When I was about 11 years old, I discovered Rudyard Kipling. Actually I discovered The Jungle Book and all the wonderful stories about very strange places and creatures. I immediately grabbed The Second Jungle Book and loved that almost as much as the first book. Later, I read Kipling’s novels, Kim and Captains Courageous.

Somehow I missed Kipling’s Just So Stories (1902). Maybe I saw an edition with the full title: Just So Stories for Little Children and thought I was too grown up for that since I was on the cusp of becoming a teenager.

But now, at 72, I finally read Just So Stories and came under the spell of Kipling’s magic again. So did Jonathan Stroud but he has me beat by decades. Stroud’s father loved Just So Stories and read them to his small son. Stroud remembers his father making him laugh with these stories that blend silliness and cleverness.

Rudyard Kipling was a born story-teller and these Just So Stories appeal to children of all ages. If you’re looking for some delightful stories to read, here they are. Are you fan of Kipling? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction by Jonathan Stroud — v

1. How the Whale Got His Throat – why the larger whales eat only small prey. — 1
2. How the Camel Got His Hump – how the idle camel was punished and given a hump. — 13
3. How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin – why rhinos have folds in their skin and bad tempers. — 25
4. How the Leopard Got His Spots – why leopards have spots. — 37
5. The Elephant’s Child/How the Elephant Got His Trunk – how the elephant‘s trunk became long. — 53
6. The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo – how the kangaroo assumed long legs and tail. — 71
7. The Beginning of the Armadillos – how a hedgehog and tortoise transformed into the first armadillos. — 83
8. How the First Letter Was Written – introduces the only characters who appear in more than one story: a family of cave-people, called Tegumai Bopsulai (the father), Teshumai Tewindrow (the mother), and Taffimai Metallumai, shortened to Taffy, (the daughter), and explains how Taffy delivered a picture message to her mother. — 99
9. How the Alphabet Was Made – tells how Taffy and her father invent an alphabet. — 119
10. The Crab that Played with the Sea – explains the ebb and flow of the tides, as well as how the crab changed from a huge animal into a small one. — 141
11. The Cat that Walked by Himself – explains how man domesticated all the wild animals, even the cat, which insisted on greater independence. — 161
12. The Butterfly that Stamped – how Solomon saved the pride of a butterfly, and the Queen of Sheba used this to prevent his wives scolding him. — 183
13. The Tabu Tale (missing from most British editions; first appeared in the Scribner edition in the U.S. in 1903). and missing from this volume.

BONUS MATERIAL: Author File, Who’s Who in the Just So Stories, Some Things to Do…, Did You Know…?, and Glossary.

Boba Fett, the enigmatic bounty hunter from the Star Wars series, shows up on Disney+ with an seven-episode season. Temuera Morrison plays Boba Fett. Ming-Na Wen plays assassin Fennec Shand, Fett’s partner.

Boba Fett and Fennec Shand attempt to make a name for themselves in the galaxy’s underworld by taking over the territory once controlled by Jabba the Hutt. The series is set on Tattooine between the events of Return of the Jedi (1983) and the second season of The Mandalorian (2020).

The first episode featured flashbacks to explain how Boba Fett landed in the circumstances he finds himself in. I’m more interested in Fennec Shand. Ming-Na Wen was one of my most favorite characters in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Melinda May. I love her projection of menace as an elite mercenary and assassin.

If you’re a Star Wars fan, you’ll enjoy The Book of Boba Fett as a fun diversion until The Mandalorian returns. Are you a Star Wars fan? GRADE: B+ (so far)

If you took Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games and Harry Potter and put them in a blender, you’d get something like The Library of the Dead. Ropafadzo “Ropa” Moyo is a teenage girl with the power to speak to ghosts. Ropa eeks out a meager business of delivering messages from the ghosts to the Living. Ropa supports her younger sister, Izwi, and her elderly Gran in a caravan home in Edinburgh, Scotland, living in poverty.

When a ghost begs Ropa to find her missing grandson, Ropa initially rejects the plea because the ghost has no way to pay her. But Ropa’s Gran convinces Ropa to search for the missing child. That leads Ropa to the secret Library of magic hidden under David Hume’s tomb and a confrontation with an Evil beyond her powers to contend with.

Although The Library of the Dead is being marketed as a Young Adult novel, there are some disturbing parts of the book that might upset younger readers. I found some of the plot meandering. A good Editor would have tightened up the action. But, all in all, I enjoyed The Library of the Dead. The title page says: Edinburgh Nights Book One–so I’m assuming more volumes in this series are on their way. I’ll read them. Are you a fan of The Hunger Games and Harry Potter? GRADE: B

After the Buffalo Bills beat the New England Patriots 33-21 despite a depleted roster because Covid-19 infections, it would be natural for the Bills to have a let-down. While the 9-6 Bills are favored over the 7-8 Atlanta Falcons by 11 points, upsets are common at this part of the NFL season. Nervous Bills fans will be glued to their TV sets for this one. Those 70,000 Bills fans who go to Highmark Stadium to watch the game in-person will have to contend with 15 degree windchills. How will your favorite NFL perform today?

Do you have any New Year’s Resolutions?

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

I was reading John O’Neill’s post on BLACKGATE.COM last week where John finally took Brian Aldiss’s Galactic Empires (1979) collections off his shelf after they sat there for decades (you can read about it here). It struck me I’ve had Aldiss’s Galactic Empires on my shelves for nearly the same amount of time! So I read them.

Brian Aldiss is a wonderful SF writer, of fiction and non-fiction, but he’s also an excellent SF editor. I’ve enjoyed every anthology Aldiss has assembled (and I have a couple in the pipeline for blog posts in 2022).

It would be hard to choose a favorite between Volume One and Volume Two. “The Star Plunderer” by Poul Anderson is a favorite of mine. I reread with pleasure Asimov’s famous “Foundation” and Cordwainer Smith’s haunting “The Crime and Glory of Commander Suzdal.” Clifford Simak’s “Immigrant” and James White’s clever “Resident Physician” make Volume One hard to beat.

But Volume Two includes John D. MacDonald’s “Escape to Chaos” and A. E. Van Vogt’s classic “Concealment.” For those readers who are in the mood for some pulp stories, try “Tonight the Stars Revolt!” by Gardner F. Fox and Poul Anderson’s “Lord of a Thousand Suns.” Rounding out the second volume are “Big Ancestor” by F. L. Wallace and Harry Harrison’s “Final Encounter.”

If you’re in the mood for some old-fashioned Science Fiction with Big Ideas and Cosmic Reach, Galactic Empires will tantalize you! GRADE: A

VOLUME ONE:

Introduction by Brian Aldiss
A Sense of Perspective, by Brian Aldiss
“Been a Long, Long Time” by R. A. Lafferty (Fantastic, December 1970)
“The Possessed” by Arthur C. Clarke (Dynamic Science Fiction, March 1953)
“Protected Species” by H. B. Fyfe (Astounding Science Fiction, March 1951)
“All the Way Back” by Michael Shaara (Astounding Science Fiction, July 1952)
“‘Wider Still and Wider…’ by Brian W. Aldiss (non-fiction)
“The Star Plunderer” by Poul Anderson (Planet Stories, September 1952)
“Foundation” by Isaac Asimov (Astounding Science-Fiction, May 1942)
“We’re Civilized!” by Alex Apostolides and Mark Clifton (Galaxy Science Fiction, August 1953)
Horses in the Starship Hold, by Brian W. Aldiss (non-fiction)
“The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal” by Cordwainer Smith (Amazing Stories, May 1964)
“The Rebel of Valkyr” by Alfred Coppel (Planet Stories, Fall 1950)
“Brightness Falls from the Air” by Margaret St. Clair (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1951)
“Immigrant” by Clifford D. Simak (Astounding Science Fiction, March 1954)
The Health Service in the Skies, by Brian W. Aldiss (non-fiction)
“Resident Physician” by James White (New Worlds Science Fiction, #110 September)
“Age of Retirement” by Hal Lynch (Astounding Science Fiction, April 1954)
“Planting Time” by Pete Adams and Charles Nightingale (Antigrav, 1975)

VOLUME TWO:

Introduction by Brian Aldiss
You Can’t Impose Civilization by Force by Brian Aldiss (non-fiction)
“Escape to Chaos” by John D. MacDonald (Super Science Stories, June 1951)
“Concealment” by A. E. van Vogt (Astounding Science-Fiction, September 1943)
“To Civilize” by Algis Budrys (Future Science Fiction, January 1954)
“Beep” by James Blish (Galaxy Science Fiction, February 1954)
The Other End of the Stick, by Brian W. Aldiss (non-fiction)
“Down the River” by Mack Reynolds (Startling Stories, September 1950)
“The Bounty Hunter” by Avram Davidson (Fantastic Universe, March 1958)
“Not Yet the End” by Fredric Brown (Captain Future, Winter 1941)
All Things Are Cyclic, Brian Aldiss (non-fiction)
“Tonight the Stars Revolt!” by Gardner F. Fox (Planet Stories, March 1952)
“Final Encounter” by Harry Harrison (Galaxy Magazine, April 1964)
Big Ancestors and Great Descendants, by Brian Aldiss (non-fiction)
“Lord of a Thousand Suns” by Poul Anderson (Planet Stories, September 1951)
“Big Ancestor” by F. L. Wallace (Galaxy Science Fiction, November 1954)
“The Interlopers” by Roger Dee (Astounding Science Fiction, September 1954)
“Epilogue,” by Olaf Stapledon (excerpt from Star Maker, 1937)

This is another of the Rolling Stone magazine’s compilation CDs distributed by Rhino Records in 2002. Once again, the choices seem to be random. Whoever made the choices of the songs stuck to mostly mainstream, popular hits. The only “daring” pick is The Grateful Death’s “Casey Jones.”

As 2021 winds down, sometimes it’s fun to stroll down Memory Lane. Do you remember these songs from the Early Years of Rock & Roll? Any favorites? GRADE: B+

TRACK LIST:

A series of compilation CDs produced as a collaboration between Rolling Stone Magazine and Rhino Records: