Historian Lucy Worsley looks at the growth of murder (fictional and real) as entertainment in British media. Fascinating and a lot of fun to read; if you’ve ever enjoyed one if Worsley’s TV historical documentaries (we’ve become big fans), this has the same humor, and it’s decidedly her voice.

My favorites this month were “King of the Castle” by Fiona Moore and “The Hanging Tower of Babel” by Wang Zhenzhen, translated by Carmen Yiling Yan.

A fascinating little World War II artifact that in some ways can still be quite relevant. Sure, much of this is very much of its time, and many of the more specific suggestions are technologically obsolete now. But the broad strokes, and especially the oft-screenshotted section advising office workers on ways to slow down beaurocratic functions, are as useful today as ever. If, of course, you ever happen to find yourself in a situation where an autocratic fascist regime is in power and you have reason and opportunity to do what you can to gum up the works. (Ahem.)

A short but very solid anthology of short comics dealing with the intersection of modern indigenous life and nerd interests. Several good stories in here; my personal favorite is the last, addressing Star Trek TNG’s colonialist underpinnings and how one fan’s relationship with it changes over their life.

My favorites this issue were “Never Eaten Vegetables” by H.H. Pak, “The Temporary Murder of Thomas Monroe” by Tia Tashiro, and “Autonomy” by Meg Elison.

Favorites in this issue were “Souljacker” by Shari Paul, “Driver” by Sameem Siddiqui, and “The Coffee Machine” by Celia Corral-Vásquez.

Favorites this month were “Kaiju Agonistes” by Scott Lynch and “Six People to Revise You” by J.R. Dawson.

A fun, quick read, as two of Miles’ current and former staff uncover a plot to foil Miles’ wedding.

A two-century prequel to the Vorkosogan saga, as the Quaddies — humans genetically engineered for zero-G, complete with a second pair of arms rather than legs — make a break for freedom. Not quite as good as later Vorkosogan books, but also one of the earliest written, and still very enjoyable, with some neat feats of sci-fi engineering balancing out the less well-developed characters.

Though officially a TOS adventure, this is really mostly a part of the _Vanguard_ spinoff book series, which I read so long ago as to have forgotten both characters and key points. As a result, it felt like I was reading a mid-series book, and missing much of the necessary context. The primary foe is so overwhelmingly powerful that there’s an extended battle sequence in the latter half of the book that feels very out of place; perhaps it works within the greater Vanguard storyline, but to me, it was just troubling and very un-Trek. Klingon characters include pre-“Day of the Dove” Kang and Mara, which does expand their characters in interesting ways and hints at background motivations for future Federation/Klingon developments, but also doesn’t really mesh with what I remember of Kang and Mara’s actions in the episode (though, admittedly, it’s been a few years since I watched it, and I’m relying partially on Memory Alpha’s plot summary here). All in all, an uneven Trek adventure, and not one of my favorites.