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Reviews from April 2026 (4)

Or What’s A Heaven For?

Earth Is Room Enough

By Isaac Asimov  

5 Apr, 2026

Because My Tears Are Delicious To You

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Isaac Asimov’s 1957 Earth Is Room Enough is a speculative fiction collection.

The unifying theme for this collection is stories set on Earth.” This isn’t due to some There Is Only One Earth connection — even though I remembered it that way — but because Asimov got needled about always writing star-spanning SF. The obvious comparison here is Anderson’s The Queen of Air and Darkness and Other Stories, compiled for thematically-related reasons. Or it would be if I’d reviewed that collection. Which I have not.

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All My Empathy’s A Disaster

Platform Decay  (Murderbot, volume 8)

By Martha Wells  

2 Apr, 2026

Space Opera That Doesn't Suck

4 comments

2026’s Platform Decay is the eighth volume in Martha Wells’ Murderbot science fiction series.

Once again, a grumpy Murderbot finds itself wasting time infiltrating hostile territory, when it could better use the time to watch its favorite shows.

All thanks to humans. Humans are pesky. The hostile territory (the torus) is even peskier.

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The Walrus Said

A Discourse by Three Drunkards on Government

By Nakae Chomin  (Translated by Nobuko Tsukui)

1 Apr, 2026

Translation

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Nakae Chomin’s 1887 A Discourse by Three Drunkards on Government is a comedic political fictional conversation. The 1984 English translation is by Nobuko Tsukui. The 144-page text features a foreword by Marius Jansen and an introduction by Nobuko Tsukui and Jeffrey Hammond.

Master Nankai loves to discuss politics. Master Nankai loves to drink. When the Gentleman and Mr. Champion arrive, Golden Axe brandy in hand, Nankai immediately recognizes them as kindred souls. Surely, the three of them can determine Japan’s proper course of action… 

or at the least, finish that bottle of European brandy.

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