Ann Leckie

So, word on the street is that Jupiter Ascending is a hot mess. But remember Speed Racer? That nearly all the reviewers panned and a few years later folks were watching it on DVD for the lulz and went “Oh, wait, this is actually pretty good”? And they’d missed seeing it on the big screen? Which is a real pity because SR on the big screen was freaking awesome?

Right. Nothing was going to keep me away from Jupiter Ascending. We went to see it last night.

Now, I’m not any kind of reviewer or critic. I’m generally at a loss when it’s time for reviews. So I really won’t be able to tell you much more than “Gosh darn it, I really enjoyed that a lot!”

Well, I can tell you that you need to be willing to accept a high level of amazingly ridiculous and gorgeous stuff. The movie doesn’t waste a lot of time letting you know this. Basically, JA says to you, “Look, you see this giant ship we’re on? And the depthless abyss of ocean beneath us? And this rail, here, that would keep us from going overboard in a very large scale way? Yeah, fuck that rail. Let’s put on our antigravity rollerblades.”

I’ve seen reviews complain about Eddie Redmayne’s acting job here,but honestly, I enjoyed Redmayne, up to and including the pieces of scenery that stuck in his teeth. I’ve seen reviewers complain about the chewed scenery here, as though somehow that’s automatically bad, but all things in their place. This sort of thing really does call for tooth marks all over the set, if you ask me. The question isn’t “was scenery chewed?” but rather “how artfully, enthusiastically, and grandly was the scenery chewed?” It’s a matter of what mode you’re working in. And I’ve seen snickers about the “I like dogs” line, but in context actually it worked, at least for me. Various things weren’t explained during the course of the movie, and various things were just kind of thrown onscreen to be admired and enjoyed momentarily without accompanying explanation–yeah, so what? I admired and enjoyed, and while there’s a kind of SF that revels in explanations (and I enjoy that), this wasn’t that kind of SF–and I enjoy that kind, too.

And honestly, you know, it was obvious from the get-go that it was never meant to be a Serious Science Fiction Film of Great Seriousness. Honestly, I feel like complaining it’s filled with familiar motifs and over the top and silly in places is like being presented with a gigantic meringue-topped everyberry trifle and complaining that it’s the worst roast free range chicken you’ve ever tasted.

Okay, I’ll admit the “Bees recognize royalty” thing was a step too far even for me, but the rest? Pure meringue-covered, sabayon-drenched fun.

Now, this is not to say it’s perfect–the aforementioned royalty-detecting bees for one, and yeah, seems to me that screenplay was edited to within an inch of its life and various plot threads kind of appeared and disappeared. You will have to pay attention to make any minimal sense of the plot. Or not, if that’s not a thing for you.

But anyway. My advice–if you liked Speed Racer (inexplicably, not everyone did. I gather for some the colors and motion is headache inducing, which it’s understandable you wouldn’t enjoy that, I guess) anyway, if you liked Speed Racer (“yes, one racing team dresses like fake Vikings and has a beehive hidden in their car to launch at competitors. Just go with us on this!”) then you might be onboard for Jupiter Ascending. And if you’re half-thinking about maybe seeing it on DVD–see it now, on the big screen. Like SR, the visuals are half the experience.

Oh, but the previews beforehand. OMG. They just kept going on and on and they all were dreadful. There was this one, about some boy and some girl (there were title cards to helpfully let you know this, because otherwise you’d have taken the actors for adults) and she said “you make it seem impossible!” and some wise motherly figure advised our supposedly romantic lead that “if you don’t run after her you’re not the man I’ve taken you for” and about four hours into it I leaned over to the 15 yr old and said “This is endless. We’re in Hell.”

Anyway. Wretched previews or not, seriously, Jupiter Ascending was a lot of fun.

So, a number of fabulous folks I’m acquainted with have set up Patreons. Or Patreon accounts? Or whatever you call it.

I’m intrigued by the Patreon thing. While I’m happy to support Kickstarters that are one-off things, I’m leery of the ones that are of necessity repeating–magazines, say, where the funding model is running a Kickstarter every year. I’m not condemning such efforts at all, I just find that particular model a bit odd and offputting. Editors and artists need money to produce things like magazines, there’s no question. Y’all do what works for you, right?

Patreon, though, is explicitly set up for ongoing support. I think it’s a pretty cool idea, and I’m curious to see how it works out in the long run. In the meantime, like I said, I know some people who have Patreons set up, ones that are, I think, worth your attention.

Cat Rambo’s patreon: Cat’s Patreon was an experiment, running over the last six months or so. She was putting up a story for supporters every two weeks, and as I understand it, she plans to continue to do so.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Patreon: If you’re not familiar with Silvia’s work, I highly recommend checking it out. Her fist novel, Signal to Noise, came out recently, and she has a collection, This Strange Way of Dying. The title story, as it happens, first appeared at GigaNotoSaurus.

Rose Lemberg’s Patreon: To support the creation of works in Rose’s Birdverse. For a taste of Birdverse, check out “Held Close in Syllables of Light” over at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, or the poem “I will show you a single treasure from the treasures of Shah Niyaz,” which appeared in Goblin Fruit.

Stone Telling: Stone Telling is a poetry zine edited by Rose Lemberg and Shweta Narayan. To be entirely honest, I don’t really know much about poetry, it’s not really my thing. I know what I like, is all. However, I more than liked Sofia Samatar’s “Girl Hours,” which first appeared in Stone Telling. If you’re a SF poetry fan, do check this out!

2014 is nearly over–a bit more than twelve hours of it left, here–and that’s a time when a lot of folks think back over the ending year, and maybe spend a bit of time being hopeful for the coming one.

Usually I look back and think, “Really? Pretty much like most years.” Maybe there was some single big (even life-changing) event, but by and large things are pretty routine. I’ve always been a kind of slow writer, and so lists of how many stories completed or subbed or number of rejections didn’t necessarily make me feel like I’d accomplished a whole lot, excepting the occasional Years Best reprint. But, you know, it’s good to look back and see what you’ve done, because so often (at least, for me) it seems like I generally underestimate what I’ve done, and so even if the actual list of stories completed etc isn’t that impressive, it’s generally more than I thought without looking up the numbers. This holds true for non-writing things as well.

So, how was my 2014? Well, basically, my first novel won All The Awards. Well, all right, it didn’t win the PKD, the Compton Crook, or the John W. Campbell Memorial Award (the novel one, not the “not a Hugo” Campbell, for which I haven’t been eligible for several years). “Triple Crown” was a phrase that kept coming up, but really it was way more than three.

I seriously thought I would never sell Ancillary Justice, or if I did it might ultimately sell a few hundred copies. I had folks who had reason to know agree with my assessment. I went ahead and wrote it anyway, and submitted it anyway, because that’s what you do, when you’re a writer. The outcome is never guaranteed.

There is fanfiction. There is fan art. This is right up there with the awards, in my mind. In some ways, it’s even better.

In October of this year, my second novel came out. It is, of course, impossible that its reception would equal the first. It is a very different sort of book, and some readers are pleased by that and some not. Which is as it should be. I think my favorite compare/contrast pair is still “this book is like Sense and Sensibility in space. BORING!” vs. “This book is like Sense and Sensibility in space–it’s AWESOME!” Paraphrases, but both namechecked S&S, which I thought was hilarious. Actually, Ancillary Sword isn’t very Sense and Sensibility-like, but I knew what they meant. Maybe more on-target (and I suppose retaining the Austen connection) was the friend who emailed me that it put them in mind of Patrick O’Brien. Hah! Guess what I did between turning in the final ms of AJ and beginning AS in earnest? Yep. Read the entire series, one right after the other.

Anyway. I’m tremendously pleased with reactions to Ancillary Sword so far. Now I’m in a struggle to the death with Ancillary Mercy, and Mithras willing I’ll be victorious soon. Then I’ll have time to read some of the books people have sent me hoping for blurbs! The ones that haven’t already been published so it’s too late now, I mean. Sorry! Turns out struggles to the death with book three of your trilogy don’t leave you much reading time.

Once AM is turned in I’ll need to spend some time thinking what’s next. I’ve been living with these books for a long time, and I’ll need to find some way to switch gears. It should be interesting!

So, that was my year, and who knows what next year will bring? Nothing like 2014, for me, but that’s all right, because, wow. The awesome from 2014 is going to last me a while.

Happy new year, everybody! I hope your 2015 is full of wonderful surprises for you!