Cora Buhlert's Blog, page 73

Star Trek Discovery jerks the old tear ducts in “Perpetual Infinity”

I’m still sick (or again, since I caught a new bug my Dad brought back from the hospital), but nonetheless, here is your regularly scheduled Star Trek Discovery review. For my takes on previous episodes, go here.

Warning! Spoilers under the cut!

“Perpetual Infinity” starts where the previous episode ended, with the Red Angel unmasked as Dr. Gabrielle Burnham, Michael Burnham’s presumed dead mother, played by actress Sonja Sohn. Everybody inevitably mentions that Sonja Sohn was in The Wire (of which I haven’t seen more than maybe twenty minutes, none of which included Ms. Sohn, and that was more than enough to tell me that I didn’t like the show), so I’ll mention that she also was in Cold Case, Body of Proof, Burn Notice and Luke Cage, mostly playing cops (which apparently is also what she played in The Wire) and always well worth watching. She also gives a great performance as Gabrielle Burnham.

Once Pike, Saru and Dr. Culber assure her that she wasn’t dreaming, Michael, who is still recuperating from her ordeal to draw out the Red Angel, is understandably desperate to see her mother after twenty or twenty-five years apart. Alas, Gabrielle does not want to see Michael. For it turns out that on the night the Klingons attacked the Burnhams, Gabrielle jumped into the prototype Red Angel suit and activated it. Gabrielle planned to go back in time to prevent the attack, but the Red Angel suit sent her 950 years into the future instead, into a universe where all sentient life (Really all? I mean, the universe is a very big place) has been long since exterminated by the rogue Section 31 AI Control. By the way, since all problems in Star Trek Discovery seem to originate with Section 31, can anybody tell me why they weren’t disbanded and instead stick around well into the era of Deep Space Nine?

Gabrielle tries to return to her daughter, but always inevitably finds herself pulled back into Control’s dark future. She does keep an eye on Michael via her time travelling, though the only person she can ever manage to communicate with is Spock (who gets stuck with terrible nightmares as a result) due to his dyslexia. And now Gabrielle doesn’t even want to see Michael, since she knows that she cannot stay anyway. For while the containment field that the Discovery crew rigged last episode to entrap the Red Angel keeps her in the present for now, it won’t hold forever and then Gabrielle has to go back to the devastated future. Of course, Michael, who won’t take “no” for an answer, and Stamets, who never met a science problem he did not want to solve, try to find a way to keep Gabrielle in the present, but there is no guarantee it will work. And besides, time has lost all meaning for Gabrielle anyway due to too much time-travelling.

Furthermore, Gabrielle also tried to figure out how Control became so powerful and what can be done to stop it. She did manage to solve the latter problem, since it turns out that Control only became a sentient-life exterminating monster once it absorbed the data from the infodump sphere the Discovery found in “An Obol for Charon”. Oh yes, and Gabrielle was the one who planted the infodump sphere in Discovery‘s path, though we suspect that she had no idea that she’d nearly kill off Saru in the process. Though interestingly, Saru is the one who objects to simply deleting the sphere archive, which is the first solution to the dilemma that Pike proposes. Finally, Gabrielle knows nothing about the seven signal bursts which the Discovery was sent to investigate in the first place, which is a bit strange, because Gabrielle seems to know everything else, as we and Michael learn via hundreds of video logs Gabrielle has made.

Nonetheless, I strongly suspect that Spock, Saru and every other person in Michael’s life is very angry at Gabrielle right now. In fact, I’m pretty sure Pike isn’t a huge fan of Gabrielle either, especially after she tells him that she has seen his future (so have we, Gabrielle, so have we) and that he won’t like it. Mirror Georgiou actually confronts Gabrielle about this in a great scene (largely because Michelle Yeoh and Sonja Sohn are both excellent actresses), only for Gabrielle to promptly thank her for always being there for Michael and protecting her and eventually dying for her. Uhm, Gabrielle, you know that this Philippa Georgiou is an evil tyrant from the Mirror Universe, who likes to have Saru for dinner, right? Hell, even Mirror Georgiou points out that Gabrielle is talking to the wrong person, while Gabrielle insists, “No, I know exactly who you are.” Hmm, foreshadowing? Though Michelle Yeoh will have to stick around long enough for the proposed Section 31 spin-off at least. Though this exchange (which passes both the Bechdel test and the people of colour equivalent BTW) once again shows that the closest thing to a caring parent figure Michael ever had was an evil Empress from the parallel universe (as well as her good prime universe counterpart).

For while I certainly sympathise with Gabrielle’s terrible predicament, let’s face it: She isn’t a particularly good parent. First, she and her husband put their young daughter at risk by engaging in massively dangerous research for Section 31 and painting a big fat “Klingons, aim bat’leth here” target on their backs. Then Gabrielle gets time lost and though she manages to communicate with Spock, she never manages to tell him that he shall let Michael know she’s alive and will come back if she can. Then, when she is finally reunited with her daughter, Gabrielle refuses to see her, because she knows she’ll have to leave again and the brief reunion will only hurt Michael. Uhm, how about letting Michael decide for herself? After all, Michael is an adult now, not a young girl. Okay, there is eventually a tearful exchange of “I love you”, but I’m still not overly impressed by Gabrielle the mother as opposed to Gabrielle, the time-travelling scientist, who’s pretty bad-arse.

This season, Star Trek Discovery is dishing up pretty inept or downright awful parent figures with such wild abandon that it seems they’re gunning for the Darth Vader Parenthood Award with almost puppy-like desperation. Though maybe they shouldn’t have picked a year where they’re up against both Thanos as well as upstart George Hodel. Though I’m a bit unsure if George Hodel should be a contender, since he was a real person, even though I Am The Night, the TV series which won him his nomination, is largely fictionalised.

The one person who tries to comfort Michael, when her mother refuses to see her, is Spock, who knows a thing or two about crappy parents. Okay, so I’m not sure if a game of three-dimensional chess is the best comfort, but Spock tries and that it what counts. He also uses the game to show Michael that no matter what Gabrielle might claim, the future is not written in stone and they can change it. Now that sounds like the Spock we know and love. Once more, the scene between Spock and Michael is lovely and indeed, their relationship is quickly becoming one of my favourite things about season 2 of Star Trek Discovery, which I’d never have expected, considering how sceptical I was about whether we needed to see Spock at all.

Meanwhile, the Discovery is still trying to figure out how to keep Control (Honestly, couldn’t they have come up with a better name? Cause this one makes V’ger and Nomad seem creative) from accessing the sphere info and turning into a universe destroying monster. After Saru vetoes just deleting the archieve and it turns out that they cannot do that anyway due to inbuilt protections, the next idea is to simply upload all the info into the Red Angel suit and sent it into the future where Control cannot access it. However, that is a problem, because it turns out that Control did not kill Section 31 commander Leland like it seemed last episode, but instead took him over. And Leland now orders Mirror Georgiou and Ash Tyler, both of whom are still Section 31 agents, to download the sphere info, so Section 31 can safeguard it. Both Ash and Mirror Georgiou have their doubts about that, but initially go along with it, because orders are orders. But after her little heart to heart with Gabrielle, Mirror Georgiou figures out that something is wrong with Leland, when he uses the same phrasing Gabrielle used when talking about Control. She recruits Ash, who’s been having some doubts of his own, and together they decide to stop Leland a.k.a. Control.

James Whitbrook feels that the fact that Georgiou and Ash are having a crisis of conscience over a Section 31 plan that turns out to be the plan of a rogue AI cheapens the characters and removes some shades of grey from Section 31. I agree that it certainly seems as if the Discovery showrunners are trying to redeem Mirror Georgiou, probably because while Empress Philippa the Merciless, eater of Kelpians, makes a delightfully villainous guest star, she doesn’t really work as the star of her own Section 31 show, while Philippa Georgiou, morally grey badarse, certainl does. Meanwhile, Ash Tyler has been a victim of circumstance for much of Discovery‘s run anyway. However, I don’t feel that the fact that the orders that Georgiou and Ash decide to not obey come from a rogue AI rather than from their superior Leland really cheapens their characters and their decisions. Especially since that same rogue AI used to run Section 31 (and much of the Federation) anyway and thus is directly responsible for the orders given to Section 31 agents. However, I do think that no matter how delightful Michelle Yeoh’s turn as the no longer quite so evil Mirror Georgiou is, Section 31 is best used sparingly, if you must use them at all. And personally, I never liked the idea of Section 31 in the first place, probably because I never much cared for Deep Space Nine where they originated.

Once the Control-controlled Leland figures out that Ash and Georgiou are working against him, he stabs Ash (who survives to suffer another day) and engages in a furious hand-to-hand battle with Georgiou and Gabrielle (Michelle Yeoh fight scenes are always good) and later a Discovery security team led to Commander Nhan (does she even have a first name?) beamed down to the planet where all this is taking place. The planet is apparently called Essof IV, though I never caught the name and it doesn’t much matter anyway, because the episode ends with the Discovery blowing up the planet after beaming out the security team plus Georgiou and Ash. The Red Angel suit is damaged in the fight, dragging Gabrielle back into the future, and a redshirt member of the security team dies barely noticed and unmourned.

As for Leland, he manages to escape aboard the Section 31 ship (where no one has any inkling that he isn’t their commander, but his corpse controlled by a rogue AI) with 54% of the sphere’s info. Is 54% enough to turn Control from a mere Leland-and redshirt-killing evil to a universe-exterminating evil? We don’t know, but we’re sure to find out. And will Gabrielle ever manage to return from the future and finally be reunited with her daughter? Considering that Discovery managed to bring back both Philippa Georgiou and Dr. Culber, both of whom were very much dead, killed on screen no less, I certainly wouldn’t rule it out. It also would be a welcome development, both because Michael deserves a bit of happiness and also because I wouldn’t mind seeing Sonja Sohn again after the excellent performance she gave this episode.

All in all, “Perpetual Infinity” was a really good episode of Star Trek Discovery, though Camestros Felapton points out that some reviewers like Kaila Hale-Sterne at The Mary Sue didn’t much care for it. Though what elevates it over the usual Star Trek Discovery plot runaround are the great performances of Sonequa Martin-Green, Sonja Sohn and everybody else. Discovery is the rare example of a Star Trek show with no weak links in the cast (probably the first time this has happened since Next Generation and even Next Generation had the occasional weak link) and in season 2 this is really paying off.

I’m not overly thrilled by Discovery basically borrowing the plot of the Terminator series with some call-backs to the Borg mixed in, because we’ve seen this story before, multiple times, even in Star Trek itself. Never mind that there isn’t much tension about whether Control will succeed in exterminating all sentient life in the universe, because we know that it won’t. After all, the Federation will still be around by the end of Voyager and Star Trek Nemesis (okay, so the latter film would almost be a reason to exterminate the universe). And humans will be around for even longer, because one of the Short Trek episodes was set in the far future, featuring a marooned traveller and Discovery‘s computer. Which makes me wonder even more why they chose to make that particular Short Treks episode, nice though it is, at this point, when it pretty much negates the entire main threat of season 2.

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Star Trek Discovery dishes up more shocking twists (TM) in the hunt for “The Red Angel”

Before we get to our regularly scheduled Star Trek Discovery coverage (for my takes on previous episodes, go here), I first have some links to share.

For starters, I have a new article up at Galactic Journey. This one is about modern architecture written from a 1964 POV. Meet the pregnant oyster, the hollow tooth, the Bull Ring and other classics of postwar architecture. There are lots of vintage photos, too, some of which were not easy to track down. And modern photos usually don’t work, even if the building is unchanged, because there generally are people, cars, other buildings, etc… in the shot that clearly don’t belong into the mid 1960s.

Then, I have a book in another StoryOrigins giveaway, where you can get free e-books in exchange for your e-mail address. This giveaway is called Action Reloaded and is thriller and adventure fiction themed. If you always wanted to try the Silencer series or want to check out some of the other thrillers and adventure novels on offer, head over to StoryOrigins and sign up. And don’t worry, if you’re already signed up for my newsletter. You can download the free e-book anyway, if you enter your e-mail address. The system filters out any doubles.

And now let’s talk about the latest episode of Star Trek Discovery, fittingly enough entitled “The Red Angel”.

Warning! Spoilers behind the cut!

“The Red Angel” starts off where last week’s episode ended, namely with the death of Airiam, the cyborg member of the bridge crew. This week’s episode starts off with Airiam’s funeral, complete with several crewmembers giving heartfelt speeches and Saru singing a Kelpian dirge. All of which would be very touching, except – as Zack Handlen points out in his review – we barely knew Airiam and most of what little we knew about her happened in the episode she died. Indeed, “Funeral for a Redshirt” might have made a good alternate episode title. We also meet Airiam’s replacement, one Lieutenant Nilsson who is played by none other than Sarah Mitich who played Airiam in season 1. So Airiam’s replacement is herself.

With her dying words, Airiam revealed that everything – the Red Angel, the impending apocalypse due to an AI gone rogue – is connected to Michael, for of course it is, and to something called “Project Daedalus”. Now Tilly, Discovery‘s resident master of Google-Fu, digs into the archives and finds a file that reveals that the Red Angel has Michael’s biometric signature. This is apprently supposed to be a “shocking twist (TM)”, the first of several this episode, except that the fact that the Red Angel is apparently a time-travelling Michael Burnham surprises absolutely no one and indeed was the most popular option on the semi-serious “Who is the Red Angel?” poll that Camestros Felapton posted last week. Besides, as Spock points out, time-travelling and putting herself at risk to warn everybody of impending doom is exactly the sort of thing Michael would do. Hmm, I now wonder whether Spock’s occasional totally logical outbreaks of risking his life to save his crewmates and friends (most notably Pike in “The Menagerie” and the entire Enterprise crew in The Wrath of Khan) are something he got from his sister or whether that’s how you turn out, when you have the misfortune of being raised by Sarek and Amanda. Because Michael is not the only one to risk her life for totally logical illogical reasons all the time.

As for the mysterious Project Daedalus, well, Georgiou ex-machina pops up once again, Leland in tow, to provide the answer. Oh yes, and just in case you’re wondering whatever happened to “The Discovery crew are now fugitives for habouring Spock and hunted by Section 31″ plotline that added some urgency to the past two episodes, well, Admiral Cornwell basically sends a message that everything was a very regrettable mistake (Starfleet is sure making a lot of those recently) and that the Discovery is completely cool again and that Spock is no longer wanted for murder. Why have this whole “The Discovery crew are fugitives” plot at all, if you’re not going to do anything with it? Ask the production team, cause I sure as hell don’t know.

As for Project Daedalus, Mirror Georgiou ex-machina casually informs Michael, Pike and the rest of the Discovery crew that it was a Section 31 project to develop time travel and that the Federation was in a time travel arms race with the Klingons. Of course, we never heard anything about this before – unless this was the Temporal Cold War that was a side plot in Star Trek Enterprise – not even during the entire first season that was all about the war with the Klingons, but who cares? A shocking twist (TM) was needed, so Georgiou (who has no way of knowing any of this, since she wasn’t even in this universe, when it happened, but who cares?) delivers one. Georgiou also has a second shocking twist (TM) in store (for why have just one, when you can have several?). For it turns out Michael’s birth parents weren’t just harmless Starfleet researchers who got themselves murdered by Klingons (those of us who pointed out that Klingons normally don’t randomly murder people now feel vindicated). No, Michael’s parents were Section 31 agents who were working on…. drumroll… Project Daedalus and were on a mission to retrieve a time crystal for Leland, when the Klingons caught up with them and killed them. As for why Michael’s parents chose to take their young daughter along on this very dangerous secret mission, either childcare is really inadequate in the Federation or they are also gunning for the Darth Vader Parenthood Award for Outstandingly Horrible Fictional Parents. Oh yes, and the Red Angel seems to be wearing the very time travel suit that Project Daedalus was trying to develop.

Michael’s reaction to this revelation is twofold. First, she decks Leland who totally has it coming (Saru also threatens Leland for good measure, because he always has Michael’s back and no more likes Section 31 than anybody else does). Then she tears into Ash Tyler, who – although he’s both Klingon and a Section 31 agent – has absolutely nothing to do with any of this. Finally, Michael storms out to let off some steam by beating up training dummies. Spock goes after Michael and tries to comfort her by pointing out that her emotional and logical sides are in complete turmoil right now and that he knows how that feels. It’s a lovely scene and very well acted by Sonequa Martin-Green and Ethan Peck, who really manages to channel Leonard Nimoy, e.g. when he dryly points out to Michael, who’s still pounding a dummy, “I’m sure Captain Leland appreciates your choice of high-density urethane foam in lieu of his nasal cartilage”. And though I was initially sceptical whether we needed to see Spock at all in Discovery, Spock and Michael’s very believable sibling relationship is quickly becoming one of my favourite things about this season.

Together, Michael and Spock also come up with a plan to trap the Red Angel once and for all. Unfortunately, given the origin of the plan, it’s both completely insane and very, very dangerous. Basically, Spock and Michael theorise that if the Red Angel is a future Michael, she will obviously want to protect her past self to prevent a grandfather paradox type situation from happening. This is born out by the fact that the Red Angel has protected Michael from danger a few times, totally ignoring the fact that Michael was in deadly danger for much of season 1 and the Red Angel didn’t as much as beat a wing to help her. Though if the Red Angel were Michael, that would actually make sense, because Michael with her massive martyr complex is probably convinced that she must suffer and besides, she knows that she didn’t die.

Michael and Spock’s crazy plan to trap the Red Angel is to deliberately put Michael in deadly danger, so the Red Angel will swoop in to rescue her. And once it does, the trap snaps shut and the Discovery has captured the Red Angel who will hopefully answer some questions. It’s an absolutely terrible plan, and everybody except Spock and Michael is against it. The look on Pike’s face is priceless and he’s clearly thinking, “Oh my God, I’m surrounded by nutcases. Please, just let me go to Talos IV and have babies with Vina now, cause I can’t take this anymore.” On a more surprising note, Admiral Cornwell is also vehemently opposed to the plan as is Mirror Georgiou. But then for all her faults, Mirror Georgiou genuinely seems to care about Michael. And how depressing is it that the closest thing Michael has to a caring parent figure (since both Sarek and Amanda as well as her own parents were inadequate) is an evil tyrant from another universe? Come to think of it, Lorca also genuinely seemed to care about Michael, though his feelings were far from parental. So basically, the only people who really care about Michael are two evil villains from the mirror universe and Spock (and Tilly and Saru).

In the end, Michael and Spock manage to convince Pike, Cornwell, Georgiou and the rest of the Discovery crew to go along with the plan. Or rather, Michael convinces everybody, while Spock stands next to her and just shrugs and basically says, “Well, of course it’s a crazy plan, but that’s the sort of thing she does and don’t even try to stop her, cause she’ll do it anyway.” Interestingly, no one points out that if future Michael really is the Red Angel, she should already know about the plan to trap her, but then a few plot holes never stopped Discovery.

So the plan is on. Michael decides to spend what might well be her last moments alive (for if the plan fails, she’ll likely end up dead for good) by making up with Ash in an “OMG, I’m about to die” moment. Once more, the chemistry between Shazad Latif and Sonequa Martin-Green is fabulous, though these two are really way too tortured and complicated to be good for each other. A less complicated love interest for Michael would probably be a good thing at this point. Maybe Saru, cause you know he wants to, even if Michael doesn’t quite get it yet.

And talking of complicated relationships, Dr. Culber has finally decided to get some professional help (yeah!) and seeks out a therapist. Unfortunately, the Discovery has no counsellor on board, though I’ve never seen a Starfleet ship that needed one more and so Dr. Culber seeks out Admiral Cornwell, who used to be a therapist, before she became a genocide happy Starfleet Admiral. Honestly, I’m thinking more and more that Admiral Cornwell was conceived as an evil version of Deanna Troi, though it doesn’t quite work, because the writers often don’t know what to do with her. But genocide condoning evil Deanna Troi or not, talking to Admiral Cornwell does seem to help Dr. Culber. It helps him so much that he decides to try to reconcile with Stamets right now and blunders into engineering where Stamets, Tilly and Mirror Georgiou are in the process of setting up the trap for the Red Angel and figuring out how to kill Michael without killing her for good. So Stamets is less than pleased to see Culber and tells him that this is really not a good time. Mirror Georgiou is obviously getting a kick out of all this interpersonal drama and promptly decides to hit on Stamets. And when Stamets (great facial expressions by Anthony Rapp here) tries to politely decline with, “Sorry, but I’m gay”, Mirror Georgiou casually informs him that his mirror universe counterpart was bisexual and that maybe he should just give it a try. Culber is suitably jealous. On the one hand, it’s a hilarious scene and wonderfully played by Anthony Rapp, Michelle Yeoh and Wilson Cruz. Though the implications that apparently everybody in the Mirror Universe is not just evil and wears a goatee, but also bisexual comes perilously close to the problematic “bisexuality equals evil” trope, as Gavia Baker-Whitelaw points out in her review.

The episode ends with Michael screaming in agony, as she is exposed to poisonous gas or whatever it is. Pike and Georgiou want to stop the experiment, but Spock holds them back, knowing that this is Michael’s wish. The Red Angel really does appear in the nick of time to rescue Michael and is promptly trapped. The Red Angel suit opens up to reveal… – no, not Michael, but her Mom. The same Mom (played by Sonja Sohn, who’s been in dozens of TV shows, though everybody only remembers The Wire for some reason) who apparently died at the hand of the Klingons twenty years ago or so.

As shocking twists (TM) go, this last twist is truly shocking, because I for one did not see it coming at all. It also plugs some plot holes such as “If Michael was the Red Angel, why did she fall for the trap?” and opens up others such as, “If Mama Burnham was so concerned about her daughter, where was she when her daughter was given a life sentence on trumped up charges and frankly, where was she for the entirety of season 1?” Or for that matter, “Why did Mama Burnham take time out of her busy schedule of saving all sentient life in the Universe and trying to keep her wayward daughter from getting herself killed to rescue the survivors of the Hiawatha, the colonists of New Eden and the Kelpians, but did nothing to rescue any of the umpteen other deserving victims of cosmic disasters that happened in Federation space during the same time period?” For that matter, the question also remains just why Michael’s mother has apparently the same biometric signature Michael has. Is DNA analysis in the future just really bad? Did someone get the samples mixed up? Is Michael her own mother (hey, it’s possible)?

Oh yes, and just in case you’ve forgotten all about Control, the rogue Starfleet AI that’s planning to eliminate all sentient life in the universe, Control decides to start its mission by eliminating one sentient life that won’t be missed much and kills Leland.

By now I really feel as if I’m repeating myself week after week, but once again “The Red Angel” was an enjoyable episode of Star Trek Discovery that just zips along and keeps you on the edge of your seat. It’s only when you start to think about it afterwards that the plotholes become apparent. I initially thought that the amount of action and the sheer speed of Star Trek Discovery were one of the big weaknesses of the show, especially since Star Trek has traditionally always been slower and talkier than many other science fiction shows. But by now, I’m convinced that the fast pace is also one of the show’s greatest strengths, because it keeps you from noticing that the whole plot doesn’t make much sense and is full of holes big enough to fly a starship through.

The other great strength of Star Trek Discovery – and one it shares with most, if not all other Star Trek shows – are the characters. Because by now, my main reason for watching Star Trek Discovery is that I want to know what happens to Michael, Spock, Saru, Tilly, Pike, Ash, Stamets, Culber, Detmer, Owosekun, Rhys, Bryce and yes, even the genocide-condoning Admiral Cornwell and the deliciously evil Mirror Georgiou. Yes, the fact that there is action in space, exploding spaceships, visits to unknown planets, strange cosmic phenomena, time travel, magic mushroom drives, Vulcan logic extremists and Klingon religious fanatics helps, too, but in the end the characters are what keeps me coming back for more.

Back in the day, when a German TV station was broadcasting Star Trek every day of the week, looping from the Original Series via The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise back to the Original Series again, I usually tuned in or recorded the episode of the day to catch up on the weekend. Didn’t matter if I’d seen it already (and I’d seen most of them by that point), I still watched. And when – as I recount in this guest post at the Skiffy and Fanty Show – a friend asked me why I always made sure to watch Star Trek, even though I’d seen most of it at least once, I told her that Star Trek was comfort viewing for me, like a soap opera. And Starship, the soap opera that everybody in the Republic watches in my In Love and War series, is basically Star Trek, if it really were a soap opera and had run for two hundred years straight.

Even though it’s completely bonkers (but then, Star Trek in any incarnation was often completely bonkers), Star Trek Discovery has managed to capture that particularly aspect of Trek very well. It’s basically a bonkers soap opera with occasional explosions, magic mushrooms and philosophical discussions. All of which makes sense, if you remember that originally space opera was basically a soap opera set in space. I’m not sure if that’s what Discovery wanted to be – I guess not, because while today’s prestige TV is all too often basically a soap opera with much better acting and production values, that’s not what it thinks it is – but it’s not a bad path for the show to take at all.

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Luck and Crime – A Round-Up of Indie St. Patrick’s Day 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 St. Patrick’s Day mysteries by indie and small press authors.

The holiday mysteries cover the broad spectrum of crime fiction. We have plenty of cozy mysteries, culinary mysteries, animal mysteries, paranormal mysteries, police procedurals, crime thrillers, noir thriller, legal thrillers, amateur sleuths, crime-fighting witches, crime-fighting bakers, crime-fighting ghostwriters, crime-fighting dogs, murders, pranks, missing gold coins, murdered leprechauns and much more. But one thing unites all of those very different books. They’re all set on or around St. Patrick’s Day.

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:

Struck by Shillelagh by Amy Alessio:

Struck by Shillelagh: A St. Patrick’s Day novella mystery! When her friend is arrested for attempted murder of the Mayor at the St. Patrick’s Day parade, Alana O’Neill tries to learn who really hit the unpopular politician with the black thorn shillelagh. A new booth owner with a questionable past, a secret author featuring the antiques mall and recipe failures are unable to distract Alana for long on her quest for justice. Vintage recipes include Edible Blarneystones, Refrigerator Cake, Lime Ribbon Delight and more. This story is 11,000 words.

Includes Bonus Story Thankful for Pie: In this Thanksgiving holiday novella, Star tries to learn who is sabotaging her family’s struggling bakery. She also wonders why her new karate instructor drives her so crazy.

Murder on Saint Patrick’s Day by P. Creeden:

It’s St. Patrick’s Day and 20-year-old Emma Wright is working hard at training five-month-old Molly, her foster puppy, to become a therapy dog. But her training coach and neighbor gets an emergency call, cutting the lesson short, and Emma volunteers to pick up her daughter at a St. Patrick’s Day concert in town.

When Emma arrives, the concert has just finished up, and the teenage girls are visiting with the band. Then the lead singer stumbles and falls to the ground, dead. Emma becomes the only level head in the crowd and calls for help. When the Sheriff and Colby arrive, they investigate it as a potential accident. But Emma finds subtle clues that something more sinister is going on. Did the leader of the band die in an accident, or was it murder?

Shamrock Shenangigans by Kathi Daley:

Zak and Zoe travel to Ireland for their first Valentines Day as husband and wife. They have been invited to attend a murder mystery weekend in a real haunted castle. During their first night at the castle, they find one of the guests dead. Really dead. As they delve into the murder they begin to see that not only are things not as they appear, but several of the other attendees are not who they claim to be. During the course of her investigation Zoe discovers a secret about herself that is more than just a little shocking.

 

Shamrock Snakes by Tom Dots Doherty:

Set in Dublin during a St. Patrick’s Day Festival, Shamrock Snake is an exciting Irish crime thriller that’s told from a male and female perspective as Doyle tires to find out what is behind a series of gruesome murder-suicides.

 

 

 

 

Shammed by Bernadette Franklin:

At R.K. Legal & Associates, office hours are between ten to six, pranks happen after hours, and evidence of all shenanigans are removed before doors open to clients.

When Alice’s boss, Mr. Kenton, starts a prank war with Lance McCarthy, an up-and-coming attorney from a rival firm, she thinks it’s just business as usual.

She’s never been so wrong in her life.

Chosen to be Mr. Kenton’s accomplice, Alice must face off against Lance in what quickly becomes a winner-takes-all game of hearts.

Paddy Whacked by S. Furlong-Bollinger:

Inspector Helmes and his trusty sidekick, Watkins, know they have their work cut out for them in solving the murder of Paddy O’Toole, the Grand Leprechaun. However, nothing can prepare them for the strange lineup of suspects they encounter at the annual Holiday Icon Convention.

 

 

 

St. Patrick’s Day by Andrew Gonzalez:

St. Patricks Day is a story about two brothers who had a terrible history in the past and takes place in Celina, Ohio. The older brother Jimmy Marsh tries to kill his younger brother Jacob Marsh out of anger and jealousy when they were kids. At the age of ten the older brother Jimmy Marsh did his part in killing his parents. Because of doing so, Jimmy was abused by his parents and Jacob the younger brother was treated like a prince. Jimmy failed to kill his brother Jacob and was sent to a sanitarium for ten years but then he escaped and went after Jacob again. Through the years Jacob had delusions of seeing his brother, and now that Jimmy is free, he has another chance of going after Jacob and his friends. So now its up to Jacob not only to save himself but also the people he loves.

Sleuthing for the Weekend by Jennifer L. Hart:

It’s St. Patrick’s Day in Beantown, and Mackenzie Elizabeth Taylor needs the Luck of the Irish to solve her latest mystery—namely, who was the mysterious Uncle Al, the man who left her his apartment building as well as his PI business? But that personal investigation has to take a backseat to raising her teenage genius Mac, and dealing with her immature baby-daddy and demanding mother. Not to mention taking on a job that will actually produce some green.

The case is a gnarly dispute by two Irish pub owners who happen to be brothers as well as rivals over a missing inheritance. With the entire city out pub-crawling, Mackenzie goes hunting for a pot of gold…but winds up with a body instead.

With an assist from Mac, Mackenzie must slip into her gumshoes and go toe-to-toe with Detective Hunter Black, her neighbor, protector, and main squeeze, in order to solve her case. this case and claim the reward before someone else. Can the mother daughter team successfully investigate in the middle of a city-wide chaos? Or is their luck about to run out?

End of the Rainbow by Michelle Ann Hollstein:

It’s St. Patrick’s Day and Aggie, Betty and Roger are celebrating at an Irish pub in Palm Springs when Betty’s leprechaun-love-interest drops dead. Could it be murder? Join Aggie and friends as they embark on a celebration they won’t soon forget.

 

 

 

Duffel Bags and Drownings by Dorothy Howell:

Fashionista and event planner to the stars Haley Randolph is staging a St. Patrick’s Day bash for one of Hollywood’s biggest couples. When she visits the catering company to check on preparations, it looks like the green ice sculptures will be the hit of the party — until Haley finds a server floating face down in the water tank.

Haley becomes the prime suspect in the murder. With a killer — and a giant leprechaun — on the loose, she must do some fast sleuthing to find the pot of gold at the end of this rainbow. Will she kiss the Blarney Stone — or the hot new detective on the case?

Haley will need the luck of the Irish to find the killer — and the hottest handbag of the season!

Shamrock Pie Murder by Carolyn Q. Hunter:

Indulge yourself in a sweet slice of murder!

It’s Saint Patrick’s Day in Culver’s Hood and pie shop owner, Bertha Hannah, has been asked to cater the dessert course at a local chiropractic luncheon. Unfortunately, what seems like a fun event is hampered by persistent protestors, professional disagreements, and jealous lovers. The unpleasant situation goes from bad to worse when one of the event’s attendees is murdered, under most unusual circumstances.

Bert has her hands full trying to prove one man’s innocence while hunting down ghosts of the past. Will she be able to “crack” the case, or will she find herself permanently on pins and needles?

Lucky Strike by Madison Johns:

When Sheriff Peterson is injured during a high-speed chase — Agnes and Eleanor spring into action.

Agnes Barton and Sheriff Peterson’s working relationship is shoddy at best. He’d rather balk at the idea of Agnes and Eleanor independently investigating his cases. That changes though when he’s injured in a high-speed chase. While the good sheriff is laid up at a secret location for his own safety, the girls are on the case.

It’s hard to investigate the true nature of the sheriff’s accident though when Rodney Scott is murdered at the local bowling alley and all they have to rely on is the Interim Sheriff Karl Roberts. Agnes needs to quell her suspicions about Roberts as the girls launch an investigation that has them at their wits end and it will take more than luck to solve this case.

St. Patrick’s Day Secret by Linda P. Kozar:

When seventeen-year-old Sean visits his eccentric Irish grandfather, he discovers a secret that his Gramps is obsessed with—finding the family’s cache of gold coins, stolen, according to his grandfather, by leprechauns. Though Sean doesn’t believe in elves or leprechaun’s he decides to spend his last summer before college with his grandfather, and joins him in his quest to find a purloined pot of gold.

 

 

Four-Leaf Clover by Amanda M. Lee:

Clove Winchester is feeling lucky at life, and that’s before a mysterious stranger drops into her magic store and gifts her with a special coin. Suddenly things can’t go wrong for Clove, and she’s the center of attention in the Winchesters’ world – especially because Aunt Tillie wants that coin.

When a near-death experience rocks Clove and her boyfriend Sam, Clove takes a closer look at the coin and realizes there’s a lot she can do with her new luck streak. Unfortunately for Aunt Tillie, Clove is determined to keep the benefits to herself.

When a brazen armed robber hits Hemlock Cove and goes after Bay, all of the Winchester witches band together to solve the crime and save the day. Of course, they may need a little luck to do it.

Lucky You by Mark Parker:

SOME KILLERS ARE BORN, SOME ARE CREATED…

After a night of exuberant sex with a college coed on St. Patrick’s Day, club bouncer Declan McGilvery discovers something quite unsettling about himself. What transpires over the next few weeks for this Irish-born Boston native is nothing short of unthinkable. As circumstances grow beyond Declan’s control, his life heads in a direction he could’ve never possibly imagined. Declan comes to realize in an all-too-real way, that one night stands can hold implications beyond lust and risky behavior. Sometimes they can even lead to death.

Go Bráth (‘Til Doomsday) by Christopher Ryan:

NYPD Detectives Frank Mallory and Alberto “Gunner” Gennaro (from the award-winning debut novel CITY OF WOE and the popular short story collection CITY OF SIN) are just trying to enjoy the St. Patrick’s Day Parade when all Hell breaks loose….

 

 

 

The Luck of the Ghostwriter by Noreen Wald:

Jake O’Hara and her colleagues are looking forward to a complimentary weekend in Manhattan’s swanky Plaza Hotel, the venue for the Greater New York Crime Writers’ Conference. The conference kicks off on St. Patrick’s Day, making the atmosphere a bit more festive—and chaotic—than usual. But things get way out of hand when senator-turned-writer Charlie Fione and actress-turned-writer Holly Halligan partake of some green beer—that leaves them permanently green around the gills.

Now Jake’s Irish eyes are far from smiling as she delves into a mystery and tries to rewrite a murderer’s plot—as only New York City’s finest ghostwriter can.

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Star Trek Discovery Uncovers a Conspiracy in “Project Daedalus”

Today’s Star Trek Discovery review will be somewhat abbreviated, because I’m still pretty sick and showing very little sign of improvement. For my takes on previous episode of Star Trek Discovery, go here BTW. And if you want some insight into the costume design of Star Trek Discovery and the ideas behind it, Gavia Baker-Whitelaw has a great interview with Discovery costume designer Gersha Phillips at The Daily Dot.

Warning: Spoilers behind the cut!

“Project Daedalus”, the latest episode of Star Trek Discovery, starts off with Admiral Cornwell (maybe we should start calling her Admiral Exposition, because her main function seems to be to deliver exposition) showing up aboard the Discovery, barely noticing Spock (who’s still wanted for murder, after all), to inform Pike that something is seriously wrong with Section 31, Starfleet’s black ops division. My reaction to this was laughter, followed by a coughing attack, because – duh – she’s only noticing that now. Cause something has been very wrong with Section 31 from the moment they were introduced on. And at Discovery‘s point in the timeline, one thing that is definitely very wrong with Section 31 is that Mirror Georgiou is in the process of taking it over and turning it into hell knows what.

Admiral Cornwell also reveals that Starfleet has outsourced its tactical decision making to a super-advanced AI named Control, which is conveniently housed at Section 31’s headquarters. Apparently, this seemed like a good idea at the time, cause hey, what can possibly go wrong? But now something has gone wrong and so Admiral Cornwell asks Pike to fly the Discovery directly to Section 31’s headquarters at an abandoned prison colony (more evidence of the not very enlightened justice system of the Federation), because when you fear your black ops division has gone even further off course than usual and that your decision making super-AI seems to have gone rogue as well, the best thing to do is obviously to barge right in with a starship.

Once the Discovery reaches the Section 31 HQ, after an exciting trip through a space minefield, a landing party consisting of Michael, the new female security chief who is apparently named Commander Nhan and Lieutenant Airiam, the cyborg crewmember who unbeknowst to everybody was possessed by some kind of malevolent computer virus from the future two episodes ago and has been sabotaging the ship since then, beam down and find the Section 31 HQ deserted, all personnel dead (my heart bleeds for them… – not) and Control gone rogue. Oh yes, and the communications received from Section 31 personnel on the base were all holographic fakes.

Now the fact that the true villain is not the shadowy Section 31, but the rogue AI Control is probably supposed to be a shocking twist(TM), but it doesn’t actually shock anybody, because it was so bleedingly obvious where this story was headed, as soon as Admiral Cornwell announced, “Oh, and by the way, we outsourced all our decision making to a highly advanced AI, which seemed like a really good idea at the time.” I mean, have Admiral Cornwell and the rest of the Starfleet leadership have ever seen Star Trek, which had plenty of “civilisation controlling computer goes rogue and has to be destroyed” episodes even during the Original Series such as “The Return of the Archons” and “A Taste of Armageddon”. Not to mention Terminator, 2001 – A Space Odyssey, Logan’s Run, the Imperial Radch trilogy, all of which apparently don’t exist in the Star Trek universe.

No sooner have Michael and Nhan discovered the not-so-shocking truth, that Airiam finally reveals her true colours. Because the mutated space probe from the future that infected her is also linked to Control (of course, it is) as is the future of an extinction war between artificial intelligences and organic lifeforms that the Red Angel is trying to warn Spock and everybody else about. Torn between her human and cyborg bits, Airiam attacks Michael and Nhan and pretty much wipes the floor with them. In fact, it almost seems as if she’s killed Nhan for a moment, but once more Nhan proves herself to be the redshirt who lives.

Inbetween attacking Michael and Nhan, Airiam’s human half occasionally regains enough control to beg them to kill her, because she does not want to live on as Control’s plaything. Pike reluctantly orders Michael to do it, but Michael can’t, because she doesn’t want to be responsible for the death of yet another crewmate. Nhan, however, can and blows Airiam out of the airlock, while Tilly distracts her with a replay of a happy memory. With her last words, Airiam tells Michael that everything is connected to her, for of course it is, and that the Discovery must find Project Daedalus, just in case you’d wondered about that episode title.

And just like that, Lieutenant Airiam, who has been in most, if not all episodes of Star Trek Discovery so far, is gone. To lose a longstanding regular character should at the very least give you misty eyes, but Airiam’s tragic death falls tragically flat, because Airiam was barely a character. For most of her tenure on the show, Airiam was a cool make-up effect, a background extra. In many scenes, you could have replaced her with a crashtest dummy and it wouldn’t have changed anything. And in fact, the actress who plays Airiam was replaced – Sarah Mitich played her in season 1, while Hannah Cheeseman plays her in season 2 – and hardly anybody noticed.

“Project Daedalus” struggles to give Airiam a bit more character and backstory. And so we learn that she was once a regular issue human being who was caught in a shuttle crash (dangerous things, these shuttles. They seem to crash all the time). The shuttle crash killed her husband and left Airiam so severely injured that Starfleet rebuilt her as their own version of the Six-Million-Dollar Man. The episode conveniently ignores the ethics of this – is it okay to turn a human being into something not very human, presumably without their consent, to save their life? And so Airiam just exists. We learn that her memory capacity is limited and that she must regularly delete or download memories to make room for new ones (which is how Tilly is able to distract Airiam with happy memories). We also learn that Airiam is friends with Tilly (well, who isn’t friends with Tilly, considering Tilly is the most sociable and friendly person around) and fellow cyborg Detmer. Talking of which, as Gavia Baker-Whitelaw points out in her review, Star Trek Discovery has a lot more female regulars than Star Trek shows used to have and regularly passes the Bechdel test with flying colours.

There is some nice character work here and Hannah Cheeseman does her best to make Airiam an actual person rather than just a make-up effect, but nonetheless it’s too little too late. Star Trek Discovery has taken steps to flesh out the bridge crew in season 2 and so far Joanne Owosekun (black woman with cornrows), Kayla Detmer (red-haired cyborg pilot) and now Lieutenant Airiam have gotten their moment in the spotlight, though Rhys (cute Asian guy) and Bryce (cute black guy) are still little more than background extras. And fleshing out a character only when you’re about to off them is an ancient cliché that we should really grow beyond. As Camestros Felapton points out, the rest of the bridge crew now live in mortal fear of suddenly gaining backstories. As it is, the tragic demise of Airiam makes me wonder whether the production team didn’t want to get rid of her, because effects make-up is expensive and the character is expendable.

All in all, “Project Daedalus” is full of nice character moments, which elevate the episode above its mundane and ultimately predictable plot. There is a lovely scene of Michael and Spock playing a game of three-dimensional chess, while engaging in some prime sibling squabbling. Spock rightfully calls Michael out on her martyr complex and tells her that not everything that goes wrong in the universe is automatically her fault. He also points out that Michael’s presence on Vulcan wasn’t what sicced the logic extremists on Sarek – the presence of Spock and Amanda was enough for that. And talking of Vulcan logic extremists, it seems one of them, Patar (or P’tah, since no one seems to know how the character’s name is spelled), is now a Starfleet Admiral in charge of Section 31. Since putting an alien extremist with ties to a known terrorist organisation in charge of your not-so-secret black ops division obviously also seemed like a good idea at the time.

Another nice moment is Stamets taking Spock aside to tell him that Michael loves him and has risked everything to help him and that he should maybe show some fucking gratitude. Spock, in turn, deduces what’s going on with Stamets and Dr. Culber and tells Stamets that Culber needs some time to process his emotions following his death and resurrection and that Stamets should give him that space. Mr. Spock, relationship counsellor. Now that’s not a role I had ever imagined for him.

Meanwhile, Saru figures out that Spock is innocent and that the evidence against him was faked with the same holographic techniques Control is using to fake messages from dead Section 31 personnel. It’s also quite obvious that Saru is doing this for Michael rather than for Spock, whom he barely knows. Ash Tyler, meanwhile, is still locked in the brig and so doesn’t even get to meet his sort-of brother-in-law Spock. I just hope someone remembered to bring him food.

Finally, Christopher Pike royally tears into Admiral Cornwell about Section 31 and how they are undermining Starfleet ideals and how all this isn’t what he signed up for and that he won’t stand for it. It’s a great moment and it made me love Pike, a character I was originally very ambivalent about, even more. It’s a pity Discovery cannot keep Pike beyond this season, because he’s great. He also seems determined to consistently channel not the blank slate he was named after, but Commander Cliff Alastair MacLane, greatest starship commander of them all. Because MacLane also yelled at unsympathetic and morally compromised superiors a lot.

Once again – and I know I say this almost every week – “Project Daedalus” is not exactly a bad episode of Star Trek Discovery. It zips along, there’s plenty of action, some nice character moments, a not-so-shocking twist(TM) and even a tragic death. The only problem is that the whole plot about the all-powerful AI gone rogue is such an ancient chestnut that even the Original Series only used it as the threat of week.

More and more, it also becomes clear that what makes Star Trek Discovery is the characters. Yes, the space action and occasional moral lessons (hey, it’s Star Trek) are a lot of fun, but what really keeps me watching, even when I’m sick and have to switch on subtitles, so I can understand the dialogue, because a ear infection took out most of my hearing, is that I want to know what happens to Michael, Saru, Tilly, Stamets, Culber, Ash, Pike, Spock, Nhan, Detmer, Owosekun, Airiam, Rhys, Bryce and all the rest.

Of course, the characters are what has kept Star Trek running for 53 years now and my least favourite Star Trek shows are inevitably the ones where I cannot remember the characters’ names. In that regard at least, Star Trek Discovery is on the right track.

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Star Trek Discovery revisits Star Trek’s origins yet again in “If Memory Serves”

If the main problem of season 1 of Star Trek Discovery was that it often seemed to forget that it was supposed to be Star Trek and not Game of Thrones in space, the main problem of season 2 is that it relies too much on Star Trek nostalgia, particularly Original Series nostalgia (my thoughts on previous episodes of Star Trek Discovery can be found here, BTW). Sometimes, this works well – for example, I was highly skeptical of bringing in Christopher Pike, but Anson Mount has given Pike characterisation and charisma that Jeffrey Hunter’s blank slate was missing in his two and a half appearances in the original series. At other times, Star Trek Discovery seems to check off locations and characters of the Original Series just to show that they’ve been there. “If Memory Serves” is an example of the latter.

Warning: Spoilers under the cut!

Last week’s Star Trek Discovery ended with Michael and the still largely catatonic Spock taking off to visit Talos IV, the planet where Star Trek began all those year’s ago in the unaired Original Series pilot “The Cage”. And just in case you’ve forgotten where you’ve heard the name Talos IV before or had mistaken the planet for the eponymous (but without Roman numerals) villain from Captain Marvel, Star Trek Discovery‘s handy “Previously on…” recap shows some clips from “The Cage”, complete with vintage Star Trek logo. It’s nicely done and the cut from Jeffrey Hunter’s Pike on the bridge of the Enterprise to Anson Mount’s Pike on the bridge of the Discovery works particularly well.

As for why Spock wants to go to Talos IV, it turns out that he believes that the telepathic Talosians can put his mind back together after contact with the Red Angel (more on that later) shattered it. On Talos IV, Spock and Michael meet another call-back to “The Cage”, Vina, a disfigured human crash victim who lives on Talos IV after the Talosians saved her life and put her back together wrong. Vina and via her the Talosians explain to Michael that Spock’s mind was damaged by a mind meld attempt with the Red Angel who is a time traveller. Now it was clear that Vina still had to be on Talos IV, since that’s where she was in “The Cage” and that’s where she will still be in “The Menagerie” several years in the future. And the make-up and costume design team did a great job in making actress Melissa George look like 1960s Vina, just as the whole production design team did a great job of making Talos IV and the Talosians look like updated versions of the planet we first saw in “The Cage”. Nonetheless, I can’t help but wonder why Vina needs to be in this episode at all, except to provide some nostalgic fan service and cause Pike to get misty-eyed, when he suddenly gets a call from her, since he and Vina had a brief affair during the events of “The Cage”. Now maybe it’s just me, but I never got any sense of a grand star-crossed romance between Pike and Vina. To me, she always was just another mini-skirted planet girl of the sort that Kirk would seduce every other week or so. Of course, due to his short tenure, we never saw Pike seducing mini-skirted planet girls with the same abandon as Kirk did and Vina featured prominently in his two and a half appearances in the original series. Nonetheless, I don’t quite see the point of her presence here.

The Talosians are willing to help to help Spock, but – being the same dome-headed arseholes they’ve always been – they demand a price. For those who’ve forgotten, the Talosians are psychic vampires, too (though at least back in “The Cage”, strong emotions like anger hurt them), so they want to see Michael’s memories of just what caused the rift between her and Spock. And Michael, being worried sick about her adoptive brother, complies and we finally see just what it was that drove Michael and Spock apart. Yes, “If Memory Serves” finally gives us some answers to some of the overarching mysteries of this season. Too bad, that those answers usually don’t justify the build-up.

So basically, what happened was that a teenaged Michael tried to run away from home, both because Sarek’s family was being targeted by Vulcan logic extremists (who are still the most ridiculous terrorist group ever – they love logic so much that they’re willing to engage in completely illogical violence to protect it) and because Sarek and Amanda are pretty crappy parents. Little Spock, having decided that his parents are awful and that he’d rather stick with his adoptive sister, tries to tag along, but Michael doesn’t want him to go with her for his own good. So she calls him names. Okay, so some of the things Michael says are pretty mean – she calls Spock a half-breed and freak of nature who isn’t worth bothering with and says that he can’t possible love her, because he’s not human enough to feel love – but that doesn’t change the fact that Michael’s big dark secret and the cause of her approximately two decades long rift with Spock is basically a childhood squabble among siblings. And yes, I understand that little Spock felt hurt by Michael’s harsh words, but to be still angry about something like that after two decades does seem a little silly and also not at all logical. Never mind that adult Spock understands exactly why Michael did what she did, but still decides to be pissed about it, which seems remarkably petty of him.

And talking of Spock, “If Memory Serves” is the first episode where we actually get to see Spock in full mental capacity (well, sort of), after Star Trek Discovery has teased his imminent arrival all season long. Oh yes, and Spock did not really kill those three doctors (as if there was ever any doubt) – Section 31 did to set him up and get their hands on him. Now Ethan Peck (grandson of Gregory) does his best to channel Leonard Nimoy and definitely has chemistry with Sonequa Martin-Green (and I loved Michael’s jab about Spock’s silly hipster beard). However, he is no Leonard Nimoy, but then who is? And while we only see Spock and Pike together aboard the Discovery for a brief scene towards the end, that scene nonetheless hinted at the deep friendship and loyalty that would cause Spock to risk his life to help Pike in “The Menagerie”. Oh, and while a warning that “This planet is quarantined” flashed on the computer screen of Spock and Michael’s shuttle, there is no mentioned that breaking this quarantine is punishable by death. So either, they have retconned that fact (well, it was always somewhat ridiculous that an advanced society like the Federation would not just retain the death penalty, but deploy it for something as comparatively minor as visiting the planet of the jerky domeheads) or something will happen in the final few episodes of the season to change that.

Oh yes, and about the Red Angel – yes, this episode really does give us answers – it turns out that the Red Angel is not just a time traveller, but also that they are trying to warn Starfleet and the Federation of an imminent threat that will wipe out the entire Federation, a threat that looks uncannily like the mutatated future space probe that menaced Pike and Ash Tyler in last week’s episode. As threats go, this one is pretty hollow, because we obviously know that the Federation won’t be wiped out and will be around for another two hundred years at the very least. Never mind that the idea of rogue planetkiller weapons and malevolent mutated probes isn’t exactly new to Star Trek – also see V’ger, Nomad and the Doomsday Machine. Nonetheless, the development is intriguing enough to pique my curiosity.

Meanwhile, back aboard the Discovery, Dr. Hugh Culber is handling his resurrection not at all well. The fact that Stamets desperately tries to pretend that everything is normal, when it most definitely isn’t, doesn’t help either. And since the Discovery doesn’t seem to have a therapist on board, counsellors only coming in during the Next Generation era, as Gavia Baker-Whitelaw points out, Hugh Culber is left pretty much alone with the trauma of being murdered, spending several months inside the magic mushroom network and then being resurrected in a brand-new body that just feels wrong. And so Culber breaks up with Stamets in a heartbreaking scene and then goes to find Ash Tyler, who killed him in an outbreak of Voqness, to beat the shit out of him in the mess hall. Ash’s responds with remarkable restraint – he basically defends himself and nothing more – even though I’m pretty sure that even without being a Klingon surgically altered to look human, former security chief and current Section 31 agent Ash Tyler could beat Culber, a non-combatant and member of the medical corps, easily. For that matter, I’m surprised that Culber can remember what happened during his death and who killed him at all, considering it was a surprise attack that Culber had no way of seeing coming. But then, this whole mess with Culber, Stamets and Ash is mainly due to season 1’s addiction to stupid “shocking plot twists(TM)” anyway.

Several other members of the crew want to break up the fight, but Saru stops them and claims that the fight if necessary for Ash and Culber to get their hostility out of their system. Pike isn’t at all happy with this – he doesn’t want his officers to fight in the mess hall – and points out that Saru would have reacted very differently before his threat ganglia fell off and he lost his ever-present fear. Talking of which, I’m not sure I like this new fearless Saru – and I had only just come to like him after spending much of season 1 disliking him.

But there is more trouble brewing aboard the Discovery, for when the ship tries to use the magic mushroom drive (which they were never supposed to use again about five different times), they find that it has been sabotaged and will not work. Now to everybody who has seen the previous episodes it’s pretty obvious that the culprit is Lieutenant Airiam, the cyborg crewmember who was infected with some kind of virus by the mutated space probe – you know, the one that is going to wipe out the Federation, if the Red Angel is to be believed. But Pike immediately blames Ash Tyler for the sabotage, because once a double agent, always a double agent, and has him confined to the brig. It certainly seems as if Ash Tyler has inherited Michael’s position of “everything that ever happened is his fault”. Now I didn’t like everybody blaming Michael for everything in season 1 and I don’t like everybody blaming Ash for everything in season 2, especially since the Discovery crew treated Ash pretty well in the last few episodes of season 1, even though he actually had done a lot to make them distrust him, unlike Michael. I’m also getting the impression that the Discovery production team really don’t know what to do with Ash, which is why his characterisation is all over the place this season.

The episode ends when the Discovery finally reaches Talos IV to pick up Spock and Michael. And rather than hand Spock over to Section 31, who still want to dissect his brain, Pike – once more passing the “What would Commander MacLane do?” test – decides to take the Discovery on the run, Section 31 hot on their heels.

Once more – and I feel I’m repeating myself here – “If Memory Serves” is not a bad episode of Star Trek Discovery. And my not-so-positive view of the episode may be coloured by the fact that I was pretty ill, when I watched it. But while it’s good to finally get some answers to the questions Discovery has been teasing us with all season long, the answers themselves are underwhelming. Spock and Michael’s fall-out was merely due to a sibling spat and the Red Angel is trying to prevent an armageddon that we know won’t happen anyway.

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Masks and Murder – A Round-up of Indie Mardi Gras Mysteries

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 Mardi Gras 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, hardboiled mysteries, small town mysteries, big city mysteries, paranormal mysteries, historical mysteries, crime thrillers, legal thrillers, psychological thrillers, paranormal thrillers, private investigators, amateur sleuths, ghost whisperers, crime-busting nuns, crime-busting beauty queens, lawyers, serial killers, missing children, missing mothers, missing masks, faked suicides, cursed doubloons, poisoned king cakes and much more. But one thing unites all of those very different books. They’re all set on or around Mardi Gras.

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:

Krewe of Souls by Elaine Calloway:

Mardi Gras, Mayhem, and Murder…

Tristan Pleasance is a ghost whisperer extraordinaire, but talking to his living father is another story. Family conflict prompts Tristan to bolt from his lifelong home in St. Francisville, Louisiana, to make a new life in New Orleans. But six months later, a family tragedy forces him to return home and he is thrust into a murder investigation where his past and future will collide.

Grace Lansing is a New Orleans columnist who yearns to write feature articles rather than puff pieces. To prove herself to her editor, she travels to the quaint town of St. Francisville to research their big Mardi Gras Krewe competition. But what seems an innocent cultural practice quickly turns into a web of intrigue—and getting too close to the handsome Tristan puts her in danger of becoming collateral damage.

Together, Tristan and Grace must find out who is responsible for the murders—before the Krewe of Souls is trapped forever.

The Secret of the Other Mother by Laura Cayouette:

It’s late 2009 and the Saints are undefeated on their way to the Super Bowl. Fresh off the Los Angeles red carpet of the movie she produced and starred in, vivacious Charlotte Reade heads to her family home in New Orleans for the funeral of Sassy, the woman who helped raise her mother.

When Sassy’s “adopted” twin daughters ask brainy and tenacious Charlotte to help them find their birth mother, she heads down a path that starts in a laundromat in the 1950’s and winds through costume experts and a burlesque tour before landing her on the infamous Bourbon Street.

Along the way, Charlotte reconnects to her own family history, uncovering clues to a family secret and the ghost who’s said to protect it. As her funeral trip extends through the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras, Charlotte struggles with her dedication to the career she worked so hard for and the intoxicating draw of the culture, romance and soul of the city she’s always wanted to call home.

Sinister by Jana DeLeon:

Street kids are disappearing, but how do you report that to the police when, from their standpoint, the missing people didn’t exist to begin with? Hustle is certain that something bad has happened to his friend Jinx, and the only person he can turn to for help is private investigator Shaye Archer. Because Hustle helped the young PI while she was investigating her first case, Shaye has already formed an opinion as to his character and believes he’s telling the truth. As she digs deeper into Jinx’s disappearance, she discovers that Hustle’s friend isn’t the only one missing. As a frightening pattern emerges, Shaye wonders if she can find the missing kids…before it’s too late.

Ms. America and the Naughtiness in New Orleans by Diane Dempsey:

Who better than Ms. America Happy Pennington to grace Mardi Gras festivities in never-say-die New Orleans? She packs good looks, party moves, and sleuthing smarts—which come in handy when the king for an elite old-line krewe is bumped off during a Carnival parade.

All too soon Happy learns the centuries-old French Quarter is not all jazz, Creole cuisine, and cocktails: evil lurks there, too, even amid the pageantry of the Big Easy’s most gleeful season. Yet no ghost, vampire or even voodoo spirit will keep our scrappy beauty queen from nabbing the killer—not when the stakes are sky-high for someone near and dear to her heart.

Find out why readers call the Beauty Queen Mysteries “super-fun reads” they can’t put down until the last page is turned …

Mardi Gras Murder, edited by Sarah E. Glenn:

Thirteen tales of crime set during the bacchanalia that is Mardi Gras. Featuring stories from Harriette Sackler, Marian Allen, Debra H. Goldstein and Nathan Pettigrew. The mayhem of Mardi Gras is served with a healthy dose of Cajun dishes and an unhealthy number of deaths. Dig into Bourbon Street Lucifer, Voodoo Honeymoon, a dish of Red Beans and Ricin, and other deadly treats.

 

 

The Mardi Gras Murder by Jackie Griffey:

Like bananas, Sheriff Cas Larkin’s troubles are ripening in bunches.

A fully dressed woman is found drowned in the lake. He has a citizen no one can find, but hasn’t been reported as missing and all of her known acquaintances are standing in the way of Cas’s investigation. Then Judge Carpenter’s fiancée lands in jail, accused of a bloody murder way down yonder in New Orleans!

Now Cas must pick up the pace and connect the dots… before he goes bananas himself.

Murder at the Mardi Gras by V. Hurst:

The Bryans and the Flannerys from ‘Murder at the JC’ and ‘Murder on the Cruise Ship’ take a vacation in New Orleans during Mardi Gras Season. They are soon recruited by their old friend FBI Special Agent Don Hobbs to search for a serial killer who murders a young woman each Mardi Gras for her kidneys. Clues lead the foursome to the killer and to a huge twist at the end of the story.

 

 

Murder at the Mardi Gras by Linda P. Kozar:

When an esteemed professor of Louisiana history is found face down in a King Cake, young detective Annie Fournier suspects foul play and begins an investigation to find the person responsible. Her partner has little patience for Annie’s inexperience or gender and seems to enjoy mocking her at every opportunity. And to top that off, the crazy melee of Mardi Gras seems to hamper their progress at every turn. Will they weigh in on the identity of the murderer before Fat Tuesday ends, and will Annie prove that she has what it takes to be a detective?

Krewe by Jayson Livingston:

My name is Eugene Doyle Babineaux, Krewe to my friends. I’m a private investigator in Sacramento, California. My life is unassuming, and I like it that way. Things changed when I received a call from my brother. My mom was dead–suicide, he says. I didn’t believe it for a minute. So, I returned home to New Iberia, a small town in southern Louisiana, to look into Mom’s death. Once there, I reunited with old friends and foes alike. It seemed there were nefarious forces who did not want me poking around into Mom’s death. Rich people who keep company with bad people and who would stop at nothing to keep their plans hidden. What do Mardi Gras krewes, sugarcane production, and mob enforcers have to do with my mom’s death? I was about to find out, and things would never be the same.

Voodoo Dreams by Alana Lorens:

When her big trial goes bad, corporate attorney Brianna Ward can’t wait to get out of Pittsburgh. The Big Easy seems like the perfect place to rest, relax, and forget about the legal business. Too bad an obnoxious–but handsome–lawyer from a rival firm is checking into the same bed and breakfast.

Attorney Evan Farrell has Mardi Gras vacation plans too. When he encounters fiery and attractive Brianna, however, he puts the Bourbon Street party on hold. He’d much rather devote himself to her–especially when a mysterious riddle appears in her bag, seeming to threaten danger.

Strangely compelled to follow the riddle’s clues, Brianna is pulled deeper into the twisted schemes of a voodoo priest bent on revenge. To escape his poisonous web, she must work with Evan to solve the curse. But is the growing love they feel for each other real? Or just a voodoo dream?

A Masquerade of Saints by Nicole Loughan:

In the third installment in the best-selling Saints Mystery Series small town Cajun, Fanchon, finds herself in some hot water, along with a few nasty crayfish. The heat gets turned up when she receives an invitation to join New Orleans high society. She’s ready to party until she receives a puzzling message from her favorite psychic to stay alert and wash her hands all night. When the warning seems all but forgotten the phone rings and Fanchon learns she should have been more careful. This adventure takes Fanchon from the bayou to the top of the floats at Mardi Gras with new characters and old friends to help along the way.

The Gay Mardi Gras Murders by Sylvia Massara:

Mia Ferrari, smartarse, older chick, super sleuth, is back in her 2nd murder mystery and this time, she is up to her neck in drag queens, a rare diamond with a curse and murder most foul against the backdrop of Sydney’s world famous Gay Mardi Gras.

A female impersonator is found dead in her hotel suite bathtub and a rare diamond worth twenty million dollars is gone. The Gay Mardi Gras is fast approaching and Mia Ferrari, senior duty manager of the exclusive Rourke International Hotel Sydney, has to juggle a bunch of drag queens, a number of fabulously handsome gay men, a transsexual with a dark mystery, a young cop with sex on his mind, a close friend from the UK who is having marital problems and a mounting body count.

As Mia pits her investigative skills against her archenemy, Detective Sergeant Phil Smythe to solve the case, she not only becomes embroiled in the life of the people around her, but it looks like she is the next target for a serial killer with a grudge against gay men.

Mardi Gras Madness by Ken Mask:

While trying to free a lawyer friend convicted of a crime he didn’t commit, New Orleans private investigator Luke Jacobs is drawn into an international web of real estate fraud, pharmaceutical corporation misdealing and murder. Mardi Gras may have to be put on hold.

 

 

 

Mardi Gras Gris Gris by A.C. Mason:

Susan Foret is thrust into a murder scene when one of the town’s wealthiest citizens dies near her as the local Krewe’s parade is ending. A gris-gris bag containing tarot cards and several other fetish items is left dangling from the knife in his chest.

 

 

 

The Krewe by Seth Pevey:

Living up to the family name comes with a price.

When Felix is told his big brother committed suicide by throwing himself under a train, his gut screams foul play. But as the Mardi Gras season descends on the Big Easy, no one is interested in the conspiracy theories of a drug-addled rich kid.

Except, perhaps, one Carnival organization in particular…

A krewe that hasn’t been heard from in decades.

Felix will need the help of a police detective long past his prime, the family’s honor-obsessed butler, and a massive pork fortune, all in order to find justice for his big brother.

His name, his family, and his very life may hang in the balance.

Burgundy Doubloons by T.J. Spencer Jacques:

You caught a doubloon at a Mardi Gras Parade – that was a bad thing.

Trent McGowan is going home. Home to his ailing mother. Home to the city of his childhood. Home to New Orleans. As Trent deals with the peculiar circumstances surrounding his mother’s illness, his family gets swept up in the excitement of Mardi Gras and all of the festivities of that intoxicating day. The jubilant crowds, breathtaking carnival floats, and oh yes, the throws! His youngest daughter Zoe catches one of those throws, a sparkling red doubloon, and that is where the story ends and begins.

Burgundy Doubloons is more than just a suspense thriller, it is everything that makes New Orleans the party capital of the world: only bloodier and darker.

For those who love a parade, Burgundy Doubloon answers a terrifying question: What if your child simultaneously caught a bead, and a murderous spirit? In this heart-palpating novel, you will meet the entire McGowan family, and the people determined to destroy them.

Finally, a paranormal thriller that takes place in New Orleans – as told by a native son who knows where the bodies are buried.

The Mysterious Masks of Mardi Gras by Connie Trapp:

A 2.5 million dollar Harlequin Mask has been stolen right under everyone’s noses!

It was never out of sight—how could this have happened? The auction was invitation-only, which means only one thing: the thief is among them.

The New Orleans police are on the case, the room where the auction was being held is in lockdown, and no one can leave—not even the Mayor and his wife. Everyone there is a high roller and everyone there is a suspect.

Yet before the police can even begin their investigation, they already have their sights set on a prime suspect…the insider responsible for the distraction that allowed the thief to steal the mask without anyone even noticing. One Jane Dough, of Little Rock…

How in the world did JD get herself into this mess? Follow along as JD struggles to prove her innocence and uncover the real thief…

Mardi Gras Marathon Murders by Diane L. Twilley:

Mardi Gras has come to Galveston Texas, and with it the excitement of a new event, the first ever Mardi Gras Marathon. Gina Malloy, a young journalist, is very involved in the planning of the event. When she enlists the help of her aunt, Sister Catherine Malloy, she is delighted to discover that Sister Catherine’s friend, Martin Iberson, is the agent of one of the big stars of marathon events, Billy Champion. Gina is eager to meet Martin Iberson and his family, and perhaps get a chance to meet and interview Billy Champion.

All goes well, until evil shows its face, and two of the marathon runners are killed. With the help of their friend, police lieutenant Richard Tierney, the nun and her niece embark on the task of finding out who murdered the runners, and as things progress, they find their lives in danger as well. But from whom? And why?

Things become even more somber as they realize that the culprit could be someone they know. Eventually Sister Catherine deduces that to solve the murders she must understand the character of the killer, and she finally comes up with the shocking solution to the Mardi Gras murders.

The Mardi Gras Two Step by Barry M. Vass:

A series of young girls, strippers, are found mutilated and abandoned in the streets and byways of the French Quarter in early 1972. As more bodies turn up, at first in the Mississippi River, and then across the river in Algiers, the detectives assigned to the case are baffled: what sort of deviant could be responsible for such horrific behavior? And then, as the chaos of Mardi Gras crashes in like a wave around them, they begin to suspect that the killer they’re looking for might not even be human…

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Masks and Magic – A Round-up of Indie Mardi 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 Mardi Gras speculative fiction by indie authors.

These Mardi Gras stories cover the broad spectrum of speculative fiction. We have a lot of urban fantasy, horror and paranormal mysteries, but also historical fantasy, dark fantasy, religious fantasy and even science fiction. There are angels, demons, Lucifer himself, dragons, ghosts, ghost whisperers, vampires, monsters, zombies, voodoo, cursed doubloons, human sacrifices, space cruises, precognition and much more. But one thing unites all of those very different books. They’re all set on or around Mardi Gras.

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:

Southern Monsters by Cora Buhlert

Three tales of monsters and terror in the Louisiana bayous.

When a young bride goes missing on her wedding day in Acadiana, the locals blame the Terror, the legendary monster that stalks the Crimson Bayou.

Remy Theriault does not believe in the Terror and he’s pretty sure the bride has done a runner. But the groom is his cousin and family is family. So Remy goes out to look for the runaway bride, only to find that sometimes, the old legends are true…

When their car crashes into the bayou on a dark Louisiana night, the swamp creature known only as Big Puffball might just be one family’s salvation…

When fishing boats go missing on the Mississippi River Delta, few people link these disappearances to the mysterious light that lit up the Louisiana sky only weeks before. But an astronomer from Tulane University makes the connection and discovers the horror that is the sphere that ate the Mississippi delta.

This is a collection of three short horror stories of 7700 words or approximately 27 print pages altogether.

Krewe of Souls by Elaine Calloway:

Mardi Gras, Mayhem, and Murder…

Tristan Pleasance is a ghost whisperer extraordinaire, but talking to his living father is another story. Family conflict prompts Tristan to bolt from his lifelong home in St. Francisville, Louisiana, to make a new life in New Orleans. But six months later, a family tragedy forces him to return home and he is thrust into a murder investigation where his past and future will collide.

Grace Lansing is a New Orleans columnist who yearns to write feature articles rather than puff pieces. To prove herself to her editor, she travels to the quaint town of St. Francisville to research their big Mardi Gras Krewe competition. But what seems an innocent cultural practice quickly turns into a web of intrigue—and getting too close to the handsome Tristan puts her in danger of becoming collateral damage.

Together, Tristan and Grace must find out who is responsible for the murders—before the Krewe of Souls is trapped forever.

Mardi Gras Maiden by Michael Dreysher Sr.

New Orleans 1854: A young woman, driven by curiosity sneaks into a brothel and stumbles into a Mardi Gras masquerade. She discovers that the ball is in reality an erotic ritual paying homage to Lucifer, the Great Prince of Evil and she is the guest of honor. The Archangel Gabriel sends four warriors from a dying world to rescue her but they arrive too late; the cult has slaughtered the girl, offering her as a sacrifice to Lucifer.

Rural Pennsylvania 1954: The same cult takes control of an entire town when their High Priestess seduces the land baron who owns it. They engineer a series of extramarital affairs among the residents which culminates in ritual debauchery. Gabriel has his avengers return to Earth with orders to wipe out the cult but Heaven has a dark side. A rogue spirit with an agenda of its own plans to kill these out-world warriors and the archangel’s champions find themselves defenseless in the center of a titanic struggle between two opposing forces from the Kingdom of Heaven.

Carnival in Sorgenbach by Raymund Eich:

Hans returned from the Great War, haunted. Not only by the horrors of the trenches, but haunted by visions of a more terrifying war to come. Would the parties and parades of Carnival 1919 offer him love and hope? Or doom him and his country to the devastation he foresaw?

 

 

 

Death Dealer by Graylin Fox:

My name is Cimmerian. I’m a dragon shifter living in New Orleans. Someone is screwing up my pre-Mardi Gras plans by leaving mutilated human bodies all over town. I have to find out whether or not a demon is behind this. If so, are they building a human to animate with demon magic? If not, we have a human serial killer just in time for the town to flood with tourists.

Things were so much quieter on vacation.

Damn, I’m glad to be back at work.

Voodoo Dreams by Alana Lorens:

When her big trial goes bad, corporate attorney Brianna Ward can’t wait to get out of Pittsburgh. The Big Easy seems like the perfect place to rest, relax, and forget about the legal business. Too bad an obnoxious–but handsome–lawyer from a rival firm is checking into the same bed and breakfast.

Attorney Evan Farrell has Mardi Gras vacation plans too. When he encounters fiery and attractive Brianna, however, he puts the Bourbon Street party on hold. He’d much rather devote himself to her–especially when a mysterious riddle appears in her bag, seeming to threaten danger.

Strangely compelled to follow the riddle’s clues, Brianna is pulled deeper into the twisted schemes of a voodoo priest bent on revenge. To escape his poisonous web, she must work with Evan to solve the curse. But is the growing love they feel for each other real? Or just a voodoo dream?

Battlefield Z: Mardi Gras Zombies by Chris Lowry:

He found them!

Two of his three children are alive and now that he’s found them he won’t let them out of his sight.

It’s time to find his youngest daughter.

The last he knew she was heading to a refugee camp with her Mom and step-dad. He’s got a map of the camps back at Fort Jasper waiting.

All he has to do is keep his kids safe as they search for answers and a trip back to Alabama. The safest route floats them down the river. It keeps the Z at bay, but delivers them straight into a fortress that feels like paradise.

He has a choice. Hide behind the walls with two thirds of his heart and let the world burn or take a chance and continue the hunt.

An easy job if it weren’t for all the damn zombies.

The Outer-Universe Cruise Ship Mardi Gras by E. Miguel:

Space, there is a lot of it. Like really, a lot. As much space as there is though, it also happens to be very crowded. It is for this exact reason the Outer-Universe Cruise Ship Mardis Gras was created. While other cruises throughout the universe offer excitement and adventure, the Mardis Gras offers the mundane for those vacationers that are allergic to such excitement and adventure. The ship’s only constant inconstant is a Mardis Gras party held every other day.

Unfortunately for two passengers on the ship, this week’s cruise offers more than they signed up for. Escape pods, a slumbering Old God, and a Voodoo priestess robot all happen to show up on the unplanned itinerary this week.

Nocturne by Irene Preston and Liv Rancourt

It’s Mardi Gras, cher, but this year le bon temps kick off with murder…

For generations, the White Monks have treated the vampire Thaddeus Dupont as a weapon in their battle against demons. However, when a prominent matron drops dead at a party, Thaddeus and his lover Sarasija are asked to find her killer. Their investigation leads them to an old southern family with connections everywhere: Louisiana politics, big business, the Church, and an organization just as secret as the White Monks.

Meanwhile, an esoteric text containing spells for demon-summoning has disappeared, Thaddeus is losing control of le monstre, and Sara is troubled by disturbing dreams. These nightmares could be a side-effect of dating a vampire, or they could be a remnant of his brush with evil. As the nights wear on, Sara fears they are a manifestation of something darker – a secret that could destroy his relationship with Thaddeus.

Krewe of Hecate by Sim Shattuck:

A group of Mardi Gras wizards descend to the Underworld and capture the goddess Hecate so that they can display her during Carnival. But they didn’t understand that having the goddess of the Uncanny upon the face of the Earth would do to three unlucky New Orleans residents.

 

 

 

Burgundy Doubloons by T.J. Spencer Jacques:

You caught a doubloon at a Mardi Gras Parade – that was a bad thing.

Trent McGowan is going home. Home to his ailing mother. Home to the city of his childhood. Home to New Orleans. As Trent deals with the peculiar circumstances surrounding his mother’s illness, his family gets swept up in the excitement of Mardi Gras and all of the festivities of that intoxicating day. The jubilant crowds, breathtaking carnival floats, and oh yes, the throws! His youngest daughter Zoe catches one of those throws, a sparkling red doubloon, and that is where the story ends and begins.

Burgundy Doubloons is more than just a suspense thriller, it is everything that makes New Orleans the party capital of the world: only bloodier and darker.

For those who love a parade, Burgundy Doubloon answers a terrifying question: What if your child simultaneously caught a bead, and a murderous spirit? In this heart-palpating novel, you will meet the entire McGowan family, and the people determined to destroy them.

Finally, a paranormal thriller that takes place in New Orleans – as told by a native son who knows where the bodies are buried.

Razor Valentine by Roland Yeomans:

MARDI GRAS … MAGIC … MURDER

In 1947 New Orleans THREE KINGS DAY marks the start of the official Carnival Season. Carnival, coming from the Latin words, carne vale, meaning “farewell to the flesh.”

Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte, Our Lady of Holy Death, is stalking the French Quarter streets killing apparently at random. What does the psychotic actress, Irene Dupré, know of this entity and what lies behind the murders? She remains silent, only smiling. Santa Muerte’s strange acolyte lurks in the shadows watching, waiting. Waiting for what?

Frank Capra is filming a historical fantasy in the city with Jimmy Stewart, Cesar Romero, and the enigmatic Irene Dupré. Former O.S.S. operative, now the film’s Prop Master, Lucas, finds himself in the middle of the mystery with more questions than answers.

His lost love back from the dead, Ingrid Durtz, and his best friend, Mitchell Mack, are at a loss on how to stay alive, much less catch a supernatural killer.

Then, there is Lucas’ former O.S.S. team mate, Father Darael, whose gift of a Seraph Blade is literally a two-edged blessing. You see, Darael is a Seraphim Provocateur. And Lucas is unsure whose side he is really on, the Celestial or the Fallen?

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First Monday Free Fiction: Big Puffball

This post is something of an experiment, inspired by Kristine Kathryn Rusch who posts a free short story every week on her blog. I like the idea. However, I don’t have nearly as many stories as Kris, so I’ll post a free story on every first Monday of the month. It will remain free to read on this blog for exactly one month, then I’ll take it down and post another story.

[image error]And because today is Rose Monday, the day before Fat Tuesday a.k.a. Mardi Gras, what better way to celebrate than with a Mardi Gras story.

And so I give you “Big Puffball”, a tale of a friendly swap monster with a taste for shiny things that may also be found in the collection Southern Monsters, available at fine e-book retailers everywhere:

 

 

 

Big Puffball

by Cora Buhlert

All right, so listen up, cause this — like — really happened. I should know, cause I was there. I looked into the eye of the swamp monster and lived to tell the tale. And if you buy me a beer, I’ll tell you all about it.

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. Swamp monster stories are dime a dozen here in bayou country. Pretty much everybody here in the bayous claims to have seen a ghost or a vampire or a swamp monster and most of the time, the so-called “monster” is no scarier than an alligator. Though alligators can be pretty fucking scary, if you ask me.

But my story is different. Because it’s one hundred percent totally true, cross my heart and wish to die and all that jazz. And for only the price of a beer, you get to hear it.

Okay, so it happened a long time ago, more than thirty years now, when I was but a little boy. It was February, Mardi Gras time, and me, my Mama and Papa and my sister Cally had gone to New Orleans to watch the parades. And now we were on our way home, Papa behind the wheel of our Pontiac Le Mans, Mama in the passenger seat and me and Cally on the backseat, counting our doubloons and beads. I was seven and Cally was five, both of us totally carefree, like children will be.

I still don’t know quite how it happened. One moment, we were happily chattering on the backseat, while Mama and Papa were quietly talking among themselves on the front seat. The radio was playing Zydeco music and the car was cruising along a dark backroad in bayou country, the headlights the only illumination. The next moment, there was a shadow, sharply outlined by the headlights, as something crossed the road.

I never knew what it was, a possum maybe or a raccoon or maybe something bigger. All I remember is that Mama screamed and Papa pulled the wheel around. The Pontiac swerved, avoiding the thing on the road. But Papa couldn’t get it under control again, so the car careened off the road, down a slope and right into the Bayou Marron.

Cally and I were wearing our seatbelts, which probably saved our lives. But nonetheless I was thrown forward and knocked my head against the back of the driver’s seat. I was out for a few seconds and when I came to again, our car was gradually sinking into the brackish water of the Bayou Marron.

Already water was seeping into the footwell, muddy and icy cold. On the backseat next to me, Cally had pulled her knees up to her chin to escape the water. In the front seat, Mama and Papa were rattling on the doors, but it was to no avail. The doors were jammed.

“We’ve got to open a window,” Papa said.

“No. The water will get in and we’ll drown,” Mama countered.

While they were arguing, I loosened my seatbelt and tried opening the backdoor, but it was as jammed as the front doors. Then I tried rolling down the window, but the mechanism wouldn’t work. Beside me, Cally was crying.

In the front, the water was already up to Mama and Papa’s waists and it was still rising further. And the doors still wouldn’t open and neither would the windows.

We were going to die here, I realised. We were all going to drown and they probably wouldn’t even find our car except by chance. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, we’d just vanished, the whole family, all of us. Cause these things sometimes happen here in bayou country.

The headlights were still working, but they were underwater now, their light eerily muted by the muddy water. Around us, it was pitch dark. I couldn’t even see the road anymore, let alone make out anything of our surroundings.

And then I saw it. We all did. A pair of eyes as big as dinner plates staring at us from the undergrowth.

The eyes peered at us intently. There was a nose, too, apelike and easily the size of the steering wheel. Coarse and bristly hair of the same muddy brown colour as the water. And a mouth big enough to swallow a grown man whole.

The creature came closer, as if to sniff at the car and at us. We froze in terror, because if drowning in a submerged car was a horrible fate, then getting eaten by one of the legendary swamp monsters that stalk the bayou was even worse.

For a long moment, the creature just stared at us and we stared back. I could see it better now that my eyes had adjusted to the gloom. It was huge, easily the size of a truck, a fat blob of coarse brown fur with an apelike face. It seemed curious, but not hostile, like a child investigating a new toy. Only that this particular toy was alive.

Because the creature did not seem hostile, I gave it a tentative smile. The thing smiled back, stretching its mouth as wide as the bumper as our car.

Then it suddenly reached out for us. Its hands were still big, a single finger easily as long as Cally was tall, but for a creature of this size they sill seemed strangely spindly and puny. Before we knew what was happening, it gripped the sides of the car and lifted it clean out of the bayou.

We screamed, all of us. The stress of first surviving a near accident, then ending up sinking into the swamp and finally getting rescued by a bona-fide swamp monster was getting to every single one of us and screaming seemed like the best way to release it.

If the creature was bothered by our screams, it gave no indication of it. It simply lifted us out of the bayou and set us back onto the road.

Once the Pontiac was out of the bayou, the water started receding, slurping out of the car. The window suddenly worked again as well and I managed to scroll it down and look our saviour right into the eye. The creature smelled a little bit ripe — living in a swamp will do that to you — but otherwise it seemed perfectly friendly.

Besides, it had saved all our lives, so I wanted to thank it. I just didn’t know how.

Just then, I noticed something gleaming in the footwell of our car. It was a pile of Mardi Gras doubloons that had been thrown to the floor during the crash. And now, with the water receding, the doubloons were emerging again. So I bent down to scoop up the doubloons, almost my entire stash and Cally’s. I struck my hands out of the open window and poured the doubloons into the creature’s outstretched hand.

“Thank you,” I said, “Thanks for saving us.”

The creature regarding the doubloons, its eyes lighting up with joy. It gave us another smile, big and gap-toothed, and then it was gone, returned to the Bayou Marron whence it came.

Papa tried to start the car, but the crash and the water had killed our engine. So he told Mama and us to stay in the car and lock the doors, while he went for help. He walked all the way to Amelia, where he found a gas station that was still open and had a tow truck.

When we told the tow truck driver about our encounter in the bayou, he nodded knowingly and said, “Well, that’s Big Puffball for you.”

“Big Puffball?” Papa asked.

“That’s what we call the creature ‘round here. He’s been living in these here swamps for as long as anybody can remember. He’s big, but perfectly harmless. Has a taste for shiny things, though. The headlights and the chromium grille of the car probably attracted him, lucky for you.”

“I gave him all my doubloons,” I said, “And Cally’s too.”

“That was nice of you, boy. Big Puffball will like that. Like I said, he likes shiny things.”

And that, my friends, is how I looked into the eye of the creature that lives in the swamps of the Bayou Marron and lived to tell the tale.

Ever since that night more than thirty years ago now, I’ve often driven past the spot where the accident happened. Sometimes I stop and get out of the car to leave a gift, something pretty and shiny, because Big Puffball, he likes shiny things.

I’ve never seen the creature again since that night. But the shiny things I leave, they’re always gone the next time I pass by.

Cause Big Puffball, he likes shiny things.

The End

I hope you enjoyed this first installment of First Monday Free Fiction. Check back next month, when there will be a new free story available.

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Star Trek Discovery Visits Vulcan in “Light and Shadow”

Even though the Nebula Award debate has dominated the past two days, there also was a new episode of Star Trek Discovery last night. And if you want to see my posts about previous episodes of Star Trek Discovery, go here.

Warning: Spoilers under the cut!

“Light and Shadow” starts where the previous episode, “A Sound of Thunder” left off, with Michael setting off for Vulcan to continue the search for Spock, while the Discovery is still in orbit around Saru’s homeworld Kaminar, just in case the Red Angel decides to drop by. Oh, and in case you’re wondering whether the fall-out of Saru and the Discovery violating the Prime Directive in a massive way by forcibly kickstarting the evolution of an entire race and likely thrusting them into a war with their former oppressors they’re not at all prepared for is at all addressed, the answer is “no”. Not even Saru seems to pay any mind to what is happening to his fellow Kelpians. It’s almost as if the previous episode never happened.

The Discovery does not find the Red Angel, but instead it finds a time rift. Or rather a time rift finds the Discovery and starts warping time, endangering the ship. Pike decides to investigate the rift by sending in a probe and – when the probe doesn’t come back – he decides to fly in himself in a shuttle together with Ash Tyler, who is now back aboard Discovery as a Section 31 liaison officer. Not that Pike really wants Ash around – he dislikes Section 31 and doesn’t trust Ash, not entirely without reason, because Ash did after Hugh Culber in a fit of Klingon rage all kill, even if he was literally not himself at the time.

Two crewmembers who don’t like each other get into a shuttle together to investigate a cosmic anomaly. What can possibly go wrong? The answer is everything, because “two characters at odds with each other are trapped in a shuttle in a dangerous situation” is a very classic Star Trek plot. And so the shuttle with Ash and Pike aboard gets sucked into the rift – largely due to the fact Pike and Ash can’t stop arguing about how to pilot the damned thing. Maybe Pike should just have let Ash fly – after all, it was established last season that whatever else Ash is, he’s certainly something of an ace pilot.

The entire plotline of Pike and Ash trapped together in a shuttle in a time rift only exists to get the two to talk through their issues. One could have locked the two up in a cabin aboard the Discovery together and have had the exact same result, though without the cool special effect of the Discovery‘s probe time-warped into some kind of monstruous tentacled thing that tries to destroy the shuttle and the Discovery (shades of Nomad and V’ger there).

Basically, Pike dislikes Ash, because he views him as a representative of Section 31. And Pike believes that Section 31 violates the Starfleet ideals he holds so dear. Luckily, Pike sat out season 1 of Star Trek Discovery with the Enterprise somewhere at the other end of the quadrant or he might have gotten his illusions about Starfleet and its vaunted ideals shattered much sooner.

Ash, meanwhile, seems to have taken a crash course in shitty internet arguments and accuses Pike of being racist towards him, because he’s Klingon. And besides, Pike is only pissed that he got to sit out the entire war with the Klingons and now wants to take out his frustrations on Ash, not to mention compensate for his feeling useless during the war by going on dangerous missions by himself rather than sending the nearest redshirt. Ash isn’t wrong, at least on the last bit, but it’s still a dickhead response. I very much want the Ash Tyler we got for a few episodes in season 1, before he turned into Voq and murdered Hugh Culber, back. Because I really liked that Ash Tyler. This latest reiteration of Ash, however, is just a jerk (though he has great hair and fabulous beard) and can just as well piss off back to Section 31 or L’Rell or wherever. Though it’s certainly interesting that Ash starts speaking Klingon in times of stress. Also, am I the only person who remembers, let alone cares about Ash’s Klingon secret baby? Because Ash sure as hell doesn’t.

Not that Star Trek hasn’t gotten a lot of mileage out of “two people who dislike each other are trapped together in a dangerous situation that may or may not involve a shuttle and come to a grudging respect for each other” over the years. Besides, Anson Mount (and I was sceptical, when Mount’s casting was announced, because he didn’t really covince me as non-speaking Black Bolt in Inhumans and an equally non-speaking assassin in Hawaii Five-Oh) and Shazad Latif do a fine job and and the conversation between Ash and Pike could have been really good, if it hadn’t been so rushed, because “Light and Shadow” has to divide its fairly short run-time between this plotline and Michael’s adventures back on Vulcan. I’m still not sure which of those two plots is “light” and which is “shadow”, by the way, though Camestros Felapton believes that the time rift plot is “light” and the Michael on Vulcan plot is “shadow”. But as it is, Pike and Ash trade a few barbs, before they are attacked by the probe turned techno-tentacle monster (honestly, what is it with transformed space probes in Star Trek?) and have work together to survive and of course bond over the shared danger. Not that I mind this at all, but the bonding does come a bit too abruptly. Ditching the Michael plot for one week (or stretching it out) and focussing on this one would have made for a better episode.

Meanwhile, the Discovery is trying hard to rescue Pike and Ash, but the temporal rift makes beaming them out impossible, as temporal rifts are want to do. So Stamets beams in (and as Zack Handlen points out in his review, how come that Stamets can be beamed in, but Ash and Pike cannot be beamed out?) and uses his tardigrade and magic mushroom drive derived mad navigation skills and unique sensitivity to temporal anomalies (first demonstrated in the fine time loop episode last season) to rescue them. And just in case you’re wondering how Stamets feels about rescuing the man/Klingon who was responsible for the death of his life partner (though Dr. Culber got better), well, you’ll be left wondering, because the episode doesn’t address this either. For that matter, if you’re wondering how Hugh Culber is coping with being killed, spending months trapped in the magic mushroom dimension and then being resurrected in a brand new body – well, keep wondering, because “Light and Shadow” sure as hell doesn’t let us know.

And so Ash and Pike are rescued in the nick of time before the time rift explodes (and if you’re wondering how this affects Kaminar and the poor Kelpians who already have enough crap to deal with without an exploding temporal anomaly in their orbit, well, keep wondering). However, the freaky time-warp morphed probe has infected the shuttle’s computer, which infects the Discovery‘s computer, fire walls apparently being unknown in the future, which in turn infects Lieutenant Airiam. Yes, right, the cybernetic member of the bridge crew who looks a little like a crashtest dummy. Not that I mind seeing Airiam getting more to do – she’s a potentially interesting character. But I have a strong suspicion where this particular plotline will be going (can you say Borg?) and I don’t like it at all. Airiam deserves better. Not to mention that The Orville just did their version of the Borg plot and did it really well, too.

Meanwhile, back on Vulcan, Michael shows up at her foster parents’ home in search of Spock (and I really like the interpretation of the classic Star Trek miniskirt Michael wears throughout the Vulcan scenes). Why she thinks he might be there is anybody’s guess, since it doesn’t really make sense for someone wanted for murder (long story) to hide in the first place anybody would look for him. However, this time Michael does get lucky, because Spock is indeed on Vulcan.

Yes, folks, we finally found Spock!

But don’t get your hopes up yet, because it’s complicated. Because while Sarek is telepathically scanning for Spock, Amanda has him hidden away in a shielded cave/shrine nearby. However, she worries that Sarek will hand Spock over to the oh-so-merciful Federation authorities, so she doesn’t tell him. But once Michael arrives, Amanda takes her to see Spock, because she’s at her wits’ end. For it turns out that Spock has a nervous breakdown and is completely catatonic muttering a seemingly random string of numbers over and over again. He even scribbles the numbers onto the walls along with drawings of the Red Angel. Michael spontaneously hugs her long lost brother, but he doesn’t even notice her.

However, Sarek has followed Amanda and Michael and walks in on them, which leads to an epic standoff in which Amanda tells Sarek that she is her own person and that he doesn’t get to tell her what to do. But in the end, Sarek persuades Michael and Amanda to hand Spock over to the Federation authorities, because Spock is clearly not well. And besides, if they are caught harbouring a fugitive and potential murderer, Michael may have to go back to prison, too, and Sarek won’t loose both his children in one day (oh, so now he cares. Also what about his third child, the still unseen and mentioned Sybok?).

Okay, so that last bit shows that Sarek does have more emotions than your average Vulcan and that he maybe does care for his kids, but he still seems to be gunning for that Darth Vader Parenthood Award with the desperation of a very sad and rabid puppy. Also, while I have never had any problems understanding why Sarek married Amanda, I honestly wonder why Amanda puts up with Sarek. Cause in her shoes, I would have grabbed the children and legged it back to Earth years ago. Though I finally understand why Spock never mentions any member of his family, unless they unexpectedly show up and he has no other choice. Because honestly, those people are fucked up.

So Michael and Sarek contact Section 31, because handing a catatonic family member over to Starfleet’s amoral black ops division (so black ops that they have black badges and always wear black) is obviously a great idea. Leland, i.e. the guy who occasionally stands next to Philippa Georgiou in the Section 31 scenes and apparently was friends with Pike back at the academy, assures Michael that Spock will be treated well and not harmed. But then Philippa Georgiou suddenly appears in her typical deus-ex-machine way (maybe I should start referring to her as Georgiou-ex-machina) and tells Michael that Leland plans to basically vivisect Spock’s brain (now that is a call back to an episode I never expected to see referenced ever again). Oh yes, and just in case Michael is still inclined to doubt Georgiou-ex-machina (who is after all a homicidal, Saru-eating tyrant from a parallel universe), Georgiou also reveals that Leland was involved in the death of Michael’s parents (huh? I though that was the Klingons).

Is she telling the truth? Who knows? On the one hand, Philippa Georgiou seems to be fond of Michael in any universe, on the other hand she also wants to oust Leland to gain control of Section 31 for herself. At any rate, she persuades Michael to grab Spock and run, which leads to a beautiful, if staged fight between Michael and Georgiou. Yes, “Light and Shadow” has a Michelle Yeoh fight scene, which is always worth watching. Though Leland should figure out that the escape was staged soon enough, if only because there is no universe in which Michelle Yeoh loses a fight to anybody.

The episode ends with Michael and a still catatonic Spock on the run once more. However, Michael finally figures out the significance of the numbers Spock is mumbling over and over again. Because it turns out that Spock has a dyslexia like learning disability (which made his childhood on Vulcan even more hell than usual) and has reversed the numbers. And once Michael enters the numbers, which turn out to be coordinates, in the proper order into the computer, out pops Talos IV – yes, the planet featured in the unaired pilot “The Cage” and the original series episode “The Menagerie” – you know, the one place in the universe you’re not supposed to visit on pain of death, courtesy of the Federation’s massively fucked up justice system. So much for Sarek’s worries that Michael will have to go back to prison, cause now she’s setting herself (and Spock, for that matter) up for execution.

I guess we should be excited about the return to Talos IV, especially since Pike, the Star Trek character most associated with that planet, will likely be along for the journey as well. However, I can’t muster that much excitement for a trip to Talos IV. For starters, I never found Talos IV all that interesting. The fact that landing there is punishable by death is literally the most interesting thing about that place, more interesting than the planet itself. Besides, the three episodes featuring the planet may be famous, but they aren’t all that good. I mean, the Talosians manipulate people and let them see illusions to lure them into their cosmic zoo. That’s an old SF chestnut and one that should never have gone beyond a single episode. Not to mention that the return to Talos IV seems like just another gratuitous reference to the original series, in a show that is already full of them. Besides, everything being connected to Spock and the Enterprise also makes Discovery feel claustrophobic. Yes, Discovery is a prequel, but must they remind us of that fact at every turn? Why not tell more stories that are uniquely Discovery stories (even if they involve magic mushroom weirdness) rather than rehashes of old episodes?

What is more, after all the teasing, the return of Spock feels anticlimactic, because the mumbling catatonic Spock is more plot device than person in this episode. I mean, Spock is literally a walking numbers station who only exists to deliver the next plot coupon. Both the character and actor Ethan Peck (grandson of Gregory) deserve better.

Once more, I make the episode sound worth than it actually was. Because in what is rapidly becoming a pattern with season 2 of Star Trek Discovery, this episode was perfectly enjoyable (and the cast is always a joy to watch), but then falls apart, once you start to think about it. It also continues Discovery’s infuriating habit, carried over from season 1, to forget entire plotlines for episodes on end or drop them altogether (what exactly became of the glowing blue energy beings that brainwashed Saru in season 1 or for that matter the prison shuttle pilot Camestros Felapton always wondered about?).

Still, I guess next episode we return to Talos IV once more, whether we (and Spock and Pike and everybody aboard the Discovery) want to or not.

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The Latest Developments Regarding the 2018 Nebula Award Finalists

I promise you that the regularly scheduled Star Trek Discovery review is coming, especially since they have finally found Spock (spoiler white-out). But for now, there have been some new developments on the Nebula front. For those following along at home, my previous posts on this year’s Nebula Award mini-drama may be found here and here. The second one went viral after N.K. Jemisin shared it on Twitter. I’ll also repeat some of the ETAs from my last post, for those who haven’t seen them yet.

To recap, this year’s Nebula ballot contained an unusual number of indie finalists (six in all fiction categories except for Best Novel), which in itself wouldn’t be that surprising, since the SFWA opened its membership to indie writers some time ago. A bit more surprising was that five of those six finalists were action heavy space opera or straight military SF of the “pew pew” type, i.e. not the sort of works that the Nebula electorate normally goes for. And upon closer examination, it turned out that all of the six indie finalists are members of a group called 20Booksto50K (for more explanation, see the previous posts). Camestros Felapton dug into the group and unearthed a recommendation list that is in the grey area to a slate.

Camestros Felapton dug in further and noticed that four of the six indie finalists were either published by or otherwise connected to LMBPN Publishing, a publishing company operated by Michael Anderle and Craig Martelle, who also founded and run the 20Booksto50K group, and that several other works and authors listed on the 20Booksto50K not-a-slate were also connected to LMBPN Publishing. Richard Fox, indie writer and Nebula finalist in the best short story category, also showed up in the comments to make a spectacle of himself, determined to fill every square on the SFF awards slate bingo card.

Camestros Felapton has also taken it upon himself to review all five Nebula finalists for best short story. So far, he has reviewed “Interview for the End of the World” by Rhett C. Bruno (who behaves graciously in the comments and clarifies some points regarding his story), “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington” by Phenderson Djèlí Clark (where a fan of Richard Fox’s shows up in the comments to explain how he really does not like that story for its unusual narrative structure) and “Going Dark” by Richard Fox.

And talking of Richard Fox, at Bounding into Comics, John F. Trent interviews Richard Fox. The interview is mostly about his books and his comic work, but Fox talks a bit about his Nebula nomination and gripes about traditional publishing and sensitivity readers.

On the front of authors and their fans behaving badly, Annie Bellet, an indie writer who found herself a Hugo finalist due to the Sad and Rabid Puppy slates in 2015 and withdrew, once she found out how her nomination had come about, spoke out strongly against the tactics used by 20Booksto50K. Today, she shared this piece of hate mail from fans/friends of Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, a finalist in the novelette category together with R.R. Virdi.

Yudhanjaya came at my calling out of the slate from a positition of condescending arrogance, engaged with me, and I blocked him. At no point did I say his work was shit or name him at all.

This is uncool and I hope he fixes it by apologizing to me and telling his friends to stop

— Annie Bellet (@anniebellet) March 1, 2019

Stuff like this is just rude and awful. And everybody who has actually read Annie Bellet’s Twitter exchange with Yudhanjaya Wijeratne will see that only one party comes off badly in that exchange and that’s not Annie Bellet.

ETA: Though Yudhanjaya Wijeratne and Annie Bellet seem to have come to an understanding now, as this Twitter thread shows, once Annie Bellet clarified that she was not accusing Wijeratne and his co-author of cheating (which I never read that way, but then I wasn’t the target) and Yudhanjaya Wijeratne read about Annie Bellet’s experiences as a Sad/Rabid Puppy slate nominee.

ETA2: Meanwhile at Facebook, Mary Anne Mohanraj claims that there was a racist element to the complaints about the 20Booksto50K not-a-slate, at least regarding the nomination for Yudhanjaya Wijeratne and his co-author R.R. Virdi. Or at least, it was viewed that way in Sri Lanka, from where both Yudhanjaya Wijeratne and Mary Anne Mohanraj hail. She also explains the background of the situation for Sri Lankan writers. Found via File 770, where Mike Glyer also quotes from a good response by N.K. Jemisin refuting Mary Anne Mohanraj’s racism accusations (which I can’t seem to link to, not being a Facebook member).

Now I can’t speak for anybody else, but I for one have zero problem with Yudhanjaya Wijeratne and his co-author R.R. Virdi being writers of colour and Yudhanjaya Wijeratne being a writer from Sri Lanka. In fact, when I first saw the 2018 Nebula shortlist, their nomination didn’t stand out to me, unlike the ones for Jonathan P. Brazee, Richard Fox and Rhett C. Bruno, whose names I recognised as indie writers who write the sort of work the Nebula electorate doesn’t normally go for. However, I didn’t recognise the name of the anthology Expanding Universe as a 20Booksto50K anthology – in fact, I got it mixed up with a Strange Horizons offshoot mag called Expanded Horizons, where writers of colour and South Asian writers wouldn’t seem out of place at all. And while a nomination for that magazine would have been a surprise, it wouldn’t have been that much of one. It was only when I googled Yudhanjaya Wijeratne and R.R. Virdi, because I did not want to accidentally misgender them in my post, that the Dragon Award nominations of R.R. Virdi as well as the anthology with a very indie military SF cover and Craig Martelle listed as the editor popped up. And that’s when I got a little curious.

As for Annie Bellet’s tweets, I did not see them as singling out any of the 20Booksto50K finalists as unworthy. And though Annie Bellet’s tweets were sweary, I saw them as being directed at the slaters and not the slatees, because Annie Bellet after all knows what it’s like to be slated without your knowledge and against your will, though it’s understandable if any of the slatees read that differently. I also have sympathy for Yudhanjaya Wijeratne (and R.R. Virdi, for that matter), since it seems that they did not know why the 20Booksto50K not-a-slate was problematic. However, Wijeratne did not react well to Annie Bellet’s tweets, though he isn’t the worst behaved author in this kerfuffle by a mile. Never mind that six of the seven authors from the 20Booksto50K not-a-slate are Americans and five are white (and several of the other Nebula finalists are writers of colour and/or international writers), so you really can’t say that Wijeratne was singled out for racist reasons.

ETA3: Yudhanjaya Wijeratne shares his own view of his Nebula nomination and the aftermath.

Not everybody is happy to find themselves on the 20Booksto50K not-a-slate, especially since it appears that many authors were not asked. For example, World Weaver Press, a small press one of whose books, The Continuum by Wendy Nikel, was on the 20Booksto50K not-a-slate, point out that they have no idea how the book got onto the last and renounce slating tactics.

Finally, for those who are confused what is and is not considered acceptable in putting your work forwards for awards consideration, Jim C. Hines has posted a handy overview about how to get nominated for a Hugo or Nebula Award and what is and isn’t okay.

Then today, Jonathan P. Brazee, whose novella “Fire Ant” was a 2018 Nebula finalist, posted a statement at File 770. A statement by the SFWA about the issue may also be found in the same post. I encourage you to go over there and read the whole statement, because it’s well worth it. But in short, Jonathan Brazee apologises and takes full responsibility for asterisks and wink-wink nudge-nudge remarks that pushed an initially unproblematic recommended reading list into problematic territory. He also states that neither the people on the list nor the 20Booksto50K group had anything to do with it and that the mistake was his alone. Finally, Jonathan P. Brazee also offers to withdraw his nominated novella Fire Ant from consideration. It’s a classy thing to do and if every writer on the 20Booksto50K list had behaved with as much class and grace as Mr. Brazee, this situation would never have escalated as it did.

The SFWA statement confirms that SFWA is aware of the issues and that they are investigating what can be done to make the Nebula ballot more proof against slating and logrolling, regardless the intention behind it. SFWA also repeats that they want to represent all writers of science fiction and fantasy, whether indies, hybrids or traditionally published. Finally, they ask everybody to give all Nebula finalists their due consideration, regardless how and where they were published. It’s another classy response.

In the comments on the File 770 post, Camestros Felapton also shares the gist of a statement by Craig Martelle posted to the 20Booksto50K group, which is only visible to group and Facebook members. He still has no idea why people are upset – after all, he only wants to help indie authors – and feels denigrated, even though Martelle was only tangentially mentioned in the debate.

I really hope that this is the last Nebula post I have to write until the winners are announced later this year.

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