Rants, disenchants, and Peter Grant, in today’s Scroll.
(1) “The Taffeta Darling,” a guest brought in by the Dallas Gaming Expo to help direct games, says the whole thing was run so badly she quit and wrote “Where’s The Ball Pit? Or Why I Left Dallas Gaming Expo”.
This weekend is the Dallas Gaming Expo, a video gaming convention that had hired me to be their voice of the convention and help them run their gaming tournaments. For the first time ever as a guest, I left what would have been a paid convention gig due to disgust, disbelief and a good conscious [sic].
The Dallas Gaming Expo turned out to be a classic example of a promoter looking to make loads of money off of the gaming community without really knowing what the should be done. This expo was presented with huge expectations with loads of guests, arcade gaming, skeeball, video game tournaments and more! Unfortunately what attendees got Friday night was a ball room full of chairs, 4 wobbly projection screens and about 6-7 TVs with consoles. As a guest of the event I smiled, and hoped for the best and said I was having fun, well because that’s what ya do. I also wanted to see this event succeed. I thought maybe more would be coming and hopefully it will be better in the morning. I stayed through the night and ran the Super Smash Bros tournament along with guest Natalie Green, which honestly was a lot of fun for me to watch and engage in. On the flip side the tournament itself had quite a few snags including casual rules for tournament play, broken controllers, lagging screenplay, no official forms, and the reliance on a group of volunteers that tried it’s best to make things work.
After bailing on DGE, she went across town to Quakecon, another gaming event in Dallas this weekend.
A dissastified customer has even started a Change.org petition to ban the Dallas Gaming Expo from happening again (though only 29 signers as of this writing).
(2) I know in the world of sf&f there’s a tremendous competition to be the field’s biggest narcissist, but honestly, is anybody more stuck on himself than Michael Moorcock? The headline of his latest interview — “Michael Moorcock: ‘I think Tolkien was a crypto-fascist”.
“I think he’s a crypto-fascist,” says Moorcock, laughing. “In Tolkien, everyone’s in their place and happy to be there. We go there and back, to where we started. There’s no escape, nothing will ever change and nobody will ever break out of this well-ordered world.” How does he feel about the triumph of Tolkienism and, subsequently, the political sword-and-sorcery epic Game of Thrones, in making fantasy arguably bigger than it has ever been?
“To me, it’s simple,” he says. “Fantasy became as bland as everything else in entertainment. To be a bestseller, you’ve got to rub the corners off. The more you can predict the emotional arc of a book, the more successful it will become.
Nothing ever changes in Middle-Earth? Evil is defeated, the spirits on the paths of the dead are redeemed, all the elves leave, the Shire is trashed…. Never mind. I’ve read bales of Moorcock’s Eternal Champion novels. Entertaining, but he didn’t beat Tolkien at his own game.
(3) A radio dramatization of Iain M. Banks’ novella “The State of the Art” (45 minutes) is available free on the BBC for another three weeks.
The Culture ship Arbitrary arrives on Earth in 1977 and finds a planet obsessed with alien concepts like ‘property’ and ‘money’ and on the edge of self-destruction. When Agent Dervley Linter, decides to go native can Diziet Sma change his mind?
From Wikipedia:
The novella chronicles a Culture mission to Earth in the late 1970s, and also serves as a prequel of sorts to Use of Weapons by featuring one of that novel’s characters, Diziet Sma. Here, Sma argues for contact with Earth, to try to fix the mess the human species has made of it; another Culture citizen, Linter, goes native, choosing to renounce his Culture body enhancements so as to be more like the locals; and Li, who is a Star Trek fan, argues that the whole “incontestably neurotic and clinically insane species” should be eradicated with a micro black hole. The ship Arbitrary has ideas, and a sense of humour, of its own.
“Also while I’d been away, the ship had sent a request on a postcard to the BBC’s World Service, asking for ‘Mr David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” for the good ship Arbitrary and all who sail in her.’ (This from a machine that could have swamped Earth’s entire electro-magnetic spectrum with whatever the hell it wanted from somewhere beyond Betelgeuse.) It didn’t get the request played. The ship thought this was hilarious.”
(4) After a 17-year hiatus, W. Paul Ganley’s Weirdbook Magazine is coming back. A Stephen Fabian cover will be on the back and this artwork by Dusan Kostic will be on the front —
(5) Futurefen is a new WordPress site hoping to serve as a news and conrunning resource for kids programming.
I started this site because of frustration with getting timely and accurate info about kid programming from SFF conventions. I wanted to start a larger dialogue about how conventions can better serve ALL members of our community, and provide a centralized resource for information for fans with kids. For many of us, quality kid programs are a necessity to attend a convention. For us as a community, we need to foster and include and welcome kids to our gatherings because kids are our future. They’re the future fans, the future scientists, future writers and artists and inventors, future interesting people. Many of them are those things RIGHT NOW, and they have a lot of good they bring along with the energy they take.
I don’t really know if/how this site is going to work, but here we go. Let’s make a difference. 🙂
(6) Peter Grant scoffs at Jason Sanford’s announcement that the Tor Boycott has failed. Grant encourages supporters to ”Stay the course”.
I repeat what I’ve said before: the Tor boycott is a long-term effort. I know for certain, based on solid feedback from literally hundreds of individuals, that it’s already biting. It was an eye-opener at LibertyCon last month to have so many people come up to me, thank me for taking a stand, and confirm that they were part of the boycott. I’m certain that in 2015 alone, the boycott will have a six-figure effect on Tor’s turnover – not much for a multi-million-dollar-turnover publisher, but that’s just the start. As those involved in the boycott continue it and spread the word, the impact will grow. I fully expect it to reach a cumulative total of seven figures over time. Again, that may not seem like a lot to scoffers and naysayers; but I think in today’s publishing market, where margins are already razor-thin, such a loss of turnover may have an impact out of all proportion to its dollar value. Vox Day, who’s also called for a boycott of Tor, has more ‘inside information’ than I do, and he’s also confident that the campaign is having an impact.
Thank you to all of you who’ve taken a stand on principle and stood up for what is morally and ethically right. That has a value all its own, in a world that doesn’t attach much value to either morals or ethics. Stay the course. This will go on for years, and I think it will bear both short- and long-term fruit. (As I pointed out a couple of weeks ago, there’s already convincing evidence of that.)
(7) Whereas all George R.R. Martin is saying is give peace a chance when you meet in person at Sasquan.
From talking and emailing with various friends and colleagues, however, I know that some of them will NOT be going to Spokane, mainly because the Hugo Wars have left a bad taste in their mouths. Others will attend, but not without trepidation. They wonder how much of the acrimony of Puppygate will spill over into the con itself… to the panels, the parties, the hallways. Will this worldcon be a celebration or a battleground? A family reunion or a family feud?
I wish I could answer that question, but no one really knows. I’m hoping for “celebration” and “family reunion,” and I think that’s the best bet… but we won’t know till the fat lady sings and the dead dogs howl.
And he has some gentle words for people he feels have been caught in the middle.
I don’t know Kary English. (It is possible I have met her or been in the same room with her at some previous con, but if so I don’t remember. I meet a lot of people). Until Puppygate and her double nomination, I had never read any of her work. But I agree with much of what she had to say in those posts, and I applaud her for saying it, knowing (as surely she must have) that by breaking ranks with “her side,” aka the Puppies, she would face the wroth of some of those who had previously championed her. I know that there are some on “my side” who have slammed English despite these posts, insisting that she spoke up too late in the game, that she was trying “to have it both ways.” No, sorry, that’s idiocy. Like Kloos and Bellet and Schubert before her, she’s opting out of the kennel and the slates. I will not fault her for not doing so sooner. This thing has been hard for all concerned, and these choices are painful… especially for a young writer who has just received his or her first Hugo nomination.
If there is any hope for reconciliation post-Puppygate, it lies with voices of moderation and forgiveness on both sides, not with the extremists and the haters. It lies with Marko Kloos and Annie Bellet and Edmund Schubert. I hope they are all at worldcon. I would like to meet them, buy them a drink, shake their hands, and argue about books with them.
[Thanks for these links goes out to JJ and John King Tarpinian. Title credit to Brian Z.]
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We being with … THE NINETIES!
1. IRON. DRAGONS. DAUGHTERS.
A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin
(Even though I bogged down in the middle of the last one in the series — I may have picked the wrong time to read it.)
2. OFF TO SEE THE DARK, DARK WIZARD
Magic’s Price, Mercedes Lackey
(The only King I would have considered equal with Lackey would have been Firestarter…)
3. MAGIC MEETS THE MODERN WORLD
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J. K. Rowling
4. HAPEXAMENDIOS VS. RUDY
Abstain
5. FAIRY STORIES, REINVENTED
Bedlam’s Bard, Edghill/Lackey
6. THE DUST AND THE GLOOM
Abstain
7. FULFILLING THE PROPHECY IN STYLE
Abstain
8. THE RISELKA AND THE RABBIT GIRL
Guy Gavriel Kay (Tigana)
But I would have chosen The Lions of Al Rassan over Tigana
1. IRON. DRAGONS. DAUGHTERS
Game of Thrones, GRRM
I’ve read both, but only remember one, so, by default, that gets my vote.
2. OFF TO SEE THE DARK, DARK WIZARD
Fortress in the Eye of Time, Cherryh
I didn’t like either choice and I love Cherryh.
3. MAGIC MEETS THE MODERN WORLD
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Rowling
This is the book where I went from mild interest to rabid fan.
4. Abstain
5. FAIRY STORIES, REINVENTED
I’ve read both and barely remember either of them. So, I’m voting for Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley
6. Abstain
7. FULFILLING THE PROPHECY IN STYLE
Small Gods, Pratchett
Pratchett, 4evah!
8. THE RISELKA AND THE RABBIT GIRL
Tigana, Kay
Spacefaring Kitten:
A little preachy? I know tastes vary, but I found it ladled on thick.
1. Game of Thrones vs. The Iron Dragon’s Daughter Grim, original, mind-bending.
2. King vs. Lackey. Neither. These two authors just haven’t connected with me.
3. Rowling vs. De Lint. Neither. Rowling is stodgy and, while I haven’t read this particular de Lint, every one of his that I’ve read has had too many conversations that sound like therapy & self-help counseling.
4. Imajica vs. Brown Girl in the Ring. Opened up so many possibilities.
5. Stardust vs. Tam Lin. Neither. I read both of these and soon forgot them.
6. Golden Compass vs. Night Watch. Neither. I haven’t read Lukyanenko, and, although I admired whar Pullman was trying to do, I didn’t think he did it well.
7. Daughter of the Blood vs. Small Gods. How many times have I read Small Gods, now?
8. Abstain — haven’t read either.
As for further suggestions — I’m a bit surprised nobody mentioned Sean Stewart. Admittedly my favorite, Galveston, is from 2000, but Resurrection Man and most of his other 90s books are pretty dam brilliant.
Some bracket-related comments:
Those of you wondering why you’ve read less of these than the sci-fi bracket should note that *twice* as many fantasy books were selected as sci-fi books, which is why we’re having these chronological brackets first. The sci-fi books went through a much more severe pre-cutting phase, and even then a lot of people said that there were unfamiliar books especially in the first round. I kind of expect when we get to some of the 19th century Deep Cuts in the “Early Period” round there’s going to be a fair amount of abstaining going on.
The people who have mentioned Hambly and McKinley may be interested to know that both of them have works which will be showing up in other periods’ rounds.
Regarding Perdido Street Station, it is frankly a lock for being in if I ever make a “recent works” bracket.
OH MY GOD I HATE THE AUTOMATIC SPELL CHECKER SO MUCH IS THERE ANY WAY TO TURN IT OFF LONGLIST IS NOT LONGEST AND HAMBLY IS NOT HUMBLY JUST LET ME WRITE I CAN SPELL I AM AN EDITOR.
Ahem.
In other bracket news:
Iron Dragon’s Daughter remains fairly close to A Game of Thrones, but will need a significant boost to overtake.
The Newford Stories have pulled surprisingly close to Prisoner of Azkaban. Can de Lint pull off the biggest upset of the round? I still wouldn’t bet on it, but an “Alley Man” award seems likely at the very least.
Many of the contests that used to be closer, however, are getting more distinct. Tigana is a clear favorite over The Wood Wife at the moment, and Brown Girl in the Ring has moved into a solid lead over Imajica.
Cat @ 9:49 am- I’m a SP (now), but I suspect (as I’m not part of the ELoE) that the sheer number of John C. Wright nominations was a RP in your face moment. Part of me admires the chutzpah. Part of me thinks it was necessary to illustrate a point. Part of me wishes they’d stuck with JCW’s best 1 or 2, as he is an amazingly good writer, and it would have made room for other amazingly good writers. My rational side knows they really don’t care for your opinion (or mine), so why lose sleep over it. My advice is vote for the best and don’t stress over it. The RP, at the tactical level at least, did a very good job at creating a win-win situation (if you vote no award, they can get you to burn down the Hugos, or they might collect a win or two).
Aaron @ 9:57 am- Probably true. I confess that I’m buying more and more self-published authors on Amazon nowadays. Once I discover a writer I like, the publisher ceases to matter as much.
rrede @ 11:04 am- I love Tolkien (though Zelazny is the true master). He was a brilliant man. And despite his critics, it is my personal observation that none of them (that I know of) have encountered or experienced the savagery and cruelty of war/man, as did both Tolkein and C.S. Lewis. I’m not a philosopher, but it occurs to me that those who’ve seen mankind at it’s worse, have most likely seen mankind at it’s best.
William Burns @ 12:06 pm- Again, I’m not a philosopher, but it occurs to me that those who strike out against Tolkien and his generation are: 1) of subsequent generations, which sort of makes it akin to striking out against their fathers and grandfathers (a progression as old as time); 2) were never tempered in the fires that Tolkien and his generation had to endure. In my sole opinion, I think Tolkien’s critics come off as lesser men.
Spacefaring Kitten @ 1:47 pm- How is Tolkien a crypto-fascist? Sam the servant becomes Sam the hero, and eventually Sam the leader (both as to Frodo and the Shire), husband and family man. In the case of Sam, as one among many, the servant class rises and, properly, supplants the master class (Frodo), once he/they become exhausted and broken.
Once we get into Eowyn and others, Tolkien’s acceptance that the old cedes to the new (in my opinion a recurring theme) is very evident. And looking to the Noldor and others, it appears he thinks the world is ultimately the better for the changing of the seasons.
Kyra, have you made sure that “Hambly” is added to your system’s dictionary? I have to do that with names and other things auto-correct would wish to fix.
I would rather tell my system’s dictionary to go f$&% itself.
Camestros Felapton : There will be wet and rainy precipitation that will fall like condensed damp moisture upon the wet houses and sodden fields and damp towns and saturated fanes and overhydrated roads and the lost atheist soul will look upon those spherical globular droplets and say unto themselves “it is just the water cycle” and with the arrogance of man assume that he now can control the climatic weather because in his spiritless soul he has deceptively deceived himself into thinking that he is a diety-like god. However in mid-afternoon showers will clear and it will be sunny through to the evening. Now back to Michael Z Williamson with the rest of today’s news.
Today, the terrorist Rosa Parks was commemorated by obvious liberal traitors in a statue unveiled in Alabama. No word yet of how soon it will be until patriots blow it off the face of the Earth along with the Islamo-symps who authorised it BUT THAT WON’T BE TERRORISM BECAUSE I SAY IT ISN’T!
Another so-called “mass shooting” took place in which six thugs and lowlifes on a church picnic got in the way of bullets, supposedly “deliberately” fired by the supposed shooter. The obviously innocent man accused of the crime was, of course, white, and probably just another victim of political correctness gone apeshit. When will we learn to stand up to these pussies?
BTW – I’m now looking for help to construct a funnier joke about this than my last – “The Charleston: 9 shots Kahlua, one shot coconut cream, serve with a Colt 45 chaser. With help from Steve Coffman”. Any takers?
Oh yeah, and also a city was nuked somewhere in Eurabia or Towelheadland or something. Who cares?
And back to Larry Correia for the sports…
1 Game of Thrones
2 I’m going for the write-in candidate Cherryh’s ‘Fortress of Time’ which is much better than the contenders.
3 Unfortunately Camestros’s weather forecast turned out to be true, in all its inglory, at least here in my bit of London, thus creating an unfortunate overlap with Kyra’s Fantasy brackets; I’ve tried De Lint’s early 90’s Newford stories but I really can’t get into the stories, one of which featured a Russian water spirit: i.e. ground already well and truly covered by CJ Cherryh’s Russian fantasy trilogy.
It’s really, really difficult to write a good short story when you are treading in her footsteps, and whilst I honour the effort this doesn’t affect the outcome, particularly when you are being rained on. I’m therefore writing in Cherryh’s Russian fantasy saga starting with Rusalka.
4. Nalo Hopkinson.
5 What the hell: if we are going to reinvent fairy stories then Pratchett’s “Lords and Ladies” wins hands down; yet another write in vote.
6 Loathe both of them, and can’t justify another write in.
7 Small Gods
8 It’s not so much loathe; more fail be excited by them. I’m abstaining on this one…
JJ: a bunch of mostly little fish in a little pond
Steve Moss: I think you are wrong. I’ve bought a lot of those authors books. And they’re good. Ringo, Weber, and Weisskopf are pretty big fish, unless they’re the exception referenced by the weasley word “mostly”.
Weber and Weisskopf are indeed pretty big fish. Ringo, not so much. And the other people I listed aren’t, either.
And what you call “weasley”[sic] is what people of good conscience call “recognizing that claiming absolutes is an exercise in folly”.
The fantasy bracket:
I’ve read only five of the sixteen, and no two members of any pair, so I’m not voting in this round, but I’ll throw in a few comments anyway. Maybe I’ll have some votes in the next round or two, if books I know get matched against each other
1. I might read A Song of Ice and Fire if George ever finishes writing it, but I’m not going to start an unfinished work; I’ve been disappointed too many times by author’s who never followed through (e.g. Card’s “Alvin Maker” books).
The Iron Dragon’s Daughter has long been on my mental list of books I should read some day.
2. I don’t care for the King works I’ve read, except for the non-fantasy novellas in Different Seasons, and I’ve never been interested in Lackey.
3. I don’t remember whether this is one of the Harry Potter books that I’ve read; I gave up less than halfway through the third or fourth book. This is the one whose title I can never get right, because my brain wants to subsitute “… Prisoner of Azerbaijan“. I’ve never even heard of this de Lint book, and I’m not sure whether I’ve read anything else by him.
4. I loved Brown Girl in the Ring and every other novel by Hopkinson; I’d like to vote for it, but I know nothing about the Barker.
5. This isn’t one of the Gaiman books I’ve read; Tam Lin was disappointing, when I read it a few years ago for the Readercon Book Club.
6. I tried reading Pullman once, whichever book (possibly this) was the first of whichever series I was going to read, but couldn’t get into it; I may try again some day. I liked the Lukyanenko enough to finish it and all of its sequels, even though I found them all a little too Soviet-grey.
7. I’ve never even heard of Anne Bishop, so I can’t vote against her, although I love Pratchett. I think Small Gods was my entry into Discworld, after which I went back and read from the beginning.
8. I know of both authors, have probably read stuff by both, but neither made much of an impression on me, and I don’t know these books.
Steve Moss: The RP, at the tactical level at least, did a very good job at creating a win-win situation (if you vote no award, they can get you to burn down the Hugos)
Voting “No Award” isn’t “burning down the Hugos”. The “No Award” functionality has been around for decades as a way for voters to indicate that they feel a work is not Hugo-worthy, and many voters make use of it nearly every year.
“No Award” has ranked ahead of one or more works numerous times in the past — and it “burned the Hugos down” so bad that most people aren’t aware that it even happened.
Kyra on July 27, 2015 at 5:43 am said:
Oh, but what a role! I actually like almost all of Stardust the movie. I like it better than the book, much as I liked the book!
The Princess Bride is another where the movie was better than a really good book.
Watch Hogfather. It’s very good. Great cast, great script. Michelle Dockery is perfect for Susan Sto-Helit and Marc Warren is brilliant as Teatime.
And every single one of them was true. I understand that film is a different medium to books. But some script choices are just incomprehensible. Taking out everything that made the book good and putting in things that made the movie both boring (!) and incomprehensible. Gah!
.
Dune. I want the cast of the movie with the script of the miniseries. Dune the movie was another one where I was sitting there wondering WTF they were thinking with the script. The miniseries script was so much better, but the acting would probably have improved if they’d used wooden cutouts instead of people (or possibly just changed directors).
JJ @ 2:51 pm- We agree that claiming absolutes in folly. We’re half-way to detente. 🙂
JJ @ 2:57 pm- In the past, how many of those who categories receiving a vote of “No Award” were manipulated by those who desired that outcome?
Yes, No Award is part of the process. Processes can be preempted. The RP have been very clear that their initial desire was No Awards this year, and next, and, dependent on the rule changes, maybe thereafter. Since then they’ve come to think that they might do well in one or two categories so they’ve backed off a bit. But No Awarding one or more categories is not a bug, it’s still a feature so far as RP are concerned.
That’s why I suggested voting for whatever it is you like. Don’t stress over No Award and/or don’t stress over the author (SP/RP/No-P). If a non-Puppy is the best, vote for the non-Puppy. If it is dreck, vote No Award. Don’t check bona fides and don’t check pedigree. I think there is a lot of merit in all the nominees so I’ll be voting accordingly. But don’t vote out of spite or the RP win. The RP can do spite and conflict, probably better than anyone. Vote your conscience and, I suspect, SP/RP will do the same both this year and, most importantly, the year after next, etc.
Is not.
[Movie’s good, mind you. But it can’t approach the full glory of the book. It requires Kermit Shog, at the very least.]
For those confused by the title, the Newford Stories would include the collections “Dreams Underfoot” and “the Ivory and the Horn” and “Moonlight and Vines” (and at least one other, but much past there you run into both the end of the 90s and the point where he gets self-derivative – the Science Fiction Book Club omnibus called “the Newford Stories” is just those 3, too). He also set several novels in that city (Memory and Dream and Someplace to be Flying being among the better ones), but I assumed we were sticking to the short fiction collections.
1. IRON. DRAGONS. DAUGHTERS.
A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin
I remember being really impressed when this series began (not so much the last one; fingers crossed for #6).
2. OFF TO SEE THE DARK, DARK WIZARD
Wizard and Glass, Stephen King
I might quibble about which novel should be in the running — I really like The Drawing of the Three and The Dark Tower — but the backstory of Roland is certainly compelling.
3. MAGIC MEETS THE MODERN WORLD
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J. K. Rowling
The best HP novel, likely.
4. HAPEXAMENDIOS VS. RUDY
Imajica, Clive Barker
Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson
I haven’t read either of these, so no vote.
5. FAIRY STORIES, REINVENTED
Stardust, Neil Gaiman
Tam Lin, Pamela Dean
I haven’t read either of these, so no vote.
6. THE DUST AND THE GLOOM
The Golden Compass/Northern Lights, Phillip Pullman
The first book is very strong and made quite a splash.
7. FULFILLING THE PROPHECY IN STYLE
Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
The biggest mismatch for me. I found the Black Jewels books a bit too Anne Rice-y/Laurel K. Hamilton-y, whereas Small Gods really, really floats my boat.
8. THE RISELKA AND THE RABBIT GIRL
Guy Gavriel Kay (Tigana)
Terri Windling (The Wood Wife)
Bounced off Tigana; never tried The Wood Wife. No vote.
Steve Moss: How is Tolkien a crypto-fascist? Sam the servant becomes Sam the hero, and eventually Sam the leader (both as to Frodo and the Shire), husband and family man. In the case of Sam, as one among many, the servant class rises and, properly, supplants the master class (Frodo), once he/they become exhausted and broken.
Well actual fascist leaders came from humble backgrounds and were called forward to lead their countries in their hour of need (according to their own legends…)
But the Lord of the Rings (and associated works) aren’t really fascist. LOTR does have mostly un-examined analogs to historical (English) periods – Rohan is very Anglo-Saxon, Gondor a bit more high medieval, the Shire a rural county just before the Industrial Revolution. These are presented in the book as suitable ways to live and worth saving. It’s a conservative message, but hardly one that suggests a modern centralised one-party state.
The flawed Golden Age mythology is attractive to fascists, but that doesn’t mean it adds up to a pro-fascist agenda.
Yes! This! I’d extend it to “cast and design crew of the movie” — the miniseries made some frankly dreadful choices, including Bene Gesserit headgear that looked like nothing so much as hotel wall lamp sconces.
1. IRON. DRAGONS. DAUGHTERS.
A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin
2. OFF TO SEE THE DARK, DARK WIZARD
Magic’s Price, Mercedes Lackey
3. MAGIC MEETS THE MODERN WORLD
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J. K. Rowling
4. HAPEXAMENDIOS VS. RUDY
Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson
5. FAIRY STORIES, REINVENTED
Stardust, Neil Gaman
6. THE DUST AND THE GLOOM
The Golden Compass/Northern Lights, Phillip Pullman
7. FULFILLING THE PROPHECY IN STYLE
Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
8. THE RISELKA AND THE RABBIT GIRL
Guy Gavriel Kay (Tigana)
Have they? As I recall, that was one possible victory outcome – to go along with all the other victory outcomes – that was concocted after people proposed no-awarding slated works as a point of principal. It’s been undermined somewhat since it turned out that most of the slated works were eminently no-awardable based on quality as well as awards-gaming, which means that the only point the Puppies made was that there was a loophole that could be exploited which could get any old crap nominated. So they nominated any old crap. Not the overlooked classics by under-recognised writers that the Hugos were too SJW to celebrate. If they’d actually slated good works of fiction, they’d have stymied things, and made the actual point they kept saying they were making. Instead you get this movable feast where they’re pretending no-awarding is the same as burning the Hugos down. Thing is, people can vote for what they like and no-award what they don’t in good conscience, and it will be almost indistinguishable from no-awarding the slates, because the Puppies were stupid enough to slate dreck.
Steve Moss:
i voted No Award a lot. Some was based on the slates (and not for spite but because slates fuck with the process dishonourably.) But most was based on the quality of what I read. Don’t lecture me on how the former motivation (caring about the author because of how they got there) is letting the RPs win. It’s trying to clean up the RP mess they tried to smear all over, nothing more.
@Steve Moss
No Award was a later development, not an initial aim of the RP. It also got the SP rather exercised (see Brad and the judgement of Solomon). It’s certainly an example of VD claiming all victory conditions, but that’s opportunism, not planning.
The most interesting thing about NA is how “judging on merit” has turned out to be near-identical to “NA the slates”. The people who chose the latter have simply had to read less dreck than the former. Lucky blighters.
I find your last sentence extremely improbable though.
Every option is a win if you’re rabid. No Award demonstrates that there really is a hideous clique determined to shut them out. A win is a win. Someone else winning a hard won fight shows that there are people prepared to fight.
Steve Moss,
That’s why I suggested voting for whatever it is you like. Don’t stress over No Award and/or don’t stress over the author (SP/RP/No-P). If a non-Puppy is the best, vote for the non-Puppy. If it is dreck, vote No Award. Don’t check bona fides and don’t check pedigree.
That’s exactly what I did. I read every single short story, novelette, novella, and novel. (Well, I didn’t finish The Dark Between The Stars. I was so bored by the plot and so disinterested in what happened to any of the myriad characters that I abandoned it half-way through. As did the entire rest of the group involved in an online book club discussion about that particular work. One person did skip to the end, and reported that as far as they could tell, it was just more of the same…)
And every single Rabid Puppy nominee came in under No Award, on its individual merits. The only Puppy work I even considered ranking was “Totalled”, but although it was a decent and serviceable story, it was not a Hugo-calibre story. The Hugo ballot was a dreadful disappointment this year. (Although The Goblin Emperor was a breath of fresh air.)
If a group is going to slate good action-adventure SF in the good-old-fashioned style, is it too much to ask that the works that they slate are actually, well, good? I read Bujold and Weber. I’m not adverse to a good old-fashioned space opera. But the only good old-fashioned space opera on the ballot was Ancillary Sword.
Vote your conscience and, I suspect, SP/RP will do the same both this year and, most importantly, the year after next, etc.
You suspect that the Puppies will nominate more dreck next year and the year after next? Because that’s what they’ve done the last two years. That’s why I’m supporting E Plurbus Hugo.
@Steve Moss
I suspect the same thing. The intent was to force-feed us JCW until we choked, then laugh at our purple faces. In fact, it doesn’t speak very well of Beale’s opinion of JCW as a writer — he knew all the JCW would piss us off, and why? Because he knows it’s not very good.
What point was that, exactly?
Me too. It’s possible that if the slate had contained only his “meh” stories and not his brain-meltingly awful ones, I might still be willing to give his work a chance in the future.
Because bloc voting to game the nominations is Just Fine, but objecting to bloc voting as dishonorable is “manipulation.” To quote America’s best-loved serial rapist, “Riiiiiiight.”
And doing anything in hopes that Beale won’t declare victory is (a) being manipulated, and (b) dumb, since he’s going to declare victory no matter what.
“The Newford Stories” is actually a specific collection incorporating stories from “Dreams Underfoot”, “The Ivory and the Horn”, and “Moonlight and Vines”. It does NOT include any of the novels or other later short story collections set in Newford, and was not meant to be taken as “everything de Lint wrote set in Newford in the 90’s”.
Although in fact, um, I’m pretty sure those three collections actually do include everything he wrote set in Newford in the 90’s, so if you were voting on that basis don’t worry about it.
Delurking to vote on the fantasy brackets:
1. GRRM. The Iron Dragon’s Daughter, I think, needs at least one reread before I can properly appreciate it.
2. Abstain
3. de Lint
4. Abstain
5. Abstain
6. Pullman. For lots of reasons, not all of them to do with bears.
7. Pratchett. Small Gods may still be the best of the whole Discworld series
8. Kay. Tigana is one of those books that made me an instant fan of an author I’d never read before.
And frankly, I honestly don’t care what Beale considers “victory”. It is not a factor in my voting.
1. IRON. DRAGONS. DAUGHTERS.
The Iron Dragon’s Daughter, Michael Swanwick
More of a vote against GRRM than one for Swanwick. By the end of the book
2. OFF TO SEE THE DARK, DARK WIZARD
Abstain. Sadly, I do not have a substitute.
3. MAGIC MEETS THE MODERN WORLD
The Newford Stories, Charles de Lint
4. HAPEXAMENDIOS VS. RUDY
Imajica, Clive Barker
5. FAIRY STORIES, REINVENTED
Abstain. I cannot choose without a coin-toss.
6. THE DUST AND THE GLOOM
The Night Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
Pullman was far too preachy for me and I have actually run games based on Night Watch. This was the easiest decision by far.
7. FULFILLING THE PROPHECY IN STYLE
Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
While not his strongest, I rather enjoyed Small Gods.
8. THE RISELKA AND THE RABBIT GIRL
Abstain. I have read neither of thes
It would not surprise me, actually, to find that in early discussions, a bunch of the Puppies thought or assumed that they could slate-vote the final ballot as successfully as the nominations. It would fit with their willingness to tell each other (and themselves) that only left-wing slates and blocs have been denying them their rightful awards for years. So they actually did what they’ve lyingly accused others of doing and then found out that, oh, you can’t use the same tactic in the same round so well.
If I point out the typo in the Weirdbook item, can I finally find out about all those rights and privileges pertaining thereto?
Will R.: You may have already won! (As they say on TV.)
Kurt
What worries me is that George R R Martin is living in something close to the Mad Hatters Tea-party.
On the one hand he accepts that VD isn’t ever going to change and stop destroying the institutions, which means they are doomed.
Unless and until World con can defend itself but on the other hand GRRM is developing an extraordinary willingnes to use persuasion, notwithstanding the facts? We have a pretty good chance of it if we start today.
I don’t think George is right about the rules not needing to be changed, but I’m not worried about it. If he goes to the Business Meeting and votes against the change, I expect he’ll be outvoted.
I could be wrong about that, of course, but that’s my guess as to how things’ll go.
It would not surprise me, actually, to find that in early discussions, a bunch of the Puppies thought or assumed that they could slate-vote the final ballot as successfully as the nominations.
That seems like a good bet. Correia, Torgersen, and so on probably all knew that the actual rules for voting were different once the nomination round was over (although given Correia’s comments about the voting last year, he may not have bothered to try to understand how they work), But I think there is a fairly strong possibility that many of the people they signed on to bloc vote for their slate didn’t know it.
he knew all the JCW would piss us off, and why? Because he knows it’s not very good.
No, he thinks that if JCW pisses you off, it’s because you are a heather or a SJW or something.
Steve Moss:
Yes, by following wiser people’s lead, being humble, adhering to traditions, following destiny, etc. etc. That’s a sort of fascistic mindset, I guess, in the way that Moorcock uses the term in his Tolkien-bashing.
Neil W:
It’s a tongue-in-cheek characterization, I admit, but if you use crypto-fascism as a broad term for anti-democratic sentiment, you get to offend fans by saying that LOTR is a tad fascist. 😀
he thinks that if JCW pisses you off, it’s because you are a heather
Fandom: “You know what I want, babe?”
Beale: “What?”
Fandom: “Cool guys like you out of my life.”
Lexica: Thank you for that! I needed that laugh!
@Steve Moss: As a self-described Sad Puppy, do you have any qualms at all about the unrelieved cronyism of Torgersen’s slate? When you drill down, even Kary English – whom I like, based on her conduct here and lately on her own blog – and Carter Reid are there because Torgersen liked them. (And arguably in English’s case, wanted to curry favor with Mike Resnick.) Like, Carter Reid is the only cartoonist on the SP slate and he and Torgersen are personal friends who have co-authored a story together. Were there really no other graphic stories of merit, even by anti-CHORF lights, last year? It beggars belief that that could be true. The only reasonable conclusion is that Brad is waiting to befriend a second cartoonist before expanding the graphic-story nominations.
I can imagine that you might conclude that, even considering the facially corrupt composition of the SP slate, it was still worth your support on balance to cost the average SJW $13K, or strike a blow for political diversity, or just bring Jim Butcher some laurels. But doesn’t the self-dealing bother you at least a little?
Aagh, I was going to vote for Totalled since Kary English has been a Polite Puppy and it was the best of the Puppy picks. I thought it would be nice to reward those qualities and thereby extend an olive branch to the Pups. Then I couldn’t make myself do it. A Hugo story should excite you, not make you shrug and say “Well, most of the grammar was correct.” I dearly hope Kary English develops her writing and brings stronger work another year. It saddens me that the Pups put forth nothing worthy of a literary award.
The urge to join the pile-on is strong…except that there seems to be absolutely nothing new going on here. Is there any element at all of this eruption that wasn’t done to death two months ago? Just one original nuance? Anyone?
Kurt Busiek I am tempted to say “is too!” but that would be childish.
;-P
Wise choice. Who would want to be childish about such things?
A much harder bracket. In the SF one I’d read almost all the authors and around two-thirds the individual works. Looking at the long list I’m thinking here it’s more one-half and one-quarter. I foresee much abstaining. This round I’m tempted to join the Cherryh write-in but Fortress just didn’t grab me. I think I’ll hold back until the right bracket age (axe age, sword age, wind age, wolf age?) comes around for The Dreamstone. Which leaves one doomed 90’s write-in:
3. City On Fire, Walter Jon Williams
The second book of a duology (and maybe someday a trilogy) it doesn’t get the love its predecessor, Metropolitan, does. For me though it was just the right blend of world building, Machiavellian politics, adventure, and prose. I’ve been waiting on that third book a long time but hope to see it written. Aiah deserves to have the loose ends tied up. For new readers: either book in the series does work as a standalone. I read them out of order and wasn’t thrown out by not reading Metropolitan first.
In which I reveal that I am less well-read in fantasy than I am in sf.
We being with … THE NINETIES!
1. IRON. DRAGONS. DAUGHTERS.
A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin
The Iron Dragon’s Daughter, Michael Swanwick
Haven’t read the Swanwick
2. OFF TO SEE THE DARK, DARK WIZARD
Wizard and Glass, Stephen King
Magic’s Price, Mercedes Lackey
Haven’t read either.
3. MAGIC MEETS THE MODERN WORLD
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J. K. Rowling
The Newford Stories, Charles de Lint
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J. K. Rowling — the de Lint is better-written, but the HP characters are culturally transformative.
4. HAPEXAMENDIOS VS. RUDY
Imajica, Clive Barker
Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson
Haven’t read either.
5. FAIRY STORIES, REINVENTED
Stardust, Neil Gaman
Tam Lin, Pamela Dean — one of my favorite magic-in-our-world stories
6. THE DUST AND THE GLOOM
The Golden Compass/Northern Lights, Phillip Pullman
The Night Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
Haven’t read Lukyanenko.
7. FULFILLING THE PROPHECY IN STYLE
Daughter of the Blood, Anne Bishop
Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
I haven’t read the Bishop so normally I’d abstain. But this is the best Pratchett IMHO, a truly great work.
8. THE RISELKA AND THE RABBIT GIRL
Guy Gavriel Kay (Tigana)
Terri Windling (The Wood Wife)
I just didn’t like the characters in Tigana and didn’t want to spend time with them. I love the Windling.
1. IRON. DRAGONS. DAUGHTERS
A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin
2. OFF TO SEE THE DARK, DARK WIZARD
Fortress in the Eye of Time by CJ Cherryh
3. MAGIC MEETS THE MODERN WORLD
Illusion, Paula Volsky
OR
A College of Magics (A College of Magics, #1), Caroline Stevermer
4. HAPEXAMENDIOS VS. RUDY
Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson
5. FAIRY STORIES, REINVENTED
Last Call (Fault Lines, #1), Tim Powers
6. THE DUST AND THE GLOOM
Gardens of the Moon (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, #1), Steven Erikson
7. FULFILLING THE PROPHECY IN STYLE
Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaimen
8. THE RISELKA AND THE RABBIT GIRL
The Lions of Al-Rassan, Guy Gavriel Kay
Lots of alternate choices as is my want. City on Fire is also a good mention.