Science Fiction – Page 3

Reading the Best Novella Finalists (2018 & 1943)

I desperately desire to reread All Systems Red, but I’m saving it for last. And I don’t just want to re-read it, I want to experience it differently. I also plan to do the same thing with Binti: Home, which is available via Hoopla. None of my local libraries have purchased the audiobook edition of All Systems Red, so I found it available at a very reasonable cost through the Downpour site. I like their philosophy (see quote below), so I immediately signed up, not with a monthly membership, but just an account that will allow me to purchase DRM-free audiobooks.

We love books, and we believe that you should be able to enjoy your favorite book whenever, wherever, or whatever you are doing. Audiobooks allow that freedom.

— Downpour

Only two of the finalists for the 2018 Best Novella category are not available in audio format – And Then There Were (N-One) and The Black Tides of Haven – so I’ll be reading those via my tablet. The other four I will listen to via Hoopla or Overdrive.

For the 1943 Retro Hugo finalists, I’ve now obtained all the necessary print edition anthologies and will work my way through them as carefully as I can (some of these books are quite old, held together with what looks like a book friendly duct tape but the bindings are nearly shot). As of the writing of this post, I’ve already returned one of the two interlibrary loans I requested.

Update 4/19/2018: Finished Lester del Rey’s “Nerves” no thanks to a torn/missing/damaged page (p. 90 to be specific) in the anthology Adventures in Time and Space, published in 1946 and being held together with library binding tap.
Update 4/27/2018: Listened to All Systems Red and started reading The Black Tides of Heaven. Also read The Compleat Werewolf which was much better than I anticipated.
Update 5/6/2018: Read “Asylm” the week of 4/30/2018 which just leaves the two Heinlein novellas to read for the Retros. I’m still slowly and sporadically reading “The Black Tides of Heaven.”
Update 5/11/2018: Finished reading “Black Tides of Heaven” this morning. Last one is the 2018 finalists is “Down Among the Sticks and Bones” which I will listen to while travelling next week.
Update 5/25/2018: Finished reading Down Among the Sticks and Bones earlier this week. Also finished both Heinlein novellas – Waldo is forgettable but he made up for it with The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag.

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Reading the Hugo Best Short Story Finalists (2018 & 1943)

While I’m waiting on my interlibrary loan requests to be fulfilled for the 1943 Retro Hugo short fiction finalists, I’ve begun reading the current Hugo short fiction finalists, starting with the short stories. These are easily completed during my lunch break or during half of my daily commute, if an audio edition is available. As of Sunday morning, April 9th, I’ve only got one short story left to read. I didn’t want to wait to post though so you’ll need to come back to this post to see how I rated it and what my preliminary voting order will be for my final ballot later this summer. When I update this post, and the others like it that are forthcoming, I will make a brief update post linking back to the updated original post.

Update 4/9/2018: Read two of the 1943 Retro Hugo finalists and added comments below.
Update 4/14/2018: Added links to my GoodReads mini-reviews.
Update 4/19/2018: Read the last of the 2018 Hugo Finalists (see list below)
Update 4/28/2018: The final ILL arrived and I was able to read Clement’s “Proof,” which was surprisingly good (for early hard SF) and reminded me of one of my essay‘s from last semester’s Intro to Astronomy class. DAW’s “Mimic” was to entomological for my tastes. That leaves just one 1942 short story left to read.
Update 5/3/2018: Finished off the short story finalists today by listening to Asimov’s “Runaround” through the audiobook edition of I, Robot.

Note on formatting of this post and those that will follow: You’ll see a nested list with the first level being the title/author/publication/date published of the finalist entry. The second level will be my comments, reviews and ratings. The third level will be my preliminary ranked vote. Here’s an explanation of the Hugo Voting System:

Many people find the Hugo voting system (called “Instant Runoff Voting“) very complicated. While the process is indeed involved, the basic idea is simple and the intention is laudable. Basically the idea is to make sure that the winner has majority support. In ordinary governmental elections it is possible for the winner to be someone that 40% of the people like and 60% of the people hate, because that 60% could not agree among themselves on a candidate. The Hugo voting system is designed to avoid results like that.

— The Voting System, The Hugo Awards

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Annual Hugo Reading Bonanza Times Two

Last Saturday, the finalists for this year’s Hugo Awards were announced, along with the companion Retro Hugo Award finalists. So I get double the fun again this year, like I had two years ago. I already have read, borrowed or will son buy or borrow the finalists for the current awards. Finding the reading material for the Retro Hugos can often be challenging. To that end, I’ve requested five anthologies via interlibrary loans and have already placed on hold and borrowed two anthologies and two novels containing works originally published in 1942. My thanks to Auxiliary Memory‘s fantastic research in his post just one day after the announcement “Where to Read the 1943 Retro Hugo Short Fiction Nominees?”

The biggest shock came when I retrieved my holds from the Kansas City Public Library Plaza Branch earlier this week. Two of the 1942 novels had arrived and I wished I brought a tote or backpack to help carry them. I really don’t mind reading tomes – epic fantasy is my bread and butter – but I’ve switched to ebooks which are infinitely less heavy physically speaking. When I went to the Holds shelf I groaned to see that Islandia by Wright was at least two inches thick and over a thousand pages long. Good thing I decided to start early on my Hugo finalist reading! Continue reading “Annual Hugo Reading Bonanza Times Two”

Books I Loved 2017 Edition

At the end of September I reached that point in the year when I could shake off all my various book club obligatory reading and get down to the serious business of reading the books I bought for myself all year long. Not every year gives me a break where I can read what I want. I often have to squeeze in my ‘must read’ books between the two to three other books I read per month for various discussion groups and book clubs. Don’t get me wrong. I very much enjoy reading outside my comfort zone and would not give up the wonderful discussions and cherished friendships I’ve nurtured through a shared love of reading.

Most years, I read between 75 and 100 books; last year I read 88 and as of today I’ve read 99 thus far in 2017. And only about ten percent make it onto my ‘loved-it’ shelf (the equivalent of a five-star rating). This year had a few more than normal and will probably end with two to three more on the shelf before year’s end (because I’m now reading what I’ve had on hold for most of the year).

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A Mid-Summer Night’s Streaming

This past week I took a break from watching movies I’d requested through my local library (see my previous post about dumping my Netflix DVD subscription) and switched to streaming two new (to us) science fiction series via Amazon Prime.

My favorite thing about streaming a series is not having to wait a week between episodes, especially when you are coming late to the party. I do occasionally binge watch, but usually no more than four (4) episodes at once. I have limited myself to two (2) episodes a night of The Man in the High Castle with a solo sandwiched between allowing me to complete five (5) episodes this week. And I must say I am hooked.

It’s been years since I read PKD’s novel but even with my vague recollections I’m riveted by this production. I’ve pulled out my ebook edition to reread, but that won’t prevent me from continuing on with the rest of season one. There’s a reason PKD has so many adaptations. If you haven’t read anything by him, I highly recommend him.

The second series we started watching this week was Humans (stylized with an upside down A). I decided to watch this series based on an article I read months ago that stated if you really want to experience a robot rebellion, try Humans instead of or in addition to Westworld. I very much enjoyed Westworld, especially the cinematography, production quality, story and acting, which sets a very high bar for Humans to meet.

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Podcast Pickup

The stars have aligned recently in my personal universe allowing me to enjoy audio podcasts once again. Years ago, I used to listen to them via my laptop, a web site or perhaps my Palm Pilot (yeah, remember those)? I never owned an iPod but my children had a couple. I liked the concept, but for the most part I preferred listening to audiobooks (and still do for the most part).

I’m a Patreon supporter of an author (Kameron Hurley), who recently started producing podcasts on a monthly basis. Rather than download yet another application to my smartphone, I decided to use an existing installed app to listen to her podcasts. I downloaded the audio file and placed it in my audiobooks folder so that my Smart Audiobook Player app would pick it up automatically. It found the new file and I was able to listen to it through my Bluetooth headset and through my new car’s stereo system while commuting. I’ve listened to both episodes and enjoyed them both (although I do warn you that profanity is prolific). I even submitted a question for a future podcast to her. Kameron has made the podcasts available to everyone via her website at this URL: http://www.kameronhurley.com/podcast/

This listening experience reminded me that there are other podcasts to be discovered. I did some searches for best podcasts of the last couple of years for science fiction and fantasy. I found two that seemed to fit my bill: Sword and Laser and Wired’s Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (GGG). I subscribed to both of them and downloaded the most recent episodes to my Google Music app.

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Watching the Hugo Finalists for 2017

Similar to my previous post, I’ll be updating this one as I get a chance to watch the finalist in both of these categories. Long Form is going to be my most difficult ranking of any of the Hugo finalists. I currently have a three-way tie in my mind between Arrival, Rogue One and Stranger Things. And I have yet to actually watch Hidden Figures!

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)
1733 ballots cast for 206 nominees.
Votes for finalists ranged from 240 to 1030.

Arrival, screenplay by Eric Heisserer based on a short story by Ted Chiang, directed by Denis Villeneuve (21 Laps Entertainment/FilmNation Entertainment/Lava Bear Films) – Watched opening weekend and purchased the movie; loved it
Deadpool, screenplay by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick, directed by Tim Miller (Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation/Marvel Entertainment/Kinberg Genre/The Donners’ Company/TSG Entertainment) – Watched via Dish Network free weekend for one of the premium movie channels; liked it
Ghostbusters, screenplay by Katie Dippold & Paul Feig, directed by Paul Feig (Columbia Pictures/LStar Capital/Village Roadshow Pictures/Pascal Pictures/Feigco Entertainment/Ghostcorps/The Montecito Picture Company) – Watched via Starz streaming app through my subscription; liked it
Hidden Figures, screenplay by Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi, directed by Theodore Melfi (Fox 2000 Pictures/Chernin Entertainment/Levantine Films/TSG Entertainment) – Watched 5/17/2017; loved it
Rogue One, screenplay by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy, directed by Gareth Edwards (Lucasfilm/Allison Shearmur Productions/Black Hangar Studios/Stereo D/Walt Disney Pictures) – Watched opening weekend and again after I purchased the movie; loved it
Stranger Things, Season One, created by the Duffer Brothers (21 Laps Entertainment/Monkey Massacre) – Watched via Netflix streaming; loved it

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Reading the Hugo Finalists for 2017

For the next two months (plus a week or so), I’ll be reading the following, except where indicated (as in I’ve already read the item or have no plan to do so). I will keep updating this post as I finish reading these finalists.

Best Novel

2078 ballots cast for 652 nominees.
Votes for finalists ranged from 156 to 480.

All the Birds in the Sky, by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor Books / Titan Books) – Read 01/15/2017; liked it
A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton / Harper Voyager US) – Read 10/29/2016; loved it
Death’s End, by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu (Tor Books / Head of Zeus) – Probably won’t be able to read this one because I haven’t read the second one in the series.
Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris Books) – Read 5/19/2017; liked it
The Obelisk Gate, by N. K. Jemisin (Orbit Books) – Read 11/23/2016; liked it
Too Like the Lightning, by Ada Palmer (Tor Books) – Might not have time to read this one but it’s in the Current Month queue

Best Novella
1410 ballots cast for 187 nominees.
Votes for finalists ranged from 167 to 511.

The Ballad of Black Tom, by Victor LaValle (Tor.com publishing) – Read 03/29/2017, liked it
The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, by Kij Johnson (Tor.com publishing) – Read 06/04/2017, liked it
Every Heart a Doorway, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com publishing) – Read 12/3/2016; liked it
Penric and the Shaman, by Lois McMaster Bujold (Spectrum Literary Agency) – in Current Month queue
A Taste of Honey, by Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com publishing) – in Current Month queue
This Census-Taker, by China Miéville (Del Rey / Picador) – Read 5/23/2017; completely unsure of whether I liked it or not

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Metadata Morality?

I’m struggling to adequately complete my third homework assignment in my Philosophy class today. I finished reading Chapter 7 on Ethics this past weekend and spent time Sunday between movie breaks gathering my notes to answer my professor’s questions. I am almost finished; just agonizing over a couple of questions that require my opinion which I am very uncomfortable stating in writing in an assignment for which I will receive a grade. Not fun.

Over lunch I took a book break to continue reading Version Control when I couldn’t believe my eyes as I read this paragraph:

… keep in mind the difference between a person and the data generated by a person as she moves through life. This is a distinction that is easy to forget. Information is not a person, and a person is made up of more than information. A person has beliefs and feelings and a will and a soul: information does not. You have to remember this because we do not want to dehumanize our clients by speaking of them in terms of numbers, but you must also remember that while it is possible to have a moral or ethical obligation to a person, it is impossible to have such an obligation toward data. The very idea is nonsensical. What would it mean to talk about being fair to…bits? How would you talk about treating bits with respect?

Oh dear! Here we go again!

Is it truly ‘nonsensical’?

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WorldCon Withdrawals

Despite what my husband thinks, I have not over-dosed on science fiction since last Wednesday when the 74th World Science Fiction Convention (commonly referred to as WorldCon) arrived for the second time in Kansas City, Missouri. MidAmeriCon II ended yesterday and of course the highlight of those five days was the Hugo Awards Ceremony held Saturday evening.

In fact, I sincerely hoped when I woke up this morning it wouldn’t be to the harsh reality of a Monday morning workday. Ah, but life is cruel and the alternate dimension I’d enjoyed for five days evaporated into the dreary doldrums of gainful employment. Well, not completely dreary. Perhaps dreaded would be more like it, since I knew I’d be walking into some ‘hot potatoes’ once I strapped myself to my desk.

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