"If you can read this, I have cancer again."

June 1, 2014 9:07 AM

Jay Lake, science fiction and fantasy author, has passed away after a long fight with cancer. MeFi's own jscalzi has posted more here. JayWake, the pre-postumous wake, was held last year. [previously] The film Lakeside – A Year With Jay Lake, detailed his treatments, including participation in whole genome sequencing, in search of a new treatment path.
posted by korej (40 comments total)

RIP, Jay. I'll miss you.
posted by cstross at 9:27 AM on June 1, 2014 [2 favorites]

.
posted by Foosnark at 9:30 AM on June 1, 2014

SF/F has lost one of its great imaginations. The Clockwork Earth series should utterly fall apart from the weight of its own premise, but it never does.

.
posted by Etrigan at 10:14 AM on June 1, 2014 [3 favorites]

.

No less sad for having seen it coming.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 10:17 AM on June 1, 2014

.
posted by tilde at 10:18 AM on June 1, 2014

.
posted by monotreme at 10:23 AM on June 1, 2014

.
posted by bibliogrrl at 10:32 AM on June 1, 2014

.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 10:50 AM on June 1, 2014

.
posted by RokkitNite at 11:07 AM on June 1, 2014

.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 11:30 AM on June 1, 2014

.
posted by xingcat at 12:08 PM on June 1, 2014

.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 12:08 PM on June 1, 2014

.
posted by arcticseal at 12:10 PM on June 1, 2014

.
posted by Pendragon at 12:11 PM on June 1, 2014

.
posted by divide_by_cucumber at 12:51 PM on June 1, 2014

If you are wondering why the last link loads so slowly it is because they constrained the proportions of an 11mb image file where they could have used a properly sized 40k one.

Sorry this guy died. I love SF, and had never heard of him.

Serious question: Did he have health insurance?
posted by cjorgensen at 12:58 PM on June 1, 2014

cjorgensen: Yes, Jay had excellent health insurance (which covered most, but not all of his treatments, up to and including the Mayo clinic trip at the end for last-ditch experimental treatments). Over the course of several yearshe went four rounds with chemo and at least three with surgery, for a colon cancer so aggressive that it was staged at IVb on first diagnosis (and nearly killed him in the ER: the very first symptom was that it haemorrhaged and he nearly bled out).

You may not have heard of him. He was, however, a Campbell award winner, multiple Hugo and Nebula award nominee, author of 9 novels and over 300 short stories, and all around good guy.
posted by cstross at 1:06 PM on June 1, 2014 [6 favorites]

Sorry if this is duplicated in one of the links, but apparently if you want to make a contribution in Jay’s name, the family asks that you make it to:

Clayton Memorial Medical Fund
c/o OSFCI
P.O. Box 5703
Portland, Oregon 97228

posted by Ian A.T. at 1:26 PM on June 1, 2014

I worked with Jay once in a professional capacity and he was always helpful, always gracious. I hope you have lots of fun Up There, Jake.

.
posted by New England Cultist at 1:35 PM on June 1, 2014

.
posted by Renoroc at 1:45 PM on June 1, 2014

.
posted by allthinky at 2:27 PM on June 1, 2014

.
posted by sammyo at 3:20 PM on June 1, 2014

.
posted by monopas at 4:07 PM on June 1, 2014

Dammit.
posted by Zed at 4:28 PM on June 1, 2014

.
posted by monster truck weekend at 5:10 PM on June 1, 2014

.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 5:49 PM on June 1, 2014

His blog was a remarkable, honest window into his life. When he was still well enough he posted the best aggregation of links anywhere other than here. He tried so hard to find a way to beat that damn disease back, aiming to live long enough for his daughter to finish high school and he put himself through hell trying. Damn cancer.
posted by leslies at 6:19 PM on June 1, 2014

I didn't know much about him, but when he was on the SF Squeecast I have to admit I fell in love a little. This is one of my favorite Squeecasts of all time, not the least for Mr. Lake's description of a post-apocalyptic horror movie about a psychic, sentient tire named Rubber, and his Bear joke.

.
posted by Deoridhe at 6:39 PM on June 1, 2014

.
posted by offalark at 7:36 PM on June 1, 2014

.
posted by Dr. Twist at 8:41 PM on June 1, 2014

.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:55 PM on June 1, 2014

.

I remember reading and liking at least one Lake story that appeared in the "Year's Best Science Fiction" collections. How sad.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 10:48 PM on June 1, 2014

.
posted by gingerest at 11:51 PM on June 1, 2014

.
posted by volk at 11:54 PM on June 1, 2014

I really enjoyed one of his novels and a bunch of short stories.
Fuck cancer.
posted by doctornemo at 5:22 AM on June 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

Whell phooey...

Now we won't have a follow up from METAtropolis and METAtropolis:Cascadia...

Lake's short stories in those were good.

Tygre Tygre, burning bright....
posted by Hasteur at 6:51 AM on June 2, 2014

.
posted by seyirci at 7:08 AM on June 2, 2014

Hasteur:

"Now we won't have a follow up from METAtropolis and METAtropolis:Cascadia..."

Actually, there's METAtropolis: Green Space.
posted by jscalzi at 7:10 AM on June 2, 2014

jscalzi:

WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME OF THIS?!?

Also, any chance of getting more of Benjamin Washington's story? I liked it best from that story line (though Alessandro Juliani did have something with impressing it on me)
posted by Hasteur at 7:17 AM on June 2, 2014

.
posted by aught at 8:09 AM on June 2, 2014