As Kate and I will be attending the Worldcon in Japan, we’re eligible to vote for the Hugos this year. In an effort to be responsible voters we downloaded the electronic version of the short fiction nominees that are available from the official nominations site, and I’ve been working my way through them. To this… Continue reading Hugo Nominees: Best Short Story
Category: SF
Gender Balance of SF Awards
John Scalzi is asking for discussion of the Hugo Award nominees, noting that other than a brief controversy over the fact that only one nominated work in the fiction categories is by a woman, there hasn’t been much discussion. This reminded me that it would be good to put in another plug for the foolproof… Continue reading Gender Balance of SF Awards
BitterCon: Three Strikes and You’re Out
I’m not particularly pining for WisCon, but for those who are, let me throw out a movie topic for discussion: Three Strikes and You’re Out: Why Do Third Movies Suck So Much? It’s a well-known phenomenon in genre film: in a series of movies, the third movie is almost always where the series goes off… Continue reading BitterCon: Three Strikes and You’re Out
Welcome to Bittercon
There’s a popular science fiction convention going on this weekend in Madiscon, WI. Of course, not everyone can make it to these things, so some people in LiveJournal Land have put together BitterCon, and online event for those unable to attend WisCon. Kate’s jumped right in, providing space for a bunch of panels in the… Continue reading Welcome to Bittercon
Thrilling Tales of Astrophysics
Over in LiveJournal Land, James Nicoll is pining for the good old days: I’m going through one of my “I would kill for some new SF” phases, SF in this case being defined in a narrow and idiosyncratic way. In particular, I want the modern version of those old SF stories where SF writers, having… Continue reading Thrilling Tales of Astrophysics
Geek Safari
Yesterday’s New York Times features an article about SF conventions, in the travel section, of all places. Officially, the 25th annual staging of MidSouthCon, a three-day-long celebration of science fiction, role-playing games, fantasy artwork, medieval weaponry and just about every leisure pursuit that prefers to envision the cosmos as it might have once been or… Continue reading Geek Safari
Hugo and Nebula Thoughts
There’s been a fair bit of discussion of this year’s Hugo nominees around the Internets, most of it centering around the gender of the nominees (that link goes to a fairly civilized discussion, which includes links to a rather more heated argument). For those who haven’t been following the controversy, only one of the twenty… Continue reading Hugo and Nebula Thoughts
Hugo Nominations 2007
The Hugo Award Nominees for 2007 have been officially announced. The one award I usually watch closely is Best Novel, and this year’s nominees are: Eifelheim, Michael Flynn (Tor) His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik (Del Rey) Glasshouse, Charles Stross (Ace) Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge (Tor) Blindsight, Peter Watts (Tor) Kind of a mixed bag, really.… Continue reading Hugo Nominations 2007
Presidential Politics
There are two Presidential election campaigns underway at the moment. Both feature establishment / incumbent parties that are pretty much in disarrary, wracked by missteps and accusations of corruption. They’re opposed by candidates who are somewhat unexpected. One of these campaigns is unquestionably Important, and will affect my life and the lives of everyone in… Continue reading Presidential Politics
A Bracket for Everything, and Everything In Its Bracket
Posting has been basketball-heavy of late because, well, there isn’t much else going on that I find all that interesting at the moment. More importantly, though, it’s the Season of the Bracket… I’m not the only one affected, of course, though many people who don’t care about hoops have to find other outlets for the… Continue reading A Bracket for Everything, and Everything In Its Bracket