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MORE DoomyDoomDOoom with DOOooOOoom Sauce for HUGO!
Y'know, the Gloomy SF Is Better movement is now *FORTY YEARS OLD*. The original New Wavers are dead or reaching the end of their careers. Don't you think it's time to GIVE IT AN F'ING REST? I mean, really, picking WATERS OF MARS ,of ALL the Doctor Who you could have chosen?
Yes, I know. I'm USED to awards being given to the stuff that's worst, but it does get a bit WEARING after a while. Hell, it's not like the Grand Finale this year was all sweetness and light; it was pretty grim. But it didn't involve grade-A choice stupidity AS WELL as doomy doom dooOoooOooom.
(I can't judge most of the others, not having read 'em. But I know what Charles Stross writes, and I find it likely that there's a lot of doominess in it.)
Yes, I know. I'm USED to awards being given to the stuff that's worst, but it does get a bit WEARING after a while. Hell, it's not like the Grand Finale this year was all sweetness and light; it was pretty grim. But it didn't involve grade-A choice stupidity AS WELL as doomy doom dooOoooOooom.
(I can't judge most of the others, not having read 'em. But I know what Charles Stross writes, and I find it likely that there's a lot of doominess in it.)
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Still, I wonder what Charlie's completely optimistic SF would look like.
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(Hint: I'm not American.)
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I'm referring to the US. On the other hand, I thought I detected the same, in a stiff-upper-lip fashion, from the latest British election, too. On the gripping hand, this year's Worldcon was held in Australia, which seems to have managed better in the recent global downturn than anyone else in the world.
Perhaps it's just a matter of fashion, like this little gem of despair?
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This version of Marc wasn't actually a villain INSIDE the Project, of course (he was a Heroic DuQuesne -- did you read the part of the Hyperion Origin story I posted earlier in the year?), but as a survivor of Hyperion he's thought of as a potential monster, a Frankenstein, and of course Doc's original version has to haunt him.
I have to hope that GCA sells well. I could write in the Arena for a VERY long time; it's so complex and open-ended that it's got decades of potential in it even if I only focus on the main characters.
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I also like the love triangle you wrote DuQuesne into. Unlike most such triangles, I really could like and respect all three of the parties involved, and see why they would like and respect both of the other two. And they were believable as people, too, despite that all three were moderately to strongly superhuman, in one way or another.
Much like "Doc" Smith's characters, really.
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When I post stuff online, it's either something I'm planning on publishing, or an extension/add on of stuff I have published (i.e., "Shadow of Fear" and "Trial Run" are additional Jason Wood stories following the events of Digital Knight; "Hyperion Origin" is background for GCA; I posted parts of "The Balanced Sword" which is currently in submission at Baen; etc.)
It's possible, if I continue, that this will become a QUAdrangle. I haven't made up my mind on that, but there's one other character who will show up in the sequel (assuming there IS one) who would possibly end up in that position. I'm not sure whether to be sorry for Ariane or envy her.
I'm glad you can see the "people" in there; some of course won't, but hey, different perceptions. :)
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... the survivors of the human race had learned to use the Gate systems of the Elder Things to travel to other star systems, so humanity was now an interstellar civilization. That had to go implied, else the ending might have actually been an optimistic one!
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This is wrist slitting stuff. It lacks a pompous, arrogant, humorous comic relief. Someone like George after Watergate. Pity.
Re: Freebie
... I dislike Charlie Stross personally, but I loved the concept of "A Colder War." It's solidly grounded in the Mythos all the way back to the 1940's, particularly August Derleth's Robert Bloch's "The Shadow from the Steeple" (1950), in which he reveals that Nyarlathotep deliberately gave humanity atomic energy before we were morally ready to use it; and August Derleth's "The Black Island" (1952), in which America atom-bombs R'lyeh, but merely annoys Cthulhu by doing so. Note also Lumley's Necroscope series, also in the Mythos, partly set in the Cold War, which during those parts features Britain's "E-Branch" pitting psychic secret agents against Soviet psychic secret agents.
It actually makes perfect sense that, at least in some timelines, the Great Powers would weaponize Mythos knowledge, and that in at least one, the result would be a final war which resulted in loosing the Great Old Ones. Triggering such a war would have been Nyarlathotep's logical objective in "The Shadow from the Steeple," and linking it directly to the release of the Great Old Ones just makes matters even better (and funnier, Nyarlathotep is The Deadpan Snarker of the Outer Gods) from the viewpoint of the Crawling Chaos.
The depressingness of "A Colder War" springs not from the scenario but from Stross missing the silver lining of the outcome. OTOH, Stross' protagonist has lost his wife and family, and was never very much an Ad Astra type, so it's understandable that this character wouldn't see the possibilities of the situation.
Re: Freebie
Dude, it's mutual. Don't sweat it.
Re: Freebie
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Next year, I want to see this video nominated for the Short Form Hugo. With almost no dialogue, The Faking Hoaxer produces one of the most chilling short films I've ever seen.
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And the reason I hated Waters is it was *STUPID* in at least three areas, two of them crucial to the way things worked out. In other words, the idea that the Doctor can't change Time seemed not to be proven, just to be shown to happen if The Doctor is an idiot.
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http://www.tomsmithonline.com/lyrics/serial_killer.htm
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Mordant's Need, though, was by far his best (and least doomy) work.
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- Have you got anything without any doom in it?
- Well, doom, computers, aliens and doom, it doesn't have too much doom in it.
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Oh, hush, Wasp, don't make a fuss, we'll have your Doom! We LOVE it!
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Well, the New Wave was just one part of it, and not *ALL* of the New Wave insisted on Doomy Doom.
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