that doesn't make LOTR science fiction, because that explanation is not included in LOTR or used as part of the story. It's not even alluded to.

They don't reveal he's of a magical race in LOTR? Not even in the appendices? Is that reveal in the Silmarillion, then?

I don't see how being a wizard that studies and learns magic is any softer than someone who's born of a race that has that power inherent in them. I wouldn't inherently apply hard to either of them, but I would flip your order.

science fiction describes unlikely things that could possibly take place in the real world under certain conditions

Uh, politely, that's bullshit. Lots of sci fi describes things that couldn't possibly take place in *our* real world, because either the conditions are not stipulated, or they could never exist.

I'm pretty sure the backstory on Gandalf/wizards is in both the Appendices and the Silmarillion. Either way, it's canon and hardly obscure.

I follow an online book club called Sword & Laser (mostly on Goodreads but also a podcast), and in theory the book selections are supposed to alternate SF and Fantasy, but it's a rarity that a book falls 100% solidly into one category or the other.

(Probably the clearest example recently was Gene Wolf's Shadow and Claw - the combo of Shadow of the Torturer and Claw of the Conciliator that's currently in release - it's a post-technological world where a lot of the tech still functions, but the people in that universe have forgotten how and why it works, and so to them it's magic. To the reader, it's science fiction and to the characters, it's fantasy.)

I haven't read Hunger Games, but I decided to go through Mark Reads' review of them. Wow, what gets marketed as YA these days is a lot darker than what I read as a kid.

But I'm kind of sad at how shocked Mark is by some of the twists, how honestly surprised he is at how Katniss is treated and how the plot twists. Maybe I've seen too many war tribunals or read too many retrospectives to be surprised by what the Powers that Be do to their tools.

Well, sad isn't the right word, unless it's sad for my own cynicism.

That's why I'm surprised he's thinking of watching Supernatural. Sure, it's one of the funniest shows I watch, but it's also really freaking dark and depressing alongside that.

Does anyone know what B&N means when they're selling enhanced ebooks? I'm looking at the entry for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and I can't work out what they're actually selling for the extra two dollars. I have a B+W e-ink Nook, so I'm assuming it'll be lost on me on my main device anyway, but would the extra features be available in their Nook applications on more video-appropriate hardware?

I'm so confused. That's such a zero-information writeup, unless I'm missing something.

It fascinates me that Hunger Games is such a huge hit, since it's such a blunt denunciation of so much of American culture. How many millions of kids have read this and are now looking thoughtfully at reality TV? Or interview shows? Or politicians?

I just read the "Mark Reads" thing on Hunger Games, and I also finished the first book myself.

I think I may be the exact opposite of Mark in every way. First, I knew the basic plot before reading, and can't imagine it any other way. Second, I am all about the romance-- poor Peeta! I know next to nothing about the next 2 books, however.

Dickens Walk podcast from the Guardian.

Be sure to download the cool map from the illustrator Baudade too.

I am reading The Serpent Sea, the second of Martha Wells' tales of the Raksura (the first is The Cloud Roads). It's set in a fabulously fantastic world, with floating islands and a multiplicity of sapient races, all of which have widely varying biologies and social structures. And it's about identity and family: both the ones you're born with and the ones you make. It has adventures and mysteries, sex and fighting, beauty and horror.

SGA Fans please note: if you have a fondness for the competent loner who doesn't know he needs a family, and isn't quite sure what to do with it when he gets one; or, by contrast, the researcher and theorist who is forced to become a soldier through no choice of his own; or the woman leading her people through strength, force of personality, and a bit of guile--well, I suspect you might like these novels a great deal.

I'm just saying.

You can find links to the books on her site--and as of last week, there was a promo sale ongoing, with Cloud Roads free and Baen's ebook of The Serpent Sea going for $6.

Found on Tumblr, posted by a YA author:

if you use coupon code F3Y9V4J at BN.com, you’ll get 50% off your entire purchase of teen books! and teen books are awesome, no? :D

(p.s. orders of $25 or more qualify for free shipping, and this coupon is valid until 1/12/12.

Kindle deal of the day:

3 books by Dava Sobel @ excellent prices - Longitude for 99 cents, A More Perfect Heaven for $1.99 and Galileo's Daughter for 99 cents.

Link.