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San Francisco, 3:44 PM
Sat Nov 21
18 posts in the last 24 hours

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  • posts about #infoporn more →

    British UFOs Choose Their Times And Places With Great Care

    When Sequels Took Over Science Fiction Books

    How Does Your Hero Measure Up On Our Wish-Fulfillment Checklist?

    Where Do Scifi Fads In Mainstream Lit Come From?

    Do Real-World Politics Affect Star Trek's Prime Directive?

    Bad Movie Physics: A Report Card

    The Science vs. Scientology Timeline

    Why All Female Superheroes Look the Same

    When The Economy Booms, Dystopias Rule

    The Rise And Fall Of Cyberpunk
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    Dsmvwl  Admin  Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×
    Image of Anekanta - former space marine Anekanta - former space marine
    08/18/09

    In reply to British UFOs Choose Their Times And Places With Great Care
    Unfortunately, correlation does not prove causation. What if it's the other way around, and the demand for Dr. Who follows UFO interest?
     Reply
    Anekanta - former space marine was starred Anekanta - former space marine was unstarred
    Image of Dirk Anger Dirk Anger
    08/18/09


    @Anekanta: Correlation doesn't imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing 'look over there'.

    OK, I'll stop linking to comic strips.

    Maybe.
     Reply
    Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. promoted this comment Dirk Anger was starred Dirk Anger was unstarred
    Image of Taed Taed
    08/18/09

    @Anekanta: Or the aliens are only visiting to watch Dr. Who themselves, as they get terrible reception and have to wait 4.2 years to get the new episodes at Alpha Centari.
     Reply
    Anekanta promoted this comment Taed was starred Taed was unstarred
    Image of Anekanta - former space marine Anekanta - former space marine
    08/18/09

    @Dirk Angry: XKCD rocks!
     Reply
    Anekanta - former space marine was starred Anekanta - former space marine was unstarred
    Image of LaserWolf LaserWolf
    08/18/09

    In reply to British UFOs Choose Their Times And Places With Great Care
    I suspect the prevalence of sightings in metro areas is directly related to the prevalence of *people* in those areas. We'd need to see a map of, say, sightings per 1,000 people in order to draw any meaningful connections.

    I also don't really see the Dr. Who connection, although the major surge in 77-78 may be related to Star Wars and/or Close Encounters of the Third Kind (as others have said). What happened in '67, though?
     Reply
    LaserWolf was starred LaserWolf was unstarred
    Image of James7344 James7344
    08/18/09

    @LaserWolf: Star Trek hit the UK.
     Reply
    Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. promoted this comment James7344 was starred James7344 was unstarred
    Image of Jonny_eh Jonny_eh
    08/18/09

    In reply to British UFOs Choose Their Times And Places With Great Care
    Looks like the number of sightings correlate with the public's interest in UFOs. Which causes which? I suspect the public interest fuels the sightings, or at least the reporting of the sighting.
     Reply
    Charlie Jane Anders promoted this comment Jonny_eh was starred Jonny_eh was unstarred
    Image of Roklimber Roklimber
    08/18/09

    In reply to British UFOs Choose Their Times And Places With Great Care
    I'm surprised they're not showing data possibly correlating ufo sightings with crop circle appearances. I mean, after all, don't crop circles nutjobs think they're created by aliens?
     Reply
    Roklimber was starred Roklimber was unstarred
    Image of reddingofish reddingofish
    08/18/09

    In reply to British UFOs Choose Their Times And Places With Great Care
    There don't seem to be as many as I expected over Cardiff.
     Reply
    reddingofish was starred reddingofish was unstarred
    Image of marlowespade marlowespade
    08/18/09

    In reply to British UFOs Choose Their Times And Places With Great Care
    That's pretty cool.

    It also looks like there's a spike in sightings with the release of each Star Wars movie.

    /enjoys applying arbitrary theories
     Reply
    Hamslicer promoted this comment marlowespade was starred marlowespade was unstarred
    Image of Hamslicer Hamslicer
    08/18/09

    @marlowespade: Wasn't CE3K released in '78 ?
     Reply
    Hamslicer was starred Hamslicer was unstarred
    Image of marlowespade marlowespade
    08/18/09

    @Hamslicer: Great point.
     Reply
    marlowespade was starred marlowespade was unstarred
    Image of goldfarb goldfarb
    08/18/09

    @Hamslicer: it was November of'77...
     Reply
    goldfarb was starred goldfarb was unstarred
    Image of ManchuCandidate ManchuCandidate
    07/14/09

    In reply to When Sequels Took Over Science Fiction Books
    I think the proliferation of Military SF series has a lot to do with it. Or the 50 billion (slight exaggeration) series that David Weber, John Ringo and Eric Flint are working on.
     Reply
    ManchuCandidate was starred ManchuCandidate was unstarred
    Image of icelight icelight
    07/14/09

    @ManchuCandidate: I don't know, most of the Honor Harrington books were written before 1998. (I didn't believe it either, but Wikipedia never lies.) I'd say it's a bunch of other writers (and publishers, obviously) who have had time to see how well those books, or the Wheel of Time books, have done, and tried out the long-form series for themselves.
     Reply
    icelight was starred icelight was unstarred
    Image of Grey_Area Grey_Area
    07/14/09

    In reply to When Sequels Took Over Science Fiction Books
    But doesn't Tor publish more than twice as many books as HarperCollins? Looking at my stack of ARCs, about half are from Tor and the rest are from everybody else.



    Sequels are hard to not do when a publisher dangles a fat juicy advance in front of a writer. Sure, they've got new ideas they want to explore but the money is right there to do a follow-up to that last book that actually sold some. And readers will recognize Captain Blaasto and the crew on the cover. No one has to take a chance on something they might not like, guaranteed sales.



    Everybody likes the easy.
     Reply
    Grey_Area was starred Grey_Area was unstarred
    Image of icelight icelight
    07/14/09

    @Grey_Area: Hey now, I love the Captain Blaasto books!
     Reply
    icelight was starred icelight was unstarred
    Image of zenpoet zenpoet
    07/15/09

    @icelight: I especially loved him in Captain Blaasto vs the Slowling Imploding Sequel: The Quickening.
     Reply
    zenpoet was starred zenpoet was unstarred
    Image of PrairieGirl PrairieGirl
    07/14/09

    In reply to When Sequels Took Over Science Fiction Books
    Sequel-mania was going strong as far back as the mid-eighties, but it never seemed as bad for sci-fi as it was for other genres. I always thought fantasy was particularly prone to sequelitis though. Too bad sci-fi had to jump on that bandwagon.



    Crime/mystery fiction is the WORST for this. I'm pointing at you Patricia Cornwell, John Sanford, James Patterson, Michael Connelly, Thomas Harris, etc, etc, etc.
     Reply
    Edited by PrairieGirl at 07/14/09 11:53 AM PrairieGirl was starred PrairieGirl was unstarred
    Image of Grey_Area Grey_Area
    07/14/09

    @PrairieGirl: For reals. How many damn murders can you have at a racetrack? Apparently quite a few.
     Reply
    Grey_Area was starred Grey_Area was unstarred
    Image of goldfarb goldfarb
    07/14/09

    In reply to When Sequels Took Over Science Fiction Books
    the Outer Explosions saga really went down hill after book 14...



    the other trend in publishing has been to disguise the fact that a book is the first in a multi-volume saga...
     Reply
    goldfarb was starred goldfarb was unstarred
    Image of TemporalSword TemporalSword
    07/14/09

    In reply to When Sequels Took Over Science Fiction Books
    I'm pretty sure Robert Jordan accounted for, like, 99% of the fantasy increase, there.
     Reply
    TemporalSword was starred TemporalSword was unstarred
    Image of Grey_Area Grey_Area
    07/14/09

    @TemporalSword: And Steven Erikson is responsible for the other 40%.
     Reply
    Grey_Area was starred Grey_Area was unstarred
    Image of zenpoet zenpoet
    07/15/09

    @Grey_Area: Don't forget Harry Harison and his 3.14159% of the market.
     Reply
    zenpoet was starred zenpoet was unstarred
    Image of Dr Emilio Lizardo Dr Emilio Lizardo
    07/14/09

    In reply to When Sequels Took Over Science Fiction Books
    Not surprising. A sequel has a prebuilt audience and is less of a risk for the author and the publisher. I know I'm guilty of reading a sequel even if the previous offerings have declined in quality. Damn you Harry Turtledove!
     Reply
    Dr Emilio Lizardo was starred Dr Emilio Lizardo was unstarred
    Image of tetracycloide tetracycloide
    07/14/09

    @Dr Emilio Lizardo: another case in point, ender's saga(s).
     Reply
    tetracycloide was starred tetracycloide was unstarred
    Image of The Curse of Millhaven The Curse of Millhaven
    07/14/09

    @Dr Emilio Lizardo: Absolutely. It is the same mentality that brings us remakes and sequels in hollywood. I am guilty of the same reading patterns with Turtledove and SM Stirling: reading the works long after the spark that made them create the work has been fully doused.
     Reply
    The Curse of Millhaven was starred The Curse of Millhaven was unstarred
    Image of Dr Emilio Lizardo Dr Emilio Lizardo
    07/14/09

    @tetracycloide: Definitely OSC! "Ender in Exile" is already on my Amazon "Save for later" list, waiting for the paperback edition.
     Reply
    Edited by Dr Emilio Lizardo at 07/14/09 11:53 AM Dr Emilio Lizardo was starred Dr Emilio Lizardo was unstarred
    Image of WindowlickinDaywalker WindowlickinDaywalker
    07/14/09

    @Dr Emilio Lizardo: Given the state of the economy and the publishing industry, this trend should only get worse over the next few years. Smaller markets, smaller volumes, smaller margins = more risk adverse decision making. Publishers are going to go with what they know, and their authors would be stupid not to take their checks.
     Reply
    WindowlickinDaywalker was starred WindowlickinDaywalker was unstarred
    Image of RandomFrequentFlierDent RandomFrequentFlierDent
    07/14/09

    @tetracycloide: I haven’t read the Shadow series yet, but from what I heard isn’t it a retelling of Ender’s Game from the perspective of minor characters? Not a bad idea for luring in already loyal fans, but it kind of seems like literary sleaziness to me.



    Hopefully I’ll be proved wrong and they’ll end up being enjoyable while providing new insight into the story.
     Reply
    RandomFrequentFlierDent was starred RandomFrequentFlierDent was unstarred
    Image of braak: You are, as usual, completely correct. braak: You are, as usual, completely correct.
    07/14/09

    In reply to When Sequels Took Over Science Fiction Books
    Interesting. So, what happened in 1998?
     Reply
    braak: You are, as usual, completely correct. was starred braak: You are, as usual, completely correct. was unstarred
    Image of tetracycloide tetracycloide
    07/14/09

    @braak: nothing happened in 1998, if you think anything happened in 1998 you're a nosey jackass.

    minor side note: i can edit my comments now, take that contractions!
     Reply
    Edited at 07/14/09 11:45 AM tetracycloide was starred tetracycloide was unstarred
    Image of RandomFrequentFlierDent RandomFrequentFlierDent
    07/14/09

    @braak: I wonder if the Harry Potter series has anything to do with authors getting on the sequel bandwagon. The Philosopher's Stone came out in 1997 and The Chamber of Secrets in 1998.
     Reply
    RandomFrequentFlierDent was starred RandomFrequentFlierDent was unstarred
    Image of BeautifulAgony BeautifulAgony
    01/28/09

    In reply to How Does Your Hero Measure Up On Our Wish-Fulfillment Checklist?
    Buffy Summers rates:


    0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0


    I claimed "cool gadgets" because she does often get to use some nifty magical gear, cool weaponry and such. I'm on the fence with the last one... she does become a legend among Slayers, but not sure if it counts. Then again, the Slayer is a legendary being, in and of herself.


    Not too bad....

     Reply
    BeautifulAgony was starred BeautifulAgony was unstarred
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