What stories fired readers’ interest this year? At the top of the charts was File 770’s brief roundup about the court’s decision to reject the Internet Archive’s argument that “lending” digital copies of books was fair use rather than a violation of copyright. Posts here rarely go viral, but that one did.
In addition to breaking news stories, like the Hugo and Nebula news which always draw a lot of eyeballs, three widely appreciated articles also made this list: Steve Vertlieb’s tribute to Twilight Zone, Tammy Coxen’s ideas about the future of the North American Science Fiction Convention (NASFiC), and Danny Sichel’s analysis of Ton Godwin’s perennially-controversial short story “The Cold Equations.”
THE TOP 15 POSTS OF 2023
1. Judge Decides Against Internet Archive
4. Thomas Monteleone Ousted By Horror Writers Association
5. Royal Mail To Issue “Terry Pratchett’s Discworld” Stamps
6. 2023 Hugo Finalists [Redacted]
Note: The Chengdu Worldcon committee released a list of Hugo finalists then a few hours later pulled it back because some items were incorrect. The File 770 post got an initial surge of hits when it was assumed to be the regular announcement. Then, oddly, after the post was redacted it continued to get a lot more hits. Maybe living up to that Stephen King analogy about when people see an orange cone at the roadside they start looking for a body. People came to look at the dead post.
7. SFWA Announces the 58th Nebula Awards Winners
8. 2023 Hugo Finalist Voting Statistics Posted
9. The Twilight Zone: An Element Of Time by Steve Vertlieb
10. Pixel Scroll 7/6/23 The Felix Felis Flattus Sat On The Mat
11. If You Love The Nasfic, Set It Free by Tammy Coxen
12. Chinese Fan Response to Chengdu Worldcon Changes
13. Michele Lundgren Charged as a Michigan Fake Trump Elector
14. Essay: A Fresh Look at “Cold Equations” by Danny Sichel
15. Gregory Benford Had a Major Stroke on December 22
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Hey, what if a really big story breaks today or tomorrow? If the long-lost (and completely made-up) Heinlein/Asimov collaboration (Foundation in a Foundation Land? Moon is a Harsh Robot?) turns up, or Martians arrive to pay homage at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, then you’ll have a post with more hits and comments than any of the others.
Don’t be silly. Everyone knows the aliens arrive on the 1st.
My mistake – I misread the calendar.
Sixth Law: When Your Robot Is A Harsh Mistress
@Daniel: The Man Who Traveled in Visisonors.
Andrew (not Werdna) ,
There’s this from another timeline.
………………
From an announcement flyer floating around at SF cons in the early 1990s:
10,191 years have passed since the creation of the Foundation, and the galaxy is in anarchy.
The massmind of Galaxia has collapsed from “impossible” internal turmoil. Known space is divided between warring kingdoms and petty empires, between religious sects and tyrannical guilds. And as for the Foundation…
The Foundation is dying.
But on the distant planet of Arrakis, a movement has taken hold. A movement led by a supposed prophet named Muad’Dib. A movement that could reunite the galaxy.
If the Foundation can control him, it could mean the end of millennia of conflict.
And if they can’t, it will ignite a galactic holy war.
JANET ASIMOV / BRIAN HERBERT
FOUNDATION AND DUNE
@Michael: Works for me!
Also if a manuscript for the Wolfe/Card collaboration: Ender’s Shadow of the Torturer turned up, OGH would have get a lot of comments and views for his post about it
Andrew (not Werdna): I’m resisting the temptation to get ChatGPT to turn out a press release for that book idea.
@MikeG
Resist harder.
—MikeK