Category: Books
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An Old-Fashioned Science Fiction Gathering (Day 1)
Over the weekend of May 25-27 I was a guest of David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer at their bookstore in Westport, NY. The occasion was a "mini-con" devoted to Hard Science Fiction. The headliner on the card was Gregory Benford, who inspired the theme of the weekend with his famous remark about writing Hard SF…
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Ozblogging: The Emerald City of Oz, Part 3
Since Aunt Em and Uncle Henry have come to Oz for good, it only makes sense for them to see some of the country. Accordingly, Dorothy, the Wizard, Em and Henry, Omby Amby (the commander of Oz's all-officer Army), Billina the Hen, and the Shaggy Man all set out aboard a wagon drawn by the…
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Ozblogging: The Emerald City of Oz, Part 2
Ozma uses her magic to summon Dorothy's Aunt Em and Uncle Henry right into her throne room. They are, understandably enough, completely freaked out by the sight of such an opulent room crowded with strange beings — including a gigantic lion and tiger. Dorothy reassures them that they're perfectly safe before either one can drop…
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Ozblogging: The Emerald City of Oz, Part 1
The Emerald City of Oz (1910) was L. Frank Baum's sixth Oz book, and marks a major departure from the stock plot he used in the previous three stories. Where all the books after Land of Oz involve Dorothy traveling to Oz and having adventures en route, Emerald City permanently installs Dorothy and her family…
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Posthegemony Shows Why Rules Don’t Matter
Game systems are overrated. Roleplaying game designers spend a lot of time and effort trying to create rules which replicate a specific fictional reality — or they take on the impossible task of creating rules which replicate real reality. They do research on the probability of hitting your target with an unaimed pistol shot at…
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Ozblogging: The Road to Oz, Part 6
Party Like It's 1909! The guests begin to arrive for Ozma's birthday party, and L. Frank Baum demonstrates an early mastery of the Superhero Crossover subgenre. All the guests are either characters from other Oz books, or from some of Baum's non-Oz fantasies. This book solidly cements all of Baum's fantasies into a single fictional…
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Steampunk and the End of the Future
Two weeks ago I attended the Arisia convention in Boston and had a wonderful time. One thing which was impossible to miss was the prevalence of steampunk costumes among some of the attendees, especially the younger ones. Maybe this was just because the guests of honor were Phil and Kaja Foglio, creators of the steampunk…
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Ozblogging: The Road to Oz, Part 5
We're going to summarize a lot here, because there's a long boring section between the time Our Heroes get into Oz and their arrival at the Emerald City. Most of it is taken up with introductions. Dorothy introduces her companions to Tiktok and Billina, who have come to welcome them. Then she introduces everyone to…
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Ozblogging: The Road to Oz, Part 4
After escaping the Scoodlers, Dorothy and Company come to the end of the road, literally. It reaches the edge of the Deadly Desert, an expanse of gray sand which completely surrounds the Land of Oz. In the course of the books the Deadly Desert becomes more and more Deadly. The first time we see it,…
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Ozblogging: The Road to Oz, Part 3
Our Heroes continue along the road, which they now know to be the Road to Oz. (The reader knew that from the book title.) The landscape is pleasant — if you haven't noticed, this journey is considerably less perilous than Dorothy's past exploits. The travelers have spent every night in bed, and aside from involuntary…
The Cambias Digression 