Strangelove for Science Fiction: Kim Stanley Robinson

Showing posts with label Kim Stanley Robinson. Show all posts

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Loncon 3 notes and quotes

Notes from Loncon 3, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention, held August 14-18, 2014, in London.

Thursday panel: "LOLcats in Space: Social Media, Humour, and SF Narratives."
Panelists: Andrea Phillips, Jean Johnson (m), Adam Roberts, and Charles Stross.
During introductions: "I'm Charles Stross and I tweet too."
Adam Roberts on the Culture novels of Iain M. Banks: "You'd much rather be a Mind than a meat person."
Charles Stross: "The modern human condition is a cyberpunk dystopia ."
Adam Roberts' T-shirt read: "I may at any point turn into my superhero alter ego."

Thursday panel: "Loncon 3 Guests of Honour Discuss Iain Banks."
Panelists: John Jarrold, John Clute, Jeanne Gomoll, Malcolm Edwards, and Bryan Talbot.
Asked to recommend an Iain Banks book:
John Clute named A Song of Stone.
Malcolm Edwards named The Wasp Factory. Edwards said he had seen an editor's note rejecting the novel: "Very well written but far too weird ever to be published."
Bryan Talbot named The Crow Road and Whit.
Jeanne Gomoll named Look to Windward and The Player of Games.
There was some consensus among the panelists that Use of Weapons was one of Banks' finest science fiction novels.

Thursday reading: Kim Stanley Robinson.
Robinson read from his forthcoming novel Aurora (due from Orbit in May, 2015), a generation starship story. The passage that he read concerned a woman teaching the ship AI to write a narrative of the journey.

Thursday panel: "Ideology versus Politics in Science Fiction."
Panelists: Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Martin McGrath, Laurie Penny, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Jon Courtenay Grimwood.
Several panelists discussed the point that science fiction novels frequently focus on a revolution, then skip the important next step: the formation of a new system of government. Martin McGrath recommended Eleanor Arnason's Ring of Swords as an exception includes the negotiation of a new system after the revolution. Other panelists cited Robinson's Mars trilogy as another positive example.

Friday panel: "Interview of John Clute."
Jonathan Clements interviewed Guest of Honour John Clute.
On how authors react to negative reviews: "I think authors like to be screwed in the right way," said Clute.
On reading a novel: "Any house you've entered, you've broken into," said Clute. Authors are surprised by criticism.
"It is intellectual treason to ignore endgame," said Clute. It's essential to talk about what the book is about. The phobia about spoiling the ending is nonsense.
The SF Encyclopedia (follow here) now at 4.5 million words. Clute wrote about 2 million of those.

Friday panel: "A Conversation with Malcolm Edwards."
Chris Evans and Stephen Baxter in dialog with Guest of Honour Malcolm Edwards.
Malcolm Edwards said that in his best six weeks as editor he was able to acquire these three novels for publication: Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock, Neuromancer by William Gibson, and Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard.
Among his accomplishments, he published Paul McAuley's first novel.
The worst ever books he published: Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee's Cradle and A Man of Two Worlds by Brian and Frank Herbert. Frank Herbert wasn't much involved in the book, Edwards said.
He published the first novel by Neil Gaiman, Good Omens, which was also the last time he published Terry Pratchett, the co-author.
On the Gollancz SF Masterworks series: "The Forever War and The Stars My Destination were out of print. Well, I thought, there's a list there. I think that will be my legacy," Edwards said.
Another accomplishment: Gateway a vast ebook collection available online.

Friday panel: "Evolution of Encyclopedia of Science Fiction."
Panelists: Jonathan Clements, John Clute, Neal Tringham, David Langford, Graham Sleight, and Rick Wilber.
All cover images are first edition covers. Part of the argument of the SF Encyclopedia is to capture how books were presented at the time they were first published, according to Clute.
The Encyclopedia is different from a Wiki. It is curated and opinionated, making an argument, possibly including original research.

The most often accessed theme articles are "aliens" and "near future," according to Langford.

Friday panel: "Fantasy vs. SF: Is the Universe Looking Out for You?"
Panelists: Stephen Hunt, Anne Lyle, Ian R. MacLeod, Robert Reed, Rebecca Levene.
Fantasy and SF are trading places a bit. "We're much more likely to create a dragon than to explore even the outer solar system," said Ian R MacLeod
Robert Reed described billionaire Warren Buffett as a magician. Money makes the trains run. "Money as magic."

Saturday panel: "The Politics of Utopia."
There was concensus that Iain M. Banks' Culture novels are utopian

"Utopia is a process not an end state," said Kim Stanley Robinson.

Robinson asserted that Abraham Lincoln was an SF author. "That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth" uses the phrase "shall not perish" as a future imperative, a science fictional declaration.

Sunday panel: "Becoming History."
Panelists: Graham Sleight, John Clute, Peter Higgins, Elizabeth Hand, and Christopher Priest.
What novels exemplify the use of a science fictional or fantastic gaze on the history of the 20th Century?
Peter Higgins named Declare by Powers, Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis, the first of a trilogy, and The Land Across by Gene Wolfe.
Elizabeth Hand named George Saunders, for his "funny and savage" stories.
John Clute named Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald.
Others mentioned: The Violent Century by Lavie Tidhar, Wolfhound Century by Peter Higgins, and The Adjacent by Christopher Priest.

Sunday Filk.
"A Child of the Library" a moving song by Piers and Gill Cawley protesting library closures (follow for lyrics and video).

Sunday panel: "The Darkening Garden."
Panelists: Lisa Tuttle, Paul March-Russell, Paul Kincaid, Nina Allen, and Helen Marshall.
John Clute's The Darkening Garden (2007) argued for horror as a core mode of 21st Century fiction.
Horror is an emotion not a genre, according to Douglas E. Winter.
Kim Newman says you need an element of the irrational in horror. The panelists generally agree.
Nina Allan recommended The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates
Clute used the term "vastation" to describe the reaction to the holocaust. The term comes from Swedenborg.

Related links on this blog:
2014 Hugo Award winners
John Clute kaffeeklatsch
Loncon 3 panel photos
More Loncon 3 panel photos
Still more Loncon 3 photos
Yes, more Loncon 3 photos

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Yes, more Loncon 3 photos

More photos from Loncon 3, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention, held August 14-18, 2014, in London.

Kathleen Ann Goonan, writer,

"The Politics of Utopia"

Kim Stanley Robinson, writer,

"The Politics of Utopia"

David Farnell, scholar,

"The Politics of Utopia"

Worldcon Philharmonic Orchestra

Broadway at the ExCel London convention center.

Fan Village

George R.R. Martin

reading from his forthcoming book.

David Langford, writer and editor, and Jonathan Clements, writer and editor,

"The Evolution of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction"

Neal Tringham, writer and editor,

"The Evolution of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction"

John Clute, critic and editor,

"The Evolution of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction"

Graham Sleight, critic and editor, and Rick Wilber, writer and editor,

"The Evolution of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction"

Kim Stanley Robinson, writer,

reading from his forthcoming novel.

Ian R. MacLeod, writer,

reading from his forthcoming novel.

Friday, August 2, 2013

2013 Hugo Award voting

The following is a discussion of my ballot for the 2013 Hugo Awards, for work published in 2012. This is a popular vote award, where the voters are the attending and supporting members of the World Science Fiction Convention. The results will be announced at LoneStarCon 3, San Antonio, TX, September 1, 2013.

Novel:
1. 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)

The other novels on the shortlist are light snacks. 2312 by Robinson is a feast. It is easily the greatest accomplishment in the novel category. It is three novels in one: First and foremost, it is a love story about two very different people, Swan and Wahram. It’s a moving and successful double character study. Second, it is a grand tour of the solar system 300 years in the future, displaying wonders of technology, economics, and culture. There’s enough material here for most other authors to write a long series of books. Here, Robinson has chosen to condense it all into one. Third, it is a murder mystery with political overtones. There are unforgettable scenes, such as the struggle of endurance and survival that Swan and Wahram experience when they must walk to safety using maintenance tunnels under the surface of Mercury, and much later, a spaceship collision. Not a perfect novel, yet wonderful and multilayered.

Novella:
1. On a Red Station, Drifting by Aliette de Bodard (Immersion Press)
2. After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress (Tachyon)
3. “The Stars Do Not Lie” by Jay Lake (Asimov’s Nov-Dec 2012)

Aliette de Bodard’s On a Red Station Drifting is a fascinating story, partly about a refugee in wartime, set in an interstellar Vietnamese Empire. I hope de Bodard will have more stories in this setting. After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress covers familiar ground, about the fall of civilization. The 15-year-old male viewpoint character is well done, the female mathematician viewpoint character in alternating chapters is less interesting, and doesn’t keep the reader invested in her end of the story. Jay Lake’s “The Stars Do Not Lie” is more familiar still, another retelling of an almost-Galileo confronting an almost-Catholic Church, which tries to suppress a scientific discovery.

Novelette:
1. “Fade to White” by Catherynne M. Valente (Clarkesworld, Aug 2012)
2. “The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi” by Pat Cadigan (Edge of Infinity, Solaris)
3. “The Boy Who Cast No Shadow” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Postscripts: Unfit for Eden, PS Publications)

“Fade to White” by Catherynne M. Valente is a stunningly good story. Two young people, a boy and a girl, prepare for an event that will determine their social futures in a gender divided society. This alternate United States is based on a devastating war with the Soviet Union following immediately after World War II. The most anti-Communist, Red-baiting elements of the political scene of the 1950s are swept into power. Marketing is used effectively for satire, making me wish for a version of “Mad Men” that was set in this alternate world.

Pat Cadigan’s “The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi” is excellent, also, and funny. It’s about a crew working among the moons of Jupiter. I can’t really say much else without spoiling some of the fun. “The Boy Who Cast No Shadow” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt is a touching story of two boys who don’t fit in with their peers.

Short Story:
1. “Immersion” by Aliette de Bodard (Clarkesworld, June 2012)
2. “Mono no Aware” by Ken Liu (The Future is Japanese)
3. “Mantis Wives” by Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld, Aug 2012)

Aliette de Bodard’s “Immersion” depicts the costs of characters leaving behind their native culture in favor of a dominant culture that they can mimic with the use of enhanced reality headsets. “Mono no Aware” by Ken Liu concerns the select few who are able to get on a ship to flee a doomed Earth. I felt the sentimentality was a bit heavy handed. Maybe that’s just me. “Mantis Wives” by Kij Johnson is a series of story précises on the theme of mantis women who kill and consume their mates. It’s alternately chilling and comic, while not offering much story.

First place votes in other categories:
I voted for the Coode Street Podcast in the Fancast category, Tansy Rayner Roberts in the Fan Writer category, The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature for Related Work, Clarkesworld for Semiprozine, Saga, Vol. I for Graphic Story, etc.

Related links:
LoneStarCon 3 website
The full list of all the nominees that made the 2013 Hugo Awards shortlist
Previous posts here at "Strangelove for Science Fiction" regarding Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312: Excerpts, Defining Robinson's 2312, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Defining Robinson’s ‘2312,’ Part 4

In which I continue to define some terms that Kim Stanley Robinson uses in his new novel, 2312.

Note: A reader sent me a message about these definitions suggesting that Robinson invented many of these terms. Actually, he invented very few (“smalls” and “wombman” being examples of invention). Some are existing terms that Robinson has tweaked with new meanings, such as accelerando, which is a musical term. Most are pre-existing terms that demonstrate an inquisitive mind on a broad spectrum of subjects.

dhalgren sun, p.183: a reference to the giant sun in the novel Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany, originally published in 1975, a controversial novel that has sold over a million copies. A friend of the blog, Monkeyblake, wrote a meditation on the novel (follow here).

The Copenhagen interpretation, p. 198: an early interpretation of quantum mechanics, which holds that the act of measurement causes the set of probabilities to immediately and randomly assume only one of the possible values. This is known as wave-function collapse. The Copenhagen concepts were devised by Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg and others in the 1920s.

The Zanzibar Cat, p. 198: the title story of a collection of short fiction by Joanna Russ, originally published in 1983.

Arabia Deserta, p. 198: the travel journals of Charles Montagu Doughty, first published in 1888. The title refers to the desert interior of the Arabian peninsula.

The Whorl, p. 199: The name of the large, hollow generation starship which provides the setting for The Book of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe, a novel that was originally published in four volumes, beginning with Nightside the Long Sun (1993).

ursuline cultures, p. 205: cultures that deemphasize gender. The reference is to author Ursula K. Le Guin.

Another note: As your humble blog correspondent, I’m compelled to point out that Robinson is referencing four of the greatest science fiction and fantasy writers: Delany, Russ, Wolfe and Le Guin, all of whom presumably were influential on Robinson’s work.

Related links on this blog:
Defining Robinson's '2312,' Part 1
Defining Robinson's '2312,' Part 2
Defining Robinson's '2312,' Part 3

Friday, August 10, 2012

Defining Robinson’s ‘2312,’ Part 3

In which I continue to define some terms that Kim Stanley Robinson uses in his new novel, 2312. (If you haven’t read the novel can you construct a novel from the clues these terms provide?)

imago, p. 140: The final developmental stage of an insect after undergoing metamorphosis. Also, an idealized concept of a loved one, formed in childhood and retained unaltered in adult life.

Brocken spectre, p. 140: also called Brocken bow, mountain spectre or glockenspectre is the apparently enormous and magnified shadow of an observer, cast upon the upper surfaces of clouds opposite the sun. (Wikipedia link.)

Messiaen, p. 158: Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), French composer, organist and ornithologist. He believed birds to be the greatest musicians. He notated bird songs worldwide and incorporated birdsong transcriptions into much of his music. (Wikipedia link.)

ostinato, p. 158: from the Italian: stubborn. In music, a repetitive motif or phrase.

gynandromorph, p. 166: to have both male and female characteristics. Here, a female modified to have male genitals in addition to her own.

vasovagal, p. 166: an episode of syncope or fainting relating to the vagus nerve. (Wikipedia link.)

wombman, p. 170: a male modified for pregnancy.

craquelure, p. 175: a dense, complex pattern of cracks on any surface, such as glaze or paint. (Wikipedia link.)

folie à deux , p. 179: from the French for "a madness shared by two.” Shared psychosis, a psychiatric syndrome in which symptoms of a delusional belief are transmitted from one individual to another. (Wikipedia link.)

Related links on this blog:
Defining Robinson's '2312,' Part 1
Defining Robinson's '2312,' Part 2
Defining Robinson's '2312,' Part 4

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Defining Robinson’s ‘2312,’ Part 2

In which I continue to define some terms that Kim Stanley Robinson uses in his new novel, 2312.

terrarium, p. 36: a small, usually dry habitat, usually decorative. Here, a Terran biome created on a large scale, often inside a hollowed-out asteroid, starting with an empty cylinder at least five kilometers in diameter and ten kilometers long.

Ascensions, p. 38: mixing up Terran biomes to create a new hybrid. Named for Ascension Island, the first hybrid biome, inadvertently started by Charles Darwin after his visit in 1836. (BBC News story and Wikipedia link.)

Accelerando, p. 40: A period of rapid change across a spectrum of issues, including technological progress, social progress, and economic advancement as human civilization spreads across the solar system. Robinson is borrowing the term from his novel, Blue Mars (1996).

Archilochus, p. 60: a Greek poet of the Archaic period, noted for fault-finding and stinging attacks. (Wikipedia link.)

Lake Vostok, p. 62: the largest sub-glacial lake in Antarctica, similar in size to Lake Ontario. The water in the lake has been isolated and undisturbed for at least 400,000 years and perhaps millions of years. In 2012 a Russian scientific team claims to have completed drilling over 12,000 feet through the ice shield to reach the lake and take samples. Scientists hope to find ancient forms of life. Controversy has surrounded the project and the drilling techniques. Critics suggest the drilling will compromise the habitat and contaminate results. (Wikipedia link.)

Deinococcus radiodurans, p. 64: extremophilic bacterium, one of the most radioresistant organisim known. (Wikipedia link.)

entheogens, p. 80: psychoactive substances such as peyote used in a shamanic or spiritual context. The term entheogen was coined in 1979 by a group of ethnobotanists and scholars of mythology as a replacement for the terms hallucinogen and psychedelic. (Wikipedia link.)

hypotyposis, p. 83: “the visionary imagination of things not present before the eyes.”

bardo, p. 84: a Tibetan term for the “intermediate state” between two lives or incarnations. Robinson used this concept to considerable effect in his novel, The Years of Rice and Salt (2002).

Related links on this blog:
Defining Robinson's '2312,' Part 1
Defining Robinson's '2312,' Part 3
Defining Robinson's '2312,' Part 4

Monday, August 6, 2012

Defining Robinson’s ‘2312,’ Part 1

I’ll be defining some terms that Kim Stanley Robinson uses in his new novel, 2312. This is not intended to be an exhaustive or definitive treatment. I’ve selected only the terms that interested me.

inuksuit, p.2: a stone landmark or cairn, used by the Inuit and other peoples of the Arctic regions of North America. (Google images link.)

goldsworthies, p. 2: art in the tradition of Andy Goldsworthy (born 1956), an environmental artist or site-specific sculptor, whose outdoor art often involves stone walls, wood, or leaves, often fashioned into arches, cones, sinuous curves, or crystalline shapes. (Wikipedia link and Google images link.)

abramovics, p. 4: art in the tradition of Marina Abramović, Serbian-born (1946) performance artist, who styles herself as the “grandmother of performance art.” In 2010 the Museum of Modern Art in New York held a retrospective show of her work and hosted her performance piece “The Artist is Present.” HBO Documentary Films produced the film “Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present” which originally aired July 3, 2012, a remarkable documentary. (Wikipedia link.)

Terminator, p. 4: the moving line on a rotating planet’s surface that separates day from night. Here, the capital city of Mercury, moving at a constant speed, staying just ahead of the dawn. The city moves across tracks which expand as they reach daylight, driving the city forward. Robinson is borrowing from his own early novel, The Memory of Whiteness (1985), which describes the city of Terminator on Mercury, constantly moving on rolling cylinders ahead of the dawn.

smalls, p. 12: genetically altered humans, waist high to average humans.

exergasia, p. 21: rhetorical restatement, a form of parallelism where an idea is repeated and the only change is in the way it is stated.

Mondragon Accord, p. 26: “one of the most influential forms of economic change had ancient origins in Mondragon, Euskadi, a small Basque town that ran an economic system of nested co-ops organized for mutual support. A growing network of space settlements used Mondragon as a model for adapting beyond their scientific station origins to a larger economic system. Cooperating as if in a diffuse Mondragon, the individual space settlements, widely scattered, associated for mutual support” (p. 125)

Friday, June 15, 2012

Excerpts from Robinson's '2312'

Here is a series of excerpts from 2312, a novel by Kim Stanley Robinson:

"the space diaspora occurred as late capitalism writhed in its decision concerning whether to destroy Earth's biosphere or change its rules. Many argued for the destruction of the biosphere, as being the lesser of two evils

one of the most influential forms of economic change had ancient origins in Mondragon, Euskadi, a small Basque town that ran an economic system of nested co-ops organized for mutual support. A growing network of space settlements used Mondragon as a model for adapting beyond their scientific station origins to a larger economic system. Cooperating as if in a diffuse Mondragon, the individual space settlements, widely scattered, associated for mutual support

as feudalism is the residual on Earth, capitalism is the residual on Mars

the existence of the marginal economy, semiautonomous, semiunregulated, resembling anarchy, filled with fraud, double-dealing, and crime, delighted all free marketeers, libertarians, anarchists, and many others, some enjoying the bonobo barter and others the machismo of a wild west and wealth beyond need

confining capitalism to the margin was the great Martian achievement, like defeating the mob or any other protection racket" (pages 124-126)

Indeed. (Your humble blog correspondent here.) As our financial institutions have shown us again and again, they will hold the world economy hostage, extorting wealth beyond need for a select few. I admire Robinson's optimism. I hope that we do move beyond capitalism to something more sane and egalitarian.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Even more May book arrivals

More books arrived in the mail, including some that I am particularly excited about.

If you've read this blog for a while you'll know that I think Kim Stanley Robinson is a first rate writer. I've been looking forward to the arrival of his new novel, 2312. In a previous post I excerpted the Gary K. Wolfe review of the book that appeared in the May 2012 issue of Locus Magazine. Locus Online has now made the entire review available (follow here).

Ad Eternum by Elizabeth Bear is a novella in her New Amsterdam series from Subterranean Press.

Byzantium Endures by Michael Moorcock is the first in his Colonel Pyat Quartet. This is the first American edition from 1981.

Part of his Deepgate Codex series, Damnation for Beginners by Alan Campbell has a lovely cover illustration by Ian McQue and interior illustrations by Bob Eggleton. (Click to enlarge images.)

Tales from Gavagan's Bar (expanded edition) by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, illustrated by Inga Pratt and Tim Kirk, published by Owlswick Press in 1978. This is a collection of stories in the "club story" tradition of Lord Dunsany's Jorkins stories, Arthur C. Clarke's Tales from the White Hart, Larry Niven's The Draco Tavern, and many others.

The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers recently won the 2012 Arthur C. Clarke award for the best science fiction novel published in Britain in 2011. It's now available in a United States edition. I like the epigraph from Euripides and couldn't resist including it here.

The Moon Moth is one of Jack Vance's best known stories, a classic of science fiction that has been anthologized many times, including The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two B. Here is a new adaptation as a graphic novel by Humayoun Ibrahim. The story is stripped of most of Vance's distinctive prose, still the artist has done a wonderful job telling the story with a visual style that matches Vance in surprising ways.

Railsea, the latest from China Mieville, is marketed as a young adult novel. Interior illustrations by the author.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Robinson's '2312'

Gary K. Wolfe reviews Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312 in the May 2012 issue of Locus Magazine.

"2312 is as flat-out a celebration of the possibilities of SF as I’ve seen in years, not only in terms of classic space adventure (there are grim setpieces in the tunnels of Mercury and in open space, after the passengers on a doomed spaceship need to abandon it only in spacesuits, waiting for rescue), but in terms of gender evolution, quantum computing and artificial intelligence ... , and ecological catastrophe (Earth is so ruined that it ironically becomes the only planet not suitable for terraforming). Robinson takes on so much information here, and so many techniques, that the novel sometimes seems on the verge of flying apart from its own imaginative momentum, but it’s something of a wonder to watch Robinson pull in all the kites in the end. Readers who want only the clean narrative arc of the planet-saving space opera that anchors the narrative might find a good two-thirds of the novel a distraction, but for the rest of us it’s a catalog of wonders."

Your humble correspondent would hazard that Kim Stanley Robinson has a good claim to being the foremost science fiction novelist of the past several years in the United States. Consider the evidence: Galileo's Dream (2009), The Years of Rice and Salt (2002), and Antarctica (1997). Not to mention the Mars books.