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2/9/2010 8:40:19 AM
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topic:
Review Database for Online Fiction
StevenLP
Posts 538
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This site covers some of what you ask for, though its clearly best for author searches.
I find the "new additions" page very useful.
http://www.freesfonline.de/index.html
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2/9/2010 3:33:05 AM
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topic:
You won't go to the moon, my boy
AVorlon
Posts 107
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Heh, I love it. A good place to take your grandkids on a camping trip, as you sadly explain what it all used to mean.
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2/8/2010 11:43:54 PM
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topic:
Looking for Some Old Stories: Genetic Manipulation
gdozois
Posts 3506
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Those are the "Mama Jason" stories written by Janet Kagan, now unfortunately deceased. They were collected in a book called MIRABLE.
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2/8/2010 10:49:24 PM
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topic:
Looking for Some Old Stories: Genetic Manipulation
EJacobson
Posts 1
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Hello!
Many years ago, I read two stories in Asimov's magazine that I would like to locate, or at least, locate the name of the author. Both stories were about a group of people who had settled on a planet, bringing a storehouse of genetic material that the protagonists worked with to solve problems they were having on the planet. In one story, they had a problem with a native bird who could only lay eggs in the middle of some nasty sticky bamboo like weeds that the settlers wanted to get rid of, but it was putting the birds in danger of extinction to remove the weeds. In the other story, I can't quite remember what the problem was, something about bugs and bats that got eaten by native predators. The problem was solved by creating brightly colored, red, orange and other colored bats that the predators wouldn't mistake for food.
If anyone can remember these two stories and/or the name of the author, I would love to hear from you!
Thank you!
E Jacobson
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2/8/2010 8:33:15 PM
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topic:
Asimov's March 2010--Yes, I Got It And You Shall 2
WPreston
Posts 833
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You guys . . . yeesh. The stuff I put up with. And up with which I must put.
Mr. Rogers, you honor and bless me. Thanks.
I can only hope that you'll still be writing the reviews for Asimov's when the (inevitable) (and inevitably horrendous) movie version comes out.
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2/8/2010 8:02:08 PM
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topic:
Odd items IV
gdozois
Posts 3506
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Stupid things you can actually buy:
http://www.cracked.com/article_18410_the-12-most-insane-things-you-can-buy-internet.html
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2/8/2010 7:43:45 PM
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topic:
DINOSAURS WHAT ARE THEY?
Byron Bailey
Posts 2642
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Dinosaurs count as poultry because they taste like chicken.
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2/8/2010 7:27:51 PM
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topic:
magazine cover art
sheesh
Posts 95
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Even more than fiction, illustration is very much a matter of taste.
F&SF currently has terrific cover art almost every month, as do a few websites (if it isn't too weird to call webpage illustrations "cover art"). Asimov's' covers vary in quality from issue to issue, but the recent Picacio cover is both vivid and memorable. Or at least so says I.
I've heard many complaints about Dell cover art, but I usually enjoy the covers. If I close my eyes, I can visualize them. The cover for Ian Watson's "Speaker for the Wooden Sea" is emblazoned on my memory, and that's from a scary (for me at least) number of years ago.
OTOH Emsh never did that much for me. I like some of his work, but it's not all terrific, or memorable, for me. Guys like Lehr and Berkey are interesting but their work tends to a certain sameness en masse. My all time favorite sf artist is Richard Powers. More artist than illustrator, really, whose work should be in the Louvre next to Miro and Klimt. But as an illustrator he had limitations.
Part of the difference could be printing technology, and palette choice. Maybe today's artists prefer darker, less dynamic color suites. Then again, there's the frontier factor. The old artists were making it up as they went along, and today's artists are working variations on the innovative work of their forebears. That freedom of exploring virgin territory can result in extraordinary visions.
Then again, it could just be you. And me, now that I've put in my two cents.
Robert Brown
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2/8/2010 7:17:47 PM
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topic:
Asimov's March 2010--Yes, I Got It And You Shall 2
John Thiel
Posts 1604
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No, I don't regard him as a document savager. Perhaps "Doc Salvage" would be a better title for him.
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2/8/2010 7:04:55 PM
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topic:
You won't go to the moon, my boy
pc
Posts 1664
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Coming soon to the eastern coast of Florida:
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2/8/2010 6:44:22 PM
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topic:
DINOSAURS WHAT ARE THEY?
gdozois
Posts 3506
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Hey, until you've seen a brontosaurus in a black lace bra and matching panties, you don't know what "smutty" is.
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2/8/2010 6:40:16 PM
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topic:
PHIL KLASS
gdozois
Posts 3506
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It was a good story--not great, not at the very top of Phil's work, but enjoyable. I was glad to have the chance to work with him.
The authors I was never able to get anything from, although I tried, and regret the fact because I love their work, include Samuel R. Delany, Jack Vance, and (while he was alive), Roger Zelazny.
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2/8/2010 5:37:46 PM
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topic:
PHIL KLASS
sheesh
Posts 95
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"Gardner did get one story out of Phil--"The Girl with Some Kind of Past. And George"--(October 1993)."
Sweet! For some reason I was thinking Tenn was one of those writers GD mentioned never squeezing a story out of. That's an issue I don't have. Guess I'll have to track a copy down.
Robert Brown
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2/8/2010 4:54:11 PM
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topic:
The Super Bowl
Byron Bailey
Posts 2642
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Only the first one is free, Byron. Before you know it you will be shouting for insipid canned beer.
It's been October since I last had a beer. Currently, I'd shout for that fermented drink they have down in the Amazon made from yucca root and spit.
You will be laughing maniacally, pounding insanely on a piano,and begging for the most worthless part of some chickens, and tortilla-chips-whizzed-upon.
I laugh maniacal anyway. All I've got to do is watch or listen ti the news, especially the political news. As for begging for the most worthless parts of chickens -- I assume you refer to buffalo wings -- I've seen enough food shows to know that frequently the tastiest dishes are made from the less valuable parts of a critter. It's precisely those parts that require skill and technique to turn into delicacies like barbecue brisket texas style or barbecue pork shoulder North Carolina style. As for whizzed-upon tortilla chipes , if by "whizzed upon," you mean urinated upon, there's a distinct possibility if I'm desparate enough that I might beg for them. If by "whizzed upon" you mean Cheez Whiz, I can't envision that day ever happening. Ever. Enough said.
You will begin to say "We" when referring to the exploits of a team over which you have zero influence.
Not necessarily so, especially on home games where the fans have been called the twelth team member. At the home games, Peyton manning has the crowd well-trained. When he wants quiet to enhance communication with his players, he gets it. Meanwhile a loud roar from the crowd can make it more difficult for the other team to communicate. A well-trained crowd can make a difference for the home team.
For the love of free beer, you will think that giant sweaty men patting each other on the heinies is interesting behavior.
Yes. Extremely interesting behavior that requires pondering. My current theory to the phenomenon is that either all football players are homosexual or at least bixexual or alternatively football players have found themselves in a position where society doesn't challenge their masculinity. They're football players and are by default as true blooded American male as you can get without being an action figure in which case you end up losing your genitalia.* Consequently, football players can flaunt their status of being men among men by engaging in behavior that the rest of us couldn't get away with without being thought gay, things like patting each other on the butts and having sex with the tight end, a position explicitely made for that use.
It's Madness, I tell you. Madness.
Sadly, football doesn't quite pass the Cthulhu test for madness. Alas.
Judging by Raiders fans, football fascination and machete contests are not mutually exclusive categories.
Here in Indiana, we really don't use machetes all that much. Since Indiana doesn't have a major league baseball team, there's a lot of baseball bats in the sporting goods stores that we don't have a whole lot of use for. We use the bats instead of machetes. It's been said that highly skilled use of the machete can take out an opponent weilding a baseball bat every time. However, we hoosiers have found that when alcohol is involved which is all of the time, skill plays very little role in the matchup. Baseball bats work quite well in actual practice against a machete.. Furthermore, with a baseball bat, you're not too likely to trip in your drunkeness and slice your head off. Those bumps on the noggin do hurt and knocking oneself out isn't that much fun. Considering the alternative, though, we hoosiers have np desire to switch to machetes.
*The day they make a GI Joe action figure with actual genitalia is the day every American male jumps off the nearest bridge or castrates himself due to the unwinnable challenge to their masculinity.
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2/8/2010 3:30:25 PM
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topic:
magazine cover art
Rick Norwood
Posts 1
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I just finished reading the latest issue of Asimov's and after I had filed it with my collection, I realized that I had absolutely no idea what the cover illustration was. Not only could I not remember the name of the artist, I could not remember which story it illustrated or anything about it -- was it a picture of a space ship or a human being, was it mostly red or mostly blue? Nothing. And yet, I can vividly remember cover art by Ed Emsh or Kelly Freas that I haven't looked at in twenty years.
I went back and looked at that cover, and a dozen other covers of sf magazines that came out in the past year, and the adjective that comes to mind is "muddy", swirls of dull colors giving vague impressions of uninteresting subjects.
The last good magazine covers that I remember were on Ted White's Amazing Stories forty years ago.
I publish a small press magazine, Comics Revue, and so I know that artists are eager to provide covers for as little as $100, and some very good artists are willing to provide covers for free, just for the exposure.
I can only think of two possible explanations. One is that I have bad taste in art, and the current artists are really better than Ed Emsh and Kelly Freas. The second is that someone has discovered that people are more likely to buy a magazine with bad art than a magazine with good art.
Any thoughs on which it is?
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2/8/2010 3:25:37 PM
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topic:
DINOSAURS WHAT ARE THEY?
Clint Harris
Posts 661
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gdozois wrote:
I read Adrian Desmond's THE HOT-BLOODED DINOSAURS when it first came out; still an interesting book, one I'd recommend, although some of the information in it may be a bit out-of-date these days.
Gardner, is that like "Spicy Dinosaur Stories" or the old pulps that were just a little bit smutty? 
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2/8/2010 3:17:19 PM
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topic:
African American SF characters
Clint Harris
Posts 661
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I think the subject limits discussion. Genli Ai from LeGuinn's novel is a black man, however, his national identity is still in question. I'm not sure if "African American" is applicable to a lot of SF, considering how much of it is based in worlds without an America.
So, are we talking about "African Americans" or people with more melanin?
edited by Clint Harris on 2/8/2010
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2/8/2010 3:11:48 PM
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topic:
DINOSAURS WHAT ARE THEY?
Clint Harris
Posts 661
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It's not so much "Dinosaurs, are they reptiles or birds." Birds are the result of dinosaurs. Not vice versa.
They share common ancestry, which also happen to be dinosaurs. But birds are more or less mini dinosaurs. Only evolved for tens of millions of years.
edited by Clint Harris on 2/8/2010
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2/8/2010 2:24:48 PM
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topic:
PHIL KLASS
karlb
Posts 461
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The gods of my youth have almost all passed now ... the only one who's left is Frederik Pohl.
Quite a number of Tenn stories still have real bite to them, e.g. "The Liberation of Earth."
STTL
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2/8/2010 12:24:06 PM
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topic:
PHIL KLASS
StevenLP
Posts 538
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A great writer: the first NESFA collection must be in the top 10 SF author collections published, if not in the top 5 (and volume 2 isn't bad either!).
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