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Preorders open for “On a Red Station, Drifting”

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…at particular way of old people whose mind wasn’t steady anymore. “They’ll come here,” she whispered, her eyes boring into Linh’s, uncomfortably bright and feverish. “There is no escape.” “We’re safe,” Linh said. The woman looked sceptical. Linh drew herself to her full height, calling on a hint of the dignity and poise she’d taken when heading her tribunal sessions. “We are the children of the Emperor, and he will protect us.” The old woman looke…

Since everyone is doing it… (honorable mentions in the Year’s Best)

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…rch the contents of Gardner Dozois’s Year’s Best Science Fiction on Amazon.com, and, hum, in addition to publication of “The Shipmaker” in the volume itself, I have 4(!) Honorable Mentions: for “Father’s Last Ride” in The Immersion Book of Science Fiction, “Desaparecidos” in Realms of Fantasy, and my two Asimov’s stories, “The Jaguar House, in Shadow” and “The Wind-Blown Man”. Particularly happy for “The Wind-Blown Man”, which was a hassle to writ…

Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight

…w is light, with a pleasant, grassy taste. Do not over-steep it, lest it become bitter. # After the funeral, Quang Tu walked back to his compartment, and sat down alone, staring sightlessly at the slow ballet of bots cleaning the small room–the metal walls pristine already, with every trace of Mother’s presence or of her numerous mourners scrubbed away. He’d shut down the communal network–couldn’t bear to see the potted summaries of Mother’s life,…

Books books books

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…like a beautiful picture that doesn’t really hold up to either scrutiny or real-world comparisons? It’s not a deal-breaker, and I do recommend this book, but still… it’s a bit of a blot on it. Also arguable, of course, is that the system presented here seems derived from a uniquely American model of slavery (the parallels to the plight of African-Americans are pretty clear), rather than tackling other forms of decolonisation with more complex mode…

By Bargain and By Blood

…ns forever unanswered. Nevertheless, when Aname told me about her child to come, she spoke of a bargain struck. And thus I should have known someone would come to honour it–that someone would walk through the rice paddies and the forests until he reached our jati, our small community isolated from the affairs of the world. But, just as you know about death but do not think about it, so I did not think about him. A mistake. Perhaps I would have bee…

Crossing the Midday Gate

A Xuya story published in Athena Andreadis’s To Shape the Dark. Companion piece to “In Blue Lily’s Wake”. Dan Linh had walked out of the Purple Forbidden City not expecting to return to it–thankful that the Empress had seen fit to spare her life; that she wasn’t walking to her execution for threefold treason. Twenty years later–after the nightmares had faded, after she was finally used to the diminished, eventless life on the Sixty-First Planet–s…

Your hemi semi yearly Vietnamese poem

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…oul’s bereaved, for when you love, can you be sure you’re loved? To love is to die a little in the heart. They’ll lose their way within dark sorrow land, those passionate fouls who go in search of love. And life will be a desert stripped of joy, and love will tie the knot that binds to grief. To love is to die a little in the heart….

Blueberry muffins

…cipe from Linda Collister and Anthony Blake’s The Bread Book, an excellent compendium of breads that also includes the odd pastry recipe. I have a variety of small cake pans we used for this, including an actual muffin pan (and some, er, more colourful ones 🙂 ). This is a dairy-free version. Blueberry muffins Recipe Type: Dessert Cuisine: US Author: Adapted from Linda Collister and Anthony Blake Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 25 mins Total time: 40…

Ca cha bong, cotton fish

…which I felt confident finding at my usual fishmonger’s. A quick internet search revealed the most popular fish after cá lóc was cá hồi (salmon), and other suggestions included cá tuyết (my dictionary said “mackerel”, whereas Wikipedia Vietnam showed me a lovely picture of an Atlantic codfish), and cá ro phi (tilapia, if Wikipedia Vietnam is anything to go by). I crowdsourced the question to twitter (thanks very much to everyone who weighed in!)…

The Three Musketeers

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…not the worst thing. No, the worst thing is the last five minutes or so of the movie, which promise a sequel. Excuse me while I go tear my hair out, and start a search of a decent movie adaptation of the novel… (any recs welcome, btw. I could use good movies)…