(1) CARNEGIE AND GREENAWAY LONGLISTS. The longlists for the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals have been announced.
The Carnegie Medal, established in 1936, is awarded annually to the writer of an outstanding book for children. The Kate Greenaway Medal has been given since 1955 for distinguished illustration in a book for children.
Locus Online has identified the works of genre interest on both lists.
(2) TOLKIEN POEMS DISCOVERED. Two poems by J.R.R. Tolkien have been discovered in a 1936 copy of a school annual reports the BBC.
The Shadow Man, and a Christmas poem called Noel, were found at Our Lady’s School, Abingdon.
It is thought Tolkien got to know the school while he was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University.
The poems were printed a year before Tolkien’s first literary sensation The Hobbit was published.
The Shadow Man is an earlier version of a poem eventually published in 1962 in Tolkien’s Adventures of Tom Bombadil collection.
The existence of the poems came to light after American Tolkien scholar Wayne G. Hammond got in touch with the school.
According to The Guardian —
The first poem, The Shadow Man, is an early version of a poem that Tolkien went on to publish in his 1962 collection The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. It tells of “a man who dwelt alone/ beneath the moon in shadow”, who “sat as long as lasting stone,/and yet he had no shadow”. When “a lady clad in grey” arrives, he wakes, and “clasped her fast, both flesh and bone;/and they were clad in shadow”.
The second, Noel, is a Christmas poem, albeit one set in scenery that would not be out of place in Middle-earth. “The hall was dark without song or light,/The fires were fallen dead,” writes Tolkien, going on to portray “the lord of snows”, whose “mantle long and pale/Upon the bitter blast was spread/And hung o’er hill and dale”.
(3) TWITTER WISHES. John Scalzi, in “What I Want Out of Twitter”, explains the changes he’d like to see made in this social media platform.
What I’m more interested in is how Twitter can make itself better, which is a different question than how Twitter can be saved. Twitter’s major issue, as everyone except apparently Twitter’s C-bench knows, is that there are a bunch of shitheads on it who like to roll up to whomever they see as targets (often women and/or people in marginalized groups) and dogpile on them. That’s no good….
So, if Twitter were asking me what I wanted out of Twitter to make it an optimal service for me, here’s what I would suggest, in no particular order:…
Other things to allow filtering of:
- Profile keywords: If I could filter out every single account that had “#GamerGate” in its profile text, as an example, my replies would have been a lot quieter in the last couple of years.
- Accounts based on who they follow: Right now I’m thinking of five Twitter accounts of people I think are basically real assholes. I suspect that if you are following all five of them, you are probably also an asshole, and I don’t want to hear from you. In this particular case I think it’d useful to have the filtering be fine-grained, as in, rather than just filtering everyone who followed one account, you’d filter them if they followed Account 1 AND Account 2 AND Account 3 (and so on). It would also be useful to be able to do this more than once, i.e., have more than one follower filter, because often it’s not just one group being annoying.
(4) THE HAMMER. Robot6 asks “Are you worthy to wield this Thor’s Hammer Tool Kit?”
Noting a serious lack of geek-themed hardware, Dave Delisle came up with an idea for a tool set to tackle virtually any home-repair project in the Nine Realms, even the famed clogged drains of Jotunheim.
As you can see, the Thor Hammer Tool Kit looks like the fabled Mjolnir, until it’s opened to reveal a claw hammer, wrench, screwdriver, socket set and so on.
Click through to see an animated gif that makes it all clear.
(5) UNREADY PLAYER ONE. Science Fiction.com reports “’Ready Player One’ Moves Release Date To Dodge ‘Star Wars’”.
And now that the release date for Rian Johnson’s ‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ has officially moved from May 2017 to December 15, 2017, it looks like even the legendary Steven Spielberg is jumping out of the way in hopes of not getting steamrollered.
According to Variety, the iconic filmmaker’s latest film ‘Ready Player One’ will push back it’s release date to March 30, 2018. Originally slated for December 15, 2017, the movie based on Ernest Cline’s acclaimed nostalgia-filled sci-fi adventure has vacated that spot to give a galaxy far, far away some space. After all, they definitely don’t want to end up like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s ‘Sisters’, which went up against J.J. Abrams’ highly anticipated blockbuster during this past holiday season and didn’t stand a chance against the intergalactic juggernaut.
(6) A MUNDANE YEAR FOR GRAMMY. The 2016 Grammy Award winners didn’t have much of genre interest. I’m really going to have to stretch a point…
Best pop duo/group performance
“Uptown Funk”: Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars
Although the music video for the song wasn’t a Grammy nominee, it’s the main reason I’m reporting any of these awards, because fannish actor Ed Green appears in the background of it beginning at :25 — he’s on the left, speaking on the pay phone. (He also appears at right, below, in the title frame.)
Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media
Birdman
Antonio Sanchez, composer
Then, Jimmy Carter won the Best Spoken Word Album category, where Janis Ian was also a nominee.
(9) ONLY IN IT FOR THE PUN. The Telegraph says “BBC to axe television and radio divisions as part of radical management overhaul”.
Lord Hall, the director-general of the BBC, will not replace Danny Cohen, the corporation’s recently departed director of television, and is instead moving ahead with radical plans to abolish the broadcaster’s radio and television divisions.
“’Doc Martin’ and ‘Doctor Who’ to be combined into new programme, ‘Doc Who’,” reports Andy Porter.
(10) LE GUIN. Ursula K. Le Guin continues answering people’s questions about writing in “Navigating the Ocean of Story (2)” at Book View Café.
Do you consider it a good idea to offer your work in progress to numerous and/or unselected critics? If so, how do you decide which criticisms are valid and useful?
To offer work for critique to an unselected group on the Net, people who remain strangers, is to extend trust to absolute strangers. Some of them will take advantage of the irresponsibility afforded by the medium.
Here’s my advice, for what it’s worth: Don’t do it unless you’ve considered the risks. Pay attention to any comment that really makes sense to you; value any intelligent praise you get. That’s about as far as trust can take you. Keep an eye out for know-it-alls who make like critics, spouting secondhand rules. And remember some may be there because they want to make soup out of your bones.
This is not the voice of experience. I never gave my work to strangers to criticize in first draft or at any stage. I never submitted a piece to an editor or agent until it was, to the best of my knowledge and ability, finished.
(11) TODAY IN HISTORY
- February 16, 1923 – Archeologists opened the tomb of Tutankhamen in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings.
(12) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY GIRL
- Born February 16, 1958 – Lisa Loring, the actress who played Wednesday Addams in the original Addams Family TV series.
(13) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOYS
- Born February 16, 1926 – Rusty Hevelin
- Born February 16, 1957 – LeVar Burton, Jr., who played ST:TNG’s Geordi LaForge.
(14) CHAOS HORIZON. Chaos Horizon comments on the final SFWA 2015 Best Novel Recommended Reading List. It’s interesting that only six novels have more than 20 recommendations.
Gannon [Raising Caine] and Schoen [Barsk] have shot up this list like rockets, going from nowhere in November to dominating by the end. Those 34 and 33 numbers are so impressive it’s hard to imagine them not getting Nebula nominations at this point. Overall, there were 728 total recommendations; that has to represent a substantial amount of the final Nebula nomination vote. Gannon and Schoen will raise some eyebrows if they get nominations; these SF books certainly got less press, acclaim, and online discussion than other SF books like Sevenves or Aurora. The Nebula is quirky like this, often favoring smaller authors over the big names. If they get nominated, I think the question is whether or not one of those books can win. Will Gannon follow the McDevitt route—get nominated enough and eventually you’ll win? Will Barsk grab a ton of new readers and take the Nebula? I think there’s a definite advantage to being fresh in your voters’ minds.
(15) WRIGHT BACKS HIS BEST EDITOR. John C. Wright adds his endorsement to the Rabid Puppy slate.
The Puppy-kickers are our ideological foes bent on replacing popular and well crafted sci fi tales with politically correct science-free and entertainment-free moping dreck that reads like something written by a highschool creative writing course dropout.
The Puppy-kickers have repeatedly and vehemently assured us assured us that soliciting votes from likeminded fans for stories you judge worthy was a “slate” and therefore was (for reasons not specified) totally and diabolically evil and wrong and bad, was not something insiders had been doing for decades, and was always totally inexcusable, except when they did it, and voted in a slate to grant ‘No Award’ to categories where they had lost their stranglehold over the nominations.
In that spirit, I hereby officially announce in my capacity as the Grand Inquisitor of the Evil Legion of Evil Authors, that the following list is the recommended reading list of our Darkest Lord only, and not a voting slate.
These are the recommendations of my editor, Theodore Beale, aka Vox Day, the most hated man in Science Fiction, but certainly the best editor I have had the pleasure to work with.
(16) MESSAGE FREE. Those who feel the yarn is the most important thing may find themselves voting for this —
https://twitter.com/battyknits/status/699679210428882946
(17) MILLENNIALS. “Millennial Fans: An Interview with Louisa Stein (Part Two)” conducted by Henry Jenkins at Confessions of an Aca-Fan.
Many of the shows you write about as Millennial programs are also shows with strong female leads and targeted at female consumers — Friday Night Lights would be a notable exception on your list. So, what happens to the gendering of fandom as we move towards Millennial fan culture?
Issues of gender permeate millennial culture, fan culture, and the relationship between the two. Masculinizing—or feminizing—fan culture has been one way industry interests tame fandom’s perceived unruliness. Seemingly masculine forms of fandom (and I would emphasize that these areas, like gender itself, are social constructs) have already been categorized as industrially legible and profit friendly. The fanboy stereotype has its share of taboo associations, going all the way back to the “Get a Life” bit on Saturday Night Live that Textual Poachers opens with; but the fanboy position has since been spun into industry heralded narratives of superfans and fanboy auteurs (see Scott, Kohnen), with the lines toward brand support and profit already clearly delineated.
Obsession_inc (and many others citing her) have termed this divide “affirmational fandom,” versus “transformative fandom,” with the latter perceived as more the practice of female consumers who transform media texts into art and fiction, often in so doing significantly changing their meaning. In Millennial Fandom, I actually argue that transformational and affirmational fandom are more deeply intertwined than we might at first assume, but nevertheless, at a discursive level, the distinction helps us to see why and how transformative (perceived “feminine”) practices have been and continue to be treated as suspect, marked as taboo, and policed.
(18) AQUA JODHPURS. “Our first good look at Jason Momoa’s full Aquaman costume comes from ToyFair” at Yahoo! TV.
Then along came ToyFair 2016. Ahhhh, good old ToyFair. Hosted in New York City at the beginning of each year, the convention showcases the best of upcoming merchandise to look forward to. It’s also ALWAYS good for a spoiler or two. One of this year’s was a complete look at Jason Momoa’s costume in Batman v Superman, complete with colors. Behold!
The tattoos on Aquaman’s chest appear to continue onto his pants(?) which are a murky green. The better to blend into the ocean floor with. Of course, the camo look is marred by the bright gold knee-highs, but a king has to make concessions for style. I’m curious if Aquaman’s asymmetrical armor has a backstory is just there to look cool. Also, he is totally standing in rubble. Could it be that Wonder Woman isn’t the only superhero to show up at the end to clean up Batman and Superman’s mess?
(19) SHATNER BOOK REVIEW. Ryan Britt at Tor.com says “William Shatner’s New Memoir Leonard is Surprising and Moving”.
Whether they’re in their Kirk and Spock guises, or just being themselves, it’s hard to prefer William Shatner to Leonard Nimoy. Nimoy just seems more comfortable and real of the two, whereas Shatner appears to be putting on airs. Over the years, William Shatner seems to have figured this out and embraced the fact that no one will ever totally take him seriously. All of this makes the publication of a memoir written by him about Leonard Nimoy both look like a cynical cash-grab and a disingenuous maneuver of faux-love.
But if you’re a Star Trek fan, or casually interested in Leonard Nimoy, Leonard: My Fifty-Year Friendship With a Remarkable Man reveals that not only is Shatner a good guy, but that Leonard Nimoy may not have been the cool one, and did in fact fight all sorts of demons both inside and out.
(20) CORREIA’S SCHOOL FOR BUSINESS. Larry Correia says “One Star Reviews Over Book Prices are Dumb”, which is absolutely true.
I know writers aren’t supposed to respond to reviews, but I’m not responding to this as a writer, I’m responding to it as a retired accountant.
I am the author in question. Your review doesn’t hurt anything except my overall average. You aren’t sticking it to the man. You aren’t harming the corporate fat cats. If you think the book sucks, give it one star. That’s awesome. That’s what the stars are for. But you don’t use one star to bitch about the price of eBooks. That just makes you look stupid. We shouldn’t still be having this conversation with anybody who isn’t a Bernie Sanders supporter.
Now, Accountant Hat on. This is pretty basic stuff. This is how basic costing works, not just for books, but quite literally everything. But today, we’ll talk about books, because your ridiculous review has pissed me off. I’m going to dumb this down and keep it simple as possible.
The rest is a long but lighthearted lesson about the business of producing books that makes cost accounting entertaining. (I know you think I’m being facetious, which is why I need to say, no, I really found it entertaining.)
(21) ANOTHER OPINION ABOUT THE KENYON SUIT. Amanda S. Green at Mad Genius Club begins her “And the World Keeps Turning” column: “I will give the same caveat here that Sarah gave in her post. I have not read the pleadings filed on Ms. Kenyon’s behalf. Nor have I read Ms. Clare’s books.”
On Friday of last week, the Guardian published an article that addresses, from Ms. Clare’s point of view. Two things stood out for me and, yes, I know I am paying attention to lawyer-speak but the attorney, John Cahill, does bring up some interesting questions. First, “the lawsuit failed to identify a single instance of actual copying or plagiarism by Cassie.” The second is that Ms. Clare has been writing these characters and series, iirc, for ten years. That’s a long time to wait before filing suit and part of me wonders if the fact Ms. Clare’s series is being made into a television series wasn’t the impetus for the suit.
To be fair, the suit does allege that Ms. Clare, in her series, does, “employ a line of warriors who protect the normal world from demons”, both cover how “a young person becomes part of the Dark-Hunters’ (or Shadowhunters’) world after being saved by a gorgeous blond Dark-Hunter (or Shadowhunter)”, and “both Dark-Hunters and Shadowhunters have enchanted swords that are divinely forged, imbued with otherworldly spirits, have unique names, and glow like heavenly fire”.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I can think of any number of books, short stories, TV shows and movies that could fall under that description. Those are, indeed, story elements, but does it rise to the level of plagiarism and copyright infringement?
Green steps into the judge’s shoes, for at least a few sentences, to voice skepticism about the plaintiff’s case. Not having read the complaint, Green missed the opportunity to see its list of the statutes the judge is asked to apply. With the help of Google she could have tested lawyer Cahill’s argument, as well as her own doubts that the infringement is actionable.
(22) A MENU ALOFT. Rick Foss was interviewed by Leanna Garfield for her Tech Insider post “We’re in a golden age of airplane food – for some people”.
When American Airlines recently launched a 15-hour direct flight from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia, it also debuted a new menu. Flight attendants offer first-class passengers complimentary glasses of 2010 Penfolds Grange Shiraz (normally $850 per bottle) and roasted sirloin steak with red wine sauce.
Travelers in the economy cabin are still only treated to peanuts (But hey, at least they now get complimentary spirits — quite the perk).
The improvements in first and business class have more to do with the economics of the airline industry than they do with a desire to provide better service, Richard Foss, culinary historian and author of “Food in the Air and Space: The Surprising History of Food and Drink in the Skies,” tells Tech Insider.
Foss has studied the history of airline food for over a decade, from the glory days in the ’70s when airlines served lobster to today’s inflight tuna sandwiches. Here’s a look at that history, and how airlines are trying to bring back the golden age of airline dining for high-paying passengers.
[Thanks to Will R., JJ, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jonathan Edelstein.]
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Darren – yes, that’s what they’re both referring to.
@StephenfromOttawa
C.J. Cherryh Named SFWA Damon Knight Grand Master
Excellent news, and hugely well-deserved – many congratulations, C.J. Cherryh!
(Now will this help the world get that long-awaited high-budget Foreigner TV series ….?)
[Edited to add a link to the announcement on the SFWA site, since the comment I replied to seems to be missing?]
Anyone else remember when CUL predicted that George R.R. Martin would be named a Grandmaster as “payback” for speaking out against the Puppies? Looks like CUL’s streak of being wrong about pretty much everything is intact.
Lois Tilton: I too have been a bit puzzled by the absence of Arcadia from award discussion, but I don’t think ‘not a member of the club’ can be the whole explanation, as other non-club works like The Buried Giant and The Chimes have attracted some attention (often negative, it’s true, but people know they are there).
@ Christian
Thanks for the fabulous news about Cherryh! That puts a shine on the day.
That’s absolutely wonderful news! I’m totally, utterly, and every other superlative in the dictionary, delighted that CJ’s work has been recognised, and very, very happy to know that she has lots more stories to write for me to read.
Of course, everybody else will be able to read them too, which is also good.
The new Humble Books Bundle is well worth a look. Classic SF, including Alfred Bester and Rodger Zelazny, some of the later Wild Cards books, Asimov and a lot of the post RZ Amber continuation books.
Congrats to Cherryh! That’s great news.
Awesome news about Cherryh. Much deserved, I think.
Fabulous news about Cherryh! Very well deserved!
On the topic of “what are we reading” (or in this case, what are we re-reading), I’ve decided to start a new weekly feature on my blog doing a critical re-read of one of my go-to comfort books: Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess. I’m hoping it will be an interactive discussion. Anyone interested in following along can find the initial posting here.
I believe I may need to pull my copy of the Faded Sun trilogy off the shelf to celebrate Cherryh’s new status.
20 Correia. Pretty good, except for the multiple gratuitous digs at Bernie Sanders supporters, who, if Correia is to be believed, do not understand economics, and the even-more-offensive footnote, which insults speed-readers as unloveable, and incidentally assumes his audience consists entirely of people attracted to women. Apparently straight women and gay men are imaginary. While it is true that I have not “known the touch of a woman” (at least in the romantic sense), I fail to see how that affects the validity of my opinions. And even if I had had no romantic experience at all, that wouldn’t be relevant either. Jerk.
The news that the MidAmeriCon II hotels block had been expanded coincides with the announcement in my email that WFTDA have announced the dates and locations of the two Division 2 Playoffs weekends.
Alas, the first of them coincides with World Con. Aug 19-21… in Wichita KS. Close enough to Kansas City MO (if only conceptually) to lament that it wasn’t closer, dang it. (The other is the following weekend in Lansing MI).
I won’t know which of the two D2 weekends my league is participating in, if they are participating at all, until some time in the summer, when rankings are calculated and invitations go out. Which makes for a very last-minute World Con decision.
It is very likely I’m just going to have to wish you all a very fun time without me. But we’ll see.
@bookworm1398
I loved it and nominated it for best novel. As for genre fit, it has Time Travel, Robots (jubfr fragvrapr naq ntrapl vf orvat qrongrq), and The Philosopher Kings mentions Fcnpr Geniry, all of which would qualify as SF. The divine intervention would make it fantasy, and there are no taverns in the snow to break the tie.
Exciting news about Cherryh, indeed!
@jonesnori
Alternatively, it could be that the speed readers that are obnoxiously proud of their ability and are within Mr. Correia’s experience base have presented themselves as being straight and male. Equally alternatively, maybe he’s using a little poetic license.
The overlap in Bernie’s camp and the understanding of real world economics is pretty thin, in my experience as well. While they may be digs, they are reasonably aimed.
Regards,
Dann
Excellent news about Cherryh.
Geez, I thought Wright was 20 or 30 years older. Was he so heartbroken at age 12 when that poor Mr. Nixon had to resign? Was he tsking those uppity students and Negroes for marching when he was 6, interfering with his recess on the playground and stealing his half-pint milk cartons at lunch? Did the Weather Underground steal his Play-Doh? Did his crayons run away to the Haight during the Summer of Love?
By the time he was old enough to read, the New Wave of SF was firmly entrenched as the award-winning default, and Heinlein had already gone different. Women had had the vote for decades. He’s too young to remember JFK, there’s been a manned space program since before he was born, etc.
What a maroon. I’d almost pity him if he weren’t so hateful.
One-star reviews are useful to me as long as they’re about the content of the book, not the shipping, ebook pricing in general or I DIDNT ORDER THIS BOK. If they point out bigotry, I skip it. If they point out inability to write coherent prose, I skip it. If they complain that the characters cuss too much, don’t talk every other page about JEE-ZUS (not to be confused with that actual cool cat from Nazareth), or get upset that there’s hawt sexy sex between the hero and heroine, or bitch that there’s any LBGT relationships and PoC and women get to do things, I buy that faster than you can say “1-Click”. So one-star reviews are useful if you know how to use them.
@Lenore: [Correia]assumes his audience consists entirely of people attracted to women. Maybe it really does? His potential audience consists of everyone, but his real audience may only be people (mostly men) attracted to women. It’s certainly the impression I got when I tried to read the first MHI book. But then I’m one of those terrible speed readers too.
Huzzah and well-deserved for Cherryh!
I was going to brag that we now have two SFWA Grandmasters in eastern Washington, but it turns out M.J. Engh was awarded Author Emeritus (emerita?) in 2008. (Thus reminding me that the proper order of operations is google, then post).
My sincerest congratulations to C.J. Cherryh!
@Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little
Hey, you derby! My wife is currently trying to figure out what team in the WashBalt area she wants to join. She actually played for a team in Kansas, but that was two moves ago.
@dann665
Man, nothing proves things like anecdotal evidence, and reading an author’s mind to determine their intent!
I thought that the latest Humble Books Bundle seemed uh… well it seemed like it was a bunch of old white guys.
(15) I agree with the previous assessments, i.e. “John C Wright says blah blah blah.” Who cares?
(21) I am taking the radical Marxist position of offering no public opinion on the Kenyon lawsuit for the no-doubt FEEBLE reason, go figure, that I have not read the complaint and have not read any of the works in question and so don’t know enough about it to hold forth.
And congratulations to CJ Cherryh! Well-deserved!
@dann665
Compared to Republicans and their love of the ‘Welfare For The Wealthy’ scheme known as supply-side economics?
No respected economist thinks it’s a good idea, and it’s central premise can be disproven using only that most basic of economic principles, The Law of Supply and Demand. (In short: What happens when you artificially pump supply without considering demand? A market bubble. Because in a truly free market, supply always chases after demand.)
Oh, and if Bernie is so opposed to a strong market economy, why did Ron Paul give him an endorsement?
Anyone read Charlie Jane Ander’s latest? I did, and wrote a bit about it.
All the Birds in the Sky review
It’s a fair cop.
@ Kurt Busiek
Fairy tales seem like bunk
All your slates can be sunk if you’re old at heart
For it’s simple, you see
To be peeved and crab-by if you’re old at heart
You can blog and revile all the SJ-dubs vile
They will help you stockpile a huge backlog of bile
Life gets more provoking with each setting sun
The last time that you smiled was nineteen twenty one
There’s no fucks you should gives
Overuse adjectives, and be old at heart
‘Cause your rants are bizaar
And so cranky you are, when you’re old at heart
And if you should survive to a hundred and three
A lit’ery great (in all modesty)
You missed the world’s best part, hated the rest part
When you are among the very old at heart
@Ryan
I’m not inclined to defend the GOP’s side of the crony capitalist coin. Even with their many flaws, they still have a better grasp on economics than Bernie.
@alexvdl
Hey I’m just trying to be charitable. A little bit can go a long way!
Oh no, they say he’s got to go go go Godzilla
Oh no, there goes pixel scroll go go Godzilla
Fits in with the birthday message, after all.
@Dann665 – except they aren’t well-aimed. The model he is endorsing (presumably suitably jiggered for ‘murika) is essentially the same as that employed by thriving european nations.
@Aaron
Anyone else remember when CUL predicted that George R.R. Martin would be named a Grandmaster as “payback” for speaking out against the Puppies? Looks like CUL’s streak of being wrong about pretty much everything is intact.
I do, and I won’t be taking any other hot tips from him in the future.
I’m also going to claim smug status because my response at the time was that Cherryh or Bujold should be this years pick.
A fine choice.
I will confess that I have never read Cherryh. I have an ebook copy of Foreigner that I’ve been meaning to get around to, and I recently opened a box and found a 1978 Galaxy that included an instalment of The Faded Sun: Kesrith which I never read. ( Magazine purchased for a Cordwainer Smith story.). I’ve read Jo Walton’s discussion of Cherryh in What Makes This Book So Great, and I’ve been curious. I guess this honour makes it more likely that I will try her work sooner rather than later.
Great news on Cherryh and well-deserved!
As to the Humble Bundle, it’s four Bester novels, five Zelazny books (Eye of Cat actually has Isle of the Dead as well) a Wild Cards novel and a Wild Cards “mosaic novel, four Amber sequels written by JGB, two Asimov collections, Dragonworld and Venus Prime 1 by Paul Preuss, some or all available if you pay at specified levels.
Yes, it’s all “old white guys”, but I read words strung together into sentences to tell a story and don’t particularly care what brand or flavor of shaved ape strung those words together. It’s a great deal, if you like a large chunk of what’s there.
I’m actually a speed reader of sorts and I took LC’s comments with a laugh and a grain of salt the size of Gibraltar. I grew up around guys like him. As long as they aren’t pounding me into the sidewalk, I couldn’t possibly care less what someone thinks or says about me. The one novel of his I read I finished in a couple of hours. Light reading goes fast, particularly when the plot’s paper-thin.
Steve Davidson:
Indeed. And this is why I’m puzzled that the US media and politicians are getting away with treating it as airy-fairy idealistic hoodoo that can’t work in the real world.
Congrats to C.J. Cherryh
@jonesnori/Lenore Jones Apparently straight women and gay men are imaginary.
I’ve known girls/women were invisible since age 8 possibly earlier. When I was reading LC’s post and read that line I just shrugged as it’s typical from him.
@Aaron
I remember when & LOL I’m not shocked CUL was wrong again.
@alexvdl thought that the latest Humble Books Bundle seemed uh… well it seemed like it was a bunch of old white guys.
That’s what it looked like to me also. Apparently person creating it wasn’t interested in any of the women from the time or couldn’t get permission to include their books.
@Robert Reynolds Yes, it’s all “old white guys”, but I read words strung together into sentences to tell a story and don’t particularly care what brand or flavor of shaved ape strung those words together.
Do you have any idea how many women or POC you read last year? What percent that made up of your overall reading? Just curious as almost every guy I’ve heard say that has a reading habit which is 90%+ white guys which makes their statements hard to take seriously.
I’ll admit I run the other way as 90% of my reading is women. Most of the men I read are POC with a few exceptions like David Weber, Robert Jordan, Michael J. Sullivan, and books edited by J.M. Martin or Joshua Palmatier or Alex Shvartsman which have a higher percentage of white men than most anthologies I read.
> “C.J. Cherryh Named SFWA Damon Knight Grand Master”
Yay!
You know where I typically hear complaints about factoring non-story elements into a book’s rating? From authors who have decent ideas (and even entertaining plots!) but can’t be bothered to do the dreary work of editing, rewriting, and using proper grammar and/or punctuation. The mantra of “content is king” only goes so far.
If I’m going to give a book five stars, it had better be a glittering jewel. It should deserve high marks on whatever metric you wish to apply. Not necessarily top marks, especially since opinions are subjective, but you should be able to defend it at minimum on the axes of (a) entertaining story, (b) compelling characters and/or worldbuilding, and (c) well-written prose. Anything less, in my opinion, and it’s not a five-star book. There may be exceptions, but I think that works as a general rule.
One reviewer of my acquaintance explicitly deducts points for bad editing. (“Fixing the big three [content-related] problems would bring this up to a three-star rating, and fixing the grammar would get me to at least consider a fourth star.”) I’ve followed suit a couple of times, because I do think it helps to add some dimension to a rating. I think that’s especially important when reviewing self-published works, to give the author feedback and avenues for improvement.
Sometimes price plays a part in that evaluation, too. If you charge me three bucks for ten pages, I’m not giving you five stars, regardless of how well-written those pages are. Writing a good story is not a license to charge sky-high prices and expect people to pay without complaint. The same goes for flawless grammar with a boring story, though.
Price matters. Length matters. Story, characters, grammar, punctuation… it all matters, so it’s all fair game or a review.
Sure, I think it’s bad form to rate solely on price, just as I disagree with rating a DVD based on whether the case got damaged in transit. (Docking a box set a couple of points for using scratchy cardboard sleeves, though? Totally legit. That’s justifiably on the manufacturer; it’s part of the product.)
tl;dr: Correia’s got a point, but I think he overlooks some key details.
@Isabel Cooper: “And I speak as someone who *does* in fact support Sanders, and doesn’t know what Correia’s on about with that comment.”
He just has to get an anti-left dig into every post. I think he does it just to check a box.
Rev. Bob
Seems like something writers have to do to maintain cred with their peeps. Toward the end of the time I was reading PJ O’Rourke, no matter what he wrote, there’d be something like this: “…It handled like a wet dream. I shifted three times in two seconds, and was thinking of trying the stereo—GOD, but Jimmy Carter is just so UGLY!—as I began to notice a small sound coming from the…”
Dann665
Those were the people who think that it’s a great idea to threaten to default on US Sovereign Debt, and you think that they have a grasp on economics?
I’m sorry, but if you made that claim in a wine bar in the City of London, the centre of the global financial markets, some tender hearted person would have to do their best to protect you from being trampled underfoot by people stampeding back to their offices to find somewhere safer for their money, whereupon it would be hello death spiral time, here we come, again.
The global financial markets survived the last one by little short of a miracle; we in the City will not look a gift miracle in the mouth, but we are pretty sure that they are in short supply, hence the highly intelligent informed stampede.
Hope springs eternal; perhaps some day the GOP may get some idea of how markets in general, and financial markets in particular, operate, but it is not this day. This day is devoted to working out whether my funds, slender as they are, would do better under the mattress or instead used to acquire precious metals and gemstones, which would provide, if nothing else, some aesthetic value, even if prices went through the floor.
I will concede that Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend, particularly if you are not a girl, may not immediately spring to mind as a banner to rally to, but diamonds are a hell of a lot better than dodgy bearer bonds in a bank in Lichtenstein. For those who really can’t get their heads around jewellery then there many alternatives; stamps, for example. But anyone living in a place where high level lawmakers thinks it’s a good idea to bankrupt that country really does need to think hard and long about the real life consequences…
Congratulations to C. J. Cherryh!
This is also where I also confess that I haven’t read any of her stuff yet. It’s on my list (Mt. TBR) but I want to get some Hugo-eligible reading in first.
As the holder of an actual Economics degree from a reasonably prominent university (and the holder of a Law degree from a reasonably prominent law school that features a law and economics curriculum), I must say that the idea that the current crop of Republicans have a better grasp of economics than the typical Sanders supporter is highly dubious. Possibly even laughable.
Aaron: Anyone else remember when CUL predicted that George R.R. Martin would be named a Grandmaster as “payback” for speaking out against the Puppies? Looks like CUL’s streak of being wrong about pretty much everything is intact.
Oh, Aaron. You’re so naïve.
Once CUL publicly revealed the Secret SJW Cabal Plan To Reward GRRM With A Grand Master Award, the Cabal had to revise its strategy, and request from SFWA that they hold off a year and give it to someone else instead — just to throw the Puppies off the scent.
Sheesh, it’s like you’re totally not getting how all this Cabal stuff is supposed to work.
@Soon Lee
Not to worry; I think when you do finally get the time to tackle Cherryh you will be a little overwhelmed by her huge back list. She is prolific and has been writing for a fair few decades now.
It’s an advantage because there really is something for everyone (apart from idiots who think that women shouldn’t write at all, much less have the audacity to write MIL SF) so if you aren’t thrilled by a particular work or setting you will find lots of different ones which can catch your imagination.
By coincidence I was just finishing The Fires of Azeroth when I saw the news; I was on a R&R from Letters to Tiptree. R&Rs are important!
Once CUL publicly revealed the Secret SJW Cabal Plan To Reward GRRM With A Grand Master Award, the Cabal had to revise its strategy, and request from SFWA that they hold off a year and give it to someone else instead — just to throw the Puppies off the scent.
And now that you’ve let the cat out of the bag for next year, they will have to delay the honor again!
I’ve only read some of Cherryh’s fantasy — and I enjoyed it well enough, though a bit grim and sometimes too obscure for my tastes. But I take that with a grain of salt as a way to judge her; I know rabid fans of her SF who say there are good reasons she’s mostly an SF writer. I keep meaning to make the attempt; since one of my various reading resolutions is to catch up on classics of SF, she might well make it within the year. I seem to recall I tried the start of Pride of Chanur, but got stuck, but I think I was in my first round of college at the time and not up to fiction that wanted thinking.
(the other two are to keep reading potential Hugo Nominees — just started Penric’s Demon and Weighing Shadows, as well as most of the way through The Fifth Season — and to read more PoC fiction — clearly Jemisin counts, but someone already on my ‘authors to buy’ list doesn’t feel like stretching my horizons as much.)
Congrats indeed to Ms. Cherryh. And since everyone seems to be following that statement with a confession, I’ll confess that I haven’t read every word she’s written. I’m pretty sure I’ve missed at least one, and maybe as many as three of her books. 🙂
She’s been one of my no-questions-asked-just-buy-it authors for many years. (Although I’m generally less enthused by her fantasy works.)
@JJ Sheesh, it’s like you’re totally not getting how all this Cabal stuff is supposed to work.
@Aaron And now that you’ve let the cat out of the bag for next year, they will have to delay the honor again!
Thanks for the laughs.
I just got another text that hubby’s plane from India has been delayed again. New time of arrival is “sometime tomorrow”. They’ve stopped giving actual times after the third delay. 1st delay included an extra night (leaving at 7am instead of 3am).
Wow. That brings back memories. I remember back when I could use the fact that a book had a Harriet Klausner quote on the cover as a sure sign the book was, at best, a very underdeveloped, poorly structured “first” novel. More likely it was going to be complete drek. Those reviews were such word salad. Sort of like golden age book covers. The components were genre relevant but put together wrong and with no regard for what the book was actually about.
Add my voice to the “couldn’t be happier” chorus re: C.J. Cherryh. I’m still rereading Rusalka, to be followed by Chernevog and Yvgenie.
I see only limited samples, but from my perspective, they’re not treating it as that, so much as airy-fairy idealistic hoodoo that will never pass Congress, and that there doesn’t seem to be any realistic plan to solve that problem other than to imagine that a majority of voters even in gerrymandered districts will suddenly become democratic socialists and demand it.
I think a lot of what he wants make for fine goals, but he would be better off pushing for them in the Senate, where he can introduce legislation, than getting elected President and having no luck whatsoever in having the legislative branch saddle up for those goals. Or worse, getting picked as nominee and losing to one of the gerbils on the other side who will proceed to scuttle the Supreme Court for another generation.
So maybe it’s just me, but when I hear people saying it’s unrealistic, it’s not that they’re saying it can’t happen anywhere in the world, just that there’s no meaningful path toward accomplishing it here within two Presidential terms.