Author Archives: Dogma & Dragons
Superluminary vs. Savagery
My friend, John C. Wright, has recently created a Patreon account and started serializing a space opera thereon. It is excellent and a great deal of fun. The tale had me from the opening line,
“Aeneas Tell of House of Tell, youngest of the Lords of Creation, was twenty-one when he was assassinated for the first time.”
and did not disappoint. It contains many of the tropes Wright and fans of Wright enjoy, and is currently 2 for 2 in making use of Wright’s favorite word, integument. If you were a fan of The Golden Age series or Count to a Trillion, Superluminary is like the less philosophically inclined, hack-n-slash RPG younger brother. Read it for free, then pay what you like!
Speaking of which…
Some savage morlock crawled out of its pit to mock and sneer at Mr. Wright for not making as much per month as N.K. Jemisin. I aim to fix that. By RDF’s metric, Wright must be a better author than Jemisin if his monthly pledges overtake hers. I hereby double, nay, triple my monthly patronage.
Tokusatsu Resurgence
Not one, but two of my beloved childhood series are being rebooted this summer! Truly this is the golden age of sci-fi cinema!
First off is Ultraman. The interpretation of the classic rubber suit as Ultraman’s actual skin and face is quite interesting, and gives a unique visual flair to our hero from M78. I’m glad that rather than reproducing the original suit with CGI, they opted for a design that could only be done well with CGI, taking advantage of their chosen medium.
Second, Godzilla is back, and once more in the sure hands of Toho, who know what to do with him (hint: you actually get to see him in all his King of the Monster’s glory). I believe this 1.5 minute trailer contains more Godzilla than the most recent Hollywood film named after him did. This iteration of the character looks vaguely undead, which please me, if only because the war dead-possessed corpsezilla from Giant Monsters All Out Attack is one of my favorite takes on the Big G. He also looks a bit like the melting Godzilla from Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. Most exciting though, is that Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi are helming this project (the shot of the tank turrets rotating in formation is pure NGE). Get in the reboot Shinji!
Locus & Dragon
Two other SFF awards have come to my attention in recent days, both determined by popular vote. Make your voice heard!
Locus Awards (deadline April 15!)
Dragon Awards (deadline July 25)
Hat tip to the Supreme Overlord of the Evil Legion of Evil, Vox Day, for bringing these to my attention. The Dragon Awards in particular look well poised to take the Hugos’ place of prominence for its lair should the Hugos prove fully converged and beyond salvaging.
Hugo Capsules: Novels and Novellas
Last few hours to nominate for the 2016 Hugos! I’ve updated my previous posting with a few more items. Now, for the last of my 2015 Hugos reviews.
Best Novel
1. Skin Game, by Jim Butcher
I have not gotten a chance to read the other novels, and it seems unfair to judge them based on hastily skimming excerpts from them, but I am confident that even so, Skin Game would remain on top of my list. It was an excellent installment in a line of excellent installments fourteen and counting (sorry Fool Moon). Butcher’s penchant for invention, wit, characters, and slam bang set pieces was on full display, alongside a twist that makes one want to reread the whole thing with a closer eye. In addition, for me, this was a vote not just for Skin Game, but for all the years that Butcher had been snubbed by the Hugos.
Best Novella
1. “Pale Realms of Shade”, by John C. Wright
Published online prior to its inclusion in The Book of Feasts and Seasons, “Pale Realms of Shade” represents Wright’s first foray (or second, depending on how one interprets the end of “One Bright Star to Guide Them”) into what might be called the metaphysical thriller, which Wright himself describes as a thriller “where reality is out of joint, and the mystery is not who did what, but what is what”. The denouement of a metaphysical thriller is, by original definition, an apocalypse, an ‘uncovering’, and “Pale Realms of Shade” has quite the uncovering. It is, however, not strictly speaking entirely a metaphysical thriller, as it also partakes of being thrillers both mundane and supernatural, wherein our deceased detective protagonist must discover both who killed him, why, and why he is turning into a very angry shade indeed. Wright’s prose are vivid throughout, while the tone runs the gamut from inspiring beauty to revolting horror, and the tale is by turns intriguing, terrifying, heartbreaking, and joyous. With skillful genre-blending, prose, and depth of theme, “Pale Realms of Shade” easily takes its place as top contender for the Hugo.
2. Big Boys Don’t Cry, by Tom Kratman
An explosive, exciting action romp that turns unexpectedly thoughtful and emotional about, of all things, sentient super-tanks that would be considered tremendous instruments of war even by 41st millennium standards. Ratha war machine “Maggie” is critically injured in an ambush, and reminisces on her past campaigns as technicians salvage what they can from her damaged hull and turrets. As she goes deeper into the past, she begins to find memories once hidden away now revealed by the damage to her artificial brain, and they are not happy ones… Kratman’s story is predominantly a speculation on how a living weapon might think, feel, be trained, and operate, but it hits on many notes in the course of the telling, warfighting and the politics of warfighting being recurring themes. Big Boys Don’t Cry is military SF of a high order, and I will definitely be looking into more of Kratman’s writing in the future.
3. “The Plural Helen of Troy”, by John C. Wright
The long-awaited sequel prequel interquel I give up to the excellent “Murder in Metachronopolis”. This one is broken up into fewer, larger chapters than “Murder” was, but is still presented for readings both linear and non-linear. Wright builds on the ideas of the first tale, showing off more of the Paradox Proctor Special Unlimited, and introducing a truly terrifying time-travelers’ boogieman that can time-jump around looking for the perfect moment to strike: the innocuously yet sinisterly named Tin Woodman. Yet, as before later simultaneously I give up, the true danger comes not from external foes, but from the sins and bent desires inside one’s own heart. The denouement takes a very unexpected, genre-blending turn that casts all the tales of Metachronopolis in a new light, delighted me, and strongly recommends the story be read in the order printed the first time through.
4. One Bright Star to Guide Them, by John C. Wright
This work was first published as a short story, then expanded to novella size and republished. I would like to see it expanded further to full novel size, as I see its flaws (chiefest of which is ‘telling rather than showing’) all stemming from trying to do too much in too little space. Star works from the interesting premise of “what happens to the heroes of children’s fantasy stories who have to live normal grown-up lives on Earth after visiting and saving another world as children?”. Unfortunately, our glimpses into the hero’s childhood (a wonderful mash up of Lewis, Alexander, and Cooper) take the form of inelegant expositions given at the drop of a hat by various characters in the course of their conversations. It makes what should feel wondrous and nostalgic sound glib and insipid to my ear. These passages are tributes to stories I loved as a kid, and still do, but even I found myself rolling my eyes after the third or fourth time a character launched into a block of expo-speak that read like a Wikipedia summary.
The other effect of trying to fit what could be a novel’s worth of story into a novella is that I was unable to connect with any of the characters I ought to really care about; I simply didn’t know them well enough by the time something happened to them to feel anything, and I could tell I was meant to feel a great deal. It was frustrating, as this is, by rights, a story I should love, but up until the last two chapters, its execution left me cold (doubly frustrating, as Wright is a genius author, and Star is a personal favorite of his. Alas, I can see only a glimpse of what he sees in it). The last two chapters, are, however, excellent, very on form for Wright, and end on the perfect kind of eucatastrophic twist for the genre he is writing in. “One Bright Star to Guide Them” is a story I really want to love, and would gladly give another chance in an expanded form.
5. “Flow”, by Arlan Andrews, Sr.
A tale of a young lad from a Northern tribe who tags along with a crew of ice merchants as they ride a floe down a flowing river towards Southern towns to take it to market. The idea of ice brokers and ice merchants was new and interesting to me, and the story is well told, having the feel of a fireside tale our hero will pass on to his children in the future. The prose are well executed, and in all respects, “Flow” is a fine, workmanlike piece, yet it lacked the imaginative energy and verve of the preceding four works. There were no moments of breathtaking wonder, gut-wrenching horror, visceral action, or mind-bending eureka. There were no Big Ideas. The tales men might tell about a fire simply cannot compete with the tales men tell about fire.
Hugo Nominations
Only one week to go! Nominate here at the MidAmeriCon II website.
Rabid Puppies Recommendations (Make the Hugos great again!)
Sad Puppies Recommendations (The Embiggening)
My own nominations for MidAmeriCon II:
Best Novel
Architect of Aeons by John C. Wright
Somewhither: A Tale of the Unwithering Realm by John C. Wright
Best Related Work
Appendix N series by Jeffro Johnson
“The Story of Moira Greyland” by Moira Greyland
SJWs Always Lie: Taking Down the Thought Police by Vox Day
“The Force Awakens and Hits the Snooze Button” by John C. Wright
“Safe Space as Rape Room” by Daniel Eness
Best Graphic Story
Lackadaisy by Tracy J. Butler
Magic: Khans of Tarkir block by Mark Rosewater, Jeremy Jarvis, Doug Beyer, et al (this is an experiment on my part. If video games count as ‘Dramatic Presentation’, I do not see why certain tabletop games could not be counted as a ‘Graphic Story’, if the story is primarily presented through visual means).
Best Editor, Short Form
Jerry Pournelle
Best Editor, Long Form
Vox Day, Castalia House
Toni Weisskopf, Baen Books
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
Madoka Magica: Rebellion (review here) (I’m not sure if this will qualify or not. It was theatrically released with English captions stateside in 2014, but only last year did it get a stateside release with an English dub. I am unsure which release MidAmeriCon II will consider to be the first publication in English.)
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
Psycho-Pass 2 (complete series)
Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, S2E12 “Unlimited Blade Works”
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, S5E1-2 “The Cutie Map”
Marvel’s Daredevil (complete series)
Best Professional Artist
Mathias Kollros (particularly his work in Battle for Zendikar)
John Blanche (This is a stab in the dark. I don’t know if his artwork was utilized in any of the 2015 40k codices.)
Best Semiprozine
Best Fanzine
Best Fan Writer
Jeffro Johnson
Best Fan Artist
Christopher Rush (I’m not sure where doing card alters and whatnot falls on the fan-pro spectrum, so I’m nominating Rush in both categories just to be safe.)
The John W. Campbell Award
Hugo Capsules: Novelettes
Best Novelette
1. “The Journeyman: In the Stone House“, by Michael F. Flynn
There’s nothing quite like a good heroic fantasy, nor do I ever tire of tales set in the shadows of once great civilizations. Perhaps it is an atavistic preference passed down from my Gothic barbarian ancestors (along with a predilection for little fur hats). Whatever the case, the exploits of Teodorq sunna Nagarajan and Sammi o’ th’ Eagles following their encounter with the holographic AI of a downed spacecraft felt like something out of Swords & Sorcery or in the tradition of “Black Amazon of Mars”. I enjoyed the blending of fantasy and sci-fi, and the odd dialect incorporating contemporary slang spoken by the characters (to whom our expressions would be archaic), which plays into the stories funniest exchange:
“And what is meant by ‘babe’?”
“In the sprock, it is a term of respect for important women.”
The tale ends on a somewhat inconclusive note, being part of a larger series following Teodorq and Sammi, but it is a satisfying chapter, and I look forward to their further adventures.
2. “The Triple Sun: A Golden Age Tale“, by Rajnar Vajra
It’s rather odd that despite being my least favorite overall of the four good nominees, “The Triple Sun” ended up receiving my number 2 vote (for reasons detailed below). Given my poor scholarship in Golden Age SF, I cannot comment on the accuracy of the tale’s subtitle, but it had a very optimistic, future-is-gonna-be-great, can-do,”work the problem” attitude that I have inferred is the hallmark of Golden Age SF. It was a very fun read, and had the second best SF speculation (to my tastes) after “Earth to Alluvium”.
3. “Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Earth to Alluvium“, by Gary Rinehart
This was an interesting little story about a man fighting a psychological and cultural warfare action against an occupying alien force through his own impending death. Despite my attempts to see one character as a kind of Cato of Utica, a last page twist still left a sour taste in my mouth, and for that reason alone “Earth to Alluvium” was bumped below “The Triple Sun”.
4. “Championship B’tok“, by Edward M. Lerner
“Championship B’tok” read very much like several chapters from a larger work that had been compiled together to be submitted as a novelette; a larger work that I would very much like to read. In many ways, from setting (harder SF) to characters (various humans and aliens pursuing different agendas) to mood (political intrigue), I preferred this story to “The Triple Sun” and “Earth to Alluvium”. I ranked those latter works higher because I was voting for the best novelette, and those works were better as stories containable in a novelette, whereas “B’tok” worked decently well, but has non sequitur first chapter and frustrating cliffhanger ending (unless I am missing some context for this story? I read it as part of the Hugo packet, so if it is part of a continuing serialized story, this was not made clear to me by the Hugo packet edition.).
5. No Award
6. “The Day the World Turned Upside Down”, by Thomas Ole Heuvelt
A speculative fiction tale that is uninterested in speculation about its own premise, unless it’s to take a cheap shot at religion. A bland story about a bland, whiny, pathetic man male human human narrator who abandons a woman to her death so it can save a goldfish so it can fail to win back its former paramour.
Matt the Radar Technician Funko Pop
Finished this fellow earlier this month; can post him now that my friend’s birthday has passed and he is no longer undercover.
“Hi everybody, I’m Matt.”
Build details after the jump.
Hugo Capsules: Short Stories
Best Short Story
1. “The Parliament of Beasts and Birds“, by John C. Wright
A richly written meditation on the fate of Earth’s beasts and birds after the End of Man; think C.S. Lewis by way of Jack Vance. The characterization, mood, and turn of phrase have a timeless quality about them that makes the tale fit seamlessly into the tradition of Great Western Literature. The theological speculation displays a great depth of thought, and concerns an area of much personal interest to me. On top of all these merits, the ending is one of the most moving, not only among the other Hugo contenders, but amongst my copious reading, I have read. It shows the hand of Milton’s Muse.
2. “Totaled“, by Kary English
The intriguing tale of Margaret Hauri, Ph.D, a neuroscientist who, postmortem, finds herself (well, her brain) the subject of her own previous research project. I was particularly impressed when she discovered how to communicate with her former lab partner, despite being a brain in a jar. Her solution displayed the kind of cool thinking under duress that characterizes so many great sci-fi protagonists, and it was for this scene in particular that I ranked “Totaled” the highest of the works after “Parliament”.
3. “On a Spiritual Plain“, by Lou Antonelli
An interesting piece set on a planet with a strong magnetic field, where the souls, or perhaps merely impressions, of the dead are entrapped as electromagnetic phantoms. Upon rereading, this story dropped slightly in my estimation, as I realized the Methodist base chaplain tasked with helping an agnostic human ghost find release does not at any point express concern for the state of the man’s soul; whether he need repent of his sins before moving on. It does not detract from the story that much, but it makes the chaplain feel almost as agnostic as the shade, and represents a missed opportunity to explore the tale’s theme in more depth.
4. “Turncoat“, by Steve Rzasa
I’m afraid this work suffered unfairly from being one of the last stories I read. It is a fine piece about an AI starship contemplating the humanity of its posthuman commanders, it’s human enemies, and itself, while in the middle of some blisteringly fast, exciting, well-written space combat. It is working in a very similar vein as Big Boys Don’t Cry, and I think my opinion of it was lessened by the fact that it was not as deep a tale as the latter, despite being no where near as long. Upon rereading it now, I found I enjoyed it much more as the short story it was written as, and though I do not believe I would change its ranking if voting again (perhaps I might bump it above “On a Spiritual Plain”), ordering short stories 2-4 was very difficult, as all were very different and very good.
RIP Christopher Rush: 1965-2016
Christopher Rush has died. I’m still in a bit of shock. Not last November (the day after All Hallow’s Eve no less) I met him for the first time at GP Indianapolis, a short, friendly man with an air of mischief and energy about him. Exactly the kind of man you’d want illustrating a game about dueling wizards slinging spells at each other. He signed an Unglued Plains for me, one I picked up from a vendor when I realized I had brought no Rush-illustrated cards with me, and we talked briefly. I asked him if he had known, back in 1993, when he was doing the illustrations for Black Lotus and Lightning Bolt, if he knew what he was getting into, if he knew his artwork would grace the most iconic cards in a game that would still be played 22 years later. He told me no, that, given how little Wizards could afford to pay artists back then, he and the other early Magic artists contracted for as many cards as they thought they could deliver on time. He chose Black Lotus and Lightning Bolt because, in his words, “It was a flower and a lightning bolt. They sounded quick and easy to bang out”. He said he that though he hadn’t done any work for Magic recently, he was very happy that so many people still loved the game, and his illustrations.
In addition to Black Lotus and Lightning Bolt, the game’s most iconic cards, Rush also illustrated the game’s two rarest cards: Shichifukujin Dragon and 1996 World Champion, with only one copy of each in existence (the printing plates for the latter being ceremonially destroyed). Furthermore, as the designer of Magic‘s mana symbols, and co-creator with Jesper Myrfors of the card back, his artwork appeared, and will continue to appear, on (almost) all of the cards in the game! He was also the first and one of the few non-Japanese artists to illustrate a Pokemon card, the Wizards Promo #12 Mewtwo.
So R.I.P. your Blacker Lotuses tonight and raise a draft to one of Magic‘s finest artists. Mr. Rush, you shall be missed! May Seraphs and Archangels guide your Shade to the Safe Haven of our Heavenly Father.
NB: Rush continued to work as a fantasy illustrator up until his death. As such, he is eligible for nomination under ‘Best Professional Artist’ in this year’s Hugo Awards. So far as I can tell, there are no rules preventing the posthumous awarding of a Hugo. His work can be viewed here. His work for Magic can be found here.
Hugo Capsules: Related Works & Graphic Novels
Best Related Work
1. Transhuman and Subhuman: Essays on Science Fiction and Awful Truth, by John C. Wright
Full disclosure: I was a proofreader for this work.
A wonderful compilation of essays from the archives, recent and old, of sci-fi writer John C. Wright’s personal blog. Ranging in tone from humorous to weighty, yet always thoughtful, Wright addresses such topics as the terribleness of The Hobbit films, how to be a writer, philosophy in the works of sci-fi Greats, strong female characters in sci-fi, and the taxonomy of the stages of moral decay, among others, in an incredibly readable, articulate manner. Any one of these essays could have been nominated alone as a related work; taken together, they speak to Wright’s prolificness of writing and depth and broadness of thought.
2. “The Hot Equations: Thermodynamics and Military SF“, by Ken Burnside
An excellent sci-fi writer’s resource that explores what military actions, tactics, strategy, and logistics in outer space might look like given the current state of scientific knowledge, particularly the Laws of Thermodynamics. It is a quick but fascinating read, and if it weren’t competing against a whole book’s worth of essays, would definitely be worthy of the Hugo (honestly, I feel that perhaps ‘Best Related Work’ ought to be split into ‘long’ and ‘short’ subcategories).
3. “Why Science is Never Settled“, by Tedd Roberts
A timely, topical essay reminding us that the scientific method is just that, a method, and despite what newspapers and politicians like to say, can never be ‘settled’. Roberts takes us on a swift tour through the history of science, pointing out the many now overturned ideas that were thought to be settled once and for all in their day. “The Hot Equations” edged this out for the number two spot, simply because I felt it was more science fiction related than this essay.
I did not get the chance to read all of Wisdom from My Internet, but while what I read was amusing, the work as a whole did not feel science fiction-related enough for me to include it on my ballot.
Best Graphic Story
1. No Award
Seriously. If this is the kind of felgercarb we get when Puppies don’t nominate good works, no wonder the campaign has become a smashing success. I’m not terribly familiar with the wider range of current U.S. graphic novel offerings, but where the hell was Hellboy in Hell?
Dogma & Dragons 
