200 Significant Science Fiction Books by Women, 1984–2001, by David G. Hartwell
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james_davis_nicollI was a bit surprised to come across this as Hartwell wasn't really the go-to editor where women's SF was concerned. An interesting snapshot of SF in a sixteen-year period. The end is the fall of the American republic. Not sure what was significant about 1984.
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Cold War in a Country Garden (Dilke, volume 1) by Lindsay Gutteridge
Dec. 14th, 2025 08:46 amjames_davis_nicoll
One very small step for a man, one giant leap for Her Majesty's Government.
Cold War in a Country Garden (Dilke, volume 1) by Lindsay Gutteridge
icon community promo: retro_icontest
Dec. 14th, 2025 11:43 amtinny posting in ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
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retro_icontest - Blast From The Past Icontests - is once more embarking on
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After some digging
Dec. 13th, 2025 07:12 pmjames_davis_nicollI am not aware of any big name authors who got their start with a work published by Baen Books after 2006. If there are recent analogs of Bujold or Weber, I do not know of them.
Huh
Dec. 13th, 2025 09:39 amjames_davis_nicollSo, I asked on Bluesky:
I got three names: Chuck Gannon, Jason Cordova and Mike Kupari. Gannon actually debuted at Baen in 1994 but only two (I think) short pieces, after which there was a long delay until his novels began appearing. I don't know the other two but SF is huge and it's perfectly possible for me to overlook BNAs. Still, granting all three, with LC that makes four... and in 2028, Toni Weisskopf will have been running Baen for as long as Jim Baen did.
This could, of course, be the natural consequence of the Del Monte approach.
[added later]
Aside from Larry Correia, are there any big name Baen authors who debuted at Baen, after Jim Baen's death?
(So, Tim Powers wouldn't count because he debuted not at Baen and also long before JB died)
I got three names: Chuck Gannon, Jason Cordova and Mike Kupari. Gannon actually debuted at Baen in 1994 but only two (I think) short pieces, after which there was a long delay until his novels began appearing. I don't know the other two but SF is huge and it's perfectly possible for me to overlook BNAs. Still, granting all three, with LC that makes four... and in 2028, Toni Weisskopf will have been running Baen for as long as Jim Baen did.
This could, of course, be the natural consequence of the Del Monte approach.
[added later]
Mood Theme in a Year Returns!
Dec. 12th, 2025 07:26 pmsoc_puppet posting in dw_community_promomoodthemeinayear is coming back in 2026 with a new twist: Creating a custom mood theme can now earn you Dreamwidth points!Mood Theme in a Year is a community that takes a laid-back approach to creating a custom mood theme. If you've always wanted to create your own mood theme (those little images that pop up when you select something from the drop-down "Mood" menu when posting), this is a great place to do it! Take your time creating graphics for anywhere between 15 and 132 moods, either following the community's suggested schedule or going at your own pace. (Though you need to make a minimum of 18 graphics to earn any paid time.)
The "official" schedule starts again from the beginning on January 1st, but you can jump in at any time during the year; feel free to challenge yourself as well with Bingo cards or the Mood Theme in a Month calendars! Learn more in the community pinned post or profile.
I hope to see you there!
Merry Christmas for Poilievre!
Dec. 12th, 2025 01:26 pmjames_davis_nicollI got much better at spelling his name once I realized it contains "lie".
Embattled CPC leader's Christmas card list gets one name shorter.
Embattled CPC leader's Christmas card list gets one name shorter.
Looking Back at the Work of John Varley, 1947-2025
Dec. 12th, 2025 12:12 pmjames_davis_nicoll
Where to start reading — or rereading — Varley's many series and stories.
Looking Back at the Work of John Varley, 1947-2025
The Wayfinder by Adam Johnson
Dec. 12th, 2025 09:03 amjames_davis_nicoll
The visitors might be Bird Island's salvation or simply the next step in its doom.
The Wayfinder by Adam Johnson
It finally happened
Dec. 11th, 2025 08:24 pmswehWhen I retired in May 2024 one of the things I was hoping would happen is that I would start reading more books. When I was a kid I could easily get through 4 books a week (4 books was the most the local library would lend at a time).
As I became an adult I had less time to read. Getting up at 6:30am to catch a train to go to London to work, then drinking with co-workers and getting home gone midnight... yeah, not much reading time there!
And, of course, books got larger. A 1960s Asimov story.. oh, let's say "The End Of Eternity" (a book I loved as a kid) was 72,000 words long. A modern SciFi book starts at 100,000 words and can easily be 120,000 or more. Peter Hamilton books, maybe 170,000 words :-)
And, bluntly, stories became more sluggish. You can sprint through an Asimov story because they're pretty shallow; they have one point of view, they have a singular story vector... it's easy to read. I would get a Discworld book for Christmas and consume it in 3 hours. Something to do after Christmas dinner when people would fall asleep in front of James Bond :-)
Compare that to, say, Alastair Reynolds; we have multiple points of view, the story might be sluggish by design, to emphasize the struggle of the viewpoint character; the world might be dirty and slimey and it doesn't really encourage you to be there. Is it a more textured story? Definitely! Is it something I can read as quickly; no. Is it something I might reread? Possibly not.
Since 2008 I've been tracking the number of books I've read each year. I kinda tried to normalize the numbers ("2 Peter Hamilton Books is the same as 3 Charlie Stross books" just based on word count). Yeah, it's not a real number. But a good estimate.
And this year, I finally broke my record in that time period. I'm at 56 books and climbing. Now part of that might be because I'm re-reading the Simon R Green books (Nightside and Secret Histories). Green's writing is "quick and easy" to read.
But part of it is because I've stretched out on my sofa, put on some background music (maybe Tubular Bells, maybe Jean-Michel Jarre) and then just read for a few hours. And then gone to bed and read some more.
I think I'm getting the hang of this "retirement" lark!
As I became an adult I had less time to read. Getting up at 6:30am to catch a train to go to London to work, then drinking with co-workers and getting home gone midnight... yeah, not much reading time there!
And, of course, books got larger. A 1960s Asimov story.. oh, let's say "The End Of Eternity" (a book I loved as a kid) was 72,000 words long. A modern SciFi book starts at 100,000 words and can easily be 120,000 or more. Peter Hamilton books, maybe 170,000 words :-)
And, bluntly, stories became more sluggish. You can sprint through an Asimov story because they're pretty shallow; they have one point of view, they have a singular story vector... it's easy to read. I would get a Discworld book for Christmas and consume it in 3 hours. Something to do after Christmas dinner when people would fall asleep in front of James Bond :-)
Compare that to, say, Alastair Reynolds; we have multiple points of view, the story might be sluggish by design, to emphasize the struggle of the viewpoint character; the world might be dirty and slimey and it doesn't really encourage you to be there. Is it a more textured story? Definitely! Is it something I can read as quickly; no. Is it something I might reread? Possibly not.
Since 2008 I've been tracking the number of books I've read each year. I kinda tried to normalize the numbers ("2 Peter Hamilton Books is the same as 3 Charlie Stross books" just based on word count). Yeah, it's not a real number. But a good estimate.
And this year, I finally broke my record in that time period. I'm at 56 books and climbing. Now part of that might be because I'm re-reading the Simon R Green books (Nightside and Secret Histories). Green's writing is "quick and easy" to read.
But part of it is because I've stretched out on my sofa, put on some background music (maybe Tubular Bells, maybe Jean-Michel Jarre) and then just read for a few hours. And then gone to bed and read some more.
I think I'm getting the hang of this "retirement" lark!
A personal record...
Dec. 11th, 2025 10:30 amseawasp... I don't think I've ever been working on FIVE books at the same time ever before. Currently in-process are:
Light of Reason: The next Jason Wood novel/collection, this one starts with "Bait and Switch" and so far includes "Burnout" and, in process, "Feet on the Ground", with one bridge section. Not sure if there'll be one or two more pieces in this one or if those will be for the third and probably last purely Jason collection.
Adventurer's Academy: The story of a group of would-be Adventurers at the often-mentioned Academy during the same time period as my other fantasy series on Zarathan, featuring Lalira Revyne and Spinesnarl Mudswimmer from my short story "The Adventurer and the Toad".
The Impractical Quest: The tale of Enochlis Book-Bound, a bilarel (ogre) who wants to be a wizard despite the limitations of his people. Enochlis is seen also in the second book of the Spirit Warriors trilogy.
Articles of Faith: Fifth book in the Arenaverse series, picking up shortly after Shadows of Hyperion left off.
Unity of Vengeance: Xavier Ross actually gets to go after the people who killed his brother.
Summer of Love (Zhu Wong, volume 1) by Lisa Mason
Dec. 11th, 2025 08:28 amjames_davis_nicoll
A 2567 blueblood travels back to the Summer of Love to save one very special 16-year-old.
Summer of Love (Zhu Wong, volume 1) by Lisa Mason
New community > comicsfanfiction
Dec. 10th, 2025 07:43 pmflareonfury posting in dw_community_promocomicsfanfictionCommunity Description:
comicsfanfiction is for any comic book fanfiction including comic strips, webcomics, and graphic novels. Any rating is accepted. Feel free to post your old or new works!
Another RPG Bundle - Magical Kitties
Dec. 10th, 2025 10:30 pmffuturesThis is a new bundle of role-playing material for the introductory RPG / Story telling game Magical Kitties Save The Day from Atlas Games:
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/MagicalKitties
Atlas Games have published some very good introductory RPGs and story telling games - this one is very much in that genre, with some fun supplements for different settings and styles of play, from film noir to alien invasions. It's never been offered in these bundles before, it's cheap, and it's being run to promote a forthcoming kickstarter for a superhero rules supplement. Better buy it, or Streaky the super-cat will spit hair-balls at you at mach 5...
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/MagicalKitties
Atlas Games have published some very good introductory RPGs and story telling games - this one is very much in that genre, with some fun supplements for different settings and styles of play, from film noir to alien invasions. It's never been offered in these bundles before, it's cheap, and it's being run to promote a forthcoming kickstarter for a superhero rules supplement. Better buy it, or Streaky the super-cat will spit hair-balls at you at mach 5...