Category: Books

Who is the science fiction equivalent of Tolkien and Lovecraft?

As in: love or hate JRR Tolkien as you please, but you may not ignore him when it comes to the fantasy genre. Venerate or despise HP Lovecraft for any number of reasons, but when we talk about horror we are ultimately using concepts and conceits that he defined and developed.  But if there’s a single figure of the science fiction field that similarly towers over the landscape, I do not know his or her name.  Bob Heinlein comes close. So does John Campbell, although that would have been more true thirty years ago.  Maybe Gene Roddenberry and George Lucas, combined. Other than that, though, I’m stumped.

Thoughts?

Book of the Week: The Warlock in Spite of Himself.

Christopher Stasheff’s The Warlock in Spite of Himself is an old classic of the pre-New Wave science fiction/fantasy* era, of course. In other news: Chris Stasheff is still, in fact, alive! Seriously, I thought that he must have passed a decade ago, or something. Here’s his website.

And so, adieu to Hidden Figures.

Moe Lane

*Psionics are fantasy, sorry.

I’m telling ya, the kid grows up to be Snoke.

That’s the only way this works.

The conclusion of a trilogy, mostly set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, Empire’s End contains plenty of rewards for long-term fans. One of these is an interlude set on the planet of Naboo. A refugee boy named Mapo encounters a Gungan performing for kids on the streets, clowning around in a fountain twice a day while being studiously avoided by the grown-ups.

“Meesa Jar Jar,” says the clown when Mapo introduces himself.

Because we all know that Jar Jar was the secret Sith Lord setting the whole thing up, right?  Well, Darth Binks has just found himself a new apprentice.  Seriously, the chronology will fit.

OK, we’re apparently back to this ‘Cap as a Hydra agent’ bullshit.

…Look, just keep this contemptible nonsense out of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, OK?  Which would be the only Marvel comic that I still buy. Don’t make me give up that, too. And since I’m here to give out unsolicited advice anyway: the movies took Captain America, played said character absolutely as advertised, and without visible irony – and now Disney is sitting at the machine pressing the money button, and giggling as hundreds of millions of dollars comes tumbling out with each press.

MAYBE THE PRINT COMIC LINES SHOULD TAKE THE GORAM HINT.

Moe Lane

Coming in August: “Golden Age and Other Stories” by Naomi Novik.

“Golden Age and Other Stories” is, as you might suspect, set in Naomi Novik’s Napoleonic-war-with-dragons Temeraire series.  She’s done a bunch of short stories, set in a variety of settings and using different viewpoint characters – which will no doubt please whoever it is out there who is desperately trying to negotiate the roleplaying game rights.  Which there must be. It seems a no-brainer.

More info here. I’d order the leather-bound, signed copy, except that it’s a bit rich for my blood these days. Ach, well, the $25 version can be read just as easily.

Book of the Week: Hidden Figures.

My wife finally got around to reading Margot Lee Shetterly’s Hidden Figures – Christmas present, and one of the easier gift choices I’ve had to make, honestly – so now I’m reading it.  I’m enjoying it, thus far; it’s going to be interesting to see where the movie version combined, changed, and generally played around with events. Which has to happen: a movie has a different narrative flow than a book.

And so, adieu to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Book of the Week: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Well, really the entire Narnia chronicles – but I think that C.S. Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the best of a good series, and at some point I need to watch the movie.  Of course, I don’t need to tell any of you this already, do I?  The Narnia series retains its significance, even today:

Well, for given values of ‘today.’

And so, adieu to Wylding Hall. Continue reading Book of the Week: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Well, by God: it may be a BAD short story that I finished…

…out of respect for a man who has since passed on*; but it is no longer an UNFINISHED, bad short story**.  I’ve had the blessed thing stuck in the back of my head for two, three years: I was wondering if it would ever get completed.  Now I’m going to forget about it for a day or two, do the necessary pass-through, and send it on its way.

That’s it.  And, yes: I’m describing the literary equivalent of describing an itch that I’ve finally been able to scratch.  And at that I’m probably being kind to myself; there are so many other, less couth, metaphors that would work in this context…

Moe Lane

*Larry Latham: he was the fellow who did the amazingly good Lovecraft is Missing webcomic, and he was taken from us far too soon.

**That turn of phrase shamelessly stolen from Stephen King’s It.

Spent the morning resubmitting things for publication.

Takes longer than you’d think.  Trying to balance finding new markets with submitting new things to markets that have already rejected something of yours is likewise a little tricky. You don’t want to give up on one particular market, but you don’t want to get into a cycle where you get your stories serially (heh) rejected by each of three or four publishers in turn.  Also, you know, there are all those submissions guidelines that you have to read: I mention this because I suspect that a lot of people don’t read submissions guidelines, and they probably should.

Still, productive enough work, in its way. Not overly creative, but productive. Also emotionally fraught, but you need to scar tissue yourself about that sort of thing. Life ain’t fair, and neither is the publishing industry.