The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal (2025)

The Martian Contingency cover artI have one friend in particular who tells me about good SF, and I am always laughably behind in picking up new authors to read.  The original short story “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” was published in 2012 and the three prior books in the series were published in 2018 and 2020.  I read them all in 2024 and this fourth book I read within a month of its release! (I also have read a standalone book not in this series by the author.)

This series takes place as an alternate history where women were not originally disqualified as astronauts.  The alternate timeline extends as the story does, with this book taking place in 1970.  I really liked this latest entry and devoured the book in less than two days.  I highly recommend it. If you haven’t read the series yet go back and start with the original short story, which you can find free at what is now reactormag.com.

Backstage at the Strips by Mort Walker, 1975

Cover imageWhen I was a kid and trying to feed my insatiable appetite for comics and information about the comics, I used to haunt the ‘741’ section of the local library. In the Dewey Decimal System, that is where the art books, including whatever was stocked for comics, would be found.

I probably read this book first in 1979 or so.  After rereading it as an adult, I can guarantee I didn’t understand many of Walker’s anecdotes dealing with drinking and sex/sexual tension!  The book reads as a loving roast of Walker’s contemporaries and mentors, but Walker also serves himself up as a target of stories. Someone reading this book for the first time might not even get a fair amount of the references, but as a capsule of what the newspaper strip business was like it’s a great resource.

I have a softcover edition in excellent shape that I picked up on vacation for original cover price. A great deal!  You get to see the origins of Beetle Bailey and Hi & Lois and the back twenty percent of the book is strip reprints.  My only complaint is that some of the graphics don’t reproduce well and are hard to read.

I have a small library about newspaper strips and it was a wonderful surprise to be able to add this childhood read to my permanent library.

Harley Quinn Season 5, (2025, Max)

Harley Quinn Season 5Even though I’m not a huge fan of Harley Quinn -overall-, there are certain takes on the character that have held my interest. The Max series is one of them. I enjoy the voice actors, and that I am reviewing it the week that episode 10’s finale dropped speaks to how much I like it.

It’s a strange alt-DC where you can have the Joker hanging out with Bruce Wayne and Bane is weirdly passive.  The main plot of the season wasn’t that great, but that’s mainly an excuse to get some interesting B & C stories going with the fairly large cast of characters.

The show hasn’t yet been renewed for a sixth season, and it ends in a satisfying way if this is it for this iteration.  If you’ve never seen it, and you can handle the dialogue that is very much NSFW (or kids) it’s a fun and fast watch with each episode less than a half-hour.