Awesome. That is all.
Category: Sci-Fi and Fantasy
China Mieville on “Cognition as Ideology: A Dialectic of SF Theory”
Wow. I only just came across this, but China Mieville–Hugo Award-winning author of Perdido Street Station, The Scar, Iron Council and The City and the City–gave an hour-long lecture at the University of Kansas in 2009 where he discussed the scholarly theory and political implications of science fiction, and the distinction between science fiction and fantasy. It’s fascinating analysis from a fascinating writer and thinker.
“The cognition effect is a function of charismatic authority. It is the surrender of the reader to the authority of the text, and the authority of the author function.”
Or in other words, the science in SF need not be plausible for the story to be ‘believable’, and for the reader to happily immerse themselves in the writer’s world–but only as long as the internal logic of the story is consistent, and the author presents the ‘science’ of the story’s universe in an authoritative–or charismatic–way.
Worth setting aside an hour for. Videos embedded below the jump.
Venus Rising Update
Quick update: I just finished writing chapter eighteen of the first draft of Venus Rising. One more chapter and the epilogue to do, and I’m done!
I should be able to knock those out before we go away for our New Year’s vacation on the 28th, and then it’s editing time. If all goes well, and stars align with my cover designer and editor, we’re looking at publication in April.
Exciting!
Achievement Unlocked: Choose Title for New Book
Thanks to everyone who commented and gave your thoughts and suggestions for a title. I’ve given it a lot of careful consideration, and the winning entry is…
VENUS RISING.
I love it. It’s got the obvious SF implication from the word Venus, the ‘rising’ is dynamic and interesting, and the cadence of the two words flows really well.
The book’s coming along very nicely, too. I’ve been quite ill this last week, which has stalled things a bit, but I’m nearly there with the first draft. Midway through chapter seventeen (of twenty), 57.5K words done with only another 12-13K to go. I might even get the draft done before Christmas. We’ll see.
Exciting times!
Let’s Get Interactive: Pick a Title For My New Book
I’ve been using the working title ROGUE for my second novel, the sci-fi thriller follow-up to ASCENSION POINT. It’s a nice enough title, sure, but it was pointed out to me today that it’s… well, not very distinctive. And, even worse, it’s already the title of a couple of other novels.
(One’s by Danielle Steele. While having a novel with the same title as one by an author who’s sold 800 million books might work out in my favour, it also really, really might not.)
Which is where you lovely folks come in!
What Makes the Culture So Great?
Just a quick one: SF Signal asked a group of sci-fi heavyweights what’s great about Iain M. Banks’s Culture novels. (Apart from the obvious answer, ‘everything’.)
Well worth a read, here.
UPDATE: It must have been Culture week on SF Signal, because here is their editor John DeNardo on Kirkus Reviews with a nice newbie’s guide to the Culture universe.
Of Atheists and Comic Book Movies
What have I been reading today? Well, there’s a great rant by Charlie Jane Anders on io9 here on why atheists should read more science fiction.
“Most of the time, these are geeks who have immense respect for science… and yet, they won’t recognize a situation where they simply have no data, one way or the other.”
There’s also a great quote from the legendary Carl Sagan:
“Carl Sagan is frequently described as an atheist — but there’s also a quote commonly ascribed to him where he rejects that label, saying: “An atheist has to know a lot more than I know. An atheist is someone who knows there is no god. By some definitions atheism is very stupid.””
Then in comic book movie news we have double-Xavier double-Magneto in the upcoming X-Men movie, and the completely unsubstantiated rumour that the marvelous Joseph Gordon-Levitt might be playing Batman when the long-anticipated Justice League film happens. No doubt paving the way for a truly shocking Batman-trilogy-without-Bruce-Wayne situation.
It’s a good time to be a comics fan.
So The New Book’s Coming Along Nicely
I’m thirteen chapters of twenty into the first draft of my second book, ROGUE. Forty-five thousands words done, probably another twenty-five thousand to go.
It’s a follow-up to ASCENSION POINT, rather than a sequel: it’s set in the same universe, and the events and characters from the first book are referenced–there’s even a cameo or two–but it’s not a direct continuation of the story. (A year has passed between the two books, for one thing.)
The pace of my writing has picked up a bit now that I’m into act three, or ‘the really exciting bit at the end’, as we industry professionals call it. I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to get the draft done before the end of January, even with a couple of weeks off for Christmas and our New Year summer holiday. Then, depending on how long the various edit phases take, I should be ready to publish in April.
Which is only six months after I released ASCENSION POINT, now I think about it. Two books a year? Seems unlikely, but who knows!
‘The Six Gun Tarot’ Excerpt
On Tor.com here.
“Jim remembered the gun. His frozen fingers fumbled numbly for it on the ground.
The coyote narrowed its gaze and showed yellowed teeth. Some were crooked, snagged, but the canines were sharp and straight.
You think you can kill me with slow, spiritless lead, little rabbit? Its eyes spoke to Jim. I am the fire giver, the trickster spirit. I am faster than Old Man Rattler, quieter than the Moon Woman’s light. See, go on, see! Shoot me with your dead, empty gun.
Jim glanced down at the gun, slid his palm around the butt and brought it up quickly. The coyote was gone; only the fog of its breath remained. Jim heard the coyote yipping in the distance. It sounded like laughter at his expense.”
The excerpt’s nicely written, and intriguing, though it doesn’t tell you much about the story, which Publisher’s Weekly describes as:
“Against the backdrop of Chinese and Mormon mythology and the Civil War, with a bit of Frankenstein for color, the mix of theology, frontier justice, and zombies is merely cover for an intense and irreverent exploration of good, evil, and free will.”
Sounds fun!
DAN HARRIS: 10% SCI, 90% FI 