johncoxon, visit the Adler Planetarium, attend the Hugos, and see an interview with the ridiculously accomplished Story Musgrave. I witnessed the Helsinki 2015 bid spring into official existence at the Fannish Inquisition, and ran around from party to party till the wee hours. Outside of the con itself, we made three excursions into the city for food; deep dish pizza at Giordano's, Philpino food from a hole-in-the-wall called Halo Asian Mix, and a Chicago style hot dog on the very last day at a place called Max's. All in all it was a good trip.Then I got ten more days with
johncoxon in San Francisco, which we spent playing tourist and hanging with friends. Also eating.We went to the 49th Annual Cable Car Bell Ringing contest in Union Square, and then had the best banh mi I've ever tasted at Fresh Brew Coffee, whose owner Jackie is not only great fun but an expert on Bay Area food; he had recommendations for every cuisine and area we could come up with. We went to see a dance troupe at City Hall, and got lumpia and sisig tacos from the HaPa SF food truck. We went to the Fillmore for an art walk that barely materialized, and I introduced John to chicken and waffles at Gussie's. We went to the botanical gardens at Golden Gate Park, and had a Durty Nelly's burger on the way in, and six exhausting hours of walking later, a giant bowl of pho at Kevin's Noodle House on Irving. Plus plenty of burritos from my local joint, El Burrito Express. Added to this a side trip to Berkeley (another great burger, this time at Barney's which has tremendously good milkshakes) and a trip down to Santa Clara for dumplings at 456 with Chris Garcia & co followed by a side trip to History San Jose (which I had never been to before!) and then poutine and crepes at Little Chef and Cre Paris respectively. The last outing of the visit started with a lox bagel at Moishe's Pippic and ended down in the South Bay with dinner at Tom and Spike's, which was delicious and included a wide and tasty selection of wines and much fannish conversation.
After a blur of walking, eating, and playing tourist, we spent the last day moping about before it was time to see John off at the airport. Sucks, but he's off at a conference in Northern Ireland, and I have a lot of catching up to do, so at least there are distractions.
But since this was more of a review, I figured I would cross-post it here.
Two episodes in and I’m enjoying Continuum so far.
A couple of things I’ve noticed though; there’s a nice diversity of actors… buuuut, mostly it’s on the villains side. Also, the politics are such that the baddies seem to be a bit 2-dimensional in order to balance out the mostly unspoken fact that our protagonist is not really on the side of the angels.
It’ll be interesting to see where the show goes, especially since it apparently just got a second season.Countdown by Mira Grant
I liked this much more than Feed or Deadline, probably because of the lack of first person narration. That said, the events covered in this were already familiar from those two books, so while it was nice enough to get a more detailed view of specific incidents I'm not sure it was really needed. It did make me kind of want to go re-read World War Z, though.
"The Ice Owl" by Carolyn Ives Gillman
This didn't really work for me. The characters seemed thin, including the protagonist. The title image didn't really go anywhere, and the backdrop was a retelling of the Holocaust (called the Holocide here, because the future) that in the end didn't really matter all that much and seemed far too heavy to support the rather basic coming of age story. The sfnal elements were also rather beside the point--I feel like the whole thing would have worked just as well with pre-industrial travel and communications as with interstellar ones and I might have bought the somewhat contrived ending more easily in that case. Finally, I have some serious reservations about the handling of the character of Ginko.
"Kiss Me Twice" by Mary Robinette Kowal
Futuristic police procedural, something I really enjoy when it is well done. In this case it is, for the most part, but the ending didn't entirely sell me and the sfnal elements were interesting but didn't feel all that novel. I liked the characters and the setting, and would gladly read other shorts set in the same world but I don't think this one will linger in my memory the way "Evil Robot Monkey" did.
"The Man Who Bridged the Mist" by Kij Johnson
Well written but didn't do anything for me. The world seemed neat enough, but the story went nowhere and did little to grab or keep my interest. In fact IIRC when I was reading it I reached the end and then turned the page expecting it to go on, except it was over. I might go back and give it another chance if I get my other reading done.
"The Man Who Ended History" by Ken Liu
Another briliant Liu story, this one much darker but still emotionally resonant. The sfnal angle in this one proves Liu is equally adept at SF as he is at fantasy, and it very thought provoking. I wrote about this one over on hugo_recommend.
"Silently and Very Fast" by Catherynne M. Valente
I think I wish this one was either a novelette or a full-length novel, to reduce the noise (gorgeous as it was) or give it a framework large enough to encompass it more comfortably. Still, it's a great story beautifully told, and I was surprised at how well Valente's brand of metaphor and myth worked for such a thoroughly sfnal tale, and an intriguing one at that. In a way it reminded me of Cordwainer Smith. I was also struck when Valente used simile and metaphor in a way that immediately made me think of Embassytown.
We mainly talk about the Hugos nominations and The Avengers, there is some gushing about the latter.
Beautifully written, some lovely imagery, but didn't add up to enough for me.
"The Homecoming" by Mike Resnick
Didn't care for this one. It felt like a student play; one-dimensional characters, unsubtle and emotionally manipulative. Plus the sfnal elements felt tacked on to me.
"Movement" by Nancy Fulda
I liked this one, more so on the reread than the first time. It's a good story, but autism-related fiction seems to be everywhere in the genre right now so I think I resisted it a bit on the first go.
"The Paper Menagerie" by Ken Liu
I've said it before, but discovering Ken Liu is one of my favorite things of the past year of reading. Just gorgeous, and terribly sad. I've read it three or four times now and cry each time. The writing is excellent, the people felt utterly real and the emotions, good and bad, rang true.
"Shadow War of the Night Dragons: Book One: The Dead City: Prologue" by John Scalzi
I giggled repeatedly while reading this. Humor often gets short thrift in awards and critical consideration compared to drama, so in that sense it was nice to see this on here. That said, it's really more of a vignette than a short story, and didn't satisfy.
Among Others by Jo Walton
I really enjoyed this book, and it's clear why so many people in fandom did as well. Part of me wishes, though, that it was just a story of a young fan coming of age in the late 70s, without the fantastical elements. They sort of almost work, but ultimately I was left unsatisfied. Still, it's well written and has a lot that I loved.
A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin
Oh, George. Before this was nominated I had pledged not to read any more of A Song of Ice and Fire until the series was completed. I am allergic to endless fantasy series and a bit frustrated that I got invested in this one in 2005 right before it became just that. Still, I loved the first three books and didn't hate the fourth, so having an excuse to read it anyway was not all bad. Except I hated it.
I got a quarter in and then started speed reading and still couldn't get past the halfway mark. Dull, padded out, with focus on characters I didn't care about, or one ones I did doing things I didn't care about. Plus the violence, torture, and rape all cranked up to 11, feeling much more gratuitous than in the previous books.
Deadline by Mira Grant
I also didn't finish this, but it was less of a surprise. I only got halfway through Feed, and didn't really like the first October Day book either. The world itself is interesting enough, although there aren't actually all that many zombies in the first 200 pages. There's obviously a whole ton of research that has gone into the virology angle, a lot of it is on the page. But ultimately I didn't like the characters or find them very well fleshed out, and found a lot of the text very repetitive, so my investment in turning the page was just not there.
Embassytown by China Mieville
This is probably the one which will go at the top of my ballot. Fantastic aliens that felt properly alien, a future and world that was equally distant but comprehensibly so, full of concepts that would have been interesting to explore all on their own, and a story that I really enjoyed. I liked the protagonist, Avice, but have to agree with the reviewer who compared her to a classic 19th Century narrator in that she was a little detached from the action at times.
While the aliens were very alien and there was a lot of Mieville's playing with language and with grotesqueries, to me this feels like his most straightforward adult novel of his I've read so far. Almost straight up SF from the King of the New Weird.
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (Daniel Abraham & Ty Frank)
A bit of a throwback to 80s Space Opera here with a lot of very familiar elements; a fractious Solar System, an alien threat, a vast conspiracy, a cynical alcoholic cop, a crew of tough but highly competent renegades.
It might have been a ripping yarn at half the length, but as it is it's perfectly readable, with some fun bio-horror, but far too long, with too much plodding along by the main characters. It's also quite uneven, I was not at all surprised when I went looking for information on the author (after finishing the book) and discovered it was a collaboration. Plus it only partly wraps up, this is apparently Expanse Book #1.
Finished the category, here are my thoughts so far;
“The Copenhagen Interpretation” by Paul Cornell
I started this, thought I had read it, and then realized that was "One of Our Bastards Is Missing", and then felt a bit reluctant to read it anyway. It's not all Cornell, since I overall enjoyed British Summertime, but something about the style of these stories or the universe they're set in just makes my brain slide right off the words. I may try listening to the audio version to see if that helps but for now it's not in the top three.
"Fields of Gold” by Rachel Swirsky
Good story, well written, poignant. But lacking some crucial element to raise it up to the level of classic. I liked it while I was reading it, I want to check out some more of Swirsky's work.
“Ray of Light” by Brad R. Torgersen
Putting aside my petty annoyance at finding three errors in the text (loathe for loath, waste for waist, evening for even) this was my least favorite by a mile. The basic scenario was fine, although I'm dubious about some of the science and motivations. I also had doubts about the way it played out and found it overall sentimental and trite.
“Six Months, Three Days” by Charlie Jane Anders
I really liked this. It was a clever, breezy read that also had an intriguing enough idea behind it for my brain to chew on and come back to after putting it down. I also liked the characters and felt invested in the outcome, which is of course critical to this type of story. Probably a the top of my ballot.
“What We Found” by Geoff Ryman
This is the hard one. Ryman is an amazing writer, and there is amazing writing here. The sfnal elements are intriguing, wonderful and terrible, the characters and world are real and compelling. My mind goes back to the story and ideas. But in the end it felt a bit short of complete success.
In this issue we have coverage of the Memorial Day events madness (Fanime, Baycon, KublaCon, Clockwork Alchemy) and also Pirate Fest. Plus some thoughts on steampunk, an interview with/by Spring Schoenhuth, who is one of this year's Hugo nominees for Best Fan Artist, and some poetry to round it all off.
johncoxon's example and posting more reviews of both short fiction and novels as I read them, if nothing else to supplement my memory.Until then, here are some overdue links to recent activity;
Geek Girl Crafts Podcast #20: In this one I am absent, but Jade and Sandy interview N.K. Jemisin, so it's worth a listen!
Drink Tank #319: The Best Novel Hugo Issue. There's a bunch of good content in this one, plus I provide some verse, (also a couple of illos I'd forgotten about--I think I did them in the book johnnyeponymous had laying around at the Westercon Fanzine Lounge).
SF/SF #129: The June issue, with Eastercon, Maker Faire, Big Wow, and several other events covered by our gang of roving reporters.
Normally you'll find me at Baycon, but this year I headed over to the venerable San Jose Doubletree to check out the new player in town; Clockwork Alchemy. It was too small for the space, really, but shows a lot of promise and I'll be interested to see how it grows up.
Since Clockwork was a child convention of Fanime, that meant that the membership for one also counted for the other, plus there was a shuttle from the San Jose Convention Center to the Doubletree, running every thirty minutes or so during peak hours. So, a few of us hoped on and headed over on Saturday when things got slow at CA. We spend hours just in the Artist Alley, and the energy and costumes were amazing.
Finally, Joe Price and I swung by the Hyatt Regency to have dinner with folks on Thursday night pre-Baycon and then again on Monday evening post-Baycon. It was nice to catch up with folks I sometimes only see once a year during that convention. Plus we got all the gossip, which is 25% of the convention experience right there.
All in all it was a fun weekend, I know some people disliked traveling between conventions and having their friends scattered, but frankly I kind of enjoyed this weird floating archipelago of fandom. Hopping from island to island when you wanted a change in your diet felt like being on some weird package vacation to an fannish resort.
As always a full write up to follow in SF/SF
