The Tor/Macmillian boycott is on.
Long story short, for those that don’t normally follow such things, is that several high-ranking people at Tor books, one of the big names in science fiction / fantasy publishing, said some very nasty things about their conservative / libertarian customers, and even some of their own authors. They were asked to apologize, and the corporations were asked to enforce their own code of conduct. Some general non-apology apologies and patently insincere disclaimers were trotted forth, but nothing really was done by the corporations. The offending people, Irene Gallo, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, his wife Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Moshe Feder, and author John Scalzi, are still employed and have not even been formally or publicly reprimanded. In other words, the employer tacitly endorses their employees saying things like referring to their own authors works as “bad-to-reprehensible,” and calling the author’s supporters “extreme right-wing to neo-nazi”.
Gee, I can just feel the love from here. Details at Vox’s blog, Peter Grant’s place, Hoyt’s, and many other places in the SF/F blog-o-sphere. So, if you like Tor SF, keep reading, but but use the library. If you think you just must buy your favorite Tor author, buy used and hit their tip-jar. Or, check out competing publishers like Baen or Castalia House, which don’t treat their authors and fan base like crap.
I got here from File 770 and decided to buy your book. Could have read for free. It is strange done in script style but interesting so far. I am 15 % in. So you got sale.
Thanks. I’m just a tiny little footnote in the whole SJW / Tor / Hugo related kerfuffles, but it is interesting to watch.
Yeah, the book’s style is not the typical thing, but most people seem to be able to deal with it OK, some say they love it (fast, easy, really clear who’s talking, no whiny internal reflections, etc) some people really hate it. Eh, it’s the story that counts, IMHO. Let me know what you think when you finish. (should have two+ books coming out soon in the same universe – editing and cover art always take longer than it seems they should).
I like it, though some of scene directions are not needed. It is clear who is talking. I am surprised Helton has not figured out he has an aware AI . All that shore power went somewhere.
I am 41% and liking the story. Glad to know you have a sequel.
Glad you like it, and thanks for the feedback.
People easily become used to specialized AIs, things like telephone answering systems and what-not. Heck, we are seeing them all over even now, with things from Siri to Cortana. I’d expect that a hundred years from now the world will be saturated with them all over the place, as as long as you stick to their particular field they’ll be reasonably “human,” or at least usefully understandable. So they are all used to things that are AI-like, just not fully self-aware and of more generalized function. And when dealing with a strange new-to-you but old-and-used-hard system (something like a 30-year old hand-me-down Plymouth), you might not worry about the details of why it’s burning a bit more oil than it “should” as long as you have larger things to worry about.