disobey_gravity | Member Posts

A current very-Canadian thing is that payments for the Loblaws (one of the national grocery giants) bread settlement (the Canadian Packaged Bread Class Actions Settlement) are trickling out to the tune of $49.01 per claimant. I've been seeing mention of it all week on Bluesky. The notification about mine arrived this morning. I doubt Loblaws even feels the settlement amount, and God knows the mainstream chains are wringing every cent out of people that they can, one way or another, but it's still nice to see them actually paying for a wrongdoing. I will take my not-quite-fifty-dollars, thank you.

I was happy to see this morning that The Vegetable Gardener's Container Bible is on sale in ebook, so I've snagged that to supplement the hard copy of The Vegetable Gardener's Bible.

On the weekend,

scruloose and I decided that we'll take a Friday off to visit the local non-profit's seedling sale, since it's Friday to Sunday for the duration of its run. We were having a few very warm days, so we briefly considered doing it today, but thankfully sense prevailed, given that there was a frost warning last night and there's another tonight. So. Maybe next Friday, but going in two weeks is probably a better idea. (The local standard for "we're FINALLY sure there won't be more frost" is "after the full moon in June", but this year's isn't until June 30th. [There are two this month--May 1st and May 31st.])

(I know lettuce and spinach are very fond of cool weather, so I'm as reasonably sure as possible before going out to look that our seedlings will be okay, but I can't help a bit of reflexive worry.)

Occasionally I remember that I can just upload images on Dreamwidth. Have a pic of some of our tiny lettuce seedlings on their second day poking up from the soil. (These are the Freckles variety, and yesterday it looked like we had some popping up from all the lettuce types except the Black Seeded Simpson.) The plant marker behind them, despite appearances, is not a popsicle stick; the markers we bought are noticeably larger than that.

A row of very tiny lettuce seedlings peeking up from the soil.

Current Mood: groggy

rydra_wong

I am very very wrecked (because of something I did on purpose which I hope was useful, but which I did knowing that it would burn all my spoons and crash me for several days).

If anyone would like to distract me by asking me questions about things I enjoy rambling about (see my DW for recent topics, as well as the perennial ones), PLEASE do so, I would be deeply grateful.

rachelmanija

A very loose take on "Little Red Riding Hood," set in modern times post-apocalypse!

Cordelia, nicknamed Red because she hates her given name and always wears a red hoodie, is the sole survivor of her family. She's traveling the post-pandemic wilderness to get to her grandmother's house in the woods, armed only with an axe. She's used a prosthetic leg since losing one in a car crash when she was a child, so people underestimate her. They shouldn't.

The story alternates between her post-pandemic journey and the events leading up to it, when Red lived with her mom (a Black college professor), her dad (white, I forget his job) and her older brother Adam. Red is about 20, Adam is about 22; they're both college students. Red is extremely into horror movies and preparing for danger, so she sees the urgency of the pandemic well before most people. Unfortunately, that's not enough to save her parents and brother.

I was absolutely glued to this book, staying up past midnight to finish it, despite its many flaws. If you, like me, enjoy a small scale apocalypse story with a focus on the logistics of survival, this is a must-read. The logistics of survival bits are GREAT.

It's repetitive (HOW many times do we need to be told that Red can't run fast because she has a prosthetic leg?), everything is over-explained, Red is somehow able to use a small axe to kill multiple men armed with guns (all at once in addition to sequentially!) despite having no training, and the ending is incredibly abrupt and has more loose ends than a half-finished sweater. I cannot believe the author's chutzpah in setting up all sorts of fascinating mysteries only to have Red conclude that she's not the main character (what?) and so no longer cares that she'll never know the answer to any of them. Okay, but I care!

And yet, I enjoyed the hell out of it, right up to the non-ending. I am just a sucker for people searching for beef jerky in looted supermarkets and rescuing kids.

Spoilery details.

( Read more... )

Halfway through this book, I was looking up all of Henry's other books, which are horror or thrillers, many dark fairytale retellings, so I could read them all. When I got the end, I looked up their reviews. Many mention "abrupt" endings and none of the rest are post-apocalyptic, which was by far the best part of the book, so I will probably leave my reading of her books right here.

brainwane

I'm speaking, performing, moderating, and otherwise participating at WisCon 48 (WisCon 2026) this weekend! It's entirely online (Discord + Zoom with some YouTube livestreams). My schedule:

Panel: The Last Year in Gender-Exploring SpecFic
Saturday, May 23rd, 10:30 AM–11:45 AM CDT
Members of the 2025 Otherwise jury and others familiar with the award will discuss the 2025 Otherwise Winner, Luminous by Silvia Park, as well as the Honor List titles and other works of gender-exploring speculative fiction from the last year. The panel will also discuss trends that they have seen in speculative fiction in in relation to the exploration and expansion of gender and how that exploration intersects, as it must, with other identity categories.
Cheryl S. Ntumy and Rebecca Fraimow, Mod: Sumana Harihareswara

GoH Panel: Climate Change & Climate Fiction
Sat. May 23rd, 1:00 PM–2:15 PM CDT
Climate change presents humanity with so many different potential challenges, it's no surprise that fictional imaginings of its effects are already so copious. Both our Guests of Honor, Premee Mohamed and Darcie Little Badger, have used their own scientific backgrounds to highlight climate change in their stories. In this panel they'll discuss their perspectives on climate change as scientists and as writers.
Darcie Little Badger and Premee Mohamed, Mod: Sumana Harihareswara

Otherwise's Fundraising Auction
Saturday, May 23rd, 7:00 PM–8:00 PM CDT
The return of the Otherwise Auction! Sumana Harihareswara is your live auctioneer. Bid (via Discord chat; pay using credit/debit card, Venmo, or PayPal) on a variety of material and immaterial items to support the Otherwise Award.

Some of the auction items:

A signed, numbered, hardcover limited edition of N.K. Jemisin’s book How Long ’til Black Future Month -- donated by Subterranean Press
Vintage collectibles, such as a WisCon 42 tote bag (from 2018, donated by SamHain Press)
Discounts at online booksellers
Wacky experiences! (I promise that there will be at least one wacky experience.)

I'll make nerdy jokes. You can come and have fun without bidding on anything. Anyone who donates any amount of money to Otherwise during the auction gets a virtual gift bag with some fun items in it, including the brand-new Otherwise ringtone, made specially for this event. ~~I know we'll take PayPal and credit cards; we may also be taking Venmo.~~ We'll take PayPal, Venmo, and debit/credit cards.

Guest of Honor Speeches & Otherwise Presentation
Sunday, May 24th, 7:00 PM–9:00 PM CDT
WisCon's traditional Sunday night event. Speeches by our guests of honor, followed by presentation of the Otherwise Award (and a filk to celebrate it!) and a speech from the con chairs.

Tickets for WisCon are sliding scale, USD$0-$5-$25-$65. And you'll also get the chance to enjoy fascinating (and well-moderated!) panels, readings of new work, a curated fanvid show, and other sessions, many of which will include CART (real time captioning by a human). More info at the helpful "How To WisCon" post.

sanguinity

There was a fun list of number-themed writing prompts going around tumblr the other day. (69 words of smut, 101 words about a dog, etc.) A friend over there has an affection for the game-theory passage in my Hornblower novel, Until Death or England Do Us Part.* Wanting to know if I have any other mathematical ideas up my sleeve, they prompted:

Write a 314-word fic that contains a mathematical concept.

Well. It just so happens that there's a bit of mathematical trivia about Hornblower that has burning a hole in the back of my brain for YEARS. Namely: the canonical fact that Hornblower, alleged mathematical genius who sometimes makes his living off of gambling, believes in the Gambler's Fallacy. (gifset of the relevant scene in the episode "Loyalty", but be assured, it comes straight from the novel.)

It's never been a big enough thing to hang a whole story on, but a 314-word ficlet? No problem.

Gambler's Fallacy by sanguinity

Hornblower novels; Hornblower TV
Horatio Hornblower, William Bush
Mathematics, Ficlet

Hornblower may be the alleged genius, but Bush's mathematical instincts are as good as anyone's.

Once again, it pleased me to let Bush be correct about the math. I know canon makes much of Hornblower's mathematical brilliance and Bush being a mathematical also-ran, but I would like to point out: one of these gentlemen passed his lieutenant's exam, and the other one famously did not. Bush may not be mathematically gifted, but I argue that he is competent. So there.

--

* For a discussion of the game theory bit of "Until Death or England", please see my DVD commentary, On Game Theory and The Final Problem. As advertised, it also discusses Sherlock Holmes.

umadoshi

I have an excuse to use my lychee icon! On Monday we were downtown during the daytime (not a frequent occurrence anymore) and the large Asian grocer with the expensive-but-good fruit selection had lychee. (Alarmingly expensive lychee, frankly, so I'm extra glad the package we got was delicious. Last year we didn't make it down there at all.)

I also have an excuse for a Yotsuba&! icon, but what can you do. There's a new volume coming out (in English) this month!!! Who knew? (Which is to say when I found out from

seangaffney the other day, he was surprised too, and he has his finger on the pulse of the industry, unlike me.) The last volume (15) came out in fall 2021, which is actually more recent than I was thinking. (And vol. 14 was back in 2018.)

A few days ago we cleaned out the fridge's freezer, which had been...let's say "a while" and managed to free up some space. I think that was what reminded me that late last summer we'd pre-weighed some frozen blueberries into amounts for a couple of specific recipes that we'd made and really liked last year. Whoops. Fall distracted us a little with apple baking, although we didn't really do much of that, either.

So I went rummaging through the terrifying piles of printed-out recipes, trying to ID what we'd made, and came up not emptyhanded but not triumphant, either; I was very confident that the cake I was thinking of wasn't there. Dreamwidth posts to the rescue! A journal search for "blueberry" reminded me that I was thinking of the Smitten Kitchen Strawberry Summer Sheet Cake, just with blueberries.

We made plans to make the cake! On Tuesday we ate a quick supper and I had had eggs out of the fridge for a while when I realized that not only had I not taken butter out to warm up, we didn't have the right butter in the fridge. In the freezer, yes. Awkward.

scruloose deemed the eggs still cool enough to just go back into the fridge, and baking was put off. Maybe tonight? (A box of butter sticks did also make it into the fridge on Tuesday.)

When we were out watering the planter last night, we found the tiniest beginnings of lettuce seedlings! (Not of all the varieties, but maybe all but one?) Seeds in the ground Saturday and visible beginnings Wednesday seems kinda amazing, although I did know lettuce grows quickly. It's almost infinitely too soon to declare lettuce-growing victory, obviously, but still pleasing. ^_^

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: Dessa - Ride

rachelmanija

A beautifully written, atmospheric riff on Pet Sematary, among other things, in which the women of a Korean-American family living in a small, mostly white town have the power to resurrect the dead. They only use it on small animals, primarily to resurrect their beloved pet rat Milkis every time he dies of old age, which is about every three years. (If the author hasn’t kept pet rats, I will eat my hat.) Theoretically they could resurrect humans, but family lore says it’s a very, very bad idea. Despite extreme temptation, the two teenage sisters do not try to resurrect their mom when she dies in a car crash. But when the older sister, Mirae, drowns in the river, her younger sister Soojin can’t resist…

This isn’t the kind of story that’s built around surprises – we know from the beginning that sometimes dead is better, and the whole idea of forbidden resurrection is about refusing to accept the fact of death, so that also must come into play—but rather about the journey. The book has a water-drenched, hothouse atmosphere, all claustrophobic relationships and emotions too intense to bear. It’s a bit spooky but mostly an exploration of grief and love via creepy magic. I thought it was great, but rat lovers should heed the note below. (Which is too bad because the pet rat character is great.)

Content notes: The same pet rat repeatedly dies of old age and is resurrected, a process which involves some physical mutilation of the corpse. This part didn’t bother me but the rat does also die one painful and violent death, which did. There is also a flashback story to earlier generations involving a chicken that gets repeatedly killed in a cruel way. Lots of body horror. The story is centrally about grief.

rachelmanija

Erica Skyberg is a 35-year-old teacher in a small town in South Dakota who’s just realized that she’s a trans woman. Or rather, the knowledge that she’s a trans woman has finally become impossible to suppress. Unfortunately, she’s deep in the closet and the only other trans person she knows is Abigail, who is 17 and the only openly trans student at her high school. Erica is in the stage of identity where she can’t think about anything else; Abigail is fine with carrying the banner of being out but would really like her life to not be just about Being Trans.

Erica comes out to Abigail, who is equal parts annoyed and fascinated by the chance to take on the role of being a mentor to an adult. Their relationship is definitionally inappropriate, but not predatory or harmful. Abigail can be a lot and Erica has enormous issues with self-esteem and boundaries, but they’re both essentially kind and well-meaning people trying to just live their lives in a world that has cast them as Public Enemy # 1.

This novel is also essentially kind. It’s a very warm and often pretty funny look at two people who have one somewhat random thing in common and create a relationship based on that one thing, which becomes a relationship based on more than that, and how the repercussions of that relationship spiral outward and affect others: Erica’s ex-wife, Abigail’s boyfriend, Abigail’s boyfriend’s mother, a lonely student who wants to be friends with Abigail, the woman running against an anti-trans political candidate who is guaranteed to win, and many more.

Content note: Obviously transphobia and internalized self-hatred are central to the overall story, but it’s not the kind of book where people are constantly getting slurs screamed at them.

I will mention, since it’s a mistake that I made, that Emily St. James is not Emily St. John Mandel who wrote Station Eleven.

Recommended by Naomi Kritzer. Thanks!

ilanarama

We had an awesome bike/boat trip in Croatia end of April/early May, and I will post about it, I promise (myself), with lots of photos. But in the meantime, this happened:

We are there (here) now, making arrangements for some work to be done this summer, and setting up other various things we need before we leave it. But if any of you want to come visit the Scottsdale AZ area in the winter (Novemberish to Aprilish?) let me know - we have a guest bedroom and an office with foldout beds!

umadoshi

Reading: I thought Sarah Rees Brennan's All Hail Chaos was a very satisfying followup to Long Live Evil, which is always a relief. One more to go! (The third book's title has been announced as Kill Your Darlings; I don't think a release date has been set yet?)

Someday I'll learn to properly make note of whether an ebook is a novella. Fonda Lee's Untethered Sky? A novella. Hopefully I got it on sale, given novella pricing in general, but I did really enjoy it.

Current read: To Ride a Rising Storm (Moniquill Blackgoose), just a few chapters in.

I also read The Vegetable Gardener's Bible (10th anniversary/2nd edition) up to the point where it starts going vegetable by vegetable, and then only read about the ones we're planting. (And I skipped the chapter on compost, because it's about making compost, and WOW do we not have space for that, even if we had the inclination.)

Watching: Another episode or two each of Justice in the Dark and Witch Hat Atelier.

Growing:

scruloose got the planter assembled last weekend (IIRC) and we put a fair amount of soil in at the time (enough to keep it solidly in place, basically), but today we finally got out and finished filling it with the veggie-friendly soil and compost and actually planted the various lettuce and spinach seeds, leaving room for (we hope) a basil plant and a cabbage to go in.

scruloose also got the frame for the planter's covers assembled and installed (the mesh cover is in place now).

We still haven't decided the ultimate fate of the disappointing Bloomerang lilac, but while we were out there

scruloose gave it an aggressive pruning back so that it isn't taking up such a large proportion of our very limited space.

I just checked out the window, and as of 3:10 PM, the shade line is riiiiight at the edge of the planter and about to start creeping over it. (Any tomatoes we buy and the other type of cabbage will be going in pots on the other side of it, so hopefully will get at least a bit more sunlight each day.) I don't know yet what time that space starts getting direct sunlight in the morning.

ETA: By 3:40 PM, the planter is completely shaded, and the shade line is hitting the edge of the pot we had the Tiny Tim tomato in last year.

Current Mood: okay

emperor

There have been a number of magic school books in recent years; in The Incandescent, we largely follow events at Chetwood School through the eyes of Dr Walden, Director of Magic. She is an expert magician, and clearly an effective teacher, if a little weak on the pastoral front. And the fact that she is back as a staff member at what was once her own secondary school is definitely not a sign that's she's not moved on from what happened when she was a student there...

I enjoyed the way magic was woven into an English boarding school, and how nicely Tesh captures (and satirizes) the nature of institutional life. I like a competent protagonist, too, and Dr Walden is very competent, and pleasingly keen on the merits of education. I almost (but not quite) always understood the choices she was making. The plot works well, and throws up some surprises, but comes together pretty well in the end; although the motivation for Mark's behaviour is never really explained (nor is why we the readers are more aware of the red flags than Dr Walden is). I also appreciated the exploration of the ethics of demons and how magicians interact with them.

I enjoyed this a lot.

sanguinity

Intro/FAQ

And we have come to my last day hosting for this round! As always, it has been a pleasure to hear what you've been working on and help cheer you on.

Starting tomorrow,

dswdiane will host for us! Everyone gang over there to finish the month!

My check-in: Held a ribbon cutting-ceremony for a new story by writing an alibi sentence. ("You have surely heard, Maria, that a Royal Navy captain is married first and foremost to his kraken?") Also wrote an AO3 summary for another story, and did some light editing on a third.

Day 15:

acorn_squash,

badly_knitted,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

dswdiane,

goddess47,

ofmonstrouswords,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 14:

acorn_squash,

badly_knitted,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

dswdiane,

goddess47,

ofmonstrouswords,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 13:

acorn_squash,

badly_knitted,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

dswdiane,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora,

ysilme

( More days )

When you check in, please use the most recent post and say what day(s) you’re checking in for. Remember you can drop in or out at any time, and let me know if I missed anyone!

sanguinity

Mark Russell (illus. Steve Pugh), The Flintstones, Vol. 1 & 2 (2017)

Two volume collection of Mark Russell's run of The Flintstones, in which Bedrock is a satire of late-20th-century US society. Fred and Barney struggle with the guilt of having participated in an unacknowledged genocide during their military enlistment; consumerism is rampant; the electorate is easily led; Mr. Slade and his rich friends are out for nothing but ever-increasing wealth; and the Church of Gerald is making it all up as it goes along. Guest appearances by Carl Sagan, Tony Danza, and the space aliens who use Bedrock as a party planet for spring break.

Weirdly poignant, uncomfortably on the nose, and I ache for Bowling Ball and his best friend the Vacuum Cleaner (an armadillo and miniature elephant, respectively--I'm a little surprised I can't find fic of them!) Also, someone had too much fun writing puns for all the background signs.

Mariko Tamaki (illus. Steve Pugh), Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass (2019)

Delightful graphic novel providing an alternate origin story for Harley Quinn, in which she is an at-loose-ends Gotham High School student, taken in (commendable) by a drag queen and taken in (reprehensible) by the Joker. Her best friend Ivy (who has not yet taken on he 'Poison' moniker) is a shining example of a teenage activist, working to save the neighborhood (and the drag queens, and the community garden) from gentrification, teaching Harleen about intersectionality and community organizing as she goes. The Joker, sheltered by his family's millions, walks away free at the end--or would have, if not for Harley deciding she has her own scores to settle...

Beautiful, understated art by Steve Pugh, and Harleen is an absolute delight. (She is also a nightmare child! But she is above-all a delight and a pleasure to have in ~~class~~ the drag club.) Sadly, this volume appears to be an outside-of-continuity one-off, because I would happily read more.

Ronald Wimberley, Black History in its Own Words (2017)

Cartoons of Black celebrities and historical figures, each with an inspiration quote of theirs. The art is simple and impactful, the quotes powerful, and the selection of figures is an interesting mix of people I was and was not familiar with.

Originally a series published at The Nib for Black History Month 2014 and 2015; Wimberley drew an additional series just for this book in 2017.

Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life, The Illustrated Edition: How Fungi Make Our Worlds (2023)

Author's abridgement of the original edition, but jam-packed with stunning photos of fungi, many taken with an electron microscope. I really liked that the edition was laid out to really let you enjoy the photographs (pages and paragraphs ended at the same time, making it easy to really look at a photo before you turned the page). Flipside, what I wouldn't have given for endnotes! Quite often the author mentions some cool thing in an offhand way, but you're left to do all the sleuthing on your own, with no hints as to sources. Maybe someday I'll read the full version, in order to get the more in-depth versions of all these stories.

Remy Charlip, Arm in Arm (1969)

Delightfully witty and playful picture book. Text and illustrations intertwine to craft narrative inversions of each other, and sometimes straightforward old-fashioned puns and jokes. A classic, and I'm rather surprised I didn't first encounter it on my mother's bookshelves.

Lois McMaster Bujold, The Vor Game (1990)

Another read-aloud-over-dinner-prep book. Re-read for me; first read for

grrlpup. Grrlpup and I skipped the early Miles novels because she struggles with MilSF, but we looped back to pick up this one before starting Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. Vor Game is a stronger novel than I remembered, although there's still that strange shift in register between the Kyril Island and Hegen Hub sections. Grrlpup liked it because it has so much Gregor content (although she would have liked a lot more!)

sanguinity

Intro/FAQ

Starting on May 16,

dswdiane will host. That's two more check-ins here (this one + tomorrow), and then we'll all gang over to their place to finish the month!

My check-in: A couple of paragraphs, plus some notes.

Day 14:

Day 13:

acorn_squash,

badly_knitted,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

dswdiane,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 12:

badly_knitted,

china_shop,

carenejeans,

cornerofmadness,

dswdiane,

glinda,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

trobadora,

sanguinity

Intro/FAQ

My check-in: Long brainstorming convo with my other cheerleader last night. If we have not solved my problems, we have clarified objective and means. Today I followed up 150 words of notes and 500 words of story.

Day 13:

china_shop,

sanguinity

Day 12:

badly_knitted,

china_shop,

carenejeans,

cornerofmadness,

dswdiane,

glinda,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

trobadora

Day 11:

acorn_squash,

badly_knitted,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

dswdiane,

glinda,

sanguinity,

sylvan_witch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora,

sanguinity

Intro/FAQ

My check-in: A paragraph, so far.

Day 12:

glinda,

Day 11:

acorn_squash,

badly_knitted,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

dswdiane,

glinda,

sanguinity,

sylvan_witch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 10:

acorn_squash,

badly_knitted,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

dswdiane,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora,

rachelmanija

I have been offline more than usual lately because the internet is off at my house and I've been unable to reach anyone who is not an AI, which went about as well and efficiently as you can imagine. The AI has decided that I need a new router and is mailing it to me with instructions for how to install it myself, because God forbid a human be involved. If that doesn't work, who knows what the next step is. I am beginning to suspect the only humans at the company are the CEOs and shareholders.

Meanwhile, I decided that I am spending way too much time doomscrolling, both intentionally and non-consensually. Not only is everything horrible right now, but the minute you get online you're personally informed of every horrible thing that happened anywhere, big or small or in between. Did some random dude murder his entire family anywhere in the world? You'll be informed of it, complete with heartbreaking photos of the dead kids. Did a child commit suicide anywhere in the world? You'll hear about that too, also complete with the awful story and heartbreaking photos! And that's not even getting into politics and the upcoming end of the world. I don't think humans are mentally equipped to live like that.

So I installed ScreenZen on my phone. It's one of many apps that will block both apps and entire websites. (Sadly it does not have the ability to block words.) I blocked everything I doomscroll on. I highly recommend this! I still get the news, as 1) I get a news digest emailed to me daily, 2) people will tell me the news in person whether I consent or not, but at least I'm not constantly marinating in global misery that I can't do anything about. Also, I now have more time to be useful in ways that are actually possible.

The result is that I have read so many more books than usual. I am completely behind on reviewing, also as usual, but with more books involved now. Perhaps I will post a poll.

rachelmanija

This novel has one of the most off-the-wall premises I've come across. In a near-future world much like our own, women who get pregnant also conceive a "fetal mother." When they give birth to their baby, they also deliver the fetal mother, then fall into a coma-like sleep. The fetal mother rapidly grows into an identical clone of the original mother, then EATS HER. This process is called rebirth. The new mother has the original mother's memories and personality, but is also endowed with superpowers for the first five years of her child's life: she needs almost no sleep, has super strength and fast reflexes, is filled with energy, and finds all child care and domestic tasks endlessly fascinating and enjoyable. In short, the new mother is the woman that mothers are supposed to be.

The main character, Vivi, is terrified of rebirth, and sees it as death. This view is very stigmatized, but might be more widespread than society lets on. She's reluctant to get pregnant because of it. When she finally does, something goes wrong with her rebirth. She didn't get new mother powers. Instead she slogs along, depressed and alienated, trying to care for her infant while she's still physically impaired from the pregnancy and actually needs sleep. She and her husband end up breaking up over this, and Vivi moves to Australia to live with her uncle, who runs a hobbling business.

Remember I mentioned this is near-future? The world has actually decided to do something about climate change, and so drastically regulated energy consumption. Hobbling is altering old machines to make them low emitters. The low-emissions world is less lavish: planes are rarely used, long-distance calls are brief, and only the very rich have unlimited internet. It's an interesting take on a world whose future seems much brighter than ours, but whose present is more similar to our recent past.

Vivi and her family are Indonesian-Chinese, and their cultures (including Australian) play into the book much as the near-future setting does: it's pervasive and interesting and very specific, which makes a nice grounded base for the incredibly weird rebirth stuff.

But Won't I Miss Me is a weird, fascinating, ambitious book with a weird, fascinating, ambitious premise. Great social commentary and issues of identity. I didn't quite love the ending - it felt like it needed either more setup or more payoff - but the book is still excellent and very original.

rydra_wong

In my defence, most of 2026 so far has been spent dealing with incapacitating levels of fatigue, which might finally be getting better (and that needs to be a separate post).

But the major problem is that I wanted to re-read Cascade, the first book in the trilogy, before starting Blight.

And while I loved Cascade -- here is my rave from way back when -- it produces an overwhelming sense of dread in me, even more than it did so on first read, because it captures, with remarkable precision and effectiveness, the sense of living in a liberal democracy that is teetering on the edge of ceasing to be one, and the stomach-dropping sensation when things begin moving unspeakably fast.

It's a very good book, but -- you see the problem.

Anyway, in recent weeks I finally got myself to re-read Cascade, and then I tore through Blight in a few days. Weirdly, I found it a much less difficult read because it's (both politically and environmentally) a post-apocalyptic novel, in which some kind of fightback is beginning.

Anyway it's fucking fantastic, without any of the common middle-book-of-a-trilogy doldrums. A really spectacular and unique mixture of wild magic, cosmic horror, and organizing for revolution, the last written with gritty specificity. The author is dead and all that, I don't know what's firsthand knowledge and what's research, but this is a book that (for example) writes with deep credibility about what it feels like to be in a crowd being tear-gassed.

As well as being a very good book, it also feels it's maybe a psychologically useful book to read right now.

I would like to do a proper write-up but I still have no idea what my energy's going to be doing day to day, so in the meantime here's a hype post, and if you want a review here's

james_davis_nicoll's:

https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/land-of-hope

ETA: Also it's on the Aurora Award shortlist for Best Novel:

https://www.csffa.ca/awards-information/current-ballot/

Ob!disclaimer that the author is an internet acquaintance, but I do in fact love the book.

sanguinity

Intro/FAQ

My check-in: Had a brainstorming convo about possible directions and inspirations for the auction story. Nothing decisive yet, but some leads have opened up. Alibi sentence for good measure.

Day 11:

china_shop,

sanguinity

Day 10:

acorn_squash,

badly_knitted,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

dswdiane,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora

Day 9:

badly_knitted,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

dswdiane,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

the_siobhan,

trobadora

( More days )

When you check in, please use the most recent post and say what day(s) you’re checking in for. Remember you can drop in or out at any time, and let me know if I missed anyone!

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October 2024

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Page Summary

umadoshi - $49.01 | A bit of garden talk
rydra_wong - Ask me questions
rachelmanija - The Girl in Red, by Christina Henry
brainwane - WisCon 48 schedule
sanguinity - Hornblower Ficlet: Gambler's Fallacy
umadoshi - Lychee | Yotsuba&! (!!!) | An as-yet-unmade cake | The tiniest seedlings
rachelmanija - And The River Drags Her Down, by Jihyun Yun
rachelmanija - Woodworking, by Emily St. James
ilanarama - hply sjot it's a house
umadoshi - Weekly proof of life: Media | Veggie planting
emperor - The Incandescent, Emily Tesh
sanguinity - Write Every Day: Day 15
sanguinity - Recently (hah!) Read
sanguinity - Write Every Day: Day 14
sanguinity - Write Every Day: Day 13
sanguinity - Write Every Day: Day 12
rachelmanija - Consensual and non-consensual internet cutoffs
rachelmanija - But Won't I Miss Me, by Tiffany Tsao
rydra_wong - An apologia for it taking me a fucking YEAR to read "Blight" by Rachel Rosen
sanguinity - Write Every Day: Day 11

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