Author David Brin Blesses Jim Baen’s Universe, Urges Fans to Help Save Science Fiction
Hugo Award-winning science fiction author David Brin urges fans to subscribe to new online science fiction and fantasy magazine, Jim Baen’s Universe for quality fiction and to help save science fiction.

Winston-Salem, NC (PRWEB) February 21, 2006 — Multiple Hugo and Nebula award-winning David Brin ( author of the Uplift series, The Postman, and others) has thrown his reputation behind a new SciFi magazine, Jim Baen’s Universe.

Brin says he’s been unimpressed by other SF&F e-zines, but “this time things are very different.” Brin goes on, “Imagine what such a magazine would have to be like, in order to make you hunger for it, month after month. I think you just envisioned Universe, brought to you by the legendary science fiction impresario, Jim Baen and edited by the inimitable Eric Flint.”

The editor of this commercial venture is none other than Eric Flint (1632 and others). The authors list is a who’s who of modern SF&F (Alan Dean Foster, Cory Doctorow, Catherine Asaro, L. E. Modessitt Jr., and of course, David Brin). A complete list of authors who have been signed up for this venture is at www.baensuniverse.com.

Brin goes on to say, “Certainly, I’ve decided to trust them with some of my latest, first-run stories… and a serialized novel that I’m sure you’ll find to be my funniest ever.”

All of that is great, Brin says, but best of all a major raison d’être for Universe is to provide a place for new authors to get started, and established authors to make a living (another is to revive short SF). The quality of the stories already committed is awesome, and they’re still bringing SF&F giants aboard.

Jim Baen and Eric Flint believe that they can provide an unprecedented value proposition (starting with over 150,000 words per issue, twice a standard novel size), and you only have to look at Baen’s existing DRM-free distribution and Free Library to know that these guys already have been successful at publishing without encryption.

Why is this necessary at all?

Eric Flint explains: “In decades past, it was the size and health of the magazines that allowed new writers a place to be published, gave mid-list writers a place to hone their craft, and allowed very popular and well-established writers to move easily from short fiction to novels and back again as they developed their fascinating and imaginative settings. The range of magazine markets also meant that an exceptional story could still be published even if it was beyond the then-boundaries of acceptable SF.

“Today, that’s almost completely vanished. The economics of modern paper publishing and distribution have hammered the magazines badly, and the decline of short form SF has hurt the field as a whole. When once science fiction and fantasy was a cheap refuge from reality for bright teenagers, now the ticket to entry is a full-length novel — often enough, at hardcover prices.”

“If you want to stand up and be included in the movement to help save science fiction,” says publishing legend Jim Baen, “drop in, subscribe, and join the club! You know you want to!”

Jim Baen’s Universe is published as a bimonthly online magazine beginning in June of 2006, with up to 150,000 words per issue, making it far larger than a typical magazine. The magazine can be read online, or in a variety of downloadable formats, including Acrobat PDF, Mobipocket, Microsoft Reader, RTF, and others.

As with all of Baen Publishing’s electronic offerings, Jim Baen’s Universe is published completely unencrypted and without any Digital Rights Management schemes or copy protection.

This is a tremendous endorsement from one of the best science fiction writers of the 80s and 90s. It’s exciting to read that he’s going to feed his stuff into Baen’s Universe.

It is a bit disconcerting, though, that this good news has to be spun as part of a movement to help save science fiction.

Does it really need saving? Apparently so…

Bush’s Chat With Novelist Alarms Environmentalists - New York Times
In his new book about Mr. Bush, “Rebel in Chief: Inside the Bold and Controversial Presidency of George W. Bush,” Fred Barnes recalls a visit to the White House last year by Michael Crichton, whose 2004 best-selling novel, “State of Fear,” suggests that global warming is an unproven theory and an overstated threat.

Mr. Barnes, who describes Mr. Bush as “a dissenter on the theory of global warming,” writes that the president “avidly read” the novel and met the author after Karl Rove, his chief political adviser, arranged it. He says Mr. Bush and his guest “talked for an hour and were in near-total agreement.”

“The visit was not made public for fear of outraging environmentalists all the more,” he adds.

And so it has, fueling a common perception among environmental groups that Mr. Crichton’s dismissal of global warming, coupled with his popularity as a novelist and screenwriter, has undermined efforts to pass legislation intended to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, a gas that leading scientists say causes climate change.

I enjoyed STATE OF FEAR. Crichton’s major point is an important one: climate changes.

Comment and opinion from the Times and The Sunday Times - Times Online
“EUROPE MUST LEARN to live in and with the world, not to dominate it, nor to assume it is superior or more virtuous. Any continent that has inflicted such brutality on the world over a period of 200 years has not too much to be proud of, and much to be modest and humble about.” Martin Jacques, The Guardian, on the cartoons row.

Meanwhile, in a parallel universe . . .

From a Reuters report, Rome, some time around now

The Vatican has protested in “the strongest possible terms” against the publication in paperback of Dan Brown’s bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code. Cardinal Loopi, of the Office of the Defence of the Faith, condemned the book for defaming Catholicism and, in its suggestion that Jesus Christ was married, of heresy. “We demand that the book be destroyed and that the author be punished,” said Loopi, “otherwise we cannot be held responsible for how Catholics throughout the world may react.”

Excerpt from a speech by Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor

Merkel: “The affront to the honour of the one true Church is in fact an affront to the worship of God, and to the seeking of truth and justice, and an affront to all the prophets of God. Obviously, all those who harm the honour of the one true Church . . .”

Crowd: “Death to Dan Brown.

Death to Dan Brown.

Death to Dan Brown.

Death to Dan Brown.”

Priceless.