If you read my last post, you already know that I think that Vox Day and his “Rabid puppies” are a bunch of shitbirds.  For the sake of keeping this post short so I can go and write other more fun words, I’ll be brief.  

Long story short, Irene Gallo, the creative director at Tor said basically called the Sad / Rabid puppies a bunch of rascist, misogynistic neo-nazis on her private blog.  She’s not wrong, by the way.  Still, the shitbird in chief, Day (also known as Theodore Beale), took a screen grab of the comment, then sat on it for a month.  Knowing the time was write do to the tingling of his doucebag-sense, he released it a bit more than a week ago to stir up the puppies again with an extra helping of GamerGate bile.  

Tom Doherty, head of Tor, made a basic statement that kind of threw Gallo under the bus, and she made a broad apology.  That didn’t sit well with pretty much everyone else and cue the next big Vox Day caused fight since the Hugo’s ended.  Of course, he and his minions weren’t satisfied that Irene wasn’t outright fired for the simple act of speaking her mind, so of course, Day is leading a boycott of Tor books. 

Don’t mistake him. Day doesn’t give two wet shits about what Irene said.  He might be personally offended that she dared say anything about her male betters (misogynist that he is) but he doesn’t really care what she said.  More to the point, this is at least the second boycott of Tor books that Day has tried to get going among the trollish parts of the internet.  He’s had some sort of ax to grind against them for years, and I don’t know if its because they won’t publish his books or because he has some weird feud with John Scalzi and it just spills over onto Tor.

I should point out that while Day views Scalzi as his arch-nemesis, Scalzi really doesn’t appear to care one way or another about Day, beyond wishing he’d just go away.  Still, it was amusing to watch Day nash his teeth and turn green when Scalzi landed a sweet deal (millions of dollars) with Tor.

I seem to have digressed.  Right! Boycott of Tor, Vox Day at fault!  So, basically I don’t want Tor to suffer because Vox Day is the rabid puppy currently taking a dump on their living room carpet.  I’ve bought a couple Tor books in the last couple of days, and I’d encourage everyone else to do so as well.  Your options are many, and just about every one of them is a winner.  If I may, a few personal recommendations:

John Scalzi: 

• Locked In
• Red Shirts
• Old Man’s War
• Fuzzy Nation

Brandon Sanderson: 

• The Way of Kings
• Warbreaker
• Mistborn: The Iron Empire
• The Alloy of Law
• Elantris
• Steelheart

Buying more books is always a good idea, but if you do it now, you can show a great publisher that it doesn’t have to worry about feculant little turds like Day.  Lets show him that he really, truly, doesn’t matter, and then read a few great stories.