Foz Meadows expresses frustration at how heavily books (especially those aimed at teens these days) appear to be gendered, when they really don’t need to be. So does Seanan McGuire. This is a thing. I’ve had a similar conversation with about six different people in the last fortnight, including my seven-year-old! She likes to read books that aren’t girl books or boy books but KID BOOKS. It’s a pink glitter jungle out there.

Tehani Wessely provides some gender stats on the Aurealis Awards.

Mari Ness raises her eyebrows at a list of great YA girl characters from books that aren’t necessarily YA…

Mary Robinette Kowal is an astoundingly good sport about the fact that her new novel Glamour in Glass (sequel to the awesome Shades of Milk and Honey) is being published without its first sentence. I would be on the floor in pieces. She has devised a clever bookmark, a sticker, a plan for writing it into your book at formal signings, and a cool quiz. I scored 9/10!

Charles Tan has written a post about The Hunger Games which addresses, among other things, something that has been driving me batty, the tendency for people who haven’t read the books or seen the movie to dismiss it as ‘being’ Battle Royale and therefore… I don’t know. Not a real thing, somehow? Now that I have finally been educated about some of the key differences (like um, FEMALE PROTAGONIST MUCH) and similarities, I feel slightly better, though I have no doubt that that particular thing will continue to irritate me exactly as much.

Elizabeth Bear talks about how to support female SFF writers.

Sean the Blogonaut talks about implicit racism in the Game of Thrones TV series, and how “slight” but telling changes between the text and the screen can make a pretty massive difference.

Many of us are well aware of the issues in the ebook “price fixing”, agency model discussion, but if you’re still trying to get a handle on it all, this is a nice and simple look at why it’s not as simple as Amazon want you to think – and why perception of the value of a book is at the heart of the matter.

Ashley Judd is a feminist hero. How rare is it to hear commentary about the vile media (and public) response to actresses and their bodies from women inside the industry? Other than Tina Fey, that is. As I discovered when discussing this on Galactic Suburbia, there’s also a lesson here in dealing with media. I felt quite confronted by the idea that Judd normally read nothing that was said about her, including interviews she herself had given, and thought it made her helpless to not be able to check/control her publicity. But, of course, you CAN’T control what people say about you on the internet, can you? Food for thought.

This is my favourite critical response to the Hugo shortlist so far – I was reading it, enjoying the feminist perspective and thoughtful analysis, and then got to the bit at the end where the writer starts squeeing madly about being delighted at Galactic Suburbia’s nomination. Which made me squee too! So nice that people are happy for us. (hey, these aren’t the Completely Unbiased Friday Links)

A costume case study on Upstairs Downstairs, which is becoming my new show. I don’t love it more than Downton… yet, but as an old school fan it makes me happy in many ways. Plus, 1936 London! Hats and tiaras! And there’s a monkey!

Great article from the Mary Sue about how women can actually wear full armour that doesn’t display her belly button, and how armour works on real people, big or small, male or female. An essential bookmark for writers!

EDIT: Almost forgot this one! Terri talks awards, and why nominating/voting means you care about them.

And to finish, found on Shakesville, a lovely music video that doesn’t just celebrate African history and culture, but also has such a gorgeous depiction of fatherhood:

Galactic Suburbia was nominated for Best Fancast.

This is a dizzying and most splendid honour, and all four of us, presenters and producer, are tickled pink.

Congratulations to everyone on the shortlists, especially our fellow nominees in the Fancast category:

Best Fancast (326 ballots)
The Coode Street Podcast, Jonathan Strahan & Gary K. Wolfe
Galactic Suburbia Podcast, Alisa Krasnostein, Alex Pierce, and Tansy Rayner Roberts (presenters) and Andrew Finch (producer)
SF Signal Podcast, John DeNardo and JP Frantz, produced by Patrick Hester
SF Squeecast, Lynne M. Thomas, Seanan McGuire, Paul Cornell, Elizabeth Bear, and Catherynne M. Valente
StarShipSofa, Tony C. Smith

There is dancing, much dancing, and joyful celebration. Also, there will be HUGO PINS, that most exciting sartorial item. I also love that my Twitter feed has filled up with people talking about the acquisition of frocks for the ceremony.

The most splendid Karen Healey and I chatted this morning (in one of my brief holiday internet windows) about the importance of wearable tokens of awards, and how all literary awards could be GREATLY IMPROVED. You can read a cut down version of our conversation here.

EPISODE FORTY

In which we hug the Hugos, plug the Stella, lament the loss of the Weird Tales team, and contemplate (briefly) our podcasterly mid-life crisis. Alex delves into the wonderful world of classic cyberpunk, and Tansy demands to know why on earth Alisa is still watching Doctor Who if she doesn’t actually like it?

News

Weird Tales Sold, Editorial Staff Kicked Out

Strange Horizons Fundraising Drive

The Stella: new Australian novel prize for women

Galactic Chat
Kelley Armstrong
Ben Peek

Tansy’s win

What Culture Have we Consumed?
Alisa: Doctor Who Season 2, Outer Alliance Podcast
Alex: Trouble and her Friends, Melissa Scott; Only Ever Always, Penni Russon; Synners, Pat Cadigan; Blake’s 7.
Tansy: SF Squeecast #3, Panel2Panel, Among Others by Jo Walton, Alcestis by Katherine Beukner, Stormlord’s Exile by Glenda Larke, AM KINDLED WILL TRAVEL

Pet Subject: Hugoriffic!
Were you there for the Hugo Twitter party? Or did you have to resort to sitting in the live audience?
The stats
The results
Hugos commentary round up

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

In which we do a quick (ha) awards round up and squee about the Swancon that was.

News

We wanted you to read this review and be appalled
An issue to be addressed that we want more women reviewed … but not like that.
(but then they edited the review out from under us, so you can be appalled by that instead)

Hugo nominees have been released.

Ditmar, Tin Duck & other Australian award winners (including us!)

Wanted to draw attention to when Tansy won the Atheling and Grant Stone as MC said she was the first woman (invisibility of women)

1979 – Susan Wood, “Women and Science Fiction”, Algol 33, 1978
2007 – Justine Larbalestier for Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century
2009 – Kim Wilkins, for “Popular genres and the Australian literary community: the case of fantasy fiction”
2010 – Helen Merrick for The Secret Feminist Cabal: a cultural history of science fiction feminisms (Aqueduct Press)

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

memorable moment: Mondy staring at Aifin after about 10 minutes intense conversation about iPad sleeves and suddenly announcing, “Hang on, are you THE PRODUCER?”

many other memorable moments: Alex, expecting to be completely anonymous at this con, being faced by various people saying “are you ALEX FROM MELBOURNE?”

drink of the convention: the purple daiquiris at the Voyager 15 party.

frocks of the convention: Alex, Alisa & Terri at the Hugos.

book of the convention: THE LITTLE PINK ONE.

You can find a video here of Tony C Smith’s live broadcast of his reaction to the Hugo awards. About 40 mins in, he finds out he won the Best Fanzine for Starship Sofa and explodes with joy. It’s also a nice little visual of what it’s like to be following award ceremonies (as I usually am) via the internet.

Blindmouse’s con report (including a well thought out response to my disastrous female superhero panel)
Random Tangent has some great, detailed reports about panels attended. My favourite of course is Day 3 which refers to my feminism in fantasy panel!
Megan with glorious enthusiasm about her first ever lit panel.
Catherynne Valente documents how it feels to lose a Hugo.
Gary Kemble has gathered some links.
Voyager on the inaugural winner of the Norma K Hemming Award (THE NORMA!!!), Maria Quinn.

Tehani’s con report.
Flinthart’s con report
Mondy on life after Worldcon.

Sunday was Father’s Day! No sleep in or cooked breakfast for my sweetie, though. He did receive a school-made card from Daughter #1 and a gift card for the apps store from me (very appropriate as the iPad had become our complete lifeline over the trip, as entertainment, internet connectivity and a social networking tool. I want my owwwwwn.

My one panel for the day was one I had been super excited about – The Case for the Female Doctor. Not only did I get to sit next to Paul Cornell, but the really cool thing was that all of the panellists except the moderator were completely in love with the idea of a female Doctor, and thus the discussion moved quickly belong ‘should we’ to ‘how should we’. Discussion points ranged through the age of the Doctor, whether a female Doctor would *have* to be older to convey confidence and dignity, or conversely *have* to be younger to count as ‘now’ and ‘sexy’ from the production POV. We also discussed the readiness of fans and the media to accept a female Doctor, and the different ways in which gender might affect the show. I was particularly delighted that almost all of the arguments about things that might change were met with a heartfelt ‘yes, wouldn’t that be great’! Mostly by me, admittedly

So yes, it was a great panel and completely buzzy to be part of it. I’ve been meaning to send Grant Watson a heartfelt THANK YOU by email for putting me on it, but what the hell, better to do it on public. Being on a Doctor Who panel at a convention is one of those things I have always wanted to do in my life, and this far exceeded any expectations. Grant did some fantastic work with devising programme items, many of which had great female-centric or feminist themes, and I think it’s worth a particular shout out because in my experience, often the media items are the ones most likely to end up with all male panels, or unimaginative takes on the material. Not so this year!

From a ‘mama writer at the con’ point of view, it’s worth noting that I had Raeli sitting up front with me, right in front of the table. Paul Cornell managed to frighten her by suggesting that she touch the inflatable daleks who visited us, to prove they weren’t real, but she had come to terms with them by the end of it and announced that they really were just like the bananas. Mostly I kept her busy with sweets from the table while she worked in her activity book (anonymous sketch artist who presented the panellists each with a caricature from the panel – thank you for including Raeli in this! it’s adorable!). At one point she whispered that she wanted to ask a question and I am ashamed to say I wouldn’t let her – afterwards I checked what she would have said and her question was “why are you talking about a female doctor?” which to be fair wouldn’t have added much to the conversation.

I told her why we were discussing it and asked her if she thought the Doctor could be a woman and her response was “hee hee, that’s silly.” Good thing I didn’t let her contribute!!!

After that, I got to be an audience member for the rest of the day which was a little startling to get used to. I managed to get to Alisa’s panel on the history of women in Australian spec fic which I really enjoyed – Helen Merrick, Lucy Sussex and Gina Goddard are all great speakers too, and I love to hear about the history of women in spec fic and fandom. Something which really hit home was when Gina mentioned that Gynaecon came about because the last Aussiecon, 11 years ago (when I had been part of the congoing community for only a little over a year) only had one panel on women, imaginatively titled “women in SF”. Yes, this is exactly the same sort of thing that led to the creation of Wiscon back in the 70′s. How far we have come in the last decade, in Australia, anyway!

Alex and I had fun noodling around with notes to each other during the panel. Among other things, we planned a retake of the female superheroes panel at the next Swancon, plus a Galactic Suburbia panel, and we then decided that she, I and Alisa (plus as many other Australian peeps as we could gather) would definitely be DOING WISCON some time in the next 5 years. We discussed this later and decided if Alisa has babies any time soon, we might be willing to stretch it to 10. The important thing, obviously, is to all go at once, just as Helen, Tess and their buddies did some years ago. And to not go until Galactic Suburbia is famous enough that we can get ourselves on the programme

I hurried straight from that panel to THE EVENT of the convention. Keep your Ditmars and your Hugos. This was a freaking live episode of BOXCUTTERS which happened to be themed around Doctor Who, so my head pretty much exploded with happiness. A huge thank you to Mondy who spotted me sitting towards the back and pointed out where Alisa and Terri were sitting. “You have to be with the Krasnostein!” Yes, I really did. It would not have been nearly as awesome without getting to sit with my fellow MASSIVE BOXCUTTERS fans.

Rob Shearman and Paul Cornell were very funny and interesting, but I have to admit (sorry, guys) I was mostly there to see Josh and John at work in person. Neither of them are nearly as awesome as Nelly, obviously, but you can’t have everything. The audience reactions and applause completely went to their heads, which only made the whole thing more amusing. The interview-panel ranged all over the place in topics, and was so much fun. I was particularly touched by the description of what it was like to be part of the team who brought back Doctor Who, and how frightened they were at being the ones to screw it up. The buzz in the room was electric, and when it was over we ran forward in our Hugo frocks (Terri and Alisa were in BALLGOWNS) to meet Josh Kinal. I was late to dinner with my publishers thanks to that, but it was so worth it. Voices attached to real people! Who knew? Also, I am totally going to buy a Boxcutters t-shirt. Yes, I am that much of a fangirl.

After that I raced down to the HarperCollins dinner, and it’s a sign of how little I had been participating in evening shenanigans at the bar that it took me about three laps of the damn place to find the restaurant. I got away late again to the Hugos, and thus missed out on sitting with fellow Galactic Suburbanites Alisa and Alex, who had been living it up at the Orbit party and while I spotted them from the light of their phones, I couldn’t get to them. Kathryn & her sweetie had come in late too though and I joined them which was nice because we had barely got to catch up through the whole convention! We were thus able to squee, snark and shout out extra WOOs throughout the whole ceremony.

I have never regretted more not being able to tweet at this con! K more than made up for it, though.

We’ve done a GS special on the Hugos but suffice to say, I was over the moon to see Tony C Smith win Best Fanzine for Starship Sofa. YAY PODCASTS. Also it was lovely to hear Helen & Jonathan get the home town WOOHOO when their nomination was read, even if they didn’t ultimately win. Sadly this was my only glimpse of Campbell award winning Seanan McGuire, whom I had been hoping to meet at the con. Oh, and so many frocks and tuxedos. Very important!

As part of our theme of laidback evening partying rather than stalking famous authors in bars at 4am, our gang went back to the apartment to hang out with Tehani, who had stayed home with baby Max, and debrief. Partly our lack of crazy partying was an effect of staying a bit of a distance from the con – and in my case, not really wanting to be too far from the baby in the late evenings. Hanging out in Tehani’s apartment meant I was a 30 second lift ride away from Jem if I got the call to say she had woken up, and no fuss about taxis back. Also the early-ish nights made for far more fun days.

Monday was the LAST day of the con, and that’s always a bit of a mixed bag, with everyone all distracted with packing up and early flights, so that even those of us who were sensible enough to stay an extra night or two end up feeling like we’re about to flit at any moment. This day was memorable for Raeli discovering 209 aka the Lego Room, and yet another horde of little girls to play with. Seriously, the child-friendly nature of this convention was extraordinary, and while having my girls there did compromise me in many varying ways, I never felt as if I or they were in the way, bothering people, etc. It made a huge difference to my ability to enjoy the con, and I really noticed and appreciated how many other people had babies/children there, and just took care of them discreetly, provided them with activities, took them out when they fussed, but basically integrated them into the event. It’s a brave new world, people.

And yes this does tie back again to the women in Australian SF history panel, and what Gina in particular was saying about women who left fandom when they had their children, either because it was too difficult to play or because they were actively squeezed out by people who made them feel unwelcome. BRAVE NEW FUCKING WORLD, PEOPLE. I know that it’s too easy to say that these problems are done and behind us now, but this is one con where I really felt that being female and a mother did not push me into some outer circle, and that is a beautiful thing. It didn’t hurt that the convention centre was really nicely set up with a good childcare space (also handy for changing into Ditmar/Hugo frocks) and enough rooms that one could be set aside for kids stuff. The fan lounge was also open, airy and somewhere you could collapse with kids, without feeling like you were dragging them into some kind of seedy cave. In fact, the entire con centre was lacking in seedy caves. So cheers for that.

On Monday we decided to split our parental resources, as I wasn’t needed on a panel until after lunch. It meant I was able to take Jem in to chat with people in cafes, while @aifin and Raeli rode around on trams for an hour or more. Score all around!

I had arranged to have coffee with Marianne D-P and Kate Elliott, and was delighted to see Rowena and Trent there too, as I hadn’t managed to spend much time hanging out with any of them. We chatted, Jem was adorable (ish), and Trent was a complete gentleman about sourcing anything the little lady needed, including bananas. My baby is indeed a banana fiend. Other lovely people joined us throughout the morning, and we stayed rather late.

After that it was time for one more quick go around of the dealer’s room, and I remembered at the last minute that I needed to get hold of one of the Classic SF books Aurealis put out this year – yes, the one by the female writer! AKA Catherine Spence. Raeli fell in love with a handmade furry monster, and while the price was far higher than I would normally pay for a child’s toy, she had been most excellent this week, and it was such a stylish thing to desire, I couldn’t resist. She chose hers very carefully, and dubbed him ‘Fluffy Thing’. He is now apparently a member of our family. Within seconds of her acquiring it, her new friend Little Miss Girl Genius (daughter of the Foglios) had convinced them to buy her one too. Now that’s upselling!

My one panel on Monday was on Reviewing YA and while I did really enjoy the discussion we ended up having, I understand from online reaction and discussions later with audience members that some people were very unhappy with it, felt it had been derailed by the one male participant, and even walked out. All I can say is that I’m really sorry they had that that experience. It felt like quite a productive if at times going-off-on tangents discussion to me, but it may be that I felt as if it had avoided derailment only because of my trainwreck experience on Saturday.

I would like to add that I do think it’s really important that online discussions have empowered women and given them the language to express what is going on when, for instance, the one male member of a discussion panel talks more than the women, resists moderation by a woman, and actively pushes the conversation into his preferred areas without consultation, and so on. It was really interesting to me to read tweets and blog responses afterwards, and I think – much like Nelly discussing QandA in this week’s Boxcutters – that kind of real time interaction provides greater accountability, which is the best way to enact change and make conventions more of a shared experience.

I also think that part of the problem with that particular panel was the format whereby each panellist gets to talk on THEIR pet subject for a lengthy time. I really don’t think this is ever a good idea at conventions, as it doesn’t matter how interesting it is, having one person talk for a long time is not a good habit to get into, and doesn’t make for the best audience experience. I would make an exception for academic panels, but even then, only selectively.

The panel I was sorriest to miss out on was John from Boxcutters talking about Outland, his new geeky SF sitcom which is coming to the ABC later this year. Getting to hang out with he, Rob Shearman, Mondy & Scottish Liz for a couple of hours after the dealer’s room closed, though, more than made up for it. Especially since this was one of the rare events where my whole family got to participate in the socialising.

Rob at least got several chances to impress Jemima with his ‘wubble wubble’ face – apparently Nick Briggs’ son loves it, but Jem was all “I am so judging you.” later she may have warmed up to him, once she saw he was such a hit with Raeli. Okay, FINE, there was smiling and giggling. What can I say, my girls like to be entertained by funny men with beards.

After that the girls started to get fidgetty, so it was time to Leave The Building. We met up with the dealer’s room survivors and Trent, and all meandered back to collapse in our apartment. Rob and the others had promised to come by later but never made it – I suspect they actually NEVER MOVED from that cafe in the twelve hours that followed. But we got to hang out, relax, put the baby down for a nap, and generally de-con. Later, we ordered in bento boxes, and even splashed out on a bit of luxury LEMONADE. Our esteemed producer suggested we do our final Galactic Suburbia that evening, but we were basically too fragged to think about it.

And you know, everyone left, one by one, as they do at conventions. So sad.

Once the convention was over, that meant our holiday technically started! On Tuesday morning, Alisa & Alex came by one last time for some fierce back to back Galactic Suburbia recording. After that, it was TV on and pyjamas for the rest of the day, watching Australia finally get a government. Good thing that hadn’t happened on Friday or anything, or I would totally have missed it.

Can I just say how much I appreciate digital tv after a week with a tv that only had the terrestrial channels plus a couple of cable movie channels? I can get movies on the iPad, what I need the TV to do is pause, rewind and, you know, 24 hour CHILDREN’S PROGRAMMING! How did people survive before ABC 2? I realise this is a very privileged viewpoint, but it actually felt quite shocking to have long periods of the day when there was no children’s programming at all, namely from 10am to 3pm. Especially as those were largely the hours that one or both parents were stuck in the hotel room with Raeli, while the baby had her nap? Raeli in particular never got used to not being able to rewind and rewatch the tv show she liked. Ah, my lovely tech-spoiled daughter.

So yes, it was all election, order-in noodles (oh, I wouldn’t give up my fresh air and clean tapwater for it, but how I long to live somewhere that delivers Japanese/Chinese food) and a few marathon sessions of Angry Birds, the iPad game Raeli and I are now both addicted to. The whole thing would have been a lovely mellow post con comedown were it not for the enraging building works going on in the room next to MY SLEEPING BABY. Having had such a great experience with Riverview Apartments up to that point, I was furious that they were doing this to us. I’m talking about loud, reverberating power drilling in the room right next door, on and off through the whole day. We had not been consulted to see if, for instance, we were the kind of people likely to be out sightseeing all day during our mid-week stay, or if we were the kind of people who were necessarily confined to our room because of baby naps.

After several phone calls etc. and coming close to actually moving rooms, something we didn’t want to do for the last 24 hours of our stay, the compromise was giving us access to another suite for when the noise was too loud. To their credit they did work hard to make it up to us, but I was so cross about the whole thing it really did put a dampener on the end of our stay.

Then on our final day, we took the girls to the aquarium, and saw PENGUINS omg before eventually wending our weary way to the airport. We got to play in business class thanks to an excess of frequent flyer points, which was lots of fun, even if we didn’t quite think through how long it would take to move two children through an airport from there to our flight once it was called. Juggling Jem on the plane was hard work. My honey did his best to ensure I got a break from her, putting me across the aisle from he and the kids and strapping the baby to himself for take off and landing, but she wouldn’t have anything but Mummymummymummy for the rest of the (thankfully short) flight and I ended up with about 30 seconds to eat dinner because of it. Luckily the stewards all thought she was adorable even when she hurled bread rolls all over the cabin.

Now home. Collapsey. A week and a half of school holidays to go, three or four short stories to write, and a book to finish by the end of October.

It really was the awesomest trip ever, kids and all. But we won’t be doing it again for a while. I’ve officially bought my membership for Swancon, and plan to share a room with Random Alex. Leaving family behind. Gulp.

In which we talk about publishers behaving badly, authors self-publishing, the future of reading and the price of a short story. Also we talk about books. Shocking, isn’t it?

News

Night Shade apologises for any problems they’ve caused any of their authors

SFWA puts Night Shade Books on probation as a qualified SFWA market for a period of one year, effective immediately.

The Weird Revival, a project seeking money for the promotion of weird books.

Aqueduct Press publish their 50th book in 6 years of publishing

Shirley Jackson awards winners

Mythopoeic Awards announced

Don’t forget to vote in the Hugos (by July 31) and nominate for the Ditmars (um… today, July 23)

What have we been reading/listening to?

Alex: The Walled Orchard, Tom Holt (abandoned); Soulless, Gail Carriger; Secret Feminist Cabal, Helen Merrick; Pattern Recognition, William Gibson.
Listening to: Coode St podcast; AstronomyCast; SGCast (definitely abandoned); Bad Film Diaries.

Tansy: Moonshine, Alaya Johnson. Palimpsest, Catherynne Valente on the iPad! Kraken by China Mieville (abandoned).
Listening to: the Ood Cast. Bad Film Diaries

Alisa: Power and Majesty

Pet Subject: self publishing in the changing face of the publishing industry

The Omikuji Cyberfunded Art Project
Apple opens iBookstore to self-publishers

We’re looking to do another feedback episode soon, so get your Feedback, etc: galacticsuburbia@gmail.com

But I’m not going to be reading Captain Britain, by Paul Cornell. Which is a shame, because I was looking forward to it. I’m interested in Cornell as a writer, and also in the idea of a British superhero… but sadly this is the one Hugo-nominated graphic novel on the shortlist whose publishers decided to make it complicated.

The others all provided the works in a pdf format that I found easy to open, navigate and customise on my computer, for comfortable reading. This one instead provides an html link that opens a web reader which feels fussy and annoying, strains my computer’s capacity, and basically is trying too hard to control how I might want to read it. And oh yes, they only provided two issues as a ‘sample’ rather than the entire work.

I realise at this point that I am basking in utter entitlement. Only a year or two ago, the concept of a Hugo packet, of voters receiving a whole bunch of free works to help educate their vote, was revolutionary. Indeed I think this is the first year that every shortlisted work is represented in the packet, though I could be wrong in that.

But… yeah. Over-entitled I may be, but the fact remains, my time is pretty tight, and educating myself before making my Hugo vote isn’t my absolute top priority. As it is, I’m picking and choosing which works and which categories I am going to try to cover. Anything I can’t easily and comfortably access is absolutely not going to get read, and Captain Britain just lost me and my vote.

Yep, another one from the Graphic Novels Hugo Packet!

This two-issue mini-series of Batman comics was commissioned to bring the iconic Detective Comics title to a close, and to provide a moment of closure before Batman was once again reinvented for a new audience of readers. Neil Gaiman, who also writes an introduction to this graphic novel, was pretty much given free rein to write whatever he wanted, and he produced what he felt was a story that provided a ‘The End’ for Batman.

The thing that makes characters like Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman so unique is that they don’t ever end – and yet there are countless deaths and alternate futures provided through comics such as the Elseworlds series or even more standard storylines, because when you have a character who lives on forever, ageless and constantly being reinvented, it’s fun to mess with the formula. There’s hardly a character in the DC Universe who hasn’t been killed and brought back, or lost their powers, or in some way been divested of the very elements that make up their character.

Writing ‘the End’ feels like an important thing to do, despite the fact that it has little weight or sense of permanence. The truth is, nothing in a comics universe has weight or permanence. There have been so many reboots, retcons, alternate worlds, dimension-crossings that it’s hard to tap into the kind of emotional resonance that a novelist or screenwriter can summon up by killing off a beloved character.

The beauty of Gaiman’s story is that it acknowledges all these things. It is a very meta story at its heart, that shows a deep love and respect for the long, complex and utterly incomprehensible Batman backstory. The premise is that Bruce (at least, we think it’s Bruce) is witnessing his own funeral – or, rather, that of the Batman. Mourners have gathered from both sides of the law – Batman’s allies and friends, and his worse enemies. One by one, they bear witness to how the Great Detective died.

Bruce has several mysteries to solve. Where is he? How is he able to observe his own funeral? Why does everyone have a different version of his death?

At its heart this is a very simple what if kind of story, but it has some moments of real brilliance. Alfred’s story was really extraordinary, and I loved the focus on the old school Selina Kyle’s Catwoman, a character who for me has never been better than she was in the old 60′s and 70′s comics.

The artwork too, deliberately evokes several different eras of Batman, and there are many lovely touches of nostalgia to balance out a mixture of sentimentality and sharp wit in the script. On the whole this is a very readable story, which anyone could pick up but I think would mean more to those who have traversed some of the many threads of Batman’s history. It’s the first so far from the packet which I have been genuinely tempted to pick up in hard copy, if only for archival reasons.

While I’m sure this makes for a pretty slender graphic novel, being only two issues, it is fleshed out with a whole bunch of value-add content, particularly several Batman universe stories previously written by Gaiman, to which he refers in his introduction. You can see here the progression of his interest in Batman as a concept, though he has never properly “done” Batman before. The best of these is a meta-story about Batman and the Joker hanging out together behind the scenes of the comic, which should be a one page joke and yet manages to be a far more substantial and poignant piece. I also was quite interested in the Poison Ivy origin story, though the Riddler one felt far less effective and well-realised.

So yes, Neil Gaiman can write Batman, and does so rather cleverly. Anyone surprised? I think my favourite ‘end of Batman’ story is still the arc from the animated series Batman Beyond & Justice League Unlimited, but the cleverness of this story makes it almost completely compatible with almost every other version of Batman’s possible future. That’s what is so very clever about it.

Another freebie from the Hugo Packet. Like Girl Genius, Fables is one of those things I’ve been meaning to get to for some time. It sounds on paper like it is exactly the sort of thing I love to read: a world that takes fairy tale images and iconography and does something new and inventive and meta with them.

Sadly, unlike Girl Genius, this one is not for me.

I was reasonably compelled by the first chapter of the selection which has been nominated for the Hugo – the character of Gepetto, a former evil dictator, and his reluctant attempts to fit in now that he’s just one of the people, did catch my attention. But after that first promising chapter, I mostly found myself bored.

Yes, I started reading quite far in, and yes the story isn’t meant to be read that way. But I should be able to tell from this volume whether it’s worth my time to go back and read Fables from the beginning, and from what I see here, it’s really not.

I see what they’re doing here. The combination of fairy tales with a stark noir storytelling sensibility is a good, solid framework to hang a story off. But I’ve seen it done in so many other places that the premise itself is just not enough for me. Add to that the tiresome male gaze which renders the female characters mostly unimportant to the storyline, and an old fashioned internal artwork style which renders said female characters utterly passive even on the few occasions that they have something interesting to say, adds up to… well, not much, really. Did I mention the book is humourless? It’s HUMOURLESS. And seems far too pleased with its own bleak style.

I can appreciate why Fables is popular, it has so many elements going for it. I can even see why this is a comic that many people recommend that women read. There are women in it, after all, and for the most part they are drawn in humane proportions (well, humane 1940′s dress pattern proportions which is still better than wasp waists and breasts bigger than head) and apparently even participate in politics, though the only scenes involving women substantially that I saw revolved around a) the care of a pack of children and b) the wearing of lingerie. I’ve seen more gumption in 1950′s Lois Lane comics! I was particularly disappointed in Rose Red, the only female character who seemed almost interesting to me at first, and then disappeared into a haze of grim and depressive slut-shaming and emotional torture as her backstory caught up with her, and whose plotline in this book seemed to consist of men cruelly telling her what she had been doing wrong.

The old school nostalgia-style artwork is done very well for what it is, and I’m sure if I had been reading from the beginning, I would be far more gripped by this volume. But I haven’t seen anything to convince me that I personally should be making that time commitment, or that there’s anything in Fables that I couldn’t get elsewhere, done far better.

Just in the graphic novel department, Rapunzel’s Revenge and Castle Waiting spring to mind as works which deal with fairy tales in a far more revolutionary way, with dark humour and two very different styles of artwork that are utterly pleasurable to look at.

So far, Girl Genius still has my vote for this category! But there are 3 to go…