Interesting Things

Hugo Packet 2012

May 182012

The Hugo Packet for the 2012 Hugo awards is out now. It contains “electronic copies of individually nominated works, and representative works from people and groups nominated for their 2011 body of work as a whole. To thank the authors and publishers who have generously provided these materials, we urge you to provide your financial support to them in bookstores, at art shows, and online.”
It is available to anyone who is a member of Chicon 7. Note that you can become a supporting member for just $50 and then you get to vote for the Hugo and Campbell awards and get this cool packet.
I’ll be reviewing a majority of the works found in the packet. Here is my list of the finalists with links to what I have reviewed so far. I’ll be updating that page as I go and I’ll post my selections at some point before the Tuesday, July 31, 2012 deadline. I’ve got some reading to do, although not as much as last year.

Glasshouse

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May 142012

In Glasshouse , Charles Stross is playing with a number of ideas. Glasshouse is set in a future in which nano-tech “assemblers” allow the creation of anything for which you have the basic elements–including people. The wonderful and convincing portrayal of future technology and its implications is a strength through Stross’ books. This technology sets up another theme. If you can duplicate anything, including people, what does identity (and hence identity theft mean. There has in the recent past been a very nasty war in which one group effectively infected the assembler units with a virus that allowed for the cognitive control and censorship of the people within the groups control. Once you control a person and that person’s memories, you can establish a very effective and nasty dictatorship.
We meet the main character Robin. Robin has recently had elective memory surgery, presumably to forget some traumatic events. Robin is convalescing while his (he is basically human with some modifications) personality settles after the memory surgery. Robin discovers there seem to be some people trying to kill him and so he volunteers to enter an experiment. The experiment involves transferring to a reenactment of Earth in the twentieth century. This gives Stross the opportunity to do some very nice observations on the silliness of many customs that many people take for granted now. Clothes, marriage, jobs, … — these all seem odd or meaningless to Robin (who is now female) and this is a very nice use of the power of SF. SF allows us to look at our own world (and ourselves) as it might be perceived from the outside.
While in the experiment, Robin discovers that the experimenters may not be quite whom they had claimed they were. This sets up the driving plot focus for the book. I won’t go into that beyond saying that it provides a nice tightly paced setting for all of the other idea generation that is going on. Very well done.

Roman Holiday – Part II

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May 092012

As we were wandering about Rome on Tuesday, I noted a few general things. As large cities go, Rome was quite clean. There was pretty much no garbage lying about (plenty of trash cans) and while buildings did have some darkening due to auto exhaust, it didn’t seem as bad as, say Chicago. There seemed to be far fewer “homeless” persons than in a typical American city of a comparable size. Since gas prices were at around $10/gallon (converting from liters and Euro) there were basically no large personal vehicles (SUVs). Also, while driving, it might seem like you are constantly about to either hit someone or be rammed, there was very little evidence of actual collisions. There weren’t any little pools of broken glass on the road or even very many dents in autos. An initial hypothesis is that Italian drivers may actually pay more attention since the rules seem to be more fluid.
Another very fine thing is gelato. There are lots of places that sell gelato as you wander about. This makes getting lost not too bad. How lost can you be if you can stop and have some delicious gelato. We found one place (whose name I can remember) just outside of the walls of the Vatican that was very good. Another, Valentino’s, was just down from the Trevi fountain–also very good. We found that places that made their own and specialized in gelato to be better than places that happened to also sell gelato.
On Tuesday, we decided to see the Colosseum and the Forum area. We took a taxi there and disembarked near the Colosseum. The line to get in was quite long there and we didn’t have a ticket, but we did have SECRET KNOWLEDGE! I will know reveal this. Instead of getting your ticket at the Colosseum, you can go about 100 yards down Via di San Gregorio past the Arch of Constantine where you will find the entrance to the Forum/Palatine hill area. The line here is much shorter and you can buy a combined Forum, Palatine Hill, Colosseum ticket there. Here is the Arch of Constantine:

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Roman Holiday-Part I

Trip 2 Responses »

May 022012

Susan and I returned on the 26th of April from our 11 day excursion to Rome and I’ve gotten the photos in order enough to write up the trip. The short account is that we had a great time. The weather cooperated the whole time with temperatures in the 60′s and usually some sun–very nice for walking around and looking at things.
We arrived in Rome on the 16th and arrived at the hotel (Rose Garden Palace) around 11:30am. That’s 4:30am CST so we had been up about 22 hours by that time, but we’ve learned that powering through that first day is a good way to get your clock onto local time. After getting unpacked (the room was very nice with a walk in closet and nice speedy wi-fi) we walked a couple of blocks to the Villa Borghese gardens. We managed our first days goal of staying awake.
On the second day, we took a taxi over to the Vatican museum entrance. We had gotten tickets online and were quite glad as the line for the unfortunates who didn’t have tickets was very long. Several people tried to persuade us to join their tour group but we demurred as we wanted to go ourselves. This proved to be a very good decision as once in we often had many parts almost to ourselves. The typical tour groups seemed to follow a pretty much direct line to the Sistine chapel–driving their customers before them wailing and gnashing (or something like that).
Anyway, we strolled about and saw things like:

Hall of Pope transportation

This was a long room with various carriages (up to “Pope-mobiles”) that had carried various Popes around.
This artifact in the Cortile della Pigna claims to be a sculpture by Arnaldo Pomodoro entitled “Sphere within a Sphere.” I personally suspect that it is a crashed Berserker Probe.
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The Alchemist of Souls

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Apr 302012

The Alchemist of Souls by Anne Lyle is another book I found via Scalzi’s Big Idea. If any author’s are wondering if writing up a Big Idea piece and getting it on Whatever is a good idea, I would have to say yes–I’ve picked up a number of books that caught my attention there.
In The Alchemist of Souls, Lyle’s main stage is Elizabethan England, but with a couple twists. The big twist is that when the America’s were discovered, the European’s found a more advanced non-human species (called Skraylings) on the east as well as human native Americans. The non-humans serve as an effective buffer to colonization and provide the rest of the twists in the world. Since history is different from the point of contact, differences in history start to make their appearance. For example, Queen Elizabeth was married and has several children. The Skraylings seem to have some abilities that seem like magic to the Europeans. The English need allies against the Spanish and French and so downplay any hints at “deviltry” at work.
With those background details, the main thrust of the book concerns the arrival of the first Skrayling ambassador to England and the appointment of Mal Catlyn as his bodyguard. Mal, Ned (his friend) and Coby (a girl hiding out as a boy in a London theater company) provide the POV characters and are done quite nicely, I thought. Lyle does a good job at showing the motivations and background for these characters. She has a real feel for making the characters authentic.
I enjoyed reading this book and I look forward to the next volume.

The Dain Curse

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Apr 272012

The Dain Curse by Dashiell Hammett was Hammett’s second novel featuring the Continental Op. This book is basically three short stories tied together with common characters and the unfortunate happenings to the “Dain” family. I read this back on my flight from Rome. It worked OK in that role as it was short and fast.
So far, Hammett isn’t growing on me as quickly or as well as Chandler did when I read through his novels. Out on the internets I see lots of people extolling Hammett’s prose and plotting, but I’m not really seeing it so far. The Op isn’t particularly likeable. The end story in this one was supposed to tie things together, but the result was one of those invented endings where it looks like Hammett wanted to tie things together and just fit the ending to make things work out. There wasn’t anything really leading to that ending. The dialogue speaks very much like many movies from the forties. You can hear the inflected accents as the actors try to be earnest. I’m not sure that’s a really good thing.

The Shadow War of the Night Dragons, Book One: The Dead City

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Apr 112012

For my first new Hugo review I will point out The Shadow War of the Night Dragons, Book One: The Dead City by John Scalzi. This short story appeared on April 1 of 2011 for the very good reason that it was an April Fool’s prank. Scalzi talks about the genesis of the story here. Basically, Tor had wrapped up their “Best Books of the Decade” voting and had done some statistics on the frequency of words in the titles here. In that post, they suggested that a trilogy with the titles:

The Shadow War of the Night Dragon, Book One: The Dead City
The Shadow War of the Night Dragon, Book Two: Dark Blood Magic
The Shadow War of the Night Dragon, Book Three: Dream World of the Fire Wolf

would be the most generically titled (and frighteningly possible) set of titles that could be arrived at.
With that list in hand, Patrick Nielsen Hayden called Scalzi up and asked him if he would be willing to write the prologue of the first volume for their April 1^st funness. Scalzi (cackling with maniacal glee I can only imagine) accepted.
The story itself is a wild bit of fun. It has humor–high, low and meta. And, hey, it’s got evil badgers with spoons of darkness–how can you not like that?

Hugo Awards 2012 Short Lists

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Apr 092012

The nominations for the 2012 Hugo Awards were announced on Saturday. Minicon happened to be one of the sites doing a live feed of the nomination list, so I got to hear these live and in person. I was fairly pleased as a number of the works I nominated made it to the final ballot. Here are the lists with links to reviews I’ve already done:

Best Novel

Among Others, Jo Walton (Tor)
A Dance With Dragons, George R. R. Martin (Bantam Spectra) This one presents me with a problem as I haven’t gotten that far in the series. I think I will have to pass on reviewing this.
Deadline, Mira Grant (Orbit)
Embassytown, China Miéville (Macmillan / Del Rey)
Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey (Orbit)

Best Novella

Countdown, Mira Grant (Orbit)
“The Ice Owl”, Carolyn Ives Gilman (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction)
“Kiss Me Twice”, Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s)
“The Man Who Bridged the Mist”, Kij Johnson (Asimov’s)
“The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary”, Ken Liu (Panverse 3)
Silently and Very Fast, Catherynne M. Valente (WSFA)

Best Novelette

“The Copenhagen Interpretation”, Paul Cornell (Asimov’s)
“Fields of Gold”, Rachel Swirsky (Eclipse Four)
“Ray of Light”, Brad R. Torgersen (Analog)
“Six Months, Three Days”, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor.com)
“What We Found”, Geoff Ryman (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction)

Best Short Story

“The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees”, E. Lily Yu (Clarkesworld)
“The Homecoming”, Mike Resnick (Asimov’s)
“Movement”, Nancy Fulda (Asimov’s)
“The Paper Menagerie”, Ken Liu (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction)
“Shadow War of the Night Dragons: Book One: The Dead City: Prologue”, John Scalzi (Tor.com)

Best Related Work

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Third Edition, edited by John Clute, David Langford, Peter Nicholls, and Graham Sleight (Gollancz)
Jar Jar Binks Must Die…and other Observations about Science Fiction Movies, Daniel M. Kimmel (Fantastic Books)
The Steampunk Bible: An Illustrated Guide to the World of Imaginary Airships, Corsets and Goggles, Mad Scientists, and Strange Literature, Jeff VanderMeer and S. J. Chambers (Abrams Image)
Wicked Girls (CD), Seanan McGuire
Writing Excuses, Season 6 (podcast series), Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Jordan Sanderson

Best Graphic Story

Digger, by Ursula Vernon (Sofawolf Press)
Fables Vol 15: Rose Red, by Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham (Vertigo)
Locke & Key Volume 4: Keys To The Kingdom, written by Joe Hill, illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW)
Schlock Mercenary: Force Multiplication, written and illustrated by Howard Tayler, colors by Travis Walton (The Tayler Corporation)
The Unwritten (Volume 4): Leviathan, created by Mike Carey and Peter Gross, written by Mike Carey, illustrated by Peter Gross (Vertigo)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

Captain America: The First Avenger, screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephan McFeely; directed by Joe Johnston (Marvel)
Game of Thrones (Season 1), created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss;
written by David Benioff, D. B. Weiss, Bryan Cogman, Jane Espenson, and George R. R. Martin; directed by Brian Kirk, Daniel Minahan, Tim van Patten, and Alan Taylor (HBO)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, screenplay by Steve Kloves; directed by David Yates (Warner Bros.)
Hugo, screenplay by John Logan; directed by Martin Scorsese (Paramount)
Source Code, screenplay by Ben Ripley; directed by Duncan Jones (Vendome Pictures)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

Doctor Who, ”The Doctor’s Wife”, written by Neil Gaiman; directed by Richard Clark (BBC Wales)
“The Drink Tank’s Hugo Acceptance Speech”, Christopher J Garcia and James Bacon (Renovation)
Doctor Who, ”The Girl Who Waited”, written by Tom MacRae; directed by Nick Hurran (BBC Wales)
Doctor Who, ”A Good Man Goes to War”, written by Steven Moffat; directed by Peter Hoar (BBC Wales)
Community, ”Remedial Chaos Theory”, written by Dan Harmon and Chris McKenna; directed by Jeff Melman (NBC)

Best Semiprozine

Apex Magazine, edited by Catherynne M. Valente, Lynne M. Thomas, and Jason Sizemore
Interzone, edited by Andy Cox
Lightspeed, edited by John Joseph Adams
Locus, edited by Liza Groen Trombi, Kirsten Gong-Wong, et al.
New York Review of Science Fiction, edited by David G. Hartwell, Kevin J. Maroney, Kris Dikeman, and Avram Grumer

Best Fanzine

Banana Wings, edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer
The Drink Tank, edited by James Bacon and Christopher J Garcia
File 770, edited by Mike Glyer
Journey Planet, edited by James Bacon, Christopher J Garcia, et al.
SF Signal, edited by John DeNardo

Best Fancast

The Coode Street Podcast, Jonathan Strahan & Gary K. Wolfe
Galactic Suburbia Podcast, Alisa Krasnostein, Alex Pierce, and Tansy Rayner Roberts (presenters) and Andrew Finch (producer)
SF Signal Podcast, John DeNardo and JP Frantz (presenters), Patrick Hester (producer)
SF Squeecast, Lynne M. Thomas, Seanan McGuire, Paul Cornell, Elizabeth Bear, and Catherynne M. Valente
StarShipSofa, Tony C. Smith

Best Editor, Long Form

Lou Anders
Liz Gorinsky
Anne Lesley Groell
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Betsy Wollheim

Best Editor, Short Form

John Joseph Adams
Neil Clarke
Stanley Schmidt
Jonathan Strahan
Sheila Williams

Best Professional Artist

Dan dos Santos
Bob Eggleton
Michael Komarck
Stephan Martiniere
John Picacio

Best Fan Artist

Brad W. Foster
Randall Munroe
Spring Schoenhuth
Maurine Starkey
Steve Stiles
Taral Wayne

Best Fan Writer

James Bacon
Claire Brialey
Christopher J. Garcia
Jim C. Hines
Steven H Silver

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Mur Lafferty
Stina Leicht
Karen Lord
Brad R. Torgersen
E. Lily Yu

Minicon 47 recap

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Apr 092012

Last weekend was Minicon 47 and it was another interesting weekend spent among SF fans and authors. This year I was on two panels. The first panel I was on was on Friday night and was “Failing the Turing Test.” Co-panelists were: Ted Chiang, Aaron Vander Giessen (M), Andy Exley, Howard L. Davidson and Jason Wittman. Ted Chiang (in case you don’t know) was the writer Guest of Honor. I enjoyed being on this panel quite a bit. We had a lively discussion on whether the Turing test was still useful (yes) and if it had been passed yet (no — chatbots really don’t count as the human involved isn’t usually aware they are being tested.) I mentioned some ideas about the ethics of AI — if you have an entity you acknowledge as intelligent, what sort of rights should it have. Ted mentioned that voting is problematic — “What if it replicated itself 10 million times?”

The second panel I was on was Saturday night and was “What is Intelligence?.” The co-panelists were: Ted Chiang, Jason Wittman, Marissa Lingen(M) and Martin Summerton.Ted talked a bit about ideas of intelligence taking different forms and I mentioned Blindsight by Peter Watts as a good example of a book dealing with different kinds of intelligence. (Ted agreed.) Ted brought up Transcranial direct-current stimulation tDcs as an interesting example of mental augmentation that is going on. At the very end, Ted mentioned that he wished we had been able to talk more about ethical implications of super-intelligence. He mentioned that we don’t expect dogs to have many ethics, children to have a few more, adults many more, … So would we expect a super-intelligent entity to have more ethics? (With great power comes great responsibility.) After the panel I had a chance to chat with Ted for a bit (he’s a really nice guy.) I thought the idea was quite interesting and seemed reasonable. While we might expect higher ethics, it is, of course, no guarantee that any given entity will have them Just as adult humans vary wildly in their grasp of ethics. Also, there is the problem that an AI could hold a very different type of ethics. Like “mine iron!” might be its idea of the highest ethical goal.

In a later panel, Ted gave an interesting definition of SF vs. Fantasy. If the basis of the story operates via the scientific method–is reproducible without special circumstances then the story is SF even if it may appear to be fantasy. For example, Ted’s story “Seventy-two Letters” has golems animated by slips of paper with names in Hebrew written upon them. This might appear to be fantasy, but the difference is that anyone can write out the names and animate the golem. Thus (in that universe) it is a verifiable and reproducible result. No special status of “wizard” is needed. I thought this was an interesting definition.

Minicon 47

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Apr 032012

Minicon 47 is this weekend. The Guests of Honor this year are: Ted Chiang (author), Christopher J Garcia (fanzine), and Frank Wu (artist).
I will be on two panels this year:

FRI — 8:30PM Failing the Turing Test
In 1950, Alan Turing asked the question “Can machines think?” Since then, the test of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour has sparked new questions. Is this test useful? Is it significant that some people are fooled by chatbots? What’s the relationship between intelligence and personhood? In what ways are computers smarter than us? How have AI surpassed us, and what do we do when humans don’t pass? Ted Chiang, Aaron Vander Giessen (M), Andy Exley, Howard L. Davidson, Jason Wittman, Steven Halter
SAT — 7:00PM What is Intelligence?
Ted Chiang’s “Understand” asks and then attempts to very thoroughly answer the question of what it would really be like to be super-intelligent. Along the way, it delves into the definition of intelligence, and whether greater intelligence necessarily means greater morality. What’s our current definition of intelligent? What is intelligence? Is our definition something that could evolve? Could we achieve super-intelligence with performance enhancing drugs? What would it mean to be super-intelligent? Ted Chiang, Jason Wittman, Marissa Lingen(M), Martin Summerton, Steven Halter

A couple of nice light panels for evening discussion.

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