I’m currently rebuilding the website as the old one got totally messed up when i was playing around with things (no idea what happened).
So i thought that while it was a total clusterfuck mess of SQL, i would take the opportunity to give it a whole new life and everything.
So if you go clicking on things you might find that very strange things happen. Don’t moan, i know a lot of things are broken, i’m working on it, it takes time.
I’ve got tons of old posts and pages from three websites that i’m working through and will be gradually posting all the stuff i want to keep on here while fixing all the broken things as i go through, one post, one page, at a time.
On top of doing all that, i will, of course, be continuing to add more new content and my latest posts will always appear directly below.
Or, if you prefer, you can also follow me on Twitter and Pinterest where i put a link to all new posts.
Enjoy
In Blue Lily’s Wake — Aliette de Bodard
You can read this for free over at Uncanny.
Once again, we return to the death of a mindship; this time the cause of death is a plague known as Blue Lily. I’ve often picked up a book and found, completely by chance, that it reflected what was going on in the real world in quite an uncanny way — this story being found in Uncanny magazine in this time of a plague known as Covid-19.
I think we could also do so much better if we could just give our diseases much nicer names — like Aliette has with Blue Lily — because Black Death, AIDS, SARS, MERS, EBOLA and now Covid-19 doesn’t really help with people’s mental health during these difficult, anxious and depressing times. The last thing people need is a disease that sounds like a violent street gang, MS-13, just got more nasty and is coming to get you, yes you, just you!!!
Anyway, this was another story, like Starsong, in that as soon as i got to the end i went all the way back to the beginning and read it all again. I really didn’t understand what had actually happened after the first time through. I’m not sure how much of this is Aliette portraying the effects of Blue Lily so well in her writing that i was as confused as someone coming into contact with a victim of this plague, or how much my mind kept on being taken away from this story and drawing certain parallels with Homo sapiens’ current plague of Covid-19. Suffice it to say that a second reading in which i paid a lot more attention to what i was reading was much better.
If you need your stories spoon fed to you then this most probably isn’t for you as there’s all kinds of temporal, spacial and virtual shifts going on and you really have to pay attention. However, pay attention and you’ll be rewarded with a rather good sci-fi, plague story.
And next up, we’re going to be Crossing the Midday Gate.
Aliette’s Page
#scifi #aliettedebodard
2CV Line and Wash
Having some fun in my Pink Pig watercolour book.
And i’m rather pleased with how it all turned out. Still plenty of learning going on and it’s soooo nice to have something constructive and creative to do while the world has gone to chaos.
It’s based upon this photo:
Back soon with another picture.
#5t4n5 #art #painting #watercolour #lineandwash
Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight — Aliette de Bodard
You can now read this for free over at Clarkesworld, and it’s also in the collection Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight.
As with our last book, Two Sisters in Exile, we’re once again visiting death. This time it’s not the death of a mindship but the deaths of the humans in a long-lived mindship’s life. Imagine that you knew you would live for centuries while all the people you know and care for would only have decades.
We’re also introduced to the idea of having a person’s memories condensed and inherited by their next of kin who then has them implanted, and how the powers that be will, when it suits them, take and use those memories as they see fit. Consider also that the person whose memories you just inherited may have also inherited memories of their forebears who have also inherited memories or their forebears.
To be honest, i can’t imagine anything much worse than having your ancestor’s floating around in your head, pestering and badgering your every decision. I could have a big long rant about this but i won’t. Read it yourself and draw your own conclusions. Suffice it to say, i’m with The Tiger in the Banyan in that i wouldn’t want them even if you offered.
And so…
…coming soon: In Blue Lily’s Wake.
Aliette’s Page
#scifi #aliettedebodard
Learn to Lucid Dream — Kristen LaMarca PhD
A really well put together book detailing many techniques to improve your dream-time and begin to lucid dream.
Sleep is such an important part of living — sadly a most neglected part by many people. Subsequently, our dream-time is even more neglected within that neglect. You do the maths: neglect2 = seriously fucked up!
Our dreams are such an important part of our health and well being, so it’s no wonder so many people have become so sick, ill and on medications when sleep and dreaming is so utterly neglected.
Kristen’s Page
#kristenlamarca
Two Sisters in Exile — Aliette de Bodard
Originally published in Solaris Rising 1.5, but you can now read for free over at Clarkesworld.
And so we leave the birth of mindships behind us and move to the other end, to their deaths.
Once upon a time there was the Dai Viet Empire, now that has become divided between the Northerners and the Nam, the Nam are a warring bunch whose mindships don’t last for very long, while the Northerners are a peaceful, creative, trading people whose mindships simply never die: that is, until Nam kills one by accident.
I’ve enjoyed every book from this universe i’ve read already, they’ve all been really good, but this one felt like it all just got even better as we learn ever more about these living space ships and each culture’s attitude towards them.
Once again, Aliette writes perfectly, continuing to build this universe story by story, while at the same time setting a stage and giving us delightful little teasers of what i hope is going to be played out in future stories.
Next up: Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight.
Aliette’s Page
#scifi #aliettedebodard
Ship’s Brother — Aliette de Bodard
Originally published in Interzone Issue 241, which you can now read for free over at Clarkesworld and also in the collection, The Dragon that Flew Out of the Sun and Other Stories, which is also free to download.
Another story that’s similar to the last two, being centred around the birth of a shipmind, and like The Shipmaker, i feel it would be better placed in the reading order before Shipbirth as we are given even more information about these shipminds and their beginnings that i would have liked to have known before Shipbirth.
In this story Aliette explores the sibling dynamics between a human boy and his mindship sister, but its a dynamic that begins corrupted by the boy attending the extremely difficult birth of the shipmind. Aliette also introduces us to the fact that these mindships can communicate as fully sentient beings and that the ship is part of the family from which it is birthed.
We’re also introduce to another fact in this ever more interesting universe: that some cultures do not use mindships and have banned them from their space. So we’re given quite a few teasers of more interesting things to come, which i’m looking forward to.
Once again, very well written and just at that perfect length to enjoy in one easy, flowing read without even having to put the Kindle down — so make a cuppa, go to the loo and turn your phone off before you start.
Next up: Two Sisters in Exile.
Aliette’s Page
#scifi #aliettedebodard
The Sleep Consultant — Robin Sloan
An odd little story. Travelling around the world staying in various rooms and consulting on the sleep quality for whoever pays someone to do such things. Not sure i quite get the point of the story, mostly random to me, but still, quite an enjoyable yarn.
I would certainly love to have a job like that and am more than willing to whore myself out to anyone out there wishing to fly me around the world checking out the sleep quality of hotels prior to their visits. I promise — very, very much — to be diligent in extremis: pedantry will become me when i give you a sleep consultation and you’ll be able to rest assured when arriving at your hotel that a good night’s sleep has been confirmed.
Robin’s Page
#scifi #robinsloan
My Father the Druid, My Mother the Tree — Robin Sloan
Another delightful little short by Robin — obviously a tree hugging hippie in his spare time.
Good eco-sci-fi that’s free, what more can we ask for in life?
Robin’s Page
#scifi #robinsloan
Fiction
. . .me thinks it’s a good time to re-read Asimov.
Fiction
Nonfiction
Nonfiction
