The 2009 Hugo Awards Final Ballot

The 2009 Hugo Awards Final Ballot is out. I'm honored, thrilled, and tickled several shades of pink to be nominated in the Best Editor, Long Form category for the third year in a row. I'm just as thrilled (okay, almost as thrilled, and really by a hair's breadth) to see two stories from Fast Forward 2on the ballot. A huge congratulations then to Benjamin Rosenbaum & Cory Doctorow for their Best Novella nomination for "True Names," and Paolo Bacigalupi for his Best Novelette nomination for "The Gambler." (And those are links to both stories online, for those who haven't read them yet and would like to do so before voting in the final round.)

Meanwhile, a huge congratulations to Pyr authors Charles Coleman Finlay, Ian McDonald and Mike Resnick on their Hugo nominations (for non-Pyr work,but no less thrilled for them), and to the artists we've worked with on various Pyr covers - John Picacio, Daniel Dos Santos, and Bob Eggleton.

And, really, a huge congratulatons to everyone on the ballot. I'm happy for so many folks. What a year! And, of course, you know I'm loving that The Dark Knight is on there too, as it should be. See you all in Montréal.

Update 3/20: Since it's come up, here's a list of the books I edited in 2008.

The Quiet War makes Clarke Shortlist

I'm thrilled for Paul McAuley, whose novel The Quiet War, just made the Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist. The Quiet War was one of my favorite reads of the past year. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I acquired US rights to it, and Pyr will be publishing it in September, with a new cover from the magnificent Sparth (who just turned in his illustration last week; I'll debut the cover on the Pyr blog in a few.)

Meanwhile, the prize of £2009, along with a commemorative engraved bookend, will be presented to the winner on Wednesday, April 29th, at an award ceremony held on the opening night of the SCI-FI-LONDON Film Festival. Congrats to all the nominees.

(And yes, those of you in the US should wait for our edition, as I'd really like to be able to publish the sequel, Gardens of the Sun, which I'm about to start reading shortly. If you can't wait, you could always read the UK edition, vote for it for the Hugo, then gift the US one when it comes out to that friend you're trying to get into smart, literate, award-calibre SF. It's just a suggestion...)

Watch that Man, Honey, Watch that Man!

My review of Watchmen up at Tor.com.

David Louis Edelman: One Last Adventure Before the End

I'm still reeling under the news that one of my favorite podcasts, Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing, is closing up shop, if not forever, at least for the indefinite future. Shaun's podcast is essential listening in my book, and I think I'd say that even if I wasn't his most frequent guest (learned that recently, and now no one can take my crown away! But I'd rather they still had the opportunity to try.)

Meanwhile, I'm honored that Shaun is going out on a string of Pyr-related interviews. First he interviewed Yours Truly (jointly with Joe Mallozzi), then Chris Roberson, and now David Louis Edelman. I know he's recently recorded an interview with Kay Kenyon, so that should still be forthcoming, though I'm assuming the planned talk with James Enge didn't make the cut.

But I'm grateful for the years of support Shaun Farrell has shown us, as well as the window into the rest of the SF&F community he's provided me over the years (I don't get to read much outside my own list, so podcasts are how I stay informed). I'm going to miss this show terribly, and I hope Shaun returns in 2010 as promised. It's going to be a long wait!

This makes me smile...

From Pat's Fantasy Hotlist: "With Bright of the Skyand A World Too Near,Kay Kenyon established herself as one of the most underrated science fiction authors out there. In my opinion, The Entire and the Rose is without a doubt one of the most fascinating scifi series on the market today. In City Without End,Kenyon elevates this series to new heights.... Kay Kenyon's latest is full of surprising twists and turns, and the plot moves forward at a crisp pace. No offense to Peter F. Hamilton and other scifi authors in the middle of ongoing series, but The Entire and the Rose could well be the best game in town right now. I commend this series to your attention. Can't wait to see how the author will close the show!"

The Evolution of Batman's Icon

Via Chris Roberson:

Conventions: Where I'll Be in the Spring/Fall

I'll be holed up here for most of the spring, but starting late summer, my convention attendance is really going to ramp up. Here's what's scheduled so far:

Anticipation / 67th World Science Fiction Convention
August 6th - 10th
Montréal, Quebec

DragonCon
Sept 4th - 7th
Atlanta, Georgia

Con*Stellation XXVIII
September 18th - 20th
Huntsville, Alabama

Appearing in my capacity as art director, I'll be speaking and doing portfolio reviews at:
IlluXCon 2009
Nov 12th - 15th
Altoona, Pennsylvania

And I'm really pleased to be Editor Guest of Honor at:
OryCon 31
Nov 27th-29th
Portland, Oregon

Sadly, I won't be at WFC this year - just too much travel in November to squeeze it in, and, frankly, I'm tired of missing Halloween.

Midwinter: Like Tolkien meets Abercrombie meets Chadbourn

Just added a sizable excerpt from Matthew Sturges' Midwinter to the Pyr Sample Chapters blog, making it the 43rd book to go up there (where there are also four complete short stories, one of them original to the site. What are you waiting for?)

And speaking of Midwinter,over at Fantasy Book Critic, Robert Thompson and Liviu C. Suciu have done a joint review of Matt's debut fantasy. In their intro materials they write, "think Tolkien meets Joe Abercrombie meets Mark Chadbourn." This thrills me, not just because I publish two of the three writers above (you can work out which), but also because "Abercrombie meets Chadbourn" was how I described it to my dark masters when presenting the book in the first place. (I also mentioned some similarities to Justina Robson's Quantum Gravity universe in the way the various dimensions are aligned.)

While not being blind to problems he chalks up to first-novel-itis, Robert concludes, " I really enjoyed the book and thought it was a fun, entertaining and imaginative new entry in the fantasy genre. I was also quite impressed with Matthew Sturges and believe he has the talent and creativity to make a name for himself outside of comics. Definitely looking forward to the sequel!"

And Liviu says, "Midwinter is a page-turner and a very exciting novel which managed to surprise me with unexpected twists and turns despite its seemingly straightforward plot.... Overall, Midwinter is the best pure genre debut of 09 so far for me and I highly recommend it."

I'm thrilled, further, to see that the comments section includes some love for the wonderful cover illustration from Chris McGrath. He's currently working on the art for, and Matt is currently writing, the follow-up, The Office of Shadow, about which more later.

This is so wrong

Kindle Me This, Lou Man

Really geeked about the Kindle ap for the iPhone. I just bought the Kindle version of The Graveyard Book as a way to check it out. Personally, I will probably still do most of my reading with Stanza, but that's because most of my reading is manuscripts - not finished books - and Stanza makes it really, really easy to upload Word documents. But if I were a big consumer of other publisher's books, Kindle for iPhone would probably be my preferred reader. Anyway, I'll report back when I've read a book on it.

Meanwhile, my good friend Stephenson just bought a Kindle 2. He sends me this screenshot, which warmed up my morning:

And did you hear that B&N just bought Fictionwise?

Artwork: Age of Misrule One

Mark Chadbourn's World's End (Age of Misrule 1)

Cover illustration © John Picacio
Cover Design by Nicole Sommer-Lecht

My Locus Interview is Up

The wonderful Nick Gevers interviews me for his new SF Quintessential column on Locus Online, where we talk about my anthology Fast Forward 2and science fiction in general. Here's a clip:

Anders: Well, first and foremost, science fiction has to be entertaining if it is to work at all. I recently read an anthology (won't say which) that I thought was just one sanctimonious lecture after another on how bad our contemporary lifestyle is and how we've all got it coming. And frankly, I had to slog through the book, and it's made me quite angry, because I don't think this sort of thing is doing anyone any favors. "Action," "Adventure," and "Fun" aren't dirty words and never should be.

Free Ebook: Sean Williams' The Crooked Letter

As you've probably already heard on Boing Boing or SF Signal or Bookspot Central, and as I've already Tweeted and Facebooked:

For the first time ever, Pyr Books is making one of our novels available for free as an eBook. Sean Williams' The Crooked Letter: Books of the Cataclysm: One is available now, in its entirety, as a PDF.

When mirror twins Seth and Hadrian Castillo travel to Europe on holidays, they don’t expect the end of the world to follow them. Seth’s murder, however, puts exactly that into motion.

From opposite sides of death, the Castillo twins grapple with a reality neither of them suspected, although it has been encoded in myths and legends for millennia. The Earth we know is just one of many “realms”, three of which are inhabited by humans during various stages of their lives. And their afterlives...

In the tradition of Philip Pullman and Ursula K. Le Guin and inspired by numerous arcane sources, the Books of the Cataclysm begin in the present world but soon propel the reader to a landscape that is simultaneously familiar and fantastic.

See why SFFWorld said:

"[E]xplores the nature of life, death, and reality. Big subjects, but with the precision of an archaeological expert, Williams is more than up to the task. There is a lot to admire in Williams' epic fantasy, the wide range of global religions and myths of which his afterlife is comprised, to the characterization of the protagonists. The story has the mythic resonance of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and American Gods, the dark fantasy/horror one might associate with something like Stephen King’s Dark Tower saga, the multiple universes/realities of Moorcock’s Eternal Champion mythos, and the strange, weird creatures one might associate with China Miéville’s Bas-lag novels. Williams imagined world is equal part those novels which preceded his, but fortunately, there is enough newness to both the approach and vision to make this the work of a singular vision...." [R]eading many of the other titles Lou Anders has published with Pyr, I shouldn’t have been surprised with both the quality of the writing and the breadth of Williams’ imagination. Like a lot of the other books published by Pyr, Williams captures what makes a tried and true genre like Epic Fantasy so popular and enjoyable of a genre and spins a tale with his unique voice. This is the type of book you finish and can’t wait to read the sequel."

Download your copy here, and thanks for helping us spread the word!

Pyr's McDonald, Edelman & Roberson: Too Much to Keep Track of

You go out of town for a week, and look what happens:

Ian McDonald's Brasylhas made the short list for the Nebula Awards!! Meanwhile over on Boing Boing, fellow-nominee Cory Doctorow (Little Brother) reviews Ian McDonald's Cyberabad Days:

"Ian McDonald is one of science fiction's finest working writers, and his latest short story collection Cyberabad Days, is the kind of book that showcases exactly what science fiction is for. ...Cyberabad Days has it all: spirituality, technology, humanity, love, sex, war, environmentalism, politics, media -- all blended together to form a manifesto of sorts, a statement about how technology shapes and is shaped by all the wet, gooey human factors. Every story is simultaneously a cracking yarn, a thoughtful piece of technosocial criticism, and a bag of eyeball kicks that'll fire your imagination. The field is very lucky to have Ian McDonald working in it."

And Nick Gevers interviews McDonald on SciFi Wire:

"The title Cyberabad Days is a deliberate echo of the Arabian Nights. The stories are fairy tales of New Delhi. River was an Indian—novel, fat, many-voiced, wide-screen; Cyberabad Days is tales. Mumbai movies tell stories in ways that challenge our Western aesthetics and values. They're not afraid of sentiment, they're not afraid of big acting, or putting in song and dance, because Bollywood cinema's not supposed to be a mimetic art form. It's not about realism—that most pernicious of Western values—it's a show."

On io9, Charlie Jane Anders interviews Infoquakeand MultiRealauthor David Louis Edelman:

"I began with a vision of a futuristic world, and worked backwards to figure out how everything came together. Most of the backstory came about when I was writing the early chapters of Infoquake and just started randomly filling things in. When I'd get stuck writing the story proper, I'd just spend some time writing background articles. This kind of thing has always been attractive to me. I was the kid who bought AD&D modules just because I liked to read them, even though I didn't have anyone to play AD&D with. I'm the guy who always liked The Silmarillion better than The Lord of the Rings."

On the Adventures in SciFi Publishing podcast episode 75, host Shaun Farrel interviews End of the Centuryauthor Chris Roberson! Here's the direct download link. (And, as a reminder, here is part one and part two of my massive Tor.com piece on Roberson's entire career. Part two wasn't up when I left town.)

These guys are making it hard for me to get caught up!

Niagara Falls in Winter

The Myriad Worlds of Chris Roberson, Part One

My massive post covering all of Chris Roberson's Celestial Empire stories to date is up on Tor.com. And guess what? This is only part one of a two-part post.

Check it out, ya' hear.

Coming next is my massive post covering all of his Bonaventure-Carmody universe work, as well as his media-tie in, stand-alone, and forthcoming comic book work. Took me friggin' forever.

Fast Forward 2: The Pulse of Sciece Fiction

I haven't seen the issue yet, but thanks to Shirt'n'Tie, I learned that Death Ray issue #17 has a very positive review of Fast Forward 2.

The review, by Thom Hutchinson, apparently says:

“May the series continue – while other anthologies look to check the pulse of SF, Anders seems determined to be the pulse, and that alone demands celebration.”

Works by me! And thanks to Shirt'n'Tie for pointing it out.

Two New Fantasy Novels Unleashed!

Two epic fantasy novels, Matthew Sturges' Midwinter and Tom Lloyd's The Twilight Herald (Book Two of the Twilight Reign quintet) are now shipping from Amazon and other online vendors. They should showing up in physical stores in a week or so as well.

Midwinter: Winter comes to the land only once in a hundred years. But the snow covers ancient secrets: secrets that could topple a kingdom. Mauritaine was a war hero. Then he was accused of treason and sentenced to life without parole at Crere Sulace, a dark and ancient prison in the mountains, far from the City Emerald. But now the Seelie Queen – Regina Titania herself – has offered him one last chance to redeem himself, an opportunity to regain his freedom and his honor.

The Twilight Herald: Lord Bahl is dead and the young white-eye, Isak, stands in his place; less than a year after being plucked from obscurity and poverty the charismatic new Lord of the Farlan finds himself unprepared to deal with the attempt on his life that now spells war, and the possibility of rebellion waiting for him at home. The Twilight Herald is the second book in a powerful new series that combines inspired world-building, epic battles, and high emotion to dazzling effect.

Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3: Goodnight Oslo

I just picked up Goodnight Oslo, the latest from Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3, the Venus 3 being R.E.M.'s Peter Buck on guitar, Minus 5/Young Fresh Fellows/R.E.M'er Scott McCaughey on bass, and Ministry/R.E.M.'s Bill Rieflin on drums. It's a very interesting album, quintessentially Hitchcock and yet very different from his other work, even different from the previous Venus 3 album, Ole! Tarantula. If I had to describe it to those-who-will-understand, I'd say it's almost like the complete Groovy Decay/Gravy Deco Sessions, filtered through middle-period R.E.M. With horns. Hitchcock says the CD is about saying goodbye to cycles of negativity, moving out of the "smoke age" of cigarettes and gasoline, and about hope and change.

"You never know when the clock will stop," he says. "I will probably never time-travel, heal the sick or levitate, which were the natural ambitions I had as a boy. But I have trained myself to write songs and perform them, and I'm still developing those abilities. I am past my peak as an animal, but not as an artist. Of course, your work doesn't necessarily improve with age; it just mutates. You have to give birth to those mutations, I guess. So my songs may be no better now than 30 years ago; they're merely alive in a different way, fed on different emotional nutrients, as I am."

AISFP 74: Joseph Mallozzi and Yours Truly

Episode 74 of Adventures in SciFi Publishing is up. In this one, host Shaun Farrell conducts a joint interview with Joseph Mallozzi (Co-Executive Producer of Stargate: Atlantis and Consulting Producer of the forthcoming Stargate Universe), and Yours Truly. We talk about the back and forth between science fiction literature and its TV/film counterpart. Topics discussed include adaptations, the sophistication of new TV shows, fantasy literature, a Pyr title making cameos on Stargate Atlantis, Battlestar Galactica, Joe’s book club, and much more. You can listen to the interview on iTunes or at the direct link here.

Kay Kenyon Shortlisted for 2009 Reading List Award

The American Library Association has announced their selections for the 2009 Reading List award, and in the Science Fiction category, they chose Hunter's Run by Martin, Dozois, and Abraham. Congratulations, guys! Meanwhile, I'm please to see their four book shortlist includes one of our own. Woot. Kay made the list last year as well.

Shortlist
The Automatic Detective by A. Lee Martinez
City at the End of Time byGreg Bear
Matter byIain M.Banks
A World Too Nearby Kay Kenyon

View from the Office: A Cabinet of Batmobiles

Adam Roberts

Me on Adam Roberts.

The End has Arrived!

Chris Roberson's End of the Century is now in stock at Amazon. And at B&N.com as well. Expect it on retail shelves soon too.

Oh, and look, Kay Kenyon's City Without Endis too.

(Reports of sightings in the wild appreciated.)

2008 Locus Recommended Reading List

The Locus magazine 2008 Recommended Reading List is out. I am pleased and honored to see both anthologies that I edited in 2008 made the list - Fast Forward 2and Sideways In Crime.Five stories are individually recommended from Fast Forward 2, two from Sideways in Crime.

From Fast Forward 2:

"The Kindness of Strangers" by Nancy Kress, short story
"Catherine Drewe", Paul Cornell, novelette *
"An Eligible Boy", Ian McDonald, novelette
"The Gambler", Paolo Bacigalupi, novelette
"True Names" by Benjamin Rosenbaum & Cory Doctorow, novella

* Note that "Catherine Drewe" is technically a short-story, as it lists at 6,674 words. Don't know why it's listed here as a novelette, but very happy to see it being recommended either way.

From Sideways in Crime:

• "The Blood of Peter Francisco" by Paul Park, short story
• "Sacrifice"by Mary Rosenblum, novelette

Also making the list is the Gollancz edition of Paul McAuley's The Quiet War, which Pyr will be bringing out in the US later in '09. Wait for it!

Congratulations to all those receiving recommendations. 2008 was a great year. On to 2009!

Fortunately, 2008 Not a Criminal

Over on SFSite, Kay Kenyon's A World Too Nearcomes in at #7 in Greg L. Johnson's Best of 2008! Which is a good thing, since the sadly-now-defunct Realms of Fantasy wrote last year that, "It would be criminal if this novel didn’t make year’s best lists at the end of 2008.”

And look, the trade paperbackwas just released! Imagine that...