Just The Caffeine Talking

My WorldCon Schedule

In two and a half weeks I'll be in Chicago for ChiCon 8, the 80th World Science Fiction Convention. I offered to participate in programming events, and they're really making me sing for my supper this time.

Thursday, September 1

(all times are CDT)

2:30 P.M.: Writing and Story Development for Tabletop Games. This is a game design panel, obviously, focusing on fitting story to the game system and vice versa.

4:00 P.M.: Virtual Reading. I'll be reading from my forthcoming novel The Scarab Mission via video, so anyone in the world can watch.

5:30 P.M.: Science: The Core of Science Fiction's Sense of Wonder. This panel grapples with the central issue of why and how you can have a whole literary genre based on stories about science.

7:00 P.M.: Stroll With the Stars. Come for a walk with me and some other writers around downtown Chicago. I'll point out some of my favorite buildings and discuss how Chicago influenced my fiction.

Friday, September 2

10:00 A.M.: Really Big Things. A panel on megastructures. I've used some big ones in my fiction, but how big can structures really get?

1:00 P.M.: Table Talk. What used to be called a Kaffeklatsch or a Literary Beer, but now with masks on. I won't tattle if anyone cheats.

4:00 P.M.: March of Time. A virtual panel about the ways SF gets overtaken by real-world discoveries, and how to avoid it.

Saturday, September 3

11:30 A.M.: Re-Engineering the Solar System. A virtual panel discussing how humans — or our successors, whatever they may be — may rebuild the Solar System. 

2:30 P.M.: Tropes as Tools. Tropes aren't the same as cliches, nor are they something one must necessarily avoid. This panel will talk about how to use tropes intelligently to make better fiction.

4:00 P.M.: Autographing. I'll be signing books, bookplates, magazines, or anything my pen can make a mark on.

Sunday, September 4

11:30 A.M.: Science in Science Fiction: The Guesswork of 1946. The panel will look at how writers in 1946 envisioned the future, and try to understand why they made the assumptions and guesses they did. 

2:30 P.M.: The Science and Fiction of Droids. A combination science and literary panel about the long history of robots and AI in science fiction, and how everybody gets it wrong including me.

Whew! During the few moments I can snatch when I won't be doing convention programming, I plan to look up friends, relations and familiar sights in Chicago; satisfy my cravings for deep-dish pizza, proper hot dogs, fried chicken, and other Windy City delights; and hang out in the con suite or the hotel bar to see all the people I've missed for the past three years.

See you all in Chicago!

 

 

 

Discover an Archipelago of Lost Worlds

I'm pleased to report that the long-awaited anthology Lost Worlds and Mythological Kingdoms is now available. It's edited by John Joseph Adams and features a pretty impressive lineup of contributors, including Theodora Goss, Cadwell Turnbull, and Becky Chambers. The seventeen stories in the book are all about visits to hidden or imaginary lands — a micro-genre which was once a mainstay of fantastic adventure fiction but which gradually faded away under the influence of decolonization and satellite mapping. My own contribution is called "Out of the Dark," and is another work in the ongoing Billion Worlds series. I'm pretty eager to get my hands on a copy myself. 

In other Billion Worlds news, I just handed in my draft of the next Billion Worlds novel, a prequel to The Godel Operation with the working title The Scarab Mission. More news as that progresses toward publication. Until then . . . 

. . . get Lost!

Orwell on Putin

Well, not Putin, actually. Another political leader noted for aggression in Eastern Europe. Orwell reviewed a book written by that leader and speculated on the reasons for his political success:

"[That guy], because in his own joyless mind he feels it with exceptional strength, knows that human beings don’t only want comfort, safety, short working-hours, hygiene, birth-control and, in general, common sense; they also, at least intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice, not to mention drums, flags and loyalty-parades."

I'm posting this quote because it seems to me that once again Western leaders (and everyone else) are making their characteristic mistake of assuming every other leader (and every other population) want what they want. Right now you see endless Tweets, headlines, and pundits calling Putin "mad."

Nope. He's no more mad than [That guy] was. He just doesn't share our motivations. For all our professed love of diversity and tolerance we are abysmally bad at actually understanding people who don't share our Enlightenment-era Anglosphere way of thinking. We've seen this in the Middle East, we've seen it in Asia, we've seen it in Latin America, we've seen it in Africa.

Sanctions and speeches and hashtags and Facebook banners aren't going to stop this. We need to help Ukraine with tangible, physical aid — or admit to ourselves that this is just a lot of feel-good posturing to compensate for our impotence.

Oh, and keep an eye on the Taiwan Strait . . .

Boskone is GO!

After the sad cancellation of this year's Arisia convention, I'm very pleased and excited to announce that Boskone 59 is going ahead as planned this coming weekend, at the Westin hotel in Boston's seaport district! See the Web page here for membership information.

I'll be there in person, and here's my schedule:

Friday, February 18

6:00 p.m.: Very Far Future SF — a panel discussion about writing science fiction set thousands of years in the future, if not even more remote.

Saturday, February 19

10:00 a.m.: Reading — I'll be reading my short story "Out of the Dark" from the forthcoming anthology Lost Worlds and Mythological Kingdoms.

11:00 a.m.: When Comics Characters Get Old —panel about the problems with "comics time" vs. real time, and how to deal with the sheer weight of past history some iconic characters have to carry.

2:00 p.m.: Kaffeeklatsch — fellow program participant Grant Carrington and I will hang out and drink coffee with anyone who signs up. You set the topics!

4:00 p.m.: The Mind of the Alien — a real powerhouse of a panel discussing what alien intelligence might be like and how we can (or can't) relate to them.

Sunday, February 20

11:00 a.m.: Autographing — I'll be signing anything anyone can drag into the hotel (not contracts).

12:00 noon: Dungeons & Dragons — A classic Basic D&D dungeon with traps, wandering monsters, and puzzles.

See you all at the Westin this weekend!

Postmarked From the Stars Interview

Postmarked From the Stars is an online bookstore emphasizing fantasy and science fiction. They've also got a YouTube channel with reviews and interviews. And this week you can see an hour-long interview with me. It's quite wide-ranging, discussing my earlier works like A Darkling Sea and Corsair, as well as recent titles like The Godel Operation. Check it out!

Better Late Than Never

The legendary Gordon Van Gelder sent me the link to this review of Corsair by Patrick Mahon. It's a nice writeup, and I'm pleased to see it. One can only imagine the size of his "to be read" pile. Amazon still has it available in all formats.

Last Thoughts on Dune

I finished re-reading Frank Herbert's epic novel Dune a few days ago, and had some final thoughts about the book. I asked myself "How would I have done it?"

The book is about the desert planet first and foremost, and so I'd keep that. I'd keep the interstellar intrigue plot, as well. Reluctantly, I guess I would have to leave in the psychic powers. I don't like psychic stuff, but I guess that's the best way to make the spice into the Most Valuable Stuff in the Universe.

The big change that Jim Cambias's Dune would make to Frank Herbert's original is the resolution. I wouldn't have young Paul use his precognitive powers and loyal Fremen warriors to take the throne of the Galaxy. Instead, I would throw a curve ball. 

The problem that the Fremen of Arrakis face is that their planet just happens to produce The Most Valuable Stuff in the Universe. This means that powerful off-world factions like the Houses of Harkonnen and Atreides, the Emperor himself, and the Spacers Guild will always have an interest in controlling the spice production on Arrakis. Basically, the Fremen and Paul must make a bid for power, or else they'll just get a new set of colonial overlords. The Empire and its great noble houses simply can't leave Arrakis alone.

Or . . . can they?

Only the Fremen know the "secret of the spice" — how it is produced as part of the life cycle of the giant sandworms which inhabit the deserts of Arrakis. Curiously, the Empire and other mighty powers who depend on the spice have never bothered to investigate how it's made.

So here's my curve ball: instead of arranging things so that the Emperor comes to Arrakis and then launching a coup against him, Paul works with the spice smugglers to move a series of secret parcels off Arrakis, bound for other desert worlds all over the Galaxy. We assume that the Empire contains other worlds with little or no water — many of them are probably uninhabited, but that's actually a benefit. The smugglers seed these desert worlds with sandworm eggs.

It may take a few years, but in time sandworms — and spice — will be all over the Galaxy! Spice will no longer be scarce, and will be impossible for any one faction to control. Everyone can get access to spice. The price drops by orders of magnitude. It's no longer the Most Valuable Stuff in the Universe, just a useful substance with applications in space travel and medicine.

Paul gets revenge on his enemies. Baron Harkonnen is ruined economically. The Emperor may be, as well. The Spacers Guild are likely to lose their monopoly and thus their own wealth and power. 

And Arrakis? It's now just one of dozens or hundreds of desert worlds where spice can be found. The great powers capable of ruling it are ruined, its chief resource is commonplace. Arrakis gets to be left alone. Paul remains there as a leader of the Fremen, with the woman he loves as his wife.

Naturally, there's likely to be plenty of plots, counter-plots, and the inevitable knife fights. But in the end, I'd write a novel about how economics trumps political power. 

 

 

A Curious Omission

Dr. Kelly and I went to see Denis Villeneuve's new version of Dune a couple of weeks ago. It was good — the director has shown himself in the past to be a skilled and faithful adapter of science fiction stories to the screen. Good acting, beautiful visuals, a good score . . . 

But no food! It's a little astonishing that a movie made by a Frenchman, set on a planet famed for its spice production, doesn't have any memorable food scenes. We see Paul and his mother eat breakfast in one scene, but not what they're eating. This production won't give Andrew Rea anything to re-create for a Binging With Babish video.

It's particularly disappointing to me because it means the film leaves out one of my favorite scenes from the book: the banquet in Arrakeen. I know why the scene was cut — it's talky, it's full of minor characters who don't play much part in the bigger story, and it's part of a sub-plot the director decided to drop from the screenplay.

Still, it's a pity because we miss the only dishes actually named in the book: langues de lapin de garenne, roast desert hare in sauce cepeda, aplomage sirian, chukka under glass, and "a true pot-au-oie." Translations: lapin de garenne is simply rabbit (odd to have both rabbit and desert hare in the same meal); sauce cepeda sounds like a mushroom sauce but I can't find a reference to it outside of the novel, aplomage may be an extraterrestrial creature — likely from a planet orbiting Sirius — the word to me looks like a kind of featherless bird; chukka is another fictional food; and a pot-au-oie would be potted goose (probably some kind of confit). The rabbit tongues are a particularly decadent-sounding dish, reminiscent of the Roman fondness for parrot tongues in garum. To me, the meal comes across as unpleasantly rich — suitable for a winter feast in a cold climate, but far too heavy for a hot desert setting.

Either Mr. Herbert was trying to convey that the dinner was a display by the Duke, with costly imported food that will impress the rubes; or he was showing that the Atreides have just come from a very different world and their preferred foods are out of place; or he just made up some cool-sounding dishes. My money's on the last option. 

Were I to write that scene, I'd have done things a little differently. For one thing, this is a society in which the nobility are paranoid about poison, which suggests the entrees should all be big common-pot dishes: soups, stews, maybe big baked pasta or rice dishes. Cactus dishes seem appropriate, as would dates. Make a big rabbit pie as the first course, followed by cactus soup, game birds with dates served over couscous, and fresh off-world fruit to inspire awe among the desert planet inhabitants.

Now I have to go start making dinner.

 

Auction Action!

Today the Friends of Deerfield are launching an online auction to raise funds for Deerfield's 350th anniversary celebration in 2023. Items for sale include antiques, sports memorabilia, gift cards, and artworks. But my readers may be especially interested in the books.

We've got signed collections of first editions by Western Massachusetts SF and fantasy authors: Elizabeth Bear, me, John Crowley, Paul Park, and Allen Steele. If any of you are collectors, this is a gold mine. Note that all of the authors have asked to not be told how much their books fetch at auction. (I probably won't be able to avoid seeing it myself.)

The auction ends November 15, so keep checking the page to see how the bidding is going. I've heard that the last few hours can get really exciting. Here's the link again.

Let the bidding begin!

Captain Opposite

I've noticed an interesting approach to writing genre characters, one which also applies to roleplaying games and other media as well: take an iconic character and make up someone who is as opposite to that character as possible.

When Michael Moorcock wanted to write a "sword and sorcery" epic, he didn't make his main character a clone of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian. Instead he made up Elric of Melnibone, who is Conan's opposite in almost every way. Where Conan is a barbarian, Elric is the scion of his world's most advanced and decadent civilization. Where Conan is a warrior who enjoys a good fight, Elric is skilled in magic and intrigue as much as swordplay. Conan fights his way to the throne of Aquilonia, while Elric begins as a hereditary Emperor and ultimately abandons his throne and kingdom.

When Patrick O'Brian began writing a series of Napoleonic-era sea stories based on the life of Thomas Cochrane, he didn't make his main character a clone of C.S. Forrester's Horatio Hornblower. Instead he made up Jack Aubrey. Where Hornblower is a progressive Whig with suspiciously 20th-Century attitudes, Aubrey is a reactionary Tory. Where Hornblower is tone-deaf, Aubrey is a skilled musician. Where Hornblower is diffident and shy with women (mostly), Aubrey is an enthusiastic womanizer. And where Hornblower is isolated and lonely in command, Aubrey has the constant friendship of Stephen Maturin.

Some authors even do it to themselves. L. Frank Baum's first Oz novel centered on Dorothy, a girl from Kansas swept off to Oz by a tornado and trying desperately to return home. His second centered on Tip, a boy native to Oz who is running away from home. With the help of magic, Dorothy gets back to Kansas and resumes her old life. Tip is transformed into Ozma and begins an entirely new existence as a Lovely Girl Ruler. 

One of my mottoes is "Constraints inspire creativity," and I think this is a perfect example. Using the "Captain Opposite" method one gets two sets of constraints, and their intersection can generate wonderful creativity. The first constraint is of course making the character the opposite of an iconic genre character. But it goes beyond simple negation. The second constraint is that Captain Opposite still has to work as a genre character himself. 

After all, making a sea captain who isn't Horatio Hornblower should be pretty easy: make him incompetent, cowardly, arrogant, and ultimately a failure. (And in fact George MacDonald Fraser did just that with his Harry Flashman.) But what makes Aubrey a classic character in his own right is that he is Hornblower's foil — but also his equal. He works as the anti-Hornblower but still gets to do all the Cochrane-inspired exploits. (In fact, my personal opinion is that by stripping away Hornblower's anachronistic ideas about personal hygiene and democracy, O'Brian makes Aubrey a more realistic and vivid character.)

Similarly, Moorcock's Elric still works as a Sword 'n Sorcery hero, despite being the kind of person Conan routinely beheaded in his own climactic battles. Howard famously made Conan the sort of person whose first instinct is to fight his way out of a situation, which was perfect for the pulp action stories Howard wanted to tell. Moorcock's Elric, by contrast, hates the vampiric magical sword which keeps him alive. His efforts to avoid fighting get him into more and more trouble — and build the reader's anticipation for the inevitable moment when he does finally pull out Stormbringer and start swinging.

So, here's an exercise for the next time you're writing in a genre with iconic characters: try to create a Captain Opposite. An anti-Sherlock Holmes who still solves baffling crimes, an anti- James Bond who still thwarts Britain's secret foes, maybe even an anti-Batman who still battles supervillains. If you can think of other examples I'd love to hear about them in the comments.