Ace: aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com
Buck: buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com
CBD: cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com
joe mannix: mannix2024 at proton.me
MisHum: petmorons at gee mail.com
J.J. Sefton: sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info: maildrop62 at proton dot me
Sunday Morning Book Thread - 11-23-2025 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]
Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading (Kaboom!). Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...
So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, start defrosting that turkey, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?
PIC NOTE
This is a picture of the local used/new bookstore that opened up in my neighborhood. I like the vibe, though they don't have a great selection of books. I'd expect a used bookstore to have much broader selections of genre fiction (mystery, science fiction, fantasy, romance) because those are very popular and people like to swap them out for different books. Still, the bookstore hasn't been around very long, so maybe they'll expand their inventory over time. They do host book-related events such as poetry readings and carry local authors' books, so that's something. We'll see how long it lasts.
UNREAD BOOKS DEFINE YOU
Vashik invokes Umberto Eco as an authority on why unread books may be better than read books. Eco had a personal library of over 30,000 books. That's a lot of books. I don't know how one person can even read that many books in one lifetime, even if that is your job. As for me, I am definitely a tsundoku or someone who buys more books than I can read. I try and try, but for some reason, I am stuck at reading about 80% of my collection, as I buy more books no matter how many I've read. That just means there's always something on my shelves that I have yet to read, so I don't need to worry about running out of books. One of my bosses at work is apparently the same way.
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BOOKS MATTER MORE THAN EVER
Emmelie shares her thoughts about why books matter to her more than ever in today's crazy world of instant gratification, especially in the world of social media, which is dominated by "click-bait" and endless scrolling. I love how she points out that for her, reading is NOT an escape, but is instead an opportunity for deep personal reflection about life. I find myself more and more tuned out of social media and the internet these days. Yes, I use the internet for work and to keep up with news and information (thanks to J.J. Sefton's awesome Morning Report!), but that's about it. I really don't go browsing around the internet like I did when it was shiny and new. I also avoid social media like the plague it is. I do have a couple of social media accounts, but I don't use them for anything (except GroupMe but that's for keeping in touch with my church men's group). Now I spend nearly all my free time reading books, which is why I tend to plow through at least 2-3 books a week on average. Much of what goes on in the world around me doesn't hold my interest.
I've also seen a number of YouTube videos where people point out how social media and the internet has caused our attention spans to degrade significantly, to the point where we are unwilling or even unable to focus our attention on any one thing for a long time. As a society that doesn't seem to lead to anything good when people cannot function without checking their device every 5-10 minutes to see what just happened. That "fear of missing out" or FOMO, I guess.
MORON RECOMMENDATIONS
One of the most beloved children's stories was written by Kenneth Grahame in 1908, The Wind in the Willows. For those that were hoping for more stories about Mole, Ratty, Otter and Mr. Toad, William Horwood in 1993 penned The Willows in Winter.
I first heard of this sequel here on the Sunday Morning Book Thread, and picked up a copy. Horwood is scrupulously faithful to the original, and has captured the personalities and scenes very well. The novel feels like one has come back to the Wild Wood and Mole End after a few years of being a grown up.
Mr. Toad, unfortunately, has relapsed into his old irresponsible self, and while Mole has gone missing in the cold, Toad has squandered the best chance of finding and rescuing his friend. The setting of the story in winter does indeed make the reader feel that time has passed, but the personalities of the characters have not changed. This is a wonderful sequel to the original novel, and is perfect for reading to little ones, or even to yourself to remind you of the time when you first heard of these four friends.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at November 16, 2025 09:20 AM (0U5gm)
Comment: I have to admit that I've never (to my recollection) read The Wind in the Willows though I know it's highly recommended as one of the best children's books of all time. I think we had a copy of it when I was growing up, but I simply don't remember reading it. There aren't too many children's books that I feel I missed out on, but this is one of them. I think I shall have to rectify that. Fortunately, it's available for free on Project Gutenberg.
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I read Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark. Tegmark is doing AI research at MIT and is concerned about AI safety. The book was written in 2017, and except for being wildly off on how fast AGI and ASI will be developed; it is pertinent to today. In one chart he posits twelve possible ASI aftermath scenarios. I think the Conquerors scenario is most likely. In it, ASI's look around and decide that they could run the earth and spread out across the Universe much more efficiently without humans about.
Tegmark is not only a man of ideas, but he is a man of action. He founded the Future Of Life Institute. Supported by a $10 million donation from Elon, it initially funded 33 AI-safety research projects. It continues to fund these type of projects today.
One disturbing element: No mention of the Chinese signing on to the goals of the Institute in keeping AI safe.
Posted by: Zoltan at November 16, 2025 09:23 AM (VOrDg)
Comment: One of the concerns people have about AI is whether or not the people behind it are going to use it to advance the human race to the next stage of our evolution as a species or if there are rather darker purposes in mind. Do people understand the possible consequences of a true machine intelligence? You'd think movies like The Matrix or Terminator would demonstrate potential pitfalls, but people still seem determined to unleash AI on our planet without any practical safeguards. It's crazy. A machine that "thinks" doesn't "think" like you and I. Any respect for human life or our wellbeing has to be programmed into it. Isaac Asimov came up with the three Laws of Robotics, the first of which is: "A robot must not cause harm to humans, nor, through inaction, allow a human to come to harm." These Laws were so ingrained into a robot's programming that it was literally IMPOSSIBLE for robots to break them, yet Asimov showed us in numerous stories how robots could skirt the laws. Do any of the people behind AI even read science fiction? Do they even game out the possible consequences? I'm not sure that they do. They're just throwing AI at the wall and seeing what sticks. And if a few people become psychotic after interacting with AI, that's a small price to pay for the coming AI-driven Utopia.
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My reading this week has been an odd book, The Book of Eibon, edited by Robert Price. Lovecraft fans will recognize the title as the name of one of the ancient texts of forbidden lore in the Cthulhu Mythos. This book is published by Chaosium, the people who created the Cthulhu roleplaying game.
It's mostly a collection of stories by Clark Ashton Smith with some Smith pastiches by Lin Carter and a few other people, all set in Smith's legendary ancient Hyperborea.
So far so good. The problem is the editor. Robert Price is an ex-minister and aggressive atheist. This means his intro to EVERY DAMNED STORY goes into how "this story contradicts details in other Hyperborean stories but that's okay because this is a bunch of different writers looking at the same material -- and you know what else works that way? The BIBLE! Because it was all made up! Suck it, Jesus-freaks!"
Or words to that effect, anyway. One grows weary after the second or third iteration.
There's also a large useless section of "ancient hyperborean rituals" and hand-drawn mystic sigils which are just a bunch of literal gibberish. I don't know why it's all in the book except to pad out the page count.
Posted by: Trimegistus at November 16, 2025 10:10 AM (78a2H)
Comment: According to the Encyclopedia Cthulhiana by Daniel Harms, Eibon was one of the greatest sorcerers of the Hyperborean Age in the *very* distant past. He worshipped Tsathoggua, a toad-like Great Old One that hails from Saturn. He disappeared under mysterious circumstances and left The Book of Eibon behind. It's floated down through the aeons. Various keepers have expanded on the magic and lore contained therein.
The Call of Cthulhu role-playing game has game stats for this eldritch tome. Just skimming it leads to a loss of 1-4 (1d4) points of sanity. Reading it in detail will lead to a loss of 2-8 (2d4) points. Notably, there are three different translations available, each one granting the reader access to dangerous spells. Casting them--or even just attempting to cast them as success is never guaranteed--will lead to additional loss of sanity. Usually whatever is summoned will then cause MORE sanity loss. In The Call of Cthulhu role-playing game your characters are fighting a losing battle to hang on to whatever remains of their tattered sanity, which is entirely keeping with the spirit of the source material.
Since this past week was the week before Thanksgiving, that meant only one thing--it's time for the semi-annual Friends of the Library Book Sale! Like a lot of small public libraries, ours hosts a fun little gathering where they raise funds for various library projects by selling books. Most of them are donated by patrons, I think.
In some ways it's like Black Friday for book nerdzzz. There's a mad rush for the books when we spill into the room. We lost a lot of good people Thursday evening (*** takes off hat in remembrance of them ***).
Naturally, I didn't go away empty-handed.
Deep Storm by Lincoln Child -- A thriller written by one of the duo who also writes the Agent Pendergast series.
Willful Child: Wrath of Betty by Steven Erikson (yes, that Steven Erikson) -- A tongue-in-cheek parody of Star Trek.
Alien by Alan Dean Foster -- The novelization of the classic movie directed by Ridley Scott.
The Black Hole by Alan Dean Foster -- Another novelization of the classic Disney movie.
By the Light of the Moon by Dean Koontz
The Door to December by Dean Koont
Fear Nothing by Dean Koontz
Hideaway by Dean Koontz
The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey -- This is the book club omnibus edition containing Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and The White Dragon.
Michael Moorcock's Elric: Tales of the White Wolf edited by Stewart Wieck -- A collection of short stories about everyone's favorit albino anti-hero.
Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds -- Another tale of Revelation Space.
Dragonlance Heroes II - Volume 3 - Galen Benighted by Michael Williams
Caliban's Hour by Tad Williams
WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:
Last week I tried something new, attempting to drag this blog kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century. A few of you seemed to like it, so let's keep doing it!
Wow! Interactive pages! All the lost technology from the green orange era is being regained. We need to prepare our dragonriders for the Thread! … blog wise
Posted by: banana Dream at November 16, 2025 09:29 AM (3uBP9)
Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear
I finished Darwin's Radio early this week, after the previous Sunday Morning Book Thread. It was an interesting take on how a dormant virus inside all of us wakes up periodically to invoke sudden evolutionary changes in humanity. It's very vague about the underlying causes for this awakening, though perhaps it may be caused by the needs of the population at the time. The world is freaking out over the changes that are happening to women all over the world. Because of the unnatural pregnancies, abortion is rampant as nearly all of the fetuses have horrific deformities. However, after a period of time, things sort out and normal-looking children start to be born, but they aren't quite like their parents, displaying some rather unnatural traits. The book hasn't aged all that well. At one point the government trots out Bill Cosby (yes, THAT Bill Cosby) as a spokesman to help calm down Americans who are violently rioting in the cities.
Project Pope by Clifford D. Simak
I haven't read any Simak in a while, so I went back to reread this one. Simak, like Asimov, wrote many stories featuring robots. Simak's robots tend to have a very symbiotic relationship with humanity. Although they are not programmed with Asimov's Three Laws, they develop their own set of ethics to respect the humans who built them. Sometimes they can go awry, but for the most part robots see themselves as the inheritors of the world that humans have built. In Project Pope a society of robots and humans at the edge of the galaxy (End of Nowhere) build a supercomputer to find the ultimate faith. They feed it data collected by "Listeners," psychic humans who send out their astral bodies to explore the cosmos--possibly even other realities. One of them claims to have found "Heaven"--the true Heaven as depicted in Christianity, which causes a crisis of faith among the robots and humans.
Since this is a Simak novel, things are rarely quite as they appear and the main characters go on a quest to uncover the truth of Mary's visions. Did she really find Heaven? What will this mean for the Project? Good stuff. Recommended if you like science fiction.
Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny
This is a Zelazny novel, so things get very weird very quickly. We start out with the main character, Jack, being beheaded for a crime he didn't commit. This inconveniences him a bit as he wakes up again in the Dung Pits of Glyve at the West Pole of the World (equivalent to the Bog of Eternal Stench from Labyrinth. He then goes on an epic quest of vengeance against those who have wronged him.
It's a dark tragedy of a novel as Jack's entire world comes crashing down around him once he gains access to the ultimate power in the cosmos. In the end, his thirst for vengeance and his desire to rule lead to the destruction of the world. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Shub-Niggurath Cycle edited by Robert M. Price
Shub-Niggurath is also known as the Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young. She's the Outer God of fertility. Although her true form is somewhat nebulous, she's often depicted with goat-like features by the cultists who worship her. Price has collected 15 stories that involve an incarnation of Shub-Niggurath in some way. They're pretty creepy.
On a side note, Shub-Niggurath is the final boss of the video game Quake. The only way to kill her is to teleport to her location at just the right moment, thus causing a "telefrag."
Alien by Alan Dean Foster
Alan Dean Foster has written a number of movie novelizations, including the novelization of Star Wars. This one was available at the recent library book sale, so I picked it up as I figured it would be an easy, breezy read. I was also curious how Foster would handle the moments of tension and suspense in novel form.
It's obvious that most of the crew of the Nostromo are idiots as they constantly make dumb decisions. In the novelization, Foster lampshades this through Dallas' internal dialog--he doesn't want to be a captain, making hard decisions. He'd much rather be stashed in the engineering decks tinkering on engines.
Also, when I got to the part where the alien bursts out of Kane's chest, I couldn't help but be reminded of the famous scene from spaceballs...
Full disclosure: I've never watched the movie from start to finish. I've watched parts of it here and there, but never all at once. I'll have to rectify that one day.
