225 thoughts on “Time for Comments 9/1”

  1. First?

    Ah, clean living. Plus an advantageous location far out to sea, where I remain awake to post as the continental USians fall into slumber…

  8. While you guys were cleaning upstairs, I’ve been down in the basement, and I found this Logic (under a dust sheet, behind the time machine). The sticker on the front says it’s named Joe. I think it’s some sort of prototype Google. I’m sure it could come up with a foolproof method of getting rid of shoggoths, but I don’t know whether to risk turning it on.

    It could do with a bit of a tidy up down here, too. There’s a shelf of unopened troll food which is covered in cobwebs, if anyone’s got a Dustbuster. The jars of spare fives could also do with a quick wipe down.

    There’s also a small mountain of book recommendations piled up in the corner which looks like it may collapse under its own weight at any minute – perhaps if I slide this tea chest of used brackets over in front of it, it may help. This box of assorted forehead cloths might also help prop it up. Now if I just move this crate of spare scroll titles over as well…

    Wait, what’s this in the floor? It looks like a trapdoor. There’s a sign on it: “Do not feed”. I’ll open it and take a look. Hmmm… some kind of dungeon, with manacles on the walls. And what’s this scratched into the wall: “The Hugos don’t need fixing, EPH sucks! – BZ” I thought we’d not heard from him in a while.

  9. A new month, a new set of UK Kindle monthly deals.
    Familiar/indifferent looking books in the SFF section to be honest. The only thing I’ve to far bought from the sale is Frances Hardinge’s The Lie Tree which looks less SFF than many of FH’s books, but lots of people rate her.
    Though, the remaining 66% of Obelisk Gate first.

  10. SciFiMike:

    As much as I thought he was an unredeemable troll, and as much as I appreciate the rest of your humor, I’m going to say… um, nah, not okay. 😐

  11. Vox-in-Socks has posted a sample of Wright’s new kid’s book on his blog in case anyone was, uh, on the fence about that one. There’s a talking dog in it who likes squirrels so that’s nice.

  12. NickPheas on September 1, 2016 at 2:03 am said:
    A new month, a new set of UK Kindle monthly deals.
    Familiar/indifferent looking books in the SFF section to be honest. The only thing I’ve to far bought from the sale is Frances Hardinge’s The Lie Tree which looks less SFF than many of FH’s books, but lots of people rate her.
    Though, the remaining 66% of Obelisk Gate first.

    Hmm… there’s a large proportion of Kindle Unlimited offerings amongst those so not an entirely enticing selection.

  13. Arifel: Vox-in-Socks has posted a sample of Wright’s new kid’s book on his blog in case anyone was, uh, on the fence about that one. There’s a talking dog in it who likes squirrels so that’s nice.

    Yay! I am sure that this means we will be receiving a review from Timothy the Talking Cat as soon as the work is published. Given the way that TtTC’s review did wonders for Declan Finn’s career, I am sure that JCW is shivering with antici…
     

     

     

     

     

     

  16. @Nickpheas et al. A Darker Shade of Magic is in here too, for anyone (like me) who has been looking for an excuse to pick that up.

  17. @JJ – Point taken. It was meant as a dig at trolls in general (BZ just being the most well known around these parts). Apologies to Brian or anyone else offended.

  19. Fair call on Darker Shade of Magic, I was including that in the familiar, since I think it turns up on sale every few months – I bought it in June last year, and it has been languishing in the TBR pile ever since.
    Are the Paper Magician books by Charlie Holmberg known to anyone? They too seem to be in every other Kindle sale, but the blub’s vaguely appealing.

  20. Arifel on September 1, 2016 at 2:17 am said:

    Vox-in-Socks has posted a sample of Wright’s new kid’s book on his blog in case anyone was, uh, on the fence about that one. There’s a talking dog in it who likes squirrels so that’s nice.

    Talking pets with a squirrel fixation? OK to be fair I stole Timothy from John C Wright in the first place…

  22. As an American I did a super-American thing and attended a professional game of rounders, our national pastime, in Philadelphia last night. It was Zombie Night, so there is a Nerd Tropes That Leave Jim Cold angle.

  23. Wait, what’s this in the floor? It looks like a trapdoor. There’s a sign on it: “Do not feed”. I’ll open it and take a look.

    Careful–that’s where RedWombat keeps the LOLWut pear!

  25. Ain’t got no shelves (Books!)
    Ain’t got no cons (Broke!)
    Ain’t got no scroll
    Ain’t got no pawns
    Ain’t got no Hugos (Rabid!)
    Ain’t got no pixels (Sad!)
    Ain’t got no comment
    Ain’t got no ticky (Edit!)
    Ain’t got no gods (Stalk!)

  27. So I’m reading a PDF of the February 4th 1937 issue of Madera Daily Tribune and Madera Mercury from Madera California (what? doesn’t everone?) and I stumble across Batman before Batman. (And man, is it annoying to google for “Flash” Miller with a guy named Ezra Miller cast for a The Flash movie and a Flash villan named Wentworth Miller.) There is even something that looks like the Virtue Bat Signal. (You have to scroll down a bit–it insists on including a radio programming schedule from above the Bat Man ad.)

    The same issue has a murder blamed on Nighthawk, which is interesting.

  28. I miss Mike Glyer 🙁

    In other news, I started reading the October 1961 Galaxy. Willy Ley’s article is on the ambitious land reclamation plans of the Netherlands. It is fun to be able to fast forward 55 years and see which ones came to be.

  30. @Darren Garrison: Not sure if you’re referencing it or not, but Nighthawk’s also the name of a Marvel tribute/knockoff version of Batman.

  31. Talking pets with a squirrel fixation? OK to be fair I stole Timothy from John C Wright in the first place…

    which to be fair was probably ‘borrowed’ from Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid series … featuring Oberon, a telepathic wolfhound who likes squirrels … and French Poodles … and bacon

  32. … a telepathic wolfhound who likes squirrels … and French Poodles … and bacon …

    which on second thought … liking French Poodles would probably be strongly disapproved of by JCW … so maybe not

  33. Sprog #2 needs help w/ homework!

    I’m in a stage combat class this semester, which is a ton of fun but is requiring me to find three scenes of unarmed combat that I could conceivably play (approximate age, probably gender, etc). Apart from Midsummer Night’s Dream, most of what I can come up with off the top of my head is armed. Any ideas?

    Age: college student. Gender: female, can cross-dress (tall, slim, wide shoulders). If there was *unarmed* combat in Hamlet, she could do it.

    Most of the women’s roles in unarmed combat she could find are heavily sexualized, which made her go ewww.

    I’m guessing this is a topic a lot of you have knowledge & Opinions about. Any suggestions? Of course she needs them by *tomorrow*, even though it’s the very start of the semester.

  34. Kip W: Well done, sir. In the late ’60s the original Hair Broadway cast album was often playing on the 8-track deck in our 1967 Pontiac station wagon. I was 12 or so; my folks had gone to NYC to see the show, and saw no reason not to expose me to the songs.

  35. @Doctor Science: Maybe River Tam vs. Fruity Oaty Bars from Serenity?

    Mostly unarmed; there are a couple of very incidental weapons.

    (Edited to add: Is it supposed to just be something she COULD play, given training & rehearsal time? Or something that she’d actually be trying to perform in class?)

  36. @Darren Garrison: I’ve been reading the Seattle Star one hundred years late.

    It’s often fascinating to see what grabs the front page.

    Here is a link for those interested.

  37. @ Doctor Science

    Sprog #2 needs help w/ homework!

    I’m in a stage combat class this semester, which is a ton of fun but is requiring me to find three scenes of unarmed combat that I could conceivably play (approximate age, probably gender, etc). Apart from Midsummer Night’s Dream, most of what I can come up with off the top of my head is armed. Any ideas?

    Age: college student. Gender: female, can cross-dress (tall, slim, wide shoulders). If there was *unarmed* combat in Hamlet, she could do it.

    It’s a damned shame that no one has done a play on the life of Mademoiselle de Maupin.

  38. I just finished Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation, which won a Nebula. It’s the first book in a trilogy. I didn’t like it much, but was going to power through the second book just to find out what the hell was going on. But I see lots of negative reviews on Goodreads by people who loved the first book.

    It boggles my mind that something that I like less and less the more I think about it won such a prestigious award. I didn’t notice the “gorgeous writing”, probably because I wasn’t invested in the characters and the measly plot moved at a glacial pace. And I can boil down the world-building to: it’s a very mysterious place that messes with people.

    My question is: is it worth suffering through the second book?

  41. @Dr Science — OK, yes, that complicates things quite a bit. Good luck! I’d be interested in hearing what she comes up with (over & above any suggestions that turn up in the comments here).

    @Ita — Myself, I liked the entire trilogy, but if you weren’t a fan of the first one, I’m not sure if I’d recommend proceeding.

    Having said that, the second & third books are very different in tone & setting to the first one; the second one takes place pretty much entirely within the offices of the vague yet menacing government that’s sending the expeditions as seen in the first book, for example.

  43. > “I’m in a stage combat class this semester, which is a ton of fun but is requiring me to find three scenes of unarmed combat that I could conceivably play …”

    Hmm, just from Shakespeare, aside from the Midsummer Night’s Dream sequence already mentioned, I recall Petruchio smacking Kate around on their wedding night in Taming of the Shrew, and Othello strangling Desdemona to death in Othello. I’ll try to think of some non-Shakespeare ones, too …

  46. Ita, I found the Annihilation trilogy… meh. I did read the whole thing. Other people’s mileage varied, obviously, but I just didn’t think the payoff at the end was that spectacular. And neither was the trip to get there. (There have certainly been some books where the journey is more compelling than the destination, as it were. Which is to say, they’re worth reading for the beauty of the writing. “Prester John” novels by Valente, I’m looking at you…)

    I did finish it, but if you found the first book “meh”, you’ll probably be like me and find the rest of it “meh” as well.

  47. Edited response — I’d thought of the plays of Sarah Kane for unarmed combat, but on preview abuse won’t count and that’s pretty much what they are. They require a strong stomach to read anyway …

  49. OK, how about Ubu Roi, Act V scene ii? The end of Act V scene i probably hews closer to abuse than is preferable, but scene ii starts with Ma Ubu and Pa Ubu beating up the Entire Polish Army with their fists, and vice-versa.

  50. Hope everyone going to DragonCon has a safe and fun weekend, despite the tropical storm heading that way with bucketloads of rain.

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