newnumber6

Apparently it's a Banksapalooza!

Finished: The State of the Art, by Iain M. Banks (short story collection)

Thoughts in the cut, not especially spoilery.
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Apparently Paul Cornell (Doctor Who writer and writer of the excellent but now cancelled Captain Britain and MI13 comic) did a radio adaptation of the title story. I might have to track it down just to see what he did with it.

Started and Finished: Feersum Endjinn, by Iain M. Banks.
Started: Inversions, by Iain M. Banks

Minor plot-outline related spoilers beyond the cuts, but nothing extensive. ( Read more... )
Those of you who've read some Banks may have noticed a particular tendency of his. He likes to construct elaborate, creative methods of execution and/or torture. For those of you who wonder if this is reflective of a certain sadistic streak of Banks himself may find their best evidence here. ( Read more... )

Finished: The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks
Started: Against a Dark Background, by Iain M. Banks

Again, plot-outline-style spoilers behind cut. Short version: Bored at times, maybe a bit overlong, but some interesting ideas. Not my favorite of his, but worth a read if you like his other stuff.
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Panel report on the Dr. Horrible Panel at Comicon, linked because, really, any panel with Fillion and Whedon is hilarious even if you're just reading their banter second hand and not hearing it. (Plus, more details than you probably wanted to know about "The Hammer", and how to apply to join the Evil League of Evil and be on the DVD)

Review on the latest Stargate Atlantis episode, "Broken Ties". Some spoilers. Overall.. a bit meh. Boring plot and one thing that really annoyed me. ( Read more... )

I also finally tracked down a torrent for Livewires, one of the entries from Marvel's Tsunami imprint (the same one that launched Runaways which... is pretty well the only surviving book of that, I think). I actually was going to buy it but I couldn't find it in my comic store or any bookstores, so I resorted to... magic, to acquire the scans. Ah well, I suppose at this point there was 0 chance my buying it actually affects more Livewires ever being produced. It was fairly enjoyable, actually. Maybe a _little_ too fast paced in terms of plot vs development, and a little too full of gimmicky dialog, but some really cool concepts and ideas explored, and I found myself liking the characters and wanting to see them again. And hey, I love stories dealing with AIs/AI rights and their interactions with humanity, so how did I miss this the first time? (Well, possibly because my love for AIs has grown quite a lot in recent years, and wasn't nearly so high when it came out). Plus, it's got me plotting Livewires/Runaways crossover fic in my head.

Sweet, someone uploaded more Prisoners of Gravity. Okay, only one more ep, but it's a start. Wonder if my praise of the previous ones had something to do with it.

And it's a topic especially near and dear to my heart. Robots and AI! (and it's great because the human host and the AI co-host argue the whole show over which is better Robots or AI)

Links/Interviewee List:

Part One: Gregory Benford (writer of Great Sky River, on Robots vs AI), Nancy Kress, George Zebrowski, Douglas Adams (writer of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on Marvin the Paranoid Android)
Part Two: a young Frank (WHORES!) Miller (on Robocop), Robert J. Sawyer (on AIs in Golden Fleece, whether and how AIs think, biological chauvenism), Donald Kingsbury (author Courtship Rights, on the speed and miniturization ability of AIs), Gregory Benford, George Zebrowski again, Garfield and Judith Reeves-Stevens (ST book authors, on lack of AIs in Star Trek in general and Data)
Part Three: Brian Fawcett (SF critic), Judith Merrill, Gregory Benford again, Pamela Sargent (Behind the Eyes of the Dreamers), Lewis Shiner

In sadder SF news, Arthur C. Clarke is dead.

So, posting a bunch of random stuff again...

Is it just me or does "Vantage Point" look like on of those crappy "go through the same story from different people's points of view" type plots that every TV series in existence eventually does one episode based on the concept if they last long enough. If so, isn't that, as a movie plot, in the 'done to death' category?

Speaking of movies, the more I see commercials for Jumper the more I'm convinced I'm going to be disappointed in how much they changed from the book, to make it worse. It's kinda killed off my interest in seeing it.

It should be come as no surprise to my flist that I'm a man who shuns reality and lives deeply in fantasy. When I'm not watching TV or movies (which are often fantastical or SF in nature), I'm often working out story ideas or SF concepts in my head, or daydreaming around a SFish concept in a Walter Mitty way. These daydreams go back and forth, certain ones repeat every once in a while after a break, sometimes I do several different ones in a day. Lately though I've been stuck on the last man on Earth scenario. ( Read more... )

Looks like the Writer's Strike may be winding down. Yay. Hope it lasts past the initial 'back to work while we vote on the actual deal' and hope it's a good deal for them, since they deserve it. Edit to add: They officially voted to end the strike, at least until they have a chance to review and vote on the deal. So writers are back to work tomorrow.

Speaking of writing, done a writing cycle. Started a new story and managed to finish it... except I hate it. I still like the idea, and maybe one or two of the beats, but I don't like how it turned out and if I want to use it I'll probably have to write it all over again from scratch. And I'm not even sure how I'd start. So, kind of a good news bad news situation. Oh well.

I've been feeling a little iffy for the last week or so. It's odd, sometimes I feel fine, but often at some point during the day I feel dizzy and very very slightly nauseous. It's irritating, but I suppose it's better than being actually sick. Although sometimes I wish sickness would come and get it over with rather than these shadows of it coming and going regularly.

One of the few forums I hang out at closed suddenly. Most of the people knew it was coming (though not quite so suddenly) and so there's a backup getting in place for the people who hang there, but still, end of an era, of sorts.

Doctor Who Fandom Meme/Survey, stolen from locker_monster.. ( Read more... )

Thoughts on yesterday's Terminator, the Sarah Connor Chronicles. Slightly spoilery, also with an answer from one of the producers that some Terminator fans have wondered about since the second episode about a potential 'mistake'. ( Read more... )

Finally to end on a random note completely different from all the rest, I have been craving spiciness lately a lot more than usual (I always enjoy it). Also, I've been craving trying something _different_ than all the usual stuff I try. I am considering getting a bottle of Jerk BBQ sauce when my current BBQ sauce of choice (chipotle) runs out, to perhaps satisfy a little of both at once.

This week I just got one book:

Ultimate X-Men #89 (disappointing conclusion to a long running subplot)

I was considering getting Marvel Holiday Special 2007, but they didn't seem to have any
at my store, so oh well.

Full reviews up as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

Work was okay, relatively early and a little lighter than usual. The walk to the comic store/bookstores and home again was hell though, because of slush. Looked for Xmas gifts, but only bought a couple. Had a few more ideas but need some doing and consultation to make them work.

On the way home, I saw (again), a creepy half-life-size robotic santa singing Christmas carols and dancing robotically. Now, I'm more gung ho about robot and AI rights than anybody, but that thing must be destroyed, because given the chance, it will attempt to kill all of humanity. Mark my words. MARK MY WORDS.

In other news, yesterday I attempted to make Sponge Toffee. By the use of the word 'attempted' you might have some idea of how it turned out. And it wasn't 100% following the recipe either, since I didn't have all of the (admittedly very few) ingredients, so I improvised a bit. Now you might think, 'hey, improvising on your very first try cooking a dish you've only read how to do on the internet, when you have virtually no cooking skills whatsoever, probably isn't the brightest idea in the world.'. And you'd be right. But what you're ignoring is that I am not the brightest guy in the world, and fortune favours the bold, which is my motto despite the fact that I've never been able to apply it to any aspect of my life other than attempted cookery. Actually, the problem (as far as I could see) wasn't anything to do with the improvised ingredient substitutions, which might have affected the flavour but not 'ruined it', the problem was simply that I let it cook a little too long. I suspect I needed to take it off the stove sometime _before_ the smell of burning stuff started (in fairness to me, I was just getting ready to take it off the stove when the burning smell started). So although toffee formed, a burnt flavour permeated it and rendered it ungood, but I think the underlying stuff was okay if you cut out the burned flavour. May have needed to fold in the baking soda a bit more so the spongeness was more even, too. My other motto is of course "if at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.", so I got rid of the sponge toffee and cleaned all my pots before anybody realized I'd cooked (well, okay, there was a bit of smell in the air). Anyway, I may try again with proper ingredients and slightly less cook time because sponge toffee is pretty good and according to the recipe super-easy to make.

Oh, and finally, Happy Eid to all of those on my flist that celebrate it.

The Meme: Comment on this post. I will choose seven interests from your profile and you will explain what they mean and why you are interested in them. Post this along with your answers in your own journal so that others can play along.

donna_c_punk asked me for these:
ai rights: Think I've talked about it a fair bit. I know it's probably silly to think about, since we're really nowhere near it. But one day we probably will have artificial intelligence of some sort. And I am passionately committed to the idea that AIs should have rights. A lot of people seem unreasonably insistent on the idea that machines can't "really" think, and even if they seem to it's just an illusion and they shouldn't be given any rights. My standard response is that I can't be certain that _you_ really think and that it's not just an illusion, but I give you the benefit of the doubt because, if I'm wrong, I've hgiven rights to something that doesn't need them, but if I didn't and I was wrong, I'd have deprived something deserving of rights, and that's not a mistake I'm prepared to make. Also, I'm interested in this theme in fiction a lot, both writing and reading/watching (I root for the Cylons sometimes).
alternate history: One of many fictional themes I enjoy, that of alternate history, the "What if something happened differently...?" Mostly I like it when the alternate world is encountered by people from ours (or one close to ours), rather than just straight-faced alternate history, but I like the latter too. It's one of the things that drew me to Sliders, even though they quickly abandoned the _cool_ uses of the concept, and used it lamely. I was just remarking online recently how I kinda wish they'd do another 'exploring alternate reality' show, but perhaps one where it's not a "lost and trying to find our way home", so you could go more in depth to some of the different realities, and have a home base.
nebula awards: These are the awards given to SF novels, novella, short stories, etc, by the Science Fiction Writers and Editors of America. Mostly it's in my interests because I'm on a quest to read every Hugo or Nebula winning novel (7 or 8 more to go on Nebulas, 1 Hugo). But also, as a writer, I'd like to win one someday. Oh, I know I almost certainly never will, but we've all gotta have dreams.
neverwhere: This was my first exposure to Neil Gaiman (well, to his work at least - I'd seen him dozens of times on a Canadian television show called Prisoners of Gravity)... and although I recognize some of his other works is technically better, Neverwhere remains my favorite. I even went and downloaded the BBC miniseries version of it (which came first). It wasn't as good, but it was fun as well to get some visuals for it. I guess I like the idea of a sort of fantastic world existing in parallel to our own, but that most people don't know, and the idea by walking a specific path in a specific way, you might wind up somewhere you otherwise wouldn't.
racmx: This is an abbreviation for rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks, a USENET group. I used to hang out on it a fair bit, but then my net provider got rid of USENET access, and so my only way there is through Googlegroups now. I hate the interface, so I don't hang out there much, and really should remove the interest, but I'll keep it there out of nostalgia a while longer. A bit sad that USENET is slowly dying.
vernor vinge: Science Fiction author, writer of A Fire Upon the Deep, A Deepness in the Sky, and recent Hugo Winner Rainbows End. One of my favorite authors, does really good with big ideas and cool aliens, and of course is one of the creators/popularizors of the concept of the technological singularity - an event (like true AI or intelligence expansion) that is such a fundamental shift that it's impossible to accurately predict what things'll be like afterwards (because the AIs who run things, or we, will be so much more intelligent), which is a cool SF concept I enjoy.
y: the last man: Comic book by Brian K. Vaughan, creator of Runaways, in which a plague (or something) wipes out every mammal on Earth with a Y chromosone (that is, all males), except for two: 20something slacker Yorick Brown, and his pet monkey. So he goes on a series of quests within quests in this world where all the men are now gone, and the women are carrying on as best they can knowing that they're pretty much the last generation. I'm reading it in trades, and am still a little behind, but I enjoy it. I wouldn't call it one of my absolute favorite comics, but it's right now the only non-superhero one I read, and the only "closed" plotline one (that is, there is a beginning, middle, and end to the plot intended, over the course of 60 issues, rather than being an ongoing series forever), so I figured it merited a spot on my lists.

So, there we go.

Okay, so I've finished and edited (at least to the degree I was able with the time I had) my latest workshop submission, this one involving Public Domain Characters. As is my policy, I've posted it for all. There were two versions - the full version (about 10,000 words), which was the story I wanted to write, and the shorter, condensed version (about a third of that), since the workshop assignment did say to try and keep it brief.

So, here for the first time, Steampunk Allie and the Omniscope (full version)

Steampunk Allie and the Omniscope (reader's digest version).

In other news, silly but vaguely amusing: Calls for Cthulhu.

Edit: Ooh.. the trailer for The Mist is out... Looking relatively faithful to the story from the clips shown.

This was stolen from locker_monster, who did it a while ago...
I have to break it into 3 posts because it's too big for one.

The Work-in-Progress Meme! When you see this, post a little weensy excerpt from as many random works-in-progress as you can find lying around. Who knows? Maybe inspiration will burst forth and do something, um, inspiration-y.

Now, I've got a lot of that, so I limited it to my main writing directory (I do some writing in other places, either accidentally or for some obscure reasons even I'm liable to forget). I also didn't do multiple excerpts from different works that are essentially the same, or anything I considered 'finished' - although I don't count written-but-unedited as 'finished'. Also, pure 'ego writing' (directly writing myself into fictional situations) isn't included, since that was meant for myself with no intention of anyone else ever seeing them. Things which I had written some ideas down but had only done something like a sentence or two of introductory writing that didn't really involve the main plot at all (a surprising number of those) were also not included.

Some of the excerpts are a bit longish, particularly with the older things. I'll include titles of some works, but not all of them. I won't talk about plot much, except for the fanfic stuff. As these are works in progress, sometimes names are simply placeholders.

In this post:
1) Really Old Works (started more than 5 years ago, more often more than 10, even if I may have added more to it recently)
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Next up, Fanfic and Cracky Crossovers

Multiple dreams last night.
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Nice to see a government thinking ahead for a change....

Incidentally, after reading this article I had a whim and did a search, only to discover my livejournal's apparently on the first page of google search results for "AI Rights". Go me, I'm a trailblazer! ;)