(1) ROCK’N ROLL. From the Guardian: “Stonehenge may have been first erected in Wales, evidence suggests”.
It has long been known that the bluestones that form Stonehenge’s inner horseshoe came from the Preseli hills in Pembrokeshire, around 140 miles from Salisbury Plain.
Now archaeologists have discovered a series of recesses in the rocky outcrops of Carn Goedog and Craig Rhos-y-felin, to the north of those hills, that match Stonehenge’s bluestones in size and shape. They have also found similar stones that the prehistoric builders extracted but left behind, and “a loading bay” from where the huge stones could be dragged away.
Carbonised hazelnut shells and charcoal from the quarry workers’ campfires have been radiocarbon-dated to reveal when the stones would have been extracted.
Prof Mike Parker Pearson, director of the project and professor of British later prehistory at University College London (UCL), said the finds were “amazing”.
“We have dates of around 3400 BC for Craig Rhos-y-felin and 3200 BC for Carn Goedog, which is intriguing because the bluestones didn’t get put up at Stonehenge until around 2900 BC,” he said. “It could have taken those Neolithic stone-draggers nearly 500 years to get them to Stonehenge, but that’s pretty improbable in my view. It’s more likely that the stones were first used in a local monument, somewhere near the quarries, that was then dismantled and dragged off to Wiltshire.”
Spoils of war? A demonstration of imperial hegemony, like the monuments that were moved to Constantinople?
(2) YEAR’S WORST SF? Vivenne Raper, in “[Review] The Hunger Tower by Pan Haitian”, concurs with Rocket Stack Rank that this might be the worst story published this year.
#2 The Crack-Fic Trophy for Unintended Erotica
Some writers devote whole blogposts to describing characters. Other writers, however, don’t bother with all that… or correcting translation errors/missing words.
we must band together in this time calamity,*” the captain said. It comforted them all a little to look up at his ruggedly unyielding gray eyes, his muscular neck, his sturdy and well-defined chest.
I expected Fifty Shades of Cannibalism after the ‘ruggedly unyielding gray eyes’. Happily, that didn’t happen, but the author did attempt other descriptions, including this classic:
Vivienne warns that reading this story may lead you to think your own writing isn’t that bad…
(3) IS TREK DOOMED? M.J. Moore argues “Why Star Trek Won’t Make it to the 23rd Century” at SF Signal.
So what do viewers want if not honest to goodness space exploration?
Survival, plain and simple. For a long time now the market has been saturated with Will Smith battling aliens over the White House; the remnants of Earth being overrun by aliens; aliens posing as humans in order to infiltrate and destroy mankind; even young kids with super-minds seeking to destroy an alien race before it destroys us. The big fantasy-books-turned-movies share this focus with the likes of The Hunger Games and Divergent series’.
Consider the hot sci-fi TV shows right now: Killjoys, Extant, Dark Matter, Defiance, Falling Skies. These programs are not about finding peace or new discovery. These shows take an extremely close, dark look at the ‘what if everything went wrong?’ and the ‘how do we deal with life now?’ questions. Our collective fear of the unknown and drive to believe that we can survive against these odds leaves the sci-fi of the current era little room for innocent wonder. We’ve transitioned from an open, outreaching ideal into a people obsessed with self-preservation – and who can blame us? Look at what we’re dealing with today: global warming, terrorism, nation-wide hatred that spawns one blood bath after another.
(4) A PROFILE IN COURAGE. Kameron Hurley details “Why I Chose to Write Publicly About Anxiety”.
…We look at super star writers and we think it must all be easy for them (I certainly do), and that if it isn’t easy for us, that we’re doing something wrong (I always think I’m doing it wrong).
That’s why I wrote this column for Locus Magazine this month.…
Note that – though I spoke about anxiety issues back in July – I waited quite a while to make a post about having to go on medication for it. I started meds in October, right before Empire Ascendant came out, but I still had one more book draft to complete before the end of the year, and I didn’t want to be open (beyond a few vague tweets) about this until I’d turned in that book (or a VERY rough draft of it). I’ve cautioned writers before in being too open about their physical or mental health when things are bad. I’ve heard from a lot of writers (including the late Jay Lake) about how people stopped offering them opportunities on the assumption that they were unable or would be unwilling to tackle them. I didn’t want people to count me out, but I had to wait until I knew I was already better before noting that, you know, back in July I was a fucking nut and yeah, no, it just kept getting worse. This summer was pretty bad. But I had so much work to do by year’s end that I didn’t want to share that with anyone. I’d also hazard a guess that I’d have missed out on some opportunities that came in later in the year if I’d have been too open about just how fucking crazy things were.
Your mileage may vary, but I’d heard of too many writers burned by this. I hedged my bets and wrote the Locus post back in October knowing it would go live in December after I was sane and functioning again….
(5) ACCESS PLEDGE. Ann Leckie’s new post “Access” announces:
I am signing on to Mary Robinette Kowal’s Convention Accessibility Pledge. I’m doing it in this blog post because I think it’s important as many people as possible are aware of this issue.
I’m not going to pull out of convention appearances that I’ve already committed to. (And as it happens, ConFusion and Vericon have both assured me they’re taking accessibility issues seriously, so kudos to them.) But going forward, I will only attend cons that meet the (let’s be honest, pretty minimal) criteria outlined in MRK’s post….
But having a con inside a dry, heated and/or cooled building with sufficient space for people to move around and stairs between floors is in fact an accommodation. We just don’t think of it as one, since we’re used to seeing that particular attention to our needs and comfort as normal and understandable and worth going to some effort to ensure. And yes, stairs are an accommodation. What, you can’t climb up that rope ladder to the next floor?
Claims that arranging in advance to have some ramps or lifts on standby is just too much trouble or expense are, frankly, claims that the needs and comfort of members who need them just don’t matter to you….
(6) Today In History
- December 7, 1972 — Apollo 17 was launched on the last scheduled manned mission to the moon.
(7) Today’s Birthday Girl
- Born December 7, 1915 – Leigh Brackett
Stephen Haffner and the Haffner Press celebrated Leigh Brackett’s 100th Birthday with a long autobiographical quote.
I sold my first story (in late 1939, to Astounding) largely because of two things. First, because this same grandfather had a sure and quiet faith in me, and showed it by financing me in my chance to write when I was quite old enough to make my own living. Second, because one Henry Kuttner, of whom you may have heard, chose to think my wobbling and misshapen efforts had some promise, and went out of his way to help me develop it.
“I have been writing for a living ever since, mostly in science fiction, sometimes in detective stories, for three years and a bit in the Hollywood studios (Columbia, Republic and Warner’s), and a very brief excursion into radio. I like to write. There are times, I’ll admit, when I wish I had chosen the profession of ditch-digging instead. (In all honesty, I’ll have to qualify that last. Since moving to the country I have actually dug a ditch, and I believe that writing is easier.) But it’s a satisfying job and one that constantly expands and changes because you can never possibly learn everything about it. You ask what my philosophy of writing is—I don’t know that I have any. To tell a good story, to tell it as well and effectively as possible, and to try to grow a little wiser and a little deeper all the time—I suppose, put into words, that’s what I aim at. Whether or not I hit it is another matter entirely.
The Haffner Press will also be thrilled if you preorder its Leigh Brackett Centennial collection.
Discovered by editor Stephen Haffner, Brackett’s unpublished story “They” leads off this tribute volume collecting the majority of Brackett’s nonfiction writings, supplemented with vintage interviews and commentaries/remembrances from such luminaries as Ray Bradbury, Michael Moorcock, Richard A. Lupoff, and more.
Leigh Brackett
(8) EVEN MORE MST3K. The “Bring Back Mystery Science Theater 3000” Kickstarter has raised almost double the funds they set as the original goal, $2,000,000. They can already pay for six new episodes. Another three will be produced if they reach $4,400,000. With four days to go, 32,181 backers have pledged $3,89,247.
(9) James H. Burns has two spoiler questions about the new Hunger Games film (but they aren’t really spoilers, and he’s pretty sure the answer may be in the books): How can seventy-five blocks possibly be so long? (in most American cities, that would take, at most, 90 minutes to 2 hours to cross); and how can the Capitol’s government possibly not have heat imaging, or even more advanced technology, to spot the “intruders”?
(10) ZOMBIE STALKER. Fansided reports “Norman Reedus bitten by fan at Walker Stalker Con”.
Norman Reedus of The Walking Dead was reportedly bitten at Walker Stalker Convention in New York/New Jersey by a fan who is now banned from future WSC events.
Turns out that Norman Reedus has to watch out for biters even when he’s not on the set of AMC’s hit zombie survival drama The Walking Dead.
According to several reports, a female fan was standing in front of Spoil The Dead member Michael Bowman in the line for photo opportunities with Reedus and Michael Rooker at Walker Stalker Con NY/NJ around 2:50 pm when it was her turn to get a picture taken.
The woman approached the two actors and told Norman Reedus a story about how she likes to pretend that she’s married to him. After a moment, security ran in and restrained the woman, explaining that she was to be removed for biting the The Walking Dead star and saying “Um….ma’am. You just bit Norman Reedus.”
(11) IT AIN’T SF. LOL! ScienceFiction.com leads with a droll headline — “Defying All Expectations: ‘Star Wars’ Not Science-Fiction Claims ‘The Force Awakens’ Scribe”.
‘Star Wars’ writing veteran Lawrence Kasdan has made an interesting statement recently while speaking to Wired about ‘Star Wars.’ According to the long-time screenwriter, he believes that the epic space-opera is not actually part of the sci-fi genre, as for him, the franchise in many ways seems to stand outside of any genre. In his own words:
“Star Wars is its own genre. It’s not really science fiction. It’s really something on its own, fantasy and myth and science fiction and Flash Gordon and Akira Kurosawa all mixed up together. For that reason, like all genre it can hold a million different kinds of artists and stories… It can be anything you want it to be.”
(12) IMPROVING AS A WRITER. Max Florschutz’ advice for “Being a Better Writer: Always Keep Learning”.
See, there’s a mindset out there in the world today—one that’s certainly not limited to writers, mind—that stipulates that once we reach a certain “point,” usually vaguely defined by some milestone or outside individual, we can “stop learning.” There’s no need to go on. We’ve succeeded. We don’t need to learn anything anymore. We’ve conquered the need for education, and all we need to do now is continue in our craft….
But here’s the real truth behind it. You’re never going to hit that peak. Those people who think that there is a perfect moment where one can just “stop learning” because they know it all are of the same mindset as those individuals who think there is a limited amount of “good fiction” and that other authors need to stop writing so that someone else can have their attention (no, I’m not joking, there’s a whole movement of people with that mindset protesting against authors who are doing well and telling them to stop because they’re hogging the limited resource of readers) or that the publishers should be the only vetting source of books (and not, you know, the public).
(13) AMERICA’S WIZARD COLLEGE. “My crowdfunding campaign: College for wizards”, Abha Bhattari’s recent column “On Small Business” in the Washington Post, was devoted to how two people from Richmond raised nearly $300,000 to host “New World Magichola: A College of Wizardry Larp” where people will spend four days and up to $920 in a workshop to create “an entire North American magical universe” in Richmond.
The Kickstarter page with lots of photos and videos is here.
Raised: $232,062 (as of Nov. 25) of a $35,000 goal. The campaign goes through Jan. 4.
What’s the pitch?
Get your wand ready. Wizardry school is just around the corner.
At New World Magischola, students will get the chance to take courses in a range of subjects including alchemy, magical theory and poisons.
They will receive a costume, robe and a magic textbook when they arrive and will be tasked with warding off evil entities and saving civilization — all while in character.
Brown and her co-founder Benjamin Morrow, 38, came up with the idea for the live-action role play event after attending a similar workshop at a castle in Poland last year. They spent six months creating a fantasy world called Magimundi.
“We thought it was high time that North American had its own magical universe,” Brown said.
In order to become wizards in this magical universe, students must complete one of five majors (choices include Cursebreaking and Cryptozoology) that will be offered next summer. Students will live on campus at the University of Richmond for the duration of the four-day, three-night program.
“You’ll get access to an entire North American magical universe,” Brown and Morrow write on their Kickstarter page. “We’ve designed a world, history, economy, characters, plots, sets, costumes, and magical creatures for you to interact with as your character.”
(14) WHO CHRISTMAS. The BBC has released two trailers for the Doctor Who Christmas Special, “The Husbands of River Song.”
It’s Christmas Day on a remote human colony and the Doctor is hiding from Christmas Carols and Comedy Antlers. But when a crashed spaceship calls upon the Doctor for help, he finds himself recruited into River Song’s squad and hurled into a fast and frantic chase across the galaxy. King Hydroflax (Greg Davies) is furious, and his giant Robot bodyguard is out-of-control and coming for them all! Will Nardole (Matt Lucas) survive? And when will River Song work out who the Doctor is?
[Thanks to Gregory N. Hullender, Martin Morse Wooster, James H. Burns, John King Tarpinian, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Soon Lee.]
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Fifth! And title credit!
Woot!
::ticky::
(4)Mostly I think to leave people in peace to cope with their problem & offer assistance when appropriate, but I haven’t considered the unwanted side-effect of reducing the opportunities. Must remember this.
Credit to you, @Soon Lee. It’s an awesome title!
(1) ROCK ‘N’ ROLL
Okay, that’s really cool. I’m imagining a big geologic jigsaw puzzle mystery.
Dear Lawrence Kasdan,
CONGRATULATIONS! You have successfully described space opera!
I think I just injured myself rolling my eyes so hard,
Me.
Maybe Fifth *crosses fingers*
(9)
In my family the spoiler question is why the hell is that army of sympathetic characters walking straight into a completely unnecessary meat grinder?
Sure, the old leadership is holed up in the city.
Gee, too bad the folks outside grow and control all the food and supplies.
This is a situation for a siege. Anything else is stupid.
FifthSeventh. Dammit.third fifth?
(12) IMPROVING AS A WRITER
*saves to add to list of resources (ever growing) that I hand out in my creative writing courses*
Because, of course!
I think he’s right that people seem to think there’s an end or point at which they’ve learned all of X. And it’s not so.
As I recently wrote to one, “life-long learning! it’s not just a pretty slogan!”
(And depressingly some seem to think that a 16 week course is sufficient to learn all about X!)
@Nate Harada: re your comment to Kasdan: I think I just injured myself rolling my eyes so hard,
I am also in pain from the eyeball rolling at the hyperbolic claims of SW as being such a special genre snowflake that it’s all alone in the universe because it’s so Uniquely Unique!11!!
(14) WHO CHRISTMAS
Alex Kingston is looking great!
Re: accessibility
There’s a con I attend twice a year that has some unfortunate accessibility issues. Specifically, it’s at a motel* that has two floors but no elevator. The only way to get to some of the function space is by climbing a staircase. The only accessibility policy the con could possibly adopt that would make any difference is “find a new venue.”
As a result, I’ve never been to that second floor. When I reserve my room, I let the front desk know I need a first-floor assignment, and they take care of it. I don’t blame the con for the hotel’s deficiency, but it is something I know I have to keep in mind… at least for 2016. The con chair’s retiring after the Halloween event, and he’s not looking to hand it off to anyone else. Kind of a shame, actually.
* No, I do not mean “hotel.” With a handful of exceptions, the room doors open to the outside, so it’s a motel.
Oh thanks Soon Lee. Now how are we supposed to get the name pronounced backwards?
(3) IS TREK DOOMED? – enh. First of all, I think she’s looking at a very limited sample of current shows. I wouldn’t necessarily describe any of the current superhero shows, or Sense8, Limitless, Humans, Dr Who as being “dark”.
Secondly, my favourite Trek remains DS9. I may have been “darker” (whatever that’s supposed to mean) than previous Treks, but it was still Trek. I think there is some severe under-estimation of what can be done with the franchise.
Snowcrash: sharing your love for DS9 — it was by far and away my favorite show for So. Many. Reasons.
re: Scroll Title–I can’t even pronounce it forwards, much less backwards. 🙂
[also ticky]
DS9. Best. Trek. Ever.
(2) Argon-esque.
(3) TREK: “the hot sci-fi TV shows”? Haven’t most of those already been canceled? Not exactly “hot”. Also, much love for DS9.
(4) Good for her. People: take the meds!
(5) ACCESS: Bravo for Leckie. I’m going to use that “stairs are an accommodation”.
(10) Yikes. It might be nice if ZombieCon shared the name with other media cons. If this woman’s gonna bite one person, she’s likely to bite more. And I will bet you money she’s done weird stalking stuff to actors before. I’ve seen those kind; they’re repeat offenders, latching on to whatever the hot fandom is and doing that.
(11) Shut up, Larry. You’re wrong. Get over it and yourself.
(14) When I grow up, I wanna be Alex Kingston.
(2) Vivienne’s review is amusing but did she miss that this story had been translated? Having said that it does read like a parody of bad science fiction.
Oh, and not sure if this has been pointed out, but Kim Stanley Robinson has a new story at Tor.com.
It’s a stand-alone, and it’s really funny.
http://www.tor.com/2015/12/07/oral-argument-kim-stanley-robinson/
Rev Bob: There’s a con I attend twice a year that has some unfortunate accessibility issues. Specifically, it’s at a motel* that has two floors but no elevator.
A motel with function space? And on the second floor? I’m not sure what strikes me as odder, to tell you the truth. Is it very old, as motels go? (Not that it matters, really. I’ve just spent a lot of time in motels/hotels over the past few years, and I’m curious.)
@Mary Frances:
It may not be official Hotel Function Space; as I said, I haven’t been up there – because of the stairs. The con could be repurposing suites. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen that. I just know Gaming was on the second floor, which effectively prevented me from breaking out my trunkful o’games.
The first floor space amounts to the breakfast area, a small programming/meeting room behind there, and a larger area nearby that the con uses for assorted things. I have no idea what the big space is when the con’s not using it.
Rev. Bob: The con could be repurposing suites.
That makes sense. I was imagining this Super 8 or Motel 6 with an upstairs ballroom–or actually, any ballroom–and couldn’t quite wrap my mind around it. (Bet the larger area on the first floor was a repurposed lobby or something, possibly left over after a remodel.) Anyway, thanks for indulging my pointless curiosity.
Oh, I have a tickle in my throat.
{BRUMPH}-sht.
Good. Now I am feeling much better.
Right, no one but George Lucas has ever written Science Fantasy before or since. It isn’t a genre that’s been around since at least the nineteen twenties. It’s unique to Star Wars. There’s no such thing as Barsoom—you just imagined it.
Oh, and science fiction is dying. Right. That’s also clearly true. It’s been dying for at least the last half-century, but this time, for sure, right? 😀
@Soon Lee: Love the pixel scroll title!
Thought y’all might like this, from XKCD. 😀
http://xkcd.com/1613/
@Camestros I knew it had been translated. My review on RSR was very ‘oh, it was all down to the translator’. I was told that bad translation couldn’t be wholly responsible.
Bear in mind that The Three-Body Problem and The Day the World Turned Upside Down (from last year’s Hugos) were also translated, and the writing was fine. To generate that solely by translation, I think the translator would need to be proactively hostile to the author 🙂
I should mention, while I’m here, that I recently interviewed a prolific British short fic writer. And bunch of other short fic writers about pay rates, markets and Patreon (with some wild speculation thrown in). Hugely grateful to everyone who helped with that.
Yeah it isn’t great 🙂
I can see bits below which are probably poor translation e.g. “quite eye-catching” is an odd usage in the context but then the actual content of the rest is mad-bonkers and presumably matches what was in the original text.
““You’re right, our laser guns are useless,” the chemistry professor said wearily. Due to his slender build, his large, protruding ears were quite eye-catching. “I happened to read a short introduction for tourists who visit this planet. The planet is known for the astonishing number of crystals that have formed in the mica. Due to the principle of resonance, the planet is filled with ultrasonic noise. The creatures here have evolved an innate ability to make use of and control the vibration of other objects. You’ve seen the fur on the cat-beast’s head, right? It can use that fur to sense vibrations—and really, when you get right down to it, a laser is just a kind of vibration. Your attack probably made the beast uncomfortable, but there’s no way that it could have hurt it.”
My headcannon is that the Wales location was a showroom for prospective buyers.
“Llywelyn’s Standing Stones, 20% off! This weekend only!”
Here’s the Chinese text of Pan Haitian’s story.
I just compared the beginning of both–and tbh my modern Chinese is rusty so take my opinion with a lot of salt–but while in a few places the translator is perhaps overwrought and the Chinese dialogue is smoother, he’s faithful.
Apparently this is one of Pan’s signature works. I know nothing of his other writings or Chinese sci-fi and have no idea why this is famous. It may be playing off of Lu Xun’s Diary of a Madman and Mo Yan’s The Republic of Wine, but I’m not sure how.
There’s also the obvious Zhuangzi-inspired butterfly dream, but again I’m not sure to what purpose. The story reads mostly as a [SPOILER] Forbidden Planet homage, though I guess saying something more about the dreams of a society than the unconscious thoughts of individuals.
I also started dozing off while reading–more due to being tired than the story–so perhaps I missed a lot.
The translator does have an interesting website on (mostly) Chinese comics.
@ (3) – The “hot sci-fi TV shows” that M.J. Moore cites are metaphorical reflections on how we think about the present. Star Trek is an open-ended exploration of our ideas about our future. Apples and oranges. SF has always had room for both. Hallelujah.
Since The Steerswoman series by Rosemany Kirstein has been so highly recommended by so many on this site (and thank you so much for the recommendations by the way – I just finished inhaling the books!), her most recent blog post may be of interest to some. In short, she has been laid off from her employment (with no warning or notice) – which is never pleasant, but as she had written previously,
Best wishes,
// Christian
Also, NetHack 3.6 was released today. Among other changes, they’ve added a lot of Terry Pratchett quotes.
Oooooohh!!!! o.O
Christian Brunschen: Since The Steerswoman series by Rosemary Kirstein has been so highly recommended by so many on this site… her most recent blog post may be of interest to some. In short, she has been laid off from her employment (with no warning or notice)
And no severance. Dammit, that’s harsh.
Well, I had previously bought the 1st for .99, but I hadn’t got around to reading it yet, so hadn’t bought the rest. So I went out and got books 2, 3, and 4 just now. Since the e-books are self-pubbed, I hope that she sees the lion’s share of the book price. Based on the opinions of a bunch of Filers whose judgment I’ve come to trust, I expect I will find it money well spent.
Now, just to find the time away from reading 2015 published books to read the Steerswoman series…
And the site says:
Huh. I never realized the connection went that way. Since I played Hack ~10 years before I encountered Discworld, I’ve always assumed the Tourist in Hack was older than the Discworld books and that they both originate from the same external source. (Actually, checking the publication dates of the Discworld books the Hack versions I played in my childhood must have been more up-to-date than I thought.)
I read the book Dungeon Hacks earlier this year and it had some nice information of the history of all rogue like games, how the code was copied, what game was inspired by what and what the individual goals with all the games were. I think it named the individual coder that invented the Tourist class.
Saw Mockingjay Part II just the other day. It was … OK. I mean, it was fine; the acting was very good, I’ll pretty much watch anything Jennifer Lawrence is in at this point. But my reaction to it was the same as to Mockingjay Part I. Where Catching Fire was a truly brilliant adaptation, these were just all right.
Mockingjay is a book I actually love deeply, and yes, I am aware of the plotting problems that have been brought up here. I think that’s why the movies of it don’t quite work. What makes Mockingjay work is the interior monologue of the main character, an astonishing portrait of a teenager with PTSD and no knowledge that there even is such a thing. The change in medium means that’s gone. What’s left are the character relationships, which are admittedly important and which the movie handles reasonably well, the themes, which are admittedly interesting and not black and white simplistic, and the plot. But the plot, well … even with the character relationships and the themes, if the book had been written in exterior third person instead of first person, it would be your average “oh, I guess the series had to end somehow” YA instead of a fairly brilliant, even game-changing book.
I’m not sure why the movie of Catching Fire, in contrast, really, really worked. It was arguably better than the book. Possibly because that part of the story was much more about the character relationships?
Spoils of war? A demonstration of imperial hegemony, like the monuments that were moved to Constantinople?
Or like all the Obelisks I found in Rome. There are more Obelisks in the city of Rome (13) than are left in the entirety of Egypt (about a half dozen). There’s hegemony for you!
Paul Weimer: There are more Obelisks in the city of Rome (13) than are left in the entirety of Egypt (about a half dozen).
You’ll be wanting Australia, then. There are more fricking obelisks in that country than there are in the U.S.
Most of the Aussie ones look like they’re modern constructions rather than classical Egyptian.
Lord knows how many pointy bits of carved stone there are in the UK.
@Kyra: “What makes Mockingjay work is the interior monologue of the main character, an astonishing portrait of a teenager with PTSD and no knowledge that there even is such a thing.”
Yes. People tend to either love or hate that book, and I’m with you on the “love” side for that very reason. Most of the “hate” reviews I’ve seen appear to have wanted Katniss to become a completely different person in that book, an avenging angel instead of a shell-shocked young woman who’s just seen her home destroyed. Katniss was always reactive instead of proactive, which meant she wasn’t going to claw her way into functioning without major help – but nobody was really interested in (or able to) providing that.
At least, that was my read.
Also, in case you haven’t yet seen yesterday’s XKCD, it explains why the a priority ordering can be very important.
(11) Hey, we’ve all known since we were kids that if it’s good, it’s not sf–right?
When a story is translated and bad, it can sometimes be difficult to know where to place the blame.
Clicky.
So one of the most derivative popular works of our era is Sui generis? Sounds legit.
@3
DS9 is an example of Trek can go dark, and go dark wonderfully in a way that holds up better than some of Roddenberry’s demanded sweetness and light.
DS9 is also an example of the cardinal rule of keeping a franchise going. Don’t slavishly follow the fandom’s wishes. If you do, you’ll get faithful copies of the fandom’s first show, with most variation squeezed out for fear of not insulting fans. See Voyager and Enterprise and how they followed Next Gen. Or how the Puppies see sci-fi as a Heinlein Juvenilia thrust into a human face, forever.
If anything, Star Trek offers a millennium in our own time, facing our own challenges. A show about Utopia challenged, or how we get to it along the stoney road we are currently would be great. In our current era of all grim dark dystopia, all the time, it would give people some hope in a common future. And this is what we live for. (Much of this paragraph is not that original in the slightest, as you may have realized by now.)
(14)
I think that Alex Kingston and Peter Capaldi look to have much better chemistry than any previous Doctor and River. I’m looking forward to it.
@Shao Ping
There have been 12 short stories translated from Chinese published in the 6 main US publications this year, and while this is the worst, they have generally been worse than average.
I wonder if Chinese SF is just very immature still, producing stories Gernsback might have approved of, but which shouldn’t get out of the slushpile today. It’s rather scary that something this bad is famous in China.
Star Trek Voyager started out pretty good, then decided that they could stretch the series out forever by treading water. I think that was more a case of a show getting trapped by it’s own success than anything else.
Um… really? I mean, I realize my impression could be wrong, based as it is on Internet chatter rather than a ratings sheet, but nobody really talks about those shows. So I assume the hottest shows are Doctor Who, all the superhero shows (to the extent they count as SF — some, like Agents of Shield, feel very SF, but others not so much), Orphan Black, The Man in the High Castle…
Orphan Black and Man in the High Castle both have that narrower, darker, more paranoid feel, while Doctor Who and Agents of Shield have a very big, open, other worlds and other places feel. So it just doesn’t seem like a trend to me.
(By the way, the Agents of Shield episode where Simmons is stuck on an alien planet for the whole episode is stellar and one of my top picks for Hugo nominations.)
If space travel is losing its hold on our imaginations, I suspect it’s purely our growing realization of how unrealistic it is as a potential future for ourselves — there’s no warp drive, and the universe is not teeming with life.
Re: Star Wars isn’t “really” science fiction — this has been a nerd argument since forever.
I think people get way too precious with genre sometimes, often when they think of it as a “select one” rather than a “check as many as apply” kind of question. So, you know — it has space battles. Of course it’s science fiction. What else would it be?
You can say it’s driven more by space battles than by a speculative element, and that’s fine, but as others have pointed out, that’s space opera right there, and it has a long tradition in the genre.
Oh, and great title!