leavethesky

A new comic from Ignite Press by Stephanie Williams, Letizia Cadonici (main artist) and Juliet Nneka (alternate covers.) At the turn of the century, Etta, a young Black woman, studies both science and a book of old remedies she inherited from her mother, along with some dire warnings she doesn't heed.

This is a really interesting historical fantasy with elements of cosmic horror and dark academia. Each issue has alternate covers in very different styles. I like both of them.





I'll be following this one.

Content notes: So far racism is part of the world and why the characters make some choices, rather than violent or constantly present on-page. The rabbits are used in experiments that are not cruel - Etta tests a healing ointment on one that has an injury - but they seem likely to eventually turn into zombies or get possessed by cosmic horrors or merge with eldritch plants.

Once upon a time, the moon Panga was industrial and capitalist and miserable. Then robots suddenly and inexplicably gained self-awareness. They chose to stop working, leave human habitation, and go into the wilderness. The humans not only didn't try to stop them, but this event somehow precipitated a huge political change. Half of Panga was left to the wilderness, and humans developed a kinder, ecologically friendly, sustainable way of life. But the robots were never seen again.

That's all backstory. When the book opens, Sibling Dex, a nonbinary monk, is dissatisfied with their life for reasons unclear to themself. They leave the monastery to become a traveling tea monk, which is a sort of counselor: you tell the monk your troubles, and the monk listens and fixes you a cup of tea. Dex's first day on the job is hilariously disastrous, but they get better and better, until they're very good at it... but still inexplicably dissatisfied. So they venture out into the wilderness, where they meet a robot, Mosscap - the first human-robot meeting in hundreds of years.

I had previously failed to get very far into The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this novella. It's cozy in a good way, with plenty of atmosphere, a world that isn't quite perfect but is definitely one I'd like to live in, and some interesting philosophical exploration. My favorite part was actually Dex's life as a tea monk before they meet Mosscap - it's very relatable if you've ever been a counselor or therapist, from the horrible first day to the pleasure of familiar clients later on. I would absolutely go to a tea monk.

I would have liked Mosscap to be a bit more flawed - it's very lovable and has a lot of interesting things to say, but is pretty much always right. Mosscap is surprised and delighted by humanity, but I'm not sure Dex ever shakes up its worldview in a way it finds true but uncomfortable, which Mosscap repeatedly does to Dex. Maybe in the second novella, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy.

And while I'm on things which are implausibly neat/perfect, this is a puzzling backstory:

1) Robots gain self-awareness and leave.

2) ????

3) PROFIT! Society goes from capitalist hellscape to environmentalist paradise.

Maybe we'll learn more about the ???? later.

But overall, I did quite like the novella. The parts where Dex is a tea monk, with the interactions with their clients and their life in their caravan, are very successfully cozy - an instant comfort read. And I liked the robot society and the religious orders, as well as a lot of the Mosscap/Dex relationship. I'll definitely read the sequel.

I picked up this 1969 novel at a library book sale based on its premise. I had never heard of the author. One of the great pleasures of reading, at least for me, is trying random old books I've never heard of. In addition to the possibility that they might be good, they're also an interesting window into other times. (Often, alas, extremely racist and sexist times.)

Sixteen people, eight women and eight men, who were on a flight to London, wake up in plastic boxes on a short strip of road with a hotel, a grocery store, and two cars without engines. Everything else is a forest. Naturally, most of the women scream, faint, and cry, while most of the men randomly fight each other (!), or run around yelling. Our hero does this:

Russell Grahame, feeling oddly detached from the whole absurd carnival, ran his left hand mechanically and repeatedly through his hair in the characteristic manner that had earned him the sobriquet Brainstroker among his few friends in the House of Commons.

He then goes to the hotel, finds the bar, and has a drink. Everyone else eventually follows him, and he fixes them all drinks. They are a semi-random set of passengers, including two husband and wife couples, plus three young female domestic science students, one Indian, and one West Indian girl improbably named Selene Bergere. I have no idea why that name is improbable, but it's remarked on frequently as unlikely and eventually turns out to not be her real name (but everyone goes on calling her Selene, as she prefers it.) They can all understand each other despite speaking different languages.

Russell takes charge and appoints himself group leader. They find food (and cigarettes) at the market, select hotel rooms, and then the husband-and-wife physics teachers point out that 1) the constellations are not Earth's, 2) gravity is only 2/3rds Earth's and they can all jump six feet in the air! Astonishing that none of the others noticed before. I personally would have immediately run outside and fulfilled my lifelong dream of being able to do weightless leaping. Sadly none of them do this and the low gravity is never mentioned again.

They theorize that possibly they've been kidnapped by aliens, maybe for a zoo or experiment, and the gender balance means they're supposed to breed. Russell approvingly notes that many of the single people pair up immediately, and three of them threesome-up. This is like six hours after they arrived!

On the second night, one of the three female domestic science students kills herself because she feels unable to cope. The next day, a party goes exploring (Russell reluctantly allows women to take part as the Russian woman journalist reminds him that women are different from men but have their own strength) and one of the men falls in a spiked pit and dies. Good going, Russell! Three days and you've already lost one-eighth of your party!

All the supplies they take are replenished, and one of the men spies on the market and sees metal spiders adding more cartons of cigarettes. He freaks out and tries to kill himself.

I feel like a random selection of sixteen people ought to be slightly less suicidal, even under pressure. In fact probably especially under a sort of pressure in which everyone has quite nice food and shelter, and they seem perfectly safe as long as they don't explore the forest.

One of the guys tries to capture a spider robot, but gets tangled up in the wire he used as a trap and dragged to death. Again, this group is really not the best at survival.

We randomly get some diary entries from a gay guy who's sad that no one else is gay. He confesses to Russell that he's gay and Russell, in definitely his best moment, just says, "Wow, that must be really hard for you to not have any sexual partners here." Those are the only diary entries we get, and none of this ever comes up again.

They soon find that there are three other groups. One is a kind of feudal warrior people from a world that isn't earth where they ride and live off deer-horse creatures. Another is Stone Age people, who dug the spiked pits to hunt for food. The third are fairies. The language spell allows them all to communicate, except no one can speak to the fairies as they just appear for an instant then vanish. The non-fairy groups confirm that they were also vanished from where they come from.

Russell and his now-girlfriend Anna the Russian journalist theorize that the fairies are the ones who kidnapped them. They and a Stone Age guy set out to find the fairies...

( And then chickens save the day! )

So, was this a good book? Not really. Did anyone edit it? Doubtful. Did it have some interesting ideas and a good twist? Yes. Did I enjoy the hour and a half I spent reading it? Also yes. Would I ever re-read it? No. Do I recommend it? Only if you happen to also find it at a library book sale.

I am now 2 for 2 in reviewing every full length book I read in 2026! (I have not yet gotten to one manga, Night of the Living Cat # 1, and six single-issue comics, three each of Roots of Madness and They're All Terrible.) I think doing so will be good for my mental health and possibly also yours, considering what I and you could be doing on the internet instead of reading books and writing or reading book reviews.

Can I continue this streak??? Are you enjoying it?

My New Year's resolution is to attempt to review every full-length published book that I read this year. We'll see how it goes. For my first full-length read of 2026, which is obviously highly symbolic, I have of course carefully selected a beautifully written novel with deep themes and social importance.

Just kidding! I randomly picked up a trashy beach read novel from the 80s, purchased at a thrift shop, while in the bathroom, got surprisingly engrossed in it, and took it out of the bathroom to read on the sofa. Which, to be fair, is probably symbolic of both the year to come and my reading habits in general.



Above an exclusive men's store on Rodeo Drive there is a private club called Butterfly, where women are free to act out their secret erotic fantasies.

I have a thing for "fancy sex club/brothel with highly-paid sex workers who like their jobs and fulfill your erotic fantasies." So I bought this book (50 cents, at a thrift shop) and actually read it even though it's in a genre I almost never read, which is the fat beach read about rich people's sex lives written in the 1980s.

Butterfly follows three women who patronize the club, Butterfly. It's named for the beautiful little butterfly charm bracelets women wear to the store to identify themselves to the staff as patrons of the club, so they can be whisked upstairs to have their sexual fantasies satisfied (just by men, alas), whether that means recreating a cowboy bar complete with sawdust on the floor to a bedroom where a sexy burglar breaks in to a dinner date where you argue about books, yes really. The women are all accomplished and successful, but have something missing or wrong in their lives: the surgeon can't have an orgasm, the pool designer deals with on the job sexism, and the lawyer is married to an emotionally abusive asshole. Their time at Butterfly leads, whether directly or indirectly, to positive changes in their lives.

( Spoilers are almost certainly not what you're expecting. )

This novel, while dealing seriously with some serious topics, is also basically a fun beach read. I read it in winter with a space heater and hot cider, which also works. I'm not sure it converted me to the general genre of 80s beach reads, but I sincerely enjoyed it.

Content notes: Child sexual abuse, child sexual slavery (not at the Butterfly sex club, everyone's a consenting adult there), forced abortion, emotional abuse.