BilmBlog500

I got to participate in an SF Signal "Mind Meld" this week, to talk about a science fiction ship I might want to ride upon. My mind often goes in weird directions, and I decided I'd enjoy riding on a nameless ship one might happen upon wandering the world of Severian's New Sun, from the classic Gene Wolf tetralogy The Book of the New Sun. As I sent my Mind Meld off a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would be nice, when the Meld appeared, to drop David Hartwell a note, and let him know that these books he had edited 30, 35 years ago, still resonated with me. I never had the opportunity. When I woke up on the morning of January 20, I was greeted with two things: the Mind Meld I'd participated in had gone live on SF Signal. And David Hartwell was unexpectedly, critically ill, news that had broken overnight. Titles from early in David G. Hartwell's editorial career.  One look says it all. Gene Wolfe was hardly the only great writer that David Hartwell had ...

So I popped over to the Baen twitter feed today, and was saddened to see a little tiny tweet: In memoriam: Richard T. Gallen, one of the original founders of Baen Books. Which says something, but maybe not enough. He wasn't just a founder of Baen. He was some of the money behind Tor Books.  As mentioned in this article in the NY Times from 30+ years ago. He was some of the money behind Carroll & Graf, which published actively in sf/fantasy/horror/mystery, including things like the Mammoth Book series, or David Pringle's 100 Best SF Novels , which C&G and other publishers used as a road map for bringing a lot of deserving books and authors back into print and to a new generation of readers. We'd have science fiction and fantasy today without Richard T. Gallen, but it's safe to say it would be different somehow.  His being around or not being around, it's one of those things like "Hitler Wins World War II" or "Lincoln Survives" that alter...