tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7527967.post5500955734658199234..comments2024-03-27T10:50:17.270-05:00Comments on Rough Edges: Lines of Departure - Marko KloosJames Reasonerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18049917964433932612noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7527967.post-59238397406946399862015-04-23T13:48:15.342-05:002015-04-23T13:48:15.342-05:00FLW,
We'll have to agree to disagree on the ca...FLW,<br />We'll have to agree to disagree on the causes of the Hugo dust-up. I don't think anybody on the Puppy side of the argument qualifies as aging (except maybe Mike Resnick). All the others seem like kids to an old geezer like me.<br /><br />Rick,<br />I'd already read this book and written my review of it a while ago, then promptly forgot to schedule it. (That business of being a geezer again...) I don't mind any discussion of the Hugo fuss here, as long as anybody who wants to comment is civil about it. If you've followed any of the discussion in other places, you know that civility is often in short supply. As for me, my interest is much more in the books than the controversy, and as someone who had pretty much stopped reading current SF, I've been happy to discover over the past couple of years that there are still books being written that I like, many of them either self-published or from the small presses. I'm a supporting member of Worldcon and intend to vote, so there'll be more reviews of the nominated stuff coming up.<br /><br />Good but not great is an apt description of this one. I liked it and thought it deserved its nomination, but chances are I wouldn't have voted for it to win if it had remained in contention.James Reasonerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18049917964433932612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7527967.post-44793146464410718652015-04-23T09:49:57.621-05:002015-04-23T09:49:57.621-05:00So it's already been made clear this review ho...So it's already been made clear this review hopped right into the Hugo debacle, sorry James. He withdrew his nomination for this book because of the toxicity of the situation. This one sounds...good but not great.Rick Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07978136287154214297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7527967.post-82919756366653748552015-04-22T09:32:49.512-05:002015-04-22T09:32:49.512-05:00A bit off-topic, but... I posted the following on ...A bit off-topic, but... I posted the following on a "discussion" (food-fight) site regarding the dust-up over the Hugo Awards. Being over sixty qualifies one to believe wholeheartedly in the validity of one's own "wisdom", yes? (But in most cases, I just keep my head down... and hope all the bottles behind the bar don't get broke in the gunfight.) ;D<br /><br /><br />As a former ad-man (remember ads?) and paperback hack-writer (remember paperbacks?) I speak from experience when I say that Brad Torgensen and some of his more well-meaning associates may simply be suffering from S.O.M.S. -- Sad Old Man Syndrome.<br /><br />As a sixty-something (as of this month) I can affirm that the world does, indeed, change -- and in most cases faster than most people do.<br /><br />There are no more local/regional and few remaining national magazines and newspapers for me to design ads for. Radio is pretty much dead as an advertising medium -- and radio ads were my specialty, on a local/regional level, and provided me a very comfortable income for several decades.<br /><br />And the days of ad-men drawing supplemental income from pounding out cheap "pulp" fiction for countless competing paperback publishers at a thousand dollars a pop (in today's money) are long gone.<br /><br />And those of us who, in the past, found niches in as well-paid "experts" are finding our niches either fading or vanished.<br /><br />It happens. And it always has.<br /><br />I am reminded of the "expert" frontier stagecoach driver in Old Western fiction who complains about how railroad expansion has made his profession obsolete... and made him have to find work "sweepin' floors in a dang ol' dry goods store!"<br /><br />Today's few remaining expert typewriter repairmen might share his sentiments.<br /><br />Along with certain aging science fiction writers.<br /><br />But spitefully kicking a locomotive engine in the cow-catcher or protesting electronic word-processing at the local computer store are about as effective in stopping "progress" as trying to stop time by hacking the slate of nominees at the Hugo Awards.<br /><br />S.O.M.S. Sad Old Man Syndrome.<br /><br />But be advised: Live long enough... and you'll come down with it yourself.<br /><br />See ya' down at the dry goods store. I'll save ya' a broom.<br /><br />Thanks for your time.<br /><br /> - FLWAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7527967.post-64909361142040602762015-04-22T08:47:23.015-05:002015-04-22T08:47:23.015-05:00I first heard of this one via the minor dust up th...I first heard of this one via the minor dust up that is this year's Hugo Award nominations. I didn't realize it was a sequel. I may have to check them out.Adventuresfantastichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16907562789681407416noreply@blogger.com