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Can be found here. Short answer: Not much.

Unless the pull another ontological shift that undermines the fundamental stupidity of the "human battery" backstory, the series will end with a whimper rather than a bang.

The article mentioned that the battle with Shelob was one of the two fights requiring a lot of CGI, which is...interesting. And reminded me of two things:

1. At my next-to-last job, we had a server named Shelob, complete with a little name sticker on the outside. Now, instead of outside the server, Shelob's going to be inside it. ;-)

2. When I talked to Sauron (aka Sala Baker after he accepted the Hugo for The Fellowship of the Rings at last year's worldcon, I asked about Shelob and he assured me that Shelob was going to be "really cool."

3. Of course, I didn't realize at that point that Shelob had been pushed back into The Return of the King; if it hadn't, 2002 would have been a banner year for giant spider films, since Eight Legged Freaks also came out that year. I understand why they moved the scene, but it makes me think that The Return of the King will probably show very little, if any, of the scourging of the Shire. Which is something of a shame, because I rather like John Clute's theory that the scourging of the Shire represents a diminished recapitulation of Sauron's fall, in the same way Sauron's own fall is a diminished recapitulation of Morgoth's. Oh well...

SF is a genre. It has it's own publishing houses/subdivisions, it's own bookstore networks, it's own magazines. SF works have their own section in most major libraries. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a ghetto thing, but there's a clear delineation and there has been for decades. It's a genere, just like 'westerns' and 'harlequin romance' and 'mystery.'

And it has to be, because, sadly, none of those 'genere' subcultures of literature stand on their own as mainstream fiction. There are great SF and Western and Mystery writers, but they're the exception. It's like O. Henry's writing. The term for it is 'commercial stories' and there's been a market for that kind of thing for over a century and a half now.

Why yes, I have. And I've talked about it at length...

Its kinda hard for me to start reading some of the new masters, not because I wouldn't like them, but maybe because I'm too lazy to explore new books (yeah, I know that's bad).

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. One of the best ways to discover new, good authors is to check out awards lists and award nominees. I've been reading SF since the late sixties, and most of my favorite new authors I've discovered in the last quarter century or so have come off of award nominee lists. Of course, I probably miss a few good ones this way, but I have discovered so many good authors that I really don't feel deprived.

A good place to start might be Locus Mag's Online list of SF Awards. If you can't find some interesting stuff to check out from browsing that, you're beyond lazy. :)

Just as a ferexample: if a book wins both the Hugo (award from fans) and the Nebula (award from writers), chances are pretty high that it's a pretty durn good book. Have you read everything on this list? (The only one on that list that didn't impress me is "Dreamsnake".)

Its kinda hard for me to start reading some of the new masters, not because I wouldn't like them, but maybe because I'm too lazy to explore new books (yeah, I know that's bad).

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. One of the best ways to discover new, good authors is to check out awards lists and award nominees. I've been reading SF since the late sixties, and most of my favorite new authors I've discovered in the last quarter century or so have come off of award nominee lists. Of course, I probably miss a few good ones this way, but I have discovered so many good authors that I really don't feel deprived.

A good place to start might be Locus Mag's Online list of SF Awards. If you can't find some interesting stuff to check out from browsing that, you're beyond lazy. :)

Just as a ferexample: if a book wins both the Hugo (award from fans) and the Nebula (award from writers), chances are pretty high that it's a pretty durn good book. Have you read everything on this list? (The only one on that list that didn't impress me is "Dreamsnake".)

It also has a disturbingly complete necrology of recently deceased members of the SF community. It seems like every other headline is "So & so dies," but that's to be expected with all the graying pulp era artists, writers, and fans.

It also has a disturbingly complete necrology of recently deceased members of the SF community. It seems like every other headline is "So & so dies," but that's to be expected with all the graying pulp era artists, writers, and fans.

It also has a disturbingly complete necrology of recently deceased members of the SF community. It seems like every other headline is "So & so dies," but that's to be expected with all the graying pulp era artists, writers, and fans.

It also has a disturbingly complete necrology of recently deceased members of the SF community. It seems like every other headline is "So & so dies," but that's to be expected with all the graying pulp era artists, writers, and fans.

Of course, it helps if you're six feet tale and have an evil metal face.

I thought James Cameron's next movie was an adaptation of Barry Malzberg's Galaxies, as reported here.

Take a look at:

The Osama Bin Laden Suicide Bomber Dating Service

Terry Brooks to rewrite The Lord of the Rings

Baen Books Announces Product Placement Deal with Microsoft

Each and every one of these stories is as true as the parent, and most are funnier...

Take a look at:

The Osama Bin Laden Suicide Bomber Dating Service

Terry Brooks to rewrite The Lord of the Rings

Baen Books Announces Product Placement Deal with Microsoft

Each and every one of these stories is as true as the parent, and most are funnier...

> On the other hand, your sig contained one of my favorite lines from Donnie Darko. What a spectacular movie Donnie Darko was.

Indeed. And your comment provides me the opportunity to post the URL to my just published, really long and detailed review of Donnie Darko. I've posted it before. Given the opportunity, I'll post it again. Hell, I've maxed out my karma, and if causes one intelligent person to seek out this singularly interesting film, it will be worth it...

"One of the main characters - the Muslim mercenary Oran - was created as a direct protest of the continued sanctions against the nation of Iraq. His role in the story chillingly mirrors the direction of current global events."

So, you mean now he's jumping up and down, cheering, waving an American flag, and chanting "Bush! Bush! Bush!"?

Speaking of weird movies geeks may like, here's my rather detailed review of Donnie Darko.

I heard it was pushed back so Brooks could finish up the last volume in his rewrite of The Lord of the Rings. Details at:

http://www.locusmag.com/2002/News/News0401b.html

http://www.locusmag.com/2003/News/News0401a.html#s wanwick.

> Three Legged Freaks - The cat and spider behind the dry wall.

Actually, that would be Eight Legged Freaks. Sort of obvious given the giant spider theme.

I did a review of it here

Science Fiction already has two sites (though not with rankings) with tens of thousands of book and story titles already listed. They are:

The Locus Index; and

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database.

The Locus database covers SF/F/H/etc. from 1984 on fairly comprehensively, while the ISFDB covers a wider timeframe, but isn't (yet) nearly as comprehensive. ISFDB was also suffering under some badwidth caps earlier in the year, but expects their problems to be solved (via hosting through the Texas A&M library system) very shortly. Both are well worth bookmarking and using.

• Lensman series, E. E. "Doc" Smith (Must-read classics, guaranteed to feel like newly-discovered Heinlein)
• Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson (You won't get to Mars without these books.)
• Octavia E. Butler: Dawn, Adulthood Rites, Imago, etc. (Real-feeling SciFi from a master of emotion involvement.)
• Iaan Banks (Excession and The Player of Games are especially interesting to geeks.)
• Greg Egan (Axiomatic has some of the best short stories I've ever read.)
• The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Howard Pyle (Just got this yesterday. It's a total hoot!)
• Revelation Space and Chasm City, Alistair Reynolds (Amazingly good for his first books. Technical and friendly.)
• Emergence and Threshold, David R. Palmer (Another pair of startlingly good first books by a relative unknown.)
  
• And the ultimate new read, Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science (Enumerating chaos, anyone?)

Why "ask slashdot"? Wouldn't it make more sense to check out some SF related web sites for information and suggestions about SF?

Now I have an unfair advantage in that I live near not one, but two, high quality stores specializing in SF (Other Change of Hobbit and Dark Carnival, both in Berkeley CA), and I get a lot of recommendations by going in there and looking at their recommended shelves, or asking people who work there what's new and good.

If you aren't lucky enough to have a good SF bookstore nearby, then you might want to try some SF websites. This year's Hugo voting included the category of web site (a "one-shot" category that I hope will become permanent in future).Locus Online, the Hugo winner, and SF Site, which came in third, are my two favorites. Both are full of book reviews (and author interviews, and links to other interesting sites. (The second place Hugo vote went to the SciFi Channel's website, which is more oriented towards TV and movies than written SF, but still might be worth a look).

And speaking of awards, the various SF & Fantasy awards are a great place to look for recommendations. Check out the nominee list, not just the winners (it really is an honor just to be nominated), and don't forget to check out other works by the same authors. If you don't like short stories, you should still check out the winners (and nominees) in the short-story categories; they may have written some good novels too. Locus Online (link above) has extensive listings of the major SF awards.

That said, here's a few authors who have been high on my must-read list recently: Lois McMaster Bujold, David Brin, Orson Scott Card, C. J. Cherryh, Greg Egan, Tom Holt, Guy Gavriel Kay, Nancy Kress, Jane Lindskold[1], Ken McLeod[2], Wil McCarthy (yes, one 'l'), Jack McDevitt, Patricia A. McKillip, Robert Rankin, Allen Steele, Neal Stephenson, and Connie Willis. I probably included a few that qualify as "old school", there, and left out a few thinking they were "old school" that you may never have heard of, but such is life.

HTH

[1] Lindskold is an associate of, and collaborated with Zelazny, and is well worth checking out if you like Zelazny, IMO.

[2] MacLeod is the only SF writer I know of who has mentioned Linux in his SF. Others, most notably Stephenson, have mentioned it in non-fiction writings, but only MacLeod so far has embedded it in his fictional future.

Non Sequitur \Non seq"ui*tur\ [L., it does not follow]
n 1: a reply that has no relevance to what preceded it

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A troll, surely, if you post a message saying "Bill Gates sucks"... /.ers are going to jump on that.

I see your point, but while I do think Gaiman's books are more in touch with popular culture, and therefore a better choice than Harry Potter (I liked the book, didn't think it was worth a prize), I personally think his work in the art+literature (I'd say graphic novel, but the last one was ...wonderful...and not comic-like at all).

Not even Gaiman-like. Not what I'd expected, anyway. But a lovely portrayal of Japanese folk-lore.

_I_ think Neil Gaiman's contribution to the world of sci-fi, fantasy, mythology, whatever you want to call it, has been exceptional, and best expressed in <opinion>the story telling realm of graphic novels.</opinion>

<-- echo $newOpinion -->

Troll 1. v.,n. [From the Usenet group alt.folklore.urban] To utter a posting on Usenet designed to attract predictable responses or flames

Lotsa people have read or seen his work - I'm guessing there's as many opinions here as there are people, about whether he deserves it or not, or what his best work is.

Predictable responses? Good luck. I reckon there are as many responses here as there are people.

The Campbell awards took place on July 5th. It tied with Terraforming Earth by Williamson for the 2001 Campbell award. See Locus.

I found this review more helpful. I haven't had a chance to read this book yet, but it's on my list!

I found this book review through Locus Magazine , which is the best online source of sf and fantasy news that I've found.

Locus Magazine Best Novels of 2001
Barnes and Noble Best SF of 2001
January Magazine Best of 2001 (go down to the bottom for SF)
Borders Best SF of 2001
Amazon Best Science Fiction of 2001
Amazon Best Fantasy of 2001
Some guy's Best SF of 2001 list
An Amazon Listmania Best SF of 2001 list

It's a tiny sample, but it looks like these are clear favorites:

1. The Wooden Sea, Jonathan Carroll
2. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
3. American Gods, Neil Gaiman

And all these do well, showing up on several lists and/or ranking high where they're mentioned:

Cosmonaut Keep, Ken MacLeod
Nekropolis, Maureen McHugh
The Chronoliths, Robert Charles Wilson
Thief of Time, Terry Pratchett
Kushiel's Dart, Jacqueline Carey
Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds

Personally, I haven't read enough 2001 novels to make a decent list.

The Hugo's are voted on by fans who shell out the bucks to vote and those who shell out the bucks to nominate. But you can only buy one vote, your own. Some unscrupulous person(s) tried to subvert that process in 1989 by nominating The Guardsman by P.J. Beese and Todd Cameron Hamilton. The authors of said book whose nomination was hastily withdrawn claimed no knowledge of the sequentially numbered money orders. And as I recall reading at the time suspicion was aroused when all the envelopes had the same postmark showing they originated from the same post office. I don't know remember if any changes were made to the Hugo voting system, but it was interesting to learn how it all works.

Locus Online.

No Truce With Kings...

The great writers of science fiction exist because of the magazines. Few writers this century sprang up ex novelo; they developed their talents and reputations with shorter stories published first. And most would continue to write short stories after their novels are published- it keeps the mind sharp, because a good short story is the most difficult type of writing. The stories also create a fan base and a track record that both contribute to a publisher's willingness to accept a novel.

Recent anthologies like "The Year's Best Science Fiction" contain stories that rival anything from the golden age of SF in intensity, cutting-edgeness, and sheer old-fashioned numinous sense-of-wonderness. Notice where the stories came from: Asimov's (probably the largest single source), SF Age, Analog, SF&F...all good magazines. And look at awards lists of recent Hugo and Nebula winners/nominees. Authors first show up in the lists with shorter story nominations, and then the novels appear.

Now for a re-read of Weapon Shop...

I hadn't heard of the sequel either - I made audible (though complete inarticulate sounds) when I read that. Can't wait to dig that up.

A personal favorite in the religion-examining science fiction category is James Morrow. Titles like Bible Stores for Adults, Towing Jehovah and Only Begotten Daughter only begin to hint at the delicate satire this man is capable of.