Slashdot Mirror
2015 Nebula Award Winners Announced (sfwa.org)
Dave Knott writes: The winners of the 2015 Nebula Awards (presented 2016) have been announced. The Nebulas are voted on by members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and (along with the Hugos) are considered to be one of the two most prestigious awards in science fiction. This year's winners are:
Best Novel: Uprooted , Naomi Novik
Best Novella: Binti , Nnedi Okorafor
Best Novelette: "Our Lady of the Open Road," Sarah Pinsker
Best Short Story: "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers," Alyssa Wong
Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation: Mad Max: Fury Road , Written by George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, Nick Lathouris
Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy: Updraft , Fran Wilde
Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award: Sir Terry Pratchett
Kevin O'Donnell Jr. Service Award: Lawrence M. Schoen
2016 Damon Knight Grand Master Award: C.J. Cherryh
Best Novel: Uprooted , Naomi Novik
Best Novella: Binti , Nnedi Okorafor
Best Novelette: "Our Lady of the Open Road," Sarah Pinsker
Best Short Story: "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers," Alyssa Wong
Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation: Mad Max: Fury Road , Written by George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, Nick Lathouris
Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy: Updraft , Fran Wilde
Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award: Sir Terry Pratchett
Kevin O'Donnell Jr. Service Award: Lawrence M. Schoen
2016 Damon Knight Grand Master Award: C.J. Cherryh
She's been due for the Grand Master award for decades.
Four soppy stories clothed in sci-fi.
I know how you feel. Liechtenstein is behind my parking space getting stolen whenever I go out for lunch, but no one believes me!
I'm surprised about Fury Road; I would have gone for The Martian.
Dystopias are still in fashion, I guess.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
No book in French this year :-(
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
The problem with your theory is that you're assuming that anyone in power is actually smart enough to pull off something like that.
So it looks like the Sad Puppies aren't able to influence the Nebula awards.
I find it awfully interesting how the article claims the various puppies "push against the growing numbers of women and people of color appearing on award ballots", and yet after the puppies dominated the voting 2/5 of the Hugo best novel nominees are women. (possibly 3/5, N.K. Jemisin doesn't indicate a gender) As for people of color, I'm just gonna toss out a guess that Nnedi Okorafor, CHEAH Kai Wai, Ken Liu, Juan Tabo, Asaf Hanuka,and Tomer Hanuka are probably not WASPs. I personally laud the inclusion of Space Raptor Butt Invasion over more agenda pushing drivel.
It would seem there is no Nebula equivalent of the Hugo's "Sad Puppies" campaign.
Decent, yes. Best, no.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Well, then I guess the Nebulas taught us that the sexism was right all along. When it comes to science fiction writing, one sex is clearly inferior.
But but but, it's $CURRENT_YEAR, how come so many more female than male winners???!?!??!?!?!
The list of winners seems to be heavy with female authors.
I learned decades ago to avoid science fiction written by females after reading some Andre Norton crap. I developed a distaste for Norton's work before I ever learned that Norton was a woman, so my perceptions were not biased by gender.
Give me Heinlein, Asimov, van Vogt and maybe Clark.
I haven't paid much attention to SF/Fantasy or any other printed fiction since the mid 90s. I used to know the SF/Fantasy section of private bookstores very well. then as prices went up faster than inflation ($2 for a paperback in the early 80s, up to $5 by 1990, and it kept right on climbing) I got more conservative in my choices, buying only the latest of a series from a big name author, not taking a chance on a new author. Tried relying on lists of award winners. Finally I quit. Had enough of the publishing industry's crap, such as the practice of putting out an expensive hardback edition first, delaying the paperback for a year. I was also very annoyed with the fanatic Scientologists for gaming the system to boost L. Ron Hubbard's garbage to #1 bestseller status, and I heard recent Hugos are similarly compromised?
Most damning of all is for SF to deliberately inject bad propaganda about print publishing itself. We can read about all kinds of fantastically futuristic technologies, unless it's something that replaces the printing press or copyright law? Maybe it's okay for other genres to ignore this issue, but SF must not if it wishes to remain good, insightful, and relevant. The Internet and the ability to copy massive amounts of text rapidly and easily hasn't been futuristic SF for at least 20 years now, and any SF that pretends otherwise can't help but be stupid. The "I, Mudd" Star Trek episode has a little dialog about death being the penalty for violating intellectual property rights. Yeah, Hollywood wishes!
I wonder if the SF awards even look at works that are available online only, no printed edition. Took the music world entirely too long to warm up to video game music.
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
Is there any hard sci-fi among them? I am starving for good hard sci-fi.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
It's not really SF anymore when Bruce Sterling put up stuff on the net for free in the mid 1990s!
What the difference between Novel, Novella, Novelette and Short Story? I guess all them translate to the same thing for me.
I don't place any value at all in these awards anymore, not after what the puppies showed to be true regarding the Hugos. And that sucks for the actual and talented authors out there that no longer get the spotlight they deserve for doing an excellent job.
I'm not sure if that's a win for the ideologues, but it's damn sure a loss for the actual writers.
Try 3-body Problem. It may be a slow start, though and I don't think it was a nominee. For that matter, I'm not sure it's a current-year book, but it was a good read.
I think The Water Knife was on the list, though.
In a sense, Dan Brown's Inferno is sci-fi, although like all his books, it's as much about arcana and action as about what-if. And mass-market writing, of course. Just heard it's coming out as a movie.
Looks like a bunch of fantasy dressed up as sci-fi to me.
How did these things win?
Try 3-body Problem. It may be a slow start, though and I don't think it was a nominee. For that matter, I'm not sure it's a current-year book, but it was a good read.
I think The Water Knife was on the list, though.
In a sense, Dan Brown's Inferno is sci-fi, although like all his books, it's as much about arcana and action as about what-if. And mass-market writing, of course. Just heard it's coming out as a movie.
So none of the winners is hard sci-fi?
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
You're looking at an award. Please. If you want something worth reading you're wrong here. This is about making people feel good, not telling you what's worth reading.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
> I personally laud the inclusion of Space Raptor Butt Invasion over more agenda pushing drivel.
You laud a pure agenda driven nomination for not being agenda pushing?
Perhaps you don't know that the author of Space Raptor Butt Invasion has been shitting all over you creeps via twitter. He's even decided to have Zoe Quinn accept his prize on his behalf if he wins.
The plot: "Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood."
Hasn't these "evil authority takes young attractive teen from the population for nefarious purposes" plots been done to death? Maze runner, hunger games, etc. Get a new idea already.
That's what you've learned from this?
How about, "This year, the best sci-fi was written by women"? Is that outside your realm of possibilities, you rancid little gerbilfucker?
You are welcome on my lawn.
I guess no men wrote anything decent this year?
I'm sure that George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nick Lathouris (winners, Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation) would be surprised to hear you say that.
Or, for that matter, Charles Gannon, Ken Liu, Lawrence Schoen (Best Novel nominees); Eugene Fischer, Usman Malik (Novella nominees); Michael Bishop, Henry Lien (Novelette); David Levine, Sam Miller, Martin Shoemaker (Short Story)....
But since you can't read more than four lines into a Slashdot blurb, I suppose it isn't surprising that you don't know much about good writing.
~Idarubicin
If only those horrible gamergaters could stop talking about Zoe quinn. Damn haters introduce her into everything while pretending to be about ethics. Look here they add her to the games of the nebula awards again. Just leave her alone! She doesn't want to be the center of attention. She will only be abused more you filthy gator! /s
But seriously, why the fuck is she added to this drama. This has nothing to do with her. If anything, this only gives more ammo to the theory she is a professional victim.
It just so happened that women wrote all the best science fiction this year. Just like it just so happened that all the best science fiction before the 1970's was written by white males.
That's not discrimination. It just so happened.
I'm sure that George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nick Lathouris (winners, Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation) would be surprised to hear you say that.
No they wouldn't be surprised at all. They wrote a movie featuring strong women that was very popular with feminists. They know this is why they got to be the tokens this year.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Shouldn't you be posting on Stormfront?
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
IMHO the Mad Max movie, as good as it was (and I liked it), shouldn't even qualify. It's not Sci Fi.
Don't opine from ignorance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
You are welcome on my lawn.
Oh honey, I'm not a puppy of either stripe, I just enjoy watching them upset a bunch of tight-arses. As for Ms. Quinn, I expect to have a sensible chuckle in the unlikely event that Mr. Tingle actually wins and has her accept his award.
BTW, has it ever occurred to you that what really fuels the anti-SJW movement is you guys insisting on labeling anyone who disagrees with you as creeps, harassers, neckbeards, racists, man-children, bigots, misogynerds, etc. when 99% of the time the targets of your rage are in fact not those things? The gamergaters didn't get set off by a woman daring to whatever she did, but by the flood of stereotyping attack articles pushed by gamejournopros.
Stick to the space cows that app apps, buddy.
The book was a tool to protest against "injustice" or whatever they're ticked about. They probably care about his opinion slightly less than I care about the opinion of the hammer I used to repair my fence, or the opinion of the wrench I used to disassemble my brake calipers.
There is nothing to address. These are spam posts, including the "rapid downmod shows" one.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
"Try 3-body Problem. It may be a slow start, though and I don't think it was a nominee. For that matter, I'm not sure it's a current-year book, but it was a good read."
The second or third volume of Cixin's trilogy probably is, though.
They wrote a movie featuring strong women that was very popular with feminists.
You keep saying that like it's a bad thing.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
One of the nominees, "Ancillary Mercy," by Ann Leckie is sci-fi.
Also, folks are recommending "Three Body Problem" which was nominated for a Nebula in 2014 and won the Hugo for best novel in 2015. It's the first book of a series, and is sensational.
Don't opine from ignorance.
You *must* be new here.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
No, it's just an explanation of why George Miller and friends in particular were chosen as the token males this year. The Martian is a MUCH better science fiction movie than Fury Road. And I say that as a huge George Miller and Mad Max fan. In fact, Fury Road, like the previous Mad Max films, is an action movie that only counts as science fiction in the most marginal sense.
But the Martian was about a white guy. And that sealed its fate. Had the star of The Martian been a woman or minority, it would have won.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Considering that the Nebula's are determine by voting by the SFWA membership (ie profession authors) and the membership majority is male, what's a poor frightened MRA to do?
I don't know how "hard" your "hard sci-fi" definition runs, if 3-Body isn't hard sci-fi, then I'd probably have to strike off Robert L. Forward's "Dragon's Egg" and Clarke's "2001 A Space Odessy" for starters.
Brown is primarily action/adventure, but the prime motivator is more based on real-world science than the Andromeda Strain.
Water Knife has certain parallels with A Canticle for Leibowitz, although more immediate.
Along with other "why don't men?" questions, somewhere along the line someone founds a committee, some group co-opts the committee and what came before, becomes something else and men go and do something else more interesting instead.
Then some one forms a committee.
In other news, dystopia has been done, show some more imagination, we get that bad is bad. Zombies are not science fiction, neither is Doctor Who. Before any script writer starts including babies and coffee mornings they should know it's over and move on. Just coz it happens doesn't make it interesting.
You didn't address anything in the post. Instead, you hurled insults to try to discredit the grandparent while avoiding any of the actual arguments.
Because there is no argument. The only thing GP said was "It's obvious listening to recordings that the attackers had Israeli accents. The trail of money leads back to Mossad".
Those are claims, and no evidence was provided to support them. I could claim that the accent is obviously actually Chinese and that the money trail leads to the KGB, thus Poutine is directly responsible for 9/11.
Can you disprove my facts ? Actually, you don't need to, because as GP didn't, I didn't give evidence either, so my "facts" and GP's are actually unsupported claims that don't deserve any response.
As I said above, Show the evidence, if you have some, or gtfo.
A lot of nasty and immoral things are done during war or for the sake of winning a conflict. To put this in terms nerds are familiar with, go watch the outstanding DS9 episode entitled "In the Pale Moonlight." It's probably the best DS9 episode and the most thought proving Star Trek episode from any of the series. It is Captain Sisko's retelling of how he and Garak brought the Romulans into the war against the Dominion by manufacturing evidence and killing a Romulan senator, framing the Dominion. If you believe what you've been told, you're a fool.
You're right, and you don't even need to look at stories for examples. But again, you can't make claims and expect people to believe you, you have to show evidence.
How about, "This year, the best sci-fi was written by women"? Is that outside your realm of possibilities, you rancid little gerbilfucker?
You know, it would be nice if people would just avoid trying to outdo themselves with insults. I know, the idea is that nice guys finish last so you are working to be more obnoxious and crude than the other person, but, you know, you really aren't putting forward the idea that you have something useful to add to the discussion.
Or, to put this in kind of terminology that you apparently understand: quit acting like a fucking asshole, you fucking asshole.
Considering that the Nebula's are determine by voting by the SFWA membership (ie profession authors) and the membership majority is male, what's a poor frightened MRA to do?
A quick googling tells me that the SFWA membership has very close to an even male:female ratio. Slightly more males-- but the data I have is a few years old. http://www.antipope.org/feorag...
You must be new here.
You are welcome on my lawn.
You're talking of a time when society was definitely sexist.
You mean I'm talking of a time where the dreaded "SJW" didn't exist as a bogeyman, but that didn't stop people from getting up to some wanton conjecture to fit their concepts of the world.
But let's look at the history of the Nebula and Hugo. From what I see and remember, women are winning those awards regularly since at least 1990. I don't remember anyone doubting those winners prior to a few years back, when we first started to hear a lot about SJW and the claims for more diversity and minorities everywhere.
That's ok, it's not like I expect you to hear every whisper and innuendo, let alone remember them. Heck, I have no doubt that Ursula K. Le Guin is probably being castigated today for her novel that won a Nebula. Look at it, it's about gender and sexual dimorphism! The horrors! It must have been given an award because...
I forget.
It's only natural that the more people claim we need to have more women/blacks/whatever, the more people will wonder whether a woman/black/whatever actually achieved something or if they were given it to satisfy the cries for more diversity.
It's actually a sad story, that regardless of what happened, people will come up with their own reasoning to explain things in a way that satisfies their own expectations.
This has been true for so long, that if you're wondering about today's current peccadilloes, you should really look back further into the sands of time.
And no, it's not limited to just the average media award, it's a widespread phenomena.
I guess no men wrote anything decent this year?
I'm sure that George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nick Lathouris (winners, Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation) would be surprised to hear you say that.
No they wouldn't be surprised at all. They wrote a movie featuring strong women that was very popular with feminists. They know this is why they got to be the tokens this year.
So you're shifting the goalposts, then? It has to be men writing about men only. Got it.
(And I'm not sure why, even with your special pleading, you think you can ignore the inconvenient fact that men were amply represented among the nominees.)
~Idarubicin
Cisfemale hunnies only have as much power as you give them... they don't know how to have power any other way without white knights constantly beating down assigned males who would question their privilege.
The captain of the ship, who played a pivotal heroic role in the rescue, was a woman in The Martian.
I know it hurts to realize that...
The word "Gamergate" in relation to this movement was first used by Adam Baldwin, in a tweet linking to a video supposedly claiming Zoe Quinn was cheating on her "boyfriend". The "Ethics in journalism" "justifications" started later.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
The Three-Body Problem IS hard SciFi. Well... it starts as such. Sorta.
But then the supposed hard SciFi turns into science fantasy with deus ex machinae around every corner.
A big part of the story is about aliens building a proton-sized computer by "folding-out" a proton to 11 dimensions, then folding it back in.
Which would not be such a huge problem - if the said alien civilization wasn't forced to invade Earth on account of its own solar system's inhospitableness reaching critical levels.
Said civilization also has 1/100th of light speed capability (and faster) ships and other really advanced tech, their home is HIGHLY inhospitable (far more than say... Mars) and unstable - yet there is simply no other solution for them other than complete extermination of humanity.
A task in which they will be aided by Earthly pan-species-commies and ecologists.
No... Really.
And then there's the second book.
And boy... if you have a short fuse for "everyone is stupid" episodes of Star Trek or some other SciFi show where every otherwise smart character acts like a complete idiot in order to serve the plot... well...
"Because reasons" everyone on Earth decides to lay all their hopes into supersecret plans of 4 "wall facers" - scientists and statesmen who are given unquestionable and nearly unlimited authority to create supersecret plans to save humanity in the upcoming war with the aliens.
One of them being a slacker we meet at the beginning of the book.
Who is pining for an imaginary waifu he imagined on a dare - a stereotypical Chinese mail-order bride turned up to 11.
And then with the help of a detective friend and a global database of every human on the planet - he finds her.
Well... he finds a girl up to the specifications he imagined as "perfect". All the cringing while going through their romance does wonders for one's muscle tone though.
And then the day is saved by playing the Mutually Assured Destruction card in the pan-galactic game of Everyone Always Defects In Prisoner's Dilemma.
Meanwhile, ants still don't give a fuck.
Scifi in Liu's book isn't really bad... but the plotting is horrible with supposedly brilliant geniuses acting like complete idiots any time anyone walks through a door.
On the other hand, there is a built-in level of "strangeness" on account of cultural differences.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
... I feel dumber, just for having read that statement. I can award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
First; over-broad subject. Sue me, I had a character limit. :)
I haven't read all of them so this comment is specifically about "Our Lady of the Open Road." It reminded me strongly of Harlan Ellison, and a plethora of other authors whose names never made it into even semi-permanent storage because their work resonated so strongly with OhMyGodWouldTheyJustQuitPuttingWordsOnThePageForFucksSake. I hate them, because I'm strongly OCD and have a very hard time putting down a piece of text without making it to the end, and by the time I have made it that far I'm scanning as fast as I can. I guess in some ways I'm waiting for some mystical payoff where it turns out to be a gem. It doesn't happen.
I am so sick to death of how people praise "I have no mouth and I must scream." It. Is. DULLLLLL. A sustained assault on the wrists of my mind with a dull butter knife.
That's what I was thinking of the whole time I read this story.
Ah. I feel better. Carry on.
And boy... if you have a short fuse for "everyone is stupid" episodes of Star Trek or some other SciFi show where every otherwise smart character acts like a complete idiot in order to serve the plot... well...
OK, I have enough data now to give the book a wide berth.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
You're talking of a time when society was definitely sexist.
You mean I'm talking of a time where the dreaded "SJW" didn't exist as a bogeyman, but that didn't stop people from getting up to some wanton conjecture to fit their concepts of the world.
You're talking about the first half of the nineteenth century. Society was way more patriarchal than today, it's sad but not a surprise that they were treated like that.
What is surprising is that in today's society, which is way less sexist, women are subjected to the same treatment. Especially when said treatment didn't occur for at least twenty years and started again a few years ago. The question now is why such behavior came back?
But let's look at the history of the Nebula and Hugo. From what I see and remember, women are winning those awards regularly since at least 1990. I don't remember anyone doubting those winners prior to a few years back, when we first started to hear a lot about SJW and the claims for more diversity and minorities everywhere.
That's ok, it's not like I expect you to hear every whisper and innuendo, let alone remember them. Heck, I have no doubt that Ursula K. Le Guin is probably being castigated today for her novel that won a Nebula. Look at it, it's about gender and sexual dimorphism! The horrors! It must have been given an award because...
I forget.
You're right in that I didn't hear all the whispers surrounding the Nebula and Hugo, of course, so I'm willing to be proven wrong. Ursula K. Le Guin won many awards from 1970 until 2010, and I didn't see anyone criticize her for it. You claim she is criticized, do you have evidence of it?
If no, you make my point: she won awards and nobody gave a shit about her gender, probably because her books were good and she deserved it.
But now people are starting to doubt whether wins by diverse authors or about diversity actually deserved their wins or not. We can discussed why that kind of behavior appeared again after disappearing for decades. I gave you my take on this: that the cries by SJW for more diversity is casting doubt on those wins.
If you think I'm wrong, tell me what you think.
It's only natural that the more people claim we need to have more women/blacks/whatever, the more people will wonder whether a woman/black/whatever actually achieved something or if they were given it to satisfy the cries for more diversity.
It's actually a sad story, that regardless of what happened, people will come up with their own reasoning to explain things in a way that satisfies their own expectations.
This has been true for so long, that if you're wondering about today's current peccadilloes, you should really look back further into the sands of time.
And no, it's not limited to just the average media award, it's a widespread phenomena.
You're saying that people are angry that nearly only women won and want to find a reason other that their books were better and they deserved it, so they blame the SJW? There are probably assholes like that.
That's not my case, I simply say that because of the SJW cries, I can't trust those awards anymore, because I don't know if a win is deserved or agenda driven, and that then does a disservice to the people they claim to defend, by lowering the value of their wins to the public.
A few years ago, I wouldn't even think about whether or not the awards were deserved when all the winners were women except for one entry which was loved by feminists, but today I can't help to wonder whether or not they were agenda driven.
You may think that I'm just sexist or racist seeking excuses, but I live in a different country, where reverse discrimination is pushed a lot and sometimes is even law, and that causes a lot of suspicion when someone from a minority achieves something, because we've seen incompetent people succeed only because of their gender or race. Discrimination is an issue, but reverse discrimination is discrimination too, and it's not a solution.
"The three body problem" was nominated but didn't win a Nebula award.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
I like how subtly you changed the claim being made before responding to it.
... "Cheating" on her "boyfriend" with a "games journalist." Those videos that Baldwin watched were talking about cronyism in the gaming media. You're just going to leave that part out?
Where else would the name have come from? Why would he pick the name gamergate if it had nothing to do with gaming? Of course it had to do with gaming, and games journalism.
I don't understand your complaint. Why is Trisolarian's plan to invade and conquer earth implausible? Just because they have advanced tech, somehow they should easily tame 3 suns orbiting in unpredictable manner? What if taking over earth is the best option they have? Or do you believe as in common scifi tropes advanced civilization must be friendly and preservation minded? The whole point of the books is advanced alien species can be extremely hostile. Also the wall-facer project is due to constant spying of the sophons sent by the Trisolarians, not just "because reasons".
It sounds like you missed the point of the books completely. The central theme is the author's offering his own explanation of the Fermi Paradox, the reasoning of which is quite compelling by a novel's standard. Yes the characterization is not the best, but if you appreciate the sci-fi aspect, those are easily tolerable.
Compared to other classic hard sci-fi, the 3 body problem is no less hard. Nearly all science elements are based on modern physics, for ex., the 11 dimension is straight from string theory. I'm sure there're inaccuracies here and there but we're not reading physics thesis here.
Actually, there's a much more fatal flaw.
The whole proton-folding scheme (I loved that one, BTW, finally found a use for all those hidden dimensions in String Theory), involves a stage where for part of the process, the unfolded proton is large enough to block out the sun(s).
At that very moment, they no longer needed to invade the Earth. Or, indeed, go anywhere. They had the technology to focus and direct the energy of their own suns, blocking them when they were too strong, aiming additional sunlight when they were too weak. I'm presuming that something as light as a single proton could be redirected far faster than the suns could move, and that furthermore, while a long-term solution to the 3-body problem might be impossible, it's almost certain that on a solar scale, it can be projected far enough to direct the solar shields safely.
So they could live quite happily right where they were until such time as their technology advanced to the level of being able to stabilize the suns themselves.
Of course, maybe the reason they continued on was that they were ruled by a party that considered "flip-flopping" to be the ultimate evil and couldn't discard a questionable strategy in favor of one notably more effective, but there we're leaving the realm of science fiction and descending into fantasy. Such pointless and irrational behavior would never happen in an intelligent species.
Look up Carbide Tipped Pens.
He has a story called "The Circle" in there, which he redid for Three Body Problem later.
It's about the emperor of China and his lead sage and building a computer made out of people.
Same thing happens at one point in the TBP... while the original story suffers from the same "Why is everyone acting stupid?" issues.
If you don't mind that story, you'll get through the books too.
He DOES have interesting ideas... but the reasoning behind how and why it all takes place is often strained.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
I personally laud the inclusion of Space Raptor Butt Invasion over more agenda pushing drivel.
...because Heinlein never pushed an agenda.
Mind you, if you think Space Raptor Butt Invasion isn't pushing an agenda, clearly you haven't read it. Gay saurophiles are the minority's minority.
I wouldn't call it "fatal", but debatable point. If memory serves me right, the sophons are a new tech for the trisolarians and they rushed it to send them to earth to stall human tech advance. The expansion process was quite fragile and not nearly weather proof as necessary. Plus invading earth also makes sure they wipe out a close neighbor who just started tech explosion, so the purpose is two fold.
I just think if one is hell bent to pick fault with a fictional work, there's bound to have plentiful holes. A reasonable standard is to compare the work with other similar work and I think 3 body problem doesn't stack too shabby at all.
You're talking about the first half of the nineteenth century. Society was way more patriarchal than today, it's sad but not a surprise that they were treated like that.
What is surprising is that in today's society, which is way less sexist, women are subjected to the same treatment. Especially when said treatment didn't occur for at least twenty years and started again a few years ago. The question now is why such behavior came back?
Oh, no, it didn't leave. Not at all. May have manifested in different variations and forms, but the underlying current has been there, and it's been running across humanity since, well, forever, I imagine. You shouldn't be surprised by humanity being as it was before, for good long time.
Archie Bunker? He's been with us all along. Not to mention others in similar clothes. This issue, I should say, is not limited simply to the female, but any number of characteristics and qualities. Race, language, eating habits, religious practices, hairstyles, I don't doubt you can find quite the litany of them.
You're right in that I didn't hear all the whispers surrounding the Nebula and Hugo, of course, so I'm willing to be proven wrong. Ursula K. Le Guin won many awards from 1970 until 2010, and I didn't see anyone criticize her for it. You claim she is criticized, do you have evidence of it?
Of Le Guin being criticized? It's going to be hard for me to provide evidence before the Internet Age, but if you want something more recent, I'm going to suggest you look at the Slashdot stories on her Earthsea novels being televised, and her reaction. Looks to be about 2004 or so. For older matters, I can only suggest that you check the Documentary if it comes out, I can't guarantee it's got the content, but if they don't bring up her being criticized for her "feminism" well then, I can only say it won't be in depth enough.
Of course, most of the focus in the Earthsea novels is a bit different orientation, but I doubt anybody will attempt The Left Hand of Darkness being made into a movie, even animation would probably never be done. There is a bit you might want to read from the coverage of a review of TLHoD at Slashdot.
Sorry I can't give you anything older, I don't feel like dragging myself into Usenet, and there's some other stuff that I just don't know if it's parody or some random screed that reminds me of the local newspaper crackpot. In fact, that's why I decided to limit myself to looking on Slashdot, I just didn't want to go deeper into it.
If no, you make my point: she won awards and nobody gave a shit about her gender, probably because her books were good and she deserved it.
Nope, I have no doubt she, like any number of people, have faced her share of criticism, both fair and unfair. Yet oddly those books have content that make for an interesting juxtaposition with what is being deplored today.
But now people are starting to doubt whether wins by diverse authors or about diversity actually deserved their wins or not. We can discussed why that kind of behavior appeared again after disappearing for decades. I gave you my take on this: that the cries by SJW for more diversity is casting doubt on those wins.
Nope, people are casting doubt on those wins, because they chose to do so. I do wonder if you could time travel to each convention and Nebula award, what thoughts you might get from those around at the time.
Oh well, I guess they can always blame Marisa Tomei.
If you think I'm wrong, tell me what you think.
Haven't I already been doing that?
Whups, sorry, forgot to get to the rest of your post. My bad.
You're saying that people are angry that nearly only women won and want to find a reason other that their books were better and they deserved it, so they blame the SJW? There are probably assholes like that.
Oh no, I'm saying something far broader than that, that people come up with rationalizations for events to fit their own expectations. No probably about it. Just watch a few arguments, you'll see it sooner or later.
This is just but one manifestation of a greater pattern.
That's not my case, I simply say that because of the SJW cries, I can't trust those awards anymore, because I don't know if a win is deserved or agenda driven, and that then does a disservice to the people they claim to defend, by lowering the value of their wins to the public.
What is to trust in these awards, exactly? Are you planning on building a life based on the winners of these awards? Seems a bit silly to me. They're books, if you don't want to pay for it, that's why they have samples and libraries (and to be honest, torrents), so either read them and examine them for yourself, or don't. Just looking at some of the winners and nominees from the early years, I can see some I liked, some I didn't. Some I could recommend even if I didn't like them, some I could not recommend to some people even if I did like them myself. Some I might have recommended once, but wouldn't now. Some I might have done the opposite.
And no matter what I did, it wouldn't cover more than a fraction of a fraction of books.
But no, you forget to apply it the other way, to the anti-SJW types, I believe they call themselves MRA or something? What about their agenda? Who do they do a disservice to? But I'll concede that they exist, as opposed to the bogeyman they claim to face. Maybe they're throwing a hornet's nest at everybody else. Where does your trust end and where does it begin?
A few years ago, I wouldn't even think about whether or not the awards were deserved when all the winners were women except for one entry which was loved by feminists, but today I can't help to wonder whether or not they were agenda driven.
Oh, you should have started wondering a lot longer ago. If you're going to let it bother you, that is. I wouldn't, but that's me. I have a very different take on things, apparently. The SFWA are just a bunch of people who got together, and if you want to know something? There were questions from the beginning. In fact, it seems the 1982 controversy is documented.
You may think that I'm just sexist or racist seeking excuses, but I live in a different country, where reverse discrimination is pushed a lot and sometimes is even law, and that causes a lot of suspicion when someone from a minority achieves something, because we've seen incompetent people succeed only because of their gender or race. Discrimination is an issue, but reverse discrimination is discrimination too, and it's not a solution.
No, I don't think much of you at all in that way. Naive? Yeah, I guess so, as it seems to me like you're catching up to things observable longer ago than you realize, but I don't know enough from you to go from there. So you think you have problems in your country, the thing is, I can look around me, find incompetent people in positions of...I wouldn't call it success, or even esteem, but maybe power, and it's got nothing to do with your country, or any reverse discrimination. Of course, there are sexist and racist people around, some thoughtless, some rationalizing, but there's lots of other problems too. And some of them even blame this "reverse discrimination" and even seem to act like it's new. Uh, no.
Such happens. If you want a solution, you're asking the wrong dealer, I'm pretty sure that I don't have any aces in the deck. You probably wou
Out of the list in the summary, the following are scifi:
1. Binti - looks like a run-of-the-mill war/coming-of-age story that is coincidentally set in space/galaxy. Not interested.
2. Our lady of the open road - definitely scifi, interesting premise. Will check this out, but not very excited.
3. Hungry daughters of starving mothers - this is neither scifi nor fantasy. A description found on the web: "It’s about terrible eating habits, generational isolation, & finding love in the big city." *snore*
4. Mad Max: Fury Road - Ummm...is this a fucking joke?
5. Updraft: looks like a nice fantasy story.
So have we no author remaining who writes hard scifi that is exciting and futuristic? Is this what we have been reduced to?
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
Male writers saw the writing on the wall years ago. These days men have their sights on bigger prizes, like Woman of the Year.
I was there since day one, and no, you're wrong. The worst you can say is that the first 4chan posts about the situation were quite nasty, and I do agree with that, but that was just 4chan trolling each other as always, Gamergate wasn't even formed back then. If you would actually go to r/kotakuinaction youd see what it was actually about, not what people wanted you to think.
Of course, the movement was overrun by actual sexists by now, which is why it died. I find it funny that almost immediately after GG stops existing, news sites start being all scummy again though (Coleco Chameleon, anyone?).
There's been a lot of books considered hard SF that did as improbable a job on the science. So, instead of faster-than-light travel, we get computers made out of a single proton? Both are highly improbable, and both fit nicely into plots.
What mostly bothered me was how the Trisolarians managed to survive. The first time we see them, they also have infrastructure for dehydrating and rehydrating, including large buildings, and the occasional massive screw-up didn't seem to doom civilizations. Finally, we see them expecting something any time now that hasn't happened for hundreds of millions of years, and they can't even make a Beowulf cluster of unfolded protons to model the orbital mechanics in the system? So massive variations and catastrophes in the civilized period, but presumably hundreds of millions of years of evolution? It felt like more of a twisted artificial setting than I'm used to.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Or maybe if Gravity hadn't beaten it by two years.
Wait until it starts gnawing on you that "dehydrating and rehydrating" is another way of describing hibernation.
I.e. Not only do those cataclysmic events DO NOT interrupt the progress of science (which is something Niven and Pournelle also figured out how to prevent, decades ago) - Trisolarans have an innate ability which allows them to colonize the galaxy at their leisure.
They should have been on both a much higher scientific level AND they should have already spread everywhere across the galaxy.
And forget about the protons.
Even as they are sending their ships towards Earth, and folding and unfolding protons, they still only realize that a Chaotic Era is starting when it already starts.
Not to mention that most their problems in previous Chaotic Eras, before they became capable of space flight, would have been solved by digging holes - not by building pyramids.
The whole thing is VERY contrived.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens