(1) Connor Johnston opens a different doorway into the commonplace activity of reviewing Doctor Who episodes by “Ranking the Writing Debuts of the Capaldi Era” at Doctor Who TV.
Doctor Who is home to some of the greatest and most confident writers in the history of television, who have each been responsible for some of the most riveting storylines of the last 52 years, and every great writer must start somewhere. So far in Capaldi’s era, five ambitious personalities have made their first contribution to the show, expanding the already respected list of accomplished Who alumni significantly. With Sarah Dollard’s “Face the Raven” having aired last weekend, she has become the final new addition for the show’s ninth series, as such making this the perfect time to reflect on the newer talent we’ve seen grace our imaginations in the last two years.
(2) Passengers are go! “Airbus proposes new drop-in airplane ‘cabin modules’ to speed up boarding” at ars technical UK.
Today, Airbus has been granted a patent (US 9,193,460) on a method that essentially turns an airplane into an articulated truck. The plane, instead of being a single, contiguous hull, would have a huge hole in the middle where the passengers and luggage would normally be. Instead of boarding the plane directly, passengers and luggage would be loaded into a separate “cabin module.” Then, when the module is ready to go, it’s simply dropped into the airplane. If you ever watched Thunderbirds as a kid, it’s a lot like Thunderbird 2.
The post comes with diagrams.
(3) Sam Weller’s “Where the Hills Are Fog and the Rivers Are Mist” in The Paris Review.
Ray Bradbury’s The October Country turns sixty.
“The Dubliners of American Gothic”—that’s how Stephen King referred to Ray Bradbury’s first book, the little-known 1947 short-story collection, Dark Carnival. There’s good reason few readers, even those well versed in Bradbury’s work, are unfamiliar with Dark Carnival: Arkham House, a small press out of Sauk City, Wisconsin, published the book in a modest run of 3,112 copies; the book went out of print just a few years later. Besides a pricey limited-edition reprint in 2001, Dark Carnival exists as a literary apparition.
And yet many people have read some of Dark Carnival without knowing it
(4) Ryan Britt has a daring demand in “The Ghost of Hayden Christensen: Why Anakin MUST Appear in Episode VII” at Tor.com.
The nice thing about Anakin is that he gets to redeem himself in Return of the Jedi—which, if you’re a kid experiencing the Star Wars movies in the Lucas-order, is a pretty neat arc. Also for contemporary kids, Anakin is the focus of more hours of Star Wars than really any other character, thanks to The Clone Wars. So for better or worse, the prequel-era Anakin defines Star Wars for a big chunk of the viewing public.
If all the actors from the classic trilogy are reprising their roles, the giant space elephant in the room is how old everyone has gotten. Let’s get real, the focus of these new films will doubtlessly be on new characters, but it would be nice to have some existing Star Wars characters in there too, particularly ones who don’t look super old. Luckily, you don’t have to do any Tron: Legacy de-aging CG action on Hayden. He looks good!
(5) N K Jeminsin made the New York Times “100 Notable Books of 2015”. Interestingly, it’s in Fiction. The list does not put sf/fantasy in a separate section.
THE FIFTH SEASON. The Broken Earth: Book One. By N.K. Jemisin. (Orbit, paper, $15.99.) In Jemisin’s fantasy novel, civilization faces destruction and the earth itself is a monstrous enemy.
(6) Michael Damien Thomas will work on accessibility at SFWA’s big annual event —
News I forgot to mention. I am now the accessibility head for the 2016 Nebula Awards Weekend. #AccessibleCons
— Michael Damian Thomas (@michaeldthomas) November 20, 2015
(7) With Carrie Fisher returning in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this 2011 comedy video has a new lease on life —
Kaley Cuoco addresses an important issue affecting cosplay girls across the globe: Slave Leia fatigue. With so many choices available to women who cosplay, there’s no reason everyone needs to be Slave Leia.
(8) “Seed bombing to save the bees” at Interesting Engineering.
Seed bombs began as a fun and friendly tactic for greening abandoned lots in urban spaces, but are still a developing idea to be done in large scale. It involves throwing small seed ‘bombs’ from planes onto deserted areas that have suffered deforestation, to gradually begin to recover the ecosystem. This method not only allows the growth of more trees and plants, but helps combat the extinction of bees, indispensable beings for the reproduction of life on Earth….
Each seed capsule is made from biodegradable plastic and functions as a small greenhouse where the seeds grow at first. When they reach the ground, the capsule disintegrates without polluting the environment until it disappears completely, allowing the plant growth to take its natural course.
(9) At Examined Worlds, a philosophical Ethan Mills claims “I’m Thankful For My Regrets”.
Yesterday we celebrated our Thanksgiving holiday here in the United States. One popular tradition is to enumerate what you’re thankful for. I’m thankful for lots of things. Of course, I’m thankful for my family and friends and my cats. I’m thankful that I have a fulfilling career and no major health issues. I’m thankful that I have neither the greed nor the need to go “Black Friday” shopping today. I’m thankful that the new Star Wars movie is coming out soon!
Also, I’m thankful for my regrets. Like most people, I have plenty. I regret that I haven’t done more international travel and that I haven’t done more charitable giving and volunteering. I regret never figuring out this whole physical fitness thing. I regret that I saw Star Wars: Episode I seven times in the theater. I regret voting for Ralph Nader in 2000. I regret that I didn’t spend more time with my mom.
I don’t think regrets have to be the soul-crushing thing they’re made out to be; you don’t have to exterminate them entirely to have a healthy life. I also don’t think you need to go in the direction of some Nietzscheans and existentialists to say that you have to take ownership of regrets and affirm them, because they’ve made you who you are. There is, as Buddhists would say, a middle way between these extremes.
(10) There’s an app for the Battleship Iowa?
The Battleship IOWA experience is at your fingertips – you’re all aboard for adventure! You will never look at the Navy the same way. The Battleship IOWA Interactive Tour will let you experience, first hand, what it was like to live and serve on this historic ship. You’ll be part of the adventure!
You’ll see and hear the fascinating stories behind the ship, its crew, and the part it played in shaping our world and our country. It is virtually impossible to get a feel for the service and spirit of this historic shp by simply reading a sign or placard. The Battleship IOWA Interactive Tour puts you in control of your experience. Dive deep into the content of the ship and explore the areas that intrigue you most. You’ll find crewmember stories, fun facts, ship service records, videos of her in action all in the palm of your hand. Enjoy content that isn’t available anywhere else in the museum.
Mike Glyer and Sierra visit the USS Iowa in 2013.
(11) Tom Knighton’s “Review of Jessica Jones Season 1”:
…The show stars Kristen Ritter as Jones, a private investigator who got super powers after an auto accident that killed her family. She’s not the typical hero. An encounter prior to the show with a mind controller named Kilgrave (played by David Tennant) leaves her with a healthy dose of PTSD and a penchant for whiskey.
Early on, she meets a bar owner who she’s been following for a reason explained later in the series. The bar owner is a large black man named Luke Cage.
Yeah, baby.
Ritter is solid as Jones, nailing the smart mouth and feigned apathy the script called for. Her natural thinness might not normally fit a super strong hero, but personally I think it fits the character nicely. Not only does it make it more impressive when she lifts a car’s back wheels without straining, but it fits the alcoholic aspect of the character pretty well….
(12) Den of Geek’s spoiler-filled review of Jessica Jones focuses on the question, “Is Kilgrave Marvel’s Creepiest Villain?”
The casting of David Tennant makes Kilgrave’s grim demands seem ever more shocking, and this must be deliberate from the showrunners. At points, when Kilgrave’s enthusiasm levels rise a little, he really does resemble a twisted version of the Tenth Doctor. His charisma – combined with his creepiness and callousness – makes for unsettling viewing.
(13) Black Gate’s John ONeill knows why it continually costs more to be a fan who’s passionate about “Collecting Philip K. Dick”.
I have a lot of experience selling vintage paperbacks at conventions and other places, and nobody — but nobody — has skyrocketed in value like Philip K. Dick. The only authors who even come close are George R.R. Martin, James Tiptree, Jr, Robert E. Howard, and maybe Samuel R. Delany.
A big part of the reason, of course, is that virtually all of Dick’s novels were originally published in paperback, which means that — nearly unique among highly collectible authors — the coveted first editions of his novels are all paperbacks.
(14) Not all of CheatSheet’s “10 Sci-Fi Cult Classics That Everyone Should See” are as surprising as Snowpiercer (at #4) – who knew it had been around long enough to be a classic? Some might even agree with its strong preference for remakes — John Carpenter’s version of The Thing, David Cronenberg’s The Fly (#10) and Philip Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (#5).
- The Thing
Audiences in 1982 were more interested in cuddly aliens like Steven Spielberg’s ET than they were in monstrous, shape-shifting ones, which explains the critical and commercial failure of John Carpenter’s The Thing. Thankfully, viewers have rediscovered the film, which stands as one of the greatest horror films and one of the greatest science fiction films. An Antarctic outpost of men struggles to identify and destroy an alien that can assume the form and personality of any living thing it consumes. The men, led by a never-better Kurt Russell, act competently in facing the threat, making it all the more terrifying when they can’t stop it. There’s mounds of existential tension and paranoid distrust to go around in the icy and isolated setting. Carpenter knows how to play off the tension brilliantly, using some of the most tactile and creatively terrifying practical effects in cinema history, courtesy of Rob Bottin.
(15) How Attack of the Clones Should Have Ended!
(16) After reading about Ridley Scott’s plans for more Prometheus movies I look forward to a future video series telling How It Should Have Begun.
Ridley Scott has confirmed that ‘Alien: Covenant’ will be the first of three films that will then link up to the story from the original 1979 ‘Alien’.
The second movie in his ‘Prometheus’ series is in its pre-production stage in Sydney, Australia, at the moment, where Scott confirmed the plans in a press conference.
He said that the newly-named ‘Covenant’ and the next two films will answer the ‘very basic questions posed in Alien: why the alien, who might have made it and where did it come from?’.
Covenant will tell the story of the crew of a colony ship which discovers what it believes to be an ‘uncharted paradise’ world, but is in fact a ‘dark and dangerous’ place, inhabited solely by David, Michael Fassbender’s android character from the first ‘Prometheus’ movie.
[Thanks to Michael J. Walsh, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]
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Seed bombs… during pre-Thanksgiving tidying I cleared off some of the pantry shelves and found half a pound or so of flaxseed that’s old enough I don’t want to try to eat it. On the other hand, there’s a vacant lot over the back fence… worst outcome, I chuck the seeds over the fence and nothing sprouts. Medium outcome, they sprout until they get mowed down. Best outcome, they sprout and grow and we get to admire blue flowers. Fingers crossed!
Clicky.
Oh Jesus. It’s too late at night for me to do my seedbomb rant. Tomorrow…
Undoubtedly close to fifth!
Fifth! For no good reason whatsoever!
I admit it: I’m looking forward to Ursula ranting about seed bombs, whether she’s pro, con, or other. Ursula, I’ve learned so much from your rantings on such matters, and really appreciate them.
This list of “10 sci-fi cult classics” is kind of odd. Including Starship Troopers but not Robocop? No no no. Starship Troopers is a tangled mess; Robocop is an acid-drenched razor. I would comfortably put Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, at least, ahead of Snowpiercer, and probably others if I thought about it some. And if I wanted to go for genuinely excellent, genuinely obscure films, I’d be looking at The Rook (a murder investigation in an alternate-history Britain with a gnostic state church), and like that.
The really bizarre thing about Dick is that, despite the fact that his books were all originally published as mass-market (pocket-size) paperbacks, most of them are simply not available in that format any more, unless you want an ancient collector’s edition. Aside from Do Androids Dream… and now The Man in the High Castle, all his stuff seems to be only available in Trade Paper or HC. And it’s been that way for a long time. Somehow, after he died, he became too good (or something) for the mass market that used to be his bread-and-butter.
My rant for today: I finally took the plunge and started an audiobook subscription at Audible, only to discover that due to rights restrictions, me living outside the U.S. makes unavailable practically every single book I want to listen to.
Grrrrrr.
Of course, this wasn’t evident before I signed up, because before you’re a member you see the “full” selection, and only once you sign up do you start running into the geographical restrictions.
Grrrrrr.
Even then it took me a while to figure out what was going on.
Amazon shows me all these audiobooks as available (I think my Amazon account thinks I’m in the U.S., but my Audible account doesn’t?), and purchasable with a single click. Then I click! And get an error message.
Audible hides the unavailable books from me, as if they don’t exist. They don’t come up if I search the site, even though I can see elsewhere that they should be there. Well, that isn’t confusing at all!
Only if I Google for “[book title] audible” do I get a handy-dandy page explaining, “We’re sorry. Due to publishing rights restrictions, we are not authorized to sell this item in the country where you live.” Ahhhh. Thanks.
Grrrrr.
Of course, what’s really frustrating (now that I’ve figured out what’s going on) is that I’d already been happily jazzed up about starting to listen to audiobooks. SO MANY BOOKS I want to be reading, and audiobooks are awesome to be able to listen to while I’m driving, or exercising, or doing chores around the house. But, y’know, that’s only true if I can actually listen to the books I actually wanted to read.
And audiobooks would’ve been a huge step up for me towards the Hugo nominations; I have a list as long as
my armmy index finger of novels I’ve heard sterling recommendations for, and am eager to check out. My listening time and my reading time are disjoint sets, and most of my reading time gravitates to short fiction; I don’t know if I’m going to read a quarter as many of these books as I’d be able to listen to.Grrrrrr.
Top of my WANNA-READ-NOW list are:
Dark Orbit, by Carolyn Ives Gilman, an SF alien-contact story, which I’ve heard recommendations as being exceptional and very well-written,
and
A Darker Shade of Magic, by V.E. Schwab, where the protagonist hops between alternate versions of London (and O!, I love the cover).
I’m sure I’ll manage those two, but the audiobooks would’ve been lovely.
@Standback: yes the audiobook situtation outside the US is very sad. A couple of months ago, Charlie Stross (a UK author) answered the question, “Why can’t I find audiobook editions of your books in the UK?” It’s a depressing but informative read. Things may change (as Charlie mentions), but this is the current state of affairs, for Charlie and lots of other authors.
The cut-down version, since there are a ton of ebooks on sale today. May be another comment later on with some less recent works if I can get it down to a workable length. Amazon UK ebook sales:
Uprooted, by Naomi Novik
Hugo-eligible and currently quite well-received by Filers. Agnieszka loves her valley home, but the corrupted wood stands on the border and its shadow lies over her life.
The Heart Goes Last, by Margaret Atwood
Hugo-eligible. Stan and Charmaine are struggling to stay afloat in the midst of economic and social collapse, so when they see an advertisement for the Positron Project offering stable jobs and a home of their own they sign up immediately. The catch is that in return they have to give up their freedom every second month, swapping their home for a prison cell.
Carry On, by Rainbow Rowell
Hugo-eligible. Simon Snow just wants to relax and savour his last year at the Watford School of Magicks, but no-one will let him. When you’re the most powerful magician the world has ever known, you never get to relax and savour anything. Based on the characters Simon and Baz who featured in Rainbow Rowell’s best-selling novel Fangirl.
Every Heart a Doorway, by Seanan McGuire
Pre-order – 2016 release date. Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere… Else. But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children. The children at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children have all tumbled once. They’re each seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.
The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison
Hugo 2015 Nominee (and winner of the unofficial alternate universe Filers Hugo 2015). The youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, but when his father and three older brothers are killed he has no choice but to take the throne.
Lock In, by John Scalzi
A virus sweeps the globe, creating the largest medical crisis in history and leaving 1% of the infected ‘locked in’, unable to move. Spurred by grief America undertakes a massive scientific initiative, creating remote robot bodies (Threeps) and a complex simulated reality (The Agora) for the locked in – (Hadens). Years later, young Haden Chris starts their first day at the FBI amid turmoil as the equipment will no longer be funded by the government.
Station Eleven (and Last Night in Montreal), by Emily St.John Mandel
Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2015. (Content note: Bleak.)
The End of All Things, by John Scalzi
Popular with Filers. Hugo-eligible, but the author plans on declining all nominations.
(2) The “cattle class” jokes just write themselves.
(12) “Is Kilgrave Marvel’s Creepiest Villain?” I’d have to say yes, but all of Jessica Jones was excellent. One thing that stood out was how well cast and developed the supporting characters were, to the extent that the couple of characters who weren’t quite as well done stood out like sore thumbs.
@Meredith
That’s a pretty spectacular sale on, but I think I’ve already bought everything listed that I wanted at higher prices, grrr!
If anyone’s held back on trying Uprooted, I’m three-quarters of the way through and it’s excellent so far.
I’m not sure Every Heart a Doorway is actually on sale, I think it’s priced as a novella? Either way, I clickied it.
@Mark
It came up as reduced, but I have my suspicions about whether pre-orders are tracked properly for that sort of thing. Since it looked very interesting and shiny I included it anyway.
I, too, await the Wombat’s rant with anticipation.
On (2) Passengers are go!, the headline says ‘Proposes’ when the article honestly deals with the fact that corporations (and those in the airline industry are typical) file patents with no plan, intention or proposal do actually use them.
@Xtifr : Thanks for the link 🙂
I didn’t know the details, but the basic gist of “international rights are haaaaard, let’s not do them” is familiar to me from, ummm, pretty much every digital media service out there. Alas.
Honestly, though, I do wish Audible were clearer upfront about the limitations. I feel like I’ve been bait-and-switched.
Errolwi: On (2) Passengers are go!, the headline says ‘Proposes’ when the article honestly deals with the fact that corporations (and those in the airline industry are typical) file patents with no plan, intention or proposal do actually use them.
Yeah, an airplane that used that functionality would face some real challenges in terms of structural strength and integrity, so as to not be falling apart at 35,000 feet.
Ah, Seed Bomb. How well I remember him prancing about on stage behind a bemused Bob Dylan during the 1998 Grammy Awards telecast.
@Standback
That does sound really rotten and sneaky. I appreciate the warning though – I hadn’t been able to fit it into my budget, but I had been looking at it and its good to know it isn’t worth the money.
—
Okay, some more Amazon UK ebook sales (honestly hoping sales like this don’t come around often – it ends up a bit long even with editing out a bunch of stuff):
The Buried Giant, by Kazuo Ishiguro
Set in England after the fall of King King Arthur, an elderly couple search for their son.
The Maze Runner, by James Dashner
The only thing Thomas remembers is his first name, but he’s not alone. He’s surrounded by boys who welcome him to the Glade, a walled encampment at the centre of a bizarre and terrible stone maze.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, plus the second one, by Douglas Adams
It’s an ordinary Thursday lunchtime for Arthur Dent until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly afterwards to make way for a new hyperspace bypass and his best friend has just announced he’s an alien.
The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman
A baby is the only survivor when a murderer kills his entire family, and finds safety in the local graveyard. Bod is raised by the resident ghosts but the murderer is still looking for him.
Superman: Red Son, by Mark Millar
What if baby Superman crashed in the Soviet Union instead of Kansas?
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, by Frank Miller (back when he was good…)
Embassytown, by China Miéville
Embassytown: a city of contradictions on the outskirts of the universe.
The Scar, by China Miéville
A pirate city hauled across the oceans. Why do Miéville books never have summaries worth the pixels they’re written with?
Fire Spirit, by Graham Masterton
Ruth Carter juggles family life with her career as a top arson investigator, but a series of horrific fires leaves her baffled. Can Ruth overcome her scepticism in time to save her family and avert the coming apocalypse?
Rogues, edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
A collection of short stories.
The Wolves of London, by Mark Morris
Alex Locke is reformed, but he’s forced to do one last job – to steal a human heart carved from obsidian from a decrepit old man. But when the burglary goes wrong, Alex is plunged into the nightmarish world of the Wolves of London.
Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke
Meggie loves books. So does her father, Mo, but he hasn’t read aloud to her since her mother disappeared. They live quietly until a stranger comes with a warning that forces Mo to reveal an extraordinary secret.
Press Start to Play, by Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams
A collection of short stories inspired by video games.
The Stress of Her Regard, by Tim Powers
On the morning after his wedding, Dr Michael Crawford awakes to find the savaged body of his bride beside him. Already marked with guilt for the deaths of his previous wife and brother, he flees England to escape the noose, and to discover the truth about the ancient evil which invades his sleep.
The Rabbit Back Literature Society, by Pasi Illmari Jaaskelainen
A highly contagious book virus, a literary society, and a disappearing author. Ella is invited to join The Society, but all is not as it seems.
Blackbringer, by Laini Taylor
Magpie Windwitch isn’t like other faeries. Instead of living in seclusion deep in the forests of Dreamdark, she’s devoted her life to recapturing devils, just like her hero, the legendary Bellatrix, did 25,000 years ago. But when a devil escapes from a bottle sealed by the ancient Djinn King himself, she may be in over her head.
Rook, by Daniel O’Malley
Myfanwy Thomas wakes up in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. With no recollection of who she is, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind, and she soon discovers that she’s a Rook, a high-ranking member of a secret organisation that battles the supernatural.
Red Rising, by Pierce Brown
The Earth is dying. Darrow is a Red, a miner in the interior of Mars. His mission is to extract enough precious elements to tame the planet and allow humans to live on it. Except then Darrow discovers it’s all a lie.
The Folding Knife, by K. J. Parker
The First Citizen of the Vesani Republic is an extraordinary man. Basso is ruthless, cunning and, above all, lucky. He brings wealth, power and prestige to his people, but with power comes unwanted attention, and Basso must defend his nation from threats foreign and domestic. In a lifetime of crucial decisions, he’s only ever made one mistake – but one mistake can be enough.
The Fire’s Stone, by Tanya Huff
The Stone of Ischia protects the city from the active volcano that looms over it, and without it Ischia will be destroyed and the kingdom of Cisali will fall. The Stone has been stolen, and an unlikely band of heroes are the kingdom’s only hope.
Across the Nightingale Floor, by Lian Hearn
The murderous warlord, Iida Sadamu, surverys his famous nightingale floor, that sings at the tread of a human foot. No assassin can cross it unheard. Brought up in a remote village among the Hidden, a reclusive and spiritual people, Takeo has learned only the ways of peace. Why, then, does he possess the deadly skills that make him valuable to the sinister Tribe?
Alive, by Scott Sigler
A teenage girl awakens with no memory to find herself trapped in a coffin. Outside she finds only a room lined with caskets and a handful of equally mystified survivors. She only knows one thing about herself – her name, engraved on the foot of her coffin.
Sandman vol. 1 Preludes & Nocturnes, by Neil Gaiman
Dream, free after seventy years of imprisonment, quests for his lost objects of power.
Books 3 & 4 of John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series.
(Which is rather convenient for those of us who happened to be on book 2.)
To me it is telling that when hauling a liquid (fuel) around the sky, the preferred form is the same as an airliner – a tube with wings. Circles/Ovals give good strength-to-weight, and the module breaks the tube.
Am I the only one who sees “Seed Bomb” and pictures an explosion at a sperm bank?
…I’ll get my coat.
I’d strongly recommend The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers from Meredith’s list, with the caveat that Powers is a bit Marmite-y for people. It’s in his typical secret history style, this time revealing who the real muses of the Romantic poets were.
Anyone read The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Illmari Jaaskelainen? It sounds interesting, but I wasn’t vastly impressed by the last Jaaskelainen story I read.
I haven’t tried it internationally, but as audiobooks go, I’ve become a bit of a fan of downpour dot com; they make their wares available as drm-free mp3s, so they’ve got that going right off the bat, and the fellow who reads the Vorkosigan series is exemplary. Their selection doesn’t seem to be quite as wide as Amazon’s but what they have is solid, and, again, not locked to any sort of drm-account or walled garden.
Is it still possible to get physical, CD audiobooks?
Or am I being hopelessly naïve.
Well, with all those Star Wars related videos in the scroll, it’ll not hurt to add another one.
Anyone who has seen director Ken Loach’s classic British film, Kes, will get this. You can turn on subtitles on Youtube if you are struggling with the Yorkshire accent.
SciFiMike: Well, with all those Star Wars related videos in the scroll, it’ll not hurt to add another one.
Oh, that is priceless. Thanks for sharing.
@Peace is my middle Name – Infinivox does actual audio cds. Usually themed collections of SF short stories, novelettes and novellas. They are not cheap, but the ones I’ve gotten review copies of have been good quality.
Here’s the link to their website: http://www.audiotexttapes.net/ivx.htm
In my experience there is absolutely zero relation between which products Amazon advertise to me on their website, and which product they are actually willing to sell me. It’s kind of weird, because Amazon have this big thing about “we know who you are and what you might be interested in”, and they know all the shipping adresses I’ve used with them over the last 15-20 years, the IP adress I’m browsing the site from, and where my credit card is registered – but the website keep telling me about products that can’t be shipped to where I live, or offers for “free shipping” or other stuff that I’m not eligible for.
Gah, Amazon. Get a grip.
Combined with the weirdly restrictive geographical limitations, and the generally shitty handling of shipping it’s almost like they don’t want me as a customer.
***
“Seed bombs” seems like a decent idea in theory, but I see lots of potential problems that I’m looking forward to seeing RedWombat rant about. And I don’t really see the point of those plastic containers. Even if they’re (supposed to be) bio-degradable
***
Also, I stumbled upon this article. The date is recent, but I think it’s just a repost of an older article from the US site?
http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2015/12/features/diversity-science-fiction-hugos-gamergate
This will probably show my ignorance, but have jump breaks be suggested for use on this site on particularly long posts? For me personally, I know when Pixel Scroll’ing through the tag, it would be useful to have the long posts broken up so it is easier to navigate them, rather than through them.
@peace. Yes, there are physical CD audiobooks still out there. Jesse at SFF Audio (a review site that deals with audiobooks that I often guest on the podcast) gets them for review, so they are still being made.
Re: Dick. It is especially ironic that Philip K Dick, these days, is “too good” to be released in MMPB given that his profilic original publication in PB is the reason why the PKD award (for work first published in paperback) was named for him.
NaNoWriMo update
In the green. In the green.
@Meredith can I beg of you one more reminder that I’m not absolved for tomorrow’s 1667 words and that my outline shows 13 scenes left to write.
@SciFiMike:
That was delightful!
@iphinome: Congrats! Feels good, doesn’t it?
(No, you’re not excused from finishing the story. I’m still carrying on with mine. Err, except I’m reading this comments thread instead, just now… but I will be back to the story. Shortly. Honest.)
(84,000 exactly when I looked last night, which seemed like an ideal spot to take a break and go to bed.)
As much as I appreciated Ken Loach’s Star Wars, I shouldn’t have watched it. It just reminded me of the rage I felt at the pointlessness(from a character perspective) of the book it’s based on, A Kestral for a Knave.
I just started reading The Fifth Season! I’m really liking it so far.
On the seed bombs, I’m guessing the capsule is supposed to keep birds from eating all the seeds before they can sprout? I dunno. I’m looking forward to hearing why they are awful, although it seems to me that human meddling in ecosystems tends to be generally sort of inept, and letting nature do its thing is often the better course.
Congratulations !!!
I made my word count for my first NaNoWriMo ever a few days ago. Isn’t a great feeling? Even though our books are not finished yet, reaching the 50,000 word line is a great accomplishment. Keep up the hard work.
Again, congrats.
Once I could have gone on a rant about why I haaaaated “The Stress of Her Regard”. It’s been too long though, I’m not going to try to resurrect it.
Okay. Seed Bombs. *clears throat*
Seed bombing is super-duper popular with “guerrilla gardeners,” with Girl Scout troops, civic-minded crafters, basically with all sorts of well-meaning folks who think that you can turn a vacant urban lot into Eden by throwing a ball of clay full of seeds over the fence and walking off with the warm glow that you have given nature a helping hand.
Except they don’t work.
There’s a couple factors at work here. #1, very rarely do people research the plants–like those wildflower meadow mixes in a can, they’re often dumping invasive weeds or short-lived annuals…because those are the only things that might survive under those conditions.
Which leads us to #2 — even assuming the seeds germinate (a big if, as we’ll see below) they will be packed in incredibly tight in the seed bomb, compete with each other for root space, the ones that die will rot intertwined with the others, etc. There’s a reason we thin seedlings. Your only survivors are going to be the hardy souls who can stand intense root competition, and frankly, those plants don’t need your help moving around…
…because #4, there is a massive seedbank in the soil already. Billions and billions! Japanese stilt grass seeds can survive up to seven years in dirt, waiting for the moment to strike. Wind, water, animals…there are seeds there already. If humanity vanished tomorrow, half our cities would be forests before the decade was out. So if nothing is growing in that vacant lot, the reason is probably…
#5 – Compacted soil is shit soil. I have been fighting for years with a hillside where the builders ran earthmoving equipment over it, and Nothing Grows. Not even weeds. Not even kudzu or stiltgrass or Japanese honeysuckle. It is hardpan. It is dead clay. Nature could fix it, but in a century or two. There are no worms, no microbes, no LIFE.
I’ve made great inroads, but not with plants. I had to fix SOIL. I tried seeds first, and what self-respecting seed would grow there? I dug in plants by hand, grimly. Most died. A few lived, but the toughest clay-busters nature can provide could not do more than occupy one small, hard-won clump.
I brought in dirt, compost, raked in leaves–not much, just an inch or two over the clay and that was enough. There are worms and microbes and the layer keeps the dead stuff moist and slowly it gets dug through and aerated by roots. It felt more like terraforming than gardening. A seed bomb on compacted soil is useless, unless you can find the very toughest pioneer species, the sort that are first to grow in abandoned quarries, and those don’t need help from guerrilla gardeners.
And even if you DID get the right seeds, it won’t matter because #6–seed bomb construction is desperately flawed. (Can’t speak to the one above, this is just the standard method.) The standard method is to pack seeds in damp clay, let them dry, and then throw them. Congratulations, you have killed a bunch of seeds!
The vast majority of seeds germinate when moist. A dry seed is a live seed, unless it gets wet, then it is a growing seed. If you dry it out immediately, you have killed that seed. You get one shot at germination if you’re a seed. No do-overs. Seeds can live in the pyramids and be viable, seeds can live in the fridge and be fine, seeds that get wet are done unless planted pronto. (Exceptions: those that require other, more specific triggers–fire, animal digestion, cold stratification, etc, and some few plant species adapted specifically to floodplains.)
Those paper cards with seeds in the paper, plant them, yay earth? Dead. Seeds are mixed with slurry pulp, get damp, dried out. Unless they pick the seeds very carefully, it’s just feel-good crap.
And now I have to go to breakfast, so part two: Why It Looks Like A Seed Bomb Worked will have to wait for a bit.
On the bright side, we’ve put lots of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Plants eat that stuff up.
Thank you thank you, the hard work will be kept up for one more day, then I’ve earned a night off, and the right to both work at my own pace and go back and change things that have been bugging me for weeks.
And then I’ll have earned a play through of Hatoful boyfriend between the end and the back fill.*
*And possibly Asphyxia or The Royal Trap too depending on how drained I am.
re PKD not in mass market ….
I suspect on a per copy basis the publisher – and undoubtedly the estate – make more money per copy on the trade pb versions since they’re going to have a higher retail price.. Also, trade pbs are whole copy returns and can be resold as new or eventually remaindered as a hurt book. Mass market pbs have but one chance to sell … then off with their h/e/a/d/s/ covers.
Standback: That sucks! 🙁
Superman: Red Son is about the last great thing Mark Millar wrote; he discovered that he can pander to lads and bros and stopped caring about craft after that (with a handful of exceptions), but this is really good. Superman lands in the Ukraine instead of in Kansas; complications ensue. One of the many good things about it is that he remains a really decent, good guy. And the ending has a fun alternative spin on the classic origin story. Definitely recommended.
There was a time when I kept trying to read Powers because so many fans, including ones I hung out with, thought he was the bees’ knees. I finally reached the point of “Why do I keep doing this to myself?” and stopped. I did really enjoy On Stranger Tides, though, somewhat against my better judgment; it’s genuinely fun.
This weekends’ reads were non-SFF historical fiction, although one was in part about Science.
(Is anyone getting anything out of these minireviews, by the way?)
Gone Are The Leaves, by Anne Donovan. I want to begin by saying I usually really like Anne Donovan. Buddha Da was fantastic, and I enjoyed Being Emily. But this one was, frankly, bad. A tale of love (or at least fondness), loss (or at least parting), and testicle-crushing (or at least … no, that was pretty much just testicle-crushing) set in Renaissance-era Scotland and France, everything built towards an ultimate climax which turned out to be, well, pretty stupid.
Us Conductors, by Sean Michaels. I did like this one. A highly fictionalized version of the life story of Lev Termen, inventor of the theremin (among many other things) and a fascinating figure, it was well written and evocative. The second half, however, seemed largely disconnected from the first, which ultimately made the book feel as if it didn’t end so much as stop.
Unrelated to books *or* SFF, I took a road trip to Glasgow to see Sharon Kihara (and other dancers) perform and also took in a showing of “Carol” while I was there. And thanks to the latter I still have little hearts in place of eyes now. People have been especially praising Cate Blanchett’s performance, and she did do a fantastic job, but honestly I thought Rooney Mara was particularly outstanding, conveying more with a look than many actors can with a soliloquy.
(While waiting for the film to start, I wandered into a bookstore and came out with Six of Crows, Afterworlds, Cold Iron, The Glass Republic, The Thousand Names, Winter, London Falling, Soundless, and Afterparty, so those are now all On The Pile.)
Sarh Dollard’s very interesting in terms of Doctor Who writers. As a rule, each year a select group of writers are invited to submit a script, from which the next series’ stories are picked, the episodes are rewritten to some degree (Russel T Davies frequently heavily rewrote but refused to take credit during his tenure as showrunner), and they become the shooting scripts.
By contrast, Dollard wrote Face the Raven and sent it in. Somehow it made it into the production team’s hands, Steven Moffat loved it and commissioned it for the show. The biggest changes being addind Ashildr and the last couple of scenes to tie it into the finale.
RE: PKD’s books in mass-market paperback. Many of his books were included in the SF masterworks line in the UK, and while I think they’re out of print now, they’re highly available and frequently on sale as remaindered stock.
Kyra: I am. Some I mark to read myself, and some I pass on to friends, with “here, this sounds like your cuppa” comments.
Ok, so Round Two!
“But RedWombat!” you say. “I made a seed bomb and stuff grew! Also there is no #3 in your rant!”
To which I say “shut up and let us troubleshoot your miracle.”
If you made a bomb and ran out the same day and flung it, the seeds didn’t dry out. If you threw it on soil that didn’t completely suck, that was not already overgrown with weeds, that was then gently watered by either moist ground or rainfall, if your seed bomb was not too densely packed or was a variety that tolerates close competition, then you may indeed have successfully grown a plant. If you picked your seeds carefully, there is even a chance that it’s not a corn poppy or some other short lived annual. This is basically why stuff sprouts under the birdfeeder.
Alternately, if you don’t specifically recognize the seeds you planted, then it was quite possibly stuff already in the soil bank and you’re taking credit for its hard work.
Now, nature is a mutha, and some seeds will survive terrible treatment through dumb luck or a tiny pocket of dryness or are a floodplain species or whatever. Or they land in the one tiny pocket of hard pan along the fence that’s loose because of the post-hole digger, and it rains at the right moment or whatever. But a seed would have ended up there ANYWAY. You could get the same effect dumping safflower over the fence, as above, except that the safflower has a far better chance of sprouting.
So, in conclusion, this is feel-good crap that lets nice but wrong people and smug Eco-bros feel like They’re Helping, when they aren’t, and there’s a dozen things you could do that DO help, but most of those are work and also don’t pay extra for the cards with seeds in them. If you’re going to green the world, there are very few quick fixes.
The end.
(How To Actually Green Your Horrible Hardpan Lot On A Budget available upon request, but this is specialized ranting and I don’t want to bore anyone.)
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Ecology is fascinating. There’s a lot of work in the Australian outback on old stations in the state I live that have started trying to regrow everything after centuries of stock ruining the land. Rangeland Reform is the umbrella term I think.
It’s fascinating, the main strategy seems to be “Let it Grow”, and it seems to work quicker than expected.
@RedWombat, hoping you saw this bit of news about bird watching and bird interacting. 🙂