Keeping It Real

3 Pyr Books @ SFRevu

SFRevu has chimed in on three recent and upcoming Pyr novels.

First, my own Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge is given a glowing review from Colleen Cahill, who says that, “this collection has a bit of something for everyone. Anders has gathered a truly outstanding set of science fiction, all with images and worlds that are new, different and exciting. It is safe to say that Fast Forward 1, hopefully the first in several such books, is a worthy successor to the Knight and Pohl series and a book every science fiction fan will want in their collection.”

Next up, Todd Baker has some great things to say about Adam Robert’s out-any-day now hard SF of near-future war in space, Gradisil. Praising the “intricacies of the plot, the richness of character development, and the intriguing scientific extrapolation,” Baker comments that “it is not surprising that it has been shortlisted for the 2007 Arthur C. Clarke award for best new novel.” Also of interest to me personally is Baker’s singling out of this quote from the book, with its accusations about our very modern life:

You know for how much money the EU government sold the latest mobile netlink rights? Bandwidths were going for a billion euros, minimum. . . . Think of the gross! So you tell me–is that the best way of spending humanity’s money, webbing friends, playing games on the bus? A fraction of a single percent of that money, we could have bases on Mars in five years. Destiny–possibility–glorious, but no, we’ll keep frittering our money on games, on cosmetics, on flim-flam, and we’ll turn around in five hundred years and still be right here where we are now.

Finally, Ernest Lilley, who admits to not liking the book as much as he wanted to, still makes Keeping It Real (Quantum Gravity, Book 1) sound pretty darn good in his introduction: “Lila Black used to be a pretty girl, but that was before she had her arms and legs ripped off by an elvish interrogator and delivered back to her human world intel agency more dead than alive. So, in the best tradition of these things, they rebuit her with cyborg battle ready parts and a Mr. Fusion heart. Unfortunately for her they either took away too much or left too much intact, depending on your point of view, because her emotions are all still quite intact, just jumbled up in a ball of revenge, remorse and oh yes…love. Now back in the field to protect an elvish rock star she’s got to come to terms with who she is before she can save her charge, and of course, the world as we know it. Well, maybe not quite as we know it…”

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Sci-Fantasy Hits the Spot.

Fantasy Book Spot has posted a review of Justina Robson’s upcoming sci-fantasy, Keeping It Real (Quantum Gravity, Book 1) which they describe as being “ultra-edgy, explosively musicpunk,” adding “Robson crafts an adventure that is filled with legend, lore, love, and laughs with a steady hand. It both makes light of itself and takes things very seriously. To call the work anything but a ball of sheer originality would be an insult to pointy-eared elves everywhere.”

Their “quick take”: “An entertaining novel that junkets the reader on an adventure brimming with magical races, dangerous entities, and page-turning experiences, Keeping It Real is a blast.”

Meanwhile, SF Signal chimes in with a review of Kay Kenyon’s epic, Bright of the Sky: Book1 of The Entire and the Rose, giving it four stars and proclaiming the book is “a standout novel” and praising it’s “unique setting both physically and societally.” As they say:

MY RATING:

BOTTOM LINE: Bright Of The Sky effortlessly blends science fiction concepts and world-building with fantasy story telling to create a unique and intriguing whole.

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The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

I’m very pleased to announce that B&N.com has just picked three titles for inclusion in their Editor’s Choice Top Ten SF&F Novels of 2006 list, prompting our publicity department to issue the following press release:

For Immediate Release

January 3, 200

“The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread Story of the Year”
Several Year-End “Bests”Cap 2006 for SF&F Imprint
Including Barnes & Noble’s SF&F Book of the Year!

Amherst, NY — Barnes & Noble online today posted their Editor’s Choice lists for the best science fiction and fantasy books of 2006. Three books by Pyr, an imprint of Prometheus Books, are in this Top Ten Novels of 2006 list, including the top spot!

The Barnes & Noble Science Fiction/Fantasy Book of the Year, Editor’s Choice, is Infoquake by David Louis Edelman—a debut that ingeniously mixes business with pleasure, or as B&N puts it, “equal parts corporate thriller, technophilic cautionary tale and breathtakingly visionary science fiction adventure.”

The other two Pyr books included in this best of the year list are The Crooked Letter by Sean Williams at number four (“prepare to be blown away,” they write) and Resolution, the conclusion to John Meaney’s three-book Nulapeiron Sequence, at number six.

The UK bookseller Waterstone’s also included two Pyr titles on their list of Top Ten SF for 2006: Crossover by Joel Shepherd and Paragaea by Chris Roberson.

Publishing blog Bookgasm posted a Best 5 Sci-Fi Books of 2006 list in which three of the best five books were from Pyr. River of Godsby Ian McDonald topped their list at number one, while Infoquake by David Louis Edelman and Crossover (both first novels) tied for fifth.

According to the science fiction and fantasy reviewer for Bookgasm,

“The biggest story of the year…is Pyr’s rise to prominence as a high-quality sci-fi imprint. Pyr has managed to round up a stable of authors and titles that represents the cutting edge of sci-fi and backs it up with promotion and marketing that pretty much outdoes the other imprints out there. Bravo, Pyr. Here’s hoping for an even greater 2007.”

The imprint will certainly do its best to make 2007 even greater than 2006:

In February, Pyr will launch a new hard science fiction anthology series, Fast Forward 1, dedicated to presenting the vanguard of the genre and charting the undiscovered country that is the future. In March, Pyr will publish Keeping It Real, the first of Justina Robson’s Quantum Gravity titles that are being hailed as her “breakout” books—the most entertaining, fun, and commercial of her novels to date. Promotion for Keeping it Real includes a special music track by The No Shows (www.thenoshows.com)—the hottest rock band of 2021.

In May, it’s “Bladerunner in the tropics” with Brasyl by Ian McDonald, the writer the Washington Post said is “becoming one of the best sf novelists of our time.” McDonald moves from India (River of Gods) to past, present, and future Brazil, with all its color, passion, and shifting realities, in a novel that is part SF, part history, part mystery, and entirely enthralling.

Pyr has already begun developing a reputation for publishing “smart” science fiction. But in September 2007, Pyr gets fantastic with its first straight-up commercial epic fantasy novel: The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. This book will lead Pyr’s Fall-Winter 07-08 season and be launched at Book Expo America in June 2007.

In other 2006 year-end awards, the blog Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist called Pyr “a breath of fresh air in both the fantasy and science fiction genres” and gave the imprint the creatively named and gratefully accepted “Best Thing Since Sliced Bread Award.”

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Three More Pyr Reviews

A review by David Hebblethwaite over on SFSite.com for George Zebrowski’s Macrolife: A Mobile Utopia. David writes:

“Macrolife is a novel with ideas at the fore. … There’s a welcome complexity to the issues examined. For instance, technology is not characterized as something wholly good or bad; but, more accurately, as a potential source of both problems and solutions, depending on how it is used… Zebrowski does not shy away from looking at the downside to macrolife; and there is much debate on the rights and wrongs of interfering with planetary civilizations, with no easy answers… The Library Journal quote on the cover says that Macrolife is ‘one of the 100 best science fiction novels of all-time.’ Whilst I’m not knowledgeable enough to be the judge of that, I am sure that the book is no less relevant now than it was in 1979. Whether macrolife as depicted here will be part of humanity’s future, it is good that we should think about it — and it is good that we have such an eloquent and spirited expression of the idea as Zebrowski’s novel.”

And a review on Lesley on the Eternal Night for Alan Dean Foster’s Sagramanda compares the fictional city of the title with the reviewer’s actual experience of India:

“Having been fortunate enough to visit a number of cities across India I did wonder how the city and population of Sagramanda would compare to the real people and places I have experienced. I was pleasantly surprised. As I read I could almost smell the air of Delhi or Kohlapur and feel the heat of the sun. What did impress me was the way the author introduced subtle touches of technology into the India of tomorrow; just enough to let you know you are in the near future without destroying the overall sensation of being in the Indian subcontinent.”

Finally, Cheryl Morgan can’t resist reading Justina Robson’s Keeping it Real in time for the lamentably-final issue of the great site Emerald City:

“Black leather, motorbikes, elf rock stars who actually know what an electric guitar is for, a small nuclear reactor, and some big guns. And, because this is Justina Robson we are talking about, a heroine with a great deal of self-doubt who is just as likely to let go with the tears as with an Uzi… Yes, Keeping It Real is a thrill-a-minute adventure yarn full of sex and elves and motorbikes. But it is also a book in which dragons are well versed in quantum mechanics.”

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For Your Viewing Pleasure: Keeping It Real

For your viewing pleasure, the front cover of Justina Robson’s Keeping It Real: Quantum Gravity Book One. A tale of sex, elves and rock’n’roll, Keeping it Real has been described by SFWorld as “Justina ‘out to play’. And boy, does she have fun! So – think an enthusiastic melange of Laurell K. Hamilton’s Meredith Gentry, Tad Williams’ War of the Flowers, Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat, a touch of Marianne dePierre’s Parrish Plessis, even The Bionic Woman or Transformers, and you get an idea of how much fun this book is.”

Cover art is by the wonderful Larry Rostant, who also provided the cover for the UK edition. I loved the slick, Matrix-esque depiction of protagonist Lila Black in Larry’s original image, but asked him if we could add an element to speak to the fantasy side of this sci-fantasy as novel as well. (I think the addition of rock star Zal sets up a nice sense of tension and expectation between the two figures. What do you think?) Meanwhilek, layout/design is by Prometheus’s in-house artist Grace Zilsberger, making her Pyr debut. I love the clean, iconic layout she’s come up with and look forward to working with her on many more Pyr covers.

Keeping it Real will be published in N. America in March, 2007. More exciting KIR news soon, I promise.

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