Heroes

Television. I hardly watch any more. First, I never have time. Then, there's the glaring lack of quality, except on premium channels like HBO, which doesn't need to stay within the FCC's lines. And yet, there's always the rage about 'reality' shows, laugh-track 'comedy,' and the corpse-fetish shows like CSI, or the current hot drama where the audience is as lost as the cast members. No doubt my tastes are too narrow.

A few people I know recommended Heroes, but due to timing I've oly been able to catch the last fifteen minutes of two episodes. I was able to watch 80% of the mid-season finale, and instantly got hooked. I could pay $1.99 for the recap from iTunes, or wait for reruns, but lickly NBC has posted all 11 episodes to date for a limited time. I've watched the first four, and while I don't know how many more I can watch before the freebies are gone, I'm impressed beyond words at this show. I don't know how long the magic can last, for in my opinion TV shows rarely sustain greatness beyond a couple of seasons, before writers get desparate for attention, and the worm eats itself.

I recently read an essay on lewrockwell.com expounding an 'Austrian' theory of culture, with which I have many, many disagreements. I am mulling over a reply and my own theory. The gist of this essay is the author's embrace of TV as good culture, especially long-lasting shows and collaborative efforts (Gilligan's Island, X-Files, and The Simpsons are the author's favorites). I don't know about the writers of Heroes, of the long-term plan of the show, but were only to last one season, say 22 episodes, that might be a better thing than drag on for five years. There are well-written shows on TV now and in the past where cast members solve things week after week, but a few hours after the show is over you've forgotten everything. Heroes instead layers question after question, with multiple story-arcs, and leaves me wondering after each one what will happen. In some sense I already know, as I read every word at the Wikipedia site, which is rife with spoilers. Perhaps I should have waited until after I saw the shows, but I didn't think I would have that chance until several months from now with re-runs. Heroes is like a well-written novel, and indeed every show is entitled "Chapter X" (with a number instead of X), much like a novel. Perhaps it's the geek in my, but the thread with Hiro Nakamura is my favorite. I almost wish the show was a long book, as so far this is the most novel like TV show I've ever seen.

Another day, another 1800 words written. I'm actually shocked and surprised how little use I've made of my copious notes that I prepared while listening to the three Heinlein audio plays I'm reviewing for Prometheus. Perhaps I'd use more if I didn't have certain space constraints, but then quite a bit of the notes are just there to remind me of what I heard. I did manage to re-locate today the web page that has all episodes of Dimension X available as mp3 files. I researched the show a couple of years ago while planning this review, as well as the follow-up, X Minus One. The download time from their FTP server is horrible, but I hope it's worth the effort. Only 500 more words to go before this review essay is done, and then three page remain left to fill. Luckily, two of those pages have other stuff already in place, so it's more like two pages and a dash. Come January I'll be buried in books trying to make some headway through the dozen plus review copies received in 2006. And that doesn't begin to count the books that I want to read. I've gone to find a more forgiving habit...

It's that time again

As editor of Prometheus, the quarterly newsletter of the Libertarian Futurist Society, I try to stick to a reasonable production schedule. This means that the issues should appear each January, April, July, and October. In order to get the issues out to reader by the middle of those months, I have to get them to the printer sometime in the first week (currently the 5th of each month). I'm now able to play a little with the printer deadline, thanks to reducing my trips there from three to one by emailing the issue as PDF instead of hand delivering the CD and then returning to proof the printed copy and later to pick up the final product. However, this year I've slipped a little almost every month, in large part due to the addition of child number two. The day job is draining enough, but by the time the kids are in bed and the house somewhat restored, the night is late. Unfortunately, I currently don't have as many submissions per issue as I'd like, so I find myself in the position of trying to find the time to read books to review, or conceive of articles to write, and then actually hammer out words that make sense on the keyboard. And believe me, little tends to make sense close to midnight after a long day.

After a couple of efforts at jacking up the page length of the issue to 20, time and lack of original material has brought me back to reality and 12 pages; the year 2007 may see Prometheus fall even further, to eight pages. It's now December 26. My deadline for the January issue looms closer and closer, and only six pages of content are set at the moment. One of those pages I wrote today, but that still means I have six pages to write in one week, then rewrite the pages into somewhat coherent prose, proof and re-read all the pages again. Errors always creep in, sometimes small typos, and sometimes huge gaffes. You'd think, why not space it out over months, instead of fretting at the last minute. The answer is that I have been doing just that, as I needed two months to read the material that makes up my contribution for this issue. I worked under the assumption that I have to create 50-80% of the issue, although I would prefer 0-5%. In order to write one brief review, I've read a long work of fiction, a critical biography, and some other source material. In order to review three audioplays (actually seven, on three CDs), I've spent several hours listening to the works, looked for artwork to accompany the pieces, and jotted notes throughout the process. In order to review another book, I've read several interviews, the book itself and a related novella, and the author's autobiography. Not everything that I read makes it into my reviews, but in the end I find the process necessary. Those digressions often end up quite rewarding as well, but send me down raods quite unrelated to the actually production of the newsletter.

I do find myself wondering if it's all really worth it, though. I've now completed two years in my second stint as editor. I have less time in the past for this sort of stuff, but at least it forces me to write something. I often feel that I might not write anything without a literal gun to my head. Witness this rarely updated blog, where 90% of the time I post only brief, newsy snippets and links. usually, after each is issue is mailed out, there is only silence. I assume most of the issues find their addressees, though one or two come back return to sender. I can only hope for the possibility down the road of more contributors, as I know there are people out there with interesting things to say. But perhaps in the age of blogs and the internet, an old-school print newsletter is just heading down the same road as the dodo.

Grim futures

Reason Magazine writer David Weigel rips into a trio of right-wing fictional dystopias. There appears to be little of interest to libertarians, but it's interesting to see how all the talk on right-wing radio and blogosphere about culture wars is leaking into fiction. I'm glad a libertarian writer like Weigel has made a pre-emptive strike on these books, as I am sure that somewhere, somehow, some critics will lump these books and writers into the "libertarian sf" camp.

Piper Gutenberged

Via the RSS feed from SFSignal, news that H. Beam Piper's awarding winning novel, Lone Star Planet is available online at the Gutenberg Project. Nice effort, though I question the people at Gutenberg's statement that this work is not copyrighted in the US. Piper died 40 years, so he doesn't need the income, and his book is online for free, but I was under the impression Piper's copyright still was held by someone. Perhaps my information is outdated.

The Mount

One of the several books that I'm currently reading is a curious novel by Carol Emshwiller, called The Mount. The version that I have was published in 2002 by Small Beer Press. It received a Nebula nomination for best novel in 2003, and won the Philip K. Dick Award that year. Emswhiller's style flirts with postmodern/slipstream methods, meaning for me it takes a while to adapt to the novel and writer. The Mount deals with a future Earth enslaved by small creatures called Hoots who enslave and ride people as beast of burden. I'm only a few pages into the book, which I picked up by chance at World Fantasy Con in November, yet already I wonder if this was a Prometheus Award nominee in 2003. So far it certainly fits the typical nominee profile (as much as there is one), but I shall have to see where the book leads. Emshwiller's been writing for decades, but is one of the many names so far that I've just missed, as there are now so many books published each year in sf.

The expanding Firefly 'verse

From Wired magazine, word that soon you will be able to inhabit the vrtual world of the Serenity crew. No word on the timeline or whether you can play a reaver, but part of me wonders, "enough already." I guess I'm not a browncoat, as I tru;y enjoyed both the TV episodes and the movie, but beyond that am unwilling to commit myself to that world. Then again, I'm not a serious games, played Warcraft when it first came out as a solo game and against one other person on a local network, and prefer the virtual world between the pages of a good book. MMORPGs may be the future of gaming, just as social sites like MySpace may be the future of the web. In that case, I'm a dead-end branch on the vast electronic tree of the future.

L. Neil Smith interview

Colorado Freedom Report has a new interview with Prometheus Award-winning author, L. Neil Smith, dated December 7.

I've been busy the past few weeks reading books from a different time. Or is that different times. I finished re-reading Sinclair Lewis' 1935 novel It Can't Happen Here, and am working my way through the 1961 biography written by Mark Schorer, which is far from kind. I'm in the middle of writing my brief introduction to my strangest review format yet, in sonnet form, of Lewis' novel.

I also finished last night a book that's long been on my list to read, Jack Williamson's The Humanoids, first published in short story form in 1947 as "With Folded Hands." (I am delighted to discover that my unread copy of Pulphouse Publishing's Author's Choice Monthly Issue 5 - Jack Williamson (1990) contains this story.) Somewhere in my library I also have the sequel, The Humanoid Touch, which is now on my must-read list. The former novel has been nominated twice for the Libertarian Futurist Society's Hall of Fame award, yet I don't believe it's ever been a finalist. That's a shame, as for at least the first 4/5th of the novel I was riveted by the action and plot, and the novel far exceeded my expectations. The conclusion surprised me, and left me wondering about the author's intentions. I have a somewhat ambiguous view of Williamson's fiction. On the one hand, he was a giant in the field of sf. He died a couple of weeks ago at age 98, and continued to teach and write virtually to the end. Yet I have read very few of his books. I tried a few years ago to read his then new novel, The Silicon Dagger, but I don't think I finished it. His story in the recent Baen collection Visions of Liberty, "Devil's Star," was in my opinion the worst of the lot. I wasn't sure if the style was deliberately pulp, or if Williamson eschewed style for straight two-fisted prose. On the other hand, his politics seem influenced by libertarian ideas, as he stated in this interview from 1999. I wanted to see how those ideas influenced his fiction. Yet my experience with the two works I mentioned prevented me from reading more of Williamson's work, until his name came up again during a conversation I had in early November at the World Fantasy Con in Austin, Texas. Sadly, not two days after I started reading The Humanoids I read the news that Williamson died. I've nominated this book again for the LFS Hall of Fame, and intend to write a review in the January issue of Prometheus.

Although unrelated to the purpose of this blog, I'm currently reading The Selected Letters of Clark Ashton Smith. Smith is probably my second favorite writer after Jack Vance, and a superb poet as well. The book is at times fascinting, mundane, sad, and illuminating. I wish I could afford the earlier Arkham House editions of his works, but instead I have to wait for newer and cheaper editions.

A current writer who deserves greater acclaim is John C. Wright, whose first published novel, The Golden Age could have, should have won the Prometheus Award for best novel in 2003. His latest novel appeared in bookstores last week. His regularly updated Livejournal blog contains many intersting discussions and thoughts. Wright recently converted from atheism to Christianity, which influences quite a few of his posts. As a non-militant atheist I have yet to read anything that will convert me to any theism, but he's a damn good fiction writer.

The Weapon Shops audioplay

I learned yesterday via email that the audioplay production of A.E. van Vogt's story, "The Weapons Shops," has been completed. Apparently it already premiered this Summer at Dragon*Con (scroll down half-way for a group photo) this year in Atlanta, and also played at a frefan party at the WorldCon in Los Angeles. Adapted by Brad Linaweaver and featuring Richard Hatch of Battlestar Gallactica fame (the original series), the CD is not yet available on the home site of the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company. The short story itself, however, can be found in Baen Books' onmibus collection Freedom! which combined all the stories previously gathered under Give Me Liberty and Visions of Liberty. These two collections won a Special Award in 2005 from the Libertarian Futurist Society. "The Weapon Shops" is a classic of libertarian sf, and along with Vernor Vinge's "The Ungoverned" and Eric Frank Russell's "And Then There Were None" stand as the best pieces in that book. I already bought the three Heinlein audioplays from ARTC, and so far have enjoyed "The Man Who Travelled in Elephants" via my iPod. This CD transferred quite nicely, with each track titled and clear. The other two CDs must not have been loaded into the database that iTunes checks, as all the tracks say "untitled." I suppose I will need to update these manually. Listening to the story adds a different dimension to appreciating them as works of fiction, and at ca. 30 minutes does not demand too much of your time. I saw ARTC perform live back in 1995, and you can almost visualize them from the audio alone.

Simple syndication? Really?

A couple of people have mentioned the lack of RSS on this blog. Today I attempt to remedy this deficiency. I moved to Blogger Beta, enabled site feed options, and added the link for readers to subscribe to this blog. If you try this out, please let me know if it works, or if nothing happens. I confess to having tried out RSS months ago, but it didn't seem to be simple at that time, or perhaps I lacked the patience to follow all the necessary steps.

World Fantasy Con

Back from four days at World Fantasy Con in Austin, Texas. No email or internet activity for the duration of my stay. Bought a few too many books, lusted for several others just too pricey for me at the moment, and generally tried to relax. I'm not a gregarious person, and knew very people, so I spent most of my time in the dealers' room. Drove around Austin for a while as well, and much has changed since I moved away five years ago. I sat in on a few panels, but found only one worthwhile. I've attended a handful of WorldCons, one DragonCon, half a dozen local Austin cons -- ArmadilloCon -- but this was my worst sf con experience in 18 years. Maybe it's typical for WFC. I don't know. The panel track was anemic and poorly organized. On one panel an individual said a total of ten words and wondered out loud why the hell he was there to begin with, and often the moderators struggled for direction. Only panel I enjoyed included Tim Powers and a well-spoken David Drake.

Anyway, I achieved my main goal for attending, and that was to meet F. Paul Wilson in person and get my FPW hardcover books autographed. I hauled a huge bag full of 20+ hardcovers to the one, big signing on Friday night, and he signed them all. I guess next time I'll bring all my anthologies and paperbacks, otherwise I would have needed a cart to haul them around. I also got my more recent Tim Powers acquisitions signed, including three versions of the same book. There were other writers there whose books I could have gotten signed, but there was a limit to how much I could carry. The dealers room seems small, though full of modern and rare works. It's staggering to see the prices on some of the older books, even from a couple of decades ago. I saw none of these sell while there, so I wonder how the dealers make money. I did see a lot of current books being bought, but at least one table kept marking down stuff more and more each day.

Now, if only those Clark Ashton Smith books from Arkham House weren't so damned expensive...

Hungary 50 years ago

With the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian uprising against Soviet rule, a review essay in the New York Times on three books detailing events in 1956. Of interest is the reation and inaction of the American government at the time, and the bungled CIA analysis. It's amazing that spy agencies currently get $45 billion a year, and have learned nothing.

Sinclair Lewis

I'm currently re-reading a classic work of fiction, Sinclair Lewis' 1935 novel, It Can't Happen Here. Now possibly out of print (although the NAL edition from 2055 seems available at Amazon), the book deals with the rise of fascism in America in the 1930s, propelled by a populist senator who runs for president. The senator's supporters include the fictional Bishop Prang, who holds forth from his own radio station preaching a raging form of national socialism no different from that found in Germany and Italy at the time. Yet along for the ride is the whole spectrum of the American public and every vocation in the land. Only a few stand against this tide of boorish, brutish, collectivist ideology.

My own copy I bought in 1986 at a used bookstore in Bergen, Norway, for the princely sum of 60 kroner. As I had no money at the time, those $10 meant a lot to me. Sadly, I remember little of the book, for as I read it now I am struck with the lucid prose and Cassandra-like warnings in the book. Lewis, from what I have read, seems both critical of capitalism and socialism (as they were seen back then), and became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in literature (1930).

Why do libertarians love science fiction?

An old post from Tyler Cowen about this strange link. The comments make for interesting reading. Join the debate..

Prometheus at the printer

It never fails. The newsletter is 99% done, and then I have to spend two weeks taking full care of a six-month old and four-year old as my spouse is off defending a client in a law-suit. I don't think I ever appreciated the amount of work that single parents shoulder every day, especially when it comes to very small kids. Far from having any time to complete the newsletter, I ended up every day mentally and physically exhausted. But now, the issue has been delivered to the printer, and in a few days should be in the mail to members and subscribers.

I've already listed the contents in a previous entry, and I've started work on the January 2007 issue as well. I ordered three CDs from the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company, all Heinlein adaptations, to review as a package deal. I know there'll be at least one more order soon, as I believe they're adapting A.E. van Vogt's "The Weapon Shops of Isher." I'm also laying the groundwork for my strangest review yet, a 14-line sonnet on Sinclair Lewis's novel, It Can't Happen Here. I read the book once in 1986 (I believe the book is the first British edition from 1936, or it may be an imprint from that edition). The reason for this format, and the title of the sonnet, derive from my literary hero, John Keats, and a poem he wrote on re-reading King Lear. It's vanity, I know, but I've had this idea in my mind for several years, and I finally dug up my copy of the book and started to read it and jot down notes. I haven't written poetry in many years, so who knows how it turns out.

Other items scheduled for review include Justina Robson's Mappa Mundi, and a few other books from my review copies shelf. I'm currently reading Brad Linaweaver's political broadside, so again there will be some non-fiction reviews in the newsletter.

If you're reading this and have any reviews of article you'd like to see in print, please send me an email at editor@lfs.org.

Pamuk Wins Nobel in Literature

Orhan Pamuk, a Turkish writer who does not shy away from confronting the Turkish government, won the 2006 Nobel Prize in literature. Much has been made recently of non-Western writers daring to critique their own culture, such as Naguib Mafouz, Salman Rushdie, Parviz Parvizian, Elif Shafak, and many, many more. The pen is as feared as the sword, even relatively calm works are excoriated without being read, subjected to the "the tics and manias of obscurantism."

The Probability Broach for free

The graphic novel, that is. In case you didn't shell out cash for the excellent print version, as of Oct 4, Big Head Press is serializing L. Neil Smith's novel (drawn by Scott Bieser) online for free.

Robert Anton Wilson Needs Our Help

Douglas Rushkoff posts distressing news about the great Robert Anton Wilson, author of many brilliant books including the Illuminatus! trilogy. I corresponded briefly with Wilson ten years ago and was impressed with his kindness, wit, and intelligence.

Prometheus covers

My vision of Prometheus as a newsletter features cool cover art with cutting edge articles and reviews within. I don't always get artwork for the cover, and as you can see from these three samples sometimes the newsletter leads off with the article on the front page.


When L. Neil Smith's novel, The Probability Broach was published as a graphic novel in early 2005, I immediately asked Neil and artist Scott Bieser for permission to reprint some of the art in the issue. They agreed, and so I took advantage or their generosity. The last page of the newsletter contains a small frame of the delectable DJ Thorens, and I wrote a review of the graphic novel version. I've now actually bought more graphic novels since 2004 than between 1990 and 2004, but I can still count them on two hands. My personal opinion is that the graaphic novel version of TPB should have been a best novel nominee, but instead the book won as a Special Award. It probably would not have won as a novel, since it already won back in 1982.


The issue with the gunslinger and was inspired by the two articles for each WorldCon site. This issue almost never appeared in print. In 2004 there was a transition in editorship for the newsletter, and this issue was sent to members in two emails. this was around the time I thought about volunteering to help edit the issue, and so I created a sample newsletter to sort of see if I actually could put together an issue again. I had already moved from OS 9 on the Mac to OS X, and my PageMaker software no longer ran native. So, I upgraded to InDesign 2, and threw together an issue and learned a few things about the software. I never released this issue to anyone, and almost lost all the electronic bits in a hardware crash. When I recovered the drive and after I already had put out a couple of issues, I redisovered this 2004 print version, and decided to release it as a special issue.


And here is a plain, almost vanilla cover. A few of the most recent issues have gone 16-20 pages, and with page real estate in these issues at a premium I decided to skip creating a distinctive cover. The current issue again features artwork on the cover, but I'll hold off on posting this until after the issue is published, some time in mid-October. The issues shown on this page are all available for $3 (just send me an email for details), or you can join LFS and receive each forthcoming issue per year of your membership. A few years ago I had several complete sets of all the back issues of Prometheus, but now there are quite a few that I lack, especially for issues prior to 2004. If anyone knows how to scan pages into PDF, please let me know and I can start the process to put all the back issues online at some point.

By the way, I'm always looking for articles and reviews for the newsletter. Please contact me for details.

As a preview, here's what's in store for members and subscribers in the Fall 2006 issue:
Inside Prometheus:
Prometheus Award winners’ remarks from David Lloyd, Patrick Nielsen Hayden (editor), and Ken MacLeod
WorldCon Report by Fred Curtis Moulton with photos of the event
A brief review of the movie version of V for Vendetta
Fiction reviews:
F. Paul Wilson's The Keep: The Graphic Novel
Gary Bennett's The Star Sailors, a 1982 novel recently available again
Keith Brooke's Genetopia
David Louis Edelman's Infoquake
A trio of Naomi Novik books reviewed
Ian MacDonald The River of Gods
Chris Roberson's Paragaea
David Lloyd’s Kickback

Comic buying inexperience

I first heard about F. Paul Wilson's graphic novel version of his 1981 novel, The Keep, in 2005. I even wrote down the schedule, with volume 1 out in October 05, and volume 5 due in April 06. It took me through September to collect all five volumes, going to seven stores in two cities, and finding the comic books in one three of the stores (and thes are all comic book stores). Instead, I probably should have waited and bought the trade paperback. I think I spent a buck more on the five volumes, and a lot more time... But it's good. I'm featuring the book as the lead item in the Fall issue of Prometheus.

The Philadelphia Orchestra goes online

A great way for orchestras to make more money, and many city orchestras are indeed pinched for funds, is selling their performances. An online music store certainly is vastly better than begging for public funds, and the prices appear quite reasonable.

Via Boing Boing

Article 301

Turkish fiction writer Elif Shafak avoided prison today. she was brought to trial under Article 301, an ominously sounding law on speech and the written word in Turkey. Acquitted for the crime of insulting Turkish national identity, she's one of several writers accused and tried for this crime. Apparently bringing up the fact that almost one million Armenians were murdered in the early 20th century is bad form. Several dozen writers of non-fiction and fiction are awaiting trial for voicing various opinions on Turkish history and policy, rendering free speech in that country a fragile risk. Insulting Turkishness is a vague term, usually limited to people to criticize those in power, and often used to stifle opinion. When The Bastard of Istanbul is published next year (not Shafak's novel), I'm tempted to buy it just to grab onto that ability to speak one's mind.

Centipede Press

Yowza! I'd better start saving now for the 2007 Michael Shea colleciotn, if these prices are any indication of the publisher's offerings. Reminds me of Charnel House's extra special editions. Collectors and die-hard fans only, I guess.

Michael Shea

I'm a huge Michael Shea fan. The man is a master with words, charaters, and turns of phrase, all in the weird/horror/fantasy genre. Today I saw by chance two new short stories coming in out later this year while idly searching Shocklines.com. I jumped to Shea's web site, and almost sprayed my tea on my monitor. Shea states that in 2007 a 400 page collection of all his stort stories and novellas will be published. I have almost all of Shea's published works, except for three very hard to find short stories. I hope the tables of contents soon will be available, to check off if all the stories are indeed there.

Shea is not for everyone, but this award-winning author should have had another collection years ago. To date there's only been the Arkham House collection, Polyphemus, but now I'm excited about 2007. Now, maybe other publishers will take note and publish some of his finished novels...

Updates

It's been a while since I updated my blog roll, but I'm adding a section on resources, otherwise known as "places that will take your money and give you stuff." I like stuff.

I'm starting small, and probably will add links to places I've patronized, or that I know have good reputations. (I got ripped off my first time on eBay ad have never been back since. Lesson learned: know from whom you are buying.) Shocklines is a great source for horror, fantasy, and the occasional sf. I recently placed an order there in hopes of getting an sf book (more of which later if I get that book), and found it amusing that the site had to stress this was science fiction. Forbidden Planet gets a mention because Joe Gordon there does some great stuff, and they have cool things.

I probably need to make other link updates, and that photo is twenty years old... but in due time.

Rushkoff graphic novel

Joe Gordon at Forbidden Planet pointed out to me a new series of comic novels by noted tech writer Doug Rushkoff, called Testament. According to the author himself, "It’ll follow a band of cyber-alchemist revolutionaries, in a future just a day after tomorrow - when the draft is reinstated, and the mind virus known as the dollar requires military enforcement."

I've recently discovered a somewhat decent comic book store in San Antonio (nowhere near as comprehensive as Austin Books in, duh, Austin), so I plan to see if they have any copies on hand.

Often imitated

Forgive me while I sneer yet again at a company that wants to be all things to everyone, as Microsoft imitates yet another technology. Now they want to replicate YouTube. Previously they ripped of the Mac OS, the spreadsheet, Playstation, iTunes, iPod, smart phones. The list goes on. When do we ever see innovation from this behemoth?

Getcha F. Paul Wilson films right here

The cover photo's a little creepy, but now you can pre-order Others: The Tales of F. Paul Wilson from Shocklines. This DVD contains three short stories where the author granted permission to three young filmmakers - "Foet", "Traps," and "Lipidleggin." The first two are horror tales, and the last a libertarian sf story that originally appeared in Asimovs in 1978, and then reprinted in Survival of Freedom an anthology edited by Jerry Pournelle in 1981. None of the shorts run longer than 20 minutes, but you can bet I'm ordering this little item. Expected ship date is October, 2006, and the cost is a mere $13.99.

Free Jazz Downloads

I'm trying to minimize surfing while working on the Fall issue of Prometheus, but while wasting time elsewhere trying to add cover art to some iTunes albums, I stumbled upon a site that lets you sample tracks via free downloads, for jazz fans only, I guess. All available by permission from artist or record company, and all in the mp3 format. No apparent DRM. Probably friendly across many digital jukeboxes. There are currently 421 available downloads. I'm hoping this will lead to me discovering cool new jazz, as my tastes tend to be stuck in the 1950s and 1960s in that genre...

Prometheus Fall issue

The next issue of the print newsletter of the Libertarian Futurist Society is slowly coming together. So far this is what's planned:
Prometheus Award Winners’ remarks. Reviews of fiction by Naomi Novik, Keith Brooke, David Louis Edelman, Ian MacDonald, Gary Bennett, Chris Roberson. Movie review of V for Vendetta. Scheduled publication date is early to mid-October.

I've just finished putting together a wickedly cool cover for the newsletter, which I won't yet reveal. My only concern with this issue is that it looks like I'm writing five or six reviews to fill content. Not that I mind, but I'm hoping for submissions from others so I can step back a little.

Speaking of which, if you like libertarian sf, and like to review stuff, please consider Prometheus.

Ooh, I'm a cult member

I'm not longer sure... Do I belong to the cult of Apple, or a libertarian sf cult. I'm astonished at the intellectual strength required to label different ideas as cult like. Gosh, some weird people actually like an OS and and hardware design, instead of living with clunky and imitative software, viruses, blues screens of death, and grey boxes. You are a cult! Some people like liberty and dream of space. Cultist! With friends like this, who needs enemies.

David Lloyd

Forbidden Planet interviews David Lloyd, who along with Alan Moore recently won the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award for V for Vendetta. Lloyd has a new book out, Kickback, a crime noir thriller which looks quite interesting. Lloyd also has a generous perspective on the changes made to the V for Vendetta movie. I haven't yet sorted out all my feelings about the movie. Parts of it were quite good, but there were several shortfalls and it fizzled out long before the end. It certainly lacked the power of the book, and had nowhere near the impact of the original Matrix movie. I recently read the original screenplay that the Wachowskis wrote, and I can't really understand why they didn't film it that way, and why they made certain changes. Then again, I read the original screenplay for The Matrix Reloaded and I have no idea what they were smoking when they put that together. Even the strange mis-shapen outcome of the final movie was much better than that screenplay.

Update 9/10/06: I picked up a copy of Kickback yesterday. I'm hoping to review it in Prometheus, but unless I get creative I'm already out of space.

Conger reviews Linaweaver

Wally Conger reviews Brad Linaweaver's new non-fiction book about America's foreign policy, and finds the plumb line of anarchism askew. I know Linaweaver and point #3 does not surprise me at all. As for the content of the book I have not yet read it, so I can't comment.

Terry Pratchett - Libertarian

A brief article from Advocates for Self-Government about writer and Prometheus Award winner Terry Pratchett. Debates have raged elsewhere regarding the supposed libertarian content of Pratchett's books, especially from non-libertarians disparaging any connection. The Discworld scene is a varied lot, and certainly no libertarian utopia, but enough quotes in several books do bolster a pro-liberty leaning and somewhat cynical attitude toward those in power. A select few are reprinted in the article. Another great book not mentioned is Feet of Clay.

The truth

This link probably is meaningless to those who speak no Norwegian, but the blogger here, a young Norwegian lass, prints a letter she found at school that started her down the road to Terry Pratchett worship. In the letter is a brief snippet that mentions "two prestigious awards," namely "Prometheus Award and Carnegie Medal," which links back to a Norwegian Wikipedia entry.

I always knew the Prometheus Award had high status, but this seems, well, stratospheric.

Another shout out

Nice mention of the 2006 Prometheus Award winners by The Forbidden Planet, a UK site dealing with comics, grphic novels and cult merchandise. I'm in the middle of putting together the Fall issue with lots of items of the Prometheus Award event, and am alsways cheered by nice mentions like this. Beats the sarcarsm I've seen over at Emerald City in the past.

L. Neil Smith on his Star Wars books

Smith prints a response to an inquiry about his three Lando Calrissian books.

Prometheus Award mention

Nice mention over at Liberty & Power group blog by Amy Sturgis on this year's Prometheus Awards winners.

25 years ago

Today I came into possession of the full list of Prometheus Award nominees for the 1982 award, held that year at Chicon. Master of ceremonies that year was the late Robert Shea, who wrote a brilliant con report in the pages of Prometheus shortly thereafter, called "Hasta la vista, Chicon." I bring up this tidbit as the LFS web page for the Prometheus Awards (of which I compiled the bulk of information), lists only the winner, L. Neil Smith's The Probability Broach. At the time that was all that I had to go by, and despite several efforts I never found any documentation of the other books nominated that year. Until the LFS site is updated, here's the complete list. Book followed by * were finalists, and ** denotes the winner. What a tough year to pick a winner! I gaze at the libertarian luminaries on this list in wonder - Erika Holzer, Kay Nolte Smith, L. Neil Smith, J. Neil Schulman, F. Paul Wilson, and more.

- Gary Bennett, The Star Sailors
- Lee Corey, Star Driver
- Samuel Delaney, Tales of Neveryon*
- Thomas Disch, On the Wings of Song
- Erika Holzer, Double Crossing
- Stephen King, Firestarter
- Ursula K. Le Guin, Malafrena
- Barry Longyear, Circus World
- Byron Preiss & Michael Reaves, Dragonworld
- Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker
- J. Neil Schulman, Alongside Night*
- Kay Nolte Smith, The Watcher*
- L. Neil Smith, The Probability Broach**
- Norman Spinrad, A World Between
- Norman Spinrad, Song From the Stars*
- Joan Sloanczewski, Still Forms on Foxfield
- Douglas Terman, Free Flight
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jailbird
- F. Paul Wilson, An Enemy of the State*

Linaweaver wakes up

Well, he apparently did say so his own words (see the post at Wally Conger's blog re the WorldCon), a non-fiction take from sf writer Brad Linaweaver, Post-Nationalism: George W. Bush as President of the World by Brad Linaweaver. Available as a paperback from Victor Koman's KoPubCo. I'm delighted to see Linaweaver's on the side against war mongering neo-cons and neo-libertarians.

New Ken MacLeod book

A brief novel (contradiction?) released in the UK only at this point, The Highway Men, published by Sandstone Press. MacLeod describes it thusly, "typical MacLeod stuff: climate change, imperialist war, libertarian grouch, Highland romance and insurrectionary violence."

Denver 2008?

I'm strongly considering an August vacation and drive through the south west to Denvention 3 - the 66th Worldcon.

Whoa

Paging the trademark office. Eerie.

Richard Mgrdechian Interviewed

Prometheus Award nominated author Richard Mgrdechian answers nine questions.

I just received a copy of his latest book -- non-fiction this time -- and enjoyed his novel 3000 Years. Much of the interview deals with his non-fiction book, which also is reviewed at the same web site.

2006 Prometheus Award winners announced

Hot off the virtual presses, the announcement from LFS regarding this year's winners. The presentation was held today at the LA Con IV Worldcon. Trying to see if anyone in the blogosphere made mention of the event...

Interview

All you ever wanted to know about yours truly, plus a little more. Sunni Maravillosa interviewed me for her July Salon. Not sure that I merit an interview, but I found the process fascinating and the interview gracious and considerate.

Books read/reading

Currently I'm burning through a stack ofPYR books at the moment, hoping to review at least four in the Fall issue of Prometheus. They're a relative recent publisher on the sf scene, and luckily they send me a few review copies each year. I've already reviewed at least four books by them, and have yet to be disappointed in their offerings, even though the fare is far from uneven.

Recently read books include
David Louis Edelman, Infoquake. An sf novel about business and politics, with a fari number of mentions of libertarians and radical libertarians, though less so of said ideas.
Keith Brooke, Genetopia. Parallels slavery stories set in unknown environment (possibly far future) where genetic manipulation acts as divider akin to skin color.
Chris Roberson, Paragaea. Adventure tale in tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Jack Vance (among others). At times quite fun, yet despite its length I never really bought into the characters as much as in ERB's books.

Currently reading
Ian McDonald's River of Gods Ye Gods. This is near future sf at its best. Complex and difficult to follow due to large cast of characters, but certainly the very essence of why I read sf.

Now, how do I squeeze in my other current books - Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End and Tim Powers' Three Days to Never?

"five-day sci-fi and fantasy geek-out"

That's how Wired.com describe this year's WorldCon or LA Con IV in a brief write-up of the current event. LFS will announce the 2006 Prometheus Awards on the 26th, or Saturday. I was there 10 years ago at LA Con III. I won't make it this year, and even had I planned on attending I would have arrived in somewhat reduced form, as I've been smacked around this week by a cold and stomach virus at the same time. Throw in lack of sleep as the kiddo keeps us off guard, and the end result would have been grumpiness all around. At some point writing will take place and postings follow.

I use my blog almost as a memory device. When I forget to post something it's nearly impossible to go back later and trawl through the web for the same story. Last item that caught my attention was news that new stories are planned in the Babylon 5 universe. Far better that Star Dreck, this show peaked in seasons 2-4, especially the latter half of 3 and first half of 4. I had started a mini B5 marathon a few months ago, but had to set it aside after the early episodes of season 4. I've probably seen most episodes three or four times, and enjoy most aspects of the show immensely. Still, I could not help laughing when I watched the Finnish web movie Star Wrek: In the Pirkinning. They nailed some of the main characters' worst traits quite well.

2006 Prometheus Finalist Mini-Reviews

I'm way behind the curve, but while the baby in the house works his way through a schedule change, blogging and web-surfing remains light. Here, on the other hand, is the indefatigable Sunni Maravillosa with some mini-reviews of the 2006 Prometheus Award finalists from her July Salon. I find myself in accord with her on the Mosely, Stross, and Goodkind novels. As for the Wolfe/Zelman book, this is perhaps 1/3 or 1/4 of a novel, not a complete work in my opinion. That said, I reserve my opinion until the story concludes. As far as The Black Arrow, I found that I really did not care for this book. The characters failed to move me, the story perplexed me (to put it lightly), and the tone concerned me. I also enjoyed MacLeod's novel slightly more, and while I agree the resolution lacked the impact of the rest of the novel, the other 99% of the story retained my interest over the span of several well-spent hours.

Robert Anton Wilson bibliography

I stumbled upon this post from June 18 about an auction to benefit Robert Anton Wilson, who's recovering from some health issues. The post also includes a detailed and lengthy bibliography of RAW's works.

You got a friend in me

A very interesting article from the NY Times on the Postal Service and the internet. It seems like only a few years ago commentators derided the USPS as "snail mail." Yet while the shipment of letters and cards through the stamp monopoly have declined, packages actually increased. This is mainly due to ecommerce sites like amazon.com and eBay. Alas, it would be great if private companies were able to compete and ship packages in the same manner, instead of having to focus on "express" mail services a la FedEx, UPS, and a host of smaller companies. Instead of the internet killing off this ugly state monopoly, it's actually proved to be a major influx of money. Yet the lines remain long and service remains unfriendly.

Cuba comments split libs

A brief posting of comments from actor Andy Garcia on Castro over at Reason seems to have split quite a few libertarians. Editor Nick Gillespie's posting mentions a few anti-communist movies that I may need to check out on DVD.

State and religion

More often than not that combination is deadly. BBC reports of a 16-year old girl executed in Iran for "crimes against chastity." She was hanged, lifted in the air by a crane, for having been raped by a man three times her age. The rapist received a few lashes, the girl received death, her true age masked by court documents. She had the courage to spit in the face of the judge and legal system when she realized her case was hopeless. Atefah Sahaaleh is a martyr for liberty.

Pippi!

A neat book review of Pippi Longstocking over at Sunni's Salon. I, too, remember Pippi and Astrid Lindgren from my childhood, and now that I'm introducing her stories to my daughter as well, I find that adults as well as children can appreciate her character.

New Victor Milan novel

Fans of Victor Milan will be happy to learn he has a new novel, due out shortly. Solomon's Jar, a shred adventure tale in a series called Rogue Angel, under a group pseudonym. Milan promises "serious butt-kick adventure" with the female sword wielding protagonist, Annja Creed.

Yet another federal database

This time it's your college records.

Let just cut right to the chase and barcode everyone right now.

The Jack Vance Treasury

I broke down and ordered a new Jack Vance collection today. Well, there are no new stories, but its possible they've gone through the Vance Integral Edition process and emerged somewhat different from the stories in my Underwood-Miller collections. The book does contain a preface by Vance, which by itself might be worth the $38, though I am sure Vance will be terse as usual. Years ago I collected all the editions of the Underwood-Miller books, over forty hardcovers, many limited and signed. Many of these I bought well below retail cost, other at collectors prices. They are, perhaps, my most treasured tangible possessions. In all I own 54 U-M books (combined and under separate imprints). That makes me a qualified Vance fanatic, I suppose. When the Vance Integral Edition was announced, I signed up as a volunteer and as a customer, but I backed out of both due to time constraints, and also a strange loyalty to the U-M books. I can't say I was happy when the VIE combined some books within the same cover. And, yes, the steep price deterred me from completing the purchase. That act qualifies my fanaticism. There are handful of Vance books I don't have in hard cover, and at this point I doubt that will change, unless some other publisher comes out with dust cover editions of those five or so books. But, if you're a stranger to the fiction of Vance, this collection from Subterranean Press will open your world to perhaps the greatest craftsman of science fiction and fantasy of the 20th century. Jack Vance truly is nonpareil.

Vinge interview

Via Rick Kleffel, a podcast of a recent NPR interview with Vernor Vinge. I'm resisting these recent interviews until I finish Rainbows End.

Summer issue of Prometheus

The Summer 2006 issue went out in the mail late last week to all members/subscribers/etc. This 20-page issue includes reviews of fiction by Russell Madden, Elizabeth Moon, Harry Turtledove, Vernor Vinge, Tamara Wilhite, and John C. Wright; a condensed version of Sunni Maravillosa's interview with Scott Bieser and Vin Suprynowicz; Tamara Wilhite on SETI; review of the movie Æon Flux; anthology Future Washington reviewed; Jim Sullivan on library censorship; plus a last minute essay on private space travel and a guest editorial on RFIDs.

If you're not a member of LFS, more information can be found at www.lfs.org. Subscriptions also are available, and if you'd like a sample issue please email me at editor AT lfs DOT org with an address and I'll send out a free copy.

I'm now taking a brief break before starting work on the Fall issue, which I expect will feature news about the Prometheus Awards ceremony from LA CON IV, held at the end of August. I attended LA CON III back in 1996, my first WorldCon. I remember the long drive from LAX to Anaheim, the vast dealers' auditorium where I secured some hard to find Jack Vance books, and very long nights. I attended two more WorldCons (1997 and 1998), before beginning my long and personal sabbatical away from sf fandom that lasted until the end of 2004. I'm not sure when I'll attend my next WorldCon. With two small kids in the house I am loathe to go through the stress of travel only to spend time away from them, so I'm sure a few more years will pass before WorldCon #4.

I'm getting ready to shell out $36 for three audio CDs from the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company, with hopes of writing up the experience in the next issue of Prometheus as well. The three CDs include all the adapted Robert A. Heinlein stories. And then, I have a stack of books that need some attention...

OS Wars

I don't really want to start an OS war, but in reading through Claire Wolfe'sreply to an essay by Brad over on wendymacelroy.com on Linux vs. Windows, I'm tempted to offer up Mac OS X as an alternative. I guess if you have an Intel machine your only choice is Win or Lin, though OS X now runs on Intel. The second fall-back argument is that Macs are too expensive, and while somewhat true, you do get quite a few items standard on the Mac that are add-ons in the Win/Lin world. Of course, the most powerful argument is that OS X is proprietary, while Linux is free and open-source. True again, but OS X includes Unix and exists in a healthy 3rd party developer environment so you don't need to rely on Apple software. And it's a gorgeous OS, far smoother to master than either Win/Lin environment. But that's just my opinion as a Mac user since 1984.

We

The LA Times reviews a new translation of Hall of Fame winning novel, Yevgeny Zamyatin's We.

Atlas Shrugged movie moves forward

Personally, I like the idea of Angelina Jolie as Dagny Taggart, in as close to reality as we've ever seen for an Atlas Shrugged movie moment.

The Column of Phocas

Sean Gabb, UK libertarian and editor of Free Life, has written a novel of "murder and intrigue, set in mediaeval Rome." The first three chapters are available for download.

Songs of Protest

I believe Time Magazine also ran a story about protest music a few months ago. Here the Nation muses on protest and music.

Blurbed

Via reason's Hit and Run, a brief story on deciphering blurbs for keys on how to avoid books. My blurbs appeared on three or four books (I remember two by L. Neil Smith and one by Vernor Vinge--though in the latter they cited the publication in which my review appeared, and not my name). In each case I think the publisher pulled my words from a review, and I wrote those words not with a blurb in mind. Culling the essence of a book down to a few sentences is tough work, and sometimes I wonder about their effectiveness. I buy books for the author or story, not from what others say. But do I read the blurbs? Usually, yes, after I've already bought the book.

Name that writer

Lack of familiarity with any of the writers mentioned makes me wonder which one is the "wrier of Libertarian SF" among this list mentioned at Emerald City. Clue me in, please.

RIP Jim Baen

Jim Baen, publisher and editor, passed away June 28th following a massive stroke. Baen Books website posted a brief notice. David Drake has a longer obituary. I used to buy a ton of Baen paperbacks a few years ago, especially the paperback magazines (I first read Vernor Vinge's short story, "The Ungoverned," in one of these), but in the last decade of so none of the writers in their line appealed to me, nor did the covers; I never really read that much military sf. I also remember meeting Jack Vance's Cugel character in Baen's editions of some of Vance's books. Recently Baen also was a force in promoting unencrypted web versions of books from their line, and proved this model as a viable and ethical business model. Quite a few Prometheus Award-winning sf writers appeared in Baen editions, including L. Neil Smith and James P. Hogan, as well as F. Paul Wilson.

Lit crit

Over at reason Magazine, Nick Gillespie asks "what good are the arts?" As an English major in college (well, English and history), I used the time as an excuse to read books that I enjoyed, and more than once had to endure silly Marxist lit crit teachers and students, who sought to fit every book into a predefined model.

(yeah, I realize this is from April. I keep checking reason's front page to see if they posted an essay on children's literature that ran in the print magazine a few months ago, but nada.)

Reasons to avoid MySpace

The NSA soon might be sniffing there for financial info about users. Via Boing Boing.

Image from the past

The picture in this story sent chills down my spine. I grew up in Zambia, spent 11 years of my life there, and saw those building all the time from the other side, where Cairo Road runs. I rode my bike there all the time, and it's great to see people there talking about alternatives to socialism. History is the history of liberty, someone once wrote, and this certainly is a much better tale than what's happening to Zambia's neighbor in the south under Mugabe's mismanagement. One day I hope to take my children to Zambia, and drive down streets where I walked and biked, and feel safe as we do so.

More data mining

Your bank records safe? This NY Times records indicates otherwise. Hello, AT&T, meet your new friend the local bank. As the government spokesman says, there is no doubt this is "a legal and proper use of our authorities." Uh, yeah, right... "President's emergency powers" sounds horrific in the context of America.

Octavia Bulter from a libertarian perspective

Over at reason magazine Amy Strugis muses on the fiction and recent passing of sf writer Octavia Butler. Sadly, I think I've only read a few short stories by Butler.

Privacy policy? What privacy policy?

The key to remember here is that any record of any activity, once kept by any entity, is subject to being handed over to the government. Your library records, your movie rental records, memberships in any organization, your phone records, etc. In this case AT&T commits double-speak, streamlining information by stripping away any privacy guarantees.

The sound of crickets

If you wonder what happened to this blog, all I can say is that I barely have time these days to read a few regular web sites, as I am trying to read novels and short stories that need to be reviewed in Prometheus, or which are up for the Prometheus Award. I could break down the segments of my day, but even though I'm averaging 6 hours of sleep each day (up from 4), there's still not enough time in the day to get to everything. I started some rather long posts a while back, including reviews of all Prometheus Award finalists, but no posts came close to blogger ready. I also had a change of heart when it came to posting what I wrote, as I was far from happy with some of the nominees. I also started a post listing a stack of books received, some of which I have worked my way through and now am in the process of reviewing. Even when it comes to this part I am way behind schedule. The best novel I read this year originally appeared in 2005 - Ken MacLeod's Learning the World. I just started Vernor Vinge's new novel, but even that has to wait until I have met all my review obligations for the Summer issue of Prometheus. Right now I'm reading Future Washington (sorry, no time for a link), which contains several excellent pieces, including a very timely (and scary) work of fiction on RFIDs. In case you're reading this, and looking for news on libertarian fiction, all I can do is plead baby-duty and hope I'll be able to post more data sometime in mid-July.

Into the Black

Another fan-based show set in the Firefly universe.

Mosquito - cool parady of Firefly

Excuse me a few minutes while I stitch back my gut after seeing this Firefly parody. Mosquito is quite amusing, with a near-lookalike of Kaylee, and neat twists on the other characters from Joss Whedon's universe.

Victor Milan's web page returns

After being down several weeks due to a web hosting snafu, Victor Milan's web site is back. Though Milan now primarily writes action/adventure novels, his classic sf novel, The Cybernetic Samurai remains one of my all-time favorite sf books.

Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet

Good news at last that after ten long years this movie finally may see the light on DVD. I have yet to see Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, but I know the audience will grow significantly once this work reaches the "new" medium. Long my favorite Shakespeare play (along with The Tempest, a character of which is the namesake of my daughter), I've seen many versions of Hamlet, except this one. Branagh is a superb actor and director, and I can hardly wait to see his interpretation sometime later this year. No doubt we'll have to pay a pretty penny for this production, too.

Book watch

This will be an interesting novel to see how it develops. very likely technology will outstrip some premises, but key elements remain.

An Island Called Liberty

Via Wendy McElroy's forum, a link to a children's book called An Island of Liberty, which bills itself as a cross between Dr. Seuss and Ayn Rand. Mainly aimed at kids, with lots of rhyming.

Roswell, Texas goes live!

The online comic book by L. Neil Smith and Scott Bieser went live today at Big Head Press' revamped web site. Right now it appears the web page is ad supported as the comics there are free. Do yourself a favor and check out the site, and if you haven't already done so, I recommend also looking into at least one of the ads: Michael Wentz' novel, Resurrection of Liberty. In my opinion, this novel should have been a Prometheus Award finalist, and as I'm halfway through reading those six books, I know of at least two so far that I can't fathom how made it ahead of this novel.

Another Vernor Vinge interview

This one's in audio, conducted by Glenn Reynolds, aka Instapundit. Download to your iPod or play on your computer without an iPod.

The kid in you

Perhaps Big Head Press can cash in on this growing phenomenon, the massive growth in graphic novels in the publishing industry. Via Reason's Hit & Run.

Preview art for Roswell, Texas

Big Head Press today released some preview art for their three online graphic novel projects, including L. Neil Smith and Scott Bieser's Roswell, Texas. Methinks that Wild Bill Bear shows a slight resemblance to a famous libertarian sf novelist...

Alida Valli dies

Though no obits mention her role in the Italian movie version of Ayn Rand's We the Living, news of Alida Valli's death broke today. I don't believe We the Living exists on DVD, but I bought the VHS tapes almost a couple of decades ago after it's rerelease (1986) and was impressed by her portrayal of Kira Argounova.

2006 Prometheus Award finalists, part 1

Each year around this time I participate in the voting for the Prometheus Award, which in my case entails reading the five finalists and submitting my vote (deadline: July 4). This year there are six finalists. I have less time than ever to read the books, so I find myself reading at lunch and while walking to and from my car at work. I began this week with Vin Suprynowicz' The Black Arrow and Walter Mosley's 47 in parallel. I just finished Mosley's novel, and only am 50 pages into the Suprynowicz book. The former impressed me, at least the first half. After the critical tipping point of 47 the novel lost impact in some ways, and I'm still sorting out my thoughts. The prose flows well, and the emotional impact of the slave tale sat with me long after I put the book down each day. However, without spoiling the ending, I felt it left out a great deal of information, and perhaps it lost a little direction. The central element, that one is not a slave nor a master, unless one makes that choice, has deep libertarian roots, going back to Etienne de la Boetie. Regardless of Mosley's 'progressive' politics, that alone earns it some points.

The Black Arrow created a stir last year when Laissez Faire Books refused to carry it in their catalog, due to what they termed excessive and gratuitous sex scenes. I have not come across any of these yet, but having read some Ray Garton stories, I doubt I'll blanch when the moments arrive. This is a first novel, and that fact is inescapable when reading the book. The prose certainly isn't unreadable, and Suprynowicz is an experienced writer of non-fiction, so he knows how to tell a story. However, there are moments when I'm jarred out of my reading state of mind and think more about the process of writing and characterization, rather than about the story. No doubt it's unfair of me to say this at such an early stage; the book is fairly long and I'm but a few chapters deep. Still, the blend of Harlequin romance emotions of the characters when looking at members of the opposite sex, plus the clinical analysis of anatomy - "From the look of her breasts, it was unlikely she had yet fed children." - tells me the author is still working to free his fictional voice from his journalistic past. Unlike Mosley, the author is explicitly libertarian, so it ill be interesting to see how the book turns out.

Prometheus in the mail

I finally have the Spring issue back from the printer and the issue will be in the mail to members and subscribers on Saturday the 15th. As always, if you're interesting in finding out more about the newsletter of the Libertarian Futurist Society, send me an email at editor@lfs.org.

H. Beam Piper online

Via Emerald City, a report that four of Piper's works are available free online at Project Gutenberg. Scroll down to see texts of Genesis, Graveyard of Dreams, Little Fuzzy, and Murder in the Gunroom.

Thanks

To everyone who commented on the arrival of our new baby, a big thank you. He tends to sleep a lot at the moment, and we're not sure if this is because he was a little early, or if he just has settled on this sleep habit. However, he sleeps fitfully when not held, so much time is spent with one of us holding the little guy, and then running around like crazy to accomplish things when not holding him. His big sister (three years old) takes her role very seriously, and has been a charm. I've already gone a little nutty and bought some Star Wars spaceship toys that he can't even touch for another three-four years, and of course I have to collect the entire set. My wife jokes that the toys really are for me, and who knows if he'll even care about them when he gets to age he can play with them, but my insanity will pass. It may all be part of the adrenaline and uncertainty around a new baby. All this means little time for reading or surfing, but the Prometheus newsletter was delivered to the printer last week. I was not pleased with how they handled the transaction, and not having heard from them, may be looking for a new printer soon.

Big Head Press

Today Big Head Press announced three online comic book ventures due to launch on May 1st, including L. Neil Smith's Roswell, Texas. Smith's story has been in the planning and writing stage for many years, and it's great to see one version finally coming to fruition. I hope that perhaps some day the text version will see print, not just the comic book, but also the original novel collaboration between Rex May and Smith.

Vernor Vinge interview

Shaun Farrell interviews Vernor Vinge. Via Locus magazine.

Baby 1, Prometheus 0

The day before I planned on delivering Prometheus to the printer our little son decided it was time for him to arrive. So, Sunday morning at 6:12am, after three hours in labor, little Aidan Gabriel arrived into our lives. He arrived three weeks early, but healthy and in good spirits. The little boy's mom is exhausted but could not be happier, and the dad needs a little more sleep. I'm now aiming for Wednesday to get the issue to the printer.

Wrapping up Prometheus

I can't call running around with a three-year old resting, but after last week, that's what today came down to. I spent the evening trying to wrap up the Spring edition of the print newsletter, Prometheus. I am one review away from completing the issue, which I expect to have done by tomorrow night. I'm quite happy with this issue, as I only have two reviews under my byline, and the rest of the issue consists of original essays and reviews. Here a glance at the contents:
Prometheus Award Finalists
Interview with David R. Friedman
Thomas M. Sipos on post-9/11 movies
Richard Mgrdechian on intellectual isolation
Reviews of fiction by David D. Friedman (Harald), Terry Goodkind (Chainfire), Ken MacLeod (Learning the World), Walter Mosley (47), Justina Robson (Silver Screen) , Mike Resnick (Starship: Mutiny), L. Neil Smith (Tom Paine Maru), Charles Stross (The Hidden Family), Michael Z. Williamson (The Weapon), F. Paul Wilson (Harbingers)
News item on Brad Linaweaver’s Mondo Cult

As always, if you're interested in subscribing, or joining LFS, send me an email and I'll mail you a sample issue of Prometheus, free of charge.

B for Betrayal

Forecast: Light and intermittent blogging. No time this week even to read the handful of web pages I visit daily, but this post caught my eye.

William Alan Ritch lashes out at the Wachowskis' verion of V for Vendetta in a commentary he titles, B for Betrayal. Ritch, former editor of Prometheus, argues the Wachowskis "changed [Alan Moore's] point. Its philosophy." I'll break down this commentary more when I actually see the movie, but from my re-reading of the book, Ritch appears 99% spot on in his comparrison of the book and movie.

Robin Guthrie sounds

What can I say, except this is one of quick, personal, not related to the general theme of this blog type of entries. I don't know how long they will be there, but one of my favorite musicians, Robin Guthrie, has put a couple of his tunes on myspace.com. I've never gone to myspace until now, but found the link on Guthrie's blog. Monument, the first tune, is from his forthcoming album, Continental. Lush, wonderful sounds, in the ambient, alternative format. Makes me wish there was an easy, neat way to buy directly from the artist in digital format, rather than wait for the CD or iTunes.

V for Vendetta

If you've seen the movie and want to write a 1000 word review for the Prometheus, let's talk. I think it will be a while before I make it to the movies to see this one, unless I catch a midnight showing some Friday or Saturday a few weeks after the buzz has died down and the place isn't too packed. In the meantime, I've caught a couple of 1/2 hour TV shows about the movie, and looks like Alan Moore is correct about it no longer being his story.

Can't say he's the only writer abused by Hollywood this way. A recent essay by Christopher Buckley in Time magazine's latest edition underscores the hassles of making movies, especially for writers whose works are adapted, or even just optioned. After you've read this, check out www.repairmanjack.com for F. Paul Wilson's ongoing sagas about getting a Repairman Jack movie made, and The Touch as a TV show. Not very encouraging.

Prometheus Award finalists

I don't know if there's an embargo on the news, but this is the first posting I've seen out there of the 2006 finalists for the LFS sponsored Prometheus Award, over at Sunni Maravillosa's blog. Scroll down past the yummy mouth-watering images of chocolate to see the list. Here I am, editor of the LFS newsletter, scooped just days after I received the list for the Prometheus Award newsletter... I plan on posting it here over the weekend, but it's been a momentous week in my life, and I'm just too worn out at the moment. Today was my last day at Apple Computer, after 11 years working with the coolest hardware and software on the planet. Okay, so I'm a little biased. I'd keep working there if I could, but small problem: Apple's Texas office is in Austin. I live 90 miles away. The commute for me the last four years has meant two days a week in Austin, three days in my home office, in splendid isolation. On a good day I'm only in the car three hours. It wears on me. I should have changed this scenario a long time ago. The final impetus was the impending arrival of child #2, due any day now. I start work for a local company next week, probably on the not-so-delightful Win XP platform. I have not used Windows since before Win 95. Tough thing for a Gates-hater to have to face.

Regarding the Prometheus Award finalists, I am not on the judges committe. I have not read a single word of the six finalists (and only own one of them, the Ken MacLeod novel). I'm surprised two books I nominated and really liked did not make the cut. Richard Mgrdechian's 3000 Years and Michael L. Wentz' Resurrection of Liberty were books I expected to see as finalists. But, as mentioned, I have not read any of the other works. Walter Mosley is far from being a libertarian, so it will be interesting to read his novel. The Charles Stross novel poses an ethical dilemma for me, as when I read the first book in the series, and realized the publisher took one book, chopped it in half and sold them as two novels, I swore to not give Tor a penny for that second book, despite being captivated by the story. I own of of Stross' other works, and think he's a brilliant writer, but that act by Tor's editors was just immoral, in my eyes. Others may disagree. In January I read not a single work on fiction, but since then I've finished three novels, all of varying quality. My stack of unread books rises like the tower of Babylon.

I'm in the middle of wrapping up the Spring issue of Prometheus, which should be at the printer in less than a week. Twenty pages of reviews and essays. I think it's a great issue, a superb issue.

I just received in the mail a copy of Pyr Books' edtion of Ian McDonald's massive River of Gods. Damn, I need more time in the day. I have five other books that I need to read, and a few reviews to write. And Vernor Vinge's new novel is just around the corner.

David Friedman's Harald

Today I received a review copy by well-known writer of law and economics books, David Friedman. Haraldis Friedman's first novel, published by BAEN Books. Set in an imaginary land, the novel is more historical than fantasy, a sort of imagined medieval geography with kings, emperors, and Norse-sounding names. Poul Anderson comes to mind as an inspiration. Friedman's literary style is sparse, at times quite elliptical. I'm only 20 pages into the book, and hope to feature a review (by myself or someone else) in Prometheus, as well a brief interview with Friedman that I received talking about this book. The Spring issue of Prometheus takes shape, and could go 20-24 pages instead of the usual 16. 

Books received

Below are some review copies that I've received for Prometheus. I'm finally getting around to listing them...

Justina Robson's Silver Screenis a reprint of a novel published in the UK in 1999. Deals with AI rights, weird geniuses, and multi-national intrigue. Review due in the Spring issue of Prometheus.

Mike Resnick's Starship: Mutinya military sf novel, and the first Resnick book I've ever read, a surprising confession as I own several of his books but never opened one before now. This book is sparse and purely action driven, with very little character development. The title foretells the climax of the novel, and it's the first in a five book series. Review due in the Spring issue of Prometheus.

A reprint of a classic sf novel, George Zebrowski's Macrolife: A Mobile Utopia arrived from Pyr books last week. It's been added to the growing stack for the Summer issue.

Keith Brook's novel, Genetopia, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly:

British author Brooke's engrossing far-future parable intertwines old, old human questions: Who am I? Where am I? Where am I going? Must I go? After centuries of biotechnology gone berserk, "True" humans inhabit a land of mortal fears where a chance microbe or the changing vats of their enemies can dehumanize them forever. "Mutts," grotesque "Lost" subhumans, outwardly devote themselves to their True masters, though like pre–Civil War slaves, the mutts secretly talk of finding "Harmony," freedom from their inborn servitude.

Currently on top of the pile for the Summer issue.

John David's Passion for Dead Leaves. I read the predecessor in this series. Have not yet opened this book. Review due in the Summerissue of Prometheus.

Steven Burgauer's The Last American, another book I won't be able to review until the Summer issue. Have not yet started this one. Been a while since I read one of Burgauer's books.

James P. Hogan's Catastrophes, Chaos & ConvolutionsOkay, I bought this one myself, but I list it here as the review probably won't appear until the Summer issue of Prometheus.

Walter Mosley, Prometheus Award nominee

I found out this weekend that Walter Mosley's novel, 47, is a Prometheus Award nominee. I believe the final cut of five books is just around the corner, but this is the first time I've heard about the novel. A brief description from Amazon.com (School Library Journal review) goes like this:

The intense, personal slave narrative of 14-year-old Forty-seven becomes allegorical when a mysterious runaway slave shows up at the Corinthian Plantation. Tall John, who believes there are no masters and no slaves, and who carries a yellow carpet bag of magical healing potions and futuristic devices, is both an inspiration and an enigma. He claims he has crossed galaxies and centuries and arrived by Sun Ship on Earth in 1832 to find the one chosen to continue the fight against the evil Calash. The brutal white overseer and the cruel slave owner are disguised Calash who must be defeated. Tall John inserts himself into Forty-seven's daily life and gradually cedes to him immortality and the power, confidence, and courage to confront the Calash to break the chains of slavery. With confidence, determination, and craft, Tall John becomes Forty-seven's alter ego, challenging him and inspiring him to see beyond slavery and fight for freedom.

I'm hoping to run a review of the novel in the Summer issue of Prometheus, as the Spring issue pretty much is set at the moment, even with an increase in page count to 20.

Musically geeked out

I just installed SQLTunes on my Mac, which creates a MySQL table from exported tracks from iTunes, and allows me to run reports or even create web pages with interactive options via PHP, should I so choose. I set it up on my local host (if I had access to a remote MySQL db, I'm sure transferring the data would be an easy task), and it felt a lot easier than when I installed SimpleMachines Forum or Moveable Type to see how they worked. Both those apps took a couple of hours of Unix related experimentation on the Mac, but SQLTunes only ran me 15-30 minutes. My first report showed 5715 tracks from 588 artists, although iTunes often incorrectly interprets tracks on classical music CDs - probably more related to the database that iTunes checks, than iTunes itself. For example, there is no artist called "Act I Connais-tu le pays..." but that's how the db assigned a track when ripping the CD. I haven't ripped all my CDs, but this is a great tool for all sorts of reports (count number of songs with same title, for one), and a different perspective on my music library. No idea if the same thing exists in the Windows/Linux world. One strange quirk is that the track_id field, which stamps all the records with a unique ID, started at 39, not one. Another is that the import from the XML file sorted in no logical fashion, except for maybe the "persistent_id" field, which I don't know how populates.

Via sf writer Charles Stross' LiveJournal, a list of Tor's new ebooks that will available starting this month. Includes new titles as well as previously paper-published books.

TOR sells unencrypted fiction

Via Emerald City, a link to Tor's release about their
new program of selling e-books, oddly enough from competitors BAEN, who pioneered the unencrypted format. Among the authors featured starting in March are Vernor Vinge, Charles Stross, Mercedes Lackey, and Sara Douglass.

Continuing the musical note

I'm recharging my batteries when it comes to books and literary matters, and will post more appropriate stuff soon. In the meantime, an amusing review of an album released today, Trespassers William's Having. The review is more about reaching for flowery prose than the album itself. The band, named after Piglet's grandfather in A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh (the scene explaining this is amusing, as the sign to which Piglet alludes is a broken one, which really should read Trespassers Will be Prosecuted), plays quiet, lush music, complemented by vocalist Anna-Lynne Williams soft voice. Preview before you buy, as what I might like now, you might not like ever.

Em, url...

While I didn't jump to a Microsoft site as someone stated happened to them (perhaps because I use a Mac?) when drawing this issue to my attention, I did have a bad link to Eric Raymond's blog on this site. This has been updated to the correct location. People jumping over there will see HRC doing an excellent Hannibal Lecter impersonation, as well as more serious stuff.

James Hogan moves to Ireland full time

Just spotted this brief note from Wendy McElroy talking about a conversation she had with sf writer James Hogan. Turns out he no longer splits his time between the US and Ireland, but due to the Iraq war has left the US permanently for Ireland. More details at Wendy's site.

Music videos

Sweet heavens! Completely unrelated to the mission of this blog, but wow, some cool music videos over at Silent Sessions by (among others) two of my favorite current bands, Explosions in the Sky and The Album Leaf. Very different types of music, yet both are mainly instrumental. Sadly, I am so far removed from the music scene that I missed both Austin performances, only 90 minutes away. Might be of interest to a future Musical Maundering from Sunni...

U. S. Cartoonists coment on the Danish situation

A nice collection, more a comment on the aftermath than the causes themselves. Via Instapundit.

"Tone down and cover up"

Female Muslim pop singer,Deeyah faces death threats for daring to speak her mind, and also stripping down from burka to bikini in a recent music video, "What Will It Be". This video also shows several men and women with tape over their mouths, a pointed criticism at some repressive trends in many Islamic countries. Forced to leave Norway, where she was born to immigrant parents and started her musical career, she moved to London. There she now experiences the same death threats that forced her to leave the so-called liberal Norway. This FreeMuse site has some interesting articles on women and music censorship, in particular this one, which also can be downloaded as a PDF. View Deeyah's video at this page. Not my kind of music, but still a great statement for the right to free speech and free expression.

One billion statements of apathy

My long delayed (and brief) response to this story about the apathy of the "download generation" falls on the eve of Apple Computer's announcement that it's sold one billion songs through iTunes. I'm sure they count album tracks individually if sold as such, but I think that's one statement against the study itself. I personally feel the opposite. The ability to download music, to locate tunes not available in record stores, or available at excessive prices at these stores or online at Amazon, has opened up my appreciation for modern music once more.

The survey states (among other things) that "easily accessed tunes mean many music lovers are no longer excited at discovering and playing unfamiliar work." Surely the surveyors have no idea what it means to seek out information. Via iTunes streaming at work, or simply browsing artists and songs and sampling these online, I have discovered a host of artists and records that I never would have found in a regular chain music store. When I attended college in the early 1990s, there was an independent music store near campus. A great place to find unusual stuff. It faded out a few years ago. My tastes in modern music (setting aside classical and jazz for now) veer slightly off the beaten track. I stopped listening to radio years ago, because they played the same few songs every day, and I rarely liked those songs then, let alone now. If not for the download option, I never would have heard of Trespassers William, Devics, Sigur Ros, The Album Leaf, to name a few. I now thrill to discover new music, whereas a few years ago I gave up altogether and focused only on adding to my classical and jazz libraries. With iTunes I can collect the entire Devics discography for under $50 (currently my latest 'new find' band), whereas one early record costs nearly the same amount from Amazon, and cannot be found in chain record stores. CD prices also prevented me from buying much music. A current copy of Harold Budd's minimalist piano recordings costs twice the iTunes price as CD.

No recorded state is safe forever. Digital copies can get lost, but CDs only have a few years of life anyway. Contrary to the people studied, music remains "life-changing and special" to me, and that's due to the birth of download options. One billions downloads later, apathy as a definition now needs to be re-written. The hell with that study.

One billion statements of apathy

My long delayed (and brief) response to this story about the apathy of the "download generation" falls on the eve of
No recorded state is safe forever. Digital copies can get lost, but CDs only have a few years of life anyway. Contrary to the people studied, music remains "life-changing and special" to me, and that's due to the birth of download options. One billions downloads later, apathy as a definition now needs to be re-written. The hell with that study.

My peeps

Can't say I was too surprised...


Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in?
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Political Quiz

Not quite your World's Smallest Political Quiz, but rather a satirical quiz to see whether you fall into conservative, liberal, libertarian, or communist camps, with a twist. Don Hagen's Satirical Political Beliefs Assessment Test pokes fun at all four groups. I found myself mostly in the "Antigovernment Libertine" group, though I wasn't sure about #2, and disagreed with the premises for question #10, and too many questions dealt about voting (for this avowed non-voter, at least). Aside from those issues, reading most the answers were a blast, though at times the humor wandered away in the libertarian answers, replaced by what seemed like normal libertarian party platform statements. Total number of questions approaches 200, so some patience is required if you want to read them all.

LibriVox

Listened to NPR's The World while driving home tonight and heard an interesting report about LibriVox . The site is a joint effort of volunteers around the world who record chapters of the books in the public domain. The audio files then are published, and can be downloaded or subscribed to as podcasts via iTunes. I plan on making full use of this site, and may even volunteer to read some chapters. I can't say I've listened to that many audio books, but my listening habits while driving to work change all the time, and I might give this a shot.