(1) DOC MARTIN. Texas A&M will give George R.R. Martin an honorary degree reports the Houston Chronicle.
Texas A&M University is set to give “Game of Thrones” author George R.R. Martin the latest link in his maester’s chain this week, as the school offers up an honorary degree to the author.
Martin has a long history with A&M, which has been home to his writings since long before his books were picked up by HBO.
Martin, who calls himself a pack rat, regularly sends copies of just about everything he’s written, produced or been given, from games and calendars based on the series to replica swords and war hammers, to Texas A&M University’s Cushing Memorial Library and Archives. The library boasts a world-renowned sci-fi and fantasy collection and Martin’s works are its crown jewel.
Martin last year gave A&M a first-edition copy of “The Hobbit,” saying at the time that the Cushing library has one of the best science fiction and fantasy collections in the nation. The author acknowledged that A&M — “a place where people shout ‘yeehaw’ a lot, and of course lately (was) known for Johnny Football” — might seem like a strange place for such a collection.
(2) THE MEDIUM IS THE MIXED MESSAGE. Variety reports Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller has been named showrunner and co-creator of CBS’ new Star Trek series. Who suspected Hannibal would be the proving grounds for the next executive at the helm of the Trek franchise?
The new series is set to bow on CBS in January 2017, then move to CBS’ All Access digital subscription service. It will be the first original series to launch on a broadcast network but air primarily on an SVOD service.
“Bringing ‘Star Trek’ back to television means returning it to its roots, and for years those roots flourished under Bryan’s devoted care,” said Kurtzman. “His encyclopedic knowledge of ‘Trek’ canon is surpassed only by his love for Gene Roddenberry’s optimistic future, a vision that continues to guide us as we explore strange new worlds.”
The creative plan is for the series to introduce new characters and civilizations, existing outside of the mythology charted by previous series and the current movie franchises.
(3) WHO COUNTS. The Den of Geek tells us Steven Moffat has confirmed the length of the runs for the next seasons of his two BBC shows.
Speaking after receiving his OBE the other day, Steven Moffat confirmed that Doctor Who series 10 will have 13 episodes. And Sherlock series 4 will have three episodes.
(4) HMM. Anthony at the Castalia House Blog puts his finger on a problem with the Potterverse in “So You Made It Into Hufflepuff”.
Hufflepuff is noteworthy in the Harry Potter series for being supremely un-noteworthy (“A Very Potter Musical” famously lampshades this after the end of its opening number “Gotta Get Back to Hogwarts” with the immortal line “What the hell is a Hufflepuff?”). The Hufflepuff we know the best is Cedric Diggory. Diggory is a fine character, but he probably doesn’t even rank in the series’ top twenty most interesting. Even in “Goblet of Fire” we just don’t learn that much about him, except that he’s apparently an honorable man, a hard worker, and a capable wizard. Besides that – nothing.
Vox Day, pointing to the post in “The Shortchanging of House Hufflepuff”, extended the critique —
I could never figure out what Hermione was doing in Gryffindor when she was an obvious Ravensclaw. I mean, being intelligent and studious to the point of being annoying about it was the primary aspect of her personality.
(5) SORT YOURSELF. Moviepilot reports “Harry Potter Fans Are Officially Being Sorted Into Hogwarts Houses & They’re Not Happy About It!”
For now though, it seems that J.K. wants to take us back to basics. Over the weekend an official Sorting Hat quiz went live on Pottermore — and unlike the numerous ones you’ve probably taken over the years, this is the real deal because it was developed by the author herself.
Which #Hogwarts house are you in? Be sorted and have a wand choose you, now on #Pottermore: https://t.co/9WQlPBk4lg pic.twitter.com/5bMAjywjLL
— Wizarding World (@wizardingworld) January 28, 2016
The quiz determines whether you’re in Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw by asking you a series of personality questions and by placing you in a number of unique scenarios.
….Naturally, most Potter fans jumped at the chance to try out this new sorting utility — yet instead of uncontrollable excitement, many were overcome with a deep sense of despair. Indeed, when the quiz dropped, the Internet became awash with staunch criticism. Why? Well, because most people were mad they didn’t get into the house they felt they deserved to be in.
(6) A SECOND OPINION. Or if you think it’s too much bother to register at Pottermore, you can always take this quickie quiz at Moviepilot — “The Ultimate Harry Potter Sorting Quiz Will Prove Which Hogwarts House You Belong In”.
“There’s nothing hidden in your head the Sorting Hat can’t see, so try me on and I will tell you where you ought to be!”
I took it and was identified as a Gryffindor. See what a reliable quiz this is?
(7) GERSON OBIT. Scriptwriter Daniel Gerson died February 6, age 49, of brain cancer. Genre credits include Monsters, Inc., Monsters University, and Big Hero 6.
(8) COOPER OBIT. Henry S.F. Cooper Jr., the author of eight books and a writer for The New Yorker, died January 31 at the age of 82.
Mr. Cooper celebrated scientific achievement, addressed scientific failure and demystified what was behind both.
Reviewing his book “Apollo on the Moon” in 1969 in The New York Times, Franklin A. Long, who was the vice president for research at Cornell University, said that Mr. Cooper’s description of an imminent mission to the moon was “remarkably evocative” and that a reader “gets the feel of what it is like to be a crew member in the lunar module.”
Mr. Cooper began his book “Thirteen: The Apollo Flight That Failed” this way: “At a little after 9 Central Standard Time on the night of Monday, April 13, 1970, there was, high in the western sky, a tiny flare of light that in some respects resembled a star exploding far away in our galaxy.”
The flare was caused by a cloud of frozen oxygen — a “tank failure,” as NASA engineers delicately described it — that would cripple the service module and jeopardize the crew’s return to Earth. The story was told in the 1995 film “Apollo 13,” starring Tom Hanks.
Brian Troutwine, in The Huffington Post, called Mr. Cooper’s book “one of the best technical explanations of a catastrophic failure and its resolution ever written.”
He was a descendant of famed author James Fenimore Cooper.
(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOY
- Born February 9, 1928 – Frank Frazetta
(10) VISIT OTHER WORLDS. NASA has issued a new series of space tourism posters.
Each new poster mixes a bit of that reality with an optimistic take on what exploring our solar system might actually look like someday. The poster for Venus calls for visitors to come see the “Cloud 9 Observatory,” which isn’t far off from an idea that’s been thrown around at NASA. The poster for Europa advertises the ability to see underwater life — something that doesn’t feel so far-fetched considering the moon is home to a global subsurface ocean.
(11) RABID PUPPIES. Vox Day has advanced to Rabid Puppies 2016: Best Editor (short-form), and in this category has only one name for his slate, Jerry Pournelle, editor of There Will Be War, Vol. X.
(12) NUMEROUS SUGGESTIONS. George R.R. Martin gave his recommendations for Short Form in “A Rocket For The Editor, Part Two”. He covers quite a few names. Martin also emphasizes that he feels there is an equivalency between last year’s slate makers and advocates for No Award in the Best Editor (Short Form) category.
All that being said… the slates, by whatever means, did throw up some legitimate Hugo-worthy nominees in this category last year, though not as many as in Long Form. One of those stood well above the others, IMNSHO. The Hugo really should have gone to MIKE RESNICK. Resnick has a long and distinguished career as an anthologist, one stretching back decades, and while he has plenty of rockets on his mantle at home, and even more crashed upside down rockets on the shirts he wears at worldcon, he had never been recognized for his work as an editor before. In addition, Resnick had founded a new SF magazine, GALAXY’S EDGE; in an age when the older magazines are struggling just to keep going, starting up a new one is a bold act (maybe a little insane) that deserves applause. But even more than that, Resnick has been a mentor to generations of new young writers, featuring them in his anthologies and now his magazine, advising them, nurturing them, teaching them, even collaborating with them. His “writer babies,” I have heard them called. In a way, Resnick is a one-man Clarion. Finding and nurturing new talent is one of an editor’s most important tasks, and Resnick has been doing it, and doing it well, for decades.
He got my Hugo vote. He got a lot of other Hugo votes as well. But not enough to win. As with Long Form, this category went to No Award. The work that the Sad and Rabid Puppies began to wreck this Hugo category was completed by Steve Davidson of AMAZING, Deirdre Saoirse Moan, and the rest of the Nuclear Fans. Resnick was never part of the slates, fwiw. He took no part in the Puppy Wars on either side, preferring to stay above the fray. And he did deserve a Hugo. But guilt by association prevailed, and he was voted down with the rest. A real pity.
Now there are Nuclear Fans, to go along with the other names people get called? And, in the circumstances, a very unfortunate misspelling of Moen’s name?
(13) SHATNER ON NIMOY. Jen Chaney reviews Leonard: My Fifty-Year Friendship With A Remarkable Man by William Shatner (with David Fisher) in the Washington Post.
A few years before Leonard Nimoy died last February at age 83, he stopped speaking to William Shatner, his close friend since their many “Star Trek” adventures. As he explains in “Leonard,” his new book about that relationship, Shatner still isn’t sure what caused Nimoy to freeze out his Starship Enterprise other half. “It remains a mystery to me, and it is heartbreaking, heartbreaking,” Shatner writes. “It is something I will wonder about, and regret, forever.”
That revelation, both personal and laden with questions, is very much in keeping with the overall tone of Shatner’s book. At times, the actor recounts his connection to Nimoy with great candor and reverence, particularly when he discusses how that bond solidified after the death of Shatner’s third wife, Nerine Kidd, who drowned in the couple’s pool in 1999. But readers may wish they got a little more fly-on-the-wall perspective on the lengthy friendship born in a place where few are: on the set of an iconic sci-fi TV series. As Shatner says at one point, “When I think about Leonard, my memories are emotional more than specific.” His memories often read that way, too.
(14) TREK PARODY ON STAGE. Boldly Go!, a musical parody based upon Star Trek, opens February 26 at Caltech Theater in Pasadena, CA.
Boldly Go! follows the intrepid crew of the Starship Enterprise, along with some new characters, on an exciting and hilarious adventure.
Assumptions will be confronted, paradigms challenged, alliances tested, and new contacts made – whether for good or ill as yet to be seen. And it’s all set to a side-splitting tour de force of musical mayhem!
While having fun with the sometimes farcical aspects of science fiction and parodying Star Trek, this new show also satirizes the musical theater genre. Boldly Go! is written by brothers Cole Remmen (University of Minnesota Theatre Arts Senior) and Grant Remmen (Caltech theoretical physics graduate student). The Caltech world premiere, featuring a talented cast from the Caltech and Jet Propulsion Lab communities, is being directed by Theater Arts Caltech director Brian Brophy (Star Trek TNG; Shawshank Redemption; PhD Comics 2).
A series of short videos about the production can be viewed at the site.
(15) HARRYHAUSEN CAMEO. John King Tarpinian enthused about Burke & Hare —
Watched this Simon Pegg movie yesterday. Even in period costume most of the actors were recognizable…except one who looked very familiar but I could not put my finger on who he was. The ending credits identified him as Ray Harryhausen…a pleasant surprise.
Harryhausen can be seen in the closing credits at 1:03.
[Thanks to Brian Z., John King Tarpinian, Chip Hitchcock, Michael J. Walsh and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Steve Wright.]
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Same here with Heuvelt. I kept misremembering that one as a Puppy pick.
No PIN for me as of yet. I just wrote to them. Hopefully I’ll have me a working PIN some time soon.
RedWombat – thanks for the HP fanfic link. Every time I read a new story of yours I decide I need to read the rest of them. Bryony and Roses is up there near the top of the TBR.
(5) SORT YOURSELF
Well, now. Slytherin. I guess I shouldn’t be all that surprised?
ETA Wand: Red Oak wood with a dragon heartstring core, 9 ½” and quite bendy flexibility
Same here with Heuvelt.
I will say that I was also not particularly impressed with the Heuvelt. On the other hand, it got on the ballot on its own power, and even though it was flawed, it was still much better than any of the Puppy picks in the short fiction categories. That said, I placed it behind “No Award” because I didn’t think it was good enough.
Amoxtli:
In other words, you wouldn’t touch those jokes with a ten foot wand?
I asked the Hat to clarify, and it was very specific. I really was Sorted into the House of Pancakes.
@TYP: “I remember reading that OGH dislike a lot of graphic sexual crudity here.”
And let’s not even consider the notion of graphic sexual crudités…
@Emma: “Pat of Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist has made an ass of himself.”
Yep. When the post begins with “The SFF feminists and the PC police”, I feel no need to continue reading. The author has made his bias clear in just those seven words. My only response is, “oh, he advocates conservative political correctness” – because that’s exactly what railing against “feminists” and “PC police” is. It’s the “correct” political viewpoint of his tribe.
@Amoxtli: “I know every dirty wand joke in existence, and I’m trying very hard not to make any of them. I hope you appreciate my restraint.”
Hey, if restraints are your thing, far be it from me to set you free…
Today’s Read: The Hunter’s Kind, by Rebecca Levene
The Moon God was killed by his sister the Sun Goddess a long time ago … but now he’s been reborn, and war is at hand. The sequel to Smiler’s Fair continues to be solid epic fantasy of the ASoIaF school — big cast of characters, continental scope, and willing to be unflinchingly grim when the story calls for it. Things seemed to be going slowly in the late middle for a while there, but it all came to a suitably Big Conclusion. I think this second book of the quadrilogy suffers a little from mid-book syndrome; some characters who were important in the first book had a bit of a “yes I’m still here, not doing much” role in this one, presumably to become more important again later. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable read, and I’ll be getting the next one.
(By the way, am I the only one who wishes that a “What Has Gone Before” section in sequels could become a common Thing? I hate spending the first 30 pages of a book going, “Now … that was the guy who … oh, right, right. And he’s meeting … who is that? Was she in the first book?” It happens all the time.)
I mention upthread just a tiny bit that I hadn’t received my PIN yet, so I wrote in. Well, they replied already, with my number and PIN. It didn’t work the first time, but did the second. I’m all nominatory, now!
Today’s reading: Inspired, in part, by the recent discussions of C.J. Cherryh, I’m finally starting the author’s revised editions of the Rusalka trilogy that I picked up off her website a few years back.
@Kyra: “am I the only one who wishes that a “What Has Gone Before” section in sequels could become a common Thing?”
Seconded. Relying on in-text recaps can get a bit awkward after a while.
Oh, I hate hate hate in-text recaps. Such hate! So vitriol! So, thirded (fifthed).
I’m confused. #5 says Slytherin, but #6 says Gryffindor.
I’ll go with #5. We get a bad rap.
Australian houses – I’ll agree that Hufflepuff would be Wombat based, but I think that Ravenclaw should stick to corvid-based names. My preference is for Crow, ‘coz screw the Magpies.
Slytherin should just be called (obPratchett) Not Some of the Sheep.
@kathodus:
Sometimes they’re okay. I mean, if a new character shows up who needs to be brought up to speed, and it’s not too unwieldy, I’m good with it. But then, I’m also of the opinion that all not-in-text recaps should begin with “Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer:” and be hosted by either Sarah Michelle Gellar or Eliza Dushku, so maybe I’m not the best judge. 🙂
It has struck me that VD and the dead elks don’t seem to have got the hang of thinking things through.
My daughter is a hospital doctor, with dual accreditation in Rheumatolgy and General Internal Medicine, and she will be striking tomorrow. She has a rather fetching picture of herself on various social media holding up the sign which she will be holding tomorrow out on the picket line. It says:
We’ve all heard of Do Not Rescucitate following cardiac and respiratory arrest; one would thought that those who share VD’s views about women should be true to their principles, and insist that they refuse point blank to be resuscitated by one or more women. Of course, they would die, because nobody has all male resus teams, which may account for the fact that these guys abandon their so called principles at the speed of light when it comes to the sharp end. They are cowards.
My daughter, on the other hand, stands by her principles; she would still do it if VD or one of his supporters threw acid in her face at the picket line….
@kip Of course for full cultural Trotsky points that has to be The Fourth International House Of Pancakes.
Simon, I’m more of the Aquarian persuasion, where the Moon is in the Seventh House of Pancakes, and Jupiter aligns with Arby’s.
Went to the new Pottermore just now. Sorted into Slytherin. Was thunderstruck by this, immediately re-registered under my other e-mail, answered a set of mostly different questions and was sorted into Slytherin again. Staring suspiciously at myself in the mirror now. What does Rowling know about me that I don’t?
RedWombat: I want the Australian Hufflepuffs to be named something like “Womblesnug.”
Um, doesn’t any house get a platypus? Because I like platypuses! (I like wombats, too, though. And most of the other critters named. Except for funnel-webs. Sorry. No. Spiders need to keep their distance, please . . . )
I’ve mostly addressed this problem by A: not reading long series (anymore) and B: not reading trilogies until they’re done, at which point they’re read back to back.
Y’all are kinder to me than I imagined possible.
::consumes more caffeine::
Rev. Bob on February 10, 2016 at 4:43 pm said:
Perhaps I’m admitting more that I should, but when I saw this, I was compelled to go off and google the term. Those who want to retain some vestige of hope in humanity may be relieved to hear that the search came up empty. Those who have a different sort of faith in the Internet may be disappointed.
The first three hits were in the “did you mean” category. The fourth was your original comment. Which, I guess, means you’ve achieved Internet Fame of a sort: The top relevant hit on a very strange query! 🙂
This is not the sort of day a Slytherin takes kindly to, particularly when said Slytherin has been allocated to that House in all editions on Pottermore.
Admittedly I am deeply pissed off about one of my iPads which has decided that the aesthetic appeal of the Apple logo is infinitely better than the iPad actually doing anything.
I have refrained from jumping up and down on it, but I am not a happy camper…
::tickbox::
@Stevie
I’ve found a number of people haven’t thought things through to that point so if they don’t have a DNR they’ve not thought to specify “only resuscitate me if you are a straight white male” (or whatever your requirements are). After all it’s not going to happen to me.
For all we know VD and JCW have living wills and medical directives to cover such situations.
Having been hit by a truck I keep meaning to get medical directives/living will written up covering the laws of the various states I regularly travel through to keep in the car attached to drivers seat for EMT personal to use & pass along to hospital as needed. I want a DNR and I don’t want to be put on life support if there is a 30%+ chance I won’t come off it breathing and eating on my own.
Apparently (based on a fact I learnt only yesterday) your typical everyday Australian ‘crow’ is actually a raven. Aussie magpies on the other hand, aren’t even corvids but yeah, screw ’em.
I, too, would love an equivalent of “Previously on Title You’re Reading…” We recently binge-watched the first eight episodes of season 1 of The Expanse in preparation for the finale, and we’ve recently started watching Vikings in a not-quite-bingeing-but-an-episode-a-day-isn’t-excessive-really kind of manner. It’s interesting to see how various episodes edit the “previously on” part, depending on what’s relevant to the current episode.
Speaking of The Expanse, Ars Technica have posted their interview with Nick Farmer about the language.
Platypus is what you get when the Sorting Hat is sick and instead you get the Collation Committee.
What?! ::wiki:: Huh. 10,000 then.
If anyone wants a video which makes Hufflepuff sexy, here it is:
Tasha
You may be right; JCW may ignore the teachings of his religion and request DNR, and Beale may suddenly find some balls so that he actually practises what he preaches.
I am very sorry about your close encounter with a truck. The things my daughter stresses is that resuscitation is exceedingly brutal, successful resus is rare, and even if the patient can be resuscitated they will go to the ICU which is an equally brutal place with a high death rate.
But sometimes you can save someone and send them out with a lot of years in front of them to live; it is these rare moments which help her to keep doing it. That and her rather young and enthusiastic teams in various hospitals who do quizzes on who do I want to be resuscitated by.
The answer is always my daughter, not just because she is most likely to achieve that, but because she would not bring them back if their brain damage meant that they were no longer them.
Ravenclaw on the official, and Hufflepuff on the secondary one. The secondary one feels closer to accurate; I have a good memory for geeky conversation on esoteric subjects (Which has led coworkers to think I am actually informed on topics I feel ignorant about) and I’m pretty good at putting the right queries into search engines and at judging a source’s reliability, but I am a terrible researcher and worse at remembering to keep track of my sources after I’ve learned something. I don’t have the strong intellectual bent that makes people read fifteen books more on the subject just for fun, or record the names and bibliographies for future use. (My brother does. There’s a reason I made pots in university and he did philosophy, although I actively enjoyed some of the more studious courses, especially history..)
And GRRM’s “Nuclear Fans” read the issues published in 2014 from cover to cover before casting their ballots.
Cat: GRRM wants the Hugos to be a great way to find interesting new stories more than he wants them to be fair and honest, and you and I feel that fair and honest is more important. I also feel that fair and honest will inevitably garner more interesting new stories but I admit that is to some degree an article of faith.
The more GRRM opines on the issue of slates and how fans should vote, the less respect I have for him. I’m sure that there are people who advocated No Awarding every single category, like MZW, but I didn’t see anyone else doing so last year, and I don’t think that there were all that many of them. And I think it is hugely inappropriate for GRRM to conflate All Category No Awarders with All Slate Entry No Awarders.
I think that GRRM is being very careless with the aspersions he is casting against fans who love the Hugo Awards and who are doing their best to vote their conscience.
And I hope to the gods that his spelling of Dierdre’s name was just a misspelling and not deliberate or a Freudian slip, because if it was intentional, then I have truly lost all respect for him.
Brian Z: And GRRM’s “Nuclear Fans” read the issues published in 2014 from cover to cover before casting their ballots.
Oh, did Mike Resnick submit all 6 issues of Galaxy’s Edge to the Hugo packet? I guess I missed that.
(1) It’s really a good idea to put them at A&M; only visiting scholars will look at the books and there won’t be any students mucking it up. (Aggie joke. Fight me.)
(2) Not terrible news.
(5,6) In all of these tests, I vary between Slytherin and Hufflepuff (Motto: We DO have to show you our stinking badgers) about equally. I have apparently greatly confused the Sorting Hat. Or I’m evil but can’t be fussed to do anything about it… hmmm…
(12) GRRM seems to have forgotten that many people were still annoyed at Mike Resnick for covering himself in… not-glory with the SFWA Bulletin columns (Now with Swimsuit Competition) and subsequent double-down. It wasn’t just being on the slate what did it. Also, Mike has a bazillion already.
Considering the Baen editing philosophy is “we don’t edit, we do it all together, and we don’t submit to the packet”, why should I vote for any of them for an individual award? I have nothing to go on.
Plus, pretty much every not-a-Puppy who read all the slated works voted them below No Award on quality (Ninja’d by lots). Note that GotG won, even though it was on a slate, because it was fun and well-made. And I’ve always voted Heuvelt below No Award. Even last year. He just isn’t that good, at least in English.
But I didn’t need Steve or Deirdre to tell me that Slates Are Bad. I decided that all on my own. I don’t think I’d ever even heard of Steve! Bad behavior gets no reward.
THE HUGO PIN WORKED! Be sure to update after every category; I didn’t, left it open while I was out shopping, and came back to type in a bunch of things, whereupon I got a login request. Save early and often. I’ve got a pretty good start. I need to look up a couple of zine editors and movie/TV writers, though I’m sure the Hugo committee can figure out who I mean even if I don’t put down the publisher or director of something. New voters, don’t sweat that either! For written works, the title and author’s name is sufficient; movies, go with the title; TV shows, put the title of the episode and the name of the show.
I fear I’m not going to get as far into Retro-Hugo nominating as I wanted to. Oh well, they’re all dead; better to spend time on this year’s nominations and get started on reading for next year.
Oor Wombat appears twice on my ballot. 🙂 Short Story was haaaarrrrrd.
@Petrea: I saw that a couple days ago and it’s certainly worthy if we were allowed to nominate a whole bunch. It’s definitely worthy of sending the link to everyone.
Also, I love your North American magical house symbols. All cool!
@Darren: NASA says “Probably verging on certainly NOT a meteorite”, as far as they can tell from the pictures.
I was reading one o’ them Kindle serials and every new file/chapter literally began with the words “Previously On” and a list of main characters with a couple of sentences about who they were and how they related to other characters/the plot. It was really nice. Novels should do that — who can remember anything after a year or more between books? If it was a library book, you won’t have the previous work to hand; if you buy used, maybe you’ve missed a volume. It would also enable the writers to skip the awkward paragraphs of infodump, as you know, Bob (Not to be confused with Rev. Bob).
There are stories of people refusing care from doctors of their not-preferred gender or race, but only while they’re conscious and talking. And, of course, if no doctors of their not-preferred kind are available, they throw their principles out the window and just bitch mightily as the woman/PoC doctor treats them well anyway.
Viverrine: Hey, overlords need Minions! And it’s much easier to recruit them out of your own House, so I’m guessing that someone with the “loyal follower” personality type but falling on the Neutral-to-Evil side of the scale might also get sorted into Slytherin, where they’ll find leaders more aligned with them.
Lela: quality should win out over the social/political content of a story/novel
Precisely. The Puppy slates were at least partially selected for political correctness and being Message Fiction, which is one of the problems with them.
And GRRM’s “Nuclear Fans” read the issues published in 2014 from cover to cover before casting their ballots.
One might note that you don’t actually contest the characterization given of the magazine in question. I’m going to guess that is because you know it is an accurate assessment and you would rather cast completely baseless aspersions than confront the fact that people made a well-founded decision on the subject.
@JJ I pointed the misspelling out in my comment over there and he thanked me and said he would fix it. So I think it was accidental.
I seem to recall that Matthew Foster (Eugie Foster’s husband) advocated No Awarding every category significantly affected by the Puppies on the grounds that the remaining one or two honest candidates wouldn’t have enough competition for it to be fair. This is filtered through my flawed recollection (so may be mistaken) but I think that is a reasonable point, actually. Some things got Hugos last year which reached the final ballot honestly but in my opinion would not have actually won in the face of the sort of competition the longlist would have served up zonder Puppies.
So if my recollection is correct there was at least one person arguing for that option. Not that I think that really justifies GRRM’s elision of the various camps.
Plus it seems to me that right after the Hugo ceremony he was happy enough with how things had gone, so I think I’ll assume he’ll be okay with a second time once it is done.
It depends on what Lois’s point was. Did Mike Resnick deserve an award for creating the greatest magazine in human history in 2014? No. Did the magazine showcase his talents and his deep love for the genre and its authors, and serve as a reminder of why people think he’s deserving of a fan award to honor him? Yes.
Well, I did run into one very good story in Galaxy’s Edge in 2015, “Sea Change” by Kimberly Unger. I only knew about it because someone in these comments flagged it up. No one else, in the various lists of recommendations I consulted, noted anything from Galaxy’s Edge. I read three other stories in the same issue as “Sea Change” and was unimpressed. All this leads me to think that, very likely, most of the stories published in that venue are undistinguished, but any magazine can get a good one now and then. No doubt I missed some other good stories by not reading all the issues, but the return on the time invested was very unlikely to be worth it.
I wasn’t going to sign up with Pottermore just to take the test, so I only looked at the other one… which sorted me into Gryffindor, of all things. I’d like to be Ravenclaw, but if I’m honest I know I’d probably land in Hufflepuff.
Speaking of which — David G., thanks for that video! The song is now in my mp3 cart on Amazon, waiting for my next bulk-buy.
Also, whoever upthread posted the link to Meteorwrongs, thank you too. That was fun.
Did the magazine showcase his talents and his deep love for the genre and its authors, and serve as a reminder of why people think he’s deserving of a fan award to honor him? Yes.
Except the award isn’t for his “deep love for the genre”, and the general mediocrity of the material that appeared in the magazine didn’t really showcase much in the way of editing talent. One might also note that you pretty much dismissed Lois’ point, which was that she found the magazine to be too weak to be the basis for a Hugo nomination, and you did so by implying that she had not read it. As usual, you’re up to your old dishonest tricks. Do you think this makes you look like anything other than a sleazy slimeball?
I finally got my Hugo PIN and it works, though they seem to have misplaced both my mother’s Hugo PIN and her membership information. The nice folks at MidAmeriCon are currently looking into it.
I was enjoying the break from our resident troll. I had hoped he was taking my advice and learning how to be a better commenter. Silly me.
As always he doesn’t respond to specific questions. Just spouts nonsense and then can’t understand why nobody takes him seriously and some of us find him hurtful at times. It’s sad because every now and then we get a glimpse of someone who cares and could make sense if he wanted to.
Back to skipping and ignoring and working on ignoring responses to him also.
Tasha Turner: As always he doesn’t respond to specific questions. Just spouts nonsense and then can’t understand why nobody takes him seriously and some of us find him hurtful at times.
Oh, I think he’s perfectly cognizant as to why people here don’t take him seriously, and find him hurtful and malign.
He just doesn’t care — in fact, he’s enjoying that. He’s achieving the effect he’s going for, which is taking a dump in everyone else’s Cheerios.
And just for Meredith: DRAGONS!!!
Also, the complete 7-book set of Harry Potter is currently on sale on Amazon US for $14.99.
I can’t tell if Amazon UK or Nook or Kobo are matching the deal.
I, too, followed a link from here to “Sea Change”. All the other stories I sampled from there were exceedingly mediocre. Stopped clocks, blind squirrels, etc.
Sure, I was implying that Lois Tilton is a Nuclear Fan who no awards whole categories without reading. Exactly. Geez.
Of course the award is about his deep love for the genre. What else could it possibly be about?
What else is there to say?
That the award was for 2014, not for decades? That all there was to go on was Galaxy’s Edge? Y’know…facts?
@David Goldfarb thanks for the YouTube link – “I was born to behave” – Ha!
>Lela: quality should win out over the social/political content of a story/novel
>Precisely. The Puppy slates were at least partially selected for political correctness and being Message Fiction, which is one of the problems with them.
How so? What elements of the stories did you think were “message” and “political correctness”?
I agree that Wright’s stories are easy to put into this category, but others like “Skin Game,” “Turncoat,” “Flow”, “The Triple Sun,” “Ashes to Ashes,” “A Single Samurai” and “The Journeyman: In the Stone House” seemed fairly neutral to me.