More Halloween fun. Evidently, they’ve made a Cthulhu movie. And Tori Spelling is in it. I can’t wait to see what Rocky Horroresque shout-outs people will come up for her.
So, I had a little fun of my own:
U HAS MI BUKET. I WANTZ IT. NOW.
Hat tip: WasaB
Happy Halloween! Stay away from the zombies, K?
Into zombies? The Neurophilosopher has an interesting post on The ethnobiology of voodoo zombification.
Gee that’s a fun couple words to say if you have the right mindset. But why am I saying it? New Scientist Tech is reporting on some extroverted buckyballs caught on film:
Blink and you might miss it. Researchers have captured the rapid formation of buckyballs – carbon spheres just 1 nanometre in diameter – on film for the first time.
The footage shows how buckyballs, or C60 fullerenes, form in a new process where a thin sheet of graphite exposed to high temperatures shrinks and loses carbon atoms, says Boris Yakobson at Rice University in Houston, Texas, US.
Why am I so worked up over buckyballs? A while back I talked about how science inspires my stories and how buckyballs play a fundamental role in my novel AVATAR (previously titled RIVER OF STARS), where they’re used in a particulate radiation shield when a companion star is in flare.
I’ve been revising AVATAR lately, hence the new title and I even have a new blurb for it:
AVATAR blends post-cyberpunk espionage with the ecological and mystic themes akin to Frank Herbert’s Dune.
When dispatched to distant Ico, Kinship spy Jana Rajam is captured and forced to share her mind with the memories of a long-dead warrior queen. Once escaped, Rajam finds herself thrown between a far-reaching conspiracy to reclaim a lost golden age and a bid to control a narcotic that could enslave or liberate the Iconnu.
A queen must have a consort, and religious leader Brannon Bayne has spent a lifetime living up to the memories he carries of the ancient monarch’s renowned general. A half-breed caught between two cultures, Bayne must convince Jana to help him forge a peace before solar flares ravage the planet.
AVATAR tells the story of a spy’s redeeming mission, a revered leader’s desperate journey, and a warring planet’s only hope.
I posted the following to the B&N Bookclub Boards the other night and thought it should also appear here on my blog.
Character-driven Science Fiction uses science to explore human relationships all the time. The distinctions between Science Fiction and Science Fiction Romance are just about where the emphasis of that exploration is placed.
A couple examples to illustrate my point:
In Richard Morgan’s Hard SF ALTERED CARBON, your brain can be “downloaded” into hardware and who you are can be put into another body. This happens to the protagonist, and it’s a sticky situation when he realizes his partner was actually in love the guy who’s body he’s been using. Is she falling for the main character, or is her attraction just because he’s using her lover’s body?
Susan Grant’s HOW TO LOSE AN EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL IN 10 DAYS is about an interstellar assassin, sort of like a Universal Soldier, built to be a killing machine by stripping out his humanity. What happens when the tech is removed? Will the humanity return? Can he deal with what it means to be human, which of course includes primal needs like love?
In Chris Moriarty’s SPIN STATE, the main character is a genetic construct, meaning she was grown in a vat, a type of clone. She’s faked her identity because otherwise she would have no rights. She falls in love with an artificial intelligence who routinely borrows the bodies of volunteers in order to be mobile. Can an AI be truly sentient and love another? The book also explores sexual preference issues. It has a seven-page list of citations on quantum entanglement – it doesn’t get much harder SF than that.
In Linnea Sinclair’s GAMES OF COMMAND, one of the characters is a cyborg who started having actual feelings and rerouted his programming to continue experiencing them. If anyone finds out he could be shut down. Can he experience real human feelings and continue to live as a cyborg? Is he human enough to have a real relationship with another human being?
All of these books explore what happens to our relationships when we start putting technology into the human body. In Morgan’s and Moriarty’s books the exploration of these relationships are definitely there, but they don’t take center stage. You could strip the relationship part out of them and you’d still have a story, a one-dimensional story, but a story nonetheless. In Grant’s and Sinclair’s books, the science is the relationship and the relationship is the story. You can’t have one without the other. I loved all four of these books, but I do enjoy more the emotional satisfaction at the end of an SFR novel.
This weeks’ Danger Gal Friday is Captain Chasidah “Chaz” Bergren from Linnea Sinclair’s RITA Award Winning Science Fiction Romance Gabriel’s Ghost.
Chaz Bergren was once the Pride of the Sixth Fleet and captain of an interstellar patrol ship who often pursued smugglers like Gabriel Sullivan, but the story opens with Chaz sentenced to a penal planet after a court martial for a crime she didn’t commit. From the opening scene, Chaz breaks with stereotypes by getting herself out of her own jam: In the first few pages she kills an eight foot Takan bent on rape. From the get-go we understand Chaz is not to be taken lightly.
Sinclair writes fun space opera, but what she really excels at is intertwining a solid Science Fiction story with Romance. Chaz and Sully have a long history of cat and mouse games, and that undercurrent of attraction weaves its way into every interaction between these two characters, but it doesn’t overshadow other aspects of their personalities or the story.
Chaz is not only an excellent patrol ship captain, but an exceptional one, and also an expert in small weapons and hand-to-hand combat. When she thinks that Sully’s offer of freedom is a trap Chaz calls him on it, threatening bodily harm that isn’t a bluff. She’s been on the prison planet for three weeks at this point in the story and still maintains a calm and in control attitude. Sully isn’t there only just to rescue her, he needs her skills for a very important run.
One of the reviews on Sinclair’s web site is from Cindy Penn of the Midwest Book Review, who points out something else interesting about Chaz:
“Furthermore, I confess to a growing weakness for mature heroines who can present themselves as total equals, matching strengths and vulnerabilities to men with likewise believable and endearing characterizations.”
Chaz and Sully have different areas of expertise and they respect that in each other. Chaz isn’t out trying to prove her skills every other page, which is refreshing. No one questions her piloting abilities. Even more than that, Chaz is a sexually experienced woman, once married and divorced. Compared to the monkish life Sully has led, Chaz is in many ways much more experienced.
I don’t want to spoil what Sully’s secret is if you haven’t read this novel yet, especially since it’s fundamental to the story and to Chaz’s acceptance of him. I will say though, that on a second reading it’s fun to see all of the hints Sinclair sprinkled throughout the beginning of the novel. In hindsight, I should have guessed his secret, but it was woven in so subtly I accepted it as part of his personality. It’s delightful to see Sully acting in character throughout the novel, and perhaps that’s why when his secret is revealed it feels right. It’s a surprise, but one that grows out of the naturally unfolding story.
(#1)
I’ve seen the Thursday Thirteen meme showing up in several places, so I’m giving it a go too.
1. Alex O’Loughlin
2. Sophia Myles’ Beth Turner isn’t a damsel in distress. In fact, she’s saved O’Loughlin’s character Mick in two or three episodes now.
3. The show’s mix of angst and humor. (The ouch scene.)
4. Alex O’Loughlin
5. Jason Dohring. Never saw Veronica Mars. Now I wish I had.
6. To quote Sarah Stegall at SF SFScope: “Beth is strong, intelligent, and brave; Mick is sensitive and vulnerable and moody.”
7. The Fortress of Style that is Mick’s apartment.
8. Alex O’Loughlin
9. That I’m strangely not annoyed at Beth’s Fortress of Shabby Chic apartment.
10. Duran Duran. Just watch the second episode and you’ll understand.
11. Vampire solidarity. Rah Rah.
12. The anticipation of finding out who Josef’s sire might be. Down the road. In season two or something.
13. And oh yeah, Alex O’Loughlin
Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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This week’s Danger Gal profile is on Bree “Banzai” Maguire from Susan Grant’s novel The Legend of Banzai Maguire.
Lately I’ve been profiling great characters from movies and TV, but I’ve been ignoring some of my favorite novels. Recent conversations about the state of Science Fiction Romance/Futuristics/Romantic Science Fiction/Speculative Romance over at Linnea Sinclair’s group blog (here and here) and the eHarlequin Susan Grant Otherworldly Men forum discussion have reminded me about how some of my favorite books fall into this category. It also describes well what I write.
This is a challenging fusion of subgenres to write, but when done well the sum is better than its parts. These recent discussions outline the challenges in detail, and if you read Romance but don’t mind seeing a SciFi movie once in a while, or read Science Fiction and are looking for characters with a lot of depth and range of human emotion that includes love, then check out the links above. My only point to add is that the Romance and Science Fiction genres are not mutually exclusive. The division is not binary, but really a spectrum of emphasis as the two genres merge. This variety I think in part explains why we’ve got at least four names to describe these types of books: We’re really trying to describe where the emphasis is, on Romance, Science Fiction, or a true integration of the two.
But I’m supposed to be talking about Banzai Maguire. Publishers Weekly has predicted that:
“[T]he ‘action romance’ niche is small but growing, and high-caliber tales like this one will ensure that it continues to do so. A national advertising campaign should put Banzai on many romance readers’ wish lists, but the book also holds crossover appeal for sci-fi/fantasy fans.”
Grant herself points out characteristics of Banzai that also hold true for many other books in this category:
“The Legend of Banzai Maguire doesn’t follow the traditional plot-structure of most romance books. You don’t meet the hero in the first chapters; there are two men for whom the heroine might fall; and the book is most definitely the ‘heroine’s story.’ With boot-shaking excitement and genuine mortal terror, I’m waiting to see what reader reaction will be for this ‘genre-mutt!’”
For these reasons, I’d place The Legend of Banzai Maguire as more Science Fiction than Romance, but the Romance elements are woven tightly into the story, provide a depth it wouldn’t have if removed, and made me care even more about the characters.
So, like all the other Danger Gal Friday’s I’ve profiled, how does Banzai Maguire break stereotypes? First, her profession. Banzai is a U.S.A.F. pilot on a routine mission when she’s shot down and frozen in stasis for 170 years. Grant’s military and airline pilot experience lend a big dose of credibility to this aspect of the story. Banzai finds herself stuck in a sadly familiar misogynistic situation when a high-powered man in a tech-savvy but primitive world finds her interesting enough to want her as a favored concubine. Banzai finds a way out and as one reviewer described, she is “a strong, quick-witted heroine who can get herself out of her own jam, thank you very much (unless she’s stuck in suspended animation).”
Banzai doesn’t have to resort to using her feminine wiles to escape and even rescues U.C.E. SEAL commander Ty Armstrong, the man who set out to free her himself but was captured in the process. Armstrong is a Maguire history buff, infatuated with her disappearance as many have been with Amelia Earhart’s. At first, Armstrong has difficulty seeing the woman behind the legend, but once Ty works past this attitude and he realizes they have common goals, he falls for her.
At the end of the novel, which is the first installment of the 2176 series bookended by Grant, Banzai and Ty are a team out to uncover the ways the U.C.E. maintains its benevolent dictatorship with others who feel as they do. Banzai leaves a potential life of luxury as a world leader’s favored concubine for a much harder life to fight against tyranny.
I enjoyed the Sleeping Beauty twist when Ty revives Banzai from stasis, but wasn’t thrilled with the “mad scientist” angle as the cause. I would have preferred Banzai’s cockpit to have some kind of built-in stasis mechanism that initiated but malfunctioned. This didn’t detract from the novel overall, however, and The Legend of Banzai Maguire is a fine example of the meshing of Science Fiction with Romance, and with a kick-ass heroine to boot.
I’ve been using my brain all week in other pursuits, so that’s why my blog this week is full of fun stuff. Here’s more:
A “Chocolatessen.” Squeee! Not to mention my X-Wing and SciFi Library.
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| Your kitchen is someplace you never go, because you “have people for that.” There’s a Chocolatessen, which is rapidly becoming your favorite room of the house. Having one is also becoming a trend among your wealthy neighbors. Your master bedroom is the size of a small barn, with carpet thick enough to reach your ankles. Your study has hardback editions of every classic ever written, plus a special edition of Rich Dad, Poor Dad with the parts you ghost-authored highlighted. One of your garages holds your collection of ferraris, and is measured in acreage.
Your home also includes a guest wing and private quarters for your servants. Your guests enjoy your animatronic replica of the cantina at Mos Eisley. Outside is your hedge maze and gardens, meticulously tended by a team of world-class botanists. And, you have a pet — a doberman pincer named “Warren”. Below is a snippet of the blueprints: |
Hat tip: SciFiChick.com
Anyone who knows me will not be surprised by this:
 Buzz buzz, I am Coffee flavoured.I am popular in the workplace, even though I am often bitter. I am energetic to the point of being frenetic; buzz buzz, out of my way. I tend to overwork myself and need periods of recovery time. (If you were not Coffee you would be Chocolate: I am sweet and a little bit naughty. I am one of the few clinically proven aphrodisiacs. Sometimes I can seem a little hard, but show warmth and I soon melt.) |
