And sometimes you just want some good old Stax soul to listen to.
Books read January
With the first month of 2014 done, I’m reasonably satisfied in what and how much I’ve read. Eight books, five science fiction, one fantasy, two non-fiction. Could be better, could be worse. Five female writers, three male; I’m still trying to keep a rough gender equality in what I read.
Key out of Time –Andre Norton
Another novel in the series that started with Time Traders finds Ross and friends stranded in the prehistory of an alien planet. More decent young adult adventure science fiction.
Rocannon’s World — Ursula K. LeGuin
An early LeGuin science fiction novel, not nearly as good or interesting as the novels she made her reputation with, but still of interest for fans.
Women in Medieval Europe 1200-1500 — Jennifer Ward
A thorough introduction to the roles women could and did play in the late middle ages.
Soviet Operational and Tactical Combat in Manchuria, 1945 — David Glantz
An examination of the Soviet campaign against the Japanese late in World War II, in which they basically crushed the Japanese forces in Manchuria in barely a week.
Pushing Ice — Alastair Reynolds
When Janus, one of Saturn’s moons, turns out not to be and leaves it orbit, only the Rockhopper is in place to follow it. Just another gritty Reynolds hard science fiction bravoura.
The Killing Moon — N. K. Jemisin
First in a duology (so far) of fantasy novels inspired by certain aspects of Egyptian history and mythology.
Zoe’s Tale — John Scalzi
The fourth in Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series, a retelling of the third one, now told through the eyes of the seventeen year old daughter of that novel’s protagonists.
Ascension — Jacqueline Koyanagi
Alana Quick is a starship engineer in a galactic wide depression when nobody needs starship engineers anymore. She stows away on the Tangled Axon and falls in love with its captain, Tev, — “blond hair, boots and confidence”.
Ascension — Jacqueline Koyanagi
Ascension: A Tangled Axon Novel
Jacqueline Koyanagi
331 pages
published in 2013
It was the woman on the cover which drew me to this novel and the subtitle which almost scared me off again. The woman attracted me because it’s not often you actually do see a woman of colour on the cover of a science fiction novel, sometimes not even when the heroine is indeed a black woman. Seeing that got me to pull Ascension off the shelves, but reading the subtitle A Tangled Axon Novel almost made me put it back because it made it sound as if this was a novel in an established series, rather than a first novel. Luckily the inside cover blurb mentioned that this was Jacqueline Koyanagi’s first novel, so I took a punt. Not having heard of her or her novel before, in the end the cover as well as reading the first few pages were enough to make me want to read this.
And I’m so glad I did, because this was a glorious, wonderful mess of a book. Reading it, especially in the first couple of chapters, you get the idea that the author is only showing you glimpses of a much larger universe she’s been carrying around in her head for a long time, therefore occasionally making oblique references to things she knows and which are completely clear to her, but doesn’t quite explain to the reader. That’s the messy part of the book. The glorious and wonderful parts are its characters, its protagonist especially. Alana Quick is a sky surgeon, a starship engineer in the midst of a depression when nobody needs starship engineers because starships are obsolete. Her ex-wife left her for a career with Transliminal Solutions, the company that made them obsolete, her sister Nova has a flourishing career as a spirit guide, relieving rich clients from their anxieties, while her own obsession with space, with the Big Quiet, makes her unsuitable for anything but repairing spaceships even if the hard physical labour does her chronic nerve disease no favours. Having to deal with a debilitating disease while barely making ends meet, is it any wonder she stows away when the Tangled Axon comes looking for her sister? Or that she falls in love with the ship’s glamorous captain Tev — “all blond hair, boots and confidence”?
No one will fail to support my right to exist unmolested
Science fiction fandom doesn’t have the best of reputations when it comes to providing safe spaces, so it’s heartening to hear about when a convention gets it right. When twistpeach got harassed, the Arisia concon took her complaints seriously and made sure her harasser was banned (which, it turned out, he was already) and once it became clear that this wasn’t a one-off incident, other cons were warned about him and several followed Arisia’s lead and banned him too. Twistpeach credits Arisia for having created a place in which she felt secure enough to come forward:
I was confident that I was in a safe place, surrounded by people who I could rely upon to back me up. No one will fail to support my right to exist unmolested in space and time, displacing the room for entitled jerks to have free reign. So I don’t have to be afraid. I am not alone. And yes. I have a right to be here.
I have these things because of activists against rape culture, movements against harassment at conventions in general, Arisia’s policy and personnel particularly, feminism, supportive friends, and a culture that has been significantly altered by them. I am so grateful that somebody told me that I have a right to be here. My community supports that right and it is because of them that I have the conviction to stand up for myself. Thank you to all of you who have made me strong enough to be a warrior.
All of this is excellent news, to see that sf conventions can get it right, that anti harassment policies can and do work and that problem individuals can be identified and do have to take the responsibility for their actions. In an ideal world this shouldn’t have been remarkable or newsworthy, but publicising such positive outcomes help both to restore confidence in sf fandom to clean up its own house as well as make clear fandom doesn’t tolerate harassment. Kudos to Twistpeach as well for being confident enough to write about her experiences so honestly.
Sun City
Little Steve van Zandt talks to Dave Marsh about Sun City, Paul Simon and the fight against Apartheid, on the eve of Bruce Springsteen’s first tour of South Africa:
And I met with AZAPO, who had a very frank conversation — I was talking to the translator — about whether they should kill me for even being there. That’s how serious they were about violating the boycott. I eventually talked them out of that and then talked them into maybe going kinda with my thing.
They showed me that they have an assassination list, and Paul Simon was at the top of it. [NOTE: In 1986, Paul Simon recorded tracks for his Graceland album in South Africa, in direct violation of the cultural boycott.] And in spite of my feelings about Paul Simon, who we can talk about in a minute if you want to, I said to them, “Listen, I understand your feelings about this; I might even share them, but…”
What strikes me almost thirty years later is how modern the Artist United Against Apartheid project was, especially compared to the other Big Cause projects (We Are the World, Live Aid). Much of that is of course because Little Steve was smart enough to bring hip-hop artists into project, not just pop and rock musicians. Also how much more and much more explicitly political. The famines in Ethiopia were presented as natural disasters, but Little Steve and co from the start made clear not only that the South African government was to blame for Apartheid and its evils, but also how much western support it received over the years. “Why are we always on the wrong side” indeed.