Private Mars Rocket

A bit of housekeeping - crossposting from Dreamwidth appears to be permanently down, so I am manually copying this which will be my last post on LiveJournal.  Please find me at https://chris-gerrib.dreamwidth.org/.

For the record and so I may refer to them later, my thoughts on the situation in the Ukraine.

First, there is no moral, legal or ethical reason for Russia to invade Ukraine. The "republics" Putin recognized are creatures of Russia, created by Putin to weaken Ukraine. They are not only not under any threat but are in fact causing threats, and Russian "peacekeepers" are not keeping peace but threatening war.

Second, although Putin needs to be punished, I am not in favor of going to war to do so. Arming Ukrainians, yes. Sanctions, yes. War, either ground combat or some "no-fly zone" (which is an act of war) - no.

Third, we as the West need to assume that Putin is a clear and present danger. Whether he's crafty as a fox or high on his own supply I don't know, but we can't assume this will be the last bite of the apple. We need to move significant heavy forces to NATO now, move them as far east as we can, and expect to be there for years. If Finland and Sweden want to join NATO, get them in and integrated as rapidly as possible.

Fourth, we as Americans need to recognize that we will inevitably be drawn into any long-duration war in Europe. The US was created in large part as a result of the Seven Years War. We got drawn into the Napoleonic Wars (we call our part the War of 1812). We got drawn into both World Wars. We have a choice - sit back fat, dumb and happy until we get sucked into a war and scramble, or try and prevent that war while ensuring should one come we are in a better situation.

The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I read and thoroughly enjoyed Emily St. John Mandel's later works "Station Eleven" and "The Glass Hotel." When, at my local independent bookstore (Prairie Path Books), while checking out the post-holiday sale, I found this earlier book on offer I decided to read it. I found it interesting and revealing of an author's growth.

The book was originally published in 2012 and set during the financial crash of 2008, so it predates "Station Eleven." Like the later book, we see Emily's use of multiple point-of-view characters and flashbacks. The nominal protagonist is Gavin Sasaki, and according to the back-cover blurb he's a "promising young journalist" until he was fired for plagiarism. (Actually, he just made stuff up out of whole cloth.)

But Gavin's not really the protagonist. He doesn't do much - he observes and at times gets in the way, but the action of the book is performed by others. There is action - theft and murder - but Gavin's not doing it and frequently isn't even observing it. The people in the story are a rather sordid bunch as well, struggling to get by with low-end jobs in dead-end places.

The bones of Mandel's later and better novels are in this one, but the flesh isn't yet. Despite that I enjoyed the work and it will tide me over while I wait for her latest work to be released.



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Herewith is my schedule for Capricon, to be held in downtown Chicago at the Sheraton Grand Chicago February 3 -6, 2022.


The Best Genre Novels of 2021 Erie Literature Panel Thu 5:00 PM

Hugo nominating season is upon us, so let's take a moment to talk about our favorite SF/F novels from 2021.


The Lighter Side of Speculative Fiction Michigan Fan Interest Panel Fri 1:00 PM

Given the last two years, escapism is in high demand. We don't always want to read that door-stopper epic and are looking for something lighter and funnier to relax with. Where do you turn when looking for books, TV shows, and movies that ride that line between guilty pleasure and serious genre offering? Who are the writers tickling your funny bone? What about their stories appeal to you?

Space Operas vs Space Operas Erie Theme Panel Fri 5:00 PM

Is your space opera musical or vintage? Where did the term "space opera" come from and what would the plot or music be like for an actual opera set in space? Whether we're talking about epic space stories or about people singing in space, the thing both kinds of opera have in common is melodrama. Our panelists discuss.


How Much Sex Should My Book Have? Missouri Writing Panel Fri 8:00 PM

Sex sells, but it can also overpower the rest of a work (or at least its reputation) if not kept in the proper proportion. How does a writer determine what that proportion is?

We Can (Can We?) Fix Global Warming! Superior Science Panel Sat 2:00 PM

Geoengineering -- large-scale deliberate changes to the atmosphere (etc.) to deal with global warming -- is almost a taboo topic in environmental circles, often met with open hostility. What are the possibilities, why are they so unpopular, and can we really avoid needing them?

Chicago-SF Book Discussion: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir Missouri Participatory Event Sat 4:00 PM

Join with Chicago-SF for a deep dive into Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir's award-winning novel, the story of an interstellar trip with the fate of humanity itself at risk.

How I Wrote This Erie Writing Panel Sun 12:00 PM

A panel of authors will describe the path of a work of fiction from idea to first draft, second draft, beta reader, more drafts, and finally publication. Where did the idea come from and how did the storytelling take shape? Here's a chance to look at the how inspiration intersects with craft in real life.

The Best Book(s) No One Ever Read Missouri Literature Panel Sun 1:00 PM

Description These are the unsung heroes of speculative fiction! Books we read and loved and can't find a dang other person who also read them! Which is a crime!

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7An Open Secret: The Family Story of Robert and John Gregg Allerton by Nicholas L. Syrett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I became aware of Robert Allerton in the mid-1980s as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois. His former mansion was and is being used as a conference center which I ended up staying at for a weekend. Then, to get my history degree I had to write a paper on an artist and an art patron. My selected patron was Robert Allerton. It was during the research of that paper that I learned that the then 80+ year-old Allerton adopted a son - a man 26 years his junior. Neither man married or had other children.

When I found out about this book, my long-dormant interest in Robert Allerton was piqued, so I ordered it and finally got around to reading it. It's a short book - 174 pages - and academic, with extensive footnotes. The author was also hindered in that Robert and his companion, John Gregg, met in 1922 and were practically inseparable. For example, during WWII, when both men were living on Hawaii, John joined the local Home Guard. Just him being away for the day with the troops was cause for sadness in Robert's letters to his accountant back in Chicago.

Nicholas Syrett, the author, performed extensive research and showed both men's place in the gay communities of the 1800s and 1900s. He also highlighted some of the obvious contradictions of their lives. For example, even into the 1980s (John died in 1986) the pair never admitted they were gay. They were also both lifelong Republicans, and exhibited a number of the bigotries of the age. For example, John was a member of the University of Illinois chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. (I should note that the Klan of the 1920s was open enough that they had a club picture with clear faces and names in the college yearbook.)

Overall, I found this an interesting read and look into history.



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This past Saturday the Chicago area was hit by a snowstorm. Said storm was at it's peak in my area during the hours I usually go out for dinner, so I stayed in and watched Netflix. My viewing choices proved to be a British invasion.

First up was the 2017 movie Darkest Hour. This was a film which earned Gary Oldman an Oscar. Despite that, I had not heard of the film until recently when Netflix started pushing it at me. In the movie, Oldman plays Winston Churchill during the month of May, 1940, starting when he becomes Prime Minister and ending with the evacuation at Dunkirk. It's a good movie, but kind of an interior drama.

I then watched the 2021 movie Spencer, frankly because I wanted to see how solid Kristen Stewart's British accent was. (Solid, although all of her lines were delivered in a whisper.) The movie takes place during the Royal Family's 1991 Christmas holiday at Sandringham House. Most of the events shown therein are completely made up, although the (cold and odd) holiday traditions of the Family were on full display. Again, very much an interior drama, but I found it interesting.

Tomorrow I go back to work, so I have no idea how much posting you'll be seeing from me.

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Happy New Years! I stayed in last night. After cooking myself a large steak I watched the new Netflix film Don't Look Up and part of another Netflix film, The Lost Daughter. I have thoughts on both - herewith in reverse order of screening.

I found The Lost Daughter entirely too slow for my tastes, and didn't really care much for the characters. I gave it up about an hour in, having decided that I was not the target audience for that movie. Having Googled the ending, I think I made the right call.

Don't Look Up was more to my tastes, although given the events of 2020 and 2021 it was a bit on the nose. As revealed in the trailers, Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DeCaprio discover a comet on a collision course with Earth. Meryl Streep, playing a sex-reversed Donald Trump, is President and well, she responds to the comet pretty much as you'd expect. (Spoiler - not well.) Another minor spoiler is the movie's title.

Much like the ongoing COVID-19 plague, some people respond to the comet threat by denying it exists. When the comet becomes visible to the naked eye, concerned people start a campaign to tell people "just look up" and see the comet for themselves. Streep's counter-campaign is, well, "don't look up."

There have been a number of rocks-heading-for-Earth stories in SF. A standard trope in those stories is a group of people opposed to the impact-prevention efforts, usually for religious reasons. I never really bought into that idea. In Don't Look Up, they ripped an unfortunately more believable trope from the headlines, that of willful denial.

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One of the cool things about going to conventions is you get to meet people with wildly varying backgrounds. At the most recent Worldcon, Discon 3, I met somebody with personal experience in dealing with Amanda Palmer. For those not in the know, Amanda is an American singer and mid-tier celebrity. She's notable in this instance for her book The Art of Asking. This book details such things as her tendency to just show up in a town when she's on tour and post on the Internet "hey, I need a room for the night." I had always found this more than a bit weird, and my acquaintance confirmed my feelings.

My acquaintance told me their personal experience with Palmer when, as a houseguest to a mutual friend, Palmer asked the acquaintance to drive somebody two hours to a train station. This ask was made in a very public manner, specifically to make it awkward to refuse. Moreover, my acquaintance reports Palmer's interest in them began and ended with facilitating this trip.

The story crystalizes for me how the "Art of Asking" really works. The asker just doesn't care if others are inconvenienced. Think for a moment about the "show up in town and post 'I need a room' bit." The ask is made that night, creating an artificial crisis. (I mean, it's not like Palmer doesn't know weeks in advance where they'll be touring on a given day.) If somebody actually were concerned about not putting people out, the request would be made in advance. (Or, one would do what normal people do and book a hotel.)

In short, it was an interesting and enlightening conversation. I don't know how one facilitates those kinds of meetings at a virtual event.

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I'm at Discon III, the current World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon). One of the things we do at a Worldcon is vote on where the convention will be two years from now. It was announced today that Chengdu, China won the bid for 2023. It was not my first choice, largely due to the travel cost. The other bid was Winnipeg, Canada - obviously cheaper to get to from Chicago.

China rather obviously has human rights issues, and there are more than a few people who are rightfully concerned that they may be in danger of arrest if they visit mainland China. As a result, a number of people were vehemently opposed to the bid. I am of several minds about that. First, yes we should recognize the human rights issues. Second, we should recognize that no country is perfect.

The US has our own issues, from white supremacy to a bad track record of allowing Arabs in the country. I personally saw a Canadian writer of Lebanese descent get pulled aside for additional screening while re-entering the US on a cruise. Her mother (also a Canadian citizen) had been denied entry into the US prior to the cruise.

My third take is that we as a country have decided to engage in extensive trade and business with China. We as science fiction people claim to represent the world (see "World Science Fiction Convention.") If the bidder wins the bid via legitimate means, then they win the bid. If an individual or group doesn't want to attend, then they don't attend.

Lastly, there were a number of shenanigans during the bid process. This started with overheated announcements about the number of Chinese people registered to vote and ended with an attempt to implement a technical change to the way we count bids which seemed designed to toss out the Chinese bids. That last attempt obviously failed, but it did not cover the current convention with glory - rather the reverse.

Whether or not I actually go to China will depend on many factors, including budget, but they certainly have the right to host the convention.

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So one of my local theater companies, Buffalo Theatre Ensemble, has gone back to in-person plays. I attended their recent showing of Stove Toucher. I quite enjoyed it, although based on the advanced marketing I was not enthusiastic about it.

The advanced marketing was "What happens when you achieve the high-rolling lifestyle you always dreamed of...at thirteen…?" Turns out, a lot. The play was a one-man show, the autobiographical story of Kurt Naebig, an actor and director in the ensemble. As a teenager, he got heavily into skateboarding and opened a store in Oak Park at age 13 in the 1970s.

He was also an alcoholic and and addict, having first gotten drunk at age five. His story alternated between adventures as a kid (including getting sober) and what happened when at age 55 he broke his hip while trying a skateboard trick. It was both funny, sad, inspiring and just plain fun. I'm glad I went.

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The F Word by Mindy Klasky

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I am not typically a romance reader, but I read the previous book in the series largely because I found the concept intriguing. How do you do romance during a plague? Well, the answer is "very carefully." As you can tell from the title, this is Book 2 of a series, however you don't need to have read Book 1 to follow along. Jennifer Price, one of our protagonists, was in Book 1 but was a minor character. Nothing about what she did in that book is "need to know" for this book.

The story opens with Jen having a burning need to be at a certain slice of North Carolina beach on Christmas Eve. COVID and a reality TV show looking for a safe bubble to film in get in the way. She was definitely NOT looking for love - just access. However, this being a romance, love finds her. In another structural tie-in to the previous book, both protagonists (Jen and celebrity chef Noah Ryan have secrets which get in the way.

This book was an amusing and quick read as well as a reminder of our immediate past. I am looking forward to The B Word, Book 3 of the series.



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