(1) San Diego Rocket Race 2015 happens October 17. Entry fee is $40 per team (of two to four). The theme is —
The Rocket Race is an urban adventure competition where teams of up to four will be using their brains to solve science fiction themed clues that lead them by car and on foot all around the San Diego area. The theme for the 2015 race is Post-Apocalypse Now!
…The San Diego Rocket Race is a day-long adventure race for teams of two to four players, made up of two components:
In the first half of the race, teams will solve a clue that will lead them somewhere around San Diego, where they will pick up their next clue. When that clue is solved, it will lead to a new location, and the next clue will be given to the team, leading them to the next location, and eventually they will reach the midpoint of the race and a mandatory lunch break.
In the second half of the race, the game changes to a photo scavenger hunt. Teams will receive a checklist of clues and will have until the end of the race day to find as many places in the photo scavenger hunt checklist as possible and reach the finish line before the race deadline.
(2) Find out about “The Most Advanced Human Brain-to-Brain Interface Ever Made” at Motherboard.
Scientists at the University of Washington have successfully completed what is believed to be the most complex human brain-to-brain communication experiment ever. It allowed two people located a mile apart to play a game of “20 Questions” using only their brainwaves, a nearly imperceptible flash of light, and an internet connection to communicate.
Brain-to-brain interfaces have gotten much more complex over the last several years. Miguel Nicolelis, a researcher at Duke University, has even created “organic computers” by connecting the brains of several rats and chimps together.
But in humans, the technology remains pretty basic, primarily because the most advanced brain-to-brain interfaces require direct access to the brain. We’re not exactly willing to saw open a person’s skull in the name of performing some rudimentary tasks for science.
Using two well-known technologies, electroencephalography EEG and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), Andrea Stocco and Chantel Prat were able to increase the complexity of a human brain to brain interface.
(3) I’ve fallen behind in my coverage of the George R.R. Martin Deluxe Talking Plush toy. You can now listen to an audio sample from Factory Entertainment, and buy a copy for $29.99.
Dressed in his trademark fisherman’s cap and suspenders, our Deluxe Talking Plush features 10 exclusively recorded audio quotes delivered directly by Mr. Martin himself!
(4) I spent a random minute watching the opening sequence from The Prisoner on YouTube because I wanted to hear the music.
As any Prisoner fan knows after watching the opening a thousand times, the license plate on McGoohan’s Lotus is KAR 120C. And if you Google the plate number you get lots of Prisoner-related hits.
When the black limo that’s following him pulls up to the curb outside his home, there is also a good view of its license plate — TLH 658. I Googled that number, but what I mainly got were hits on The Lutheran Hymnal where TLH 658 is “Onward Christian Soldiers.” Make of that what you will.
(5) Speaking of conspiracies, a couple of weeks ago I fearlessly investigated the never-before-asked question: What determines who pops up as the “featured member” in the SFWA Blog sidebar?
I wanted to know because Lou Antonelli popped up when I logged on that day.
I asked the President of SFWA, “Is this based on paid advertising? Some algorithim that detects I just read about Antonelli on FB? Something else?”
Cat Rambo replied —
The sfnal answer would be that SFWA’s orbital mind control lasers determined made you look at it right then.
Unfortunately, though, it’s random.
(6) Leading up to the 40th anniversary theatrical re-release of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, co-director Terry Jones introduces lost footage and outtakes from the movie.
(7) Steve Davidson is up to “1941 Retro Hugo Awards (Part 6: Fanzines)”. It’s one of the more heavily populated categories, and Davidson warns —
This is, of course, an incomplete list. Even in 1939/1940, those attempting to index the fanzines published up till then despaired of ever being able to compile a complete list. And, of course, getting a hold of even a tiny fraction of what is listed here is nigh on impossible these days, making the selection of nominees for Best Fanzine of 1940 a particularly problematic task.
(8) In 1941 LASFS was still meeting at Clifton’s Cafeteria, which is about to experience an architectural rebirth of its glory days. The Thrillist has some great photos previewing the restored (and in some spots, remodeled) interior.
First off — and this alone would probably set Clifton’s apart from every other restaurant in LA — the space now features a three-story atrium that’s stacked around a massive redwood tree in the middle of the restaurant. But wait, there’s more.
(9) Shockingly, an award given by a convention that has only twice thrice been held in a non-English-speaking country has in every case been voted to fiction published in the English language. Lynn E. O’Connacht has exposed the numbers in “Hugo Award Nominations by Country”.
So, initially, when the Hugos were announced I was thrilled along with everyone else. I am still thrilled because it is a great thing worthy of celebration. Diversity creates strength and fosters innovation. But something in the back of my mind was niggling at me. There was something about the celebration that felt off to me. Something about translated works and English-language awards and voting. Something that, as far as I can tell, no one has mentioned in any of their articles. Something that I expect most people wouldn’t even think to check. Either because they’re too thrilled that ‘one of their own’ won a prestigious foreign award or because they just don’t see that there might be something to look at.
It’s fairly common knowledge that, despite claims to the contrary, the Hugo Awards are a predominantly American award. But is it? After all, despite the slate voting this year saw a lot of diversity and it still won the awards. That’s what was niggling me: how completely different that focus is from my experience. Were the Hugos more nationally diverse than my gut was telling me? Was I wrong in thinking about the Hugos as an American award? Was I wrong to think of it as an award only native speakers of English stood a chance at winning?
(10) Wouldn’t people be more willing to see Victor Frankenstein if the actors traded the leading roles? Find out when the movie reaches theaters on November 25.
James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe star in a dynamic and thrilling twist on a legendary tale. Radical scientist Victor Frankenstein (McAvoy) and his equally brilliant protégé Igor Strausman (Radcliffe) share a noble vision of aiding humanity through their groundbreaking research into immortality. But Victor’s experiments go too far, and his obsession has horrifying consequences. Only Igor can bring his friend back from the brink of madness and save him from his monstrous creation.
[Thanks to Arnie Fenner, JJ, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Fin Fahey.]
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> “Any nudges towards one appreciated…”
What are you in the mood for? There’s a whole bunch on that list I’d highly recommend.
@Camestros Felapton:
The major problem I have is that most of my countrymen have a bad case of Dunning-Kruger when it comes to their command of English. Lavish praise from outsiders that our English is (on average) so good does not help combatting that.
But it must be admitted, even using badly mangled English, a very large majority of Dutchmen are able to put their point across to native speakers, which is a lot better than what most inhabitants of other Continental European countries can manage.
@Cat:
The spelling has been inconsistently reformed the last few times, but there is a logic to it. Unfortunately the language is blessed with a rather large inventory of vowel sounds, and is capable of easily stringing along multiple consonants in between those rich vowels. Not easy to learn indeed. A shibboleth is ‘angstschreeuw’ (cry of fear), which manages to concatenate no less than 6 consecutive consonants (ch is mostly the same as g) followed by the ‘eeuw’ diphthong. Not helped by the fact that words can be concatenated into what appears to be one word (a feature we share with German).
IanP, the only one of those books I’ve read is Ocean at the End of the Lane. It deserved it’s Hugo nomination votes last year.
My experience with Dutch and Flemish speakers has always been with people outside of Netherlands or Belgium, so I am probably seeing a skewed sample but even when asking for assistance with English they intended to be impressive. e.g. something like:
Dutch person: “How would you say ‘gone completely off his trolley’?”
Me: “Um, exactly how you just said it.”
Dutch person: “Do you say in English: ‘collecting frog farts for the bubbles in spirit levels’?”
Me: “Um, no we don’t but maybe we should.”
Descent, Ken MacLeod <- Haven't read
Ocean at the End of the Lane, Gaiman <- Very Gaiman: Faerie, childhood monsters masquerading as real people, family dynamics. If you are in the mood for Gaiman, satisfying but not surprising.
Station Eleven, Emily St James Mandel <- Slow, thoughtful. I didn't find it to depressing but others here did and I can see why.
The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell <- Not unlike Cloud Atlas but with a stronger background plot and a bit of multidimensional action-adventure thrown in. I enjoyed it very much but has some depressing bits as the future gets a bit more crappy.
The Quarry, Iain Banks (do want to read this but not sure I’m emotionally ready) <- Sad, really sad. I don't know if it is his best stuff and I think it meanders a bit but it made cry. Really hard to separate the setting from Bank's illness and death. Old house in disrepair that sits on the edge of a quarry, which it will probably fall into at some point. Prefer the idea of the Hydrogen Sonata as his last book.
Children of the Sky, Vernor Vinge <- Haven't read.
Exiles Gate, CJ Cherryh (been trying to get a copy for some time) <- Haven't read.
Terminal World, Al Reynolds <- I really liked this but I like anything that has an airship in it at some point. A lot of world building and so it feels a bit rushed in places.
I wouldn't recommend reading Bone Clocks, Station Eleven and The Quarry in that order and one after another unless you are an in excessively happy state and need something to reduce your surfeit of jollyness but I enjoyed all three.
Hi gang! Haven’t been around for a bit due to High Holy Days, and then yesterday I got my flu shot so today I feel all achy.
Just finished Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman. I liked it *very* much, Mr Dr Science is baffled by my enthusiasm. He thinks it doesn’t make enough logical/scientific sense, I say that’s the point. We both agree that it packs a *lot* into not all that many pages and could maybe have stood being longer.
Before that, I read Throne of Darkness by Douglas Nicholas. I liked it, but it’s definitely got that “bridge book in a continuing series” feeling.
What these two books have in common is that neither is readily google-able, because they both share a name with a video-type game.
Now registering as Attending for MidAmeriCon II.
BTW, what is the current state of KyraBrackets?
Lauowolf: I’d be wary with Berg’s Transformation trilogy. I thought the first book was near perfect, but the second and third worth reading only once, to see the complete vision of the worldbuilding; the story and characters suffer badly (And not just literally, though Berg loves to torment her characters). Really clear signs of the first book having the time to be polished and the second being written to deadline.
As an author, she gets better.
Doctor Science –
I take that back. See Kyra below.
> “BTW, what is the current state of KyraBrackets?”
The 21st Century Fantasy Bracket just came to its thrilling conclusion a scant half an hour ago, with The Goblin Emperor winning by a small margin over Paladin of Souls. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was the strongest contender past those two, with Night Watch close behind, and Tooth and Claw emerging as a surprise dark horse candidate.
The next bracket will likely be the 21st Century Science Fiction Bracket, but I will probably start that up in a few days. I’ll be asking for suggestions for that one, but I want to organize exactly how I’m doing it. JJ has already graciously sent a few possible titles my way, by which I mean a triple-digit number of them. 🙂
@Kyra
It’s a good question, I think I’m leaning towards Ocean as I’ve not read as much Gaiman as I’d like. Mainly Sandman and American Gods. I could do with something a little less dread infused as Broken Monsters was.
I do find myself sometimes having too much choice in books or TV to get through and end up starting loads of things, trailing off all of them and falling back to comfort watching/reading stuff I’ve seen/read countless times before. I’m avoiding Shepherds Crown just now because that’ll have me rereading all of discworld for example.
My one difficulty in first elementary was writing double consonants, because I come from an area where they are not pronounced very differently than single ones.
Yeah, I’ll tell you how difficult Italian is to learn to write in: we have neither the word nor the concept of spelling, that’s how hard it is. After living in the UK for ten years, I have taken to automatically spelling my surname whenever I have to communicate on the phone, and the last time I did this in Italy my astonished listener stopped me by saying: “You don’t need to do that, it’s written like it’s pronounced, right?”
Doctor Science on September 25, 2015 at 4:35 pm said:
Just finished Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman. I liked it *very* much, Mr Dr Science is baffled by my enthusiasm. He thinks it doesn’t make enough logical/scientific sense, I say that’s the point. We both agree that it packs a *lot* into not all that many pages and could maybe have stood being longer.
I also enjoyed it a lot, but I started having issues about halfway though which left me somewhat annoyed.
Onfvpnyyl, vg frrzrq gb zr gung bapr Guben ragrerq gur fgbel, Fnen’f aneengvir ernyyl fhssrerq ol pbzcnevfba.
Fnen jnf gur ureb bs n fcl/nqiragher fgbel, naq Guben jnf vafgrnq n cuvybfbcure rkcybevat jrveq nyvra phygher/gevccl angher bs ernyvgl vffhrf.
Naq gur frpbaq ryrzrag frrzrq gb cerggl zhpu fhpx nyy gur nve bhg bs gur svefg.
Be gung zvtug whfg or zl vaqvivqhny cersreraprf ng jbex.
Fb, V yvxrq vg, ohg V guvax V jbhyq unir cersreerq n abiry sbphfvat znvayl ba Guben, naq n qvssrerag fgbel sbyybjvat gur npgvivgvrf bs Fnen gur vagrefryyre fcl.
Possibly my fabourite Cherryh book EVER.
Lenora Rose
If they annoy me, they will just go back to the Reuse Center.
But if the first is good, I’m pretty forgiving.
(And will hop ahead to something more recent.)
That was probably me. I just bought a paper copy of The Watchmaker because it is such a beautiful, beautiful physical object. Then my flatmate saw it and made tender eyes at it so I gave it to her. Which means I’ll have to buy a second copy for the friend that was the original recipient of it.
I need novels to nominate for this year’s Hugo.
Suggestions?
Loaner copies? (paper or Nook)
I’ve got more novels nominated for Retro Hugo at this point, embarrassing!
Also, can someone tell me what category this year’s story “Sacred Cows: Death and Squalor on the Rio Grande, A.S. Diev, Gigantosaurus, May 1, 2015” is in? Novelette or Novella? (It has flying cows!)
Thanks again for the latest round of wallet- and heart-breaking brackets, Kyra!
Also, whoever brought up Reynolds’ Terminal World – thanks! I was trying to remember that title recently. I completely forgot that was Reynolds. I could only remember the premise and it was so not what I think of when I think of him that it never occured to me. I probably actually looked at that book several times in the past week, as it’s on a bookshelf that I frequently walk by.
Just finished Redshirts. Much less fluffy than I was expecting. Even from the beginning, when it could have been classified as fanfic, it was very well-done fanfic. By the end I feel like it rose above parody and stood on its own.
Now onto some non-SFF, which should keep me occupied for several days, given my reading time allowance, then the horror of picking one of the books I’ve added to the very top of my TBR (the very top I guess folding somehow into multiple dimensions and containing at least 10 different works – Bold As Love, Tooth and Claw, Rivers of London, Paladin of Souls, Annihilation, Leviathan Wakes, etc., etc.).
Lurkertype –
Try Renay’s Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom for 2015 reading.
> “I could do with something a little less dread infused as Broken Monsters was.”
Well, Ocean does have some creepy bits, but definitely not on the level of Broken Monsters. Of all of his novels, I think it’s the one that reads most like a Sandman story, stylistically.
Station Eleven is surprisingly optimistic for a pre/post-apocalyptic piece, but some people found it very depressing, so YMMV. The Bone Clocks in some ways gets more and more grim as it goes on, but I still wouldn’t call it utterly bleak, there’s always a slender thread of hope.
It’s been decades since I’ve read Exile’s Gate, but I remember liking it a great deal, and thinking it much of a piece with the other Morgaine books, even though it was written about a decade after the others. I recall them being a little moody and fatalistic in a hero-with-a-grave-burden-of-a-task kind of way, but dread-infused is not at all the word I’d use for any of them.
Strange songs at weddings:
When my sister Anna got married, I took my friend Neil Rest as a buffer. My family is loony toons fundamentalist, and Anna was very, very Fundie. I suffered through a very fundy wedding, and went to the reception at the Armory after. Like you do. Made small talk with many people who were so very straight. Anna had a DJ and a dance after the dinner. (The church we were raised in is excessively odd, but dancing is permitted. Music during the service, no, dancing, yes. You figure it out.) A little bit in, they start playing “YMCA” by the Village People. And there are all those very, very straight people dancing to a gay anthem, complete with letter gestures. I looked at Neil, Neil looked at me, and we both ended up laughing hysterically.
At which point, my very nice, middle-aged aunt came over and asked why we were laughing so hard. And Neil explained. Aunt Barbara’s eyes got wider and wider and wider, and finally she gasped, “Well, they don’t know that.” I agreed, in a strangled voice. She turned away, and I said, “Beer, now.” We left, went to the Hy-Vee across the street, and I bought a 12 pack, and we went back to the motel and I got drunk.
Lauowolf:
You’ve put your finger on it, exactly. I think that’s why both the Mr Dr and I thought it was too short, and why he was disappointed but I was not: he liked Sara’s story and wanted more of it, while I got drawn into Thora’s story and wanted more of *that*. And since there was more of Thora’s story toward the end, I was happier than he was.
(not rot-13ing, because this is all stuff visible on the book jacket.)
Dutch people tend to have some very specific grammar quirks in (primarily written) English, and that combined with a fairly distinctive (but presumably not ubiquitous) sense of humour makes them fairly easy to distinguish from, say, Danes (who have their own specific grammar quirks, but are largely recognisable from the fact that once you make friends with one shortly afterward you’ll realise you now know a dozen of them; Danes come in packs).
Re: Incoming 21st Century Sci-fi Bracket
Help, I need recs, I’m more of a fantasy reader (substantially more chance of finding dragons, although Anne McCaffrey made a strong attempt to redress that single-handed) and I want to vote at some point. So… Recs for likely contenders so I can get a head-start..?
@bookworm1398
The ‘you belong to me’ line is still a bit iffy, even with parent/child relationships, but it does work surprisingly well. I find it hard to think about it as a stalker-song because I grew up with it being something else. Not that parent/child makes it any less creepy for consensual romantic relationships.
RE: Exile’s Gate. My first Cherryh was the Morgaine novels, and I enjoyed them quite a bit, even if they are definitely dark in tone. I got early that it was an SF world that looked like fantasy–just like Pern! They code as fantasy to me, though.
I was at a hotel once where a wedding reception was happening in one of the ballrooms (with doors open).
The Bride and Groom danced their first dance to an instrumental version of You Can’t Hide Those Lyin’ Eyes. 8-o
I checked my ears. Cleaned them out. Turned to a friend and said “Is that song what I think that song is?” Reader, we boggled.
Meredith –
Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Get started now and be careful in bed. If you drop it you can give yourself a concussion. 😉
This is one of my absolutely favorite SF book of the 21st century. Even the winner of the 2009 Hugo said he thought it would win that year.
@ULTRAGOTHA
Well, I have tentatively pencilled in it to Mount File770, but I’m also going to leave it for a bit because criminy, a tenner for one ebook? Not in my budget right now. It will have to go on my (very short) list of expensive ebooks that have got to go on sale eventually, along with the current primary resident: Daughter of Mystery.
> “I need novels to nominate for this year’s Hugo. Suggestions?”
At the top of my current list are Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge and Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman (second book in a duology). It’d take something pretty strong to bump either of them off.
Others I’m considering but might very well get bumped off if I read something better: The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan, Half The World by Joe Abercrombie (second in a trilogy), The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge, and The Boy Who Lost Fairyland by Catherynne M. Valente (fourth in a series). The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black was one I was considering, but at this point it’s likely been bumped off by the others.
I won’t bother you with the ones I’ve read and wasn’t impressed by. 2015 SFF books I’m planning to read but haven’t gotten to yet are obviously of unknown quality to me at this point, and they currently include but are not limited to The Scorpion Rules, Dark Orbit, Serpentine, Speak Easy, The Rest Of Us Just Live Here, Lair of Dreams, Half a War, Archivist Wasp, The Heart Goes Last, Uprooted, Karen Memory, The Mystic Marriage, Ancillary Mercy, The Whispering Swarm, The Buried Life, The Hunter’s Kind, Cold Iron, Darkness On His Bones, Touch, Updraft, Carry On, Contagion: Eyre, Beastkeeper, The Just City, Razorhurst, Last First Snow, The Fifth Season, In The Time of Dragon Moon, some fun fluffy stuff I’m almost certainly going to enjoy but not nominate like Kitty Saves The World and oh my god I’m going to drown in my TBR pile when my next order comes in I’ve been waiting for October 8 to roll around, that’s when Ancillary Mercy comes out.
Meredith –
Your local library is more likely to have Anathem than Daughter of Mystery.
But I’ve seen anecdotal evidence that libraries will purchase DoM if asked, you might try that. I wish Kobo would allow me to loan you my copy of DoM. It’s so very good.
@ULTRAGOTHA
My local library and the local library network just got its funding totally crippled to the extent that the council’s “plan” for it was that the staff would stop getting paid and just contribute their time as volunteers (and even before that their sf/f collection was, hrm, about a shelf – it isn’t a very big library). You can imagine how thrilled the staff were to hear that. They’re not currently likely to purchase anything, even if I asked very nicely, and as far as I know they don’t do ebooks at all. I suspect that a book that comes with warnings about head injuries is not going to be friendly to my ability to hold it. 🙂 I’m going to get it, with a recommendation as enthusiastic as that, just not until budget allows, and unless there’s a sale any time soon a tenner is definitely something I’d need to plan for.
Meredith,
JJ kicked off the 21st Century SF suggestion list here.
A quickie list from me:
“The Graveyard Game” Kage Baker (2001)
It’s actually the fourth of the Company novels but the first I read, back when I relied more on the library (all hail!) and it was the only one available at the time. I fell in love with the characters and setting and had to hunt down the others. Because it features time travel, Baker had the whole of human history as her setting.
“Look to Windward” Iain M. Banks (2000)
It’s a Culture novel, and one of his best.
“Halting State” Charles Stross (2007)
Attempting near-future SF is often just asking for egg on the face, but Stross managed it with verve.
“Metaplanetary” Tony Daniel (2001)
I mentioned it here, and stand by what I said.
“Stories of Your Life and Others” Ted Chiang (2002)
If “Her Smoke Rose Up Forever” qualifies, then so does this. Chiang has not (yet) published a novel.
“River of Gods” Ian McDonald (2004)
“Embassytown” China Mieville (2011)
“Diplomatic Immunity” Lois McMaster Bujold (2002)
“Incandescence” Greg Egan (2008)
Egan doesn’t do publicity which I’m sure affects his sales, but he’s one of the best exponents of hard SF around.
“Revelation Space” Alastair Reynolds (2000)
“Passage” Connie Willis (2001)
“Blindsight” Peter Watts (2006)
“Accelerando” Charles Stross (2005)
“The Golden Age” John C. Wright (2002)
My recollection is that it was an astounding read. I am a bit afraid to reread this because it has some of the elements in this year’s Hugo finalists, like the nods to the classics. The Suck Fairy has visited either “The Golden Age” or JCW’s recent writing…
I’m also looking for Hugo novel recs. The Hugonoms wikia was handy, but I’d like to narrow it down a little, and having decided to give spots to Uprooted and Fifth Season and decided against Seveneves, I’m now hesitating between next reading Robinson’s Aurora, Bacigalupi’s The Water Knife, or The Library at Mount Char. I’ve never read Robinson, I admired The Windup Girl, but it also made me want to slit my wrists, and I know nothing about The Library at Mount Char except that some people here have spoken well of it. Which one do youse think I should go with (with the criteria that I will only accept “horridly depressing” if it’s done with great art?).
BTW, I have also just bought Bryony and Roses.
The only Reynolds I’ve read is House of Suns, which I thought was excellent! (And has the advantage of being a standalone.) Other than that, it looks like I haven’t read a whole lot of actual 21st Century SF other than the Expanse books and maybe Kameron Hurley’s Bel Dame Apocrypha trilogy, if you count that?
Soon Lee on September 25, 2015 at 6:34 pm said:
“The Golden Age” John C. Wright (2002)
My recollection is that it was an astounding read. I am a bit afraid to reread this because it has some of the elements in this year’s Hugo finalists, like the nods to the classics. The Suck Fairy has visited either “The Golden Age” or JCW’s recent writing…
Mine went off to the library sale.
I think it is like developing an allergy: his current writing has gone so over the top that it makes it difficult to read further back in the corpus, because all the issues are already there.
I took a look, and just nope.
Into the bag with them.
Though admittedly I never really quite got into that series as much as I did his earlier Everness books, which hit more of my fantasy preferences (Gormenghast).
I haven’t had the heart to even look at those, assuming that the Suck Fairy may have been busy.
If not, they can go live on the Loony Shelf with Lovecraft and Wylie and other attractive monsters.
I’ve just started reading it, so I’m coming at it from the opposite direction. Not far in but the prose style is definitely JCW but either have become immune or it was more tempered back then. So far not-awful.
Passage Connie Willis.
Oh that is a painful read, but so very lovely.
I think either Century Rain or Chasm City is my favorite Reynolds.
Jayn-
I wouldn’t call either The Library at Mount Char or Aurora either of them totally depressing.
The Library has a higher level of ick, though not without purpose.
Aurora I just really, really liked.
I liked Aurora quite a bit more than The Water Knife. The latter is a violent suspense story with an interesting and well worked out near future science fiction setting. I would have preferred a little less emphasis on the violent suspense story. At this point I would nominate Aurora but not The Water Knife. I would also nominate Seveneves.
I really want to read “Aurora”, “Karen Memory”, “Luna”, and “Last First Snow”.
Is “Long Way to a Small Angry Planet” eligible this year?
Still need more novellas.
I haaaaaaaaated “Windup Girl” (the physics of generating energy was all back-asswards, and humanity apparently forgets about waterwheels) so am NOT reading “Water Knife”. Newp.
Thanks for the input! Aurora and Mount Char, then.
Meredith: Regarding fantasy recs for voting; if you haven’t read Uprooted, you must.
Just finished The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. It was a 2014 book. But Chambers is eligible for the Campbell, I believe.
Just sayin’.
Karen Memory was also excellent and may well be on my nomination list next year.
As far as JCW, I think I read a few of his stories in the Andy Robertson Night Lands anthologies, but I’d need to refresh my memory of which ones they were and how I felt about them. The only novel of his I’ve read was Count to a Trillion, based on a positive review in Locus and before I knew anything about him. I was, eh … It was kind of entertaining and had some big ideas, but didn’t really succeed in pulling off the whole “folksy” voice he was trying to do, and I just never got around to the sequels.
@SLM: This version of The Road Goes Ever On, sung by a baritone with at least some notion of phrasing, is much much better than the William Elvin version, but it’s not my ideal either. (I don’t have enough musical chops to figure out whether the piano part has been altered or not, but it doesn’t sound right to me, especially on Treebeard’s Song, which is the one I care about most.) http://www.stewarthendrickson.com/RoadGoesEverOn.html
Novel rec: I just finished Zen Cho’s Sorcerer to the Crown and LOVED it. Ooh, so good. Looking forward to rereading it.
On the subject of songs with disconnects between how they sound/are received and what they actually say, may I recommend Passenger’s “Walk You Home” [US title “Night Vision Binoculars”]? Power-pop-tacular! Catchy! Poppy!
Content note: stalkeriffic like whoa.
jayn –
Haven’t read Aurora yet but most Robinson I’ve read I’ve enjoyed the ideas he comes up with more than the characters or story being told. Don’t know if Aurora will change that. The Water Knife is pretty depressing in the sense that some of what’s presented doesn’t feel like from a future that’s all that far off, but it’s more of a fun but violent thriller than anything.
The Just City is on my own personal contenders list and if you haven’t checked that one out yet I’d highly recommend that one. Same with The Mechanical.
@lurkertype: “Sacred Cows” is 11,000 words, a novelette.
@Cubist–“For some time now, I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a cover version of Every Breath You Take (that quintessential stalker song) in which every aspect of the arrangement has something subtly wrong with it.”
The soundtrack from “Stalker” has that effect on me. The versions of pop songs they used were enough to give me chills at time. Especially songs like “You’re the One that I Want” or “Be My Baby”.
Thanks Vasha. That’s a category I was light in as well.