SF & F Mega-thread: I had to google 'spock pirate depilatory'

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RDM: Apr 6, 2009; I LOVE FINLAND AND ESPECIALLY FINLAND'S MILITARY ALLIANCES, GOOGLE FINLAND WORLD WAR 2 FOR MORE INFORMATION SLAVA UKRANI

MockingQuantum posted:

By all accounts, Butcher has gotten very well deserved amounts of poo poo for how completely inaccurate his depictions of Chicago are for the first handful of books (which tbf, he has acknowledged). For all I know they get better in that regard but the setting always has a bit of a "I saw this in a guidebook" feel imo.

The more recent books have been better about actually being Chicago and I don't remember the older ones very well. Least realistic part of his chicago has always been CPD not being dogshit tbh.

Nothing touches The City We Became for having a city be a tangible and incredibly recognizable part of the storyline though.

# ? Jan 17, 2024 19:36

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# ? May 29, 2024 08:32

PeterWeller: Apr 21, 2003; I told you that story so I could tell you this one.

VostokProgram posted:

and then The Dispossessed after LHOD, and while you're here can I get you to read the short story "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas"

Just get the American Library collection of Le Guin's Hainish stories and read all of them.

# ? Jan 17, 2024 20:36

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

I want to read a really long essay analyzing the regul from Cherryh's Faded Sun trilogy. The juxtaposition of a species that remembers everything, is full of malice and cowardice, and how it intersects with its children and aliens and just, gahhh. I'm rereading this trilogy again and basking in the absolutely wild psychology on display.

# ? Jan 17, 2024 21:04

pradmer: Mar 31, 2009; Follow me for more books on special!

Witch World: High Hallack Cycle #1-5 by Andre Norton - $4.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GQLD8TX/

# ? Jan 17, 2024 23:23

Jimbozig: Sep 30, 2003; I like sharing and ice cream and animals.

Gaius Marius posted:

the ReReading Wolfe podcast

I just went to check this out and they have been releasing biweekly 2+ hour episodes for 4 years, and have just hit the third book.

It's hard for me to imagine wanting to listen to over 1000 hours about BotNS (and waiting 6 more years for the opportunity). But if that sounds good to anyone in this thread, go check them out!

# ? Jan 17, 2024 23:58

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

StrixNebulosa posted:

I want to read a really long essay analyzing the regul from Cherryh's Faded Sun trilogy. The juxtaposition of a species that remembers everything, is full of malice and cowardice, and how it intersects with its children and aliens and just, gahhh. I'm rereading this trilogy again and basking in the absolutely wild psychology on display.

My favourite cherryh aliens are the Kif, just a great plausible alien psychology of a 'villain' race that doesn't make them any less villainous but lets you understand them.

# ? Jan 18, 2024 00:06

Gaius Marius: Oct 9, 2012

Jimbozig posted:

I just went to check this out and they have been releasing biweekly 2+ hour episodes for 4 years, and have just hit the third book.

It's hard for me to imagine wanting to listen to over 1000 hours about BotNS (and waiting 6 more years for the opportunity). But if that sounds good to anyone in this thread, go check them out!

Their episodes on the Play are nearly 12 and a half hours long combined.

That said the pod does a lot of work to include the greater community so much of the time is spent talking about people commenting on the work who otherwise wouldn't have any greater platform than dashed off single posts.

# ? Jan 18, 2024 00:13

Lead out in cuffs: Sep 18, 2012; "That's right. We've evolved."

"I can see that. Cool mutations."

GhastlyBizness posted:

You could try Joanna Kavenna's A Field Guide to Reality. Fantasy in the sense that Alice in Wonderland is fantasy. It�s set in Oxford and while there�s tons of other books that also depict the city, probably accurately in terms of landmarks and roads, Kavenna does that with a real feel for the place.

Not the tourist-facing �dreaming spires� image but the real, damp, pretty shabby town with its slightly tense mix of people and odd jumbled geography, particularly in how the rural and the urban are deeply intertwined. Only book that, to me, accurately reflected living in Oxford as someone who isn�t a student or academic. Kavenna got it.

Ooh. I've lived in Oxford (well Islip) for a good four months as a not-student, not-academic. Will add this to the list.

# ? Jan 18, 2024 00:25

shrike82: Jun 11, 2005

Halfway through the latest Alastair Reynolds Prefect book, Machine Vendetta - I'm finding it a better read than the second.
I still think it's a missed opportunity for him not to paint a more vivid picture of the height of the Glitter Band/Stoner culture - his descriptions of the habitats that are the backdrop are quite muted

Man, also looked up the publication date of Revelation Space - 2000. I remember reading it in high school and thinking of this as being cutting edge hard science fiction

shrike82 fucked around with this message at 02:09 on Jan 18, 2024

# ? Jan 18, 2024 02:05

fritz: Jul 26, 2003

sebmojo posted:

My favourite cherryh aliens are the Kif, just a great plausible alien psychology of a 'villain' race that doesn't make them any less villainous but lets you understand them.

I always liked the Tc'a and how they talked in two dimensions.

# ? Jan 18, 2024 03:23

fez_machine: Nov 27, 2004

Anthologist Rich Horton commemorates Terry Bisson, Howard Waldrop and Tom Purdom's work:
https://www.blackgate.com/2024/01/1...tripartite-obi/

# ? Jan 18, 2024 03:58

GhastlyBizness: Sep 10, 2016; seashells by the sea shorpheus

Lead out in cuffs posted:

Ooh. I've lived in Oxford (well Islip) for a good four months as a not-student, not-academic. Will add this to the list.

Nice! Tbh it might hit even better then, for like Islip and Kidlington area. It perfectly captures the vacillation between �this is a charming and even magical place to live (summer)� and �I fukkin hate this smug damp shithole (winter)�.

# ? Jan 18, 2024 08:51

Kesper North: Nov 3, 2011; EMERGENCY POWER TO PARTY

shrike82 posted:

Halfway through the latest Alastair Reynolds Prefect book, Machine Vendetta - I'm finding it a better read than the second.
I still think it's a missed opportunity for him not to paint a more vivid picture of the height of the Glitter Band/Stoner culture - his descriptions of the habitats that are the backdrop are quite muted

Man, also looked up the publication date of Revelation Space - 2000. I remember reading it in high school and thinking of this as being cutting edge hard science fiction

He needs sharpening, said the Clockmaker

# ? Jan 18, 2024 11:12

monochromagic: Jun 17, 2023

What's a good introduction to Cherryh's work?

# ? Jan 18, 2024 16:50

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

monochromagic posted:

What's a good introduction to Cherryh's work?

Pride of Chanur is the best fast intro, brb getting my effort post

# ? Jan 18, 2024 16:53

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

StrixNebulosa posted:

The Cherryh fangirl has logged on

Her best entry points:

- Pride of Chanur Standalone, alien pov, 200~ pages. A crew of merchant lion aliens find a stowaway human and have to play politics to keep him out of other alien hands. One of her best imo. It has a sequel trilogy and that has a comedy/lighter-n-softer sequel. Only vaguely related to her main universe.

- Merchanter's Luck Standalone, humans, short. Focused on a pilot trying to impress a girl, kind of - it's darker, I remember the main character dealing with past trauma. This one is a great introduction to her primary universe, the Alliance-Union universe as it shows off characters and the setting of Downbelow Station.

Her Alliance-Union universe: hard sci-fi except for the FTL, which is based around the concept that the ships can go FTL, but if humans go into it without drugs, they'll see visions and usually die or go insane.

- Downbelow Station isn't as good as the rewards would have you believe, sadly, but it's still a fascinating book. It's about a space station caught between two sides of the war, taking in refugees and risking riots, and the multiple povs are people caught up in trying to make this stuff not explode into firey death. Unfortunately it has aliens and they're the planetside primitives, and Cherryh wrote them... poorly. Which sucks as aliens are usually her strong point! But not here. Here the aliens are noble savages.

- Cyteen is her best work, bar none. It's a giant novel that was split up into three parts for publication. It's super heavy and complicated, and I need to warn for slavery, rape, abuse, and similar triggers. It starts slow and weird, setting up the world: the colonized planet that's been ruled by a super-genius lady. Yes, there's a council, but she's been a heavy player for so long that when she's murdered, it upsets everything. Her family sets out to clone her and raise the clone to be her best heir... but things get complicated. There's a fascinating gay romance tucked into it, and lots of questions about what makes someone human.

- Regensis is Cyteen's sequel and while I loved it, it's not going to take you to the heights of Cyteen. It's honestly the author going "hey I'd like to see these characters again, see what they're up to" and doing just that without really expanding the concepts. More of a comfort-food sequel than a mind-expanding one.

- Rimrunners is about a soldier who's lost and literally starving for food and work at the beginning, and gets picked up by a ship that's not trustworthy or friendly. I haven't finished this one as it's so bleak, but I keep meaning to come back to it.

- Heavy Time / Hellburners is... they're prequels to the whole setting, and start about mining and wind up in military sci-fi territory, and I need to give them a better read than I did.

- Finity's End is about a teenager finding a home in a spaceship and also there's a lot of worldbuilding in the Alliance side of the universe. This one works better as a vague sequel to Downbelow Station I think? I remember enjoying it a lot.

- I don't remember Tripoint, sorry. And I haven't read Serpent's Reach, though I understand it's only vaguely, VAGUELY connected to this universe as it's set many millions of years away on a planet where the local humans coexist with the local bug aliens. The A-U universe rarely features aliens!

- Forty Thousand in Gehenna is another one of her great works. One faction dropped a colony ship on a planet and supported it while they built a colony and used their clone-people to help, and then the war shifted and they were abandoned. Cue the colony disintegrating and the genre shifting as it follows generations into a kind of fantasy story, as the offspring of the colony become kind of... bonded? With the local weird lizards, and it gets weird and cool.

Foreigner Series

- Foreigner is a series set up in trios.

The concept is that a human colony ship got lost on its way to its destination, and through a string of events it drops colonists on an alien planet and they settle and make peace, then war with the natives, and we enter the story centuries later. The humans live on a humans-only continent and interact with the aliens through a diplomat-translator who lives with the aliens. His name is Bren, and he will be your pov character for the next 20+ books.

The first trilogy is about Bren learning about the aliens and their politics and a major upheaval happening and spoilers spoilers spoilers

The second continues this, and I'll be blunt: consider the series finished at book 6. Books 1-6 are a closed story that's really fascinating and fun. Books 7+ are the author going "hey this is fun, can I keep going?" and she does. A new pov character enters, the author goes hard on delving into the alien society and really exploring it, and it becomes weirdly court intrigue cozy sci-fi with occasional adventures. I love it deeply but it slows down and becomes a relaxed adventure instead of the nail-biter it was before.

I've reread the whole thing at least twice and will do it a third time, don't tempt me.

Her Other Works

- Fortress in the Eye of Time is epic fantasy, and I adore it. A mage tries to summon back an ancient elf-lord-mage and fails... and succeeds. He gets a blank slate named Tristen instead, a boy who loves birds and doesn't understand anything. An evil mage destroys the mage, and Tristen is rudely forced to head out and grow up. The other protagonist is the young prince who quickly becomes an unready king, and this is one of my favorite depictions of medieval kingship in fantasy: he has to bargain and deal with the twin forces of the church (who hate elves) and his many lords, who are so eager to throw his authority aside.

The first book ends in a final battle against an ancient evil, but then the sequels are about the fallout and development of everyone in the universe. It's fascinating, and kind of feels like a prototype Foreigner in that the author relaxes and goes to explore the universe instead of sticking to a focused story.

- The rest of them. They're going to vary from utter dogshit (Hestia) to fuckin' weird (Voyager in Night) to stuff I'm already regretting not writing up (Faded Sun Trilogy). And the Morgaine series, which was her first work and I admit it, I didn't like it.

Reading Cherryh is one of my favorite things to do as the books are almost always interesting, they're ALWAYS tense and uncomfortable (she's really good at making you feel a character's misery) and she nails aliens unlike any other author. Absolutely understands how to make them weird in believable ways. I wish to god she'd write more of them instead of sticking to A-U and its mostly alien-free setting.

Rereading Faded Sun Trilogy right now I love it so much aaaa

# ? Jan 18, 2024 16:55

monochromagic: Jun 17, 2023

Thank you Strix! Updating my TBR immediately.

# ? Jan 18, 2024 17:06

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

T-t-t-t-t-triple post combo!

So something to know if you're reading CJ Cherryh is that she can be broadly defined as having three "eras" in her writing, based on when she wrote it.

Era 1: Shorter books, more of a focus on misery, tense and tight and bitter. e.g. her Morgaine trilogy, Faded Sun, Serpent's Reach. (70s-early 80s)

Era 2: Less focus on misery, longer works. imho her best work in here, in the 80s-90s where she's doing Cyteen, 40k in Gehenna, Chanur, Paladin, etc etc.

Era 3: In 2000~ she swaps over to writing the Foreigner series fulltime and her other works seem to become less frequent and more... baggy? Relaxed? Plots shift from exploring concepts to exploring worlds, for better or for worse, as shown in the 20+ books of exploring the Foreigner universe.

It's fascinating reading through her dozens and dozens of novels and seeing her evolve in style and content. She's still, always focused on sci-fi and alien psychology, but there's less of a trend of putting the main characters through relentless misery.

I put Pride of Chanur as the best entry point because it's short, fantastic, and shows her strengths and weaknesses, imho. If you like it there's a lot more. If you don't, get out now.

(ps I promise to explain what Faded Sun is sometime today, need to run but I have so many words about my favorite author)

# ? Jan 18, 2024 17:07

Ben Nevis: Jan 20, 2011

VostokProgram posted:

Can I get some book recommendations that are SF/F but in the real world? For example, an urban fantasy where the author specifically sets it in say '70s Chicago and it's clear that the characters are truly in that city, they talk the way locals would, geography matches, it just all feels like it is actually happening in that place and time.

Don't know how easy they are to find, but the Sean Stewart books for Houston. Mockingbird and Perfect Circle really nail the feel. Galveston is very true to Galveston, though set in a magical future.

# ? Jan 18, 2024 17:29

Selachian: Oct 9, 2012

By the way, for those curious about Pratchett, there's a Discworld book bundle running that's a pretty good deal (39 books for $18).

# ? Jan 18, 2024 18:30

Zorak of Michigan: Jun 10, 2006

I'm going to stick up a little bit for Downbelow Station; while I agree that the aliens are not especially interesting, I think it's impacting to have some of the best and worst of humanity rendered so clearly and then contrasted with the noble savages who are so clearly innocent bystanders in all this bullshit.

I love Alliance / Union in general because while it doesn't really hold up as future history (trade good sent between colonies using STL ships? I just can't buy it.), it's a setting that makes it very easy to make a particular character the avatar of a political / economic trend, and then make the conflict between such forces and trends more interesting because every side has a face, something they care about, and a vision for their future.

# ? Jan 18, 2024 19:42

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

StrixNebulosa posted:

Pride of Chanur is the best fast intro, brb getting my effort post

Yeah, this. The Morgaine trilogy is also very good, it's fantasy but the titular character is actually a sci fi person with a laser and a cool/horrifying science black hole sword.

Reading up I see strix isn't a fan, so I'll have to stick up for them: they are basically a very very slow love story, but set in the grittiest most emotionally tortured environment with a propulsive narrative through line.

Morgaine is a great character, and just like elric her sword is essentially a metaphor for her, an entrancingly beautiful but ultimately deadly entity with a singular purpose. Our pov character is a fantasy warrior guy who is extremely well drawn and we follow him as we follow her; the books are essentially the story of them doing what they can because they must, to invert the portal song (appropriately enough, as her purpose is to close time/space gates to stop the universe collapsing). The trilogy has an icy sense of majesty because of that high purpose but is also intensely human and full of hard decisions made under pressure. It's not a light read but it's enormously enjoyable.

# ? Jan 18, 2024 20:11

HopperUK: Apr 29, 2007; Why would an ambulance be leaving the hospital?

Finity's End was the first Cherryh I read and I think it's a good intro because it's about a young man being introduced to shipboard life. It's great.

# ? Jan 18, 2024 20:40

Ceebees: Nov 2, 2011; I'm intentionally being as verbose as possible in negotiations for my own amusement.

I'm going to go back to kicking Downbelow - I've read a good dozen Cherry books, and Downbelow is the only one I simply did not enjoy. Even apart from the uncharacteristically flat aliens, the plot is plodding and predictable. Strong recommend that you start absolutely anywhere else.

# ? Jan 18, 2024 23:16

pradmer: Mar 31, 2009; Follow me for more books on special!

Tales of Pirx the Pilot by Stanislaw Lem - $2.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0077FC55Y/

Sister Emily's Lightship: And Other Stories by Jane Yolen - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D00WAM8/

Tales from High Hallack Volume One: Collected Short Stories by Andre Norton - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KLOY3S0/

# ? Jan 18, 2024 23:40

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

sebmojo posted:

Yeah, this. The Morgaine trilogy is also very good, it's fantasy but the titular character is actually a sci fi person with a laser and a cool/horrifying science black hole sword.

Reading up I see strix isn't a fan, so I'll have to stick up for them: they are basically a very very slow love story, but set in the grittiest most emotionally tortured environment with a propulsive narrative through line.

Morgaine is a great character, and just like elric her sword is essentially a metaphor for her, an entrancingly beautiful but ultimately deadly entity with a singular purpose. Our pov character is a fantasy warrior guy who is extremely well drawn and we follow him as we follow her; the books are essentially the story of them doing what they can because they must, to invert the portal song (appropriately enough, as her purpose is to close time/space gates to stop the universe collapsing). The trilogy has an icy sense of majesty because of that high purpose but is also intensely human and full of hard decisions made under pressure. It's not a light read but it's enormously enjoyable.

I am overdue for a Morgaine reread/read honestly. I read the first book, didn't love it, and haven't cracked the second.

# ? Jan 18, 2024 23:49

Kalman: Jan 17, 2010

StrixNebulosa posted:

I am overdue for a Morgaine reread/read honestly. I read the first book, didn't love it, and haven't cracked the second.

I�ll back up seb here: it�s slow but really good.

# ? Jan 19, 2024 00:13

Metis of the Chat Thread: Aug 1, 2014

Ceebees posted:

I'm going to go back to kicking Downbelow - I've read a good dozen Cherry books, and Downbelow is the only one I simply did not enjoy. Even apart from the uncharacteristically flat aliens, the plot is plodding and predictable. Strong recommend that you start absolutely anywhere else.

This is the one cherryh I've read (only one the library had) so this might explain why I didn't care much to try out the rest of her work. I'll try again!

# ? Jan 19, 2024 01:15

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

StrixNebulosa posted:

I am overdue for a Morgaine reread/read honestly. I read the first book, didn't love it, and haven't cracked the second.

Oh hell yeah. Report back! The second is great, it ends on an absolute king hit.

Interestingly it's sort of tangentially set in the alliance/union universe, though only in a very backhand Easter egg kind of way.

# ? Jan 19, 2024 02:02

Ccs: Feb 25, 2011

I'm halfway or thereabouts through City of Last Chances, and its one of the best books I've read in the past year. I haven't read many books during that time, but I did start a few and never got anywhere with them. Or in the case of "Declare", I'm at about 90% and just can't get around to actually finishing it. Some books just sort of lose their steam in the denouement.

Anyway City reminds me of a lot of other fantasy, but that's alright. I've already read those books and I need something new. There's the simmering revolution and weird arcane urban doings from China Mieville's Perdido Street Station and Mary Gentle's Rats and Gargoyles. There's the colonizing force obsessed with perfecting the world from The Traitor Baru Cormorant. The colonizers are from islands and are hostile to gods, a bit reminiscent of Robert Jackson Bennett's City of Stairs. Tchaikovsky's prose is not as interesting as Mieville or Gentle, but its capable enough to create some mood and I am able to tell whats going on all the time which I wasn't in Gentle's book. These are character archetypes I've seen before but their interactions with all the weird goings on is fun. Overall it seems to be using all the big issues to take its characters on a tour of the city, especially its more dangerous areas. It doesn't seem to be trying to really grapple with those issues the way some of the other books I've listed do, they're mostly there to motivate movement. But I'm fine with that, a battle against the oppressors can be window dressing for weird stuff sometimes (like in the show Arcane.)

# ? Jan 19, 2024 02:14

branedotorg: Jun 19, 2009

Ccs posted:

I'm halfway or thereabouts through City of Last Chances, and its one of the best books I've read in the past year. I haven't read many books during that time, but I did start a few and never got anywhere with them. Or in the case of "Declare", I'm at about 90% and just can't get around to actually finishing it. Some books just sort of lose their steam in the denouement.

Anyway City reminds me of a lot of other fantasy, but that's alright. I've already read those books and I need something new. There's the simmering revolution and weird arcane urban doings from China Mieville's Perdido Street Station and Mary Gentle's Rats and Gargoyles. There's the colonizing force obsessed with perfecting the world from The Traitor Baru Cormorant. The colonizers are from islands and are hostile to gods, a bit reminiscent of Robert Jackson Bennett's City of Stairs. Tchaikovsky's prose is not as interesting as Mieville or Gentle, but its capable enough to create some mood and I am able to tell whats going on all the time which I wasn't in Gentle's book. These are character archetypes I've seen before but their interactions with all the weird goings on is fun. Overall it seems to be using all the big issues to take its characters on a tour of the city, especially its more dangerous areas. It doesn't seem to be trying to really grapple with those issues the way some of the other books I've listed do, they're mostly there to motivate movement. But I'm fine with that, a battle against the oppressors can be window dressing for weird stuff sometimes (like in the show Arcane.)

it's very good but i found the constant shifts in POV and the framing of them as little stories with the intro a bit jarring broke the continuity of the experience, similar to a book of short stories rather than a contiguous novel

# ? Jan 19, 2024 11:41

Ccs: Feb 25, 2011

Yeah its very loose about introducing POVs. At first I thought it would limit itself to the POVs of everyone around the table at the night of the inciting incident, plus the priest, but then it starts to go into the mind of whoever it feels like. Thats why it feels a lot more like a tour of the city through a bunch of characters instead of a character focused story.

# ? Jan 19, 2024 15:12

NoneMoreNegative: Jul 20, 2000; GOTH FASCISTIC
PAIN MASTER

shit wizard dad

Ccs if you don't have anything else marked a must-read next in your to read pile, jump straight into HOUSE OF OPEN WOUNDS when you finish LAST CHANCES, it does away with almost all of the POV switching and is much stronger for it.

# ? Jan 19, 2024 22:56

pradmer: Mar 31, 2009; Follow me for more books on special!

Ancillary Sword (Imperial Radch #2) by Ann Leckie - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I8289A0/
Ancillary Mercy (Imperial Radch #3) by Ann Leckie - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TOT9LEY/
The Obelisk Gate (Broken Earth #2) by NK Jemisin - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01922I1GG/
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The Martyr (Covenant of Steel #2) by Anthony Ryan - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HQLNDSV/
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Eyes of the Void (Final Architecture #2) by Adrian Tchaikovsky - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FJPJLH6/
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# ? Jan 20, 2024 01:12

mllaneza: Apr 28, 2007; Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1993-1952

I actually thought the POV switching in City of Last Chances was very deftly handled. Each new POV was set up by the previous section, so there was this flow from one to the next. I don't recall any of the new POVs being introduced completely cold.

# ? Jan 20, 2024 01:20

ringu0: Feb 24, 2013

Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, Book 1) by Dan Simmons - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004G60EHS/

# ? Jan 20, 2024 03:06

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Don't give Simmons money.

# ? Jan 20, 2024 12:58

FPyat: Jan 17, 2020

Writing a lovely Christmas Carol where your grandson time travels to harangue you for not speaking out against the Muslim tide. Also it has a loving bibliography.

quote:

Just starting to make its way around the blogosphere is April 2006 Message From Dan by Dan Simmons. It's a sobering time travel story that I highly recommend, although be warned that it's somewhat political, a little bit frightening, and might keep you up nights.

quote:

I very seldom post just to forward my readers to someone else�s writing, but SF author Dan Simmons has earned it with this potent warning. Read the whole thing. Because it is indeed our future, unless we wake up.

# ? Jan 20, 2024 14:33

pradmer: Mar 31, 2009; Follow me for more books on special!

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XB49BG4/

# ? Jan 20, 2024 17:56

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# ? May 29, 2024 08:32

Arsenic Lupin: Apr 12, 2012; This particularly rapid💨 unintelligible 😖patter💁 isn't generally heard🧏‍♂️, and if it is🤔, it doesn't matter💁.

Welp, the voting for the Hugo Awards 2023 seems to have been counted in a very odd way. Many prominent nominees were declared ineligible, but this was not declared openly, nor were the nominees notified. This includes:

quote:

[Naomi Kritzer, link below]
Hi, I have a question. Actually a couple of questions.

1. Why was Xiran Jay Zhao ineligible for the Astounding award?
2. Why was Paul Weimer ineligible for Best Fanwriter?
3. Why was Babel ineligible for Best Novel?
4. Why was 涂色世界 / Color the World ineligible for Best Novelette?
5. Why was 尽化塔 / Fongong Temple Pagoda ineligible for Best Short Story?
6. Speaking of Best Short Story, why was Turing Food Court / 图灵大排档 listed twice and apparently counted as two separate stories that did not make it onto the ballot, when the nominations together should have put it on?

Lots of conversation going on in Bluesky, https://bsky.app/profile/naomikritzer.bsky.social/post/3kjgiyt7ynk2d, probably more in the other place as well.

Another Bluesky thread, by Jason Sanford.

quote:

The Hugo Awards nominating stats were finally released. WTF do you mean that the amazing novel Babel by R.F. Kuang, which won the Nebula Award, didn't make the finalists list b/c it was ruled "not eligible."

Link to Hugo voting records, just now released. https://www.thehugoawards.org/2024/01/2023-nominating-and-final-ballot-statistics-published/

# ? Jan 20, 2024 19:31

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > SF & F Mega-thread: I had to google 'spock pirate depilatory'

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