UPDATE: Due to my own inattention during planning, the Sunday events had to be rescheduled or eliminated. I have revised this post to reflect my new schedule.
This coming weekend, June 21-23, I'll be in mountain-girt Chattanooga, Tennessee for LibertyCon, now in its 36th year.
As always, when I go to a convention I don't want to just be a spectator, I want to be part of the show! Here's my schedule:
Friday, June 21, 4:00 p.m.: Meet and Greet the First-Timers — Since this is the first time I'll be attending LibertyCon, I'm one of the first-timers to be met and gret.
5:00 p.m.: Opening Ceremonies — This is on my schedule but I'm not sure if I'm actually doing anything other than applauding. I may sneak off to get some food.
8:00 p.m.: Autographing — As always, I'll sign my own books, games, other people's books, whatever. Note that anyone who comes to the autographing will get the key to a secret surprise!
Saturday, June 22, 10:00 a.m.: Brunch Banquet — Still trying to decide if brunch should be accompanied by Bloody Marys or Mimosas. Stop by and give your opinion.
12:00 noon: Let's Design a One-Page RPG in an Hour — Game mechanics, how to create an appealing setting, and how it all fits together, all at a breakneck pace.
2:00 p.m.: Baen Traveling Road Show — Join me and a plethora of other Baen Books authors as we discuss what's coming up in 2025 and beyond.
3:00 p.m.: Reading — Come for the first public reading from my upcoming novel The Miranda Conspiracy.
FYI if of interest, my five star review of Arkad's World posted to Goodreads and amazon today. I can see we both write too much!
Not mentioned by other reviewers here, Arkad also embodies how many members of younger generations feel on Earth in the 2020s, living in the shadow of earlier "alien" generations, the Boomers and Depression-WWII generations. Many younger folks feel like they are the only ones of their kind. Like Arkad, the only human on a planet full of aliens, they are similarly challenged to "find the others like them." From the outside, from the p.o.view of older generations readers, this may sound self-serving, small-minded, in-curious and ignorant. Nevertheless Cambias embraces the loneliness of our current youth and makes it into art.
I have now read a good fraction of early 2000s British sci-fi, updating, refreshing and better-written space operas, many of which I enjoyed immensely. Also, I consider N.K. Jemison's Stone Sky trilogy a masterpiece, where sci-fi meets literature to become great (can't say as much for her other books). Cambias' Arkad's World leaves these behind. As I describe above, he creates metaphors for how today's youth view the world. Arkad's World is NOT beholden to US sci-fi-1930s-1990s, NOT beholden to the just-passed(?) British sci-fi renaissance. Not entirely beholden to the history of well-crafted mystery stories like the Murderbot series (I also recommend).
If you disagree Arkad represents how youth see things today, please explain the death of a main character in one paragraph midway thru the book. Also, please explain why Arkad's World isn;t jsut another young adult (YA) romp. So how do the youth of today view Earth today?
The narrative style here is called "picaresque": "an episodic style of fiction dealing with the adventures of a rough and dishonest but appealing hero." While Arkad's quest has a McGruffin, a single thing all the characters want and chase after, there is no strong, driving narrative. The story is a succession of incidents. Many incidents introduce us to one more new alien species. Despite this, each incident is handled in a naturalistic way, factually what did and did not happen emotionally, morally, ethically and the local interplanetary historical background. Impressive. The significant amount of physical action keeps this from boring us. The most memorable incident for me was the story of the two Pfifu working on a planetary protection device. It's resolution has ZERO to do with the plot.
Like Larry Niven's first Ringworld novel, this is episodic, picaresque, basic world-building. By the third act of Arkad's World, readers have a good sense of the interplanetary backdrop so the third act makes sense.
Also raising Arkad's world above familiar YA sci-fi romps is Cambias' English translation of alien speech. English syntax makes how the speaker and a conversational partner feel about themselves and each other pretty obscure. Cambias fixes this by affixing a new adjective to both speaker and listener in every sentence as meaning shifts:
"Dirt-encrusted Arkad should bathe more often."
"Poverty-afflicted Arkad cannot afford luxurious baths."
"Cost-conscious Arkad could take a free dip in the cleansing sea."
"Warm blooded Arkad does not want to take life-threatening dip in the icy ocean. Fastidious Tiatatoo should not complain about adequate hygiene of the generous friend who is hiding him."
The only glaring flaw a new edition could fix is pictures of each of the alien races. So many are introduced, as they come and go it's challenging to visualize them.
Posted by: bruce dickson | 07/13/2024 at 05:30 PM