Creating an online SF/F convention

Sherwood Smith wants to know if there is interest in holding an online SF/F convention in mid January of next year. Based on the responses to her post, the answer appears to be a big yes. I think this is a great idea and echo others who wonder why this hasn't been attempted before.

Over on the Asimov's forum, people also like Smith's idea, although Bill Moonroe wonders if one actually has "to see the costumed attendees in person to really appreciate the convention atmosphere." On the plus side, he notes he could afford the airfare to an online convention. With the price of fuel at all time highs, I'm sure a lot of people would agree with that last statement.

Paolo Bacigalupi, Tobias Buckell, Charles Coleman Finlay and others host the superbowl of author readings

How's this for a superbowl of an author reading: Paolo Bacigalupi, Tobias Buckell, Charles Coleman Finlay, Sandra McDonald, Paul Melko and Sarah Prineas will do a joint reading in Columbus, Ohio, on June 7th at 7 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble Bookseller, 1739 Olentangy River Rd. That's located about a stone's throw from the Ohio State campus.

Sadly, Buckell's new book Sly Mongoose won't be out prior to the reading, but his highly praised novel Ragamuffin is still available. For more information on Buckell and his writings see my review of Ragamuffin and my featured interview with him. I also highly recommend Bacigalupi's Pump Six and Other Stories (see my overall review here and my praise for the title story here). As readers may remember, I'm really pushing for the title story of Bacigalupi's collection to be nominated for the Hugo and Nebula awards. And obviously Finlay, McDonald, Melko, and Prineas are all top-notch authors.

A few years ago I ran a major literary reading series in the Twin Cities, meaning I attended the dang things several times each week. As you might guess, that really burned me out on the whole idea of author readings.This is the first reading since then that I'm actually excited about attending.

Flashback to the future

I'm completely taken with the blog Modern Mechanix, which provides flashbacks to what people decades ago thought the future would look like. Some of my personal favorites of late are how to create your own inflatable dome (from Popular Science, July 1973) and amazing marvels of tomorrow (from Mechanix Illustrated, Aug. 1955). Amazing how many of these predictions were both totally off the mark and actually close to the truth of what happened.

How original is it to ask if SF has lost its originality?

Prashant Raju over at Jumbabox asks "Has Science Fiction lost its originality?" Prashant's reasoning is that several of the characters from the upcoming Hellboy II: The Golden Army movie are extremely similar to previously seen characters in Stargate, Star Wars and Pan's Labyrinth. Since Guillermo del Toro directed both Hellboy II and Pan's Labyrinth, I don't think that's a fair comparison--after all, authors and directors tend to reuse certain of their favorite character designs--but the other images Prashant provides does make one wonder. My theory is that there are only so many ways to use make-up and latex to turn humans into aliens or monsters.

First "space lawyer" dooms humanity to an earth-bound fate

The first "space lawyer" has graduated, which probably means humanity is now doomed to an earth-bound fate. MichaelDodge, the newly minted lawyer to the stars--not the high paying type of stars out in Hollywood, mind you--says that he was initially curious as to why "space needed regulation." But luckily for him, and to the future detriment of all who dream of humanity throwing off the shackles of earth, he got over such non-lawyerly worries and showed his right stuff by embracing the final legal frontier.

All I can add is don't look to me to write about space lawyers anytime soon, unless it's in connection to some alien monster needing a space lawyer's stomach to explode out of.

Free online science fiction stories

James Wallace Harris has the details on all the free, high quality science fiction available online. As Harris says, these aren't links to trunk stories or works by wanna-be writers. These are classic SF stories. In addition, Harris adds that "a good way to dip your toe in the free story waters is to read BestScienceFictionStories.comwhere Rusty reviews standout SF short stories, many of which are on the net to read for free and Rusty provides the links.  He even offers a guide to finding free stories, 'Nine Secrets For Finding Your Favorite Science Fiction Short Stories Online,' as well as 'The 10 Best Web Sites for Free Online Science Fiction Short Stories.' When I was a kid I had to haunt musty used bookshops all over Miami to find classic SF stories to read.  Now story hunting is as easy as a mouse-click away."

Charles Platt's "Marginal Transcendence" and how to wholeheartedly sell out

The April and May issues of the New York Review of Science Fiction feature a fascinating two-part autobiography by author Charles Platt. Titled "Marginal Transcendence," the first essay follows Pratt's life from his birth in a dull town 40 miles outside London to his work on Michael Moorcock's groundbreaking New Worlds magazine. The second essay picks up with Platt's move to the United States, his writing in the science fiction field, and his journalism for Wired Magazine.

While Platt's impact on the science fiction field has been somewhat limited, he has been involved in two seminal magazines associated with the genre--with New Worlds promoting the launch of the New Wave movement, and Wired popularizing many SF memes--while also being a life-long part of SF fandom. He also drops some amazing insight during the essays. For example, he says that if editors could give authors three instructions, they would be:

1. Don't be a prima donna.
2. Don't write a book that's different from the one you said you would write.
3. Deliver it on time.

He also advises that if writers want to sell out, "it should be a wholehearted sellout with no self-serving nonsense about doing it 'ethically.'"

Review of Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, edited by John Joseph Adams

A few minutes ago Monsters and Critics published my review of the short story anthology Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, edited by John Joseph Adams. I'm probably the last person on earth to review this wonderful book, which fits nicely since these this is a collection of the best end-of-the-world stories from recent years. The long and short of my review is that I really enjoyed the stories in this anthology. However, I also wonder (and explore in the review) if the recent surge of post apocalyptic stories might now have passed its high water mark.

Give 100% toward becoming 1% well read

By way of James Wallace Harris's blog comes news of the 1% well read challenge. As the site says, "The goal of this challenge is to read 10 books in 10 months from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list."

James asked for some books from this list that blew other people's minds. A few of my choices from recent years would be The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx, and The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. I should note, though, that there are many great books--especially in the SF/F genre--are nowhere to be found on the list. Still, this is an interesting reading challenge.

"Pump Six" by Paolo Bacigalupi is a Locus recommended story

Back in February I reviewed Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi and noted that the title story of the collection is one of the best SF/F novelettes I've read in ages. I finished the review by stating that if there is any justice in the world, "Pump Six" will be the story that finally wins Bacigalupi a Hugo or Nebula Award.

After writing those words, I wondered if others would notice this amazing story or if it would fall through the critical/reviewer cracks, so to speak. Well now we have some great news: In the May 2008 issue of Locus, reviewer Nick Gevers selects the novelette as a recommended story. I strongly suggest people track down this amazing short story collection and its equally amazing title story.

I should also note that this issue of Locus contains excellent interviews with both Theodora Goss and Catherynne M. Valente. As people may remember, Valente won last year's Million Writers Award with her story "Urchins, While Swimming."

Locus Awards short list and questions on why this award process works so well

Per the Science Fiction Awards watch blog comes news of the top five finishers in each category for the 2008 Locus Awards. I must admit to being quite pleased with the line up. While I could quibble about certain stories or novels that made the Locus list, this definitely gives people an excellent overview of the best in SF/F from the last year.

Since this award is decided upon by the readers of Locus, who nominate their favorite stories and novels, I wonder why the Locus Awards line up looks so much better this go around than the recent Hugo and Nebula lists. After all, many of the same people who nominate for the Locus Awards also help pick the Hugos and Nebulas. My guess would be a difference in the actual award process, with the Locus Awards able to avoid many of the group dynamics and infighting which sometimes plague the Hugos and Nebulas. If anyone has an alternate theory on why the Locus Awards consistently produce such high quality nominees and winners, I hope they'll drop me a line and let me know the reason.

2008 Hugo Award nominees now online

SF Signal has created a listing of all the 2008 Hugo Award nominees and the amazing thing is that almost all of the stories are now available online to read. This is not only a smart way to generate votes for the nominees, its also a great way to people to read the best SF/F of the last year. The Denvention site also lists the links to the nominated stories, but the novels are only available for WorldCon members to read online.

The reports of the death of the novella are greatly exaggerated

There's a fascinating conversation on the state of the SF/F novella on the Asimov's discussion board. While Fabrice Doublet bemoans the lack of good novellas nominated for the Hugo Award, editor Rich Horton notes that a number of strong novellas have been published lately. Gardner Dozois says that while there are "never a whole lot of novellas published per year, ... science fiction is one of the few genres in which any are published at all."

Personally, I'm glad that the SF/F genre remains receptive to novellas. As Dozois states, "Sometimes working under restrictions and limitations is actually good for art." I totally agree. There are a great many famous novellas--such as The Old Man and the Sea, to give a "literary" example--which would have been bloated and weak if the story had been fleshed out to novel length. 

Starbuck says science fiction has little to do with Battlestar Galactica's success

Actress Katee Sackhoff, who plays Captain Kara "Starbuck" Thrace on the Sci Fi Channel television show Battlestar Galactica, has this to say on why this show is the best thing on TV:

"We never relied on the science fiction of the show. Most science fiction shows rely way too much on the bells and whistles. It kind of opened doors in science fiction to realize . . . it's just a setting. . . . It's not, (and) it should never have been what the show is."

Sackhoff is correct that the show's amazing character development is a major factor in why BG is so successful, but she's wrong to imply that the show's setting is irrelevant to this success. If Battlestar Galactica had been set in present day America, the show would have simply been an over-wrought soap opera. Instead, the space setting, combined with the desparate race for survival by this last group of human survivors, allows the show to explore complex issues with a depth and resonance that other TV dramas lack. Yes, the characters make the show great. But without the setting, no one would care about any of that character drama. Great science fiction is a merging of setting and drama and character. And it takes all three of those legs to support a great story like Battlestar Galactica.

10,000 BC and real fake movies

I saw 10,000 BC the other night and really enjoyed it. No, the movie is not a deep cinematic exploration of life, but it is a fun summer-type action movie. I mean, how can you hate a film with sabertooth tigers and giant carniverous birds!

One thing that puzzles me, though, is that 10,000 BC has received fairly negative reviews, with many of the reviewers complaining that the film is not historically accurate. Well, duh. The film even starts out with a voice-over stating that what follows is essentially a myth. But because the film takes liberties with history--nevermind that our knowledge of the specifics of human history that long ago is very limited--the movie gets panned. Now contrast this with movies and TV shows set in current times which take liberties with reality in ways which we know are absolutely wrong. For example, the action scenes and events in the TV series 24 are uniformly unrealistic, as they likewise are in the film No Country for Old Men. But we accept that these are cases where cinematic license is taken with reality in order to tell a compelling story (and in the two examples given, even reward these productions with well-deserved awards).

So my suggestion: Enjoy 10,000 BC for what it is--a far-fetched but fun story--and don't get all worked up over whether or not it is historically accurate.

Religion and science fiction

SF Signal has a great discussion up titled Is Science Fiction Antithetical to Religion? Among the authors taking part are Mike Resnick, Lou Anders, Ben Bova, and many many more. And don't even begin to assume that you know what the different authors are going to say. As Resnick states at the beginning, "You can't generalize about this large a field. For every atheist or agnostic author you can name, I'll name a religious one. For example: Gene Wolfe is a devout Catholic. Ray Lafferty was a devout Catholic. Avram Davidson was an Orthodox Jew. Michael A. Burstein is an Orthodox Jew. Ect. Ect. Ect."

Convention finder website

The other day John Joseph Adams issued a call for some tech savvy person to create a searchable database of SF/F conventions. Nathan Lily took up that call and has created Convention Finder, where you can search for conventions by zip code. Now all that we need are for people to enter the details of conventions into the database. So if you know about a convention, surf over there and do your part to help this wonderful website succeed.

Making science fiction books not look like SF books

GalleyCat examines the United States and United Kingdom versions of Charles Stross's Halting State and notices that in the U.S., the book cover clearly labels the novel as SF, while in the U.K. the book looks like a hip mainstream thriller. In addition, both editions of Ken MacLeod's The Execution Channel avoided an overly SF-looking cover. As GalleyCat observes, this is an obvious attempt to market these books beyond the core SF audience while at the same time not diluting the books' SF appeal. Sounds like a good strategy to me, although I wonder if part of the problem is that far too many SF books go for the generic SF-looking cover we all see in every SF section of the bookstore. Perhaps if more SF books showcased the variety of cover designs seen among generic literary and thriller books, other audiences would be willing to give these books a read.

Larry Sessions's proposal to honor Arthur C. Clarke

Larry Sessions is proposing that a massive stellar explosion which was visible on earth during the early hours of March 19th--shortly after the death of Arthur C. Clarke--be named in honor of this science fiction grandmaster. I totally support this proposal and urge others to do the same.

As Sessions says:

I propose that henceforth we refer to the March 19 gamma ray blast, officially designated GRB 080319B, as the "Clarke event" in honor of Sir Arthur. Was it the Universe reacting to the loss of this great man? No, as he himself would have told you, although likely not without prefacing it with a mischievous grin and an allusion to the gods being angry with him. No it wasn't the Universe mourning Sir Arthur. Instead, at its enormous distance, the light from this event formed and left on its journey long before Earth was born, presumably also making it the oldest event ever witnessed by humans. But what more fitting an honor for Sir Arthur?

For the record, NASA said this explosion was "the most intrinsically bright object ever observed by humans in the universe." I can think of no better tribute than to name this event for Clarke, who brought more illumination to humanity than most ordinary writers can even dream of doing.

Guilt tripping as a book promotion strategy

Robert Hoge has this suggestion for small literary presses which promote their books at conventions:

Don't try to guilt $25 out of me as a purchase-as-charity sale to support a small press. Yes the publisher has put lots of effort into the book and will almost certainly make a loss on the publication. But don't say you're going to bar the doors until everyone buys a book because the small press publisher deserves our support.  Small publishers deserve and get our support because they publish shit-hot stories. If you don't at least try to sell me on buying the book because of its quality then you're not doing you're job and you don't deserve a sale.

I have been to too many launches where the only call to action is "buy the book so you can support the publisher's hard work and they can do more publications." Harper Collins won't be telling me to buy the books at their launch because Rupert Murdoch needs the money. They'll be telling me to buy the book/s because if I don't I'll be missing the hottest YA fantasy of the year or the best science fiction debut since Mary Doria Russell.

Since Hoge is a judge for this year's World Fantasy Award, I'd suggest small presses take his suggestion under serious consideration.