Philip Athans > Recent Status Updates

The heart of this book is the desperation and terror seething in the wildly propagandistic issue #15 of Batman from February-March of 1943. It has such a disturbing edge to it and speaks uncomfortably to America circa 2025.

I'm actually starting to struggle with the "benign" fascism at the heart of this series, which depends on this one guy (Perry Rhodan) effectively assuming complete political, military, and economic control of the entire world because he has access to advanced alien technology and is just a super cool hero guy.

Creepy.

Starting to get the feeling this is one of those “it’s sci-fi—just throw a random spaceship on the cover” books, and Lancer was the kind of publisher that might do that. Anyway, no spaceships so far just a terrific, taut, unpredictable alternative murder mystery.

“Lake of Fire” is a pleasant Martian surprise by Frank Belknap Long!

Here's a line NEVER to write in any story or novel ever:

All of a sudden the incredible happened.

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

Reading this poem--or parts of it--over and over but in slightly different forms a little every day is messing with my head.

In a good way or a bad way?

I don't know.

Love her even-handed and correct takedown of present tense. Thank you!

Yes, I am taking part of the day to get some reading done!

After an info dump first chapter I’ve been reluctant to pick it back up, so there it sat for, well… a while. But this morning I thought I’d give it one more chapter before DNFing it and I’m glad I did. A POV character emerges in Chapter 2, and with a surprising opening twist. I’m in!

Living with depression is like trying to keep your balance while you dance with a goat—it is perfectly sane to prefer a partner with a better sense of balance.