Archive for the ‘Science Fiction’ Category

Armadillocon 32 Photos (Part 2)

Monday, August 30th, 2010

And here are some more photographs I snapped at Armadillocon 32.


“Steampunk Guest of Honor” Michael Bishop upon seeing that I had a box of books for him to sign.


Michael Bishop upon finding out that I had a second box of books for him to sign.

Better pictures of the dealer’s room:

Better pictures of the hotel atrium:


Robert Jackson Bennett, whose first novel, Mr. Shivers, no less an authority than Joe Domenici called “The finest first novel I have read in years.”


Lovely Editor Guest of Honor Anne Sowards reviewing a manuscript at the signing table, presumably a novel about shape-shifting car mechanic who is also a werewolf, or perhaps a shape-shifting wolf mechanic who is also a werecar.


Noted lush and former Armadillocon fan GoH Scott Bobo, who once tried to help us pick up teenage girls in Japan.


Kasey and Joe R. Lansdale.


Kasey and Joe R. Lansdale, now with 75% more Fortified Cuteness per serving.


The wily Maureen McHugh, who skillfully avoided lesser hunters by not appearing on programming.



Two Views of Mark Finn from his one-man show, “Colonel Kurtz Goes Bowling.”


Paul Miles


Chris Nakashima-Brown and Paul Miles, poised artfully in front of a display of Michael Bishop’s books.


SF Signal honcho John DeNardo caught during a spare moment of his one-day whirlwind tour.


Lillian Stewart Carl.


Jayme Lynn Blaschke. Disclaimer: I feel it only fair to warn you that the planets depicted on his vest are not, in fact, astronomically accurate.


GoH Rachel Caine.


Don Webb, preparing to lead his troops up the beaches of Normandy. Or perhaps Cancun.


Hugo-winning fan artist Brad Foster IS Beldar Conehead!


Noted lush Mikal Trimm, enraged that I’ve temporarily delayed him from obtaining more beer.


Old Earth Books publisher Michael Walsh. (And if you want to buy signed copies of the Best of Howard Waldrop volumes he published, look here.)


Paul Lynde expert Steve Wilson.


Dwight Brown, contemplating exactly how he will murder executives at AT&T slowly and painfully.


Yvonne Daily and Phil Brogden,


Chuck (not at the con), Michael Sumbera, and Milton (also not at the con)


An attendee’s Steampunk purse, which is just a few dials shy of a certified weather station.


Said purse may or may not have belonged to one of these Steampunk aficionados.


Kim Kofmel and Al Jackson. (I have another picture of the two of them, and Al’s eyes are also closed in that one.)


The lovely Denman Glober, camped out below a giant Space Squid banner. But I do wonder why her parents named her like a James Bond villain. “Denman Glober” sounds like someone who should be running a shadowy international conglomerate from his secret lair underneath the Pacific…


Sarah Felix.


New York Times best-selling author Aaron Allston, struggling mightily to stay awake after having just seen a compilation of the line-dancing scenes from Howling 7.


Program director Jonathan Miles, who put me on not one, but two 10 AM panels after I asked not to be scheduled for any panel before noon. Incidentally, this picture was taken just after Jonathan had finished his busy day of selling crack to school children, but before he went off to kick puppies and burn American flags.


Houston writer John Moore, looking snazzy in the seersucker pants he borrowed from reporter Carl Kolchak.

Armadillocon 32 Photos

Saturday, August 28th, 2010

Here are a few quick-and-dirty photos from Armadillocon 32, all except the first taken Friday.


Michael Bishop, from the Thursday Pre-Con dinner.


COOOOKIEEEEE!


Neal Barrett, Jr. in his stylish hat. “I got it from Walgreens. I buy all my clothing there.”


Richard Simental, AKA RoadRich.


Matthew Bey. Photo uncropped to give you some idea of the dealer’s room space. (Will try to get a better picture today.)


Michael Sumbera


Andrew Wimsatt


Stina Leicht, looking at Elizabeth Moon (who only dropped in briefly the first day, due to a busy schedule)


Stina was complaining about me taking pictures of her, so naturally I had to take several more.


Patrice Sarath


The first of three unsuccessful night views of the Renaissance Atrium. I’ll try to get some daylight shots today.


Phil Brogden, Yvonne Daily, and Mike’s torso


Karen and Kasey Lansdale.

Updated: You can find Part 2 here.

New Lame Excuse Books Catalog This Week

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Maybe as soon as tonight, as it’s just about ready to roll. If you want a copy and are not on my mailing list, drop me a line at lawrenceperson@gmail.com so I can add you. This time around there’s lots of new Joe R. Lansdale, Alastair Reynolds, Jack Vance, etc., and the usual selection of small press first editions, Award winners and rarities.

And in case you hadn’t noticed, the new Lame Excuse Books webpage is now at https://www.lawrenceperson.com/lame.html.

Every Futurama SF Reference Ever

Sunday, August 8th, 2010

UGO offers up a list of every SF reference in Futurama. Though there are a few things to quibble with (occurrences of written SF predating some of the media citations they provide), overall it’s a fun list.

And as long as we’re talking Futurama, here are links to the reviews Howard and I did of the four Futurama DVDs:

The August Ansible is Up

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

For all your skiffy reading pleasure.

Hugo Voting Deadline Approaches

Friday, July 30th, 2010

If you haven’t already turned in your Hugo ballot, you might want to go ahead and do that before Midnight on July 31. PDT.

(Hat tip: Missions Unknown.)

Books Read: Clark Ashton Smith’s Out of Space and Time

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Clark Ashton Smith
Out of Space and Time
Original Edition: Arkham House, 1942
Current Edition: Free online at The Eldritch Dark

Believe it or not, there are a few important SF/F/H first editions I don’t own (yet), and Clark Ashton Smith’s Out of Space and Time (the third book published by Arkham House) is used to be one of them. [Update: See here.] But since all of the stories in it are available online at The Eldritch Dark (a site dedicated to Smith’s work), I’ve been reading them one at a time between other things. This collection both confirms why I love Smith (either you like Smith’s ultraviolet prose style, or you don’t), and illustrates why you can’t really make a steady diet of him (a certain sameness of tone, overly passive protagonists, and very similar plots and outcomes (if you’re the protagonist in a CAS story, your chances of not being consumed by something horrible are pretty slim)). The best stories in here are extremely good. “The City of the Singing Flame” provides a great sense of wonder with its transport to an alien city centered around the mysterious singing flame of the title. “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis” is a very effective story of an archeological expedition on Mars gone wrong. And the Averoigne stories, which I already read in A Rendezvous in Averoigne, are all quite good.

But not everything in here is great. For example, “The Monster of Prophecy” is a deeply tedious story of a man transported to another world to act as a pawn in fulfilling an ancient prophecy; far too much time is spent on the setup and transition.

But overall Smith is still great fun to read, and I doubt he ever gave a moment’s thought to the possibility of “going too far” to establish a mood. Just look at the full-bore mood piece of ”From the Crypts of Memory”, with its final line “We knew the years as a passing of shadows, and death itself as the yielding of twilight unto night.”

If you like H. P. Lovecraft, Jack Vance, or Michael Shea (to name three obvious points of comparison), you should probably give Clark Ashton Smith a try.

“I find your lack of cash disturbing. Put the money in the bag or get Force-choked!”

Saturday, July 24th, 2010

Darth Vader robs a bank on Long island.

Now we know the real reason George Lucas banned David Prowse from Star Wars conventions…

Awesomely Wrong Watchmen

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Stumbled across this image at this story on Alan Moore passing on getting the rights to Watchmen back if he would write sequels:

Wish I could tell you who the artist is.

And as long as I’m stealing awesome wrong Watchman images…

And if you haven’t seen it already, this Saturday Morning version is so many kinds of wrong:

Finally, please note that many of the above can be found at this site dedicated to Watchmen parodies.

Generation Eloi Passes on the H. G. Wells Story Competition

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Contest Judge: Here’s an H. G. Wells writing contest that will pay you £1,000 if you win.

Writers: All right! Sign me up!

Contest Judge: But there’s a catch.

Writers: What?

Contest Judge: You have to write your story out by hand.

Writers: Pass.

No way could I enter this contest; their attempts to judge my entry would no doubt come out something like this:

(Hat tip: Michael Walsh’s Facebook feed. The “Generation Eloi” tag comes from the afterword to Steven R. Boyett’s Elegey Beach, which I hope to have a review of sometime in the near future.)