james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-12-21 04:13 pm

Assume the existence of superpowered teens

Can they use their abilities in the course of their mandatory voluntary community service? Or maybe, the question is, how to use them without running into the bar on endangering other people or themselves?
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-12-21 11:02 am

I was today years old

When I discovered Olivia Newton-John's father took Rudolf Hess into custody during World War II.
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-12-21 09:40 am
Entry tags:

This Week's SF news

It turns out if you really want to raise the profile of your writers' union, all you need to do is announce LLM-generated works are eligible for awards, as long as they are not entirely LLM-generated.
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-12-18 08:46 am
Entry tags:

The Merro Tree by Katie Waitman



A determined artist faces potentially lethal criticism.


The Merro Tree by Katie Waitman
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-12-17 02:08 pm
Entry tags:

Bundle of Holding: Tales of the Valiant



The tabletop fantasy roleplaying game from Kobold Press of high adventure in a Labyrinth of infinite worlds, and more.

Bundle of Holding: Tales of the Valiant
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-12-17 10:56 am

Micah Aaron Tajone Kalap Obituary

Micah was a co-worker at the theatre. He was the sort of person who becomes a front of house manager by age 18.

Micah Aaron Tajone Kalap Obituary

As it happens, the bridge nearest the funeral home was just torn down. As a result, access looks like this...



(Buses are even worse)
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-12-17 09:11 am

Princess Jellyfish, volume 1 by Akiko Higashimura



Can a community of otaku save their apartment building from gentrification? Should a community of otaku save their apartment building from gentrification?

Princess Jellyfish, volume 1 by Akiko Higashimura
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-12-16 02:12 pm
Entry tags:

Five Books About Conversing With Animals



How great would it be to talk with animals, through magic or technology or… whatever?

Five Books About Conversing With Animals
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-12-16 08:51 am

Hard Landing by Algis Budrys



Starmen marooned in barbaric America!

Hard Landing by Algis Budrys
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-12-15 02:02 pm
Entry tags:

Bundle of Holding: Traveller Explorations (from 2022) & Traveller Ancients



The TRAVELLER 2022 UPDATE corebook, ALIENS guides, sector sourcebooks, and more.

Bundle of Holding: Traveller Explorations (from 2022)




A high-power 800-page adventure for Mongoose Traveller that uncovers the greatest mysteries of Charted Space

Bundle of Holding: Traveller Ancients
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-12-15 09:33 am

Clarke Award Finalists 2025

2025: Scientists are astonished when the largest ever dinosaur fossil trackway does not lead into the House of Lords, Tate Britain breaks with English tradition by returning looted art, and in a shocking break from centuries of Catholic precedent, the new Pope is a Cubs fan.

Poll #33961 Clarke Award Finalists 2025
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 26


Which 2025 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
1 (3.8%)

Extremophile by Ian Green
0 (0.0%)

Private Rites by Julia Armfield
1 (3.8%)

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
17 (65.4%)

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
15 (57.7%)

Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock by Maud Woolf
0 (0.0%)



Bold for have read, italic for intend to read, underline for never heard of it.

Which 2025 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
Extremophile by Ian Green
Private Rites by Julia Armfield
Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock by Maud Woolf
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-12-14 05:19 pm
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-12-14 09:05 am

200 Significant Science Fiction Books by Women, 1984–2001, by David G. Hartwell

I was a bit surprised to come across this as Hartwell wasn't really the go-to editor where women's SF was concerned. An interesting snapshot of SF in a sixteen-year period. The end is the fall of the American republic. Not sure what was significant about 1984.

Read more... )
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-12-13 07:12 pm

After some digging

I am not aware of any big name authors who got their start with a work published by Baen Books after 2006. If there are recent analogs of Bujold or Weber, I do not know of them.
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-12-13 09:39 am

Huh

So, I asked on Bluesky:

Aside from Larry Correia, are there any big name Baen authors who debuted at Baen, after Jim Baen's death?

(So, Tim Powers wouldn't count because he debuted not at Baen and also long before JB died)


I got three names: Chuck Gannon, Jason Cordova and Mike Kupari. Gannon actually debuted at Baen in 1994 but only two (I think) short pieces, after which there was a long delay until his novels began appearing. I don't know the other two but SF is huge and it's perfectly possible for me to overlook BNAs. Still, granting all three, with LC that makes four... and in 2028, Toni Weisskopf will have been running Baen for as long as Jim Baen did.

This could, of course, be the natural consequence of the Del Monte approach.

[added later]

Del Monte
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-12-12 01:26 pm

Merry Christmas for Poilievre!

I got much better at spelling his name once I realized it contains "lie".

Embattled CPC leader's Christmas card list gets one name shorter.