The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Meanwhile, At The Library

Posted on | May 7, 2015 | 14 Comments

— by Wombat-socho


Two weeks until the movers come and drag off all my boxes of stuff, but I still have time to read. 🙂
This week’s book post is a little lean, because I actually did spend most of my time last week packing or catching up with friends, but there’s interesting news that may be relevant to your interests.

First, I finished Ryk Spoor’s Polychrome, which is a delightful sequel to the Oz books by L. Frank Baum and others. It’s not a Baum pastiche; Spoor rings some changes on the tired old trope of mortal adventuring in the land of faerie, and he does it very well. In some ways it reminded me of the Erfworld webcomic, except that you could actually read Polychrome to your kids. I enjoyed it tremendously, and I think you will too.

So far Chuck Gannon’s Trial by Fire is moving fast and hitting hard, and I’m liking it better than its predecessor, Fire with Fire. More about it next week, along with the new C.J. Cherryh novel Tracker and Orson Scott Card’s Shadows in Flight. Also also, Mad Mike Williamson’s A Long Time Until Now.

In related news, site selection balloting for the 2017 Worldcon is underway; this requires a $40 membership in the 2017 Worldcon, which is applied toward your membership in whichever convention wins the bid. Contenders are Washington DC and three locations in the colonies: Montreal, Shizuoka (Japan), and Helsinki (Finland). For obvious reasons, I’d prefer Washington, even though I’ll have long since moved to Las Vegas; the Wardman Park Hotel is pretty awesome and is also located on the same site as the 1974 Worldcon hotel, the old Sheraton Park. Neighborhood has a lot of decent eateries in a wide range of prices, and there’s a Metro station within a block of the hotel.

Also, the International Lord of Hate posted a Sad Puppies update along with a bunch of other stuff he has going on.

Perhaps most interestingly, Vox Day seems to have shelved the Rabid Puppies second-strike capabilities, and instructed his Dread Ilk to stow the flamethrowers. For now. 🙂

And that’s about it for this week.


Category: Books, Culture

Comments

14 Responses to “Meanwhile, At The Library”

  1. joethefatman
    May 7th, 2015 @ 9:18 pm

    Glad you’re enjoying Fire. I’m rereading my Niven books right now. Well the Known Space books anyway.

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    May 7th, 2015 @ 9:38 pm

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  3. JeffWeimer
    May 7th, 2015 @ 10:08 pm

    Wardman Park is also where the 2012 CPAC was held, where we did our best to stay out of Stacy’s way.

  4. JeffWeimer
    May 7th, 2015 @ 10:11 pm

    I read both Gannon books a couple of months ago – the first book was mostly scene-setting for the second book, so it was not quite as good. I’m eagerly awaiting the next installment.

  5. Fail Burton
    May 8th, 2015 @ 1:03 pm

    I’m surprised they bothered the Hugos. That’s a radical feminist cult now and anyone who hasn’t declared themselves is assumed to be a racist men’s rights activist just for being born.

  6. Wombat_socho
    May 8th, 2015 @ 5:25 pm

    I missed something here. Were you referring to Sad Puppies, or Vox Day’s crew?

  7. Wombat_socho
    May 8th, 2015 @ 5:26 pm

    Thank you for the loan!

  8. Daniel Freeman
    May 8th, 2015 @ 6:28 pm

    If you mean the Rabid Puppies, Vox Day is playing a meta-game, so he was fine with flipping the table over and voting No Award if the CHORFs did.

    I think of it like a track meet between two small high schools. Even if someone isn’t really built like a pole vaulter, if he enjoys it, then he gets some training and practice and grabs some points. What’s changed is that enough people joined in too late to nominate that the nomination ballots no longer indicate the final results, so now he’s playing to win the pole vault Hugos.

  9. Fail Burton
    May 9th, 2015 @ 12:03 am

    Either one. We’re talking about an insulated cult that’s got it in their heads that white men and their cisnormativity are out to get them and that’s the end of it. It’s 1963 all over again. Leigh Alexander got demoted to the boondocks for lighting up male gamers and she still hasn’t learned her lesson. There is no way to reach people like that. Whenever you hear people talk about comics and SFF as if it was a white male KKK you know you’re looking at people with a few screws loose. Now TorDotCom is looking for stories and with this addendum “… actively request submissions from writers from underrepresented populations.” They’re frickin’ goofballs.

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    May 9th, 2015 @ 1:35 am

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  11. joethefatman
    May 9th, 2015 @ 6:38 am

    You’re welcome. I like how you’re way up there in yankee land and I’m down here outside of Houston and the book could still be shared, The future has it’s perks.

  12. Wombat_socho
    May 9th, 2015 @ 12:59 pm

    It does indeed.

  13. Wombat_socho
    May 9th, 2015 @ 1:01 pm

    Well, much as with GamerGate, we’re finding out that just because the social justice wankers are the loudest shriekers doesn’t mean they’re the most numerous – or the most willing to pony up the poll tax and have a say in what gets nominated and selected for the Hugos.

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