(1) Here are three science fiction and fantasy birthdays to celebrate on September 25.
Born 1951: Mark Hamill
Born 1930: Shel Silverstein
Born 1952: Christopher Reeve
(2) Plans are afoot to launch a San Juan in 2017 NASFiC bid at DeepSouthCon, which will be held next weekend. Source: committee member Warren Buff, who is working on the facilities. The website is mostly private at the moment.
(3) “NASA to Announce Mars Mystery Solved” on September 28, promises the press release.
NASA will detail a major science finding from the agency’s ongoing exploration of Mars during a news briefing at 11:30 a.m. EDT on Monday, Sept. 28 at the James Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The event will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.
Taking part in the news conference will be Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters; Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters; graduate student Lujendra Ojha of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta; Mary Beth Wilhelm of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California and the Georgia Institute of Technology; and Alfred McEwen, principal investigator for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
I don’t see Mark Watney’s name in there anywhere…
(4) On April 7, 2016, LASFS will welcome Hugo, Nebula, and Aurora winning author Robert J. Sawyer who will read from his new novel, Quantum Night. The book will be published by Ace Books on March 1. Kudos to President Matthew B. Tepper for lining up the engagement.
(5) Today in History
September 25, 1959 Hammer Films’ take on The Mummy premieres in England.
(6) The Nerdist alerts fans to updates in German artist Dirk Löchel’s online poster featuring hundreds of science fictional star ships ranging from Star Trek to Mass Effect.
A high-res version can be downloaded from the artist’s Deviant Art site, where he also discusses the updates in detail including such frequently asked questions as…
Q: Why isn’t the Death Star/CSO Carrier/V’Ger/other large ship on the chart?
A: For reasons of image quality and chart organisation, only ships between a minimum of 100 meters and 24000 meters are applicable for this chart, sorry. Arbitrary? Yes! But I had to draw the line somewhere.
Q: And where’s TARDIS?
A: It’s both too large and too small for the chart.
(7) J. C. Carlton in “How To Create Your Own Monsters” appeals for people to sympathize with Vox Day, linking to a long list of insulting things people have said about Vox over the years. Because, Carlton thinks, what Vox has orchestrated with the Hugo Awards is all their fault.
The puppy kickers had every opportunity to put a hand out and create some sort of consensus with Larry and the rest of the Sad Puppies. They could have listened to what the puppies were saying and taken a more even handed stance. Above all they could have avoided the fiasco of no awarding the Hugo Awards. Instead they treated the puppies with abuse and disparagement, conducting yet another campaign of destruction. But they aren’t hitting Vox the Count working against them. All they have managed to do is create yet more Counts and hasten their own destruction.
(8) Al Harron explains why he is now a former contributor to The Cimmerian blog in “Matters of Importance” on A Wilderness of Peace.
[Leo Grin on The Cimmerian] “The Cimmerian Blog has been defunct for half a decade, but now that one of our former bloggers has been exposed as an SJW, we feel impelled to rise from our slumber to declare that we stand 100% against SJWs and their travelling freakshow of interlocking fetishes and predatory abuses.
As a now-confirmed SJW, Barbara Barrett is hereby EXPELLED from this blog. We have struck her prose from every post, and her face from every picture. Let her name be unheard and unspoken among us, erased from the memory of our august fellowship, for all time. So let it be written. So let it be done.“
Barbara Barrett is a friend, a colleague, and an erudite scholar. I wrote to Leo stating, in no uncertain terms, that if anyone on The Cimmerian was to be expelled, their prose struck, their faces scored out, their very names unheard and unspoken, for the “crime” of criticism, then they must do exactly the same to me.
I campaign for Scottish independence. I took great pride in our movement’s peaceful, positive message in the face of immense opposition. That opposition had the might of the entire UK Establishment at its back, seeking to crush anything that could threaten their dominion over these isles and their resources. Everyone in the movement has a story about being intimidated, being abused, being threatened. My mother has been physically assaulted three times in the past few years. The car was trashed, the windshield cracked, property vandalised and stolen. Grown men and women have screamed obscenities in my face, my mother’s, the children in my family. I have been called every name under the sun: “Nazi,” “Fascist,” “Taliban,” “Racist,” “Scum,” “Evil.” I do not need to have my name associated with the likes of Vox Day.
Yet I put up with the intimidation and abuse and threats, because some things are worth the struggle. Some things are that important. And frankly, I had spent too long being silent on the matters of Gamergate and Rabid Puppies, because I didn’t feel it was my place. I didn’t want to stick my neck out. But after three years campaigning for independence and facing down all the power of Westminster, I find myself completely unafraid and resolutely unphased by the schisms of fandoms – and it makes choosing sides a lot easier. What fear, what power, could they hold over me, given what I have just experienced?
So, to remove any doubt: I advocate the cause of social justice. I denounce the activities of Vox Day and his supporters. And I publicly express my support, unequivocally and without reservation, for my friend and fellow Robert E. Howard scholar, Barbara Barrett.
(9) Steve Davidson has posted “The 1941 Retro Hugo Awards (Part 7 Novels)” at Amazing Stories.
Final Blackout is generally considered both a golden age classic and perhaps the best story Hubbard turned out. Typewriter In the Sky is an early example of alternate realities and the “author as god” concept.
Absent the reading I still need to do, I think the stand-outs in this list are Slan, Gray Lensman and If This Goes On… (though I’ve only read that in the fix-up Revolt in 2100).
(10) Bravo to Lauowolf for the impromptu filk “Filers of London”
I saw a Filer with a Kindle in his hand
Walking through the West End in the rain.
He was looking for a place called the Odeon Leicester Square.
Gonna go see The Martian on screen.
Aaoooooo!
Filers of London!
Aaoooooo! (Repeat)If you see him reading on a train,
Better not ask its name.
Little old lady downloaded a jillion ebooks in shame.
Filers of London again.
Asoooooo!
Filers of London!
Aaoooooo! (Repeat)He’s bleary-eyed alright, cause he’s blogging all the night.
And lately he’s been reading in the shower.
Better stay away from him
Or he’ll list some more books, Jim
But look at that tbr tower!
Asoooooo!
Filers of London!
Aaoooooo! (Repeat)
(11) First a Hugo rocket, now a LEGO astronaut – see what’s floating in the window now at the International Space Station.
(12) The cast of Agent Carter promote the show with some Hayley Atwell and Dominic Cooper pranks.
https://twitter.com/HayleyAtwell/status/647176917196496896
https://twitter.com/HayleyAtwell/status/647204721241944064
(13) At Fast Company — “Take A Long Look At The Amazing Nic Cages/Tim Burton Superman That Almost Was”. (They say that like missing it was a bad thing…)
It’s a plot worthy of a comic book. In some alternative universe, Nicolas Cage might have have been Superman.
Back in the ’90s, Warner Bros had greenlit Superman Lives, a moodier take on the Man of Steel mythos to be produced by Jon Peters, directed by Tim Burton, and starring Cage, then hot off an Oscar win for Leaving Las Vegas. The team caught the fascination of the comic zeitgeist, until an unfortunately-timed shot of a droopy-eyed Cage in superhero garb leaked and fan support soured. Two years, three scriptwriters, and a slew of concept art and costume tests later, the project was dead.
(14) J. W. Ocker, curator of OddThingsIveSeen.com, knows the harvest season is at hand, and that File 770 believes in “All Bradbury all the time.” Check out “Strange Stuff From My Study, Episode 4: Ray Bradbury’s Halloween Decorations”.
For this fourth episode of Strange Stuff From My Study, I dig into my collection to show you a pair of extremely special and extremely relevant-to-the-season items: Halloween decorations that once belonged to the Great Scribe of Halloween himself, Ray Bradbury.
Appropriate for any season is the author’s Poe-Land: The Hallowed Haunts of Edgar Allan Poe:
My latest book is Poe-Land: The Hallowed Haunts of Edgar Allan Poe, in which I visited every Poe site on the East Coast and across the Atlantic, meeting and talking to those men and women who are upholding the dark poet’s physical legacy. It’s a weird book, but it won the 2015 Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biography.
(15) And while we’re in this eldritch neighborhood, The Last Witch Hunter trailer looks fairly horrifying.
(16) Did Ridley Scott just pull the rug out from under Neill Blomkamp’s Alien sequel? A September 24 news report says Scott just revealed the title of Prometheus 2 to reporters – and it’s not Prometheus 2.
During an interview with HeyUGuys, the 77-year-old filmmaker – and director of the original ground-breaking ‘Alien’ movie – revealed the rather surprising title.
“Actually, really it’s going to be called Alien: Paradise Lost,” he said. “So Prometheus 2 is not really what it’s going to be… it’s going to be Alien: Paradise Lost.”
Alien: Paradise Lost heads to cinemas on May 30 2017.
(17) A 7-minute video, To Scale: The Solar System, shows how “On a dry lakebed in Nevada, a group of friends build the first scale model of the solar system with complete planetary orbits: a true illustration of our place in the universe.”
[Thanks to J.W. Ocker, JJ, Mark-with-no-last-name, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Will R.]
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On books being cut: The wikipedia article on Banks’ Matter quotes him as saying “It’s a real shelf-breaker. It’s 204,000 words long and the last 4,000 consist of appendices and glossaries. It’s so complicated that even in its complexity it’s complex. I’m not sure the publishers will go for the appendices, but readers will need them. It’s filled with neologisms and characters who disappear for 150 pages and come back, with lots of flashbacks and -forwards. And the story involves different civilizations at different stages of technological evolution. There’s even one group who have disappeared up their own fundaments into non-matter-based societies.”
And to say that’s not descriptive of the book at all is understating it. It’s linear. It’s not complex. One of the plots comes straight from TVTropes – the Prince Regent’s advisor wants to kill him and take the throne! (Not even a spoiler; we get that in the first chapter.) It spends 26 chapters getting its characters in place only to do the equivalent of “rocks fall, everyone dies” in the last one. The appendix is completely unnecessary; unlike TGE where it really would’ve helped to know how the name and title variants worked earlier (yes, I’m one of those who didn’t know it had an appendix) there’s nothing you can’t gather from context.
I can’t find anything explaining the discrepancy between the quote and the book. Someone in the talk page wonders if an editor made him cut it, but if so it cut exactly the wrong pieces.
I’ll put Hydrogen Sonata or Look to Windward in the bracket, but not this.
Nominations:
Ancillary Justice – Ann Leckie
The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Nifenegger
Old Man’s War – John Scalzi
The Girl Who Would Be King – Kelly Thompson
Zoo City – Lauren Beukes
The Windup Girl – Paolo Bacigalupi
Spin – Robert Charles Wilson
Orleans – Sherri L. Smith
Love Minus Eighty – Will McIntosh
@McJulie
For me, watching live streams of games on Twitch is about the personalities of the streamers. They can be very entertaining, both in their commentary on what’s going on in the game and in their interactions with people in their chat rooms. Plus, it’s also interesting to see the content of some games that I know I have no intention of playing but still think look interesting, particularly when the streamers play those games with a lot more skill than I know I could bring to the table.
It’s also fair to say that a large number of people who are streaming or making Let’s Plays are also very young themselves, so don’t be too surprised that they would look at the puppies as being old. I’m in my mid-30s, and I sometimes feel old listening to streamers mentioning their cultural references or making jokes that I don’t always get. 🙂
Ooh, I forgot about Embassytown by China Mieville. That’s definitely SF, and definitely goes on my list. (Most of my books are currently in boxes, so I’m having to wing this a bit.)
@Jamoche
I was confused initially, thought that Matter was the one with the digital hells. Then realised it was Surface Detail. I quite liked the concept and thought it was well explored, and it is in no way a cheap method of smuggling one of favorite Banks characters into the bracket…
+ Zoo City – Lauren Beukes don’t know how I forgot that one
Looking over shelf on shelf of pre-99 books and the slimmer handful out of the 21st century, I can only conclude my SFF reading has slowed significantly. Out of those written the last 15 years I’m nominating in no particular order:
Manifold Space, Stephen Baxter
Crescent City Rhapsody, Kathleen Ann Goonan
The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajaniemi
Accelerando, Charles Stross
Agent to the Stars, John Scalzi
@Jamoche – I agree with you on Matter, it was very weak – I didn’t even finish it. Seemed like someone else writing Banks but missing what made him special. Wasn’t a huge fan of Surface Detail either. The Algebraist and Look to Windward are definitely better.
@ Kyra – OK, we’ll go with Echopraxia. Even though it ends life on earth, it’s a bit more upbeat than Blindsight 😉
Also – Justina Robson, Natural History
There are five pages of nominees now. I am impressed.
The main problem with Carlton’s stance is that many people did listen to what the Pups were saying, and found it to be a collection of lies and distortions all in service of a cause that was muddled, confused, and oftentimes repugnant. As always, the worst thing that can happen to the reputations of the Pups is that people will listen to what they have to say and read the things they have written.
As an analogy, recently Carly Florina dramatically talked about portions of a video about Planned Parenthood in which she claimed she saw “a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking, while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.” The problem is, that scene doesn’t exist in the video. Multiple fact checking organizations watched the video in question in full and reported that what Florina claimed to have seen is simply not there. When this was pointed out to her, Florina simply reasserted the claim. The fact that it isn’t there is simply not a reality she wants to face.
So how do you deal with someone who is advancing “facts” that don’t exist? Florina is not dealing with reality. Neither are the Pups. How should non_pups have, as Carlton suggests, “listened to what the puppies were saying and taken a more even handed stance”? The Pup claims were simply not rooted in fact, as George R.R. Martin, our host here, and many others have shown time and again. How does one “compromise” or deal “even-handedly” with people whose starting position is not rooted in fact, and when they are shown that it is not, simply reassert their non-fact based positions? The sad truth for the Pups is that they will make no headway in their efforts as long as they continue to base their positions on fantasies.
Another interesting development displayed by Carlton’s post and the ongoing fracas over the Cimmerian is that standing with Beale seems to be becoming a litmus test of purity for the Pups. Anyone who does not stand proudly shoulder to shoulder with Beale is to be cast out, as has happened with Barrett. They are, in short, acting in a way they claim to despise. It isn’t surprising. The entire Pup/Beale position concerning how “SJWs” behave is one of nothing but projection. However, being “cast out” of the relatively tiny circle of Pups and Beale supporters seems to me like something that is no great loss for anyone. One has to wonder though, how long it will be before they turn the knives on one another.
My paltry noms. Mostly but not entirely listed already. I don’t read enough straight SF (or remember all that I’ve read on command) to do a better list.
Ship Breaker, Paulo Bacigalupi
The Girl with All the Gifts, M.R. Carey
The Passage, Justin Cronin – not Connie Willis!
Under the Dome, Stephen King – picking this as my King entry, because the mechanism that makes the story work turns out to be apparently SFnal, while in 11/22/63 it’s never explained, as I recall, so I take it as fantasy.
Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
Red Thunder, John Varley
Farthing, Jo Walton
The Martian, Andy Weir
Night Train to Rigel, Timothy Zahn – tempted to pick Dragon and Thief here, on the grounds that it hasn’t been mentioned yet, but on reflection I think the Quadrails deserve it more.
And hey, maybe the Puppies are young pups, but perhaps they’re old at heart.
@Aaron
One has to wonder though, how long it will be before they turn the knives on one another.
I think that given the SPs claimed position* towards Beale of “not our monkey” and the distaste for him among their more sensible supporters means the answer to that is “by January”.
*not a very credible position given that they enabled him once and could well do so again, but it’s what they’re claiming.
Thus far, a total of 577 nomination votes have been cast for 294 titles by 203 authors. The number of votes for each individual title ranges from 1 to 26.
I just want to take a moment to point out the visible difference between Kyra’s process of creating her series of brackets and Torgersen’s self-described “open and democratic” process of coming up with his slate….
@Tasha Turner,
That’s two strikes against me: not only do I not own* a Siamese cat, my list of nominees is defficient in QUILTBAG POC SJW writers. Must be time to return my SJW membership card (the one I never received). It’s all very confusing.
Anyhoo…
+1 “Speed of Dark” Elizabeth Moon (2002)
+1 “Crescent City Rhapsody” Kathleen Ann Goonan (2000)
+1 “Who Fears Death” Nnedi Okorafor (2010)
*A.K.A. Being a staffer for.
Kyra, were you also collating the nominations that people were posting prior to the Official Nomination Announcement?
Worriedly,
Soon
I posted my list in the previous day’s thread. For Ted Chiang, I think the “Stories of your Life and others” (collection) better represents Chiang than “The Lifecycle of sofware objects” (novella), though both are worthy.
Okay, I’m apparently lost right now. Where’s JJ’s list?
Without any refreshers:
Lock-In, John Scalzi
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
Fledgling, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
Blackout/All Clear, by Connie Willis (sorry, folks, but I see your London geography errors, and raise you Stross’s Boston-area geography errors (on which he has been multiply corrected and continues to repeat) and putting British language usage in the mouth of an American without any exposure in which to pick it up. I like the story and the characters, and even the digressions. I’ll take your geography complaints under advisement when someone not from the Boston area beats on Stross for his geography errors.
Glasshouse, Charles Stross
Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge
(Hmm. I might be a little grumpy. Time for chocolate?)
That’s not all I want to nominate. That’s just all that’s at the top of my mind that I remember for sure is in the correct time frame without refreshers.
@Soon Lee
I don’t own a Siamese cat. Id be in fear of losing my virtual SJW card except I don’t think it’s that easy to return them. I hear they use a special sticky glue. Once stuck it never comes off.
> “Kyra, were you also collating the nominations that people were posting prior to the Official Nomination Announcement?”
No; I am only accepting nominations in this thread, during the time nominations are open. However, I did follow the link that you left to your nominations on a previous post in this thread, and counted them because of that, so they have in fact been duly entered and recorded.
However, I will mention that “Stories of Your Life and Others” is unfortunately ineligible under current rules (the rules have evolved since Tiptree’s collection was a contender.) “The Lifecycle of Software Objects” has been ruled eligible, though. At some point in the future, there may be a bracket more oriented to short stories, so that short story masters like Chiang, Link, Bradbury, etc., who haven’t been able to have some of their best stuff in the brackets yet, will have their day.
Lis Carey, JJ’s list is here:
https://file770.com/?p=25134&cpage=5#comment-347724
Glancing through this thread starting a few pages back is also probably also a good refresher at this point, since close to 300 titles have now been mentioned in it.
Nominations should remain open for at least another couple of hours yet.
I gave up on Blackout/All Clear before any London geography errors turned up. The British stuff generally lacked credibility and if I’m remembering accurately there was some silliness around the time travelling institution (it’s been a few years.) It’s the only Willis I’ve tried and I gather there’s better stuff. I bought a book of shorter stories and will get around to it one of these days.
Noooooo!!!!! Now we see the violence inherent in the Kyracracy!
(While disappointed, I’m also looking forward to the short story brackets. There will much wailing and gnashing. *runs off to stock up on forehead cloths*)
I’m not entirely convinced that Blackout/All Clear has any London geography errors. (Well, except the Jubilee Line. But that’s more a history error.) The things that are pointed out as errors look to me like misreadings.
There are certainly other errors – about church things, for instance, which I’m particularly sensitive to, and about aristocratic titles (one person can’t be called both ‘Lady Mary’ and ‘Lady Smith’), and one particularly absurd one about money (which is clearly a thinko, as she shows herself aware of old British money elsewhere). But I take this as par for the course with Americans writing about Britain. I’m sure Brits writing about America are equally terrible.
I also gave up on BLACKOUT early on, because it didn’t seem to be going anywhere and everyone was acting stupid and I heard it wasn’t even complete. I didn’t want to force myself to finish the book if I was just going to get a To Be Continued at the end.
Also my first Willis. Also planning to try something else, at some point.
But I like that time period and setting, so I figured it was a good place to start. It wasn’t.
Kurt Busiek: Also my first Willis. Also planning to try something else, at some point. But I like that time period and setting, so I figured it was a good place to start.
Try To Say Nothing of the Dog. It touches on the same time frame in England. Or try the novelette Fire Watch, which is set in the same time period, and is really, really good (fair warning: can be intense on the feels; I’ve read it 3 times, and ended up crying every time).
I personally feel that Doomsday Book is a must-read — but it’s a Stephenson-level doorstopper, and its subject matter is pretty intense (not to be read if you’re in a depressive spell).
Connie Willis seems to write two sorts of books: light vs grim. For the former, try “Bellwether” or “To Say Nothing of the Dog”, and for the latter, “Doomsday Book”. “Blackout” is among the weaker of her novels.
ETA: Also what JJ said.
“Bellwether” is a short book that manages to squeeze a lot in. It ticks a lot of boxes for me with its humour, descriptions of research environments and fads.
Some further nominations, some of which may be “boosters” for choosing works from authors with more than one:
March Upcountry by John Ringo (2001)
Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks (2000)
By Force of Arms (#4 in the Legion of the Damned series) by William C. Dietz (2000)
Way of the Wolf (#1 in the Vampire Earth series) by E.E. Knight (2003)
Paying the Piper (I think #8 in the Hammer’s Slammers series) by David Drake (2002)
Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton (2001)
In Her Name (Omnibus edition that turns the first three into one novel) by Michael R. Hicks (2008)
The Miocene Arrow by Sean McMullen (2000)
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi (2005)
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck) (2011)
Agreed Bellweather is a fun light read with a lot packed into it.
Quite interesting to see which books by what authors get a nod.
I am going to miss the nominating round. Shoot.
Off the top of my head. Assuming it’s 2000+ ?
Karl Scheoder Lady of Mazes or Lockstep ?
Tobais Buckell Mongoose
CJC Foreigner series
Quantum Thief
Richard K Morgan Steel Remains
Stepping Out
Empress of Mars Kage Baker
Unincorporated Man
Walls of the Universe
Kyra,
Someone mentioned that Remnant Population was actually 1996 copyright. If true, -1 my original nom and +1 Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon.
+1 Half Share, Nathan Lowell – the whole series is good and, I don’t think, well-known. There isn’t a lot of intense action, but interesting world and characters.
Plus [ticky] the other box.
Oh yeah:
For Richard K. Morgan, I think I like Woken Furies best; then Altered Carbon.
Full disclosure: I thought Blackout/All Clear was all right (the only Willis I really haven’t liked was the one where it turns out he was the horse), so if you loathed it with the fire of a thousand suns, please feel free to view the rest of this with fear and distrust, etc.
Passage is actually my favorite Willis, and I’ve been rather pleased to see it getting so much love in the nominations here, but it does suffer from some (although not as much) of the same “why don’t these people talk to each other?” problem as B/AC. Those who bounced off B/AC might do better to start either with Bellwether, which is a lighthearted comedy with nerd-heroes, or The Doomsday Book, which is … bleak. I agree with those who have said that Fire Watch is excellent and probably a good way to dip your toes in to see if you would like her in Doomsday Book mode.
To Say Nothing of the Dog I would probably recommend only to people who were familiar with the Jerome K. Jerome book it’s riffing on, Three Men In A Boat. On the other hand, I would highly recommend the Jerome K. Jerome book, which is hilarious.
Oh, heck.
Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon
The Martian, Andy Weir
Farthing, Jo Walton
> “Stepping Out”
Er, help me out here? I’ve found 10 books named Stepping Out so far and none appear to be SF … got an author for this one?
I would like to add my +1 for JD Robb, particularly “Origin in Death”.
Also +1 for
Gabriel’s Ghost
Rosemary and Rue (I think I said that before, sorry Kyra)
Balance of Trade
I bought Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the dog) on the second day of a three week trip to Greece with my sister. I ended up reading the whole thing out loud to her that night, and we took turns stealing it from each other for the rest of the time.
The day after we flew back to NYC, I bought To Say Nothing of the Dog.
There is a (sadly abridged) audio version of Three Men in a Boat read by Hugh Laurie…
CKCharles on September 27, 2015 at 4:31 pm said:
… There is a (sadly abridged) audio version of Three Men in a Boat read by Hugh Laurie…
I had no idea.
Abridged or not, I am soooo on this right now.
Thanks.
Ooo. +1 Origin in Death by JD Robb, also.
Kyra: Passage is actually my favorite Willis, and I’ve been rather pleased to see it getting so much love in the nominations here
At least on my part, that’s because the 21st-century choices consist of either Passage or Blackout / All Clear — so there’s not much choice. She’s only published 6 solo novels (most of her longer works, including Remake and Bellwether, are actually novellas). If I were to pick the best Willis, for me it would be Doomsday Book.
Kyra: To Say Nothing of the Dog I would probably recommend only to people who were familiar with the Jerome K. Jerome book it’s riffing on, Three Men In A Boat. On the other hand, I would highly recommend the Jerome K. Jerome book, which is hilarious.
I think To Say Nothing of the Dog stands fine on its own — but it is much funnier if you get hold of Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) and read it first, as I did. (My library has 2 copies of the 1957 edition — both of which, interestingly, are checked out right now.)
Just to let everyone know, I’m not calling an end to nominating quite yet, but I am getting things prepped, double-checking to make sure likely works qualify, etc. The end is … not immediate, but is in sight at this point.
Re: Willis
I very much liked Doomsday Book, although I find it badly flawed. The beginning of the book is full of stupid people doing stupid things, and the ending is infuriating, but everything else was riveting.
I have loved Three Men in a Boat since adolescence. And so I was very excited to read To Say Nothing of the Dog, which I then hated with a white hot hatred. In part, it was because to my ear she captures nothing of the tone, style, or charm of Three Men in a Boat. Also, it felt so amazingly inauthentic. I didn’t believe in any of the people, and they weren’t funny, either. I just loathed the book. I’m also a very hard sell for time travel of any kind, ever, and that certainly played into how much I loathed the book.
Bellwether is charming, and I liked it a lot. This was a humorous Willis that worked for me. However, my experience with her has been so uneven I never even tried Blackout/All Clear. Finding Willis to read is actually hard, because the people I use to recommend don’t have the same reactions I do, so their likes and dislikes are very non-predictive of mine.
OK, calling nominations to a close. Results will be posted soon.
+1s to
Spin
The Knife of Never Letting Go
Light
Ready Player One
ETA: D’oh!!
@bloodstone75
Ouch. 🙂
Eh, I’m still tallying. I’ll put them in. Once it’s posted, it’s done, though.
@bloodstone75
Lucky escape. 😉
OK, the following 64 titles will be in the 21st Century Sci Fi Bracket. Titles with an asterisk in front of them will be seeded in the first round:
Grimspace, Ann Aguirre
The Skinner, Neal Asher
*Oryx & Crake, Margaret Atwood
Fortune’s Pawn, Rachel Bach
Shipbreaker, Paolo Bacigalupi
The Empress of Mars, Kage Baker
*Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks
Carnival, Elizabeth Bear
*Kiln People, David Brin
World War Z, Max Brooks
Ragamuffin, Tobias Buckell
*Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold
*Fledgling, Octavia E. Butler
The Girl with All the Gifts, M. R. Carey
The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, Michael Chabon
*Explorer, C. J. Cherryh
The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang
*The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
*Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey
*Little Brother, Cory Doctorow
Zendegi, Greg Egan
Eifelheim, Michael F. Flynn
Spook Country, William Gibson
Crescent City Rhapsody, Kathleen Ann Goonan
Feed, Mira Grant
*Light, M. John Harrison
God’s War, Kameron Hurley
*The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein
Probability Moon, Nancy Kress
*Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
*Balance of Trade, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
*Learning the World, Ken MacLeod
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
The Quiet War, Paul McAuley
*River of Gods, Ian McDonald
Love Minus Eighty, Will McIntosh
*Embassytown, China Miéville
*Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
*The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon
*Black Man AKA Th1rte3n, Richard Morgan
The Red: First Light, Linda Nagata
The Knife of Never Letting Go, Patrick Ness
*The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajaniemi
Mortal Engines, Philip Reeve
*Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds
*2312, Kim Stanley Robinson
Natural History, Justina Robson
*Air, Geoff Ryman
Gabriel’s Ghost, Linnea Sinclair
*Lock In, John Scalzi
Alien Taste, Wen Spencer
*Anathem, Neal Stephenson
*Accelerando, Charles Stross
Bones of the Earth, Michael Swanwick
The Fresco, Sheri S. Tepper
*Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer
Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge
*Farthing, Jo Walton
*Blindsight, Peter Watts
*The Martian, Andy Weir
Implied Spaces, Walter Jon Williams
*Passage, Connie Willis
*Spin, Robert Charles Wilson
Whoo-hoo!
I’ve read 5. I’m an evil person and vote on pairs where I’ve only read one. Otherwise I’d never get to vote. LOL
I might hate-vote against The Time Traveler’s Wife if the other one sounds good. :p
Meredith: I might hate-vote against The Time Traveler’s Wife if the other one sounds good.
I’m with you there. To paraphrase Gwen DeMarco: “This book was badly written!”