Starship Fonzie

  When the story surrounding David A. Riley broke, I did my best to research thoroughly, but found very little regarding Riley's opinions over the last 40 years. Nobody, not even the big SF news sources, listed anything contemporary in terms of Riley's behavior. I then used my previous blog post to argue that we were basing too much conclusion on ancient history. But I also left myself a huge asterisk in place in case I was wrong. Well, I was wrong. That asterisk came in handy. If you haven't noticed, I've updated the previous post. I left things intact, but lined-out obvious mistakes and added annotations. That looks shoddy, and I'm embarrassed by it, but I felt that was the most responsible way for me to deal with the situation. But one frustrating thing came up repeatedly from my critics. They kept telling me that the information regarding Mr. Riley was easy to find. Bullshit! It really wasn't. If I could be satisfied with second-hand and third-hand accounts...

***NOTE*** In the research leading up to this article, I missed finding some key recent information which others were kind enough to show me. (Thanks Allyson Bird.) A lot of those other outlets cited something on Tumblr. As it happens, I almost never use Tumblr, and so I couldn't access that source. I've since unlocked my Tumblr account and found the information I should have seen right away. But even then, other helpful links, such as to Mr. Riley's Twitter account, are non-existent. (He may have deleted his Twitter account, I'm not sure.) He does still have a Facebook account. But I will say this in my defense. Examples of Riley's recent misdeeds were NOT, all arguments to the contrary, easy to find! And why not? Because nobody bothered to cite them. I got one recent quote, and that was all. But that was enough. But that one quote was like pulling teeth! It is irresponsible and bullheaded of people to say, "Oh, you should have just Googled it." It wasn...

Few people are as imaginative as Ursula K. Vernon, a.k.a. T. Kingfisher. Her dark fantasy novel, Nettle & Bone, is no exception to this rule. The story opens with a strange event. A dust wife (i.e., witch ) cobbles together the skeleton of a dog out of the bones of many other dogs. Having wired all the bones together, she spells the bones to life and the dog, not realizing it's made up of dead components, bounds away. And that's one of the least strange things that happens in this novel. Marra is a nun who isn't really a nun. That is, she doesn't take her vows. But she is sent to a nunnery, because she's of royal blood, and if her elder sisters die in childbirth, she will need to be a proven virgin in order to be wed to the prince and sire any offspring. Her life seems relatively carefree, until she observes that one sister has already died in childbirth, and the next-eldest sister, the one right ahead of her, keeps herself pregnant to prevent the prince from b...

If you're in a mood to read about nice, friendly monsters instead of brutal, bloodthirsty ones, then Travis Baldree's book Legends & Lattes is for you. It's a very pleasant read, and time well spent. Meet Viv. She's a gigantic orc who has grown tired of pillaging and killing. Her one heart's desire is to hang up her sword for good. And then? Why, she wants to open up a coffee house! Wait, what? You read right. She finds a suitable place in the town of Thune and, with a little help from an industrious hob named Cal (short for Calamity), converts it from a livery stable into a cozy place, complete with kitchen. Then she gets her coffee making machine, and her first shipment of roasted beans. As she constructs her place of business, she meets others who share her dream of self-sufficiency. A succubus named Tandri agrees to be her first employee and, a little awkwardly, possible business partner. A ratkin named Thimble comes on board as a baker, and proves to be a ...

  The word is out that there will be a new convention in Milwaukee, and I'm leading the charge to make it happen. There will be a virtual option, and I've been forewarned by many that having a virtual con is difficult to do concurrently with an in-person con. Still, I've been running hybrid group meetings for three years running. I was one of the online moderators and chat room hosts for Discon III. I have a pretty good idea of what it takes to run an effective hybrid convention. But for all that, I know that my day is coming. When the Milwaukee Falcon finally launches late next year, I'll be putting my limited expertise to the ultimate test. So, when I relate the horrific nightmare that was Pemmi-Con's Virtual Con experience two weekends ago, I know full well that I might be forced to eat my words when it's MY butt in the hot-seat. It's easy to criticize as a fan. But when you're a conrunner, everything looks different, because you know how impossible i...

  When I first dove into Silvia Moreno-Garcia's work, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau , I was convinced that I would be reading a prequel describing something that happened to Doctor Moreau before he came to be on his island - the one described in the original novel by H.G. Wells. But this was not at all the case. This work is a different version of the Moreau mythos, though not necessarily original. Variations on Wells' work have been done before. The classic 1932 film The Island of Lost Souls is one example. Another film made in 1977 starring Burt Lancaster and Michael York brought back the original title, but also introduced the idea that Moreau had a daughter, named Maria, which was something not found in Wells' book. The idea of Moreau having a daughter was revisited in the 1996 remake starring Marlon Brando and David Thewlis. This time, his daughter is named Aissa. That film was also landmark in that it used the modern twist of DNA infusion instead of vivisection to cr...

  Cory Doctorow is hailed as an intellectual, challenging the corporations who chip away at people's rights to own the media and electronics they buy. But he's also quite the fiction writer. Case in point is his 2008 masterpiece, "Little Brother," which may be the best "man in hole" plot I've ever come across. In a classic opening, Marcus Yallow and his teenage hacker friends find themselves on the wrong side of school administration. In Marcus' case, just one more unexcused absence will result in expulsion. Yet he finds himself playing hooky anyway because he and his friends can't resist an alternate reality game that uses cell tower signals in the San Francisco Bay area as targets. They have a run-in with a rival team from a different school who are also playing the same game. And then... The Golden Gate Bridge explodes. It quickly becomes apparent that this is another 9/11 type attack, and the public loses its collective shit. Marcus and his f...