Review: Vital: the Future of Healthcare

I received a sneak preview of this book due to being one of its Kickstarter backers, but I also wanted to post a review to encourage people to read it. Kickstarter is ideal for small projects like this that likely would never be picked up by a Big 5 publisher, because it probably wouldn't be looked upon as being able to make a sufficient profit. Don't let the fact that this is a niche product turn you off. This is far more relevant to the world today than I'm sure the editor had ever imagined. 

Out of fourteen stories, only two were written this year: Justin C. Key's "The Algorithm Will See You Now" and the chilling tale that closes the book and also namechecks Covid, Seanan McGuire's "Treatment Plan." Some of the stories are decades old, including David Brin's "The Giving Plague," written at the height of the AIDS crisis. Sally Wiener Grotta's "One Widow's Healing" saw the light of day a year before Covid-19, but the main character that "hasn't left their one-bedroom apartment in nearly thirteen years" speaks in stark terms to what is happening now. 

Anthologies can be variable in quality, of course. There's only one story out of this bunch I didn't care for (I'm not going to say which one). The rest of the stories ably carry the day, especially Annalee Newitz's "When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis" and "Treatment Plan." In fact, I would go so far to say that "Treatment Plan" is worth the price of admission all on its own, with its horrifyingly logical extrapolation of what the American healthcare system, built to "prioritize the rich while punishing the impoverished," would do when confronted with a never-ending pandemic crisis. This is not a comforting story by any means, and I'm sure the author didn't intend it to be. It is a story worth thinking about and considering how easily anyone can be cast in the role of the "other," and how society can be so readily manipulated in their treatment of them. 

In any case, I wanted to shine a little more light on this anthology than it's probably going to get. The profits from the sale of this book are earmarked for the World Health Organization's Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund, which makes this book a worthy recipient of your money, even before you get to the excellent stories contained therein. It was worth my support, and I think it will be worth yours. 

Rating: 4/5 stars 

Streamin' Meemies: The Book of Boba Fett Season 1 Ep 1, "Stranger In a Strange Land"

 

This is the next Disney Plus Star Wars series after The Mandalorian, and is a spinoff thereof. I must admit here that I have never been a Boba Fett fangirl; I didn't pay any attention to him in Return of the Jedi, and since I didn't watch the first two movies in the prequel trilogy I missed the sequence when he fell into the Sarlacc's mouth altogether. My introduction to him was in The Mandalorian Season 2 episode "The Tragedy," when Temuera Morrison reappeared to lay claim to Boba Fett's armor and kicked some serious ass. Along with everyone else, I was surprised at the end-credits scene of Season 2, which showed Boba and Fennec Shand taking over Jabba the Hutt's underground lair and killing the squirrelly little twerp who tried to take Jabba's place. 

Now we have the first chapter in Boba Fett's story...and I must say, I was a bit underwhelmed.

Mainly because this was one long extended flashback. I realize that there were a few decades of intervening time to be accounted for, and one of fandom's most pressing questions had to be answered: "HOW DID HE GET OUT OF THE SARLACC PIT?" Thankfully, this was addressed right away as Boba simply punched, kicked, clawed and flamed his way out, emerging from the sand some distance away from the creature's mouth covered in nasty yellow-green Sarlacc guts. This escape nearly killed him and he fell unconscious to the sand, unable to fight as Jawas wandered past and stripped him of his armor (explaining how Cobb Vanth ended up with it in The Mandalorian) and later Tusken Raiders found him lying there and dragged him along behind their Banthas to their camp. 

He spends some time tied to a post under Tatooine's twin suns (and it must have been whatever passes for their winter season, as just sitting there with no water should have killed him). He tries to escape, cutting his bonds and bashing one of the Tuskens' crested lizard-mastiff guard dogs and running off into the night. The stunned mastiff recovers and chases him down. Then he has to fight a Tusken with a sword and nearly gets his head beaten in, and is dragged back to camp. The next day, one of the Tusken kids takes Boba and a fellow prisoner, a Rodion, across the sand dunes some distance away and has them dig in the sand for little round plant/water pods (which are lying or growing right under the sand? really?). The Rodion comes across a scaly snake-like thing buried under the sand, which proceeds to rise up and attempt to kill all three of them (or four, I guess, as it hurls the lizard-mastiff across the sand with one swipe of its three-fingered claw). This creature design was really interesting, as it had six legs that enabled it to walk on two or four three-clawed feet, while being able to rear a good twenty feet in the air on its back pair of legs and toss the poor hapless Rodion and Boba around like they were nothing. Boba spends some time dangling midair from his chain, until the creature flings him away, smashes the Rodion into the sand and goes after the Tusken kid. At that point Boba picks up his chain, charges across the sand, leaps on the creature's back, wraps the chain around its neck and strangles it. After the creature is dead, the kid cuts off its head and carries it back to camp, chittering excitedly to all the adults telling them what Boba did. Why Boba didn't use this opportunity to run off is a question left to the demands of the plot and the viewer's imagination, but he returns to the Tusken camp and finally gets his water and his freedom. 

I realize this backstory had to be told, or countless Boba Fett fans would have been calling for Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau's heads.  And there certainly has to be a reason why he was still on Tatooine all those years later, especially when he tells the Rodion if they escaped, he could get them to Anchorhead where he has a way offworld. But this entire sequence took up most of the episode's thirty-minute runtime (evidently they're going for shorter episodes, like The Mandalorian) and as a result we didn't get much of what was to me the more interesting storyline, namely Boba and Fennec Shand trying to establish themselves as the heirs to Jabba the Hutt's criminal organization. 

In fact, these backstory scenes are presented as a dream sequence while Boba is lying in a bacta pod healing. Obviously the sarlacc's guts damaged him more than he let on during his time with Mando. (As an aside, he's sleeping in his healing tank underwater, or in some liquid healing gel, with what looks like a scuba mouthpiece? Sleeping and dreaming? I don't know about you, but I can't imagine sleeping underwater and holding this breathing apparatus in my mouth without losing my grip on it and drowning myself.) Fennec wakes him up so he can sit on Jabba's throne and take tributes, which consists of a series of oily inhabitants of Tatooine's underworld parading before him and trying to gauge the strength and ruthlessness of the person who has taken over Jabba's organization. (Boba hasn't settled into this role yet, as at one point when someone hasn't brought tribute--and indeed insinuates that Boba should be the one handing over money instead of the other way around--he turns to Fennec and whispers, "What? I'm the crime lord. He's supposed to pay me.") Evidently someone in the city where this takes place, Mos Espa, doesn't think much of either of them, as after Boba and Fennec visit a bar called the Santuary to collect their tribute, they emerge onto the sandy street and are attacked by six assassins who spring down from the rooftops, activate red hexagonal force shields attached to their arms, and try to murder them. 

They don't succeed, mainly because of Fennec Shand, who manages to grab one of their electrically charged weapons and take out several of them. Boba does his best, but he doesn't seem to be on his game like he was in The Mandalorian. In fact, after Fennec runs off after the remaining two assassins (and Boba yells at her to bring one of them in alive), Boba has his two Gamorrhean bodyguards take him back to Jabba's palace and put him back in the bacta pod, whereupon we get the second half of his flashback story. 

This episode was serviceable, I guess, but it did not impress me very much. (Also, could anyone come up with a more pretentious title? Honestly.) Definitely needed more Fennec Shand. Indeed, the entire Boba/Fennec relationship and dynamic, as little of it as we saw here, should be the heart of the series, and I hope we get more of it going forward. Even so, may I say how great it is to see two older people starring in a show like this? Temuera Morrison just turned sixty-one, and the ageless Ming-Na Wen is fifty-eight (and easily passes for twenty years younger). Now that the mandatory fanservice is out of the way, I hope we have some better storylines in future episodes.

Review: Noor

Noor by Nnedi Okorafor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a short (211 pages) novel of what the author calls "africanfuturism," set entirely in Africa (or in this case, northern Nigeria), dealing with African futures, characters and concerns. Even the big baddie "Ultimate Corp," which sounds like an unholy merger of Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft, is not mentioned as originating from any Western country but rather is this amorphous tyrannical mass seemingly bent on ruling the entire world. Which makes its defeat at the end temporary at best. Still, it's nice seeing the protagonist stand up for herself and her people, even though I suspect that after the lights went out in the "several big cities in a country far far away," they not only came back on but the protagonist was hunted down and captured by the corporation for what she can do.

This is a depressing thought, but don't let it stop you from reading this book. AO, standing for "Autobionic Organism," is a cyborg, or augmented human, in a future Africa. She was born with deformed legs and a stump for an arm, and ended up receiving three artificial limbs courtesy of the selfsame Ultimate Corp. (Which sounded suspicious on its face, and my suspicions were justified when we learn that AO and her birth defects are a product of the Ultimate Corp's genetic meddling with olives her mother ate during pregnancy.) As the book opens, she is attacked by people in her village who fear and hate augmented humans, and while defending herself she kills five people. She then flees into the northern Nigerian desert, and runs across the second major character in the story, DNA (his initials, which make for an ironic match). DNA is a Fulani herdsman just coming from his own massacre, where his people and cattle were slain as revenge for supposed "herdsmen" who killed six people in another village.

Of course, all this is part of a plan orchestrated by the Ultimate Corp to kill off the final Fulani herdsmen and take their land. But AO and DNA don't discover this until they flee to the Red Eye, which is the most interesting part of the story: a deadly sandstorm, miles across, that stays in one place, with winds strong enough to kill and strip flesh from bones. But at the very heart of this sandstorm, protected by dome-producing tech that creates a gigantic forcefield, is the city the Hour Glass, where AO and DNA end up and plot to take the Ultimate Corp down, or at least expose what they have done.

Which AO ultimately succeeds in doing, because the new brain implants she just received at the start of the story evolve with her already mutated DNA and make her capable of controlling the Ultimate Corp's computers and internet with her mind. She ends up shutting down all the Noors, the giant artificial fans that whir in the desert to generate energy (and are the source of the winds powering the Red Eye), which leads to the aforementioned power going out at the book's end.

AO is an appealing character with her insistence on everyone accepting her as she is, augments and all. Her romance with DNA feels a bit forced, as the events in this book take place over the span of only a few days. The whole book feels a bit thin, like it could have, and should have, been fleshed out a bit more. Still, these are minor quibbles. This is an absorbing story.

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Review: Nubia: Real One

Nubia: Real One by L.L. McKinney
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really liked this story, and I wish the art lived up to it. This is the story of Nubia, Wonder Woman's twin sister, sculpted from the earth at the same time as Diana by their mother, Hippolyta, and given life by the gods. She was later stolen away by Ares and put in stasis, and when Diana discovered her she was still a baby. Diana placed her with an Amazon warrior who fell in love with a woman in the world of men, to be raised by them in the modern world. Thus, Nubia is more or less a normal (if freakishly powerful) teenager, with friends and crushes and two overprotective mothers who insist on her hiding her abilities from the world. This is the story of how Nubia learns who and what she is, and her decision to step up and assume the mantel of a hero, including rescuing her best friend from a stalker.

Unfortunately, the art isn't very good. It falls into what I call the "Noelle Stevenson style" of art (and as much as I admire what Stevenson did with the new She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, I don't care for her art), which comes across as juvenile and not colored very well. (Although Nubia illustrator Robyn Smith doesn't have quite as many square block faces.) Wonder Woman, especially, is not drawn well. It was hard for me to get into the story because of this. I realize the powers that be wanted a person of color to draw this comic, but I wish they had chosen someone else.

But if you can overlook the art--which, since this is a graphic novel, is not an easy thing to do--you have a nice story of what a hero means in the world of police brutality and Black Lives Matter. That's an important story. I just wish this had some better visuals to carry it.

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Streamin' Meemies: Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 Ep 6, "Stormy Weather"

 

This episode is something of a rarity in Star Trek nowadays: a self-contained bottle episode, with only one guest star (or two, I guess, if you count the voice performance of Annabelle Wallis as Zora, Discovery's computer). It also has a noticeable absence of shaky-cam pew-pew, except for one shot when the ship is trying to mushroom-jump and can't and the camera spins wildly on the bridge, reflecting the fact that Discovery is whirling madly in space and getting nowhere, before slowing to a halt. (However, they still have the annoying "sparkler" effects, blue sparks cascading down from the ceiling of the various sets to indicate damage.)

This episode also moves us just a little closer to the Short Trek filmed three years ago, "Calypso," where we drop in on an abandoned Discovery and the ship's computer, all alone, bonding with an unexpected passenger. In the last episode, Zora (as the sentient combination of computer/sphere data has named herself) admitted she had developed emotions. In this episode, her newfound emotions get a workout: she is so overwhelmed by all the internal/external sensory inputs that she cannot focus, and she is so afraid of the situation she and the crew are in and what she has to do to get them out of it that she comes near to freezing up and not doing anything. Only some gentle, perceptive talking by both Gray (making good use of the character now that he's got his synth body and can have his own storyline, separate from Adira) and Burnham convince Zora to acknowledge her emotions, work through them, and do what needs to be done. 

Zora's emotional crisis would not matter if not for the fact that Discovery is ordered to investigate the subspace rift caused when the Dark Matter Anomaly abruptly shifted location last episode. When Burnham takes them past the plasma barrier and inside, there is nothing. No stars, no normal background radiation and various other electromagnetic noises stars, nebulas and planets make all across the spectrum--it's a void almost like being inside a black hole. Except that it's a helluva lot creepier, as the crew finds out when they send out a DOT to investigate, and the poor thing gets 6000 meters away and is slowly fragmented to nothingness. As Adira notes, it made a noise like it was screaming as it died. Whatever killed the DOT is slowly advancing on Discovery, and they cannot back out of the rift as they are lacking their normal fixed galactic points of reference. Burnham orders Stamets to jump them out, and Book (who has gone down to engineering asking to help) tries to navigate them through the mycelial network, only to find it has been damaged by the rift and they can't use that to escape either. 

So the episode comes down to a race against time trying to figure a way out before the void closes on them, eats away at the hull, and destroys the ship. Along the way there are a couple of subplots: as noted, Gray starts talking to Zora as he is sitting in the lounge waiting to see why the captain ordered the red alert after they entered the rift. He notes how nervous and emotionally wobbly she is, and starts playing a Trill game with her, the same game Trill Guardians use to calm new hosts. This distracts Zora and helps her focus. The other subplot is Book's dealing with the memory (or maybe spirit) of his dead father that he sees after he tries to jump Discovery out of the rift and is shut down by an energy surge. This brings on hallucinations, and Book has a few scenes where he argues with his father, mainly over Burnham. I regard this as foreshadowing that their relationship is going to hit a rough patch later in the season, as Book's father insists that Burnham "will pick Starfleet over you and Kwejian every time," reflecting what I think are Book's own unspoken doubts. What happens to Book also supplies the major reveal in the episode, because the particles left in his brain following the energy surge come from one place, the energy barrier surrounding the galaxy. The DMA has an extragalactic origin. This also provides the way out for Discovery, as they find they can use echolocation, "pinging" those particles at a specific frequency to find where they were deposited at the entrance to the rift, and Zora can follow the echo to take the ship out. 

Needless to say, it's not as easy as all that, because the rift is closing in and the shields will collapse before they can exit. Burnham comes up with the idea of storing all the crew in the transporter pattern buffer, shielding them from the heat and hull breaches until the ship can exit the rift. Of course, this sets up another only-Burnham-can-save-the-day scenario, as she stays behind on the bridge in an EVA suit. In this case, however, it's less Burnham and more Zora, as Burnham talks to the ship's computer to calm and distract her, and as the temperature rises and Burnham needs her own distraction (she's starting to cook inside her suit), Zora sings the classic jazz song "Stormy Weather" to her. Because Burnham passes out, Zora has to finish bringing the ship out of the rift and release the crew on her own. 

At the end, as Discovery is back at the Archer spacedock undergoing repairs, there are a couple of nice scenes. In the first, Saru and Book talk about anger and how to handle it. Book says he is afraid of being angry at the world just like his father: "My father had so much anger in him. I told myself I'd never be like that. Maybe I am. All I want to do is destroy them [whoever built the DMA]."

Saru: "I understand. The Ba'ul culled my people for centuries. My parents died at their hands. Now I sit across from them at the Kaminar council. I still feel rage."

"But you seem so balanced. So calm."

"We are both justified in our anger. Allowing it to be our focus, however, only prevents us from achieving those things which serve the greater good. It is a struggle, yes. But a worthy one." 

This is a small scene, perhaps, but it is masterfully acted by Doug Jones and David Ajala. 

The closing scene is of Burnham borrowing last episode's lilagio orb and creating her own holographic family tree, with images of Spock, Sarek, Amanda, Gabrielle, Emperor Georgiou, and others. Zora asks if she can create one, and she does: far larger, adorned with holos of all the Discovery crew members. 

This episode was directed by Jonathan Frakes, and had some nice scenes of the bridge crew working together to solve the problem (and we get to see Detmer and Owosekun again, and actually find out a little more about the latter!). It also had good uses of other characters, particularly Zora and Gray. It's definitely a quieter episode, but well-paced and intense. I liked it. 

Review: The Actual Star

The Actual Star by Monica Byrne
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book is incredibly ambitious and entertaining right up till the end, when it trips and falls flat on its face. There are three separate timelines, a thousand years apart (A.D. 1012, 2012, and 3012, based on the Mayan calendar) and the way it was hyped throughout the book that S*O*M*E*T*H*I*N*G B*I*G was going to happen at the end when those timelines collided? I expected one or more characters to travel from one timeline to another, maybe Saint Leah from the 2012 timeline going forward to rejuvenate the future that in many ways was based on her existence.

Instead, we got....God only knows what. Something I didn't understand and didn't make a lick of sense. If this ambiguous mystical mumbo-jumbo ending, where Leah rides the black jaguar of the gods to the afterlife/underworld/true world of Xibalba had been something the book had more obviously pointed towards, possibly it could have worked. As it was, I reached the final page and thought, "What the hell? Really? Are you fucking kidding me?" (And the way it's revealed that Leah came to Belize because she had a brain tumor and was dying anyway, and the penultimate scene is of her trying to find higher ground in a flooding cave, this entire sequence could be chalked up to the final firing of her neurons in her dying, drowning brain. Which serves to render the preceding 575 pages completely useless.) This ending also leaves the two other timelines dangling in the air, with maybe Niloux from 3012 falling through the cracks clear back to 1012 and meeting her Mayan ancestress and....then what? We never know. I hate endings like this.

Not that there isn't a lot to like along the way. The 1012 timeline is obviously exhaustively researched and has a real lived-in feel: this is the way those people lived, and loved, and died. The 3012 timeline, with its post-climate-change and refugee-derived radical restructuring of human society, is sure to spawn a lot of discussion, particularly when it becomes clear (and thank goodness for the glossary in the back, with it detailed explanation of terms; most readers, including me, would be lost without it) that the new society imagined by the author is nomadic and anarchist. Capitalism, any tech built for profit, and the concept of individual property owning is scorned and forbidden. The human species itself has been changed, as everyone refers to themselves as "she" and all babies are born with both biological sexes (a penis/testicles/uterus/ovaries), which rather nicely serves to destroy the patriarchy as well. (There's also been a massive population crash since our time, as there are only eight million inhabitants of Earth a thousand years from now--and almost all of those seem to be brown and black, as "whiteness" is spoken of as another aspect of the old world that has been eliminated.) The only thing that bugged me about this is the level of technology. There are things mentioned as existing in 3012--implanted assistant AI's, hoverdishes, hoverchairs, various solar-powered things including medical items and "solar paint"--which would require manufacturing and a manufacturing base. That does not mesh with the idea of the future society structuring itself as bands of traveling, intermingling, foraging anarchists, because you gotta stay put for a while to manufacture something. Every time I read that, it threw me out of the story.

So, like I said, this book is ambitious--and at the end, unfortunately, it doesn't work. I don't mind the author reaching as high as she did. But you need the payoff for all the threads you throw down, and in this book the payoff just isn't there. I can admire the effort, and all the imagination put into it, but I would rather have had a proper ending.

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Streamin' Meemies: Hawkeye Ep 6, "So This is Christmas"

 

(I'm not putting the "Season 1" qualifier on this because, unlike the finale of Loki, there is no "Hawkeye will return in Season 2" stamp during the credits.)

This episode picks right up where the previous one left off, with Wilson Fisk showing up in the flesh, not just in a picture. This is the same actor who played Kingpin in the Netflix Marvel series Daredevil, which now makes Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, The Defenders and Iron Fist mainstream Marvel canon now? At any rate, we find out right away that Eleanor Bishop has been working for Kingpin to clear away her late husband's debt, and was also instrumental in killing her fiance Jack Duquesne's uncle Armand. She also makes what seems to me the incredibly bone-headed decision to tell the reigning New York City mob boss that she wants out of the life, and has kept copies of everything she's ever done for him in a safe place. I kept expecting a flashing cartoon light bulb warning to appear above her head: "KILL ME NOW PLEASE." Seriously, she should have known better than that...but then we wouldn't have had the final Hawkeye episode. But it's just irritating to see characters do stupid things because the plot demands it. 

I also can't buy that Yelena Belova was somehow able to film this confrontation on her phone and send the video to Kate. Did she have a mosquito cam or something? Honestly. But it does lead to the first of several good character moments for Kate and Clint, when she tells him that this is her mess and he needs to go home to his family for Christmas, and he says: "Kate, you're my partner. Your mess is my mess. I'm not going anywhere till this is finished." 

Kate and Clint prepare for this final confrontation by whipping up a bunch more trick arrows by hand, which solves the problem of where Clint gets them. Then comes another nice scene showing Kate realizing what being a hero means, and stepping up to take the mantle. 

Clint: "You know, you don't have to do this. It's part of the job. It's always inconvenient. It's lonely. You will get hurt. Heroes have to make some tough decisions. So if you're going to do this, I just want to know you're ready."

Kate: "When I was younger, aliens invaded. And I was alone. And I was terrified. But then I saw you, fighting aliens with a stick and a string. I saw you jump from that building, even though you can't fly, even though you don't have superpowers. And I thought, if he could do that, I didn't have to be scared. You showed me that being a hero isn't just for people who can fly or shoot lasers out of their hands. It's for anyone who's brave enough to do what's right, no matter the cost." Long pause. "I'm ready." 

The two of them show up in tuxedo and fancy dress (with purple archer outfits underneath) at the Bishop Christmas party, with the LARPers as backup. Jack's also there with his Ronin sword, having been sprung from jail realllllly fast. Meanwhile, the Tracksuit Mafia, as big and dumb as ever, is bearing down in their silly green vans, and their second-in-command Kazi is positioned in the building across the way with a sniper rifle. He's gleeful when he spots not only Eleanor, but Clint and Kate....and starts shooting rather too soon, shattering glass and spraying bullets. Clint tells the LARPers to clear the area, and Kate spots Yelena in the crowd honing in on Clint and takes after her. 

Most of this episode's runtime is the final fight sequence, with differing shifting combinations of characters slugging it out: Clint and Kazi, Maya Lopez and Kazi, Clint and Yelena, Kate and Clint and the Tracksuits, Jack swinging his sword at whoever, and Kate and Kingpin...but the highlight for me was Kate and Yelena. It's absolutely adorable when Kate follows Yelena into the elevator ascending to the floor where Clint is, and Kate keeps trying to hit the buttons to stop its progress, and Yelena slaps her hand. Then the two of them charge out of the elevator and fight through several offices, throwing things at each other and flipping each other on their backs--but you can see they're both holding back, trying not to hurt the other too badly, because their relationship has evolved to one of mutual respect. As Kate says after Yelena compliments her on a certain move: "Stop making me like you." You hear that, Marvel? I could watch six more episodes of the Kate and Yelena Show. 

The fight that takes the cake for sheer ridiculous fun is the one on the ice rink with Kate and Clint loosing all their newly-made trick arrows into the surrounding hordes of Tracksuit Mafia. Clint says, "All right, Kate, let's give 'em hell," with a wide grin on his face, and you know if this is the moment he's finally going to go down, he's going to go down swinging. At the end of this sequence, the remaining green Mafia silly van barrels towards them, and Kate looses the Pym arrow, which shrinks the thing mid-air to the size of a Tonka truck. It spins to a halt at their feet, and you can hear the outraged squeals of the shrunken drivers with their tiny high-pitched cries. Kate says, "What happens to them now?"

Clint: "I don't know. I'll have to ask Scott about that one." 

Nobody gets a chance to ask Scott anything, however, as an owl flies in, seizes the Tonka truck, and flaps away with it. 

But the most emotionally resonant fight is when Yelena finally corners Clint, and he's trying to tell her what really happened with Natasha even as she's doing her best to beat the shit out of him. 

Yelena: "Before I kill you, I need to ask you one question. I need to know what happened."

Clint: "Look, Yelena, if I told you what really happened, you'd never believe me. But what you need to know is your sister sacrificed herself. She saved the world. I'm sorry."

Yelena doesn't believe this, spitting in his face: "You're lying. You're pathetic." But even as she tosses him around some more, he sticks to his story:

"I didn't kill her. She made a choice. You're not listening to me. She sacrificed herself, understand? And I couldn't stop her."

"Why would she sacrifice herself for you? Why do you deserve it?"

"I don't."

"So she died because you let her."

"I fought for it. But she was better than me."

Finally, as Yelena holds up her gun and prepares to pull the trigger, Clint lets loose with the secret whistle Natasha taught him.

Yelena: "How do you know that?"

Clint: "Your secret whistle with Nat. She talked about you all the time, Yelena."

Yelena pauses, and you can see that despite herself, she's beginning to believe what Clint is saying. "She did? What did she say?"

"She told me about how you guys were separated as kids. And she was flying that plane. I asked her if she was scared. all she could think about is that you were safe. That never changed, Yelena. She loved you. She always wanted you safe."

Yelena begins to lower the gun: "You got so much more time with her."

"Yes, I did."

"It shouldn't have gone this way. If I was there, I could have stopped it. I could have changed it."

"Nothing was going to stop her, Yelena. You know Natasha. She made her choice. We're going to have to find a way to live with that." 

Finally, Yelena accepts the truth and reaches out a hand to pull Clint up. This scene was wonderfully acted by both Florence Pugh and Jeremy Renner. 

At the end, after the bad guys are defeated and Kate's mother is arrested for murder, and Kingpin is maybe executed by Maya (but not really, I'm sure, as the moment the gun goes off the camera pans up and we don't see what actually happened), Clint and Kate and the newly renamed Lucky go back to the Barton family farm for Christmas. Clint gives Laura the watch Kate snatched from Maya's apartment, which she turns over to reveal the SHIELD logo and the number 19 on the back. So Laura Barton was a one-time agent as well? Then Clint and Kate go outside to burn the Ronin suit on Clint's barbeque (which seems like a spectacularly messy way of getting rid of it--who's going to clean off the gobs of melted plastic and other secret superhero suit ingredients?). Kate's trying to come up with superhero names for herself, tossing out "Lady Arrow" and "Hawk Eve" and others, and Clint says, "I have an idea," as the scene fades to the Hawkeye logo, symbolizing the passing of the torch. 

All in all, I enjoyed this series more than I expected to, since I was never particularly invested in the Hawkeye character. But Hailee Steinfeld and Florence Pugh were the standouts in the story, and it's nice that the series dealt with the aftermaths of the Battle of New York, the Snapture, and Natasha's death. It also seems like more of a self-contained story, and while I would be on board with more Hawkeye adventures (and a Kate and Yelena road trip would be wild), I don't think it's necessary to revisit the Jeremy Renner incarnation of the character again. He's earned his rest and fading into obscurity, Marvel. Let him have it. 

Streamin' Meemies: Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 Ep 5, "The Examples"

 

This episode showed a bit more plot movement, but the focus is still on the characters, mainly Hugh Culber. As we saw in the last episode, he had a bit of a moment during Book's therapy session, when he almost admitted that he was dealing with...something. Of course, anyone who has watched the show will know what that is: his death and resurrection in the fungal universe. In this episode, however, he admitted it out loud, in a conversation with David Cronenberg's Dr. Kovich, who is a blunt instrument if I ever saw one. But what Kovich lays out is exactly what's happening: Culber doesn't know why he was the one to come back to life when so many other people don't get that chance, and this has given him both a whopping case of survivor's guilt and a savior complex. He has to help enough people to make his resurrection feel worth it, and as a result is pushing himself to his limit. Kovich notes that Culber needs to allow himself time to rest, or he's not going to help anyone, much less his patients. Stamets says the same thing to Culber later, in a sweet scene between the two in their quarters. Now I like the other two couples on Discovery--Michael and Book, and Adira and Gray (although we haven't really had a chance to explore the latter relationship, which no doubt will change in a big way now that Gray has a body again)--but for my money, Stamets and Culber are the most interesting of the bunch. I'm also very glad that Wilson Cruz is getting more to do, as he's showing what a fine actor he is. 

The main storyline of this episode, however, is the anomaly's suddenly manifesting the ability of winking out of one section of space and appearing in another 4.5 seconds later, which leads Stamets, Vance, Michael, Burnham and Saru to the conclusion that this is not a natural phenomenon, but rather an artificial one, created by somebody. (In fact, Admiral Vance goes through a whole list, from the Medusans to the Iconians and other godlike races encounted in the Star Trek universe over the decades--although it's odd that the Organians aren't mentioned. The Q are, but Vance states they haven't had contact with them in six hundred years. I suppose now that Admiral Picard is dead, they've lost interest.) This plot twist seems almost inevitable--if the Dark Matter Anomaly was a purely natural phenomenon, there wouldn't be a helluva lot they could do about it, after all, which would defeat the purpose of Michael Burnham having to save the universe every season. (This is sarcastic but also true.) But now that it's been revealed that the DMA is artificial, everybody in the newly reconstituted Federation is panicking, of course. Which is why Admiral Vance insists, over Stamets' objections, that a brilliant scientist named Ruon Tarka come aboard Discovery to work with Stamets, to discover how the DMA operates and trace it back to the species that created it. 

Ruon Tarka is, of course, a royal asshole from the moment he beams onboard Discovery. The first words out of his mouth are: "So this is the USS Discovery. It's like walking onto an antique." He also makes snarky remarks about Saru's feet (which, to be fair, look more like hooves--I don't know how Doug Jones can walk around in those oddly-shaped boots like he does). Saru takes him down to the engine room, where he meets with Stamets and (in a very welcome return, though she doesn't have enough lines) Tig Notaro's Jett Reno, to go over the data from Book's excursion into the anomaly. Tarka is generally being an arrogant little snot, talking over Stamets, but he sells a reluctant Saru on the idea of building a working (if much smaller) model of the DMA and its controller aboard Discovery. Saru finally agrees to this, but as it will pull a great deal of power from Discovery, he insists on having a "kill switch." This turns out to be a very good thing, as Tarka and Stamets push their observations of their model right up to the edge of the cliff, as the containment field power shrinks to nearly zero. Saru finally pushes the kill switch and the model flips out of existence, even as Tarka yells at him. Reno notes, as Tig Notaro gets the last word: "That is the closest you've come to killing us all, and that is really saying something." 

One wishes Ruon Tarka would get the "last word" as in beaming off the ship, but I'm afraid he's going to be around for a while. This is shown in the very last scene, where he pops in on Book drinking at the bar. He knows Book is the only other spore drive operator (beside Stamets). Book accuses Tarka of knowing who is behind the DMA. Tarka says he doesn't, but notes the power needed to run it is far beyond even Discovery's capabilities--it would require the energy of a "hypergiant star." "Unfathomable power," he calls it. Well, if this isn't a bit of nasty foreshadowing--especially when he rubs the back of his neck and we see a funky-looking tattoo there. 

While this is going on, Discovery has to evacuate the population of an asteroid belt the anomaly is bearing down on. This is Radvek V, a former Emerald Chain colony. When they get there, the population is ready to go, but Saru notes from scans that there are six individuals not moving to the transfer point. The Radvek V magistrate says these are the "Examples," prisoners the colony is apparently going to abandon to their fate. Burnham immediately objects to this and she and Book beam to the prison to release them. After dealing with a barrage of creepy "beetle bombs"--a wave of artificial insects outside the prison that are "mobile land mines," Michael succeeds in shutting them down and they make it into the prison. (The banter between Burnham and Book in these scenes showcases the actors' chemistry, and interjects a bit of levity into the tense situation.) Once inside, they have to release the six prisoners and get them away before the distortion from the anomaly's arrival precludes anyone else beaming out. The prisoners are naturally skeptical about this and the man who seems to be their leader, Felix, demands a guarantee that "they will not be returned to this unjust society." (He explains that the people there were confined to the prison for decades for relatively minor offenses, to scare everyone else into obeying.) Michael finds a Starfleet regulation that allows her, as a captain, to grant the prisoners political asylum and a review of their sentences, and they finally agree to come with her. Unfortunately, a backup force field blocks their escape, and Book comes up with the idea of summoning all the "beetle bombs" to rush the prison and break through it. This works, and five of the group are beamed aboard Discovery. 

But at the last minute, Felix refuses to go, and explains why: of the six "examples," he is the only one who deserved to be there, as thirty years ago he took a life. Michael and Book try to talk him into going with them, but he says "he resolved to die here a long time ago." Book objects quite strongly--after losing his planet and people, he can't bear to leave anyone behind, but Michael says they can't force Felix to come. She gives him a communicator as they leave, and Felix presses a small ball into her hand--a "lalogi orb," belonging to the family of the person he killed.

Burnham and Book return to Discovery, only to find that the approaching anomaly will indeed destroy the asteroid. Burnham talks to Felix as long as she can, until comms are lost and the asteroid is destroyed. Then, with the computer/combination sphere data Zora's help (the computer has chosen a name and is getting more of a personality, and admits that it has developed emotions), she tracks down the surviving family member and returns the orb to her.  

I don't think this was quite as good as the second episode, "Anomaly," but I'm still enjoying the slower pace and greater focus on the characters and relationships. And again, another shoutout to Wilson Cruz, who is doing stellar work this season. (But more of Jett Reno, please?)

Hugo Awards 2021

 

Last night the Hugo Awards were presented at the 79th Worldcon, Discon III, in Washington D.C. Since I both nominate and vote in the Hugos, I thought I'd do a rundown as to how my vote compared to the winners.

Best Novel: Network Effect, Martha Wells

This was also my No. 1, as was the second-place finisher, N.K. Jemisin's The City We Became. I had a feeling it would be Murderbot's year. This was also borne out in the next category:

Best Series: The Murderbot Diaries, Martha Wells

This is the first time someone has pulled off the double-hat trick of both Novel and Series in the same year. (Although if N.K. Jemisin hadn't declined her nomination in Series for the Broken Earth trilogy in 2018, it would most likely have happened then.) My vote for second place, the Poppy War trilogy by R.F. Kuang, ended up fifth in the general voting. Maybe because of its grimdark brutality? It was a rough read, but a fascinating one. 

Best Novella: The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo

This was all the way at the bottom of my ballot--I just couldn't get into the story. However, my top choice, P. Djeli Clark's Ring Shout, came in second. 

Best Novelette: Two Truths and a Lie, Sarah Pinsker

Another case of second-itis. I wasn't terribly impressed with this, but my own first-place vote, Aliette de Bodard's "The Inaccessibility of Heaven," came in next. 

Best Short Story: "Metal Like Blood in the Dark," T. Kingfisher

Not many voters liked moms and zombies, or zombie moms? My No. 1, "Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse," by Rae Carson, ended up at the bottom of the ballot. My second place took the prize. (Kingfisher's--AKA Ursula Vernon's--hilarious acceptance speech about slime molds was not to be missed.)

Best Related Work: Beowulf, a New Translation, Maria Dahvana Headley

I didn't like this enough that I placed it below No Award. The second-place finisher, A Handful of Earth, a Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler, by Lynell George, was my third ranking, but I was meh on that at best. I am glad the top two finishers on the general ballot were actually books, as that fits my definition of a Related Work better than cons and "fringes." (Having said that, I must admit my own first-place vote went to Jenny Nicholson's YouTube video "The Last Bronycon: A Fandom Autopsy," because I found the subject matter unexpectedly fascinating.)

Best Graphic Novel/Comic: Parable of the Sower, a Graphic Novel Adaptation, Octavia E. Butler/Damian Duffy/John Jennings

I fist-pumped and "YAYYYY!"-ed at this. This was my No. 1 as well. It's just another testament to the writer's prescience and genius, that a graphic novel adaptation of a book written nearly thirty years ago would still be winning SF's highest honor. (And a definite 😢 for the work Butler could have produced had she not died in 2006.)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: The Old Guard

The group mind was thinking alike here, as this and the second place finisher, Birds of Prey, were the same on my ballot. 

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: The Good Place, "Whenever You're Ready"

This result receives a wet fart from me, as I have hated that show every time I've tried to watch it. Thank Deity that was the series finale and it will never show up on a ballot again. At least my own No. 1, The Expanse's fantastic "Gaugamela," came in second. 

Best Editor, Short Form: Ellen Datlow

I had Neil Clarke at No. 1, as I am a faithful subscriber of Clarkesworld. He's been a bridesmaid for how many years now? I hope one day he gets there. 

Best Editor, Long Form: Diana M. Pho

In looking over the voting statistics, Pho staged a bit of a come-from-behind victory to overtake Navah Wolfe and Sheila Gilbert. She was my No. 1 choice as well. 

Best Professional Artist: Rovina Cai

I put Maurizio Manzieri first on my ballot (he finished fifth here), but my second place went to Cai, mainly for the illustrations she did for Darcie Little Badger's Elatsoe. 

Best Semiprozine: FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction

This wasn't my first choice--that was Strange Horizons--but I was happy with this result (it was second on my ballot). Not only for its own sake, but because someone finally managed to break the stranglehold of Uncanny Magazine. I subscribe to that zine as well, but it was time for someone else to have a turn. 

Best Fanzine: Nerds of a Feather, Flock Together

First on my ballot and another winner that made me happy. They've been knocking at the door for five years, and they finally broke through. 

Best Fan Writer: Elsa Sjunneson

This winner was, shall we say, not at the top of my ballot. That honor went to Cora Buhlert, who did come in a close second. But judging from the cheers that erupted when her name was read, Sjunneson's win was very popular.

Best Fan Artist: Sara Felix

This is a category I'm getting rather meh about. I may start No Awarding it. The general taste of voters also seems the polar opposite of mine, as my winner, Maya Hahto, ended up in fifth place.

Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book: A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher

I loved loved loved this book, and I'm so glad it won. There was no doubt about its taking the first place on my ballot. I will note it's completed something of a quadruple hat trick this year, as it's won a Locus Award, a Dragon, the Andre Norton Nebula Award, and now the Lodestar. 

Astounding Award for Best New Writer: Emily Tesh 

With all the buzz around Micaiah Johnson, I expected her to win (and she was first on my ballot). Well, since this is Johnson's first year of eligibility, she'll have another chance in 2022. 

Best Video Game: Hades (which also won the Nebula for Best Game Writing)

Best Fancast: The Coode Street Podcast

These are two categories I really don't have time to pursue (and the first is a special one-off that may or may not be back), so I didn't vote. 

This Worldcon had to cope with a great deal of adversity, and it's to the organizers' credit that they managed to pull it off. The ceremony was...shall we say...the polar opposite of last year's. Andrea Hairston and Sheree Renee Thomas did a fine job as hosts, moving things along at a brisk pace. (My internet connection was crappy, to the point where I had to keep pausing and restarting it, but that wasn't their fault.)

And I now know more about slime molds than I ever thought I would, thanks to Ursula Vernon! 

Streamin' Meemies: Hawkeye Ep 5, "Ronin"

 

Five episodes in, this show is definitely growing on me. It's not as wonderfully bizarre as WandaVision, or as funny and quirky as Loki, but it has its own brand of charm, especially in the pairing of Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld. This episode also carries on the tradition of slowing down and examining the characters (there's action and an important reveal, but that's not till the end of the 40-minute runtime), Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova in particular. 

To start, Yelena is centered in the episode's open in 2018, showing that Yelena has continued in her quest to free the remaining Black Widows from their mind control. She finds one, Ana, and sprays her with the red antidote, only to realize Ana has already broken free. They discuss what Yelena will do after this task is finished, which of course includes her reuniting with Natasha. She goes to the bathroom, and as she stands there washing her hands, we get an unnerving insider's view of the Snap--her hands and body turn to dust and reconstitute themselves, all in seconds, as she comes back to life five years in the future and the bathroom's walls change color around her. She charges out demanding to know what happened (fortunately, Ana still lives there; a new homeowner would likely have been shot), and Ana tries to explain and offers her a place to stay. Yelena is badly shaken by the idea of five years of her life being wiped out just like that, and she says she has to find Natasha. The camera freezes on her and the scene cuts off, with the heavy but unseen weight of Ana having to tell her Natasha is dead. (Presumably the after-credits scene in Black Widow, showing Yelena visiting Natasha's grave, happens not long after this.)

Returning to our present time and story, there are two important scenes in this episode. The first shows Kate returning home after the rooftop fight as Clint ordered her to and meeting her mother. Eleanor patches her daughter up and they have this important and well-acted conversation (Hailee Steinfeld continues to do very good work here):

Eleanor: "Does Clint think you're a superhero?"

Kate: "No. I don't either."

"I know it's scary now, Kate. But this doesn't have to change who you are. It just means that what you do might look a little different than what you dreamed of as a child. And" wryly, "preferably a little less reckless."

"I never wanted to be reckless. I just wanted to help you."

"I know, hon. Recklessness is an unfortunate side effect."

Kate looks around her room: "Bet you regret buying me that first bow, don't you?"

"Sometimes. Kidding. You were so cute with that tiny bow."

Kate, sadly: "God, I thought I could do anything. I really thought I could be one of them."

"Don't beat yourself up, hon. Sometimes the paths we're on, they wind around in ways that we never would have expected. All you can do is keep moving forward. Even on days when, honestly, it all just kind of feels like shit." 

"Do you ever worry about me not finding my path?"

"No. I know exactly who you are. And I have a pretty good picture of who you're becoming."

After this little heart-to-heart, Kate tells her mother she and Clint have been looking into Armand's murder (Eleanor's fiance Jack Duquesne's uncle), and they discovered incriminating stuff about Jack. The camera focuses on Eleanor as she says this, and we see she is not one bit surprised, nor does she leap to Jack's defense. Kate begs Eleanor to look into this, and Eleanor says she will (or at least will pretend to, from the looks of it). This leads to a later scene when Kate returns home to find Jack in the middle of being arrested for tax evasion (all the while objecting, "This is all a big misunderstanding. I've never worked a day in my life!" with a deliciously smarmy delivery by the actor). 

The second important scene in the episode is a long, fascinating encounter between Kate and Yelena Belova in Kate's burned, bombed, wrecked apartment. She returned to pick up what she could salvage to take to her mother's, to find Yelena waiting for her (and having cooked up some macaroni and cheese). Kate is understandably stunned by this, and after Yelena's stating that she just wants to talk (and if she wanted to kill Kate, she could have done it before the front door was shut), Kate sits down to listen. Following a bit of forced "girl talk" from Yelena, we get to the heart of the issue:

Kate: "Are you in New York to talk to Clint? Is that why you're here?"

Yelena, matter-of-factly: "No. I'm here to kill him. I have a question for you: What is it? Why do you risk your life for him, Clint Barton? How has everybody forgiven him for his past?"

"He saved the world."

Yelena, leaning forward with an intense, laser-like gaze: "No. My sister saved the world. Natasha Romanoff. She saved the world. Stop pretending like you're not surprised. It does not look cool." 

"You're really Natasha's sister?"

"Yes."

"Wow. I did not see that coming. Thank God, I didn't kill you up there [on the roof in the previous episode]."

Yelena, after a loud bray of laughter: "You kill me? Again, Kate Bishop, you are so funny. That's hilarious. That is one of the funniest."

"Natasha and Clint were friends. Why are you after him?"

"You are so fond of him. It tells me you don't really know who he is."

"He came out here to protect me."

"No. He came here to protect his reputation. Do you know how many people he killed? The trail of blood that follows him, it could wrap around the entire world."

"Okay. Wow. That was very Russian. He's still an Avenger."

"What does that word even mean? Huh? That it holds so much power. You call him a hero no matter what he does?"

"It means that when you choose to spend your life trying to help people, there are going to be things that you lose. When you face the kind of threats that he has, there's going to be collateral damage."

Yelena, dangerously soft: "My sister is gone because of him. She's gone. Is she 'collateral damage'?"

Kate begins to stammer: "No, look, there is no way that is true. He would not let that happen?" (And really, the story of the sacrifice demanded of anyone retrieving the Soul Stone never got out?)

Yelena, driving the point home: "How long have you known Clint Barton?"

Kate, in a very small voice: "About a week."

"It will not be difficult for me to complete this assignment."

"Wait a minute. Somebody hired you to kill him?"

(Yelena doesn't answer, so the answer is yes)

"All I'll say is, if there is someone out there that is telling you Clint is a bad guy, then maybe you should ask yourself what kind of person hired you. He's not perfect. Nobody's perfect. But he is good." 

"However he convinced you about who he is, or how many people think or call him a hero, truth is it doesn't matter. We are defined by what we do. Not by nice words. Like it or not, there is no escaping this."  

After that tense, well-acted scene, the titular character is almost an afterthought. But we do see Clint after leaving Kate on the room, ending up staying with Griggs, one of the LARPers who got his trick arrows back. The next day, he goes downtown to the Avengers memorial site (with a plaque proclaiming their first meeting place at the Battle of New York, with all six names), and he talks to Natasha, or rather her memory:

"Natasha, I really need to talk to you right now. You were the bravest of us all, weren't you? Loyal. Stubborn. You always had to win, didn't you? And for a stupid orange rock. I replayed that a million times in my head, hoping for a different outcome. But I do my best every day to earn what you gave me. Just want to say I miss you. And I'm so sorry for what I'm about to do."

What he's about to do is don the Ronin suit one more time, to try to convince Maya to stop her revenge-seeking. Before he does this, he calls his wife Laura and tells her the situation has escalated, and he's got to stop Maya before "the big guy" gets dragged into the whole thing. Laura tells him she trusts his judgment, and "I'll always understand, more than anybody else ever could. I love you. Go end this." And so Clint sets up a meeting (by skewering a Tracksuit Mafia delivery truck with an arrow bearing a note), demanding Maya meet him "where she first met the Ronin."

There follows a long, well-choreographed fight between Clint and Maya, with Clint finally knocking her down, taking off the Ronin hood and showing his face: "You and I, we're the same. We're weapons. But when you're filled with rage, it makes you blind. It could be used, could be manipulated. Trust me, I know. I was here that night, tipped off by the informant who works for your boss. Your boss wanted your father dead. Now he's using you--"

Maya, still proclaiming that Clint is a monster, charges him. She snatches the Ronin sword out of his hands and is about to behead him with it when an arrow sails through the air and knocks it away from her. Of course, this came from Kate, who we saw earlier sitting up on her bed, looking around her room and deciding she's not going to throw in the towel. She called Clint and left multiple messages that he didn't answer, then used his phone to track him to the meeting place. 

At this, Maya runs away, and Kate hustles Clint into her "getaway car" (an Uber). On the way back to Griggs' place, she tells him she talked to "the woman on the roof" and that she claimed to be Natasha's sister. Meanwhile, we see Eleanor going somewhere across town and Yelena following. A short while later, Kate is sitting talking to Griggs and Clint (and feeding Pizza Dog) when her phone buzzes with a text. It's Yelena, telling her the person who hired her was Eleanor Bishop. This is followed by a picture,  taken by Yelena: Eleanor Bishop meeting someone Clint identifies as "the big guy," Kingpin (Wilson Fisk, from the Marvel Netflix series Daredevil). 

Cue end credits and the soundtrack of "You're A Mean One, Mister Grinch." 

Well. Obviously, this episode is setting things up for the finale, but it's also an absorbing character study of Yelena Belova, who isn't entirely wrong in her hatred of Clint. One wonders if she knows the whole story, or if it would make a difference if she did. At any rate, this series is turning out a lot stronger than I would have given it credit for, and I'm looking forward to the finale. 

Review: You Sexy Thing

You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a high concept space opera of old soldiers thrown into a new crisis when something from their past comes back to bite them, big time.

Captain Nicolette Larsen, or Niko, once led a company for the Holy Hive Mind, a race of interlinked group consciousness. She escaped and freed her friends and fellow soldiers the only way she could, by pretending to be an artist (a master chef in her case). Now she and the members of her company run the Last Chance, a restaurant on TwiceFar, a space station holding dozens of species at the edge of the Known Universe. When the book opens, Niko receives a mysterious package: a stasis capsule holding an unknown being, and she has no idea who it is or where it came from. But she has no time to think about it, as that night the Last Chance is supposed to receive a visit from a famous restaurant critic. If this goes well, their business will be greatly increased, and Niko will finally have the funds to finance an expedition of her own.

Needless to say, things don't go well. TwiceFar station is attacked by aliens playing a deadly "game," and Niko and company, including the critic, have to take refuge aboard the expensive bioship You Sexy Thing, a bioship owned by another restaurant customer. He gives them the password to board the Thing before he dies (though he won't be dead for long, as in this universe rich people download into new clone bodies and wake up again, sort of like Cylons). Niko's company boards the ship and they withdraw from the carnage, but the Thing announces they are thieves and it is taking them to a prison planet where it intended to turn them over for prosecution. They never reach said planet, as they are hijacked by the restaurant critic Lolola, who is revealed as a plant working for the pirate king Tubal Last, a thoroughly nasty (and somewhat over-the-top) tyrannical sociopath from Niko's past. Last collects unique things and people, including an alien plant being called a Florian who was once Niko's shipmate and lover. Long ago Niko tried to steal the Florian Petalia back, and this so affronted Tubal Last that he has spend decades planning his revenge.

This book is well-paced and plotted, though it turns rather dark in the sections where Niko and her friends (including Atlanta, the person sent to Niko in the stasis chamber who claims to be an heir of the Paxian Empire) are held at the IAPH, the Intergalactic Association of Pirate Havens, and tortured. It's set in a somewhat standard space-opera universe, tweaked a bit by the presence of were-lions--two of which, Thorn and his twin Talon, are Niko's comrades--magic, and battle mages. There's also a degree of mysticism involved, primarily from another of Niko's friends, the lizard being Lassite. Lassite is a Sessile priest who follows what he calls the Spiral of Destiny, and he can see the branching timelines of the multiverse. Niko sits at the center of his own personal Spiral, and he has been with her for years. The author wisely resists the urge to go hog-wild with either their magic or their mysticism, using it mostly for background and atmosphere.

What differentiates this book from most of its ilk is the fact that it's written in omniscient point of view. Now, normally I do not like omniscient POV; the headhopping drives me nuts. I must say, however, that Rambo uses this POV efficiently and well. There were a few awkward passages that made me wince and wish for a chapter and/or a scene break, but overall the story was told about as well as it could be using this technique. It helps that the characters whose heads we slide into and out of are finely drawn and well characterized, and again the POV itself is used with restraint, as we spend most of the book in only a handful of people out of the total.

The author approaches this book with a fine command of their characters and world and a sure hand, and this book has a minimum of first-novel problems. The storyline is wrapped up nicely at the end and can be read as a standalone, although there are a few loose threads that could be picked up in another book. Omniscient POV or not, I think that book would be worth reading.

View all my reviews

Streamin' Meemies: Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 Ep 4, "All Is Possible"

 

This episode is the second in a row to take a break from the Anomaly (though it's mentioned, along with the note that "Stamets won't let himself slow down, even for a second. He wants to solve this for all of us") to concentrate on the characters. In this case, Tilly comes to a realization about her future, Book continues to work through his grief, and Saru helps solve a diplomatic crisis and engages in some sly flirtation with Ni'Var President T'Rina. I'm sure we'll get back to slam-bang Anomaly pew-pew eventually, but I am enjoying this breather. 

We open with Burnham's Captain's Log:

"It's been a week since my mission with the Qowat Milat. Since then we've stayed in orbit over Ni'Var, working with the Ni'Var Science Institute and the Federation Task Force that's tracking and studying the DMA. No other inhabited worlds have been threatened yet, but of course that can change at any moment. Ni'Var has fast-tracked negotiations to rejoin the Federation. I haven't yet heard how they're going. We're all living with uncertainty. Even for a crew as familiar with the unknown as this one, the stress is taking its toll. I'm following Dr. Culber's advice, mandating downtime to help with their psychological and emotional well-being. But Stamets won't let himself slow down, even for a second. He wants to solve this for all of us, especially Book.

"Book. Even though the mind-meld with T'Rina helped at the time, the peace he felt has been fleeting. I've encouraged him to talk to Dr. Culber, but I feel him pulling into himself. A natural response to grief, crisis, all of this. But he can't do this alone. None of us can."

Book does in fact talk to Dr. Culber, as does Tilly. I'm really liking the additional role of ship's counselor they've given to Wilson Cruz this season, and he's doing some great work with it. In Book's sessions, he talks about what he calls a "standing funeral," a custom in his family when a family member died. He also has Book re-create one of his Kwejian healing rituals with programmable matter, and when Book objects, saying, "How long am I supposed to do it?" Culber replies simply, "A long-ass time." Culber may have more or less browbeaten Book into the ritual, but as it continues we can see it's having a calming effect. Culber also admits he needs to do something similar (well, I suppose dying and being brought back to life in a fungal universe will do that to you).

Tilly's session starts with statements she's made before, talking about "breaking out of her comfort zone" and saying "I feel like I really need to challenge myself." Culber says that Dr. Kovich came to him "looking for a Discovery crew member to lead some cadets in a team-building exercise" and suggests Tilly take this on. He also asks that she take Adira with her. (This leads to a brief scene with Adira and Gray, where we see that Gray's hair has grown awfully damn fast in a week. Maybe synth bodies can do that?) 

This, of course, leads to a somewhat cliche Trek trope: the Training Mission Gone Awry scenario. In this case, Tilly's group's shuttle crash-lands on a moon it wasn't supposed to go to, leading to encounters with monsters, stark choices, and a band of young untested cadets learning to overcome their prejudices and work together. (There's also the completely unnecessary death of one of the cadets. Sorry, but the situation itself generated more than enough tension. They didn't need to redshirt this poor guy.) But we see Tilly also learning, standing up and taking charge and teaching the cadets what being at Starfleet Academy means. Finally, when they're all rescued and back at Federation HQ, Kovich approaches Tilly and offers her a teaching position at Starfleet Academy. This segues into a lovely scene between Tilly and Burnham in Tilly's quarters, where the two of them reminisce about when they first met and roomed together, with Tilly saying she was afraid the mutineer would stab her in her sleep and Burnham admitting the first few nights she asked the computer to white-noise the sound of Tilly's snoring. Then Tilly admits what has been bothering her since the season's beginning: when she received her lieutenant's pips, she realized that joining Starfleet and putting herself on the command track was more her mother's plan for her life than her own. But her mother is 900 years in the past and will never see her daughter wear those pips. Tilly asks a rhetorical question: "Was this what I really wanted, or did I really want to be seen?" She thinks her experiences might not be good for the command track, but would be good for a teacher, and tells Michael she's going to take Kovich's offer. 

(I saw a Mary Wiseman interview saying she was told by the writers that Tilly will return later in the season, so hopefully we haven't seen the last of her.)

Meanwhile, Saru and Burnham have to tackle rescuing the Federation/Ni'Var negotiations. They're abruptly summoned to watch by President Rillek, and Ni'Var Presidnent T'Rina drops an unexpected bomb: Ni'Var wants an "exit clause" written into the agreement, granting her planet the ability to leave at any time. They're insisting on it because "in the past, the Federation had grown so disconnected from its members that it was unable to consider their individual needs." Rillek says this is unacceptable and the two are quickly at loggerheads. Rillek calls for a recess. Saru goes to talk to T'Rina while Burnham tries to convince Rillek to compromise. She says she can't, and adds with a meaningful look: "Listen to me well. My hands are tied. With no other options, it would seem we are done here."

When Saru comes back, Burnham says: "I think President Rillek wants us to find a solution to this mess."

Saru: "I felt something similar from President T'Rina."

So back Saru goes to T'Rina, who at first asks: "Is trust of another's commitment to a shared goal enough, despite the scars of history?" She finally admits she's being held hostage by a Ni'Varian faction called the Vulcan Purists, whose support she needs and who are insisting on the exit clause. Saru takes this information in, and then they have what can only be described as a bit of subtle, restrained but obvious flirtation, as T'Rina shows him a meditation technique taught to Vulcan children. 

Burnham, for her part, calls Rillek and says she knows the Federation President cannot present a compromise for fear of appearing weak, but can listen to a compromise presented by someone else. So that's what Saru and Burnham do: they call everybody back together and "propose a committee, independent of Federation leadership, to conduct regular reviews with all the member worlds, not just Ni'Var." Then, of course, because Sonequa Martin-Green is the star of this show and Burnham doesn't have enough to do being Discovery's captain: "If you would allow me to serve on this committee. I am a citizen of Ni'Var, trained in logic, witness to your history, and I am an officer in Starfleet, captain of a starship and citizen of the Federation. I will be the bridge between you until you no longer require it." 

(I suppose this does make some sense story-wise, but I honestly don't know how she's going to find the time for all this. Unless they give Saru back the captain's chair, which I wouldn't mind anyway.)

After the agreement is signed and sealed, Burnham pins Rillek down on her little subterfuge, and the Federation President admits she knew T'Rina's demand was coming: the Ni'Var President had tipped her off the night before. Burnham notes that "transparency isn't always possible in your position. But it is what I need to best serve you and the Federation. So, if you could be more forthcoming in the future, I would appreciate that as well." 

This episode showed some nice character work for Adira, Culber and Tilly, and even the poor hapless cadets were given a few moments. I guess the only complaint I have about this is NO BRIDGE CREW DAMMIT, which is a soapbox I'm not going to step down from.

Streamin' Meemies: Hawkeye Ep 4, "Partners, Am I Right?"

 

Halfway through its six-episode run, when you'd think the series would be ramping up towards the endgame, this episode slows down for some solid character work. In the process, it delivers the best scenes and one of the best episodes of the series. 

We begin right where Episode 3 leaves off, with Jack Duquesne holding the Ronin sword to Clint's throat. Kate runs over, telling him to stop, and Eleanor chimes in with her own, "There's an Avenger in my dining room?" (Although one wonders if they were already there and Kate didn't just see them, or if they somehow magically poofed into existence just to catch our heroes.) There follows an awkward conversation with the four of them, with Kate asserting that she's working with Clint and she's his partner, and Clint denying it. When Clint gets up to leave, Eleanor follows him to the elevator and gives him a lecture, reminding him that Kate isn't a superhero and saying, "I can't lose her." She asks Clint to drop the case. Clint says he can't, but promises to protect her daughter. After the elevator doors close, Clint texts his wife and asks her to look into Sloan LTD, the company Kate found on Eleanor's laptop, and Eleanor makes a call to an unnamed person, asking said person to call her back and saying it's "urgent." 

(Also, Clint somehow snags the Ronin sword off a table and hides it under his jacket when he leaves. This is another necessary plot bunny that irritated me--we're supposed to think that Jack didn't notice it was gone?)

Afterwards, there's a rather cloying scene of Jack and Eleanor dancing and making kissyface. Kate scowls and blushes and looks away through much of this, but she clearly sees that Eleanor apparently really loves Jack, and at least for the moment Kate drops her objections to him. Which objections are right on target, as we see when Laura calls Clint and tells him Sloan LTD is laundering money "for the Big Guy" via the Tracksuit Mafia and Jack is its CEO. It's brought home that far from being the in-the-dark spouse, Laura knows everything Clint has done and is doing. Laura also asks if anything else is missing from the Avengers' compound and Clint has her start checking for the tracking signal from the Avengers watch, seen in the first episode. 

Clint goes back to Kate's aunt's apartment to rest and tape frozen cranberries on his bruises, and the scene that follows is the heart of the episode. Kate shows up with pizza, Pizza Dog, Christmas movies and a Grumpy Cat sweater for Clint. In the midst of making smoothies, Clint teaching Kate to flip a coin through the air so forcefully it will hit the switch on a TV/VCR and turn the machine off and/or knock somebody out (which will surely come up later), and watching said movies, Clint admits some stark truths. I slowed this scene down to write out the dialogue, and may I say it was masterfully acted by both Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld. 

Kate: "Best shot you ever took?"

Clint: "The one I never took."

Kate: "What does that mean?" Clint tries to demur, but she presses him: "It'll be a good story, I'm sure." 

Clint's expression sobers instantly: "It's just not a good story, okay? It's about the time I met someone. I was sent to take her out. And when I got there, when it was time, I couldn't do it. I just had this feeling she wanted out. Turns out I was right."

"You mean Natasha."

"Yeah. She was the best there was." 

"I'm sorry."

"It's all right. When you do what I do for a living, it's just a game of managing loss, right?"

A little later, while watching another black-and-white Xmas movie (maybe It's a Wonderful Life?), Kate: "You lost your family in the Blip?"

"Yeah. Like half the world."

"God, that must have been devastating."

"Yeah. There are no words." 

"Is that where you met the Ronin?" Long pause, while Clint stares into space and doesn't answer. Finally, Kate says: "It's you, isn't it?"

"Everybody dealt with the Blip in their own way. I continued doing what I was trained to do."

"Protect people?"

"Hurting people. Investigating first, but in the end, my job has always been to hurt people."

"You were a hero," Kate insists.

"I was a weapon. I was aimed by the right people at the right targets."

"Look, you made mistakes, but those are behind you."

"No, it's tied to me. Tied to my family. That's why I'm here. And I can't go home until I fix it." 

I was a bit surprised that Clint's identity as the Ronin was revealed quickly and without the drama I expected--I thought Kate would flip when she found out. Maybe it's because the final two episodes will indeed have the action ramping up and no time for Kate to have an emotional meltdown, but it also speaks to the relationship these two are developing, that she was able to accept this. The scene also shows, once again, Clint's unresolved grief and guilt over the loss of his family, his actions during the Blip, and Natasha's death, as after Kate leaves, Clint sits in the chair and we're treated to flashbacks from the Marvel movies about all three. 

The next day, Clint dispatches Kate to meet up with the LARPers, one of whom is a cop, and talk them into sneaking his trick arrows out of the evidence locker. Meanwhile, he goes to meet up with Kazi, Maya's lieutenant, and warn her off hunting down the Ronin. When he returns from this errand, the LARPers are in Kate's apartment baking snickerdoodles and showing off their homemade outfits, and Kate talks them into making new uniforms for her and Clint. In the middle of all this, Laura texts Clint to say that she's found the signal from the Avengers watch and gives him the address. The LARPer policewoman comes in with the bag holding Clint's arrows just as he leaves, and Kate (of course) insists on coming along. 

On the building across the street from the apartment where the watch was found, Clint makes an elaborate plan to get inside, which Kate promptly bollixes by walking across the street and following an old man through the door. She goes to the apartment and uses her lockpicks to break in, while carrying her bow and Clint's trick arrows and complaining about it, which leads to a funny exchange: "What do you do with this giant bow problem?"

"I have a collapsible one," Clint replies, perfectly deadpan. 

Inside, Kate finds the watch. She also finds handwritten notes about Clint's family, and Clint tells her to get out, realizing it's Maya Lopez's apartment. Too late: Maya is there, and she lays into Kate. But Clint is also suddenly fighting a masked person on the roof who isn't Maya--who is it? The remainder of the episode is dedicated to this four-person battle, with Clint shooting a zip line for Kate to ride over to the roof, Maya following, and the unknown masked person laying into all of them with expert self-defense and high-tech weaponry. Finally, Kate shoots a sonic trick arrow that deafens everybody (except Maya), and another regular arrow makes Maya run away. Clint rips off the other fighter's mask to reveal none other than Yelena Bulova, Natasha's Black Widow sister who was shown to be coming for Clint at the end of the Black Widow movie. Kate has Yelena in her sights but doesn't take the shot, and Yelena throws down a grappling hook, vaults over the edge of the roof, and vanishes. 

At that point, Kate yells at Clint: "Who the hell was that?" 

"You don't want to know, Kate."

"I cannot be your partner if you don't tell me what's going on!"

At this, Clint lowers the boom. "You're not my partner. Do you understand that? You never were. Someone has hired a Black Widow assassin. This has gotten very real, very quickly. So I'm doing this alone."

"No, you're not. Look, I know that tonight didn't go as planned. But I chose to be here. I understand the risk. I understand all of that." 

"I'm not going to do it," Clint retorts, his voice deadly calm. "Do you hear me? Do you hear me? Go home, Kate. It's over." 

And unable to do anything else (at least for the moment--we know perfectly well Kate isn't going to stay out of this) Kate storms off. 

I didn't expect this show to take the time for such good character work, but I really appreciated it. Now we will see how Yelena fits into all this, and what Yelena and Maya will do. 

Review: The Gilded Ones

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I had a hard time with this book. I finished it eventually, but it was a bit of a slog. I think this book has an ambitious concept, but unfortunately the execution left a lot to be desired.

To be blunt, for nearly all of its 415 pages I thought I was reading a first draft. In the Acknowledgments, the author mentions "multiple drafts." I'm sorry, but I find that hard to believe. The worldbuilding and characterization is just so lacking in this story that I can't imagine it's been revised multiple times. The first few chapters are really rough, the pacing is wonky, the characters are not well fleshed out and many of the important emotional beats don't feel earned at all. Aside from the protagonist (and even her, to an extent) the characters are thin and shallow. This is supposed to be a sweeping feminist fantasy of rebellion against a suffocating patriarchy and coming to terms with one's true self, and as far as I'm concerned, it felt a mile wide and an inch deep.

This is the author's first novel, but I think it had more than its share of first-novel problems. Enough, in fact, to prevent me from going on with the rest of the series.

View all my reviews

Streamin' Meemies: Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 Ep 3, "Choose To Live"

 

This is the second very good Discovery episode so far this season, and also the second in a row to eschew slam-bang action to focus on the characters. These two things are related. Obviously, action and character focus are not mutually exclusive, as the season opener, "Kobayashi Maru," demonstrates. But this episode is a little slower and more introspective, and I for one loved it. (Which is why one of my favorites of the newer spate of Star Trek shows is Picard, with its elegaic pace.) The overarching galaxy-threatening mystery is still there, and dealt with in Stamets' and Booker's visit to the Ni'Var Science Academy to discuss Stamets' findings and theories. But Michael Burnham and her mother, Gabrielle, take a side trip to solve another problem that almost makes this a self-contained episode. Perhaps this is a preview of the approach that will be taken in the upcoming Strange New Worlds, the Pike/Spock/Number One show? If so, I will welcome it. 

There are three main story threads here: first, the problem of dilithium shipments meant for planets being hijacked by a rogue Qowat Milat (the sword-wielding warrior nuns introduced in Star Trek: Picard). The opening shows one of said raids that ends up with a Starfleet officer being killed. At Starfleet Command, Admiral Vance meets with Burnham, President Laira Rillek and President T'Rina of Ni'var to discuss the problem. The perpetrator is named as J'Vini, and one of the Qowat Milat. This turns out to be Gabrielle Burnham, Michael's mother. She insists that J'Vini is acting as "a galankhkan for a lost cause," and must have a reason for her actions. President T'Rina also says the ways of the Qowat Milat must be respected, and Rillek, who seems to be a shrewd policitian indeed, proposes a joint mission. Michael is appointed to go with her mother, to track J'Vini (because that last shipment of dilithium had a tracker hidden in it) down and bring her to justice.

The second plot is Stamets' attempts to find out what the DMA (short for Dark Matter Anomaly, as he has named it) is so he can predict its behavior. He thinks it might be a "primordial wormhole," except that it is lacking evidence of tachyons, which appear when a wormhole forms. Since Ni'Var has already volunteered the services of its Science Academy, he ends up taking Discovery there (or Saru does, I guess, although we don't actually see them going [or any of the bridge crew, sob]--this is a very lean script, without a wasted or padded scene) while Michael takes Book's ship for her mission. Book himself is seen down in engineering helping Stamets, and asks to go with him to Ni'Var. Stamets is doubtful: "I can't bring these scientists up to speed without a clinical forensic discussion of your loss."

"I can handle it," Book says.

This is still very much an odd-couple pairing, but the breakthrough in understanding achieved between Book and Stamets last episode is apparently still holding. 

The third story thread is the restoration of Gray's consciousness to his new synth body. This is done in a very hand-wavey manner as Guardian Xi can apparently perform whatever is needed via long-distance hologram from Trill? Regardless, the three of them--Adira, Gray, and Tal, Adira's symbiont--consent to the procedure. 

There's also another subplot involving Tilly, who's still feeling adrift and unmoored. She goes to Saru in the first of two delightful scenes between them, saying she's trying to "step outside of her comfort zone and try new things." One of the steps in doing this is asking to water Saru's Kelpien plants. Saru says he'll look for something for her to do, and ends up suggesting that she go along on Burnham's mission. These scenes with Saru, besides affirming his and Tilly's friendship, also serve as an interesting look as to what a Number One's everyday duties aboard a starship would be, as Saru is suggesting crew assignments to his captain, following and commending Culber's efforts to help Gray ("You are doing a tremendous job, Doctor. With both jobs. Serving as medical officer and ship's counselor cannot be easy"), and just generally watching out for the crew. Saru is outstanding at this, of course. (But I still want him to have his own command, dammit.)

With the first storyline, Michael and Gabrielle take Book's ship and follow the dilithium tracker to find it on a moon orbiting a planet. Or rather inside the moon, since there is a large cavity with a breathable atmosphere. Come to find out, as the mystery unfolds, that this is not a moon but a ship: a ship with the last survivors of an alien species in cryostasis, a species whose home planet was destroyed by a supernova centuries before, and who set out for a new home aboard this moon. But upon arriving, they have not woken up as they were supposed to, and since "their biomatter is high concentrations of latinum," they were set upon by grave robbers. One of them, Taglonen, woke up during a raid and sent out a telepathic distress call to the Qowat Milat J'Vini, who was passing through the system. She went to the moon and killed the raiders, and took on this species, the Albronians, as her "lost cause." She originally asked the Federation for dilithium to restart the moonship's engines to protect the aliens if the anomaly came through the system, but as the Federation doesn't give the precious substance to individuals and J'Vini could not tell them why she wanted it without revealing the Albronians' existence, she resorted to stealing the dilithium instead. 

(Which is something of a plot hole. If the Federation had known of the aliens' predicament, of course they would have come to the moonship to protect them, and also fixed whatever was wrong with the cryo systems preventing them from waking up now that they had arrived at their destination, which is what Michael ultimately ends up doing. They also might have given the aliens some dilithium anyway as an emergency fallback measure. But J'Vini didn't think about this? Of course, the Albronians are something of a red herring anyway, as we learn very little about them--they're just an excuse for more facetime with Michael and her mother, and also what I think will be a pivotal scene between Gabrielle and Tilly. This is one of those things you just have to paper over because the character work coming out of it is so good.)

Gabrielle, Michael and Tilly find the moonship's engines and shut them down, luring J'Vini out. She ang Gabrielle fight and J'Vini holds a sword to Gabrielle's throat, whereupon Michael makes a bargain to fix the aliens' cryostasis systems and begin waking them up, thus fulfilling J'Vini's oath. She does so and Gabrielle handcuffs J'Vini, taking her aboard Book's ship for justice. Gabrielle also says, "This path is at an end, J'Vini. The next path awaits," which leads into the scene I mentioned earlier with Tilly:

Tilly: "J'Vini said she was unsure of her path before she met Taglonen. And then you said there was another path ahead. The Qowat Milat are very big on the 'path' thing, right?"

Gabrielle: "Paths end and change throughout everyone's life. When we say 'choose to live,' it's an abbreviated form of a longer saying. The path you are on has come to an end--choose to live. If you find yourself at the wrong end of a Qowat Milat sword, it's pretty easy to see that particular path is over for you. You either move on to a new path and live, or you stay and die." 

"What if the death is more metaphorical?"

"In everyday life, a path's end can be harder to recognize. You must be willing to look inside yourself with absolute candor." 

"Another thing you're very big on," Tilly notes. 

I said the Qowat Milat are warrior nuns? They're warrior-philosopher nuns, and they're fascinating. 

When J'Vini is returned to Starfleet, Michael, recognizing that Gabrielle was right when she insisted that J'Vini had reasons and her reasons matter, asks for clemency in her sentencing. To her surprise, President Rillek ends up turning J'Vini over to Ni'Var President T'Rina and the Qowat Milat. Michael objects, saying the slain Starfleet officer deserves justice.

Rillek: "I agree. I also know bringing Ni'Var into the Federation will benefit millions. Justice will be served, Captain. In time." 

In the Stamets/Book storyline, Stamets proposes his hypothesis to the Ni'Var Science Acadamy, and gets a bit put out when they all go into meditation to contemplate it: "Science first, nap later? I need all brains on deck here." T'Rina has to explain: "Our scientists often work in a deep meditative state to sharpen their focus and concentration." She also offers condolences and advice to a still-grieving Book, saying that while Vulcans suppress their strong emotions for a more logical approach, as an empath, Book cannot do that. After a bit, the scientists rouse and say that without evidence of tachyons, Stamets' theory is unproven. T'Rina says, "Perhaps proof may be obtained in another way. We have a witness," and proposes a mind-meld with Book, to see if there is any evidence of the telltale blue glow of tachyon-induced Chernekov radiation in his memories. Stamets objects: "You can't ask him to do that. He'd have to relive all of it." But Book agrees--not only to see if there were tachyons (there weren't) but to relive his last memory of his nephew--to see Leto looking over his shoulder and realizing Leto knew Book loved him. This eases Book's guilt and gives him peace, as we see in the final scene when Michael comes into their bedroom and Book is projecting a holo of Kwejian on the ceiling. 

Finally, Gray does integrate with the synth body, and in a sweet scene when he awakens, he immediately runs to Dr. Culber and gives him a huge hug. Gray and Adira are the cutest couple. 

This episode was, I think, a necessary bit of downtime before the slam-bang action starts up again later on in the season, but it was also a good script with nice character work. As I've always said, if there are interesting, well-rounded characters--and Discovery has them in spades--I can forgive a lot of sins.