Entries from February 2017 ↓

Everything I read in 2017, with 2017-published works separated out and bolded if I\’m considering nominating them for Hugos.  (I\’ve also included 2017 works that I read for Hugo consideration in 2018; those are marked with an asterisk.)  See 2016 and 2015 lists.  (And for what it\’s worth, there are plenty of works that I enjoyed quite a bit but am unlikely to nominate; don\’t take the lack of bolding as an indication that I didn\’t like it!)

2017 Novels (at least 40,000 words):

• The Collapsing Empire, John Scalzi
• The Brightest Fell, Seanan McGuire
• Rebel Seoul, Axie Oh
• Stoneskin, K.B. Spangler
• Siege Line, Myke Cole
• Clockwork Boys, T. Kingfisher
• Into the Drowning Deep, Mira Grant
• Jade City, Fonda Lee*
• The Glass Town Game, Catherynne Valente*
• Six Wakes, Mur Lafferty*
• Barbary Station, R.E. Stearns*
• Terminal Alliance, Jim Hines*
• Magic for Nothing, Seanan McGuire
• The \”Wonderful\” Wizard of Futhermucking Oz, Matt Youngmark
• Deadlands: Boneyard, Seanan McGuire
• At the Table of Wolves, Kay Kenyon

2017 Novellas (17,500 to 40,000 words):

• Binti: Home, Nnedi Okorafor
• Idle Ingredients, Matt Wallace
• Buffalo Soldier, Maurice Broaddus
• Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day, Seanan McGuire
• Gluttony Bay, Matt Wallace
• All Systems Red, Martha Wells*
• The Dispatcher, John Scalzi*
• Greedy Pigs, Matt Wallace
• Rolling in the Deep, Mira Grant

2017 Novelettes (7,500 to 17,500 words):

• \”Remote Presence\”, Susan Palwick*
• \”The Worshipful Society of Glovers\”, Mary Robinette Kowal*
• \”The Secret Life of Bots\”, Suzanne Palmer*
• \”Three May Keep A Secret\”, Carlie St. George*

2017 Short Stories (less than 7,500 words):

• \”Origin Story\”, T. Kingfisher
• \”Down and Out in Rl\’yeh\”, Catherynne Valente
• \”The Greatest One-Star Restaurant in the Whole Quadrant\”, Rachael K. Jones*
• \”The Heart\’s Cartography\”, Susan Jane Bigelow*
• \”Utopia, LOL?\”, Jamie Wahls*
• \”Let Pass the Horses Black\”, T. Kingfisher

Non-2017 works read in 2017:

• Brute Force, K.B. Spangler
• Ghost Talkers, Mary Robinette Kowal
• Beast, Brie Spangler
• Heroine Complex, Sarah Kuhn
• Crosstalk, Connie Willis
• \”A Trump Christmas Carol\”, Roz Kaveney, Laurie Penny, John Scalzi, and Jo Walton
• Cobalt City Christmas: Christmas Harder, Eric Scott deBie, Nathan Crowder, Jeremy Zimmerman, Dawn Vogel, Amanda Cherry
• Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi
• All the InCryptid short stories available on Seanan McGuire\’s website (23 total as of February 2017)
• Infomocracy, Malka Older
• \”Things With Beards\”, Sam J. Miller
• \”Terminal\”, Lavie Tidhar
• \”That Game We Played During The War\”, Carrie Vaughn
• \”The Great Detective\”, Delia Sherman
• The Jewel and her Lapidary, Fran Wilde
• \”Your Orisons May Be Recorded\”, Laurie Penny
• \”A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers\”, Alyssa Wong
• \”The Visitor from Taured\”, Ian R. MacLeod
• The Iron Tactician, Alastair Reynolds
• The Man Who Was Thursday, G.K. Chesterton
• Pride\’s Spell, Matt Wallace
• The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin
• The Obelisk Gate, N.K. Jemisin
• \”Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies\”, Brooke Bolander
• Snowflake War Journal, Jeremy Zimmerman
• The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Becky Chambers
• A Closed and Common Orbit, Becky Chambers
• \”You Are Not the Hero of This Story\”, Caroline M. Yoachim
• The Dark Forest, Cixin Liu
• Jackalope Wives And Other Stories, T. Kingfisher
• The Orphan\’s Tales: In the Night Garden, Catherynne M. Valente (in progress)
• Death\’s End, Cixin Liu
• All The Birds In The Sky, Charlie Jane Anders
• The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, Kij Johnson
• The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor LaValle
• Penric and the Shaman, Lois McMaster Bujold
• \”You\’ll Surely Drown Here If You Stay\”, Alyssa Wong
• \”Touring with the Alien\”, Carolyn Ives Gilman
• \”The Art of Space Travel\”, Nina Allan
• TODO: Short stories
• Pay Me, Bug!, C.B. Wright
• \”The First Snow of Winter\”, Caroline M. Yoachim
• Glamour in Glass, Mary Robinette Kowal
• Without a Summer, Mary Robinette Kowal
• Valour and Vanity, Mary Robinette Kowal
• Of Noble Family, Mary Robinette Kowal
• The Rithmatist, Brandon Sanderson
• The Rebirths of Tao, Wesley Chu
• \”Penric\’s Demon\”, Lois McMaster Bujold

Thanks to work, in the past week I haven\’t been paying as much attention to the news as I had been for the last few weeks.  It\’s relaxing in the short term – but so is playing video games while your house burns down around you.  One bit of news that has broken through, however, is a certain inflammatory, racist, doxxing transphobe losing his speaking gigs and book deal because of his support for pedophilia.  I\’m appalled that it took as long as it did for the media establishment to decide that they shouldn\’t be giving Milo a platform, but better late than never, I suppose?

Edit: I had originally written this before the news broke about Trump and Sessions revoking the Obama-era guidance on allowing transgender students to use the bathrooms they feel comfortable using.  This attack on trans people\’s right to even exist in public is of a piece with Milo\’s transphobia, but far more dangerous.

Last Week: Amnesty International

Thanks to Maria E., last week we donated a total of $35 to Amnesty International.

This Week: The Trevor Project

LGBTQ people across America are under attack right now, whether from transphobic hatred masquerading as \”free speech\” or from the Vice President\’s agenda of redirecting AIDS funding to abusive \”conversion therapy\” programs.  The Trevor Project is a crisis support organization for LGBTQ teenagers and young adults.  They run a suicide hotline over phone, instant message, or text message, available 24/7.

Donate to the Trevor Project and we\’ll match the first $100 in donations – forward your donation receipt to matching@pyrlogos.com to have your donation counted, and also be entered into our monthly art giveaway for donors.

Call to Action

It\’s hard to keep pressing forward week after week.  Take some time for self-care if you need it.  Find others around you in need of care as well.  Help your community survive, and keep resisting.

If you\’re up for calling your representatives, consider putting pressure on them to support the investigation into Trump\’s Russian connections.  While impeachment and conviction of Trump won\’t solve all of our problems – Pence is in some ways worse – it will at least deescalate some of the biggest problems currently being caused by the presidency.

Edit: Today, I have also seen an excellent suggestion for action on Twitter (though I don\’t recall the source at the moment): call your local school board, superintendent, or even individual schools and voice your support for allowing trans students to use the bathrooms they choose to use.  This hatred is, in large part, being pushed on us by the government, the Republican establishment, and a small number of transphobic activists, but the fact that we outnumber the transphobes only matters if we make our voices heard.

I apologize for the late entry; I\’m on a work trip this week and it\’s thrown off my entire schedule. It\’s been a chaotic weekend for the Trump administration as well, with his National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, resigning over substantiated allegations of significant ties to Russia, and the admission that he had lied about conversations with the Russian government. This is hopefully the first among many resignations from the Trump administration – including, ideally, Trump himself…

Last Week: CAIR

Thanks to Maria E., Madeleine B., and our anonymous matcher, we raised a total of $180 for CAIR last week!

This week: Amnesty International

With Trump\’s refusal to participate in the international efforts to aid refugees from Syria and elsewhere, the work of NGOs becomes even more important. Amnesty International\’s work in support of human rights is known around the world, not only assisting refugees but also fighting against torture, capital punishment, and other abuses.

Donations to Amnesty International are handled by the individual national sections that make up the organization; from the main website, click the \”Donate Now\” link in the upper right and select your country.  Forward your donation receipts to matching@pyrlogos.com; I\’ll match the first $100 donated (regardless of section), and enter you into February\’s art giveaway as well.

Call to Action

The chair of the House Oversight Committee, Jason Chaffetz, claims that there is no need to further investigate Michael Flynn\’s ties to Russia because the problem is \”taking care of itself\”. I disagree. If anything, Flynn\’s resignation demonstrates the validity of the criticisms leveled against Trump himself since even before the election – that he is beholden to the interests of a foreign government.

Please call your representatives and ask them to continue the investigation into the Trump administration\’s ties to Russia, and also to demand Trump\’s tax returns and other documentation about his assets and holdings, which he has still not made public. These two things are connected, and the picture they paint is not a pleasant one.

Multiple court orders later, Trump\’s attempt to ban many Muslims from entering the United States appears to have largely failed.  However, Islamophobia continues to play a large role in the new president\’s conception of foreign affairs.

Last Week: ACLU

Thanks to donors Jessica, Lorna Q., Kelly D., Christine H., Eric A., Lara H., Maria E., and an anonymous donor, we raised $2,815 for the ACLU.  Wow.  It was a big week for the ACLU overall, receiving nearly $30 million in donations, and I\’m glad we could be a part of that.

Also, congratulations to Christine H., winner of January\’s art giveaway!  A new month means a new giveaway; donations from February 1st through the 28th are eligible for February\’s prize of a hand-drawn and colored portrait of anyone you want.

This Week: CAIR

With the outpouring of support for the ACLU, I feel like I kind of short-changed the Council on American-Islamic Relations by including them in the same matching week; I didn\’t come close to meeting my matching limit.  They\’re doing important work, not just filing lawsuits on behalf of American Muslims but also fighting the broader trends of Islamophobia.  They\’re going to be pretty busy during this presidency.  Donate to CAIR here, and forward your donation receipt to matching@pyrlogos.com – I will continue matching donations up to the $500 limit I set last week.  (Donations to one of their regional chapters – like CAIR Seattle – will also count!)

Call to Action

After multiple delays and a lot of bad publicity, the Senate is voting on Betsy DeVos\’s nomination as Secretary of Education today (February 6th).  We are so close to successfully defeating this nominee – one of the worst prospective members of one of the worst Cabinets the country has ever seen.  If you see this before the final vote happens, call your senator and request that they vote against confirming Ms. DeVos.  After that vote happens, keep on your senators to oppose the other odious nominations – and push back against the appointment of Steve Bannon to the National Security Council as well.