Reading Report, November/December 2025

Listened to a recording of Frederik Pohl’s “Day Million.” I’d never read it before.

Read Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpekis’ story “Oil On Water” online. It’s in the magazine LOLWE. A well-done horror story that doesn’t pull its punches.

Listened to a reading of L. Sprague deCamp’s story “The Ordeal Of Professor Klein” on You Tube. It appeared in a couple of anthologies in the 50’s but hasn’t appeared in any of deCamp’s collections. Set in the future it’s a satiric riff on academia building to a punchline, albeit a funny one.

Finally finished John Maddox Roberts’ historical mystery novel “The Temple Of the Muses,” which I actually started reading about twenty years ago. A well-done mystery which ends with Decius telling us that he “finally got to settle matters” with the culprit when he returned to Alexandria twelve years later, but this is a tale I don’t think Roberts ever wrote. Fun courtroom scene with the physician Asklepiodes (a riff on Asklepios, I wonder?) recounting some ancient forensic science. And there’s a glossary in the back! How cool is that?

And it just hit me, I finished reading “Muses” on Thanksgiving 2025 and I started these monthly reading reports on Thanksgiving three years ago!

Also read (Re-read?) Roberts’ story “The King Of Sacrifices” (in Mike Ashley’s old “Mammoth Book Of Historical Mysteries.”) Decius, in his old age, is called to solve a mystery by Emperor Octavius (Decius won’t call him Agustus!) in the Rome of about 20 BC. Wish Roberts had followed this up with another story set in the later years of Decius’ life in his well-described Rome.

And I’ve started reading Robert’s novel “Nobody Loves A Centurion” where Decius is serving with Caesar in Gaul and the killigs are not all on a battlefield. Well-described period setting and characters.

I hadn’t really heard of Keith Roberts’ stories about Anita, the teenaged witch. Read one I had anthologized: “Timothy.” Well-done and carrying Hawthorne’s “Feathertop” to its logical extreme.

And I re-read Pohl’s “Day Million.” I’m doing a column on that.

Read the usual weekly offerings by Kaje Harper who is also re-posting several of her stories on another Facebook site in conjunction with a “Twelve Tropes Of Christmas” Blog theme. She covers all the bases.

And read E. H. Timm’s fine monthly story which you can find linked in the Flash Fiction Draw Challenge part of this blog.

Again, I wish all my readers the best for the Season and the New Year. To quote maybe my favorite book: “A Merry Christmas to Everybody! A Happy New Year to All the World!”