"Oh, nothing, just singing with a creeper."

I think a lot of the stuff this guy complains about was explained in the stage version. I take it was cut down for the movie?

As I recall, Marius is worse in the book.

Hugo question

Are novellas and novelettes distinct enough that there has to be two categories?

[added later]

If you are here because of "James Nicoll questions whether there should be four written-fiction Hugos. Comments over there, please." note that is inaccurate. In theory we could another written category to make up for the loss of one. Best YA novel, for example.

Because I was chided in email for not having done this

I would not recommend Harry Turtledove's recent Supervolcano series in part because it managed to make a pretty horrific event dull but mainly because of the gratuitous humiliation conga visited on the characters of the ex-wife and the daughter, both of whom seem to be singled out for disapproval for their unsanctioned-by-the-male-lead sex lives. After reading it, I actually checked to see if the author had just had a particularly bitter divorce but apparently not.

Encountered while out walking

Young, friendly, has a litter of kittens somewhere.

Encountered at Zehrs

A tin of cat food, bulging at both ends. I pointed it out to staff.

Dimension X: Shanghaied (Ernest Kinoy)

Shanghaied

On the eve of his wedding, a wealthy young man is shanghaied onto a deep space mission to Alpha Centauri, a trip that will take fifteen years. He and his companions try various gambits in their bids for freedom but the crucial act will turn out to be something one of the antagonists did.

This really leans on space ships as ships pretty hard.

The space laws - blow up mutineers ships on sight - imply to me the powers that be know about the kidnappings and are not just OK with it but determined to protect the practice. Any commercial enterprise where the wages are not sufficient to attract enough workers probably is not worth doing.

Dimension X: Competition (E.M Hull, adapted by Ernest Kinoy)

Competition

Following the death of her parents, a young woman is on her way to settle in with her sister when she learns despite what it says on her ticket, all emigrants get dumped on one world (supposedly picked by a vote but the election is fixed) and the one she is headed for is not the one her sister lives on.

She is assured by a smirking crewman that a pretty girl like her will have no trouble finding employment and sure enough in short order she is abducted, poisoned and used as the bait in a trap for a local businessman.

I don't know how old the girl is but apparently not old enough to live on her own. This makes the bit at the end ( Read more... )

Since this does not have four wheels, I assume bike rules apply and it can go on sidewalks