(1) If film criticism ever becomes a duel to the death, people will say, never bet against David Gerrold when cinematic science fiction is on the line…. See his new review on Facebook.
All right, so let’s talk about SNOWPIERCER, a brilliantly produced movie that ultimately fails in the two most important ways a science fiction film can fail.
I’ll take the easy one first — the audience will suspend disbelief, they will not suspend common sense.
The idea here is that the Earth has frozen over. The only survivors are living on a train that circles the globe endlessly.
1) The Earth is frozen over because scientists have decided to put something called CW7 in the atmosphere to halt global warming. They do it with chem trails. It works too well. The planet gets too cold, everything freezes down so cold you’ll freeze to death in minutes.
Now, look — whatever that CW7 stuff is — you’re gonna have to put several million tons of it into the atmosphere to cools down the planet. That’s a lot of chem trails. It’s going to take a long time. Years. Decades perhaps. Even if you could retro-fit every jet plane in the world on its next scheduled maintenance, it would still take millions of miles. And you would think that as soon as the temperature gradients start falling too fast, not matching the projections, the scientists — or whatever agency behind it — would stop the process to evaluate the results. But no — whatever this CW7 is … bam, it freezes everything to a giant planet-sized popsicle.
2) Where did all that water come from? Even in this planet’s worst ice ages, there wasn’t enough H2o to make enough snow to cover every continent. ….
Unfortunately … even as an ALLEGORY this thing doesn’t work.
That’s the second and much bigger failure…..
(2) A killer review like that leads indirectly to the sentiment expressed in “Why Peter Capaldi Said No To Extra Doctor Who”.
It seems like eons pass in between series of Doctor Who. As with many shows which only run 10 or so episodes in a season, they’re over so quickly, and then there’s another year or more of wait before the show comes back. It turns out that the BBC would love to see more Doctor Who as much as fans would. However, the cast and crew, led by Peter Capaldi himself, have said no to requests for more episodes. The reason, according to Capaldi, is that while they could make more episodes, what they couldn’t do is make more good episodes.
(3) David Brin turns his thoughts to “Sentient animals, machines… and even plants!” at Contrary Brin.
In Brilliant Green: the Surprising History and Science of Plant Intelligence, plant neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso and journalist, Alessandra Viola, make a case not only for plant sentience, but also plant rights. Interesting, though science fiction authors have been doing thought experiments about this for a long time, e.g. in Ursula LeGuin’s novel “The Word for World is Forest” and in my own “The Uplift War.” Jack Chalker’s “Midnight at the Well of Souls” portrayed sentient plants, as did Lord of the Rings.
There is a level where I am all aboard with this. Ecosystems are webs of health that combine fiercely interdependent predation/competition with meshlike interchanges of sight/sound/chemicals that clearly manifest types of cooperation, even communication…. as I elucidated in “EARTH.”
On the other hand, I also step back to see the qualities of this book that transcend its actual contents, for it fits perfectly into the process of “horizon expansion” that I describe elsewhere. A process of vigorously, righteously, even aggressively increasing the scope of inclusion, extending the circle of protection to the next level, and then the next. See also this Smithsonian talk I gave about the never-ending search for “otherness.”
(4) And look for Brin to be in residence at Bard College in October.
David Brin, a scientist, a science fiction author and a commentator on the world’s most pressing technological trends, is in residence at the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College from Oct. 5 to Oct. 25.
As part of Brin’s fellowship, he will mentor selected Bard students on their fiction and nonfiction writing. He will also offer a number of lectures and discussions. On Sept. 30, at 11:30 a.m., Brin will talk with Hannah Arendt Center Academic Director Roger Berkowitz and “Roundtable” host Joe Donahue on WAMC radio.
On Oct. 7 at 5 p.m. in Reem-Kayden Center 103, Brin will speak about his book, “The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose between Privacy and Freedom?,” with Berkowitz. On Oct. 14 at 7 p.m. in the Bertelsmann Campus Center’s Multipurpose Room, he will attend a debate on “National Security is More Important than the Individual Right to Privacy.”
Bard College is located in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY.
(5) Cheryl Morgan advises on “Writing Better Trans Characters” at Strange Horizons.
Trans people are a big thing these days in equality circles. People are asking what they can do to help the trans cause. Quite simply, the most important thing cis people can do for the trans community right now is to accept us as fully human; not as something to be gawped at and whispered over, not as a clever metaphor with which to discuss gender, but as ordinary people just like you. For cis writers, that means putting us in their stories.
I reject the idea that trans characters should only be written by trans people because cis folk are bound to get it wrong. While there are some really fine trans writers, there simply aren’t enough of us in the world to do what is needed. We have to be part of all fiction, not just fiction that we write ourselves.
(6) Kim Stanley Robinson defended his notion of future technology in Aurora as part of an article about science fiction realism for the Guardian.
Robinson makes no apology for the 21st-century tech of his 26th-century explorers, arguing that progress in science and technology will asymptotically approach “limits we can’t get past”.
“It’s always wrong to extrapolate by straightforwardly following a curve up,” he explains, “because it tends off towards infinity and physical impossibility. So it’s much better to use the logistic curve, which is basically an S curve.”
Like the adoption of mobile phones, or rabbit populations on an island, things tend to start slowly, work up a head of steam and then reach some kind of saturation point, a natural limit to the system. According to Robinson, science and technology themselves are no exception, making this gradual increase and decrease in the speed of change the “likeliest way to predict the future”.
(7) Les Johnson’s guest post about putting together a mission to Mars on According To Hoyt suits the current Mars-centric news cycle very well.
Since I work for NASA and have looked extensively at the technologies required to send people to Mars, I am often asked how close we are to being able to take such a journey. [DISCLAIMER: The very fact that I work for NASA requires me to say that “the opinions expressed herein are my own and do not reflect the views of my employer.”] Basing my opinion solely on information that is publicly available, the answer is… not straightforward. Let me break it into the three areas that Project Managers and Decision Makers (the ones with the money) use when they assess the viability of a project in an attempt to explain my answer.
(8) MARK YOUR CALENDAR: April 3, 2016 will be the next Vintage Paperback Show in Glendale, CA at the Glendale Civic Auditorium from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. STILL $5.00
(9) Editors Eugene Johnson and Charles Day have started an Indiegogo appeal to fund their Drive-In Creature Feature anthology from Evil Jester Press.
Get in line. Buy a ticket, and take a trip to the DRIVE-IN CREATURE FEATURE. Where the monsters from the classic films from the 1950’s to 1980’s shined on the large iconic sliver screens. Where the struggle between human and monsters came alive for the fate of the world. Monsters created from an experiment gone wrong, legendary beasts long asleep, now awaken by melting humans, visitors from a far off world that aren’t as friendly as they appear. Monsters like giant parasitic bugs and ancient sea beasts on the prowl. A mysterious plague turning the homeless population into Moss people. A government sponsored monster goes toe-to-toe with a monster of Celtic myth. and many more are included.
Intriguing tales by some of the best names in horror, including New York Times Best selling authors and comic book writers, Jonathan Maberry, S.G. Browne, Elizabeth Massie, Ronald Kelly, William, F. Nolan, Lisa Morton, Joe McKinney, Jason V. Brock, Weston Ochese , Yvonne Navarro, including cover art by Cortney Skinner…
(10) Alamo Drafthouse has commenced its touring food and film event honoring the 50th anniversary edition of Vincent and Mary Price’s A Treasury of Great Recipes.
During the months of September and October, Alamo Drafthouse locations nationwide will host THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES Feast, featuring a screening of the Vincent Price classic paired with a delectable multi-course feast using recipes from the book. Topping each evening off, Victoria Price – daughter of Vincent and Mary – will be in person sharing memories of her father before the film with her multi-media presentation “Explore, Savor, Celebrate: Life with Vincent Price.”…
In 1965, Mary and Vincent Price published A Treasury of Great Recipes — now regarded as the one of the world’s most beloved cookbooks. The book features recipes collected by Vincent and Mary at restaurants around the world, including original menus from classic restaurants and photographs by the great William Claxton. It has come to be regarded as “one of the most important culinary events of the 20th century” (Saveur Magazine) and was recently named the eighth most popular out-of-print book of any kind by Booklist. The 50th anniversary edition incorporates the original edition, unchanged and in its entirety, along with a new Foreword from Wolfgang Puck and A Retrospective Preface from Victoria.
Here are links to the rest of the schedule — San Antonio, TX – 9/28, Austin, TX – 9/29, Richardson, TX – 9/30, Kalamazoo, MI – 10/6, Kansas City, MO – 10/7, Littleton, CO – 10/14, Ashburn, VA – 10/20, Winchester, VA – 10/22, Yonkers, NY – 10/26.
(11) Vox Popoli has posted a political cartoon by Red Meat and Vox Day about the nonrelease of 2015 Hugo nominating data, “Cabal? What Cabal?”
(12) Dave Freer has an axiom about who it’s important for a writer to please in a post at Mad Genius Club.
That is something that many authors fail to grasp – and not just new ones. I recently read a diatribe by Adam Troy Castro – who missed this completely (He was attacking John Wright, who seems to be engaging his readers… who aren’t part of his publisher’s tribe). I quote: “has been abusing his publisher in public and attacking his editors as people” which is a bad thing, according to Castro “being an asshole to the people who give you money is not a good career move.”
The latter part of that is certainly true. What Castro seems to have failed to figure out is that the money doesn’t actually come from the publisher. It comes from readers – the subset of the public who love your work. If you abuse them, you’re dead. If your publisher abuses them (which is a fair assessment)… lose your publisher. Reassure your readers that this is not your attitude.
(13) Myke Cole, in “You are not crying in the wilderness”, tells why he writes.
Here’s the thing about writing: It’s really hard. It’s a LOT of work. You do most of this work alone and then you send it away and you have absolutely no idea whether it’s reaching anyone or not, how it’s being received, whether or not it means to others what it means to you. I have said before that I am no Emily Dickenson. I write to communicate, to receive a signal back from the array I am constantly sending out in the world.
I write to not be alone.
(14) Alex Pappademas shreds the new Muppets series in “A Rainbow Rejection” at Grantland.
The most fanciful thing about ABC’s muppetational but seldom celebrational The Muppets is that the late-night talk show behind whose scenes it takes place has a female host. In this regard, I support its vision. I support nothing else about The Muppets except the pilot’s use of the great Jere Burns, drier than a silica gel packet as always, in a B-plot in which he refuses to accept his daughter’s interspecies relationship with Fozzie Bear. His issue seems to be more about Fozzie being a bear than being a Muppet — at dinner, he makes snide comments when Fozzie compliments the salmon — but in a broad-stroke sense, I am with Burns on this one. I guess I’ve found the one marriage-equality hypothetical on which I’m a fuming mossback conservative: Turns out I am opposed to the sexualization of the Muppets and therefore to the implication that humans and Muppets1 can or should miscegenate.
This puts me roughly on the same team as the fainting-couch wearer-outers at the Donald Wildmon front group One Million Moms, who took a break from their courageous war on homofascist breakfast cereal and sinfully delicious lesbian yogurt on Monday to declare a fatwa on the new Muppets as “perverted” based solely on the ads — particularly the one that promises “full frontal nudity” and features Kermit the Frog in a casual locker-room pose. A clock that stopped in 1955 and should be thrown in the garbage because it’s an insanely and attention-hungrily homophobic clock is still right twice a day: There is nothing good about this ad, and perhaps you should not be in the Muppet-selling business if you can’t sell the Muppets in 2015 without adding the implication that Kermit fucks, let alone that Miss Piggy wants to fuck Nathan Fillion.
(15) Marc Scott Zicree has posted a new Mr. Sci-Fi video about the Profiles in History room at Monsterpalooza that showed items from his collection that will be going up for auction tomorrow.
(16) The Mets, one day after clinching the National League East, had their rookies take the super hero “hazing” to another level… Or, rather, they removed another level…
[Thanks to James H. Burns, Andrew Porter, the other Mark, SF Site News, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Kendall.]
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4. THE FUTURE HANGS ON A SLENDER THREAD
Fledgling, Octavia E. Butler
5. ONE PERSON MANY BODIES
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
6. GIRL AND BOY
Little Brother, Cory Doctorow
9. QUADDIES AND SPACE BATS
Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold
11. LOOK BACK, LOOK AHEAD
Farthing, Jo Walton
14. DEATH IS NOT THE END
Passage, Connie Willis
15. KIND OF A LOT GOING ON
Anathem, Neal Stephenson
16. MYSTERY STORIES
The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein
I note with amusement that this shows up frequently on Slacktivist. Fred Clark is always an amazement to me. He worships the God I grew up with, recognizably the same dude, not one with a similar name, but definitely the guy that made my childhood a living hell. And Clark has a healthy, functional relationship with him. I will probably never be a theist again, but I take heart from the people who can have such relationships with the infinite.
@bloodstone75:
I howled with laughter when I saw the big unsecured PURGE button. I took it as a bit of a wink and nod from the writers. They knew it was stupid and facile, but it was also a requirement for the hilarious Ironic Punishment gore-fest that followed.
I’m not trying to invalidate your dislike of it, mind. It was a giant “oh, come ON” moment. It blew your suspension of disbelief while I laughed and clapped my hands in glee. Ain’t people neat?
1. LASTING DAMAGE, NOSTALGIA FOR INFINITY
Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks
2. THE SPEED OF SOFTWARE
The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang
5. ONE PERSON MANY BODIES
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
6. GIRL AND BOY
The Girl with All the Gifts, M. R. Carey
Too easy. Hated Little Brother. Loved the Carey
7. HURT IN THE DARK
Embassytown, China Miéville
The Red: First Light, Linda Nagata
Read both, but abstain.
8. SERIOUS ILLNESS
Lock In, John Scalzi
Ooof. This and Station Eleven are both very good, and very different novels. They both also benefit from a re-read. Tough, really tough bracket.
9. QUADDIES AND SPACE BATS
Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold
11. LOOK BACK, LOOK AHEAD
Spin, Robert Charles Wilson
13. I JUST WANT TO GET HOME
The Martian, Andy Weir
15. KIND OF A LOT GOING ON
Anathem, Neal Stephenson
16. MYSTERY STORIES
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon
17. TIME AND SPACE
Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey
Hah. Another easy one (sorry Kurt et al, Time Travellers Wife just didn’t work for me)
Here in 4170, we have managed to get apples to grow in biodomes on Mars, and I have made an apple pie.
21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART TWO:
ALL THESE BOOKS ARE YOURS — EXCEPT EUROPA EUROPA
1. LASTING DAMAGE, NOSTALGIA FOR INFINITY
Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks
Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds
abstain
2. THE SPEED OF SOFTWARE
The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang
The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon
3. BLOGGERS AND TECHNOPHOBES
Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge
Feed, Mira Grant
4. THE FUTURE HANGS ON A SLENDER THREAD
Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
Fledgling, Octavia E. Butler
5. ONE PERSON MANY BODIES
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
Kiln People, David Brin
6. GIRL AND BOY
Little Brother, Cory Doctorow
The Girl with All the Gifts, M. R. Carey
abstain
7. HURT IN THE DARK
Embassytown, China Miéville
The Red: First Light, Linda Nagata
abstain
8. SERIOUS ILLNESS
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
Lock In, John Scalzi
ARGH! I enjoyed both of these for different reasons. Station Eleven, by a whisker.
9. QUADDIES AND SPACE BATS
Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold
Learning the World, Ken MacLeod
abstain
10. MOST OF HUMANITY GETS WIPED OUT
Oryx & Crake, Margaret Atwood
Accelerando, Charles Stross
abstain
11. LOOK BACK, LOOK AHEAD
Farthing, Jo Walton
Spin, Robert Charles Wilson
12. IT’S HARD TO TALK TO IT
Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer
Blindsight, Peter Watts
abstain
13. I JUST WANT TO GET HOME
The Martian, Andy Weir
Ragamuffin, Tobias Buckell
abstain
14. DEATH IS NOT THE END
Love Minus Eighty, Will McIntosh
Passage, Connie Willis
15. KIND OF A LOT GOING ON
Anathem, Neal Stephenson
River of Gods, Ian McDonald
abstain
16. MYSTERY STORIES
The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon
17. TIME AND SPACE
Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey
The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
abstain
@ JJ
My father and siblings are hugely conservative and GOP supporters, and my father is hugely racist, sexist and homophobic to boot. I turned out just the opposite, and the only plausible reason I’ve ever been able to identify is that all the (non-message, according to the Puppies) science fiction I read as a child played a massive role in how my definitions of “right” and “wrong” became defined.
Mine tend more towards apolitical, working poor evangelical Christians, but the racism, sexism and homophobia are part of the standard options.
I've been relying on quotes from third parties, because my attempts at doing my own research left me feeling like my hair was on fire (and humanity was doomed), but my understanding is that there is a group of people under the mistaken impression that classic SFF is message free. That comes as a huge surprise to me, because books are where my moral compass got set. I still remember the lightning strike that hit my brain the first time I encountered The Three Laws of Robotics; non-religious ethics could be written down, codified, followed!
eta: Yeah, no, I can’t make the italics disappear, because there isn’t any coding that I’ve missed.
1. LASTING DAMAGE, NOSTALGIA FOR INFINITY
Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks
3. BLOGGERS AND TECHNOPHOBES
Feed, Mira Grant
4. THE FUTURE HANGS ON A SLENDER THREAD
Fledgling, Octavia E. Butler
5. ONE PERSON MANY BODIES
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
6. GIRL AND BOY
The Girl with All the Gifts, M. R. Carey
7. HURT IN THE DARK
The Red: First Light, Linda Nagata
8. SERIOUS ILLNESS
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
9. QUADDIES AND SPACE BATS
Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold
11. LOOK BACK, LOOK AHEAD
Farthing, Jo Walton
12. IT’S HARD TO TALK TO IT
Blindsight, Peter Watts
14. DEATH IS NOT THE END
Passage, Connie Willis
15. KIND OF A LOT GOING ON
River of Gods, Ian McDonald
17. TIME AND SPACE
Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey
Oh my goodness. Forehead cloths, here we come!
3. BLOGGERS AND TECHNOPHOBES
Feed, Mira Grant
4. THE FUTURE HANGS ON A SLENDER THREAD
Fledgling, Octavia E. Butler
5. ONE PERSON MANY BODIES
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
7. HURT IN THE DARK
The Red: First Light, Linda Nagata
8. SERIOUS ILLNESS
Arggh! Arggh!
Lock In, John Scalzi
12. IT’S HARD TO TALK TO IT
Blindsight, Peter Watts
Brackets!
21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART TWO:
ALL THESE BOOKS ARE YOURS — EXCEPT EUROPA EUROPA
3. BLOGGERS AND TECHNOPHOBES
Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge
Feed, Mira GrantAwwwww. I really liked Feed and thought it was a really fun, compulsively readable take on Life After The Zombie Apocalypse. The dice giveth, and the dice taketh away.
5. ONE PERSON MANY BODIES
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
Kiln People, David BrinAnother awwwww because I thought the concept of Kiln People was brilliant. But it did get bogged down in the denouement, and Ancillary Justice just had more going on.
10. MOST OF HUMANITY GETS WIPED OUT
Oryx & Crake, Margaret AtwoodAccelerando, Charles StrossGlasshouse, Charles Stross
I should like Stross more than I do. I’ve struggled through everything I’ve read by him except Glasshouse (which I loved and would have liked to see win the Hugo that year) and the Laundry stuff. Oryx & Crake suffered from Atwood’s pronouncements that it wasn’t SF when it was pretty textbook dystopia.
15. KIND OF A LOT GOING ON
Anathem, Neal Stephenson
River of Gods, Ian McDonaldWhere are those forehead cloths again? I’m going to give it to the Stephenson for the world-building, even though it also bogged down in the last act.
Cheryl S: To close the coding, enter the slash “/” BEFORE the em.
I’ve read 13 of these (or, I will have in about 20 minutes, when I finish Annihilation), but only one pair. I’m voting for two more that I love and hoping the rest – that I either don’t love quite as much or think the current competition would be very appealing – can move ahead without my votes.
21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART TWO:
ALL THESE BOOKS ARE YOURS — EXCEPT EUROPA EUROPA
3. BLOGGERS AND TECHNOPHOBES
Feed, Mira Grant
6. GIRL AND BOY
The Girl with All the Gifts, M. R. Carey
7. HURT IN THE DARK
The Red: First Light, Linda Nagata
I’m glad Linda Nagata is getting some positive attention. I really liked The Red and The Trials is sitting near the top of my mountain.
eta: Thank you, @Mike Glyer. Dyslexia is harder to navigate with non-alphabetic characters.
Here we go again.
Wheeeeeee
21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART TWO:
ALL THESE BOOKS ARE YOURS — EXCEPT EUROPA EUROPA
(THOUGH MAYBE THEY ARE JUST IN YOUR TBR)
1. LASTING DAMAGE, NOSTALGIA FOR INFINITY
Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks
Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds
Nope
2. THE SPEED OF SOFTWARE
The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang
The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon
Really like the Moon, but haven’t read the Chiang
I’ll pass on this one.
Nope
3. BLOGGERS AND TECHNOPHOBES
Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge
Feed, Mira Grant
Haven’t read the Vinge, love Feed.
….can I combine pairings?
Nope
4. THE FUTURE HANGS ON A SLENDER THREAD
Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
Fledgling, Octavia E. Butler
Nope
5. ONE PERSON MANY BODIES
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
Kiln People, David Brin
Nope
6. GIRL AND BOY
Little Brother, Cory Doctorow
The Girl with All the Gifts, M. R. Carey
Nope
Actually, I keep typing “mope” instead, which would also work
7. HURT IN THE DARK
Embassytown, China Miéville
The Red: First Light, Linda Nagata
Nope
8. SERIOUS ILLNESS
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
Lock In, John Scalzi
9. QUADDIES AND SPACE BATS
Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold
Learning the World, Ken MacLeod
Nope
10. MOST OF HUMANITY GETS WIPED OUT
Oryx & Crake, Margaret Atwood
Accelerando, Charles Stross
Nope
11. LOOK BACK, LOOK AHEAD
Farthing, Jo Walton
Spin, Robert Charles Wilson
Nope
12. IT’S HARD TO TALK TO IT
Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer
Blindsight, Peter Watts
Nope
13. I JUST WANT TO GET HOME
The Martian, Andy Weir
Ragamuffin, Tobias Buckell
14. DEATH IS NOT THE END
Love Minus Eighty, Will McIntosh
Passage, Connie Willis
Haven’t read the McIntosh, but there is nothing that it could be to change this vote
15. KIND OF A LOT GOING ON
Anathem, Neal Stephenson
River of Gods, Ian McDonald
Nope
16. MYSTERY STORIES
The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon
Love Kirstein, not so much Chabon
17. TIME AND SPACE
Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey
The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
Don’t dislike TTT’sW enough to vote for a book I haven’t read.
But almost.
These are some tough categories, my vote may be different on a different day. Today I’ll go for
1. Look to windward
3. Rainbow s end
5. Ancillary Justice
7. Embassy town (though I wish they had cut out the epilogue)
12. Blindsight
13. Wish I could vote for the Martian but have not read the other one.
15. Anathema
16. The lost steersman, though it’s my least favorite of the series.
17. Levithian wakes
Fwiw, I recently finished Karen Memery and Ghost Fleet. I found Karen Memery to be kind of meandering, but with a fairly strong finish. Bear did a very good job of writing a character from the margins and portraying those margins.
Ghost Fleet is a future war techno-thriller the pups would dislike. A US military that makes widespread use of enhancing drugs, minor gay characters where it’s no big deal and where leading from the front is a bad idea. It’s as if Tom Clancy and Ramez Naam wrote a book together.
Next up, Persona by Genevieve Valentine and Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald. Fifth Season will have to wait until I can get it back out of the library hold pile.
1. LASTING DAMAGE, NOSTALGIA FOR INFINITY
Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks
Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds
Urgh. Ermph. Tie.
2. THE SPEED OF SOFTWARE
The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang
3. BLOGGERS AND TECHNOPHOBES
Feed, Mira Grant
4. THE FUTURE HANGS ON A SLENDER THREAD
Fledgling, Octavia E. Butler
5. ONE PERSON MANY BODIES
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
6. GIRL AND BOY
The Girl with All the Gifts, M. R. Carey
7. HURT IN THE DARK
The Red: First Light, Linda Nagata
8. SERIOUS ILLNESS
pass
9. QUADDIES AND SPACE BATS
pass
10. MOST OF HUMANITY GETS WIPED OUT
Accelerando, Charles Stross
11. LOOK BACK, LOOK AHEAD
Farthing, Jo Walton
12. IT’S HARD TO TALK TO IT
Blindsight, Peter Watts
13. I JUST WANT TO GET HOME
Ragamuffin, Tobias Buckell
14. DEATH IS NOT THE END
pass
15. KIND OF A LOT GOING ON
River of Gods, Ian McDonald
16. MYSTERY STORIES
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon
17. TIME AND SPACE
Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey
21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART TWO:
ALL THESE BOOKS ARE YOURS — EXCEPT EUROPA EUROPA
1. LASTING DAMAGE, NOSTALGIA FOR INFINITY
Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks
2. THE SPEED OF SOFTWARE
The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang
3. BLOGGERS AND TECHNOPHOBES
Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge
4. THE FUTURE HANGS ON A SLENDER THREAD
Pass.
5. ONE PERSON MANY BODIES
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
6. GIRL AND BOY
Little Brother, Cory Doctorow
7. HURT IN THE DARK
The Red: First Light, Linda Nagata
8. SERIOUS ILLNESS
Pass
9. QUADDIES AND SPACE BATS
Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold
10. MOST OF HUMANITY GETS WIPED OUT
Accelerando, Charles Stross
11. LOOK BACK, LOOK AHEAD
Spin, Robert Charles Wilson
12. IT’S HARD TO TALK TO IT
Blindsight, Peter Watts
13. I JUST WANT TO GET HOME
The Martian, Andy Weir
Ragamuffin, Tobias Buckell
Tie.
14. DEATH IS NOT THE END
pass
15. KIND OF A LOT GOING ON
River of Gods, Ian McDonald
16. MYSTERY STORIES
Pass
17. TIME AND SPACE
Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey
BTW, Kyra? You owe me for the dental work from grinding my teeth. Screw forehead cloths, I’m digging out my mouth guard.
11. LOOK BACK, LOOK AHEAD
Farthing, Jo Walton
Spin, Robert Charles Wilson
My two favorites in this bracket ended up against each other. I’ll give a slight edge to Farthing because I enjoyed all of the Small Change books and didn’t finish the first follow-up to Spin.
I thought Snowpiercer was absolute crap for many of the reasons stated above. Totally don’t get the love for it.
Cabin the Woods… well, I can see why people might like it. It’s definitely not one of Whedon’s better works, but I did watch it fresh from his take on Much Ado About Nothing and also a first watch-through of Firefly so maybe I’m being a bit harsh on it.
21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART TWO:
ALL THESE BOOKS ARE YOURS — EXCEPT EUROPA EUROPA
3. BLOGGERS AND TECHNOPHOBES
Feed, Mira Grant
5. ONE PERSON MANY BODIES
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
12. IT’S HARD TO TALK TO IT
Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer
13. I JUST WANT TO GET HOME
The Martian, Andy Weir
17. TIME AND SPACE
Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey
Returning to The Muppet Show for a moment, Sam the Eagle’s thoughts on nudity:
Discourse on Nudity
I’ve been doing Hugo homework today by reading short fiction. Now I have RL to deal with. I will probably be mostly lurking for the next week except for the brackets. Later,
21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART TWO:
ALL THESE BOOKS ARE YOURS — EXCEPT EUROPA EUROPA
1. LASTING DAMAGE, NOSTALGIA FOR INFINITY
Abstain
2. THE SPEED OF SOFTWARE
The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon
3. BLOGGERS AND TECHNOPHOBES
Abstain
4. THE FUTURE HANGS ON A SLENDER THREAD
Fledgling, Octavia E. Butler
5. ONE PERSON MANY BODIES
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
As much as I like Brin and I really did think Kiln people was amusing, there’s no contest to a good cuppa.
6. GIRL AND BOY
Abstain
7. HURT IN THE DARK
The Red: First Light, Linda Nagata
8. SERIOUS ILLNESS
Lock In, John Scalzi
9. QUADDIES AND SPACE BATS
Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold
10. MOST OF HUMANITY GETS WIPED OUT
Abstain
11. LOOK BACK, LOOK AHEAD
Abstain
12. IT’S HARD TO TALK TO IT
Abstain
13. I JUST WANT TO GET HOME
The Martian, Andy Weir
14. DEATH IS NOT THE END
Passage, Connie Willis
15. KIND OF A LOT GOING ON
Abstain
16. MYSTERY STORIES
The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein
17. TIME AND SPACE
Abstain
4. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
6. The Girl with All the Gifts, M. R. Carey
8. Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
11. Farthing, Jo Walton
13. The Martian, Andy Weir
17. The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART TWO:
ALL THESE BOOKS ARE YOURS — EXCEPT EUROPA EUROPA
1. LASTING DAMAGE, NOSTALGIA FOR INFINITY
Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks
Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds
Abstain
2. THE SPEED OF SOFTWARE
The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang
The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon
3. BLOGGERS AND TECHNOPHOBES
Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge
Feed, Mira Grant
4. THE FUTURE HANGS ON A SLENDER THREAD
Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
Fledgling, Octavia E. Butler
5. ONE PERSON MANY BODIES
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
Kiln People, David Brin
6. GIRL AND BOY
Little Brother, Cory Doctorow
The Girl with All the Gifts, M. R. Carey
7. HURT IN THE DARK
Embassytown, China Miéville
The Red: First Light, Linda Nagata
Abstain
8. SERIOUS ILLNESS
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
Lock In, John Scalzi
9. QUADDIES AND SPACE BATS
Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold
Learning the World, Ken MacLeod
whimper Cally, I need those forehead cloths, now.
10. MOST OF HUMANITY GETS WIPED OUT
Oryx & Crake, Margaret Atwood
Accelerando, Charles Stross
11. LOOK BACK, LOOK AHEAD
Farthing, Jo Walton
Spin, Robert Charles Wilson
whimper
12. IT’S HARD TO TALK TO IT
Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer
Blindsight, Peter Watts
Abstain
13. I JUST WANT TO GET HOME
The Martian, Andy Weir
Ragamuffin, Tobias Buckell
14. DEATH IS NOT THE END
Love Minus Eighty, Will McIntosh
Passage, Connie Willis
15. KIND OF A LOT GOING ON
Anathem, Neal Stephenson
River of Gods, Ian McDonald
Abstain
16. MYSTERY STORIES
The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon
whimper
17. TIME AND SPACE
Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey
The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
It’s 5654, and Mars has been fully terraformed.
Apparently Joss Whedon was asked by a fan if he had plans for a sequel to Cabin in the Woods. His response was on the lines of “Did you watch the movie?”
And now, the Bracket in the Woods:
1. LASTING DAMAGE, NOSTALGIA FOR INFINITY
Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks
5. ONE PERSON MANY BODIES
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
Didn’t like Justice that much, but hated Kiln People
8. SERIOUS ILLNESS
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
10. MOST OF HUMANITY GETS WIPED OUT
Accelerando, Charles Stross
13. I JUST WANT TO GET HOME
The Martian, Andy Weir
17. TIME AND SPACE
Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey
Bounced off the third one (Abbadon’s Gate, but the first two books were great!
Voting from the year 5378, where life in the deep caverns is quite nice, all things considered, and the glowing molds are very tasty. Some of them.
2. The Lifecycle of Software Objects, but only barely. Forehead cloth, please!
3. Feed
4. Fledgling
5. Ancillary Justice
7. Embassytown
12. Annihilation
14. Passage
17. Leviathan Wakes
@Derek B. —
There are no follow-ups to Spin. None. Do you hear me? NONE.
I cannot think why you would suggest otherwise.
And again, I am qualified to vote in… one.
11. LOOK BACK, LOOK AHEAD
Farthing, Jo Walton
Spin, Robert Charles Wilson
Spin had the grandiose ideas and the SCIENCE!!!, but Farthing had everything else. (Spin actually did a god job re: characters and the human cost, esp. compared to much hard SF, but not enough to beat Walton.)
Blarg, there’s blood on the deck already.
1. Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks
3. Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge
5. Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
11. Spin, Robert Charles Wilson
12. Blindsight, Peter Watts
17. Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey
2. THE SPEED OF SOFTWARE
The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon
4. THE FUTURE HANGS ON A SLENDER THREAD
Fledgling, Octavia E. Butler
5. ONE PERSON MANY BODIES
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
6. GIRL AND BOY
The Girl with All the Gifts, M. R. Carey
7. HURT IN THE DARK
Embassytown, China Miéville
The Red: First Light, Linda Nagata
YEOUCH. They’re both great, I canna do it, captain …
8. SERIOUS ILLNESS
Lock In, John Scalzi
9. QUADDIES AND SPACE BATS
Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold
10. MOST OF HUMANITY GETS WIPED OUT
Accelerando, Charles Stross
11. LOOK BACK, LOOK AHEAD
Farthing, Jo Walton
12. IT’S HARD TO TALK TO IT
Blindsight, Peter Watts
13. I JUST WANT TO GET HOME
The Martian, Andy Weir
15. KIND OF A LOT GOING ON
Anathem, Neal Stephenson
16. MYSTERY STORIES
The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein
17. TIME AND SPACE
Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey
@Dawn Incognito: Returning to The Muppet Show for a moment, Sam the Eagle’s thoughts on nudity
Thanks to the closing balcony quip, I will be chuckling uncontrollably, in random outbursts, all night.
Anything I don’t list is an abstention (plus a couple I’m listing). Most of my votes are unfair! I’ve put a * by them with explanations. But some of these books, I just can’t not vote for (or against, in one case)!
2. THE SPEED OF SOFTWARE
The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang
The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon
ABSTAIN, but listed to mention how much I liked Chiang’s novella! However, Moon’s book is on my “possibly to buy” list, so I can’t vote against it, knowing it intrigued me. Granted, skimming the sample recently did not encourage me, but I’m hoping it’s good and I wasn’t it the right mood, or it just doesn’t start well, or something.
5. ONE PERSON MANY BODIES
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
Kiln People, David BrinI’ve read both! I really enjoyed Brin’s book back in the day, and I’m listening to it as a re-read! But based on the re-read/listen so far, I must vote for Leckie’s awesome Ancillary Justice. Don’t get me wrong: Brin’s book is good, and I only remember a couple of minor quibbles (neither of which I’ve reached yet in my listen-re-read, so they may not bother me this time). But Leckie’s book beats it handily, despite me initially thinking “ugh I hate when the author goes back ‘n forth between time periods like this.” Silly initial thoughts o’ mine – it worked for me, and I was just annoyed that the extended sample ended right when it did! I ordered it immediately and was so happy to read the rest!
6. GIRL AND BOY
Little Brother, Cory DoctorowThe Girl with All the Gifts, M. R. Carey
* Hopefully this isn’t too unfair: I haven’t read the Doctorow, but it never interested me in the slightest, while the Carey was mostly amazing, and heartbreaking in a couple of spots. I mean, Carey’s book was the main book where I broke my “don’t pay top $ for DRM ebooks” ‘cuz I read the extended sample and was like “OMG MUST READ THE REST!” I bought the ebook and kept reading for a while longer before I let myself sleep. That is a book I must vote for, despite not having read its opponent.
8. SERIOUS ILLNESS
Station Eleven, Emily St. John MandelLock In, John Scalzi
* Lock In was great in many ways, while Mandel’s book didn’t sound like my thing. So, another unfair vote, I guess. It’s habit-forming, this “must vote for book I loved, despite not having read the other” thing. . . .
11. LOOK BACK, LOOK AHEAD
Farthing, Jo Walton
Spin, Robert Charles Wilson* This is a 100% unfair protest vote, ‘cuz I disliked Spin a lot! I hated the protag and disliked the writing a fair bit. I’m regularly surprised at the love it gets. Sure, Farthing could suck (it’s on my TBR stack, so I hope not!), but I give it the benefit of the doubt, since I can’t think of something I’d vote under Wilson’s book (not even The Lies of Locke Lamora or Crystal Rain). /rant
13. I JUST WANT TO GET HOME
The Martian, Andy Weir
Ragamuffin, Tobias Buckell* This is half-fair! I couldn’t finish the first book in Buckell’s series, Crystal Rain (various reasons I didn’t like it, but I really, really tried), while The Martian was, surprisingly, quite a page turner. Heck, I even got a kick out of a very minor character I didn’t expect much from, and the book had several “woah, it’s ON!” moments for me. It may have helped that I expected the whole book to be like the first few chapters, but it wasn’t; a whole book of just Watney MacGyver’ing probably wouldn’t have me rambling about how much I liked it. 😉 So I’m voting for Weir’s book against, I suppose, a different book than listed (or you could say I’m voting against the series) . . . so maybe it’s half fair? If I don’t like the first book, you won’t sell me the second, no matter how good; I won’t read a series out of order or skip books or halves of books in a series.
14. DEATH IS NOT THE END
Love Minus Eighty, Will McIntosh
Passage, Connie Willis
ABSTAIN, but listed to mention how much I enjoyed Love Minus Eighty – first the short version, then the novel. However, I’ve read enough good things about Passage (though some mixed reviews here!) that I feel I can’t vote in this pairing.
@Various: I’m not a big MilSF person, but I’m seeing too many recs for Nagata’s The Red series. I may have to read the sample. . . . (O mountain of books, prepare ye.)
@All: Other books in the bracket that I want to try include, uh, a lot of them. 😉
Fledgling
Embassytown (read the sample)
Learning the World (picked it up a couple of months ago)
Farthing (on my TBR mountain)
Passage, maybe (though it sounds depressing)
Kirstein’s Steerspeople books (first omnibus on my TBR mountain)
Leviathan Wakes (have an ebook from a past Worldcon; started it and put it down, but I just wasn’t in the mood – it seemed good, so I’ll get back to it at some point)
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, maaaaaybe (have a copy from . . . it’s a secret!)
2. The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang
3. Feed, Mira Grant
4. Fledgling, Octavia E. Butler
5. Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
7. Embassytown, China Miéville
12. Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer
13. The Martian, Andy Weir
17. Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey
3. BLOGGERS AND TECHNOPHOBES
Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge
Feed, Mira GrantWorldbuilding I can suspend my disbelief for trumps worldbuilding I can’t. (Actually I got through Feed okay, but there was a major plot element in Blackout that kind of retroactively ruined everything.)
5. ONE PERSON MANY BODIES
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
Kiln People, David BrinHaven’t read the Brin, but I’m confident it wouldn’t beat out the Leckie.
6. GIRL AND BOY
Little Brother, Cory Doctorow
The Girl with All the Gifts, M. R. Carey
9. QUADDIES AND SPACE BATS
Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold
Learning the World, Ken MacLeodAmusing as the “alien space bats” joke was, it still loses out to Bujold.
11. LOOK BACK, LOOK AHEAD
Farthing, Jo Walton
Spin, Robert Charles WilsonA tough choice, but it’s hard to overemphasize how much Farthing blew me away when I first read it.
17. TIME AND SPACE
Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. CoreyThe Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
Niffenegger’s human drama was more compelling to me than “Corey”‘s large-scale space opera.
21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART TWO:
ALL THESE BOOKS ARE YOURS — EXCEPT EUROPA EUROPA
Voting even if I read only one of a pair as usual
2. THE SPEED OF SOFTWARE
The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon
4. THE FUTURE HANGS ON A SLENDER THREAD
Fledgling, Octavia E. Butler
5. ONE PERSON MANY BODIES
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
9. QUADDIES AND SPACE BATS
Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold
11. LOOK BACK, LOOK AHEAD
Farthing, Jo Walton
16. MYSTERY STORIES
The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein
@JJ: I read the sample of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and it seemed good, but it stopped before it really got going, so it didn’t grab me yet quite enough to right now. I wish the sample had been longer, but for now…
…my 2015 read will be Time Salvager. The sample pulled me in more quickly, plus Chu’s reading at LonCon was great, and was a different excerpt (so I have more to go on). It didn’t hurt that IMHO he’s a funny, engaging reader.
Publishers should post longer samples to ebook retail sites; I wonder if they’re not allowed to (in which case, iTunes/Amazon/Kobo/etc., listen up!). 1-3 chapters isn’t enough, IMHO. How’d I get sucked into Ancillary Justice? The extended sample from the Hugos that year. I suspect longer samples would help sell more books (whether ebook or print). Just going on my own experience, at least, it helps.
Anyway, hopefully I finish Time Salvager by the 6th, ‘cuz I must! buy! Ancillary Mercy! I’m so looking forward to it, and it’s coming in time for a long flight. 😀
/ramble
I already feel better about voting when I’ve only read one book. It wasn’t my intention originally, but I breathe easier, seeing some other folks do that, too. /whew
Miss Piggy always threw herself at attractive guest stars. And let’s face it, who doesn’t wanna get with Fillion? And isn’t Gonzo married to one or more chickens? @Darren Garrison, any and all Greg the Bunny stars would be awesome on NuMuppets — although Count Blah’s a bit too close to home, blah.
Accountancy seems to bear little reality to actual mathematics, so I’d buy that an accountant doesn’t understand IRV.
BRACKETS (which no longer exist in 9362)
1. abstain
2. The Lifecycle of Software Objects
3. Feed
4. Fledgling
5. Ancillary Justice
6. The Girl With All the Gifts
7. The Red: First Light
8. Lock In
9. Diplomatic Immunity
10. Accelerando
11. abstain
12. abstain
13. Martian
14. Passage
15. Anathem (forehead cloths applied here)
16. Lost Steersman
17. Leviathan Wakes (I liked it and hated TTTW)
Okay, got my forehead cloths ready.
1. LASTING DAMAGE, NOSTALGIA FOR INFINITY
Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks
Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds
Everyone knows the dice are loaded.
2. THE SPEED OF SOFTWARE
The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang
The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon
Yup, still loaded.
5. ONE PERSON MANY BODIES
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
Kiln People, David Brin
This was the only easy choice. Choosing the others have exhausted my supply of forehead cloths.
15. KIND OF A LOT GOING ON
Anathem, Neal Stephenson
River of Gods, Ian McDonald
*whimper*
21ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART TWO:
This is meant to be fun, no? No!?
1. Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds
Purely on the specific book chosen here; I don’t think that LTW is as strong the early Reynolds books. Now, if the Banks had been Transition, or Surface Detail, this would have been impossible. (Also I expect Banks to win so don’t feel too worried about the outcome)
4. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
5. Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
Another vote against Brin, as much as anything else.
7. Embassytown, China Miéville
Best book still in.
8. Lock In, John Scalzi
Yes, Station Eleven is a better book, but Lock In is more fun to read, more satisfying, and does have the serious points.
9. Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold
10. Tie. You can’t make me choose, I won’t let you.
Oryx & Crake, Margaret Atwood
Accelerando, Charles Stross
12. Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer
13. The Martian, Andy Weir
Still grumbling that God’s War didn’t go through.
Lydy Nickerson on September 29, 2015 at 6:31 pm said:
In my case, my parents weren’t actually fundamentalists — which is one of the weirder things about it all, looking back. Not every evangelical had to believe personally in the abusive Sky Daddy model of God in order for the church as a whole to communicate that vision, because it was not socially acceptable to be too explicit with expressing alternate views — universalism, or a non-literal hell, or gay tolerance, or, increasingly, feminism. It was like a group of bullies picking on a nerd who half of them secretly like. If all of them spoke up at once, maybe the bullying would stop. But nobody does.
That’s where I see Slacktivist Fred Clark as such an important voice — he is speaking up to stop the abuse.
Indeed. Emotionally, it’s pretty epic. Hugely influential in shaping to my adult self, and deeply entwined in an awful lot of my fiction.
After my great internal break, I tried on a lot of faiths and lack of faiths to see if they fit, and ended up more or less as a deist with a strong, but non-literal, Christian tendency. There were aspects of my faith that I really believed in as a kid — teachings of Jesus stuff — and it was such a relief to just embrace that without having to load it up with all that other toxic garbage. Why, I could simply believe in the importance of loving one’s neighbor, without having to force my brain through a pretzel of insane troll logic where my “neighbors” somehow didn’t include gay people or atheists or Democrats or foreigners or Muslims, or…
About the PURGE button in Cabin in the Woods — my interpretation has always been that it was required by the terms of the ritual magic they were invoking. Since the second half of the movie is the puppetmasters getting forced through a larger, meta version of their own game, it seemed to fit with that.
It doesn’t make logical sense — but it does make metaphorical sense.
Way too many read-one-not-the-others here.
1. Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks
3. Feed, Mira Grant
5. Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
7. I’ve not got to The Red yet, so because of all the good things I’ve heard about I’m going to abstain.
9. Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold – a pre-2000 McLeod might have caused forehead cloths here
15. Anathem, Neal Stephenson
Bracket I’d most like to read:
#3: Rainbow’s End AND Feed.
#4: Cloud Atlas AND Fledgling. (Side note: If you like Sense8, you will love Cloud Atlas the movie–very, very similar to the extent that it’s clear it had a major impact on J. Michael Strazynski’s writing of Sense8–he’s very clearly writing to Wachowski/Wachowski/Tykver’s strengths.
Real brackets:
6. GIRL AND BOY?
Little Brother, Cory Doctorow?
The Girl with All the Gifts, M. R. Carey
Good, smart, serviceable meets AMAZING.
17. TIME AND SPACE
Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey
The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
Time Traveler’s Wife may be the most romantic book I’ve ever read (2nd-most after Pride & Prejudice?), and I typically don’t go for romance. There is something very special and memorable about this book.
Thoughts on Cabin in the Woods:
First, the PURGE button: Characters who have been through a literal hell, have had three of their best friends violently murdered, and who have demonstrated massive courage and resourcefulness, have, at that point, EARNED a revenge against the ones who harmed them, and the only way for them to get it–remember that very-well trained military forces are seconds away from killing them–is via said button. Also, it’s the most karmically appropriate method. And that it’s the payoff for “Let’s get this party STARTED!” still makes me smile.
Overall, it’s very, very good Goddard and Whedon–I’d rank it far above Angel seasons 1, 3 or 4, above either season of Dollhouse, and above seasons 1, 4, 5, 6, or 7 of Buffy. Better than The Avengers, and, if I’m being honest, the Whedon I’d most like to rewatch, with the possible exception of “Smile Time.” I saw it in theatres twice, an incredible rarity for me. I think it’s one of the best horror comedy films of all time.
My votes are as follows
ALL THESE BOOKS ARE YOURS — EXCEPT EUROPA EUROPA
1. LASTING DAMAGE, NOSTALGIA FOR INFINITY
Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds
2. THE SPEED OF SOFTWARE
The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon
3. BLOGGERS AND TECHNOPHOBES
Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge
4. THE FUTURE HANGS ON A SLENDER THREAD
Fledgling, Octavia E. Butler
5. ONE PERSON MANY BODIES
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
6. GIRL AND BOY
Little Brother, Cory Doctorow
7. HURT IN THE DARK
Embassytown, China Miéville
8. SERIOUS ILLNESS
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
9. QUADDIES AND SPACE BATS
Learning the World, Ken MacLeod
10. MOST OF HUMANITY GETS WIPED OUT
Accelerando, Charles Stross
11. LOOK BACK, LOOK AHEAD
Spin, Robert Charles Wilson
12. IT’S HARD TO TALK TO IT
Blindsight, Peter Watts
13. I JUST WANT TO GET HOME
Ragamuffin, Tobias Buckell
14. DEATH IS NOT THE END
Love Minus Eighty, Will McIntosh
15. KIND OF A LOT GOING ON
River of Gods, Ian McDonald
16. MYSTERY STORIES
The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein
17. TIME AND SPACE
The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
There are things that trouble me in Harry August. There are things that never seem to change, like, ahem, “fixed points in time”. Watergate always seems to happen, the assassination of JFK, and so on. There is a character that muses on how nothing he does will ever change anything in the long run. But that is not true, clearly, since there are at least two characters who manage to destroy the world, independently and separately. (Yes, because they precipitate technological change too quickly, but still.) It is not at all clear that their motives are evil, although the later one is certainly much more annoying and unsympathetic than the narrator finds him. And by the end Harry August says that “the world is always ending”. All that they do is try to protect their own kind from the rogue elements. It makes complete moral sense inside that universe, but the assumption is still a bit troubling.
But whoa, great, great book, skipped dinner last night to finish it.
Then I had a scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam because hey, I baked them and they don’t keep. Ahem.
It was almost as good.
Steven Schwartz once told me that old anecdote about Rabbi Hillel, who was approached by a Gentile telling him “I will convert on the condition that you will preach the whole Torah by standing on one leg.”
In the first version of this Rabbi Hillel does the obvious thing and pushes the stupid Gentile away with his measuring stick (why would he want the Gentile to convert, anyway?) but in another version he says “That which is hateful to you, do not do it onto others. That is the Torah; all the rest is commentary.”
I know, a very well known story, but there might be a lucky 10,000 here.
Me too! Hated hated hated it.
1ST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION PART TWO:
ALL THESE BOOKS ARE YOURS — EXCEPT EUROPA EUROPA
1. LASTING DAMAGE, NOSTALGIA FOR INFINITY
Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks
Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds
2. THE SPEED OF SOFTWARE
The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang
The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon
3. BLOGGERS AND TECHNOPHOBES
Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge
Feed, Mira Grant
4. THE FUTURE HANGS ON A SLENDER THREAD
Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
Fledgling, Octavia E. Butler
5. ONE PERSON MANY BODIES
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
Kiln People, David Brin
6. GIRL AND BOY
Little Brother, Cory Doctorow
The Girl with All the Gifts, M. R. Carey
7. HURT IN THE DARK
Embassytown, China Miéville
The Red: First Light, Linda Nagata
8. SERIOUS ILLNESS
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
Lock In, John Scalzi
9. QUADDIES AND SPACE BATS
Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold
Learning the World, Ken MacLeod
10. MOST OF HUMANITY GETS WIPED OUT
Oryx & Crake, Margaret Atwood
Accelerando, Charles Stross
11. LOOK BACK, LOOK AHEAD
Farthing, Jo Walton
Spin, Robert Charles Wilson
12. IT’S HARD TO TALK TO IT
Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer
Blindsight, Peter Watts
13. I JUST WANT TO GET HOME
The Martian, Andy Weir
Ragamuffin, Tobias Buckell
14. DEATH IS NOT THE END
Love Minus Eighty, Will McIntosh
Passage, Connie Willis
15. KIND OF A LOT GOING ON
Anathem, Neal Stephenson
River of Gods, Ian McDonald
16. MYSTERY STORIES
The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon
17. TIME AND SPACE
Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey
The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
My votes:
4. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
5. Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
6. The Girl with All the Gifts, M. R. Carey
8. Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
9. Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold
10. Oryx & Crake, Margaret Atwood
11. Farthing, Jo Walton
12. Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer
14. Passage, Connie Willis
15. Anathem, Neal Stephenson
16. The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein
17. The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger