(1) Some of these antics would be perfectly at home in the U.S.
While China’s vice president is meeting with the respectable author of Three-Body Problem, other officials are occupied cracking down on fake aliens and zombies says the New York Times.
Science fiction and fantasy tales have been growing in popularity in China, where some creative efforts have earned official endorsement. Vice President Li Yuanchao met this week with authors — including Liu Cixin, who wrote the Hugo Award-winning novel “The Three-Body Problem” — and called on them to inspire young people’s interest in science and encourage “faith in realizing the Chinese Dream,” the state news agency Xinhua reported.
But even as the Chinese leadership offered praise for the writers, the police have been less tolerant of social media users’ flexing their creativity. Several people have been punished in the past few years for relaying tales of the walking undead and extraterrestrial invaders for fear of touching off public panic….
This is the "alien" found in China that had Weibo on fire over last few days. Farmer who made it is now in jail pic.twitter.com/p5r7CHek2I
— Deirdre Bosa (@dee_bosa) June 12, 2013
In 2013, a farmer in Shandong Province claimed to have encountered five extraterrestrial creatures, one of whom was killed by an electric fence. The farmer’s story, and photos of the purported alien corpse he kept in a freezer, drew widespread attention online. The local authorities investigated and held a news conference to announce that the dead alien was actually made of rubber, Southern Metropolis Daily reported. The farmer was sentenced to five days of detention for disturbing public order, Xinhua reported.
I guess if Orson Welles had pulled his “War of the Worlds” stunt in China, they’d have made him the star of 20,000 Years in Sing Sing instead of Citizen Kane….
(2) Your 2015 Ig Nobel Prize winners include these scientific advancements —
PHYSICS PRIZE — Patricia Yang [USA and TAIWAN], David Hu [USA and TAIWAN], and Jonathan Pham, Jerome Choo [USA], for testing the biological principle that nearly all mammals empty their bladders in about 21 seconds (plus or minus 13 seconds).
REFERENCE: “Duration of Urination Does Not Change With Body Size,” Patricia J. Yang, Jonathan Pham, Jerome Choo, and David L. Hu, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2014: 201402289.
LITERATURE PRIZE — Mark Dingemanse [THE NETHERLANDS, USA], Francisco Torreira [THE NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM, USA], and Nick J. Enfield [AUSTRALIA, THE NETHERLANDS], for discovering that the word “huh?” (or its equivalent) seems to exist in every human language — and for not being quite sure why.
REFERENCE: “Is ‘Huh?’ a universal word? Conversational infrastructure and the convergent evolution of linguistic items,” Mark Dingemanse, Francisco Torreira, and Nick J. Enfield, PLOS ONE, 2013.
(3) “How did George R.R. Martin end up at Janis Ian’s wedding in Toronto?” asks CBC Radio in its post “Janis Ian’s Toronto wedding, where Game of Thrones’ creator was a best man”.
That’s a question we had after reading this Sunday’s New York Times. The newspaper featured a story on the well-known musician’s relationship with Patricia Snyder. It turns out they were the first same-sex couple to be featured in the newspaper’s ‘Vows’ section. You can read more here.
But, it was a photograph published farther down the article that also caught our attention. A short caption reads as follows:
“In 2003, before same-sex marriage was legal in the United States, the couple wed at Toronto’s City Hall. Author of the ‘Game of Thrones’ series George R.R. Martin was best man.”
Seated: David Axler, Mike Resnick, Parris McBride, George R.R. Martin. The couple: Janis Ian and Patricia Snyder. The minister is Malcolm St. Clair. Photo by Steve Payne.
This turned out to be a simple why-was-this-celebrity-at-another-celebrity’s-wedding post, not a sly juxtaposition of real life Martin attending a wedding with a reference to the Red Wedding episode of Game of Thrones. That is left as an exercise for cheesy fan bloggers. Oops.
To make up for it, this fan blogger can name all the people in the photo, which the CBC incompletely captions, “In 2003, before same-sex marriage was legal in the United States, the couple wed at Toronto’s City Hall. Author of the ‘Game of Thrones’ series George R. R. Martin, fourth from the left, was a best man. (Steve Payne)”
They are, in order, David Axler, Mike Resnick, Parris McBride, George R.R. Martin. The minister is Malcolm St. Clair.
(4) Lunar rocks brought back by Apollo astronauts have a tendency to change characteristics once scientists start handling them notes a Space.com article “Some Apollo Moon Samples ‘Crumbling to Dust’”
Between 1969 and 1972, Apollo astronauts brought 842 lbs. (382 kilograms) of lunar rocks and dirt back to Earth. Eighty-three percent of that material remains unexamined in nitrogen storage at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Cooper told Space.com via email. The other 17 percent has been allocated to researchers for study in a number of different laboratories….
The most likely explanation for the degradation is damage caused by water vapor, the scientists say.
“Leaching by water vapor causes the specific surface area of a lunar soil sample to multiply, and a system of pores develops,” they wrote in the study, which was published online last week in the journal Nature Geoscience. “These structural changes may be attributed to the opening of existing, but previously unavailable, pore structure or the creation of new surfaces through fracturing of cement or dissolution of amorphous particles.”
The new results suggest that the Apollo soil samples being studied by scientists are not pristine, Cooper said.
“People should not assume that the Apollo lunar soil samples remain representative of soils found in the natural environment of the moon, especially if they have been exposed to air,” she told Space.com via email. “In addition to particle size distribution, other geotechnical properties (such as strength and cohesion) must also have changed. Also, for example, water found in the sample might be taken to be lunar in origin when in fact it is the result of contamination.”
(5) Yesterday I linked to Kameron Hurley’s commentary, from the viewpoint of someone with ascending sales. Today at Mad Genius Club, Pam Uphoff, who hasn’t had the success yet (“my sales had flat-lined”), talks about the jump start she got from the site’s Labor Day Sale.
Umm, how about the book that had just crept past 200 sales in almost three years selling over a hundred in a week? Call me gob smacked. It briefly broke into the top fifty in its sub category. Call me impressed. And that was before the KU pages counts skyrocketed.
(6) Here are more positive numbers about another market segment — “Nielsen Summit Shows the Data Behind the Children’s Book Boom” – from Publisher Weekly.
The book team at Nielsen held its second-annual Children’s Book Summit at Convene in downtown NYC on September 15, to discuss trends found in their data for publishers to make use of, in an effort to better reach consumers. The days’ panels touched on many aspects of the industry, including adult readers of YA, suburban teens, and multicultural consumers.
Jonathan Nowell, president of Nielsen Book, began the day with plenty of figures: for the time period between January 2014 to September 2015, children’s book sales are up 12.6% in the U.S., 28% in Brazil, and 10% in China, with 11 of the 20 bestselling books in the U.S. being children’s titles. The proliferation of tablets has brought the age kids start reading e-books down from seven to five. And board books have seen 20% compound growth over the last three years.
(7) Naturally, the Neil Gaiman Humble Bundle is selling great guns. It went live on September 9 and was raising huge amounts in no time at all.
It’s broken all the previous Humble Bundle records for Books. As I type this, about 7000 people have already bought the Bundle. It’s raised $133,000.
The bundle is on sale for four more days.
Gaiman isn’t the only author in it, and the others aren’t necessarily donating their proceeds to charity like he is –
I’m giving my entire portion of Humble Bundle creator-money directly back to the Gaiman Foundation. (My agent Merrilee has donated her fee, too, so 100% of what comes in to me goes to the Foundation.) There are, obviously, other authors and artists and publishers involved. Some have asked for their money to go to charities, and some are, perfectly sensibly, paying the rent and buying food with it.
But no doubt the Gaiman rarities in the bundle are driving sales.
Books that were long out of print, stories and such that collectors would pay hundreds of dollars for, obscure and uncollected comics and pamphlets and magazine articles. Even the things I am still vaguely embarrassed by (like the Duran Duran biography, a hardcover copy of which, as I said, can set you back thousands of dollars these days, if you can find one).
Books which have been out of print for 30 years, like GHASTLY BEYOND BELIEF, a collection of quotations from the strangest SF and Fantasy books and movies that Kim Newman and I made when we were 23 and 24 respectively. Things that were absolutely private and never before sold, like LOVE FISHIE, a book of poems and letters from my daughter Maddy (aged 8) to me, and from me back to Maddy, that was made into a book (with help from my assistant the Fabulous Lorraine) as a gift for my 42nd birthday.
Two long out-of-print books from Knockabout Comics: OUTRAGEOUS TALES FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT and SEVEN DEADLY SINS, with stories written and or drawn by me, Alan Moore, Hunt Emerson, Dave Gibbons, Dave McKean and a host of others.
Rare out-of-print comics stories by me and Bryan Talbot, by me and Mark Buckingham, even by me and Bryan Talbot and Mark Buckingham.
There would be small-press short story & suchlike collections like ANGELS AND VISITATIONS and the LITTLE GOLD BOOK OF GHASTLY STUFF containing stories that went on to win awards and be collected in the more big, official collections (Smoke and Mirrors, etc), and stories no-one has seen since, not to mention non-fiction articles, like the one about the effects of alcohol on a writer, or the one where I stayed out for 24 hours on the streets of Soho, that are now only whispered in rumours.
There would even be a short story of mine, “Manuscript Found in a Milk Bottle”, published in 1985, that is so bad I’ve never let it be reprinted. Not even to give young writers hope that if I was that awful once, there is hope for all of them.
(8) I need hardly tell you what the Han Solo mini-fridge is a reference to, although this post on Yahoo! Games drops a heavy hint —
The refrigerator’s design references, of course, the state that the hero is left in at the end of The Empire Strikes Back. Wal-Mart notes that your hibernating Solo fridge is an “official” Star Wars product, and can hold up to six cans of soda.
That silly thing could wind up on my Christmas list….
(9) Rocket Stack Rank (RSR) aims to help casual SF fans efficiently identify, obtain, and discuss great original short fiction to nominate for the annual Hugo Awards.
“My husband and I have created a new website to make it easy for people to find good SF short stories and figure out how to read them online,” explains Gregory Hullender. “Lots of people are setting up sites to recommend stories, but I think we’re the only ones to put a lot of work into helping people find online copies once they’ve decided they wanted to read a particular story.”
Here’s what they’re planning to do.
After witnessing the problems with this year’s Hugo Awards, we decided to create a website to encourage readers of science fiction and fantasy to read and nominate more short fiction. Lots of other people are doing this too, but we specifically wanted to tackle the problem of helping people get copies of short stories, novelettes, and novellas once they decided they wanted to read them.
The three big professional magazines, Analog, Asimov’s, and F&SF are all available online by subscription, but they don’t make it easy to get back-issues online. Our 2015 Magazines page covers just about every possible way to do this, and there are good strategies for people with tablets and smartphones, people with eReaders like Kindles and Kobos, people who want to read everything on their desktop or laptop, and even people who want to stick with print.
Our rating system, on a scale from one to five stars, aims to produce a small “bucket” of five-star stories by the end of the year. These are the stories we think are award-worthy, and there should be few enough of them that a person with limited time could read just that subset and find things worth nominating. Since we’re trying to apply fixed standards rather than hit a particular target, we’re not sure how many there will be in each category, but it won’t be more than a dozen or so.
(10) You can tell Fred Kiesche is Paul Weimer’s friend.
https://twitter.com/FredKiesche/status/644968628295741441
(11) This Screaming Marmot loop needs an caption from File 770 readers. (Via Boing Boing.)
[Thanks to Daniel Monson, Will R., Susan de Guardiola, Gary Farber, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Shambles.]
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@Maximillian
I’ll second the recommendation for Elizabeth Moon’s work, and Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky.
I also have some recommendations that haven’t been made yet:
H Paul Honsinger’s Man of War series
To Honor you Call Us
For Honor We Stand
Brothers in Valor
Space opera about a young officer taking command of a destroyer in the middle of a major war. The relationship between the two main characters is knowingly modeled on Aubrey&Maturin, but the plot is distinct. Originally self published but later picked up by 47North and re edited.
Walter Jon Williams, Dread Empire’s Fall
Praxis
The Sundering
The Conventions of War
With the death of the last member of the founding race of the galactic Empire, a major civil war breaks out. Contains massive space battles, political maneuvering, and guerilla warfare in a multi species empire with extremely rigid class distinctions and top down control, which makes you wonder if it is really worth saving.
David J Williams, Autumn Rain Trilogy
The Mirrored Heavens
The Burning Skies
The Machinery of Light
Like a summer blockbuster, the action comes so fast and furious you go shooting right past the plotholes and never have time to check your suspension of disbelief.
So I have spent the last few days reading Midnight Riot instead of File 770 comments. Can you someone point me at the last few brackets? Is Rivers of London still hanging in there?
Hey, just thought of a few more books for Maximillian…
S.K. Dunstall, Linesman – Not as milSF as the rest of my suggestions, but highly recommended.
Terry Mixon, Empire of Bones
Shane van Aulen, Log of the Gray Wolf
Eric Thomson, No Honor in Death
Richard Turner, First Strike
Bill Robinson, Yorktown
Peter Grant, Take the Star Road
Evan Currie, Odyssey One series and On Silver Wings series
Nathan Lowell, Solar Clipper series
G.S. Jennsen, Aurora Rising series
Two collections of self published authors that will let you check out a bunch of scifi cheaply
Stars & Empire: 10 Galactic Tales (Stars & Empire Box Set Collection)
Stars & Empire 2: 10 More Galactic Tales (Stars & Empire Box Set Collection)
Regarding the marmot…
“After his tenth attempt to explain E Pluribus Hugo to MGC commentators, Quentin discovered that all thinking mammals have their limits.”
I can second the recommendation for Ian Douglas’ space opera work. You do have to ignore a fair bit of European Cheese eating surrender monkey characterisation, where left wing politicians try to prevent individualist Marine heroes possessed of the right stuff, doing the right thing, Otherwise, the fast pace and reasonably inventive storylines are good brain candy. Not deep, but gee the sparkles and shiny stuff can be cool and diverting.
@Ken It’s easy enough to ignore, says this cheese-eating European surrender monkey. He doesn’t like journalists much, either, so I have another trope to ignore 🙂
(And I go off to buy more cheese, as I am out. Ah, the joy that is Little Waitrose.)
Q. What do you put in a carbonite fridge?
A. Cans of Solo
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQd9tKMAuFsSD_zLBg85JhriEPxrHp30rv8xI8T3srvd7noSMTb
That’s just A Random Otter they show up everywhere, shrieking incoherently. The legend claims that a random otter can be summoned by saying GamerGate five times while using twitter.
ETA: That marmot seems real angry that someone put a wheel clamp on his tank.
@Maximilian Daedalus Incident & sequels perhaps?
It can’t get more swash-bucklingly cheesy, I’d say.
This is the mini-fridge you’re looking for:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/1caf/
@Laura
I thought you were going for this one with that joke: https://youtu.be/feK24jVRiio?t=2m24s
While the minifridge is cool, how about decals you could stick on the front of your full size fridge?
@Hypnotosov
Oh, that would have been good!
But, no, I just thought that ThinkGeek Han Solo fridge was better…bigger and it lights up!
@MDW
The brackets list linked in the banner isn’t quite up to date but the most recent results are here; Midnight Riot/Rivers of London won pair 10.
I was also going to mention the WJW trilogy. There is also a novella “Investments” (which does not, however, include space navies) and another will appear at Tor.com next year. He also recently announced the sale of a follow-up trilogy with the first book scheduled for 2018.
@Tintinaus
Here ya go:
http://www.rmwrapsstore.com/products/han-solo-carbonite-star-wars-refrigerator-wrap-sticker-gray-black
Maximilian, I hope this helps.
I can’t believe I’ve never heard of Improbable Research or the Ig Nobel Prizes before. (Lucky 10,000!) I love the whole thing already.
It’s not the primary focus, but C.J. Cherryh’s Downbelow Station has its fair share of naval combat, as do a few of the other Union/Alliance books — Tripoint and maybe Merchanter’s Luck in particular spring to mind.
@JoeH
Not to mention the Chanur novels. Some very interesting naval battles in those.
Any thoughts on the Uphoff uptick? Is this something that is applicable to all Indie authors, or purelyan effect of the recent kerfuffle?
And if the latter, I suppose there’s a lesson in that too (and it’s not pick a fight!).
I’d second a lot of the space navy stories already mentioned. Some more ( though not necessarily Horatio Hornblower in space):
The Reality Dysfunction series by Peter F. Hamilton
More an epic space opera than MilSF but has a fair number of space battles. It has some degree of silliness: the dead return to possess the living IS the central plot! It hooked me though and held me through multiple door stopping volumes. It didn’t quite stick the landing but was a lot of fun along the way. This and the Greg Mandel series are Hamilton at his best.
The Artifact by W. Michael Gear
Libertarian Freemasons in SPAAACE! An extended chase across the stars as a ship full of diplomats voyages to decide the fate of the ultimate power offered by an alien artifact.
Hellburner by CJ Cherryh
Politics and mystery in the heart of a warship test program.
Nightrider by David Mace
HAL 9000 meets MilSF. Dark and claustrophobic would be the best description. It’s also probably closer to the real physics of space combat than anything else I’ve read. It’s obscure and long out of print but that should make for cheap used paperbacks.
Voyage of the Star Wolf by David Gerrold
Light and fun though not a straight up comedy. WW2 in SPAAACE! The crew of a starship try to survive and then redeem themselves after being the only survivors of a massive ambush. Loved this book though the sequels didn’t measure up. It’s a standalone though so there isn’t a commitment to those.
While more space opera than milsf in nature, the Sherwood Smith/Dave Trowbridge Exordium saga is flush with space battles varying in scope from ship-to-ship duels to full blown fleet-against-fleet actions. Plus the new, updated, revised e-editions now include more dogs.
I think Uphoff’s piece simply reinforces the issue that just about any newly published author faces: that of marketing.
In the old days, publishers did two main jobs: selecting authors/books to publish, and putting those books in front of as many people as possible. But with self-publishing and with the rise of e-bookstores, the authors are pressured (or forced) to take on a lot more of the marketing on their shoulders.
(An exception here: Baen, since they managed to successfully brand their own e-bookstore.)
So any decently successful marketing push can help an author a lot, and banding together is one useful way of doing that. Note: a sale is not a marketing push, but it can be an integral part of one.
I enjoyed Lumpkin’s The Reach series.
Hypnotosov: Any thoughts on the Uphoff uptick?
The “Uphoff uptick” is largely illusory. The increase on the chart is for a 12-day period during which Cedar’s blog promoting her books is getting hits (what the Pups refer to as “book bombs”, where they promote the hell out of, and buy or rent, each others’ books), and at the end of that, the “uptick” is waning.
The vertical scale is not books sold, it’s number of pages read through the Kindle Unlimited program, for which the author gets a bare pittance.
I mean, I’m sure she’s seeing a huge improvement over what she’d been doing before. But that’s a relative improvement. It’s comparable to someone who’d been selling an average of .0001 books a day suddenly selling .01 books a day.
Just went looking for the above mentioned “Investments” by Walter Jon Williams. Second on the “people who bought this also bought…” list on amazon.co.uk, Theo Pratt and “John Scalzi is not a very popular author…”
I just read Seveneves. It was thought-provoking enough to drive me crazy over the past few days:
Gur ortvaavat jnf snagnfgvp. Gur zbba’f qvfnfgre, gur gvpxvat pybpx ba uhznavgl, gur crefcrpgvir bs gur funzryrffyl genafcnerag Arvy Qrtenffr Glfba pybar – nyy frg hc fb cresrpgyl gung V unccvyl fxvzzrq gur vasbqhzcf nobhg fcnpr qrfvta, naq ebobgf (abg zl guvat; V jnf bxnl gnxvat gur nhgube ba snvgu gung vg nyy jbexrq).
Nsgre fbzr rneyl ohzcf (bxnl, vs vg VF cbffvoyr sbe uhznavgl gb fheivir haqretebhaq, lbh jbhyq guvax tbireazrag fpvragvfgf jbhyq unir abgvprq gur snpg naq znqr zhpu orggre haqretebhaq ohaxref sbe fheiviny guna gurl pbhyq unir cebivqrq VFF?) zl erny snyyvat-bhg jvgu guvf abiry ortna nsgre gur Uneq Enva ba Rnegu naq gur zhgval bs gur Fjnez. Guvf erdhverq rirelbar yrsg nyvir gb npg yvxr pbzcyrgr vqvbgf. Abg whfg Cerfvqrag Whyvn (gur Uvyynel pybar) naq ure sevtugrarq chccrgf; gur Qrfvtangrq Tbbq Thl fpvragvfg urebf bs gur cybg nf jryy. (V gubhtug ng svefg guvf jnf fhccbfrq gb or na rssrpg bs gurve pbyyrpgvir orernirzrag, ohg nsgre ernqvat zhpu vasbqhzc nobhg gur qrfcrengr grpuabybtvpny srngf gur Tbbq Thlf jrer nppbzcyvfuvat va gung gvzr, V qrpvqrq gurl unir ab rkphfr. Gurl jrer jvyyshyyl orvat vqvbgf.)
Gur jnl guvatf tb crne-funcrq frrzf hayvxryl. Qrfvtangrq Onq Thl Whyvn gur UEPP rfpncrf sebz Rnegu. Fur unq ibjrq gb fgnl ng ure cbfg gb gur raq – n ibj gung nyy jbeyq yrnqref xrcg rkprcg ure. Fur oebxr gung ibj naq syrq gb gur VFF nsgre univat beqrerq n ahpyrne nggnpx gur Qrfvtangrq Tbbq Thlf oryvrirq haarprffnel. Jura fur neevirf, gurl qvfthfgrqyl pbafvta ure gb gur Nexf, jurer fur fjvsgyl tnguref znal jvyyvat sbyybjref. Guvf frrzf haoryvrinoyr. Nyy gubfr orernirq fheivibef yrsg snzvyl oruvaq jub ner qrnq. Guvf jbzna oebxr ure fbyrza cebzvfr naq syrq gb fnir ure bja yvsr nsgre yrnivat ure uhfonaq naq qnhtugre qrnq oruvaq ure, nf jryy nf beqrevat n ahpyrne nggnpx gung n ynetr cebcbegvba bs gur fheivibef jbhyq unir qvfnccebirq bs. Fur fgbyr gur cynpr bs n crefba jub PBHYQ unir fheivirq gur ncbpnylcfr – n crefba gung pbhyq unir orra n sevraq be snzvyl bs gur bgure fheivibef. VZB, gur Nexvrf jbhyq unir fgehat ure hc ol gur guhzof, abg orpbzr ure nqbevat npbylgrf. V pbhyq abg oryvrir va gur yriry bs punevfzn erdhverq sbe ure gb birepbzr gung vavgvny ubfgvyvgl (n punevfzn pregnvayl abg pbairlrq va gur qrcvpgvba bs gur punenpgre).
Ohg bapr pbasebagrq jvgu gur snpg gung Whyvn UNF gung fhcreangheny punevfzn, gur Qrfvtangrq Tbbq Thlf – qb abguvat. Qbbo gur AQGP frrf gur qnatre bs ure naq ure sbyybjref npgvat ba gurve vyy-vasbezrq srnef, ohg ur erfbyhgryl enzf uvf urnq hc uvf nff nobhg vg. Ur cevffvyl ershfrf gb fcrnx crefbanyyl gb ure naq ure sbyybjref, rira gubhtu gur bayl ernfba ur’f BA gur VFF ng nyy vf gb freir nf n yvnvfba orgjrra gur fpvragvfgf naq gur aba-fpvragvfgf, gb vasbez gur frpbaq tebhc naq nyynl gurve srnef. Whyvn naq ure sbyybjref ner n qnatre gb nyy. GNYX gb gurz, vawrpg fbzr ernfba vagb gurve srnef, znxr Whyvn srry vzcbegnag naq vapyhqrq vs gung’f jung’f erdhverq gb nireg gur vzzrqvngr pevfvf. Uryy, fghql ure Punevfzn Fhcrecbjre jvgu FPVRAPR!, yrnea gb jrncbavmr vg va tnfrbhf sbez, naq hfr vg gb ghea natel evbgf vagb betvrf – vg pregnvayl frrzf fgebat rabhtu. Ohg Qbbo znxrf ab rssbeg gb artbgvngr, naq gur pevfvf fcvenyf vagb n qvfnfgre.
Rneyvre, gur fpvragvfgf zbpx gur tbireazrag sbe ‘ershfvat gb artbgvngr jvgu greebevfgf’ qrfcvgr univat ab tbbq ernfba abg gb ol gura. Ohg gurl raq hc qbvat cerpvfryl gur fnzr guvat. Qbbo nfxf creshapgbevyl jurgure Whyvn vf gnxvat nqinagntr bs erny tevrinaprf nzbat gur Nex cbchyngvba be jurgure fur vf vairagvat tevrinaprf gb trg zber sbyybjref. Nabgure VFF zrzore oehfurf guvf bss nf havzcbegnag. “Jub pnerf? Fur’f znxvat gebhoyr!” Gur dhrfgvba vf arire oebhtug hc ntnva. Ohg jura V ybbx ng gur snpg gung nyzbfg unys bs gur Nexf qb abg sbyybj Whyvn ohg fgnl snvgushyyl jvgu gur VFF fpvragvfgf guebhtubhg – naq bs nyy gubfr Nex crbcyr bayl BAR fheivirf – V qb trg gur vzcerffvba gung Whyvn naq ure sbyybjref zvtug unir unq n ovg bs n cbvag va oryvrivat gur VFF fpvragvfgf unq ab vagrerfg va urycvat gur Nex cbchyngvba fheivir. Naq VZB, vg frrzf gb or vzcyvrq va gur abiry gung gur Nex cbchyngvba unf gur fnzr ebyr nf gur uhzna trargvp fnzcyrf frag hc sebz Rnegu – gung gurl ner na haarprffnel zvyyfgbar fyhat nebhaq gur Tbbq Thl fpvragvfgf’ arpx sbe fghcvq fragvzragny ernfbaf gung gur Tbbq Thlf ner orggre bss jvgubhg. Guvf znl abg or gur vagragvba bs gur nhgube, ohg jura ur ershfrf gb qenj gur Nex punenpgref jvgu nal fbeg bs qrcgu nf pbzcnerq gb uvf VFF fpvragvfg fgnss, bar pna’g uryc ohg srry ur’f cynlvat snibevgrf.
Gur ynfg fgenj sbe zr jnf gur rcvybthr bs gur svefg gjb-guveqf bs gur obbx, jvgu gur fcyvggvat bs gur enprf. V’z ab fpvragvfg, ohg NSNVX gur ribyhgvba bs enprf bppheerq orpnhfr cbchyngvbaf eryngviryl vfbyngrq sebz rnpu bgure ng terng qvfgnaprf tenqhnyyl qviretrq trargvpnyyl. Gur vqrn gung gurfr rvtug jbzra naq gurve vzzrqvngr qrfpraqnagf -jub ner nyy yvivat va n gval fcnpr sbe uhaqerqf bs lrnef – znantr gb xrrc gurve bja frcnengr oybbqyvarf fb cher nf gb riraghnyyl perngr naq znvagnva rvtug frcnengr enpvny vqragvgvrf va gung gval fcnpr fgergpurf perqhyvgl (gb chg vg zvyqyl).
Vzntvavat vg erdhverf gung bar npprcgf gung nyy rvtug Rirf pbyyhqr gb cnff ba gurve bevtva fgbel gb gurve qrfpraqnagf jura gubfr puvyqera jrer lbhat rabhtu naq vzcerffvbanoyr rabhtu gb or vaphypngrq. Gurl raq hc pneelvat ba gurve naprfgbef’ srhq sbe zvyyravn (n srhq ng yrnfg cnegvnyyl onfrq ba gur crggl bssrafr Qvanu gnxrf ng Pnzvyn sbe fnlvat gung oerrqvat sbe rkprffvir ntterffvba jbhyq or n onq vqrn va gur gval pbasvarf bs gur yhane onfr. Qvanu gnxrf guvf nf n fubg ng ure urebvp yngr oblsevraq sbe fpnag ernfba, naq nccneragyl ubyqf ba gb guvf tehqtr, Zrna Tveyf-fglyr, gb gur rkgrag bs pybfvat enaxf jvgu ure pber tebhc bs sevraqf naq fuhggvat bhg Pnzvyn gb nyvta jvgu Nvqn gur penmrq xvyyre be ab bar va ure bja yvsrgvzr, naq cbfguhzbhfyl crecrghngvat gur tehqtr sbe svir gubhfnaq lrnef).
Gur Rirf pubbfr gb chefhr gurfr iraqrggnf naq gb unaq gurz qbja gb gurve puvyqera gb chefhr, cerggl zhpu vagnpg. Gurl grnpu gurve qrfpraqnagf gb frqhybhfyl ubyq ncneg sebz rnpu bgure naq whqtr rnpu bgure’f qrfpraqnagf ol gur fgnaqneqf bs gur Rirf’ rkcrevrapr. Gurl gnhtug gurve puvyqera gb fjnyybj jubyr gur zrffntr gung Ovbybtl vf Qrfgval, gung lbh NER gur puvyq be gur tenaqpuvyq be gur terng-tenaqpuvyq bs gur Ureb, be gur Qhgvshy Pbzznaqre, be gur Pba Negvfg, be gur Zheqrere – naq vg znggref. Vg znggref FB zhpu gung gubfr puvyqera jrer vaqbpgevangrq rneyl rabhtu gb vasyhrapr jub gurl jbhyq or nggenpgrq gb naq jub jbhyq or gurve pubvpr bs zngrf jbhyq or, fb gung gurve puvyqera naq puvyqera’f puvyqera raqrq hc zngvat nyzbfg rkpyhfviryl jvgu gurve bja arne-fvoyvatf – guhf svthengviryl naq yvgrenyyl shpxvat gurzfryirf.
Guhf gur Rirf znantr gur srng bs raqvat hc jvgu rvtug frcnengr enprf jvguva gur gval pbasvarf bs gur yhane onfr…rvtug frcnengr enprf gung rnpu ubyq ba gb fgrerbglcrf naq cerwhqvprf nobhg gur bguref naq sbvfg erfcbafvovyvgl sbe gurve naprfgbef’ npgvbaf hasnveyl bagb gur qrfpraqnagf. Fb fhpprffshy ner gur Rirf va crecrghngvat gurve srhq gung gurve qrfpraqnagf znvagnva gurve cerwhqvprf vagnpg sbe svir gubhfnaq lrnef, znvagnvavat frcnengr enpvny chevgl qrfcvgr orvat pebjqrq sbe praghevrf va bar gval fcnpr gbtrgure.
Gb znantr guvf frrzf gb or fhpu n fhcreuhzna srng bs fbpvbybtvpny travhf gung V fvzcyl pna’g svaq vg oryvrinoyr…naq vg’f qbar sbe n checbfr bs fhpu jvyyshy znyvta fghcvqvgl gung V pna’g oryvrir gung n fbpvrgl fb ohvyg pbhyq fheivir praghevrf bs pybfr pbasvarzrag haqre crecrghny uneqfuvc naq qnatre ba n yhane onfr…naq jura vg qbrf fheivir va gur fgbel V pna’g trg bire gur hapunevgnoyr srryvat gung vg qbrfa’g qrfreir gb. Juvpu anghenyyl ehvarq gur ynfg unys bs gur fgbel sbe zr.
V guvax gur snvyher, sbe zr, unf gb qb jvgu nhgube’f snvyher bs vzntvangvba ertneqvat uvf bja punenpgref. Ur qbrfa’g ernyyl rzcnguvmr jvgu nalbar ohg uvf Qrfvtangrq Tbbq Thlf (n pngrtbel juvpu rkpyhqrf abg bayl Whyvn naq Nvqn, ohg rira Pnzvyn, jub vf na nyzbfg pbzcyrgr abaragvgl).
With Janis Ian, it’s of course worth noting why they were all up there:
– The wedding took place in Toronto on August 27th, 2003.
– Torcon 3, the 61st Worldcon, took place in Toronto from August 28th to September 1st; George R. R. Martin was Writer Guest of Honour. (And our esteemed host was fan GoH; unfortunately Frank Kelly Freas, the Artist GoH, couldn’t make it for health reasons.)
@Stoic Cynic
Okay, you’ve just sold me on the Gear novel. I’m a Freemason myself and it’s always surprised me how rarely the fraternity shows up in F&SF.
Hamilton’s Reality Dysfunction series is strange but I liked it. He’s good at keeping the plot moving, and I enjoyed the horror elements, with the dead possessing the living. There was also a weird teeny-perv vibe to it that was just bizarre, but it didn’t bother me enough to knock me out of the series. I’d also recommend his Commonwealth Saga (which may be the Greg Mandel series).
Also seconding CJ Cherryh, though I haven’t read enough of her work. I read the aforementioned “Merchanter’s Luck” along with “40,000 in Gehennah” in an omnibus collection. The first is reminiscent of some of the early Miles stuff by Bujold, but a little darker from what I remember. The second is mostly stuck deep in a gravity well and deals with alien cultures (one of Cherryh’s strong points). Also “Downbelow Station”.
And there’s another book I read a long while back that I can’t remember at all now, an epic space opera with a central plot, IIRC, that the two opposing commanders were in love, or something. I remember whatever the back blurb was did not appeal to me, but I loved the book. I can’t figure out the title at the moment, or even the author (and reading through lists came up blank), but I’ll try to figure it out later. I need to go do some stuff before I get in trouble.
@Kathodus
That sounds very much like In Conquest Born, which was C. S. Friedman’s debut novel if I’m not mistaken.
I was also going to mention the WJW trilogy. There is also a novella “Investments” (which does not, however, include space navies) and another will appear at Tor.com next year. He also recently announced the sale of a follow-up trilogy with the first book scheduled for 2018.
I knew about “Investments” but not the new books, cool!
@Kathodus, Jon F Ziegler
I recently reread In Conquest Born. Love is not exactly how I would describe those two.
Space navies – I guess you could also include the Evergence trilogy written by Sean Williams and Shane Dix. Most of the action isn’t naval battles but it is a readable space opera.
Susan Matthews’s Jurisdiction series also has a bit of naval action. Although the main protagonist is a torturer and the first few books are grim indeed.
However if you want Hornblower-like fiction in space then you can always try and find A Bertram Chandler’s Rim World stories. Although I doubt very much whether they are in print, or even available in ebook form.
@Maximilian And for OLD MilSF — Gordon R. Dickson’s Tactics of Mistake…
@andyl
Baen Books has reprinted all of the A. Bertram Chandler Rim Worlds series, along with some of his other stories – they’re available as ebooks from Amazon.
(This is one of the things I’ve been very happy with Baen for: they’ve been reprinting a lot of classics that are otherwise unavailable. Almost all of Poul Anderson’s van Rijn/Falkayn/Flandry stories are in print as a result, for example.)
Catherine Asaro’s Primary Inversion, maybe?
PFH has a couple of main traits:
1) Long-lost Essex village in space – a sort of bucolic imaginary England
2) Young female character in love/lust with much older, more powerful man who is a total d-bag – the teeny-perv mentioned above
3) Total failure to stick any ending in any novel, apart from the Greg Mandel ones.
Fortunately, there are usually 2,000 pages before the deus ex machina ending, then I forget the frustration and read the next one
Read Neal Asher’s Polity series instead.
My father served for 35 years in the RAF, was aircrew, flew in the Battle of Britain, and so on; all combat aircrew are certifiable* by comparison with normal human beings, but I find CJ Cherryh’s books to get a lot closer than everything else I have read.
‘HellBurner’ does have politics and intrigue, of course, but it’s also about the mindsets of successful aircrew; one of its great strengths is the total absence of people making speeches at each other, whether it’s a routine mission or combat itself. I have despatched a lot of milSF back to whence it came as soon as I encountered oratory on the flight deck, because it’s incredibly hard to get it right; I salute Signy Mallory talking to her crew at a vital point in Downbelow Station because CJ nailed it.
I find the weapons porn approach to MilSF innately unconvincing; if it’s your job to make sure a missile goes bang when it’s supposed to, and not otherwise, you don’t sit around talking about the specifications to other crew members. You discuss football or racing or whatever, and if something goes wrong you’re busy trying to fix it so you still don’t talk about the specifications; there might be cryptic muttering to other techs, and certainly bad language, but no weapons porn.
In the UK the tradition is that aircrew are expected to shoot lines of the ‘there I was, upside down, nothing on the clock but the maker’s name’ variety in the bar, but it’s not the done thing to boast about the really terrifying bits – for example, dissuading a missile which is trying to go bang when it’s not supposed to – since dealing with the really terrifying bits is what you are paid to do.
HellBurner is also an interesting dissection of human v. AI as pilots/munitions specialists etc. I am about to get stuck into Nick Bostrom’s Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies which may change my opinions; I think I need to read it to get a feel for stuff which is being written now….
* My father volunteered as a rear gunner in a plane designed so that the rear gunner could not wear a parachute. Theoretically the parachute was attached to the seat but in practise it didn’t work very well.
Yes! In Conquest Born. The vile hive mind does not disappoint. I barely recollect the book now, but remember still enjoying it when I reread it some time ago.
I remember enjoying Primary Inversion, but I eventually bounced off Asaro because of what seemed to me like too much emphasis on romance.
Also, love the Asher Polity stuff.
And let’s not overlook The Star Smasher himself, Edmund Hamilton. I don’t know how easy it is to track them down, but his books formed my idea of Space Opera forever. Especially the Star Wolves series and Battle for the Stars, which was published as YA in Italy.
Weimer? Weimer? Never heard of him!
Jeff Patterson has not only met me, we’ve been on epic quests to visit an Ogre and more.
And clicky, dammit.
Edmond Hamilton and Leigh Brackett both had massive bundles of eBooks on Baen’s eBook site. Very good prices, multiple formats, and no DRM.
Half a dozen of Hamilton’s books and a couple by Brackett are available on Project Gutenberg, too.
@Jon F. Zeigler:
Heh heh. You said Rim World!
@Jim Henley
Pffft. One of my RPG books is titled Rim of Fire. I picked the title myself and have never heard the end of it since. I am therefore immune to jokes of that form.
To clarify, when I said “teeny-perv” I didn’t mean teenage pervert, but teeny-bopper style perviness on the author’s part.
Oh, also, Marrow and others in that world, by Robert Reed, is excellent.
Re: vintage space opera, there’s also C. L. Moore’s Northwest Smith stories (especially Shambleau).
Maximilion: I’ve not read ahead to see if anyone else has said it yet, but if you want LESS angst do NOT read Feintuch’s Midshipman’s Hope and sequels. They’re pure, refined angst.
@Jon F. Zeigler:
I think we need a space-opera series set on the [Something] Rim where the characters in the books are constantly making rimming jokes.
“I don’t care whether it makes sense to abandon the sector. I won’t do it. I’m a Rimmer myself – a born Rimmer!”
Situation Room explodes with poorly stifled laughter.