So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[bdub76]

And I'm still completely stumped on the matter of what "Heartless" is doing here (I'd expected something on Nick Chopper, or Captain Fyter, or maybe Jack Pumpkinhead, Tik-Tok, the Scarecrow, or the Sawhorse.)

I agree.

I was curious, so I read it at lunch. It would fit better in an I, Robot collection. This should have been rejected by the editors.

 

[JD]

"The Lost Princess of Zo," by Delilah S. Dawson: This is a dark tale in which Dorothy finds herself in a perverted version of Oz, with nods to the 1939 movie, and is in particular a dark alternate version of The Lost Princess of Oz. And instead of ending, it just stops, abruptly, with nothing resolved.

That reminds me, I really need to read her Captain Phasma book one of these days, it's been in my Google Play Books account for ages.

 

[youngtrek]

It’s the last night of September and I don’t think I’ll be finishing any books tonight. So, here’s my September reading:

Finished “The Crisis Companion: From Flash of Two Worlds to Infinite Earths and Beyond” by Kevin Miller (TwoMorrows, 2026).

Read two Star Trek comics collected editions recently released by IDW:

“Star Trek: Voyager: Homecoming” by Susan Bridges, Tilly Bridges, Angel Hernandez, and Charlie Kirchoff (IDW, 2026; reprints “Star Trek: Voyager: Homecoming” #1-5 (September 2025 to February 2026))

“Star Trek: The Last Starship Volume 1” by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzang, and Adrian Bonilla) (IDW, 2026; reprints “Star Trek: Voyager: Homecoming” #1-6 (September 2025 to March 2026))

Also got to halfway or more into the following books which will count towards next month once I finish them: Becattini Alberto’s “Disney Comics: The Whole Story” (2024), “Kingdom of the Wicked” by Kerri Maniscalco (2020), and a reread of “Star Wars: The Courtship of Princess Leia” (1994).

Updated GoodReads 2026 Reading Challenge total: 33 of 75 books read (44%).


— David Young

 

[bdub76]

I have one story left in the King in Yellow. It's been an enjoyable read so far.

I'm about half way through The Great God Pan.

And I'm about a quarter of the way through Uncle Silas.

Still figuring out my October reads.

 

[MLJames1961]

Even though I've already started on it, my Poe collection read-through is technically my October project, so I put it on temporary hold until Thursday. Spent most of yesterday and today on the bus going to and from various appointments, so I used the time to finish off a book I've owned for a couple of years but never got around to reading: Simon R. Green's Beyond the Blue Moon. After I finished it, I still had time on the trip home to start its follow-up, Once in a Blue Moon. Beyond the Blue Moon's going to be my last book of the month, though.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I agree.

I was curious, so I read it at lunch. It would fit better in an I, Robot collection. This should have been rejected by the editors.

I wish you hadn't agreed with me. And I wish I didn't agree so completely with your suggestion of where it should have been anthologized. Because I'm still completely puzzled by what it's doing here.

Moving on to "Heart's Desire," by Robert Shearman (and I'd like to remark that the page headings in this book are extremely well done, using a convention that is as good as the one I adopted from the old Stratemeyer children's novels).

This is the story of a newly-minted widower who is despondent and withdrawn with grief. And he has a haunting/hallucination/divine visitation/recurring dream that manifests itself in the imagery of Dorothy's journey to the Emerald City.

J. Kelly Harper's scathing customer review on Amazon declared, "I opened to a random page, and two characters were having sex." The last page of this story may have been that random page, but I will note that (as with the sex scenes and the narrow escape from date-rape in my own novel-in-progress) literally everything is left to the reader's imagination. If this "J. Kelly Harper" found this offensive, then he(?) definitely should avoid David Gerrold's When HARLIE Was One.

 

[MLJames1961]

If this "J. Kelly Harper" found this offensive, then he(?) definitely should avoid David Gerrold's When HARLIE Was One.

Let alone The Man Who Folded Himself.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Never read it. I just looked it up on Wikipedia. O........k.

I will note that for close to three decades, a framed quote from HARLIE has hung in my office:

IBM
UBM
We all BM
for IBM​

 

[bdub76]

I wish you hadn't agreed with me. And I wish I didn't agree so completely with your suggestion of where it should have been anthologized. Because I'm still completely puzzled by what it's doing here.

It's the only story that I have read in that collection. And it came off as more of a Asimov robot ripoff than Wizard of OZ fanfic. Basically, it boiled down the AI having "laws" that made the situation at the end happen. It was an okay story that did give off some YA vibes.

I also finished King in Yellow. Now, talk about a book of short stories with genres all over the place. It had some good yarns, but I'm not sure I would recommend. For stuff like this, I'm enjoying Arthur Machen more.

And I have two more chapters for The Great God Pan, which I do recommend. It's an interesting read.