Some Fantastic Editor's Blog

A Couple Quick Notes

2007-07-10T23:10:00.000-04:00

As the title says, just a couple quick notes:

Work on the Summer, 2007 issue has begun. It will be online in a couple weeks.
If you're interested, I've posted to the Some Fantastic website the review of John Scalzi's Old Man's War that I wrote for the New York Review of Science Fiction at the beginning of last year.

Issue #11 Delayed

2007-01-19T09:55:00.000-05:00

Sadly, I will post the Winter, 2007 Issue sometime during the second week of February rather than on schedule within the next few days. I haven't been late in posting an issue before, and I'm hoping that this is the last time it happens.

At iTunes Store for Free: Lectures for Spring, 2006 SF Course

2007-01-11T09:21:00.000-05:00

Just as a PSA for all the other SF fans who might be interested, I just wanted to pass on that while randomly searching through the podcasts at the iTunes Store, I stumbled upon Prof. Courtney Brown's lectures from his Spring, 2006 Science Fiction and Politics course at Emory University. They're available for free and include discussions of Darwin's Radio, Uplift War, Ender's Game, Neuromancer, Do Android's Dream of Electric Sheep, The Forever War, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Brave New World and The Left Hand of Darkness. I haven't listened to any of them yet, but I am in the process of downloading them all to my computer. I'll provide a brief review of the first few lectures once I've had the time to listen to them myself.

50 Most Significant SF&F Books Meme

2006-11-15T09:23:00.000-05:00

I actually commented on the SFBC list of the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy novel back when the list first came out in the beginning of 2003. However, a meme using the list and new discussions of it have recently flaired up in fandom -- someone needs to tell me why this suddenly become a hot topic in the sf&f community again after it laid fallow for a few years. Anyway, here's the meme about the list, with my responses.

This is a list of the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy novels, 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club. Bold the ones you've read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished, underline those you own but haven't read, and put an asterisk* beside the ones you loved.

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov*
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson*
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick*
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.*
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card*
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon*
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut*
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson*
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

King Begs Rowling to Spare a Life (Snark)

2006-08-02T11:56:00.000-04:00

Apparently, John Irving and Stephen King are asking J. K. Rowling to spare Harry Potter's life in the final Harry Potter installment. I find King's plea horribly ironic given how many times he's destroyed civilization and killed characters, both minor and major throughout all his fiction. It's sort of like Stalin trying to tell... well... anyone that they should respect the rights of all other humans on the planet.

Cover Problems

2006-07-12T15:19:00.000-04:00

I'm starting to a bit sorry for Syne Mitchell. I'm reading her latest novel, The Last Mortal Man, as a bit of pleasure reading before I continue reading the books I have promised to write reviews for. Thus far, it's a nice little read -- well paced, with nicely drawn-out characters and a slightly different take on the nanotechnology than I recall reading before. However, the publisher, Roc, has done her a disservice in the back cover summary and in the cover illustration.

The back cover summary starts as follows: "In the twenty-fourth century..." Already, we have a problem. The main narrative of this book takes place in 2186 (a number of events, back story for the main event, take place beforehand). I know I haven't had my math skills rigorously tested in a while, but I figure that as the late twenty-second century. Big difference. Actually, it has little bearing on the events of the story, but some copy editor or fact checker could have easily caught that slip.

Then, there's the cover.

There are a few problems with this illustration:

Assuming that's supposed to be Jack, one of our protagonists, on the cover, this scene doesn't exist in the book. The destruction of Manhattan takes place off-stage and he is nowhere near it when it happens. In fact, he only sees live pictures of its destruction.
Jack is deathly allergic to the nano-designed biology that encompasses the earth, and anytime he's in a major metropolitan area, he needs a full-body isolation suit for protection.
If that's not Jack, then this is a very unusual human being, because nearly every adult on the planet has undergone some sort of nano-engineering. And unless he is unmodified, he should be dying from the very thing destroying New York.

I don't know much about how these things happen in the publishing world. But clearly, Roc has done a major disservice to Ms. Mitchell in handling the cover of her book.

F&SF Blogging Promotion

2006-06-01T14:02:00.000-04:00

Right now, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is using a blogging promotion to get word out for the July issue, which is now at newsstands and bookstores. I was fortunate enough to get one of the free issues as part of the promotion and hoped to post a review of it as it hit the streets. Alas, I wasn't able to finish it -- I'm only halfway through. However, I can say with certainty that Terry Bisson's "Billy and the Unicorn" and R. Garcia y Robertson's "Kansas, She Says, Is the Name of the Star" are worth the $3.99 cover price alone.

If you don't already subscribe or haven't already picked it up, by all means do so.

RIP, Stanislaw Lem

2006-03-27T11:25:00.000-05:00

Stanislaw Lem died yesterday. Because of sf's hugely American bias, he never received the full notoriety he deserved. While he was hugely important, I suspect that his passing will not be as widely noted as it should be.

I must admit that although I know how important his work is, I've never actually read any of it. It seems like an appropriate time to correct the error of my ways.

Work on Issue #7 Underway

2006-01-11T16:15:00.000-05:00

As posted on the website, the target date for posting the next issue online is Monday, January 23. Unfortunately, reviews for a few items I hoped to see covered didn't materialize, but it is shaping up to be the biggest issue yet. If I mange to start putting out 40-page issues every few months, I might even consider moving to a bimonthly schedule.

Looking ahead to the April issue, I plan on including a feature piece on the post-9/11 world of Harry Potter, but aside from that no other features are lined up at this time. We're always looking for new material and new writers, so if you are interested, by all means contact me and let me know.

LibraryThing

2005-12-02T16:58:00.000-05:00

If you are interested in what books I currently own (and to a large degree currently treasure), you can see a partial listing of my collection at LibraryThing. At this time, it's incomplete, but I plan on slowly continuing to update and expand the list till it's complete.

Reader's Poll in January, 2006 Issue

2005-11-22T15:36:00.000-05:00

The first ever Some Fantastic Reader's Poll will go online alongside the January, 2006 issue when it appears. As an incentive to fill out the poll, I will be giving to two randomly selected responders a signed Kim Stanley Robinson paperback, which he put his autograph in at a recent signing near my home in Northern Virginia.

It's also too early to state for certain, but it also looks like I finally ~~sucked in~~ convinced my wife to write a review for the issue. Unfortunately, it will be a DVD review--meaning that I am still working on increasing the amount of pixels dedicated to the books--but you take your copy anywhere you can get it.

Finally, unless something happens to change my mind in the next six weeks, it looks like the editorial will address the recent demise of SciFiction and Amazon.com's annoying habit of announcing their year's best lists in the beginning of November.

The Thrills of Online Publishing

2005-10-31T08:48:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend, I found a few errors/typos in Issue No. 6 that made it past our initial proof-reading efforts. However, thanks to the joys of relying on online publishing for distribution, making the edits and reposting the issue this morning were relatively easy -- and since I haven't run off any print copies yet, this didn't cost a dime. It's a shame that the 50+ people who already downloaded the issue can see what those mistakes were, but it's nice to have the ability to easily and cheaply fix such things.

Upcoming in Winter, 2006 Issue

2005-10-28T15:21:00.000-04:00

For those who are interested, here is a very preliminary list of items planned for the Winter, 2006 Issue. This is by no means a complete list, and inclusion here is not a guarantee that it will appear as tentatively scheduled:

Features:

Class and Economics in Harry Potter
Commentary on changes in the DC and Marvel universes

Book Reviews:

Paul Park's A Princess of Roumania
Charles Stross' The Atrocity Archives
Terry Pratchett's Thud!
Charles Coleman Finlay's Wild Things & The Prodigal Troll, accompanied by an interview with Mr. Finlay
Damien Broderick's Godplayers

DVD Reviews:

There are a few more potential items floating out there. I won't count on everyone finishing all the reviews they've promised, but already I have more in the pipeline than I usually do when at this point in planning an issue.

Fall Issue Up Tomorrow

2005-10-27T15:04:00.000-04:00

36 pages, text & layout complete -- one last round of proof-reading tonight and it will finally go online tomorrow.

I think this issue caused more distress than any issue thus far. Hopefully, the January Issue will go much more smoothly.

Serenity in Less Than 2,000 Words

2005-10-13T13:34:00.000-04:00

If you've seen Serenity, check out this summary. Not necessarily work-safe in that if you are reading it with a mouthful of Diet Coke at your desk you will snarf some of it all over your screen and keyboard, thus causing damage to company property. There's also that whole laughing out loud at work issue too.

Possible Future Layout Change

2005-10-12T13:38:00.000-04:00

A Live Journal blogger recent brought to my attention fonts designed for easier reading for people with dyslexia. It's a little too late to use them in this month's issue--which has a target date of October 21, give or take a couple days -- but I think it would be a great idea to use them going forward.

Picking a body font will be easy enough -- it's picking a nice companion headline font that will probably take same time.

Any suggestions from those of you who work with fonts on a regular basis?

Great New Resource

2005-10-07T12:58:00.000-04:00

Given that I put some sort of sf-related quote at the bottom of the first page of every issue, Gary Westfahl's new book Science Fiction Quotations: From the Inner Mind to the Outer Limits became a "must have" for me the second it hit the shelves. I've already ordered it and am expecting it to arive on the 11th. (I actually paid for shipping from Amazon for the first time in years as I don't think I can wait as long as I normally do to take advantage of the free shipping on it.)

Star Wreck

2005-10-06T13:02:00.000-04:00

It's the "first Finnish full-length scifi parody," and I need to get my ass a copy before Paramount shuts them down. Those with DVD-burning capabilities can download for free -- alas, I am not one of those.

Serenity & Firefly

2005-10-05T11:38:00.000-04:00

Until this past weekend, I had never seen an episode of Firefly. However, I was interested in Serenity, so when my friend Keith came down this past weekend for a visit he brought his set of Firefly DVDs. Although we weren't able to watch all of them, I did have the opportunity to see enough of them to add to my enjoyment of Serenity on Sunday night. I'm still catching up on the DVDs (of which Keith was missing the first, which he lent out to his brother and hasn't gotten back), but I have to say that I am loving the show and will probably buy both the complete series and the Serenity DVD when it finally does hit the stores.

Some general thoughts (a few possible Serenity spoilers as well). I beg that the show's long-time fans forgive me for mentioning something that seems like old news to them:

I absolutely love Jayne's (Adam Baldwin's) character -- especially in the episode where he's a hero on a planet from which he's a fugitive. Actually, he strikes me as nothing more than an older, more mature version of Animal Mother, the character Baldwin portrayed in Full Metal Jacket, but I liked Animal Mother too, so it works out in the end.
I really respect Whedon for killing two main characters in Serenity. One of my biggest beefs with sci-fi series is the fact that the major characters almost never die, no matter how pitched the battle. Star Trek managed to bungle this one even further by not having the balls to let the characters stay dead, having resurrected Spock and blatantly leaving the door open to resurrecting Data should they decide to do anything with the Next Gen crew ever again.
Maybe it's because I haven't been able to watch the pilot or wasn't paying close attention to an earlier episode, but is this happening in just one star system or is it spread out over a sector of the galaxy? Either way, there's enough problems with the science -- whether it's a nearly impossibly configured solar system or the near instantaneous travel between systems, it really doesn't matter -- to make this more science fantasy than science fiction.
Yeah, I know it's a western too, and all the rules of proper sf probably shouldn't apply, but that doesn't mean I have to just sit quietly and just accept the setup mindlessly.
Like Wash (Alan Tudyk), I never get tired of hearing about Jayne got beat up by a 90-pound girl.
However, I'm never able to look at Wash without thinking about the character Tudyk played in 28 Days and his saying, "Look at my package!"
I know that Mal said he'd kill him if he ever saw him again, but does anyone out there really believe we've seen the last of The Operative? He's now such a natural fit for the crew that it's almost scary.
What do you think the chances are that we'll see the Serenity attempt a trip back to Earth? I see it happening, provided that the fireflies actually handle interstellar travel.

Work on Issue #6 Underway

2005-09-29T15:27:00.000-04:00

Work on the Fall Issue is now underway. Since it is also the First Anniversary Issue, I hoped to make it the biggest issue thus far. However, unless a couple of the other pieces I am waiting on are longer than I expect, I don't think it will happen. Still, it will come in around at either 28 or 32 pages, so I cannot complain too much. A potential wild card is the second half of my review of everything The War of the Worlds -- there's literally so much out there that I can break it into three parts, but I'm experiencing WotW fatique and refuse to drag it out past this issue. There are a few items I will just need to mention in passing and leave it at that.

In addition, I am already getting together items for the Winter Issue. I have a couple more books lined up for myself, and have sent for the first season of The 4400 and Terry Pratchett's Thud! off for review. While I'm certain I can find someone to review it, I'm waffling a bit on the DVD release of the final Star Wars film.