Huh

Jul. 12th, 2025 12:02 pm
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
This is probably in no way significant, but it just occurred to me to check to see where WorldCon was the years I was nominated:

2010: Melbourne, Australia
2011: Reno, USA
2019: Dublin, Ireland
2020: Wellington, New Zealand
2024: Glasgow, Scotland

(I was nowhere near the ballot in 2009, Montreal)

At a guess, those are years where vote totals were a bit lower?

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Another long truancy from LJ. (Thank you for the nudge.) There are reasons.

I'd meant, according to custom, to post pictures from Japan, where I went over Easter with daughter and daughter's boyfriend, a repeat of last year's excellent "once in a liftetime" trip. However, as I connected to WiFi at arrivals in Haneda it was to find that, while I was in midair, the Supreme Court had decided that I was no longer a woman — although, only when I was in the UK, and only for the purpose of the Equality Act 2010. I remained a woman for the purpose of case law and other legislation. This ruling was welcomed on all sides as bringing "much needed clarity", and was followed by a bunch of organisations and institutions, who had clearly been eager for the opportunity, to show just how creative they could be in finding ways to stigmatize, mock, humiliate and endanger trans people.

We had a great time in Japan, and I'd love to say that brooding on all this didn't cast the slightest shadow on the experience of exploring Tohoku. It did, though.

I think that our three days in Sendai, which included day trips to Matsushima Bay (praised by Bashō in perhaps the laziest haiku ever written, but I can't blame him) and the mountain temple of Yamadera (which, being Englished, means 'mountain temple') were particular highlights for me. I'll put some pictures in a future post.
But throughout, I was dreading the Ovidian metamorphosis that would apparently overtake me on touching down at Gatwick. Tiresias is said to have changed sex after accidentally encountering two snakes copulating. In my case the snakes were (metaphorically, I add, in case any lawyers are reading) J.K. Rowling and Kishwer Falkner, one of whom funded the SC case while the other took the decision and origamied its ramifications into something several times their original size.

Anyway, I've no wish to go over that here, either. I did discuss some aspects of the decision and its fallout over on Medium — and you're very welcome to read it.

Overall, this has not been a great year so far. In January my job (along with that of my colleagues in other Humanities departments) was placed under threat, largely because STEM subjects have failed to recruit enough of those lucrative foreign postgrads on which the UK higher education sector depends — a fall-off prompted in turn by the Government's Reform-appeasing decision to place onerous restrictions on such students' visas. The redundancy threat was later withdrawn, but there's a distinct 'never glad confident morning again' mood at my institution, as at others. It's hard to feel valued in such circumstances.

Then, my brother had a major stroke, which has left him (for the moment at least) in a rehab facility, and almost immediatley afterwards my cat died (admittedly she was 18, but still). The roof and top floor ceilings of my house and those of my neighbours need to be entirely replaced, which will be extremely disruptive and necessitate about 5 months of all-over scaffolding, starting this Monday. All of this was happening against the daily background of slaughter in Gaza and elsewhere, a laughably principle-free government at home and a deranged one in the States. So, one way and another I've had better years.

There's plenty of good stuff too, though — and next time I'll be more cheerful!
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Four books new to me.Two are SF, one is fantasy, one is a mix of both. I don't see anything unambiguously labelled as series works.

Books Received, July 5 — July 11

Poll #33350 Books Received, July 5 — July 11
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 39


Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

Secrets, Spells, and Chocolate by Marisa Churchill (December 2025)
14 (35.9%)

Spread Me by Sarah Gailey (September 2025)
14 (35.9%)

The Forest on the Edge of Time by Jasmin Kirkbride (February 2026)
14 (35.9%)

The Universe Box by Michael Swanwick (February 2026)
18 (46.2%)

Some other option (see comments)
1 (2.6%)

Cats!
31 (79.5%)

RPG checklist

Jul. 11th, 2025 10:43 pm
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
Specifically Fabula Ultima

Read more... )
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New Dawn requires only that people conform without exception or face memory erasure and worse. Yet, a minority insists on being individuals.

The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monáe

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Jul. 10th, 2025 08:53 am
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Desperate to pay her brother Jasper's way out of Muhlenberg County, Opal accepts a job at an infamously cursed mansion.

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Bundle of Holding: Pyramid 2

Jul. 9th, 2025 03:46 pm
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The latter half of Pyramid's ten-year run, the issues published from November 2013 to December 2018, sixty-two issues in all.

Bundle of Holding: Pyramid 2
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In a city with over a million people per square kilometre, real estate firms will never lack for clients. Good news for the employees of the Wong Loi Realty Company!


Kowloon Generic Romance, volume 1 by Jun Mayuzuki (Translated by Amanda Haley)
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Arrogant traffic analyst Boyd Hakluyt is just a pawn in the struggle for Ciudad de Vados' future.

The Squares of the City by John Brunner
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Everything you need for your own GURPS 4E tabletop roleplaying campaign.

Bundle of Holding: GURPS 4E Essentials (from 2022)




Volume 3 (Nov 2008 - Dec 2018) of Pyramid, the Steve Jackson Games magazine for tabletop roleplaying gamers. Sixty issues and more!

Bundle of Holding: Pyramid 1
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Why wait around for the throne or the cash when murder can deliver it immediately?

Five Dangerously Impatient Heirs and Successors

Clarke Award Finalists 2004

Jul. 7th, 2025 10:12 am
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
2004: Labour spares no effort to liberate Britons from human rights, UKIP's electoral successes surely do not reflect fundamental flaws in the British psyche, and London voters are heartbroken to discover the Livingstone who was just elected mayor isn’t the Livingstone who co-wrote the Fighting Fantasy books.

Poll #33332 Clarke Award Finalists 2004
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 42


Which 2004 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
21 (50.0%)

Coalescent by Stephen Baxter
5 (11.9%)

Darwin's Children by Greg Bear
16 (38.1%)

Maul by Tricia Sullivan
5 (11.9%)

Midnight Lamp by Gwyneth Jones
3 (7.1%)

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
20 (47.6%)



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


Which 2004 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
Coalescent by Stephen Baxter
Darwin's Children by Greg Bear
Maul by Tricia Sullivan

Midnight Lamp by Gwyneth Jones
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
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Can the American King's uncanny military genius best an enemy so cunning the enemy loses every battle?

The Steel, the Mist, and the Blazing Sun by Christopher Anvil

Wild Cards checklist

Jul. 5th, 2025 09:35 am
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
This is much easier for Martin's New Voices series....

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Four works new to me. One is SF, two fantasy, and the magazine (which I have not yet looked inside) likely both. Two of the novels are series novels, one does not seem to me.

Books Received, June 28 — July 4



Poll #33326 Books Received, June 28 — July 4
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 37


Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

FIYAH No. 35: Black Isekai published by FIYAH Literary Magazine (July 2025)
19 (51.4%)

Aces Full edited by George R. R. Martin (November 2025)
3 (8.1%)

Only Spell Deep by Ava Morgyn (March 2026)
6 (16.2%)

The Damned by Harper L. Woods (October 2025)
3 (8.1%)

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

Cats!
29 (78.4%)

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Ninety years after her grandmother's family was stalked by a witch, international student Minerva Contrera's studies land her in a similar position.


The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Neil and Donna Bond

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