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quantumfoam
Dec 25, 2003

SFL Vol 03:

-Jerry Pournelle posted a Press Release teaser for Oath of Fealty, his 1981 co-written with Larry Niven book about :sigh: hardcore libertarian's solving all of society's problems. (either genuinely never heard of this book before or I blocked all memories of it after reading because of it's terribleness. it's probably the 2nd thing, I hunted down Niven stories growing up)

-Stars Wars fan-fiction legality and gay characters appearing/not appearing in official Star Wars products.

-filksongs continue to appear and continue to annoy me (filksongs are/were SFF fan lyics karaoked over popular songs) enough to finally mention them in a "Let's read the SFL archives" post.

-The first appearance of "do my <college mathematics course> homework/research for me" appeared in the SFL archives around mid January 1981.

- The 1981 Lastcon in Albany NY cosplay contest winner was a lady wearing "a costume of Luke riding a Taun-Taun", and then "all people in costume should go down to
the disco and truly freak out the mundanes."...which happened, but the disco's bouncer bounced the Luke-on-Taun-Taun cosplayer.
Disclaimer: to read the full story of Lastcon 1981, search SFL Vol 03 for [[ DP@MIT-ML 01/28/81 00:25:49 Re: Lastcon report ]].

-LS.MELTSNER made a series of posts about why they find hard-core libertarianism books so unrealistic, which kicked off a debate about libertarism in fiction featuring the heinlein defense squad.

-Finally Robert Forward and a SFL troll in rare non-troll mode both posted "advice for new writers circa 1981". reposting both as historical data for the authors/aspiring authors reading this thread.

------------------------------

Date: 18 JAN 1981 1102-PST
From: FORWARD at USC-ECL
Subject: Amateur Author Query

Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine has a few sheets of
advice and instructions to new writers that you should get, read,
and follow. Send a self-addressed stamped long business-size
envelope and a note requesting "Advice to Authors" to: IASFM,
Box 13116, Philadelphia, PA 19101.
After you have written your short story (following George
Scither's advice), then just mail it to one of the science fiction
magazines, where it will be read BY THE EDITOR. Most people don't
believe it, but ALL manuscripts to Analog, IASFM, and Omni are at
least glanced at by the respective editors. The only winnowing
that is done by the editorial assistants is to 1) make sure that
your name and address is on the manuscript, 2) the return envelope
has postage on it, 3) it is double-spaced, single-sided, and in
english, 4) is a story, not a letter. The assistant then makes
two piles, one of stories from authors that have published before,
and another of those that are not so familiar sounding. The first
stack gets the editors attention right away, but that only takes
a few hours, the editor then devotes the rest of his time, and
his commuting time on train or plane searching through the "slush"
pile for that great gem, a new author. George Scithers has been
averaging one new author an issue.
You do get paid for stories by the professional magazines.
5-7 cents per word by the digest size ones, up to $500-1500 by
Omni. You will also receive a contract outlining the rights
they are buying. You should only sell "first world English
language serial rights" to your copyright.
As for copyrights, you are protected under the new law when
you type "Copyright (c) 1980 by Ima Newauthor" on the front page.
When the story is published by the magazine, and IF they send in
the two copies and the filing fee to the Register of Copyrights,
then your copyright is automatically registered.
Any other questions?

Bob Forward

------------------------------
------------------------------

Date: 18 JAN 1981 2203-EST
From: HITCHCOCK at CCA (Chip Hitchcock)
Subject: first stories

SALES are easy. You just keep sending out everything you write
to every conceivable market, and sooner or later something will
catch on. This can take a \long/ time, but it works for most
people who have the persistence. Obvious markets: the editorial
offices (listed on the contents pages) of ANALOG, ASIMOV'S, F&SF,
AMAZING/FANTASTIC if you have little pride and no expectation of
being paid, OMNI for the thrill. Note that Asimov's will send a
style sheet (in fact, they request that you send for it before
sending them anything) on format for a submitted manuscript;
it's very helpful.
COPYRIGHT: state on the title page "Copyright [c-in-a-circle]
[year] by [your name]"; under the revised law this is sufificient
until the manuscript is actually published, at which point other
factors are managed by the publisher. \Always/ keep a carbon for
evidence, reference, and the perversity of the Post Offal.
MONEY: Usually a zine has a fixed rate per word, sliding downward
for longer material. None of the above are entitled to publish the
story for free, although there are magazines of legend which paid
authors only on threat of lawsuit. Others pay on acceptance or
publication.
REVIEWING: This is the hardest part. Asking friends is a good way
to get sweetened criticism and/or drive them away. Frequently an
editor who sees some promise in a work will take some time to point
outflaws, although a commentless bounce doesn't mean it's hopeless;
editors vary and I don't know what current personal policies are.
The National Fantasy Fan Federation has a story contest which may
get you some useful comments; the one with 12/1/80 deadline was
managed by Donald Franson, 6543 Babcock Ave., North Hollywood CA
91606; he should know about next year's contest. If you're \really/
serious about this, there are some good beginning writers' workshops,
and a lot of terrible ones.
ADVICE: Magazines are frequently in need of good short material,
although such will often take longer to appear once sold. First
novels without a published background and/or a sponsor are difficult
to sell, although you could always try Manor Books if you can think
of a good pseudonym. Once you sell something, you are eligible to
join SF Writers of America, an organization with many flaws but
some overriding virtues; do so.
GOOD LUCK! And let us all know when you sell something.

------------------------------

quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Jun 30, 2020

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uber_stoat
Jan 21, 2001



Pillbug
one of the protagonists of Oath of Fealty is a genius engineer (of course) named Tony Rand (of course). his catch phrase: "think of it as evolution in action." :smug:

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

PawParole posted:

Anyone know of a book that’s xenofiction, but focused on the alien view of humans?

like aliens interacting with humans, but the PoV characters are aliens

There’s a fair bit of this in Cherryh’s Faded Sun trilogy, though there’s also human POV. Either way it’s worth reading.

Selachian
Oct 9, 2012

uber_stoat posted:

one of the protagonists of Oath of Fealty is a genius engineer (of course) named Tony Rand (of course). his catch phrase: "think of it as evolution in action." :smug:

Oath of Fealty, for those who haven't read it, is about a self-contained arcology in a near-future Los Angeles that comes under attack by a horde of angry, resentful poors. Guess what color most of the arcology's inhabitants are. Now guess what color the angry horde is. There will be no points awarded for successful guesses.

quantumfoam
Dec 25, 2003

uber_stoat posted:

one of the protagonists of Oath of Fealty is a genius engineer (of course) named Tony Rand (of course). his catch phrase: "think of it as evolution in action." :smug:

Yes. A. Rand, hmmmm...whom could that be referring to? :smug:
That level of subtlety makes me believe the self-professed claims of Niven and Pournelle about never "revising their work"

Smugness and libertarianism always seems to lead back to Robert Heinlein and the more forgotten EE Smith.

Take a look at EE Smith's Skylark of Space series. The power couple/two leads in EE Smith's Skylark of Space series are a male super-genius engineer.................and the much older rich male sugar-daddy that has funded the lead super-genius engineer his entire life.

The villain of the Skylark series series is the villain because (pick one) a) he's smarter than the lead super-genius engineer but is ethnic-looking b) sullied himself doing side-jobs to pay for his college/graduate studies because poor ethnic-looking people didn't get scholarship grants back then c) the super-genius engineer constantly steals the equipment and/or research of the ethnic looking guy without giving credit d) the ethnic-looking guy has the audacity to want credit for his work, or his actual equipment back

Strom Cuzewon
Jul 1, 2010

Jedit posted:

You might want to check out The City of Silk and Steel (Aka The Steel Seraglio) by Mike Carey (and his wife and daughter) if you like this kind of thing.

Thanks, I might give it a whirl!

I've just started B. Catling's The Vorrh. It's wonderful and surreal and I have no clue what is happening. It's more like a series of vignettes so far, and with its languid, dreamlike prose its kind of like reading Aronofsky's The Fountain, which is probably the highest praise I can give it.

It has the occasional clanger that snaps me right out of it though. One characters rifle-hostler has a "dense slumber of nonferrous richness, resisting all moisture" which is just tortuous.

freebooter
Jul 7, 2009

PawParole posted:

Anyone know of a book that’s xenofiction, but focused on the alien view of humans?

like aliens interacting with humans, but the PoV characters are aliens

Seconding Children of Time which is just a great book in general, but also does really well in examining how a different biology results in a different society. (Eifelheim also does this, and maybe sorta fits your definition because even though it's a human POV, the humans are 14th century peasants, so the technologically advanced aliens are often more sympathetic and understandable to the reader).

Also the last third of Childhood's End is about an alien race observing a transcended human race, making them more sympathetic to the reader than the now-alien humans.

Semi-joke answer: the Ax POV books in Animorphs.

branedotorg
Jun 19, 2009

uber_stoat posted:

one of the protagonists of Oath of Fealty is a genius engineer (of course) named Tony Rand (of course). his catch phrase: "think of it as evolution in action." :smug:

In future everyone is named ayntony

XBenedict
May 23, 2006

YOUR LIPS SAY 0, BUT YOUR EYES SAY 1.

uber_stoat posted:

one of the protagonists of Oath of Fealty is a genius engineer (of course) named Tony Rand (of course). his catch phrase: "think of it as evolution in action." :smug:

:suicide:

Yngwie Mangosteen
Aug 23, 2007

mllaneza posted:

Darkwar is good, more people should read it.

:hmmyes:

pradmer
Mar 31, 2009

Follow me for more books on special!
Gardens of the Moon (Malazan #1) by Steven Erikson - $2.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002KYHZLQ/

The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time #1) by Robert Jordan - $2.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002U3CCYM/

Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by KJ Parker - $2.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078W5M7DB/

Sibling of TB
Aug 4, 2007

uber_stoat posted:

one of the protagonists of Oath of Fealty is a genius engineer (of course) named Tony Rand (of course). his catch phrase: "think of it as evolution in action." :smug:

One thing that stuck out for me was at the end there was a character who was tired of all the racist politics and was moving to Rhodesia (which has a black president and is doing very well for itself!).

uber_stoat
Jan 21, 2001



Pillbug
it's so funny to me, thinking about Niven and Pournelle as an adult, because I first ran into them when I was a child, my dad had a bunch of their books lying around so I read them. There's so much awful poo poo in the books they wrote that I simply glossed over. Lucifer's Hammer has some stuff that will make your hair stand up.

I really loved the Mote in God's Eye, I'm almost afraid to revisit it.

Selachian
Oct 9, 2012

uber_stoat posted:

it's so funny to me, thinking about Niven and Pournelle as an adult, because I first ran into them when I was a child, my dad had a bunch of their books lying around so I read them. There's so much awful poo poo in the books they wrote that I simply glossed over. Lucifer's Hammer has some stuff that will make your hair stand up.

I really loved the Mote in God's Eye, I'm almost afraid to revisit it.

The Mote in God's Eye and Footfall are, I think, Niven and Pournelle's least problematic collaborations.

It's also worth noting that while Larry Niven was no one's idea of a progressive hero (see: his idea to save the health care system by spreading rumors among immigrants that hospitals are dangerous), most of the objectionable elements in the collaborations -- the racism and the Rand-worship -- are allllll Pournelle.

Poopelyse
Jan 22, 2011

by Fluffdaddy

Selachian posted:

The Mote in God's Eye and Footfall are, I think, Niven and Pournelle's least problematic collaborations.

It's also worth noting that while Larry Niven was no one's idea of a progressive hero (see: his idea to save the health care system by spreading rumors among immigrants that hospitals are dangerous), most of the objectionable elements in the collaborations -- the racism and the Rand-worship -- are allllll Pournelle.

The Mote in God's Eye was one of the first non-Star Wars scifi books I read as a kid and for whatever reason, the frictionless toilets have really stuck with me and I find myself thinking about them quite often.

Stupid_Sexy_Flander
Mar 14, 2007

Is a man not entitled to the haw of his maw?
Grimey Drawer
That was the one with the wierd aliens that had to gently caress constantly or they'd die from not being pregnant, right?

I get that one and the bird rape one confused a lot.

quantumfoam
Dec 25, 2003

Further SFL Vol 03 points of interest.
In my recaps of reading the SFL archives, I tend to not mention: outdated science/physics chat, FTL travel vs STL chat, scifi tv series episode listings, topical scifi/fantasy movie reviews or topical scifi/fantasy book reviews, identify-this story for me requests, childrens tv programming of the 50's/60's/70's chat, religion debates, Hugo/Nebula award nominations + award winners chat, "what is the Force" debates?, and the many listings of upcoming global scifi conventions/results of just finished global scifi conventions.

-Vernor Vinge's age of cyberspace True Names came out and was reviewed favorably by most SFL members. Douglas Adams 1st & 2nd Hitchhikers Guide series books were released in the US, and had less favorable reviews. No one has really discussed Gene Wolf's 1981 Claw of the Conciliator or 1980 Book of the New Sun so far, but things might change.

-Back in 1981, Lucas Films and NPR collaborated to make a radio drama out of Star Wars: A New Hope the movie with Mark Hamill (which maybe kickstarted Hamill's prolific voice-acting career) & Anthony Daniels (C3PO), plus a bunch of ringers. As a moderate Star Wars fan, the existence of the 1981 Star Wars radio drama, and spoiler alert the existence of the other original SW trilogy radio dramas got memory-holed harder than David Proust, the body-actor of Darth Vader

-A profile of Ralph Bakshi, 1970s-80s cartoonist I mostly remember for the unsettling-blobby artwork in Bakshi's Lord of the Rings movies. Bakshi promoted his other animation efforts, including a movie about black America called....uh even posting the movie name will end in a probe so just look it up yourself or if that's too much effort, think of the "badly aged Eric Cartman super-hero persona" and uh make it more racist.

e: I was remembering the unsettling and blobbly artwork from Rankin/Bass animatted movie efforts like the Hobbit 1977, not Bakshi's work.

-Larry Niven's Down in Flames, the 1968/1977 unofficial abandoned conclusion to the Known Space/Ringworld series finally got described in detail Everything you know about the Known Space setting is a hoax. Down in Flames discussion was interesting enough that I read it myself, and no bullshit it is better than everything Niven proceeded to write about the Ringworld and Known Space setting for the next 8 books.

If you do choose to see Down in Flames as Known Space/Ringworld canon, you can safely abandon the Ringworld series after the 1st Ringworld book aka Ringworld 1970, while the remaining Known Space stories written after 1978 sort-of fit if you don't think too hard about timedates.

quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 06:30 on Jul 2, 2020

Hobnob
Feb 23, 2006

Ursa Adorandum

Selachian posted:

The Mote in God's Eye and Footfall are, I think, Niven and Pournelle's least problematic collaborations.
Oddly true, even though Footfall contains the African-American cannibal gang.
Edit: Wait! I'm misremembering. It's Lucifer's Hammer that has the cannibals. I remember it being not awful, apart from that bit. It feels more like an airport thriller though, rather than sf.

quote:

It's also worth noting that while Larry Niven was no one's idea of a progressive hero (see: his idea to save the health care system by spreading rumors among immigrants that hospitals are dangerous), most of the objectionable elements in the collaborations -- the racism and the Rand-worship -- are allllll Pournelle.

Yeah. As I think I've said in this thread before, Niven on his own is usually fine, or at least tolerable. Pournelle is a very bad influence on him. Oath of Fealty in particular is constant libertarian trash.

Hobnob fucked around with this message at 04:47 on Jul 2, 2020

Sibling of TB
Aug 4, 2007

Hobnob posted:

Oddly true, even though Footfall contains the African-American cannibal gang.
Edit: Wait! I'm misremembering. It's Lucifer's Hammer that has the cannibals. I remember it being not awful, apart from that bit. It feels more like an airport thriller though, rather than sf.


Yeah. As I think I've said in this thread before, Niven on his own is usually fine, or at least tolerable. Pournelle is a very bad influence on him. Oath of Fealty in particular is constant libertarian trash.

Maybe I'm misremembering but I thought the point of oath of feality was that they were wrong to build the acrology like a walled community and they should have made it less like a fortress? I also remember that characters at the end were all like "oops, should have done it differently".

Deptfordx
Dec 23, 2013

quantumfoam posted:



-Larry Niven's Down in Flames, the 1968/1977 unofficial abandoned conclusion to the Known Space/Ringworld series finally got described in detail Everything you know about the Known Space setting is a hoax. Down in Flames discussion was interesting enough that I read it myself, and no bullshit it is better than everything Niven proceeded to write about the Ringworld and Known Space setting for the next 8 books.

If you do choose to see Down in Flames as Known Space/Ringworld canon, you can safely abandon the Ringworld series after the 1st Ringworld book aka Ringworld 1970, while the remaining Known Space stories written after 1978 sort-of fit if you don't think too hard about timedates.

I think that's the stuff that actually got turned 20 years later into the novel A Darker Geometry by Gregory Benford and is also no longer considered canon

Hobnob
Feb 23, 2006

Ursa Adorandum

Sibling of TB posted:

Maybe I'm misremembering but I thought the point of oath of feality was that they were wrong to build the acrology like a walled community and they should have made it less like a fortress? I also remember that characters at the end were all like "oops, should have done it differently".

It's been a long time since I read it, so I'm not sure. I remember there's a point about previous arcologies failing due to being built in the middle of nowhere, and this one working because it was right in the middle of LA. Don't remember much remorse from the characters though - don't they break one of their executives out of jail after he murders someone, then cut off LA's water supply when the police try to search the place? I think they end up spiriting him out of the country, and that's meant to be a good thing. Not ever inclined to read the thing again.

ToxicFrog
Apr 26, 2008


Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:

That was the one with the wierd aliens that had to gently caress constantly or they'd die from not being pregnant, right?

I get that one and the bird rape one confused a lot.

Yeah, that's the one. The Moties.

The basic premise is that this results in an endless cycle of overpopulation, war, and collapse, which has been going on for so long that there are "knowledge vaults" scattered all over the world to make it easier to rebuild civilization after the next one and the only source of metals and plastics is scavenging the ruins of previous cycles. They're rapidly approaching the next collapse when humans show up with technology that would let them escape their solar system and everything hits the fan.

quantumfoam posted:

-Larry Niven's Down in Flames, the 1968/1977 unofficial abandoned conclusion to the Known Space/Ringworld series finally got described in detail Everything you know about the Known Space setting is a hoax. Down in Flames discussion was interesting enough that I read it myself, and no bullshit it is better than everything Niven proceeded to write about the Ringworld and Known Space setting for the next 8 books.

I read Down in Flames in the collection N-Space, and it was interesting, but there's something petty that's always bothered me about it

Right at the start he establishes that there is no physical effect that destroys ships that enter hyperdrive inside a gravity well; instead they get destroyed by the Tnuctipun (or presumably by Tnuctip-created drones or something). But later in the story, there's a bit where one of the characters is attacked by Tnuctipun agents; he forces them to dodge into hyperdrive with a mass driver barrage, then traps them there by launching a 10m ball of neutronium at them...

Still, I liked the fact that he'd put some thought into how to not just wrap up but destroy the Known Space setting. It's a shame he didn't go through with it.

ToxicFrog fucked around with this message at 15:56 on Jul 2, 2020

Safety Biscuits
Oct 21, 2010

quantumfoam posted:

-Vernor Vinge's age of cyberspace True Names came out and was reviewed favorably by most SFL members. Douglas Adams 1st & 2nd Hitchhikers Guide series books were released in the US, and had less favorable reviews. No one has really discussed Gene Wolf's 1981 Claw of the Conciliator or 1980 Book of the New Sun so far, but things might change.

He was a bit obscure still, I think. He'd only had half a dozen books come out, including the debut which was apparently butchered.

quote:

-Larry Niven's Down in Flames, the 1968/1977 unofficial abandoned conclusion to the Known Space/Ringworld series finally got described in detail Everything you know about the Known Space setting is a hoax. Down in Flames discussion was interesting enough that I read it myself, and no bullshit it is better than everything Niven proceeded to write about the Ringworld and Known Space setting for the next 8 books.

If you do choose to see Down in Flames as Known Space/Ringworld canon, you can safely abandon the Ringworld series after the 1st Ringworld book aka Ringworld 1970, while the remaining Known Space stories written after 1978 sort-of fit if you don't think too hard about timedates.

Man, that sounds pretty good. Especially abandoning the Ringworld sequels. There's a few things in Known Space that don't make much sense...

e: here it is - http://larryniven.net/stories/downinflames.shtml

Safety Biscuits fucked around with this message at 16:10 on Jul 2, 2020

StrixNebulosa
Feb 14, 2012

You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

It's taken the mail time but I finally, FINALLY have the Dragonbone Chair in my hands. The craving for generic fantasy has been powerful and now it's finally here. Gimme gimme a young man growing up as he gets into trouble and rescues the world please.

Also I promise to you: this month I will either buy or badger my family into buying me the Illustrated Ursula Le Guin, because it's my birthday month and I deserve it.

e: Delighted by how cliche Dragonbone Chair is so far, six pages in:

- young man
- young man who doesn't fit in with his lot in life
- ancient castle built by elves, who are now long-lost

StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Jul 2, 2020

fritz
Jul 26, 2003

quantumfoam posted:

Further SFL Vol 03 points of interest.
-A profile of Ralph Bakshi, 1970s-80s cartoonist I mostly remember for the unsettling-blobby artwork in Bakshi's Lord of the Rings movies. Bakshi promoted his other animation efforts, including a movie about black America called....uh even posting the movie name will end in a probe so just look it up yourself or if that's too much effort, think of the "badly aged Eric Cartman super-hero persona" and uh make it more racist.

I looked this up on wikipedia and: holy poo poo.

uber_stoat
Jan 21, 2001



Pillbug
do a google image search for that movie and prepare for a wild ride!

Ccs
Feb 25, 2011


Bakshi is definitely a product of his time. The movie is not supposed to be racist, to quote this article it was a "film was written and directed by Ralph Bakshi to serve the dual purpose of pushing adult-minded experimental animation as far as possible, and to tackle America’s history of race and segregation head-on, using a narrative that blends folklore with Blaxploitation films the imagery of horrific racial stereotypes."

https://cinapse.co/bakshis-coonskin-1975-is-a-must-watch-racial-satire-a5923ba596c

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer
It's downright chilling how relevant this article is today.

StrixNebulosa
Feb 14, 2012

You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Wait.... I didn't know that coonskin was a racial slur, that was probe-able. I'm very white but I thought I was informed - or am I wrong?

Either way that movie sounds brilliant, and I want to watch it.

e: asked my (white) mom and oh, okay. She knows it's a slur. I'm just misinformed. TIL.

StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 22:00 on Jul 2, 2020

Ccs
Feb 25, 2011


It's kind of like a cartoon version of Bamboozled.

Jedit
Dec 10, 2011

Proudly supporting vanilla legends 1994-2014

StrixNebulosa posted:

Also I promise to you: this month I will either buy or badger my family into buying me the Illustrated Ursula Le Guin, because it's my birthday month and I deserve it.

Unless you don't own any of the Earthsea books already, don't bother. There are maybe a dozen illustrations in the thousand page volume, excluding frontispieces.

HopperUK
Apr 29, 2007

Why would an ambulance be leaving the hospital?
I love Always Coming Home and I just read Engine Summer and adored it - any recs for similar books? Cultural exploration, not too much hand-holding? I really like how CJ Cherryh will just start you in the middle of a setting and let you pick it up as you go along, too, that's my favourite trick in sf/fantasy stuff.

pradmer
Mar 31, 2009

Follow me for more books on special!
Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie - $3.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002GUK7JQ/

Consider Phlebas (Culture #1) by Iain M Banks - $2.99
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StrixNebulosa
Feb 14, 2012

You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Got my monthly newsletter from Lilith Saintcrow and:

quote:

"Here's something exciting: Throne of the Five Winds is a Kindle Monthly Deal for July! That means you can get the Kindle edition for $2.99 if it suits you. I'm hard at work on the third book in the series, The Bloody Throne (the title might change); book two, The Poison Prince, drops in November and is available for preorder on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and at indie bookstores. (I just finished the proof pass on Poison Prince a few weeks ago, as a matter of fact. Or was it last week? Time does such odd things during lockdown.

quantumfoam
Dec 25, 2003

ToxicFrog posted:

Yeah, that's the one. The Moties.
I read Down in Flames in the collection N-Space, and it was interesting, but there's something petty that's always bothered me about it

Right at the start he establishes that there is no physical effect that destroys ships that enter hyperdrive inside a gravity well; instead they get destroyed by the Tnuctipun (or presumably by Tnuctip-created drones or something). But [b]later in the story, there's a bit where one of the characters is attacked by Tnuctipun agents; he forces them to dodge into hyperdrive with a mass driver barrage, then traps them there by launching a 10m ball of neutronium at them...

Still, I liked the fact that he'd put some thought into how to not just wrap up but destroy the Known Space setting. It's a shame he didn't go through with it.

I only read the Down in Flames 1977 version from Niven's website, not the N-Space collection which you are referencing.
Think the N-Space collection version might be the original 1968 draft of DiF. The DiF version on Niven's website doesn't mention Tnuctipun agents dropping into hyperdrive, instead what I read felt like a rough draft/slightly updated version of a very similar scene from Niven's Protector where the good guys take on 3 sets of Pak protector scout-ships.

As I said previously in a earlier SFL related post, the ongoing creepy sex stuff & eugenics in the followup Ringworld books kept me from thinking too deeply about how the Ringworld lore doesn't mesh with 70+% of Niven's Known Space setting.

"Bugs" aka poo poo that doesn't make sense with Niven's Known Space -> Ringworld setting crops up regularly the in SFL archives. Here's a few recent examples that stuck in my mind
-mainly that the Ringworld series construction date of the ringworld doesn't jive with Protector's timeline
-ignoring that, if Pak protectors DID make the Ringworld, them seeding it with tons of hostile or weird alien lifeforms on dedicated planet-islands in the Ringworld mega-oceans doesn't jive with the Pak protector mentality
-etc, etc, etc



Going forward, is there any topics or authors people want me to keep an eye out for in the SFL archives readthrough?

Gnoman
Feb 12, 2014

Come, all you fair and tender maids
Who flourish in your pri-ime
Beware, take care, keep your garden fair
Let Gnoman steal your thy-y-me
Le-et Gnoman steal your thyme




StrixNebulosa posted:

Wait.... I didn't know that coonskin was a racial slur, that was probe-able. I'm very white but I thought I was informed - or am I wrong?

Either way that movie sounds brilliant, and I want to watch it.

e: asked my (white) mom and oh, okay. She knows it's a slur. I'm just misinformed. TIL.

The full phrase is much more commonly associated with the raccoon-hide caps popular in the fifties. The first half of it, however, is a long-standing term for a specific anti-black racial caricature. The caricature in question boils down to "lazy, stupid, and uppity". Or, in normal person terms, it was directed at young black men who lacked access to employment or education (due to prejudice and systemic barriers) and lacked the "proper" respect for white people.

StrixNebulosa
Feb 14, 2012

You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

I was asked if I'd read Cherryh's Rider at the Gate by a friend and I think my response will either sell the book instantly to people or make them back away:

"It's a western, and by western I mean if westerns had horrifying telepathic devil horses."

quantumfoam
Dec 25, 2003

Not much SFL Vol 03 progress since my last update

-biology chat becomes the running topic of the fortnight, with DNA encoding, scifi stories about DNA encoding, goats=unicorns (which I will come back to), etc

-MENSA membership gets pimped in the SFL for the first time I can remember. The MENSA membership ad gets a faint sneery tone when mentioning alternate methods of qualifying for MENSA membership (combined SAT results or combined GRE results over certain scores will get you in under limited membership status)

-DolphinFucker is against proposals for "permanent" assignation of phone numbers to people, for *wink* privacy reasons. *wink*

-the SFL liveposted the first manned Space Shuttle launch attempt on April 10 1981. Keyword being: attempt.

-A reposted article from the Baltimore Sun newspaper brings the 1st mention of space borne telescopes into the SFL archives. These space borne telescopes (due to be launched in 1985) will have sensors/cameras that might be able to detect extrasolar planets. Spoiler alert those extrasolar planet detecting methods mentioned in the article are still being fine-tuned today/2020 time period.

-SPECIES movie fans will find Fred Hoyle's 1975 novel A for Andromeda uses an eerily similar setup, but Hoyle's book series fails to implement H.R. Giger and instead goes with a deep-state conspiracy.

-the goats=unicorn thing.
Someone I didn't bother bookmarking posted about recent studies of medieval documents/myth had lead to scholars thinking that references to unicorn were really references to one-horned goats. Chapman.ES promotes his friend from the Berkeley area named Morning Glory who showed off a unicorn-goat named Lancelot at the February 1981 Berkeley Fantasy Worlds Convention. When asked about Lancelot the goat-unicorn, Chapman.ES said that Morning Glory and her husband mentioned a careful breeding plan that two years ago resulted in Lancelot. Additionally......something akin to Bonsai helped out, but Morning Glory couldn't go into more details because they were trying to patent the process.
(emphasis mine)

People replied back to Chapman.ES mentioning common farm practices of de-horning livestock. And then other people ran with that and suggested maybe two goat horns got fused together in Lancelot's case, or maybe shortly after birth, one horn got removed totally with the other horn bud moved/shifted over. Chapman.ES flipped the gently caress out and went full "I take exception to your slur upon Morning Glory and her husband, and your suggestion that they are charlatans. These are sincere people, who are into mysticism, it is true, but just because you don't agree with their world view doesn't mean you have to insult them."....and so on for another 70-90 lines.


My 2020 take: it was animal cruelty and Morning Glory was scamming rubes

hours later supplemntary SFL Vol 03 update


Didn't think I'd find something to top Bakshi's hyper badly aged 'black america in the south' animated movie within less than 24 hrs, however someone in the SFL mentioned that H Beam Piper's Little Fuzzy was ripping off a earlier story.....and they weren't making things up.
A semi-famous World War 2 french resistance member slash author wrote "les animaux denatures" or "you shall know them" in it's english translation.

story recap: tribes of "missing link" hominids are found in the jungles of new guinea, and exploited as an cheap workforce similar to "war with the newts". Scientist-perverts or just normal perverts discover that the missing link hominids <ugh> can get pregnant with <ugh> human sperm <quadruple ugh>. One of the scientist-perverts impregnates a missing link hominid with his sperm then kills the baby once it is born; under the reasoning that the ensuing trial will determine if the missing link hominids are human (and therefore deserve human rights) or not.
Adding to the weirdness/wtf factor, a Burt Reynolds movie called Skullduggery is a loose adaption of "les animaux denatures".

quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 13:44 on Jul 3, 2020

Urcher
Jun 16, 2006


quantumfoam posted:

Not much SFL Vol 03 progress since my last update

I enjoy these posts. It is fascinating to hear what big name authors were saying about reach other before they were famous, what the general public thought of debut novels from authors who later became well known, and which scientific advancements people were excited about decades ago.

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Xotl
May 28, 2001

Be seeing you.

Urcher posted:

I enjoy these posts.

Me too. I'm a historian, and ultimately anything I get interested in I become fascinated by the history of it; these are a fun time capsule in that regard. Thanks for taking the time.

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