Joseph Mallozzi's Blog, page 132

March 8, 2022: Oodles from the Stargate vault!

Closing a deal on another sci-fi pilot this week.  Finishing up the third of three comic book pitches I’ll be sending out top of next week.  Tomorrow, it’s a Powder Mage strategy session.   Thursday, it’s a zoom chat with a genre-savvy studio exec.  Friday, it’s a business lunch to discuss a possible new collaboration followed by a call to discuss a project currently in development along with a potential comic adaptation.  And still impatiently awaiting word on two other projects.

Also, I need a haircut.

Today’s Yes/No…

Yakisoba Hot Sandwich? Yes/No
We make yakisoba hot sandwiches, the next trendy camping meal【SoraKitchen】 https://t.co/B4PnA5EcDS via @RocketNews24En

— Joseph Mallozzi (@BaronDestructo) March 8, 2022

More goodies from the Stargate vault!

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March 7, 2022: Baron’s Book Club Blab Blog!

Six more new and upcoming titles for your consideration…

Devil House by John Darnielle

Gage Chandler is descended from kings. That’s what his mother always told him.

Now, he is a true crime writer, with one grisly success–and movie adaptation–to his name, along with a series of subsequent lesser efforts that have paid the bills but not much more. But now he is being offered the chance for the big break: To move into the house–what the locals call “The Devil House”–in which a briefly notorious pair of murders occurred, apparently the work of disaffected 1980s teens. He begins his research with diligence and enthusiasm, but soon the story leads him into a puzzle he never expected–back into his own work and what it means, back to the very core of what he does and who he is.

My thoughts: Despite the title and the cool retro horror cover AND the chilling blurb, this is not a horror novel.  I would even hesitate to categorize it as true crime. Rather, it is an exploration of the craft of the true crime genre, how it blurs the lines between truth and fiction and how, all too often, the collateral damage of notorious crimes are the people left behind to serve as superficial characters in lurid adaptations.  The book is effective in that respect, demonstrating how authorial bias shapes a narrative, altering facts and thereby reshaping the collective consciousness.  It’s ambitious, but its experimental nature proves somewhat tiresome at times and the whole ends up feeling disjointed despite flashes of brilliance and the powerful underlying message.

3/5

*

Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You by Ariel Delgado Dixon

A young woman thinks she has escaped her past only to discover that she’s been hovering on its edges all along: She and her younger sister bide their time in a dilapidated warehouse in a desolate town north of New York City; their parents settled there with dreams of starting an art commune. But after the girls’ father vanishes, all traces of stability disappear for the family, and the girls retreat into strange worlds of their own mythmaking and isolation.

As the sisters both try to survive their increasingly dark and dangerous adolescences, they break apart and reunite repeatedly, orbiting each other like planets. Both endure stints at the Veld Center, a wilderness camp where troubled teenage girls are sent as a last resort, and both emerge more deeply warped by the harsh outdoor survival experiences they must endure and the attempts by staff to break them down psychologically.

My thoughts: There’s an interesting relationship at the heart of this book about two sisters, our nameless narrator and her clearly sociopathic younger sibling, but its frustratingly one-sided.  We jump backwards and forwards in time, following their struggles and their eventual reunion, along the way detailing our protagonist’s time at a remote center for troubled girls.  While the interpersonal dynamics are interesting, it feels like we’re missing a crucial piece of the puzzle in that we never really get to know Fawn who plays such a critical role in this book.  Sure, we get to know her marginally through her actions, but we never understand her motivations or what unseen factors may have played a role in her atypical development.  The book starts strong but ultimately fizzles as it becomes clear we won’t be receiving any deeper insight into a character whose influence has played such a pivotal role in the life of our narrator.  Also – the author makes use of the dead dog trope, so sensitive animal lovers beware.

3/5

*

Red Thread of Fate by Lyn Liao Butler

Two days before Tam and Tony Kwan receive their letter of acceptance for the son they are adopting from China, Tony and his estranged cousin Mia are killed unexpectedly in an accident. A shell-shocked Tam learns she is named the guardian to Mia’s five-year-old daughter, Angela. With no other family around, Tam has no choice but to agree to take in the girl she hasn’t seen since the child was an infant.

Overwhelmed by her life suddenly being upended, Tam must also decide if she will complete the adoption on her own and bring home the son waiting for her in a Chinese orphanage. But when a long-concealed secret comes to light just as she and Angela start to bond, their fragile family is threatened. As Tam begins to unravel the events of Tony and Mia’s past in China, she discovers the true meaning of love and the threads that bind her to the family she is fated to have.

My thoughts: This book does not live up to its promising premise.  The dialogue is clunky, the characters are unbelievable, and tonally it’s all over the place with instances of attempted humor popping up in the most inappropriate of scenes.  To be fair, some of that humor was unintentional, like the moment our recently widowed narrator is informed:  “I just talked to the lawyer for the beverage company that owns the truck that ran over Tony and Mia”.  There’s a romantic sub-plot involving a handsome doctor that rings false and, occasionally, a little cringe-inducing: “She wondered what it would be like to run  hand under his shirt and over his muscular chest and hard abs…Gah!”  Gah?  There’s the promise of some interesting family dynamics, but the characters offer little in the way of nuance.  Adoptive daughter Angela is so precocious that, at times, it seems like she’s 5 going on 25.  Our protagonist’s mother on the other hand, comes across as a caricature as she spins an absurdly positive outlook, encouraging her daughter to make the best of things and move on – only days after her husband’s death.  this one is a miss.

2/5

*

The Good Son by Jacquelyn Mitchard

What do you do when the person you love best becomes unrecognizable to you? For Thea Demetriou, the answer is both simple and agonizing: you keep loving him somehow.

Stefan was just seventeen when he went to prison for the drug-fueled murder of his girlfriend, Belinda. Three years later, he’s released to a world that refuses to let him move on. Belinda’s mother, once Thea’s good friend, galvanizes the community to rally against him to protest in her daughter’s memory. The media paints Stefan as a symbol of white privilege and indifferent justice. Neighbors, employers, even some members of Thea’s own family turn away.

Meanwhile Thea struggles to understand her son. At times, he is still the sweet boy he has always been; at others, he is a young man tormented by guilt and almost broken by his time in prison. But as his efforts to make amends meet escalating resistance and threats, Thea suspects more forces are at play than just community outrage. And if there is so much she never knew about her own son, what other secrets has she yet to uncover—especially about the night Belinda died?

My thoughts: I think that this book could have been a really interesting exploration of guilt and redemption, but the author takes an easy out, absolving the young man accused of murder in the early goings.  Even though he is guilt-ridden following his release from prison for a crime he doesn’t remember committing, the way this novel sets up makes it very clear he is innocent and it will be up to his mother, our protagonist, to ultimately identify the real killer and thereby exonerate her son.  Along the way, young Stefan attempts to make things right and, in true My Name Is Earl fashion, embarks on a project to better himself and, in so doing, help others.  Mom’s investigation into the murder, meanwhile, progresses at a ponderous pace, ultimately culminating in a twist reveal that proves as silly as it does surprising.  A missed opportunity.

2/5

*

Road of Bones by Christopher Golden

Kolyma Highway, otherwise known as the Road of Bones, is a 1200 mile stretch of Siberian road where winter temperatures can drop as low as sixty degrees below zero. Under Stalin, at least eighty Soviet gulags were built along the route to supply the USSR with a readily available workforce, and over time hundreds of thousands of prisoners died in the midst of their labors. Their bodies were buried where they fell, plowed under the permafrost, underneath the road.

Felix Teigland, or “Teig,” is a documentary producer, and when he learns about the Road of Bones, he realizes he’s stumbled upon untapped potential. Accompanied by his camera operator, Teig hires a local Yakut guide to take them to Oymyakon, the coldest settlement on Earth. Teig is fascinated by the culture along the Road of Bones, and encounters strange characters on the way to the Oymyakon, but when the team arrives, they find the village mysteriously abandoned apart from a mysterious 9-year-old girl. Then, chaos ensues.

A malignant, animistic shaman and the forest spirits he commands pursues them as they flee the abandoned town and barrel across miles of deserted permafrost. As the chase continues along this road paved with the suffering of angry ghosts, what form will the echoes of their anguish take? Teig and the others will have to find the answers if they want to survive the Road of Bones.

My thoughts: A producer and his camera man embark on a Siberian road trip, along a bleak, wintry highway enroute to Oymyakon, a remote settlement where they intend to shoot a documentary grounded in the region’s tragic and bloody history.  Following a terrifying road mishap that opens the novel, our heroes, two locals in tow, come upon a local town mysteriously bereft of inhabitants.  Doors are unlocked, half-eaten meals sit on tables, footprints in the snow lead out of the community and into the dark woods.  To this point, the novel is atmospheric, suspenseful and very, very scary as the tension and mystery builds.  But the pressure is released with the reveal of the source of the disappearances.  While not altogether disappointing (and, in fact, there are points where Golden’s description of these supernatural beings is downright terrifying), introducing the physical manifestation of these otherworldly forces does lessen their impact and sets the rest of the story on a more standard course.  While I loved the friendship between our two intrepid documentarians, there wasn’t a whole lot of substance to these characters beyond that bond.  There’s an extraneous character who commands several chapters but doesn’t contribute much in the end, and there’s a MacGuffin in the form of a young girl who requires protection for reasons that are never fully revealed.  And I’m fine with cryptic elements, but it feels odd not to have a consistency in the presentation of this lore.  Overall, however, a well-written horror novel that delivers its fair share of thrills and chills.

3/5

*

Mercury Rising by R. W. W. Greene

Even in a technologically-advanced, Kennedy-Didn’t-Die alternate-history, Brooklyn Lamontagne is going nowhere fast. The year is 1975, thirty years after Robert Oppenheimer invented the Oppenheimer Nuclear Engine, twenty-five years after the first human walked on the moon, and eighteen years after Jet Carson and the Eagle Seven sacrificed their lives to stop the alien invaders.

Brooklyn just wants to keep his mother’s rent paid, earn a little scratch of his own, steer clear of the cops, and maybe get laid sometime in the near future. Simple pleasures, right? But a killer with a baseball bat and a mysterious box of 8-track tapes is about to make his life real complicated…

My thoughts: A sci-fi adventure set on an alternate Earth in a technologically-advanced 1975, 15 years following a Venusian attack on the planet.  Our anti-hero, Brooklyn, convicted as an accessory to murder, gets a shot at freedom (and redemption) by joining the Earth Orbital Force.  He figures he can keep his head down, stay out of trouble, and eventually resume his daily life – but trouble finds Brooklyn in the form of an alien threat.  He’s in well over his head, but that doesn’t stop our reluctant hero from ultimately stepping up in an attempt to save the world.  It’s a great hero’s journey with some inspired alt-worldbuilding that loses some steam when it strays into silly SF territory, tonally undermining the dramatic stakes.  All in all, however, it’s a fun read.

3/5

*

So, what have YOU been reading?

 

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March 6, 2022: Suji Sunday!

Hanging out with her old friend, Totoro.

Taking the new wheels out for a spin.

Couch tough.

The new wheelchair supports her front legs as well as her hindquarters.  She’s not putting her full weight on either but at least she’s putting SOME weight on them, going through the walking motion and exercising those weak muscles.

This is her in action…

And this is our new breakfast routine…

 

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Toronto’s Top 10 Burgers!

In no particular order…

The Burger’s Priest

My favorite: The Vatican City – Double Cheeseburger smashed between two grilled cheese buns.

Rudy

My favorite: The Rude Due – Double Cheeseburger, lettuce, tomato & Rudy sauce.

Matty’s Pattys Burger Club

My favorite: Double Cheeseburger with spicy ketchup sauce.

Burger Drops

My favorite: The Original – Griddled sweet onion, American cheese, house pickles, Drop sauce, roasted potato roll.

Holy Chuck Burgers

My favorite: The Holy Chuck – Maple smoked bacon, cheese, caramelized onions

Big Trouble Pizza

My favorite: Their smashburger.

The Drake

My favorite: Drake Burger – Perth bacon, Russian dressing, aged cheddar, crispy red onion, pickle, fries

Richmond Station

My favorite: Stn. Burger – Organic & grass-fed beef, garlic aioli, beet chutney, pickled onions, aged cheddar, dill pickle, rosemary fries

Top Gun Burgers

My favorite: Hellcat – Beef patty, canadian cheddar cheese, fresh onion, lettuce, tomato, pickles and top gun aioli

Ozzy’s Burgers

My favorite: Cheeseburger – Canadian cheddar, caramelized onions, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and Ozzy’s special sauce.

***

This list is, obviously, incomplete as there are no doubt many standout burgers I’ve yet to sample.  I’ve heard great things about Harry’s Charbroiled, Aunt Lucy’s, Gold Standard and Stock T.C.  Given a little further dedication on my part, I think I can revisit this topic in a few months with my Toronto Top 25!

 

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My Top 10 Favorite Youtube Finance and Investment Channels!

I used to know next to nothing about the stock market.  The very idea of taking the time to study its unfathomable vagaries would set me on edge.  I put my faith in a financial advisor to – well, to be honest – not necessarily make me money but simply ensure I didn’t lose the money I had.  I had neither the time nor the patience for the stock market because I had so many other things on my plate: writing, reading, and, of course, fantasy football.  With the kickoff of every NFL season, I would spend hours a day poring over statistics, reviewing expert opinions, seeking out the latest updates, and sussing out potential trends.  And, every day, my wife Akemi would point out that if I devoted the same time and effort to stocks, I could finally take control of my investments.  I resisted.  Until 2020.

I’d like to say it was because I saw the truth in Akemi’s words or I was motivated by a desire to take hold of my own destiny but really, like most of my life decisions, I was motivated by anger.  Anger at the fact that, after dedicating hundreds of hours to assembling my league’s top team, I ended up losing in the championship game after my hitherto brilliant team shit the bed.  It was, simply put, bad luck.  And when I came to accept the fact that all that time and effort spent could be undone by pure dumb luck, I lost interest in fantasy football and redirected my focus elsewhere – specifically, the stock market.

Now unlike many of the newbie investors who made the same move in 2020 owing to all that extra free time afforded by the pandemic, I wasn’t interested in day trading.  I wanted to learn the fundamentals of investing.  I studied financials and fundamentals, macro trends and technical analyses.  I was eschewed meme stocks and momentum plays with the lofty evaluations in favor of commodities’ theses, value plays, and contrarian investing.

Over the course of these two years, I’ve educated myself – and built and grown a self-managed portfolio.  And the following ten youtube channels were instrumental in helping me do this.  In no particular order…

Steven Van Metre: Marco analysis and a compelling/contrarian view to the inflationist argument.

*

Finding Value Finance: Andy uses ratios to identify value, then applies technical analysis to identify optimal entry point.

Everything Money: Paul, Seth and Mo show you how to evaluate companies, and trade them if you’re so inclined.

*

Mark Moss: Macro view with a focus on asset protection.

*

George Gammon: Macro analyses with informative overviews of the financial system.

*

Value Investing with Sven Carlin: Focus on the investing mindset and stock analyses.

*

ITM Trading: Lynette Zang breaks down the complexities of financial banking, currencies, and economic systems with an emphasis on asset protection.

*

Cameron Stewar, CFAt: Using cashflow valuation to identify investment opportunities.

*

Heresy Financial: Providing updates and overviews of an often opaque financial system.

*

Kitco News: Comprehensive market coverage and informative interviews with industry leaders.  Except when Jeffrey Christian guests.

*

There are about ten others that round up my Top 20, but these are the never-miss favorites who have proven the most helpful and informative on my journey.

Other great follows include: Wealthion, The Daily Gold, Brandon Beavis, The Popular Investor, 40 Finance, Daniel Pronk, The Jay Martin Show, Real Vision Finance,Sasha Yanshin, and Allesio Rastani.

Who else you got?

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March 3, 2022: A Miscellaneous Medley!

A very cool Portia Lin/Two fan edit…

The good old days when you could ship children by mail instead of having to deal with costly and complicated air travel…

Cool 3D art…

Transparent toilets?  Yes/No

A slew from the Stargate vault…

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March 2, 2022: Amazing Covers!

A few that caught my eye this week…

Black Panther #4 – cover art by Alex Ross

Black Panther #4 – cover art by Phil Noto

Hellcop #5 – cover art by Brian Haberlin, Gelrrod Van Dyke

Batman #121 – cover art by Francesco Mattina

Batman #121 – cover art by Lee Bermejo

Batman: Killing Time #1 – cover art by Kael Ngu

Justice League Incarnate #5 – cover art by Jorge Fornes

World of Krypton #4 – cover art by Mico Suayan

2000 AD November 2021 Prog Pack – cover art by David Millgate

The Wrong Earth: Trapped on Teen Planet #1 – cover art by Jamal Igle

So, which were YOUR favorites?

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March 1, 2022: Whoa. Almost forgot. Again.

This is the second day in about a week I’ve almost forgotten to blog.  I mean, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I did – but it would be the end of my daily blogging streak that started way back in November of 2007.  So in the interest of not breaking with tradition, I’m taking time out from my late night youtube finance viewing to offer an update.

Pictured…

The expired spicy ramen Akemi asked me to taste so she could record my reaction – before finishing it off herself, resulting in “intense abdominal discomfort”.  I suppose it didn’t help that the noodles were two years past their expiration date.

Enjoying a stroll through Toronto’s distillery district before stopping for mediocre Mexican food.  Not pictured: absolutely everyone else smart enough to stay toasty-warm  indoors.

Don’t look now but look over here.  If it isn’t former Dark Matter Co-Executive Producer and Utopia Falls Line Producer Robbie David.  Akemi and I were in the neighborhood and invited ourselves over for the finest Taiwanese whisky I’ve ever had.

Me and my gal are slowly getting back into the restaurant swing of things – for better and/or worse.  The other day, it was Vietnamese.  Today it was sushi and tacos – but not at the same meal.

In less than two weeks, White Day will be upon us.  What means White Day?  Well, I’m glad you asked.

Akemi made it a point to remind me (several times) of the delicious chocolate cake she made me for Valentine’s Day.  How am I supposed to top that?

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February 28, 2022: Baron’s Book Club Blab Blog! 6 new and upcoming releases!

Another six new and upcoming releases for you to check out – or not:

The High House by Jessie Greengrass

Perched on a sloping hill, set away from a small town by the sea, the High House has a tide pool and a mill, a vegetable garden, and, most importantly, a barn full of supplies. Caro, Pauly, Sally, and Grandy are safe, so far, from the rising water that threatens to destroy the town and that has, perhaps, already destroyed everything else. But for how long?

Caro and her younger half-brother, Pauly, arrive at the High House after her father and stepmother fall victim to a faraway climate disaster—but not before they call and urge Caro to leave London. In their new home, a converted summer house cared for by Grandy and his granddaughter, Sally, the two pairs learn to live together. Yet there are limits to their safety, limits to the supplies, limits to what Grandy—the former village caretaker, a man who knows how to do everything—can teach them as his health fails.

My thoughts: A Cli-Fi novel in the vein of John Christopher’s Death of Grass and Leigh Brackett’s The Long Tomorrow (two of my favorites), The High House is an intimate exploration of the impact of climate catastrophe. The story’s focus is four individuals who find refuge, amidst the mounting distant chaos, at a self-sufficient, high-ground property. Although there are four of them, only three deliver narrative insights through their dedicated POV chapters: Caro and Sally, whose voices are practically indistinct, and young Pauly who offers an interesting outlook as someone who never knew a world before the devastation, a calm before the endless storms. The elder Grandy, for some reason, is odd person out – which is a shame since he could have offered an equally fascinating, atypical perspective to their predicament. The narrative creeps up on us like the flood waters that eventually claim the surrounding village, covering themes related to motherhood and family, survival and loss. A quiet, measured, introspective read.

3/5

***

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

Claire Kovalik is days away from being unemployed—made obsolete—when her beacon repair crew picks up a strange distress signal. With nothing to lose and no desire to return to Earth, Claire and her team decide to investigate.

What they find at the other end of the signal is a shock: the Aurora, a famous luxury space-liner that vanished on its maiden tour of the solar system more than twenty years ago. A salvage claim like this could set Claire and her crew up for life. But a quick trip through the Aurora reveals something isn’t right.

Whispers in the dark. Flickers of movement. Words scrawled in blood. Claire must fight to hold onto her sanity and find out what really happened on the Aurora, before she and her crew meet the same ghastly fate.

My thoughts: Claire Kovalik is days away from being unemployed—made obsolete—when her beacon repair crew picks up a strange distress signal. With nothing to lose and no desire to return to Earth, Claire and her team decide to investigate.

What they find at the other end of the signal is a shock: the Aurora, a famous luxury space-liner that vanished on its maiden tour of the solar system more than twenty years ago. A salvage claim like this could set Claire and her crew up for life. But a quick trip through the Aurora reveals something isn’t right.

Whispers in the dark. Flickers of movement. Words scrawled in blood. Claire must fight to hold onto her sanity and find out what really happened on the Aurora, before she and her crew meet the same ghastly fate.

4/5

***

Future Skinny by Peter Rosch

Casey Banks is a devoutly anorexic man who discovers he can see the future by binge-eating. His new plan? Perform visions for cash while staying thin by any means necessary. Reading futures proves to be lucrative, but when he ignores a vision of his girlfriend committing a grisly murder, it sets Casey on a dangerous path toward a destiny he’ll do anything to avoid.

My thoughts: Casey Banks can glimpse the future whenever he binge-eats. It’s an unusual, occasionally revolting ability that proves both lucrative and very dangerous when the wrong kind of people seek out his divinatory gifts. I loved the weird premise and the ensuing intrigue as Casey and his partner Lylian attempt to negotiate two rival factions, but one of the book’s central themes, the exploration of fate vs. free will, rang hollow for me. There’s some discussion about destiny and the ability to change one’s future, yet there are several instances where information gleaned from Casey is used to forestall betrayals by killing individuals before they have a chance to act. I’d argue that effectively puts the debate to rest but the book, at least in its surface discussions, leaves the question unanswered. Having said that, this argument pays off nicely in one of the better twist endings I have read.

3/5

***

The Second Cut by Louise Welsh

Auctioneer Rilke has been trying to stay out of trouble, keeping his life more or less respectable. Business has been slow at Bowery Auctions, so when an old friend, Jojo, gives Rilke a tip-off for a house clearance, life seems to be looking up. The next day Jojo washes up dead.

Jojo liked Grindr hook-ups and recreational drugs – is that the reason the police won’t investigate? And if Rilke doesn’t find out what happened to Jojo, who will?

My thoughts: A tip from an old friend, Jojo, regarding an estate sale sets auctioneer Rike on twin tracks of investigation, the first involving the disappearance of an elderly woman, the second involving the suspect death of the aforementioned Jojo. Along the way, we are treated to glimpses of the seedier side of Glasgow as our protagonist attempts to put together the pieces of these mysterious puzzles. Great characters and a brisk pacing make for a very compelling read – up until the book’s close, at which point the wheels come off. Our hero risks his life to get to the truth – only to have another character step in at the 11th hour to conveniently save the day and make everything right. And, in the end, the revelations regarding that missing woman and Rilke’s dead friend prove equally anti-climactic.

3/5

***

Light Years From Home by Mike Chen

Evie Shao and her sister, Kass, aren’t on speaking terms. Fifteen years ago on a family camping trip, their father and brother vanished. Their dad turned up days later, dehydrated and confused—and convinced he’d been abducted by aliens. Their brother, Jakob, remained missing. The women dealt with it very differently. Kass, suspecting her college-dropout twin simply ran off, became the rock of the family. Evie traded academics to pursue alien conspiracy theories, always looking for Jakob.

When Evie’s UFO network uncovers a new event, she goes to investigate. And discovers Jakob is back. He’s different—older, stranger, and talking of an intergalactic war—but the tensions between the siblings haven’t changed at all. If the family is going to come together to help Jakob, then Kass and Evie are going to have to fix their issues, and fast. Because the FBI is after Jakob, and if their brother is telling the truth, possibly an entire space armada, too.

My thoughts: This novel opens in a distant galaxy where our hero, Jakob, flees an advancing alien race.  Armed with the means to saving the universe, he journeys back to Earth – much to the surprise of his family who haven’t seen him since he disappeared while on a camping trip some fifteen years earlier.  What follows is a thoughtful study of family dynamics, obligations, and the restitutive power of forgiveness.  Jakob’s father is dead, his mother battling Alzheimers, one of his sisters a UFO “conspiracy nut” who never gave up on him, his other sister resentful insofar as she has never forgiven him for abandoning them.  And she does have a point. I too had a hard time finding much sympathy for Jakob who, at one point, even admits to being too busy to get in touch with them even though he visited Earth in the past.  A determined FBI provide a looming threat to the proceedings, but the jeopardy takes a back seat to this story’s more grounded elements – the characters and their respective relationships.  It’s a well-written book with a lot of heart, but sci-fi fans expecting a follow-through on the intergalactic high adventure promise of the opening chapter may be disappointed.

3/5

***

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamtsu

Beginning in 2030, a grieving archeologist arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue the work of his recently deceased daughter at the Batagaika crater, where researchers are studying long-buried secrets now revealed in melting permafrost, including the perfectly preserved remains of a girl who appears to have died of an ancient virus.

Once unleashed, the Arctic Plague will reshape life on earth for generations to come, quickly traversing the globe, forcing humanity to devise a myriad of moving and inventive ways to embrace possibility in the face of tragedy. In a theme park designed for terminally ill children, a cynical employee falls in love with a mother desperate to hold on to her infected son. A heartbroken scientist searching for a cure finds a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects—a pig—develops the capacity for human speech. A widowed painter and her teenaged granddaughter embark on a cosmic quest to locate a new home planet.

From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead to interstellar starships, Sequoia Nagamatsu takes readers on a wildly original and compassionate journey, spanning continents, centuries, and even celestial bodies to tell a story about the resiliency of the human spirit, our infinite capacity to dream, and the connective threads that tie us all together in the universe.

My thoughts: A collection of stories spanning centuries, linked by a mysterious viral plague that sweeps across the globe, claiming lives and forever altering others.  On the heels of our own pandemic, it can make for a very sobering read at times, yet moments of despair are counter-balanced by instances of humor, heart, and hope.  Although these tales are interconnected to varying degrees, they serve as effective stand-alone narratives.  As a result, some may resonate more than others.  Two of my favorites were, arguably, the most bittersweet entries.  In one, we follow a young man who lands a job at a theme park that helps sick children “move on” from this physical world.  There, he meets and falls in love with a young mother whose seriously ill son has come to the park to live out his final fun-filled days.  In another story, researchers discover their test subject, a pig, has the ability to talk.  And he has a lot of questions for them.

Interestingly, despite my sci-fi background, I responded more to the smaller, grounded, near-future character-driven stories over the far future narratives involving aliens and space travel.  Chalk this up to Nagamatsu’s deftness in crafting sympathetic characters facing seemingly unimaginable scenarios that, given the past couple of years, prove surprisingly relatable.4/5***So, what have YOU been reading?

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February 27, 2022: Suji Sunday!

Messy eater!  Akemi has started feeding Suji a special mussel soup with turmeric.  Now, her chin is permanently yellow.

Getting ready to hit the great outdoors.

Suji testing out her new wheelchair with both front and rear leg support.

In addition to her leg exercises, she gets an outside walk in the morning and a speedy carpet run in the afternoon.

Getting used to her new wheels…

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