Books: The Atlas of Imagined Places
Jul. 25th, 2022 10:19 pmI gave myself an indulgence on the weekend: The Atlas of Imagined Places.
Five thousand or so fictional places, and the author and cartographer putting this book together tried to figure out where they'd all be. Don't even try to figure out how to string together the backstories of how all these places from different fictional universes could co-exist. Just enjoy and debate the placements. I will.
Five thousand or so fictional places, and the author and cartographer putting this book together tried to figure out where they'd all be. Don't even try to figure out how to string together the backstories of how all these places from different fictional universes could co-exist. Just enjoy and debate the placements. I will.
Linkages of Interest - 24 May 2022
May. 24th, 2022 10:01 am1. Ottawa author Kate Heartfield gets to hold forth on the Big Idea of The Embroidered Book by way of Athena Scalzi:
https://whatever.scalzi.com/2022/05/24/the-big-idea-kate-heartfield/
2. Dylan Reid at Spacing Media notes the contents of the "Rain" issue of Spacing now arriving in newsstands and mailboxes across Canada (and, I hope, elsewhere, too):
http://spacing.ca/national/2022/05/24/new-issue-rain/
3. Canadian national security is under threat in a way some of us never stopped worrying about, and others grew up never understanding until now:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/national-security-us-fox-news-threat-report-1.6459660
4. The process of recovery is underway, and it's complicated.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/storm-damage-ice-tornado-power-grid-ottawa-1.6463247
5. The Ottawa Titans have started their first baseball season.
https://apt613.ca/the-ottawa-titans-play-home-stadium-for-the-first-time-may-24-2022/
6. How to get help as needed during the Derecho-blackout of 2022:
https://ottawastart.com/ottawa-power-outage-where-to-recharge-get-a-shower-and-eat/
7. Fascist infiltrator in (New) Conservatives gets shown the exit door:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/conservative-party-resigns-racist-email-1.6463136
https://whatever.scalzi.com/2022/05/24/the-big-idea-kate-heartfield/
2. Dylan Reid at Spacing Media notes the contents of the "Rain" issue of Spacing now arriving in newsstands and mailboxes across Canada (and, I hope, elsewhere, too):
http://spacing.ca/national/2022/05/24/new-issue-rain/
3. Canadian national security is under threat in a way some of us never stopped worrying about, and others grew up never understanding until now:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/national-security-us-fox-news-threat-report-1.6459660
4. The process of recovery is underway, and it's complicated.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/storm-damage-ice-tornado-power-grid-ottawa-1.6463247
5. The Ottawa Titans have started their first baseball season.
https://apt613.ca/the-ottawa-titans-play-home-stadium-for-the-first-time-may-24-2022/
6. How to get help as needed during the Derecho-blackout of 2022:
https://ottawastart.com/ottawa-power-outage-where-to-recharge-get-a-shower-and-eat/
7. Fascist infiltrator in (New) Conservatives gets shown the exit door:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/conservative-party-resigns-racist-email-1.6463136
NPR's Top 50 SF&F Books For 2011-2020
Aug. 18th, 2021 02:11 pmPetra Meyer came up with this list the other day. You might have preferences of your own. Some of you, I see, have works included in this list, and I offer congratulations upon that inclusion!
Not sure how many of these I've been able to read yet, but that is a quest for another day.
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/18/1027159166/best-books-science-fiction-fantasy-past-decade
Not sure how many of these I've been able to read yet, but that is a quest for another day.
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/18/1027159166/best-books-science-fiction-fantasy-past-decade
So, years and years back, when I had more confidence in my art skills, I did a spot illustration for a friend's serialized novel about super-heroics gone awry. The friend was - and remains - Lee "Budgie" Barnett. He prefers "Budgie" for reasons you can consult his blog or the pinned thread on his Twitter account about.
The novel was originally serialized a couple of ownership groups ago on Comic Book Resources, and while it's no longer on that website, you can still get either ePub or Kindle editions for your entertainment.
Details here.
More on other topics as the day goes onward.
The novel was originally serialized a couple of ownership groups ago on Comic Book Resources, and while it's no longer on that website, you can still get either ePub or Kindle editions for your entertainment.
Details here.
More on other topics as the day goes onward.
Books I'm Trying to Read - Mid-March 2021
Mar. 16th, 2021 07:35 pmI make no guarantee as to whether I'll be able to finish reading all of these, and several are loans from the local library.
- As I Walked About - A Collection of Walking Columns from the Ottawa Citizen - Phil Jenkins
- Star Trek: Picard - The Dark Veil - James Swallow
- The Information - James Gleick
- Glimpses of Cumberland Township - For the Honour of Our Ancestors - Cumberland Township Historical Society
- In Defense of Housing - David Madden and Peter Marcuse
- Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus - Douglas Rushkoff
- Cartographic Grounds - Projecting the Landscape Imaginary - Jill Desimini and Charles Waldheim
- Thunderbird - Jack McDevitt
- Tracing The History of Your House in Ottawa - City of Ottawa Archives
- Packaged Toronto - A Collection of the City's Historic Design - Matthew Blackett, Wayne Reeves and Alexandra Avdichuk
Dayton Ward announced on several websites that he's working with Dayton Ward and James Swallow on a project for the Star Trek "Novelverse" as we've known it these past two decades. Working title is Coda.
Owing to several divergences from content established in the "Novelverse" in what we've been seeing on Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks thus far, and expecting more divergences to come, a lot of longtime readers are expecting this project to wrap up the continuity of the "Novelverse" with some finality.
Dayton's noted that since beginning work on the Coda project, there's been a piece of "go to" music he's had on his playlist: "The Garden" by Rush, from their Clockwork Angels album.
We've got maybe over half a year before this particular trilogy of books starts arriving at retailers, but since Rush was a Canadian band, this is a good excuse for another Musical Interlude in my own blogging here. From their Clockwork Angels tour in 2012, then...
Owing to several divergences from content established in the "Novelverse" in what we've been seeing on Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks thus far, and expecting more divergences to come, a lot of longtime readers are expecting this project to wrap up the continuity of the "Novelverse" with some finality.
Dayton's noted that since beginning work on the Coda project, there's been a piece of "go to" music he's had on his playlist: "The Garden" by Rush, from their Clockwork Angels album.
We've got maybe over half a year before this particular trilogy of books starts arriving at retailers, but since Rush was a Canadian band, this is a good excuse for another Musical Interlude in my own blogging here. From their Clockwork Angels tour in 2012, then...
Captain Canuck, Continued
Feb. 21st, 2021 03:01 pmInto prose novels, now, with a publisher that's just rebranded themselves.
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/captain-canuck-gets-a-prose-novel-in-lev-gleason-may-2021-solicits/
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/captain-canuck-gets-a-prose-novel-in-lev-gleason-may-2021-solicits/
Bracing to Leave the Honorverse
Feb. 19th, 2021 07:58 pmOr, at least, to stop buying new books set in that version of our galaxy. I've been reading them since Honor Among Enemies was released in paperback. So...about twenty years now.
Mainly, if it happens, it's going to be due to what I'm reading second-hand of series author David Weber's apparent non-reaction to the Trumpist crowd now apparently dominating the online forum Baen's Bar as administered by Baen Books from several of you. I'm not expecting a happy reaction to whatever Mr. Weber's posted to Facebook about the matter when I see it for myself later tonight.
Which will be cause for some sadness. But it won't be the first time fictional characters proved (mostly) better people than their creator/designer/primary actor on-screen in recent memory. Will it?
More later, I suppose. One way or another.
Mainly, if it happens, it's going to be due to what I'm reading second-hand of series author David Weber's apparent non-reaction to the Trumpist crowd now apparently dominating the online forum Baen's Bar as administered by Baen Books from several of you. I'm not expecting a happy reaction to whatever Mr. Weber's posted to Facebook about the matter when I see it for myself later tonight.
Which will be cause for some sadness. But it won't be the first time fictional characters proved (mostly) better people than their creator/designer/primary actor on-screen in recent memory. Will it?
More later, I suppose. One way or another.
Books as Props
Dec. 26th, 2020 10:32 pmFor politicians as much as movie and TV soundstages, apparently.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/12/26/books-by-the-foot-washington-dc-covid-books-440347
https://www.wonderbk.com/bookseller/theyre-gonna-put-you-in-the-movies/
And yes, I've seen news reports of libraries on cruise ships. I have a Haynes Manual detailing the history of the Queen Mary II, and that vessel does have a reading library aboard her. I suppose Books By the Yard's management and staff have already heard of such themselves more directly.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/12/26/books-by-the-foot-washington-dc-covid-books-440347
https://www.wonderbk.com/bookseller/theyre-gonna-put-you-in-the-movies/
And yes, I've seen news reports of libraries on cruise ships. I have a Haynes Manual detailing the history of the Queen Mary II, and that vessel does have a reading library aboard her. I suppose Books By the Yard's management and staff have already heard of such themselves more directly.
Boxing Day 2020
Dec. 26th, 2020 07:41 pmWell, this was a quiet day too. The House reruns keep playing on CTV Drama upstairs, and for all the trouble I went to over the years to accumulate the DVD collection I currently have, I can't be bothered to watch a one of them yet.
No, for me it's Randy Bachman's Vinyl Tap on Radio One right now.
I may be about to sell another book from my personal library. More on that tomorrow, maybe.
Rereading![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dduane's Star Trek: TNG novel "Intellivore" and geeking out a bit - again - over the star name-dropping. Looking up "B Hydri" via SIMBAD is bringing up nothing. Should I go to AAVSO?
No, for me it's Randy Bachman's Vinyl Tap on Radio One right now.
I may be about to sell another book from my personal library. More on that tomorrow, maybe.
Rereading
dduane's Star Trek: TNG novel "Intellivore" and geeking out a bit - again - over the star name-dropping. Looking up "B Hydri" via SIMBAD is bringing up nothing. Should I go to AAVSO?BOOKS: Culling the Wild Cards
Oct. 17th, 2020 10:49 amIs anyone interested in the first fifteen books of the Wild Cards series of novels?
Edited by George RR Martin with Melinda Snodgrass and co-written by a few dozen other people as well, it's meant to be a harder-SF, grittier take on the superhuman concept, diverging from real-world history starting in the late 1940's.
Condition ranges from dog-eared to excellent, depending on the age of the paperback in question. If anyone would like to make an offer, contact me by DM or e-mail me at ad696-at-ncf-dot-ca, please?
(Also, please keep in mind that Canada Post charges an arm and a leg because they're irrationally expected through their enabling legislation to turn a profit despite being a Crown corporation, and I need to at least recover my postage and handling!)
Edited by George RR Martin with Melinda Snodgrass and co-written by a few dozen other people as well, it's meant to be a harder-SF, grittier take on the superhuman concept, diverging from real-world history starting in the late 1940's.
Condition ranges from dog-eared to excellent, depending on the age of the paperback in question. If anyone would like to make an offer, contact me by DM or e-mail me at ad696-at-ncf-dot-ca, please?
(Also, please keep in mind that Canada Post charges an arm and a leg because they're irrationally expected through their enabling legislation to turn a profit despite being a Crown corporation, and I need to at least recover my postage and handling!)
BOOKS: A Plan Under Consideration
Oct. 1st, 2020 09:48 amI'm thinking of starting to advertise books I want to find new homes for. Probably via my Dreamwidth blog, but maybe elsewhere too? I don't want to unload too much of my library, but there's stuff here I haven't read in months to years that might find a more appreciative audience elsewhere.
Ottawa SF Authors: Derek Kunsken
Aug. 20th, 2020 09:54 amOne of our local SF authors has a new book out!
https://whatever.scalzi.com/2020/08/20/the-big-idea-derek-kunsken/
I know Derek from the CAN-CON organizing committee. So I'm rather biased in his favour.
https://whatever.scalzi.com/2020/08/20/the-big-idea-derek-kunsken/
I know Derek from the CAN-CON organizing committee. So I'm rather biased in his favour.
Bundoran Press, No More?
Jul. 15th, 2020 01:20 pmThat's the word I got this morning via Twitter. Hayden Trenholm bought that publishing company from Virginia O'Dine about a decade ago, built it up into one of Canada's independent SF&F powerhouses as far I could see. I have a few of the books put out by Bundoran across the years, and it's going to hurt in several ways to lose them as a company.
Among their titles that I own:
- Defining Diana by Hayden himself.
- Right to Know by Edward Willett
- Strange Bedfellows, an anthology about alternative versions of Canadian history.
Can-Con is going to hurt as well. Bundoran has been part of the core support of our little literary SF&F convention here since it re-started. As if anyone's going to cope with the Time of Pandemic unscathed.
At any rate, if there's any kind of good luck that can befall Bundoran between now and the announced October 30th shutdown date, this post is the start of my effort to invoke it. I hope I'm not alone, and I hope it works.
Among their titles that I own:
- Defining Diana by Hayden himself.
- Right to Know by Edward Willett
- Strange Bedfellows, an anthology about alternative versions of Canadian history.
Can-Con is going to hurt as well. Bundoran has been part of the core support of our little literary SF&F convention here since it re-started. As if anyone's going to cope with the Time of Pandemic unscathed.
At any rate, if there's any kind of good luck that can befall Bundoran between now and the announced October 30th shutdown date, this post is the start of my effort to invoke it. I hope I'm not alone, and I hope it works.
SPACE: Finding Sigma-1014
Apr. 21st, 2020 03:32 pmEarlier today:
SIMBAD is still giving me issues with finding stars from the old Struve catalogue, so I wonder if any of you can confirm that (a) the star can be found in the constellation Orion, and (b) the distance to said star in any case?
Update 1: I found a "Struve 1014", but apparently it's in Gemini, not Orion, per the Washington Double Star Catalogue.
Here's its SIMBAD profile, under the catalogue number "BD+26 1451A -- Star ". Apparently, there's yet to be a parallax determined for it, or the GAIA people have yet to input the update at this writing.
Update 2: Found a SIMBAD profile devoted to the whole double-star pairing. Still frustrating me on this search engine-map, though. Stella Doppie insists that it has a GAIA DR2 number, but the number looks, shall we say, incomplete?
SIMBAD is still giving me issues with finding stars from the old Struve catalogue, so I wonder if any of you can confirm that (a) the star can be found in the constellation Orion, and (b) the distance to said star in any case?
Update 1: I found a "Struve 1014", but apparently it's in Gemini, not Orion, per the Washington Double Star Catalogue.
Here's its SIMBAD profile, under the catalogue number "BD+26 1451A -- Star ". Apparently, there's yet to be a parallax determined for it, or the GAIA people have yet to input the update at this writing.
Update 2: Found a SIMBAD profile devoted to the whole double-star pairing. Still frustrating me on this search engine-map, though. Stella Doppie insists that it has a GAIA DR2 number, but the number looks, shall we say, incomplete?
Waubgeshig Rice used to be a reporter with CBC's Ottawa news division until he moved back up to Sudbury to keep doing that work there. Somewhere along the way, he started writing books as a sideline, and his first SF novel, Moon Of the Crusted Snow, published two years ago, seems to have ended up being more predictive than he expected or planned.
I hope that it's still in print when this mess is over.
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/why-stories-matter-now-more-than-ever-1.5526331/blew-my-mind-how-waubgeshig-rice-s-post-apocalyptic-storyline-became-a-reality-1.5526691
http://www.waub.ca/
I hope that it's still in print when this mess is over.
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/why-stories-matter-now-more-than-ever-1.5526331/blew-my-mind-how-waubgeshig-rice-s-post-apocalyptic-storyline-became-a-reality-1.5526691
http://www.waub.ca/
Re: The Martian
Mar. 14th, 2020 10:09 amMark Watney didn't know how good he had it...but then, there wasn't a pandemic while he was on Mars, right?
That said, The Martian would be a good book to re-read, and a good movie to re-watch during these next few weeks, I think. It reinforces some of the thinking we're all going to need to practice.
That said, The Martian would be a good book to re-read, and a good movie to re-watch during these next few weeks, I think. It reinforces some of the thinking we're all going to need to practice.
Follow-On Chatter
Mar. 7th, 2020 09:34 pmNot much more to say about the March today.
As we swung from Somerset onto Elgin northwards towards City Hall, I swung into Perfect Books. They had a "New to me" book by Jack McDevitt, Starhawk, part of the "Priscilla Hutchins" series of space adventure/mystery novels. I have the first six, which were good reads at the time. I should revisit them after I'm done with this one. I'm just forty pages in, thus far, so expect that to be a few days.
As we swung from Somerset onto Elgin northwards towards City Hall, I swung into Perfect Books. They had a "New to me" book by Jack McDevitt, Starhawk, part of the "Priscilla Hutchins" series of space adventure/mystery novels. I have the first six, which were good reads at the time. I should revisit them after I'm done with this one. I'm just forty pages in, thus far, so expect that to be a few days.
