Two Envelopes And A Phone > Recent Status Updates

Heading into Part 5, and what happens with illegals during and after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It’s a fascinating book.

The early history of illegals has been great to read - but I confess I am thrilled to finally be moving into the mid-1960s, as that takes me into the flashback scenes we get in The Americans TV show. By the time the book covers the 1980s, it will likely be a lot like watching the show. Married couples had become a strategy, and a wholesome, convincing cover life...

Okay, so - The Americans is one of my favourite TV shows, and the film Salt is a guilty pleasure. Spy movies are currently the only genre where I am keeping ALL my old discs to watch, whether the spy movie in question be good, or not that great. Just fun to have them all on hand. This book starts around 1902-17, which links nicely with the socialist proto-SF I have been reading for a few years. Pumped to read this!

'Once in a Thousand Years' by Frances Bragg Middleton was a very entertaining story - more Fantasy than Horror - with a plot twist that reminded me of the Killer Tomatoes movie...the guy infiltrates the Killer Tomatoes but slips up, at dinner, and asks for the ketchup. Anyway, a lot of the stories in this book are long, which works for me. 30 or 40 pages might be my favourite length, in terms of getting drawn in.

I wasn't sure last night, after the first two chapters - but I'm quite into it now, quite fascinated. Morgana is fascinating and powerful, so there's that. Any book that mentions one of my fave fictional places, the City of Brass, is automatically cool. The SF elements are very 1921, but overt and exciting. The Feminist elements are very 1921, but up front and strongly presented (by Morgana). I like it a lot.

I loved The Sorrows of Satan. This seems like it’s going to be different. Maybe wonderful too…but definitely different.

The rumours are true - it is a drama not a comedy (in plot) - and thus it is one of the strangest reading experiences in my life. I’m fascinated by the gloomy or even dark aspects of this story, and I’m both glad that Wodehouse wrote a book like this, and thrilled that this was never his normal thing. What hurts it, is that the tone is off, because he can’t quite give up some humour. But he should’ve, I think.

I like it. And we are indeed going to sea. (When he tootled up to the academy, I thought we were in for a somewhat extended “school Horror” section, before the rumoured “aquatic Horror” main plot…but gosh we were not at school long! School Horror was quick!)

Awright, that's all the Intros and preliminaries and lead-up quotes and shenanigans dealt with - the door is opening: Medusa me, baby!

As cheesy as it was, I did love 'Under the N-Ray' by Smith & Robbins. Evil, or even misguided, hypnotists always score big with me. Next is ' The Lives of Alfred Kramer' by Donald Wandrei. I don't think I've read much by him.

This seems grounded in some typical fears of its time, especially German aggression on the European stage and beyond. I'm thinking of The Invasion of 1910 by William Le Queux, and even the satire by Wodehouse called The Swoop: or, How Clarence Saved England. Plus some spy novels from when Saki put this out. The "everyday life trundles on" feel reminds me a bit of The Man in the High Castle, too.

I'm going to read this between my two linked picks, When William Came and The Coming of Bill. It's just too tempting. I thought I would never have it, because it had no modern or even slightly old editions, and I avoided paying $800-$1000 for the original, or were those even originals? Don't care any more - got this new edition for an earthbound price!

I like it. It reminds me a bit of Night Stone for a couple of reasons. The underpinnings seem to be getting quite expansive, and there’s a worry this will end cluttered. But overall, I’m very happy.

Bugs moving in circles, in patterns…okay, I’m flashing back to the pilot episode of Threshold. Beyond that, I’m quite invested in this already, and it’s creepy.