Author Archives: smellincoffee

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About smellincoffee

Citizen, librarian, reader with a boundless wonder for the world and a curiosity about all the beings inside it.

A day without a phone

Posted on October 24, 2023 by smellincoffee

One of my class assignments this week is to go 24 hours without touching my phone, and since that aligns fairly well with some of the books I‘ve written about here over the years, I thought I might share my … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflection | Tagged | 2 Comments

It is Tuesday, captain….teasing frequencies open

Posted on October 24, 2023 by smellincoffee

Time for the ol’ Tuesday Teese. “I have to fly this shoebox into an electrical maelstrom, go looking for a scientist in a jungle where it never stops raining, avoid corrupting a primitive, Prime Directive-protected indigenous culture, and then somehow … Continue reading →

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Child of Two Worlds

Posted on October 24, 2023 by smellincoffee

The Enterprise is a plague ship enroute to an independent world for a rare medical ingredient when it answers a distress signal and things get…complicated. As in, this couldn’t be worse, could it? complicated, because the rescue creates a no-win … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

In Harm’s Way

Posted on October 23, 2023 by smellincoffee

Scarcely five days after the Enterprise barely escaped an encounter with a giant machine capable of devouring entire planets, a rattled Jim Kirk has another foul assignment land on his desk. A scientist has gone missing on a planet within … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Astounding

Posted on October 20, 2023 by smellincoffee

I don’t remember why I picked up “Foundation” back in 2008, but it would be the beginning of an obsession with Asimov that saw me reading collection after collection of his stories from the 1930s – 1960s, finding greater and … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

The Heinlein Interview

Posted on October 18, 2023 by smellincoffee

I am closing in on the end of Astounding, which bills itself as a history of golden-age SF, and so far the most interesting aspect of it was the largely-uncommented-on political history of Robert Heinlein. We meet him as an … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Moriarty, Consulting Criminal and Scroogled

Posted on October 17, 2023 by smellincoffee

Short rounds! One short story by Cory Doctorow and three short stories by Andy Weir. The first, Scroogled, is a very short story, just hitting 20 pages. Written in the mid-2000s, when Google was beginning its transformation from Mew to … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Tis time for teasing tuesday

Posted on October 17, 2023 by smellincoffee

American eccentrics are great. They’re more sincere, unabashed and convinced in their madness than any other eccentrics in the world. And they say hilarious things like, ‘Rule number one is don’t freak out.’ They have two cars, two teenage sons, … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | 8 Comments

The Shockwave Rider

Posted on October 15, 2023 by smellincoffee

Nick Haflinger is a man of many names and identities, on the run from what passes for the government these days. With so much of the population constantly on the move, existing more in the plugged-in virtual realm than in … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

FEED IT BOOKS AND MAKE IT GO AWAY

Posted on October 13, 2023 by smellincoffee
Posted in General | Tagged | 4 Comments