(1) OVERCOMER. Robyn Bennis provides “A Debut Author’s Guide to Social Anxiety”.
….If, on the other hand, the above feels like a gross exaggeration of your social anxiety, then perhaps I do have a handful of weird old tips for you.
Perhaps the most important thing is to have someone on your side. I am extremely lucky to have talented and fearless people who want me to succeed, and it has helped immeasurably. Now, this may seem like a bit of a paradox. Social anxiety can make recruiting your friends not just a Herculean task, but a mild imposition on them, and therefore an impossible request. “How can I make such a request,” you say, “as worthless and unworthy as I am? My friend surely has better things to do—like staring into space or streaming the complete run of She’s the Sheriff. I can’t let them waste their time on me.”
To get over this, the first thing you have to do is acknowledge that your brain is lying to you. I mean, Suzanne Somers is great and all, but that show just doesn’t hold up. Good acting can only go so far in saving such a horrible premise.
Oh, and your brain is also lying about your worthlessness. You are worthy and deserving of the help of others. But seriously, who the hell thought that show was a good idea?
(2) THE BOVA ERA. Do my eyes deceive me, a kind word for Analog? Well, not about just any issue — James Davis Nicoll reviews the Special Women’s Issue from June 1977 in “Nothing Without a Woman or a Girl”. (So, perhaps Galactic Journey will say something kind about the magazine in another 14 years?)
I have excoriated Ben Bova’s fiction in the past, but I have nothing but admiration for his work as editor for Analog. While Disco-Era Analog might seem a bit stodgy to modern eyes, at the time Bova was a breath of fresh air. Rather than settle for being a second-rate Campbell, he did his best to be a first-rate Bova. He recruited new authors, many of whom differed (excitingly) from Analog’s Old Guard. He also bought more stories by women than did his predecessor1. While some old guard objected to Bova’s direction, enough readers enjoyed it to give him a remarkable six Best Editor Hugo Awards, as well as one nomination for the same category….
Eyes of Amber won the Hugo. The Screwfly Solution won a Nebula. Two major awards for stories from one issue is remarkable. Other stories, such as the Tellure, may not have won accolades but were memorable enough for me to remember as soon as I laid eye on them. All things considered, this was a pretty awesome read to be my third ever issue of Analog. It’s no surprise that Bova was nominated for a Hugo on the basis of his 1977 work.
(3) ON THE TABLE. E.D.E. Bell lists five vegan foods to try:
…In my mind, whenever someone asks what could be vegan about fantasy, it proves to me that they’ve never been a vegan reading fantasy. In addition to a lot of the violence and war in the genre (it’s usually a central component, even outside of grimdark), the best scenes feature someone riding their steed in a fine leather vest to grab a hock of ham. I’m not even sure I know what hocks are, but I have concluded they are key to the development of fantasy heroes. So, you know, my fiction is just focused a bit differently. In fact, I think that diversity and exploration is what fantasy is all about.
I’m not here to get into all of that, though. I’m here to talk about one of Cat’s and my favorite subjects: yummy food. Now, I’m not an authority on gourmet cuisine. Go to a vegan restaurant or check out many amazing online vegan chefs for that. (I’m particularly fond of Richa Hingle.) Hey, I’m not even a great cook. But I haven’t eaten meat in almost a quarter century, so I can definitely speak to “what we eat.” Don’t worry. This is just a quick blog to spark some ideas. But if you don’t mind eating plants, here are five simple foods you could give a spin….
(4) WHERE RIVERS AND FANS MEET. The 2018 Confluence will be held at the Sheraton Pittsburgh Airport Hotel from July 27-29, with Guest of Honor Catherynne M. Valente and special music guest S.J “Sooj” Tucker.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the first Confluence, although it is not the 30th Confluence (they had to skip 1999 and 2013).
(5) TOURISTS. Stormtroopers and other Imperial military personnel dropped in to see the sf exhibit at the Pasadena Museum of History today. (Photo by John King Tarpinian.)
(6) HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY
- Born June 2, 1920 — Bob Madle, one of only two surviving attendees of the very first Worldcon. It’s possible Bob is the oldest living SF fan.
(7) COMICS SECTION.
- Jack Lint doesn’t want you to miss Tom Gauld’s “Lesser-Known Literary Prizes”.
(8) PIONEER FILK. Rob Hansen has added what appears to be the earliest filking fanzine produced in the UK to his THEN fanhistory site: “Songs From Space (1957)”.
Presented here is what appears to be the earliest filking fanzine published in the UK, which is dated August 1957. It was published by Eric Bentcliffe, reworked lyrics were by Sandy Sandfield, and artwork by Eddie Jones.
The final song, Space Club Drag, is inspired by The Space Club, a clubroom for London fandom that Helen Winick had tried to establish around the turn of the year.
(9) OPENING IN JUNE. Parade’s Lambeth Hochwald, in “Incredibles 2: The 10 Most Incredible Reasons We Love the Parr Family”, interviews the cast and writer/director Brad Bird, who says that the two Incredibles films “major in family and minor in superheroes.”
The most incredible family of superheroes is back. The Parrs, the lovable, fearless family of five we first met in 2004 in The Incredibles, will return for another animated adventure when Disney-Pixar’s Incredibles 2 arrives in theaters June 15.
And although 14 years have passed, it’s like the clock has barely ticked at all: The new movie picks up seconds after the first one ended, with the same cast of characters. Elastigirl (voiced by Holly Hunter) hurtles back into superhero work, while her husband, Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson), remains behind as a stay-at-home dad with the couple’s three kids, teenage Violet (Sarah Vowell), adolescent Dash (newcomer Huck Milner) and baby Jack-Jack.
(10) CONCAROLINAS. David Weber told his Facebook followers the terms under which he agreed to be a ConCarolinas special guest next year.
I have been in contact with Jada at ConCarolinas by Messenger, and she tells me that they will be making a live announcement at closing ceremonies, with the video to be on their Facebook group, which will make clear that going forward they will be inviting guests they feel are genre-related and that as a convention which has never taken a political stance they will not tolerate being told that guests must lean one way or another or that guests are uninvitable because of their political stances. They will expect anyone who attends to be able to be in a room with another person who disagrees with him/her and be civil to one another. They will also not be beholden to bullies or trolls and will not disinvite guests after such attacks. They will also mention what happened to John, and state that the mutual decision for him not to attend was wrong and that they apologize to John for the hurt and the frustration that was caused by their decision and for the fact that their initial statement did not make it clear that HE was the one being harassed and bullied by vile, unfounded allegations (which went so far as to drag his wife into the fire) and threats to harass him at the con which would have turned a regional con into a battleground. On that basis, I have agreed to attend the con as a special guest next year.
Weber also says the convention will give him a contract about his appearance.
Weber wrote at length about his expectations yesterday, concluding —
People, the object is to fix the problem, not to pile on (from either side) and not for anybody to issue masochistic mea culpas. But there is a point at which grown-ups have to begin the “fix the problem” conversation by acknowledging that they screwed up and publicly apologizing to the object of their screwing up. To be blunt, ConCarolinas owes John Ringo a public apology for not making clear who was the victim and strongly condemning the hatemongers who attacked him AS HATEMONGERS.
Coming from Weber, that is perhaps not a surprising characterization of those who had issues with Ringo’s selection as a special guest.
The ConCarolinas chair delivered the statement she negotiated with Weber this afternoon at closing ceremonies – here is the video.
Weber’s reaction to the video is:
At the moment, I am VERY satisfied. I’m sure that some people are going to wish that there’d been more self-flagellation and public contrition, but she was reading a prepared statement that she wanted to be sure got every point covered. Under the circumstances, I think this is a positive admission of the mistakes that were made, an apology to John, a proper characterization of the vileness of the allegations thundered against him, and a very decent starting point to move forward. And speaking as someone who’s had to eat a little crow in public himself upon occasion, I know how hard it is — especially coming back after the fact — to apologize in a case like this.
(11) FAN OVERBOARD. Honor Harrington fandom has been experiencing some rough sailing. Longtime volunteer Tom Coonradt announced his retirement as the Senior Master Chief Petty Officer of the Royal Manticoran Navy due to a conflict with leadership.
…It is with a very heavy heart that I say this.
It is my opinion that John Roberts is the worst possible fit for a first space lord this, or any, Organization could have.
Since before John Roberts became first space lord he has treated me with disdain, condescension, and disrespect. And I know I am not the only one. Culminating with a public outburst at a respected member of this organization at Manticon.
John Roberts refuses to communicate with me in writing, he says because he communicates poorly in writing. My concern is that there is ZERO accountability there. There is no recording of a spoken conversation that can keep a first space lord honest. He has out rightly and in writing (ironically) refused to discuss anything with me at all in writing, even if it is a simple message of “I want to talk to you about this topic, when can I call you?” I had on the phone, only a few short weeks ago, given him several possible solutions to our communication issue. When I thought we had reached a compromise, the only thing he sent me, ironically enough, is the new policy on how to replace the SMCPON. One he refused to discuss further with me after I gave my impressions.
He has no ability to be flexible, and in fact will refuse to listen or even acknowledge any advice, idea or criticism that he doesn’t agree with….
The group’s website defines The First Space Lord as the Senior Executive Vice President of The Royal Manticoran Navy: The Official Honor Harrington Fan Association, Inc.
The full text of Coonradt’s statement can be found attached to a comment on this post.
(12) DEPT. OF HARD TO KEEP SFF AHEAD OF REALITY. At TechCrunch “‘Upgrade’ director Leigh Whannell talks low-budget worldbuilding”.
TechCrunch: It’s interesting that it came from your imagination, because in some ways it feels very prescient. We had our own robotics event a couple of weeks ago and one of the big moments onstage was someone in a wheelchair who was able to take a few steps thanks to an exoskeleton.
Whannell: So the exoskeleton that helps people with paralysis walk and move, this movie is the internalized version of that, where it goes one step further and there’s nothing exterior. It’s a chip.
It has been interesting to watch the world catch up to my script. Because when I wrote the first draft of this script, automated cars and smart kitchens were still science fiction. And in the ensuing years, they’ve become ubiquitous. I mean, my wife’s car parks itself and talks to her. And my daughter thinks it’s perfectly normal to have a voice talking to her in the kitchen, and she asks it to play songs and it does. So in a way I feel like I’m living in the world of the movie I wrote all those years ago.
(13) PARVUS IS OPEN. Colin Coyle of Parvus Press says they are open for novel and novella submissions until July 15. See details on the publisher’s website under Submissions.
Coyle also notes that their Kickstarter for If This Goes On edited by Cat Rambo has raised $6,074 of its $10,000 goal in the first four days.
(14) DEPARTMENT OF MYSTERIOUS HINTS. Here’s your first clue:
I don't want to drop any mysterious hints building up anticipation or anything, but I -might- be talking with @seananmcguire about teaching a class for the Rambo Academy in coming months that is going to be supercool.https://t.co/F9tAFLRtrU
— Cat Rambo (@Catrambo) May 30, 2018
(15) HEARTS OF TABAT. Marion Deeds reviews Cat Rambo’s Hearts of Tabat at Fantasy Literature.
…On the surface, Hearts of Tabat might be a slightly satirical comedy-of-manners, but the Beasts are growing restless and rebellious, and something (or someone) is trying to siphon away the magic that protects the land. When, abruptly, Bella Kanto is accused of sorcery and exiled, it is clear something is very wrong.
Rambo’s world is beautifully described, complex and plausible. Good people are complicated, and aren’t always good. Sebastiano works daily with the Beasts, seeing their natures, yet spouts standard bigoted lines about how they can’t be accorded the same rights as humans. Adelina’s infatuation with Eloquence causes her to ignore her own better judgment. Eloquence himself is charming and seductive, but we see a different side of him at home with his sisters.
A large part of the Tabat society is religion. The Trade Gods and the Moon Temples, with their different belief systems, are depicted convincingly. The effects of poverty are not romanticized. Frankly, Obedience has it so bad at home that when she is abducted along with a magic student I can only think that’s going to be a step up for her….
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, JJ, Chip Hitchcock, Mike Kennedy, Martin Morse Wooster, Cat Eldridge, Carl Slaughter, Cat Rambo, Jack Lint, Rich Lynch, Colin Coyle, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories, Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Ingvar.]
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@Cora: I tried the first Honor Harrington once on a friend’s rec. While the story was entertaining enough, I found that the way anyone who disagreed with the protagonist was always flat wrong, and either A) came around to Honor’s way of thinking and thus proved themself a decent sort or B) did not come around to Honor’s way of thinking and subsequently proved a villain. Way too predictable to read more.
@steve davidson
That’s fair, although you’ve been involved in the broader SFF community in a hugely more significant way than I have. I’ve been to a couple of local cons, knew a few writers, and twice bought a supporting membership to vote in the Hugos. For a long time, other than the outsized personalities like Martin or OSC, or the writers with a much smaller footprint that I really liked and who were accessible on LJ, the only knowledge I had of current writers in fandom were sololy from their work.
It’s interesting because I knew basically nothing about Weber when I started the series. By the time I was ready to drop the books, he’d already made it so clear through his hamfisted portrayals of anyone who believed anything slightly different from him that they were evil, diseased, corrupt people that when I finally stumbled on Weber’s views, it came as no surprise. Similar with a number of writers, to be honest. Correia’s MH I picked up on a whim, never having heard of him before, and dropped it about fifty pages from the end because the reverential descriptions of guns bored me and his contrived circumstances to ‘prove’ how bad gun control was in the plot was incompetent writing.
While the SP/RP situation has given me a long list of writers not worth my time to bother giving a chance to, it is amazing how many revealed themselves in their work first and just reinforced it once they started turning up on my radar online.
Here’s one I’m surprised to see has never been used (unless my search of the archives was ineffective):
“Thou art Godstalk, I am Godstalk. All that Pixels is Godstalk”
I sat at a table with Weber two years ago at a Kaffeeklatsch. There are a number of ways in which he reminded me of Ringo. Not surprised he is defending him or that he’s pleased with ConCarolinas ridiculous statement.
(And his fans on that day were terrible. One chased other folks off because they were “saving a seat” for him. The following year they showed up for a panel I was on and ridiculed one of the other authors for only writing short stories.)
@ Andrew:
Godstalking is Filer for friendly?
We are pixels, we are Godstalk
And we’ve got to scroll ourselves back to the file.
Hock is from hockshin which is from Old English hohsinu. Similar to Hachse.
Dex
Wow. Clearly I stopped at a good time, because I don’t remember this one.
I very much enjoyed Honor Harrington for quite a few years. The biggest problem with the character was that she was ALWAYS right, even when she was flat-out wrong. But I liked the supporting cast and I enjoyed the stories. At some point, though, it began to feel like the same plot – Honor is doing the Right Thing ™ and other people are fighting against her who are cowardly and stupid and they finally realize she is right and or they die horrible deaths. It just got old.
I have a small spot of fondness in my heart for the early HH books, but I don’t think I’m likely to buy any more. Not because of the author, although I’ve seen a few things from Weber online that made me shake my head, but because the books ceased to be interesting to me.
@ Jayn
You caught on faster than I did. It took me another couple of books, though I thought there were some interesting ideas about religion peeping out from the Graysons.
@Laura “Tegan” Gjovaag
Arguably one of Weber’s strongest skills was creating secondary characters that only matter for 3-4 pages of the story, but doing so in a way that made you connect with them.
The political nonsense started in ‘Ashes of Victory’ and ends in ‘War of Honor’ when the government is toppled by loyalists. I lasted one more book to ‘At All Costs’ because it resolved a bunch of the threads and basically wrapped up the Manticore/Haven war. But by ‘Honor Amoung Enemies’, I was already done with caring about her. Every book introduced some new way why Honor was just so darn more special than every else ever. It reminds me of my personal experience with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. By the end of Season 4, I hated the main trio as characters and watched for the other supporting cast.
I see a pixel and I want to file it black
No godstalks any more I want them to scroll black
I read and enjoyed the early Harrington books, but I drifted away when they stopped being The French Revolution In Spaaaace! I cannot explain this.
Well, the good news is the Harrington saga ends this fall. Being an impatient person, I bought the e-ARC.
There are many explody things and dead bodies, in between which there are infodumps.
But I enjoyed it. (I learned to skip the infodumps long ago).
Weber’s politics have never been a secret but I’ve never found them to be so eye-rolling obvious as those in Michael Z. Williamson’s Freehold books. I even enjoy non-Ghost Ringo.
Having said that, my personal feelings on libertarianism is that it would work fine on the clan/small village level and does not scale up at all. It works if the social circle is small enough that a person’s reputation can be known to all players, and shame is an effective social control. Then all this “my word is my bond” stuff is viable.
Once the society grows so that those two conditions aren’t extant, I see anarchy and warlordism. YMMV of course. If someone could point me to a historical society larger than a village that demonstrates functional, stable libertarianism, I am willing to be one of today’s 10,000 lucky people.
Perhaps the Chinese, with their attempt to assign social scores, could make this work, as your social score might be a good surrogate for reputation.
So ham hock is Schweinshaxe. Cause I had been wondering. In that case, I’m really surprised that it doesn’t come up more in fantasy.
Regaring Honor Harrington, as discussed before Baen Books are not easy to come by here in Europe and need to be special-ordered. And while part of the Honor Harrington books sound like something right down my alley – “Horatio Hornblower in space with a kickass female lead” – the fact that the antagonists seem to be eeevil Socialists, whereby Socialism probably means universal healthcare or something put me off. I do have a non-Honor Harrington book by Weber setting on my shelves unread.
True. And actually, I largely agree with the thesis that these cons inviting right wing writers and then disintiving them a few hours later are being obnoxiously rude.
The latter Harrington books could have been dramatically improved simply by an editor saying “David, we don’t need the first twenty seven chapters. You’ve already told that story in the last book. Cut straight to the chase.”
A Pixel came down to File770, it was lookin’ for a Scroll to steal…
@Cora
FWIW: I liked the early Honor Harrington books. Good mid-grade milSF. Not literature but a quick brainless read. Somewhere around book 4 I found them less and less engaging and lost interest around book 6. In the last book purge I only kept my hardcover of On Basilisk Station ( the first book of the series). The early books are basically the Napoleonic Wars in space. To the degree that one of the lead villains is Rob S. Pierre (really!). I think I bailed before the politics got heavy handed from what folks are saying.
Yeah, I bailed on HH around the time it delved into absurd politics of idiocy. Like, literally everyone who was “against” Honor was mustache-twirling evil and painfully inept at the same time. Not to mention the plot where one man ruins the peace talks between Manticore and the Republic by somehow being in the position to singlehandedly literally change the messages sent and received by the government with zero oversight. And no one in the Republic government goes, “Hey, we’re funneling all our communication with Manticore through this one guy who no one likes and has openly expressed his desire to end the cease fire and go back to a hot war with them. I wonder if we should double-check his work.”
Plus info-dump scenes that don’t even service the plot remotely. Like, one chapter where Honor’s mother walks across the airport, and ruminates on the Honorverse’s entire history of genetic manipulation. To give the reader a bunch of information they will never need for later.
I really enjoyed On Basilisk Station, and kind of enjoyed the next two, but bailed after book 4 because I got really tired of him retconning his own work. In the first book, Honor is a completely normal (if brilliant) human and her pet is a pet, if a clever one. By book 4, she’s the result of genetic engineering, and her pet is a leader of a sentient species, IIRC. I didn’t mind the simple-minded politics as long as it kept the plot moving.
To David Weber’s credit, he has a decent grasp of history, and he did realise himself that he couldn’t create a decent left-wing or progressive character on his own that wouldn’t be a caricature. Which would be needed to finish the Haven plotlines, and was why he partnered with Eric Flint.
(10) The ConCarolinas announcement makes it clear that they received an indication that some form of abuse would occur if John Ringo appeared. That abuse would be directed at John Ringo. The concom felt that the level of potential abuse was sufficient to cast doubts on his safety.
Now a couple days ago, Jonathan LaForce was given a round of golf claps for suggesting that folks need to police their own.
I don’t think it is exactly a stretch to suggest that those folks offering abuse at ConCarolinas were not exactly Klan-focused. And the response to the offered abuse is….to question the authenticity of the recipients of the abuse; Mr. Ringo and the con staff.
Got it.
————
A Pixel came down to File770, it was lookin’ for a Scroll to steal…
I know that there isn’t any voting involved, but I vote for this one!
Regards,
Dann
TRC eht edisni deppart ma I !pleH
Hell, I’m embarrassed to admit I once hijacked MY OWN PANEL which was supposed to be an author meet & greet but one of the audience trained corpse-sniffing dogs and I fixated on that like a dog on…well, we’ll leave it to the imagination. Unprofessional fixations happen to the best of us.
On the bright side, a bunch of my fans now know a lot more than they expected to about corpse-sniffing dogs.
I read maybe 4-5 of the Honor Harrington books and mostly enjoyed them—no one can write a better space battle than David Weber—but I threw the next one across the room after seeing a page and a half about treecats.
Big difference between educational hijackings where you might find out actual (and possibly even useful) facts about corpse sniffing dogs, dead whale ecosystems or potatoes, and opinion-based hijackings where you may learn something but it’s to do with the hijacker and nothing to do with their point.
Hmm… treecats. I’ve never bothered with the Honor Harrington books because of what I’ve heard regarding the Mary Sue issues and political infodumps, but if he writes that much about treecats I may have to check it out.
“The ConCarolinas announcement makes it clear that they received an indication that some form of abuse would occur if John Ringo appeared.” — No. It is clear that they agreed to say that under pressure. Given what various Puppy and Puppy-affiliated authors call “abuse”, I fully believe Ringo felt he was “abused”. Of course, calling them bad names or calling them out on their behavior is “abuse”. And yes, this is calling his honesty into question — given his previous behavior, and the behavior of those who flock to his support, I consider this not unreasonable, especially given the complete absence of any evidence *other* than Ringo’s outrage.
It’s a familiar pattern — the Ringos et. al. feel they can say whatever they want, and any time someone calls them on it, the Ringos are the victims.
I AM GROOTSTALK!
Like other Filers, I was a fan of Weber’s at the start, enough so that I was buying the hard copies when they first came out, then I gave up in disgust.
I was there for the treecats (LOVED ’em!), and the plucky female protagonist succeeding against all odds (along with a number of other excellent female characters) and (early on). I could skip over the info dumps on the specs of the ships and the weapons and the truly horrifyingly detailed specifics of deaths and injuries in Battles in Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaace! pretty easily, and I didn’t mind the political stuff too much until the bludgeoning reversal the Good Guyz and the Bad Guyz became completely unbelievable.
@Cora:
Oh, yeah, the portrayal of the Republic of Haven is the right wingnut stereotypes of EEEEEEVIL socialism which apparently will always lead to a completely corrupt and ineffectual military until about the time I gave up when certain Havenites, having been exposed to Our Hero[ine] HONOR (hint hint nudge wink), became Changed Men.
@World Weary:
Yeah, that got to me too, though I could go right along with the Cunning Treecat Plan!
@John M. Cowan:
*hee* The treecats kept me reading through the stupendously stupid political reversals. . . .
@Kathodus:
I iz a treecat fan! But there were all these other problems, as noted in the discussion above. Another thing that turned me off that I don’t think I saw anyone mention yet (i.e. before I started writing this very long post) was the growing graphic descriptions of violence (including rape) that started verging on what I consider to be tortureporn. Not as overthetop as Martin’s series (which I also gave up on), but that plus the “let me treat planetary/galactic cultures as completely homogeneous and subject to major social change in less than a generation to suit my political biasses” was finally enough. Maybe I should see if there’s good treecat fic on Archive of Our Own!
@RedWombat
I would be absolutely fascinated with that–and I bet a lot of your fans there, being YOUR fans, were too!
@Dann it’s a little tricky to police comments we haven’t seen by people we don’t know of whose affiliations are unknown and where the content of what they said is also unknown.
If Concarolinas is saying we should respect people’s safety concerns without knowing the full details of those concerns then I can see that could be a laudable policy. But…I suspect that would be a policy in which several authors might feel they were being disinvited because of their politics & it doesn’t seem to be their general policy.
It’s actually a bonus of being an Ursula Vernon fan to learn all about various corpses.
(8) my favorite (sort of) “Song in Space” is “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”, which is basically free associating on the metaphor in the title of the Heinlein novel.
Particularly lovely version by Radka Toneff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtgIxU8TCyY
@RedWombat
The next time this happens, go for the gold and file a complaint against yourself. 😀
I am 100% Team Treecat. Kept me reading Honor Harrignton much longer than I would have otherwise!
The leftist guy who turned out to be, in addition to a coward, and corrupt, also a slaver, was so very, very Weber. The rightwing guy who was Honor’s nemesis at whatever the heck they called their naval academy, who had in fact attempted to rape her, in a later book shows up and proves to lack one of the few virtues that his characterization up to that point said to me he would possess: simple physical courage. He turns out to be a sniveling, little coward. Of course. Because he’s still Honor’s enemy.
Not even that teeny weeny little bit of character development allowed.
@Camestros Felapton–
Also, surely, it’s exactly the sort of policy Dann has been holding up as the Great Horror awaiting us in a dystopic future, if Wiscon isn’t shown the error of its ways.
(6) I hear that back when Bob Madle started reading SF, any story featuring more than 3 transistors was classified as “cyberpunk”.
@Techgrrl1972: “Having said that, my personal feelings on libertarianism is that it would work fine on the clan/small village level and does not scale up at all.”
That’s roughly my assessment, too… and I say this as a former libertarian. Infrastructure’s another big sticking point – “every man for himself” just doesn’t work for road maintenance, water pipes, sewer systems, and so forth. (Power is beginning to become a practical exception, with the advent of cheap solar. I was about to mention cellphones as well, but you have to put towers somewhere!)
I recall reading several months back about a small (Texas?) town that tried the libertarian approach. Infrastructure was their downfall… water or sewer, I think. Their dream was that the incredibly low property taxes would attract big businesses, which would drive enough sales tax revenue and employment to pay for their minimal government. Turns out businesses need an able, educated work force and decent infrastructure to already be available before they consider moving in. Whodathunkit?
@kathodus: “Hmm… treecats. I’ve never bothered with the Honor Harrington books because of what I’ve heard regarding the Mary Sue issues and political infodumps, but if he writes that much about treecats I may have to check it out.”
You might consider the coauthored “Stephanie Harrington” YA books, then. They take place well before Honor’s day, Stephanie being one of her ancestors and the person who first realized that treecats were sapient. There are three books in the series, as I recall.
@nobody in particular, re: Weber and such…
My comparative experience with Ringo and Weber is that the latter is considerably more amiable than the former. Here again, though, it’s certainly possible that circumstances were favorably arranged; I saw him several times at LibertyCon, including well before the Kerpupple, and in fact his presence was what brought me back to LibertyCon several years ago. (Weber, Niven, and Pournelle, all in one place? DONE!)
I like most of what Weber’s written, although the Safehold series is rather dry/dense and I haven’t gotten started on the Weber/Zahn “Honorverse history” series yet. (In fairness, I’m behind on McGuire’s catalog, as well as pretty much everyone else’s. Don’t go reading any politics into that tardiness; it ain’t there.)
I have often credited Weber with teaching me how to read Clancy: nod and smile at the weapon descriptions and the spreadsheets’ worth of numbers, but don’t try to understand them because it doesn’t really matter. That Weber’s guns are imaginary and Clancy’s are not is irrelevant. I also commend Weber for taking the step that Star Trek is often criticized for not taking: the innovations created to win one long-shot battle actually make their way into the military development pipeline and affect the way future battles are fought, rather than being forgotten. Likewise, dangling plot threads come back to bite. Honor is tried in absentia for war crimes waaaay back in the first book, which affects her standing when she is eventually captured. Those “better than the real thing” cybernetic repairs turn out to be a handicap when disabled by her jailors. And so on.
In short, Weber’s presence would not keep me away from a con and might attract me there. As long as I don’t say that Angelina Jolie might’ve made a decent big-screen Honor, we get along just fine… and I say that knowing how I’ve had to reevaluate my relationships with several Puppy-associated authors of our mutual acquaintance. Basically, I’d look forward to seeing Weber again about as much as I would to seeing Eric Flint; both are substantially positive draws in my book, and I’d even bring cards in hopes of finding a fourth for Cutthroat Spades.
This year I reread the honorverse books and was horrified by the amount of graphic rape and torture I’d forgotten. This was my 3rd major reread back to back of the entire series and first in chronological order rather than published order. Also my first read of the latest 4-5 books with way too many chapters literally copy and pasted from each other. I finished the read with a “never again”. The rape and torture was there to show how evil the villains were & how strong and smart the heroes were but not really dealt with emotionally – just used to “carry” the story. Again and again in book after book after book after book. By the end I was like “can’t you try something new for original – been there done that?” I was reading in preparation for the book coming out later this year and because I stumbled across one of the unread books while downloading books on my new iPad. Rereading wasn’t the smartest decision I’ve made this year. My happy/mixed feelings over the series and author are gone. Happened with Robert Jordan on a full reread of the Wheel of Time series a few years ago.
I am a treecat fan. I enjoyed the YA books better than the rest of the Honorverse on the reread. Shorter and less info dumps as well as less rape and torture.
Maybe rereading series back to back is bad idea. Although I reread Bujold’s Milesverse and didn’t walk away thinking “I’ll never read her again”. Instead I looked to see it there was anything I hadn’t read yet. But then her books don’t have active rape or rape mentioned in every single book. One reason why I’ve found reading non-white non-cis non-male non-colonists authors to be better for me is less rape and torture used as simple “make a villain evil” tool. If used it’s much more nuanced and usually seen from the side of the survivor.
@robinareid,
I would have been able to get behind the cunning treecat plan if Honor had been baffled, confused, even surprised to find out that her pet was actually a sophisticated sentient able to hide from her in spite of their link… Then, it might have seemed as if Weber had either plotted this all along (in case his series took off) or came up with a brilliant way to broaden the scope of the series. I never had a series that I loved sink so fast in my esteem.
The only comparison in depth of feeling for me was Pern. I wouldn’t have minded the retconning in that series if it hadn’t completely undercut the achievements of the characters in all the original novels.
I can’t speak to any of the novels coauthored or authored by Todd McCaffrey because I was jumped ship at Robinton.
@microtherion. LOL. Good one.
It is a distinct pleasure and honor to have met him (I spent quite a few Philcons hanging at his table), and a particular joy for me to have purchased my Amazing Stories Volume 1 Number 1 issue from him.
The canonical fantasy food is, of course, stew, not ham hocks, as discussed in The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, which also notes that what’s in the stew is vague and best not thought too much about, given the lack of agriculture in many fantasy novels, especially the collect-the-plot-coupon styles of quest. .
10 related: Have we ever gotten any specifics about the nature of the unsafe environment John Ringo might/would have faced if he had attended? I honestly don’t recall seeing any. If there is some, please point me in the right direction.
On recent reflection, one of the things that I think may be in play here that I’ve not really seen commented on is what may be a difference in perception (honest or otherwise) of what a convention “guest” is.
I have and continue to attend conventions where the glitterati and the urchins mingle happily together and where the only real evidenced difference in status is whether or not you sometimes sit behind a table, and if so, where the table you are seated behind is located. I have attended conventions as ordinary fan no one knows, high level con com, low level gopher, attendee that some people know, department head, panelist that some people know. Just about the entire spectrum of attendance status other than Chairperson, Special Guest or GoH.
I never expected any kind of special treatment. If I was helping to run things, I expected cooperation commensurate with my duties.
It seems to me, starting from LC’s statement regarding being deserving of a Hugo, through this and that statement during various kerfuffles, titles awarded, the desgination of fans as minions and a general “attittude”, that maybe some folks don’t get that panelists, special guests, GoHs, Chairpeople and staff are just regular fans with extra work to do.
@Rev. Bob:
You’re probably thinking of Von Ormy, TX. In an unrelated story, a few years ago there was a debate about a Fire Dept in a rural area of Tennessee, where fire department services were by subscription, and the dept answered calls by non-subscribers by showing up and watching the house burn.
(3) Currently reading the excerpt of Mur Lafferty’s Six Wakes in the Hugo packet and apparently everything from food to cloned human bodies is manufactured on demand from a synthetic substance named Lyfe, so I suppose apart from the appalling levels of violence, this would qualify as a rather vegan novel.
@Rev. Bob
Clancy is an author I just can’t read because of the endless tech specs. I’m a technical translator in my day job, so I’m certainly not going to read tech specs in my spare time, when I’m not even getting paid for it. Bonus points if you find mistakes in the tech specs.
I don’t know about Dann specifically but it does seem to be at odds with what Ringo’s supporters want.
I was struck by a similar thought reading a comment by David Weber lamenting John Ringo’s disinvitation:
Now, OK, you can have that as a policy and I can see how it could function but…the story with Concarolinas is that they felt unsafe for Ringo and hence suggested (or it was mutually agreed) that…he didn’t go.
Now, I’m not trying to make Weber look hypocritical – clearly there’s a whole spectrum of things here and there’s times were ‘don’t go’ is sensible advice and times where ‘don’t go’ is sensible advice but also an injustice of sorts.
steve davidson: It seems to me, starting from LC’s statement regarding being deserving of a Hugo, through this and that statement during various kerfuffles, titles awarded, the desgination of fans as minions and a general “attittude”, that maybe some folks don’t get that panelists, special guests, GoHs, Chairpeople and staff are just regular fans with extra work to do.
That seemed pretty apparent when several of the Puppies who’d gotten themselves cheated onto the Hugo ballot expected to be treated like rock stars at Worldcon, and complained loudly about being treated like just another attendee author.
@microtherion: “You’re probably thinking of Von Ormy, TX.”
I was indeed, and I also recall the fire department you mention. It was, after all, in my home state.
@Cora: “Bonus points if you find mistakes in the tech specs.”
Like the infamous density problem in the early Honorverse spaceships? 😉
We’d like to scroll a pixel bit about you for our File
No, Mr. Scroll, I expect you to file!
Well hello Mr. Scroll, i dropped by to pick up a pixel
@Tasha: I was surprised on rereading the Vorkosigan books recently how often there’s sexual assault in those books (“Shards of Honor,” “Barrayar,” “Warrior’s Apprentice,” “Falling Free,” “Mirror Dance” and probably some others that I’m forgetting).
It was boorish of David Weber to speak for ConCarolinas co-chair Jada Diaz ahead of her announcement, particularly in such detail:
If he had faith in Diaz and the con, he could have waited for her announcement and then made his own.
Instead, it looks like he was leaning on her to carry out a PR initiative for a writing colleague and make himself look like the right-thinking savior of the con.