Kargadan

It looks like Irene Gallo has given us a sneak at an upcoming John Scalzi novel. Am I just slow? Had this been announced?

Mainline by Deborah Christian

Recently, while browsing at the Hyde Park Powell’s books, I chose between a ten dollar copy of R. Scott Bakker’s The Warrior-Prophet in hardcover, or a three dollar and change paperback title from an author named Deborah Christian. The title was Mainline and that’s the branch of reality I chose. You see, the protagonist of Mainline is a human woman with a psionic capacity to exploit the many different realities that lie around her. She can slide off of one branch and into another; one authored by different choices. What she will lose in these transitions is hard to guess, but usually pricey. I was probably influenced by the cover by Bruce Jensen, which seems very much in the style of his later covers for Peter Watts’ Rifters trilogy, and depicts the protagonist in her interdimensional state, with overlapping possibilities.

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Over in this thread on rasfw, Jim Butcher, renowned for being unwilling to spend two or three minutes on google to render Chicago accurately in his novels, gets cranky after someone comments on an upsurge of religious content in the Dresden novels.

It’s understandable. After all, it’s so difficult to find out any information at all about big time inaccessible author figures in today’s information society. Two or three minutes of research on Google is utterly unreasonable to expect of anyone. It’s only natural to move straight from that to public speculation.

Direct to Butcher’s response here. Butcher’s official site is here. Lay off the caffeine a bit.

In desperate Galactica withdrawal? Seen at Galactica SitRep: a short animated parody that’s funny, cute, and short enough to still be endearing. See We Were Centurions.

Science Fiction Awards Watch has jumped into the blogosphere in a big way, coming just before this year’s Hugo announcements. Aside from my own hand-wringing about His Majesty’s Dragon and an impressive list of awards and award-resources, they’ve also just posted a link to author Jay Lake’s defense of the existence of these awards. I should probably clarify that my own criticism of the JWCMA arises out of a belief that there is a deep need for awards, and especially for awards that can represent cogent thought about the genre, which large constituency awards like the Hugos cannot hope to articulate.

So yes to awards as positive incentives for writing. That said, I’d be interested to see some of this sneering at awards as wank. I think most award criticism derives from the feeling not that awards are unimportant, but that individual awards are losing legitimacy by making choices that they will not and cannot defend.

The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod

Ken MacLeod’s new novel takes us from a shocking explosion in a near-future Scotland, to the world of ultra-sophisticated conspiracy bloggers and the shady government operatives who play and spin them. The Travis family lead their own lives, but each of thejm is in some way complicated by the ongoing war on terror. It is all a good enough scheme, but for all the ways in with The Execution Channel is a science fiction novel, even a counter-factual history, it is the resonance with our fucking reality from which it gains vigor and the power to possess.

Usually I find MacLeod’s politics fascinating but alienating. I live in a worl where we fight Nader to get centrist Democrats as our best hedge against apocalyptic corporate servitude from our government. I live in a world where I praise the flawed virtues of mere statist liberal democracy because it seems hard enough to keep in good health. MacLeod’s novels often seem to come from a world I cannot imagine, one that scoffs at the small victories of incrementalism, and those skeptical of revolution.

These times and this novel render all of these discomforts I have with MacLeod into abrasions and lacerations of enlightenment, a gift to see just past the callouses of these years of nonsensical war. MacLeod draws a world that Dick Cheney could masturbate to, full of fear and justification. But this world isn’t quite that world, and somehow it helps to burn anew at rendition and stress positions.

MacLeod’s novel may be ephemeral in its impact, I hope so, but for now it is a 9/10. He blogs.

The story (see also the Torque Control take) of Titan’s Campbell Award win has made a little more headway. David Truesdale has a column for F&SF that includes the remarks of Elizabeth Hull announcing Bova’s victory. Until now we have had no insight into the reasoning of the Campbell jury in selecting Titan, so this is very interesting. At this point we have to assume the Campbell jury is deliberately avoiding public engagement on Titan’s merits. I’ll summarize and rebut Hull’s comments, and then mention a few other Campbell tidbits that have been kicking around. Spoilers for Titan as warranted.

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The Lost Fleet: Fearless by John G. Hemry writing as Jack Campbell

When I reviewed the preceding volume in this series Dauntless I may not have fully expressed how much that book exceeded my expectations. I truly enjoy military science fiction, but I also tend to suffer for my dalliances with it. Dauntless didn’t make me suffer. It didn’t bend my mind, or introduce me to anything I didn’t know, or understand, but it was a pleasurable and quick read. This sequel holds almost all of that up, moving forward in some areas, and stumbling just a little in others.

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My Elves Are Different throws in on the Campbell & Titan debate.

Ben Bova’s Grand Tour novel Titan was announced as winner of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel earlier this month. This post examines the merits of that decision and makes an argument to the jury of that award that their choice comprised a mistake damaging to the award and to the sf community. It will contain spoilers for Titan.
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