James Oliver Rigney, better known to the world by his Robert Jordan pseudonym, has passed away after a long illness. I didn’t know him personally– I met him very briefly once, at a signing– but the Wheel of Time books were ridiculously important in my life. I met a great many friends through Robert Jordan… Continue reading James “Robert Jordan” Rigney, 1948-2007
Category: SF
The Story of Dark Matter
Speaking of science explanations in SF, or at least science explained by SF authors, there’s a very nice history of dark matter at SFNovelists.com by Mark Brotherton (via Tobias Buckell): The story of dark matter starts back in the 1930s with Fritz Zwicky, a brilliant but difficult Caltech astronomer, who was studying galaxy clustering. Galaxies… Continue reading The Story of Dark Matter
Teaching Science in SF
In a comment to my Worldcon wrap-up, “fvngvs” asks a question following up on the science in SF panel: So Chad, now that you’ve had some time to think about it, can you think of a list of books/stories with a really good treatment of science concepts? It’s a good question, and deserves a full… Continue reading Teaching Science in SF
Doctorow on Asimov
Discussing Isaac Asimov’s non-fiction a bit yesterday reminded me of my absolute favorite panel at Worldcon, Saturday’s “Mundane or Transcendent?” with Cory Doctorow, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Charlie Stross, and Robert Silverberg as moderator. They’re all really smart people, and they’re all good at turning phrases on the fly, so it was terrifically entertaining. Some of… Continue reading Doctorow on Asimov
Worldcon Thoughts
Before it slips too far into the mists of memory, I should probably post some summary thoughts about Nippon 2007, the World SF Convention in Japan that Kate and I attended last week. To some degree, this will be inside-baseball stuff, but if you’re not interested in fannish stuff, rest assured, there is some good,… Continue reading Worldcon Thoughts
Hugos
If you really care about the winners of the 2007 Hugo Awards, you probably don’t need me to tell you this, but the winners of the 2007 Hugo Awards were announced last night. The ceremony went off pretty well, and clocked in at just over two hours, so it was much better than the Academy… Continue reading Hugos
Hugo Winners
The Principles proprietor is currently at WorldCon where the Hugo awards are given out. This year’s winners are available (among many other places, I’m sure) at Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden’s blog. I wasn’t a huge fan of Rainbows End myself. I did like “The Girl in the Fireplace”, a Doctor Who episode. The writer,… Continue reading Hugo Winners
The Science Fiction of the Gaps
A little while ago, James Nicoll posted about the shifting subject areas of SF: In fact, a fairly consistent pattern in SF is to retreat away from areas that have come under the light of scientific examination. When probes began to visit the planets, SF retreated to the stars (There are very few novels these… Continue reading The Science Fiction of the Gaps
Japan Travel Checklist
In just a few days, Kate and I are leaving for Japan, for a couple of weeks of tourism before Worldcon. Most of the important things have been done– we’ve got tickets, and hotel reservations, and JR Pass vouchers, and that sort of thing. Things remaining to be dealy with (a partial list): Medication. What… Continue reading Japan Travel Checklist
Economics of Writing
While I was out, John Scalzi had an interesting post about the changing economics of short story writing. Back in the day, Robert Heinlein made a living selling stories at a penny a word: As I was reading this again I was curious as to what at penny in 1939 would rate out to here… Continue reading Economics of Writing