TITAN BOOKS has published a couple dozen faux-Sherlock Holmes novels. In 2016, they published this anthology of themed Sherlock Holmes stories based on a clever premise: stories about minor characters in Sherlock Holmes stories. For example, Lyndsay Faye’s “River of Silence” features Stanley Hopkins, a young police inspector who first showed up in “The Adventure of Black Peter.” Faye’s story tells how Hopkins and Holmes first met. My favorite story in this book is Ian Edginton’s clever “The Case of the Previous Tenant.” Who lived in 221B Baker Street before Holmes? Edginton’s answer is a terrific tale! Jaine Fenn’s “A Dormitory Haunting” shows what happens to Violet Hunter (from “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches”) when she becomes the head of a private school in Walsall. If you’re a Holmes fan, you’ll enjoy these pastiches. GRADE: B
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Faye, Lyndsay. River of silence. 7
Lovegrove, James. Pure swank. 43
Pratt, Tim. Heavy game of the Pacific Northwest. 67
Fenn, Jaine. Dormitory haunting. 91
Edginton, Ian. Case of the previous tenant. 121
Scott, Cavan. Nor hell a fury. 149
Lane, Andy. Case of the haphazard marksman. 181
Barnes, Jonathan. Presbury papers. 213
Meikle, William. Flash in the pan. 239
Thomas, Jeffrey. Vanishing snake. 257
Bucher-Jones, Simon. Family resemblance. 285
Dennison, Kara. Page turners. 309
Kyme, Nick. Peeler. 331

The Great SF Stories #5 features FIVE stories by Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore. “Mimsy Were the Borogroves” (adapted as the movie “The Last Mimsy” in 2007) is one of the classic SF stories from this period. But my favorite story in this anthology is “The Proud Robot.” This is one of the “Galloway Gallegher” stories that Kuttner and Moore wrote that were later collected in Robots Have No Tails. Gallegher is a genius, but does his best work when he’s very, very drunk (not politically correct today). When Gallegher wakes up from one of his binges, he finds incredible technology that he invented “under the influence”–but he has no idea how it works or what it does. I love these clever tales and “The Proud Robot” is one of the best stories in the series.

I also enjoyed Leigh Bracket’s “The Hafling” and her husband’s fine short story, “Exile.” Once again, ASTOUNDING dominated the SF field and published the majority of the stories in this anthology. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1943 INTRODUCTION by Martin H. Greenberg and Isaac Asimov 7
“The Cave” by P. Schuyler Miller (ASTOUNDING, January 1943) 11
“The Halfling” by Leigh Brackett (ASTOUNDING, February 1943) 30
“Mimsy Were the Borogoves” by Lewis Padgett (aka, Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore) (ASTOUNDING, February 1943) 57
“Q.U.R.” by Anthony Boucher (ASTOUNDING, March 1943) 91
“Clash by Night” by Lawrence O’Donnell (aka, Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore) (ASTOUNDING, March 1943) 113
“Exile” by Edmond Hamilton (SUPER SCIENCE STORIES, May 1943) 172
“Daymare” by Fredric Brown (THRILLING WONDER STORIES, Fall 1943) 178
“Doorway into Time” by C. L. Moore (FAMOUS FANTASTIC MYSTERIES, September 1943) 219
“The Storm” by A. E. van Vogt (ASTOUNDING, October 1943) 238
“The Proud Robot” by Lewis Padgett (ASTOUNDING, October 1943) 271
“Symbiotica” by Eric Frank Russell (ASTOUNDING, October 1943) 306
“The Iron Standard” by Lewis Padgett (ASTOUNDING, December 1943) 352

The recent Arctic temperatures produced this rare event where parts of Niagara Falls froze. Ten miles from my house, this Winter Wonderland delights tourists and residents willing to trek out into the freezing temperatures. It’s well worth the trip! The spray from Niagara Falls coats everything in ice! Very cool!

The Guardian blurb about Revenger says, “Swashbuckling! Pirates of the Caribbean meet Firefly.” I’m a big fan of Alastair Reynolds’s Space Operas. Revenger is a Young Adult SF novel featuring two feisty teenage sisters, Adrana and Fura Ness. Their father, hobbled by bad financial investments, is on the brink of bankruptcy. Anrana and Fura run away and join a starship as Bone Readers in an effort to restore the family fortune. Each starship has a “bone” or alien technology that allows instantaneous communication with other starships. But, in order for this system to work, Bone Readers are needed to make the connection. That’s why Bone Readers are the most valuable part of a starship’s crew.

The starship Adrana and Fura sign on to is called Monetta’s Mourn. Monetta’s Mourn is a scavenger ship that seeks “baubles” or sites where alien tech can be found and then sold for profit. After one of these missions, Monetta’s Mourn is attacked by a pirate ship, Nightjammer, led by Bosa Sennen. Bosa kills most of the crew of Monetta’s Mourn except for Adrana and another crew member who pretends to be Fura. Fura manages to hide on Monetta’s Mourn until she’s rescued. But the time waiting for rescue makes Fura determined to rescue her sister. Plenty of adventure and double-dealing result. If you’re in the mood for some old fashioned SF storytelling, Revenger delivers. GRADE: B+

This 2017 BBC movie starts out in 1940 as Catrin (Gemma Arterton) gets a job as a screenwriter for the English Ministry of Information. The Ministry wants a movie to inspire the population amid the German bombing. Catrin’s boss, Buckley (Sam Claflin), recognizes her raw talent. Catrin and Buckley work together to write a script that will highlight fading star, Ambrose Hilliard (Bill Nighy), since most of the other movie stars are unavailable. I enjoyed the old fashioned manner of making movies in the 1940s. Their Finest takes you behind the scenes of the production. Plenty of things go wrong. There are gaffs galore. But amid all the confusion, Catrin and Buckley work to produce a quality film. This is one of those movies where you’re going to laugh and cry. Highly recommended! GRADE: A

The New Orleans Saints are 3-point favorites over the LA Rams. I’m with Deb and her family on this one: Saints! The Kansas City Chiefs are favored by 3 points over the New England Patriots. I’m going with the Chiefs. Who do you think will win today?

The weather in Western New York this weekend is predicted to be frightful! A foot of snow, howling winds, and sub-zero temperatures! Big Orange is all gassed up and ready to snowblow! But after I clear the snow from my driveway and clean off my neighbors’ sidewalks, I love to return to the warmth of my home and enjoy a cup of yummy Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Premium Hot Cocoa. Sure, there are plenty of Hot Cocoa mixes out there, but I’ve come to enjoy the rich, creamy taste of Ghiradelli Double Chocolate Premium Hot Cocoa. What’s your favorite hot cocoa?
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size tbsp 3 tbsp = 35g
Amount Per Serving
120 Calories
% Daily Value*
2% Total Fat 1.5g
3% Saturated Fat 0.5g
Trans Fat 0g
0% Cholesterol 0mg
2% Sodium 50mg
10% Total Carbohydrate 30g
7% Dietary Fiber 2g
Sugars 27g
Protein 1g
0% Vitamin A 0 IU
0% Vitamin C 0mg
2% Calcium 20mg
4% Iron 0.7mg

Three Rooms Press deserves praise for publishing this wonderful 16 story collection of Robert Silverberg’s best Time Travel tales. If you glance at the TABLE OF CONTENTS, you’ll see several familiar stories. I enjoyed rereading these stories. “Absolutely Inflexible” was published in 1955, “Against the Current” was published in 2009. Robert Silverberg’s inspiring “INTRODUCTION” tells how he became interested in Time Travel and the four books that transformed his Life. In addition, Silverberg writes introductions to each of the 16 stories and provides details about how each story came about. All of the stories were solicited by various editors for their magazines or anthologies. Silverberg tells some interesting stories about the publishing world that has vanished. Over fifty years of writing Science Fiction, Robert Silverberg’s science fiction stories broken new ground and pushed the limits of the genre.

I really enjoyed “Needle in a Timestack,” “Sailing to Byzantium,” and “Hawksbill Station” which capture the paradoxes of Time Travel. Do you have a favorite Robert Silverberg story? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION by Robert Silverberg i
Absolutely Inflexible 1
Needle in a Timestack 14
Trips 34
Many Mansions 70
Homefaring 98
What We Learned from This Morning’s Newspaper. 104
Hunters in the Forest 180
Jennifer’s Lover. 196
Sailing to Byzantium 215
Breckenridge and the Continuum 282
The Man Who Floated in Time 312
Gianni. 324
The Far Side of the Bell-Shaped Curve 346
Dancers in the Time-Flux. 369
Hawksbill Station 389
Against the Current 441

“We risk being the first people in history to have been able to make their illusions so vivid, so persuasive, so ‘realistic’ that they can live in them.” (p.186) Daniel J. Boorstin made that prophetic statement in his classic The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America (1961). Ken Auletta, who wrote best sellers like Three Blind Mice (1991) and GOOGLED (2009), returns with Frenemies (2018). Auletta has followed the advertising industry for decades and delivers a nice history of ads along with an analysis of what today’s social media and technology are doing to us.

Edward Bernays, a nephew of Sigmund Freud, invented public relations. Bernays wrote, “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.” (p. 28) So true!

Auletta shows how advertising and messaging changed from the Mad Men and Don Draper days to today’s data driven world. Auletta points out that AMAZON’s Alexa and GOOGLE’s Home monitor millions of people daily. FACEBOOK collects data from pharmacy records, store loyal cards, voter registration, mortgages, pay stubs, etc. (p. 159) GOOGLE collects data from its 3.5 billion daily searches, YouTube usage, and its About Me page offering advertisers your date of birth, phone number, where you work, mailing address, education level, where you’ve traveled, your nickname, photo, and email addresses (p. 159). AMAZON, of course, tracks everything you look at and buy on their web site.

Frenemies is a cautionary book. We’ve seen massive data breaches, stolen identities, and polling data shared with the Russians. More trouble ahead. Have you been hacked? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction 1
1 The “Perfect Storm” 7
2 “Change Sucks” 27
3 Good-bye, Don Draper 39
4 The Matchmaker 51
5 Anxious Clients 75
6 “Same Height as Napoleon” 99
7 Frenemies 119
8 The Rise of Media Agencies 139
9 The Privacy Time Bomb 155
10 The Consumer as Frenemy 171
11 Can Old Media Be New? 187
12 More Frenemies 205
13 Marketing Yak-Yaks and Mounting Fear 223
14 The Client Jury Reaches Its Verdict 239
15 Cannes Takes Center Stage 247
16 Mad Men to Math Men 261
17 Dinosaurs or Cockroaches? 279
18 Good-bye Old Advertising Axioms 293
19 “No Rearview Mirror” 317
Acknowledgments 341
Bibliography 344
Index 346