Starship Fonzie

  John Scalzi has done it again. In keeping with his general theme of writing novels which are pure, unbridled fun, he's come up with The Kaiju Preservation Society, which has exactly as much zaniness as the title suggests. The main character is Jamie Grey, a person who came up with a brilliant idea for a company and, as a result, got fired. The company went on to make boatloads of dollars off the idea, while Jamie got stuck driving deliveries for Füdmüd - a food delivery company that should remind you of another gig-economy-style service. To add insult to injury, it's a subsidiary of the same company Jamie just got fired from. On a delivery run, Jamie runs into an old friend, and they get to talking. The friend decides to refer Jamie to an opening at the company he works for. What sort of work is it? "You'd be working with very large animals," is all the friend says. After that, Jamie goes through a series of hiring protocols and meets a procession of bureaucrat...

  There was an incident at this year's Nebula Awards, and I didn’t become aware of the situation until Sunday night, May 22 nd , when I got an email from SFWA. Here’s what the email said: Dear Nebula Conference Participants and SFWA Members, We learned yesterday that while participating in the “Romancing Sci-Fi & Fantasy” panel, Mercedes Lackey used a racial slur. First, we apologize to our attendees and the other panelists who were subjected to that slur. We’ve disabled access to the panel to avoid any additional harm being caused. Second, we are immediately removing Mercedes Lackey from the conference and the additional panels she was scheduled for, in accordance with SFWA’s Moderation Policy. The use of a racial slur violates the instruction to “Respect all cultures and communities. Do not make derogatory or offensive statements even as a joke.” That applies to everyone in a SFWA space, at all levels of their career. Third, we will be discussing with the other paneli...