Various Updates

Tiny Supers, the new setting for the TinyD6 Rules Set is now available.

I contributed one of the "micro-verses" to the setting - you can use them with TinyD6 or easily convert them to any other system.

Also...I am leaving Broad Universe. The organization no longer represents my values and the current leadership is acting, in my opinion, in ways that I consider inappropriate.

I am not going to go into details just yet, because some people have already been banned for doing so and I am tying up loose ends, but I no longer feel that Broad Universe is a safe space for me.

AwesomeCon Roundup

I spent most of the con "chained" to my table. My badge even read "Exhibit," not "Exhibitor," although that may also have been the furries.

It was still fun, though.

We're still arguing about the winner for Costume In Poorest Taste.

In my opinion, it's Porg Chef Chewbacca, but my friend thinks it was Bucky Barnes dressed as a Playboy Bunny.

Best costume, I'm leaning towards Doc Ock.

Most popular single costume was probably the Thirteenth Doctor, with Spider-Gwen second and Miles Morales third.

The heterosexual couples costume of the con was Daenerys and Jon Snow.

The most DC thing: Selective Service having a booth (and giving out Starburst candy, which is only funny to people who were at SPX a few years ago)...and down the aisle somebody was selling binders.

(By the way, can we have more people selling binders at cons? Might get some of the female crossplayers to stop with the ace bandages...yes, it's actually an issue).

Lots, and lots, and lots of assorted spiders, including, yes, all of the Into the Spider-Verse heroes. (Nobody was actually dressed as Spider-Ham that I saw, but I'm counting the Spider-Noir with the plus pig on his shoulder).

It's always interesting to see the costume trends and what is popular.

Oh, and then there was the moment of "That nondescript white guy looks vaguely like John Barrowman. Actually, he looks a lot like John Barrowman. Wait..."

(Yes, it was John Barrowman, sneaking around the con in plain clothes. No, he didn't buy a book).

AwesomeCon DC

I will be at AwesomeCon DC this week. You can find me at the Rantings of a Wandering Mind booth along with Joab Steiglitz (O-09 in Artists' Alley).

I will have copies of all books available, alongside Steiglitz's amazing reimagined pulp adventure.

Candy (while stocks last) and conversation are free.

Marsquake

So, InSight has detected what appears to be a Marsquake.

Mars is much less active than Earth. The detected quake was somewhere between 1 and 2 on the Richter scale (for reference, people generally don't notice anything less than 2.5)

We aren't actually sure whether this is evidence Mars is still seismically active, as it could also have been caused by an unnoticed small meteor strike. We'll know more if InSight happens to feel more marsquakes. But this is the first time we've detected anything resembling seismic activity on Mars, so...

Fun With CRISPR

Don't get me wrong, I think we should do a lot more testing before using CRISPR in humans.

But scientists in the lab are having a lot of fun. They're using it to:
Study the brains of creatures without skulls by making their neurons light up
Study hive insects, specifically raider ants

Knocking out genes tells us how genes affect behavior in animals, especially simpler ones, and teaches us more about how evolution works.

So...

...what are you planning on doing this summer for the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.

If you're in DC, the Smithsonian is doing a five day celebration (starting on the 50th anniversary of the crew's departure from Earth) when they'll bring artifacts out of storage, have scientists and historians to answer questions, and on the 20th they'll keep the museum open until 2am so people can party at the exact time of the landing.

I have to admit I'm somewhat tempted...

Gene Wolfe: May 7, 1931 - April 14, 2019

I'm going to make a confession here.

I never enjoyed the work of Gene Wolfe. There was just something about his style that grated on me. However, he was a major influence on writers who's work I do enjoy, most noticeably fabulist Neil Gaiman and the wonderful Michael Swanwick. (No, Michael, I'm not buttering you up).

Like most Grand Masters he was named as much for his influence on the community as for his own work. My biggest regret is not getting to meet him, because by all accounts he was as amazing as a man as he was a writer.

Review: Revenger by Alastair Reynolds (Unavoidable spoilers)

I've always been fond of Alastair Reynolds despite his flaws as a writer (also, Reynolds, please stop with the Afro-Futurism, it doesn't look good when you're getting massive advances while black writers struggle).

His latest, Revenger, is...rather different from anything he's written before. This is not a bad thing; it's a good book, although the Pern style conlang isn't done as much by modern writers and may throw off some readers (lungstuff for air is totally something McCaffrey would have done).

Now, I can't review this one without spoilers, so...don't read past this if you don't like spoilers.





















































But the real way in which Revenger differs: It's not science fiction.

But what? What do you mean not science fiction? It's about starships, right.

No, it's about sunjammers, which are solar wind sailing ships. Reynolds postulates a civilization where the fastest way to travel within a solar system is by sailing and ion drives are used as auxiliaries for docking.

The world of Revenger is one in which an abandoned series of colonies, which is similar to the Glitter Band (and may be the Glitter Band, although I have another theory) has now been occupied by "monkeys."

Which may or may not be human.

In fact, the biggest flaw in this book relates to the question of whether monkeys are, or are an offshoot of, homo sapiens almost directly.

Reynolds can't do aliens.

The actual "alien" species, as in alien to the MC, are so bland that you could insert pretty much any less-than-savory species and the story would not change one iota. Stick in the Ferengi, for example. Same story.

The monkeys are so ambiguous as to what they are as to come over as Star Trek style guys in suits.

Prior to this, Reynolds has written around aliens. They don't really exist in his other work, or if they do they're a Deux Ex Machina (Century Rain). And either he needs to sit down with some Vinge books or he needs to go back to writing around aliens. I say this as a fan - Reynolds is a good writer and based off of our brief meeting a good person - but he writes aliens even worse than Heinlein wrote women.

The MC is a typical Reynolds MC, a bit of a jerk. Revenger is not being marketed as a YA novel, but it could be, and if this was a first novel, likely it would be. The MC's arc is pure coming of age at its best, and I suspect younger readers will relate very well to Fura. Not too young, due to the violence in the books, but I strongly recommend this book to 15 to 17 year olds who are tired of all of the books marketed at them having romances (or, worse, love triangles).

And the story itself?

The story itself could be set in the Caribbean with no differences. The technology of the baubles (a term he stole, ironically, from Vinge) is really the only science that is integral enough to pass the Schmidt test. It's important in that it limits how long the treasure hunters can spend on their looting.

But sunjammers are sailing ships in space and they felt to me more like ether ships than anything that belongs in true science fiction.

Revenger is a space pirate story set after multiple apocalypses, and as that it works very well, but it is far more Star Wars than Star Trek. (Somebody even loses a hand). It is space fantasy, not science fiction.

The direction is unsurprising after the brilliant Terminal World, but it goes a lot further away from science fiction than that work.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, even if the conlang was a tiny bit grating at times. But the central flaw turned what could have been a deft subversion a la Terminal World into an uncomfortable ambiguity that made the ending more satisfying.

I def. recommend, though. Also, this book is a Romance Free Zone, which I know a lot of people are looking for. Especially the older teenagers who will likely enjoy the strong female protagonist, sailing ship feel, and the MCs transformation from child to adult.

Analyzing the Star Wars IX Trailer

This was supposed to be yesterday's post.

You can all understand why it wasn't.

The two minute teaser shows us several things:

1. Rey with a white lightsaber. Jedi lightsabers are traditionally blue or green. In extended canon, white lightsabers were used by Ahsoka Tano in Star Wars Rebel to indicate that she was neither Jedi nor Sith. This is a very, very clear indicator that Rey is acting as neither Jedi nor Sith. Does this imply that the Jedi Order itself is gone, defunct, obsolete - and to be replaced by something new? Luke was the last Jedi. Rey...is something else. I've been liking this idea since Luke's "The Jedi must end" line. The destruction of the library also points to it. The Jedi Order is flawed, too deeply so to be allowed to survive.
2. Running with a lightsaber looks goofy. Hasn't your...oh wait, I guess Rey's mother didn't get the chance to tell her not to run with scissors.
3. John Boyega didn't change his hair back from Pacific Rim 2. Which is fine, Finn needed a post Stormtrooper hairdo, but I'm apparently very shallow because it was the first thing I noticed.
4. Lando Calrissian makes an appearance.
5. Leia makes an appearance. I may cry. (I almost did for the Stan Lee tribute at the start of Captain Marvel. I'm horrible for crying over dead celebrities).
6. Is that actually Palpatine?

My request: Please don't redeem Kylo. He had his redemption arc. He said no. Undoing that subversion would weaken The Last Jedi.

But he lied about Rey's parents.

Or did he?

That white lightsaber, though.

Here's a really out of the box thought.

Anakin was never the child of the prophecy. The Jedi thinking he was was what brought them down.

The child of the prophecy was Rey all along.

(This would fit a very common trope of "You were looking for a boy" which I admit I shamelessly used in Daughter of Fire).

Notre Dame, Art, Losses

As some of you may know: My degree is in archaeology.

I place a very high value on the past, but I also see it as a living thing, ever changing and always in flux.

Which means I have a few feelings and things to say about the Notre Dame fire.

First of all, I cried. But there's something else I cried for too, something far worse which was not mentioned as much on mainstream media. I'll talk about that a bit later.

I'd rather start by saying this:

The Notre Dame fire was not nearly as terrible as it looked. My mother had a bucket goal of seeing every Medieval great church in the UK. We didn't actually do it, but at an impressionable age I was dragged around places like York Minster, Llandaff with its beautiful "flying" screen. I was also dragged to a couple of modern great churches; most particularly the dueling cathedrals of Liverpool.

When I was eleven years old, the roof of York Minster caught fire. A lightning strike set fire to the roof and wooden vault of the south transept three days after the Archbishop commented that he questioned the resurrection of Christ. (Yes, there were jokes about smiting. Even in 1984 when we didn't have social media yet. If it had happened now, there would be memes. I can see them in my head).

They had to sacrifice the roof to save the building. Four years later, it was rebuilt. You now can't tell one transept roof from the other unless you use the convenient mirrors to study the art in the vault, at which point you might realize the carved bosses in the south transept were carved in...the 1980s. They didn't try to slavishly copy the originals.

This is York Minster. The transept pointing to us is the south one with...oh hello rose window. That rose window was seriously damaged in the fire and had to be repaired. York Minster (it's a cathedral, despite the name) was built over 250 years between 1220 and 1472. It's actually not as old as Notre Dame despite the similar layout. Note what it does not have. Ya know. A spire.

The fire, combined with the knowledge I was picking up from, you know, being dragged to all of those churches, affected my reaction to Notre Dame.

My first thought "Well, the spire is gone."

Here's the thing. Wooden spires are (or at least were, I'll talk about that later in what's turning into a full-blown essay) rather a bad idea. There aren't many left and that's because a lot of them, well. Burned. Notre Dame's spire was built in the 19th century when they should have, ya know, known better about wooden spires. Blame Victor Hugo.

They had no chance of saving the spire. They had very little chance of saving the roof. But as I followed it and looked at the videos I could tell what they may never admit:

They sacrificed the roof to save the building.

The fire looked terrible, especially from above. Mass media claimed multiple times that the building was at best gutted, at worse destroyed. And yes, there was a bit of a concern for a while.

But:

This is the current state of the sanctuary of Notre Dame. I saw another picture of the nave that I now can't find that showed intact pews and racks of hymnals, and that much of the vault of the nave was intact (whether it can be saved or will have to be replaced is unclear, but the stone vault appears to have protected much of the interior.

Of the holy items, some were in the fireproof sacristy, which did its job. Sacristies are designed to be fireproof. Others were in use at the time - Mass was being celebrated when the alarm went off - and were safely evacuated from the building by the celebrants. Firefighters retrieved other artifacts and works of art during the fire. One firefighter was seriously injured, and I suspect they were engaged in that operation. They have not been named, but are now out of danger.

All three of the iconic rose windows survived, although one may have to be temporarily removed from the wall so its surround can be fixed. (Yes, there was a report one was destroyed. It proved inaccurate).

The structure is intact.

Notre Dame will rise again.

And, most importantly of all, nobody died.

There have been great losses. The original roof timbers are irreplaceable, although we have the data needed to rebuild the roof structure as it was. The spire is, of course, gone, and a decision will have to be made on how to replace it. (Whether might be a question, but it is such an iconic landmark I doubt they will not do so). They haven't worked out which of the gargoyles survived yet and they may have lost a number of paintings to water damage.

But most of it was saved.

Which brings me to the other great cultural loss I mentioned. On September 2, 2018, the National Museum of Brazil was gutted by fire.

It was not as well reported in mainstream media, probably because it was in Brazil, but losses included the last recordings of more than one dead indigenous language. Most of the artifacts were lost. Researchers and curators risked their lives to retrieve what they could. Students lost documents they were working on.

It was a museum every bit as important as the British Museum, but because it was in Brazil, many people slid past.

I am not saying the damage to Notre Dame is not a loss, but it is not the worst of losses and much was saved due to the bravery and quick thinking of firefighters and civilians alike.

In a few years, people will walk through Notre Dame again and while there will be signs of the fire, the beauty of the building will be preserved where possible, restored where not and changed where appropriate.

That spire, for example? Last year an American company came up with a flame retardant treatment for wood that makes it suitable for use in high rise cladding. One has to think: Could that be what we use to rebuild the roof and spire so it will last another 800 years...with no risk of fire?

What lessons can we take:

1. Wooden spires are a bad idea.

2. Good fire prevention systems are vital. The Brazilian museum was days away from receiving a new fire control system...the one it had was just too old.

3. Buildings are living things.

And one final reminder to those reading this who may be Christian, a reminder from my own Christian upbringing.

A church is not a building.

A church is the people.

Review: Salvation by Peter F. Hamilton

I've always had slightly mixed feelings about Peter F. Hamilton.

Technically, Salvation is, emphatically, one of his better works. He has improved as a writer, and it very much shows. The book has very solid worldbuilding, even if I disagree with a couple of his decisions. It is well written, and the characters are interesting.

Unfortunately, it is also rather flawed.

The first, and biggest problem, is that Salvation, which weighs in at a hefty 564 pages, is being marketed as a novel.

It isn't.

Salvation is a series of linked shorter pieces, not presented in chronological order, all of which are excellent, but it is not a true novel. It should probably be marketed as a mosaic. This doesn't make it bad, but it does make it a little jarring if you are expecting one, overall, coherent story. To make it worse, it's not clear when the calendar changes, which makes the timeline a bit uncertain in places.

It's still enjoyable.

The second problem was the one which actually affected my enjoyment. Bluntly, I ended up wanting to set Marc Okrand on Hamilton.

Conlang is a great way to set things in the future, but I'm sorry, the word "taxez" and "cabez" for self driving taxis and...I believe cabez were rickshaws. I just don't see it. We'd still use taxi. Just the same as a pocket computer is a phone in English and probably will be. The repeated use of the ez ending for self propelled stuff threw me out of the story more than once. Your mileage may vary - it may not bother you at all, but it was nails on a chalkboard to me.

(As another issue. I don't buy that people would completely stop taking road trips just because teleportation portals become cheap and easy. People like to journey for the sake of it, and that's basic to human nature, IMO. Sure, you wouldn't commute, but driving old Route 66? It would still be a thing. It's a smaller issue, but...)

I'm not saying I don't recommend this book. I do. But I couldn't give it as many stars as I would have liked due to the issues with the format and conlang.

SPOILER stuff.





















Salvation is much more of an alien conspiracy theory/invasion novel than the blurb reveals. There is a  deft use of unreliable narrator - in that the narrator himself doesn't know he's not who he claims to be. And while it is very obvious the Olyix are evil (The main theme of the book is "Don't trust fanatics"), the exact nature of their evil is well hidden.

The restoration of binary humanity after getting rid of gender to fight a war sat ill with me. I don't think Hamilton intended to be sexist against men, but he managed it. Oops.

This is how...

...we get Planet of the Apes.

Go home, China, you're drunk.

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/4/12/18306867/china-genetics-monkey-brain-intelligence

(This is China putting human brain development genes in monkeys. We All Watched Those Movies And We Know How They End).

(In fact, Return gave me nightmares for weeks. Ahem)

Want to...

...help name an itty bitty...well, actually, it's the largest KBO we've found so far not to have a name.

In order to avoid Boaty McBoatface, the poll is limited to the three names the scientists have narrowed it down to: Gonggong (A Chinese water god), Holle (A European winter goddess associated with spinning) and Vili (one of Odin's brothers).

So, get over there and vote.

We did it

We photographed a black hole.

Now, by definition, you can't see a black hole. As no light can escape the singularity, it would just appear to be dark against the dark background of space.

However, you can locate black holes by various means.

If they pass through a cloud, you can see where they have pulled matter into itself. If one goes too close to a star. This is detected by X-rays.

Which means that what we have actually photographed is matter orbiting the black hole.

It looks like this:

Note that this is a false color image - the actual light being emitted is wavelengths our eyes can't see.

You can see the black hole as an absence within its "halo."

The researchers chose a large target. This is the supermassive black hole at the center of Messier 87, a large galaxy. Black holes in the center of galaxies act as kind of gravitic anchors, holding them together. This includes our own galaxy.

It's kind of pretty.

It's also kind of scary...

Vonda McIntyre

I'm late on this one because I had so much to post about.

Vonda N. McIntyre, who was a leading feminist author and mentor to many younger women, died at the age of 70 last week.

For me personally, I mostly knew her through her Star Trek novels rather than her original work.

But what was most important was that she was always encouraging and always passing things forward. Always mentoring younger writers.

And she was a dang good writer.

RavenCon Roundup

It was a great con. (However, pro tip, don't come out of your room party to offer people booze. At least not without paying attention to make sure it wasn't a hotel employee...)

Highlights were the panel on clothing and characterization, a topic I haven't seen well addressed before, and Christopher Weuse's wonderful presentation on exactly how the command protocols work in a naval strike force.

(Hint: Battlestar Galactica has it mostly right).

I spent a good amount of the weekend drawing together research so I can (soon) start the second draft of Arana and fix some of the stuff I got wrong while just trying to get the story down.

RavenCon

Heading out for RavenCon shortly (Train times got less convenient this year. A lot less convenient. Guess who's leaving Williamsburg at 5:42am on Monday).

I'll be taking part in the Broad Universe RFR at 3pm on Saturday, but am otherwise not on programming this year. (This does mean no books, but if you already have unsigned copies, feel free to track me down).

So, I'll probably be in the science room a fair bit of the time because I gotta get in the research ;).

I did a thing

Instead of a post today, check out this article on Re:Fiction:

Getting Somebody Else's Town Right - Researching Settings for Your Writing.

Hugo Nominations 2019

Yup, they're out.

Best Novel

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
Record of a Spaceborn Few, by Becky Chambers
Revenant Gun, by Yoon Ha Lee
Space Opera, by Catherynne M. Valente
Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik
Trail of Lightning, by Rebecca Roanhorse

Given my limited time, the only one I've actually read is Spinning Silver. I have automatic hopes for the Roanhorse book, although I'm sure it will not be an easy read for white folk, given her record...

Best Novella

Artificial Condition, by Martha Wells - another of those robot novels
Beneath the Sugar Sky, by Seanan McGuire
Binti: The Night Masquerade, by Nnedi Okorafor - I really wish I could like the Binti novellas more
The  Black God's Drums, by P. Djeli Clark
Gods, Monsters and the Lucky Peach, by Kelly Robson
The Tea Monster and the Detective, by Aliette de Bodard

Best Novelette
If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again by Zen Cho
The  Last Banquet of Temporal Confections, by Tina Connolly. Love the title.
Nine Last Days on Planet Earth, by Daryl Gregory.
The Only Harmless Great Thing, by Brooke Bolander.
The Thing About Ghost Stories, by Naomi Kritzer
When We Were Starless, by Simone Heller

Best Short Story
The Court Magician, by Sarah Pinsker. Yay Sarah!
The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society, by T. Kingfisher.
The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington, by P. Djeli Clark. Methinks no punches pulled by that title
STET, by Sarah Gailey
The Tale of the Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters, and the Prince Who Was Made of Meat, by Brooke Bolander.
A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies, by Alix E. Harrow

Best Series
The Centenal Cycle, by Malka Older
The Laundry Files, by Charles Stross. Why not sooner
Machineries of Empire, by Yoon Ha Lee.
The October Daye Series, by Seanan McGuire. Again?
The Universe of Xuya, by Aliette de Bodard
Wayfarers, bu Becky Chambers

Best Related Work
Archive of Our Own - I knew there was a campaign. Some arguments about eligibility, but...Ao3 has done so much.
Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction, by Alec Nevala-Lee. Nevala-Lee does good work.
The Hobbit Duology, written and edited by Lindsay Ellis and Angelina Meehan. A documentary. Woot for different formats.
An Informal History of the Hugos, by Jo Walton. Meta.
www.mexicanxinitiative.com: The Mexicanx Initiative Experience at Worldcon 76 by Julia Rios, Libia Brenda, Pablo Defendini, John Picaco
Ursula K. LeGun: Conversations on Writing, by Ursula K. LeGuin and David Naimon. She's dead, but let's try and give her another Hugo anyway ;)

Best Graphic Story
Abbott, by Saladin Ahmed, Sami Kivela, Jason Wordie and Jim Campbell. Ahmed just took over Ms Marvel and while I haven't read this, I have heard nothing but good about him.
Black Panther: Long Live The King by Nnedi Okorafor, Aaron Covington, Andre Lima Araujo, Mario Del Pennino, and Tana Ford
Monstress, Volume 3: Haven by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda. I can't quite get into Monstress
On a Sunbeam, by Tillie Walden.
Paper Girls, Volume 4, by Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chang, Matt Wilson and Jared K. Fletcher. Not my favorite of Vaughan's work, but it's popular.
Saga, Volume 9, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. May not be that much of Saga to go.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
Annihilation - meh
Avengers: Infinity War - meh. I enjoyed it, but big crossover problems are even worse in a movie.
Black Panther - Of course
A Quiet Place - Too horror for me
Sorry to Bother You - First I've heard of it, may want to track it down.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Leaning towards Spider-Verse for #1 because of the innovative and beautiful animation.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
The Expanse: Abaddon's Gate - Hrm.
Doctor Who: Demons of the Punjab - Not the ep I picked.
Dirty Computer
The Good Place: Janet(s)
Doctor Who: Rosa - Also not the ep I picked.

Best Editor, Short Form
Neil Clarke
Gardner Dozois
Lee Harris
Julia Rose
Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damien Thomas
E. Catherine Tobler

Have a vague feeling this one's going to go to the ghost, but the Thomases and Neil deserve it highly too.

Best Editor, Long Form
Sheila E. Gilbert
Anne Lesley Groell
Beth Meacham
Diana Pho
Gillian Redfearn
Nava Wolfe

Best Professional Artist
Galen Dara
Jaime Jones
Victo Ngai
John Picacio
Yuko Shimizu
Charles Vess

Best Semiprozine
Beneath Ceaseless Skies
Fireside Magazine
FIYAH
Shimmer
Strange Horizons
Uncanny Magazine

Pretty much the usual suspects except with Shimmer instead of Daily Science Fiction.

Best Fanzine
Galactic Journey
Journey Planet
Lady Business
Nerds of a Feather
Quick Sip Reviews
Rocket Stack Rank

Nice to see ONE new zine here.

Best Fancast
Be the Serpent
The Coode Street Podcast
Fangirl Happy Hour
Galactic Suburbia
Our Opinions Are Correct
The Skiffy and Fanty Show

Betting Mur got nominated again and turned it down now she's won.

Best Fan Writer
Foz Meadows
James Davis Nicoll
Charles Payseur
Elsa Sjunneson-Henry
Alasdair Stuart
Bogi Takacs

Best Fan Artist
Sara Felix
Grace P. Fong
Meg Frank
Ariela Housman
Likhain
Spring Schoenhuth

Best Art Book
This is a single year category
The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition
Daydreamer's Journey: The Art of Julie Dillon (self-published...it can be done)
Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History
Spectrum 25: The Best in Contemporary Fatastic Art
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - The Art of the Movie
Tolkein: Maker of Middle-Earth

Lodestar Award
Please let this not contain something as dreadful as one of last year's offerings
The Belles, by Dhonielle Clayton
Children of Blood and Bone, by Tomi Adeyemi
The Cruel Prince, by Holly Black
Dread Nation, by Justina Ireland
The Invasion, by Peadar O'Guilin
Tess of the Road, by Rachel Hartman

John W. Campbell Award
Katherine Arden
S.A. Chakraborty
R.F. Kuang
Jeannette Ng
Vina Jie-Min Prasad
Rivers Solomon

Rooting for Chakraborty here - good writer and awesome person.

What, exactly will the MCU do with the X-Men?

So, Marvel has the X-Men back for Marvel Studios.

But there's a problem.

The entire MCU timeline has been planned and designed to work around not having them. The Fantastic Four are less of a challenge - do another prequel movie a la Captain Marvel, then have them get lost in the multiverse until the current time. Homecoming already gave us a shot of the Baxter Building.

(Of course, the side question there, is whether the MCU can, in fact, break the Fantastic Four movie jinx. If anyone can...)

The X-Men are an entire other matter. We have already rewritten Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver to not be mutants and replaced the mutants with the Inhumans in pretty much every other way.

If there have been X-Men all along, the big question is: What have they been doing?

Short of using the Infinity Stones to rewrite reality, there is no solid answer.

Marvel will be keeping Deadpool off in its own continuity, and the rumors indicate the upcoming X-23 movie will also be in that continuity, placing Logan firmly there (as was hinted at in Deadpool 2). It's likely that genre risks such as superhero horror movies will be in this studio, marketed as adult movies and mostly R-rated.

But that doesn't answer the question of how you introduce Magneto and Xavier into an established world without retcons or ruining their back stories. (Magneto's age is an easy fix. He's been de-aged in the comics before).

Or doing some kind of Crisis like thing, but that's far too much of a DC schtick.

Thoughts?