You know, back in 2011 I said that it would be pretty cool to win the Hugo Award.
Ah, to be that naive and young again.
Hell, back in 2013 I still thought it would be fun. “Fun” being relative, but you know.
Now? Now I’m just happy that I’m a Campbell finalist (which is not directly related to the Hugos, unlike what I believed back in 2011 when I first entered this world of “publishing”). After watching the utter meltdown on the Internet the past few weeks, it’s terrifying to see people and how they act when their actions seem to be without consequences. Any smidgen of social anarchy I may have had before was just curb stomped by the Internet.
Progress; it’s a bitch sometimes.
I read 1635: The Papal Stakes the other day (by Charles Gannon and Eric Flint) and something twigged me while I was reading it. It bugged the ever-loving crap out of me enough to drive me to distraction. So I started leafing through other 1632 books to see if I could figure out what it was. It popped when I reread 1636: Commander Cantrell in the West Indies.
They’re the same damn book.
Uptime hero who is clueless but honorable? Check — Eddie Cantrell and Frank Stone
Downtime heroine who is much smarter than her husband? Check — Anne Catherine and Giovanna Stone
I hate typecasting. There are other major similarities as well throughout the books (perfectly executed plan, next plan is screwed to hell due to the “rare” smarter enemy, then they defeat said enemy to close out the book, but most of their opponents are absolute feckin’ morons) but it’s a worrisome trait. The 1632 series is what got me into alternate history. I hope they’re not stagnating as the “up-timers” are integrating themselves more into history.
Or it could be my distaste at how the Spanish are portrayed, I don’t know.
I ran some tanks last night with pro player Razeryan from Elevate. Did fairly well, though it wasn’t until I hopped in my baby seal clubber (the T30) that we began to have some real fun. For a Tier IX tank, it’s a mean bastard. I still think I sound like a goober when I hear my voice on the live stream (www.mlg.tv/razeryan if you’re ever bored and want to watch us run some tanks late at night). Razeryan is a font of information about World of Tanks as well, and knows more about the game than I do. It was educational and fun.
Jason Córdova 
I’ve always been a fan of alternate history books. I really, really liked the first few of the 1632 series, but started to get burnt out after awhile. There is just so much there it’s intimidating.
I liked the Turtledove WW2-Alien Invasion books, and Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. Most of my favorite Alt-Hist stories are short stories, many collected in the What Might Have Been volumes and Hitler Victorious. Death Is Lighter Than A Feather was a bit disappointing, probably because I was expecting a straight forward narrative and instead it reads more like a series of short stories.
My favorite though is by Robert Harris. Fatherland blew me away. It was like Alt-Hist Gorky Park.
I really enjoyed some of Robert Conroy’s work. It’s a shame he passed away recently.
Turtledove’s WW2 alien invasion series, and the subsequent series afterwards, were very well done. He also had a fun little fantasy/alt history series set during the Civil War (Sentry Peak, Marching Through Peachtree) but nothing more was done with those.
I never read Fatherland. I did see the movie, however. I think I was 12 or 13 at the time. I’m going to have to pick that one up.
Oh, I forgot about Conroy. He’s got some decent stuff as well.
I was a little disappointed in the movie of Fatherland. It was good, but I was expecting more from Hauer and Richardson. Of all the adaptations of Harris’ novels, Enigma is the one I enjoyed the best on screen.
I don’t think I saw Enigma. Any good?
It wasn’t bad. I starred Kate Winslet and Dougray Scott.
Time to go to Netflix and see if they have it. Barring that, Amazon.