Fantastika

WTF, have you even seen it?

Published on February 20, 20154 Comments

One William Lehman wrote something stupid about Star Trek:

Say what you will about the SJW Glittery hoo ha crowd, they get this. I speculate that they get it because while we (the guys that grew up watching STOG and said “Hey those doors are COOL, how would you do that for real? Those communicators, could you do that?) went to engineering and hard science classes and started building the future that we wanted, the aforementioned individuals where going to the soft sciences (not real sciences at all in my NSHO) and studied how cultures work.

David Gerrold who, as you know Bob, was actually there at the time as one of the scriptwriters, slapped him down quickly:

I was there. I know what Gene Roddenberry envisioned. He went on at length about it in almost every meeting. He wasn’t about technology, he was about envisioning a world that works for everyone, with no one and nothing left out. Gene Roddenberry was one of the great Social Justice Warriors. You don’t get to claim him or his show as a shield of virtue for a cause he would have disdained.

Most of the stories we wrote were about social justice. “The Cloud Minders,” “A Taste Of Armageddon,” “Errand Of Mercy,” “The Apple,” “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield,” and so many more. We did stories that were about exploring the universe not just because we could build starships, but because we wanted to know who was out there, what was our place in the universe, and what could we learn from the other races out there?

A very Annie Hall moment:

Of course for those of us who paid attention to sf fandom during that time and long after, the idea of Star Trek of all things hold up as an example of hard science fiction ruined by the social justice warriors, is hilarious. Quite a few fans, the sort of people now screaming about SWJ’s, had no time for the series whatsoever while its fandom was literally run by their greatest enemy: women.

It’s all part of an inept kulturkampf of course, run by people with the barest connection to science fiction fandom as a sort of out of control offshoot of Republican fundraising. The worst part about it is that useful idiots like Lehman actually believe the nonsense they spout.

What would a Ken Macleod Culture novel look like?

Published on February 19, 2015Leave a comment

So it turns out Iain Banks asked Ken MacLeod to continue the Culture after his death:

MacLeod said: “He had an idea for the next Culture novel and what he said to me was that he would like me to pick it up and run with it in my own way.

“I was very reluctant to agree even though Iain was insistent that it was something I would write in my own way rather than in a pastiche of his.

“Unfortunately, Iain left not even notes I could work from. If he had managed to get through the summer, he hoped to leave enough notes for me to work from if I wanted to.

As you know Bob, the very first Culture novel was dedicated to Ken MacLeod, so there’s no better person than him who could’ve continued the series. I understand why he’s reluctant to do so, but in this case I’d rather liked to have seen it. But at least Kevin J. Anderson can’t get his hands on it.

Short SF Marathon Week 2

Published on February 18, 2015Leave a comment

The second week of my short sf marathon has just concluded:

Day 8: Jeffrey Ford, Karen Joy Fowler, Max Gladstone
Day 9: Kathleen Ann Goonan, Theodora Goss, Nicola Griffith
Day 10: Shane Halbach, Maria Dahvana Headley, Kat Howard
Day 11: Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen, N. K. Jemisin, Xia Jia
Day 12: Xia Jia, Rachael K. Jones, Stephen Graham Jones
Day 13: Vylar Kaftan, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Ellen Klages
Day 14: Jay Lake, Rich Larson, Yoon Ha Lee

All her Children Fought

Published on February 12, 2015Leave a comment

Proof you can tell a science fiction story with only three actors and one, not entirely convincing special effect. Based on the story by Tobias Buckell, who has the story of how it came to be up on his blog. It’s an excellent example of how much you can convey with just a bit of subtle incluing, by working within genre expectations. I can’t be the only one to watch this and be reminded of Ender’s Game, can I?

Some comments: I wonder if the choice of accents for the three actors was deliberate or just a coincidence, but it works in contrasting the boy and his minder with the main character. I’m not sure the premisse of the movie is valid, the reason why it’s young boys/children being sent up there rather than adults, but it makes emotional sense.

A week of short short stories reviews

Published on February 11, 2015Leave a comment

So I made the decision to read through this list of 98 well received short SF stories from last year, as originally posted to MetaFilter, reading roughly three stories a day. The first week of posts is now up:

Introduction and list of stories
Day One: stories by Charlie Jane Anders, Eleanor Arnason and Dale Bailey
Day Two: Jessica Barber and two by Elizabeth Bear.
Day Three and Four: Helena Bell, Holly Black, Aliette de Bodard, Richard Butner, Richard Bowes & Chaz Brenchley.
Day Five: Siobhan Carroll, Dario Ciriello and C. S. E. Cooney.
Day Six: Julio Cortázar, Tom Crosshill and Amanda C. Davis
Day Seven: Amal El-Mohtar, Ruthanna Emrys and K. M. Ferebee.

It’s been interesting reading these stories this way, usually done on my tablet lying on the couch with a cat on my lap. Even if a given story isn’t too my liking, it’s easy enough to push through to a better one. I don’t read enough short stories normally and this is a good challenge to get me to read more.