A Green Man Review

I like living in the future. — Sub-Inspector Ferron in Elizabeth Bear’s In the House of Aryaman, A Lonely Signal Burns story

Iain here. Just give me a second to set aside the copy of Elizabeth Bear’s In the House of Aryaman, A Lonely Signal Burns story I’m reading, one of two that involving Sub-Inspector Ferron, the other being “A Blessing of Unicorns”. We’ve been talking about the winter afternoon that she carefully tended a pot of turkey stock that many hours later would become one of the most tasty turkey veggie soups ever encountered by anyone ‘ere.

So several years ago I got to interview her about all things culinary that interested her, ranging from her ideal picnic basket, what makes a great winter hearty meal and even the perfect brownie.

Now let’s get to this edition.

I think that her White Space series is without doubt her finest one to date, so let’s have Gary talk about them.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Elizabeth’s three SF books set in the White Space universe she’s created. It’s named after the only vaguely explained “space folding” effect by which people of all kinds, not just humans, traverse this far future galaxy. The stories told in the three books — Ancestral Night, Machine, and The Folded Sky, — are not related at all except by being set in roughly the same time span. What they share is that, though they’re definitely space operas with faster than light ships and exciting space battles and exploding stars, they’re much more focused on the inner space of their protagonists, all of whom are incidentally on the gender queer spectrum.

‘Ancestral Night is the tale of Haimey Dz, a nominally lesbian engineer on a little salvage tug whose ship mind is named Singer and which is piloted by her friend Connla Kurucz,’ Gary notes. ‘On this salvage run, they’re way out in one of the far arms of the galaxy investigating an anomaly that turns out to be a highly valuable artifact as well as a horrendous crime scene. They’re almost immediately attacked by someone, probably pirates who also seem to be interested in the artifact. And, needless to say, adventures ensue.’ Along with the adventures, Haimey deals with internal struggles as well. ‘We spend a great deal more time inside Haimey’s head as she grapples with her past and the lies she has believed about it, and tries to come to terms with who she is and is not.’

‘The story of Machine is several things — including murder mystery, police procedural, and utopian/dystopian novel – wrapped up in a space opera,’ Gary says. ‘Our protagonist this time is Brookllyn Jens, usually just called Llyn. She’s a doctor and rescue specialist on a fast ambulance ship. And a former cop. Llyn has a genetic condition that causes severe generalized neuralgia so she uses a sophisticated, not quite sentient exoskeletal body suit to help her get around and manage the constant pain.’ It’s an adventure mystery involving an ancient ship full of corpsicles and a self-replicating machine that could threaten the entire galactic civilization known as the Synarche. ‘But as with Haimey Dz in Ancestral Night, it’s Llyn and her character’s growth arc that Bear uses to tease out some of the more elaborate and deep questions that face the Synarche and our own reality-based human society. ‘

‘Is it just me, or is Elizabeth Bear’s third entry in her White Space series actually a cozy mystery?’ Gary asks rhetorically in his review of The Folded Sky. ‘One that just happens to be wrapped up in a dramatic and far-ranging space opera?’ He goes on to explain: ‘Dr. Sunya Song is an expert at teasing information out of ancient archives. She has travelled long and far to an exotic location to do just that, surviving an attack by pirates along the way, only to discover that her wife and their two children have unexpectedly arrived before her, as a surprise. Sunya is very surprised and actually quite dismayed, because they came on a ship piloted by a treacherous former lover and professional rival, who seems bent on both undermining Sunya professionally and stealing the affections of her teenage daughter. Then someone poisons a member of their expedition, Sunya is attacked and injured, and their host asks her to do some sleuthing to try and discover who is behind the attacks. Oh, the pirates are still circling, and the dilapidated habitation where they’re staying also seems to be haunted!’

Gary here with new music. I’ve been savoring an album of Balkan vocal polyphony, Neha!’s Svetu. The six women of Neha! plus their choral director present traditional music in new ways, always giving context and commentary that helps square the old lyrics with modern values. ‘Beautiful traditional songs presented in creative arrangements, stunning performances by singers and musicians, and a generous booklet with notes about each song and an introduction to each singer — Neha!’s Svetu is a must have for anyone who enjoys Central European polyphonic singing, or really world music of any kind.’

I greatly enjoyed Counting Sunsets, the new album from SUSS, the New York trio that practically invented the genre known to its devotees as Ambient Americana. ‘Counting Sunsets‘ is maybe their most focused recording yet, 10 tracks that are relatively short for the genre, almost all well under five minutes, exploring related yet subtly different moods. And it’s very relatable — everyone’s seen and marveled at a sunset, right?’

And I rejoiced at the forthcoming release of the latest from the Norwegian jazz fusion power trio Bushman’s Revenge. ‘Sometimes when I’m stressed I look to a pensive piano trio to calm myself. At other times, I want a wall of noise, driven by passion but not taking itself too seriously. That’s exactly the role Bushman’s Revenge has played for me these past few wild and crazy years. That’s what makes Ah, Les Vaches! and others of their oeuvre so indespensible.’

From the Archives, since we’re talking about Balkan music … one of my favorites ever is Ion Petre Stoican’s Sounds From A Bygone Age, Vol. 1. ‘This is fiery, joyous music obviously played by true professionals. The album is dominated by the rapid hora and sirba styles, with some forays into slower pieces now and again. On a typical track, the melody will first be played on cymbalom, or occasionally clarinet or accordion, with Stoican taking over on his violin by the second verse.’

And Judith reviewed a rare disc of Balkan music, tambura virtuoso Adam  Good’s Dances Of Macedonia and the Balkans. ‘Without loud attention grabbing gaidas, clarinets, and accordions, this quick dance music may seem more exotic and introspective than some Balkan music; certainly without the gimmicks, this album is much less imposing than modern Balkan music often is! But Good is good at what he does, playing quick dance tunes on tambura with an intricate style — the music goes well with wine.’

Sometime ago, Elizabeth narrated a story of hers for a podcast, ‘The Chains That You Refuse.’ she gave us permission to use it, so here it is; do enjoy!

When I was young and in my prime (in my prime)
I left my home in Caroline
Now all I do is sit and pine, for all those folks I left behind

I got the Blue Ridge mountain blues, and I sat right here to say
‘My grip is packed to travel, and I’m back to ramble
to my Blue Ridge far away’

John Fogerty’s Blue Ridge Mountain Blues

Cat here. I’ve spent the last several months in wheelchair after breaking my left hip in late February. I’ve spent a lot of time listening to audiobooks with V.H. Schwab’s The Fragile Threads of Power,  the latest in her Dark Shades of Magic series, while working on websites, talking to friends on the web and generally not being terribly fond of the fact that I can’t get out at all other than briefly going to medical appointments.

Oh and eating a sugar free strawberry cream that I found. A most  delicious ice cream! Food is a nice obsession when you’re home more than you want to be.

So I was talking to Jennifer who had sent me a really great salt chocolate brownie about a month ago that I had warmed up with vanilla ice cream on the top.  I must say it was quite delicious. See more food.

She told me she’d put up a review of a book, The Death and Birth of Iliana Mare, and I realised that more likely we had not done in awhile where book reviews that were not about a single author, but were reviews written by a single individual as the last time was Gary. And of course, these would be the ones done by Jennifer. So read her reviews to see what she likes to read. I think you’ll find it interesting.

When you get done there, head down to the music to see what Gary dug out for you this week, including something new from one of the Thompsons, and some Americana of all kinds including some from Catalonia and some that draws on African and South Asian folk songs.

So do you remember Creedence Clearwater Revival and its local vocalist John Fogerty? Well, we finish off this edition with a tasty piece of live music from him and if you read the lyrics leading off this edition, you know what it is. So when you get done with the reviews go listen to it.

Jennifer, aided by guest reviewer Rich Bynum, looks at the two latest collections of short fiction, Jamaica Ginger and Other Concoctions and Falling in Love in Hominids, by Nalo Hopkinson from Tachyon Publications. She regrets that a review of every story–even of just her favorites–would run almost as long as a Hopkinson story, but by damn these are all good.

Now she talks about the things she loves in Nalo Hopkinson’s The New Moon’s Arms, which is less a fantasy novel than women’s fiction with magical realism.

So next she took a chance on a gritty thriller by David Liss and read it at a sitting. The Death and Birth of Iliana Marek flips the genders on the fainting maid and her deadly protector and drops them into a small Florida town full of bad cops and bullies.

I wonder how she got her greedy little paws on Barbara Monajem’s third Rosie & McBrae Regency mystery, Lady Rosamund and the Plague of Suitors, and got to watch Rosie wallow in wads of wicked mothers, wealthy would-be wooers, and the wit of that hot Scot, McBrae.

Finally she loves a Daniel Pinkwater novel, Jules, Penny & the Rooster, another goofy and comforting middle-grade chapter book about the enchanted forest in Jules’ back yard. And yes, there is a magic turtle!

Gary here with some new music, much of which can be loosely slotted into Americana. Beginning with an album by the startlingly creative Annick Odom. ‘Annick Odom is an artist of multiple talents from West Virginia. On Linen Of Words she combines composition, storytelling, singing and playing (double bass, clarinet, fiddle, acoustic guitar), and has enlisted the talents of more than 20 musicians from jazz, classical, old-time string band, and Sacred Harp communities on a program of traditional and experimental music and spoken word.’

‘Well, it looks like Teddy Thompson is still sad, and that’s good news for those who love his sad songs,’ I note in the next review. ‘I should say “Teddy Thompson” is still sad, as in the persona; I can’t attest one way or the other to the emotional state of Teddy himself. Either way, the unlucky in love guy, and the just plain bad at love guy, are still much in evidence on his eighth solo studio album Never Be The Same.’

Next up is an omnibus review with five new offerings, starting with an album that was dreamed up over some very large drinks — thus the title of Sweet Megg’s Massive Negroni. ‘Sweet Megg grew up as Megg Farrell in New York City, came up singing folk music in the bars and coffee houses of the East Village and Brooklyn, studied jazz singing in Paris, did a stint in Cirque du Soleil, and is now based in Nashville, where she’s currently singing a jazz-flavored version of Americana, or possibly an Americana-tinged type of jazz. Either way, it’s mixed with a dash of classic country and a bit of the blues, and boy does it swing.’

The Milk Carton Kids’ Lost Cause Lover Fool is their seventh studio album of sad Americana folk songs. ‘Two voices, sometimes in unison but mostly in harmony, two guitars, with one sometimes swapped out for a banjo; an occasional double bass or drums.’

The Catalonian group Foresta’s Esclat de Maig (“burst of May”) presents folk songs ‘in the tradition of their home region in the form of Irish and American folk songs. The result is an appealing blend of the familiar guitar and fiddle based tunes of Appalachia and Ireland with lyrics in the Catalan tongue.’

Finally in this omni is the self titled debut of the Appalachian group Tanasi. ‘Similar to the way Foresta sets Catalonian folk songs to Appalachian and Irish music, the U.S.A. based worldgrass band Tanasi translates African and South Asian tunes and songs to an American stringband setting. As their press release says, not so much shoehorning one style of music into another, but finding “the natural meeting points where rhythm, melody, and human connection overlap.” ‘

Cat found a concert recording, John Fogerty’s The Long Road Home which he really liked: ‘Though Creedence Clearwater Revival was one of the best bands of the Sixties, I’m more fond of the recordings of the post-CCR career of vocalist John Fogerty. And his best recordings are by far the concert recordings, both the legit ones like this release and of course the many bootlegs done as soundboard recordings.’

Of course we can’t leave you without music from him, so here is ‘Blue Ridge Mountain Blues’ from his concert at the Air Canada Centre, Toronto seventeen years ago.

But that is the nature of grammar—it is always tense, like an instrument, aching for release, longing to transform present into past into future, is into was into will. — Amal El-Mohtar’s The River Has Roots

Everything has a story to it. Obviously a written work of fiction is a story such as the very extensive James S. A. Corey’s Expanse series, the first of which, Leviathan Wakes, Gary reviewed for us this week.

So is music, be it with words or not because all music tells a story doesn’t it? Just listen to it and you’ll experience that as in the work of Albanian singer Elina Duni also reviewed by Gary; and I’ve been listening to Congolese music lately, which I have no idea what the lyrics are but it’s still great stuff!

Even food tells a story. Take Lars’ review of Judith M. Bennett’s Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England, as that liquid refreshment has a long and fascinating history, and the review by Lars is also worth reading as it, like all reviews, tells a story of own.

So let’s  consider what happens to a text when it is used as a basis for an audiobook that goes beyond just being a straight reading. The River has Roots has reviewer Paul says was ‘transportative and immersive audio experience’ to him as it was more than a text having music to enhance it and and actual songs as well. Is that the same story, or a different one? You decide.

And film allows us to see and hear a story. So it is with both versions  of The Lion in Winter as Aurora tells us, ‘The title, for those of you rusty with your English history, refers to King Henry II (the lion was his crest) being in the “winter” of his life. At this point in history Henry’s kingdom stretched into France and he was in need of choosing an heir. Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry’s wife, was imprisoned in a castle (thanks to Henry who was the key keeper). Goldman’s story is a fictional account of the Christmas court held to determine the future king. A complicated story this is, and the wit in the script combined with the actors’ stellar timing make it worth watching again and again.’

Finally there’s Art Spiegelman’s Maus, A Survivor’s Tale, Vol. I, My Father Bleeds History also reviewed by Gary in which the tale of, as Gary tells us, ‘Maus is the story in comic form of Spiegelman’s father’s experience of the Holocaust. The Jews in Poland are represented as mice, the Nazis as thuggish cats, the Poles as big slow pigs. It’s also the story of Spiegelman’s efforts to retrieve that story from his father. In essence, it chronicles the way in which Art Spiegelman comes to understand Vladek Spiegelman.’

So different ways of telling a story, but still stories all.

Gary greatly enjoyed Alison Bechdel’s latest comic novel Spent, in which a fictionalized Bechdel lives on a goat rescue farm financed by the proceeds of a streaming TV show based on her debut graphic memoir. ‘Lots of little plot strands keep you turning the pages. But mostly it’s Bechdel’s wry but humane observations about humans and human nature that keep you with her. This version of Alison Bechdel really does live in a Fun House.’

Gary finally got around to reading James S. A. Corey’s first book in The Expanse series. ‘I greatly enjoyed Leviathan Wakes, racing through its 500-some pages in near record time, and plan to proceed through all nine of the series novels published so far. (Taking time out, of course, for the upcoming installments in their new The Captives’ War series.)’

He also enjoyed the action and humor in a new book just out this month. ‘Award winning author Suzanne Palmer adds to her growing stack of novel-length SF with Ode to the Half-Broken, an engaging tale of friendship and treachery, adventure and revenge among post-apocalypse AI “mechs” and a few surviving humans in what used to be the United States.

Gary here with new music. I’m always pleased to see another album featuring Albanian singer Elina Duni come over the transom, and Reaching For The Moon, the new one by Duni and guitarist Rob Luft, definitely lived up to expectations. ‘The album’s title sets the mood, and this duo’s cover of the Irving Berlin standard “Reaching For The Moon” that opens the album is deliciously tender and melancholy.’

If you’re hungry for some Latin jazz, you won’t find any better than the tango inflected big band sound of Handmade from the Grammy winning Emilio Solla & La Inestable de Brooklyn,’ as I say in this review.  ‘Solla is a pianist and composer born in Argentina and now based in New York, and Handmade is his 15th album.’

Nashville fixture Jim Lauderdale and red-hot bluegrass band The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys just put out their second album, and The Birds Know is a winner. ‘As you might expect from such luminous company, the music they make together is quite good. Lauderdale wrote these 11 songs just for this session, and, well, it’s for the birds! Including the album title and the song of that name, this musical aviary is packed with feathered friends, starting with the opening track “Two Crows.” ‘

‘This is primarily party music, designed to get you up and dancing,’ I say in my review of the Catalan folk rock band Fenya Rai!’s live disc 10 anys de fenya! ‘This is their fourth record since 2019, but they’ve been together a bit longer, and this big double album with 19 tracks compiles a couple of concerts they at the Festa Major de Sant Joan in their hometown of Valls in June 2025.’

Finally, a bit of new jazz from Scandinavia. ‘Take a bit of Art Ensemble of Chicago, a pinch of Frank Zappa’s 1988 big touring band, and a dab of the Stanford Marching Band, give them some pop-adjacent tunes and turn them loose in the studio, and you’ll have an idea of what to expect from Tales of No Consequence, the fifth album from Bergen, Norway’s avant garde jazz ensemble Whatever Happens Don’t Be Yourself.

Chicago’s ‘Saturday in the Park’ is a song I’ve heard playing off and on over the past forty years . It’s certainly an upbeat, feel good summer song much like ‘Love Shack’ by the B-52s. It was recorded on 6th of August 1982 at the Park West in Chicago.

It was released on Chicago V in 1972 and peaked on the Billboard carts at number three which is quite impressive. It was lovely enough that I never get tired of it, Hutu I’ve prattled on enough about it, so here’s that song for you to have the pleasure of hearing performed live.

There were two things Janey Little loved best in the world: music and books, and not necessarily in that order.

Her favorite musician was the late Billy Pigg, the Northumbrian piper from the northeast of England whose playing had inspired her to take up the small pipes herself as her principal instrument. — Charles de Lint‘s The Little Country

Greetings on this fine post-Equinox day. I’m Gary, the music editor, sitting in. They installed me and my ink-stained fingers here in the unusually quiet Pub while most everyone else on the Estate is out doing useful and needful things involving dirt and stones and various hand tools and such. So naturally, my thoughts turned to the subject of Drink and the many pieces of music and literature on that topic that we’ve covered down the years. I’m not saying I sampled any of the ample wares by which I’m surrounded, but you  may notice that things get a bit confused, with music stealing over into books and vice versa … but well, Art is an expression of the Divine and Eternal, and all categories are but human constructs, right?

A couple of my favorite things are history and alcohol, so you just know I’d enjoy books that combine the two. Here are a couple that I’ve covered:

How would you like to be able to buy a glass of gin from a vending machine on a public street? You could in 18th century London, according to Jessica Warner in her book Craze: Gin and Debauchery in an Age of Reason. It wasn’t a good idea. ‘Warner makes a persuasive case in Craze that the so-called gin craze in London in the early 18th century was the first modern drug crisis. And that the lessons from that period are relevant today.’

I was fascinated by Susan Cheever’s Drinking in America, a social and political history. ‘Cheever traces the pendulum swings of America’s relationship with alcohol, from nearly universal besottedness by the 1830s, through a gradual drying out through the remainder of the 19th century leading up to Prohibition, then another upswing during the Roaring ’20s to a peak in the 1950s and ’60s, then moving in ever-quicker swings to the present day.’

I enjoyed researching and writing this review of Block 15 Brewing Company’s The London Chronicle. ‘This one-off seasonal ale from my favorite local brewery is billed as ‘the perfect dark beer for a warm spring afternoon,’ and I can attest that it is so.’

One of my favorite beer reviews we’ve published was Kelly Caspari’s write-up of Russian River Brewery’s Pliny the Elder. Considering I generally dislike the hoppy bitterness of IPA’s, I’m astonished I enjoyed Pliny the Elder. I shouldn’t be, as the only other hoppy beer I’ve actually liked was another Russian River Brewery IPA, Blind Pig, which displays the same grapefruity character.’

Our much missed Vonnie Carts-Powell attended and reported on a lecture she attended, The Bacchanalian Tradition in British Isles Songs, 1600-1900, by David Ingle of the Folk Song Society of Greater Boston. ‘It’s hard to go wrong when you’re talking about (and singing) drinking songs to a group of amiable and lubricated folkies in a warm room on a cold, rainy night.’

‘This album is like sitting on the perimeter of an after hours fiddle jam at a Scandinavian folk festival,’ I say in my review of Hans Kjorstad’s Dålågjel. That’s a good thing, mind you. ‘Five fiddlers sawing away at hoary old Norwegian dance tunes, each of them occasionally swapping out the fiddle for some kind of percussion, a lute or a lyre, a mouth harp or portable pump organ. A couple of times they even break into song, an old Norse hymn about how good it is to love Jesus.’

‘Some of my favorite jazz music is made by jazz flutists. Or flautists,’ I note in my next review. ‘That’s one of the reasons I’m so happy to have this new one Moder (“mother”) from Norwegian flautist Henriette Eilertsen’s Trio. The other reason is, it’s just great music!’

From the Archives, Chris did a dual review of an album and a book by British singer songwriter David Hughes. First up is the album, Fifty Yards Of David Hughes. ‘This isn’t an album that sounds like dozens of other albums, nor does every track sound like the previous one, nor does it ooze personal angst and sentimentality. The songs are not short on emotion but the overwhelming mood is one of slightly satirical wry humour and wit. The songs are honest, amusing and understanding comments on life’s pleasures, failures and compromises, the sort we all have to make and can relate to.

And then there’s a related book (with its own accompanying CD!) by Hughes. ‘The Fairport Tour is a book made up of David Hughes diary entries during the spring of ’98 when he was touring in the UK as the support act with Fairport Convention. Originally the diary was published ‘in real time’ day by day on the internet and the book collects all the entries together and adds a live CD.’

Lars wrote about a couple of albums of Irish drinking songs, one by the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem and the other featuring varioius artists: Irish Drinking Songs, and Whiskey in the Jar: Essential Irish Drinking Songs & Sing Alongs. ‘Irish Drinking Songs steers away from the obvious choices. There is no “Wild Rover” nor “Whiskey in the Jar” there, but you get 14 other great songs, some quite well known, like “Finnigan’s Wake,” “A Jug of Punch” and “The Parting Glass.” ‘

Our choice this is Northumbrian piper and fiddler Kathryn Tickell performing   ‘The Pipes Lament’, a tune written by her,  which was recorded at the Shoreditch Church, London on the 15th of June 2010, should do nicely.

Tickell, by the way, connects indirectly to The Little Country novel as smallpiper Janey Little as noted from the excerpt from the novel lists Northumbrian Billy Pigg as one of her inspirations  to become a musician, something that Tickell also claims.