Lou Anders

Agony Column: Lou Anders <3s Sam Sykes

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Hey! HEY!

It’s 2010! A lot of lists for favorite books of the year, favorite publishers for the year, favorite Indian restaurants for the year (Punjab or G.T.F.O., yo), but a lot of people seem to be forgetting that 2010 means that it’s actually the end of a decade. And while any jerk can be an “Editor of the Year…”

Only one can be Editor of the Goddamn Decade.

Naturally, it’s pretty clear that anyone who is in close contact with me is destined for greatness and Lou Anders is no exception. What’s that you say? He had a lot of good books before me? That’s simply deranged, sir. I have spent a long time convincing myself that I’m the greatest person on earth and I’ll be damned if I let you ruin that.

But let’s move away from that for awhile. Lou has recently done a podcast for Bookotron.com in which he discusses the trends in fantasy, the near future of SF/F, eBooks and a certain Tome coming out in the near future.

Go ahead and have a listen, why don’t you?

Go ahead, I’ll wait.

…

Did you hear that?

The Second Coming of Joe Abercrombie. I didn’t even know he was dead! I hope he went peacefully and didn’t mess himself when he finally went down. What? Yes, there was a lot of other interesting stuff in that podcast, too, but COME ON, MAN.

Anyway, it’s an excellent way to ring in the New Year’s with my editor having secured such furious honors and having such great publicity is probably the best holiday present I could have gotten from him.

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Pyr Publishing!

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There’s a publishing company out there making a buzz! You may know who it is based off the fabulous authors they have come to swallow whole, like a frog swallowing mayflies, that the meager authorial mass may be added to the collective might of the industry. Fantastic authors such as Tom Lloyd, James Barclay, JOE “MUTHAFUGGIN” ABERCROMBIE.

And now…me! Yes, that’s right, it seems as though Sam “Sharkpuncher” Sykes (I gave myself that nickname because it sounded cool; also, I know the site is under construction, shut up) will be joining the stable kept by the highly praised (deserving every ounce of it) Lou Anders, Hugo-nominated editor and all-around nice guy.

What does this mean for you, the kind and gentle reader? Several things! First of all, this being as close as two authors can possibly get before the fierce undercurrent of rivalry and insecurity tears them apart, I can now officially ask Tom Lloyd for money.

More importantly, though, it means Tome of the Undergates will be available in the United States by 2010, courtesy of Pyr! I’m excited! Are you excited? I’m excited!

This now officially raises the things I have in common with Joe Abercrombie to:

Things we have in common: Pyr Publishing, Heyne Publishing, Mynx Publishing, the all-important Gollancz-Orion Publishing, a fondness for fine beers and a fierce love for all things David Bowie.

Things Joe Abercrombie does not have in common with me: A strong, creamy moral center of virtue, five inches (of height), three inches (of waistline), the ability to chew bricks for extended periods of time and biceps the size of overfed platypuses.

Things I do not have in common with Joe Abercrombie: Like, a million books sold and the respect and adoration of readers worldwide.

I hope you are as thrilled about this recent development as I am.

…especially you.

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Roberts joins Pyr-o-mania

I was chuffed to receive an invitation from Lou to join the Pyr-o-mania blog, and agreed straight away. In fact both I and my 1970s-prog alter-ego The Adam Roberts Project have signed up. Our contributions will be on the “news, updates, random opinions” side of the brief, rather than the “general information about the Pyr line” side, which we’ll probably leave to Lou: but we’ll try and keep it interesting. Although, having said that, the most interesting thing I can offer right now is this photo of me with some municipal rubbish bins in the background.

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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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It’s a Small World After All

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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 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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Fast Forward Review, Lou Anders Interview

Ernest Lilley, over on SFRevu, has just posted his interview with Yours Truly, where we talk about Pyr, Fast Forward 1, media SF, Hollywood, and a host of authors (including Ian McDonald, Kay Kenyon, Justina Robson and Joe Abercrombie). I think it came out pretty well, considering I was typing my responses until the wee hours.

So, that goes up on SFRevu this morning, and within minutes, I get word from our wonderful publicity director that Publishers Weekly has given my upcoming anthology, Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge, a Starred Review!!

They praise stories by Robert Charles Wilson, Mary A. Turzillo, Paul Di Filippo, and Ken MacLeod, and say:

“The solid, straightforward storytelling of the 19 stories and two poems that Anders (Futureshocks) gathers for this first in a projected series of all-original SF anthologies speculates on people’s efforts to “make sense of a changing world.” The contributors don’t necessarily assume that humans will find it easy or even possible to cope with all the changes around and within them-but they’ll try, which is just part of SF’s continuing dialogue about the future… All the selections in this outstanding volume prompt thoughtful speculation about what kind of tomorrow we’re heading toward and what we’ll do when we get there.”

What’s more, they’ve selected John Picacio’s wonderful cover illustration for the table of contents page. We’ve stopped the presses, literally, to get the PW quote on the cover, so the timing couldn’t be better.

Meanwhile, Fast Forward 1 debuts in February, with the following TOC:

Introduction:Welcome to the Future…Lou Anders
YFL-500…Robert Charles Wilson
The Girl Hero’s Mirror Says He’s Not the One…Justina Robson
Small Offerings…Paolo Bacigalupi
They Came From the Future…Robyn Hitchcock
Plotters and Shooters…Kage Baker
Aristotle OS…Tony Ballantyne
The Something-Dreaming Game…Elizabeth Bear
No More Stories…Stephen Baxter
Time of the Snake…A.M. Dellamonica
The Terror Bard…Larry Niven & Brenda Cooper
p dolce…Louise Marley
Jesus Christ, Reanimator…Ken MacLeod
Solomon’s Choice…Mike Resnick & Nancy Kress
Sanjeev and Robotwallah…Ian McDonald
A Smaller Government…Pamela Sargent
Pride…Mary A. Turzillo
I Caught Intelligence…Robyn Hitchcock
Settlements…George Zebrowski
The Hour of the Sheep…Gene Wolfe
Sideways from Now…John Meaney
Wikiworld…Paul Di Filippo

Not bad, yes?

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