Starship Fonzie

Being a Milwaukeean means being associated with certain things: Beer, bratwurst, cheese, beer, summer festivals, beer, diary products (especially ice cream), Jeffrey Dahmer (unfortunately), beer again, That 70's Show (possibly), and of course, Happy Days, and its spin-off, Laverne & Shirley. Fonzie, of course, crosses over into science fiction with his appearance as a Saturday-morning cartoon character, as depicted in The Fonz & the Happy Days Gang . (1980) Fonzie, along with Richie Cunningham and Ralph Malph, meet up with a time-traveler named Cupcake (voiced by Didi Conn who played Frenchie in "Grease"). Her time-machine breaks down in 1957 Milwaukee just outside Arnold's diner, and Fonzie, being the "Mr. Fix-It" guy he is, gets the machine working again with one of his trade-mark hits on the device. New to the cast is a talking dog named "Mr. Cool," who is ostensibly meant to provide comic relief, but doesn't really. How exactly Fonz...

Wil Wheaton has become everybody's favorite sci-fi buddy. Whether it's from his time on The Big Bang Theory, The Guild, or The Ready Room, he's the best person to geek out to your favorite thing, from Star Trek episodes to RPG gaming. So when he released his new memoir, 'Still Just A Geek' (a continuation of his first go-round, 'Just A Geek'), I naturally had to pick it up. This, fascinatingly, is a look at Wil's life spanning more than 20 to 30 years. It recycles his blog posts from the late 90's and early aughts, and as such, the current-day Wil has to frequently interject with clarifications and mea culpas , as the Wil Wheaton in his 20's and 30's was much more cavalier than the Wil Wheaton of today. (He's already in his 50's! Not much younger than me, in fact. *Sigh.*) The younger Wil was much more objectifying towards women, and prone to cringeworthy phrases such as, "that's so lame." As such, much of the book reads...

A good ol' fashioned murder mystery in space. We love these, don't we? Featured is a retired detective, Shal Steward, out on his honeymoon with his brilliant and famous wife. The honeymoon is a luxury cruise travelling between Luna and Mars. To help facilitate a maximum amount of privacy (and therefore sex), the newlyweds travel incognito. Except, of course, a murder occurs, and Shal is the one arrested for it. Except Shal Steward is not the main character! His wife is. She is Tesla Crane, an inventor and roboticist who achieved fame and wealth with her achievements and business acumen. Think of her as a sort of female Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg. (Except actually capable of inventing. Also not an idiot.) She is recovering from an injury that left her with a damaged spine and PTSD. But she has someone to help her with that - a little westie named Gimlet. (Gimlet will steal your heart, trust me.) The refreshing shift from the "retired detective" cliche over to the lad...

  Well, Chengdu released its list of Hugo finalists awhile back, which means it's time for me to review the list and give my picks. I get a little better at this every year (I think), so maybe my recommendations will be worth a bit more than a hill of beans this time around. Astounding Award for Best New Writer **Travis Baldree Naseem Jamnia Isabel J Kim* Maijia Liu Everina Maxwell* Weimu Xin* * 2nd year of eligibility This is actually an interesting category. Weimu Xin gives China good representation as a blogger and translator, even though she writes under a pseudonym, and her articles are impactful. Isabel J. Kim is a Korean writer, and her short story Day Ten Thousand (Clarkesworld, June 2023) is an amazing story which I'm going to try to nominate next year. Everina Maxwell wrote a queer romantic space opera called Winter's Orbit . Naseem Jamnia, author of The Bruising of Quilwa , is a writer I'm very familiar with, and saw in person this year at Wiscon. I was unab...