingly leads right back to them.

Ivy is a target. Jack is determined to keep her safe. Together, they’re an unbelievable force.

Ivy may be learning how to master her magic but it’s the darkest form of human nature working against her this time. To survive, she’s going to have to figure out who has the most to lose from the bar going down, and then she’s going to have to fight the enemy she didn’t see coming if she expects to get her happily ever after.

The big finale is finally here!

Unextracted by Ethan Jones:

When stabbed in the back, Jack bleeds rage.

When a burned deep-cover CIS agent needs extraction from Southern Europe before classified intelligence is exposed, Jack Storm is sent in. Soon, supposedly friendly MI6 begins to subvert the retrieval operation. Jack suspects he has become a pawn in a dirty political power play when he discovers the agent holds more than just CIS secrets.

Moreover, Jack needs to determine if his neighbor-turned-close-friend is playing a double game—or has his job truly left him incapable of trusting anyone? Now, with the extraction sabotaged and his friends-turned-enemies out for blood, how will Jack focus his rage after being betrayed… again?

Love & Bullets by Nick Kolakowski:

Bill is a conman with a taste for high-end cars, beautiful suits, and top-shelf liquor. But he’s getting tired of the cons he needs to maintain that lifestyle—and he’s sick of the violence that’s sometimes part of the job.

Bill’s girlfriend Fiona doesn’t have a problem with violence, though. She’ll crush anyone who stands in her way—and some days, it seems like the whole world wants a piece of her. She loves Bill, but she’s tired of cleaning up after him.

When Bill decides to “borrow” a couple million from one of New York City’s most vicious gangs and flee for the tropics, it puts their relationship to the test—and while they’re working out their issues, they’ll also need to fend off crooked cops, dimwitted bouncers, and an irate assassin in the midst of the world’s weirdest midlife crisis.

“Love & Bullets” is the story of a 21st century Bonnie & Clyde, a wisecracking duo who’ll blast their way from Brooklyn to Cuba and back in order to stay alive. It’s a wild ride.

Smoked Mullet by Margaret Lashley:

It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Stupidity…

When Bobbie and Grayson go in search of a new RV, a chance encounter at a homeowner’s fire sale ignites a hidden flame burning deep within Grayson.

And it’s not Spontaneous Human Combustion …

Or is it?

People in St. Petersburg, Florida keep mysteriously bursting into flames. While the pair investigate potential causes, sparks soon begin to fly between them as well, threatening to snuff out their budding romance.

Hot pockets. Total burnouts. Suspicious ash holes.

As Bobbie and Grayson sift through the grisly clues, will they realize they’re fated to be twin flames? Or will the fireworks between them fizzle out like a dud?

With the heat on to solve the case, they’d better keep a close eye on each other. If not, they could both end up in the dead-letter office marked, “Return to Cinder.”

My Big Fat Witch Wedding by Amanda M. Lee:

The big day is finally here.

Bay and Landon’s wedding day has arrived.

Unfortunately, a tragedy stands in the way of their happily ever after, and it comes in the form of reports of an armed gunman at the local high school. Bay, ghosts at her side, braves the scene to save the kids … and uncovers something horrific.

She. The boy with the gun says he needs to find her. The teacher in the room with him says the same thing before taking his own life. There’s a magical being in Hemlock Cove, and she’s wielding a great deal of power as she forces people to kill in her name.

Bay refuses to back down, convinced that the magical explosion they can’t get under control at Hollow Creek is partially to blame. The problem is so big, another witch needs to be tapped to help them solve it.

Scout Randall, part of the Spells Angels group in Hawthorne Hollow, is more than happy to lend her services. She owes the Winchesters a favor after all. She simply might not be enough.

Bay and Landon have been through more than any couple should have to survive … and they’re not done.

Here comes the wedding … and Clove’s baby … and the worst enemy they’ve ever fought.

The Winchesters are strongest together, and this time they’re going to prove that there’s no keeping a good witch down.

I do? It’s coming, because nothing can stop these witches when love and family are on the line.

A Fatal Bragg by Craig Martelle:

Marines are being murdered…

…and it takes someone outside the government to fix the problem.

It’s a race against the clock to dismantle a group that’s been in place for years. They’re well-funded, too and armed with weapons they shouldn’t have. Authorities are stymied. Ian and Jenny Bragg are not so constrained.

It’s supposed to be a single target. What if the target may not be the target at all, but a pipeline to those who deserve what Ian Bragg has to offer?

In an organization like the Peace Archive, contracts tend to take on a life of their own. When it comes to imparting justice, the operators become the last line of defense with only one chance to get it right.

Ian Bragg. A hitman with a conscience.

A Curse for Christmas by P.A. Mason:

Christmas back home in Arkansas sounded like a chance to put my feet up for a few weeks. Little did I know that a magical calamity would threaten the big day.

You know the real kicker? It was Mom—a renowned magical healer—who came down with a mystery malaise on Christmas Eve. I couldn’t remember a time where she had anything worse than a sniffle. To see her bedridden scared me to my core.

To examine the facts and solve the case, I had to think fast before Mom’s condition got any worse. With a new werewolf beau in her life, half the town of Tumbling Springs were whispering behind Mom’s back, the loudest of them a hex witch with a nasty view of weres. On the other hand, a new business rival in the next town over had Mom’s healing services on the rocks. The question was—did either witch have enough motive to do something as awful as all that to Mom?

If you enjoy paranormal cozy mysteries with a seasonal Christmas flair, this holiday special is for you.

A Twisted Case of Murder by Emily Queen:

Murder is for the crows.

There’s a mass murderer loose on the streets of London, and he’s dead set on making Rosemary Lillywhite his next victim. After receiving a second death threat, she should have gone straight to her chief inspector beau, Max Whittington–but Rosemary is sick and tired of being treated like she’s made of glass.

How many murder investigations does a lady detective need to solve to earn a little respect?

Rosemary wishes she hadn’t asked that question when another dead body turns up–this time, on her own doorstep–and the papers insinuate she’s the responsible party. In order to clear her name, Rosemary will have to delve deep in to a murderer’s sordid past.

She’ll also have to continue keeping secrets–no matter what it does to her relationship with Max.

Now, everyone’s a suspect in a case that’s even more twisted than murder.

Lost Charity by Wayne Stinnett:

After a long hiatus, Charity Styles is itching to get back into the fray. She’s had a succession of minor assignments, none of which provided her with the action she craves.

After months of recharging and rethinking her position in the Armstrong organization, she’s on the verge of walking away, returning to what could be a more normal life. But what’s a normal life look like for a former covert assassin?

Then she gets two assignments, which have nothing to do with each other. The first is to ferry a group of people out to a large mega-yacht. When it turns out that one of those people is the girl she thinks of as a niece and the mega-yacht is captained by an old friend, she sets her sails and is quickly underway.

What the second assignment is, will not only test Charity’s abilities as an undercover asset to the giant Armstrong Research conglomerate, but will also assess her ability to keep a lid on her emotions when faced with the type of people she most loathes.

From the Cayman Islands to the Eastern Caribbean, the coast of Brazil, and finally, the U.S. Virgin Islands, her mental state is constantly being tested. Will she find the one person who is at the head of a vast sex trafficking operation? Or will she become just another victim to the traffickers? Will she even be able to restrain her inner demons when she encounters the worst of the worst of human society?

Death by Dancing by Lee Strauss:

Death’s a jig!

When a brutal dance marathon in the suburbs of Boston in 1932 turns deadly, Dr. Haley Higgins is surprised to discover the deceased is the widow of a man whose body still lies in the cold cabinets of her morgue. She has reasons to believe the man’s death wasn’t natural, and now, with his wife having succumbed to the same symptoms, her convictions of foul play are stronger than ever.

With the help of investigative reporter Samantha Hawke, Haley works to determine which contestants in the dancing contest had means, motive, and opportunity. And most of all, how to keep the killer from striking again.

***

A spin off from the acclaimed Ginger Gold Mystery series, this clever, feisty, depression-era whodunit readers call “serious and suspenseful” and “entertaining mystery series” will keep you turning pages until the surprising yet satisfying end.

An Impossible Abduction by Ed Teja:

Investigations take a strange twist in southwestern New Mexico

When things blow up on Matt Cramer, they can be messy. This time, the mess might be blood. Or not. But he is a private investigator… or will be if he can ever get his office open. Right now that bloody mess is all over the walls.

Josh, the painter is missing and that’s not a good sign. Nor is the ominous attitude of Officer Ravenwalk, or the fact that the local coffee shop is owned by witches, or that Matt somehow has found himself partnering with a shaman and the blood, if it is blood, is somehow tied to a woman’s disappearance—a disappearance that might involve aliens.

After all, this is Silver City, New Mexico, where things are seldom truly wrong, but never quite right, either.

Star Trek Discovery Encounters the “Anomaly” and Deals with Trauma

It turns out that Star Trek Discovery won the “What to watch next?” contest, so here’s 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!

When we last saw the good ship Discovery and her valiant crew, they had managed to save most of the crew of Deep Space Repair Station Beta Six from a cosmic anomaly, only for that anomaly to destroy the entire planet of Kwejian, homeworld of Michael’s boyfriend Book.

This episode now is devoted to figuring out just what this anomaly is and what to do about it. And so there is a big meeting at Starfleet headquarters, involving Admiral Vance, President Rillak, the President of Nevarr a.k.a. the planet formerly known as Vulcan and several other senior Federation and Starfleet personnel. Saru is there as well, back from his sojourn on Kaminar and a most welcome presence he is, too. Cause I’ve certainly missed Saru and so, it seems, has everybody else. Michael may be the star and Captain now, but Saru is the heart of Discovery, even if it makes little sense for him to stay on as First Officer, when he actually is a Captain and fully qualified to command a ship of his own.

“We have never faced a threat like this one before,” someone says at the Starfleet meeting, which is of course ridiculous, because Star Trek constantly deals with cosmic anomalies. There were times when it seemed as if the Enterprise (any of them) or Voyager ran into some cosmic anomaly every other episode. Yes, most of them were not so big and destructive that they blew up whole planets, but even planets get destroyed in Star Trek with remarkably frequency. What makes Kwejian different from most other planets destroyed in Star Trek, even prominent ones like Romulus, is that the script gave us and the main cast a reason to care, because Kwejian happened to be the homeworld of Book and its destruction also killed Book’s brother and nephew. Nonetheless, the claim that “Starfleet has never faced a threat like this before” is as ridiculous as Tony Blair claiming that the UK has never faced such a terrorist threat before after the London terror attacks of July 7, 2005, completely forgetting more than twenty years of IRA terrorism, which had only ended not quite ten years before.

The assembled Federation dignitaries quickly come to the conclusion that what is needed is more data, so Discovery is dispatched for the anomaly to gather that data. It is this mission that makes up the bulk of the episode.

Discovery‘s resident geek squad, i.e. Stamets, Tilly and Adira, came up with the theory that the anomaly was caused by two black holes merging, which is why it was not detected in time to evacuate Kwejian and Deep Space Repair Station Beta Six, since black holes are notoriously difficult to detect. This is a very technobabble heavy episode with the only saving grace being that Anthony Rapp is great at delivering technobabble and Mary Wiseman and Blu del Barrio are pretty good at it themselves.

Once Discovery reaches the anomaly and observes it from a safe distance, it turns out that Stamets, Tilly and Adira’s hypothesis was wrong. The anomaly was not caused by two merging black holes. Apparently, it is something much weirder (and here I thought merging black holes were weird). At any rate, once Michael orders the polarizing technobabble filter applied to the viewscreen, everybody gasps and stares in shock and horror at the screen. But when we finally get to see the screen, it is a big black planet eating cloud with glowy blue sparks. Yes, it may eat planets, but the whole thing doesn’t look very scary at all (and the Discovery effects team really is in love with those glowy blue sparks, since anything strange or alien in this show is dotted with glowy blue sparks). AV-Club reviewer Zack Handlen calls it a giant space kablooey.

However, the Discovery is there to gather data and gather data they will. There is only one problem: The Discovery can’t get close enough to safely gather the data. Using drones is out of the question as well, because the anomaly would destroy them.

Book points out that his shapeshifting spaceship could fly into the anomaly to gather data. Everybody thinks that’s a great idea, so Michael orders Stamets and Detmer to board Book’s ship and put that plan into action. However, Book is not handing his ship over to Detmer. He’ll fly himself, since he knows his ship better than anyone.

This put Michael in a difficult position, because as Captain she knows that Book is the person best suited for the mission. However, as a human being, she’s unwilling to put her partner into danger. Especially since she knows that Book is still dealing with the trauma and grief from losing his family and his homeworld. Besides, putting Stamets and Book on the same ship is not a great idea, since they are the only two people who can operate the spore drive. Of course, every other empath could theoretically operate the spore drive, too, but the destruction of Kwejian just radically reduced the supply of empaths.

It’s Saru’s sage advice that comes to Michael’s rescue here. Yes, Book is the best person for the mission. He knows it and Michael knows it, too. So Book should go. However, Michael is also right that Book is not in a good place mentally, so they will add some extra safety measures. These safety measures are connecting Book’s ship to the Discovery by a tether and putting Stamets not physically onto the ship, but as a hologram.

Due to her Vulcan upbringing and her own trauma, which she has never fully processed, Michael is not exactly the ideal person to help Book through his trauma and grief, though she is trying. The only person aboard the Discovery who’s probably an even worse choice in helping someone else deal with trauma and grief is Stamets. Not to mention that Stamets doesn’t particularly like Book at the best of times, because Book is the only other person who can handle Stamets’ baby, the spore drive. Not to mention, as Stamets eventually admits, that Book was the one who saved Stamets family in the season 3 finale, while Stamets couldn’t do anything. So of course, the plot pairs up these two characters who don’t get along.

To be fair, Stamets knows that he is not the most empathetic person around, so he asks Culber for advice. Culber tells him to basically listen and maybe treat Book the way Stamets wishes people would have treated him after Culber was murdered – after all, Stamets is no stranger to grief himself.

So Book, Stamets’ hologram and Grudge the cat set out in their mission. Stamets puts his foot into his mouth almost immediately, when he points out that the reason the anomaly is flinging so much debris around is that it just gobbled up a planet. Book, meanwhile, has hallucinations of dead birds (the first to sense the coming of doom Kwejian were the birds who flew up into the sky) and his nephew Leto. And hallucination are never a good thing, least of all when you’re flying a dangerous mission.

Things go wrong almost at once. Even though the Discovery is supposed to be at a safe distance, it is affected by the anomaly, which manifests itself as the artificial gravity random cutting out for a few moments, sending everybody floating and then crashing back to the floor. Tilly and Adira figure out that the gravity disturbances comes in waves – while being treated by Culber for injuries sustained by falling to the deck twice – but the Discovery still has to pull back. And since Stamets needs more time for his scans, that means releasing the tether.

Meanwhile, the situation aboard Book’s ship is getting worse. The ship is suffering damages and at one point, Book tells Stamets to just return to his body aboard the Discovery with the data and leave him be. Tor.com reviewer Keith R.A. DeCandido points out that Book is clearly suicidal in this scene and indeed the only thing which keeps him from just staying inside the anomaly until it tears his ship apart is the fact that Stamets can’t transmit the data back to Discovery (or at any rate says he can’t) and later Michael talking him down.

Since the Discovery crew knows that the graviational disturbances come in waves, Commander Bryce, i.e. the cute black guy of the bridge crew, uses his kite surfing experience to suggest that Book’s ship just ride a gravity wave out. Again, it’s nice to see the bridge crew given more to do.

The first attempt to hitch a ride on a gravity wave and surf to freedom fails, but the second attempt succeeds and Book, Stamets and the data are safe. However, an initial evaluation of the data reveals something alarming. The anomaly randomly changed direction, which isn’t even supposed to be possible. Hence, there is no way to predict where or when it will strike next. The camera then pulls back to reveal the anomaly inside what appears to be a malevolent giant eye.

Plotwise, the episode wasn’t particularly thrilling. There is a dangerous anomaly and Discovery investigates why the anomaly is doing anomalous things and if there is a way to stop it. What makes this episode are the actors and characters. Because this is not so much an episode about a cosmic anomaly, but one about the various characters coming to terms with their various traumas.

Book, who just lost is entire homeworld and the family he had only just found again, is the most obvious case. However, the episode also addresses Stamets’ lingering trauma about being powerless to save his family in the season 3 finale as well as Tilly and Adira’s trauma caused by working so very hard to save the stationmaster, only to lose him anyway. If only all redshirts were so mourned as that stationmaster. Finally, the episode also addresses Tilly’s reaction to her shifting role from mentee to mentor to Adira. So in short, there is a lot of nice meaty character stuff to bulk up the flimsy plot. Great acting from David Ajala, Anthony Rapp, Wilson Cruz and the rest of the cast helps to sell the drama. Finally, everybody’s favourite little rainbow family of Stamets, Culber, Adira and Gray, who is about to get an android body based on the one given to Picard in the season 1 finale of Star Trek Picard gets plenty of screentime, which is always a good thing.

Star Trek has traditionally not been very good at addressing trauma, probably because the show comes from an era where trauma was much less understood as it is today, though it should be noted that there are realistic depictions of trauma as far back as the 1930s and very likely before. Discovery tries to do better and acknowledges that its characters should be massively traumatised by what they’ve been through in the past three seasons. And frankly, it’s great to see trauma and grief addressed in a science fiction show.

That said, the meaty character stuff doesn’t change the fact that the plot is flimsy and that a big, bad evil space cloud is not all that thrilling a menace, even if it eats planets. It was fine for one episode, but they better come up with some interesting background for the big, bad evil space cloud soon (It’s sentient. It’s a weapon and someone is directing it. It was caused by Discovery jumping through space and time).

This first advent weekend, I watched two TV shows – Star Trek Discovery and Masters of the Universe: Revelation – in which the characters deal with trauma and grief, while also fighting a universe-threatening menace. What surprised the hell out of me that Masters of the Universe: Revelation, a show based on a cartoon created to sell toys to kids, handled its subject better than Star Trek Discovery.

For starters, Masters of the Universe: Revelation had a much more interesting universe-threatening menace than Star Trek Discovery. I mean, a big black evil cloud versus an all-powerful Evil-Lyn who went insane because of her own nihilism is not even a contest. And when the camera pulled back to reveal the malevolent eye at the end, I exclaimed, “Oh look, Evil-Lyn has found the Star Trek universe and is about to snuff it out.”

But Master of the Universe: Revelation also handled the trauma and grief part better, which surprised the hell out of me. Because I felt the murders of the Sorceress, Fisto and Clamp Champ (and I never cared about Fisto and Clamp Champ at all and not particularly about the Sorceress either) more than I felt the destruction of Kwejian and the death of Stationmaster Redshirt. I felt Teela’s grief at losing her best friend and her anger at being lied to. I felt Duncan’s grief at seeing the woman he loved and could never be with murdered in front of his eyes. I felt Adam’s anger at never being taken seriously by his father and never being good enough, no matter what he did. But while David Ajala, Anthony Rapp, Mary Wiseman and Blu Del Barrio all delivered great performances in this episode, I didn’t really feel for them the way I did for those faintly absurd cartoon characters designed to sell action figures.

It’s probably not fair comparing a show that was so much better than I expected to one that I know can do better than they did here.

The new Disney+ show Hawkeye also debuted this week and supposedly, it also deals with trauma, grief and PTSD, though probably not with universe-threatening menaces, those being reserved for the big screen Marvel movies. So let’s see how they do.

 

The Power of Greyskull – Some Reflections on Part 2 of Masters of the Universe: Revelation

The second half of Masters of the Universe: Revelation, Kevin Smith’s continuation of the original cartoon from the 1980s, just became available and I opted to watch that over the new Hawkeye show (which I will watch eventually) and Star Trek Discovery (which is apparently available in Europe now, though I still haven’t figured out how), because I enjoyed the first half a lot more than I expected. Besides, part 1 ended on one hell of a cliffhanger, so of course I wanted to know how Teela, Andra, Duncan and the rest of gang are going to get out of that one.

You can read my take on part 1 of Masters of the Universe: Revelation here, by the way.

Warning: Spoilers under the cut!

When we last saw our intrepid heroes, they had managed to reforge the Sword of Power – costing the lives of Orko and Roboto – and restore magic to Eternia, but Adam got stabbed and possibly killed for the second time in five episodes, while Skeletor got hold of the Sword of Power and is now Super-Skeletor or Skelegod, as he now calls himself. Like I said, that’s a one hell of a cliffhanger.

Instead of immediately picking up where part 1 left of, part 2 starts with a domestic idyll of sorts featuring a young Duncan, the soon-to-be Sorceress and baby Teela. And yes, Duncan and the Sorceress are absolutely a couple. Indeed, part 1 (which I rewatched before digging into part 2) hinted at this and makes it very clear that Duncan os in love with the Sorceress. It’s not entirely clear if Duncan is Teela’s biological father, but I would bet that he is. The idyll of this little family is shortlived, however, for the soon-to-be Sorceress draws a magical symbol on the forehead of Baby Teela, which – as she explains – will help her when she needs it most. Then she hugs Duncan and descends into the mythical waters underneath Castle Greyskull to become the Sorceress (who is tethered to the Castle and can never leave it in human form), leaving Duncan literally holding the baby.

This is a little different from the way the story was depicted in the original cartoon, where the Sorceress was already the Sorceress when she had Teela and wound up leaving her baby with Duncan after Duncan helped her save Baby Teela from some villain (I think Merman). Though this version of a woman leaving her partner and newborn baby to fulfill a mythic duty that she believes requires her to abandon all her prvious attachments makes a lot more sense than what the original cartoon served up, where the Sorceress thinks that a falcon’s nest on a mountain top is a really great place to raise a human baby rather than the impregnable magical fortress where she lives in her human form.

The story then jumps into the present where we see the aged and partially repowered Sorceress doing her best to hold off Skeletor who has just gained the ultimate power, captured Teela, Andra and Duncan and stabbed Adam through the chest. However, the Sorceress is not yet fully repowered and not strong enough to hold off Skeletor for long. And everybody else is out of commission.

In the end, it is the mortally wounded Adam who gets up and manages to distract Skeletor long enough by reciting the famous opening narration of the original cartoon. “I am Adam, Prince of Eternia and defender of the secrets of Castle Greyskull…” That opening narration was always faintly absurd – whom exactly is Adam talking to? – but also did a really good job in summing up the premise of the show and telling us everything we need to know. But those words have rarely meant as much as here, where a powerless and mortally wounded young man hurls them into the face of his mortal enemy (who has just acquired godlike powers) in pure defiance.

By the time Adam gets to “…and this is Cringer, my fearless friend…”, who jumps into the fray but Cringer. Yes, the perpetually scared green and orange tiger gets to save the day and this isn’t even the only time this happens in part 2. Cringer did have his occasional moments of reluctant heroism in the original series, but he really gets to be a hero in his own right here and I for one loved it.

For obvious reasons – i.e. being dead – Adam and Cringer didn’t get a lot to do in the first half, but part 2 really gives both of them a chance to shine without being overshadowed by their alter-egos He-Man and Battlecat. Because let’s face it, the original cartoon always gave short shrift Adam, who – with a few exceptions where he was separated from his sword and could not transform – was only ever around to turn into He-Man. Cringer got more screentime, though he was mostly used as comic relief.

This is unfair, because while Adam may not be physically strong, he is incredibly brave and a good person in his own right, only that he is perpetually underestimated by everyone around him, particularly his own father. And yes, Masters of the Universe Revelation goes into this conflict, which always simmered under the surface in the original cartoon and occasionally broke out into the open. For example, I recall one episode where Adam doesn’t transform into He-Man in time, because he wants to show his father that he can be a hero as Adam, too. But of course it all goes wrong and Randor gets kidnapped. As for Cringer, he may be always terrified, but he’s also the most loyal friend anybody can ask for. And unlike Adam, who freely decides to become He-Man, poor Cringer is drafted into this war against his will.

Masters of the Universe Revelation gives both Adam and Cringer the chance to show who they are without the power of Greyskull. Especially since the show also repeatedly makes it clear that Adam sees himself as Adam and not He-Man. For example, when Adam is dead and briefly in Preternia – Eternia’s version of Paradise/Valhalla, where all the great heroes go – he is the only one who chooses to be in his original rather than his musclebound form. He also tells Skeletor that he is Adam, not He-Man. Plus, he always turns back into Adam once the crisis du jour is over, while the others who wield the sword in the course of part 2 just permanently remain in their overpowered form.

Cringer’s heroic distraction gives everybody the chance to free themselves, though they’re still outnumbered. So Duncan tells Teela, Andra, Cringer and Adam to get the hell out of there, while he holds off Skeletor. Skeletor, however, snaps Duncan’s sword in half and also telekinetically locks the doors, trapping everybody inside the castle. So the Sorceress uses the last of her power to teleport Teela, Andra, Cringer and Adam to safety. She tries to teleport Duncan out as well, but Evil-Lyn grabs him, so he remains behind to watch Skeletor stab the now completely powerless Sorceress through the chest. And all Duncan can do is hold the woman he loves – and the woman he never got to be with – in his arms as she dies. Skeletor, being the total jerk that he is, makes a stupid quip and has Duncan thrown in the dungeon, though Evil-Lyn doesn’t seem to be happy with all this, especially since the murder of the Sorceress was utterly unnecessary, because she wasn’t a threat at this point. Evil-Lyn also seems to be struck by the tenderness and obvious love between Duncan and the Sorceress, especially since her own relationship with Skeletor is far from loving and actually abusive. And yes, the show goes into this as well.

Duncan is another character who finally gets his due in Masters of the Universe Revelation. Of course, Duncan got plenty of screentime in the original cartoon. He was in almost every episode and always fought by He-Man’s side and his inventions and gadgets saved the day more than once. But we – or at least I – never really appreciated Duncan. This was probably because a parent figure and parent figures just aren’t very interesting, when you’re a kid. Though US cartoons of the 1980s in general actually figured a lot of positive portrayals of parenthood – complete disasters and Darth Vader Parenthood Award candidates are rare.

And Duncan is one hell of a parent figure. He’s a single Dad who still manages to raise Teela while working not one but two very demanding jobs (military commander and weapons master/tech whiz) and basically keeping Eternia running (cause we all know that Randor couldn’t rule his way out of a paperbag), while his partner the Sorceress literally chose career over family. But Duncan isn’t just Teela’s Dad – and he’s a very good father – he’s a parent figure for everybody around him.

Duncan is more of a father to Adam than Randor ever was, which the original cartoon makes pretty clear. Because Adam is always hanging out with Duncan and Teela, either in Duncan’s workshop or testing Duncan’s latest inventions. When there’s a problem, Duncan is the one Adam turns to, not his parents. Duncan is also the person who occasionally has a word of praise or a pat on the shoulder for Adam, something he never gets from his father. And the few flashbacks we get of Adam’s childhood and youth before he was He-Man in the original cartoon show him with Duncan, too, rather than his parents. Plus, Duncan is one of the very few people who know that Adam is He-Man, probably because he was the first person Adam turned to after he transformed for the first time. This may be part of the reason why Randor lashes out at Duncan in particular after Adam’s death. Because Adam confided in Duncan and not in his own father.

Cringer comes as part and parcel with Adam and there is an episode of the original cartoon where little Adam finds an orphaned and injured tiger cub, rescues him and immediately takes him to Duncan to nurse him back to health, so Duncan was a parent stand-in for Cringer, too. And while Orko may not be a child, he is very much like one and Duncan adopts him as well. Plus, he builds Roboto and winds up basically adopting Andra in the course of the series. Duncan even tries to help a Cthulhu-type tentacle creature he meets when he’s locked up in the dungeons of Castle Greyskull, even though that creature initially wants to eat him. Furthermore, he spends decades protecting the woman who left him for her mystical destiny and keeps Eternia running, while Randor sits on his throne looking regal. So what if he is occasionally grumpy, when Adam, Teela or Orko don’t listen to him and get themselves into trouble again? Duncan is not just a hero, the man is a damned saint.

The Sorceress manages to use the bit of power she had to teleport Teela, Andra, Cringer and Adam to the relative safety of the royal palace. But Adam is still dying, so Teela uses the powers she inherited from her mother – the powers she usually denies – to heal Adam. They find the palace and the city largely empty. Randor, Marlena and most of the inhabitants wisely evacuated, once they realised that there was trouble at Castle Greyskull again, leaving only Fisto and Clamp Champ to hold the fort. The reunion is only shortlived, however, because Skeletor appears and uses a corrosive mist to turn the remaining inhabitants of the city into skeletal zombie monsters. Our heroes flee into the palace, but Fisto and Clamp Champ are both affected by the mist – while protecting Adam, who simply can’t run as fast as Teela or Andra, especially not after almost dying for the second time in six episodes – and turn into skeletal zombies who attack our heroes, so they’re forced to kill Fisto and Clamp-Champ. Adam tries to find solace in the fact that since Fisto and Clamp Champ were both great heroes in life, they will go to Preternia. But then Skeletor shows up, tells Adam that he ripped Fisto’s and Clamp Champ’s souls from their bodies – represented by two small flames in Skeletor’s hand – and then just snuffs them out.

That’s three characters important enough to get action figures – the Sorceress, Fisto and Clamp Champ – killed in a single episode. And unlike some others who die, they don’t come back. And even though I rarely cry at movies or TV shows, I got misty-eyed over every single one of those deaths. Getting misty-eyed over the Sorceress makes sense – her death is set up to punch you in the feels. But crying over Fisto and Clamp Champ, two flat out absurd characters I never cared about (and I’m pretty sure Fisto’s main raison d’etre is to allow the writers to sneak fisting jokes in a kids’ show)? That surprised the hell out of me.

In my reviews of Foundation, I have complained a lot about the screentime that show spends on debating whether clones and robots have souls, something which is never even addressed in the original books and honestly doesn’t matter. However, the fact that people (and human animal hybrids) definitely have souls in Masters of the Universe: Revelation doesn’t bother me, because unlike Foundation, Eternia is a fantasy world with its own rules. And in Eternia, there is an afterlife in Preternia (for great heroes) and Subternia (for everybody else), both of which are concrete realms that our heroes visited during the course of the series. And Skeletor casually snuffing out the souls and denying Fisto and Clamp Champ their culture’s version of Valhalla is just cruel and hits you in the feels, even if it doesn’t make the characters any less absurd. Besides, Skeletor not only zombified Fisto and Clamp Champ, he did the same to every inhabitant of the city of Eternos who did not evacuate in time.

In my discussion of part 1, I mentioned that the Masters of the Universe – both the original and Revelations – borrows a lot of characters, tropes, creatures, locations and even plots from the sword and sorcery genre and waters them down a bit to make them more kid-friendly. And so a lot of the Masters of the Universe characters seenm to be modelled on classic sword and sorcery characters. However, I forgot to mention Fisto, who with his red beard and red hair and mighty first would be a deadringer for Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd or Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane. And considering Fisto starts out as a villain and loner before he is reformed, I’d almost say that he is a kid-friendly take on the very much not kid-friendly Kane.

Teela, Andra, Adam and Cringer try their best to fight Skeletor, but they have no chance and so Skeletor knocks them all out and proceeds to give one of his patented villain monologues, complete with crackling laughter. Mark Hamill makes a great Skeletor, by the way – another supervillain role that would make Darth Vader misty-eyed with fatherly pride.

And once again it’s Adam who gets up and laughs in Skeletor’s face, interrupting his crazed supervillain monologue. Did I mention that Adam gets to be incredibly brave in part 2? Adam tells Skeletor that it’s not the sword that turned him into He-Man – and it should be noted that Skeletor is more than just a little obsessed with He-Man. The sword is just a conduit, but the spark is in Adam and has always been. To prove his point, Adam holds up his hand and calls the power without the sword as a moderator.

The results are spectacular, because Adam turns into an even more muscular, grunting and non-verbal version of He-Man. The character is called Savage He-Man in the closing credits, though he’s basically a white and blond version of the Hulk. Savage He-Man now proceeds to literally beat the shit out of Skeletor and it’s glorious, because Skeletor – who has just flat out murdered the Sorceress, Fisto and Clamp Champ and countless Eternian citizens and snuffed out their souls, too – so has it coming.

However, Savage He-Man quickly turns out to be more problem than solution. For starters, he doesn’t have an off-switch. Adam always transformed back, when He-Man was no longer needed. Savage He-Man doesn’t. He just keeps pummelling Skeletor, destroying the city in the process. And when Teela uses her newfound powers to teleport Andra, Cringer, Adam and herself to a place called the Mystic Forest, Savage He-Man just keeps on going, smashing through trees, rocks and an unfortunate manticore at one point.

Now He-Man doesn’t kill. Partly, that’s due to the fact that the good guys in US kids’ cartoons don’t kill – period. In the 1960s and before, you occasionally see the good guys in American cartoons killing someone in self-defence, e.g. Race Bannon shoots a couple of people in the original Jonny Quest, but US broadcast TV regulation changes in the late 1960s made that sort of thing anathema. I’ve read somewhere that those regulation changes were a response to the murders of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King in 1968, which would be a typical case of media scapegoating and blind actionism, because the killers of Kennedy and King were very obviously not inspired by a Jonny Quest cartoon of all thing.

So yes, He-Man never killed anybody in the original cartoons, because the guidelines wouldn’t let him. And in fact that’s part of the reason why the deaths of the Sorceress, Fisto and Clamp Champ are so shocking – because that sort of thing simply isn’t supposed to happen in a US kids’ cartoon. However, He-Man is also philosophically opposed to killing and says so in the dialogue several times. He saves monsters he just fought and even Skeletor on occasion. And when Skeletor tricks He-Man into believing that he’s accidentally killed someone, Adam promptly vows never to become He-Man again.

Therefore, seeing Savage He-Man with blood dripping from his hands is highly disturbing, because again this is something that’s not supposed to happen. Teela refuses to believe that Adam is just gone and this mindless raging being is all that’s left of her friend, so – taking a cue from Black Widow in the Avengers – she tries to calm Savage He-Man down and get him to turn back into Adam. This seems to go well, until Teela tells Adam that she always believed in him, even if his father didn’t. This is a big mistake, because Savage He-Man hurts Teela – something we know Adam would never do – and then takes off. Savage He-Man is pure anger and rage, untempered by the sword or morality, and he’s just found a new outlet for his anger: King Randor.

As I’ve said above, the conflict between Adam and his father was always simmering under the surface in the original cartoons, since whenever we saw Randor, he inevitably found something to criticise about Adam. And in Revelations, the last thing Randor said to Adam before he got himself killed – apart from “Close the door” – is that Adam has never made him proud, which is just a terrible thing to say to your kid. The relationship between Adam and his father is also distant in other ways. The original cartoon shows Duncan and Teela hugging several times – and they also hug several times in Revelations – but Randor never hugs Adam. The only one who hugs Adam is Cringer and most of the time, that’s just because he’s terrified.

The original cartoon rarely goes into how Adam feels about all this, though we get occasional glimpses that Adam wants to make his father proud and is frustrated that he can’t. Revelations finally brings the conflict between Adam and his father into the open and shows that Adam is furious that his father just won’t see him for who he is. I think a lot of viewers can sympathise with this, because many of us will have parents who are disappointed that we are not the people they want us to be while failing to recognise the people that we are. This frustration is even more poignant here, because Randor constantly complains that Adam is not brave and accomplished and princely enough, when he’s really the biggest damn hero on Eternia. Compare that to Duncan who tells Evil-Lyn that Adam is the bravest man he knows. So yes, Adam has every reason to be angry at his father. However, as Savage He-Man anger is all that propells him.

And so Savage He-Man bursts into a camp near a mountain fortress protected by mythical energy, to where Randor, Marlena and the Eternian army fled. This hideout in the mountains reminded me of the Golamira Mountains, where many an Aquilonian King has made their last stand and where Conan fights the forces of Valerius and Tarascus in The Hour of the Dragon. The Eternian guards of course have no idea what is happening, when a blonde, half-naked mountain of muscle bursts into their camp and proceeds to beat them up. However, there are a lot of Eternian guards, so they manage to restrain Savage He-Man with ropes and chains, while Teela, Cringer and Andra race down the mountain to explain that everything is a terrible mistake. This is when Randor steps out of his tent and does something which redeems him for his flat-out shitty behaviour in part 1 of Revelations.

He tells his guards to stand down, looks Savage He-Man in the eyes and recognises that his son is somewhere in there, which is remarkable, considering he never recognised He-Man as Adam, even though He-Man looks a lot more like Adam than the Savage version. And then Randor tells Adam everything he should have told him years ago, that he loves him and misses him and is proud of him. Yes, Randor actually acknowledges that he was pretty crap as a father, which is not something you see a lot of, neither in cartoons nor elsewhere. It works, too, because Savage He-Man turns back into Adam who finally gets the hug from his father that he’s waited for for so long. And because Randor is in the mood, he hugs Teela, too, and makes Andra a lieutenant in the royal guard.

But even though Adam is reunited with his family, everything is not fine. The grief over losing their son has driven a wedge between Randor and Marlena and they’re on the verge of breaking up. This rings true emotionally, since couples often break up over losing a child. And if Adora exists in this timeline (we know Hordak exists), then Randor and Marlena have lost not one but two children.

Adam is understadably horrified. After all, he only kept his double life a secret to keep the people he loved safe and instead he managed to wreck his parents’ marriage, drove Teela and Duncan apart and broke up his family in general. So Adam vows that there will be no more secrets and does what someone should have done a long time ago, tell Teela that the Sorceress is her mother. However, Teela has already figured that out for herself. She also forgives Adam, though he did hurt her.

Meanwhile, Skeletor is not at all happy that He-Man escaped and beat the everloving shit out of him. He’s also so obsessed with finding out just how Adam can transform without the Sword of Power that he not only forgets to actually rule Eternia and do something with the power he finally won after all those years, but also takes out his frustrations on his henchpeople, as usual. Once more, Evil-Lyn – who is now the new Sorceress, complete with bat headdress and a sexy outfit – gets the brunt of it.

In part one, Evil-Lyn worked with Teela, Andra and Orko to save Eternia and was well on the path to redemption. She had no idea that Skeletor had hitched a ride in her staff and was feeding on her lifeforce to restore himself. And now Skeletor is back and finally got everything he ever wanted and still treats everyone around him, including Evil-Lyn, like crap. Both Beast-Man (who loves her) and Duncan tell Evil-Lyn that Skeletor is an abuser, that she should leave him and that as the new Sorceress, she is the one who has the power, not Skeletor. They’re absolutely right, because Skeletor is a bully and an abuser. In the original cartoons, his male henchmen usually got the brunt of it – and it’s notable that none of them like Skeletor – but here Evil-Lyn is Skeletor’s primary victim. However, she also feels indebted to him, because long ago Skeletor saved her from a life of poverty and abuse. I don’t think Evil-Lyn ever got any backstory in the original series, but she gets one here. Turns out she was a street urchin, who ran away from home, when her starving parents wanted to eat her – and how disturbing is it that there are people in Eternia who are so poor that they eat their own children – and became a pickpocket, when Skeletor found her. In part 1, Orko told Evil-Lyn that no one is born evil and indeed her life could have gone quite differently, if someone else rather than Skeletor had found her.

Hands up, who expected a discussion of the dynamics of domestic abuse from a He-Man cartoon of all things? Nope, me neither. However, shocked awake by Duncan and Beast-Man, Evil-Lyn decides to deal with Skeletor before a rare cosmic alignment occurs that will make him even more powerful. So Evil-Lyn seduces Skeletor, at one point straddling him on the throne of Castle Greyskull, and persuades him to power down, because in his overpowered form he might accidentally kill her. Yes, there is a hinted at sex scene, complete with boner jokes (!), in a He-Man cartoon of all things. And no, I have no idea how Skeletor can even have sex, considering that he is a skeleton and none of the relevant equipment has bones. We don’t find out either, because once Evil-Lyn has Skeletor powered down and distracted, she grabs hold of the Sword of Power, holds it aloft and says the magic words.

Now at first glance, a super-powered Evil-Lyn seems infinitely preferable to a super-powered Skeletor, because Evil-Lyn is actually intelligent and also redeemable, as part one has shown. In practice, however, super-powered Evil-Lyn turns out to be a much bigger problem than Skeletor. Because even in his godlike form, Skeletor was still way too petty and obsessed with He-Man to do as much harm as he could have (and Skeletor did a lot of harm).

Evil-Lyn, however, is much more focussed. She’s also barking mad, ever since Skeletor showed her the universe coming into alignment and Evil-Lyn realised how insignificant and alone she is in the face of the sheer scale of the cosmos. She also got a vision of Zoar – the falcon that was the avatar of the Sorceress in the original cartoon and is apparently the deity of the Eternians – getting killed by a snake in prehistoric times. So in short, as far as Evil-Lyn is concerned, God is dead and the universe doesn’t care. Evil-Lyn’s experience is very much the plot of a Lovecraft story: the protagonist realises how small and insignificant they are and how vast and uncaring the cosmos is and promptly goes mad. But while Lovecraft’s protagonists curl up sobbing in the fetal position, Evil-Lyn decides to do something about the vast uncaring cosmos. If God is dead, the universe doesn’t care, nothing matters and everybody is alone anyway, then Evil-Lyn will simply destroy the universe and put everybody out of their misery. And just to show everybody that she means business, she destroys Preternia, the paradise/Valhalla equivalent.

In many ways, Evil-Lyn reminds me here of a certain kind of very angry atheist who feels the need to kill off the God they claim not to believe in. When these angry atheists happen to be writers, artists or filmmakers, you get stories about killing God, Jesus or at the very least an angel. Preacher – of which showrunner Kevin Smith is a big fan – is the most famous example, but there are many others. Unfortunately, Evil-Lyn happens to be an all powerful being, so she not only destroys the equivalent of Valhalla/Paradise, taking away the Eternians’ hope for an afterlife, but wants to destroy the whole universe as well. “There, take that, deity I don’t believe in.”

Absolutely everybody agrees that Evil-Lyn must be stopped. He-Man would be the obvious choice to stop her, but Adam doesn’t dare to transform without the sword, because the last time he tried that, he almost killed his father. No, the only way to stop Evil-Lyn is if all Eternians fight together. So Teela uses her newfound powers to send out a psychic call to arms, though she has no idea, if anybody heard her.

Meanwhile, the last person anybody expected show up at the camp to offer their help, namely Skeletor. And so we get a temporary alliance between He-Man (as Adam) and Skeletor that we never thought we’d ever see. But even Skeletor allying with the good guys is not enough, because Evil-Lyn doesn’t just have the power of the sword, she also has the power of the Sorceress. And the only way to stop one Sorceress is with another.

So Adam, Skeletor, Cringer and Skeletor’s pet panther head for Castle Greyskull to distract Evil-Lyn, while Andra and Teela sneak in through the sewers, so Teela can find the magical well and become the Sorceress, even though it means giving up her past life.

Adam, Skeletor and their respective pets’ confrontation with Evil-Lyn quickly turns into a free-for-all with Evil-Lyn and the faithful Beast-Man (who gets turned into the equivalent of Battlecat at one point) versus Skeletor, Adam, Cringer and Skeletor’s panther. And though they all fight valiantly, Cringer taking on Beast-Man, while a depowered Adam fences with Evil-Lyn, they are no match for her.

Meanwhile, outside the castle, the Eternian army is gathering, joined by all the citizens of Eternia who responded to Teela’s call. The winged people, the bee people and even Merman’s fish people, who normally were hostile, show up as well. Evil-Lyn, meanwhile, calls forth all the shadow monsters from Subternia along with their leader Scareglow, which leads to a huge fight outside the Castle as well.

While all this is going on, Teela and Andra find themselves faced with some of the more offbeat Masters of the Universe characters like Clawful, the lobster man, Goat-Man and Pig-Boy. Duncan, who has broken out of his dungeon to join the fight, explicitly says they’re the bottom of the barrel and he’s right. Because Masters of the Universe came up with a lot of very strange characters towards the end, particularly among Skeletor’s henchpeople. And I love the fact that we get to see even those flat-out absurd characters – Stinkor, the skunk creature which smells of patchouli (what was it with smelly toys in the 1980s?) also shows up in part 1. Whatever your favourite Master of the Universe character was, they probably appear in Revelation.  Even if you happened to be the only fan of Goat-Man and Pig Boy or Stinkor in the universe.

Teela and Duncan share one last hig hug, then Duncan and Andra escape to join the battle going on outside, while Teela goes to meet her destiny. At the magical well, she meets the ghost of her mother who tells Teela that she loves her and that she was with her in spirit every moment of her life, but also warns her that once she steps into the water to become the Sorceress, she will have to give up everything and everybody she loves. Teela, however, isn’t having any of that. Yes, she is willing to embrace the abilities she has suppressed all her life, but she’s not giving up her friends and family, because they are what give her strength.

The usual suspects who already hate the fact that Masters of the Universe: Revelation focusses more on other characters, including Teela, than on He-Man will of course cry that Teela is a Mary Sue, since she gets to have her cake and eat it, too. However, the different ways in which the Sorceress and Teela balance their powers and the ones they love are also a commentary on different types of feminism. The Sorceress decides to forsake love and family for her career like many second wave feminists did (and remember that the original cartoon came out in the early 1980s, when second wave feminists were finally hitting and sometimes breaking through the glass ceiling). Meanwhile, her daughter Teela is the contemporary feminist who tries to combine career and family and have it all. And for Teela, it works out.

As for those who complain that Teela getting to be the Sorceress, while also being able to leave Castle Greyskull violates “the rules”, those rules were always very fuzzy and the original cartoons contradicted themselves several times. Besides, while I’m sure the Sorceress believes that she had to give up her partner and child to gain her powers, that’s not necessarily true. We have only the word of the Sorceress that she can’t leave the Castle in human form. Besides, I think that the Sorceress could have made balancing her duties with having a family work. There was absolutely nothing stopping her from keeping her daughter with her – and an impregnable magical fortress is as safe a place for a kid as the royal palace which is attacked every other episode.  As for Duncan, I’m pretty sure he would have stayed with her. And besides, he probably dropped by a lot for some quality time.

So Teela becomes the new Sorceress and gets a new costume that is a mix of her classic costume and her mother’s outfit. And for those who didn’t like her new haircut, the transformation also instantly makes her hair grow long again.

And then we get the final battle of Teela versus Evil-Lyn, law versus chaos, love versus anger and loneliness, faith versus atheism, Sorceress versus Sorceress. The law versus chaos angle, which is actually spelled out in the dialogue , comes of course from Michael Moorcock’s Elric stories, though Moorcock claims he borrowed it, minus the religion, from Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword and Three Hearts and Three Lions. Just as the idea of a series of champions wielding the sword of power and defending Eternia is borrowed from Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion. And of course, the conflict of barbarism versus civilisation that shows up in Robert E. Howard’s Conan, Kull and Bran Mal Morn stories lies at the heart of it all.

In part 1, Teela spent several episodes working with Evil-Lyn to save Eternia, so she knows that Evil-Lyn is capable of good and tries to bring that part out in her again. She also shows Evil-Lyn that to Teela, who has friends, family and people she loves, the universe is not as lonely and uncaring. And finally, she shows her how the prehistoric “death of the falcon god” scenario went on, namely that the dead god was reborn from the waters and empowered the first Sorceress. God is not dead, after all, but just transformed.

This finally convinces Evil-Lyn to power down, so Adam finally gets his sword back, transforms into He-Man. He also transforms Cringer into Battlecat (and for once Cringer does not complain) and – to everybody’s surprise – Skeletor into Skelegod.

Then He-Man proceeds to mop up the battlefield and generally being awesome. Though the rest of Eternia doesn’t do too badly. Randor and Duncan wind up fighting back to back in spite of their differences. Marlena, who used to be a NASA astronaut before she crashlanded on Eternia and wound up marrying Randor, leads the air assault. And Evil-Lyn calling up every soul Subternia also brings back Orko – who gave his life letting his friends escape Subternia. Only that this version of Orko has finally managed to get his magic to work and takes out Scareglow. And yes, I was damned happy to see Orko back and with functional magic, too. He sticks around, too, because Evil-Lyn rescues him, when all the other dead souls are sucked back to Subternia. When we last see her, she is in Orko’s homeworld Trolla with a new hairstyle (which symbolises “I’m starting a new life” in this series) and buries her old staff. And while we can’t be sure, I think she’s going to be okay.

Only Skeletor is still the same old petty jerk he ever was and challenges He-Man to a duel. He-Man doesn’t want to fight him and when forced to fight anyway, just punches Skeletor across the horizon. When we next see him, he finally returns to Snake Mountain and comes face to face with Tri-Clops and his technocult, who have sat out the war, waiting to see who wins. Skeletor is very much not impressed by Tri-Clops and his cult and their idol, the Mighty Motherboard (I bet Kevin Smith was proud of that one) a feminine bird figure (god shaped like bird figures are clearly an Eternian thing), until the bird figure injects Skeletor with nanites and turns him into a cyborg. Meawhile, the symbol of Hordak flashes above the head of the Mighty Motherboard, setting up a potential second season right there. This even makes sense, because Hordak is the only villain in Eternia who has been more successful than Skeletor (not that that is a high bar). And if we’re going to see Hordak, does this mean we’re going to see Adora? And if so, how much of the recent She-Ra cartoon will they borrow?

But before we get to that, season 1 ends as it began, with a celebration in the palace. Andra, who has now been fully adopted into the family, is named the new Man-at-Arms, so Duncan, who has a neat new dress uniform and several new medals (and he deserves every single one of them), can finally retire. Everybody is happy, Adam no longer has to hide who he is, and Castle Greyskull has a new Sorceress and that Sorceress has her champion, Adam a.k.a. He-Man. The family is back together and stronger for it, because there are no more secrets among them. If you hoped for a kiss between Adam and Teela (or Teela and Andra), sorry, no such luck. But Adam and Teela hold hands, while Teela and Andra  hug. So does Teela prefer Adam or Andra or both? It could go either way at this point and that’s perfectly fine. However, every one of our heroes who’s still or again alive at the end is in a better place emotionally. They’ve all been through hell – sometimes literally – but they’re stronger now and ready for everything the universe can throw at them.

For many people of my generation, the original Masters of the Universe was our first exposure to the sword and sorcery and sword and planet subgenres. And for several of us, it was the beginning of a lifelong love. So is Masters of the Universe: Revelation sword and sorcery or sword and planet? The original cartoon definitely was and Revelations leans heavily into the sword and sorcery aesthetics and inspirations of the original, even though the scale of the story itself – where the fate of all of Eternia and the whole universe hangs in the balance – is a lot bigger than sword and sorcery usually gets. But then, sword and sorcery has its share of large scale conflicts, too. See Strombringer by Michael Moorcock or The Hour of the Dragon by Robert E. Howard. Is this show a sign of a sword and sorcery revival? I don’t know, though I certainly see signs that a sword and sorcery revival is underway.

My generation, Generation X, are the ones who are currently controlling the media, so almost everything I enjoyed as a kid has been remade or rebooted by now. My teenaged self would be utterly thrilled, if you told her that all of her favourite books, TV shows and cartoons are now back and look better than they ever did before. She would be equally horrified if you told her that a lot of it misses the point and simply isn’t very good. Cause unfortunately, a lot of those remakes or reboots have had their share of issues. Either they completely violated the spirit of the original – see the new Battlestar Galactica – or they became slavish nostalgia exercises which still manage to miss the point – see Ghostbusters: Afterlife – or they turn into hollow spectacle and punch-ups – see the Transformers movies.

Masters of the Universe: Revelation probably manages the tricky balance between nostalgia and modernity as well as anything I’ve ever seen. It’s very much rooted in the original stories and yet manages to expand upon them and address questions the originals never could or would address. For a moment, the Star Wars sequels came close, when The Last Jedi attempted to blow up the whole dark side versus light side of the Force narrative, but then they pulled back and became a retread of what came before.

Meanwhile, Masters of the Universe – which is certainly not the franchise I would have bet upon – manages to pull to off. It’s still the same story and characters we fell in love with as children, but it also manages to be so much more. It’s a story that addresses the big questions about love, family, friendship, grief and trauma that the originals never dared to ask, while also embracing the stories that inspired the original. What I expected from Masters of the Universe: Revelation was a nostalgic good time. What I got was a story that did a lot more. It made me laugh and cry, it made me think and it brought a big wide smile onto my face. This whole show made me happy and what more can you ask for?

Masters of the Universe: Revelations is definitely going on my 2022 Hugo ballot and no, I don’t care that it’s a cartoon based on a 38-year-old TV show that was basically a glorified toy commecial. We had She-Ra on the Hugo ballot this year, so why not her big brother He-Man?

 

Thanksgiving Free Fiction: The Robot Turkey Apocalypse

Today is Thanksgiving in the US, so Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate.

This holiday is all about giving thanks, so it’s also the perfect time to say “thank you” to the readers of this blog with a free holiday short story.

This story came out of the 2020 July short story challenge and was inspired by an episode of Magnum PI of all things, where Magnum and Higgins muse about the meaning of the initials “RT” and Magnum suggest “robot turkeys”. Magnum and Higgins are interrupted by men with guns shortly thereafter and the robot turkeys never come up again, but somehow they stuck in my brain, so I wrote a story about literal robot turkey besieging a small town.

I never did anything with the story afterwards, because it was too short to publish as a standalone. However, then I realised that it would make an excellent free story for Thanksgiving, so I polished it and out it up on the blog. At the next update, it will also go into The Christmas Collection, my massive collection of holiday stories in various genres.

But for now, enjoy…

The Robot Turkey Apocalypseby Cora Buhlert

No one knew where they came from. After all, robot turkeys are not exactly the sort of thing you’d expect to bring the world or at least the small part of it that was the town of Brighthaven to its knees. In fact, robot turkeys not the sort of thing you’d expect — period.

Robot cats, robot dogs, robot wolves, robot dinosaurs, sure. All of these things make sense in a twisted way. But robot turkeys? Why would anybody build robotic versions of very strange looking birds that humans only domesticated for their lean meat and then only ate once a year anyway? Truly, it makes no sense.

But that’s the problem with real life. Unlike fiction, it doesn’t have to make sense.

And so the robocalypse was brought about not by artificial intelligences using our smart cars, smart homes, smartphones and smart toasters against us. It was not brought about by man tinkering with things man should not tinker with. Its harbingers were not lumbering steel giants bristling with weapons or sleek chromium plated humanoid robots faster and stronger than any human could ever be. Instead, it was turkeys. Robotic turkeys with deadly beaks and razor-sharp tail feathers they could fire like flechettes with deadly accuracy.

No one ever figured out who made the robot turkeys. They had obviously escaped from a lab somewhere, but who had built them and why? A mad scientist was the most likely explanation, if only because you’d have to be mad to build robot turkeys. But no one had any clues regarding the identity or motive of that hypothetical mad scientist.

Some thought it was a Communist plot, but then they were the sort of people who always thought of a Communist plot. Some thought it was aliens, but then they were the sort of people who always thought it was aliens.

However, the most likely explanation was that someone had created the robot turkeys for Thanksgiving, maybe as an eccentric garden ornament or to appear in a parade or a play or a theme park. Only that something had gone horribly, terribly wrong somewhere along the way.

As explanations went, it was farfetched, but no more farfetched than the existence of robot turkeys themselves. The fact that the first robot turkeys had been spotted in early November also seemed to point to the Thanksgiving explanation.

But wherever they came from and however they came to be, the robot turkeys quickly made their presence known. One Monday morning in early November, a flock of robot turkeys chased a group of children waiting for the school bus down Highway 29. Thankfully, there were no casualties except for nine-year-old Mary Lou Porter who stumbled and fell and knocked out one of her front teeth.

It was a freaky, scary occurrence, but everybody thought it was a one-off event. Until it happened again a few days later. This time around, a flock of robot turkeys invaded the parking lot of Brighthaven office park. They chased hapless cubicle workers across the parking lot and into the office buildings where they barricaded themselves.

This time, there also was a casualty, Walter Gibbons, a fifty-seven-year-old businessman who was struck in the calf by a tail feather flechette, while dashing across the parking lot. He stumbled and fell and was promptly pecked to death by the robot turkeys, while his horrified co-workers watched from the upper floors of their office blocks.

The siege of Brighthaven office park, as it came to be known, lasted for twelve hours. Of course, the trapped office workers immediately called the police — on their cell phones, because the robot turkeys had pecked through the landlines. But when the local sheriff’s department finally deigned to arrive — after the fifth panicked call about murderous robot turkeys — they not only found that yes, the robot turkeys were real and the calls had not been a hoax, but also that there was preciously little Brighthaven’s finest could do about the robot turkey menace.

Shooting only made them angry, for the robot turkeys were too small, too swift and too well armoured to get even hit by bullets, let alone suffer damage. However, a flock of them could quickly take out a squad car, as Deputy Andy Dunwich found out to his detriment.

Once the police realised that there was nothing whatsoever they could do to get rid of the robot turkeys, they finally called in the local fire department. What they thought the fire department could do is anybody’s guess. However, when Fire Chief Aloysius P. Hargreave had his men unroll the hoses and ordered “Water on!”, it turned out that robot turkeys really, really did not like water. And so, the robot turkeys fled across Highway 29 and into the undergrowth.

After the siege of Brighthaven office park, absolutely no one believed anymore that the robot turkey attacks were just a one-off. Especially since there were new robot turkey attacks all around town reported every single day now. The robot turkeys invaded garden parties and backyard barbecues. They rampaged through Clearvalley Mall and chased customers across the parking lot of Benson’s All-Organic Supermarket.

Once, the robot turkeys even attacked a wedding party that took place in the rose garden of Winter Creek Resort. They chased waiters and wedding guests around, trampled the roses, pecked at the bridesmaids and guests, reduced the bride’s designer wedding gown to tatters, gave the groom a nasty wound in his calf and put the officiating priest in hospital.

Aloysius P. Hargreaves and his fire brigade were everywhere in those days. Their sirens could be heard all day and night, as the fire engines rumbled through the streets to wash away the latest robot turkey attack with their mighty fire hoses.

By now, mayor Martin C. Oakley was desperate. His town was under siege by a menace like none ever seen before, the firefighters were close to collapsing with exhaustion and the National Guard was not returning his calls. It was only when a smartphone video of the attack on the Benson-Simonetti wedding at the Winter Creek Resort went viral that the rest of the world outside Brighthaven started to believe that the robot turkeys were indeed real.

Now the National Guard finally did come to Brighthaven, only to find that their weapons had no more effect than those of the police. However, the National Guard also had a mobile water cannon for riot control and that proved to be remarkably effective. For the robot turkeys really did not like water and the jet of a water cannon is a lot more powerful than that of a firehose.

Slowly, but gradually the National Guard drove the robot turkeys back. The jets of their water cannons blasted the robots turkeys across the road and smashed them into cars, buildings, bollards, traffic cones, mailboxes and any other obstacle they encountered. Most robot turkeys just got up again and fled back into the woods whence they came, but some of them suffered more serious damage. Soon limping and dead robot turkeys could be spotted on roads all around Brighthaven. If a robot turkey was still moving, the town’s young hooligans delivered the coup de grâce with a baseball bat. The invasion was beaten back at last and the humans were winning.

The last robot turkey in Brighthaven was spotted limping across Highway 29. It was missing most of it tailfeather flechettes, one whole wing and one eye. The thing seemed confused, staggering to and fro, until a passing forty ton truck put it out of its misery.

The people of Brighthaven cheered and put on an impromptu parade to salute the brave men and women of the National Guard and the Brighthaven fire department.

By now it was early December, Brighthaven was glowing with Christmas lights and everybody was confident that life would return to normal or what passed for it. Until the robot Santas emerged from the woods, shooting laserbeams from their eyes…

The End?

Not robot turkeys, just the denizens of a turkey farm I came across on a hike recently.

Listen to Cora Talk About Foundation with Paul Levinson and Joel McKinnon

Yesterday, I was a guest on the Light On Light Through podcast, where I chatted with host Paul Levinson and Joel McKinnon of the excellent Seldon Crisis podcast about Foundation, both the TV series and the original books by Isaac Asimov.

All three of us encountered Foundation at the exact right age and became big fans of the books and of Isaac Asimov, so of course we’re geeking out about all sorts of obscure details such as how the murder in The Naked Sun was committed and Asimov’s skills as a mystery writer. We also discuss the Three Laws of Robotics, the portrayal of women or the lack thereof in Foundation and Asimov’s work in general, the eyes of Dr. Susan Calvin and much more. Paul even knew Asimov in person. And if you ever wondered what the connection between Isaac Asimov and former West German chancellor Helmut Schmidt is, well, that question is answered as well.

You can listen to the episode here. You can also watch on YouTube below.

Also, if you want to revisit the original stories or read them for the first time, but feel put off by Asimov’s prose, check out the Seldon Crisis podcast, where Joel not only discusses the original stories, but also does dramatic readings. He just finished “The Mule”, which is generally considered the high point of the series.

Foundation takes “The Leap” and ends its first season

Welcome to my review of the final episode of Foundation, which is a day late, because I had tech issues as explained here. Reviews of previous episodes of Foundation as well as two actual Foundation stories may be found here.

For more Foundation discussion, check out the Star’s End and Seldon Crisis podcasts. And if you want even more Foundation discussion, this Tuesday, Joel McKinnon of Seldon Crisis and Paul Levinson of Light On Light Through will discuss season 1 of Foundation.

But now, let’s take a look at the season 1 finale of Foundation.

Warning! Spoilers beneath the cut!

The previous episode of Foundation finally ended with the moment we’ve all been waiting for, namely Hari Seldon’s hologram strutting out of the Time Vault, an insufferably smug grin on his face, to confront the assembled Foudationers, Anacreons and Thespins, who are literally at each other’s throats. As everybody who’s read the books knows, Hari is about to tell everybody what just happened and that he foretold everything. And this exactly what happens.

First of all, Hari tells the Anacreons and Thespins that the cause of their centuries long feud – the murder of an Anacreon grand huntress on her wedding night, supposedly committed by her husband, the Thespin crown prince (the writers can’t even come up with an original scenario for a centuries long feud, but have to crib one from Game of Thrones) – was really a plot initiated by Cleon II to keep the two rim worlds from getting too powerful through their alliance. Of course, we believe him because he’s Hari Seldon and Hari Seldon is always right, except when he’s not (but that’s still centuries in the future). However, the Anacreons and Thespins have no real reason to believe “a ghost” as one of them puts it.

Hari then explains that he predicted the periodic reappearances of the Invictus (of course he did) and that he knew it would show up near Terminus. Then, finally, he pulls out the rug from under the Foundationers, when he tells Salvor’s Mom Mari – after warmly greeting her – that the whole Encyclopedia Galactica project was just a ruse to get a lot of smart and dedicated people to Terminus, where they can begin to build what will become the nucleus of the second Galactic Empire. So now they have three planets – Terminus, Anacreon and Thespis – full of hardened survivors, the collective brains of the Foundation and the Invictus and can start building.

“But what about the Empire?” Salvor, whom Hari obviously does not recognise since she wasn’t even born yet, when he died, asks. Hari or rather his hologram is feeling generous today and so he explains that if the Empire believes everybody on Terminus – including Lord Dorwin and his crew – is dead, they won’t bother to investigate, since they’re already stretched to the limits. He even gives the Foundation a hint how to achieve that, by piloting the Invictus onto the far side of Terminus’ sun and simulating a nova. This is quite unusual, because normally Hari’s hologram just gives cryptic hints. In the first Foundation story, Hari’s hologram just points out that the solution is obvious before flickering off and Salvor Hardin is the one who actually figures what that obvious solution is. That solution, by the way, is scientism, the fake religion that the Foundation uses the control the four kingdoms. The show has completel jettisoned that aspect of the original stories, which is what most annoys me about it, because I always loved the idea of science as a fake religion. There is a possibility we will still get to see it – more on that later – but I’m not hopeful.

Hari is truly feeling generous today, for he also answers the questions of the cute kids we’ve seen on Terminus throughout the show about what it’s like to be dead. He explains that the Time Vault is really Hari’s casket which used nanotech (contained in the capsule we see Hari swallowing in episode 2) to cannibalise Hari’s body as well as any passing meteorites and cosmic dust to install itself on Terminus. We even get an impressive visualisation of this instead of the usual opening credits. So Hari is not a ghost, but a hologram powered by a sophisticated AI which wakes up in times of crisis.

Hari also asks one of the cute kids his name and the kid replies, “Poly Verisov”. Now this is a name that readers of the books should recognise, because in “Bridle and Saddle” a.k.a. “The Mayors”, the second original Foundation story (and third story in the book), an adult Poly Verisov is the Foundation ambassador to Anacreon and also high priest of scientism, the Foundation’s fake religion.  So does this mean that we will get to see scientism after all or will Poly Verisov be as changed as many other characters whose names the series borrowed from the books?

Finally, Salvor asks Hari why he has been sending her visions, since she has been seeing his “ghost” since early childhood. Hari gives Salvor a strange look and then says that whoever sent Salvor the visions, it wasn’t him. Then he struts back into his Vault to sleep for another few decades. When Poly Verisov asks if they’ll see him again, Hari replies that yes, they will. And since Foundation has been renewed for a second season – something that Hari surely predicted – he is right.

Now the first Seldon crisis is over, all that’s left to do on Terminus is mop up the pieces. The Anacreons and Thespins have been convinced that Hari Seldon, the ghost of a man they never met, is right and they all join together, letting bygones by bygones. Phara’s surviving goon lays her body to rest on Terminus and plants a tree next to hit, so Phara can have a bit of Anacreon near her. He also informs Salvor that Phara respected her (though she had one hell of a way of expressing that) and that he was fed up with nutty Phara and her suicide missions anyway, because he has a kid on Anacreon he’s like to see grow up. Finally, he gives Salvor Phara’s bow, which makes her grand huntress, I guess. Meanwhile, Salvor is also about to be elected mayor of Terminus, taking over from her father.

We see the tree grow in a timelapse video, which supposedly covers a few months, but should cover several years, unless trees from Anacreon grow really fast even in alien soil. The Foundationers, Anacreons and Thespins repair the Invictus and plan to build more ships like her, now they have a blueprint. Where do they get the material? Shh, don’t ask complicated questions. The new captain of the Invictus is none other than Hugo, the Thespin trader, who also acquires a surname, Crast, in this episode. Now there is a character named Lumin Crast in the first Foundation story, but he is a member of the Encyclopedia board and a Foundationer, not a trader from the Four Kingdoms. This is another example of the show borrowing the names of minor characters and sticking them on people who have very little to do with the original characters.

However, Hugo still finds the opportunity to visit Salvor on Terminus, while the repairs of the Invictus are ongoing, and they have another round of sex. In the middle of the night, Salvor wakes up with strange dreams again. She heads out to the Time Vault, which is now a floating black thing again, and sees a vision of a black girl running away and finally apparently jumping into water, where there is none.

Since Salvor now knows from the mouth of the man (or rather his hologram) himself that Hari Seldon is not responsible for the visions that have plagued her since childhood, she decides to ask her mother about them. Salvor’s mother, who is after all a leading member of the encyclopedia board, probably the leader now that Lewis Pirenne is dead, is understandably angry that the encyclopedia was just a ruse and that Hari Seldon lied to everybody. Salvor points out that it really doesn’t matter why the Foundation was established and that actual life on Terminus won’t be all that different. Never mind that at least in the books, the Enyclopedia Galactica is published after all and that excerpts thereof serve as an epigraph for every chapter.

Meanwhile, Salvor is still depressed that the visions she’s had since childhood are not from Hari Seldon and that she’s not special. Hear me yelling, “You’re not supposed to be special. You’re supposed to be just a smart person in the right place at the right time” at the screen. Mari assures Salvor that of course she is special. So Salvor decides to ask her mother about the girl from the water planet she sees in her visions on occasion and Mari tells her that’s Gaal Dornick.

However, Mari has more to tell Salvor. Because it turns out that Salvor is not the biological kid of Mari and her late husband. Instead, she comes from the egg and embryo bank aboard the Foundation’s generation ship that we saw back in episode 2.  It is not clear whether Mari and her husband had problems conceiving and therefore opted for a donor pregnancy or whether this is standard procedure among the Foundation, a reproductive key party as AV-Club reviewer Nick Wanserski calls it. Mari may have carried the embryo to term, but Salvor’s biological parents are Gaal Dornick and Raych, which makes her Hari Seldon’s granddaughter. Salvor inherited her psychic abilities from Gaal and possibly Raych, who has latent psychic abilities in the books.

Now Hari Seldon actually does have a psychic granddaughter via Raych in Forward the Foundation. Her name is Wanda Seldon and she is instrumental in establishing what will become the Second Foundation. And while it’s certainly possible that Salvor Hardin in the books is a descendant of Gaal Dornick, we never learn about it, because Salvor’s parentage doesn’t matter to the story at all and Gaal never reappears after the first story anyway, because the character just isn’t that important. In the books, Gaal is pretty much an exposition delivering vehicle, a walking and talking infodump.

So while the decision to make Salvor Gaal’s biological daughter does not contradict the books, simply because the books never mention either character’s family relationships, it’s nonetheless the sort of soap opera plot twist that patently designed to lure in the sort of viewer who only watched Game of Thrones for the soap opera elements. But while soap opera elements absolutely have a place in Game of Thrones, they don’t fit into Foundation at all, because it just isn’t that sort of story. And so the whole thing just feels shoehorned in, even if it is foreshadowed by the embryo extraction scene in episode 2.

After learning about her biological parentage, Salvor makes the leap that the fact that she has been having visions of Gaal means that Gaal must be still out there somewhere. She quizzes Mari regarding where and when exactly Gaal vanished in the escape pod and then decides that she must now find Gaal.

Now I know that many adopted children are eager to find their biological parents, but abruptly deciding in the middle of the night to travel halfway across the galaxy to locate her biological mother who has been missing for more than thirty years makes no real sense. What about the newly widowed Mari? What about Terminus, the planet Salvor was so eager to protect for ten episodes now? What about the Invictus and Hugo? Why throw all that away to search for a woman she’s never met, a woman who may be a murderer as far as Salvor knows?

Still, Salvor is determined and so she sneaks off aboard Hugo’s ship. Hugo intercepts her, they hug and kiss, then Salvor takes off. Of course, Salvor has never been in space except for the brief trip to the Invictus. How does she even know how to pilot a spaceship, let alone navigate or use a jump drive? Who cares, Salvor is special.

Meanwhile, Gaal’s escape pod has finally reached her homeworld of Synnax 138 years after she left behind The Raven and Hari Seldon’s insufferably smug hologram. As anybody except Gaal might have expected, this trip was not a good idea, because the town where Gaal once lived is submerged and all of Synnax appears to be devoid of human life. Maybe the Empire finally did get around the evacuating the people of Synnax. Or maybe they all drowned. Not that it really matters to Gaal, since everybody she knows would be long dead anyway.

But then, Gaal spots a glowing light under the surface of the world ocean which is still remarkably shallow. She dives down, finds a very familiar looking crashed spaceship and finally a suspended animation pod, the source of the mysterious glow. Gaal opens the pod and rescues the occupant who turns out to be Salvor. “I think you’re my Mom”, Salvor informs Gaal.

I understand that they probably did this in order to keep Gaal and Salvor around a little longer, but it’s still a stupid plot development that makes little sense. It also thoroughly upsets “Bridle and Saddle”, should they decide to adapt that next (unless they jump straight to “The Big and the Little”), because in “Bridle and Saddle”, set thirty years after the events of “Foundation/The Encyclopedists), Salvor Hardin is still mayor of Terminus – having won election after election – and faces challenges from a new movement called the Actionist Party as well as a newly emboldened Anacreon. But now Salvor has jumped straight ahead to the era of “The Wedge/The Traders”, where he/she is supposed to be a legendary figure from the past and not an active participant.

Besides, Salvor certainly would have deserved to enjoy her victory and live happily ever after with Hugo and becoming a benevolent semi-dictator. As for Gaal, I wouldn’t have minded if we had never seen Gaal again after the first two episodes, because Gaal simply isn’t very interesting. The script does its best to turn Gaal into more than the walking and talking infodump the character is in the books and there’s nothing wrong with Lou Llobell’s performance, but I still don’t care about Gaal and what happens to her. Having her head off to establish the Second Foundation would have been a good resolution for the character, but otherwise I don’t know why she’s still in the story.

Meanwhile in the Empire, the clone family drama of the Cleons is coming to its inevitable conclusion.  Brother Day, newly returned from his gruelling adventures on the moon of the generic triple goddess religion, first deals with Azura, the sole surviving member of the conspiracy to replace Brother Dawn with a rogue Cleon clone that was uncovered last week. He takes Azura from the cell where she is tied to a chair and then takes a walk with her in the palace gardens.

Day is utterly furious at Azura, not only because she attempted to undermine the genetic dynasty, but also because she hurt Dawn. For Brother Day feels very protective of Dawn, whom he views as his son. After all, he already rocked Dawn as a baby. We actually do see this, when this version of Dawn is decanted and Day tenderly rocks him, while the former Brother Dusk, now Brother Darkness, is disintegrated back in episode 3. At the time, I assumed that this unusual display of tenderness in a galactic tyrant was simply due to Lee Pace just liking babies and reacting to the live baby put in his arms for this scene. Of course, Lee Pace probably really does like babies, but there was a purpose to this scene as well, since it shows that this version of Day, at any rate, has tender feelings for his younger self.

But even if he likes babies or at least Brother Dawn, Brother Day is still a galactic tyrant and he can be a real bastard. We saw a glimpse of that side when he ordered Demerzel to murder Zephyr Halima at a point when the woman had ceased to be a threat. Azura, meanwhile, gets the full brunt of Brother Day being a bastard. And so he tells her that his people have tracked down anybody who ever passed through Azura’s life, close and distant family members, friends, co-workers, lovers (Azura is bisexual, we learn), 1551 people altogether. Any one of those 1551 people might remember Azura and wonder what happened to her or might even know that the current Brother Dawn is an imperfect clone, so Day has them all eliminated with the snap of a finger. It’s not the deadliest finger snap in filmic history – Thanos has him beat there – but it’s still an impressively awful thing to do. Though it would have been even more impressive, if we had actually seen e.g. a random citizen or maybe one of Azura’s fellow gardeners just drop dead on the spot. As for Azura herself, she won’t be executed. Instead, she’ll be hooded, hooked up to a feeding tube and chained up in a dungeon and then Day will throw away the key.

Day’s punishment of Azura echoes Dusk’s (back when he was still Day) punishment of the Anacreons and Thespins after the attack on the Sky Bridge back in episode 2. Because just like his hated predecessor, this Day kills a shitload of innocent people but leaves the one person who’s actually guilty (though we still don’t know, if the Anacreons and Thespins are really responsible for the attack on the Sky Bridge) alive to contemplate their guilt. This shows that no matter how much they try to distinguish themselves from the clones, the Cleons are still the same person and it’s not a very nice person. Of all the emperors they could have cloned, they picked probably the most awful one.

After dealing with Azura, Day goes to see Dawn who’s being held under guard and in handcuffs in his quarters. Day sends the guards out and releases the handcuffs and proceeds to yell at poor Dawn, who may not be the sharpest Cleon in the drawer, but who’s still a victim in all this. Dawn confesses that he always suspected he was different and that he used to watch footage of Day in order to copy him better. Dawn also tells Day that he so much wishes Day were his father (that’s two Cleons then), but also that their lives – cooped up in the palace, no family except their clone siblings and no intimacy except with harem girls who will have their memories erased afterwards – are pretty shitty. “Did you never want to get out of the palace?” Dawn yells at Day. Of course, Day did want to get out, that’s why he travelled to the Maiden, after all. Dawn also cries that “We’re not even real people”, which strikes a sore spot in Day, who still wonders whether Zephyr Halima was right after all and the Cleons don’t have a soul.

Now I actually like the Cleon clone plot and their dysfunctional family a lot, even though it has nothing whatsoever to do with the books, and it is often more compelling than the actual Terminus plot, as Paul Levinson points out in his review. However, the constant harping on whether the Cleons are or are not human annoys me. Maybe I’ve read too much Lois McMaster Bujold, but to me there is no question that clones are human. Of course, they’re human – how they were created and conceived doesn’t matter. As for whether clones have a soul, I don’t believe that there is such a thing as a soul that exists separately from the body and the brain, therefore every conscious and intelligent being has a soul, including the Cleons, Demerzel and even Hari’s hologram.

However, the debate whether the Cleons are human is not just a philosophical debate I find irrelevant (of course, they are human, which doesn’t mean they’re good people), but one I find hugely problematic and actively harmful.  Because there are people out there like the German writer Sibylle Lewitscharoff who genuinely believe that people conceived via artificial insemination or surrogate pregnancies are not really human either (which would make e.g. Salvor not human, if applied to Foundation). And whenever group is considered “not really human” by a sufficient number of people, bad things happen as history has amply told us. Thankfully, Sibylle Lewitscharoff got pushback for her idiotic remarks, but she’s not the only one who believes that sort of thing. I remember watching a dytopian SF film on German TV sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s – i.e. around the time that I first read the Foundation books – where a teenaged boy finds that he doesn’t have emotions and later learns that he was conceived by artificial insemination and that he therefore isn’t a real human being, whereupon he kills himself. I no longer remember the title of that movie and Google is no help either. But my reaction to that movie was very much my reaction to the “Are the Cleons human?” debate in Foundation, namely “Of course, they’re human, so why are we even having this debate?” There are hundred thousands of people out there who were conceived by artificial insemination and/or via sperm or egg donation and/or born via surrogate pregnancies. We can argue whether these practices are moral or right (and personally, I think surrogate pregnancies are a horrible abuse of women’s bodies and should be banned, though I have no issue with artificial insemination or sperm and egg donations), but the people who result from these practices are no less human and do not deserve to have their humanity called into question. Just stop with this crap.

When we next see Brother Dawn,  Demerzel picks him up and leads him through the corridor with faces of all the past Cleons turning to look at you to face his judgment and likely execution at the hand of his brothers. Dusk, who’s always been a bastard, just wants the embarassment that is Dawn gone and incinerated. Day, however, wants to keep Dawn, even if he’s imperfect. And because “I love this kid and I don’t give a fuck if he’s lefthanded and has red/green blindness” isn’t really an argument that will convince Dusk of all people (since Dusk loves no one), Day invokes Hari Seldon and that Seldon said that the genetic dynasty has become stale and will hasten the fall of the Empire, unless they change. And here is change, delivered right onto their doorstep right in the form of Dawn. This is not the first time Day has invoked Seldon and it makes sense for him to do so, because Day was there as a little kid when Hari Seldon made his pronouncements and literally minutes afterwards the Sky Bridge collapsed. To Day, Hari Seldon is a powerful and dangerous magician.

Dusk, however, won’t have any of this. He and Day come to blows, having a fist fight in the throne room (which must be like punching yourself in the face). Dawn is scared and begins to cry – he’s still very much a kid after all – and hugs Demerzel. And Demerzel strokes and soothes him and tells him everything will be all right – before breaking his neck. “I serve the genetic dynasty above all”, she informs the horrified Day and Dusk.

Yes, Daneel/Demerzel has flat out ignored the First Law of Robotics and committed a murder for the second time in three episodes. And while the murder of Zephyr Halima might just be explained away via the Zeroth Law, since Zephyr Halima was destabilising the Empire, hastening the fall and also a representative of a harmful religion that kills some fifty percent of its followers via terrible pilgrimages (something the show never ever questions) and the galaxy is probably better off without her, Brother Dawn was a harmless kid who never hurt anybody.  True, Demerzel is very upset by what she’s done, so upset that she retreats to her private quarters and rips off her face to reveal a Terminator-like metal skull underneath. Nonetheless, robots who repeatedly ignore the Three Laws of Robotics in what is supposed to be an Asimov adaptation annoy me more than any other departure from the books.  Because the Three Laws of Robotics are so very central to Asimov’s work, as central as or even more so than psychohistory. And though Hari explains psychohistory correctly in the first episode, the show chooses to ignore that and instead focusses on super-special chosen ones like Salvor or Gaal.

Day is utterly devastated as he carries Dawn into the incineration chamber. Dusk seems to be his usual bastard self – “I want a new one decanted and up to speed by morning”, he order – but even he is not unaffected and smashes his palette into the mural he’s been working on.

Worse, the murder of Dawn was utterly unnecessary, because Dawn isn’t the only imperfect Cleon clones. For Shadowmaster Obreht informs Day that the conspirators didn’t just mess with Dawn’s DNA, they corrupted the source, i.e. the body of Cleon I itself. Nor was Dawn the only Cleon affected. Day’s DNA is altered as well and most likely’s Dusk’s too.

This is a devastating blow to the genetic dynasty, though I still have to wonder why they don’t have multiple copies of something as important as the original Cleon DNA they use to clone the Emperors. And if all else fails, there’s still the rebels’ Cleon clone whose body should have the correct DNA. Finally, if the nanites in the Emperors’ bloodstream can alter their DNA, shoulodn’t they also be able to fix it? After all, we’re much closer to having gene therapy and gene editing (we already have it to a certain degree) than to having cloning.

And that’s it for season 1 of Foundation. The show wasn’t the complete disaster I feared it would be and it actually was pretty good as a generic space opera show. However, it also wasn’t the Foundation I wanted to see, the Foundation I’ve wanted to see for more than thirty years now. I don’t care of Salvor Hardin changes race and sex (and the books neve specify Salvor’s race anyway), but it would be nice if they were still at least vaguely the same person. Just as it would be nice to get some more of what makes Foundation Foundation, namely the Foundation winning not by violence and having bigger guns than the other guys, but by outsmarting their opponents time and again. Cause that aspect is almost entirely absent in the series, replaced by explosion, chases and soap opera antics.

Finally, I want to point you to this article by Zachary D. Carter in The Atlantic. I initially scoffed about the headline – “Foundation has an Imperialism problem” – because duh, of course it does, which anybody whose actually read the books should know. However, the actual article is much better than the headline suggests, because Zachary D. Carter has not only read the books – a few years after I read them – he’s also a fan and has been greatly influenced by them and even studied economics because of Foundation. I always find this interesting, since Hari Seldon is never called an economist in the books nor a mathematician, he’s referred to as a social scientist or sociologist. So while Zachary D. Carter and Paul Krugman were inspired to study economics by Foundation, I was inspired to study sociology as a secondary subject. I’ve never regretted that either, even if I now know that psychohistory is nonsense, sorry.

In short, Zachary D. Carter is one of the people the show was made for and his criticisms mirror mine in many ways, namely that the show has lost too much of what made Foundation Foundation. Carter explicitly criticises that the show turned Salvor Hardin, who was a shrewd and pacifist manipulator in the books, into an action hero. He also takes issue with the fact that Gaal’s planet of the Luddites seems to be populated exclusively by people of colour, which is flat out offensive, even though it wasn’t intended that way.

Carter also explains how much Foundation is rooted in the WWII and immediate postwar era when the stories were written and how they reflect the US’ rise to superpower and how the US used strategic alliances, trade and yes, religion, to bring other countries into their sphere of influence. This is something that I never noticed when I originally read those stories in the late 1980s/early 1990s – probably because at the time history literally stopped in 1945 and nothing that came after was ever covered in history lessons. However, the parallels to the US’ rise to superpower became only all too clear to me when I reread the stories for the Retro Hugos.

For me – and I think for Zachary Carter – the core of Foundation is the triumph of brains over brawn and how the Foundation usually wins without firing a single shot. Plus, the Foundation stands for progress and technology and for wanting to make the world and the universe a better place. We can argue about their methods and whether they achieve that, but their goals are laudable. Foundation is what taught me how economic boycots work, whereas the teacher who attempted to explain to us why eating grapes from South Africa was suddenly a very bad thing in the 1980s, whereas no one had given a damn about the fact that aprtheid era South Africa was racist as fuck only a few years before, failed (and I’m pretty sure those unseasonal grapes weren’t even from South Africa, but from Chile or somewhere else).

There is a reason the Foundation books are so beloved and have inspired countless people, some of whom went on to do important things. Because the overall story – though it lacks a lot of elements that stories traditionally need such as action or characters that are more than cardboard – is incredibly compelling. And it still could be as compelling today as it was in the late 1980s, when I first read the books, or in the 1940s, when they were written. I have no issues with updating the story for a modern audience, with adding more women and people of colour (though I don’t recall being at all bothered by the nigh complete lack of women in the first book), with adding in action scenes and space battles and sex scenes, as long as the core story – brain wins over brawn and doesn’t even need to fire a shot, there are no chosen ones and Hari Seldon is always right, except when he isn’t – remains intact. And yes, it should be possible to tell that story and still appeal to the folks who watched Game of Thrones for the sex scenes and soap opera aspects.

And while the first season did manage to pull itself together at the end, I’m not sure if the core story still is intact. First seasons are often rough – think Star Trek Discovery – but the whole “super-special chosen one” stuff just doesn’t fit Foundation nor does the very earnest view of religion rather than the extremely cynical view of the original stories (which I loved, just having had multiple run-ins with religious hypocrites which eventually caused me to leave the Lutheran church behind). And don’t even get me started on Daneel/Demerzel flat out ignoring the Three Laws.

So in short, season 1 of Foundation was not bad at all and extremely pretty to look at, though for me it didn’t quite capture the spirit of the books. Will I be watching season 2? Probably, though I suspect we’ll have to wait a while for it to come out.

Star Trek Discovery Takes the “Kobayashi Maru” Test

Star Trek Discovery is back for its fourth season, though I’m not sure that I’ll be doing episode by episode reviews again, because Paramount has pulled a true dick move and pulled Star Trek Discovery from Netflix internationally, leaving viewers outside North America with no legal means of watching the show. And yes, we all know that there are ways around this, but if Paramount doesn’t want me watching their show, then I’m not sure that I want to spend the time required to write these reviews and I’m not the only one.

However, I was having technical difficulties and couldn’t watch the Foundation season finale, so I watched the season 4 opener of Discovery instead. And yes, it’s ironic that I had an easier time watching the show I theoretically shouldn’t be able to watch than the one I can legally watch.

For my takes on the first three seasons of Star Trek Discovery, go here.

Warning! Spoilers under the cut!

When we last saw the good ship Discovery and her valiant crew, they had just saved the entire Federation by solving the mystery of the so-called “Burn”. Habitual troublemaker Michael Burnham has been promoted to captain and the whole crew got new uniforms (likely because they make hiding pregnancies easier), since Saru wanted to spend time on his homeworld Kaminar with Su’kal, the troubled Kelpien they met back in season 3.

Season 4 now opens with Michael and her boyfriend Book on a diplomatic mission to the planet of the butterfly people (their species probably has a name, but Book calls them “butterfly people” and the name is appropriate) that goes comically wrong. Now that the Federation has dilithium again, they want to rebuild and repair connections with worlds that they lost contact with. One of these worlds is the planet of the butterfly people.

Unfortunately, the butterfly people have zero interest in reconnecting with the Federation and are sceptical of a no strings attached gift of free dilithium as well. They are even more sceptical, when they detect another lifeform aboard Book’s ship. Of course, that lifeform is only Book’s cat Grudge, but unfortunately the butterfly people don’t understand the concept of a pet and misunderstand Book’s remark that Grudge is a queen as Michael and book holding a literal monarch prisoner aboard Book’s ship. So the butterfly people decide to free the queen of the cats and chase Michael and Book through the forest (this is one of the thirty percents of planets in the universe that look just like British Columbia, with some extra CGI cliffs).

Michael and Book realise that the butterfly people are having problems navigating and a quick call to Stamets and Adira (who has been promoted to series regular, complete with her name in the title credits) reveals that the poles of the butterfly planet are shifting, which affects the butterfly people’s natural navigation abilities. And the satellite network that was supposed to compensate for this has failed due to a lack of dilithium. So Michael orders the Discovery’s cutesy repair bots to supply the satellites with dilithium so the butterfly people can navigate again, before she and Book get the hell out of there. The butterfly people are grateful, but still won’t quite believe that the Discovery repaired their satellites with no strings attached. Michael assures them that it’s true, because they’re the Federation and helping people is what they do.

Honestly, Michael Burnham should never ever be sent on any diplomatic mission, because she’s just flat out terrible at it. Which is interesting, since Michael’s adoptive father Sarek was one of the Federation’s top diplomats and her adoptive brother Spock would eventually follow in his footsteps. Michael, on the other hand, is way too blunt to make a good diplomat. Send Saru or Tilly or indeed anybody except Michael.

After narrowly averting a diplomatic crisis with the butterfly people, the Discovery has to head back to Starfleet headquarters, now no longer cloaked, for the grand reopening of Starfleet Academy. Michael is supposed to give a speech and introduce the new president of the Federation, something she’s not all that happy with, because Michael doesn’t like politicians.  Meanwhile, Book heads back to his homeworld Kwejian to meet his adoptive brother Kyheem and nephew Leto at an initiation ceremony for empaths.

At the grand reopening of Starfleet Academy, Michael proves that she has the one quality that any Starfleet captain worth their salt must have, namely the ability to hold inspirational speeches.

All the familiar faces are there, including the whole Discovery bridge crew, who not only continue to be given more lines and characterisation, but also got a new member, one Lieutentant Christopher. Admiral Vance is back as well and now reunited with his family. Whereas Raumpatrouille Orion, which debuted in September 1966 only ten days after the original Star Trek, always featured the same higher ranking military officials, Star Trek usually featured random forgettable admirals of the week. I like the fact that Discovery and Picard are both more consistent with regard to admirals. Finally, we also meet President Lara Rillak, who according to Tor.com reviewer Keith R.A. DeCandido is part Cardassian, part Bajoran and part human and also the first female Federation president we’ve ever seen.

Notable by his absence is Saru, whom we briefly see on a much changed Kaminar. Kelpians and their erstwhile predator species are living in harmony now, even if the predators still look like evil Lovecraftian critters. Saru is well respected on Kaminar and argues for rejoining the Federation. However, he also misses Discovery. Su’Kal tells Saru that he will be fine and has found friends and that Saru can go back, if he wants to, as long as he visits on occasion.

The joyful event is interrupted, when Starfleet headquarters receives a distress call from Deep Space Repair Station Beta 6, which just suffered a catastrophic failure of unknown origin. No other Starfleet ship is close enough to help and the nearest Federation planet, which just happened to be Book’s homeworld Kwejian, is also too far away. So it’s up to the Discovery and her magic mushroom drive to save the day. However, the Discovery also has a passenger, President Lara Rillick, who tags along for the mission because she wants to see the crew in action.

Michael is less than happy about this. She doesn’t like politicians and believes that the President is just coming along to tick a box. However, Lara Rillick is also the president and Michael can’t just leave her behind. Furthermore, President Rillick also turns out to be more knowledgable about space travel than Michael originally assumed, since she used to be a cargo ship pilot. Finally, Lara Rillick also knows what the Kobayashi Maru test is. My initial thought was, “Wait a minute, they’re still doing that stupid test seven hundred years in the future.”  AV-Club reviewer Zack Handlen seems to have the same impression.

From this point on, “Kobayashi Maru” turns into a straight up rescue mission episode. Not only is the Beta 6 station completely out of control, barely any of their systems are functioning. The Discovery manages to stabilise the station and hail the stationmaster who reports that most of his systems have failed and he has no idea why, but an engineer and some programmable matter should help. So Michael orders Adira, who is now an Ensign and has more experience with programmable matter than anyone on board, and Tilly, who’s now a Lieutenant and has plenty of away mission experience, to beam over to Beta 6.

Star Trek Discovery consistently looks good – the best looking of all Star Trek shows – and the Beta 6 scenes are no exception. Because the artificial gravity on the station had failed, Tilly, Adira and the station crew are walking on the ceilings.

Tilly and Adira are on their way to repairing everything – in spite of a hovering and overprotective stationmaster – when more trouble strikes. For no sooner has the Discovery figured out just what happened to Beta 6 – they were struck by a gravitational anomaly – that both the Discovery and the station are pelted by a swarm of meteorites caused by the gravitional distortion. The Discovery extends her shields around the station, but the required energy output is too great and they can’t keep it up very long, even with Stamets working his tech magic. So Michael orders everybody on Beta 6 evacuated, which frankly is what they should have done in the first place.

However, the transporter inconveniently malfunctions, as it tends to do in these situations, which leaves Adira, Tilly and the Beta 6 crew with a dilemma.  They can’t get to the rescue shuttle, because the rest of the station has lost life support and they have no spacesuits in the command center. And while the command center has a small escape pod, it can only fly one way and is not big enough to fit the entire crew plus Tilly. and Adira.

Adira thinks that they can reprogram the escape pod to return to the station, but more trouble occurs, for debris has jammed the escape pods ejection system and there’s nothing anybody can do from the inside. And Discovery‘s repair robots cannot navigate in the meteorite storm. Someone has to go out in a one-person vehicle and remove the debris. Michael immediately volunteers, but President Rillak points out – quite correctly – that the captain’s place is on the bridge and not on a dangerous away mission. Of course, this is Star Trek, so the captain and first officer will always beam down together into dangerous situation and only survive due to the sacrifice of a random redshirt. Michael, meanwhile, points out that she is the person on board with the most extravehicular experience, so she’s going. Rillak isn’t happy with this, but throwing the captain in the brig during a crisis is never a good idea, so she lets Michael go.

Things go wrong once again, when Michael’s vehicle is hit and she is reduced to removing debris in just a spacesuit. The stationmaster takes just this moment to have a freak-out and wants to head to the shuttle bay through the part of the station that has no life support. When Tilly and Adira try to stop him, he pulls a gun on them. Now President Rillak does something useful. She talks to the stationmaster and uses her knowledge about his home planet to calm him down and him to lower the gun. Of course, Rillak was lying and never visited the stationmaster’s planet at all; she just read his file. Michael is not happy about Rillak lying, but then Rillak’s lies got the stationmaster to lower the gun, which is a win in my book.

Once Michael has cleared away the debris, the escape pod can finally depart, but there is yet more trouble ahead, because the escape pod needs to make two trips to rescue everybody. Meanwhile, the shields are failing. Rillak wants the Discovery to get the hell out of there, but Michael isn’t willing to leave Tilly, Adira and the stationmaster behind to die. Rillak points out that staying means that everybody aboard the Discovery might die and then gives Michael a variation of the “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” line. Part of me hoped that Michael would reply with, “Yes, I know. My brother always said that.” But she doesn’t.

The escape pod makes it to the Discovery‘s shuttle bay just as the shields fail. The Discovery jumps, but the shuttle bay takes a hit. Tilly and Adira survive with little more than bruises, but stationmaster (who may never have worn a red shirt, but was a classic redshirt nonetheless) is killed. Poor fellow was doomed the moment he started talking about his homeplanet.

Michael, being Michael, is sad that she couldn’t save everybody, but President Rillak points out that they saved more lives than they lost. She also starts talking about the Kobayashi Maru test and reveals that she’s not just aboard the Discovery to “tick a box”, as Michael put it. No, Starfleet is looking for a captain for their latest experimental ship, ironically named Voyager (watch it suffer mishaps and be flung hell knows where on its maiden voyage). Michael was on the longlist, but she did not make the shortlist, because she’s unwilling to make “hard choices(TM)” and too much of a maverick, something that will surprise absolutely no one who has watched the past three seasons of Star Trek Discovery.

Personally, I’m with Michael here and agree that she shouldn’t have abandoned Tilly, Adira and the doomed stationmaster, while there was still a chance to save them. Also, as I’ve pointed out several times (most recently here) my yardstick for evaluating spaceship captains has always been “What would Commander McLane from Raumpatrouille Orion do?” And while Michael may have failed the President Rillak test, she just passed the “What would Commander McLane do?” test with flying colours. And indeed, of all the Star Trek captains, Michael probably is the one who is most like McLane with regard to mentality, because she’s also a maverick who will never abandon anybody, if there’s a chance to save them. And I for one can’t argue with that.  McLane would also have found a way to cheat the Kobayashi Maru test BTW.

In his review at io9, James Whitbrook rightly points out that Michael and the Discovery crew have plot armour, which allows them to pull off the most impossible missions and snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat every single time. Yes, the plot is rigged in favour of Michael.

However, what James Whitbrook fails to point out (though the episode itself does) is that Kobayashi Maru type no-win scenarios are just as rigged. Because in order for a Kobayashi Maru scenario to work the way it should (There’s no way out. Everybody will die every single time), the author has to eliminate all sorts of ways to save the day without death and bloodshed.  And readers/viewers are normally very good at finding ways to rescue everybody. That’s why people (including yours truly) have been picking apart and rewriting Tom Godwin’s “The Cold Equations” for almost seventy years, because “The Cold Equations” features a badly rigged (at the insistence of John W. Campbell) no win scenario.

This episode of Discovery is actually a good example for a rigged no win scenario. The most logical course of action would have been to evacuate the station crew at once rather than to try to repair the station. When the repair attempts fail, the writers take the transporter, which could have saved everybody, out of the game (there’s a reason transporters malfunction on Star Trek all the time). Then the rescue shuttle is on the wrong deck and the escape pod too small for everybody, even though it makes no sense that a civilisation as advanced as the Federation would not have an escape pod big enough for everybody with some redundancies in case they need to pick up an extra Adira and Tilly. In short, the whole situation is rigged, which is okay, because that is what writers do. And it actually holds up and doesn’t have too many logical issues, which is more than you can say for many of these stories.

That said, I do like President Rillak, even if the episodes sets her up as an opponent to Michael. She reminds me of characters like General Lydia Van Dyke, General Wamsler and Colonel Villa in Raumpatrouille Orion, who forever try to reign in the maverick McLane. Of course, I have Orion on my mind currently, because I’m in the middle of reviewing the whole series for Galactic Journey, but there really are a lot of similarities between Discovery and Orion. Star Trek and Orion are transatlantic siblings anyway, two shows born in the same cultural moment (debuting ten days apart), drawing on the same sources and tackling similar themes. Which would make Discovery the great-niece of Orion, I guess. And I’m pretty sure Michael and McLane would get along swimmingly.

While Michael is retaking the Kobayashi Maru test, Book enjoys a peaceful moment with his adoptive brother Kyheem and nephew Leto on Kwejian (which looks like British Columbia on a rare sunny day). Leto is an empath just like his Dad and uncle and so Book and Kyheem take him to the world root, a large tree root that is sacred to his people. They take some sap from the root and put it in a glass capsule together with a drop of blood. Empaths like Kyheem and Leto always wear this capsule around their neck, though Book seems to have mislaid his.

The peace and quiet is interrupted by a huge flock of birds flying up into the sky. Something is wrong, so Book returns to his ship to figure out what. The ship is suddenly hit by the same gravitational distortion which took out Beta 6 and pelted by debris. Book barely has time to get off a warning, before the damage knocks him out.

The ship returns to the Discovery on autopilot with Book unsconscious. Once he recovers and reports what happened, the Discovery heads to Kwejian, but the planet is a burning cinder in space, completely destroyed. Book’s family and everybody else he knew is most likely dead.

After some rough early seasons (and season 1 is very rough indeed), Star Trek Discovery seems to have found its feet in the 30th century. We get a mix of Star Trek doing what it does best – saving lives against impossible odds, while delivering inspirational speeches and moral dilemmas – with a more modern style of storytelling, more action and season arcs. The gravitational distortion and whatever or whoever causes it seems to be the main arc for this season. It doesn’t look very impressive – Zack Handlen calls it a “scary black cloud” – but it certainly is powerful and nasty.

A promising start to season 4. A pity that thanks to Paramount’s dick move, viewers outside the US and Canada won’t be able to watch it legally.

A Trio of Public Service Announcements regarding the Hugos and Other Stuff

As the title says, this post is a trio of brief public service announcements.

For starters, voting for the 2021 Hugo Awards closes today. So if you’re a member of DisCon III and haven’t voted yet, you still have a few hours, so go here and vote.

As you probably know, I’m a Hugo finalist for Best Fan Writer this year and of course, I’d be honoured if you were to vote for me. But if you’d rather vote for one of my most excellent fellow finalists, that’s okay as well, because they all do great work.

While we’re on the subject of the Hugos, issue 59 of the Hugo-nominated and Hugo-winning fanzine Journey Planet is available and the theme is – yes – the Hugos.

I have an article in this issue and talk about one of my favourite Hugo winning stories of all time, “Ill Met in Lankhmar” by Fritz Leiber, winner of the 1971 Hugo Award (and Nebula Award) for Best Novella.

You can download the issue here.

Finally, I’m also over at Galactic Journey again, where I discuss episode 5, “The Battle for the Sun” of the West German science fiction show Raumpatrouille Orion a.k.a. Space Patrol Orion.

It’s been a while since I last watched Orion all the way through, but while I of course remembered that this is the episode featuring Margot Trooger as the ruler of the planet of the women, I had completely forgotten that “Battle for the Sun” also has a global warming plot – in 1966. Plus, Tamara Jagellovsk comments on Commander Cliff Alister McLane’s kissing abilities.