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Adventures in Resnick Reading

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Joe Sherry offers a review of Mike Resnick’s Starship: Pirate,on his blog, Adventures in Reading. He calls the novel, and by extension its predecessor Starship: Mutiny,“Easy reading and highly entertaining science fiction.” He goes on to describe Resnick’s Starship books as good books to use to introduce newbies to SF, what some call “entry level” SF. This term may seem dismissive, but it isn’t. In fact, a case can be made that entry level SF is harder to write than non-entry level SF, and the importance of entry level SF to the health and future of the field should be obvious. (See John Scalzi’s December 2005 post “Science Fiction Outreach.”)

Or, as Joe says, “If I called the Starship novels as introductory sci-fi, please do not take that as a knock. It isn’t. It is just a statement that a reader who knows nothing about science fiction can pick up one of these books and be equally as entertained as one who has been reading the genre for years. It’s a good introduction to what sci-fi can be. It isn’t just about the Big Idea. It’s also about the fun story.”

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Not Your Average Joe

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Aidan Moher interviews Joe Abercrombie on his website, A Dribble of Ink. They talk about his debut fantasy novel, The Blade Itself,out this September from Pyr. And the lack of the obligatory fantasy world map.

“I wanted my readers to feel like they were right there with the characters – right inside their heads, if possible – part of the action rather than floating dispassionately above it. I wanted to tell a story as close-up as possible, so you can smell the sweat, and feel the pain, and understand the emotions. I want a reader to be nailed to the text, chewing their fingernails to find out what happens next, not constantly flipping back to the fly-leaf to check just how far north exactly Carleon is from Uffrith, or whatever. The characters often don’t know what’s going on – they don’t have a conveniently accurate map to hand, why should the reader?”

Meanwhile, check out Joe’s new website, and lookee here, we’ve put the first 63 pages of The Blade Itself online!

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22nd Annual Chesley Awards Final Ballot

The Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists has just released their list of the 22nd Annual Chesley Awards Nominees. ASFA members can download the Final Ballot here, and vote by August 10th.

Obviously, I’m thrilled that Stephan Martiniere’s wonderful illustration for the Pyr edition of Ian McDonald’s River of Godstops the list of the “Best Cover Illustration — Hardback Book.” Stephan is nominated again in the category of Award for Artistic Achievement.

Meanwhile, my dear friend and illustrator for all five of my own anthologies, John Picacio, is also up twice, for the amazing work he did on the cover of the Eos reissue of A Canticle for Leibowitzand for the cover of Interzone magazine’s 204th issue.

But beyond all that, I’m deeply honored to have shown up on the shortlist myself for Best Art Director. I don’t know if this is the first time someone from editorial has made the shortlist, but it’s got to be a rare occurrence if not a unique one. So I want to say upfront that while I’m very pleased and proud, what this nomination means is that people think our books look really damn good, and that is a credit to a great many people. Beyond the fabulous illustrators we’ve had the privilege to work with — Picacio, Martiniere, Caniglia, Brian W. Dow, Greg Bridges, Bob Eggleton, Jim Burns, Dave Seeley, among others — my parent company Prometheus Books has a fabulous art department, and one that is very patient to put up with me breathing over their shoulders to the degree that I do. Jaqueline Cooke, Grace M. Conti-Zilsberger, and Nicole Sommer-Lecht are all tremendous, very talented, and I am very grateful to them to work so hard and so well in the service of the Pyr line. What’s more, I owe an eternal debt of gratitude to Irene Gallo and John Picacio, who have both been very free with their time and their advice and are much wiser souls than I.

Now, here’s the full list:

Best Cover Illustration — Hardback Book
* Stephan Martiniere, “River of Gods”, by Ian McDonald, Pyr, Mar 2006
* Jon Foster, “The Demon and the City”, by Liz Williams, Night Shade Books, Aug 2006
* Donato Giancola, “The Thirteenth House”, by Sharon Shinn, Ace, Mar 2006
* Todd Lockwood, “Temeraire: In the Service of the King”, by Naomi Novik, SFBC, 2006
* James A. Owen, “Here, There Be Dragons (Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica)” by James A. Owen, Simon & Schuster, Sept 2006

Best Cover Illustration — Paperback Book
* John Picacio, “A Canticle for Leibowitz”, by Walter M. Miller, Eos, May 2006
* Daniel Dos Santos, “Moon Called”, by Patricia Briggs, Ace, Feb 2006
* Vince Natale, “Queen of Attolia”, by Megan Whalen Turner, Eos, Jan 2006

Best Cover Illustration — Magazine
* Steven Gilberts, “Dark Wisdom: the Magazine of Dark Fiction”, Winter 2006
* Renee LeCompte, “Fantasy Magazine”, Summer 2006
* John Picacio, “Interzone” #204, May/June 2006
* r.k.post, “Dragon” #336, January 2006

Best Interior Illustration
* Tony Di Terlizzi, “Care and Feeding of Sprites”, by Holly Black & Tony Di Terlizzi
* Omar Rayyan, “Cricket Magazine”
* Yvonne Gilbert, “The Ice Dragon”, by George R.R. Martin, Starscape, Oct 2006
* Justin Sweet, “Kull: Exile of Atlantis” by Robert E. Howard, Del Rey, Oct 2006
* Ruth Thompson & Lawrence Allen Williams, “The Book Angels” by Todd Jordan, Sterling 2006
* Michael Kaluta, “The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden” by Catherynne M. Valente, Spectra, Oct 2006
* James A. Owen, “Here, There Be Dragons (Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica)”, by James A. Owen, Simon & Schuster, Sept 2006

Best Color Work — Unpublished
* Jim Burns, “Dryad of the Oak”, acrylic
* Donato Giancola, “Tristan and Isolde”, oil
* Stephen Hickman, “Galadriel’s Harp”
* Michael Whelan, “Retrospection”, acrylic
* Benita Winckler, “Changing”, digital

Best Monochrome — Unpublished
* Donato Giancola, “Red Sonya”, pencil & chalk
* Stephanie Pui-Man Law, “Plum Blossoms”, ink
* Alex McVey, “Love Bites”, pencil
* Tom Fleming, “Spring”, pencil
* Joe Bellafatto, “The Great Temptation: Angel of Death”

Best Three Dimensional Art
* Laura Reynolds, “Ice Dragon”, mixed
* Gabriel Marquez, “Cthulhu V2”, porcelain
* Scott Webb, “Head over Heels”, polymert clay
* Forest Rogers, “Sea Maid’s Music”, clay and misc.
* Luke Eldridge, “Gargoyle Descending”, wire

Best Gaming Related Illustration
* Carl Critchlow “An Ill Wind Blows”
* Ralph Horsley “Thri-Keen”
* Todd Lockwood, “Dragons of Fearum”
* Richard Sardinha,”Coils of Set”
* Eva Widerman, “Seed of Undead”
* Paul & Michael Bielaczyc, “Knightly Order of Ansalom”

Best Product Illustration
* Douglas Fitch, production design for LA Opera’s,”Hansel and Gretel”
* Nathan Crowley, architectural design for the movie, “The Lake House”
* Eugenio Caballero and William Stout, production designer and conceptual designer for the movie “Pan’s Labyrinth”

Award for Artistic Achievement
* Stephan Martiniere
* John Jude Palencar
* Kinuko Y. Craft
* John Howe
* Alan Lee

Best Art Director
* Irene Gallo, Tor Books
* Matt Adelsperger, Wizards of the Coast
* Lou Anders, Pyr
* David Stevenson, Del Rey
* Jeremy Jarvis, Wizards of the Coast
* Judith Murello, Berkley Publishing Group
* Nicolas Sica, Bookspan (SFBC)
* Justin Stewart, Apex Magazine

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Brasyl: A Bizarre Kicker

“Ian McDonald is doing great work exploring cultures and countries not normally explored to the same degree by science fiction,” says Tomas L. Martin, in his review of Brasylfor the website SFCrowsnest. “The rich tapestry of the past, present and future of ‘Brasyl’ is another fine example of his work and an important book that should be widely read.”

Meanwhile, I’ve just found a new-to-me review site, Alternative Reality Web Zine, where Andrea Johnson says that McDonald is “Throwing standard American/Western European science fiction on it’s head.” She describes the novel as “part cyberpunk, part historical narrative, part bladerunner, part parallel universe epic, and part introduction to a culture most Americans know nothing about…. Sure, I’ve read parallel universe plotlines before, but Brasyl takes it to a whole new level of weirdness. McDonald’s characterization is great, the characters feel realistic, fleshed out, and for the most part, unlikeable… Enjoy their stories for what they are, don’t rush to the end for the action. The enjoyment of the journey makes the unexpected and bizarre kicker even sweeter.”

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A Whopper of World-Building

The Chicago Center for Literature and Photography has a review of David Louis Edelman’s John W. Campbell Memorial Award nominated novel, Infoquake. Though not entirely positive, the review praises Edelman for the scope of his world-building:

“… like many fantastical books, it is the universe that Edelman has created that is of equal importance as the story itself that takes place there. And indeed, this is yet something else that many sci-fi fans love about sci-fi, is the vast and consistent environment that is created for these stories to reside; it’s what makes Trekkies Trekkies, what keeps Star Wars fans endlessly arguing over what is ‘canon’ material versus ‘non-canon.’ And in this case, Edelman creates a whopper of a universe for his characters to inhabit, one filled with an entire glossary of minor figures and obscure historical events, just begging for a little fan-fiction to fill the gaps…”

Amsusingly, the review gives Infoquake a rating broken out by Story, Characters and Style, with an Overall rating of “6.8, or 9.3 for science-fiction fans.”

The review also contains a foot-note: “Oh, and speaking of complex backstories and fan-fiction projects, no review of Infoquake is complete without special mention of the absolutely astounding support website Edelman has created for it; …’astounding’ as in the amount of background information Edelman provides about the ‘Jump 225’ universe, including not only a full reprinting of the paper book’s appendices but also almost 10,000 words of backstory not found in the book at all. Imagine if JRR Tolkien had had access to a personal website while writing Lord of the Rings, where he was able to publish his background notes in real time instead of years after his death.”

And there’s a repeat of the call for fan fiction: “… just begging for some smart fan-fiction to fill in the narrative gaps. So how about it, Edelman? You claim to be a big fan of the Web 2.0; how about open-sourcing the background universe of Jump 225, and allowing others to write and publish their own stories that take place in it? We nerdy slashfic Sigh fans anxiously await your answer!”

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It’s a Small World After All: Kay Kenyon

Kay Kenyon is interviewed on the latest installment of The Small World Podcast. As host Bazooka Joe says:

We discuss her move to Wenatchee, Washington; the plot of Bright of the Sky;why she thinks the good old fashioned hero has been missing from science fiction; why the protagonasit, Titus Quinn, suffers from amnesia; the two universes of Bright of the Sky; why the denizens of The Entire refer to Earth as The Rose; why she chose to emulate ancient Mandarin culture in her book; other cultures she has incoporated into her stories; my interview with Lou Anders of Pyr books; Flash Gordon; writing the scene of Titus Quinn’s heinous crime; the challenge of developing Titus Quinn’s daughter, Sydney; themes she will be exploring in future books in the series; why she began writing fiction and science fiction; why she thinks more women are writing and enjoying science ficiton.

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Chris Roberson and Zombies

Chris Roberson talks to Sci Fi Wire about his latest book, a nautical adventure with zombies called Set the Seas on Fire,and explains how it ties directly into his two Pyr novels, Paragaea: A Planetary Romanceand Here, There & Everywhere. Which is, of course, through the person of Hieronymus Bonaventure, who also appears in Paragaea and who is of the same family line as H,T&E star Roxanne Bonaventure. As to similarities between himself and his protagonist, he says, “Both of us, I suppose, are fleeing from boredom and looking for stimulation to keep our brains working. The difference is that I don’t have to live on a boat, eating weevil-ridden biscuits and trying not to get scurvy.”

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Ain’t It Cool News: the Brilliance of Brasyl

Adam Balm is back on Ain’t It Cool News with a review of Ian McDonald’s Brasyl. He begins by quoting the old writing adage, “write what you know,” saying that McDonald does the exact opposite:

“I walk away from this book convinced that he’s lived it all. I absolutely believe that this middle-aged white Irishman is also an indian boy, a self-absorbed Latin American woman, a Jesuit priest, and a walker between the universes. There’s no other explanation.”

Then, after a bit of plot description he summarizes McDonald’s accomplishment thusly:

“…the brilliance lies in how MacDonald marries these tropes of radical Hard SF to the South American traditional themes of Latin American magical realism, melding it all together and spitting out something that feels like it’s never been done before. And on top of that, there’s probably at least two new ideas on every page that stops you cold in your tracks, where you put the book down and just stare into space. …you just end up hating this guy for being so damn clever.”

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Mike Resnick: Live on Planet Earth

One year of Mike Resnick on the road:

DragonCon (Atlanta, GA.) – August 30-September 3, 2007
ConText (Columbus, OH.) – September 28-30, 2007
WindyCon (Chicago, IL.) – November 9-11, 2007
ConFusion (Flint, MI.) – January 18-20, 2008
CoSine (Colorado Springs, CO.) – January 25-27, 2008
CapriCon (Chicago, IL.) – February 14-17, 2008
OmegaCon (Birmingham, AL.) – March 14-16, 2008
ConCarolinas (Charlotte, NC.) – May 30-June 1, 2008
Midwestcon (Cincinnati, OH.) – June 26-June 29, 2008
WorldCon (Denver, CO.) – August 6-10, 2008

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Brasyl Close to Perfect; Bright as Compelling as Tolkien

Jeff Vandermeer asks “How many different ways can the future be imagined?” in July 22nd issue of the Washington Post. Speaking of Ian McDonald’s Brasyl,he describes the novel as being, “… as close to perfect as any novel in recent memory. It works because of great characterization, but also because McDonald envisions Brazil as a dynamic, living place that is part postmodern trash pile, part trashy reality-TV-driven ethical abyss . . . and yet also somehow spiritual. …McDonald has found new myths for old places; in doing so, he has cemented his reputation as an amazing storyteller.”

Moving on to Kay Kenyon’s Bright of the Sky, Jeff writes that it is, “a splendid fantasy quest as compelling as anything by Stephen R. Donaldson, Philip José Farmer or, yes, J.R.R. Tolkien.” He has some reservations about the Earth-centered sections of the novel, but concedes that, “Once in The Bright, you can actually feel the grasses and smell the smoke from the trains and experience great wonder in the cities of this impossible yet beautiful universe.” Meanwhile, over on his blog, Ecstatic Days, Jeff comments that Bright of the Sky ” could well become a classic in the field.” Which is certainly okay by us.

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