Started 9/21/26, finished 9/24/26 While William Gibson’s first novel, Neuromancer, defined a new genre of science fiction, his second book, Count Zero, solidified his standing as an author. The story is more sure, more complex, and overall better. Neuromancer was so world-changing for me
Started 9/8/26 Finished 9/9/26 If you look at the start and finish dates above, you'll see I went through this quickly (and then sat on this review for a few days). I noticed this trend the first time I read through all the Slow
Started 9/1/26, finished 9/4/26 Family has always been a part of the Slow Horses universe. There is, of course, the dysfunctional family of the slow horses themselves, who don't appear to care about each other but who act like siblings at war with one
Started 8/26/26, Finished 8/28/26 The third book of the Slow Horses series, Real Tigers finds our favorite ne’er do well secret agents getting into trouble in their usual non-secret ways. The story starts with Catherine Standish getting kidnapped. Catherine is the only non-spy
Started 8/21, finished 8/25 Dead Lions is the second of Mick Herron’s Slow Horses series, the stories of a group of misfit British Secret Service agents in contemporary London. I’m working my way through the first five books of the series in hopes I can catch
Started 8/19/26, finished 8/21/26 This is the first review in a planned series covering all of William Gibson’s fiction. The rest are going to have to wait until I read a few more Slow Horses books, though. With the Apple TV adaptation of William Gibson’
My reading this past month has been very fragmented, and I blame Catherynne M. Valente. In an early-August posting (or “toot,” as they are known) on Mastodon, she mentioned that voting for this year’s Hugo awards was coming up soon, and that buying a voting-only membership in
Started August 11, 2026, finished August 15, 2026 Richard Helmling and I have been emailing each other for a year or so now, ever since I discovered his book Athena: Emergent and he gave me encouraging words about mine, The Immortal Remains. I consider Richard a friend and a good
(This was originally published on Big List Energy at Medium.com) I recently served on a jury for a murder trial. Though I learned a lot of stuff during the trial about DNA evidence, tracing cell phones, and determining time of death (don’t believe anything a TV medical examiner
Started 7/21/26, Finished 7/24/26 If I really enjoy a book, I’m likely to want to read it again, and Mick Herron’s espionage story Slow Horses has surfaced from the murky depths of my To Be Read pile for a fresh look, five years later.
Started 7/13/26, Finished 7/18/26 I have a lot of respect for Christopher Tolkien. The son of ridiculously famous author J.R.R. Tolkien, he spent most of his adult life going through his father’s works and trying to make sense of the embryonic notes and
This is my memoir of serving on a jury in King County, Washington, in June and July 2026. I'm not attempting to make any particular points; I wrote it mostly as a record of an interesting experience. The Crime This was a murder case. The victim, a Black