#john scalzi

[fanaticsfiction]

Authors Convinced Fanfic is Illegal/Requires Permission

Terry Goodkind: “Copyright law dictates that in order for me to protect my copyright, when I find such things, I must go out and hire lawyers to threaten these people to make them stop, and to sue them if they don’t.”

John Scalzi: “Let's remember one fundamental thing about fanfic: Almost all of it is entirely illegal to begin with. It's the wild and wanton misappropriation of copyrighted material”

Diana Gabaldon: “OK, my position on fan-fic is pretty clear: I think it’s immoral, I know it’s illegal, and it makes me want to barf whenever I’ve inadvertently encountered some of it involving my characters.”

Robin Hobb: “Fan fiction is like any other form of identity theft. It injures the name of the party whose identity is stolen.”

Anne Rice: “I do not allow fan fiction. The characters are copyrighted. It upsets me terribly to even think about fan fiction with my characters. I advise my readers to write your own original stories with your own characters. It is absolutely essential that you respect my wishes.”

Anne McCaffrey: “there can be no adventure/stories set on Pern at all!!!!! That's infringing on my copyright and can bear heavy penalties…indiscriminate usage of our characters, worlds, and concepts on a 'public' media like electronic mail constitute copyright infringement AND, which many fans disregard, is ACTIONABLE!”

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro: “No. Absolutely not. It is also against federal law.”

Lynn Flewelling: “Whether you are writing about Seregil or Fox Mulder or Sherlock Holmes, if you do not have legal permission from the author, their estate, or publisher, then you are violating US copyright law. It is creative piracy. Doesn't matter how many disclaimers you put on, or if you're being paid. It. Is. Illegal.”

Someone Else, elaborated in the notes

#anne rice #chelsea quinn yarbro #anne mccaffrey #terry goodkind #john scalzi #diana gabaldon #robin hobb #lynn flewelling

[torpublishinggroup]

GET BOOKT

A guide of books to gift the people in your life and yourself!

For the people looking to put a different kind of magic into their holidays…

The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab

For the genre connoisseur with a love for high concepts in short form… 

Africa Risen edited by Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, & Zelda Knight (now in paperback!)

For the treasured party member who’s saved your character’s life many times on TTRPG night…

Bookshops & Bonedust by @travisbaldree

━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━

For those who love (or possibly are 👀) gay werewolves

Wolfsong by TJ Klune

For the mutual who devoured the epic highs and lows of Riverdale and craves more…

The Luminaries by Susan Dennard, now in paperback!)

━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━

For your brave and luckless friend, constantly trapped in transit purgatory and upset about it…

The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw & Richard Kadrey

For the true buckaroos trotting beside you…

Camp Damascus by @drchucktingle

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Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

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For the friend who has a hot date on Friday night (with their book)...

Fall of Ruin and Wrath by Jennifer L. Armentrout

For the avid doodler who sketches plans for their future volcanic villain lair equipped with a space laser…

Starter Villain by @jscalzi

━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━

Not enough books? We agree. Check out our other GET BOOKT guide.

#get bookt #tor books #booklr #gift guide #the dead take the a train #cassandra khaw #richard kadrey #camp damascus #chuck tingle #manhunt #gretchen felker martin #the luminaries #susan dennard #starter villain #john scalzi #africa risen #sheree renée thomas #oghenechovwe donald ekpeki #zelda knight #wolfsong #tj klune #the fragile threads of power #v e schwab #the fall of ruin and wrath #jennifer l armentrout #bookshops & bonedust #bookshops and bonedust #travis baldree

[dduane]

...I just preordered this book on sight even though I had no damn idea what it was about. (And now that I do know, I'm glad I did.) :)

"Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. "Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. "But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a standup, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital. "It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyper-intelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good. "In a dog-eat-dog world... be a cat."

(via @scalzi's cover reveal at Twitter)

#John Scalzi #Starter Villain

[wilwheaton]

Yesterday, John Scalzi's latest book, Starter Villain, dropped.

I got to narrate the audiobook! I'm so proud of the work we did together, I made a video to announce it.

#audiobooks #john scalzi #starter villain

[colleendoran]

We're very pleased to announce that CHIVALRY has received the LOCUS Award for BEST ILLUSTRATED AND ART BOOK for 2023.

It is very humbling to be in the company of such fantastic artists as Kinuko Craft, Shaun Tan, and Omar Rayyan. We cannot even begin to express our deep gratitude.

Also, congratulations to Charles Vess on his award for Best Artist, Rob Wilkins for his work on TERRY PRATCHETT: A LIFE WITH FOOTNOTES AN OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY, John Scalzi for THE KAIJU APPRECIATION SOCIETY, and all the other winners and very deserving nominees, to the staff of LOCUS, and to all those who took the time to make their votes count.

#chivalry #neil gaiman #john scalzi #locus awards #locus #charless vess #terry pratchett #rob wilkins #shaun tan #omar rayyan #kinuko craft

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 53 – The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

This is the last novel I read exclusively and entirely because it was nominated for a Hugo, and is also the first thing of Scalzi’s I’ve ever touched. Not that I haven’t been, like, peripherally aware of him for a while, but until now I’ve never really felt compelled by any of the pitches I’ve heard for his stuff. Having now read this – yeah, I stand by that. It’s not a bad book, but it’s just very much brainless dumb popcorn fun. Also he’s got a few writing quirks I kind of despise.

The story is about exactly what it says on the tin – a former grad student who dropped out to join a startup and then got fired and ended up doing food delivery during COVID runs into an old acquaintance and is offered a mysterious but high paying job ‘lifting things’. The job turns out to be with the eponymous Kaiju Preservation Society – an NGO with bases on an alternate earth, studying the nuclear-powered leviathans that are somehow its natural apex predators and protecting them from poachers. From there the plot plays out as you’d expect – crash course training and being introduced to the world, making friends, near-misses studying the Kaiju, an asshole billionaire whose revealed to be the villain, breaking the rules and disobeying orders with those friends to save a Kaiju from the billionaire before she goes nuclear and wipes out half of Newfoundland, and so on. Like I said, brainless popcorn. The pacing would actually work very well adapted to a movie, I think – certainly the whole thing would do better with some visuals.

This is a very simple novel, clearly designed to be a comfort read rather than something you wrestle with. Everyone is exactly who they appear to be when they’re introduced, there’s no moral complexity or clever mysteries, the plot plays out beat for beat as you would expect it to. Cozy fantasy for people who like giant monsters and action scenes, I guess?

The tone is very jokey, in a very 2010s nerd culture kind of way? This is a book written about people who name the bases on the world full of 12-story kaiju after classic Godzilla movies, and for people who would do the same. Just about every sympathetic major character is a massive nerd of some variety, and this is very clearly a reason you’re supposed to relate to and like them. And the lampshading – the book knows its worldbuilding makes no sense, and it takes pains to point this out to you as you read it so you can laugh at it, again and again. Hell, it lampshades how much its lampshading, complete with a definition of the term that feels like it was read right off of TV Tropes. Others may find this endearing, for me it just grated intensely.

Lastly - so this isn’t a book about COVID, but it’s very clearly a pandemic novel. The non-Kaiju World parts will probably be a fascinating cultural artifact for undergrads a couple decades down the line. It’s got the housing crisis, the gig economy, ZIRP corporate phantasmagoria, COVID lockdowns, and all that’s before all the cultural references. Anyway, it wins a decent amount of goodwill from me by remembering the existence of all the people for whom ‘lockdown’ wasn’t really a thin because ‘essential worker’ was a shockingly broad category. Still, it’s all just backdrop that stuck out too me, not really the book’s actual subject.

Anyway yeah, I’m probably being a bit harsh – this was nominated for a Hugo? Really? - but the book’s fine. Inoffensive. Would make a great Disney movie.

#book review #sff #hugo nom #the kaiju preservation society #john scalzi

[ofliterarynature]

#books #booklr #polls #John scalzi #the Kaiju preservation society #starter villain #I got a good deal on 4 audible credits and am trying to spend them wisely #trying to hit up audible originals since the library can’t get them #should I get a second Natasha pulley? #I still haven’t listened to the first one lol #bec posts

[videogames-i-wish-were-real]

Videogames I wish were real #86

An open world survival game set in a desolate world where the only food and resources left grow on colossal kaiju beasts (imagine Godzilla with a forest on its back. Also, I know what you must be thinking: wait, if it's a desolate world what do kaijus eat? Well, they get their energy from the sun and sometimes if they get a craving they eat other kaijus). After a kaiju dies, the resources they were sustaining quickly degrade, so the best bet is to harvest resources from live kaijus. The best way to do this is to climb the kaijus, since their skin is thick enough not to notice a thing. No two climbs will ever present the same challenges, since there are many types of kaijus, and you never know what might happen: it could start raining, or some of the creatures living on the kaiju might see you as easy prey and attack you, or the kaiju could decide to run, sit, sleep, or even fight or fuck another kaiju. Once you manage to climb on top of the kaiju, you'll need to gather resources: wood, fruit, plants, flowers, mushrooms... instead of forests, some kaijus might have rocky formations full of metals and minerals on their backs, or other types of biomes. The only animals that are still alive on this world also live on the kaijus, so if you feel like hunting, you can also take out your bow and arrow or your handheld weapon and get some fresh meat or hides. Once you're done gathering resources, you can take out your glider and fly off to safety... although, in a world populated by kaijus that love to fight each other, safety is always relative.

Similar media that actually exists: The Wandering Village (a game suggested by @thebazilly), The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi (the book that partially inspired this post)

#viwwr #videogames i wish were real #videogames #video games #writeblr #writers on tumblr #the kaiju preservation society #godzilla #john scalzi #concepts #open world games #survival games #THEY GET WATER FROM THE RAIN IT'S A VERY RAINY WORLD FOR NARRATIVELY CONVENIENT REASONS #the wandering village #the game also inspired this post but i forgot to @ it because that's what i get for writing these an hour before they are due to be posted #game design

[haveyoureadthisscifibook]

vote yes if you have finished the entire book.

vote no if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

#scifi #books #Redshirts #John Scalzi #poll #result: no #l: English

[thelastofthebookworms]

You'll find the other polls in my 'sf polls' tag / my pinned post.

#polls #science fiction #sf polls #a fire upon the deep #vernor vinge #book of the new sun #gene wolfe #old man's war #john scalzi #the gods themselves #isaac asimov #shards of honor #the vorkosigan saga #vorkosigan saga #lois mcmaster bujold #contact #carl sagan #ringworld #larry niven #nine princes in amber #the chronicles of amber #chronicles of amber #roger zelazny #dragonflight #dragonriders of pern #anne mccaffrey

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Martha Wells and John Scalzi at Joseph-Beth Booksellers!!

Y’all GUESS WHO I GOT TO SEE!!! In real life!! With my own two eyeballs!!!

It was an absolutely delightful chat (I took two pages of notes! scribbled in All My Margins!), very cozy, AND neither of them had signing limits! I love hearing authors talk about their Authorial Woes and Process Quirks, because it’s always hugely validating and just neat to hear.

#books #martha wells #john scalzi #murderbot #the murderbot diaries #all systems red #network effect #the kaiju preservation society #book signing #book photography #my photography #full disclosure i did purchase kaiju while i was there because i didn't own any of his books #but i had read locked in and liked it and kaiju looked most up my alley of what was on his table!! #AAAAND I DELIVERED MY FAN MAIL TO MARTHA!!!! #so far i have only had success with physically handing authors fan mail as delivery--i've tried to email/mail/web form a few others but-- #--those always bounce back #so i've now handed both martha wells and ve schwab physical fan mail in exchange for getting books signed XD #they were both very funny and very kind and i am very awkward lol #also the difference in signature and personality is hilarious to me #i strive to have something bold like scalzi #i suspect i'll end up more like wells XD #but yeah i want to transfer some of the writerly percolations to my bitch journal for driscoll purposes going forward it was. seriously.-- #--so validating and relieving to hear <3 #witch king #the cloud roads

[lifblogs]

“My breakfast partner was Hera, an orange-and-white cat who, after I had retreated to my childhood home after the divorce and layoff, had emerged from the backyard bushes and informed me through meowing that she lived with me now.”

Yeah, that’s definitely how cats work!

#starter villain #john scalzi #books #reading

[torpublishinggroup]

This advertisement is for Starter Villain, a new science fiction adventure from Hugo Award–winning author John Scalzi.

Meet the new boss.

JK this cat doesn’t work for Tor. At least, we’re pretty sure, with remote work it’s hard to tell who is and isn’t a cat. The person posting this could be a cat. You’d literally never know.

But we do know you should check out Starter Villain by John Scalzi, because it does have hyper intelligent cats working for a villainous organization.

WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUT

When divorced substitute teacher Charlie’s long-lost uncle Jake dies, he’s not expecting much. Certainly not to inherit a supervillain business, complete with an island volcano lair, giant laser death rays, lava pits, and hyper-intelligent talking spy cats.

But it gets worse.

Because his uncle wasn’t just a supervillain. He was a supervillain who was in the middle of trying to take down the other supervillains. Somewhere along the way he decided that the rich, soulless predators back by multinational corporations and venture capital were a bad idea. And they needed to be stopped.

And now they’re after Charlie.

#books #john scalzi #scalzi #booklr #starter villain #science fiction #new books #tbr #books with cats #cats #meet the new boss

[iambic-stan]

last book read + last stethoscope used, part 22

First book and scope pairing of 2024!

The scope is MDF's Procardial Titanium in green and gold (there's a glitter option for the green but I opted out to save some $ and enjoy a smoother finish on that tubing). The book is John Scalzi's short sci-fi read from last year, Starter Villain. Yes--go ahead and judge a book by its cover...unless you don't like cats, in which case you can keep opinions like that to yourself. These cats can type 80 wpm, btw. Also, there are unionizing dolphins and...underwhelming lava pits. I'd never read anything by this guy before but it was giving Douglas Adams at times and I loved it for that. Nothing deep here, but just enough twists and turns and laughs to make it fun as hell. It was a great read to start out the year.

#cardiophile #cardiophilia #stethoscopes #books #reading #sci-fi #science fiction #cats #humor #john scalzi #mdf instruments #last book last stethoscope #lbls

[tinynavajoreads]

Just One More Page's March Book Photo Challenge

March 1, 2023 - TBR This Month

I saw this pop up on my feed and I'm trying to find smaller ways to participate more in the booklr community. And I knew that I had a lot of books that I had acquired recently, and these are only part of what's on my to-be-read list, but ones that I figured I could read this month. Or, at least, make an attempt at reading. We'll see how far I actually get.

First on my TBR is The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. I have read this book before, but this time around it's for the Traveling Book Project being put in by @just0nemorepage and I'm excited for it!

The rest of the list is Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, Poison for Breakfast by Lemony Snicket, The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi, A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers, The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah, Qualityland by Marc-Uwe Kling, Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley, and Book of Night by Holly Black.

What's your TBR for this month? Do you plan one? Or just get what feels like you'll most read at the moment? I usually do what I feel like I'll read, but I do have a rough idea of books I would like to read.

#justonemorepage #jompbpc #march tbr #tbr #booklr #book photography #the starless sea #erin morgenstern #book of night #holly black #qualityland #marc uwe kling #the stardust thief #chelsea abdullah #a psalm for the wild built #becky chambers #the kaiju preservation society #john scalzi #poison for breakfast #lemony snicket #convenience store woman #sayaka murata #books #book #book talk #fantasy #science fiction

[serafaina]

Fandom needs more Dispatcher AUs.

In The Dispatcher series by John Scalzi the world's main conceit is that anyone who is killed gets mysteriously unkilled. Specifically, if they die because someone intentionally kills them, 5 seconds later they almost always disappear and then reappear in their bed at their house as they were before the incident that killed them.

The rules are: 1) they have to be killed on purpose. If they are already dying and then someone adds that last straw they live again. They stay dead if it's suicide, an accident or natural causes.

2) one out of a thousand or so murders stay dead anyway. For example, a heavy war fire fight breaks out, 576 soldiers reappear at home, 1 stays dead where they fell. It is completely random chance on whether any one death critical fails to respawn.

3) people actually reappear where they feel safest, which usually is in bed at their home, but could be other places. When they die everything that is a functional part of them (i.e. dental work, pins, pacemaker) goes with them but everything else (clothes, bags, wallets, keys, etc) stays where they died and so they reappear naked.

4) when they respawn their body goes back several hours, up to a day. It varies. So if someone starts dying after an 8hr surgery and gets killed to respawn and live, they go back to before the surgery. But if they break their arm and the next day get shot dead, they'd still have a broken arm when they respawn.

#the dispatcher #john scalzi