The SFWA Blog today posted a “Statement from the SFWA Membership Credentials Committee” about an unidentifed writer:
Recently, a science fiction writer made a very public announcement of his application to join SFWA. SFWA Bylaws section VI.1.c.i gives discretion to the membership credentials committee “regardless of qualifications.” Based on the behavior of and online statements by this writer over the preceding year or so, which the credentials committee believes is inconsistent with the obligations that SFWA members have to one another, the committee has determined that it has good and sufficient cause to deny this membership.
We did not take this step lightly, and we are sensitive to suggestions that this action is due to the writer’s political opinions: it is not. SFWA does not, and will not, impose a political test or political standard for membership. We strive to be welcoming to all SFF writers of good will, whatever their personal beliefs or opinions. However, the membership credentials committee, comprised by the sitting Board of Directors, believes that admitting this writer would not be in keeping with our obligations to our membership.
Interestingly, when SFWA revoked Theodore Beale’s membership, he also went unnamed in the announcement.
However, the “very public announcement of his application” (see “SFWA: Pending Membership” at the Internet Archive) and the attention given it in social media (such as the widely-read Twitter thread by A.Merc Rustad) in recent weeks means one name immediately popped to mind.
And in any case, Jon Del Arroz promptly self-identified:
https://twitter.com/jondelarroz/status/954821445040746496
https://twitter.com/jondelarroz/status/954840342003531776
Support for SFWA’s decision has already been voiced by several writers, as in this dialogue with critic Gareth M. Skarka by Scott Lynch and Chuck Wendig.
I have to respectfully disagree with you, G.
1. Nothing SFWA did was ever going to placate JDA. Staging his public martyr act in ostentatious bad faith is what he does. He was going to continue claiming martyrdom and victory regardless of objective reality forever. *Forever.*
— Scott Lynch (@scottlynch78) January 21, 2018
2. I'm not super-inclined to agree to the idea that SFWA has any obligation to help a known troll troll it harder from the inside.
— Scott Lynch (@scottlynch78) January 21, 2018
https://twitter.com/ChuckWendig/status/954896726116257794
Ann Leckie tweeted:
https://twitter.com/ann_leckie/status/954852298676678664
Critics of the decision itself (not merely as tactics) already on record are Richard Paolinelli, Mad Genius Club columnist and writer Jason Cordova, and Superversive SF editor Jason Rennie, with doubtless more to come.
https://twitter.com/ScribesShade/status/954832372070952960
https://twitter.com/WarpCordova/status/954829968537739264
[Thanks to all who pointed me to this story.]
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More than once. And on occasion, he was the guy doing the describing…
Pournelle is a legend who is, unfortunately, no longer with us. I have zero doubt that you would be pushing for his ban from the organization if he were but a young man getting started.
Regarding the silly schoolyard names, that is exactly what they are. Ad hominems, used as a shortcut to thinking. I shouldn’t expect much more, but I’m an eternal optimist.
@JJ — no, I don’t expect my opinion to be taken as fact. But I have brought up reasonable points that are worth addressing with reasonable conversation. As opposed to mocking spitting name-calling venom.
Something like, “okay, I understand how you feel that way. Yes, there are a lot of vocal leftist members of the organization, and yes these members do frequently engage in political conversation, and yes that conversation can (and often does!) get heated. Further, I acknowledge that several of the leftist members of the organization have outright stated that it’s okay to punch nazis and that they know a nazi when they hear one. That said, I don’t think that level of behavior applies here because…”
@Bonnie
You ask, “Why are you here?”
Good question.
Because I think we need more dialogue. Retreating to home base just reinforces the same thought. Echo chambers all around.
I think it’s important for everyone to engage in real conversation. To do that, I think each side needs to acknowledge what the other side is saying.
ETA: again, it’s worth noting. I have been polite. Still, I get called a “truly shitty person.” I think that speaks volumes to anyone paying attention.
Jo: Something like, “okay, I understand how you feel that way…”
But I don’t understand how you can feel the way you do — that it’s perfectly okay for JDA to launch persistent trolling attacks against authors and reviewers on Twitter because he imagines the world to be a big political battlefield where harassment and abuse are normal behavior.
I’ve seen the way JDA has, on many occasions, twisted reasonable comments by people and reframed them as imaginary attacks or vile positions (he’s done it to me more than once; here’s an example). I find it unfathomable that you defend this as acceptable behavior.
What I acknowledge you saying is “You should concede that harassment is a valid behavior on JDA’s part, because if you don’t agree with that, you’re being politically partisan.”
No, I won’t be agreeing that JDA’s behavior is acceptable. That’s not a partisan stance, it’s a humanist stance.
Jo: it’s worth noting. I have been polite. Still, I get called a “truly shitty person.” I think that speaks volumes to anyone paying attention.
Yes, you’ve been polite while defending horrendous, appalling behavior and making false claims — and that does indeed speak volumes about you. It’s also another characteristic behavior of a sealion.
Oh hey, I feel a sudden strong urge to make book recommendations.
I’m almost finished with Julie E. Czerneda’s Clan Chronicles! I enjoyed the Stratification trilogy, although I got distracted at points by the mathematics of Clan reproduction, which did not add up for me (abobql va gur lbhatre trarengvba unf rire zrg na byqre, “haPubfra” jbzna, ohg gur traqre engvb bs xvqf nccrnef gb or 50/50 naq lbhat “haPubfra” zra pyrneyl unir n fvtavsvpnagyl uvture zbegnyvgl engr). It also feels very claustrophobic and homogenous at times, although there are in-universe reasons for this which are later made explicit. Bonus points for having a token human character who is portrayed as convincingly alien to the non-humans he makes contact with.
Then I moved on to the Reunification trilogy, where the writing has significantly improved once again, and the plot feels fast and exciting, if deeply harrowing – the first two books are literally following a genocide as factors conspire to wipe out the Clan entirely. The end of book 2, The Gate to Futures Past, pulled the rug from under my feet in terms of what I thought the series was about, which has given me a lot to think about. It was also deeply unsatisfying, but I assume that’s why there’s another book to read!
Somewhere in this Clan binge, I also found time to read Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor. I echo a comment in an earlier thread here (sorry, can’t remember who made it) that this book doesn’t go where you expect. In mostly spoiler free but still Rot-13 terms, vg fhoiregf gur vqrn gung Ovagv’f angheny tvsgf naq gur cbjref fur tnvaf sebz rnpu phygheny rkpunatr ner ohvyqvat ure vagb fbzr xvaq bs “Pubfra Bar” jub pna fbyir ure jbeyq’f ceboyrzf whfg ol orvat gur rkgenbeqvanel crefba fur vf. Vg yrnqf gb n engure unhagvat frpbaq npg, ohg riraghnyyl yrnirf ure punenpgre va n cbfvgvba jurer fur trgf gb or rkgenbeqvanel whfg orpnhfr gung’f ure, naq gur guvatf gung unir unccrarq gb ure qba’g unir gb freir nal checbfr rkprcg funcvat ure. I did have to weigh up how I felt by the end but I can now say it’s left me with nothing but good feelings. Recommended if you liked the first two – it’s unlikely to change your mind if you didn’t.
Pournelle is a legend who is, unfortunately, no longer with us. I have zero doubt that you would be pushing for his ban from the organization if he were but a young man getting started.
Nope. Plenty of conservatives have applied to and joined SFWA in recent years. No one thought their applications should be rejected. The difference between them and JdA is that they haven’t established themselves as unprofessional sleazebags who spend their time harassing people online.
Regarding the silly schoolyard names, that is exactly what they are.
Nope. You are a troll and a sea lion, just like JdA is a serial harasser. You may not like the way words work, but that’s how it is.
I have been polite.
No, you have not. You have spent your time excusing and defending the behaviour of a serial harasser. That’s the opposite of polite. Your language has been “polite”, but what you have said has been vile.
But JEP was also a card-carrying communist at one point and the piece by him I read most recently praised the Soviet Union.
@Jo
I’ve seen the way JDA has, on many occasions, twisted reasonable comments by people and reframed them as imaginary attacks or vile positions
So have I. In fact, he’s done it again just today, completely misrepresenting a tweet of Chuck Wendig’s.
JDA’s tweet here: https://twitter.com/jondelarroz/status/954968841796313088
(The FIRST comment notes that Wendig wasn’t the one who did this, but Jon hasn’t removed the tweet or corrected it. Also note Jon tagged the Secret Service, for frak’s sake. Maybe that’s not technically Swatting, but it’s dancing right up to the edge, isn’t it?)
For full context, here is Chuck Wendig’s entire thread: https://twitter.com/ChuckWendig/status/954899605468139521
This is the kind of shit he pulls. And you defend him. Come on.
Arifel: The end of book 2, The Gate to Futures Past, pulled the rug from under my feet in terms of what I thought the series was about, which has given me a lot to think about. It was also deeply unsatisfying, but I assume that’s why there’s another book to read!
I just finished Reunification #3. For some reason, I didn’t find this trilogy as enjoyable as the previous two trilogies in that series. This might be because I got to read the first 6 books as a continuous story, but read each of the last 3 after a gap of at least a year following the previous book.
I wish I could be more articulate about why I didn’t enjoy them as much. I think part of it is that the worldbuilding from the first two books is so extensive and that the last 3 books describe things with the underlying assumption that the reader has read — and remembers — everything that has happened in previous books, and thus the narrative takes shortcuts. I found myself on numerous occasions saying “wait, what”, and going back to read a passage once or twice again and still not feeling that it made complete sense.
Nevertheless, I think that you’ll find the ending of To Guard Against the Dark a satisfying one.
JJ wrote, “But I don’t understand how you can feel the way you do”
I can appreciate and respect that.
Which is why I have endeavored to express where I’m coming from. Where a lot of folks are coming from.
Question, or at least food for thought: is it possible, just possible, that you’re being a teensy bit close-minded? Can you accept that objectively smart and otherwise reasonable people do legitimately believe that political differences have played a part in a lot of the community controversies? (I’m referring to Jon here, but also things like Vox Day, and the Resnick/Malzberg issue of the Bulletin. I would even include Sad Puppies in this, not as being SFWA specific, of course, but as ultimately blossoming from the same root and leaf.)
There have been a lot of insults typed, and they’ve come from both right and left fingers. I acknowledge the insults that have come from the right. I ask that the insults that have come from the left be acknowledged in return.
None of this has happened in a vacuum. And it keeps happening, and while I don’t have a polished crystal ball, I suspect that it will continue to happen.
One thing that doesn’t help, in my opinion, is stewing on separate sides of the internet and drawing lines between popular blogs. It’s been suggested that I should be banned for expressing my opinion here. That sort of makes my point for me. If I’m banned, it will be said that I’ve been banned for trolling the sealion, but anyone with a pair of eyes and a pumping heart should be able to understand that I am sincere.
I recognize that some of you believe I am a “shitty” person. For the record, I spend my time either volunteering in a homeless shelter, or sleeping in one.
SF and Fantasy is important to me. It keeps me going when I’d rather not think about other things.
Mostly, I have a spot outside of a hotel, against the back wall, that I frequent, and I use the free wifi from that spot (which is where I am now). Since I don’t have a lot of time online, I spend it on things I believe are important. I believe this is important.
Commenter, I knew Jerry Pournelle. I fought like a rabid badger with Jerry Pournelle. Jerry Pournelle was a dear enemy of mine.
Arroz, you’re no Jerry Pournelle.
@JJ I do think To Guard against the Dark and that entire capstone trilogy has a lot of juggling to try and bring resolutiion to her entire Clan verse. Its not easy. I still enjoyed it to see characters and locations one more time. (I’d love to eat at Claws and Jaws…)
Jo: I recognize that some of you believe I am a “shitty” person. For the record, I spend my time either volunteering in a homeless shelter, or sleeping in one.
I am sorry for your situation, but I don’t understand how this is supposed to mitigate your ardent defenses of JDA’s appalling, horrendous, harassing behavior.
I don’t know if anyone else has noted this, but there’s an interesting paradox here. Making decisions based on “not giving an asshole what he wants” IS giving him what he wants – control over you. When dealing with assholes, the best approach is to make the decision that’s best for you and any other people involved, without reference to what the asshole might think about it.
@Wombat — as I said, Pournelle is a legend. I don’t believe anyone is claiming to be Jerry Pournelle, may he rest in peace.
If you are making the assertion (as others have made) that I am Jon Del Arroz in disguise, I am not. Jon Del Arroz is a professional author of speculative fiction. Just as you claim he is no Jerry Pournelle, I must declare that I am no Jon Del Arroz.
I practically taught myself to read and write, and my education came to an end after the ninth grade. In no world, in no timeline, in no grand imagination, do I qualify as someone who could be mistaken for a professional author.
@JJ — my point is simple. Not everyone who disagrees with you is evil. Part of understanding the depth and dimension of the world is practicing empathy. Learning to understand where other folks are coming from.
@JJ Yes, I’m pleased to be reading them all together (and immediately after Stratification), and even then there are probably details passing me by from the original trilogy. I’m also glad I read them in publication order, rather than chronological (Czerneda’s website hints that she prefers the latter) because the problems faced in Reunification so far seem MUCH closer to Stratification – “how does this species carve out a niche in an actively hostile world/galaxy” – than to the “how does this species stop breeding itself into extinction” problem that is a central focus in the Trade Pact Trilogy. Indeed, the second question seems to get dropped in a way which makes sense in-universe, but isn’t terribly satisfying from the perspective of a reader who read three books last year following that unanswered mystery and doesn’t view “OK but can we just escape this genocide before we think about any more couples and babies” as a solution, exactly…
I should read To Guard Against the Dark before making any further proclamations about series themes though. Glad to hear it’s going somewhere more satisfying!
I’m reading I Shall Wear Midnight by Pratchett. The first few chapters badly needed an editor.
Jo: my point is simple. Not everyone who disagrees with you is evil. Part of understanding the depth and dimension of the world is practicing empathy. Learning to understand where other folks are coming from.
I never said anything about whether you were evil. I said that you do not argue in good faith, because your arguments are disingenuous and dishonest. While I certainly feel empathy for your living situation, I am unable to feel any empathy whatsoever for your ardent defenses of JDA’s appalling, horrendous, harassing behavior — and I don’t consider that a character flaw on my part.
@Jo …okay, think you might have missed the reference on that one.
(Oh god, someone tell me that I’m not getting old and other people still know the “You’re no Jack Kennedy” speech. Please. Anyone.)
I just finished the latest Expanse novel, Persepolis Rising. It takes place 30+ years after all the previous books, and while it still includes the members of “the gang” — older but possibly only slightly wiser 😉 — it is standalone enough and self-explanatory enough that it would be a good entry point for someone who would like to try the series (but then, Leviathan Wakes is a good entry point as well, with a satisfying ending for those who don’t wish to continue the series).
Jo, please address this, from JJ:
“I’ve seen the way JDA has, on many occasions, twisted reasonable comments by people and reframed them as imaginary attacks or vile positions (he’s done it to me more than once; here’s an example). I find it unfathomable that you defend this as acceptable behavior.”
Here’s the link to JDA’s lying:
https://twitter.com/jondelarroz/status/938165224367984640
What is your defense? He claims to be Christian. How is that Christian?
RedWombat; Oh god, someone tell me that I’m not getting old and other people still know the “You’re no Jack Kennedy” speech. Please. Anyone.
You’re old. But if it’s any consolation, so am I. 😀
Commenter, I knew Jerry Pournelle.
I also knew Dr Jerry. He was a wonderful raconteur, and I miss him, even if he was helluva loud a lot of the time.
JdA ain’t even close to that level.
@Jo–
I think you need to reread your own words, and think about them.
You keep telling us that we are lying when we say our objections to JDA are about his behavior, not his opinions. This is false. It really is his shitty, malicious harassment of people who have done nothing except express opinions he disagrees with or object to his harassment of other people that causes people to dislike him, and to conclude that his membership in organisations intended either to serve professional purposes or to be fun & social, is undesirable and inappropriate.
What insults are you acknowledging? Specifically, no handwaving. Because so far, I haven’t seen you concede that anything said about anyone who doesn’t warmly embrace JDA might be false or insulting.
can you accept that objectively smart and otherwise reasonable people do legitimately believe that political differences have played a part in a lot of the community controversies?
Having seen them played out in real time, no. Anyone who thinks “politics” was the reason for the differences is entirely full of crap.
BravoLimaPoppa3 on January 21, 2018 at 5:22 pm said:
Time to find the killfile.
This one is for Firefox; it will hide comments by a given username:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/blog-killfile/?src=api
It’s especially useful for Disqus, but it works for me here, also.
Arifel – that was me.
@RedWombat–
You are old, JJ is old, and I am old. That’s why we remember too many previous iterations of Jo in too many different circumstances to have any patience with the current manifestation, who thinks they’re original and clever.
Books – I got the first of the “Star Trek: Discovery” tie-ins, and it isn’t bad. Not sure I buy a 9-million-year-old-and-still-functioning alien ship, but Not My Problem.
(Note: I haven’t seen any of the show.)
@RedWombat — I know the reference. I believe my response is fitting. In other words, there is no Dan Quayle to your Lloyd Bentsen.
@kathodus — the implication is that if JJ doesn’t believe the victim then JJ must not care about the acts that victimized the victim.
As in, “oh no, my grandmother fell down and broke her hip!”
Followed by a response that says, “he’s insisting that his grandma fell down and broke her hip, eyeroll.”
It’s just kind of rude and dismissive. No victim likes to be treated to an eyeroll.
Now, you could argue that Jon’s twisting words here and not reacting emotionally. I suppose it’s possible. If that’s the case, then I’d suggest that Jon is sick of trying to engage in fair conversation. And if Jon is sick of engaging in fair conversation, I imagine it might have something to do with being sincere once upon a time and then getting nothing in return but accusations that he’s a:
1. troll,
2. sealion, and/or
3. a “shitty” person.
See? The problem is folks stop listening. Instead, they often spend their time arguing against imagined enemies. Hence the absolute certainty that someone is a troll, a sealion, or a “shitty” person.
When that happens, conversation breaks down completely. Suddenly, sides are talking past one another. No one is spending any energy trying to understand or empathize or actually truly engage.
I hope that answers your question.
ETA: @Lis Carey — you are mistaken. I do not think I am original or clever.
Then a simple thing Jo: name the last three books you enjoyed and why.
I’ll start.
A Matter of Oaths by Helen Wright. Got this one from the local library’s ILL on the strength of suggestions here. I haven’t finished it and as soon as I can I’ll check it out again. Interesting and very much classic space opera. I like the characters, but not sure I like the world building. Time will tell.
The Rising by Ian Tregillis. The concluding volume of the Alchemy Wars. Pretty neat – robot uprising in an alternate history where alchemy, clockwork and chemistry are the dominant technologies and reach their peak in the Clackers, clockwork robot slaves of the Dutch. Fairly thoughtful, neat concepts and decent characterization. I wish we’d gotten more of Queen Mab, but I’ll live. I’d be interested to see what comes after, but always leave them wanting more. I recommend the series.
The Twisted Path by Harry Connolly. Just a novella, but short and to the point. I like Ray and enjoyed him being cleverer than the Society, but I’m not entirely sure I buy it. I’ll forgive it though. Another series I’ll recommend. I also love his A Key, An Egg and an Unfortunate Remark.
The Gates of Tagmeth by PC Hodgell. Here Jame has to build something despite being a personification of destruction. This was fun. I’d have liked to had more settlement building and less conflict, but still a nice piece of work.
The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemison. Big ideas. Grand vision. She makes you care and then brings conflict between the ones you care about. She takes Bujold’s guide of what’s the worst I can do to the character and runs with it. She also literally builds a civilization on the bodies of its victims… Chilling, thoughtful and a good read.
All These Worlds by Dennis E. Taylor. Fairly hard SF with a transhuman component (uploads) and a lot of adventure and snark. Also surprisingly lighthearted despite taking place in a post-nuclear war setting. Another series I recommend to those interested.
Whoops! Ran over the limit. But you get the idea.
P J Evans, or anybody: Is there one that works for Safari?
Jo: the implication is that if JJ doesn’t believe the victim then JJ must not care about the acts that victimized the victim.
No, the implication is that JJ doesn’t believe that Filers did this and that JDA is falsely blaming Filers for things he claimed to have happened.
And we now know that
1) the supposed “doxxer” was JDA himself, who on several occasions posted about his child’s medical condition on Twitter and talked about it on a Periscope video, then when a commenter mentioned it, he went ballistic and accused them of “doxxing his children’s medical records”. So he lied, and tried to blame it on Filers.
2) the so-called anonymous and “threatening” packages he received were actually one prank anonymous package of penis-shaped confetti glitter. It was most likely sent to him by a disgruntled former friend (several of which have called him out on Twitter and his blog) — someone who actually had JDA’s home address. The accusation that a Filer sent it to him is a lie.
But it is indeed very telling that you are pulling the same dishonest twisting my words thing that he did.
Jo: I’m pretty sure there’s a Dan Quayle out and about, if not in the current room. But let’s not get too far down that road, or we’ll end up talking potatoes, and I am notoriously immoderate on the subject of potatoes.
THE RULZ:
1) No mentioning potatoes.
2) No mentioning corn.
3) No mentioning tomatoes.
4) Chicken videos are okay.
@Jo
Did you look at the links I provided?
Again, this is a DELIBERATE misrepresentation. Anyone could see that the implication JDA was trying to put forth is not what Chuck Wendig said. Again, this is part of a conversation that did not mention JDA at all. Why, then, is JDA trying to cast Wendig as a “threat” and tagging the Secret Service?
Answer me, please, and address the questions I have asked.
@Jo,
IIRC, the last time you participated in a discussion here, you compared people complaining about Jon calling for volunteers from the internet at large to troll SJW authors to whiny children who should just suck it up. This to me did not seem to be any kind of acknowledgement that Jon did anything wrong (as you now say you DID acknowledge), nor did it seem the exquisitely polite presentation you now say it was. To me it came off rudely dismissive of people who objected to JdA’s behavior (and also unduly dismissive to bullied children, just BTW).
You’re coming off somewhat better right now, and I do sympathize with your situation, but unless you come up with evidence that Pournelle got his jollies enlisting followers into sending rude and harassing letters and phone calls persistently until sent lawyer’s cease-and-desist letters, you are not going to convince anyone that Jon is his modern-day equivalent being martyred by his unfair exclusion.
I practically taught myself to read and write, and my education came to an end after the ninth grade.
That would explain why your analysis is so very juvenile.
Not everyone who disagrees with you is evil. Part of understanding the depth and dimension of the world is practicing empathy. Learning to understand where other folks are coming from.
We understand where you are coming from. That’s why we reject it. You might want to evaluate why so many people so much more intimately familiar with the subject you are trying to opine upon find your commentary to be meaningless drivel.
BravoLimaPoppa3:
The Rising by Ian Tregillis
I really liked the first two books in the series — I was actually blown away by the first one — but I stalled on this one. I don’t know if it was my “reading temperament” at the time, too much time since I read the second book, or what. It came due when I was only half-done so I took it back to the library. Sadly, I haven’t felt any urge to get it back and finish it.
A Key, An Egg and an Unfortunate Remark by Harry Connolly
I got that novella on the recommendation of a couple of other Filers, and loved it. I’d like to read more in that universe.
The Gates of Tagmeth by PC Hodgell
I really enjoyed the building aspect of this as well. I thought it was a solid entry in the series, but it definitely doesn’t stand alone.
@Kip : This one used to work on Safari
https://jamoche.dreamwidth.org/10115.html
But it doesn’t seem to work now; maybe someone can help fix it.
JJ,
With The Liberation I lucked out and was able to get the e book for The Rising that I re-read/skimmed before tackling The Liberation.
The Gates of Tagmeth by PC Hodgell
Agreed. But the books haven’t really stood on their own in while have they? It’s the peril of every series, but I’ll keep reading the Kencyrath chronicles because I really want to see how Jame, Tori and Kindrie resolve all this mess. And I want Tori and Kindrie to stop acting like idiots and talk to each other and Jame dammit!
The Chrome Killfile extension works here too.
@RedWombat: You’re not getting older any faster than I am, but I know the “You’re no Jack Kennedy” speech and your riff on it was mighty fine. 🙂
@Various: I just finished D. Nolan Clark’s Forsaken Skies (The Silence #1 of 3) the other day and it was great! I stayed up late many nights reading it! I look forward to picking up #2 and #3, though not today – other things in my queue I need to read, but I’ll be getting back to this series soon, I hope. A lot of space battle action, which I’m surprised engaged me, rather than boring me. I figured out a couple of things in the book before revealed, but one reveal surprised the hell outta me (especially since I was expecting a reveal, but a different reveal). Whee! I still ended up finding the YAish characters a little eye-rolling, but their arc worked better for me by the end of the book.
Anyway, overall super-highly-recommended if you like SF with invasions, space battles, intriguing and flawed characters, some cool tech, etc. I guess since several characters are current or ex military, you could call it MilSF, but that’s not really how I’d classify it. Plus there’s no military there except the tiny rag-tag group defending the colonists who’re being invaded. It’s described as space opera, but I don’t know if that’s right. “A thrilling space opera about a small band of pilots and their fight against a seemingly unstoppable invasion.” But I get my SF sub-genres mixed up.
One of the next things in my queue is a book by a good friend, published by a mini? micro? publisher recently.
BTW why is there a deluge of comments? Oh, Jo is back!
@BravoLimaPoppa3: “killfile”
Oh yes, thanks for reminding me.
Jo: […same old sea lioning…]
*Plonk*
That’s b6e9f407e84bafead2b0e4f248703265 for those who’re using the plonk script from way back when. Save your time – plonk a troll!
@Kip W & @Jamoche: I use the style sheet method in Safari from Jamoche’s instructions. It works for me even now, but I wrote my own CSS; maybe there’s some slight change to the HTML in the blog that made Aan’s CSS stop working?
Kip, as Jamoche’s instructions say, create a file named with a .css extension (I call mine personal.css), then go to the Safari Menu > Preferences > Advanced window to select it. (I’m too lazy to do an extension, Jamoche, but I should do that.)
My variation blacks out trolls, but if I hover over their name, I can view their words, so it’s more flexible than Aan’s original CSS. Though that can be overly tempting at times! Anyway, Kip, I can e-mail you a copy of my file (stripped down to just the Gravatar ID above), if you’d like. Just let me know. (No need to post your address here.)
I wanted to love A Key, An Egg and an Unfortunate Remark but ended up just liking it. It was a different take on modern fantasy, and I really appreciated that, but by the time the end of the book rolled around I wanted to scream COULD YOU, FOR JUST ONCE, ANSWER THE #@$@!$% QUESTION? at Marley. Yes, I know being an evasive know-it-all is part of being a wizard, but she made Gandalf look like a motor-mouth in comparison.
I have nevertheless recommended it to others, on the theory that they might like what I liked without being so strongly affected by what I didin’t like.
BravoLimaPoppa3: With The Liberation I lucked out
Oops, you’re right, the book I stalled on (#3 in the series) was The Liberation.
Kendall: I just finished D. Nolan Clark’s Forsaken Skies (The Silence #1 of 3) the other day and it was great!
I’ve got that and Forgotten Worlds sitting here, but I just started Nick Harkaway’s Gnomon. However, it’s nearly 700 small-print pages, it seems as though the author may be overly fond of hearing himself write, and they’re all due February 1st, so if I have a tough time getting into it, I may switch. So thanks for the rousing endorsement!
@JJ: I forgot to mention, one event may have brought tears to my eyes, and books don’t do that to me, darn it. 😉
::shakes fist at Clark, who’s really horror writer David Wellington BTW::
ETA: I’m interested in whether you wind up enjoying Gnomon; I’ve never read Harkaway, but this one did catch my eye.
@ Cat Eldridge:
Yep.
@Jason:
Yes, and that is a serious concern.
Back when I was a SFWA member, another SFWA member to whom I had made it clear (or so I thought) that contact was completely unwelcome… used the SFWA directory to get my phone number and call me, as well as to get my home address and mail me something. This was in no way SFWA’s fault, obviously; it is, rather, an example of how easy it is for one SFWA member to access private info about another, regardless of the motive for doing so.
In my instance, I was upset, but the incident was annoying, not dangerous or threatening, and the individual in question never took it any further than that. I removed my phone number from the directory after that.
So if someone is prone to doxing people (or prone to threatening to do so), that’s would be a serious concern for SFWA (or any other organization with a private directory)–and a good reason to reject a m’ship application.
@Jo:
And yet here you are, on a blog for SF fandom, and you never talk about the SF and fantasy works that you pretend are important, but only repeatedly defend a confessed troll’s love of trolling.
Your first comment on this post was to sneeringly proclaim that the SFWA was a leftist organization. Empathy practiced: Zero. Partisan trolling: off the scale.
Hey, here’s some empathy for you to practice: People have sneered back at you because you sneer first! Are you even capable of understanding that it is your contempt that is being reflected?
Hey! SF that is/was important and all about empathy and redemption!
I found Spider Robinson’s Callahan stories to be something wonderful and mind-expanding when I was younger, and promoting empathy was an important part of them. I think Spider’s works were sometimes deeply problematic, and often became more so as time progressed, but he did have a way with provoking thought, and was often hilariously funny.
But for some reason, I find myself thinking of one particular early Callahan story.
The usual formula for the bar was something like: Unhappy person or misfit comes to the bar, eventually feels compelled by the welcoming atmosphere to explain what is/was bothering them to everyone at large, and is (usually) welcomed by the other patrons. There were exceptions to the formula which drove the plots of many of the stories, but the general way the bar itself worked was summed up by a hopeful little aphorism: Shared pain is lessened, shared joy is increased.
But in this one story, this guy comes in, and he’s an alien from outer space. And his species wanted to manipulate humans into exterminating themselves. And now that he experiences the shared selfless love that he feels in the bar, he confesses that he didn’t know humans were capable of that, and he regrets his former actions. And, oh yeah, he had been Adolf Hitler.
And Mike Callahan says Get out!
Callahan’s had no redemption for those who just felt bad about what they had done, when what they had done had been deliberate mass murder; for those who did not perform penance.
(some context: The other alien who had come to exterminate humanity had not actually killed anyone yet, had been able to abandon his course of action with Callahan’s aid, and had at this point in fact become a pig farmer.)
Hey, here’s another aphorism I’ve had running through my head recently: Can’t shake the devil’s hand and say you’re only kidding. — TMBG
Two days after christmas, I was told by my doctor that I had high blood pressure and might have to start taking pills for it. Which would affect my evaluation for ADHD and medication for that.
So I got into a bit of panic and started jogging every day – in front of my home movie screen. Which seemed a good time to test out a free Netflix subscription. So I have viewed:
The Flash: Was fun at the start, but I do bot have patience for slowly developing plotlines and people who can’t communicate. Lasted five episodes.
Castlvania: I do like Vampires and it was beautifully made, albeit a bit too macho. Saw whole first season.
Ash vs Evil Dead: I’m a huge fan of the evil dead movies and the TV-series fit well in. But a bit slower, more soapy and Ash is best when speaks less. Now he is a bit too irritating with his sexism. Still making up my mind.
Stranger Things: Oh yes, staying with this one. Good acting, directing, nostalgia and scary. And not that soapy, you feel you are getting somewhere, not just stomping around in one place. Very happy.
And my blood pressure is now on safe levels again.
Also: What is it with these trolls and sealions that pretend to like SFF, but spend all their time defending harassers? Who thinks an organization being attacked with unfounded pedophilia claims should think that would be a great reason to allow the abusive accuser into the organization?