This quote captured Percy for me.
Bookquote from Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan
(By the way, my Percy Jackson Bookquotes were so popular over on my YouTube channel, I broke them out into their own playlist if you want to see them all.)
Photo by Nathan Bang on Unsplash
Inspired by the June 5th delay of repairs (yet again) of the air leaks in the Russian segment of the International Space Station (https://www.michaelrcronin.com/post/update-iss-astronauts-ordered-to-shelter-in-spacex-crew-dragon-as-worsening-air-leak-triggers-evacu). And the Spain wildfires in July threatening the ESA antenna and NASA’s Deep Space Communication Complex (https://www.cosmosrocket.com/en/journal/wildfires-in-spain-threaten-two-critical-deep-space-ground-stations-40mk-en)
“Just slap a patch on it.” Bill instructed.
Tim bit back the first five reactions and finally responded with, “It’s an air leak.”
“Yep, slap a patch on it and get back to work.”
“Ground control, would you like to come up here with a compromised air containment system?”
“Not my problem,” the man on duty responded. “Not our problem. Our problem is the contracted work in order to have the money to bring you back down, so slap a patch on it and return to the experiment for the Japanese and make sure the medical one for FreeZone is still running smoothly.”
Tim had been applying the patch the whole time he was arguing and really didn’t like the implied threat of not being picked up after a month-long orbit, but since the US had gone full-out capitalist, where one couldn’t tell if the corporations were running the government or the government was running the corporations, or was that full-out communism? Anyway, nothing in orbit was being maintained. New stations were being built, because there is no money in saving things, only buying new things. Not that there were enough rockets to get the new stations into orbit nor “entry-level” astronauts trained to assemble them. Tim eased his aching back and crawled back out of the hatch leading to the leaking seam. He was part of the last graduating astronaut class of ’28.
“Fine. Patch in place, but note that it is on top of seam sealant from the last year.”
“Good enough.”
“Mr. Roach, did you make the note?”
“Sure, sure. Making it now.”
Somehow Tim doubted Bill made the note, and since “they” decided to stop recording all communication to save on computer processing and electricity so the nearby data center could work 24-7, no one will follow up. Welcome to America, land of the free and home of if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it and if it is broke, just replace it.
Soon the station would be overflying the relay station which had burned in the August wildfire, so no communication would happen for thirty minutes. Starlink promised to patch something together soon, back in September.
Tim remembered when patchwork was his great-grandma’s carefully handmade quilt, lovingly repaired by his mother. Today’s patchwork was shoddy business.
(words 381; first published 8/11/2026)
Amazon Cover
Comments I wrote during a buddy read of THIS INEVITABLE RUIN
Page 12 – And I thought Carl’s Doomsday Scenario, stored in his inventory, was a big, bad boom. These idiots went and made CARL!!! the bomb. (He was always “the bomb”, but now, for real, for real.)
Page 24 – Crawler count 32,429 … down from 8 billion people. The countdown toward extinction continues.
Page 106 – The All-Tree roots connecting to everything. Could be useful…what can Carl do with that?
Page 189 – One of the others on the Buddy Read: “Sooooo tedious. I’m not into war strategies.”
My response: ”I’m trusting Carl to blow something up really, really big by the end.”
Page 210 – “He was real. A real life snuffed away.”
Every time I see something like that, I see red. Like, what is the entire planet of Earth humans (and dolphins and other sentient creatures)????
(And this, boys and girls, is why you never should dehumanize anyone. You can consider them monsters, but they are human monsters. They are always real.)
Page 233 – “Welcome to the party, pals.”
Sooooo, that happened.
Page 318 – “WARLORD CARL: Unleash, Tina!”
Go-go tutu little-big girl. Sparkle the world!
Page 347 – Another person on the Buddy Read: “This may be my least favorite book so far.”
My response: “Yeah, I’m here for the characters more than the strategy…but this level has long been promised, so I just got to get through it.”
Page 400 – A question from the Buddy Read: “What is with the metaphor the AI just used?? Also wtf does he mean he had a family?”
My response: “I think the other AIs from previous crawls can communicate, and that would be his family. As for the metaphor – seems like two people are giving the AI advice, one is Agatha (she is sharing the Residual stuff with him – I don’t know if her ex- is a previous AI, or maybe a full primal?)…and the other? Hmm, who does Agatha hate – would it be the other part of the residual community or something else. Likely something else if the “old boyfriend” and the “other woman” are from the same “community”. I don’t know…yet. Well, we all have our limitations.”
Page 424 – “Warning: Scolopendra Stirs.”
Does it also cook and bake?
Page 495 – “I promised I wouldn’t poke at those outside the original primary zone without a good reason.”
Who did the AI promise? Was it Orren, who wanted to make sure all the previous agreements are still in place. Was it his family, the other AIs? Was it a promise he made himself, to not get hurt by the edges of his programming to keep him in check (everyone has their limitations)?
Page 589 – “DONUT: SAY THE WORD, AND DEATH WILL RAIN IN MY NAME.”
Do you remember this cuteness from Book 2 “Carl’s Doomsday Scenario” (see below)? I thought it was just a delightful joke and a bit overdone by the programmed bad guys. Little did I know Matt’s plan.
“…now this great deceiver, this devourer of all that is holy, has a name. She is Donut the Oak Fell. The Death upon Us All. She Who Ends.”
Page 651 – Action item three: “During the Peeling phase, revert to the rules of the original Faction Wars. Warlords and all soldiers of the defeated team should automatically die if they lose during the peeling phase.”
Wow, isn’t that going to change things a bit. Does anyone else have emergency action items left to revert this? I don’t think so. Can’t remember, but I don’t think so.
Dang…just dang. And with the “die for real” in place on top of the “die in game”, all the outworlders who had been holding back, hoping to survive this by not being in the front lines, are going to go ballistic. And the changelings…could they just replace the people on the crawler team as they die? Not kill them, just replacement. Although, they do tend to be more proactive than that.
This is going to be a blood bath.
Page 695 – I hope whoever Samantha is, her real self is as unhinged as her present one.
Page 718 – From the Buddy Read: Somehow I thought Ferdinand was a chonky boy 😅 I just read he’s skinny? *sigh. remodeling mental image*
My Response: Whatever he is, he is an orange cat.
Page 719 – 120,000 children??? There are less than 32,429 crawlers left (how many started the book). That isn’t a glitch, that is a hostage situation.
Page 744 – Called it, The Oak Fell.
Page 753 – Well that battle scene is vividly gory even by Matt standards. Do I even want to know how he is going to outdo this in book 8?
Page 754- The Lorena B. (abbreviated for spoilers) achievement. LOL.
Page 771 – He still has the bucket of glitter, and I still want a glitter bomb made.
That particular Chekhov’ s gun had better get used at some point. I’m just saying!
P.S. And it will need to involve Tina’s magical wand.
Page 791 – “We all have our limitations.”
Page 810 – “Reward: Toasty Food” – Oh, that is a quest I am going to fulfill. I love me toasty food…starting with s’mores, then grilled cheese, and other sandwiches, savory toasted cheese, …the list goes on.
Page 821 – Crawler Count: 20,221
Wow, that is amazing for the end of 9th level.
Page 823 – He.let.the.ring.go.
HE LET THE RING GO!!!!!!!
I didn’t think he could/would do that. I thought the claw was in too deep.
Page 830 – Suspect everyone.
Oh no, is Jamal a changeling?
No, they can’t do that with a tattoo, can they? Hmm.
On the other hand, imagine some poor changeling assigned to recreate Jamal.
Page 840 – Go Katia, save the children!!!!
The stakes just got raised impossibly high…
Page 845 – FOR YORK (he needed poetry)
Death doesn’t count.
Unnumbered children in orbit
and on the ground.
Death doesn’t count.
Crawlers, all numbered, providing
entertainment televised.
Death doesn’t count.
AIs, gods, CEOs, and pets,
gathered in the black embrace.
Death doesn’t count.
The breath of atoms and
the planets holding life.
Page 859 – (Last page, last paragraph, “normal” section, hardback edition)
Oh. That’s not good. Not good at all.
That is outside the sphere of influence.
Page 870 – (Last page of Backstage at the Pineapple…)
Oh, that is going to get messy too.
(The mimics going a level down.)
Series of Transcripts for Dungeon Crawler Carl
Photo by Sharon Pittaway on Unsplash
Another blog recommendation for children’s literature by way of the A-to-Z blogging challenge (http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/). I previously recommended a source for children non-fiction books in February (Other Cool Blogs: Children Non-Fiction Recommendations 2/26/2026). This time one of the bloggers, Laura, provided a list of Board Books for Babies. I chose the COLORS board books as the blog of choice, but they are all amazing!
If you are looking for books for your child or if members of your friendship circle have been adding children to the population, you might want to give a look at the full month of books for ideas and recommendations. The blogger does have associate links to Amazon, so if you are going to buy the books, be sure to go through her so she gets some of the benefit.
Amazon Cover
Auntie Heroes (Raconteur Press Anthologies Book 74)
BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON
They’ve been overlooked, underestimated, and politely sidelined for decades. Fine. That’s fine. Let them keep underestimating.
In the pages of Auntie Heroes, meet ten women of a certain vintage who possess particular sets of skills and absolutely zero patience for the alternative. A fire fairy stepmother navigating werewolves and blended family politics. A retired intelligence operative who knits Kevlar scarves and outsmarts Belarusian thieves in a foreign embassy. A grandmother farming fourteen hundred acres with alien assistance — and handling the unfriendly ones with a shotgun full of rock salt. A sharp-eyed matron in a Lovecraftian coastal town who defeats an elder god with Eternal Father Strong to Save and a can of extra-hold hairspray. A suburban gardener who discovers her neighbor’s invasive kudzu is a Cold War-era biological antenna siphoning encrypted data from Fort Meade — and handles it accordingly.
Across fairy tales, spy thrillers, alien farms, suburban horror, and the salt-choked streets of a town that smells permanently of low tide, these women share one defining trait: they have been here long enough to know exactly what needs doing. And they will absolutely do it.
Stories include: “Stepmother Ever After” by Nancy Frye • “Calhoun Blood” by D.S. Ligon • “The Squamous Among Us” by Spearman Burke • “Salon and Subversion” by Tuvela Thomas • “A Dressing Down” by Aelth Faye • “From the Ashes” by TC Ross • “Knit One, Sanction Two” by Ted Begley • “Pruning with Extreme Prejudice” by Michael Patrick Coady • “Walking the Beans” by Rick Cutler • “The Knitting Circle at Innsmouth” by Malory
The world has a great many hind ends that require a proper thrashing. We’re betting on the lady with the flamethrower.
MY REVIEW
Auntie Heroes, like most anthologies, is uneven in tone and skill from the various writers involved in the project. But the shift of tone and skill is minimal, as this is a Raconteur Press Anthology and they have the formula down for creating pulp anthologies on a regular basis. If you like pulp short stories, I highly recommend the whole line for consistent interesting stories. All the anthologies are stand-alone, even the Moggie ones.
I love the theme for Auntie Heroes – older women, whose bodies may be a little long on the mileage, but the experience which came with it makes them forces to be reckoned with. Note that while the anthology is woman-theme, many of the stories are written by men. It was edited by a woman.
As is typical of my reviews of anthologies and collections, I will now do a short one-to-two line review on each of the stories:
Stepmother Eve After by Nancy Frye – Fairy Tale: An epistolary short story between Hansel and Gretel’s new stepmother and her witchy sister. Family will help family. (4 star)
Calhoun Blood by D.S. Ligon – Urban Fantasy: When something walks in with your mother’s face, you need the help of your auntie. (4 star)
The Squamous Among Us by Spearman Burke – Urban Fantasy: Don’t mess with an old woman’s book club members. (4 star)
Salon and Subversion by Tuvela Thomas – Humorous, cozy thriller: Best of the book. My mother laughed herself silly while reading it and kept wanting to share bits with me but couldn’t since I hadn’t read it yet. Very very funny. (5 star)
A Dressing Down by Aelth Faye – Thriller: Most people don’t look beyond the clothes and gray hair, which helps when rescuing kidnapped privileged daughters. (4 star)
From the Ashes by TC Ross – Fantasy: Children are to be protected even when the world, or at least the forest, is on fire. But how can a tiny old fairy save a baby before the fire rushes past? (4.5 star)
Knit One, Sanction Two by Ted Befley – Thriller: The thing about old people is they come with experiences. Is the little old lady working reception a knitter or international spy? (5 star)
Pruning with Extreme Prejudice by Michael Patrick Coady – Science Fiction (techno-biology):Kudzu is always an invading force, no matter how pretty it looks. Gardening club must go to war with a neighbor’s unfortunate taste in landscaping. (If you are not used to technobabble, this can be a rough read. But worth it if you love puttering around in suburbia flower beds.) (4.5 star)
Walking the Beans by Rick Cutler – Science Fiction (Aliens and Men-in-black): Always be neighborly. (4 star)
The Knitting Circle at Innsmouth by Mallory – Horror: Pie-judging at the town faire in this Lovecraft inspired short. Of all the stories, this one is furthest from the feel of the anthology and is very confusing for people not used to seeing a Lovecraftian story mixed in among normal fantasy. (3.5 star)