The Link Report: 14.10.2009

Yesterday, autumn hit me hard, both physically [getting caught in an October heavy shower with no umbrella or jacket] and metaphorically [the melancholic anti-activity mood] so I said 'screw this' and watched Glee, So You Think You Can Dance and a very funny British movie called Doghouse, which I wholeheartedly laughed at through most of the time. Now I am better, thank you much and I will proceed with the delayed posts.

Shit Storm of the Week:

Oh, yes. There seem to be brewing two and strangely enough both seems to revolve around science fiction. Wait. Does this mean that Urban Fantasy has moved away from scandal spotlight? First the never ending war between the Literati and the rest of the literary world continues. This episode it's the Literati vs. Science Fiction people. But since I didn't bookmark the initial pages I have read on the web, because I didn't think that yet another debate would make blogger headlines I skipped this one, but if you have been paying attention you will know that it's there.

Anyway the second shit storm has to do with science fiction and sexism. This trend with women being unappreciated in literature seems to stem from the debated discussion about the Horror Masters volume of interviews [if my memory serves semi-fine], which had no women represented. Apparently now the focus has moved to science fiction. I personally have no stance on the matter, because an anthology with no female authors could mean several thousand things that have nothing to do with gender and from all the anthologies I have picked none has had any lack of female names, unless it's the collective works of a male author. Here are some arguments.

The War on Science Fiction - This one is a bit offensive, due to the fact that it hits quite close to home, but nevertheless offers a unique opinion to the whole debate.

John Scalzi touches the topic with his blog post: A Boy's own Genre, or Not

John Ottinger has also addressed the issue, but due to the controversial nature of his post he has deleted it and then posted an official apology for his handling of the issue. I have read the post and didn't find it as a stick aimed at a beehive, but then again my EQ drops and rises in random patterns. Here is his apology.

And here are the reactions caused by both his posts on Spontaneous Derivation and Etched on Sova's Pen. Oh and at Bibliophile Stalker.

This makes me want to experiment and see whether a very controversial and ill mannered post of mine will generate a shit apocalypse, but I am not as evil.

Giveaways:

We start with Alec from "Only the best Sci-Fi/Fantasy" and his offering: 9 Movie Book.

Then that man Graeme has so much to give: The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grimm, The Unseen Academicals and Suicide Kings

Reviews:

~ Bookfool reviews "Pale Phoenix"
~ The Booksmugglers review "The Bell at Sealey Head" + a giveaway

Other:

~ Tor.com interviews artist James Ng

~ Oh and completely egocentric. "Temple Library Reviews" is Number 15 on Technorati's Top 100 for book blogs, which is completely surreal, but I definitely like it. How the heck did that happen is beyond me, but it seemed interesting enough to announce.

Okay, this has been a bit scarce, but my Google Reader is stocked up and my real life demands errands to be done, so I am leaving the heavy task on Michael aka ediFanoB to wrap up the week this Sunday.