Yes, more Loncon 3 photos

More photos from Loncon 3, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention, held August 14-18, 2014, in London.

 Kathleen Ann Goonan, writer,

"The Politics of Utopia"

 Kim Stanley Robinson, writer,

"The Politics of Utopia"

David Farnell, scholar,

"The Politics of Utopia"

Worldcon Philharmonic Orchestra

Broadway at the ExCel London convention center. 

Fan Village

George R.R. Martin

reading from his forthcoming book.

David Langford, writer and editor, and Jonathan Clements, writer and editor,

"The Evolution of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction"

 Neal Tringham, writer and editor,

"The Evolution of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction"

 John Clute, critic and editor,

"The Evolution of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction"

 Graham Sleight, critic and editor, and Rick Wilber, writer and editor,

"The Evolution of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction"

 Kim Stanley Robinson, writer,

reading from his forthcoming novel.

Ian R. MacLeod, writer,

reading from his forthcoming novel.

Related links on this blog:

Hugo Award winners 2014

John Clute kaffeeklatsch

Loncon 3 panel photos

More Loncon 3 panel photos

Still more Loncon 3 photos

Loncon 3 notes and quotes

More Loncon 3 panel photos

More photos from panel discussions I attended at Loncon 3, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention, held August 14-18, 2014, in London.

Christopher Priest, writer,

"Becoming History" panel

Elizabeth Hand, writer, 

"Becoming History" panel

Graham Sleight, critic,

"Becoming History" panel

John Clute, critic,

"Becoming History" panel

 Peter Higgins, writer,

"Becoming History" panel

Kate Nepveu, reviewer,

"The Canon is Dead. What now?"

Connie Willis, writer,

"The Canon is Dead. What now?"

Joe Monti, editor.

"The Canon is Dead. What now?"

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, writer,

"The Canon is Dead. What now?"

 Chris Beckett, writer,

"The Canon is Dead. What now?"

Related links on this blog:
2014 Hugo Award winners
John Clute kaffeeklatsch
Loncon 3 panel photos
Still more Loncon 3 photos
Yes, more Locon 3 photos
Loncon 3 notes and quotes

Links to essays, reviews, book sales

Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room by Geoff Dyer.
The Los Angeles Times today published a book review by Chris Barton about Geoff Dyer's new book, an essay on Soviet-era director Andrei Tarkovsky's 1979 film Stalker. (One of the greatest of all science fiction films, according to your humble blog correspondent.) "For all the witty, self-referential asides that can make the book feel like the smartest 'Mystery Science Theater 3000' episode ever written, it's Dyer's emotional tie to Writer's journey and the wish fulfillment of that vocation that stay with you the longest after the lights finally come up." (follow here)

Rob Latham tackles The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick, edited by Pamela Jackson and Jonathan Lethem, along with a handful of Dick's science fiction novels in an essay at Los Angeles Review of Books. "Rereading Dick’s early novels through the lens of the events recounted in the Exegesis, just as Dick himself eventually did, shows how consistently the themes of thought-control and ambiguous revelation informed his fiction ..." (follow here)

Graham Sleight’s essay on three of Samuel R. Delany's books appeared in the most recent issue of Locus.
"Dhalgren is that rarest of things: a book that, decades on, has not been normalised. So many innovations of style or content in SF become commodities, to be sold at ever lower prices in ever more ways. Many people have learned a great deal from Delany’s work – I’m thinking particularly of William Gibson’s focus on sensations and the surface of things. But Dhalgren is a book without real successors." (follow here)

The Nebula Awards shortlist of nominees for work from 2011 was announced a few days ago. I've read three of the best  novel nominees:
   God’s War by Kameron Hurley (Night Shade)
   Embassytown by China Miéville (Del Rey)
   Among Others by Jo Walton (Tor)
All three are quite strong. God's War is a first novel and while it's the weakest of the three, it's an exceptional first novel. The three nominees that I haven't read look interesting as well.(follow here)

Lavie Tidhar expresses his disappointment in China Miéville's Embassytown. "(I)t is a niggling feeling; it is a sense of regret, and of puzzlement, that afflicts the non-Anglo reader when coming upon Embassytown. Of missed opportunities, of tired acceptance of the sign that says, This Is Not Your Future." (follow here)

Aqueduct Press is offering Rebecca Ore's new novel Time and Robbery on sale until March 1. (follow here)

New York Review Books is offering a 50 percent off sale on some titles, including science fiction novels Inverted World by Christopher Priest and The Chrysalids by John Wyndham. (follow here)

SF Encyclopedia 3rd Edition goes live

The much-anticipated (by science fiction nerds like me) and newly expanded online edition of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction is now available in its "beta" version. The scope of the project is enormous. The Second Edition, which appeared in print in 1995, was approximately 1.3 million words. The beta version of the Third Edition is about 3 million words, with the "completed" version expected to total 4 million words. Completed is a relative term for online editions. Monthly updates are planned for some time after completion. Nor are these padded entries, providing endless trivia about minor authors. They tend to be brief, sometimes overly so to this reader, with longer entries for longer and more significant careers. This is not a Wikipedia-style project. It is edited by John Clute, David Langford, Peter Nicholls, and Graham Sleight, with several knowledgeable contributors. It is a scholarly and critical guide, packed with information and enlivened with well-informed critical judgments.

I listened this morning to Cheryl Morgan's Salon Futura podcast where she interviews Graham Sleight about the SF Encyclopedia and it provides an excellent overview of the scope and goals of the several-years-long project. Sleight compares the project, in part, with the wonderfully opinionated Biographical Dictionary of Film by David Thomson, whose book I admire.

In browsing the new online edition I've already found it to be addictive and fascinating. The subdued star-map background is pleasant and not distracting. Toward the end of the text describing Gene Wolfe's career I came across the phrase "he wears the fictional worlds of sf like a coat of many colours", which is beautifully stated. Elsewhere in the Encyclopedia I've found gaps that I hope will be filled soon. Congratulations to all involved for reaching this beta release milestone.

Related links:
SFE: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Third Edition
Cheryl Morgan's Salon Futura podcast on The Encyclopedia of SF
SFE: entry for Gene Wolfe

Locus’ Year in Review for 2010

The Locus annual year in review issue is now out, featuring lists and commentary from reviewers, editors, and professionals in the science fiction community. To quote a few:

Gary K. Wolfe: “Connie Willis’s remarkable Blackout/All Clear is the apotheosis of a theme and setting that’s haunted Willis since the beginning of her career” and “Easily the most important first SF novel of the year was Hannu Rajaniemi’s The Quantum Thief.”

Jonathan Strahan: “My pick for SF novel of the year was Ian McDonald’s The Dervish House ... an incredible achievement” and “The best fantasy novel of the year, and my pick for novel of the year, was Guy Gavriel Kay’s Under Heaven.”

Graham Sleight: “The collection of the year for me was Karen Joy Fowler’s What I Didn’t See and Other Stories.”

The full Locus 2010 Recommended Reading List is available. As is a compilation of links to short fiction from the Locus list that are now available online.

Related links:
Locus’ Year in Review for 2009

Best SF books 2010 list mania

On the Nature of Story

Alien eye-stalk

First in an open-ended series.

What is it we do when we read science fiction? What is it we do when we write science fiction? What is the nature of story?

Story, it has been said, is a way of organizing life experience. Story is remembering. Sometimes, as with Gene Wolfe, story is explicitly ordered by the function of memory.

Story imposes order on incident for the purpose of gathering meaning. If too much order is imposed the story becomes rigid and artificial. If there is too little order the story becomes formless and incoherent. There is a magical middle ground between order and chaos that replicates life. Or at least it replicates the way we perceive life in our story-based view of the world.

Does that mean that story is a valid way of processing information about the world, or more valid than some other way? Not at all. It happens to be the most accessible way that humans process perception of the world, and prior to the emergence of math and science it was the only way.

I had been noodling around some of these ideas when I read Graham Sleight article, Excellent Foppery, which he gave as a talk at Readercon 2009. It is about habits of human cognition and touches on Shakespeare, Wolfe, James Wood, Breughel, and more, and you should go read it. Sleight manages to make more sense than what I wrote above.

Locus’ Year in Review

Locus has published its 2009 Recommended Reading List, which it has to be said, is unmanageably large, especially the novelettes and short stories. It took a team of people to compile; it would take a team of people to read. Niall Harrison provides some interesting push back against the Locus reading list.

In addition to the list, Locus’ regular panel of reviewers and editors contribute year in review essays. Some list their top books of the year, some don’t. A few name what for them is the single standout book of the year.

Jonathan Strahan says of The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi: “Easily the most important first novel of the year and the best science fiction novel of the year.”

Paul Witcover: “If I had to pick a single standout to top the list, under duress I would point to China Mieville’s extraordinary The City & The City.”

Graham Sleight: “Near the top of anyone’s list would have to be Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl ... it was certainly the most challengingly radical book I read last year.”

Gary K. Wolfe calls China Mieville’s The City & The City, “One of the best and most important novels of last year.”

Jonathan Strahan’s Top Five Books of the Year:

• The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
• Lifelode by Jo Walton
• Galileo’s Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson
• The City & The City by China Mieville
• Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Russel Letson’s Particularly Recommended:

• Conspirator by C.J. Cherryh
• Crystal Nights and Other Stories by Greg Egan
• Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance, edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
• The Quiet War and Gardens of the Sun by Paul McAuley
• House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
• The Sunless Countries by Karl Schroeder
• Wireless by Charles Stross
• Wild Thyme, Green Magic: Stories by Jack Vance, edited by Jonathan Strahan and Terry Dowling

Graham Sleight’s Best Books List:

• The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
• Cloud & Ashes by Greer Gilman
• Liar by Justine Larbalestier
• Cheek by Jowl by Ursula K. LeGuin
• Gardens of the Sun by Paul McAuley
• The City & The City by China Mieville
• Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts
• Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente
• In Great Waters by Kit Whitfield
• The Best of Gene Wolfe selected by Gene Wolfe

There is a lot to like in each of these lists and reason to get back to the “to be read” stack.

Links:
SF Strangelove’s review of The Windup Girl and The Windup Girl on the Rewind