Reading

Brunching It Up At Alcove by MadTree Brewing

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/09/30/brunching-it-up-at-alcove-by-madtree-brewing/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57534

Cincinnati is home to many breweries, and two of the most well-known are Rhinegeist and MadTree Brewing. I don’t drink beer, so I’ve never made it a point to visit any of these famed breweries. I always figured there was somewhere more in my wheelhouse to check out.

Two weeks ago, two of my friends from Wisconsin were coming to Cincinnati for a concert. Though it was a short trip for them, they had just enough time before they left to have brunch with me. While I definitely know a place or two for dinner and drinks in Cincy, I am much less versed in the ways of Cincy brunch locations. So, I had to ask one of my Cincy resident friends for a brunch recommendation, and she pointed me in the direction of Alcove.

I had never heard of Alcove before, and I never realized MadTree even had a restaurant at all. When I looked it up, I was immediately enticed by the well-lit, wide-open space, warm tones from all the wood furniture and flooring, and the wild amount of plants they had occupying the space. I loved the look of it, and after checking out their brunch menu, I was sold, and made us reservations.

Alcove is open every day of the week for lunch and dinner, as well as having their full brunch available from 10-3 on Saturday and Sunday. During the weekdays they still have their brunch but with a limited menu instead of the full version. Apparently this is a more recent change!

When my friends and I arrived, we were asked if we wanted to be seated in the main area, the patio, or the greenhouse. We were all intrigued by the sound of the greenhouse, so we picked that and were led to a room just off the main area that had floor-to-ceiling windows, vibrantly colored velvet furniture, even more plants, and its own bar. It was a really pretty space and we were glad we chose it.

After perusing the menu, we decided the best thing to start off with would be some of their spiked coffee options for a bit of a boozy brunch moment.

Three cocktails sitting on a wood table. The one in the center is an espresso martini with a brûléed top, and then in the background is a spiked iced coffee and a bourbon hot coffee.

I opted the for the espresso martini, which consisted of vanilla vodka, cold brew, hazelnut liqueur, vanilla simple, cocoa bitters, and came with a brûléed top. My friend Austin got their spiked coffee which comes with vanilla, amaretto, salted maple cream, and your choice of spirit. He went with bourbon, specifically Buffalo Trace (which was an upcharge). Mattea started off with an iced coffee which is what you see in the photo, but then later tried their Double Dirty Chai which is just vanilla infused bourbon, chai, espresso, and your choice of milk. I didn’t get a photo of that one but she was kind enough to let me try it and I thought it was quite good even though I don’t care for bourbon. Austin’s hot bourbon coffee was definitely too bourbony for me, though. Mattea and I agreed my espresso martini was super yummy.

For something to share, we settled on their charcuterie board. If you aren’t feeling the meat, you can make it just a cheese board for nine dollars cheaper. Here’s what we got:

A large, rectangular wooden serving board with an array of meats and cheeses and accompaniments. There's a little bowl of crackers, too.

On the menu the description is basically just “artisan meats and cheeses,” and I kind of thought that when the server brought it out she would tell us what all came on the board, but that didn’t end up happening so my friends and I just placed our bets on what was what. While I did like everything on the board, I do think it was just a little sparse. I would say this is better if it’s just you and one other person, rather than trying to share between three or four people.

For our mains, Mattea and I ordered the exact same thing: the Crispy Tofu and Couscous, as well as the Potato Gnocchi as a side. Austin went for a true brunch classic: Chicken and Waffles.

When our food came, Mattea and I were presented with something definitely different than what we ordered. Before us sat the Crispy Tofu Sandwich. It was a simple mix-up, and we both debated whether or not to say something or just eat the sandwich. Finally, we mustered the courage to say something, and our server let us keep the sandwiches on the house and brought out our correct item soon after. Hooray for free sandwiches!

Here was our Crispy Tofu and Couscous with broccolini, sun dried tomatoes, and red pepper puree:

A big white plate full of couscous, and two big pieces of crispy tofu sitting on top of the broccolini and couscous.

All of the red pepper puree is at the bottom, so you can just barely see it in the photo, but once I got everything all mixed together it was a lot more evenly distributed over the couscous and whatnot. I didn’t get a picture of the gnocchi, but it came with a roasted garlic cream sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, and asparagus. The gnocchi was really good, I ended up eating way more of that than my main dish, and had to get a box because I tore up my gnocchi.

And here was the chicken and waffles:

A round, white plate with a big ol' waffle and chicken sandwich sitting on it. There's a fried egg on top and maple syrup on the side.

(Austin added an over-easy egg on top.)

We took this opportunity to order another round of drinks. Austin picked the mimosa flight, which came with orange juice, peach juice, cranberry juice, and pineapple juice.

Four small tasting glasses on a flight board, each one filled with champagne and their respective fruit juice.

Austin, Mattea, and I all agreed on a ranking of pineapple being the best, then cranberry, then orange, and finally peach.

And I got their Basil Rosé, which was gin, rosé, basil, lime, and simple:

A coupe glass filled with a light pink colored liquid and topped with a basil leaf.

This cocktail was so summery and light, very refreshing and perfectly sweetened.

While we were dining, a photographer came over and asked if he could take some pictures of us enjoying our meal and hanging out. We obliged, and in return he gave us each a ten dollar gift card to use towards our bill. That was so generous! He really did not have to do that, we were totally fine being a part of his photos for free, but that was really cool.

All in all, we really enjoyed our brunch at Alcove by MadTree Brewing. It’s an eclectic, beautiful space right in OTR, with tons of gluten-free and vegetarian options, good drinks, and good service. I definitely want to go back sometime, and I’m happy to now know of a good brunch place in Cincinnati.

After our experience at Alcove, I decided to look up MadTree and see what else I was missing out on. It turns out they have two other locations besides Alcove. They have a taproom over in Oakley, and a location they call “Parks & Rec” up in Blue Ash. All of their locations are open everyday of the week, and their Parks & Rec location even serves brunch all day, everyday!

Both the Oakley Taproom and Parks & Rec are dog-friendly and family-friendly, but the Parks & Rec location appears to really excel in the family-friendly aspect, with indoor and outdoor play areas for kids and recreation for all ages. Their Parks & Rec location is also designed with every type of family in mind, with their Branch Out initiative, which aims towards accessibility and inclusivity for all. You can read more about their efforts on that front here.

Aside from that, I was really interested to learn about MadTree’s commitment to the environment. I learned that they are the only certified B-Corp brewery in Ohio, and belong to a whopping 0.2% of B-Corp breweries overall. They are also a part of 1% For The Planet, 100% of their spent grain goes to feeding livestock, they plant or donate 5,000 trees a year, and even pay their employees for 16 volunteer hours a year. There’s even more to learn about their sustainability efforts and commitment to community if you want to check it out here and here.

Overall, MadTree seems like a super cool company with a lot to offer Cincinnati. I can’t believe I overlooked it before just because I don’t like beer! I would love to check out their other locations, and support them and their efforts towards making Cincinnati a healthier, happier place.

Do you like spiked coffee? Are you a brunch connoisseur? Have you tried MadTree Brewing before, or any of their locations? Let me know in the comments, be sure to check out MadTree Brewing, their Oakley Taproom, Parks & Rec, and Alcove on Instagram, and have a great day!

-AMS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/09/30/brunching-it-up-at-alcove-by-madtree-brewing/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57534

(no subject)

First, is my cat not the most beautiful cat you've seen in the past few minutes?

( Cut for size )

***************

( Read more... )

The Big Idea: Becky Ferreira

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/09/30/the-big-idea-becky-ferreira/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57529

For as long as people have been looking up at the stars, there have been thoughts about aliens. Are they humanoid, or completely and utterly different from us? Are they benevolent or world-conquering? Author Becky Ferreira shines some light on the subject in the Big Idea for her newest book, First Contact: The Story of Our Obsession With Aliens. Follow along in her Big Idea to see if they come in peace.

BECKY FERREIRA:

Aliens will always be with us, even if we never find them.

Earth is awash in aliens.

They dominate our popular culture: In 2025 alone, aliens starred in blockbuster films from Superman to Predator: Badlands and streaming favorites from Alien: Earth to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Whenever unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) are captured on film—like the recent firing of a Hellfire missile at a mystery object—aliens are top of mind for millions of people.

Meanwhile, the ancient dream of discovering extraterrestrial life is entering an exciting new phase. This year, potential biosignatures were found on Mars and in the skies of an exoplanet 124 light years from Earth. These are just the latest tantalizing hints that life might exist beyond our world—though none has remotely approached the high bar of an unambiguous alien detection.

I’ve covered the search for alien life as a science reporter for the past 15 years, and also written a great deal about our broader cultural fixation on aliens. In my new book First Contact: The Story of Our Obsession with Aliens—out from Workman Publishing on September 30—I aimed to provide a one-stop primer for all the diverse meanings that aliens hold to people.

The book traces the origins of our hunch that we are not alone in the universe deep into prehistory. It chronicles the massive pop culture footprint of aliens, and the thriving subcultures that believe they already walk among us. It spotlights the ingenious ways that humans have learned to search for life—from the shiny beryllium mirrors of space telescopes, to the dusty wheels of Martian rovers, to the algorithms that comb through sky surveys looking for any sign of intelligent beings out in the dark. It imagines what might happen if we one day confirm our ancient suspicion that “others” exist—and what it would mean if we really are alone.

First Contact was a joy to write, but it wasn’t an easy ride. I set out to cram as much pertinent material about aliens into the pages as possible, while keeping it short enough to be read in an afternoon sitting. I read dozens of books and countless studies, but there is simply no way to ever adequately keep pace with a topic that has inspired such immense creativity and diverse interpretation. I’m happy with how the book turned out; now I just need to churn out another 700 volumes.

The development of this book also coincided with some major life changes. I got to work on it as my son was rapidly morphing from a baby into a toddler with big opinions (and emotions to match). As I pondered how humans might communicate with an advanced alien species, I was often simultaneously trying to decipher the expressions of a tiny wild person—to interpret his gestures and muddled sentences, to make him laugh, to console him, to share his wonder.

During the writing process, I was also rebuilding my freelance reporting career from scratch after a decade on staff at a media company that flamboyantly self-destructed (many such cases). Fortunately, I have now found my footing, which I don’t take for granted. Still, this stressful and tiring experience often inspires daydreams about slipping into a Rip-Van-Winkle slumber that takes me straight through to 2050 when I wake up feeling refreshed at last.

That said, aliens turned out to be great company throughout all the trials and tribulations. They were with me during the midnights I spent coaxing the kid back to sleep; the 3am writing sessions in the serene pre-dawn dark; the hammocked summer afternoons reading the latest extraterrestrial saga; and evenings revisiting classic films about the moment we finally make contact with something—someone—beyond our home world.

The story of our obsession with aliens is ancient, but I truly believe it has never been more engrossing. We may be on the cusp of finally resolving this most elusive question, or we may face a future alone in a silent universe.

Regardless of the outcome, I hope that First Contact will be a reminder that the search for extraterrestrial life is a human odyssey, an heirloom passed down by our stargazing ancestors marked with the fingerprints of each successive generation that has inherited it. It is an effort that looks to the sky for alien life, sure, but it also embodies the cherished homegrown values that I am trying to instill in my own young Earthling: curiosity, imagination, resourcefulness, and appreciation for a cosmos that is awesome in every sense of the word, no matter who else might be sharing it with us.

FIRST CONTACT: The Story of Our Obsession With Aliens: Hachette|Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Powell’s

Author socials: Website|Newsletter|X|Instagram|Bluesky

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/09/30/the-big-idea-becky-ferreira/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57529

On Blurb Hiatus Through the Rest of 2025

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/09/30/on-blurb-hiatus-through-the-rest-of-2025/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57521

I have a lot of writing and other professional and personal projects to do before the end of the year, and a fair bit of travel in there as well, so I’m going to go ahead and call it: I’m on a blurb hiatus through the end of the year. I have several books already on my “TBR” list with respect to blurbing, and can’t responsibly add any more for the rest of 2025. I post this notice so that when I inform editors/publishers/publicists that I can’t consider blurbing a book for them, they know it isn’t about their book or author in particular. The problem here is me, and my very busy fourth quarter schedule, and my admittedly lackadaisical organizational skills.

If you have a 2026 book you’re interested in having me blurb, please wait until January to query me about it, at that point I will have turned in my novel and slept through most of December and will be ready to consider such stuff. Until then, however, I’m afraid the answer to blurb requests is “not now.” Thank you for understanding.

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/09/30/on-blurb-hiatus-through-the-rest-of-2025/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57521

Review: Deep Black

https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/1-3996-1506-8.html

Review: Deep Black, by Miles Cameron

Series:	Arcana Imperii #2
Publisher:	Gollancz
Copyright:	2024
ISBN:	1-3996-1506-8
Format:	Kindle
Pages:	509

Deep Black is a far-future science fiction novel and the direct sequel to Artifact Space. You do not want to start here. I regretted not reading the novels closer together and had to refresh my memory of what happened in the first book.

The shorter fiction in Beyond the Fringe takes place between the two series novels and leads into some of the events in this book, although reading it is optional.

Artifact Space left Marca Nbaro at the farthest point of the voyage of the Greatship Athens, an unexpected heroine and now well-integrated into the crew. On a merchant ship, however, there's always more work to be done after a heroic performance. Deep Black opens with that work: repairs from the events of the first book, the never-ending litany of tasks required to keep the ship running smoothly, and of course the trade with aliens that drew them so far out into the Deep Black.

We knew early in the first book that this wouldn't be the simple, if long, trading voyage that most of the crew of the Athens was expecting, but now they have to worry about an unsettling second group of aliens on top of a potential major war between human factions. They don't yet have the cargo they came for, they have to reconstruct their trading post, and they're a very long way from home. Marca also knows, at this point in the story, that this voyage had additional goals from the start. She will slowly gain a more complete picture of those goals during this novel.

Artifact Space was built around one of the most satisfying plots in military science fiction (at least to me): a protagonist who benefits immensely from the leveling effect and institutional inclusiveness of the military slowly discovering that, when working at its best, the military can be a true meritocracy. (The merchant marine of the Athens is not military, precisely, since it's modeled on the trading ships of Venice, but it's close enough for the purposes of this plot.) That's not a plot that lasts into a sequel, though, so Cameron had to find a new spine for the second half of the story. He chose first contact (of a sort) and space battle.

The space battle parts are fine. I read a ton of children's World War II military fiction when I was a boy, and I always preferred the naval battles to the land battles. This part of Deep Black reminded me of those naval battles, particularly a book whose title escapes me about the Arctic convoys to the Soviet Union. I'm more interested in character than military adventure these days, but every once in a while I enjoy reading about a good space battle. This was not an exemplary specimen of the genre, but it delivered on all the required elements.

The first contact part was more original, in part because Cameron chose an interesting medium ground between total incomprehensibility and universal translators. He stuck with the frustrations of communication for considerably longer than most SF authors are willing to write, and it worked for me. This is the first book I've read in a while where superficial alien fluency with the mere words of a human language masks continuing profound mutual incomprehension. The communication difficulties are neither malicious nor a setup for catastrophic misunderstanding, but an intrinsic part of learning about a truly alien species. I liked this, even though it makes for slower and more frustrating progress. It felt more believable than a lot of first contact, and it forced the characters to take risks and act on hunches and then live with the consequences.

One of the other things that Cameron does well is maintain the steady rhythm of life on a working ship as a background anchor to the story. I've read a lot of science fiction that shows the day-to-day routine only until something more interesting and plot-focused starts happening and then seems to forget about it entirely. Not here. Marca goes through intense and adrenaline-filled moments requiring risk and fast reactions, and then has to handle promotion write-ups, routine watches, and studying for advancement. Cameron knows that real battles involve long periods of stressful waiting and incorporates them into the book without making them too boring, which requires a lot of writing skill.

I prefer the emotional magic of finding a place where one belongs, so I was not as taken with Deep Black as I was with Artifact Space, but that's the inevitable result of plot progression and not really a problem with this book. Marca is absurdly central to the story in ways that have a whiff of "chosen one" dynamics, but if one can suspend one's disbelief about that, the rest of the book is solid. This is, fundamentally, a book about large space battles, so save it when you're in the mood for that sort of story, but it was a satisfying continuation of the series. I will definitely keep reading.

Recommended if you enjoyed Artifact Space. If you didn't, Deep Black isn't going to change your mind.

Followed by Whalesong, which is not yet released (and is currently in some sort of limbo for pre-orders in the US, which I hope will clear up).

Rating: 7 out of 10

https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/1-3996-1506-8.html

100% All Achievements

https://xkcd.com/3148/

I'm trying to share my footage of the full run to prove it's not tool-assisted, but the uploader has problems with video lengths of more than a decade.

https://xkcd.com/3148/

Texts From Superheroes

https://textsfromsuperheroes.com/post/796072669696196608

Texts From SuperheroesFacebook | Threads | Patreon | Instagram | BlueSky

https://textsfromsuperheroes.com/post/796072669696196608

An Hour of Me On Tour Blathering About Stuff

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/09/29/an-hour-of-me-on-tour-blathering-about-stuff/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57516

Watch on YouTube

If you missed me on tour (and won’t see me in the next couple of weeks in NYC, Iowa City, San Francisco or Burlington, VT), then here’s the next best thing: An hour-long interview of me, recorded at the first stop of my Tour in Scottsdale, AZ, at the poisoned pen. In this hour I talk about cats, writing, all the various projects I’m up to, and why it’s not a great idea to release a book on election day. I also answer questions from the audience. Enjoy!

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/09/29/an-hour-of-me-on-tour-blathering-about-stuff/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57516

Review: The Incandescent

https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/1-250-83502-X.html

Review: The Incandescent, by Emily Tesh

Publisher:	Tor
Copyright:	2025
ISBN:	1-250-83502-X
Format:	Kindle
Pages:	417

The Incandescent is a stand-alone magical boarding school fantasy.

Your students forgot you. It was natural for them to forget you. You were a brief cameo in their lives, a walk-on character from the prologue. For every sentimental my teacher changed my life story you heard, there were dozens of my teacher made me moderately bored a few times a week and then I got through the year and moved on with my life and never thought about them again.

They forgot you. But you did not forget them.

Doctor Saffy Walden is Director of Magic at Chetwood, an elite boarding school for prospective British magicians. She has a collection of impressive degrees in academic magic, a specialization in demonic invocation, and a history of vague but lucrative government job offers that go with that specialty. She turned them down to be a teacher, and although she's now in a mostly administrative position, she's a good teacher, with the usual crop of promising, lazy, irritating, and nervous students.

As the story opens, Walden's primary problem is Nikki Conway. Or, rather, Walden's primary problem is protecting Nikki Conway from the Marshals, and the infuriating Laura Kenning in particular.

When Nikki was seven, she summoned a demon who killed her entire family and left her a ward of the school. To Laura Kenning, that makes her a risk who should ideally be kept far away from invocation. To Walden, that makes Nikki a prodigious natural talent who is developing into a brilliant student and who needs careful, professional training before she's tempted into trying to learn on her own.

Most novels with this setup would become Nikki's story. This one does not. The Incandescent is Walden's story.

There have been a lot of young-adult magical boarding school novels since Harry Potter became a mass phenomenon, but most of them focus on the students and the inevitable coming-of-age story. This is a story about the teachers: the paperwork, the faculty meetings, the funding challenges, the students who repeat in endless variations, and the frustrations and joys of attempting to grab the interest of a young mind. It's also about the temptation of higher-paying, higher-status, and less ethical work, which however firmly dismissed still nibbles around the edges.

Even if you didn't know Emily Tesh is herself a teacher, you would guess that before you get far into this novel. There is a vividness and a depth of characterization that comes from being deeply immersed in the nuance and tedium of the life that your characters are living. Walden's exasperated fondness for her students was the emotional backbone of this book for me. She likes teenagers without idealizing the process of being a teenager, which I think is harder to pull off in a novel than it sounds.

It was hard to quantify the difference between a merely very intelligent student and a brilliant one. It didn't show up in a list of exam results. Sometimes, in fact, brilliance could be a disadvantage — when all you needed to do was neatly jump the hoop of an examiner's grading rubric without ever asking why. It was the teachers who knew, the teachers who could feel the difference. A few times in your career, you would have the privilege of teaching someone truly remarkable; someone who was hard work to teach because they made you work harder, who asked you questions that had never occurred to you before, who stretched you to the very edge of your own abilities. If you were lucky — as Walden, this time, had been lucky — your remarkable student's chief interest was in your discipline: and then you could have the extraordinary, humbling experience of teaching a child whom you knew would one day totally surpass you.

I also loved the world-building, and I say this as someone who is generally not a fan of demons. The demons themselves are a bit of a disappointment and mostly hew to one of the stock demon conventions, but the rest of the magic system is deep enough to have practitioners who approach it from different angles and meaty enough to have some satisfying layered complexity. This is magic, not magical science, so don't expect a fully fleshed-out set of laws, but the magical system felt substantial and satisfying to me.

Tesh's first novel, Some Desperate Glory, was by far my favorite science fiction novel of 2023. This is a much different book, which says good things about Tesh's range and the potential of her work yet to come: adult rather than YA, fantasy rather than science fiction, restrained and subtle in places where Some Desperate Glory was forceful and pointed. One thing the books do have in common, though, is some structure, particularly the false climax near the midpoint of the book. I like the feeling of uncertainty and possibility that gives both books, but in the case of The Incandescent, I was not quite in the mood for the second half of the story.

My problem with this book is more of a reader preference than an objective critique: I was in the mood for a story about a confident, capable protagonist who was being underestimated, and Tesh was writing a novel with a more complicated and fraught emotional arc. (I'm being intentionally vague to avoid spoilers.) There's nothing wrong with the story that Tesh wanted to tell, and I admire the skill with which she did it, but I got a tight feeling in my stomach when I realized where she was going. There is a satisfying ending, and I'm still very happy I read this book, but be warned that this might not be the novel to read if you're in the mood for a purer competence porn experience.

Recommended, and I am once again eagerly awaiting the next thing Emily Tesh writes (and reminding myself to go back and read her novellas).

Content warnings: Grievous physical harm, mind control, and some body horror.

Rating: 8 out of 10

https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/1-250-83502-X.html

Accidentally worked 9 days in a row

and now Callie is angry at me.

**********

( Read more... )

Entry tags:

upcoming publications

Short Story

The audio version of “Data Ghost” my short story from the recent Storyteller: the Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology is now online at Pseudopod!

https://pseudopod.org/2025/09/26/pseudopod-995-data-ghost/

Also, Queen Demon, the sequel to Witch King, will be out on October 7, in ebook, hardcover, and audiobook narrated by Eric Mok.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/queen-demon-martha-wells/b7abd63577bd30a5?ean=9781250826916&next=t

Review: Echoes of the Imperium

https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/1-998257-04-5.html

Review: Echoes of the Imperium, by Nicholas & Olivia Atwater

Series:	Tales of the Iron Rose #1
Publisher:	Starwatch Press
Copyright:	2024
ISBN:	1-998257-04-5
Format:	Kindle
Pages:	547

Echoes of the Imperium is a steampunk fantasy adventure novel, the first of a projected series. There is another novella in the series, A Matter of Execution, that takes place chronologically before this novel, but which I am told that you should read afterwards. (I have not yet read it.) If Olivia Atwater's name sounds familiar, it's probably for the romantic fantasy Half a Soul. Nicholas Atwater is her husband.

William Blair, a goblin, was a child sailor on the airship HMS Caliban during the final battle that ended the Imperium, and an eyewitness to the destruction of the capital. Like every imperial solider, that loss made him an Oathbreaker; the fae Oath that he swore to defend the Imperium did not care that nothing a twelve-year-old boy could have done would have changed the result of the battle. He failed to kill himself with most of the rest of the crew, and thus was taken captive by the Coalition.

Twenty years later, William Blair is the goblin captain of the airship Iron Rose. It's an independent transport ship that takes various somewhat-dodgy contracts and has to avoid or fight through pirates. The crew comes from both sides of the war and has built their own working truce. Blair himself is a somewhat manic but earnest captain who doesn't entirely believe he deserves that role, one who tends more towards wildly risky plans and improvisation than considered and sober decisions. The rest of the crew are the sort of wild mix of larger-than-life personality quirks that populate swashbuckling adventure books but leave me dubious that stuffing that many high-maintenance people into one ship would go as well as it does.

I did appreciate the gunnery knitting circle, though.

Echoes of the Imperium is told in the first person from Blair's perspective in two timelines. One follows Blair in the immediate aftermath of the war, tracing his path to becoming an airship captain and meeting some of the people who will later be part of his crew. The other is the current timeline, in which Blair gets deeper and deeper into danger by accepting a risky contract with unexpected complications.

Neither of these timelines are in any great hurry to arrive at some destination, and that's the largest problem with this book. Echoes of the Imperium is long, sprawling, and unwilling to get anywhere near any sort of a point until the reader is deeply familiar with the horrific aftermath of the war, the mountains guilt and trauma many of the characters carry around, and Blair's impostor syndrome and feelings of inadequacy. For the first half of this book, I was so bored. I almost bailed out; only a few flashes of interesting character interactions and hints of world-building helped me drag myself through all of the tedious setup.

What saves this book is that the world-building is a delight. Once the characters finally started engaging with it in earnest, I could not put it down. Present-time Blair is no longer an Oathbreaker because he was forgiven by a fairy; this will become important later. The sites of great battles are haunted by ghostly echoes of the last moments of the lives of those who died (hence the title); this will become very important later. Blair has a policy of asking no questions about people's pasts if they're willing to commit to working with the rest of the crew; this, also, will become important later. All of these tidbits the authors drop into the story and then ignore for hundreds of pages do have a payoff if you're willing to wait for it.

As the reader (too) slowly discovers, the Atwaters' world is set in a war of containment by light fae against dark fae. Instead of being inscrutable and separate, the fae use humans and human empires as tools in that war. The fallen Imperium was a bastion of fae defense, and the war that led to the fall of that Imperium was triggered by the price its citizens paid for that defense, one that the fae could not possibly care less about. The creatures may be out of epic fantasy and the technology from the imagined future of Victorian steampunk, but the politics are that of the Cold War and containment strategies. This book has a lot to say about colonialism and empire, but it says those things subtly and from a fantasy slant, in a world with magical Oaths and direct contact with powers that are both far beyond the capabilities of the main characters and woefully deficient in in humanity and empathy. It has a bit of the feel of Greek mythology if the gods believed in an icy realpolitik rather than embodying the excesses of human emotion.

The second half of this book was fantastic. The found-family vibe among a crew of high-maintenance misfits that completely failed to cohere for me in the first half of the book, while Blair was wallowing in his feelings and none of the events seemed to matter, came together brilliantly as soon as the crew had a real problem and some meaty world-building and plot to sink their teeth into. There is a delightfully competent teenager, some satisfying competence porn that Blair finally stops undermining, and a sharp political conflict that felt emotionally satisfying, if perhaps not that intellectually profound. In short, it turns into the fun, adventurous romp of larger-than-life characters that the setting promises. Even the somewhat predictable mid-book reveal worked for me, in part because the emotions of the characters around that reveal sold its impact.

If you're going to write a book with a bad half and a good half, it's always better to put the good half second. I came away with very positive feelings about Echoes of the Imperium and a tentative willingness to watch for the sequel. (It reaches a fairly satisfying conclusion, but there are a lot of unresolved plot hooks.) I'm a bit hesitant to recommend it, though, because the first half was not very fun. I want to say that about 75% of the first half of the book could have been cut and the book would have been stronger for it. I'm not completely sure I'm right, since the Atwaters were laying the groundwork for a lot of payoff, but I wish that groundwork hadn't been as much of a slog.

Tentatively recommended, particularly if you're in the mood for steampunk fae mythology, but know that this book requires some investment.

Technically, A Matter of Execution comes first, but I plan to read it as a sequel.

Rating: 8 out of 10

https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/1-998257-04-5.html

Texts From Superheroes

https://textsfromsuperheroes.com/post/795891505511481344

Texts From SuperheroesFacebook | Threads | Patreon | Instagram | BlueSky

https://textsfromsuperheroes.com/post/795891505511481344

So, I thought I was getting a palmsized scrubbie brush with a soap dispenser

but it was a set of two regular palmsized scrubbie brushes for dishes. Which was disappointing, but E made the amazing discovery that they are really fun to smash together, bristle to bristle, so that's all right.

****************

( Read more... )

The Final Tour Event

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/09/27/the-final-tour-event/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57489

Here in Winston-Salem, NC, where I, Annalee Newitz, Nghi Vo and Maddie Martinez talked about the state of science fiction and fantasy for an hour in front of this very lovely crowd. And then I signed books! And now I’m back in my hotel room! And tomorrow, I go home. Which I am very much looking forward to. This tour has been delightful. But I’m ready be with my spouse and pets.

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/09/27/the-final-tour-event/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57489

My Case for Eating Meat-Lite

Posted by Sarah

https://thewoksoflife.com/eating-meat-lite/?adt_ei=*|EMAIL|*

https://thewoksoflife.com/?p=93470

When people try to figure out how to eat less meat, the conversation usually goes one of two ways: Or…if you’re someone who loves meat and has zero interest in giving it up? Well, you’re probably tuning out entirely. (I see you! If you’re not interested in this topic, feel free to stop reading now. […]

https://thewoksoflife.com/eating-meat-lite/?adt_ei=*|EMAIL|*

https://thewoksoflife.com/?p=93470

Entry tags:

exercise,
quotidian

errands and a bit of exercise

For reasons, I ran some errands today so Adrian and Cattitude could stay home.

The main goal was to take a bathrobe to the Zipper Hospital, and ask them to replace the damaged zipper. So I did that, and was surprised by the sign saying they took cash and checks. Cash only would have surprised me less; in practice, I doubt they're being given many checks these days. They want payment in advance, but I had enough cash to cover it, so I didn't need to ask them for the location of the nearest ATM.

I then went to LA Burdick's, for a cup of hot chocolate, and a bag of chocolate-covered orange and lemon peel. The hot chocolate was good, but I spilled some on myself when I opened the takeout cup. So, I drank the hot chocolate, carefully; went to Trader Joe's; and then took the trolley home.

The trip wasn't a huge amount of walking, but it's the most I've done in the last couple of weeks. I did a little PT this afternoon as well; I've been keeping up with that pretty well.

The Last Idea You’ll Ever Need To Look For

Posted by April Daniels

https://www.aprildaniels.com/2025/09/the-last-idea-youll-ever-need-to-look-for/

https://www.aprildaniels.com/?p=1743

The question authors hate more than any other is “Where do you get all your ideas?”

And the reason we hate it is because our problem is not finding ideas. Our problem is figuring out which ideas are worth developing into a project. Every author I know has more ideas than hours in which to write.

If you struggle to find your own ideas, I have some advice.

Give up on being original. Go all in on being yourself. Write a book that’s just nothing but the shit YOU adore, and don’t worry if it’s been seen a thousand times before. Don’t worry if you only think you’ve seen it a thousand times before. Write something formulaic and derivative. Write something that looks like this:

The Coolest Protagonist In The Universe has a Big Problem. While she (my Coolest People in the Universe are always women but yours might not be) grapples with this, she encounters The Hottest Love Interest In History. They are instantly attracted to each other. However, the Big Problem she’s grappling with prevents The Coolest Protagonist In the Universe from getting with the Hottest Love Interest until about halfway through the story, at which time they have The Best Sex.

At that point, the Big Problem becomes either much more urgent, but now solvable through cooperation that was not possible before The Best Sex, or the Big Problem is revealed to not be much of a problem anymore, because of a new perspective on life brought about by the experience of the Best Sex. Either way, the Best Sex is the highlight of the story, the climax, if you will, of the narrative arc.

Then they live happily ever after, or they split up, or everyone dies. Just end it how it feels right to you for the story to end. Once you have done this, you’ll have a complete story, and once you have a complete story, you’ll have unlocked that part of yourself that understands what making a beginning, a middle, and an end looks like. This part of you is the key to developing new ideas and once you have understood it, ideas will be everywhere. You’ll have so many ideas you won’t have time to write them all down. The ideas will never stop. The flow will never cease.

Then you too will be cursed.

https://www.aprildaniels.com/2025/09/the-last-idea-youll-ever-need-to-look-for/

https://www.aprildaniels.com/?p=1743

Hiking

https://xkcd.com/3147/

Every downhill walk is a waterslide that might have been.

https://xkcd.com/3147/

Having Dinner With Four Strangers In Columbus

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/09/25/having-dinner-with-four-strangers-in-columbus/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57471

To some people, sitting at a table with several unfamiliar faces and being expected to make small talk is a nightmare scenario. The anxiety creeps in of what to say, which topics to discuss (or avoid), and if you’re going to be judged for ordering an appetizer and dessert.

Such was the situation I found myself in last night after I signed up for Timeleft, a company with the goal to help you make meaningful connections with peers from your city.

I had never heard of Timeleft before, but two weeks ago I got an ad for them on Instagram. I won’t lie, the idea of dining with complete strangers was immediately interesting to me, as I love meeting new people, getting to know others, and making friends. What are strangers but friends you have yet to meet? So I went to their website and checked it out.

To my surprise, Timeleft is available all over the world. Sixty different countries and three hundred cities, including Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland. I was delighted to see that I really had my pick of Ohio cities, though I would love for Dayton to be on that list. Cleveland is a bit too far, but Cincinnati and Columbus are both about two hours, so I ended up picking Columbus as my city because I prefer the driving, parking, and dining scene over Cincinnati.

First, you take a personality test to determine who else should be at the table with you. Timeleft asks things like what field you work in, what kind of movies you like, if you’re married or have kids, if you like to talk about politics, if you’re a planner or more spontaneous, basically just some standard questions to see who you would, on paper, be compatible with.

After you take the test, Timeleft pairs you with five strangers to have dinner with, and the restaurant is a mystery to everyone until the day of the dinner. One thing I thought was really cool is that you can choose different levels of budgets for your dining experience. There’s $, $$, and $$$. Obviously I picked $$$, because if I’m going to drive to Columbus for dinner, I want to eat somewhere nice (also, I’m just bougie, so). You can also mention any dietary restrictions you have, as well.

Timeleft books the restaurant reservation for you all, and you just show up to the restaurant, meet your dining companions, and spend the next couple hours getting to know each other and sharing a meal together. Not sure what to say? Timeleft actually provides ice breaker games and questions to get the ball rolling.

After the dinner is done, every Timeleft group in the city is invited to an Afterparty. Timeleft chooses a bar for everyone to meet at to have a drink to close out the night. Once you’ve finished the evening, Timeleft asks you who you’d like to keep in contact with, and if you match you can message each other through the app. (Or you can just exchange contact info right then and there if you want. That’s pretty much what ended up happening for me, anyway.)

So that’s how it works! Pretty simple, and very stress-free since they pick and book everything for you! It was nice to have the reservation handled, and just have to show up.

Timeleft isn’t a dating site, it’s meant for platonic connections and people seeking friends in their city. It’s meant for screen-free conversations and connections with people you wouldn’t have normally met otherwise. I think it’s a really cool concept, and I was super excited to try it out.

So let’s talk about how it went.

The initial ad that I got for Timeleft was them rolling out their new Ladies Only dinner. This was what I tried to sign up for, as I have really been wanting more gal pals lately. Not that I am opposed to befriending men, obviously, but as I get older, I’ve started to really want more genuine female companionship. And not that I don’t already have some super close girlfriends currently, because I definitely do and I’m super grateful for them and our friendship, but who couldn’t use one or two more, right?

Anyways, I couldn’t figure out how to sign up for the Ladies Only one, despite clicking on the ad that was advertising them. I figured I might as well just sign up for a regular one.

I ended up dining at Z Cucina di Spirito in Dublin with four guys. There was supposed to be another girl, but she actually ended up no-showing.

In my group, our ages ranged from 25 to 32, and everyone except me lived in the Columbus area. There was one other person whose first time it was, but the other group members had done a couple of these before, and two of them had even dined with each other in a previous dinner. Between the five of us, our professions were all over the place, as well as our tastes in music, though we did seem to agree on some favorite colors. We talked about travel, movies, concerts, places previously lived, and some bad dates.

While this post isn’t meant to be a restaurant review of Z Cucina, I will say I did like it. The atmosphere was nice, it was a very pretty place, and the food and drinks were quite good. I was the only person to order an appetizer (I did share, because I think food is best enjoyed that way), but everyone did order dessert, so that’s a green flag in my eyes.

I got two cocktails; a Basil-Gin Smash and an Empress, and both were really nice. The bread for the table came with this super yummy red sauce that was surprisingly flavorful. My main was their Bucatini Al Nero Di Seppia, which was squid ink pasta with mussels, clams, shrimp, and scallops, and that was so good. I thought the shrimp and scallops were really excellent, and I’m happy I finally got to try squid ink pasta! I’ve wanted to for so long. Plus, the tiramisu was a huge slice, and I have no complaints about it.

I would say the thing I was the least impressed with was the appetizer. I ordered the Stuffed Risotto Fritters and they were fine but nothing amazing. I will say they were piping hot, though, and it came with four of them.

So, all in all, I really liked the dining location Timeleft picked, and I think they did a good job with my budget choice. Since it was Wednesday, the restaurant was not crowded at all. There was really only a few other people, so it was nice that it wasn’t too loud and no one in my group had to shout across the table.

We all decided to go to the second location, The Pint House in the Short North. My group only ended up finding one other Timeleft group, which was a really friendly group of older ladies and gents. One of them had thirteen grandkids! It was really cool to see that Timeleft isn’t just for young whippersnappers, it’s seriously for anyone and everyone, and proof that you can find people your age and with your interests that also want to make friends! It just felt really wholesome.

I felt really comfortable the whole time, I wasn’t worried about anyone being a weirdo, and we all exchanged numbers at the end. It was so nice to meet people that I would’ve never come across without Timeleft, and it’s honestly just awesome to see how many other people out there are looking to go and meet new people and make friends.

All in all, I really liked dining and talking with everyone I met, and I can’t wait to attend another Timeleft dinner.

Would you give Timeleft a try? Does the idea of dining with strangers scare you, or does it sound super exciting and fun? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!

-AMS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/09/25/having-dinner-with-four-strangers-in-columbus/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57471