A science fiction blog featuring science fiction book reviews and with frequent ramblings on fantasy, computers and the web.
In episode 179 of the SF Signal Podcast, Patrick Hester and Jaym Gates gather a second group of panelists to talk about the past, present and future of Cyberpunk.
In episode 177 of the SF Signal Podcast, Patrick Hester and Jaym Gates gather panelists to talk about the past, present and future of Cyberpunk.
[Do you have an idea for a future Mind Meld? Let us know!]
This week, in time for the change of season, we asked about Winter:
The first novel that leaps to mind is Geraldine McCaughrean’s The White Darkness. It’s a wonderfully bizarre tour de force about a girl, Sym, who is obsessed with all things Antarctic, including her imaginary boyfriend, the deceased Captain Lawrence “Titus” Oates. Her mad “uncle” takes her on a once in a lifetime trip there, which turns out to be a nightmare. He believes in the hollow Earth theory and that they will prove it’s true. Along the way, McCaughrean masterfully reveals more and more about Sym’s own past and her phony uncle. Sym’s voice is arresting despite how very in her own head she is—and it’s perhaps because of how that works with a backdrop that is spectacularly isolated and physically challenging. Some people may argue this isn’t a true fantasy, but I would debate them (citing spoilers), and regardless of which of us won I maintain it’d still be of interest to many genre readers because of the hollow Earth fringe science driving the plot.
We here at SF Signal HQ are pleased to announce that Jaym Gates has joined the ranks SF Signal’s ever-growing blog army!
As is our wont, we asked Jaym to say a little something about herself in the third person. Here’s what she said:
Jaym Gates wears a lot of hats: freelance genre publicist and editor by day, stage manager by night. In the chinks of unoccupied time, she writes, trains horses and collects books in the event of someday having time to read. She can be found on Twitter as @JaymGates, or online at jaymgates.com.
Welcome aboard, Jaym! We’re happy to have you on board. This would normally be the part of the Welcome Post where I blatantly hint at how free bagels go a long way around here. But, given your legendary organziational skills, I trust that the order has already been placed and bagels are on the way! Right? Right? 
Jaym will be reviewing books, beginnning today with this review of Tell Me a Dragon by Jackie Morris.
Meanwhile, please join me in welcoming Jaym to the team!
[Do you have an idea for a future Mind Meld? Let us know!]
One of the hallmarks of genre is the way we distinguish books by means of awards. So we asked this week’s panelists…
Here’s what they said…
I think awards are valuable in two different ways. In the present tense, they can draw attention to books and writers that deserve more attention — as when China Mountain Zhang was nominated for the Hugo. The Philip K. Dick award manages to find something I like and hadn’t noticed pretty much every year. This is good for readers who pay attention to them, and it can be good for a writer’s career — if they get award notice a publisher might decide to stick with them even though they don’t have great sales.
Secondly, they’re valuable as part of the historical memory of the genre — the awards of a year give a kind of snapshot of what people at the time thought was good. They judgements of awards are not always the judgements of posterity — I certainly saw that when I did my Tor.com “Revisiting the Hugos” series and looked at every year from 1953 until 2000. But they remain interesting. And what’s interesting to me isn’t ever the winner, it’s the shortlist. One book is one datapoint, a shortlist is a spread. The question I asked was not “did the best book win” so much as “do those five books give a good picture of where the genre was in that year”.
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In episode 112 of the SF Signal Podcast, Patrick Hester and Jaym Gates (continuing the discussion from Part 1 and Part 2) sit down with a mega panel of authors to discuss modern Sword and Sorcery with the authors who are currently writing it.
In episode 110 of the SF Signal Podcast, Patrick Hester and Jaym Gates (continuing the discussion from Part 1) sit down with a mega panel of authors, editors and artists to discuss Sword and Sorcery for the modern reader.
In episode 108 of the SF Signal Podcast, Patrick Hester and Jaym Gates sit down with a mega panel of authors and editors to discuss Sword and Sorcery for the modern reader.
