Starship Fonzie

  Steampunk is as popular now as ever, and so I thought I would take a moment to review one of the more successful steampunk YA series' currently out there. For Steam And Country is the first in a series of several books (book #6 is about to be released, if I recall correctly), and I'll say from the outset that it is rather enjoyable. I had a pleasant time reading it. It is also, however, very formulaic, with a few unique twists thrown in just to make things interesting. Its author, Jon Del Arroz, is not someone whose political opinions I agree with. I also don't agree with his claim that he is the "leading Hispanic voice in science fiction." (That title belongs to Ty Franck, and it isn't even close how much more successful Franck is.) But those disagreements go on the back burner in this post, as I evaluate the story on its own merits. Zaira begins much the way all other "hero's journey" stories begin. She's young (16), self-reliant, lives ...

  It's that time of year again. Time to look at 2022 and decide which books are worth considering for awards. As it happens, I've already missed the deadline for Nebula nominations. But there's plenty of time for the Locus, Hugo, and Dragon awards. Here are my recommendations for Hugo Award nominations. The reader can translate those over to Locus or Dragon as the reader sees fit. Astounding Award: The Astounding Award for Best New Writer is never easy to figure out. There are so many deserving new writers that sneak past one's radar. Nevertheless, a few names stand out. The most obvious one is Sequoia Nagamatsu for her debut novel, How High We Go In The Dark. That novel is popular enough to vie for the Hugo for Best Novel outright, so it certainly puts Nagamatsu on the radar. Next after that is Sunyi Dean for her debut novel The Book Eaters, which has garnered a great deal of praise. Xiran Jay Zhao was already on my radar back in 2022, and this is her final year of...

At the most recent meeting of the Milwaukee Science Fiction League, we discussed what the best items of 2022 were in terms of movies, TV shows, and books. Here's our overall consensus: Best Movies: Everyone agreed, hands down, the best SF movie of 2022 was Everything, Everywhere, All At Once . It was the surprise hit that left everyone satisfied. Other movies generally agreed upon included Jordan Peele's latest oddity, Nope . Recommended as a surprise sleeper hit was The Adam Project , which took a very cliche concept and made a great movie out of it anyway thanks to the interplay between Ryan Reynolds and child actor Walker Scobell. Everyone who saw Avatar: The Way of Water agreed that it was very pretty, but dull. It was also generally agreed that this year's blockbusters, with the exception of Wakanda Forever , had great special effects, but were otherwise disappointing. These included Thor: Love and Thunder , Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness , and Jurassic World: ...

  Time to go over this year's Hugo winners, and see how well I did on my recommends list. I did okay for the major winners, but ended up well off the mark otherwise. A particularly stunning bit of information came from Kat Jones who, during the awards ceremony, informed the audience that during the nomination stage, the final slot was decided by only 1 or 2 votes in 11 out of 17 categories! People's votes really do count for the Hugo awards. And I get the impression that the final votes were just as narrow, based on how (to my eye) unpredictable they were. I should have been there in person this year. I had my membership purchased, plans made, itinerary set... and then tested positive for Covid the Wednesday evening before con. Damn! You can bet your bottom dollar that I'm going to be pining over this loss for many years to come. Best Novel: My pick: A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine Winner: A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine This one I got exactly rig...

  Once again, it's time to give my list of recommendations for the Hugo Awards. Finalists were announced back on April 7th. The Hugo Awards Packet was issued by Chicon 8 on  This has been an odd year. The previous awards ceremony was only last December, so it doesn't feel like we've had all that much time to read anything. But here we are, and we have until the 11th to vote. So here are my picks: Best Novel *A Desolation Called Peace, by Arkady Martine (Tor) The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, by Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager / Hodder & Stoughton) Light From Uncommon Stars, by Ryka Aoki (Tor / St Martin’s Press) A Master of Djinn, by P. Djèlí Clark (Tordotcom / Orbit UK) Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir (Ballantine / Del Rey) She Who Became the Sun, by Shelley Parker-Chan (Tor / Mantle) A fascinating array of great sci fi novels makes up this year's finalists. I've spoken very strongly in favor of Project Hail Mary in the past. It deserved to be a finalist, and i...

  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...