Are you over 18 and want to see adult content?
More Annotations
A complete backup of www.mediasetplay.mediaset.it/article/striscialanotizia/brumotti-a-bari-contro-i-furbetti-dei-parcheggi-per-
Are you over 18 and want to see adult content?
A complete backup of wmeritum.pl/kidawa-blonska-duda-popularnosci/305489
Are you over 18 and want to see adult content?
A complete backup of www.pronto.com.ar/articulo/famosos/medio-crisis-angustia-llanto-cinthia-fernandez-abandono-grabacion-pasapa
Are you over 18 and want to see adult content?
Favourite Annotations
A complete backup of airplaneticket.ir
Are you over 18 and want to see adult content?
A complete backup of yesorganicmarket.com
Are you over 18 and want to see adult content?
A complete backup of blushmestudio.com
Are you over 18 and want to see adult content?
A complete backup of headandshoulders.co.uk
Are you over 18 and want to see adult content?
A complete backup of noticiaemdia.com
Are you over 18 and want to see adult content?
A complete backup of cardaccess.com.au
Are you over 18 and want to see adult content?
A complete backup of westchester-il.org
Are you over 18 and want to see adult content?
A complete backup of blockcommunications.com
Are you over 18 and want to see adult content?
Text
wait.
COMMENTS ON: ‘THE HUNGRY GUINEA PIG’ BY MILES J. BREUER, M.D. Miles Breuer is a first cousin of mine once removed. He was married to my maternal grandmother's older sister. I read "The Hungry Guinea Pig" several years ago, and also sent it along to a friend of mine who is a Vietnam veteran and a reader of retro fiction. COMMENTS ON: WHAT’S THE OPPOSITE OF BELLUM OMNIUM CONTRA _ I think my point was just that you’re likely “naming and shaming” the wrong group by pointing out Codex._ The primary purpose of this post is to name and shame Stone - I'd like people to try and write better stories. COMMENTS ON: ‘THE STAR’ BY ARTHUR C. CLARKE Well, I'm late to the party. A supernova precursor of the sort implied by this story would be massive and short lived. Really short lived. For there to be natives able to die in a way that challenges the narrator's faith, the place would to have gone from single celled organisms to tool users in tens of millions of years. COMMENTS ON: 2011 ARTHUR C CLARKE AWARD STATISTICS: THE Nebulas. 2) ‘The Star’ by Arthur C. Clarke – in which I dislike a short story. 3) 2011 Arthur C Clarke Award Statistics: The State Of The Art #1 – in which I analyse who we see and how we see them in British science fiction. COMMENTS ON: 2011 ARTHUR C CLARKE AWARD STATISTICS: THE The Art #1 – in which I analyse who we see and how we see them in British science fiction. 4) 2011 Arthur C Clarke Award Statistics: The State Of The Industry – in which I analyse who publishes who in British science fiction. COMMENTS ON: ‘SURFACE TENSION’ BY JAMES BLISH You found _Cities in Flight_ dull? Really? Patchy I'd go with; but stretches of it are like your imagination taking a deep breath offresh air.
COMMENTS ON: ‘DESERTION’ BY CLIFFORD D. SIMAK _Indeed._ Speaking of which, I just had a hit for: malazan book of the fallen "adam roberts". So there is obviously a demand for more RobertsOn Epic Fantasy.
COMMENTS ON: ‘OCCAM’S SCALPEL’ BY THEODORE STURGEON Ah, right. So, in this context, a Strict Constructionist would be someone who would classify the story as hard SF or otherwise solely by reference to the text as it is written. COMMENTS ON: THE ASCENT OF WONDER: THE EVOLUTION OF HARD Beating the nice nice nice thing to death (with fluffy pillows) COMMENTS ON: ‘COVEHITHE’ BY CHINA MIÉVILLE Priest, on the other hand, hadn’t published a novel since 2002’s The Separation (which also won both the BSFA Award and the Clarke). So this was an Event and, by all accounts, lived up to the decade longwait.
COMMENTS ON: ‘THE HUNGRY GUINEA PIG’ BY MILES J. BREUER, M.D. Miles Breuer is a first cousin of mine once removed. He was married to my maternal grandmother's older sister. I read "The Hungry Guinea Pig" several years ago, and also sent it along to a friend of mine who is a Vietnam veteran and a reader of retro fiction. COMMENTS ON: WHAT’S THE OPPOSITE OF BELLUM OMNIUM CONTRA _ I think my point was just that you’re likely “naming and shaming” the wrong group by pointing out Codex._ The primary purpose of this post is to name and shame Stone - I'd like people to try and write better stories. COMMENTS ON: ‘THE STAR’ BY ARTHUR C. CLARKE Well, I'm late to the party. A supernova precursor of the sort implied by this story would be massive and short lived. Really short lived. For there to be natives able to die in a way that challenges the narrator's faith, the place would to have gone from single celled organisms to tool users in tens of millions of years. COMMENTS ON: 2011 ARTHUR C CLARKE AWARD STATISTICS: THE Nebulas. 2) ‘The Star’ by Arthur C. Clarke – in which I dislike a short story. 3) 2011 Arthur C Clarke Award Statistics: The State Of The Art #1 – in which I analyse who we see and how we see them in British science fiction. COMMENTS ON: 2011 ARTHUR C CLARKE AWARD STATISTICS: THE The Art #1 – in which I analyse who we see and how we see them in British science fiction. 4) 2011 Arthur C Clarke Award Statistics: The State Of The Industry – in which I analyse who publishes who in British science fiction. COMMENTS ON: ‘SURFACE TENSION’ BY JAMES BLISH You found _Cities in Flight_ dull? Really? Patchy I'd go with; but stretches of it are like your imagination taking a deep breath offresh air.
COMMENTS ON: ‘DESERTION’ BY CLIFFORD D. SIMAK _Indeed._ Speaking of which, I just had a hit for: malazan book of the fallen "adam roberts". So there is obviously a demand for more RobertsOn Epic Fantasy.
COMMENTS ON: ‘OCCAM’S SCALPEL’ BY THEODORE STURGEON Ah, right. So, in this context, a Strict Constructionist would be someone who would classify the story as hard SF or otherwise solely by reference to the text as it is written. COMMENTS ON: WHY I THINK AUTHOR ELIGIBILITY POSTS ARE I mentioned the other day, my blog post ‘Why I Think Author Eligibility Posts Are Selfish, Destructive And Counter-Productive’ is available in Speculative Fiction 2014: The Year’s Best Online Reviews, Essays and Commentary, COMMENTS ON: ‘BOOKWORM, RUN!’ BY VERNOR VINGE "_And that is the end of that_" It feels like we've been waiting for this sentence for something like eight years. By: Adam Roberts COMMENTS ON: FIRST IMPRESSIONS This review was originally published in Vector 264 (December 2010). Like this:LikeBe the first to like this post. By: The Left Hand Of God by Paul Hoffman (Penguin, 2010) « Spin Resonance COMMENTS ON: THE FLOOD Beating the nice nice nice thing to death (with fluffy pillows) COMMENTS ON: WHAT’S THE OPPOSITE OF BELLUM OMNIUM CONTRA _ I think my point was just that you’re likely “naming and shaming” the wrong group by pointing out Codex._ The primary purpose of this post is to name and shame Stone - I'd like people to try and write better stories. COMMENTS ON: ‘OCCAM’S SCALPEL’ BY THEODORE STURGEON Ah, right. So, in this context, a Strict Constructionist would be someone who would classify the story as hard SF or otherwise solely by reference to the text as it is written. COMMENTS ON: CAN I MAKE THINGS BETTER Well, I'll make another confession: I love pastiche, if its done well. Pastiche is the dominant aesthetic idiom of our age, after all. I agree with you, though, that 'authenticity' will likely sway thejudges.
COMMENTS ON: ‘THE LITTLE MAGIC SHOP’ BY BRUCE STERLING Beating the nice nice nice thing to death (with fluffy pillows) COMMENTS ON: ‘THE STAR’ BY ARTHUR C. CLARKE Well, I'm late to the party. A supernova precursor of the sort implied by this story would be massive and short lived. Really short lived. For there to be natives able to die in a way that challenges the narrator's faith, the place would to have gone from single celled organisms to tool users in tens of millions of years. COMMENTS ON: “AT LAST, A IRAQ WAR FILM CAPABLE OF PACKING I think that James's wife understands what he's saying perfectly. The incident he describes in the scene in question is horrific - children lured into the blast radius of a bomb with candy - and once he's finished relating it, he mentions that there's a shortage of bomb disposal experts like himself in Iraq. COMMENTS ON: THE ASCENT OF WONDER: THE EVOLUTION OF HARD Beating the nice nice nice thing to death (with fluffy pillows) COMMENTS ON: ‘THE HUNGRY GUINEA PIG’ BY MILES J. BREUER, M.D. Miles Breuer is a first cousin of mine once removed. He was married to my maternal grandmother's older sister. I read "The Hungry Guinea Pig" several years ago, and also sent it along to a friend of mine who is a Vietnam veteran and a reader of retro fiction. COMMENTS ON: ‘COVEHITHE’ BY CHINA MIÉVILLE Priest, on the other hand, hadn’t published a novel since 2002’s The Separation (which also won both the BSFA Award and the Clarke). So this was an Event and, by all accounts, lived up to the decade longwait.
COMMENTS ON: ‘THE STAR’ BY ARTHUR C. CLARKE Well, I'm late to the party. A supernova precursor of the sort implied by this story would be massive and short lived. Really short lived. For there to be natives able to die in a way that challenges the narrator's faith, the place would to have gone from single celled organisms to tool users in tens of millions of years. COMMENTS ON: WHAT’S THE OPPOSITE OF BELLUM OMNIUM CONTRA _ I think my point was just that you’re likely “naming and shaming” the wrong group by pointing out Codex._ The primary purpose of this post is to name and shame Stone - I'd like people to try and write better stories. COMMENTS ON: 2011 ARTHUR C CLARKE AWARD STATISTICS: THE Nebulas. 2) ‘The Star’ by Arthur C. Clarke – in which I dislike a short story. 3) 2011 Arthur C Clarke Award Statistics: The State Of The Art #1 – in which I analyse who we see and how we see them in British science fiction. COMMENTS ON: 2011 ARTHUR C CLARKE AWARD STATISTICS: THE The Art #1 – in which I analyse who we see and how we see them in British science fiction. 4) 2011 Arthur C Clarke Award Statistics: The State Of The Industry – in which I analyse who publishes who in British science fiction. COMMENTS ON: ‘SURFACE TENSION’ BY JAMES BLISH You found _Cities in Flight_ dull? Really? Patchy I'd go with; but stretches of it are like your imagination taking a deep breath offresh air.
COMMENTS ON: ‘DESERTION’ BY CLIFFORD D. SIMAK _Indeed._ Speaking of which, I just had a hit for: malazan book of the fallen "adam roberts". So there is obviously a demand for more RobertsOn Epic Fantasy.
COMMENTS ON: ‘OCCAM’S SCALPEL’ BY THEODORE STURGEON Ah, right. So, in this context, a Strict Constructionist would be someone who would classify the story as hard SF or otherwise solely by reference to the text as it is written. COMMENTS ON: THE ASCENT OF WONDER: THE EVOLUTION OF HARD Beating the nice nice nice thing to death (with fluffy pillows) COMMENTS ON: ‘THE HUNGRY GUINEA PIG’ BY MILES J. BREUER, M.D. Miles Breuer is a first cousin of mine once removed. He was married to my maternal grandmother's older sister. I read "The Hungry Guinea Pig" several years ago, and also sent it along to a friend of mine who is a Vietnam veteran and a reader of retro fiction. COMMENTS ON: ‘COVEHITHE’ BY CHINA MIÉVILLE Priest, on the other hand, hadn’t published a novel since 2002’s The Separation (which also won both the BSFA Award and the Clarke). So this was an Event and, by all accounts, lived up to the decade longwait.
COMMENTS ON: ‘THE STAR’ BY ARTHUR C. CLARKE Well, I'm late to the party. A supernova precursor of the sort implied by this story would be massive and short lived. Really short lived. For there to be natives able to die in a way that challenges the narrator's faith, the place would to have gone from single celled organisms to tool users in tens of millions of years. COMMENTS ON: WHAT’S THE OPPOSITE OF BELLUM OMNIUM CONTRA _ I think my point was just that you’re likely “naming and shaming” the wrong group by pointing out Codex._ The primary purpose of this post is to name and shame Stone - I'd like people to try and write better stories. COMMENTS ON: 2011 ARTHUR C CLARKE AWARD STATISTICS: THE Nebulas. 2) ‘The Star’ by Arthur C. Clarke – in which I dislike a short story. 3) 2011 Arthur C Clarke Award Statistics: The State Of The Art #1 – in which I analyse who we see and how we see them in British science fiction. COMMENTS ON: 2011 ARTHUR C CLARKE AWARD STATISTICS: THE The Art #1 – in which I analyse who we see and how we see them in British science fiction. 4) 2011 Arthur C Clarke Award Statistics: The State Of The Industry – in which I analyse who publishes who in British science fiction. COMMENTS ON: ‘SURFACE TENSION’ BY JAMES BLISH You found _Cities in Flight_ dull? Really? Patchy I'd go with; but stretches of it are like your imagination taking a deep breath offresh air.
COMMENTS ON: ‘DESERTION’ BY CLIFFORD D. SIMAK _Indeed._ Speaking of which, I just had a hit for: malazan book of the fallen "adam roberts". So there is obviously a demand for more RobertsOn Epic Fantasy.
COMMENTS ON: ‘OCCAM’S SCALPEL’ BY THEODORE STURGEON Ah, right. So, in this context, a Strict Constructionist would be someone who would classify the story as hard SF or otherwise solely by reference to the text as it is written. COMMENTS ON: WHY I THINK AUTHOR ELIGIBILITY POSTS ARE I mentioned the other day, my blog post ‘Why I Think Author Eligibility Posts Are Selfish, Destructive And Counter-Productive’ is available in Speculative Fiction 2014: The Year’s Best Online Reviews, Essays and Commentary, COMMENTS ON: ‘BOOKWORM, RUN!’ BY VERNOR VINGE "_And that is the end of that_" It feels like we've been waiting for this sentence for something like eight years. By: Adam Roberts COMMENTS ON: FIRST IMPRESSIONS This review was originally published in Vector 264 (December 2010). Like this:LikeBe the first to like this post. By: The Left Hand Of God by Paul Hoffman (Penguin, 2010) « Spin Resonance COMMENTS ON: THE FLOOD Beating the nice nice nice thing to death (with fluffy pillows) COMMENTS ON: WHAT’S THE OPPOSITE OF BELLUM OMNIUM CONTRA _ I think my point was just that you’re likely “naming and shaming” the wrong group by pointing out Codex._ The primary purpose of this post is to name and shame Stone - I'd like people to try and write better stories. COMMENTS ON: ‘OCCAM’S SCALPEL’ BY THEODORE STURGEON Ah, right. So, in this context, a Strict Constructionist would be someone who would classify the story as hard SF or otherwise solely by reference to the text as it is written. COMMENTS ON: CAN I MAKE THINGS BETTER Well, I'll make another confession: I love pastiche, if its done well. Pastiche is the dominant aesthetic idiom of our age, after all. I agree with you, though, that 'authenticity' will likely sway thejudges.
COMMENTS ON: ‘THE LITTLE MAGIC SHOP’ BY BRUCE STERLING Beating the nice nice nice thing to death (with fluffy pillows) COMMENTS ON: ‘THE STAR’ BY ARTHUR C. CLARKE Well, I'm late to the party. A supernova precursor of the sort implied by this story would be massive and short lived. Really short lived. For there to be natives able to die in a way that challenges the narrator's faith, the place would to have gone from single celled organisms to tool users in tens of millions of years. COMMENTS ON: “AT LAST, A IRAQ WAR FILM CAPABLE OF PACKING I think that James's wife understands what he's saying perfectly. The incident he describes in the scene in question is horrific - children lured into the blast radius of a bomb with candy - and once he's finished relating it, he mentions that there's a shortage of bomb disposal experts like himself in Iraq.EVERYTHING IS NICE
Occasionally, I still think about writing. The last thing I thought about writing about was Red Dead Redemption 2 but it turns out Film Crit Hulk has already written my piece for me: The pursuit of realism in video games, even when it doesn’t make the game more enjoyable, was largely built on the fever COMMENTS ON: WHY I THINK AUTHOR ELIGIBILITY POSTS ARE I mentioned the other day, my blog post ‘Why I Think Author Eligibility Posts Are Selfish, Destructive And Counter-Productive’ is available in Speculative Fiction 2014: The Year’s Best Online Reviews, Essays and Commentary, COMMENTS ON: HOW TO WRITE A REVIEW I've been known to write four times as many words of notes as appear in the finished review. It's a nightmare, but I can't stop doing it. Some of those will be fully worked-up paragraphs, others more along the lines of, "p121 & on: What the fuck does he think he's *doing*here?"
COMMENTS ON: ‘ALL THE HUES OF HELL’ BY GENE WOLFE Beating the nice nice nice thing to death (with fluffy pillows) COMMENTS ON: ‘THE WELL WISHERS’ BY COLIN GREENLAND You remind me that when I get paid, I need to go back to the bookshop and actually buy _Take Back Plenty_ (I had the new edition in my hands the other day, but an empty wallet.) COMMENTS ON: HUGO VOTING Actually, as I understand it, works you leave off your ballot are treated as tied for the first open slot on the ballot. If you vote: 1) Story A 2) No Award and leave the rest blank, stories B, C, D, and E are considered as tied for third place--which is a position that mightstill
COMMENTS ON: ELEMENTARY Thanks for writing this. I confess I've been struggling with all this lately; the debate(s) surrounding negative reviews and perceived 'bullying' of authors (most notably among the responses to Renay's first column at SH), has left me feeling increasingly inhibited about doing any reviewing, whether positive or negative. COMMENTS ON: HANDICAPPING THE BEST NOVEL SHORTLISTS _Ness: I suppose so; I think I’d feel slightly disappointed if that was the rationale, though._ I would imagine the rationale would be that it was a great book. COMMENTS ON: ROLL THEM BONES Well, no-one's ever won three of these things. Doesn't mean Mieville won't, of course, but I wonder if _The City and the City_ is, like last year's _Anathem_, the sort of impressive novel that might not do so well on a second reading. COMMENTS ON: AT LEAST IT’S AN ETHOS Nietzsche, like deconstruction, is a minefield I prefer to leave to experts, but R Scott Bakker's _Prince of Nothing_ trilogy, which has come up in lists of the sort of fiction the original Grin article deplored, is pretty explicit about its relationship with Nietzsche.EVERYTHING IS NICE
Occasionally, I still think about writing. The last thing I thought about writing about was Red Dead Redemption 2 but it turns out Film Crit Hulk has already written my piece for me: The pursuit of realism in video games, even when it doesn’t make the game more enjoyable, was largely built on the fever COMMENTS ON: WHY I THINK AUTHOR ELIGIBILITY POSTS ARE I mentioned the other day, my blog post ‘Why I Think Author Eligibility Posts Are Selfish, Destructive And Counter-Productive’ is available in Speculative Fiction 2014: The Year’s Best Online Reviews, Essays and Commentary, COMMENTS ON: HOW TO WRITE A REVIEW I've been known to write four times as many words of notes as appear in the finished review. It's a nightmare, but I can't stop doing it. Some of those will be fully worked-up paragraphs, others more along the lines of, "p121 & on: What the fuck does he think he's *doing*here?"
COMMENTS ON: ‘ALL THE HUES OF HELL’ BY GENE WOLFE Beating the nice nice nice thing to death (with fluffy pillows) COMMENTS ON: ‘THE WELL WISHERS’ BY COLIN GREENLAND You remind me that when I get paid, I need to go back to the bookshop and actually buy _Take Back Plenty_ (I had the new edition in my hands the other day, but an empty wallet.) COMMENTS ON: HUGO VOTING Actually, as I understand it, works you leave off your ballot are treated as tied for the first open slot on the ballot. If you vote: 1) Story A 2) No Award and leave the rest blank, stories B, C, D, and E are considered as tied for third place--which is a position that mightstill
COMMENTS ON: ELEMENTARY Thanks for writing this. I confess I've been struggling with all this lately; the debate(s) surrounding negative reviews and perceived 'bullying' of authors (most notably among the responses to Renay's first column at SH), has left me feeling increasingly inhibited about doing any reviewing, whether positive or negative. COMMENTS ON: HANDICAPPING THE BEST NOVEL SHORTLISTS _Ness: I suppose so; I think I’d feel slightly disappointed if that was the rationale, though._ I would imagine the rationale would be that it was a great book. COMMENTS ON: ROLL THEM BONES Well, no-one's ever won three of these things. Doesn't mean Mieville won't, of course, but I wonder if _The City and the City_ is, like last year's _Anathem_, the sort of impressive novel that might not do so well on a second reading. COMMENTS ON: AT LEAST IT’S AN ETHOS Nietzsche, like deconstruction, is a minefield I prefer to leave to experts, but R Scott Bakker's _Prince of Nothing_ trilogy, which has come up in lists of the sort of fiction the original Grin article deplored, is pretty explicit about its relationship with Nietzsche. COMMENTS ON: WHY I THINK AUTHOR ELIGIBILITY POSTS ARE I mentioned the other day, my blog post ‘Why I Think Author Eligibility Posts Are Selfish, Destructive And Counter-Productive’ is available in Speculative Fiction 2014: The Year’s Best Online Reviews, Essays and Commentary, COMMENTS ON: WHAT I WANT, EXACTLY _I am looking forward to reading these novels but I wish there were many, many more of them._ I've now read _Pure_ and it is bloody awful - the literary equivalent of one of those X-Factor contests who is blissfully unaware that they are singing out of key. _vN_ will be next up as there doesn't been to be a paperback of _The Method_ on thehorizon.
COMMENTS ON: ‘THE FLIGHT OF THE RAVENS’ BY CHRIS BUTLER Oh yes, so they do. I missed it on 'Immersion' but it just jumped out as being completely inappropriate here. By: Martin COMMENTS ON: ELEMENTARY Thanks for writing this. I confess I've been struggling with all this lately; the debate(s) surrounding negative reviews and perceived 'bullying' of authors (most notably among the responses to Renay's first column at SH), has left me feeling increasingly inhibited about doing any reviewing, whether positive or negative. COMMENTS ON: 2011 ARTHUR C CLARKE AWARD STATISTICS: SEX Speaking of the Clarke Award, in the build up to the announcement, Martin Lewis, one of the judges, has published a series of posts last week with statistics about the submitted novels and they are pretty interesting to read about (my personal favourite is the one that reflects how “science fiction is overly bloodthirsty whilst simultaneously too childishly squeemish about sex.”) COMMENTS ON: HUGO VOTING Actually, as I understand it, works you leave off your ballot are treated as tied for the first open slot on the ballot. If you vote: 1) Story A 2) No Award and leave the rest blank, stories B, C, D, and E are considered as tied for third place--which is a position that mightstill
COMMENTS ON: ROLL THEM BONES Well, no-one's ever won three of these things. Doesn't mean Mieville won't, of course, but I wonder if _The City and the City_ is, like last year's _Anathem_, the sort of impressive novel that might not do so well on a second reading. COMMENTS ON: SALT YARD Beating the nice nice nice thing to death (with fluffy pillows) COMMENTS ON: INVASION EARTH My response was simply that Kress sets up a false opposition. And essentially also sets it up as the New Yorker has published a bad SF story, while going onCOMMENTS ON: MAUL
I've read all of that shortlist bar _Darwin's Children_, and I'm pretty certain that for me _Maul_ deserved to win (by quite some distance - I'm not asEVERYTHING IS NICE
Occasionally, I still think about writing. The last thing I thought about writing about was Red Dead Redemption 2 but it turns out Film Crit Hulk has already written my piece for me: The pursuit of realism in video games, even when it doesn’t make the game more enjoyable, was largely built on the fever COMMENTS ON: WHY I THINK AUTHOR ELIGIBILITY POSTS ARE I mentioned the other day, my blog post ‘Why I Think Author Eligibility Posts Are Selfish, Destructive And Counter-Productive’ is available in Speculative Fiction 2014: The Year’s Best Online Reviews, Essays and Commentary, COMMENTS ON: OH GOD, WHAT IS ALAIN DE BOTTON BANGING ON Oh God, What Is Alain De Botton Banging On About Now? « Everything Is Nice – Putting aside the nonsense about buildings being an “indispensable part of getting your message across”, why do atheists need to get the message across at all? COMMENTS ON: ‘WHAT CONTINUES, WHAT FAILS…’ BY DAVID BRIN Beating the nice nice nice thing to death (with fluffy pillows) COMMENTS ON: ‘PREFACE’ BY BRUCE STERLING Beating the nice nice nice thing to death (with fluffy pillows) COMMENTS ON: ‘COVEHITHE’ BY CHINA MIÉVILLE Priest, on the other hand, hadn’t published a novel since 2002’s The Separation (which also won both the BSFA Award and the Clarke). So this was an Event and, by all accounts, lived up to the decade longwait.
COMMENTS ON: ‘ESCAPE ROUTE’ BY PETER F HAMILTON Well, I'd say "apolitical" basically tends to mean right-wing. I have occasionally wondered whether Hamilton is having a big laugh about the politics, and probably he is exaggerating it because he finds that fun, but it is what it is, and basically what it is for me isunreadable.
COMMENTS ON: ‘STONE LIVES’ BY PAUL DI FILIPPO The review above is just ridiculous. The style of the story is bland because the content and events are so extremely intense, bordering ontorture-porn.
COMMENTS ON: ‘ROCK ON’ BY PAT CADIGAN She's published a number of short stories in the past few years, scattered across various anthologies. Possibly even enough for acollection soonish.
COMMENTS ON: SUNDAY MORNING QUESTIONS You have misrepresented both the title and content of my post Martin. Very poor of you. By: Damien G WalterEVERYTHING IS NICE
Occasionally, I still think about writing. The last thing I thought about writing about was Red Dead Redemption 2 but it turns out Film Crit Hulk has already written my piece for me: The pursuit of realism in video games, even when it doesn’t make the game more enjoyable, was largely built on the fever COMMENTS ON: WHY I THINK AUTHOR ELIGIBILITY POSTS ARE I mentioned the other day, my blog post ‘Why I Think Author Eligibility Posts Are Selfish, Destructive And Counter-Productive’ is available in Speculative Fiction 2014: The Year’s Best Online Reviews, Essays and Commentary, COMMENTS ON: OH GOD, WHAT IS ALAIN DE BOTTON BANGING ON Oh God, What Is Alain De Botton Banging On About Now? « Everything Is Nice – Putting aside the nonsense about buildings being an “indispensable part of getting your message across”, why do atheists need to get the message across at all? COMMENTS ON: ‘WHAT CONTINUES, WHAT FAILS…’ BY DAVID BRIN Beating the nice nice nice thing to death (with fluffy pillows) COMMENTS ON: ‘PREFACE’ BY BRUCE STERLING Beating the nice nice nice thing to death (with fluffy pillows) COMMENTS ON: ‘COVEHITHE’ BY CHINA MIÉVILLE Priest, on the other hand, hadn’t published a novel since 2002’s The Separation (which also won both the BSFA Award and the Clarke). So this was an Event and, by all accounts, lived up to the decade longwait.
COMMENTS ON: ‘ESCAPE ROUTE’ BY PETER F HAMILTON Well, I'd say "apolitical" basically tends to mean right-wing. I have occasionally wondered whether Hamilton is having a big laugh about the politics, and probably he is exaggerating it because he finds that fun, but it is what it is, and basically what it is for me isunreadable.
COMMENTS ON: ‘STONE LIVES’ BY PAUL DI FILIPPO The review above is just ridiculous. The style of the story is bland because the content and events are so extremely intense, bordering ontorture-porn.
COMMENTS ON: ‘ROCK ON’ BY PAT CADIGAN She's published a number of short stories in the past few years, scattered across various anthologies. Possibly even enough for acollection soonish.
COMMENTS ON: SUNDAY MORNING QUESTIONS You have misrepresented both the title and content of my post Martin. Very poor of you. By: Damien G Walter FICTION | EVERYTHING IS NICE I'm a writer but I'm not a fiction writer. Fiction is fun though, so I sometimes dabble. 'Politicians Have Other Things To Talk About' (markcnewton.com, 2010) - Cut and paste remix of Newton's story ‘Salam And Baseema’. 'Letter From The President Of The British Board Of Film Censors' (Pandemonium: The Rite Of Spring, JurassicLondon,
BOOK COVERS
Today I received two books from Orbit and, whilst I am looking forward to reading both, it was their covers that particularly struck me. Here is Lightborn by Tricia Sullivan:. And here is Version 43 by Philip Palmer:. The cover for Lightborn was designed by Nathan Burton and art directed by Duncan Spilling (more here, including larger image).The cover for Version 43 was photographed by Eric FEMINISM | EVERYTHING IS NICE Watching Town Bloody Hall the other week made me dig out my copy of How To Suppress Women’s Writing by Joanna Russ. The second chapter, ‘Bad Faith’, is only two and a half pages but is as concise a laying out of the over-riding issue as you could wish for:SCIENCE FICTION
Jetse de Vries has an post in which he sets out seven reasons (although he calls them “excuses”) why SF writers might not want to produce positive SF. As you might expect from that framing it contains more than its fair share of tendentious crap but I was interested to what his rebutal of my position was. He summarises this position as “I will not confirm to your positivist agenda TWO PROPOSALS FOR THE STRUCTURE AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE Inspired by Nina Allan's recent post, I'd like to say a few things about the Arthur C Clarke Award. In particular, I'd like to discuss: The structure and administration of the award The composition and reception of its shortlists The award as barometer ofTHE CHANCERY
There was an article in the paper last week about the increasing popularity of vegetarian restaurants in UK as well as increased number of “meat-reducers”. In particular, they talk to the head chef of Vanilla Black and mention that “between 50% and 60% of its clienteleare meat-eaters”.
MIRRORSHADES
Sterling says: “This footloose time-travel fantasy emerged in a happy spirit of Movement camaraderie.” I guess a footloose time-travel fantasy is an appropriate as any way of ending an anthology which has nothing to do with cyberpunk. ANNA KAVAN | EVERYTHING IS NICE I had come back to investigate rumours of a mysterious impending emergency in this part of the world. But as soon as I got here she became an obsession, I could think only of her, felt I must she her immediately, nothing else mattered. JO WALTON | EVERYTHING IS NICE Never Let Me Go is an intensely British book, as is The Remains of the Day.Ishiguro was born in Japan and emigrated to Britain as a child and grew up there. I think these are books that could only be written by someone utterly steeped in a culture who has nevertheless always beensomething of
‘THE PSYCHOLOGIST WHO WOULDN’T DO AWFUL THINGS TO RATS’ BY Tilly is emasculated and the point of being fired so one night he gets ripped to the gills on absinthe and goes into the lab to kill his rats and turn over a new leaf. In the process of doing so the absinthe takes hold and he is plunged into a hallucination before emerging on the other side, horrifyingly re-made, the man they want him to be.EVERYTHING IS NICE
Occasionally, I still think about writing. The last thing I thought about writing about was Red Dead Redemption 2 but it turns out Film Crit Hulk has already written my piece for me: The pursuit of realism in video games, even when it doesn’t make the game more enjoyable, was largely built on the fever COMMENTS ON: WHY I THINK AUTHOR ELIGIBILITY POSTS ARE I mentioned the other day, my blog post ‘Why I Think Author Eligibility Posts Are Selfish, Destructive And Counter-Productive’ is available in Speculative Fiction 2014: The Year’s Best Online Reviews, Essays and Commentary, COMMENTS ON: OH GOD, WHAT IS ALAIN DE BOTTON BANGING ON Oh God, What Is Alain De Botton Banging On About Now? « Everything Is Nice – Putting aside the nonsense about buildings being an “indispensable part of getting your message across”, why do atheists need to get the message across at all? COMMENTS ON: ‘WHAT CONTINUES, WHAT FAILS…’ BY DAVID BRIN Beating the nice nice nice thing to death (with fluffy pillows) COMMENTS ON: ‘PREFACE’ BY BRUCE STERLING Beating the nice nice nice thing to death (with fluffy pillows) COMMENTS ON: ‘COVEHITHE’ BY CHINA MIÉVILLE Priest, on the other hand, hadn’t published a novel since 2002’s The Separation (which also won both the BSFA Award and the Clarke). So this was an Event and, by all accounts, lived up to the decade longwait.
COMMENTS ON: ‘ESCAPE ROUTE’ BY PETER F HAMILTON Well, I'd say "apolitical" basically tends to mean right-wing. I have occasionally wondered whether Hamilton is having a big laugh about the politics, and probably he is exaggerating it because he finds that fun, but it is what it is, and basically what it is for me isunreadable.
COMMENTS ON: ‘STONE LIVES’ BY PAUL DI FILIPPO The review above is just ridiculous. The style of the story is bland because the content and events are so extremely intense, bordering ontorture-porn.
COMMENTS ON: 2011 ARTHUR C CLARKE AWARD STATISTICS: THE The Art #1 – in which I analyse who we see and how we see them in British science fiction. 4) 2011 Arthur C Clarke Award Statistics: The State Of The Industry – in which I analyse who publishes who in British science fiction. COMMENTS ON: ‘ROCK ON’ BY PAT CADIGAN She's published a number of short stories in the past few years, scattered across various anthologies. Possibly even enough for acollection soonish.
EVERYTHING IS NICE
Occasionally, I still think about writing. The last thing I thought about writing about was Red Dead Redemption 2 but it turns out Film Crit Hulk has already written my piece for me: The pursuit of realism in video games, even when it doesn’t make the game more enjoyable, was largely built on the fever COMMENTS ON: WHY I THINK AUTHOR ELIGIBILITY POSTS ARE I mentioned the other day, my blog post ‘Why I Think Author Eligibility Posts Are Selfish, Destructive And Counter-Productive’ is available in Speculative Fiction 2014: The Year’s Best Online Reviews, Essays and Commentary, COMMENTS ON: OH GOD, WHAT IS ALAIN DE BOTTON BANGING ON Oh God, What Is Alain De Botton Banging On About Now? « Everything Is Nice – Putting aside the nonsense about buildings being an “indispensable part of getting your message across”, why do atheists need to get the message across at all? COMMENTS ON: ‘WHAT CONTINUES, WHAT FAILS…’ BY DAVID BRIN Beating the nice nice nice thing to death (with fluffy pillows) COMMENTS ON: ‘PREFACE’ BY BRUCE STERLING Beating the nice nice nice thing to death (with fluffy pillows) COMMENTS ON: ‘COVEHITHE’ BY CHINA MIÉVILLE Priest, on the other hand, hadn’t published a novel since 2002’s The Separation (which also won both the BSFA Award and the Clarke). So this was an Event and, by all accounts, lived up to the decade longwait.
COMMENTS ON: ‘ESCAPE ROUTE’ BY PETER F HAMILTON Well, I'd say "apolitical" basically tends to mean right-wing. I have occasionally wondered whether Hamilton is having a big laugh about the politics, and probably he is exaggerating it because he finds that fun, but it is what it is, and basically what it is for me isunreadable.
COMMENTS ON: ‘STONE LIVES’ BY PAUL DI FILIPPO The review above is just ridiculous. The style of the story is bland because the content and events are so extremely intense, bordering ontorture-porn.
COMMENTS ON: 2011 ARTHUR C CLARKE AWARD STATISTICS: THE The Art #1 – in which I analyse who we see and how we see them in British science fiction. 4) 2011 Arthur C Clarke Award Statistics: The State Of The Industry – in which I analyse who publishes who in British science fiction. COMMENTS ON: ‘ROCK ON’ BY PAT CADIGAN She's published a number of short stories in the past few years, scattered across various anthologies. Possibly even enough for acollection soonish.
EVERYTHING IS NICE
Occasionally, I still think about writing. The last thing I thought about writing about was Red Dead Redemption 2 but it turns out Film Crit Hulk has already written my piece for me:. The pursuit of realism in video games, even when it doesn’t make the game more enjoyable, was largely built on the fever dream of young minds who wanted to completely “disappear” into a gaming world. FICTION | EVERYTHING IS NICE I'm a writer but I'm not a fiction writer. Fiction is fun though, so I sometimes dabble. 'Politicians Have Other Things To Talk About' (markcnewton.com, 2010) - Cut and paste remix of Newton's story ‘Salam And Baseema’. 'Letter From The President Of The British Board Of Film Censors' (Pandemonium: The Rite Of Spring, JurassicLondon,
BOOK COVERS
Today I received two books from Orbit and, whilst I am looking forward to reading both, it was their covers that particularly struck me. Here is Lightborn by Tricia Sullivan:. And here is Version 43 by Philip Palmer:. The cover for Lightborn was designed by Nathan Burton and art directed by Duncan Spilling (more here, including larger image).The cover for Version 43 was photographed by EricSCIENCE FICTION
Jetse de Vries has an post in which he sets out seven reasons (although he calls them “excuses”) why SF writers might not want to produce positive SF. As you might expect from that framing it contains more than its fair share of tendentious crap but I was interested to what his rebutal of my position was. He summarises this position as “I will not confirm to your positivist agendaTHE CHANCERY
There was an article in the paper last week about the increasing popularity of vegetarian restaurants in UK as well as increased number of “meat-reducers”. In particular, they talk to the head chef of Vanilla Black and mention that “between 50% and 60% of its clienteleare meat-eaters”.
MIRRORSHADES
Sterling says: “This footloose time-travel fantasy emerged in a happy spirit of Movement camaraderie.” I guess a footloose time-travel fantasy is an appropriate as any way of ending an anthology which has nothing to do with cyberpunk. ‘SOLSTICE’ BY JAMES PATRICK KELLY You don't get much cyberpunk set in Wiltshire. 'Solstice' gravitates to the West Country because of Stonehenge, a subject that interests Kelly enough for him to have hacked up great divots of research onto the page. Rather than being particularly British, however, this is more Transatlantic in tone. Our protagonist is Tony Cage and, in JO WALTON | EVERYTHING IS NICE Never Let Me Go is an intensely British book, as is The Remains of the Day.Ishiguro was born in Japan and emigrated to Britain as a child and grew up there. I think these are books that could only be written by someone utterly steeped in a culture who has nevertheless always beensomething of
‘THE PSYCHOLOGIST WHO WOULDN’T DO AWFUL THINGS TO RATS’ BY Tiptree is one of the big gaps in my reading of science fiction and, whilst I have lots of such gaps, this is one of the few I care about. This combination of character study and critique of masculinity in the workplace seems a good place to start since not only is it very good FEBRUARY | 2016 | EVERYTHING IS NICE BSFA members will have noticed that there was no editorial in this issue’s BSFA Review. This was because once again I ran out of time which, in turn, is one of the reasons IEVERYTHING IS NICE
Beating the nice nice nice thing to death (with fluffy pillows) THE PURSUIT OF REALISMleave a comment »
Occasionally, I still think about writing. The last thing I thought about writing about was _Red Dead Redemption 2_ but it turns out Film Crit Hulk has already written my piece for me:
> The pursuit of realism in video games, even when it doesn’t make > the game more enjoyable, was largely built on the fever dream of > young minds who wanted to completely “disappear” into a gaming > world. They believed the virtual world should be just as complicated > and filled with possibilities as the real world.>
> This approach doesn’t work in practice. The endless capacity to > interact with equally endless items ends up creating endless, but > meaningless, interactions. Those meaningless interactions then numb > the player to the meaningful aspects of the game.>
> That happens because these choices don’t actually achieve the > feeling of “realism” in our brains. Cooking food in a video game > can take one button press or 20, but more button presses won’t > fool your brain into thinking you’re actually cooking a dish. Game > designers tend to confuse “complicated” with “realistic,” > and our minds aren’t wired to think something is real just because > it takes a long time to happen and requires many small actions on> our part.
>
> The illusion of realism is achieved when games match our > expectations and move at the speed of our intentions. The most > “realistic” way for me to check a drawer in a game is to quickly > see what’s inside it, decide if I want it, and then either take > the items or leave them as quickly as possible. That’s what we do > when we look into a drawer in real life; we don’t break the task > down into dozens of small movements or actions. We just look into> the drawer.
>
> And this is how games should approach the same tasks. Ease of > functionality is much more “immersive” than a series of button > presses and animations that mimic the real thing. Adding more button > presses and steps to basic tasks takes me out of the game, in fact, > because it makes me impatient as I’m forced to fuck with something > that should be moving as quickly as my brain.Written by Martin
25 April 2019 at 22:06Posted in games
Tagged with red dead redemption 2 REVIEWING THE 2016 ARTHUR C CLARKE AWARD SHORTLISTwith 5 comments
I’ve written about the fact people aren’t reviewing the Arthur CClarke Award
so it is only fair that I write about the fact people are reviewing the Arthur C Clarke Award. I’m going to use this post to collect links to reviews of the shortlist, whether individually or the whole thing. These links will be updated and please do let me know of anyomissions.
GARETH BENISTON
* Part One: _Arcadia, Way Down Dark_ and _The Long Way To A SmallAngry Planet_
* Part Two: _The Book Of The Phoenix, Children Of Time_ and_ EuropeAt Midnight_
BOOKS AND PIECES (extreme caution: vlog) * Clarke Readlong – introductionCOUCH TO MOON
* Surface, Contrivance & Salience: Thoughts on the shortlistPAUL MCAULEY
* _The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet_
* _Children Of Time
_
* _The Book Of The Phoenix_
* _Europe At Midnight_
* _Way Down Dark
_
* _Arcadia
_
* Round-up
ABIGAIL NUSSBAUM
* Part One: _Children Of Time, Way Down Dark _and_ The Long Way To ASmall Angry Planet_
* Part Two: _Arcadia, Europe At Midnight_ and _The Book Of Phoenix_JONAH SUTTON-MORSE
* Introduction
(caution:
podcast)
* Tweeted thoughts
* In discussion with Maureen Kincaid Speller and Megan (From Couch To Moon): Part One: _Arcadia_, _Children of Time_ and _Europe AtMidnight_
(podcast)
* In discussion: Part Two: _Way Down Dark_, _Long Way to a Small Angry Planet_, and _The Book of Phoenix_(podcast)
TOMCAT IN THE RED ROOM * _The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet_
* _Way Down Dark
_
* _The Book Of The Phoenix_* _Children Of Time
_
* _Europe At Midnight_
* _Arcadia
_
Written by Martin
6 June 2016 at 21:19Posted in awards
, sf
Tagged with arthur c clarke award THE CLARKE AWARD: SHORTLISTS VS LONGLISTSwith 42 comments
In the blue corner, Tom Hunter #TeamShortlist:
> Now with us regularly receiving over 100 books a year, the question > we’re asking is, rather than mess around longlists why not just > get straight to the point with a bigger shortlist that would allow > the judges to highlight more books in one larger shortlist to rule> them all?
>
> Eight books might work well again, or even twelve which is the > number some people have suggested as a longlist figure, so again why > bother calling it a longlist, let’s just have more people actually > shortlisted — it looks better on the cover of a book for a> start
>
>
>
> Would a larger shortlist be more of a focal point for both debate > and promotion than the staggered and potentially fatiguing extra > step of a longlist? I’ll leave that idea hanging for now, but for > me this feels like more of a new move than the idea of copying a > longlist format from another award, and feels somehow more in the > spirit of Sir Arthur to me. In the red corner, Niall Harrison #TeamLonglist:
> I still think a larger shortlist is a really bad idea. I’m > particularly alarmed that it might be done because it is “new” > (or, I guess, “distinctive”). Obviously six books is an > arbitrary number, but there are good reasons why you very rarely see > shortlists — for any award, in or out of genre — of more than > six. I’d say the two main ones are:>
> 1) The more books you add, the more of a commitment reading the > shortlist becomes. That means fewer people will want to do it; more > people will be likely to pick and choose, or just wait for the > winner and only read that.>
> 2) I don’t believe adding more books will extend the same amount > of prestige to those books. I think the same amount of prestige will > be divided up into smaller portions. It will be perceived as > “easier” to make the shortlist, and doing so will be valued> less.
>
> In contrast, when thinking about a longlist:>
> 1) Not many people will read a longlist. But there will be a > hard-core of people invested in the award who will look at it, and > start to create some discussion. A longlist feels to me like a > participatory gesture: I’m not necessarily part of the process, > but I’m reading along with the process. Moreover, as Nick H said > in one of these threads, it puts the industry on notice and gives > them time to prepare for a shortlist.>
> 2) A longlist creates an interim level of prestige. It helps to mark > out “writers to watch”, it gives you that tool to bring more > books into the Clarke discussion. If anything it _increases_ the > value of shortlisting, because (hopefully) it makes clear how > hard-won a shortlist place really is. Context is for the weak but here you go.
It goes without saying that I’m #TeamLonglist.Written by Martin
19 May 2016 at 17:03Posted in awards
, sf
Tagged with arthur c clarke award BSFA REVIEW – VECTOR #283leave a comment »
I am writing this – my last editorial – in the aftermath ofMancunicon
,
the 67th British national science fiction convention. As usual, there was a strong BSFA presence, including (obviously) at the BSFA Awards which were announced on Saturday. The Best Artwork award went to Jim Burns for his cover for _Pelquin’s Comet_ by Ian Whates. I think this was all Ian’s fault. As chair of the BSFA, he challenged me to put up or shut up and get involved with the organisation. The result was a special BSFA booklet, _SF Writers On SF Films: From Akira ToZardoz_
(remember that?). The experience was obviously a good one as I came back for more when the role of reviews editor was advertised. I wasn’t sure how long I would be doing to job for when I started but it turned out to be almost six years. At Eastercon I managed to catch up with three of the four Vector editors I served under during that period: Niall Harrison, Shana Worthen and Glyn Morgan. Glyn was actually on a panel with me, Book Reviews In The Age Of Amazon: “In place of relatively few “gatekeeper” reviewers in relatively few venues, we have a commons where anyone can review if they choose.” Everyone is entitled to their opinion and it is positive thing that the internet has provided a democratic platform for everyone. But it isn’t either/or; there is still a space for informed, considered and – crucially – edited opinions. So perhaps it was fitting that straight after that panel I met my successor as reviews editor, Susan Oke, for the first time (in the slightly unexpected location of the Strange Horizons tea party in the Deansgate Hilton’s Presidential Suite up on the 22nd floor). My aim was to leave the reviews section in better shape than I found it and I think I’ve achieved this. I’m sure Sue will improve further on what I’ve done and I look forward to watching that journey as a member. And also contributing since I will be experiencing life on the other side of a table as a reviewer, rather than an editor. Go easy on me, Sue, I’m a bit rusty!REVIEWS
* _Spirits Abroad_ by Zen Cho (Fixi Novo, 2014) – Reviewed by Aishwarya Subramanian * _Sorcerer To The Crown_ by Zen Cho (Macmillan, 2015) -Reviewed by Maureen Kincaid Speller * _IF THEN_ by Matthew De Abaitua (Angry Robot, 2015) – Reviewedby Shaun Green
* _Luna: New Moon_ by Ian McDonald (Gollancz, 2015) – Reviewed byDuncan Lawie
* _The Word For World Is Forest_ by Ursula K Le Guin (Gollancz, 2015) – Reviewed by Paul Graham Raven * _The Night Clock_ by Paul Meloy (Solaris Books, 2015) – Reviewed by Maureen Kincaid Speller * _The Goblin Emperor_ by Katherine Addison (Tor, 2014) – Reviewed by Sandra Unerman * _The Philosopher Kings _by Jo Walton (Corsair, 2016) – Reviewedby Sandra Unerman
* _Binti_ by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor, 2015) – Reviewed by Susan Oke * _The Last Witness_ by KJ Parker (Tor, 2015) – Reviewed by AndySawyer
* _What if I got down on my knees?_ by T Rauch (Whistling Shade Press, 2015) – Reviewed by Kate OnyettWritten by Martin
19 May 2016 at 14:00Posted in sf
Tagged with bsfa ,
bsfa review ,
vector
THE SHORTLISTS OF THE ARTHUR C CLARKE: WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUNDwith 27 comments
Having discussed the administration and structure or the Arthur CClarke Award
,
I’m now going to move onto the composition and reception of itsshortlists.
What is the best Clarke shortlist? Okay, too hard. There are shortlisted books I’ve never heard of by authors who don’t even have Wikipedia pages. So what is the best shortlist of the last fifteen years (ie half the life of the award)? My personal picks would be 2010 and 2008. But, as Nina Allan noted in the piece that inspired my blog posts, John Jarrold hated the 2008 shortlist to the extent he felt the need to invoke Hiroshima. So, obviously, opinions differ. And the opinions of the judges themselves differ: some novels will be unanimously shortlisted and some will come down to a vote and we have no way of knowing which are which. Instead of getting too much into good or bad, I’m going to talk more broadly about the composition of recent shortlists, their reception and our expectation. At the back of my mind will be the repeated suggestion that the award is not as exciting/radical/interesting/useful as it used to be. 2001, the first year of the period I’m looking at, was an all genre shortlist. In fact for the six year block between 1999 and 2004, every shortlist was entirely genre. The only time this has happened since was in 2014. This is worth bearing in mind when recent shortlists have sometimes been described as disappointingly core genre. The only all British shortlist was in 2008, although we could probably also include 2006 as the eventual winner Geoff Ryman is a long term UK resident. In contrast, there have been non-majority British shortlists for the four years 2011 to 2014 as well as in 2003 and2004.
This suggests a bit of a recent Golden Age for the award between 2005 and 2010 when the award produced strong British-dominated shortlists of high quality genre and non-genre science fiction. (Which is not to say they are all great – 2007, in particularly, continues to look a bit baffling.) My unsupported guess is that a lot of current Clarke commentators became involved with the award during this period. Following the Genre Age and the Golden Age, we then have a third age from 2012. Yes, I jumped over 2011 as it seems to me to be a strong, radical and anomalous shortlist. I would also describe it – along with 2008 and 2013, the two year’s Allan identifies – as a split genre/non-genre shortlist. Patrick Ness had not (and has not since) published an adult science fiction novel and whilst Tim Powers clear had, this wasn’t readily apparent to anyone of my generation in Britain until Corvus belatedly picked him up here. Anyway, back to 2012 and Allan’s description of the shortlist: > The 2012 shortlist, more now even than then, looks like a classic > botch job: a set of random compromises, the result inevitably > arrived at when five individuals of differing tastes and mixed > critical abilities fail to form a coherent vision and resort instead > to horse-trading, Perhaps that lack of coherence is the defining feature of this Third Age. And perhaps that lack of coherence is understandable when the number of submissions to the award has radically increased from 41 in 2010 at the end of the Golden Age to 60 in 2012 and 113 this year. Moving from the shortlists themselves to their reception, the single most important thing for the Arthur C Clarke Award in recent memory was when Adam Roberts published this review of the 2002 shortlistat Infinity
Plus. He repeated this in 2003 and 2004 before moving to Strange Horizons. The second most important thing was when Niall Harrison at both Torque Control and Strange Horizons gave a home for discussion ofthe award.
Although I don’t believe Christopher Priest had read the 2012 shortlist when he published “Hull 0: Scunthorpe 3”,
I do think it was a positive intervention for the award. We all need to have our feet held to the fire occasionally. However, it is ludicrously self-aggrandising to claim any more for it than that. The most important critical interventions of that year were from DanHartland
,
David Hebblethwaite
,
Maureen Kincaid Spellerand Adam Roberts
.
Yet Allan suggests: “In the four years since Priestgate, rigorous online discussion of the shortlists seems to have nosedived and atrophied.” If so, why? The criteria that allowed those reviews from Hartland, Hebblethwaite, Kincaid Speller and Roberts to arise were: * A vibrant online scene * Sufficient time to read the books * Sufficient interest in the shortlist Well, we’ve heard a lot about about the death of SF blogging recently (here is a good post on the subject)
but the blogs that are dying are not the sort of blogs that would ever have reviewed the Clarke shortlist. Time might be an issue and, asdiscussed
,
it might be helpful to standardise the announcement of the award. Which leaves interest. Perhaps it isn’t that surprising that people are less engaged with the award now than they were at the beginning of the Third Age in 2012, particularly if they became most interested during the Golden Age. There is also the elephant in the room of the Kitschies . I think these awards could accurately be described as the worst thing that happened to the Clarke Award since the only game in town suddenly had a competitor and a competitor with a rather broader remit. I am more interested in this year’s Red Tentacle shortlist than I am in this year’s Clarkeshortlist.
I think a longlist for the Clarke Award would be nice but I don’t think it will change this. But I’m not sure how much needs to change. The amount of critical coverage at the end of the Golden Age was probably abnormally high and even then the number of people involved was actually pretty low. For the same people to stay engaged, year after year, is a huge investment of time. Even the indefatigable Adam Roberts said today that “The days when I’d review the entire Clarke shortlist are behindme now”.
But what goes around, comes around and I’m sure that new critical voices will rise to engage (and old ones to re-engage). If that all sounds complacent then I’m not sure what the alternative is. The award will continue and the conversation will continue but it will ebb and flow. It is entirely possible that someone entering the genre now will not have the same relationship with the award that we do but I doubt our relationship is the same as those who established it.Written by Martin
8 May 2016 at 13:08
Posted in awards
, sf
Tagged with arthur c clarke award TWO PROPOSALS FOR THE STRUCTURE AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE ARTHUR CCLARKE AWARD
with 16 comments
Inspired by Nina Allan’s recent post , I’d like to say a few things about the Arthur C Clarke Award. In particular, I’d like to discuss: * The structure and administration of the award * The composition and reception of its shortlists * The award as barometer of British SF publishing In the olden days, I’d have bunged this all into a single post but if I don’t chunk it up, I fear it won’t get written. This post will focus on 1) and hopefully I will return to the other two later. (I’d also like to return to another issue Allan raised – the concept of a British SF ‘hub’ – but don’t hold your breath.) Let me preface these remarks with a bit of context. I have been interested and engaged with the award since Jeff Noon won for _Vurt_ in 1994. I feel hugely proud and privileged to have been a judge in 2011 and 2012. Funding was abruptly withdrawn during this period and without current director Tom Hunter, the award could well have died on its arse. So this is not about criticism, this is about potential ways to strengthen the award for the future. I think this could easily bedone in two ways:
* Introducing a longlist * Standardising the timetable for the award Hunter is to be congratulated for many of the innovations during his tenure and one of the big ones is releasing the submissions list. As I understand it, the submissions list prior to Hunter have been destroyed which is a real shame as they are very valuable before for understanding where the shortlists come from but also for giving an insight into SF publishing more broadly (see 3) above). But a submissions list is not a longlist, although authors occasionally try to misrepresent it as such. A longlist gives another opportunity for publicity but also, crucially, debate. Every year there are unaccountable omissions from the shortlist. Allan’s post refers to Priestgate during which Christopher Priest identified _Wake Up And Dream_ by Ian R MacLeod, _Dead Water_ by Simon Ings, By Light Alone by Adam Roberts and Osama by Lavie Tidhar as essential for the shortlist. Would any, all or none of those have made a longlist? We will never know but it seems to me that it would have enriched the conversation. So I’m pleased that in his latest piece for the Guardian,
Hunter has softened his line a bit on this: “There have also been many calls for us to introduce an annual longlist, in addition to our shortlist. There are good arguments for and against this, but it’s definitely worth the conversation if it will help highlight the increasing diversity of our genre.” Although worryingly, he continues: “If a longlist proves impractical, we’re also discussing the idea of increasing the number of titles on our shortlists as a route to highlighting more titles.” Don’t do it,Tom!
A longlist would also help with my second way of strengthening the award. Currently Hunter has control over publishing the submissions list and the awards ceremony itself but not the shortlist announcement as this tied to sponsors Sci-Fi London. The result has been the timing of the award has been a bit of a moveable feast. As Allan puts it: “Last year, for the first time in a long time, there was no comprehensive critical review of the Clarke Award shortlist at Strange Horizons and, because of inept programming and yet another shift in the timing of the award, no discussion of the shortlist at Eastercon either.” A longlist would be in Hunter’s control and could be made available at the same time every year, in advance of Eastercon. This isn’t quite the same as having the shortlist as reading a whole longlist is a pretty big ask but it would allow a bigger window ofengagement.
The only barrier to both is a finite resource: the time of the judges. Since they have to produce what is essentially an internal longlist anyway in order to guide the shortlist discussion, I don’t think it is any extra effort for them. But with the ever expanding submissions list and the tendency of publishers to backload their submissions, there is a question about how long it takes them just to read all the books. I don’t think that is insurmountable though. So yeah, I can see lots of benefits to those two proposals and no downsides. Who’s with me?Written by Martin
3 May 2016 at 07:54
Posted in awards
, sf
Tagged with arthur c clarke award,
nina allan
A FEW SHORT NOTES ON SOME SHORT FICTION 2leave a comment »
A sequel to that other post:
* Jonathan McCalmont has started reviewing the stories making up _Sisters Of The Revolution_, edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer. This makes me want to return (in a much more rigourous way) to my own read through of _The Space Opera Renaissance_.
But it hasn’t happened yet. * McCalmont also appears, as usual, in the latest Interzone which didn’t have a great issue for fiction. I don’t think Rich Larson has ever written a bad story but ‘Lotto’ was too abbreviated to be great. My favourite story probably wasn’t as good as ‘Lotto’ though. ‘Spine’ by Christopher Fowler is a Seventies throwback to the age of Peter Benchley which is a pure nostalgia rush. * You might also remember I picked up Interzone’s sister magazine, The Third Alternative, in actual paper at Mancunicon. Turns out, if its not on my Kindle, I don’t read it (and if it is on my Kindle, I usually still don’tread it).
* My discovery of the month has been Kelly Robson (I know, I know, I’m late). ‘Two-Year Man’ reminds me a bit of _A Day In The Deep Freeze_ – a crushing dystopia made all the more horrific for being so modest and the story made all the bleaker by the inextinguishable spark of humanity still present. ‘The Three Resurrections Of Jessica Churchill’is equally
well-written but a lot blunter. * I also enjoyed ‘Between Dragons and Their Wrath‘ by An
Owomoyela and Rachel Swirsky which pulls off the trick of being Weird but not arbitrary and ‘The Sincerity Game’by Brit
Mandelo is one of those stories that doesn’t need the SF element (it is an acutely observed relationship story with some fiercely brilliant writing) yet it isn’t superfluous and adds an extra bit of flavour. Not as good as those but worth a read is ‘The Plague Givers’ by Kameron Hurley, published on her Patreon. It also makes me a bit sad as Hurley could’ve been the saviour of epic fantasy but modern publishing has made that impossible by pushing her into a succession of unnecessary trilogies. * ‘The Plague Givers’ will be reprinted in Uncanny #10 which will also contain stories by JY Yangand
Alyssa Wong so that looks like it will be pretty good. And Uncanny and Wong are up for Hugos(well,
the Campbell in Wong’s case) so that is pretty good too. * The Hugo short fiction categories are not pretty good because once again they’ve been hijacked by the Puppies.
In Best Short Story, the most interesting looking title is _Space Raptor Butt Invasion_ by Chuck Tingle which tells you everything you need to know. I’ve no intention of reading the shortlist (as I didlast year
)
but I have read ‘Asymmetrical Warfare’ by SR Algernon, a terrible bit of flash fiction which is still too long and essentially retreads Terry Bisson’s ‘They’re Made Out Of Meat’ , and ‘If You Were An Award, My Love’ by Juan Tabo and S. Harris. I won’t link to the latter both because it is on Vox Day’s website and because it has no redeeming features whatsoever. It is essentially an offensively personal attack on John Scalzi which is dressed up as ‘If You Were A Dinosaur, My Love’by two
people who don’t understand what that story was about, don’t understand what a parody is, don’t understand what a pastiche is and basically don’t understand anything at all about writing. It is purely an attempt to poison the well and confirms that any higher motives the Puppies claimed to have were all lies. * I thought at first I might read some of the Best Novelette shortlist because ‘And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead’by
Brooke Bolander and ‘Folding Beijing’by Hao
Jingfang, translated Ken Liu, are both published in real venues. However, the Bolander is just a written version of this songso I’ve lost
interest. It was also nominated for the Nebula, a reminder that not everything bad in SF can be laid at the door of the Puppies. * The Best Novella shortlist only contains one joke entry and two stories that I’d actually like to read: _Binti_ by Nnedi Okorafor and _Slow Bullets_ by Alastair Reynolds (although vexingly the latter isn’t published in the UK for another year). And – shock, horror – I’ve already read one of the nominees! As the author readily admits, it is a joke premise (what if an anthropomorphic animal story was written for adult SF fans?) and the problem with a joke premise is that it rapidly becomes tiresome over this length, particularly since there is a real sense that Polansky is doing a lot of padding.Written by Martin
29 April 2016 at 07:35Posted in awards
, sf
, short stories
Tagged with interzone, the hugos
Older Entries
PAGES
* About
* Articles, Interviews & Editorials* Fiction
* Reviews
* Short Story ProjectsCATEGORIES
Categories Select Category art (17) awards (94) blog management (8) books (189) criticism (81) design (15) films (61) food (44) games (1) genre wars (37) life (3) music (44) nature (4) performance (19) photography (3) poetry (3) polls (2) publishing (2) quotes (19) sf (543) short stories (261) stuff (3) television (14) theatre (1) Uncategorized (3)RECENT COMMENTS
Jonathan Sheik on ‘To Bring In The Steel…M4 on Painball
kreditrechner on Look BackIn Apathy
August on ‘Freezone’ by John… pdtillman on ‘Mozart In Mirrorshades… T. Suzanne on ‘Weyr Search’ by A… Strange Horizons - A… on Third Wave Fantasy George Greene on ‘Stone Lives’ by P… Strange Horizons - T…on SF Art Awards
Strange Horizons - T… on The Appliance Of Science Strange Horizons - H… on Golden Witchbreed Strange Horizons - H… on Shine by Jetse de Vries Summer 2016 Reading… on Reviewing The 2016 Arthur C Cl… W. Hayes on ‘Occam’s Scalpel… Not-Exactly-Books, 2… on ‘Saga’s Children’…RECENT POSTS
* The Pursuit Of Realism * Reviewing The 2016 Arthur C Clarke Award Shortlist * The Clarke Award: Shortlists Vs Longlists * BSFA Review – Vector #283 * The Shortlists Of The Arthur C Clarke: What Goes Around,Comes Around
* Two Proposals For The Structure And Administration Of The Arthur CClarke Award
* A Few Short Notes On Some Short Fiction 2 * Con Report – Eastercon * A Really Useful Engine * A Few Short Notes On Some Short Fictionadam roberts
alan
campbell
al sarrantonio
art
arthur c clarke
award
a
year of reading womenbook covers
books bruce
sterling
bsfa bsfa awards
bsfa review
china
mieville
criticism
damien g walter
david g
hartwell
don
delillo
everything is nice awardsfantasy feeling
very strange
feminism films
first impressions
gene
wolfe
grauniad
gregory benford
hackney
james patrick
kelly
jeffrey ford
jeff
vandermeer
jg
ballard
joanna russ
joe abercrombie
john
clute john
kessel
jonathan lethem
jonathan
mccalmont
kathryn cramer
kit
whitfield
locus london
international mime festivalmargaret atwood
mark
charan newton
martin amis
mirrorshades
m john
harrison
music nina allan
patrick ness
paul di
filippo
photos polls
positive sf
quotes
redshift
reviewing
reviews
richard morgan
science
fiction
sex in the system
sf
sf site
shine
short stories
short
story club
slipstream
strange horizons
the
ascent of wonder
the
hugos The
Space Opera Renaissanceursula k leguin
vector
william gibson
will
oldham
witpunk
BOOK BLOGROLL
* Asking The Wrong Questions * Caustic Cover Critic* Chrononautic Log
* Empty Your Heart Of Its Mortal Dream * Eve’s Alexandria* Follow the Thread
* Guardian Book Blog * It Doesn't Have To Be Right* Locus Roundtable
* NextRead
* OF Blog Of The Fallen * Pechorin's Journal* Punkadiddle
* Richard Larson
* SF Diplomat
* Shaken & Stirred
* Solar Bridge
* Speculative Horizons * Spiral Galaxy Reviewing Laboratory* The Asylum
* The Speculative Scotsman* There Is No Genre
* Torque Control
CULTURE
* @ Number 71
* The Mumpsimus
* The Valve
DIASPORA
* Brelson
* Cowfish
* Inversion Layer
* Nothing Tra La La?* Nutty Xander
* Post-ambient Fuzz
* Simon And Rach
* Stephen’s Blog
FILM
* Ruthless Culture
* Todd Alcott
OTHER PLACES
* Big Blog Of Cheese* BLDG BLOG
* Boing Boing
* Crooked Timber
* Futurismic
* MetaFilter
* Nostalgia For Infinity* Political Animal
* Science Fictional
* The Guardian
* Velcro City Tourist BoardPUBLICATIONS
* Fruitless Recursion* Interzone
* Locus Online
* New York Review Of Science Fiction* SF Site
* Strange Horizons
* Vector
ARCHIVES
* April 2019
* June 2016
* May 2016
* April 2016
* March 2016
* February 2016
* January 2016
* October 2015
* July 2015
* June 2015
* May 2015
* April 2015
* March 2015
* February 2015
* January 2015
* December 2014
* November 2014
* October 2014
* September 2014
* August 2014
* July 2014
* June 2014
* May 2014
* April 2014
* March 2014
* February 2014
* January 2014
* December 2013
* October 2013
* September 2013
* August 2013
* July 2013
* May 2013
* April 2013
* March 2013
* February 2013
* January 2013
* December 2012
* November 2012
* October 2012
* September 2012
* July 2012
* June 2012
* May 2012
* April 2012
* March 2012
* February 2012
* January 2012
* December 2011
* November 2011
* October 2011
* September 2011
* August 2011
* July 2011
* June 2011
* May 2011
* April 2011
* March 2011
* February 2011
* January 2011
* December 2010
* November 2010
* October 2010
* September 2010
* August 2010
* July 2010
* June 2010
* May 2010
* April 2010
* March 2010
* February 2010
* January 2010
* December 2009
* November 2009
* October 2009
* September 2009
* August 2009
* July 2009
* June 2009
* May 2009
* April 2009
* March 2009
* February 2009
* January 2009
* December 2008
* November 2008
* October 2008
* September 2008
FLICKR PHOTOS
More
Photos
META
* Register
* Log in
* Entries feed
* Comments feed
* WordPress.com
March 2020
M
T
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
Apr
Search for:
Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.Everything Is Nice
Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.Post to
Cancel
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use. To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: CookiePolicy
* Follow
*
* Everything Is Nice* Customize
* Follow
* Sign up
* Log in
* Report this content * Manage subscriptions* Collapse this bar
Details
Copyright © 2024 ArchiveBay.com. All rights reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | DMCA | 2021 | Feedback | Advertising | RSS 2.0