Status Updates From Maradonia and the Guardians...

Chapter forty-seven
Chapter fourty-eight
Chapter forty-nine

Error, or sly homage? (The chapter numbers were all incorrectly spelled “fourty” in the original Maradonia book.)

After calling Dr. Huang "you old computer jockey," Octavius Mundi of Oxford, England, the 300 pound chair of both the departments of Paranormal Sciences and Fantasy Literature (also the only staff member of both), he also calls Dr. Huang "you old test-tube chugger," and honestly I don't know what that's supposed to mean.

Under Secretary of Defense Joanna Johnson leads a meeting with military personnel. Throughout the scene they are referred to as "General Stanton", "Admiral Wells", and "Dr. Huang", or simply their last names. The Under Secretary is in charge. The general and admiral behave like rowdy 13-year olds. And yet she is referred to only as "Joanne" throughout the scene by the narrator. Is this ingrained sexism on display?

I need a subject matter expert. A modern cargo ship wouldn't have a steering wheel that directly affects the course, would it? Like, a wheel connected to the rudder. Here a captain is "struggling to control the wheel" of a midsize cargo vessel during a storm. Isn't it all, like, computers now? Would one physically struggle to turn a wheel to steer a modern ship in a storm? In the 1800s sure, but not now, right?

A mermaid has a fish tail, and not a fishtail, right? Fishtail is what the back of a car does on a slippery surface. I found one definition of fishtail as a noun: "an object that is forked like a fish's tail." Still doesn't apply, unless you describe the mermaid's tail as a fishtail tail? Is there any counter example to suggest this isn't a complete copy editing flub? "Her fishtail slapped against the water."