#(which will just be a generic turn of the century lady to the 99% of non-cosmere people but that's fine!)

[taurnachardhin]

I was so inspired by how much awesome cosplay I saw at DragonCon this year that I am not letting myself half-ass anything next time! We are being proactive. We are planning ahead. I've already got a membership and a hotel room and I have two new costumes planned that I think are feasible to achieve by next year.

[watchingspnagain]

Rewatching 99 Problems

Welcome to “Abomination Boys are Hot: A Supernatural Rewatch Blog” with Lor and Mace!

Up today, s5e17: 99 Problems.

Sam and Dean get help fending off some demons chasing them in the form of an anti-demon roadblock and some locals who seems to know Enochian. Turns out an entire small town has turned into demon hunters, led by a pastor and his daughter, who appears to be a prophet. But things start looking hinky pretty quick, and when Cas shows up, he’s got the skinny on the preacher’s daughter: she’s the Whore of Babylon and she’s turned the town into a cult. She can only be killed with a special stake wielded by a servant of heaven, which Cas says rules both boys right out (Dean because he’s stubborn and Sam because he’s an abomination). But in the end, Dean is able to gank her, then he takes to the road in a snit to see Lisa and, essentially, tell her goodbye, I guess? Oh, and Cas found a liquor store and drank it because he’s bummed about God turning out to be a deadbeat dad.

Below is a log of our real-time reactions as we watched. Remember that there may be spoilers for any part of SPN’s 15-season run here. Note also that the nature of our conversation is adult and thus it may contain adult language and themes.

 [and we begin:]

Lor:

that looked like he had a clutch and I SWEAR Baby is an automatic

  Mace:

huh

  Lor:

how come THEY never thought of a holy water cannon

  Mace:

RIGHT?!

  Lor:

"those were demons and this is the apocalypse"

  Mace:

omg this dude thinking he knows more than our boys

  Lor:

Dean's little eyebrow raise

  Mace:

sit down, kid

YES

  Lor:

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

daaang the shotguns in church

  Mace:

it's what bwings us togevah today

  Lor:

HAAAAHAHAHAHA

  Mace:

seems bout right for the midwest

  Lor:

"you missed a few" LOOK DUDE

"someone's telling you somethin"

  Mace:

“angels. awesome.”

  Lor:

"the angels, awesome"

YES

  Mace:

HAHAHAHA

  Lor:

"snappy little exorcism spell"

  Mace:

boys, this feels like a cult. run.

  Lor:

he is SUS

YEP

  Mace:

YEP

“but you are the cutest”

  Mace:

jesus, Dean

HAHAHA CAS

Bleak, Dean. BLEAK.

  Lor:

he needs to simmer down

I love Cas not understanding tech

  Mace:

YES

  Lor:

"downright pious" DEAN WINCHESTER

"our Father in heaven" "not so much"

  Mace:

HAAAAHAHAHA

  Lor:

I kind of want to elbow him for being that way in church but he's NOT WRONG

  Mace:

I am completely fine with him being that way in church. Church is dumb.

  Lor:

haaaahahahaha

I... generally feel like if one is in someone else's church one should keep one's correct mutterings to oneself, but. Still. Yeah

was the music dude on vacay this week? what is this?

  Mace:

HAHAHA right?! weird soundtrack

  Lor:

when it's SO BAD like this I always wonder if it's some rights things or something and mean to go check my DVDs to see if it ALSO has terrible music but then I can't be arsed

oooh somebody has a crush on Dean...

"one more time, you can drive" I believe Sammy should be driving a lot more if that is the rubric, DeanDean

Ooooooo YES

  Mace:

yeah my suspicions are the same about the rights to the music

HAHAHA right?!

but that’s just Dean flirting

  Lor:

see, if you drink beer and have crushes on men, you get killed by a demon

  Mace:

YUP

  Lor:

LADY. HOW? is it their fault?

  Mace:

plus, Dean can’t get close to people because they get kilt. Or worse.

EXPELLED

  Lor:

has she clocked the queerness or is she just... whatever?

  Lor:

HAAAAAAHAHAHAHA

  Mace:

she’s just a mom who lost her son. i’ll allow it

  Lor:

mmmm. okay, I'll concede that. I'm just super not down with these folks

  Mace:

no i’m not either and she’s annoying. but still.

not nearly as annoying as prophet princess here

  Lor:

RIGHT?

get outta here with your chaste shirt ruffles

  Mace:

HAHAHA

  Lor:

"outlawed 90% of your personality." now, now, Sammy

  Mace:

HAHAHA he’s not wrong

oh DEAN

  Lor:

oh come on, Dean's personality is AT LEAST 15% unfortunate male 20th century authors he's read

  Mace:

SNORK!! fair point

  Lor:

Dean, honey, this is not the answer. the answer is a lake house with Cas

  Mace:

YEP

  Lor:

"you're chosen." "more like cursed" that IS what being chosen is, Dean. you should know this

  Mace:

right?

  Lor:

NONE of these people had a nanny, come on

Mace:

snork!

  Lor:

"I'm just pretty sure God stopped caring a long time ago"

I love that for them it is not a question of belief in his EXISTENCE it's belief in his goodness

  Mace:

ooof

Sammy is cute when he gets his panties in a twist about cults

  Lor:

yeeeeeah, it's a cult. YEP, Sammy, nail on the head. fundie bullshit

LOLOLOLOL he IS

"since the angels got the only lifeboats on the Titanic" oh, Dean

  Mace:

poor DeanDean is so done

  Lor:

he really is

he needs a little lesson in faith. in himself. from Cas

  Mace:

ope, playing the little brother card. nice one, Sam

  Lor:

LOL

  Mace:

YAS

  Lor:

"it's past curfew" in that little bitchy voice. I love him

  Mace:

YASYASYAS

snitches get stitches, Leiah

  Lor:

god this is fundie cult 101: do what we say otherwise you won't see your loved ones in heaven. I HATE IT

LOL

  Mace:

YEP

  Lor:

OMG DRUNK CAS

  Mace:

AND I DRANK IT

HAHAHAHA YAS

  Lor:

"I found a liquor store. AND I DRANK IT"

  HAAAAAHAHAHAHA

"she's not a prophet"

I love his attitude

  Mace:

“then what is she” figure it out, Sammy

YES

  Lor:

gee, Sam, something bad probably

"need a hand, padre"

  Mace:

“what country is this?” Canada, obvs, based on how that guy just say ‘sorry’

YES

  Lor:

HAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA

"now you're standing against the flock"

  Mace:

OOOF

  Lor:

Jesus ben Joseph is TWIRLING in his... well

HAHAHA

  Mace:

ON A BENDER

HAHAHA

  Lor:

"you all right?" "yes, it's not my blood" and he CLEARLY isn't all right

YES

"it... is not of import" haaaaaaaaaaaahahahahaha

  Mace:

YEP

  Lor:

SOMEONE GET CAS SOME WATER

"the whore of Babylon" "that's catchy"

  Mace:

HAHAHA

  Lor:

IT'S FUNNIER IN ENOCHIAN

  Mace:

“it’s funnier in enochian"

HAHAHA

  Lor:

YAAAAAS

"innocent blood spilled in God's name" 

OOOF

"pimp of Babylon" DEAN

  Mace:

SNORK

  Lor:

ope "the greater good" time to bounce

  Mace:

YEP

“sam of course is an abomination"

  Lor:

"not you. or me. Sam, of course, is an abomination"

CAS

DUDE. be nicer to your brother in law

  Mace:

that’s alright. abominations are hot

  Lor:

HAAAAAHAHAHAHA

okay, you all, you are ALL sinners! have none of them done the reading?

  Mace:

Lor, you’re making the rookie mistake of thinking that religious people in groups use any sort of logic or thinking processes

  Lor:

grumble mumble

I was just thinking this is kind of a remarkable little bit of commentary on American fundamental Christianity

"and you're an angel of heaven" "poor example of one" Cas! you're the best of all those bastards

  Mace:

YES

lookit the boyfriends bonding over their shitty dads

  Lor:

YAAAAS

and shared ibuprofen

  Mace:

YES

  Lor:

sharing ibuprofen is a big step

  Mace:

HUGE

lady, read the room

  Lor:

"pretty sure you're headed in a different direction" you tell her, Dean

  Mace:

YAS

  Lor:

"are you gonna do something stupid?" what are the odds, Sam?

  Mace:

SNORK!!

  Lor:

ooof him saying he's not gonna be okay

  Mace:

yeah

DEAN WINCHESTER

  Lor:

that's how you do that, Winchesters

  Mace:

HAHAHA

  Lor:

see, Sammy, always play the odds

  Mace:

these two

  Lor:

he could find where she moved to but not her number?

  Mace:

right!? I’m confused

  Lor:

"it's with you. and the kid." I think it's mostly the kid

right?

  Mace:

how does she not just grab him and start going to town on him after that?

  Lor:

RIGHT?

"like your kind of bad?"

  Mace:

ooof

DEAN. WINCHESTER. NO.

  Lor:

"whatever you're thinking of doing, don't do it" best thing she ever says

  Mace:

YEP

and HOW is he extra beautiful in this scene?!

WHAT ARE THEY DOING TO US

  Lor:

RIGHT?

HOW DO THEY DO IT?

  Mace:

OOOOF

  Lor:

now that they're setting her up as a love interest, she's in a MUCH lower income house

  Mace:

HAHAHA YEP I noticed that too

  Lor:

it's nice but before she was in a new development and everything was all new and shiny and white

YES

  Mace:

YEP

[mortallyclearwonderland]

Star Wars Alien Species - Nagai

Nagi was a planet located in Firefist of the Unknown Regions. It was the homeworld of the Nagai.

Nagi, an arid world, and quite mountainous, characterized by very high mountain peaks separated by deep, wide valleys. The thin upper atmosphere was relatively ineffective at blocking solar radiation, and the high peaks of the world were bathed in it. As a result, the deep valleys, which were often cast in shadow by the towering mountains, were the site of the Nagai's cities. At the height of their civilization just prior to the Tof invasion, Nagai cities were composed of wire and crystal, and were perceived as beautiful.

The Nagai were just developing superluminal travel when they encountered the Tofs, who followed Nagai scoutships to their home system and promptly began an invasion. The Nagai fought back, waging guerrilla wars against their conquerors over centuries. To aid in their fight against the Tofs, the Nagai allied with a neighboring species, the Maccabree, outfitting them with mechanical limbs for ground fighting. They also allied with the Faruun shipwrights for vessels of war. Slowly a pathological hatred and fear of the Tofs developed, intensified by the Tof conquest of their homeworld Nagi. This drove the Nagai and Maccabrees outward into the nearby galaxy, which they referred to as the Skyriver. With the assistance of the Dark Lady Lumiya, a plan was developed to use the resources of the Skyriver to mount a liberation of their homeworld, and shortly after the Galactic Civil War had exhausted both sides, the Nagai struck.

The Nagai attempted to restart the Wookiee slave trade on Kashyyyk. They were originally known to the Alliance as "Knives", due to the Wookiee mispronunciation of an individual Nagai encountered there. As a result, they were encountered by the Alliance of Free Planets in 4 ABY to stop their actions.

After being stopped by Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, and Chewbacca, they regrouped with Lumiya and her faction of the Imperial Remnant in an attempt to destroy the Rebel Alliance and gain territory to re-establish themselves. After various skirmishes on Kabray, Kinooine, and Mandalore, they attacked Endor. With the aid of an inside agent, they learned all of the Alliance dogfighting maneuvers and were able to easily outfight them at first. Once the Rebels caught on, though, the tables turned, and they were driven off the moon.

The Nagai continued invading a number of other planets with their allies, such as Iskalon. Discovering a Tof force on the planet Trenwyth, they attempted to wipe them out but were defeated there. Launching an attack on Zeltros, the Tofs made themselves known. The Nagai's fear and hatred of the Tofs enabled them to form an unlikely alliance with the Rebels and Imperials to combat them. Repelling the Tofs from Zeltros, they signed a treaty with the Alliance and later ambushed the Tof crown prince at the planet Saijo and forced the Tofs to surrender, thus ending the Nagai/Tof threat to the galaxy.

After the surrender, the Nagai were given Saijo to settle on. Only a few did so, joining the Alliance; the others (accompanied by the Mandalorians) went to liberate Nagi from the Tofs. Their attempt to free the planet was ultimately successful.

Intense, focused, and highly disciplined warriors, they were known to kill without hesitation if it suited them, particularly if honor demanded it; and were known to fear nothing, aside from losing their own freedom. If there was no honor in killing, or if their foe was weak, they took no pleasure in the victory. Honor was everything to a Nagai; if a Nagai's honor was stripped away, whether forcefully or unknowingly, the Nagai had to take his own life. If the Nagai failed to do so, then it was the duty of others to fulfill that honor. As passionate in loving as they were in killing, a Nagai's honor told them that devotion to one's lover was the most important devotion one could ever offer; even if that devotion is unreturned. Beyond this devotion, however, Nagai had little concern for individuals outside of their own families; only aiding others when bound by honor or seeking personal gain.

Despite the high esteem that honor held in their daily lives, Nagai could be found in a broad range of professions across the galaxy, ranging from traditional roles such as nobles and soldiers, to the more streetwise vocations of scoundrels and thieves.

Highly competent duelists, melee combat - especially the use of edged weaponry - is highly integrated into Nagai culture, with it being rare for a Nagai to not display expert use in blades of all sizes. Particularly, skill with traditional Tehk'la blades, longswords, and Swiftcut foils were prized - the weapons being employed in a number of fighting exercises that were daily customs in Nagai society. These exercises were both a form of meditation and a sign of social status; success and skill in wielding them in duels was the primary means of ascension through societal ranks, though many customs of daily life involved exercises with these weapons.

In addition to martial ability, Nagai possessed a bizarre - and some would say cruel - sense of humor borne from generations of adversity under the Tof. Nagai duelists would often employ this wit in battle, which, when coupled with their charisma, often set opponents off-balance.

The Nagai, tall and thin near-Humans with pale skin, jet-black hair, gray eyes, and angular features. Considered attractive, yet gaunt and frail looking by galactic standards, they were aware of the effect their appearance had on others, and often allowed others to see them as weak until the time was right to reveal their true skills. Possessing lightning fast reflexes, the Nagai were known for their speed and agility in and out of combat, with much of their clothing, like traditional Electromesh armor, being tailored around their natural dexterity.

Nagai were noted as being especially charismatic; a quality that was by and large the product of their enhanced vocal range, allowing them to modulate and tailor their speech. Described as incredibly soothing and hypnotic, a Nagai could use their voice to influence other sentient beings - provided their voice could be heard, and their words understood.

Despite their ubiquitous reputation as pale specters, Nagai were well known for their individualistic expression, with clothing and hair styles varying wildly from individual to individual depending on personal tastes and the image that a Nagai wanted to convey.

A typical Nagai male stands at 1.8 meters or 5.9 feet tall and weighs 60 kilograms or 132 pounds, while a typical Nagai female stands at 1.6 meters or 5.2 feet tall and weighs 45 kilograms or 99 pounds.

The Nagai were created by writer Mary Jo Duffy and artist Cynthia Martin. Martin came up with the visual design by looking at anime, and also drew inspiration from a Japanese comic about a tragic vampire - which, according to Martin, had a strong influence on her concept drawings.

Nagai age at the following stages:

1 - 11 Child

12 - 18 Young Adult

19 - 44 Adult

45 - 60 Middle Age

61 - 74 Old

Examples of Names: Den Siva, Harmon Sho, Hol B'shaki, Krai H'voc, Lusubrin T'shkali, Mendo, Nir Kento, Ozrei, Rei, Sin Shai, Tai, Taru.

Languages: Nagaian, a musical and lilting speech riddled with slight variations of pitch and tone that blend easily with the natural soothing voice of the Nagai. Other Species can learn the language but rarely master it.

[five-rivers]

Long Night in the Valley chapter 14

“It’s Bakugo.”

“Old Bakugo,” said Todoroki.

“I don’t know,” said Uraraka. “He hasn’t sworn at us yet.”

“Wish fulfillment old Bakugo,” corrected Todoroki.

First contact, said two voices. Aizawa could recognize one as belonging to Two.

“Stop comparing me to the exploding brat,” snapped Two. He returned his attention to Midoriya. “I don’t agree with your philosophy,” he said. “But this isn’t the time or the place.”

Midoriya nodded even as he swayed in place, the edges of his body fuzzy.

“Your idea will work. Eight can take him.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Aizawa.

“Nine here just ran into that fire user.”

“Dabi,” supplied Midoriya, voice thin. “Thank you for letting me use your quirk, sensei.”

“Anytime,” said Aizawa.

“Is there anything we can do?” asked Uraraka.

“Stay back and don’t distract him,” said Two. “I’d send you on ahead to One, but I need to give him my power if he wants his ridiculous escape plan to work.” He crossed his arms. “Focus, Nine.”

.

The thing was, Dabi relied on his quirk to the exclusion of everything else. Which was fine. It was a powerful quirk, and his body really wasn’t up to quirkless fighting, seeing as it was literally stapled together.

But there was a reason he had not faced Aizawa himself in the training camp, but instead had delegated that task to one of Twice’s duplicates. No matter how much his quirk hurt him, no matter how much it reminded him of that man and that time, he did not fare well in fights without it.

Toshinori and Izuku had picked up on this, and, thanks to the joys of partial telepathy and haunted quirks, had managed to come up with a plan.

It was, if Izuku was being honest, a sort of terrible plan, but Izuku and Toshinori were both injured and exhausted, and it was the best they could come up with.

Izuku would hang back and cancel Dabi’s quirk, while Toshinori beat him to a pulp.

This division of labor was decided upon through the observation that Toshinori had much greater experience in beating people to pulp and that Izuku probably wouldn’t be able to focus on using Aizawa’s quirk and fighting at the same time. But Izuku worried. Toshinori had been under so much strain today. His body was in just as bad a shape as Dabi’s. If Izuku blinked.

So don’t blink.

What a comforting consensus from the peanut gallery in the back of his head.

Nana chuckled, but she sounded strained. Not much else we can do for you right now, kid.

.

Toshinori was prepared to fight dirty.

As a hero and Symbol of Peace, he was often faced with the expectation that his fights be clean, straightforward affairs. Usually, he complied with the expectation. Few people could match his strength. Few enemies stood up again or kept fighting after he knocked them back, once. For those enemies who could match him, relatively clean fights were often still the best option to defeat them.

But there had always been exceptions, All for One being chief among them.

Toshinori could fight dirty. It was a skill he knew better than to let lapse.

He knew how much old injuries could hurt, and he had no scruple against going after them. Any weak point was fair game.

(This wasn’t even beginning to mention the others, still whispering in the back of his mind, who had maintained the thin line between the light of hope and the darkness of despair for so many years.)

His fist impacted the line of Dabi’s medical staples. Toshinori felt them bite into his knuckles, felt Dabi’s skin tear around them.

The man – the boy, really, he couldn’t be more than a handful of years older than Izuku – reeled back, shaking his hands as if he couldn’t quite believe his quirk was gone. Then he looked up, at Izuku, and Toshinori could give him this, at least: He caught on fast.

He snapped an arm out, clotheslining Dabi before he could pass him and attack Izuku. Dabi hit the ground, and Toshinori tried to follow up his advantage with a sharp kick to the head.

But, even with as much experience as Toshinori had, Dabi was younger and sprier. He recovered quickly, retaliating with comparatively clumsy but strong fists.

Toshinori was very aware of the time limit he was on. How long had Izuku kept his eyes open already? Aizawa could only keep his version of the quirk going for a few minutes.

He knew when Izuku started to waver, the concern of the past users going clear and sharp in the back of his head.

Dabi’s hands burst into flame.

“Touya!”shouted Izuku.

The man whipped his head around, apparently forgetting that Toshinori was even there.

“We saw your hair dye, you drama queen!”

Toshinori grabbed the sides of Dabi’s head, and tried to slam it into his knee, but Dabi pulled free. They were both breathing heavily, now, but Izuku had his eyes back open and fixed on Dabi.

Toshinori doubted they’d be so lucky to distract Dabi again. The others slid into place in his mind, their experience neatly complimenting his own. They needed to finish it before Izuku had to blink again.

They raised their fists.

“Visit your mom, you loser!”

They closed in.

“At least tell the police what happened to you, so they can get your siblings out!”

.

So, it turned out Izuku did have something else to contribute to the fight.

.

“Please repeat what you told me earlier,” ordered the HPSC president.

The hapless liaison with the DNA testing center flinched, then hid the flinch behind a cough. “Well,” he said, “our technicians ran Midoriya’s DNA through a number of databases, and Midoriya is related to the Scourge of Kamino, but, uh, I think it best if I let her explain the rest.” He stepped out of view of the camera, the coward.

The technician waved at the camera. “Hi, uh. So, I guess the first weird thing about the sample you gave me was how contaminated it was. There were, like, almost a dozen different people’s worth of DNA in the sample you gave me, which… usually Hawks is better than that? But then I remembered the nomu DNA, and the Scourge’s DNA, so in retrospect… Anyway, I sort of ran them all through our databases—”

“Which databases?” interrupted Mr. Brave. “The commission ones, the police ones, the public ancestry ones?”

“All of them,” said the technician. “I ran them through the old ones, too, because the Scourge of Kamino is supposed to be over a hundred years old, isn’t he? I’m kind of surprised he wasn’t run through the old databases himself earlier. You could have closed dozens of cases.”

“Get on with it,” hissed the offscreen commission liaison.

“But I ran them through, and, uh, one was All Might.”

A whisper ran through the room. “He stole All Might’s quirk?” asked one hero, traumatized.

“I don’t know,” said the technician, nervously. “I mean, All Might was there, so it could have just been contaminated in the normal way, but… No, I’ll come back to All Might’s DNA in a bit. Then there were three other heroes’ DNA, Skyrunner, Fidelity, and Lariat.”

“We’ll have to assume he has their quirks, too,” said the commission president grimly, for the benefit of the assembled heroes. “Continue.”

“Another matched to the vigilante Forewarning. Then one matched to what was labeled as a 99% surety DNA sequence from Tempest.”

“My god,” said Mr. Brave.

“Then there were some sequences that matched to samples taken from the scenes of various crimes and terrorist actions but are otherwise unknown. That left two DNA samples that could be Midoriya’s assuming he isn’t over a hundred years old. They both matched as relatives to the Scourge of Kamino.”

“What kind of relatives?”

“Uh, one was rather distant, and was actually had the least DNA present out of all the other strands… The closest possible relation would be half-brother, although cousins might be possible… The other was a parent-child relationship, and the most present DNA sequence, so I would assume that one belonged to Midoriya. The thing is…” She trailed off.

“We don’t have all day.”

“The thing is, all of the different people I’ve mentioned also are related to the Scourge of Kamino.”

Silence.

“Excuse me,” said Mt. Lady, raising a hand. “Did you say all of them? Like, including—”

“Including All Might, yes, though he’s probably more like a great-grandson or something along those lines,” said the technician. “Once you get more than a generation or two, it’s hard to tell, because the ratios of what you get from grandparents aren’t even…”

“Do you have anything more to add?”

“Yeah. After running them through the databases… Well, there are dozens of active heroes that are at least loosely related to either them or the Scourge of Kamino, not to mention villains, common criminals, and civilians who had to register their DNA for one reason or another. And the ShiHi cell line? The one that replaced the HeLa line in almost every drug trial after the quirked population got majority status? That’s a perfect match.” She laughed, clearly on the edge of hysteria. “I mean, I don’t know what we expected. He’s over a century old, of course he’s going to have kids and family members. And he’s �� And he’s clearly into shady medical research. Wouldn’t put it past him to have donated to sperm banks, the sick—”

The commission president muted the technician. “You see,” he told the heroes, “why we must act to contain and neutralize Midoriya Izuku as a threat as soon as possible. So many heroes being related to an archvillain like the Scourge of Kamino would damage confidence in the hero system, perhaps irreparably.”

“Are any of us-?”

“I don’t think that’s relevant right now, do you?” asked the commission president, smoothly. “What is relevant is ensuring that Midoriya’s DNA family tree never gets into public hands.” He fell quiet, scanning the heroes with dark eyes. “Regardless of whether or not any of you could find yourselves in it, the fact of the matter is that the ensuing investigations would lay bare other things you may not wish to come to light.” He cleared his throat. “Now, Hawks is putting together a team to track down the League of Villains. In light of recent revelations, we believe they have been working closely with Midoriya…”

.

“Maybe you can use my quirk,” said Shouto. “If you’re fighting Dabi, ice would be the perfect counter.”

Midoriya shook his head. “You’re not related. Can’t.”

“What?”

Two sighed. “The trick he did with your teacher’s quirk only works on people related to him.”

Shouto blinked, then turned to look at Aizawa. “Sensei—”

“Absolutely not,” said Iida, loudly.

“You don’t know what I was going to say,” protested Shouto.

“You can’t ask people if they have secret love children! It’s improper! Let us simply wait quietly like, ah, I’m not sure we caught your name earlier, sir.”

“No, you didn’t,” said Two.

“In any case, let us wait quietly,” said Iida, not one to be easily put out.

“I’m related to Midoriya?” asked Aizawa in tones approaching despair.

“You are,” said Two. “I think you’re related to one of my younger siblings, like Six is. Possibly to the Shimuras, as well, given the secondary portion of your quirk.”

“So,” said Shouto, the gears in his brain turning, “Midoriya is related to all of you?”

“Some more distantly than others, but, yes.”

“So, he based you off relatives and people he knew in real life.”

Two sighed heavily. “Look. That was obviously a lie. Six only bothered with it because of that government bastard that’s crawling around.”

Midoriya had been right. Shouto’s conspiracy theories could be used as an interrogation technique.

“Then what’s the truth?” asked Shouto. “Or are you just embarrassed, like Midoriya is about how All Might is clearly his father?”

Midoriya made a very distressed sound, and Shouto realized that maybe this wasn’t the time.

“You have no room to talk when the pyromaniac currently trying to roast Eight is your older brother, you peppermint styled weirdo.”

“You really are like Bakugo.”

“Do you have some sort of death wish?”

“C-can you guys not? This is hard…” said Midoriya. Then, he gasped and fell to his knees. “He got him. Oh, gosh.” He took a deep breath. “My eyes.”

“Luckily, you won’t need them for this,” said Two, kneeling in front of Midoriya. “In the movement, I was called Shadow Dragon. One came up with the name. He named my quirk, too. Perception Filter. Wanted to name it Chameleon Circuit for a while, but that made no sense. He was such a nerd. He’s still a nerd.”

“Yeah?” panted Midoriya. “Guess that… isn’t a surprise. He used old manga to support his arguments with—No, it doesn’t make it better that you only used that argument once. I mean, sure, I’d probably have made the same—”

“Focus, Nine,” said Two, snapping his fingers in front of Midoriya’s face.

Shouto stepped forward.

“It’s okay, Todoroki,” said Midoriya. “I’m just… How did it work? The Perception Filter?”

“No idea. We didn’t have fancy tests and doctors on hand to figure out the mechanics. But I can tell you what it did. When it first came in—” Midoriya nodded at this, as if he heard something in the sentence that Shouto was missing, “—I could disappear from the senses of one targeted person, along with anything I was carrying. Sight, hearing, smell – that last will be the important one for you.”

“Gigantomachia,” said Midoriya, nodding again.

“Exactly. Later, I was able to affect more people at a time, and my range grew. The fewer people I was hiding from, the farther I could reach, up to about a mile. Sometimes, I could draw attention towards myself, too, although I could never keep it up for long.”

“Activation?” asked Midoriya.

“Don’t think too hard about being hidden. You’re blending in. Part of the scenery. No ripples on the surface of the pond. A shadow inside a shadow.”

“Okay,” said Midoriya. “I think I’ve got it. Were you… were you ever able to hide other people with you? Otherwise…”

“Sometimes I thought I did. When Three and I worked together, we were always way luckier than we should have been, and there were some incidents with cars… But it never happened in a way I could test. Your best bet is just carrying Eight.”

“R-right. Okay. I’ll try that.”

.

“Izuku, you can barely open your eyes. Or stand up. You aren’t going to carry me.”

“But Two said—”

Toshinori frowned deeply and hoped Two got the message. “Just focus on yourself, right now, alright? Gigantomachia will be looking for you, first, not me.”

We’ve always been thankful Gigantomachia isn’t the brightest of All for One’s minions.

Even if he is one of the most annoying.

I don’t know if annoying is the word I’d use…

Toshinori blinked and shook his head. “You’re shaking,” he said.

“I’m okay,” said Izuku, trying to get up. “T’many quirks at once.”

Toshinori put his hands on Izuku’s shoulders, silently telling him to stay down. What a time to forget where he had packed the blankets… Although…

He looked back at where he’d propped Dabi, unconscious, up against a tree.

Dabi seemed to have a cold resistance vestigial mutation… although how Toshinori knew that was a mystery for another day (one probably connected with how One for All manifested in Izuku) and he was a fire quirk user. He didn’t really need that jacket. Besides, Toshinori was a villain now. Sort of. As he and Izuku had discussed earlier, villains were veritable bastions of pettiness.

He stole Dabi’s coat and wrapped it around Izuku’s shoulders.

.

Miles away, trying to coordinate heroes over a video call, Hawks lost contact with one of his feathers. Specifically, the one he’d hidden in Dabi’s coat. He did not frown, twitch, stutter, or otherwise falter. He did, however, curse internally, using words he suspected the hero commission would have like him to never have learned.

Dabi must have found the feather and destroyed it. Hawks had thought he’d hidden it better than that.

This was going to be a pain to explain.

.

Giagantomachia paused for a second, then, with a howl, redoubled his attacks.

“Can anyone tell what he’s screaming about?” demanded Tomura.

“No idea!” said Toga, her cheerfulness more than a little ragged.

“Hey, boss!” said Twice. “If I made a double of this guy, do you think they’d fight each other, or – Dear god, who in their right mind would want two of these things running around?”

“LITTLE LORD,” wailed Machia, “WHERE DID YOU GO?”

“Say, Shigaraki,” said Mr. Compress, narrowly dodging a boulder, “you don’t – ha – think he’s referring to the little green haired – er, white haired – oh, you know what I mean.”

Yeah, Tomura did, actually, which meant the brat (who might be Sensei’s brat – don’t think about it) was around here somewhere, and they’d missed him.

(Like everything else about this situation, Tomura had mixed feelings about this.)

“So, maybe, if the boy and the giant are acquainted, the mother—”

“Do all of you idiots have a death wish? You don’t fight two bosses at once unless you want to be pancaked.”

“I was thinking she could perhaps calm the giant—”

“Yeah, right before they team up to kill us. What part of this are you not getti-?”

Mr. Compress didn’t quite make the dodge and was catapulted into one of the few nearby trees that were still standing. As he lost consciousness, all of the various marbles in his pockets ballooned and broke, disgorging their contents. This meant that Tomura had to rescue Midoriya Inko from being crushed between an entire bus stop shelter (why, Compress, why?) and several logs, because if there was even a chance that she was Sensei’s wife, Tomura didn’t fancy his chances at staying alive if she was unalived in his general vicinity.

As Tomura was in no way a goody-two-shoes hero student, had never trained himself to safely save people, and had a quirk that literally destroyed everything his touched, this went far from perfectly.

At least Midoriya seemed unharmed.

“Ah,” she said. “My shirt.” She shifted slightly. “And my bra…”

There was a shout of utter rage from Gigantomachia, and Tomura contemplated just letting Machia kill him. Surely, being stomped flat by a man taller than most five story buildings would be less painful than whatever Sensei would come up with.

“Oh, my, Machia, is that you?” asked Midoriya Inko, quite calmly, as if she weren’t standing half naked in the middle of a battlefield in winter. “It’s been forever.”

“MRS. LORD!” shouted Machia, his eyes tearing up. “I AM SO SORRY! I LOST LITTLE LORD!”

“Oh, really? He was here, then?” Her eyes were glittering. “I’m sure he couldn’t have gone too far. If we walk around a bit, I’m sure he’ll hear us calling. In the meantime… perhaps you can explain to me what, exactly, you do for my husband? Your role in his business seems to have been downplayed.”

.

“Is that better?” asked Toshinori.

Izuku nodded tiredly. Despite Two’s instructions, he couldn’t keep up Perception Filter and, well, do anything else, really. Toshinori wasn’t much better. Izuku could tell, through One for All, that he was also on his last legs.

“Alright. Let’s keep going the way we were before,” said Toshinori, pulling Izuku up. “Got to get out of Gigantomachia’s range, so you can sleep.”

He did not say that reaching the Wild Wild Pussycats’ camp was now out of the question, with how beaten up they were. They’d be sleeping outside tonight. Hopefully they had enough clothes and blankets…

Izuku shuddered as the pounding sensation in his head increased.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” said Toshinori, guiding Izuku with a hand on his back. “Good, you have the briefcase, good.” Toshinori kept muttering encouragement. Izuku really wasn’t paying attention, which made him feel terrible, but he had to keep Perception Filter going. He had to keep going. Just a little bit more… Aizawa-sensei and his friends were almost to One. One would get them out before he broke through.

He just had to hold on until then.

.

Midoriya’s form flickered and then faded. Two sighed.

“Is he alright?” asked Aizawa. “Is he safe?”

“As safe as he and Eight can be, wandering through a forest filled with All for One’s minions while the government tries to track him down in the middle of winter,” replied Two. “Which isn’t very safe, speaking from experience. Come on, let’s go.” Two walked out the hole in the wall, not waiting to see if Aizawa or any of the kids followed.

“You’re calling Yagi Eight, now?” asked Aizawa.

“That’s his number, yeah. Hurry up.”

“Yagi, not Yagi’s… impression, his copy in Midoriya’s mind.” Two didn’t answer. “You aren’t impressions or copies at all, are you? You’re real people, somewhere, that Midoriya is connected to. Why pretend otherwise?”

“Some of the others thought Nine could fix things with the government, if they didn’t know what was really going on. Thought it would be ‘worth it.’ So stupid, after everything…” They walked through the compound gate and into a living room.

“It seems awfully contrived, though. Why try to be dead heroes? Why pick people like Skyrunner and Fidelity to impersonate?”

Two snorted. “They weren’t impersonating anyone. They really are Skyrunner and Fidelity. Except for Eight and Nine, we’re all dead, otherwise we would have finished this by now. Eight almost did, all on his own.”

They turned a corner. Two young children played in a bedroom while a teen watched on. One child was obviously a younger version of Two. That hair was distinctive. The other child had a short curtain of white hair. They had action figures they were playing with, although Aizawa didn’t recognize who they were of.

First contact, said a single, young voice.

The face of the teen leaning against the wall was scribbled out, as if with a marker.

“Don’t look too closely at that one,” said Two.

“Who is that?” asked Uraraka.

“All for One. I suppose you’d call him the Scourge of Kamino.”

“He’s your older brother?” asked Todoroki, his eyebrows raised into his hairline.

“Don’t be disgusting. Biologically speaking, he was my cousin.”

Oh, no, thought Aizawa, don’t tell me... “Is he the one you have locked away? The one you don’t count as being ‘among your number?’”

Two sighed again.

“Are you doing that instead of swearing?” asked Todoroki. “The sighing, I mean.”

“I told you to stop comparing me to the explosion brat! I—” Two tsked, then frowned. “Something’s not right.”

“What is it?”

“This isn’t a safe memory, just a quick one. One should have been here to pick you up by now.”

“What do you mean, it isn’t safe?” asked Iida, before Aizawa could. “No matter how immersed we are here, it is only a memory, isn’t it?”

“You did hear the part where he’s breaking in, didn’t you? And the part where we’re all real people? Are those glasses just for show?”

“The real All for One is trying to break into Midoriya’s mind,” said Aizawa.

“W-wait,” said Uraraka, “but… Izuku… That wouldn’t mean that the commission was right…”

“Of course not. Nine would probably cut off all his limbs before betraying his friends. Even if I don’t agree with him, and think he shouldn’t… I can still see that. But where is One?”

“Why are you telling us this?” asked Aizawa. “You’ve told us why the others didn’t. But you have no reason to say anything, yourself, do you?”

Two turned slightly, to gaze at Aizawa out of the corner of his eye.

“As long as we’re waiting, I might as well collect as much information as possible, right?”

“It’s insurance,” said Two, finally. “It’s hard to see how this will turn out. Eight wants to take Nine out of the country, but even if that works, All for One will still be here. Someone else needs at least part of the story.” He turned more fully to face Aizawa, lips pressed tight against his teeth. “You have to understand. I want Nine to… do well. I don’t want this on him. He’s a kid. So are you.” He looked at the students, then back at Aizawa. “You’re all kids. If I can get someone else to take care of this for him, while he and Eight are somewhere safe…”

“All for One is in Tartarus,” said Aizawa.

“You think something like that’s going to stop him? I’m not entirely sure death would stop him. It didn’t stop us, and he’s at least as stubborn.”

Well, wasn’t this an impossibly heavy weight to set on Aizawa’s shoulders.

“I have no sympathy, you lazy caterpillar lookalike. You’re an adult, aren’t you? Get help if you can’t do it yourself. If I find out you pushed it onto children, I’ll kill you.”

“Wow, he’s secretly soft, too, just like Bakugo,” said Todoroki. “Are you sure you’re not related.”

“There is legitimately something wrong with you. Do you—”

.

The hinges of the vault snapped, and the door crumpled outward. Another well-placed kick sent the door tumbling outward with a crash.

Shaking his hand, All for One stepped into the mindscape and smiled.

“Well,” he said, dragging his gaze over the assembled One for All users, his sworn enemies and the closest thing he had to family, “isn’t this a lovely little reunion?”

[keyofjetwolf]

Pitch Me your thing!

HELLO HELLO MY SUNBEAMS. For most every category, there was an impressive turn-out for pitches, so I thought we’d utilize the weirdness of this year’s GIFTENING to give something new a try. The popular vote winner for each category will happen on the first day, but on the second, the winner will be chosen from YOUR PITCHES. Mostly those pitches will be to me. The exception is in Miscellaneous, where you’ll be pitching to my family, because what I want to do and what is most entertaining isn’t necessarily the same thing.

So! How will we do this thing? GLAD YOU ASKED. I’ll link you to a form in a minute with space for one pitch. Once you fill it out, you’ll be asked if you want to do another. There’s no limit to the number of pitches you can send in! But remember that if you submit multiple entries for the same category, you’ll basically be competing against yourself.

NOW WE’VE GOT SOME RULES FOR DOING THIS (which I mostly stole from Holligay, because I have no creativity this year). Please read them carefully! I’ll toss pitches that break any of these, and I’d rather your hard work not go to waste.

Pitch Me is open for your submissions from RIGHT NOW (22 December) through the very last day of this hellyear (31 December) at 11:59pm MT.

The thing you pitch must have come from what was nominated for THE GIFTENING 2020. (Full list of those nominations in every category below the cut on this post.)

Entries must be unsigned! I’m looking to chose based on the pitch alone, regardless of who submitted it.

The pitch itself must be 100 words or less. HAVE PITY ON ME I CAN ONLY CONSUME SO MUCH.

If you’d like to get some help, ideas, feedback, all that good stuff, the Discord is a FANTASTIC resource I encourage you to use.

HERE IS YOUR PITCH SUBMISSION LINK

And, as promised, below the cut you’ll find the list of all the nominees in every category you guys sent in this year. IT’S A LONG LIST HAVE FUN WITH THAT

Anime

A Place Further Than The Universe/Sora Yori mo Toi Basho Ace Attorney (Gyakuten Saiban) Action Heroine Cheer Fruits Aggretsuko Aho Girl Air Master Akuma No Riddle Alien Nine Angel Beats! Angelic Layer Appare-Ranman Aria Aria the Animation Arrietty/ The Secret World of Arrietty (Ghibli film) Ascendance of a Bookworm Azumamga Daioh Baccano! Beastars Black Cat Blood + (the series) Bloom Into You Blue Drop/Tenshitachino Gikyoku Bodacious Space Pirates (starting right where you left off) BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense Boku no hero academia Bubblegum Crisis Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card Cardcaptor Sakura Castlevania the Animated Series Cells at Work Chaos; Head Chihayafuru Code Geass cowboy Bebop Cyborg 009 Death Note Death Parade Deca-Dence Demon Girl Next Door Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) Diebuster: Aim For the Top 2 Dog Days dorohedoro Dot Hack//SIGN Dr. Stone Elfen Lied Erased (Boku Dake Ga Inai Machi) Escaflowne Excel Saga Fantastic Children Fate/Zero Flip Flappers Fresh Precure Fruits Basket 2019 Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood Ga rei Zero GaoGaiGar gekkan shoujo nozaki-kun Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex Ghost Stories (dubbed) Girls' Last Tour Great Pretender Hoseki no Kuni/ Land of the Lustrous House of Five Leaves/ Saraiya Goyou Inari konkon koi iroha Interviews with Monster Girls Inuyasha Isekai Izakaya "Nobu" Jellyfish Princess/ Kuragehime JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable Kaguya-sama Love Is War Kaleido Star Kannazuki no Miko Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Kemono Friends Kiki's Delivery Service Kimi ni Todoke: From Me To You Kino's Journey/Kino no Tabi (2003) Land of the Lustrous (Houseki no Kuni) Little Witch Academia Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files EP0 {"A Grave Keeper") Love is Hard for an Otaku Love Live! Sunshine!! lupin the 3rd part 4 Madoka: The Rebellion Movie Magic knight rayearth Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha March Comes in Like a Lion Mardock Scramble Master of Martial Hearts Mawaru Penguindrum Megalobox Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid Mob Psycho 100 Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) Monster Mushishi My Bride is a Mermaid (Seto No Hanayome) My Love Story!!! My Neighbor Totoro My Next Life As A Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom My Roommate is a Cat NANA Naruto Natsume’s Book of Friends Neon Genesis Evangelion (hateblog) New Cutey Honey Nichijou Ōban Star-Racers One Piece Ouran High school Host club Outlaw Star Paranoia Agent Perfect Blue Please Save My Earth Pop Team Epic Pretty Cure Fresh Princess Jellyfish/ Kuragehime Princess Mononoke Princess Principal Princess Tutu Project A-Ko promised neverland (/yakusoku no neverland) Psycho-Pass Ranma 1/2 Re: Cutie Honey Re:Creators Read or Die (OAV) Red Garden relife Revolutionalry Girl Utena Rose of Versailles Ruroni Kenshin Sailor Moon Sailor Moon (viz dub) Samurai Champloo (english dub) Sarazanmai School Days School-Live! Scum's Wish Senki Zesshou Symphogear (listed as just "Symphogear" on Crunchyroll.) Serei no Moribito (Guardian of the Spirit) Shin Sekai Yori (From The New World) Shirobako Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle Smile Pretty Cure (Japanese original)/ Glitter Force (english adaptation) Snow White with the Red Hair Sound Euphonium Strawberry Panic (yuri) Sweetness and Lightning The Devil is a Part-timer The Devil Lady The disasterous life of saiki k (saiki kusuo no Sai Nan) The End of Evangelion (movie) the Promised Neverland The Twelve Kingdoms Tiger & Bunny Tokimeki Tonight ToraDora Tsubasa Chronicle Umineko When They Cry Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid Vinland Saga Violet Evergarden Whispered Words (Sasameki Koto) With a Dog AND a Cat, Every Day is Fun Yona of the Dawn Yu Yu Hakusho Yugioh Duel Monster Yuki Yuna is a Hero Yuri Kuma Arashi Yuri On Ice!!! Zoids: Chaotic Century Zombie Land Saga

Non-Anime Animated

Adventure Time Amphibia Animainiacs (Original) Animaniacs (Reboot) Archie's Weird Mysteries As Told By Ginger Barbie Life in The Dreamhouse Batman the Animated Series Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot Big Mouth Bob's Burgers Bojack Horseman Bravest Warriors Captain N: the Game Master Carmen Sandiego (1994) Carmen Sandiego (2019) Castlevania (Netflix) Cats Don't Dance Coco Courage the Cowardly Dog Craig of the Creek Cyber Six Daria Darkwing Duck Dragon Booster Dragons: Riders of Berk DuckTales (2017) Exo-Squad Fern Gully Fillmore! Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Futurama Gargoyles Glitch Techs Godzilla: The Animated Series Green Lantern the Animated Series Hedgehog in the Fog (Ёжик в тумане) Hey Arnold Hilda Infinity Train Iron Giant JEM Kim Possible Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts Legend of Zelda animated series (1989) Legion of Super-Heroes Liberty Kids Magical Girl Friendship Squad Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart The Legend of Korra Moominvalley Motorcity My Little Pony (Classic, NOT FiM) My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks Onyx Equinox Over the Garden Wall Over the Moon (2020 film) Owl House Primal Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure Redwall Rise of the TMNT Roco's Modern Life Rugrats RWBY Samurai Jack Seis Manos She-Ra (1985) She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018) Sonic Boom Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse Star vs. the Forces of Evil Strange Magic Super Mario Brothers Super Show Superman: The Animated Series Teen Titans The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo The Animals of Farthing Wood The Dragon Prince The Hollow The Legend of Tarzan (TV series) The Magic School Bus (1994) The Mysterious Cities of Gold The Pirate Fairy (Disney Fairies) The Powerpuff Girls (1998) The Real Ghostbusters Thundercats (1985) Thundercats (2011) Transformers: Prime Tuca and Bertie Twelve Forever Undone Venture Bros Wakko's Wish Wakfu Wander Over Yonder We Bare Bears (TV) Winx Club Wreck-It Ralph (2012) X-Men Evolution X-Men: The Animated Series Xiaolin Showdown

Live Action

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 28 Days Later 3rd Rock from the Sun A Series of Unfortunate Events American Horror Story: Asylum Babysitter's Club (2020) Batman (the old Adam West version) Better Call Saul Black Mirror Blackbeard's Ghost (Peter Ustinov) Boston Legal Boy Meets World Boys Over Flowers Bromance (Taiwanese tv series) Brooklyn 99 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Cadfael Cagney and Lacey Charmed (2018) Chopped Cleopatra 2525 Cloak and Dagger Clue (1985) Community Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Dead Like Me Dead To Me Deadwood Death Note (Netflix) Derry Girls Dimension 20 - The Unsleeping City Doctor Who (New) Doom Patrol Dracula's Daughter (1936) Escape to the Chateau Farscape Fingersmith Galavant Godzilla (2014) Gokushufudo (2020 Japanese TV drama) Golden Girls Good Omens H20: Just Add Water (somewhere in seasons 1-2) Happy New Year Harley Quinn movie Hateblog a REALLY STRAIGHT soap opera. Haunting of Bly Manor His Dark Materials (HBO series) Holes Hot Fuzz House Inception Inside No. 9 Iron Chef America Joan of Arcadia Julie and the Phantoms Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Kamen Rider Build Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Kamen Rider Fourze Killing Eve Knives Out Letterkenny Leverage Little Women (2019) Lucifer Matlock Majisuka Gakuen MASH Merlin Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol Money Talks (1997 film) Motherland: Fort Salem Murder She Wrote Mythbusters Nailed It! Never Have I Ever Once Upon a Time Orphan Black Pen 15 PGSM Pi (1998) Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018) Pride and Prejudice: A New Musical Puppy Bowl Pushing Daisies Rome (hateblog) Russian Doll Sabrina Sense8 Sera Myu: Un Nouveau Voyage Shameless Sierra Burgess Smallville So Weird Star Trek: TOS (or their films) Star Trek: The Next Generation Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Star Trek: Voyager Stargate Atlantis Suckerpunch Supernatural (out of context speedrun the last three episodes) Sweetheart Switched at Birth Tall Girl Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles The Addams Family (1964) The Big Flower Fight The Booth at the End The Bride With White Hair The Crown The Fresh Prince of Bel Air The Good Place The Kissing Booth The L Word The Librarians The Magicians The Muppet Show The Pregnancy Pact The Room The Steve Harvey Show The Stranded The Untamed The Witcher The Wolfman (1941) Torchwood Twilight Zone (original) Twin Peaks Ultraman Nexus Umbrella Academy Van Helsing Warehouse 13 Warrior Nun What We Do In The Shadows (tv show) Will & Grace Wynonna Earp X-Men 2: X-Men United Xena: Warrior Princess

Miscellaneous

Alpha Flight #41-62 Anime music dance party, the logistics of which are to be determined! Ask Hot Pocket and/or Mina-pup AskSharknado: Giftening Edition Attempt to make French macaroons Commentary on old Goggles Critical Role Crowdsourced: A Black Mirror-style day where Jetty has to ask what her choices are of the audience for everything! I give you a menu, you decide what she has for dinner? What does she wear? Does she walk on the track or do the eliptical? Does she go to a movie with Doc or play a video game with Mike? Can be done alongside other stuff. Doodle Day Dramatic readings of fan fiction! Drunk History (or whatever your favorite subject would be) with Jet Wolf! Drunk Sailor Moon Exorcising Closet Ghost Fic Prompts Day Figuarts Day! (Not specifically freeing anyone, just various fun poses and such) Guess the plot of a show based on its opening Her Shim-Cheong (manhwa) House of X/Powers of X Hubby's Choice IDW Jem comics liveblog Intros Only (watch show openings, give commentary, guess what show is about, etc.) Jackbox Games Jet Wolf paints along with Bob Ross Jet and Doc go to Heaven/Hell, respectively: Jet gets to write reams of words about the awesomeness of Rei Hino and Doc has to read all of them and say ONLY NICE THINGS. Jet does Tiktok dances Jet Liveblogs Holligay: A Nature Documentary Jet Ranks Sailor Moon Image Songs Jet Reads Goosebumps Jet Reads Legion of Super-Heroes Jet redesigns the Wolf and Gay offices! Jet shows off her knitting Jet Wolf attempts to recreate scenes from Sailor Moon with Mina and Hot Pocket and/or whatever is in the house Jet Wolf reacts to Sailor Moon tiktoks (in blog form) Jet Wolf reads Love and Rockets. Jet Wolf reads the Jem comics by IDW Jet Wolf reviews her old top 100 Sailor Moon moments list Jet Wolf talks about Archie Comics Jet Wolf talks about each cel she owns and why they are so awesome. Jet Wolf writes Poetry Jet Wolf's Top 5's Jet, Hubby and/or family play board games Jetty Rants and Raves Jet Wolf tries to crack the Gravity Falls Codes Kiwi Blitz on Hiveworks Let's Play on Webtoon Liveblog: Favorite X-Men comic book arcs Livestream Pathfinder one-shot LOONA (Collection of music videos with an ongoing story/universe about GIRLS who are FRIENDS and SAVE THE UNIVERSE) Lore Olympus on Webtoon Mike regales us with "the story of your love" while you get increasingly embarrassed Mina and Hot Pocket day - liveblog like a nature documentary Mister Tsukino Does His Taxes and the Household Budget (Sailor Moon fan comic by Shadowjack) Nancy Drew: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake Not So Shoujo Love Story on Webtoon Pitch Mishaps for Untitled Senshi Game (it is a lovely day in Juuban, and you are a Horrible Minako.) Pitching hubby's favorite media at (readers/holligay/jill/momigay) Playing with dolls (because how could 3 women not have any dolls between them) Re-Take By Studio Kimigabuchi (All Ages Version) Real or Fake Anime (people submit descriptions of anime you guess if it is an anime that actually exists or not) Reviewing succulents Scavenger hunt! Not entirely sure how it would work, maybe folks could send in asks for you to show things like your favorite Rei Hino object, or the thing that's been with you the longest, etc. sewing/knitting/baking tutorial Share or rant about a Roman history topic Sleepless Domain on Hiveworks Talking to Docholligay 2: Doc Harder (basically you talking to Doc's future womb evictee while still in there and telling them stuff like say the greatness of Rei Hino) The Monster Duchess and Contract Princess (manhwa) The Polar Bear Plunge--I take Jetty to our finest Lake Elmo in January, and she jumps in! Note: THIS IS NOT DANGEROUS, WORRYWARTS. I'll bring a life preserver, I've done it before, and I would do it with her if I weren't pregnant. The Senshi Helpline--The Senshi, taking your advice questions, here and now! The World of Moral Reversal Virtual knitting/crafting circle! Let us craft and chat with you! What-If #24 Gwen Stacy Lived Worm the web serial Write an explanation for a drawing we send you! Yuri Hell's Kitchen

[chitaprrrrrrrr]

LGBT+ Fiction Rec

Carol // movie, book, nsfw, wlw

Therese Beliveit sees Carol at a department store and is instantly drawn to her. The two women become close but are faced with the challenges of Carol’s rocky divorce and the struggles of being gay in the 1950s. 

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue // book, mlm, ace

Follows the story of Henry Montague, the son of a lord in eighteenth-century England, his sister, and his childhood best friend as their trip to Europe turns into a manhunt when he accidentally steals something more valuable than he could have imagined. Lots of great representation including a main interracial couple. There’s also a sequel called The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy, which focuses on his aro/ace sister.

Maurice // book, movie, nsfw, mlm

It’s the early twentieth century England, there are some rumors about a war that may be coming up, and Maurice Hall has realized that how he feels about his very attractive male friend is not just friendship. I’m talking vintage gays, repression, commentary on class struggles, and more vintage gays. When I say that this book/movie was ahead of its time, I mean it.

Spies Are Forever // musical, mlm

After Agent Curt Mega’s partner Owen dies while trying to escape a Russian facility, he takes a break from the spy life. But when he becomes a spy again, he finds out that his past is harder to escape from than he thought. Spies, gays, the Cold War, and a killer soundtrack. What more do you need? Uploaded by the creator on Youtube for free.

The Handmaiden // movie, nsfw, wlw

Sook-Hee’s a Korean pickpocket posing as a handmaiden to steal a Japanese heiress of her fortune. The plan gets complicated when Sook-Hee starts getting close to the heiress.

Good Omens // tv show, book, mlm, trans

If you were on Tumblr in June 2019, you probably already know what’s up. If not, an angel and a demon fall in love with humanity (and maybe a little with each other) and decide to stop the end of the world together. The creators have confirmed that seeing the main characters as trans (or basically every other LGBT identity) is valid.

I Love You, Philip Morris // movie, nsfw, mlm

Be Gay. Do Crime. And watch Jim Carrey and Ewan Mcgregor fall in love in prison. A very good romantic comedy that’s also based on a true story.

The Adventure Zone // podcast, book, mlm, wlw, trans

A roleplaying podcast done by the McElroys. The first campaign, Balance, is a fantasy story with things like elves and dwarves. The second campaign, Amnesty, is a modern-day story in West Virginia with things like Bigfoot and the Mothman. Both of them are very good and very gay. The Balance arc also has a graphic novel adaptation.

God’s Own Country // movie, nsfw, mlm

Think British Brokeback Mountain but instead of the main conflict being homophobia, it’s commitment issues. Has some more graphic sheep farming veterinary scenes. Overall, it’s very good.

Check, Please! // webcomic, mlm

Eric “Bitty” Bittle, former figure skater, decides to join the hockey team at Samwell University. The main problem being that the whole concept of checking (physical contact on the ice) terrifies him. That, and the team captain is as hot as he is intimidating. 

The Rocky Horror Picture Show // movie, mlm

Straight-laced Brad and his fiance Janet’s car breaks down during a storm. Luckily for them, they stumble upon the mansion of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a drag queen scientist, where they meet several other interesting characters, including Frank-N-Furter’s new creation, a man named Rocky, and lose their innocence. Think 1950s sci-fi meets 1970s sexual revolution or if Frankenstein was a musical.

Firebringer // musical, wlw

You probably know about this musical through the whole “I don’t want to do the work today” vine. What that vine leaves out is that the show is about prehistoric bisexuals and their discovery of fire. Uploaded by the creator on Youtube for free.

Call me By Your Name // book, movie, nsfw, mlm

Elio Perlman was expecting to have a normal summer in Italy where he would work on his music, read books, and spend time with his girlfriend. What he was not expecting was getting close to the handsome intern working for his father. 

Carry On // book, mlm

Enemies-to-lovers slow burn about a vampire and the Chosen One. Takes typical YA tropes and spins them on their heads. The sequel Wayward Son has just come out and the final book in the series, Any Way the Wind Blows, was just announced.

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert // movie, mlm, trans

Two Australian drag queens and a trans woman go on a road trip through the Australian desert together. Some racist/transphobic scenes that have not aged well since the 90s but besides those it’s a pretty heartwarming story.

Welcome to Night Vale // podcast, book, mlm, wlw, trans

A sci-fi horror podcast about a strange Western town called Night Vale and what goes on in it. Features a main gay character and lots of the side characters are also LGBT. There are several books that focus on different parts of the universe that you can also read.

Brooklyn 99 // tv show, mlm, wlw

Weirdly, I haven’t seen this show put on any LGBT media recs before. The show follows the 99th precinct of the New York police department. While the main character is not gay himself (although he is either bi or EXTREMELY comfortable in his sexuality), his boss, the police captain, is an openly gay black man married to another man and one of the supporting characters later comes out as bisexual and has relationships with women. Overall, a very funny show that also offers a good commentary on issues that we deal with in society today.

Rock and Riot // webcomic, wlw, mlm, trans, ace

Follows two rival gangs from the 1950s and their struggles with understanding their sexual orientation and gender identity. A little bit of period typical homophobia and racism but not so much that its a bummer.

Professor Marston and the Wonder Woman // movie, nsfw, wlw

Contrary to what the title may lead you to believe, this is not a DC Universe movie. It’s actually about the creator of Wonder Woman and the lie detector and his polyamorous relationship with the two women who inspired Wonder Woman.

Shameless // tv show, nsfw, mlm, wlw, trans

Focusing on the Gallager family, a low-income family from Chicago and their struggle to survive. One of the main characters, Ian, is openly gay and has had many relationships throughout the series, most notably his on-again-off-again relationship with Mickey Milkovich. Disclaimer: there are some scenes with some pretty brutal homophobia that can be very hard to watch. Also let’s just say that when Ian was a minor, not all of his relationships were with other minors.

Alice Isn’t Dead // podcast, book, wlw

Keisha becomes a truck driver to find her missing wife who had been presumed dead (Alice). Because as it turns out, Alice isn’t dead. A very good horror mystery that captures American road trip gothic better than most pieces of media. Also has a book adaptation.

The Favourite // movie, wlw

Abigail has lost everything. She has no money, no title, and no status. Lucky for her, she has a cousin, Sarah, who is very powerful and close to the Queen. She then begins to work at the palace and the two cousins compete for the favor of the queen, but their motivations to be close to the Queen are very different.

Shaderunners // webcomic, mlm, wlw, trans

A 1920s style webcomic except homophobia doesn’t exist and neither does color, at least not for the proletariat. A group of people join together to change that (the color thing, not the homophobia thing). A very good representation of a variety of identities.

Kill Your Darlings // movie, mlm

About the famous American poet Allen Ginsberg, his relationship with Lucien Carr, the beginning of the Beat generation of poetry, and the murder of David Krammer. Again with the period typical homophobia but nothing too extreme or disturbing.

[tuwam]

a visit.

daewon’s sure of a few things.

number one, he’s 99% sure he locked the door. he never misses out on locking the door because that usually means they’re closed and that means he gets an early day. it also means he gets to visit a certain flower shop earlier than usual with tea and a good book in tow. 

number two, they are closed. which is why he knows he’s closed the door. which is why when he stands to turn the figure in the doorway, he’s completely dumbfounded. because - that is a figure in the doorway and because - there shouldn’t be a stranger in the doorway because they were closed.

and he’d locked the door. hadn’t he?

“i’m sorry - ” perplexed as he is and too flustered to search his memory, he remembers his duties as an employee before anything else. with his full attention now on the man, daewon gestures towards the counter moving to help himself not trip over his words. “can i help you?” his initial guess is that the male is a customer, one who is in generous need of a trim. 

the stranger’s hair is orange, quite an impressive color actually, not too bright but bright enough to almost look natural. almost. hopefully he needs a trim, a dye job would be far too much work. the purple robe the man adorns only serves as a reminder that the shop should be closed as daewon would love to retreat to comfier clothes himself, but he doesn’t dwell. he watches the eyes of the stranger follow his gesture to the counter as well as his movements to pull out the scheduling book.

‘you’re the owner here?’

daewon gets his response through a voice that’s just about as perplexing as the owner itself. he male’s in a strange combination of this comfortable looking robe robes with his socks inside slippers, his eyes a striking amber that daewon has to look twice to make sure he’s seeing right. there’s that, and the surprising calm to his voice that doesn’t match the loudness of his outfit. it’s gentle, deliberately intended for daewon and it echoes through the shop light, a tad drowsy. it’s many things and daewon thinks it’s interactions like this that truly make the best stories. 

“I work under sohee.” as of late, sohee’s committed to leaving most of the shop operations to daewon whether he’s asked or not. sohee’s not the type of woman to give people things they can’t handle though she isn’t the type to ask if they can handle it either. she just does. and so daewon has done as he can, handling shifts, opening and closing the store, handling deliveries and repairs alike. he might as well own the salon. 

‘do any other men work here? is your owner a man?’ there must be a reason for the question. it’s not as if it’s the first time someone has seen him in the salon and asked for the next available stylist. it’s the twenty-first century and people are still perplexed to find he’s one of the employees, still perplexed to know men can cut women’s hair. sohee says they’re just missing out though daewon gets the suspicion this man is asking for other reasons, less condescending, though just as incredulous.

“i’m the only male worker - what do you need?’ he feels as if he’s going in circles. ‘you’ve received my letter yes? regarding my ward?’

as the realization clicks daewon’s sure this isn’t how he expected the meeting to go. just as he knows he didn’t expect the author of said letter to look like this. by this he means someone that looks like they just rolled out of bed from a mansion perfectly in time for a halloween costume party. but it’s spring time and the clothes are loud, strange and it’s close to closing time. it is closing time.

“you’re the one with the ward,” the man has the nerve to look like he’s the stressed one, as if the entire ordeal hadn’t troubled daewon when he’d first received the letter. ‘yes i’m the one whose student is head over heels for you.’

“are you joking with me?” ‘i assure you that i am not and that her feelings are not only serious but troublesome as well.’ well on that note, given his experiences with heated cheeks and stumbled words, daewon can understand the trouble for the young miss but not to the point that it’s troublesome to the stranger in front of him. he wants to laugh, as a crush on him still seems a bit unbelievable but the way the male’s arms lock over his chest, he knows this not to be a joke. nor a laughing matter.

daewon’s own arms cross over his chest, the scheduling book left untouched. the silence between them becomes more apparent and daewon realizes he’s only moved his arms to hold onto himself. the man’s stare is unrelenting, a little uncomfortable. the frown on his face looks strange, as if it’s going against the natural lines of his face. that makes things worse.

‘well?’ daewon swallows. “well, i - i’m not quite sure what you wish me to do.”

he hears a sigh.

‘you humans are rather insufferable do you know?’ daewon splutters at that. it’s nothing different from his usual awkward expressions but he thinks he’d heard the man wrong. humans? as if he wasn’t? that in itself is hard to process but the man is already moving towards him. 

daewon had never spent long dwelling on the possibility of other creatures and a quarter until 11, standing in the salon was not a time he’d like to either. the man is getting closer, the amber of his eyes becoming stronger, defiant. he’s bold enough to even lean completely over the counter and he’s inches from daewon’s face. daewon wants to move back but crashes over his feet at the sound of the door chiming open. 

‘i thought you were closed.’ “we are.” it’s a groan, but it’s ill-placed when his eyes meet the owner of the voice. sure enough there she is, pink hair fading considerably and smile always as sweet and gentle. her eyes seem to smile before her lips do and daewon thinks he might fall again, the position suddenly looking more compromising than he’d intended. the stranger doesn’t move, though his eyes do fall on her and daewon uses the distraction to move from behind the counter completely. 

‘you said we’d meet right after you closed up but you didn’t show up so - i headed over.’ her eyes flit from the stranger to daewon who is presently cursing him for forgetting he’d sent that message. had that much time passed? he can’t recall. the stranger’s eyes are the ones passing by between daewon and her own figure as daewon hurries to close the scheduling book and rush to grab his things.

“i completely forgot, you weren’t waiting long were you?” ‘not longer as usual.’ her voice is light, as light and familiar as he remembers but maybe too familiar. maybe too light. he doesn’t dwell on it, instead with his keys and bag over his shoulder he finally turns to his guest. the said male has taken to sitting atop the counter and is regarding them with amusement. ‘did you have company?’ ever the polite one, she regards the stranger with curiosity, something glinting in her eyes that daewon couldn’t recognize if he tried. the thought dissipates though because he’s focused on the fact that the man is actually sitting on the counter.

“no no, he was just leaving?” if it comes as a plea it’s because daewon would rather deal with all of this later. much later. the stranger’s eyes fall on both of them now, and it takes a few seconds before he’s smiling. it looks more natural than the frown but it leaves daewon feeling uneasy, worse than before. 

‘i can see you have no intentions with my ward.’ the words. immediately daewon can feel the threaten of red across his face at the implications. but he’s left no time to respond because the male is removing himself from the counter and dusting his robe off. ‘good. if i were to write the rejection she wouldn’t believe it. so please find a way to let her down gently alright? she is a youngling after all.’

a youngling. before daewon can process the words the stranger is gone out the door taking everything his presence held with him as he leaves.

‘a friend of yours?’ “he’s -” daewon is struck with the knowledge that he doesn’t quite know what to call the man other than disarming. “the guardian? yes i think that works, the guardian of-” ‘the young lady who has a crush on you. his ward.’ even hearing it aloud still proves too much for him. daewon feels his cheeks heat with the thought, and the stare that she’s now giving him. her lips are still pulled in gentle amusement, but the words. they’re friendly, always of course, but there’s something again behind it.something new. daewon thinks he’s possibly a little tired. “yes.” 

the silence is back, and her eyes don’t reach him anymore because they’re looking at the door, possibly outside it. daewon fidgets uncomfortable in her presence now for reasons he can’t quite understand. he doesn’t like it. he wants the comfort back, the routine of it. every time his world falls out of routine he’s used to blaming one thing and now, he’s not sure he can.

“let’s go? before the cafe closes we can get something warm.” that stirs her, dare he think he brings her back from her stupor. she regards him with the warmth he’s used to and daewon wants to bury the worry. 

he’s locking up behind him in seconds and thinking it might not be that easy. but she’s smiling and tailing beside him as they start walking, talking about the day as usual. he tries his best to put everything behind him. the strange man with his orange hair and purple robe and his talk of humans this and crushes thought. 

and a door that he’s pretty sure if locked now.

he puts it all behind him the minute a hand slips into his own.

[thisisatestsff-blog]

Newsletter #99 September — November, 2012

RECENTLY RECEIVED AND FORTHCOMING SCIENCE FICTION

Already Received

Doctor Who Magazine #447

 (The Doctor must face every Dalek ever; Steven Moffat interview; more) $8.99

Doctor Who Magazine #448

 (William Russell on being Doctor Who's first action hero; interview with Neil Gaiman; more) $8.99

Doctor Who Magazine #449

 (First look at the 2013 series; casting director Andy Pryor talks about his work; more) $8.99

Fantasy & Science Fiction July / August 2012

 (New fiction, reviews, more) $7.50

Locus #617 June 2012

 (Interviews with William F. Nolan and Genevieve Valentine; Nebula Awards; forthcoming books; industry news, reviews, more) $6.95

Locus #618 July 2012

(Young adult fiction special issue; interviews with Holly Black, Tamora Pierce, and Rae Carson; Locus Awards; Ray Bradbury tributes; industry news, reviews, more) $6.95

Locus #619 August 2012

 (Interviews with Jack Vance and Ann and Jeff VanderMeer; award news; industry news, reviews, more) $6.95

Abraham, Daniel

Shadow and Betrayal: A Shadow in Summer / A Betrayal in Winter

 (Long Price #1 / #2: Omnibus reprint; 2 fantasy novels) $17.99

Adams, John J. (ed)

Other Worlds Than These

 (PBO; Anthology; reprints 31 stories of parallel worlds) $16.99

Asaro, Catherine

Aurora in Four Voices

(Collection; 2 novellas and 3 short stories (1 original to this volume), all sf, plus an essay on how she uses math to craft her alien worlds) $30.00

Baker, L-J

Promises, Promises

(After making a series of improbable predictions about Princess Beryl's future, Sandy, a mediocre witch, is commanded to make them all come true within a year - or face the executioner. Luckily, her dyke friends are willing and able to join her on her quest) $15.00

Bedford, K.A.

Paradox Resolution

(Spider Webb #2: PBO; Spider Webb fixes time machines for a living, and hates it. The time machine biz has changed. But one machine - an illegal, radically overclocked hotrod built by Spider's boss - has been stolen, and Spider is the only one who might be able to find it) $14.95

Beukes, Lauren

Zoo City

(Clarke Award winner. Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty online 419 scam habit - and a talent for finding lost things. But when her latest client turns up dead and the cops confiscate her last paycheck, she's forced to take her least favorite kind of job: missing persons) $15.00

Bradbury, Ray

Fahrenheit 451

(Reissue; Guy Montag is a fireman, his job to burn that most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. He never questions this destruction, until he meets a young neighbor who introduces him to a past where people didn't live in fear, and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television. When she suddenly disappears, Montag starts hiding books in his home; when this is discovered, he must run for his life) $11.99

Broderick, Damien

Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels 1985-2010

(PBO; Nonfiction; discusses each novel and its author(s) in the context of popular literature, as well as providing a plot synopsis and mini review) $14.99

Carey, Mike/Gross, Peter

On to Genesis

(Unwritten #5: PBO; Full color graphic novel. Not for kids. Reprints issues 25-30 of the comic. Tom Taylor's just a daring heist away from the journals that will reveal the truth: was he born of flesh and blood, or written into existence by sheer storytelling magic?) $14.99

Carroll, Jonathan

The Woman Who Married a Cloud

 (Collection; 37 fantasy stories, some original to this volume) $45.00

Chen, Haiyan/Li, Fang (ed)  

Eight Dragons on the Roof and Other Tales

 (Kids; Anthology; 34traditional dragon stories from China) $12.95

Conley, Darby

Survival of the Filthiest

 (Get Fuzzy: PBO; Black & white daily strips, color Sunday strips) $12.99

Cox, Greg

The Dark Knight Rises

 (PBO; Novelization of the film) $7.99

Cronin, Justin

The Passage

(Passage #1: A security breach at a secret facility unleashes the monstrous product of a military experiment. As civilization breaks down to predators and prey, FBI agent Brad Wolgast flees with 6-year-old Amy, a refugee from the project, whose odyssey will lead her towards the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun) $7.99

Dick, Philip K.

Now Wait for Last Year

(Reissue; Earth is trapped in the crossfire of an unwinnable war between two alien civilizations. Its leader is perpetually on the verge of death. And a new drug that haphazardly sends its users traveling through time has just entered circulation. Caught up in all of it, Dr. Eric Sweetscent has questions. Is Earth on the right side of the war? Is he supposed to heal Earth's leader or keep him sick? And can he change the harrowing future that the drug has shown him?) $13.95

Dick, Philip K.

The Simulacra

(Reissue; On a ravaged Earth, fate and circumstances bring together a disparate group, including a fascist with dreams of a coup, a composer who plays his instrument with his mind, a First Lady who calls all the shots, and the world's last practicing therapist. And they all must contend with an underclass that is beginning to ask a few too many questions, aided by a man called Loony Luke and his very persuasive pet alien) $13.95

Dick, Philip K.

Ubik

(Reissue; Glen Runciter and his teams of anti-psychics protect corporate clients who want privacy and security from psychic spies. When he and his top team are ambushed by a rival, he is gravely injured and placed in a dreamlike state of suspended animation. Soon, the surviving members of the team begin experiencing strange phenomena, such as Runciter's face appearing on coins and the world seeming to move backward in time. As consumables deteriorate and technology gets ever more primitive, the group needs to find out what is causing the shifts, and what a mysterious product called Ubik has to do with it all) $13.95

Duncan, Dave

Wildcatter

(PBO; An independent starship heads to Cacafuego, intent on beating the larger corporations to the exoplanet's resources. Will a yellow warning flag planted in orbit stop them? Or, if their prospectors venture to the surface anyway, will they survive?) $9.95

Egan, Greg

The Clockwork Rocket

(Orthogonal #1: Threatened by strange meteors, a planet sends a spaceship crew on a journey to discover the science their planet urgently needs and bring it back in time to avert disaster. The trip will last many generations for those on board, but will return after just a few planetary years) $14.99

Fies, Brian

Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?

(Full color graphic novel. Depicts an optimistic and ambitious era fueled by industry, engines, electricity, rockets, middle-class popular culture, and the atom bomb, from the 1939 World's Fair to the last Apollo space mission in 1975) $14.95

Gaiman/Bealer et al (ed)  

Neil Gaiman and Philosophy

 (PBO; Nonfiction; essays on Gaiman's writing) $19.95

Grant, Maxwell

Prince of Evil / Messenger of Death / Room 1313

 (Shadow #60: Pulp reprints) $14.95

Grant, Maxwell

The Triple Trail / Murder Genius

 (Shadow #61: Pulp reprints) $14.95

Grant, Maxwell

Cyro / The Man Who Died Twice

 (Shadow #62: Pulp reprints) $14.95

Grant, Maxwell

The Devil's Paymaster / The Wasp Returns

 (Shadow #63: Pulp reprints) $14.95

Hand, Elizabeth

Glimmering

(PBO; Revised from the 1997 edition. Jack struggles to keep his life afloat and his loved ones safe while battling AIDS. A former lover gifts him with a mysterious elixir rumored to cure AIDS. But soon, the side effects become apparent, and Jack gets mixed up with a bizarre entourage of rock stars, Japanese scientists, corporate executives, AIDS victims, and religious terrorists, all competing to control mankind's fate in the 21st century) $14.95

Hearn, Lafcadio

Kwaidan: Weird Tales from Japan

(Reissue; Collection; 29 traditional tales of ghosts and monsters, collected and translated by Hearn during his 14-year stay in Japan) $15.95

Hodgson, William Hope

Horrors from Haunted Seas

 (Collection; 17 stories of nautical mystery and horror, originally published between 1905 and 1923) $16.95

Holt, Tom

The Better Mousetrap

(Insurance is indeed the force that binds the universe together. Frank Carpenter, one of the foremost magical practitioners of our age, felt himself irresistibly drawn to it - until he met Jane, with her annoying habit of falling out of trees and getting killed. Repeatedly. Soon they find themselves face to face with the greatest enigma of our times: When is a door not a door?) $15.95

Hopkinson, Nalo

Report from Planet Midnight

(PBO; Collection; transcript of a speech tackling sexism and racism in publishing, plus 2 short stories, an interview, and a bibliography) $12.00

Kane/O'Regan (ed)

The Mammoth Book of Body Horror

 (Anthology; reprints 25 stories) $13.95

King, Stephen

11/22/63

(On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? Al reveals that the storeroom of his diner is a portal to 1958, and enlists his friend Jack on a mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination) $19.99

Koch, G.J. (Gini)

Alexander Outland: Space Pirate

(PBO; Alexander and his crew - which includes an engineer of dubious sanity, a deposed planetary governor, and an annoyingly unflappable sexbot - get in trouble with the military, the Mob, mad bombers, and would-be conquerors) $14.99

Lundoff, Catherine

Silver Moon

(Becca Thornton, middle-aged and recently out of the closet, discovers that menopause has turned her into a werewolf. And a number of other women in Wolf's Point have had the same experience. As the newest member of the pack, Becca figures her nights will be spent protecting the town and running through the woods howling at the moon. But there are werewolf hunters in town, and they've got Becca in their sights) $15.00

Maas, Sarah J.

Throne of Glass

(YA; Celaena the assassin must defeat 23 other criminals in a competition at the castle in order to be released from prison. But something evil dwells in the castle. When her competitors start dying, her fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival) $17.99

Mandelo, Brit (ed)

Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction

 (Anthology; reprints 17 stories that question the ways in which gender and sexuality have been rigidly defined) $20.00

Marmell, Ari

The Abomination Vault

(Darksiders: PBO; Based on the videogame. Ages before the events of Darksiders and Darksiders II, Death and War are tasked with stopping a group of renegades intent on locating the Abomination Vault) $15.00

Martin, George R.R. et al

A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Companion Cookbook

(Song of Ice and Fire: Nonfiction; the authors of a popular food blog based on Martin's epic fantasy provide over 100 recipes, plus a guide to dining and entertaining in Seven Kingdoms style) $35.00

Matthews, Hugh

Song of the Serpent

 (Pathfinder Tales: PBO; Novel based on the game) $9.99

McMann, Lisa

The Unwanteds

(Kids; In a society that purges 13-year-olds who are creative, identical twins Aaron and Alex are separated, one to attend University while the other, supposedly Eliminated, finds himself in a wondrous place where youths hone their creativity and learn magic) $6.99

Merciel, Liane

Nightglass

 (Pathfinder Tales: PBO; Novel based on the game) $9.99

Moorcock, Michael et al

Elric: The Balance Lost Volume 2

 (PBO; Full color graphic novel; reprints issues 5-8 of the comic book) $14.99

Payton, T. Aaron

The Constantine Affliction

(London, 1864: A malady that kills some and transforms others into the opposite sex has spread upheaval throughout society. When Pimm, an investigator, and Skye, a journalist, stumble onto a plot that links a criminal overlord with the Queen's new consort, they find the forces of both high and low society arrayed against them) $26.99

Pinkwater, Daniel

Irving and Muktuk: Two Bad Bears

(Bad Bears #1: Kids; Full color picture book; Officer Bunny is the law in Yellowtooth. But can he protect the town's Blueberry Muffin Festival from muffin-loving polar bears Irving and Muktuk?) $6.99

Pinkwater, Daniel

Bad Bears in the Big City

(Bad Bears #2: Kids; Full color picture book; Irving and Muktuk have a new home at the lovely Bayonne, NJ, zoo. But with a muffin factory right next door, can mischief be far behind?) $6.95

Pratt, Tim

City of the Fallen Sky

 (Pathfinder Tales: PBO; Novel based on the game) $9.99

Quinn, Seabury

The Devil's Bride

(Jules de Grandin: Reissue; French occult detective Jules de Grandin tackles a case involving black magic, murder and mutilation, rape and torture, and genocidal race war. Plus bonus story 'House of Golden Masks', pitting de Grandin against white slavers) $14.95

Rankin, Robert

The Mechanical Messiah and Other Marvels of the Modern Age

(1897: The British Empire encompasses Mars, and an uneasy peace exists between the peoples of Venus, Jupiter, and Earth. In Whitechapel, a monster is once more committing hideous acts of murder, and it may take nothing less than the Mechanical Messiah Himself to save London, the Empire, and all of the solar system from impending apocalypse) $14.95

Riordan, Rick

The Lost Hero

(Heroes of Olympus #1: Kids; Percy and his friends have rebuilt their beloved Camp Half-Blood, where a new group of demigods must prepare for a chilling prophecy of their own. But to survive the quest they've inherited, they'll need some help) $9.99

Roberts, Adam

By Light Alone

(In a world where people have been genetically engineered so that they can photosynthesize sunlight with their hair, the poor grow their hair, while the rich affect baldness and flaunt their wealth by eating. The young daughter of an affluent family is kidnapped, but the ransom demands are refused. A year later a young woman arrives at the family home claiming to be their daughter. She has changed so much, she has lived on light, can anyone be sure that she has come home?) $14.95

Robeson, Kenneth

Murder on Wheels / The Three Gold Crowns / Death to the Avenger

 (Avenger #7: Pulp reprints) $14.95

Robeson, Kenneth

The Pirate's Ghost / The Green Eagle (Bama cover)

 (Doc Savage #50: Pulp reprints) $14.95

Robeson, Kenneth

The Derrick Devil / The Spotted Men

 (Doc Savage #58: Pulp reprints) $14.95

Robeson, Kenneth

Pirate Isle / The Speaking Stone

 (Doc Savage #59: Pulp reprints) $14.95

Robeson, Kenneth

He Could Stop the World / The Laugh of Death

 (Doc Savage #60: Pulp reprints) $14.95

Salvatore, R.A.

Charon's Claw

(Forgotten Realms: Neverwinter #3: Drizzt draws his sword once more to aid his friends, assisting the elf Dahlia as she enacts revenge, and helping an old foe break the bonds that have held him hostage for over a century $27.95

Scott, M/Barnett, L

Point of Hopes

(Astreiant #1: Reissue; In the great city of Astreaint, magic is real, stars guide lives, and Nicolas Rathe and his colleagues are attempting to establish a police force. Rathe and Eslingen work together to halt an astrological and alchemical conspiracy against the queen, and rescue scores of kidnapped children) $18.00

Scott, Melissa

Point of Knives

(Astreiant #1.5: Novella. Rathe and Eslingen work together to solve the murders of father-and-son pirates. When pirate treasure proves a threat to the throne, they must make uncomfortable choices) $13.00

Shepard, Lucius

The Dragon Griaule

 (Collection; 6 tales, 1 original to this volume) $45.00

Smith, Jeff

The Drift

(RASL #1: PBO; Black & white graphic novel. Not for kids. A dimension-jumping art thief races through space and time searching for his next big score - and trying to escape his past) $13.00

Smith, Jeff

The Fire of St. George

(RASL #2: PBO; Black & white graphic novel. Not for kids. A dimension-jumping art thief races through space and time searching for his next big score - and trying to escape his past) $15.00

Smith, Jeff

Romance at the Speed of Light

(RASL #3: PBO; Black & white graphic novel. Not for kids. A dimension-jumping art thief races through space and time searching for his next big score - and trying to escape his past) $15.00

Stauber, Katy

Spin the Sky

(PBO; After years away at war, Cesar Vaquero returns to Ithaca, an orbital colony that boasts the only cattle in space, to find his wife and son don't recognize him. Penelope swore off men after her husband disappeared, and has been busy running the ranch, raising her son, and fending off suitors. But something about the war-weary man stirs forgotten feelings in her, even as sabotage, rustlers, and a space stampede threaten to tear Ithaca apart) $14.99

Swift, E.J.

Osiris

(Osiris Project #1: Osiris has been cut off from the land since the Great Storm 50 years ago. Adelaide is a jaded socialite. Vikram is a third-generation refugee, who sees his people dying of cold and starvation. As a brutal winter brings the city closer to riot and revolution, these two will try to bridge the gap dividing the city) $26.99

Szathmari, Sandor

Voyage to Kazohinia

(A dystopian classic in Hungary, available in the U.S. for the first time. A shipwrecked surgeon finds himself among the Hins, who live a technologically advanced existence without emotions, desires, arts, money or politics. Unhappy amid the bleak perfection, he asks to be admitted to the closed settlement of the Behins, beings with souls and atavistic human traits) $16.95

Tan, Charles (ed)

Lauriat: A Filipino-Chinese Speculative Fiction Anthology

 (14 original stories) $18.00

Tobin, Paul (ed)

White Cloud Worlds

 (Full color art book showcasing the work of 27 established and emerging sf and fantasy artists from Aotearoa New Zealand) $29.99

Walton, Evangeline

The Mabinogion Tetralogy: Prince of Annwn / The Children of Llyr / The Song of Rhiannon / The Island of the Mighty (alternate title: The Virgin and the Swine)

 (Omnibus reprint; 4 classic fantasies based on Welsh mythology) $24.95

Watson/Whates (ed)

The Mammoth Book of SF Wars

 (Anthology; 24 stories (3 original to this volume) of war in the future) $13.95

Whitehead, Colson

Zone One

(After a pandemic devastates the planet, a team of civilian volunteers is tasked with clearing out feral zombies from lower Manhattan. Mark is occupied with the mundane mission of zombie mop-up, the rigors of Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder, and the impossible tasks of coming to terms with a fallen world. Then things start to go wrong) $15.00

Williams, Mazarkis

The Emperor's Knife

(Tower & Knife #1: When the Cerani Empire is devastated by a strange plague, long-planned conspiracies boil over into violence, and an invincible evil intelligence known as the Pattern Master appears from the deep desert. Only three people stand in his way: a lost prince, a world-weary assassin, and a young girl from the steppes who saw a path in a pattern once, among the waving grasses - a path that just might save them all) $14.99

Williams, Tad

A Stark and Wormy Knight

 (Collection; 11 stories, novellas, and scripts) $40.00

Wilson, N.D.

The Dragon's Tooth

(Ashtown Burials #1: Kids; Cyrus and Antigone Smith join an ancient order of explorers who search for lost cities and powerful artifacts, and act as jallers to unkillable criminals who have terrorized the world for millennia) $7.99

Wingrove, David

Son of Heaven

(Chung Kuo Prequel #1: Dorset, 2085: Chinese airships are in the skies, and Jake finds himself forcibly incorporated into a global city of some 34 billion souls, where a resurgent China is seeking to abolish the past and bring about world peace through rigidly enforced order. But a civil war looms, and Jake will find himself at the heart of the struggle) $12.95

Wrede, Patricia C.

Shadow Magic

(Lyra #1: Reissue; Her kingdom's ancient enemies have kidnapped 20-year-old Princess Alethia, carrying her off through the forest. These are magic woods, home to fabled creatures whose existence she has always doubted. To find her way home, Alethia will have to learn to trust the old tales, which hold the only hope of saving her kingdom; Signed copies) $14.99

Wrede, Patricia C.

Daughter of Witches

(Lyra #2: Reissue; After her parents were executed for practicing magic, Ranira became indentured servant to a brutal innkeeper. While attempting to protect her from her master's cruelty, three guests reveal magical powers. Now she must unleash her own magical powers to save her new friends from certain death; Signed copies) $14.99

Wrede, Patricia C.

The Harp of Imach Thyssel

(Lyra #3: Reissue; Emereck, a minstrel, and Flindaran, a nobleman masquerading as a tramp, have found an abandoned castle, and in it, one of Lyra's most sought-after treasures. Emereck must learn to harness its strength to create and destroy, with the fate of the kingdom hanging in the balance; Signed copies) $22.99

Wrede, Patricia C.

Caught in Crystal

(Lyra #4: Reissue; When a sorceress asks for a room at Kayl's country inn, Kayl is sure the woman has come to take her back to the life she renounced. To save her family and her world, Kayl will have to unlock a side of herself she buried long ago; Signed copies) $24.99

Wrede, Patricia C.

The Raven Ring

(Lyra #5: Reissue; Learning that her mother has died far from home, of wounds sustained in an attack, Eleret sets out to reclaim her mother's belongings - especially a ring etched with a raven. She doesn't know what's special about the ring, but someone was willing to kill for it. To make it home in one piece, she will have to unlock the mysteries of the ring; Signed copies) $23.99

Zeltserman, Dave

Monster: A Novel of Frankenstein

(19th-century Germany: When his beloved is murdered, a young man is accused of the crime. Broken on the wheel and left for dead, he awakens on a lab table, transformed into an abomination. He finds his tormentor, Victor Frankenstein, in league with the Marquis de Sade, creating something much more sinister) $23.95

Expected Early September

Aguirre, Ann

Endgame

(Sirantha Jax #6: PBO; The planet La'heng is occupied by foreign conquerors, but Jax means to liberate it as part of a grass-roots resistance movement) $7.99

Aiken, G.A.

How to Drive a Dragon Crazy

(Dragon Kin #6: PBO; Izzy is trying to fulfill a ridiculous quest for a pushy god; sexy dragon warlord Eibhear the Blue is determined to come along to protect her) $7.99

Allston, Aaron

Conviction

(Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi #7: Abeloth is on the run, but has not given up its plans to destroy the galaxy, even as the Jedi and the Sith abandon all pretense of cooperation and make plans to rout each other) $7.99

Almasi, G.T.

Blades of Winter

(Shadowstorm #1: Rather than risk another war, the four superpowers - the U.S., the Soviet Union, Greater Germany, and the Nationalist Republic of China - have poured their resources into creating superspies known as Levels. Alix is one of the best U.S. Levels. But when a decision explodes - literally - in her face, she uncovers a conspiracy that could upset the balance of power) $9.99

Anderson, K/Peart N

Clockwork Angels

(Companion novel to the newest Rush album; a young man travels across a steampunk world of lost cities, pirates, anarchists, carnivals, and a Watchmaker who imposes precision on daily life) $24.95

Anderson, Kevin J.

Death Warmed Over

(Dan Shamble #1: PBO; A resurrected mummy is suing the museum that put him on display. Two witches, victims of a curse gone wrong, are seeking restitution from a publisher for not using 'spell check' on magical tomes. It's all in a day's work for zombie P.I. Dan Chambeaux. And he's got to figure out a very personal question: Who killed him?) $15.00

Anthony, Piers

Well-Tempered Clavicle

(Xanth #35: Picka Bones and his sister Joy'nt are off in search of adventure with three creatures newly arrived from Mundania - and not the sort of creatures you might expect!) $7.99

Archer, Alex

The Matador Crown

(Rogue Angel #38: PBO; Invited to the Museum of Cadiz to assess some coins, Annja soon finds herself embroiled in a murder investigation that leads her to an illegal - and deadly - collection of Visigoth votive crowns) $6.99

Axler, James

Crimson Waters

(Deathlands #106: PBO; Stranded in a gutted redoubt in the West Indies, Ryan and his friends must escape before they are wiped out by pirates) $6.99

Baggott, Julianna

Pure

(Pressia barely remembers the Detonations, when the world turned to ash, dust, and damaged bodies. Having reached the age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia - to be trained as a soldier, or used as a live target - she is on the run. Those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked are inside the Dome. Partridge - whose father is an important man in the Dome, and whose mother never made it inside their shelter - feels isolated. When he learns that his mother might still be alive, he risks his life to leave the Dome to find her. And when Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again) $9.99

Ballantine, Philippa

Wrayth

(Book of the Order #3: PBO; Sorcha is still unable to move or speak; even her partner Merrick cannot reach her through their shared bond. But when Sorcha is abducted by men seeking her lover Raed, only Merrick can find and rescue her) $7.99

Base, Graeme

Little Elephants

( Kids; Full color picture book; a boy living on a farm in Texas gets a big surprise when he discovers tiny flying elephants under his bed) $16.95

Battersby, Lee

The Corpse-Rat King

(Battlefield looter Marius is mistaken for a dead monarch by one of the dead soldiers, and transported to the Kingdom of the Dead. The dead need a King to remind God where they are. To recover his life, Marius must return to the surface and find them a King. Which he fully intends to do - just as soon as he stops running) $7.99

Bell, Alex

Lex Trent versus the Gods

(Lex Trent #1: Lex Trent's world is inhabited by magicians, crones, and a menagerie of gods and goddesses. And while Lex is seemingly dedicated to his legal studies, he leads a double life as a notorious cat burglar who has been evading capture for years. But Lex's luck is about to run out, because the Goddess of Fortune has selected him to be her player in the highly dangerous Games) $11.95

Beyer, Kristen

The Eternal Tide

(Star Trek Voyager: PBO; The fleet continues its exploration of the Delta Quadrant, investigating the current status of sectors formerly controlled by the Borg) $7.99

Blaylock, James P.

Zeuglodon

(Pursued by kidnappers, three junior members of the Guild of St. George must descend into the depths of the hollow earth to return the Sleeper to his ancestral home. But awakening him might mean the end of the dream, the closing of the passage, and three intrepid explorers marooned in a savage land) $35.00

Bond, Gwenda

Blackwood

(YA; 114 modern-day people have disappeared from Roanoke Island. Miranda, from the island's most infamous family, and Phillips, who hears the voices of the dead, must dodge everyone from federal agents to long-dead alchemists as they work to uncover the secrets of the new Lost Colony) $9.99

Bornikova, Phillipa

This Case Is Gonna Kill Me

(Linnet comes from an affluent human family. When she begins her career at a vampire law firm, she discovers that, in a workplace where some humans will eventually achieve immense power and centuries of extra lifespan, office politics can be vicious beyond belief) $14.99

Brockmann, Suzanne

Born to Darkness

(Determined to end the scourge of a designer drug that can make anyone a superpowered Greater-Than, but exacts a lethal toll, operative Michelle Mackenzie is knocked for a loop when she meets the new test subject: former Navy SEAL Shane Laughlin, her latest one-night stand) $7.99

Brook, Meljean

Riveted

(Iron Seas #3: PBO; Five years ago, Annika unwitting endangered the secret of her Iceclandic community. Now she serves on an airship - and her home is again threatened when David comes aboard, looking to expose her secrets. Disaster leaves them stranded on a glacier, pursued by a madman - with heat rising between them) $16.00

Buehlman, Christopher

Those Across the River

(When Frank Nichols returns to his Georgia hometown to write a history of his family's plantation, he soon learns there is a presence there that demands sacrifice - and has been waiting for Frank's homecoming) $15.00

Buettner, Robert

Undercurrents

(Orphan's Legacy #2: Sent to bring down the local politicos of a politically quarantined giant habitat, Lt. Jazen Parker finds himself inclined to abandon the place to its ways - until he uncovers a plot to throw a 500-hundred-planet alliance into anarchy) $7.99

Carroll, Lee

Black Swan Rising

(Garet James #1: New York City shopkeeper John Dee offers jeweler Garet James a generous sum of money to open a vintage silver box. The symbol of the swan on the box matches a ring Garet's mother gave her, and when she opens the box, otherworldly things start happening) $7.99

Carson, Rae

The Girl of Fire and Thorns

(Elisa #1: YA; Andre Norton Award finalist. Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness. Elisa is the chosen one. She could be everything to those who need her most - if the prophecy is fulfilled, if she finds the power deep within herself, if she doesn't die young. Most of the chosen do) $9.99

Cassidy, Dakota

Accidentally Dead

(Accidentally Paranormal #2: After a patient bites her, dental assistant Nina Blackman ends up with a set of fangs, a taste for blood - and an irresistible attraction to the patient) $7.99

Charlton, Blake

Spellbound

(Nicodemus #2: The demon behind his curse has hatched a plot to force Nicodemus to change language and ultimately use it to destroy all human life. Nico faces challenges from all sides as he struggles to thwart the demon's plan) $7.99

Christopher, Adam

Seven Wonders

(PBO; Tony lives in a city under siege by hooded supervillain The Cowl. When Tony develops superpowers and acts to take down The Cowl, he finds that the local superheroes aren't as grateful as he thought they'd be) $12.99

Ciruelo

The Book of the Dragon

 (Reissue; Full color. Reveals the secrets of the dragons, illuminating a culture filled with poetry, magic, and art) $17.95

Cook, Glen

A Path to Coldness of Heart

(Dread Empire #8: King Bragi Ragnorson is the captive of Lord Shih-kaa and the Empress Mist at the heart of the Dread Empire. Bragi's queen and what remains of his army seek to find and free their king, hampered by the loss or desertion of their best warriors. Dane, Duke of Greyfells, seeks to seize the rule of Kavelin. And in the ancient castle Fangdred, the sorcerer Varthlokkur waits, using his arts to spy on the world at large, and observing the puppet strings that control kings and empires alike) $15.99

Correia, Larry

Legion

(Monster Hunter #4: When hunters from around the world gather in Las Vegas for a conference, a creature left over from a WWII weapons experiment wakes up and goes on a rampage across the desert. A wager between rival companies turns into a race to see who can bag the creature first. But there's more to this case than meets the eye: the crew from MHI will have to stop an ancient god from turning Sin City into hell on earth; Signed copies; signing at Uncle Hugo’s Tuesday, September 18, 5-6 pm) $25.00

Crane, Carolyn

Head Rush

(Justine Jones #3: As Midcity cowers under martial law, sleepwalking cannibals, and a mysterious rash of paranormal copycat violence, Justine's search for answers leads her into the most dangerous mind game yet) $16.00

Curran, Kim

Shift

(YA; 16-year-old Scott learns he's a Shifter, with the power to undo any decision he's ever made. Pretty cool, until his world starts to unravel around him, and he realizes that using his power has terrible consequences) $9.99

Daniells, Rowena Cory

Sanctuary

(Outcast #3: With winter storms brewing and raiders drawn by rumors of wealth, tension grows on the overcrowded ships of the mystics. And although Imoshen sent the Sagora Scholars a request for sanctuary, they haven't replied) $8.99

De Grave, Kathleen

The Hour of Lead

(Kansas, 2039: An earthquake that has slowed down time forces two people to confront their pasts in order to repair their broken lives in the present) $14.95

Dick, Philip K.

Upon the Dull Earth

 (Collected Stories #3: Collection; 23 stories and novellas written in 1953 and 1954, plus extensive story notes) $40.00

Dick, Philip K.

Solar Lottery (alternate title: World of Chance)

(Reissue; In 2203 anyone can become the ruler of the solar system - it all comes down to the random turns of a giant wheel. But when a new Quizmaster takes over, the old one still keeps some rights, namely the right to hire assassins to attempt to kill the new leader. After the most recent change in leadership, employees of the former ruler scurry to find an assassin who can get past telepathic guards. But when one employee switches sides, troubling facts about the lottery system come to light, and it just might not be possible for anyone to win) $13.95

Dick, Philip K.

We Can Build You

(Reissue; When Louis Rosen's electronic organ company builds a pitch-perfect robotic replica of Abraham Lincoln, they are pulled into the orbit of a shady businessman, who is looking to use Lincoln for his own profit. Meanwhile, Rosen seeks Lincoln's advice as he woos a woman incapable of understanding human emotions - someone who may be even more robotic than Lincoln's replica) $13.95

Dick, Philip K.

The World Jones Made

(Reissue; Floyd Jones has always been able to see exactly one year into his future, a gift and curse that began one year before he was born. As a fortune-teller at a post-apocalyptic carnival, Jones is a powerful force, and may just be able to force society away from its paralyzing Relativism - if he can avoid the radioactively unstable government hitman on his tail) $13.95

Doctorow, C/Stross, C

The Rapture of the Nerds

(At the dusk of the 21st century, Earth has a population of roughly a billion hominids happily living in a preserve at the bottom of a gravity well. Those who weren't happy have emigrated to the densethinker clades that fog the inner solar system. The metaconsciousness of the solar system occasionally spams Earth's networks with plans for cataclysmically disruptive technologies. A sane species would ignore these get-evolved-quick schemes, but there's always someone who will bite. So there's Tech Jury Service: random humans charged with assessing dozens of new inventions and ruling on whether to let them loose. Young Huw, a technophobic, misanthropic Welshman, has been selected for the latest jury) $24.99

Doctorow, Cory

For the Win

(YA; In electronic sweatshops, countless 'gold farmers', trapped by abusive contracts and physical threats, harvest virtual treasure for their employers to sell to First World gamers willing to spend real money to skip straight to higher-level gameplay. A mysterious woman called Big Sister Nor will use her experience, knowledge of history, and connections to real-world organizers to build group of young people into a movement that can challenge the status quo) $10.99

Douglas, Ian

Bloodstar

(Star Corpsman #1: PBO; Navy Corpsman Elliot Carlyle and Bravo Company's Black Wizards are en route to the colony planet of Bloodworld, where the alien Qesh have made violent first contact) $7.99

Egan, Greg

The Eternal Flame

(Orthogonal #2: When a fuel shortage threatens the generation ship's voyage, Tamara the astronomer sees a risky solution in a meteor whose trajectory will bring it within range. Meanwhile, Carlo the biologist searches for a better way to control the ship's population explosion) $26.99

Elliott, Kate

Cold Fire

(Spiritwalker #2: Cat and Bee are caught in an intricate web of subterfuge and politics. Everyone seems to want something from them: the warlord who wants to conquer Europa, the Cold Mages who stand against him, and the dangerous Master of the Wild Hunt) $7.99

Flanagan, John

The Outcasts

(Brotherband #1: Kids; Skandians are known for their size and strength. Not Hal, Stig, and their friends. But that doesn't mean they don't have skills, or courage. And they'll need both to do battle at sea against the Wolves and the Sharks in the ultimate race) $8.99

Flavin, Teresa

The Blackhope Enigma

(Kids; Blackhope Tower is shrouded in intrigue, centering on a labyrinth and painting in the Mariner's Chamber. When 14-year-old Sunni visits the tower and sees her stepbrother Dean disappear, seemingly into the painting itself, she sets out to find him) $6.99

Flint, Eric (ed)

Ring of Fire III

 (Ring of Fire: Anthology; 20 original alternate history tales set in the world of  

1632

, by Flint, Lackey, and more) $7.99

Friedman, C.S.

Legacy of Kings

(Magister #3: With the Magisters hunting her for killing one of their own, Kamala's only hope of survival lies in the northern Protectorates. There spells are warped by a curse, originally intended to protect the lands of men from the souleaters. But the curse appears to be weakening - and the threat of the souleaters is once more falling across the land) $7.99

Froud, Brian & Wendy

Trolls

 (Art book; new and classic work by the Frouds, revealing the world of trolls) $35.00

Gaider, David

The Stolen Throne

 (Dragon Age: Prequel to video game  

Dragon Age: Origins

) $7.99

Gear, W.M. & Kathleen

The Broken Land

(First North Americans #19: Dangerous sorcerer Atotarho has set in motion a cataclysmic battle that threatens to destroy the Iroquoian world. To stop him, Jigonsaseh, Hiyawento, and Sky Messenger must find a way to unite five warring nations) $7.99

Gibson, William

Distrust That Particular Flavor

 (Collection; 25 essays and articles on technology, popular culture, writing, and more) $16.00

Gilman, Laura Anne

The Shattered Vine

(Vineart War #3: As conditions worsen throughout the Lands, Jerzy returns to the Berengia to delve into the magic that has been growing within him, knowing that his god-forbidden knowledge may be the only thing that can save the Lands Vin) $9.99

Golden, Christie

Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War

(World of Warcraft: When a beloved peacekeeper is pressed to the limit by an inconceivable horror, will it change her forever? Break her? Or redefine her role on Azeroth?) $26.00

Goonan, Kathleen Ann

In War Times

(1941: After his brother is killed at Pearl Harbor, Sam promises that he will do anything he can to stop the war, and is selected to study code breaking, electronics, and physics. He is seduced by a mysterious female physicist, and given the plans for a device that will end the war, perhaps even end the human predilection for war. But the device does something less, and more, than that) $15.99

Gorey, Edward

A Halloween Treat

(In a previously unpublished vignette, kids and cats go trick-or-treating, gathering loot that might be tricks - or their very own monsters. Plus a collection of ghastly ghost illustrations) $13.00

Green, Simon R.

Ghost of a Dream

(Ghost Finders #3: PBO; Renovations at the long-abandoned Haybarn Theater have been thrown off schedule by some peculiar incidents. The team figures investigating a haunted theater will be a walk in the park - until they encounter the Phantom of the Haybarn, an ancient evil with the ability to alter reality) $7.99

Greenwood, Ed

Elminster Enraged

(Forgotten Realms: Sage of Shadowdale #2: Inhabiting the body of a fallen dark elf, Elminster begins to rally Cormyr's Wizards of War. Manshoon has plans as well: to conquer Cormyr and be the new Emperor, and hunt down the Sage's clones) $25.95

Grimes, Linda

In a Fix

(Ciel Halligan #1: Aura adaptor Ciel Halligan takes on her clients' appearances and slips into their lives to handle situations they don't want to deal with themselves. Her current job, snagging a marriage proposal for her client during an island vacation, is pretty enjoyable - until her resort bungalow is blown up and her client's date is snatched by modern-day Vikings) $14.99

Grinti, Mike & Rachel

Claws

(Kids; Emma's family lives in a trailer park that's home to down-and-out harpies, hags, trolls - and Jack, a one-eyed, smooth-talking cat. He becomes Emma's friend, and she discovers that she, too, has cat magic - claws. She's going to need them to rescue her sister from the powerful faeries who stole her) $16.99

Harris/Kelner (ed)

An Apple for the Creature

 (Anthology; urban fantasy stories of unnatural education, including a new Sookie Stackhouse story) $26.95

Hartley, A.J.

Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact

(Kids; When he's forced to move from his tiny English town to Atlanta, Georgia, Darwen knows things will be different - but he wasn't expecting to discover that the old mirror in his new closet leads to another world - or that there are creatures there who are after something that only human children possess) $8.99

Hatke, Ben

Legends of Zita the Spacegirl

(Zita #2: PBO; Kids; Full color graphic novel; Zita is determined to make it home to Earth, but her robot doppelganger is wreaking havoc, and Zita is being blamed) $12.99

Herbert, James

The Secret of Crickley Hall

(Would you live in a place where ghostly things keep happening? Where hushed whimpering is heard? Where the presence of evil is all around you? The Caleighs did, but they had their reasons. They should have known better) $9.99

Hinks, Darius

Orion: The Vaults of Winter

(Warhammer: The forest-king Orion awakens from his winter slumber to discover he has been cursed. As the corruption spreads to the woodland realm around him, he must rely upon his loyal subjects to help him unmask a traitor) $11.99

Holkins, J/Krahulik, M

Magical Kids in Danger

(Penny Arcade #8: Full color. Collects the 2007 strips of the popular webcomic starring geeky heroes Gabe and Tycho, plus creator commentary) $14.99

Hughes, Alex

Clean

(Mindspace #1: PBO; Adam used to work for the Telepath's Guild. Now he works for the cops. His ability to get inside the twisted minds of suspects makes him their best interrogator. A serial killer is stalking the city, and Adam needs to solve the case, because he's just had a vision of the future - and he's the next to die) $7.99

Hunter, Erin

The Empty City

(Survivors #1: Kids; The humans are gone, and a new animal is ready to rule the world. Which animals are brave enough to take control when disaster strikes? And what enemies will stand in their way?) $16.99

Jacka, Benedict

Taken

(Alex Verus #3: PBO; Mage apprentices have been vanishing without a trace, and someone on the Council might be involved. Alex has no evidence, no witnesses, and no suspects, but he sees that he doesn't know the half of it - and that he could be the next to disappear) $7.99

Johnson-Shelton, Nils

The Invisible Tower

(Otherworld Chronicles #1: Kids; A mysterious message appears in Artie Kingfisher's favorite video game, leading him to a game store where a centuries-old wizard named Merlin holds the key to his destiny) $6.99

Johnson, Mat

Pym

 (A failed academic acquires an old slave narrative manuscript confirming that Edgar Allan Poe's  

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym

 is a true story. He sets out for Antarctica to discover the land of black people that Poe describes, but instead he and his fellow adventurers are enslaved by the white ice creatures from the novel. Now this black crew must try to escape slavery all over again) $15.00

Kadrey, Richard

Devil Said Bang

(Sandman Slim #4: While ruling the denizens of darkness does have perks, James Stark isn't exactly thrilled with the course of his career. He has to hold off a host of killers while working on his escape plan. Meanwhile, a serial killer ghost is running wild in LA, and Slim's angelic alter ego is hiding in the lost days of time with a cabal who can rewrite reality) $24.99

Kibuishi, Kazu

Prince of the Elves

(Amulet #5: Kids; Full color graphic novel. The Elf King has forged new amulets which will allow him to invade Cielis and destroy it; Emily and her friends make desperate preparations to defend Cielis) $12.99

Kittredge, Caitlin

Soul Trade

(Black London #5: PBO; Crow-mage Jack Winter and former detective Pete Caldecott face formidable new enemies as they continue their quest to save Black London from destruction) $7.99

Kostic, Conor

Edda

(Epic #3: YA; In the virtual world of Edda, Scanthax the ruler decides he wants to invade another virtual world. This move embroils the universes of Edda, Saga, and Epic in all-out war - with three teenagers determined to try to restore peace) $9.99

Krentz/Castle, Jayne

The Lost Night

(PBO; Psychic Rachel Bonner has found peace and quiet on Rainshadow Island - until Harry Sebastian arrives to investigate strange events in the Preserve. She can sense the heart of darkness within him - and the stirrings of desire within her) $7.99

Lackey, M/Edghill, R

A Host of Furious Fancies: Beyond World's End / Spirits White as Lightning

 (Bedlam's Bard #3 / #4: Omnibus reprint; 2 fantasy novels) $13.00

LaValle, Victor

The Devil in Silver

(On his first night in New Hyde Hospital's psych ward, Pepper is visited by a terrifying creature who nearly kills him before being hustled away by the hospital staff. It's no delusion; Pepper rallies three other inmates in a plot to fight back) $27.00

Laws, Robin D.

Blood of the City

 (Pathfinder Tales: PBO; Novel based on the game) $9.99

Lee, Sharon/Miller, Steve

Dragon Ship

 (Liaden: Theo Waitley #4: Theo has a trade route to run for Clan Korval while she convinces the ghost ship  

Bechimo

 - and herself - that she wants to commit herself to being the human side of their immensely powerful symbiosis. While her former lover battles a nano-virus that's eating him alive, Theo faces the unexpected challenge of rescuing hundreds of stranded pilots and crewmen from an explosive situation in near orbit around a suddenly hostile planet; Signed copies) $23.00

Lore, Pittacus

The Rise of Nine

(Lorien Legacies #3: YA; The stakes are higher than ever as John, Number Six, and Number Seven desperately try to find the rest of the Lorien Nine before it's too late) $17.99

Maltin, Leonard

Leonard Maltin's 2013 Movie Guide

(PBO; Revised and updated guide with thousands of capsule movie reviews, DVD and video listings, mail-order and online resources for buying and renting DVDs and videos, and more) $9.99

Mandanna, Sangu

The Lost Girl

(YA; Eva was cloned to replace Amarra if she ever died. So when Amarra dies in a car crash, Eva moves to India to replace her. But does she want to live out her years as a copy? Or risk everything to be Eva?) $17.99

Marr, Melissa

Carnival of Souls

(YA; Aya and Kaleb both face bleak futures, unless they can win a competition hosted by the Carnival of Souls, fighting to the death to join the ruling elite) $17.99

Martin/Lowder, J (ed)

Beyond the Wall: Exploring George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire

 (Essays by authors and critics looking at Martin's epic fantasy) $14.95

McDonald, Ian

Be My Enemy

(Everness #2: YA; Everett has escaped with the Infundibulum from the clutches of Charlotte Villiers and the Order, but his father is missing, banished to one of the billions of parallel universes. Everett and the airship crew have taken a Heisenberg Jump to a random parallel plane, where Everett is making plans to rescue his family. But Charlotte Villiers is one step ahead of him) $16.95

McGuire, Seanan

Ashes of Honor

(October Daye #6: PBO; While searching for a powerful changeling with the potential to destroy all of Faerie, Tobey is drawn into a web of kidnappings, political intrigue, and attempted assassinations) $7.99

McKinney, Joe

Mutated

(PBO; Fleeing the cities and their flesh-eating zombies, Bob Richardson and his crew find sanctuary at an abandoned farm. But their stronghold may not be enough - the undead are banding together and working as a group) $7.99

McMahon, Gary

Beyond Here Lies Nothing

(Concrete Grove #3: Ben arrives in Concrete Grove to research a infamous paranormal incident from the early 1970s; when strange things begin happening, it's up to him to put the ghosts to rest) $8.99

O'Brien, Caragh M.

Prized

(Birthmarked #2: YA; 16-year-old midwife Gaia flees the Enclave with her baby sister, only to be captured by the people of Sylum, where women rule the men, and a kiss is a crime) $9.99

Oliver, Lauren

Liesl & Po

(Kids; Locked in the attic by her cruel stepmother, Liesl is surprised one evening when a ghost named Po appears. That same evening, an alchemist's apprentice named Will makes an innocent mistake that has tremendous consequences for Liesl and Po, and draws the three of them together on an extraordinary journey) $6.99

Packard, Edward

Through the Black Hole

(U-Ventures: Kids; You're in command of the most advanced spaceship in the galaxy on the wildest mission in history. Choose your own fate as you try to make it through a black hole) $5.99

Palma, Felix J.

The Map of the Sky

(H.G. Wells #2: Socialite Emma Harlow agrees to marry millionaire Montgomery Gilmore, but only if he accepts her challenge to reproduce the invasion featured in Wells'  

War of the Worlds

. Interconnected plots tell a tale of time travel and mystery, with appearances by a young Edgar Allan Poe as well as Captain Shackleton and Charles Winslow) $26.00

Passarella, John

Rite of Passage

(Supernatural: A series of accidents and strange occurrences in a New Jersey town attracts the attention of the Winchester brothers) $7.99

Paterson, K & J

The Flint Heart

(Kids; Freely abridged from Eden Phillpotts' 1910 fantasy. A Stone Age man demands a talisman to harden his heart, allowing him to take control of his tribe. The tribe's magic man creates the Flint Heart, but the cruelty of it destroys the tribe. Thousands of years later, the talisman reemerges. Can Charles and his sister Unity find a way to rescue humans, fairies, and animals alike from its dark influence?) $9.99

Paver, Michelle

Gods and Warriors

(Kids; Warriors have kidnapped his sister and tried to kill him; a stranger has given him a bronze dagger. Now young Hylas is on the run, trying to discover why he's being hunted, and to find his sister before the warriors find him) $16.99

Petrucha, Stefan

Dead Mann Running

(Hessius Mann #2: PBO; The living dead PI is drawn into a killer case when a severed arm leaves a mysterious briefcase at his office) $7.99

Phillips, Holly

At the Edge of Waking

 (Collection of short fantasy fiction) $15.95

Priest, Christopher

The Islanders

(The Dream Archipelago is a vast network of islands whose very locations seem to twist and shift. Some islands have been sculpted into musical instruments, some are home to lethal creatures, some are playgrounds for the rich. And a war being fought by two distant continents is playing out across the archipelago's waters) $14.95

Reay, Joanne

Romeo Spikes

(Homicide detective Alexis Bianco teams up with the mysterious Lola, who is more weapon than woman, to pursue the Tormenta, demonic predators who convince humans to kill themselves in order to siphon off their victims' unspent lifespans) $25.00

Redwine, C.J.

Defiance

(YA; While other girls train to be ladies, Rachel trains to survive in the wilderness and wield a sword. When her father fails to return from a courier mission, her father's apprentice Logan is assigned to protect her. Together they will escape the tyrant's city to hunt for Rachel's father) $17.99

Reus, Katie

Primal Possession

(Moon Shifter #2: PBO; When a hate group targets humans known to sympathize with paranormal beings, December McIntyre turns to lupine shifter Liam Armstrong for help) $7.99

Rosca, Madeleine

The Clockwork Sky Volume 1

(Graphic novel. 1895: In the London slums, young Sally Peppers and automaton police boy Sky uncover a dark secret that could overturn all of London) $10.99

Scarrow, Alex

Day of the Predator

(TimeRiders #2: YA; When Maddy mistakenly opens a time window, Liam is marooned 65 million years in the past. He must make contact with Maddy and Sal before he's hunted down by dinosaurs - or alters history) $9.99

Sedia, Ekaterina (ed)

Circus: Fantasy Under the Big Top

 (PBO; Anthology; stories of circuses traditional, bizarre, and futuristic) $15.95

Shatner, William

Shatner Rules

(A collection of guidelines and fun facts, illustrated with stories from Bill's life and career, showing how to become Shatneresque) $15.00

Silverberg, Robert (ed)

Tales from Super-Science Fiction

 (Anthology; reprints 14 stories from the 1950s magazine) $32.00

Singh, Nalini

Archangel's Storm

(Guild Hunter #5: PBO; Angelic spymaster Jason and Princess Mahiya are drawn to each other as they work together to solve the murder of Neha's consort) $7.99

Slonczewski, Joan

The Highest Frontier

(On an Earth altered by global warming, with an invasive alien species threatening the surviving ecosystems, Jennifer Ramos Kennedy, daughter of a rich and influential family, is headed for the college of the future, in orbit) $7.99

Smith, Cordwainer

When the People Fell

 (Collection of Instrumentality stories and miscellaneous short stories, providing a sweeping saga of the centuries to come) $7.99

Smith, Sherwood

Blood Spirits

(Kim Murray #2: With the man she loves set to marry a look-alike princess, Kim returns to California to heal her broken heart. But family politics send her to London, where she winds up in a duel with a Dobrenican nobleman, and learns that her great sacrifice, leaving Alex, was a disaster. She returns to Dobrenica, where she finds ghosts, magic, and murder awaiting her) $7.99

Stein, Jeanne C.

Haunted

(Anna Strong #8: PBO; Vampire and bounty hunter Anna Strong and her friend Culebra end up in Mexico, dealing with cartel infighting, a few old vendettas, and missing girls) $7.99

Stirling, S.M.

The Tears of the Sun

(Change #8: Rudi McKenzie - now Artos, the High King of Montival - must stand against the forces of the Church Universal and Triumphant, knowing he may lose his life in the final battle) $9.99

Stirling, S.M.

Lord of Mountains

(Change #9: To end the war, Artos must journey to the Lake at the Heart of the Mountains and take part in a coronation that will unite the realms into a single kingdom, granting him an army large enough to defeat his enemies once and for all) $27.95

Strahan, Jonathan (ed)

Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron

 (YA; Anthology; original stories celebrating the witch) $16.99

Swallow, James

Fear to Tread

(Warhammer 40,000: Horus Heresy #21: Horus sends the Blood Angels to the Signus system, where an army of Khornate daemons waits for them. The Warmaster's plan is to use the flaw in the Blood Angels' gene-seed to turn them to the worship of the Blood God) $9.99

Thomas, Shelley Moore

The Seven Tales of Trinket

(Kids; Guided by a tattered map, accompanied by Thomas the Pig Boy, and inspired by her heritage, 11-year-old Trinket searches for the stories she needs to become a bard like her father, who disappeared years ago) $16.99

Thorpe, Gav

Path of the Outcast

(Warhammer 40,000: Eldar #3: While Aradryan lives as a Ranger, Alaitoc is attacked by the Sons of Orar Space Marines, and must do what he can to help save the craftworld) $8.99

Tinker, Major (ed)

The Steampunk Gazette

(From the founder of the Victorian Steampunk Society, a lavishly illustrated history of steampunk, from its 1980s origins to today. Sections on fashion, gadgets, home decor, art, literature, media, and social events) $24.99

Trent, Tiffany

The Unnaturalists

(YA; When his Tinker family is captured to be refinery slaves, Syrus Reed finds that his fate may be bound up with that of Vespa Nyx - and with the Unnatural creatures she catalogues in her father's New London museum) $16.99

Varley, John

Slow Apocalypse

(Screenwriter Dave Marshall thought the scenario sounded implausible when he heard it from a government consultant on his last film: a scientist releases a virus that feeds on petroleum into an Iraqi oil field, but it spreads to infect the entire international fuel supply. Now it's become a terrifying reality) $25.95

Weber, David

A Beautiful Friendship

(Stephanie Harrington #1: YA; On the pioneer planet Sphinx, young Stephanie Harrington discovers an intelligent alien species, treecats, and forms the first telepathic bond with one. But a lot of powerful people are determined to make sure that Sphinx remains entirely in human hands - even if it means the extermination of another thinking species) $9.99

Wendig, Chuck

Mockingbird

(Miriam #2: PBO; Miriam is trying to live a normal life, keeping her ability - to see when and how someone is going to die - in check. Which feels like keeping a tornado trapped in a tiny bottle. And then comes one really bad day) $7.99

Williams, Tad

The Dirty Streets of Heaven

(Bobby Dollar #1: Bobby is a rough-and-tumble angel who's always done his part in the long cold war between Heaven and Hell. But now he's stepped into the middle of something that's got both sides nervous - an unprecedented number of missing souls) $25.95

Wooding, Chris

Havoc

(Malice #2: Kids; Having escaped from Malice, Seth isn't sure if he should try to destroy the evil comic book from his own world, or go back for an artifact that might help. Meanwhile, Kady is still trapped in Malice, trying to find a rebel group of kids who want to fight cruel overlord Tall Jake) $9.99

Zeltserman, Dave

A Killer's Essence

(When a serial killer terrorizes New York City, jaded detective Stan Green finds just a single witness, a neurologically disabled recluse who sees through the souls of others as demonic hallucinations) $15.00

Expected Mid-September

Andrews, Scott K.

School's Out Forever

(Afterblight Chronicles: 15-year-old Lee and his boarding school's Matron must try to protect their charges from cannibalistic gangs, religious fanatics, a bullying prefect, and the surviving might of the U.S. Army) $12.99

Bachmann, Stefan

The Peculiar

(Kids; Bartholomew is a changeling, child of a faery father and a human mother, who lives in the faery slums of Bath. When he witnesses the kidnapping of another changeling, he finds himself at the center of a web of intrigue) $16.99

Balaban, Bob

The Creature from the Seventh Grade: Boy or Beast

(Kids; Charlie has suddenly morphed into a giant mutant sea creature. Now his best friends are treating him like a science project, the cool kids are recruiting him for their clique, and, for some reason, his parents are acting like everything is perfectly normal) $15.99

Barnhill, Kelly

The Mostly True Story of Jack

(Kids; When Jack is sent to Hazelwood, Iowa, to live with his crazy aunt and uncle, he expects a summer of boredom. But the people of Hazelwood have been waiting for him for a long time. He makes friends. The town bully beats him up. And the richest man in town begins to plot Jack's imminent demise. It's up to Jack to figure out why - but to do that, he'll have to believe that magic is real, and has something to do with him) $6.99

Bray, Libba

The Diviners

(YA; 1920s: Evie is shipped off to NYC to live with her Uncle Will, curator of the Museum of American Folklore, Superstition and the Occult. They find themselves in the thick of an investigation of occult-based murders. And Evie has a secret - a mysterious power that could help catch the killer, if he doesn't catch her first) $19.99

Brower, S/Heller, S

Breathless Homicidal Slime Mutants: The Art of the Paperback

 (Reissue; A celebration of the art and design of the mass-market paperback, from the late 19th century to today) $7.98

Burroughs/Maxwell

Jane: The Woman Who Loved Tarzan

 (PBO; Authorized by the Burroughs estate. The Tarzan story told from Jane's viewpoint; $25.99 hc also available) $14.99

Carlson, Amanda

Full Blooded

(Jessica McClain #1: PBO; Jessica has become a werewolf. It wasn't supposed to happen: female werewolves don't exist. When a killer comes looking for her, her Pack finds themselves caught in the middle of a war. It's up to Jessica to find out why everyone wants her dead) $12.99

Chabon, Michael

Telegraph Avenue

(2004: Archy and Nat rule a kingdom of used vinyl located in the borderlands of Berkeley and Oakland. Their wives, Gwen and Aviva, are two semi-legendary midwives who have welcomed more than a thousand newly minted citizens into the community. When a former NFL quarterback announces plans to build his latest megastore on a nearby stretch of Telegraph Avenue, Nat and Archy fear it means certain doom for their vulnerable little enterprise. Meanwhile, Aviva and Gwen also find themselves caught up in a battle for their professional existence; Signed copies expected) $27.99

Cornwall, Emma

Incarnation

 (In a steampunk London, Lucy Weston confronts Bram Stoker to find out why he lied about her in his novel  

Dracula

. Then, with Stoker's reluctant help, she sets out to track down the fiend who turned her into a vampire) $15.00

Davis, Jim

Garfield Gets in a Pickle

 (Garfield #54: PBO; Full color comic strips) $14.00

Durst, Sarah Beth

Vessel

(YA; Liyana has trained her entire life to be the vessel of a goddess, but the goddess never comes. Abandoned by her tribe, Liyana expects to die in the desert, until a boy arrives. Korbyn is a trickster god inside his vessel, who tells Liyana that five other gods are missing. They set off in search of the other vessels, for the tribes cannot survive without the magic of their gods. The closer she grows to Korbyn, the less Liyana wants to disappear to make way for her goddess. But she must die for her tribe to live, unless a trickster god can help her to trick fate - or a human girl can muster some magic of her own) $16.99

Edward, John

Fallen Masters

 (A final confrontation between good and evil unfolds on both the Earthly plane and the Other Side) $25.99

Erikson, Steven

The Forge of Darkness

(Malazan: Kharkarnas #1: In Kurald Galain, the commoners want Vatha Urusander, their great hero, to take Mother Dark's hand in marriage, but her consort Lord Draconus is opposed. As the impending clash disrupts the realm of Darkness, an ancient power emerges from the long dead seas. Caught in the middle of it all are the First Sons of Darkness, Anomander, Andarist, and Silchas Ruin) $27.99

Griffin, Kate

Stray Souls

(Sharon Li has just discovered she's a shaman, and not a moment too soon. London's soul has gone missing. To solve the mystery and rescue the dying city, she'll need help from the support group she's just set up for people with magical issues) $14.99

Johnson, Kij

At the Mouth of the River of Bees

 (Collection; 16 works of sf and fantasy from an award-winning author; Signed copies expected) $16.00

Jones, Stephen (ed)

A Book of Horrors

 (Anthology; original stories of horror and dark fantasy from top writers) $15.99

Jordan, Hillary

When She Woke

(In the not too distant future, the line between church and state has been eradicated, and convicted felons are no longer imprisoned but chromed - their skin color genetically altered to match the class of their crimes - and then released back into the population to survive as best they can. Hannah is a Red; her crime is abortion) $14.95

Kenyon, S/Love, D

The Curse

(Belador #3: PBO; When Svart Trolls invade Atlanta, Evalle tries to stop the bloody troll-led gang wars; she unwittingly exposes a secret that endangers all she holds dear and complicates her tumultuous love life with Storm) $7.99

King, A.S.

Everybody Sees the Ants

(YA; Andre Norton Award finalist. Lucky has a secret that helps him wade through his dysfunctional life. In his dreams, he escapes to the war-torn jungles of Laos, where he can be a hero. It's dangerous and wild - a place where his life just might be worth living. But how long can Lucky hide in his dreams before reality forces its way in?) $9.99

Knaak, Richard A.

Shade

(Legends of the Dragonrealm: Shade the spellcaster struggles to find an end to the curse he brought upon himself millennia ago) $16.00

Kristoff, Jay

Stormdancer

(Lotus War #1: After disaster befalls her mission to capture a griffin for the Shogun, Yukiko finds herself stranded in the wilderness with a crippled griffin. They will face intrigue, betrayal, and murder as they try to save their homeland) $24.99

Le Guin, Ursula K.

Finding My Elegy

 (Collection of some of her best early poetry plus a group of poems written over the last four years) $22.00

Leslie, Mark (ed)

Tesseracts 16: Parnassus Unbound

 (Anthology; short works of speculative fiction about art, music, literature, and culture) $15.95

Marillier, Juliet

Shadowfell

(YA; Possessing a powerful ability to communicate with the fairy-like Good Folk, 16-year-old Neryn sets out for Shadowfell, a home and training ground for a rebel group determined to overthrow the evil King Keldec) $16.99

McElligott/Tuxbury

Benjamin Franklinstein Meets the Fright Brothers

(Victor Godwin #2: Kids; When giant bat planes and mysterious attacks bring mayhem to Philadelphia, Victor knows only the Wright Brothers could pilot such creations - but the red-eyed brothers don't seem quite like themselves. Can Victor and his friends stop them from taking over the city?) $7.99

McOmber, Adam

The White Forest

(Jane has a gift that allows her to see the souls of manmade objects. When her friend Nathan becomes interested in a cult - led by a mystic who encourages his followers to explore dream manipulation - and then disappears, the famed Inspector Vidocq arrives in London to untangle events. But when a sinister truth emerges, Jane realizes she must use her talent to find Nathan before it's too late) $25.00

Shirley, John

Retribution

 (Resident Evil: PBO; Novelization of the film) $7.99

Starmer, Aaron

The Only Ones

(Kids; Martin arrives at the village of Xibalba. Like the other children who've journeyed there, he faces an awful truth. When families and friends all disappeared one afternoon, he and these other children were forgotten. Inspired by the prophesies of a mysterious boy who talks to animals, Martin believes he can reunite them with their loved ones - but believing and knowing are two different things) $7.99

Tanner, Lian

City of Lies

(Keepers #2: Kids; When his sister is stolen, Toadspit and his friend Goldie follow the child-stealers to a neighboring city. Along the way, Toadspit is captured. When Goldie discovers some secrets that the child-stealers will kill to protect, she'll need all her skills as a thief and a liar to survive and save her friends) $6.99

Tolkien, J.R.R.

The Art of

The Hobbit

 (The author's complete artwork for the book) $40.00

Weber, David

Midst Toil and Tribulation

(Safehold #6: A vicar of the Church of God Awaiting has engineered a rebellion against the Lord Protector of Siddermark, bringing civil war to the nation at harvest time) $27.99

Weeks, Brent

The Blinding Knife

(Lightbringer #2: Gavin had thought he had five years left, now he has less than one. Magic is running wild and threatens to destroy the Satrapies. The old gods are being reborn, and their army of color wights is unstoppable. The only salvation may be the brother whose freedom and life Gavin stole) $25.99

Ziegler, Rob

Seed

(After economic, political, and environmental collapse, the US is now controlled by Satori, a corporation that is also a living, intelligent city. Satori bioengineers the climate-resistant seed that feeds the nation, as well as the post-human genetic Designers, Advocates, and Laborers. When a Designer goes rogue, the government hopes to regain power by using her to break Satori's stranglehold on seed production) $15.99

Expected Early October

Anderson, Kevin J.

The Martian War

(PBO; What if the Martian invasion was not entirely the product of H.G.'s imagination? What if he witnessed something that spurred him to write  

The War of the Worlds

 as a warning?) $12.95

Anderson, Taylor

Firestorm

(Destroyermen #6: Even as the Allies and the Empire of New Britain Isles stand united against the Grik and the Japanese, the Holy Dominion - a warped, power-hungry mix of human cultures - threatens destruction with a devastating weapon neither Allies nor Empire can withstand) $7.99

Archer, Jill

Dark Light of Day

(Noon Onyx #1: PBO; Noon is capable of wielding the destructive power of demons. But because she's human, the demons consider her an abomination- and a threat to their rule over Earth) $7.99

Bein, Steve

Daughter of the Sword

(Fated Blades #1: Tokyo cop Mariko Oshiro investigates the attempted theft of an old samurai sword, forged by a swordsmith whose blades may have magical qualities. She is only the latest in a long line of warriors to confront this power, and it threatens to turn against her even as she learns to wield the sword) $16.00

Benford, Gregory et al

The Wonderful Future That Never Was

 (Between 1903 and 1969,  

Popular Mechanics

 magazine included hundreds of predictions about the future. This book recaps some of those ideas, illustrated with the original futurist art. Benford supplies modern perspective on why some of the predictions were made. Full color throughout) $17.95

Briggs, Patricia

Cry Wolf Vol. 1

 (Alpha & Omega GN #1: Full color graphic novel; adaptation of the novel) $24.95

Brown, Eric

Helix Wars

(For 200 years, peace has reigned on the Helix. But when shuttle pilot Jeff Ellis crash-lands on Phandra, he interrupts an invasion by the neighboring Sporelli - who scheme to exterminate Ellis before he can return to New Earth and inform the peacekeepers) $8.99

Buehlman, Christopher

Between Two Fires

(1348: After an orphan tells him that the Black Plague is only part of a greater cataclysm, Thomas, a disgraced knight, finds himself in a macabre battleground of angels and demons, sinners and saints, in a struggle for nothing less than the soul of man) $25.95

Burroughs/Griffin

Tarzan Centennial

 (Lavishly illustrated official history of the Tarzan phenomenon) $39.95

Caine, Rachel

Black Dawn

(Morganville Vampires #12: YA; Unless Claire and her friends figure out how to cure Amelie - who has been infected by the master draug's bite - and defeat the draug, Morganville will become little more than a ghost town) $9.99

Campbell, Jack

Tarnished Knight

(Lost Stars #1: Betrayed by the brutal Syndicate government, Artur Drakon and Gwen Iceni launch a battle for control of the Midway star system) $26.95

Carey, Jacqueline

Dark Currents

(Agent of Hel #1: Fathered by an incubus, Daisy lives in a Midwestern resort town that is home to eccentric locals, wealthy summer residents, assorted paranormals, and eldritch folk presided over by reclusive Norse goddess Hel. When a boy drowns and signs point to eldritch involvement, Daisy investigates with the help of a sexy werewolf cop) $26.95

Chan, Kylie

Earth to Hell

(Journey to Wudang #1: On Earth, Simon Wong, the Demon King's son, is no longer around to trouble Emma and Simone, but his associates have taken over Simon's underworld activities. The otherworldly stones are being targeted and are in danger of being completely destroyed. It seems that the Demon King is the only one Emma can turn to for help) $7.99

Chance, Karen

Fury's Kiss

(Midnight's Daughter #3: PBO; Dory and Louis-Cesare will have to face off with zombie vampires, fallen angels, and a mad scientist to get to the bottom of a deadly smuggling ring) $7.99

Clarke, Cassandra Rose

The Assassin's Curse

(YA; When Ananna runs away from her arranged marriage, her cutthroat parents hire Naji the assassin to murder her. When she inadvertently saves his life, she activates his curse: whenever her life is in danger, he must protect her. This development pleases neither of them - but to lift the curse, they will have to complete three impossible tasks) $9.99

Cobley, Michael

Seeds of Earth

(Humanity's Fire #1: The planet Darien hosts a thriving human settlement. But hidden on Darien's forest moon are secrets that go back to an apocalyptic battle between ancient races. Darien is about to become the focus of an intergalactic power struggle, and the true stakes are beyond human comprehension) $7.99

Connolly, Tina

Ironskin

(Jane, who wears an iron mask to contain the fey curse that scars her cheek, answers a carefully worded ad for a governess, certain that the child is fey-cursed, and that she can help. She finds herself fascinated by the girl's artist father: a parade of ugly women enter his studio, and come out as beautiful as the fey) $24.99

Crossan, Sarah

Breathe

 (YA; In a world where air is restricted, three teens find out exactly what they're willing to do for the freedom to breathe) $17.99

Cummings, Sean

Poltergeeks

(YA; To save her witch mother's life, 15-year-old Julie and her uber-geek friend Marcus must find out who is responsible for increasing levels of poltergeist activity all over their town) $9.99

Doctorow, Cory

Pirate Cinema

(YA; In dystopian near-future Britain, artists and activists are trying to fight a new bill that will criminalize harmless internet creativity, making felons of millions of British citizens. Parliament is in thrall to a few wealthy media conglomerates, but the powers-that-be haven't reckoned on the power of a gripping movie to change people's minds) $19.99

Drake, D/Lambshead, J

Into the Hinterlands

(Sent to clear the power-hungry Terrans from a star sector where they're encroaching, greenhorn commander Allen Allenson must also overcome the machinations of the alien Riders) $7.99

Drake, David

Night & Demons

 (PBO; Collection of horrific, weird, and fantastic tales) $13.00

Dunn, Christian (ed)

Shadows of Treachery

 (Warhammer 40,000: Horus Heresy #22: PBO; Anthology) $8.99

Dunn, Christian (ed)

Treacheries of the Space Marines

 (Warhammer 40,000: PBO; Anthology) $8.99

Emson, Thomas

Skarlet

(Vampire Trinity #1: When a new drug starts turning users into vampires, Iraqi War veteran Jake Lawton finds himself doing battle with immortals and their human cohorts. And beneath the London streets lurks a bigger evil, waiting to be resurrected to reign over a city of human slaves) $14.99

Evans, Chris

Ashes of a Black Frost

(Iron Elves #3: As the human-dominated Calahrian Empire struggles to maintain its hold on power in the face of armed rebellion, the Iron Elves' perilous quest to defeat the power-hungry elf witch, the Shadow Monarch, takes on greater urgency) $9.99

Evenson, B.K.

Catalyst

 (Dead Space: Novel based on the video game) $14.99

Feehan, Christine

Dark Predator

(Carpathian #19: When he leaves his life as master executioner behind, Zacarias wonders who he really is. The answer awaits him back home in Peru, where he will face old enemies and a bloody family legacy - and find his lifemate) $7.99

Fforde, Jasper

The Last Dragonslayer

(YA; 15-year-old Jennifer runs Kazam, an employment agency for magicians, but it's hard to stay in business when magic is drying up. Now visions are predicting the death of the world's last dragon at the hands of an unnamed Dragonslayer. If the visions are true, everything will change for Jennifer and Kazam - because something known as Big Magic is coming) $16.99

Fforde, Jasper

The Woman Who Died a Lot

(Thursday Next #7: After an assassination attempt, Thursday returns to Swindon to recuperate. But there are problems at home: Friday's career struggles in the Chronoguard; Tuesday's trouble perfecting the Anti-Smote shield in time to prevent an angry Deity from wiping Swindon off the face of the earth; and the issue of Thursday's third child Jenny, who exists only as a confusing and disturbing memory. With Goliath attempting to replace Thursday with synthetic Thursdays, and a call from Bookworld to hunt down Pagerunners who have jumped into the Realworld, Thursday's convalescence is going to be anything but restful) $26.95

Fisher, Catherine

Darkwater

(YA; Desperate to regain the power and wealth her family had lost, Sarah made a bargain with Azrael, Lord of Darkwater Hall, who gave her 100 years and the means to her objective - in exchange for her soul. A century later, will she be able to stop young Tom from making the same ruinous bargain?) $16.99

Flint, Eric

1635: Papal Stakes

(Ring of Fire: Trapped in a mire of papal assassins, power politics, murder, and mayhem, Pope Urban VII and uptimers Frank Stone and Ambassador Sharon Nichols and their downtimer spouses need help fast. Special rescue crews converge on Rome, and an uptime airplane is on its way to spirit the Pope to safety. When everything goes wrong, it's once again up to the rough and ready Grantville natives to set things right) $25.00

Gear, W.M. & Kathleen

A Searing Wind

(Contact: The Battle for America #3: After learning of de Soto's plans to target the Chicaza, Black Shell is determined to set the perfect trap to preserve his people's pride, traditions, and winter stockpiles of food and supplies) $9.99

Giallongo, Zack

Broxo

(Kids; Full color graphic novel. Can Broxo - the only survivor of a barbarian tribe - and Princess Zora defeat the man-eating walking dead that drag themselves out of a fetid lake?) $16.99

Gibson, William

Zero History

(Campbell Memorial Award finalist. A Department of Defense contract for combat wear turns out to be the gateway drug for arms dealers so shadowy that even global marketing magnate Hubertus Bigend, whose subtlety and power in the private sector would be hard to overstate, finds himself outmaneuvered and adrift in a seriously dangerous world) $9.99

Gilman, Charles

Professor Gargoyle

(Lovecraft Middle School #1: Kids; At his brand new, high-tech school, 11-year old Robert finds some anomalies: rats in the lockers; a student gone missing; a library corridor full of worm-eaten antique books; and a science professor who seems to be undergoing a strange transformation) $13.99

Gladstone, Max

Three Parts Dead

(A god has died, and it's up to Tara, a first-year associate at a necromantic firm, to bring Him back to life before His city falls apart) $24.99

Gropp, Richard E.

Bad Glass

(PBO; The military moves in to quash rumors of unexplained phenomena in Spokane and figure out what's going on. But after weeks of news leaking out of the quarantine, it becomes clear they have no idea. A young photographer sneaks into the city, hoping to make a name for himself documenting the unimaginable - if he doesn't go insane first) $15.00

Hamilton, Kiki

The Faerie Ring

(YA; 1871: Pickpocket Tiki steals a ring that could lead to all-out war. For the ring belongs to Queen Victoria, and binds the rulers of England and Faerie to peace. A group of faerie rebels hopes to break the treaty with dark magic - and Tiki's blood) $9.99

Harris, Charlaine

The Sookie Stackhouse Companion

(Southern Vampire: Agatha Award finalist. Tour Bon Temps, Louisiana, prowl around the werewolf and werepanther communities, visit Tara's dress shop, and belly up to the bar at Merlotte's in this guide to Sookie's family, friends, enemies, lovers, and adventures. Includes an original Sookie novella, recipes, and more) $18.00

Harrison, Kim

A Perfect Blood

(Rachel Morgan #10: Ritually murdered corpses are appearing across Cincinnati, terrifying amalgams of human and other. Pulled in by the FIB to help investigate, Rachel Morgan soon realizes that someone is determined to make demons. But it can't be done without Rachel's blood) $7.99

Hayes, Erica

Revelation

(Seven Signs #1: PBO; Dr. Morgan Sterling doesn't believe in angels, but Luniel is one of the fallen, bound to fight evil to earn redemption. Together they must stop a zombie plague ravaging Manhattan's slums) $7.99

Heinlein, Robert A.

Starman Jones

 (Reissue; Classic sf novel) $7.99

Hendee, Barb

Ghosts of Memories

(Vampire Memories #5: PBO; Not all vampires want to live by the Four Laws. Now Eleisha must confront the deadliest predator she has ever faced, or lose everything she has fought to protect) $7.99

Hidalgo, Pablo

Star Wars: The Essential Reader's Companion

(Looks at all published Star Wars fiction, providing a synopsis of each story, behind the scenes facts and anecdotes, and a chronological listing of titles placing each in context. Illustrated with over a hundred full-color paintings) $28.00

Holm, Chris F.

The Wrong Goodbye

(Collector #2: PBO; Because of his efforts to avert the Apocalypse, Sam has been given a second chance, provided he can stick to the straight and narrow. Which is all well and good, until the soul he's sent to collect goes missing) $7.99

Hunter, Faith

Death's Rival

(Jane Yellowrock #5: PBO; To uncover the identity of the vamp who is trying to steal Leo's territory, Jane will have to venture into the underbelly of New Orleans vamp society) $7.99

Jerome, Celia

Sand Witches in the Hamptons

(Willow Tate #5: PBO; As if Willow didn't have enough problems coping with Otherworld visitors, now she has a stalker, her doom-seer father has a secret, and Paumanok Harbor has Otherworld sand stealers) $7.99

Jones, Darynda

Death and the Girl Next Door

(PBO; YA; Why is Cameron, her high school's designated loner, standing outside Lorelei's house every night? What does tough, sexy newcomer Jared know about her parents, who disappeared years ago? And what will any of them do when Death comes knocking for real?) $9.99

Jones, Diana Wynne

Reflections

 (Collection of essays, speeches, and biographical pieces written and/or chosen by Jones) $24.99

Jones, Stephen (ed)

The Mammoth Book of Zombie Apocalypse! Fight Back

(Mosaic novel; interconnected eyewitness narratives - text messages, emails, blog entries, letters, diaries, and transcripts - telling of the fight against the New Zombie Order) $13.95

Joyce, William

The Sandman: The Story of Sanderson Mansnoozie

(Guardians of Childhood #2: Kids; Full color picture book. When the moon is less than full, who will keep the children safe at night? The Man in the Moon thinks sleepy sweet-dreamer Sandy is the perfect choice to help thwart Pitch, the Nightmare King) $17.99

Joyce, William

Toothiana: Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies

(Guardians of Childhood Novel #3: Kids; Toothiana can spin herself into a multitude of selves, depending on nightly teeth-placed-under-pillows rates. And she is tiny, but very fierce - the villainous Pitch has no idea what he's up against) $14.99

Karpyshyn, Drew

Revan

 (Star Wars: Old Republic #3: Novel based on the online game) $7.99

Kessler, Liz

Emily Windsnap Boxed Set: The Tail of Emily Windsnap / Emily Windsnap and the Monster from the Deep / Emily Windsnap and the Castle in the Mist / Emily Windsnap and the Siren's Secret

 (Reissue; Kids; Four fantasy novels; the adventures of a teenage girl with a human mother and a merman father) $23.96

Ketter, Greg (ed)

Shelf Life: Fantastic Stories Celebrating Bookstores

 (Anthology; 16 sf, fantasy, and horror stories, each with a bookstore at its core) $15.95

Kiesbye, Stefan

Your House Is on Fire, Your Children All Gone

(Four young friends come of age in Hemmersmoor, a place shrouded with fear - and talk of revenants. Their innocent games soon bring them face-to-face with the village's darkest secrets) $15.00

L'Engle, Madeleine

A Wrinkle in Time graphic novel

 (Kids; Adaptation of the classic sf novel) $19.99

Lackey, Mercedes

Changes

(Valdemar: Collegium #3: Magpie pursues his quest for his parent's identity, while being trained as an undercover agent for Valdemar. Bardic Trainee Lena has to face her uncaring father, a famous Bard. And Healing Trainee Bear struggles with his parents, who are pressuring him to quit the Collegium because he lacks the magical Healing Gift) $7.99

Lackey, Mercedes

Redoubt

(Valdemar: Collegium #4: A mysterious new enemy has taken an interest in Herald trainee spy Mags, but why? The answers can only be found in the most unexpected corners of Mags' past. Assuming he can stay alive long enough to find them) $25.95

Lamberson, Gregory

Tortured Spirits

(Jake Helman #4: PBO; Jake's ongoing quest to save his best friend Edgar Hopkins takes him to New Orleans, Miami, and the jungles of Pavot Island, where undead slaves harvest narcotics for a ferocious dictator) $14.95

Launet, Francois

Unspeakable Vault (of Doom)

 (Collection of webcomics providing a humorous look at the Cthulhu mythos through the daily lives of the Great Old Ones) $19.95

Lazellari, Edward

Awakenings

(Cal MacDonnell and Seth Raincrest have nothing in common - except they both suffer from retrograde amnesia. It's as if they just appeared out of thin air thirteen years ago. Now their forgotten past has caught up with them) $7.99

Lin, Grace

Starry River of the Sky

(Kids; Rendi has run away from home and is now working at the inn in the remote Village of Clear Sky. The moon is missing there, but only Rendi seems to notice. He also notices the village's peculiar inhabitants and their problems. A mysterious lady arrives at the Inn with the gift of storytelling, and slowly transforms the villagers and Rendi himself. As the days pass, Rendi begins to realize that perhaps it is his own story that holds the answers to all his questions) $17.99

Lovecraft/Lockwood

The Lovecraft Anthology Volume 2

 (Full color graphic novel; adaptations of Lovecraft stories) $19.95

Lovegrove, James

Red Eye

(Redlaw #2: PBO; In the U.S. to investigate a series of vicious attacks on vampire immigrants, Redlaw uncovers a conspiracy that could give journalist Tina Checkley the career break she's been looking for. It could also spell death for Redlaw) $8.99

Ma, Roger

The Vampire Combat Manual

 (PBO; A humorous guide to fighting the bloodthirsty undead) $15.00

MacAlister/Harper/Sims

The Undead in My Bed

 (PBO; Anthology; 3 vampire romance novellas) $7.99

Maguire, Gregory

Out of Oz

(Wicked Years #4: The Emerald City plans to invade Munchkinland, Glinda is under house arrest, the Cowardly Lion is on the run from the law, and look who's knocking at the door: Dorothy. Amid the chaos, Elphaba's granddaughter Rain comes of age, and will now take up her broom in an Oz racked by war) $15.99

Mallory, H.P.

Something Witchy This Way Comes

(Jolie Wilkins #5: PBO; Jolie must protect her Underworld realm from the Lurkers, half-humans bent on conquering the undead. At least she has her boyfriend, warlock Rand Balfour, by her side. But why can't she forget dangerously alluring vampire Sinjin Sinclair?) $7.99

Mallory, Michael

The Science Fiction Universe and Beyond: Syfy Channel Book of Sci-Fi

 (A look at sf in films and television, from the Saturday matinee serials to modern times) $40.00

Mariconda, Barbara

The Voyage of Lucy P. Simmons

(Kids; An enchanted flute that warns of danger, a mist that unlocks a drawer of family secrets, a bookcase that expands to conceal her: since her parents drowned at sea, magic has been helping Lucy keep her house out of the hands of her greedy uncle) $16.99

Massey, Brandon (ed)

Voices from the Other Side

 (Anthology; 20 horror and suspense stories by African-American writers) $6.99

McCormack, Una

Brinksmanship

(Star Trek: Typhon Pact: PBO; The independent Venette Convention becomes the flashpoint for a tense military standoff between the United Federation of Planets and the Typhon Pact) $7.99

McDevitt, Jack

Firebird

(Alex Benedict #6: Nebula Award finalist. Decades ago, renowned physicist Chris Robin, known for his theories about alternate universes, vanished. Alex and Chase discover that Robin had several interstellar yachts flown far outside the planetary system, where they too vanished. Now they're planning to follow Robin's trail into the unknown) $7.99

McGhoul/Kilbane

The Brain Eater's Bible

 (A field manual and manifesto for the reanimated dead) $16.99

McIntosh, Will

Hitchers

(PBO; Contrary his grandfather's dying wish, Finn has resurrected the old man's newspaper comic, and it's more popular than ever. Then Finn realizes he has a hitcher within his skin: his grandfather, who isn't happy about the changes Finn has made) $14.99

McKillip, Patricia A.

Wonders of the Invisible World

 (PBO; Collection of short fantasy fiction) $14.95

Meloy, Colin

Wildwood

(Wildwood Chronicles #1: Kids; After her brother is abducted, Prue and her friend Curtis head into the Impassable Wilderness to find him. There they find warring creatures, peaceable mystics, and powerful figures with dark intentions, and their rescue mission turns into a struggle for the freedom of Wildwood) $8.99

Meloy, Colin

Under Wildwood

(Wildwood Chronicles #2: Kids; A growing threat draws Prue back into Wildwood, where she and Curtis face their greatest challenge yet. To save themselves and the lives of their friends, and bring unity to a divided country, they must go under Wildwood) $17.99

Meluch, R.M.

The Ninth Circle

(USS Merrimack #5: On the distant world of Zoe, an expedition finds DNA-based life - and alien invaders. And it seems that the Ninth Circle and the Palatine Empire have also found Zoe. Glenn Hamilton calls on the  

USS Merrimack

 for help) $7.99

Modesitt Jr., L.E.

Scholar

(Imager #4: Begins a new story arc set hundreds of years earlier. Quaeryt is a scholar, concealing the fact that he's an imager. To escape the intrigues of the capital city, he convinces his ruler to send him on a reconnaissance mission. On the journey, he must face pirates, storms, poisonings, and attempted murder, as well as discovering that he is not quite who he thought he was) $7.99

Morgan, Richard K.

The Cold Commands

(Land Fit for Heroes #2: Aging warrior Ringil Eskiath is growing more comfortable with his return to the hero's life. But the stakes against him are being raised - a major threat is gathering on the horizon, one that Ringil cannot defeat by himself) $16.00

Mosley, Walter

Merge / Disciple

(Crosstown to Oblivion #2: Two novellas: a lottery winner notices something in his apartment that seems ordinary but reveals itself to be from a very different world; a data entry clerk realizes he has become a pawn in a battle that threatens the prime life force on Earth) $24.99

Niven, L/Barnes, S

The Moon Maze Game

(Dream Park #4: 2085: The first lunar live-action role-playing game turns ugly when a dozen gamers are kidnapped. But the gamers are brilliant, unpredictable, resourceful, and addicted to problem-solving - they're going to play this new scenario to win) $7.99

Oliver, Lauren

The Spindlers

(Kids; One morning, 12-year-old Liza realizes that spindlers have stolen her younger brother's soul. Armed with little more than her wits, and with a huge talking rat for a guide, she sets out to rescue him) $16.99

Pivarcsi, Istvan

Just a Bite

(Nonfiction; a Transylvanian historian peels away the effects of pop culture to set the record straight about the history and evolution of vampire folklore) $16.95

Pratchett, T/Cabell, C

Terry Pratchett: The Spirit of Fantasy

(A detailed biography of the beloved writer, including his battle with Alzheimers, over forty years of irreverent artistic achievements, and a note about cats) $14.95

Pratchett, Terry

Dodger

(YA; In an alternate London ruled by a young queen Victoria, Dodger is an enterprising lad, smart and lucky. Everyone likes him, which is good, because his life is about to get seriously complicated. When he sees a girl leap from a carriage in an attempt to escape her captors, will he stand by and let her be caught again? Of course not. He's not about to let anything happen to the unknown girl - not even if her fate affects some of the most powerful people in England)

[psychotriaviridisonline]

What is Psychotria viridis and also the right way important it is

Psychotria viridis, typically known as chacruna, is a little tree types that possesses numerous healing residential or commercial properties. People staying in the indigenous environments of this varieties also call the plant "the vision tree". Native tribes of the rainforest container make use of the leaves of this herb for treating in addition to turning around a number of ailments.Chacruna possesses numerous attributes as well as attributes. This is a small tree or hedge that grows up to an optimum height of 4.5 meters. The plant is virtually glabrous having huge stipules, which the color of its fallen leaves becomes dark when dried out. The leaves are slender, little, obovate-attenuate in the direction of their base. These trees produce numerous flowers in open inflorescences. The fruits of chacruna have a red color and also they determine 4 mm to 5 mm in length. This plant can be circulated without much problem. Propagation is generally done from the fallen leave as well as stem cuttings. Psychotria viridis is also recognized by a number of other common names that different people can connect with extremely conveniently.

Often, many individuals error Psychotria viridis for Psychotria carthagenensis and Psychotria alba. All these plants have a somewhat comparable appearance and also they all prevail among people using ayahuasca, as they offer the preferred outcomes. For this reason, it would certainly be smart to be really mindful while trying to find Psychotria viridis and also specifically takes a look at the attributes that distinguish this bush from the other two plants. For this, one requires to be informed about the different traits as well as functions of chacruna.

Returning right into the history of Psychotria viridis, this natural herb is a member of the Rubiaceae family and additionally belongs to the coffee family members. This plant is well known for its collaborating use in traditional ayahuasca makes prepared by native inhabitants in Central as well as South Region. For several centuries the medicine men and also ladies along with shamans of South have actually used the fallen leaves of chacruna to turn around various disorders. Consequently, essences of the herb have a prominence of being an effective natural treatment for particular health problems and is likewise made use of in present day medication. The entheogenic indole alkaloid called dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is the major element of Psychotria viridis. This chemical is found in different concentrations in the plant dependent on numerous collecting factors. chacruna has several substances that have therapeutic usages, this is a reputable in addition to essential organic treatment for a number of common ailments. As the medicines are obtained from nature, their attributes remain the same and equally powerful as those of the plant.It is very challenging to circulate Psychotria viridis from its seeds, since the seeds require a minimum of 60 days to sprout. Furthermore, on different celebrations just a single seed from a hundred will sprout effectively. Generally, farming of the trees from their cuttings is more effective. You may just plant a small branch of the tree and also water it frequently as well as it might turn into a brand-new chacruna plant. It has actually usually been seen that tiny items of branches with simply 2 fallen leaves likewise successfully expand and create into private plants.Chemical analysis of dried Psychotria viridis has actually revealed that it has approximately 0.10% to 0.66% alkaloids. Regarding 99% of these alkaloids comprise dimethyltryptamine (DMT) - an abused substance in lots of regions. Furthermore, it also consists of various other alkaloids like N-methyltryptamine (NMT) and also beta-carbolines. It is stated that the plants have the maximum alkaloid material throughout the morning.So make use Psychotria viridis but take suggestion from your herbalist befor using the Psychotria viridis.

[netazinedotnet]

Betty White's Death Devastates Fans Weeks Before Centennial Celebration

Our collective fear really came true this time.

Every now and then her name would randomly trend on Twitter, inciting panic among fans of television. Normally, when a famous figure trends on the social networking platform, it's either because of an outstanding performance in a recent work they did, a controversial statement they made, or simply because they have died.

As someone way past her prime, fans had always assumed the worst for the TV legend whenever her name trended out of the blue. But a sigh of relief was always what followed when it turned out her fans were just talking about how much they loved her and wanted her to know the impact she had upon them as a comedy powerhouse.

The world had dreaded the day when the Queen of Comedy would trend for the reason we feared the most, and this time our collective worst fear came true. Rest in peace, Betty White.

When Betty White is trending, and this time it is for real. 😭 pic.twitter.com/IYOSJjHeY9

18 days shy of her 100th birthday, Betty was ancient in age, yet her soul remained evergreen until the end. She carried the sitcom industry on her shoulder for more than half a century and had three generations of TV viewers in a chokehold with shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Golden Girls, and Hot in Cleveland.

Born Betty Marion White in 1922, her genuine optimism and love for animals led to decades of activism, most notably through her service as a volunteer in World War II, her fierce support for anti-racism movements, and her lifelong advocacy in animal welfare.

TV career

She dreamed of becoming a forest ranger or a writer, but Betty fell in love with the performing arts after she played the lead in her high school senior play, which she also wrote for. In the early days of her career, she worked on the radio before jumping into the TV business as a host in the 1940s. Later, she produced her own sitcom, Life with Elizabeth, which gave her her first Emmy Award.

It wasn’t until 1973 that she had her small-screen breakthrough when she starred in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, winning two Emmys. She then won another for her iconic character, Rose Nylund in The Golden Girls, and snatched the last one in 2010 through her performance in a Mother's Day episode of Saturday Night Live.

The resurgence in her TV career occurred after she starred in the 2009 rom-com The Proposal alongside Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock. She then went on to star in her last sitcom, Hot in Cleveland," which aired from 2010 to 2015.

Betty was still active in the show business as late as 2019, most notably for her voice acting as Bitey White, a toy tiger that was named after her in the animated film Toy Story 4.

The woman dubbed ‘America’s Grandmother’ held the record for the longest TV career and stayed relevant in the industry well into her late 90s.

She also made history as the first woman to produce a national TV show, the first woman to star in a sitcom, the first producer to hire a female director, and the first woman to receive an Emmy nomination.

Animal advocacy

Betty never backed down from committing herself to her TV profession, but animals had always been her primary love. She came up with a show called The Pet Set in 1971, in which she interviewed celebrities and their pets.

Her most prominent contribution as an animal advocate was accomplished through her long association with the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association (GLAZA), a nonprofit that has been affiliated with the Los Angeles Zoo since its inception in 1966. In 1974, Betty also produced Backstage at the Zoo, a documentary that aimed to educate citizens about the zoo's operations. One of the reasons she stayed in the Hollywood industry was to pay for her animal work, she acknowledged.

The death of ‘The First Lady of Television’ prompted an outpouring of tributes from every corner as people reminisced about her legacy.

Celebrating 99 years of your love on the planet. Thank you Betty White 🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/NUmNq1BOZ9

We are saddened by the passing of Betty White. Not only was she an amazing actress, she also served during WWII as a member of the American Women's Voluntary Services. A true legend on and off the screen. pic.twitter.com/1HRDYCeV7w

Betty White broke barriers, defied expectations, served her country, and pushed us all to laugh. Barack and I join so many around the world who will miss the joy she brought to the world. I know our Bo is looking forward to seeing her up in heaven. pic.twitter.com/tVL7NUw2TT

Much will be said today about what a brilliant performer Betty White was. And it’s all true. But I’ll always be so grateful that I actually got to work with her when she played my grandma on 70s Show. She was everything you wanted her to be in real life… pic.twitter.com/7WhYFJQTJE

As if 2021 wasn’t bad enough. Rest In Peace, Queen Betty White. pic.twitter.com/BfxwP31km0

Betty White was the perfect guest- interested, playful & funny. She loved animals (invited my puppy on the show). She loved to play games- Password (obvi) & I even played beer pong with her. She always knew how to hit her mark & deliver the joke. A class act. I loved Betty White. pic.twitter.com/XxWD16VQIV

Oh Dear Lord. Heaven just got a new superstar to celebrate with tonight! An icon, a legend, a trailblazer, a badass, and a ray of sunshine who gifted us creative genius, joy and laughter for 99 years. Thank you for your bold and generous spirit. Rest In Peace #BettyWhite ❤️❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/ng2gHB8K5K

The world looks different now. She was great at defying expectation. She managed to grow very old and somehow, not old enough. We’ll miss you, Betty. Now you know the secret. pic.twitter.com/uevwerjobS

Betty's biggest triumph was not that she survived to be a hundred, but how she never stopped working until the day she drew her final breath. Just two days before her demise, she tweeted how she was looking forward to her collaboration with PEOPLE magazine for her centennial celebration.

My 100th birthday… I cannot believe it is coming up, and People Magazine is celebrating with me! The new issue of @people is available on newsstands nationwide tomorrow. https://t.co/kTQnsbMDGK

She mentioned feeling fortunate to be blessed with wonderful health, and despite her declining years, Betty was always so full of life and never short of her intelligent wit that many people loved to entertain the notion she might as well be immortal.

Believing the key to a happy life is having a sense of humour, Betty passed away peacefully in her sleep of natural causes on the morning of December 31st, and everyone agreed that, though the timing could have been better, there wasn't a more fitting way for her to go.

I think Betty White would enjoy having made one last epic joke. pic.twitter.com/9sUakqBpBx

So instead of celebrating New Year's Eve tonight, Americans will raise their glasses to remember their Girl of Gold.

[rhaenyra--targarvyen]

Pizza

A (belated) birthday gift for @the-crazy-lemonade-lady ! Sorry it’s late!

Inspired by a post I saw a couple days ago that I just couldn’t not write a full fic for...

Peter hasn’t seen a mess this large since that unfortunate day in chemistry last year where Marcus Stone (accidentally) almost blew up half the lab. 

Of course, it’s awesome too. Every superhero he’s grown up aspiring to be like, raised on stories of their bravery and self sacrifice in the face of impossible odds, are all in one place. Not fighting each other. And Wakanda is amazing. So he’s not exactly surprised that things are so crazy, but really-it’s just pizza toppings. 

Tomorrow they all go their separate ways to fight Thanos (or, as Mr. Stark likes to call him, the giant space grape) but for tonight they feast like champions. Apparently, that means the best pizza that Wakanda has to offer. 

“Spider-Man, give us a headcount,” Mr. Stark says, and Peter complies: there’s Captain America, Black Widow, Thor, Hawkeye, and Dr. Banner, along with the New Avengers War Machine, Falcon, Vision, and Scarlet Witch. There’s the Winter Soldier-or the White Wolf, now. There’s Doctor Strange. There are the ‘good’ aliens: Other Peter, Gamora, Drax, Mantis, the talking raccoon, and the talking tree. And then there’s King T’Challa and Princess Shuri and a bunch of the Dora Milaje who are watching the chaos and trying not to look entertained. “How many pizzas are we going to need?”

Peter is pretty sure that a few of them could eat a pizza or two on their own. “We have twenty. Do we want leftovers?”

“Yes,” Shuri pipes up. 

“So...thirty?” 

Other Peter is talking about how he hasn’t had real pizza in twenty years. Apparently they don’t have it in space. Poor aliens-they’re really missing out. 

“Better make it forty.” Tony jots this down. “You never know when pizza is going to come in handy.” He raises his voice so he can be heard above the general clamor of introductions and half joking arguments. “What does everyone want for toppings?” 

There’s no (definable) response: either no one hears him or no one cares.

Tony gestures towards the fray. “Do some mingling, Spiderling. Introduce yourself while you’re at it.” Of course. Because Peter’s only here to be the errand boy. He had to fight hard to even let Tony allow him to go to space. He hates to see all that effort go to waste now. 

Okay Peter, he thinks as he approaches the first knot of people: Captain America, Dr. Banner, War Machine, and Black Widow. Be cool. Still, his voice squeaks a little bit when he says “Mr. Stark wants to know what toppings you want on your pizza.” 

Dr Banner raises his eyebrows. “When Tony said he hired a kid I didn’t realize he actually meant-”

“I’m going to be eighteen in October.” But he’s used to the jabs about his age-another reason why he’s glad he’s not an actual Avenger. The jokes would be unbearable. 

Black Widow rolls her eyes. “He’s a good fighter. And we need all the help we can get.” He feels himself stand a little bit straighter, buoyed by sudden praise. “Black olives.” 

“Half cheese, half pepperoni and sausage.” Dr. Banner shakes his hand. “Nice to meet you-”

“Peter. I’m Peter. It’s good to see you, Dr. Banner. Although I’m glad you’re not a giant green rage monster.” 

He laughs. “Call me Bruce. And I’m glad too, Peter.” 

Captain America wants all sausage. “How’s Queens?” 

“It’s...Queens.” He’s tempted to ask how is life being a wanted fugitive but he worries Cap might take that the wrong way and he would rather not have an Avenger pissed off at him, especially Captain America. 

“I’ll take meat lover’s if they have it,” Colonel Rhodes says. “Tony should know that.” They nod at each other. Peter has been interning at the Avengers base for Tony the last couple of summers, so they see each other pretty often. It’s nice to see another familiar face, in the middle of all these super people. 

He writes all of this down and says his goodbyes before he moves onto the next group: Thor and the aliens. “Do you guys want pizza?” 

Thor nods very seriously. “I would like all the toppings on my pizza.” 

The raccoon swears. “You can’t be serious. That’s disgusting.” 

Gamora rolls her eyes. “Leave him alone, Rocket.” She turns to look at Peter and he realizes offhandedly that she’s kind of hot, green skin and all. “Pepperoni and black olives.” 

Other Peter looks like a little kid at Christmas. “Half pepperoni, half canadian bacon. That’s what I always used to get when I was a kid.” He looks at Peter in confusion. “Aren’t you kind of young to be an Avenger?”

“Yeah. I’m not, actually. Technically. I got an offer, but I turned it down. I’m a friend of Mr. Stark’s.” He gets the feeling they’ve already stopped listening. 

“I hear you’re going to space with us,” the talking raccoon says. “How long can you hold your breath?”

Other Peter steps on his foot. “Rocket, be nice.” 

“It’s a fair question-”

“Just order your pizza toppings.”

“Pineapple.”

“That’s gross, no one gets pineapple on their pizza-”

The raccoon responds with a series of words that Peter is pretty sure he’s not allowed to repeat, so he moves on to the other three aliens instead. 

“What is this ‘pizza’?” Drax says, looking like he wants to break Peter’s spine. Or maybe that’s just his normal expression. 

Peter is just panicking over how to explain pizza to an alien when Mantis says “It’s like...a pie, except instead of chocolate and whipped cream it’s sauce and toppings.”

Drax still looks confused but Other Peter seems to realize what’s going on so he says “Just order a couple cheeses and a couple pepperonis. We’ll figure it out.”

Peter goes to the talking tree next, who’s playing Angry Birds on a cell phone that looks like it saw its heyday ten years ago. “I am Groot,” he says, without looking up. 

“Hi Groot. I’m Peter. Do you want-”

“I am Groot,” the tree says a little louder in a tone that Peter knows well: shut up I’m trying to concentrate. 

In the spot next to Groot’s name Peter writes I am Groot. Tony can figure that out. 

Falcon and the Winter Soldier are arm wrestling and they don’t look happy to see Peter. They both place insanely complicated orders: one eighth black olives (“No wait,” White Wolf says, “make them green”), pineapple, canadian bacon, sausage, buffalo if they have it, and then Falcon orders a dessert pizza. 

“What’s that?” Peter asks. 

Falcon narrows his eyes. “You don’t know what a dessert pizza is? You haven’t lived.” 

He writes that down too, with two question marks after it. Maybe it’s an Avengers thing. Maybe there are team perks that he doesn’t know about. 

He accidentally walks in on Scarlet Witch and Vision making out in a side hallway so he backs away slowly and doesn’t write anything down for them. He’s going to have to watch a lot of b-99 to get that image out of his head. Not that he’s against it or doesn’t ship it or whatever but...he was not prepared. 

Hawkeye is talking with the royals. He barely even notices Peter when he says “Canadian bacon.” 

The King is a little bit nicer. “I would like pepperoni and antelope meat, if possible. And order several more for the Dora Milaje if you could. They would like some but are too polite to say so.” 

He scribbles that down. “Thank you for letting us stay at your palace, your highness. It’s...nice.” Which is the understatement of the century, but words aren’t his strong suit. 

Shuri doesn’t look up from her tablet. “I’d like what my brother has.” She smiles at him. “I’m almost finished with the new updates to your suit.”

“Oh...um, you didn’t have to-”

“All of your tech is horribly outdated. Maybe in your country it helps you, but it won’t here. I took in the effect that zero gravity might have on it and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.” She grins at him and he can’t help grinning back even though he still isn’t quite sure how she accessed his suit when it’s hanging up in the closet in the guest room. He’s lucky; some people had to share. 

He comes back to Tony with the finished list, exhausted. Tony finishes the phone call; from what Peter can hear of the other end, the pizza worker sounds vaguely terrified. 

Tony raises his eyebrows as he scans the list. “What’s a dessert pizza?”

Peter shrugs. “I guess we’ll find out.” 

With the Avengers, there’s never a dull moment. 

So I played with the timeline a little bit so I could get all of them in Wakanda-hope it’s enjoyable anyway lol. 

[geoffreywalton]

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[prussiantique]

Roman Caprices – Notes

References galore!– and into realms I hitherto had rarely travelled before: memes, movies, even video-games, intermixed into my usual hodgepodge of literature, classics and histories. And if I do make a mistake, then please be gentle in the comments. Consider this following part just me showing that I've done my work. I’ll only go into the references because I never think that interpretation,– of the poem as a whole, of the content, of the ideas, etc.,– is the job of the person writing the poem. That’s really up to the reader. Section I opens with a paraphrasing of Romans 3.13 (yes, that is a Bible reference and matching the form of the poem, i.e. a section of 3 lines followed by a section of 13), before moving on to a “Go home, you’re drunk!” reference. The first line also sounds awfully like a 60s film I saw years ago. Let me think. Oh yeah: ‘A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum’. The old women snipping at twine refers to Atropos, of the Fates, who cut the thread of life with a pair of scissors. Sweet white wine was also considered by the Romans as the highest form of wine, quite the opposite of what most people (not me, because I don’t drink and don’t know good from bad, haha) think today. ‘For reasons unknown’ also sounds very familiar to something Beckett wrote in Waiting For Godot. Section II has the Sicilian gesture, essentially saying that his friend would ‘sleep with the fishes’. How about the ‘offer they could not refuse’? Obvious movie quote is obvious. Pollice Verso or ‘with turned thumbs’ is the gesture most closely associated with gladiatorial combat, but ‘two thumbs down’ is also a reference to Siskel and Ebert, the great movie critics. Gallia Transalpine (Southern France) and Gallia Cisalpine (Northern Italy) were both Roman provinces; essentially the friend is saying that he’s Italian and not from further afield. Naumachiae were massive staged naval battles the Romans watched for sport in basins larger than the Coliseum. They’d row out proper sized vessels and have the crews sort of massacre each other. Romans, eh? Section III’s strange man is a reference to Diogenes of Sinope, the famous Greek Cynic (who lived centuries before the setting of the poem, but meh! This could all be going on in the speaker’s head so what does it matter?). ‘Taken a pilum to the knee’ should be familiar to video-gamers amongst you. Skyrim anyone? Lusitania was what we now call Portugal. Section IV initially plays with the exotic imagery of Coleridge’s Kubla Khan, but couched in the vernacular of the stereotypical street hawker that one expects in the market of a foreign country. 30 denarii coincidently (or not) is the same price that Judas sold Christ to the Romans for. The idea of ages, (golden), silver, bronze and iron, is from Hesiod, the Greek poet, from his Work and Days, which outline the mythical ages of mankind. The brutish genius is none other than Ezra Pound, who settled in Italy in 1924 and whose poem Homage to Sextus Propertius provides the final line of the section. Section V has the clean-shaven man from Lutetia, the Roman settlement of modern day Paris, so a stereotypical rude Parisian joke. And folks, that’s what you call comedy! Haha, no. There follows a reference to Aristotle’s poetics, i.e. ‘riddles and barbarisms’, which drops into the very modern ‘this is why we can’t have nice things’ reference. Crates is another Greek Cynic. Also, one to come and one to go? That sounds like Hatta and Haigha fron Lewis Carroll’s Alice Through The Looking Glass. Section VI opens with an interesting observation on the Latin alphabet we all know and use. The letters G, J, U, W, Y and Z were not originally a part of the Latin alphabet, with G being introduced in the 3rd Century BC and Y and Z after the conquest of Greece in the 1st Century BC. J was a later development of I and is absent from earlier texts, and the same can be said of U and W, which developed from V (or VV in the latter case). Thus Julius Gaius Caesar would be written thus in classical Latin: IVLIVS GAIVS CÆSAR. ‘Proud distensions of empire’ is another line from Homage to Sextus Propertius.

Section VII is probably one of the most *ahem* adult (not mature) passages I’ve ever written. What more do you want me to say? Moving along, bastard-wine refers to either mulsum or posca, which were both low styles of wine. Why bastard? Well, both mulsum and posca were mixtures of wine, either white or red, with honey or flavouring herbs. Iove is Jove, as we’ve established with the alphabet. Romans are also fond of contractions, you know, primarily as it was a pain to hammer long names onto tablets and buildings. Caesar Imperator Augustus becomes Cae. Imp. Aug. respectively. How is this relevant? Well, Maximus Imperator Augustus must be either a pitiful attempt at nominatively compensating for something or merely the product of an overly inflated ego. Add the contraction and well... Do I really need to explain the joke? Section VIII has relatively fewer references, I think, compared to the rest of the poem, but that’s not really saying much. Playing on the idea of Teutonic, the marches new and old refer to Neumark and Altmark, both provinces within the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Conflating wealth and stupid material things seems to be a problem with contemporary society in general. Or it might just be mainland China. Meh. The strange eidolon (let’s see how many of you know what that means without a dictionary!) echoes Yeats’ Second Coming, specifically the rough beast that ‘slouches towards Bethlehem to be born’. Section IX starts off with the castrum, or fortified camp, which the Romans had all over the place, especially if the Astérix comics are to be believed. The border inferior refers to the border of the Roman province of Germania Inferior, which was one of two Germanic territories, the other being Germania Superior, that the Romans owned outside of Magna Germania. Another obvious video-game reference follows: ‘Thank you, said he, but our praetor is in another castrum’ = ‘Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle!’. The lines beginning ‘With veneer’ to ‘lost’ echo Shelley’s Ozymandias. Theoretically the subverted final line of the section is as true as the line it subverts. If all roads lead to Rome, they must simultaneously lead from Rome. Section X actually mixes three references together, two from films, one literary. Remember Goodfellas? Joe Pesci’s speech about being funny, except reordering the lines and replacing the word ‘funny’ with the Latinate word ‘comic’. ‘I had choice words with another’ seems to be the spiritual successor of the Duke in Browning’s My Last Duchess. As to the last reference? Well, you tell me: ‘a dread judge’ that exclaims ‘I am the law!’. Sylvester Stallone says hi. Piso was a Roman judge who was famous for his extremely harsh execution of the law. ‘Fiat justitia ruat caelum’ or ‘Let justice be done though the heavens fall’ is the phrase most associated with his brand of justice. Section XI plays off the name Piso (I have no idea if the ‘i’ therein is treated long but I’m going to pretend that it is) and turns it simply into ‘pissed’. Continuing the Roman trick of abbreviation, the speaker is thus pissed on (probably not literally) and pissed off. I do apologize; writing that out in full leave me feeling dirty, I must confess. C. f. is part of Roman naming convention (and again a set of abbreviations). The ‘f’ stands for filia, or daughter, with ‘C’ being the name of the father. As daughters tended to be named after their fathers in the Roman Empire, it’s not much of a stretch to guess what the lady’s name is in this poem (especially if you know me, that is). ‘Canis femineus’ means, I think, female dog. No prizes to anyone who can guess what the speaker is calling her. Section XII is fairly straightforward, I think. Stolidus is an adjective, but as it refers to the baker, it essentially means ‘idiot’, literally ‘stupid [one]’. Amphorae were Greco-Roman containers used for storage and transportation, primarily for wine. As to the penultimate line of the section…I am not going to try to explain where ‘I got 99 problems’ came from. Section XIII is very much what you see is what you get.

[trueishcolours]

American Gods: ARRRRRRRGHHHHH

This post comes with content warnings for sexual violence, child sexual abuse, misogyny and general violence.

The more I think about it, the more I realise that I hate Neil Gaiman’s American Gods with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. Now I know that a lot of people really love this book and I’m sure it has much to recommend it, so this post definitely isn’t intended as shade at any fans. It’s just that I’m filled with salt and love to rant.

My central thesis is that American Gods contains a ton of gratuitous sexualisation of women without enough redeeming features to make me forgive it. I think I’d have found it a dull read no matter what, but the real sticking point is the women. And you know how a lot of stories don’t have that many characters? Or at least not many important ones? So in a story with say five detailed characters, there’s one woman and she gets fridged and you side-eye the author but you’re like, ‘maybe it was just a coincidence! Not every character has to be a woman and people do sometimes die! Perhaps all his other novels are full of feminist icons and it all evens out!’ But the gimmick of American Gods is that it has probably hundreds of characters who pop up for a scene and then disappear, so you can really get a representative sample of how Gaiman writes women.

So if you don’t want to plough through 635 pages of this, strap in for the highlights!

p.5 – we meet our first female character. She is the protagonist’s wife, and he imagines having sex with her. Reasonable.

p.14 – his wife is dead. Does it count as fridging if she gets back up later?

p.32 – a man has sex with a woman who turns out to be some kind of goddess. Her vagina swallows him up. Om nom nom.

p. 54 – a woman comes to the protagonist’s wife’s wake and spits on the corpse. Why does she do this? It could have been because she is a bigot and the dead wife is a member of a minority group. It could have been because they were colleagues and the dead wife ruined her career. It could have been because the dead wife put gum in her hair in third grade. But actually it’s because her husband was cheating on her with the protagonist’s wife. A reasonable reason in itself, but it’s all about context…

And then we find out that the protagonist’s wife died because the guy she was having an affair with crashed the car while she was giving him road head, and this is where I lost my shit for the first time. Of all the fucking male power fantasy bullshit. Road head. I’m starting to wonder if Gaiman realises that women can do things or have things happen to them for reasons that aren’t sexual.

Just. The woman is angry because sex. The wife is dead because sex. The wife is linked to the protagonist through sex. It’s getting boring and we’re only on page…

63 – where the hero watches a TV episode called ‘I want to be a prostitute,’ featuring ‘several would-be whores, mostly female.’ Gotta give him marks for the ‘mostly,’ I guess.

p. 64 – the protagonist dreams that he is walking through a hall of statues. One has her tits out; another has a ‘gash’ between her legs. Some male statues. No dicks.

p. 65 – the statues continue: ‘…their faces had an unfinished, hasty look to them, although their breasts and genitalia had been carved with elaborate care…’ Yo Gaiman I think you’re describing your female characters here!

p. 70 – dead!wife shows up. I must admit that she seems a decent character so far. Also there’ve been several service industry women who’ve appeared for like a line without getting sexualised, and it seems only fair that I mention them.

p. 71 – wait shit I take it back the God Odin is in bed with the ‘ratty’ ‘girl’ from the motel desk. She has small breasts, in case you were wondering.

p. 81 – ‘ “The best thing about the states we’re heading for is they have the kind of women I like…full breasts with the veins running through them like a good cheese.” ’

p. 82 – we meet some old lady goddesses. I am pleased that women get to be old in this story.

p. 97 – a midnight conversation with another Goddess. The hero is ‘uncomfortably aware’ that she isn’t wearing anything under her nightgown.

p. 99 – ‘Her nipples, every goose-bump on the areolae, were visible momentarily.’ Thank God, because I was getting worried she didn’t have any.

p. 105 – an 18th-century diarist reminisces about a buxom scullery maid who gets knocked up by the squire’s son. Got to admit her story is kind of cool overall.

p. 117 – ‘ “Liberty is a bitch that must be bedded on a mattress of corpses…that’s who they have in their New York harbour: a bitch, who liked to be fucked on the refuse from the tumbril. Hold your torch as high as you want to, m’dear, there’s still rats in your dress and cold jism dripping down your leg.’

p. 137 – the god Anansi reminisces about having ‘a big old high-titty woman’ to keep him company.

p. 139 – store mannequins with ‘sexless breasts.’ Not too sexless to be worth mentioning, apparently.

p. 151 – an old woman in a red sari shows up, but it turns out she’s got a goddess-form and it’s naked.

p. 163 – dead wife (Laura) shows up and kills a bunch of baddies and saves the hero and it’s actually kind of badass?

p. 165 – one of the baddies was in the middle of jerking off when she killed him. It’s not a sexist moment, it’s just a whyyyyyyyyyyy moment. More sexy/=more interesting.

p. 174 – totally relatable believable humanised cash register lady.

p. 178 – totally relatable believable humanised hitch-hiker.

p. 190 – a TV goddess has a reasonable, interesting conversation with the hero, and then, when she can’t persuade him to join her by other means, starts to unbutton her shirt while asking if he wants to see her tits. Aaaaaaaaaaand we’re back.

p. 193 – a little girl. Female children are also allowed to exist.

p. 204 – sex but with two men this time.

p. 213 – okay, so we had a lull there, but this is where I lose my shit for the second time because the protagonist enters a funeral home and a teenage girl is lying dead and naked on a slab and photos of her smiling and happy are stuck up around the place and the death God/coroner cuts her open and catalogues all her organs and eats bits of them and he’s supposed to be doing an ancient Egyptian embalming ritual but I don’t even care because I’m in full-on militant feminist get your hands off my sister and stop making a spectacle of women’s pain rage at this point. And of course she was murdered by her boyfriend who thought she was pregnant because nothing happens to women for reasons unrelated to sex. We learn, in detail, about all five of her stab wounds. No, Gaiman, this scene is not ‘respectful, not obscene,’ and your protagonist’s urge to give the girl some privacy is right. It could have been a man’s corpse on that slab, but it’s not. It’s a teenage girl’s. Surrounded by three living men.

p. 228 – another goddess appears to the protagonist and they have healing, life-giving sex. Some might call me churlish for complaining both about the vagina-nomming death-sex and about the soothing ecstatic life-sex. Maybe there’s no pleasing me. She has nipples, in case you were wondering. Hard nubs.

p. 252 – a character flirts with a waitress, who looks ‘scarcely old enough to have dropped out of high school.’ Look, you can put your misogyny in the mouth of a morally bankrupt character if you want, but in the end it’s just going to sound like misogyny. Especially if nobody refutes or punishes the character. I don’t care whether it’s the author saying it or just the character. I’m sick of hearing it. I’m tired.

p. 260 – the character succeeds in his seduction of the waitress. It is unclear why, since he is creepy and gross. Possibly magic? The hero is ‘uncomfortable’ and remarks that the waitress looks ‘barely legal.’ The other character says he doesn’t care. Apparently it is important for his godly magic that she is a virgin.

p. 267 – two fourteen-year-old girls get on a bus. The protagonist eavesdrops on their conversation. We learn that ‘one of them knew almost nothing about sex, but knew a lot about animals, while the other was not interested in animals, but thought she knew a great deal about human sexuality.’ A brilliant ruse! By mentioning that the girls are also talking about animals, Gaiman conceals the fact that he is absolutely slathering to write about them talking about sex. This is where I gave up.

This concludes my ethical quarrel with the book. My other issues are just a matter of taste, and your mileage may vary. Basically, there is not one single character who I give a fuck about. The hero starts out completely passive, which makes sense because he’s just come out of prison and lost is wife and is obviously traumatised as fuck. But three hundred pages later he’s still completely passive. I know that trauma doesn’t get better all in a minute, but it’s unclear whether Gaiman wants the reader to understand that the hero is in a bad, bad way, or just thinks that writing an apathetic lead character is edgy and cool. And all the other characters seem to be varying degrees of terrible, so there’s no reason for me to get invested in any of their problems.

But at least we know they all have nipples.

[hadleighcricketclub-blog]

Start all the clocks

As opening months go, this has been a very good one both on and off the field.

After a winter makeover, the pavilion is looking in as good a nick as Jonny Bairstow. The project we started six years ago is now pretty much complete, with new tables and chairs, refurbished bar and heating system to complement the changing room extension block. Even the famous old clock, stuck at one twenty-four for the last few seasons like some Orwellian nightmare, is going again. 

To be fair things have been going well off the field for a while – its just the actual cricket that has been letting us down a bit. Well I’m glad to say that it’s been an encouraging start to the season for the club’s senior sides, with the worst result for the 1st XI a 1-run defeat. That was at home to Maldon, which was great entertainment for the sizable crowd at the Meadow on a scorching Easter Saturday. More “entertainment” was provided at our very first open mic night later that evening:  

Sadly the weather turned rather dramatically after that, with players raiding their winter wardrobe to take to the field. Needham Market in early May felt more like Everest Base Camp, where cricket has been known to have been played, and at least they got a game in.

What a difference a week makes:

Ben Wallis’s men shared 644 runs with Worlington. I think, considering the weather, it was less of a tie and more of a scarf. Josh Davey’s 109 was, incredibly, his first century for the club. How is that possible? Josh has been playing for us for 8 years now, and probably been one of our most consistent run-scorers in that time. There have been one or two 99s. Maybe this time he was just too cold to get nervous!

Two wins have since followed, both against highly fancied teams. Wivenhoe looked to be cruising towards their target of 195 when they were 100 odd for 1 and then 161-4. But then on came our overseas player Kudzai Maunze. It was one of those passages of play when the momentum completely changes in the blink of an eye. Kudzai took 6-11, with the last six wickets falling for just four runs.

A trip to Witham, the home of Dorothy L. Sayers AND Olly Murs, is always a bit of a culture shock for Suffolk teams, and a hard place to get a result. But we did dear reader, thanks to Dominic Manthorpe, who followed an unbeaten 83 with 4-30 with his, er, mystery spin as Hadleigh successfully defended 222. It has been a great boost to have Dominic back in a Hadleigh shirt. He is still working his way back to full fitness but already the signs are that he will be a key player this season.

More surprising perhaps – a mystery worthy of Sayers herself – has been the unbeaten start made by the 2nd XI. Three wins and a hailed-out game meant that Buster Tampion’s team were actually top for a week! An opening day win at Maldon showcased the talents of two chaps who could easily have been playing for the Ones, Mark Simmonds and Sunil Shrestha, but the next couple were all our own work.

We were in big trouble at home to Easton chasing 173. 13-year-old Isaac Toombs then dug in and played a majestic innings of 88 not out way beyond his years, supported by his father Justin and Arran Tampion. Six wickets for Simon Gladwell and a very rare 50 for your correspondent was enough to wrap up victory over Battisford. No one is getting carried away, and a trip to leaders Stowupland will be a stern test, but this may be a season where we can at least lounge around careless and fancy free in mid-table.

Individual performance of the month undoubtedly came from Callum Morrin in the Sunday Academy game at Milden. To score 104 not out is impressive; to take five wickets for four runs in three overs (when only an occasional bowler) is herculean. Can we mention that one of his victims was our friend Tabs Willis? Oops we just have. To do it all after still being in ‘Vodka Revs’ (whatever that is) at 4am on the morning of the game is Botham-esque. We salute you sir!

So apart from the start of the Cricket World Cup, what’s coming up next month?

Well, first we have our Sponsors Day on Saturday June 8th, when we are treating our generous sponsors to a spot of lunch before the 1st XI game with Coggeshall. Then the following day we are hosting a triangular county Ladies T20 tournament at the club. This is the first time we have held such an event and we’re getting so excited we’re even laying some paving down specially! The games feature Suffolk, Northants and Norfolk and start at 10.30am. The bar will be open all day so why not pop along? It should be an excellent day.

Quote of the month (the 2nd XI captain, introducing his team to the new boys): ‘This is Gary, we only play him because he’s the Secretary.’

The Secretary

[sanguinarysanguinity]

20 Last(ish) Lines

Ahem. So back in October, I did a first-lines exercise, and then @amatara said she wanted to do a last-lines version and asked if I would do it with her. And I said sure, but it’d probably be a few days until I got to it. ...and then a few days turned into a few months, apparently. (Sorry, amatara! It was mostly all drafted? I’m not sure why it’s spent three months languishing in my drafts folder? My life is a mystery even to me?)

Anyway, these are the same twenty stories I used for the first-lines exercise; I’m ignoring the handful of things I’ve published since then, because I am lazy, lazy. In cases where the last line makes absolutely no sense on its own, I include the line or two before it.

1. “Yes, she does [like marmalade],” I agreed—although Holmes liked it somewhat more—and I began removing his chemical equipment to my room. (Baker Street Papas, Whitehead Holmes)

2. Mac laughed, and gathered the exhausted girl closer in her arms. (Recommended by Galen and Avicenna, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries)

3. I flicked my own stub into the coals and sat back to listen proper, not much caring what he played, just so long as I got to lay there listening to it. (Desperate Men and Fools, ACD x Strange Empire)

4. RAYMOND (CON’T): Happy Valentine’s Day, Kevin. KEVIN: And to you, Raymond. (The Way Lovers Do, With The Puzzle, Brooklyn 99)

5. And Furiosa thinks, Oh, that’s why. (Fingers, Mad Max: Fury Road)

6. “I told you, it’s not broken,” she scolds, and the two of them spend the rest of the walk home planning Danny Gilpatrick's downfall. (Terrible Sisters, Supergirl)

7. And Rey went to find Finn, deciding that yes, even surrounded by all her command staff and an entire base of Resistance fighters, General Leia Organa had been waiting for Rey to come back. (Welcome Home, Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

8. "Suits you," Poe grins. One thumb strokes the base of Finn's skull above the collar. "Can't wait for her to see you in it." (Lined with Love, Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

9. Buoyed to the sound of his violin, I let myself drift, my Mary’s dear face before me. (Brandy and Soda, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution)

10. “With luck, we’ll be able to catch the evening tide.” (Particular Debts, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution)

11. Johanna Mason had three months. She knew exactly how much damage a sawblade could do. (From the Woods: The Wolves and Woodcutters Remix, The Hunger Games)

12. Joan blinked at the ceiling a few moments, then hit ctrl-Q and dragged the file, all 474 pages of it, to the recycle bin. (Crowd Around: The ‘And I, My Best Friend’ Remix, Elementary)

13. He marked them, and guarded them, and waited for the changing wind when Watson—perhaps this one he knew, or some future version he couldn’t yet envision—would seek to have them restored to her. (For the Sake of the Trust (The Stratigraphic Predecessor Remix, Elementary)

14. Whatever man brought [that Marshall’s star] into that whorehouse, he clearly didn’t deserve to have it. Kelly reckoned the woman who wanted them to call her Ma maybe did. (Stars are for Wishing On, Strange Empire)

15. And with that, we settled in to making sense of Dr Watson’s dates. (A Handsome and Generous People, Sherlock Holmes in the 23rd Century)

16. In a few, happy hours I would once again have Truth to test myself against: exacting, unpredicted, and glorious. (On Verity and Verisimilitude, Star Trek: The Next Generation)

17. ‘I wish you to take me sailing, Lady Maria. If at all possible, tonight.’ (Setting the Sail, ACD Holmes)

18. She looked out at the horizon then, smiling. I did, too, as I held her hand and waited to see what would come up on the other side of it. (As Safe as Houses, Strange Empire)

19. Rebecca shut her eyes again to better listen to Kat’s voice. (Kissing Day, Strange Empire)

20. “Excellent,” he beamed, standing aside for her. “And as soon as we finish here, I have another project upstairs which requires your urgent assistance.” (Cabin Fever, Elementary)

I’m not sure how well one can evaluate the last line in isolation -- ideally, it acquires its meaning from the entire story that went before it, does it not? For example, #11 is the culmination of an eight-thousand word extended metaphor about people, saws, and wood; that line gets all of its power from the relentless priming that went before. On the flipside, there’s a couple of these where it doesn’t matter one whit to me if the last line is any good or not. (The satisfaction in a PWP doesn’t come from the author nailing the final line, after all.)

Overall, I’m much happier with my final lines than my first lines, mostly because I work far harder on them. I might perhaps be embarrassed that #3 and #9 have virtually the same ending -- Watson listening to Holmes playing his violin -- except that I’m using it to different ends in each, and anyway, there are so many Holmes and Watson adaptations that end with Watson listening to Holmes playing his violin; if I have to be embarrassed about using that shorthand, then so do they.