(1) MODERATE TO HEAVY PUPPIES. Standback contributes “A Moderate Conversation Re: Sad Puppies”.
So to some extent, this is a sufficient answer to Stephanie’s question. Why is there so much vitriol against the Puppies? Because we’re on the internet, where it doesn’t take a whole lot to escalate an argument over Best Brand of Pasta into virtual knifings…..
To start things off: I would say I understand the core Puppy complaints, and agree with many of them (to varying extents).
I definitely see a shift in the “focus” of the genre, even if I’d be hard-pressed to nail it down to a definition (not unreasonable, in a genre still best-defined as “what we point to when we say it”). The disproportionate influence of particular groups and fandoms has been raised and enthusiastically argued over in the past (e.g. [1] [2] [3]). And I think there’s been a lot of snubbing, condescension and ad-hominem attacks coming from non-Puppies. Which they often don’t notice, or consider justified. (Scott Alexander’s I Can Tolerate Anything Except the Outgroup springs to mind, as it so often does.)
I won’t go over the Puppy grievances one by one, but I think I can see where all of them are coming from.
(2) DAN SCHNEIDER VIDEO INTERVIEW #68. Steven H Silver says, “Yesterday, Terry Bisson and I were interviewed for a podcast about Alternate History. If you want to hear what I would sound like recording on an Edison cylinder, I imagine this is pretty much it.”
(3) EATING THE FANTASTIC. Scott Edelman’s third episode of his Eating the Fantastic podcast is now live, with guest Bill Campbell.
Bill opened up about many things, including the genius of Samuel R. Delany, how Rosarium’s first book Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond gave birth to a new publishing company, the challenges of crowdfunding creative projects, why he was once blacklisted at a convention, and many other topics which I hope you’ll find as fascinating as I did.
Episode four, coming in two weeks, will feature writer Tom Doyle.
(4) REQUESTING MORE CONTENTS, FEWER TABLES. Black Gate continues its Hartwell tribute with “The Books of David G. Hartwell: Visions of Wonder and The Science Fiction Century”. I’m all in favor of paying tribute to Hartwell, I’d just like to see more in these posts than the reprinted tables of contents of his collections.
(5) NAMING CONVENTIONS. Michael J. Walsh observes what a well-Cultured sense of humor Elon Musk displayed in naming his ships.
By January 2016, a total of three ASDSs have been refitted. The first ASDS, named Just Read the Instructions (JRtI), was converted from a barge in late 2014 and was deployed in January 2015 during the CRS-5 cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station in order to provide a landing platform for a test flight of the returning booster stage. It was used for two landing tests through April 2015, and by June 2015, was retired as an ASDS.[1] The second ASDS, named Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY), was converted from a much-newer deck barge and became operational in June 2015 to support a landing test on the CRS-7 mission.
(6) CRADLE OF SF’S GOLDEN AGE. Robert A. Heinlein’s birthplace in Butler, MO has been listed for sale. The asking price is $97,500.
Geo Rule says “The Heinlein Society will gladly accept a six figure donation to purchase it and turn it into a museum, if you’re feeling generous as well. Well, maybe seven figure to turn it into a museum…”
Lou Antonelli takes a selfie at Heinlein’s birthplace.
(7) STATHOPOULOS EXHIBITION. Rejects! The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, a retrospective of portraits by famed Australian painter Nick Stathopoulos , runs March 28-April 15 at Project 504 Studio in St. Leonards (Sydney). Stathopoulos is a 10-time Ditmar Award winner, who also was a 1999 Hugo nominee in the Best Professional Artist category.
(8) NANCY REAGAN OBIT. Former First Lady Nancy Davis Reagan died today, March 6, at the age of 95. Like her spouse, she had an acting career prior to living in the White House, which included a role in the genre movie Donovan’s Brain. The movie was based on a 1942 horror novel by Curt Siodmak who, showing what a small world it is, lived in those days not far from Robert A. Heinlein’s home on Laurel Canyon.
(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOYS
- Born March 6, 1906 — Lou Costello. “Abbott and Costello Meet… have to be some of the best monster movies,” says John King Tarpinian.
- Born March 6, 1928 – William F. Nolan
William F. Nolan, Forrest J Ackerman, and Ray Bradbury.
(10) ACE OF HORROR. SF Signal has “5-Time Bram Stoker Winner Jonathan Maberrry on His Prolific Career”
CARL SLAUGHTER: Which of your novels is being adapted by hollywood?
JONATHAN MABERRY: I’m fortunate to have several of my projects in development for film and television. My Joe Ledger thrillers are being developed by Lone Tree Entertainment and Vintage Picture Company as a possible series of movies, likely beginning with Extinction Machine, the 5th in the series. And my vampire apocalypse series, V-Wars, is headed to TV, with a brilliant script by former Dexter head writer, Tim Schlattmann. Several other properties, including Rot & Ruin, The Pine Deep Trilogy, and others, are being discussed.
CS: How long and how hard is the journey to the screen?
JM: Like most writers I’ve coasted the edges of the Hollywood experience for years. There are some frustrations, of course, but that’s part of the game. For example, back on 2007 I co-created a show for ABC-Disney called On the Slab, which was a horror-sci fi-fantasy news program. Disney paid us to develop it and write a series bible and sample script; and then there was a change of management in the department that purchased it. Suddenly the project was orphaned and therefore dead in the water. Another time producer Michael DeLuca (Blade, Magnolia) optioned the first Joe Ledger novel, Patient Zero, on behalf of Sony, who in turn took it to ABC, who hired Emmy Award-winning TV writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach (Lost) to write a pilot. Then after we’d gone a long way toward seeing it launch they decided instead to focus on the reboot of Charlie’s Angels, which flubbed badly. That’s Hollywood. I don’t take this stuff personally, though. And I never lost my optimism.
(11) FRIENDSHIP CALCULUS. Adam-Troy Castro explains “How To Remain My Friend When You Really Hate My Friend”.
I guarantee you, if I am close to Friend X, I know that “Asshole” is part of his Venn Diagram. As it is part of mine. As it is part of yours. I have clearly already made my personal calculations and decided that his other aspects are more important. I may someday change my mind. But it is my mind to change, based on whatever passes between me and Friend X; possibly even depending on what I see Friend X do to Friend Y. But you, who have had a different experience with Friend X, and therefore a different reaction, cannot win this argument with me using words, no matter how eloquently you express everything you find objectionable about him. It is, however, very possible for you to lose it. You can become a bore. You can become a scold. You can just become the distasteful person who always feels obligated to piss on my pal; the guy who gives me the impression that nothing will satisfy him until I start pissing on my pal too. That makes YOU the shithead.
(12) VIRUS WITH A LIBRARY. Nature reports “CRISPR-like ‘immune’ system discovered in giant virus”.
Gigantic mimiviruses fend off invaders using defences similar to the CRISPR system deployed by bacteria and other microorganisms, French researchers report. They say that the discovery of a working immune system in a mimivirus bolsters their claim that the giant virus represents a new branch in the tree of life.
Mimiviruses are so large that they are visible under a light microscope. Around half a micrometre across, and first found infecting amoebae living in a water tower, they boast genomes that are larger than those of some bacteria. They are distantly related to viruses that include smallpox, but unlike most viruses, they have genes to make amino acids, DNA letters and complex proteins.
(13) TO BOLDLY BUILD WHAT NO MAN HAS BUILT BEFORE. Collider explains why “NASA Has Designed a Warp Ship Inspired by ‘Star Trek’s Enterprise”.
When does science-fiction become science fact? Throughout various mediums over the last few centuries, we’ve seen early versions of concepts that would eventually become a reality. Sometimes these portrayals are pretty far off base (still waiting on those flying cars), while other times they feel downright prescient. But in the case of Star Trek and one particular engineer at NASA, science-fiction actually informed science fact, with NASA engineer and physicist Harold White now actively working on a space ship that would allow travel faster than the speed of light—or, for the Star Trek inclined, warp speed.
White announced this idea a few years ago, with the concept seeking to allow travel faster than the speed of light by literally expanding space-time behind the object and contracting space-time in front of it. In reality, the object doesn’t “go fast,” but instead takes advantage of Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity to move between space-time.
If your head has yet to explode, sit tight—in concert with White, designer Mark Rademaker has now created a CGI design concept of the ship that would operate using this theory, which they have aptly named the IXS Enterprise. Per Rademaker in an interview with the Washington Post, the idea behind the concept art serves two purposes: to visualize their idea, and to inspire burgeoning young scientists
(14) PAGING HUGO NOMINEES. George R.R. Martin knows it’s “Nomination Time”. His short fiction recommendation is a needle in a small Venusian haystack.
Last year, however, these three categories were among those most impacted by Puppygate. The slates dominated all three, sweeping the board and shutting out all other work. In the novelette category, a disqualification allowed one non-Puppy nominee to squeeze onto the ballot, and that story ultimately won. In novella and short story, fans unhappy with the choices presented them voted No Award. Understandably, IMNSHO… still, it was not a happy ending. There was some wonderful and powerful work published in these categories in 2014, and it was a shame that none of it could be recognized. (I was proud and pleased to present Alfie Awards to Ursula Vernon for “Jackalope Wives” in short story, and to Patrick Rothfuss for “The Slow Regard of Silent Things” in novella… but we all know that an Alfie is not a Hugo, and in an ordinary year both Vernon and Rothfuss would surely have been contending for a rocket).
That’s last year, however. No amount of rehashing can change what happened. The important thing is to see that it does not happen again. And to that end, it behooves all of us to nominate the short stories, novelettes, and novellas that we enjoyed most last year… to share our thoughts with our friends… to shout our recommendations from the rooftops. Let’s make sure this year’s shortlists truly represent the best of what was published in 2015.
As to my own recommendations…
Ah, there I hit a problem. I am not making any recommendations in these categories. Problem is, I have a conflict of interest. As a writer I did not publish any original short fiction in 2015, true. As an editor, however… well, Gardner Dozois and I co-edited an anthology called OLD VENUS that came out last year, and in my (admittedly less than objective) view, that book contained several stories that are worthy of Hugo nominations, and one that is so bloody brilliant that I think it stands right up there with any story that ever won the Hugo.
I really can’t tell you which one it is, however. Or the names of the other stories in the book that I think worthy of consideration. Look, Gardner and I liked all the stories we included in OLD VENUS. If we hadn’t, we would not have purchased them (and we do reject stories for every one of our anthologies). But we’d be lying if we said we liked all of them equally. There are stories Gardner liked more than I did; there are stories I liked more than Gardner did; there are stories both of us loved, loved, loved. As editors, however, it would be unethical for us to say which were which in public. Just as parents need to maintain devoutly that they love all their children equally and have no favorites, it behooves the ethical editor to take a similar stance toward the stories they purchase and publish.
(15) GIVING KATE A HELPING PAW. Steve Davidson hated to let go to waste the effort he invested on a comment I deleted here the other day. It now has manifested as “Puppy See, Puppy Do-Do” at Amazing Stories.
Kate Paulk recently closed the comments (at the beginning of March) so that they could be compiled and a final list composed.
It’s a little late in the game, especially considering that nominators are kinda expected to read and be familiar with works they’re going to recommend (but that isn’t necessarily an impediment for organized voting), so we’ve decided to help them out a bit and give them a hand up.
We started with one of the most visible categories – Best Novel. The following list contains all of the individual works mentioned in the comments. We did not verify eligibility (although most, if not all of the works seems to meet that criteria). When judging whether or not someone recommended something, we took “Plus 1” and “Me Too” to count for a “vote”. If someone talked about a work but didn’t expressly indicate that it was something they were going to nominate, we didn’t count it.
If a “top ten” is going to be compiled, it’s pretty obvious from the counts below what we should see on the Sad Puppy IV Slate. It will be interesting to see how the final list compares.
(16) HAMMER EMCEE RAPPED. Marie Porter has some feedback for masquerade emcees, triggered by a recent bad example of the art.
I want to talk about Emcees for convention ?#?cosplay masquerades.
It feels like almost every masquerade we’ve competed in, judged, or watched – with maybe 1-2 exceptions – has had an emcee that behaves in a manner that I find disrespectful to the competitors.
As a general thing, it usually comes in the form of trying to be “entertaining”, and basically comes off like this emcee has an audience, that they are the STAR of the show, and the competitors are basically props to them. They feed off the laughs, which they try to obtain by any means necessary.
A lot of the time, it happens by cracking rude and unnecessary jokes while introducing the competitor, as the competitor leaves the stage, etc.
When it happens, it feels like the emcee has lost sight of what the show is actually about – showcasing the hard work of the competitors. It’s not the “emcee show”, no matter how much they would like to think it is.
Tonight, a few things happened that still have me mad, so let me describe it to demonstrate what I’m saying.
A friend of mine was competing in the beginner category, in a costume she SLAVED over – a Steampunk Lady Thor. I watched her build progress – she put a ton of work into it, and she had every reason to be proud of it.
As she was on stage – being judged, mind you – the emcee talked *over her provided audio* to say – and I quote
“She could hammer me any time”.
She looked horrified, and – quite frankly – like she wanted to murder the guy. Rightly so, IMHO. She basically had all of her hard work diminished into a sexual joke. It was degrading and objectifying, and had no place happening. SHE WAS COMPETING, during PERFORMANCE judging. Can you imagine being shocked by something like that, after all that work?
This is a Facebook link to video of the emcee’s “hammer” line. You can see it for yourself.
(17) UNLOOTED LOOT? Nile Magazine wonders if someone blabbed: “It is full of treasures… the discovery of the 21st century”.
Tantalising news about the ‘secret chamber’ in Tutankhamun’s tomb.
“We do not know if the burial chamber is Nefertiti or another woman, but it is full of treasures.” – Egypt’s Tourism Minister, Hisham Zaazou.
It seems that some secrets are too good to keep. Is this a phenomenal leak about what lays beyond the false wall in Tutankhamun’s tomb? Is it speculative wishful thinking? Or is this a clever boost for badly-needed tourism?
Mr. Zaazou claims that the announcement of what lays inside the secret chamber will be made in April. “It will be a ‘Big Bang’ – the discovery of the 21st century.”
To be honest, I’m not sure what to make of the news that has wafted out of Egypt via Spain in the past 24 hours. The Spanish national daily newspaper, ABC, claims that Egypt’s Tourism Minister, Hisham Zaazou, who was in Spain a few weeks ago, confirmed that there is “treasure” in Tutankhamun’s tomb.
(18) OLD NEWS IS GOOD NEWS. Shortly after Ray Bradbury died in 2012, Jessica Allen wrote a retrospective for Maclean’s about the Bradbury stories Maclean’s had published, in “Here’s to you, Ray Bradbury”. Her article was adorned with photos of the title page art, including a notable typo in the credit for his contribution to Maclean’s September 15, 1948 edition.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Michael J., Walsh, Steven H Silver, Lis, Andrew Porter, and Will R. for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day IanP.]
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(1) A chance of puppies in the forecast kind of makes me hope Camestros would rework Magritte’s bowler hats with young pugs. Camestros, do you take requests? (Or do I need to watch the video again? 😉 )
(1) Or maybe that was a more medical sense … “If you develop severe puppies, please call your local SMOF immediately.”
@multiple:
Yes.
So over the weekend:
Finished Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. Enjoyed it. Rather agree that it would be a bleeding awful entry point to the series.
Started and finished Envy of Angels. Fun but slight.
Started Luna: New Moon. About 6% in. Enjoying it so far. Unless it jumps a shark it may well make my shortlist.
Gentleman Jole felt much more like a capstone than an entry point for me, and I was not entirely happy with it. (I have a review at Skiffy and Fanty, for the interested).
I think Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance is a good “late” entry point for the Vorkosigan-curious, because we get that new-to-Barrayar point of view.
@Lurkertype:
Some people aren’t comfortable with their smiles. I’m one. I have no idea if CUL is another.
11) I agree with the previous comments from Lenora Rose et al.
[14] OLD VENUS is indeed a fine anthology, one of the two best of the year and a step up from last year’s OLD MARS, which was pretty good itself. And the standout superior story is certainly McDonald’s “Botanica Veneris”. Or so say I.
But I want to commend GRRM for his reticence on this matter, and his scrupulosity wrt conflict of interest. I’ve seen too many people use a position of presumed neutrality to nominate/recommend/vote for their own works and works they’ve acquired for publication, in which they have an interest.
Scrolltime
For Glyer
Und Pixeldom
(Da dada da)
They Might Be Giants: “Your Racist Friend”
(8) It’s hardly surprising that two SF writers lived in the most Bohemian part of LA. If you want a real small-world experience, see http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/02/laurel-canyon-music-scene, in which Joni Mitchell quotes something remarkably like “…And He Built a Crooked House” as the reason she moved there.
Shao Ping: much as I despise the later RAH, I have to admit that there was a time when he stood on top of the field in a way nobody else ever has. e.g., nobody ever won first and second place in the leading magazine’s best-writer poll. (Analog, during WWII; “Anson MacDonald” was first, RAH second.) I misremember whether this was before or during the time he was working his last full-time job.
JJ: fascinating link; houses similar to mine and not foreclosed on are offered at well under half what I paid 22 years ago on the edge of Boston. (Flyers from local real estate agents claim I’d get more than twice the purchase price if I sold now.) A dramatic demonstration of the realty saying that the three most important factors are (location)^3. I do wonder whether labor and material rates are so low that anything could be built there for those prices, but if not Butler is hardly the only place that couldn’t afford to replace itself.
I think an overly enthusiastic use of (11) is how stuff like (16) happens. Known douche-troll who is in the trusted position contemplated by (11) when someone in authority needed an MC, quickly.
6) Am I the only one who didn’t recognize Uncle Lou in the photo?
17) I’m impressed that they are still finding hidden chambers in the tomb. Wow.
Reading, I finished Nemesis Games, the latest Expanse book. I like the way the Expanse series talks about relationships and we got a lot of that in this book as the crew reconnected with people from their past lives (pre-book one.) I didn’t care for the shocking central event of this book, though, it seemed way over the top violence vice.
Currently listening to the audio book of Luna. I thought I’d approach Ian McDonald from a different perspective. I always struggled to maintain my interest in his novels until about 50% of the way in and then I couldn’t put them down. I think its partially his prose which isn’t always the easiest to follow. I was hoping that an audio book might make it more immediate but I am still struggling to get into it. I just started Chapter 6 and so far I am not caring for this at all. It took me three tries to get into Brasyl and I ended up loving it so I’ll stick with it.
I gave up on Luna about 60% of the way in – eight deadly words.
I normally love Ian McDonald’s beautifully drawn characters, but this time the plot kinda got in the way.
@ Chris S as far as I am concerned with the exception of Marina Calzaghe all the other characters could be tossed out naked on the surface of the moon. All the Corta’s are asshole’s in a variety of uninteresting ways. Anyway I’ll stick with it for now.
On 11) I, like Joni Mitchell, can see both sides.
Agreement Side: I, mostly due to college-and-post-college Relationship Drama in an incestuous circle of friends, have a policy of not taking sides ninety percent of the time. That is to say: I’ll listen and sympathize, I’ll support your decision to do whatever is right for you, and what you say *may* make me change my opinion of the other person as a friend and a person, but it may not, and I don’t feel that it has to. And if it doesn’t, then I’m going to remain friends with both of you; the one who objects is the one I’m likely to drop. If you feel like you can’t be at a party or a game where the other person is, I understand, but that’s on you and I’m not freaking out over guest lists because of it.
(The other ten percent of the time involves situations of rape, abuse, or harassment . Basically, if he hit you, I care. If he slept with your roommate, I don’t.)
Disagreement Side: While I’m not going to say that you have to stop being friends with X, conversely, *you* need to not try and get me to see how she’s really a good person she just has problems. I can understand that the same things don’t bother you/you have history/dude saved your dog from a burning chemical factory/etc, but you need to leave the GSFs at home. Plus, I think that everyone gets one “I’m not comfortable around That Person, you know, because of this thing,” before they have to drop it–and if all your friends say they don’t want to go to dinner with you if so-and-so is going to be there because so-and-so is racist/sleazy/generally annoying, maybe you should take a look at that.
I think it’s possible to be friends with a fairly benign but controversial person that people are trying to pressure you to detach from.
Many critics of good people use the same language that critics of terrible people use.
It seems to be — as with all human interaction — that thought and careful attention to the situation is required to tell whether people are trying to isolate someone for benevolent or malevolent reasons or some combination thereof.
(It is possible I had been making a tone argument earlier. I have regrettable impulses in that direction that I need to watch for. It is a nasty trick to take someone acting out of desperation and say “Oh, you shouldn’t have been *rude*.”)
Both filers were referring to Lucius Shepard. But surely Shepard himself was making a Talking Heads reference?
I’m a Filer?
I meant Lucius Bohemian Shepherd.
Kendall said:
Same here. The only reasonably solid gender clues I can recall were for Seivarden, Anaander Mianaai (one of the adult clones is described as having a baritone voice), and the person whose name I forget where Breq had to figure out the correct gendered term in a foreign language during Ancillary Sword.
Isabel Cooper: Well said.
For many years, I was in a relationship with That Asshole. He was loud and argumentative and wouldn’t let things go even when told (sometimes by the host!) it was time to end the conversation. I saw many of his friends fade away or keep him at arms’ length, and so he latched onto my friends. Some of whom tried to talk to him about his behaviour, but he wouldn’t listen, so they faded away too. They would try to invite me to things on my own, and just not bring him up. But at that point Asshole had so few friends that he would try to invite himself along. And be Very Sad At Me that I had friends and he didn’t. But still refused to examine himself and his Asshole ways.
Now that’s very different from having one friend who just won’t shut up about how much they dislike another friend, and continue to beat the drum about how much Your Friend Sucks. Maybe keep those friends in their own circles. But if a lot of your friends try to talk to you about how your friend’s kind of an asshole? Eventually if you continue to choose Asshole over them, you’re gonna end up with a lot fewer friends.
(I finally dumped my Asshole, and I must say it’s a relief to no longer be associated with him in public when he decides to be a smug argumentative jackass.)
JJ: I’m not certain Castro is talking about only one person. Friend X may be a composite character. Otherwise Ellison is who I’d guess he has in mind.
Gerrold is ordinarily gracious in all in-person social situations.
Sometimes you don’t mean to isolate someone who’s friends with That Jerk, it just… happens. You think about inviting them to the dinner, movie, whatever and you don’t want to deal with it and the dinner, movie, whatever doesn’t happen, or maybe it does but you don’t get around to the invitations that might draw That Jerk along.
@Cat: Yep.
It’s the one thing that sometimes goes against my “butt out of other people’s relationships” rule, because if I like A, but A is dating B who I cannot stand…well, there are only so many times I can pull the “…girls’ night?” gambit (which also depends on A being a girl, which is not always the case*) or “accidentally” schedule drinks on the night when B’s going to be out of town, or whatever.
In which case I have to either suck it up and put up with B, or suck it up and become more distant from A. And if it’s at the beginning of a relationship, and A’s a good friend, I think a “Look, I like you, but your new SO…kind of a jerk, I think…” conversation is, while awkward, not uncalled-for.
* Or indeed often: for whatever reason, and I have theories about this, I personally know more Ugh, Your Girlfriend couples than Ugh, Your Boyfriend, though I expect the ratio’s about equal in the general population.
Oh yes that jerk. I’ve had to exclude several friends from our social gatherings due to their behavior and unwillingness to change it. It gets trickier when you want to include their partner(s) but not them.
We have house rules for behavior for kids and adults. We tend to enjoy friendships with a wide variety of people who cross many spectrums (religious, LGBTI, political) as well as lack social skills and throw them in rooms together for long meals (2-6 hours).
@rob_matic: Seivarden is actually a guy?
Having just gotten around to reading Ancillary Justice, I find I normally still class all characters as female, unless pointed out as the opposite. I attribute it to exposure to the anime Gal Force at an impressionable age.
Come to think of it, I’m still st an impressionable age.
Ace having read AS, a lot if the complaints about the book make no sense. As in, “Did you even read the book?”
11) This seems amazingly clear to me. Everyone is a JERK in someone’s opinion-me, you, the guy in the third row, each of us rubs someone the wrong way. I’m friends with people who cannot stand one another. I try to keep distance between those people within my relationships whenever possible.
I decide who my friends are, because it’s my life and thus it’s my call. If you don’t like someone, I won’t inflict them on you. You can choose to explain why you don’t like them and I’ll listen without trying to change your mind-because I don’t have the right to try to change your mind. If you start dwelling on your dislike of someone, I will begin tuning you out. If you want to talk about something else, cool.
If someone did something to you that crosses a line (and abuse definitely crosses that line) and I know about it, there’s a good chance I’ll do something without you having to say anything. A very dear friend of mine was assaulted and I didn’t find out anything about it for years because she knew me well enough to know that either her attacker or I would wind up in the hospital (it probably would have been me). I still don’t know who it was, but if I ever find out, I’ll either be dead or wearing orange.
The point is, who I choose to have as friends and why they are my friends is my affair. I don’t expect all my friends to be friends with one another and my interests are diverse enough that it would amaze me if they were!
I extend to others the consideration that their friends are their choice and you may not even realize that I dislike Person X because I’m not likely to say anything unless you ask. If you decide to say something to me about someone, please do me the courtesy to respect me while doing so. Tell me your objections, that’s fine. Make it an ultimatum, that’s not fine.
Here in 3312, we all ride around on flying skateboards.
@Brian Z
Of course you are. Perhaps in the same sense that Lucifer is an angel. 🙂
Has anyone mentioned that the Up and Coming: Stories by the 2016 Campbell-Eligible Authors anthology has gone live? It’s a free download.
@Various,
“Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen”: Lois McMaster Bujold reckons it can be read as a stand-alone:
I maintain that you’re missing out on a lot if you read it without having read the previous Vorkosiganverse books first.
Robert Reynolds:
Don’t you think that she’s qualified to say whether or not you should her assailant is assaultworthy? And if she does not tell you who that assailant is, specifically so you will not assault that person, that maybe her wishes as the injured party might be a little more important than your own wish not to feel helpless to help her?
Seriously, I’ve had to talk people down from beating other people up because a) it would NOT help the victim, and b) it would make things WORSE for said victim.
I love the image but probably beyond me. I make things and decide what I was making afterwards 🙂
@Cally: She refrained from saying anything to save me from a beating at the hands of her attacker because she knew (having been beaten by others in my life) my response would have been automatic. We had similar temperaments on this issue. I don’t like that aspect of my character and I’ve been working on it for a long time.
The young lady has been dead for quite a while now and is thus past caring about whether I do anything or not. I said nothing in my comment to dispute her right to keep her own counsel. I never asked her who it was because she would have told me if she wanted to do so.
Should you care to lecture me again, feel free. But I’ve said my piece and I won’t continue any exchange with you on this.
It’s 6049 and I have things to do. 🙂
Lois’ opinion not withstanding, I kind of agree that Gentleman Jole would be a tough intro to the series, as you wouldn’t ‘get’ an awful lot of the references. Having been an avid reader, I can’t come to the book with the approach a new reader would.
Having said that, any long-time reader of the series, from the very first (internal chronological order, not publishing order) would not at all be surprised at the ‘revelation’ about Aral and Jole. Cordelia even figured out why she was attractive to Aral in the first place. Just like she figured out why Jole imprinted on Aral, and ultimately, Cordelia.
Soon Lee
And, according to my iPad, 8403 pages of works by potential Campbell award winners have arrived in my library. I don’t know whether to thank you or call down the rage of particularly psychotic war gods on your head.
Actually, since I think your assessment of Gentleman Jolie and the Red Queen may be missing the point, I think I’ll go with the thanks; the alternative looks too much like attempted retribution.
It is almost impossible to discuss the book without spoilers and I’m really not in the mood for Rot ?; I’ve got a lot of things to do this evening, what with those 8403 pages as well as the other things which I have to do. I do think, however, that the belief that reading the earlier books must enrich the process for someone who has read them is also something of a trap; there do seem to be at least some reviewers responding in much the same way Miles does.
I think this was entirely deliberate on Lois’s part; she, like CJ Cherryh, has an immensely inquisitive brain, and she, like CJ, never backs off from where it takes her. This isn’t necessarily where, for example, more conservatively minded people want to go, nor does it mean that she will write the sort of book which at least some readers of previous books set in that universe expect her to write.
Here in 5506 it does mean, particularly for those of us who always thought that Cordelia was the most interesting character, that the universe has broadened once more, which is utterly great because there is so much more exploring to do…
Ace having read AS, a lot if the complaints about the book make no sense. As in, “Did you even read the book?”
For many of the loudest critics, the answer is – by their own admission – no. They don’t need to read the book, they just know its bad, because of reasons that are so ludicrous that all of the 9/11, birther, and Scalia murder conspiracy theorists are looking at them saying “you’re kind of out there on the fringe dude”.
@Soon Lee
Yep the Campbell eligible book has been mentioned a couple of times but it’s good to keep mentioning for those that missed it. It’s a bit overwhelming and knowing it doesn’t contain many who are eligible possibly including one of the curators really helps highlight how hard it is to read everything out there.
On Bujold. I suspect she’s right. A newbie to the series coming in might very well get enough to keep up while those who’ve read the series will get more. For myself this is the first in the Vorkosiganverse which I feel is a tough entry. But that might be my bias showing. A second read without my expectations when is the big crazy going to happen made a big difference in how I experienced and enjoyed the book which might support Bujold’s statement.
Here in 9369 TBRs are a thing of the past as people got too overwhelmed by mountains and mountains of books waiting to be read. Now they open their reader and choose which algorithm they want to use to pick their next book.
Personally, I found “Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen” to be pretty dull. There’s almost zero conflict in the novel, such conflict as there is is very low-stakes, and even that is generally resolved after just a few pages.
I’ve read the whole Vorkosigan series and enjoyed almost all of it, but this one was a chore to read, not a pleasure.
@Petréa Mitchell:
If you’re reading the book in a language that has gendered pronouns, then Strigan’s dialogue in a non-Raadch language genders Anaander Mianaai unambiguously.
I’d be wary gendering someone based on Breq’s reference to a “baritone” voice, because A. women can have low voices, and B. Breq probably doesn’t assign genders to voice parts in the first place.
@Greg Hullender,
I loved it partly for the reasons you didn’t. I saw it as a meditation of what happens after the planet-shattering conflicts, also of the lives of the no-longer young, which are two themes rarely explored in SFF. I also enjoy big planet-shattering stories, but this was a welcome & delightful change of pace.
Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little said:
But the author’s language does– a low-pitched woman’s voice is a contralto.
Tasha :
Who is this person that does not understand the lures of unspreadsheeted data?
Bookworm1398 :
You have to admit it’s neat how the TV series actually foreshadowed that in such a way that non-readers wouldn’t have seen it coming. Here’s a quiet moment with Chrisjen talking to her grandson. Almost no need to listen to what she’s saying, right?…
Ugh, Saturday I ended up drinking a couple too many beers in the afternoon to remember to come back here, then getting tickets to a show I’d planned to miss but couldn’t after seeing the band’s setlist from the previous night, then, well, basically I never got around to partaking in the burrito wars. I did see some outrageous falsehoods and internet wrongs occur when later reading the thread, and am sad to have been unable to throw my burrito-enhanced weight into the battle, but I missed my chance.
Bujold-wise, and reading order in the Vorkosigan universe… I basically read everything in in-universe order, rather than by publication date. I’m not sure exactly, but I’m pretty sure I followed Bujold’s suggestions. I’m currently still bogged down in the one that’s all about Miles courting. It’s the second or third in the past three or four that isn’t really holding my attention. One of these days I’ll get back to it.
Count me as another reader who got that Seivarden was a man but pretty much couldn’t keep any of the rest of the characters straight. I did appreciate the mind-fuckery in not knowing genders. I kept discovering my own assumptions and prejudices – this character is rapey, must be male; this character seems all doe-eyed and in-love with another, must be female. I discovered that arrogance reads male to me. Most of this is pure obvious stereotyping, but it’s weird to see it in action in your own brain.
Reading-wise, I’m just under the 25% mark in another binary gender-noncompliant book – Graydon’s “A Succession of Bad Days”. Still loving it. I’m getting a little tired of the way the characters react to what seem like minor revelations as if they were disastrous, but that may have to do with the density of the writing and my not getting the implications.
kathodus: When I reread the series earlier this year, I realized there were explicit clues about two of the characters in the very first pages of the first novel — I had just not known how seriously to take them on my first pass through the books.
I haven’t time to read through all the comments since I really need to get back to work so please excuse if I’ve missed something but I feel compelled to add my voice to Lenore and Tasha. Back in college, I was the one of our group that was seriously wronged, and I was also the one that was kicked out of the group. By people that I had known from elementary school. And we had only known the one who wronged me for a single year.
If I tell you something bad about a mutual friend, it’s not “bad mouthing” if it’s true. Or does he expect the wronged party to announce it to the group as a whole in front of the perpetrator so there’s no talking behind backs? Like that would go well.
On a lighter note, I’ve always liked Dane Cook’s bit “Every group of friends has one guy who’s only in the group for all the others to complain about. If you think this doesn’t happen in your group, well, then, you’re that guy.” Sorry for the poor paraphrase.
Oh man…..just too many pages in that Up And Coming document. I’m not sure how to make a salivating emoticon.
I do think this is a reasonable example of filtering in action. There are 120 authors in this curated collection. How many other equally talented…or perhaps with superior talents….authors are there that simply failed to come to the attention of the curators? That isn’t a suggestion of anything nefarious, just an observation that quality work can be overlooked.
If Sebastien de Castelle makes it to the Campbell short list of nominees, then please spend some time with his work. IMHO, it and he are well worth the time of any serious SFF aficionado. Sadly, his work does not appear in this volume.
Finished James Moore’s “The Blasted Lands”. IIRC, book 4 of this series drops this year. If he can keep up this level of writing, then book 4 ought to be under consideration for recognition at some level.
Getting into Richard Knaak’s “Black City Saint”. I’m hoping it picks up after chapter 4 or 5.
Regards,
Dann
@Petréa Mitchell
I was assuming that Mianaai’s clones were not necessarily all of the same gender (and arguably, having as much diversity as possible would probably serve zer nefarious purposes best).
“Of course you are. Perhaps in the same sense that Lucifer is an angel. :-)”
Ah, the warm hug of belonging.
Kathodus: “I kept discovering my own assumptions and prejudices”
That’s exactly why I loved the device. I found myself “casting” characters as I read them, which was very interesting.
Follow-up on (16): https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=529112157268143&id=218878738291488
Yeahhhhh, I’m pretty sure a lot of people said nothing during rehearsal because they thought he couldn’t possibly be planning to make inappropriate jokes over their competition entry…