Category: Aa

Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV.

By 5t4n5

This week in politics we were given a very good example of Dunning-Kruger effect.

On top of the Dunning-Kruger we also get to see extreme Narcissistic Personality Disorder in action, with Trump deciding that this test would be almost impossible for anyone else to pass.

If the president of the usa is — by his own admission — finding a cognitive impairment test, “very difficult”, and finds it hard to believe that most other people wouldn’t be able to pass it then please, please, someone, anyone, remove this clown from office.

That some people are still believing that he’s a great president and will vote for him again just shows that democracy is a load of bollox: when you give idiots the vote they’ll vote for idiots.

And so, in this age of fake news, we have the president of the usa performing his own fake news for our entertainment dollar.

Please watch his face and right hand as he recites his pre-arranged “Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV.”

Now consider how everything was arranged for this interview:

I shall say no more.

#5t4n5 #donaldtrump #personwomanmancameratv #politics #fakenews #thoughts

Annabel Scheme and the Adventure of the New Golden Gate — Robin Sloan

By 5t4n5

Annabel Scheme and the Adventure of the New Golden Gate -- Robin SloanI really enjoyed Annabel Scheme and also everything else that Robin has written, so i went into this with very high expectations: sadly, i don’t think it reached them.

While it’s not a bad book and is quite an ok read, it just all felt a bit rushed.

Yes, i know, it was written as a serial article for a newspaper and maybe Robin was hobbled with some level of word count, or maybe Robin was in a rush to get on with other things: i’ve no idea.   What i do have an idea about is that this book just isn’t as good as the original Annabel Scheme book.

But, hey ho, it’s enough to keep us Robin Sloan fans happy for a while and you can at least read it for free in it’s original form at the newspaper’s website.

In the meantime, we keep our fingers crossed for a full length novel coming from Robin soon.

Robin’s Page

#scifi #robinsloan

Good Neighbours — DeAnna Knippling

By 5t4n5

Good Neighbours -- DeAnna KnipplingI really enjoyed this.   A nice captivating little short to fill an hour or so.

In East Smithville the fog is always coming and with it, the Fairies who whisk people away, not to be seen again for years.   This is the story of one such person returning — for a while at least.

I admit to being thoroughly disappointed that it ended, i really wanted it to keep going: away with the Fairies.

Well worth a read of your time and it would be really good if DeAnna came back to East Smithville some time and wrote a few more short stories about people returning.

DeAnna’s Page

#fantasy #fairytale #deannaknippling

A Perfect Moment — DeAnna Knippling

By 5t4n5

A Perfect Moment -- DeAnna KnipplingI revceived this as an ARC from DeAnna to read, comment and review.

As a short story, anthology stocking-filler it does what it’s supposed to.   I was quite happy to read it and wasn’t put off at all but, it doesn’t do much more than that.

As with a lot of these shorts for anthologies, there’s usually a really good idea at their core but the word count to play it out just isn’t available, and i do feel that this is one of those.   There’s a greedy reader part of me that wants this spun out novel length into a temporal food-fight similar to Recursion by Blake Crouch.

DeAnna’s Page

#deannaknippling

Deep Ocean Blues — Yudhanjaya Wijeratne

By 5t4n5

Deep Ocean Blues -- Yudhanjaya WijeratneAn interesting little novella based in a deep ocean thorium mine with a human, an AI and a bunch of OctoPods as workers: OctoPods are cyborg octopuses in case you were wondering.

It mostly explores the same theme as Blade Runner, as in, what is it to be me.

I am left thinking that there’s at least a full length novel in this deep underwater world and the onshore world that supports it and squabbles over the rights.   There’s certainly a lot of interesting space for a novel or three to explore and fill.

Available in 2054 and also to read for free at Yudhanjaya’s website.

Yudhanjaya’s Page

#scifi #cyberpunk #yudhanjayawijeratne

Alice — Julia Crane

By 5t4n5

Alice -- Julia CraneAnother tale from the anthology Once Upon A Curse.

I’ve quite enjoyed the previous tales from this anthology, and was quite looking forward to one that was “Alice and Wonderland” inspired.   Oh my, how utterly disappointed i was.

To begin, you’ll realise when you get to the apparent end of this tale that this is simply the beginning of one of Julia’s books and you’re supposed to be so impressed with this that you go running off to Amazon to buy it.   Julia, and/or the editor of the anthology, should — in the very least — have had the decency to warn the reader of this fact at the beginning of the tale.

It wouldn’t be so bad if this were any good and one was left wanting to go and buy the full story, but it’s an utterly childish love story and one soon finds oneself just wishing it over and done with.   So yes, there’s a part of me that’s very pleased that this is just an excerpt and i was therefore relieved of having to wade through the whole tedious story.

Furthermore, it doesn’t have anything to do with “Alice and Wonderland” other than the protagonist is called Alice and her adoptive mother is referred to as the Red Queen.   It’s an insult to your readers to take a half finished story you had lying around and rename the characters and try and pass it off as a “Alice and Wonderland” tale.

I’m putting this in “The Deleted” even though i can’t delete this as it’s part of an anthology that so far i’ve been enjoying.   But seriously, all “Alice and Wonderland” fans, just avoid this tale if you come across it.

Julia’s Page

#fantasy #aliceinwonderland #juliacrane #whataloadofcrap

Limbo — Aldous Huxley

By 5t4n5

Limbo -- Aldous HuxleyAldous’ first collection of short fiction, consisting of six short stories and a play.

All in all it’s quite a good read and one can see the young Aldous developing his writing.   Admittedly, he is incredibly pompous at times, but one does get the feeling in “Bookshop” that he realises this and that he understands that he needs to tone it down a lot if he wants to get his ideas and thoughts across to the masses.

Definitely a must read for all Aldous fans.

Farcical History of Richard Greenow

A rather interesting look at Dissociative Identity Disorder before and into WWI, where one personality is a conscientious objector while the other is firmly on the side of destroying the Hun with extreme predjudice.   Add to this that Richard’s other personality is female and when she takes over he has complete blackouts and things get a little out of control for him.

Yes folks, just because someone with DID is male does not mean that their other personalities are going to be male also.   It doesn’t work like that.   One’s other personalties are whoever they are and sometimes they will express with different genders to the host.

Superbly written in Aldous’ inimitable style.

Happily Ever After

Set in the years of WWI, Aldous introduces us to two young men, both at war, with completely contrasting views on life.   I think this is Aldous’ way of reminding himself — and all of us — to not get lost in dogmatic ideologies and, instead, to grasp and enjoy the joys of life while you’re young because you never know if today will be your last.

Eupompus Gave Splendour to Art by Numbers

One often gets the impression with Aldous that he liked to show off his classical education: “Oooh, hark at me, i know all these ancient Greek people and things.”

All the pompous whimsy aside, the only thing really being said here is Aldous didn’t much think that meditation was good for a person: “Let’s not count breaths, eh.”

Happy Families

A play.   Very much a thing of its time when it comes to race, displaying Aldous’ Victorian heritage to the full.

Cynthia

A little romance short with Aldous stirring in another good load of the “Oooh, hark at me, i know all these ancient Greek people and things.” that we had in “Eupompus Gave Splendour to Art by Numbers”.

The Bookshop

A short about an impulse purchase all dressed up in a rather lovely piece of descriptive writing.   I felt that the undertones of this was Aldous bemoaning the great unwashed and uncultured, while, at the end, he sees that he can’t escape their influence when surrounded on all sides by them: we’re all in this shit life together.   Our protagonist finally throws his impulse purchase into some bushes.

I find this story very much to have the seed of what Aldous later grew into his life’s work.   The symbolism of the bookshop with its classical music, fashions, art and books; representing education, privilege and wealth; surrounded on all sides by the working classes, poverty and need.   How can one enjoy such fruits when he’s reminded and intruded upon, at every moment, that so many don’t have these things.

The Death of Lully

Lully is an early christian martyr that is rescued on a passing ship.   A well written short but i’m not sure what the message really is.   As a devout non-christian, this kind of thing just turns my brain off.

Aldous’ Page

#aldoushuxley

The Clockwork Alice — DeAnna Knippling

By 5t4n5

The Clockwork Alice -- DeAnna KnipplingI really enjoyed All the Retros at the New Cotton Club, so i was really happy to discover that Deanna’s also wrote some “Alice and Wonderland” stuff.

Instead of the fun clockwork story about Alice and all things Wonderland that i was expecting, i found a story heavily biased towards the real life of Alice Liddell and her relationship with Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll): this story is set several years after Charles’ death.

I’m not going to get into my views about Dodgson here, this is about DeAnna’s views, and she does a fairly good job of brushing over things (sweeping them under the carpet) and tidy things up in making a story out of Alice’s and Charles’ final years.   Although, to be honest, i think that DeAnna just makes things worse: i’m left with the opinion that this story could be a nice little dose of Streisand effect for a lot of its readers.

And for those of you feeling the effects of Streisand, you can begin at Wikipedia.

All that aside, it’s a fairly good read, and a must for all Alice and Wonderland fans: just expect it to be more about Alice reminiscing, through thoughts and dreams of Wonderland, than a pure Wonderland adventure.   Sadly, there’s a few typos that detract on occasion, and that are so obvious they should have been easily fixed before publishing.

Final words, other than those few annoying typos, DeAnna’s a very good writer.   The Queen of Stilled Hearts is in “The Pile” and i’m looking forward to giving that a read soon.

DeAnna’s Page

#aliceinwonderland #fantasy #steampunk #deannaknippling