(1) ORPHAN BLACK TEASER. BBC America says Orphan Black Season 4 has started production and will be shooting in Toronto through March.
Tatiana Maslany returns to her Emmy®-nominated role as multiple clones in 10 new episodes in Spring 2016.
Season 4 of the drama will see leader-of-the-pack, Sarah, reluctantly return home from her Icelandic hideout to track down an elusive and mysterious ally tied to the clone who started it all — Beth Childs. Sarah will follow Beth’s footsteps into a dangerous relationship with a potent new enemy, heading in a horrifying new direction. Under constant pressure to protect the sisterhood and keep everyone safe, Sarah’s old habits begin to resurface. As the close-knit sisters are pulled in disparate directions, Sarah finds herself estranged from the loving relationships that changed her for the better.
(2) UNDERSTANDING CONTRACTS. Fynbospress provides a wide-ranging introduction to contracts for creators in “When do you need a contract?” at Mad Genius Club, a post that does much more than merely answer the title question.
This isn’t just for court; this is when you’ve submitted a rough draft to a copyeditor and found out they only did the first third of the book and the last chapter , or when you paid a cover artist $500 and they returned one proof of concept, then stopped answering emails. This is for when the small press gives you a horrid cover, no release press, and you have some real doubts about your royalty statements. This is for when you’ve agreed to turn in a sequel, and you find out your spouse has cancer, and nothing’s going to get done that’s not medically related. It’s for when you get the avian flu and aren’t going to make your slot with your editor, and aren’t sure you could make a pushback date, either, or the house washes away in a flood and you weren’t even thinking about when your cover artist finished her painting and wants paid.
(3) NOT WHAT YOU THINK IT MEANS. Lela E. Buis in “Safe spaces and personal self defense” conflates safe spaces with the convention antiharassment policies of which she disapproves.
Reading through the proposed convention policies, safe spaces apparently mean that no one can annoy you. When some evil lowlife approaches and says something that disturbs or upsets you, then you should be able to just say “no, go away” and they are required to do so. It means that you can cruise through the convention experience without worrying about anything. If anyone fails to do what you ask, then all you have to do is complain to management and they’ll take care of the lowlife who’s bothering you, pitching him/her out on the street. This is really an ideal situation, where nobody ever has to hear things they don’t want to hear, or deal with situations they don’t want to be in.
However, when you always depend on management to protect you, then you’re not taking personal responsibility for your own well-being. You end up with no self-defense skills….
(4) CHROMIUM SÍ IN AMERICA. “Here’s How Captain Phasma Got Her Silver Armor” explains Andrew Liptak in an intro to a video at io9.
Gwendoline Christie has certainly made her mark in the Star Wars universe as the silver-armored Captain Phasma. This short video shows where that armor came from, and it’s hilarious.
(5) NO SPOILERS. Joe Vasicek’s spoiler-free first impressions of the new Star Wars movie at One Thousand and One Parsecs.
Was it campy? Yep. Was it rife with scientific inaccuracies? Oh heck, yes! Were parts of it over the top? Yeah, probably. But these were all true of the original Star Wars, too. The stuff that really mattered was all there: good writing, solid plot, believable characters, awesome music, and that grand sense of wonder that drew us all into Science Fiction in the first place.
(6) SPOILERY AND FUNNY. Emma Barrie’s “The Confused Notes of a Star Wars Newbie Who Felt Compelled to See The Force Awakens” is a high comedy journal of watching The Force Awakens. Paragraph two only spoils the original Star Wars trilogy, so that’s safe to quote….
Even as a member of the uninitiated minority, I did know some basic stuff about Star Wars, because how could I not? My birthday is May 4, so there’s that. I knew Darth Vader is bad and has the voice of Mufasa. I knew Han Solo is a person (though I thought it was Hans Solo). I could definitely pick Chewbacca out of a lineup. Princess Leia is Carrie Fisher (whom I primarily associate with hating that wagon-wheel table in When Harry Met Sally). She has those Cinnabon hair swirls and at some point wore a gold bikini (info gleaned from Friends). Lightsabers are kind of like fancy swords. Darth Vader is Luke’s dad.
(7) SPOILERY AND SERIOUS. David Brin was greatly relieved to find things to complain about in “J.J. Abrams Awakens the Force” at Contrary Brin.
Okay we saw it. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (SW:TFA), on Christmas Eve. And although I am lead author — and “prosecuting attorney” — of the book Star Wars on Trial, and hence a leading critic of the series, I must admit that:
(1) The newest installment of the franchise — directed by J.J. Abrams under Disney management — has none of the deeply objectionable traits of Episodes I, II, III and VI that I denounced in that controversial tome. Abrams and Disney shrugged off the lunacies George Lucas compulsively preached in those vividly colorful-yet-wretched flicks….
(8) SPOILERY TROLLING. Nick Mamatas is like one of those basketball players who in the parlance can create his own shot. If there was nothing in The Force Awakens to complain about, Nick would not be inconvenienced in the slightest. His review is at Nihilistic Kid.
Like any Star Wars film, it makes little sense. I’m not even talking about the inexplicable political economy of the galaxy that has both intelligent robots and people hanging out in tents with dirt floors, or the horrifying reactionary theme of an entire galaxy being held a prisoner of fate by about a dozen closely related individuals.
Is that last part so unrealistic, Nick? Think of Queen Victoria’s family ties.
(9) A FAN OF PEACE. I thought Hank Green was a science fiction fan (among other things) yet he exhibits a practically unfannish lack of interest in quarrelling with his fellow fans about Important Genre Definitions.
The Science of Star Wars: There Isn't Any
And that's fine, just because it's in space doesn't make it SciFi.— Hank Green (@hankgreen) December 26, 2015
(10) FIVE IS ALIVE. At The Book Smugglers, “Jared Shurin’s Five Terrific 2015 Titles That’ll Tie Awards in Knots” actually contains seven titles. Did he think nobody would count? Or was he worried File 770 wouldn’t link to his post without a “fifth” reference? Never fear, Jared, your praise for “A Small, Angry Planet” deserves to be shared.
Becky Chambers’ The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
It lurked (and won The Kitschies) as a self-published work at the start of 2015, but as far as the ‘stablishment is concerned, this utterly glorious, brilliantly progressive and undeniably joyous space opera didn’t exist until the UK release in February and the US release soon after. It has been on multiple ‘Best Of’ lists (Waterstones, Guardian, Barnes & Noble), and hopefully that translates to even more well-deserved recognition. The awards scene is dominated by a) Americans and b) traditional publishing, so this book’s… er… long way… to market should hopefully pay off with further acclaim.
(11) SMACKIN’ WITH THE PUPPIES. George R.R. Martin finally froze comments on “Puppies at Christmas” after two days spent duking it out with trolls. Martin’s last entry in the discussion might also be taken as a reply to the coverage here the other day:
When people behave badly (in fandom or out of it), or do things that I find immoral or unethical, I reserve the right to speak out about it, as I did about Sad Puppies 3 last year.
When, on the other hand, I see behavior I regard as positive, I am also going to speak out about that… regardless of whether my words are going to be “spun” to suit someone else’s narrative. So far, what I am seeing on the Sad Puppies 4 boards is a step in the right direction… a spirited literary discussion that includes everyone from Wright and Williamson to Leckie and Jemisin. That’s good.
If it turns into something else later, well, I’ll revise my opinion or raise objections. But I am not going to deal in hypotheticals. Right now what I see is people talking books.
(12) TODAY IN HISTORY
- December 27, 1904 – Peter Pan by James Barrie opens in London.
- December 27, 1947 — The first “Howdy Doody” show, under the title “Puppet Playhouse,” was telecast on NBC.
- December 27, 1968 — The Apollo 8 astronauts — Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, William Anders — returned to Earth after orbiting the moon 10 times.
(13) RESTATE OF THE ART. “How Weinstein Co. Distribution Chief Erik Lomis Rescued 70MM Cinema For Quentin Tarantino’s ‘The Hateful Eight’” at Deadline Hollywood.
Lomis had an 18-month lead before Hateful Eight would hit the screen, and he promptly began scouring eBay and interfacing with film warehouses and antique collectors across the country “pulling the equipment, checking it and Frankenstein-ing it together. Configuring the lens took six months alone. They needed to be adjusted to today’s stadium auditoriums, which from the booth to the screen have a shorter throw versus the lens on the older machines which had a longer throw due to the sloping floor auditoriums,” explains Lomis. For the first six months, Lomis was picking up 70MM projectors at affordable prices, but once word slipped out that it was for a Tarantino film, collectors tripled and quadrupled their asks. Essentially, to make three solid working projectors, one needed to pull parts from as many as five projectors. Gears, shafts, bearings and rollers were the typical replacements. At times, these parts were manufactured from scratch off original blueprints. On average, Schneider Optics made a lens a day during production to restore this antiquated technology.
(14) SIR TERRY. Rhianna Pratchett in The Guardian — “Sir Terry Pratchett remembered by his daughter, Rhianna Pratchett”.
…The reaper came for my father much earlier in his life in the form of Death from his world-famous and much-loved Discworld novels. Death was a towering, cloaked and scythe-wielding skeleton who had a penchant for curries, a love of cats and TALKED LIKE THIS. We got a number of tear-inducing letters from fans who were nearing the end of their lives and took great comfort in imagining that the death that came for them would be riding a white horse called Binky. Dad had done something with more success than anyone else – he made Death friendly.
For me, as for many of his fans, it was his gift for characterisations like this that made his books pure narrative gold. Dad was a great observer of people. And when he ran out of actual people, he was a great imaginer of them. Both his grannies come through in his witch characters, while there’s a fair chunk of me in Tiffany Aching and Susan Sto Helit, Death’s adoptive granddaughter. …
(15) THE JAVA AWAKENS. “Designers Create Star Wars-Themed Coffee Concept” at Comicbook.com.
Graphic designer Spencer Davis and product designer Scott Schenone have come up with “Dark Brew Coffee House,” a concept that imagines what a Star Wars-themed coffee shop would look like.
(Lots more thematic imagery displayed at Dark Brew Coffee House.)
(16) DARK OUTSIDE. Then could we change this to the Darthburger?
@paulandstorm @hankgreen @wilw pic.twitter.com/b5c5nMa3UO
— John Scalzi (@scalzi) December 28, 2015
[Thanks to DLS,and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Shao Ping.]
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A contract keeps people from forgetting exactly what they agreed to. People’s ability to forget is astonishing. It also helps by writing down agreement in advance on what to do if the unexpected happens. (Trying to reach agreement after the unexpected happens is awful.) Most people aren’t going to try to cheat you, but even people of good will can have terrible conflicts when they’re not sure what they agreed to do.
If you think someone does want to cheat you, then don’t do business with them at all. A contract will give you leverage in court, but that’s cold comfort.
Cassy B. — The self-published edition was solidly in 2014, but I’m not sure whether that counted as “published in the United States of America”. If I read the Kickstarter information correctly, it might count instead as published in Iceland, where the author was apparently living at the time. Or maybe not — I don’t know how the rules work for e-books with global availability.
Unfortunately, the rules for extending eligibility due to limited distribution would have required action by the Business Meeting in Spokane, which was preoccupied with other matters.
Paul Weimer:
I for one await with some bemusement the inevitable awkward misunderstandings that will happen when the film of the Monster Hunter game series gets made.
#Petrea
That Monster Hunter film is sweet delicious irony, given how cardboard the bad guys in Grimnoir were – I can’t remember if they were supposed to be Japaneses or Chinese, they were mainly wood pulp “)
(2) The whole second half of that quote at least deals with the general “life happens” cases that can lead to contractual problems – and even, in my experience, unacceptable work and lack of work is in the vast majority of the time due to some other circumstances than the person being malicious and blowing off the contract.
A good contract should have terms for both what needs to be done as well as terms for how the contract can be ended – kill fees, reduced payments if deadlines are missed, no payments if deadlines are missed, windows to notify either side that the contract is canceled, etc. etc.
There are malicious bad players out there (probably more on the business side exploiting freelancers – the opposite with freelancers exploiting businesses isn’t very sustainable), but the majority of contract problems are usually in good faith where life happens (like the entire second half of that quote) or someone overpromised, etc. A contract should account for that and have terms for resolving that as amicably and quickly as possible and, at least in my personal experience on both sides of that issue, is very useful in that regard.
On further thought, bringing myself into the 21st century, I think an e-book with global availability through Amazon should count as published in the US. It’s not as if it is any less available than any other e-book.
Re: contracts
Having observed both unintended tragedy and slimy behavior around “gentlepeople’s agreements” that weren’t spelled out on paper, I’ve always worked by the principle that good contracts make good neighbors (as it were). Even when (perhaps especially when) engaging in short-term informal monetary loans between immediate family members, I’ve always insisted on paper contracts with specified delivery dates and concrete consequences for failure to deliver.
Re: 3
Does anyone have a good answer to a simple question? Simply put, why is that the people like the Puppies who are lauding how everyone else wants to be safe from dissenting opinions are the ones who go absolutely ape-crap whenever anyone disagrees with them?
Recent reading. Gene Mapper was up to expectations. It also put a finger on one of the things I really like about reading non-Western science-fiction: the tropes are different, and thus viewpoints can completely take you by surprise.
What I mean – a lot of Western sff is suffused with a frank amount of mysticism when it comes to anything environmental. Paolo Bacigalupi and Kim Stanley Robinson’s Aurora are pretty prone to it. The general message is that however clever science may be, it will never be Mother Nature, and will carry a spiritual pollution that will defeat the best efforts of people. Biology or chemical engineering will never surpass the Purity Of Nature, and will always leave you worse off than you were before. Forget the stars, just go surfing. The closer you are to nature, the better, and discussing geoengineering or genetic crops is a clear sign that you’re the bad guy.
An example of this I read in the last little while by a non-western author had a similar touch. There’s a scene Turbulence where a gifted hacker is engaging in some Robin Hood electronic theft, and giving them to a laundry list of worthy cause that an progressive type would love. Amidst this list, and standing out glaringly to a western eye, were geo-engineering and groups researching new super crops.
No pearl-clutching about how those techs produce gaia-destroying thetans that corrupt the purity of mother Earth. And if you live on the sub-continent, it makes sense – a closeness to nature is what kills there. Get a handle on it, improve the crops, or everyone fucking dies is something that you cannot pretend is vital outside of the comfortable temperate zones.
Gene Mapper‘s written by a Japanese man, and its a setting, not a real spoiler, where the view is you get the next strain of durable, efficient crop or everyone will fucking starve to death. One’s doubt of this is a sign that one is a dilettante, or insulated from the effects of starvation. Kind of a breath of fresh air.
Other than that, the plot proceeds quickly, the pacing is excellent, and it’s near future has some ideas one usually doesn’t see. Would strongly recommend.
Read the sequel to The Mechanical as well. Liked it. Crazy world, and just as off the beaten trope path as the Mechanical itself.
This is going to sound weird, but does anyone else have an issue with the paper Catherynne M. Valente’s Radiance is printed on?
In the hand it feels like a normal hardcover book, but the paper feels to me oddly cheap and flimsy, more like what one would find in a mass market paperback than in a pricey book meant to last.
Ta-Nehisi Coates has thoughts on the new Star Wars:
Fairly non-spoilery (at least nothing that bothered me, and I haven’t had a chance to see it yet).
Channelling my inner Meredith, FYI a book sale that might interest folks around these parts:
N.K. Jemisin’s “Inheritance” trilogy omnibus (including a novella set in that world) is $9.99 in the USA right now, at least at iTunes, Amazon, and Kobo, so probably other vanues like Barnes & Noble as well. Hat tip to Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist.
@TheYoungPretender: “No pearl-clutching” – I should hope not.
WaPo has an article up on the re-rise of used bookstores: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/in-the-age-of-amazon-used-bookstores-are-making-an-unlikely-comeback/2015/12/26/06b20e48-abea-11e5-bff5-905b92f5f94b_story.html?tid=pm_local_pop_b
A used bookstore recently opened in the mall near me and it’s a treasure trove – they say sales are good so I’m hopeful they’ll stick around.
Snowcrash said: “First impressions: it’s heavy-handed message fic where women are sex objects, but that’s not so bad because the book simply isn’t well-written or thought out enough to take seriously.”
This is what you got out of Monster Hunter International? Women are sex objects?
At the risk of injuring myself by reading the answer, I have to ask: How the hell do you get that out of that book? You can claim the writing doesn’t meet your standards, or you don’t like the message or whatever, I won’t argue with taste issues. Tastes vary. And yes, it is message fic. Again, inarguably so. If you don’t like the message, tastes vary.
But really? Women are sex objects? All the female characters in the book are hell on wheels vampire hunting ass-kickers, or pure evil. Defend your claim, Crashy.
With all respect, I think your question contains a faulty premise. Some go apeshit. Some just argue back. A few troll, and in the process may adopt a pose that falls into either of the first two categories.
All the female characters in the book are hell on wheels vampire hunting ass-kickers, or pure evil.
I read some of Ringo’s novels, where the women were ass-kicking sex objects. It’s not at all impossible to do.
Because the Filers have been so supportive of my books, I thought I’d mention that I’m currently running a “chance to win an Alpennia book” giveaway on Twitter. Possible give-aways include a future promissory for Mother of Souls for those willing to wait quite a while.
(6) This was a fun read. Also, I may have done the exact same Greg Grunberg impression during the credits.
Re (10) FIVE, @Mark
I just finished The Serpent too and didn’t much care for the style. I really liked Touch and The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, though, so I’ll continue the series to see where she takes the premise.
Sex-object-fighter is easy as heck to find examples of. Remember the Bambi & Thumper scene from that one James Bond movie? Ivy from Soul Caliber? Virtually any female superhero during the Liefeld days?
The MH books may or may not do that–haven’t read ’em, can’t speak to it–but “ass-kicker” in no way, shape or form negates “sex object” in and of itself.
I haven’t read Monster Hunter International and probably never will, but anyone who thinks a character cannot simultaneously kick ass and be a sex object has somehow missed the controversy over how female comic book heroines are drawn (with mid-battle poses more reminiscent of porn than actual fighting stances, and with cleavage that virtually never resembles breasts so much as balloons). I’ve always loved Starfire the character, for instance, who flies by solar power and can fire bolts from her hands, who loves openly and fearlessly — but she’s always been drawn in a costume made of two strands of metallic stuff and usually in a sexy pose (George Perez at least seemed to have an idea how anatomy works and never broke anyone’s spine or vanished their internal organs), and her most recent iteration scrapped her personality in favour of more (but more loveless) sex.
Or how about how almost every hot female character in the recent superhero movies (and even the Lego movie) seems to be a serious ass-kicker, often even better than some male counterparts, right up to the final quarter, when suddenly it’s all on the men to do the winning. And that’s from the “Feminist” writers who don’t automatically make the female lead a love object for the heroic man.
So yeah, some of us are used to kick ass AND is a sex object. And some of us don’t trust male writers, especially conservative ones, not to scrap the ‘kicks ass’ part for the ‘sex object’ part at the first moment where the two conflict.
@The Phantom: I think you meant to respond to me.
Here is how the first woman, who is head of Monster Hunters International, is introduced.
Pretty much everything she does–even killing monsters–so far is accompanied by the narrator saying how hot it makes her.
If she’s not a sex object, there are no sex objects.
The other major female character when introduced:
Yet another obvious sex object (and Holly’s often involved with a lot of pretty bad double entendres, what we would usually call sexual harassment; heck, same with Julie, the first woman, when the main character tries to immediately turn their first meeting into a date).
And as everyone else said, sex objects can easily be ass-kickers, especially if it’s the ass-kicking you’re supposed to find sexy, as definitely seems the case so far, e.g.
There are a ton more quotes I could supply but won’t.
Just once I’d like to see “She was short and pudgy and fought monsters in a frumpy sweater. She kept crumpled Kleenex in her back pocket and no one thought she was sexy. She had a 97% kill rate and the 3% had been possessed nuns (she was raised Catholic.) People called her when things got really, really bad.
Really.”
I’d read it. Hell, I might write it.
Velma Dinkley?
Not that she often fought real monsters, but she certainly thought they were monsters at some point in each episode.
RedWombat said:
If you write it, I’ll read it.
I’ve only read the first book, and that years ago, but do any of the characters in Jim Hines’ Libriomancer series qualify?
Jack Lint said:
Though once they switched to movies, “wait, it’s actually a real monster for once!” became an awfully common plot twist. At least among the ones I’ve seen.
Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, whatever its lack of other redeeming features, has a special place in my heart for allowing the geeky girl to be the one who captures the heart of the guest hunk.
@Peace: Yep, given I’m still incredibly bummed about Henson, it is going to take a while to even partially get over pTerry.
@redheadedfemme: Tea, Sith Grey, hot (Universes collide!). But yes, enough with the coffee fetishizing, people. Let’s expand our tea options. Bag o’Lipton doesn’t compare with the loose-leaf Longevity Eyebrow I had all weekend.
@James Moar: An internet. Let me give it to you.
@Shao Ping (I love saying your screen name, it’s fun): “book this bad or–for all its macho posturing–bland.”
See, that’s the cardinal sin to me. Blandness. A book, particularly SF/F/H should have some texture and flavor to it. I tried reading the first book long before the kerpupple and thought the same thing. It was boring as well as full of hatred, one-dimensional women and lovingly-detailed gun descriptions.
Isn’t “ass-kicking sex object” the default description for Bond Girls? You know, the longest-running action movie series of all time? 50+ years of AKSO.
@RedWombat: reminds me of Osgood(s) from “Doctor Who”! She’s not svelte, wears glasses, uses an asthma inhaler, dresses like past Doctors, is respected and liked, and saves the world.
@Paul W: Would they get the satire? I mean, you and I know “Starship Troopers” is a satire of the book, but so many people just like the bug-killing. So indeed, a Verhoven version might please everyone. Like JJ said.
@Petrea: Shame that article is 3+ years old, so it seems that nothing’s going to happen with that. Good pew-pew and critters.
@alauda: So they love genocide. How swell. Genocide of PoC, no less. And then they wonder why Mr. Godwin is invoked.
Star Wars complaints: The crawl, as always, tells you all you need to know. Luke’s missing. Leia’s running a new rebellion, bad guys are running a new empire.
Begin the space dogfights, lightsaber-waving, alien critters, and funny droids. It’s not complicated at all. Keep your hands inside the ride and your seat belt fastened.
(13) I read where Bats vs. Supes (and a little Wondy) might play in those 70mm theaters now that they’re all set up. Might get me out to see it if I could get the old experience I miss (if there’s one within reasonable range of me).
(2) The answer is “always, as long as there’s money involved”. Be equipped with a lawyer and be willing to use him/her. I’ve had lawyers settle things with a registered letter or just a stern phone call (on a deal worth upwards of $150K). Shame that article had to slip into the usual Puppy bigotry, though. Can’t they do ANYTHING without whining through their narrow political lens? (yes it’s a mixed metaphor and I’m leaving it as-is).
@HRJ: but what if we don’t tweet?
If a first-person male narrator tended to see all women sexually, I’d assume he was rather young (or else rather immature) but I don’t think I’d necessarily see it as a reflection on the author. I’d regard a first-person gay male narrator who tended to see all guys sexually more or less the same way. Either one might get tiresome to read, but I think that would really depend more on what happened during the story. If a character is portrayed as immature, then one expects to see some growing up later in the story. (Think of it as Chekhov’s “gun.”) 🙂
A third-person narrator making the same sort of observations would be a completely different kettle of fish of course.
The Unipiper strikes back/ strikes again/ awakens(?)
This time as Kylo Ren. On BB-8. Playing flaming bagpipes.
In Gravity Falls the short dumpy awkward girl wins the hot rich guy, too. Plus monster fighting.
Portlandia strikes again!
(The flaming bagpipes are new to me. I haven’t seen anything like that the few times I’ve seen him around town.)
Are you sure you’ve read the book Phantom?
Holly to
LarryOwen as they train on the gun range:Yes, Holly is all kinds of vampire-killing bad-ass etc but when an author directly says she looks like a Bond girl, I think it is reasonable to say she is portrayed as a sex-object e.g.
Now, I get that Larry tries to do a thing in the book were people are misjudged by appearance or vice-versa (e.g. Holly trained as a nurse etc, the goblins are great family people etc).
Sounds a bit like how Kate Daniels is described by authors Ilona Andrews* in the opening scene. This is what drew me in to the series. While most of the men are hot (reverse discrimination LOL) several of the women are not – Kate, Andrea, Julie.
I’d like to see more average female heroes who grew up with average lives, loving parents, not raped/abused background. The world is full of average women doing good deeds. Why can’t we have stories about them becoming heroes?
*wife & husband team (it was hard to type it in that order but Ilona is the “face” of the team so it seems appropriate wife comes first)
@Camestros Felapton
I don’t think Holly being nurse is that much against expectations, as ‘helloooo nurse’ is a trope for a reason. Being a surgeon or doctor, especially of some non-GP training like an ENT specialist (and NOT a gynecologist or pediatrician), would be more against ‘type’.
John Lorentz said:
I think he only sets them on fire for his videos. They’ve been included in several over the past year or more. But I haven’t seen them in person either.
That makes sense.
He’s often riding on crowded sidewalks or paths–places where shooting out flames might not be the most intelligent thing to do.
Let’s expand our tea options.
I got a small package of tea for Christmas. One is flavored with strawberry and champagne – it says on the label. Tastes like rose pouchong: floral in a good way, like black currant tea is.
Kickstarter that might be of interest 69 hours left Starship Farragut finale in the Classic Trek genre featuring a cameo by Stan Lee, this film sets the stage for Farragut’s next chapter.
Starship Farragut is an online webseries inspired by the original series of Star Trek, but instead of the crew of the Enterprise, it’s the crew of the Farragut – simply put, “Different Ship, Different Crew and Different Adventures”.
@ lurkertype
This one is specifically to celebrate my approaching 10,000th tweet. I do others in other contexts.
In the case of MHI the first person narrator is a large man of Portuguese descent with a gun hobby who used to be an accountant and the the author is a large man of Portuguese descent with a gun hobby who used to be an accountant.
@RedWombat I’d read it. Hell, I might write it.
I’d totally read that, because it’s a wonderful premise. In the meantime, there’s A Key, An Egg, An Unfortunate Event, by Harry Connolly, which I enjoyed for many reasons.
They do say authors tend to put a bit of themselves in every book. 😉
I’ve decided I haven’t read enough white male authors (~33 of 288 books) this year. Since we are spending so much time discussing MHI I’ve downloaded it and am off to read.
It does seem odd to claim that a woman character being a violence fantasy means she cannot also be a sex fantasy.
@Peace:
We are back in that bar in the Blues Brother’s movie: “Our jukebox has both kinds of music: country and western.”
Novella review: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor.
As is her usual method, Nnedi Okorafor mixes fantasy and science fiction here, in a story of mathematical mysticism, strong cultural ties, and intercultural communication. The main character Binti is a Himba, a (genuine) people of the Namib desert who (in this story) have developed mathematics to a high art. They don’t have enough water to spare for washing so they keep clean by rubbing their skin with otjize, red clay mixed with flower oil. Other humans (especially their neighbors the Kush) look down on the Himba, and when Binti is chosen to be the first Himba to attend Oomza University on another planet — because of her mathematical abilities, she is a “master harmonizer”–, her family is dismayed and she feels profoundly dislocated. However it turns out to be a good thing that she decides not to give up her otjize, and her calling as master harmonizer turns out to be crucial when she is a bystander caught up in a war that has a large element of cultural misunderstanding at its basis. Mathematics is used symbolically in this story as representing harmony and clarity. Binti can call on both to think her way out of potential conflicts, and be understanding enough to make a friend out of an initially incomprehensible alien. Her position as cultural outsider makes her a good mediator too.
It is a simple plot, and there are a few too many deus ex machina elements in it. Still, it is well told, with many reflections on belonging and outsiderhood in contexts of cultural conflict. Rating: four stars, recommended.
@Vasha
Sorry if you’ve already answered this, but do you have a compilation of your short story reviews anywhere? I’m terribly, terribly behind in my short story reading, and would love to get some rec’s.
I shall seek it out 🙂
The depiction of mathematics in fiction is difficult and people tend to avoid it for the very reason that mathematics is the best way to portray mathematics.
On a separate note, I read this story today and I thought it suitably creepy.
@Snowcrash: This is the closest thing to what you’d want — it’s not really reviews though, just a list of my favorites with ratings (four or five stars) and with brief descriptions for the five-star items; I usually discussed the five-star items in comments here too, so google will help. Also there are a few reviews of novellas and anthologies on that same blog as the list. I’m glad to help (and flattered to be asked).
Grrr. left off the link and didn’t notice
I meant to say:
On a separate note, I read this story today and I thought it suitably creepy.
http://betwixtmagazine.com/thirst-by-leanne-olson/
My year-ending book reads have vaguely fallen into the genre category of Badass Women From Other Lands.
The Accidental, by Ali Smith (not SFF). I’ve read, I think, three books by Smith, and I’ve yet to read one I didn’t love. This one is about a woman who inserts herself into a family and stirs, and uncomfortable truths bubble to the surface. The Accidental is in some ways more depressing than the other two books by Smith I’ve read, in that I found it hard to read parts of it without despairing of the whole human race. But, hey, sometimes that’s what’s called for. It’s not that it’s relentlessly bleak, it’s just hard to read it without wondering if you are part of the problem. Anyway, great book.
The Corn King And The Spring Queen, by Naomi Mitchison. Considered by many to be Mitchison’s greatest work, it’s the story of a witch from a Black Sea village in ~200 B.C. who becomes peripherally involved with an (actual historical) attempt by a Spartan King to impose a communist-like system on the Aegean peninsula. It’s long, and dense, and highly philosophical, and to be honest I’m not entirely sure what to make of it. I’ll say I’m glad I read it and it made me think, but I found it tough going sometimes.
The Shadow Cabinet, by Maureen Johnson. The third book in one of the lesser-known “magical police force in London” series (a la Aaronovitch or Cornell). I liked the first one, enjoyed the second, and thought this one was … kind of silly. Our heroine (now a member of the magical police force) is tryng to foil an attempt to bring a pair of Evil 60’s Wizards back from the dead. Some of the world building was a bit “really? how does that make sense?”. There was also a lot of setting things up for later volumes, which I don’t mind, but that also happened in book 2, and I’d rather the shoe dropped soon, as it were. I’ll probably give the next book in the series a go to see if it picks back up. 2015 book, but not one I’d single out as a likely award-winner.
(Looking ahead, currently just started Afterparty by Daryl Gregory, and already hit a jaw-drop moment on page 24. Nobody tell me what happens next! 🙂 )