sam

Gonzo Alternate History in Fast Forward 2

The November 2008 issue of Locus has a review of Fast Forward 2by Rich Horton. He calls it “a fine anthology – one of several in what’s shaping up to be a remarkable year for original anthologies.” But I’m even more excited by his reaction to one story in particular, as the story in question has really set me on fire. So I’m thrilled when Rich writes:

“Another politically charged piece may be the best story here – the opener, Paul Cornell’s ‘Catherine Drewe’. This is an alternate history, a bit gonzo, about an English spy charged with taking out the title woman, an Irishwoman who seems to be helping the Russians as they try to dominate Mars. I’ve failed to convey the interest in the steampunkish tech displayed, as well as the bitter political realism at the center of the story.”

And, as you may recall, “Catherine Drewe” is available in its entirety on our new Sample Chapters page. Just go there and click on the link to Fast Forward 2 in the right hand margin.
Meanwhile, I expect we’ll hear a lot more about Paul Cornell in the near future.

Gonzo Alternate History in Fast Forward 2 Read More »

Today: a Shifting Balance of Power on a Global Level

No, I’m not talking about the election (though I’m off to vote just as soon as I blog this). What I am on about – over on Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, there’s a great interview with Tom Lloyd, author of the just-released-and-kickin’-butt The Stormcaller: Book One of the Twilight Reignseries.

Tom says:

“Stormcaller is, at its heart, a story about a shifting balance of power on a global level. For various reasons, the object intended to engineer this change is a young man called Isak, who is thrown into events and expected to sink or swim. All the plans that have been building over the past years and centuries are about to bear fruit and Isak is going to find all of this being played out around him. In plot terms, each of the Seven Tribes of Man are ruled by white-eyes, divinely blessed warriors with bulging muscles and a nasty temper. Isak is raised from poverty to the post of heir-elect of one of the most powerful tribes and soon realises that this isn’t even the most dramatic or terrifying of the changes planned for his life.”

And while we’re on the subject of (ahem) changes, you can see the US version of the cover of book two, The Twilight Herald, (ahem) changed from the UK, on Amazon now. Both US covers are from the amazing Todd Lockwood, whose company I just enjoyed in Calgary this past weekend, where he was Artist Guest of Honor at the World Fantasy Convention. As nice a fellow as he is good a painter.

Today: a Shifting Balance of Power on a Global Level Read More »

Give Your Soul a Good Scrubbin’

8 Comments /

John Ottinger III, of Grasping for the Wind, on Robert Silverber’s Son of Man:

“I cannot recommend this book. That is not because it is not well-written … nor because it doesn’t dive deep into trying to understand the who and what of humankind. That fundamental question is the very thing we want from a good science fiction story. I do not recommend it simply because I have moral objections to the story’s graphic and over sexualized content. This book made me feel….dirty, as if my soul needed a good scrub. I therefore cannot recommend it to you.”

Now that’s a review!
No, Silverberg’s psychedelic odyssey of a tantric messiah certainly isn’t for everyone. But it is a masterpiece, and one of my personal favorite SF works of all time.

Give Your Soul a Good Scrubbin’ Read More »

Mind Meld: The Future of Written Science Fiction

SF Signal is back with another one of their “Mind Meld” round tables, this one on the future of written science fiction. The respondents this time around include Jeff VanderMeer, Liz Williams, Allen Steele, Mark Newton, Jay Lake, Elizabeth Bear, Paul Di Filippo, Sean Williams, Chris Roberson, Dot Lin, Alexis Glynn Latner, and Yours Truly.

I particularly liked Jeff Vandermeer’s assertion that:

“…the real challenge is writing near future SF. Stross I believe said near future sf is impossible. I respectfully say that is bullshit. To be relevant that is exactly what SF needs and how SF is falling down on the job right now. SF can do escapism just fine right now. But dealing with things head on? Not so well. SF has to get down in the nitty gritty of the horrible position we are in right now or it runs the risk of being just as irrelevant as the next medieval based fantasy trilogy. Yes it is hard to do. Who ever said writing was supposed to be easy? Show some guts.”

And I particularly liked Chris Roberson’s exact opposite reaction:

“I’d love to see more people playing what Rudy Rucker calls the ‘power chords’ of science fiction. He describes these as ‘those classic SF topes that have the visceral punch of heavy musical riffs.’ The list includes: Blaster guns, spaceships, time machines, aliens, telepathy, flying saucers, warped space, faster-than-light travel, immersive virtual realities, clones, robots, teleportation, alien-controlled pod people, endless shrinking, the shattering of planet Earth, intelligent goo, antigravity, generation starships, ecodisaster, pleasure-center zappers, alternate universes, nanomachines, mind viruses, higher dimensions, a cosmic computation that generates our reality and, of course, the attack of the giant ants. I want more of that stuff. The good stuff, the fun stuff. The mind-expanding thought-experiments and heady adventure stories.”

And I loved Jay Lake’s analogy, which explains how I can reconcile both of the above:

“Literature is like rock and roll…new movements come along, but the old ones never die. Reader tastes change, writers and publishers adapt, or they don’t. I for one hope to keep writing what I love, and keep adapting at the same time.”

Amen.

Mind Meld: The Future of Written Science Fiction Read More »

The Martian General’s Daughter: Impressive!

Science Fiction and Fact Concatenation on Theodore Judson’s The Martian General’s Daughter:

This is a very entertaining novel, both amusing and intelligent with excellent prose and endearing characters. The ‘Golden-Age’ feel is both set-up and enhanced by the lovely cover illustration by Sparth. This is a fairly short book (by modern standards) and would be easily gulped down in a single sitting but, by the same token, would also recommend itself for re-reading. Either way it is an impressive addition to Pyr’s list and, like many another title, bodes well for their future output. Recommended.

The Martian General’s Daughter: Impressive! Read More »

Cybermancy Incorporated available on Kindle

2 Comments /

It is what it says on the label. Cybermancy Incorporated, the long unavailable novel that introduced the Bonaventure and Carmody families, is now available on Amazon’s Kindle. The list price is $4.99, but at the moment Amazon is offering it for only $3.99.

Readers of my personal blog may recall that this novel was previously made available through Wowio last winter, but the online outlet ran into some money troubles, and was acquired by another outfit, and along the way I removed the title from its offerings. (If you’re at all interested in the inside-baseball of all of this, check out this article on PW’s The Beat and work your way backwards.)

Here’s what I said about Cybermancy Incorporated back in February:

Sooner or later, I’m sure, I’ll succeed in tricking some publisher into reprinting the thing, but even then, it wouldn’t be this same text. The Bonaventure-Carmody characters started out as part of the shared world of San Cibola in the Clockwork Storybook days, but as they made the transition for the webzine to the novels published by Pyr and Solaris, they got tweaked a bit, moving away from the urban fantasy environment of San Cibola and into a more science fictional world (though admittedly a pulpish one). So the version of this novel that eventually gets reprinted will be one that takes place in some other alternate universe out in the Myriad, with revisions and changes here and there. No longer set in San Cibola, but in Recondito, California, most of the plot will be the same, but there’s be some significant differences.

If you’ve got a Kindle, and have ever had any interest in checking out the book, or are curious to find out more about the Carmody and Bonaventure families featured in Here, There & Everywhere, Paragaea: A Planetary Romance, Set the Seas on Fire, and the forthcoming End of the Century, here’s your chance.

Cybermancy Incorporated available on Kindle Read More »

A Host of Pyr Reviews & a Podcast!

Okay, playing mad catch-up:

A podcast with Joe Abercrombie on the Dragon Page. Their description: “This week, Mike, Summer and Mike talk with Joe Abercrombie about Last Argument of Kings,the third book in The First Law Trilogy. We talk about the characters and the more contemporary feel of their speech, the more intimate nature of relationships and intrigues, and about how the buzz about these stories surround the writing style of the battle scenes.”

Meanwhile, Patrick Rothfus, he of The Name of the Wind,raves about Joe Abercrombie (and Brandon Sanderson) on his blog: “The books are good, really good. They pulled me in. Well-developed world. Unique, compelling characters. I like them so much that when I got to the end of the second book and found out the third book wasn’t going to be out in the US for another three months. I experienced a fit of rage, then a fit of depression, then I ate some lunch and had a bit of a lay down… I will also say this. This isn’t some cookie-cutter fantasy. It’s refreshingly realistic, but also very gritty and dark. It might even be fair to call it grim. You have been warned.” Of course, I should point out, the books are all three available in the US now…

Discover Magazine on Fast Forward 2: “It’s a great collection, with a good mix of stories ranging from hard science fiction to near magic realism. Stand outs for me included ‘True Names,’ a novella by Doctorow and Benjamin Rosenbaum set in a post-post-post-human universe, and ‘An Eligible Boy,’ written by Ian McDonald, that takes place in the mid-21st century India that McDonald has used as the backdrop for his 2004 book River of Gods.” Our friend and frequent commentator Rene also has a nice review on her blog, Little Bits of Everything: “This is a fantastic anthology that I look forward to rereading. I sincerely hope that Fast Forward becomes an annual anthology; the first two volumes are incredibly strong.”

Over at Adventures in Reading, Joe Sherry reviews Mike Resnick’s Starship: Mercenary. I was struck by a particular comparison he made – “This may be an odd comparison given the length and success of Mike Resnick’s career, but Starship: Mercenary is a fun military science fiction novel that fans of John Scalzi’s work will want to jump right into. There is a certain comparison and similarity in style.” This struck me because I read the manuscript for Mercenary within a month of The Last Colony and thought the same thing.

Also a positive review of Stalking the Vampire at Monsters & Critics: “…features offbeat humor, amusing dialog and a zany cast of characters that is sure to entertain the most jaded sci-fi fan and spark plenty of interest in an emerging series.”

And here Intercontinental Ballistic Discourse discusses a host of Mike Resnick works, including the extant Starship series: “I’ve got to say: wow! The characters are engaging, the story is fast and entertaining, and the plots are believable. My favorite form of science fiction is loosly described as military science fiction, or sci-fi that takes place around a starcraft or some form of governmental space navy and this series started off that way and branched out to something even more.”

Whew!

A Host of Pyr Reviews & a Podcast! Read More »

Secret Services

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about an idea that’s become a standard trope in fiction the last decade or two, the “clandestine government agencies that investigate the occult.” It’s an idea that resonates with me, clearly, as a quick glance over my library of books, comics, and DVDs results in dozens of examples.

A couple of weeks ago, after rereading all of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy and related comics, watching the first episodes of the new Fringe series, and enjoying the premier of Cartoon Network’s terrific new series Secret Saturdays (which isn’t quite the same thing, but close enough to push the same buttons), I decided maybe the universe was trying to send me a message. I’ve been tinkering with my own clandestine government agency of occult investigators the last few weeks, Bureau Zero (the American counterpart to the British agency MI8 that is featured in the forthcoming End of the Century), so I figured it might serve to run down the list of preiminent examples and see if I can’t identify some common characteristics.

The result is an irregular series of posts on my personal blog under the heading “Secret Services,” my blanket name for such outfits in fiction. So far I’ve worked my way through a little over a half-dozen examples, and I’ve only begun to scratch the surface. If this kind of thing interests you, come on over and check it out, won’t you?

Secret Services Read More »

Start typing and press enter to search

Scroll to Top