Book Spotting: Pyr End Cap at Borders
Many thanks to John Klima (whose Logorrhea: Good Words Make Good Stories
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The Sky of My Imagination
Ed Parks is a founding editor of my favorite magazine of all time, The Believer. So I was thrilled when it was announced that he’d be writing an online monthly SF column for the Los Angeles Times. In its first installment, Astral Weeks reviewed HARM by Brian W. Aldiss and Under My Roof by Nick Mamatas. Now in his second outing, Parks turns his attention to Adam Roberts’ Heinlein-esque near future novel of revenge, Gradisil.
He starts off by quoting from the very first paragraph of the book, which he describes as “as elegant as invitations come,” and concludes that, “By the paragraph’s three-word finale, you might find yourself hooked.” (I did!)
Parks finds buried references to Vladimir Nabokov and allusions to Charles Portis, while noting that Roberts, while crafting a book spiced with literary illusions and satire, nonetheless “keeps those pages turning and richly characterizes his generations-spanning dramatis personae.”
Parks has written one of those wonderful reviews that obviously demonstrates a deep appreciate for the work while providing very little in the way of quotables – my publicity director loves these – but he clearly “gets” what Roberts is doing. So rather than tell you anymore, why not go read the review for yourself.
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Adventures in SciFi LouCasting
I’m back again on the fabulous Adventures in SciFi Publishing podcast. Shaun Farrell is introducing a new feature called From the Editor’s Desk, so after the Vicki Petterssen interview, Shaun runs my opinion of free online content and related. Shaun asked me several questions, which he plans to space across several Editor’s Desk segments, so expect more of these in the coming weeks!
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One of a Kind & One for the Ages
Two Pyr reviews on the latest installment of SFSite.
First, Paul Raven contributes a very thoughtful review of Mike Resnick’s Starship: Pirate
Next, Greg L. Johnson provides a short but very enthusiastic endorsement of Kay Kenyon’s Bright of the Sky,
Greg calls Bright “a star-maker, a magnificent book that should establish its author’s reputation as among the very best in the field today. Deservedly so, because it’s that good... Bright of the Sky enchants on the scale of your first encounter with the world inside of Rama, or the immense history behind the deserts of Dune, or the unbridled audacity of Riverworld. It’s an enormous stage demanding a grand story and, so far, Kenyon is telling it with style and substance. …Bright of the Sky could very well be the book of the year. If the rest of the series measures up, it will be one for the ages.”
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Spain’s Xatafi-Cyberdark Awards
Two Pyr books, or at least foreign translations of books Pyr published in English, are nominations in Spain’s Xatafi-Cyberdark Awards. The books in question are Mike Resnick’s New Dreams for Old
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Sean Won’t Leave You Hanging
Sean Williams’ The Hanging Mountains is in from the printer! That means it should start to show up for online ordering any day now and will begin appearing in stores in about three weeks. This is the third book in Sean’s epic 
Books of the Cataclysm quartet, which SFF World previously described as:
“The story has the mythic resonance of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and American Gods, the dark fantasy/horror one might associate with something like Stephen King’s Dark Tower saga, the multiple universes/realities of Moorcock’s Eternal Champion mythos, and the strange, weird creatures one might associate with China Miéville’s Bas-lag novels. Williams imagined world is equal part those novels which preceded his, but fortunately, there is enough newness to both the approach and vision to make this the work of a singular vision….”
What’s more, I’m also very pleased to announce that The Hanging Mountains has been designated as a Book Sense Notable for July!!!!!
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The Music of Pyr
Jeff Vandermeer takes an unusual tack for a literary blog in his first Amazon Bookstore Book Blog about Pyr’s books: music!
Jeff talks about the suggested soundtrack Ian McDonald supplies for his latest novel, Brasyl,
To round it off, Jeff asked me who would score a soundtrack for the entire Pyr line if such a thing were possible. My answer got truncated, so with Jeff’s kind permission and tongue firmly in cheek, I’ll run the whole thing here:
From the get go, I’ve wanted Pyr to have both a respect for speculative fiction’s illustrious history and an eye on the future.
I’ve maintained that you can have mild blowing concepts and good characters in the same book, action/adventure with sensawunder, literary sensibilities with mass appeal – that commercially-viable action set pieces did not preclude asking the big questions or aiming for the stars. One can have their cake and eat it too.
I’ve mixed old masters like Moorcock, Resnick and Silverberg with new voices like Edelman, Robson and Williams.
And we’ve published everything from epic fantasy to space opera to literary soft-science SF to urban fantasy to new weird to wacky sci-fantasy with elves on motorbikes.
I’ve tried to publish a diverse line where the only thru line is quality.
Obviously, the Pyr soundtrack can only be scored by one musician.
A man who can be as deep and mysterious as 2001 and as relevant and dangerous as 1984, or as surface and pop as fashion and dance, sound and music.
He writes about sex and drugs and gender issues, and spacemen and aliens and technological innovation slash alienation.
He has been there first in glam, soul, new age, fusion and a dozen other muscial genres.
He never does the same thing twice and he never runs out of imagination and he never gets tired.
He puts out fire with gasoline.
He is the Man Who Fell to Earth, the Man Who Sold the World, the Laughing Gnome, the Goblin King.
Obviously, only David Bowie could possibly score Pyr.
It’s a Small World After All
The wonderful Small World Podcast, which features “interviews with people from all walks of life from all over the planet,” has just uploaded an interview with yours truly. We cover a host of subjects, including:
- how Pyr began and how Pyr is different from other science fiction/fantasy imprints;
- Pyr books like Keeping It Real, Crossover, Brasil, and Fast Forward 1
- publishers that have a following;
- where the name Pyr came from;
- the artwork that appears on the covers of Pyr books;
- the emerging themes in science fiction in the 21st century;
- how the SciFi channel almost missed the boat with Doctor Who;
- the escapsim/literature debate;
- and the subversive nature of science fiction, including how Star Trek addressed racism
You can follow the link above or download an mp3 directly here.
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The Future of Short-Form Science Fiction
Ryun Patterson has just posted his thoughts on my own Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge
“…so good that I suggest Pyr wait a year and republish it with the title BEST SCIENCE FICTION OF 2007. This is an important book that can move science fiction one step closer to the “literature” shelf, if it so desires…Anders has coaxed such incredible goodness out of these writers that if you only read one or two stories a month, it’s better than a year’s subscription to most of the genre magazines out there…With a deep bench of talent and a perfectly paced setlist, Lou Anders has made made a book that truly represents its own theme. Fast Forward has the potential to be the future of short-form science fiction.”
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Vater Ganges
The May edition of German site Phantastik-Couch.de has a review of Ian McDonald’s River of Gods
Frank helpfully sent along his English-language summation:
“This book asks for a lot of reading stamina but ultimately rewards everyone who has it. After the quite demanding first third, the story’s fractal mosaic forms a breathtaking picture you don’t forget. McDonald’s frequent jumps from character to character, from strand to strand become a clear pattern and a look through a kaleidoscope of curry and computers.”
Which was very nice of him. Because, while Babel Fish is amazing, and I was able to follow it’s translation and get the gist, you still get gems like this:
“After this conceptionally demanding and elaborierten Parforceritt by the Indian future – one just as in parts often turns back as forwards – begins the amazing final, which requires still more attention and concentration than the exposition. Without doubt, this book requires the whole reader, not only once, but twice. It is as complex and more fully multilayered as the country to course: To understand more recompencing for inhabitants western hemisphere at first exerting and only with difficulty, but the, if one gets involved in it.”