Pixel Scroll 4/7/20 Files In My Pocket Like Pixels Of Scrolls

(1) S.P. SOMTOW RETURNS TO SFF. Somtow Sucharitkul celebrated the appearance of his new novel with these retrospective thoughts —

My first novel was published in 1981 by Simon and Schuster. It cost $2.50 and I got 20¢ a copy. To earn out my $5,000 advance, I would have had to sell 25,000 books. I don’t know if it sold that many, but it did get reprinted by S&S, and then republished by Del Rey. Later, my advances, and presumably the number of books they sold, increased quite a bit.

Twenty years ago, I kind of vanished from publishing except for the odd (very) Star Trek novel. But anyway the bottom fell out of the market for us mid-list types.

Now forty years have gone by since my first novel came out. I have just put out my first new science fiction novel since 1997 (unless you count that “very” odd Star Trek novel. Today, I’m not even imagining selling 100,000 copies of Vampire Junction or 25,000 copies of a space opera. Today, putting the whole thing on amazon all by myself, I’m thinking boy, if I sell 100 copies, I’ll have made a whole lot of old-time fans, most of whom I know personally, happy. And enjoy a lot of very nice meals.

But here’s the thing … it was REALLY satisfying to finish a science fiction novel. I might have to do some more.

Homeworld of the Heart — the 5th novel in the Inquestor series and my first science fiction book since 1997. Here are the links to the trade paperback and Kindle editions on Amazon.

It’s about the childhood of Sajit, who was to become the poet of the entire galactic empire. It’s chock-full of childsoldiers, people bins, tachyon bubbles, utopia hunters, beauty and depravity and the other expected features of the series, but also speaks about the chaos that ensues when the Inquestors’ games misfire, about the subtleties of music in the Inquestral age, and the stone-age taboos of a high-tech civilization.

(2) BAEN SERIES ENDS. I inquired of Baen Books’ Christopher Ruocchio and learned there won’t be a volume of The Year’s Best Military & Adventure SF in 2020. He said, “Toni and [editor] David Afsharirad decided that five volumes was going to do it for the military sf anthology series and wrapped it up. Last year’s was the last for the present.” The series will be missed.

(3) MEDICAL UPDATE. Juanita Coulson, 87, was taken to Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, for tests and treatment. It was suspected she’d had a stroke, however, Bruce Coulson told Facebook readers today in a public post: “Further news on Mom. It turns out she did NOT have a stroke (probably), but does have a UTI and will be off work for a while. On the plus side, she might be going back home in a couple of days.”

Coulson is a sff author, winner of the Big Heart Award (2012), and past DUFF delegate.

(4) CANADA PERFORMS. Margaret Atwood kicks off a streaming series for Canadian writers whose tours have been derailed. “It doesn’t replace the fun of an audience, mass audience response, but it’s better than nothing,” she said. “I think we’re in the better-than-nothing era.” The New York Times reports: “At Margaret Atwood’s Prompting, Canada Launches Virtual Book Tours”.

Margaret Atwood is launching an online series that she hopes will help Canada’s writers sell books to a nation of shut-ins. But even she has not been immune to the headaches plaguing many people as they attempt to communicate during the global pandemic.

One came half an hour into a conversation about upcoming books with Adrienne Clarkson, a friend and fellow author, hosted by the National Arts Centre on Facebook Live. Atwood’s image froze.

“Come back, come back,” Clarkson said. “Was it anything I said?”

After a few minutes, Atwood did reappear, in a different room of her house with a superior internet connection. The two women continued to go through a list of books they acknowledged that, for the most part, they hadn’t even seen, let alone read, but were written by authors whose earlier works they enjoyed.

Their chat, which veered into social distancing and gardening, among other subjects, was an extension of a program the arts center started two weeks ago, CanadaPerforms, to provide a paid venue for musicians, actors, comedians and other performers at a time when stages are dark around the world….

(5) BARBER OBIT. [Item by Joel Zakem.] Michigan fan Tom Barber (born 1949) passed away on April 4, 2020, from complications of COVID 19. Tom was a long time convention worker and occasional t-shirt dealer who, in the past, had chaired both Confusion and Conclave. He was a member of the Dorsai Irregulars and was Fan GOH at Confusion in 2001.

(6) TODAY IN HISTORY.

  • April 7, 1933 King Kong was released nationwide I he U.S. It was directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. The screenplay was written by James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose was developed from an idea by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. It stars Fay Wray, Bruce Cabot and Robert Armstrong. Critics mostly loved it, the box office was quite amazing and the audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes currently give it a 97% approval rating. You can watch it here.
  • April 7, 1951 The Thing from Another World premiered. It was directed by Christian Nyby, and produced by Edward Lasker. It’s based on John W. Campbell ‘s “Who Goes There?” novella. The film stars Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite, and Douglas Spencer. James Arness is The Thing, but he is almost impossible to recognize in makeup due to both the extremely low lighting and other steps used to hide his face. Critics at the time weren’t wild about it but audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes really like it and give it an 87% rating. You can watch it here.

(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.

[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]

  • Born April 7, 1915 Henry Kuttner. While he was working for the d’Orsay agency, he found Leigh Brackett’s early manuscripts in the slush pile; it was under his guidance that she sold her first story to Campbell at Astounding Stories. His own work was done in close collaboration with C. L. Moore, his wife, and much of what they published was under pseudonyms.  During the Forties, he also contributed numerous scripts to the Green Lantern series. (Died 1958.)
  • Born April 7, 1915 Stanley Adams. He’s best known for playing Cyrano Jones in “The Trouble with Tribbles” Trek episode. He reprised that role in the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode “More Tribbles, More Troubles” and archival footage of  him was later featured in the Deep Space Nine “Trials and Tribble-ations” episode. He also appeared in two episodes of the Batman series (“Catwoman Goes to College” and “Batman Displays his Knowledge”) as Captain Courageous. (Died 1977.)
  • Born April 7, 1928 James White. Certainly the Sector General series which ran to twelve novels and ran over thirty years of publication was his best known work. I’ve no idea how many I read but it was quite a few. I’m not sure what else by him I’ve read but I’m certain there was other novels down the years. He worked on the famed Irish fanzines Slant and Hyphen. He was a guest of honor at the 1996 Worldcon. (Died 1999.)
  • Born April 7, 1935 Marty Cantor, 85. He edited with his then wife Robbie Holier Than Thou, nominated for the 1984, 1985 and 1986 Hugo Awards for Best Fanzine — losing in the first two years to File 770 and in the last to Lan’s Lantern. He also published Who Knows What Ether Lurks in the Minds of Fen?, a rather nice play off The Shadow radio intro.
  • Born April 7, 1939 Francis Ford Coppola, 81. Director / Writer / Producer. THX 1138 was produced by him and directed by George Lucas in his feature film directorial debut in 1971. Saw it late at night after some serious drug ingestion with a red head into Morrison — strange experience that was. Other genre works of note include Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a episode of Faerie Tale Theatre entitled “Rip Van Winkle”, Twixt (a horror film that almost no one has heard of), Captain EO which featured Michael JacksonMary Shelley’s FrankensteinJeepers Creepers and Jeepers Creepers 2.
  • Born April 7, 1945 Susan Petrey. Only three of her stories were published during her lifetime. More of her work appeared in the Gifts of Blood collection published after her death. She was nominated, also posthumously, for the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, and her story ”Spidersong” was nominated for the Hugo Award. Susan C. Petrey Clarion Scholarship Fund annually awards scholarships to both the Clarion & Clarion West workshops and also supports an instructor at Clarion West as a Petrey Fellow. (Died 1980.)
  • Born April 7, 1946 Stan Winston. He’s best known for his work in Aliens, the Terminator franchise, the first three Jurassic Park films, the first two Predator films, Batman Returns and Iron Man. He was unusual in having expertise in makeup, puppets and practical effects, and was just starting to get in digital effects as well upon the time of his passing. I think we sum up his talent by noting that he both an Oscars for Best Visual Effects and Best Makeup for his work on Terminator 2: Judgment Day. (Died 2008.)
  • Born April 7, 1951 Yvonne Gilbert, 69. Though best remembered for her controversial cover design of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s 1983 single ”Relax”, she did a number of great genre covers including Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea for Bantam in 1991 and Beagle’sA Dance for Emilia for Roc in 2000.

(8) COMICS SECTION.

Is coronavirus funny enough to fill the entire Comics Section? You be the judge!

  • xkcd tells why homemade masks are better than some other ideas for avoiding infection.
  • Pearls Before Swine’s creator is suspiciously unavailable — April 6 and April 7
  • Brewster Rockit goes for a pretty obvious punchline on the first day, and another one the next day.
  • Frank and Ernest certainly have their hearts in the right place.
  • Lio is about as funny as usual. (If you’ll pardon my saying so.)
  • Tank McNamara, on the other hand, is almost worth a laugh, which has never happened before. 

(9) AS LONG AS YOU HAVE SOME TIME ON YOUR HANDS: Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Barry Kibrick discuss the Universe from the Big Bang to Newton in a two-part special episode of Between the Lines: “Astrophysics: Part One, From the Big Bang to Newton” and “Astrophysics: Part Two, From Newton to Our Current Time”.

(10) SPIN CONTROL. “Event Horizon Telescope: Black hole produces twisting jet” – BBC has the story.

One year on from publishing the first ever image of a black hole, the team behind that historic breakthrough is back with a new picture.

This time we’re being shown the base of a colossal jet of excited gas, or plasma, screaming away from another black hole at near light-speed.

The scene was actually in the “background” of the original target.

The scientists who operate the Event Horizon Telescope describe the jet in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

They say their studies of the region of space known as 3C 279 will help them better understand the physics that drives behaviour in the vicinity of black holes.

(11) TIGER, TIGER. Details on the sick tigers: NPR asks “A Tiger Has Coronavirus. Should You Worry About Your Pets?”

Nadia is a four-year-old Malayan tiger at the Bronx Zoo. Last week, she started exhibiting one of the key symptoms of the novel coronavirus: a dry cough.

And it wasn’t just Nadia — her sister Azul, two Amur tigers, and three African lions were all experiencing the same thing. So the zoo got permission from local and state health departments and animal health authorities, and took a sample from Nadia to be tested for the SARS-CoV-2. The sample was analyzed at the University of Illinois and Cornell University, and the presumptive positive finding confirmed at a U.S. Department of Agriculture lab in Iowa.

That positive makes Nadia the first known infection case of an animal in the U.S., the CDC says.

That result raises a number of questions about the virus, and how it could affect the animals we spend time with. We’ll tackle those questions here.

How do you test a tiger for coronavirus?

The test involved an oral swab, a nasal swab, and procedure called a tracheal wash, which allows for sampling of the animal’s airways….

How did the tiger get tested when a lot of people still can’t?

The sample from Nadia was tested at veterinary diagnostic labs that aren’t approved to analyze human tests. The testing of the tiger “did not take a test or resources from human health efforts,” the zoo said.

Nadia and the other tigers and lions are doing well and improving, the zoo says, though some have a decrease in appetite.

(12) VIDEOS OF THE DAY. “2 Lizards:  Episode 3, 2020” completes a three-part series of short videos on Vimeo in which Oriem Barki and Meriem Bennani show that even lizards get antsy if they stay inside and watch coronavirus coverage on their laptops.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Michael Toman, JJ, Rich Lynch, Cat Eldridge, Martin Morse Wooster, Chip Hitchcock, Mike Kennedy, Joel Zakem, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Bruce Diamond.]

Trent Wins Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF Readers’ Choice Award

Brian Trent has won the fifth annual Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF Readers’ Choice Award sponsored by Baen Books. Trent won for his short story “Crash-Site,” which originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

The story was selected via proctored online voting. Fans chose from the table of contents of The Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF, Volume 5, which collected stories published during the 2018 calendar year.

Year’s Best editor David Afsharirad announced the winner at the Baen Traveling Roadshow, at Dragon Con. Afsharirad accepted the award on Trent’s behalf and read comments prepared by the author.

Brian Trent

“I am stunned, overjoyed, and intensely grateful to see ‘Crash-Site’ receive the 2019 Readers’ Choice Award,” Trent wrote, adding, “Thank you to Charlie Finlay for first publishing ‘Crash-Site’ in Fantasy & Science Fiction, and to David Afsharirad for selecting it for inclusion in The Year’s Best. . . . Thank you to Baen Books, too. . . . And a special thank you to all the readers who cast a ballot for my story.”

As the winner of the award, Trent receives a plaque and $500 cash.

Since his first published work a decade ago, he has had stories published in many venues. Trent’s “War Hero” was a winner in the Writers of the Future Contest in 2013. He’s also appeared in Analog, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Terraform, COSMOS, Nature, last year’s volume of The Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF, The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk, Galaxy’s Edge, Escape Pod, Pseudopod, Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, Apex, and Daily Science Fiction. His novel Ten Thousand Thunders, which came out last year, is also set in the “War Hero” universe.

Voting Opens for Fifth Annual Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF Readers’ Choice Award

Editor David Afsharirad reports the voting page is now up and running for The Year’s Best Military & Adventure SF Readers’ Choice Award of 2019.

The Year’s Best Military & Adventure SF, Volume 5 will be released June 4. You can already buy the eARC.

Registration with Baen Ebooks is required to vote. Alternatively, people may send a postcard or letter with the name of their favorite story from this volume and its author to Baen Books Year’s Best Award, P.O. Box 1188, Wake Forest, NC 27587. Voting closes August 15, 2019.

The winning story will be announced at Dragon Con in Atlanta, held over Labor Day Weekend 2019, and at Baen.com. The author will receive an inscribed plaque and a $500 prize.

The Year’s Best Military & Adventure SF, Vol. 5, Table of Contents Released

Editor David Afsharirad has announced the table of contents for The Year’s Best Military & Adventure SF, Volume 5, which will be available June 4 from Baen Books.

  • “Love in the Time of Interstellar War” by Brendan DuBois
  • “Going Dark” by Richard Fox
  • “Scrapyard Ship” by Felix R. Savage
  • “Broken Wings” by William Ledbetter
  • “A Song of Home, the Organ Grinds” by James Beamon
  • “Once on the Blue Moon” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
  • “Crash-Site” by Brian Trent
  • “Thirty-three Percent Joe” by Suzanne Palmer
  • “Hate in the Darkness” by Michael Z. Williamson
  • “Homunculus” by Stephen Lawson
  • “Not Made for Us” by Christopher Ruocchio
  • “The Erkennen Job” by Chris Pourteau

Once the book is release there will be interactive reader voting to select one story from this anthology as the winner of The Best Military and Adventure Science Fiction Reader’s Choice Award, presented at Dragon Con in Summer 2019. The book is currently available for pre-order from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, the Austin independent bookstore Book People and elsewhere.

2018 Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF Readers’ Choice Award


Baen Books has announced the winner of the fourth annual Year’s Best Military and Adventure Science Fiction Readers’ Choice Award.

Kacey Ezell won for her short story “Family Over Blood,” which came from the anthology Forged in Blood, edited by Michael Z. Williamson. Like all the stories in Williamson’s anthology, it takes place in his Freehold series.

The award-eligible stories appeared in The Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF, Vol. 4, edited by David Afsharirad, and the public was asked to pick one of the 15 short stories in his anthology as the award-winner.

The winning story was announced at Dragon Con in Atlanta on September 1. The author receives an inscribed plaque and a $500 prize.

Afsharirad reports, “We also announced that we are doing a volume five, which will be out next June.”

[Thanks to David Afsharirad for the story.]

Lee and Miller Win Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF Award

The winner of the third annual Year’s Best Military and Adventure Science Fiction Readers’ Choice Award is “Wise Child” by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller.

The award was decided by a public vote among the 15 short stories in Baen Books’ The Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF, Vol. 3, edited by David Afsharirad.

The Readers Choice Award was presented at the Baen Traveling Roadshow at Dragon Con in Atlanta this past weekend, with Baen editor Jim Minz accepting for Lee and Miller.

Sharon Lee told her readers of blog:

Thanks to everyone who voted for Tolly and Disian.  Steve and I are very proud authors, indeed.

The winning authors receive an inscribed plaque and a $500 prize.

Voting Opens for Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF Readers’ Choice Award

Today Baen Books released The Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF, Vol. 3, edited by David Afsharirad, and started taking votes for the third annual Year’s Best Military and Adventure Science Fiction Readers’ Choice Award. The public will pick one of the 15 short stories in the anthology as the award-winner:

  • ”Cadet Cruise” by David Drake
  • “Tethers” by William Ledbetter
  • “Unlinkage” by Eric Del Carlo
  • “Not in Vain” by Kacey Ezell
  • “Between Nine and Eleven” by Adam Roberts
  • “Sephine and the Leviathan” by Jack Schouten
  • “The Good Food” by Michael Ezell
  • “If I Could Give this Time Machine Zero Stars, I Would” by James Wesley Rogers
  • “Wise Child” by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
  • “Starhome” by Michael Z. Williamson
  • “The Art of Failure” by Robert Dawson
  • “The Last Tank Commander” by Allen Stroud
  • “One Giant Leap” by Jay Werkheiser
  • “The Immortals: Anchorage” by David Adams
  • “Backup Man” by Paul Di Filippo

Registration with Baen Ebooks is required to vote. Alternatively, people may send a postcard or letter with the name of their favorite story from this volume and its author to Baen Books Year’s Best Award, P.O. Box 1188, Wake Forest, NC 27587. Voting closes August 31, 2017.

The winning story will be announced at Dragoncon in Atlanta, held over Labor Day Weekend 2017, and at Baen.com. The author will receive an inscribed plaque and a $500 prize.

Baen Readies The Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF Vol. 3

Baen Books has announced the table of contents for The Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF series, Vol. 3 edited by David Afsharirad. One of these stories will be voted the winner of The Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF Readers’ Choice Award in a proctored online poll that will begin in the near future.

The victorious author receives $500 and a plaque commemorating the award at Dragon Con. The first two winners were Michael Z. Williamson for his short story “Soft Casualty” (2014), and David Drake for “Save What You Can” (2015), set in his genre-defining Hammer’s Slammers series.

The Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF, Volume 3 will be released June 6, 2017. The third volume contains a preface by Afsharirad and an introduction by New York Times best-selling author David Weber, as well as fifteen short stories, selected from online and print periodicals, and original anthologies.

Table of Contents

  • “Cadet Cruise” by David Drake
  • “Tethers” by William Ledbetter
  • “Unlinkage” by Eric Del Carlo
  • “Not in Vain” by Kacey Ezell
  • “Between Nine and Eleven” by Adam Roberts
  • “Sephine and the Leviathan” by Jack Schouten
  • “The Good Food” by Michael Ezell
  • “If I Could Give this Time Machine Zero Stars, I Would” by James Wesley Rogers
  • “Wise Child” by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
  • “Starhome” by Michael Z. Williamson
  • “The Art of Failure” by Robert Dawson
  • “The Last Tank Commander” by Allen Stroud
  • “One Giant Leap” by Jay Werkheiser
  • “The Immortals: Anchorage” by David Adams
  • “Backup Man” by Paul Di Filippo

David Weber’s introduction asks “What Is ‘Military Science Fiction’?” He says it has a mission:

Today, in the Western World, personal experience of military conflict is actually quite rare and concentrated in hugely disproportionate fashion among those who volunteer for military service. Civilians take it for granted that they will be protected from conflict by those who serve in the military, and those who do not serve in the military have little or no first-hand familiarity with what our military guardians experience in our place. Most professional Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines of my acquaintance think that’s the way it’s supposed to be. That if it isn’t that way, they aren’t doing their jobs. But because they are, those of us standing behind them have no personal, experiential guide to what it is we truly ask of them.

One of the responsibilities of those of us who write military fiction is to provide a window into what we ask of them. Into the consequences of what is demanded of them. Not simply to venerate them, or to celebrate the “thin line of heroes,” although that is one of our responsibilities, because the men and women who have died for us deserve to be venerated and celebrated, but also to help us understand. To recognize not just what they have given and are giving for us, but the fact that they stand where they stand, face what they face, because we put them there.

And we need to understand the price they pay for being there because if we don’t—if we trivialize it or romanticize it into something one bit less horrible than it is—we forget that the reason we put them there had damned well better be worth that price.

More information about the book, and voting instructions once that begins, will be found on the Baen website.

A Dozen “Year’s Best”

By Carl Slaughter: A dozen editors, some of them household names in the speculative community, take their stab at the year’s best stories.

The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Third Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois

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The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume One edited by Neil Clarke

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The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015 edited by Joe Hill and John Joseph Adams

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The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2016 Edition edited by Rich Horton

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The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Ten edited by Jonathan Strahan

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The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016 edited by Karen Joy Fowler and John Joseph Adams

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The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Novellas 2016 edited by Paula Guran

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The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2016 Edition edited by Paula Guran

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Nebula Awards Showcase 2016 edited by Mercedes Lackey

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The Year’s Best Military & Adventure SF 2015: Volume 2 edited by David Afsharirad

Years Best milSF 2015

The Best Horror of the Year Volume Eight edited by Ellen Datlow

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The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction 8  edited by Allan Kaster

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Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF Paperback Is Out

Years Best milSF 2015

Baen Books released the paperback of The Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF 2015, edited by David Afsharirad, on June 7.

File 770 got an advance look at the table of contents in March, and in April announced the opening of online voting for the associated Readers’ Choice award for the best overall story in the anthology. Voting continues until August 31.

Baen now has posted some preview material from the volume.

David Afsharirad says in his Preface:

When assembling the first volume in the series, I asked Baen publisher Toni Weisskopf about those stories that were excellent but were only kinda sorta space opera and/or military SF. Would we rather have superlative stories that didn’t quite fit the theme of the book, or merely great ones that certainly did fit the theme? We both agreed that we’d be willing to stretch the definitions to ensure that we got the best of the best. And stretch we did, though I should say not to the breaking point. For this year’s volume, we decided that the old title just wasn’t inclusive enough. Hence the name change to The Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF. And now, as Paul Harvey used to say, you know the rest of the story.

David Weber explains in his Introduction:

Military sci-fi comes in all flavors, but good military sci-fi, enduring military sci-fi, is seldom of the “fluff” type. Seldom what I think of as “splatter porn” or of the sort that romanticizes the ugliness of combat and the taking of human life or suggests the “good guys” will get off without paying a horrible price of their own simply because they’re the good guys. I’m not saying all of it has the gritty realism of a Drake, and I’m certainly not saying “good” military sci-fi has to be an anti-military screed. But as Toni Weisskopf once pointed out in a conversation with me, there’s a distinct difference between military science fiction and militaristic science fiction. The biggest difference is that the former is normally written by someone who at least has a clue about how militaries and warfare work whereas the latter is written by someone who doesn’t have a clue about how they work but thought it would be really cool to write about a war.

Click here to find out how to vote for The Best Military and Adventure Science Fiction Reader’s Choice Award. The award-winning story will be announced at Dragon Con.