Brasyl in USA Today
Ian McDonald finds himself part of Roundup: Science Fiction in today’s issue of USA Today (circulation 1,618, 000). Speaking of his novel Brasyl,
Nice one.
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Ian McDonald’s Brasyl: Amazon’s Best Books of the Year, 2007
Amazon has posted their Best Books of 2007 – Top 10 Editors’ Picks: Science Fiction & Fantasy list. And Ian McDonald’s Brasyl
Why, one might be forced to conclude that Brasyl is one of the best books of the year period, in and out of genre, wouldn’t one? Certainly Amazon agrees, as they wrote that “with Brasyl he has proven once again that he should be reckoned as one of the finest of all our novelists.” Whereas the Washington Post said, “Ian McDonald’s Brasyl, with its three storylines, is as close to perfect as any novel in recent memory.” Then there’s the Quill Award nomination, and, of course, Salon.com’s Recommended Summer Reading List. And, at this point, I would be remiss not to mention the sample chapters online, wouldn’t I?
A very big congratulations to Ian from everyone at Pyr/Prometheus!
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Three More Pyr Reviews
Over on Sci Fi Weekly, Lois H. Gresh reviews Joel Shepherd’s Killswitch:
“Joel Shepherd delivers an android character that’s richer in human emotions than most real humans. …the strength of the novel, which lies in the character of Cassandra Kresnov, is full of promise…Cassandra Kresnov is such a delightful character that the reader wants to see her push beyond the tropes of science-fiction androids.”
Meanwhile, SF Signal JP reviews Sean Williams’ The Hanging Mountains:
“What Williams does well is in creating an interesting fantasy setting, without the usual fantasy tropes. …Obviously a lot of thought has gone into the world of the Cataclysm and Williams does a great job bringing it to life. …Williams has created a unique and interesting setting for his Cataclysm books, stuffing it full of unexpected creatures and sympathetic characters.”
And I was very gratified to see JP add: “One thing I must praise Pyr for is the physical book itself, specifically the dust jacket. The cover art is awesome, but the entire jacket is well done. From the electric blue runes surrounding the cover art to the green toned rest of the cover, the whole thing just looks amazing. In fact, all of the books in this series so far look terrific. Couple that with a very easy to read font and layout on the inside, and these are some very impressive books.”
And finally, Greg L. Johnson of SF Site reviews Alexis Glynn Latner’s Hurricane Moon.
“In science fiction, one of the most difficult feats to accomplish is a simultaneous appeal to both the romance of the intellect and the romance of the heart. Hard SF writers are all used to invoking a sense of wonder that thrills the imagination, it’s what that particular game is all about. Fewer are able to at the same time involve the reader’s emotions in a story that evokes the character’s personal emotional attractions. …It’s very much to her credit, then, that Alexis Glynn Latner manages to pull this trick off in the very first chapter of her new novel.”
And he concludes, “It is in fact a nicely written novel, with well-drawn characters and a story that succeeds quite well in mixing a cosmic mystery with its characters personal lives. “
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Bright of the Sky: PW’s Best Books of the Year 2007
This week’s Publishers Weekly Cover Story is their Editor Picks for PW’s Best Books of the Year 2007.
According to PW, three thousand books are published daily in the U.S., and PW reviewed more than 6,000 of them in 2007, in print and online. From that astounding number, they’ve culled a best books list covering their favorites in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, comics, religion, lifestyle and children’s—150 in all. (That’s right, only 150 total books from 6,000 reviewed titles.) And in the SF/Fantasy/Horror category PW selected only seven titles, one of which, we are very pleased to say, is our very own Bright of the Sky: Book One of The Entire and the Rose!
Congratulations to Kay Kenyon from everyone at Pyr/Prometheus! We couldn’t be happier!
PW says, “Deft prose, high-stakes suspense and skilled, thorough world building lift this first in a new far-future SF series involving a mishap in interstellar space that sends a family into a parallel universe.” Remember, you can read an excerpt from Bright of the Sky here. And feel free to drop by Kay’s Journal and congratulate her here.
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More Love for Pyr’s Butt Kicking Ladies
The blog Of Science Fiction discovers that Justina Robson’s Keeping It Real
Meanwhile, over at SciFi Crowsnest, Tomas L. Martin weighs in on Joel Shepherd’s last Cassandra Kresnov novel, Killswitch
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The Blade Itself Rises to the Top
Neth Space posts their review of Joe Abercrombie’s The Blade Itself,
As have many before, Neth praises the book’s characters, saying “Abercrombie skillfully portrays them with near-perfect internal and external dialogue set at an ideal pace. These seem like real people from history rather than some over-done cliché or archetype.”
And finally, Neth concludes “…one of the most promising epic fantasies that I’ve read in years. Abercrombie had me laughing with his guile as he stops just short of spitting in the face of genre and set my heart racing through some the best written fight scenes of any genre. This one is not just for fans of epic fantasy.”
Update 10/30/07: Neth Space also posts this hysterical interview, Joe Abercrombie Answers Five Questions. Not your usual interview, mind you.
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The Metatemporal Detective: Signings and Launch Parties
Michael Moorcock will be hopping around the globe in celebration of the debut The Metatemporal Detective. First up, he’s doing a signing at Shakespeare & Company, in Paris, France, on November 5th. Then he’ll be at BookPeople in Austin, Texas, at 3pm Saturday on December 8th, where he joins cover illustrator John Picacio.
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Ecstatic About Fantasy
Author, editor and blogger Jeff Vandermeer offers a round-robin interview of four new faces in fantasy on the Amazon Editor’s Blog, Omnivoracious. In Heroic Fantasy Part I, he talks with our own Joe Abercrombie, author of The Blade Itself,
Joe says: “I try to write fantasy…with all the grit, and cruelty, and humour of real life, where good and evil are a matter of where you stand, just like in the real world.”
Update 10/26/07: Jeff informs me that Heroic Fantasy Part II is now online. Here is Joe Abercrombie on his literary influences: “Off the top of my head and trying not to get too pretentious–Charles Dickens (for weird and wonderful characters and dialogue), Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (for how people really behave under pressure), James Ellroy (for shocks and surprises in both plot and character), Philip Larkin (for fearlessness, brevity, and withering cynicism). Okay, so that was pretty pretentious, but hey, I’d stick J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Moorcock, and George RR Martin in there with ’em. That’s quite a dinner party, thinking about it. Then a lot of writers of history as well–let’s pick out Shelby Foote for his Narrative History of the Civil War. But I’m a film editor by trade, and so I tend to find a lot of inspiration in film and television as well–everything from Manga, to Westerns, to Film Noir, to Cop Shows.”
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Killswitch & The Blade Itself: Come for the Battles, Stay for the Characters
Two more great Pyr reviews in my in-box this morning.
Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist says that Joel Shepherd’s third and finale (for now) Cassandra Kresnov novel, Killswitch,
Overall, he finds the book, “A remarkable blend of political thriller and thrilling science fiction adventure… an exciting closing chapter to a terrific series. Shepherd brings the story to a satisfying ending, though the door is left open for possible sequels…Readers who relish strong female characters, complex storylines, and incredible action and battle scenes should give this trilogy a shot. Chances are they won’t be disappointed!”
Meanwhile, Fantasy & Sci-Fi Lovin’ Book Reviews weighs in on Joe Abercrombie’s debut fantasy, The Blade Itself.
And, in something that made me smile, they add, “I finally have a rival for The Name of the Wind as my favorite book of the year.”
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Sean Williams’ Reconstitué
This morning Sean Williams’ kindly shared the cover of Reconstitué with me, the French-language edition of his novel, The Resurrected Man
And because I love doing this, here is Babel Fish’s French to English description of the book:
The private detective Jonah McEwen is required for murder. Somebody kills out of the women who resemble Marylin Blaylock, his/her former colleague and amante. The last macabre discovery takes place right on the step of its door. It is the ideal suspect. The problem? Jonah has been in the coma for three years – a coma into which it does not remember to have fallen. And it there has the worse… killer in series, known under the name of Réplicateur, uses the technology of the instantaneous transfer of matter, or “D-chechmate”, for violently torturing and killing out of perfect copies of its victims, without touching with the original ones. While the legal conflicts make rage to 
determine if the elimination of a copy is assimilable to a murder, Jonah is found in the uncomfortable position to have to protest its innocence whereas its own copy is perhaps guilty. In a future where the border between the human one and the machine are done increasingly fuzzy, the reconstituted man explores the future of terrorism, of the world conspiracy and maintenance of law and order. Perfect mixture of thriller and science fiction Cyberpunk, this novel depicts the complexity of the relations between Jonah and Marylin, and their tracking of the killer before it does not strike again. It unties also the tensions which have bound Jonah to his/her father – a man, died for three years, but which could still hold the key of the mystery…”
Sounds great to me!
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