1980 World Fantasy Award - WATCHTOWER by Elizabeth Lynn

Elizabeth Lynn’s Watchtower is the first novel in a trilogy called The Chronicles of Tornor. Tornor is a fortress city that forms part of a line of such independent fortress city states along the northern edge of…well, I guess of the known world. At the beginning of the novel, Tornor is taken in battle by the evil Col Istor. Col kills the wise and benevolent king of Tornor and turns the prince, Errel, into his court jester. Ryke eventually manages to escape with Errel thanks to the aid of two mysterious (and somewhat androgynous) women, Norres and Sorren.

Norres and Sorren take Ryke and Errel to a sort of Shangri-La in the south called Vanima. Vanima is a warm valley and a refuge from the war-torn north. The people of Vanima also practice a communal “dance,” which is actually a powerful form of unarmed martial arts (Lynn notes that she based it on aikido in a brief introduction). So, Ryke learns the new martial art, Errel reads some tarot cards, and they prepare to take back Tornor.

I actually enjoyed this novel quite a bit more than I thought it would. The plot might feel a little slight (the above is actually a fairly detailed description of the entire first two acts of the novel) compared to the big epics that seem to dominant the fantasy genre, and especially fantasy series. It’s a small world – we basically get Vanima, Tornor, and two other Tornor-like fortresses as the entire fantasy world – but at least it feels manageable. And I liked the idea of having a nicely focused character piece instead. It’s not a must-read overlooked classic, and, for such a character-focused work, the characters can feel a bit flat. The high concept of martial arts meets medieval fantasy didn’t quite work for me either. But, it is well-written, relatable, and readable, which was a welcome change after the over-wrought Riddle-master books.

Apparently, according to Wikipedia, Lynn’s novels are most famous as the earliest fantasy novels to present homosexual relationships in a positive light. I think it’s a welcome sign of the changes in our society that I hardly even noticed the gay couple in the novel (it was done fairly subtly as well).

Grade: B-

1980 Nebula, Campbell, and BSFA - TIMESCAPE by Gregory Benford

I've always associated Gregory Benford's name with the hardest of hard sf - science fiction with real rigor in its physics. This is mainly because Benford is himself a working astrophysicist. This is the first Benford novel I've read, and I was surprised to find a very grounded piece that is much more about the lives of scientists and the culture of science than highwire applied astrophysics as the basis of a fictional world.

The novel tells two parallel stories. In 1998, the world is in a state of ecological crisis - the Green Revolution (which saved us from the fate of overpopulation that everyone in the '70s was so upset about) has turned into a disaster as genetically identical crops fail all at once at. At the same time, untested polymers have released toxic chemicals into the oceans, air, and food supply. Most of the novel takes place around Cambridge in England, where a group of physicists try to contact the past with tachyons in order warn them of what will happen and save the world. Meanwhile, the world begins to fall apart around them. We spend most of our time with John Renfrew, the head of the experiment, as he struggles to juggle his efforts to save the world while still spending time with his uber-housewife Marjorie. Slowly, the program's government liason, Ian Peterson, begins to dominate the 1998 sections - Benford apparently found him too compelling. Peterson is a privileged aristocrat and a ladies man, and it is fascinating to watch his uncomfortable reactions to the sudden deprivations and his efforts to get every women he meets into bed.

In 1962, physicist Gordon Bernstein at the fledgling San Diego campus of the University of California begins to notice the strange noise in his date. He soon discovers that it is a Morse code transmission with a great deal of biochemical data in it (the message from the future, you see). Many of his colleagues, however, refuse to believe that Bernstein is receiving strange messages from an unknown source, and Bernstein's career begins to suffer. Meanwhile, he has to deal with personal issues as his relationship with his girlfriend goes through a very rough patch, and his Jewish mother harangues him.

Despite the Big Ideas in here of ecological armageddon and communication through time, the novel is mostly a quotidian portrayal of scientists' lives, which is fine for most of the novel. The characters are richly drawn and Benford obviously has plenty of personal experience in the matter - his portrayal is certainly deeper and more balanced than the selfish and closed-minded cartoons of Flowers for Alrgenon...or even Asimov's The Gods Themselves. Still, after a few hundred pages of Ian's flirting, Marjorie's house parties, and Gordon's rotating fights with his department chair, girlfriend, and mother, it does start to get a bit old.

Actually, the novel's biggest flaw is how much the tachyon communication is neglected. Benford presents the communication like it's Sagan preparing a message for unknown aliens, but it's actually English-speaking researchers communicating in Morse code just a few decades back. And yet, the senders can't manage to find out how effective their messages are and can barely confirm that they are being received. Here's an idea: call up UCSD in 1998 and ask the physicists there if they got the message! And, if not....ask what would convince them! There's a lot of discussion in the novel about paradox, but no attempt is made to take the easy steps necessary to test any of the hypotheses.

By the end, it's clear that Benford has dodged the question so that he can make a big Twilight Zonesque reveal about the nature of time (I saw it coming from almost the beginning of the novel, but I've probably seen too much Star Trek time travel). It's an interesting conclusion, but it doesn't excuse or explain why the scientists were so damn dense.

Grade: B-

1970s Wrap

I’ve always thought of the ‘70s as a hangover after the wild party of the ‘60s. All that positive social change, wild-eyed optimism and experimentation came home to roost or led to extreme reactions. We go from mind-opening drugs to addiction and violence, from civil rights to urban violence and persisting poverty, from Camelot to Watergate. Nuclear war had been the overriding fear, now it was environmental catastrophes, overpopulation, race war, or just the general disintegration of society.

It’s not surprising that the dystopia became the dominant genre, especially in film. I was generally pretty bored with the parade of interchangeable dystopian films that dominated the genre. At least A Clockwork Orange had Kubrick’s vision behind it; Soylent Green and Rollerball pale in comparison. I think novels tended to execute these ideas better: The Forever War managed to place these crises in historical context by stretching out its timeline, and The Lathe of Heaven, especially, uses these fears as a background for exploring ideas about dreams, escapism, and the dangers inherent in seemingly easy solutions.

It’s also not surprising that fantasy began to take off as a genre in this period. The future no longer seemed like the ideal place for escapist fiction. As the future got scarier, suddenly the past…or a mythical world, seemed like a better locale for escapism. Not only did fantasy begin to take off in the ‘70s, it would soon rival (and surpass) sf in popularity. I don’t think fear of the future is the only reason for this (fantasy stories tend to be more universal, and I think fantasy writers have a better record with female audiences), but I do think it’s a significant factor. Film takes the same turn – it’s a great big leap from the parade of dystopias to the (light)sword and (jedi)sorcery adventures of Luke Skywalker or the capable-of-defeating-even-death power fantasy of Superman.

Finally, we do also have the return to classic sf elements over the ‘60s New Wave. LeGuin is often associated with the New Wave, but I think next to the likes of Brunner, her stories were always more conventional in form, even as they contained very original content. Silverberg’s Time of Changes was the last novel that really felt like New Wave sf to me (though Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang is closer to a New Wave tone). Instead we have the rise of Larry Niven, who has always seemed like the secret love-child of Clarke and Heinlein to me. You also get two big wins for Clarke and one for Heinlein. Overall, we have a lot more old fashioned swashbuckling space adventures and/or engineering challenges and triumphs – the stuff is ‘40s and ‘50s sf. It was also a decade for clear-cut sf classics, as more books than any other decade swept the awards.

Top 3 novels of the ‘70s:

Rendezvous with Rama

Lathe of Heaven

Ringworld

Honorable mentions for Gateway, Fountains of Paradise, and Forever War (great decade for sf!). I had problems with all three, but found them memorable and exciting in the end.

Bottom 3 novels of the ‘70s:

Lord Foul's Bane

A Time of Changes

Dr Rat

Top film:

Star Wars: The unheralded cult classic.

Alien a close second.

A Clockwork Orange third and winner of the illustrious Best ‘70s Dystopia award.

Bottom film:

Rollerball edges out Logan’s Run. Rollerball is probably the better film, but who thought sports clichés went together with sf?

1980 Locus Fantasy – HARPIST IN THE WIND by Patricia McKillip

The second novel to win in the Locus Fantasy category is Patricia McKillip’s Harpist in the Wind, the third novel in her Riddle-master trilogy. McKillip also won the first World Fantasy Award – she really is one of the founders of the genre in the second generation after Tolkien.

The Riddle-master trilogy takes place in a world of small kingdoms. Every king has an inherited power called the land-rule – a mystical ability to run the kingdom better. There is also a mysterious being/man named the High One – a sort of immortal uber-king that no one ever sees. In the first novel, The Riddle Master of Hed, we meet Morgon, the young king of a small, out-of-the-way kingdom of Hed. Morgon was born, Harry Potter-like, with the image of three stars on his forehead. When he wins a crown in a riddle-off, he learns from the harpist Deth that this crown gives him the right to marry a princess named Raederle. He goes to claim his prize but gets sidetracked when he is attacked by mysterious shape-shifters. He then takes up the new quest of finding the High-One to unravel why he has been targeted, and what this all has to do with the stars on his forehead. The second novel Heir of Sea and Fire, follows Raederle’s quest to find Morgon and deepens some of these mysteries.

Harpist in the Wind finally brings all of these storylines to a head. In the background, the kingdoms are now engulfed in war, as the shapeshifters, an evil wizard with the simple name of Ghistelwchlohm, and an army of undead are all plaguing the land. Meanwhile, Morgon and Raederle try to solve the various mysteries that McKillip keeps juggling. The story does get a fairly satisfying resolution, but one that I saw coming from very early on despite having only skimmed the first two books. Suffice it to say that Morgon’s quest to understand “the High One” and his various contests with the harpist Deth (get it…death?) are all a great big metaphor for humanity’s attempt to understand the meaning of life, the nature of God, etc.

It’s all well executed, McKillip is a good writer, and the characters are convincing enough (the relationship between Morgon and Raederle is nicely rendered early in the third novel…though it kind of falls away in the epic events that follow). Still, this left me cold. For me, fantasy is at its worst when it soars above all real world concerns and comes out as fairy tale, and this is something that McKillip has a penchant for. I'm attracted to the idea of world building, but the world has to feel real to me. That doesn't mean that there can't be wizards and magical creatures and mystic weapons, but they need to have an internal logic - the world needs a foundation in practical economy and realistic ecology, and these ideas need to be incorporated into that foundation and work within it.

A good fantasy world also has a rich sense of history - something that Tolkien achieved marvelously in The Lord of the Rings. McKillip tries for this in Riddle-master (in fact, the riddles are closer to interpretive questions about the past than actual riddles), but really we get a couple of big events, like the fall of wizards (though wizards manage to show up all the time in this series anyway). Otherwise, we seem to have a static world of small and simple kingdoms.

Other than a general obsession with livestock in the first two books (which is a very nice touch and very "real" feeling for this kind of medieval world), I never felt grounded in the world of Riddle-master. Yes, Morgon is from a quiet shire-like kingdom, but he's still a king. Pretty much everyone we meet is either a wizard or from a royal family, and they're all constantly sailing or riding around on a mythic quest. The first Dragon Warrior game for 8-bit Nintendo had a richer and more varied world. Land-rule - the idea that kings have a magical relationship and understanding of their land - is a very interesting idea, but it feels a whole lot like the Divine Right of Kings. Inherited power is a great concept for fantasy works to explore, but I always wince when they celebrate it.

Maybe these are just my issues, but I will say that I've enjoyed a lot of fantasy novels in the past, and McKillip's works, so far, seem to be especially guilty of these fairy tale failings.

Grade: C+

2010 Hugo Nominees

BEST NOVEL* (699 nominating ballots)

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (Tor)
The City & The City by China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan UK)
Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America by Robert Charles Wilson (Tor)
Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente (Bantam Spectra)
Wake by Robert J. Sawyer (Ace; Penguin; Gollancz; Analog)
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)

BEST NOVELLA* (375 nominating ballots)

"Act One" by Nancy Kress (Asimov's 3/09)
The God Engines by John Scalzi (Subterranean)
"Palimpsest" by Charles Stross (Wireless)
Shambling Towards Hiroshima by James Morrow (Tachyon)
"Vishnu at the Cat Circus" by Ian McDonald (Cyberabad Days)
The Women of Nell Gwynne's by Kage Baker (Subterranean)

BEST NOVELETTE* (402 nominating ballots)

"Eros, Philia, Agape" by Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com 3/09)
"The Island" by Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2)
"It Takes Two" by Nicola Griffith (Eclipse Three)
"One of Our Bastards is Missing" by Paul Cornell (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume Three)
"Overtime" by Charles Stross (Tor.com 12/09)
"Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" by Eugie Foster (Interzone 2/09)

BEST SHORT STORY* (432 nominating ballots)

"The Bride of Frankenstein" by Mike Resnick (Asimov's 12/09)
"Bridesicle" by Will McIntosh (Asimov’s 1/09)
"The Moment" by Lawrence M. Schoen (Footprints)
"Non-Zero Probabilities" by N.K. Jemisin (Clarkesworld 9/09)
"Spar" by Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld 10/09)

BEST RELATED WORK (259 nominating ballots)

Canary Fever: Reviews by John Clute (Beccon)
Hope-In-The-Mist: The Extraordinary Career and Mysterious Life of Hope Mirrlees by Michael Swanwick (Temporary Culture)
The Inter-Galactic Playground: A Critical Study of Children's and Teens' Science Fiction by Farah Mendlesohn (McFarland)
On Joanna Russ edited by Farah Mendlesohn (Wesleyan)
The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of SF Feminisms by Helen Merrick (Aqueduct)
This is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This is "I") by Jack Vance (Subterranean)

BEST GRAPHIC STORY* (221 nominating ballots)

Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? Written by Neil Gaiman; Pencilled by Andy Kubert; Inked by Scott Williams (DC Comics)
Captain Britain And MI13. Volume 3: Vampire State Written by Paul Cornell; Pencilled by Leonard Kirk with Mike Collins, Adrian Alphona and Ardian Syaf (Marvel Comics)
Fables Vol 12: The Dark Ages Written by Bill Willingham; Pencilled by Mark Buckingham; Art by Peter Gross & Andrew Pepoy, Michael Allred, David Hahn; Colour by Lee Loughridge & Laura Allred; Letters by Todd Klein (Vertigo Comics)
Girl Genius, Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm Written by Kaja and Phil Foglio; Art by Phil Foglio; Colours by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
Schlock Mercenary: The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse Written and Illustrated by Howard Tayler

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION - LONG FORM* (541 nominating ballots)

Avatar Screenplay and Directed by James Cameron (Twentieth Century Fox)
District 9 Screenplay by Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell; Directed by Neill Blomkamp (TriStar Pictures)
Moon Screenplay by Nathan Parker; Story by Duncan Jones; Directed by Duncan Jones (Liberty Films)
Star Trek Screenplay by Robert Orci & Alex Kurtzman; Directed by J.J. Abrams (Paramount)
Up Screenplay by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter; Story by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, & Thomas McCarthy; Directed by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter (Disney/Pixar)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION - SHORT FORM* (282 nominating ballots)

Doctor Who: "The Next Doctor" Written by Russell T Davies; Directed by Andy Goddard (BBC Wales)
Doctor Who: "Planet of the Dead" Written by Russell T Davies & Gareth Roberts; Directed by James Strong (BBC Wales)
Doctor Who: "The Waters of Mars" Written by Russell T Davies & Phil Ford; Directed by Graeme Harper (BBC Wales)
Dollhouse: "Epitaph 1" Story by Joss Whedon; Written by Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon; Directed by David Solomon (Mutant Enemy)
FlashForward: "No More Good Days" Written by Brannon Braga & David S. Goyer; Directed by David S. Goyer; based on the novel by Robert J. Sawyer (ABC)

BEST EDITOR, LONG FORM (289 nominating ballots)

Lou Anders
Ginjer Buchanan
Liz Gorinsky
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Juliet Ulman

BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM (419 nominating ballots)

Ellen Datlow
Stanley Schmidt
Jonathan Strahan
Gordon Van Gelder
Sheila Williams

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST (327 nominating ballots)

Bob Eggleton
Stephan Martiniere
John Picacio
Daniel Dos Santos
Shaun Tan

BEST SEMIPROZINE (377 nominating ballots)

Ansible edited by David Langford
Clarkesworld edited by Neil Clarke, Sean Wallace, & Cheryl Morgan
Interzone edited by Andy Cox
Locus edited by Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong, & Liza Groen Trombi
Weird Tales edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal

BEST FAN WRITER (319 nominating ballots)

Claire Brialey
Christopher J Garcia
James Nicoll
Lloyd Penney
Frederik Pohl

BEST FANZINE (298 nominating ballots)

Argentus edited by Steven H Silver
Banana Wings edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer
CHALLENGER edited by Guy H. Lillian III
Drink Tank edited by Christopher J Garcia, with guest editor James Bacon
File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
StarShipSofa edited by Tony C. Smith

BEST FAN ARTIST (199 nominating ballots)

Brad W. Foster
Dave Howell
Sue Mason
Steve Stiles
Taral Wayne

THE JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER (NOT A HUGO AWARD) (356 nominating ballots)

Saladin Ahmed
Gail Carriger
Felix Gilman
Seanan McGuire
Lezli Robyn

As I said, I'll be covering all of the starred categories from April through August, probably on Fridays.

I called the Long Form, but I guess I was wrong about the weak reception of the Doctor Who specials in the short form. I had considered mentioning FlashForward, a show I do watch, but everyone seems to agree that it's taken a rough downward turn since its strong first two or three episodes. Apparently, Hugo voters decided to recognize one of those strong early episodes anyway. Thank God I don't have to cover Lost.

I was way off on the graphic category, other than Fables. I got three of my wishes in the novel category.

Wild, uninformed Hugo speculation

I plan on reviewing the 2010 Hugo nominees (in the pertinent categories) throughout the summer then making my own picks and predictions before the awards are announced in early September. The nominees - chosen by attendees of the previous and next WorldCon - come out Sunday evening, and I will post them when they're announced, but today I'll share some of my random speculation about what will be in there. Then, we can see how terribly wrong I am.

There are only four categories that I feel qualified to guess at. Let's start with Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, since I think that's the most obvious.

There were five stand-out sf films this year: Avatar and District 9 both received Academy Award nominations for best picture - I think they're shoe-ins. Star Trek was a solid hit and comes from a current top contender for nerd king, JJ Abrams. Moon was an indie darling with an old-fashioned sf premise (it really felt like a '50s novella to me) and a great performance out of Sam Rockwell. Up was up to the typically high standards of Pixar, who have done well in this category of late.

There are a few possible surprises: Coraline was an excellent animated film that didn't get the attention it deserved, and it has the Gaiman factor on its side. I wouldn't be surprised to see it in the mix, though I couldn't predict which of those five it might replace.

2009 was a great year for film, and a lot of successful movies had fantastic elements. In most years, I'd throw Harry Potter, Fantastic Mr Fox, Where the Wild Things Are, and Inglorious Basterds into the mix, but the field is probably too crowded this time around.

Dramatic Presentation, Short Form is tougher.

I'd imagine an episode of Fringe could make the cut. The first season finale "There's More Than One of Everything" was quite good.

Overall, Dollhouse was a disappointment, at least coming from Whedon, but it got really great once it was cancelled. Any of the episodes from the series' final half-dozen could get a shot. I'd favor "Meet Jane Doe." The DVD-only season one finale "Epitaph One" might be an even stronger contender.

I think most were disappointed by last year's Doctor Who specials, but I thought "Waters of Mars" was a very strong one, and much darker than usual. The Children of Men season of Torchwood garnered great reviews, and I guess it could be nominated as a complete miniseries.

I'm still behind on Battlestar Galactica, but I wouldn't be surprised if the series' end did not get nominated. It was not well-received, and it came out a while ago. On the other hand, I'd like to see the pilot for its prequel, Caprica, get a nomination. It's a very different show and a nice change from the typical sf actioners.

Finally, Lost will probably get a nomination (or two). It had a lot of buzz going into its final season - at the same time people were making nominations. I don't watch Lost, so I have no idea which episodes will get the nod. It will be interesting if I have to cover this one.

Another show I don't watch, Stargate Universe, probably has a solid shot as well. I did watch the pilot, but it didn't grab me.

I'm probably missing something obvious from this category.

"Best Graphic Story" has its second year ever in 2010. I feel like I should be qualified to comment on this category, but I have a hard time remembering which trades came out when. I'd imagine we'll see the same mix of Vertigo books (the latest volume of Fables, for instance) and web comics as before, and the recent Marvel novel adaptations (the Enders series, Stephen King's Dark Tower and The Stand, Frank Baum's Oz) might get some attention.

I think Chew, from Image comics, is a shoe-in, and I'd also pick it to win the category in September. It's an inventive concept - a detective who has psychic taste powers in a world where chicken is illegal - with lots of sf quirks. In comic circles, it's gotten a lot of attention. It will be interesting to see how plugged into that world Hugo nominators are.

Mike Carey's The Unwritten might be an even better pick (I personally think it's a much better book), but I'm not sure it's eligible due to the later release of the first trade.

Finally, novel:

There are six books that came out in 2009 that I plan to read anyway:

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Windup Girl by Paulo Bacigalupi

The City & The City by China Mieville

Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts

I think all six are legit contenders for this category, and it would make my life more convenient if five of them were nominated. That's pretty unlikely to happen though. Windup Girl has a lot of buzz about it, so I expect it to show up Sunday. I hope Yellow Blue Tibia is in there as well; it just sounds like a great ride. Grossman's The Magicians received a lot of mainstream attention, but sf/fantasy readers seem less keen on it.

Finch by Jeff VanderMeer has also received lots of attention, and it sounds like a great read. My wild guess would be Finch, Windup Girl, The City & The City, Boneshaker, and another novel I haven't mentioned, probably a fantasy novel.

1980 Locus - TITAN by John Varley

Varley’s Titan is a nice capstone to the ‘70s because...well…because it rips off half the books and films of the past decade.

In the twenty-first century, a ship from Earth called the Ringmaster is exploring Saturn’s moons. The ship has a seven person crew – three men and four women (two of whom are incestuous female clones – we get a lot of details on the characters’ sex lives from the first few pages on). They discover a floating object that’s too perfect to be natural, and it attacks them suddenly when they approach. They awaken in underground isolation tanks but wake up, manage to reconnect (well, most of them), and begin to explore the strange world inside the satellite. They meet centaurs, angels, and flying gas bags while dealing with the strange psychological side effects of their captivity. Most of the novel focuses on the female captain, Cirocco Jones, and we get an exciting final act wherein she undertakes a harrowing quest to find the satellite's creator.

Titan can be a bit slow-going at times, but it also has some very exciting bits, and it really does pick up near the end. It’s well-written, and the characters are interesting enough. The real problem here is that it’s a bit of a pastiche of recent sf ideas. This becomes especially obvious when you’ve been plowing through these books in chronological order. The horny astronaut characters are straight out of Heinlein. The strange alien object in our solar system reminded me of Rama. It’s shaped like a small Ringworld. The characters have to explore after waking up in an alien environment as in Riverworld. Eventually, Varley starts to tip his hat by explicitly referencing his influences – we’re told that Ringmaster looks like the Discovery from 2001, The Wizard of Oz features prominently (and even gets a couple of musical shout-outs), and even Dune and the Death Star (from that one movie) are mentioned by name.

I get that Varley is having a conversation with his influences, but it took me out of the novel every time. And there’s just not enough original and exciting material here to hold the homages together – in the end, it just feels derivative. Maybe the sequels are better? I’d definitely take Fountains of Paradise over this one.

Grade: B-