Interview

Matrix Magazine on the Clarke Award

With the Arthur C. Clarke Award winner to be announced later this week, Matrix Magazine has a chat with the shortlisted authors, including Gradisil author Adam Roberts, who says, “Gradisil felt to me like a book that was doing more of the things I’m interested in doing, art-wise, that any previous novel I’ve written.”

The article contains some interesting thoughts on the value and purpose of awards, including this bit of wisdom from M. John Harrison: “As an assessment of fiction, they offer an alternative to market forces… They’re often an index of what we feel fiction could be, rather than what it is… Well thought-out, well-given awards are about change.”

The shortlisted novels for the 2007 Arthur C. Clarke Award are:

End of the World Blues: Jon Courtenay Grimwood – Gollancz
Nova Swing: M. John Harrison – Gollancz
Oh Pure and Radiant Heart: Lydia Millet – William Heinemann
Hav: Jan Morris – Faber & Faber
Gradisil: Adam Roberts – Gollancz
Streaking: Brian Stableford – P.S. Publishing

Winners will be announced May 2nd at Sci-Fi London, the 6th annual international festival of science fiction and fantastic film.

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Action Epics Depend on Character

Kay Kenyon is interviewed on the website Infinity Plus about her new novel, Bright of the Sky, the first book in The Entire and the Rose quartet. In the interview, conducted by Karen D. Fishler, Kay talks about the challenges of writing big epic fiction, as well as the connective tissue that holds it all together:

“Reviewers have been calling the world-building in this book things like ‘unique,’ and ‘groundbreaking.’ I’m glad it’s making an impact, but the story’s heart is really Titus Quinn and his odyssey to reclaim his family. Family is a complicated thing for Quinn. His is shaped not only by love and loyalty but betrayal and transience. So the internal through line is whether he finds love and whether, amid the large scale forces, it still matters. The external one is which world will dominate and at what cost.”

Infinity Plus has also put up a text extract from the novel, online here.

Meanwhile, Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist celebrates their 100th review with a stellar report on Joel Shepherd’s Breakaway: A Cassandra Kresnov Novel. As Patrick says:

“As was the case with its predecessor, Breakaway is a character-driven book. Shepherd deserves kudos for the manner with which he continues to portray her [Cassandra’s] moral awakening. The supporting cast is also a lot stronger in this sequel, promising a lot of things to come in the last volume of the trilogy. At times a political thriller and at times an action-packed scifi yarn, Breakaway makes for a very satisfying read…. The Pyr logo continues to be associated with quality reads.”

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The Universe is Expanding Already

So, Publishers Weekly has done their annual cover story on science fiction and fantasy. “Is the Universe Expanding or Contracting” by Bethanne Kelly Patrick and Michael Coffey proclaims that “Today’s bestselling science fiction is outside the genre—Atwood, Niffenegger, Crichton” and then asks editors from a variety of SFF houses for a “hot” current title to plug. (Can you guess ours?)

I haven’t seen the print issue yet, though a friend alerted me to the fact that my name may be mispelled there, so I’m curious to confirm that. Also, don’t get me wrong – I am very grateful to be included in their roundup for the third year in a row (previous two here and here), but I generated enough material for this interview that once I confirm that the little bit that’s online is all they took in print as well, I may come back here with an outtakes blog post!

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Adam Roberts Interviewd on SFRevu

Gradisil author Adam Roberts is interviewed on SFRevu. Adam is a great interview – in fact, he first came to my attention some years ago when he was being interviewed about his novel, On. I was impressed enough with his thoughts that I knew I wanted to work with him and invited him into my anthology, Live Without a Net. We’ve worked together several times since then, including in the anthology FutureShocks. I consider Adam to be one of the most stunningly smart people I know. Please go read the whole interview, but here’s a taste:

People love SF and Fantasy—on screen. And I think this has changed the logic of the genre. The most culturally ubiquitous SF has been visual SF, and almost always worked through by a ‘visual spectacularism’ predicated upon special effects, the creation of visually impressive alternate worlds, the realisation of events and beings liable to amaze. In part because of this, I think, SF has become less centrally a ‘literature of ideas’ and become much more to do with images: I’m talking about both conventional poetic or literary images, but more strikingly potent visual imagery that penetrates culture more generally. It is in the nature of images that they cannot be parsed, explicated and rationalised in the way ‘ideas’ can. Accordingly there is something oblique about the workings of the best SF of the later century; something allusive and affective that can be difficult exactly to pin down. My favourite SF films are not necessarily the most mind-expanding, but they are the most beautiful: 2001.

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Adam Roberts Up on a Wire

Adam Roberts talks to John Joseph Adams of Sci Fi Wire about his Arthur C. Clarke Award nominated novel, Gradisil, described by The Times as being “reminiscent of the best of Robert Heinlein.” As Adam says:

“When I set down to write Gradisil, I wanted to write something hard SF, something near-ish future, something Robert Heinlein or Stephen Baxter-like. As with all my novels, I think it’s fair to say that something weird and dislocating happens to these great authors when I force them into the woodchipper of my own imagination, but there’s something tech-SF-y and war-story about this particular novel.”

Gradisil is out in March, but you can read the first four chapters online now. I certainly recommend that you do, especially if you’ve never read Adam before, because, as SFX said recently, “Roberts belongs in the front rank of hard SF writers.”

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Dann the Man

Kilian Melloy reviews Jack Dann’s The Man Who Melted for the Edge, Boston. Speaking about the novel, Kilian says: “Dann has packed so many surprises into his novel that by the end, the reader feels whole new colors on the spectrum of motive and emotion have been revealed…. This complex, mutli-layered novel engages you twice: first, searingly, as you read it and then, later and more profoundly, as you replay its subtle warnings and prognostications. …Dann’s novel requires that you look, then look again, to appreciate everything he’s put into its creation.”

Meanwhile, be sure to check out this interview with Jack Dann which Kilian conducted as well. In Jack Dann’s words, ” In The Man Who Melted, I was investigating in depth the very nature of amnesia. I must admit that this was a delving into self, as I’ve had my own experience with amnesia, with its effects, and so this novel was my way of working out some of my deepest feelings and fears.”

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Mike Resnick Interview & Concatenation Reviews

Mike Resnick is interviewed by John Joseph Adams over on Sci Fi Wire. They talk about the Starship series – Mutiny, Pirate and the upcoming Mercenary and the commander in charge of the Starship Teddy R. throughout the series, Wilson Cole – “He is living proof that even in the military, brains will triumph over brawn just about every time. ” Mike also discusses his other projects, including his new role as executive editor of Jim Baen’s Universe.

Meanwhile, a handful of new Pyr reviews popped up on the Science Fact & Science Fiction Concatenation site.

Susan Griffiths says of Chris Roberson’s Paragaea: A Planetary Romance:

“I found the storytelling effective enough to conjure up images in my mind as well as inspiring interest in the characters and the world they inhabit. I found it a shame to get to the end of the book as I could have gladly read more – and it was perfect to lose myself in as I sat on a train that was delayed for several hours to the point when I lost track of time. So, on that note, I would recommend it as an enjoyable, well written and an engaging fantasy adventure with a consistently developing story.”

Whereas Tony Chester really likes George Zebrowski’s Macrolife: A Mobile Utopia:

“…an SF classic and a book which contains all the sense of wonder that truly good SF could wish for… Bearing in mind that this is an old novel and, therefore, one which was heavily influenced by the science of its day, it has to be said that it has held up remarkably well over time and does not seem implausible even now, even given current cosmology… Macrolife ticks all the right boxes, and it is probably its very unfussiness that has contributed to its longevity. …good is good and quality tells, and I’m damn sure there’s many a current writer of SF who would give their right arms to write a book that will survive as long as this one. Needless to say, recommended to all.”

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Fast Forward Fast Approaching

The website the Eternal Night has just posted an interview with Yours Truly, where we talk about science fiction and its writers, the future, music and the impetus behind the soon-to-be-released anthology, Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge. Along with the interivew, they have also posted the introduction I wrote for the anthology, “Welcome to the Future,” where readers of this blog won’t be surprised to find me proselytising the cause of SF yet again.

Meanwhile, in addition to the aforementioned Publishers Weekly review (“Outstanding!”), several more reviews have come in:

“Lou Anders has a very ambitious goal – to start a new anthology series in the tradition of past landmarks like Damon Knight’s Orbit and Frederik Pohl’s Star SF. I have not read those series, but it’s safe to say that Anders is on the right track with Fast Forward 1…Short stories are always difficult for me to review, and collections even more so. Certain stories always exceed those around them, and others can be total failures. Anders has done well to avoid the failures, though some are as forgettable as the page number. Of course others still keep me awake at night. Fast Forward 1 is better than most – 7.5/10.”
“….a great anthology, filled with numerous and diverse stories and is bound to please any fan of science fiction.”
“All the entries are strong with the best being those concentrating on everyday people dealing with commonplace technology like Paul Di Filippo’s ‘Wikiworld’ and Justina Robson’ ‘The Girl Hero’s Mirror Says He’s Not the One’ (in Mappa Mundi world) and those bringing the past into the future such as Tony Ballantyne’s ‘Aristotle OS’ and Ken McLeod’s ‘Jesus Christ, Reanimator.’ This is a fun collection that forecasts where technology will take humans including those left behind struggling with yesterday’s artifacts.”

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Info Dragons

An audio interview with Infoquakeauthor David Louis Edelman, conducted by Evo Terra, is up on the Dragon Page, Cover to Cover #245. David talks about writing the book, the singularity and the rapture of the nerds, the increasingly technological aspect of modern living, and the complexities of his central protagonist (who is less a money-grubbing bastard, more a stand in for Western civilization, and closer to Bill Gates than Steve Jobs, apparently.) It’s one of David’s best interviews to date, too, IMHO. Check it out.

(Aside: David’s editor is also happy to learn that Book Two is almost done. That’s good news.)

Info Dragons Read More »

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