Tag Archives: Sarah Hoyt

Honoring David Drake

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Onward DrakeOnward, Drake!
Mark L. van Name, ed.
Baen Books
Hardcover, $25
ebook $9.99

There’s been a long tradition in the field of honoring outstanding authors with an anthology.  Sometimes the anthology comes after they’ve passed on, but usually the anthology is published while the authors are still with us.  Such is the case with David Drake.  He’s a giant whose works have changed the genre, and for the better I might add.  It’s good to see this tribute to him, especially as he’s still with us to appreciate it.

Onward, Drake! contains both original fiction as well as essays in honor of Drake.  There’s a pretty wide range of stuff here.  Although David Drake built his reputation with his military science fiction, particularly the Hammer’s Slammers series, he’s written in a wide variety of subgenres:  epic fantasy, dark fantasy and horror, space opera, and humor.  As if that weren’t enough, he’s also been an editor and historian of the field with a great appreciation of the pulp writers.  I’ve enjoyed pretty much everything I’ve read by him

The highlights of the anthology are two new stories by Drake himself.  Continue reading →

Here, Kid, Your First Sample is Free: A Review of Shattered Shields

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Layout 1Shattered Shields
Jennifer Brozak and Bryan Thomas Schmidt, ed.
Baen Books
Trade paper, $15.00
ebook $8.99 Kindle Nook Baen

In case you’re wondering why I titled this post the way I did, it’s because this book is a perfect gateway drug into heroic fantasy.  All of the stories are well written and fast-moving, and with the exception of a couple that simply weren’t to my taste, I enjoyed every single one of them.  I’d like to thank Baen Books for the review copy.

There are seventeen stories here, so I’m not going to give a summary of each one.  I’m gong to focus on the ones that stood out to me.  Those of you who’ve read my reviews for a while know how my tastes stack up against yours, so even if we don’t always like the same things, you’ll get a good idea of what to expect from Shattered Shields.  Continue reading →

Gemmell vs. Gernsback

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_41941602_gemmellrex_203300 I was indulging one of my vices (reading other people’s blogs, Sarah Hoyt’s in this case) and noticed in the comments a quote from a different blog.  That particular quote had some disparaging thing to say about the Gemmell Awards.  I’m not going to bother linking to the quoted blog because I’m not directly responding to the argument there, which concerned the number of white male authors nominated for awards, specifically the Hugos.  I will quote the relevant passage, because it’s representative of a pretty common attitude.  It also kicked off a train of thought that should be addressed.  Namely, the how relevant the Hugos are compared to the Gemmells.

The Gemmell Awards are named after David Gemmell and focus on heroic fantasy.  The Hugo Awards are named in honor of Hugo Gernsback, who published the first magazine devoted entirely to science fiction, Amazing Stories.  The Gemmell Awards specialize in heroic fantasy, while the Hugos encompass the entire sff field.

Hugo Gernsback (1884–1967) magazine publisher

Huog Gernsback

Here’s the quote:

“Why not just let the works speak for themselves?”

The issue is that when we let the works speak for themselves, we wind up with the Gemmell Awards: 70,000 votes (several orders of magnitudes greater than the Hugos), and every single nominee for Best Novel is a White Dude.  Every best debut novel is a dude, most of them white.

Of course these comments are totally bogus.  I’ll explain why in a second.  But it got me to thinking, always a dangerous thing.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, in addition to the shortlist for the Gemmell Awards, the shortlist for  the Hugo Awards, was announced recently.  And the internet has been having a major hissy fit ever since.

Continue reading →