A Green Man Review

Sophie: You can’t possibly know that’s the true story.
Nate: No, but that’s the best story.

Leverage series, “The Van Gogh Job”

I awoke well before dawn as I wanted to watch the Northern Lights as they’ve been particularly outstanding right now. Though none of the humans save Tamsin, our Hedgewitch, on the Estate joined me, but several of the Irish wolfhounds that guard our livestock accompanied me as well and even some of Tamsin’s owl companions flew low overhead. We, well at least we humans, found them fascinating as the wolfhounds and owls seemed to be playing a rather complicated chase game.

We later had breakfast back in the Kitchen nook — thick cut twice smoked applewood bacon, blueberry waffles with butter and maple syrup, tea for me and Tamsin as well, and Border strawberries, the ones that start red as blood and turn white as bleached bone, as well. We both felt need of  a very long walk to work it off, or a long nap… I however needed to put this together so both choices were put off for later consideration!

April starts us off with a treat for fairy tale aficionados: ‘Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales are well-known, even to those who’ve never heard his name. His stories have entered our cultural consciousness (who doesn’t know of “The Little Mermaid,” even if it’s only through Disney’s version) and verbal lexicon (“The Emperor’s New Clothes”) and are here to stay. Maria Tatar’s The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen offers a glimpse at the man behind the tales, the subtle nuances of his art and language and renders the stories all the more powerful.’9

Kathleen has a look at book she’s treasured since her childhood, Tolkien’s Smith of Wooton Major & Farmer Giles of Ham. She says, ‘Smith and Farmer Giles have the advantage of being completed by Tolkien himself, and are lovely, polished tales. . . . They are the work of a very modern and well-educated scholar — but like all Professor Tolkien’s work, they feel like an echo of the sunlit fields and shadowed woods of the British mythic landscape that he so loved.’

A fine version of the Tam Lin story is reviewed by Richard as he looks at a Pamela Dean novel: ‘An early part of Terri Windling’s Fairy Tale series, Tam Lin is by far the most ambitious project on the line. The story of Tam Lin is one of the better known ones to escape folklore for the fringes of the mainstream; you’ll find references scuttling about everywhere from old Fairport Convention discs to Christopher Stasheff novels. There’s danger inherent in mucking about with a story that a great many people know and love in its original form; a single misstep and the hard-core devotees of the classic start howling for blood. Moreover, Dean is not content simply to take the ballad of Tam Lin and transplant it bodily into another setting.’

Robert brings us a look at a rather different take on fairy tales, in The Poets’ Grimm: 20th Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales, an anthology edited by Jeanne Marie Beaumont and Claudia Carlson: ‘The first thing one notices looking through the table of contents of The Poets’ Grimm is the overwhelming number of women contributors . . . They allude to several reasons for this, one, of course, being the increasing number of woman poets of note, but more important, the fact that fairy tales and women seem to be inextricably bound: not only were the majority of the Grimm Brothers’ informants women, but women, most particularly in the Victorian Era when the Grimms published their collections, were the guardians of the “virtues of the hearth”.

He next has a review of Winter Rose: ‘The story is told in McKillip’s characteristically elliptical style, kicked up an order of magnitude. Sometimes, in fact, it is almost too poetic, the narrative turning crystalline then shattering under the weight of visions, images, things left unsaid as Rois and Corbet are drawn into another world, or come and go, perhaps, at will or maybe at the behest of a mysterious woman of immense power who seems to have no fixed identity but who is, at the same time, all that is coldest and most pitiless of winter.’

And then there’s  Solstice Wood, a sequel of sorts to Winter Rose: ‘McKillip has always been a writer whose books can themselves be called ‘magical,’ and it’s even more interesting to realize that she seldom uses magic as a thing of incantations and dire workings, or as anything special in itself. It just is, a context rather than an event, and perhaps that’s the way it should be.’

Finally he has a look at The Third Cry to Legba, and Other Invocations, the first in an impressive series : ‘Manly Wade Wellman is the literary equivalent of a favorite corner bar. The regulars all know the place and sing its praises to the heavens, but somehow the restaurant critics and Saturday night crowds never seem to find the place. And we, as patrons, are secretly relieved that we still have it all to ourselves. That way, when we pass other patrons, we can give each other secret little smiles because, well, we know something the rest of you don’t. That, however, may be changing, at least in the case of the late Mr. Wellman, and it’s about damn time. Night Shade Books is putting together a six volume collection of Wellman’s works, and this is cause for much rejoicing among fans of good writing everywhere.’

Books can get successfully turned into other forms as we see in this review by Vonnie of an interesting performance of an Ellen Kushner novel: ‘Ellen Kushner and Joe Kessler at Johnny D’s. Kushner performed Thomas the Rhymer as a combination reading/musical performance at Johnny D’s, the synergy between the songs and the narrative was much stronger. The pauses, in particular, highlighted the words far better than the end of a paragraph on a page ever could. Kushner sang and played guitar, whilst Josef Kessler played fiddle and mandolin.’

Gus has a Kitchen story for us: ‘No, not the biscuits we have here in Scotland and the rest of the British Isles which Americans call cookies of one sort or another, but rather what Americans do call a biscuit. There’s simply nothing better then the smell of the biscuits baking in the kitchen, and they are sure to disappear as quickly as they appeared. And how they came to be a very appreciated aspect of the food here is a tale well-worth telling as I do here.’

‘Steamboy looks great in the trailers,’ Rachel says of Katsuhiro Otomo’s anime. ‘There are no interesting characters — Ray’s a generic Plucky Kid — and approximately one-fourth of the total dialogue consists of “Open the valve!” “Close the valve!” and “I’ll open this valve, and you close that valve!” Though there’s some amusing commentary on the military-industrial complex, the themes and politics of the film are simplistic at best. As for the plot, it’s all about stuff blowing up.’

Jack looks at a work by a Muslim writer now better known for her endeavours for Marvel Comics: ‘The first graphic novel by journalist G. Willow Wilson, Cairo is a rather well-crafted retelling of the Aladdin story set in contemporary Cairo. With a riff that will please fans of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods and Ernest Hogan’s Smoking Mirror Blues, here too are very old gods who find themselves confronting humans who are very much of the modernity. Here, residents of Cairo, human and otherwise, several Americans, a Leftist journalist and a djinn meet in a journey from the streets of Cairo to Undernile, the fabled river said to run deep below the Nile, in the opposite direction.’

Gary here, with music. In new music, I’m covering three jazz releases featuring piano, trumpet and vibraphone, respectively: Simon Linnert Trio’s Sayeh, Joe Magnarelli’s Concord, and Tony Miceli’s Nico’s Dream. I like them all, but am most taken with the Linnert’s. ‘The program features some top-notch tunes by modern jazz standouts, some Linnert originals, and three spontaneous improvisations from which the album takes its title, which appears to be Persian for “shade” or “shadow.”

I also review an album of guitar based instrumental music, Geir Sundstøl’s Sakte Film. ‘The Norwegian musician and composer here stretches his already multicolored sonic pallette with additional stringed instruments, more use of electronics, and a string quartet on some of the tracks.’

From the Archives, Faith enjoyed René Lacaille’s Mapou. ‘There must be something about the music of former French colonies. I was astounded by how much René Lacaille’s music from the Indian Ocean island of La Réunion sounds like Acadian music from the Maritimes, or zydeco or New Orleans jazz (not necessarily all at once, mind you, but in turn).’

Reviewing the new Dreamer’s Circus album recently got me thinking about another excellent Danish folk group, Haugaard & Høirup, so I combed through the Archives and came up with some of my reviews of their albums: Duo for Violin & Guitar, Light (Lys), Gaestebud/Feast, and Rejsedage/Travelling.

I liked the music on the compilation CD that came with Sean Wilentz and Greil Marcus’s book The Rose & the Briar: Death, Love and Liberty in the American Ballad. But I was left feeling that as a whole the songs didn’t hold together well outside of the context of the book. ‘But it’s more of an academic exercise than a listening experience; otherwise, the presence of such disparate elements as “Dead Man’s Curve,” “Come Sunday,” and “Nebraska” in one package makes little sense. Let’s just say this isn’t a comp CD you’d put together yourself to give to your girlfriend or boyfriend, unless you’re a musicologist.’

I noted that Just A Simple Soul was a good career overview of Bert Jansch’s music. ‘This two-disc set, named for the closing track on his 1998 album Toy Balloon, ­is indeed the first collection that covers his entire solo career, from his iconic 1965 self-titled debut through his final studio album, 2006’s Black Swan. This collection is presented chronologically, the first disc top-heavy with material from his prolific period in the ’60s, when he released six albums from 1965 to ’69.

And I still go back regularly and listen to Anna & Elizabeth’s self-titled album. ‘You just don’t hear this kind of singing much anymore, outside of Appalachia, and it is a joy to find such skill and empathy employed in the presentation of these old songs by these young musicians.’

Jason was favorably impressed with the singer Kyler’s second full-length release, A Flower Grows in Stone. ‘There are two parts to this album: the first part is filled with her more pop-oriented stuff, accompanied by her full band, and the second part harkens back to her acoustic roots with minimal production and unplugged guitar. These parts are separated by a thirty-five second “coffee break” where, if you listen closely, you can hear glasses and cups clinking together. It’s not until you’ve listened to the last note on the album that you realize how well she fits in both roles: pop singer and sultry folk songwriter.’

Patrick said the German Celtic-punk band Lady Godiva shows plenty of bollocks on the albums Whisky You’re the Devil, Tales of Kings and Boozers, and Red Letter Day, but he wasn’t sure that was sufficient. ‘Bollocks aside, this rag-tag band of musicians isn’t lacking in talent when it comes to playing. … The tin whistle shines, and the accordion and fiddle are decent, too. But the singing and song-writing … well, that’s a different matter entirely.’

Our What Not this week is another treat from Folkmanis. Says Robert: ‘I seem to have another Folkmanis puppet lurking around, this one the Rat In a Tin Can. The Folkmanis website describes him as being ready for a playful picnic (note the napkin in one paw). However, it seemed to me that he might just as easily be a waiter in an upscale rat restaurant: his black-and-white pattern might almost be taken for formal wear.’

So I’ve got some music for you that I think fits pretty much any season. It’s Michele Walther and Irina Behrendt playing Aaron Copland’s ‘Hoe Down’from Rodeo from his Rodeo album. I sourced it off a Smithsonian Institution music archive which has no details where or when it was recorded which surprised me given how good they usually are at such things.

The Palace was more than four hundred years old and had served its purpose; it would be unbecoming to despise it for showing its age. But there was now one spot within it of something new. Turn your thought to it for a moment. One incongruous new idea amid a marsh of stagnant facts. — Steven Brust’s  Brokedown Palace

Ahhhh, plump pork sausages sizzling in their own fat, eggs any way you like them, palacsinta thick with lekvár, gulyás topped with sour cream, fresh brewed coffee with cream so thick it stands up… Sound good? It is. After a night of playing music, the musicians are always hungry, quite hungry indeed.

So Béla, our long-resident Hungarian violinist, pleased the lot of them — fussy though they be at the best of times — by delivering a crate of spicy Kolbasz sausages packed in ice and sawdust along with another crate that contained Páter Sör, a most excellent Hungarian wheat beer. and yet a third crate loaded with yet more Hungarian goodies for later.

We could even smell it in our rooms under the eaves up on the fourth floor, so we got up, dressed, and went down to the feast! Of course we got music as well, as Béla and several other musicians started playing some of the tunes collected by Béla Bartok, which you can find in Yugoslav Folk Music, his monumental four volume collection.

Gary came up with quite a number of archived reviews covering the academic writing of Jack Zipes about one of our favorite topics, fairy tales. Let’s see what he’s found.

Cat was highly impressed with Jack’s sprawling The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales. ‘If you purchase only one reference book about the fairy tale tradition this year, this should be it. I have more books than I can count that are devoted to the subject of European fairy tales and their origins, but this is the first comprehensive guide that I’ve seen in print. The subtitle of the book is quite accurate: “The Western fairy tale tradition from medieval to modern.” ‘

And he was more than impressed with The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature. ‘Any library with a more than bare bones children’s section needs this, as does anyone who is more than simply a fan of this literature. It is good enough that I expect to reference it a half dozen times a week. It’s certainly worth its weight in silver doubloons, fairy gold, dragons’ teeth, and gossamer wings!’

Chuck Lipsig reviewed at least five of Zipes’s books. He starts with two related works, Zipes’s Utopian Tales From Weimar, and Hermann Hesse’s The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse, edited and translated by Zipes. ‘I hesitate to choose any nation to be the nation of fairy tales. However, if I had to make a list, Germany, with its early 19th-century outpouring of tales, most notably by The Brothers Grimm, would merit consideration. With Utopian Tales From Weimar and The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse, both edited and translated by Jack Zipes, more recent incarnations of Germany’s fairy tale heritage, from just before World War I to the rise of the Nazis, are presented.’

He gave props to Jack’s Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales, Children, and the Culture Industry: ‘I am not, I suspect, the intended audience for Jack Zipes’s Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales, Children, and the Culture Industry. Zipes is a solidly on the political left, bemoaning the capitalist culture industry, especially Disney. I’m a pro-laissez faire celebrator of consumer culture and, specifically, a Disney fan. So when I say this is an excellent book, take it seriously.’

Faith reviewed a modern edition of folklore collected by 19th century scholar Thomas Frederick Crane, as edited by Jack Zipes. ‘Italian Popular Tales is a work of serious scholarship, but you don’t have to be a serious scholar to find it interesting. Where the scholar will find an excellent introduction to the early collections of Italian folktales, the casual reader will encounter a number of fascinating tales.’

Jack’s Creative Storytelling: Building Community, Changing Lives is an academic book of interest to educators who teach fairy tales, but it is very accessible, Chuck says. ‘However, this is not a book for those with casual interest. One needs a strong interest in either education or fairy tales — or better yet, both — for this book to be worthwhile reading. On the other hand, it does not take a scholarly background to read this book. Zipes is happily free of the gobbledygook that passes for academic writing these days.’

He was also positively impressed with a collection of Jack’s essays entitled When Dreams Came True: Classical Fairy Tales and Their Tradition. ‘Overall, When Dreams Came True is an excellent resource. The essays on the Brothers Grimm, fairy tales in Victorian England, and L. Frank Baum stand out as strong, detailed, and insightful. While not the ultimate compendium, the 20-plus page bibliography is a handy reference source on its own.’

Mia found the 38 versions of the Red Riding Hood tale a bit tedious (a lot, actually) in Jack’s The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood, but found the political context interesting. ‘There are some great pieces in this book, but frankly, unless one is obsessed with the Red Riding Hood story, reading it over and over is quite dull. The more modern stories and poems are infused with humor or make use of quirky twists on the tale, and they can be quite enjoyable.’

Robert found the arguments Jack used in Hans Christian Andersen: The Misunderstood Storyteller to be strained. ‘All told, I’m afraid this book was a disappointment, although Zipes does introduce some interesting concepts, such as the idea of revenge being a means of righting an imbalance in our personal moral order. It didn’t really broaden my understanding of Andersen and his role in nineteenth-century literature to any significant degree, or add to my appreciation of just why his fairy tales have remained the force that they are in literature and film as a whole.’

In related books, our Jack Merry took a deep dive into Maria Tatar’s The Annotated Brothers Grimm, which he compares and contrasts with Zipes’s similar tome. ‘If you’re looking for all two hundred and forty-two of the tales, including the thirty-two commonly omitted tales, you must get Zipes’ The Complete Brothers Grimm, as Tatar, like almost all other translators, selects a mere handful of them to reflect her tastes, forty-six for this collection, with nine of them being for adults, more with female protagonists than not.’

Despite knowing hardly anything about cooking, J.J.S. Boyce bravely (or foolishly?) decided to review a couple of complex books by Lesley Chamberlain — and try to cook some of the recipes therein! Fortunately, he was able to enlist the assistance of a Ukrainian uncle who knows his way around the kitchen. Find out how they fared in these detailed reviews of Chamberlain’s The Food and Cooking of Russia and The Food and Cooking of Eastern Europe.

Lahri Bond tracked down a video of the Tam Lin movie directed by Roddy McDowall! ‘For years I’ve heard of a rumor of a movie version of this classic tale, but could not find more details, until a friend found it an online video catalogue. What a surprise to have found that actor Roddy McDowall would have chosen this tale as the basis for his first (and only) turn as a film director. Filmed in 1968 (rendering him unable to reprise his role of Cornelis in the Planet of the Apes sequel) McDowall set the tale in London and the Scottish Borders during the “swinging Sixties.”

Jack Merry gaily took up the task of reviewing Grimm’s Grimmest with illustrations by T. A. Dockray, and an introduction by Maria Tatar. ‘Grimm’s Grimmest serves up tales that you won’t want to tell your daughter if you want her to sleep tonight. But these are tales that any adult interested in the folk process should read. Just keep the light burning brightly by your side as you read them — and watch out for the things that move in the dark corners of your room.’

Gary here with music. In new releases, I review a couple of jazz fusion albums, Yonglee & the Doltang’s Invisible Worker, and Michael Sarian’s Esquina. ‘I’m definitely a sucker for the jazz-rock fusion of my youth: Mahavishnu Orchestra, Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis, Return To Forever, Weather Report. Especially if it has some complicated time signatures and lots of Fender Rhodes electric piano. I’m not alone, because it’s a sound that’s been popular with plenty of musicians right up to the present day, including these two recent releases.’

The Danish instrumental folk trio Dreamer’s Circus has a new album out called Handed On. ‘The majority of these 13 tunes are originals, starting with the delightful dance “Uhrbrand’s Cabin” composed by Busk as a tribute to the Uhrbrand family and other residents of Fanø Island and their music; it’s led by Sørensen’s fiddle. It’s the most traditional Danish tune among those composed by the band, although Carr’s Quebecois style tune “The Iron Hall” has strong elements from that tradition …’

I also review a couple of new albums by Norwegian women’s vocal groups singing in different folk traditions: Øyonn Groven Myhren and Marit Karlberg’s Tostemt, and Kvedarkvintetten’s Tagal. Of the former, I note, ‘Using only their voices and simple sparse accompaniment on the lyre (Myhren) and the langeleik zither (Karlberg), they present 13 songs, largely Hardanger fiddle tunes to which lyrics have been added over the years or to which they sing in a type of wordless mouth music, in mesmerizing two part harmony.’

From the Archives, inspired by all the books about fairy tales, I looked up some tasty reviews of ballads, songs that tell stories.

Since Martin and Eliza Carthy are in the middle of a rare U.S. tour, I pulled David’s archived review of Martin Carthy’s The Carthy Chronicles. ‘The Carthy Chronicles is a massive set. Sure there are lots of 4 disc boxsets on the market, but this one includes more rare and unreleased tracks than almost any one I’ve ever seen. It leaves the listener hungry for more!’

David also reviewed one of a trio of Charlie Louvin’s latterday albums. ‘Charlie Louvin could sing the phone book and make it interesting I think, but here he Sings Murder Ballads and Disaster Songs and totally captivated this listener.’

‘Nashville’s Eric Brace has teamed up with fellow singer-songwriter Karl Straub to write a “folk opera” set during the California Gold Rush, based on the story behind “Sweet Betsy From Pike,” one of the most durable folk songs to come out of the American Westward migration,’ I noted regarding Brace & Straub’s Hangtown Dancehall. ‘The players and singers are top-notch, the songs are well-written, and if you string them all together they tell a poignant story that puts flesh on the dry bones of history.’

I reviewed Anaïs Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer’s Child Ballads: ‘American singer-songwriters Anaïs Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer have taken something of a middle tack in their superb little album Child Ballads. They do take a strictly acoustic and folk approach, but with arrangements and production that somehow have a modern feel to them.’

I enjoyed Chuck Brodsky’s The Baseball Ballads: ‘Jealous lovers with guns. Racism. Illicit drugs. The pain and confusion of growing up. And … spies? All of these, except perhaps the last, are typical fodder for American singer-songwriters. But this isn’t a typical record of folk songs. Troubador Chuck Brodsky has made an entire album of ballads inspired by baseball.’

Scott brought us a review of Russian Songwriter: A Collection From Boris Grebenshikov. ‘Backed by a frequently changing assortment of musicians known as Akvarium, Grebenshikov has written and sung an enormous volume of songs over the last thirty years. In this collection, he presents a number of his songs that characterize the Russian singer-songwriter tradition, along with his own versions of one traditional song and three covers of Russian songwriters who exerted a particularly heavy influence on him.’

To go with all those reviews of folklore and children’s lit, here’s an archival review by Mia of the Folkmanis’s Pirate, Princess, Knight, Witch, and Jack-in-the-Box puppets. ‘All in all these are some pretty cool toys for children or adults. Like all Folkmanis they are sturdy and finely crafted and should last for a very long time. I’d not bother with the Jack-in-the-Box myself, but the rest are definitely worth the purchase price.’

I danced in the morning
When the world was begun,
And I danced in the moon
And the stars and the sun,
And I came down from heaven
And I danced on the earth,
At Bethlehem
I had my birth.

“Lord of The Dance”

The tulips such as the one in the vase on my desk here in the Estate Library are the predominant flowers this time of year as every Estate Gardener for the past three centuries has had a rather keen interest in them. The more recent ones are acquired by Gus, our Estate Head Gardener for three decades now, in trade with MacGregor, a fellow tulip enthusiast who goes to the Turkish tulip markets to get the much rarer heirloom tulips. Just don’t get Gus talking about tuplips unless you’re planning on being there quite awhile!

If you’re really interested in all things tulips, you can drop by his workshop late this afternoon as he’s giving the Several Annies, my Library Apprentices, a practical exercise in how history really happens, using the Dutch Tulip Mania as his example. And we’ve reviewed a book on their origins in the guise of  Ottoman Tulips, Ottoman Coffee: Leisure and Lifestyle in the Eighteenth Century, which has a nice article on the actual history of the so-called Tulip Period of the Ottoman Empire. Do beware that these papers are dry at times as they’re intended for other scholars.

I’m off to the Kitchen as soon as I get this Edition done and  I suspect you’ll want to join me in heading for the Kitchen after you read and listen to our offering this time as Mrs. Ware and her talented staff are serving up just baked Toll House chocolate chip cookies with glasses of Riverrun Farm whole milk. Yes whole milk — bet you’ve never had that!

Cat starts off our Space Opera reviews with Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven’s The Mote in God’s Eye which he say of that ‘Until the likes of Iain M. Banks with The Culture series and Neal Asher with the Polity series came along, quite possibly the best Space Opera of all time was this forty year-old novel that took the Space Opera novels of the 1930s and 1940s and very, very nicely updated them.’

This novel is what happens when a series, no matter how short-lived, becomes beloved by legions of viewers. Firefly was a one-season space opera created by Joss Whedon that was brilliant. Unfortunately the network didn’t think the ratings were good enough, so they killed it after a single season, though they wrapped it up in a movie called Serenity. Stephen Brust, a writer many of you will know, wrote My Own Kind of Freedom and Cat says it’s quite true to the series.

Elizabeth Bear has two splendid  space operas out now with the third in the White Space series out in May, Ancestral Night and its not quite sequel Machine. Gary reviewed both. He says ‘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. Both Haimey and Connla live nearly full time in zero gravity, so of course their bodies have been modified in many ways, including replacing their feet with “aft hands.” The three of them make their living in the vastness of interstellar space by going to the rips in spacetime caused by unsuccessful transfers out of white space back into Newtonian space, and salvaging the wrecks they find there … if there’s anything left or worth salvaging.’

In the second one, he says, she ‘is playing a long game in Machine, the second installment in her White Space series with third, Folded Sky, out this June. The series is shaping up to be an exploration of those dark places – not to say dystopian spaces – that are always found around the edges of any apparent utopia. Via that path she’s casting her eye on some of the current ills facing humanity in the 21st century — and tossing out some thoughts about how we might resolve some of those issues before it’s too late.’

Gary also reviews a book of literary criticism about the Culture series. He says Simone Caroti’s The Culture Series ‘is valuable reading for anyone who wants to move into a deeper understanding of what that series is really about, where it stands in the history of SF and literature, and why it’s important.’

Gary reviewed a debut SF novel, Simon Jimenez’s The Vanished Birds. ‘Aside from the adventure and space opera aspects of The Vanished Birds, this is a tale of traumatized persons. Everyone — Fumiko, Nia and her crew, the boy, the farmers exploited on their backwater planets — has been buffeted in some way by the corporate system and the cruelly competitive life it spawns.’

He also reviewed Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Calculating Stars. It’s the first in her Lady Astronaut series, an alternate history in which a planetary disaster in the 1950s hastens the race to the Moon and Mars. ‘Kowal handles the story masterfully, with just enough scientific jargon and facts to keep it feeling authentic but not enough to bog it down; her dialogue is solid and contributes to the believable characters; and especially she conveys the inner reality of a woman of the pre-feminist 1950s and ’60s who believes in her own capabilities and chafes against society’s restrictions, but often doesn’t even recognize many of the sexist assumptions she unwittingly accepts.’

Gary liked Arkady Martine’s j even better than its prequel, A Memory Called Empire, which he reviewed last time. ‘With her first two novels, Arkady Martine has emerged as the author of some of the best military/political science fiction of the era. Her memorable and not always likable characters capture and hold our imaginations as they navigate a host of big meaning-of-life questions in life-or-death situations. This is space opera for the ages. I have high expectations and many questions that I hope are met in the next installment. Like, I wonder if I’m right about the kittens?’

Robert came up with a series that is quintessential space opera, with a twist: C. J. Cherryh’s The Chanur Saga, including Chanur’s Homecoming, and the sequel, Chanur’s Legacy: ‘C. J. Cherryh’s The Chanur Saga is an almost-omnibus edition of her tetralogy about Pyanfar Chanur and her ship, the interstellar trader The Pride of Chanur. Because of length, the “omnibus” volume contains the first three in the series . . . , and one would be well-advised to be sure that Chanur’s Homecoming, issued separately, is within easy reach, lest one be left hanging off a cliff.’

April was … disappointed is too mild a word … with a hot chocolate mix. ‘ …Hammond’s Double Chocolate Hot Cocoa was quite the disappointment. They may do candy very well, but this mix falls very short for fans of high quality cocoa. Might as well grab some Swiss Miss or Nesquik from your local grocery story rather than plunk down almost $7 for this tin.’

Robert, on the other hand, was pleasantly surprised by some chocolates he tried from Green & Blacks. ‘Maya Gold contains a minimum of 55% cocoa, with orange and spices. Considering my general reaction to what I consider “adulterants” in chocolate, it was with some trepidation that I took my first bite, but I have to admit I was completely captivated.’

So how do you wrap-up up a great SF series? ? Jayme yell us: ‘Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars is a miniseries that never should’ve existed. That’s true on several levels. Firstly, there would never be a need to wrap up the major plot threads with a miniseries had the Sci-Fi Channel honored its commitment to produce a fifth season of the acclaimed space opera. But when Vivendi-Universal — the parent corporation at the time — ran into financial duress, its subsidiaries were ordered to cut costs, and contract or no, Farscape was toast. But TV series that die stay dead, as a rule. Sure, Star Trek had a revival, but that took more than a decade to come about. Battlestar Galactica wandered the syndication galaxy for 24 yahrens before it was brought back — ironically — by the Sci-Fi Channel. But a quirky, sexy, self-aware show populated by spacefaring muppets? Not a chance.

Robert dug into Gail Simone’s Secret Six series, in which a handful of the villains in the DC universe join forces for self-protection. Here he talks about two of them, Six Degrees of Devastation and Unhinged. ‘These two collections are really DC in top form. Gail Simone’s stories are complex and twisty enough to keep us engaged and although they run to formula, they’re fresh enough that we don’t really notice. And, at the risk of belaboring the obvious, the “heroes” of this series aren’t really. They are not good guys, but they are living in that morally murky world that most of us inhabit — although not on their life-or-death scale — and ours is not so sharply defined.’

He enjoyed those two so much that he went back to the origin story, Villains United. ‘The first part of this volume, concerned with the recruitment for the Society, is a little jumpy, being that it consists of scenes lifted from the associated comics. Once Simone takes control of the story line, however, it gains focus and, while it’s still episodic, it’s lot more coherent. Characterizations are key here — we really get the feeling that this is a bunch of not-good-guys who have to work together if they’re going to survive at all.’

Gary here with music. First, I reviewed Chet Baker’s When Sunny Gets Blue, a 1986 record re-released on vinyl. ‘The program consists of five standards and one original, “Two In The Dew” by Lacy, and the best parts of the album are, sad to say, all played by the rhythm section. Never blessed with highly technical chops at his best, Baker wasn’t having his best day in the studio, frequently sounding tentative or just not very focused, and clearly unable to reach some notes.’

I also reviewed Väntenätter, an album by the Swedish/Norwegian trio Mojna, who play guitar, Hardanger fiddle, and bass clarinet — a unique combination. ‘Fans of the Swedish trio/duo Väsen should definitely check out Mojna. This trio follows a somewhat similar template, playing tradition based music with modern arrangements and sensibilities that make it very appealing to contemporary listeners.’

Daryana reviewed a recent nominee to the 2025 Russian World Music Chart by the Buryat band Nuker, which blends traditional songs with traditional and rock instruments and vocal styles. ‘Nuker’s debut Hamta, long-anticipated by some of my Russian musical colleagues and me, in my opinion showcases Nuker’s creative prowess. Their ethno-rock sound, filled with dynamic compositions and rich traditional influences, will captivate fans of ethnic music and rock alike.’

From the Archives, Big Earl loved the music on The Ukrainians’ debut self-titled album and the second, Respublika. ‘After months and months (and months!) of reviewing music that was a little too “pretty” for my tastes, the smack of The Ukrainians is an extremely welcome repast. Although the debut is great, Respublika is definitely in my top five discs of the year. It might be a tad heavy for some listeners, but for Old Man Punks like me, it’s a kick in the World booty.’

John agreed  with Big Earl in his reviews of two more albums from The Ukrainians, Diaspora and Istoriya: The Best Of The Ukrainians. Of the former, he says, ‘Twenty years after guitarist Peter Solowka dragged violinist and singer Len Liggins into John Peel’s studio for what was to be a one-off, Diaspora has hit store shelves. It is the band’s sixth studio album of new material and the first to appear since 2002’s Respublika. It was well worth the wait.’ Regarding the latter, ‘My marketing critique aside, this is a great introduction to this band of Englishmen who play an unholy marriage of Ukrainian folk and punk.’

Chuck reviewed The Tannahill Weavers’ 14th album, Epona. ‘As for the music, happily, the Tannahill Weavers are on top of their game with none of the tracks faltering. There appears to be a certain pairing of themes among the songs with lyrics — “The Great Ships” and “Rich Man’s Silver” are a pair of economic case studies from the pen of Mr. Gullane that are a heck of a lot clearer than most anything found in college texts.

Long a fan of Linda Thompson, I enthusiastically reviewed her third post-hiatus solo album. ‘Won’t Be Long Now is an intimate recording featuring many members of her family that masterfully mixes dark and light, sadness and humor, all sung in the remarkable instrument that is Thompson’s voice, somehow equally fragile and durable.’

I did some raving about Easy, Kelly Willis’s second album for Ryko. ‘Willis also has a good grasp of many sides of the country-folk idiom, plus she can write her own songs, and she has an excellent ear for others’ songs to cover. Witness her deliciously catchy take on the late Kirsty MacColl’s “Don’t Come the Cowboy With Me Sonny Jim!” her bluegrass-gospel cover of Paul Kelly’s “You Can’t Take it With You,” and the torchy “Find Another Fool” by Marcia Ball.’

I also spoke highly of what turned out to be John Prine’s final album, The Tree of Forgiveness. ‘Like any longtime musician he’s had his ups and downs, but the high points are really high with Prine. That includes that incredible debut album, and 1978’s Bruised Orange, then a real comeback with 1991’s The Missing Years. And I’ll go on record predicting that The Tree of Forgiveness will join that pantheon of great John Prine albums.’

Mia fell in love with the music of S.J. Tucker at a live show, and took home a CD, as one does. Turns out she liked the recording nearly as much as the live show. ‘Haphazard is an exciting piece of work from an exciting singer: pagan/blues/folk rock full of fire.’

Michelle reviewed singer-songwriter David Celia’s Organica. ‘The lyrics, which range from corny to hilarious, work best when Celia doesn’t force Big Folk Themes about brotherhood and truth, but uses his wit to get the message across. Though this is a solo debut, it’s nostalgic in both theme and sound — the most memorable songs have the spirit of ’60s pop-folk with newer instruments.’

Patrick had kind words for Susan McKeown and Lorin Sklamberg’s Saints & Tzadiks. ‘McKeown, who practically reinvented traditional Celtic music, and Sklamberg, lead singer of the genre-bending group The Klezmatics, meld songs with themes common to almost any culture on earth: love, desire, betrayal, pride, war, drink, life and death. And by doing so, they prove that music really does transcend language: soul speaking to soul.’

Our What Not is from Kage Baker who was a  storyteller beyond compare, be it in emails as Cat can well attest, at Ren Faires with her sister Kathleen serving up ale, lovingly critiquing quite old films, writing stories of chocolate quaffing cyborgs, whores who decidedly didn’t have hearts of gold,  or space raptors who are actually parrots now. So it won’t surprise you that was a master narrator of her own stories as you hear as when she reads for us ‘The Empress of Mars’, a novella she wrote.

In Roger Zelazny’s To Die in Italbar, there’s a character frozen at the edge of death who has no heartbeat but instead always has classical music playing as a sort of substitute for the silence in his chest.

If you visit me in the Estate Library, you’ll always find something playing and recently I’ve been listening to a lot of music by a Scottish neo-trad band called The Iron Horse who were active starting some thirty five years ago. I’ve got two cuts from them performing live at the Gosport Easter Festival, April  of  ’96,  ‘The 8-Step Waltz’ and ‘The Sleeping Warrior’.

A girl could feel special on any such like.
Said James to Red Molly, my hat’s off to you
It’s a Vincent Black Lightning, 1952
And I’ve seen you at the corners and cafés it seems
Red hair and black leather, my favourite colour scheme
And he pulled her on behind
And down to Boxhill they did ride

Richard Thompson’s ‘1952 Vincent Black Lightning’

It’s almost  Spring today and we’re getting one of those rare days where the temperature is over twenty Celsius, there’s full sun and not a hint of a cooling breeze, so Ingrid, our Steward, has declared there shall be an outside feast under the stars followed by a contradance in the evening with fires going to keep everyone warm in the slate-covered Courtyard with Chasing Fireflies being the band and Gus the caller.

My staff has set up the outdoor taps — there’s a cask of Spring Peeper Ale, another cask of the Shut Up and Dance IPA and yet another of a three-year aged cider Bjorn, our Brewmaster, calls Cheddar Cider as its got a nice sharp bite like an aged cheddar. Join us if you can as it’ll be a lovely evening!

First is a Tenth Doctor Who story, ‘The Unicorn & The Wasp’ which Cat reviews: ‘One of my favourite episodes of the newer episodes of this series was a country house mystery featuring a number of murders and, to add an aspect of metanarrative to the story, writer Agatha Christie at the beginning of her career. It would riff off her disappearance for ten days which occurred just after she found her husband in bed with another woman. Her disappearance is a mystery that has never been satisfactorily answered to this day.’

An English country house murder mystery also gets reviewed by David: ‘As traditional as the genres he chose might have been, in Altman’s hand they were turned upside-down, and sideways. Warren Beatty and Julie Christie became anti-hero and opium addict in Altman’s “western” McCabe & Mrs. Miller, set to the music of Leonard Cohen! A laconic Elliott Gould became Raymond Chandler’s private dick Phillip Marlowe in an updated LA for Altman’s “detective” classic The Long Goodbye. Robert Altman has been the most American of directors, and now, in Gosford Park, he takes on the English country house murder mystery. Altman’s Agatha Christie film? What could this mean?’

Lory waxes about an unusual mystery in Farthing: ‘Jo Walton has a knack for genre fiction with a twist. In the World Fantasy Award-winning Tooth and Claw, she gave us a Victorian family saga — complete with siblings squabbling over an inheritance, the woes of the unwed daughters of the house, and the very important question of What Hat to Wear — with a cast of dragons, literally red in tooth and claw. Now in  Farthing, her material is the mid-century British country house murder mystery. The story is told in alternate chapters through the eyes of Lucy Kahn, a reluctant visitor to the family estate of Farthing, and over the shoulder of Inspector Carmichael, who has been sent from Scotland Yard to investigate the death of one of the other guests.

Evidence of political backbiting, personal blackmailing, and marital mismatches piles up as usual in such scenarios, but the most startling piece of all (and the most overlooked by the central characters) is that this Britain of 1949 has been at peace with Hitler for eight years, letting him take the Continent in exchange for leaving Britain a nominal independence.’

Michael looks at James Stoddard’s The High House and The False House: “Welcome to the House that God built. Evenmere, the High House, that unending ever-changing building which crosses and contains worlds. It is, and represents, all Creation, an enigma, a parable, a mystery. Within its halls and rooms, passages and basements, attics and terraces, are the undreamt worlds, the lands of dream, places like Ooz and Innman Tor and Arkalen. The House bridges upon our own world, but is far more than a house. It just Is.”

Lory notes, ‘In the early years of the twentieth century, A. A. Milne was a well-known writer of plays as well as humorous essays and poems. The Red House Mystery, published shortly before he became world-famous as the creator of Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh, is his only detective novel. In his tongue-in-cheek introduction, written after the Pooh craze had struck, he explains that “it is obvious now that a new detective story, written in the face of this steady terrestial demand for children’s books, would be in the worst of taste.” For mystery enthusiasts, this is a pity — for Milne’s take on the genre was as breezily accomplished as any of his other pursuits.’

Robert finishes off a look at ‘Moonheart may very well be the first novel by Charles de Lint that I ever read. I can’t really say for sure — it’s been awhile. It certainly is one that I reread periodically, a fixture on my “reread often” list. It contains, in an early form, all the magic that keeps us coming back to de Lint. (And be reminded that Charles de Lint may very well be the creator of what we call “urban fantasy” — he was certainly one of the first to combine contemporary life and the stuff of myth.) It’s a novel that is centered on a Place, a location that is a portal between worlds.’

Kelly had a splendid experience in Paris at Chapon Chocolatier, sampling their Chocolate Mousse made with a 100% Venezuelan chocolate bar. ‘For €5, a generous but not too large portion is served in a paper cone. The price is well worth the effects, not the least of which is taste.’

Debbie has a review of the four issue self-published The Book of Ballads and Sagas: ‘How do you add a new dimension to (and perhaps the enthusiasm of a new generation for) the wonderful world of folk ballads and sagas? One solution is to use an art form that is not usually associated with such things. In this case, I speak of the comic book, or as it is more usually known these days, the graphic novel.’

Gary here. This time I start my reviews with The Edinburgh Rollick, a delightful set by the American period music ensemble Ruckus, with Scottish American fiddler Keir GoGwilt. ‘The Edinburgh Rollick is highly recommended for fans of Scottish fiddling and Celtic songs and dance music in general. The combination of GoGwilt’s modern fiddle with the period instruments and superb arrangements is consistently appealing.’

The Denmark-based jazz label Steeplechase recently signed with a publicist who provides GMR with a lot of jazz and world music. Said publicist provided a big tranche of late 2024 releases, from which I selected four albums of modern straight ahead music to review: Kirk Knuffke’s Super Blonde, Steve Johns’s Mythology, David Janeway’s Forward Motion, and Alex Norris’s Table For Three.

Word came this week that Cuban American pianist and composer Aruán Ortiz is one of two “composers of extraordinary gifts” awarded with the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. By coincidence, I had just pulled from the archives my review of his 2012 release Orbiting, and you can read it here. ‘Ortiz, a native of Santiago, the second-largest city in Cuba, is equally inspired by the diverse sounds found there and the explorations of American and European 20th century classical composers like Arnold Schoenberg and Aaron Copland, plus the late 20th century funk of James Brown, Sly Stone and the like. Mix it all together in a big, hot pot and you get this Orbiting jazz fusion.’

From the Archives, here’s a random grab bag of fine music reviews.

David liked a CD re-release of the first solo album from Texas Americana legend Doug Sahm, simply titled Doug Sahm And Band, with contributors that included Bob Dylan, Dr. John, David Bromberg and more. ‘Throughout the album the songs echo the kind of material he had done with the Sir Douglas Quintet (think “Mendocino”) and they foreshadow the work he would do with the Texas Tornados ’til his untimely passing. There’s blues, and Tex-Mex, a touch of folk and some ragged harmony singing to top it all off.’

I reviewed Laurie Lewis’s One Evening In May. ‘This live disc recorded in May 2013 at the famous Freight and Salvage venue in her hometown of Berkeley, Calif., is a good reminder why Lewis is so special as an entertainer. A big part of that is her band members, the superb Tom Rozum on mandolins and guitar and vocals, Nina Gerber on guitars, and Lewis herself on banjo, fiddle and guitar.’

Judith found the music on De Amsterdam Klezmer Band’s Limonchiki pretty zippy! ‘Looking for a spicy klezmer band? From Holland, De Amsterdam Klezmer Band might be the band for you. Assigned to Knitting Factory’s alternative sub-label, their music is at times so spiced up with Eastern European ingredients that it’s almost not klez.’

She also reviewed a couple of world music releases, Kristi Stassinopoulou’s Echotropia, and Ziroq’s Ziroq. ‘Both these discs are fun, but not quite the same. The production that makes Echotropia so effective weakens some of its ties with reality; the album is not so much centered on Stassinopoulou’s voice as it is on the atmosphere it helps create. On the other hand, though Ziroq seems thinner and lighter, the “American” music can be a little irritating.’

Mike went outdoors in January to review the Swedish folk band JP Nyströms’ Stockholm 1313 Km. ‘The tunes are great out of the gate, and I actually became nostalgic upon hearing the fourth and fifth selections, “Pojkarna pa landsvagen” and “Hambomazurka efter Blomqvistarn,” respectively. They recall ethnic music from the roadhouses of the American Midwest of the 1920s and ’30s, the kind of stuff that until relatively recently could be found only on 78 rpm records.’

No’am was pleased to be able to review Dave Evans’s The Words In Between, a beloved record from the Sixties, when it was reissued. ‘This is basic, almost unadorned contemporary folk — excellent guitar picking, slightly odd tunes with meaningful lyrics sung by a voice which is well-worn and can carry a tune, but would never find itself at the top of the hit parade. Think of the classic sixties British folk guitarists such as Bert Jansch or Davey Graham, and you have an idea of what this album sounds like. Probably because of the paucity of instrumentation, the songs don’t sound dated at all, even though hardly anybody plays in this style any more.’

Naomi was moved by the women’s vocal group Libana’s two albums A Circle Is Cast and Night Passage. ‘With Libana’s first release A Circle is Cast we are treated to music from France to Russia, from Renaissance England to pre-colonization America. It is a fascinating journey on many levels, that instilled a sense of wonder and awe in me.’

Stephen was pleased with Dick Gaughan’s Outlaws & Dreamers. ‘This is the 11th solo album from Dick Gaughan and to my mind it’s his best in years. I should perhaps qualify that statement by pointing out that there’s absolutely no such thing as a poor Dick Gaughan album. I’m just one of many who think that he sounds best “in the raw,” just voice and acoustic guitar, which in the main, is exactly what’s on offer here.’

Scott began his review of the American band Romashka’s debut self-titled album with a little background on the group. ‘In a little over a year, Romashka have built a reputation as one of the most exciting and energetic bands in New York City’s world music scene. Before converging on Brooklyn, the band’s eight members cut their musical teeth in different locations, including a number of Ivy League institutions. Lithuanian-born singer Inna Barmash co-founded the Princeton-based outfit the Klez Dispensers, wind player Jeff Perlman spent four years with the Yale Klezmer Band, and guitarist Joey Weisenberg served as musical director of the Columbia Klezmer Band.’

Lets finish off with ‘1952 Vincent Black Lightning’, a Richard Thompson penned song as covered by the all female Red Molly band. It was assumed when this song was released by them as there’s a red haired Molly in the song  that they’d named the band after this song but instead it’s because there’s a red headed Molly in the band. We’ve reviewed several of their recordings including Love and Other Tragedies.