SF/F Commentary

2014 in Review (Stats, Data, Yikes): A Lax Year

Shaun Duke / January 19, 2015

I’m a bit late to the party here, but I figured since I set so many goals for myself this year, I should actually talk about what my 2014 looked like in terms of blogging. In brief: 2014 was not a particularly good year for me as a blogger, which isn’t actually a surprise. I’ve been a somewhat lax blogger for the past few years, in part because I’ve diverted so much of my attention to The Skiffy and Fanty Show and to Twitter conversations. There has also been a fair amount of burnout from time to time, particularly when the blogging community started to tank a few years back (it seems to have stabilized now). That said, looking at my statistics, it’s clear where my blog fell off the train in 2014, which gives me insight into how I might improve the blog in 2015. But in case you want the really long-winded version, here you go: The following charts and analyses were based on Google Analytics, which is not a totally accurate measurement, but the best option I have for detailed data (Blogger’s stats are actually better ones to look at, but they allow less fiddling, so I can’t get the depth I need). In 2014, my blog saw a 23.59% decrease in activity by comparison to 2013. In fact, 2013 was such a better year by comparison that even posts I wrote that year were more popular than posts written in 2014 by a 7% margin (more details below). By my own assessment, this has almost everything to do with the following: I spent considerably more time traveling last year than I had in 2013. Last year, I attended four conventions (ICFA, CONvergence, Worldcon/LonCon3, and World Fantasy Con); in 2013, I only attended two (ICFA and Worldcon/LonestarCon). One of last year’s conventions was the result of a fundraiser, which took up a lot of my time, so much so that I put most of my focus on the 2nd item on this list. Podcasting! The Skiffy and Fanty Show had what I hope was a banner year. We rolled out The World SF Tour, explored literature from a bunch of places outside of the U.S. (not as many as I would have liked), and we recorded and released more podcasts than we ever had before. Since most of the podcasting “work” is done by myself, that is a serious time commitment. Speculative Fiction 2014 became a thing. It involved an extraordinary amount of reading — as much, if not more, than the next item. Hugo Award Reading. I spent a good portion of the first few months of 2014 trying to catch up on short fiction so I could actually vote. Part of 2015 will be spent doing the same. Work. I have what I’d describe as three jobs — two that don’t pay very well and one that doesn’t pay at all. These include teaching at the University of Florida as a graduate student, adjuncting at Santa Fe College, and working on my PhD disseration (on Caribbean science fiction, as it turns out). In 2014, I prepped for, took, and passed my exams, which put me in the position of being able to actually write my dissertation. These were time consuming things… Combined, these elements diverted most of my attention away from the blog. This is no more apparent than in the number of blog posts I actually wrote. In 2013, I wrote (or released) 177 posts; in 2014, I released 115 — a 35.03% drop in production. Though my production rate dropped by a third, my general stats fell by less than a quarter, which I blame in part on what I released in 2013. To illustrate, a chart: Last year, posts from 2013 were 7% more popular than posts from 2014. There are a number of reasons this might be so: I responded to more controversies in 2013, including the SFWA Bulletin fiasco and the diversity is a selfie thing. I did not do so as much this year. One of my popular posts was a rant/review of Riddick. It is by far the most popular 2013 post on my blog which can be disentangled from link bots. Other super popular posts include a top 10 list of the best SF/F films since 2010 (at the time, that is) and a post on the vigilante in American Mythology. These posts consistently appeared in the top lists for most visited posts on my blog throughout 2014. I was just more interesting in 2013. It’s true…I had the Retro Nostalgia feature going, which was reasonably popular (one appears in the top 10 list below), and every feature I tried to start in 2014 fell flat due to time constraints, lack of interest (on my part or on my readers’ part), and lack of motivation. In fact, I would wager to guess that the above chart is a reflection of my blog’s “quality” or “interesting-ness” within certain years, with exception to the first two years of its existence, which were demonstrably terrible. Seriously, don’t read anything I wrote in 2006. Please. One thing that becomes apparent when I look at my stats is this: I should talk about movies more often, as that seems to be a consistent “hitter” for my blog, regardless of the quality of the movie. Whether I’m talking about a classic like Legend or a stinker like Riddick, sf/f movies seem to drive more traffic to the blog. Go figure. In terms of what was popular on my blog throughout 2014, I have provided the handy little chart below w/ the full list and links: Movie Review: Riddick (2013) (or, I’m Going to Mega Rant Now) (2013) Top 10 Overused Fantasy Cliches (2009) Top 10 Science Fiction and Fantasy Movies Since 2010 (Thus Far) (2013) Top 10 Science Fiction and Fantasy Anime Movies (2013) Top 10 Cats in Science Fiction and Fantasy (2009) Movie Review Rant : Catching Fire (2013) (2014) Adventures in Teaching Literature: David Henry Hwang and

SF/F Commentary

Gender, Non-Binary, and Things (or, the Likelihood of Failure)

Shaun Duke / January 17, 2015

As you may have heard, I changed my review guidelines so I could join my podcast, The Skiffy and Fanty Show, in its 2015 “Women and Non-Binary in SFF” theme. This post isn’t really about that so much as the related subject of life and getting things right. Or, rather, getting things wrong and hoping for forgiveness. Already, I can tell that my efforts to provide representation for women and non-binary folks is going to an informative journey through no fault of the people involved. Learning is, after all, partly experiential, and so it’s unlikely I can go through a year with such a clear focus without picking up on my own failings or picking up new behaviors, habits, concerns, dreams, aspirations, and so on. I’m the type of person who finds something they love or care about, and then I start dreaming about all the ways I can do that thing, often knowing deep down that I won’t be able to paint the whole picture with the resources on hand. Ambitious to a fault, if you will, about the things that matter to me, or that I find I’m most passionate about. Podcasting and issues of representation happen to be two of the things from which I currently derive the most joy. Partly, that’s because I find podcasting to be a great deal of fun — reading books, watching movies, and hanging out with friends; what’s not to love? And while issues of representation don’t provide the same kind of joy, they are something about which I am deeply passionate (if my Twitter feed were not already an indication). It’s something I try to get right, not just in terms of science fiction and fantasy, but in terms of my everyday life. Representation encompasses so much of the world we live in, and it informs so much of the life I now lead. That’s why I wanted this year’s theme to be “Women and Non-Binary in SFF.” I wanted the thing I love doing to be part of the thing that I am deeply passionate about, but in an explicit, “out there” sense. This is about doing what I think is important and right. In truth, I will fail at this — sometimes miserably. I will identify people by the wrong pronouns, even when I know it’s incorrect; habit will often get the best of me. I will also assume a gender or sex for someone because I don’t know how to ask, or I may just get it wrong because I’m monumentally stupid sometimes. In fact, I’ve already done some of these in the past (thankfully, to someone who is enormously gracious with their forgiveness). I will fail in ways I can’t even imagine right now, because there’s so much I still don’t know or understand about gender, sex, sexism, patriarchy, women, non-binary people, and all manner of related topics. The things I don’t know could fill the Grand Canyon. In truth, I haven’t been a good feminist for my whole life. At times, I have been anything but. I’ve done things I know now were wrong — and probably knew were wrong then, but used all kinds of mental gymnastics to convince myself otherwise. Things that sometimes haunt me when I realize I was one of “those” guys, even though I was also one of “those” guys, too (relentlessly bullied, depressed (still), insecure (yeah, still), hopeless). But being one of “those” guys didn’t make it okay for me to be one of “those” guys. And I still feel a deep need to atone for the wrongs I have done, not just to women, but to all manner of people. Not because any individual demands it, but because I want to be part of the solution, not the problem. I want to be a better person tomorrow than I am today. I want to be the best person that I can be, even though I know perfection is impossible and that I will always be just shy of the mark no matter what. But striving to be something “more” in life is, I think, more important than succeeding and moving on. So this is going to be a year where I try to be a good person, where I will fail, and where I will apologize. By 2016, I hope I am a much better person than I was when this year began. We shall see.

SF/F Commentary

Review Guidelines Change for 2015: Call for Stuffs

Shaun Duke / January 12, 2015

As you may know, The Skiffy and Fanty Show, my magic podcast, is running a new theme throughout 2015: women and non-binary in sf/f. Given that most of what I read ends up on that show in some form or another and that I set a goal to review 50 books this year, I’m going to follow suit. And so, the following changes will take effect as of today: For all of 2015, I will primarily review books by women or non-gendered individuals (or other variations therein). Exceptions will be made here or there for certain writers whose work I simply adore. What I read: Science fiction and fantasy (or anything that is vaguely fantastic; I appreciate what might be called “literary” fiction with a fantastic flourish) Novels marketed for adults, young adults, or middle grade readers (the latter two categories are never sent to me for some reason) Short fiction Other types of work will also be considered if they are related to sf/f in some way (biographies, academic books, essay collections, etc.). That’s pretty much it. Simple. To the point. And on that note, this is my magic open call for people to send me their book things. Novels, story collections, non-fiction books, etc. Anything sent to my email will automatically be considered for The Skiffy and Fanty Show or its blog. Bring it on!

SF/F Commentary

My Top 12 Books Read in 2014

Shaun Duke / January 11, 2015

I said on Twitter that I would make this list because I had such a hard time picking a winner for the 2013/2014 WISB Awards. Basically, this list is my guilt getting the better of me, because I love so many things and hate having to pick. So, in no particular order (because I cannot rank these books without feeling as though I have committed a great atrocity against these authors), here are my top 12 books read in 2014: Breach Zone by Myke Cole (Ace Books) The Violent Century by Lavie Tidhar (Hodder and Stoughton) Hurricane Fever by Tobias Buckell (Tor Books) Memory of Water by Emmi Itäranta (Harper Voyager) City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett (Broadway Books) Zero Sum Game by SL Huang (Self-Published) The Three by Sarah Lotz (Little, Brown, and Company) Gemsigns by Stephanie Saulter (Jo Fletcher Books) Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie (Orbit Books) A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar (Small Beer Press) Into the Grey by Celine Kiernan (Candlewick Press) The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley (Angry Robot Books) Now this is the part where everyone piles on in the comments and tells me how wrong I am. How could I have missed X book? How could I have loved Y so much? Bring on your questions and accusations. I dare you! —————————————— Honorable Mention: I Am Spock by Leonard Nemoy (Hyperion)

SF/F Commentary

Reader Entitlement Syndrome: Stacey Jay and the Windmill Full of Corpses

Shaun Duke / January 8, 2015

I would like to begin this post with a disclaimer: what will follow is unlikely to be pleasant; it will be filled with profanity and angry ranting. If that’s not your thing, then you can find a happy home next door where ponies dance in the moonlight and authors get shit all over for no good fucking reason and just have to smile and take it because they’re the modern equivalent of the court jester now. Yeah. So, if you didn’t know that a thing happened over the last few days, then you should probably read this less angry post on Chuck Wendig’s blog. In short, due to poor sales, an author named Stacey Jay (author of Princess of Thorns) was let go by her publisher, Delacorte Press, and decided to start a Kickstarter for the sequel to her novel. Among the things she included in her target goal were funds for living expenses ($7,000, to be exact). Apparently, some people really didn’t like that, and even less so the idea that Jay might not release the novel if she couldn’t reach her goal. And so they threw a fit about it. Jay eventually took down the Kickstarter and threw in the towel, saying she’d continue writing under other pen names. And still more people threw a fit. That’s where I come in. The moment I saw the post on Wendig’s blog, the rage monster rose up. I was so pissed off. I thought: Holy fucking hell; the people throwing fits are entitled pieces of shit. What the fuck is this garbage? And so I decided to hold off on the Twitter rant that I wanted to write at that moment so I could rant like a madman here. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when this mentality of “what readers want is more important than the needs of the writer” became so embedded into the writing landscape. Regardless, it’s a mentality that needs to fucking die, not only because it’s toxic, but also because it derives from a series of totally bullshit premises about how writers earn their keep and what we as consumers should be asked to provide. There are few other classes of workers in this country that people would actually point to and say “you get paid when I damn well tell you” than writers. Even fucking employees at fucking McDonald’s are treated with more respect than writers, and they’re probably some of the most unloved workers in the whole of the Western world other than IRS agents (who everyone hates, but everyone still thinks should be paid more money than the guy who could be putting his boogers in their food). I’m not saying that McDonald’s workers deserve to be treated like shit. I’m just saying that we treat that guy a lot better than we do writers. Well, unless they’re writers we love and they make a shit ton of money and never have to ask for anything because publishers will toss $500K at them or their books sell so fucking much that it’s never an issue. Oh, wait. No. If a writer who sells a ton of books ever says “gosh, being a writer is tough,” someone will step up on the balcony over their heads and take a steaming shit all over them. Because NYT Best Selling Authors are as rich as Bill fucking Gates (lies). Writers are one of the few classes of worker to whom you can say “you write that thing and then I’ll pay you to live later” and almost nobody bats an eye. Now, it turns out that the mechanics of publishing demand this to a degree. After all, how the hell is a publisher supposed to know which book to publish if the damned thing hasn’t been written yet? But we’re not talking about a new writer. We’re talking about an established one, to a certain degree. And even so, that’s why good publishers pay this little thing called an advance. As you probably know, that’s the sad chunk of cash a publisher gives an author when they decide to publish a work, as if to say (not really), “Well, you did all that friggin work, so now we’ll give you something so you don’t have to starve anymore.” And some authors get paid those things even if the book isn’t fucking done, because they’ve built a relationship with their agent or publisher or whatever through writing other shit — as I’m sure Stacey Jay has. So the idea that Stacey Jay would say, “hey, you all liked my books, but the publisher wanted to sell 4,000,000 copies, and I’m never going to do that, so I thought, since a bunch of you liked the darn thing, maybe we could do this whole bit where you help me live for a few months so I can write the book without interruption, and then you’ll have it and we’ll all be happy” is really not that out there. Presumably, her publisher would have paid her that money anyway. The entitlement of those who think this is absurd is no more apparent than in the tweets from shitheads who seem to think writers are some kind of new class of serf. Take this shit, for example: @_KatKennedy if it were just the editor and the cover, i’d be like, yeah that makes sense but asking us to pay your bills is ridiculous — Nova Lee Zaiden (@NovaBlogder) January 5, 2015 @_KatKennedy EXACTLY. Threatening to stop writing if fans don’t pay her enough money to write full time? Hard pass. — Angie (@disquietus) January 5, 2015 @_KatKennedy i saw it and like, since when does buying groceries and gas count specifically for the project? — Nova Lee Zaiden (@NovaBlogder) January 4, 2015 @booknerdcanada Yeah…which is just a whole world of no. — Molli Moran (@MissMolliWrites) January 5, 2015 Again, the question: since when does buying groceries and gas count specifically for the project? SINCE FUCKING EVER. Why, yes. It is

SF/F Commentary

The 2013 and 2014 WISB Awards

Shaun Duke / January 5, 2015

It’s been almost two years since I last posted my selections for the WISB Awards. The 2013 Awards should have gone up in January of 2014, but I got a tad overwhelmed with podcasting, Hugo stuff, and academia. Such is life! But now the awards are back like a weird plague that never really goes away, but takes brief hiatuses to make you feel safe from its wicked grasp. To make up for the absence of the awards last year, I’m going to double up this year, which makes this doubly hard, since I cannot fall to temptation by allowing myself to select best books or movies I enjoyed in 2014, even though I’m basically in love with so many things right now (new and old). First, the rules: I must have consumed the item in 2013 or 2014.[1] No more than 3 runners up per category. I can drop or add categories as necessary. I will use “genre” to mean “science fiction and fantasy” in order to distinguish categories without using 3 extra words. So, without further ado, here are the 2013 and 2014 WISB Awards: Best Novel 2014 Selection: City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett (Broadway Books) Bennett’s recent novel brought a delicious noir flavor to an imperialist landscape in a world where the gods have been murdered…maybe. It’s the kind of book someone like me devours because it hits all of their little interest buttons. Colonialism and empire? Check. Cultural exploration? Check. Colonial detectives? Check. Weird world-changing craziness? And check. There were a lot of great novels in 2014, but this one still haunts me, and it will probably haunt me for years to come. Runners Up: Breach Zone by Myke Cole (Ace Books), Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie (Orbit Books), and The Violent Century by Lavie Tidhar (Hodder and Stoughton) 2013 Selection: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (Orbit Books) By now, you’ve heard so much about this book that you’re probably not surprised that it graced my WISB Awards list in some fashion. Leckie’s debut novel took the science fiction field by storm, garnering wins from just about every science fiction award. It was probably the single most talked about science fiction novel in 2013 — and possibly in the last decade. And it deserved all of that attention. Leckie’s novel took some familiar ideas and beautifully weaved them into a complex, socio-political jacket of colonialism. It’s the kind of book I would teach if ever given the opportunity, because it’s just that good. Runners Up: The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes (Little, Brown, and Company), Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan (Orbit Books), and Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson (Grand Central Publishing) Best Collection or Anthology 2014 Selection: N/A For some monumentally stupid reason, I have not read enough collections or anthologies this year, which means I am a terrible person… 2013 Selection: Conservation of Shadows by Yoon Ha Lee (Prime Books) I was blown away by Yoon Ha Lee’s collection of stories from Prime Books. Though I’d read some of her work before (mostly through Clarkesworld), the collection of stories in Conservation of Shadows were so refreshing that I have continued to read everything Lee has written since 2013. If you’re looking for unique, intellectual, and diverse/rich short fiction, Conservation of Shadows is the place to go. Runners Up: Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond edited by Bill Campbell and Edward Austin Hall (Rosarium Publishing) and The Love Machine and Other Contraptions by Nir Yaniv (infinity plus) Best Publisher 2014 Selection: Tor Books Tor continues to be on the forefront of science fiction and fantasy publishing. This year, they released a number of superb titles and were involved in everything from traditional sf/f fair to English translation, including Ken Liu’s translation of Liu Cixin’s The Three Body Problem. Tor is always high on my favorite publishers list because they always strive for greater and better publishing pastures. Runners Up: Angry Robot Books, Orbit Books, and Hodder and Stoughton 2013 Selection: Orbit Books Orbit had a good year in 2013. A really good year. They published Brian McClellan’s Promise of Blood and Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice, both of which are superb works. On top of that, they continue to publish the James S.A. Corey Expanse novels. These elements alone made Orbit one of the top spots for sf/f fiction. Hopefully, they will continue to publish new and exceptional works in 2015. Runners Up: Tor Books, Angry Robot Books, and Hodder and Stoughton Best Magazine 2014 Selection: Tor.com 2014 was certainly Tor.com’s year. They published another excellent story by John Chu (“A Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Proposed Trade-Offs for the Overhaul of the Barricade”), one by Ken Lieu (“Reborn”), and one by Yoon Ha Lee (“Combustion Hour”) — all writers whose work I gobble up like some kind of writerly pumpkin pie. We will see how the awards season will turn out for them, but I suspect we’ll see quite a few Tor.com stories on the Hugo ballot! Runners Up: Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons and Interzone 2013 Selection: Clarkesworld In the last few years, Clarkesworld has published some pretty extraordinary fiction. In 2013, they were on top of their game. They published “Effigy Nights” by Yoon Ha Lee, “Silent Bridge, Pale Cascade” by Benjanun Sriduangkaew, and a ton of other amazing work, including some from Aliette de Bodard (sweet heavens yes). Clarkesworld, of course, has been consistently good for years, but for reasons that I can’t quite explain, it has been my go-to-magazine since 2013 — hence its placement on this list. Runners Up: Strange Horizons, Interzone, and Tor.com Best Cover 2014 Selection: The Pilgrims by Will Elliot (art by Kekai Kotaki) The artwork for Will Elliot’s second novel so overwhelmed me when I first saw it that I promptly forgot the name of the book. All I could remember was that gorgeous cover art. Granted, the cover art is supposed to make me remember the book, but I think there is something of value in art that explodes something in your