Review: Robots: The Recent AI

This is another of those thick Prime Books anthologies (just over 400 pages) and has some big names in it - Elizabeth Bear, Ian McDonald, Catherynne M. Valente, etc.

Although the title is "Robots" not all of the stories are about what we would consider robots. For example, you could make a case for the houses in Mark Pantoja's story by the same name, but Metta in "Kiss Me Twice" is a sessile AI who's hands and eyes are the police officers she works with.

All of the stories in this collection were good. "Kiss Me Twice" by Mary Robinette Kowal is probably my favorite - and includes an intriguing answer to the question of "is an artificial intelligence a person" that says as much about today's politics as her future. Ian McDonald knocked it out of the park again with "The Djinn's Wife" - if you are interested in stories that step out of our western mindset and paradigm, take every trip to India this man offers.

My least favorite? Catherynne M. Valente's "Silently and Very Fast." I've never been fond of stories that are told in snippets with sub stories. It's a shame, I normally quite like Valente, but this one didn't do it for me. I also found "Alternate Girl's Expatriate Life" by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz less than satisfying.

Overall, though, this is a good anthology - and the variety of the stories is sufficient to keep one from really noticing how thick it is.

Four stars.

(Another one I picked up at Balticon)

Michael Flynn...

...eat your heart out.

SpaceX's grasshopper did a 100 foot "leap." Okay, it's not quite the same vehicle as Flynn's "planks" (which were SSTO), but it flies and lands in a very similar way.

I love it when predictions come true. Especially ones made by cool people.

Doing Things You Never Thought You Could

I promised videographic evidence. It's coming. Well, half of it is. Unfortunately, the second video got corrupted and while the person who took it is *trying* to resurrect it, no promises.

I have a good friend, +Tim Ballew, who is one of those guys who likes to do crazy physical things like, you know, hiking up mountains, white water rafting, you name it, he's tried it.

I also firmly believe in trying any new experience I'm offered at least once. Yeah, these two things came together. Tim somehow managed to talk me into going to trapeze school.

Trapeze school. This is the girl who's strongest memories of her brief foray into scouting were being mocked in Brownies for not being able to do a cartwheel - no matter how hard I tried, I just could never do it. The girl who was yelled at by gym instructors because any idiot should be able to walk along a balance beam. You know, just walk, no tricks, nothing, without falling off. It's not that I "don't" do gymnastics. It's that I can't. I am no GOOD at that stuff.

But. Somehow I got talked into it. Here's what happened the first time I tried it.

Yeah. Much mid-air flailing. Go ahead, laugh. I did. All I was trying to do was trapeze 101, which is to bring your knees up and hook them over the bar. It's easy. Just not for always-picked-last-in-gym-class girl. Except that I realized.

The only thing making me no good at this was me. All I had to do was get out of my own way...and by the end of the class I could do it. (I wish I could show you, but that's the one that got eaten by gremlins).

Moral? If you know you can't do something but haven't tried it - try it. You never know. You might be wrong. And if you aren't wrong, then you haven't lost anything. Goes for writing. Goes for art. Goes for life.

(I will note that my abs were sore for days, though!)

(Video taken by Tim Ballew)

Friday Update

Two sales this week.

Simian Publishing purchased "For The Children for their Future Embodied anthology - release date to be determined.

Edwin E. Smith Publishing purchased "The Locket" (one of my few non-genre stories) to run in Edwin E. Smith's Quarterly Magazine, most likely in September.

Review: Man of Steel

1. Jonathan. I hated their portrayal of Jonathan Kent. I didn't have as much of a problem with the "Maybe" scene as some did, but Jonathan Kent is an open-hearted man and Clark's real father. The Jonathan Kent I know is not cold, is not ruthless, would not admit to not being Clark's dad even if Clark said he wasn't in a teenaged moment. He absolutely wouldn't ask Clark to do what he did. Ever.

2. Martha. Have we ever had a really good screen Martha? The one in Lois & Clark wasn't bad, but it seems she's a hard character to get right. The one in this movie simply killed my suspension of disbelief. I could not imagine somebody as weak as her running the farm without either Jonathan OR Clark to help her.

3. To be honest, my dearly beloved had a point. This movie had what I call the "movie problem." Or, as I characterized it at dinner, "This is the Superman run DC wouldn't give the writers." I'd actually like to see the Director's Cut to see if it helps, but there was a bit of a sense of watching a "Highlight reel" caused by trying to get too much into a movie. Nolan and Goyer's prior work has not had this problem, but I wonder if there was a weird intersection between Nolan's often non-linear style and Snyder's tendency towards choppy imagery and camera work.

4. They do the classic Kid Clark in a cape scene. When Superman is clearly the only hero and nobody wears a red cape. Sigh.

5. Nolan and Snyder. You do not have the right to change Kryptonian female naming convention. Even if it is ridiculously patriarchal for an advanced society. And if you must change it, do it consistently...why do we have Lara Lor-Van and then Faora-Ul?

6. Lara Jor-El, or Lor-Van as she was credited for some reason, was too...housewifey...to be a leading scientist in her own right.

7. Pete Ross ends up working at iHop? Give me a break. Way to turn a cool character into a total loser.

8. No Jimmy. No Jimmy Olsen.

So, what made me like it.

1. What set this movie apart, for better or worse, from other Superman movies was its unashamed echoing of the character's pulp roots. This is the closest Superman movie ever to being a planetary romance. We see Jor-El flying across Krypton on a creature that clearly originated on Barsoom, the terraforming device the Kryptonians use has three legs, there's even a nod to the original explanation for Superman's powers. And I loved all of that. I'm a huge fan of pulp in its true form, and it was nice to have a reminder that supers comes out of pulp.

2. Henry Cavill was awesome. He was really awesome. I think he carried the movie through its flaws. He's the first Superman since Christopher Reeve to catch the humor at the edge of the character, particularly at the end.

3. Antje Traue as Faora-Ul. For those who don't know, this IS the same character as Ursa (DC changed the name, perhaps because they wanted something less "Earth"). She. Was. Awesome. She wasn't the same Ursa Sarah Douglas played in Superman II. Sarah Douglas' Ursa was arrogant and cold. She used Zod and he her and they both knew it. Antje's was the loyal lieutenant, cold, ruthless, the perfect soldier, but with just that slightest edge of being in love with Zod even though she could never act on it. I like both approaches to the character equally. And she was visually perfect.

So...

My abs are whining at me and I don't think my knees want anything more to do with me. Full report on why is waiting on getting my paws on videographic evidence (it exists, it's just in somebody else's phone).

Other than that, I'm working mostly on stuff for clients right now, but I'm hoping there will be some good news soon. Hoping.

Summer.

It's definitely summer. It's been "Should I leave the house without Gatorade" weather alternating with "Better not leave the house without rain gear." Or sometimes not alternating.

Summer tends to be a time to slow down, but I certainly haven't been doing that. I'm still working pretty hard (although I will be on vacation for a good chunk of August - actual vacation, no net access, nothing. I'll post exact dates closer to the time).

Still, there IS something about the heat that tends to force one to relax. Or flee. (Why, yes, I do plan on going somewhere colder). It's unavoidable. You can't make an effort when you're focused on staying cool and the heat across the country is ridiculous right now. I'm glad I'm not in California...

Okay. So I just wasted an entire blog post talking about the weather. Ah well.