Lydia Schoch

August 20, 2026 · 1:00 am

A Review of All the Little Hedgehogs

Title: All the Little Hedgehogs

Author: Leigh Kimmel

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: April 29, 2023

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror, Alternate History

Length: About 20 pages.

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

In Soviet Union, genetic engineering does you. Yona wondered why everyone kept steering him toward a military career, until one of his teachers noticed his aptitude for genetics. Now he’s the personal student of Academician Voronsky, working in a secret genetic engineering facility in a closed town. However, Yona keeps having to spend as much time babysitting the Academician’s adopted son Kolya as actually doing genetics. When this extra assignment becomes a frustration, Yona learns just how quickly privileges can be retracted. And then he starts learning just how deep the secrets of the Soviet human genetics program really goes. A story from the Grissom timeline (Gus on the Moon universe). Caution: Contains intense material that may be disturbing to some audiences. Reader caution advised

Content Warning: Pregnancy, birth, cloning, and brief references to infanticide.

Review:

DNA only tells part of the story.

Genetic engineering is one of those topics I often like to see covered in the Science Fiction genre because of how many different ways it can be approached. While I don’t want to go into too much detail about what exactly what happening in this facility, I thought the narrator asked some interesting questions about how important genetics are to how someone turns out that might be of special interest to any readers out there who might be related to people who are incredibly different from them in crucial ways. That is to say, you can be a blood relative of someone and share very little in common with them.

I struggled with the violent content in this short story due to how unnecessary it felt for plot development. Horror is a genre I’ve been moving away from, so this made be of greater interest to readers who still like to read that sort of stuff. Still, there was one particular scene I thought was egregious and could have easily been cut out without ruining the effect of the chilling world Yona knew in general.

The descriptions of the medical facilities were my favourite part of this short story. They were given so much attention that I could easily imagine what it would be like to visit or work there. One bright moment that stood out to me the most involved how the fetuses interacted with each other before birth. I could have read many more pages about them if such a thing were possible due to the funny things they did to each other.

All the Little Hedgehogs made me shudder.

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Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as 2020s, Alternate History, Book Reviews, Horror, Science Fiction, Self-Published, Short Story

August 19, 2026 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Foods From My Geographic Area That I Don’t Like

A laptop sitting on a wooden table. The text reads: “Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge. Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.”

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

I’m not a very picky eater, so this is going to be a short list.

A glass of red wine next to a bottle of red wine. I do not like alcohol (and have medical reasons to avoid it now anyway), so any wine, beer, or other alcoholic beverage made in Ontario isn’t something I will be imbibing.

Sushi Pizza. There’s a restaurant here in Toronto that serves it. While I love pizza, sushi is one of those foods I’ve never learned to enjoy. The seaweed wrap for it is far too salty and chewy for my tastes. Maybe it’s because my family never ate sushi when I was a kid?

Sausages. There are farms in Ontario that make all sorts of sausages, and I rarely if ever like any of them. Meat is something I eat, but I enjoy it far less than something like a warm, crusty loaf of bread with a little vegan butter and cherry jam on it.

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Tagged as Food, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

August 18, 2026 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Series I Want to Catch Up On

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

This will be a short list this week as I’ve more or less lost interest in reading series. Too many of them have either ended unsatisfactorily for my tastes or never been completed at all.

With that being said, here are a few exceptions to that rule for me that I still need to finish:

1. The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1) by Philip Pullman

2. Children of Time (Children of Time, #1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky

3. Semiosis (Semiosis, #1) by Sue Burke

If you know of any speculative fiction series published in the last 10 years or so that were excellent from beginning to end, please share!

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Tagged as Top Ten Tuesday

August 13, 2026 · 1:00 am

A Review of Seed

Title: Seed

Author: P.B. Cannon

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: November 2o, 2012

Genres: Science Fiction, Romance, Historical

Length: About 137 pages.

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

Abandoned on an alien planet, Second must learn to co-exist with a group of primitives in order to survive. A tale of the acceptance of differences and of unconditional love.

Content Warning: Polyamory, sex scenes, pregnancy, birth, and bullying for physical disabilities and differences.

Review:

Love comes in many different forms.

I enjoyed seeing how much trust the author put into assuming readers would figure out some things on our own. Not every aspect of these characters’ lives was spelled out plainly, and a few of them could only be uncovered by taking note of subtle clues that fit together in specific ways once one was well into Second’s adventures. There’s something to be said for believing that one’s audience is intelligent and patient enough to do such things, and it’s one of the reasons why I keep returning to Ms. Cannon’s work over and over again.

While physiological differences between Second and the people they met on the alien planet they visited were described in detail, I would have liked to see a little more attention paid to the world building as well, particularly as it related to culture and religion. Second had grown up with certain assumptions about how society worked that weren’t always well fleshed out but that did have a heavy impact on how they interacted with nomadic people they met on their travels. This could have easily been a five-star reading for me if more time had been spent on such things.

The romances were handled nicely and I thought they contributed a lot of character development to this novella. This is something I’m saying as a reader who only occasionally dips my toes into this genre and is not easily impressed, but the author put in all of the work that was required in order to make these subplots flow smoothly with the main storyline. They were ultimately well done.

This is a prequel to a series, but it also can be read as a standalone work.

Seed was heartwarming.

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Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as 2010s, Aliens, Book Reviews, Novella, P.B. Cannon, Science Fiction, Self-Published

August 12, 2026 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Foods From My Geographic Area That I Love

A laptop sitting on a wooden table. The text reads: “Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge. Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.”

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

A bottle of Quebec maple syrup in a glass container. It’s sitting on a wooden table, presumably ready to be poured on some food! One type of Canadian food I haven’t tried yet is Saskatoon berry pie, but I’d bet it will be amazing once I find a dairy-free version or recipe for it someday Everything else on this list is something I have eaten at least once.

I can’t possibly know what everyone has or hasn’t already tasted, so Wikipedia links are included in this post if anything I described is unfamiliar to you or you’d like to know more about them.

Maple syrup is at the top of my list for this topic because Southern Ontario is excellent at making it and it’s one of those foods that people buy here to give as gifts elsewhere. I know it’s collected in many other places on Earth, too, so I hope you all have had a chance to taste it if you wish to.

Poutine is delicious as well. You may not think that French fries, gravy, and cheese (or, in my case, vegan cheese) would go so well together, but they’re delicious. I prefer to add a few tablespoons of chopped green peppers for added flavour, although it’s not a traditional topping per se.

Butter tarts are something I wasn’t able to try until I finally found a bakery that makes a dairy-free version of them. Thank goodness for vegan and allergy-aware bakers is all I can say! They are an incredibly rich dessert that I adore, and I recommend them as well.

Peameal bacon sandwiches are a delicious lunch due to how rich and savoury this type of meat is. They’re typically served on the same sort of bun you might use for hamburger or veggie burger meat. I like to put some honey mustard on mine, but they’re good plain as well.

Nanaimo bars took some getting used to due to my dislike of shredded coconut, but they’re otherwise wonderfully fudgy and sweet.

Split pea soup is actually something my parents made on occasion when I was growing up in the United States. I didn’t realize there was a French version from Quebec, too, until I moved up here.

Finally, beaver tails are a classic Canadian treat. It’s a flat pastry that’s fried and then covered in toppings that range from a simple cinnamon and sugar to chopped up pieces of well-known candy or candy bars and copious amounts of icing. They are also teeth-achingly sweet, so you may want to consider splitting one with a friend or relative as a little bit can go a long way.

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Tagged as Canada, Canadian Culture, Food, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

August 11, 2026 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Was Reading On This Day Over the Last Ten Years

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Thank you to Anne @ HeadFullofBooks for coming up with this topic! Here are books I’ve read in August over the past ten years. I can’t guarantee that I was reading them on precisely August 11 as I don’t keep track of such information, but they were all read in this month and all good reads.

2016

The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson: Separating Fact from Fiction by Gregory Klages

Genre: History

Why I Liked It: Tom Thompson was a famous Canadian painter and one of the Group of Seven who created all sorts of art in the early 1900s. This book explores his life and mysterious death, and I thought the ending was quite fitting for a life that ended far too soon.

2017

Coping With Your Difficult Older Parent : A Guide for Stressed-Out Children by Grace Lebow, Barbara Kane, Irwin Lebow

Genre: Psychology/Self-Help

Why I Liked It: My parents are actually wonderful, but unfortunately I have other relatives in their age group who are only becoming more difficult to handle as they grow older. I’ve read multiple books about boundaries, dysfunctional families, (severe, untreated) mental illness, and self-care over the years to help me develop the coping skills I need for these situations.

2018

The Bedroom: An Intimate History by Michelle Perrot, Lauren Elkin

Genre: History

Why I Liked It: The wide range of topics it covered. Yes, there were references to sex in this book, but it also talked about many other things related to bedrooms and sleeping: central heating, how hotel accommodations worked in the past, how people slept in jails, hospitals, and sanitariums, and so much more.

2019

Let’s Play White by Chesya Burke

Genre: SFF

Why I Liked It: This was one of those collections of short stories in which every entry was unique. I get a little bored with collections that repeat the same themes too often, so this one definitely stood out to me.

2020

Zombies, Run!: Keeping Fit and Living Well in the Current Zombie Emergency by Naomi Alderman

Genre: SFF, Health, Fitness

Why I Liked It: Honestly, the information in it is just as applicable to now as it was to 2020. Taking care of yourself during stressful times is incredibly important no matter what the threat is. The zombie angle simply added a dose of fun to what is otherwise a serious topic.

2021

Broken Places & Outer Spaces: Finding Creativity in the Unexpected by Nnedi Okorafor

Genre: Memoir

Why I Liked It: I don’t purposefully seek out information about the lives of my favourite authors because I believe they deserve privacy just like the rest of us (unless they’re harming other people or something, of course). Therefore, I didn’t know about Ms. Okorafor’s botched back surgery or how it lead her to become an author until I read this. It was quite interesting!

2022

On Sundays She Picked Flowers by Yah-Yah Scholfield

Genre: Horror

Why I Liked It: Eveything up until the ending was perfect. The protagonist was nuanced and relatable and the setting was deliciously scary. I just wish the conclusion had been a happier one, but I’m still glad I read it.

2023

The Necessity of Stars by E. Catherine Tobler

Genre: SFF

Why I Liked It: This one had the opposite problem that Scholfield‘s tale did. The beginning was a little lacklustre, but the ending was so worth the wait. Once again, I’m glad I read it even though it didn’t match all of my expectations.

2024

Gay the Pray Away by Natalie Naudus

Genre: YA

Why I Liked It: I related to it on so many different levels, from growing up in a conservative Christian homeschooling family to being a lifelong bookworm to eventually coming out.

2025

Ghosts, Trolls and the Hidden People: An Anthology of Icelandic Folk Legends by Dagrún Ósk Jónsdóttir

Genre: SFF

Why I Liked It: You all might remember how much I love myths, fairy tales, and folklore in general. This was a fabulous collection of just that.

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Tagged as Top Ten Tuesday

August 6, 2026 · 1:00 am

A Review of Ava

Title: Ava

Author: Victoria Dillon

Publisher: New Harbinger Publications

Publication Date: March 3, 2026

Genres: Science Fiction

Length: 238 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

For fans of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale comes Ava, a provocative blend of speculative fiction and social commentary that takes readers on a gripping, thought-provoking journey into the fight for women’s autonomy in a politically charged Southern landscape.

What if the only way to reclaim reproductive freedom was to rewrite the very nature of birth itself?

Ten years after Roe v. Wade is overturned, twenty-two-year-old biologist Larkin finds herself unexpectedly pregnant in a country where choice is no longer an option. Initially uncertain, she embraces motherhood—until a devastating diagnosis changes everything. Trapped by Tennessee’s strict abortion laws, she is forced to carry her baby to term, only to endure the heartbreak of losing her hours after birth.

Years later, Larkin joins a radical scientific movement that could change a groundbreaking technology that replaces gestation with incubation, allowing women true control over their reproduction. When she uses it to bring her second daughter, Ava, into the world, she believes she has finally reclaimed her autonomy. But as Ava grows and begins to question the very choice that created her, Larkin is challenged in ways she never imagined.

Ava is a powerful, emotionally charged exploration of motherhood, bodily autonomy, and the far-reaching consequences of restrictive legislation. In a future shaped by loss and innovation, mother and daughter must confront the ultimate what does it truly mean to have a choice?

Content Warning: Miscarriage, misogyny, forced pregnancy and birth, and a baby who died of a fatal birth defect a few hours after being born.

Review:

Reproductive freedom is more than a catch phrase.

The science fiction elements were intriguing and like nothing I’ve ever seen in this genre before. I especially enjoyed the sections that discussed how human reproduction could be altered in order to make it much safer for pregnant people to experience. While I don’t want to give away too many hints about how the incubation process worked in this tale, I was fascinated by the technological changes that made such a thing possible and thought it was a good platform to discuss everything from sexism to bodily autonomy.

I would have loved to see more character and plot development At times this read more like an outline of a book than the finished product, especially when it came to exploring the character’s internal lives and how the invention of a new way for humans to reproduce might change society forever. As important as the messages were in it, I was underwhelmed by the execution of the storyline and kept wishing the author would give us more details about how everything worked and what the characters thought of these biological and social developments.

There was a cliffhanger ending here that made me wish to know what happened next. It will be interesting to see if other readers have the same reaction, but I thought it was a good place to end given all of the dramatic changes to society that had just taken place. The consequences of these actions could be far reaching and spur on multiple sequels if the author wanted to write them.

Ava was thought provoking.

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Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as 2020s, Book Reviews, Feminism, Novels, Science Fiction, Victoria Dillon

August 5, 2026 · 2:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Reasons I’ve Stopped Reading or Watching a Series

A laptop sitting on a wooden table. The text reads: “Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge. Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.”

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

Drawing of a vintage television that has one of those test cards on it comprised of stripes of various vertical colours that used to show on channels that were off air for the night. The tv includes two antennas sticking up from the top of it. There are many reasons why I might stop watching a series, including:

– A hopeless storyline. I enjoyed the first few seasons of The Walking Dead, for example, but then lost interest because the characters could never gain a foothold and improve their lives. They always slid back into misery, and I really struggle to stay interested in shows that do that repeatedly.

– Prejudice that is portrayed in a positive light. That is to say I don’t watch shows or read books that encourage sexism, racism, ableism, classism, homophobia, etc. (This has thankfully become much less common now than it was in some older programs!) It’s fine if a show explores these topics, of course, and for some historical stuff it can’t be avoided easily or at all depending on which story is being told. Just don’t make hatred look normal or admirable.

– A plot that is stretched out over too many seasons. I’d rather see things end prematurely than be dragged out longer than is necessary. (See also: The Handmaid’s Tale. It should have ended after a season or two, to be honest).

– If it includes anything related to spies, the criminal justice system,* war, the military, or the police. I have extremely limited interest in these subjects at best, so a show really has to impress me to get to watch them if they include these themes. Brooklyn Nine Nine was one of my rare exceptions to this rule.

– Bad or minimal character development. I need to feel emotionally connected with at least one character in order to want to keep watching something, and this is difficult to make happen if nobody has any depth to their personality or backstory.

*Also, why did my autocorrect try to turn the criminal justice system into Cthulhu? 😂

My criteria for books is honestly mostly the same as what I wrote above. If you keep the pacing even, don’t make things too dreary, and allow your characters to be well-rounded people instead of walking stereotypes, I’m open to just about any genre even if I do prefer speculative fiction in general.

Good storytelling transcends genre in my opinion!

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Tagged as Television, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

August 4, 2026 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Ice Cream Trucks on Covers

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

We are officially in the dog days of summer, and what better cover freebie theme to pick than ice cream trucks. They are a common sight here in North America in the summer. I don’t know if the same is true in other parts of the world, so please share if this is (or isn’t) something people look forward to in your country when the weather is hot and, depending on your local climate, possibly quite humid as well.

I have not read any of these titles yet, so let me know if they’re good.

Book cover for Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer. Image on cover shows a young woman standing confidently on top of a stationary ice cream truck.

1. Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer

2. Love, Inc. (Love, Inc., #1) by Yvonne Collins

Book cover for Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian. Image on cover shows a laughing young white woman whose brown hair is pulled into a pony tail and who is wearing a pink and white dress. She’s leaning over the window in an ice cream truck to take your order!

3. Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian

Book cover for The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson. Image on cover shows a drawing of a young white woman wearing a blue sundress who has several dogs surrounding her in front of an ice cream truck. I think they’re all about to get a treat!

4. The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

Book cover for Wesley James Ruined My Life by Jennifer Honeybourn. Image on cover shows a drawing of a young black man and a young white woman working inside of an ice cream truck. He looks distracted and she looks bored.

5. Wesley James Ruined My Life by Jennifer Honeybourn

Book cover for We Are Called to Rise by Laura McBride. Image on cover shows an ice cream truck parked on an empty beach on a partly cloudy day. Where are all of the beachgoers?

6. We Are Called to Rise by Laura McBride

Book cover for The Good Humor Man by Kathleen N. Daly. Image on cover is a 1950s-style drawing of a white man driving an ice cream truck. He’s smiling and waving as he drives.

7. The Good Humor Man by Kathleen N. Daly

Book cover for Melt With You by Jennifer Dugan. Image on cover shows a drawing of two young queer women sitting on top of an ice cream truck watching the sunset. The one with dark, curly hair is turning to the one with straight blond hair as if she’s about to say something or perhaps kiss her companion.

8. Melt With You by Jennifer Dugan

Book cover for The Little Ice Cream Truck by Margery Cuyler. Image on cover is a drawing of a little brunette boy who is getting an ice cream cone from an ice cream truck.

9. The Little Ice Cream Truck by Margery Cuyler

Book cover for Garth Pig and the Icecream Lady by Mary Rayner. Image on cover shows a drawing of a pig who is wearing a striped shirt and brown shorts and running on his hind legs after a badger who is driving a truck away from the pig.

10. Garth Pig and the Icecream Lady by Mary Rayner

Book cover for Curious George and the Ice Cream Surprise by Margret Rey. Image on cover shows Curious George, a brown monkey, dancing with joy in front of an ice cream truck outside in the grass.

11. Curious George and the Ice Cream Surprise by Margret Rey

(Yes, I know this is eleven books instead of ten. Goodreads had eleven ideas for me, and I couldn’t bear to leave any of them out).

If it’s currently summer where you live, stay cool! May autumn arrive soon.

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Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as Book Covers, Top Ten Tuesday

July 30, 2026 · 1:00 am

A Review of Outopos

Title: Outpos

Author: Rudolph Kohn

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: April 26, 2023

Genres: Science Fiction

Length: 9 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

The war between artificial intelligence and mankind is almost over. VeeTwo agreed to finish the war in exchange for a plot of land with abundant resources, but a strange intruder with a cryptic message interrupts her plans.

Content Warning: Brief references to war.

Review:

Every battle must eventually end.

There was a philosophical bent to this tale that I found intriguing. This is something I’m saying as a reader who is only an occasional visit to this corner of the literary realm, so it’s a rare compliment from me. Those of you who regularly read this sort of stuff may be even more into it than I was despite my stellar rating as there very well could be moments I missed that fans would pick up on more easily. VeeTwo, the protagonist, was a thoughtful and kind robot who I’m glad I got to know, especially once their life became much less predictable after they arrived home from the war. Few things are as satisfying as seeing a character you feel connected to experience something that tests their value system in all sorts of unexpected way.

War isn’t generally a topic I enjoy reading about, either but I liked the way Mr. Kohn veered around the bloody aspects of it to explore what happens when one side has won and there are no more battles to fight. This is generally something that’s saved for the final scene or maybe not even discussed at all, so it was amusing to see it become the main focal point of a short story for once. What a creative way to explore what it means to live a good life, and not to mention an author grabbing my attention with two topics that are a little outside of my comfort zone. Bravo!

The ending was what convinced me to give this a full five-star rating. It wasn’t quite a plot twist due to some subtle foreshadowing earlier on, but it did fit the themes of this piece beautifully and gave me everything I was hoping to find from the characters. I especially loved how it not only resolved the main conflict but also left space for a sequel if the author ever decides to write one. Regardless of whether or not that happens, I’ll be thinking about these characters and their society for a long time.

Outpost was a wild and immensely satisfying ride.

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Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as 2020s, Book Reviews, Rudolph Kohn, Science Fiction, Self-Published, Xenofiction

Lydia Schoch

A Review of All the Little Hedgehogs

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Foods From My Geographic Area That I Don’t Like

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Series I Want to Catch Up On

A Review of Seed

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Foods From My Geographic Area That I Love

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Was Reading On This Day Over the Last Ten Years

A Review of Ava

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Reasons I’ve Stopped Reading or Watching a Series

Top Ten Tuesday: Ice Cream Trucks on Covers

A Review of Outopos

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