The Evil Eyebrow

Category: Fiction

  • 2009 Hugo Awards (Nominations)

    The 2009 Hugo award nominations are up and available for viewing! Surprise of surprises, I’ve read three of the five best novel nominees.

    Best Novel
    (639 Ballots)

    * Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Morrow; Atlantic UK)
    * The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)
    * Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Tor Teen; HarperVoyager UK)
    * Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
    * Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi (Tor)

    Since last year I’ve read Zoe’s Tale, Little Brother (I gave a copy of this to my oldest nephews) and Anathem. I will probably get around to reading the other two before WorldCon in August. They’d been on my list already. Must remember to put them on reserve in the Library…

    As you may know, I have a love/hate relationship with the Hugos. At least with the Best Novel Hugo. My project to read the Hugo best novels that have escaped me is coming along, although I wish I could report more success. I started with To Say Nothing of the Dog but I had to give up on it about a third of the way through. Now I’m reading Hominids which is working out better for my reading style, but still not something I’d really recommend to others.

    Sigh.

    Next book on the list is Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Hopefully!

  • As Promised

    I’ve finally uploaded the two Librivox recordings to our server, for your listening pleasure:

    The Enchanted Canary -The Red Fairy Book, by Andrew Lang, read by moi.
    The Next Logical Step, by Ben Bova, again read by me.

    These are both available on Gutenberg, Red Fairy Book, and The Next Logical Step, for your reading pleasure.

    Enjoy!

  • Anathem

    A few weeks ago I created an homage to Xkcd by evaluating my experience reading Neal Stephenson’s Anathem.

    Well, I’m done.

    Anathem Reading Experience

    Overall, I think Neal Stephenson will be remembered as one of the premier scifi authors of this generation. That doesn’t make his books any easier to read. This one in particular I found to be genuinely amazing in spots and fundamentally boring in others. The concepts he put together in surprising juxtapositions made the story move along and kept me reading but I won’t read the book again.

    If you’re new to Neal Stephenson, read Snow Crash and Diamond Age before you read this book. That will ramp you and let you know what to expect (Cryptonomicon is in it’s own special category, less scifi). If you find it hard to get through either of those, do not read Anathem.

  • Hugo-Winning Novels == Blah?

    To Be Read

    I have a theory.

    My theory is that I don’t like Hugo winning novels. If you’re not familiar with the Hugos, it’s like the Academy Awards for Science Fiction and Fantasy. There’s a whole bunch of categories, but the one that gets the most attention, and that I’m talking about now, is “Best Novel”.

    Back to my theory. I have picked up several books simply because they won the Hugo. This was because I was looking for something to read and I figured I might as well go with a book that was recommended through a vote. So far, my track record for actually liking these books is poor. Let’s review.

    1. A Fire Upon the Deep, by Vernor Vinge. Tie in 1993: Couldn’t get more than a third of the way through it. Every time something seemed to be happening…it didn’t. Gave the book away.
    2. Speaker for the Dead, by Orson Scott Card. Won in 1987: The book prior to that in the series, Ender’s Game (won in 1986!) was fabulous. Speaker for the Dead was deadly dull. Interesting concept, but I read for fun, not for concepts.
    3. Neuromancer, by William Gibson. Won in 1985. Yes, I know it’s the book that started Cyberpunk. That doesn’t mean I didn’t find it difficult to fathom and somewhat boring.
    4. Downbelow Station, by C. J. Cherryh. Won in 1982. Oh…my…god was I depressed before I put the book down. And I only got about a third of the way in. No thanks.
    5. The Dispossesed, by Ursula K. Le Guin. Won in 1975. Booooring. I’m glad I read it, but I’ll never read it again. My sister Cindy will probably send me a mail bomb because of this comment.
    6. Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke. Won in 1974. This was more like a space engineering treatise than a good book. I didn’t read the sequels because the first one didn’t capture me.
    7. Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein. Won in 1962. This was one of those novels that you must read if only to maintain your geek credentials and grok everyone else’s. However, I wasn’t sold on its glorious nature. Would not Buy Again.
    8. A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller, Jr. Won in 1961. I’ve tried, and failed, to read this book 3 times. I may give it one more chance before deep-sixing it.

    That is eight books of fifty-five that I didn’t like. What about ones that I did?

    1. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman. Won in 2002. Fabulous.
    2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by J.K. Rowling. Won in 2001. This award I find amusing because I believe it was surfing the wave of popularity rather than any real deservedness. Of all the HP books, HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban would be my pick. I still liked Goblet, though.
    3. The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson. Won in 1996. This is one of my favorite books, ever.
    4. Enders Game, by Orson Scott Card. Won in 1986. Also one of my favorite books, ever.
    5. Foundation’s Edge, by Issac Asimov. Won in 1983. This one gets a thumb up (but not two) from me. I’ll still qualify it as a book I liked, though.
    6. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman. Won in 1976. Excellent book.
    7. Ringworld, by Larry Niven. Won in 1971. There isn’t much written by Larry Niven that I wouldn’t have buried in my coffin with me.
    8. Dune, by Frank Herbert. Won in 1966. Great great story. I can see the point of view of people who don’t like it, but I think it’s great.
    9. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein. Won in 1960. Another of my favorite novels.

    That makes nine novels of fifty-five that I like, and eight that I don’t (I could take this further and also analyze the novels that were nominated, but that’s a bit much, for reasons that will be explained in a moment). You would think that a greater than 50% success rate would make me happy, no?

    No!

    I demand 100% client satisfaction! And in order to have a good data set before sending in my lawyers, I’ve decided that I need to read the rest of the Hugo-winning novels and see which ones I like. Through the good services of Paperbackswap.com I have acquired several of them, and we’re waiting for them to come to the top of the queue before I start digging in. To Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis (1999), Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke (2005), and Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer (2003) are the first in line. I also have The Curse of Chalion, by Lois McMaster Bujold, which is the first book in a trilogy before Paladin of Souls (2004).

    So, I’m going to read the rest of the Hugo list and see what opinions I end up with. I’ll let the interwebs know how it’s coming along.

  • Racism in Children's Stories

    I recently finished recording a story for LibriVox. I rather randomly selected a project to work and had the moderator assign me something to read. I ended up with “The Enchanted Canary” from the Red Fairy Book.

    I recently picked up a copy of The Red Fairy Book while we were in New Orleans. I’ve read about a third of the stories and I am remarkably impressed by the assumed racism inside them.

    For example, in The Enchanted Canary there is this line, with reference to a Prince who doesn’t want to marry any of the girls in the kingdom:

    `My faith!’ cried Tubby; `do you want to marry a negress, and give me grandchildren as ugly as monkeys and as stupid as owls?’

    I was reading the story out loud to my microphone when I got to that line and almost spit out my liver! Holy crap!

    Of course, the rest of the stories have this same sort of thing. What biographers of Darwin have called “gentlemanly superiority”. This is something that emerges from the British Empire and it’s place astride the globe. Unfortunately, if I ever do read these stories to my unborn children, I foresee some judicious editing. And judicious excisions.

    In some cases this will be moot. I won’t be reading The Enchanted Canary to any child simply because I don’t think it’s a very good story. There’s no there there, if you know what I mean. Now, the Twelve Princesses is good, but the Enchanted Canary just doesn’t cut the mustard.

    I’m still reading these stories and I’ll finish up the book soon. I should remember to do some marginal notations as I go along so I don’t have to find out in impressionable circumstances that certain stories are not for today’s kids.

  • Dresden Files #11: Turn Coat

    The eleventh book in Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series, Turn Coat, will be published in April of ’09. I’m already looking forward to it. If your only exposure to this fiction was through the SciFi channel TV destractular of the same name, I’m very sorry; retrieve and read Storm Front right now. The novels are indescribably better than the TV show.

    Anyhow. The cover of the eleventh novel, created by Christian McGrath, is available for viewing. There are fun clues as to what’s going to happen in the novel. Looks like we’ll finally deal with at least one of the swords and possibly a traitor to the White Council. Can’t wait.

  • Elantris

    I finished reading Elantris by Brandon Sanderson today. Review: Good, but a few flaws (some big). I hope his novels get better—this is his first published work—otherwise I might stop reading.

    I picked up this book because Mr. Sanderson was picked to finish the Wheel of Time (WOT) series in place of the late Robert Jordan. This situation merits some examination of his novels to see what kind of writing we can expect out of the last WOT book. According to Tor, we’re about a year away from the last novel and everyone who is a WOT groupie is anxiously awaiting it.

    I’ll get the another novel by Sanderson and see how it goes. As I said, hopefully it will be a bit better, although I have no real complaints about Elantris.

  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars

    I had the privilege of seeing an advance version of Star Wars: The Clone Wars tonight. I have to say that despite my low expectations, I was disappointed.

    First off, there was the not-so-subtle relationship between Anakin and Obi Wan. We all know that George Lucas loves to retcon, but having them become gay lovers was bit much even for those of us who expect Lucas to pull crap out of his butt at every turn.

    Secondly, the inclusion of the future ghost of Yoda was just weird. So now were having Time Travel via the Force. Too much! Eject!

    Thirdly, using Mace Windu in the naked dancer scene might have stroked the ego of an animated Samuel L. Jackson, but did we really need to go there?

    Lastly, the cameo by George Lucas himself pushed this movie over the top into Oz without any shoes to help us come home.

    Argh. Too much weirdness was everywhere. This review has been written in response to this news item. See the movie if you want.

  • 2008 Hugo Awards

    Hey! If you’ve been too busy watching the Olympics, you might not know that the 2008 Hugo Awards were awarded at Denvention on Saturday.

    I’d only read 2.1 of the 5 Best Novel nominees (Halting State, The Last Colony, and Brasyl). Halting State was good but I didn’t think it deserved a nomination. The Last Colony definitely deserved its spot in the voting and I only made it to page 12 of Brasyl before I got so lost I had to put it down. I guess I’ll have to go pick up The Yiddish Policemen’s Union now to see what I missed.

  • Eureka

    Jenn turned me on to the SciFi channel show, Eureka. It’s smart, funny, clever [add your own adjective here] and fun to watch.

    At least it was.

    This is the third season. We watched episode 2 last night and I have to say, “meh”.

    By all means, rent/borrow/buy seasons 1 and 2. They were excellent. I’m waiting on more episodes of season 3 before I declare shark jumpage. It just hasn’t been as tight and focused as it used to be.