[Do you have an idea for a future Mind Meld? Let us know!]

We asked this week’s panelists…

Here’s what they said…

When I think of a great novel about a revolution I think immediately of Harry Harrison’s To the Stars trilogy, which I first read in an SF Book Club omnibus decades ago and which I’ve unhesitatingly recommended over the years to authors who want to write great action SF. Revolutions are a serious business, and they often don’t turn out as planned. We can see that today in looking at what’s happened in Egypt over the past year, as one example where the initial joy and excitement of overthrow gives way to the counterrevolution and the difficulties of switching from a revolutionary mindset to one where compromise might need to be made in taking actual power in society. But there is that joy. There are the people who have to plot a revolution and stay one step ahead of the established tyranny. There are the people who have to be the foot soldiers, perhaps risking all including their lives to fight for what they believe in. That’s what a certain kind of fiction is about, people striving against impossible odds to do what everyone says could never be done. And yes, when you do it, there is a moment of real joy and real elation and real happiness, however short that moment may be. Harrison’s To The Stars trilogy may be heavy on the romance of it all, it is a quick action sf read, but should we object in our fiction to getting to experience the romance of it all without having to worry about the reality, for a few passing hours at least?

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Science fiction fans love new gadgets. The most recently hyped gadget is the Apple iPad. Sure, it’s sexy, but like any gadget, it has its pros and cons.

We asked this week’s panelists:

Here’s what they said.

Full disclosure: my brother works on the iPad. Which doesn’t give me any special insights or advantages — I spent a year and a half not knowing what his job was, just that he’d been moved to a new team at Apple, before they announced the thing publicly — but if you want to read bias into this, go ahead.

I don’t own an iPad, and am not likely to buy one any time soon, for a variety of reasons: cost paired with lack of immediate pressing need, caution regarding the first generation of *anything*, etc. Having said that, when I saw the specs of the iPad, I admit it looked attractive, for two reasons.

Weight/size and battery life…

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This week’s Mind Meld topic was suggested by John Klima. We asked this week’s panelists (including John):

Here’s what they said…

Gene Wolfe’s Wizard-Knight. As far as I am concerned this was like reading C.S.Lewis writing Conan the Barbarian. I was mostly repulsed by the ethics, and while I quite understand that this was meant to be a juvenile wet dream of muscular morality, that doesn’t mean I need to read it. The frightening thing was that when I presented this analysis to several well known critics, they agreed with me, and then went on to explain why it was a work of genius.

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“Best of the Year” lists start appearing as early as November, so we are perhaps a little late in asking folks around the community:

[Also added was this note: They don't have to have been released in 2009. Feel free to choose any combination of genres (science fiction/fantasy/horror) and media (books/movies/shows) you wish to include.]

Read on to see their picks (and also check out Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3)…

I was totally blown away by Robert Charles Wilson’s book Julian Comstock, which is about a post-peak-oil future in which Canada and the USA are ruled by a totalitarian family of religious fanatics, and the black sheep scion of a discredited branch of the family wants to–

Well, make movies, actually.

Other than that, my genre reading has been kind of sparse this year. I very much enjoyed Nisi Shawl’s Filter House and Christopher Barzak’s The Love We Share Without Knowing. I also like Margaret Ronald’s Spiral Hunt, which is light but satisfying

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• The super-reclusive (and pseudonymous) John Twelve Hawks needs your help to represent him at book readings for his latest book, The Golden City.
• @Marooned: “Science fiction authors Michael Chabon, Cory Doctorow and Annalee Newitz have joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF) written legal objection to privacy flaws in the proposed $125 million Google Book Search settlement. “
• Michael Cassutt explains why sci-fi writers are so damn gloomy.
• The Edgar Allan Poe Digital Collection: “This digital archive was launched to accompany the 2009 Poe Bicentennial exhibition…” [via Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine]
• Jay Garmon knows how to save sci-fi short fiction.
• @Apex: Building in the Dark When Science Fiction Meets Horror in World-building by Monica Valentinelli: “Whether you enjoy reading, writing or watching dark science fiction, the keys to world building in the genre are sandwiched between believability and causality.”
• Finally…an explanation! Presenting the Dweeb/Geek/Dork/Nerd Venn Diagram.
• Speaking of diagrams, MentatJack offers Science Fiction plotted versus Vampires
• Lists:
  • @AMC’s Future of Classic: Tim Burton’s Most Beautiful Freaks.
  • @BestScienceFictionStories.com: 6 Science Fiction Stories That Include Difficult Alien Languages
  • @We Are Movie Geeks: Top Ten Animated Science Fiction Films.
  • Josh Vogt lists 10 speculative fiction conventions to attend.