David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer edited nine volumes (from 2001 to 2009) in the Year’s Best Fantasy series. I’ve decided to review all nine volumes in order starting today. I’ll review another volume in a month or so.

My favorite story in Year’s Best Fantasy was  “Golden Bell, Seven, and the Marquis of Zeng” by Richard Parks. A poor boy called Seven falls in love with a beautiful woman named Jia Jin who has been gifted by a vassel of Marquis Yi. The Marquis is dying and this gift–along with his harem–is destined to be buried with him. Seven wants to save Jia Jin and seeks out advice from the mysterious Golden Bell. What happens next sends Seven on an astonishing quest.

I also liked “The Hunger of the Leaves” by Joel Lane. Lane sets his story in Clark Ashton Smith’s Zothique where danger lurks and all magic is dark.

If you’re looking for a fantasy anthology with plenty of entertaining stories, give Year’s Best Fantasy a try. GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• xiii • Introduction (Year’s Best Fantasy) • essay by Kathryn Cramer and David G. Hartwell
• 1 • Everything Changes • (2000) • short story by John Sullivan
• 12 • A Troll Story: Lessons in What Matters, No. 1 • (2000) • short story by Nicola Griffith
• 30 • The Face of Sekt • [The Magravandias Chronicles] • (2000) • novelette by Storm Constantine
• 54 • Chanterelle • (2000) • novelette by Brian Stableford
• 89 • Path of the Dragon • [A Song of Ice and Fire] • (2000) • novella by George R. R. Martin
• 143 • The Raggle Taggle Gypsy-O • [Annie and Crow • 1] • (2000) • short story by Michael Swanwick
• 162 • Ebb Tide • (2000) • short story by Sarah Singleton
• 179 • The Hunger of the Leaves • (2000) • short story by Joel Lane
• 189 • Greedy Choke Puppy • (2000) • short story by Nalo Hopkinson
• 202 • The Golem • (2000) • short story by Naomi Kritzer
• 223 • The Devil Disinvests • (2000) • short story by Scott Bradfield
• 230 • A Serpent in Eden • (2000) • short story by Simon Brown and Alison Tokley
• 240 • Wrong Dreaming • (2000) • short story by Kain Massin
• 257 • Mom and Dad at the Home Front • (2000) • short story by Sherwood Smith
• 270 • The Fey • (2000) • short story by Renee Bennett
• 278 • Golden Bell, Seven, and the Marquis of Zeng • (2000) • novelette by Richard Parks
• 304 • Making a Noise in This World • [Newford] • (2000) • novelette by Charles de Lint
• 327 • Magic, Maples, and Maryanne • (2000) • short story by Robert Sheckley
• 342 • The Prophecies at Newfane Asylum • (2000) • short story by Don Webb
• 354 • The Window • (2000) • short story by Zoran Živković^?
• 369 • And Still She Sleeps • (2000) • novelette by Greg Costikyan
• 397 • The Walking Sticks • (2000) • short story by Gene Wolfe
• 410 • Debt of Bones • [Sword of Truth Universe] • (1998) • novella by Terry Goodkind

The Witcher on Netflix is on its third season. It has been renewed for two more seasons. A Witcher is a warrior who fights creatures like dragons, vampires, werewolves, etc. The Witcher is based on a series of novels by Andrzej Sapkowski (check out the list below) beginning with The Last Wish.

A friend of mine recommended I watch The Witcher but I decided to read the first book in the series first. The Last Wish introduces a wanderer who dispatches monsters for a fee. The Witcher has some magic powers, but he doesn’t use them enough.

While The Last Wish was an acceptable fantasy story, the four TV episodes I watched were more entertaining with their mild Game of Thrones vibe.

“The Witcher is a fantasy drama television series created by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich for Netflix. It is based on the book series by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. Set on a fictional, medieval-inspired landmass known as the Continent, The Witcher explores the legend of Geralt of Rivia, Yennefer of Vengerberg and Princess Ciri. It stars Henry Cavill, Anya Chalotra, and Freya Allan.”

The Witcher will fill up your Summer viewing time with some action and magic. GRADE: B (for both the book and the TV series)

THE WITCHER SERIES:

1. The Last Wish (Short Story Collection)

2. Sword of Destiny (Short Story Collection)

3. Blood of Elves (The Witcher Saga #1)

4. The Time of Contempt (The Witcher Saga #2)

5. Baptism of Fire (The Witcher Saga #3)

6. The Tower of Swallows (The Witcher Saga #4)

7. The Lady of the Lake (The Witcher Saga #5)

8. Season of Storms (Prequel)

Amy Larocca, an award winning journalist who worked for 20 years at New York magazine as a fashion editor and editor-at-large, believes that self-care has become an industry full of corruption.

“Wellness is currently a $5.6 trillion industry according to the Global Wellness Institute and it grown faster than the rest of the economy.” (p. 5)

The hundreds of eye creams, mushroom teas, and wearable monitors available to “increase our health” are mostly bogus, according to Larocca.

“Scientology, naturally has its own proprietary detoxing ritual know as Purif or the Hubbard method, and it involves heat therapy, ingestion of niacin, and the drinking of a whole lot of oil and other liquids. The promise of the Hubbard method, which can last up to five weeks, was that it would clear out any illegal drugs taken earlier in life, and also that it had the positive side effect of increasing IQ up to fifteen points.” (p. 195). False claims!

Cap’n Bob can fill us in on the Hubbard method. But the trend in self-care is to take more vitamins, eat more protein, get on GLP-1 drugs, and cover yourself with various creams to take your wrinkles away. Larocca provides evidence that many of these actions do little or nothing to increase wellness.

“GOOGLE invested $1 billion to launch a secretive company called Calico–short for California Life Company–which focuses on longevity research.” (p. 243) The goal of companies like Calico is to extend life…possibly forever. Sure, it sounds wacky, but when anyone shells out a billion dollars, something is happening we should be aware of.

Amy Larocca debunks many of the wellness trends now popular. She concludes that a life full of healthy food, daily exercise, and good sleep will do more for your wellness than fad creams, injections, activated charcoal toothpaste, and green juice enemas. How is your wellness? What are you doing to stay healthy? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• Introduction — 3
• Part I: Cure.
• Medicine and its alternatives — 25
• Holistic, functional, profitable — 31
• Kooks — 47
• Chronic illness — 61
• Self-care — 67
• Part II: Glow.
• Body positive? — 82
• Sex positive — 89
• Clean beauty — 93
• Dressing to be well — 97
• Glow lifestyle — 105
• Part III: Spirit and soul.
• Soul — 116
• Exercise — 125
• Self-love — 133
• Cult — 139
• Outside of exercise — 144
• Part IV: Pure.
• Cleanse — 156
• Environment — 169
• All natural — 177
• Politics — 181
• Vaccines and the rabbit hole — 186
• Cleaning as rite — 194
• Part V: Beyond.
• Meditation/mindfulness — 203
• Tripping — 216
• What about men? — 221
• Biohacking — 226
• Immortality — 239
• Conclusion — 249
• ACKNOWLEGEMENTS — 259
• NOTES — 263
• INDEX — 277

Andrew Cartmel’s third volume in The Paperback Sleuth series once again puts the compulsive paperback collector, Cordelia Stanmer, into danger once more.

Erik Make Loud, a rich retired rock star and a World War II enthusiast, hires Cordelia to acquire a “fine” set of “Commando” paperbacks, popular in the 1960s.

Cordelia has leads to the first dozen volumes in the series, but the mythic final volume, Commando Gold, either doesn’t exist…or has been secretly suppressed.

As Cordelia investigates Commando Gold, one lead is murdered. And, of course, the knowledge Cordelia gleans from her sources puts her life at risk, too.

War stories in paperback can be valuable. But Cordelia eventually learns the secrets behind Commando Gold and why it is so scarce. And why her Life is on a Hit List. Who knew collecting paperbacks could be so perilous? GRADE: B+

James Gunn, who wrote and directed Superman Legacy 2025, shows this Superman movie will be Something Different from the opening scene where Superman is defeated and injured–we actually see Superman’s blood!

Superman–played by handsome, smart, and funny David Corenswet–faces a hate campaign by Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) who wants to destroy Superman (and start a war).

While the casting is good in this movie–I really liked Nathan Fillion as a surly Green Lantern, Isabela Merced as a feisty Hawkgirl, and Edi Gathegi as Mr. Terrific–these superheroes are mostly wasted. Instead of superhero action, there’s a lot of blah, blah, blah.

Rachel Brosnahan (aka, Mrs. Maisel) as Lois Lane was an unusual casting choice, but there is definitely chemistry between Lois and Clark. But, once again Brosnahan’s talent is wasted as she mostly flies around in a vehicle that looks like a jelly bean.

The most divisive character in this movie is Kypto, the Superdog. Some of the SRO audience that watched the movie with Diane and me at our local AMC Theater loved the doggie…others booed him.

For those of you who saw James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, you’ll remember the humor and the silliness as well as the incredible action scenes. Superman Legacy 2025 follows the same playbook. GRADE: B

Between 1954 and 1984 Alan Geoffrey Yates published 215 “Carter Brown” novels. Although the 52 Al Wheeler books were the most popular series, I’m fond of the 28 books in the Danny Boyd series, too. Summer is a great time to play Catch-Up on long-running series so I decided to read a couple Carter Brown mysteries from the Sixties starting with The Ice-Cold Nude.

Billed as “New York City’s toughest private eye,” Danny Boyd is both tough and smart. Boyd also shares the same smugness that saturates Al Wheeler and is inordinately proud of his profile. In The Ice-Cold Nude Boyd is hired to investigate a theft of a diamond tiara during a Beauty Contest in California. As usual in a Carter Brown novel, the bodies mount up as Boyd gleans clues from the suspects in the heist. After a Near-Death Experience, Danny Boyd solves the case with panache. GRADE: B

I’m also fan of the 35 Rick Holman mysteries Yates wrote. Rick Holman specializes in solving “problems” of Hollywood stars and celebrities. Rick considers himself as an “industrial consultant.” Most of the time Holman’s clients are Hollywood bigshots: producers, actors, and directors. Sex and drugs are often involved, with blackmail, extortion and large sums of money added to the mix.

In The Blonde on the Rocks, starlet Della August hires Rick Holman to discover why she’s been blacklisted in Hollywood. She hasn’t worked in six months and frequently receives whispered threats on her phone. Show business detective Rick Holman follows a trail of murder and extortion to discover who is behind the plot to ruin Della August. Are you a Carter Brown fan? GRADE; B+

Publication Order of Danny Boyd Books:

Publication Order of Rick Holman Books:

The Classic Rhythm + Blues Collection is another set of Time-Life CDs. I’m listening to the 1964-1967 volume because those were the years that I was inseparable from my transistor radio. And these were the songs I was listening to hour after hour.

Most of the songs on these CDs were Motown hits. The Four Tops, Jimmy Ruffin, The Supremes, The Miracles, The Temptations were all wonderful Motown acts who produced hit record after hit record for a decade.

Sprinkled in with with the Motown songs are some R&B classics like Percy Sledge’s “When A Man Loves a Woman” and Lou Rawls’ “Love is a Hurtin’ Thing.”

Back in the day, I knew the words to all of these songs–after all, I heard them a hundred times! Just listening to this music takes me back to my teenage years which seemed much more hopeful than the Present. Do you remember these songs? Any favorites here? GRADE: A

TRACK LIST:

I enjoyed Gou Tanabe’s graphic adaptations of Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness (you can read my review here) and THE CALL OF CTHULHU (you can read my review here) so I ordered Tanabe’s H. P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth (2023).

“The Shadow Over Innsmouth” is one of Lovecraft’s most iconic stories. It has all the dread and horror you could ask for in Cthulhu Mythos story. A narrator tells of a town in Massachusetts that embodies the word “creepy.” As the story unfolds, more and more details about the weird residents and the threat Innsmouth presents becomes apparent.

“The investigation ultimately concluded with the arrest and detention of many of the town’s residents in concentration camps as well as a submarine torpedoing nearby Devil Reef, which the press falsely reported as Prohibition liquor raids.” (Wikipedia) Lovecraft slowly ratchets up the suspense (and chilling aspects) as the secrets of Innsmouth are revealed.

Once again, Gou Tanabe’s wonderful artwork illuminates Lovecraft’s tale. GRADE: A

I liked The Old Guard from 2020 (you can read my review here) but this sequel is dull and tedious. The opening scene features  Charlize Theron (playing Andy, the former Immortal) kicking off The Old Guard 2 by storming an Italian mansion where secretive arms dealers with impressive weapons wait for a rumble.

As a distraction, Andy dispatches Joe (Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky (Luca Marinelli)–the franchise’s adorable queer couple–to lure some of the minions into a wild car chase. James Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Andy’s former adversary turned teammate, raids the mansion with her. Lots of shooting…and sword-play (very silly in my estimation)!

The plot of Immortal vs. Immortal didn’t grab me. The fight scenes interrupt an interminable, meandering series of dialogues about the Meaning of Life and the Purpose of Existence. Yawn.

Uma Thurman is wasted as an Immortal with a complicated plan. There’s a lot of blah, blah, blah punctuated by some routine action scenes. Don’t waste your time with this sequel. GRADE: D (for dud)

Katie and Patrick laugh at me when I buy music CDs. They listen to 100% of their music on streaming services like Spotify, iTunes, and Pandora. Diane and I do listen to Sirius/XM Radio when were driving around but at home, we’re CD listeners.

Liz Pelly’s informative Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist (2025) tells the story of how a tiny, obscure Swedish music streaming service became one of the dominate music platforms in the world. Music streaming has become the norm for millions of listeners with playlists, personalized, and autoplayed services.

“In 2021, a couple of executives form the in-house Warner Music Group data science team explained, in a video, that the comp was then processing information about its roughly 4.5 billion streams per day, all of which power insights to ‘help inform where we’re going to invest in new Artis and content types…’ In other words, the major label was collecting an obscene amount of date every day, and then using it to presumably power algorithms that would tell it what artists to sign in the future.” (p. 90-91).

Of course Spotify, iTunes, and Sirius/XM Radio were doing the same thing. Even back in 2013 when Spotify made its big investment into producing in-house playlists, the effect was the ability of Spotify (and other streaming services) to change the way people listen. “It was not long just about providing all the music in the world, but about purporting to know what you anted to listen to, when you wanted to listen to it, to provide the perfect playlist at the perfect moment.” (p. 92)

The most shocking chapter in Mood Machine is “The First .0035 Is the Hardest.” .0035 of one cent is the royalty Spotify pays singers and groups to play their song. Needless to say, Spotify is paying a pittance for this music while making billions in profit. Studies show the median musician earned between $20,000 and $25,000. You could make more money working at McDonalds.

Liz Pelly, who has covered the music industry for over a decade, shows how a small group of music streaming services controls what millions of subscribers listen to and which singers and artists are shut out. This is a chilling book. Do you listen to music streaming services? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction — vii

The Bureau of Piracy — 1

“Saving” the music industry — 11

Selling lean-back listening — 24

The conquest of chill — 39

Ghost artists for hire — 57

The background music makers — 68

Streambait pop — 79

Listen to yourself — 92

Self-driving music — 106

Fandom as data — 117

Sounds for self-optimization — 125

Streaming as surveillance — 137

The first .0035 is the hardest — 149

An App for a boss — 151

Indie vibes — 172

This is… Payola? — 185

The lobbyists — 197

The new music labor movement — 204

Conclusion –217

A Note on Sources — 237

Acknowledgements — 239

Notes — 243

Index — 267