Douglas Adams: The Ends of the Earth edited by Arvind Ethan David (2025)

I saw this as a Kickstarter last year and backed it, though not as an earlybird to get every bonus. I did get bonus audio. It came out in June 2025 and I got around to listening to it from the end of September until today.

I admit I had the wrong idea about this audiobook and was initially disappointed, as I looked at the surface for the “from the Adams Archives,” and not the “discussions about topics Adams felt strongly about”.  The main audiobook is about 5 hours with almost the same in the bonus material (which is not available with the public release).

The star of this are the excerpts from Douglas’ speeches. He was an engaging speaker and the bits from the horses’ mouth are the best part.  There are many readings and ‘dramatizations’ of excerpts from all of Adams’ work, which are good to hear. I could have done without most of the sound effects that were added to readings as they were distracting. For a book that wants you to focus on the meanings, it’s a bad choice.

The editor/author of this collection was an intern at Douglas’ company Digital Village and has long been adapting and presenting Adams’ work. His reverence for Douglas borders on fawning at times–we get it, we’re listening already.  As I have found with some other interviewers, they bring a little too much of their own biography into the interviews, which gets repeated since there are multiple interviews collected (essentially one interview per topic).

The collection centers around several topics, which break the book into easy chapters:  Creativity & Writing, Animal Conservation, Tech/Internet/AI, Politics & Capitalism, and Atheism.  David has enlisted a good range of interview subjects, some who knew Adams well.  Stephen Fry was the best of the interviews, although all were interesting.  My perk of bonus audio gave me the full keynote from one of Adams’ conference talks plus the unedited interviews of three of the participants in the book.

A interesting strategy for this audiobook is that it’s being released through podcast app services–you can’t buy it directly as a download (unless you were a kickstarter backer).  You can find out more about it at the link.

I’m glad I got this audiobook as I’ve collected most of what has been written by or published about Douglas Adams. It ranks with  Eoin Colfer’s And Another Thing… as something that a completist will want but that the casual fan will probably skip.

Fair Trade by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (2022)

Through my involvement in The Heinlein Society I have become a regular attendee at Balticon, the Baltimore Science Fiction Society’s annual SF convention.  BSFS and THS award the “Heinlein Award” and the 2025 winner was Sharon Lee.  Before the con I had only read one of Sharon’s books and was vaguely aware of the Liaden Universe that her and her husband & cowriter created and populated.

At the con, I picked up Fair  Trade to be able to have Sharon inscribe it.  I read it this week and it’s an intriguing story with two main plot threads.  I didn’t realize it was the third book of an arc, but I was able to pick up the gist of earlier pertinent action.

I enjoyed the similarity of the Loopers/Traders/Liaden to some of the customs in Heinlein’s Citizen of the Galaxy. What I did not enjoy was finishing the book with several dangling plot threads and finding out there was not a “next book in the arc” yet published.  Steve Miller died in 2024, so it’s not really clear on what stories will be told in the Liaden Universe henceforth.

I’m glad I read this to get a better sense of Sharon & Steve’s writing, and a signed copy from Sharon is a nice memory of meeting her, but I would caution to read other parts of the Liaden Universe instead of this one for now.

Wonder Woman by Nancy Holder (2017)

While travelling visiting family this past Spring, I found this book in a used book store.  It’s a sad fact that movie-tie-in novelizations aren’t being done any more, except for those aimed at younger kids.  I hadn’t realized this one had come out, and Nancy Holder is a veteran of many adaptations. I really enjoyed her work in the Buffyverse.

As I expected, this is a solid telling of the story. What I usually love about novelizations is that they are done from a final script which often has more details than make it into the film.  Sadly, I didn’t learn anything “new” from this one.  I enjoyed the movie and I enjoyed reading the book after not having seen the movie in many years. It was a nice diversion on a dreary Fall day.

When I stop to look over what I have collected over the years that’s comics-related, I have a surprising amount of Wonder Woman books. I am going to add this one into the collection.