Award-Winning Sci-fi List

Published
by
jwbjerk
on May 2, 2008
in ARTS and recreational arts
. 2 Comments

Previously i posted a spreadsheet of some sci-fi writing.  Gradually i’ve expanded that list, until it’s included all the Hugo, Locus, Nebula, Campbell and Sturgeon winners and most of the runner-ups.  Then i threw in some other works from early sci-fi and to complete some series.  All told, it now contains about 700 novels, and with shorter works 2153 items.

In order to keep all this straight, i’ve calculated the “Combo Rank” of all the works.  This spreadsheet takes into account how well a work did in all 5 of the awards, and using a convoluted formula produces a single number roughly between 0 and 10.  Thus a book that got second place in 3 awards would rank higher than one that got first in one award but did not place in any other award.I have no delusions that this method is the perfectly corresponds to a work’s greatness.  Frederik Pohl’s Gateway and A. C. Clarke’s Rendevous with Rama are at the top of the list, being the only two novels to take first place in four of the awards i use.  Though they are not unknown novels, i don’t expect to find them at the top of many “All Time Sci-fi Greats” lists.  But in as much as winning a Nebula or a Hugo award indicates a work’s quality, this rank can be a useful tool to discover books of quality. Continue reading ‘Award-Winning Sci-fi List’

The Road to Clarity

Published
by
jwbjerk
on August 12, 2007
in ARTS, THE WORLD and design
. 3 Comments

roadsigns
I just read this interesting NY Times article on Clearview, the new typeface that’s being used for highway signs. The article should be understandable by non typography-geeks, and perhaps of interest to those who want to understand why designers care about superficially similar typefaces so much. Oddly no mention is made of spacing between letters (kerning), which seems much more regular in Clearview.

This is an instance of typography saving lives. Clearview signs can be read 200-300 feet further away than signs of the same size set in Highway Gothic. This gives drivers extra seconds to process information and make decisions.

I’m sorta ashamed i never noticed how badly suited the old Highway Gothic is for highway use, but i guess you never get a chance to spend much time looking at the typography of the signs.

Ugly is not the New “Cool”

Published
by
jwbjerk
on July 1, 2007
in ARTS and design
. 7 Comments

It occurred to me that some of you may not be outraged by the new 2012 Olympic Logo because you are unaware of it. I feel the need to share my pain, and burden you with the knowledge. Behold:

Olympic Logo

It’s as if Dr. Frankenstein had unearthed the coffins of all the worst logo-design of the 80’s, and somehow combined the parts into a great reanimated design monster. The best thing i can say about it is that it grabs your attention, similar to the way that 1200 fingers scratching of chalkboards grabs attention.

It is not surprising that such a brand mark is accompanied by meaningless drivel by way of explanation:

London 2012 will be everyone’s Games, everyone’s 2012. This is the vision at the very heart of the new London 2012 brand. It will define the venues that are built and the Games that London and the UK will host. The new 2012 emblem will use the Olympic spirit to inspire everyone and reach out to young people. It is an invitation to take part and be involved.

These will be a Games where everyone is invited to join in. A Games where people are inspired to either take part in the many sports, cultural, educational and community events leading up to 2012 or inspired to achieve personal goals.
…
The new emblem is dynamic, modern and flexible. It will work with new technology and across traditional and new media networks.

As if other emblems don’t work with new technology…

The official site (to prove i’m not making it up)

Here’s some design discussion.

Sci-fi Greatest Works [updated]

Published
by
jwbjerk
on June 29, 2007
in ARTS, TECH, digital life and recreational arts
. 4 Comments

When Orson Scott Card was asked: “What is your advice to the aspiring SF or fantasy novelist?” he replied:

Don’t even think about writing sf or fantasy unless you’ve read every story in: The Hugo Winners, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Dangerous Visions and Again Dangerous Visions.

These stories are the root of the field. If you don’t know them, you will try to reinvent the wheel; and since the readers do know them, it will kill your work. Besides, you can’t learn the tools of the trade without being familiar with how they’ve been used and developed. Science fiction is more demanding than literary fiction, and is harder to do well; the reward is that science fiction and fantasy allow you to tell any story that can be told in li-fi, and far more that can’t.

I don’t have specific aspirations to be a writer, but this seems like good advice for the sci-fi reader as well. So, instead of wandering blindly through the mass of sci-fi, i decided to read those works recognized by the writers and readers of sci-fi as the greats. And because i’m very bad at remembering book titles, i put together a chart to keep track of things. The chart gradually grew into something more, either exhaustive or monstrous— depending on your perspective.

I’ve included the Anthologies O.S. Card recommended, the Hugo Award winners and nominees, The Nebula Award Winners, and most of the Locus Award Winners. A total of 1100+ novels, short stories and intermediate length works. For convenience the chart tallies up your progress in the various award categories. It also displays how much of the content in each category you’ve read, weighing longer works more heavily than short stories. Finally there are brief non-spoiling summaries of some of the works i’ve read.

I don’t know how many people are rabid enough about sci-fi to use this, but here it is:
A excel chart of award winning sci-fi

My current, life-long total:
38% of the Hugo Winners
15% of the Total in this chart.

[UPDATE]
I’ve updated the chart. There were several errors, and one big mistake, the weights for “novellas” and “novelettes” were reversed. I.e. reading novelettes gave you twice the credit that novellas did with only about half as many words to read. It works like this: the longer the word, “novel, novella, novelette” the fewer words it has.

I’ve also added some links in the chart, and a column that distinguishes between sci-fi and fantasy. However these are currently blank for most.

New Photo-Restoration Gallery

Published
by
jwbjerk
on March 14, 2007
in ARTS, TECH and photography
. 1 Comment

I’ve just put up a new simpleviewer gallery of some of my better restoration work on old photos. Most of these come from my family tree.

Unknown relative

Please take a look at the gallery.

The shape of the world

Published
by
jwbjerk
on March 9, 2007
in THE WORLD
. 1 Comment

I found this quite interesting, but i have a facination with maps: worldmapper.

Basically they inflate/deflate the land area of the nations to represent various statistics. The following shows patents filed in a recent year. The purple blob on the right? …Japan.
nations sized by patent applications

Inspiring Film-Noir Videogames

Published
by
jwbjerk
on March 1, 2007
in ARTS, TECH, digital life, illustration and recreational arts
. 0 Comments

I just thought this was really cool. Check out Limbo, especially the video teaser.
You don’t frequently see animation this nice on the big screen, let alone in a video game. The parallax and depth-of-field effects work wonderfully with the silhouette style — thus the reference to “film-noir”. I doubt there’s a maltese falcon in the game.

Limbo title Continue reading ‘Inspiring Film-Noir Videogames’

Moving away

Published
by
jwbjerk
on February 21, 2007
in my life
. 2 Comments

This weekend, for various reasons, i’m moving back to Illinois. (i hate packing) However, thanks to the new internet era, my digital contact info will be unchanged.
As before, you can find infrequently added posts by me at this web address.

UPDATE:
Well, i’m safely here, with all my belongings in cardboard boxes.

A meme of me

Published
by
jwbjerk
on December 30, 2006
in my life
. 1 Comment

Jeff tagged me, and this time i’m gonna answer before everyone else who i could tag has already been tagged by someone else. A number of Jeff’s answers are identical or similar to mine, some of which i wouldn’t have thought of.

  • My Childhood Ambition: To be a Zoologist, Paleontologist, Author, and later a video-game designer.
  • My Fondest Memory: None stands head-and-shoulders above the others. But my time spend on Saipan came to mind first. The whole tropical island thing is as gorgeous as it looks in pictures. Or perhaps a road-trip.
  • My Favorite Retreat: Other fictional worlds.
  • My Wildest Dream: Founding a new school of art of philosophy or art would be neat. Designing the first video-game deemed to be on par with a work of literature. Discovering a lost civilization. Making first contact with a sapient alien race, or first setting foot on a living alien world. Having a family, with kids that go on do whichever of my wildest dreams i haven’t completed. Continue reading ‘A meme of me’

Battle for Wesnoth

Published
by
jwbjerk
on December 26, 2006
in ARTS, TECH, illustration and recreational arts
. 0 Comments

It’s time to announce Battle for Wesnoth 1.2. This is a open-source game that i’ve been involved with for 2 or 3 years.  It’s developed by volunteers and is completely free. It’s a turn-based strategy game, with simple rules, which, like chess, are quite difficult to master.  I find it much more enjoyable than chess, not only because it has better graphics, but because to play successfully you must be able to respond to the unexpected.  Attacks are not always successful.
wesnoth screenshot

Continue reading ‘Battle for Wesnoth’

Al Hirschfeld draws

Published
by
jwbjerk
on December 10, 2006
in ARTS and illustration
. 0 Comments

Al Hirschfeld is one of the best recognized masters of caricature. His bold, flat, fluid lines, and extreme distortion create a distinctive style. The fact that his artistic career lasted nearth 80 years, and the fact that he’s drawn nearly every significant entertainment personality of that period, make it quite likely that you’ve seen his work.

Al Hirschfeld draws

Click on the picture to see a YouTube video of Hirschfeld drawing. I was quite facinated to see this. From this film it looks like he does all the work on a single sheet of paper, gradually building his sketch. I expected that the fluid lines would be laid down by quick, fluid strokes, but it seems he actually scratches them out quite carefully. Of course it’s possible his rendering style has become more deliberate with age.

Quantum Weirdness

Published
by
jwbjerk
on December 9, 2006
in ARTS, THE WORLD, anomalies and recreational arts
. 4 Comments

I’m not mathematically inclined, but i find ideas about the fundamental nature of the universe fascinating. Thus my amateurish interest in quantum physics. I would like to know if physical reality is incomprehensibly weird, or if science simply has no clue about sub-atomic particles. Of course, both may be true.
There is an obscure sub-genre of books devoted to explaining the weirder aspects of science to relatively normal people. Here are two that i’ve enjoyed: Continue reading ‘Quantum Weirdness’