The Fandomening

Sep. 13th, 2025 12:23 am
sholio: cute smiling cartoon cupcake with a candle (Birthday cupcake)
[personal profile] sholio
Whumptober ficlet status: 12/31 (4 Biggles, 2 Bab5, 6 Murderbot)

I put in a tentative signup for [community profile] trickortreatex. This is the first time in at least 3 years that I'm not requesting Biggles, because greerwatson (of "Unrequested Nazis Are Awesome, Actually" fame) usually does this exchange and I don't want to accidentally summon her. :P However, it's early yet and I'm still adding fandoms, so I'll see if I feel like it's worth the risk later on. (I don't really mind so much being assigned to her as a writer; I can always write the minimum and leave it anon. But ugh.) Also, while my motivation is - let's be real - mostly avoiding Greer, it made me realize that I've requested Biggles in every exchange since spring 2022 and it might be fun to cast my net wider this time, and request some fandoms I haven't asked for in a while.

Also, I put in a signup for [personal profile] spook_me, the annual Halloween/horror challenge with art prompts that I've been doing every year, or at least most years, since their very first round back on LJ in the late 2000s.* True, my years of finishing anything for it are relatively rare, but it's genuinely one of my favorite events of the year, and I will be very sad whenever they stop doing it.

*(Edit: their first year was - HOLYSHIT - 2006, I found their master list on LJ, and I did actually write for it that year. I thought I remembered participating in the first one! This means this is their 20th year, and I've signed up for most of those years. What even.)

**(Edit2: The first spook-me signup post from 2006. I completely forgot that early on, they asked you to veto what you *didn't* want to write for, and then assigned you a creature and art prompt!)

In other news, Casefic Exchange revealed! I wrote Smuggler's Beach, a 13K post-Buries a Hatchet Biggles/EvS fic that is basically Biggles Goes Alone but with Erich along this time.
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


I'd been posting reviews to LiveJournal since April of 2014 but on September 12, 2014, James Nicoll Reviews went live, with a review of Robert A. Heinlein's Between Planets.
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


It's time for Bo to leave doomed San Francisco behind... just as soon as she completes one final task.

Awake in the Floating City by Susanna Kwan
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


11 sourcebooks that range across the shattered Earth of the Rifts tabletop roleplaying game from Palladium Books.

Bundle of Holding: Rifts Worlds 1




More World Books for the cross-dimensional tabletop roleplaying game

Bundle of Holding: Rifts Land and Sea (from 2022)
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


A woodcarver's foster daughter sets out to free a maiden from a magical tower prison, just the sort of thing that always works out exactly according to plan, without unforeseen geopolitical complications.

SideQuested by K B Spangler & Ale Presser
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Otaku Hina is delighted that her Japanese neighbour Kyuta looks just like Hina's favourite anime character. Alas, Kyuta dislikes anime almost as much as vampires like Hina.

Otaku Vampire's Love Bite, volume 1 By Julietta Suzuki (Translated by Tomo Kimura)

Murderbot fic: Crime and Punishment

Sep. 10th, 2025 12:12 am
sholio: murderbot group from episode 10 (Murderbot-family1)
[personal profile] sholio
DW catchup continues ... I posted this on AO3 yesterday, and I wrote most of this fic in the car, actually, on the 7-hour drive home from my mom's part of Alaska. I would drive for a while and think of a new section of fic and stop to write a bit on my laptop.

Crime and Punishment (Murderbot books, Mensah POV, 2500 words)
Missing scene/tag for Fugitive Telemetry. Mensah gets a call from station security. (Entirely bookverse.)

Follow-up on
Spoilers for Fugitive Telemetrythe refugee shooting Murderbot in the novella.
Mostly fluff and banter, in spite of the actual topic.

Fic under the cut )
rachelmanija: (Books: old)
[personal profile] rachelmanija


This novel appears to be a well-written and enjoyable but conventional haunted house story; it turns out to have a twist on that theme which I've never encountered before. I very much enjoyed discovering that for myself, so if you think you might too, don't read the spoilers.

A young couple, Emily and Freddie, move from London to Larkin Lodge, an old house in Dartmoor, while Emily's recovering from a serious accident. After she fell off a cliff, her heart stopped and one leg was permanently damaged. Doctors warned her and Freddie that she might suffer from post-sepsis mental complications, so when she starts perceiving weird things involving Larkin Lodge, both she and Freddie think it's probably her, not the house. Emily and Freddie's marriage is not the greatest, but is that something that was previously going on, or is it cracking under stress, or is the house having a bad effect on them?

Emily and Freddie are not the best people, but that really works for the story. I thought it was a lot of fun.

Spoilers! Read more... )

Content notes: Not even slightly gory or gross. Mention of a miscarriage (off-page, not described). Some violence, not graphic. No on-page animal harm, but the body of a dead raven is found.
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Doctor Catherine Coldbridge travels to darkest Texas in quest of her long-lost husband, Frank Humble... so she can kill the unkillable man.

The Unkillable Frank Lightning by Josh Rountree

Clarke Award Finalists 2013

Sep. 8th, 2025 10:28 am
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
2013: The Tories masterfully tank the UK credit rating, a grateful nation celebrates Margaret Thatcher’s death, and Scotland inexplicably chooses to remain in the UK.


Poll #33586 Clarke Award Finalists 2013
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 15


Which 2013 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

Dark Eden by Chris Beckett
3 (20.0%)

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson
9 (60.0%)

Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway
4 (26.7%)

Intrusion by Ken MacLeod
1 (6.7%)

Nod by Adrian Barnes
1 (6.7%)

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
1 (6.7%)



✓ for read, * for intend to read, ! for never heard of it. Or whatever amuses you.

Which 2013 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Dark Eden by Chris Beckett
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson ✓
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway ✓
Intrusion by Ken MacLeod
Nod by Adrian Barnes
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

I was bored

Sep. 6th, 2025 02:04 pm
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
So I rolled up a bunch of Icons characters. Mostly boring, but this one is at least mildly amusing.

Doctor* Shawinigan**

Read more... )
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Five books new to me, at least four of which are fantasy (not sure about the El-Mohtar) and three instalments in series.

Books Received, August 30 — September 5


Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 43


Books Received, August 30 — September 5

View Answers

Lies Weeping by Glen Cook (November 2025)
21 (48.8%)

Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories by Amal El-Mohtar (March 2026)
27 (62.8%)

The River and the Star By Gabriela Romero Lacruz (October 2025)
7 (16.3%)

The Bookshop Below by Georgia Summers (November 2025)
16 (37.2%)

The Burning Queen by Aparna Verma (November 2025)
9 (20.9%)

Some other option (see comments)
0 (0.0%)

Cats!
29 (67.4%)

james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


The malevolent Hierarchs are dead. The only way to learn about them is archaeology. The only thing worse than archaeologists not finding the relics of evil sorcerers is finding relics of evil sorcerers.

Queen Demon (The Rising World, volume by Martha Wells

Good news

Sep. 3rd, 2025 10:23 am
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
Both of Premee's cats have been found and returned.

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