If I Look Fat, It's Just 'Cause Everything's Bigger in Texas

Last Friday (1/25/08) it was my privilege to be in Texas, giving a workshop entitled "Fast Forward: Science Fiction," hosted by the Central Texas Library Systems, at the Georgetown Public Library. Here's the description:

"Lou Anders, Editorial Director of Pyr Books will share his vision of the future - and his knowledge of the Science Fiction genre – with CTLS member library staff, volunteers, board and Friends. Lou will discuss the various Sci Fi sub-genres and authors who are currently popular. He’ll also recommend authors and titles to include in a beginning Science Fiction core collection."

There were about 50 people in the audience, give or take. Some enthusiastic readers, some fans of media SF, some who'd never read it before. And me, basically trying to split the middle between media SF fans and those who wouldn't touch the stuff, trying to pull both sides towards an understanding of and appreciation for the literature. So, how did it go?

Awesome! I'd been warned that due to the horrendous nature of Friday traffic in Austin, I shouldn't be offended when folks made a beeline for the door come 3pm. Instead, they mobbed the front, asking about books and titles and authors. Many explained that they read SF as children and were now inspired to read again. Several said it was the most interesting topic they'd done so far. A few said their spouses read and now they didn't think it so strange...

Here I am with Pat Tuohy, Executive Director of Central Texas Library System (CTLS, Inc.). I'm sorry I didn't get a picture with Jennifer Patterson, who hired me, but she was too busy facilitating (and very well). She made the whole trip very enjoyable.

And as you can see, lots of the staff were decked out in Spock Ears, alien antennae, etc... One "Scully" from the X-Files that I thought was a real FBI agent for a nanosecond or two. (Some post-911 homeland security thing I don't know about libraries?) And here's a shot of an appropriately dejected Marvin from Hitchhiker's Guide. Plastic aliens and ray guns on every table, and a Star Wars "space cake" that was a very unhealthy looking chemical deep blue but quite tasty. Also a flutist playing "genre music'" during the lunch of "chicken in solar sauce!!" I had a blast!

Thursday night at the San Gabriel House was wonderful - a 1908 bed and breakfast across from Southwestern University. And thanks to Chris Roberson and Allison Baker for putting me up Friday night, and for John Picacio for trekking over from San Antonio to hang with us. Thanks to all and everyone for a great time.

Metatemporal Detective: Best of 2007

Claude Lalumière has posted his SF, Fantasy, and Horror in 2007: Recommended Reading list for LocusOnline.

One of ours pops up under Collections:

"Michael Moorcock's The Metatemporal Detective(Pyr) is good pulp-fuelled fun, filled with stories that deftly pastiche many modes of popular fiction, though these tales might be somewhat arcane for readers not overly familiar with Moorcock's multiverse and his recurring cast of dimension-hopping characters and doppelgangers."

2007: The Best of the Year (Locus Online)

Jeff Vandermeer has posted his 2007: The Best of the Year list over on LocusOnline. I'm thrilled to see a these Pyr mentions.

From the Best Novels list:

"On the science fiction side, Ian McDonald reaffirmed his excellence with Brasyl,which contains three separate narrative strands describing the Brazil of past, present, and future. The novel is a tour de force of storytelling momentum, with a level of invention that represents a master at the top of his form. McDonald is an amazing stylist, yes, but here it’s all about motion. He does a wonderful job of including his trademark detailed and inventive description while making sure nothing in this complex, often beautiful novel is static."

and

"Kay Kenyon's Bright of the Sky,after a slow first seventy pages, knocked my socks off with its brilliant evocation of a quest through a parallel universe that has a strange river running through it. Unique in conception, like Larry Niven's Ringworld, this is the beginning to what should be an amazing SF-Fantasy series."

From the Best Anthologies list:

" Another first volume of a new original series, the Lou Anders-edited Fast Forward 1 featured thought-provoking speculative takes on making sense of our (post)modern world by, among others, Ken MacLeod, Gene Wolfe, and Nancy Kress. Consistently interesting, this SF anthology fills a gap, as most of the current spate of anthologies seems skewed toward the fantasy side of things."

And from Notable Reprints:

"...The Blade Itselfby Joe Abercrombie, a rough-and-tumble, bold new voice in the heroic fantasy ranks."

All good to read!

I've Been Wiki'd

Wikipedia contributor Ntnon has been busy. He's already edited sites for Chris Roberson, Jess Nevins, Win Scott Eckert, John Picacio, and Michael Moorcock, as Roberson recounted earlier. Today, I was delighted to discover that he's built a whole site for yours truly. I'm enormously flattered, and a little humbled by the scope of it.

"Lou Anders is an American editor, author and journalist, primarily of science fiction/fantasy articles and short stories."

And, uh, novels. And speaking of, I just noticed someone else put up a page for The Metatemporal Detective. Thanks! And thank you Ntnon!

A BSFA nomination for Brasyl

The British Science Fiction Association has announced the nominees for the 2007 British Science Fiction Association Awards:

BEST NOVEL

• Alice in Sunderland by Bryan Talbot (Jonathan Cape)
• Black Man by Richard Morgan (Gollancz)
• Brasyl by Ian McDonald (Gollancz)
• The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod (Orbit)
• The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz)
• The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon (Fourth Estate)

BEST SHORT FICTION

• "Lighting Out" by Ken MacLeod (disLocations; NewCon Press)
• "Terminal" by Chaz Brenchley (disLocations; NewCon Press)
• "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang (F&SF, September)
• "The Gift of Joy" by Ian Whates (TQR)
• "The Sledge-Maker's Daughter" by Alastair Reynolds (Interzone #209)

BEST ARTWORK

• "Cracked World" by Andy Bigwood (cover of disLocations anthology, published by NewCon Press)
• "H P Lovecraft in Britain" by Les Edwards (cover of chapbook by Stephen Jones, published by the British Fantasy Society)
• "Lunar Flare" by Richard Marchand (cover of Interzone #211)
• "Metal Dragon Year" by Kenn Brown (cover of Interzone #212)

BSFA FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY AWARD: BEST NOVEL OF 1958

• A Case of Conscience by James Blish (first published by Ballantine)
• Have Spacesuit, Will Travel by Robert A Heinlein (first published in F&SF, August - October 1958)
• Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss (first published by Faber & Faber)
• The Big Time by Fritz Leiber (first published in Galaxy, March/April 1958)
• The Triumph of Time by James Blish (first published by Avon; subsequent UK title A Clash of Cymbals)
• Who? by Algis Budrys (first published by Pyramid)

The Data Point of Optimism

Over on Wired.com, I was delighted to see Clive Thompson on Why Sci-Fi Is the Last Bastion of Philosophical Writing. Perhaps guilty of a little hyperbole, Clive nonetheless warms the cockles of my heart when he declares that, "If you want to read books that tackle profound philosophical questions, then the best — and perhaps only — place to turn these days is sci-fi. Science fiction is the last great literature of ideas."

Clive opines that contemporary literature has "dropped the ball," postulating that, "After I'd read my 189th novel about someone living in a city, working in a basically realistic job and having a realistic relationship and a realistically fraught family, I ... started to feel like I'd been reading the same book over and over again."

Clive then asks why SF don't get no respect, and concludes that it's because of our high pain threshold for bad prose and outdated portrayals of women. He sees hope in the mainstream persons of Roth, McCarthy, Chabon and others who are taking up the SF paints.

But while I love to see the above roster of writers turning to our tools, I think we have our own prose stylists who can compete, and always have. Certainly I'd put the best of Sturgeon or Delaney up against anything today, and as for today, Ian McDonald can certainly hold his own alongside literary novels. In fact, not five minutes ago, I finished reading Paolo Bacigalupi's contribution to Fast Forward 2, a wonderful 10,000 word novelette called "The Gambler" which is going to blow you all away in October. He blogs about its genesis here. In the meantime, I'd love to know what Clive Thompson would make of either McDonald's Brasylor Bacigalupi's rapidly approaching collection, Pump Six and Other Stories. And Clive, if you find this on the Google Alert or the trackback, I'll gladly send you Fast Forward 1 now and 2 when it's out.

SciFiNow: Best of 2007

Just got the news that SciFiNow magazine, one of Britain's premiere sf media mags, has released their Best Books of 2007. And among the list, Ian McDonald's Brasyl,and Michael Moorcock's The Metatemporal Detective.

Here's the full list:

1) Halting State (Stross) - ORBIT
2) Stealing Light (Gibson) – TOR UK
3) Brasyl (McDonald) – PYR/GOLLANCZ
4) The Metatemporal Detective (Moorcock) - PYR
5) Helix (Brown) - SOLARIS

Congratulations to Ian and Mike! We're very proud.

SFSite's Best of 2007

Greg L. Johnson of SFSite has posted his Best of 2007 list, a list of "the ten science fiction and fantasy books that I liked the most in 2007." And wouldn't you know it, Pyr takes the # 2 and # 1 spot.

Greg's #2 choice for 2007 is Ian McDonald's Brasyl,of which he says, "With wit and stunning imagery, Ian McDonald takes us to a near-future, and a distant past, that is as strange as any alien world. ...a story that masterfully blends history, character, Portuguese street slang and cosmological speculation, meeting both the requirements of hard SF and literary style along the way."

And coming in at #1, Kay Kenyon's Bright of the Sky,which "lies somewhere between Gene Wolfe's The Book of the Sun and Karl Schroeder's Ventus, and was, for me, the one book of the year that, once I started reading, was impossible to put down."

Congratulations to both Ian and Kay!

io9.com and Borderlands Books

If I was on the fence about Gawker's new io9.com blog, this piece on Borderlands Books has put me over the edge. This kind of support for /shout out to independent booksellers is fantastic. And Borderlands is the perfect store to kick it off. When I lived in San Francisco, I made a point of going weekly, and really miss the readings there.

But I wasn't really on the fence, after reading this from editor Annalee Newitz: “We don’t see it as a niche entertainment site. We see it as a pop culture site. So much of our mainstream culture is now talked about and thought about in science-fictional terms. I think that’s why people like William Gibson and Brian Aldiss are saying there’s no more science fiction because we are now living in the future. The present is thinking of itself in science-fictional terms. You get things like George Bush taking stem cell policy from reading parts of Brave New World. That’s part of what we are playing with. We are living in world that now thinks of itself in terms of sci-fi and in terms of the future.”

Stargate, the People and Me

So, congratulations to Joseph Mallozzi, as Stargate: Atlantis has just won The People's Choice Award.

And thank you to Joseph Mallozzi's fans, as Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edgewas just chosen by his people as their choice as the SF selection in his book club. Which is very nice.

Here are the relevant bits.

Meanwhile, as readers of this blog will know, I often bemoan the discrepancies between SF literature and cinema, so I'm delighted to know that Joseph is such an avid and informed reader of science fiction and fantasy books. If everyone in Hollywood were like him, we'd have a much different industry.

Mind Meld: Today's SF Authors Define Science Fiction (Part 1)

Another great Mind Meld from SFSignal. I'm not in "Today's SF Authors Define Science Fiction (Part 1)", but you know it's a topic near and dear to me. Best answers this time out are by Matthew Jarpe, Chris Roberson, Adam Roberts, and Paul Di Filippo. By "best" I mean most useful, to me, in my subjective opinion and for my own purposes in articulating why I work in this field and not in the mystery/thriller genre or something else. Which is not to disagree with those who describe SF as a marketing category, or a nonexistent territory, or a set of fun props. Because, as John Scalzi points out, it is all those things too, and rises above them on a case by case basis solely on the skill level and intent of its practitioner.

You can probably guess how I feel about this, "There's nothing special about science fiction, just as there's nothing special about any other movement or genre out there." But I'm working on both a talk I have to give at the end of this month on this very topic, AND the introduction for Fast Forward 2, so I'll save my response/energy for those.

PKD, I Love You

I woke up to some big news this morning. Adam Roberts' Gradisilhas been short-listed for the Philip K. Dick Award. This is fantastic, and utterly deserved - I've been a big fan of Adam's long before I edited him, and I'm absolutely thrilled.

Also very happy for my friends Sean Williams and Elizabeth Bear, and my new friend Jon Armstrong. I read Grey last year and loved it. Congrats to everybody!

Here's the full press release:

2007 Philip K. Dick Award Nominees Announced

The judges of the 2007 Philip K. Dick Award and the Philadelphia SF Society are pleased to announce seven nominated works that comprise the final ballot for the award:

GREY by Jon Armstrong (Night Shade Books)
UNDERTOW by Elizabeth Bear (Bantam Spectra)
FROM THE NOTEBOOKS OF DR. BRAIN by Minister Faust (Del Rey)
NOVA SWING by M. John Harrison (Bantam Spectra)
GRADISIL by Adam Roberts (Pyr)
ALLY by Karen Traviss (Eos)
SATURN RETURNS by Sean Williams (Ace Books)

First prize and any special citations will be announced on Friday, March 21, 2008 at Norwescon 31 at the Doubletree Hotel Seattle Airport, SeaTac, Washington.

The Philip K. Dick Award is presented annually with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. The award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the award ceremony is sponsored by the NorthWest Science Fiction Society. Last year's winner was SPIN CONTROL by Chris Moriarty (Bantam Spectra) with a special citation to CARNIVAL by Elizabeth Bear
(Bantam Spectra). The 2007 judges are Steve Miller, Chris Moriarty (chair), Steven Piziks, Randy Schroeder, Ann Tonsor Zeddies.

For more information, contact the award administration:
David G. Hartwell (914) 769-5545.
Gordon Van Gelder (201) 876-2551
For more information about the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society,
http://www.psfs.org/:
Contact Gary Feldbaum (215) 563-2511
For more information about Norwescon: http://www.norwescon.org/:
Contact NorthWest SF Society: (360) 438-0871

Michael Moorcock: 50th Greatest Post-war British Author

The Times Online have just released their list of The 50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945. Quite a few genre names on the list, including Tolkien, Lewis, Pullman and Rowling, and also, coming in at number 50, our own Michael Moorcock. They say, " Most of Moorcock’s 80-plus novels are unashamedly pulp. But he wins his place for a series of genre-crossing novels linked by a taste for metafictional devices — he often appears in them himself and characters occur and recur in 'historical' and 'fantasy' guises." They discuss his major works and his influences on such notables as William Gibson, Neil Gaiman, Iain Sinclair and Peter Ackroyd.

Meanwhile, Andrew McKie reviews The Metatemporal Detectivefor the Telegraph, in a piece called "Michael Moorcock: His Own Private Multiverse." McKie opens by crediting Moorcock with bringing the term Multiverse to quantum physicists and philosophers, then describes his latest as, "tremendous fun for fans of Sherlock Holmes, or perhaps Sexton Blake, so long as they are prepared for occasional forays into the milieu of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, as well as Robert E Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian... This is all pastiche, and Moorcock's fans will not be surprised to find that it is astoundingly sure-footed....I think it, on the whole, terrific. "

Edelman on Edelman

This is hysterical for a shameless plug.

Plenty of Ideas For the Taking

So first Mark Harris writes "Is Sci-Fi Out of Ideas?" on EW.com, using the occasion of I Am Legend and its proposed sequel to lambest Hollywood for all the remakes. He writes, "It's one thing to revere and refresh a genre's history; it's another to live obsessively in the past, especially if science fiction's whole purpose is to extrapolate elements from today's world to create a future we've never imagined. When it comes to spaceships, giant monsters from afar, cloning, and robots, we've now been there, done that, remade it, added new CGI, seen the director's cut, played the videogame, read the fan fiction, and bought the collectibles. Where do we go from here? The answer always seems to be that we jump backwards, into the same old Cold War/Apollo-mission-era tropes."

I agree whole-heartedly with his diagnosis of the problem. I'm not 100% in agreement with his solution: "Perhaps science fiction needs to be saved from the very people who love it the most. Nostalgia for a form can be annihilating to creativity, so while its devotees are swamped in their own canon, trying to mine now-sacred texts for any new material, I wish a great writer or director with no particular affection for the genre would let his imagination loose and see what it yields...Ideally, sci-fi's next rescuer should be someone whose ideas about the future derive from somewhere — anywhere — other than old sci-fi. ... Sci-fi desperately needs filmmakers who are interested in bending the form toward their own passions and obsessions as artists. 2001 has come and gone, and right now the future looks too much like something we've already seen."

It's not that I disagree with this. It's that I think there's another part of the solution. Fortunately, Marc Bernardin pops up on EW's Popwatch Blog with "An Open Letter to the Sci-Fi Channel," in which he charges, "Why aren't you engaging today's premiere purveyors of genre material and giving them ten episodes to do whatever the hell they want? I'd watch contained, BBC-style series from folks like Neil Gaiman, William Gibson, John Scalzi, Cory Doctorow, Warren Ellis, Charlie Huston, Neal Stephenson, or China Mieville. The names alone would attract viewers by the truckload. And even if what they produced were failures, they'd be interesting failures—marked by reaching too far, instead of not far enough."

I hope someone is listening. Since this is on EW, I think there is a good chance someone is.

For Your Consideration: Pyr Books I Edited in 2007

Since everybody's doing it, here's my 2007 output. Or rather, here are the 17 books that Pyr released in 2007, on which I served as editor, in order of appearance.

The Man Who Melted, Jack Dann (reprint)
Fast Forward 1, Edited by Lou Anders (anthology)
Gradisil, Adam Roberts
Keeping It Real, Justina Robson
Breakaway, Joel Shepherd
Bright of the Sky, Kay Kenyon
Context, John Meaney (paperback after hardcover)
Brasyl, Ian McDonald
The Hanging Mountains, Sean Williams
Hurricane Moon, Alexis Glynn Latner
Ivory: A Legend of Past and Future, Mike Resnick (reprint)
The Blade Itself, Joe Abercrombie
River of Gods, Ian McDonald (paperback after hardcover)
The Metatemporal Detective, Micheal Moorcock
Selling Out, Justina Robson
Killswitch, Joel Shepherd
Starship: Mercenary, Mike Resnick

More on these titles on the catalog page of the Pyr website, including substantial excerpts for many of them.

Recommended: The Solaris Book of New Fantasy

I just this minute finished reading The Solaris Book of New Fantasy,edited by George Mann, and I have to say that I am very impressed. I liked 13 out of 16 stories - which is as good a number as I ever get from an anthology. What's more - I understood and applauded the reason for the inclusion of the three I wasn't wowed by. What George has done, and what makes this anthology so useful to me personally, is to take a very comprehensive, catholic view of the fantasy field. Rather than produce a book entirely composed of traditional fantasy or entirely composed of literary/slipstream fantasy, he's put out an anthology showcasing a broad range of fantasy offerings. As such, this makes the anthology a wonderful overview of the current state of the field (perhaps even a more accurate one than a Year's Best collection might present, with its understandable slant towards literary works) - and a whole lot easier for this busy editor to read than trying to sample a score of tome-sized fantasy novels would be. Looking at the TOC, I really liked 11 of the stories quite a lot, enjoyed 2 more, and, as I said, appreciated the inclusion of the three I didn't like for the education in what's out there they've afforded me. Stand out stories in my opinion are: Mark Chadbourn's "Who Slays the Gyant, Wounds the Beast," Jeff Vandermeer's "King Tales," Christopher Barzak's "In Between Dreams," Mike Resnick's "Shell Game," Jay Lake's, "A Man Falls," Scott Thomas' "Lt. Privet's Love Song," and Lucius Shepherd's "Chinandega." Yes, that's a lot of stand out stories. And the others are close behind. I liked the book that much. And I'm very glad to see it doing well, as it's made my yearly required reading list.

Picacio in 2007

Over on his blog On the Front, John Picacio posts his published 2007 works. (A lot of John's 2007 was devoted to the forthcoming Elric The Stealer of Souls,but you have to wait another month to see that. The list are just those works which appeared on books published during the 2007 calendar year.) Check out the list - it's quite impressive and quite beautiful.

Oh, and look, the Hugo Ballot is now Online.

Mind Meld: If The SF/F Community Ran Hollywood...

Another SF Signal Mind Meld post is up. This one, "If the SF/F Community Ran Hollywood..." has contributions from Chris Roberson, Paul Levinson, Angela @ SciFiChick, John C. Wright, Jayme Lynn Blaschke and Yours Truly. All comments well worth reading, but it all boils down to the fact that we'd all like Hollywood to be smarter and to put story telling above other concerns. Still, the overall vibe seems to be that there is a LOT more good out there than there was even a few years ago...

2 Years, 10 Months, and Counting...

...since we launched the Pyr science fiction & fantasy imprint in March, 2005. So as we leave 2007 and enter 2008, I thought I'd take a look back on some of the highlights thus far. This is a list I made some months back and which you've seen a shorter version of before, and which I update from time to time. Totally cool if you just want to skim this, but it blows my mind we haven't yet closed out our third year:

Ian McDonald's Brasyl:
Quill nominee, Salon.com's Summer Reading Recommendation, Starred Review in PW, Starred Review in Booklist, A grade in SciFi Weekly, B+ in Entertainment Weekly, Amazon.com "Best Books of the Year So Far: Hidden Gems," The Times Christmas choice: science fiction / fantasy, Bookgasm's 5 Best Sci-Fi Books of 2007.

• USA Today: "...the most rewarding science fiction in recent memory."
• Boing Boing: "...his finest novel to date"
• Salon.com: "...you will delight in Brasyl."
• Amazon's Bookstore Blog: "McDonald deserves to be going up against most of the world’s top fiction writers, period."
• Sci Fi Weekly: "...hot and tropical and full of music."
• Publishers Weekly: "Chaotic, heartbreaking and joyous, ... must-read"
• Locus: "...without doubt one of the major SF books of 2007."
• Washington Post: "...as close to perfect as any novel in recent memory."
  

Ian McDonald's River of Gods:
BSFA Award winner, Arthur C. Clarke nominee, Hugo nominee, starred review in Library Journal

• Washington Post: "...a major achievement from a writer who is becoming one of the best sf novelists of our time."
• Library Journal: "Highly Recommended.”
• Asimov's: "A literary masterpiece."
• San Francisco Chronicle: "...one of the best science fiction novels published in the United States this year.”
• Publishers Weekly: "...sure to be one of the more talked-about SF novels of the year."

Justina Robson's Keeping It Real (Quantum Gravity Book One)
Locus Recommended Read, Starburst Five Star Review

• Entertainment Weekly: ""For fans of Tolkien, had he gone electric, dropped acid, and discovered tantric sex."
• Ain't It Cool News: "This isn't SF for SF readers. This is SF for a generation raised on anime, manga, and MMORPGs. This is SF for the Wii gamer. "
• Monsters & Critics: "This action-packed futuristic sci-fi that will appeal to techies and fantasy fans alike."
• Library Journal: "...skillfully builds a seamless connection between sf and fantasy in this fast-paced series opener featuring a strong, action-oriented heroine and a unique world setting."
• SFX: "...a novel packed with memorable characters and ideas but that doubles as holiday-reading escapism.”

Kay Kenyon's Bright of the Sky (Book One of The Entire and the Rose):
Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year 2007, Starred Review in Publishers Weekly, A grade in SciFi Weekly

• Publishers Weekly: “Kenyon’s vision of a unique universe ranks with those of such science fiction greats as Frank Herbert and Orson Scott Card.”
• Sci Fi Weekly: ""a bravura concept bolstered by fine writing; lots of plausible, thrilling action; old-fashioned heroism; and strong emotional hooks."
• Booklist: "...a fascinating and gratifying feat of worldbuilding... a grand epic, indeed. "
• Library Journal: "Reminiscent of the groundbreaking novels of Philip K. Dick, Philip Jose Farmer, and Dan Simmons."
• Washington Post: "...as compelling as anything by Stephen R. Donaldson, Philip José Farmer or, yes, J.R.R. Tolkien."
  

David Louis Edelman's Infoquake (Volume One of the Jump 225 Trilogy):
Barnes & Noble's # 1 Editor's Choice Top 10 SF&F Novels for 2006, John W. Campbell Memorial Award Nominee for Best Novel 2006, Bookgasm's 5 Best SciFi Books of 2006

• Publishers Weekly: "Bursting with invention and panache."
• B&N Explorations: "The love child of Donald Trump and Vernor Vinge."
• SFFWorld: "This may be THE science fiction book of the year."
• Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show: "Like a more accessible Charles Stross."
• Asimov's: "A high-speed, high-spirited tale of capitalist skullduggery."

Mike Resnick's Starship: Mutiny,Starship: Pirate, and Starship: Mercenary (Starship series):
B in Sci Fi Weekly

• Publishers Weekly: "Readers craving intelligent, character-driven SF need look no further.”
• Analog: "...a fast, smooth, utterly effortless read.”
• SF Reviews: "...simply pure escapism, impossible to resist by anyone who still remembers that good old fashioned sense of wonder.”
• Sci Fi Weekly: "...good old-fashioned space adventure."
• Library Journal: "Snappy dialog, intriguing human and alien characters, and a keen sense of dramatic focus."

Joel Shepherd's Crossover, Breakaway and Killswitch (Cassandra Kresnov series):
Bookgasm's Top Five SciFi Books of 2006 and 2007, Pat's Fantasy Hotlist's Best Books of 2007 runner-up, Waterstone's Top Ten SF for 2006

• Publishers Weekly: ""Robert Ludlum meets Elizabeth Moon in this classic military SF adventure..."
• Don D'ammassa's Critical Mass: "Space opera the way it ought to be written."
• Library Journal: "... delivers a fast-paced story of intrigue and adventure set against galactic politics."
• Philadelphia Weekly Press: "Very exciting and impossible to put down."
• Bookgasm: "Action is electric and infused with the rough-edged reality of warfare, the characters are multifaceted and introspective, and the sexy quotient is once again high."

Recent Awards & Nominations for Pyr:

• 2007 Quill Award nominee: Ian McDonald, Brasyl
• 2007 Hugo Award nominee - Best Professional Editor - Long Form - Lou Anders
• 2007 Chesley Award nominee - Best Art Director - Lou Anders
  
• 2006 World Fantasy Award nominee - Special Award, Professional - Lou Anders
• 2006 John W. Campbell Award for Best Novel nominee - David Louis Edelman, Infoquake
• 2006 Independent Publisher Book Award winner - John Meaney, Paradox
• 2005 Philip K Dick Award nominee - Justina Robson, Silver Screen
• 2006 John W Campbell Best New Writer nominee - Chris Roberson
• 2005 John W Campbell Best New Writer nominee - Chris Roberson

Recommendations/Endorsements:

• Salon.com's Summer Reading Recommendation - Ian McDonald - Brasyl
• Amazon.com "Best Books of the Year So Far: Hidden Gems" - Ian McDonald - Brasyl
• The Times Christmas choice: science fiction / fantasy - Ian McDonald - Brasyl
  
• Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year 2007: SF&F - Kay Kenyon - Bright of the Sky
  
• 3 Pyr Books included in Bookgasms Top Five SciFi Books of 2007 - Ian McDonald - Brasyl (#1), Joel Shepherd's Breakaway and Killswitch
  
• Locus magazine’s Recommended Reading: 2006 : Joe Abercombie - The Blade Itself, Justina Robson - Keeping It Real
• 3 Pyr Books included in the B&N Editor's Choice: Top Ten SF&F Novels of 2006: David Louis Edelman - Infoquake (#1), Sean Williams -The Crooked Letter, John Meaney - Resolution
• 2 Pyr Books included in Waterstone's Top Ten SF for 2006: Joel Shepherd - Crossover, Chris Roberson - Paragaea: A Planetary Romance
• 3 Pyr Books included in Bookgasm's Top Five SciFi Books of 2006 - Ian McDonald - River of Gods (#1), Joel Shepherd - Crossover, David Louis Edelman - Infoquake
• Sean Williams, The Hanging Mountains selected as a BookSense Notable Book for July
• Kay Kenyon, Bright of the Sky - one of four novels selected by ReaderCon "the con that assigns homework" for their attendees to read pre-convention
• Justina Robson, Silver Screen selected for Kirkus Reviews Best SF&F Books of 2005
• John Meaney, Paradox - #2 on Barnes & Noble's Editor's Choice: Top Ten SF&F Novels of 2005

Foreign Awards given to Pyr books for their overseas editions:

• 2007 Arthur C Clarke Award nominee - Adam Roberts, Gradisil (Gollancz)
• 2005 Arthur C Clarke Award nominee - Ian McDonald, River of Gods (Simon & Schuster)
• 2004 British Science Fiction Association Award winner - Ian McDonald, River of Gods (Simon & Schuster)
• Spain's Xatafi-Cyberdark Awards. nominees: Mike Resnick, New Dreams for Old and Ian McDonald, River of Gods.