Reviews and Comments

A marvellous book that showcases some fascinating fossils that gives us a glimpse of how life was like for prehistoric organisms. Along with fascinating artwork by Bob Nicholls, the book gives the history of the fossil, what behaviour is captured by it, and it can tell us (or not) about how prehistoric organisms lived.

The book is organized in chapters that cover a specific behaviour shown by the fossils:

• "Sex" shows us animals caught in the act of copulation, as well as sexual behaviours like 'lekking' dinosaurs. A number of pregnant animal fossils are also featured.

• "Parental Care and Animal Communities" feature brooding oviraptorid dinosaurs, arthropods guarding eggs, shark nurseries and unusual communities that formed around giant clams, floating ocean logs and even inside mammoth bones.

• "Moving and Making Homes" shows us fossils indicating that arthropods moult, animals migrate, and make burrows for homes.

• "Fighting, Biting, and Feeding" are another set of behaviours captured by fossils, showing mammoths and dinosaurs in the act of fighting, with prey found in the stomach of predators showing link (or links) in the ancient food chain.

• "Unusual Happenings" features unusual fossils that show that prehistoric animals also suffer from parasites, bone cancer and bone fractures. Also, that ancient animals poop and pee.

Definitely not your usual "Alice in Wonderland" tale. Or rather, this is a tale of what happens after Alice goes to Wonderland, becomes the Red Queen, and never returns. She rules with a Red King (of course) and various other people from both Wonderland and our land serve under her.

But being the Red Queen comes with Duties and, Wonderland being Wonderland, those duties, as told through the eyes of the Queen's servant in this story, involves rather a lot of people losing their heads for breaking the rules. Through it all, the servant has managed to keep her head; until she does something to get Alice out of her Regular Duty with the Red King.

Tied up in this story is the servant's unusual Duty she has with the Queen and which would turn out to be the unusual solution to her problem of not losing her head while keeping the Queen satisfied with the solution.

An average issues with interesting stories by Ray Nayler, Holly Messinger and a hilarious story involving American Indians by Joseph Bruchac.

• "Hornet and Butterfly" by Tom Cool and Bruce Sterling: in a flooded future world, one person struggles to stay alive in a world turned upside down. But doing so may need him to subjugate himself to a person born to be in the upper classes.

• "Stepsister " by Leah Cypess: a story that continues on from the ending of a familiar fairy tale, but with unusual twists involving the best friend of the king who is sent to fetch the stepsister of the queen. As the tale unfolds, we discover that this happy ever after story involves not so happily married people, fey magic, and decisions that will affect the lives of all involved.

• "Eyes of the Forest" by Ray Nayler: on a strange alien world, human runners form the only way to connect human refuges, for the world is deadly despite not having the concept of predator or prey. And now one beginner runner will have to make the run of her life to save the life of another.

• "Byzantine" by Holly Messinger: a fascinating fantasy story set during the fall of the city of Byzantine. In the city lives a young apprentice anxious to learn secrets from the books of his master. His curiosity catches the attention of a spirit who feeds on the essence of humans and is willing to cooperate with the apprentice by giving him knowledge in return for feeding from him. But as Byzantine comes under siege, the spirit mistrusts the apprentice, whom it suspects wants to control it too. It is not until the fall of Byzantine and what happens afterwards does the truth of who is the master and who is the apprentice become evident.

• "Warm Math" by Rich Larson: two passengers escape in a pod from an exploding ship. But the pod must lose mass if it is to have a chance of making it to a planet in time for a rescue. As the choice as to how to lose sufficient mass becomes more obvious, it will be up to the passengers to resolve their differences, remember their past and to decide which passenger has more to lose.

• "An Indian Love Call" by Joseph Bruchac: a hilarious story involving two Native Americans, one of who makes a concoction that accidentally calls out a legendary creature, who needs they now have to fulfil; or else.

• "Birds Without Wings" by Rebecca Zahabi: a couple hitchhike to a town in a world facing a strange invasion of 'shifters' who can take over the shape and form of a human. When they are forced to separate and then meet-up again, something is different about one of them.

• "In the Eyes of Jack Saul" by Richard Bowes: in Victorian England, a male prostitute who has won the hearts (and secrets) of many of England's top men meets a beautiful young man with the name of Dorian. His 'infatuation' with Dorian would lead him to a secret involving a painting.

• "Who Carries the World" by Robert Reed: set in his Great Ship series of stories about a huge world travelling around the galaxy, a near immortal man meets with an accident that nearly kills him. He is rescued by a woman whom he knows from his past. But his recovery would involve a strange ritual and a discovery about the world that they travel in.

• "Another F*cken Fairy Tale" by M. Rickert: a short piece about an old woman who apparently rescues a fairy. In return, the fairy provides a gift that would provoke whispers among the people that she is a witch. Is she?

An average issue, with lots of shorter pieces of fiction and only a few longer ones. The stories that I found more interesting are those by Fawaz Al-Matrouk, Ai Jiang, Julie Le Blanc, Taemumu Richardson, Shreya Ila Anasuya and John Wiswell.

• "The Voice of a Thousand Years" by Fawaz Al-Matrouk: an interesting story of an old man who discovers a voice coming from a musical instrument in his workshop that turns out to be a 'spirit' that desires to see the world. The old man tries to fulfill it by creating automations for the spirit to inhabit, but fails each time. Until he, and the spirit, decides to make one final attempt that may yet be their final act.

• "Cold Trade" by Aliya Whiteley: traders from space travel under the ocean of a world to try to trade with large, deep ocean dwellers who only appear interested in moving around a large formation on the bottom. The traders are desperate to make a trade to save their reputation (the result of a disaster from their previous trade). But the resulting trade option would be born out of desperation and the strained relationship between the traders themselves.

• "Give Me English" by Ai Jiang: an interesting story of a world where words in various languages is currency, and you lose the ability to hear or speak the word once you've sold it away. In this world, a girl in the US from China is trying to make a living in a world where words are hoarded or flaunted by the rich, and the poorest are silent.

• "The Canopy" by Norman Spinrad: after the elevator breaks down in a high rise apartment, one person goes on a rooftop adventure to get to her apartment, in a city where the homeless have to occupy the rooftops. The journey would lead to a new way of viewing the people who live there.

• "Green Street: Or A Recapitulation in Reverse. A Report From the Map Cell of Turret 15, Compiled By S. R. Mandel, Chief Cartographer. Excerpted from The Knowledge Project: An A-to-Zed is that City We Adjust Know" by S. R. Mandel: a story about a report of people who unexpectedly find themselves in a street full of greenery, and a department head that despairs when his department (tasked with documenting and finding the street) is shut down. But the head still has hopes of finding it.

• "Breathless in the Green" by Octavia Cade: a being who inhabits a lake and drowns children over the ages sees the latest victim. But the girl would prove to have a different opinion about being drowned, and go on to challenge it to change is ways about what kind of people to drown.

• "Ninety-Five Percent of the Ocean" by Jennifer Hudak: a girl sees her other side, which resides in the ocean. Both would be incomplete until they decide to meet and face the world together.

• "The Hunger" by James Enge: a girl has had enough and run off to meet her fate in the Skeleton Garden. But along the way, she meets an unexpected traveller who shows her that even skeletons hunger for more than just life.

• "The Mechanic" by Julie Le Blanc: on a dusty world, an old woman goes to town to get spare parts. It would need kindness for her to recover from a robbery and to finally finish the work she has begun in her home on something she loves.

• "Modern Cassandra" by Julia August: a funny story short about a girl who meets Apollo and gets prophecies that she emails to those involved. Now, if only we responded to her.

• "An Ill-Fated Girl Happens to Meet an Ill-Fated Man" by P. H. Lee: boy meets girl, they fall in love, boy losses girl, and tears fall from heaven in sympathy, to the anguish of an Empire.

• "Nightmares Come From Stolen Dreams" by Taemumu Richardson: in a strange future, a 'snake charmer' and her giant many headed snake survive by making customers' dreams seem real. But then a company tries to use them to make its own dream drug, and the nightmares begin.

• "The Angel's Call" by Jae Steinbacher: in a future where 'angels' walk the Earth, created by an alien ship, one girl still to transform in an angel struggles with her destiny, while trying to save her lover from a cult group.

• "Mother, Mother" by Shreya Ila Anasuya: the story of the anguish a grill feels for the kids is her mother and how a spiritual mother goddess tries to comfort her. But the goddess is also mother to all the creatures of the jungle, and she cannot answer their cries while she comforts the girl, unless the girl decides to release her.

• "L'enfant Terrible" by Mark H. Huston: a small creature lost in our world is captured by a wizard. As we learn its origins in the story, the world learn to fear where it came from.

• "The Big Many" by Albert E. Cowdrey: as disasters hit the world, all one man can do is to save his daughter before saving the others that could be saved.

• "The True Meaning of Father's Day" by John Wiswell: a humorous tale of time travellers meeting up for Father's Day in a restaurant. They try to one up each other with exploits into the past that set up the current gathering, only for one to finally declare why they are all gathered there in the first place.

When COVID-19 hits New York, a recently fired executive who now makes deliveries ends up making deliveries to a certain person who recognizes his (nerdy) skills and asks him to join the 'non-profit' KPS. It is only later that he learn what KPS means, and it's there in the title. Indeed, the society moves its members to an alternate earth where Kaiju exists. The KPS is there to study them and to make sure they are safe from the monsters from our world.

I decided to read this novel based on the title and the premise, but ended up enjoying it. What starts out sounding ludicrous ends up being a really fun, breezy novel to read, where most characters treat each other with respect while putting up with horrible puns and Kaiju in-jokes. The science is, of course, hand-wavy, but in the context of the novel, it works and there are no obvious 'McGuffins' introduced. Of course, there are bad guys, and you can tell there are bad guys because they don't treat others with respect, nor do they understand what it means to really make a Kaiju angry.

If you're looking for a fun (and funny) novel to pass the time, this one may be a nice choice.

A wonderful variation on the story of Chang'e. Here, Chang'e is an immortal bound to the moon but what she keeps hidden from the Celestial rulers is her daughter, Xingyin, who lives a free life on the moon hidden from others apart from their servant. But it all ends one day, when Xingyin's magical powers manifest itself and is detected as a magical disturbance by the Empresses. She has no choice but to try to escape, but ends up in the Celestial Kingdom. There, her adventures begin.

She ends up becoming a learning companion of the Crown Prince and a skilled archer in the army. She discovers a possible way for her to free her mother from being bound to the moon. Furthermore, she also discovers herself falling in love and getting her heart broken. Thus, begins her life in the army as she battles monsters and enemies to finally earn the right to free her mother, but only if she does one final task: a task that she does not really want to fulfil. It is while trying to do the final task that her heart and mind come into conflict, and she has to make life-changing decisions that could result in her death and the death of the people she loves.

Written in first-person, we see the world as Xingyin and live through her emotions, thoughts, accomplishments and failures as she learns skills and make decisions towards her goal of being reunited with her mother and freeing her from the moon.

Now looking forward to reading the second book and the further adventures of Xingyin.

A fascinating book on the life of 'Carbon Queen' Mildred Dresselhaus. As the description of the book states, she started out impoverished, but through her own efforts and ability to connect to people, she worked her way through education and research, eventually producing and leading a scientific effort to understand the properties of carbon in its many forms, leading to the world we now know, full of the fruits of her efforts (like carbon fibre, single molecular layers of carbon graphite and many others).

The book also emphasizes that hers was not an easy journey. Her own thesis advisor discouraged her research and did not think much of women (although he did apologize to her in later years) and American society did not (and still does not) value the work of women in academia. She not only proved them wrong, she was also one of the leaders pushing universities (like MIT) to end gender discrimination, and also leading and encouraging women (and also men from disadvantaged backgrounds) to pursue their scientific studies. She also had a very supportive husband who saw what she was capable of doing and was willing to help her achieve what she wanted at a time of gender discrimination in the scientific field.

Whether you know or not of her life and her work, this is a great book to read: easy to read with enough scientific details to give you an idea of what she was doing, along with a wealth of references to oral histories and scientific papers for you to get an idea of the breath and depth of her scientific and advocacy work.