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First Monday Free Fiction: Angoraphobia

Welcome to the April 2021 edition of First Monday Free Fiction.

To recap, inspired by Kristine Kathryn Rusch who posts a free short story every week on her blog, I’ll post a free story on every first Monday of the month.

Since it’s Easter Monday, what could be more appropriate than a seasonal story? And so this week’s free story is “Angoraphobia” from my SFF collection Operation Rubber Ducky. No, the title is not a typo, though the story was inspired by someone mistyping “agoraphobia” as “angoraphobia”, whereupon I wondered, “So what would angoraphobia be then? A pathological fear of fluffy sweaters?” The story grew from there.

But what exactly makes a story about people suffering from a pathological fear of fluffy sweaters appropriate to the Easter season? Well, because there are also fluffy killer bunnies from outer space, ’nuff said.

So read all about the shocking new psychiatric condition known as…

Angoraphobia

“And this…” Professor Pohland came to a halt in front of a locked patient room. “…is a particularly interesting case. For you see, this patient suffers from an extreme form of angoraphobia.”

“Ahem…” One of the interns, a young man with pale skin and shaggy dark hair, raised his hand. Of course. There was always one. “Don’t you mean agoraphobia, Professor?”

“No, Mister…?”

Professor Pohland turned the full force of his glare onto the intern, who promptly crumbled.

“Zach… Zacharias.”

“No, Mr. Zacharias, I meant angoraphobia.” Professor Pohland turned on the rest of the interns, eyes blinking furiously behind his little round glasses. “So who knows what angoraphobia is? Anybody? Anybody?”

The interns exchanged glances, clearly confused. Finally, one of them, a young dark-skinned man with a chubby face, stuck up his hand. The clown of the group. Of course.

“Yes, Mr. Wendell?”

“Pathological fear of fluffy sweaters,” Mr. Wendell said, obviously barely able to keep himself from giggling.

“Well, this is surprisingly accurate, Mr. Wendell,” Professor Pohland said, “I’m stunned, I truly am. Though the official definition of angoraphobia is a bit wider than just pathological fear of fluffy sweaters. Indeed, angoraphobia involves a pathological fear of any products made from angora wool or similar materials due to the delusional belief that giant fluffy rabbits are trying to take over the Earth.”

Mr. Wendell broke down first, erupting into a fit of laughter. Soon all the interns were giggling.

“And that’s like… a thing?” Mr. Zacharias wanted to know, “I mean people believing that giant rabbits are trying to take over the Earth is honestly a thing?”

“Yes, angoraphobia is really a ‘thing’ as you so eloquently put it, Mr. Zacharias. The condition is on the rise with people being hospitalised for it all over the country, perhaps even all over the world.”

There was a new round of giggles.

“But shouldn’t it rather be ‘the delusional belief that giant fussy goats are trying to take over the world’?” Mr Wendell pointed out, “After all, angora wool comes from goats, doesn’t it? Or was it sheep?”

“No, Mr. Wendell, angora wool is indeed produced from the coat of the angora rabbit,” the Professor explained, “You are thinking of mohair, a similar fibre produced from the hair of the angora goat.”

“But whether it’s goats or sheep or rabbits doesn’t really matter does it?” another intern, a serious young woman with straight dark hair and thick glasses, pointed out, “I mean, the big question here is why are we suddenly seeing an epidemic of psychiatric cases of people suffering from the delusional belief that giant fluffy rabbits from outer space are trying to take over the world? Cause that’s a rather bizarre delusion to have, isn’t it?”

Professor Pohland turned his glare on her. “Delusions are bizarre by definition, Miss Krueger.”

“Yes, but why fluffy rabbits from outer space? Why not goats or sheep or turtles or ducks or something like that? Why rabbits? That’s rather specific, isn’t it?”

This one was smart. She knew what questions to ask. Time to defuse her.

“Miss Krueger here asks the right questions,” Professor Pohland said. In response, Miss Krueger’s thin lips actually condescended to form a smile. “Indeed, we do not know why we are seeing a rising incidence of this very particular phobia. But if I were to hazard a guess, I would suspect that it has something to do with some kind of Internet conspiracy theory similar to the Slender Man phenomenon.”

“Uhm, Slender Man is totally real, dudes,” Mr. Zacharias said. A glare from Professor Pohland silenced him.

“So is there a website or anything about this ‘fluffy bunny from outer space’ story?” the ever astute Miss Krueger continued, “Cause I really refuse to believe that such a bizarre idea simply develops in a vacuum.”

“Well, I suppose there is,” Professor Pohland replied, “Though I am not in the habit of visiting websites peddling delusional beliefs.”

Mr. Wendell tapped onto his smartphone and announced, “Eighty-two thousand hits for ‘fluffy bunnies from outer space’, though many of these seem to be for some kind of videogame.”

“But in the case of this patient, wouldn’t it be helpful to check those websites — well, not the ones about the videogame obviously — to investigate the origin of this particular phobia?” Miss Krueger wanted to know.

“Miss Krueger, it is not the psychiatrist’s job to take a patient’s delusions seriously,” the Professor snapped, “In fact, taking delusions seriously might seriously harm the patient’s recovery.”

Miss Krueger took a look through the small window in the door of the patient room. “Well, he certainly doesn’t look as if he’s on the way to recovery,” she remarked, “And anyway, I would simply like to understand why. I mean, how do we know about his phobia at all? Did he just walk into the clinic one day and started babbling about fluffy bunnies from outer space?”

“Actually, she has a point,” Mr. Zacharias added.

“With regards to this particular patient…” Professor Pohland consulted his file. “…he was arrested after going on a rampage in a store selling women’s knitwear, where he attacked both customers and staff, while yelling ‘You’re one of them’.”

Mr. Wendell was about to erupt into giggles again, but a glare from the Professor silenced him.

“Afterwards, the patient was committed for endangering himself and others.”

“And we have no idea how he came to fear angora sweaters and believe in fluffy bunnies from outer space?” the ever irrepressible Miss Krueger wanted to know, “All we know is that he rioted in a knitwear store?”

“I assure you, Miss Krueger, the patient’s symptoms are only too visible,” the Professor countered, “Perhaps a little demonstration is in order.”

Professor Pohland looked from intern to intern and finally settled on a quiet blonde girl who hadn’t said anything so far. “You there! Yes, you. I’m sorry, what was your name again?”

“Jenkins,” the girl said in a voice like a cartoon character. Oh yes, she would do very well indeed. “Jessie Jenkins.”

“Would you please come over here, Miss Jenkins?”

Miss Jenkins walked over to stand beside the Professor, who showed an inordinate amount of interest in her fluffy pink sweater.

“Well, it’s not real angora, of course…” The Professor wrinkled his nose. “But it’ll do. Come on, Miss Jenkins, let’s meet the patient.”

As if on cue, Professor Pohland unlocked the door and opened it. The patient, who up to now had been sitting on his bunk in a straightjacket, suddenly looked up.

“You’re one of them,” he screamed, “One of them.”

He probably would have launched himself at Miss Jenkins and the Professor, if the straightjacket hadn’t held him back.

“You’re one of them and you’ve come to get me,” the patient screamed, “But you won’t. I won’t let you.”

Professor Pohland shut the door in his face, while Miss Krueger put an arm around the trembling Miss Jenkins.

“You see?” Professor Pohland exclaimed triumphantly, “A mere glimpse of Miss Jenkins’ sweater was enough to trigger a fully blown psychotic break.”

“That was cruel,” Miss Krueger hissed, while still comforting Miss Jenkins.

“Cruel, but a necessary demonstration,” the Professor countered, “And I assure you that if Miss Jenkins were to go back into the patient’s room without her sweater, he would be perfectly docile.”

“You want her to go back in there?” Miss Krueger demanded.

“And you want her to take off her sweater?” Mr. Zacharias added.

“Merely for demonstrative purposes,” Professor Pohland replied.

Miss Krueger patted Miss Jenkins’ back. “It’s all right, Jessie. I’ll go with you.”

After approximately five minutes, Miss Krueger and Miss Jenkins returned. Miss Jenkins had taken off her sweater and was now sporting a pale pink blouse topped by a lab coat.

“Fine.” Professor Pohland flashed Miss Jenkins an encouraging smile. “Come on. I assure you, he won’t bite.”

Miss Jenkins took a hesitant step forward and then another, Miss Krueger always by her side.

Professor Pohland handed her the keys. “Here, Miss Krueger. If you’d like to do the honour…” Then he hung back, moving out of sight of the door.

Miss Krueger unlocked the door and cautiously opened it a crack. The patient was sitting on his bunk again, slowly rocking back and forth. As the door opened, he looked up.

Miss Krueger took a step inside, followed by a hesitant Miss Jenkins.

“Hello,” Miss Krueger said, “I’m Sarah and this is Jessie. We just wanted to see if you needed any help.”

The patient scrutinised first Miss Krueger and then Miss Jenkins. “You were with one of them,” he finally said, “Just a minute ago, you were here with one of them.”

“Yes, we were here a minute ago,” Miss Krueger said, “Jessie was here. Do you remember?”

“Of course, I remember,” the patient said, “You were with one of them. The two of you, a skinny white boy and a chubby black boy and one of them.”

“And who would ‘they’ be?” Miss Krueger wanted to know.

“One of the fluffy bunnies from outer space who’ve come to conquer Earth and exterminate us all,” the patient said, “Come on, you must have seen him. I mean, a six foot tall fluffy bunny is kind of hard to miss, isn’t he?”

He lowered his voice. “They’re dangerous, you know? You should keep away from him, keep far away from him. Cause they want to kill us all.”

Miss Krueger retreated, Miss Jenkins in tow. Once outside, she quickly closed and locked the door.

Miss Krueger shook her had. “Totally barking mad,” she said.

***

Two hours later, Professor Pohland was alone in his office, speaking into his computer.

“No, sir, we still have no idea why our glamour fails to affect a certain percentage of humanity. But our attempts to discredit those who can perceive our true nature has been a rousing success. Operation: Conquest and Extermination is still on track.”

A fluffy white paw rested on the mouse.

The End

***

That’s it for this month’s edition of First Monday Free Fiction. Check back next month, when a new free story will be posted.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier tangle with the “Power Broker”

Apparently, I am doing episode by episode reviews for the entire series of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, so if you want my thoughts on previous episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, go here. Also, may I remind you that Disney is still not paying Alan Dean Foster and others.

Warning: Spoilers behind the cut!

This episode starts with a commercial for the so-called Global Repatriation Council, a UN organisation that has been tasked with taking care of the people who were brought back into existence after five years of non-existence. The commercial is so dripping with pathos that it not only makes you roll your eyes, but also makes you want to join the Flag-Smashers, the organisation that opposes the Global Repatriation Council.

And just in case we didn’t get that the Global Repatriation Council are hypocrites and that the ad we just saw is nothing but propaganda, the show cuts immediately from the ad to a raid conducted by the Munich police and the Global Repatriation Council as well as the faux Captain America and his pal Battlestar on a Flag-Smasher hideout. Of course, the uniforms are all wrong for German riot police nor would any German police officer wear a German flag on their uniform – after all, it’s not as if Austrian or Danish or Dutch police officers would operate in Germany. Instead, they would have the coat of arms of the respective state (here Bavaria) on their uniforms. Not to mention that the German police would not conduct a raid together on German soil with forces from other countries, let alone the would-be superheroes Captain Nationalism and his Battlestar.

In fact, the hideout is the same we saw last episode (so it was in Munich and not in Austria, as we assumed), though Karli and her friends are long gone. Chicken liver man is still there, though, and not at all happy about having armed goons and would-be superheroes invading his warehouse or whatever that graffiti covered building is supposed to be. Battlestar attempts to interrogate chicken liver man in bad German (Dude, at the very least he learned English at school and can understand you all right, he just doesn’t want to answer). Chicken liver man spits into the face of faux Cap to cheers everywhere. “Do you know who I am?” faux Cap demands. “Yes, and I don’t care”, Chicken liver man replies. So let’s hear it for chicken liver man, unsung hero of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

However, once more the scene stops short of being great and questioning the assumptions that underlie that Marvel Universe and superhero movies and comics altogether. For both the Marvel and DC movies tend to assume that in general, ordinary people will like superheroes and worship them. However, neither the Marvel comics nor the Marvel movies have ever asked the question how people from other countries will feel when confronted by explicitly patriotic superheroes. Characters like Captain America, War Machine in his Iron Patriot phase, Captain Britain, Union Jack, Alpha Flight and others are not not universal heroes, they’re the heroes of a specific country. How did the people of Stuttgart feel when Captain America (the real one) showed up in his flag costume to fight Loki in The Avengers? For that matter, how did the people of Sokovia feel about that? Or the people of Lagos, which was trashed by the Avengers? Or how did the Afghan people or wherever that was supposed to be set feel when Rhodey in his full star-sprangled Iron Patriot get-up burst into that sweat shop looking for the Mandarin in Iron Man 3? I suspect a lot of them would have reacted more like chicken liver man than cheer on the Avengers. And Rhodey and Steve are good guys, who genuinely mean well, whereas John Walker is just a bully.

The Marvel movies usually gloss over those questions, though we do see that the people of Sokovia object to the Avengers, particularly to Iron Man, since their country got bombed by plenty of unwanted Stark missiles. Chicken liver man’s confrontation with faux Cap might have been a chance to actually ask those questions. Instead, it’s glossed over once again in favour of hollow action scenes. Though we do get a moment later on, where the villain of the piece, Baron Zemo, says that the reason he objects to superheroes is that if you put them on a pedestal, they lose all accountability. He also points out that making supersoldiers might just as well result in a world of Red Skulls than in a world of Steve Rogers. Or a world of John Walkers, for that matter.

When we last saw our protagonists Bucky and Steve, they were about to visit Helmut Zemo in prison in Berlin. We now see them at the prison, which looks like no German prison anywhere, escorted by a guard in a uniform that does not look like a German prison warden uniform either. Though at least, this time the wrong uniform is emblazoned with the Berlin coat of arms, so they got that bit correct. Bucky wants to go in and talk to Zemo alone. Reluctantly, Sam lets him.

Bucky meets Zemo not in a monitored visitor room, as would be normal, but in a Silence of the Lambs type cell with a glass wall. Of course, that sort of thing doesn’t exist in German prison except maybe in Stammheim. Also, why is Zemo held in a regular prison in Berlin and not in Stammheim which would be far more appropriate for a terrorist and supervillain?

When Bucky shows up, Zemo immediately begins to recite the list of random Russian words that will reset his brainwashing. “That doesn’t work anymore”, Bucky says and tells Zemo that someone has managed to recreate the supersoldier serum. Zemo is genuinely shocked, but then we know that he hates superbeings in general and supersoldiers in particular. He also offers to help. There’s only one problem. Zemo is still in prison.

There is a cut and we see Bucky and Sam in what seems to be some kind of garage. Bucky lays out a totally hypothetical plan for busting Zemo out of jail, while Sam vocally objects. We also see Bucky’s plan – distract the guards by inciting two random prisoners to fight, trigger a fire alarm, Zemo escapes in the chaos – play out on screen, which suggests that it’s far more than just a hypothetical plan. Cue Zemo walking into the garage.

Of course, the fact that the prison break plays out on screen gives the production team the chance to insert even more random errors. The uniforms of the guards are still wrong, the prison still looks wrong and the racial mix of the inmates is completely wrong as well. Because this is a show made by Americans, we see several black prisoners, because that is what you would see in a US prison. However, there are roughly half a million black people living in Germany, i.e. under one percent of the population. Of course, Berlin has a higher percentage of black people, e.g. there are about 20000 people of Ghanaian origin living in Berlin alone. And while our police and justice system may not be quite as racist as that of the US, it is still racist, so black people likely (I don’t know of any statistics) have a higher chance of going to prison for the same charges than white people. So black prisoners would not be unexpected in a regular prison in Berlin (and you would see a lot more in deportation detention), but I wouldn’t expect half of the prisoners we see to be black and the other half to be white. Meanwhile, there are no prisoners of Turkish or Arab origin, even though I would expect to see quite a few in a Berlin prison, since Berlin is home to approx. 250000 to 300000 people of Turkish origin and about 70000 of Arab origin. You would also see a few Asians, since Berlin is home to 83000 people of Vietnamese origin as well as a couple of thousand people of Chinese and Thai origin. So in short, the ehtnic make-up is what an American viewer would expect from a prison, but not what a German prison actually looks like.

Sam isn’t at all happy to see Zemo, though he is willing to go along with the plan for now. Sam is also surprised that the impressive collection of pricey vintage cars in the garage is actually Zemo’s. “So you were rich all the time?” Sam asks. “Of course”, Zemo replies, “I used to be a Baron before the Americans destroyed my country.”

At this point, my reaction was, “Dude, the Soviets confiscated the estates of German aristocrats, but the Americans usually didn’t and West Germany even paid compensation to aristocrats who lost their estates in the eastern parts of Germany, including what are now parts of Poland and Russia. But while the Americans and Brits bombed German cities to smithereens, they rarely bothered with country estates. Not to mention that all that happened decades before you were even born. So don’t whine, cause I’m sure you’re doing just fine.” And indeed, as we will see, Zemo is doing just fine. He has a collection of vintage cars, a private jet and a cool supervillain coat.

However, I eventually realised, we don’t really know whether the country Zemo is talking about really is Germany or whether he is referring to Sokovia. Of course, Sokovia went likely communist after WWII, so Zemo’s family would have lost their estates anyway. But the fact remains that the show isn’t particularly clear about what nationality Zemo even is. In the comics, Zemo is your bog-standard Nazi villain and of course German. Besides, Helmut is a German name (and Zemo is no name anybody anywhere ever bore outside a comic book) and actor Daniel Brühl is a dual German and Spanish citizen, but he could still play a Sokovian. However, the Sokovia we’ve seen is clearly a slavic, likely South East European country and Zemo is very much not slavic. Of course, migration as well as the extensive German and Hungaro-Austrian Empire dumped people with German names and German heritage all over Eastern Europe. But the whole thing is really badly thought out.

In the comics, Zemo is a cliché villain, yet another evil Nazi for Captain America to beat up. Gee, and John Walker wonders why chicken liver man might not like him, considering that Captain American was literally created to fight Germans and Japanese. And while the Japanese villains of the golden age Captain America comics have thankfully been consigned to the dustbin of racist history, the Nazi villains – the Red Skull, Baron von Strucker, Baron Zemo – made it all the way into the 21st century and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

That said, the Zemo was saw in Captain America: Civil War was a far cry from the evil Nazi cliché of the comics, as far as Ben Kingsley’s washed-up actor take on the Mandarin was from the yellow peril cliché of the comics. The way Daniel Brühl played him, Zemo was a soft-spoken but smart guy with a justified grudge against superheroes in general and the Avengers in particular. He’s also ruthless about using people and doesn’t care about who gets in his way. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. It’s nothing personal”, he tells Bucky in this episode, just as he said something similar to T’Challa in Captain America: Civil War, after killing T’Challa’s father. Next to Eric Killmonger and Loki, Zemo is probably the most nuanced Marvel movie villain. However, unlike Killmonger and Loki, Zemo is also badly underused. We see very little of him even in his own movie. Therefore, I was happy to see more of Zemo, especially since he’s also charismatic and actually sort of sympathetic, again like Loki or Killmonger. The fact that Daniel Brühl, the actor who plays him, is immensely likeable also helps. Brühl plays almost always good guys. Even if he plays ambiguous characters like Catalan militant activist Salvador Puig Antich, one of the last two people executed by garrotte in Spain, Brühl is still likeable and the 2006 movie Salvador does sympathise with him. You can see a clip of the execution scene here (warning, graphic), which I came across years ago while researching The Butcher of Spain.

Daniel Brühl’s take on Baron Zemo oscillates between likeable and menacing. Zemo really seems to enjoy winding up Sam and particularly Bucky, e.g. when he snatches Bucky’s notebook, which turns out to be Steve’s old notebook, and reads it, which is really a dick move. This leads to an amusing exchange when Sam tries to persuade Bucky to listen to the 1972 Marvin Gaye album “Trouble Man”, which he’d previously recommended to Steve. But while Steve apparently wound up liking it, Bucky declares that he only likes 1940s music. Sam is annoyed that Bucky won’t even try, while Zemo declares that “Trouble Man” is a masterpiece that perfectly captures the African American experience (and Zemo knows this how exactly?). “Well, he’s out of line, but he’s right”, Sam snaps. The title song of the album is here, by the way, and while I wouldn’t quite call it a masterpiece, it’s certainly good. Also, 1970s soul is not so far away from 1940s jazz and swing that Bucky or Steve would have problems relating. Rap or hip-hop would be a lot more difficult for them.

Zemo tells Sam and Bucky that they need to go to Madripoor in Zemo’s handy private jet to talk to someone named Selby who might know more. Now Madripoor is a location that particularly longtime readers of the X-Men comics will recognise. Basically, it’s a fictional cliched South East Asian city that’s also a hive of scum and villainy. It’s part Singapore, part Hongkong, part Bangkok, part Macau mixed with a large dash of western fantasies and prejudices about South East Asia. Wolverine spent a lot of time there in the 1980s and 1990s. It hasn’t been seen in the Marvel movies so far, largely because the rights were with Fox as part of the X-Men franchise. However, now that Disney bought up Fox, they can use Madripoor. Though if you’d asked me what the first things from the X-Men and Fantastic Four that we’d see in the Marvel Cinematic Universe would be, Evan Peters as Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver and Madripoor would be far down my list.

The Madripoor we see in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is its typical cliched self. The production team apparently decided to go with the aesthetics of a stereotypical neon-drenched Asian cyberpunk city. However, all the vaguely Asian trappings are only facade. Because the people we see in Madripoor are a generic mix of black and white people with nary an Asian in sight – in a city that is supposedly located in South East Asia. The clothes the characters wear are also way too warm for a tropical climate, but perfectly appropriate for Prague in winter. Now I’ve seen quite a lot of people object to Madripoor, because it is a cliché and a tired one at that. However, I find Madripoor less objectionable than using real places and then showing them looking nothing like they look in reality. Because Madipoor (and Sokovia and Wakanda, for that matter) are fictional, they can look however the production wants them to look. Never mind that projecting orientalist fantasies about lawless South East Asian port cities onto real cities and countries such as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hongkong, etc… would be even more offensive. That said, a supposedly South East Asian city state without any Asians is just eye-rollingly stupid.

In Madripoor, our heroes and their pet villain head to a nightclub run by a woman named Selby who apparently deals in endangered animals, another Asian cliché. I don’t think Selby is a character from the comics – at any rate, I don’t recognise her. Zemo can go as himself, while Bucky has to pose as the Winter Soldier again. Sam is decked out in a colourful suit, which gave me fabric envy, and passed off as a gangster called the Smiling Tiger. “I look like a pimp”, Sam complains. “Only Americans would say that a well-dressed black man looks like a pimp”, Zemo counters. The often heavy-handed racism theme that dominated the last two episodes is almost completely absent in this one – except for Zemo’s two offhand remarks that he is very much aware that Sam is black and must have experienced a lot of racism in his life, something that Bucky doesn’t really seem to grasp.

At Selby’s night club, poor Sam is forced to drink a disgusting cocktail made from the guts of a freshly killed snake, since that’s apparently Smiling Tiger’s signature drink. Bucky is forced to play the Winter Soldier and attack some thugs on Zemo’s say-so, a role he plays a little too well, as Zemo can’t help but point out, though at least Bucky doesn’t seem to kill anybody in this scene.

Selby also finally delivers an infodump about the supersoldier serum. It was made by a scientist called Wilfred Nagel (Sigh, another bad guy with a vaguely German name) who works for the Power Broker who is the current ruler of Madripoor. Now the Power Broker is an established Marvel villain, though he had nothing to do with Madripoor in the comics. Instead, Madripoor’s ruler was a woman named Tyger Tiger who had an affair with Wolverine (but then, who didn’t?). Hydra also had a hand in ruling Madripoor, though this was the Hydra run by Viper/Madame Hydra (who – big surprise – also had an affair with Wolverine and was even briefly married to him) rather than Strucker’s Nazi Hydra from the movies.

Karli Morgenthau and her Flag-Smashers stole about twenty vials of the serum from the Power Broker who now wants them dead. Finally, Selby also reveals where Nagel is to be found, namely at the Madripoor container terminal. At this moment, Sam gets a phonecall from his sister – and why didn’t he switch off his phone during the mission? – which blows everybody’s cover. “Kill them”, Selby orders, but before her goons can carry out that order, Selby herself is shot by an unseen sniper.

“This is not good”, Zemo says in what has to be the understatement of the century, “We will be blamed for this.” And indeed, we see beepers going off all over the city and the local bounty hunters are on our heroes’ tail. They are saved by the timely appearance of Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) whom we haven’t seen since Captain America: Civil War, where she found herself outlawed after stealing Steve’s shield and Sam’s wings and returning them to their rightful owners.

So far, Sharon Carter, though a long established character in the comics, has been badly underserved by the Marvel movies. She’s barely in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. She gets a little more to do in Captain America: Civil War, but her main purpose in that movie is literally handing back the shield to Steve. Sharon doesn’t appear at all in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame to the point that we have no idea whether she was dusted or not. Furthermore, Sharon’s traditional role in the comics as Steve Rogers’ love interest is void, because Steve went back to be with Peggy (who’s Sharon’s great-aunt) in the past. So Sharon Carter is a character at loose ends, though she still fares better than Steve’s other girlfriend from the comics Bernadette “Bernie” Rosenthal, who doesn’t exist in the movies at all.

We knew that Sharon would be in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, though the way she’s reintroduced is something of a surprise, because Sharon is angry. She’s really fucking angry, because while Sam and Bucky and Hawkeye and Ant-Man and Wanda and everybody else who sided with Steve during Civil War was pardoned and got their old lives back, Sharon is still on the run and can’t ever go back to the US. And Steve never even called (and neither did Sam), but went back in time to marry her great-aunt. So yes, Sharon has every right to be angry.

Sam promises that he’ll get Sharon a pardon – after all, he managed to get one for “the bionic staring machine” (Bucky) and what Bucky did was considerably worse. So Sharon agrees to help them and takes them to her fancy apartment where she hosts fancy parties and deals in stolen artwork. In short, Sharon has gone to the dark side, though how fully still has to be seen. “She’s kind of awful now”, Bucky whispers to Sam.

Sam and Bucky change their clothes at Sharon’s and everybody hangs out at one of her fancy parties. The next day, they all decide to see Nagel, only to find that the address Selby gave them before her untimely end (at the hands of Sharon, it is implied) is a seemingly empty container at the Madripoor container terminal. Sharon waits outside, while Sam, Bucky and Zemo investigate. “Check the rear wall”, I screamed at the screen, “It’s obviously fake.”

And indeed, the rear wall turns out to be fake and reveals a set of stairs that lead upwards, presumably to the container above. Not that assembling several containers into a larger connected structure isn’t possible. It totally is possible and a lot of mobile offices, classrooms, etc… are assembled this way. However, those are not shipping containers and – most importantly – they’re not on a container lot, where containers don’t stay in one place for long. But then, Iron Man 3 proved extensively that Marvel has no idea how containers work.

Up the stairs, Bucky, Sam and Zemo find a lab and Wilfred Nagel who looks not unlike the babyfaced Q from the Daniel Craig Bond movies and is just as much of an arse. Nagel delivers some more exposition. He used to work for Hydra on their supersoldier program. When Hydra was destroyed, he was recruited by the CIA for their supersoldier program and provided with blood samples of a surviving supersoldier test subject, Isaiah Bradley whom we met last episode. However, before Nagel could complete his work on the supersoldier serum, he was zapped by Thanos and when he came back five years later, the program had been discontinued. So Nagel went to the Power Broker and finally finished his serum. It’s different from the one that was used on Steve and doesn’t result in bulky muscles. That’s why the Flag-Smashers don’t look particularly muscular.

While Sam, Bucky and Zemo are interrogating Nagel, the bounty hunters have tracked down our heroes. Sharon holds them off, showing off her fighting skills. Once Nagel has finished delivering his infodump, Zemo shoots him to the shock of Bucky and Sam. It is notable that every character in this episode is promptly killed off, once they have delivered their infodump. The fight with the bounty hunters escalates and eventually the container lab explodes. Bucky manages to rescue Sam and Sharon, but Zemo has vanished. We next see him standing on top of a container, wearing the silly purple mask he also wears in the comics (where he at least has a reason, because his face is disfigured) and shooting at the bounty hunters. Sam, Bucky and Sharon join the fight and there is a lot of shooting and bullets flying. Bucky also finds a new use for a container lock bar, namely impaling bounty hunters.

The action is all very thrilling. Nonetheless, I didn’t like this scene, because Sam, Bucky, Sharon and Zemo kill a whole lot of people. Yes, they were bounty hunters and going to kill them, but nonetheless the cavalier killing of so many people bothered me, since the Marvel movies are normally a bit more nuanced about mass dealing of death. Zemo just happens to have one of his vintage cars stashed away in a container on just this lot and picks up Bucky and Sam. Sharon is picked up in a black Mercedes (car of choice for Hollywood villains and upper middle class Germans) by a black woman who turns out to be her bodyguard. “We have problems”, Sharon says.

Quite a few people, such as io9 reviewer Germain Lussier and Tor.com reviewer Keith R.A. DeCandido, suspect that Sharon might be the Power Broker herself. The scene with the bodyguard does seem to hint at that (and why would Sharon, who can take care of herself, need a bodyguard?). Sharon Carter out to be the main villain behind everything would certainly be an interesting development, especially since she’s a character left adrift without a purpose in the story now Steve has gone back to the past. And from what little I’ve seen of Revenge, Emily VanCamp can certainly play villainous women.

While all this is going on, Karli and the Flag-Smashers (that sounds like the name of a bad 1960s band) have made their way to Riga in Latvia, after being last seen boarding a plane in Slovakia. Of course, Latvia is nowhere near Slovakia, but then I suspect that the writers chose the locations by throwing darts at a map of Europe. And given Marvel’s geographic track record so far, we should probably be happy that they don’t get Latvia, a real Baltic country, and Latveria, fiction kingdom and home of Doctor Doom, mixed up.

Karli has a heart to heart with her fellow Flag-Smasher Dovich, who turns out to be the only Asian person from Madripoor. We learn that Karli wanted to be a teacher before she decided that terrorism was a more viable career path. It all feels very Red Army Fraction, only that the Red Army Fraction has been history for 25 years now. We also see her playing football with some kids in the yard of a 19th century building which houses a camp for persons displaced by the blip. Why is a refugee camp located in a random Victorian building in a European capital rather than in disused military barracks or a tent city, which is what refugee camps look like in the real world? Only Marvel knows.

Karli is called away from her football game by someone who tells her that “She hasn’t much time left.” Next we see Karli in a makeshift medical ward (Why no hospital? Especially since Riga has plenty of hospitals) standing at the bed of a woman we later learn is named Donya Madani. The woman holds a hamsa pendant in her hand, which to me suggest that she’s Muslim and likely Arabic, though Jews apparently also use hamsa pendants. The woman is apparently dying of tuberculosis. She obviously means a lot to Karli and Karli kisses the dying woman. All this would be very touching, if we had any idea who the dying woman is and what her connection to Karli is. Some people suspect that Donya Madani is Karli’s mother, though the question is how a red-haired and freckled Swiss woman with a Staffordshire accent came by an Arabic mother. Even if we assue that the hamsa amulet suggests she’s Jewish rather than Muslim (and Karli is likely Jewish as well), it still doesn’t make sense. Frankly, my first suspicion was that the dying woman was Karli’s lover. Also, while still way too many people die of tuberculosis, this mostly happens in developing countries, because tuberculosis is treatable. You won’t see people dying of tuberculosis in a EU country like Latvia.

Also, who exactly are the people in this displaced persons camp? Logic would suggest that they are people who were zapped by Thanos and then returned to life and found their homes, jobs, etc… gone. However, Karli and the Flag-Smashers explicitly would have preferred that zapped people to remain dust. They don’t care about the zapped people, they care about the ones who remained behind. But why would the people who were not zapped end up in a refugee camp? Honestly, none of this makes any sense.

A bit later, we see Karli and the Flag-Smashers raiding a depot of the Global Repatriation Council in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania. For once the location change makes sense, because Lithuania is the neighbouring country of Latvia and it takes maybe two hours to get from Riga to Vilnius. The Flag-Smashers carry off barrels and sacks of potatoes. When they leave, the depot with the guards still inside explodes behind them. Karli has set a bomb and officially crossed the line from misguided idealist to terrorist. She really seems to be determined to follow in the footsteps of the Red Army Fraction, though we all know how that story ended.

While Karli is jetting all over Eastern Europe, Bucky and Sam are trailing Karli and John Walker and Battlestar are tracking Bucky and Sam. John Walker and Battlestar have only made it as far as Berlin, where they realise that Bucky has apparently broken Zemo out of prison. Bucky, Sam and Zemo have made it to Riga, tracking Karli via the late Donya Madani. “Riga…” Sam explains, “…is a city near the Baltic Sea”, which is like saying “Washington DC is a city on the US East Coast near the Atlantic.” Because Riga is the capital of Latvia, which has been an independent state for thirty years now (and was a Soviet Republic for fifty years before that), and should be referred to as such.

That said, Riga looks more convincing than Munich or indeed any other place we’ve seen so far, even though it is likely portrayed by Prague as well. But the cobble-stoned street we briefly see does look like the Riga I visited back in 1989 on the first school exchange with what was then still the Soviet Union. On that cobble-stoned street, Bucky finds a strange ball, which he realises is a message. He follows it and finds himself face to face with Ayo (Florence Kasumba), one of the Wakandan Dora Milaje, who was on duty when a bomb set by Zemo killed King T’Chaka. Ayo is understandably still angry about this – after all, T’Chaka was killed on her watch. And now she wants Zemo.

I have to admit that I was thrilled to see Ayo again, especially since her involvement was not mentioned earlier. Also, with Florence Kasumba there is now a second German actor in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. And her role is much less cliched than Daniel Brühl’s, probably because no one in their right mind would make Florence Kasumba play a Nazi.

This episode was pretty much all action and indeed, the writer was also responsible for the John Wick movies, as Gavia Baker-Whitelaw points out at The Daily Dot. It certainly shows, because “Power Broker” feels very much like a 21st century action movie, whether a Daniel Craig James Bond movie or a John Wick or Jason Bourne movie. As AV-Club reviewer Sulagna Misra points out, there’s very little here that we haven’t before somewhere else.

The inaccuracies, which annoyed me so much last episode, are still present. And the motives of Karli Morgenthau and the Flag-Smashers are just as muddled as they were before. The jaunt to Madripoor was fun, but all the action can’t really hide the fact that the plot doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

In his review of the first three episodes, Camestros Felapton notes that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is quite probably a bad series and nothing more than brainless action fodder. I’m not sure if it really is bad, but it at least isn’t very good so far. Marvel can do better.

Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan are good as always and Daniel Brühl is a delight as the ambiguously villainous Zemo, but the banter between Sam and Bucky, which made the previous episode so much fun, is largely missing from this one. In general, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier seems to have no idea what it wants to be. An action spectacular starring two popular Marvel characters? A serious meditation on racism, idealism and what it means to be an icon like Captain America? An exploration of the many problems the post-blip world faces? Any of these possibilities would be fine, but as it is, the series is just a muddled mess, fun enough to watch, but it falls apart once you think about it. And since there are only six episodes, this was already the halfway point, so they don’t have much time to pull this ship around.

WandaVision, of which I didn’t expect much, turned out to be so much better than anybody expected. Meanwhile, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is turning out to be worse than expected.

Clues and Easter Eggs 2021 – A Round-Up of Indie Easter Mysteries and Crime Fiction

Our monthly round-ups of new speculative fiction and new crime fiction releases by indie authors are a perennially popular feature. Therefore, we now offer you a round-up of our favourite Easter mysteries, crime novels and thrillers by indie and small press authors.

The holiday mysteries cover the broad spectrum of crime fiction. We have cozy mysteries, small town mysteries, culinary mysteries, animal mysteries, paranormal mysteries, historical mysteries, police procedurals, crime thrillers, police officers, amateur sleuths, drug dealers, vanished bodies, stolen Fabergé eggs, missing children, kidnappings, deadly Easter egg hunts, crime-fighting bakers, crime-fighting hairstylists, crime-fighting dogs and much more. But one thing unites all of those very different books. They’re all set on or around Easter.

As always with my round-up posts, this round-up of the best indie holiday mysteries 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:

The Easter Evader by Mathiya Adams:

MacFarland has been asked to solve a murder–but the body has disappeared!

The Easter Evader, a special holiday novella, just in time for those enjoying the Easter holidays who want something short to read. MacFarland must find out what happened to the body of a deceased teenager. Was it stolen for nefarious purposes, or is something even more sinister going on? Rufus and MacFarland join forces to solve the case of the Easter Evader.

 

The Easter Make Believers by Finn Bell:

When an innocent family is taken hostage in their home no one is prepared for how fast it all goes terribly wrong.

With the small community of Lawrence still reeling from shock, detectives Nick Cooper and Tobe White stand among the dead bodies knowing it’s not over. Relief that the two young daughters have survived quickly turns to fear for their missing father, somehow impossibly vanishing from a house surrounded by police.

The mystery deepens as Nick and Tobe realize they know every gunman lying dead here – up to last night they were the leaders of the biggest criminal gang in the country. The desperate search and rescue efforts soon collide with their own challenging investigation into a deeper, older tragedy.

Where they begin to learn just how far someone will go for those he truly, dearly hates.

Bloody Easter by Ray Boxall:

Crime thriller set in London in the present. Taking place over an eight day period during Easter, what starts as a massive police effort to finally end the criminal career of London’s biggest home-grown drug dealer turns into a nightmare as lives are lost, reputations destroyed, and personal relationships are shattered.

Nineteen years ago, as a teenager, Detective Inspector Ray Chalmers applied to join the Metropolitan Police Force, arguing it needed people like him from the City’s huge social housing estates as they could best relate to the criminals’ outlook and lives. But he told lies on his application form. Now, when agreeing to join the Serious Crime Squad that is after London’s biggest drug dealer, he omits to mention he once lived with the man’s sister-in-law.

In attempting to get his revenge on the man for destroying his teenage years, Ray leaves no stone unturned, using his private knowledge of the man. But no-one is prepared for the murderous response of the dealer’s secret Russian business associates.Then Ray’s secret past returns to haunt him when he meets the nineteen year old girl that he abandoned when she was only five months’ old. She has all the answers to the case, but is also the go-between for the drug dealer and his Russian associates, and has long written off her life as valueless. She also has her own secret agenda and, clashing with Ray, unleashes her resentment on him without caring about the possible consequences to herself. It leaves a guilt-stricken Ray with no choice but to prevent her from self-destruction, and stake everything on bringing the dealer and his associates to justice.

The Fabergé Easter Egg by Sharon E. Buck:

Parker Bell is being yanked back to Po’thole once again. This time she’s involved in an international mystery surrounding a Fabergé Easter Egg and a Russian billionaire.

Snowbirds Anne and Chauncey Livingstone aka Tsar Chauncey and Tsarina Anne winter in Po’thole, pronounced Po Ho by the natives and Pot Hole by anyone north of the Georgia state line, from the frigid tundra north (Maine). They have a Fabergé egg. Is it real or is it a fake? What does Russian billionaire Anatoly Petrov have to do with it?

Bestselling author and computer company owner Parker Bell is back in her hometown for international mystery, intrigue, and, of course, Po’thole’s own brand of craziness with the Lady Gatorettes – Misty Dawn, Mary Jane, Rhonda Jean, Flo, and Myrtle Sue – five hormonal caffeine-and-sugar infused women who are die-hard University of Florida football fans.

Why are the Russians so intent on trying to kidnap or kill everyone over the Fabergé Easter egg? Why in Po’thole of all places?

A hilarious romp with crazy characters and believable enough that it might be true. The Fabergé Easter Egg is the 3rd book in the Parker Bell Cozy Mystery series.

Egg Hunt by Cora Buhlert:

When a priceless Fabergé egg goes missing from a locked room in the London townhouse of Russian oligarch Yevgeny Ivanov, everybody quickly suspects Eva Hart, Ivanov’s cleaning lady and single mother.

But Detective Inspector Helen Shepherd has her doubts about this theory, for Eva Hart has no motive, since the egg is unsellable on the free market. But what does Eva’s little daughter Emily know? And what happened to the egg?

This is a mystery novelette of 7500 words or approx. 25 pages.

Easter, 1929 by Frank W. Butterfield:

Sunday, March 31, 1929

Mrs. Wilson Jones (Louise) of Albany, Georgia, wakes up on yet another Sunday morning to discover her husband didn’t come home after carousing down at Louray’s by the river.

But she doesn’t have time to worry. Easter dinner will be at her sister’s house and Mrs. Jones has biscuits to bake. So, she turns on the radio, begins to sing with The Chambers Family Quintet, broadcasting over WSJ in Atlanta, and gets the buttermilk out of the icebox. There’s work to be done and Mrs. Jones is a good cook, keeps a clean house, and always delivers on her promises.

Welcome to a year of holidays with Nick Williams and Carter Jones!

This is the eight in a series of short stories all centered around specific holidays.

Each story is a vignette that stands on its own and takes place from the 1920s to 2008.

Easter Buried Eggs by Lyndsey Cole:

The smell of burnt cake is not a good omen for Annie when she arrives at the Black Cat Cafe. But little does she know that her Aunt Leona’s cooking disaster is only the first of many problems she’ll be served in a big basket of cracked Easter eggs.

Annie quickly learns that being in charge at the Black Cat Café isn’t all chocolate-covered strawberries and carrot cakes. In addition to the variety of tasty pastries she needs to make for Easter, she stumbles on a body and what appears to be a robbery.

With money disappearing from bank accounts, snooping seniors appearing out of the blue, and clues turning up in the most unlikely places, Annie’s problems sizzle more than Leona’s hot cross buns.

Determined to help her new friends, Annie and her therapy dog land in the middle of a murder investigation. Clues pile higher than a basket of Easter eggs, all pointing to one of the seniors. Annie searches for something to keep her friend from landing in a jail cell but instead, Annie ends up right in the killer’s crosshairs.

Easter Hair Hunt by Nancy J. Cohen:

Hare today, dead tomorrow… Can a stylish sleuth pull a rabbit out of her hat to solve an Easter murder in this to-dye-for cozy mystery?

When hairstylist Marla Vail attends an Easter egg hunt at historic Tremayne Manor, she’s only there to fix hair for a client, Bonnie “Blinky” Morris. But when she’s asked to comb the grounds for leftover goodies, Marla discovers more than just a few dyed eggs. The dead body in the bunny costume is definitely not having a good hare day. And Blinky seems to have disappeared down a rabbit hole.

When trying to solve a murder, everyone needs a friend who’s all ears. For Marla, that’s her husband, homicide detective Dalton Vail. They make an eggcellent team. Dalton isn’t the kind to leap to conclusions, but with his wife seven months pregnant, and knowing Marla finds crime-solving to be irresistible, he worries about her running off on another hare-raising adventure.

Marla’s peeps are hoping for a happy ending, but she may have found a basketful of trouble this time. Can she crack the case before Blinky becomes the next victim?

Big Bunny Bump Off by Kathi Daley:

Spring is in the air and with the warm weather comes an abundance of babies; human and otherwise. Things seem to be right on course until Jack Frost comes to town throwing the entire town of Ashton Falls into chaos. When Zoe sees the Easter Bunny running from a murder scene during a freak snowstorm she must track down the ‘Cartoon Bandits’ in order to catch a killer.

 

 

Easter Escapade by Kathi Daley:

In the first ever crossover episode, Zak and Zoe join forces with Hawaiian visitors Luke and Lani, to find out who killed a historian visiting Ashton Falls in order to find a treasure map left by his grandfather a hundred years earlier. Meanwhile, Ellie and Levi move in with Zak and Zoe while the boathouse is being renovated and Alex helps Ellie prepare the nursery for baby Eli who is due to be born any day. Throw in some humor and Easter fun and you have a Zak and Zoe crossover mystery.

 

Hippity Hoppity Homicide by Kathi Daley:

It comes down to a few critical seconds as Zoe is forced to either outsmart a genius or watch her husband die.

With Easter only a week away, Zoe is pulled into a dangerous game after Zak is kidnapped, and the person who kidnapped him, challenges Zoe to The Sleuthing Game. Zoe is told that the only way to gain Zak’s freedom is to complete the challenges in the time allotted.

If she fails, Zak will die.

Zoe had promised she would retire from sleuthing now that she had an infant to care for, but the stakes are high, so she leaves the kids with Ellie, while she and Levi set out to beat a madman at their own game.

Lord James Harrington and the Easter Mystery by Lynn Florkiewicz:

Meet Lord James Harrington and his delightful wife, Beth; residents of the tiny village of Cavendish, deep in the heart of West Sussex in England. They adore hosting seasonal events, running their country hotel, keeping the local folklore alive and listening to the latest murder mystery on the wireless. But mysteries don’t always remain on the airwaves…

It’s Easter and the Cavendish residents are discussing the traditional festivities along with the proposed Easter egg hunt on the Harrington estate. But when the vicar’s dog digs up a bone, things take a turn for the worse. Retracing the dog’s walk, James uncovers a skeleton buried in the woods. Studying the remains, he identifies a number of expensive items. With the likelihood that the victim could be someone well-to-do, James is concerned that he may know the victim and puts his sleuthing hat on.

With investigations under way and a long list of suspects with motive and opportunity, James is confident that it won’t take long to solve the mysterious death. But a chance conversation turns the whole enquiry on its head. With his good friend, DCI Lane, involved in a current murder enquiry, James takes it upon himself to delve deeper. His questions take him from the quiet village of Cavendish to the beautiful city of Boston where more surprises await. James calls upon many of his contacts to help him track down the murderer. Will he bring the killer to justice or is he on a wild goose chase?

Join James, Beth and the Cavendish regulars as they enjoy the Easter events and embark on another adventure.

Easter Sunday by Thomas Hollyday:

A father’s love and family anguish. Hank Green’s young son, Bobby, is lost in a cave beneath a water-drenched swamp of the Chesapeake Bay. The wilderness is known for Native American mystery as well as an unsolved World War Two secret. Even worse, a powerful Easter Sunday storm with its flood surge is barreling down. Hank rushes to join the team of experienced local firemen and friends who will try to find and rescue his son before the boy drowns. Yet he feels once again his own numbing personal terror. He is overcome by a lifelong claustrophobic fear of entering closed spaces like caves. It’s a phobia he inherited from his immigrant father, a displaced person from the 1945 European war, and his own Vietnam experience. He knows if the others lose hope and fail, he will go on alone and risk his life to save his child. He must find a way to conquer his weakness but time is running out.

Killer Easter Pie by Carolyn Q. Hunter:

When a jewelry shop in the Old Market is robbed, and an expensive jeweled egg is stolen, it seems someone might be out to ruin Easter.

For pie shop owner Bertha Hannah, however, she has very little time to think about crime as she is preparing for the annual city Easter Egg Hunt at the community gardens. Businesses and churches from all over the city are contributing to the event, and Bert has a new pie recipe planned for the day.

Festivities are brought to a screeching halt, however, when a body is found in the bushes. Is this new death connected to the egg robbery? When the finger of accusation seems to be pointed in the direction of a friend, Bert knows it is up to her to solve this mystery before the Easter Bunny hops away with all the clues.

Easter Eggs and Shotgun Shells by Madison Johns

Being in charge of the annual Easter Egg Hunt is challenging enough for Agnes and Eleanor, but even more so when they assist Bernice in finding rabbits for the event. Unfortunately for the sleuths, instead of bunnies, they stumble across a body.

The sleuths are hunting for the killer now, but soon it appears the killer is hunting for them too. Can Agnes and Eleanor outsmart the killer or will they become the next victims?

 

Bunny Drop by Linda P. Kozar:

To bunnies everywhere! From jackrabbits to cottontails to lovable lop-eared cuties, chinchillas, harlequins, dwarfs, angoras and each and every breed, I dedicate this mystery to the rascally rabbits of the world. Oh, and especially to chocolate Easter bunnies. My favorite kind.

 

 

 

The Easter Egg Ennui by Katy Leen:

It’s almost Easter. Time for bunnies, bonnets, and bonbons. Not bedlam. Unless you’re Lora Weaver, that is.

With the scent of spring in the air and the promise of a long weekend looming, Lora is looking forward to a few days relaxing with her beau Adam, taking long walks and short naps snuggled together in the warm glow of Easter chocolate wrappers.

Until Lora spots a bouquet of Easter lilies at the home of bff Camille Caron’s aunt and soon finds herself donning a bunny suit and slinging more than Easter eggs.

Whiskers deep in a mêlée of sparring seniors, Lora must keep herself from falling into a rabbit hole she can’t escape. All while grappling with the clamorous Caron clan, mama-to-be Tina, and Lora’s enigma of a boss, Laurent, who may be hiding more secrets than a Kinder egg.

The Easter Egg Ennui is a holiday novella from the Lora Weaver series.

The Easter Sunday Slaughter by Imogen Plimp:

APRIL SHOWERS BRING MAY FLOWERS
And a bouquet of murderous intrigue…

Amateur sleuth (and ace baker) Claire Andersen is back! Winter melts to spring in scenic Galway, Maryland, uncovering blooming friendships new and old, a shyly budding romance, the rotten stench of organized crime, and family drama more garish than Claire’s emerging blood lilies.

Settling in just fine to her new Appalachian digs (and getting the hang of this whole proprietress of a B&B thing, too!), NYC native Claire Andersen is living a cozy small town fairy tale. There are quirky local characters and adorable little shops, not to mention a kitchen full of mouth-watering baked goodies. She’s a veritable June Cleaver—if Leave It to Beaver were nestled in the mountains and June were a recently retired empty nester, that is.

There’s just one problem. Claire can hardly say “Gee, golly” before her newly-acquainted and much-beloved neighbor winds up murdered in cold blood, right before Galway’s annual Easter parade. Hot off the heels of her last murder, Claire can’t help but get involved (much to the chagrin of the well-meaning albeit bumbling town sheriff). She can hardly help herself, after all. The murder did take place right next door … and the victim’s family is staying in her B&B… Ever the hostess, poking around is the least she could do.

Little does Claire know the victim’s family is just the tip of the iceberg. The rest of the iceberg consists of age-old secrets so duplicitous, they’d make Eddie Haskell run for the hills.

Mix in Claire’s feisty sidekick Evelyn, her ever-lovable bloodhound Rupert, and a mountain of mocha and strawberry buttercream cupcakes—and Claire finds she’s in business. The sleuthing business. Perhaps even the mafia business. But she’d better tread carefully—or she’ll wind up another discarded, frozen body in the aforementioned iceberg (with a spring thaw nowhere in sight).

Chicory is Trickery by Sheri Richey:

It’s springtime in Spicetown and Mayor Cora Mae Bingham discovers there may be trouble blooming along with the rhododendrons!

With construction in full throttle in the new subdivisions and the income tax filing deadline looming over her head, Mayor Cora Mae Bingham is revamping the Annual Easter Eggs-Travaganza and trying to figure out who is in the Easter bunny suit this year, when a dead body has to be added to her To-Do list.

 

The Easter Egg Murder by Patricia Smith Wood:

Harrie McKinsey and her best friend and business partner Ginger Vaughn discover that some secrets are best left buried when retired Senator Philip Lawrence hires their editing firm to assist him with a book about the famous unsolved 1950 murder of a cocktail waitress that led to the end of illegal casinos in New Mexico. When the Albuquerque newspaper announces that Senator Lawrence is writing the book, one person with a connection to the case is murdered and another narrowly escapes death. Despite the best efforts of Ginger’s husband and an FBI agent Harrie finds infuriatingly attractive, the energetic pair cannot resist trying to discover who is so anxious to destroy the book, the senator and his big secret. But will their proficiency and pluck be up to the challenge when they land in a dark house with a cold, calculating killer who has nothing else to lose?

A Medium’s Easter Epiphany by Chariss K. Walker:

A boyfriend changes everything!

In book five of the Becky Tibbs cozy, ghost mystery series, Becky must learn how to juggle her personal and business life now that she has a real boyfriend! This is a first for Becky and her new schedule sometimes feels overwhelming.

At Becky’s encouragement, Bobby and Barbara have finally decided to accept their special ability too. At least, they are open to using their gift if the opportunity presents itself.

Barbara actually manages to help someone new with their ghost problem and the meeting turns into something more. Unlike Marty, Barb’s ex-boyfriend, this new person, Christopher, accepts Barbara and her capabilities exactly as she is. In fact, he is impressed.

Jealousy rears its ugly head!

Marty finally goes off the deep end and Becky must help Patty come to terms with his rage.

Becky’s epiphany, or sudden realization, is a concept that would be beneficial to everyone.

Magic and Easter Eggs 2021 – A Round-up of Indie Easter Speculative Fiction

Our monthly round-ups of new speculative fiction and new crime fiction releases by indie authors are a perennially popular feature. Therefore, we now offer you a round-up of our favourite Easter speculative fiction by indie and small press authors.

These Easter stories cover the broad spectrum of speculative fiction. We have paranormal romance, paranormal mystery, children’s fantasy, science fiction, horror, dragons, werewolves, were-reindeer, Easter elves, magical geese, crime-busting mediums, fluffy killer bunnies from outer space and much more. But one thing unites all of those very different books. They’re all set on or around Easter.

As always with my round-up posts, this round-up of the best indie holiday speculative fiction is also crossposted to the Speculative Fiction Showcase, a group blog 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:

Operation Rubber Ducky by Cora Buhlert:

Three short tales of anthropomorphic terror, featuring Trojan toys, axe-wielding ducks and fluffy killer rabbits from outer space.

When the world is besieged by Kaiju, the only weapon that can stop them turns out to be a rubber ducky with a deadly secret…

His name is whispered in terror: Mock Duck, the mad axe-man of Chinatown, deadly enforcer for the triads. No one has ever seen his face and lived to tell the tale. Which is probably for the better, because Mock Duck’s nickname is more accurate than anybody could have guessed…

It’s the latest psychiatric epidemic to sweep the nation: Angoraphobia, a pathological fear of fluffy angora sweaters. Those who suffer from the disorder claim that fluffy killer rabbits from outer space are trying to conquer the Earth and exterminate humanity. Are they merely deluded or could they perchance be right?

Three bizarro short stories of 7000 words or approximately 24 pages altogether.

Legend of the Easter Dragon by Kelsey Hodge:

Alwyn

Secrets and ancient prophecies are all make-believe, right?

I’m nobody special, just your average person looking forward to the one day a year I get to spend with my best friend. Suddenly, when fairytales and prophecies storm into my life, everything changes… quite literally.

Llewellyn

Some secrets are necessary when the truth is unbelievable.

Alwyn’s always been special to me, but there are things I keep hidden from him. Revelations that are too unbelievable for the human world. When my best friend is suddenly thrust into my world, the truth must be told, and our friendship and future change in ways I never expected—but always secretly hoped for.

Collected Easter Horror Shorts, edited by Kevin J. Kennedy:

From the darkest recesses of some of the horror world’s most chilling minds, Kevin J. Kennedy brings back together some of the authors that brought you Collected Christmas Horror Shorts, alongside several new authors, from upcoming indie stars to Amazon top sellers.

Whether you like Easter or not, you’ll certainly have a different view of it after you read the stories contained within these pages.

Grab an Easter egg, dim the lights, get cosy and get ready for some chilling tales by some of the horror world’s finest.

C.S.Anderson – He Has Risen
Christopher Motz – Magic Awaits
Veronica Smith? – It’s Not All About Bunnies and Chocolates
Peter Oliver Wonder? – Easter Gunny
Mark Cassell? – The Rebirth
Andrew Lennon? – Trying To Write A Horror Story
Mark Lukens? – Mia’s Easter Basket
Lex Jones? – SonnesHill
JC Michael? – Lord of The Dance
Steven Stacy – Echoes of The Bunny-Man
Weston Kincade? & David Chrisley – An Easter Prayer
Christina Bergling? – Hatch
James Matthew Byers? – Killer Jelly Beans from Outer Space (poem)
Jeff Menapace? – Paying It Forward
Jeff Strand? – Rotten Eggs
Lisa Vasquez? – Bunny and Clyde
Mark Fleming? – Sulphur
Suzanne Fox – Last Supper
Briana Robertson? – Baby Blues
Latashia Figueroa – Easter Eggs
Amy Cross – Lamb to Slaughter
Kevin J. Kennedy – A Town Called Easter

Georgie’s Eggcellent Adventure by Sam E. Kraemer:

Georgie Peppermint

What’s an elf gotta do to get respect?

When I’m called to Administration, I’m skeptical that the summons is related to any appreciation the Claus’ feel about how hard I work in the Porcelain Department as a detail painter. I believe it’s somehow in retaliation for my misunderstood relationship with Jingle Bell. Much to my surprise—and concern—I’m given a new assignment to become the Ambassador to the Mystical Convention… I’m being sent to the South Pacific to assist the Easter Bunny.

What awaits me isn’t clear, but I’m determined to shine at my task and show all the nay-sayers that Georgie Peppermint is destined for greatness.

***

Remy Beauchamp

Spring. A symbol of rebirth with blooming flowers, trees, and the arrival of babies in every species. It was always my favorite time of the year, but this year it’s bittersweet. I have a lovely life that’s idyllic to everyone who sees it, but all I see when I look around is loss.

For years, I’ve provided the eggs for Peter Cotton, a local import/exporter on Rapa Nui—Easter Island to outsiders—who holds a worldwide food drive every Spring to celebrate the rebirth on the planet. Sadly, I lost my partner last year, and unless I can find some help, I won’t be able to produce nearly enough eggs to help feed the masses.

Enter the oddly beautiful man wearing tourist clothes and a strange little straw hat. He’s nice and hard-working, a friend of Mr. Cotton’s, and has been sent to the island to assist me. I’m not sure how he can help, but with the sweetly cynical man around, I’m a lot less lonely.

People say there’s magic on Easter Island, thanks to the gods and goddesses who watch over its inhabitants, but never did I believe I’d come face-to-face with the manifestation of the mystical forces. And it all starts with the arrival of Georgie Pepper.

This work of fiction is approximately 32,000 words in length and doesn’t end in a cliffhanger. It is part of the Easter series, “Elves After Dawn.”

The Elf’s Easter Wolf by Beau LeFebvre

What’s a wolf to do when he’s the spare and not the heir to the Alpha of the pack?

Markos was looking forward to Easter, and now it’s been ruined by his father’s announcement that he is to be mated to an omega from another pack.

Not gonna happen.

Leaving his pack behind, Markos becomes lost and, guided only by his wolf’s instincts, finds himself in a valley filled with the colors of spring, the smells of chocolate, and a meadow full of numerous fluffy puffballs… Bunnies?

What was Fate thinking?

Estienne never expected his mate to show up out of nowhere, or to be a wolf, for that matter. And right before Easter of all times.

Maybe ignoring the big bad wolf would be the best idea for now…

But the Easter Bunny has other ideas, and Estienne’s own bunny isn’t so averse to the idea of Markos as a mate. Throw in the arrival of an entire wolf pack, and Easter preparations are tossed completely off the rails.

Just great.

The Elf’s Easter Wolf is a Paranormal MM romance of around 30,000 words featuring a workaholic elf bunny shifter and his surprise Easter wolf shifter mate.

My Clearwater Elf by Morgan Mason:

After a split with his business associate, Matthew moves in with his dad, determined to help him restore his old farmhouse. His world is turned upside down when a small stranger with pointy ears trespasses on their land and steals off with an injured rabbit they’d rescued. Together with his dad, Matthew goes for a hike into the forest near their property in search of the mysterious but gorgeous bunny thief.

Calaet is a conscientious, hard-working elf, who’s committed to helping his colony make every Easter into a success. The newly appointed hare in charge threatens to topple all of his hard work when he fails to show up in time to oversee the preparations for Easter. Cal sets out in search of the missing delegate and stumbles upon the most stunning brute he’s ever laid eyes on. When the same man turns up ill outside their protected grove, Cal feels compelled to help him. Even if that means bringing humans into their colony for the first time … ever.

With their mutual attraction growing, what begins as an offer that can’t be refused turns into an unexpected bond. Can Matt and Cal make what they’ve discovered last, or will their unorthodox mating be too much to handle?

The Reindeer’s Easter Family by Elizabeth Ann Price:

Tank, the largest and possibly most patient reindeer shifter in his herd, finds himself with a new task – guarding the charity center where a fellow reindeer’s mate works. Not a problem… that is, until two unspeakably adorable twins clamp themselves on his legs and their sister lets slip that she knows he happens to be a reindeer shifter.

Worried about their shifter secret leaking, Tank investigates and when he sees their mother in danger, well, what else is a reindeer to do but save the day?

But can Tank save Marion and her unbelievably cute offspring before a wolf shifter takes them away from him forever?

Elfing Up Easter by Sophie E. Russell

Arlo and Mr. Santa are enjoying their new life together, but when the actual Santa Claus asks them to help find the missing Easter Bunny, their relationship is put to the test. Arctic Elf twins, Finn and Torr, lead them on a wild duck(?) chase through the Appalachian Mountains while they try to get their new toy business off the ground and locate the missing rabbit(?) before the land dies, taking the magic of Easter with it.

 

 

The Goose That Laid Golden Easter Eggs by Emily Martha Sorensen

The family has a magical new goose. One that quacks and moos and lays magical eggs. So what happens when Junior feeds it his sister’s watch?

 

 

 

 

A Medium’s Easter Epiphany by Chariss K. Walker:

A boyfriend changes everything!

In book five of the Becky Tibbs cozy, ghost mystery series, Becky must learn how to juggle her personal and business life now that she has a real boyfriend! This is a first for Becky and her new schedule sometimes feels overwhelming.

At Becky’s encouragement, Bobby and Barbara have finally decided to accept their special ability too. At least, they are open to using their gift if the opportunity presents itself.

Barbara actually manages to help someone new with their ghost problem and the meeting turns into something more. Unlike Marty, Barb’s ex-boyfriend, this new person, Christopher, accepts Barbara and her capabilities exactly as she is. In fact, he is impressed.

Jealousy rears its ugly head!

Marty finally goes off the deep end and Becky must help Patty come to terms with his rage.

Becky’s epiphany, or sudden realization, is a concept that would be beneficial to everyone.

Blueberry Bunny Boy by Leona Windwalker:

Mallow is a walking disaster when it comes to all things Easter, and for an elf in Bunnyville, that’s the worst thing possible!

Mallow

I’ve tried every Easter production station possible. I sneezed the chickens bald, and there’s no way they are letting me anywhere near the ducks or bunnies now. Basket weaving? The less said about my attempts there, the better. Preparing the real eggs? I set the water to boil them on literal fire, and when they moved me to egg painting, I broke out in hives. I swelled up so big, they had to bring me down from where I floated up to the ceiling. If we’d been outside, I’d have drifted off like some errant cloud! Candy testing is out as I hate sweets, so it all tastes disgusting to me.

I’m such a disaster as an Easter Elf that Peter Cottontail himself had a meeting with Kris Kringle to figure out where in Kringle Enterprises they could safely put me. That’s how I found myself assigned to the human world, working for the Feed and Seed department. Arranging and collecting deliveries of fresh greens and stuff for the bunnies and chicks should be fine, right? I knew I’d struck gold when on my very first day, I found it- a place called Rabbit Food. And the human working there? Oh wow…I think he might just be my mate!

Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month for March 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 February 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 epic fantasy, urban fantasy, dark fantasy, Asian fantasy, paranormal mystery, paranormal romance, fantasy romance, science fiction thrillers, space opera, military science fiction, YA science fiction, post-apocalyptic fiction, dystopian fiction, dragons, leprechauns, valkyries, aliens, telepaths, interdimensional portals, interstellar wars, space mages, space colonisation, menopausal werewolves, crime-busting witches, King Arthur in space, alien monster spiders from beyond 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:

Monsters of the Dark by K.T. Belt:

Carmen Grey always knew she was different.

None of the other children seemed able to read minds. None of the other children were able to manipulate their toys without touching them. On the morning of her sixth birthday, three men dressed in black arrive to remove her from the loving care of her parents.

She is taken to an underground facility meant for others like her, for Clairvoyants. Stripped of her name and identity, over the years she is fashioned into something scary—something lethal. Each day is an endless struggle and every night is plagued by nightmares. Yet Carmen’s ultimate battle won’t be to save her life but to keep her soul.

Spelunkers by Cora Buhlert:

During a holiday in Belgium, college students Evan and Matt decide to explore an uncharted cave in the Ardennes. Also along for the ride is Evan’s sister Kate, who has been tasked with looking out for her brother since early childhood.

Deep inside the cave, Kate, Evan and Matt stumble upon a portal to another world. But does this portal represent the greatest adventure of their lives or a terrible danger…?

This is a science fiction short story of 3800 words or approximately 15 print pages.

Earth’s Fury: Our Last Thanksgiving by Declan Conner:

WHEN THE SUN FLARES — EARTH’S MANTLE HICCUPS — SOCIETY SUFFERS

Rob Bell is financially screwed, although his wife doesn’t know it yet. His only hope is to sell a house that he’s constructed near to the beach. With one day to go to the sale, his, and everyone else’s world comes crashing down. Severe movement in the Earth’s tectonic plates caused by sun flares discharging positive charged particles into the mantle, go on to create a disaster that scientists failed to predict in its enormity. EMPs destroy the grid. Ash from volcanos darken the land. Floods divide the nation, with new mountain ranges created. The USA will never be the same again, changed forever.

Their home in a gated community is high in the hills of Santa Monica, overlooking the Pacific. They decide to stay put. Survival is the new game, money no longer an issue as death casts its shadow over the World and their community.

As their food supplies run low, and constantly under attack from outsiders, Brogan the head of their community security creates a mini fiefdom, with Rob’s wife in charge of rations. Under attack, and falling foul of Brogan, and with death stalking him, Rob knows the only way out is for them to travel to his dad’s bunker. Trouble is, io get there is a thousand-mile journey fraught with danger and his wife doesn’t want to go. Fiercely loyal, he will have to decide if he should leave or to stay.

His life and others will depend on the outcome

Leprechaun Luck by Addison Creek:

It’s St. Patrick’s Day and Lemmi, Charlie, and Liam are determined to have some fun before going to watch the guys play baseball.

What happens next is unexpected, to say the least, but Lemmi and Charlie are determined not to miss the baseball game. Now if only the leprechaun would tell them where Liam is . . .

This is a short story coming in at about 12,000 words.

 

Witchy Reservations by Stephanie Damore:

There’s nothing practical about magic—which is why I ditched my wand years ago.

Thirteen years, to be exact.

The day I left Silverlake.

Except now, a family emergency has called me back home, and quite frankly, I’d rather be anywhere but here.

But when my aunt raises her wand to cure a friend and he ends up dead, it becomes abundantly clear I’m not leaving anytime soon.

Welcome to Silverlake, a place where nothing is EVER as it seems… and where a witch can find, and lose, a lot more than herself.

Phantom Echo by Eldon Farrell:

His search for a killer will put him in the crosshairs.

The body of a college student is dumped in an alley far from campus. Is it a case of bad timing, or a drug deal gone wrong?

As the detective assigned to the case, Nathan Miller suspects something more sinister behind it. Convincing his superiors of this won’t be easy, though, and following his instincts will require more than just bending the law. He may need to break it.

But when his pursuit leads him to Syria, and then London, he’s forced to seek aid from the Phantoms—allies who might be enemies. Will they help the killer he’s after, or join him in seeing justice served?

First Runes by Rachel Ford:

The war is over. The chaos is just beginning.

The North won, but peace is a distant dream. Youngling dragons plague the countryside. On the border to No Man’s Land, Knight Protector Ana Derel negotiates a tenuous peace between the slave warriors turned refugees, for whom only a death sentence waits at home, and the local populace, which wants no part in feeding or aiding their former foes. Far to the North, Knight Protector Brynja Evansdatter struggles with the ambitions and mistrust of the elven mages she freed from captivity. They’ve sworn off the Southern king who shackled them, but they’re not ready to swear fealty to the Northern queen.

And at the heart of all the chaos, with the power to command the races of dragons and destroy whole armies of men, are the most powerful weapons ever devised by men or elves: first runes.

Whoever controls them, controls the fate of the known world. Derel and Evensdatter fought side-by-side in the war. Now, they will need more than blades to bring peace.

Foxwood by Joe Fleck:

In an alternate future, fourteen-year-old Victoria has lived in a bunker for all her life, convinced that beyond the metal walls of her home is a mysterious “Nowhere.”

When she escapes, she is thrown into the futuristic city of Foxwood, rebuilt over Seattle after a catastrophic earthquake. Victoria was never supposed to leave her bunker and isn’t in the Network. Without a Network Chip implanted in her head, Victoria has no identity, an no place in Foxwood.

Despite lacking social skills or street smarts, she gets a job at a massive 3D printing business. This company is targeted by a terrorist team of humanoid machines that are indistinguishable from ordinary humans.

In an effort to prove her worth as a bunker child, Victoria attempts to expose an infiltrator before the terrorists get a chance to attack. On top of that, the education system controls overpopulation by killing the least intelligent people with a terrifying Birthday Exam.

Orange City by Lee Matthew Goldberg:

Imagine a secret, hidden city that gives a second chance at life for those selected to come: felons, deformed outcasts, those on the fringe of the Outside World. Everyone gets a job, a place to live; but you are bound to the city forever. You can never leave.

Its citizens are ruled by a monstrous figure called the “Man” who resembles a giant demented spider from the lifelike robotic limbs attached to his body. Everyone follows the man blindly, working hard to make their Promised Land stronger, too scared to defy him and be discarded to the Empty Zones.

After ten years as an advertising executive, Graham Weatherend receives an order to test a new client, Pow! Sodas. After one sip of the orange flavor, he becomes addicted, the sodas causing wild mood swings that finally wake him up to the prison he calls reality.

A dynamic mash-up of 1984 meets LOST, ORANGE CITY is a lurid, dystopian first book in a series that will continue with the explosive sequel LEMONWORLD.

The Fearless by J.J. Green:

Space opera meets Arthurian legend.

The Britannic Alliance has been brought back from the brink of disaster by Taylan Ellis, a Royal Marine fighting to win back her homeland.

During one of the battles, the Fearless, the BA flagship, mysteriously disappeared and is now adrift in the Asteroid Belt. Taylan joins the expedition sent to find out what happened.

What she discovers out there is another clue in the riddle of the reappearance of King Arthur. What’s more, it means the Alliance could win back the Britannic Isles, but only if Taylan plays her cards right.

The fight goes on!

Wicked Honeymoon by Lily Harper Hart:

Jack Harker and his new wife Ivy have beaten the odds, and with that comes a little rest and relaxation. They have a two-week honeymoon planned, and the first leg involves a glamping trip down the river.

Jack has never been one for camping, and the truth is, he would’ve preferred anything but what they’ve got planned. Ivy, however, is desperate to prove that camping can be fun. What Jack wants most is for Ivy to have everything, so he gives in.

He may live to regret it. That is if he doesn’t die first.

What should’ve been an idyllic kayaking trip down the river, complete with gourmet meals and glamorous tents, turns into a mystery when one of the other guests finds blood on the ground on the second day. Jack and Ivy are instantly suspicious … but they seem to be the only ones.

There’s no body, so no reason to worry, and yet Ivy’s dreams won’t let her rest. Can you prove murder when there’s no body and nobody is missing?

That’s the plan for Ivy and Jack, although the trip will have them questioning more than their fellow travel-goers. It will have them questioning their instincts, too.

Strap in. Just because it’s a honeymoon, that doesn’t mean the ride won’t be bumpy.

Songs of Insurrection by J.C. Kang:

Only the lost magic of Dragon Songs can save the world. Only an awkward girl with the perfect voice can rediscover it.

The Dragon Singers of old summoned typhoons and routed armies, liberating mankind from the orcs before fading into legend. Now, with the world again facing a new cataclysm, the power of music stirs in Kaiya, a naïve misfit with the perfect voice.

Without a master to guide her, she must rely on Hardeep, a disgraced foreign paladin, to help awaken her latent magic. His motives might not be entirely noble. When he leads her to the fabled Dragon Scale Lute, which only a Dragon Singer can wield, it is up to Black Lotus Clan to intervene.

Because the instrument’s fell power can save the world…

Or destroy it.

Romancing the Crone by Amanda M. Lee:

Scout Randall has lived her life in the shadows, always wondering who abandoned her when she was a child and where the magic she boasts came from. Finally, she is about to get some answers.

It won’t be easy, though.

After a wild fight that saw shifters and vampires joining together to battle under an eclipse, things in Hawthorne Hollow are relatively quiet. Scout’s newly-found sister is locked in a cell, her grandfather is laying low, and the enemy appears to be regrouping.

That allows Scout and her boyfriend Gunner to make a trip to her childhood home. Upon their return, a shifter attacks and throws their world into a tailspin. He’s easily dispatched but appears to be suffering from a magical infection that has his body wasting and his mind collapsing.

It’s up to Spell’s Angels to figure out what’s going on, and because nothing is ever easy for Scout, the investigation is going to be harder than she imagined.

It seems there’s a new top vampire in town, and his powers are extensive for a creature who wasn’t born into his legacy. On top of that, he’s crossed paths with Scout before and knows exactly how to push her buttons.

Scout is a fighter but the world is closing in on her. She’s going to need her new co-workers and the family she doesn’t know to help her out on this one … and even then nothing is a given.

The road before her is winding but answers are finally here. Scout will finally know what she is. Whether she survives long enough to benefit from the knowledge is completely up in the air.

Death Kiss by Naomi E. Lloyd:

With one kiss I can see when, where and how you will die.

Some would call it a gift. But not me.

My death kiss is a curse that has branded me a witch, with no human rights, and has turned me into the most wanted girl on earth.

Why? Because in a world where a vicious movement of sadistic killers are murdering random people to stop overpopulation, my kiss holds the power for salvation.

And makes me a prime target for abduction.

Which is where I am now. Captured by three brothers, burning with grief after witnessing my parents’ murder, and tormented with fear of what is yet to come…

For something doesn’t add up.

I’m trapped inside a deadly game of kiss and tell, but I know there’s a darker agenda at play.

What it is? I just hope I can live to find out.

Death Kiss is an adult, dark fantasy, romance novel which draws you into a world of magic, deception, seductive twists, and desire.

Blood Moon by Catherine Lundoff:

The Wolf’s Point werewolf pack, born from the magic that calls small groups of middle-aged women to embrace their inner and outer wolves, has been protecting the town for generations. Now Becca Thornton and the Pack have their hands (and paws) full of all the trouble they can handle. Plus a bit extra. Pack member Erin Adams just found a dead body in the trunk of her car and confessed to murder. But no one’s sure who the victim is and Erin can’t remember what happened. Did Erin fall off the wagon and murder a former foe? She doesn’t trust herself and Becca’s beginning to have her doubts.

If that wasn’t enough, Becca’s ex-husband sold their old house and their new neighbors are clearly up to something. Can the Pack get the mystery solved and Erin’s name cleared before the next full moon? Or do the town’s new residents have other plans?

Valkyrie by David Neth:

The end of the world might be sooner than they think.

The valkyries secretly hand-select fallen heroes to bring back to Valhalla to prepare for the final battle. While out at a nightclub, Kathy witnesses a valkyrie collect a dying man’s soul. Thinking the valkyrie is doing harm, she tries to fight her off, but loses.
Back in Valhalla, the valkyries view their lapse in secrecy as a sign that the final battle is beginning. They capture Kathy and bring her back to Valhalla while they rally their army to send into battle.

Meanwhile, Samantha is reeling from having told Steven she’s a witch. But when she discovers Kathy’s gone missing, she puts her strained relationship aside to save her sister, only to end up in just as much danger as Kathy.

With the valkyries preparing for war, Samantha and Kathy must prove that they mean no harm in order to return to their normal lives. But the end of the world might be sooner than they think.

Valkyrie is the third book in the Coven series, which serves as a prequel series to the Under the Moon series.

Heaven Fall by Leo Petracci:

Draysky was born to die in the mines.

Like his father before him, his fate was to harvest treasures until the dust claimed his lungs. He’d die the lowest of society, a Knotted, buried with their thin cord still around his neck. He would never advance as a mage, never to learn of the forbidden runes of the kingdom magicians. But when he looks away from the northern mountains, he allows himself to dream that one day, he’d buy his freedom and escape the mines forever.

But the mines don’t relinquish claimed lives so easily. They draw him in deeper, pulling him into their depths, and when Draysky discovers the source of their treasures, he’s left with a choice.

Return to his labor, and be grateful for the years he has left, or risk his life by seizing the mines’ power. Becoming a threat to those who thrive supported on the backs of his people.

And discovering why runes are forbidden.

Chiral Justice by L.L. Richman:

Old enemies never die.

The unthinkable has happened: an Akkadian assassin has helped broker peace between her star nation and the Alliance. Micah and the rest of Task Force Blue watch the peace talks with guarded optimism—but they know one thing the rest of the settled worlds don’t.

Clint Janus has vanished — with the Alliance’s most closely-held secret.

Micah Case is that secret.

Janus is now allied with Akkadia’s new premier, Asher Dent, but the man is not as peace-loving as he might seem. It’s going to be up to Micah Case and Task Force Blue to prevent Dent from achieving that which he wants most: total space supremacy over all the settled worlds.

Chiral Justice is the third book in the Biogenesis War series, and completes this first story arc in the Biogenesis Universe.

Lycan Legacy: Paladin by Veronica Singer:

Across the width of the world, Logan’s agony screams in my soul.

Shackled in silver which burns his flesh, he is trapped in a foreign country, lured to captivity by the kidnapping of his human daughter.

I am Luna, the leader of the pack, and it falls on me to lead a rescue mission.

Still, politics would stay my hand. After all, Logan isn’t family, just the runt of my pack; disobedient, combative, and always in trouble.

Wrong. Dead wrong. Pack is family.

Politics decree that I can’t bring the rest of my pack to avoid an international incident.

But nobody said I couldn’t bring Mike, my superhuman bodyguard, an ex-SEAL with the skills to survive anywhere.

And nobody knows about my magical talents, talents that would make the most vicious werewolf seem tame.

Screw politics. Luna White doesn’t leave a packmate in captivity.

The Blackwing War by K.B. Spangler:

Three thousand years ago, the Deep appeared without warning. This alien life form was quickly put to service teleporting people and cargo across great distances, which allowed mass colonization throughout the galaxy. It has also allowed Lancaster, the organization which controls access to the Deep, to grow wealthy and powerful. Cross Lancaster, and you are forced to travel between planets using standard faster-than-light technologies. Nobody wants that!

Tembi Stoneskin is having a very bad day. A Witch in service to the Deep, she spends her time disarming bombs in shipping stations. On her way home to Lancaster, the Deep shows her the aftermath of a weapons test powerful enough to slice a moon in half. While the Deep is a vast intelligence, it is a terrible communicator, and relies on its Witches to translate humanity’s requests into thoughts, moods, and impulses that it can understand. Tembi is a young Witch, but she is a skilled translator and she has learned how to speak with her powerful alien friend.

As they set off to find the source of the weapons test, Tembi and the Deep are pulled into the ongoing war between Earth-normal humans and genetically modified humans. But all wars are founded on excuses, and the Blackwing army has much more to hide than a simple shattered moon.

Last Light by Paul Stephenson:

The year is 2107. Earth is dying. For Wyn, Lois, and Judd, that’s the least of their problems.

Wyn is the pilot on the ISS Minos. Its mission: a race to the ice moon of Europa to cure the disease destroying humanity’s crops. But not everyone on board seems to have the same agenda.

Lois is an Interpol agent investigating the world’s worst criminals – those rich enough to get whatever they want and powerful enough to murder without consequence – and her cover’s been blown.

Judd is hiding as far away from humanity as he can, working in a cheap tourist attraction on the Moon. But when an old man pries a long-forgotten secret from his head, he can no longer hide from the truth he’d buried even from himself. Because Judd is a telepath, and a weapon badly wanted by both sides of an unseen war.

They might not know it, but each holds a key to Earth’s cure… and humanity’s survival.

If you like pulse-quickening action, blood-soaked science fiction, revelations, and revolutions, you’ll love this first episode in Paul Stephenson’s Sunset Chronicles, the new monthly sci-fi horror serial from the author of the bestselling Blood on the Motorway saga.

A Darker Magic by Glynn Stewart:

A bloody war has ended in a restored peace
And the shield of Martian magic guards the stars
Two centuries of spell and steel to ward all humanity

Two years ago, Lieutenant Commander Roslyn Chambers stood witness to the surrender of the last remnants of the Republic. Fueled by atrocity against Mage and mundane alike, the secessionists who waged war against the Protectorate of Mars are finally defeated.

Now, a special commission from the Mage-Queen of Mars takes Roslyn deep into the former Republic to hunt the architects of that atrocity. Mages who betrayed their own, the creators of Project Prometheus must be brought to justice.

But hidden from even the Republic, Prometheus has woven magic and technology together once more. Here, hidden from all prying eyes, they have created a monster…one that even a Protectorate forged by the spell must call black magic.

Marauders by T.S. Valmond:

How far is too far to save the human race?

Captain Dana Pinet is struggling to put her demons to rest while carrying the last of humanity still reeling from the loss of their world onboard the Starship Hope.

She and the crew will be tested yet again when they come into contact with a group of plucky aliens enthralled by their circumstances and eager to befriend them. Things turn ugly when the aliens make off with precious cargo and half their dwindling supplies.

In pursuit of the thieves, the crew discovers they’re not the only ones after the pirates, and getting caught in alien cross-fire will only make matters worse. If Dana can’t track down the pirates and their stolen cargo, it may bring about the extinction of the human race.

Marauders is the thrilling second book in the science fiction series Starship Hope. If you like intriguing first contact with aliens and survival at all-costs scenarios, you’ll love this second book by T.S. Valmond.

Katana of Trust by A.C. Ward:

Escaping death by her father’s hand was only the beginning…

Determined to prove herself to the gods, Shou will do anything to forget the journey that brought her to the island of the kami. Now is her time to rise up and take her place as the true chosen one.

But when enemies try to destroy Shou, another human saves her. She’s shocked that he bears the same mark as she. Suddenly, Shou questions everything about her history. Is she truly the chosen one of the prophecy?

Teaming up with Masaru, heir to the Date clan, is her only option to uncover the truth and save herself from death. As Masaru and Shou grow closer, one thing is certain: they’ve been wrong about the prophecy all along. Nameless and desperate, will Shou find her courage and fight for her place among the kami or forge a path of her own?

The Eighth Key by Laura Weyr:

The magic is gone…or is it?

Lucian is a jaded flirt and professional bard who knows all the old songs about sorcery. When he meets Corwin, a shy mage who can still use magic despite the Drought, Lucian finds his desire growing with each passing day—not just for answers, but for Corwin himself.

Sparks fly as they find themselves passionately entangled in adventure and each other. But learning the true origin of the Drought and the Key to ending it comes at a price that their bond may not survive…

Indie Crime Fiction of the Month for March 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 February 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, craft mysteries, animal mysteries, historical mysteries, Jazz Age mysteries, paranormal mysteries, hardboiled mysteries, humorous crime fiction, police procedurals, crime thrillers, adventure thrillers, environmental thrillers, science fiction thrillers, sea adventures, police officers, amateur sleuths, private investigators, FBI agents, journalists, burglars, gangsters, organised crime, missing violins, crime-busting witches, crime-busting socialites, crime-busting maids, crime-busting knitters, criminal leprechauns, murder and mayhem in London, Dublin, Belfast, 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:

An Unhappy Murder by Blythe Baker:

When Anna attends a play at a London theatre, death soon follows. Working together with Jerome Townson, Anna must locate a murderer before time runs out.

But even as she searches for the truth, Anna continues to be haunted by secrets from her past. A final revelation might just hold the answer to everything…

 

 

A Fabulous Little Murder by Beth Byers:

March 1926

When Vi and friends travel to attend the motor races, they are determined to have a fabulous time. They’re even hoping to try their hands behind the wheel. ??

They befriend one of the mechanics, so things go sideways for him, they agree to help. Perhaps, after all of this time, they should have expected the body, but they didn’t. ??

Now the race is on to find the criminals, and surely, they’re up to the task.

Leprechaun Luck by Addison Creek:

It’s St. Patrick’s Day and Lemmi, Charlie, and Liam are determined to have some fun before going to watch the guys play baseball.

What happens next is unexpected, to say the least, but Lemmi and Charlie are determined not to miss the baseball game. Now if only the leprechaun would tell them where Liam is . . .

This is a short story coming in at about 12,000 words.

 

Dublin Debacle by Kerry L. Curtis:

Kate is after Vince the Fence again after he slipped through her fingers last year she’s on her way to Ireland where she gets some unexpected help, she is trying to solve a twenty year old mystery and figure out what her brother is doing hint he’s in trouble and needs her help.

See what Kate is up to in this quirky romantic comedy cozy mystery

 

 

Witchy Reservations by Stephanie Damore:

There’s nothing practical about magic—which is why I ditched my wand years ago.

Thirteen years, to be exact.

The day I left Silverlake.

Except now, a family emergency has called me back home, and quite frankly, I’d rather be anywhere but here.

But when my aunt raises her wand to cure a friend and he ends up dead, it becomes abundantly clear I’m not leaving anytime soon.

Welcome to Silverlake, a place where nothing is EVER as it seems… and where a witch can find, and lose, a lot more than herself.

Knitted and Knifed by Tracey Drew:

Wanted: Cat mum to manage a yarn store, corral two curious cats, all the while being tangled up in murderous mayhem and mystery.

A smart woman would dump her cheating ex, move from the city, and give herself a chance for a well-deserved do-over. A smarter woman—smarter than me, anyway—wouldn’t jump out of that same frying pan and return to Cape Discovery, a seaside village where her family is the nuttiest of all the nut-ball residents.

I’m a former high school counsellor, middle-child peacemaker, and current curator of lots of squishy/fuzzy goodness at my granddad’s little yarn store. Temporary assistant. Until I decide what to do with the rest my life. There’s only one knotty problem to untangle first. The knife sticking out of the most unpopular man in town, and the police detective trying to pin the murder on the donkey—otherwise known as my younger brother. With a pair mischievous cats determined to be underfoot and a craft group of Serial Knitters and Happy Hookers wanting the inside scoop, a girl could lose her mind. And if the killer has their way, maybe even my life…

Tessa Wakefield has her hands full juggling a cozy craft store, her crazy family, and two men who’d rather poke out their eyes than describe themselves as cute. Which they totally are. Cute, charismatic, and occasionally on her mind when she’s not stumbling over dead bodies and using her newfound sleuthing skills to track down murderers. Lucky she’s an excellent multi-tasker because digging beneath Cape Discovery’s surface can unearth secrets that kill.

Picture Perfect by Mike Faricy:

An action-packed novel in the best selling Jack Dillon Dublin Tales series!

Killian Graham is paid every month to take a beautiful lady of his choice out to dinner. He stays in a five-star hotel, eats the best food, drinks the best whiskey, and enjoys the charms of a grateful companion . . .

Meanwhile, American gangster Jimmy Dugan has been ‘hiding’ out in the open.

US Marshal Jack Dillon and An Garda Síochána DI Paddy Suel, assigned to a human trafficking case, have their investigation interrupted by the suspected appearance of Jimmy Dugan. But what is he doing in Ireland? And how did he get through security?

Things are about to get crazy.

He doesn’t know it yet, but Killian Graham has a target on his back.

Two American students are kidnapped… maybe.

A mob hitman has just arrived and is about to end Killian Graham’s escapades…

TIME IS RUNNING OUT!

Phantom Echo by Eldon Farrell:

His search for a killer will put him in the crosshairs.

The body of a college student is dumped in an alley far from campus. Is it a case of bad timing, or a drug deal gone wrong?

As the detective assigned to the case, Nathan Miller suspects something more sinister behind it. Convincing his superiors of this won’t be easy, though, and following his instincts will require more than just bending the law. He may need to break it.

But when his pursuit leads him to Syria, and then London, he’s forced to seek aid from the Phantoms—allies who might be enemies. Will they help the killer he’s after, or join him in seeing justice served?

Burning Water by Inge-Lise Goss:

A Man Goes Up in Flames.

Was it an accident or murder?

Gwynn Reznick returns as a rookie private investigator…

…to find the truth.

Placed in an accounting role to watch the key players up close, she uncovers financial irregularities while delving into clues that lead her into dangerous situations. To obtain information, she becomes entangled with a tough crew of oil field workers. Their interpersonal jealousies and mysterious pasts intersect to obscure the truth.

Unraveling connecting threads that link to multiple disappearances, Gwynn discovers she’s pitted against polished criminal professionals and finds herself in the center of a devious scheme.

Money shortages and illicit affairs…

…point to several suspects.

Will her sleuthing blow her cover before her backup team arrives?

Any reader who enjoys action, adventure, murder mysteries, or just a plain good read will love Burning Water, the third book in the Gwynn Reznick series.

Wicked Honeymoon by Lily Harper Hart:

Jack Harker and his new wife Ivy have beaten the odds, and with that comes a little rest and relaxation. They have a two-week honeymoon planned, and the first leg involves a glamping trip down the river.

Jack has never been one for camping, and the truth is, he would’ve preferred anything but what they’ve got planned. Ivy, however, is desperate to prove that camping can be fun. What Jack wants most is for Ivy to have everything, so he gives in.

He may live to regret it. That is if he doesn’t die first.

What should’ve been an idyllic kayaking trip down the river, complete with gourmet meals and glamorous tents, turns into a mystery when one of the other guests finds blood on the ground on the second day. Jack and Ivy are instantly suspicious … but they seem to be the only ones.

There’s no body, so no reason to worry, and yet Ivy’s dreams won’t let her rest. Can you prove murder when there’s no body and nobody is missing?

That’s the plan for Ivy and Jack, although the trip will have them questioning more than their fellow travel-goers. It will have them questioning their instincts, too.

Strap in. Just because it’s a honeymoon, that doesn’t mean the ride won’t be bumpy.

Code of Silence by Phillip Jordan:

Belfast. A still divided city rising from the ashes of its past.

Detective Inspector Veronica Taylor has staked her all in bringing down the corrupt magnate and paramilitary godfather, Gordon ‘Monster’ Beattie and the prosecution has ended in failure.

For Beattie, his exoneration has come at a price, indebted to a shadowy global organisation seeking to exploit his insidious criminal empire for their own gain.

When the murder of a ruthless criminal plunges the two opponents again into conflict, Taylor comes under increasing pressure from superiors in how to direct her case and Beattie is forced to face the consequences of his newly secured freedom.

As it becomes clear the killers thirst for murder may not be randomly orientated but an organised and brutal retribution, Beattie confronts the lie that built his empire and Taylor is forced to face her demons.

Caught between her duty to intervene and her desire to let vengeance run its bloody course she finds herself trapped between exposing a revelation that could shatter the fragile peace and plunge her city back to violence or complict in the CODE OF SILENCE.

CODE OF SILENCE is the first novel in the gripping Belfast Crime Series.

Weddings and Whodunnits by Amanda M. Lee:

Avery Shaw never saw marriage on the menu – and when she did, she avoided it like liver and onions – but it appears her life is about to change. She simply can’t decide if it’s for better or worse.

With matrimony barreling down on her, she needs a distraction, and she gets it in the form of a warning. Apparently, she’s on the hit list for a local dealer who is trying to move in on turf she’s responsible for cleaning up, and news that she could be marked for death has her fiancé Eliot Kane in a tailspin.

Avery likes it when things line up her way. Unfortunately, very little is going how she envisioned in her life right now. Between her archnemesis Tad Ludington being fully recovered and back to his old tricks and her mother demanding a say in wedding preparations, Avery has her hands full.

The drug trade in Macomb County runs deeper than anybody anticipated, and the more Avery digs, the more she realizes that the case she thought was closed up tight is still open and ongoing. With an intern on her tail demanding attention, Avery is determined to uncover a secret so big it could blow up certain political circles within the county.

Eliot is by her side but his fear regarding the new people in Avery’s life is palpable … as is Sheriff Jake Farrell’s annoyance when he realizes what Avery is chasing. He wants her cut off from information, which isn’t something she will just sit back and accept.

It’s a war of the worlds this go-around for Avery, and the only chance she has to walk down the aisle is to figure out exactly what is going on. That’s easier said than done when she’s got a price on her head and people actively trying to thwart her every move.

She wants her happily ever after, and she’s determined nothing is going to stop her … not even death. Strap in and get ready, because Avery Shaw is taking no prisoners. Not this time.

Romancing the Crone by Amanda M. Lee:

Scout Randall has lived her life in the shadows, always wondering who abandoned her when she was a child and where the magic she boasts came from. Finally, she is about to get some answers.

It won’t be easy, though.

After a wild fight that saw shifters and vampires joining together to battle under an eclipse, things in Hawthorne Hollow are relatively quiet. Scout’s newly-found sister is locked in a cell, her grandfather is laying low, and the enemy appears to be regrouping.

That allows Scout and her boyfriend Gunner to make a trip to her childhood home. Upon their return, a shifter attacks and throws their world into a tailspin. He’s easily dispatched but appears to be suffering from a magical infection that has his body wasting and his mind collapsing.

It’s up to Spell’s Angels to figure out what’s going on, and because nothing is ever easy for Scout, the investigation is going to be harder than she imagined.

It seems there’s a new top vampire in town, and his powers are extensive for a creature who wasn’t born into his legacy. On top of that, he’s crossed paths with Scout before and knows exactly how to push her buttons.

Scout is a fighter but the world is closing in on her. She’s going to need her new co-workers and the family she doesn’t know to help her out on this one … and even then nothing is a given.

The road before her is winding but answers are finally here. Scout will finally know what she is. Whether she survives long enough to benefit from the knowledge is completely up in the air.

Mangetout by Guy Portman:

Trouble has a habit of finding some people.

Kitchenhand Deron thinks he’s hit the jackpot when a routine delivery of vegetables turns out to be contraband. The problem is it belongs to somebody else. And they want it back.

Financier Hamish has got involved in the arms trade and business is good. However, he’s unwittingly made a formidable foe. One who will stop at nothing for revenge.

Ken’s fed up with the nine-to-five. An illegal venture with girlfriend Laura brings the job satisfaction he craves, but also attention from organised crime. This could all go horribly wrong.

These sharp, shocking and suspenseful stories are a must read.

‘Dangerously droll crime capers’ – Adam Riley, Comedian

If you like dark humorous crime, you’ll love Mangetout

Murder with Strings Attached by Mark Reutlinger:

Sometimes even the most carefully conceived burglary can take an unexpected turn. Florence Palmer has her eye on concert violinist Aaron Levy’s priceless violin. Unfortunately, she finds it’s already been stolen. Her surprise doubles when the virtuoso she’d planned to burgle offers to hire her to help him steal it back. But they’re not the only ones looking for the missing violin. When Flo inadvertently becomes the prime suspect in a case of murder, she and Aaron need to clear her name. Will they find the real killer and get the violin back to its rightful owner without anyone else, especially themselves, being killed?

Windfall by Byron T.D. Smith:

Henry has hit rock bottom. A fifty-year old mystery could save him – or finish him off.

Henry Lysyk’s life is a mess.

With his marriage over and his accounting career marred by scandal, he retreats to the anonymity of a rented suite in a house shared with strangers. But the trail of a decades-old crime leads a murderous treasure hunter to his doorstep, and Henry is baffled by his neighbors’ cover-up.

An unexpected visit from his adventure-hungry niece, Frieda, further complicates Henry’s efforts to lay low. With his houseguest refusing to stay away from the danger, Henry’s terrified they’re about to expose secrets someone would kill to protect. Not knowing who to trust, they must choose which parts of the past to uncover, and which to leave buried.

A real-life ransom, a shadowy past, unlikely allies, and ruthless murder. Can Henry unravel this cold case before he and Frieda become its next victims?

If you enjoy absorbing mysteries, original characters, and a dash of true crime, then you’ll love Byron TD Smith’s clever “What if…” solution to the most captivating unsolved heist of the twentieth century.

Windfall is the first instalment in the Henry Lysyk Mystery series.

Murder at the Royal Albert Hall by Lee Strauss:

Murder’s a pain in the aria!

Nothing ruins a night at the opera faster than a duchess falling to her death. Mrs. Ginger Reed, also known by some as Lady Gold, is at the Royal Albert Hall with her husband, Basil Reed, a chief inspector at Scotland Yard, and the two of them are immediately at the scene. Was the Duchess of Worthington’s fall accidental? Where was the duke?

And what does Ginger’s grandmother-in-law, Ambrosia, the Dowager Lady Gold have to do with the sordid affair?

Something went terribly wrong with the dowager’s “sisterhood” of friends back in the 1860s, and it’s all coming home to roost.

In Harm’s Way by Ed Teja:

No good deed goes unpunished.

When Martin Billings and Ugly Bill come across a yacht stuck hard on French Reef in the Caribbean, they lend a helping hand, rescuing Donna Devro, the young woman on board, and getting the boat safely into harbor.

Now the authorities have found the boat’s owner dead in the cabin and Donna Devro has disappeared, leaving Martin and Bill to work out what sort of trouble she’s in (or up to), and find a way to keep from getting involved in whatever that trouble is. Fat chance.

Martin Billings left behind a shining career as an officer in the SEALs for this mess? All he wanted was a chance to make an honest living hauling cargo among the Caribbean islands on his freighter IRREPARABLE HARM.

Now, instead of hauling cargo, Martin and Bill are trawling for trouble, and Donna Devro isn’t eager to simplify their lives — nor is her husband.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier meet “The Star Sprangled Man”

I’m still not sure if I’ll do episode by episode reviews for the entire series of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, because it is much less complex than WandaVision and I’m not sure whether it really deserves deeper analysis. Camestros Felapton in his non-review also isn’t sure if the show actually deserves a deeper analysis. That said, if you want my thoughts on other episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (well, there is only one post so far), go here.

Warning: Spoilers behind the cut!

The first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier ended with the presentation of a new Captain America who will henceforth bear the shield of Steve Rogers. The only problem is that Steve bequeathed his shield to Sam Wilson a.k.a. the Falcon and that Sam donated it to the Smithsonian Museum for its Captain America exhibition. There never was any talk of a new Captain America, especially not of someone who has zero connection to Steve Rogers. Never mind that Steve explicitly wanted Sam to be his successor. Alas, Sam is too black to be Captain America, at least as far as certain people are concerned, a point that the show keeps making over and over again, just in case we didn’t get it the first time around.

The faux Captain America seemed designed to be instantly hateable in his brief appearance at the end of episode 1, as Gavia Baker-Whitelaw points out at The Daily Dot. Episode 2 mitigates this somewhat by opening not with one of our titular protagonists Sam and Bucky, but with the faux Captain America. We learn that his name is John Walker (played by Wyatt Russell, real life son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn), that he is from Georgia and he is very much an all-American cliché: high school football star turned war hero with three Medals of Honour. John Walker is very much the kind of guy into whom Dr. Abraham Erskine did not want to injuect his supersoldier serum. And indeed, John Walker isn’t a supersoldier, he’s just a regular guy with a costume, a shield and some gadgets.

That said, the opening scene featuring John Walker in a homecoming tour to his high school in Georgia does turn him into a more nuanced than he initially seemed. We learn that John Walker has a black wife and a black best friend/comrade-in-arms named Lemar Hoskins, who is also his superhero sidekick Battlestar. Battlestar is another character from the comics BTW and was introduced to be the Bucky to John Walker’s anti-Captain America. Initially, he was even supposed to be named Bucky, but the writers changed this, when they learned that “Bucky” was a derogatory term for African-American men.

We also learn that John Walker is a bit insecure and that he’d rather go out there and fight than go on propaganda tours, much like Steve Rogers back in the day. However, John Walker seems to embrace his propaganda role much more than Steve ever did. We see one of those propaganda appearances, complete with a marching band and cheerleaders, playing a more modern arrangement of the same song that accompanied Steve’s propaganda tour in the 1940s. We also see John Walker interviewed on Good Morning America by a woman who is apparently the real-life host of that show. That’s the advantage of Disney – who are still not paying Alan Dean Foster, by the way – owning everything. Crossovers are possible and a real life morning show host can play herself in a Marvel TV series interviewing the faux Captain America.

But while the opening scenes gave us a more human side of John Walker, the interview shows that he’s also a bit of a jerk. When the interviewer asks him if he knew Steve Rogers, Walker replies that he never met him, but that he always felt connected to Steve, almost as if they were brothers. Yeah, right.

If that interview and the propaganda show that goes with it made me roll my eyes, that’s nothing compared to the reaction of James Bucky Barnes a.k.a. the Winter Soldier. Because Bucky watches the TV appearance while curled up in a fetal position on the floor of his apartment, a look of utter horror on his face. This is as good a place as any to praise the performance of Sebastian Stan whose facial expressions really are amazing. He also looks increasingly like Mark Hamill in the 1980s to the point that it’s almost eerie. Hell, Sebastian Stan looks more like Mark Hamill than that weird Uncanny Valley de-aged CGI character who appeared in the final episode of The Mandalorian. If playing a post-Return of the Jedi and pre-The Last Jedi Luke Skywalker isn’t in Sebastian Stan’s future, then someone at Disney is not paying attention.

Bucky is so upset that he barges in on Sam, just as Sam and his new pal Lieutenant Torres are getting ready to go on a mission to take out the unfortunately named terrorist group the Flag-Smashers. We get some fun banter between Bucky and Sam, the kind of banter that appears to become a defining characteristic of this series, as AV-Club reviewer Sulagna Misra points out. After Bucky is through with yelling at Sam for giving up the shield, Sam gets to talk about the mission and wonders whether the Flag-Smashers are part of the “big three”, aliens, androids and wizards, since most enemies that Avengers have fought fall into those three categories. Bucky points out that wizards don’t exist and no, Doctor Strange doesn’t count. He also makes a Tolkien reference and when Sam asks him how he can possibly know about Gandalf, Bucky points out that he read The Hobbit when it first came out – in 1937.

Bucky more or less invites himself along on the mission to spy on and deal with the Flag-Smashers who have been sighted in a warehouse near Munich. Sam and Bucky spend the flight – which would be about seven hours on a regular plane and is probably longer aboard a military airplane – glaring at each other, while Torres is his usual exuberant self. When they reach their destination, Sam jumps out of the plane – he can fly, after all. Bucky jumps after him, eschewing a parachute, because – like Steve before him – he doesn’t need one. Alas, Bucky is not Steve and so he lands on his arse in the Bavarian forest, while Sam films everything with his trusty drone Redwing.

Sam and Bucky sneak into the warehouse, still bickering all the way, to the point that it’s a miracle that they don’t get caught. They watch as the Flag-Smashers load stolen medical supplies onto two trucks and drive off. Sam and Bucky follow and Redwind reveals that there is a person on the cargo platform of one of the trucks – a hostage they assume. So Bucky climbs aboard the truck and finds himself face to face with a young red-haired woman with lots of freckles. Bucky thinks he’s about the rescue the damsel-in-distress – only for the damsel to knock him in the jaw and smash him into the windshield of the following car. Oops.

The young woman is not a hostage, but a member of the Flag-Smashers. And not just any old member either, she’s Karli Morgenthau, the leader. Now Karli’s male comics equivalent Karl Morgenthau is Swiss. However, Erin Kellyman, the actress who plays Karli, is British and speaks with a notable Staffordshire accent. But I guess Marvel couldn’t find any Swiss actresses. Though they could also have made the character British and called her Carly Morningdew and would also have avoided using the problematic Morgenthau name.

What follows is what is probably supposed to be a thrilling action sequence as Sam and Bucky fight multiple superstrong Flash-Smashers on, above and under a pair of trucks. Bucky and Sam also pretty much get their arses handed to them, cause the Flag-Smashers all have superstrength and they outnumber Sam and Bucky. However, just when all seems lost, the faux Captain America and his sidekick Battlestar show up in a helicopter and join the fight.

Like I said, it’s all supposed to be very thrilling, except that it isn’t. Because frankly, there’s so much wrong with the truck sequence that I simply couldn’t enjoy it as a random action set piece. For starters, we’ve been repeatedly told that this whole sequence takes place in the Munich area. However, we see mountains and trees in the background. However, Munich is not actually in the Alps (something which regularly confuses North German visitors to Bavaria) and you have to drive quite a bit to actually reach the Alps. And once you do, you’re almost in Austria.

Also, when Sam and Bucky get thrown off the truck and take a tumble in a rapeseed field, awkwardly landing on top of each other to the delight of fanfic writers everywhere, we are suddenly in a hilly landscape that looks more like the actual surroundings of Munich, but that doesn’t at all match the mountains and fir tree landscape we’ve seen before.

Regarding the trucks, the license plate of one of the trucks says “MK”, which stands for Märkischer Kreis, a county in North-Rhine Westfalia, some 570 kilometres to the north of Munich. The other truck doesn’t have a German license plate at all – as far as I can tell, it’s Slovakian. One of the trucks is emblazoned with “Osnabrück”, a city on the border of Lower Saxony and North-Rhine Westfalia, i.e. not in the Märkischer Kreis, but far closer to the Märkischer Kreis than to Munich. And yes, trucks cover long distances and don’t necessarily have the license plate of the area where a scene takes place, but the whole thing is still a mess. Also pro-tip for Hollywood producers: If you have a scene that’s supposedly set in Germany and involves cars, get the license plates right, because believe us, we will notice.

Furthermore, the trucks are supposedly driving along the Autobahn. At one point, Sam even gets smashed into a blue Autobahn sign (which does correctly say Munich). However, the street where the truck fight takes place is very obviously a two-lane country road, not an Autobahn. It’s also suspiciously empty. The Autobahn A8 from Luxembourg via Stuttgart and Munich to Salzburg in Austria is one of the busiest in all of Germany and the Autobahn A9 from Berlin to Munich and the Autobahn A99, the Munich ring highway, are also extremely busy. None of them would ever be as empty as the road seen in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier – not even in the middle of the night at the height of the Covid lockdown.

But it’s not just that the truck fight is so riddled with inconsistencies and errors that it’s impossible to enjoy for what it is, it’s also not a very good car chase/fight scene. Because as I’ve mentioned before, for me the gold standard for any kind of car chase and car related action scene is the German TV series Alarm für Cobra 11, which has the best car crashes and chases on TV. Here are some examples from YouTube. As you can see, there’s actually traffic on the roads and the crashes and explosions are much better as well – on a fraction of the budget. Alarm für Cobra 11 has a budget of 1 million Euro per episode, one of the highest in Germany (only Babylon Berlin is most epensive), but nowhere near the budget for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which allegedgly costs 25 million US-dollars per episode. Action Concept, the company which makes Alarm für Cobra 11, has a purpose-built stretch of Autobahn, which is solely used for filming Alarm für Cobra 11 and other shows. Why on Earth Disney didn’t rent that Autobahn stretch I have no idea? For that matter, they should just have hired Action Concept, cause I would have loved to see what they can do with a Disney/Marvel-sized budget. I bet we would have gotten a truck chase scene on a busy Autobahn, involving dozens of cars, the two trucks, maybe some road construction equipment, at least one truck transporting crates of beer, cans of paint, pipes or something equally messy and a bus full of singing nuns that Bucky and Steve have to save from oblivion.

Of course, a lot of people may think, “What does it matter, if the area looks wrong, the Autobahn is no Autobahn and the license plates are wrong as well?” However, if you’re going after a global audience like Disney/Marvel is, it does matter. Because the signal that Marvel sends not just with this non-Autobahn in non-Munich, but also with things like passing off Cleveland, Ohio, as Stuttgart in The Avengers and Halle-Leipzig Airport as Berlin Airport in Captain America: Civil War is clear: We don’t care, because Europe is all the same, a big theme park we can use for our action scenes. And the rest of the world doesn’t necessarily fare any better. See Johannesburg pretending to be Lagos in Captain America: Civil War. And I’m pretty sure the Baltimore seen in this episode was actually Georgia. Nor is Marvel the only offender, international scenes in US TV shows regularly are very obviously not shot where they are supposed to be set. But while I’m willing to forgive a TV show with a small budget, Marvel’s budgets are huge. Also, there is no reason to pass off one place as another. The truck chase scene in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier could have happened wherever it was shot, probably the Czech Republic. The “Loki makes people kneel” scene in The Avengers could have happened just as well in Ohio. And the Avengers could have smashed up Halle-Leipzig airport for real, there was no reason for it to be Berlin (and the Leipzig newspaper was hugely excited to have a Hollywood movie filming nearby). The whole practice just feels disrespectful, as if any place in Europe (or Africa or Asia, for that matter), is the same as any other place.

In the end, the truck fight doesn’t really accomplish anything either. Bucky and Sam get their arses handed to them, while the Flag-Smashers get away. The faux Cap and Battlestar offer Bucky and Sam a ride and reveal that they tracked Bucky and Sam (and the Flag-Smashers) via Redwing, cause – quote faux Cap – “it’s government property, just like you.” We do hope that the US government at least asked the German government for permission before they sent in a bunch of superheroes and wannabe superheroes that wreak havoc on a German highway, but I strongly suspect they didn’t. The faux Cap also wants to work together with Sam and Bucky, because – so he points out – it will be easier for him to be accepted as Captain America, when Cap’s old wingmen stand by his side. Sam and Bucky make it very clear that no, they were not Steve’s sidekicks, they were his friends, and get out of the car.

The Flag-Smashers escape with their stolen trucks and spend the night at a hideout run by one of their supporters. There are flyers in German, really badly designed flyers, on the door announcing that someone is buying old cars. A sign on the wall says “Kneipe” (bar), but the place looks more like an empty warehouse or barn. The guy who owns the place speaks German (though he might be Austrian) and gives everybody chopped chicken liver, which is apparently supposed to be a German specialty, except that it isn’t, neither in Bavaria nor anywhere else. But then, everywhere in Europe is the same according to Marvel.

We do get a bit about the Flag-Smashers’ motivation courtesy of Karli, except that it’s more muddled than anything. The Flag-Smashers want a world without borders and nations, which is a good thing in theory. They are also angry that the people who were zapped during the Blip and then reappeared five years later are getting aid and resources, while the people who never left get nothing.

This sort of resentment is unpleasant, but not unbelievable. We saw it a lot in Germany after WWII, when the ethnic Germans who were driven out of what are now parts of Poland, Russia and the Czech Republic got resettlement aid from the government, whereas the people who’d always lived in (West) Germany got much less aid, even though they’d suffered bomb damages, etc…, too. The fact that there apparently was occasional fraud (Actual quote I’ve heard: “Everyone from Eastern Prussia claimed to have had a huge estate, even if they really lived in a shack.”) didn’t help either. Some forty to fifty years later, when ethnic Germans from the former Soviet republics came to Germany after the Soviet Union fell apart, they got the same reaction. “Those people are getting aid and they can afford houses (mostly because they bought fixer-uppers and repaired them themselves), even though they’re not even real Germans (TM).” And when a large number of refugees from Syria, Iraq and other places came to Germany in 2015/16, we got the same reaction from the usual suspects again. To quote an unknown elderly woman at a Pegida march in Dresden, “Those people are getting free housing (usually mass housing) and free washing machines (one for twenty people and the cheapest one at the electronics store, too), while I have to pay for my washing machine.” These attitudes are ugly, but they’re common. And interestingly, the groups who were on receiving end of that sort of thing before then turn around and complain about the next supposedly undeserving group of newscomers.

The Flag-Smashers’ chosen enemy is a Global Repatriation Council, which is in charge of supplying the people who returned after the Blip with housing, food and other supplies. Considering the Flag-Smashers supposedly want a world without borders, you wonder why they have such issues with a presumably UN-backed organisation trying to solve the issues on a global scale. Karli also gives a brief speech about wanting to destroy industrial plants, which – as Peer Sylvester pointed out on Twitter – puts her unpleasantly close to the real world historical villain whose surname she shares:

The Morgenthau-plan was designed to destroy all industries in Germany, which world gave caused likely starvation for hundredthousands of Germans.
So having a character with that name that wants to destroy industries for a group of people feels iffy#TheFalconAndWinterSoldier

— Peer Sylvester – trotz alledem und alledem (@Koenigvonsiam) March 27, 2021

While the Flag-Smashers are hiding with chicken liver dude, Karli gets a text message from someone who tells her that she took something that belongs to them and that they’ll kill her for it. Next we see the Flag-Smashers near Bratislava, capital of Slovakia (which suggests they must have passed through Austria), where they are loading their stolen medical supplies into a plane. Armed men show up and the name “Power Broker”, an established Marvel villain, is mentioned. The Power Broker sells dangerous and addictive drugs which give people superpowers, so his involvement here makes sense and suggests that this is how the Flag-Smashers came by their superstrength. One of the Flag-Smashers sacrifices himself to let the other get away, proving that while the Flag-Smashers may have superstrength, they’re not bulletproof.

Erin Kellyman is a very likeable actress and I wish she had better material to work with. Because the Flag-Smashers are the worst aspect of the series so far. Their motivations are hopelessly muddled. I mean, what exactly does this group stand for? One world without borders? Those other people over there are getting something that we’re not getting and we don’t like it? Down with industry? And why exactly are they stealing medical supplies and robbing banks? No one seems to know, not even Karli or the writers. But then, I suspect that the Flag-Smashers and their motivations matter no more than the motivation of Georges Batroc first in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and then in the previous episode. They merely exist to give Bucky and Sam someone to fight, before they engage in more banter.

Talking of banter, on their flight back to the US, Sam and Bucky actually talk and discuss which of the big three – aliens, androids and wizards – the Flag-Smashers are. Sam, however, is convinced that there’s a fourth possibility, namely that they’re supersoldiers. Except that there aren’t supposed to be any supersoldiers other than Steve. “You need to meet someone”, Bucky says to Sam.

Next we see Sam and Bucky in a rundown neighbourhood of what is supposed to be Baltimore, though it’s probably somewhere in Georgia. Sam has a little interaction with a kid who recognises him, but thinks his superhero name is Black Falcon, probably a reference to the fact that a lot of early black superheroes were named Black Something or Other, e.g. Black Panther, Black Lightning, Black Manta (okay, he’s a supervillain, but the naming pattern still applies). Bucky takes Sam to a house and asks for Isaiah. A teenaged boy opens and insists that there is no Isaiah. Bucky tells the boy to tell Isaiah that they met someplace in Korea (I forgot the name, sorry) and the door suddenly opens and we meet Isaiah Bradley, played with the usual excellence by Carl Lumbly.

It turns out that Steve was not the only supersoldier, after all. The US-military also experimented on black soldiers and one of them, the only one who survived the experiments, was Isaiah. He did get to go on missions – and on one of those missions during the Korean War Isaiah fought Bucky, when Bucky was still a brainwashed Hydra assassin, and damaged his bionic arm. However, Isaiah never got the glory Steve got and he never got to be Captain America either. Instead, he was thrown into prison for decades and experimented upon some more. “Your people weren’t done with me”, Isaiah says with a pointed look at Bucky. Sam takes this to mean “white people”, but Bucky believes that Isaiah is talking about Hydra. Isaiah Bradley is a character from the comics and his story in the comics is even more awful, if that’s possible.

The Isaiah scenes are incredibly powerful and also the highlight of the episode. I really hope we see more of Isaiah and his past. Sam is understandably horrified that there was a black supersoldier the world never knew about, because he was basically thrown away. “Did Steve know about this?” Sam asks Bucky. Bucky replies that Steve didn’t know, cause Bucky never told him.

Steve and Bucky bickering in public draws the attention of two racist white police officers straight from central casting. They pull over, think they need to save Bucky from Sam and only treat Sam like a human being, once they realise that Sam is not just a random black man on the street, but a superhero and celebrity. However, the racist cops now arrest Bucky, because there is a warrant out for his arrest, since he missed one of his therapy sessions. Bucky even lets himself be arrested and handcuffed, though he could probably mop the floor with those racist cops (and the viewers would probably cheer).

Now I do think that it’s a good thing that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is addressing racism, especially since the Marvel movies usually pretend that racism does not exist. Black Panther and the character of Killmonger are the big exception here and there’s likely something in the Luke Cage series I didn’t watch as well. But Sam, Rhodey, Nick Fury, Maria Rambeau, Gabe Jones and the various black characters in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. don’t experience racism on screen – it just never comes up. And while Monica Rambeau is forced into a cliched “sassy black best friend” role in WandaVision, everybody inside Westview is forced into cliched roles. So it’s a good thing that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier reminds us that racism exists and that even superheroes are affected by it, though Noah Berlatsky criticises the way the show addresses the subject.

However, do they have to be so blunt about it? So far, we’ve seen Sam not getting a bank loan due to being too black, Sam not getting to be Captain America due to being too black, we’ve met Isaiah who never got to be Captain America due to being too black either, but was abused and incarcerated instead. And considering how powerful the Isaiah scene was, did we really need the scene with the racist cops straight from central casting, too? Especially since that scene is about as subtle as the original Star Trek episode “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”. But then, Americans tend to like “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”, so maybe the people who need it, need their anti-racist messaging on the blunt side.

Though in the end, the cop scene only serves to get Bucky arrested, so faux Cap and Battlestar can show up to bust him out and Bucky’s therapist Dr. Raynor can finally have her long delayed session with Bucky and more or less bullies Sam into coming along as well. Now I generally hate the therapy scenes that are so common in US television and I know I’m no the only German viewer who hates them. Therapy is much less common here than in the US, so German viewers often have a hard time relating to those scenes. Never mind that they often seem like a cheap way to get the characters to talk about their feelings. Bucky apparently feels about therapy the same way I do, even though he is one character who actually needs it. And Amy Aquino is really good as the no-nonsense therapist Dr. Raynor, so the therapy scenes are less annoying than usual. Nonetheless, I hope they don’t overdo the therapy stuff.

That said, the Bucky and Sam therapy session scene was good. Dr. Raynor makes them do a silly soul-gazing exercise, forcing Bucky and Steve to sit close to each other (so close that they don’t quite know where to put their legs, a scene that will have all the Bucky/Sam shippers out there hyperventilating) and look into each other’s eyes, which Bucky and Sam promptly turn into a staring contest, for of course they do. Finally, Bucky blurts out that he’s angry at Sam for giving up the shield, because that means that Steve was wrong to trust Sam. And if Steve was wrong to trust Sam, then maybe he was wrong to trust Bucky, too. Sam points out that John Walker getting the shield and getting to be Captain America was not the outcome he wanted or expected either.

The episode ends with Sam and Bucky once more turning down faux Cap’s offer to work together. “Well, then don’t get in my way”, John Walker snarls, suddenly seeming a lot more sinister.

As Sam and Bucky walk away, Bucky says that Isaiah was right. If somone knows where new supersoldiers are coming from, it’s Hydra. Of course, most of Hydra is gone now, but there’s still someone they can ask, namely Helmut Zemo. Zemo was last seen in Captain America: Civil War, portrayed by Daniel Brühl, where he reactivated Bucky’s brainwashing and framed him for the bombing that cost the life of T’Chaka, father of T’Challa a.k.a. Black Panther. Zemo was arrested and is currently in prison in Berlin – which is represented by an aerial shot of the Victory Column. There is no prison anywhere near the Victory Column, though I guess we should be glad that the footage actually shows Berlin rather than Leipzig or Schkeuditz or Prague or wherever. We also get a brief glimpse of Zemo in his cell, still played by Daniel Brühl. And yes, it’s notable that German villains are usually played by German actors (the Red Skull who’s played by Hugo Weaving is the big exception here), whereas Marvel’s few German heroes – none of which have appeared in the Marvel cinematic universe so far, because the rights were with Fox – were played by a British actor (Alan Cummings as Nightcrawler), a Dutch-American and an American actress (Rebecca Romijn and Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique – and yes, Mystique is not really a hero and I’m not sure if her nationality has ever been confirmed either) and an Asian-American actor (Daniel Henney as Maverick a.k.a. Agent X) respectively.

In the comics, Zemo is just another Nazi cliché, indistinguishable from the other Nazi clichés Captain America fought like Baron von Strucker (they’re all aristocrats, too) and the Red Skull, though you can at least tell the Red Skull apart due to his face being literally a red skull. In Captain America: Civil War – though somewhat lost in this completely overstuffed movie – Zemo is a more nuanced character who actually has a believable motivation. He wants to avenge the death of his family who became collateral damage during the Avengers’ attack on the Hydra compound in Sokovia. The fact that Daniel Brühl is a much better actor than a one-note evil Nazi character deserves and also extremely likeable doesn’t hurt either. I hope he continues to be a more complex character than his comics counterpart.

This review is quite critical, which may be a bit unfair, because I actually enjoyed this episode quite a bit and most of the problems I’ve pointed out are not unique to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier or even Marvel. It’s just that after WandaVision, which was so much better than I or anybody else expected, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is turning out to be exactly what everybody expected, namely a mix of action and explosions that is carried by two likeable characters played by charismatic actors and the chemistry between them.

As Camestros Felapton points out, what makes the Marvel comics and movies work is that we like these characters. We want to spend time with them and watch them doing stuff, even if the plot doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. In many ways, superhero stories are like longrunning soap operas, only with superpowers and the occasional big battle. But the reason people keep buying the comics for years are not the big battles, though those are a lot of fun, but the many interpersonal scenes between the characters. To a comic reader, the X-Men playing baseball or hanging out by the pool is as important as the X-Men fighting Magneto. Most superhero movies completely fail to grasp this aspect. They have the flashy superpowers and big battles, but shortchange the interpersonal stuff. The first two Fox X-Men movies and the various DC TV shows did get it, which is why it’s such a disappointment that the latter X-Men movies and the DC movies mostly forgot this lesson. The Marvel Cinematic Universe also gets it, but then Marvel should know what keeps their comics selling and what keeps readers coming back for more.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier gets the interpersonal moments and the banter absolutely right. They also did a good job introducing less known characters from the comics such as John Walker, Lemar Hoskins and Isaiah Bradley. I also really hope we see more of Isaiah, maybe even a flahback episode of Isaiah fighting the Winter Soldier in the 1950s. A pity that the plot is kind of a mess so far and that the series suffers from the all too common “Every place on every continent that’s not North America is all the same anyway” syndrome.

So far, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is fun. However, it could be more than just banter and explosions.

An Open Letter to the 2021 Hugo Finalists, Whoever They May Be

DisCon III, the 2021 Worldcon in Washington DC, will announce the finalists for the 2021 Hugo Awards in April 13.

Right now, no one except for possibly the Hugo administrators knows who those finalists will be. However, sometime in the next two weeks or so, some of you will receive an e-mail from DisCon III, informing you that you are a finalist for the 2021 Hugo Award and asking you whether you want to accept the nomination. Some of you will have received such e-mails before, for others it will be the first time.

But whether it’s your first or your twentieth nomination, congratulations! That’s awesome.

As a first time recipient of such an e-mail last year, here are a few things I’ve learned:

The e-mail may not look like you think it will. When I got the e-mail from CoNZealand last year, the subject line was “CoNZealand Hugo Awards Confidential”. I was exhausted that day and waiting for two important e-mails, so I scanned right past that subject line, because I assumed it was the convention newsletter. I only opened the mail, because none of the two important e-mails had come yet, so I thought I might as well check out the CoNZealand mail while I was waiting. Good thing that I did.If you receive an e-mail from DisCon III, please reply as soon as you can whether you accept the nomination or not. If there are questions with regard to eligibility, answer them as soon as possible. The Hugo administrator and their team work very hard, so don’t make their job any harder than it has to be.The DisCon III team will also ask you to keep quiet about your nomination until the official announcement. Please don’t violate this, because you don’t want to steal DisCon’s thunder!The period between the time when the finalists are notified and when the Hugo finalists are officially announced can be weird, because while you know that you’re a finalist, almost nobody else does. I blogged a bit about my experiences last year here. Basically, I kept having the niggling fear that there had been some terrible mistake and that I wasn’t a finalist after all or that I only was a finalist because all twenty people who would have been ahead of me had withdrawn. From talking to other first time finalist, I learned that I wasn’t alone in this. And while I can’t guarantee that terrible mistakes won’t happen, the chance that the wrong person is notified about being a Hugo finalist is extremely small. So relax. You really are a Hugo finalist, even if nobody else knows it yet.You can tell a few people you trust about your nomination as long as you know they won’t blab it all over the internet. Before the official announcement, a handful of people knew I was a Hugo finalist. These include my parents (whose reaction was, “That’s nice,” before turning back to watch a rerun of Midsomer Murders), some folks from Galactic Journey and others in the SFF community, who knew not to say anything before the official announcement, as well as my accountant (because I asked her if buying an evening gown for the Hugo ceremony was tax-deductible) and the guy who repaired my patio, because he just happened to be there, when I got the e-mail. Neither the accountant nor the patio guy are SFF fans, so chances of a leak were zero. They both also probably thought I was quite mad.One thing I did not do is tell people about my nomination who might be up in the same category. Because I didn’t know who else was nominated (you don’t before the official announcement) and didn’t want anybody to feel disappointed, because I was a finalist and they were not.Even if you can’t publicly talk about your Hugo nomination just yet, there are still a few things you can do in the meantime. For example, you can update your bio to mention that you’re a Hugo finalist or write a bio, if you don’t have one yet. Important: Don’t upload your updated bio anywhere until the official announcement has been made! In fact, I spent a chunk of the evening after the Hugo finalists had been announced updating my bio everywhere it appears.In fact – and this is important – don’t upload anything that mentions your Hugo nomination anywhere on the internet, until the official announcement has been made. Even if you set a Tweet or blogpost to go live after the announcement has been made, don’t upload it yet. Because mistakes happen, you accidentally hit “publish” rather than “schedule” or a post goes live too early. I had my celebratory blogpost ready to go in Word, but I only uploaded it with links and a few comments added once the announcement had been made.Another thing you can do in the meantime is prepare a media kit, if you haven’t got one already. You can see mine here and there are also plenty of pages around the web that tell you what a media kit is supposed to contain. Important: Get permission to use any photos that you did not take yourself.Another thing you can do is write a press release about your Hugo nomination. It doesn’t matter which category you’re nominated in, whether it’s Best Novel or a fan category. Write a press release anyway. There are plenty of places around the web which tell you how to write a press release. It varies from country to country, so make sure you get the correct format for your country. My press release from last year (in German) is here. Then make a list of the contact info for the relevant newspapers, radio station and other media outlets in your region. Once the nominations have been announced, send your press release as well as the link to your media kit to those media outlets. The press release linked above netted me two in-depth profiles and a bonus article in two different newspapers, which is much more than I’d hoped for.Consider whether you want to attend Worldcon and the ceremony. And yes, I know it’s difficult during the pandemic, since we don’t know how or when the ceremony will happen, whether it will be virtual or in person, or whether our countries will even allow us to travel. Nonetheless, get a Worldcon membership, if you haven’t got one already. Like most recent Worldcons, DisCon III offers an installment plan, so you don’t have to pay for a full attending membership right now. You can also start looking for flights, hotels, etc…, though I wouldn’t book anything until we know for sure what’s going to happen. If money is an issue, as it’s for many of us, think about crowdfunding your Worldcon trip, as several finalists have done in recent years. However, don’t start your crowdfunding campaign, until after the finalists have been announced.If you want to participate in programming, fill out DisCon III’s program participant form, if you haven’t already. Do this as early as possible, so the programming team doesn’t have to find suitable programming for you at the last minute.Finally, start thinking about the Hugo voter packet.

Finally, here are a few observations regarding what happened after the Hugo finalists were announced last year:

A lot of people will congratulate you. These will be people you expect – friends, peers, etc… – but also people you don’t expect. After the newspaper articles mentioned above came out last year, I suddenly got congratulations from translation customers, various relatives and my Dad’s diabetes doctor among others. Enjoy the experience, thank everybody and don’t forget to congratulate your fellow finalists.Some people will also not congratulate you and again, some of these will be people you don’t expect. There are several reasons why someone might not congratulate you and most of them are not malicious. For example, some people might simply not have seen the news yet. Or they may not understand the significance, since not everybody is plugged into the SFF community. Of course, there will also be a few people who think that you don’t deserve your nomination. Ignore them!Your fellow Hugo finalists are not your rivals, they are your peers. You’ll probably know some of them already and if not, you’ll quickly get to know them. And yes, only one of you will get to take home the rocket in the end, but all six of you are amazing and in a way, you’re all winners. This also applies across categories. I met a lot of great people in the SFF community because we were on the Hugo ballot in the same year.As a Hugo finalist, you will get plenty of e-mails from DisCon III about anything from the Hugo voter packet via the program book to the ceremony itself. Pay attention to those e-mails, send any information requested in time and check your spam folder. You don’t accidentally want to miss something important.

Finally – and this is the most important point – enjoy your experience! You’re a Hugo finalist, i.e. your peers consider you and your work one of the six best in your respective category. That’s amazing, so celebrate!

Marvel’s “New World Order” – Some Thoughts on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

I probably won’t do episode by episode reviews of the new Marvel series on Disney+ The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, because compared to WandaVision, it’s a much more straight forward action adventure story and doesn’t seem to be the sort of show that invites a lot of analysis. Which is perfectly fine, cause sometimes all you want is some banter and explosion and entertainment. And The Falcon and the Winter Soldier certainly delivers that.

Warning: Spoilers behind the cut!

Like WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is set after half of population of the Earth (and the Universe) were snapped back into existence and deals with the aftermath of what has apparently been termed “the Blip” in the Marvel Universe. Our heroes, Sam Wilson a.k.a. the Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and James “Bucky” Barnes a.k.a. the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), were among those who were first snapped out of and then back into existence.

Now I have to admit that it’s been a while since I watched Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame and while I remembered that Bucky and Wanda had been among those snapped out of existence (along with Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Black Panther and most of the Guardians of the Galaxy), I had completely forgotten that Sam had been snapped out of existence as well. For some reason, I assumed he survived.

However, Sam is back in action now (quite literally) after five years of non-existence. And indeed, the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier starts off with a thrilling action set piece. A terrorist group called LAF has hijacked a US Air Force plane in Tunisian air space along with a US Air Force officer whose name I’ve forgotten. The US military wants the guy back and so they sent in Sam to retrieve him.

Sam uses his mechanical wings and his trusty drone Redwing to sneak aboard the plane and beats up some terrorists, but then gets beaten up by their leader, who is none other than Georges Batroc (portrayed by Canadian actor and martial arts fighter Georges St. Pierre), last seen in the opening scene of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, where Batroc has hijacked a ship full of SHIELD personnel and Captain America is sent in to rescue him. Apparently, after his bad experience with sea piracy, Batroc has decided to change careers to aerial piracy. His fate, however, is still to get beaten by Captain America and heroes connected to him.

Batroc, who is an established comics character, also mainly seems to exist to provide our heroes with thrilling action sequences, which have little to nothing to do with the actual plot. And so after a bit of kicking and fighting, Batroc and the surviving terrorists bail out of the plane in flight suits, taking their unfortunate kidnapping victim along. Sam gives chase through the series of Tunisian canyons, probably the same canyons where Luke Skywalker once shot womprats. There is a lot of flying, shooting and fighting, especially when Batroc’s backup helicopters and the Libyan air force, who are not at all happy to have American superheroes and French supervillains duking it out in their air space, show up. In the end, Sam rescues the American officer and tricks the Libyans into shooting Batroc’s helicopters out of the sky. Batroc survives, undoubtedly to provide another thrilling action scene intro to another Marvel movie or TV show.

I’m probably being a bit mean here, because the opening scene is genuinely thrilling. I’m just not sure whether it has anything to do with the overall plot except to introduce Sam’s liaison on the ground, Lieutenant Joaquín Torres (Danny Ramirez). Those familiar with the Marvel comics will recognise Torres as the man who took over the mantle of the Falcon after Sam became Captain America. Whether we will see Torres donning Sam’s wings in the series remains to be seen. Nonetheless, I like Torres.

Torres also informs Sam about a global terrorist group that’s more dangerous than Batroc’s LAF, namely the so-called Flag Smashers. Torres explains that the Flag Smashers want a world without national borders and that they also think the world was a better place during the five years it only had half its population. You can obviously see why the latter might be a problem, if the Flag Smashers act on it, but quite a few critics, e.g. Benjamin Lee at The Guardian and Gavia Baker-Whitelaw at The Daily Dot, wondered why a world without borders is apparently a bad thing in the Marvel universe, since many of us think it would be a very good thing, if at all feasible.

Gavia Baker-Whitelaw also points out that while it’s nice that the US Air Force informs Sam that he is not authorised to operate in Libyan air space, the overall attitude of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in general and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in particular towards international intervention is troubling, to say the least. Hey, Avengers, the city of Schkeuditz would like to have its airport repaired, considering you first trashed it in a pointless fight and then pretended it was in Berlin. Crap, is this how BER finally got finished after ten years?

To be fair, Hollywood action films and TV shows in general are very pro-military and give a rat’s arse about the US military operating where it has neither business nor mandate to be. Marvel is far from the worst offender here, compared to the likes of NCIS, Hawaii Five-0 and various military glorifying action films like Top Gun.

True, Marvel has a remarkably high number of characters with a US military background, including some like Sam Wilson and Monica and Maria Rambeau, who don’t have a military background in the comics (Sam is a social worker and bird watcher from Harlem, while Monica is an officer of the New Orleans harbour patrol and her mother Maria is a seamstress in the comics). However, Marvel at least occasionally does not portray the US military as an unalloyed good. And so Tony Stark realises that the weapons he designs and manufacturers don’t actually end wars and create lasting peace and that the bad guys have them, too. AIM uses desperate and disabled veterans for its supersoldier projects and covers up its failures with a fake Pan-Asian terrorist group straight from central casting. The people of Sokovia, including Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, become the victims of US intervention and are less than thrilled to see the Avengers show up to fight Hydra in their country, because the last time they saw anything with the name “Stark” on it, it was bombs. A young and enthusiastic Steve Rogers is first used as an experimental subject and later as a propaganda tool by the US Army. He only becomes a combat soldier when he goes rogue and his squad is a motley crew that is much more diverse than anything you’d have found in the real US Army in WWII. SHIELD turns out to have been infiltrated by Hydra for decades.  Bruce Banner is hunted and harrassed by General Ross for a fate that he did not choose. And even Captain Marvel, which is probably the most pro-military Marvel movie, shows Carol Danvers and Monica Rambeau having to deal with sexism in Air Force and are banned from flying combat mission due to their gender. Decades earlier, Peggy Carter, even though a war heroine, has to deal with being dismissed and belittled at every corner. By the admittedly low standards of US entertainment media, those are pretty nuanced portraits of the military and warfare.

As for why there are so many more positive than ambiguous or negative portrayals of the military in the US entertainment media, this Daily Dot article by Gavia Baker-Whitelaw about Captain Marvel explains why. Basically, if you want fighter jets, tanks, military helicopter and planes, etc… in your movie, the US military will kindly lend them to you, along with the people who can actually handle that equipment – provided you portray them in a positive light and help them gain new recruits. As a result, anti-war movies are much more difficult and expensive to make than war movies. They also generally look less impressive, because makers of anti-war movies which portray the military in a negative light have to make do with a single rusty helicopter that barely survived the Vietnam war, whereas filmmakers who make pro-military movies get spiffy new helicopter and fighter jets.

That said, the villain Flag-Smasher is a problematic and I would have preferred, if Marvel had not used him. In the comics, Flag-Smasher is just one guy (apparently, the main Flag-Smasher in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is a woman, which is progress, I guess), not a whole organisation (though he later is part of one), and his reasons for wanting to abolish nations and borders are both understandable and actually make sense. The fact that this character was portrayed as a villain tells you a lot about what Captain America comics were like in the 1980s and 1990s, when I used to call Captain America “Captain Nationalism” and flat out hated the character. The Marvel movies did a lot to move Captain America away from the old “Captain Nationalism” model and turned him more into what he was intended to be, namely the positive side of America given form. Hell, the Marvel movies actually made me like Captain America.

But what I personally find even more offensive about Flag-Smasher is not his/her ideology, but the character’s real name. For Flag-Smasher is a Swiss person named Karl (Karli in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) Morgenthau. He/she shares a surname with a US-politician named Henry Morgenthau Jr. who came up with a plan to divide Germany after WWII, destroy all industry and make sure that Germans remain impoverished for generations, which would have meant 25 million German people starving to death. I’m not inclined to feel kindly towards anybody who thought my parents and grandparents should have starved to death and that they and I should live in abject poverty and I question to decision to name a comic character after a flat out evil historical figure. I’m pretty sure it’s no coincidence either; “Morgenthau” is a very uncommon name, especially spelled that way. I guess we should be glad that Marvel made their Morgenthau a villain.

Of course, it’s possible that the treatment of the Flag-Smashers in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will be less problematic than it seems – after all, the Marvel movies have successfully updated some flat out offensive villains like the Mandarin before. So far, all we have seen of the Flag-Smashers is that they organise a flash mob in Switzerland as a cover for a bank robbery (even terrorists need money). Danny Ramirez has tracked them and tries to stop them and is badly beaten by an unusually strong Flag-Smasher.

After his adventure in Tunisia, Sam heads back to Washington DC, where he presents the shield that Steve Rogers bequeathed him to the Smithsonian Museum’s Captain America exhibit, because he feels that without Steve, the shield is just an empty symbol. James Rhodes is also at the ceremony in an unexpected but welcome cameo appearance. After all, both Sam and Rhodey started out as sidekicks to another (white) hero, became heroes in their own right and have now lost their respective best friends. Rhodey point blank asks Steve why he doesn’t take up the shield to become Captain America. Sam has no real answer to that – for now.

After the ceremony, Sam heads to Louisiana to visit his sister Sarah and her two sons. It’s not the happy reunion Sam had hoped for. Sarah and her sons were not affected by the Blip. Now Sam’s nephews, who were only toddlers when Sam vanished, are pre-teens. Meanwhile, single mom Sarah had to hold the fort, i.e. the Wilson family’s fishing and shrimp shack business, and not just during the Blip either, since Sam took off and joined the Air Force at eighteen, leaving Sarah behind. Sarah is not happy about any of this.

It also turns out that the family business is in financial trouble, because the customer base dwindled during the Blip, while costs remained as high as ever. It’s a pity, really, because I found myself craving shrimp during the Louisiana scenes. However, Sarah wants to sell the fishing boat, restaurant as well as their parents’ house, which is mortgaged to the gills. Sam doesn’t want to sell – it’s his legacy, after all. And besides, Sam is certain they can get a loan. He’s an Avenger, after all, and has a steady contract with the Air Force and besides, there are programs to help people who returned after the Blip.

Once Sarah and Sam get to the bank, the (white) manager is totally thrilled to meet a real life superhero, but still won’t give them a loan, because Sam had no income in the past five years due to not existing (and no reported income before that either due to being an Avenger and basically being financed by Tony Stark). All of those nice programs to help people affected by the Blip don’t apply either, because in essence Sam and Sarah are too black to qualify. Sam is understandably angry at this turn of events, Sarah seems more resigned. After all, she’s been here before.

It’s not the last shock for Sam, because when he switches on the TV he sees the same government official who was there when Sam presented Steve’s shield to the Smithsonian announce a new Captain America, a white dude named John Walker, who’s played by Wayne Russell, son of Kurt Russell (who appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 as Ego the Living Planet) and Goldie Hawn. Wayne Russell certainly has his Dad’s prominent chin. John Walker is a character from the comics, introduced as an anti-Captain America character named Super-Patriot in 1986. He started out as a villain, but later changed his ways and became a hero named US Agent.

While Sam is realising that Avenger or not, he’s still a black man in a very racist America, our second protagonist James “Bucky” Barnes a.k.a. the Winter Soldier has problems of his own. He’s 106 years old, though he looks thirty, and has spent the past eighty years fighting, much of it as a brainwashed Hydra tool. Bucky has literally been through hell and is not doing well. He has nightmares of the assassinations he carried out for Hydra – we see one of them played out, a flashback to a day where Bucky not only killed his target, but also an innocent bystander.

Bucky has also acquired a therapist (Amy Aquino), which is a condition of getting pardoned for the crimes he was forced to commit against his will. And honestly, if any character ever needed a therapist, it’s Bucky. I was a bit surprised that they did not go with Doc Sampson, therapist to superheroes in the Marvel universe. Doc Sampson is a supporting character from the Hulk comics, so I doubt it’s a rights issue. However, Amy Aquino is wonderful as Bucky’s gruff no-nonsense therapist, who probably would manage to glare down the Hulk as well.

The unnamed therapist does her best to get through to Bucky, but he doesn’t exactly make it easy for her. He flat out refuses to admit he has nightmares and also ignores her advice to make friends (“You’ve been ignoring texts from Sam”, the therapist says) and just get to know people. The therapist and Bucky have also come up with a list of people to whom Bucky is supposed to make amends in what appears to be another variation of the weird American fascination with guilt and redemption and people humiliating themselves to gain the latter. Though Bucky isn’t really humiliating himself. We see him exposing a female politician who came into office thanks to Hydra, scaring the women and her bodyguard to death (even though he’s not supposed to either hurt people or do anything illegal), before handing them over to the authorities.

One Bucky’s few friends is an elderly Japanese American man. Initially, I assumed that this was the Japanese-American member of the Howling Commandos and one of Bucky’s old wartime buddies. I’m apparently not alone in this – AV-Club reviewer Sulgana Misra assumed the same. However, it turns out that the old man Yori is a new character, the father of the innocent bystander Bucky killed during the mission in his flashback. And even though he befriends the old man, this is one case where Bucky really can’t make amends.

Yori and Bucky always go to a Japanese restaurant in the neighbourhood. And while they’re there, Yori tries to set Bucky up with a woman named Leah who works there. Leah is definitely interested, but then Bucky is handsome. They even have a date of sorts. Bucky shows up with flowers at the restaurant and is irritated by a waving Maneki-neko cat and tries to stop it from waving (nice juxtaposition between the cat and Bucky’s cybernetic arm). Bucky and Leah wind up playing Battleship together (well, Bucky should know how that works, though not the modern version), but then Bucky abruptly runs off.

Some reviewers, most notably Andrew Welch and Benjamin Lee at the Guardian and Keith R.A. DeCandido at Tor.com, were irritated by the amount of time given over to interpersonal scenes featuring Bucky and Sam. However, I quite enjoyed those scenes. Back when I was still a regular reader of superhero comics, the scenes I inevitably enjoyed most were not the big battles, but the quieter moments of e.g. the X-Men playing baseball or having a barbecue or X-Factor going to therapy and the characters just interacting. And from talking to other comic fans, I know that I’m not alone with that. Many people love the quiet interpersonal as much as the big battles.

However, any superhero movies not made by Marvel often ignore those aspects in favour of lots of action. And if those interpersonal moments are filmed, they often end up on the cutting room floor, because hey, that huge battle scene cost a lot of money, so we’d better use as much of that footage as we can. However, the fact that WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier are TV series means that they have enough time to show those interpersonal moments as well. And IMO that’s a good thing.

And while Bucky had a good character arc in the movies, Sam was very underdeveloped. All we knew about him was that he was abn Air Force veteran and all-around good guy. In fact, one of the things I love about the Marvel TV series is that they give underdeveloped and underused characters like Sam, Wanda and Vision a chance to shine.

That said, while WandaVision tried to do something genuinely new and different, the various beats in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier seem very familiar, because we’ve seen them before, featuring Steve Rogers rather than Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes. As Sulagna Misra points out, the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier very much mirrors Steve’s arc in Captain Americe: The Winter Soldier. As with The Winter Soldier, the series starts off with a high octane action sequence to rescue random hostages, a scene that even features the same villain. And just like Steve before him, Sam finds himself betrayed by people he trusted following this action-packed opening.

Meanwhile, Bucky’s feelings of being displaced an unmoored in time mirror Steve’s – except that Bucky’s situation is even worse, because at least Steve didn’t spend decades as a brainwashed assassin. Like Steve, Bucky has problems fitting in and problems connecting with the other sex. Like Steve, he hasn’t danced since 1944. Just like Steve, Bucky even has a notebook containing a list which he crosses off periodicially. But while Steve’s list includes all the things he missed while he was on ice, Bucky’s list is a list of people he wronged and to whom he wants to made amends.

Don’t get me wrong, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is a lot of fun, but while WandaVision was genuinely new and different, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier gives us a slightly different spin on things we’ve seen before. It’s still fun, because Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes are characters we like and enjoy spending time with, but I do hope they start covering new ground soon. It also will help once our protagonists actually interact – which they haven’t done so far, since both Bucky and Sam have their own plotlines.

A solid, but not revolutionary entry in the Marvel Cinematic and TV Universe.

Some Comments on the 2020 Nebula Award Finalists

The finalists for the 2020 Nebula Awards were announced yesterday night, uncommonly late in the year, since the Nebula finalists are normally announced several weeks rather than four day before the Hugo nominations close.

So let’s take a look at the individual categories:

Best Novel

There are no big surprises in this categories – all six finalists are highly regarded novels, which got a lot of positive attention.

Piranesi is Susanna Clarke’s first novel since the Hugo and Nebula winning Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell back in 2004 and got a lot of attention well beyond the SFF sphere. I have to admit that I haven’t read it yet and that I don’t have a great desire to read it, even though I liked Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell quite a bit back in 2004. But then, I’ve also changed quite a bit since 2004 and my tastes have changed as well.

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin is an expansion of her 2016 short story “The City Born Great”. It’s an excellent novel by one of the top writers in our genre and in fact, I enjoyed it more than I enjoyed the Broken Earth trilogy. Heresy, I know.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is another novel that got a lot of attention beyond the SFF sphere. I enjoyed it a lot and it’s on my Hugo ballot. With The City We Became, Mexican Gothic and Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark in the novella category as well as Lovecraft Country in the film and TV category, it’s also notable that the trend towards Lovecraftian horror featuring protagonists that Lovecraft himself would never have accepted in his fiction continues unabated.

The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk was the only finalist in this category that surprised me a little. I haven’t read it, so I can’t say anything about it, though C.L. Polk has been a Nebula finalist before.

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse is a fine fantasy novel by one of the most exciting newer writer in our genre. It’s another unsurprising finalist.

Network Effect by Martha Wells is the latest installment and first novel in the beloved Murderbot series. It’s also on my Hugo ballot and I’m not surprised to see it here at all.

Diversity count: 5 women, 1 non-binary, 4 writers of colour, 2 international writers.

Best Novella

This category is a mix of expected and unexpected finalists. The three Tor.com novellas Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark, Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi and Finna by Nino Cipri all got quite a bit of attention. I did like Ring Shout, though not quite enough to put it on my Hugo ballot. Haven’t read the other two.

The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg is a novella I’ve heard of, though it got a little less attention than the previous three, probably because Tachyon’s marketing budget is smaller than Tor’s. Again, I haven’t read it.

“Tower of Mud and Straw” by Yaroslav Barsukov appeared in the magazine Metaphorosis. I’m afraid I’ve never heard either of the novella nor of the magazine, though it looks interesting. Yaroslav Barsukov is a Russian author currently living in Vienna BTW.

“Ife-Iyoku, the Tale of Imadeyunuagbon” by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki appeared in the anthology Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora by small press Aurelia Leo. Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and I follow each other on Twitter and Aurelia Leo does good work, though I haven’t read this particular novella. Together with Riot Baby, there are two novellas by Nigerian writers/writers of Nigerian origin on the Nebula ballot.

Diversity count: 4 men, 1 woman, 1 non-binary, 3 authors of colour, 2 international authors (4 if you include first/second generation immigrants to the US), at least 2 LGBTQ+ authors*

Best Novelette

“Two Truths and a Lie” by Sarah Pinsker is a fine SFF mystery that’s also on my Hugo ballot.

The “Shadow Prisons” triptych by Caroline M. Yoachim is a chilling dystopian serial that stuck with me for a long time after I read it. One of the individual stories is on my Hugo ballot, though it didn’t occur to me to nominate the serial as a whole. I’ll have to think about whether to change my Hugo ballot accordingly, because the three stories really belong together.

“Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super” by A.T. Greenblatt is a story I enjoyed quite a bit, though it didn’t quite make my Hugo ballot.

“Where You Linger” by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam is unfamiliar to me, though I normally read Uncanny. I probably missed it, especially since it came out at a time when I was busy with the Retro Reviews project and new fiction fell to the wayside for a while.

“Stepsister” by Leah Cypress is another story I’m not familiar with, probably because F&SF is difficult to come by here in Germany. This is one of only two Nebula nominations for the so-called “Big Three” print magazines this year BTW.

“The Pill” from Meg Elison’s collection Big Girl is another story I haven’t read, so I can’t say anything about it.

Diversity count: 6 women, 1 writer of colour

Best Short Story

“Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse” by Rae Carson has a great title, though it’s a story I completely missed due to it coming out at a time when I was otherwise occupied. Ditto for “My Country Is a Ghost” by Eugenia Triantafyllou.

I very likely read “Advanced Word Problems in Portal Math” by Aimee Picchi, since I usually read Daily Science Fiction‘s story of the day, when it lands in my inbox. However, I don’t remember this particular story.

Vina Jie-Min Prasad is a great newish author, though I haven’t read her story “A Guide for Working Breeds” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad from the anthology Made to Order: Robots and Revolution.

I haven’t read “The Eight-Thousanders”, since Asimov’s is as difficult to come by here in Germany as F&SF. However, I’m really happy for Jason Sanford, especially after all the crap and harassment he got following his exposé of far right murder fantasies posted at the Baen’s Bar forum. You can find a summary of the whole ugly situation here, here and here. For that matter, this is the other Nebula nomination for one of the “Big Three” print magazines.

“Open House on Haunted Hill” by John Wiswell from Diabolical Plots is another story I haven’t read, I’m afraid.

Diversity count: 2 men, 4 women, 1 author of colour, 2 international authors

Andre Norton Award for YA SFF

Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar and A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher are two great YA fantasy novels that are also on my Lodestar ballot, so I’m thrilled to see them here.

I have heard a lot of good things about Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger, though I haven’t read it.

I hadn’t heard of Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko before, though it looks interesting.

A Game of Fox & Squirrels by Jenn Reese is another book I’m afraid I haven’t heard of.

Diversity count: 5 women, 3 writers of colour

Best Game Writing

I’m not a gamer, so I can’t say anything about this category at all. Hades is the only game I’ve even heard of.

No diversity count, too many people are needed to write games

Ray Bradbury Award for Best Dramatic Presentation

I’m not surprised to see episodes of The Expanse and The Mandalorian as well as the whole 1st season of Lovecraft Country here, since all three are great SFF shows. The Mandalorian and Lovecraft Country also appear on my Hugo ballot. The Expanse doesn’t, largely because I’m woefully behind with the show.

I really loved The Old Guard, so I’m thrilled to see it here. It’s also on my Hugo ballot.

I have to admit that I was surprised to see Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn on the Nebula ballot, largely because I had completely forgotten that the film even existed. I remember that the trailers put me off at the time. Maybe the movie is better.

Finally, we have yet another episode of the execrable The Good Place. I guess I will never understand why so many people seem to love this show, especially in an age of so many great SFF TV shows. However, thankfully The Good Place ended in 2020, so this is the last year we will see it on SFF awards ballots.

No diversity count, too many people are needed to make movies and TV shows.

And that’s it for the 2020 Nebula Awards. All in all, it’s a good ballot, which includes a mix of the expected and the unexpected. Writers from Africa and the African diaspora are making a strong showing and we also have two indigenous writers on the ballot, which is a first.

The decline of the “Big Three” print magazines continues, though they did manage to nab two nominations this year. The reasons for this is that there is so much great short fiction available in the online magazines that many people don’t look beyond the online zines. Which is a pity, because the print mags – well, F&SF and Asimov’s – publish a lot of good stories. They just don’t get the attention they deserve.

Though in general, we are seeing more variation in the sources for Nebula short fiction, which is a good thing. Tor.com no longer dominates the novella category like they used to. And while Uncanny is making a strong showing in the novelette and short story categories, it’s no longer as dominant as it used to be. Finally, four nominees come from anthologies and collections, which is something we haven’t seen as much in previous years.

Small presses are making a good showing on the Nebula ballot this year, though there are no self-published works for the second year in a row. It seems as if the 20Booksto50K dust-up of two years ago has soured a lot of Nebula nominators on indie authors and books, which is a pity, cause there is a lot of good work out there.

Beyond the Lovecraftian horror reimagined theme I already mentioned above, I don’t really see any notable themes this year. We have a wide variety of different stories and themes, which is a good thing.

All in all, another strong Nebula ballot.

*I’m only counting writers where I know for sure that they are LGBTQ+. Most likely, there are several others on the ballot whose orientation I simply don’t know.