Two Reviews and Plotting

Over the weekend, I read two books and did some plotting for the next novel, working title One of Our Spaceships is Missing. Herewith, thoughts:

Two Reviews

The first book I read is edited by jimhines and is called Invisible. It's a short book, described as "13 essays on the importance of representation in science fiction and fantasy, with an introduction by author Alex Dally MacFarlane." I liked it and found it helpful for both SF writers and fans. I'll have a more cogent review around April 15 when the book comes out.

The second book was The Red: First Light by Linda Nagata. This is a self-published (!) novel up for the Nebula Awards. (Sorry, Larry Correia - if the story is popular, it gets nominated, regardless of who wrote it.) The book was quite entertaining and interesting, if a bit scary. Set in a fairly near future, we have both a possible newly-born AI and "dragons" - extremely wealthy individuals who have bought control of the US and world political process. Again, more detailed review to follow, but the short version is buy this book.

Plotting

I mentioned that I'd developed one character for my new novel. I now have the other one - Kelly Rake, a Martian high-school student heading to Earth for a study-abroad program. She's stuck on the ill-fated hijacked ship, and becomes a member of the Passenger Resistance Group.

Brendan Eich

I’ve been told repeatedly by libertarians in various blogs (see The Usual Suspects) that if we repealed the public accommodations portion of the Civil Rights Act, segregation would not happen. What I’ve been told would happen is that, if a business decided not to serve blacks (for example), protests and other market forces would be directed at the owner such that they changed their policies.

In this case, the libertarians were right. Brendan Eich made public statements that customers and vendors of Mozilla found problematic. They exercised their free speech rights to protest and use market forces against Mozilla. The (private) Board of Directors then either suggested Eich resign or accepted his resignation when it was offered.

What Eich's supporters are seeking is the right to not be criticized. What "libertarians" are seeking is not "liberty" at all but agreement with their (conservative) point of view.