Don’t fly United Airlines
That’s a public service announcement. Survived the flight from hell. Everything was delayed, the plane was full, the airline was unhelpful etc etc. Meant to leave 6am Monday, but didn’t till 1.30am Tuesday. Spent nearly 10 hours in Sydney, then got a middle seat for the 14 hr flight to SFO, before spending nearly 2hrs in Customs. Argh. Never, ever again for me. Oh, and the plane was poorly maintained, the entertainment system didn’t work properly and so on and so forth. Bad news.

In about 12hrs I get on the plane for Sydney, and the on to Oakland. I won’t be accessing email from 5am on Tuesday till about 5am on Wednesday. I should then be able to access email at the usual address through till the evening on Monday 30 August. I’ll be in Boston from Tues 31 August till Tuesday 7 September. Email access will be very spotty during that time, but I’ll do what I can. From Tuesday 7 September till Thursday 9 September I’ll be traveling, so will be offline till Friday 10 September. Please forgive any delays in responding, and see you in Oakand or Boston if possible!

Vale Alwyn Hyman

Alwyn Hyman, proprietor of Perth’s SuperNova Bookshop passed away unexpectedly last night. He was always open, friendly and a gentleman. He will be missed.

What a week. I’ve been struck down by the virus from hell which doesn’t seem to get spectacularly worse, it just doesn’t go away. So, I’ve been slumped, thick-headed and dopey on a couch watching the Olympics and doing little of much worth. For whatever reason, I just can’t seem to read much when I’m sick, so this has been a real set back. Still, there’s time.

I noted a few days back that I’d started to read the new Stephen Donaldson novel. I now note, without further comment, that I’ve stopped. Not sure what next. Probably just some short fiction. The latest Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet has a lovely story by Deborah Roggie, “The Enchanted Trousseau”, that you should definitely check out. I’m also about to start in on the December Asimov’s. The year is slipping away.

Wolfe on books…

The folks over at Locus Online are offering you the chance to read Gary Wolfe’s reviews of the year’s best sf volumes online for free. You should check ’em out.