The Crotchety Old Fan

This morning’s Google Reader roundup brings yet another declaration of science fiction’s slow and agonizing, death rattle infused, demise, this time in the form of commentary from Amy Sterling Casil over at the Book View Cafe’s Blog site (via Charles Tan’s link roundup).
I have decided that enough is enough.  Most of this prognostication and eulogizing [...]

Multiple persons(?) from the Google Group SFNovelists have popped onto the blog since yesterday.  This is a “must be invited, members only” group and I can not find a description for it on google or on google groups.
I haven’t written anything about San Francisco, and scribblings about California in general are rare here, so I [...]

Seems I have some folks encouraging me to be crotchety. (And I shall oblige.) They’re sending me links to blogs and other things wherein misguided (read – young) individuals not only misuse SciFi – the epithet – but do so gleefully, deliberately and with intent to CHANGE its common usage.
Repeat after me:  Change is bad [...]

Genderfail, Racefail, Religionfail(?), OrientationFail, GenreFail(?)…
First – complaints (mostly justified) about the lack of representation/support/engagement with works from a variety of different minorities.
Followed-by – complaints about the complainers (including inappropriateness)
Now – groping towards some kind of contested middle ground.
And – getting worn out by the whole thing.
Which is a somewhat faitfhful reflection of the natural evolution [...]

According to IO9, SF didn’t really penetrate our cultural awareness until it hit television.
They mention television of the past in passing in this introductory piece to a week’s worth of SF (and other genres) on the babble box.  As usual, however, the focus is on current day and, as usual, their contentions are woefully historically [...]

Matt Staggs over at Enter the Octopus recently published “yet another literary manifesto”, which subject I will discuss momentarily.
Has it ever struck anyone else that a ‘manifesto’ is something that you ought to be finding on the menu of an Italian Ristorante?
“May I take your order Sir?”
“No dammit!  There are women at this table and [...]

A while back I started reviewing for Dave Treusdale’s TangentOnline zine, the successor to the Hugo nominated publication.
(Getting closer to that Hugo all the time, lol)
Covering multiple stories in one article has not been my forte in review land (I’m more prone to the angry, disappointed, nitpicky, totally unreasonable rant style review of a single [...]

Fred Kiesche over at the Lensman’s Children has a great round up of books on the Moon, doing his own bit to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the moon landing
David Heyman, the producer of the (yech) Potter films AND (ung – throwing up in my mouth) I Am Legend brand-borrowing (loosely) adapted Matheseon novel of [...]

This is a follow-on entry from yesterday’s post concerning Adam Robert’s screed regarding the Hugo’s, some of the comments in that entry.
Full disclosure: I’ve yet to read any of Mr. Robert’s works.? In looking at reviews and comments on it (blurbs & whatnots) I am somewhat intrigued.? Response seems to be running about 50/50 (favorable/unfavorable) [...]

It’s early (a bit after 3 am) and I’ll probably regret writing this almost immediatelyafter waking up, but my mental notes are rapidly fading so I want to get this down.
Warehouse 13.? My general reaction was a resounding “MEH” (which is a major cut above Totally Sucks, so give it some credit).
Specifics?? Secret Service agents [...]