Revenge of the Baen, the Jason Sanford Report, and the Quest for Justice (or is it Vengeance?)

baen

Baen books logo.

What a mess.

Scrolling through twitter this morning (it always comes back to twitter), I found Paul Weimer’s thread (never heard of him before this) citing File 770‘s article Baen Strikes Back; Sanford Under Growing Storm of Harassment.

As you may remember from my previous blog post, a whole bunch of nastiness has been happening, not really exactly at Baen Books, but because of an investigative piece written by Jason Sanford titled Baen Books Forum Being Used to Advocate for Political Violence.

That was three days ago and this has gotten anything but better.

According to the aforementioned “Strikes Back” write up, a number of people have come to Baen’s defense, and some of them in a spectacularly hostile manner (so much so that Sanford has temporarily locked down his social media accounts based on a great deal of harassment including death threats).

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January 6th, Baen’s Bar, and the Definition of “Evil”

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AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Addendum, 2-17-2021, 4:45 a.m. mountain time: Just an update from File 770 (still not a fan but it is an information source) on the whole Baen Bar fiasco. Of course, from that perspective, all conservatives are evil, but while 770 is also heavily biased, we must make certain that our own behavior and attitudes doesn’t support violence. No one is going to (I hope) cancel us because we believe in smaller government, the freedom to worship as we wish, free speech as guaranteed by the First Amendment, and eating actual beef hamburgers in opposition to the dictates of Bill Gates.

Original content starts here: Oh, good grief. Here we go again. I can just hear it. “All people even slightly to the right of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are Trump, Hitler, and Satan combined.”

What do I mean?

Well first off, a little personal background.

When I started reading science fiction in the 1960s and 70s, it was well before we had any idea of an “internet” much less “social media.” Today, we can investigate pretty much anyone’s past, at least up to a point. And not just individuals, but organizations as well. Thus we can make some sort of determination if we want to be associated with people and groups with a particular “reputation” before we partake of any of their “wares.”

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Review of Denton Salle’s Novel “Black Earth Rises, Hall of Heroes Book Three”

black earth

Cover art for Denton Salle’s novel “Black Earth Rises”

Black Earth Rises is the third book in a series by Denton Salle, but it stands very well on its own since I haven’t read the first two novels.

Denton asked me to review his book and was aware of recent difficulties I’ve had reviewing books by people I know. He assured me that he’d understand me being forthright and fair about my review, and I have been.

For being a supernatural urban legend thriller, the story is pretty standard, up to a point. Two college buddies from very different backgrounds, the women in their lives, coming up against frat jerks, all seems normal.

Then the frat jerks turn out to be werewolves and there is a sinister school being operated by an evil sorceress in the bowels of a Texas university near Dallas. But this school also has an old graveyard haunted with the unexpected, both evil and good.

A good Catholic boy named Jim gets pulled by his frat friend Mike into an Orthodox religious group (most of which are Mike’s family) of an ancient order sworn to protect our existence from occult dangers. They live an uneasy peace with the “Otherworld” by a compact signed untold centuries ago…but not all of the Otherworld creatures are obedient, or perhaps they just didn’t sign on the dotted line.

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Planetary Anthology Saturn Available Now!

Promotional image for the Planetary Anthology “Saturn”

It’s here. The Tuscany Bay Press Planetary Anthology Saturn is available for immediate purchase. As you know having read my previous announcements, it features my science fiction time travel story “Saving the Apostle,” the act and consequences of rescuing the Apostle Paul from execution at the hands of the Romans.

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They Came For Gina Carano

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Publicity shot of actress Gina Carano

Addendum: 2-12-2021, 5:30 p.m. mountain time: I was reminded that what happened to Gina Carano makes Disney+ and the social media cancel culture/hate mob guilty of the decades old practice of Hollywood Blacklisting. Click the link and have your eyes opened.

Addendum: 2-12-2021, 11:59 a.m. mountain time: Looks like Gina has a new project set up as well as new representation. I hope it all works out for her.

Addendum: 2-11-2021, 3:20 p.m. mountain time: Terrific 13+ minute video (some language) giving a detailed description of the cancel culture and yes, though they don’t think of themselves this way, the “hate mob.” Give a watch.

“Nobody has the right to live their life being protected from offense, or from insult, or from hurt feelings. It is an occupational hazard of living in Society! And if you really can’t take it, become a hermit”

-Ann Widdecombe

Yes, we all say and do things that sometimes upset others and sometimes other people say and do things that upset us. It’s the nature of being human to disagree with one another.

However, in the case of actress Gina Carano, it’s gone well beyond that. For the “crime” of expressing her opinions, she’s now out of a job. In other words, she was fired.

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Book Review: “Prador Moon” by Neal Asher

Prador Moon cover art

I’ve previously read and reviewed Neal Asher’s “Polity series” novels Dark Intelligence (2015) and War Factory (2016), both part of the “Transformation” trilogy.

Frankly, Asher has written so many novels, just within this one series, that I was stumbling blind when I read those two, and although I enjoyed them, I couldn’t figure out how everything fit together.

I needed some sort of context to make sense of the universe I was experiencing. Although it’s not the first “Polity” book Asher (metaphorically) penned, Prador Moon records the first encounter between humans and AIs in the Polity and the Prador.

It’s not a complex novel, but it does introduce some of the key elements presented in all of these stories, including “Augs,” “AIs,” “Golems,” “runcibles” (basically stargates), and of course, the utterly ruthless, crab-like Prador.

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Some Book Reviews Will Not Go Unpunished

What a pain in the pinfeathers. I recently reviewed a book, mistakenly believing the author, who I know on Facebook, wanted me to. Okay, I’ll own up to the misunderstanding, but when the book review (which I gave 4 our of 5 stars on Amazon and now have deleted along with my review on this blog) was published, he gave me a ration of heck about how I had gotten things all wrong and that my review was a “sales killer.”

I decided to let it go and just not respond hoping it would all blow over. It didn’t.

He went on and on and on all over Facebook and to some degree MeWe about this, that, and the other thing. He tried to contact me on Facebook Messenger, but at that point, I didn’t feel like responding. Then he got on a post and complained that I was ignoring him.

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Book Review of Galactic Patrol

Image captured from Amazon

In some ways, E.E. “Doc” Smith’s third Lensman novel Galactic Patrol feels like the first “real” Lensman novel. I suppose that’s largely due to the character Kimball Kinnison having a central role in the book. He is the Lensman hero I think all of my friends looked up to when these books were popular when I was in Junior High in the late ’60s. Of course I also think these novels were better consumed over 50 years in the past by boys between the ages of 12 and 14 than they are by a fellow in his late 60s today.

It also hung together a bit better than the previous two (“Triplanetary” and “First Lensman”). That said, most of the book felt incredibly episodic. It was like a television show where the season hadn’t been plotted out cohesively from start to finish. A great deal of the action bounced all over the place, introducing seemingly random characters, planets, and events throughout the first two-thirds of the story.

Eventually, Smith was able to tie (most) things together showing relationships in the last third, but even that seemed rushed.

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Donate using Ko-Fi and Buy Me a Coffee

Ko-Fi logo

I came across Ko-Fi by accident. I happened to click a link on the twitter account of someone I follow and discovered it.

Ko-Fi is a different sort of model for supporting an artist’s or writer’s work. Unlike, Patreon, I don’t have to constantly create new content that only my Patreon subscribers can see.

With Ko-Fi, people can make a one time donation and it’s always $3 USD or about the price of a cup of coffee. You can donate once or as many times as you want. Pretty simple.

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A Candle For Our Freedom

“Your death amounts to the same as your life, a zero sum!” -Dr. Arnim Zola (Toby Jones) from the (2014) film Captain America: Winter Soldier

I’m kind of feeling that quote right now. No, I’m not dying or anything, but I do feel like everything I believe in is a “zero sum.”

If any of you follow me on twitter or Facebook (and amazingly, I still have active accounts on both, although twitter is restricting me somewhat), you know what I mean.

I’m almost too despondent to write this, but I feel compelled anyway.

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