I've Just Started "To Serve Man"

I keep meaning to read John Scalzi's Old Man's War, ibecause I have a nostalgic space in my heart for good, early Heinlein and also because if both Cory Doctorow and Ken MacLeod dig it, that's enough recommendation for me. (Plus we used to run in the same Usenet circles, and he even tried to help me get my foot in the door with AOL about ten years ago, though it didn't pan out.) But I'm psyched to see that Scalzi will be guest-editing an issue of the new SF quarterly Subterranean, and it's a theme issue on science fiction clichés:

"Why? Well, I guess mostly because we're not supposed to play with clichés, and you know how people get when they're told they can't touch something. It makes them want to get their grimy little paws all over that thing. Also, of course, there's a substantive difference between writing a story filled with clichés, that you think is something new and original, and going in knowing that you're working with clichés, and being aware you'll have to work to sell it to the reader (and also the editor)."

"There are some damn fine writers out there," he adds, "and I'm personally itchin' to see what some of them could do to overhaul a crappy old cliché and make it the heart of a clean-burning, page-turning tale." If we're lucky, that could mean yet another of Doctorow's 21st-century remixes of classic SF stories like "I, Robot." If you want in on the action yourself, follow that link to Scalzi's blog for all the relevant info.