John M. Ford 1957-2006

R.I.P. to Mike Ford who passed away this morning. It was reported on Making Light today.

Mike was a local author whom I had to end up going to Boston to meet. I only got to talk to him for the few moments it took him to sign my books, but he was very gracious and engaging. Other authors such as Elizabeth Bear, Steven Brust, and Charles Stross are lamenting his loss on the LJ circuit. This truly is a great loss for Speculative Fiction. Mike wrote two of the best books, I've ever read in The Dragon Waiting, and The Last Hot Time. He also has several collections of short stories, as well as a couple of the most highly regarded Star Trek novels ever to his credit.

Its criminal that authors such as Terry Goodkind and Robert Newcombe achieve such commercial success, while a man like Mike Ford toils in obscurity. If you have never read Ford, go out and do it.

Ultimate Iron Man

I have been reading comic books since the late '70's. Since then comics have gone from selling for Still Only $.35 to $3.95 for many titles. I've recently stopped buying comics on a monthly basis, as I feel the price is too much for what I get. However, one other change in comic publishing had been the rise of the graphic novel. It used to be that Marvel or DC would publish a special graphic novel once in awhile, but over the past few years, they have begun publishing omnibus editions of their regular comics a lot more often. Some of them even in nice hardcover editions.

Ultimate Iron Man is one of these. For those not familiar with the Ultimate Universe, let me give you a brief overview. Marvel has been publishing super hero comics since 1960, which of course gives their trademark characters like the Fantastic Four and Spider-man huge histories. Every writer needs to try and keep continuity with what every writer before has done, and this can certainly stifle creativity. What's more it can be imposing to new readers. So Marvel launched the Ultimate Universe, and treated all the characters then in as if they were brand new. They updated origin stories, and from what I've read Iron Man's update is one of the most extreme.

I was interested to read this seeing that Card who wrote the wonderful Ender's Game, was the scripter. I've really enjoyed some comics penned by big names in entertainment like Kevin Smith, Joss Whedon, and J Michael Stryzinski. One of the best Graphic Novels I've read was Richard Morgan's run on Black Widow. I wasn't disappointed in Card.

The reimaging of Tony actually begins before his birth and involves an accident effecting his geneticist mother. The only way to save Tony is by utilizing some experimental technology developed by his father Howard. Quite the change from the original story of Tony being taken prisoner and forced to develop the armour to keep a bullet lodged in his chest from reaching his heart. Of course we do eventually get to the Iron Man armour, but that ends up being fairly secondary to the main storyline.

I don't believe that the series has gone beyond the first 5 issues, but I'm hoping it does eventually, as the story ends rather abruptly. There is certainly more to tell, and I hope that Card gets to do it.

8 out of 10

The Blood Knight

The Blood Knight is the third book in the Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series by Greg Keyes. This follows up The Briar King and The Charnel Prince. Reportedly he is planning on wrapping this series up in the next novel, tenatively titled The Born Queen.

I really enjoyed the first two novels in this sequence, so I had high expectations for this book. I was not disappointed. I would recommend brushing up on what happened in the previous installments before reading this, as Keyes drops you right in the middle of the action. It took me nearly 100 pages before I found my footing and recalled where The Charnel Prince had left off.

*spoilers for the first two books follow.*

Anne, Austra and Cazio, have met up with Sir Neil, as well as Aspar, Winna, and Stephen, so almost all out protagonists are together, or nearly so. The lone exception is the composer Leoff who has been imprisoned by Robert after the performance of his enchanted concert. Robert also has Queen Murielle imprisoned, and has allied himself with the corrupt church and with Crotheny's ancient enemy Hansa. With the help of her friends Anne must find a way to win the throne. She will have to manage without the full group as Stephen is taken and Aspar and Winna are sent to find him, and help him fufill his destiny.

I've heard Keyes often described as Martin-Lite. The comparison is fairly accurate. Keyes writes in the same POV chapter style, and his strength is characterization. His characters are certainly a bit more cliche than Martin's but they are strong none the less. He also does a nice job of world building. The history of the world is fleshed out a bit more with each novel, and he does manage to throw a few curves to keep the reading guessing as to what side certain supporting characters are on.

Keyes doesn't rate on my top tier of writers of epic fantasy but he sits with some pretty good company on the rung below Martin and Bakker. The Blood Knight is certainly an enjoyable book.
If you are a fan of the series, by all means keep reading. If you haven't read this yet and are looking for something to tide you over until A Dance with Dragons, or the Aspect emperor are release, give Keyes a shot.

7.5 out of 10

The Hugo Awards

I'll start with a brief run down of the winners and then get to commentary.

John W. Campbell Award
John Scalzi

Best Fan Artist
Frank Wu

Best Fan Writer
Dave Langford

Best Fanzine
Plokta

Best Semiprozine
Locus

Best Professional Artist
Donato Giancola

Best Professional Editor
David G. Hartwell

Best Dramatic presentation, Short Form
Dr. Who the Empty Child

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
Serenity

Best Related Book
Storyteller : Kate Wilhelm

Best Short Story
Tk' tk' tk' : David D. Levine

Best Novellete
Two Hearts : Peter Beagle

Best Novella
Inside Job : Connie Willis

Best Novel
Spin : Robert Charles Wilson

Special Awards were also given to Betty Balantine and Harlan Ellison and Forrey Ackerman was given the Big Heart Award, which was renamed in his honor.

Now my commentary on the results

I wasn't happy with them.
I did not purchase a membership in time to vote, but had I vote, the only choice of mine to win would have been Serenity.

Now I'm a total GRRM fanboy, I've gotten to meet him and chat with him several times, and I really wanted him to win "the big one". But I'm also a realist, and while I think A Storm of Swords is one of the best novels ever written and was robbed, A Feast for Crows was not the book that was going to do it for him. Spin and Accelerando were both extremely tough competition, and Spin likely was deserving.

I also though Magic for Beginners was brilliant, and figured it was a shoe-in for Novella. I'm wondering if Willis didn't get some votes because she was GoH.

Dr. Who beating BSG was also hard to understand... Actually the who voting process is hard to understand. When leaving the awards we were given a printout of the official results. I wish there was an explanation as to how it worked because looking at the results BSG had more first place votes than Dr. Who, the empty child.... in fact is appears to have more votes for Everglade except for last.

This seems to have occurred several times, AFFC had the 3rd most first place votes and finished 5th. John Picacio had the 3rd most votes and finished 5th. Its all very confusing.


Now this was my first Worldcon and my first Hugo Awards. I really enjoyed the ceremony. It did drag on a few times, but for the most part it was very entertaining. The by play between Connie Willis and Robert Silverberg was a highlight. And then of course there was Harlan.
The man is a total dick. However, I find him to be an amusing dick, so I enjoyed his rant. Swallowing the mic was a hoot. Then of course there was "boobgate". IMO it was wrong. But I think some are making a mountain out of a foothill.

The most amusing thing to come out of the hugos to me personally was the rant by William Lexner at I hope I didn't just give away the ending. Looks like he got all the old guard of fandom riled up. Now William is a friend of mine, in fact he was my roommate at Worldcon, and I sat next to him at the Hugos. The man certainly can come off as bombastic, but in reality, he's one of the nicest guys you could meet. That said I know he is getting a kick out of the angry SMOFs. I mean they call themselves Secret Masters of Fandom... They deserve a bit of chain yanking now and again. Kevin Standlee has been one of the biggest critics. Check it out here.
He was also accused of causing Cheryl Morgan to close Emerald City.

Ahhh Good times....Good times.