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Pacifist Dorsai, space forts, duelling reviews, a rant about that mean Mr. Einstein and more in this issue of Destinies.

Destinies, February-March 1980 (Destinies, # 6) edited by Jim Baen
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Twelve books new to me. Four fantasies, one horror, one non-fiction, and six (!) science fiction works, of which at least four are series instalments.

Books Received, September 27 — October 3

Poll #33688 Books Received, September 27 — October 3
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 56


Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

Children of Fallen Gods by Carissa Broadbent (December 2025)
3 (5.4%)

Enchanting the Fae Queen by Stephanie Burgis (January 2026)
8 (14.3%)

The Language of Liars by S. L. Huang (April 2026)
22 (39.3%)

We Burned So Bright by T. J. Klune (April 2026)
20 (35.7%)

We Could Be Anyone by Anna-Marie McLemore (May 2026)
7 (12.5%)

These Godly Lies by Rachelle Raeta (July 2026)
3 (5.4%)

The New Prometheans: Faith, Science, and the Supernatural
15 (26.8%)

Every Exquisite Thing by Laura Steven (July 2026)
4 (7.1%)

The Infinite State by Richard Swan (August 2026)
6 (10.7%)

Green City Wars by Adrian Tchaikovsky (June 2026)
24 (42.9%)

Moss’d in Space by Rebecca Thorne (July 2026)
19 (33.9%)

Platform Decay by Martha Wells (May 2026)
41 (73.2%)

Some other option (see comments)
0 (0.0%)

Cats!
39 (69.6%)

Yom Kippur

Oct. 3rd, 2025 04:07 pm
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Yes. More like this, please.

Today is busy, building the sukkah and preparing for Shabbat, so brief notes will have to suffice for now.

I had no length expectations for Kol Nidrei. Ran about 2.5 hours, including a speech from the synagogue president which is pretty common. Before the service started, someone from the congregation played the Kol Nidrei melody on a violin; I recognized the styling and ornaments from the much longer version Temple Sinai does on cello and piano. Shorter and before the service was nice. I assume there is a "thing" about people expecting to hear the Kol Nidrei melody on bowed strings, but I don't know more than that. I thought it was just a Reform thing (Sinai and Rodef both do it during the service).

The essays in this year's seasonal book from Hadar were helpful, and fit nicely in that block of time between getting home and going to sleep.

Being able to spend the entire day in synagogue makes a big difference to me. I'm glad my new synagogue doesn't have a long stretch of down-time mid-afternoon like some do. We had classes and discussions -- optional and small, as most people left, but we didn't have to. Nice.

Morning service was somewhere around 5 hours (I didn't notice exactly), not including Avodah and Eleh Ezkarah which followed after a short break (5 minutes? 10?). For Avodah the rabbi interjected a lot of teaching, and he really encouraged people to try the prostration which was done by the people (not just the kohanim) when this was an actual service in the temple. He taught us how to do it and was very encouraging, so I tried it and am glad I did.

After, I was chatting with someone else who had tried it for the first time, and said that I came from a Reform background and had not expected to connect with the Avodah service until that year during lockdown when my synagogue was closed and I went to an Orthodox synagogue. "But," I said, "there was a song I'd heard a week before that also helped set the stage" and she immediately said "Yishai Ribo". Yes. So we chatted about that for a bit while waiting for classes to start.

For the afternoon haftarah reading (the book of Jonah) they had about a dozen teenagers chanting it, taking it in turns. It's great to see that many teens who are interested.

Hineni is in exactly the spot where it makes sense. (Contrast with my Reform experiences.)

Most of the service leaders were lay people who were very good -- strong voices and able to lead singing, mindful of what they were saying, evoked kavanah. Afterwards someone who knows I'm a new member asked me what I thought about having lay leaders instead of the rabbis (this also happens on Shabbat) and I said this is a positive thing and while our rabbis are great (I've seen both of them lead; they are), it's important to empower other qualified leaders too. Most of the Reform world seems to not agree with that perspective, which might be why the person asked.

By the time we got to the Amidah in Mincha I was ready to be done with the many-times-repeated Vidui sections. I didn't want to not be thinking about wrongs; rather, I wanted to be thinking about different wrongs after going through these ones so many times already. We human beings are very creative, alas, and since some things on the standard list do not resonate for me, it feels like I could be spending that time reflecting on things that do and that aren't on the list. (I ended up just focusing on the ones that seemed more directly to be areas for improvement.) For next year, perhaps I'll look for alternate lists to being with me for when the standard list is no longer sparking the thoughts it was designed to.

This is a placeholder for something I meant to talk about in my Rosh Hashana post too: differences between the individual and public Amidah, public is not just for listening but also has congregational singing parts, and I think Reform threw the baby out with the bath water, realized the tub was empty, and filled it up with other stuff instead of getting some of this goodness back. I will try to come back to this soon.

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Forgotten again by her family, Joan Greenwood discovers that this time her witch-kin had a legitimate excuse: a potentially existential threat to Greenwood power and privilege.

An Unlikely Coven (Green Witch Cycle, volume 1) by AM Kvita
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A field agent armed with privacy-violating technology searches for Nazi loot--stolen diamonds--on behalf of a South African diamond cartel.

Probe (Search, # 1) by Leslie Stevens & Russ Mayberry

Last night's dream

Oct. 2nd, 2025 08:28 am
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I dreamed I discovered a weapon in Half Life 2 that would generate and hurl at considerable speed empty shipping containers.

Bundle of Holding: The Far Roofs

Oct. 1st, 2025 02:01 pm
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The complete tabletop RPG about the heroic rats of Fortitude

Bundle of Holding: The Far Roofs

October 2025 Patreon Boost

Oct. 1st, 2025 10:59 am
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You too can support James Nicoll Reviews.

October 2025 Patreon Boost
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Akiko's plan to become Japan's foremost manga artist is manifestly reasonable, so why will reality not cooperate?

Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist's Journey„ volume 1 by Akiko Higashimura

September 2025 in Review

Sep. 30th, 2025 12:22 pm
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21 works reviewed. 11 by women (52%), 9 by men (43%), 1 by non-binary authors (5%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (0%), and 8 by POC (38%).

The chart is breaking formatting. Need to fix or remove it. I do like charts, though.

September 2025 in Review

Bundle of Holding: 5E Treasures

Sep. 29th, 2025 02:01 pm
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A magical hoard for Fifth Edition roleplaying

Bundle of Holding: 5E Treasures

Clarke Award Finalists 2016

Sep. 29th, 2025 12:15 pm
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2016: The Chilcot Inquiry illustrates the meticulous process by which the UK went to war in Iraq, Lord Lucan is declared dead, and the UK’s narrow vote to leave the EU is at worst the second stupidest collective decision made by a Western democracy in 2016.

Pretend I caught that the poll autofilled the wrong question and that it reads "which 2016 Clarke Award finalists did you read?"

Poll #33672 Clarke Award Finalists 2016
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 52


Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
22 (42.3%)

Arcadia by Iain Pears
2 (3.8%)

Europe at Midnight by Dave Hutchinson
7 (13.5%)

The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor
12 (23.1%)

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
44 (84.6%)

Way Down Dark by James Smythe
0 (0.0%)



Bold for have read, italic for intend to read, underline for never heard of it.

Which 2016 Clarke Award finalists did you read??
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Arcadia by Iain Pears
Europe at Midnight by Dave Hutchinson
The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Way Down Dark by James Smythe

I don't know what to make of this

Sep. 28th, 2025 08:37 pm
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The Cherryh titles I dropped into ngram fell into 3 patterns:

Ones whose titles don't play nicely with ngrams. I dropped those.
Ones where the mentions per year decline fairly steadily year to year.
Cyteen. What's up with Cyteen? Did Jo Walton mention it on tor dot com around 2009?
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Six works new to me: four fantasy, one mystery, one non-fiction (from an unexpected source)... unless you count the fantasy-mystery as mystery, in which case it's three fantasy and two mysteries. At least two are series. I don't know why publishers are so averse to labelling series.

Books Received, September 20 — September 26

Poll #33662 Books Received, September 20 — September 26
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 44


Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

An Ordinary Sort of Evil by Kelley Armstrong
12 (27.3%)

Sea of Charms by Sarah Beth Durst (July 2026)
13 (29.5%)

Following My Nose by Alexei Panshin (December 2024)
12 (27.3%)

The Fake Divination Offense by Sara Raasch (May 2026)
8 (18.2%)

The Harvey Girl by Dana Stabenow (February 2026)
9 (20.5%)

Scarlet Morning by ND Stevenson (September 2025)
18 (40.9%)

Some other option (see comments)
1 (2.3%)

Cats!
33 (75.0%)

Bound Feet by Kelsea Yu

Sep. 26th, 2025 09:17 am
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A grieving mother and her best friend break into a ghost museum to conduct illicit but surely harmless Ghost Day celebrations. Revelations await.

Bound Feet by Kelsea Yu

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