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wrong drat thread, sorry
NikkolasKing fucked around with this message at 16:31 on Dec 11, 2020 |
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Dec 11, 2020 16:12
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All Discworld books by Terry Pratchett - $4.99 each https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TYGGG76/ Eon (The Way #1) by Greg Bear - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J3EU5RC/
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Dec 11, 2020 19:09
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The Amal El-Mohtar/Arkady Martine talk just got put on YouTube and it's very good (and also has a cool Baru shoutout near the end) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0KVbaEbFbc
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Dec 12, 2020 03:25
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Still doing the SFL Archives readthrough. Thought it would be hard to top the time the HeinleinDefenseSquad tried making 1:1 comparisons of Robert Heinlein to Sir Francis Burton (but kept messing up which entitled Burton they were referring to) just before GRUMBLES FROM THE GRAVE came out and blew all their "Heinlein wasn't fascist/racist/sexist/etc" arguments away..... however someone in the 1990 SFL Archives brought up the time Eric Frank Russell & OTHER WORLDS magazine got hundreds of SF fans (& at least one author) to out themselves as hyper-chuds/racists over a slate of prizes ranging from artwork/lump sums of cash/magazine subscriptions/all expenses paid 1 week vacation retreat. The Eric Frank Russell collection I have contains the list of people(complete with mailing addresses) who "won" the 51 available prizes by guessing the missing
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Dec 12, 2020 04:57
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I have just finished Baru 2 and can I just say that I so appreciate the reference to Benford's Law, I laughed because I remember spending days of poring over spreadsheets and dashboards doing the same analysis as an auditor. Also I want to say that I enjoyed the book a lot, and didn't feel like I had Book 2 syndrome or anything. But then I also liked Well of Ascension and even most Sanderson fans hate that one so  maybe I just like books.
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Dec 12, 2020 16:08
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quantumfoam posted:Still doing the SFL Archives readthrough. Checked in, saw: quote:Novelization of the Infocom game PLANETFALL gets one positive review The Infocom novelizations were all pretty weird but it was this or STATIONFALL that had the vagina dentata bit in it.
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Dec 12, 2020 16:49
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quantumfoam posted:Still doing the SFL Archives readthrough. EFR owns and everyone should read WASP.
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Dec 12, 2020 17:24
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buffalo all day posted:EFR owns and everyone should read WASP. Yes this is true. One of the best bits about that Eric Frank Russell/OTHER WORLDS magazine challenge is that all this happened back in 1951, so you & I can only guess at the hyper-racist/giga-chud phrases people sent in. As I mentioned in the mil-scifi book barn thread, ERF did at least 4 alternate takes on WASP, and I sort of prefer the alternate takes over WASP. My favorite alternate versions of Wasp are the A-TEAM formenting chaos on a backlines prison planet (NUISANCE VALUE), human brain-twister logic riddles driving alien captors/alien society insane (DIABOLOGIC), and a bargain basement precursor of Iain M. Banks Player of Games (NOW INHALE). fritz posted:Checked in, saw: I have no idea. Only the really really bizarre and WTF things get me to break readthrough kayfabe and look up things on the internet. So far SFL Archives readthrough kayfabe breaking has been: looking up the exact date Robert Tappan Morris did his thing, the Philip Jose Farmer/Roger Zelazny rip-off fest, Lauren Wiseman melting the gently caress down over WARGAMES 1983, the Ursula LeGuin essay on Katherine Kurtz that turned out to be 60% a hit-piece vs a 1973 award nominee competitor, and to figure out exactly why the SFWA White Knight Chuq Von Rospach was so pathologically in-the-tank for the SFWA and every SF&F author-editor in existence. quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 18:48 on Dec 12, 2020 |
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Dec 12, 2020 18:22
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The only Eric Frank Russell I've ever read is his story "And Then There Were None," which is about a libertarian paradise where there's no currency and people just trade "obligations."
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Dec 13, 2020 00:54
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Wasp is a badass WW2 spy/saboteur story dressed up as SF. The “hero” is basically a terrorist (but human and therefore Good) who goes undercover on a planet that’s based on WW2 Japan and starts murdering military brass / blowing up stuff / wreaking havoc. It’s all written in this dry but funny style that’s super compelling. We read it in a non-SF book club I’m in and everyone loved it.
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Dec 13, 2020 01:29
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buffalo all day posted:Wasp is a badass WW2 spy/saboteur story dressed up as SF. The “hero” is basically a terrorist (but human and therefore Good) who goes undercover on a planet that’s based on WW2 Japan and starts murdering military brass / blowing up stuff / wreaking havoc. It’s all written in this dry but funny style that’s super compelling. We read it in a non-SF book club I’m in and everyone loved it.
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Dec 13, 2020 12:24
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Finished SFL Archives Vol 15a, it was a bizarre read start to finish and there's still another 6 months left in 1990 to cover. Example of bizarreness in Vol 15a: Doing my readthrough summary write-up and the very first thing I bookmarked in Vol 15a was a SFLer saying the 1 sentence mixed race reveal of the main character in Heinlein's THE CAT WHO WALKS THROUGH WALLS was telegraphed by the cover art because "his last name strong implies he's somewhat of a crossbreed, after all." SFL Vol 15a fittingly ended on debates over what was real/what was fake in both TOTAL RECALL 1990 & Harlan Ellison's 1990 essay Xenogenesis. Xenogenesis, as per the summary at everything2.com is, a 1990 "speech and essay written by Harlan Ellison. In it, he details some of the shockingly hateful, rude, and stupid acts that have been committed against authors of fantasy and science fiction by the people who call themselves their "fans." Harlan tells how one of his fans made anonymous, harrassing phone calls and death threats to him for years, how one of Spider Robinson's fans offered to buy him dinner, then stuck him with the very expensive bill, how one of Alan Dean Foster's fans threw a cup of vomit in his face. Why, Ellison asks, are fantasy and sci-fi authors treated this way and not, for instance, John Updike, Tom Wolfe, or Norman Mailer?" Definitely recall one person humblebragging about making constant anonymous antagonistic phone-calls to Harlan Ellison a few years ago in the SFL Archives, so that's one thing already confirmed. As for TOTAL RECALL 1990, I believe it is as real/fake as any other Arnold Schwarzenegger film.
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Dec 13, 2020 17:17
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The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005MZN2B2/ The Two Towers (Lord of the Rings #2) by JRR Tolkien - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007978PKY/ New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KT7YTO6/
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Dec 13, 2020 20:48
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Finished the SFL Archives Vol 15a writeup, it was huge, not bothering with highlighting author names or items of interest in it right now. Did some research, and yes. Back in SFL Archives Vol 11 aka 1986, someone *cough* pyrla!cracraft@caip.rutgers.edu (Stuart Cracraft) *cough* posted Ellison's personal phone number to the SF-LOVERS mailing list, and then humble-bragged about making repeated adversarial phone calls to Ellison. Who (giggle) caught the DOCTOR WHO reference in Diane Duane's 1990 book HIGH WIZARDRY? Don't lie, even 1990 SFL people had a hard time catching it.
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Dec 13, 2020 21:46
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quantumfoam posted:Who (giggle) caught the DOCTOR WHO reference in Diane Duane's 1990 book HIGH WIZARDRY? Don't lie, even 1990 SFL people had a hard time catching it. I was too young to get the reference but it stood out as something that *was* a reference. Such a great book, spoiled every other 'okay we'll use a clever spell to win' book climax since. Anyone read the updated version with newer tech that she put out? Thought that seemed like a weird decision and I'm curious how much of a difference it makes.
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Dec 13, 2020 22:26
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pradmer posted:New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson - $3.99 I think KSR basically admitted that he wanted to write a book about the 2008 financial crash and the bank bailouts, but his editor made him set it in the flooded New York of the future (it's very much a book of two parts which don't gel)
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Dec 14, 2020 00:04
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https://twitter.com/rinbcage/status/1338230609211232258?s=20
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Dec 14, 2020 00:35
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Milkfred E. Moore posted:I use Papyrus. It's a relatively new app and, unfortunately, subscription-only. I found Scrivener to be a bit too clunky and unintuitive. Papyrus isn't as powerful as Scrivener but it has a lot of good stuff baked in (whereas I found Scrivener a little lacking if I didn't want to do it all myself). As an app, it's a lot cleaner and neater, quick and responsive, and I've found the way it sets things out (such as chapter listings and other screens for, say, character or research notes) far better to use and bounce between than anything else I've tried. Maybe I should get one of these sometime. I've just been using Notepad. It served me for one book at least.
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Dec 14, 2020 03:50
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xiw posted:Anyone read the updated version with newer tech that she put out? Thought that seemed like a weird decision and I'm curious how much of a difference it makes.
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Dec 14, 2020 21:43
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I am finishing up the Foreigner series and loved the hell out of it, just a real fun read. I really would like another long-ish series like it. Any recommendations out there?
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Dec 14, 2020 23:06
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Cerepol posted:I am finishing up the Foreigner series and loved the hell out of it, just a real fun read. I really would like another long-ish series like it. Any recommendations out there? did you read Vorkosigan Saga already?
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Dec 14, 2020 23:10
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TheAardvark posted:did you read Vorkosigan Saga already? I have not and it sounds right up my alley, Thanks! I found having a consistent series to read made my 25 book challenge way easier so I'm hoping to maybe hit 30 next year.
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Dec 14, 2020 23:12
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I'm looking for some sci-fi about non-binary identities, for example agender alien species or how future technology can change our perception of gender binarity. So not just stories that feature nb characters but the ones that explore the subject in more detail. Something like The Left Hand of Darkness. Do you have some recommendations?
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Dec 14, 2020 23:24
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macabresca posted:I'm looking for some sci-fi about non-binary identities, for example agender alien species or how future technology can change our perception of gender binarity. So not just stories that feature nb characters but the ones that explore the subject in more detail. Something like The Left Hand of Darkness. Do you have some recommendations? Huh I think that the Ancillary series by Anne Leckie might not put gender front and center enough for what you’re looking for, but it’s maybe worth checking out? A mostly non spoilery discussion of how it handles gender: https://www.tor.com/2014/02/18/post-binary-gender-in-sf-ancillary-justice-by-ann-leckie/ Not a perfect fit tho for what it seems like you’d like.
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Dec 14, 2020 23:32
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macabresca posted:I'm looking for some sci-fi about non-binary identities, for example agender alien species or how future technology can change our perception of gender binarity. So not just stories that feature nb characters but the ones that explore the subject in more detail. Something like The Left Hand of Darkness. Do you have some recommendations? Flawed and rooted in a binary view of gender, but Tanith Lee's Biting the Sun might be interesting to you. In a far-distant future, the cities of the world are run by powerful AIs that keep humans in perpetual comfort and safety. Anyone can get a new body (of either sex) any time they like so long as they kill themselves. In search of meaning in their frictionless utopia, the main character and her friends do kill themselves-- over and over and over. It'd probably be shelved in YA fiction were it published today, but it was published in 1976. It was originally released as a pair of novellas, Don't Bite the Sun and Drinking Sapphire Wine, though today it's collected in the omnibus Biting the Sun. You can read it in a couple of sittings.
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Dec 15, 2020 00:10
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macabresca posted:I'm looking for some sci-fi about non-binary identities, for example agender alien species or how future technology can change our perception of gender binarity. So not just stories that feature nb characters but the ones that explore the subject in more detail. Something like The Left Hand of Darkness. Do you have some recommendations? Wikipedia posted:The story relates the experience of Barb, a woman whose gender has been reassigned to "attack helicopter" so as to make her a better pilot. You can still find it online if you look around though. Crashbee fucked around with this message at 00:37 on Dec 15, 2020 |
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Dec 15, 2020 00:29
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macabresca posted:I'm looking for some sci-fi about non-binary identities, for example agender alien species or how future technology can change our perception of gender binarity. So not just stories that feature nb characters but the ones that explore the subject in more detail. Something like The Left Hand of Darkness. Do you have some recommendations? Dammit I’m still writing my bloody series and haven’t edited one to completion (I keep getting distracted by poo poo like de-gendered ancient Egyptian-based conlangs, there is no hope for me)  Serious answer: John Varley was probably the New Wave author who explored that and other post-human ideas the most, particularly in his short stories.
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Dec 15, 2020 00:52
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Varley is also just a deeply underrated, super fun author. The Golden Globe is probably one of my favourite sci-fi novels ever.
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Dec 15, 2020 01:25
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It hasn't come out yet (it's supposed to soon), but The Unraveling by Benjamin Rosenbaum is at least in part about a future where "biotechnology has revolutionized gender" and exploring very different concepts of gender seems to be a big part of the story at least according to the marketing blurbs I've seen. I've had an eye on it since the pitch piques my interest, but I haven't read it yet since it's not out.
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Dec 15, 2020 02:23
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macabresca posted:I'm looking for some sci-fi about non-binary identities, for example agender alien species or how future technology can change our perception of gender binarity. So not just stories that feature nb characters but the ones that explore the subject in more detail. Something like The Left Hand of Darkness. Do you have some recommendations? Schild's Ladder by Greg Egan. Actually most of his stuff, but that's the one that addresses it the most out of what I've read.
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Dec 15, 2020 02:37
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The Legend of Eli Monpress by Rachel Aaron - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0058ECNXU/
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Dec 15, 2020 02:48
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Stuporstar posted:Serious answer: John Varley was probably the New Wave author who explored that and other post-human ideas the most, particularly in his short stories. Yeah I was about to suggest Varley.
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Dec 15, 2020 02:57
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Stuporstar posted:Dammit I’m still writing my bloody series and haven’t edited one to completion (I keep getting distracted by poo poo like de-gendered ancient Egyptian-based conlangs, there is no hope for me) Ophiuchi Hotline is pretty good for this but I'd avoid the gaea trilogy personally. Linda Nagata is a more contemporary example of future tranhumanism*, especially the nanotech and inverted frontiers series. Bruce sterling's Schizmatrix plus is one of my favourites and the iain m banks' culture series just includes it in the world building. *Assuming you're talking about biology and bodies being inherently and often changeable from gender to looks to function.
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Dec 15, 2020 10:30
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Maybe Octavia butler too
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Dec 15, 2020 10:46
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Thanks a lot!Stuporstar posted:Dammit I’m still writing my bloody series and haven’t edited one to completion (I keep getting distracted by poo poo like de-gendered ancient Egyptian-based conlangs, there is no hope for me) Fingers crossed!
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Dec 15, 2020 11:59
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^^Thanks!branedotorg posted:Ophiuchi Hotline is pretty good for this but I'd avoid the gaea trilogy personally. Yeah, some forewarning about the centaur sex chart in Titan etc. might be in order. Pretty much every sff author, especially from back then, has written some questionable poo poo. I think I give Varley a pass because even when he gets onto his, “Post-human sex is gonna be freaky wild, it’ll be great!” thing, he somehow manages to do it in non-creepy ways, unlike pretty much every other sff author. branedotorg posted:Maybe Octavia butler too The Xenogenesis trilogy is one of my all time favorites. And yeah, the third sex of the Oankali and how they choose their gender at puberty kinda fits the request
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Dec 15, 2020 17:48
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Finished reading SFL Vol 15b aka July-December 1990. I have 50% completion in my SFL Archives readthrough project, technically at least. Lots of now embedded in current pop culture movies, books and tv-shows happened/got cancelled/or were teased to be in production happened in 1990. For example, Stephen Donaldson mentioned he was working on a new science-fiction trilogy called the Gap cycle, Terry Pratchett was becoming iconic, Orson Scott Card had firmly started his slide into mormon-fundamentalism, Dan Simmons was the brightest shining new talent in the SF&F genres, and Fred Saberhagen had 2 different fantasy-scifi series that kept getting discussed how Game of Thrones and the Malazan books are. quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 06:34 on Dec 16, 2020 |
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Dec 15, 2020 17:59
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American Gods by Neil Gaiman - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004YW4L5K/ His Dark Materials (Golden Compass #1) by Philip Pullman - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC1ICM/
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Dec 15, 2020 18:15
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Player of Games, but anything culture really.
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Dec 15, 2020 19:23
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| # ? May 20, 2024 09:06 |
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Misposted this to the old-school CRPG thread by accident/meant to ask the old-school cRPG thread about the I DAMIANO crpg (based on R.A. McAvoy's fantasy book series) briefly mentioned in SFL Archives Vol 15b. ======== Here's how Simon Hawke got slowly revealed as a sex predator. 1980's -1990's SF&F author terrible conduct are slooooow drawn-out reveals in the SFL Archives. I've definitely missed coded reveal phrases like "Famous Author perks" in convention chatter before thanks to me finding convention after-action reports/convention discussions exceptionally boring/very skippable, especially when it involves anything written by Mark & Evelyn Leeper. ------------------------------ Date: 8 Feb 90 05:34:55 GMT From: sterling@maxwell.physics.purdue.edu (Bruce S. Woodcock) Subject: Re: Time Travelling Simon Hawke is one of my favorite writers. He used to write under the name of Nicholas Yermakov (sp?) which is, I believe, his real name. I believe he is a Russian by birth. His TimeWars series includes: The Ivanhoe Gambit, The Timekeeper Consipracy, The Pimpernel Plot, The Zenda Vendetta, The Nautilus Sanction, The Khyber Connection, The Argonaut Affair, The Dracula Caper, and The Lilliput Legion, in that order. He also wrote the cyberpunk Psychodrome series, Psychodrome and Psychodrome II: The Shapechanger Scenario. He also writes a fantasy series: The Wizard of 4th Street, The Wizard of White Chapel, and the Wizard of Sunset Strip. I like all of them, but have read very little of his work under the name of Nicholas Yermakov. The best I remember under that name was a short story he wrote called "Hamburger Heaven," a hilarious story collected in an anthology called Perpetual Light, which contains a number of science fiction/fantasy stories with religion as the main theme. I find this man to be a great write; can anyone compile a list of what he has written? Bruce Woodcock ------------------------------ Date: 24 May 90 05:49:36 GMT From: goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu (David Goldfarb) Subject: Re: Simon Hawke oliver@johnson.cs.unc.edu (Bill Oliver) writes: >Simon Hawke *must* be a pseudonym. Does anyone know who this really is? >Or is there really a Simon Hawke. Simon Hawke's real name is Nicholas Yermakov. He's published one or two books under this name, but they sold poorly because everyone thought that he was a translated Russian author. Hence the pseudonym. David Goldfarb goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu ------------------------------ Date: 26 May 90 15:19:14 GMT From: wdstarr@athena.mit.edu (William December Starr) Subject: Re: Simon Hawke David Goldfarb said: > Simon Hawke's real name is Nicholas Yermakov. He's published one or two > books under this name, but they sold poorly because everyone thought that > he was a translated Russian author. Hence the pseudonym. As a followup to this: for a few years, Yermakov tried to keep his Hawke identity a secret. He finally came out of the closet, so to speak, after he heard that some random was showing up at various sf cons and claiming to be Simon Hawke and thereby enjoying all sorts of Famous Author perks. (list of Nicholas Yermakov books follows) William December Starr wdstarr@athena.mit.edu ------------------------------ Date: 25 Jun 90 16:38:59 GMT From: mnemonic@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Mike Godwin) Subject: Re: Comments on Harlan Ellison's Article in IASFM (buried 6 paragraphs deep) Is this really true, Laurie? Ellison gives accounts of writers who DO confess their shortcomings - Longyear talks about his alcoholism, Haldeman confesses that he "screws up" his science now and then, Hawke confesses that he's slept with fans at cons. ------------------------------ quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 05:20 on Dec 17, 2020 |
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Dec 16, 2020 20:18
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