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...

Conquering Swords

Ha! Jonathan and I are being tracked. I am tempted to drop another hint, but it's late so I better nix that impulse.

Batman: Year 100

Of all the Batman graphic novels I've read recently, my favorite to date is Paul Pope's Batman: Year 100.Really interesting, really beautiful, and certainly something that's given me a lot of food for thought. The graphic novel is set in 2039 - exactly 100 years after the original appearance of the Dark-knight Detective in “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate,” published in Detective Comics #27 in May of 1939. A fact which has some significance with the storyline here. See what I have to say about it here.

My Library

Because folks have asked...

G-Men in Two Year's Best, SF & Mystery

Just got the very exciting news from Kristine Kathryn Rusch that her story, "G-Men," which I was privileged to publish in Sideways In Crime,has been selected by Otto Penzler and Jeffrey Deaver to be in The Best American Mystery Stories 2009. So the novella will be in both Gardner Dozois' The Year's Best Science Fiction: 26th Annual Collection *and* The Best American Mysteries. Congratulations, Kris! How cool is that?

Incidentally, Gardner's anthology will also have "An Eligible Boy" by Ian McDonald and "The Gambler" by Paolo Bacigalupi, both from my other anthology of 2008, the (ahem) PKD-nominated Fast Forward 2.

WJS: The Triumph of the Readers

Need some good news? Here's a piece in the Wall Street Journal that points out the NEA finding that for the first time in 25 years, reading is up, and it's up among 18-24 year olds, "the ones who seem to have been born with iPod buds stuck in their ears. They've recently taken the biggest bump up in readership after years of the most significant decline."

Author Ann Patchett makes some good points, my favorite among them:

"I'm all for reading bad books because I consider them to be a gateway drug. People who read bad books now may or may not read better books in the future. People who read nothing now will read nothing in the future."

and

"If someone gave you a device with which you could see entire worlds just by holding it in front of your eyes, worlds of such beauty and complexity that they took your breath away, worlds of suffering and redemption, love and suspense and enlightenment, all of them there for the taking, wouldn't you want to show this device to everyone you knew?"

Hell, yes!

Brian Azzarello's Lex Luthor

Really proud of this one. My review of Brian Azzarello's Lex Luthor: Man of Steel. I've always had an affinity with Lex Luthor (can you guess why?), and to see him done right is such a pleasure.

As to the comic itself, it is certainly my favorite Superman story to date, and may eventually emerge as one of my favorite graphic novel reads.

Thinking Man's Sci-Fi

Rotten Tomatoes lists Ten Sci-Fi Flicks for the Thinking Man. If we can substitute the Soderbergh for the Tarkovsky, then I've seen and enjoyed all ten.

They are:

Planet of the Apes
Dark City
Sleeper
Gattaca
Primer
Children of Men
Solaris
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Blade Runner
2001: A Space Odyssey

Sadly, I bet you The Matrix would have made this list if they'd only stopped with the one. But my question to Rotten Tomatoes is, what about the Thinking Woman? Come on...

FF2 up for the PKD: 2008 Philip K. Dick Award Nominees Announced

Fast Forward 2has just been shortlisted for the 2008 Philip K. Dick Award, with the result that I can barely type let alone think. So in lieu of being eloquent, here's the press release:

The judges of the 2008 Philip K. Dick Award and the Philadelphia SF Society, along with the Philip K. Dick Trust, are pleased to announce six nominated works that comprise the final ballot for the award:

EMISSARIES FROM THE DEAD by Adam-Troy Castro (Eos Books)
ENDGAME by Kristine Smith (Eos Books)
FAST FORWARD 2 edited by Lou Anders (Pyr)
JUDGE by Karen Traviss (Eos Books)
TERMINAL MIND by David Walton (Meadowhawk Press)
TIME MACHINES REPAIRED WHILE-U-WAIT by K. A. Bedford (EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing)

First prize and any special citations will be announced on Friday, April 10, 2009 at Norwescon 32 at the Doubletree Seattle Airport Hotel, 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 Philip K. Dick Trust and the award ceremony is sponsored by the NorthWest Science Fiction Society. Last year’s winner was NOVA SWING by M. John Harrison (Bantam Spectra) with a special citation to FROM THE NOTEBOOKS OF DR. BRAIN by Minister Faust (Del Rey). The 2008 judges are Tobias Buckell, M. M. Buckner (chair), Walter Hunt, Rosemary Kirstein, and William Senior.

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 the Philip K. Dick Trust: www.philipkdick.com

For more information about Norwescon: http://www.norwescon.org/:

Contact NorthWest SF Society: (360) 438-0871

Congrats to all the nominees, and a special shout of gratitude to everyone who contributed to Fast Forward 2!

Update 1/14/09: Kristine Smith's Endgame is apparently ineligible. It has been removed from the list, and replaced with my friend Jeff Carlson's Plague War. Congratulations Jeff! 

Podcast: Yours Truly in Agony

I'm up on Rick Kleffel's Agony Column podcast talking about what Rick calls "The New Fantasy," and covering works by Joe Abercrombie, Tom Lloyd, Joel Shepherd, James Enge, Justina Robson, Mark Chadbourn, Matthew Sturges, Chris Roberson and others. We even discuss Doctor Who's latest casting announcement and the effect Obama may have on genre fiction. Here's the direct link, and the show is available via iTunes as well (it's episode 555).

Rick writes:

"What's darker, grittier and sells better than expected in days such as these which are already dark and gritty enough without the help of excellent fantasy writers? Well, it's what I'm going to call for want of a better term, The New Fantasy, and since Lou Anders of Pyr Books is publishing a boatload of it in the upcoming months, I thought I'd give him a call. Lou Anders is a lucky guy. His job is to read a bunch of great fiction and then publish it, and as it happens — or at least as he observes and I concur — fiction does well during recessions. So what's going to happen to the fiction market during a full-blown, we're-wearin'-barrels Depression? Looks like it's boom times for genre fiction. Lou and I explored The New Fantasy and talked about Pyr's and other publishers current and upcoming titles."

For Your Consideration: Books I Edited in 2008

Yes, it's that time again. This year, I am eligible for both the Long Form and Short Form Best Editor categories, and there are several eligible novels out from Pyr as well. And so, for your award-nominating convenience, here are all the books for which I served as editor in 2008 at Pyr. Novels that debuted in 2008 are in BOLD.

• John Meaney - Resolution: Book Three of the Nulapeiron Sequence
• Kay Kenyon - Bright of the Sky: Book One of the Entire and the Rose
• Kay Kenyon - A World Too Near: Book Two of the Entire and the Rose
• Joe Abercrombie - Before They Are Hanged: The First Law Book Two
• Theodore Judson - The Martian General's Daughter
• Sean Williams - The Crooked Letter: Books of the Cataclysm One
• Alan Dean Foster - Sagramanda
• Robert Silverberg - Son of Man (reprint)
• David Louis Edelman - MultiReal: Volume III of the Jump 225 trilogy
• Mike Resnick - Stalking the Unicorn (reprint)
• Mike Resnick - Stalking the Vampire
• Joe Abercrombie - Last Argument of Kings: The First Law Book Three
• Justina Robson - Going Under: Quantum Gravity Book Three
• Tom Lloyd - The Stormcaller: Book One of the Twilight Reign
• Lou Anders,ed. - Fast Forward 2 (anthology)
• Sean Williams - The Blood Debt: Books of the Cataclysm Two
  
• Mike Resnick - Starship: Rebel
  

Very proud of all these books and authors, quite a few of which are showing up on the various Best of 2008 lists online. And I'm very pleased as well that quite a few entries from Fast Forward 2 are showing up in the various Year's Bests' table of contents. And though it wasn't Pyr, the other anthology I edited in 2008 was the alternate history mystery, Sideways In Crime, and very proud of it too I am.

Onward to 2009!

Here's Where Faith Comes into Play for Me

I can't see it. But they've had impeccable casting sense so far.

State of the Nation: Yours Truly in DeathRay

I've got a piece on the the state of American science fiction literature and cinema in the Winter 2008 issue of DeathRay magazine, which I know is at least on shelves in the US in Barnes & Nobles now. Also in the issue is a short story from and interview with Mike Resnick, as well as a profile of Peter Beagle and a piece on Marie Brennan (Midnight Never Come). There's also a two-page shout out of support for the major short fiction magazines. As ever, I continue to be impressed with the amount of pages DeathRay devotes to coverage of the literature of SF&F. Check it out.

Brian Azzarello's Joker

I review Brian Azzarello's Joker for Tor.com.

I enjoyed Joker very much, but it misses the mark in a crucial way.

Annual SF Site Readers' Choice

It's time again for SFSite's Annual SF Site Readers' Choice: Best Read of 2008, where you can vote for your favorite books of the past year. Deadline for voting is February 6, 2009, midnight Eastern Standard Time. Rules and guidelines at the link. May the best books win!

Quote of the Day

Found this in an old file of odds and ends, dated June 13, 2001. Not sure of the source.

"We're living in an age of chaos and fragmentation, and we should grab it positively and not be scared of it and not see it as the destruction of a society, but the material from which we rebuild a society. It is discomforting to see people sorting through the wreckage and trying to pull out absolutes again. That's really troubling. It just becomes so intolerant, and that's not what we want. That's not what we want, is it?" --David Bowie

The Big Bounce

A piece in the New Scientist, via James Enge, the universe, if it collapses, may not crunch. It may bounce.

For some reason, this makes me really happy.

Fast Forward 2: Best Book of 2008!!!

Ryun Patterson, at Bookgasm, publishes his 5 Best Sci-Fi Books of 2008, and Fast Forward 2is the pick for the # 1 book of the year!

"Up until last year, I would never have believed that an anthology of new science fiction could be the best sci-fi book put out in a given year. First of all, is there even a demand for such a beast? It seems that a budding anthologist could make a far more successful book by picking a theme, say 'green aliens with tentacles who are really children in search of their parents but are thought of as evil because of a cultural misunderstanding,' and find awesome tales from the genre’s creaky grandmasters that would guarantee an endcap placement at Borders. (This is by no means a knock against some of the great anthologists out there, like John Joseph Adams, whose Wastelands collection had a big impact on me this year.)

But Anders, who has paid his dues many times over in the science-fiction trenches, doesn’t seem to do the predictable thing, and his risk-taking has paid off. Fast Forward 2 is even more electric than last year’s first: Anders has assembled some of the best and brightest current stars of the genre, and they turned in stories that, as a whole, really do represent the cutting edge of fiction. From a fashion designer who grows living gowns to a raid on the doomsday seed bank to a young man getting Cyrano-with-a-twist dating advice in the India of the future, Fast Forward 2 is the book to read this year. It’s the surest of sure things, and a bargain, to boot."

Deeply honored.

I Won't Argue With this

From Pat's Fantasy Hotlist's The Hotties: 2008 Year-End Awards:

"The market is no level playing field, and yet year in and year out Pyr titles manage to stand out from the competition. Kudos to Lou Anders and his team. The guy deserves a Hugo Award and a raise!;-)"

You'll get no argument from me, Pat.

In other, non-Lou news, Pat gives Pyr his "Publisher of the Year Award," and he gives shout outs to what seems like an impressively statistically-high number of Pyr books & authors in the rest of his list:

From his SFF TOP 10 OF 2008:

4- MultiRealby David Louis Edelman
5- Last Argument of Kingsby Joe Abercrombie

And, coming in just below the fold in the runner-up category:
11- A World Too Nearby Kay Kenyon

From his MOST IMPROVED AUTHOR AWARD

David Louis Edelman

Pat writes, "Infoquakewas a smashing scifi debut, but Edelman came up with a tighter novel with its sequel, MultiReal. Can't wait to read the final volume of this trilogy!"

His MOST ACCESSIBLE AUTHOR AWARD

- Joe Abercrombie

His MOST UNDERRATED NOVEL AWARD

- A World Too Near by Kay Kenyon

His MVP AWARD: SFF AUTHOR OF THE YEAR

- Joe Abercrombie

Pat writes "For demonstrating that in this age of doorstopper fantasy series that seem endless, you can still tell a compelling story without a back story which goes back 300,000 years into the past, without hundreds of characters, without dozens of convoluted storylines. Abercrombie showed that, if you play your cards right, you can still do it with an honest-to-god trilogy. "

Thanks, Pat, for really making my Monday morning!

Best of 2008

With the year drawing to a close, the usual Best of 2008 lists are starting to appear, and it's nice to see some Pyr titles on them (some for their UK editions):

SFX: Joe Abercrombie's Last Argument of Kingsat # 8

Pat's Fantasy Hotlist: David Louis Edelman's MultiReal at # 4, Last Argument of Kings at # 5

The Wertzone: Last Argument of Kings at # 2

RIP - Eartha Kitt

You were absolutely prrrr-fect. You'll be missed.

Quote of the Day

From Tom Purdom, on the “Women in Science” panel at the recent Philadelphia Science Fiction Conference:

"Nobody ever became a wizard because they read fantasy. But plenty of people have become physicists and biologists because they read science fiction."

Now, the reason this tickles me is the plug for SF, not the (very funny) dig at F (which I also love). But, as I already have very clear ideas on the purpose of SF, and I happen to love F too, I've been contemplating recently what it is that fantasy does - beyond the entertainment/intellectual value that all literature bequeaths - that is unique to its form. Opinions welcome!

Batman: Mark Hamill's Joker

As brilliant and lauded as Heath Ledger's performance is, I'm glad to see this on YouTube, reminding us that Mark Hamill is likewise a genius when it comes to portraying the Clown Prince of Crime:



Around the time that Batman: Mask of the Phantasm came out, HBO did a "First Look" featurette on it that actually showed Hamill in the sound booth recording the voice, and it was amazing to see. Sadly, it wasn't on the DVD. I'd love to find that on YouTube!

Update 12/22: Thanks to John D, HBO First Look - Mask Of The Phantasm: Part 1 and Part 2.

Overdue Roundup

Because yes, I've been away, and while we're on it - they friggin' ruined the Enchanted Tiki House. Ruined. I am really, sincerely devastated.

Now...

The incomparable Shaun Farrel, of the indispensable Adventures in SciFi Publishing podcast, has an interview with Yours Truly up now, which you can listen to directly here, or via iTunes. We talk about my latest anthology, Fast Forward 2, sort of, as I found it hard to stay on topic. (Or, admittedly, to let him get a word in.)

Then, Fantasy Book Critic runs my picks in their 2008 Review/2009 Preview.

And here's an interesting review of Fast Forward 2, by blogger Steven Mollman, who admittedly never buys non-media tie-in science fiction, and what an interesting animal that is! Like a being from a parallel universe to my own! But it seems Mollman picked up FF2 for Paul Cornell (and hence the Doctor Who connection). His verdict? He seems lukewarm on a lot of it, but calls it a "fine anthology" and says he will seek out more stories by at least one of the contributors (Ian McDonald), which is the desired effect of an anthology, isn't it? So I am pleased. Interestingly, he notes, "for an ostensibly unthemed anthology, there sure were a lot of stories about a future Earth with its ecology either on the verge of collapse or already collapsed. Maybe that happened because it's what's actually going to happen, but it got a little tiring after a while."

I didn't think there were a lot. But hopefully we won't have to get tired of actually living that future, rather than just reading about it.

Love This Batmobile!

When I custom-build my own, this - from the Cartoon Network's new Brave and the Bold series - is the one:


This is one of the coolest Batmobiles ever. I love the way it combines elements of the 1960s TV series with both modern and classic comic book interpretations. Awesome. The show itself... well, I'm not sure how much longer it's gonna hold my attention.

Update 12/12/08: I do give the series a fairly positive review here.

Way to Go Paul! "Catherine Drewe" in Best of the Year!

Via SF Signal, I see that Rich Horton has posted the (almost-final) contents of Science Fiction: The Best of the Year, 2009 Edition, and that Paul Cornell's brilliant short story, "Catherine Drewe," from my own recently-released Fast Forward 2is among them!

Congrats Paul! I told you so.

The Author-Editor Relationship

I'm back at Colleen Lindsay's The Swivet with a post about the Author-Editor relationship.

Lou the Economist

SFSignal's latest Mind Meld is up, this one asking, "What can the SF industry do to weather a prolonged economic downturn? Will new authors have an even harder time breaking into the field?" I'm not sure what the very small pool of respondents indicates - are the rest of us too glum to comment? But some very good answers from Diana Gill, Mark Newton, and Justina Robson. I'm in there too, pontificating away...

Mark Newton: "...this is SFF fandom - this is people's passion, and fans will invest as much time and energy into it as always. I'm confident that this is nothing to worry about."

Pyr on Facebook

Pyr has a Facebook page now. For those of you who are on the social networking site/time sink, please become a "fan" and help us spread the love.

Podcast: Tom Lloyd on Adventures in SciFi Publishing

Episode 69 of Adventures in SciFi Publishing is out, and it's an interview with The Stormcallerauthor Tom Lloyd. They discuss fantasy influences, the virtues of ramping things up quick, being 18 and in charge of the fate of nations, Steve Erikson, Scott Lynch, and the wonderful art of Todd Lockwood. (They don't talk about me enough, though, of course.) You can listen to the podcast at the link above, download it, or subscribe via iTunes.