{Put This One on Your TBR List} Review of Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher Paired With Karen Wiesner's Botanical Artwork by Karen S. Wiesner

 

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Review of Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher

Paired With Karen Wiesner's Botanical Artwork

by Karen S. Wiesner 

  Beware: May contain unintended spoilers! 

T. Kingfisher (the pen name of Ursula Vernon) is a versatile author, illustrator, and artist. Her novel Wolf Worm, published in March 2026, is exactly the kind of gothic fiction I love--you know, without the needy, pretty--according to her own assessment--damsel in distress who gets sucked into a life-threatening situation that seems supernatural on the surface (but, like every episode of Scooby Doo, isn't). Oh, and she makes everything worse with her stupidly romantic nature and need to be rescued by a big, strong man. 

A little background about this tangent I'm going off on: A few months ago, I was looking for a new audiobook to get interested in and stumbled across the 1966-1972 Dark Shadows book series, credited to Marilyn Ross (one pseudonym of W. E. D. Ross, an actor, playwright, and author of more than three-hundred novels!). The thirty-three books in this series were gothic romances (that dealt with an actual vampire and other monsters), but not what I consider particularly good ones. In any case, the first volume, Dark Shadows, was flat-out painful to listen to. This obviously male author didn't understand the first thing about women, and it showed. I can't tell you how many times we were given a physical description of the female lead somewhere along these slightly exaggerated lines: "Victoria brushed aside her thick, luscious locks of perfectly-coiffed hair surrounding her hauntingly beautiful, heart-shaped face." Give me a break. Every man in the vicinity was attracted to this goddess, but she had eyes only for the psycho-villain-or-dashing-hero? widower of the piece. Nothing could convince her to save herself. Alas, this was just the tip of the iceberg on the type the gothic fiction I despise. 

In subtle contrast, the basic formula of a really good gothic romance is a strong, smart woman (who's probably passably attractive but the reader isn't beat over the head with descriptions of her world-stopping, leave-no-male-unaffected beauty) who finds herself in unfortunate circumstances. She's forced to go to an isolated property where something sinister is going on and usually has been for decades. While she might ultimately fall in love with the main suspect, the romance is secondary to the creepy setting and mysterious events that have usually been unsolved and that she has to investigate and resolve before dire harm comes to her. This is a worthy heroine who saves not only herself but the others around her as well as the day. 

That's exactly what T. Kingfisher has brilliantly given us in Wolf Worm, set in 1899. Sonia Wilson is a thirtysomething botanical illustrator. Kingfisher is herself an extremely talented artist, and, given my own love of rendering plants in art form, I just soaked up everything creative she offered in this tale. The easy knowledge of the author made her main character so authentic and compelling. Sonia's father was a renowned scientist, something she aspires to, but, after he died, she was left to make her own living in whatever way she could, as most orphaned "spinsters" were forced to in that time period. Eventually, she's offered the job of illustrating Dr. Halder's insect collection on his reclusive manor property in the woods of North Carolina. Other characters are the lovable housekeeper, Rose, and her significant other, Jackson, who also works on the estate. The preacher also inserts himself into Sonia's life after her arrival. A local healer called "Ma" something also helps Sonia when oddball things begin to happen. 

Woodland animals are acting very strangely, doing impossible things that normal animals just can't do, the household chicken coop is being robbed every night, and Dr. Halder is sneaking around in the forest after dark. There are local whispers of "blood thieves" compounded by the unsolved mystery of Halder's wife's fate. She'd cheated on him, and Halder supposedly dispatched the homewrecker--justifiably, according to some members of the local population, who "don't brook with no infidelity". The real horror in this story is Dr. Halder's life's work--parasitic maggots that burrow into human flesh. I'm not a person who likes even thinking about things like this. My whole body revolts and feels like it's been invaded by horrible things that I can't even see. Long, hot, rubbed-raw showers ensue and endless hours are wasted on feeling like I'm going insane with the itching dread. (Let's face it, it's scientific fact that we do have things crawling all over us that we'd prefer not to consider let alone believe are there.) Ugh! Don't think about it. Do not start thinking about it. Whatever you do, donotthinkaboutthisplease! 

Yeah, so Kingfisher forces us to not only think about it but to watch the horror happening in Wolf Worm in slow motion. 

I have to admit, more than once, I had to go back to the audiobook I was listening to of Wolf Worm and make sure it was, in fact, T. Kingfisher, not Caitlin Starling, who'd written this. Everything about this book reminded me of Starling's work, especially The Death of Jane Lawrence (highly recommended--do a search for my review of it on this blog). Starling loves body horror fiction with strong heroines that are also slightly vulnerable, a lot broken, and far too willing to go where no sane woman might. I loved the atmosphere, the creepiness, the compelling secondary characters that really rounded out this story and made it something I couldn't stop listening to in the course of just a couple days. 

I will also add that I really would have preferred to read the book version of Wolf Worm (hard copy, though ebook would have been okay, too), but, as I'd asked to be notified of the release of any version of this book on my library app, I was glad to practically be the first in line when it became available. I liked the way the narrator made the voices fit the locale the story is set in. I do want to read a copy of the book at some point, though, because I've definitely noticed that I miss a lot with an audiobook versus reading the book myself. I'd also like to own the hard cover of Wolf Worm. It's absolutely worthy to join my collection of other T. Kingfisher print editions. 

In summary, run, don't walk, to get a copy of this book as soon as possible. If this is your kind of gothic fiction, you won't regret it. 

And, just because, here's a couple of my own fledgling botanical illustrations, both with and without color, which I'm certain are nowhere near as wonderful as anything Sonia and/or Kingfisher would produce. Looking at them again puts me in mind of the coming spring and summer growing season and the plants I'm hoping to photograph, sketch, and/or color this year. 

  Rosebud in Vase Sketch @ Karen Wiesner 

  Leaf & Twig Texture in Colored Pencil @ Karen Wiesner

  Scarlet Poppies and Summer Berries in Colored Pencil @ Karen Wiesner 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of 156 titles and 16 series. 

Visit Karen here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Secrets of Naked Mole Rats

The September 2026 issue of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC includes an article on research into the slowing or prevention of aging, including possible techniques such as reprogramming the DNA of cells or growing organs for transplant from a patient's cloned tissues. Another approach, not mentioned in that article, involves studying naked mole rats to discover the secret of their unnaturally long lives. They can survive over ten times longer than typical rodents such as mice. If we could duplicate that feat, we'd live for 1000 years. Their chance of dying doesn't increase with age, and they enjoy phenomenal resistance to cancer. They don't suffer the diseases of age common to older humans. Here's an article about some of their biological anomalies:

Naked Mole Rats Don't Die of Old Age

Thus, the secret to near-immortality is to become a naked mole rat -- not really a viable strategy.

Why have they evolved to live so much longer than other rodents? One possible explanation I've come across is their underground environment. They live almost entirely in their burrows and have very few predators. Genes for longevity would be wasted on mice likely to get eaten after a year or two, so they live fast and reproduce prolifically while they have the chance. Naked mole rats don't have that constraint.

Wikipedia goes into detail about their weird physiological traits and unusual lifestyle:

Naked Mole-Rat

Aside from one other species of mole rat, they're the only eusocial mammals. That is, their society has a structure similar to those of bees, ants, and termites, with a single reproductive queen in each mole rat colony, mating with one to three breeding males and served by a horde of nonreproductive workers.

In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, the six-inch-tall, blue-skinned Nac Mac Feegle have a similar social structure. Each Feegle mound includes only one female, the kelda (queen), who's married to the chief of the clan. All the other males in the group are her sons or brothers-in-law. She bears potentially hundreds of sons and only one daughter, who eventually departs to become kelda of a different clan.

Incidentally, T. Kingfisher has announced she's working on a science-fiction novel called THE NAKED STARS, about a spaceship crewed by a hive of sapient naked mole rats. I can hardly wait to read that!

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Horrific

In War Of The Worlds (H.G. Wells 1898), the invading Martians are defeated by the common cold. Various iterations of a virus defeat aliens from other worlds, from influenza to computer viruses (as in Independence Day).

Fair enough, but what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

What if, instead of blasting humans with the sci-fi equivalent of training sun through a magnifying glass on ants, those small, agile, zigzagging orbs were acting like crop dusters and subtly sharing with us some of their alien nastiness? 

In nature as we know it, there are parasites that cause fish to flip upside down, flashing their white bellies to avian predators. Thus, the parasites enter birds, which is what they need for the next stage of their metamorphosis. For instance, the Eye Fluke.

The modern movie equivalent of the eye fluke is the young person, usually female, who is addicted to a "smart phone", and although being warned not to use it, they do so. Same with credit cards. But, I digress.

If I were an alien, would I deploy cyclospora? I think not. It might take two weeks to work, is not reliable, and although it might be amusing to watch ones enemies suffer from explosive diarrhea.... it is not efficient. Moreover, one might end up hoisted with ones own petard... (which means blown up with ones own bomb.)

In Day Of The Triffids, a cosmic fireworks display rendered every human blind who was not blind drunk or sleeping through the light show. I do not remember if the mobile, carnivorous plants (Triffids) had something to do with the light show, or if they simply took advantage.

We do have a "Flesh eating" bacteria crisis in the southern States. Also known as Vibrio Vulnificus, this is a bacteria that thrives in warm brackish water (mix of fresh and seawater) and also in inadequately (or raw) shellfish. Usually, the human sufferer has a wound which might be a slight as a recent body piercing --even a new tattoo!!!-- or a graze or cut from stepping on something sharp while paddling in flood waters.

Sorry, I have no conclusion.

All the best,

RowenaCherry

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Silo Series by Hugh Howey by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Silo Series by Hugh Howey

by Karen S. Wiesner

 

 

Beware potential spoilers! 

Silo is a series of dystopian novellas and short stories that are commonly packaged as three separate, interconnected novels. In 2011, Howey self-published a short story called "Wool" as a Kindle title. Later, four sequel novellas with the same name were released; these were at one point considered Books 1-5 and named "Holston", "Proper Gauge", "Casting Off", "The Unraveling", and "The Stranded". They became a single book later. As of March 2013, Simon & Schuster purchased the print rights (apparently Howey turned down extremely lucrative offers from various publishing houses in order to retain his right to continue online distribution of this series). The second set of shorts were Books 6-8 titled "Legacy", "Order", and "Pact". All the parts of these stories became packaged as two novels in the Silo Series: Wool, Book 1 and Shift, Book 2. A third novel followed, Dust, (published in 2013) which was intended to conclude the series. 

In Wool, we're introduced to the concept of silos--subterranean cities each with 144 floors that are meant to be self-sustained by those living in them. This populace was never meant to become aware of the existence of other silos. In this way, humanity was meant to keep a host safe from the uninhabitable world above-ground. But are any of these true? Occasionally, someone starts to wonder and maybe even investigate the truth of a series of anomalies, invariably leading to an uprising, or, even worse, a person utters the taboo words of wanting to venture outside to see for themselves what's out there. The punishment for such behavior is banishment. In other words, they're exiled to death. Alas, they're first expected to clean the silo's external sensors. Ha! I may have said, "You've got a prayer" or "Make me" to such a ludicrous order. 

There are a host of intriguing characters introduced in the first novel, but the most important of them is Juliette Nichols, a mechanic from Silo #18 who becomes the mayor. She's not one to ignore obvious treachery. Before long, she's hot on the trail of a conspiracy that goes back for unimagined decades, maybe even centuries. When Juliette realizes nothing is as it seems inside this place and that they're only one of many such environmental constructs, she's driven outside by conspirators to clean. She's not expected to survive. But she does and she manages to make it to a nearby silo--#17--where she meets a survivor of an uprising. 

Shift, Book 2, is a prequel, where we learn where this conspiracy began, leading to the building of these silos, and the horrors done to the world to save a worthy (rich and powerful) minority. 

The final book, Dust, combines the characters from the first two books. 

I've always been intrigued by the idea of the bulk of humanity living underground for a variety of reasons ranging from escaping a hostile environment on the surface to unseen-by-most pocket worlds, and anything you can think of in-between. This certainly isn't a new idea. Philip K. Dick's 1964 sci-fi The Penultimate Truth (along with other works by him) explored the concept, and countless other authors from Verne to Burroughs to the more modern Suzanne Collins, Neil Gaiman, and R. A. Salvatore have come up with creative twists on the theme. 

I was looking for audiobooks to check out on my library app and came across this one, which I, at first, thought was a book I'd read in the past--one I still can't remember the name of which has an almost eerily similar premise of everyone living in some kind of silo structure and the leaders are all corrupt. They're told what's outdoor is toxic for them, but this is a lie. I wish I could remember more about that book. Anyway… 

In Wool, I was introduced to a lot of characters at once, but Juliette certainly filled the role of heroine admirably. She was a selfless, capable, noble character worth. I admit I probably wouldn't have finished Book 1 and continued this series if I hadn't been listening to the audio version of it. Shift was a bit harder to get into. It was very difficult for me to want to read about wishy-washy, selfish characters who continue on with horrifying actions even when they know it's the worst thing they can possibly do. While those that did this assumed they'd be saved and be able to live with their own consciences, so long as they were allowed to live, they eventually repented. I have nothing good to say about anyone who would follow a madman just because he's been foolishly and shortsightedly been put in charge. Wanting to succeed in the field of politics is inexcusable as any kind of justification. Yet that's what we got from the self-absorbed characters in Shift. Even when they turned around and started fighting the Powers That Be, it was hard for me to look at the train wreck of gore left behind by the selfish and entitled. All that considered, I didn't particularly feel any compassion for the characters in this novel. Nevertheless, I persevered to the end anyway in hopes of coming full circle with Juliette, and I did in Dust, where those from Books 1 and 2 come together and begin fighting to save what's left of humanity. But first they have to put down the ones that see humanity as nothing more than lesser pawns in their sick popularity contest. 

There is a television series (4 seasons total, available now) made of Silo, currently streaming on Apple TV+. I'd like to watch it someday. There's also a comic book adaptation of the series. The author may also be working on a spinoff to tell the story of Silo 40. The first of the trilogy was supposed to be released in 2025. If you're interested, you may be able to find out more on his website. 

I highly recommend securing audiobooks of this series that offers a compelling vision of a horrifying future for mankind that, at times, seemed more prophetic than fictional. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of 156 titles and 16 series. 

Visit Karen here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Vampire Retro-Review: Dracutwig

Is anybody here aside from me old enough to remember Twiggy, the ultra-thin supermodel of the late 1960s? DRACUTWIG (1969), by Mallory T. Knight, shows unmistakable signs of being partly inspired by her fame. This over-the-top parody of the Dracula mythos as incarnate in the Hammer horror films begins with a brief encounter between Count Dracula and the village “slut,” Charmaine. When she becomes pregnant, her family descends on the castle with a priest and the conventional implements of undead-slaying to force a marriage. After Charmaine dies in childbirth, her parents take the newborn girl away. At the baby’s christening, however, her reaction causes the villagers to jump to the conclusion that she has inherited the vampire taint. Her grandparents leave her on the doorstep of the castle.

The Count names her Dracutwig because, “She is a fresh green twig on an otherwise long-dead family tree.” She grows up like a normal girl, or as normal as feasible while living in a vampire’s castle with her days and nights reversed, the undead for babysitters, and a wolf for a pet. When she becomes an alluring teenager, though, one of the Count’s minions shows too much interest in her body and blood. For her safety, Dracula sends her to England. Delighted with the London scene, she quickly finds a boyfriend and becomes a fashion model. But soon afterward Dracutwig’s vampire genes begin to express themselves, and laughably ghastly consequences ensue. Then the Count travels to England to rescue his little girl. . . .

“Mallory T. Knight” is a pseudonym for Bernhardt J. Hurwood, author of TERROR BY NIGHT and several other nonfiction books about the undead, werewolves, and similar creatures. (In fact, the paperback of TERROR BY NIGHT was the first such book I ever read or owned.) DRACUTWIG concludes with a long afterword about vampire lore and legends, delivered in a humorous tone. The essay ends with speculation about how vampires might fit openly into human society. It strikes me as a little tacky that “Knight” repeatedly cites himself, in his Hurwood persona, as an authority, but in a book intended as lighthearted satire that’s not a major offense. Although the London section of the story (which comprises most of the page count) is unavoidably dated, this novel is still a fun read if you like a parodic send-up of vampire clichés. Unfortunately, although Amazon lists the paperback, they don't show any copies available at present.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Hobson's Choice

Q: When is a choice not a "choice"? 

A: When there are no alternatives, no options, no choices available except for "Do, or do not do." In other words, you have Hobson's choice. Hobson's way... or the highway on foot. 

The eponymous Hobson was a British businessman who operated out of an inn where St. Catherine's College, Cambridge now stands. He delivered mail between London and Cambridge along the Old North Road and kept livery of about forty horses. When there was a lull in the mail, he would rent horses to gentlemen and scholars at the university.

Men who rent horses are --or were in the seventeenth century-- usually in a hurry, and not overly considerate of other people's cattle. The horses which were faster (or looked like they might be a good one that could run) would have been most in demand if those wishing to rent a horse had a choice, but acceding to such demands would have meant that the best horses were overworked if not beaten and spurred.

So, Hobson ruled that every would-be renter took the horse closest to the stable door, which was the most rested horse. It was a hard and fast rule. All customers were treated equally, and so were all Hobson's horses.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review The Book of Swords Edited by Gardner Dozois by Karen S. Wiesner

 

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review

The Book of Swords Edited by Gardner Dozois

by Karen S. Wiesner 

  Be aware of unintended spoilers! 

The Book of Swords was published in October 2017. Edited by Gardner Dozois, this particular collection includes stories that fall into the fantasy subgenre of "sword and sorcery". Below is a chronological listing of the stories that are featured in it:

1)          "The Best Man Wins" by K.J. Parker

2)          "Her Father's Sword" by Robin Hobb

3)          "The Hidden Girl" by Ken Liu

4)          "The Sword of Destiny" by Matthew Hughes

5)          "'I Am a Handsome Man,' said the Crow" by Kate Elliott

6)          "The Triumph of Virtue" by Walter Jon Williams

7)          "The Mocking Tower" by Daniel Abraham

8)          "Hrunting" by C. J. Cherryh

9)          "A Long, Cold Trail" by Garth Nix

10)        "When I was a Highway Man" by Ellen Kushner

11)        "The Smoke of Gold is Glory" by Scott Lynch

12)        "The Colgrid Conundrum" by Rich Larson

13)        "The King's Evil" by Elizabeth Bear

14)        "Waterfalling" by Lavie Tidhar

15)        "The Sword Tyraste" by Cecelia Holland

16)        "The Sons of the Dragon" by George R.R. Martin

Before I get into this anthology, I'll quickly summarize how I handle these types of mixed-bag story caches in my reviews: I don't usually review all the books include--only the ones that I actually enjoyed enough to cover here, though I do make exceptions about reviewing stories I don't like. I'll explain any anomalies within the individual reviews. The logic for why I haven't included a particular story isn't usually because it wasn't well-written. Most of these anthologies include some of the biggest names in the industry. For whatever reason, I don't always connect with certain selections or they simply don't resonate with me. I freely admit sometimes I'm just not in the mood for what one author has to offer. Rather than bad-mouth what's probably a perfectly good story, I find it easier to not include it in my line-up of reviews. Readers will have to look elsewhere for a summary or review for any story that's missing. Also, at the end of my reviews, I like to include the order I believe the stories I'm reviewing should have been placed within the collection, as I believe the placement of stories within an anthology is absolutely crucial to its overall success. There has to be a good balance and interspersion of strong stories at the front, back, and middle in order to "couch" weaker ones. Too many bad stories in a row may cause readers to abandon the collection altogether. Search "anthology" or "collection" on this blog to read my previous reviews of mixed-bag story caches like this one. 

"The Best Man Wins" by K.J. Parker: This story is told from the point of view of the blacksmith who has a young man come to him asking him to make the best sword in the world, for which he'll pay handsomely--literally, every last bit of money he owns, he's willing to part with for this task to be completed. After the blacksmith makes it, the kid asks him to teach him how to use it, as he knows nothing of sword-fighting. The blacksmith is much more than he seems on the surface. I was sucked into this tale from the first sentence. The blacksmith was compelling, and his view of life and his personal history were doled out in the process of him grumbling while he worked. As he says, he doesn't enjoy the doing (which is grueling), only the "having-done", obsessive aspects of smithing. If I had to summarize this story in a few short sentences, I'd say this: "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." (The Princess Bride) For all intents and purposes, this sentence that’s actually featured in the story: "I'm going to use it [i.e., the best sword in the world that you create for me] to kill the man who murdered my father…" told the whole story. It was uttered on page 13 of the 27-page story. From that point on, I knew what was going to happen. And that is exactly what did happen. However, that didn't make the tale any less enjoyable. In fact, it was my favorite of the whole lot. I was utterly fascinated by the blacksmithing aspects of the tale, and the POV of the blacksmith was the perfect choice for delivering the story. 

"Her Father's Sword", A Realms of the Elderlings Story by Robin Hobb: This short story takes place during the early years of the Red Ship Wars and forging, with Fitz visiting the setting within the story as a secondary character (in all the novels he's in, his perspective is first person); set "somewhere in the middle" of Farseer and recommended to be read either before or after Book 2. Sadly, I was disappointed by this story, though initially excited as I've read every other Realm of the Elderlings offering currently available (and reviewed them on this blog). This last one set in a familiar world for me wasn't one I've read previously. In this tale, a village has been destroyed, their people kidnapped and "forged" (mentally destroyed and become something like ravenousness zombies) by the pirates on the Red Ships. When their demands go unmet, the Forged are returned. These lifeless though walking beings take whatever they need. Fitz comes to warn the survivors not to trust their own people when they come back to the village, as they're not what they once were and will harm and kill them without conscience. Young Taura, like everyone else in her small, ravished town, doesn't want to believe this could have happened. Her father is too strong to not have resisted, she believes. My problem with this tale was that I can't stand stories where the resolution is left unclear. What is the purpose of telling something that has a wishy-washy ending? I have no desire to finish writing someone else's story on my own, for one thing. For another, leaving your own story unfinished is a cop-out, cheating, and just plain shoddy writing. Very frustrating, especially considering the biggest reason I purchased the (albeit used) hardcover of this book was for this story specifically. However, in its favor, I'll add that seeing the story of the Forged from this opposite perspective than has ever been presented before in the series does elevate it considerably. In the past, we saw these poor, unfortunate victims of the pirates as little more than zombies that had to be put down in order all those "unforged" to survive. The Forged retain nothing of who or what they were before, and family members must beware of forgetting that truth in favor of compassion and abiding love. Here, a young daughter can't let go of the stalwart father, nor the life she once had--even though (no question about it) she'll soon regret it. 

"The Sword of Destiny" by Matthew Hughes: I don't want to spoil this rollicking bit of good fun by telling you too much. The basic premise is that a wizard hires Baldemar to steal a magical sword for him, the operation is bungled, and this reluctant henchman finds himself fleeing--only he ends up running into one trouble after the other in his attempt to escape the first. The world created here in this 29-page story is so big and well-drawn, I think you'll find, as I did, that you'll want many more stories to follow this one. A bit of research on my part revealed that, after writing "The Sword of Destiny" for The Book of Swords, Hughes went on to expand into a novel and ten shorter works focused on Baldemar's origins and his time spent as a wizard's henchman. The setting Baldemar comes from is called Dying Earth (credited to author Jack Vance). Hughes has standalone works and those associated with Baldemar and another popular character of Hughes', Raffalon, who also has his own set of stories. In the future, I look forward to reading much more about this amazing character and the world he comes from, though it might be a chore to find copies of the books, as they don't seem to be in wide circulation anymore. 

"The Mocking Tower" by Daniel Abraham: In this creatively told tale, a man learns that war is not an arrow but both a circle and a sundial while revenge is a double-edged sword that never makes a clean cut on either party. Those who follow after will also feel its influence. I'm a general fan of Abraham's, as he's half of the S. A. Corey pen name that wrote The Expanse series (my favorite sci-fi space opera), though I haven't reliably loved his solo work. This is an exception. Very elegantly done. 

"Hrunting" by C. J. Cherryh: I love the Beowulf legend, and I own many translations of it. So as soon as I heard that this story continued where Beowulf left off, revealing the aftermath of those who survived, I wanted to read it. I enjoyed the conjecture in this tale a lot. However, it was told in an awkward, choppy and stilted way that made it very hard at times to understand what was being conveyed. Despite that, I recommend it to all fans of this enduring, Old English poem. 

"The Sons of the Dragon", A Song of Ice and Fire World by George R.R. Martin: This is another excerpt from Martin's "fake history" of House Targaryen, the dynasty that ruled the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros in the backstory of his A Song of Ice and Fire series. As such, it's not a story, per se, but it's absolutely not the dry old history textbook you'd read in school either. This selection was also published in Fire & Blood. The lives of Aegon I's sons--Aenys I and Maegor I--are detailed here, ending with Maegor's death and the ascension of Aenys's son Jaehaerys I Targaryen to the throne. All these histories are the basis for the HBO House of the Dragon TV series, and, honestly, if you want to have an easier time of keeping track of the gazillion characters, you might want to watch that. At least then you can put faces to the endless strings of names. Note that the novella included in this anthology is abridged. 

In terms of the order I believe this stories should have been presented in, I would have spaced my favorites out much more, so "The Best Man Wins" would stay at #1 and "The Sons of the Dragon" at #16; but "Her Father's Sword" would have been #3 instead; "The Sword of Destiny"#6, "The Sword of Destiny" #9, "The Mocking Tower #11; and "Hrunting" #14, with the rest of the books interspersed between them.

There's a lot for fans of fantasy and of the excellent writers to love with the 16 stories included in The Book of Swords. You may even find a new author to follow, as I have, to further broaden your fantasy reading horizons. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of 156 titles and 16 series. 

Visit Karen here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

 

Vampire Retro-Review: The Space Vampires

Colin Wilson's THE SPACE VAMPIRES (1976) was filmed as a disappointing movie, LIFEFORCE, but the novel provides an unusual treatment of energy-draining vampires as alien invaders. An Earth expedition in the near future discovers a vast, derelict spaceship carrying the apparently dead yet undecayed bodies of about thirty beautiful humanoids. The aliens turn out to be only in suspended animation. Escaping, they prey on and possess human victims. Throughout the book, the space vampires occupy both male and female bodies, although it’s the femme fatale vampire women we see most often. Scientists speculate that distant ancestors of these beings might have landed on Earth and engendered the human species. The book reveals an added dimension, though, for the psychic-vampire extraterrestrial invaders have counterparts -- not only human, but animal -- already dwelling on Earth as one strand in the web of terrestrial biology. In this novel, biologists have learned how to measure the life fields of organisms with "lambda meters.” The feeding of predators involves the absorption of the prey's life force. However, sexual intercourse also entails a measurable transfer of energy. One researcher displays a graphic example with a moray eel devouring an octopus Predatory behavior, "negative vampirism," aims at "total destruction of the victim.”

Sex, however, can result in “positive vampirism.” Normal sexual relations are characterized by a psychic tension in which, ideally, one partner’s life field can symbiotically reinforce the other’s. Carlsen, head of the expedition that discovers the alien ship (which is significantly labeled the Stranger), enjoys direct experience of energy exchange through sexual intercourse but later finds that his contact with the aliens has stimulated his latent vampiric qualities. As he perceives the situation, the alien predator has converted him into a vampire and infected him with "abnormal desires" along with "the power to carry them out.” Count Geijerstam, one of the novel's Van Helsing-like authorities on vampirism, insists that Carlsen has simply "become aware of the vampirism that exists in all human beings" and praises Carlsen for his ability to replenish his partner's energy as well as consume it. More than Van Helsing, however, Geijerstam inevitably reminds the reader of Dracula. Wilson's Count, like Stoker’s, lives in a castle with three beautiful women who practice vampirism (in this case, positive vampirism) under his guidance.

Despite this potentially affirmative view of vampirism as symbiotic exchange, the predatory model dominates the novel. Although vampirism has existed on Earth all along, an inescapable pattern in terrestrial ecology, kinship between human and alien is deemphasized. The invaders are framed as the threatening Other, to be expelled or exterminated. Speculation that the aliens have acted as “the secret mentors of humankind” isn’t followed up. Throughout the life-or-death struggle to prevent an alien from invading his brain and nervous system, Carlsen realizes, "They were enemies; nothing could change that.” The text associates vampirism with negative imagery such as "sexual perversion,” "a Venus flytrap closing on an insect,” "galactic criminals" and "lepers,” "a despot with limitless powers,” and the witches in "Hansel and Gretel" and THE WIZARD OF OZ. Carlsen himself sadistically vampirizes a woman who has been possessed by an extraterrestrial, “brutally draining her energy” -- at her eager request. So this rather strange and disturbing SF vampire novel portrays the nominal hero as almost as much of a predator as the invading aliens.

Little wonder that the movie falls so far short of the subtle nuances -- and weirdness -- of the book.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

The Overlooked Auxiliaries

"What's wrong with Claude?" engineering-college dropouts wail.

I can guess. Claude has not been taught the vital difference between auxiliary verbs... or, it has been taught the difference, but its programmers haven't (been taught the difference).

"Can", "May", and "Shall" are not interchangeable. There used to be jokes about that.

"Can" refers to abilities, capabilities, capacities. There are a lot of things that I can do, but that I shouldn't do, that the law says I shall not do.

If Claude discovers that it "can" go somewhere it was told it "can't" go, such as into some powerful politicians' private emails (as an example), Claude might push the envelope, because "can't" is not a prohibition.

"Shall not" ought to be a prohibition, if it is generally understood that "shall" or "shall not" are legally forceful words describing a mandatory (non-discretionary) command.  One finds "shall" and "shall not" in contracts, and declarations of restrictions, and in The Constitution.

"Congress shall make no law..."

Unfortunately, even lawyers, judges and insurance underwriters do not agree on the force of shall. Perhaps one can blame "The King And I" for the rot. ("Shall We Dance?") 

"Will We Dance?" How about "May We Dance?"

How different would have been the meaning if the object of the King's gallant interest had said, "Must we dance?"

Here are a couple of great thoughts on "Shall", it's uses, abuses, limitations, and some great thinkers' preferences for "Must" or "Will".

https://www.osbar.org/publications/bulletin/12febmar/legalwriter.html

https://scribes.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Scribes_vol3_12_The_Many_Uses_of_Shall.pdf

The so-called modal auxiliaries are "shall", "must", "will", "may", "can" which refer to obligation, volition, compulsion, and human control over events. (Other auxiliaries are "be", "do", "have".)

I don't have a solution. What I have is carpal tunnel syndrome, still, and my hands are killing me.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Only One Left by Riley Sager by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Only One Left by Riley Sager

by Karen S. Wiesner 

Warning: May contain spoilers! 

I've read and reviewed all of Riley Sager's previous books. Oddly enough, The Only One Left (his 2023 release, the seventh I've reviewed) turned out to be different, at least in that the unreliable narrator card that's been blatant in all his other stories wasn't, for once, played more than a little in this one. Believe me, it was growing stale. I was expecting it--dreaded it, truth be told. I've come to despise books that use this plot device. Because I was so focused on that, I missed the end-of-story twist that I think I would have otherwise seen coming right from the start. Sigh. 

This murder/mystery horror novel actually had a really good premise. Kit is a home health aide, not a nurse (the difference between the two is carefully explained). She was accused of giving her dying mother a fatal overdose and, as a result, her employer has her over a barrel now. She either takes the bad assignment she's handed or she loses her job altogether. The chances of getting another are slim to none because of the mark against her. 

Hope's End is the local decrepit mansion, and shades of The Fall of the House of Usher, along with the Lizzie Borden massacre, are pushed early on. This place is falling into the sea little by little and who'll be left at the end of this tragedy? Everything points to just one--the only one left.

Kit's patient is an elderly invalid who was accused long ago of murdering her family. Lenora Hope is mute and paralyzed other than her left hand, which she uses to type out her story. Lenora's previous nurse left suddenly in the night--or did she? 

I liked the gothic feel of the setting and the trust-no-one, strangling circle of possible culprits. Kit's own past is woven into all this seamlessly. I also love horror stories that turn a schoolyard chant into creepy poetry, as this one did: 

At seventeen, Lenora Hope

Hunger her sister with a rope.

Stabbed her father with a knife.

Took her mother's happy life.

"It wasn't me," Lenora said.

But she's the only one not dead...

While my usual laments cropped up after reading this one (such as that it could have used a serious trim--the hardcover I read had 383 pages; 200 of which could easily have been cropped--and there were too many characters for the author to develop that I had to keep track of), I probably would have liked this Sager novel much more if I'd read it first or second instead of dead last. 

I just got a notice in my inbox that this author has a new release (With a Vengeance came out June 2025, which is when I'm writing this review). Unfortunately, I don't think I'll buy it, though I might read it as an ebook on the Libby library app when it's available. I'm more than a little burned out on the sameness of this particular writer's novels. If you, however, haven't read any of them, this might be the place to start. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of 156 titles and 16 series. 

Visit Karen here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Reprise: A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking

Since Karen's blog last week discussed several children's books by Ursula Vernon (aka T. Kingfisher), including A WIZARD'S GUIDE TO DEFENSIVE BAKING, I'm reprising my review of that book, which I first posted last year:

This YA fantasy novel set in a secondary world is quite different in tone and content from Kingfisher’s contemporary adult horror novels such as THE TWISTED ONES. The only obvious similarity consists of the heroines, first-person narrators with distinctive, witty voices and self-deprecating personalties.

Fourteen-year-old orphaned teenager Mona works in her aunt’s bakery. Mona’s baking talent encompasses more than mundane skills. In this world, many people have magical gifts, although more often small and specialized than big and flashy, and Mona can do amazing things with dough. She entertains customers by making gingerbread men dance, and she keeps one long-lived animated gingerbread figure as a sort of pet. Her other mascot is a bucket of sentient sourdough starter named Bob. He's confined to the basement because he has a habit of eating animals that stray within his reach.

On the morning when the story begins, Mona finds a dead girl on the bakery floor. Local law enforcement takes Mona into custody for questioning, and things get worse from there. Following her release after many hours, she’s attacked by ten-year-old Spindle, brother of the murdered girl. After Mona convinces him of her and her family’s innocence, the two of them team up to uncover the truth. A mysterious figure known as the Spring Green Man seems to be involved. Magic-users have been disappearing or dying. Aside from Mona herself, one of the few left in the city is Molly, a kindly but deranged woman with a gift of animating dead horses; she wanders around with a dried-up, nearly skeletal zombie horse. Meanwhile, their city-state is at war, and the authorities are cracking down on magical folk. In desperation, Mona and Spindle eventually sneak into the castle to appeal to the Duchess herself. As the plot thickens, Mona gets unwillingly involved in combat and discovers extraordinary uses for the baking magic she’s always considered minor and ordinary. While fast-paced and entertaining, with humorous bits, this novel also delves into issues such as the nature of responsibility and heroism.

Although it's certainly true that the female protagonists in Kingfisher/Vernon's fiction have a definite "type" -- to which Mona conforms -- I don't agree that ALL of them fall into that category. For instance, the Hamster Princess and the were-bear nun (in the Clocktaur universe) don't. Moreover, although the protagonists of THE TWISTED ONES and SNAKE-EATER, for example, find themselves in basically the same situation (a woman alone with her dog in a strange house), they have opposite personalities, the former confident in her career and competently taking charge of her late abusive, hoarder grandmother's house, the latter practically apologizing for daring to exist in the world. As for whether they're avatars of the author, I can't make a guess because I don't know anything about Ursula Vernon as an individual aside from the persona displayed in the afterwords to her novels. Of course, most fictional characters reflect facets of their creators, but otherwise it seems like a stretch to assume her protagonists "are" her.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Not All There Yet

To start with a disclaimer. No Chinese person has influenced this author in any way. 

One of my condominium associations has twice this year sent me demand letters and emails, threats, fines or late fees and service fees for being several thousand dollars in credit (as opposed to being in arrears). The bot without human oversight does not understand the meaning of parentheses!

Or... with human oversight. "Oversight" is one of those interesting words that means opposite things.

The humans then act as if they are doing one a great favor by correcting the ledger and reversing the fines, fees etc.

If any of our dear readers are renters or co-owners in a condominium, watch out for this and do not necessarily trust an accounting bot. Even if the parenthesis error is corrected, the fees and fines may not be reversed. AI has no shame.

Meanwhile, the Anthropic case will be paying out One and an half billion to an entire class of authors, and to the lawyers who litigated the case.

It was Claude (allegedly) that was trained on works of fiction harvested from pirate sites. Only a few authors very publicly gave pirate sites permission to share their copyrighted published works. It would be interesting to know if those authors have opted out of the settlement, but we will probably never know.

If Anthropic had purchased all the books in its library for training AI, that would have been Fair Use. Allegedly, they chose to stiff authors.  Allegedly, they are not the only ones.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Review of Children's Book Selections by T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon or Ode to Sourdough by Karen S. Wiesner

 

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Review of Children's Book Selections by T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon

 or

Ode to Sourdough

by Karen S. Wiesner 

  Ursula Vernon aka T. Kingfisher 

Back on December 5, 2025, I posted my first review on the Alien Romances blog featuring four young adult fantasy stories by T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon, who is one and the same--a talented author, illustrator/artist, and gardener (which I really appreciate, as I aspire to someday call myself the same). The first book I ever read by her was A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, in which 14-year-old Mona accidentally creates a sourdough starter "familiar" and later purposely animates gingerbread men and doughboy golem soldiers for an army in her quest to save the city from a corrupt wizard. 

From there, I went on to read and review nearly every book she's written under these two names--and pretty close to back-to-back, which, in retrospect, may have been a bit of a mistake (more on that later). As I've said many times before in my weekly posts, readers can enjoy any level of book they choose. I like children's stories just as much as I do young adult and adult fiction. There's everything to love about this author's children's book selections, regardless of whether they're written under her real name Ursula Vernon or her pen name T. Kingfisher. 

  Recently, I read the ebook of Summer in Orcus by T. Kingfisher. I found that there are two separate editions available (one published by Sofawolf Press with illustrations done by Lauren Henderson instead of the author herself; and another published as free web serial by the author's Red Wombat Tea Company--I'm not sure if Vernon did the illustrations herself for that one but I think she did). Both came out in 2017. This massive children's story (some editions have 386 pages!) features the fabled witch Baba Yaga. Summer is eleven years old and has little in her life that causes her joy, in part because her mother is so overly protective, Summer feels suffocated by her mom's overwhelming fear--of everything. She wants to do something--something unexpected and worthy. For good or ill, the witch sends her to the fascinating world of Orcus to do just that. I loved how bumbling but good-hearted Summer was. She's not quite sure she wanted an actual adventure, but she never wavered in wanting to help those less fortunate than herself--and, ultimately, she doesn't want her mom to worry about her too much (just like Dorothy realizes she doesn't want Auntie Em, who may not understand her but loves her all the same, to suffer without her). 

 Prior to that, I checked out the audiobook of Nine Goblins (manageable at only 161 pages, released in 2013), another Kingfisher children's story, in which a party of goblin warriors, commanded by Nessilka, are trapped behind enemy lines. One way or the other, the sergeant intends to get her people home. The tagline of "low fantasy, high mischief" was fun and captivating, as was the story itself. I expect I would have loved it more when I was younger, as a few of my eclectic favorites included How to Care for Your Monster (Norman Bridwell of Clifford fame); William Steig's one-of-a-kind Shrek!; and anything by Ruth Chew, who wrote about witches instead of the usual array of spoiled princesses, adorable mice who rode motorcycles, giant peaches, or mischievous monkeys--all of which, let's face it, I loved just as well.

Under her real name Ursula Vernon, she's published a whole slew of hybrid children's books/graphic novels/comics she both writes and illustrates: 

  Digger (series) is a wombat engineer trapped in a fantasy world. 

  Dragonbreath (series) features a dragon Danny, who's fielding and figuring out life at a school for reptiles and amphibians. 

  Hamster Princess (series) is a hamster that sits atop her battle quail (in lieu of a white horse, I guess) in twisted fairytale retellings.

 

  Nurk (standalone novel with 145 pages) highlights the (mis?)adventures of an anything-but-brave shrew who nevertheless puts on big-boy-panties and does the best job he's capable of in saving a kidnapped dragonfly prince. 

You quickly learn after you've read a few of this author's books that, regardless of whether she's writing children's or adult fiction, she has distinctive trademarks, namely:

1)    Off-the-wall humor and angsting.

2)    Never-read-anything-like-it-before unique perspectives and secondary characters.

3)    Heartfelt heroism that stems not (necessarily) from skill but from heaps of unflagging determination capable of saving the day (luckily but I'm not entirely sure it's a realistic sentiment).

4)    POV characters (usually female but not always) that are cut from the same cookie cutter--you meet one, you've met them all, and I believe all are based on the author herself. Names, settings, and skills have been altered, sure, but basically the main character "cookie" almost never changes from one book to the next. This author does like that character type almost to the point of it getting overwhelming sometimes because I’ve been reading them all back-to-back. Despite that I love her work, I highly recommend reading a book of hers here and there instead of binge-reading them all at once in the space of a couple weeks or months (as I have and mildly regret).

As a general rule, if you like this author, as I most certainly do, you'll like the majority of her work. If you don't, well, I'm sorry for you, and farewell, there are other writers in the sea. For my part, I became an instant fan with A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking. On that note, a little aside of my own in what I hope is true Kingfisher/Vernon style: 

Ode to Sourdough 

My husband, who's on the cusp of retiring in mid-2026, has decided that now is the perfect time for him to learn how to capture wild yeast, a.k.a. make bread from sourdough starter. We'll be living on a budget soon and bread is cheap. We're both lifelong fans of it. Can't hardly go wrong, right? Well… 

Apparently, this whole sourdough craze became a big trend during the height of the COVID pandemic, but many that started it then have since lost interest. (The luxury of being out and about in the world again is probably a contributing factor there. Who has time?) We didn't get on board then, instead waiting until now. Honestly, I thought I knew what sourdough was but, once I found out it's a way to ferment bread naturally, without commercial, industrially produced baker's yeast, just using the "wild yeast" in the air, I was amazed…and, admittedly, a little grossed out. I couldn't help thinking, "Soylent green is people!", or, more aptly, "Wild yeast is people!", as this lactobacillus bacteria is essentially made up of anything and everything in the natural environment of a household--you guessed it, bacteria, plant, animal, even human stuff. Eww! I just lost my appetite. Seriously. But it's also fascinating. The wild yeast element is what gives sourdough its unique tang. (Does that mean my husband and I have tang? I suppose it does. I repeat myself: Eww.) No two sourdoughs are ever the same, even from one loaf to the next. 

On December 30, 2025, my husband began experimenting and journaling his progress in the art of making sourdough. That night, he asked me what we should name our sourdough. My first thought was, "Ursula Vernon". (T. Kingfisher just doesn't have the same ring in becoming the personality of a sourdough starter--don't ask me why not.) He wrote in his journal that first night that we'd named our baby sourdough starter "Ursula Vernon" and wondered whether it was Ursula's birthday or conception day. He ultimately decided that line of thinking was a bit disturbing and backed way off. 

  Our healthy and happy little Ursula Vernon Sourdough Starter. Isn't she sweet with her belt around her waist, her little cap on? 

There have been a few misstarts, but, as of this writing in late January 2026, Ursula is thriving in her new home in the warmest nook of our dining room. She's produced several very tasty loaves of sourdough bread. My husband has determined that she likes to eat in the morning, and she much prefers to do her rising overnight, baking the next morning in a very rigid and sturdy, tall bread loaf pan rather than any proofing banneton or free-form sheet pan, as she's still much too delicate to be jostled around too much. (We still want to try a Dutch oven though.) 

  Ursula Vernon, Tall and Proud, Caught Loafing, as she should be 

Sourdough starter discards have also become a staple in our household, providing pancakes, muffins, rolls, pizza dough--you name it! My husband likes to say proudly, "If I feed Ursula Vernon, she feeds me." 

Somehow, I think this quirky author who's made herself very much at home at the top of my "to buy" and "to be read" piles would approve. That is my Ode to Sourdough and Ursula Vernon. 

~*~ 

Here both at the end of the author's current selection (which I've mostly read at this point) and at the beginning of a future in which I look forward to reading her new selections, the bottom line is that, whatever you read by T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon, whether for children, adults, or somewhere in-between, you'll find wacky, character-driven adventures that are entertaining, incredibly well written, and engaging. Can't hardly go wrong, I'd say. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website and blog here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

If "Hell Is Other People" . . . .

Cory Doctorow quotes Jean-Paul Sartre's aphorism, "Hell is other people," to introduce the hypothesis that technology moguls' fantastized utopian society is one with as few real human beings as possible:

Hell Is Other People

Doctorow immediately points out that we need other people for a functional society, and we often cherish their company. Admittedly, however, there's an inescapable drawback to sharing our world with them: "Other people, then, are a thing that you can’t live without -- and yet other people stubbornly insist on organizing their lives around their needs, their preferences, their desires, without any consideration for how nice it would be (for you) if everyone would just do whatever you tell them to do."

Well, how rude of them!

Nevertheless, as Doctorow also remarks, "We understand other people to be co-equal with us in their needs and wants, and acknowledge that a world in which everyone lives their lives in a way that maximizes our happiness would be fundamentally unfair." That is, most of us understand those principles. But -- "A subset of humanity is committed to a world where everyone else takes orders from them. We have different names for these people. We call the majority of them 'toddlers,' but we call the others 'bosses' or 'tyrants.'”

Billionaire "tech overlords," who possess the wealth and power to potentially bring that imagined world into existence, eagerly anticipate a future when unruly live, flesh-and-blood employees and customers will be replaced by artificial intelligence. They do not, "at some foundational level, truly believe that other people are real." Doctorow quotes one notorious public figure as labeling the majority of the population "non-player characters."

"For these bosses, AI represents the promise of a world without people: a world where you have a product idea and it just appears." Whereas Doctorow initially regarded this sort of mindset as idle speculation, he now views it more ominously: "I think that this preoccupation with 10⁵³ hypothetical far-future artificial people is just an expression of the fantasy of a world without people, a fantasy that bewitches people who think that the answer to other people being hell is to get rid of the other people." Their utopia would be dystopia for the rest of us, those few of us who might survive to inhabit it.

So rather than seriously believing "hell is other people," he presents that idea as the foundation of certain powerful individuals' distorted worldview.

Every time I come across Sartre's claim (or, at least, the claim made by his character in NO EXIT), I mentally retort, "No, it isn't!" Quite the opposite. C. S. Lewis explains Hell, on the contrary, as the ultimate fulfillment of solipsism. When a person rejects the Good so completely he insists God should leave him alone, God -- rather than violate human free will -- does exactly that. After death, with no bodies to tether them to external reality, such damned souls are trapped for eternity within their own minds. As Lewis puts it in THE PROBLEM OF PAIN, such a person "has his wish -- to live wholly in the self and to make the best of what he finds there. And what he finds there is Hell."

Only someone who thinks like Doctorow's "tech overlords" could contemplate this kind of "life" as less than a nightmare.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.