Has it never struck you that the word for “mama” is about the same in so many languages? It’s hardly a 100% scientific survey, but we went through French, English, Spanish, Japanese, Vietnamese, Russian and Romanian [1], and it’s pretty much always a combination of “m”s and “a”s? (“papa” varies across languages, but “mama” doesn’t)

So, what? Is that a combinations of syllables that are easier to pronounce when you’re a baby? Did I miss the memo on universal bits of the language?

[1]just in case you’re wondering why those particular languages, it’s not some sinister conspiracy–just the particular subset of languages that happened to be known by the assembly at a friends’ party where we discussed this.

-A few Harbinger reviews: Falcata Times, Gillian Polack, the Outhousers. And a less enthusiastic, though still very interesting one over at Solar Bridge. Money quote: “De Bodard is dangerously addictive.” Can I put that on my website?

-Orson Scott Card interview over at Goodreads

-Shweta Narayan’s excellent “Eyes of Carven Emerald” from Clockwork Phoenix 3 is online at SFSignal. I love her approach to steampunk (think Hindu/Muslim), and her narrative structures are always interesting. Here, a tale of Alexandros’ conquests is interleaved with excerpts from a fairy tale set in India. Check it out!

-Via the World SF blog: The Rough Guide to Modern Malaysian Science Fiction and Fantasy. Fascinating read.

-Reposting a fascinating comment by Dylan Fox on ebook issues (which came either from John Scalzi or Paul Cornell, we’re not sure): publishers think that readers buy hardbacks for early availability, so they priced early release ebooks the same as hardbacks or higher. Whereas readers tend to buy hardbacks “because they look good and last longer, they’re more tactile and look better on our shelves, which are the exact qualities that ebooks lack”. Interesting…

-And, talking about ebooks…. Six e-book trends to watch for in 2011. Some interesting stuff in there.

–Jeff Vandermeer on short fiction anthology Leviathan 5: “This anthology, the latest in the World Fantasy Award winning and PKD award finalist series, will focus on weird fiction and fantasy from newer writers, probably defined as writers with two or fewer books published in English. We are going to do something fairly unprecedented in the history of genre and have between 15 and 20 associate/foreign language editors in other countries so that many writers who do not write in English would be able to submit. Up to 30,000 words of the 100,000 words might be fiction newly translated for Leviathan 5.”. I’ve ranted enough about the prevalence of English language on the SF scene, and this seems like a great way to showcase a more diverse set of writers to the English-speaking crowd. More at the link–including various ways to help out the project.

Well, not for me, but “The Shipmaker” is obviously getting some massive doses of love this year. It’s been picked up by Allan Kaster for his The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction 3, which is going to be available as an audio book and as a ebook some time in April. Haven’t seen a TOC, but I believe it will include “The Things” by Peter Watts (also on the BSFA shortlist and in Dozois’ Year’s Best) and “Re-crossing the Styx” by Ian MacLeod (also in Dozois’ Year’s Best). Pretty good company so far.
(I’ve actually known this for a while, but clean forgot to post about it due to some RL stuff).

This post brought to you by the department of shameless self-promotion. See previous post if you want actual blog content.

There has been a lot of debate on the internet about the ethics of ebook piracy, a lot of which boiled down to “piracy is stealing”. I’m not saying I disagree with that, but…

Well, you should check out this links roundup from troisroyaumes over on dreamwidth, which is a little more measured. Specifically, it focuses on problematic issues with intellectual property rights seen the Western way. The part that especially resonates with me, book-wise (but there’s more here than that), was people discussing the availability of books (whether physical or electronic) in developing countries, and their price–which is a not-insignificant part of the problem. I’ve always thought that asking people to pay US prices for books or DVDs was ridiculous: take Vietnam, where the average salary is 50$. With that, if you’re lucky, you can buy maybe two English hardbacks? (and I’m being nice here, because I’m assuming said hardbacks aren’t subject to import duties). As qian points out, in Malaysia, an imported English book can cost 7-8 times the price of a meal, and getting it is a terrible hassle. I can see why it would give her the unpleasant feeling that “in almost every case, the author is not even contemplating that somebody like you will be reading it. You quite simply do not exist in their world.”

I’m already getting that impression of being ignored from all those ebook piracy posts–and I live in a developed country with high salaries, reasonable access to English-language books (amazon, book depository, few or no import taxes). I can imagine how much freaking worse it would be for people in developing countries.

ETA: fantasyecho has a further links roundup–some overlaps, but there are a few not in the original DW post. Like the earlier one–don’t agree with anything, but a lot of points are definitely worth taking into account.

Also, one of those linked posts has a very valid point, which is that “illegal” is not a synonym for “immoral”. A lot of those blog posts about piracy don’t make a clear distinction between those two words. “illegal” is what the state thinks is bad. “immoral” is what you think is bad according to personal ethics–and if it’s exactly the same as “illegal” for you, no more, no less, you’re demonstrating a scary amount of trust in your government…

Wow, that was fast. Courtesy of Andy Cox and the Interzone editorial team, you can now find “The Shipmaker” online, over at the TTA press website. Do feel free to come back here and comment on it after you’ve read it–any and all feedback appreciated.

(while you’re at it, you can read another shortlisted story, Nina Allan’s “Flying in the Face of God”, which is definitely worth spending some time with)

I swear there will be actual content on this blog soon, and not shameless self-promotion–but for that, my %%% fever is going to have to come down (`tis the season to be sick, apparently. 39°C and counting…)

OWW buddy Cécile Cristofari is looking to sell an attending membership to Eastercon, following circumstances who make it impossible for her to attend. It would go for 60 euros–about 50 pounds, slightly cheaper than the current rate over at the Eastercon website.

If you are interested–or know anyone who is interested–ping me, and I’ll pass it on.
(any reposts/RTs much appreciated. Thanks!)

Have been sitting on this since yesterday evening: the tireless Donna Scott let me know my Interzone short story “The Shipmaker” has made the shortlist in the Best Short Fiction category. Where it’s, er, up against some very stiff competition by Nina Allan, Peter Watts, and Neil Williamson.

Wow?

While I go for a liedown, you can go congratulate Lauren Beukes, whose Zoo City is on the shortlist for Best Novel. And indeed, everyone else on the list (it’s quite an impressive rollcall).

The Award Ceremony will take place at this year’s Eastercon in Birmingham–any members of the BSFA/Eastercon can vote. I’ll see about getting the story up online.

As usual–many many thanks to everyone who nominated it, to Andy Cox and Andy Hedgecock for publishing it in the first place, and to the BSFA Awards administrator, Donna Scott, for so quickly tallying up the votes.

ETA: an online version is now available here. Thanks for Andy Cox for the sheer reaction speed.

My Dad, discussing his PR-505 e-reader (which he used to love): “You know, I hardly use it anymore, because either it’s impossible to buy the books I want (in English), or because they’re so stupidly expensive. I wanted to buy a Marc Lévy book online, but they sold it for the same price as the hardback–when the paperback was available for about a third of that price.”

Yeah. You and me both. I continue to have hopes that the system is going to sort itself out, but the current trend is geared towards worse rather than better (georestrictions locking us French out of the English booksellers, high prices due to so-called “delivery costs” from the US–seriously, delivery costs of e-things?)

*sigh*

So…

We made cucumber maki yesterday. Clearly, we still need some work (the H got the best-shaped ones out, but they were still enormous things, nothing like the finger-sized bites you get in most Japanese sushi bars in France). Also, I could be wrong, but I get the feeling we overdid the sugar in the rice–it felt way too sweet to me. I’ll have to look up the recipe on the Internet: I used a book we had at home, but judging by the (horrendous) way it advises you to cook rice, there might be some problems with the doses…

But still–surprisingly easy to make, and fun. Definitely worth trying again.

Been a while since I’ve done that, but since Christmas I’ve read Let The Right One In (the book of the movie), which was awesome, a very neat take on a vampire in modern days.

Currently deep in K.J. Parker’s Scavenger trilogy (just started book 2), which is… intriguing, to say the least. The main character is Poldarn, an amnesiac who wakes up on a battlefield, and who may or may not be a god, may or may not be the most evil man on the continent–and may or may not bring the Apocalypse with him. The books so far feel like an extended puzzle box: there are bits and pieces with vivid images, and as the story progresses they get slotted into places. We learn more about Poldarn and his past, about the history of the world (which is some kind of pseudo-Roman Empire)–and through it all, there’s this definite sense of something very bad about to happen. Quite curious to see how it all ends.