Starship Fonzie

It's time to list out nomination recommendations for each category for the Hugos. I'm a little late in doing so this year because I'm way behind in my short story reading, and that's not likely to change very soon. As always, I reserve the right to change my mind. So, with that asterisk clearly marked, here are my recommendations for this year: Astounding Award for Best New Writer The one name on this list that truly leaps out at me is Ai Jiang. Her book, "I Am Ai," was a prototypical cyberpunk novelette that really impressed me. She's already won the Ignyte Award for her poetry, and been nominated for a Nebula Award and a Locus Award. Naseem Jamnia is also a name which stands out, and who I've mentioned before. Her book The Bruising of Quilwa was a huge hit with critics. Other writers that stand out for me include Victor Forna , who has an impressive list of writing credits, Thea Guanzon whose novel The Hurricane Wars is a New York Times Bestsell...

So much fantasy is a re-hashing of old ideas, it's rare to come across a book featuring something new and exciting. But R.F. Kuang's masterful book Babel does just that. It tells an amazing story set in an alternate universe version of Oxford, England, where colonialism reigns supreme, and magic is wielded through the power of silver. Set in the 1830's, the story begins with a small boy living in the inner streets of Canton. His mother has died of Cholera, and he, himself is slowly dying of that same ailment. When a mysterious Englishman arrives on the scene and finds that the boy is still barely alive, he uses an enchanted bar of silver to cure his disease and revive him. Because the boy had an English nanny, he was able to speak both English and Cantonese, and with this talent, the strange Englishman, named Professor Lovell, offers to take him to England and tutor him in the ways of translation. At Lovell's insistence, the boy abandons his Chinese name and adopts a ne...

To help facilitate the Starship Fonzie podcast for the hearing impaired, I'm going to begin posting transcripts of the cast onto this blog. I pre-script all my episodes anyway, so this shouldn't be too difficult. Here you are, enjoy! _______________ Greetings, all my fellow Milwookies, homo-sapiens, and all other sentient lifeforms of the Planet Earth. This is Starship Fonzie, the official podcast of the Milwaukee Science Fiction and Fantasy League. I’m your host, Eric J. Hildeman, and we’re going to let you know what’s going on in the world of sci fi in Milwaukee, and in the SFF world generally. This podcast is being pre-recorded live from the hidden lair of Master Chief 117 who is currently trying to track down Dr. Halsey. Actually, it's coming to you from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, or as Chicago is coming to call it, that city just to the north where that one guy has this crazy idea about starting a new convention. Yeah, that place. Welcome to the 36th episode of Starship Fon...

Here's the formula: Take one part Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern , add the deadliness of Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games , and incorporate the coming of age drama of Harry Potter after book #5, or so. That's the recipe for Rebecca Yaros' novel Fourth Wing , a book that is so cliché that I'm stunned to find it featured in every book store's main kiosk. Its problems are numerous, its plot structure is derivative, its characters are unbelievable, and its setting is downright impossible. Violet Sorrengail is best suited to be a scribe. In fact, she tells us early on in the story that she would be much happier as a scribe. But her mother is a dragon rider, as is her sister. So, to continue the Sorrengail family tradition, Violet must go to dragonrider school instead of the Scribe Academy. Does she stand up for herself? No. Does she assert her wishes? No. She gets "voluntold," and not only goes right along with it, but does so with such gusto an...