(1) SIAM SINFONIETTA. Somtow Sucharitkul conducts at Carnegie Hall tonight! On Facebook, he posted a picture of his dressing room.
(2) SOCIETY PAGES. The Planetary Society has released the second installment of The Planetary Post with actor and Society board member Robert Picardo, their newsletter featuring the most notable space happenings.
For this issue, we took a trip to the set of the scientist-produced musical called “Boldly Go!” to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Star Trek.
(3) HOP ON POP. “William Shatner sued for $170 million by man claiming to be his long-lost son”
William Shatner is being sued for $170 million by a radio host who claims to be the “Star Trek” legend’s long-lost son.
Peter Sloan has boldly gone and filed legal paperwork in Florida demanding Shatner submit to a DNA test and cease claiming he isn’t his father.
Sloan, 59, claims his birth mother, late Canadian actress Kathy McNeil, had a brief affair with Captain Kirk in Toronto. She gave him up for adoption at 5 days old.
But Shatner, 85, denies Sloan is his son, and claims the local radio host is trying to unfairly live long and prosper from the connection.
(4) MEMORY NUMBER ONE. Madeleine E. Robins makes a riveting anecdote out of her earliest memory, in “My Mother Went Out for Lemons” at Book View Café.
As a small child my family lived in the top two floors (or more properly, the top floor and an attic) of a brownstone on 11th Street in New York City. Four years after this story we moved to another brownstone, also on 11th Street, where we lived in the bottom two floors. But that’s neither here nor there in terms of this memory.
My brother would have been about six months old–I know this because it was spring (and both my brother and I were December babies, but it wasn’t swelteringly hot the way that summer in New York City so often is). I would have been about two and a half. And my mother was making dinner and realized that she needed a lemon. Rather than waking the baby and packing us both into the stroller and going down to the corner to fetch a lemon, Mom made a different call: she sat me down on the couch, told me not to move, and went out to buy a lemon….
(5) ONE RULE TO BIND THEM ALL. Jeffe Kennedy warns against violating the One Rule, in “Romance Tropes for SFF Writers” at the SFWA Blog.
The romance in the book does not end happily. It does not end with even the promise of happiness. The heroine and the hero part ways with every indication that this will be a permanent separation.
Now, there is nothing wrong with this ending for a science fiction novel. However, for a book marketed as SFR, it’s a huge violation of reader trust. It’s an ending that makes romance readers throw the book against the wall. It’s a profound betrayal that destroys their trust in an author.
An argument that gets introduced in a lot of these conversations – always from non-romance readers – is that the HEA/HFN is not mandatory. That it’s okay for a story to end tragically. Romeo and Juliet gets trotted out. And sure, that’s true! But Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare’s tragedies! Sure, there’s a romance in it. You can even say the romance is the core of the story, but that doesn’t make it a romance. Why not?
Because it ends tragically, not happily.
(6) TRUST. R. S. Belcher says “Trust Your Editor” in a post at Magical Words.
Like I said, I was pissed. I had been doing this job of writing and getting paid for it for a long time, years. I paid bills, mine and my family’s bills, on my words, and I thought, after busting my hump on this piece that it was one of the best journalism pieces I had written.
The first chicken McNugget of “wisdom” I’ll throw out here, is whatever you write, if you expect to get paid for it, expect to deal with criticism…from all corners. You have to learn how to deal with that anger or it will eat you up like acid, or worse, it will influence how you write. It will affect how fearless you get in your writing, what you do, how you say it, and what you decide to not say. If you can’t handle that, pack it in, take up alpaca herding or something, ’cause you will be a bitter, miserable, and poor writer (in more ways than one).
So, I took a few days, because my deadline allowed me to, and did nothing in regards to the article. I did not email this editor and tell him exactly what I thought of his revisions, and where he could stuff them. I did not quit in a funk, or bad-mouth the guy and his publication in social media. In other words, I didn’t shoot my career in the face with a bazooka. I raged in private, I calmed the hell down, and I got back to work.
I did every single thing this editor had wanted me to do; when all was said and done, when all the ego, and emotional sturm und drang was over, it was a better piece, a better creation of my writing, my words. My editor was right, and he was damn good at his job. The moral of this story is trust your editor.
Now, I’m not saying trust every editor, I’m saying trust your editor.
(7) TWO DADS. The View from the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman, on sale May 31. The Fireman by Joe Hill, on sale May 17. John King Tarpinian says, “Joe Hill gave Ray Bradbury credit for the title. Both books are dedicated to the authors’ newborn babies.”
(8) PATTY DUKE OBIT. Patty Duke passed away March 29 at the age of 69. Sean Astin paid tribute to his mother online:
Shortly after the news was made public that his famous mother Patty Duke had passed, Sean Astin took to social media to post a heartwarming tribute — and announce that he’s launching a mental health initiative in her honor.
“I love you mom,” he wrote alongside a photo of his mother holding him as a baby. The message also included the statement that the family released to announce the passing.
Along with image, Sean posted the words, “Her work endures,” along with a link to the Patty Duke Mental Health Project.
“My mother’s life touched tens of millions of people. Her ground breaking portrayal of iconic American legend Helen Keller, launched a career that would span six decades,” Sean wrote of the crowd-funded project. “First on broadway and then on the silver screen, Patty Duke’s characterization of the extraordinary development of the blind/deaf child brought global attention to the plight of people living with those challenges.
“The nature of this kind of illuminating and compassionate work become the sacred mission of her life,” he continued. “She became a voice for the voiceless, a reassuring presence for the scared, the intimidated and the lost. She was a healer of many souls and a champion for so many in need.”
(9) TODAY IN HISTORY.
- March 29, 1955 – Revenge of the Creature was seen for the first time. Clint Eastwood, uncredited, makes his first screen appearance in this movie as the goofy white coated lab assistant.
- March 29, 2004 – Shaun of the Dead premieres in London.
(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY GIRL.
- March 29, 1968 – Lucy Lawless of Xena fame.
(11) A LENS MAN LOOKS AT NARNIA. Vishwas R. Gaitonde has some thoughts about the worldwide popularity of Lewis’ Narnia stories. “With No Inkling of the Contents: Viewing Narnia Through a Hindu Lens” at The Mantle.
Recognizing Hindu Philosophy in Narnia
I began to wonder: what would Narnia be like if it were viewed through a Hindu lens? Perhaps part of the worldwide popularity of the Narnian saga lies in people from other cultures discovering a resonance of their own spiritual beliefs—meanings that Lewis never consciously intended. But then, works of imagination are open to interpretation. As I contemplated the Christian themes in Lewis’ work, I began to wonder: what would Narnia be like if it were viewed through a Hindu lens? Could a reader find such themes throughout Narnia?
…In viewing Narnia through a Hindu lens, I have largely drawn from the Hindu school of philosophy called Advaita Vedanta, which is arguably the most popular contemporary concept of Hinduism.
Atman, Brahman, and Maya: Hindus believe that the human soul (Atman) intuitively knows that existence within a physical body is not its true nature—that it is part of the Godhead, the Universal Spirit (Brahman). But in its body prison, the soul has forgotten its real identity. This ignorance (avidya) forms the human quandary and its accompanying sorrows….
Mythology awakens within us the desire for our true selfIn The Silver Chair, Prince Rilian has similarly forgotten who he is for years whilst bewitched by the Lady of the Green Kirtle. When liberated, Rilian regains full knowledge that he is the heir to the Narnian throne. He declares, “For now that I am myself, I can remember that enchanted life, though while I was enchanted, I could not remember my true self.” Similarly, in The Horse and His Boy, Shasta is clueless about his true identity, but he knows that he isn’t who he and others think he is (a slave or serf). His intuition sets him on a quest that ultimately reveals he is the lost heir of Archenland. In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Lord Rhoop is trapped on Dark Island where subconscious dreams come to life, where one is a prisoner of his or her own mind. In The Silver Chair, Jill Pole sees boulders and is fooled into thinking they may have given rise to the old wives’ tales of giants—until the boulders turn out to be actual giants. In The Last Battle, Puzzle the Donkey cloaked in a lion’s skin deceives others into thinking he is Aslan. And in Prince Caspian, Caspian longs for the old Narnia, just as the soul instinctively knows that there is a better place and a better experience (viz., Brahman, Spirit) than its current surroundings. Mythology awakens within us the desire for our true self—so just as Caspian clings to his myths, Hindus hang on to theirs.
(12) JOHN JOSEPH ADAMS. Here’s how John Joseph Adams said it, in “NEWS: Hugo Award Nomination Deadline is March 31”:
If you like a thing, and you think it’s deserving of a Hugo Award, nominate it! If you’re not familiar with a thing, but you saw it on a suggested nominations list or something of the sort, either read/watch it, and then nominate it because you like it, or don’t nominate it because you didn’t like it. Point being, please don’t nominate stuff just because it’s on somebody’s list somewhere; only nominate things you personally think are deserving.
(13) DOGGED EFFORT. At Chaos Horizon, Brandon Kempner continues “Estimating the 2016 Hugo Nominations, Part 2”.
A pretty simple model and not terribly informative so far. What you’ll glean from this is that the Rabid Puppies are likely to deliver a large block of votes to the works on their list. When we combine this chart with the estimated chart from the Typical vote and the Sad Puppy vote, that’s when we’ll be in business.
The core question is whether or not this block will be larger than other voting groups. In more lightly voted categories like Best Related Work or categories where the vote is more dispersed like Best Short Story, 400 votes is likely enough to sweep all or most of the ballot. Think about Best Related Work: the highest non-Puppy pick last year managed only around 100 votes. The top non-Puppy short story only managed 76 votes last year. Even if you triple those this year, you’re still well under 400 votes. In a more popular category like Best Novel or Best Dramatic Work, I expect the impact to be substantial but not sweeping. Perhaps 3 out of 5? 2 out of 5?
(14) WHAT A WAG. The Good Dog News can be found in this Maximumble cartoon.
(15) SHOPPING ONLINE IN THE STONE AGE. Martin Morse Wooster advises, “The YouTube video ‘Internet Shopping–Database—1984’ is another installment of the 1984 ITV series Database, in which the manager of the Nottingham Building Society reveals ‘If we give away one of these’ (keyboards) ‘We won’t have to build any more branches!’
“The excitement of shopping and looking up your bank statements on your TV is palpable!”
[Thanks to Martin Morse Wooster, John King Tarpinian, and Will R. for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Brian Z.]
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Hurrumph. “Another Word for World” seems to be one of those titles specifically designed to not come up with anything useful via google.
NickPheas: Hurrumph. “Another Word for World” seems to be one of those titles specifically designed to not come up with anything useful via google.
It can be had for free (along with several other stories by well-known authors) here:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Kobo
Nook
Table of Contents:
• Hello, Hello • shortfiction by Seanan McGuire
• The Machine Starts • shortfiction by Greg Bear
• Skin in the Game • shortfiction by Elizabeth Bear
• Machine Learning • shortfiction by Nancy Kress
• Riding with the Duke • shortfiction by Jack McDevitt
• Looking for Gordo • shortfiction by Robert J. Sawyer
• The Tell • shortfiction by David Brin
• Another Word for World • shortfiction by Ann Leckie
@ Standback:
First, as I said to Greg, I appreciate your more reasoned and civil approach.
Greg’s talking about (potentially) informing Tingle.
About what? Informing him about a nomination would be a Hugo Admins’ job. He clearly devours internet pop culture for breakfast lunch and dinner, and surely Googles his own name on a regular basis, not to mention, if somehow his reaction were “say, what are these ‘Hugo Awards’ of which they speak?” that even now, a month before the curtain really opens on the alleged Hugopocalypse, the first page of hits for “Hugo Awards” already include six or seven posts like“If You Were A Hugo Awards Controversy, My Love” and “Hijacking the Hugo Awards Won’t Stifle Diversity in Science Fiction – The prizes have been targeted by voting blocks opposed to progressive efforts to recognize more women and writers of color. But trying to undo change in an increasingly diverse world is futile.” What are you (or Greg) going to be telling him, exactly?
Vox Day doesn’t speak for all the fans of Castalia House. They happen to like his blog and his books and/or some of the work he publishes. Some of them are gay. Some of them might enjoy reading parodies of dinosaur erotica, for all we know. The “Vile Minion” schtick is a running gag. All of this furor over an election at a Worldcon, an institution at which prank votes and joke site bids can be historically seen as standard operating procedure? (And that mentality was endorsed by an SFWA President, no less, just a couple years back?)
Over at MGC the other day Greg said:
This is a pivot from “it’s all about the quality of the stories – perfectly understandably, people object to all the lousy stories on the ballot” (which I also disagreed with, but that’s another matter) to “it’s all about branding and who you are associated with – perfectly understandable that if you refuse to participate in vocally shunning, denouncing and excluding politically controversial people, you will open yourself up to being shunned, denounced and excluded.” Sorry for the paraphrase but I hope you can see my point.
@Hampus, I said he was a gay (but conservative) activist. He’s a gay man choosing what kind of activist he wants to be, at this point in history. He’s a satirist and that article you linked is clearly tongue-in-cheek – did you think he actually wants to “bully” gay men into marrying women? OK, he is clearly offended, at least aesthetically, by popular tactics/directions of the current gay rights movement, and he prefers to spend his time, these days, agitating for what he thinks of as universal principles. Whether you agree with him or not, you’re not exactly allowed to dictate to other people how they should be activists or what principles they should stand up for, either.
Oh, and I find it inconceivable that Chuck Tingle is not already a big fan of that Rachel Swirsky story.
Satirist? Asshole and homophobe is a better expression. He has a long history of attacking other gays and lesbians. Of proclaiming that there is something wrong in being gay. If you by “activist” mean hateful troll, then you might be right.
“Universal principles” and a couple of bucks will get you a latte.
@Brian:
I think you’re mis-reading Greg very very badly here.
Quality-of-Stories has a strong subjective component. If you hated Story X, but I tell you “I loved Story X,” then if you trust me, you can’t really say “No you didn’t.” We can disagree about the quality, but we’re both sincere.
But that’s only if you trust me. If I tell you “I loved Story X” but you know that Story X was written by a close relative of mine, you’d suspect my statement. If I’d bet $100 on Story X getting an award, you’d suspect my statement. And so on.
Of course, it’s quite possible that I do love the story despite all those factors, but you wouldn’t trust my statement as sincere. Because there are enough reasons to perceive my statement as stemming from other motives.
When Greg writes “Perception is everything,” he means that perception of the Puppies is such that non-Puppies heavily doubt their sincerity.
There is no contradiction between
A. “Everybody should nominate stories based on their own perception of quality,” and
B. “I perceive you as hostile and deliberately abusing the nomination process, disregarding even your own subjective judgement of quality.”
The piece I wrote a few weeks back is primarily about the problems of perception and branding relating to the Sad Puppies, and I think you’ll agree I don’t even touch the issue of quality, objective or subjective.
Additionally, I’d say “Informing Chuck Tingle” probably means, first and foremost, going something like:
“Hey Chuck! I don’t know if you know much about the current situation in the Hugo Awards, but if you don’t, there’s a lot going on this year that you should be aware of before you make a decision here. It’s not a simple, straightforward nomination you can say “yes” to and never hear about again, and it’s likely to put you in the center of a lot of argument no matter what you choose.
Would you like to hear more [Y/N]?”
Lenora Rose: Upstairs: Becky Chambers – The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. Campbell yes (With a more solid lock on it), Best novel no.
Not eligible for Best Novel, I believe (for Martian reasons – previously self-published). If anyone knows otherwise, can they let me know?
(Sometimes I feel something should be done about this, but if self-publication counts – and self-publishers would be annoyed if it didn’t – I don’t see how subsequent re-publication can.)
Standback,
Very interesting. Do you mind my responding with a question? The small handful of “obviously jokey stories” and “political posts/tracts” aside, did you like the rest of the fiction on the 2016 rabid puppies reading list?
@Andrew M:
My ebook version of Small Angry Planet says copyright 2014, which would suggest that it should have been covered last year, but instead we got the thrill of reading whatever the hell that Kevin Anderson book was.
ISFDB though says 2015. But I’ve never really been convinced that ISFDB is a reliable source.
I sense a paraphrasing=aristotle coming.
Just now I decided to click on the RSR “spoilers” warning for “Space Raptor Butt Invasion” and learned that one of the story’s main problems is:
Keyboard please! 😀
Hampus, I asked because the reviews Greg wrote of them were often pretty positive, with a couple glaring exceptions.
@Hampus Eckerman
I sense a paraphrasing=aristotle coming
I think your statement above that Plato was a Parakeet proves my point. Don’t you?
(The rhetorical tension became too much to just wait for it to happen 😛 )
“The small handful of “obviously jokey stories” and “political posts/tracts” aside, did you like the rest of the fiction on the 2016 rabid puppies reading list?”
sounds a lot like
“Other than the giant piles of trash strewn around, how do you feel about the the beauty of this room? Have you noticed the wonderful floral arrangement we have on the coffee table?”
That parakeet is probably pining for the fjords.
My ebook version of Small Angry Planet says copyright 2014, which would suggest that it should have been covered last year, but instead we got the thrill of reading whatever the hell that Kevin Anderson book was.
I don’t think there’s any doubt that the major publication, the one everyone noticed, was in 2015, so it wouldn’t have figured in the Hugos last year, Puppies or no. But it does seem there was an earlier publication.
@AndrewM
I guess that this is exactly the kind of thing one asks the Business Meeting for an extension about, and in years where there isn’t a terrorist trying to burn the place down, they might have time to consider it.
I’m just amused at the notion that Scalzi must be embarrassed in retrospect by his response to Shadow War’s nomination.
But please, keep telling people how they must feel. It’s worked out so well these…many, many months…
I’m enjoying the sekrit explanation of puppy sadness. It wasn’t dinosaurs after all, it was night dragons. I wonder what it’ll be next.
@RedWombat, assuming you are talking to me, I was simply concurring with Greg Hullender’s assessment. Of course Scalzi is perfectly free to refrain from feeling embarrassment if he wants – but I kinda doubt it.
Scalzi’s just jealous ‘cos he didn’t think to put any dinosaurs in. He’d have won for sure!
@ Snodberry Fields, Greg Hullender and Alexvdl:
And my bow!
The business meeting was actually the thing that got me over the ambivalence hump to register for MidAmeriCon II. That said I’m sure there will be wonderful fun things to do, and I’m looking forward to them.
@ Robinareid, Hal Windslow’s Old Buddy
I for one would really like a copy of your syllabus(es)/(i)!
To the person who added the reminder about Ann Lekie’s story in the Microsoft book, Thanks! I am still short a novelette or two; I will go check that out!
Regarding SWotND, 1) Scalzi’s story was chosen by each of its supporters individually as an actual favorite. Puppy stories were slated: chosen by most of their “supporters” as an acceptable second best in an attempt to gain more political power over a process they knew they lacked the numbers to affect honestly.
That is a huge difference that affects absolutely everything that came after: Scalzi accepted an honest nomination. If it was made more in a spirit of fun than in a socks-blown-off way, it was still an honest nominationmade in a spirit of fun, not a cheat committed in a spirit of resentment and malice. I don’t see any reason why he should feel embarrassed.
Also if Puppies want to reconcile with the rest of fandom, they need to stop with the “but everyone else is just as bad or worse” BS. Just sayin’
I’m just astounded that 968 fans (well over half the voters that year) voted for it, 266 put it in first place, and hardly anyone put it under No Award.
NickPheas:
I guess that this is exactly the kind of thing one asks the Business Meeting for an extension about, and in years where there isn’t a terrorist trying to burn the place down, they might have time to consider it.
Yes, but is there any evidence that anyone noticed it? Something similar could have been done with The Martian, but it never was.
I do wonder if the ‘very limited distribution’ provision could be made automatic, as the ‘outside the US’ provision has been; but then ‘very limited distribution’ would have to be defined, which is hard.
(I don’t suppose there’s any chance the initial publication of TLWTASAP was outside the US, is there?)
I’m going to MidAmericonII to meet Timothy The Cat. I heard he should be on a panel about The Evility of Dogs.
Brian, have you considered that it’s just possible that many people were amused by it to the point of thinking it was a valid choice? That sort of thing happens. Humor is a very individual thing; just because it didn’t work for you doesn’t mean it didn’t work for them. (I’ve not read it myself, so have no opinion.)
I don’t think so, but the Kickstarter for TLWTASAP had 53 backers, which seems pretty damn limited to me. But there were ebooks and paperbacks on general sale.
You’re probably right about people not noticing. The mainstream publication was the 13th of August, so while people might have noticed the press releases, they wouldn’t necessarily have read the book.
I don’t suppose there’s any chance the initial publication of TLWTASAP was outside the US, is there?
Kickstarter and then on sale at Amazon, so no.
Cassy B, of course I considered that. When I first read it I chuckled at the first sentence, though I have to say I didn’t make it all the way through. And a lot of people have been legitimately amused by Chuck Tingle.
Yes, but is there any evidence that anyone noticed it? Something similar could have been done with The Martian, but it never was.
The field is so broad, and there are so many relatively obscure works published every year that inevitably something is going to slip through that isn’t widely noticed until too late. Trying to make sure that everything that is good that got missed is kept alive for later consideration is probably a Quixotic endeavor.
Andrew M on March 31, 2016 at 7:51 am said:
The de facto definition is “the Business Meeting says so.”
You can’t define “limited distribution.” It’s a guideline for the Business Meeting voters to decide for themselves whether the work qualifies. It’s like trying to define “science fiction and fantasy,” which is effectively impossible, so we do not try. We leave it to each individual to say that SF/F is what they point to when they say SF/F.
@Brian:
I haven’t read almost any of it, so I’m afraid I’ll have difficulty answering that.
The only exception is Folding Beijing, in the Novelette category. Mixed feelings on that one; it’s a great premise and the execution was excellent, but at the same time it felt very simplistic and blunt, which tends to annoy me.
Brian, buddy, you have not only long ago passed the point where I believe your analysis of another person’s assessment, you have passed the point where I’ll even bother to look it up to see if you’re lying again. If you told me that Greg had said the sky was blue, I would guess he’d probably said it was overcast, but I wouldn’t even bother to expend the energy to look it up.
You are the Boy Who Paraphrased Wolf.
@RedWombat
The Boy Who Paraphrased Wolf
You realise you have to write this now. With sloths.
Welp, Brian appears to have leveled up: he’s managed to get a reaction out of Scalzi:
https://twitter.com/scalzi/status/715528678617313281?s=09
The grade of people who think Brian is wrong is certainly increasing.
While folks are still in nomination-consideration mode (but mostly done with the frantic scrambling aspect) I’m curious about a particular subjective impression of the field. Not that an author would ever deliberately tweak the word-count of a piece for crass nomination-consideration purposes…but between novelette and novella, which category have people had a more difficult time finding works they’re excited about nominating? (In my case, it was the novelette length.)
@Heather Rose Jones, I had over a dozen novellas on my longlist, but struggled to find seven novelettes.
Did someone say Scalzi should be embarrassed by his Hugo nom?
I concur with with Greg Hullender about how his reactions at the time look post-puppy. It is the case, however, that John Scalzi is under obligation to declare neither a feeling of embarrassment nor a lack thereof.
@Heather Rose Jones
My expectation was that novella would be hard, but with the tor.com novellas throwing up so many strong contenders it was actually a good category. I suspect that if you’re restricted to free sources then novella would still be an awkward one.
Novelette was probably slightly trickier in the end, but better in terms of possible free sources.
I knew it! I knew it! There WAS more paraphrasing = aristotle coming. Cheers everyone! *drink*
I don’t think so, but the Kickstarter for TLWTASAP had 53 backers, which seems pretty damn limited to me. But there were ebooks and paperbacks on general sale.
If it were only the backers who had got copies, I think there’d be a fair case for saying it wasn’t really publication, but yes, it seems there were more than that.
You can’t define “limited distribution.” It’s a guideline for the Business Meeting voters to decide for themselves whether the work qualifies. It’s like trying to define “science fiction and fantasy,” which is effectively impossible, so we do not try. We leave it to each individual to say that SF/F is what they point to when they say SF/F.
Well, yes, but we don’t leave it to each individual to say what very limited distribution is. That would indeed be chaos. But having the business meeting decide means someone has to bring it before the business meeting, and no one may have noticed it at the time. I feel that with the rise of self-publishing one would expect rather more of these proposals than there actually are.
Let’s drink to Hampus and Scalzi, Aristotle twitter masters! 😀
@Standback,
I loved Folding Beijing because it had multiple layers. I didn’t find it simplistic or blunt. It got me thinking hard about what China with its huge population is going to do when it reaches a level of development equivalent to Europe. They don’t have a lot of good options. And there were a lot of powerful touches for me. Remember that China in that future is a lot bigger than just Beijing, which is apparently the only place where this practice of putting people to sleep for half or more of their lives is done, yet the wealthier class (which gets more of the share of time to use the city) apparently remains there voluntarily. Maybe the story bears a second reading.
Not only did I think that was the best story I read this year, there were plenty of other things on that list that were pretty darn good even if they are not the sort of thing I’d typically nominate. It had a few things that almost seem like they are there specifically to troll you, but those things, when they popped up, seemed pretty clearly signposted to me.
Overall, I thought it was a good and interesting recommendation list.
I’m going to be honest. My novella section was completely full of tor.com novellas.
My novella section was almost entirely tor.com novellas, the one exception being Elizabeth Hand’s Wylding Hall, which was one of those books that seemed to have been aimed specifically at me with laser-like precision.
This does not surprise me. Tor clearly put a lot of effort into having a top quality set of novellas to open their new line with a splash, and in many different styles to boot.
@Brian: As a recommendation, it’s quite a good recommendation. 🙂
…but I think you said this was by way of response to my comment? I’m all ears.
Your comment was about judgement on whether the things Vox Day or his fans profess to like are actually any good and whether they’re sincere. As in, I can’t believe you like that terrible story.
Why does that matter here? Greg and me and various others thought many or even most of the stories were at least not that bad and sometimes great. You too could see the positives in the one you read even if it didn’t bowl you over.
Why not just say thank you for the interesting recommendation list, and call it a day?
And if people who read Vox Day’s blog somehow manage to give the final short story ballot the Tingle, why not say oh, look, someone’s trolled the Hugos with parody dinosaur erotica [eyeroll] and call it a day? Like all those Very Serious People who grumbled and moaned about Shadow War of the something something something but couldn’t actually be bothered to no award it.
… because Parody dinosaur erotica nominated to attack the Hugo fandom deserves to be no awarded.
So I’d No Award it.