February 2008 – Page 3 – John Joseph Adams

Archive for February, 2008

(In)famous Teetotalers

I was just googling the word "teetotaler" because I was curious about its origin, and since I am one, I figured I should know where the term came from. Wikipedia says:

One anecdote attributes the origin of the word to a meeting of the Preston Temperance Society in 1832 or 1833. This society was founded by Joseph Livesey, who was to become a leader of the temperance movement and the author of The Pledge: "We agree to abstain from all liquors of an intoxicating quality whether ale, porter, wine or ardent spirits, except as medicine." The story attributes the word to Dicky Turner, a member of the society, who had a stammer, and in a speech said that nothing would do but "tee-tee-total abstinence".

A more likely explanation is that teetotal is simply a repetition of the ‘T’ in total (T-total). It is said that as early as 1827 in some Temperance Societies signing a ‘T’ after one’s name signified one’s pledge for total abstinence.

So I thought, hrm, okay, then scrolled down to see what else was in the entry. Included was a link to a list of famous teetotalers, so I clicked over to see who they listed. Before doing so, I was thinking, "Hey, wouldn’t it be funny if John or John Quincy Adams was a teetotaler?" Well, turns out there was a famous–or perhaps I should say infamous (and I don’t mean that in the Three Amigos sense)–John Adams who was a teetotaler: John Bodkin Adams, who was apparently a British suspected serial killer. Creepy. Team JA loses a point there.

Update: I emailed word of this discovery to my Facebook Doppelganger, and he pointed out that Bodkin died on the 4th of July–the same day that President John Adams died. Hrm. Guess I should dread each passing Independence Day, since that’s apparently when John Adamses die.

Booklist reviews Wastelands

Booklist, one of the publishing industry’s top trade journals, has reviewed Wastelands. Here’s a snippet: "With this well-chosen set of post-apocalyptic stories, editor Adams provides a bit of everything that is best about the trope, from bleak, empty worlds to beacons of hope in an otherwise awful situation. […] A well-chosen selection of well-crafted stories, offering something to please nearly every post-apocalyptic palate."

In addition to the overall praise given to the book, the reviewer singles out the stories by Jerry Oltion, Stephen King, John Langan, Octavia Bulter, and Elizabeth Bear. You can read the whole review on Booklist Online (free registration required).

Listen: Instead of a Loving Heart

My pal Jeremiah Tolbert has a story up at Escape Pod this week:

EP145: Instead of a Loving Heart

Published by SFEley on 14 Feb 2008 at 6:32 am. 1 Comment.
Filed under Podcasts, Rated PG.

By Jeremiah Tolbert.
Read by Jared Axelrod (of The Voice of Free Planet X).
First appeared in All-Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories (ed. David Moles & Jay Lake).

We are somewhere among the tallest mountains of the world. When we arrived, I was locked away in a cargo hold, so I don’t know exactly where. Our home is a small, drafty castle and a separate laboratory. Dr. Octavio had the locals construct the lab before he tested the new death ray on their village. There’s very little left there. In my little bit of spare time, I try to bury the bodies and collect anything useful to the doctor’s experiment.

My primary duties consist of keeping the castle’s furnace running and clearing the never-ending snow from the path between the two buildings. Sometimes, it falls too fast for my slow treads and shovel attachment to keep up with and I find myself half-buried in the snow. It is horrible on my gears when this happens, but I use heavyweight oil now and it helps.

It is one of the few benefits of my metal frame that I appreciate. Life in this contraption is like being wrapped in swaddling clothes. I wonder if I would feel anything if my casing caught on fire? I need to ask the doctor when he isn’t in one of his moods.

Go check it out!

SCI FI Wire | North Examines New Ice Age

(tags: SCIFI BoomComics)

A not-so unexpected error has occurred

Grr, MySpace! I mean, thanks for the Featured Books plug, but gods, man–I almost never try to post a blog over there, and when I do I keep getting unexpected errors!

Wastelands on MySpace Books

More Wastelands coverage! The anthology is currently a "Featured Book" on MySpace Books. Here’s a snippet: "Adams is a writer, editor, and, judging from his book’s extensive bibliography for further reading, human encyclopedia when it comes to post-apocalyptic fiction. The compulsively readable stories he’s chosen for Wastelands will appeal not only to hard-core fans of science fiction but also to anyone who enjoyed recent movies like Cloverfield, I Am Legend, 28 Days Later, or Children of Men or Cormac McCarthy’s bestselling post-apocalyptic novel The Road."

MySpace Books also lists an average user rating for their featured books. Wastelands currently has a 90.9% rating. Drop by, post a comment, and give it a thumbs up!

Books Received

Season of the Witch (trade paperback)
Author: Natasha Mostert

Book Description: Gabriel Blackstone is an unscrupulous hacker and unrepentant "remote viewer" who can’t resist his ex-lover’s request to look into her stepson’s disappearance. His investigation leads him to a rambling Victorian home that bewitches him-as do its beautiful, enigmatic owners, the Monk sisters. The pair are solar witches, obsessed with alchemy and the Art of Memory, a practice invented by the ancient Greeks. | With his uneasy suspicion that one of the sisters is a killer, Gabriel sets out to determine which. But the more entangled in the case he becomes, the more deeply he is drawn into the sisters’ entrancing world-losing hold of reality even as he falls into mortal danger…

Null-A Continuum (ARC)
Author: John C. Wright

Book Description: Grandmaster A. E. van Vogt was one of the giants of the Golden Age of classic SF, the 1940s. Of his masterpieces, The World of Null-A is perhaps most influential. It was the first major trade SF hardcover ever, in 1949, and has been in print ever since. The careers of Philip K. Dick, Keith Laumer, Alfred Bester, Charles Harness, and Philip Jose Farmer were created or influenced by The World of Null-A. It is required reading for anyone who wishes to know the canon of SF classics.And so John C. Wright was inspired to write a sequel to the two novels of Null-A (the second was The Players of Null-A). To do this, he trained himself to write in the pulp style and manner of van Vogt. So return again to the Null-A future, in which the man with two brains, Gilbert Gosseyn, now discovers his third brain and travels through heretofore unimaginable distances in space and in time to fend off the death of the Universe and the extermination of human life as humanity reaches the peak of evolution millions of years in the future.

Darkside (hardcover)
Author: Tom Becker

Book Description: Jonathan Starling’s home has been attacked, his dad is in an asylum, he’s running for his life, and there’s nowhere to hide. Jonathan has stumbled upon London’s greatest secret: Darkside. Incredibly dangerous and unimaginably exciting, Darkside is the creepiest place Jonathan has ever seen. It’s a world of nightmares and secrets, where fear and evil rule, and Jonathan has to find a way out…. | Since Tom Becker learned to hold a pen, he wanted to become a writer. In fact, when he was five years old, he wrote in a notebook that it was his dream was to be an author. Tom studied History at Oxford University and was inspired by the otherworldly atmosphere of this academic institution. He used to spend long days studying and reading in the University library, but now he spends long days writing.

Runemarks (hardcover)
Author: Joanne Harris

Book Description: Seven o’clock on a Monday morning, five hundred years after the end of the world, and goblins had been at the cellar again. . . . Not that anyone would admit it was goblins. In Maddy Smith’s world, order rules. Chaos, old gods, fairies, goblins, magic, glamours–all of these were supposedly vanquished centuries ago. But Maddy knows that a small bit of magic has survived. The “ruinmark” she was born with on her palm proves it–and makes the other villagers fearful that she is a witch (though helpful in dealing with the goblins-in-the-cellar problem). But the mysterious traveler One-Eye sees Maddy’s mark not as a defect, but as a destiny. And Maddy will need every scrap of forbidden magic One-Eye can teach her if she is to survive that destiny.

Empress (ARC)
Author: Karen Miller

Book Description: In a family torn apart by poverty and violence, Hekat is no more than an unwanted mouth to feed, worth only a few coins from a passing slave trader. But Hekat was not born to be a slave. For her, a different path has been chosen. It is a path that will take her from stinking back alleys to the house of her God, from blood-drenched battlefields to the glittering palaces of Mijak.This is the story of Hekat, precious and beautiful.

The Journal of Curious Letters (ARC)
Author: James Dashner

Book Description: What if every time you made a choice that had a significant consequence, a new, alternate reality was created–the life that would’ve been had you made the other choice? What if those new realities were in danger? What if it fell to you to save all the realities? Atticus Higginbottom, a.k.a. Tick, is an average thirteen-year-old boy until the day a strange letter arrives in his mailbox. Postmarked from Alaska and cryptically signed with the initials "M.G.," the letter informs Tick that dangerous–perhaps even deadly–events have been set in motion that could result in the destruction of reality itself. M.G. promises to send Tick twelve riddles that will reveal on a certain day, at a certain time, at a certain place, something extraordinary will happen. Will Tick have the courage to follow the twelve clues M.G. sends to him? Will he be able to solve the riddles in time? Will Tick discover the life he was meant to live? The first volume of an outstanding new children’s fantasy series, The Journal of Curious Letters is filled with adventure, humor, riddles, and, oh, yes–danger… As M.G. warns Tick, Very frightening things are coming your way. Will you join Tick and his friends on an amazing journey through the Realities? What will your choice be?

Blood Ties (ARC)
Author: Pamela Freeman

Book Description: A thousand years ago, the Eleven Domains were invaded and the original inhabitants forced on the road as Travelers, belonging nowhere, welcomed by no-one. Now the Domains are governed with an iron fist by the Warlords, but there are wilder elements to the landscape which cannot be controlled and which may prove their undoing. Some are spirits of place, of water and air and fire and earth. Some are greater than these. And some are human.Bramble: a village girl, whom no-one living can tame … forced to flee from her home for a crime she did not commit. Ash: apprentice to a safeguarder, forced to kill for an employer he cannot escape. Saker: an enchanter, who will not rest until the land is returned to his people. As their three stories unfold, along with the stories of those whose lives they touch, it becomes clear that they are bound together in ways that not even a stonecaster could foresee – bound by their past, their future, and their blood.

The Lefty Flip

Speaking of Guitar Hero, it’s about time for another progress report. I’m no longer the sniveling wuss I once was, complaining about not being able to hit the blue button. These days I’m fighting to hit that damn orange button, but I mostly manage.

I was feeling pretty proud of myself, having received my first five-star review on Hard, after playing "Bulls on Parade" (for the first time on Hard), but then I ran into Ling on AIM, and she was bragging about, like being good at GH on Expert. I haven’t even tried it on Expert yet, except to try the Dragonforce song, which is so hard, the loading screen simply says "Good luck" before you attempt it. I’m proud to say that I made it 1% into the song before failing. If you really want to feel bad for yourself, check out this nine-year-old kid playing it on Expert nearly perfectly.

So, I’ve mentioned before that I’m obsessed with this game. I’ve got all four of them, and progressed through all of them on Medium, and have now started to play them on Hard. I can get a five-star rating on pretty much every song on Medium (well, not the Dragonforce song), but on Hard I’m mostly getting three-star reviews, though I’ve only just started.

Because I’ve been playing the game so much, and because I’m like old and decrepit and stuff, my fingers started to get really sore–especially my pinky, which kind of felt like it had been slammed in a door or something. Resting my hand didn’t seem to do much, but I couldn’t rest it much anyway, because I couldn’t resist the siren call of the game. So to rest my fret-hand, I taught myself how to play GH lefty.

Did I mention I’m obsessed?

I’ll say one thing about playing it lefty — the guitar designers really didn’t think that whole thing through there. When you play lefty, you can’t use the neck strap, which is annoying, but more importantly, using the whammy bar is almost impossible.

No One’s Going to Take Me Alive

Check out this uber-cool video for Muse’s "Knights of Cydonia."

I’ve become a bit obsessed with this band since discovering them on Guitar Hero III. And this video’s got it all–it’s a pleasing mash-up of kung-fu, SF, fantasy, and western tropes. It’s got cowboys, laser guns, robots, a unicorn…What more could you ask for? (Okay, well, it would be cool if it all made sense somehow, but come on! It’s a music video!)

SCI FI Wire | Victory Wraps Vatta Series

(tags: SCIFI DelRey)

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