John C. Wright's Blog, page 99
June 6, 2013
Appeal from Catholic Vote
I pass this along to my readers in case any of you honest and decent folk out there wish to contribute to the cause. It is from Catholic Vote, an organization that was also targeted and harassed.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
June 5, 2013
Alfonzo on Bullies
Reviewer Wow from Analog
There is no publication more respected in the field of Hard SF. For my humble space opera to get a plaudit from the grim and strict reviewers at Analog, whose standards are high, is like Orpheus making Pluto smile. Here is the review: https://www.analogsf.com/2013_07-08/reflib.shtml
The Hermetic Millennia
In last year’s Count to a Trillion (reviewed in the March 2012 issue), John C. Wright began the story of Menelaus Montrose: twenty-third century hired gun and science fiction fan turned transhuman genius. In easy stages, we followed this improbable pilgrim’s progress through an interstellar alien society brimming with augmented intellects, artificial intelligences, and near-immortal races whose technology and motives were beyond comprehension.
Nevertheless, Menelaus gave as good as he got; he steadily advanced to demigodlike power without losing his own humanity. By the end of Count to a Trillion, Menelaus was well-positioned to be humanity’s protector in a hostile Universe.
Good thing, too, because there are some bad guys coming. An alien armada is on its way to Earth, bent on making slaves of the population. They’ll arrive in only eight thousand years.
There’s also danger closer to home: some of Menelaus’s former comrades, with powers as great as his own, decide that they can make an advantageous deal with the slavers—especially if they use the next eight millennia to evolve humans into something even more useful to the bad guys.
Menelaus sets his plans and goes into secure cryogenic suspension . . . but not for long. He finds that he must awaken periodically to deal with the machinations of his enemies.
Across eight millennia, humanity is split into various sub-species such as Chimera, Giants, Locusts, Witches, and others, each more bizarre than the last, and all hostile to one another. If Menelaus is going to pull these subspecies together and save them all, he has quite a job ahead of him.
Wright does an excellent job of guiding the reader through this strange and wonderful future. With appealing characters and just the right bit of humor, he keeps all his plates spinning without letting the story slow down. There are even a few of those moments that make you say “Wow!”
The Hermetic Millennia is the second book of a projected four-book series, so there’s plenty more left in store for Menelaus and his associates.
The quote above comes from an article copyrighted by Mr Don Sakers, and my quote here is Fair Use, with no implied imposition on that copywright.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
June 2, 2013
The Nine Worthies
For your daily recommended requirement of Chesterton, the Apostle of Common Sense:
“Christendom might quite reasonably have been alarmed if it had not been attacked. But as a matter of history it had been attacked. The Crusader would have been quite justified in suspecting the Moslem even if the Moslem had merely been a new stranger; but as a matter of history he was already an old enemy. The critic of the Crusade talks as if it had sought out some inoffensive tribe or temple in the interior of Thibet, which was never discovered until it was invaded. They seem entirely to forget that long before the Crusaders had dreamed of riding to Jerusalem, the Moslems had almost ridden into Paris. They seem to forget that if the Crusaders nearly conquered Palestine, it was but a return upon the Moslems who had nearly conquered Europe.” The Meaning of The Crusade. (1920)
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
June 1, 2013
Baron Bodissey
Science Fiction Grandmaster Jack Vance recently passed away, and I noted in a previous article his influence on Gary Gagyx. He has also influenced Gene Wolfe, whose SHADOW OF THE TORTURER series is an extended homage to him.
But there is one other influence I would be remiss not to mention. Baron Bodissey not only graces the chapter headings of Jack Vance’s masterwork, the Demon Princes series (also known as the Count of Montechristo in Space) but has taken up his pen against the contumacious mass-idiocy of our day, the suicidal, nay, hysterical desire of our elite not to recognize the threat of Jihad, nor to take up arms against it.
They are more afraid of Christians, and quake in terror at night, hiding under their beds, expecting at any moment riots, mass killings, the Inquisition, and the burning of heretics, nay, the stoning of unbelievers. This is because they are members of societies whose moral code and expectations were set by Christendom, and they know they eroded and destroyed that moral code for frivolous reasons. The consciences haunt them, and a desire for suicide rises within them, because they would rather die than admit they were wrong, rather die than give up their drugs and whores, rather die than make rational judgments, rather die than think. If they think, they truth might confront them.
Because they are panicked with fear that the screaming mob of Christians will being throwing homosexuals off buildings, throwing acid in the face of schoolgirls, stoning rape victim to death, the elite placates, whitewashes, lies, and aids and abets the Mohammedans who actually do these things. So they placate the Mohammedans, which rewards and encourages them, and they hide the truth from the West to the best of their ability, which disarms and lulls them. They are more afraid of an imaginary danger than a real one. So they encourage and increase the real danger, and lash out in panic at the false one.
Thank heavens there are some voices of sanity raised against this madness. The Baron is one of them. I strongly urge all readers to put him on their daily reading lists.
Here he speaks of what he does and why:
http://gatesofvienna.net/2013/05/what-we-do-and-why-we-do-it/
Excerpt below the cut:
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
May 31, 2013
Vance and Gygax
I assume all geeks of the Innate Elite level know this, but in case any novices do not, here is an article on the topic:
I decided — for the first time — to completely read through the 1st Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide, cover to cover.
[...]
Not surprisingly, I didn’t make it very far — not past the credits and acknowledgements — before finding my first curiosity. Along with presumable designers, developers, artists, and playtesters (among them, Dave Arneson, James M. Ward, Ernie and Luke Gygax, Skip Williams, and more), Gary Gygax singled out one author for special mention: Jack Vance.
Later in the book in Appendix N: Inspirational and Educational Reading, you can find a list of books that influenced the game, including Tolkien, Fritz Leiber, Robert Howard — and Jack Vance. But why, of all these luminaries, did the Dungeon Master’s Guide single Vance out in the acknowledgements?
I knew the basic answer: the spellcasting system is stolen straight from Vance, as are many of the names (Excellent Prismatic Spray, and so on), and of course the IOUN stones are from Vance.
What I did not know was that Vecna was an anagram of Vance.
https://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4alum/20110513
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
May 30, 2013
Jack Vance 1917-2013
A 2009 article by Carlo Rotella tells you something of the grandmaster of our genre we lost this week.
Jack Vance, described by his peers as “a major genius” and “the greatest living writer of science fiction and fantasy,” has been hidden in plain sight for as long as he has been publishing — six decades and counting. Yes, he has won Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy awards and has been named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and he received an Edgar from the Mystery Writers of America, but such honors only help to camouflage him as just another accomplished genre writer. So do the covers of his books, which feature the usual spacecraft, monsters and euphonious place names: Lyonesse, Alastor, Durdane. If you had never read Vance and were browsing a bookstore’s shelf, you might have no particular reason to choose one of his books instead of one next to it by A. E. van Vogt, say, or John Varley. And if you chose one of these alternatives, you would go on your way to the usual thrills with no idea that you had just missed out on encountering one of American literature’s most distinctive and undervalued voices.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
May 28, 2013
Strange what you can find on the Internet
I found my name in a news story from the Fort Lee Patch.
Cole Middle School Students Win Big in National Letter Writing ContestSeveral Fort Lee students have scored high marks in a letter writing contest that had them write messages to their favorite authors.
More than 69,000 entries for the “Letters About Literature” contest were submitted nationwide, 2,000 of which were from New Jersey. And two of the top winners were from Lewis F. Cole Middle School.
Gavin Lifrieri, an eighth grade student, was the first place winner in New Jersey. Tino Thoon, also an eighth-graders, took second place.
Lilfrieri wrote a touching letter to author Sharon Cheese on how her book, Love That Dog, taught him to appreciate what he had and the family surrounding him. Should he win the national competition, Lilfrieri will be awarded $1,000.
Thoon wrote a letter to author John C. Wright, on how he found courage from reading The Hermetic Millenia, according to the school district.
Four Lewis F. Cole Middle School students were among the 27 New Jersey honorable mention winners. They are seventh grade student Joshua Yoon, and to eight-graders Minju Kang, Ruth Park and Trisha Sheth.
Funny, I don’t remember getting that letter. I wonder if the students wrote the letters and did not send them?
And my book is called The Hermetic Millennia with two n’s. (I originally planned to call it Hermetic Millenniums, because Bill Gate’s spellcheckers do not recognize the older (and arguably more correct) form of the plural, and I was annoyed at having it appear as an error each time I opened the MS to edit on a different computer. But my editor prevailed upon the more scholarly angels of my nature, and we went with the Latinate plural.)
I sort of wonder how the young man got a lesson in courage out of my book. Sometimes and author does not see what the muse is making him write about.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
May 25, 2013
Gene Wolfe, Genre Work, and Literary Duty
Sometimes in this life we see justice done.
The Nebula Awards have just honored Gene Wolfe with a Grandmastership. The honor is overdue, and all lovers of literature should rejoice. Gene Wolfe is the Luis Borges of North America. He is the greatest living author writing in the English language today, and I do not confine that remark to genre authors. I mean he is better than any mainstream authors at their best, better in the very aspects of the craft in which they take most pride. The beauty, nuance, and manner of his prose, the depth and realism of his characterization, his ability to give each character a unique and memorable voice and speech-mannerism, the profundity of the themes he addresses, the dry and trenchant wit, the relevance to daily concerns, the ability to open the eyes of the readers to the horror and wonder of life — I defy anyone to name his superior in craft and execution either in the genre or out of it.
With no little satisfaction, I was contemplating this victory for one of my favorite authors (not to mention a fellow member of the famous Secret Conspiracy of Catholic Science Fiction Authors) when I was reminded of the larger question: When we honor an author, if the honor is not just flattery but is honestly meant, then we are honoring him for his skill, inspiration, and pertinacity in accomplishing a goal we admire. What is the goal of science fiction?
The obvious answer is that we science fiction writers, like all entertainers, are paid to tell entertaining tales, and must not cheat the audience who pays us of what they have a right to expect in return. That answer is sound enough as far as it goes, but it begs the larger question of what constitutes honest entertainment. What is it? More importantly, what is it for?
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
May 22, 2013
Power of the Gods at SfSignal
The fine fellows over at SfSignal ask the musical question
From Rick Riordan to Dan Simmons, the popularity of Gods, Goddesses and Mythology, especially but not limited to Classical Greco-Roman and Norse mythology seems as fresh as ever. What is the appeal and power of mythological figures, in and out of their normal time? What do they bring to genre fiction?
My answer, as well as the answers of SFF people less longwinded than I, are here:
One of those answers is from my wife. Compare and contrast!
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
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