The Dervish House Places (and tops) many Best of 2010 lists.

SF Site has posted their Readers' Choice: Best Read of the Year: 2010 and Ian McDonald's The Dervish House tops the list at # 1! They say:

"The tightly plotted story takes place over a brief period of time in a confined setting, the sprawling metropolis of Istanbul. But it is McDonald's writing and his handling of character that led SF Site readers to choose The Dervish House as the best book of 2010."

But The Dervish House is already all over Best of 2010 lists. Here are a few:

#1 on Bookgasm's 5 Best SciFi Books of 2010 (and Stephan Martiniere is their choice for Best Cover Artist, with his covers for The Dervish House).

#1 (tied with Guy Gavriel Kay's Under Heaven) on Pat's Fantasy Hotlist's Top 10 Speculative Fiction Titles of 2010. 

1 of 5 unranked books in Fantasy Literature's FanLit's Favorite Books of 2010 science fiction list.

Included in io9's unranked The 15 Best Speculative Fiction Books of 2010.

Included in Locus magazine's unranked Recommended Reading List.

Included in Concatenation's unranked Best SF Books of 2010.

Included in Adam Robert's unranked 10 Best SF Novels of 2010.

So, basically it tops every ranked list and places on the unranked.  

The Adjustment Bureau

I saw The Adjustment Bureau last week and loved it. Based on yet another Philip K. Dick story, and one of the better adaptations of his work. Funny, engaging, well-acted, well-crafted. Not as mind-blindingly complex as Inception, not as expensive as Avatar, just a smooth execution of a good concept. The kind of film that makes me excited about writing and reading and watching and thinking. Highly recommended.

There are a lot of SF films coming out this year, but I could easily see this ending up on the Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form shortlist for the Hugos.

Just for the record...

It takes a bit of work to make a decent ebook. I've been overseeing the conversion of the Pyr backlist for two months now, so I know. I've also bought about 15 ebooks in the last two weeks on iBooks, and I'm sorry to say that I wish a few of the publishers whose books I've bought had taken a little more time with the conversion process. In one sad case, every single first letter of the first word on every line of the contents page is omitted. In another, every instance of the word "pilot" has been rendered as "pi lot," where about a quarter of all apostrophes are rendered as dashes. A third omits all interior illustrations though the cover and front matter proclaims "illustrated by...".

So when I hear people clamoring for instant gratification, moaning that "why isn't this book I want available right now in all formats" and accusing the publisher of sitting on it deliberately or some such nonesense - I grit my teeth. Right now ebooks are in the same place CDs were when they first appeared. Remember all those quick and dirty AAD conversions - Analog Analog Digital - and the CDs that came with warning labels that said, "this CD may reveal limitations of the original source tape" because the music was just being dumped in, not digitally remastered?

Well, there's a lot of that out there now. This will change, as publishers learn how to make ebooks part of the initial work flow of making a book and as ebooks grow. And in fact, most of the new titles I've acquired have looked pretty good. The majority of the mistakes above are in backlist titles where the publisher has raced to digitize their catalogs as fast as possible and done a sloppy job. Sadly, I seriously doubt they'll go back and fix these books once converted.

So, against all the consumers demanding everything digitized now, here's one consumer that wishes they would all take a little more time. I'd rather they did it right than did it fast.

Locus Roundtable: Ian McDonald's Developing Economies Stories

Yours Truly, Cat Rambo, Fabio Fernandes, Paul Graham Raven, Rachel Swirsky, and Karen Burnham discussing the works of Ian McDonald. Check out the Locus Roundtable: Ian McDonald’s Developing Economies Stories.

Fabio Fernandes: "The first Ian McDonald story I read was the novelette “Toward Kilimanjaro”, in the now deceased Brazilian edition of Isaac Asimov’s Magazine, in the early 1990s. I loved the way he revamped a Ballardian classic trope (one is quickly reminded of The Crystal World).  Soon after that, I got a copy of Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone, and then I was hooked – I found in him a late cyberpunk author who managed to write in the same key of Ballard, Zelazny, and Gibson, keeping his own voice at the same time. Every now and then I pick up this story and read it again, and it never seems to lose its flavor."

We Are Equals

SF Signal Podcast: The Borders Bankruptcy

First, everyone needs to listen to this podcast from SF Signal, featuring a round table discussion with Alan Beatts (owner of independent bookstore Borderlands Books), Chris Roberson and Alison Baker (owners of publisher Monkeybrain Books) and author Cat Valente. The subject is "What the Borders Bankruptcy Means for Brick and Mortar Bookstores" and the discussion is something everyone concerned about the health, quality, and diversity of literature should hear.

Then you need to go to this post on the blog Reluctant Habits, where Edward Champion has posted an invaluable List of Independent Alternatives to Closed Borders Bookstores. This is a list of all the Borders stores being closed and independent stores nearby (with their proximity in miles).

Then put 2 and 2 together.

Game of Thrones

I Shoud Be Writing

I'm interviewed by the wonderful Mur Lafferty on episode 185 of her I Should Be Writing podcast. We talk about steampunk, piracy, forthcoming Pyr releases, and whether or not "write what you know" makes any sense. You can listen at the link above or subscribe to the podcast via iTunes.

Super Harmony - The Super Hero Dating Service

Via SF Signal:

Star Wars Talk to Your Kids PSA

Via SF Signal:

Swords & Dark Magic - Best Heroic Fantasy of 2010

Larry Nolen has posted his list of the Best Heroic Fantasy of 2010, a list of seven novels and two anthologies. I'm very proud to see Swords & Dark Magic, which I co-edited with Jonathan Strahan for Eos books, place at #7, while Pyr author Adrian Tchaikovsky's Salute the Dark came in at #8.

Speaking of Swords & Dark Magic, Larry writes:

Caitlín R. Kiernan’s “The Sea-Troll’s Daughter” brilliantly subverts the ugly/evil, handsome/good stereotypes embedded in so many tales, as the hero becomes more the villain and the presumed villain takes on heroic qualities that are the inverse of those presented in more traditional tales. Gene Wolfe’s “Bloodsport” is perhaps one of his better short fictions in recent years, as he still manages to confound and entrap the reader with the metaphysical qualities of the first-person narrator and his possible unreliability. These two stories alone, combined with several solid if not spectacular contributions from the likes of Steven Erikson and Michael Moorcock, help make Swords & Dark Magic a recommended anthology of heroic fantasy.

Of Salute the Dark he says:

The narrative arc that concludes in the fourth volume, Salute the Dark, is sharp, with little sense of extraneous detail thrown in to create a false sense of ponderousness. Tchaikovsky also weaves in elements from other subgenres such as steampunk to create a setting that feels different from traditional heroic fantasies. Combined with his quasi-magical totemic use of insects (beetles, wasps, bees, spiders, moths, mantis, ants, etc.), the atmosphere feels fresh. Tchaikovsky’s characters are complex and yet direct, which allows the author to develop and transform their personalities and actions as necessary. By the time the introductory plot arc concludes with Salute the Dark, the reader will have found herself wondering just where from here Tchaikovsky is heading with his overall series, considering how well he concludes several character and subplot arcs.

Podcast: Comic Book Outsiders Discuss Masked

This week on the podcast Comic Book Outsiders, they are discussing my anthology Masked. I was interviewed on Comic Book Outsiders back in November as a guest, and am eager to hear what the book club has to say now.

Masked: A really good collection!

There's a wonderfully positive review of Masked up at Tales from the Bookworm's Lair. Reviewer J. Andrew Byers goes story by story, but says in summation, "this is a really good collection... I really, really enjoyed this one, and would love to see a follow-up volume, also edited by Lou Anders and featuring many of these authors."

J. Andrew, from your lips to Superman's ears!

Superman Classic: Really Nice Fan Short

Via Chris Roberson

Locus Magazine's 2010 Recommended Reading List

Locus magazine has posted their 2010 Recommended Reading list, and I'm proud to say that works I edited are all over it. Ian McDonald's The Dervish House is in the Novels-Science Fiction category, James Enge's The Wolf Age is in the Novels-Fantasy, and Swords & Dark Magic (co-edited with Jonathan Strahan) is in the Anthologies-Original category. From Swords & Dark Magic, Joe Abercrombie's "The Fool Jobs" is in the Novelettes category, as is Steven Erikson's "Goats of Glory" and Scott Lynch's "In the Stacks" and K.J. Parker's "A Rich Full Week." In the Short Story category, Ian McDonald's "Tonight We Fly," from my anthology Masked, joins another contribution from Swords & Dark Magic, Garth Nix's "A Suitable Present for a Sorcerous Puppet." Congratulations to all the authors for their tremendous work, and to everyone on the list.

Japanese Toyota Prius Ad with Superman

While watching White Collar last night, I remarked to my wife that Matthew Bomer would make a good Clark Kent/Superman. She thought he was too small and short, and she's probably right. But this morning, she pointed me to this. Turns out someone else thought so too:

SF Signal Podcast: The Future and Impact of eBook Publishing

Episode 26 of the SF Signal Podcast marks their inaugural "virtual convention panel." Yours Truly, Mike Resnick, Sue Lange, John Picacio and hosts Patrick Hester and Jon DeNardo discuss the future and impact of eBook Publishing. I think it went rather well, if I do say so myself. The episode is available at the link above, and on iTunes.

Swords & Dark Magic: Elitist's Best of 2010

Elitist Book Reviews have just published their Best of 2010 list, and I'm thrilled that Swords & Dark Magic, the sword & sorcery anthology I edited along with Jonathan Strahan for Eos books, is on the their list. Also included are no less than ten books by Pyr authors (which I naturally also edited), making the total of Lou-related works in the list eleven out of seventeen books! I'm 65% of their year!

The full list:

GEOSYNCHRON by David Louis Edelman
James Barclay's novels -- ELFSORROW and SHADOWHEART
SWORDS & DARK MAGIC edited by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders
THE RAGGED MAN by Tom Lloyd
Adrian Tchaikovsky's novels -- EMPIRE IN BLACK AND GOLD, DRAGONFLY FALLING, BLOOD OF THE MANTIS and SALUTE THE DARK
MR. MONSTER by Dan Wells
TOME OF THE UNDERGATES by Sam Sykes
TWELVE by Jasper Kent
SHADES OF MILK AND HONEY by Mary Robinette Kowal
THE BIRD OF THE RIVER by Kage Baker
BLACKOUT and ALL CLEAR by Connie Willis
NIGHTS OF VILLJAMUR by Mark Charan Newton

Unwelcome Irony

So this morning my Google Alerts returns exactly two searches on my name. One is a Goodreads discussion group in which some folks bag on me for objecting to piracy and the other is a torrent to a download of my anthology, Swords & Dark Magic.

Print Your Own Flute

Via New Scientist: