ZNAK SAGITE — više od fantastike — edicija, časopis, knjižara...

E sad, na nešto malko ležerniju forumsku notu: overila sam Black Mirror po prepurukama - hvala, hvala    - i tačno je da odlično komplementira ovu distopiju. Gledano u celini, mislim. Ali kad je reč o zasebnim delovima, moram da prijavim vrlo interesantan utisak koji mi je ostao po gledanju.


Naime, deo 15 mil kredita mi je kanda štrčao malo, i kad sam zagrebala dublje po utisku, ispostavilo se da  mi je jedino taj deo nekako... pa eto, stilizovan do granica karikaturalne krajnosti. Kopkalo me da provalim zašto je to tako (ili bar da provalim zašto me to toliko smeta), i - ne lezi vraže! Ispostavilo se da baš u tom delu vidim karikaturu kritike, za razliku od ostala dva dela, koji mi nekako ostaju u domenu ozbiljnosti, i pored sve stilizacije. Nekako sam reagovala... negativno na 15 mil kredita. Dojmilo me se to kao upravo lažnjak, kao kvazi-kritika koja nema svrhu doli da negovano i nežno desenzitira primaoca, kao da je u pitanju nekakva vakcina na pravu kritiku kakvu ostala dva dela nude. I tu negde i nabasam na podatak da je ko-scenaristkinja zapravo bila angažovana na Xfaktoru, pa je dobila nogu nakon neke frke sa jednim od sudija, pa je ovaj scenario neka vrst vraćanja duga i tako to... nisam išla u detalje, nisam htela spojlere, ali u svakom slučaju, to je tačno leglo ko kec na mog cenera, jer pitanje je kakav bi njen scenario bio da je ostala u xfaktoru. ako shvatate što hoću da kažem. 

Libe, u poslednjih cirka godinu dana primetila sam da se umereno često pojavljuju neke distopije usredsređene na trudnice, ali pošto slabo čitam to je zasnovano pre svega na ovim tvojim prikazima, npr. klinka koja je osuđena da umre ako rodi i ona varijanta sa ženama pretvorenim u srećne bebi-mašine. Ne znam koliko je to inače čest distopijski motiv, ali sve ovo nabrojano meni strašno vuče na (zlo)upotrebu nekih opšteženskih strahova (šta ako umrem na porođaju, šta ako beba bude falična, šta ako mi mozak ispari od materinstva) sa kojom sam se u ovako radikalnim verzijama ranije uglavnom sretala u hororu...

^^прилично се слажем са тобом, мене је та прича по свом промашају подсетила на филм horrible bosses (има јако добра гулова критика филма иако му је дао непримерено високу оцену)

Jevtro, uz ono što republikanci rade i pokušavaju da rade po Americi, priče o trudnoćama i ženski strahovi su jezivo aktuelni.

Pa dobro, ali makar ovaj je Škot, ne mora se brinuti zbog republikanaca u SAD... sad se pitam kako bi izgledala neka norveška ili holandska distopija.

Quote from: дејан on 18-04-2012, 14:39:56
^^прилично се слажем са тобом, мене је та прича по свом промашају подсетила на филм horrible bosses (има јако добра гулова критика филма иако му је дао непримерено високу оцену)

bas tako, sad kad pominjes taj film... doduse, iz rivjua se vidi da ghoul ima investiciju da ga takav film razgali malko vise nego sto je mene razgalio. 

Quote from: Jevtropijevićka on 18-04-2012, 14:38:08
Libe, u poslednjih cirka godinu dana primetila sam da se umereno često pojavljuju neke distopije usredsređene na trudnice, ali pošto slabo čitam to je zasnovano pre svega na ovim tvojim prikazima, npr. klinka koja je osuđena da umre ako rodi i ona varijanta sa ženama pretvorenim u srećne bebi-mašine. Ne znam koliko je to inače čest distopijski motiv, ali sve ovo nabrojano meni strašno vuče na (zlo)upotrebu nekih opšteženskih strahova (šta ako umrem na porođaju, šta ako beba bude falična, šta ako mi mozak ispari od materinstva) sa kojom sam se u ovako radikalnim verzijama ranije uglavnom sretala u hororu...

pa vidi, to je maltene i najnormalnija zenska preokupacija, tako da je moja prva reakcija na kontroverzu u romanu bila isto pomalo sok i neverica - mislim, eto, ja bih na njenom mestu taj fix sigurno uzela. ali kad vidis reakciju na odluku da Hope fix ne uzme, i kada vidis licemerje koje sistem ostavlja kao izlaz (prihvataju se odbijanaj fixa na religioznoj osnovi, tako da je Hope mogla da se iz toga izvuce pod krinkom prava na veroispovest) ostane ti da se zapitas da li su neke od tzv. "zenskih odlika" zaista stvarne ili samo konstrukti. istto tako, vrlo je kontroverzna ideja o zenskom aktivizmu per se, ali detaljisanje o tome bi znanto spojlovalo roman, posto je meni upravo taj aspekt daleko impresivniji nego sam zaplet. ali okej, roman je sveze izasao, za mesec-dva ce garant biti vise govora o njemu, a i overice ga ovde svi oni kojima je stalo.

Uh, ovo je nešto... stvarno... nemam reči. 











http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?type&id=652&fulltext=1&media

Je si li čitala njegov "The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village"?
Dobio sam tu knjigu neposredno pošto je objavljena i bio potpuno... fale mi reči da opišem iskustvo...


Kad se setim kako sam se osećao kad sam čitao Dilejnija te davne 1989, dođe mi da
Spinradove biografske ispovesti čitam kao omladisku literaturu...

Nisam. Ono sto sam o knjizi posredno saznala nabedilo me kako ce liberal u meni skroz da ustukne pred takvim Dilejnijem... ali dobro, ionako sam uvek smatrala da ga i ne bi trebalo citati pre cetrdesete, bar ne ono sto je napisao posle mu cetrdesete  ... eto, ako prezivim paukovo gnezdo, pozabavicu se i time.

Nova StarShipSofa nudi intervju sa jednim od mojih omiljenih pisaca - Peter Watts.

http://www.starshipsofa.com/2012/06/27/starshipsofa-no-244-peter-watts/

Ne znam kud sa ovom vesti... 


Gabriel García Márquez's writing career ended by dementiaBrother of Nobel prize-winning Colombian writer says side-effects of cancer treatment have accelerated his decline.




The Nobel prizewinning author Gabriel García Márquez is suffering from senile dementia and can no longer write, his brother has revealed.

Jaime García Márquez told students in Cartagena, Colombia, that his older brother, affectionately know as Gabo, calls him on the telephone to ask basic questions.

"He has problems with his memory. Sometimes I cry because I feel like I'm losing him," he said.

The 85-year-old Colombian writer won the Nobel prize in 1982 and is best known for novels including One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera and Chronicle of a Death Foretold.

He has fought a long battle against lymphatic cancer which he contracted in 1999 and it is believed that the cancer treatment has accelerated his mental decline.

"Dementia runs in our family and he's now suffering the ravages prematurely due to the cancer that put him almost on the verge of death," said Jaime. "Chemotherapy saved his life, but it also destroyed many neurons, many defences and cells, and accelerated the process. But he still has the humour, joy and enthusiasm that he has always had."


http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/07/gabriel-garcia-marquez-career-dementia

rivju novog romana Adama Bakera, nesto kao prikvel vrlo dobrom Outpostu:


Juggernaut

 

I'm not happy with Adam Baker, really not happy at all and the reason why is that I had an idea for a zombie novel set in a desert years ago, but didn't really do anything with it except let it bubble away on the back burner and now he comes out with Juggernaut, a prequel to his novel Outpost, although they are both fairly stand-alone books, and can be enjoyed separately, even if Juggernaut tells us why things got into such dire straits in Outpost.

To be fair, my intended novel involved a more supernatural basis for the zombie menace while Baker's novel has echoes of two movies - George Romero's Night of the Living Dead, and Three Kings starring George Clooney. If you know that latter film, then you can probably guess the plot of Juggernaut. Yes, you got it, it is 2005 and seven mercenaries are looking for Saddam Hussein's gold. The dictator has been captured, but things are still fairly chaotic in Iraq which gives ex-special forces soldier, Lucy Whyte, and her mercenary band the perfect opportunity to go treasure hunting and check out the old temple in a hidden valley in the middle of the desert where the bullion has supposedly been hidden. It couldn't be simpler, just hire a couple of helicopters and enlist the help of a POW from the Republican Guards whose comrades have all died – ker-ching, and just try on the way to ignore all the rumours about exactly, how all those Iraqi soldiers did die?

Unknown to our disparate, and intense band, the area they are heading for is the crash site of a Russian space station called Spektr (what was I saying about echoes of the Romero film that changed the zombie landscape forever?) and unfortunately the station contained a bio-weapon which has contaminated the surrounding area and the fallen Republican Guards, who are quickly reanimated due to the presence of Lucy and her crew.

Given that premise, Juggernaut lives up to its title, delivering an almost unstoppable rollercoaster ride of action, adventure, mayhem and horror, with a liberal dosing of black humour to spice things up, or relieve the tension in places. Baker doesn't let his knowledge of extreme desert conditions nor his knowledge of 'tech' and weaponry get in the way of spinning a thrilling yarn through the use of lean, mean prose that is light on the jarring info-dumps. Sadly the chapters are un-numbered but as a reluctant reader I'm happy to report that in keeping with the narrative drive they are reasonably short and interspersed with the odd map, or "for your eyes only" type memos. This could be Andy McNab meets The Walking Dead. Although there could be some criticisms made about the characters being a tad on the stereotypical side – are we talking another film here, namely Predator? But I suppose it is difficult to keep seven major characters up in the air, especially in such a fast-moving plot where there fate really isn't in doubt, although suffice to say that Baker has excelled himself again with a strong, well-rounded female character, just as in Outpost. There are also some subplots involving manipulative CIA agents and mysterious corporations, but I won't mention Resident Evil – ouch, just did.

But do not let my flippancy put you off, Adam Baker has come up with a novel that pushes all the buttons and does what it says on the rusty, blood-splattered tin. The only other writer I think that is coming close to this sort of fiction is Jonathan Maberry with his Joe Ledger series of books, the first of which was Patient Zero which mined similar territory – soldiers and bioterrorism – but Baker's offering is a more believable, grittier affair than Maberry's G.I. Joe-like novel. However, I wouldn't be surprised, if like Maberry, Baker's novel is optioned for the big screen, just like mine could have been, damm.

---

http://www.concatenation.org/frev/baker_juggernaut.html

i rivju prvog dela Ortogonal Trilogije:

The Clockwork Rocket

 

On an alien world Yalda lives on a farm and would have been destined for a life of rural simplicity were it not for her burning curiosity. Why do the stars look the way they do? What were the hurlers flying through the sky? Why do metal springs get heavier when relaxed? Yalda wants to know why the universe works the way it does. Despite discrimination and social taboos, Yalda gets the chance to study astronomy. However Yalda's world is threatened by the hurlers, for if one struck then that would be then end of the planet. Yet the number of hurlers in the night sky is increasing and so it is only a matter of time before disaster strikes.

There is one possible gamble they can take. If they can build a spaceship they may be able to travel very fast and close to the speed of light. The consequence of this will be that time on the ship will speed up and so while the ship could be in space for years or even decades, hardly any time will have passed on their home world. During this time the crew will research the hurlers problem and, hopefully, devise a solution.

Now before you go and say that all this is back-to-front – that time would travel slowly on the ship travelling near the speed of light and not quickly – you need to know that this novel is not set in our universe but a different one. Indeed it did cross my mind that this novel might have been set inside the Schwarzschild radius orbiting a super-massive black hole. Inside black holes are not meant to be part of our universe and in them the laws of physics break down. If this were so then Egan would be building on the premise underpinning Incandescence, whose splinter orbited a neutron star. If Yalda's world was inside a black hole then there is a chance that her ship might encounter others from our Universe. However here I am speculating wildly and the premise that Yalda's universe is different to our own is sufficiently rich a concept to keep SF readers entertained without my second-guessing Egan.

It has to be said that you really do have to be into hard SF and possibly physics in order to enjoy The Clockwork Rocket as the book is littered with info dumps that include many graphs and diagrams. Clearly Greg Egan has gone to a lot of trouble to create this alternate Universe and he is sharing the innards of his construction with us. Of course, as Egan points out in the book's afterward, his construction is not perfect but then in the real world we have already had generations of physicist trying to sort out the physics of our universe without managing to unify all the forces: we have no antigravity drive (yet).

As with the physics Yalda's species biology is also very alien.

Now, Greg Egan is known as a master of hard SF and his novels Quarrantine and Permutation City have both become minor SF classics. However unlike his previous novels this really is an SF novel mixed up with an exposition in universe-building with the story itself blatantly a vehicle for exploring the physics and biology of Yalda's space-time continuum and species respectively. There is nothing wrong in this. Granted it is different to traditional story-tellingbut then ground-breaking works are by their nature different. The question is whether or not this novel will attract a large number of readers. To be honest I simply do not know, but one thing of which I am assured is that this novel's set-up will be discussed for many years within SF circles.

---

http://www.concatenation.org/frev/egan_clockwork_rocket.html

... na malko sentimentalnu notu:












Science Fiction: it has been a muse of geeks, techies and scientists for decades. Many of the technologies we explore on Singularity Hub were first imagined and explored in SF (star trek tricorders, the WWW, robot cars, etc), driving technologists to make them real, which in turn inspires a new round of SF. In thinking about predicting and solving global grand challenges, the storytelling and worldbuilding of SF has much to contribute. Singularity University's (SU) 1st ever Science Fiction panel took place on July 17th. As a prelude, here's an interview with Vernor Vingebelow, as well as the full footage of his talk about groupminds at SU on June 25, 2012.




Hugo Award-winning science fiction writer Vernor Vinge maintains science fiction is merely a form of scenario based planning about the future of mankind. Vinge, a retired San Diego State University Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, coined the term "the Singularity" roughly 30 years ago in reference to a time of vastly accelerating technological change. I had a chance to sit down with Vinge and ask him about the Singularity, accelerating technology, and more. Check out the video below:

In outlining various paths to a technological Singularity, Vinge believes scenario based planning is incredibly important when outcomes are uncertain. It gives you a system of symptoms to watch for, so you can plan responses for different sets of symptoms. If you are doing scenario based planning, having a science fiction writer as a loose canon in your next meeting may shake up the committee in a positive way.


Vinge's scenarios for how humanity could get to a tech singularity are as follows:


1. Pure Artificial Intelligence: The advent of an intelligent superhuman computer.


2. Intelligence Amplification: Take a natural mind, interface it with a computer and make it smarter (popular science fiction author David Brin calls the computer a neo-neo cortex; the machine part allows us to be smart, and the human part provides us with the component we're good at: wanting things).


3. Computer Networks + Humanity: A phenomenon he calls "groupmind" or social networking, where we achieve superhuman intelligence (at least a functional sort – proceeding at a more robust rate than the others) through coordinated group efforts. An example of this would be Wikipedia.


4. Digital Gaia: A world with ubiquitous microprocessors able to communicate with their neighbors: if every physical object knew what it was, where it was, and could communicate with any other device, the result could be one where the world itself wakes up and becomes its own database.


5. Biomedical improvements in human intelligence lead to better memory and other changes.


Vinge spends the majority of his lecture at Singularity University detailing the taxonomy of groupminds – their qualities in size, origin, focus, hardware/software, longevity, interaction, sociology, design, and implications for his other paths to the singularity. He also talks about outliers – societal makers vs. breakers.


Vinge advises large institutions to understand that when they look at participants in groupminds they are looking at an intellectual resource that dwarfs anything we'd seen in the 20th century. There's a real chance groupminds will prove worthy competitors, adversaries, and counterparts to social organizations and corporations in many situations . The downsides are that a groupmind may suppress slow thoughtful thinking about problems and may outsource morality. Vinge's lecture also veers into the philosophical with his thoughts on identity and an individual's desire for global self-awareness.


Vinge ends his talk on an optimistic note by saying "a post-scarcity economy is not a post-singularity idea: the reach of the mind will always exceed its grasp." He predicts that even if we continue to experience technological unemployment, "bright sparks of human level intuition, creativity, and insight" will remain. "We'll always be able to think of projects that are beyond what we can presently do." Vinge believes with technology it's possible to become or create creatures that surpass humans in every aspect of intelligence – and perhaps only an extreme physical catastrophe can stop this change.


If science fiction is essentially a scenario, its enormous advantage over other types of scenario based planning is that it can inspire action in its readers, especially when those readers are specialists. If the story emotionally engages the reader, the credentials of the writer do not matter. The specialist (reader) is the one who does the heavy lifting, turning the author's broad brushstrokes into something that exists in the real world. This is the underappreciated characteristic of science fiction – its ability to move the scientific community to reach across the parameters of possibility.




Still want more Vinge? Below you can see a video of Vernor Vinge's entire lecture recently delivered at Singularity University's Graduate Summer Program:


http://singularityhub.com/2012/07/17/sh-interviews-vernor-vinge-how-will-we-get-to-the-technological-singularity/

Krasnia je jedna od onih državica koje su u post-SSSR periodu osvanule nezavisne u čoporu entiteta poput Uzbekistana, Kurdistana, Turkmenistana i Kirdistana. Krasnia je, naravno, fiktivna država koju MacLeod predstavlja delićima opštepoznate istorije ostalih "-stana", sve zajedno sa njenim fiktivnim misliocima, revolucionarima i sa tragičnom istorijom pod ruskom strahovladom. Na početku romana, Krasnia vrije novom revolucijom, predstavljenom isto tako generičkim opštepoznatim nijansama za koje svi znaju da postoje, ali se niko i ne trudi konkretno da ih precizira - ili su u pitanju porođajni grčevi specifične demokratije mutirane na bazi diktatorskog i jednopartijskog političkog režima, ili su u pitanju ekonomske trzavice nepravične raspodele komunistički akumulisanog bogatstva, ili su u pitanju socijalne i kulturne metamorfoze društva koje traži načina da imitira zapadnjačku demokratsku progresivnost u uslovima krajnje izolovane srednjeazijske kulture gotovo feudalnog mentaliteta.


U Krasnia slučaju, reč je o svemu tome pomalo, pa i to dodaje kredibilitetu premise.




Lucy Stone radi kao programer video-igara i vezana je za Krasniu pomalo bizarnim spletom okolnosti: njena majka Amanda i baba po majci Eugenija su rodom iz Krasnie a sama Lucy ni ne zna pouzdano ko joj je otac, da li izvesni staljinistički funkcioner ili izvesni post-komunistički revolucionar, s tim što su obojica aktivni i u ovoj, aktuelnoj krasnijskoj revoluciji. Lucy je u program svoje video-igre unela teren i tradiciju Krasnie, što iz sopstvenog mutnog prisećanja, što iz knjige koju je upravo Amanda napisala i koju je osim Lucy pročitao prilično zanemarljiv broj ljudi. Ali to obilje Krasnia podataka koje je igra ponudila ostavilo je dojam da iza njih stoji ekspert po mnogim Krasnia pitanjima, i Lucy se zato uskoro zatiče vrbovana sa sviju špijunskih strana, od CIA pa do njene lokalne krasnijske postKGB NKVD varijante. Polaskana novootkrivenom sopstvenom vrednošću i iskreno zainteresovana da rasvetli neke bizarne događaje iz detinjstva (tu uključujući i dilemu oko očinstva), Lucy se vrtoglavo baca u avanturu, postepeno otkrivajući kako je bizarnost njenog detinjstva tek beznačajni deo straobalne bizarnosti koja dovodi u pitanje celokupnu stvarnost.   

















Neobičan roman, zaista. Zaplet je obilan do granice haotičnosti, u često korištenom maniru žanrovskih osvrtanja na istorijsko-političke kuriozitete. Iskreno, teško je reći koliko se tu koriste stvarna zbivanja (pa makar nam bila ponuđena i sa daškom revizionizma) a koliko je sve to čista fikcija: Berjožkin, Ježov, Arbatov i Klebov su možda stvarni a možda izmišljeni, iako su njihove sudbine u staljinističkim čistkama bile sasvim redovna pojava. No svejedno, pošto ovo ipak nije ideja niti blizu redu veličine Grobnice za Borisa Davidoviča, niti su njeni konkretni podzapleti opravdani ikakvom sličnom potrebom za suočavanjem bolne istorije, pa zato smatram da je bolje takav sadržaj prihvatiti kao čisto ornamentalan. Moguće je da je MacLoad fasciniran tim za njega egzotičnim komunističkim kuriozitetima, pa se samo zbog toga i latio istih, ali u suštini, za nas nesrećnike koji o tome znamo dovoljno da uočimo kome je i zašto to danas egzotično - slabo je sve to ukomponovano. Efekat koji je time postignut ne samo da je mlak i neopravdan, nego je i pomalo konfuzan u svojoj nameri: MacLeodova Krasnia možda nekome i može biti specifična u toj i takvoj egzotici, ali sigurno nije dovoljno specifična da je vidimo i kao neophodnu samom raspletu. Ono što je MacLeod na kraju isporučio ima vrlo malo veze sa tom i takvom postavkom i moglo je funkcionisati na bilo kojoj istorijsko-političkoj kulisi, bilo istinitoj ili proizvoljnoj. 




Konačna i do samog kraja sakrivana premisa romana priziva u sećanje filmove poput Dark City i 13th Floor, s tim što se oni baškare u svim prednostima koji nudi vizuelni medij kada obrađuje alternativnu realnost, što The Restoration Game ipak ne uspeva da nadoknadi svojom pomalo zbrzanom završnicom; ideja o programerskoj varijanti Sinaja je svakako impresivna ali ostaje narativno neiskorištena pa stoga i poprilično dekorativna. U nekom čvršćem kontekstu, sam taj element bi možda i briljirao kao centralni deo ikonografije, ali ovde je tako sporadično ponuđen i obrađen da se doima kao naprosto potraćen potencijal.




MacLeod je krajnje proračunato odabrao koncept koji redovito opako udara na nerve svakog iskrenog ljubitelja žanra, i to tako što mu uskraćuje očekivani i uporno nudi neočekivani. The Restoration Game kreće i velikim delom traje kao prevashodno hibrid krimi i špijunskog romana, što nije samo po sebi mana, naravno, daleko bilo, ali kad prevalite tri četvrtine romana u tom maniru, prosto morate da se zapitate KAD i KAKO to roman misli da isporuči sve što obećava po pitanju SFa.




A sama obećanja su nedvosmislena, bez obzira na svu suptilnost. Stvarnost koju The Restoration Game nudi krije sitne hendikepe koji nikad nisu dovoljno jaki ili brojni da ih prepoznate kao alternativnu realnost, ali su ipak dovoljno impresivni da dovedu u pitanje saglasnost oko realnosti. Svet u kom Lucy živi je taman dovoljno faličan da ne bude svet koga ste svesni, iako definitivno znate da to nije svet alternativan vašem, a otud i samopodrazumevajuće obećanje da će se faličnost opravdati. I opravdala se ona na kraju, naravno, ali u jednom prilično zahtevnom maniru koji nije uvek i svakome lako prihvatljiv. Osetite se pomalo kao da vam je roman kroz svoje tri četvrtine mahao silno lepom šargarepom pred nosem, a vi ste tek na kraju uspeli da je malko i gricnete, i to em vrlo skromno, em isuviše dockan.

hm-hmmmm....  ko moze odoleti knjizi koja upozorava na "adult content"??? 




   This short story is set in 2507

".........rather like the bees in a beehive all Top 600 citizens existed purely to ensure the welfare and survival of The City. Total 24-hour surveillance ensured that corruption could not occur.

Today's decisions would determine the immediate future of The City and its citizens.........."

Warning - Contains Adult Content    Show More  Show Less

...
One unsettling touchstone moment occurred when I realized that perhaps the most powerful and thought-provoking story in the book -- at least to me -- was "And I Awake and Found me Here on the Cold Hill's Side" by James Tiptree, Jr., posthumous winner of this year's Solstice Award. This story from 1972 is the epitome of 70s disturbing social science fiction, extrapolating what man's inbred desire for genetic diversity might cause when there are extraterrestrial aliens among us. It is more powerful today than it was when I was 20, and did not recognize the literary allusion of the title taken from the John Keats poem about love with a fairy woman.
...
A review by D. Douglas Fratz
http://www.sfsite.com/07b/na372.htm

Intervju s John Joseph Adamsom.

Quote

OK: Barnes & Noble called you "the reigning king of the anthology world." What's the secret of your kingship? In other words, what makes one editor better than another?

JJA: I can't claim I know what the secret is, but I think that at least part of the reason my anthologies have been successful is that I think my taste appeals to a broad demographic and yet my choices are discerning enough that my anthologies tend to be critically-acclaimed; it's a tricky thing to balance, and I'm not sure it's something you can learn or develop—I'm just lucky that my inherent ideas about what makes good sf and fantasy are in agreement with what a large percentage of the reading public thinks too.

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2012/07/guest-interview-prolific-editor-john-joseph-adams-on-science-fiction-anthologies-and-the-future-of-printed-and-digital-books-and-magazines/#more-58284

Evo rivjua Hjugo nominacija By Paul Weimer |                   
   

Carolyn Ives GilmanThe Ice Owl


In Carolyn Ives Gilman's The Ice Owl, set in her The Twenty Planets universe, we are introduced to the prickly Thorn, young inhabitant of an world and universe where travel between planets is possible at lightspeed, but ansibles make communication much faster. The story focuses on her and her fellow members of the underclass, the strata of society who migrate or are forced to move from one world to another. The story explores the consequences of remembering and honoring history, especially tragic events, as well as asymmetric relationships between adults and young adults. Its a decently crafted story in an interesting universe I want to know more about, even if this story did not particularly resonate strongly with me.


Kij JohnsonThe Man Who Bridged the Mist


Kij Johnson's The Man Who Bridged the Mist is a character focused story about Kit Meinem of Atyar the architect who would be the first to bridge a wide spot in a world where the deadly mists that span this crossing and indeed bisect the empire mean that ferry folk have a lucrative, but extremely hazardous profession. And a bridge would change that forever.

Johnson brings strong literary fiction techniques and style to the piece. Admittedly, the genre nature of the piece is slight enough that it could be read as fantasy, science fiction, literary fiction, or in the polder, the borderlands between genre and non-genre pieces. I wasn't entirely sold on the political aspects of the worldbuilding of the world the story presents, however.


Mary Robinette KowalKiss Me Twice

Kiss Me Twice, by Mary Robinette Kowal is on the surface a police procedural and mystery where the partner of the human cop is the artificial intelligence of the police station. The story starts off as an ostensible milk run of a case for an inexperienced officer being nannied by the police station artificial intelligence (who appears to him in the form of Mae West). However, this soon gets complicated and twisted by a bold gambit where the AI herself is kidnapped, leaving a backup in her place. And there is still a crime to solve...

Digging a little deeper, the story explores issues of identity, self-awareness, volition and much more. I don't know if the universe of Kiss Me Twice is the same as her Hugo Award winning story "For Want of a Nail", but while both stories involve issues surrounding an AI, Kiss Me Twice explores issues of AI identity from a different viewpoint. Kiss Me Twice keeps her playful, joyful writing style and this was the most fun (and my favorite) of the five stories.


Ken LiuThe Man Who Ended History: A Documentary

Ken Liu brings us The Man Who Ended History. A new time travel technique that allows one-time appearances into history is first used by its inventor to explore the circumstances and provide catharsis for the victims of a Japanese medical experiment facility at Pingfang in China during WWII. Every bit as horrific as Nazi experiments and camps, but far less known, the story explores that tragic historical event and place, and in addition brings to the fore questions of what history is and what and who it is for.

I found the story moving, heart-aching and touching, invoking real, tragic, overlooked history I had never heard of to provide an emotional impact that extends from the writing itself into reality.


Catherynne M. ValenteSilently and Very Fast

Silently and Very Fast, by Catherynne M. Valente is the story of an AI developed to be the companion of the scions of a family while within the family estate. Over time, as the family develops, grows and changes, the AI, too, undergoes development, die-back and growth in concert. I found the use of myth and mythological themes, resonances and language, a hallmark of the author's writing, to be haunting and memorable.

Taken as a set, I found many parallels and connections between the five stories. Both Gilman's story and Liu's tale deal with the consequences of history, upon survivors and upon those who would dig it up. Kiss me Twice and Silently and Very Fast are very different takes on Artificial Intelligence, the former wrapping issues of A.I. into police procedural, and the latter taking a long, future historical view of an A.I.'s growth and development, shading it into mythology and legend.

Similarly, that looking forward and the permanence and impermanence of constructs, be they social or man-made, connects the Kij Johnson story with Valente's. Kiss me Twice and The Man Who Ended History both invoked thoughts and comparisons to Asimov, the R Daneel Olivaw for the former, and Asimov's take on the use of Time Travel to process and deal with history both personal and public in his story "The Dead Past".

Even without reading the sixth nominee, Deadline, it is clear that this is a strong ballot of stories to choose from. Whether you vote or not, I strongly recommend that you give the stories a try. While novellas and short stories may not be the economic wellspring and heart-spring of the genre community, I still think that in most ways, they are crucibles of innovation, of technique, of theme, of ideas, and of authors themselves.

Elem, da iskoristim još sveže utiske prekjučerašnje grandiozne ceremonije otvaranja Olimpijade i da kažem reč-dve o prvencu Teda Kosmatke - The Games. Pogađate, naravno, naslov se referiše upravo na Olimpijadu, i to jednu specifičnu, u vrlo nam bliskoj budućnosti, preko koje Kosmatka vrlo uspešno secira društvenjačku evoluciju u maniru do te mere uverljivom da je postavku teško prepoznati kao fantastičnu, bez obzira na svu očiglednost futurističkog mehanizma kojim Kosmatka tako impresivno barata.




Oslanjajući se na uverljiv koncept kako svaki naš potez neminovno uslovljava druge da reaguju, Kosmatka nudi obilje materijala iz kojeg lako možete složiti model koji najviše odgovara vašem svetonazoru, bez da se odviše upuštate u traženje famoznog "uzroka svih posledica". Kosmatka opisuje posledice koje su očigledno imale bezbroj uzroka, uredno složenih u fino kazualističko tkanje u kojem se ama baš ništa ne može osporiti, jer daleko smo čudnijim i bizarnijim zbivanjima već bili očevici, pa je zato lako za pretpostaviti da nam budućnost leži upravo u tom pravcu. Na stranu sad sama Olimpijada, ali - da li je zaista bilo ijednog slavnog i novčano obilnog sportskog događanja kojeg nisu ispratile kojekakva kvarna otkrića o dopinzima i drogama, steroidima i kojekakvim specijalnim spido gaćama koje više obaraju rekorde negoli onaj ko ih nosi? Nije ni bog zna kakvo otkriće da novčane investicije u ParaOlimpijade proizvode više tehnoloških pomagala negoli mnoga istraživanja iza kojih stoje profitu manje nastrojeni striktno medicinarski porivi, pa je relativno lako baviti se ekstrapolacijama tih konkretno startnih pozicija. Kosmatka radi upravo to, i ne bavi se odviše jalovom kontemplacijom ko je i kako sve to započeo, pošto bi se to i u stvarnom svetu svelo na tupava palanačka kvazifilozofiranja o kvazidilemi šta je zapravo starije, kokoš ili jaje. Ne, ne, Kosmatka je isuviše zreo autor za takve zamke, pa se zato i ne bavi pitanjima ko je sve to počeo, njega zanima kuda sve to zapravo vodi i odvodi, a ta destinacija je - genetska manipulacija.




Dakle, The Games se ponajviše bavi tom idućom fazom sportskog dopinga: čak i osrednje talentovan hermafrodit će u kategoriji ženskog takmičenja skočiti više, trčati brže i baciti disk dalje od najboljeg ženskog takmičara, a ako ga zbog toga mrko pogledate, na vas će se sručiti lavina pravedničkog gneva polno-rodnih mahinatora sa debelim investicijama po pitanju rezultata. I mnogi će se sportovi zbog tog dranja poklopiti ušima, makar zbog mira u kući, ali Olimpijada... pa eto, Olimpijada je zbivanje posebnog i singularnog reda veličine čiji uticaj premašuje sportske okvire i zadire duboko u društvenjačko tkivo civilizacije, jer poznato je da čak i zaraćene strane zakopaju ratnu sekiru i pritule huškačku retoriku upravo zbog Olimpijade. Stoga se Kosmatka bavi Olimpijadom kao lučonošom društvenog razuma: ne, ne možete prisliti sve zemlje ovog sveta da se uzdrže od genetskog prčkanja po svojim olimpijskim kandidatima, ne možete ih prisiliti da se uzdrže od unapređivanja plivača skrivenim škrgama i kožicama između prstiju... pa kad je već tako, kad su već toliko namerili da upravo u Olimpijadi nalaze poligon za svoja genetska istraživanja, onda... onda im dajte posebnu disciplinu, zvanu Gladijator, u kojoj će moći da učestvuju upravo genetski manipulisana stvorenja, i to uz dva striktno pridržavana uslova: prvi je da će sve takmičarske nacije u ostale discipline slati samo zdrava i prava prirodno talentovana ljudska bića a drugi je da će u disciplini Gladijatora moći da se takmiče samo genetski manipulisana stvorenja bez ijednog ljudskog gena. Drugim rečima, Olimpijski Komitet je dao ultimatum svojim članicama da puste ljude na miru i eksperimentišu isključivo sa životinjama.



Kao rezultat ultimatuma, disciplina Gladijator je došla u centar investicione pažnje, dok su ostale discipline ostavljene u zapećku minornog interesovanja. Ogromne pare se slivaju u rupu bez dna zvanu Gladijator i pobeda u toj olimpijskoj disciplini nije više samo pitanje prestiža, nego i najprofitabilnija investicija u svetu.




Tu negde kreće zaplet romana i oslanja se na dva glavna lika: Evan Chandler i Silas Williams. Evan je jedan od onih specifično autističnih ljudi koji je još u ranom detinjstvu prepoznat kao društveno beskorisna jedinka sa nemerljivim intelektualnim potencijalnom koji je dolazio do izražaja jedino u domenu kompjuterskog programiranja, dok je Silas briljantni genetičar, primarno u domenu dizajna. Ukratko, Silas je dizanirao koncept nepobedivog Gladijatora a Evanu je dato da osmisli kompjuterski program koji bi taj dizajn proveo u stvarnost. Naravno, zaplet romana se ravnomerno oslanja i na sitni problem koji je rezultirao iz činjenice da su i Evan i Silas briljantni geniji u svom domenu, pa je stoga i Gladijator kojeg su stvorili imao sve karakteristike svojih kreatora, dodatno armirane primarnom omaškom koju počine svi ljudi kad streme ka savršenstvu: Gladijator je posedovao inteligenciju kojoj nekako baš i nije bilo dovoljno da svoje trajanje završi u olimpijskoj areni borbe do smrti.











Odlično odmeren kontrast tehnofilije vs tehnofobije pravi od ovog romana napet tehnotriler koji sa lakoćom vraća genetičke monstruoznosti pod okrilje žanra koji ih je i porodio - u okrilje SFa. U maniru upozoravajućeg tehnofobskog tona kakav se lansirao još sa Frankenštajnovim stvorenjem, The Games osvežava temu čovekove nesposobnosti da sopstvene tehnološke sposobnosti drži pod razumnom kontrolom, stavljajući sve to u okvir upornog preispitivanja etike i morala iza čovekovih odluka da se u neke podvige upusti ne zbog konkretne nužnosti, nego prosto zato što je to u njegovoj moći. Tanušna linija opravdanja između opšte prihvatljivosti jednog poteza u domenu medicinske potrebe i osporavanja istog tog poteza u domenu kozmetike  za Kosmatku je bila dovoljno širok teren da na njemu sagradi vrlo zabavnu i provokativnu konstrukciju koja očas posla razotkrije duboko usađeno licemerje kojim smo premazali izmišljene i lažne dileme, samo da ne bi odveć razbijali glavu oko stvarnih.


Impresivan prvenac autora čije ime svakako vredi zapamtiti - Ted Kosmatka.

Books You Should Have Read in 2011-2012

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2012/08/books-you-should-have-read-in-2011-2012/

... e pa da se time pozabavimo. 




Following is the list of books that A.T. noted as being mentioned by the panelists.

   
• Alastair Reynolds – Blue Remembered Earth
• Ayize Jama-Everett – The Liminal People
• Bruce Sterling – Gothic High-Tech
• Charles Stross – The Apocalypse Codex
• Ernest Cline – Ready Player One
• F Paul Wilson – Nightworld
• Francis Spufford – Red Plenty
• Geoff Ryman – Paradise Tales
• George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, ed. – Down these Strange Streets
• Greg Egan – The Clockwork Rocket
• Haruki Murakami – 1Q84
• Heartless – Gail Carriger
• Holly Black & Ellen Kushner, ed. – Welcome to Bordertown
• Iain Banks – Stonemouth
• Ian McDonald – Planesrunner
• J M McDermott – When We Were Executioners
• James S. A. Corey – Caliban's War
• Jason Heller – Taft 2012
• Jim Butcher – Ghost Story
• Jo Walton – Among Others
• John Joseph Adams, ed. – Other Worlds than These
• John Love – Faith
• John Scalzi – Fuzzy Nation and Red Shirts
• Jonathan L. Howard – Johannes Cabal the Detective
• Kage Baker – The Best of Kage Baker
• Kameron Hurley – God's War
• Kameron Hurley – Infidel
• Kendare Blake – Anna Dressed in Blood
• Kim Newman – The Hound of the D'Urbervilles
• Kim Stanley Robinson – 2312
• Laird Barron – The Croning
• Laura Anne Gilman – Pack of Lies
• Lauren Beukes – Zoo City
• Laurie R. King – The Pirate King
• Margaret Atwood – In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination
• Mark Lawrence – Prince of Thorns
• Martha Wells – The Serpent Sea
• Michael Swanwick – Dancing with Bears
• N.K. Jemisin – The Kingdom of Gods
• N.K. Jemisin – The Killing Moon
• Neal Stephenson – Reamde
• Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, and Mark Teppo, ed. – The Mongoliad
• Pip Ballantine – Phoenix Rising
• Rachel Caine – Bite Club
• Ransom Riggs – Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
• Rob Ziegler – Seed
• Rose Lemberg. ed. – The Moment of Change
• Ross Lockhart, ed. – The Book of Cthulhu
• Rudy Rucker – Jim and the Flims
• Seanan McGuire – Discount Armageddon
• Stina Leicht – And Blue Skies from Pain
• Stina Leicht – Of Blood and Honey
• Terry Bisson – Any Day Now
• Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter – The Long Earth
• Will McIntosh – Soft Apocalypse

BONUS: Forthcoming Books of Interest

   
• Iain M. Banks – Hydrogen Sonata
• Mark Teppo – Earth Thirst
• Robin Maxwell – Jane: The Woman Who Loved Tarzan

... kanda je ovaj entuzijasta malko pobrkao godine izdanja, Zoo City je 2010.

28. decembra. To je tu negde.

Pa jeste da su naizgled u pitanju svega dani i sati, ali zbog toga je i ušla u konkrurenciju za nagrade koje sleduju naslovima objavljenim u 2010, pa ne bi sad valjalo pustiti je da na dve stolice sedi, jer to će onda biti rusvaj kad se i drugim knjigama to prohte. Treba tu čvrsta ruka, znaš...     

Pa kada izdaju (namerno) knjige oko božića i nove godine.

Vide li kako je Brin nahvalio svoju knjigu?

Quote from: Gaff on 05-08-2012, 11:40:50
Pa kada izdaju (namerno) knjige oko božića i nove godine.

Da, da, knjige koje se štampaju krajem decembra imaju ogromne prednosti, ogromne - em se kupuju na neviđeno i sebi i drugima za decembarske poklone, em ulaze u kategoriju nagrada za tu godinu, em se na glasačkim listama bolje kotiraju od onih knjiga koje su objavljene na početku godine i time pomalo izvetrele iz sećanja... velika je to prednost, nema šta.


A Brin... Existence uporno odbija me zgrabi, već treći put iščitavam Aficionado i treći put otkrivam da za to ipak nisam aficionado... 

Pokušaj s Glory Season. Zna Brin da bude odličan.

ehhhh, a sad malko traceraja jedne od mojih najdrazih blogerki, Abigail Nussbaum :

A bit surprised that this hasn't had more play: in an interview with Empire last week, Neil Marshall--who directed the penultimate episode of the second season of Game of Thrones, "Blackwater"--has this to say on the subject of the show's use of nudity:

The weirdest part was when you have one of the exec producers leaning over your shoulder, going, "You can go full frontal, you know. This is television, you can do whatever you want! And do it! I urge you to do it!" So I was like, "Okay, well, you're the boss."

This particular exec took me to one side and said, "Look, I represent the pervert side of the audience, okay? Everybody else is the serious drama side. I represent the perv side of the audience, and I'm saying I want full frontal nudity in this scene." So you go ahead and do it.

(The original quote is in a podcast. Here are two text reports, both of which seem quite cheerful about HBO courting the pervert demographic.)


Of course, this isn't really a surprise.  No one who watches Game of Thrones can have imagined that titillation was not at least a partial motivation for its copious scenes of nudity and sex.  And given the unattributed quote from a one-time director, a grain of salt might not be entirely out of order as well.  But it is something to have people involved with the show saying this--that young women are being asked to strip naked and simulate sex for the benefit of perverts.  If someone could explain the difference between that and soft-core porn, I would be very grateful.

SF futurizam je svet za sebe. Ako vam se taj svet dopada, knjige koje se ozbiljno bave SF futurizmom biće vam značajne taman koliko i srodne duše sa kojima se možete raspravljati do sudnjeg dana u podne, a najnovija knjiga KS Robinsona, 2312, mi je baš u tom rangu značaja. A da stvar bude još i gora, 2312 je i vrlo arogantna knjiga koja uvek iznova dovodi u pitanje čak i one stavove koje ste prethodno prihvatili, makar i uz nešto malo gunđanja.


2312 nudi detaljnije obrise moguće budućnosti koja je već predstavljena u Mars trilogiji: Swan Er Hong je rođena u koloniji na Merkuru a Fitz Wahram je rođen na koloniji na Titanu i na jednom nivou ovo je priča o njima, ispričana onako kako se već pričaju priče o srodnim dušama. Ali na mnogo drugih nivoa 2312, ta priča je samo šećerasta glazura na gorkoj piluli, i namenjena je ljudima koji nisu dovoljno perverzni da uživaju u samokažnjavanju žvakanja aspirina: Swan Er Hong ima 135 godina i nije žena, baš kao što ni Fitz Wahram nije muškarac. Odnosno, Swan jeste žena, ali je ujedno i muškarac, baš kao što je i Fitz Wahram muškarac sa maternicom. I ne, ne radi se ni o kakvoj anomaliji danas nam poznatoj kao hermafroditizam, nego o zdravoj i funkcionalnoj ginandromorfiji kao rezultatu genetske manipulacije u svrhu produžavanja životnog veka. u 2312, najstarije ljudsko biće ima 210 zemaljskih godina i ne pokazuje nikakve očigledne znake dotrajalosti, a to je upravo i onaj nivo na kom 2312 najbolje funkcioniše i na kom ima najviše uticaja.











U kontekstu žanrovskih paradigmi, 2312 se priklanja post-kiberpank poimanju stvarnosti kroz direktna suočavanja sa modernim tehnologijama (kloniranje, genetska modifikacija, VR, AI, nanotehnologija), i to u svrhu redefinisanja različitosti, pa time i samog identiteta. Dok je pre-kiberpank paradigma imala čvrste racionalizacije ljudskosti kao hetero-identiteta sa kojim se čovek poistovećivao milenijumima, kiberpank je uspeo da tu paradigmu temeljito dovede u pitanje, ali ne i da je razbije ili poništi: kiberpank je ponudio samo alternativu, i to u vidu sopstvene marginalizacije. Sa kiberpankom smo dobili polusvet koji je bio taman dovoljno kiborgizovan da se jasno odvoji od normativa "ljudske vrste", ali bez otvorene namere da se u taj ostatak ikako asimiluje, a kamoli da ga subverzivno učini sličnim sebi. 2312 nudi post-kiberpank paradigmu koja se ni malo ne smatra marginalizovanom.


Naravno, da bi bili "nešto", nije dovoljno da sami sebe za to smatrate: da bi bili "nešto", potreban je konsenzus koji će vas tako videti, prepoznati i prihvatiti. U pre-kiberpank paradigmi, taj konsenzus je nudila prosta većina, pa se može reći da je kiberpank kiborgizacija bila u istoj meri prepoznata kao marginalna od strane "normalne" većine, koliko i od strane kiborgizovanog polusveta samog. Dakle, bio je u pitanju nekakav konsenzus da sticanjem interfejsa za VR čovek gubi (ili, u kiberpank slučaju, da se svesno odriče) jednog dela ljudskosti, koja je prezentovano uglavnom u telu, ili "mesu", kako se na to kiberpank prezrivo referiše. U 2312 slučaju, takvog konsenzusa nema. Zapravo, može se reći da nikakvog konsenzusa nema. Uopšte.


Ako se modernom tehnologijom uklone osnove tradicionalnog ljuskog identiteta, bilo da su genetske ili kulturološke (rod/pol, rasa/etnicitet, religija/nacionalnost, i sva ona društena i politička (samo)opredeljenja na kojima baziramo identitet) prirode, šta nam onda ostaje kao baza za grupisanja bilo koje vrste? Skoro pa ništa, osim nekih čisto ideoloških smernica, zbog kojih bi eventualno mogli da završimo u nekakvoj grupaciji sebi-realtivno-sličnih istomišljenika. U uslovima takve hiper-individualnosti, "većina" kao takva naprosto prestaje da postoji, a sa njenim gubitkom prestaje da postoji i "marginalizacija" kakvu danas znamo.


Koliko god da je pre-kiberpank paradigma ležala na temeljima "globalnog" i "kolektivnog" (setite se samo svih onih žanrovskih vizija "ujedinjenih vlada Zemlje", makar i modelisanih na labavom fazonu "Ujedinjenih Nacija"), kiberpank se sa tom konkretno paradigmom razišao ne njenim razbijanjem, nego naprosto njenim ignorisanjem: u polusvetu kiberpanka niko ne obraća pažnju na regularne državne institucije, jer u njemu glavnu reč ionako nose multinacionalne korporcije, kapitalistički amoral i individualni akti kršenja pravila, čak i kad su tako nelegalni u svojoj suštini. Bez obzira na svo svoje samoljubivo otpadništvo, kiberpank je bio otpadnik samo zbog konsenzusa većine, naspram koje je mogao da zadrži svoju značajnu marginalnost. Ali jednom kad te većine nestane, ni samo otpadništvo više nema značaja. 


Post-kiberpank paradigma nema nikakvih temelja da na njima učvrsti koncepte "globalnog" i "kolektivnog", sve da to i hoće: diversifikacija se svela na dijaspore kojima za identitet uopšte nije neophodan konsenzus, pošto su bazirani na čisto tehnološkoj samodovoljnosti. U trenutku kada svaki čovek postane individua sama sebi dovoljna, samo-za-sebe-ostrvo, koju mu to motivacije preostaju da na njima izgradi makar i enklavu, a kamoli kolektiv?


Odgovor je, naravno - ideološke.


E sad. Ideologije cvatu zato što se hrane čovekovom obespravljenosti. A jednom kad te obespravljenosti nestane...   pa, onda nam ostaje i preostaje jedino - transhumanizam.


Eto koliko je to opasna rant&rejv knjiga, ta 2312... njeno čitanje je tek prva trećina ogromnog problema, a ostale dve trećine su nešto sa čime se lomite kasnije, i to u etapama, i to u kranje bleskastom maniru leptira fasciniranog voštanom svećom. 

 
Swan i Fitz su odlično ponuđeni kao predstavnici različitosti: Swan rođena na koloniji ekstremno blizu Suncu, Fitz na koloniji maksimalno udaljenoj od Sunca; Swan je umetnica koja u industrijsko teraformiranje unosi estetske kanone, Fitz je diplomata i krajnje trezven političar; Swan je nesposobna (ili možda samo nevoljna) da održi bliski odnos čak i sa jedinim biološkim detetom, dok je Fitz deo petočlanog braka i roditelj u obe varijante; Swan je ekstremno kiborgizovana (kvantum kompjuter implant, sijaset bioloških, pa čak i ksenomorf implant), Fitz je prirodno ružan u doba ekstremno pristupačne bio-kozmetike; Swan je temperamentna i ishitrena do granice brzopletosti, Fitz je introspektivan do granice autizma... u nekom krajnje pojednostavljenom gledanju na bračne veze, Fitz bi mogao biti konzervativna protivteža (ponekad preteranom) samopouzdanju sa kojim Swan suočava izazove. U tom smislu, preko Swana i Fitza se prezentuju i dve osnovne čovekove težnje i strepnje: progresivna Swan i konzervativni Fitz se nadopunjuju makar utoliko što Swan mora da isproba i pokuša sve što je u njenoj moći, dok Fitz uglavnom sanira posledice.

2312 Dijaspora koja se proteže sunčevim sistemom nudi isto tako bizaran sklop krajnosti čovekovih filozofija i mentaliteta, to od krajnjeg defetizma pa do krajnje preteranog optimizma. Naravno, defetistički kraj te duge je na samoj Zemlji, koja je baš u onom stanju kakvog već danas predviđaju analize rasta pregrevanja i otapanja polarne ledene mase. S druge strane, kolonisti Dijaspore svojim mentalitetom i filozofijom uvelike odražavaju sopstvenu okolinu: rođeni u klaustrofobičnim, samodovoljnim gradovima-kolonijama, oni naprosto ne žele da budu deo bilo kakvog velikog kolektiva, pa čak ni neke krajnje labave političke alijanse kao što je Mondragon. U 2312, "balkanizacija" predstavlja mentalitet enklava rasutih u dijaspori, koje insistiranje na sopstvenim specifičnostima u velikoj meri opravdavaju (ili bolje, kamufliraju) nekim vidom kvazi-patriotizma za sopstvene gradove-kolonije. 

U neku ruku, pretpostavka ekspanzije ljudske vrste u 2312 nije nerealna sa tehnološke tačke gledišta, ali je svejedno na momente vrlo smela i teško prihvatljiva zbog svoje radikalnosti. Robinson naizgled hladno razmatra raspad Zemlje, dok insistira kako je čoveku lakše teraformirati asteroide i mesece negoli opraviti uništenu rodnu planetu. U tehnološki izuzetno potkovanom kontekstu 2312 ta dilema je ekspertno predstavljena i obrazložena, ali opet, malko štreca ta lakoća kojom 2312 pretpostavlja da će čovek tako lako odustati i od rodne planete i od tradicionalnog ljudskog tela. Ne kažem da mi to izgelda neverovatno samo po sebi, ali ipak, po pitanju skale i radikalnosti transhumanističke platforme, šokira me da KSR to smatra sasvim mogućim u kontekstu tako bliske budućnosti.

i još jedna kontroverza sa kojom se 2012 postrance dodiruje:




The future of sex. Samuel R. Delany on working all that stuff out for yourself




In the worlds Samuel R. Delany describes and creates, a sense of community is to be found chiefly in marginalized social spaces – here people are supportive of each other, free from sexual judgment or racial prejudice, and polyamorous. Delany's latest novel, Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders, continues his lifelong struggle against ready-made assumptions.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/james-warner/future-of-sex-samuel-r-delaney-on-working-all-that-stuff-out-for-yourself

John DeNardo na Goodreadsu:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Geoffrey and Sunday Akinya, trying to protect the reputation of their family business (and space empire), follow the clues left behind by their grandmother to discover something wonderful.




PROS: Grand ideas; likable characters; interesting world building; good ending.
CONS: At times, it seems like a connect-the-dots mystery.
BOTTOM LINE: The start of promising (and hopeful!) new series.


Blue Remembered Earth is the first in a new series by Alastair Reynolds, an author whose name has become synonymous with Big Idea science fiction. Despite being set a mere (by usual standards) one hundred fifty years in the future, Blue Remembered Earth upholds that tradition quite nicely; and it also maintains the author's reputation as a top-notch world builder.


Here, Africa is a world superpower and one of its most powerful families, the Akinyas, have a stronghold on all matters related to space travel, forming the beginnings of a space empire. Mankind has not yet traveled outside the solar system, but there are settlements on the Moon and Mars. Society is so widely monitored that crime is all but eradicated. Technology has advanced to the point where everyone has chips in their skulls that allow them to communicate (via "chinging" to another location, or sometimes in a physical gollum) or invoke augmented reality displays with any kind of information they wish to visualize. Even artificial intelligence has been achieved, although these "artilects" are forbidden since they are not completely understood.

The focus of the story revolves around the Akinya family; specifically, Geoffrey Akinya and his sister, Sunday, both of whom have chosen not to partake in the politics of the family business, though they do enjoy the family perks. Geoffrey has dedicated his life to the study of African elephants and hopes to one day communicate with them, mind-to-mind. Sunday, an artist, lives on the Moon in one of the few places that is not part of the otherwise prevalent panoptic society. It is in this Descrutinized Zone on the Moon, in fact, where the beginning of the book's central mystery takes off. The mystery concerns Geoffrey's and Sunday's grandmother, Eunice Akinya, whose death just prior to the beginning of the novel sparks a series of events that not only pull Geoffrey and Sunday back into family politics (and on the bad side of their antagonistic cousins, Lucas and Hector), but more importantly, lead to events that could change the fate of humanity.

These are the stakes one would come to expect in a Reynolds novel, and readers familiar with Reynolds' work won't be disappointed. As usual, high stakes are accompanied by cool ideas and likable characters. The chinging ability, for example leads to some page-turning scenes, including one that can only be described as Robot Wars on steroids. There's also the existence of a self-sufficient community of machines run amok on Mars (the location of more page-turning scenes). The book depicts some interesting applications of augmented reality, the most prevalent being the simulated posthumous personality of Eunice herself. Then there's the depiction of space travel, which is realistic, refreshingly optimistic, and the basis for future books in the series.

If the book suffers, it's only from a slightly off-kilter balance of mystery vs. wonder. The thrust of the narrative for much of the book is the series of clues that lead Geoffrey and Sunday from one scene to the next. It seemed much like a game of connect-the-dots, the focus of which took away from the cooler science fictional aspects of the story. To be fair, though, the story needed to progress in such a manner if it were to ultimately drive the story to final plot reveal...once that leaves readers feeling like it is not so much an ending as it is a beginning.

Raise your hand if you're a book blogger.

Raise your hand if you've ever purchased a book because of a review you read on a book review blog.

Raise your hand if you're a bookseller and a customer has asked for a certain title because they read about it on a book blog.

If your hand is raised, Bookstore Bookblogger Connection is for you.

Created by two book-aholics, Bookstore Bookblogger Connection was born out of an interest in connecting the brick-and-mortar bookstores we so dearly love with the book bloggers who daily convince us to buy another book.

FBI pratio Reja Bredberija jer su kontali da je komunista:

http://delfi.rs/ves1281/delfi_vesti_fbi_pratio_reja_bredberija_zbog_sumnje_da_je_komunisticki_simpatizer.html

Filming the Unfilmable

In the late 70s, Ridley Scott, hot off the success of Alien, met with  Harlan Ellison to discuss the challenges of turning Frank Herbert's classic  science fiction novel Dune into a movie. Ellison assured Scott it  couldn't be done for a variety of reasons, notably the impossibility off  translating a sprawling epic like Herbert's full of complex ideas and themes,  into two hours of watchable cinema. As he recounts on page 224 of Harlan  Ellison's Watching, he informed Scott, "It's just King of Kings with  sandworms." Perhaps Scott believed him, because he abandoned the project for  another science fiction movie, Bladerunner, from Philip K. Dick's Do  Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?... which, ironically, also had a string of  directors (Martin Scorsese among them) who simply failed to find the proper way  to adapt it.

None of this surprises those interested in the history of cinema. Unrealized  adaptations of great novels clutter soundstages across the globe. Often the  movies in question seldom rise from development hell because of budgetary  concerns (see Orson Welles's planned retelling of Joseph Conrad's Heart of  Darkness for RKO Pictures) or because artistic ambitions exceed studio of  filmmaker grasp (Terry Gilliam, perhaps sensing the Herculean task needed for a  successful cinematic reinterpretation, ultimately passed on Alan Moore's Watchmen). Some cannot overcome the structural challenges (as  screenwriters working on shelved film versions of Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End and Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination  found), while others lose the actors initially attached to the projects. (For  which we occasionally should be grateful; would anybody really want to have seen  Scott direct Arnold Schwarzenegger in Richard Matheson's I Am Legend?)  True, in several cases (Dune, Watchmen, I Am Legend) the  project moved into production, but in most cases lacked the spark that drove the  original subject matter.

Then there are those books that, because of their very structure, or for  their insular nature, or other reasons, simply never would make good movies in  the first place. For example, I doubt anybody would, or indeed could, reimagine  Barry Malzberg's Beyond Apollo or Galaxies for a multiplex or even  art-house audience. While I love Norman Spinrad's Child of Fortune, it  works in part because of Lingo, the language spoken by its characters, and the  verbal pyrotechnics therein, and seems an unlikely candidate for adaptation  (which I also could say of Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren, John Clute's Appleseed, and M. John Harrison's Light). Even novels as seemingly  straightforward as Frederik Pohl's Man Plus and John Crowley's Engine  Summer face an uphill battle in attempting to bring them to the screen, not  least of which because both play games with points of view. And on and on. Some  books, I convince myself, are simply untranslatable.

And then I think of David Cronenberg, and I wonder if, perhaps, I'm too hasty  with my assessment. Genre fans know Cronenberg. (If they don't, then I despair for them.)  Launching his career with odd, uncompromising horror movies like They Came  from Within and Rabid in the 70s, he went on to make odd movies with  unusual sf content like The Brood and Videodrome, springboards for  his conceptual philosophy of the New Flesh. When I came across his work in high  school, he seemed like a perfect fit: his vision of the human body in  transformation offered me a compelling visual companion to the artwork  complimenting the fiction in Omni and the works of writers such as  Richard Kadrey, Michael Blumlein, Pat Cadigan, and John Shirley. I may not have  always understood it, and often I've seen a particular Cronenberg movie only  once (I'll likely never watch The Fly again -- not because I didn't like  it, but because the images are so scored into my brain that I'll never need to  revisit them). Even better, he seemed to have a kind of intellectual bent that  far too many other genre filmmakers lacked. Sure, John Carpenter's Escape  from New York pulled out all the visual stops, but only budget separated it  from most other B-movie fare. Cronenberg's Scanners, on the other hand,  possessed a good deal of subtext, from the next stages of human evolution to the  perils of corporate power.

So when I heard, in 1990, that he was filming an adaptation of William S.  Burroughs's Naked Lunch, I responded by enthusiastically at what he might  bring to life -- so much of what he had done previously seemed heavily  influenced by Burroughs anyway -- yet still wondered how he possibly could make  it work. For all of the novel's brilliance, it unfolds like a jagged  kaleidoscope, images and events occurring seemingly without cause or effect, and  the subject matter, jammed to its Mugwump gills with addiction, homosexuality,  and perverse monsters, felt too extreme for most mainstream audiences. Maybe he  could make it work, I thought, but I didn't see how.

Cronenberg, of course, delivered. True, he simply excised many of the novel's passages, but in doing so also added a plot that made a certain degree of sense, characters with which one could, if not like, at least identify, and a villainous plot to prey on the addictions of the United States. The movie's blend of 50s noir, esoteric creatures (the living typewriters turned out to be, by turns, charming and disturbing), and descent into madness pulled off the impossible: filmed an unfilmable novel, and did so brilliantly. It surprised almost everyone.  Even more surprising was his ability to do it again in 1996, this time with J.G. Ballard's Crash, and then again with Patrick McGrath's Spider in 2002. Neither of the books had anything in common, except that they dealt with ideas and themes that would make them challenging adaptations. And yet, inexplicably, Cronenberg managed the incredible feat of creating compelling movies from both novels. Granted, critics appeared to receive both coolly, and both disappointed at the box office, but Cronenberg deserved credit for facing the difficulties of making these movies head on and unflinchingly. For all of their faults, both are difficult to forget.

I don't remember when I first heard that Cronenberg planned to adapt Don DeLillo's Cosmopolis to the screen. Though I respected and admired Cronenberg's work a great deal, something in me rebelled at turning DeLillo's short novel to the screen. The prospect of transforming it into a feature film, at least on paper, made more sense than attempting to do so with Underworld, The Names, or White Noise (Cosmopolis is shorter than all of them), yet I couldn't see how Cronenberg (who wrote the screenplay) could take DeLillo's oblique characters, obtuse ideas, and dense (in the worst sense of the word) philosophy and possibly make it work. Still, I told myself, this is Cronenberg. He can do it.  Alas, he couldn't.

Though Cronenberg works well with actors, his story of vain billionaire Eric Packer (Robert Pattison) suffers from characters who speak in enigmas. They make observations about the world that sound like caffeine-addled college students who have absorbed their Introduction to Postmodernism without actually understanding it. Though Packer has sex at least twice during the movie, it all seems perfunctory and, surprisingly for a Cronenberg movie, oddly lacking in eroticism. Packer holds meetings in his car with a number of random individuals, but they all seem as interesting as a philosophy professor's notes after they've been shuffled. The entire book (and the movie) might have been modeled on James Joyce's Ulysses, but it represented the worst in meandering art-house fare. It felt like Slacker for the one percent, and only seemed to prove that even the most slender tales can defeat an excellent filmmaker.  None of which, of course, deterred my admiration for Cronenberg, or convinced me that he has lost any of his gifts. True, he adapted an unfilmable that should have stayed that way, but that doesn't mean he, or someone else, won't be able to find the right approach for something even more difficult. Perhaps Cronenberg will tackle Philip K. Dick at some point. Or perhaps Ridley Scott will solve the riddle of how to recast Joe Haldeman's The Forever War as compelling cinema. They've done it before. No doubt they can do it again.
http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek375.htm

http://knjizevnost.org/vijesti/4783-110-knjiga-koje-mora-proitati-svaki-obrazovani-ovek

Svaki obrazovani čove mora pročitati 110 knjiga, a gore na linku je lista. Međutim, masa tipografskih grešaka, kao i naziva pisaca i njihovih dela....Fino sam se nasmejao

Publishers to Pay $69M in eBook Pricing Settlement
(via Galleycat)

QuoteAccording to the terms of the deal, consumers who bought an eBook from any of the "Agency Five" publishers during April 1, 2010 until May 21, 2012 will receive compensation.

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/harpercollins-hachette-simon-schuster-to-pay-69m-in-ebook-pricing-settlement_b56803

Quote from: Perin on 04-09-2012, 17:44:17
http://knjizevnost.org/vijesti/4783-110-knjiga-koje-mora-proitati-svaki-obrazovani-ovek

Svaki obrazovani čove mora pročitati 110 knjiga, a gore na linku je lista. Međutim, masa tipografskih grešaka, kao i naziva pisaca i njihovih dela....Fino sam se nasmejao

... a kad kliknem na link u tvom postu, dobijem samo ovo:

Quote

Oops! This link appears to be broken.

(da se nisu postideli?  )

David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas




Elem, hajp oko najnovijeg projekta Vačovski tima nekako me ubedio da će film ponuditi interpretaciju u doslovnijem značenju te reči nego što inače podrazumevam kad su u pitanju ekranizacije, pa sam pročitala roman tek da to preduhitrim. Naravno, ne mislim ovim da potcenjujem film, ima dosta primera da su upravo filmske interpretacije bile bolje od romana koji im je poslužio kao predložak (LA Confidential je jedan od takvih svetlih primera), ali ipak, u takvim slučajevima se pre može govoriti o dva nezavisna autorska dela negoli o ekranizaciji samog romana. U Cloud Atlas slučaju to je maltene neminovno, jer je ovaj roman toliko uslovljen medijem u kom je nastao da mi se čini jednostavno neprevodiv u bilo koji drugi. A pošto je hajp oko filma izbacio toliko spojlera samog romana - čini mi se daleko više nego što će ga sam film ispojlerisati - skoro da se ne treba po tom pitanju više ustezati.




Cloud Atlas u sebi sadrži šest romana, spojenih u mozaik preko superiorno izvedene lajtmotiv finese koja je već sam po sebi užitak za čitanje, zato što romanu daje dimenziju u kojoj čitalac aktivno učestvuje, dešifrujući insinuacije i sklapajući delove u celinu tempom koji mu odgovara. U te svrhe, prva polovina romana nudi izluđujuće intrigantnu postavku u kojoj se svaki segment naprasno završava na vrhuncu svog ionako izluđujuće intrigantnog zapleta, da bi se tek u šestom segmentu radnja prelomila, metodično se vraćajući nezavršenim segmentima i zatvarajući ih u savršenu celinu, jednog po jednog, sve do poslednjeg sa kojim je roman zapravo otvoren.




Prvi segment je The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing, u kom se detaljiše Ewingovo 1850 putovanje jedrenjakom Prophetess do kolonija u Pacifiku. Ewan je dete svog vremena i njegova dnevnička zapažanja razgolićuju kolonističku hipokriziju do nivoa na kom samo štivo postaje gotovo bolno za čitanje. Jedna od centralnih tema kojoj se Ewan u dnevniku bavi je animozitet urođeničkih plemena Maori i Moriori, koji belački kolonizatori sa velikom veštinom potpiruje u sopstvene beskrupulozne svrhe. Paralelno sa tim zapažanjima, dnevnik otkriva kako samog Ewana progresivno savladava misteriozna bolest koju je njegov lekar Henry Goose dijagnstički prepoznao kao tropskog parazita u Ewanovom mozgu. Segment se završava u pola rečenice, ostavljajući čitaoca u nedoumici da li je sam Ewan u tom neobjašnjivom prekidu došao do poslednjeg od svojih očigledno odbrojanih udaha.




Drugi segment se bavi pismima koje je R.F. Frobisher slao svom intimnom prijatelju i ljubavniku Rufusu Sixsmithu, to iz okoline Bruža, 1931 godine. Iz pisama se da naslutiti da je i Frobisheru i Sixmithu tek dvadeset i neka i da je ovaj potonji fizičar kojeg nesumnjivo čeka blistava karijera. Frobisher je pak muzičar bez perspektive, razbaštinjen od osvetoljubivog oca i zaposlen kao sekretar kod nekad slavnog a sad sifilisom dotučenog kompozitora Ayrsa. Pisma su dirljiva u iskrenosti kojom Frobisher detaljiše svoju ubrzo nemoguću poziciju u ljubavnom trouglu između Azrsove žene i kćerke, a u paralelnom zapažanju stvarnosti saznajemo da je upravo Frobisher čitao onaj prvi segment, Ewingov dnevnik, i da je njegov iznenadni prekid opravdan činjenicom da je ta knjiga (!) u nečijem besu iscepana na pola, pa zato Frobisher moli Sixsmitha da nabavi i pošalje čitavu knjigu. Frobisher, naime, shvata i iz tako osakaćenog dnevnika ono što je promaklo samom Ewingu - da ga njegov sopstveni doktor namerno truje. I tu se ovaj segment završava. 




Treći segment prati mladu novinarku Luisu Rez, koja pokušava da u redakciji beznačajnih lokalnih novina doraste reputaciji koju je za sobom ostavio njen otac, neustrašivi i nagradama ovenčani reporter i borac za istinu. Luisa pukim slučajem nailazi na čoveka koji je u centru kontroverze oko nuklearnog postrojenja kompanije Seabord i koji je jedan od autora i potpisnika zvaničnog izveštaja koji bi taj nuklearni reaktor zauvek razmontirao. Taj čovek je - eminentni fizičar imenom Rufus Sixsmith. Naravno, kompanija Seabord nema skrupula i mnogi će tu izginuti od ruke plaćenog ubice, siroti Sixsmith među prvima, a segment nas napušta upravo u trenutku kad se Luisa survava automobilom u more.




Četvrti segment prati naizmenično urnebesne i gorke životne peripetije jednog postarijeg, beznačajnog izdavača imenom Timothy Cavendish, i od njih nam je najznačajnija upravo ona o kojoj se najmanje zbori: jedan od rukopisa u njegovom posedu zove se isto kao i prethodni segment. Grizemo nokte ali uzalud: Cavendish nas napušta u situaciji u kojoj nije ni jasno da li je doživeo i preživeo svoj sutrašnji dan.




Peti segment odlazi u korejsku distopičnu budućnost u kojoj zatičemo Sonmi-451, klonirano ljudsko biće sa unapred određenim životnim vekom od 12 godina, i to provedenih u ropskom radu i drogama nametnutom bezumlju. Ali Sonmi-451 uspeva da prevaziđe oba hendikepa, mada ne na način na koji smo to isprva mislili. Njena tragična priča se sliva u poslednji,




šesti segment, koji nudi obrise daleke postapokaliptične budućnosti u kojoj je upravo uspomena na Sonmi-451 opstala u vidu oralnih predanja sa religioznim tonovima, i to na istom onom mestu na kom je i Adam Ewing započeo svoj dnevnik.




Nakon tog prelomnog segmenta, Cloud Atlas nas vraća istim putem kojim smo i došli, i, besprekorno se nastavljajući na sečene delove, zatvara jednu po jednu celinu, sa posebnim naglaskom na lajtmotive kojim je mozaik roman tako obilno protkan.




Ukratko, Cloud Atlas je satkan od stila i jezika taman koliko i od svojih zapleta, tema i ideja, a to se jednostavno ne može netaknuto preneti u bilo koji drugi medijum. Najbolje čemu se nadam je relativno nezavisna ali ipak bar donekle kompatibilna vizija kojom bi nam Vačovski tim mogao preneti bar deo ugođaja a time i istinskog i dubokog užitka koji ovaj roman nudi.

Quote from: LiBeat on 05-09-2012, 08:48:07

Quote from: Perin on 04-09-2012, 17:44:17
http://knjizevnost.org/vijesti/4783-110-knjiga-koje-mora-proitati-svaki-obrazovani-ovek

Svaki obrazovani čove mora pročitati 110 knjiga, a gore na linku je lista. Međutim, masa tipografskih grešaka, kao i naziva pisaca i njihovih dela....Fino sam se nasmejao

... a kad kliknem na link u tvom postu, dobijem samo ovo:

Quote

Oops! This link appears to be broken.

(da se nisu postideli?  )

Tek sad videh. Izgleda da se jesu postideli, jer nema više linka ni na fejsu

A evo kako Norman u svojoj Asimov's kolumni ocenjuje Kosmatkine The Games:



THE GAMES
by Ted Kosmatka,
Del Rey,
$25.00
978-0345526618
The Games opens with a short prologue from the point of view of Evan, a seemingly autistic-cum-dyslexic young boy with certain vague mental prowesses being tested and evaluated and eventually taken from his mother for specialized institutionalized upbringing. Then the novel proceeds to Part I, Chapter One, Distant Thunder: what appears to be, and in a certain sense is, the build-up to a fairly conventional monster movie in prose fictional clothing.

"They conceive trouble and give birth to evil; their wombs fashion deceit," Kosmatka quotes from the Bible.

Yes, they do.

In this near future, a Gladiator competition has become the feature attraction of the Olympic Games. Nations use advanced recombinant genetic synthesis technology to create monsters as their champions. These things really are monsters and forthrightly intended as such, and the more powerful, bloodthirsty, vicious, and hideous, the better. The only rule is that no human DNA may be included in their genomes. They are quite literally evil incarnate, genetically programmed to have no other motivations but to feed and to kill.

The Gladiator Competition is literally a process of elimination, a protoplasmic demolition derby. Bout by bout, these National Monsters fight to the death until two of them reach the final and fight to the death for the Gold Medal, after which the winner is slaughtered.

The lead male viewpoint protagonist is Silas Williams, the scientist in charge of creating and preparing the American Gladiator for the latest Olympic Games. The lead female protagonist and viewpoint character is Vidonia Joao, the xenobiologist called in when the American Monster proves far more uncontrollably monstrous than bargained for. The heavy viewpoint nemesis is Stephen Baskov, the ruthless head of the US Olympic Commission.

The threadbare excuse for creating these monster Gladiators to battle to the death in a latter day Roman arena is that it advances the genetic technology needed to create them, which serves the cause of medical advances. Actually, of course, it's really about national chauvinism, like World Cup soccer, and corporate greed.

But hey, these monsters are just mindless protoplasmic killing machines, unable to reproduce, the sole survivor done away with after winning the Gold Medal. So who gives a damn, no problem, right?
Well, of course, wrong. You pretty much know early on that Williams & Co. are going to create an uber-monster that's going to be more than the best-laid plans of mice and men can handle, that it's going to escape and do a Godzilla act, that Silas and Vidonia are going to become an item during their perilous quest to destroy it before it can destroy humanity, and so forth, and that doesn't turn out to be exactly wrong.

However. . . .

While these bare bones of the plot line may be all too familiar, and while the characters may seem a bit generic, Ted Kosmatka is first-rate and quite sophisticated when it comes to the genetic engineering and science involved. And the science itself is not only central to the action of the story but also to its characterological aspects, and in the end to a surprising and suddenly much deeper moral and philosophical epiphany and turnaround at the denouement that I am going to find difficult to discuss without giving away too much.

But I'll give it a try.

Gladiators are synthesized by copying genetic sequences from various savage beasties as computer data, resequencing the DNA to produce the desired monster, and then cranking out the genome that will produce the desired phenome on a chromosome synthesizer, a process not all that far advanced from real cutting edge technology today.

The American monsters have been winning the Gladiator Gold since the competition was added to the Olympics because they have been designed with the aid of the world's most advanced supercomputer.
Evan Chandler, the boy from the prologue, now a grossly fat, socially isolated, geekily brilliant, but emotionally frustrated and depressed adult, is the human interface with this computer, via a virtual reality communion with it that is not exactly elucidated by Kosmatka with the admirable scientific and literary clarity of the genetics and biology.

Evan bears a hateful grudge against humanity in general, of which he does not quite believe himself a part, and lacks anything that might be deemed a moral sense. So he somehow creates a sort of alter ego—or rather alter id—virtual child within a virtual reality within the supercomputer who grows stepwise into a kind of god of the machine, in turn becoming the creator of the reality within it, all-powerful, but not all-knowing, omnipotent within its own realm, but not omniscient, and, like his human "father" only more so, lacking not only a moral sensibility, but the very concept of morality itself.

Evan, the pathetic moral monster, creates an all-powerful but amoral personality for the supercomputer. And the god in the machine when called upon to create the ultimate Gladiator pumps out a genome sequence that is not a recombination of any that have ever existed before, but an entirely synthetic sequence that when run through the chromosome synthesizer produces the ultimate Gladiator as a champion not only of the United States but of Evan's inchoate vengeance against humanity.
This monster is overwhelmingly powerful physically, and of course it escapes. Against the Olympic rules, it is all too capable of reproduction. It is intelligent enough to speak. But it has only three motivations, or, better ,call them tropisms—kill, eat, reproduce.

So a morally crippled human creates an amoral virtual god that creates an ultimate monster possessed of intelligence and sufficient sentient awareness of its surround to plan an escape, execute it, hide its "eggs" in order to reproduce, but probably lacks self-aware consciousness and certainly the moral dimension of "soul."

And this is where I had better leave the telling of his tale to Ted Kosmatka. Because he is going to spring two very major surprises on the reader who follows it to the end, one a piece of stone-cold literary bravery that ends the personal stories in a brutal but ruthlessly logical and realistic manner, and the other a contrastingly tender moral turnaround from a quite unexpected source that unexpectedly touches the heart.

It might not be going too far to say that Kosmatka is hard case enough not to be so enamored of pleasing expectant readers with the compulsory sappy happy ending for heroes and heroines as to shy away from dramatic tragedy, but not such a hard case as to be incapable of leaving them with the possibility of scorn for the Us and sympathetic understanding for the Other when that is where the story leads.

Ken MacLeod does something like the latter in The Night Sessions, and something like the former in both that novel and The Restoration Game, only even more so. MacLeod really is a hard case, and I mean that as a compliment.

He is also a fully matured major writer of politically sophisticated and hard-nosed science fiction, more politically sophisticated, educated, and non-ideologically hard-nosed than any other science fiction writer I can think of, uh, myself included. How I could have failed to learn this before now is either a question of my dereliction of duty or the uh, quiet way this Scotsman has been published in the United States, and probably both.

And I'm not committing political incorrectness by mentioning that he is a card-carrying Scotsman. Because MacLeod, in these two novels at least, makes no bones about being a localvore, since both these books are rooted one way or another in his home town of Edinburgh, though both of them range as far afield as New Zealand, the business end of a Space Elevator, and the former Soviet Empire, not to mention a virtual Roman Mars, and always with a kind of medium-boiled logical realism.

http://www.asimovs.com/2012_10-11/onbooks.shtml

Kij Johnson doesn't so much write science fiction/fantasy as metafiction, but whatever she's doing, At The Mouth Of The River Of Bees is a treasury of story-telling by an award-winning author. Now that she's also accepted the position of Assistant Professor of Fiction Writing at the University of Kansas English Department, there will be ample opportunity to define her "fictional writing which self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality...Metafiction explore a theory of writing fiction through the practice of writing fiction." Honey-dripping reviews should swarm to this book as in its title story, though I think Story Kit is the key to the hive, echoed in The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change and The Cat Who Walked A Thousand Miles:"Everyone had their own stories, and the stories of their families and ancestors. There were adventures and love stories, or tricks and jokes and funny things that had happened, or disasters. Everyone wanted to tell their stories, and to know where they fit in their own fudokis." [medieval Japanese = diaries/records] "She was not that different." (195) Story Kit helpfully begins with a guide to identify Johnson's tales among the list of "Six story types, from Damon Knight":

   
• The story of resolution. The protagonist has a problem and solves it or doesn't.
• The story of explanation.
• The trick ending.
• A decision is made. Whether it is acted upon is irrelevant.
• The protagonist solves a puzzle.
• The story of revelation. Something hidden is revealed to the protagonist, or to the reader. (131)

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2012/09/guest-post-l-s-bassen-reviews-at-the-mouth-of-the-river-of-bees-by-kij-johnson/#more-61468

Dakle, Ekaterina Sedia i njen Heart of Iron.













Odmah da priznam kako nisam naročit ljubitelj parahronizma kakav se inače zatiče u stimpanku, i to je glavni razlog što sam se sa Ekaterinom Sediom mimoilazila sve do ovog, njenog četvrtog po redu romana. Da Heart of Iron nije ušao u uži krug za Sidewise nagradu, verovatno bi se to preventivno mimoilaženje nastavilo još neko vreme, ali, na našu uzajamnu sreću i zadovoljstvo, Heart of Iron je samo umereno stimpank, i to uglavnom u dekorativnom i prilično nenametljivom maniru, što mu silno pridonosi po pitanju egzotičnosti a ne oduzima odviše po pitanju smislenosti.


Druga njegova nesumnjiva vrlina leži u autentičnoj ruskoj vizuri poznate nam Viktorijane, koja je u romanu taman dovoljno izvitoperila klasičnu istoriju da nam je ponudi kao alternativnu, ali ne i neprepoznatljivu. Dimenzije te alternative date su preko prilično vešto izvedene manipulacije biografskim podacima, ili bolje rečeno, mene se cela ta konstrukcija doima kao prilično vešta istorijska manipulacija uglavnom zato što mi detalji o ruskom autokrati i nisu bog zna kako velik deo opšteg obrazovanja. Roman podržava realnost utoliko što nudi negativnu procenu Nikolaja I, predstavljajući ga uglavnom kao šovinistu i ksenofoba, što se donekle popudara i sa prilično mutnim recidivom mog marksistički intoniranog ranog formalnog obrazovanja, tako da sam tu konkretno dimenziju alternative našla sasvim ubedljivom i vrlo lako prihvatljivom. Na moju sreću, za uživanje u istorijskim nijansama koje Sedia nudi nije mi ni trebalo više od toga.


Treći i najimpresivniji adut romana leži u pažljivo odabranom i odlično prezentovanom uglu gledanja glavnog protagoniste, šesnaestogodišnje ruske plemkinje rođene u doba silnog istorijskog gravitasa decembarske revolucije. I mada se roman na Dekabriste skoro da i ne oslanja po pitanju samog zapleta, njihov kontroverzni momenat sukoba starog i novog odlično prikazuje upravo glavni protagonista romana, hrabra Aleksandra Saša Trubetskaja.


Saša živi pod tutorstvom svoje tetke Eugenije Menšove, usedelice i krajnje neortodoksne plemkinje koja je od oca nasledila imanje i titulu grofice. Eugenija je proto-feministkinja čiji stavovi i postupci perfektno dočaravaju svetonazor umerenog i odmerenog napora obespravljenih da se izbore za svoja prava u svetu, bez da ga tom borbom istovremeno i sravne sa zemljom. Jedna od njenih metoda borbe je i ubeđivanje Cara da se ženama zakonski obezbede neke od privilegija koje muškarci uživaju, obrazovanje tu navedeno kao prva i najglavnija od svih stavki. Saša tako postaje član male grupe prve generacije St. Petersburških devojaka kojima je dozvoljeno da steknu univerzitetsko znanje i titulu, pri tom suočavajući svu hipokriziju duboko usađenih društvenih predrasuda. Uz podršku svoje nepokolebljive i uticajne tetke, Saša se smelo upušta u niz avantura menjanja sebe i sveta oko sebe, dok se bori i najzad zasluženo stiče sasvim nov i emancipiran identitet.


Heart of Iron je šarmantna priča o odrastanju i hrabrosti, a Sedia je nudi sofisticiranim manirom odličnog pisca koji ima oštro oko za ljudske slabosti i vrline jednako. Ruska melanholija kojom proza odiše daje romanu sračunat pikarski ton, a odabrani elementi fantastike elegantno pomažu da se na svetlo dana izvuku uvek relevantne teme rasizma i generalnih društvenih i političkih obespravljenosti. Urbana legenda o Spring-heeled Jacku se prilično dobro uklapa sa stimpankičnim bizarnostima cepelina i parnih podmornica, bez narušavanja unutrašnje logike zapleta koji se doima jednako značajan i relevantan i pored sve svoje vernovski opčaravajuće anahrone egzotike. Sve u svemu, Heart of Iron nudi obilje razloga da se na prozu Ekaterine Sedie ubuduće ozbiljnije osvrnem.

Subterfuge, misdirection, false assumptions and misplaced suspicions are the building blocks of many a good murder mystery, and in The Night Sessions, Ken MacLeod uses them all to great effect. This is a novel that constantly leads its characters, and its readers, down one path, only to have the story twist away in a new direction. By the end, what begins as a murder mystery with some political overtones has become, for everyone involved, much, much more.


After decades of Faith Wars, environmental catastrophes and economic collapses, the world has once again achieved some measure of stability and security. One surprising result of the bad years has been a world-wide rejection of all, and especially fundamentalist, organized religion. In the United States there is a constitutional amendment disavowing any connection between religion and government. In Great Britain, churches and religious groups are simply ignored, given no place in cultural or political society. The results so far have been positive, social turmoil has subsided and the world is building again. That building includes two space elevators, and a flourishing commerce in orbit. That's the background when a Catholic bishop is assassinated in Scotland. Detective Inspector Adam Ferguson is among the first on the case, and with his investigation The Night Sessions begins the first of its many twists and turns. A first reaction is that anti-religious terrorists are probably to blame, but there are also rival factions, some perhaps violent, among Scotland's religious believers. Those believers turn out to be not quite as few as authorities had thought, and their existence is a major factor in Ferguson's investigation. For the science fiction reader, another wild card is thrown into the mix when we learn that Detective Ferguson has a robot partner, one who is distrusted by many in the human populace.

Any resemblance between Skulk and R. Daneel Olivaw ends right there, however. Instead, the role of robots in the wars and the attempt to re-integrate a killing machine into regular society becomes a metaphor for returning war veterans, and their plight is another theme running through the novel, one with further implications as to just who exactly is targeting religious figures and why. It all leaves the detective and his partner one or two steps behind events throughout the entire story, with consequences that are not only devastating for the characters, but play entirely against the expectations readers bring to a novel that combines elements of science fiction, murder mystery, and political thriller. In form and presentation, The Night Sessions is a police procedural set in a near-future Scotland, a combination of science fiction and mystery with deep roots in SF. It's the near-future historical assumptions; the turning against religion, and the existence of artificial intelligences that began as weapons, that take the story in unexpected directions, leaving the characters to wonder if they actually understand the world they live in, and the reader to wonder just how much the assumptions we bring to a story determine how we expect it to end.  


Reviewer Greg L Johnson is happy that robots aren't pitching at his friendly neighborhood ballpark. Why reviewer Greg L Johnson enjoys having his expectations confounded remains a mystery. Greg's reviews have appeared in publications ranging from The Minneapolis Star-Tribune to the The New York Review of Science Fiction.


http://www.sfsite.com/09b/ni376.htm

 



I am certain that John Clute knows more about science fiction and fantasy literature than almost any of the rest of us, and that he may have written more words on the subject than anyone else over the past 50 years. His knowledge is both broad, spanning the breadth of the field's many subgenre, and deep, extending back to the earliest roots of the literature. Much of his vast wordage of commentary on the genre can be found in the various editions of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction that he wrote with Peter Nicholls and many others (whose Third Edition is now being compiled at www.sf-encyclopedia.com) as well as The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (written with John Grant) and Science Fiction: The Illustrated Encyclopedia. He has also written many hundreds of book reviews published in the British magazine Interzone, the British journal Foundation, and numerous other magazines and journals (both print and on-line), and numerous introductions to various volumes of fiction. (He even writes fiction occasionally, including the science fiction novel, Appleseed, just to prove he can do it.) He has won numerous awards for his nonfiction over the years, culminating this year with the Solstice Award from the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. I think that it fair to say that no other science fiction commentator has been more central to the discourse of literary criticism in our field.



Pardon This Intrusion is Clute's seventh collection of commentary on the field. It is an eclectic collection of material reaching back to the 80s, but has its main focus on his 21st century writings about the evolution of the genre over the past century. Its title is a reference to the first words spoken by Frankenstein's Monster in the seminal 19th century novel by Mary Shelley, words which Clute argues provides a touchstone of meaning.

Pardon This Intrusion includes 47 essays and talks, several of which have not been published previously. Clute's writing in this volume is complex and nuanced, and like much of his work, requires a concentrated effort to be understood even among those of us who have been engaged in the field almost as long as he has. I am also certain that John Clute knows more words than most of the rest of us, and he uses a vast number of them in his commentary. Clute adds to the vast and often redundant vocabulary of the English language the lengthy lexicon of academic literary criticism, and even that is not enough -- he also adds his own unique critical terminology as necessary to explicate his concepts. Two examples of this also can be found in the title to this volume. Fantastika is Clute's term for the broad genre that spans science fiction, fantasy, horror, and all of the various subgenres of fantastic literature. The World Storm is the vast planetary crisis -- political, moral, intellectual, economic, environmental and social -- in which we have become embroiled over the past century. Clute makes a complex case that Fantastika has become the primary literature relevant to addressing the issues mankind now faces. I was considering providing in this review a quoted passage to give a feel for his prose style, but I have concluded that any Clute out of context cannot be considered representative.

Reading this volume elicits in me some of the same feelings I get in my primary career as a scientist when I read the work of the greatest experts in a given field. When I make a concerted effort to read a book on relativity or quantum theory, I often attain that eureka! moment when it all makes sense, only to discover days or weeks later that I cannot quite remember what it was that I understood. I found the same experience with Clute's Frankenstein and World Storm essays, among others here. In short, Pardon This Intrusion is not light and easy reading. But it is worth the effort. Aside from his encyclopedic work, which is often very straight forward and readable, Clute does not make an effort to assure that his complex commentary can be easily understood by those less knowledgeable in the field. Although Clute never has engaged in the pointed diatribes and feuds so common in SF, one does get the feeling occasionally that he disdains anyone unable to aspire to his erudite level of discourse. I have at times found this subtle tendency both amusing and, in a way, endearing. I have been fortunate enough over the years to have been publishing my book reviews in some of the same venues as Clute, most notably the Sci-Fi Channel's on-line Science Fiction Weekly and its later SciFi Wire incarnation, and therefore had a front row seat in the latter days of SciFi Wire a few years ago when Scott Edelman was slowly losing his battle to keep science fiction literature a focus in a site becoming more and more sci-fi media oriented. (Now, with the latest reincarnation, Blastr, the battle is essentially lost.) Clute's final SciFi Wire columns were book reviews of—shall we say -- Clutian complexity. With each new review, readers posted stronger and more numerous diatribes of the nature of "what the hell is this guy trying to say here?" Clute's only response was to make his next column even more intricate and erudite until at the end even I had trouble following his prose, with each sentence and paragraph seemingly taking minutes to parse. It was an amusingly subtle but effective repudiation, I thought, of all things anti-intellectual in the genre. So this book might not be the best choice for many science fiction fans, but for those willing to work at attaining a deeper and more profound understanding of our literary field, it is worth perusing. Clute has dedicated his life work to the field of SF, fantasy and horror -- to Fantastika -- and all of us in the field should be profoundly grateful that he has done so.


D. Douglas Fratz has more than forty years experience as editor and publisher of literary review magazines in the science fiction and fantasy field, and author of commentary and critiques on science fiction and fantasy literature and media.


http://www.sfsite.com/09b/pi376.htm

Lavie Tidhar on The Lonely Business of Self-Promotion


The Lonely Business of Self-Promotion


Writing is a lonely business. Promotion is the opposite. Everyone wants to get the word out. Buy my book! Please Share! Please Like! Please RT!

It occurs to me that your chances of being heard are better if you think not only of yourself (as hard as that may be!). Helping others gains you, in pure Capitalist terms, social capital. What Ed McBain called the "favour bank" in his 87th Precinct novels. Therefore, paradoxically, the best way to help yourself is to help others.

As editor of the World SF Blog, I get a fair amount of PR "spam". Why do I call it spam? Because, in the four years of running the blog, I have never – not once – received a PR e-mail remotely relevant to the blog.

The e-mails I get are not interested in international SF, or in promoting the works of other writers, or in engaging in a meaningful way in dialogue. What they want (and they are uniformly British or American writers or their publishers – the very people we do not cover in the World SF Blog, for the very simple reason they have enough other avenues to promote in) – is to sell their books. These writers and their PR people never look up my name (hint: it's up there on the left of the page when you open up the blog). They do not read the submission guidelines. They simply fire off an e-mail, as they no doubt do for hundreds of blogs, in the hopes someone pays them attention.

The truth is, books succeed not by tweeting or guest-blogging or having Facebook fan pages. And most books don't have money for marketing behind them. Most books still succeed by that old-fashioned way – word of mouth. Some very good books never sell. Some very bad books become best-sellers – but those best-sellers, in turn, pay for all the other books.

Writers should not think of PR as a shouting match. Your time is better spent writing new books, instead. What you should think of is how you can contribute to the wider world (I won't say community) around you. How can you help other people whose work you admire? How can you contribute to a meaningful conversation about art, about writing, about the excitement of what it is you and thousands of others are doing around the world?

One reason I am writing this guest-post now is for promotion. But what am I promoting? I have little desire to promote myself. I mean, I like to talk about myself. Who doesn't? As my friend N. inevitably says at some point when we meet up for a drink – 'Are we talking about you again, then?' and that puts me in my place. No. What I want to promote is my writers – the twenty-six awesome writers in The Apex Book of World SF 2, and the sixteen no less awesome writers in The Apex Book of World SF, and all the ones I want to include in a future volume and all the ones I may never get a chance to publish. Because I want to rave about them all! Because I want people to sit up and pay attention to what is being done in China, or South Africa, or Cuba or the Philippines, because I think it's exciting, and I think it's vital, to hear new voices, and different perspectives. Because that makes for good literature, and literature is always in dialogue.

Dialogue.

Think about that, and think how you can best achieve your goals. Will me-me-me-ing really help you, in the long run? Would potential readers really appreciate you shouting your wares across the Internet, like a vendor on a market stall? I personally am growing tired with each new RT or Like request. What I do instead is look at that writer. What have they done to promote someone else's work, in their turn? Who have they been retweeting? Are they in dialogue with me, or do they see me merely as a wallet at the end of a phone line?

Do something nice today. Promote someone else's work. Do it, if you must, for the social capital. Or do it simply because it's the right thing to do. But do it, mostly, because you're excited about someone's work – the way I'm excited about my writers – and you want to share it with the world.

And if you do that – then someone else may well do the same for you.

SEED je još jedan u nizu odličnih debi romana koji smelo i raskalašeno nude detaljno razrađenu eko-distopiju bliske budućnosti. Naše svakodnevne preokupacije klimatskim promenama i ekološkim katastrofama postojano se prelivaju u žanr, i on se trenutno sve više fokusira na futurizam sa sve učestalijom tehnofobskom perspektivom. Izgleda da nam interesi postaju sve kratkoročniji a žanrovski horizonti sve bliži sadašnjem trenutku i trenutačnoj strepnji: naš okoliš posustaje daleko brže i drastičnije nego što optimizam po pitanju svemirske ekspanzije to može da sanira, a žanr na to reaguje mračnim i gorkim eko-distopijama.









SEED se bavi budućnošću svega stotinjak godina udaljenom, ali drastično izmenjenom i u tako kratkom periodu: klimatske promene donele su globalnu glad, a glad je zauzvrat obezbedila društveno rasulo i potpuno bezakonje. Glavnina stanovništva neprestano migrira sa jedne strane zemlje na drugu, u potrazi za plodnom zemljom i manje ćudljivim klimatskim uslovima u kojima se može iskamčiti brza žetva. Jedino seme koje daje obilan prinos je genetski modifikovano i unapređeno do skoro neprepoznavanja a proizvodi ga Satori, grad-korporacija koja produkcijom semena održava na životu surovo desetkovanu populaciju.


Ali Satori je nešto više i od grada i od korporacije: Satori je živi grad, kupola od krvi, mesa i kostiju. Nastao na ruševinama Denvera, Satori je čudo bioinžinjeringa, tkivo koje diše i jede, koje se od zime štiti krznom a leti se linja i znoji - ukratko, Satori je živo biće koje opslužuju njena sopstvena deca, klonirani dvonošci čiji su genetski materijal oblikovali Dizajneri, baš kao i seme voća i povrća kojim Satori hrani desetkovane, bolesne i sve više bespotrebne ljude. Dizajneri su, baš kao i većina klonirane deca Satorija, pravljeni u parovima - jednojajčani blizanci koji su ujedno i braća i ljubavnici, i čija je svrha i cilj pronalaženje načina da pribave zdrava tela za Očeve, ljudske kreatore Satorija, koje sam grad održava u životu u nekoj vrsti sopstvene materice. Kreatori Satorija žele besmrtnost, ali jedino pod uslovom da trajanje nastave u sopstvenom podmlađenom i izlečenom telu.


Raskalašena imaginacija kojom Zeigler oblikuje svet u romanu perfektno je nadopunjena svedenim, britkim i prikladno profanim izrazom koji štivu daje odličan šmek relevantnosti i ubedljivosti. To je možda prednost kojom roman odnosi prevagu nad novijim romanima koji se ne samo bave sličnom tematikom, nego i u velikoj meri dele svet koji su obradom teme konstruisali. SEED se bez imalo kompromisa bavi svojim distopičnim ekstrapolacijama i ne gubi vreme u moralizacijama, nego se umesto toga posvećuje svojim zapletima koji su po svojoj prirodi uglavnom puni akcije. Rezultat je napeto štivo bez imalo praznog hoda, bazirano na situacijama taman koliko i na likovima. Odlično pogođen tempo pripovedanja i vešto preplitanje triju zapleta maksimalno favorizuju svu originalnost obrade kojom je Zeigler prišao svojoj eko-distopiji, jer je već od prvog poglavlja jasno da SEED naprsto kipti originalnošću.


Dodatni bonus romanu je njegova direktnost po pitanju žanrovske orjentacije: SEED je roman koji se nimalo ne stidi svog naučnofantastičnog porekla i ne poseže za bilo kakvim kompromisima koji bi tu pripadnost kamuflirali. Humanoidna deca Satorija nose u sebi više životinjskih nego ljudskih gena a Dizajneri obiluju emocijama koje su po svojoj prirodi više bazirane na životinjskim instinktima nego na ljudskoj produhovljenosti, pa ipak, roman se opredeljuje za natuknice i insinuacije, rađe nego za otvoreno proglašavanje neminovne apokalipse. Kao i svako pravo žanrovsko dete, SEED dopušta budućnost u kojoj ništa nije do kraja izgubljeno niti određeno, a čovekova evolucija je čak i kroz genetske modifikacije u suštini jednaka onoj prirodnoj, sazdana od surovosti i lepote jednako.   
     

za sve ljubitelje zombija u urnebesnoj varijanti, izasao je nastavak John Dies at the End i zove se This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously Dude, Don't Touch It.




By Nick Sharps |                   
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012       


SYNOPSIS: Unlikely heroes Dave and John unwittingly bring about the "zombie" apocalypse. Faced with an impending doom of a ridiculous nature the two must get to the bottom of the mystery and save the world.

MY RATING:

MY REVIEW
PROS: Side-splitting laughs, nail-biting horror, heroes worth cheering for, and a homemade triple barrel shotgun.
CONS: It ends.
VERDICT: Kevin Smith's Clerks meets H.P. Lovecraft in this exceptional thriller that makes zombies relevant again.

Some time has passed since the events of John Dies at the End. Dave is happily dating Amy and undergoing court-ordered therapy for shooting a pizza deliveryman with a crossbow. John is mooching off others and peeing off of water towers. Molly the dog is eating what ever food Dave drops on the floor. Life is never good in [Undisclosed] but for the moment it is relatively peaceful. That is, until Dave and John become pawns in a sinister science experiment set in motion by the Shadow Men. As the result of gross incompetence and a lack of foresight these two white-trash monster hunters unleash havoc upon the world. Despite a penchant for making mistakes it falls upon Dave and John to wrong the rights and fight evil.

John Dies at the End by David Wong (pseudonym of Jason Pargin, Senior Editor and columnist for Cracked.com) was the best book I read in 2010. On my list of favorite books of all time it is near the top. By the time I encountered it there were already a legion of diehard fans and talk of a film adaption by Don Coscarelli, the director of Bubba Ho-Tep. So I was late to the party but I sought to remedy that with the sequel, This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously Dude, Don't Touch It. I was honored to receive an ARC that I promptly read cover to cover.

At its essence This Book is Full of Spiders reads like a 400 page Cracked.com article with a plot. This is said with the utmost awe and respect. Cracked.com is a site that frequently supplies some of the funniest (and scariest) material available on the Internet. Wong (let's call him Wong so as not to dilute the magic) has taken his experience with the website and wields it as a weapon of mass amusement. Initially the concept of comedy and horror blended into one book seems preposterous. It's like putting peanut butter and pickles on the same sandwich. Separately peanut butter and pickles are great foods but combining them is a wee bit sacrilegious. Not so with a comedy/horror mash-up. These two genres make perfect companions.

The R-rated college humor is an ideal foil to the mind-numbing dread. It doesn't hurt that Wong is a professional comedic writer. I wanted to see how far into the book I could get before I crossed a page that did not have me laughing. It took 25 pages before I met such a page. This Book is Full of Spiders is primed with guffaws. From the dialogue to the descriptions, lines are delivered with faultless timing and wit. Wong never has to reach for comedy, it flows naturally with nary a stumble.

Wong has taken zombies (well, they're not really zombies but for lack of a better word) and made them scary again. More importantly, however, Wong has made them relevant again. At the risk of sounding like a complete and utter hipster, I was into zombies before they were cool. In the time since then zombies have experienced a colossal boost in popularity. You can't swing a crowbar without hitting a movie, book, or videogame featuring zombies. The market is saturated to the point of bursting with undead and the last thing I wanted was to read another zombie apocalypse.

The thing is, Wong is too crafty to just write a traditional zombie apocalypse. This Book is Full of Spiders examines all the ways in which our geeky zombie apocalypse fantasies probably wouldn't happen as imagined. It is a sobering thought to say the least. Wong also observes the origins of "zombie" mythology but the real kicker comes with the realization that it is human paranoia, rather than zombies, that is the real monster. Wong couldn't possibly have planned for this book to come out only months after the "bath salt zombie" media frenzy (unless he is secretly responsible) but it adds a whole extra layer of significance. Thinking back it is eerie how similar the public reaction was when compared to how this story unfolds. Wong made some accurate predictions or he is an evil genius of some sort. My money is on the latter. This assessment of our society's addiction to crisis and the prevalence of zombies in pop-culture make This Book is Full of Spiders the most pertinent story of the genre since George Romero's Dawn of the Dead.

Dave and John are professional screw-ups of the highest degree but I challenge you to find more endearing characters. These are two unlikely heroes with an aversion to responsibility but are thrust into the role of saviors of humanity after taking the magical drug, Soy Sauce. Dave is the more mature of the duo (though this is measured in minute increments) and always the voice of reason (sort of). John on the other hand is reckless to the core and just the sort of friend you want backing you in a brawl. As great as Dave is there is just no beating John. He may not top a list of responsible role models but he is the patron saint of giving evil the finger. This time around Amy, Dave's girlfriend, gets a bigger piece of the action. It would have been easy to relegate Amy to a supporting role but Wong writes her as a strong character that is every bit as capable as her male cohorts, if not more so. The relationship between the noticeably damaged Dave and sweet as sunshine Amy is charming in no small measure. All three characters get a POV (as well as brief but hilarious excursion from the perspective of the dog Molly) and each one is developed and distinctive.

This Book is Full of Spiders is a tighter, more concentrated read than John Dies at the End. As great as John Dies at the End is there were times that it became difficult to follow with the way it jumped around. The sequel does not suffer the same shortcoming. This Book is Full of Spiders is a single large event rather than the series of related smaller events that is John Dies at the End. There are still time and narrative shifts but the general arc remains uncluttered and coherent. There is a touch less absurdity to be found this go around however. Some are bound to find this a drawback but because of the focused nature of the story I can't fault Wong.

I can only see the cult following growing with the release of the sequel. David Wong (Jason Pargin) is a fantastic author with a supernatural talent for humor.If you want a poignant, laugh-out-loud funny, disturbing, ridiculous, self-aware, socially relevant horror novel than This Book is Full of Spiders is the one and only book for you.