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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-06-10 09:00 am
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From This Day Forward by John Brunner



The sudden, shocking, return of Shockwave Reader. Will the living envy the dead?

From This Day Forward by John Brunner
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-06-09 02:01 pm
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Bundle of Holding: Fantasy AGE 2E



The 2023 Second Edition corebook, TECHNOFANTASY, and more

Bundle of Holding: Fantasy AGE 2E
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-06-09 12:40 pm
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Five Stories About Time Travel on a Limited Scale



No rules, no bureaucracy, just some randos messing around with the past, present, and future.

Five Stories About Time Travel on a Limited Scale
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-06-09 10:21 am

Clarke Award Finalists 2000

2000: The theft of an Enigma Machine comes too late to play a significant role in World War Two, Sellafield highlight British dedication to nuclear saafety, and the Conservatives, informed polling has them 2% ahead of Labour, discover that they are actually trailing by 13%.

Poll #33234 Clarke Award Finalists 2000
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 48


Which 2000 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

Distraction by Bruce Sterling
11 (22.9%)

A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
36 (75.0%)

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
37 (77.1%)

Silver Screen by Justina Robson
8 (16.7%)

The Bones of Time by Kathleen Ann Goonan
4 (8.3%)

Time by Stephen Baxter
11 (22.9%)



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

Which 2000 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Distraction by Bruce Sterling
A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Silver Screen by Justina Robson
The Bones of Time by Kathleen Ann Goonan
Time by Stephen Baxter
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-06-08 07:06 pm

Timing

I swung by Old Goat Books to pick up a book I ordered, which meant I was in the right place at the right time hear the confused customer next to me ask "What's speculative fiction?" Which, after I explained what it meant, was followed by the question. "Do you know anything about Andre Norton?"

It was only with great effort that I resisted shouting "BEHOLD! I AM Marshall McLuhan" before helping.
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-06-08 09:18 am

The Heirs of Babylon by Glen Cook



A decrepit fleet sails from Germany to play its role in a futile war, crewed by sailors who seem more eager to kill each other than the perfidious Australians.

The Heirs of Babylon by Glen Cook
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-06-07 11:15 pm
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Nebula winners announced

Best Novel: Someone You Can Build a Nest In, John Wiswell (DAW; Arcadia UK)

Best Novella: The Dragonfly Gambit, A.D. Sui (Neon Hemlock)

Best Novelette: Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being, A.W. Prihandita (Clarkesworld 11/24)

Short Story: Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole, Isabel J. Kim (Clarkesworld 2/24)

Andre Norton Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction: The Young Necromancer’s Guide to Ghosts, Vanessa Ricci-Thode (self-published)

Best Game Writing: A Death in Hyperspace, Stewart C Baker, Phoebe Barton, James Beamon, Kate Heartfield, Isabel J. Kim, Sara S. Messenger, Naca Rat, Natalia Theodoridou, M. Darusha Wehm, Merc Fenn Wolfmoor (Infomancy.net)

Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation: Dune: Part Two by Jon Spaihts, Denis Villeneuve (Warner Bros)

Kevin O'Donnell, Jr Special Service Award: C.J. Lavigne
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-06-06 09:09 am

Numamushi by Mina Ikemoto Ghosh



A foundling boy raised by a great snake becomes intrigued by a reclusive calligrapher living near the river snake and boy call home.

Numamushi by Mina Ikemoto Ghosh
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-06-05 09:41 am

I had a tiny little tense moment last night

When a woman looked around her for her husband, who had been right behind her on the stairs but was now nowhere to be seen. I was very worried I was facing a repeat of the time not too long ago when I spent an hour looking for a missing patron.

The missing husband turned out not to have been behind his wife on the stairs after all, so mystery solved. The missing patron I spent that hour looking for was found once I thought about where she had to be to have not been found where we looked: row H or J, somewhere near seat 26.
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-06-05 09:11 am
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The Witch Roads (The Witch Roads, volume 1) by Kate Elliott



An arduous journey in a prince's entourage offers a courier escape from immediate, judicial danger, at the cost of an entirely different assortment of dangers.


The Witch Roads (The Witch Roads, volume 1) by Kate Elliott
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-06-05 09:04 am

NDP display firm resolve

Pursuing their vow to bring down the government, NDP ... do nothing of the sort.

I wonder if they got phone calls from voters expressing their displeasure at the prospect of an election so soon after the previous one?
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-06-04 02:32 pm
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Bundle of Holding: Inevitable



The core rulebook in .PDF from SOULMUPPET

Bundle of Holding: Inevitable
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-06-04 08:59 am

Touring After the Apocalypse, volume 4 by Sakae Saito



Exuberant Youko and stoic Airi continue their tour through the remaining wonders of post-apocalyptic Japan. Carpe diem!

Touring After the Apocalypse, volume 4 by Sakae Saito
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-06-03 02:25 pm

Young People Read Old Nebula Finalists: Mikal's Songbird by Orson Scott Card



In an uncommon turn for famed author Card, he presents a very special boy in very difficult circumstances faced with great responsibility. What will the Young People make of it?

Young People Read Old Nebula Finalists: Mikal's Songbird by Orson Scott Card
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-06-03 09:01 am

Two Comments

This sure is different from how RPGs were covered in the news in the 1980s.

It never occurred to me that people would be worried about playing wrong. Would-be gatekeepers complaining that people play wrong, sure. I am sure that started in 1974. But I didn't consider performance anxiety.
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-06-03 08:50 am
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Port Eternity by C J Cherryh




Made-to-order slaves fear their eccentric owner will tire of and dispose of them... until a calamity renders the issue moot.

Port Eternity by C J Cherryh
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-06-02 05:40 pm

That was fast

blood work results in. I am immune to measles, mumps, and some other stuff I didn't not. Not Hep A or B, though.