Pixel Scroll 9/29 What Color is Your Parvo Shot?

(1) Today’s birthdays —

1547 – Miguel de Cervantes, author of that famous tome about the old windmill tilter

1942 – Madeline Kahn, a signature comedic actress of the 1970s, who appeared in Paper Moon, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety and many more films.

(2) The 30th anniversary of Back To The Future means a new chance to sell a Blu-ray release, and to help market it Christopher Lloyd is back in character as Doc Brown in an exclusive short video. Go to the link to watch a new trailer.

Lloyd has donned his lab coat and white wig once again to play the mad scientist in a brand new original short film ‘Doc Brown Saves The World!’ that’s being exclusively released in the ‘Back To The Future 30th Anniversary Trilogy’ box set on 5 October.

Little is known about the plot of the new short story, but we can see that the famous time-travelling DeLorean DMC-12 will feature heavily. The new box set will also gather the trilogy of time-travel comedies starring Michael J Fox. the entire ‘Back To The Future: The Animated Series’, plus hours of bonus content all together for the first time.

(3) Jamie Todd Rubin has already done the groundwork for one source of 1941 Retro Hugo nominees.

As he explains in “The Retro Hugo Awards for 1941 at MidAmeriCon II”

Next summer at MidAmeriCon II–the 74th World Science Fiction Convention–among the awards given out will be the Retro Hugo awards for 1941. The award will cover stories published in 1940. I have a particular interest in this award because a few years ago, when I was taking my Vacation in the Golden Age, I read, and wrote about, every story that appeared in Astounding Science Fiction from July 1939 – November 1942. That means that I read and commented on every story that appeared in 1940 issue of Astounding.

Rubin lists his favorite stories from the 1940 issues of ASF:

  1. “Final Blackout” by L. Ron Hubbard1 (April, May, June 1940)
  2. “Requiem” by Robert A. Heinlein (January 1940)
  3. “Cold” by Nat Schachner (March 1940)
  4. “The Stars Look Down” by Lester Del Rey (August 1940)
  5. “The Mosaic” by J. B. Ryan (July 1940)
  6. “If This Goes On–” by Robert A. Heinlein (February 1940)
  7. “Butyl and the Breather” by Theodore Sturgeon (October 1940)
  8. “Fog” by Robert Willey2 (December 1940)
  9. “One Was Stubborn” by Rene La Fayette3 (November 1940)

(4) British Eastercon attendees are invited to help decide the con’s future by completing a questionnaire. (For more info about the process, read the FAQ.)

We’re hoping that a wide variety of people will be filling in this questionnaire, so we start by asking what you know about Eastercon, and why people go to Eastercons. Then what you think works or doesn’t work, and whether you have any suggestions for improvement. Then about issues, and some suggestions people have already made to deal with them. Finally, we’ll ask whether you would like us to keep in touch, and because no matter how hard we try we can’t capture everything, you have the opportunity for a final comment.The results will be published on our website, and discussed both at Novacon and at next year’s Eastercon. You do not have to provide any personal details unless you want to, and if you do your participation will be kept strictly confidential.

We hope this will take you no more than about 15 to 20 minutes to complete. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

To fill it out, visit: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ndMn5Soj0FHE4Gkj-XjUbVgFM9w8Ma5PvgvND9g8WZE/viewform?c=0&w=1&usp=mail_form_link

(5) A new Rick Riordan series – my daughter has already announced she is waiting for the minutes to tick past so she can buy the Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Sword of Summer. Bibliofiend has an exclusiveread the first five chapter free. [PDF file]

(6) The 2015 MacArthur Genius Awards are out. Better check and see if your name is there.

(7) Europa SF reports the winners of the 16th Swedish Fantastic Short Story Contest. Article (and where needed, translation to English) by Ahrvid Engholm.

The Fantastic Short Story Competion (“Fantastiknovelltävlingen“, in Swedish) has been running yearly since the year 2000, and is dedicated to stories of science fiction, fantasy and horror. It is probably Sweden’s oldest at present; at least one short story contest that used to be older has folded.

This year the contest received 117 entries, and the jury decided to distribute the prize money of 2000 Swedish crowns (just under €200) to the following three winners. Titles given in Swedish with English translations and some comments from the jury are added:

First prize: “Bläcklingar” (“Inklings”) by Fredrik Stennek. “A fine tale in the succession of HC Andersen… A portrait of a society collapsing under censorship and oppression…but humour and longing for freedom is bigger. It raises questions of freedom of the press and freedom of opinion“.

Second prize: “Hon” (“She”) by Eva Ullerud. “A wonderfully creepy story… When the threat is close, really close, it easily becomes invisible, but even creepier.”

Third prize: “Götheborg” (“Gothenburg”) by Dennis Jacobsson. “An alternate history explaining why the ship Götheborg went under in the 1700’s. The atmosphere is as thick as the wool in the woolen clothes of the characters, the danger as tangible as the smell of gunpowder on gundeck, and the curiousity of the reader picks up wind.”

Five stories – By Jonas Bengtsson, Emanuel Blume, Lisa Hågensen, Hanna Kristoffersson and Jens Mattsson – also received honourary mentions by the jury, consisting of the sf/f authors Niklas Krog, Pia Lindestrand and Karolina Bjällerstedt Mickos. All stories were judged without author identification.

(8) Lela E. Buis called a story to the attention of select Twitter readers.

Here’s her description of David Levithan’s Every Day.

Every Day was published in 2013 and received the Lambda Award for Best LBGTQ Children’s/Teen Book. It went on to feature on the New York Times Bestseller List. This means my opinion isn’t unusual, either from the literary community or the fan community. However, this book never made a ripple in the SF&F community because SF&F isn’t something Levithan normally writes.

(9) NASA has some thoughts about how difficult it would be to send humans to Mars.

(10) The agency also helped celebrate National Coffee Day.

(11) Kameron Hurley might be overdue for a few convention Guest of Honor invites.

https://twitter.com/KameronHurley/status/648874752631775232

https://twitter.com/KameronHurley/status/648879242730713088

(12) Hurley also tweeted a link which ultimately takes readers to G. Derek Adams’ guest post on This Blog Is A Ploy about how to sell your books in a way that actually sells books, but doesn’t make you feel like a shyster.

(13) Amanda S. Green agrees that she was quote laundering. Too bad she can’t admit that without first strawmanning a false accusation about something I never said.

First of all, I had someone (and I will let you guys guess where they came from) basically accuse me of not having read Scalzi’s post that I referred to in my Saturday blog. The entire basis for this person — as well as the condemnation from the referring blog — seems to be because I didn’t link to the Scalzi post. Instead, I linked to Teleread. Well, let me set the record straight. I did read the original post. I didn’t link to it because I know the readers here on MGC have the ability to google and find the original source if they want to read it. Teleread had excerpted the parts I wanted and I happened to also agree, for the most part, with what Chris Meadows had to say. So, that is what I linked to.

There are basically two reasons why I don’t link to a post. The first is as I stated above. I know our readers here can go find the original if they want to. The second is when I don’t want to send additional traffic their way.

(14) The X-Files is returning as a six-episode event series in 2016. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson will also be back as Mulder and Scully.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]

312 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 9/29 What Color is Your Parvo Shot?

  1. @Kyra: Gah, I can’t vote in this round. Too many great books up against books I am intrigued by. I . . . guess I’m happy I don’t have tough choices? 😉 Sometimes I wonder what amusing titles you’d’ve picked if other pairings had happened, e.g., The Girl With All the Gifts up against Embassytown (if it were up against The Hunger Games, well, that’s probably pretty easy 😉 ).

    @Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little: True Game! Awesome – I loved those books, back in the day, and once in a while I think about re-reading all three trilogies. Are you rereading all 9 books?

    What a bummer – none of them are in audiobook, which would be a nice way to re-read them. And ebooks aren’t available in my area; I’ll pull out the print books at some point (you’ve reminded me I want to re-read them), but I’d buy ebooks in a heartbeat to make it easier to re-read.

    You’ve inspired me to Google, and apparently there’s a trilogy with a third book that crosses over a bit with the True Game series. But the description just sounds kinda silly (an interfering, time-traveling, rule-breaking being pulls them into this other series) . . . nah, I think I’ll skip it.

    @Bitty: And I see you read Fish Tails – good to hear I can skip it!

    @Various: I’ve only ever read Tepper’s True Game series. 😉 Never read all her “message” fic (which, depending on who you talk to, most of her fic is, but I suspect that’s exaggeration in some cases). I’m not really interested in her other work, but I probably should try something like Grass at some point.

    /not-checking-the-box-but-I’ll-be-back

  2. 21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART THREE:
    OPEN THE BOOKSTORE DOORS, HAL

    1. HIGH TECH AND LOW TECH
    The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein
    Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge
    Because I have to vote for Kirstein, okay?

    2. BY SPACESHIP TO A HOSTILE PLANET
    Anathem, Neal Stephenson
    The Martian, Andy Weir
    Nope

    3. POLITICS
    Farthing, Jo Walton
    Embassytown, China Miéville
    Nope

    4. THE SERIES BEGINS
    The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
    Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey
    Nope

    5. A DIFFERENT VIEW OF THE WORLD
    Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
    The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon
    oh really now
    hand me one of those cloths

    6. SOCIOLOGICAL FICTION
    Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks
    Fledgling, Octavia E. Butler
    Nope

    7. LIFE CHANGES
    The Girl with All the Gifts, M. R. Carey
    Accelerando, Charles Stross
    Nope

    8. IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE
    Passage, Connie Willis
    Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold
    This one is just entirely unreasonable to ask of anyone
    Seriously?
    I made a choice, but I hate everything.

    9. RANK ‘EM
    1. Lock In, John Scalzi
    3. Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer
    2. God’s War, Kameron Hurley

  3. A propos of nothing in particular, sometimes I’m thinking as I read, “I hope the author had fun writing this, because I’m having no fun reading it.”

  4. 1. HIGH TECH AND LOW TECH
    The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein
    Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge

    Tie

    2. BY SPACESHIP TO A HOSTILE PLANET
    Anathem, Neal Stephenson

    3. POLITICS

    4. THE SERIES BEGINS

    5. A DIFFERENT VIEW OF THE WORLD
    Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie

    6. SOCIOLOGICAL FICTION

    7. LIFE CHANGES
    Accelerando, Charles Stross

    Just read Accelerando today!

    8. IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE
    Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold

    I just have to vote for fun over grim.

    9. RANK ‘EM
    1. Lock In, John Scalzi
    2. God’s War, Kameron Hurley

    No vote for Annihilation.

  5. Lucy Kemnitzer: A propos of nothing in particular, sometimes I’m thinking as I read, “I hope the author had fun writing this, because I’m having no fun reading it.”

    I know exactly what you mean. Those are the books where I use my “25% or 100 pages, Whichever Comes First Rule”. By the time I hit the cutoff, if I’m still not really interested in using my precious reading time to finish the book, I say “Okay, I consider myself as having read enough of this book to have an informed opinion”, I tick it off as “Read”, and I’m done.

    I managed to struggle all the way through Skin Game this year, despite a very early appearance of the 8 Deadly Words. The Dark Between the Stars went right back to the library after the cutoff.

    Next year, I’m going to be giving a lot less benefit of the doubt to Puppy nominees. The Puppies had their chance to substantiate the point that really good SFF stories were being neglected. They totally blew it.

  6. 21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART THREE:
    OPEN THE BOOKSTORE DOORS, HAL

    1. HIGH TECH AND LOW TECH
    The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein
    Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge

    3. POLITICS
    Farthing, Jo Walton
    Embassytown, China Miéville

    5. A DIFFERENT VIEW OF THE WORLD
    Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
    The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon

    8. IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE
    Passage, Connie Willis
    Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold

  7. 21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART THREE:
    OPEN THE BOOKSTORE DOORS, HAL

    What Paul Weimer said.

    2. The Martian, Andy Weir

    3. Embassytown, China Miéville

    5. Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie

    6. Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks

    8. Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold

    9. RANK ‘EM
    1 God’s War, Kameron Hurley
    2 Lock In, John Scalzi
    3 Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer

  8. @Hampus

    Oh, thanks! I’ll have to check that out. These books on death are quite interesting, too:
    Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
    Necropolis: London and Its Dead

    I’m sure I’ve got a book specifically about the railway somewhere but I can’t find it… Oh well.

    There’s quite a lot of traditions and myths and tales that I wish would get used more often instead of LotR clone #473237 – although those are comforting to read, too. So much human weirdness and so much of the time most of it never gets used.

  9. Meredith:

    By pure chance, the first of your links listed the book “Stiff” as a recommendation for people who read your linked book. I’ve read Stiff and it is a great book on the cadaver trade, both legal and illegal. The same author also wrote a book called “Bonk” on the evolution of the science about sex. That is also a great book.

    I’ve placed the Necropolis book in my shopping basket.

  10. @Hampus

    Oh goody, another one for the wish list. I don’t object to the volume of fiction recommendations here, but I do like to mix it up with some interesting non-fiction now and then and those books hardly ever get a nod.

  11. the system would know he meant Beverly and not Wesley.

    Was there ever a time when anyone wanted to talk to Wesley?

  12. *joins RedWombat on the “lousy human being side,” with full agreement on everything said about it being “dumbass wish-fulfillment” (but it’s dumb-ass wish fulfillment that totally made my day and year and decade).

    You people absolutely HAVE to track down Andy Hamilton’s Old Harry’s Game, a radio show that made life bearable for me on many a nightly commute and made me cackle evilly more times that I care to admit to. In it all the Popes are in Hell and kept perpetually pregnant.

    Revolting people is also delicious.

  13. 21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART THREE:
    OPEN THE BOOKSTORE DOORS, HAL

    1. HIGH TECH AND LOW TECH
    The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein

    2. BY SPACESHIP TO A HOSTILE PLANET
    Anathem, Neal Stephenson

    3. POLITICS
    Embassytown, China Miéville

    5. A DIFFERENT VIEW OF THE WORLD
    The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon

    6. SOCIOLOGICAL FICTION
    Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks

    7. LIFE CHANGES
    Accelerando, Charles Stross

    8. IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE
    Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold

    9. RANK ‘EM
    1st – Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer
    2nd – God’s War, Kameron Hurley
    3rd – Lock In, John Scalzi

  14. JJ on October 1, 2015 at 12:08 am said:

    Lucy Kemnitzer: A propos of nothing in particular, sometimes I’m thinking as I read, “I hope the author had fun writing this, because I’m having no fun reading it.”

    I know exactly what you mean. Those are the books where I use my “25% or 100 pages, Whichever Comes First Rule”. By the time I hit the cutoff, if I’m still not really interested in using my precious reading time to finish the book, I say “Okay, I consider myself as having read enough of this book to have an informed opinion”, I tick it off as “Read”, and I’m done.

    To me, it’s when I close my Kindle on the tube and think of all the other fun things I can do instead like playing solitaire. Just happened, I am afraid, with The Traitor Baru Cormorant, which I was trying to finish reading after having read half, skipped to the end, and abandoned. I thought maybe having it in electronic format was going to make it easier. Nope. Dammit I really wanted to like this book, because a good friend of mine loved it.

    Also happened to The Long Way To a Small Angry Planet.

  15. Hampus Eckeman on October 1, 2015 at 1:11 am said:

    Meredith:

    By pure chance, the first of your links listed the book “Stiff” as a recommendation for people who read your linked book. I’ve read Stiff and it is a great book on the cadaver trade, both legal and illegal. The same author also wrote a book called “Bonk” on the evolution of the science about sex. That is also a great book.

    I’ve placed the Necropolis book in my shopping basket.

    Stiff by Mary Roach is great and hilarious. I was reading it at Clarion and passed it around to my fellow attendees and it ended up in several stories. 🙂

  16. 1. HIGH TECH AND LOW TECH
    Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge

    2. BY SPACESHIP TO A HOSTILE PLANET
    Anathem, Neal Stephenson

    3. POLITICS
    Embassytown, China Miéville

    4. THE SERIES BEGINS
    Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey

    5. A DIFFERENT VIEW OF THE WORLD
    The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon

    6. SOCIOLOGICAL FICTION
    Fledgling, Octavia E. Butler

    7. LIFE CHANGES
    Accelerando, Charles Stross

    8. IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE
    Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold

    9. RANK ‘EM
    3 Lock In, John Scalzi
    1 Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer
    2 God’s War, Kameron Hurley

  17. 1. HIGH TECH AND LOW TECH
    Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge

    5. A DIFFERENT VIEW OF THE WORLD
    Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie

    6. SOCIOLOGICAL FICTION
    Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks

    7. LIFE CHANGES
    Accelerando, Charles Stross

  18. Meredith,

    At least in the True Game books there isn’t really any disableism. In the last book, Jinian Stareye, there are some severely mentally disabled people who are used as a plot device, which while internally consistant is a bit ham-fisted, but Tepper isn’t being mean about them.

    One of the amazing things about Tepper is her early productivity. A source I checked had her releasing 22 books in her first 7 years. Some of the craft errors people mentioned above may have simply been due to her banging out so much material in a short time frame(At least with this excuse I can blame her editors for not picking them up 😉 ).

    Peter’s stories are the weakest of the TG, but they were her first published and he isn’t that bad really. One thing I have to say is Peter’s mentors have the best excuse for not filling him in on what is going on. There are people who can read minds, so of course they can’t tell him everything! Now if only the mentor of every hero that gets dropped in the deep end because vital info was withheld had that excuse.

  19. You people absolutely HAVE to track down Andy Hamilton’s Old Harry’s Game, a radio show that made life bearable for me on many a nightly commute and made me cackle evilly more times that I care to admit to. In it all the Popes are in Hell and kept perpetually pregnant.

    +1 Anna

    It’s often available on Radio 4 Extra, it looks like they’ve recently run the first series.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007zv7f/episodes/player

    It’s pretty episodic – there’s very little in the first episode which will be lost for not hearing it.

  20. My votes:

    1. The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein
    2. Anathem, Neal Stephenson
    3. Farthing, Jo Walton
    4. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
    5. Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
    7. The Girl with All the Gifts, M. R. Carey
    8. Passage, Connie Willis
    9:
    1. Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer
    2. God’s War, Kameron Hurley

  21. London had the Necropolis Railway to carry corpses and mourners out of the city.

    And The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing have a song about it on their new album.

    Do people know TMTWNBBFN? Perhaps the maddest, best, heavy metal transvestite steampunk band in England today.

  22. London had the Necropolis Railway to carry corpses and mourners out of the city.

    That featured heavily in the third Stross Laundry book, The Fuller Memorandum as a source of necromantic energy.

  23. 21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART THREE:
    OPEN THE BOOKSTORE DOORS, HAL

    1. HIGH TECH AND LOW TECH
    The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein

    2. BY SPACESHIP TO A HOSTILE PLANET
    Anathem, Neal Stephenson

    3. POLITICS
    Embassytown, China Miéville

    5. A DIFFERENT VIEW OF THE WORLD
    Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie

    9. RANK ‘EM
    1. Lock In, John Scalzi
    2. Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer

  24. Put me with RedWombat and the others regarding The Fresco. Aside from thinking I must be some kind of lousy human being to enjoy a little turnabout; I guess I’m not so advanced.

    Tepper has themes in her work that don’t often get addressed in SFF and I suspect they are thus more noticeable, whereas the themes in Guns Are Good And Make Real Men fiction are common to the point of being like water to fish for most readers of that (much larger) niche.

    It also seemed to me that plenty of these situations in Tepper’s work were intentionally written as creepy and disturbing rather than just blithely proceeding on the assumption that this is perfectly okay and obviously nobody with any kind of good sense will mind, which seems to me to be the case with most of the GAGAMRM fiction.

    YMMV of course.

  25. @Meredith

    A third endorsement for Mary Roach. She’s fun, engaging, and a joy to read. And besides: weird niches of science!

    On general non-fiction recs – what do your tastes run to? Mine zig zag all over the place but, judging by linear shelf feet, generically run heavy on history.

    There, if I had to make a single(ish) recommendation, I’d point to The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant. Eleven doorstopper volumes tracing western civilization from ancient Egypt to the Napoleonic wars. What I value about it is a focus on the evolution of art and philosophy rather than kings and queens (and guillotines? Thank you Aerosmith!).

    Too be fair the series doesn’t hit it’s stride until the Renaissance. I’m not sure if that is where the authors found their comfort zone or whether that’s where Ariel really started contributing. Will started it solo but she got more involved as the series went on. Either way there is a definite shift in tone and pace around there. The books don’t necessarily rely on each other and I started around the middle of them myself, got hooked, and went on to read all of them.

    For a single, and I believe older, book by Will Durant – The Story of Philosophy is a good sample. One volume overview covering the history of Philosophy from the pre-Socratics through early 20th century. Then again your mileage may vary. I found my volume on top of a paper recycling bin pile at a friend’s apartment complex. Obviously someone didn’t value it the same way!

    SFnal-wise the Durants get a mention in one of the later Heinlein novels (ich! Oh no, Bob Heinlein, no…)

  26. The Story of Civilization volumes, delightfully, have been coming out as audiobooks recently. Long, long audiobooks (because these ARE doorstoppers) but now you can get your Durant goodness in your ear.

  27. Meredith: So the impression I’m getting is that I should stay far, far away from anything by Tepper because I’m likely to trip over really awful disableism and that sort of thing would just ruin my day. Tepper fans, accurate? Only accurate sometimes? Safe-from-disableism Tepper books?

    I can’t recall which books would be good or bad on ableism, since I tend to get annoyed with overall preachiness and not re-read those books. I know that I love Grass to pieces. The rest of that trilogy is well done, but starts to be a bit heavy-handed with the message. Not enough to ruin the books – I still like them a lot – but I consider it the start of her descent into diatribes. Plague of Angels is also in the era of starting to be too unsubtle, but still being a good book with some interesting ideas. (I love the archetypal villages, for instance.) (I think that’s what they were called; my books are all still in storage until we find a permanent place.)

    I know lots of people love Beauty. In fact, my intro to Tepper was the bookstore guy recommending it to me based on my other tastes. I really disliked it and almost didn’t give her another try, except the next summer I was an intern with no money so I was in the library and saw Grass on the shelf and remembered him saying “I used to recommend Grass but now I recommend Beauty.” So I checked it out on a lark and loved it.

    Beauty has grown on me though. Every few years I give it another try and I like it more. I still don’t love it the way other people do, but I don’t dislike it anymore. (I’m trying to recall – should there be a trigger warning on Beauty?)

    I loved the True Game books. I believe I finally managed to read all of her novels at one point (there’s one listed on Wikipedia that I’m not sure about), but as I mentioned, the only one that I’ve liked in the past 20 years is The Margarets. And I’m starting to think of Fish Tails as Highlander 2 – it doesn’t exist.

  28. @TechGrrl1972

    I forgot I was at IDWCon until Tuesday. Remind me next week in another thread please, as I am frightfully low on time right now.

  29. 21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART THREE:
    OPEN THE BOOKSTORE DOORS, HAL

    1. HIGH TECH AND LOW TECH
    The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein

    Yay Kirstein.

    5. A DIFFERENT VIEW OF THE WORLD
    Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie

    The Moon was good, but Leckie is better (IMHO).

    8. IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE
    Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold

    I didn’t enjoy Passage. I did enjoy DI.

    9. RANK ‘EM
    Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer

    and

    The Best of All Possible Worlds, Karen Lord.
    which was better than anything on the 2014 Hugo novel list except Ancillary Justice. (again IMHO)

  30. I started Fish Tails, and somebody did something very bad to that book. There is literally a duplicated swath from prologue to chapter 2–word for word, looks like somebody screwed up version control, not a section anyone would use for dramatic duplication for effect.

    Now, I have once had an editor accidentally send an old draft to copyedits and thank god we needed illustrations–it wasn’t until they were asking where a bunch of illos were that had been cut from the final that I caught what was happening, so it is possible to get version control screwed up badly. I suspect that may be what happened to the Tepper.

  31. 21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART THREE:
    OPEN THE BOOKSTORE DOORS, HAL
    1. HIGH TECH AND LOW TECH
    The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein

    2. BY SPACESHIP TO A HOSTILE PLANET
    The Martian, Andy Weir
    3. POLITICS
    Abstain
    4. THE SERIES BEGINS
    The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

    5. A DIFFERENT VIEW OF THE WORLD
    Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie

    6. SOCIOLOGICAL FICTION
    Abstain
    7. LIFE CHANGES
    The Girl with All the Gifts, M. R. Carey

    8. IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE
    Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold
    9. RANK ‘EM
    Lock In, John Scalzi – #1
    God’s War – #2
    Annhilation – #3

  32. 21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART THREE:
    OPEN THE BOOKSTORE DOORS, HAL

    2. BY SPACESHIP TO A HOSTILE PLANET
    Anathem, Neal Stephenson

  33. Votes:

    1. Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge

    4. Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey

    5. Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie

    6. Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks

  34. 21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART THREE:
    OPEN THE BOOKSTORE DOORS, HAL

    Where did I miss Part 2? Oh well – will investigate later.

    1. HIGH TECH AND LOW TECH
    Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge

    2. BY SPACESHIP TO A HOSTILE PLANET
    Anathem, Neal Stephenson

    3. POLITICS
    Embassytown, China Miéville

    4. THE SERIES BEGINS
    The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

    5. A DIFFERENT VIEW OF THE WORLD
    Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie

    6. SOCIOLOGICAL FICTION
    Fledgling, Octavia E. Butler

    7. LIFE CHANGES
    The Girl with All the Gifts, M. R. Carey

    8. IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE
    Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold

    9. RANK ‘EM
    Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer

  35. 21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART THREE:
    OPEN THE BOOKSTORE DOORS, HAL

    1. HIGH TECH AND LOW TECH
    Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge

    Best book left in the brackets, IMO. Yes, I was disappointed by the lack of More Cool Aliens, but once I got past that, I realized just how awesome (and funny) this was.

    2. BY SPACESHIP TO A HOSTILE PLANET
    Abstain, haven’t read the Weir.

    3. POLITICS
    Embassytown, China Miéville

    Cheating a bit. I haven’t read that Walton, but I’ve read enough to feel confident that this is the right pick. It’s just too good. 2nd best book left in the brackets.

    4. THE SERIES BEGINS
    Abstain.

    5. A DIFFERENT VIEW OF THE WORLD
    The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon

    Ooh, a very tough call. I did love AJ, and thought it was unquestionably the best book of its year, but the Moon was outstanding as well, and frankly, I’m pretty sure my vote won’t affect the outcome, so call this a sympathy vote. (Otherwise I would have gone for tie.)

    6. SOCIOLOGICAL FICTION
    Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks

    Argh, definitely needed the damp cloths for this one!

    7. LIFE CHANGES
    Still haven’t read the Carey, and I did love the Stross, but not enough to be confident it’s better. Abstain.

    8. IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE
    Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold

    Easy-peasy. A pretty good book against one I barely managed to finish.

    9. RANK ‘EM
    Only read one of the three, so abstain.

  36. This round had one painful, for me, match-up, which I neatly ducked. So there, Kyra! Not that I’m blaming Kyra, exactly. :whistles nonchalantly (but unconvincingly) and wanders off-stage:
    But I see real pain coming.

    21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART THREE:
    OPEN THE BOOKSTORE DOORS, HAL

    1. HIGH TECH AND LOW TECH
    The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein

    2. BY SPACESHIP TO A HOSTILE PLANET
    The Martian, Andy Weir

    3. POLITICS
    Abstain

    4. THE SERIES BEGINS
    Abstain.

    5. A DIFFERENT VIEW OF THE WORLD
    Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie

    I really enjoy Moon’s writing, but Ancillary is a cut above in world-building and uniqueness of the protaganist plus the character’s story arc.

    6. SOCIOLOGICAL FICTION
    Abstain

    7. LIFE CHANGES
    Abstain

    8. IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE
    Passage, Connie Willis
    Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold

    Ouch! NOW two of my faves go head-to-head. Uhm, ehrm…
    TIE
    (or how the psychological dissonance of being unable to choose can be quickly, easily and cheaply removed. Just $9.99 for the relief of your pain!)

    9. RANK ‘EM
    (1) Lock In, John Scalzi

  37. Drat. Out of time, then.

    21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART THREE:
    OPEN THE BOOKSTORE DOORS, HAL

    2. BY SPACESHIP TO A HOSTILE PLANET
    The Martian, Andy Weir

    4. THE SERIES BEGINS
    The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

    5. A DIFFERENT VIEW OF THE WORLD
    Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie

    9. RANK ‘EM
    1. Lock In, John Scalzi

  38. If someone thinks a pile of data on punched cards is so VITALLY IMPORTANT that they ABSOLUTELY MUST find a card reader to extract said data from said cards, they probably think that data is important enough to be worth scanning those cards and working up some form of customized OCR to convert the data’s format from punched cards to something a bit more readily usable.

    Much the same applies to paper tape.

    More generally: To a first approximation, no technology ever really goes away. Instead, its market share drops asymptotically, approaching zero but never quite getting there. So instead of going to TechShack to pick up Obsolete Thing X off the shelf, you end up logging onto the Obsolete Thing X Users Group mailing list…

    The continuing rise of 3D printers has interesting implications for obsolete tech. If whatever-it-is disappeared off the market because its manufacturer made stoopid decisions, rather than because whatever-it-is was outperformed by newer tech, it may be that 3D-printed components will allow people to continue using whatever-it-is in the absence of ‘official’ support. Alas, I am still in 2015, and therefore cannot confirm or deny my speculations on this point.

  39. 21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART THREE:
    OPEN THE BOOKSTORE DOORS, HAL

    The margins are getting razor-thin here as we head towards the end and the choices get harder and harder. This is possibly the closest round yet, overall. In addition to the below, votes were given for Blindsight, River of Gods, First Light, Fortune’s Pawn, and The Best of All Possible Worlds.

    1. HIGH TECH AND LOW TECH
    WINNER: The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein – 16 votes
    Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge – 12 votes
    By only four votes, Kirstein edges out Vinge.

    2. BY SPACESHIP TO A HOSTILE PLANET
    WINNER (seeded): Anathem, Neal Stephenson – 18 votes
    The Martian, Andy Weir – 14 votes
    Again by four votes, the Stephenson wins over the Weir. A movie is not the only measure of success.

    3. POLITICS
    WINNER (tie): Farthing, Jo Walton – 14 votes
    WINNER (tie): Embassytown, China Miéville – 14 votes
    Voters were evenly split between Farthing and Embassytown, and both move on.

    4. THE SERIES BEGINS
    WINNER (seeded): Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey – 20 votes
    The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins – 12 votes
    The biggest win yet is still only eight votes, and Leviathan Wakes moves on.

    5. A DIFFERENT VIEW OF THE WORLD
    WINNER (seeded): Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie – 37 votes
    The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon – 5 votes
    A convincing victory at last, and over a much-loved work. AJ is almost certain to be one of the last few standing.

    6. SOCIOLOGICAL FICTION
    WINNER: Fledgling, Octavia E. Butler – 14 votes
    Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks – 12 votes
    Two votes only mean that Butler just wins over Banks. Vampires still have a toe in the race.

    7. LIFE CHANGES
    WINNER (tie): The Girl with All the Gifts, M. R. Carey – 14 votes
    WINNER (tie): Accelerando, Charles Stross – 14 votes
    Another tie! Both the Carey and the Stross are still in it, and zombies are still in the mix as well.

    8. IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE
    WINNER (seeded): Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold – 23 votes
    Passage, Connie Willis – 11 votes
    Once again a strong victory over a big hitter. Passage reaches double digits, but Bujold remains a bracket titan.

    9. RANK ‘EM
    WINNER (seeded): Lock In, John Scalzi – 16 votes
    Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer – 13 votes
    God’s War, Kameron Hurley – 2 votes
    And albeit just barely, a first round win for Lock In by a three vote margin over Annihilation. God’s War, however, was less behind than it seems here, with by far the most second place votes.

  40. @Lexica: Fantastic post about the attitude of the protagonist in _Family Tree_.
    Going into Rot13 for both discussion of elements in Tepper, and also my own response toyour point.

    The main point you made I’m responding to: still Rot13ed:

    Fbzr jbzra, naq V fcrnx nf bar, qb abg unir n “zngreany vafgvapg” va gung jr srry ab qrfver be hetr gb unir onovrf bs bhe bja* naq Qben znl unir orra bar. Jungrire ure bja fhpu “vafgvapg”, erzrzore gung sebz gur gvzr fur jnf svir lrnef byq, fur unq orra erfcbafvoyr sbe gur pner naq jryy-orvat bs ure lbhatre fvoyvatf, rvtug bs gurz ol gur gvzr fur jnf guvegrra naq Tenaqzn fubjrq hc naq gbbx ure njnl. Ol gur gvzr ure cneragf qvrq, fur unq gra lbhatre fvoyvatf, abar bs jubz jrer (nf V ernq vg) npgviryl jnagrq, nggraqrq gb, be pnerq sbe.

    Vg’f abg fhecevfvat gb zr gung fur jbhyq or snveyl pbyq naq hafragvzragny nobhg crbcyr univat onovrf sbe gur fnxr bs onovrf, juvpu vf irel zhpu gur pnfr sbe gur snzvyl jubfr onol unq qvfnccrnerq.

    Lrf, lrf, gb nyy bs guvf. V’z nyjnlf yrrel bs gnyxvat nobhg ‘vafgvapg’ juvpu V fhfcrpg lbh zvtug or nf jryy fvapr lbh chg “zngrevny vafgvapg” va dhbgrf. Jr ner vaahaqngrq ol phygheny zrffntrf/qrznaqf/cerffherf gb jnag gb unir puvyqera, gb ybir puvyqera, gb oynu oynu rielguvat puvyqera. V qvq abg rire jnag gb unir puvyqera (V qvqa’g rira yvxr onol qbyyf naq fhpu nf n puvyq; V yvxrq navznyf zber guna uhznaf trarenyyl). V tbg njshyyl gverq bs orvat unzzrerq jvgu gur rkcrpgngvba gung V jbhyq zneel n zna naq fgneg cbccvat bhg onovrf (V jnf obea va 1955, fb gurer jnf AB pbhagrevat bcgvbaf, rkprcg orvat na byq znvq–jvgu pngf–juvpu npghnyyl fbhaqrq xvaqn tbbq gb zr onpx gura). V grnpu havirefvgl orpnhfr V qba’g unir zhpu cngvrapr jvgu be qrfver gb or nebhaq puvyqera; gur bar cebzvfr/yvzvg zl cnegare naq V znqr jura jr tbg gbtrgure, naq vg jnf ure vqrn, jn gung ab znggre jung, ab onovrf. Naq vg’f nyfb gehr gung jbzra jub npghnyyl rkcerff gurfr fragvzragf ner gerngrq nf vs jr ner fbzr fbeg bs haangheny orvat.

    Gurer’f nyfb gur snpg gung Qben vf n cbyvpr bssvpre–V’z abg fher gung n zna rkcerffvat gung nggvghqr jbhyq unir orra creprvirq gur fnzr jnl.

    Grccre’f srznyr cebgntbavfgf unir irel pbzcyvpngrq eryngvbafuvcf jvgu certanapl, zbgureubbq, rgp. — V’z abj guvaxvat V bhtug gb jevgr n cncre nobhg vg. Znal qb abg *yvxr* gurve puvyqera (gur cnerag-puvyq eryngvbafuvcf ba TENFF ner vagrerfgvat fvapr Znewbevr yvxrq ure fba, jub vf yvxr ure grzcrezragnyyl, zber guna ure qnhtugre–fur ybirf ure qnhtugre, ohg qbrfa’g yvxr ure–Oravgn Nyinerm Fuvcgba va SERFB qbrf abg yvxr ure fba nf na nqhyg, rfcrpvnyyl jura ur fubjf gur fnzr cnggrea bs qevaxvat naq znavchyngvba gung uvf sngure jub vf nohfvir qbrf–gur ‘phevat’ bs Oreg’f nypbubyvfz abg gb zragvba Pneybf’ erunovyvgngvba ol bar bs gur nyvraf.

    V graq gb ernq n ybg bs gur zber artngvir cerfragngvbaf bs jbzra naq certanapl (bsgra vaibyivat univat gbb znal puvyqera gb fhccbeg) nf pbaarpgrq gb pevgvpvfz bs fbpvny flfgrzf gung qral jbzra rqhpngvba, npprff gb ovegu pbageby, naq gur novyvgl gb rnea gurve bja yvivat: “univat onovrf sbe gur fnxr bs onovrf” frrzf gb or n tbbq qrfpevcgvba.

    Vs lbh unira’g ernq nobhg gur Dhvireshyy zbirzrag, vg’f onfvpnyyl n erny yvsr znavsrfgngvba bs fbzr bs gur tebhcf va fbzr bs Grccre’f abiryf (rfcrpvnyyl va gur zber qlfgbcvna barf va _Tngr gb Jbzra’f Pbhagel_ naq _Fvqrfubj_). Ohg V pna frr ubj gurl pna or ernq nf ersyrpgvat Grccre’f/punenpgref’ pynffvfz naq noyrvfz.

    @Cat: It also seemed to me that plenty of these situations in Tepper’s work were intentionally written as creepy and disturbing rather than just blithely proceeding on the assumption that this is perfectly okay and obviously nobody with any kind of good sense will mind, which seems to me to be the case with most of the GAGAMRM fiction.

    YES! Completely—I think that’s true in many many cases. More, a number of the novels involve the female protagonists often with other characters—including men—trying to change the cultural systems that result in such situations—which, also in many of Tepper’s novels, are tied directly to patriarchal religions, with specific callouts about the Church of Latter Day Saints (“Mormons”), Catholics, evangelical Protestants, and Muslims.

    Yes, that message get stronger and stronger over time, but you know, if you look around the US and see the cultural power and capital that those groups have amassed in the past few decades with the GOP’s connivance, and the horrendous effects on poor people, ethnic minorities, and all women in this country, I’m cheering Tepper on for saying a lot of what she’s saying.

    Of course I’m also in a very conservative rural religious fundamentalist part of Texas and have been by some of the stories my students have shared with me over the past twenty years. Far too many are in their early 20s, divorced, with two or more children, trying to get a college education so they can support their children, and far too many are grandmothers before they are 40. The restriction on women’s lives here are similar to many poor, rural areas (especially but not only in the southern states).

    One of my graduate students, whose doctoral dissertation I supervised, taught high school while raising her three children while getting her master’s and doctorate (took over a decade). She completed her degree, got a tenure-track job at a university, and then before she could move away was murdered by her ex-husband (who had been bailed out of jail for violating the protection order she had by his mother that morning). He shot and killed her in public, on the main street in town, in full view of a police officer (whom she had called) when she was in her car (he pulled up opposite her in his car), with their two young daughers who were in the back seat. Her mother is raising her children. (His mother tried to sue to get custody while he was being tried for the murder.)

  41. Mede-

    That is just plain awful.

    And, yes, terrible ideas have terrible outcomes.
    That’s why it is so upsetting when people just play around with nasty concepts, as if sloppy or cruel thinking were harmless.

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