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Mike Glyer's news of science fiction fandom
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There are certainly series where the first one wows everyone and the followups suffer from a combination of second part of a trilogy syndrome and I liked it, but we gave them a rocket last year. Imperial Radish, I’m looking at you.
There are certainly others though where the first book’s a tad meh, it grows into something much better once there are a pile of them published and the author’s found their voice. Many people have suggested Dresden Files for such a one. The individual novels in the series, also see Dresden, may be incomprehensible without the backstory, which pretty much dooms them if volume 17 suddenly pops up where none has gone before.
Speaking of N&P, today’s review is relevant to their works: A Paradise Built in Hell.
Little comment. May OGH be released as scheduled and continue recovering.
Best news I’ve seen all year.
It’s actually the proper spelling. Tolkien had problems with editors who wanted to correct the spelling to be Dwarfs as well.
@James Davis Nicoll:
I just wanted to hold that up for admiration.
Well, if we’re doing teenage reader confessions: As a teenager I collected the Xanth books enthusiastically. When they made the leap to hardcover releases and had the associated jump in expense, I finally paused long enough to admit to myself that the series hadn’t been very good for a while now (and I still liked the first few books at the time).
Just read “A Heap of Broken Images” by Sunny Moraine.
Whoa. A very affecting story about the aftermath of a massacre, and how the next generation of perpetrators and victims are attempting to come to terms with it. Not an easy read, but excellent.
@PJ Evans, Thanks! Okay… let’s see… righty-tighty, lefty-loosey… <starts reconstructing plumbing>
Has anyone dealt with that Shoggoth yet? <from under the sink>
Um, people – does anyone know what color this rug is supposed to be?
And didn’t there used to be a lamp?
I swear I remember a light in here.
… do you think he’ll notice?
I’ll carry out pizza boxes, but all those liquor bottles, you who drank it can carry out those.
And here’s a roll of Teflon tape.
(quietly gathers up soft drink bottles & cans to turn in for deposit)
Clicky.
jonesnori/Lenore Jones on August 30, 2016 at 12:36 am said:
Should that be a cake with 770 files in it? 770 cakes each with a file in them? 1 cake and a file fragment for 770 days (or hours)? A cupcake with a blockchain?
Daniel Dern, I think a cake in the shape of a file cabinet would be, erm, more edible. Let’s not break OGH’s teeth on his first day back…
I think it’s easier to see excellence in SF/F when there’s a big idea in a standalone novel or the first in a series. But that’s not the only route to excellence. Sometimes the characters, setting, story or writing just rock your world.
Because the marketplace loves long, multi-book sagas so much, it will be nice to see that part of the genre better represented at the Hugos. I think it will attract some SF/F fans to voting who had not been interested before.
I don’t know if my teenage reading was any better or worse than anyone else back then (more than my share of Tolkien, Eternal Champion, Heinlein and Thomas Covenant), but my adult reader confessions would include (but not be limited to) sticking with Laurell K. Hamilton much longer than I should have.
Last time I saw the lamp it was in the bathtub wrapped in several layers of clingfilm… unless anybody has moved it since then?
I just cast my vote in the Dragon Awards.
Because of the lack of information about the nominees when they were first determined, I didn’t have prep time to learn more about the works and read/watch/play them. It was tempting to just vote on name recognition.
I wonder if that’s something the big-name proponents of the awards such as Larry Correia are hoping will happen. He seems to think the Hugos should be voting for the biggest names regardless of the quality of what they’ve produced in a given year.
I think that would be a shame, because most of those people are already getting a pretty nice award: large piles of money.
My series reading is a bit lacking but I’d put forward Marie Brennan’s Lady Trent series (beginning with a Brief Natural History of Dragons) as one of my favourites, which is due to conclude next year – a good example of a series where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, which is the sort of thing it would be nice for the award to recognise.
I’ll also be voting for Rosemary Kirstein’s Steerswoman series as and when that becomes eligible… *gazes wistfully at marks on wall counting up the days since she finished Book 4*.
Because the marketplace loves long, multi-book sagas so much, it will be nice to see that part of the genre better represented at the Hugos. I think it will attract some SF/F fans to voting who had not been interested before.
But there’s an inherent problem in voting for that kind of series; if we are unable to vote for volume 17 in Best Novel when it turns up, because we have not read the previous volumes, we are equally unable to vote for the whole 17-volume series in Best Series.
I think it really is an important part of the the Hugos that we should consider and compare things, not just vote for things we are fans of already. The voting system is optimised for that, and the Hugo Packet exists to make it easier. (Voting for what you are a fan of, by contrast, seems to be what the Dragons are adapted for.) I don’t see how you can do that with a seventeen-volume series; it’s easier with either a short series with a clear arc, or a ‘same universe’ series where the books are relatively self-standing.
Guys, do we have to sort recycling or is it a single recycling bin? I realize we’re in a hurry to straighten up File770, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be green. (Yes, yes, it’s not easy being green.) Did anyone bring some paper bags?
Who flushed the gagh down the toilet? It’s starting to wriggle out of the overflow.
All Those Comments Lost in Time, Like Ticks in a Ticky-Box.
This is a lot of comments, of whatever size.
Cassy B — Isn’t that where the shoggoth is normally kept? Where should it be?
Arifel: Oooh, didn’t know the Lady Trent series was due for completion; I wasn’t sure if it was a ‘goes on for ever’ series or one with an arc. That looks like a very good candidate for next year. And Steerswoman – that, if I remember rightly, is meant to move towards a completion, but it might be best in this case not to wait for it.
Things mentioned already:
N.K. Jemisin, The Broken Earth. (rcade notes that since this has already won Best Novel it may not be the best thing to vote for; but it’s certainly eligible.)
R. Jackson Bennett, City of … Things. (Does anyone know if this is an open-ended series or one with an arc?)
J. Walton, Thessaly. (Finished this year, so only eligible if Worldcon 75 does it as a special Hugo.
Liu C., The Three Body Trilogy. (Presumably ditto.)
To which I would add:
I. Tregillis, The Alchemy Wars. (Volumes 1 and 2 both appeared last year, so I’m guessing the third – and last, I think – will appear this year, in which case ditto again.)
G. Cogman, The Invisible Library series – very good candidate for this award, I would say; no book stands out, but the overall idea is fascinating.
Comment comment comment comment comment chameleon.
The Commonwealth series by Peter F. Hamilton is a great series that is just about to conclude, and would provide an interesting test for what constitutes a series if it were eligible (again, maybe if Worldcon 75 does a special Hugo). There are nine books which happen in a definite order and where all but the first share characters, but they’re packaged as a standalone, then a duology, then a trilogy, then another duology.
Here’s the whole list:
Misspent Youth
Pandora’s Star
Judas Unchained
The Dreaming Void
The Temporal Void
The Evolutionary Void
The Abyss Beyond Dreams
Night Without Stars
(Confusingly, Pandora’s Star/Judas Unchained is the “Commonwealth Saga”, which makes it hard to come up with a distinctive way to refer to the whole series.)
@Petréa Mitchell
I thought the middle three were the Void trilogy. Haven’t started the last two yet.
Made the mistake of popping into the SF specialist bookshop at lunchtime, managed to escape with only two to add to the physical TBR pile. Caliban’s War and This is Not a Game, You Don’t Get a Second Life.
Oohhh! There’s a box of Old Tyme Crottled Greeps in the pantry!
I agree that we should not use votes just to reward longtime favorites.
I don’t think it’s an absolute that a series must be read in its entirety to be worthy of a Best Series vote. If you had read the last several Discworld novels preceding Unseen Academicals in 2009, then read that in 2009 and loved it, I could see Discworld being a worthy vote for Best Series in 2010 if the category existed then.
As for Best Novel and volume 17, the issue to me is whether that book can be enjoyed by itself or not. Most can’t. But if the next Dresden Files is a fantastic standalone novel despite also being an installment, I could envision it being Best Novel-worthy.
(I love it when an episodic TV show does something great that works entirely on its own. The Girls episode where Charlie returned and was a drug addict was one of the show’s best.)
The debates this category brings when it’s on the ballot ought to be interesting.
@IanP
Once you’ve read “This is Not a Game…” run, don’t walk, to the sequel. It’s one of those books where reality has caught up with it in a worrying fashion.
NelC, I don’t know where the shoggoth is SUPPOSED to be kept, but I don’t think it’s normally allowed on the comfy chair next to the reading light. I think that’s Mike’s chair. And I don’t think he wants shoggoth slime on his upholstery.
(Anyone know how to get shoggoth slime out of upholstery?)
Look, I’ve almost got the plumbing back together. Give me a minute and you can have the really big pipe wrench for shoggoth-herding.
As for Best Novel and volume 17, the issue to me is whether that book can be enjoyed by itself or not. Most can’t. But if the next Dresden Files is a fantastic standalone novel despite also being an installment, I could envision it being Best Novel-worthy.
Oh, certainly. It’s just that with these very long series that doesn’t happen very often, not only because you have to know what happened in previous books to understand it, but because you have to be invested in the characters to care about it. The audience for the later part of the series consists of fans of the series.
Discworld is a special case because it has lots of little series within it – the more you know the more you appreciate it, but each bit can work on its own.
When people complain that the Hugos don’t reflect the market, I get a bit worried that it sounds like ‘Wrongfans having Wrongfun’. This argument has been used both for the series Hugo and for the YA not-Hugo, though there are better arguments for both of them.
Some more series that would be eligible, with notes about past award history:
Robin Hobb’s Fitz and the Fool trilogy ends next year with Assassin’s Fate. (Past honors – Hugo and Nebula nominee for short fiction.)
Scott Lynch’s Gentlemen Bastard sequence might have a fourth book in 2017, The Thorn of Emberlain. (Book 1 was a World Fantasy Award nominee.)
Ken Liu’s Dandelion Dynasty trilogy might also have a new book next year. Nothing official, but so far he’s been pumping out a book a year so it’s likely. (Book 1 was a Nebula nominee and won the Locus for Best Debut.)
@IanP I thought the middle three were the Void trilogy.
Yes they are. But the series are connected.
Andrew M on August 30, 2016 at 7:36 am said:
What I gathered is that it’s more to reward series where individual volumes don’t win at all. Wheel of Time and Song of Ice and Fire, to name two.
The thinking, as far as I can tell, being that in an outstandingly crafted series (the only kind that ought to garner a nom) may not have any individual book that stands out as a book. But the overall series is something to behold. Writing a series being a different form of craft than writing individual books.
This distinguishes series such as many of the Vorkosigan Books and Pratchett where, yes, there are uniting elements to each book–they are all in one universe–but the books can be read independently with little loss of the sense of the overall story.
Contrast to Lord of the Rings, the Steerswoman books, SoIaF, WoT, or the Raadchai books where each book is an integral part of the whole and you miss out if you read them in random order. Each individual book may not be more outstanding than any other books that year, but put them all together and, wow, do you have something special.
That’s going to be my thinking if we ratify this new category. I fully realize that will not be everyone else’s thinking.
IanP said:
That’s what I mean about the books being packaged as various sub-series. But the Void trilogy clearly follows on from the Commonwealth Saga, and the Chronicle of the Fallers (The Abyss Beyond Dreams/Night Without Stars) is very clearly a continuation of the Void trilogy.
Incidentally, anyone who hasn’t read The Abyss Beyond Dreams should avoid even descriptions of Night Without Stars, as the cover blurb contains a whopping great spoiler for the end of the previous book.
I seem to be more immature than the rest of you, but duodecalogy instantly sprung to my mind the process of writing by pulling novels from your duodenum. For which you need long arms (and rubber gloves).
Given that the youth of today have to deal with student loans and a tough job market, JC Wrong exposing them to a behemoth pile of overwrought words placed in a random order seems like adding insult to injury.
I think that fit(z) the kind of thing I’m imagining as a good candidate for a series award. There isn’t a single volume that I’d consider nominating for a Hugo but together it is more notable.
(Anyone know how to get shoggoth slime out of upholstery?)
Lemme see if I can find “emergency furniture upholstery” somewhere.
From Locus, Seth Grahame-Smith of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter is being sued by his publisher for the return of his half-million advance because “despite offering extensions on the second book’s deadline, it never arrived. Three years after the original due date, Hachette terminated the contract, but offered Grahame-Smith an additional 60 days to hand in a manuscript. He did deliver a book, but Hachette said the manuscript was “in large part an appropriation of a 120-year-old public-domain work” and on a subject that Hachette never approved.”
As this a one-sided view of a legal matter I’m taking his publishers claims with a pinch of salt, but I’m really wondering which “120-year-old public-domain work” was up next for his
hatchet jobhilarious deconstruction. Assuming it’s 1890s, then Dracula would surely be too on the nose (Vampires & Vampires & Vampires?). Dorien Grey, Zombie Wrangler? Tess of the Murdervilles? The Invisible Man Strikes Back?Re Elfs:
Ah, thats probably the reason the German translator decided to use the word “Elben”, a word that doesnt exist in German. I knew he wanted to avoid that people think of Elves as these flurry things (pixies are also called Elfen, just like elves), but didnt know that Tolkien had uses a non-standard spelling.
I’d like to second (third?) the Lady Trent books, though I feel they’re a bit uneven – the odd numbered ones seem to push the story along faster than the evens – and the Invisible Library, which is gathering additional steam as it goes, but, typically enough, want to give a shoutout to Charryh’s Foreigner series. It started strong, but really hit its stride around book 3, and has merely gotten more interesting and exciting. Plus, who can resist a series whose hero is a translator?
People, is that rug supposed to be moving?
For re-attaching the u-bend to Mike’s kitchen sink, I’ve got this welding robot right here. It’s kind of heavy, though.
[Well, it’s in the lab down the hall. I really like my job…]
A new comics publisher – Vault comics – which will be focusing on SF/F has announced their launch titles.
http://icv2.com/articles/news/view/35391/vault-comics-unveils-first-releases
On Mike coming home: hip, hip, hurrah!
On teenage reading confessions: gothic romance. Need I say more?
On Kaiser Willie: somehow Bill doesn’t fit. Did anyone besides Mr Steed and I check out the National World War I museum in KC during MACII? Well worth it!
Sorry to be so late to the cleanup. FYI, I don’t know the laws in LA, but in Oakland, all garbage must be divided into recyclables, compost, and trash (or is it all trash must be divided into recyclables, compost, and garbage?). I believe the shoggoth would fall under compost. Found a couple dirty plates in an idiot check. I’ll wash those.
Talk of JCW reminds me – anybody notice VD just about finished going full neo-fascist in the last few weeks or so? He wrote an essay defending the 14 words, and he’s been referencing Jewish journalists with ((())) around their names (something white supremacist groups have been doing for a little while now, presumably as a scare tactic. Unfortunately for them, from what I’ve seen, a lot of politically-aware mid-20s kids have taken to referring to themselves and their friends that way, too, which significantly muddies the waters).
Tolkien certainly used a non-standard plural of ‘dwarf’; he originally did so by accident, but then constructed a justification for it, and ‘dwarves’ has thus become a regular part of the language (and is now beginning to be used even for short humans, which rather destroys the point of introducing it). He also replaced ‘elfin’ with ‘elven’. But although there are apparently precedents for ‘elfs’, ‘elves’ was the norm long before Tolkien.- it’s in Shakespeare, for instance.
I loved David Eddings. I devoured The Belgariad and Mallorean, and I believe I also enjoyed the The Elenium. Don’t remember if I read The Tamuli, but I probably did.
I see he had another series in the early aughts, called The Dreamers. Anybody read it? Is it pretty much more of the same?
ULTRAGOTHA: I’m sure I heard one of the proponents say in support of the proposal that, while works in series did get Hugos quite often, it was almost always the first work. (Which is largely true, though not invariably – the last three years have all been cases of it.) I agree that your rationale makes much more sense.