beccastareyes

So, this is an entry that's probably a bit late, and spawned by last month's announcement of the nominees of the Hugo Award, a voted award for science fiction and fantasy stories. Basically, an author encouraged his fans to vote for a nomination slate to fight the liberal-feminist-diversity hold on SF fandom. Because most other people don't coordinate their nominations en masse, they got some works on the ballot. And, now, as a Hugo voter, I have to decide if I want to read them. Especially given that at least one of the organizers got booted from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America organization for using SFWA's official twitter to promote his essay insulting a fellow SFWA author in particular and non-white people and women in general.

Now, I know that an author is not the same as his or her works. On the other hand, I think an author's view of the world shapes his or her writing.

For instance, if I am writing a romantic couple that consists of two women, and I want a happy ending, that is shaped by what I find happy. Since I like romance and don't find anything wrong with any sort of sex between consenting adults, I can totally write them riding off into the sunset together as a happy ending. On the other hand, an author who genuinely doesn't believe that a same-sex couple is a good thing probably wouldn't write the couple staying together (or wouldn't write it as a good thing, or is writing erotica and is aiming more for 'hot' than 'emotionally satisfying').

So, if I know someone is racist and sexist (and also a jerk), I know that at best, I get 'good but problematic', but... well, there are too many books out there to read things that the best I can think of is 'good but...'. I'd prefer to take a chance on things that could be good with no qualifier and aren't going to lead me to wonder if the author's worldview is bleeding through.

Also, I don't like the collusion. Thankfully, it's harder to do on the award, since everyone votes on the same five works.

I feel like I should say something clever, but I don't got any of that.

My allergies, even with pills, are in the stage where I feel like there is something caught in the back of my throat. I've been reading a lot, so I should do a book review or two, but a lot of the books were re-reading the ones on the Hugo List. I'm done with the novels, and I could probably read the two novellas I own. It's kind of nice to know what I'll be voting for now, though I suspect that my top choice will not win the Hugo.

Writing and drawing is slow right now. I need to kick my muse in the butt. Maybe this weekend.

Also, I need to clear out all the books and clothing I own that I'm not going to use. More and more it sinks in that I expect to move in less than six months, which means clearing out years worth of... well, crap... I've accumulated. (maybe I shouldn't have skipped the clothing swap a couple of weeks ago, even if I mostly gave things rather than picking anything up.)

Also, i really should learn how to drive this summer.

So, I picked this one up from anke who was getting rid of some books. The Eyre Affair takes place in an alternate late 20th century England where, among other things, people are obsessed with classics of literature and art. Most people have an opinion on things like who authored Shakespeare's plays, and it's enough that people can break into fist fights or political movements. The main character's hometown has a long-running community production of Richard III structured more like the showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show than any play I've seen. It's actually a bit like... well, a lot of Japanese action series where everyone knows a certain card game, or incorporates martial arts into their normal job, or has a job involving cute and trainable pet monsters.

( There's also things like low-grade magic )

The nice thing about Christmas is new books and time to read them. The Fall of Kings is a book set in Ellen Kishner's Riverside series. Thankfully it was set decades after Swordspoint, the first book, because I only vaguely remembered the events of that one. (I remembered I liked it, and I found out that my used copy doesn't have the short stories that the reprint has... perhaps I should fix this.)

( I remember hearing about <em>Swordspoint</em> on a podcast (the SF Squeecast, I think), that noted that for a book published in 1987, it did two interesting things. )

So, Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht was a difficult novel for me for about the same reason Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okaofor was; I don't mind reading things that are set in a darker era (real or fictitious), but afterward, I want the literary equivalent of something sweet and fluffy. A bit like drinking black tea with pastries.

( Anyway, Of Blood and Honey is set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.  )

First off, Cat Valente has incredibly rich prose, full of imagery. Silently and Very Fast is basically a story told in stories to describe the relationship between machine intelligences and human intelligences.

(The first part is here)

( Elefsis is a machine intelligence that used to be a house, modeled by his creator as a lares familiar, a 'god of the household' like the Romans worshiped.  )

So, I mentioned this previously, but I was able to enjoy Leviathan Wakes, despite me critiquing the orbital mechanics and realizing that recent science* would throw a monkey wrench into the plot. But I'm used to that; sometimes things shape out that way.

( So, Leviathan Wakes hits a sweet spot in SF for me by being about the time when humankind has the Solar System as its playground but hasn't moved to the stars.  )

* Recent science that a member of my research group is doing!

I took a break from Hugo Reading 2012 to read the final book in the Newsflesh trilogy, Blackout by Mira Grant. There are spoilers in this post for the previous two books; so caveat lector.

(Oh, content warning. The Newsflesh trilogy features a relationship between an adopted brother and sister. Nothing more intimate than kissing is ever shown on the page; but it's all but directly stated that it is a sexual relationship.)

( So, <em>Blackout</em> picks up from the bombshells that <em>Deadline</em> dropped. )

So, I've reviewed Fuzzy Nation before, but I just reread it. Or thought I reviewed it before, but heck if I can actually find that entry, despite looking for two hours. (Whoops.)

Fuzzy Nation is what John Scalzi calls a 'reboot' of H Beam Piper's book, Little Fuzzy. Basically Scalzi took the initial premise of Piper's book and told it his way, and figured it would be more intellectually honest to ask Piper's estate if he could publish this rather than scrubbing the serial numbers off. I haven't read Little Fuzzy, so I'm working from what I think of Scalzi's writing.

( So, Our Hero Jack Holloway, is a disbarred lawyer turned prospector and a Grade A Asshole. )

There be spoilers here. I'll keep anything that's not spoiler-rific outside the cuts if you want to read it anyway.

I read the sample chapters to Mira Grant's (aka seanan_mcguire) upcoming book, Blackout. And something caught me...

( Spoilers for Feed and the sample material from Blackout )

There's another one in when Seanan McGuire asked who would win in a fight, Georgia, or the heroine of her other series, October Daye. Seanan noted that, while George was a better shot, Toby had one advantage.

Toby is known as working blood magic: she can use blood to see through another's eyes, even if they died. Moreover, she grew up in mid-century America. Georgia grew up in post-Rising America where any sign of blood was a risk of someone becoming a zombie, and any fluids from a zombie could spread the disease if they got into your body. So, Georgia has a reflexive avoidance of blood because of this, something a character from a setting that doesn't involve zombies just wouldn't have. Especially not a changeling that needs blood to work some magic.

Another worldbuilding detail that I didn't think about until the author pointed it out.

( Spoilers for Feed (the same ones) and also old Heinlein juvenile SF )