SF
drorzel | September 25, 2006The Slush God offers all-too-typical news:
Today SCI FI Wire published a piece I wrote about Terry Brooks's latest novel, Armageddon's Children, which is the first in a series that will connect his Word and the Void trilogy with his Shannara series.
Is there any surer sign that an author has fallen to the Brain Eater than writing books to tie different fictional universes together? It got Heinlein, it got Asimov, and it's getting Terry Brooks, too.
drorzel | September 25, 2006Bummer news from Making Light this morning: one of my favorite authors, John M. Ford, has died. That's a shitty way to start the week.
The post title is from his poem Troy: The Movie, which does not involve Brad Pitt. Also well worth reading is his September 11th memorial poem 110 Stories, which I had taped up outside my office for a long time. His NESFA collection, From the End of the Twentieth Century is full of good stuff, as is the more recent Heast of Fusion, and Growing Up Weightless may be my favorite coming-of-age SF story ever.
He was also an occasional poster to Making Light, and an…
drorzel | September 24, 2006When Brandon Sanderson's debut novel, Elantris first appeared on store shelves, I was tempted to buy it. It had a lot of things going for it: good review quotes, a striking cover, an interesting description, and it's published by Tor, who are usually pretty reliable. I couldn't quite figure out, though, whether it was the first book in a series or not, and I'd really rather not commit to another long fantasy series if it can be avoided.
The paperback edition helpfully addresses this in the back cover copy:
"Elantris delightfully proves that a great complete fantasy story can still be told in…
drorzel | September 13, 2006Next year's World Science Fiction Convention is being held in Yokohama, Japan, the first time a Worldcon has ever been held in Japan. With this year's Worldcon out of the way, we're starting to see some discussion of who's going, and whether various US-based fans will make the trip or not.
If I pass my tenure review, Kate and I are planning to go, and probably spend a couple of weeks doing touristy stuff before the convention as well (as a Worldcon in Japan is probably about the only way I'll get her to go...). A lot of people are, understandably, somewhat concerned about the whole idea-- it'…
drorzel | August 27, 2006This year's Hugo Awards (either the Oscars of the Golden Globes of the science fiction/ fantasy field, depending on who you ask) were announced last night at the Worldcon in LA. Pleasant surprises abound:
1) Spin by Robert Charles Wilson won the Best Novel Hugo. As I've said before, I think it was far and away the best book in the field, but I didn't think it would win. They've made a lot of bad calls in recent years, but this one, I like.
2) The Best Professional Editor Hugo goes to David Hartwell. This is nice to see not just because David is a nice guy, and does good work, but because…
drorzel | August 9, 2006Technorati reveals a bunch of responses to my weekend post on genre fiction, and I wanted to at least note a few of them here.
Over at Brad DeLong's, he highlights my comments about story pacing, which sparked some interesting comments. A number of people object that books and movies are too long these days, compared to the past. While there's no denying that many books have swelled, I think that's sort of orthogonal to the sort of pace I was talking about-- you may or may not think that the action advances the plot quickly enough, but there's more happening at any given moment in most modern…
drorzel | August 6, 2006Over at Making Light, the Nielsen Haydens stumbled upon a video of the Hurra Torpedo version of the Bonnie Tyler/ Jim Steinman kitsch masterpiece "Total Eclipse of the Heart," which absolutely boggles the mind. Of course, the weird thing is that their re-invention isn't actually any weirder than the original video, which Teresa also attempts to explain. All this together inspired Matt McIrvin to one of the best post titles ever.
But the really fascinating thing about this is the "explore more videos" feature on YouTube. From the original video, you can find links to several live versions of…
drorzel | August 5, 2006Yesterday saw the posting (or at least the arrival on my RSS reader) of two different discussions of the current state of genre fiction. I have issues with both discussions, but reading them together makes for an interesting effect.
First, there's Charlie Stross complaining about the state of SF, and once again lamenting the lack of... something in the SF vein. I'm not entirely clear what it is that he would like to see, other than that it isn't alternate history or werewolf porn-- more on this in a bit. There are various responses and duelling anecdotes in the comments. Over at the Whatever…
drorzel | July 31, 2006There's a comment to the most recent Open Thread at Making Light asking why there isn't more handicapping of the Hugo Awards. The commenter, Kathryn from Sunnyvale, makes reference to a comment on John Scalzi's "Please Vote" thread, that suggested there was a clear favorite in the balloting:
There is a certain book on the short list that had more preorders than the rest of the books had sales combined -- by a factor of 10, most like.
This certain book's author has a fan community that meets up at each Worldcon and throws the biggest and best parties. This year, over 100 members are expected,…
drorzel | July 26, 2006So, here's a different sort of scenario for an audience-participation post:
Imagine that you are in a weirdly well-stocked karaoke bar, and you have to sing a song. There's no way out of it-- if you don't you'll lose your job, rabid squid will eat your family, deranged America-hating terrorists will kill a puppy, whatever. The bar has absolutely any song you might want, no matter how obscure, and you only have to do one.
What song would you sing?
This post really begins with a conversation at Readercon, where it was noted that the World SF Convention will be held in Yokohama in 2007. Kate and…
drorzel | July 14, 2006I was scheduled for a deeply unpleasant medical test yesterday, which I thought was going to leave me lots of time for blogging. yesterday afternoon and this morning. The preliminary test turned out to be so unpleasant (if anybody ever offers to stick a tube through your nose into your stomach, decline politely) that I didn't go through with the test, and, in fact, was kind of wiped out all last night. Hence, yesterday's light blogging, and today's lazy blogging.
One of the controversial things that China Miéville said on the Readercon panels I went to was to sort of dismiss the whole idea…
drorzel | July 11, 2006Having spent the weekend at Readercon, I feel like I should talk about it a little. For those who have never been to a SF convention, it's not all people dressing up like space aliens and fairy princesses-- in fact, the cons Kate and I go to tend not to have all that much of the dress-up thing going on. Instead, they're run more like an academic conference, with lots of panel discussions on different topics relating to stuff in the genre. Why this happens is somewhat mystifying, when I stop to think about it, but it's entertaining enough in its way.
Anyway, I went to a handful of panels that…
drorzel | July 11, 2006Having spent the weekend at Readercon, I feel like I should talk about it a little. For those who have never been to a SF convention, it's not all people dressing up like space aliens and fairy princesses-- in fact, the cons Kate and I go to tend not to have all that much of the dress-up thing going on. Instead, they're run more like an academic conference, with lots of panel discussions on different topics relating to stuff in the genre. Why this happens is somewhat mystifying, when I stop to think about it, but it's entertaining enough in its way.
Anyway, I went to a handful of panels that…
drorzel | June 15, 2006Via James Nicoll, a new SF Webzine, Helix. Because you don't have enough things to read on the Interweb.
drorzel | June 5, 2006Kate's come up with a semi-ambitious plan for the summer: She's going to re-read The Lord of the Rings (for the first time since the movies came out), and post chapter-by-chapter thoughts on her LiveJournal. At the moment, she's only gotten through the introductory material and one critical essay, but there's already some interesting discussion in comments.
I've got a little too much on my plate to read along with her (also, she reads a whole lot faster than I do), but if you think this might be interesting, there's a handy index page where updates will be posted as they appear.
drorzel | June 5, 2006Locus is the semi-official magazine of SF-- its reviews are quoted almost as prominently as those of better-known mass media outlets in cover blurbs and the like-- but it remains a small operation, a "semi-prozine" in Hugo ballot terms. That means most issues aren't edited quite as carefully as they might be, and there are usually some typos or grammar errors in the reviews.
This month, there's a real gem, in Tim Pratt's review of Joe Lansdale's Retro-Pulp Tales:
Alex Irvine's "New Game in Town" is an exquisite story of small-time crooks and poo hustlers that takes a sharp turn into uncanny…
drorzel | June 4, 2006As you know, Bob, the Hugo Awards are one of the top literary honors in the field of science fiction and fantasy. They're voted on by the attendees of each year's Woldcon, held in August or September, and include awards for Best Novel, Novella, Novelette, and Short Story. I posted about the Best Novel nominees back in March when they were announced (I don't read much short fiction, so I have nothing to say about the other categories).
If you're thinking to yourself, "Yes, we know what you think, but what about everybody else?", well, have I got a URL for you. Nicholas Whyte has posted a giant…
drorzel | April 26, 2006Teresa Nielsen Hayden, writing about the phenomenon of fan fiction:
Personally, I'm convinced that the legends of the Holy Grail are fanfic about the Eucharist.
One of the most peevesome things about the hectic period I'm in at my day job is that I no longer have time to follow Making Light comment threads-- I saw that post go up yesterday, but by the time I got around to looking at the comments this morning, there were already 245 comments. I can either read those, or prep for my morning classes, but not both...
My personal feelings on the fraught subject of fan fiction, below the fold:
I'm…
drorzel | April 7, 2006Over at the new Seed blog, here on ScienceBlogs, Katherine Sharpe asks about the best science books ever (a topic that was also discussed at Cosmic Variance some time back.
I've been sort of swamped this week, but that's only part of the reason why I haven't responded. The main reason is a shameful secret:
(Below the fold... Isn't this suspenseful?)
The fact is, I don't read many pop-science books, and I never really have. I'm not sure why that was in the past, but these days, it just seems too much like work. Not "work" in the sense of being difficult, but "work" in the sense of "this is how…
drorzel | March 29, 2006Last Friday, before descending into fluff topics like a serious scholarly treatment of Chris Mooney's The Republican War on Science, Henry Farrell of Crooked Timber posted about something really important: The Hugo Awards.
Weirdly, I find myself in the position of having read all of the Best Novel nominees, and this months before the awards themselves are announced. This is unprecedented-- even the year that I voted for the Hugos, I didn't read all the nominated works. (I've read basically none of the short fiction nominees-- of which there are many-- but this is nothing new.)
This obviously…