danbensen

[danbensen]

In the Palace of Shadow and Joy by D.J. Butler

- There are no implications in the premise to solidify into action. There isn’t much of a premise at all. Characters: check. Setting: okay. Plot: sort of. But this story never comes together. It felt like a novelized run-through of an RPG campaign.

Read the full review and more in my June Newsletter: https://danielmbensen.substack.com/p/uncle-cheech

[danbensen]

"With my next stroke, I pushed my shoulders up and bent back my head to see my daughter dig in her paddle and propel herself into the distant Aegean."

Read the whole anecdote in my July newsletter: https://www.patreon.com/posts/july-newsletter-135688415

[danbensen]

Cræft by Alex Langlands

The author's descriptions of hay-making, wall-building, and hedge-maintenance were the best part of the book, but I was disappointed by the lack of stories about working on the documentary set and in the dig-site transect. Maybe Langlands was afraid of being sued?

Read the full review and more in my June Newsletter: https://danielmbensen.substack.com/p/uncle-cheech

[danbensen]

Giants of Pangea by John C. Wright

- Sometimes I just gotta read another of John C. Wright’s pulpy candy bars. In this one (second of a series), Colonel Preston Lost, soldier, millionaire, ace pilot, and daring outdoorsman, continues to nearly get killed in all the ways a man can die on a far-future super-continent inhabited by post-human mutants, god-tech artifacts, and dinosaurs.

Read the full review and more in my June Newsletter: https://danielmbensen.substack.com/p/uncle-cheech

[danbensen]

Written in Fire by Marcus Sakey is the last book in a series that, in spite of itself, was almost very good. At its heart, the Brilliance Saga is a story of inter-generational war, with Baby Boomers trying to brainwash and annihilate super-powered Millennials (Xers are just doing their best, man)...

Read more book reviews in my June Newsletter: https://danielmbensen.substack.com/p/uncle-cheech

[danbensen]

“Finland as Germania” by Razib Khan

- in this podcast, Khan connects a pair of recent preprints about ancient DNA to an old question: where did the Germanic-speaking people come from? As always I appreciate his ability to distill complicated data, and clearly communicate the resulting best guess.

The podcast: Read the other reviews in my May newsletter:

[danbensen]

A review

"Groom of the Tyrannosaur Queen revisits a classic Burroughsian scenario: dinosaur-fighting cavemen, and treats it with simultaneous gravity and humour. The narrative plays itself completely straight, and the cavemen take their own affairs seriously, while the time travelling interlopers are free to rail at the absurdity of things, but typically end up the butt of the joke. And of course, there's tons of dino action. And metamorphic battlesuit action. And dino-on-metamorphic battlesuit action. The combination of it all is great fun."

Read the full review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3015138572

Find the book here: https://www.danielmbensen.com/groom-of-the-tyrannosaur...

[danbensen]

The Alchemists

Two years ago, I wrote a short story called "The Alchemists."

"The Wras of Karstapant, beloved by the Sky-Father, summoned his court Alchemist. With flashing eyes he questioned the craftsman: how progressed the project of transmutation? If other metals – lead, say – could be changed into gold, that would solve a lot of problems."

[danbensen]

A sound rolled into the lobby of the United Nations Embassy to the Convention of Sapient Species, part scream, part rumble, part didgeridoo.

“Let me immediately go away from this very small coffin, otherwise I will put you monkeys in a hole and cover you with a pile of manure!”

Eight years ago, I wrote a scene that made it largely intact into Fellow Tetrapod: Save us From the Whale

Read the rest at https://www.danielmbensen.com/blog/save-us-from-the-whale

Picture by Tim Morris

[danbensen]

June is always a slog. The kids are out of school, but I’m not. I have to find an air-conditioner to huddle under while I plan lessons.

From my June Newsletter.

[danbensen]

“Food for the Moon” by John Carter  - Carter was inspired by Curtis Yarvin’s “Orbital Authority”: a polity that squats on the ultimate high ground of orbit, dropping tungsten rods on anyone who threatens their position. Carter points out that such a regime would be hellishly tyrannical, and speculates about the revolution that might topple it. Great idea-fodder.

More reviews in my newsletter

"Orbit Needs You" short story here.

[danbensen]

Last year I wrote this essay about purity spirals. I think a more apt description is "heart drain."

[danbensen]

There's a great scene where Malcom the mathemetician asks for a histogram of the mass of the Procompsognathus population. The tech guy (Nedry) is thrilled to show off. He talks about the microphones in the park and how they convert the sound of passing animals' footsteps into their mass in kg...

Malcom points out that the histogram is a bell curve. Some little Procompsognathus, lots of middle-sized ones, some big ones. If you're hatching these things in a laboratory and releasing them only as adults, where are the little ones coming from? They're breeding.

Crichton was one of the greats.

Watching Jurassic Park and I have Opinions on this place as a zoo. Feeding the predators live prey?? There's other ways to provide enrichment! Also that enclosure is way too small for multiple large animals like that! Electric fences? Ha! Electric fences won't stop a fucking goat! Where's the zoo experts? Who designed these enclosures?? Were all zoos this shitty in the 90s???

[danbensen]

The Last Human by Isaac Young

I listened to the first several chapters on Youtube, which is not a platform that fits my life. Any chance of getting you to crosspost on Spotify, Young? But I kept at it because it’s a good reader and a good story. Far future, humans have become the galaxy’s endangered species, replaced by creatures mostly (but not all) descended from one or another genetic engineering project. Our narrator is an orphan raised by bugs who grows up to rule the galaxy. It’s what I wanted Sun Eater to be.

Read more reviews from my May newsletter.

[danbensen]

Inversoceras hides in its shell until the curious Nostolepis gives up and decide to leave it alone

Alt: Inversoceras is a straight slightly curved shelled nautiloid with a narrow opening for its face in front and siphon at the back, here it's being bitten by a Nostolepis, an acanthodian which are the so called spiny sharks even though they're not true sharks. Nostolepis has shark like dorsal and side fins but with spikes at the front

[danbensen]

Review: Apothecary Diaries

Apothecary Diaries - I watched season one with my wife and daughters. It’s fun as a series of little mysteries set in the harem of a fictional Chinese emperor. Yes, there’s lots of sexual innuendo and interpersonal drama. My 12-year-old daughter is very interested.

Read the other reviews in my May newsletter.

[danbensen]

Cat Burglar of the Constellations by John C. Wright - This is the third book of the Starquest Series and it goes down like popcorn. Maybe buffalo wings. It’s tighter and more consistent than book two, and does a better job of weaving the big plot arcs around the central story (about a jewel heist). Risking a spoiler: a whole sequence of events I thought was a flashback to the distant past…wasn’t! Awesome.

Read the other reviews in my May newsletter: