The ISS crew grabs the Dragon space capsule, making it the first commercial vehicle to be docked to the ISS. Here's Dragon and the ISS's robotic arm.

(Well, getting it berthed is in progress as I type...)

I'm discovering that hard SF where you're bouncing around the solar system means my Inner Skeptic actually pays attention to people other than me and my writing.

Probably because I've spent most of my adult life following NASA missions. Maybe because I read Heinlein in high school, and Heinlein learned orbital mechanics for his solar-system SF. There might be Martians and Venusians and a spin-locked Mercury*, but by golly, things moved like they should.

But when you're gallivanting around the Solar System you have to remember that things are all moving at different rates.

( Nerdity Ahoy! I'll be good and not do the math here, though. )

I feel really weird that things like this bug me enough to make petty ranty journal posts about it. Also, yes, I have calculated things like 'what's a good timescale for going from X to Y assuming no magic physics that let me ignore that if we accelerate too hard, we kill the passengers'.

* This is a SFnal dating technique: look at what things we thought we knew at the time but turned out wrong. So Mercury's rotation makes me go 'wait, what', but a quick check to the publication date makes me go with it.

Look, two book posts in a day!

Embassytown was amazing. I have a feeling I need to make up a list of China Mieville's stuff and just go read all this things, because I also really dug The City and the City (expect to see a post about it).

( Embassytown is sort of classic 'idea' SF. )

So, I downloaded my Hugo Voter's packet, so expect to see a lot of posts regarding the contents. For those of you don't know, the Hugos are Science Fiction and Fantasy's Big Award Ceremony. The nominees are chosen by popular vote of the attendees and supporting members of WorldCon, and then the nominees are voted on by that same body. So it's a good indication of what a subset of the fandom is doing.

I already reviewed one nominee for best novel, Mira Grant's Deadline. So Among Others by Jo Walton is the second. Since I'm nearly finished with the third, I better post this entry.

( Unlike Deadline, which is a thriller, Among Others is a quiet coming of age story.  )

So, I've reviewed Fuzzy Nation before, but I just reread it. Or thought I reviewed it before, but heck if I can actually find that entry, despite looking for two hours. (Whoops.)

Fuzzy Nation is what John Scalzi calls a 'reboot' of H Beam Piper's book, Little Fuzzy. Basically Scalzi took the initial premise of Piper's book and told it his way, and figured it would be more intellectually honest to ask Piper's estate if he could publish this rather than scrubbing the serial numbers off. I haven't read Little Fuzzy, so I'm working from what I think of Scalzi's writing.

( So, Our Hero Jack Holloway, is a disbarred lawyer turned prospector and a Grade A Asshole. )

So, tomorrow, if all goes well, SpaceX (a private aerospace company) will launch an uncrewed capsule which will dock with the International Space Station. This is the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the ISS -- so far it's all been Space Shuttles and Soyuz crafts.

Now, when the Space Shuttle was slated to retire, the idea was that the US could pay private companies to pick up the slack. Which... well, I actually think it's a great idea. Basically, NASA should be encouraging private companies to take all the sweet technology developed from years of working for governments and see if they can make it commercially feasible without making it a flying deathtrap. Meanwhile, NASA can put more of its budget into building me more robots... I mean, doing new and innovating things in space exploration.

On the other hand, I would have liked the government to time it better, as the earliest commercial launch with actual humans on board isn't planned until 2015. (The US government has strong feelings about the safety of anything that will carry humans into space to visit their very expensive space station.)

Anyway, so, this launch tomorrow. NASA TV is covering it, and there's a 70% chance the weather will be good. It should be routine -- rocket goes up, drops off capsule, capsule orbits for a bit, catching up with the ISS and they dock. The Dragon capsule has been tested back in late 2010 and is the first commercial spacecraft to go up, orbit and come back down in one piece. Heck, only three nations have done this*.

Unfortunately, the launch is at 4:55 AM Eastern time, so I'm going to be asleep for it, probably. But you can watch a simulation here

* Plenty of stuff has gone up and not come down, or come down in little bits of space debris (preferably after it did its thing). But you really got to stick the landing in this business.

So, um… thoughts! About Legend of Korra!

( Spoilery thoughts! )

I saw othercat do this on Tumblr, so...

Name two series you know I've read/seen, and I'll script out a crossover*.

* This may actually be a fusion of the types of 'Characters from Series A were born into Universe B and meet the cast'.

So, I decided to do the 100things_index, a challenge to write 100 blog posts on a topic or topics. Mine is going to be 'stuff I've read'. There may be some repeats from my book reviews, since I'm on the 'reread until I get the Hugo voter package'.

( 001: Deadline by Mira Grant )

There be spoilers here. I'll keep anything that's not spoiler-rific outside the cuts if you want to read it anyway.

I read the sample chapters to Mira Grant's (aka seanan_mcguire) upcoming book, Blackout. And something caught me...

( Spoilers for Feed and the sample material from Blackout )

There's another one in when Seanan McGuire asked who would win in a fight, Georgia, or the heroine of her other series, October Daye. Seanan noted that, while George was a better shot, Toby had one advantage.

Toby is known as working blood magic: she can use blood to see through another's eyes, even if they died. Moreover, she grew up in mid-century America. Georgia grew up in post-Rising America where any sign of blood was a risk of someone becoming a zombie, and any fluids from a zombie could spread the disease if they got into your body. So, Georgia has a reflexive avoidance of blood because of this, something a character from a setting that doesn't involve zombies just wouldn't have. Especially not a changeling that needs blood to work some magic.

Another worldbuilding detail that I didn't think about until the author pointed it out.

( Spoilers for Feed (the same ones) and also old Heinlein juvenile SF )