Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Two Hemispheres in the Bloggosphere

Now that I'm running a Pyr blog as well as my personal blog, I try to avoid cross-posting too often. I'm loosely designating Bowing to the Future as a place to discuss general topics of interest to science fiction and fantasy fans at length, and using Pyr-o-mania as a place to go into Pyr related news, debut cover art, and promote our authors and their books. But every now and then I get excited enough about some bit of news to post it to both sites, such as this review of David Louis Edelman's Infoquake that John Joseph Adam has written for Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show:

"If all novels were as chockfull of ideas as Infoquake is, then science fiction would never have to worry about a shortage of sense of wonder. The author who Edelman reminds me most of is Charles Stross, for the sheer complexity of his ideas and his thrusting of the reader into a new and daringly different, yet plausible future. If anything, Edelman is like a more accessible Stross; whereas Stross's fiction is about as dense as it can get and still be readable, Edelman's style is more inviting, and, to me, more appealing."

Now, let me say right off that Charles Stross is one of my favorite authors, and certainly one of the most important science fiction authors of the first decade of the 21st century, but, obviously, as Edelman's editor, I'm thrilled with the comparison. Edelman has also drawn comparisons to Vernor Vinge and Cory Doctorow, not shabby company to be keeping.

I'm also pretty chuffed about this, which Adams posted to his personal blog: "As someone who is both a lover of books as entertainment, and as a lover of books as physical objects, it just has to be said that Pyr puts together some of the finest-looking books on the planet--both on the inside with their lovely typesetting and on the outside with their beautiful covers. Coincidentally, they've also been publishing some of the best books period, so it's a mighty fine combination."

To give credit where credit is due, the cover for Infoquake is by David Stevenson and the interior layout by Prometheus' uber-talented Bruce Carle who does all of our layouts.

Meanwhile, if I can be forgiven for sending some love to my professional site, we've also recently posted a few things of note to the Pyr blog, including the front cover of our edition of Adam Roberts' upcoming novel Gradisil, the full jacket spread for Sean Williams' The Blood Debt, and earlier the front cover for Ian McDonald's Brasyl, and the full jacket spread for Alan Dean Foster's Sagramanda. Feel free to ooo and aaaah.

1 comment:

Lou Anders said...

I don't know how you guys do it. Meme Therapy has become one of my three favorite blogs, alongside John Scalzi's Whatever and Chris Roberson's Rambles. You three are the only ones I check every single day no matter what.

And thank you for helping me to remember that I mean to bring my digital recorder to WorldCon. I knew there was something I needed to bring!

Meanwhile, Paula Guran has a very nice positive review of INFOQUAKE forthcoming in the new FANTASY magazine. Here's a peak:

"First-time author David Louis Edelman has created an impressively detailed world that, if not completely plausible as a vision of a possible human future, is extraordinarily well-structured and consistent. Many of the elements are familiar--nanotechnology, immersive virtual environments, direct human/data interfaces--but Edelman elaborates them in unusual ways, and grounds his posthuman society in an unusually complete historical timeline, and the result is pleasingly original."