james_davis_nicoll | Corroboration sought

Corroboration sought

[Via Mike Ralls]

Steve Barnes has reported hearing that Jim Baen has been hospitalized with a stroke.

[Added later: this has been confirmed]

[If memory serves, Dar Kush was where I saw the announcement of Octavia Butler's death]

I will note at this point that not all strokes are created the same and that many people have continued their careers after having one.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This could be the end of an era...

Wow.

Soooo...does this mean that Eric Flint takes over Baen?

Will (http://thedragonstales.blogspot.com)

More likely to be Toni Weiskopf, she has been with Jim a long time.

AFAIK, Eric is entirely external to Baen Books LLC. He's just a freelance writer and editor, like the rest of us.

Strokes are not necessarily fatal -- it just depends on how serious it is. Some folks make a complete recovery, others are disabled or killed. In the absence of any word about his condition, I refuse to speculate further (and I suggest others do likewise).

Strokes are not necessarily fatal -- it just depends on how serious it is. Some folks make a complete recovery, others are disabled or killed. In the absence of any word about his condition, I refuse to speculate further (and I suggest others do likewise).

And in the meantime, I hope for the best and I wish him and his family well.

If all that was wrong with me was the strokes, I could probably still work. (And Ghu knows, I'd be smarter.) A coma means both sides of the brain were damaged. Mine was for six weeks, and it took another half-year or so to be really functional, so there's still a good possibility that Jim will get back to work.

For the record, this is not the way I want Baen Books destroyed.

... would you want them destroyed at all? Many of us SF authors depend on them for money!

You can certainly not BUY Baen Books -- and if you don't like the books I would actively encourage you not to buy them. But I think wishing any publisher to crash and burn is counterproductive to the business as a whole. We need MORE SF publishers, not less.

...indeed, when some of us in the audience do find some of their product entertaining?

Ryk, Baen publishes a lot of books that are poisoned with a fairly evil worldview, and markets them deliberately to people who are looking for didactic ideological fiction -- books with a worldview the reader can borrow to make themselves feel superior to what they really are.

That they publish science fiction is almost besides the point, save that SF fans are notoriously gullible.

My late DH was a Baen author and his politics were moderate/progressive. I think you're oversimplifying.

I use words precisely. Please re-read what I wrote.

Maybe you're right. But it's customary to wait till after the funeral to dance on someone's grave... that you're not that well socialised leads me to question your opinion on what is a poisonous worldview.

A little respect for human life, a little politeness in a time of emotional crisis for others, a teeny pause in ones own merciless agenda to contemplate mortality and the frailty of our flesh... My worldview looks on all these things as a better choice of response to this news than your pre-emptive triumphalism.

... you know, I've found fandom to be the most poorly socialized subculture I've ever encountered. I'll not mourn its passing.

As for Jim Baen the man? I'm sorry his flesh is frail, and I hope that he recovers, as I do all sick people.

*shrug* A lot of publishers do that -- of course, "evil worldview" varies widely from viewer to viewer. If every publisher who published a lot of books that were "poisoned with a fairly evil worldview" were destroyed, there'd be no publishers. Anywhere. Except maybe publishers of Dr. Seuss books, and I'm sure someone would be along to burn them soon enough.

As one of Baen's authors who's read stuff by a number of Baen's writers, I'd say that he's actually got a pretty damn broad spread of worldviews in the overall stable. His most POPULAR authors may tend to cluster in certain areas -- although anyone who tries to say that, for instance, John Ringo, Eric Flint, and David Weber are showing the same worldview would probably be doomed to fail if asked to demonstrate it -- but I doubt that the overall distribution of material is more slanted than that of any other publisher.

(note that I'm not even attempting to divine, or discuss, what "evil worldview" you may happen to be thinking of.)

(note that I'm not even attempting to divine, or discuss, what "evil worldview" you may happen to be thinking of.)

Of course you're not, and I wouldn't expect you to.

I'm not interested in most of what Baen publishes, but I can't think too unkindly about the company that first published Lois McMaster Bujold. I supposes someone else could have accepted her first book in a hypothetical Baenless market, but who knows?

If she'd shown up a few years earlier, she might have been published by DAW under the name L. M. Bujold.

(I also think that had Donald Wollheim been a bit healthier than he was in real life, DAW and not Bantam Spectra might have been the company to show that Iain Banks isn't commercial in the USA)

I do not want Baen Books destroyed. Even when I agree with some of the "normal" complaints about their output. Even if they didn't publish anybody I read (and they do, even apart from Lois), I would not want them destroyed. I'll go even further and say I find it offensive if somebody wants them destroyed because they don't like the books they publish (see that "if"? I'm hoping nobody *does* want them destroyed for that reason, making it moot). (There's a clear implication that

carloshasanax wants them destroyed, but no info about the reason; I also would prefer to NOT have the discussion about various reasons why one might want them destroyed at this time.)

... I have confirmed that Jim did have a stroke and is not in good shape. So, unfortunately, it was not a mistake.

Well fucknuggets.

Man, step away from the computer for an evening....

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Corroboration sought

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Why...

Re: Why...

Re: Why...

Re: Why...

Re: Why...

Re: Why...

Re: Why...

Re: Why...

Re: Why...

no subject

no subject

no subject

Just to note...

no subject

no subject