Tag: Hugo Award

Why Worldcon changed the rules

Year: votes (nominations)
2012: 1922 (1101)
2013: 1848 (1343)
2014: 3587 (1923)
2015: 5950 (2112)
2016: 3130 (4032)

The number of nominations rose in 2014 and 2015 due to the appearance of Sad Puppies, then Rabid Puppies. The big influx of Supporting Members began in 2014, when the SJWs, alarmed, gathered the herd to No Award Larry Correia and the rest of the Puppy finalists. They made an even bigger effort in 2015 in response to the Rabid Puppies.

However, their morale suffered a terrible blow when, despite there being nearly four times as many nominations cast in 2016 than in 2012, the Rabid Puppies selected more finalists than the Sad Puppies ever did. While most RP’s didn’t bother getting MidAmericaCon memberships in order to vote, what’s interesting is that over 2,000 SJWs didn’t either.

Anyhow, the first stage is now over. The new award has been established and the Hugo rules have been modified and complicated, as anticipated. Now we’re onto the second stage, which will last longer and promises to be more interesting than the first. RPs, be sure to keep your voting/nomination emails from Sasquan and MidAmericaCon, as you may need them next year if you are neither Brainstorm nor VFM.

We got here one year faster than I thought, as apparently a) we scared them worse than I’d expected and b) it turns out they care a lot more about me than they do about quality science fiction or science fiction history.

I wasn’t surprised that Toni Weisskopf didn’t win last year, but I was surprised that they voted her below No Award. This year, it doesn’t even surprise me a little bit that they would No Award an objectively high-quality work such as Between Light and Shadow or accomplished, highly respected individuals in the field such as Larry Elmore and Jerry Pournelle, who reportedly had the longest book-signing line at Worldcon.

I wonder how many SJWs who were begging for Dr. Pournelle’s signature had previously claimed that he did not merit a Best Editor award with their vote? Do tell us more about how the Hugo Awards concern quality and standing in the field, not SJW-driven politics.

951 No Award
766 Jerry Pournelle

893 No Award
497 Larry Elmore

That says it all about how seriously the awards deserve to be taken by science fiction readers these days. John Scalzi summed up the SF-SJW position rather well in a long diatribe yesterday. It’s rather remarkable how he devotes nearly 1,500 1,887 words to informing the world that absolutely none of it is about me, and somehow manages to do so while giving absolutely zero fucks.

  • What [the man whose blog traffic is now 6x that of the erstwhile “most popular blog in science fiction”] is really doing at this point is trying to mitigate his own inability to have the status and influence he assumed would be his, by pathetically attempting to shoehorn himself into the history of others who have done more, and better, than he has.
  • An active association with [the man who exposed Scalzi as a fraud] is, bluntly, death for your Hugo award chances. I mean, it takes a lot for someone as esteemed in the field as Jerry Pournelle to finish below “No Award” in Hugo voting, and yet, there he is, sixth in a field of five in the category of Best Editor, Short Form.

Translation: Vox Day is totally irrelevant and pathetic and doesn’t matter at all, so don’t you dare to associate with him in any way, shape, or form, or it will kill your career, no one will ever give you a Hugo Award, and everyone will hate you. Please, please, don’t do it!

What a masterpiece of its kind. As it is written, SJWs always lie. Just wait until Mr. ZFG learns what names are risking SJW disapproval to actively associate with Castalia House in 2017. But if an author doesn’t want to associate with the publishing house that is the fastest-growing in the field and pays such high royalties that the much larger publisher who inquired about acquiring it begged me to consider reducing them, that’s certainly their right. We don’t publish SJWs anyhow.

I particularly enjoyed McRapey’s attempt to cling to the original Narrative he’d tried to spin about the nomination of “Space Raptor Butt Invasion” being a devastating mistake on my part.

Rather than being appalled that Tingle had been nominated, the Worldcon community largely embraced him (or whoever Tingle is; no one is really sure). Here was someone who was nominated by a bigot to antagonize other people, who instead allied himself with those folks and was appreciated by them in return.

1508 No Award
659 “Space Raptor Butt Invasion”

Apparently those folks appreciate Mr. Tingle just about as much as they appreciate me. Did I not tell you that would happen despite the SJW’s feigned joy over how terribly funny and brilliant they found Mr. Tingle’s work?

Because, as we know, SJW’s always lie.

UPDATE: Dr. Pournelle is quite clearly crushed, and duly penitent, in consequence of his well-merited rebuke at the hands of Worldcon’s SJWs.

UPDATE: The Reverend 3.0 considers his failed prediction concerning “Space Raptor Butt Invasion” winning Best Short Story:

I was incorrect. And while I’m ready to tuck in and eat my words, it’s interesting to look at where my logic broke down.

My logic was the following:
-Puppies will vote for it because they think it is hilarious, embarrasses the Hugos, and Chuck is one of them.
-Puppy Kickers will vote for it because they think it is hilarious, embarrasses the Puppies, and Chuck is one of them.
-If the two largest blocks vote for it, it can’t lose.

But lo and behold, one of these two voting blocks failed to vote for SRBI and instead propelled Cat Pictures to victory and Noah Ward to second place. One of these two blocks was either lying to itself or lying through its teeth.

My prediction failed, and it failed because one of these two groups said one thing and then did another. So which group is the group of dirty liars? The Puppies? The Kickers? I’m sure the ballot numbers will tell.

Either way, learn from my mistake. Take that group’s tendency to lie into account in the future.

Now, I wonder who might have been lying and putting forth a false Narrative? 

The Worldcon audio

Dave Truesdale has posted the audio of his panel at Worldcon that led to his expulsion.

I had originally planned to post this unedited audio recording of the panel in conjunction with an article I wanted to have posted at Tangent Online the same day as the panel, and the text transcription of the audio. I now feel it is in the best interests of all parties to post the audio now, with the article and text transcription to follow as soon as I can get to it.

I had made notes for the article I wanted to have posted here, so brought them to the panel in their rough state, crossouts, arrows moving pieces around, written in thoughts in pen, the usual rough draft of any document. I did not intend to use anywhere near all of them but knew from experience that having too much material is better than having too little. As it turned out, the only item I used directly from these notes was the quote from David Hartwell.

It’s easy to see understand why they kicked him out. They really had no choice after he began singing “Horst Wessel Lied”, then threatened to whip NK Jemisin until she agreed to pick his cotton. Outrageous!

The panicked reaction to Truesdale’s recording illustrates why you must always record SJWs. When you’ve got a recording, they can’t convincingly lie about what they said or what you said. Keep in mind, as you listen to this, that Truesdale is accused of having caused “excessive discomfort” with his words, which was the grounds for his expulsion.

And SJWs ALWAYS lie.

McRapey opines

On the state of science fiction in 2016:

1. I’ll write more about the Hugo tomorrow at home, but the general takeaway of this year’s awards are as follows:

2. The winners this year were generally fantastic and point to the health and quality of the field. Some of the best SF/F ever is here now.

3. Once again, we see that quality wins out over slating for obtuse political purposes.

4. In the case of slating, Hugo voters are not stupid and can discern human shields and cynical attempts to ride on others’ popularity.

5. The “puppies” in 2016 are the useful idiots of a minor racist who uses the Hugos as cheap advertising for his publishing house.

6. The Hugos and administrators should recognize point five and stop pretending this minor racist deserves being treated seriously.

As it is written, SJWs always lie.

More importantly, as per the Third Law of SJW, they always project. Think about point 5 in that regard. Now, whereever would a Tor Books author, particularly one notorious for having introduced public “award pimpage” to the various science fiction awards, have gotten the idea that someone, somewhere, might be using the Hugos as cheap advertising?

I’m certainly not. Castalia House is not making any attempt whatsoever to sell books to the decrepit denizens of Worldcon. We see no point in casting literary pearls before shoggoths.

It’s also amusing to see that McRapey, who built his career on the false pretense of having the most popular blog in science fiction, should declare that the author of the most popular blog in science fiction and the lead editor of the fastest growing publisher in science fiction does not merit being treated seriously. For some reason, that matters to him. Very much.

And yet, it doesn’t matter to me. It makes absolutely no difference whatsoever whether they take me seriously or not. My only concern is to continue finding very good authors and helping them publish excellent, best-selling books. Castalia House will succeed or fail on that basis, and barring a complete collapse of the global economy, on that basis alone.

Post-Hugo analysis

First, thanks to all the Rabid Puppies who got involved, at both the nomination and the voting stages. Things went very much according to form, and we have the SF-SJWs exactly where we want them at this point in time. Observe that after only two years, we already have them voting almost entirely in reaction to us, changing and complicating their rules, and awarding SJWs instead of merit in most categories.

Second, a few observations:

  • We were only able to burn two categories this year, but we reduced their choices to X or No Award in 5 other categories.
  • We got them to show the public their true colors and demonstrate that what the Hugo Award primarily means is public adherence to the SJW Narrative. Among the finalists no awarded this year: Jerry Pournelle, Larry Elmore, Toni Weisskopf, Moira Greyland, David Vandyke, Pierce Brown, and RazörFist. In most cases, the awards were given to people whose work is of observably lower quality. For example, the bestselling Pierce Brown, whose novel was not even nominated, wrote what was almost certainly, by any reasonable standard, the best science fiction novel published this year. Tough crowd, if even he’s not worthy of mere consideration for Best New Author.
  • They did have the sense to avoid no-awarding Jim Butcher for a second straight year, though. Apparently Mr. Butcher’s writing has improved a lot since last year.
  • They no-awarded a serious literary work about Gene Wolfe. Remember, these are the same people that have repeatedly claimed a blog post was “the Best Related Work” in science fiction that year. The contrast is informative.
  • The four fiction categories are increasingly becoming No White Male territory. The winners were: black woman, black woman, Asian woman, white woman, none of whom are bestselling or even very well-known authors. This is reliably indicative of increasing irrelevance. It won’t be long before simply being a minority won’t be enough and authors will have to be gay, blind, and crippled just to be nominated.
  • Contra all their unconvincing pretenses of delight, the nomination of “Space Raptor Butt Invasion” embarrassed them greatly. Chuck Tingle’s masterpiece was no-awarded, exactly as I predicted.
  • We played kingmaker in Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, where The Martian beat Fury Road, and in the John W. Campbell Award, where Andy Weir beat Alyssa Wong, thanks to our votes. And, of course, in Best Novel, where Jemisin’s win was primarily a vote against us.
  • Neil Gaiman’s acceptance was, characteristically, as classy as the man’s himself. “It meant a lot to see Sandman Overture nominated for a Hugo award, and was disappointing to see that it had been dragged into the unfortunate mess that the pitiable people who call themselves Puppy had attempted to inflict on Worldcon and its awards. I would have withdrawn it from consideration, but even that seemed like it would have been giving these sad losers too much acknowledgement. I am proud it won, and prouder by far of the amazing work that JH Williams, Dave Stewart, Todd Klein, Dave McKean and Shelly Bond did. Thank you.”
  • It’s interesting to note that SJWs aren’t celebrating the fact that more of the awards went to women this year than ever before, including all of the fiction categories.

All in all, despite the twin disappointments of Jerry Pournelle and Chuck Tingle not winning their categories, 2016 was a very good year; arguably better, from the strategic perspective, than last year’s results. The Guardian‘s coverage of the awards is a pretty good summary for the SJW perspective. They still have no idea what’s going on:

The winners of the 2016 Hugo awards have been announced, with this year’s choices signalling a resounding defeat for the so-called “Puppies” campaigns to derail the venerable annual honouring of science fiction literature and drama. As in previous years, there had been attempts by two separate groups, the Sad Puppies and the Rabid Puppies, to “game” the awards in favour of their preferred slates of works. Both groups claimed that science fiction has become dominated by a liberal, left-wing bias.

It’s complete with a picture of the award-winning half-savage herself. It’s quite clear most of these people cheering her Best Novel award have never read even a little of The Fifth Season, which makes George Martin’s masterpiece of rape, death, and grimdark look cheerful and features a protagonist less likeable than Rand al’Thor and Ramsay Bolton combined.

As one reviewer of the 2016 Best Novel put it: “the main character became more and more unlikable as the tale goes on. She ends up in a gay/poly triad, has a child with the gay member of the group, and then essentially decides she’s not cut out to be a mother and goes on and on about how she doesn’t really care about the toddler, ditching him. All of this after a main hook where she’s supposed to be frantically searching for yet another child who she seems for forget for years at a time.”

That pretty well sums it up. Redshirts and Among Others were mediocrities, but The Fifth Season is a depth no Best Novel has seen since The Quantum Rose won the Nebula in 2000. The Impossibility of SJW Convergence is increasingly working in our favor. It won’t be long it won’t even need our paws on the scale to help the process along.

The Guardian claims 2016 was “a resounding defeat” for the Rabid Puppies, but then, they are an SJW institution and we know what SJWs always do. Consider a relatively neutral party’s verdict, as declared back in April, by the Reverend 3.0.

If any other Castalia House work wins Best Related Work or second places to No Award, then the Rabid Puppies have obtained limited victory over the Hugos


Best Related Work
1. No Award
2. Between Light and Shadow: An Exploration of the Fiction of Gene Wolfe, 1951 to 1986, Marc Aramini, Castalia House

“A limited victory”. That is a fair description.

We had over 200 people at the Rabid Puppy Hugo Party last night, which featured Dragon Award finalists John C. Wright, Nick Cole, and Brian Niemeier, as well as Hugo Award finalist Jeffro Johnson, and I think it’s fair to say that a good time was had by most, if not all. One attendee even wrote to express his enjoyment of it.

Thank you for hosting The 2016 Hugo Awards this evening, which doubled as a most excellent and informative SFF convention panel. No one signaled virtue, no one posed, all was honest and free. I’ve never had the pleasure of witnessing a panel of guests quite like these before.

Truesdale expelled from Worldcon

This is truly incredible. MidAmericaCon II expelled Dave Truesdale, the editor of Tangent Online, because he expressed views concerning the state of science fiction with which the SF-SJWs disagreed:“

Dave Truesdale’s membership was revoked because he violated MidAmeriCon II’s Code of Conduct. Specifically, he caused ‘significant interference with event operation and caused excessive discomfort to others.’”

Even hardcore SF-SJWs such as Jim Hines and Charles Stross find this difficult to believe. Hines wrote this before the MidAmericaCon II tweet:

I’m not at Worldcon. I didn’t see first-hand what happened on this panel. (I have read multiple reports from folks in the audience and others on the panel.) It does sound like Truesdale acted like an ass, derailed the panel, and pissed off a lot of people who wanted to, you know, talk about the state of short fiction.
As you might have guessed, I have thoughts about all this…

  • Who the hell thought it was a good idea to put Dave Truesdale in charge of this panel? He’s been doing these rants for years, if not decades. How can the convention turn around and pretend to be shocked by his pearl-clutching derail when that’s pretty much who he is and what he’s known for?
  • I’ve seen panel derails and blow-ups before. People have gotten into shouting matches, walked off of panels, and so on. I’ve never heard of someone being kicked out of the con for it. (Not invited back as a panelist, sure. Kicked out? Maybe it’s happened, but it’s not a practice I’m aware of.)
  • Right now, we have only Truesdale’s post about him being kicked out. It’s possible there’s more to this than just his ridiculous behavior on that panel.
  • As Truesdale has gone public with this, I hope Worldcon will issue a statement clarifying why he was expelled from the convention, and whether he violated convention policies either on the panel or elsewhere.
  • ETA: From the Worldcon Code of Conduct: “MidAmeriCon II reserves the right to revoke membership from and eject anyone at any time from a MidAmeriCon II event without a refund. Any action or behavior that … adversely affects MidAmeriCon II’s relationship with its guests, its venue, or the public is strictly forbidden and may result in revocation of membership privileges.“
  • I think we’ve all seen people derail panels for their own personal agendas. Truesdale’s moderation might have been an epic shitshow, but is it grounds for expulsion?

Like I said, we don’t have all the facts on this. Just people’s comments on the panel, and Truesdale’s own account of why he was kicked out. But it sounds like a mess. 

Charles Stross even points out that “derailing a panel” is hardly unknown:

I suspect there’s more to this than meets there eye.

Derailing a panel isn’t that unusual; and while I could see Programming quietly telling a disruptive panelist that they’re not required on any subsequent panels, that’s as far as I’d *expect* it to go. (And that would be a real pain in the neck for Programming because then they’d potentially have to find a bunch of substitutes at very short notice.)

Kicking him out of the convention completely is much more serious and I suspect there must have been some sort of face-to-face harassment incident. But as various folks have noted on twitter, MidAmeriCon say they can’t comment further, so unless the target of such an incident feels like speaking out we’re not going to find out any more.

(Truesdale has been an “anti-PC” gadfly and general nuisance presence on the net for a long time — I remember crossing swords with him on the Asimov’s reader fora back in the late 90s/early 00s before they turned into an utter cesspit no sane human would go near — and my impression is that he’s been getting more outspoken over the years.)

Except, of course, there wasn’t. This was pure SJW thought-policing. The badthink must be expelled! Racist! Sexist! Homophobic! The Name of the Narrative compels you! This demonstrates why one should never get involved with any organization that has a Code of Conduct. They are nothing but weaponized SJWism.

We’ll discuss this and more at the Rabid Puppies Hugo Party 2016 tonight. Dave, if you’re reading this, please feel free to stop by.

The SJWs are getting nervous about having their Narrative about Dave Truesdale’s expulsion from Worldcon punctured:

We might not get a chance to hear the audio of the panel. Panelist Jonathan Strahan posted this on Facebook to Dave Truesdale: “Dave, while I felt we had cordial communications on the panel yesterday, and while I tried at every point to treat you with respect and civility, I would point out that I was unaware that you were recording the panel, and that I do not consent to it being distributed publicly. I hope you will respect my request and not do so. Best, Jonathan.”

Oh, I rather suspect everyone will. This is why you ALWAYS record SJWs. Because, well, you know what they always do.

Inevitable

I don’t think I have ever been so unsurprised by an email in my life. To put it in context, I have to first explain that a producer from an NPR-affiliated radio station contacted me about the Hugo Awards.

As I’m sure you’re aware WorldCon is about to start…. As we’ve been researching and thinking about this event we discovered that in addition to the celebration, learning and networking there’s also a bit of identity politics controversy surrounding the Hugo award. As the conference unfolds we want to host a conversation with members of the Sci-Fi community and how they view the events. Our hope is to get a sense of what’s at stake and why it’s important. We really value having a diversity of perspectives on this issue.


I’d like to talk with you, by phone, today or tomorrow for about
15 minutes. This way we can make sure we’re a good fit and develop some
potential talking points for what we could discuss
during the show.

I had a few minutes to kill, so despite knowing how it was going to turn out, I called him back and we had a short, friendly conversation. He was genuinely curious about what was, to him, quite clearly an alien perspective. And I had to laugh when I got this the next day.


Thank you for sharing your time with us yesterday. I wanted to follow up and let you know that we found some folks who will make a better fit for this conversation and consequently we won’t be needing you as a confirmed guest tomorrow.


You don’t say. Anyhow, radio and television producers, this is why I keep telling you that I’m not interested in appearing on your show. See, I know the drill. I’ve turned down three other interview requests in the last day alone; keep this in mind if you’re wondering why various pieces on the Alt-Right often appear to ignore certain individuals you think merit mention. Sure, sometimes it’s because they’re playing the old “we don’t want to give them a platform” game. But more often, of late, it’s because we don’t see any point in talking to them and playing the token villain’s role.

That doesn’t mean I won’t talk to you all, though. Everyone is invited to the No Award 2016 Party, which will kick off 15 minutes before the Hugo Awards start at 8 PM Central tomorrow night. Special guests to be announced later as they let me know if they’ll be able to attend.

Speaking of the Hugo Awards, as the VFM are everywhere around the globe pursuing the shadowy will of their SDL, we have been culturally enriched by several reports from the Worldcon, including this one.


Here is a picture of Rape Rape in the wild. I was stunned by two or three things:

  1. Con attendees are mostly old farts.
  2. They look even more unhealthy than the average crowd in a WalMart on EBT night.
  3. GRRM is a close approximation of the average male attendee.
Watch out, ladies! One never knows what diabolically Byzantine form of nonconsensual relations is being worked out on paper.

The Gathering of the Shoggoths

I’m a little sorry to miss the spectacular gathering of the science fiction SJWs now taking place in Kansas City. The lumbering of these majestic beasts, their euphonious cries for MORE DIVERSITY and MORE PEOPLE OF COLOR, and the distinctive odors they give off as a part of their annual mating ritual simply cannot be truly appreciated at a distance. Although I do detect just a whiff of Eau de Zoloft from the grinning larval one in the front row.

What do you think the over/under on psychotropic drug prescriptions is in that bunch there, 45? By the way, when we talked in the past about the shoggoths known to inhabit File 770, the photo above is to whom we are referring. The best part is that these are the lesser SF-SJWs, they are the mere fans. The greater SF-SJWs, the writers, really need to be seen to be believed.

No, upon further reflection, that’s not the best part. The best part is all of that very important diversity on display.

A few thoughts on Worldcon

MidAmericaCon II is approaching, and as one could expect in a world where we’re waiting to learn if “Space Raptor Butt Invasion” is a Hugo Award-winning short story, things are getting weird. First, someone had the bright idea of a caption contest. Below is The Alt Right DM’s entry.

Add caption

Meanwhile, MidAmericaCon II had a big announcement yesterday, and by the sounds of it, McRapey is VERY excited.


John Scalzi @scalzi
The @HugoAwards will have GENDER FREE BATHROOMS! Can’t wait to spend all day in there listening to the sexy ladies going tinkle!”


Unfortunately, Jim “McCreepy” Hines could not be reached for comment, as we are informed that he was already out at Radio Shack purchasing portable recording equipment.

It’s a peculiar sort of convention that sees its bathroom policy as a major selling point, whatever that policy might be. But what was either the most amusing thing, or the most tragic thing, depending upon your perspective and how cruel your sense of humor happens to be, was NK Jemisin coming out and admitting that she knows she’s nothing more than science fiction’s affirmative-action pet. It’s a modestly profitable gig, to be sure, but not one that lends itself to much in the way of self-respect.

Throughout the Sad and Rabid Puppies saga, in which some readers protested progressive themes in sci-fi, Jemisin has been an outspoken voice advocating for diversity in science fiction. (Read her musings on “reactionary assholes” in the interview she did with the WIRED Book Club for more on that.) But too often, she has also found herself unwillingly cast in another role: the token non-white writer.

Ever since a report from magazine Fireside Fiction called out a lack of diversity in sci-fi on July 26, Jemisin has received six invitations to contribute to anthologies or magazines—and she’s leery of being one of the few go-to names when panicked editors scramble to be more inclusive. And in a tweetstorm this afternoon (below), Jemisin placed the onus on the markets, not aspiring authors, to make writers of color welcome. “The front gates are still shut, see,” she wrote. “You’re just letting a few more exceptions in the side door.” Jemisin may have broken into the world of science fiction, but for other writers to do the same, those gatekeepers need to open those doors wide.

Jemisin didn’t break into the world of science fiction. She’s the token African-American. She’s a diversity totem. She was picked up at a kennel for Peeple of Kolor Who Dont Rite Good, brought home, and is now proudly displayed to anyone who visits or even even happens to walk past outside.

“See, we got DIVERSITY!”

And she’s been defecating on the bed and the carpets, and urinating on the legs of the homeowners, ever since.

“After I read that book I realized two things: a) that Heinlein was racist as *fuck*, and b) most of science fiction fandom was too.”
– NK Jemisin

No one foresaw it

It’s no wonder the SF-SJWs are always a few steps behind.

It had been believed that the slaters would lose interest if they couldn’t sweep entire categories, since it that would mean that they could neither get awards for their own favorites (since fans would No Award them) nor “burn down” the awards, since fans would have at least a couple of organic works to give awards to. No one foresaw the “griefing” strategy of nominating works whose mere presence on the finalist list would cast the awards into disrepute.
– Greg Hullender at File 770

They still don’t quite get it, do they? Rabid Puppies didn’t nominate “If You Were a Dinosaur My Love” or “Shadow War of the Night Dragons: Book One: The Dead City: Prologue” for the Hugo Award. We didn’t give a Best Novel Nebula to The Quantum Rose (Book 6 in the Saga of the Skolian Empire) or a Best Novel Hugo to Redshirts.

We’re not casting the awards into disrepute, we are highlighting the fact that the SJWs in science fiction have already made them disreputable. I wonder what they will fail to foresee next? That’s a rhetorical question, of course. I already know.

As an aside, I continue to find it funny that the SF-SJWs get so furiously upset about my dismissing so much of their concept of science fiction without the science as mere romance in space. I mean, everyone else clearly gets it, including the publisher.

Ascendant Sun is the direct sequel to The Last Hawk, in which Kelric, heir to the Skolian Empire, crash-landed his fighter on the Restricted planet of Coba. He was imprisoned by the powerful mistresses of the great estates–women who, over time, fell in love with him. After 18 years of living in their gilded cage, Kelric finally made his escape.


In Ascendant Sun, Kelric returns to Skolian space, only to find the Empire in control of the Allied forces of Earth. With little more than the clothes on his back, Kelric is forced to take work on a merchant vessel. But when that vessel enters Euban space, Kelric finds his worst nightmare realized: he becomes a slave to the cruel Aristos–humans who use torture and sex as the ultimate aphrodesiac.

Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, eat your heart out! Remember, Ascendant Sun, Book 5 of 14 in the Saga of the Skolian Empire, is the immediate predecessor to what the SJWs informed us was the very Best Novel in science fiction that year.