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Ch18, page 259
Apr. 22nd, 2025 11:54 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
unsounded_feedLook how big those pinned bugs are. I ain’t living in Alderode until they get that situation under control.
-Ashley
unsounded_feed
One Piece: Heroines, Vol. 1
Apr. 22nd, 2025 10:38 pmmangabookshelf_feedCreated by Eiichiro Oda. Written by Jun Esaka. Illustrated by Sayaka Suwa. Released in Japan by Jump Books. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by Stephen Paul.
It’s been a while since I’ve dipped my toe into reviewing One Piece, but here they are with a light novel. Like most Jump light novels, the content is light as air, and you can read it in less than an hour. That’s not to say it’s bad, though. The author apparently is an old hand at this, having written a number of Sasuke spinoffs for the Naruto light novel series. The artist seems to be more on the fashion end, but it’s a terrific style – Oda does not do anything besides the cover art, but I didn’t miss him, as these have a style all their own. As for the stories themselves, well, they’re a mixed bag, as you’d expect. Our main two heroines do better, but things lag a bit in the second half. overall, frankly, the book suffers somewhat from what the manga itself does at times – it wants to write cool, strong women, but it also can’t help but objectify them.
In the first story, Nami buys shoes that will supposedly let her run fast in heels, but they’re terrible. When she goes to return them, she finds an arrogant designer and his jaded girlfriend/assistant. Told he’ll give her proper good shoes if she models for him, Nami does so, but also tells the assistant she’s better off without this jerk. Robin’s story takes place while she’s with the revolutionaries, as she tries to help the crew eat some very bitter mushrooms and Koala to decipher a newly discovered lost script. In the third story, a young boy has fallen in love with Vivi and writes a letter to her saying this, but it blows away. Trying to catch it, Koza ends up in trouble when everyone thinks he wrote it. Lastly, Zoro and Perona are living with Mihawk, and have a nice interlude – and a lot of fighting – when three bottles of delicious wine wash up at their castle.
The series is best when it’s living up to its title. Nami and Robin may be praised by the narrative as amazingly beautiful and stunning, but they’re also cool and clever – Nami gets exactly what she wants, gets a bit of revenge that nets her money, and (a distant third) helps a woman realize her life has value without a boyfriend. Robin could do everything in her story herself, but does not, knowing that Koala is undergoing the joy of discovery and working something out for herself. I also loved her washing the dishes. The weak story is the third one. It’s supposed to be about Vivi, but she only shows up for the resolution, and is used 100% as an object of worship. Koza’s relationship with her means that he takes over the narrative – Nami and Robin fortunately lack men in their lives. Perona is shown here midway between her “I am a minor villain” debut and the “I am Zoro’s friend and ally” we see later, and hers is probably the funniest story – yes, it revolves around Zoro and Mihawk too, but she’s the POV, so it works fine. (She’s not praised as the other three are. Shame, she’s cute.)
So overall, two excellent stories, one funny and good story, and Vivi’s story being hijacked. Not a bad batting average. Next time we’ll have Hancock, Tashigi, Reiju and Uta. For One Piece fans.
Pick of the Week: Tamaki & Amane (and They Were 11!)
Apr. 21st, 2025 10:32 pmmangabookshelf_feed
SEAN: Of course, we already picked They Were 11! unanimously back in January when the preorder pages fooled us all. As such, of course, that is our pick this week as well. HOWEVER, we will also be picking another title in the interests of fairness. So I’m picking the new Fumi Yoshinaga, Tamaki & Amane, which looks fantastic.
MICHELLE: I can’t conceive of a time when I *wouldn’t* pick a new Fumi Yoshinaga! So, yes, same for me!
KATE: At the risk of being boring, I, too, choose Fumi Yoshinaga!
ANNA: I agree!
ASH: I adore Fumi Yoshinaga’s work, so I am incredibly excited for Tamaki & Amane. (And also Moto Hagio’s.)
10% off!
Apr. 21st, 2025 04:00 pmasknicola_feed
I’ve finally been on Patreon long enough that I can now offer annual memberships, which for now I’m pricing at 10% off the aggregated monthly cost. So if you’re a free member who’s thinking about upgrading, now’s the time.
Recent posts available only to paid members include today’s—a 5-minute reading of the prologue of a novel, The Burnt Man; a long, juicy, illustrated post about trying to turn images of my cats, Charlie and George, into medieval-looking cats; two sets of lesbian poetry—one about small moments, and one about love and decisions (oh, wait, I already made that one available for free); a chewy illustrated post about maps; an original essay, and much more.
Coming up soon: more maps (so many maps!), some video of the UK galleys of Aud, some short-fiction audio, more dyke poems—this time about lust and desire, the finished images of Charlie and George as Lindisfarne and Kells cats, and lots more.
If you have friends who might find any of that interesting, please feel free to spread the word: the more money I earn from this, the more time I can take from other paying work to experiment with writing new things and creating new recordings and images. (Because Kelley and I have had a lot of extraordinary expenses lately…)
But if you really are skint, there are still many posts (about half of them, actually—though that percentage will go down as I post more) available to those who join for free.
Ch18, page 258
Apr. 20th, 2025 11:48 pmunsounded_feedI know the tar guys are everyone’s favourites :3 Well, Quigley doesn’t care for them much either.
-Ashley
From Two-Bit Baddie to Total Heartthrob: This Villainess Will Cross-Dress to Impress!, Vol. 3
Apr. 20th, 2025 10:31 pmmangabookshelf_feedBy Masamune Okazaki and Hayase Jyun. Released in Japan as “Mob Dōzen no Akuyaku Reijō wa Dansō Shite Kōryaku Taishō no Za wo Nerau” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Caroline W.
I’ve said before that the least interesting part of these villainess books tends to be “who will she end up with in the end?”. Either it’s obvious from the start, such as in Villainess Level 99; it’s obvious but the creator knows it won’t be popular so is delaying it as long as possible, such as My Next Life As a Villainess; or it’s not obvious but it doesn’t really matter as who she marries is mostly irrelevant, such as this series. Honestly, at the end of this second volume, the love interest with the biggest lead is still Lilia. The webnovel version of this series does list “GL subtext” as a warning, so they know what they’re doing, but I’m not convinced that’s an endgame – Lilia here suggests seducing Elizabeth’s older brother so that she can “be in the family” and get to be around her all the time. The good news is the worldbuilding is still pretty interesting.
There’s a new transfer student in school, and he surprises everyone by declaring he’s in love with Elizabeth and asking her to marry him. Constantly. At every possible moment. This is especially surprising to Elizabeth and Lilia, as they recognize him. Prince Yoh Won Lei is from the Eastern lands, and while he is meant to be a spy, he’s not supposed to be like this. Ffor one thing, shouldn’t he be going after the saint? Unfortunately, as the book goes on, absolutely nothing seems to put the man off, and the other random girls in the class all seem to ship it – to the point where they set up a play of Snow White with Elizabeth – in a dress – as Snow White, and Yoh as the Prince. He’s gonna go for a kiss – everyone knows this. More importantly… what’s he really after?
This book has three real highlights. The first is the play – after so many “Sorta Cinderella” bad high school plays in manga, it’s nice to see “Sorta Snow White”, and Lilia as the fourth-wall breaking narrator is a delight. The second is early on when the four male love interests corner Lilia in the student council room and try to get her to back off Elizabeth, as she was rejected. Lilia points out, correctly, that she was rejected as she actually confessed, something none of them have done. Then there’s the climax, which not only has Elizabeth coming to a dramatic (if mostly offscreen) rescue, but also has Lilia confessing that she’s figured out what’s wrong with this world – the gods, or whoever, are trying to keep the game script accurate, but she is now too powerful for it, so can alter the script. She’s not the only one – I think Elizabeth has that power as well, she just doesn’t know it. They may both need reality-breaking powers, though, as more and more people seem to have identified Elizabeth as the reason their evil plans are not working.
The author makes sympathy whining about this possibly being the final volume, but there’s at least two more in Japan. I’ll read more, though honestly, Elizabeth’s baffled density about why all these guys seem to want to hang around her may be the book’s big flaw.
Did the Easter Bunny Bring Aliens?
Apr. 20th, 2025 05:00 pmasknicola_feed
A few days ago I woke up to a request from a Major Media Company to talk on one of their flagship programmes from a science fiction writer’s perspective on the recent paper by Professor Nikku Madhusudhan (Cambridge) and others suggesting they have found signs of life on a planet 124 light years away. The interview didn’t work out because of the time difference but it set me thinking.
What’s actually been detected?
For decades, people have been searching for signs of extraterrestrial life—mostly for signs of intelligent life—out there in the cosmos. This search falls into two basic categories:
- Technosignatures—searching for evidence of technology (past, present, or speculative) that could only be produced by intelligent life, whether the solid, tangible technology itself (a giant spaceship, laser beams shooting at earth, a Dyson sphere wrapping a star) or signals such as radio and TV shows, alien music, binary code messages, and so on.
- Biosignatures—the hunt for chemicals generally associated with life (as we know it), such as oxygen, carbon dioxide, methane, etc.
Madhusudham et al claim that, using the James Webb Space Telescope, they have made a ‘3-sigma (3σ’) detection’ of a biosignature in the atmosphere of K2-18b, a sub-Neptune planet orbiting a red dwarf star 124 light years—700 trillion miles—away (in the constellation Leo, if you’re interested).
The so-called biosignature is dimethyl sulphide (DMS) and/or dimethyl disulphide (DMDS), molecules which, here on earth, are produced only by life: DMS mostly by marine microorganisms like phytoplankton and bacteria but also, strangely enough, truffles (it’s the distinctive smell of DMS that enables pigs and trained dogs to truffle them); and DMDS by a variety of bacteria, fungi, plants and animals. The interesting thing, according to Madhusudham, is that there is far more of that stuff on K2-18b than on earth. And he suggests that therefore it must be a ‘hycaean’ planet—orbiting in a habitable zone in which the surface could sustain liquid water, and that in fact the surface is one vast warm ocean blanked by a hydrocarbon atmosphere—hydrogen, methane, and/or other hydrocarbons.
Let look at that those claims.
- What is a 3σ’ detection and does this meet that standard? If I’ve interpreted my very cursory reading correctly, it means the researchers believe there is a 99.73% chance that what they’ve identified as DMS and/or DMDS actually is DMS/DMDS. I don’t mind admitting that the astrophysics and statistics are way above my pay grade but if you take a look at this Bluesky thread by Dr Ryan MacDonald, exoplanet astronomer at the University of Michigan and a NASA Sagan Fellow, you’ll see he thinks Cambridge’s 3σ detection basically parses out to, well, not just weak evidence but, statistically, no evidence at all. So, hmmmmn.
- Is K2-18b even a hycean planet? No one knows, but, according to this recent paper released on reprint server arXiv, being a giant molten ball of heaving magma, or even a gas planet, might suit the evidence better. Again, this is beyond my competence to judge but, again, pause for thought.
- If K2-18b is a hycean planet, and it is full of DMS/DMDS, does that necessarily indicate life? Well, no. Apparently a year ago researchers reported a detection of DMS on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko—unlikely to be hospitable to life. Also last year, some lab experiments produced DMS by shining UV light on a simulated exoplanet atmosphere. And earlier this year some radio astronomers reported finding DMS in the gas and dust between stars. The one argument on the Cambridge scientists’ side is the quantities they believe they have detected—more than a thousand earth oceans’ worth. (Er, not sure about that figure—I’m quoting from memory. Go read the paper.)
So right now my jury is still deliberating and a long way from reaching a verdict.
The Fermi Paradox
So if there are all these caveats regarding whether or not it actually is life, why are so many people getting so excited? Well, first and most probably, because it so much more fun to contemplate alien life far enough away that they can’t possibly invade that to think about all the idiotic invasions right here on Earth that are either currently under way or being mooted by political fools. And second because one day, inevitably, someone will stumble across life elsewhere—so why not now? In the Milky Way alone there are billions of stars similar to the sun—billions of stars that might have planets orbiting in the habitable zones. And many of these solar systems are far older than ours—the odds (so huge they’re overwhelming) are that, yes, somewhere out there there’s life. Furthermore, those odds are very good that some of that life is intelligent. But where are they?
So the Fermi Paradox in a nutshell describes the conflict between
- the argument that the scale and probability favour intelligent life being common in the universe and
- the total lack of evidence of same having arisen any time or place except here.
As I’ve always understood it, the Fermi Paradox is specific to intelligent life—and as early as the middle of last century SF writers such as Leigh Brackett suggested a very reasonable solution to the paradox: the smarter a civilisation gets, the more likely it is to self-destruct. But I’m not sure a raft of algae floating on an ocean on an alien planet reaches that threshold.
But what if it did?
What are the implications?
What would it mean if there really was life out there? How would that knowledge affect: My relationship with the universe? The way I think about my place in it? About what this means for writing SF?
Answering the last bit first—because like all writers i’m lazy, and prefer to do the easy bits first—the answer is straightforward: with the exception of my first novel I’ve never written about aliens and have no particular plans to. So the answer is: It doesn’t. Nor will it affect what I read and how I feel about it.
In terms of my relationship to the universe and my place within it, well, I wish I had something deeply profound to say but if pushed right now my answers would be I don’t know and Not very much.
I haven’t leapt immediately from a) the possibility that far, far from this tiny self-enclosed fragile droplet of the universe something else is alive, to b) the sudden fear of spaceships popping out of wormholes with laser cannon aimed at Seattle—or hope that they fill our consciousness with the sudden complete knowledge of how to cure cancer (or MS or greed)—or relief at the possibility that with a wave of their techno wand they can turn every coal- and gas- and nuclear-fission powered generator into a clean, green power planet that needs no ugly overhead grid and makes everything work perfectly at zero cost.
Under my caution and scepticism I do also find this interesting. I’m not sure that feeling rises to the level of exciting but definitely interesting. That’s because, given the millions, billions, trillions of star systems in the cosmos it would defy logic to believe, for even a second, that there’s no other life out there. Of course there’s life. I’ve always believed that. So if by next week we have a 6σ’ detection (beyond the possibility of chance) of an amount of DSM and or DSDM impossible to arise from anything but but a vast warm ocean on another planet with something alive floating in it, my view of my place in the cosmos won’t wobble. Understanding through graphs and charts that there’s some alien goo 700 trillion miles away is just not the same as peering through my telescope one night at the moon and seeing the clangers hoot and wave back. (They are a family of knitted mouse-like things that live in burrows delved from moon craters and covered for protection by, er, dustbin lids. Oh, never mind. It’s a British thing.)
So alien goo? Not exciting. But what if it’s a vast ocean positively teeming with a whole variety of life—the hycean equivalent of whales and dolphins and kelp and squid and albatrosses and herring and crabs and coral ad octopuses and sea stars and… Now that starts to get exciting! But does it excite me any differently than the creatures of our own seas? After all, there’s still so much to learn! We know orcas, for example, are sentient, intelligent beings with a transmissible culture and language. I would love to spend time trying to learn more, to understand how they feel and experience their world—but I don’t want it enough to do anthing different with my life.
Consider, too, that people still treat orca just like giant fish who are either amusing or inconvenient, depending on your perspective. And we still have no clue what they’re saying to each other, or what they think of us. And we persist in behaving in ways we know will lead to their extinction (and, y’know, our own). On some level they make no difference to our lives or our place in the universe. The fact of other life, right here, that’s too alien to understand makes me feel wonderfully connected to the world—putting my hand on a tree trunk, listening to a bird, feeling my cat purr or watching him stalk a beetle—they make me feel very much part of the cosmos. What difference would the alien equivalent of orcas 700 trillion miles away make? Would the notion of other life so far away change my life, the way I feel about my life, the way I live it or write about it? I have no idea. The’re no way to know but to find out.
So before we can tell if these Easter eggs are aliens, if the Easter Bunny brought us something worth getting exercised over, let’s first get to five-sigma on a real biosignature. Then let’s figure out what sort planet it is. Then what sort of life. Then ask me again.
Manga the Week of 4/23/25
Apr. 18th, 2025 12:33 pmmangabookshelf_feedSEAN: It’s still April, and there’s still manga. A lot of it.
ASH: Time is really weird these days; I could have sworn April was almost over.
ANNA: Is it the longest month? I feel like April is a full year.
SEAN: Airship has three print releases: The Case Files of Jeweler Richard 10, Reincarnated Into a Game as the Hero’s Friend 4, and The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash 9.
And for early digital there is She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man 13 and Too Many Losing Heroines! 4.
Dark Horse has the 10th volume of their Hellsing re-release.
Retailers say the legendary They Were 11! (11-nin Iru!) is out next week from Denpa Books… and Ed says it’s shipping from their warehouse, so this may be close to accurate!. A shoujo story from 1975 by Moto Hagio that ran in Betsucomi, and honestly if you did not order this when you heard the name Moto Hagio, then you should probably be reading some other weekly manga releases post. Ed also says this will be the only printing.
MICHELLE: Woo!
ASH: I’ll be watching out for my copy like a hawk.
ANNA: Yay! I’m super stoked!
SEAN: Ghost Ship has Creature Girls: A Hands-On Field Journal in Another World 12 and a 3rd omnibus of Do You Like Big Girls?.
Inori Books, which is to say the author Inori, is releasing Homunculus Tears: Alchemy for the Brokenhearted simultaneously in Japanese, English, Spanish and German. It’s a yuri light novel from the creator of I’m in Love with the Villainess, and is about an alchemist who finds meaning in life in fighting on the front lines of the army suddenly being told that just-created homunculi can now do all that.
ASH: I have been known to enjoy Inori’s previously translated work.
SEAN: Ize Press have two debuts. Lady Devil stars a woman who is imprisoned after supposedly ripping out her husband’s heart on their wedding night. Terrified of being married off to some schlub, she makes a deal… which transforms her twin brother into a devil!
ASH: Well now, that took some unexpected turns!
SEAN: Lover Boy is about an obsessed boy who has loved the man next door since he was three, only to be constantly rebuffed. Now he’s in college, can he finally get his ludicrously obsessive feelings across?
ASH: Is this romance or horror? Or both?
SEAN: Also from Ize Press: 7FATES: CHAKHO 7 (the final volume), Beware the Villainess! 3, The Boxer 10, Itaewon Class 5, Overgeared 7, See You in My 19th Life 6, and SSS-Class Revival Hunter 3.
It’s a quiet week for J-Novel Club, but they do have a debut. Three Cheats from Three Goddesses: The Broke Baron’s Youngest Wants a Relaxing Life (Dōyara Binbō Danshaku-ke no Suekko ni Tensei Shitarashii Desu: San Megami ni Moratta Mittsu no Cheat de, Saikō no Slow Life o Mezashimasu!) is a must-have for anyone who loves the word “cheats” in a light novel title. An overworked office worker dies and is reborn as a noble… but his family is broke and there are monsters in this world! Fortunately, see title.
For light novels, they have Dimension Wave 3, The Hero and the Sage, Reincarnated and Engaged 4, and I’m a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might as Well Try Mastering Magic 8. And for manga there is The Reincarnation of the Strongest Exorcist in Another World 5.
Kaiten Books has the 4th manga volume of Welcome to the Outcast’s Restaurant!.
Kodansha debuts, in print, Toxic Daughter: Chi-chan (Chii-chan), which is by Shuzo Oshimi and ran in Young Magazine. It’s complete at one volume. A girl who was always obsessed with insects but had been absent recently shows up at school causing a commotion. The class “good guy” decides he’s going to save her. This is by Oshimi, so I bet that will go SWELL.
MICHELLE: Snerk.
ASH: I’m sure you’re right.
SEAN: Also in print: Ajin: Demi-Human Complete 3, Gachiakuta 6, Rent-A-Girlfriend 30, Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement 10, Shangri-La Frontier 16, To Your Eternity 22, and Your Lie in April Omnibus 4.
ASH: I really need to catch up with To Your Eternity! I have the books, I just need the time to read them.
SEAN: And digitally we see Drops of God: Mariage 12, Gamaran: Shura 31, and ONIMAI: I’m Now Your Sister! 9.
One Peace Books has an 8th volume of The Death Mage manga.
No debuts for Seven Seas. But we get Black Night Parade 6, Drugstore in Another World 10, Gravitation: Collector’s Edition 5, Headhunted to Another World: From Salaryman to Big Four! 8, The Ideal Sponger Life 18, The Kingdoms of Ruin 10, Modern Dungeon Capture Starting with Broken Skills 4, My New Life as a Cat 9, Reincarnated as a Sword 14, Someone’s Girlfriend 3, Tiger and Dragon 3, The World’s Fastest Level Up 5, and Yes, No, or Maybe? 2.
And for Thai novels, we see KinnPorsche 3.
ASH: I still love that we’re getting Thai novels in translation.
SEAN: Square Enix has one title, a debut. Wash It All Away (Kirei ni Shite Moraemasu ka) is a seinen series from Young Gangan, by the creator of Sankarea: Undying Love. A young woman with amnesia runs a laundry service and has heartwarming moments with those around her.
ASH: Sankarea did have its moments; I might give the first volume a try.
SEAN: Steamship debuts Virgin Marriage: A Maiden Voyage into Passion’s Embrace (Shojo Kon – Kohinata Fuufu wa Shite Mitai) is a josei manga from Choco Love. A young couple in an arranged marriage are not only virgins, but completely ignorant of sex. On their first anniversary, she wants to try changing that… This is from the creator of Loved by Two Fiancés and The Yakuza and His Omega.
ASH: Depending on how it’s handled, I could actually see this being a really sweet manga.
SEAN: Two debuts for Tokyopop. Fated NOT to Meet (Unmeidakedo Ai Irenai) is a BL title that runs in from RED. A young man is extremely angry that his top salesman title has been stolen from him by the new guy. Then he meets his new online date… and guess who?
ASH: I couldn’t possibly!
SEAN: We’re Not Cut Out to Be Lovers (Oretachi wa Koibito ni Muitenai) is also BL, and also in from RED. An auto mechanic lives next to a streamer who claims to be a romance expert, and whose streams are too loud! What will shut that guy up? A kiss?
ASH: I wonder about that.
SEAN: They also have The Person I Loved Asked Me to Die in My Sister’s Stead 3.
Viz Media has a light novel debut. One Piece: Heroines is a short story collection that originally ran as part of One Piece Magazine, each dealing with a different woman from the series. The first volume has two stories with Nami, as well as Robin, Vivi, and Perona. Who is… technically not a heroine? Well, I guess she’s no longer evil, so it’s fine.
There’s also Boy’s Abyss 9, My Neighbor Totoro: The Official Cookbook, and Star Wars: The High Republic: The Edge of Balance 4 (the final volume).
Hey, remember when Yen Press delayed everything last week? Let’s start with Yen On, who only has one title, Before the Tutorial Starts 2.
Fear not, Yen Press has more than one title. They debut The 31st Consort (31-banme no Okisaki-sama), a shoujo manga from Flos Comic… or B’s-Log. Not sure, it changed magazines. A woman is the 31st consort of a king, which means that she only sees him once a month… if there’s a 31st in it. Shame she’s fallen in love with him.
ASH: Whoops.
ANNA: That sounds like a predicament.
SEAN: Bocchi the Rock! Side Story: Kikuri Hiroi’s Heavy-Drinking Diary (Bocchi the Rock! Gaiden – Hiroi Kikuri no Fukazake Nikki) runs in Comic Fuz. If you read Bocchi and wished it was all about the terrible drunk, good news.
Reincarnation Coliseum,: The Weakest Skill Conquers the Strongest Women and Creates a Harem (Tensei Colosseum – Saijaku Skill de Saikyou no Onna-tachi o Kouryaku shite Dorei Harem Tsukurimasu) is from the creator of Kingdom of Z, and runs in (of course) Dragon Age. It’s about… Christ, I can’t. I just can’t.
ASH: That’s fair.
SEAN: Spy Classroom 2nd Period: Daughter Dearest (Spy Kyoushitsu Part 2: Mana Musume) is the continuation of the manga based on the light novel, and runs in my nemesis, Comic Alive.
Tamaki & Amane is a one-shot josei title from Cocohana, and it’s by Fumi Yoshinaga. That should be enough, really. This award-winning manga starts when a mother sees her daughter kissing another girl one day. She talks to her husband about it… and he admits he had a crush on a boy back in school.
MICHELLE: I gasped. I didn’t know we had new Yoshinaga coming out!
ASH: I just found out about it recently! I’ll definitely be picking this up.
ANNA: Woah!!!!
SEAN: Also from Yen Press: Agents of the Four Seasons: Dance of Spring 2, Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra 3, Be My Worst Nightmare! 2, Bungo Stray Dogs: The Official Comic Anthology 3, The Case Study of Vanitas 11 (there’s also a special edition with a 128-page booklet), Chained Soldier 11, Days with My Stepsister 3, The Eminence in Shadow 12, Game of Familia 6, I Picked Up This World’s Strategy Guide 2, I Want a Gal Gamer to Praise Me 4, If the Villainess and Villain Met and Fell in Love 3, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Familia Chronicle Episode Freya 5 (the final volume), Minato’s Laundromat 5, My Oh My, Atami-kun 2, Nights with a Cat 5, Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, Chapter 4: The Sanctuary and the Witch of Greed 9, Stomp, Kick, Love 2, Sword Art Online Re:Aincrad 3, The Teen Exorcist 2, The Vampire and His Pleasant Companions 6, Übel Blatt Deluxe Edition 2, and With You, Our Love Will Make It Through 2.
Woof. Tired now. What are you buying?
The BS Situation of Tougetsu Umidori, Vol. 2
Apr. 18th, 2025 09:27 ammangabookshelf_feedBy Kaeru Ryouseirui and Natsuki Amashiro. Released in Japan as “Umidori Tougetsu no “Detarame” na Jijou” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.
Generally speaking, my reviews these days tend to follow the pattern of “first paragraph discussing book, cover image, second paragraph summarizing plot, third paragraph giving good/bad/etc, epilogue”. And that’s what this will be too. That said, after reading this book I feel I have to put up a warning: I Swear I Am Not Making This Up. Because frankly, after reading the summary of this volume, I think one or two people might suspect I hated the book so much I just started making up absolute nonsense. Which isn’t true, I quite liked this book. But wow, the plot is indeed absolute nonsense… and yet, in the context of this world, it makes perfect sense. It’s true to the characters. It’s especially true to Umidori, and I have to admit, when she got that phone call asking her to guess who this was? I guessed it fairly quickly. Because this is a series that glories in being utterly unhinged. (And gay.)
Tougetsu Umidori is relatively happy, two weeks after the first book. She’s coming home from her job, telling Bullshit-chan she’ll be home soon, when she gets a mysterious call from someone who says they know her very well. Intimately, in fact. Despite the fact that they’ve never been to school or hung out together. As it turns out, we know the caller very well too. Because in the prologue for this book, we saw Umidori digging a grave in the back of her apartment complex and burying someone… and now they’re crying out to her, demanding that she dig them up. Unfortunately, at the same time, a mysterious cooking accident knocks Bullshit-chan unconscious, so she’s unable to help with the fact that the pencils that Umidori deep-fried and ate have gained sentience and can communicate with her. And love her. In fact, the love is pretty much mutual.
As I said, not making this up, and it’s not even the weirdest thing in the book. Honestly, the character of the pencils, who ends up taking the name Togari Tsukishigaoka, may be the best part of the book, wanting to help Umidori but also knowing what that help will cost her. The nature of the lies and what they can do to people’s psyches is explored further, and there is perhaps a worrying amount of co-dependency going on here, but in a series that has a girl in a love triangle with her best friend and a bunch of sentient pencils given human form, that’s probably the least of my problems. If there’s a weak part of this book it’s probably the villains, who simply are not as good as Hurt (who’s also back in this book, taking on the role of the tsukkomi/sidekick when needed). They mostly exist because we need a villain to drive the plot.
This is apparently halfway through the series, though the third volume doesn’t have a date here yet. If you’re looking for weird ass stuff with not-quite-monsters, this is right up your alley.
Elwin Cotman Wins a Whiting Award
Apr. 17th, 2025 12:58 pmsmall_beer_press_feedExcellent news: Elwin Cotman is one of ten 2025 Whiting Award Winners. There’s a good story on it in Elwin’s hometown paper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Elwin has a novel coming from Scribner, The Age of Ignorance, as well as four collections of stories, including Dance on Saturday.
The post Elwin Cotman Wins a Whiting Award first appeared on Small Beer Press.
My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex: “There’s Only One Guy For Me”
Apr. 16th, 2025 10:28 pmmangabookshelf_feedBy Kyosuke Kamishiro and TakayaKi. Released in Japan as “Mamahaha no Tsurego ga Motokano datta” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Gierrlon Dunn.
This is a really short book, even for a series that does not generally have long volumes to begin with. It’s 142 pages. I actually found myself wondering if it was supposed to have the Isana plotline going on throughout, but the main plot got away from the author, so they simply cut it out. But then, it does make sense that you’d want to keep the focus entirely on Akatsuki and Kawanami. Their backstory was always a very spiky and uncomfortable one in an otherwise mostly mild romcom series, and a lot of the books have been trying to bring them both to a point where they can finally take a step towards each other again and have it be believable. The way that it does that is by looking even further at the issues that Kawanami has with women, and how they are, in a very real sense, PTSD. As such, it makes sense that this volume feels like the series finale of M*A*S*H at times, as his own memories may not be reliable.
Kawanami wakes up one morning in his bed, dressed only in boxers. He sees a girl leaving his room in a hurry. He also has no memory of the previous evening. At the same time, Akatsuki also wakes up in her bed, in bra and panties, and does not remember what happened the previous night. A horrible thought crosses their minds: did they, y’know, DO IT? Unfortunately for the both of them, Mizuto and Yume are out of town, off on the annual family reunion that we’ve seen in a previous book. What’s worse, Kawanami goes out for karaoke and bowling with his friends, and it becomes very clear that something happened with his good friend Makoto, who is being referred to very carefully so as not to spoil the reader. As things come to a head and he has a complete breakdown, Akatsuki grabs him and the two run away to Osaka… and a love hotel.
This series has always been very horny, and the author jokes that they may have taken things a bit too far this time with that love hotel scene. No, they don’t go all the way, but certain things are done, and both of them get a nice view of each other naked. That said, the reason this is a pretty good book is the emotional catharsis that Kawanami gets, as Akatsuki points out that he’s basically cured of his reaction to women, he just doesn’t actually realize it. The bit where Mizuto points out to him the way that he’s misremembering things made it clear that this really is very similar to PTSD, and as such it’s definitely a good thing the two stopped when they did. In any case, they’re now a couple, which means we likely have only one major arc left in this series, the “what will we do after graduation?” bit.
If you enjoy this series, this is a decent read. And short. Also, while I hesitate to mention current memes in a review, it’s really hard not to look at that cover art and not think “let’s take ibuprofen together!”.
At least we didn’t die
Apr. 16th, 2025 02:00 pmasknicola_feedYou know life has been a rollercoaster for a while when the best thing you can find to say about one, just-resolved situation is, Well, hey, at least we didn’t die.
For context, what I’ll describe here is just one such situation we’ve been facing this year alone. Most of them I’m not willing to talk about because either I just don’t want to or they’re not yet resolved. This one is just the most recent, and feels emblematic.
Many years ago when we moved to this house we installed a top of the line natural gas-powered central heating furnace (with all the air filtration bells and whistles) and a high-powered air-conditioning system (which, with MS, I need).1 Over the years we had the installation company, and then, when that company changed hands, another company to come twice a year to check and maintain the system. Apart from changing the filters (which we use as well as an electrostatic system) and cleaning a few things, the whole HVAC set up performed flawlessly.
During the first two years of the pandemic, we let the maintenance slide. Then, when we got back to it, again, nothing wrong. It was old, and some of the outdoor bits rattled a bit when they first kicked on, but it was still operating within acceptable efficiency limits.
Then began our series of horrible years, when things were so overwhelming and insane we were constantly having to cancel and reschedule everything (this is still true—it happened just last week when we were supposed to be having some friends over for dinner but ended up in the Emergency Department and then the hospital instead—but to a lesser degree). It was a time of huge terrible things going wrong but also every small thing that could go wrong. For example, the smoke detector went wonky and shrieked at all hours; the carbon monoxide monitor died; when we had our new walk-in tub installed, the folks who put in the new electrical stuff broke the custom pull-down steps up into the loft space (where we have most of our large systems).2 Because the steps were custom and we didn’t have time to find a contractor who could handle it, we couldn’t get any upstairs systems—like the HVAC—serviced. But we didn’t worry because, y’know, the gas heater was brand new, and the HVAC was a proven workhorse, and still working: still warm in winter and cool in summer. We added everything to our massive list of things to tackle when we weren’t struggling to just keep our heads above water.
As we got more and more of the crazy bits of life onto a more predictable schedule, we started gradually picking up the reins of our adult life. Including maintenance and repair. We spent money adjusting my wheelchair ramp. We insulated the house. We found a handyman service who could handle the loft steps issue. We got back to all the regular and necessary cyclical health and house service things—eyes, teeth, blood work, yard work, vehicle maintenance—we’d let slide. Including getting the HVAC serviced.
On Friday the tech came, trundled upstairs…and came down immediately, white-faced, and turned everything off at the thermostat. When he’d turned the heat on he’d measured carbon monoxide (CO) at 600 parts per million and rapidly climbing.
According to OSHA, here is what CO levels indicate:
- Normal (0-9 ppm): Found in clean outdoor air and well-ventilated indoor spaces.
- Moderate (10-50 ppm): Can cause mild symptoms like headaches and dizziness over prolonged exposure.
- High (70-200 ppm): Leads to severe health effects, requiring immediate action.
- Severe (400+ ppm): Life-threatening concentrations that can cause unconsciousness or death within minutes.
He was pale and slightly sweaty, and went to sit down outside for a while. Meanwhile, Kelley and I opened every window and skylight and door in the house. The cats were already safe outside.
The tech, when he’d recovered, inspected all the outdoor parts of the system, then, on finding the CO levels upstairs okay enough to get closer, inspected all that. It turns out, in just two years the entire system had gone from old-but-fine to Danger! Danger, Will Robinson! levels of imminent death, destruction, and horror: everything was cracked and broken and damaged; the insulation on the heavy wiring was eaten through; the connectors were rusted; the flue was split; the blades on the fan were bent. I can’t complain—we got over 20 years of excellent service from that old system—but, yeah, we should have moved that nonworking CO monitor up the list…3
Aaaaaanyway, long story short: we froze all weekend (well, okay, here in Seattle the temperatures were pretty mild so we just wore many clothes and grumbled a lot), we now have a brand spanking new high-efficiency furnace, and by the end of today should be the proud owners of a dual-fuel furnace and heat pump capable of cooling and heating our house to the desired temperature in minutes and able to clean the air of anything remotely resembling viruses, smoke particulates, and/or allergens.
It cost so very much money I don’t even want to talk about it—which we had to pay on the same day as our tax bill, woo hoo! and of course not long after some fool’s tariff pronouncements had shaved 15% off our retirement savings—but, hey, at least we didn’t die.
- Before the tax code changed, when individual healthcare costs were still deductible, AC was deemed so important for people with MS (when we overheat we get something called Uhthoff’s Phenonenon) that it was, in fact, tax deductible.
︎ - And, oh, that electrical subcontractor is a whole other story, more Byzantine and winding than Dickens’ Chancery case in Bleak House… I’ll tell that story sometime, just not today. ︎
- And of course in a classic case of horse meet barn door we now have several, all in tip-top working order ︎
Kathleen Jennings and Kij Johnson Redux
Apr. 16th, 2025 12:51 pmsmall_beer_press_feedKathleen Jennings’s Kindling: Stories has been shortlisted for the Aurealis Award — “Australia’s premier speculative fiction award” — for Best Collection. The cover for Kathleen’s next novel, Honeyeater, dropped and it is worth clicking on the link. Also of note, Kathleen did the cover art and half-page pen-and-ink illustrations for Kij Johnson’s forthcoming RiverBank roleplaying […]
The post Kathleen Jennings and Kij Johnson Redux first appeared on Small Beer Press.
Ch18, page 256
Apr. 15th, 2025 11:50 pmunsounded_feedDon’t taunt the avatars of all pain and suffering where they can hear you, Jivi, that’s amateur.
-Ashley
Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside, Vol. 13
Apr. 15th, 2025 10:46 pmmangabookshelf_feedBy Zappon and Yasumo. Released in Japan as “Shin no Nakama ja Nai to Yuusha no Party wo Oidasaretanode, Henkyou de Slow Life Surukoto ni Shimashita” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Dale DeLucia.
There’s a very startling beginning to this book, which is the very, very perfunctory final battle against the forces of the demon lord. Now, yes, I am aware that there’s actually a plot involving Ruti and her blessing that will be going into Vol. 14, which involves the demon lord, but in terms of the plot of this particular book, it’s all about the end of the war and what comes after. This means that our main cast in Zoltan are ready to settle in and find something they’re going to do for the rest of their lives, but it also means that those who have spent years on the front lines – those who are still alive – are coming home, and many of them are dealing with PTSD at the very least. That’s right, this is the Banished from the Hero’s Party version of The Best Years of Our Lives, and Ruti, for one, is not really sure how to cope with it.
It’s fall festival time in Zoltan! Rit suggests trying to push some of their medications by putting them in nice-looking wooden canisters, so she and Red have their booth all set. Ruti admits that her farm of medicinal herbs is going into the red, so she, Tisse, and Mister Crawly Wawly are going to have a food booth to show everyone how they can be used without needing the Cooking Skill. And Habotan, who is still doing her level best to be a ninja fangirl, is going to sell shuriken and other ninja tools that look really cool. The festival runs into the aforementioned end of the war, though. One man comes back to tell his aunt that her son will not be coming home to her. A young woman was given the fantasy equivalent of morphine on the front, and has developed an addiction. And, of yes, there are still demon lord plans. Which I’m sure won’t impact Red and Rit’s wedding at ALL.
This is very much a book of two halves. Though we hear about the end of the war at the start, the first half is concerned with the series’ usual slow, relaxed pace. Mister Crawly Wawly now has a suit of armor he can control so he can be an adventurer (He has a card with a name. The name is AAAA.), and he and Red investigate forest fires with a mysterious cause. Ruti and Red then go to investigate a very loud mad scientist whose entire plot feels that it was written to pad out an already short book. The latter parts of the book, though, are much better, showing us soldiers that are still dealing with flashbacks, or drug addition, or depression that ends up leading to sexual assault. And while Red has some good answers, Ruti finds she doesn’t feel confident in hers. After all, she left the battlefield… something that comes out at the end of this book as well.
The next book will have the wedding (Yen says it’s the finale – is 15 an “after story” that’s not part of the main license?), so we’re almost done. Still, this book did a mostly good job of emphasizing the “war is hell” part of the series as well as the “relaxed happy life” part.
