2025/018: A Radical Act of Free Magic — H G Parry

2025/018: A Radical Act of Free Magic — H G Parry

Something terribly important had happened, she thought. Some great and wondrous step toward magic that didn’t control, didn’t restrict or confine or destroy or even burn the world on its way to freedom, but liberated. [loc. 7079]

I liked A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians very much, so dived straight into the second volume of the duology. A Radical Act takes place from 1797 to 1807. While magical war engulfs Europe, the Saint-Domingue slave rebellion continues. Fina continues to support Toussaint L'Ouverture in the Caribbean; Wilberforce, in London, continues to fight for abolition; Pitt continues to conceal his deadly secret. In France, a young battle-mage from Corsica, working with a mysterious 'friend', has summoned ( ... )

2025/019: When the Moon Hits Your Eye — John Scalzi

2025/019: When the Moon Hits Your Eye — John Scalzi

We are confronted with a seemingly impossible proposition, that the moon has turned to cheese. And we live in an age where disinformation not only exists, but is actively used as a tool by pundits and political parties. [loc. 514]

Scalzi's latest novel, very much in the vein of Starter Villain and The Kaiju Preservation Society, takes a light-hearted concept -- here, it's the moon (including moon rock samples) suddenly turning into cheese -- and explores the consequences in twenty-eight sections, one per day of the lunar cycle, recounting the experiences of ordinary Americans.

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