EW’s SCI-FI 101
Entertainment Weekly (Feb. 4, 2005) reviews Old Man’s War by John Scalzi (B+), Cleopatra 7.2 by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (C-), Hammered by Elizabeth Bear (B-), and Coyote Rising by Allen Steele (A-).
Category: GENERAL
This stinks
If any of you can’t wait to get your very own F&SF rejection letters for free, check out eBay: some generous soul is auctioning off an old rejection letter, with the starting bid of just $24.99. Quite a bargain!
Actually, there is a somewhat interesting angle to the item, in that back in the old days, the editors sometimes wrote rejection letters on the back of cover proofs. Upon seeing the item, Gordon remarked “Yeah, instead of using the backs of old cover proofs, I’ve been thinking of using the backs of envelopes, old napkins, discarded review slips.”
In light of our corporate name, Spilogale, I think we should mail dead skunks in lieu of rejection letters. Not only does this reinforce our brand, but it clearly spells out our opinion of the submitted story, namely, that it stinks. In the long run, this would probably be a bit more expensive than reusing random pieces of trash around the office, but it would certainly make quite a statement, and would make for far more interesting eBay auctions in 50 years.
Spilogale, Inc.
Spilogale, Inc. is the publisher of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
The word Spilogale refers to a genus of skunk, to which the eastern spotted skunk (Spilogale putorius) and the pygmy spotted skunk (Spilogale pygmaea) belong.
Message Board
Since the comments on my blog are still down, if you’d like to make comments, go ahead and do so on my message board at the Speculations Rumor Mill.
Save Enterprise?
Another link, but with sufficient commentary by me that I thought this warranted a separate post:
Save Enterprise: Tim Brazeal, founder of Save Enterprise, sent F&SF an impassioned plea for any assistance with his campaign to, as the name of the site suggests, save the show Enterprise from cancellation. Apparently, ratings have climbed this year, but not enough for the head honcho. So hop over there and find out how you can offer your support.
Personally, I’m not entirely convinced Enterprise is worth saving–I had quit watching it at some point during season two I think, then picked up watching it again over the summer since everything else was re-runs. I wouldn’t call it must-see-tv, but there’s precious little SF on tv these days, and it somehow seems important that a show like this be on the air, on a non-cable network. Or am I wrong? Does a bad or mediocre SF show do more harm than good to the genre, or does the very presence of SF on television benefit us all in the long run, no matter the quality of the product? If Enterprise and all shows like it disappeared from the airwaves, would those loyal fans who get their SF fix from tv seek out new media and new forms of entertainment…would they boldly go where no sci-fi fanboys have gone before?
Blackmask Online & An SF Questionaire
A couple of links I wanted to point out:
(1) Blackmask Online: This is a site that provides lots of free public domain ebooks, mostly if not all Project Gutenberg stuff, but they provide them in a variety of user-friendly formats that makes it easy to pop the books right onto your PDA. Project Gutenberg’s files are sometimes formatted strangely, so when you transfer the TXT file it doesn’t display properly on a PDA. Blackmask Online has most of their books available in MS-Reader, Acrobat, Rocket eBook, Zipped format, iSilo, and, my personal favorite: Mobipocket. The Mobipocket editions I downloaded all look to be nicely formatted and excellent reading editions. Blackmask Online also has a number of convenient genre groupings that make browsing easier, including, of course, our friend science fiction.
(2) SF Reading Habits Questionnaire: Farah Mendlesohn, SF critic and editor of the academic journal Foundation, has posted this questionnaire to gather material for a book called, The Inter-Galactic Playground of Children’s Science Fiction to be published by McFarland Press. And hey, she just wants you to talk about your tastes in science fiction; and you do that all the time, even to random strangers, don’t you? So why not help out an academic with her research?
Award-Worthy?
So the Philip K. Dick Award finalists have been announced (for best science fiction paperback original):
Yeah, so, The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad by Minister Faust is on the list. This, the same book that I rated a D- in my Science Fiction Weekly review last year. This is starting to bug me. Not only did I see a ton of positive reviews of this book, but now it’s up for a major award. Yet I do not waver in my conviction; I truly dislike that book, and I’ll defend my opinion of it. Still. Plus, it’s not even science fiction–it’s fantasy, and so shouldn’t even be eligible for this award. But the judges have some leeway apparently as to what they consider “science fiction”; apparently their definition differs greatly from mine (as does their definition of “quality”).
Which is not to dis any of the other titles. The only other one I read was Air by Geoff Ryman, which is brilliant, so I hope that wins. The others might all be equally deserving (though I note that Apocalypse Array also appears to be fantasy…it’s got angels in it).
A Rate Hike to Be Happy About
Yeah yeah, so the MTA is raising the cost of a subway ride again, but good news! F&SF has raised our pay rates a smidgen. We now pay 6-9 cents per word (up from 5-8 cents per word). Huzzah!
Lord, Save Hollywood From Itself…
So I was reading the new issue of Entertainment Weekly the other day. In it, I was reading their article about some forthcoming things, movies, books, etc. In July, it seems, there’s a new movie about clones coming out called The Island, directed by Michael Bay, he of the kinetic action thriller (plot & characterization optional) extravaganza. Mr. Bay is quoted as saying “It’s weird to say it’s a movie about clones. I don’t even like the word clones. It makes it sound really geeky. But the movie’s not geeky in any way.”
Is it just me, or does hearing the director of a SF movie say he thinks the word “clones” makes his clone movie sound “geeky”…well, let’s just say it doesn’t inspire a whole lot of confidence. Not that I had any hope of a Michael Bay movie being good, but, well… can expectations be lowered past rock-bottom?
But anyway, since we’re all geeks here, I’m sure we all know there’s good geeky and there’s bad geeky. And based on Mr. Bay’s quote, one thing’s for sure: his clone movie will be geeky, and in the worst possible way.
January Acquisitions
We’re acquiring stories like mad, mad I tell you! On Thursday, we did the acquisitions for this month. We bought new stuff from: Geoff Ryman, Dale Bailey, Bruce McAllister (2 stories), Harry Turtledove (political satire), Gardner Dozois, Matthew Hughes (a Guth Bandar yarn), and Albert Cowdrey. And to top things off, another new slush survivor: Matthew Corradi.