The Feast of Saint Janis & Ginungagap by Michael Swanwick
Sep. 16th, 2025 11:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
james_davis_nicoll
The Young People review Michael Swanwick's debut Nebula finalist stories.
The Feast of Saint Janis & Ginungagap by Michael Swanwick
james_davis_nicollThe Young People review Michael Swanwick's debut Nebula finalist stories.
The Feast of Saint Janis & Ginungagap by Michael Swanwick
*throws rice*
Sep. 15th, 2025 06:03 pmastrogirlAfter many delays, Just Married finally went live yesterday! And, wow, what a great exchange this was for me. I got three gifts: a Three/Delgado!Master story, a Twelve/Missy one, and a Harry du Bois/Kim Kitsuragi one (with artwork). All of which are great in different ways.
And on top of that, someone as their entry did a podfic of my Disco Elysium story from a previous round, "Do, Did, Will." Which I'd really been looking forward to hearing ever since they asked me for permission to do it some time ago. And they did a great job with it! I especially like the voice they do for Harry, which very much evokes the one I imagine for him in my own head. You know, it's happened several times now, but I don't think I will ever, ever stop getting a huge kick out of people podficcing my stuff. Partly because it's always such a flattering surprise that anybody wants to do it, but also because listening to the result always feels like encountering my own stuff from the outside for the first time. Like, it's this thing that's just out there in the world and I sort of have to actively remind myself that, hey, I did that, I made that story exist! Which is bizarre-feeling and fascinating and cool.
And on top of that, someone as their entry did a podfic of my Disco Elysium story from a previous round, "Do, Did, Will." Which I'd really been looking forward to hearing ever since they asked me for permission to do it some time ago. And they did a great job with it! I especially like the voice they do for Harry, which very much evokes the one I imagine for him in my own head. You know, it's happened several times now, but I don't think I will ever, ever stop getting a huge kick out of people podficcing my stuff. Partly because it's always such a flattering surprise that anybody wants to do it, but also because listening to the result always feels like encountering my own stuff from the outside for the first time. Like, it's this thing that's just out there in the world and I sort of have to actively remind myself that, hey, I did that, I made that story exist! Which is bizarre-feeling and fascinating and cool.
Bundle of Holding: Dread Laironomicon
Sep. 15th, 2025 02:17 pmjames_davis_nicoll
100 lair entries in two succinct pages apiece, from Aboleth's Sunken Lair to Wyvern's Nest.
Bundle of Holding: Dread Laironomicon
Snacks!
Sep. 15th, 2025 09:47 amajI met havocthecat for a lovely lunch on Saturday and was introduced to a delicious dish that involved cabbage and Chinese sesame paste. I need to make it immediately. It is reminiscent but different (and delightfully so!) from my peanut lime slaw. I was also delighted by everything else we tried.
That said, I want to be better about eating food I prepare and bring to work rather than my new normal a.) not eating at all or b.) buying food from places around my job. Neither are healthy or sustainable. BUT. I'm also In No Mood to make a lot of things that involve fire or cooking meat. Now, I have happily gone vegetarian in the past and am happy to do it again, but I'm also really tired of grocery shopping atm. SO. I decided to make up mini cheese/meat snack packs for lunch this week and buy a bunch of dried fruit, nuts, grapes and apples to cart along with. I did spend entirely too much $$ on cheese, but here we are.
UPDATE: Snack lunch was delicious and I am v. happy.
Hopefully this will tide me over until I'm able to swing by an Asian grocery for Chinese sesame paste. I already have the black sesame seeds and the right vinegar at home along with some cabbage slaw. Non traditional, but unless I get the overwhelming desire to make dumplings, I'm not buying a whole ass napa cabbage. Honestly, I should invite some friends over to make dumplings this fall. That would be pretty cool.
havocthecat for a lovely lunch on Saturday and was introduced to a delicious dish that involved cabbage and Chinese sesame paste. I need to make it immediately. It is reminiscent but different (and delightfully so!) from my peanut lime slaw. I was also delighted by everything else we tried.That said, I want to be better about eating food I prepare and bring to work rather than my new normal a.) not eating at all or b.) buying food from places around my job. Neither are healthy or sustainable. BUT. I'm also In No Mood to make a lot of things that involve fire or cooking meat. Now, I have happily gone vegetarian in the past and am happy to do it again, but I'm also really tired of grocery shopping atm. SO. I decided to make up mini cheese/meat snack packs for lunch this week and buy a bunch of dried fruit, nuts, grapes and apples to cart along with. I did spend entirely too much $$ on cheese, but here we are.
UPDATE: Snack lunch was delicious and I am v. happy.
Hopefully this will tide me over until I'm able to swing by an Asian grocery for Chinese sesame paste. I already have the black sesame seeds and the right vinegar at home along with some cabbage slaw. Non traditional, but unless I get the overwhelming desire to make dumplings, I'm not buying a whole ass napa cabbage. Honestly, I should invite some friends over to make dumplings this fall. That would be pretty cool.
Clarke Award Finalists 2014
Sep. 15th, 2025 10:17 amjames_davis_nicoll2014: Creationism is banned in British schools, the first same sex marriages in the UK are conducted, and Canadian Mark Carney helps the UK navigate challenging times. What ever happened to Carney, anyway?
Bold for have read, italic for intend to read, underline for never heard of it.
Which 2014 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
God's War by Kameron Hurley
Nexus by Ramez Naam
The Adjacent by Christopher Priest
The Disestablishment of Paradise by Phillip Mann
The Machine by James Smythe
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 68
Which 2014 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
View Answers
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
65 (95.6%)
God's War by Kameron Hurley
24 (35.3%)
Nexus by Ramez Naam
10 (14.7%)
The Adjacent by Christopher Priest
5 (7.4%)
The Disestablishment of Paradise by Phillip Mann
1 (1.5%)
The Machine by James Smythe
3 (4.4%)
Bold for have read, italic for intend to read, underline for never heard of it.
Which 2014 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
God's War by Kameron Hurley
Nexus by Ramez Naam
The Adjacent by Christopher Priest
The Disestablishment of Paradise by Phillip Mann
The Machine by James Smythe
Transit
Sep. 14th, 2025 06:38 pmjames_davis_nicollSo, yesterday, the wheelchair ramp on the Rt 8 bus I was on developed a bug. Or the system that detects if it is deployed did. The ramp retracted correctly but the bus thought it had not, and would not move.
Ha ha! I pick my routes to maximize alternatives in case of break-downs. I just disembarked and talked over to the LRT. Which, I discovered, was having a minor service delay.
My contingency plans can handle two delays, but not three. Good for me there were just the two. It did mean I was only a little early for work.
On the way home, just after I disembarked from the LRT, an SUV cut the LRT off so the SUV could reach the parking lot ten seconds earlier. If the train had not stopped, I'd have had to stick around, both as a witness and because the accident would blocked the sidewalk between me and the stop I needed to get to.
Less than five minutes after the LRT near-miss, three SUVs tried to turn into the same lane at the same time. I don't think they hit each other but there was a short discussion between the drivers before they all left. I'd have had to stick around for that as well, because it would have blocked the route my bus uses.
Ha ha! I pick my routes to maximize alternatives in case of break-downs. I just disembarked and talked over to the LRT. Which, I discovered, was having a minor service delay.
My contingency plans can handle two delays, but not three. Good for me there were just the two. It did mean I was only a little early for work.
On the way home, just after I disembarked from the LRT, an SUV cut the LRT off so the SUV could reach the parking lot ten seconds earlier. If the train had not stopped, I'd have had to stick around, both as a witness and because the accident would blocked the sidewalk between me and the stop I needed to get to.
Less than five minutes after the LRT near-miss, three SUVs tried to turn into the same lane at the same time. I don't think they hit each other but there was a short discussion between the drivers before they all left. I'd have had to stick around for that as well, because it would have blocked the route my bus uses.
The Dosadi Experiment (ConSentiency, volume 2) by Frank Herbert
Sep. 14th, 2025 08:57 amjames_davis_nicoll
Bureau of Sabotage agent Jorj X. McKie is assigned a legal and ethical trap: a planet of victims, who, whether rescued or left to their impending doom, present a danger to the ConSentiency.
The Dosadi Experiment (ConSentiency, volume 2) by Frank Herbert
On the edge and off the avenue
Sep. 13th, 2025 11:35 pmsovayI had not thought there were any meteor showers of consequence this month, but it seems that the swift pale streak between the telephone wires southwest of Cassiopeia belonged to the September Epsilon Perseids, so named despite their radiant in β Persei, the demon-star of Algol. I can hope it was not wildfire drift that accounted for the candle-tint of the half-moon, which was doing its autumnal trick of hanging like a lantern in the not yet leafless trees. The last of this summer's monarchs flew just before sunset, the twenty-second of her name.
Books Received, September 6 — September 12
Sep. 13th, 2025 09:06 amjames_davis_nicoll
Six works new to me: two fantasy (one a roleplaying game), four science fiction. The roleplaying game is part of a series but otherwise, they all seem to be stand-alone.
Books Received, September 6 — September 12
Poll #33608 Books Received, September 6 — September 12
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 46
Which of these look interesting?
View Answers
Daughter of No Worlds by Carissa Broadbent (October 2025)
8 (17.4%)
Outlaw Planet by M.R. Carey (November 2025)
20 (43.5%)
Champions of Chaos by Calum Colins, et al
1 (2.2%)
Slow Gods by Claire North (November 2025)
24 (52.2%)
The Divine Gardener’s Handbook: Or What to Do if Your Girlfriend Accidentally Turns Off the Sun by Eli Snow (August 2026)
22 (47.8%)
Death Engine Protocol: Better Dying Through Science by Margret A. Treiber (April 2025)
13 (28.3%)
Some other option (see comments)
0 (0.0%)
Cats!
30 (65.2%)
We just ended up clutching at the empty rituals like gamblers clutching long odds
Sep. 13th, 2025 04:11 amsovayI am glad to read that a classicist on Tumblr whom I do not know feels validated by a poem I wrote a dozen years ago, because she's right in turn about the linkage of ideas that led to its writing: the evocatio of Juno from Veii in 396 BCE, the evocatio of Tanit from Carthage in 146 BCE, the assimilation of Tanit to Juno Caelestis rather than Ištar-starred Venus, the self-fulfilling loop of enmity that a double-thefted goddess makes of the Aeneid and under it all the irony that Vergil even in his Renaissance aspect as magician could not foresee, that Carthage-haunted Rome was itself built on the needfire of the most famously sacked city of the ancient world, Troy whose gods Aeneas salvaged from the night of its destruction and now we remember Rome as the epitome of decadence, the eternally, contagiously falling city.
Also I had just been turned down by a housing situation that I had painfully wanted, but the classical stuff was all still bang on.
Also I had just been turned down by a housing situation that I had painfully wanted, but the classical stuff was all still bang on.
Look.
Sep. 12th, 2025 09:14 amajI have a whole lot of complex feelings about my alma mater re: my master's degree. I am proud of the work I did and adore some of my former instructors. HOWEVER, I was very poorly treated by the school from well before I even got accepted all the way passed my graduation.
Highlights:
( Cut for bitching and light discussion of current events, so pass if you are In No Mood )
Anyway, I'm just going to sit over here and give a sensible chuckle.
Highlights:
( Cut for bitching and light discussion of current events, so pass if you are In No Mood )
Anyway, I'm just going to sit over here and give a sensible chuckle.
Happy 11th Birthday, James Nicoll Reviews!
Sep. 12th, 2025 09:12 amjames_davis_nicoll
I'd been posting reviews to LiveJournal since April of 2014 but on September 12, 2014, James Nicoll Reviews went live, with a review of Robert A. Heinlein's Between Planets.
Awake in the Floating City by Susanna Kwan
Sep. 12th, 2025 08:57 amjames_davis_nicoll
It's time for Bo to leave doomed San Francisco behind... just as soon as she completes one final task.
Awake in the Floating City by Susanna Kwan
If one year's back on my shoulder
Sep. 12th, 2025 03:26 amsovayNot having read any of the source novels, approximately twenty minutes into the first series of Poldark (1975–77) as I lay on the couch self-medicating with the late eighteenth century, I remarked to spatch, "Is there any aspect of this homecoming that is not going to be a clusterfuck?" on which the answer turned out to be no, whence it seems the engine of the plot. Since I came to this show by having to wait for the third season of Turn: Washington's Spies (2014–17) to arrive at my local branch library, I was more than ordinarily entertained by the line pertaining to the hero's soldiering past, "Shocking business, eh? Losing the Colonies." The bomber leather frock coat is as impressive as advertised.
spatch, "Is there any aspect of this homecoming that is not going to be a clusterfuck?" on which the answer turned out to be no, whence it seems the engine of the plot. Since I came to this show by having to wait for the third season of Turn: Washington's Spies (2014–17) to arrive at my local branch library, I was more than ordinarily entertained by the line pertaining to the hero's soldiering past, "Shocking business, eh? Losing the Colonies." The bomber leather frock coat is as impressive as advertised.I saw the world crashing all around your face
Sep. 11th, 2025 07:55 pmsovayThis afternoon my godchild's school was locked down because one of the students had a gun and the nineteenth and twentieth monarchs of the summer hatched. What am I supposed to say about the day itself? That I am reminded even without the martial canonization of a never-laid grief that nothing is easier to shovel under six feet of lime than memory? The last cousin of my grandparents' generation died earlier this week at nearly a century. The lines to the past snap fast enough, no one needs to hurry them along.
On that note, Andrew Kozma's "The Black Death" (2025). I like that Ulysses S. Grant is top of the list of historical characters Jared Harris wants to play, in part because of his civil rights commitments as president and as a counterweight to his negative figuration in the mythos of the Lost Cause. I need a door in the hall closet to BFI Southbank if they are going to keep doing inaccessibly tantalizing series like last year's complete Powell and Pressburger or, currently, Anna May Wong.
On that note, Andrew Kozma's "The Black Death" (2025). I like that Ulysses S. Grant is top of the list of historical characters Jared Harris wants to play, in part because of his civil rights commitments as president and as a counterweight to his negative figuration in the mythos of the Lost Cause. I need a door in the hall closet to BFI Southbank if they are going to keep doing inaccessibly tantalizing series like last year's complete Powell and Pressburger or, currently, Anna May Wong.
Bundle of Holding: Rifts Worlds 1 (from 2018) & Rifts Land and Sea (from 2022)
Sep. 11th, 2025 03:35 pmjames_davis_nicoll
11 sourcebooks that range across the shattered Earth of the Rifts tabletop roleplaying game from Palladium Books.
Bundle of Holding: Rifts Worlds 1
More World Books for the cross-dimensional tabletop roleplaying game
Bundle of Holding: Rifts Land and Sea (from 2022)
ajMan, non-male rap MC's are great. I'm sure some male ones are too, but there's a specific brand of female MC from the late 90's to late aught's style that is just my absolute jam. (FYI, listening to Angel Haze's "Dirty Gold" album and it's great. Yes, I found it because Teddy Sinclair/Natalia Kills cowrote a song on the album.)
Anyway, I actually came to post about Orville Peck. So, it turns out that his second album, "Bronco", was never released on CD? This explains why I was having such a hard time finding it through the library? However, one of our lenders sent me the legit whole vinyl album, so I'm still going to be able to listen to it! Honestly, he's an artist where it would make sense to either release something only digital and on vinyl. The slight scratchiness of vinyl makes so much sense with his music style. I'm kind of excited to listen to Daytona Sand on my shitty turntable.
That said, I do have a small list of music that I need to buy over the next little bit. Mostly as it's not available on CD. I kind of wish a lot of artists just left a PO Box on their website or similar so I could mail them $$ as a thank you. I'm really grumpy at the enshittification of Soundcloud and Bandcamp because I legit just want to send artists money directly. Especially the artists where I can only find their unreleased stuff or a single here or there. I legitimately want to mail Teddy Sinclair/Natalia kills $200 because of all the enjoyment I've gotten from her stuff over the last two years.
I remain amused that my current musical tastes can be described as "2010's pop girlie + bluegrass inspired country with a side of rap". I'm such a basic bitch.
Anyway, I actually came to post about Orville Peck. So, it turns out that his second album, "Bronco", was never released on CD? This explains why I was having such a hard time finding it through the library? However, one of our lenders sent me the legit whole vinyl album, so I'm still going to be able to listen to it! Honestly, he's an artist where it would make sense to either release something only digital and on vinyl. The slight scratchiness of vinyl makes so much sense with his music style. I'm kind of excited to listen to Daytona Sand on my shitty turntable.
That said, I do have a small list of music that I need to buy over the next little bit. Mostly as it's not available on CD. I kind of wish a lot of artists just left a PO Box on their website or similar so I could mail them $$ as a thank you. I'm really grumpy at the enshittification of Soundcloud and Bandcamp because I legit just want to send artists money directly. Especially the artists where I can only find their unreleased stuff or a single here or there. I legitimately want to mail Teddy Sinclair/Natalia kills $200 because of all the enjoyment I've gotten from her stuff over the last two years.
I remain amused that my current musical tastes can be described as "2010's pop girlie + bluegrass inspired country with a side of rap". I'm such a basic bitch.
SideQuested by K B Spangler & Ale Presser
Sep. 11th, 2025 08:56 amjames_davis_nicoll
A woodcarver's foster daughter sets out to free a maiden from a magical tower prison, just the sort of thing that always works out exactly according to plan, without unforeseen geopolitical complications.
SideQuested by K B Spangler & Ale Presser