Fast Forward 1

Pyr Arrives on the Kindle

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That’s right. After what for me has been an interminably long period of “hurry up and wait,” I woke up this morning to discover that our very first Pyr Kindle books have miraculously appeared. Five titles are available for download in the Kindle store. Oddly, it contains a second book in a series and a third book in a series, but I think these are just the first few to appear. There are a lot more coming in back of this, and the conversion process is on Amazon’s end, so I expect we’ll see more pop up in the near future as they get to them (and I’ll report here as I see them.) Meanwhile, many will be happy to learn that the often-requested Infoquake is in this first list of offerings.

The books:

Silver Screen

Starship: Pirate

Going Under (Quantum Gravity, Book 3)

Infoquake (Volume I of the Jump 225 trilogy)

Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge

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Fast Forward 2: "True Names" Podcast

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I’m very happy to announce that my anthology Fast Forward 2 is set for an October 2008 publication date. I delivered the manuscript to my production manager just a few weeks ago. I think it’s even stronger than Fast Forward 1, which is saying something since FF1 saw seven stories reprinted nine times in four “Year’s Best” anthologies!

One of the highlights of the second volume will undoubtedly be a 32,000 word collaboration between Benjamin Rosenbaum and Cory Doctorow. “True Names” is a tale of galactic wars between vast, post-Singularity intelligences that are competing to corner the universe’s supply of computation before the heat-death of the universe. The title is, of course, a homage to Vernor Vinge’s famous story of the same name. Writing on his blog, Rosenbaum says that “This story came out of a conversation at the Hugo Loser’s party at Worldcon 2002 — the part about ‘the second law of thermodynamics as the ultimate party-spoiler in a transhuman utopia of self-spawning consciousness’; it acquired shades of Jane Austen, Voltaire, megamillion year ideological warfare, gender theory, coming-of-age story, and musical theater along the way.”

For those wanting a preview, Rosenbaum and Doctorow have begun podcasting “True Names” here on Cory’s site. Now here’s a peak at the rest of the TOC:

Introduction: The Age of Accelerating Returns – Lou Anders
Catherine Drewe – Paul Cornell
Cyto Couture – Kay Kenyon
The Sun Also Explodes – Chris Nakashima-Brown
The Kindness of Strangers – Nancy Kress
Alone With An Inconvenient Companion – Jack Skillingstead
True Names – Cory Doctorow & Benjamin Rosenbaum
Molly’s Kids – Jack McDevitt
Adventure – Paul McAuley
Not Quite Alone in the Dream Quarter – Mike Resnick & Pat Cadigan
An Eligible Boy – Ian McDonald
SeniorSource – Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Migration – Karl Schroeder and Tobias S. Buckell
Long Eyes – Jeff Carlson
The Gambler – Paolo Bacigalupi

Excited?

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"Pride" Makes Nebula Awards Shortlist

A very big congratulations to Mary A. Turzilo, whose story “Pride” from Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge,makes the Nebula Awards Shortlist for best short story. You can read “Pride” online as a PDF too. Here’s the full category:

  • “Unique Chicken Goes In Reverse”, Andy Duncan, (Eclipse 1: New Science Fiction And Fantasy, Jonathan Strahan, Ed., Night Shade Books, Oct07)
  • “Titanium Mike Saves the Day”, David D Levine, (F&SF, Apr07)
  • “Captive Girl”, Jennifer Pelland, (Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly, WS & LWE, Ed., Oct06 (Fall06 issue — #2))
  • “Always”, Karen Joy Fowler, (Asimov’s, May07 (Apr/May07 issue))
  • “Pride”, Mary Turzillo, (Fast Forward 1, Pyr, February 2007)
  • “The Story of Love”, Vera Nazarian, (Salt of the Air, Prime Books, Sep06)

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Locus Online: Best of 2007

Jeff Vandermeer has posted his 2007: The Best of the Year list over on LocusOnline. I’m thrilled to see a few Pyr mentions.

From the Best Novels list:

“On the science fiction side, Ian McDonald reaffirmed his excellence with Brasyl,which contains three separate narrative strands describing the Brazil of past, present, and future. The novel is a tour de force of storytelling momentum, with a level of invention that represents a master at the top of his form. McDonald is an amazing stylist, yes, but here it’s all about motion. He does a wonderful job of including his trademark detailed and inventive description while making sure nothing in this complex, often beautiful novel is static.”

and

“Kay Kenyon’s Bright of the Sky,after a slow first seventy pages, knocked my socks off with its brilliant evocation of a quest through a parallel universe that has a strange river running through it. Unique in conception, like Larry Niven’s Ringworld, this is the beginning to what should be an amazing SF-Fantasy series.”

From the Best Anthologies list:

” Another first volume of a new original series, the Lou Anders-edited Fast Forward 1 featured thought-provoking speculative takes on making sense of our (post)modern world by, among others, Ken MacLeod, Gene Wolfe, and Nancy Kress. Consistently interesting, this SF anthology fills a gap, as most of the current spate of anthologies seems skewed toward the fantasy side of things.”

And from Notable Reprints:

“…The Blade Itselfby Joe Abercrombie, a rough-and-tumble, bold new voice in the heroic fantasy ranks.”

All good to read!

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Williams, Avery, McDonald, Oh My!

Sean Williams is interviewed on the wonderful Adventures in SciFi Publishing podcast, available via iTunes and as a direct download. (Also interviewed, best-selling author Kevin J. Anderson.)

Meanwhile, The Book Swede takes us all the way back to our first season with a review of Fiona Avery’s historical fantasy, The Crown Rose.Says the Swede, “This is a good read. It combines classic French history, with an even older story, with generally good, intriguing and likeable characterisations, and a very well imagined 13th century Paris. It does indeed has a certain YA feel to it, but certainly less than the cover would seem to indicate, and is quite a fun feel-good read, but with enough battles, etc to keep my interest! 8.5/10.”

And Gardner Dozois has posted the contents of his forthcoming The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Edition. I’m thrilled that “Sanjeev and Robotwallah” by Ian McDonald has made the list, as it appeared originally in my own Fast Forward 1.Here’s the full list at SFScope.

Finally, we’ve uploaded a few more book pages from our 2008 season. Click “Forthcoming” on the left to see if you are on the Pyr site, and if you are viewing this through a feed click here.

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SFFWorld Review of the Year

The guys at SFFWorld have put up their annual Review of the Year in two parts. They run through their opinions on the best fantasy books, best SF books, best films and tv shows, best comics and games. Very glad to see both Joe Abercrombie (The Blade Itself /Before They Are Hanged)and Ian McDonald (Brasyl)getting heavy mentions, as well as Kay Kenyon (Bright of the Sky) and my own Fast Forward 1anthology. Thanks guys!

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Fast Forward Makes Year’s Best

I’m very proud to announce that Ken MacLeod’s wonderful short story, “Jesus Christ, Reanimator,” which originally appeared in our anthology, Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge,has been selected for inclusion in the forthcoming The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 2, edited by Jonathan Strahan. The collection will be in stores March 2008, from Night Shade.

Meanwhile, I’m excited to say I’ve already accepted wonderful stories from Nancy Kress, Jack Skillingstead and Paul McAuley for Fast Forward 2, with more coming in soon. John Picacio returns as illustrator for the next cover as well.

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Something Old, Something New

The Not Free SF Reader chimes in with some thoughts on my anthology, Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge.They “definitely” recommend the book, and say “The stories are good, the average rating being 3.53, which is a bit over what you hope for from a book, and is rather well done in a new original project as opposed to some sort of reprint… it is a book that is well worth looking at.”

Meanwhile, Michael Swanwick reprints an essay he originally ran in the NYRSF called “A Nettlesome Term That Has Outlived its Welcome.” The essay is about the way the term “fix-up”, originally created to mean a novel assembled out of previously published material and which covers some of the greatest works in the field (as in Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, for example) is now perhaps a derogatory term that does more harm than good. Along the way, he discusses Jack Dann’s marvelous The Man Who Melted,a novel which “didn’t make it big, the way later Dann novels such as The Memory Cathedral and The Silent would. It was much too intensely personal for that. But it’s one of those neglected books that nevertheless contain a great deal to interest the intelligent reader.”

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Hey, I Can Write Too! Concatenation on Fast Forward 1

Here’s a review of my anthology Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edgeon The Science Fact & Science Fiction Concatenation that doesn’t talk about any of the stories. Instead, the reviewer Tony Chester says, “I hope you will forgive me for not going into the story contributions in great detail, partly because it would be a pain to come up with one or two line comments on 23 stories… but mainly because the ‘hook’ for me of this particular anthology is actually the introduction by Anders.”

Tony then spends the bulk of his “review” talking about why science fiction is important and illustrating how to communicate this to the uninitiated with a personal example. I got to say, the point of the book is the fiction, so I’m glad there are plenty of reviews that concentrate on that (or even mention it), but, as an anthologist who puts a lot of work into my introductions and then wonders “Does anybody even read this?” the once-in-a-blue-moon review that favorably calls out the intro is much appreciated.

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