I finished two books on Thursday and it felt good

 

Even before the pandemic hit, the number of books I was clearing through was on the decline, so as you can imagine, finishing two books one right after the other felt really nice. I finally wrapped up reading Victory Conditions, the fifth and final book in Elizabeth Moon's Vatta's War series. I recommend it if you're interested in military SF that isn't hardcore. The series won't blow your socks off, but you definitely will not have felt like you wasted time reading them. Not long after putting that book down, I grabbed my tablet and decided to read some more of All Systems Red by Martha Wells. I love The Murderbot Diaries, so I've enjoyed re-reading the first book in the series. It wasn't long until I was finishing that one as well. This is another recommendation too. The first four books in the series are novellas, so there's no huge time commitment. At least on the surface there isn't, but I can guarantee you from personal experience that you'll tear through each one in rapid order! The fifth book is a full length novel and the upcoming sixth is another novella.

I have no clue if I'll add any more books to my tally before the end of the year, but I started to realize last year that it doesn't matter how many books I read in a year, so long as I'm reading.

Oh hey, here's the official poster for The Rise of Skywalker

Via Official Star Wars Twitter.

Neat.

Cyberpunk 2077, or, Keanu Reeves probably just made CD Projekt half a billion dollars on the spot

So undoubtedly you, lovely and intelligent reader have probably heard about The Witcher dev's big get for their upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 game: Keanu Reeves.



Clearly, they're banking on his huge role in the blockbuster film Johnny Mnemonic. And probably those Matrix movies too, but nobody remembers those things.

Joking aside, the trailer looks amazing, but some actual gameplay footage would be nice too. The game is supposed to come out next year and it's been in development for a while I believe, so there should be some available.

Nerd Trash Person of the Month for October: Jodie Whittaker

No surprise there. The new season of Doctor Who starts this month and we'll finally get to see the first female incarnation of The Doctor in action!

Source: PIP/CAMERA PRESS / The Times.

Via: Daily Jodie Whittaker Twitter.

Via: Daily Jodie Whittaker Twitter.

Via: Daily Jodie Whittaker Twitter.

Nerd Trash's Book Recommendation of the Month: The Hammer of God by Arthur C. Clarke

So this is a thing I'm going to try and do where I recommend a book every month. I'll try for different genres, but since obviously I'm only going to pick books I've read and I have a limited field of interest, expect a lot of SF, fantasy, and mysteries/crime.

Anyways, The Hammer of God is a really good book. I just posted a review of it over on my SF blog, so head on over there if you want to. The gist of it is an asteroid dubbed "Kali" is discovered on a collision course with Earth in the year 2110. The book follows the attempts of the crew of the spaceship Goliath and its captain, Robert Singh, to prevent this by attaching a mass driver to Kali that would change the space rock's trajectory by slowly pushing it away. Intermingled in all of this is chapters dedicated to depicting human civilization in the 22nd century. It's all pretty interesting: the Moon and Mars are both colonized, the world is governed by a World Council, and generally everything is going peachy.

This book isn't high on action or conflict. It's more in-line with another of Clarke's novels, Rendezvous with Rama. It's a lot more of exciting adventure than what you would expect, but that's what I've come to expect of Arthur C. Clarke and why I'm quickly growing to be a fan of his.

February's Person of the Month: Sir Arthur C. Clarke

(via Wikipedia)

I've decided to revive my short-lived "Icon of the Month" feature and having just finished The Hammer of God, I can't think of no one better to honor than Sir Arthur C. Clarke.

Clarke, of course, is a titan of the SF genre. From his pen and mind came astounding works of science fiction such as Rendezvous With Rama, Childhood's End, The Fountains of Paradise, and more. His most famous work, without a doubt, would be 2001: A Space Odyssey, written in conjunction with the groundbreaking Stanley Kubrick film. 2001 would spawn three sequels as part of the Space Odyssey series.

Rendezvous With Rama was the first novel of his that I had ever read and I loved it. It was one of those books that I wish I had read long ago and regretted not having done so.

He had an impact outside of the SF as well. In 1945, he first wrote a paper describing the potential use of telecommunications satellites in geostationary orbit. While it's not clear if his paper led to the development of such satellites, he predicted them almost a decade before anybody else. Today, geostationary orbit is called Clarke Orbit.

He also played TV host in the 1980s and '90s to a trio of shows: Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World, Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers, Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe.

Arthur C. Clarke was the last of the "Big Three" of Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and himself to die. Even though I had never read any of his books at the time, his death in 2008 was a gut punch because it was crystal clear that SF and the world at large had lost a bit of greatness.

The Good and the Bad: My Thoughts on Doctor Who's "Twice Upon a Time"

via Doctor Who Wiki.

The good: The crossover between the Doctor's First and Twelfth incarnations. David Bradley's turn as the First Doctor. Twelve's/Peter Capaldi's farewell speech before regenerating. Thirteenth Doctor!

The bad: Everything else.

So let's talk about the bad first. I thought the plot was weak and thin. It's like Steven Moffat went to the well and came up dry. The antagonist, The Testimony, turn out not to be antagonists at all, so there was pretty much no conflict whatsoever. Add to this that they're barely even in the story and it becomes clear that Moffat was just going through the motions. Not much in the way of action either. Really, "Twice Upon a Time" almost felt like a bottle episode. Like, Moffat and Co. had to do a Christmas special but only with whatever money they had left over from series 10 because BBC wouldn't give them a separate budget. I don't know and I doubt that that's true, but the lackluster nature of the special compared to previous endeavors makes it seem like they were making do with what they had.

I also wasn't feeling the reunion between the Doctor, Bill, and Nardole. It felt tacked on. The cameo by Clara was nice, though. 

Now onto the good. I loved David Bradley's portrayal of the First Doctor. I would love to see him reprise the role again. Maybe the Beeb could redo some of the lost episodes with him as The Doctor? His interactions with Twelve were pretty good too. I especially enjoyed the culture clash with One having the sexist mentality of someone both old and from the 1960s versus Twelve, who is much more open and progressive minded. Watching the latter being embarrassed every time his previous incarnation said something sexist had me snickering. The bit where One asks what browser history is while wearing the sonic sunglasses was one of the best of the special.

via Doctor Who Wiki.

Also? The First Doctor looks cool as all hell in Ray-Ban sunglasses.

The best part of "Twice Upon a Time", though, had to be the Twelfth Doctor's farewell speech before regenerating.



It was heartfelt and emotional without being over the top. It was a self-reflection of The Doctor and all they stand for and why people have loved the show for 50+ years. What really hit me was the final line before he regenerated. "Doctor...I let you go" to me sounds like Peter Capaldi talking and not The Doctor. That this was Capaldi saying farewell to a character he played for three series. It was wonderful.

"Oh brilliant!"
(via Doctor Who Wiki)

And now of course, there's the new kid on the block. The major anticipation of "Twice Upon a Time" of course was the debut of the Thirteenth Doctor, played by Jodie Whittaker. Much has been made of the fact that we were finally getting an incarnation of The Doctor that was a woman, so seeing her debut was obviously the main draw. We only see Thirteen briefly and we won't see her embark on her first adventure unless late next year (the horror! The misery! The injustice of it all!), but from our brief glimpse of the Time Lady, it should be brilliant!

Weak plot aside, I enjoyed the Christmas special. It served it's intended purpose of both sending off Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor and introducing Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth.

What did you think about "Twice Upon a Time"?

The Thirteenth Doctor's got herself some new duds!

Source: Official Doctor Who Twitter.

Spiffy.

Hey look, a new Star Wars: The Last Jedi poster

(via Star Wars Twitter)

Spiffy.

Jodie Whittaker reacting to people cosplaying the Thirteenth Doctor is cute as heck

I like the positive reaction, because I can imagine that being cast as The Doctor can be a bit overwhelming for anybody. I know I certainly would be! Kind of amazing that people are already cosplaying as the new Doc when we haven't even seen what she'll be wearing on the show. Then again, the fandom works fast.

(via Tor.com)

Women clean up at the Hugo Awards

Note: This is a cross-post from my sci-fi blog, Rayguns and Space Suits.

You can see all of the nominees and winners here, but suffice to say, goddamn.

Best Novel: The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin.
Best Novella: Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire.
Best Novelette: The Tomato Thief by Ursula Vernon.
Best Short Story: Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar.
Best Series: The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold.
John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer: Ada Palmer.

Overall, women won 15 out of the 17 categories and counting Palmer netting the Campbell (which is award at the Hugos but isn't a Hugo), they won 16 altogether. Not a bad performance and well deserved. Oh, I'm sure there will be grumblings and teeth gnashing from a certain segment of the fandom over this, but I'll say here what I said on my Tumblr:

Write better. The success of women and writers of color at the Hugos and other SFF lit awards has nothing to do with their ethnicity or identity and everything to do with them just being better writers, editors, etc.

Being white, straight, and/or identifying with your assigned gender (because let's not overlook the fact that these groups include women) does not automatically mean you win awards.

Unless you create your own or manipulate a poorly planned one. *coughcoughDragonAwardscoughcough*

In any case, congrats to all of the winners and nominees.

So the Han Solo movie is chugging along into disaster territory

And me without any popcorn! So no doubt you've heard the reports of the movie's original directors, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller of Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street fame being fired over "creative differences". Those differences stemmed from the fact that Lucasfilm hired two directors known primarily for making comedies and were shocked that they making the Han Solo movie into a comedy.

Lord and Miller refused to change the direction of the movie and steer it back into what the studio wanted, so they were fired and replaced by Ron Howard, who'll see the movie through its remaining production and reshoots.

But baby, oh baby, this train has only just left the station and we're still chugging away towards disaster. Stories are surfacing today that lead actor Alden Ehrenreich's performance as the beloved scruffy looking nerf herder isn't exactly setting the producers hearts on fire. Even worse is that they supposedly had to hire an acting coach for him. io9's article on this says that hiring a coach in and of itself isn't unusual, but hiring one four months into production is.

Lucasfilm trying to figure out how they managed to hire someone to play lead in their big budget blockbuster without checking to see if he could even act in the first place.

Holy cheese and crackers, guys. Holy cheese and crackers. The Han Solo movie has a release date for May of next year, cats and dolls, that's about as likely to happen as Michael Bay winning a Best Director Oscar. My guess is that Lucasfilm scraps what they have and starts over from square one. I think they’ll probably also take the chance to recast Han. I think the rest of the cast and the script itself will survive.

Grab your popcorn, folks, it's going to be a hell of a train wreck.

Here's the teaser for the next Wars of Star movie

For those few people who are into obscure indie films.

Seven down, eight to go

So remember back at the beginning of the year when I posted about my reading goals for the year? If not, then you know, scroll down like three or four spots. Anyways, one of them was to read at least fifteen books. It was my goal last year and I more than surpassed it, and this year looks no different. Three months into the year and I'm already halfway there with seven books down and eight left to go.

Here's the list so far:

• Tooth and Nail - Ian Rankin
• Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb
• His Majesty's Dragon - Naomi Novik
• Old Man's War - John Scalzi
• The Ghost Brigades - John Scalzi
• Night Train to Rigel - Timothy Zahn
• The Last Colony - John Scalzi

 I'm actually blown away by the fact that I read four sci-fi novels in a row. One of my big gripes last year is that I didn't think I read enough of the stuff, especially compared to all the fantasy novels. I'm not going to read too much into my slow start on the latter because that's what it is, a slow start. By year's end, the number of fantasy books I've read will probably have tripled. The mystery/crime fiction needs some work because I want to read a lot more of it this year than I did last.

I highly recommend the Old Man's War series, btw. It's excellent.

Grab a plate and feast your eyes on the final Rogue One trailer

"If the Empire has this kind of power, then what chance do we have?"
"We have hope. Rebellions are built on hope."



I'm hyped for December, how about you?

Review: The Veldt by Ray Bradbury is a chilling tale of technological addiction gone horribly wrong [SPOILERS]

I have a terrible secret, though that I may as well share now: I’ve never read any of Ray Bradbury’s books. The fault is entirely on me. Outside of comics and the internet, I wasn’t much of a prolific reader growing up. Things didn’t change until the Summer of 2011 when I finally got into fantasy and soon after, science fiction. And yet, in those four years I still haven’t read any of his books from beginning to end nor any of his short fiction until now. It’s something I’m working to rectify and that brings us back around to October as my own Ray Bradbury Reading Month.

I decided the other day that I would dedicated the month of October to reading some of the works of Bradbury. He’s a man for whom my thinkbox associates with the fall season and that month in particular. It might have something to do with his books Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Halloween Tree, and his short story collection, October Country, among others, all of which I plan on reading. 

So, with that in mind I decided that it would be best to sample his work before diving in headfirst and what better place to start than with one of his most well known collections, The Illustrated Man? What better story than The Veldt?

Women resoundingly kicked some ass at the Hugo Awards

And I can't even begin or really want to imagine how pissed off the Sad/Rabid Puppies are over this (but more on that later). Here are the nominees and winners for each category.

Best Novel

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
Uprooted by Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (Orbit)
Seveneves: A Novel by Neal Stephenson (William Morrow)
The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher (Roc)

Best Novella

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com)
Penric’s Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold (Spectrum)
Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds (Tachyon)
Perfect State by Brandon Sanderson (Dragonsteel Entertainment)
The Builders by Daniel Polansky (Tor.com)

Best Novelette

“Folding Beijing” by Hao Jingfang, trans. Ken Liu (Uncanny Magazine, Jan-Feb 2015)
“And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead” by Brooke Bolander (Lightspeed, Feb 2015)
“Obits” by Stephen King (The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Scribner)
“What Price Humanity?” by David VanDyke (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)
“Flashpoint: Titan” by CHEAH Kai Wai (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)
est Short Story (2,706 final ballots, 2451 nominating ballots)
“Cat Pictures Please” by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, January 2015)
Space Raptor Butt Invasion by Chuck Tingle (Amazon Digital Services)
“Asymmetrical Warfare” by S. R. Algernon (Nature, Mar 2015)
“Seven Kill Tiger” by Charles Shao (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)
“If You Were an Award, My Love” by Juan Tabo and S. Harris (voxday.blogspot.com, Jun 2015)

Best Related Work

No Award
Between Light and Shadow: An Exploration of the Fiction of Gene Wolfe, 1951 to 1986 by Marc Aramini (Castalia House)
“The Story of Moira Greyland” by Moira Greyland (askthebigot.com)
“The First Draft of My Appendix N Book” by Jeffro Johnson (jeffro.wordpress.com)
“Safe Space as Rape Room” by Daniel Eness (castaliahouse.com)
SJWs Always Lie: Taking Down the Thought Police by Vox Day (Castalia House)

Best Graphic Story

The Sandman: Overture written by Neil Gaiman, art by J.H. Williams III (Vertigo)
Invisible Republic Vol 1 written by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman, art by Gabriel Hardman (Image Comics)
The Divine written by Boaz Lavie, art by Asaf Hanuka and Tomer Hanuka (First Second)
Full Frontal Nerdity by Aaron Williams (ffn.nodwick.com)
Erin Dies Alone written by Grey Carter, art by Cory Rydell (dyingalone.net)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

The Martian screenplay by Drew Goddard, directed by Ridley Scott (Scott Free Productions; Kinberg Genre; TSG Entertainment; 20th Century Fox)
Mad Max: Fury Road written by George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nico Lathouris, directed by George Miller (Village Roadshow Pictures; Kennedy Miller Mitchell; RatPac-Dune Entertainment; Warner Bros. Pictures)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens written by Lawrence Kasdan, J. J. Abrams, and Michael Arndt, directed by J.J. Abrams (Lucasfilm Ltd.; Bad Robot Productions; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Ex Machina written and directed by Alex Garland (Film4; DNA Films; Universal Pictures)
Avengers: Age of Ultron written and directed by Joss Whedon (Marvel Studios; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

Jessica Jones: “AKA Smile” written by Scott Reynolds, Melissa Rosenberg, and Jamie King, directed by Michael Rymer (Marvel Television; ABC Studios; Tall Girls Productions; Netflix)
Doctor Who: “Heaven Sent” written by Steven Moffat, directed by Rachel Talalay (BBC Television)
Grimm: “Headache” written by Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt, directed by Jim Kouf (Universal Television; GK Productions; Hazy Mills Productions; Open 4 Business Productions; NBCUniversal Television Distribution)
Supernatural: “Just My Imagination” written by Jenny Klein, directed by Richard Speight Jr. (Kripke Enterprises; Wonderland Sound and Vision; Warner Bros. Television)
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: “The Cutie Map” Parts 1 and 2 written by Scott Sonneborn, M.A. Larson, and Meghan McCarthy, directed by Jayson Thiessen and Jim Miller (DHX Media/Vancouver; Hasbro Studios)

Best Editor, Short Form

Ellen Datlow
Sheila Williams
Neil Clarke
John Joseph Adams
Jerry Pournelle

Best Editor, Long Form

Sheila E. Gilbert
Liz Gorinsky
Toni Weisskopf
Jim Minz
Vox Day

Best Professional Artist

Abigail Larson
Michal Karcz
Larry Elmore
Larry Rostant
Lars Braad Andersen

Best Semiprozine

Uncanny Magazine edited by Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas, Michi Trota, and Erika Ensign & Steven Schapansky
Strange Horizons edited by Catherine Krahe, Julia Rios, A. J. Odasso, Vanessa Rose Phin, Maureen Kincaid Speller, and the Strange Horizons staff
Beneath Ceaseless Skies edited by Scott H. Andrews
Daily Science Fiction edited by Michele-Lee Barasso and Jonathan Laden
Sci Phi Journal edited by Jason Rennie

Best Fanzine

File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
Lady Business edited by Clare, Ira, Jodie, KJ, Renay, and Susan
Tangent Online edited by Dave Truesdale
Superversive SF edited by Jason Rennie
Castalia House Blog edited by Jeffro Johnson

Best Fancast

No Award
Tales to Terrify, Stephen Kilpatrick
The Rageaholic, RazörFist
8-4 Play, Mark MacDonald, John Ricciardi, Hiroko Minamoto, and Justin Epperson
Cane and Rinse, Cane and Rinse
HelloGreedo, HelloGreedo

Best Fan Writer

Mike Glyer
Jeffro Johnson
Morgan Holmes
Shamus Young
Douglas Ernst

Best Fan Artist

Steve Stiles
Christian Quinot
Matthew Callahan
Kukuruyo
disse86

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Award for the best new professional science fiction or fantasy writer of 2014 or 2015, sponsored by Dell Magazines. (Not a Hugo Award, but administered along with the Hugo Awards.)

Andy Weir *
Alyssa Wong *
Pierce Brown *
Sebastien de Castell *
Brian Niemeier

* Finalists in their 2nd year of eligibility.

Congrats to all of the winners!

August's Icon of the Month: Jyn Erso from Rogue One

Sure, it might be premature to label Jyn Erso an "icon" before Rogue One has even hit theaters, but given the meager number of women action heroes, she's already certified as a future icon.

Not much is known about Erso yet, but that'll obviously change as we get closer to Rogue One's release date. We do know that she's got a rap sheet that includes forgery, possession of stolen property, aggravated assault, and resisting arrest. Nothing huge, but I'm hoping that there's more in her criminal record, because I can't imagine the Rebels recruiting someone for such a dangerous mission based entirely on what is honestly petty crimes.

I have high hopes for Rogue One because it'll be interesting to see a war movie set in the Star Wars universe. Hell, it'll be nice to see a Star Wars movie with (hopefully) no Jedi.

Awww yeah, new John Scalzi book next year

So Tor.com posted the cover to John Scalzi's next book the other day and I am hyped as dicks for this. Scalzi is one of my favorite, if not most favorite science fiction writer and the man has yet to let me down when it comes to dropping good reads. Seriously, read Old Man's War, Lock-In, or any of his other books and you'll be a convert for sure. Here's the summary:

Our universe is ruled by physics and faster than light travel is not possible -- until the discovery of The Flow, an extra-dimensional field we can access at certain points in space-time that transport us to other worlds, around other stars.

Humanity flows away from Earth, into space, and in time forgets our home world and creates a new empire, the Interdependency, whose ethos requires that no one human outpost can survive without the others. It’s a hedge against interstellar war -- and a system of control for the rulers of the empire.

The Flow is eternal -- but it is not static. Just as a river changes course, The Flow changes as well, cutting off worlds from the rest of humanity. When it’s discovered that The Flow is moving, possibly cutting off all human worlds from faster than light travel forever, three individuals -- a scientist, a starship captain and the Empress of the Interdependency -- are in a race against time to discover what, if anything, can be salvaged from an interstellar empire on the brink of collapse.

I cannot wait until March 21 or next year. I mean that literally. I can't wait almost a year!

Rogue One teaser trailer

I don't normally watch trailers, but I had to make an exception here. Yet another kickass female protagonist? Hell frakking yes!