Various posts in alternate locations

[swan_tower]

“Keep Calm and Carry On” — my SF Novelists post for the month; a brief reflection on some of the recent trouble regarding gender and such.

Interview at SF Signal — in which they ask me about a variety of things, including photography.

“What Happens When Fantasy Novels Get Scientific?” — Me at io9, talking about the impulse to treat dragons scientifically.

Finally, not something you can read just yet, but: I’ve sold another story to Tor.com! “Daughter of Necessity,” which I read at FogCon after revising it half an hour before the reading. It will be out some time in the fall, most likely.

Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[eve-prime.livejournal.com]

I’m convinced – author’s prerogative aside – that the Natural History of Dragons books are firmly science fiction, not fantasy. Isabella is a scientist, by any definition. If we consider her world to be one other than our own (which it technically is), and dragons to be alien creatures (which they technically are), then there isn’t much left to keep it in the “fantasy” camp. I especially appreciated the “Edgeworth model” on p. 127 of The Tropic of Serpents. On the other hand, perhaps a functioning magic will appear later in Lady Trent’s memoirs?

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

My own opinion is that the books wander happily around in the boundary zone between the two, partaking of much of the mentality of SF while playing with the tropes of fantasy. But people can read it whichever way they please.

[eve-prime.livejournal.com]

I confess that for me, the dragons are just a bonus. I quite like reading the non-fiction accounts of naturalist-explorers, from David Douglas and John Muir in my own corner of the world to the more exotic adventures in books like Ernst Haeckel's "Visit to Ceylon," but even with Muir, one winces whenever they have anything to say about the local people. It's so refreshing to be able to read a book in this genre where that's not an issue. And then, unlike the non-fiction books, we get character development, narrative suspense and resolution, and even dragons! So however you'd classify the books you're writing in this series, I think they're doing something unique and worthwhile.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That's pretty much what I'm aiming for, so it's good to know I've succeeded. :-)

[dr_whom]

(One of the Temeraire books does introduce feathered dragons from South America.)

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Good to know! I haven't gotten that far in the series yet.