Stories
drorzel | August 5, 2010Today, Tor.com has posted the complete story "Divided by Infinity" by Robert Charles Wilson. This remains probably the best science fiction story ever using the Many-Worlds interpretation of quantum physics (though it doesn't call it that explicitly), and also the creepiest:
In the year after Lorraine's death I contemplated suicide six times. Contemplated it seriously, I mean: six times sat with the fat bottle of Clonazepam within reaching distance, six times failed to reach for it, betrayed by some instinct for life or disgusted by my own weakness.
I can't say I wish I had succeeded,…
drorzel | August 1, 2010The voting for the 2010 Hugo Awards closed last night. I sent in my ballot yesterday, but I'm trying to limit my computer time this weekend, so I didn't post about it until today.
The following lists are my votes, with miscellaneous commentary. The Hugos use a complicated vote-counting scheme, including a "No Award" option to distinguish between works you wouldn't mind seeing win, even if they're not your first choice, and works you consider so bad you would rather see them cancel the award than win.
Best Novel
The City and the City by China Mieville
Julian Comstock by Robert Charles Wilson…
drorzel | June 30, 2010I have now finished all of the short fiction on this year's Hugo Award ballot (links to most nominees are available here), and I have to say, the pickings here are pretty slim. The stories that aren't forgettable or preachy are deeply unpleasant, leaving me wanting to put a lot of stuff below "No Award." And there's one story that makes me want to bleach my frontal cortex.
More detailed comments, category-by-category, below the fold:
Best Novella
“Act One”, Nancy Kress (Asimov’s 3/09)
The God Engines, John Scalzi (Subterranean)
“Palimpsest”, Charles Stross (Wireless; Ace, Orbit)
Shambling…
chaoticutopia | October 24, 2007Last week, I discussed the difficulty of creating a perfect model of our environment. Once, I toyed around with the idea of a perfect simulation... wouldn’t it be indistinguishable from reality? What if we created the perfect model--and it turned out to actually be reality? As advanced as our technology is, we obviously won’t have to worry about this any time soon. But in a science fiction story, where plausibility is a little plastic, we can explore such questions. So, that’s what I did last year--I wrote a story. And here it is:
Ω
By Karmen Lee Franklin
The General swept his fingers…
chaoticutopia | October 23, 2006Witches, stew, and a battle...
A well-timed meme floated into ScienceBlogs over the weekend, asking what advice we might have for our 12-year-old selves. This began as John Lynch at Stranger Fruit borrowed the survey question from Fark.com. Soon, others began to respond, including Janet at Adventures in Ethics and Science and Chad at Uncertain Principles. Why is this well timed, you might ask? Or, what could advice to a younger self have to do with witches and other figments of a Halloween-infused imagination? Well, take my answer, and season it with the spice of battles: youth versus…
chaoticutopia | August 29, 2006Illusions in Lavender was the most difficult story I ever tried to write. I must have set it down a dozen times, driven by the same reluctance I feel writing this post, now. No matter how much research or editing is involved, writing about experiencing a mental illness can never be easy--especially for someone who takes pride in mental abilities.
Fifteen years ago, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Since then, I've learned to recognize the cycles of passion and despair as complex interactions between my body, my brain, and the environment around me. To some degree, I've also learned to…
chaoticutopia | August 16, 2006The following is a short story-a work of fiction-or is it an epistemological metaphor? You decide.
Paper Dolls
By Karmen Lee Franklin
Leila has this collection of paper dolls. Some of them are tattered and yellow; those she keeps tucked away safely, so that she may later pull them out and fondly recall the times, long ago, when she played with them as they were new. She has new ones as well, all fresh and sharp; these she'll touch with a smile, and picture the way they should dress, or imagine how they would act, or where they will go together.
She delights in each one, seeing each unique cut…
chaoticutopia | July 24, 2006What could a magnificent but arrogant dragon have to do with ecological change? Everything, perhaps, if we can be influenced by myth and metaphor.
I won't be able to return to my series on urbanization for a day or two, so I've brought a few pieces out of the archive and dusted them off. First, I'd like to share a light tale which fits perfectly with recent themes. I wrote it this last spring as a Mother's Day present. It's actually my mom's story--she told it; I wrote it--but we share similar views on the subject. It turned out so well, I think we ought to collaborate more often. It is, of…