Monthly Archives: April 2018

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The 1943 Retro Hugo finalists for Best Novelette

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Several classics here, three of which I had read before. NB that both “The Weapon Shop” and “There Shall Be Darkness” have female human or human-ish characters. (“The Star Mouse” has a non-human and non-speaking female character.) NB also that the protagonist of “The Weapon Shop” shares the name “Fara” with a secondary character in “Bridle and Saddle” and “Foundation”.

6) “The Weapon Shop,” by A.E. van Vogt

Second paragraph of third section:

Fara sniffed once more at the meaning of the slogan, then forgot the simple thing. There was another sign in the window, which read:

THE FINEST ENERGY WEAPONS IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE

I know this is a classic, but I really don't understand what the point is. Particularly in today's atmosphere of Second Amendment debates, it reads very weirdly.

5) “The Star Mouse,” by Fredric Brown

Second paragraph of third section:

"Eggscape velocity, Mitkey! Chust barely, it adds up to eggscape velocity. Maybe. There are yet unknown facgtors, Mitkey, in der ubper atmosphere, der troposphere, der stratosphere. Ve think ve know eggsactly how mudch air there iss to calculate resistance against, but are ve absolutely sure? No, Mitkey, ve are not. Ve haff not been there. Und der marchin iss so narrow that so mudch as an air current might affect idt."

If it weren't for the comic accent of the scientist, this slightly reverse version of Flowers for Algernon would be rather cute and original. However, the scientist has a comic accent, so I'm putting it second last.

4) “Bridle and Saddle,” by Isaac Asimov

Second paragraph of third section:

The fame of Anacreon had withered to nothing with the decay of the times. The Viceregal Palace was a drafty mass of ruins except for the wing that Foundation workmen had restored. And no Emperor had been seen or heard of in Anacreon for two hundred years.

This is the third element of the collection we know as Foundation, where our smart, elderly hero Salvor Hardin outwits both domestic opposition and the local warlord, partly by retaining control of scientific knowledge among his own loyalists. It’s not as good as the other part of the story.

3) “Foundation,” by Isaac Asimov

Second paragraph of third section:

"On us? Are you forgetting that we are under the direct control of the Emperor himself? We are not part of the Prefect of Anacreon or of any other prefect. Memorize that! We are part of the Emperor's personal domain, and no one touches us. The Empire can protect its own."

This is the story where Salvor Hardin manages to wrest control of his world from the Encyclopedists, by the operation of clever politics and inevitable history. It is a nice study of a bloodless coup, planned decades in advance.

2) “Goldfish Bowl,” by Anson MacDonald (Robert A. Heinlein)

Second paragraph of third section:

Already in the boat were the coxswain, the engineman, the boat officer, Graves and Eisenberg. With them, forward in the boat, was a breaker of water rations, two fifty-gallon drums of gasoline &emdash; and a hogshead. It contained not only a carefully packed crate of eggs but also a jury-rigged smoke-signal device, armed three ways &emdash; delayed action net for eight, nine and ten hours; radio relay triggered from the ship; and simple saltwater penetration to complete an electrical circuit. The torpedo gunner in charge of diving hoped that one of them might work and thereby aid in locating the hogshead. He was busy trying to devise more nearly foolproof gear for the bathysphere.

Gosh, an early Heinlein I didn’t know, about a Big Dumb Object which is a bridge to another world. Rare for Heinlein to write a story which leaned quite so heavily on his naval experiences. A pleasing find.

1) “There Shall Be Darkness,” by C.L. Moore

Second paragraph of third section:

The lifting crags that rushed straight up a thousand feet into the clouds were shocking to Earth eyes even after a lifetime on Venus, but Quanna scarcely noticed the familiar sheer cliffs of purple rock hanging like doom itself above her as she climbed. She had been born among these cliffs, but she did not mean to die here. If she had her way, she would die on another planet and be buried under the smooth green soil of Earth, where sunlight and starlight and moonlight changed in a clear sky, she could not quite imagine, for all the tales she had heard.

Much the best prose of any of the stories, as the above extract illustrates. It’s an interesting treatment of colonial and gender issues; Quanna is a Venusian princess (or equivalent) in love with a dashing Earthman, who however is leaving as part of a post-imperial retreat. (Interesting to see this as a theme already in 1942; I guess that the Indian independence movement was well known, and C.L. Moore would have remembered Irish independence too.) The story maybe doesn’t go where a writer of today would take it, but before things can become cliches they have to be told in the first place. A clear first preference from me.

2018 Hugos: Novel | Novella | Novelette | Short Story | Related Work | Graphic Story | Dramatic Long | Dramatic Short | Professional Artist & Fan Artist | Series | Young Adult | Campbell Award
1943 Retro Hugos: Novel | Novella | Novelette | Short Story | Dramatic Short | Fan Artist

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The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage, by Philip Pullman

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Second paragraph of third chapter:

The atmosphere in the Trout was subdued for some days afterwards. Malcolm went to school, did his homework, fetched and carried in the inn, and read over and over again the secret message in the acorn. It wasn’t an easy time; everything just then seemed hung about with an unhappy air of suspicion and fear, quite unlike the normal world, as Malcolm thought of it, the place he was used to living in, where everything was interesting and happy.

This is the first of the WSFS YA finalists that I have read; also the longest of the six. It’s a prequel to the His Dark Materials trilogy, with Lyra as a baby being protected by the teenage Malcolm, son of the landlord of the pub across the road from the convent where Lyra’s father has placed her for refuge. Malcolm teams up with both a smart young woman and a nice neighbour girl against the baddies, in particular when their world is devastated by a catastrophic flood that seems to overflow the boundaries of reality. A lot of great description and subtle characterisation, and I think this will be a tough one to beat. You can get it here.

For next year’s Worldcon, it’s worth noting that the venue in Dublin shares the same initials as the secret church police in Pullman’s world.

“Malcolm didn’t know much about it, but he knew the sense of sickening terror the CCD could produce” (p.30)

“That was the way of things with the CCD; it was better not to ask, better not to think about it.” (p.42)

“‘Malcolm,’ said the man, ‘get your boat further in the trees, quick. Bring the baby in here out the way. That’s the CCD down there. Come on!’” (p.384)

“Mr Boatwright sat down and stirred the fire up before lighting a pipe. ‘What’d they say after I vanished, eh?’ he said. ‘Anyone guess where I’d gone?’ ‘No,’ said Malcolm. ‘They all said you were the only person that had ever got away from the CCD.” (p.395)

Well, it made me smile.

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Julian, by Gore Vidal, and Apostata vol 7, by Ken Broeders

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Julian the Apostate is one of those great historical characters who I came to relatively late in life, from Chapters XXII, XXIII and XXIV of Gibbon. I then quite by accident came across Ken Broeders' seven-part graphic biography, and read the first six parts in late 2016. Now it is time to look at Gore Vidal's 1964 novelisation, and incidentally finish off the Broeders version.

Julian, by Gore Vidal

Second paragraph of third chapter:

"He's dead. The Bishop's dead. In the church. He died. Just like that!"

This helped make its author's reputation back in 1964, with the timely irreverence for Christians ("Galileans") and churches ("charnel-houses") and the depiction of a potential turning point in world history that in the end was not taken. The vibrancy of the fourth-century Roman empire, and the uncertainty of life at the top, are very well depicted, and there is a nice narrative frame of two of Julian's friends providing commentary on his memoirs. It's quite a long book but the story (whose facts don't need a lot of embellishment) holds very well. The one weak point is that Julian's own ideas aren't really expressed particularly well, other than that he hated Christianity; I understand that the real emperor left a much more convincing body of writing. You can get it here.

This was at the top of my list of unread non-genre books. Next on that list was The Bean Trees, which however popped to the top of another list simultaneously. Next after that is Gemini, by Dorothy Dunnett.

Apostata vol VII: Niets Meer Dan Een Wolk, by Ken Broeders
Second frame of third page:



Julian: Ye gods… I fell asleep… and when I still have so much work to do! Thank you, Alexander!*

Tomorrow I must ask the admiral how things are with the fleet. According to my
calculations we still need more river boats. The army mustn't run out of supplies…

*Julian means that Alexander the Great used this method: as soon as he nodded off,
his grip on the ball weakened, and it fell noisily into the dish… and shocked him awake.

This is the climax of the six previous books, with Julian's hubris leading him to the final confrontation in Persia, initial genius in attack thwarted by the failure to maintain supply lines and his eventual death by friendly (or rather, unfriendly) fire. Lots of sex, violence and death, but all done convincingly and coherently. This is one of the classic cases of Flemish/Dutch comics which are crying out for an English translation. My fees are reasonable. You can get it here in the original Dutch.

This was my top non-English language comic. Next on that pile is Rose de Paris, by M. Leroy.

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The 2018 Hugo finalists for Best Short Story

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These are evenly divided between SF and fantasy (Nagata, Roanhorse, and Prasad clearly SF, and Wilde, Yoachim and Vernon clearly fantasy). Again, I did not find it too difficult to rank them; there was only one that I really bounced off. (See JJ's list for access to all of the 2018 short fiction finalists, and much more, online.)

6) “Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand,” by Fran Wilde

Third paragraph:

No one wants to be pinned between an entrance and an exit, unless you’re part of the show.

Lyrically written, appears to be about being swallowed. I did not really get it.

5) “Carnival Nine,” by Caroline M. Yoachim

Third paragraph:

“Take me to the zoo tomorrow?” The zoo on the far side of the closet had lions that did backflips and elephants that balanced on brightly colored balls.

I liked all the rest of the stories. This is a fantasy about love and loss among people who need to be wound up every day and whose springs eventually break. Nicely done, though my curious mind wanted more information about the setting.

4) “The Martian Obelisk,” by Linda Nagata

Third paragraph:

But there were still things to do in the long, slow decline; final gestures to make. Susannah Li-Langford had spent seventeen years working on her own offering-for-the-ages, with another six and half years to go before the Martian Obelisk reached completion. Only when the last tile was locked into place in the obelisk’s pyramidal cap, would she yield.

Elegiac story about art, obsession, survival and ultimately hope. Not totally sure about the twist ending but generally liked it.

3) “Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™,” by Rebecca Roanhorse

Third paragraph:

“Our last name’s not Trueblood,” she complains when you tell her about your nom de rêve.

Protagonist makes his living by performing as a part of an immersive entertainment fantasy. The problem with being fake is that sometimes there are people who can fake it better.

2) “Fandom for Robots,” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad

Third paragraph:

After fifty milliseconds, Computron checks the countdown page again.

I hate cute robot stories, but this is about a robot that itself becomes obsessed with cute robot stories, and for once I was charmed.

1) “Sun, Moon, Dust” by Ursula Vernon

Third paragraph:

“No, nor do you deserve it,” she snapped at him. She was a fierce old woman with a nose like a hawk’s beak and skin falling away in folds from her cheekbones. “You’re a farmer, not a warrior. They’ll help you.”

What happens when a young farmer inherits a sword inhabited by three warrior spirits? Charming story with not a word wasted.

Edited to add: NB that “Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™” won the Nebula.

2018 Hugos: Novel | Novella | Novelette | Short Story | Related Work | Graphic Story | Dramatic Long | Dramatic Short | Professional Artist & Fan Artist | Series | Young Adult | Campbell Award
1943 Retro Hugos: Novel | Novella | Novelette | Short Story | Dramatic Short | Fan Artist

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I found the ranking pretty easy, though hesitated between the top two. See also my guide to getting hold of them – unfortunately the direct link for “Mimic,” by Donald A. Wollheim is no longer working. NB that there is precisely one speaking female human character in these six stories (not surprisingly, in the one story which has a female co-author).

Normally I give the second paragraph of the third section as a taster; none of these stories is subdivided, so I’m just giving the third paragraph in each case.

6) “Etaoin Shrdlu,” by Fredric Brown

Third paragraph:

I admitted my identity. and he said, “Glad to know you, Mr. Merold. I’m—” and he gave me his name, but I can’t remember now what it was. I’m usually good at remembering names.

This is a Tall Tale about a printing machine that becomes animated by a mysterious intelligence. That’s about it.

5) “Runaround,” by Isaac Asimov

Third paragraph:

“Yaaaah,” snarled Donovan, feverishly. “What have you been doing in the sublevels all day?” He took a deep breath and blurted out, “Speedy never returned.”

I hope that by now it’s well recorded that I hate cute robot stories. The Asimov Laws of Robotics stories are a particularly pointless exercise, with the author setting up rather silly laws purely to hang rather silly plots on them. In the case in point, a robot is torn between loyalty to its human master’s orders and self-preservation, and ends up running around a pool of molten metal on Mercury singing Gilbert and Sullivan.

4) “The Sunken Land,” by Fritz Leiber

Third paragraph:

To begin with, he did not like the huge, salty ocean, and only Fafhrd’s bold enthusiasm and his own longing for the land of Lankhmar had impelled him to embark on this long, admittedly risky voyage homeward across uncharted deeps. He did not like the fact that a school of fish was making the water boil at such a great distance from any land. It seemed unnatural. Even the uniformly stormless weather and favorable winds disturbed him, seeming to indicate correspondingly great misfortunes held in store, like a growing thundercloud in quiet air. Too much good luck was always dangerous. And now this ring, acquired without effort by an astonishingly lucky chance—

Now we’re getting better. This is a nice bit of writing in which poor Fafhrd gets kidnapped by a sinister boatsman who is raiding an even more sinister island. Lots of atmospherics but doesn’t quite get anywhere.

3) “The Twonky,” by Lewis Padgett (C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner)

Third paragraph:

Drunk? Lloyd, in his capacity as foreman, couldn’t permit that. He flipped away his cigarette, walked forward, and sniffed. No, it wasn’t liquor. He peered at the badge on the man’s overalls.

This is basically the same story as “Etaoin Shrdlu,” but better written and (as noted above) with an actual speaking female character. In this case the machine is a phonograph/radio rather than a printer, so it has the added frisson of the latest communications technology.

2) “Mimic,” by Martin Pearson (Donald A. Wollheim)

Third paragraph:

We know little or nothing. Some of the most startling things are unknown to us. When they are discovered they may shock us to the bone.

Very close between the first two stories for me; both are about Hidden Secrets, and in this case it’s non-human creatures masquerading as humans in contemporary New York. Several chilling images. A bit closer to horror than my usual tastes, but well done.

1) “Proof,” by Hal Clement

Third paragraph:

Kron could “see” all this as easily as a human being in an airplane can see New York; but no human eyes could have perceived this city, even if a man could have existed anywhere near it. The city, buildings and all, glowed a savage, white heat: and about and beyond it—a part of it, to human eyes—raged the equally dazzling, incandescent gazes of the solar photosphere.

In the end my vote goes to this story of inhabitants of the Sun, and other stars, exploring the universe in their own terms, in complete ignorance of planets, let alone Earth, never mind humanity – making for utter mutual incomprehension when they do encounter one of us. The writing is a little clunkier than some of the others, but I’m giving it top marks for ideas.

That’s got me off to a reasonably good start.

2018 Hugos: Novel | Novella | Novelette | Short Story | Related Work | Graphic Story | Dramatic Long | Dramatic Short | Professional Artist & Fan Artist | Series | Young Adult | Campbell Award
1943 Retro Hugos: Novel | Novella | Novelette | Short Story | Dramatic Short | Fan Artist

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Monday reading

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Current
Spirit by Gwyneth Jones
Something Like Normal, by Trish Doller
La Belle Sauvage, by Philip Pullman
Genius Loci, by Ben Aaronovitch

Last books finished
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, by H.P. Lovecraft and Ian Culbard
Torchwood: Rift War, by Ian Edgington et al.
Mrs Miniver, by Jan Struther
Doctor Who: The Official Annual 2010
New York 2140, by Kim Stanley Robinson
Black Bolt, Volume 1: Hard Time, written by Saladin Ahmed, illustrated by Christian Ward, lettered by Clayton Cowles
Monstress, Volume 2: The Blood, written by Marjorie M. Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda

(All of these except New York 2140 are really short.)

Next books
Ammonite, by Nicola Griffith
Contes Fantastiques Complets, by Guy de Maupassant
The God Instinct, by Jesse Bering

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How to get the 1943 Retro Hugo finalists, Part 3: Short Stories

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Due to new info coming in from Carla (thanks Carla!), I’ve had to split the Short Stories onto their own page! Hooray! See Novellas here, and Novelettes here.

Short Stories

“Etaoin Shrdlu,” by Fredric Brown


“Mimic,” by Donald A. Wollheim



“Proof,” by Hal Clement


“Runaround,” by Isaac Asimov



“The Sunken Land,” by Fritz Leiber



“The Twonky,” by C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner





I haven’t counted, but that’s well over 100 links. I hope that they are useful!

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How to get the 1943 Retro Hugo finalists, Part 2: Novelettes

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See Novellas here and Short Stories here – thanks to Carla for supplying details of the original publications.


Novelettes

“Bridle and Saddle,” by Isaac Asimov

“Foundation,” by Isaac Asimov

“Goldfish Bowl,” by Robert A. Heinlein

“The Star Mouse,” by Fredric Brown

“There Shall Be Darkness,” by C.L. Moore

“The Weapon Shop,” by A.E. van Vogt


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How to get the 1943 Retro Hugo finalists, Part 1: Intro, Novels and Novellas

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The eighteen finalists in the three short fiction categories are:

Best Novella
* “Asylum,” by A.E. van Vogt
* “The Compleat Werewolf,” by Anthony Boucher
* “Hell is Forever,” by Alfred Bester
* “Nerves,” by Lester del Rey
* “The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag,” by Robert A. Heinlein
* “Waldo,” by Robert A. Heinlein		 Best Novelette
* “Bridle and Saddle,” by Isaac Asimov
* “Foundation,” by Isaac Asimov
* “Goldfish Bowl,” by Robert A. Heinlein
* “The Star Mouse,” by Fredric Brown
* “There Shall Be Darkness,” by C.L. Moore
* “The Weapon Shop,” by A.E. van Vogt		 Best Short Story
* “Etaoin Shrdlu,” by Fredric Brown
* “Mimic,” by Donald A. Wollheim
* “Proof,” by Hal Clement
* “Runaround,” by Isaac Asimov
* “The Sunken Land,” by Fritz Leiber
* “The Twonky,” by C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner

Information from Carla has supplemented Cat’s earlier list of those that are easy to find online. We now have free access to every single one of the short fiction finalist, but I also list below the books in which each finalist has been published, mostly out of print but accessible by the usual means – the Novellas in this post, and Novelettes here and Short Stories here.

NB also that five of the six finalists for Best Novel are available online:
Beyond This Horizon, by Anson MacDonald (Robert A. Heinlein): original Astounding publication, Part One, Part Two.
Darkness and the Light, by Olaf Stapledon, online for free at University of Adelaide.
Donovan’s Brain by Curt Siodmak, Available for free on Scribd, if you can bear the annoying interface and if it's available in your country (it isn't in mine)
Second Stage Lensmen, by E. E. “Doc” Smith: original Astounding publication, Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four.
The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle, Available for free on Scribd, if you can bear the annoying interface.

Going back to the short fiction, eight of the stories can be found in the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 4 (1942):

It includes “Asylum”, “Nerves”, “Foundation”, “The Star Mouse”, “The Weapon Shop”, “Mimic”, “Proof” and “The Twonky”.

All of these except “The Weapon Shop” can also be found in the much bigger anthology, Isaac Asimov Presents The Golden Years of Science Fiction: 2nd Series:

Similarly the famous Healy/McComas anthology, Adventures in Time and Space, includes five of them:

The stories here are “Asylum”, “Nerves”, “The Star Mouse”, “The Weapon Shop” and “The Twonky”.

The first volume of Isaac Asimov's famous Foundation seies, itself just called Foundation, includes the novelettes "Foundation" (re-titled "The Encyclopedists") and "Bridle and Saddle" (re-titled "The Mayors").

The two Heinlein novellas, “The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag” and “Waldo”, can both be found in The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein:

They can also both be found in New Worlds to Conquer, the 34th volume of the Virginia Edition of Heinlein's complete works. The volume itself doesn't seem to be available separately and the entire collection costs $1500. (That's $1800 if you are outside the USA.)

The two Frederic Brown stories are both in The Fredric Brown Megapack: 33 Classic Tales of Science Fiction and Fantasy.

If you had been buying the magazines as they came out in 1942, you would have scored double with:

  • the February 1942 issue of Unknown Worlds, which included “Etaoin Shrdlu” and “The Sunken Land”;
  • the March 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, which included “Goldfish Bowl” and “Runaround”;
  • the May 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, which included “Asylum” and “Foundation”;
  • the June 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, which included “Bridle and Saddle” and “Proof”; and
  • the September 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, which included “Nerves” and “The Twonky”.

Otherwise the stories are available as follows:

Novellas

“Asylum,” by A.E. van Vogt

“The Compleat Werewolf,” by Anthony Boucher


“Hell is Forever,” by Alfred Bester


“Nerves,” by Lester del Rey


“The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag,” by Robert A. Heinlein

“Waldo,” by Robert A. Heinlein

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New York 2140, by Kim Stanley Robinson

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Second paragraph of third chapter:

Too much time to give to this question, the super being so sullen and slow. New York parking! One can do nothing but practice patience. Eventually the zoomer was mine to step into, off the boathouse dock and then out the doorway onto the shadowed surface of the Madison Square bacino. Nice day, crisp and clear, sunlight pouring down the building canyons from the east.

This year I am reading the books which are Hugo and Retro Hugo and WSFS YA finalists in order of decreasing total page count. That ranking is, if you are curious:

Islandia, by Austen Tappan Wright (1943 Retro Hugo Novel)
New York 2140, by Kim Stanley Robinson (2018 Hugo Novel)
La Belle Sauvage, by Philip Pullman (2018 WSFS Young Adult)
Akata Warrior, by Nnedi Okorafor (2018 WSFS Young Adult)
The Stone Sky, by N. K. Jemisin (2018 Hugo Novel)
A Lit Fuse: The Provocative Life of Harlan Ellison, by Nat Segaloff (2018 Hugo Best Related)
Provenance, by Ann Leckie (2018 Hugo Novel)
Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia E. Butler, by Rasha Abdulhadi (2018 Hugo Best Related)
A Skinful of Shadows, by Frances Hardinge (2018 WSFS Young Adult)
In Other Lands, by Sarah Rees Brennan (2018 WSFS Young Adult)
Raven Stratagem, by Yoon Ha Lee (2018 Hugo Novel)
The Art of Starving, by Sam J. Miller (2018 WSFS Young Adult)
Six Wakes, by Mur Lafferty (2018 Hugo Novel)
The Collapsing Empire, by John Scalzi (2018 Hugo Novel)
Sleeping with Monsters, by Liz Bourke (2018 Hugo Best Related)
Second-Stage Lensmen, by E. E. ‘Doc’ Smith (1943 Retro Hugo Novel)
Summer in Orcus, by T. Kingfisher (2018 WSFS Young Adult)
Beyond This Horizon, by Robert A. Heinlein (1943 Retro Hugo Novel)
The Uninvited, by Dorothy Macardle (1943 Retro Hugo Novel)
No Time to Spare, by Ursula K. Le Guin (2018 Hugo Best Related)
The Black Tides of Heaven, by JY Yang (2018 Hugo Novella)
Crash Override, by Zoe Quinn (2018 Hugo Best Related)
Iain M. Banks, by Paul Kincaid (2018 Hugo Best Related)
Down Among the Sticks and Bones, by Seanan McGuire (2018 Hugo Novella)
Donovan’s Brain, by Kurt Siodmak (1943 Retro Hugo Novel)
Darkness and the Light, by Olaf Stapledon (1943 Retro Hugo Novel)
River of Teeth, by Sarah Gailey (2018 Hugo Novella)
Binti: Home, by Nnedi Okorafor (2018 Hugo Novella)
All Systems Red, by Martha Wells (2018 Hugo Novella)

That’s a lot of reading between now and mid-July, and I haven’t even accounted for the Best Series finalists. (There is one novella finalist that hasn’t been published separately, but don’t worry, I will get to it; it seems shorter than the others at first glance. Also I haven’t included the Best Graphic Story finalists in the list above; they are all shorter in pagecount than All Systems Red. But I am reading them now anyway.)

I’m still waiting for a hardcopy of Islandia, so I started with New York 2140 (and am now on La Belle Sauvage). It’s obviously a refutation of the bizarre assertion that sf is not concerned with climate change; the scene is New York in 2140, after a couple more economica and climatic crises; the sea level worldwide has risen by 16 metres, and most of our numerous viewpoint characters live in and around the MetLife building, whose base is submerged but which has become accommodation for about two thoiusand people. As with the Mars books, the different points of view add up to make a whole; as it turns out, the viewpoint characters all end up on pretty much the same side, which is to bring about the fall of capitalism in America.

I felt the first part of the book, which builds to a couple of satisfying plot climaxes at about the half-way mark, was better than the second, where the fall of capitalism is plotted but mostly happens off stage, boosted by a natural disaster whose emotional impact comes across as somewhat blunted. It will be obvious by now that it’s a very political book, but it is more wonkish than angry, which is my own personal style as well, but doesn’t necessarily make for great drama. There’s also a frankly silly sub-plot about a young woman who broadcasts nude from an airship and attempts to transplant polar bears to Antarctica. If that all appeals, you can get it here.

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Jade City, by Fonda Lee

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Second paragraph of third chapter:

He resisted. At the age of thirty-five he was supposed to be in the prime of his health and at the peak of his power. It was why his grandfather had finally consented to cede leadership to him, why the rest of No Peak accepted that the mantle had passed from the legendary but old and ailing Kaul Seningtun to his grandson. If word got out that the Pillar of the clan was suffering health problems, it would not reflect well on him. Even something as mundane as insomnia might arouse speculation. Was he mentally unstable? Unable to carry his jade? Being perceived as weak could be fatal.

I didn’t like this as much as I had hoped. It’s basically a story about brutal gang warfare in a world where some people are particularly sensitive to jade, which gives them psychic powers; and yet the technology is jarringly similar to that of our 21st-century world, and to be honest I didn’t care very much for any of the characters or sympathise with what they were trying to do. If you want to try it, it is here.

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The Man Who Spoke Snakish, by Andrus Kivirähk

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Second paragraph of third chapter:

Ettepanek tundus ülimalt ohtlik, juba paljalt sellele mõtlemine pani südame taguma. Ega Pärtelgi kuigi vapper välja näinud, ta vahtis mulle otsa sellise ilmega, justkui ootaks, et ma pead raputaks ja keelduks – küllap oli tal oma sõnade pärast hirm. Mina ei raputanud pead, vaid ütlesin hoopis:
“Lähme siis.”		 The suggestion seemed extremely dangerous; the very thought of it made my heart race. Nor did Pärtel look all that brave; he looked at me with an expression that expected me to shake my head and refuse; his words had indicated his dread. I didn’t shake my head; I just said: “Let’s go then.”

Someone recommended this to me on Facebook, but of course I cannot now find who it was. It's a great adult fairy-tale covering the shift from ancient paganism to early modernity in Estonia, through the life of Leemet, a child of the forest who speaks Snakish and thus can communicate with all animals, not only snakes. But the Christians come and succeed in imposing their lifestyle on most of the people of the forest and in killing many of the animals. Leemet loves and loses, and loves and loses, and the world is never going to be the same again. I really liked it. You can get it here.

Amused by the reviewer who bought this as a bedtime story for her young son. Erm, no.

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The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver

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Second paragraph of third chapter:

It was the second day of the new year. I had stayed on at the Broken Arrow through most of the holidays, earning some money changing beds. The older woman with the shakes, whose name was Mrs. Hoge, was determined I should stay awhile. She said they could use the extra help during the Christmas season, especially since her daughter-in-law’s ankles were giving her trouble. Which is no wonder. A human ankle is not designed to hold up two hundred and fifty pounds. If we were meant to weigh that much we would have big round ankles like an elephant or a hippopotamus.

This was Kingsolver’s first novel, but the fourth that I had read (after The Poisonwood Bible, The Lacuna and Prodigal Summer). I was charmed by this as I was by the others. It’s a lovely story of a young woman from Kentucky who leaves home, and by the time she reaches Tucson, Arizona, she has acquired someone else’s baby. There’s a nicely depicted gradual maturing of the narrator, and a sentimental ending involving two Guatemalan refugees which successfully pulled at my heartstrings. Very sweet and powerful book which you can get here.

This happened to reach the top of two of my lists simultaneously, unread books by women and unread books that are fiction but not sf. Next in order on those lists respectively are Moominvalley in November, by Tove Jansson, and Gemini, by Dorothy Dunnett.

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This year’s Hugos and Retro Hugos – dramatic presentation categories

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Listed by length, title links for Amazon (UK) DVDs, other links where I have found them online.

164 min: Blade Runner 2049 (BDP LF 2018)

152 min: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (BDP LF 2018)

141 min: Wonder Woman (BDP LF 2018)

130 min: Thor: Ragnarok (BDP LF 2018)

123 min: The Shape of Water (BDP LF 2018)

108 min: Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book (BDP SF 1943) Whole thing on Youtube Whole thing on Internet Archive

104 min: Get Out (BDP LF 2018)

81 min: Invisible Agent (BDP SF 1943) Whole thing on Internet Archive

77 min: I Married a Witch (BDP SF 1943) Whole thing on Internet Archive

76 min: Black Mirror: “USS Callister,” (BDP SF 2018)

73 min: Cat People (BDP SF 1943)

70 min: Bambi (BDP SF 1943) Whole thing on Internet Archive

67 min: The Ghost of Frankenstein (BDP SF 1943)

60 min: Doctor Who: “Twice Upon a Time,” (BDP SF 2018)

47 min: Star Trek: Discovery: “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad,” (BDP SF 2018)

25 min: The Good Place: “Michael’s Gambit,” (BDP SF 2018)

21 min: The Good Place: “The Trolley Problem,” (BDP SF 2018)

5 min: “The Deep” [song], by Clipping (BDP SF 2018) Whole thing on Youtube, lyrics here.

Happy to add more sources as people let me know about them.

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Macedonia: Ohrid, Sveti Naum, Skopje and Tetovo

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It is almost exactly 21 years since my first trip to Macedonia, back in April 1997, when many things were different. I've been raving about it ever since to anyone who would listen, particularly my long-suffering wife and family. So when we started looking for options for an Easter weekend getaway, Anne suggested that I should take her to my favourite Balkan state. And so I did. F agreed to accompany us as well.


This is the three of us by Lake Ohrid at Sveti Naum, with the Albanian mountains behind us.

Ohrid is the old ecclesiastical capital of Macedonia (or indeed Bulgaria). This is the dramatic church of Sveti Jovan Kaneo, on a headland by the lake. We have a painting of it on the wall in our front room at home; Anne gasped in recognition as we came around the corner on a hillside path and saw the real thing.

In 1937, Rebecca West "walked on through the town by a track which followed the top of a cliff beside the lake and took us at last to a church standing on a promontory covered with pale-yellow flowers. This I remembered well, for it was the Church of Sveti Yovan, of St. John, where I had learned for the first time the peculiar quality of Eastern Christianity, that is dark and not light, and unkempt as only the lost are in the West."

We were staying in the old town, near the Church of Sveti Sofija, the Holy Wisdom.

Of this, Rebecca West wrote: "[It] was built, it is said, at the same time as the Hagia Sophia of Constantinople and was restored by the Nemanyas. It is a glorious building, the size, I should think, of Steeple Ashton parish church, a superb composition of humble, competent brickwork achieving majesty by its sound domes and arches. It is decorated with some magnificent frescoes of the Nemanya age, one showing an angry angel bending over earth in rage against the polluted substance of those who are not angels, and another showing the death of the Virgin, where sorrowing figures drip like rain down the wall behind the horizontal body of a woman who is giving herself without reserve but with astonishment to the experience of pain, knowing it to be necessary. That the building should be now Christian is a victory, since the Turks used it as a mosque for five hundred years. But the church is full of light. It is built according to the Byzantine and not according to the Serbo-Byzantine fashion, and has no iconostasis but only a low barrier to divide the congregation from the priest. A makeshift iconostasis of chintz and paper and laths has been run up, but it is of no avail. Light stands like a priest over all other priests under the vaults that were raised high to cast out shadow. And this church is unbeloved. A fierce old nun keeps it fanatically clean and would give her life to defend it."

I don't know if the lady currently in charge is a nun, but we charmed her sufficiently that she let us off the general prohibition on photography inside the church, and we were able to record some of the frescoes for ourselves. The lighting is not always fantastic, but here is the Divine Wisdom herself, above the altar.

Edward Lear, better known for his limericks, visited Ohrid in 1848, almost 90 years before Rebecca West and 170 years before us. I tried to reproduce two of his paintings in their modern setting, but without much success.


This is the Ali Pasha Mosque as Edward Lear saw it in 1848: "I drew a fine old Greek church, now turned into a mosque". (Actually he was wrong; it was built as a mosque in 1573.)

The minaret is long gone, the base of the mosque is now concealed by other buildings, and much of the rest by scaffolding:

Across the square is an ancient tree which Lear drew:

"There is a street scene below the castle, where a majestic plane shades bazaars rich with every sort of gay-coloured raiment. Through its drooping foliage gleams the bright top of a minaret, and below it are grouped every variety of picturesque human beings. To carry away a sketch of this was the work of half the morning".

The plane tree is still there, very close to the Ali Pasha mosque. The minaret in Lear's picture belongs to the Zeynel Abidin Paşa mosque on the other side of the square, and unfortunately a big support structure for the tree now prevents us getting Lear's view. The tree is now best seen from the west.

Neither Edward Lear nor Rebecca West was aware of the ancient theatre in Ohrid, now excavated and used for performances:

We stayed very economically in the Villa St Sofija hotel, near the church mentioned above. Our rooms were palatial, with no need for the communicating doors that Rebecca West mentions:

"Ochrid is a very long way from London. One gets into a train in London at two o'clock in the afternoon and all the next day one crosses Italy or Austria, and on the morning of the second day one is in Belgrade. Even if one stays in the Athens Express one cannot be in Skoplje before five that afternoon. There one must spend the night, and start early in the morning to reach Ochrid in the late afternoon. It is also a fact that not one in a million Englishmen has been to Ochrid. What happened when we arrived at the hotel on Lake Ochrid, therefore, was unfair. We found Gerda talking to a manageress, one of those strange polyglots who seem to have been brought up in some alley where several civilizations put out their ash-cans, since only bits and pieces have come their way, never the real meat. She showed some interest when she heard we were English. An Englishman had come to the hotel only the other day. Did we know Professor So-and-so? Yes, we knew that ornament of the British academic world. He had liked Ochrid trout, all the world liked Ochrid trout, we would like Ochrid trout, but first would we like a risotto of crayfish, such as the Professor had also liked? Yes, we thought we would. And were we really married, or did we want two rooms with a communicating door, like Professor So-and-so and his young secretary? 'My God,' said my husband, with deep emotion, 'if I had a son I would tell him this story several times a year.'"

We moved on to Sveti Naum, the monastic settlement beside the Albanian border, of which Rebecca West wrote at length. She describes the core ancient church thus: "We passed under an arch and were in the small square formed by the monastery buildings. They are a mixed lot, put up at various times since the fourteenth century, which are painted different colours, some white, some grey, some red, for no other reason than that the monks happened to be given these paints. At one point there are no buildings, and a terrace looks down on the wide face of the lake. The air up here is cooled by the breath of the water. In the centre of this square is the tenth-century Church of Sveti Naum. It is dark and low, its stone walls are brown save where they are plastered white, and its two cupolas, one of which is taller than the other, are of red and white brick, very old, very dim in colour; and it is roofed with red-brown tiles. In shape it is like a locomotive. It stands above the cobbles of the square on a platform of earth, walled up with stone. On one side of the church there grows a lilac tree, which bears very large purple flowers, on the other a fig tree. By the fig tree are some poles on which they dry the monastery fishing-nets." The two trees are gone, but the church remains, still shaped like a locomotive:

Most notably, the peacocks that she mentions, and which feature in some of the ancient frescoes, still patrol the monastery precincts:

Even more remarkably, there are at least two albino birds – a peahen, who evaded my photography, and a white peacock:

On the way down to Ohrid, we stopped in Tetovo to visit the famous Decorated Mosque, a beautiful example of Islamic art from the 16th century. Here's a panorama with family members (click to embiggen):

They are (justifiably) proud of the depiction of the Qa'aba, a rare example of that subject in Balkan Islam:

The sisters who funded the building of the mosque in 1438 rest outside in a türbe:

Finally, we ate really well, and economically, while in Macedonia. When we lived in Bosnia in 1997-98, the standard lunchtime snack was burek, and we tracked down a very tasty sample on a fleeting visit to Kičevo:

In summary, I think I convinced my family about Macedonia, and maybe we’ll go back for longer next time.

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Monday reading

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Current
Spirit by Gwyneth Jones
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, by H.P. Lovecraft and Ian Culbard
New York 2140, by Kim Stanley Robinson

Last books finished
Free Radical, by Vince Cable
The Man Who Spoke Snakish, by Andrus Kivirähk
Jade City, by Fonda Lee
No Going Back To Moldova, by Anna Robertson

Next books
Ammonite, by Nicola Griffith
Contes Fantastiques Complets, by Guy de Maupassant
Genius Loci, by Ben Aaronovitch

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