Pixel Scroll 6/4/18 A Pixel Came Down To File770, It Was Lookin’ For A Scroll To Steal

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(1) FOLLOWING IN GODZILLA’S FOOTSTEPS. The Harvard Map Collection presents “Where Disaster Strikes: Modern Space and the Visualization of Destruction”.

Floods, fires, earthquakes, volcanoes, bombings, droughts, and even alien invasions: disaster can take many forms. And, although disasters are always felt dramatically, a disaster’s form and location impacts who records its effects and what forms those records take. “Where Disaster Strikes” investigates the intertwined categories of modern space and disaster through the Harvard Map Collection’s maps of large destructive events from the London Fire to the present.

The map collection includes a Godzilla feature. Stacy Lambe figured out how many times stomped all the cities. Then Danielle Brown mapped them. (I can’t get the link to function here, but go to the Harvard Map Collection link and click “30” on the left sidebar, that worked for me.)

(2) FUTURE TENSE. “Safe Surrender” by Meg Elison, author of The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, is this month’s entry in the Future Tense series that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. The series is offered through a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University.

The laws are so old that they were written with fully human children in mind. Before first contact, two humans might make a fully Terran baby and still abandon it, because they didn’t have enough money or because one of their ancient tribal honor codes forbid them from breeding. It still happens, but nobody talks about it. Humans like to forget what they used to be. Now, safe surrender sites are known as places where hemis get dumped. Hemis like me.

It was published along with a response essay “Oppression of the Future in ‘Safe Surrender’ by tech policy lawyer Laura Moy.

As technology advances, will we use it to promote equity, or to serve and preserve systems of oppression? This question is central to Meg Elison’s “Safe Surrender,” which explores a future in which humans are in regular contact with extraterrestrials called Pinners, who exchange diplomats, trade goods, and even interbreed with Earthlings. In “Safe Surrender,” a grown-up human-Pinner hybrid (a “hemi”) struggles to find their identity and make sense of their origin—surrendered at birth by a mother who did not want or perhaps felt she could not care for or protect a hybrid infant.

In Elison’s not–totally foreign, not-so-distant future, the racial prejudices, inequities, and oppression that plague humankind today map easily onto extraterrestrials….

(3) POOHOGRAPHY. Who needs $200,000 when you can have this map? Atlas Obscura knows where you can find it: “For Sale: A Winsome Map Showing the Way to Pooh Corner”.

But all the adventures of a boy and his bear started here, alongside illustrations by the English artist E. H. Shepard. In its opening pages, a map shows the way around the Hundred Acre Wood, sometimes stylized as “100 Aker Wood.” There’s “Where the Woozle Wasnt” and the route to the North Pole. Now, for the first time in nearly 50 years, the original map is on sale at the British auctioneer Sotheby’s, along with four other illustrations. They are expected to fetch as much as $580,000 together when they go on sale at the auction house in July, the BBC reported.

It’s a lot of money for a map—but then, this isn’t any old map.

(4) MEXICANX. John Picacio introduces the next set of MexicanX Initiative guests who’ll be coming to Worldcon 76.

(5) MERRY MONTH OF MAY. Eric Wong sent along Rocket Stack Rank’s May ratings highlights.

  1. New Prolific Reviewer Added

Gary Tognetti @ 1000 Year Plan

  1. Most-Recommended Stories

Here are 15 stories (out of 72) recommended by at least 2 out of 4 prolific reviewers who post at the end of each month (GTognetti, JMcGregor, RSR, SFRevu). That’s 21% of 72 stories, while 56% (40 stories) got no recs from any of the 4 prolific reviewers.

Novellas (click for story & review links)

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells 1h:48m Tor Novella 05/08/18

Bubble and Squeak by David Gerrold & Ctein 1h:50m Asimov’s 05?06|18

Novelettes (click for story & review links)

The Thought That Counts by K.J. Parker 28m BCS 250
Crash Site by Brian Trent 29m F&SF 05?06|18
Inquisitive by Pip Coen2 25m F&SF 05?06|18
Fleeing Oslyge by Sally Gwylan 30m Clarkesworld 140
Angry Kings by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam 25m BCS 250
Argent and Sable by Matthew Hughes 47m F&SF 05?06|18
Hubpoint Of No Return by Christopher L. Bennett 41m Analog 05?06|18

Short Stories (click for story & review links)

A Green Moon Problem by Jane Lindskold 20m Lightspeed 96
Unstoppable by Gardner Dozois 19m F&SF 05?06|18
Blessings by Naomi Novik 07m Uncanny 22
Cold Blue Sky by JE Bates2 13m Apex 108
Godmeat by Martin Cahill 23m Lightspeed 96
While You Sleep, Computer Mice™ Earn Their Keep by Buzz Dixon 07m Analog 05?06|18

(Sometimes RHorton’s recs are included if Locus Magazine releases his latest column online by the end of the month. The recommendations from the 5 major awards and 4 major SF/F anthologies are typically available within 5 months after the calendar year and are shown in the 2018 YTD.)

  1. Most-Recommended Magazines

Every BCS and Lightspeed story got a recommendation from at least 1 out of 4 prolific reviewers. Every magazine got at least 1 story rec except Strange Horizons.

(All 11 magazines included in RSR Monthly & YTD ratings are covered by at least 3 of the 4 prolific monthly reviewers, except for Tor Novellas.)

  1. Stories by New Writers

Stories by 2019 Campbell Award-eligible writers, grouped by year of eligibility.

Year 1 Eligible: 5 stories, none recommended.

Year 2 Eligible: 6 stories, 3 recommended.

Coen, Pip Inquisitive 25m F&SF 05?06|18
Bates, JE Cold Blue Sky 13m Apex 108
Falowo, Dare Segun Ku’gbo 19m F&SF 05?06|18

The remaining 61 stories were written by authors whose first pro SF/F story was before 2017.

(6) BEING INVENTIVE. Doctor Strangemind’s Kim Huett says “Let’s consider how to add a little local colour to steampunk fiction with some interesting but failed nineteenth century inventions. Necessity might be the mother of invention but that doesn’t mean all her children are born equal.” — “With A Strange Device”.

Putting some steampunk junk in the trunk.

I’ve long been a fan of Jack Vance’s fiction for a number of reasons. One of these is the way he liked to throw quirky details into his stories. There were often no reason for these details as they weren’t designed to advance the plot (well okay, very occasionally yes they did but usually no they didn’t). Mostly Vance just liked to add a little local colour to the fictional landscapes his narrative was passing through. A little local colour, as actually exists in the real world, is something far too rare in science fiction of any era.

(7) SAURON’S DIGS. Olga Polomoshnova pieces together a description of “The tower of adamant” at Middle-Earth Reflections.

Barad-dûr was built in the Second Age when Sauron chose Mordor as his abode. He began the construction of the Dark Tower in c. 1000 SA and finished it in c. 1600 SA — the same year when the One Ring was forged in the fires of Orodruin. The foundations of Barad-dûr were thus strengthened with the power of the One Ring, so the tower was virtually indestructible by any force and could stand as long as the Ring lasted. After the War of the Last Alliance and the seven-year siege of Barad-dûr its foundations remained, though the tower itself was destroyed, and thus the Dark Tower rose again in the Third Age.

The appearance of Barad-dûr is left rather vague by Tolkien. Readers can catch only glimpses of the Dark Tower by means of visions or looks from afar, without many details provided. Those glimpses offer a very uncertain picture, as if just allowing a peek at the mighty tower: we look at it quickly and then withdraw our glance so that the never-sleeping watch of Sauron does not catch us at looking at his citadel longer than it is necessary.

The main impression that can be gathered from those fragmentary glimpses is that of hopelessness and terror: the Dark Tower is huge and impregnable. In this case less is more, and the lack of detailed descriptions does the trick, but one thing is certain: we are dealing with a very serious stronghold here.

(8) THE QUIET MAN. Jon Del Arroz hasn’t been tweeting for the last few days. Part of it is because he was officiating a wedding for a friend, but the main reason is that his Twitter account was frozen. JDA says I have to get the details from the response piece he has written for The Federalist….

(9) VON TIESENHAUSEN OBIT. WAFF-TV has the story: “‘Father of the Lunar Rover’ dies at 104”

Georg von Tiesenhausen, who is dubbed the “Father of the Lunar Rover,” has died at age 104.

Tiesenhausen was the last living rocket scientist who came to the U.S. under Operation Paperclip with Wernher von Braun at jump-start the U.S. space program.

(10) PHIPPS OBIT. Actor William Phipps, who had a huge number of genre TV and movie roles on his resume, died June 1—The Hollywood Reporter has the story.

…He starred as a young poet, one of the five people on Earth to survive a nuclear explosion, in Five (1951), then fought martians in The War of the Worlds (1953) and Invaders From Mars (1953), a giant spider in Cat-Women of the Moon (1953) and the Abominable Snowman in The Snow Creature (1954).

Walt Disney himself heard Phipps’ audition tape and hired him to play Prince Charming opposite Ilene Woods in Cinderella (1950). The actor said he was paid about $100 for two hours’ work on an afternoon in January 1949….

(11) TODAY IN HISTORY

  • June 4, 1982 – Poltergeist premiered.
  • June 4, 1982 – Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan debuted in theaters.

(12) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

  • Born June 4 — Angelina Jolie, actress in the Tombraider films and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

(13) COMICS SECTION.

  • Chip Hitchcock says Rhymes With Orange believes they could never remake Wizard of Oz quite the same way today.

(14) JIM HENSON. “The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited” is on display at LA’s Skirball Cultural Center from June 1-September 2.

Immerse yourself in the imaginative world of Jim Henson (1936–1990) and discover his groundbreaking approach to puppetry and transformative impact on contemporary culture.

Featuring more than 100 objects and twenty-five historic puppets—including Kermit the Frog, Rowlf, Ernie and Bert, Grover, and other popular favorites—The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited illuminates Henson’s unique contributions to the moving image. Along with a talented team of designers, performers, and writers, Henson created an unparalleled body of work that continues to delight and inspire people of all ages to create a kinder and gentler world.

Explore Henson’s enduringly popular productions—from The Muppet Show, the Muppet movies, and Sesame Street to Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth—through character sketches, storyboards, scripts, photographs, costumes, film and television clips, and behind-the-scenes footage. Then design your own puppet and try your hand at puppeteering in this highly interactive exhibition.

Highlights include:

  • Kermit the Frog puppet from 1978
  • Handwritten scripts from Henson’s first television series, Sam and Friends (1955–1961)
  • A clip from Henson’s Academy Award–nominated experimental short film Time Piece (1965)
  • Puppets from Sesame Street (1969– ), including Grover, Ernie and Bert, and Count von Count
  • Section on The Muppet Show (1976–1981), including puppets of Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, Beaker, and Scooter, as well as material from the Muppets’ transition to the big screen, such as set models and storyboards
  • Jen and Kira puppets from The Dark Crystal (1982)
  • Red Fraggle from Fraggle Rock (1983–1987), which celebrates its thirty-fifth anniversary this year
  • Jareth’s and Sarah’s ballroom costumes from Labyrinth (1986)

(15) BEGONE, I HAVE NO POWER HERE. NPR reports “‘Sherlock’ Star Benedict Cumberbatch Saves Cyclist From Muggers” — no mystic powers needed.

Actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays detective Sherlock Holmes in the television series Sherlock, foiled an attempted robbery by fighting off a gang of muggers in London. The attack occurred near his fictional character’s home on Baker Street.

(16) CONCAROLINAS. Yesterday’s Scroll reported the terms under which David Weber agreed to be a ConCarolinas special guest next year, his characterization of those who had issues with Ringo’s selection as a special guest, and the statement delivered by the ConCarolinas chair at closing ceremonies of this year’s con (wording negotiated with Weber).

There has been mixed reaction to the ConCarolinas statement.

So, apparently, ConCarolinas committee gave a closing statement where they doubled-down on being open to having special guests who are bigots, racists, sexists, etc claiming the onus is on the people these hate-mongers target to be willing to sit in a room with them as a sign of tolerance and mutual respect.

Listen, it’s not on me to be willing to tolerate someone who thinks I shouldn’t even be in the room or any group who supports bigotry, racism, misogyny, or hate speech.

Now, for those of you who gave ConCarolinas a pass this year and went anyway they’ve made where they stand abundantly clear. You either support that or you don’t – there’s no middle ground. Don’t think you can continue to support it and be my “friend”. Pick a side. You’re either with the people who support giving a platform to hate or you’re an ally of the marginalized people those bigots/racists/misogynists would like to see excluded from SFF and fandom. Don’t expect me to be ok with it.

My thanks to those allies who made a principled stand and withdrew from ConCarolinas, both guests and attendees. I appreciate your willingness to take a stand for what’s right and not try to parse your participation down to some justification for continuing to support people who CLEARLY want to be in a position to give a platform to people who would like nothing better than to target women and people of color.

  • Bryan Thomas Schmidt

  • Rabid Sparkle Badger

https://twitter.com/Nicki_F/status/1003624661907886080

  • Stabby Carpenter

  • Nick Mamatas

  • Stephanie Souders

  • Keffy

So, the director of Con Carolinas has made a choice of who is welcome, and who is not. This is now a convention openly antagonistic to the health, comfort, and safety of anyone who is not straight, cis, male, white, and conservative.

Two important wins vs. the antisocial injustice crusaders in SFF.

  1. ConCarolinas, with prompting from DavidWeber, has declared themselves politically neutral.
  2. DragonCon fired the head of its fantasy lit track, who was apparently trying to impose a political litmus test.
  • Shaun Duke

https://twitter.com/shaunduke/status/1003778775727919105

  • Ari Marmell

https://twitter.com/mouseferatu/status/1003806154584182785

  • Declan Finn

ConCarolinas is beginning to see the first groundswell of criticism for the position Jada took at final ceremonies yesterday. I expect it to get pretty ugly, because she and the concom are now officially recidivists. I would request that anyone who supports the con’s efforts — and fandom in general’s effort — to . . . diminish the scope for the ex post facto dis-invitation of guests to speak up in support of the con’s position, but lets not take this any farther into Mutually Assured Destruction territory than we have to. I know the temptation will be to lob H bombs back in response to the fission warheads coming in in condemnation of the con’s position. I understand that, because I’ve got a temper, too. But if we want to minimize the bigots and the fanatics on both sides of the divide, then we can’t be fanatics ourselves. Determined, unyielding, and unwilling to put up with or yield to cyber bullying — all of those things, damned straight. But if we’re going to be the grown-ups in the room, then let’s BE grown-ups. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I don’t approve of banning anyone for anything short of criminal acts or DEMONSTRATED personal harassment of an innocent bystander who didn’t lob the first grenade in any exchange between them. Don’t care whether they are on the right, and they’ve been screaming about John’s withdrawal from ConCarolinas and Larry’s banning from Origins, or if they are on the left, and they are now screaming about ConCarolinas’ response to the arguments voiced by people on the right. Everyone has a right to his or her own opinion and to attend or not to attend any convention because of guest lists or for any other reason(s) that seem(s) good to them. They also have a right to voice and explain those opinions. I’d just really prefer for us to do it as civilly as possible. It is at least remotely possible we could shame the hate merchants (of whatever political persuasion), but I’m not looking for any miracles here. What I would like to accomplish, however, is to APPEAR as the reasonable parties by BEING the reasonable parties so that those who have not already drawn their own lines in the sand can form their own opinions and reach their own conclusions about who is truly in favor of diversity and inclusiveness and who isn’t.

(17) IN THE FRAME. Gary Tognetti reviews “The Freeze-Frame Revolution by Peter Watts” at The 1000 Year Plan.

Watts falls within the lineage of classic hard SF writers who can make far-future science magic seem tangible, but his true gift lies in how personable he makes it feel. Heavy themes like alienation, the value of existence, and the nature of consciousness are woven into the brisk narrative with humor and pathos. Watts may be too smart to let a big idea pass by without picking it to pieces, but above all, “The Freeze-Frame Revolution” is fun to read.

(18) WHEN THE WORLD WAS YOUNG. Frederik Pohl’s IF magazine floats The Traveler’s boat at Galactic Journey: “[June 4, 1963] Booked passage (July 1963 IF)”

Down to the Worlds of Men, by Alexei Panshin

14-year old Mia Havero is part of a society of human space-dwellers, resident of one of the eight galaxy-trotting Ships that represent the remains of Earth’s high technology. She and 29 other young teens are dropped on a primitive colony as part of a rite of passage. There is always an element of danger to this month-long ordeal, but this episode has a new wrinkle: the planet’s people are fully aware (and resentful) of the Ships, and they plan to fight back. Can Mia survive her coming of age and stop an insurrection?

Panshin hits it right out of the park with his first story, capturing the voice of a young almost-woman and laying out a rich world and an exciting adventure. Finally, I’ve got something I can recommend to the Young Traveler. Four stars, verging on five.

(19) THEME SONG. Wil Wheaton declares “This Is Brilliant”.

When we worked on Next Generation, Brent Spiner and I would sit at our consoles on the bridge, and make up lyrics to our show’s theme song. I vaguely recall coming up with some pretty funny and clever stuff, but nothing that held together as perfectly as this, from the weirdos over at meh.com:

 

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, JJ, Joey Eschrich, Cat Eldridge, Chip Hitchcock, Martin Morse Wooster, mlex, Mike Kennedy, Carl Slaughter, Top Elf, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Lanodantheon.]

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180 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 6/4/18 A Pixel Came Down To File770, It Was Lookin’ For A Scroll To Steal”

  1. George Phillies, obviously you’ve never been a female gamer. I have over forty years of lived gamer-geek experience that radically contrasts with your rosy view. I’m glad for you that your games club was equatable… or seemed that way, from the point of view of a (presumably) cis white het male. However, I’d not be the least surprised to hear that the woman with the shaved head felt differently. People in privileged positions (and I include myself in that, as a cis het white person, albeit a female one) often are blind to the slights and digs and hostility aimed at those who are not. Certainly my male friends were appalled when I explained to them exactly why their friend XX was not nearly so much fun to game with if you’re a woman as he was if you’re a man. They were there, but they didn’t see the behavior until I explicitly pointed it out. Likewise, I expect I’m blind… or at least nearsighted… when it comes to the digs and slights aimed at non-cis and/or non-het and/or non-white people, although I do try.

  2. @Rob Thornton: I can’t believe I let Burning Bright sit on the shelf for years, even when Melissa Scott was coming to town. Gosh, what a great book that is! Anyone with a recommendation for a second book by her? Or a third, for that matter. I’m pretty sure I’ll get to several of hers.

    “From my impression (cis white male here), this book takes rainbow sexuality as a given.”

    And does it convincingly. A lot of writers don’t make me believe. And I want to believe.

    My copy of The Female Man is packed away, so I picked up a second copy last month to re-read in a junk store*, along with a couple of signed first editions by local poets, a copy of The Word for World Is Forest for the kid and an Ursula LeGuin essay collection for both of us in mass market that I don’t think I see in this bibliography. There was also a metric buttload of Andre Norton. I’ll be back this weekend and plan to buy a few of those. Again, any recommendations would be very welcome. I barely know her at all: I’ve read Quag Keep.

    *whereas inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read

  4. Nancy Sauer on June 5, 2018 at 5:21 am said:
    I’ll second Swordspoint as having delectable amounts of men making kissy face. Also swordfighting which is a nice bonus.

    How much is “delectable”?

    I don’t know if there’s already a standard for measurement for the amount of kissing in books, but I hope if so that delectable is a unit of measurement on it.

    Paul Weimer on June 5, 2018 at 4:02 am said:
    12) Recently saw WANTED (Netflix thought I might like it). Uh, yeah, I did not…

    I saw the movie in theaters and later read the source material and now I mostly just want to read the notes from the pitch sessions on adapting it because I really want to know how they got from one thing to the other.

  6. @John A Arkansawyer

    Burning Bright is one of Melissa Scott’s best early books, but the Silence Leigh trilogy (start with Five-Twelfths of Heaven) is also very good. And you won’t go far wrong with any of her stuff if you pick at random.

    Andre Norton wrote a lot, and the quality varies. My own personal favourites are The Zero Stone and Uncharted Stars, which were some of the first SF I read when I was a kid, but I’d also recommend Catseye and the Solar Queen novels. James Nicholl did a “50 Nortons in 50 weeks” review series that’s worth a look:
    https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/tag/50+nortons+in+50+weeks

  8. @Matt Y: China Mountain Zhang was made much of twenty years ago; I have not checked whether it is dated, as McHugh’s particular flavor of gloom is not to my taste.

  10. @Standback: LOL at the “Wondermark” strip.

    @Rev. Bob: ROFL at the video segment. Make sure you watch to the end, folks. Ah, I finally finished Yang’s novella last night (very good with a stomp-on-your-heart ending; 2nd place on my ballot so far!), so I guess Gailey’s is up next for me.

    @Errolwi: “Re Questionable Content: Also, the creator recently got so annoyed with people giving him adverse feedback about ‘too many gay relationships’ etc that he declared it canon that all characters are bi.”

    I’m torn between grinning at what he said and rolling my eyes at the jerks causing it. At least if people can’t have nice things, they get nicer, in this case. 😛

    @Paul Weimer: “I offered up The Lost Sun by KD Edwards is coming out soon, and I liked it. Atlanteans on what was Nantucket Island in a urban fantasy, high magic and intrigue, and a LGBT protagonist. Comes out in a couple of weeks.”

    That’s on my list to look into when it’s out. FYI typo alert: It’s The Last Sun, not “Lost.” Comes out June 12 and thanks for reminding me about it; I’m noting your rec in my list! 🙂

    @Joe H.: I second Flewelling’s books! That’s “Nightrunner” not “Nightstalker,” which sounds like it would have very dire protagonists. 😉 I really, really love the “Nightrunner” books a metagon!

    @Various: In Other Lands was one of my favorites (possibly favorite) from last year! I Nth the rec for this.

    @GLBT Recs: Here are two from me that no one’s mentioned yet:

    #1 Sarah Monette’s “Doctrine of the Labyrinth” series! Monette did excellent voices for the (initially two) protagonists and I loved this fantasy series, starring wizard Felix and thief/assassin Mildmay, with its unusual world, magic, and a few GLBT characters (good guys and bad guys).

    #2 I also strongly rec Diane Duane’s “Tale of the Five” a.k.a. “Middle Kingdoms” books. Excellent fantasy in a world where everyone is bi. They don’t even call it that; this is just how people are, it seems to me from the ones we see. Anyway, 3 books and warning: her ebook editions have a lot of typos or scannos. But it’s worth it! (I have the paperbacks but bought the ebook bundle to re-read.) We’ll probably never see the 4th book (my hopes got up recently, but I’m back to skepticism), but it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, so just pretend it’s a trilogy and you’ll do fine.

  12. P.S. I caught up on comments and made mine. Then I checked my e-mail box. OH I AM GETTING COMMENT E-MAILS FOR THIS THREAD. Whadya know! :-D. Yay!

    ETA: And a couple of “please confirm” e-mails that took eons to come are in my inbox. Like 8-10 hours or so, wow.

  13. @Kendall — D’oh! Yes, Nightrunner! And I even had Goodreads open (to confirm spelling of her name). Sigh.

  15. It may be 12 years old, but I remember Elizabeth Bear’s Carnival fondly.

  16. (1) I think there may be some confusion. Faro(u) Island in the Pacific Ocean appears in King Kong vs. Godzilla. It’s where the Soma berries grow and King Kong hangs out.

    No one on the file scrolls pixels like us
    Hit me on my burner prepaid ebook
    We unpack and deliver like Amazon trucks
    Already going to hell, just loading my Nook

  17. Melissa Scott’s Astreiant series (the “Points” novels) is currently my most-comforting QUILTBAG reading. The characters are (apparently) human, but it’s set on a world with two suns and where astrology actually works. The society is matriarchal (so where we would say “man” to mean “any person”, they say “woman”) and most people are kinda gay, but neither of these things make the world perfect. It’s just *relaxing*.

    Also, it clearly started out as Pros AU fanfic.

  18. Just finished Cloud Roads:

    Very well-written, and it’s so nice to have none of the characters be human, it’s aliens all the way down.

    On the other hand … much SFF has 2 plotlines: one plot which is the story, the mystery, the problem the characters are trying to solve. But there’s another plot, the mystery of the world, in which the characters (or the reader via incluing) are trying to figure out how the world is put together, what the rules are. This is what puts the “science” in SFF (imho), even in “pure fantasy”, because that’s what science *does*: we try to figure out how the world is put together.

    So far, I don’t get a sense that there’s a world-mystery for us to solve, which makes the story feel less like Hugo-winning SFF and more like a game to me. I’ll have to read another volume to find out.

    Now I’m reading Serpent Sea, and Moon’s insecure inner voice reminds me *so much* of fanon Derek Hale.

  19. @George Phillies:

    the young lady whose feminist protest included a Yul Brynner haircut.

    I remember getting into a months-long APA-style flame war*with one of the men in the mostly-male APA I was in during the late 1970s/early 1980s about how his rant about the ugliness of women on public streets wearing sneakers to get to work instead of their high heels (carried with them) was just. such. a. terrible. pain. to. his. delicate. sensibilities.

    As I recall, it started (heh) with me pointing out women were not there as decorative wallpaper and perhaps he should try walking a few city blocks in high heels before judging them and WTF made it his business anyway.

    *APA-style flame-war: since the collected ‘zines came out every month (or sometimes two months depending on the Central Mailer’s schedule), a flame-war in mailing comments could drag on for a loooooooooooooong time (though sometimes it could go to letters if tempers got really heated).

    @Cassy B: One only has to Google Women Gamers Sexism to find lots of evidence, and while some might say oh that’s just today, nope, it was always there though there were probably some groups that were not as bad as others.

    I didn’t game, but I was the “only girl/honorary guy because of being fat and talked a lot** and not in the least sexy in jeans, waffle stompers, and big floppy t-shirts and yeah very short hair”) in a lot of male-dominated fan spaces in the late 1970s/early 1980s, and….I remember a slave auction at a Seattle con that ended up with the police being called and prostitution charges being threatened (for some reason only attractive young women were being sold).

    **dwells fondly on treasured memory of dude who told me if I hadn’t made it so clear I knew more about sf than he did, I would have been blessed with a chance to have sex with him. He told me this missed opportunity the week before he was going to marry one of my best friends (one of the few other women in the fan group). In retrospect, I now suspect it was in part autism monologuing, but I was just so happy to have people besides my dad to talk to about sf when I got out of small-town Idaho.

    I stomped out of APA fandom in the early 1990s (my growing feminism and writing a dissertation did not mix) but was deliriously happy to find mostly female media fandom in the early twenty-first century (and slash fiction! which nobody told me about in the 1970s probably because I was hanging out with all the dudes).

    LGBT recs

    @Kendall: ENTHUSIASTIC seconding for Monette and Duane’s work. BRILLIANT both of them.

    Also: ALL of Melissa Scott. ALL fantastic.

  20. Paul Weimer: I was just reading the comment left on David Weber’s Facebook page by a simple soul urging him to block me because I am quoting his posts here. Which are public posts because, I presume, Weber wants people to read what he said. (And therefore, blocking me wouldn’t prevent me from reading them anyway.)

  21. John A Arkensawyer: There was also a metric buttload of Andre Norton. I’ll be back this weekend and plan to buy a few of those. Again, any recommendations would be very welcome. I barely know her at all: I’ve read Quag Keep.

    For what it’s worth, the Norton I will keep on my shelves forever is Ordeal in Otherwhere (the indirect sequel to Storm over Warlock, and part of a longer sequence of related books that I no longer remember exactly). I suspect I might have problems with it if I were twelve years old today and reading it for the first time . . . but it happened to be the first sf novel I ever read with a female pov character. And in the early 1970s, that stunned me.

  22. I have been gaming for four decades as well, and will say – even well-meaning, nice guys can make gaming uncomfortable. As the only female in my gaming group until I got sick of it and managed to talk a few friends into joining me, I got used to having someone decide I was his soulmate and therefore my vagina was DESTINED for him every few months and the subsequent extremely uncomfortable conversation in which I was forced to point out that maybe that wasn’t the case. This started at age 13 and went on till I finally moved on to college. Bear in mind, I was a fuzzy-headed, very tall, gawky girl wearing both braces and glasses, so I am not convinced it was my staggering beauty creating this phenomena.

  23. I can’t believe I let Burning Bright sit on the shelf for years, even when Melissa Scott was coming to town. Gosh, what a great book that is! Anyone with a recommendation for a second book by her?

    Dreamships is a great novel. I bought it years ago while shopping with a friend who had just gone through a rough breakup. He was on such an anti-female tirade as a result of his romantic woes that I decided to look for a new female SF/F author to read. To my good fortune I found Scott.

  24. Im not sure f a wargame club is a good example for an inclusive group. Ive never saw one which didnt consist of at least 95% White men.

    I will filk everything for con, but I wont filk that
    No, i wont filk that.

  26. DragonCon is my “home” con (as much as DC can be home con for anyone, it’s so biiiggg) and I feel that I have to defend the other parts of the con that aren’t occupied by the characters quoted above. DC is balkanized and you can do so many fun things there without even being in the same building as Ringo et al. Don’t slather the whole con with one brush.

    I can’t speak for Concarolinas.

  27. #8 He’s back & blaming a “targeted harassment campaign where File 770 readers are targeting me and reporting my tweets” (as opposed to the actual content of those tweets).

  28. Melissa Scott’s Astreiant series (the “Points” novels) is currently my most-comforting QUILTBAG reading. The characters are (apparently) human, but it’s set on a world with two suns and where astrology actually works. The society is matriarchal (so where we would say “man” to mean “any person”, they say “woman”) and most people are kinda gay, but neither of these things make the world perfect. It’s just *relaxing*.

    My desire to enthusiastically second, third and fourth this led me to Amazon where I see there’s a new entry I knew nothing about, so double win!

  29. Louise: Jon even accused me (in email) of turning him in. It seemed out of character for him to think I would try to stop the Golden Goose’s flow of turds.

  30. “Turning him in”
    :Sigh:
    Jon Del Arroz, if you are a —-bird to people, eventually people are going to report you for being a —-bird. And that’s not harassment, that’s people not putting up with your —-.

    The advice I gave you months ago in that email string? I really wish you’d take it.

  31. LGBT recs: the titular character of the Xandri Corelel series by Kaia Sonderby is bisexual, biromantic, and poly. Here’s an interview with the author about the books. I recently picked the first book up thanks to this review, loved it, bought the sequel and the prequel novella, and am now in a frustrated state of anticipation eagerly waiting for the next book to be available.

  33. And, in a public Facebook thread, when asked about member safety ConCarolinas staff members stated that they were keeping their members safe by packing heat … in violation of their stated policies.

  34. @ John A Arkensawyer
    My favorite Melissa Scott Is The Armor of Light, co-written with Lisa Barnett. It has magic and Elizabeth I, Marlowe, James VI, Philip Sidney and SHAKESPEARE (sorry, the squee got away from me). I reread it annually, and the color is wearing off the covers from the grip of my hands.
    I read a lot of Norton, but the only one on my shelves is Catseye, because SJW credentials.

  36. #8 From what I understand it was not just the harassment and stalking of other Twitter members done by JDA, but also his use of multiple sock-puppet accounts to do so that resulted in his suspension.

  37. And *shifty eyes* there is always more Kirk/Spock fanfic to read.
    Just ick. I never got why anyone would think Spock would go for Kirk. Now, Checkov/Sulu, well.

    Re: Questionable content–Also, the creator recently got so annoyed with people giving him adverse feedback about ‘too many gay relationships’ etc that he declared it canon that all characters are bi.
    Now see, if I’d been reading it, that would have made me drop it.

    China Mountain Zhang was made much of twenty years ago; I have not checked whether it is dated, I just re-read it recently and thankfully it still held up. I loved it when I first read it and was one of those people wildly recommending it to others.

  38. @rcade: (the Ringo screenshot)

    So, lemme get this straight. A female panelist who has a problem with him at a con should talk to him about it privately after the con, whereupon – if the offense was a public one, and if she’s sufficiently “professional” (read: deferential) about expressing it – he will apologize publicly. Which does fuck-all good in terms of the part of the con which takes place after the incident, because the damned thing’s over, meaning any “public” apology is guaranteed not to reach most of the witnesses to the affront. Am I reading that right?

    Wow. The tiny, tiny balls on that guy.

  39. Am I reading that right?

    He expects the professional courtesy of being privately criticized for public misbehavior (irony alert 1) while at the same time engaging in public criticism of another pro (irony alert 2).

  40. @rcade and @Rev Bob

    That comment was, of course, made after he stomped around in Jaym’s thread making multiple statements that he a) had no idea who she was and it was probably because she was neither memorable or successful, b) he was certain she was lying because he had no memory of the events she described, c) he was certain she was lying (because that’s what SJWs do) because she lives in the Northwest and he lives in the Southeast and never goes to conventions on the west coast so therefore he couldn’t possibly have been on a panel with her ever, d) really, really, he was certain she was lying because his minions* could find no record of the two of them ever being at the same convention, let alone on the same panel.

    It was pointed out multiple times that she was referring to DragonCon in particular, but had also worked at ConCarolinas during the eight years she lived in the southeast. And then he made a quick remark about “Oh, at DragonCon. I still don’t remember it. Prolly cause I’m successful and have a shit-ton of books coming out this year.” And then he flounced.

    (At which point all his minions* – the ones who couldn’t seem to operate Google worth a damn – all rushed in to say how lovely it was that he had admitted his mistake and apologized and he’s such and upstanding and successful author.)

    *His term, not mine.

  41. I enjoyed Cold Mountain Zhang quite a bit and found it a more optimistic than pessimistic novel (though it had its share of darkness and one character whose larynx my thumbs desperately wanted to meet). It, too, made its vision of human sexuality believable.

    @Msb: You’ve just hit my sweet spot. There’s not a period of literature (besides what I’ve lived through) I love more than the Elizabethan.

  42. As a Concarolinas attendee, can someone post a link to the Facebook thread where a Con staffer bragged about carrying a gun in violation of con regs, hotel policy and local ordinances?

  43. @Kat Jones: My work here is done…. 😀 Happy to contribute a Scroll title.

    So many convention shenanigans going on. Well I am not going to ConCarolinas anytime soon if they are going to behave like this and miss the entire point.

    Sometimes I think about about what would be the Convention Panel best practices in response to a fellow panelist breaking those best practices. If you are on a panel with another panelist who says something really sexist/racist/xenophobic, what do you do? (I honestly don’t know)

    Sometimes I contemplate about strategies that involve eloquent words and social grace. Most of the time I wish the Moderator had one of those oversized Vaudeville Canes to yank the panelist off the stage. But that would be a little extreme…

  44. “packing heat”… The whole US gun thing really blows my mind when it suddenly surfaces in this kind of context.

  45. 8 – Tragic 😉
    16 – Tragic 🙁

    Shame JDA is re-platformed. I’ve not checked, but he’s got everyone else to blame but himself? It’s really going to help his anti-Worldcon lawsuit that he got banned from Twitter for being a total ass.

  48. My favorite Melissa Scott Is The Armor of Light, co-written with Lisa Barnett. It has magic and Elizabeth I, Marlowe, James VI, Philip Sidney and SHAKESPEARE (sorry, the squee got away from me). I reread it annually, and the color is wearing off the covers from the grip of my hands.
    I read a lot of Norton, but the only one on my shelves is Catseye, because SJW credentials.

    Lisa Barnett also co-wrote the first two books of the Points series before she passed away.

  49. @Christopher: (Facebook post)

    To quote Henry Rollins on a different issue, “I get so tired of all the DRAMA.”

    For all that right-wingers paint The Left as fragile snowflakes with tender fee-fees, they sure are quick to pick up that mantle at the slightest hint of disapproval. I am so glad I quit LibertyCon when I did and am not in a position to attend ConCarolinas.

  50. Re: Luis Diaz carrying a concealed weapon

    Someone else has spoken to the hotel management who maintain they have a strict no guns policy. So it would appear that the con-staff was in violation of the cons policy and hotel policy as well.

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