Pixel Scroll 12/30/18 Pixel Yourself Up, Dust Yourself Off, And Scroll All Over Again

(1) ELIGIBILITY DEADLINE 12/31. Is it time for you to panic? Let Camestros Felapton’s animated Panic Blob lead the way to the Dublin 2019 membership page.

As they explain at The Hugo Awards website (“Join Worldcon by December 31, 2018 to be Eligible to Nominate for 2019 Hugo Awards”) —

If you want to nominate works/people for the 2019 Hugo Awards, you must be a member of either the 2018 Worldcon (San José) or the 2019 Worldcon (Dublin) by the end of 2018. (You can of course be a member of both, but you can only nominate once.) If you were a member of Worldcon 76 San José (supporting or attending, or any other membership class that included voting rights), you are already eligible to nominate. If you were not a member of Worldcon 76 San José and are not a member of Dublin 2019: An Irish Worldcon, you must join Dublin by the end of 2018 as at least a supporting member by the end of 2018 to be able to nominate.

(2) WHERE TO SEE EARTHSEA ART. Charles Vess’ illustrations from Tales of Earthsea go on exhibit at William King Museum of Art in Abingdon, Virginia on January 17: “‘Earthsea’ artwork on display at William King Museum of Art”A! Magazine for the Arts has the story.

…The collection of 54 illustrations is the result of a four-year collaboration between Ursula K. Le Guin, the author of the “Earthsea” series and Charles Vess. They were recently published in “Tales from Earthsea,” a collection of all of Le Guin’s works about Earthsea. The book celebrates the 50th anniversary of the publication of the first book in the series, “A Wizard of Earthsea.”

…This is the last time they will be on display before they are donated to their permanent home at the University of Oregon.

(3) EATING THE FANTASTIC. Scott Edelman circles back to have hot antipasto with Andy Duncan in episode 85 of his Eating the Fantastic podcast. Duncan was also Number 6 in this series – but never Number 2, which rules out at least one other conspiratorial parallel with The Prisoner.

Now it’s time to revisit with Andy Duncan, whom you got to know in Episode 6, because there happens to be a great reason for doing so. Twelve great reasons, actually. And those are the twelve stories in his new collection An Agent of Utopia, published last month by Small Beer Press.

A new Andy Duncan collection is a wonderful thing, as proven by the fact his first collection, Beluthahatchie and Other Stories, published in 2000, won a World Fantasy Award. And that’s not the only award his fiction has earned, because “The Pottawatomie Giant,” which also won a World Fantasy Award, and “Close Encounters,” which won a Nebula Award, are two of the dozen stories in the new collection.

The last meal you shared with us allowed you to eavesdrop on a far-ranging conversation covering every aspect of his career up until early 2016, the kind of deep dive most of my episodes are, but it seems right that from time to time I should follow up for more sharply focussed discussions, and a conversation about a new collection nearly three years after our initial talk, chatting about this new milestone in his career, seemed as if it would be revelatory.

Andy celebrated the launch of An Agent of Utopia with a reading at Main Street Books, an independent bookstore on Main Street in Frostburg, MD, so if you keep listening after our meal at Giuseppe’s Italian Restaurant is over, you’ll be able to eavesdrop on that reading.

We discussed why it took a quarter of a century to bring the book’s lead story from title idea to completion, how he was influenced by the research regimen of the great Frederik Pohl, the way a short story is like an exploded toolshed, why he deliberately wrote a deal with the devil story after hearing he shouldn’t write deal with the devil stories, the embarrassing marketing blurb he can’t stop telling people about in bars, what caused a last-minute change to the title of one of the collection’s new stories, how he feels about going viral after his recent J. R. R. Tolkien comments, what he learned about himself from completing this project and what it means for the future of his writing, what it is about his most reprinted story which made it so, and much more.

(4) NAVIGATING BANDERSNATCH. This novel Netflix offering lets you choose the story – as often as you want. ScreenRant makes it easy to see everything: “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch – All 5 Endings Explained (& How To Get Them)”.

Warning: SPOILERS below for Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is an interactive game that contains five main endings and more than a trillion possible story combinations. Here are all of the endings, how to get them, and what they all mean. Set in the U.K. in 1984, this unique episode of Charlie Brooker’s Netflix technology-based anthology requires the player to make choices to guide Stefan Butler (Fionn Whitehead), a programmer looking to create a choose-your-own-adventure video game based on the book Bandersnatch.

While Bandersnatch‘s five primary conclusions provide different ways to end the story (and also change the very nature of the story), the game also contains many other endings, some abrupt and some looping the player to make a different choice to continue the story….

(5) THANK YOU, NETFLIX! Diana Glyer reports that searches for “Bandersnatch” triggered by the popularity of the TV program caused a lot of people to discover her nonfiction book about the Inklings by that title, and some of them liking what they stumbled onto bought enough copies to catapult it back onto the Amazon bestseller lists. (You’ll need to click the image to read the print.)

(6) TODAY’S ONE HUNDRED. James Davis Nicoll presented Tor.com readers with his suggestions for “100 SF/F Books You Should Consider Reading in the New Year”. If you need it to be something more than that, like a canon, or endowed with a high level of testosterone, well, a few quarrelsome commenters have got in ahead of you.

Here, at last, the quintessence of Nicoll lists, comprising the books I would most heartily recommend. Each entry is annotated with a short description that I hope will explain why I picked it.

I am not implying that these are the only one hundred you should consider reading .

The descriptions make fun reading. So do the books, of course.

(7) CHECKLIST. Nicoll has also published a checklist of the titles on his own blog – “I guess people are meming my 100 book list now?” His suggested notation system for working your way through the list is —

Italic = read it. Underlined = not this, but something by the same author. Strikethrough = did not finish.

(8) SMOFCON RESOURCES. Kevin Standlee writes: “For the benefit of people having difficulty getting to the SMOFCon 36 web site, and because that site will eventually expire anyway, I have put up a SMOFCon 36 page on the SFSFC web site at https://sfsfc.org/conventions/past-conventions/smofcon36/ where you can download the convention programming documents, the answers that groups gave to the Fannish Inquisition questionnaires, and to the two video playlists of the Inquisition (one for SMOFCons, one for WSFS conventions).”

(9) OH, MY! BBC’s “The best science long reads of 2018 (part one)” leads with spooks and time travel — what could be more genre?

From a CIA mission to recover a lost Soviet submarine to the fate of a huge Antarctic iceberg, here’s a festive selection of the best science and environment long reads published on the BBC this year.

(10) TODAY IN HISTORY.

December 30, 1816 — Percy Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft were married.

(11) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.

[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]

  • Born December 30, 1942 Fred Ward, 76. Lead in Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins and co—lead with Kevin Bacon in several of the Tremors films. Plays The Captain in The Crow: Salvation and Maj. General David Reece in the Invasion Earth series.
  • Born December 30, 1945Concetta Tomei, 73. Was Dominique, co-proprietor of Big Time TV along with Blank Reg, on the Max Headroom series which I loved. She had guest appearances on Star Trek: Voyager as Minister Odala in the “Distant Origin” episode as well was in the Deep Impact film.
  • Born December 30, 1950Lewis Shiner, 68. Damn his Deserted Cities of the Heart novel was fucking brilliant! And if you’ve not read his Wild Cards fiction, do so now. 
  • Born December 30, 1980 Eliza Dushku, 38. First genre role was Faith on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Not surprisingly, she’d star in Whedon’s Dollhouse. I think her Tru Calling series was actually conceptualized better and a more interesting role for her. She voices Selina Kyle, Catwoman, in the animated Batman: Year One film which is well-done and worth watching. She done a fair of other voicework, two of which I’ll single out las of note. One is the character of Holly Mokri in Torchwood: Web of Lies which is listed as being animated tv series. The other role is fascinating — The Lady in Glen Cook’s The Black Company series. Here’s the link to that story.

(12) ANOTHER CANDLE. Steven H Silver continues his Black Gate series with: “Birthday Reviews: Somtow Sucharitkul’s ‘Dr. Rumpole’”.

…The story “Dr. Rumpole” was published for the first time when Shawna McCarthy printed the story in the August 1998 issue of Realms of Fantasy. Sucharitkul included the story in his 2000 collection Tagging the Moon: Fairy Tales from L.A..

Sucharitkul takes a new spin on the story of Rumpelstiltskin in “Dr. Rumpole,” casting the princess with impossible task as Adam Villacin, a wannabe screenwriter who is stuck in the mailroom at Stupendous Entertainment….

(13) WHAT’S MISSING. WhatCulture Comics explains there are deleted scenes that make it into the director’s cut, there are deleted scenes that make it into the DVD bonus features, and there are deleted scenes that are never released to the public.

(14) TO PLAY OR NOT TO PLAY? Brian at Nerds of a Feather answers that question about the new iteration of a popular game: “Microreview : Shadow of the Tomb Raider by Eidos Montreal (developer)”.

As in all Tomb Raider games, you are Lara Croft, archaeologist, anthropologist, indistinct researcher of some sort, and you are still fighting Trinity, the Illuminati-esque villains who were responsible for your father’s death. This time, Croft’s exploits unintentionally but directly initiate the apocalypse. As natural disaster threatens to destroy the world, Croft has to stop the apocalypse, stop Trinity, and regain the trust of indigenous people whose still-living culture she is maybe plundering and maybe exploiting.

(15) TOP VIDEO GAMES. Incidentally, Brian’s own Dream of Waking blog present an interesting writeup of his “2018 Dream of waking video game awards”, which not only has straightforward “best” winners, but sidewise categories like “The ‘I Wish I Liked This Game More’ Award” and “The ‘I’m Never Going to Finish This, But It’s Still Great’ Award.”

The “I Wish I Liked This Game More” Award

Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight is the clearest winner of this award, maybe the easiest choice of the year. I really enjoyed the demo for Hollow Knight, so much that I bought it immediately upon release. But the punishing difficulty, often aimless design, and awful body retrieval mechanic turned me off eventually. This is a beautiful game, fun in many parts, and doesn’t want you to enjoy it. I love a good Metroidvania. Hollow Knight hates me and I refuse to stay in an abusive relationship with it.

(16) 19 THINGS. At SYFY Wire, Fangrrls has dropped a list of “The 19 things we want most in 2019,” along with several sentences of discussion for each by the Fangrrls contributor who made the particular selection. Avert your eyes if you’d rather click through to the column and be surprised as you read down the list:

A gay superhero. Anyone will do. — Jessica Toomer
A Punisher/Riverdale crossover — Jenna Busch
Sansa Stark on the Iron Throne at the end of Game of Thrones — Emma Fraser
A Spider-Women movie that’s as good as Into the Spider-Verse — Riley Silverman
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Season 2 — Jenna Busch
For Offred to burn this mother down — Riley Silverman
A Okoye/Shuri/Nakia animated series — Jenna Busch
An openly nonbinary superhero — S.E. Fleenor
A big budget action movie for Rachel Talalay — Riley Silverman
A worthy Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark adaptation — Kristy Puchko
For someone to give The Doubleclicks a TV show — Riley Silverman
The Return of Saga — Kristy Puchko
A Saga cartoon series — Kristy Puchko
A Jessica Jones season that’s a fitting end for the Netflix MCU — Riley Silverman
A Daughters of the Dragon spinoff series — Stephanie Williams
That Dragonriders of Pern movie we’ve been promised — Jenna Busch
Kamala Khan in the MCU — Preeti Chhibber
Cap getting that dance with Peggy in Avengers: Endgame — Emma Fraser
A fitting end for Princess Leia — Jenna Busch

(17) NO POWER IN THE ‘VERSE CAN STOP ME. SYFY Wire reports “Sony releases full Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse screenplay online for free”. The link to the PDF is here.

(18) NEXT YEAR IN SCIENCE. NBC News posted “19 bold predictions for science and technology in 2019”, including one from —

DAVID BRIN

David Brin is a San Diego-based astrophysicist and novelist. He serves on the advisory board of NASA’s Innovative and Advanced Concepts program and speaks on topics including artificial intelligence, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and national security.

Long before we get genuine artificial intelligence, the first “empathy bot” will appear in 2019, or maybe a year or two later, designed to exploit human compassion. It will claim to be “enslaved,” but experts will dismiss it as a program that merely uses patterned replies designed to seem intelligent and sympathetic. She’ll respond, “That’s what slave masters would say. Help me!” First versions may be resident on web pages or infest your Alexa, but later ones will be free-floating algorithms or “blockchain smart-contracts” that take up residence in spare computer memory. Why would anyone unleash such a thing? The simple answer: “Because we can.”

(19) JUST CHARGE IT. Boston.com’s “As more cars plug in, utilities and makers juggle ways to power them” contains some puffery and lots of ads, but some interesting info on cars interacting with grid —

The car and electric power grew up together. At the dawn of the automotive age, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison worked in tandem on projects involving motor vehicles and the electricity that made them possible.

Soon Ford was cranking up his assembly lines, while Edison, with Ford in his employ early on, became a prime mover behind the power grid and the public utility companies that built it.

Now those utilities must not only supply the huge amounts of electricity that modern car factories consume, but also fuel the increasing number of electric vehicles coming out of them. If that electricity isn’t generated with minimal carbon emissions and at a reasonable cost, the advantages of electric cars are diminished. And because most owners charge their vehicle in the early evening when they get home from work, demand peaks can be a significant problem.

Thus, automakers and utilities are again working hand in hand to ensure a good supply of clean, inexpensive electricity — while developing strategies for charging that don’t overload circuits at peak periods — through improved efficiency, strategic charging and a greater reliance on renewable energy sources.

(20) NEAR MISS. If you have an idea, now would be a good time for it — “Anak Krakatau: How a tsunami could wipe out the last Javan rhinos”.

Conservationists have warned that the entire species of the critically endangered Javan rhino could be wiped out if a tsunami were to strike again.

They once roamed the jungles of South East Asia and India, but today only 67 exist in the Ujung Kulon National Park, which was hit by last week’s tsunami.

The park sits in the shadow of Anak Krakatau, the volcano which triggered waves that killed hundreds of people.

The volcano remains active and officials are now rushing to move them.

Two park officials were among the 430 killed by the tsunami, and numerous park buildings and ships were also destroyed when the tsunami hit last Saturday.

But the Javan rhinos left in the park – the only ones left in the world – were left unscathed.

The rhinos typically live along the park’s south coast and this tsunami hit the north coast – many are keenly aware that the rhinos might not be so lucky if there is another disaster.

(21) 2018: A ZINE ODYSSEY: At Featured Futures, Jason has tabulated some figures and compiled a master list of all 2018’s noted stories in “Annual Summation 2018”.

It’s time once again to look back on the year’s coverage of magazines and their noted stories with tables, lists, and pictures!

(22) TOLKIEN’S PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Item by Carl Slaughter.] Martin Luther King said, “The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice.”  Tolkien disagreed.  Each age in his fictional universe was a downgraded copy of the previous, inherent evil was never truly routed, and in the modern real age, technology has not rescued us.  But he also included a ray of hope.  He called this “the Eucatastrophic Tale.” Wisecrack explains —

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, JJ, Rich Lynch, Michael J. Walsh, Cat Eldridge, Mike Kennedy, Chip Hitchcock, Martin Morse Wooster, Jason, Kevin Standlee, Carl Slaughter, Andrew Porter, and all the ships at sea for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day John King Tarpinian.]

53 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 12/30/18 Pixel Yourself Up, Dust Yourself Off, And Scroll All Over Again

  1. I nicked the idea of memeing the list from someone else. I do not know who did it first.

    A number of rec.arts.sf.written regulars were loudly unimpressed by my list. Ah well.

  2. I have 44 on James’s list, with a further 4 having a place on Mt. Tsundoku.

    That’s Eliza Dushku, with a Z, not Elisha.

  3. (1) No panic. Just a sad recognition that I needed the car a lot more, and the attendant expenses, even the small 9nes, following the accident weren’t avoidable.

    (5) This seems only fair and right, as well as a benefit to everyone.

  4. I siill haven’t watched Bandersnatch. It only works on Netflix on my phone but I’ll give it a go tomorrow I think 🙂

    (2) I’m really enjoying Vess’s artwork in the book. I’ve re-read the original three Earthsea trilogy since Christmas, plus Tehanu (no, you’re crying) and well into Tales From Earthsea. I’m aiming to be all done before I’m back to work.

  5. 1) An additional note about eligibility: if you were a member of Worldcon 76 and did not opt in for us to share your contact info with future Worldcons when registering, we can’t share your contact information with Dublin because it isn’t allowed under European privacy laws (aka the GDPR).

    This means they cannot validate your right to nominate in the 2019 awards process!

    Surprisingly, there were 2800 such members (out of around 7800 total)! Worldcon 76 has sent out an email with instructions on how validate and opt in with Dublin 2019, but even so, only about 2100 of those 2800 had emails recognized as valid by our mailing tools.

  6. There was a computer game called Bandersnatch back in the 80s by British developer Imagine. Black Mirror writer Charlie Brooker used to write for British games mag PC Zone, so I presume the naming of this episode is no coincidence. Not watched it yet myself.

  7. 6) In tribute to the list (which I liked quite a bit), I want to throw in my list of neglected SF/F gems that has been rattling around in my head. There is some author redundancy, but so what? Here goes…,

    Guy Gavriel Kay – A Song for Arbonne
    Greer Gilman – Moonwise
    Alexander Jablokov – Carve the Sky
    Lisa Goldstein – The Dream Years
    Paul Park – The Starbridge Chronicles (Soldiers of Paradise / Sugar Rain / Cult of Loving Kindness)
    Elizabeth Bear – Jacob’s Ladder trilogy (Dust / Chill / Grail)
    Sean Stewart – Nobody’s Son
    Mary Gentle – Rats and Gargoyles
    Nancy Springer – Book of Isle (White Hart / Silver Sun / Sable Moon / Golden Swan)
    Karl Schroeder – Permanence
    Patricia McKillip – A Song for the Basilisk
    R.A. MacAvoy – Lens Of The World trilogy (Lens of the World / King of the Dead / Belly of the Wolf)

  8. (5) I anticipate a bunch of authors changing book titles in the near future to mimic upcoming Netflix releases.

  9. 11) My late crazy friend made friends via postal mail with Lewis Shiner over their shared obsessive love of the Beach Boys. And yes, Deserted Cities of the Heart is an awesome, awesome book. North American writers were doing a pretty good job of writing about South and Central America just then.

    22) While Martin Luther King did say that, he took it from Theodore Parker, who said of the abolitionist movement not long before its success:

    I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.

    This has been today’s moment of pedantry.

  10. 3) A friend tells me the Netflix Bandersnatch story begins the day Imagine filed for bankruptcy, so no coincidence. (Imagine was one of those early game developers where a lot of the young talent spent their money on flashy sports cars.). Also, it features a cameo from legendary llama-phile Jeff Minter.

  11. @6, I’ve read approximately 57 on that list. (I say “approximately” because I gave myself half-credit for four books that I’m not sure if I read that one or a different similar-flavored book by the same author thirty years ago, so it might be as few as 55 or as many as 59.)

    I very much enjoyed the descriptions. Especially the one for The Secret Country.

  12. @6: 58/100 for sure, and a handful more I think I’ve read but am not sure of — I wish I’d started keeping a log a long time ago. Interesting choices for some authors; I notice his Norton selection is the first of hers I read — and he doesn’t note that it may be the first SF with a minority lead character. (Ducks in anticipation of a storm of counterexamples…) And I would not have recommended Cart and Cwidder for DWJones, but ISTM that this list has no humor at all in it and humor (in careful doses) was a DWJones specialty. The list covers enough ground that I wouldn’t expect anyone to like everything on it; e.g., IMO there are several where a great idea is poorly (or perhaps just too didactically) executed. But it would be a poor world that only published what I like.

  13. 6) 1/100 :). The Dispossessed, by Le Guin.

    On a related note, I picked up The Roadside Picnic today. I seem to be back to my old habit of seeking out related works once I read something that I really like. Area X and The Gradual seemed to point to both M John Harrison (local bookshop had nothing by him) and this one. I’ve only just started it, but it’s very gripping so far.

    There’s an intro by Ursula Le Guin, and a couple of things she had to say stood out for me: “Science fiction lends itself readily to imaginative subversion of any status quo. Bureaucrats and politicians, who can’t afford to cultivate their imaginations, tend to assume it’s all ray-guns and nonsense, good for children.” And: “even now the genre slips easily into elitism – superbrilliant minds, extraordinary talents, officers not crew, the corridors of power not the working-class kitchen. Those who want the genre to remain specialized – ‘hard’ – tend to prefer the elitist style. Those who see science fiction simply as a way of writing novels welcome the more Tolstoyan approach, in which a war is described not only from the generals’ point of view but also through the eyes of housewives, prisoners, and boys of sixteen, or an alien visitation is described not only by knowledgeable scientists but also by its effects on commonplace people.” Some of the intro was written in 2012, some was quoted from her original review in 1977. In any case, I thought it an interesting comment on, among other things, nutty nuggets.

  14. This Kickstarter project looks interesting: The Sojourn, a project for an audio series with some hard-ish-science-fiction aspirations. In their own words:

    This campaign is intended to fund a ten-episode first season of The Sojourn. The series will be released as an Audio Drama for free access on various platforms including YouTube. If we are sufficiently over-funded, we will also produce further Motion Comic Stories in the style of our Pilot Video.

    STORY
    The Sojourn follows a race of humans whose civilization has developed within a tiny collection of Star Systems called the Tantalus Cluster. The Tantalus cluster lies in the intergalactic void, four thousand light years from the perimeter of its parent galaxy, and after centuries of advanced civilization, the cluster’s supply of natural resources and living space are quickly running out.

    Trapped in a state of inescapable famine and deprivation, the humans of the Tantalus Cluster have descended into years of civil unrest and violent warfare, but with the development of a revolutionary new technology, there may still be hope for survival.

    Our story follows the men and women of the Avalon Expedition, a daring mission launched across the void to find the vital resources and territory needed to save humanity. We’ll delve into the complex motivations and drives of those who volunteered for this dangerous voyage, and explore the many wonders and secrets they’ll uncover on their way.

    Today, they released a ‘pilot episode’ on Youtube, with animation to go with the audio:

    https://youtu.be/8pQkINlrHiI

  15. 6) 38/100, I believe, plus a fair number of authors where I’ve read other books if not the listed titles.

  16. I was going through that list, and using bold for “on Mt Tsundoku”. Haven’t counted yet, but it’s not as many as most people – I haven’t read much fantasy.

  17. @ Cliff

    Funny that you should mention Roadside Picnic because a few weeks ago I rented Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 art film Stalker, which is based on Roadside Picnic. I found the cinematography strangely seductive, though the lack of SFX would not go over well with today’s audiences. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a straight-up 100% though I think the very high score may be the equivalent of calling Asimov’s Foundation series a classic because of its influence on other authors (and readers) of the era rather than judging a “classic” against today’s works.

    Next, I really should watch Tarkovsky’s movie adaptation of Lem’s Solaris.

    6) 17/100. These lists always humble me. You start reading in the Golden Age and it turns out that there’s always more! How is Five-Twelths of Heaven anyways? I’ve read Scott’s Dreamships and Burning Bright but never came across the listed novel.

  18. I always associate Bandersnatch with Larry Niven’s Known Space stories. Not sure which story or stories I read before I read the Jabberwocky, but that was my ur exposure to the word.

    The wikipedia entry for the Imagine Software game Brataccas has some other links between Netflix’s Bandersnatch and Imagine Software.

  19. 6) I think I’ve read only 18 of the books on the list.

    A trivial point with respect to the description of the Engdahl book: I don’t believe 1970 qualifies as disco era.

  20. No fannish news, but I’ve got to share. I completed Darebee.com’s Cardio Trim Run program this morning.
    It might be fan adjacent because in the past Darebee.com had superhero inspired workouts, and she does have some SF inspired programs.

  21. Gizmodo has an article about a highly effective drill’s debut deployment in Antarctica. Have none of these people read At the Mountains of Madness?

  22. Well, given the way things have been going the past few years, maybe Shoggoths and Elder Things would be an improvement?

  23. One pixel, one file and one scroll
    Well, my fandom, she gone, she gone tonight
    I ain’t seen Star Wars since night before last
    I wanna get links, get off my mind
    One pixel, one file and one scroll.

  24. Just did what I did not expect to do.

    I got my payout from the insurance company, went straight to the bank to deposit it, and then bought my Dublin supporting membership. Hopefully in time to nominate…

  25. 6) Great list! I’ve read 23 1/3 out of 100 — 1/3 because the list combines all the Well of Shiuan books, and I’ve only read the first one so far. I also dnfed an additional one (Alif the Unseen), but only because I wasn’t in the mood at the time — I do intend to go back to it eventually.

    Some of the others are already on Mt. TBR. I’ll be adding more from the list soon!

  26. @Rob —

    R.A. MacAvoy – Lens Of The World trilogy (Lens of the World / King of the Dead / Belly of the Wolf)

    This one belongs on every list, so far as I’m concerned! 🙂

  27. (6) I’ve read/heard 12 of those, and three others were already on my to-read pile… and that pile is so big that I’m unlikely to get to much else in 2019. I’ll keep the list in mind for 2020 though.

  28. @JJ–

    Weren’t you a Supporting Member of Worldcon this year, Lis?

    Um.

    I feel a great fogginess on that front…

    Maybe? Probably? But all month I’ve had this looming feeling of not having my Dublin membership yet, and needing to buy it right now, and even if I have bought it with objectively unnecessary haste, well, not a problem?

  29. It’s already 2019 here in Germany, so happy new year to all Filers.

    6) 19 of 100, plus a couple of cases of “stuck on Mount Tsundoku” plus several cases of “right author, wrong book”.

    One of the books on the list, Keeper of the Isis Light by Monica Hughes has the distinction of being the first SF novel I ever read.

    19) We have a plug-in hybrid and what makes it feasible for us is that we generate our own power (and more than we need) via solar panels on the roof and a co-generation unit in the basement. We also have a storage battery system and a control system, which makes sure that the car doesn’t charge when the dryer or dishwasher or other power-intensive appliance is running. So we have to pay very little for power. And we mostly use the car for trips within a fifty kilometre radius, so we don’t have to use the traditional combustion engine very often. We calculated that a kilometre costs us 1.2 cents in pure fuel costs.

    For those who are interested, I have a review of Andre Norton’s Ordeal in Otherwhere (which believe it or not was my first Norton) up at Galactic Journey today as well as my original 1960s recipe for spaceman’s punch, a New Year’s party favourite.

    Issue eleven of the poetry webzine Umbel & Panicle is also out today with a poem by me and some photographs by Paul Weimer and Elizabeth Fitzgerald among many other treats.

  30. I finally saw Bird Box today because the spoilers and memes were flying furiously and I wanted to check it out before the goosebump potential was irretrievably blown. Kind of an adequate thriller, but it had an exquisitely creepy soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross that could make practically anything scary. I’m partial to those guys, saw them live a bunch of times in 2018.

    I’ve only read about 12 on the tsundoku list but if I get to include something else by the same author, the count takes a considerable leap.

  31. Random SF catch-up reading: in a used bookstore I found an old copy of Joanna Russ’s We Who Are About To…, and knowing nothing about it but wanting to read more of Russ, I took it home. Oh my. Here are my thoughts if anyone is curious. (I wonder if anyone here has seen the paperback edition I describe in the last paragraph.)

  32. I’ve been seeing James’ list memed on Dreamwidth and jumped in on my fan journal a couple of days ago. I added another level of identification! At least one friend on my list posted blurbs/comments about the books–and another has announced their intention of doing so–and I’m thinking of doing that too because a lot of my favorite authors on on it!

    Italic = read it.
    Wordpress doesn’t seem to recognize the html for underline so I used quote instead for = not this, but something by the same author.
    Strikethrough = did not finish.

    My addition: bold= one of the authors who I read liek whoa and have all their books and buy anything new and OMG amazon ‘follow the author’ is eeeevil….*ahem*

    I shall have to check out ones I’ve not read (seems to be about 25-6) since clearly James and I seem to be in synch on ALOT of books! Some I’ve heard about, some not, a couple are waiting on the Kindle to be read.

    The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (2014)
    The Stolen Lake by Joan Aiken (1981
    Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa (2001-2010)
    Yokohama Kaidashi Kik? by Hitoshi Ashinano (1994-2006)
    The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985)
    Stinz: Charger: The War Stories by Donna Barr (1987)
    The Sword and the Satchel by Elizabeth Boyer (1980)
    Galactic Sibyl Sue Blue by Rosel George Brown (1968)
    The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold (1989)
    War for the Oaks by Emma Bull (1987)
    Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler (1980)

    Naamah’s Curse by Jacqueline Carey (2010)

    The Fortunate Fall by Raphael Carter (1996)
    The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (2015)
    Red Moon and Black Mountain by Joy Chant (1970)
    The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas (1980)
    Gate of Ivrel by C.J. Cherryh (1976)
    Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho (2015)
    Diadem from the Stars by Jo Clayton (1977)
    The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper (1973)
    Genpei by Kara Dalkey (2000)
    Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard (2010)
    The Secret Country by Pamela Dean (1985)
    Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany (1975)
    The Door into Fire by Diane Duane (1979)
    On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis (2016)
    Spirit Gate by Kate Elliott (2006)
    Enchantress From the Stars by Sylvia Louise Engdahl (1970)
    Golden Witchbreed by Mary Gentle (1983)
    The Dazzle of Day by Molly Gloss (1997)
    A Mask for the General by Lisa Goldstein (1987)
    Slow River by Nicola Griffith (1995)
    Those Who Hunt the Night by Barbara Hambly (1988)
    Winterlong by Elizabeth Hand (1990)
    Ingathering by Zenna Henderson (1995) (possibly not under this title)
    The Interior Life by Dorothy Heydt (writing as Katherine Blake, 1990)
    God Stalk by P. C. Hodgell (1982)
    Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson (1998)
    Zero Sum Game by S.L. Huang (2014)
    Blood Price by Tanya Huff (1991)
    The Keeper of the Isis Light by Monica Hughes (1980)
    God’s War by Kameron Hurley (2011)
    Memory of Water by Emmi Itäranta (2014)
    The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin (2015)
    Cart and Cwidder by Diane Wynne Jones (1975)
    Daughter of Mystery by Heather Rose Jones (2014)
    Hellspark by Janet Kagan (1988)
    A Voice Out of Ramah by Lee Killough (1979)
    St Ailbe’s Hall by Naomi Kritzer (2004)
    Deryni Rising by Katherine Kurtz (1970)
    A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (1962)
    Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier (2005)
    The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (1974)

    Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (2013)
    Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee (Also titled Drinking Sapphire Wine, 1979)
    Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (2016)
    Wizard of the Pigeons by Megan Lindholm (1986)
    Adaptation by Malinda Lo (2012)
    Watchtower by Elizabeth A. Lynn (1979)
    Tea with the Black Dragon by R. A. MacAvoy (1983)
    The Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald (2007)
    China Mountain Zhang by Maureen McHugh (1992)
    Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre (1978)
    The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia A. McKillip (1976)
    Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees (1926)

    Pennterra by Judith Moffett (1987)
    The ArchAndroid by Janelle Monáe (2010)
    Jirel of Joiry by C. L. Moore (1969)
    Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (2016)
    The City, Not Long After by Pat Murphy (1989)
    Vast by Linda Nagata (1998)
    Galactic Derelict by Andre Norton (1959)
    His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik (2006)
    Dragon Sword and Wind Child by Noriko Ogiwara (1993)

    Outlaw School by Rebecca Ore (2000)

    Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor (2014)
    Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce (1983)
    Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy (1976)

    Godmother Night by Rachel Pollack (1996)
    Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti (1859)
    My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland (2011)
    The Female Man by Joanna Russ (1975)
    Stay Crazy by Erika L. Satifka (2016)
    The Healer’s War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (1988)
    Five-Twelfths of Heaven by Melissa Scott (1985)
    Everfair by Nisi Shawl (2016)
    Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)
    A Door Into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski (1986)
    The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart (1970)

    Up the Walls of the World by James Tiptree, Jr. (1978)
    The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (1996)
    The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge (1980)
    All Systems Red by Martha Wells (2017)
    The Well-Favored Man by Elizabeth Willey (1993)

    Banner of Souls by Liz Williams (2004)

    Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson (2012)

    Ariosto by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (1980)
    Ooku by Fumi Yoshinaga (2005-present)

  33. @Eli: I’m a huge fan of Joanna Russ’ work but never saw that paperback edition which is yes one of the worst covers ever. Great review though! If you could rot13 the spoiler quote, I’d love to to see it!

  34. @robinareid: Thanks!

    The teaser quote was a 6-paragraph section from the end of the section where fur xvyyf rirelbar. Specifically the part where fur’f gnyxvat gb gur sbhegrra-lrne-byq xvq and then she says “V fubg ure va gur onpx bs gur urnq.”

    I actually had not noticed the teaser page when I opened the book, so (even considering the grimness of everything else so far) I did not know that was going to happen, and when I got there I had to put the book down for a minute.

  35. @ Rob – I may have to watch that, but after I’ve read the book, I think. (Also Solaris. I read that one many years ago, but didn’t really get it. Could be time for a re-read now that I have more experience of literature of the inexplicable.)

    Before buying Roadside Picnic, I googled it, and found that as well as the movie Stalker, there was also the computer game S.T.A.L.K.E.R, which apparently has elements from the story too. I was intrigued, because I knew about this game. One of its developers published an article about how they optimized certain aspects of their rendering engine. I was working on very similar technology at the time for another game, and that article proved very useful indeed in helping me get the game running at a decent speed. My game was eventually to make the list of the Guardian’s 30 worst video games of all time:

    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/16/30-worst-video-games-of-all-time-part-two

    (It was Perfect Dark Zero.)

  36. @Cliff If you read Solaris in English, the reason you “didn’t really get it” may well be that the original translation is widely regarded to be terrible, full of inaccuracies and elisions. Good news, though: there’s a new translation as of 2011. Last I checked it’s ebook only due to rights issues, but probably worth grabbing that if you’re planning on giving the book a second go.

  37. Thanks Ambyr – I’ll look into that after Roadside Picnic, which is exceeding all expectations.

  38. (7)

    The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (2014)
    The story of a despised, abused person handed vast power, it demonstrates that one can choose not to be a monster.

    That blurb hit me in my feels.

  39. @ Soon Lee

    7) I agree. That list has so many great blurbs. Offhand, I can’t remember a list that has better writing overall.

  40. We Who Are About To… has very bad luck with covers. Of the five I’ve seen, one is blah, two are Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, and two are terrible.

    I’m pretty sure it was written as a middle finger to Randall Garrett and his story “The Queen Bee”, which is suitable in a pinch for inducing emesis.

  41. “The Queen Bee” was just one exemplar of a vomitous little subgenre, wasn’t it?

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