These are crazy times, right? We haven’t had a do a wide-scale quarantine like this since the 1918 Flu. It’s good this sort of thing doesn’t happen more than once every 100 years or so. At least we can learn from the past. Looking at the 1918 Flu, we know social distancing does slow the spread of the disease and saves lives. It might need to last months, but that’s better than ending it early. The most important take-away is we’ve been through this before, we can go through it again. Plus, we have much better medical technology now than we did then, so it likely won’t be as bad as 1918. Continue reading
Month: March 2020
Ms. Marvel, Vol. 2 by G. Willow Wilson
In many ways, this is a typical superhero comic with people not guessing the secret identity of the hero even though it should be obvious, the main villain starting out as a friend, gratuitous cameos from other superheroes, and so forth. Also, as a middle-aged man, I don’t exactly fit into the target demographic since it’s about a high-school girl with high-school problems like falling in love for the first time and going through the awkward transition into adulthood. (In fact, her shape-changing superpower makes a great metaphor for the bodily changes teenagers go through.) Continue reading
Infidel by Pornsak Pichetshote
This is a basic haunted house story, but I really liked it. It starts, like many similar stories, with the main character seeing things other people don’t, so her sanity is questioned and so forth. However, the fact the main character is a Muslim makes the story stand out from other similar stories and it does a great job building tension by having racism and paranoia divide the neighbors of the apartment building from each other. Continue reading
Download Pioneer Day for Free
Hello, just thought I’d drop a note to let you know my book Pioneer Day is available to download for free on Amazon right now. As you can probably guess from the cover, it involves zombies, although they’re zombies with a twist. If you like it, be sure to leave a review. However, it won’t be free forever, so be sure to check it out before the price goes back up.
When some of the workers at Pure Laboratories suddenly become violent and even start eating each other, everyone reacts differently. Some people freeze up, unable to process what’s happening. Some people run, trying to get as far away as possible. Others pull out their phones and start posting pictures online. Since anyone can go crazy at any point, no one can turn their backs on anyone else and paranoia is rampant. Is this violent behavior caused by a new drug? A virus? Are the people trampling each other in order to flee back to their homes spreading this infection throughout the city?
With the outbreak being natural rather than supernatural, Pioneer Day is not a typical zombie story. At alternate times humorous, disturbing, and even philosophical, Pioneer Day will stick with you long after you’ve read it.
Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
“They had no idea what it was like to live in a place that boasted one of the most sophisticated digital policing systems in the world, but no proper mail service. Emirates with princes in silver-plated cars and districts with no running water. An Internet where every blog, every chat room, every forum is monitored for illegal expressions of distress and discontent.” Continue reading
Tiny Teeth by Sarah Hans
I’m quite a bit behind in my podcast listening, so I only just recently listened to Psuedopod episode 660: “Tiny Teeth” by Sarah Hans. This review will contain spoilers, so be sure to read or listen to it first if you haven’t already. Continue reading
Mania Delight 