James Nicoll: Trending quotes

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James Nicoll: 138 quotes0 likes

“As I've often said, I'm a fan of hard SF. No, it's more like I am addicted to it, even the stepped-on 20 times and cut with pow[d]ered milk and rat-poison sort of hard SF. This gets us to Stephen Baxter's Mayflower II, published last year in a limited edition from PS Publishing. In one of the great tragedies of publishing, it was not a limited enough edition and so I have read it.”

[cvneu0$29s$1@reader2.panix.com, 2005]
2000s

“Before it exploded one night, I went to a four grade, two room schoolhouse and we had textbooks from the 1940s.”

[9690va$mjc$1@panix3.panix.com, 2001]
2000s

“Never bring a gun to a fight where the other guy has a time-machine and tomorrow's newspapers.”

[e2s3p4$ofd$1@reader1.panix.com, 2006]
2000s

“John Barnes is incredibly variable. Pete's Rule (Never buy a Barnes with sodomy in it) is a good one but unfortunately the publisher does not put that kind of stuff on the cover.”

[a393v8$pen$1@panix1.panix.com, 2002]
2000s

“My grandfather for example only died twice, once during the war and once in the 1980s.”

[bqia5r$49o$1@panix1.panix.com, 2003]
2000s

“It’s a sad thing that the march of time and evolution of mores can rob one of the ability to laugh at simple domestic abuse.”

review of The Flying Sorcerers by David Gerrold and Larry Niven http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/exhibit-a, 2016 <br class="br">2010s

“Pournelle, who if I recall correctly is a veteran of the Korean conflict, does mention logistical details more often than I expect in MilSF. Not the fun kind of logistics, involving the production of a million zillion Squamoid Hypermissiles, but the mundane sort, like who gets to dig the latrines. Latrines are not romantic, but nobody wants a battle called off because the men all have dysentery and are too busy shitting blood to fight.”

review of The Mercenary by Jerry Pournelle http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/the-hunter-and-the-bear, 2016 <br class="br">2010s

“There’s a rule I used to call The Niven Rule but which I just now have decided to call the Rusting Bridges rule. It came to me after reading Niven’s “All The Bridges Rusting.””

In this story, humans have by the early 21st century explored the Solar System and sent not just one but two crewed ships to Alpha Centauri … despite which the characters moan endlessly about the dire state of the space program. “Eyes of Amber” would be another example of the Rusting Bridges [Rule]: No matter how much the space program you actually have has achieved, whether it’s first contact with aliens or trips to nearby stars, it can never have achieved as much as the space programs you can imagine would have achieved in its place, given that imaginary programs aren’t limited by issues of politics, funding, or engineering. <br class="br"> Review of “Eyes of Amber”, by Joan D. Vinge (as anthologized in New Women of Wonder, edited by Pamela Sargent http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/yet-more-sf-about-women-by-women, 2015 <br class="br">2010s

“Although no credible evidence exists that the speed of light can be exceeded, writers are willing to embrace the possibility that light might be outpaced somehow.”

Never underestimate the persuasive power of somehow.
2010s