Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Author: Marion Deeds


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WWWednesday: August 26, 2015

We’ll just get right to it today.

Awards:

The Hugo Awards were announced Saturday, August 22, in Spokane Washington at WorldCon. David Gerrold and Tananarive Due were the hosts. The event started late and ran very long, making it a normal awards event (I watched the Sasquan livestream, which should be available next week). The full list of awards can be found here:

Best NovelThe Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu (See our reviews here.)

Best Novella: No Hugo was awarded

Best Novelette: “The World Turned Upside Down” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt,


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WWWednesday: August 19, 2015

On this day in 1887, Russian chemist Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, better known for outlining the original Periodic Table of Elements, ascended 11,500 feet in a hot air balloon, the better to study the solar eclipse that was happening. Once Mendeleev had observed and made his notes, he had to figure out how to descend, since he’d never flown a balloon before. Mendeleev is also known for setting a Russian standard that vodka had to be at least 40% alcohol. Cheers, Mr. Mendeleev!

Awards:

The Baen Fantasy Adventure Awards were announced on August 1. 


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The End of All Things: A fun ride, with some missed opportunities

The End of All Things by John Scalzi

My experience with John Scalzi’s latest book in the OLD MAN’S WAR series, The End of All Things, was familiar: errands were delayed and chores undone as I pushed back everything so I could keep reading ‘til the end. Scalzi’s accessible style, brisk pacing and interesting premise certainly held my interest. Some favorite characters returned. Spaceships blew up and blew each other up, and there was an exciting ending. Looking back, though,


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Falling in Love with Hominids: A mixed bag by a gifted, playful writer

Falling in Love with Hominids by Nalo Hopkinson

Falling in Love with Hominids takes its name from a Cordwainer Smith passage. In her introduction, Nalo Hopkinson cites him as a refuge and a comfort during difficult times in her life. The anthology contains 17 stories. Several are short and probably qualify as flash fiction. Generally, Hopkinson writes the kinds of stories I like, and Falling in Love with Hominids includes fantasy, dark fantasy and outright horror, often incorporating folklore and a style of writing that evokes Jamaican oral story-telling language.


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Cthuthlu Fhtagn!: Variety is the spice of the Elder Gods

Cthuthlu Fhtagn! edited by Ross Lockhart

Usually, I shy away from reviewing books whose name I can’t pronounce. Since this title is in the language of the Elder Gods, though, it’s probably better that I can’t pronounce it. Aklo, H.P. Lovecraft’s mystical language, was never meant for human voices to speak anyway, as editor Ross Lockhart explains in his introduction. Lockhart also informs us that the meaning of “Fhtagn” was given to him in a dream (presumably by the Old Ones) and it means “house.” Anyway,


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WWWednesday: August 5, 2015

On this date in 1924, the comic strip Little Orphan Annie first appeared, debuting in the New York Daily News. The strip, created by Harold Gay, was syndicated by the Tribune Media Services.

Space:

NASA provides a behind-the-scenes (or is it “above the scenes?”) look at the ISS astronauts prepping for a spacewalk.

The UK Mirror reports that Nichelle Nichols of Star Trek, TOS, will come the closest of any cast member to “the final frontier” when she rides on the space telescope SOFIA in September,


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Marion talks to Chris Willrich

Chris Willrich is a novel and short story writer. His most recent book, The Chart of Tomorrows, completes the GAUNT AND BONE fantasy trilogy (here are my reviews). Recently, Chris took time to talk to me about writing, poetry, and being a librarian.

I’ve got a copy of The Chart of Tomorrows to send to one commenter with a U.S. address.

Marion Deeds: The GAUNT AND BONE series started, with The Scroll of Years, in a land very much like our China.


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WWWednesday: July 29, 2015

On this day in 1954, George Allen and Unwin, London publishers, published The Fellowship of the Ring, Volume One of The Lord of the Rings, by JRR Tolkien.

Movies and Television:

Syfy announces plans to serialize Dan Simmons’s work Hyperion. (The Shrike! The Shrike!) The plans so far only include the first of the four books, but since that one ends on a cliffhanger,  it seems likely they will want to continue production if the audience response is good.


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The Secret Life of Wonder Woman: Weirder than I ever could have imagined

The Secret Life of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore

Jill Lepore has reissued The Secret Life of Wonder Woman, her fascinating non-fiction look at the creator of Wonder Woman, with a revised Afterword that includes information from some new sources. The book is part scholarly work, part Wonder Woman archive and part scandal sheet. Non-fiction is usually pretty slow going for me, but I couldn’t put this book down.

Wonder Woman first appeared in 1941, part of All-Star Comics, a subset of Detective Comics,


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The Unnoticeables: Inventive, disturbing, funny and a little sparse

The Unnoticeables by Robert Brockway

There was a lot I liked in Robert Brockway’s urban fantasy novel The Unnoticeables. Starting with the most superficial elements first, I loved this cover. Tor went ironic, giving The Unnoticeables a highly noticeable cover. It’s venom green, a mashup of gearwheel-eyed killer clowns, fractals, figure-ground images and spiky-Mohawked punks. It’s disturbing and kind of funny, thus the perfect cover for Brockways’s novel. The Unnoticeables is the first in a series.

The core idea of The Unnoticeables is inventive and scary.


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Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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