Isaachwells

I'm trying to get into perfumery, and it seems a bit complicated and overwhelming. I have a pack of 80 essential oils. I've seen people say that books aren't the most helpful, as you need to really mix stuff and see what it smells like. That certainly makes sense. But I also see people saying that just mixing stuff randomly won't give you a good sense of what you're doing, and will be a bit wasteful. I guess u need a bit more structure than t

'just try mixing stuff'. Most of the books I see recommended also seem a bit...involved, if that makes sense,like they're heavy on the science, and may or may not tell me the practical stuff I need to get started. And many of the website recommendation

A book club I'm in is planning to start Murderbot for next month. I've read everything before System Collapse, but was planning a reread, primarily by audiobook, and have two questions.

First, I have access to the audiobooks through my library in two version, one just a straight narration, the other as a dramatized version from Graphic Audio. Does anyone have recommendations on which version to listen to? There's a pretty long wait-list for some of them, so even if one version is preferred, are there any issues with the other version?

Second, the reading order. I assembled this, from what I've seen other people say, but wanted to check if it fits the general consensus, particularly with

Some of the audiobooks I've been looking at only seem to be available on Audible, so I've been trying to figure out how it works. I'm clear on the membership stuff and the credits and all, I just can't tell for a given book if it's free with a membership or if it requires a credit or purchase. When I try to search for an answer, all that I'm seeing are people asking how to find the included catalogue, not how to tell with a specific book.

For some of the books I see "free with a 30 day trial", and some say "free with your Plus trial". I'm guessing the Plus ones are free in general with Plus, and the 30 day trial ones usually require a credit? Is everything free during the trial, and you don

The president of the SFWA (the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, which administers the Nebula Awards) resigned a couple weeks due to family related issues. The VP just stepped down as well, also for family reasons. The resignation letters reference internal issues at the SFWA (although they seem to be independent from the resignations), but not any details, and there didn't seem to be much information when the president resigned on what was going on.

If anyone's interested, File 770 has a post from a couple days ago explaining the internal issues:

https://file770.com/sfwa-in-my-house-there-are-many-issues/

Tldr: There seemed to be significant management issues, poor commun

Anybody have gutter cleaning recommendations for Lincoln? The gutters are around two stories up, and just out of reach from what I can safely get with my own ladder.

We have a ground hog, and are looking to get rid of it. It was a nuisance when it it was eating our plants, but not a big deal. But we've heard scrabbling at the edge of our house and read that they can mess with the foundation. And today it snuck into our garage to steal some insulation while the door was open, so we're a bit done with it.

Anyways, any luck getting rid of them, either on your own or with a pest control company? Any companies in Lincoln that deal with them that you have good experiences with? We don't want to harm it, ideally, but can't really have it damaging our house.

This years Nebulas are being awarded tomorrow night, so I thought I’d give my rankings of the Hugo and Nebula nominees. The Hugos are awarded on August 11th. Obligatory mention of how the Hugos appear to have been fixed last year, but that has been thoroughly discussed elsewhere, so I don’t really want to rehash it. And this year appears to be completely transparent, and I’m guessing and hoping will include efforts to prevent any similar corruption again.

For those who don’t like the Nebulas or Hugos, or don’t find them useful ways to find things you like to read, that’s certainly understandable. I’d love to hear your thoughts on any nominees you did read, or on works from 2023 that you en

This years Nebulas are being awarded tomorrow night, so I thought I’d give my rankings of the Hugo and Nebula nominees. The Hugos are awarded on August 11th. Obligatory mention of how the Hugos appear to have been fixed last year, but that has been thoroughly discussed elsewhere, so I don’t really want to rehash it. And this year appears to be completely transparent, and I’m guessing and hoping will include efforts to prevent any similar corruption again.

For those who don’t like the Nebulas or Hugos, or don’t find them useful ways to find things you like to read, that’s certainly understandable. I’d love to hear your thoughts on any nominees you did read, or on works from 2023 that you en

Perhaps a bit late, given the extensive conversation over the last week of Vinge and his work, but this is a great guide and it didn't look like anyone has shared it yet. It covers all of his novels, as well as his Collected Stories and the excluded story True Names. It doesn't mention The Cookie Monster, which I would say is his only significant short fiction published after Collected Stories and is well worth a read.

https://reactormag.com/a-brief-guide-to-the-fiction-of-vernor-vinge/

I was planning to read some Hans Christian Andersen, and opted to start with a few random stories. I tried The Flax, The Fir Tree, and The Daisy, and haven't really cared for any of those three, so I thought I'd focus on stories that are more specifically influential or considered his best, such as The Little Mermaid or The Snow Queen. So, what are his best,most influential, or just your favorite of his stories?

I'm reading Larry Niven's Known Space books, and had some questions on the reading order. From comments I see elsewhere, it looks like some books or stories contain spoilers for others, or dramatically shifts your understanding of what's going on, so while there are clear chronological lists of the stories, reading in that order doesn't work well. Does the following order work?

-Neutron Star -Three Books of Known Space (Tales of Known Space, World of Ptavvs, A Gift from Earth) -Flatlander -Ringworld -Crashlander -Protector -Ringworld Engineers -Ringworld 3 and 4 -x of Worlds series

If you missed it, the voting statistics from the Hugo awards was released a few days ago. It looks like the people running the con excluded eligible works that had enough votes to be finalists, and also may have changed vote tallies, presumably because it was held in China and the organizers didn't want to get in trouble if people critical of China didn't win. There are a few posts already discussing this here on r/Fantasy, on r/printSF, and r/books (see below), so I don't really want to rehash the current situation, but I was hoping to know if anything like this has happened before.

I've only started following the Hugo's in the last few years, so mostly I've only seen complaints about who