"The Failure mode of Clever is 'Asshole'." -John Scalzi
Apropos of sartorias's post on con programming and my previous post on critical discourse, I wanted to (briefly) talk about common ways that panels can fall apart, and then dig into why they rarely achieve a level of discourse beyond that of an undergraduate seminar.

(Also, Scalzi's point is pithy but ( Read more... )

So there's been a lot of nattering about reviews and people being demanding of authors on the nerdier end of the internets lately (and by lately I mean in the last N months, not yesterday). And I think that some important things are getting lost amidst the declarations that George R. R. Martin is not your bitch (PS: he's not, nor is any other ( Read more... )

So I recently (foolishly!) posted something on Facebook about how maybe books that purport to teach you to do a particular thing should probably be evaluated by people who actually do that particular thing professionally instead of enthusiastic amateurs. The usual level of Facebook discourse was achieved swiftly thereafter, but one of the things ( Read more... )

Books I liked first, then me being cranky about Isle of the Dead, and *really* cranky about The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.

( 3 Marie Brennan books )