First, let me say that I’ve been enjoying Will Shetterly‘s novels for many years, with the recently-Kindled Witch Blood and Cats Have No Lord being early examples of his fantasy worlds. The well-regarded Liavek shared world anthology is overdue for an ebook rescue as well, but I’m sure the rights are a pain to re-negotiate. One nice thing about his Kindle backlist is the pricing: $2.99. This makes it easy to buy the ones I missed and re-buy the ones that are buried on my shelves somewhere.

Midnight Girl is a short YA novel about a Perfectly Normal teenage girl who sneaks out with her best friend to solve a minor mystery, and ends up in the middle of something much bigger. It’s a light read, charming and breezy despite the occasional bloody death. I think I’d have liked it even more when I was around twelve, but it still works.

Chimera would have worked better whan I was twelve, too, but that’s because I likely wouldn’t have been repeatedly jolted out of the story by the hamfisted world-building that pins All Bad Things on libertarianism, capitalism, christianity, and gun ownership. There’s a fairly decent near-future detective/catgirl story in there somewhere, but unlike his fantasy worlds, Shetterly seems unable to keep his socialism out of his SF, resulting in a world that sounds like the fever dreams of a Daily Kos commenter. The tech is also a mishmash of Cool Stuff dropped in with no apparent thought about how it would affect society if all of these things co-existed.

[note that Chimera predates the Tea Parties, or I’m sure they’d have featured prominently among the Reasons Everything Went Wrong. I mean, with a powerful Libertarian state crushing the common people and enslaving human/animal hybrids, and a theocracy ruling Arizona, I’m sure there’d have been time for some literal teabagging.]

Two videos that brightened my week…

The Gatchaman Crowds Blu-ray box set is currently the best-selling anime on Amazon Japan, and the ninth best-seller in all genres. Four months before it comes out.

Interestingly, the only merchandise available besides the music CDs are cosplay school uniforms and wigs. You too can be Hajime or Sugane, or have hair like Joe. A “design works” book is coming in October, but the usual quick tie-in merchandise is missing.

Looks like they’re selling performance-enhancement pills for men. I was hoping it was something different, like the “gyaku enjo” ads that have started popping up again in my Japanese spam.

From:  [비ㅡ아ㅡ클ㅡ리ㅡ닉]
Subject: 정품. 저렴하고 빠르게판_매합니다...[비ㅡ아ㅡ클ㅡ리ㅡ닉]
 
♣　사이트접속후 관리자에게 실시간 문의도가능합니다.
♣　당일배송을 원칙으로 합니다
♣　FDA허가된 상품이되 처방전없이 구매가능합니다
♣　건강한 性생활을 드립니다.
 
♣　묶음상품은 더욱 저렴하게 드립니다..^^ 

Will more cosplayers choose LOAD-kun or Utsutsu-chan?

(setting aside the issue of being arrested for faithful Utsutsu-chan cosplay…)

Lowell Observatory's Putnam wants to name asteroid for Trayvon Martin

The victims of media-instigated “justice for trayvon” attacks will be required to time-share a small rock tentatively named “Fuck You Whitey”.

Why was a SWAT officer showing off tactical gear at a children’s book fair in the first place? And why was a small child able to walk up to him, reach into his holster, and fire his sidearm?

I love the quote from the department: “The gun functioned how it was supposed to. When the trigger was pulled, the gun went off.”

Great, guys, now explain why the officer didn’t function as he was supposed to. He’s got a round in the chamber of his Glock at an event where he’s surrounded by small children, deliberately getting them interested in his gear. And he’s wearing it in a “tactical” thigh holster that’s so poorly fitted that the kid managed to get his finger squarely on the trigger without Officer Friendly noticing.

“If it weren’t for her plump breasts, most opponents would probably mistake her for a man. Therefore she dressed daringly, exposing most of her flesh. Her skin was swarthy, with a strange design inked on her left cheek. An informed observer would recognize the design as a warding spell of the Arido hill tribes.”

That settles the question of why competent women in fantasy show so much skin: they’re feminist pioneers, working twice as hard to prove they’re just as good as men!

[this message brought to you by my attempt to figure out the word 呪払い, which apparently should be read as “noroibarai”; it’s not explained anywhere, but is in common use in the online fantasy community to refer to warding magic. See also here.]