(1) FANX FLOUNDERS ON. How long will FanX’s Bryan Brandenburg’s “indefinite leave” be?
Brandenburg said Thursday he will not be involved in FanX operations for the rest of the year, but will attend the event in September with his family and will evaluate his role in the organization next year. https://t.co/0JILIbwDOh
— KSL (@KSLcom) May 25, 2018
FanX’s other leader, Dan Farr, now has added his own statement and apology.
… I, Dan Farr, apologize fully for any instances in which a participant has felt unsafe. We do not condone these behaviors, from anyone.
It is not our role or responsibility to judge any individual nor to disparage or use inflammatory language about any participant in our conference. It is our role to do all within our power to keep our participants safe. Our conversation with the author resulted in a mutual agreement that he will not be participating in our future events. With this agreement, we consider the matter resolved.
Additionally, my partner and cofounder, Bryan Brandenburg has made a personal and heartfelt apology for his remarks on social media that were insensitive about our attendees’ sexual harassment concerns.
However, continued postings in social media and the press have shown energy and anger to a level that Bryan has decided that his continued participation, for now, is a distraction from the goals we are striving to uphold.
Beginning immediately, Bryan Brandenburg is taking an executive leave that he hopes and believes will help to dispel the negative energy that is taking us away from our greater mission and goals. While he has not suggested a timeframe, this leave may not be permanent. We hope to see Bryan at our September event with his wife and new son.
As for Brandenburg stepping back from social media – well, he’s stepped back from where the public can see it, but he’s still busy posting – see the screencaps in this set of tweets.
https://twitter.com/asquaremelon/status/999661553728348160
https://twitter.com/asquaremelon/status/999661806812581893
Yesterday’s latest Salt Lake Tribune coverage quoted from one of the screencaps that showed Brandenburg justifying how FanX dealt with the Richard Evans harassment complaint:
The comments were later deleted, but not before screengrabs circulated on Twitter.
“We absolutely could not publicly ban [Evans],” Brandenburg wrote. “We had no proof. We would be sued for libel and defamation from Richard. Then it would get out that you would be banned and humiliated from FanX for kissing a guest on the cheek and touching her. We would be out of business. Nobody would care to read the details. We did not see it happen. It would be her word against his.”
Hale has questioned whether organizers attempted to talk to people who may have witnessed the interaction, and whether Brandenburg’s statement means that allegations won’t be looked into if they weren’t witnessed by FanX employees.
FanX’s new harassment policy promises that every report of harassment will be investigated.
Howard Tayler’s Twitter thread deconstructs the Brandenburg rationale, quoted in the Tribune. The thread starts here:
This bit from FanX co-owner Bryan Brandenburg is *incredibly* problematic. It says "if you want to sexually harass people at our convention, just take care that none of our employees are witnesses."
This is not a policy that keeps people safe. This is the opposite of that. https://t.co/JVqNOBnR4Q
— Howard Tayler (@howardtayler) May 24, 2018
And includes these comments:
The FanX approach:
1) deny that the hornets are a problem
2) okay maybe they're only a problem to you babies who are allergic
3) promise to do something right after the "allergic babies" comment makes the local paper
4) be afraid to actually do anything because hornets are scary— Howard Tayler (@howardtayler) May 24, 2018
(2) OH, THE NONHUMANITY! Here’s an admirable idea for a listicle: “The 12 Most Gratuitous Robot Deaths in Sci-Fi” at Tor.com.
Sometimes it feels like robots only exist to be abused, you know? We love them and the window they provide on the human condition, but science fiction is usually pretty mean to them overall. It loves to torment robots (and when we say “robots” we’re really talking about any form of android or A.I. or sentient toaster or what-have-you) with the constant threat of obsolescence or deactivation or destruction. And some of these deaths are just plain gratuitous, leaving us betrayed, bewildered, and otherwise bereaved.
Here are the worst of them….
(3) MORE POOH. Here’s is Disney’s Christopher Robin Official Trailer. In theaters August 3.
In the heartwarming live action adventure Disney’s “Christopher Robin,” the young boy who shared countless adventures with his band of lovable stuffed animals in the Hundred Acre Wood is now grown up and living in London but he has lost his way. Now it is up to his childhood friends to venture into our world and help Christopher Robin rediscover the joys of family life, the value of friendship and to appreciate the simple pleasures in life once again.
(4) NEWSLETTER SIGNUP INCENTIVE. Get to know seven authors and fill a shelf with science fiction and fantasy — The SFF Grand Newsletter Giveaway is a chance to win a dozen signed books. The seven writers in this international group range from debut to established, and from near-future thrillers to high fantasy — Aliette de Bodard, SL Huang, Beth Cato, Kate Heartfield, Jim C. Hines, Kate Elliott, and JY Yang.
Between May 25 and June 25, readers can enter the giveaway once for each author, for up to seven entries. For each author, entrants will have the choice of subscribing to that author’s newsletter to enter (signing up for the newsletter is not required to be entered in the giveaway). Existing subscribers to an author’s newsletter can simply choose the giveaway-only option to receive an entry for that author.
The contest is open worldwide. One winner (chosen at random) will receive signed, physical copies of all the books:
- The first three Tensorate novellas by JY Yang
- The complete Court of Fives trilogy by Kate Elliott if the winner has a U.S. address, or a choice of one of the following by Kate Elliott if the winner has a non-U.S. address: Court of Fives, Cold Magic, Black Wolves, or Spirit Gate
- Terminal Alliance by Jim C. Hines
- Breath of Earth by Beth Cato
- Zero Sum Game by SL Huang and The Little Homo Sapiens Scientist (novelette) by SL Huang
- The Tea Master and the Detective and The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard
- Armed in Her Fashion and Alice Payne Arrives by Kate Heartfield
Everyone who uses this page to sign up for ANY of our newsletters before June 25 will be entered into the giveaway! You can enter once for each author, for up to 7 entries. From among ALL entries we’ll draw ONE lucky winner — who will receive SIGNED BOOKS from every one of us! A chance to win a dozen or more signed books — a whole shelf of new SFF!
(5) WRITER V. CHARACTER. Ian Sales, in “His master’s voice”, defends his criticism of a Clarke Award finalist.
So, a couple of days ago I tweeted a short quote from the book I was reading, one of this year’s Clarke Award finalists, and remarked that I was surprised to find the position expressed in the quote in a genre novel published in 2017. Most people who saw my tweet were as dismayed as I was – although, to be fair, they saw only my quote.
Which changes things. Apparently.
The book in question is Sea of Rust by C Robert Cargill, and the exact quote was “Gender is defined by genitalia”, which is spoken by the book’s narrator, Brittle, a robot, in a paragraph in which “she” admits that robots have no gender, it is not something “she” has ever thought about, but she henceforth chooses to define herself as female.
Two people I consider friends – very smart people both, and genre critics whose opinions I respect* – decided to insult my intelligence by questioning by understanding of how narrative works. Because the offending phrase – and it is offensive – was spoken by a character, they stated, that does not mean it reflects the author’s sensibilities. As another friend pointed out, I have myself written fiction featuring Nazis – and I have: ‘Wunderwaffe’ – but that obviously does not make me a Nazi. This is indeed true. Cargill has written a novel about robots, in which the first person narrator is a robot… but obviously he is not a robot himself. I never claimed this.
But the people arguing against my comment were themselves making the same assumption about me they were accusing myself of making against Cargill. Except, I think my position is backed up by the narrative.
…So yes, I do understand how narrative works. I also understand how writing works. And while I may not be as accomplished at writing as others… and I may place a higher value on narrative rigour than most people… I stand my original position:
Unless the narrative evidences a foundation for a sensibility or attitude, then it’s reasonable to assume it is a sensibility or attitude of the author that has leaked through into the narrative.
(6) MARY SHELLEY BIOPIC. NPR’s Mark Jenkins says “‘Mary Shelley’ Is Less Than The Sum Of Its Parts”
Given the familiarity of the material, the makers of Mary Shelley would have been smart to find a new approach. Philosophically, they sort of do, giving Mary more credit than usual for both her work and her choices.
Stylistically, though, the movie is all too typical of the 19th-century British literary/romantic drama. It presents London circa 1815 as misery for the poor, the young, the female, and the liberal-minded — and yet picturesque enough for a tourist brochure, suffused with dappled sun-, lamp- and candlelight and swathed in yearning music.
(7) BAIN OBIT. Meredith marks the passing of “John Bain, also known as TotalBiscuit, the Cynical Brit, who died yesterday after being diagnosed with inoperable cancer in 2015. He was a popular gaming YouTuber and started out by covering the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm expansion before moving on to wider coverage, including a lot of indie games. He championed games on the PC and was always honest about his opinions of games, beginning in a time when that was far less common.”
John Peter Bain
July 8, 1984 – May 24, 2018 pic.twitter.com/XchUMNDYXC— TotalBiscuit (@Totalbiscuit) May 24, 2018
(8) TODAY IN HISTORY
- May 25, 1953 — It Came From Outer Space appeared in theaters, a movie based on a story by Ray Bradbury.
- May 25, 1977 – Star Wars premiered.
- May 25, 1983 – Return of the Jedi opened in theaters.
(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY MUPPETEER
- Born May 25, 1944 – Frank Oz
(10) COMICS SECTION.
- Cat Eldridge says “I’ve had dozens of emails telling me about the organization and how it’s complying with GDPR.” And now Xkcd is getting in on the act.
(11) NATAL DAY. Steven H Silver celebrates: “Birthday Reviews: Vera Nazarian’s ‘Salmon in the Drain Pipe’” at Black Gate.
Nazarian was nominated for a WSFA Small Press Award for her short story “Port Custodial Blues” in 2007. The following year she received a nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story for “The Story of Love.” She also received a Nebula nomination in 2009 for her novella The Duke in His Castle. In addition to writing, Nazarian has worked as the editor and publisher of Norilana Books since the company’s founding in 2006.
(12) KNOWS ALL, HEARS ALL, TELLS ALL. The Guardian asks “Alexa, when did the Church of England become so tech-savvy?”
The Amazon assistant can now help you with your Anglican needs. Just don’t expect answers to the really big questions…
Thomas Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer was well ahead of its time when in 1549 it addressed “Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be opened, all desires known, and no secrets hid” – but it would take nearly five centuries for the church to turn this vision into technology. For now there is a Church of England “skill” – a set of canned responses – on , Amazon’s virtual assistant which can give its answer to 30 religious questions. It doesn’t answer the interesting ones though. “Alexa, ask the Church of England how can I be saved?” produces a silence easily interpreted as baffled, and I don’t think this is because the Church of England long ago decided that I couldn’t be….
(13) SFF IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. Here’s another list to pick apart, BBC Culture’s “The 100 stories that shaped the world”. Homer’s Odyssey is number 1.
Chip Hitchcock celebrates that “SFF cracked the top 5,” and he tentatively identifies the stories with these rankings as SFF: 3, 4, 15, 16, 44, 67?, 71, 72, 73? 83?
(14) THEY WERE THERE. “How ancient DNA is transforming our view of the past” the “pots not people” (cultural exchange) view is giving way to knowledge that there were huge population shifts, e.g. Stonehenge builders disappearing under flood of Beaker People.
…Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, studies of ancient DNA from our own species were highly contentious because of observations that skeletal remains were easily contaminated by the DNA of living people.
As such, there were always nagging doubts about whether a genetic sequence belonged to the long-dead individual being studied or to an archaeologist involved in excavating the remains, a museum curator who had handled them, or a visitor to the lab where they were being analysed.
However, crucial progress in overcoming these obstacles began in the late 90s with the effort to sequence DNA from Neanderthals, which was led by Professor Svante Pääbo at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
Pääbo’s group developed a set of protocols to prevent contamination slipping through, including having the same samples sequenced in two laboratories by different teams….
But the field experienced a revolution with the emergence of so-called next-generation sequencing technology. When an organism dies, the DNA in its cells begins to break down – over time it splits into smaller and smaller chunks, as well as accumulating other forms of damage.
It also gets contaminated with vast amounts of microbial DNA from the wider environment. The new sequencing machines could be used to isolate the human genetic material from bacterial DNA and then stitch together the tiny fragments into a readable sequence….
(15) ROADBLOCK. Traffic came to a standstill when….
— Matthew Angelo (@MAngeloCreative) March 13, 2018
(16) SFWA GAME CHAT. The inaugural episode of SFWA Game Chat aired this week on YouTube, hosted by Cat Rambo with Monica Valentinelli.
Did you know that SFWA now admits science fiction and fantasy game writers? Cat Rambo introduces a new show that discusses sci-fi/fantasy game writing!
(17) GAMING PIONEER. The Great Big Story has released a piece on the woman behind the design of the early 80’s text-based computer/adventure game, The Hobbit. Veronika Megler fell out of contact with the company that developed the game and went for many years without knowing how successful it was and how many lives it touched: “The Hunt for ‘The Hobbit’s’ Missing Hero”.
The six and a half minute video is great and the story of how (now) Dr. Megler has seized upon the lasting power of the game to help address gender balance in computer science is affecting.
(18) NOT AGENT 86. Missed out on this shoephone revival:
T-Mobile’s Sidekick gets a remake! Inspired by the past but stepping boldly into the future, it has revolutionary AI, headphones that double as chargers, personalized GPS guidance by John Legere, and more!
(19) SECOND OPINION. NPR’s Justin Chang calls Solo “A High-Speed, Low-Energy Intergalactic Heist”:
It was a good sign when Alden Ehrenreich, the terrific young actor from “Tetro” and “Hail, Caesar!” was cast as Han and also when Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the merry comic daredevils behind “The Lego Movie” and “21 Jump Street,” were hired to direct. But then Lord and Miller were fired last year due to apparently irreconcilable creative differences. And you could sense the iron will of Lucasfilm asserting itself. God forbid anyone should try to inject a little wit or personality into this surefire cash cow.
The directors were replaced by the much more risk-averse Ron Howard. And as a consequence, what might have once been a fresh and funny tour de force has devolved into bland, impersonal hackwork.
(20) CANTINA CHOW. Extra Crispy’s Tim Nelson was not impressed with the Solo/Denny’s promotional campaign, launched in April, that included trading cards and (not so) special menu items.
In Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Obi Wan Kenobi warns Luke Skywalker that “you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy” than Mos Eiseley, home to the cantina where viewers first meet smuggler and scoundrel Han Solo. It’s also a fitting way to describe any Denny’s located within stumbling distance of a bar after 11 p.m.
…With proceeds from trading card purchases going to help fund nonprofit organization No Kid Hungry, the whole thing seems inoffensive enough. But if some leaked information posted on a Star Wars forum is true, some of the Solo-themed menu items seem a bit silly.
There’s the “lightspeed slam,” a healthy dish that looks more like something from a depressed nutritionist’s Instagram than a meal fit for the Star Wars universe. While Denny’s earns some points for the inclusion of “Crystal Crunch Rocks” in a milkshake and a stack of pancakes, that looks to be the closest the menu gets to anything outside the universe of the diner chain’s typical fare.
As with past Star Wars-food tie-ins, one has to wonder what purpose putting ghost pepper sauce on a bacon cheeseburger and passing it off as something Han Solo might eat ultimately serves. Why not at least serve pancakes shaped like Chewbacca’s face?
(21) NO RECIPE FOR SUCCESS? Mad Genius Club’s Peter Grant made the point that “Writing books is not like frying shrimp”, inspired by the hilarious commercial linked below.
Trouble is, some new entrants into the book-writing and -publishing business think that their ambitions can be realized in a very similar fashion. Just set up everything, add pre-set ingredients according to some arcane recipe, strike a spark, and voila! It’s done!
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Mike Kennedy, Meredith, Chip Hitchcock, SL Huang, Cat Eldridge, Carl Slaughter, JJ, IanP, and Daniel Dern for some of these stories, Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Elisa.]
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I have to say that today’s scroll title is remarkably appropriate for story #1! FanX is indeed coming off like a bunch of incontinent hobgoblins. 😀
@Mister Dalliard: “The Expanse is saved!”
Yay! But boo, it’s on one of the 500 streaming services I don’t get. I’m starting to think that 500 streaming services replacing one-stop-shopping-deeply-flawed “cable” isn’t really an improvement.
@Rev. Bob: OMG, even STAR WARS violates her trademark?! What IS the SFF world COMING to! 😉
@robinareid: At first I misread that as “Son of Meredith Moment,” which lead me to other silliness like “Bride of Meredith Moment” and then a typo lead to “Bridge [over] Meredith Moment” and then my brain exploded in other Pixel-Scroll-ish variations, but I think I should stop here.
Return of the Bride of the Son of Meredith Moment! In penance, here are some book deals in the U.S.:
Behind the Throne by K.B. Wagers, #1 of “The Indranan War,” is only 99 cents from Orbit (uses DRM). I and several other Filers have enjoyed and rec’d this space opera series, which stars a gunrunner called back to her royal duties. After this trilogy (which I enjoyed a lot), there’s a sequel trilogy, which I don’t own yet; Wagers seems to be doing well!
Jason M. Hough’s SF The Darwin Elevator (#1 of the “Dire Earth Cycle”) is 99 cents from Del Rey (uses DRM). I don’t know much about it, but it has alien tech, an alien plague turning people into mindless savages, a space elevator, etc. and sounds interesting. It must’ve done well, since I read it was planned as 3 books, but it has 5 + a novella. Hough also wrote Zero World!
Lexie Dunne’s Superheroes Anonymous, first in the series, is only 99 cents from Harper Voyater Impulse (uses DRM). The other books are $3.99 (which I believe is their normal price). I’m not very familiar with it, but I seem to recall a Filer rec or two for this humorous (IIRC) superhero series.
All three of the “Last Policeman” books by Ben H. Winters are $1.99 from Quirk Books (uses DRM, methinks). This is present/near-future pre-apocalypse mystery, as I understand it. An asteroid is on its way to kill everyone on earth, but an idealistic policeman perseveres in his job as the world goes off the rails in the final months before doomsday. Winters also wrote Underground Airlines, which is on my list to try out [ETA: and I believe was shortlisted for an award or two?].
1) Sheesh. It’s a slow motion implosion.
Just finished Space Opera. Not sure if it’s high concept or low concept. It raised a chuckle now and then, but as I’m old, I knew Eurovision before it was cool. had a couple of nits, though the characterisation of the band members is pretty good. TIL that Paul Paul Mirkovich (The Voice musical director) was in briefly in Whitesnake (though looking at Wikipedia,pretty much everyone has been in Whitesnake) , so older rock stars have to do something…
Pyvccl jnf rkchatrq va nobhg 2001. Ur jnf bayl nyvir sbe 4 lrnef. Znlor gvzr gb Yrg vg Tb? Ur’f orraq rnq 4 gvzrf nf ybat nf ur naablrq hf..
V gubhtug oevatvat gur guveq onaq zrzore onpx jnf n pbc bhg – fur’q nibvqrq hfvat gung purnc gevpx sbe zbfg bs gur obbx, gura nonaqbarq vg.
Gurer jnf arire nal qbhog gung gur Rnegu jnfa’g tbvat gb or qrfgeblrq, fb gung qenvarq qenzngvp grafvba sebz gur obbx.
Pebj Ebnq vf fgvyy gur orfg FS ebpx onaq abiry, rira gubhtu vg vfa’g FS.
Now reading Oor Wombats Clocktaur book two. For some reason, I just get visions of Big Ben striding across the landscape (clock tower) and it makes me giggle every time. I’m enjoying it immensely.
Upcoming audiobook: John E. Stith’s Manhattan Transfer is coming in audiobook from Trantor. They have a short (a couple of minutes?) sample on their site, though it sounds a little . . . earnest? (I’m not sure how else to describe it.) But it’s just description of the Big Event at the beginning of the book, narrator Kevin T. Collins has read a lot of SFF, and some of his other stuff I sampled sounds more dynamic and very good. [ETA: So hopefully it’s just this initial exposition that sounds like this.]
Anyway, it’s coming out June 5. Anyone who remembers this book fondly, like me, FYI! 🙂 Stith’s work has been coming out steadily in ebook and also some in audiobook, in recent months (longer? I’ve noticed it more recently, anyway).
@Kendall: (Superheroes Anonymous)
I have enjoyed the first three books in the series and am looking forward to the fourth’s September publication.
@Rev. Bob: I thought maybe it was you (superhero fan that I know you are) who’d rec’d it! 🙂
[ETA: Fixed stupid auto-correct.]
Al Bean has died. (Astronaut, Apollo 12.)
This is a strong trilogy, I thought. Especially the first volume.
Didn’t seem to get much genre traction though? I only picked it up due to Amazon algorithms, I didn’t see much in the way of reviews or chatter or award picks.
Christopher Casper has posted that Gardner Dozois is in hospital:
It would have taken me longer to get into online fandom had it not been for Gardner’s editing of Asimov’s & his Year’s Best SF collections, not to mention the Asimov’s forum where he used to be a massive presence. He welcomed newbies like myself. It’s also where I met a few people online, some of whom I still remain in contact.
Get well soon, Gardner!
@Soon Lee: That’s terrible news. Asimov’s under Gardner and his Year’s Best anthologies were hugely influential on me and my views toward SF.
Sending good thoughts his way.
When I was growing up, SF was defined by Gardner’s Best Of anthologies (and a great SF/F section at the library).
Many many good vibes to him.
Kendall: Yay! But boo, it’s on one of the 500 streaming services I don’t get.
Same here. But this way we will at least be able to buy it on shiny disks. Maybe stream it via another service at a later date even. If Amazon didn’t save it we would never get to enjoy it. Delayed gratification is better than no gratification at all.
Gardner Dozois wasn’t on hand to accept his Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award at the Nebula Ceremony because he was in the hospital. Sad to hear he’s still there. Hope he’s better soon.
@rob_matic: It does sound like a mystery with an only slightly SFF backdrop, so depending on how it was marketed, I’m not surprised if it didn’t get much genre attention. Still, the premise and coverage was enough to make me aware of it when it came out, though it wasn’t on my list to try, for some reason (possibly it’s hidden away in some e-mail or other list I have). But thanks for the comment/rec; I’ll try the sample! 🙂
@Soon Lee & @Various: Thinking hopeful thoughts for Dozois and hoping he recovers soon and smoothly!
@MrDalliard: Oh, for sure! So does Amazon tend to put their stuff out on DVD/Blu-ray after they stream it? I buy things through Amazon, but the only digital media I get from them is the occasional album (if noticeably lower in price than at iTunes), so I’m unfamiliar with their video stuff, really.
TotalBiscuit’s passing is proof the universe has a nasty sense of irony (Content warning: unpleasant language and attitude):
Example 1
Example 2
If you already buy things from Amazon, then Prime membership might well be a bargain, bundling together free shipping, the large and varied streaming service and other benefits I know not wot of, since I haven’t used them.
But I buy enough books that Prime would be a bargain on that front alone, so the streaming TV feels like a bonus…
Plus, for my money, Prime Video is, at worst, on a par with Netflix. Netflix gets very few big release movies nowdays which is why they’re concentrating on original content. But Amazon has a lot of original content as well. Mozart in the Jungle is one of my very most favorite shows ever. The Man in the High Castle is great as well.
Plus, they have a ton of old genre stuff, something that Netflix has virtually none of.
Prine is $119 a year, so that’s $10 a month. Considering that Netflix is pushing $14 now, and considering that you get the free shipping, plus tons of free streaming music, it’s hard to argue that it’s not a bargain.
@Kendall:
Yeah, right on! Though where we are in rural Texas, it’s more can’t get really…..
@Kurt Busiek & @rochrist: I keep resisting Amazon Prime; I always wait till I have enough for free shipping. 😉
My other half is the Netflix one; I don’t watch much TV these days, but he watches a lot. If Amazon carries something he wants, that’ll be the tipping point. Or maybe I need to find out how much Netflix original programming he watches, and if it’s little or none these days, suggest swapping services. . . .
Oh, also, Netflix is in our TV (like a symbiote or something); I’m not sure Amazon Prime Video is. I know that doesn’t sound important, but our TV is huge compared to our computer screens and has decent sound, and our computers are nowhere near it. Still, no doubt many ways to bridge that gap, but for $.
I should check whether the TV’s “digital hub” thingie has Prime, though. . . .
ETA: LOL, my Consumer Reports e-mail links to an article about pros & cons of Amazon Prime. 😉 Time to read it.
One of the advantages of Prime (for me, at least) is that I can just pre-order anything without considering piling stuff up, and due to their lowest-price guarantee, whatever the lowest price they offer it for between the time of order and the time of shipping is what I pay, and that’s often a pretty substantial discount compared to the price they charge after the book is out. I sometimes suspect that covers the cost of Prime right there, even without the free shipping.
I know as a writer I should be stumping for paying full-price, but as the father of college-age teens I appreciate the savings.
[And then again, of course, the more I get things in e-book format, the less shipping cost applies. But I still get enough Amazon boxes to make it all worth it…]
High finance!
Oh, also, Netflix is in our TV (like a symbiote or something); I’m not sure Amazon Prime Video is. I know that doesn’t sound important, but our TV is huge compared to our computer screens and has decent sound, and our computers are nowhere near it. Still, no doubt many ways to bridge that gap, but for $.
Amazon makes a gizmo called the Fire Tv Stick which is basically the same thing
as the Google Chrome Cast and it’s only $35. It also enables a million other streaming services if you want them.
I had the stuff in the smart tv too, but it quickly fell out of date or became painfully slow.
Since I am in the Apple ecosystem, I have the newer Apple TV. You can stream from a Prime Video app amongst others. Also, it connects up with Apple Music and the ITunes TV/movie store (surprise surprise).
Kendall: the “Last Policeman” books by Ben H. Winters… This is present/near-future pre-apocalypse mystery, as I understand it. An asteroid is on its way to kill everyone on earth, but an idealistic policeman perseveres in his job as the world goes off the rails in the final months before doomsday.
I read the first one and was massively disappointed, in that the story has a really nice SFFnal setup with which it does almost nothing. The crime is just a mundane, boring crime. I haven’t read the sequels because I figured that they were more of the same, and I would just be disappointed some more.
Come to think of it, I had pretty much the same complaint about Underground Airlines: the SFFnal component was almost nonexistent.
@RoseEmbolism:
Yes, everyone and anyone in the streamer community is aware of those two posts TB made almost a decade ago. And anyone relevant in the community would also know he apologized for, and both parties let the subject go. People got over it. It’s done. It was old news before he became diagnosed back in 2014, so maybe we can stop posting it on his obituary under the presence of relevancy? If you’re going to piss on his grave, go and do it on twitter along with the other dudebro trolls.
Or maybe I’ll let the guy TB directed the insults towards say it better than I can: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DeDoIT9UwAE-kPV.jpg
Underground Airlines is a counterfactual/uchronia/…; such are commonly considered in-genre even without magic, advanced tech, or some way of moving between that timeline and ours. (See, e.g., Amis’s The Alteration). YMMV, but I wasn’t expecting anything else from the description.
Chris S: Pyvccl jnf rkchatrq va nobhg 2001. Ur jnf bayl nyvir sbe 4 lrnef. Znlor gvzr gb Yrg vg Tb? Ur’f orraq rnq 4 gvzrf nf ybat nf ur naablrq hf.
Ur jnf eryrnfrq va fbsgjner sebz 1997 guebhtu 2004 — 8 lrnef. Naq n ybg bs crbcyr — naq pbzcnavrf — qvqa’g trg gur arjrfg eryrnfrf bs fbsgjner evtug njnl. V pbhyqa’g nssbeq gb; V jnf hfvat Bssvpr 2000 ba zl ubzr CP hc hagvy 2010. Orgjrra zl wbo naq zl ubzr, V unq uvz nebhaq sbe 15 lrnef. Fb V pna frr jul ur’f n ybg zber va crbcyrf’ pbafpvbhfarff guna lbh rkcrpg uvz gb or.
Here’s hoping Gardner Dozois has a swift and full recovery.
As good as he is at editing, I think he’s an even better writer. I love his fiction.
Here in 5639, Morning Child, The Peacemakers and Strangers are still considered classics.
Jeremy Szal: Yes, everyone and anyone in the streamer community is aware of those two posts TB made almost a decade ago.
“Two posts“. I’ve got no dog in this fight, but that’s revisionist history. It was a pattern of behavior for him.
As someone on Twitter said:
“He was an a**hole. A**holes die too. TB was no saint or hero. With that said no one deserves to get cancer and wishing it upon someone is a horrible thing. This isn’t a one off with TB either. This is the abrasive personality that got him famous. My condolences to the family.”
@rochrist: LOL, yeah, just checking the app list for Amazon Prime Video (which I didn’t expect and didn’t find) on our old Samsung 50″ (or whatever it is) was incredibly painful and slow! Then I started looking at info on AppleTV, Roku’s things, and FireTv, and started getting a headache. 😉
My better half mentioned there are a couple of things on Amazon he’s interested in, though not enough to want to get the services. I suspect this is a “yet” and our combined interests will tip us into some additional or replacement streaming service and/or device at some point. Gak.
I distrust Google in general. And Amazon Alexa, based on what I keep reading in the news.
It looks like anything I’d want is on via Apple, Roku, and Amazon “TV” devices (AirPlay for the few non-native ones; the chart’s out of date, since Amazon does have an app on AppleTV now). So that’s good!
Anyway, sorry to ramble, and thanks to you & @Kurt Busiek for the comments (which are pushing me to really look at this stuff, though not for the near future).
I have a Roku device which I’m happy with. The interface is nice and simple… much more so than my LG smart tv. And I think apps (Roku channels) are available for pretty much any source I know and then some.
Was Ben Winter’s Underground Airlines shortlisted? Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, which might have been considered alternate history, won a Pulitzer and might have been shortlist for other awards. I think both were published in 2016.
Bruce A: Was Ben Winter’s Underground Airlines shortlisted? Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, which might have been considered alternate history, won a Pulitzer and might have been shortlist for other awards. I think both were published in 2016.
Underground Airlines won the Sidewise and was a finalist for the Campbell. Underground Railroad won the Clarke and was also a finalist for the Campbell.
Good wishes for Gardner from me too.
Oh, wow. So sorry to hear about Gardner Dozios — wishing him a full and speedy recovery.
(1) KatG, that was an excellent, thorough rundown.
One thing that just baffles and infuriates me is the treatment of harassment as somehow “not being real.” That’s never said outright, but ffs, imagine the complaint was about, I don’t know, a sinkhole on premises. “I don’t understand why people are so angry,” “maybe they’d be happier to just sit this one out”, “my wife and children know I’m very conscientious about this”, “I’m afraid fixing it might get me sued” — like, OK, even if every single one of those happened to be true, how does that solve the problem of people getting trapped in the sinkhole? The only way you don’t invest your attention in finding an actual solution to the actual sinkhole, is if you refuse to believe that an actual sinkhole exists.
In conclusion: GRRRRRRRR.
@Standback: (sinkhole)
Nice analogy! I may have to, um, “redeploy” it sometime.
I was pleasantly surprised by Last Policeman and Im not really into crime. I liked the backdrop and thought it was very well done, but yes, it was background and not central to the crime investigated. Maybe that was what I liked about it?
@Kurt Busiek: I know as a writer I should be stumping for paying full-price Does it make a difference? From what I’ve heard, the royalty doesn’t change when the book is discounted, but my knowledge is a long way from encyclopedic. The more general question of whether publishers should discount (more) in return for better access is … unsettled.
The argument would be, not that it costs me money per copy sold, but that it devalues books, thus harming other bookstores and the industry overall, and it hands more power and leverage to the discounters — who, once they’ve dominated the industry, will then come after the publishers’ and authors’ shares.
And there is value in that argument.
I can, in response, say that getting a book for a discount does not make me think books are worth less than cover price, merely that I got a bargain — I don’t view bargain prices as setting the value of things (nor, for that matter, do I think price sets the value of books; some books are worth far more to me than cover price, some far less).
But I’m aware that how I think of it is not how everyone does.
I liked The Last Policeman series a great deal. “Events in the heavens and their effect on society” is thoroughly science-fictional, unless you’re going to discount Asimov’s Nightfall as well.
Hyman Rosen: “Events in the heavens and their effect on society” is thoroughly science-fictional, unless you’re going to discount Asimov’s Nightfall as well.
Of course it is. My point is that I was eminently disappointed that despite such a promising science-fictional setup, the plot was so utterly mundane.
@Kurt: Devaluing books is definitely a thing that can happen. Here in Israel, the publishing industry has been in dire straits for quite some time. One of the symptoms has been that there are really only two bookstore chains, almost no independent stores. Well, the two chains started a practice called “4 for 100” — four books, 100 NIS, which is about $25. Basically, discounting book to 25-30% of their “base” price, as a matter of course — publishers winding uo getting back abiut $4 for a $20-25 book. And this was a very widespread discount, to the point you can always rely on a wide selection being very inexpensive — and people did. There’s no question the chains successfully brought down the value of books on average. People within the industry say the effect on publishers was absolutely devestating.
(OTOH, Israeli books really are quite expensive; we’ve got no concept of a paperback, and the industry is so small. It’s tough.)
Yes, I know.
It doesn’t devalue them for me, but as I noted, my reactions are not universal.
@Chip Hitchcock: I think you might’ve been done a disservice by the play if you walked away with the impression that it’s mimetic fiction. I’d recommend Arthur Waley’s abridged translation (known as Monkey) if you’re interested in the story proper.
(1) Something, something something, something… so it’s a case of FANX IN FLUX!
Ho ho. There, I’ve said it, and I feel better. Off to bed now. Bed, better, best.
Eurovision has been cool? News to me.
That’s our motto: It’s always news to somebody.