Is Planet 9 a Black Hole?

So, here's the latest theory on the mysterious planet-sized mass out in the Oort Cloud: It's a black hole.

To be more precise, it's a primordial black hole. And that's why we haven't found it yet. We need to also look in gamma rays, etc.

If it is a black hole, don't worry. It's a pretty small one, about ten times the mass of Earth, and it won't start sucking in the solar system or anything. It will sit out there in the Oort cloud messing with orbits indefinitely.

Now, there's no actual evidence it is one...it's just a thought to consider.

Understanding Hollywood Negotiations

"I'm never doing another Bond movie."

"Spider-Man is leaving the MCU."

Both of these statements have two things in common:

1. They have to do with entertainment.
2. They turned out not to be true.

It's become routine in entertainment industry negotiations for one side to say they are not, nope, not doing something, never going to happen in public.

And guess what?

It's a negotiating ploy. Fans get upset about the thing which isn't going to happen, which puts pressure on the other party. It's about one thing, generally: More money.

(In the case of actors it can sometimes be something else they are holding out for. For example, Daniel Craig got the right to choose his own Bond Girl in No Time To Die. I'm fairly sure that mattered to him more than the money).

Does this mean we shouldn't clamor for the thing which isn't going to happen? Nah.

But it does mean we shouldn't panic and should be very careful about which nos and nevers we actually believe.

Spider-Man was never going to leave the MCU. Sony just wanted more money. And we can't really blame them for that.

Space is beautiful

I'm running slightly behind today but I have to share this video:

It's a visualization of the accretion disk of a black hole in false color. According to one of the scientists working on the project, the accretion disk would more likely actually be white if you were in a spaceship orbiting at a safe distance, as it radiates across the entire visual spectrum.

(I asked this question because it was relevant to the Withering World Starfinder Society scenario I was working on).

Memories of Venus

There's long been a theory amongst some scientists that Venus may have once harbored life. New computer models increase the likelihood that the planet had, for an extended period of time, shallow oceans and temperatures suited to our kind of life.

Now, Venus is a hellscape. Why?

Earth is kept habitable by plate tectonics. Earthquakes and the like cause surface changes that sequester carbon dioxide. Venus does not have a strong enough magnetic field and these processes stopped a long time ago. Carbon dioxide and water vapor then built up into a runaway greenhouse effect. Essentially it hit a point of negative feedback. Venus' water boiled away into space (although a few scientists still think there may be surviving Venusian life in the upper atmosphere of the planet).

(As bad as climate change is, don't worry, we would have to burn ten times as much coal and oil as exists in the Earth's crust to trigger a full blown runaway. It is likely that this is the ultimate end of life on Earth, but only in a billion years or so).

So, what does Venus tell us?

First of all, it reminds us that for long term habitability a planet needs a magnetic field.

Second of all, we may be able to colonize Venus due to the fact that there's a point in the high atmosphere with gravity and pressure and temperature the same as Earth. In Venus' thicker atmosphere, our concept of breathable air is a lifting gas. Which is why cloud cities on Venus are slowly becoming a science fiction staple.

Third of all, Venus is likely a better candidate for terraforming than Mars is.

Fourth of all, Venus may have been habitable for three billion years. Remember those dinosaurs on Venus?

In fact, there may have once been Venusians...

"Don't just book It" and Memories of the Pre-Internet Era

I'm old.

Okay, I'm not grey wrinkly hospital visits every month old.

But I'm not a spring chicken, not any more.

I have memories of going to the travel agent in the grocery store (loyalty bonus!) and looking through catalogues of package deals. We'd pick the one we wanted and that was it.

Now, I spend hours on the internet and do the travel agent's job, customizing our itinerary, finding hotels. As it happens, I enjoy it. For those who don't, the package deal still exists.

Which brings us to "Don't just book it. Thomas Cook it!" The 1980s slogan of the British package deal operator that dramatically collapsed, stranding 150,000 tourists overseas and ruining the trips of over half a million. Because, yes, that many people are still booking package deals.

The company started in 1841 with day trips by rail from Leicester to Loughborough (where I attended high school!). They arranged day trips for temperance society members and Sunday schools. In 1845 they opened it up commercially and the first overseas tour was in 1855. Which was also the first true package deal, as far as I know.

Cook spawned countless imitators. Their red-branded store fronts were, in the 1980s, everywhere. We used smaller operators (loyalty bonus!) but "Thomas Cook" meant "package holiday" to many people. When the age of mass air travel hit in the 1960s...

Enter the internet. Hotels used to rent rooms they couldn't fill cheap to the tour operators. Expedia has bought up much of that stock (As a note: I never use Expedia or similar services and do not recommend them).

More people are able to plan their own trips. Hotels can now sell direct to customers all over the world, with varying degrees of success. You can get a better deal on flights by just buying from the airlines. Kids these days don't go through glossy brochures in a comfortable office while their families discuss whether to go to Rhodes or Crete.

It really was a different time. The internet existed in the UK in the 1980s for rich people (you had to pay by time for the dial up and then again by time for your access).

And the collapse of Thomas Cook feels like some part of that era has gone inexorably into the past, never to be recovered. I want to live in the future. But, I suppose, I also have the same vulnerability to nostalgia as anyone else.

Foreign Stars, Dawn Sisters, and the ISS

Unless it's important to the plot, a lot of science fiction writers forget a basic fact:

Significant orbital hardware is often visible from the planet surface. People already play satellite spotting now - it's likely to be just like plane spotting if we start building space hotels and the like.

People including me - I was fortunate enough on Friday to get a very clear view of the ISS as it passed over. Clear as in I could make out the solar panels naked eye. There can't have been much moisture in the sky at all.

I can think of two series right now in which orbital hardware observations get interesting.

One is C.J. Cherryh's ridiculously long (but brilliant) Foreigner series. The native atevi perceive the arriving colony ship as a foreign star from which the humans then descend on petals (parachutes).

The other is Pern, where the three ships that brought the colonists have been abandoned in geo stationary orbit and become the Dawn Sisters, fixed "stars" that sailors use for navigation.

Here's the small issue:

There's no mistaking the ISS for a star. Now, true, the ISS is in low earth orbit, not really that high up at all. Which also means it has a higher relative motion.

But even with the naked eye, it is clearly not a disk. Unless your orbital hardware is perfectly round, then it's not going to be mistaken for a star.

It's more likely that your aliens or colonists will put it in an object category of its own. They might not know what the heck it is, but... For example, the Dawn Sisters were large colony ships. While it's possible they were spherical, it's much more likely that they were cigar shaped and given the size could have easily been determined as such naked eye. It did take the reinvention of telescopes to work out what they actually were. But stars? Nah.

And don't forget that orbital hardware is visible from the planet below. Even small satellites can be tracked with a telescope.

The ISS is about the size of a football field in total, 356 feet by 240 feet. For a sci fi contrast, the Enterprise D is 2,108 feet long (the Federation should never have agreed not to develop or use cloaking devices!). Babylon 5 is 5 miles long. That's how big a large station is. Now, admittedly, a station like that would be best located at a Lagrange point. In our system the primary station for Earth would be at L4 or L5 (In the Transpecial universe the L4 and L5 points are occupied by Launchpad, Earth's primary shipyard, and a large trading station respectively). That's about the same distance from Earth as the moon is. A five mile long Lagrange station would be naked eye visible and would probably show some shape, bearing in mind that on a very clear night you can see Venus' disk.

So, when writing about advanced planets, don't forget that you can see that honking great station from the planet it serves, assuming you know where to look. It's up to you how this affects life on the planet, but at the very least you can imagine a kid in their back yard, possibly with a set of binoculars,  with an app on their phone (or whatever equipment they are using) to tell them which station is which. "Daddy! I saw a ship dock!"

Humans like to find and observe things. It's part of what makes us human. Don't forget that.

And it's here! The Lay of Lady Percival LIVE

If you didn't preorder, you can get your copy now.

And bug me on Facebook all day with any questions about the book. I'll be here most of the day.

Rome has fallen and the eagles have flown. Left alone with her child when her lover, Arthur, leaves these shores, Persephone finds her world changed when he returns - as war duke and then King of Britain. She has the one thing he needs:

His son.

But he will not accept her as herself.

Thus is born the legend of Percival.

Purchase links:

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DriveThruFiction

The Lay of Lady Percival Countdown Post: Guinevere

Guinevere has almost as many different versions as Merlin.

In some stories there's an attempt to make a feminist "Strong Female Character" Guinevere by casting her as a warrior queen who fights alongside her husband. The most famous example of this is probably King Arthur (2004) which became the lesbian date movie of that year (trust me, it did) likely because of a scantily-dressed Keira Knightley as a Pictish Guinevere.

Guinevere is very seldom portrayed positively, and when she is it tends to be that same warrior queen perspective. She is adulterous and/or bigamous. Sometimes she is outright wicked, in the fairy tale sense. Modern authors sometimes change this...arguing that it's all Lancelot's fault or that she was already in a relationship with him when she met Arthur. The BBC show Merlin has her as a pauper princess who becomes a good queen.

My Guinevere is an antagonist, and not always a nice person, but she is not wicked. She is a devout Christian who wants to convert everyone (and at one point is trying to marry off most of the single men at Camelot). She is a good queen, but she is burdened by childlessness and a loveless, political marriage. And yes, she has affairs...because people who are trapped in loveless, political marriages tend to.

I have always seen Guinevere as a tragic figure, but not a wicked or evil one.

The Lay of Lady Percival Countdown Post: Lancelot

Ah, Lancelot. Lancelot du Lac, Guinevere's paramour. Arthur's favorite knight and best friend.

...right? Right.

It's actually strongly believed now that Lancelot was...invented in the 12th century, by the French poet Chretien de Troyes. He has elements of certain classic stories. Changelings are common, appearances at a tournament by a warrior in three different disguises shows up many times. Lancelot originally had nothing to do with King Arthur.

Of course, neither did Merlin.

But the adulterous love triangle almost certainly was invented by Chretien, rather than being part of the original story.

Now, I've never really cared for Lancelot. The love triangle, though, is great for establishing the tragedy...and at its heart the tale of Camelot as we now know and love it is a tragedy. But Lancelot is as much Christian metaphor as knight, as much independent folk hero as friend to Arthur. And I honestly find him boring.

So, instead, I went with a different best friend for Arthur - Kay, who in most versions is his foster brother.

And I replaced Lancelot with a completely different character. It's obvious who it is from his fondness for a short spear (Lance-lot means small lance in French). But he's my own creation entirely...

The Helsinki Winter Garden

All I'm going to say is this wasn't a plant I expected to meet in Finland.

Yes, that is exactly what you think it is. In Finland. I mean, it's in a greenhouse, but still!

The Lay of Lady Percival Countdown Post: Merlin

The reason I never liked and still don't like T.H. White's Once and Future King: Merlin aging backwards.

For some reason this killed my suspension of disbelief dead, even as a child. I could simply not deal with it.

Merlin is an enigmatic figure. Over the years he's been the son of a nun (or a princess) and an incubus, part fairy (the approach I take), a scion of Atlantis, or the Doctor. (Yes. It is canon. The Doctor is or will be Merlin). He's been a man, a woman (and not just in fanfic, although I can't find the book concerned), and a title held by multiple individuals. He's been the hero, the villain, and all things in between. Sometimes in the same work.

Merlin's story generally ends when he lusts after the wrong witch and she locks him up.

The fact is that Merlin was invented by Geoffrey of Monmouth, who conflated Myrddin Wylt, who originally had no connection to Arthur, and various tales associated with Ambrosius Aurelianus. Myrddyn Emrys was the result. The latin Merlin rather than Merdin probably has something to do with the French word "merde" which means, uh, manure. Yeah.

So, Merlin was never part of the original Arthurian legends. But he is so much part of them now that we can't imagine them without him. His role in the story is sage, advisor, prophet, druid. And his disappearance from the story almost always triggers the final tragedy...

Scooby Dooby Doo!

It's Friday the 13th.

It's a full moon.

...and...

...it's the 50th anniversary of a certain crime fighting Great Dane and his buddies.

Yup. The air date of the first Scooby Doo was September 13, 1969. The lighthearted adventures of the Scooby gang were in response to concerns that kids' cartoons were too violent and horrific. There was a feeling that kids needed more comedy, less dystopia, less anger.

The original show, Scooby Doo, Where Are You! ran for seventeen episodes including the pilot "What a Night for a Knight." It was formulaic, with the monster-of-the -week always turning out to be a person and always calling them meddling kids! at the time. But kids loved it. Parents loved it. A further 8 episodes were ordered in 1970.

Since then, there have been:
13 further Scooby-Doo series, one of which is currently in production by Boomerang (which also holds the rights to the original).
1 web series
4 made-for-TV animated movies
33 direct-to-video animated movies
1 animated theatrical movie
2 live-action theatrical movies, of which I'm one of the dozen people who liked them.
2 live-action made-for-TV movies
1 live-action direct-to-video movie
5 TV specials
8 direct-to-video specials
8 TV shorts
2 direct-to-video shorts, released with longer works
32 web shorts
13 comic series
13 one-off comic books
7 film strips
20 video games
5 plays
Millions of jokes about what's really in those scooby snacks.

Scooby also appeared in episodes of Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, Johnny Bravo, Harvey Birdman, Batman, Supernatural and OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes.

And, of course, Buffy would not be the same without the obvious influences and homages.

So, Scooby Doo? It's not just a cartoon. It's a freaking cultural phenomenon. We all know who those kids are. Most of us who were born since 1969 have been those kids at some meaningful level.

(And we all know what's really in those scooby snacks).

The Lady of Lady Percival Countdown Post: The Grail

The entire story of the Holy Grail has always kind of amused me, even when it's not being ably parodied by Monty Python (why yes, that is still my favorite Camelot movie).

Because, the thing is, the cup that was used at the Last Supper, assuming it happened, would have been a simple pottery or wood chalice. Nobody there was rich.

But, of course, the Medieval grail stories speak of a silver cup. In the book this is a plot point.

In reality?

Covering relics with silver was a thing which happened throughout the Middle Ages. In the Eastern church there is also a habit of covering icons with silver. Gold was also used when the church could afford it.

So, the writers of the Medieval romances would obviously have assumed that a relic that important would warrant a silver, or even gold covering. This then, as relics became less important, shifted to the cup being made of silver.

Most likely what they were envisioning was that the original simple vessel was encased in a silver reliquary to both elevate and protect it. Which brings up the interesting possibility:

There may at one point have actually been several grails floating around Europe and it wouldn't have been considered odd. Just as there were multiple pieces of the true cross, so there might have been multiple pieces of the holy grail. Most likely none of them were real (it's said that you could build a ship with all the claimed pieces of the true cross).

In the 4th century, though, that habit wouldn't have started yet...

Preorder links for The Lay of Lady Percival:

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The Helsinki Workers' Housing Museum

This museum is quite simply...adorable. It's contained within a row of 19th century apartments built for municipal workers.

The fact that the one room flats were considered a significant improvement says a lot about how people used to live. (In some cases, seven people were sharing rooms about the size of my bedroom, heated by the cooking stove). They did have one improvement...dry toilets in the basement, not the yard.

Most of this style of housing is gone, but the fact that this row has been preserved, with rooms furnished as examples of specific families (with details of who they were. In two cases, the contents of the room were donated by the previous inhabitants or their estate).

Just a fascinating little museum for the social historians amongst us that I suspect a lot of people miss.

The Lay of Lady Percival Countdown Post: Elaine

The tale of Lancelot and Elaine is perhaps one of the most, uh, problematic of the Arthurian "romances."

Elaine, a lovely young woman, falls in love with Lancelot. He, of course, only has eyes for Guinevere. When he turns her down she...

...pines away and dies.

Seriously. Even by Medieval romance standards the story (which is probably French) is really, shall we say, showing a low opinion of women.

Women don't just pine away and die because they can't get the man they want. Now, broken heart syndrome is a real thing, but it's also not the same thing and generally isn't about 'I love you I'm going to waste away.'

It's a story that most Arthurian retellings don't even want to touch. So, one of the challenges I set myself in Lay was to fix it.

It's a tragedy, because Arthuriana is a tragedy, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It's still a tragedy. But I hope that what I did with it...

Is there an Arthurian story you personally want to fix?

Preorder on Amazon to find out what happens to poor, dear Elaine.

The Lay of Lady Percival Pre-Orders!

If you want an ebook of The Lay of Lady Percival now's your chance! The release date has been moved forward to September 20, but in the mean time preorders are available so you can be the first person you know to read it.

Preorder links:

Amazon

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As Look Inside is not activated on preorders, here's a brief excerpt from the opening:

The ancient hill fort loomed, torn by the wind that came off the sea. From its ramparts one could almost see Gaul, the narrowest part of the sea splashing, beneath it, against cliffs as white as snow. Tucked below, not far from the port, the villa seemed cozy in comparison, hints of flickering light coming from the windows.

The young woman had walked some distance from the villa. The ships she watched were all leaving the harbor. Galleys, and even from where she was, she heard the drums. Beat, stroke. Beat, stroke. She imagined the slaves, large men, bare torsos sweating in the summer heat as they bent to the oars.

On the decks, the soldiers milled a little, finding places offering a modicum of comfort. Was her soldier amongst them, the last of the Legionnaires to depart Britain's shores? Rome could simply no longer afford to garrison these far reaches.

The Empire had not fallen with a resounding thud, but slowly, withering away like an unpicked grape. Persy watched. Was he with them?

He had been an officer, a leader of men, but would he stay for her? She felt her heart lift towards her throat. If he stayed, they would wed. Even in these uncertain times, with the Saxons on every shore and the Norsemen a-viking in the north, marriage meant something.

The fact that her soldier was of those northern bloodlines meant nothing. If he stayed, then she would know he had chosen...

"Are you Briton, Norseman, or Roman?" Her own words from the last time they had spoken echoed in her head.

"Did I not agree to a handfasting in the old style?" Even the recollection of his voice was enough to cause a stirring within her.

It had been properly done, quietly, by a woman who still remembered such things, who had not fallen entirely into the Roman style of worship. Dangerous, these days, with the Christ-cult now the only religion it was legal to practice.

Persephone lowered her hands to her belly. It was still flat. She had not told him, wanting him to stay for her, not out of obligation to a child. True, by the old ways, he should wed her, fertility having been proven.

She simply did not want to hold him, to trap him.

So young, he was, for the position he had held. Too young to retire, but under normal circumstances, he would have wed her and stayed. Many did, legionnaires and auxiliaries sent to serve in other parts of the Empire, where it was felt they would be less likely to desert.

Persephone had a childhood friend who's skin was as dark as wood, her father having come from some place far to the south. From Nubia, south of Egypt.

With what seemed like the strokes of a thousand oars, the ships streamed south. A tear rolled down her cheek. He must have gone with them. He knew where she waited. He would have come by now.

Slowly, she turned, and walked away, but not to the villa. There had been a grove, once, past the fort. That was where her steps led her. The Christers had not yet claimed the site, as they had so many others, for their temples.

They were almost like a plague, she thought. Some were good men and women, but some...

Some did nothing but try to convert everyone in sight. They had, no doubt, rejoiced in Constantine's conversion. And it seemed that they were always miserable.

Persy would not follow their path, which would condemn her child as a bastard.

#

"Gwydion, Gwydion, slow down!"

The toddler stopped, but punctuated it with, "No."

She had chosen a British name for her son. Perhaps it was because they had to be British now, not Roman. Perhaps because she did not want to remember the other half of his heritage.

There was much of Arthur about his features, although he had his mother's dark hair, sure to be black before he matured. She quickened her pace, caught him up in her arms. "Do you want to see the warlord or not?"

He squirmed, but briefly. The warlord. The man the tribes had chosen to lead their united warband. Dux Bellum, the Romans would have said.

His name flowed through her mind and almost reached her lips. Arthur. It could not be her Arthur, yet...the name was the same. How rare a name was it? Rare in Britain, yes, but not in the lands of the Norse and the Dane and the Saxon. Thor was one of their gods.

He had been named after a god, just as she was. Yet, had he stayed, he would have come to her on that clifftop. Had he stayed, she would be at his side now, and Gwydion riding on his shoulders.

For a moment that vision was clearer than the reality. The one servant she had brought helped her clear a way through the crowds.

He would be acknowledged outside the Cathedral, a nod to the Christians. That was not how it should be. They should be in the great royal circle of Avesbury, not that teeming city, diminished yet still vibrant.

Gods. Persy hated Londinium.

Yes, there they were on the steps, the most important of the royals of Britain, gathered. She should be with them, her blood was as good. Something about her urgency was picked up by the crowd, who parted, leaving a clear route to the center of it all.

Gorlois of Lyonesse, his wife Ygraine and daughter Morgan. Lot of Orkney, with his wife, Gorlois' sister Morgawse...once considered the most beautiful woman in the land. Their two sons...Gawain and Galahad, the latter barely fourteen. And Leodegranz of Wales with his daughter, the fair Guinevere.

She knew she should not, but nonetheless she let her track drift to the edge of the group.

A white horse came through the crowds. It bore a figure in armor akin to that a Roman general might have worn, but a longsword rested at his side.

The warlord dismounted and removed his helm, and her heart skipped a beat. "Arthur."

His eyes turned to her, lingered, and then glided away. It was almost as if he did not recognize her.

No, his eye had gone elsewhere once it had rested not on Persephone, but on Gwydion. It was the child he denied, and the mother with him.

Then he turned to face the Kings. The Bishop of London stepped out onto the steps, where the highest of the druids, Merlin, should have stood.

"Arthur," he greeted. "Do you truly take the charge of leading our defense?"

"I do." His eyes were entirely on the bishop now.

Persy's were entirely on him. As were Gwydion's, the boy too young to understand but fascinated by the ceremony.

"Then..."

It was Morgawse who interrupted. "The Christian kings will accept him. But for those of us who follow the old ways, we want more."

Arthur turned towards her.

"If this man is to lead above even the Kings, he must be bound to the land."

"Meaning?" That word came from the bishop, and in it sounded a volume of disaste, every aspect of his tone and the shift in his stance revealing that he wished nothing of such pagan rites.

"He must wed a woman of our royal line." Morgawse's eyes fell first on Morgan, then on Guinevere, then, after a long moment, on Persephone.

She bit back 'He already has'. Why was he betraying her? For his eyes did not move towards her.

Instead, he regarded the two other women, one dark, one fair who faced him. And she knew the truth of his choice. Morgan was as pagan as they came, rumored to be both a powerful witch and priestess of the terrible Morrigan. Leodegranz was Christian, as, one could presume, was his daughter.

"Then, I will wed Guinevere of Wales."

Hatred and confusion boiled up within Persephone's heart. She would see him brought down. She would...

...she could not. Without one unified leader, they would fall. So, instead, she stood there, watching.

Watching as he vanished into the church. Then, she understood. Arthur had converted to Christianity. A wife named after a Greek god could be nothing but an embarrassment to him and a bastard child could only be worse.

Yet, he owed her. Could he not see that?

She vowed to speak with him, before he could wed fair Guinevere. She had one thing that delicate, blonde woman with the slender hips did not.

She had his son.

Suomenlinna

Suomenlinna isn't the reason to go to Helsinki. But the fortress island is certainly a reason to go.

Yeah, check that out. Suomenlinna was originally called Sveaborg, when it was built by the Swedes to defend the entrance to Helsinki's harbor. (Suomenlinna means "The Castle of Finland" in Finnish). It covers six separate islands and 210 hectares, with 6 km of walls. It's a city district with a year round population of about 800, although that includes 100 prisoners in a minimum security prison (they do a lot of the grunt maintenance work while serving their sentence).

The island is a short (15 to 20 minute) ferry ride from Helsinki's old harbor. If you are entering or leaving Helsinki by sea and choose the Viking line or Silja line ferries that leave from the old harbor, you'll get the best views of Suomenlinna.

This is as our ferry squeezes through a channel barely wider than it is!

With several museums, a couple of restaurants (I recommend the old brewery located lit. in the building with the visitors' center, which should be an overpriced mediocre tourist stop but isn't), and lots of walking, the island is at least a days' time for most people. I could have spent two, easily.

Oh, and keep your phone charged. Some of the nooks and crannies require a flashlight. It's like a dungeon crawl...

Helsinki!

I didn't make it to WorldCon, but I did eventually make it to Helsinki. So, I figured I'd offer some thoughts on the place.

(In Helsinki, Peace is a woman).

Helsinki is a relatively new city. Much of the architecture is from the 1930s. Turrets everywhere. The city is on a peninsular that was very nearly an island. It's a walkable city - we only needed public transport to get to and from the airport and when we had luggage.

However, it's a very...decentralized...city. And I'd note I have a European concept of walkable. Many Americans (and anyone with mobility issues) are going to want to take advantage of the good deals on transit cards. There's no tourist area, the National Museum is a long way from, for example, Suomenlinna. Good restaurants are tucked away into random neighborhoods (look for Restaurant Kannas, which is lit. in a random neighborhood, is excellent, and has the feel of a good English pub).

It's also very much what I call an extrovert city. Public space is spread through the city, hostile architecture is rare. Public restrooms are common (and free!), especially in the waterfront parks and city beaches. Having a short summer seems to make the people of Helsinki appreciate it more and spend it all outside.

Be aware that Helsinki is a slightly formal city - unlike England or America, you can't get away with going out to dinner in a t-shirt. But it's also cosmopolitan enough that if Finnish food isn't to your taste you can get just about anything else. Albeit for city prices. The restaurants on the islands are very expensive and we didn't try them on the grounds that they were probably not that great. We also avoided the American paddle steamer with "American BBQ" that, per the menu, involves such gems as "Texas Chili & Toast" (Am I wrong in thinking Texans don't eat chili with toast?). We ate Finnish food because we can get the rest anywhere... Get the sauteed reindeer, which is a very old recipe and delicious with lingonberries. Well, everything is delicious with lingonberries.

And as you can see from the photo, the weather was beautiful.

Happy Hobbit Birthday

Hobbits give presents to other people on their birthdays. So, what do I have for you wonderful people?

The answer:

A cover reveal!

Thanks to impeccable timing I now have the cover for my next release, The Lay of Lady Percival (if you're wondering about Arana, it's still with betas). And here it is!

Isn't that just beautiful!

Barring something going wrong, the book should be available for pre-orders on September 16, with a full release October 1. This should allow for copies to be available at Capclave.

Here's the blurb, just to tempt you further:

Rome has fallen and the eagles have flown.

Left alone with her child when her lover, Arthur, leaves these shores, Persephone finds her world changed when he returns - as war duke and then King of Britain. She has the one thing he needs:

His son.

But he will not accept her as herself.

Thus is born the legend of Percival.

Thoughts on the Tolkein Biopic

Simply titled Tolkein, the biopic covers the early part of the man's life, focusing primarily on his school days and the events of World War I.

I decided to watch it for Hugo nomination purposes. It was...okay. I would not have put as much attention on the romance with Edith, but they likely did so because she was the only woman around. (Also, I can't see Colm Meaney as anything but Miles O'Brien no matter what he's doing).

Surprisingly, the best part of the movie was: The special effects. Tossing in Lord of the Rings visual references was almost certainly a way to make the movie more interesting (and it's been criticized for doing so whilst skipping schoolday shenanigans which would have been more interesting).

But the plot itself was unexciting. The family did not approve or endorse the biopic, although this may have been a blanket "Don't assume it's accurate" statement.

The magical realism approach was intriguing (and again, the effects were very well done). But the movie lacked any spark that would lead it to rest above average.

Nope, not getting my nomination. Nicholas Hoult did a good job, though. All the actors did. It just...

...took itself too seriously. I think that's the problem. Tolkein as a young man was a little wild and they hit the edges of that without letting it dominate. When it should have.

Review: Shazam!

I finally watched it...on a plane. Many of my friends loved this movie. Adored it. It got great reviews.

So, I'm going to apologize for this:

I didn't like it.

There were definite good points to this movie, although I don't get why it wasn't a Christmas release. The initial extended chase scene through the mall was entertaining and I loved Billy's use of his transformation tactically, turning back into a kid to evade the villain or just to make a smaller target. Zachary Levi was not quite my image of the character, but acted very well.

The problem I had really was the direction first and foremost. (And where the heck did Mary get the batarang). There was something about the visuals that left me feeling a little...cold, to be honest. Maybe I just don't like David Sandberg? It was refreshing to see a lighthearted story about found family after how grimdark DC has been lately, but it didn't warm my heart as much as it should have.

And then there was the kids getting Shazam!ed. It was an awesome moment when Billy literally stole the magic artifact the bad guy was going to use to steal his power and instead used it to share the power with his siblings. He couldn't beat the Sins without them. It should have been awesome.

Unfortunately, to me (others have expressed disagreement) it missed the point.

Billy's family are a wonderfully diverse group of kids. There are two girls - the older one is Mary Marvel, the younger one, Darla, is black. The three boys, Freddy, Eugene, and Pedro. Freddy is disabled and Pedro is fat.

Of course, when they get powered up, Freddy stops being disabled and Pedro stops being fat. And the two girls get pretty costumes. Darla's pretty natural hair transforms into a style that looks like it had her in a salon chair for hours.

And herein lies the problem.

No, a bunch of kids can't just defeat the bad guys. And Billy Batson/Captain Marvel has always been a child's power fantasy...having the power to stick up to the grownups without having to BE a grownup. But there was a fine line to tread here. There was a fine line between "Hey kids, you can be the hero of the story" and "You have to be fixed to be the hero" or "Becoming the hero fixes you."

And I'm not sure they hit the right side of it. The worst was the fat kid, who became a muscle-bound hulk. While his weight was never played for laughs...his transformation was. We live in a world where we have to be very careful not to push kids into disordered eating, and that part worried me. On the other hand, a portrayal of a fat kid as a hero is a good thing overall. So...it's a difficult line and where you place it is very hard.

The movie had some very strong good points, but I wasn't able to completely enjoy it.

Oh, and at the very end, they apparently couldn't afford to actually get Superman ;).