#hfy — Public Fediverse posts

You web writers have taught AI some truly terrible writing habits

Web writers, the AI has been trained on your public work, and it shows. You all have taught AI some truly terrible writing habits

HFY writers have taught AI it has to start stories with “Bob sat on the bridge of the Earth Ship Big Birtha”. So AI does just that, even when

I was listening to a narration today. I did not know it was AI, as the introductory narration was pretty decent by free-on-the-web standards. Then it just broke with that and had some character I didn’t care about sitting somewhere. It was so bad it made me stop to check the comments, which confirmed the story was by an AI.

You all have such bad writing habits that the AI has learned to be not even as good. This is a lesson to us all. With computers, you must remember rubbish in; rubbish out (to my US readers, garbage in; garbage out).

It is probably because the LLM industry is so desperate for content to train on that it does not distinguish between writers learning to write and writers having learned to tell great stories with good introductions.

As a result, AI writing makes all the writing mistakes.

Filing this under Writing on OpenMentions.

You web writers have taught AI some truly terrible writing habits

Web writers, the AI has been trained on your public work, and it shows. You all have taught AI some truly terrible writing habits

HFY writers have taught AI it has to start stories with “Bob sat on the bridge of the Earth Ship Big Birtha”. So AI does just that, even when

I was listening to a narration today. I did not know it was AI, as the introductory narration was pretty decent by free-on-the-web standards. Then it just broke with that and had some character I didn’t care about sitting somewhere. It was so bad it made me stop to check the comments, which confirmed the story was by an AI.

You all have such bad writing habits that the AI has learned to be not even as good. This is a lesson to us all. With computers, you must remember rubbish in; rubbish out (to my US readers, garbage in; garbage out).

It is probably because the LLM industry is so desperate for content to train on that it does not distinguish between writers learning to write and writers having learned to tell great stories with good introductions.

As a result, AI writing makes all the writing mistakes.

Filing this under Writing on OpenMentions.

#GameIdea

#Roleplaying game based on #HFY stories where you can play as either a human or one of the many alien races.

#GameIdea

#Roleplaying game based on #HFY stories where you can play as either a human or one of the many alien races.

The God Effect - part 2 #hfy-scifi #scifi #hfy #errtling #bookcafe #art-of-review #writing #game #audiobook youtu.be/znqgGjEFO7A

HFY SciFi The God Effect - par...

The God Effect - part 2 #hfy-scifi #scifi #hfy #errtling #bookcafe #art-of-review #writing #game #audiobook youtu.be/znqgGjEFO7A

HFY SciFi The God Effect - par...

The God Effect - Part 1 #HFY #scifi #audio #errtling #bookcafe #paranormal_things #story #writing #writer #art #artist #ai #android_dreams youtu.be/xL9z9oGmejU

HFY SciFi The God Effect - Par...

The God Effect - Part 1 #HFY #scifi #audio #errtling #bookcafe #paranormal_things #story #writing #writer #art #artist #ai #android_dreams youtu.be/xL9z9oGmejU

HFY SciFi The God Effect - Par...

Please, dear HFY writers, no more stories starting with “Bob sat on the bridge of the Earth Ship Big Birtha”

Why do so many HFY stories start with the OC standing somewhere waiting for the opening thing to happen? I’ve lost track of the stories I’ve listened to or read that start with some chuckle-froggy in some location with the lights blinking or the tools shining. You have done that to death.

Please, dear HFY writers, stop doing this. Please, please, please stop.

Bob sat on the bridge of the Earth Ship Big Birtha, the lights blinked normally… Zzz… this reader is asleep.

If I encounter one more HFY story that starts like this, I might scream!

How many stories can copy the exact same start without putting us to sleep? Far less than currently exist, I can tell you that.

We do not currently care about your character or the location you want to describe. I, for one, do not give a single flying mouse bum about the normal day a fictional human was having. I might if the brown stuff was already hitting the spinning thing.

Screw that dull stuff! Tell me about the cool thing that happened. We can meet your point-of-view protagonist after the cool thing. But do the cool thing first, for the love of all that is good. Please.

When you are told to start “in media res” (Latin for “in the midst of things”), that does not mean in the middle of the normal day where the thing will go boom. That’s at the edge of the res (things), at best. More like somewhere with a view of the res, maybe. Are we there yet? So bluh!

Instead of blah, give me the Earth-shattering kaboom.

Explosions are cool. Unexpected terror is exciting. Bob sitting in the captain’s chair is boring.

More kaboom; less humans hanging out waiting for the story to happen, please.

If something is going to be on fire later. Start with it on fire right now. That’s the bit we came for.

It’s dangerous to write alone, take this

Here are a bunch of opening lines. Steal them, reuse them, write some better openings with them. Do better. Write anything that is not Bob hanging out before the cool stuff happens.

The massive ship screamed from the sky, removing any notion that we were alone in the universe.

As the Trexians fired the first shot at the human colonists, they foolishly thought this would be a minor skirmish that would be over by mealtime.

Reality ripped and buckled, filling the void with impossible geometry. It lasted mere moments; in that time, an impossibly huge and intimidating brick of a ship had barged into normal space.

This wasn’t how space battles were supposed to go. Hundreds of coffin-sized projectiles were latching onto the hull. The deranged humans were bringing the fight into his distoryer.

It was a Thursday evening when the Vanashi entered Earth’s atmosphere right above the city to demand surrender. The locals were pissed. This was the semi-finals. How dare these fools interrupt the big game?

For some reason, the Atanaskara thought Earth was a good place to dump old battle stations. NASA tracked the massive lump after detecting it out past Jupiter. It followed a roughly calculated trajectory which almost hit the moon. More would soon follow.

Humans always wore encounter suits with mirrored visors, but on day two-hundred and six of the thirteenth-hundred cycle of Vark by the Baralian reckoning, Tharg learned exactly why. It all started when…

To: Admiral Zazizch;
By: Encrypted Proxy 92a-256;
Re: Your plan failed
The humans were not intimidated at all. Send reinforcements. Encounter log attached.

Earth was doomed. The greatest battle craft ever built by the Karnag would have the stupid little planet in firing range any moment now.

The third Blarge of Grune was the day Kamoss Varr asked a human child a simple question and instantly realised he was not cut out for teaching. He would have nightmares for the rest of his life.

The first words of your story have to make a promise. That promise must be “this story is going to be worth your time”. Unless there is a genre of characters sitting about, Bob on his spaceship is not your opening. Jane, in her lab, is unlikely to be the cool thing. Liam, in his workshop, is just as dull. These people and these places are not exciting – they’re not even interesting. What happened next might be, so skip to that bit.

So, please, writers of fiction on the interwebs, fewer people sitting on their bum and more cool things going kjaboom please.

• website

Please, dear HFY writers, no more stories starting with “Bob sat on the bridge of the Earth Ship Big Birtha”

Why do so many HFY stories start with the OC standing somewhere waiting for the opening thing to happen? I’ve lost track of the stories I’ve listened to or read that start with some chuckle-froggy in some location with the lights blinking or the tools shining. You have done that to death.

Please, dear HFY writers, stop doing this. Please, please, please stop.

Bob sat on the bridge of the Earth Ship Big Birtha, the lights blinked normally… Zzz… this reader is asleep.

If I encounter one more HFY story that starts like this, I might scream!

How many stories can copy the exact same start without putting us to sleep? Far less than currently exist, I can tell you that.

We do not currently care about your character or the location you want to describe. I, for one, do not give a single flying mouse bum about the normal day a fictional human was having. I might if the brown stuff was already hitting the spinning thing.

Screw that dull stuff! Tell me about the cool thing that happened. We can meet your point-of-view protagonist after the cool thing. But do the cool thing first, for the love of all that is good. Please.

When you are told to start “in media res” (Latin for “in the midst of things”), that does not mean in the middle of the normal day where the thing will go boom. That’s at the edge of the res (things), at best. More like somewhere with a view of the res, maybe. Are we there yet? So bluh!

Instead of blah, give me the Earth-shattering kaboom.

Explosions are cool. Unexpected terror is exciting. Bob sitting in the captain’s chair is boring.

More kaboom; less humans hanging out waiting for the story to happen, please.

If something is going to be on fire later. Start with it on fire right now. That’s the bit we came for.

It’s dangerous to write alone, take this

Here are a bunch of opening lines. Steal them, reuse them, write some better openings with them. Do better. Write anything that is not Bob hanging out before the cool stuff happens.

The massive ship screamed from the sky, removing any notion that we were alone in the universe.

As the Trexians fired the first shot at the human colonists, they foolishly thought this would be a minor skirmish that would be over by mealtime.

Reality ripped and buckled, filling the void with impossible geometry. It lasted mere moments; in that time, an impossibly huge and intimidating brick of a ship had barged into normal space.

This wasn’t how space battles were supposed to go. Hundreds of coffin-sized projectiles were latching onto the hull. The deranged humans were bringing the fight into his distoryer.

It was a Thursday evening when the Vanashi entered Earth’s atmosphere right above the city to demand surrender. The locals were pissed. This was the semi-finals. How dare these fools interrupt the big game?

For some reason, the Atanaskara thought Earth was a good place to dump old battle stations. NASA tracked the massive lump after detecting it out past Jupiter. It followed a roughly calculated trajectory which almost hit the moon. More would soon follow.

Humans always wore encounter suits with mirrored visors, but on day two-hundred and six of the thirteenth-hundred cycle of Vark by the Baralian reckoning, Tharg learned exactly why. It all started when…

To: Admiral Zazizch;
By: Encrypted Proxy 92a-256;
Re: Your plan failed
The humans were not intimidated at all. Send reinforcements. Encounter log attached.

Earth was doomed. The greatest battle craft ever built by the Karnag would have the stupid little planet in firing range any moment now.

The third Blarge of Grune was the day Kamoss Varr asked a human child a simple question and instantly realised he was not cut out for teaching. He would have nightmares for the rest of his life.

The first words of your story have to make a promise. That promise must be “this story is going to be worth your time”. Unless there is a genre of characters sitting about, Bob on his spaceship is not your opening. Jane, in her lab, is unlikely to be the cool thing. Liam, in his workshop, is just as dull. These people and these places are not exciting – they’re not even interesting. What happened next might be, so skip to that bit.

So, please, writers of fiction on the interwebs, fewer people sitting on their bum and more cool things going kjaboom please.

• website

mayormente los tontos poseen una gran suerte q las las personas normales😅

🤔La Supervivencia Del Más Tonto #Relato #HFY

[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeiLwXrgf1A ]

@CharlotteEowyn

A lot of the HFY ( Humanity, F**k Yeah!) Sci-Fi stuff on Reddit and YouTube very much fits into this category.

Mostly consisting of pesky aliens getting outclassed by or receiving a good thumping from humanity. It rarely portrays humanity as being the unreasonable party.

If you exclude this and the stories of lost alien princesses which fill the galaxy and continually need rescuing there are still some worthwhile stories but you have to hunt for them.

#hfy #scifi #fiction

@CharlotteEowyn

A lot of the HFY ( Humanity, F**k Yeah!) Sci-Fi stuff on Reddit and YouTube very much fits into this category.

Mostly consisting of pesky aliens getting outclassed by or receiving a good thumping from humanity. It rarely portrays humanity as being the unreasonable party.

If you exclude this and the stories of lost alien princesses which fill the galaxy and continually need rescuing there are still some worthwhile stories but you have to hunt for them.

#hfy #scifi #fiction

We finally saw Project Hail Mary tonight in the theater. It was incredible. I needed to feel like that again. I'm glad every single person I know said to go see it. #projecthailmary #hfy

When you consider the numbers, it's not at all surprising that landing on the moon is hard.

- The moon moves through space at an average of 3,680 km/h, depending on where it is in its orbit of Terra, varying between 3,492 and 3,888 km/h.
- The ground at the moon's equator is moving at a speed of 17 km/h.
- You start off in orbit at a speed of 5,760 km/h relative to the moon's surface.
- There is no atmosphere to help you stabilise your vectors in relation to the moon's surface by dragging you along.

Humans, their brains integrating multiple inputs at the speed of thought and relying on muscle memory, found it hard. Computers, relying on radar, cameras, and directional sensors, are finding it extremely hard.

Which makes the successful unmanned landers all the more amazing.

HFY 😁

#HFY #NASA #Moon #Space

When you consider the numbers, it's not at all surprising that landing on the moon is hard.

- The moon moves through space at an average of 3,680 km/h, depending on where it is in its orbit of Terra, varying between 3,492 and 3,888 km/h.
- The ground at the moon's equator is moving at a speed of 17 km/h.
- You start off in orbit at a speed of 5,760 km/h relative to the moon's surface.
- There is no atmosphere to help you stabilise your vectors in relation to the moon's surface by dragging you along.

Humans, their brains integrating multiple inputs at the speed of thought and relying on muscle memory, found it hard. Computers, relying on radar, cameras, and directional sensors, are finding it extremely hard.

Which makes the successful unmanned landers all the more amazing.

HFY 😁

#HFY #NASA #Moon #Space

I think about this short story a lot. I don't know what about it really sticks with me, but I like it. I think part of it is the joy of finding alien life, along with the disappointment that they're really just like us, hits hard.

https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/631sm0/lablonnamedadon/

#story #shortstory #hfy

¿Qué harías si la Luna se partiera en dos y el fin del mundo fuera inminente? 🌙💔
"La Luna Rota" es un relato sobre la fragilidad de nuestra existencia, la ambición humana y esos pequeños momentos —como una comida en familia— que solo valoramos cuando todo está por terminar.
Puedes leer la historia completa aquí:
🔗 https://nezzontli.xyz/blog/sueno/
#cienciaficcion #Relato #escritura #scifi #escrituracreativa #blog #hfy

Galaxy Voted to Exterminate Earth’s Disabled – We Voted to Leave the Galaxy Instead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdGgNEDuNVM

• YouTube

Galaxy Voted to Exterminate Earth’s Disabled – We Voted to Leave the Galaxy Instead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdGgNEDuNVM

• YouTube

I just read The Road Not Taken by H. Turtledove. It was a really enjoyable short story... And well written. I liked it. It was a nice break from job seeking.

The idea of aliens inventing faster than light travel before they figure out electricity is certainly something I hadn't considered. And does make for an interesting story.

#ShortStory #Reading #SciFi #HFY

I just read The Road Not Taken by H. Turtledove. It was a really enjoyable short story... And well written. I liked it. It was a nice break from job seeking.

The idea of aliens inventing faster than light travel before they figure out electricity is certainly something I hadn't considered. And does make for an interesting story.

#ShortStory #Reading #SciFi #HFY

I've been listening to The Nature of Predators on Youtube with NetNarrator because its Reddit HFY stuff.

The premise is that omnivores are considered impossible and that theres only one carnivore species in the galaxy and they are at war with everyone else.

As it develops, it ends up playing on the title in a ton of ways that will surprise you, but essentially, with a #HFY #story what you want is to highlight a way humans are awesome. In this case we were the first to invent therapy #amReading

I've been listening to The Nature of Predators on Youtube with NetNarrator because its Reddit HFY stuff.

The premise is that omnivores are considered impossible and that theres only one carnivore species in the galaxy and they are at war with everyone else.

As it develops, it ends up playing on the title in a ton of ways that will surprise you, but essentially, with a #HFY #story what you want is to highlight a way humans are awesome. In this case we were the first to invent therapy #amReading

They Gave Water to a Stranded Human, So Humanity Ended Their Drought Forever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvsDvgXFDPE

#aliens #HFY #water

The Day Humanity Arrived at the Deathworld Council… With Blood on Their Ships

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntf2pGAIDP0

#aliens #HFY #space #war

#Books and #stories for #AugustReads. | Tag to mute: #BokBooks

Eleven novels:
●●●○○ The Secret of ZI - Kenneth Bulmer
●●●◐○ Times of Trouble {New John Connor Chronicles 3} - Russell Blackford
●●●◐○ Case of the Murdered Mayor {Miles Grant 02} - Jack Dearborn
●●●○○ Stock Car Race {Behold: Humanity! 15} - Ralts Bloodthorne #HFY
●●●◐○ Army of the Undead {Invaders 3} - Rafe Bernard
●●◐○○ Case of the Sullied Songstress {Miles Grant 03} - Jack Dearborn
●●●●◐ Head On {Lock In 2} - John Scalzi
●●●○○ The Empathetic Life of Rebecca Wright {Middle Falls 10} - Shawn Inmon
●●○○○ The Timothy File {Miles Grant 04} - Jack Dearborn
●●◐○○ The City {Aestus 1} - S. Z. Attwell #CliFi
●●●◐○ Case of the Phantom Phaeton {Miles Grant 05} - Jack Dearborn

Two novellas:
●●●○○ Beyond the Vanishing Point - Ray Cummings
●●●◐○ Born in the Wrong Body - Martin Brant #trans

Two novelettes:
●●●●○ Betty Knox and Dictionary Jones in The Mystery of the Missing Teenage Anachronisms - Jack Campbell
●●●●◐ Murder by Memory - Olivia Waite #queer

Twenty-six short stories:
●●○○○ A Day Among the Liars - Edward Page Mitchell
●●●◐○ Where Does a Circle Begin? - Jack Campbell
●●○○○ Natural - Peter Cawdron
●●●○○ Master - Ursula K. Le Guin
●●◐○○ An Extraordinary Wedding - Edward Page Mitchell
●●●○○ The Great Naked Adventure - P.A. Choi
●●●○○ Living Eggs Project {Agent Adams 02} - Tim Tolbert
●●◐○○ King of the Hill - James Blish
●●◐○○ Nothing Happens to Lefty Feep {Lefty Feep 11} - Robert Bloch
●◐○○○ End as a World - F. L. Wallace
●●○○○ Yellow Streak Hero - Harlan Ellison
●●●○○ Son of a Witch {Lefty Feep 6} - Robert Bloch
●●○○○ Entangled Vision {Agent Adams 03} - Tim Tolbert
●●●◐○ Concerns of the Second Sex - Pavarti K. Tyler
●●●●○ The Soul Buyer - Keith Laumer
●●○○○ Jerk the Giant Killer {Lefty Feep 7} - Robert Bloch
●●◐○○ Last Cruise of the Judas Iscariot - Edward Page Mitchell
●●●○○ Unnatural - Ann Christy
●●●●○ These Are the Times - Jack Campbell
●●●◐○ The Sun Never Sets - Anthea Sharp
●●○○○ Sunspot - Hal Clement
●●◐○○ Rocket to Limbo - Margaret St. Clair
●◐○○○ Echoed Life Foundation {Agent Adams 04} - Tim Tolbert
●●○○○ The Witness - Leona Celestia
●●●○○ Lefty Feep and the Racing Robot {Lefty Feep 13} - Robert Bloch
●●●○○ The Devilish Rat - Edward Page Mitchell

━━━━━━━━━━━
2025-08: 26 ss | 02 nvt | 02 nva | 11 nov
2025-07: 24 ss | 01 nvt | 01 nva | 13 nov
2025-06: 26 ss | 03 nvt | 00 nva | 12 nov
2025-05: 24 ss | 06 nvt | 01 nva | 13 nov
━━━━━━━━━━━

One very long, very slow novel knocked my reading down, but since I was reading three shorter novels each full week, not by much.

#Books and #stories for #AugustReads. | Tag to mute: #BokBooks

Eleven novels:
●●●○○ The Secret of ZI - Kenneth Bulmer
●●●◐○ Times of Trouble {New John Connor Chronicles 3} - Russell Blackford
●●●◐○ Case of the Murdered Mayor {Miles Grant 02} - Jack Dearborn
●●●○○ Stock Car Race {Behold: Humanity! 15} - Ralts Bloodthorne #HFY
●●●◐○ Army of the Undead {Invaders 3} - Rafe Bernard
●●◐○○ Case of the Sullied Songstress {Miles Grant 03} - Jack Dearborn
●●●●◐ Head On {Lock In 2} - John Scalzi
●●●○○ The Empathetic Life of Rebecca Wright {Middle Falls 10} - Shawn Inmon
●●○○○ The Timothy File {Miles Grant 04} - Jack Dearborn
●●◐○○ The City {Aestus 1} - S. Z. Attwell #CliFi
●●●◐○ Case of the Phantom Phaeton {Miles Grant 05} - Jack Dearborn

Two novellas:
●●●○○ Beyond the Vanishing Point - Ray Cummings
●●●◐○ Born in the Wrong Body - Martin Brant #trans

Two novelettes:
●●●●○ Betty Knox and Dictionary Jones in The Mystery of the Missing Teenage Anachronisms - Jack Campbell
●●●●◐ Murder by Memory - Olivia Waite #queer

Twenty-six short stories:
●●○○○ A Day Among the Liars - Edward Page Mitchell
●●●◐○ Where Does a Circle Begin? - Jack Campbell
●●○○○ Natural - Peter Cawdron
●●●○○ Master - Ursula K. Le Guin
●●◐○○ An Extraordinary Wedding - Edward Page Mitchell
●●●○○ The Great Naked Adventure - P.A. Choi
●●●○○ Living Eggs Project {Agent Adams 02} - Tim Tolbert
●●◐○○ King of the Hill - James Blish
●●◐○○ Nothing Happens to Lefty Feep {Lefty Feep 11} - Robert Bloch
●◐○○○ End as a World - F. L. Wallace
●●○○○ Yellow Streak Hero - Harlan Ellison
●●●○○ Son of a Witch {Lefty Feep 6} - Robert Bloch
●●○○○ Entangled Vision {Agent Adams 03} - Tim Tolbert
●●●◐○ Concerns of the Second Sex - Pavarti K. Tyler
●●●●○ The Soul Buyer - Keith Laumer
●●○○○ Jerk the Giant Killer {Lefty Feep 7} - Robert Bloch
●●◐○○ Last Cruise of the Judas Iscariot - Edward Page Mitchell
●●●○○ Unnatural - Ann Christy
●●●●○ These Are the Times - Jack Campbell
●●●◐○ The Sun Never Sets - Anthea Sharp
●●○○○ Sunspot - Hal Clement
●●◐○○ Rocket to Limbo - Margaret St. Clair
●◐○○○ Echoed Life Foundation {Agent Adams 04} - Tim Tolbert
●●○○○ The Witness - Leona Celestia
●●●○○ Lefty Feep and the Racing Robot {Lefty Feep 13} - Robert Bloch
●●●○○ The Devilish Rat - Edward Page Mitchell

━━━━━━━━━━━
2025-08: 26 ss | 02 nvt | 02 nva | 11 nov
2025-07: 24 ss | 01 nvt | 01 nva | 13 nov
2025-06: 26 ss | 03 nvt | 00 nva | 12 nov
2025-05: 24 ss | 06 nvt | 01 nva | 13 nov
━━━━━━━━━━━

One very long, very slow novel knocked my reading down, but since I was reading three shorter novels each full week, not by much.

Ok, that #HFY story managed to scare me:

Starship scale fusion boomer.

#BubbleGumCrisis

Ok, that #HFY story managed to scare me:

Starship scale fusion boomer.

#BubbleGumCrisis

Alien Survival Game Banned Tech… Humans Had Fire, Tools, and Weapons Before Aliens Even Made Camp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6woKpZMKo8

#aliens #HFY #space #wellWritten #Narration

Alien Survival Game Banned Tech… Humans Had Fire, Tools, and Weapons Before Aliens Even Made Camp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6woKpZMKo8

#aliens #HFY #space #wellWritten #Narration

Left to Die in Space—Then a Human Ship Pierced Through the Silence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_8IPFHBas0

#aliens #HFY #space #war #Narration

I could stand to see more HFY stories where humans and their alien companions get really lucky because of some particularly niche evolution that we went through. Like, I love the ones where we're just space orcs, but...

The human nose is incredibly sensitive to the compound geosmin, and we don't exactly know why. But it's part of the bouquet of "wet ground after a rainstorm," and it's thought maybe our ancestors used it to find water in arid climates. But here's the thing: it's incredibly specific to this planet! The compound is created by algae and bacteria, and it becomes airborne when the rain soaks into the ground and pushes the air out of the earth (where the geosmin is concentrated) into the local atmosphere. There's no particular reason to believe there'd be a correlation between rain and geosmin in the atmosphere on any other planet, just this one.

Be kind of funny if it were correlated with something else and aliens started putting humans on their away teams as sort of bloodhounds.

#microfic #hfy

I could stand to see more HFY stories where humans and their alien companions get really lucky because of some particularly niche evolution that we went through. Like, I love the ones where we're just space orcs, but...

The human nose is incredibly sensitive to the compound geosmin, and we don't exactly know why. But it's part of the bouquet of "wet ground after a rainstorm," and it's thought maybe our ancestors used it to find water in arid climates. But here's the thing: it's incredibly specific to this planet! The compound is created by algae and bacteria, and it becomes airborne when the rain soaks into the ground and pushes the air out of the earth (where the geosmin is concentrated) into the local atmosphere. There's no particular reason to believe there'd be a correlation between rain and geosmin in the atmosphere on any other planet, just this one.

Be kind of funny if it were correlated with something else and aliens started putting humans on their away teams as sort of bloodhounds.

#microfic #hfy

I follow the #HFY story The New Species/The New Threat/The New Era and when I am thinking about that sort of story I ask "what human quality are they celebrating?" And in that case it is "Humans embody entropy" but in a very charming way because the Omni Union just doesnt believe in entropy and took it to the extreme. #amReading #reddit #sciFi

I follow the #HFY story The New Species/The New Threat/The New Era and when I am thinking about that sort of story I ask "what human quality are they celebrating?" And in that case it is "Humans embody entropy" but in a very charming way because the Omni Union just doesnt believe in entropy and took it to the extreme. #amReading #reddit #sciFi

I read #HFY stories, so I obviously have no problems with them. But I find that I do have an issue when the #SciFi story I'm reading suddenly decides forty percent in that it's a #HumanityFuckYeah tale. I was in a different headspace.

I peruse the #HFY #reddit sometimes and a common theme is that humans dont believe in slavery and oh buddy, you sweet summer child. #labor #sciFi

I peruse the #HFY #reddit sometimes and a common theme is that humans dont believe in slavery and oh buddy, you sweet summer child. #labor #sciFi

@nytpu
Probably tied up with the fact that we're the only ape set up with arms & shoulders to throw things with strength and accuracy.

(Sounds like a prompt for those #HFY stories... "Aliens were shocked to discover that humans can throw things! And they always hit!") 😀

@nytpu
Probably tied up with the fact that we're the only ape set up with arms & shoulders to throw things with strength and accuracy.

(Sounds like a prompt for those #HFY stories... "Aliens were shocked to discover that humans can throw things! And they always hit!") 😀

@MicroSFF #HFY

### #Books and #stories for #JanuaryReads.
~500 words | Tag to mute: #BokBooks

Nine novels:¹
●●●◐○ Hidden Things - P.Z. Walker {Emma Nelson 3} #mystery
●●●◐○ 1638: The Sovereign States - Flint, Huff, Goodlett {USSR 4} #AltHist
●●●◐○ Ashes, Ashes - Ralts Bloodthorne {Behold: Humanity! 11} #HFY
●●●◐○ A Diogenes Club for the Czar - Huff, Goodlett {Miroslava Holmes 4}
●●●○○ The Council on Jerusalem - Pierre E Pettinger Jr {Sodality Universe 5} #SpaceOpera
●●●●○ Usurpation {Semiosis 3} - Sue Burke #SFF
●●◐○○ Murder in the Tool Library - A.E. Marling #solarpunk
●●●●○ Zero Sum Game - S.L. Huang {Cas Russell 1} #thriller
●●●○○ Paradigms Lost - Ryk E. Spoor {Digital Knight}

Zero novellas. Again.²

Five novelettes:
●●●◐○ Doctor Satan - Paul Ernst {Doctor Satan 1} #WeirdTales
●●●◐○ The Man Who Chained the Lightning - Paul Ernst {Doctor Satan 2}
●●●◐○ Mask of Death - Paul Ernst {Doctor Satan 8} #pulp
●●●◐○ The Raid on the Termites - Paul Ernst #VintageSciFi
●●●○○ Marooned Under the Sea - Paul Ernst

Twenty-six short stories:
●●●◐○ Deus Ex Machina - Francis G. Rayer
●●●◐○ The Land of Lost Content - Chad Oliver
●●●●◐ The Mercenaries - H. Beam Piper
●●●◐○ Immersion - Aliette de Bodard
●●●◐○ Metal Like Blood in the Dark - T. Kingfisher
●●●○○ The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir - Karin Tidbeck
●●◐○○ Lorelei Street - Rog Phillips
●●●○○ Morrigan in the Sunglare - Seth Dickinson
●●●◐○ The Ormolu Clock - August Derleth
●●●○○ World Behind the Moon - Paul Ernst
●●●○○ Man from Beyond - John Wyndham
●●◐○○ Home to Mother - Manly Wade Wellman
●●●○○ Space is for Suckers - Rog Phillips
●●●○○ Scanners Live in Vain - Cordwainer Smith #ClassicSciFi
●●●●○ Voyage to Queensthroat - Anya Johanna DeNiro #trans
●●●○○ Belladonna Nights - Alastair Reynolds
●●○○○ The Old Dispensation - Lavie Tidhar
●●○○○ A Walk in the Dark - Arthur C Clarke
●●●◐○ A Stitch in Time - John Wyndham
●●●◐○ The Lady Killer - Rog Phillips
●●●○○ Gallery - Rog Phillips
●●◐○○ Tower of Babble - Robert Abernathy
●●●○○ But a Kind of Ghost - John Wyndham
●●●◐○ The Black Ewe - Fritz Leiber Jr.
●●●○○ Live in an Orbit and Love It! - Rog Phillips
●●●◐○ Lost Bomb - Rog Phillips (ss) 1950

2025-01: 26 ss | 05 nvt | 00 nva | 09 nov
2024-12: 31 ss | 03 nvt | 00 nva | 12 nov
2024-11: 39 ss | 05 nvt | 01 nva | 05 nov
2024-10: 26 ss | 03 nvt | 00 nva | 06 nov

I shifted to Monday-start weeks this month, which was fine. I also switched to midnight-start days, which wasn't. I'm going back to 8am starts, since half of my reading is done after midnight, and I sometimes forget that I must get a story done before midnight to fit the calendar.

***

[1] A reply to this post repeats brief descriptions of the novels. For descriptions of the shorter tales, see the weekly posts. Most short stories this month come from single-author collections (Paul Ernst, Rog Phillips, John Wyndham) or multi-author anthologies:

New Adventures in Space Opera - Jonathan Strahan, ed.
Legends of Science Fiction: 1950 - Christopher Broschell, ed.

[2] This category is not likely to ever get high, but zero annoys me, so for next month I dug up something that proclaims it's a novella on the cover. Though the middle story in the trilogy is half again as long, and the finale is more than twice that.

One of the tropes the #HFY stories likes to push is that humans are *so* unpredictable...

In stories that are *extremely* predicable. 🤗

Not that it's necessarily a bad thing. Formula fiction has its place.

The Last Species That Made Earth Go Silent... They're Still Running | HFY | SCI FI Story #HFY #SciFi #SpaceOpera #TimeTravel #HumanityFY #AlienInvasion #SciFiStory #SpaceFantasy #GalacticEmpire #CosmicHorror #SpaceExploration #ScienceFiction #Storytelling #WritingCommunity #YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeQGss4jy5Q

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #173: Yakutsk, Siberia.
.
.
#brr #yakutsk #siberia #russia #arctic #places #geography #science #cold #didyouknow #funfacts #wtf #strangebuttrue #trivia #comics #comic #webcomics #webcomic #humanityfuckyeah #hfy #uselessfacts #uselessfactsbadlydrawn

I dunno.

Couple of days ago I ended up on YouTube (ick) and stumbled across these HFY audio stories...

#HFY stands for "Humans, Fuck Yeah!"

I'd seen a couple of text stories before, on Archive Of Our Own, but I didn't know that it was a big thing, with it's own reddit feeds and everything.

I'm charmed, as it's a pleasant change from the whole grimdark gross vibe of how I tend to feel about people and a lot of the art + fiction I'm seeing on the fediverse.

OTOH it's easy to OD on. 🤗

#Books and #stories completed in August:

2024-08: 19 ss | 03 nvt | 01 nva | 08 nov⁰

The Spot of Life - Austin Hall (nov) {Spot 2} ●●●○○ #SFF

What's It Like Out There? - Edmond Hamilton (ss) ●●○○○

As Good as New - Charlie Jane Anders (ss) ●●●●○ #reading

Off Course - Mack Reynolds (ss) ●●●○○

The Price of Vengeance - Gina Marie Wylie (nov) {alt-Kalvan 3} ●●●●◐ #AltHist

Ultima Thule - Mack Reynolds (nvt) ●●●○○ #ScienceFiction

Grover: Case #C09 920, “The Most Dangerous Blend” ⬖ Edward Edmonds (ss) ●●◐○○¹

A Field of Sapphires and Sunshine ⬖ Jaymee Goh (ss) ●●●◐○

Roswell - Sonny Whitelaw, Jennifer Fallon (nov) {SG-1 #9} ●●●●○ #Stargate

The Fifth Dimension - Clare Winger Harris (ss) ●●○○○

Mercenary - Mack Reynolds (nvt) ●●●○○

Red Stuff - John Wyndham (ss) ●●●○○ #ClassicSciFi

Heavenly Dreams of Mechanical Trees ⬖ Wendy Nikel ●●●○○

Summer Frost - Blake Crouch (nvt) ●●●●○ #AI

The Seeds from Outside - Edmond Hamilton (ss) ●◐○○○

Screams of the Past - Ralts Bloodthorne (nov) {Behold: Humanity! 08} ●●●●◐ #HFY

After a Judgment Day - Edmond Hamilton (ss) ●●●○○

First Through Time - Rex Gordon (nva) ●●●◐○ #TimeTravel

The Menace of Mars - Clare Winger Harris (ss) ●●●◐○

Exile - Edmond Hamilton (ss) ●●●◐○

A Runaway World - Clare Winger Harris (ss) ●●●○○

Under the Northern Lights ⬖ Charlotte M Ray (ss) ●●●◐○

Nudist Resort Murder - Kalusna Rose (nov) ●◐○○○ #mystery

Evolutionary Monstrosity - Clare Winger Harris (ss) ●●○○○

Midsummer Night's Heist ⬖ Commando Jugendstil (ss) ●●●●○

He That Hath Wings - Edmond Hamilton (ss) ●●◐○○

The Jupiter Plague - Harry Harrison (nov) ●●●◐○ #SciFi

Tabula Rasa - J Ishiro Finney (ss) ●●○○○ #biopunk

Time and Time Again - H Beam Piper (ss) ●●●◐○ #reincarnation

When the World Shook ⬙ H. Rider Haggard (nov)² ●●◐○○ #vintageSF

Time Crime - H Beam Piper & John F Carr (nov) ●●●◐○ [Piper original, extended by Carr to better hook up with his sequels] #ScienceFiction

Riot of the Wind and Sun ⬖ Jennifer Lee Rossman (ss) ●●●◐○ #SolarPunk

_____

#Reading was down this month, I'm not sure why. Maybe five months of elevated reading times after getting the Kobo Sage and installing KOReader is just wearing off. Instead of doing two full novels each week and filling in with shorter works, I'll try doing just one.

_____

[0] Previous months:
2024-07: 22 ss | 03 nvt | 02 nva | 09 nov
2024-06: 19 ss | 04 nvt | 03 nva | 09 nov
2024-05: 20 ss | 08 nvt | 02 nva | 07 nov

⬙ = Atlantis and Lemuria: 13 Classic Tales
⬖ = Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers

[1] Another #koReader first. Longest title, at 49 characters long: Grover: Case #C09 920, “The Most Dangerous Blend”. This meant stretching a 106-screen (39p in original epub) over five days. I'll just shorten calendar names henceforth; in this case that would have been "Dangerous Blend" at two days wide.

[2] H Rider Haggard's _When the World Shook_ (1919) was very similar to Erle Cox's _Out of the Silence_ (1919 serialized, 1925 novel).

_Shook_ has two people, a young woman and an older man, found underground in crystal coffins; they were in suspended animation from 250,000 years ago, the man claims. The man was a ruler, and expresses a desire to wipe out the lesser civilization of today, as he did those who refused to bow to him in the past. The woman and the man who found her fall in love. Both ancient individuals die in the end.

_Silence_ had a man find an underground metal chamber. After getting past the booby traps, he awakens a young woman from ancient, pre-catacylsmic times. (The older man is later found in another sphere.) Again, the older man plans to rule Earth, and the woman falls for the modern man. Both ancient individuals die in the end.

I liked _Out of the Silence_ better. No third of the book wasted in setup. It also has more of a point: Both the ancient young woman and the old man are casually racist against "the coloured races," but the narrator is not, and it's clear the point is to highlight how European colonists are mistreating indigenous Australians.

_When the World Shook_ has the young woman sacrificing herself to save the world, and the man she loves. It turns out that, when suspended, your soul is free to be reincarnated. The modern man who found her contains the soul of the man she loved, whom her father had killed because he was a commoner leading the revolt of the masses against the "Children of Wisdom" who ruled them. And the modern man's wife, who died early in the book, was the most recent receptacle of the ancient woman's soul.

Oh, by the way, the word "Atlantis" shows up exactly once in the novel, and only in a "I heard of another place that was destroyed and submerged beneath the waves" sense. It's not used to describe where the sleepers came from.