sigmonster | Reading

I've not been out this late since Gideon was born, but when my music-obsessive photographer friend Kenny told me I had to come see Fantastic Negrito at the Fringe I decided to make an exception.

The support band (Megan Black) was better than most support acts. The main act, on the other hand, is just, well, fantastic. Maybe even worth missing the kids bedtime for.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

james_davis_nicoll

Sometimes organ donation is voluntary. Sometimes, people (or aliens) just take what they want.

Five SF Works About Repurposing Organs and Other Body Parts

james_davis_nicoll

A two-volume look at a prominent 20th century SF author.

Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century by William H. Patterson

james_davis_nicoll

An assortment of tabletop roleplaying games from Gallant Knight Games that use the streamlined, minimalist TinyD6 rules.

Bundle of Holding: Tiny Dungeon MEGA (from 2023)

james_davis_nicoll

2010: Cadbury falls into shadow, electoral loss sends the Labour Party off on a delightful journey of reinvention, and millions of travelers spontaneously learn how to spell Eyjafjallajökull.

Poll #33506 Clarke Award Finalists 2010

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 31

View Respondents

Which 2010 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

The City & The City by China Miéville
31 (100.0%)

Far North by Marcel Theroux
0 (0.0%)

Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson
6 (19.4%)

Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding
2 (6.5%)

Spirit or The Princess of Bois Dormant by Gwyneth Jones
0 (0.0%)

Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts
2 (6.5%)

Bold for have read, italic for intend to read, underline for never heard of it.

Which 2010 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
The City & The City by China Miéville
Far North by Marcel Theroux
Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson
Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding
Spirit or The Princess of Bois Dormant by Gwyneth Jones
Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts

james_davis_nicoll

Cut for size
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james_davis_nicoll

The 2025 Hugo, Lodestar, and Astounding Awards Winners are as follows

Best Novel: The Tainted Cup, Robert Jackson Bennett

Best Novella: The Tusks of Extinction, Ray Nayler

Best Novelette:"The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea”, Naomi Kritzer

Best Short Story: “Stitched to Skin Like Family Is”, Nghi Vo

Best Series: Between Earth and Sky, Rebecca Roanhorse

Best Graphic Story or Comic: Star Trek: Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way, written by Ryan North, art by Chris Fenoglio

Best Related Work: Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right, Jordan S. Carroll

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: Dune: Part Two, screenplay by Denis Villeneuve & Jon Spaihts, directed by Denis Villeneuve

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Star Trek: Lower Decks: “The New Next Generation”, created and written by Mike McMahan, based on Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry, directed by Megan Lloyd

Best Game or Interactive Work: Caves of Qud, co-creators Brian Bucklew & Jason Grinblat; contributors Nick DeCapua, Corey Frang, Craig Hamilton, Autumn McDonell, Bastia Rosen, Caelyn Sandel, Samuel Wilson (Freehold Games); sound design A Shell in the Pit

Best Editor, Short Form:Neil Clarke

Best Editor, Long Form: Diana M. Pho

Best Professional Artist: Alyssa Winans

Best Semiprozine: Uncanny, publishers and editors-in-chief Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas; managing editor Monte Lin; poetry editor Betsy Aoki, podcast producers Erika Ensign & Steven Schapansky

Best Fanzine: Black Nerd Problems, editors William Evans & Omar Holmon

Best Fancast: Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones, presented by Emily Tesh & Rebecca Fraimow

Best Fan Writer: Abigail Nussbaum

Best Fan Artist: Sara Felix

Best Poem: “A War of Words”, Marie Brennan

Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book: Sheine Lende, Darcie Little Badger

Astounding Award for Best New Writer: Moniquill Blackgoose

andrewducker

The Flying Bubble Show was great fun. Kids thoroughly entertained.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

james_davis_nicoll

I found a new gumbo of eccentricity.

james_davis_nicoll

Jim Baen's version of a single perfect issue of Baen-era Galaxy.

Galaxy: The Best of My Years by Jim Baen

james_davis_nicoll

Ten books new to me: five fantasy, two mysteries, and three science fiction novels. Four are series books and the other six seem to be stand-alone.

Books Received, August 9 — August 15

Poll #33494 Books Received, August 9 - August 15

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 50

View Respondents

Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

Love Binds by Cynthia St. Aubin (December 2024
4 (8.0%)

Druid Cursed by C. J. Burright (October 2025)
3 (6.0%)

Hell’s Heart by Alexis Hall (March 2026)
11 (22.0%)

The Quiet Mother by Arnaldur Indridason (December 2025)
9 (18.0%)

Dark Matter by Kathe Koja (December 2025)
10 (20.0%)

Butterfly Effects by Seanan McGuire (March 2026)
14 (28.0%)

How to Get Away With Murder by Rebecca Philipson (February 2026)
7 (14.0%)

Cabaret in Flames by Hache Pueyo (March 2026)
5 (10.0%)

The Entanglement of Rival Wizards by Sara Raasch (August 2025)
11 (22.0%)

What We Are Seeking by Cameron Reed (April 2026)
22 (44.0%)

Some other option (see comments)
0 (0.0%)

Cats!
32 (64.0%)

andrewducker

1. This is how the Swiss would have done HS2: (tags:Switzerland infrastructure hs2 investment )
2. The ease of collective action induces more egalitarian behavior by individuals in a position of power and makes those without power less willing to accept unfairness.: (tags:unions community society equality power psychology )
3. Meta appoints anti-LGBTQ+ figure Robby Starbuck as AI bias advisor: (tags:facebook bigotry lgbt )
4. Photos: Wildfires Rage Across Southern Europe (CW: burned animal about 20 pictures down): (tags:fire europe photos )
5. Are you ready for polyaninmosity in your life?: (tags:polyamory satire video funny )
6. There's something I love about stories that take a very simple concept and push it a far as they can: (tags:scifi video fiction short_story )
7. Sauron the Economist: (tags:lotr comic economics funny )
8. Chinese economists recruit Ray Dalio and MMT in their battle over deficit spending: (tags:economics china )
9. The Electric Fence Stopped Working Years Ago - A metaphor for friendship: (tags:advice friendship )
10. Once Again, Oil States Thwart Agreement on Plastics: (tags:plastic pollution doom diplomacy )

james_davis_nicoll

will feature an idealistic would-be knight, an idealistic but extremely cynical town watch member, a 600-year-old wood elf who has a little magic and is terrible keen on progress as it applies to firearms, and an artisan who adheres to most dwarven stereotypes but is in fact a short human.

The knight is the only one who can read, and the elf is their best medic, in the sense they have a 50% chance of binding wounds, rather than under 40%.

After one session:

The knight is a killing machine, with poor social graces in his current context. Well, that isn't quite true: he knows courtly manners. He just doesn't think they apply in the Empire and is very irritated that the peasants keep making eye contact.

The artisan is a relentless engine of effort, quite good at hitting things with a hammer but not so good at dodging. However, unlike the knight, he didn't stay in melee range to get bit.

The elf has almost supernatural reflexes and situational awareness and is a crack shot... but the dice were not on their side.

The town watchman is oddly crap in combat to the point they wanted to sell their sword for something where if they missed, at least they weren't next to whatever they missed. They are, however, keen-eyed and socially adept.

Amusingly enough, had the elf examined the adorable girl who accosted them, their tiny knack for magic would have revealed the revenant was somehow magical... but they were the one person who didn't side-eye the dead girl as she led them into an ambush.

james_davis_nicoll

Lucky St. James is offered a dream job: save the world or die trying.

VenCo by Cherie Dimaline

james_davis_nicoll

In Women of Futures Past, Rusch quotes Willis:

"The field didn't just have women writers--it had really good women writers. These were wonderful stories, and I don't believe they were overlooked at the time, because when I read them, they were all in Year's Best collections."

Rusch speculates that Willis is referencing Merril's Best S-F. However, Rusch says she only did a spot check. I reread the whole of Merril's Best S-F in 2023. Her anthologies were mostly stories by men.

OK, so maybe it was one of the other Best SF series around back then? But I checked Bleiler and Dikty, Harrison & Aldiss, and Wollheim & Carr and it's not them.

Was there another 1950s-1960s Best SF series?

Or was Willis thinking of a magazine-specific annual like Analog 1?

Not literally Analog 1, obs. But something like it from another magazine.

My guess, having checked the early years, is Willis was reading The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction. Specifically, Boucher's run.

(Guess two would have been something edited by Goldsmith but she does not appear to have edited anthologies)

james_davis_nicoll

What could possibly go wrong while transporting a possessed ox?

The Adventure of the Demonic Ox (Penric & Desdemona, volume 14) by Lois McMaster Bujold

james_davis_nicoll

A zeppelin-full of digital graphic albums featuring Studio Foglio's Girl Genius, the "gaslamp fantasy" webcomic of adventure, romance, and mad science.

Bundle of Holding: Girl Genius (from 2020)

Even more Girl Genius, plus Buck Godot, Zap Gun for Hire.

Bundle of Holding: Girl Genius 2 (from 2023)

james_davis_nicoll

In the 1970s, many of the best new authors were women — the trick was finding their work.

Women Have Always Written SFF — But It Wasn’t Always Easy to Find

Yes, I know comments are not working. No, I have no control over that. Yes, I have mentioned the issue repeatedly. No, I don't know when it will be fixed.

james_davis_nicoll

Bathed in unquenchable fire, Ruri struggles to maintain her grade point average.

RuriDragon, volume 6 by Masaoki Shindo

andrewducker

Day 1 of P1/P3
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

james_davis_nicoll

War crime survivor turned expert swordswoman and student sorcerer Cheon resolves to obliterate the nation responsible, make herself queen, and find a like-minded woman to court.

The Four Wishes (Cheon of Weltanland, volume 1) by Charlotte Stone

james_davis_nicoll

Ironsworn, Starforged, and Sundered Isles, tabletop roleplaying games of perilous fantasy, space opera, and seafaring adventure by Tomkin Press.

Bundle of Holding: Ironsworn-Starforged

james_davis_nicoll

2009: The Horrible Histories TV show debuts, Britons are treated to a Giles-worthy winter, and police decline to investigate the cash for influence incident so that they might better focus on the custard-tossing scandal rocking the nation.

Poll #33480 Clarke Award Finalists 2009

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 32

View Respondents

Which 2009 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

Song of Time by Ian R. MacLeod
1 (3.1%)

Anathem by Neal Stephenson
26 (81.2%)

House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
9 (28.1%)

Martin Martin's on the Other Side by Mark Wernham
0 (0.0%)

The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper
7 (21.9%)

The Quiet War by Paul J. McAuley
7 (21.9%)

Bold for have read, italic for intend to read, underline for never heard of it.

Which 2009 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Song of Time by Ian R. MacLeod
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
Martin Martin's on the Other Side by Mark Wernham
The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper
The Quiet War by Paul J. McAuley

With an * on the McAuley because it was too grim and I didn't finish it.

andrewducker

I went to the toilet at 4am a few days ago, and bumped into Gideon coming back from a toilet trip. Apparently he just takes himself if he wakes up in the night. No idea how long this has been going on for!

(Sophia comes and gets me, for company.)

james_davis_nicoll

The winners are:

Best Novel: The Siege of Burning Grass, Premee Mohamed, Solaris
Best YA Novel: Heavenly Tyrant, Xiran Jay Zhao, Tundra Books
Best Novelette/Novella: The Butcher of the Forest, Premee Mohamed, Tordotcom
Best Short Story: “Blood and Desert Dreams“, Y.M. Pang, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue 408
Best Graphic Novel: Star Trek Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way, Ryan North, art by Chris Fenoglio, IDW Publishing
Best Poem/Song “Cthulhu on the Shores of Osaka“, Y.M. Pang, Invitation: A One-shot Anthology of Speculative Fiction
Best Related Work: Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction: Volume Two
Stephen Kotowych, editor, Ansible Press
Best Cover Art/Interior Illustration: Augur Magazine, Issue 7.1, cover art, Martine Nguyen
Best Fan Writing and Publication: SF&F Book Reviews, Robert Runté, Ottawa Review of Books
Best Fan Related Work: murmurstations, Sonia Urlando, Augur Society, podcast

andrewducker

My Dropbox Camera Uploads folder was up to 115GB and 18,000 files (dating back to 2010). So I went through and divided it into subfolders based loosely on years. Turns out that I take as many photos per year since Sophia was born as I took in the whole time from 2010 until her birth.

And that I take about 2,000 photos/videos per year, coming to about 15GB.

I also discovered that if you move 2,000 files from one Dropbox folder to another then it takes about 15 minutes to process the changes!

andrewducker

Pretty big fire on Arthur's Seat.

(The kids were just discussing whether the volcano had erupted, which I think we're pretty safe from.)
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

james_davis_nicoll

Two Americans set out for Venus. Only one returned. Where is the missing man? Evans knows but Evans is not a reliable witness.

Beyond Apollo by Barry N. Malzberg

james_davis_nicoll

A book I'm thinking of having play an important role in the campaign is Heinrich and Moritz Tod's Morally Uplifting Tales for the Edification of Recalcitrant Children, the Tods being the Old World analog of the Brothers Grimm. Uplifting Tales is an important cultural artifact and also the sort of book you'd read to kids at bed time if you wanted them to cry themselves to sleep.

james_davis_nicoll

The Sidewise Award for Alternate History is looking for new judges to join the award committee.

This is the first time in the 30 year history of the award that they've made an open call for awards judges.

Apply here.

andrewducker

I remember seeing a game which looked amazing. The whole world was destructible, there were thousands of different combinations of things to find in it, and they'd put a ton of effort in to making it a fun experience.

I played it for a couple of hours, and got bored of it, because it turns out that that isn't enough for me. Because what they'd made was also a Rogue-Like. Which is to say that it completely resets back to the start when you die, and that start randomly creates the world that you play through.

And I don't want to play through a whole different world each time, where everything is different to the last time I played. What I want for a solo game is for someone to lovingly craft a world, and then for me to learn that world inside out as I try to beat the various challenges in it*.

A few months ago

danieldwilliam sent me this link to a Neal Stephenson essay. And while I didn't agree with him about everything, the idea of "microdecisions" has stuck with me. That what makes art art isn't the idea (although good ideas are important) it's all of the ways that that idea was reified into the finished work.

A key quote:
Since the entire point of art is to allow an audience to experience densely packed human-made microdecisions—which is, at root, a way of connecting humans to other humans—the kinds of “art”-making AI systems we are seeing today are confined to the lowest tier of the grid and can never produce anything more interesting than, at best, a slab of marble pulled out of the quarry. You can stare at the patterns in the marble all you want. They are undoubtedly complicated. You might even find them beautiful. But you’ll never see anything human there, unless it’s your own reflection in the machine-polished surface.

And if that works for you - if staring at the swirling polished surfaces is what makes you happy, then I'm delighted for you. I've certainly been very entertained by generated patterns myself in the past. And I can totally be distracted by it for short periods of time. But when I'm looking for something actually *engaging* then right now it doesn't work for me. I need something human** in there.

Another example of this - movies. The more that special effects became good enough that movies could show me *anything* the more I wanted things with *character* in them. Things where you could tell that someone (or some group of someones) had really wanted to get something out of their brains so that other people could see the world the way they see it. I was discussing with

swampers the other day that we really appreciated the movies that A24 are putting out, because even when they're a bit of a mess they're a really interesting mess that someone had obviously cared about. The trailer for Eternity looks like it would absolutely annoy me in parts, but it would do so because I'd be experiencing someone's thoughts about the world, and I might learn something about them, and maybe also about me for engaging with it.

*Multiplayer games are different. When I played a ton of Minecraft with Julie I was happy for her to set the direction of what to make, and then I'd treat that as my challenge. But sandboxes with no set challenge don't interest me. And I have played a chunk of games like Slay The Spire or Balatro or Dead Cells . But even then I'd play for enough to get the hang of it and then stop, usually without actually beating it, because "Go back to the beginning and beat that for the 500th time so that you can spend 10 seconds losing the end before starting again" isn't much fun for me. Even with Hades, which does a great job of giving you a meta-story around each run that grows as you replay, I got all the way to fight Hades, lost near-instantly, and the thought of replaying the entire game for 20 minutes just to lose to him again filled me with exhaustion and I haven't been back since. If Noita had a "save" function and a set of specifically designed levels that were fun and were definitely beatable *and* a random world generator you could use once you'd played those levels then I'd probably have invested a lot of time in it.

**I am not against the idea that eventually AIs will achieve consciousness and attempt to impart something to us through the medium of art. And that would interest me. I just don't think that the generators we're currently investing in are that.

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