Sable Aradia's Blog, page 47
February 5, 2018
Big Oil Has Known About Climate Change Since the 50s
By Benjamin Franta
It was a typical November day in New York City. The year: 1959. Robert Dunlop, 50 years old and photographed later as clean-shaven, hair carefully parted, his earnest face donning horn-rimmed glasses, passed under the Ionian columns of Columbia University’s iconic Low Library. He was a guest of honor for a grand occasion: the centennial of the American oil industry.
Read the full article at The Guardian.
February 4, 2018
This Year, We’ll See a Black Hole for the First Time
Using data collected from their network of telescopes, the Event Horizons Telescope team hopes to produce the first ever image of a black hole in 2018.
FIRST LOOK AT A BLACK HOLE
Within the next 12 months, astrophysicists believe they’ll be able to do something that’s never been done before, and it could have far-reaching implications for our understanding of the universe. A black hole is a point in space with a gravitational pull so strong that not even light can escape from it. Albert Einstein predicted the existence of black holes in his theory of general relativity, but even he wasn’t convinced that they actually existed. And thus far, no one has been able to produce concrete evidence that they do. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) could change that.
Read the full article at Futurism.com.
February 3, 2018
The Science of Desert Planets
By Alex Acks
I’ve been reading science fiction and fantasy almost as long as I’ve been able to read, and I’m normally very good at suspending my disbelief. Unfortunately, seven years of university schooling and two degrees have now placed some suspension limits on certain areas—namely geology, landforms, and maps. I tend to notice little things like mountain ranges having ninety degree corners or rivers that flow uphill or maps that don’t have a scale bar.
So I want to talk about some things, which on-a-geological-scale are very small details that make me tilt my head like a dog hearing a high-pitched noise. Not because I hate, but because there is no more honorable nerd past-time than dismantling something we love into its finest details, ruminating endlessly on the bark of a single tree while there’s an entire forest planet surrounding us.
Which is what I’d like to talk about today, incidentally. Single-environment planets. The other stuff, including scale bars, will come later.
I like desert planets, and it’s the combined fault of Dune and a semester of examining lithified sand dunes that are now absolutely gorgeous rock formations.
Read the full article at Tor.com.
February 2, 2018
Book Review: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Read for the 12 Awards in 12 Months Challenge, the Women of Genre Fiction Challenge, and the Space Opera Challenge.
This book won pretty much every freakin’ award available to SFF writers:
2013 BSFA Winner
2013 Golden Tentacle Winner
2013 Nebula Winner
2013 Tiptree Nominated
2014 Clarke Winner
2014 Hugo Winner
2014 Locus FN Winner
2014 Campbell Nominated
2014 PKD Nominated
Okay, so that’s quite a recommendation! Naturally I had to read it. It was excellent. And it’s totally not what you expect.
When you see “space opera” as a descriptor, you think high action adventure novel with the science almost being a secondary factor. That’s not what this is. It’s a complex mystery and spy novel with a very unusual protagonist. But yes, it’s still a space opera novel. Galactic empire, big politics, billions of lives hanging in the balance, complex cultures.
I really can’t tell you any more than the blurb did without spoilers, so I won’t. I will, however, highly recommend it. If you’re a space opera fan, or if you want to know what’s going on in the cutting edge of modern sci-fi, and especially if you’re looking for great work by female SFF writers, this is for you. If you liked Dune, you’ll like this. Can’t wait to read the rest of the series!
Note: Ann Leckie will be appearing on the next episode of #SpecWomenChat, on the SFWA YouTube channel! I can’t wait to talk with her! Watch this space or subscribe to the channel for more info.
February 1, 2018
Conclusion of the Wyrd West Chronicles! (So Far)
The conclusion (for now) of the Wyrd West Chronicles releases tomorrow! The Widow’s Gambit is a full-length novella!
The Widow Brinks, leaving a trail of death behind her, has fled to the city of Saskatoon to catch a train. The Gunslingers and their posse are hot on her trail. But she has acquired some of Graeme Walsh’s blood, and now works dark magic against him. Can the posse find her before she escapes? Can they do it before she drives Graeme mad?
Welcome to the Wyrd West, the world next door, where Western meets high fantasy, apocalyptica and a dash of steampunk. This novelette and novella serial will be published bimonthly in e-format, with collections published in print format once a year. This novella concludes the first year’s story arc.
Get the whole series so far at this link!
Or see the book trailers here!
January 31, 2018
We Have Always Fought: Changing the Women, Cattle & Slaves Narrative
By Kameron Hurley
I’m going to tell you a story about llamas. It will be like every other story you’ve ever heard about llamas: how they are covered in fine scales; how they eat their young if not raised properly; and how, at the end of their lives, they hurl themselves – lemming-like- over cliffs to drown in the surging sea. They are, at heart, sea creatures, birthed from the sea, married to it like the fishing people who make their livelihood there.
Every story you hear about llamas is the same. You see it in books: the poor doomed baby llama getting chomped up by its intemperate parent. On television: the massive tide of scaly llamas falling in a great, majestic herd into the sea below. In the movies: bad-ass llamas smoking cigars and painting their scales in jungle camouflage.
Because you’ve seen this story so many times, because you already know the nature and history of llamas, it sometimes shocks you, of course, to see a llama outside of these media spaces. The llamas you see don’t have scales. So you doubt what you see, and you joke with your friends about “those scaly llamas” and they laugh and say, “Yes, llamas sure are scaly!” and you forget your actual experience.
Read the full article at A Dribble of Ink.
January 30, 2018
Why Spice Is a Staple of Science Fiction
By Abbey White
One of science fiction’s most famous food tropes, spice often exists as something outside its everyday culinary use. Whether a deadly, interstellar travel enhancer in Frank Herbert’s Dune, a magical form of seduction in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Mistress of Spices, a drug in George Lucas’s Star Wars or currency in EA Games sci-fi simulation Spore, across mediums the term has become synonymous with things it ostensibly isn’t. As a result, it’s altered the way we understand food within imagined, futuristic settings. But why are science fiction writers making something so commonplace such a notable element of their universes? The answer lies in the extensive global history of spice.
Read the full article at Food & Wine.
January 29, 2018
How NOT to Write Kick-Ass Heroines
(Image features Cordelia Vorkosigan, nee Naismith, from the Vorkosigan Saga; an amazing example of a kick-ass heroine!)
I was reading an SFR with a “kick-ass” heroine recently. The book is universally lauded. But something happened early on that ensured I wouldn’t go on to finish it, much less read the rest in the series. The heroine was a highly-trained woman with substantial physical skill. And, after a scene with a companion, she finds herself running late for an appointment. So she goes to the equivalent of a present-day “taxi rank” and, disregarding everyone else, pushes her way to the front of the queue. Because she can. Because she knows that nobody else waiting in that line can stand up to her.
I’m sorry, but that’s not a sign of strength to me. On the contrary, I see it as a sign of weakness. To me, this supposed “kick ass” heroine is nothing but a bully. Let me pull back a little bit so you can understand my reasoning.
Read the full article at Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly.
January 28, 2018
NASA Studies the Magnetosphere
By Mara Johnson-Groh
The space high above Earth may seem empty, but it’s a carnival packed with magnetic field lines and high-energy particles. This region is known as the magnetosphere and, every day, charged particles put on a show as they dart and dive through it. Like tiny tightrope walkers, the high-energy electrons follow the magnetic field lines. Sometimes, such as during an event called magnetic reconnection where the lines explosively collide, the particles are shot off their trajectories, as if they were fired from a cannon.
Since these acts can’t be seen by the naked eye, NASA uses specially designed instruments to capture the show. The Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission, or MMS, is one such looking glass through which scientists can observe the invisible magnetic forces and pirouetting particles that can impact our technology on Earth. New research uses MMS data to improve understanding of how electrons move through this complex region — information that will help untangle how such particle acrobatics affect Earth.
Read the full article at NASA’s website.
