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Tuesday, June 10th, 2025 09:00


The sudden, shocking, return of Shockwave Reader. Will the living envy the dead?

From This Day Forward by John Brunner
Monday, June 9th, 2025 14:01


The 2023 Second Edition corebook, TECHNOFANTASY, and more

Bundle of Holding: Fantasy AGE 2E
Monday, June 9th, 2025 12:40


No rules, no bureaucracy, just some randos messing around with the past, present, and future.

Five Stories About Time Travel on a Limited Scale
Monday, June 9th, 2025 10:21
2000: The theft of an Enigma Machine comes too late to play a significant role in World War Two, Sellafield highlight British dedication to nuclear saafety, and the Conservatives, informed polling has them 2% ahead of Labour, discover that they are actually trailing by 13%.

Poll #33234 Clarke Award Finalists 2000
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 48


Which 2000 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

Distraction by Bruce Sterling
11 (22.9%)

A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
36 (75.0%)

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
37 (77.1%)

Silver Screen by Justina Robson
8 (16.7%)

The Bones of Time by Kathleen Ann Goonan
4 (8.3%)

Time by Stephen Baxter
11 (22.9%)



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

Which 2000 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Distraction by Bruce Sterling
A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Silver Screen by Justina Robson
The Bones of Time by Kathleen Ann Goonan
Time by Stephen Baxter
Sunday, June 8th, 2025 19:06
I swung by Old Goat Books to pick up a book I ordered, which meant I was in the right place at the right time hear the confused customer next to me ask "What's speculative fiction?" Which, after I explained what it meant, was followed by the question. "Do you know anything about Andre Norton?"

It was only with great effort that I resisted shouting "BEHOLD! I AM Marshall McLuhan" before helping.
Sunday, June 8th, 2025 09:18


A decrepit fleet sails from Germany to play its role in a futile war, crewed by sailors who seem more eager to kill each other than the perfidious Australians.

The Heirs of Babylon by Glen Cook
Saturday, June 7th, 2025 23:15
Best Novel: Someone You Can Build a Nest In, John Wiswell (DAW; Arcadia UK)

Best Novella: The Dragonfly Gambit, A.D. Sui (Neon Hemlock)

Best Novelette: Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being, A.W. Prihandita (Clarkesworld 11/24)

Short Story: Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole, Isabel J. Kim (Clarkesworld 2/24)

Andre Norton Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction: The Young Necromancer’s Guide to Ghosts, Vanessa Ricci-Thode (self-published)

Best Game Writing: A Death in Hyperspace, Stewart C Baker, Phoebe Barton, James Beamon, Kate Heartfield, Isabel J. Kim, Sara S. Messenger, Naca Rat, Natalia Theodoridou, M. Darusha Wehm, Merc Fenn Wolfmoor (Infomancy.net)

Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation: Dune: Part Two by Jon Spaihts, Denis Villeneuve (Warner Bros)

Kevin O'Donnell, Jr Special Service Award: C.J. Lavigne
Tags:
Friday, June 6th, 2025 09:09


A foundling boy raised by a great snake becomes intrigued by a reclusive calligrapher living near the river snake and boy call home.

Numamushi by Mina Ikemoto Ghosh
Friday, June 6th, 2025 01:42

Narrated by Wil Wheaton
Fantasy, science fiction or pure absurdist literature? You’ll need to make your own mind up about that. It’s probably all three. The premise is that the moon, all of a sudden, turns to cheese. What kind of cheese? Not sure, but because cheese is less dense than rock and because the moon’s mass has not altered, it’s suddenly bigger and brighter and everyone notices. Rather than following one main character this book works as a series of interspersed stories as people from different walks of life react differently. First we meet the staff of a museum which holds a piece of moon rock; rock until it isn’t. Then there’s an academic turned pop-science author, a bunch of NASA astronauts whose dreams have been shattered, three retirees who meet in a diner to put the world to rights, a young girl who simply wants to write her great fantasy novel, and a tech-bro billionaire who manages to stowaway on his own rocket -- not to mention the American top-brass and the president of the United States. This is quirky and absurd. Wil Wheaton’s reading is at once serious and funny. Maybe this isn’t for everyone, but I enjoyed the listen.


Friday, June 6th, 2025 01:40

Audiobook narrated by Humphrey Bower.

The final book in the Chaos Walking trilogy whicfh follows Todd and Viola, sometimes together, sometimes apart, as they get sucked into the politics of New Prentisstown and a manufactured war with the Spackle. Whether he wishes it or not Todd gets semi-adopted by the mayor (now President) Prentiss, and begins to follow a dark path even though he resists as much as he can. Viola is swept up in a rebellion of sorts as the women healers go on the rampage, using terror tactics against the mayor and his army. Add to that the arrival of a new scout ship with two of Viola’s old friends, and the impending arrival of thousands of settlers with no other option but to make the planet their home. Complicate all this with the mayor’s mental powers, and the ‘noise’ that all men acquire on exposure to the planet, and this is an excellent conclusion to the trilogy. Humphrey Bower’s reading is excellent. He switches accents and voices seamlessly. There’s a bonus short story, Snowscape, tagged on to the end of this recording.


Thursday, June 5th, 2025 09:41
When a woman looked around her for her husband, who had been right behind her on the stairs but was now nowhere to be seen. I was very worried I was facing a repeat of the time not too long ago when I spent an hour looking for a missing patron.

The missing husband turned out not to have been behind his wife on the stairs after all, so mystery solved. The missing patron I spent that hour looking for was found once I thought about where she had to be to have not been found where we looked: row H or J, somewhere near seat 26.
Thursday, June 5th, 2025 09:11


An arduous journey in a prince's entourage offers a courier escape from immediate, judicial danger, at the cost of an entirely different assortment of dangers.


The Witch Roads (The Witch Roads, volume 1) by Kate Elliott
Thursday, June 5th, 2025 09:04
Pursuing their vow to bring down the government, NDP ... do nothing of the sort.

I wonder if they got phone calls from voters expressing their displeasure at the prospect of an election so soon after the previous one?
Wednesday, June 4th, 2025 08:59


Exuberant Youko and stoic Airi continue their tour through the remaining wonders of post-apocalyptic Japan. Carpe diem!

Touring After the Apocalypse, volume 4 by Sakae Saito
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025 14:25


In an uncommon turn for famed author Card, he presents a very special boy in very difficult circumstances faced with great responsibility. What will the Young People make of it?

Young People Read Old Nebula Finalists: Mikal's Songbird by Orson Scott Card
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025 09:01
This sure is different from how RPGs were covered in the news in the 1980s.

It never occurred to me that people would be worried about playing wrong. Would-be gatekeepers complaining that people play wrong, sure. I am sure that started in 1974. But I didn't consider performance anxiety.
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