Are You an Pixel-Stained Technopeasant?
(The snazzy IP-STD logo is courtesy of John Scalzi, who has both Photoshop and too much free time, and isn't afraid to use either.)
Update: David Moles is selling Technopeasant gear!
The official weblog of the Science Fiction Book Club in the USA and Canada. Accept no substitutes!
April 17, 2007
It's Children of Hurin Day!
Today, the first all-new J.R.R. Tolkien book in a generation, The Children of Hurin, has finally been published. The first article I've seen about it is this one in the Hartfort Courant; I'd expected more hoopla for such a major event, but maybe more is still to come.
In any case, we think it's a big deal! Here's what we at the SFBC had to say about it -- it's currently a Selection in our May Magazine:
J.R.R. Tolkien worked on three “Great Tales” his entire life, but never quite finished any of them. Fragments of these great sagas of the First Age have appeared in The Silmarillion and other books, but never as complete stories. Now, Christopher Tolkien—editor, scholar, linguist, and his father’s foremost fan—has edited together the greatest of those stories from his father’s many versions into that most unlikely of things: a new, complete J.R.R. Tolkien story.
In the early days of Middle-earth, in Beleriand long before it was drowned by the sea, the Dark Lord Morgoth cursed Húrin, a lord of men. The curse passed to his son Túrin and daughter Niënor, who would have many harrowing adventures, and fall victim to the stratagems of Glaurung, Father of Dragons.
J.R.R. Tolkien never stopped working on his tales of Middle-earth, and now, finally, we can return there with him and The Children of Húrin.
Update: The Solaris blog, When Gravity Fails, points me to this BBC story, and the official site for The Children of Hurin.
April 16, 2007
Ed Kramer Is Still Under House Arrest
Dark Echo reminds us that anthologist, con-runner, and former HWA vice-president Ed Kramer is still under house arrest after seven years, charged with aggravated child molestation but never tried (and suffering from an brain injury from an attack by a jail guard).
I'm sure there's another side to the story -- the Dark Echo article is essentially a distillation of Kramer's own writings about his case -- but, even so, seven years is a long time to wait for a trial.
April 05, 2007
Kim Harrison Tour-Blogging for Eos
March 28, 2007
Gregory Benford's Journey to the East
Centauri Dreams has a long account of Gregory Benford's recent trip through India, Singapore, and Sri Lanka, including a visit with Arthur C. Clarke.
March 26, 2007
The New York Times Practices Tolkienism
The New York Times recently had an article called "Evlish Impersonators," which was...well, it's hard to say exactly what it was, really, but it seems to have been sparked by the upcoming publication of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Children of Hurin (coming very soon to the SFBC as a Selection). The Times notes the new book, and then pokes around various events related to Tolkien, looking for meaning. But, as usual with the Times and SFF, they have no idea what they're looking at...
March 21, 2007
Winter Is Coming..and Bringing Great Deals on Swords!
George R.R. Martin announced yesterday that he has licensed the right to make official swords and other sharp, pointy things based on his series "The Song of Ice and Fire" (which began with A Game of Thrones in 1996) to a start-up company called Valyrian Steel.
The first blade to be produced will be Jon Snow's Longclaw, sometime in 2008, to be followed by many more swords, daggers, and other implements of destruction. Each will be in a limited run of 2500 pieces, with a certificate of authenticity signed by Martin and a plaque bearing the arms of the house associated with the blade.
March 19, 2007
John Scalzi Is Running for SFWA President as a Write-In Candidate
It looked like the SFWA Elections would be sleepy this year; there was only one person running in each category, so the results would be a foregone conclusion.
But John Scalzi has just thrown his hat into the ring; he's running as a write-in for President. He isn't happy with the unopposed candidates for President and Vice President, and has a long list of issues he'd like to see SFWA address.
The candidates on the ballot are:
- President: Michael Capobianco
- Vice President: Andrew Burt
- SW Regional Director: Paul Melko
- Canadian Regional Director: Chris Atack
- Secretary: Catherine Mintz
- Treasurer: Susan Linville
Ballots must be returned by April 28th, and, of course, one must be a SFWA member to vote.
Late-breaking news: Derryl Murphy is running on the Scalzi ticket as a write-in for Vice President.
Update, 3/19 @ 12:32: First of all, take it as read that a lot of SFWA Presidential stuff is going on at Whatever, OK? But I'll just update once to link to the campaign posters and Michael Capobianco's platform and the Q&A thread and the SFWA Election newsgroup.
Neal Stephenson on 300
Neal Stephenson wrote an op-ed piece for The New York Times about geekiness and the movie 300.
March 14, 2007
Cory Doctorow On E-Books Once Again
Cory Doctorow has one of his periodic essays up on Locus Online today, about e-books. He sort of inadvertently implies that reading novels will inevitably disappear, and pretty quickly, too, but I don't think he really meant that. On the other hand, I don't think opera was ever vastly more popular than it is right now, so I'm not sure where that metaphor was going in the first place.
March 05, 2007
Bruce Sterling Is Gloating
Science Fiction writer and futurist Bruce Sterling has an essay in the Washington Post about how he was right about climate change (and, aparrently, everything else), though now it's too late to do anything about it.
February 26, 2007
Two New SF Movements in One Week! It's a New Record!
This is getting out of control...
First I incited John Scalzi to write the don't-call-it-a-manifesto for The New Comprehensibility (my name, by the way, so if you hate it blame me, not John).
Now John C. Wright has gotten into the game, too, with his own manifesto for The New Space Princess Movement. (Careful readers will have already learned of Wright's feelings about space princesses, which do him only credit.)
Anyone else? It's still only Thursday; we could get a couple-three more manifestos (manifesti?) in by the weekend...
Update, 2/26: No new movements have sprouted over the weekend (yet!), but SF Signal has joined the Space Princess bandwagon (and what red-blooded male wouldn't want to be on that bandwagon?) with a poll.
Iain Banks Champions SF, Closes Festival, Sells Cars
The very busy Iain Banks (who also writes science fiction under the fiendishly clever pseudonym Iain M. Banks) recently closed the Aye Write! literary festival in Glasgow, reported The Herald.
The article is mostly about the festival, but Banks does have a couple of quotes about his writing process, and the fact that he's sold his sports cars to reduce his carbon footprint is mentioned.
Seattle Public Library Honors Octavia E. Butler
SFWA has announced a tribute to the late writer Octavia E. Butler will be held at the Seattle Public Library on March 1st. Participating by reading from Butler's work will be Nalo Hopkinson, Nisi Shawl, Timeca Briggs, Vonda N. McIntyre, and others.
February 23, 2007
John Scalzi Likes to Swim Through His Money Like a Porpoise and Throw It Up and Let It Hit Him on the Head
John Scalzi provides a very detailed look at his science-fictional earnings sources for 2006; this is fascinating to other people in the business, and probably of interest to anyone who wants to be a writer. (Disclaimer: Past performance is no guarantee of future returns. Results may not be typical. You are not John Scalzi.)
Next Stop: Rigel 7. Please Watch the Closing Doors
You can't buy Ragamuffin, Tobias Buckell's new novel (and the loose sequel to Crystal Rain) yet -- it publishes in early June. But you can see the map of the wormhole system featured in the book, which Toby just published on his blog.
February 21, 2007
Robert J. Sawyer on AI
Lifeboat Foundation (which I have a sneaking suspicion is one of those "let's promote human space exploration" outfits, just from the name) has an article by Robert J. Sawyer about artificial intelligence, illustrated by lots of pictures of media-SF robots.
February 20, 2007
Robert J. Sawyer Honored by the Toronto Public Library
Robert J. Sawyer, author of many things, including Mindscan, has just been honored with the Toronto Public Library Celebrates Reading Award.
Shelving Units Attempt to Kill Gavin Grant, Are Unsuccessful
Inanimate objects aren't always nice and cuddly: sometimes they try to kill. Just the other day, a seemingly inoffensive set of shelves at Small Beer World HQ launched themselves into Gavin Grant's workspace with malice aforethought.
This time, they were unusccessful. This time, the sinister forces of shelving were stopped. But for how long!
At Every Moment, Somewhere in the World, A Geek Is Invoking the Name of Cory Doctorow
And, for this particular moment, it was Suw Charman writing about Open Publishing in the "Strange Attractor" column of something called Corante. (I'm pretty sure I have either countertops or dinnerware made from Corante.)
February 15, 2007
Rebecca Ore Blogging for Eos
The new guest blogger at Eos is Rebecca Ore, author of the new novel Time's Child. So far, she's posted two times: As If Real and As If Real, Part Two: Notes for Time Travelers.
Kathryn Cramer Announces Selections for Year's Best SF 12
Kathryn Cramer, co-editor of the Year's Best SF series, has posted the Table of Contents for this year's edition, Year's Best SF 12, on her blog. Coincidentally, I recently made a deal with that book's publisher (Eos) to make it available in the SFBC -- look for it in our Summer club magazine.
(My particular favorites in this one: Michael Swanwick's "Tin Marsh" and "Expedition, with Recipes" by Joe Haldeman.)
Alan Campbell Does Not Suggest Living in South Lanarkshire
Alan Campbell, the author of the impressive first novel Scar Night, has been having run-ins with his local government and their debt collectors. Luckily for us, his telling of the story is far more entertaining than the experience itself must have been.
February 14, 2007
Overly Incestuous Linking and Re-Linking
I really shouldn't link to this, but I can't resist:
Neal Asher has seen the SFBC page featuring his novel Prador Moon.
(Asher's novel Brass Man is also newly available in the SFBC, for those of you hungry for good old-fashioned SF adventures.)
Robert Jordan Is Looking for the Best Fan Art
Robert Jordan (who seems to be feeling better; I certainly hope this is a good sign) has announced a contest on his blog for the fifteen best pieces of fan art -- related to his "Wheel of Time" series, of course -- to be gathered into a calendar to benefit the Mayo Clinic.
February 12, 2007
Rachel Caine Has Broken Her Arm
P.N. Elrod's blog tipped me off to the fact that fantasy writer Rachel Caine (best known for the "Weather Wardens" books) had a nasty fall outside of her workplace and broke both bones in her lower right arm.
It sounds like she's recovering fine, though she can't type for a while (or "do anything" for several weeks, says Elrod). Our best wishes go out to her, and other well-wishers can leave messages at Caine's LiveJournal.
February 09, 2007
Nick Mamatas Frees "Move Under Ground"
Nick Mamatas has released his 2004 novel Move Under Ground under a Creative Commons license, free for the dowloading.
February 07, 2007
Now Blogging for Eos: Trudi Canavan
The Eos blog has had several authors guest-blogging in the past, and it looks like Trudi Canavan will be there this week -- she started off with her thoughts about that most dreaded of questions: "where do you get your ideas?"
(And she didn't say "Schenectady.")
Update, 2/7: Canavan has another post today at Eos, on her inspirations, and I expect we'll be seeing more as the week goes on.
February 06, 2007
Scalzi's Sagan Diary Read By Many Voices
John Scalzi has announced that his new novella The Sagan Diary will be available through his blog in audio form, as read by a variety of SFnal female voices.
February 05, 2007
James Patrick Kelly Launches a StoryPod
James Patrick Kelly has started an ambitious program (via Audible) to podcast nearly his complete backlist of short fiction in four thirteen story-a-week programs. The first program started February 2nd, and is available now; the other three will follow in turn.
[via Locus Online]
January 29, 2007
Fire Destroys David Eddings's Office
While working on a car in his garage on Thursday, David Eddings accidentally set a fire which destroyed his garage and severely damaged his office, reports Nevada Appeal. From the article, it sounds as if his house was not harmed, and it's clear Eddings, his wife and co-author Leigh, and Leigh's mother were not injured by the fire.
January 11, 2007
Charity Auction for Guy Gavriel Kay's Ysabel
Penguin Canada, the local publisher of Canadian author Guy Gavriel Kay's new novel Ysabel, have announced that the first copy of their edition off the presses will be signed by the author and auctioned off on eBay.ca, with proceeds to go to the Love of Reading Fund.
That auction has already started (as I look right now, the price is up to US $178.50 after ten bids), and will end on Wednesday, January 17th.
Penguin Canada has also created a website for the book at www.ysabel.ca.
[via UK SF Book News Network]
January 03, 2007
Lee & Miller Serializing Novel For Tips
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller have announced that their novel Fledgling (set in their popular Liaden universe) will be serialized on their website, with the first chapter doing up on January 22nd, and each subsequent chapter appearing when they're received enough "tips" to pay for it.
Lawrence Watt-Evans published The Spriggan Mirror under a similar system last year, and is currently doing the same with his novel The Vondish Ambassador. Diane Duane has also published her novel The Big Meow on the web, with a slightly more complicated pricing structure.
(Are there any others that I missed? And should I be worried -- as a representative of Big New York Publishing -- that I'm going to be circumvented entirely?)
January 01, 2007
SF Writers on Canadian TV
Robert Sawyer has announced on his blog that he and Karl Schroeder have been interviewed for a three-part series on the future, part of the CBC show The Hour, which will air January 2nd, 3rd, and 4th at 11:00 local time everywhere in Canada.
This is a cool thing, even for those of us who don't get Canadian TV -- more SF authors should be considered experts on the future.
December 20, 2006
Ursula K. Le Guin on the Importance of Fantasy
Ursula K. Le Guin has a major essay in New Statesman about the history and necessity of fantasy stories.
It's been said before, and it needs to be said regularly -- and Le Guin is one of our best at saying it so that people will listen.
December 19, 2006
Tobias Buckell Surveys "First" Novels
Tobias Buckell is doing another one of his periodic "survey authors and crunch numbers" projects (he had one about first-novel advances last year), and this time he's asking novelists how many books they had written before their "first" (published) novel.
(Buckell, besides being a swell guy, an interesting blogger, and a relentlessly curious person, is also the author of the fine first novel Crystal Rain, which you should check out.)
Update: Buckell has posted the results of his survey, which indicates that most of these published novelists (150 people took the survey) wrote two or more novels before they sold one of them.
December 18, 2006
Blindsight's Powerpoint Vampires
Peter Watts has created an online PowerPoint presentation about the "vampires" (actually a reconsitituted hominid race) in his great novel Blindsight. The presentation is available for free on the web (as is, you might recall, the novel itself).
December 15, 2006
Michael Crichton Attacks a Critic
Nearly every writer has thought nasty things about critics. Many of them say those nasty things, when they meet at conventions, conferences, workshops, or wherever. But most of them rightly avoid the temptation to put those dark thoughts into cold print.
Not Michael Crichton: his new novel, Next, feaures a throwaway sub-plot about "Mick Crowley," a Washington political columnist on trial for a particularly unpleasant child rape. In the real world, Michael Crowley is an actual Washington political columnist whose personal details (aside from the vile criminal behavior of the fictional Mick) closely parallel the fictional Crowley of Next.
Crowley wrote a cover story about Crichton for The New Republic earlier this year, which apparently was not positive enough for Crichton's liking. (Crowley's story in particular took Crichton to task for the anti-global warming message of State of Fear.) Crowley has also responded to Next in a column for New Republic.
(The most factual article on the situation I've seen is from The Telegraph, but this one from TPM Muckraker is more entertaining.)
Now Blogging for Eos: James D. MacDonald and Debra Doyle
The Eos blog's guest bloggers this week have been the writing team James D. MacDonald (whom you may also know from his contributions to the Making Light blog) and Debra Doyle, to celebrate the publication of their new fantasy alternate-historical Civil War novel Land of Mist and Snow. Among the things they wrote about are:
- Where their ideas come from (MacDonald)
- Why turn the Civil War into a fantasy alternate history? (Doyle)
- and missing the sea (MacDonald)
December 12, 2006
Blindsight Goes Creative Commons
Peter Watts, in the course of complaining that his great new novel Blindsight might not get a second printing from its publisher, Tor, lets us know that he's made it available on his website for free via a Creative Commons license. (His site also has his novels Starfish and Maelstrom, and many short stories, available on the same basis.)
I also feel compelled to point out that, if you want to buy a copy of Blindsight -- with a cover and a binding and all that stuff -- and have trouble finding it at your local store, the SFBC has plenty of stock and would love to sell you one...
November 30, 2006
Philip K. Dick Is Great, Hurrah! Let's All Line Up To Yell Huzzah!
GalleyCat read all the way to the end of a long interview with Jonathan Lethem and found the kernel of news hidden there: Lethem is involved in an upcoming Library of America book which will collect four of Dick's novels from the '60s. Speculation immediately burst out as to exactly which novels those will be.
The Library of America has previously dipped its toes into our genre waters last year with H.P. Lovecraft: Tales (a welcome sign, but I personally think the book itself is fatally flawed), though they've done a number of mystery books, starting with Raymond Chandler about a decade ago.
This is great news for Dick, though the LoA still hasn't done anything with one of the 19th century's greatest writers, Ambrose Bierce (this is my personal LoA hobbyhorse). And in the history of SF, Dick is a bit of an odd choice (though he is one of the most academically respectable writers we have). The SFF writer I'd expect to see next in LoA is Ray Bradbury -- but what do the rest of you think? Who deserves canonization in exquisitely wonderful little (but fat) blue-bound hardcovers?
Update, Nov. 30 @ 8:24: The Lethem interview led to an article on the AP wire confirming the Philip K. Dick book from Library of America. The LoA page for the book is also up. (I note that this book is entitled "Four Novels of the '60s," which either means that they're still trying to distance the grubby genre stuff from "real" literature by placing it in a pop-culture context, or that there's a chance to get similar PKD books from the '50s and '70s. My money's on the first possibility, though.) The AP article also teases us with the possibility of Bradbury and Le Guin collections, and a "various SF" omnibus along the lines of Crime Novels: American Noir of the '30s and '40s
November 29, 2006
Author Seeking Stories for Vonnegut Bio
Charles Shields, author of Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee, is starting work on his next project: the first full-scale biography of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. He's looking for people to tell him "about their experiences with Vonnegut, either personally or with his novels," and he's posted his e-mail address (cjs1994 at earthlink dot com) to facilitate communication.
I don't know if his request has made it into the SF world yet, so I'm hoping some readers of this blog can help pass the word out to anyone who might have known Vonnegut when he still thought of himself as a SF writer, early in his career.
[seen at The Millions]
November 28, 2006
John Scalzi and Tor Books Giving Away The Ghost Brigades to Soldiers
John Scalzi announced on his blog last night that he and his publisher, Tor Books, will be giving away electronic copies of Scalzi's novel The Ghost Brigades to soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Full details are at the link. (If you're not a soldier serving in a war zone, you could buy the book through any number of outlets...including the SFBC, of course.)
November 23, 2006
John C. Wright's Planet is Overrun by Aliens
John C. Wright was asked what aliens he would prefer to be invaded by, and, as usual, he has a very lengthy response.
November 14, 2006
Joe Haldeman Event at MIT
It's not news that Joe Haldeman is at MIT -- he teaches there part of the year -- but it is news that he's appearing at MIT's Bartos Theater on Thursday as part of an event entitled "The Craft of Science Fiction." Henry Jenkins of MIT explains the context of the event. [via SF Signal]
November 13, 2006
Charles Stross Explains How a Book Is Made
The short version starts off "when an Author and a Publisher love each other very much..." but I'll leave it to Charlie to tell you the long, complicated version.