Monthly Archives: May 2014

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BookCon

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This Saturday will be the first BookCon event. A few months ago now ReedPOP, the organizer of BEA (Book Expo America) as well as NY ComiCon, officially announced the first BookCon. If you are not familiar with BEA, it is essentially a trade show for books. There are writers, authors, purchasers, librarians, media,  bloggers, publishes, self-publishers, distributors, and basically anything else you can think of related to books and publishing. There also tend to be a lot of ARC books, of which many received a ridiculously heavy bags, needing to be lugged around all day (I know I’m bitching about free books, but seriously, print editions are not light).  A few year ago the final day of the trade show was opened up to the public as “Power Reader Day” where consumers got the chance to walk the trade floor at Javits and see the latest things on the market. This was not only publishers showcasing their latest works, but groups like SFWA, new eBook distributor, indie publishing assistance and all sorts of book related booths. I have attended these and it is quite interesting and very enjoyable. There were great book signings and authors taking the stage. I got to see authors ranging from Neil Gaiman, to comedian Jim Gaffigan.

This year ReedPOP decided to change the image of the Power Reader day and re brand it as BookCon. Now I am not sure if your average readers are as open to a “Con” environment as my fellow SFF readers, but I have sure seen some mixed feedback on this. While this even sounds great, there are some drawbacks. If you were one to purchase the power reader ticket early, and expect the same event as last year, you are out of luck. Sure we are told that there will be more public centric events, but much of the trade aspect is no longer available to you. BookCon will only have access to a specific area. There will no longer be access to BEA as a whole. This is a thorn in a lot of people’s sides, and honestly I understand. It feels like bait and switch. On the other hand, being on that end, I remember going and thinking “Ok, I’m here, what now? Who can I speak to and in what ways can I interact with these people?” I honestly thought it very overwhelming at first.

What turning this into a Con should do is make it more of an approachable event to the public. Events and authors will be focused on the reader this day, unlike the trade event, focusing on all of the other aspects of the industry. The guest list is probably more consumer minded with people such as Stan Lee, Cary Elwes best known as the the Dread Pirate Roberts/Westley, Danielle Fishel from Boy Meets World and R.L Stein. While I can appreciate the guest list, I do feel that the SF/F world is a bit underrepresented. Lev Grossman will be there which is great, but there are not many other big names in the genre that call out to me. This is mildly disappointing (not Lev he is quite the opposite of disappointing, I mean that there are not more like him) considering that there are many great authors with upcoming books or recently released books that I would have loved to have seen though. YA and romance certainly have much  larger presence. All in all it does have the potential to be a nice experience. There are certainly negatives to the new format, but perhaps it will successfully bring more of my fellow book nerds together with a great opportunity to interact with the publishers and authors we love. Maybe if this has a better turnout than the previous Power Reader days, it could grow and we the fans could dictate what we would like in the future.

Review, SciFi

The Martian by Andy Weir

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Originally self published in 2012, Andy Weir‘s The Martian was picked up by Crown publishing (a Random House subsidiary) and was released just a few months ago. The story is about Mark Whatney, an American Astronaut on a Mars expedition. There is nothing particularly historic about this mission, it is not the first and there are already more planned. What makes this a special situation is that Whatney is left behind when his crew leaves the planet and he is presumed dead. The botanist/engineer has to figure out how to survive on a dead planet with nothing but a couple of months worth of supplies.

I was fairly backlogged at the time this was released (or re-released rather), but I am very glad that I finally got around to reading it. I have to say that while I like and support self-published authors, I do find myself sticking mainly to major SF/F publishers (and almost exclusively reviewing them) as those publishers are more experienced and have a good idea of what works. Some self published stories are amazing (Wool anyone?), but the questionable content can be difficult to sort through. It is for this reason that I am thankful to Crown. Had they not found The Martian, I may never have either and this book was too good to miss.

I loved this book. You can stop here and go read it, I’ll wait. I really cannot find any way of just objectively describing the book, I can only tell you that it was one of the best Sci Fi books I have read in a long time. Mark Whatney is a humorous, sarcastic smart-ass, who talks like a real person, not some stereotypical scientific genius. My kind of person. If there was a situation where my reaction would have been “Holy Shit!” you can bet that is exactly what the character said. From the first page to the last sentence that character does not disappoint. Looking at the SciFi angle, there is really tons of science in it. Much of the book seemed plausible when you see of all of the science, engineering, calculations and modern actual technology. The reader is taken through all of this and can really feel the amount of thought and work that must have been put into writing it. There was no trace of impossible technology from the distant future, most of this could be done right now. Even the peek in to NASA’s internal workings felt authentic, though I am sure any actual NASA staff might not agree. It was funny, well written, rarely predictable and continually fun and enjoyable. It was as perfect a SciFi book as I could ask for.

I easily give this 5 a full 5 stars and recommend this to any Science Fiction fan. I also really look forward to reading whatever comes next from Andy Weir. I cannot say enough good things about this book. If you read it and hate it, well, first stop listening to me, I may not be your best barometer. Second start reading another genre.

Check out Any Weir’s Website and The Martian Page for more.

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Been A While

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Yes, I know, it has been a while since my last update. April has been a fairly crazy month for me, but I intend on getting back on track in May. While work has not slowed down, I will be trying to find time for this anyway. I had a few posts from last months that I drafted but did not complete. I will get at least one review from then up this week. A lot of my recent reading has been older items which I was not even intending to review so I will be working on other SF/F content as well. Stay tuned.