Hmm. Still cannot comment. Even tried different browsers. 🙁
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Lazarus
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Lazarus
David G. Hartwell, a long time Con*Cept (and recently Can-Con) guest is on his deathbed. Some sites have erroneously reported that he has passed away, although those have been due to a misunderstanding. However, there is no hope for recovery and it is only a matter of time. His panels on both contemporary SF ongoings and those discussing SF history have always been highlights of cons. He will be sadly missed. I will have to read one of his annual ‘best of’ collections.
http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/016423.html
http://www.locusmag.com/News/2016/01/david-g-hartwell-1941-2016/-
Capt. Xerox
He certainly was a very likeable and approachable figure at any convention. I collected all the editions of his annual Best SF of the year anthologies, although only read about half of them. They were good collections and a lot more focused than Gardner Dozois’ sprawling anthologies.
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Lazarus
This is too cool! Love those old pulp covers? (I know you do!). Use this website to create your own customized cover with the Pulp-O-mizer.
http://thrilling-tales.webomator.com/derange-o-lab/pulp-o-mizer/pulp-o-mizer.html
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Lazarus
We all knew it was coming but it’s a sad day just the same. Thankfully, we’ll always have those marvelous quotes and tons of books to read.
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Lazarus
Happy New Year everyone!
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Lazarus
Happy Holidays everyone!
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Capt. Xerox
Happy Holidays to you and anyone else reading this. I hope everything is good for everyone in 2015.
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Lazarus
I assume most have heard by now, but just in case you haven’t, Harlan Ellison had a stroke a few days ago:
http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2014/10/harlan-ellison-recovering-in-hospital-following-stroke/
He seems to be taking it with the usual Ellison staunchness and bad boy attitude. Love him or hate him (and sometimes both at the same time), I hope he recovers.
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Lazarus
Back at home. Sharp as ever and back to schlepping books. Looks gaunt though:
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Capt. Xerox
Actually, I hadn’t heard. Thanks for the update. He wasn’t doing well a year or so ago, so it’s not a big surprise. It sounds like he’s doing okay despite this setback.
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Lazarus
The Nebula nominees for 2013 have been announced. Each year I recognize fewer and fewer writers. This year I only recognize 3 names, and of those I’ve only read books by two.
http://www.sfwa.org/2014/02/2013-nebula-nominees-announced/
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Capt. Xerox
They are taking heat from some fans for being too politically correct: http://www.dailydot.com/fandom/2013-nebula-awards-sfwa-sci-fi-ancillary-justice/
I own the The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman and The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker, but am not actually in any hurry to read either of them.
Last year’s winner, 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson, was an overlong slog of a book that I read out of duty.
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Lazarus
Happy New Year….
(Weird. When I preview this in WordPress, it gives the date as:
Lazarus 7:00 pm on December 31, 1969
)
I’m not concerned that the time of day is off by 5 1/2 hours, it’s the 1969 that concerns me. 🙂
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Lazarus
I probably won’t have the chance after this so I’m going to be a wee bit early and wish all the crickets out there a Happy Holiday season. I do have presents for the Ruler of the End of the Universe who, unfortunately, I could not see in person this past year. But I will make the effort in the new year.
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Capt. Xerox
Hope you have a great holiday season since it looks like you and me are the only ones here, but if anyone else is out there, then the same goes for you, too!
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Lazarus
Another one of the great grand masters has passed on.
R.I.P. Fred Pohl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_Pohl
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Lazarus
Without a doubt, that will always be the highlight of his career. But “The Space Merchants” and “Man Plus” are also some of the best SF I ever read. And I have so many more to get to.
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Capt. Xerox
I found out this morning. Sad news. I loved his Gateway books, among many others.
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Lazarus
News coming out of worldcon includes some interesting worldcon bids for 2017. Montreal and Nippon. I sorely regret not going to Japan a few years ago for their worldcon but I may have a that chance again. On the other hand if Japan loses it’ll be another Montreal worldcon. This is what you call a win-win situation.
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Lazarus
If the voting was done in the usual manner, I think many people not only voted solely on author recognition, but in this case a pretty cool title as well. I shudder to think what the percentage of voters actually read what they voted for, much less reading all the nominees to make an honest comparative vote.
Sorry to hear your streak of reading all the nominees was broken. You still read two more than me, if that makes you feel any better. (It should!)
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Capt. Xerox
I can’t see myself ever getting to Japan for a Worldcon, but I sure could dig another go at Montreal, but what are the odds that it would be back there so soon?
Took the time to look up the winners for this year’s Hugo and was a bit surprised to see that Redshirts by John Scalzi had won. I forgot that it was nominated! At least it’s an original story, if not actually that good a book. Not sure why it got so many raves among critics, because it left me cold. I found it a bit too self-conscious. Still, it was a lot more entertaining than Kim Stanley Robinson’s brick, 2312. As for the other nominees, I never got around to reading any of them.
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Lazarus
R.I.P. Richard Matheson
I don’t even know where to begin listing all the genre accomplishments of this man. The great Incredible Shrinking Man? I am Legend?(Not to mention the many different movie adaptations fron that one story.) The many great Twilight Zone stories? All those Horror stories? -
Lazarus
Sad day. Master stop motion filmmaker Ray Harryhausen has passed away.
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Lazarus
Yes, it was great for Emru/Fantasia to have him as a guest that year. Would not have been able to meet him otherwise. He was the last of the Ackerman/Bradbury/Harryhausen trio. What great conversations they must have had over the years.
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Jeffrey Allan Boman
I have fond memories of him at Fantasia years ago, and have photos from it.
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avdezign (Cosmic)
he had a full life with 92, he has already assured his place the history of cinema
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Lazarus
Congratulations to Jo Walton and all the other Hugo winners:
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/09/announcing-the-2012-hugo-award-winners-
Capt. Xerox
If you’re interested on how the award voting broke down, here’s the final report: http://www.thehugoawards.org/content/pdf/2012HugoVotingReport.pdf
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Lazarus
Sad to hear that Harry Harrison has passed away. I first read “Make Room, Make Room” after seeing Soylent Green as a teen. But I was really hooked on Harry with his Stainless Steel Rat series. R.I.P Harry. http://www.harryharrison.com/
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Jeffrey Allan Boman
I saw him at Torcon 3, Toronto 2003. He said that many years ago he was an artist on the Flash Gordon strip, and hated it.
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Lazarus
After seeing Soylent Green and learning that there was a novel somewhere out there, “Make Room, Make Room” was one of the earliest books on my search list. I don’t remember if I first read the Stainless Steel Rat or MRMR, but SSR was certainly much more entertaining. Read a few in the series over the years, but not all.
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Capt. Xerox
Like any series, the SSR books peaked early then the quality declined, especially the later books that were written decades after the first ones.
Possibly funnier than those books are Bill the Galactic Hero and Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers, two titles which are the best send-ups of science fiction that I’ve ever read.
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Capt. Xerox
That is indeed sad news. I was a huge Stainless Steel Rat fan and devoured each book I could get my hands on, but that series wasn’t my first exposure to Harrison. The first of his books that I can remember reading were the Deathworld books. They were very exciting adventure stories.
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Lazarus
The reviews for Prometheus are still all over the place. One thing can be said for sure is that it is nothing close to the smash it some thought it would be. I was floored by the first trailer and very much wanted to see it. But then the negative reviews started pouring in. The problem is that many of those reviews criticize the movie for not being aligned with the Alien franchise, which is what Ridley Scott said almost from the start. So is it really a bad movie or is not the Alien movie the fans wanted?
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Capt. Xerox
I haven’t seen it yet, but hope to see it soon.
In my experience, when reviews are divided over a science fiction fan, it means that the average moviegoer doesn’t like it because it’s got too much actual science fiction in it and isn’t just a special-effect extravaganza.
The people who do like it tend to be science fiction fans who appreciate a good story.
I am hoping that is the case with this film.
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Capt. Xerox
This article expresses pretty much the same thought I have about why great sci-fi movies get mixed reviews: http://journalstar.com/entertainment/movies/l-kent-wolgamott-prometheus-gets-mixed-reactions-because-it-s/article_c6a6716a-9bb0-5004-9b7f-86171820284d.html
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Capt. Xerox and 
Lazarus 10:32 pm on March 5, 2018 Permalink | Log in to Reply
When I come to the site fresh (no prelogged in credentials) it takes me directly to the WP dashboard for this blog. So it appears to consider me an admin.
Navigating to any post of yours does not give me any reply or comment link.
But I obviously got a reply box for this post which I started myself.
Note that “Lazarus” is not the ID for my Laz Lair WP blog so it should be getting mixed up due to that blog.
Head scratching continues.
Capt. Xerox 9:46 pm on March 28, 2018 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Had to use a new plugin to allow social login to the site and did a bit of fiddling to enable commenting on at least the most recent posts, but not sure why the ability disappeared.
Capt. Xerox 3:19 pm on March 5, 2018 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Not sure what’s happening, but I suspect it’s from when I updated the site to https to avoid being delisted by Google. Odd that you can post directly to the site, but not leave a comment.