I've been listening to the companion album this evening while I work, and there are a couple songs that...make me uncomfortable. And a couple that make me wonder what's coming...

Oh, the Poe album? I haven't read House of Leaves, but that's a great album. That I can't remember the name of.

The collection of King shorts, Night Shift, had some of the downright scariest stories. Grey Matter still gives me the wig.

I haven't read House of Leaves, but that's a great album. That I can't remember the name of.

Haunted. Yeah, it's great.

When I was reading It, soon after reading the bathroom scene I went in to take a shower. Afer some spitting, the water came out ... red-brown.

It was just rust and cleared in a minute or so, but gave me a nasty shock.

That's kind of horrifying for non-supernatural reasons. Who wants a shower that you have to clean yourself up from using?

So I finished "The Human Division" the novel Scalzi released in weekly parts (13 in all). The book (which I will talk about in whole) is an entertaining read that worked well in terms of having some action scenes and some character development scenes. What bothers me is that it really isn't a book.

When I read a book, I expect that I'll be introduced to a world and the story will have a beginning, middle, and end. THD started in the middle (apparently it exists in the universe of another one of his series - The Old Man's War?) and there was no FUCKING CONCLUSION.

The best analogy I can provide is if it was a novelization of a two-part TNG or DS9 episode - but it was even less satisfying than that, because at least when Picard was rescued from the Borg, you felt like wow - something important was achieved and you felt like that story was complete.

Literally the only thing that Scalzi did in this book was (spoilers): establish something strange was happening, give some characters' back story, leave the door open as to where the attacks were coming from and what the motives might be . That would be unsatisfactory for a tv pilot, much less a book where I have higher expectations. I was waiting for the final chapter and expected there to be a bombshell of a revelation, and that did not occur .

The book was entertaining, but I thought it was too expensive for the content I received.

I'm trying to find a description of a character from Octavia Butler, and I keep getting distracted by the self-reflexive quandary of whitewashing book covers. Wouldn't it be nice if the standard "I didn't read the book, but this picture was already half done!" misrepresentation of book covers also mistakenly, errantly, casually put more black people up too?

While it's nothing new that authors at most editors won't be calling the cover shots, from the bouncing around (all roads lead back to Jemisin) it seems clear that a rationale is put forward for this inconsistency--black people don't swimread, and they don't sell book covers.

But what I am seeing as well is a few authors crowing about how wonderful Orbit is, since they don't hesitate to put black protagonists on covers (I'm at three happy authors right now--Jemisin's first book originally had the black protagonist on it, but they removed her for general design reasons that she understands and supports, so I'm counting that as a win like she does). Aside from the issues of misrepresentation and erasure, apparently too many bookstores will file anything with a black person on the cover in their "urban" section, so even if you get the cover your book deserves, general sci fi fans might still have a hard time stumbling upon it.

Outside of sci fi and fantasy, is this still pervasive?

Huh, le nubian, that's interesting. I'm planning on reading Old Man's War and the rest of the series soon. With regards to The Human Division, though, it appears that it has been renewed for a second season, so maybe a conclusion of some sort is forthcoming? He's experimenting with the serial novel format.

So, I heard it has been renewed, but I'm kind of not interested. I talk a big game, so I might just return to it if I get bored or something.

I don't expect a "she saved the world" kind of Buffy thing, but you know how like with Feed, there was an underlying BIG mystery (or two) going on, but there were book to book plot arcs that propelled the narrative?

Nothing propels the narrative.

I have never read a book like this before.