Book Recommendations Five Superb SFF Fix-Up Novels  Fix-up novels can sometimes feel a little clunky…but sometimes they succeed beyond all measure&;#33; Here are five classic examples… By James Davis Nicoll | Published on April 18‚ 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share Suppose for the moment that you were a hard-working speculative fiction author with a lengthy backlist of short fiction. Further suppose that you wanted to package some of that short fiction into a collection that readers might buy. Imagine your consternation on discovering that collections weren’t selling well and that no publisher wanted to gamble on your work. What is a hard-working author to do&;#63; One solution to a temporary shortage of funds is to don a garish costume‚ adopt a memorable nom de crime‚ and launch a series of unnecessarily complex schemes to rob banks. But there is an even easier solution&;#33; Simply take those unsellable short works‚ apply narrative spackle‚ and transform them into what A. E. Van Vogt called a “fix-up” novel. Readers will barely notice the seams as they enjoy your latest novel1. You will enjoy extra income. Everyone wins—especially your bank manager. While Van Vogt’s own fix-ups were (to put it charitably) of variable quality‚ the form has produced legitimate classics that are well worth readers’ time and money. Herewith‚ five truly glorious fix-ups you might want to read. Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller‚ Jr. (1959) Miller’s only novel published during his lifetime‚ Canticle details the efforts of the pious brothers of the Albertian Order of Leibowitz to preserve scientific knowledge following the Flame Deluge and subsequent Simplification. The results are mixed at best‚ but the brothers’ hearts were pure. The novel Canticle began as “A Canticle for Leibowitz‚” “And the Light is Risen‚” and “The Last Canticle‚” all published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction between 1955 and 1957. Each was substantially reworked before appearing as the fix-up Canticle for Leibowitz in 1959. The result was an instant‚ Hugo Award-winning classic. In fact‚ Canticle was so successful that it eclipsed Miller’s other work; I have encountered people who are entirely unaware Miller wrote other stories. Pavane by Keith Roberts (1968) Following Queen Elizabeth I’s assassination‚ the Reformation is crushed. Spain remains ascendant. The Catholic Church remains the Church and technological and social innovation is discouraged. The consequences (and ultimately‚ the true cause) of this historical alteration are detailed over generations from the perspective of England’s Dorset region. The novelettes that became Pavane began as “The Signaller‚” “The Lady Anne‚” “Brother John‚” “Lords and Ladies‚” “Corfe Gate‚” and “The White Boat‚” all published in 1966‚ all of which save “The White Boat” were first published in Impulse. “The White Boat” first appeared in New Worlds. As with Canticle‚ the result was an instant classic. While Pavane did not win a Hugo‚ it was featured in the first Ace SF Specials and is still in print over half a century later. In the Red Lord’s Reach by Phyllis Eisenstein (1989) Alaric the Minstrel (bard and teleporter) gains employment in the Red Lord’s court. The mysterious screams heard from the Red Lord’s tower lead Alaric to question the prudence of working for the lord. A man who can teleport need not worry overmuch about imprisonment…but is Alaric the sort of man who will simply walk away from injustice&;#63; Red Lord began as “The Land of Sorrow‚” “The Mountain Fastness‚” and “Beyond the Red Lord’s Reach‚” all of which first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction between 1977 and 1988. Annoyingly‚ despite Eisenstein’s talent as a writer‚ both this volume and 1978’s Born to Exile are long out of print2. Alaric-curious readers can seek out Eisenstein’s more recent Alaric tale‚ 2014’s “The Caravan to Nowhere‚” which may be found in the Rogues anthology edited by Gardner Dozois and George R.R. Martin. Mirabile by Janet Kagan (1991) A mishap en route to an exoplanet cost the hopeful pioneers the index that was key to a cutting-edge biotechnological tool. Lack of index did not prevent genetically-engineered animals and plants from occasionally producing dissimilar‚ sometimes dangerous‚ offspring. It falls to Annie Jason “Mama Jason” Masmajean to deal with the resulting “Dragon’s Teeth.” Mirabile’s composite parts—“The Loch Moose Monster‚” “The Return of the Kangaroo Rex‚” “The Flowering Inferno‚” “Getting the Bugs Out‚” “Raising Cane‚” and “Frankenswine”) first appeared in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine between 1989 and 1991. As fix-ups go‚ the efforts to transform the original short pieces into a novel are perfunctory to the point that for years I thought it was a collection. Nevertheless‚ the result entertains. It’s too bad that Mirabile is currently out of print. Perhaps a letter-writing campaign to Mirabile’s publisher Tor could change that&;#33; Accelerando by Charles Stross (2005) As was foretold by techno-optimistic futurists‚ the Singularity utterly transforms the world. A trifling side effect barely worth mentioning is that intellectually out-classed humans are swiftly reduced from Earth’s dominant thinkers to cognitive archaea. As detailed over generations‚ the post-Singularity era is an exciting time to be alive…or to be consumed by ruthless‚ super-intelligent AIs. Accelerando’s component chapters (“Lobsters‚” “Troubadour‚” “Tourist‚” “Halo‚” “Router‚” “Nightfall‚” “Curator‚” “Elector‚” and “Survivor”) were all first published in in Asimov’s Science Fiction between 2001 and 2004. Accelerando was very well received; I don’t have the spare word count to list every award nomination that the fix-up and its parts earned. One wonders how Stross finds the mantlepiece space for all the awards. Accelerando can be downloaded here. Try not to burn out the servers. Fix-ups are a venerable‚ respectable approach to writing and publishing speculative fiction. The five examples above are only a very small sample of a very large body of work3 [3]. No doubt I’ve missed some very notable examples. Feel free to lambast me for my omissions and correct my oversights in comments below.[end-mark] Seams are less obvious in fix-ups that were planned to become fix-ups from the beginning. One thinks of the many Victorian novels that were serialized and later collected into books. ︎As far as I can tell‚ anthologized stories aside‚ Eisenstein is completely out of print. I am astonished there hasn’t been A Complete Alaric‚ at least. The world found space to keep They’d Rather Be Right in print. Why not Eisenstein’s far superior books&;#63; ︎I seriously considered mentioning a certain fix-up first serialized in Analog way back in 1963 and 1965. However‚ the resulting fix-up was so unappealing to SF publishers that the author eventually settled for a publisher specializing in automotive repair manuals (an acquisition for which the purchasing editor was subsequently fired). Ultimately‚ I reluctantly deleted my discussion of that fix-up. After all‚ would 21st-century readers have even heard of Dune&;#63; ︎The post Five Superb SFF Fix-Up Novels  appeared first on Reactor.

What does it take for a federal court to reach the outcome it wants—instead of the outcome that the law demands&;#63; Apparently‚ just some creative judicial gymnastics. That’s what happened Tuesday with a panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit when it overturned a lower court decision and struck down West Virginia’s Save Women’s Sports Act‚ a law that keeps scholastic sports in the state separated by biological sex. The appeals court’s rationale&;#63; Biological girls and transgender “girls” (biological males) are exactly the same.   In BPJ v. West Virginia Board of Education‚ Judge Toby Heytens‚ a Biden appointee‚ was joined by Judge Pamela Harris‚ an Obama appointee‚ in determining that the state school board had violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. That’s the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in all federally funded education programs. The appeals court also held that the West Virginia law likely violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause‚ which guarantees all individuals equal treatment under the laws of the United States.   Significant to the litigation history is the fact that BPJ—a boy in middle school—beat female competitors in over 100 track events more than 280 times while he was on puberty blockers‚ busting the myth that boys on hormones have no athletic advantage over biological females. The case also prompted an op-ed by a girl athlete at a West Virginia middle school‚ who wrote that “if boys get to play on girls’ teams‚ the team that I love so much would go away. We would end up with two boys’ teams: one of boys who call themselves boys‚ and one of boys who identify as girls but dominate and control the girls’ team.” Classifications based on sex require intermediate scrutiny review under the Constitution’s equal protection clause. Specifically‚ the law at issue must serve an important government interest and be substantially related to achieving that purpose. Writing for the court‚ Heytens emphastated that the effect of West Virginia’s law was to “exclude transgender girls from the definition of ‘female’ and thus to exclude them from participation on girls sports teams.” “That is a facial classification based on gender identity‚” the judge wrote. “And‚ under this court’s binding precedent‚ such classifications trigger intermediate scrutiny.” But Heytens simply ignored the fact that the Supreme Court never has held transgender individuals to be a “suspect” or “quasi-suspect” class for whom the Constitution demands heightened‚ intermediate scrutiny review. Nor has the Supreme Court ever held that transgender “girls” are the same as biological girls. Nor has it ever held that sex is the same as gender identity. Not even in Bostock v. Clayton County did the Supreme Court make such a determination. In fact‚ Justice Neil Gorsuch began his opinion in that case by saying that “we proceed on the assumption that ‘sex’ signified what the employers suggest‚ referring only to biological distinctions between male and female.” None of this mattered to the 4th Circuit‚ though. Heytens wrote that West Virginia had failed to demonstrate that its goals of “participant safety and competitive fairness” were substantially related to their decision to exclude BPJ—again‚ a biological boy on puberty-blocking hormones—from girls’ athletics. This was especially so‚ he wrote‚ because BPJ “presented evidence that transgender girls with her background and characteristics possess no inherent‚ biologically-based competitive advantages over cisgender girls when participating in sports.” I think more than 100 middle school girls in West Virginia would beg to differ. As for BPJ’s secondary challenge to the Save Women’s Sports Act‚ the appeals court found that the state law violated Title IX by treating BPJ worse than similarly situated people‚ depriving “her” of any meaningful athletic opportunities on the basis of “sex.” Heytens determined that the “stigma of being unable to participate on a team with one’s friends and peers” (citing the court’s own opinion in Grimm v. Gloucester County) was harm sufficient enough to prove a violation of Title IX. The court vacated the lower court’s decision in part‚ reversed it in part‚ and remanded the case with instructions both to enter summary judgment for BPJ on the Title IX claims and to develop an additional factual record regarding BPJ’s argument that the school’s actions violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. In a scathing dissent‚ Judge G. Steven Agee (a George W. Bush appointee) wrote that the majority “inappropriately expands the scope of the Equal Protection Clause and upends the essence of Title IX.” Noting that BPJ “dominated” girls track meets‚ Agee stressed that the majority erroneously concluded that biological boys are similarly situated to biological girls‚ ignoring the fact that biology is relevant in sports. He wrote that it was irrelevant that BPJ identified as a girl because “gender identity‚ simply put‚ has nothing to do with sports.” BPJ was being treated the same as all the other biological male athletes in West Virginia schools and so there had been no discrimination. In fact‚ PBJ’s participation in girls track did exactly what West Virginia was trying to prevent: taking opportunities away from biological girls. In addressing the majority’s Title IX determination‚ Agee noted that the court effectively had reversed the “monumental work Title IX has done to promote girls’ sports from its inception.” He pointed out that Title IX regulations expressly permit schools to separate sports teams by biological sex. What’s more‚ to reach its desired outcome‚ the majority had to contort its reasoning to conclude that “sex” unambiguously meant “gender identity.” It defies logic‚ Agee wrote‚ to say that when Title IX was enacted in 1972‚ everyone implicitly understood that sex also meant gender identity. “If Congress so intended‚” Judge Agee wrote‚ “it should have explicitly said so. It did not.”   “Women and young girls deserve to compete on a level playing field‚”  Rachel Rouleau‚ a senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom who was one of the attorneys representing the West Virginia Board of Education‚ said in response to the decision. “The court’s decision undermines equal opportunities and contradicts both biological reality and common sense. Title IX was designed to provide women with fair competition‚ and West Virginia’s women’s sports law does the same.” Alliance Defending Freedom is mulling an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Here’s hoping that West Virginia—and the girls displaced by BPJ—are vindicated eventually. And that a bad decision‚ relying on a foundation of bad legal interpretation‚ doesn’t stand for long.    The post Striking Down Women’s Sports Law‚ Federal Appeals Court Rules Men Can Be Women appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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