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Clarke Award Finalists 2025

2025: Scientists are astonished when the largest ever dinosaur fossil trackway does not lead into the House of Lords, Tate Britain breaks with English tradition by returning looted art, and in a shocking break from centuries of Catholic precedent, the new Pope is a Cubs fan.

Poll #33961 Clarke Award Finalists 2025

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7

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Which 2025 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

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Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
1 (14.3%)

Extremophile by Ian Green
0 (0.0%)

Private Rites by Julia Armfield
1 (14.3%)

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
3 (42.9%)

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
4 (57.1%)

Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock by Maud Woolf
0 (0.0%)

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

Which 2025 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
Extremophile by Ian Green
Private Rites by Julia Armfield
Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock by Maud Woolf

Entry tags:

Dreams of Dead Stars, Part III, ch. 19: Halls of Strife

Many apologies for the unscheduled delay--November was a hell of a month, and I didn't get anything written at all the entire time. But I'm back home, recovered from various afflictions (more or less), and returning to the habit of writing. There will be one last hiatus--the next chapter will be posted on Sunday, December 28th--but after that I'm hoping to be back on the "every dang Sunday" posting schedule until the end of the story. Here's hoping! All my thanks for you readers, especially to all the comments that have kept me going for so long. I can't overstate how much you've helped to keep this project in motion, or how much I appreciate you all.

( Read more... )

RIP the Mass Market Paperback

Now you can have the ebook (which you're only renting if it is DRMed), hard-to-shelve trade paperback, or the expensive hardcover.

Darn them to heck

Entry tags:

scribble scribble

I feel Accomplished

I have finished the first draft of my Yuletide pinch-hit (which is, yet again, in a fandom I have never written before, or at least one I've never posted to AO3 - go me?). I'm sure the feeling will fade once the beta-readers have gone over it, and I go back to put in all the bits I thought were in there to begin with but didn't actually make it out of my brain, but for now, I'll enjoy the feeling.

Also we have our Christmas tree up and decorated. Other Christmas decorations, not so much, but then our celebration of Christmas isn't so much Actual Holiday as it is Oh Thank Fuck The Semester's Over And We Have Time Off, with a side of movies and Chinese food.

Next up: finishing my Secret Santa gift. Maybe put on some nice seasonal murder while I embroider. :-D

200 Significant Science Fiction Books by Women, 1984–2001, by David G. Hartwell

I was a bit surprised to come across this as Hartwell wasn't really the go-to editor where women's SF was concerned. An interesting snapshot of SF in a sixteen-year period. The end is the fall of the American republic. Not sure what was significant about 1984.

( Read more... )

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Cold War in a Country Garden (Dilke, volume 1) by Lindsay Gutteridge

One very small step for a man, one giant leap for Her Majesty's Government.

Cold War in a Country Garden (Dilke, volume 1) by Lindsay Gutteridge

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Twin Cities history: 1980s, ARA (Anti-Racist Action), Baldies, punk, music, Uptown

Um.

I tried to write an intro for this, but all I can do is gesture incoherently. No, I wasn't a Baldy, I wasn't a skinhead, but the milieu affected my life for Reasons. If you watch this documentary it may give you a better understanding of (some of) what made Minneapolis in the 80s what it was. Or maybe you were there too, and this will be an interesting tour of byegone days.

I really want to get together and share stories of those times. For now, here, have a pretty good documentary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=8BSDZ1DIEIQ

After some digging

I am not aware of any big name authors who got their start with a work published by Baen Books after 2006. If there are recent analogs of Bujold or Weber, I do not know of them.

Huh

So, I asked on Bluesky:

Aside from Larry Correia, are there any big name Baen authors who debuted at Baen, after Jim Baen's death?

(So, Tim Powers wouldn't count because he debuted not at Baen and also long before JB died)

I got three names: Chuck Gannon, Jason Cordova and Mike Kupari. Gannon actually debuted at Baen in 1994 but only two (I think) short pieces, after which there was a long delay until his novels began appearing. I don't know the other two but SF is huge and it's perfectly possible for me to overlook BNAs. Still, granting all three, with LC that makes four... and in 2028, Toni Weisskopf will have been running Baen for as long as Jim Baen did.

This could, of course, be the natural consequence of the Del Monte approach.

[added later]

Entry tags:

IRA

tl;dr still waiting for things

The latest on that inherited IRA is that I got two email messages from Fidelity today, one saying that I needed to do something [unspecified] to transfer the money from BNY, and one saying specifically that BNY had told Fidelity that they, BNY, needed to talk to me.

So, I called BNY, and after various annoyances with their phone tree, talked to someone. He told me that they had no record yet of receiving the form I sent by next-day mail, but that if the form had arrived late Wednesday they might not be scanned until late today or even Monday. Also that once the form is scanned into the BNY system, it may take a few days before they actually transfer the money into my name, which would be necessary in order to move it to Fidelity.

So, I can (and probably will) call Monday to check that the form was in fact been received, but he thinks I should call later in the week, maybe Wednesday, maybe as late as Friday, and ask for my brand-new account number. Once I have that number, I have to fill out appropriate paperwork with Fidelity. *sigh*

I am both annoyed that even paying for next-day delivery, this is taking several days, and thinking that if I hadn’t paid for faster delivery I would be a few days further behind.

The man also said that once the funds are transferred, they will send me an acknowledgement by mail, including the new account number. However, waiting for that to arrive (rather than getting the information by phone) does not seem prudent, given the IRS deadline for the 2025 required minimum distribution.