Video read-through of the Pyr Fall-Winter 2012-2013 catalog

Samuel Montgomery-Blinn, of the wonderful Bull Spec magazine, does a video read-through of the latest Pyr catalog. He gets excited about quite a few things, admits to needing to read a lot more, and bags on one cover. But we appreciate the love, the attention, and the opinions! Thanks, Sam.

A Guile of Dragons featured in Kirkus "Not-to-miss" list!

Kirkus Reviews has posted their "11 Not-to-miss Science Fiction and Fantasy books for August." Of some 150 books out this month, James Enge's A GUILE OF DRAGONS makes -- and tops -- this list. They say:
"Enge is not only a writer of fantasy, he's a devoted fan educated in its history and evolution. That's no more apparent than in his adventures of Morlock Ambrosius, a swordsman wandering a world rife with various magical disciplines. In A Guile of Dragons, Enge takes us back to show us the origins of his hero, as the Longest War—the war between dwarves and dragons presumed to have been over and done with—reignites with the return of the dragons."

Top Ten Westerns: 2012

Art by J. Seamas Gallagher

Booklist Online lists their "Top Ten Westerns: 2012" and Mike Resnick's The Doctor and the Kid: A Weird West Talemakes the list!

They have this to say:

"Veteran sf-fantasy author Resnick offers an enticing alternate-history western starring the consumptive dentist and reluctant shootist Doc Holliday. A mad and thoroughly entertaining mixture of steampunk and magic."

Why do epic fantasies always take place in monarchies, instead of democracies?

Cover art by Steve Stone

The latest Pyr newsletter, the Pyr-A-Zine, has an amazing Q&A with James Enge, discussing his just released novel, A Guile of Dragons (A Tournament of Shadows, Book 1), that is very worth checking out.

One of the interesting questions concerns the anarchic politic system of the Graith of Guardians, which lead to a discussion of why so many fantasy novels operate in monarchies. James answer is very interesting. You'll have to go to the newsletter for the full response, but he begins by saying, "There's a complaint about imaginary-world fantasy which is partly valid and partly nonsense. The complaint runs something like this: Always with the kings, and the dukes, and the princesses. Where's the pluralistic democracy? Do you fantasy people HATE FREEDOM? Personally, I love political freedom so much that someday I'm going to buy some for myself."

Meanwhile, an excerpt from the Q&A has sparked a very interesting debate in the comments section on io9, when they used the interview as a springboard to ask, "Why do epic fantasies always take place in monarchies, instead of democracies?"

So the newsletter, the io9 debate, and, of course, the book itself, are all well worth checking out! 

For Your Viewing Pleasure: A Guile of Dragons

A Guile of Dragons (A Tournament of Shadows, Book 1)
 by James Enge

Cover illustration (c) Steve Stone

Cover design by Jacqueline Nasso Cooke

It's dwarves versus dragons in this origin story for Enge's signature character, Morlock Ambrosius!Before history began, the dwarves of Thrymhaiam fought against the dragons as the Longest War raged in the deep roads beneath the Northhold. Now the dragons have returned, allied with the dead kings of Cor and backed by the masked gods of Fate and Chaos.
The dwarves are cut off from the Graith of Guardians in the south. Their defenders are taken prisoner or corrupted by dragonspells. The weight of guarding the Northhold now rests on the crooked shoulders of a traitor's son, Morlock syr Theorn (also called Ambrosius).
But his wounded mind has learned a dark secret in the hidden ways under the mountains. Regin and Fafnir were brothers, and the Longest War can never be over. . . .

"Morlock Ambrosius, son of Merlin Ambrosius and Nimue Viviana, roams the world of Makers, developed in Enge’s first trilogy (Blood of Ambrose, etc.), in this efficiently excellent epic fantasy. Morlock returns to the Whitethorn Mountains and the dwarfs of the Seven Clans under Thrymhaiam, who fostered him from infancy, and is placed under the charge of clueless Summoner Earno. The Ranga region has stopped shipping provisions to other areas of the Whitethorns, and Guardians have gone missing. Morlock and his foster father, clan elder Tyr syr Theorn, suspect foul play. Earno, on the other hand, assumes the son of traitor Merlin is concocting nefarious schemes. Enge’s engaging portrait of Morlock—who identifies much more as a tallish, less gray dwarf than as the son of a fabled mage—will have readers hunting down earlier books to learn more about the adventurer and his history." Publishers Weekly starred review

Coming in August

City of Ruins nominated for an Endeavor Award

The nominations for this year's Endeavour Award have been announced and Kristine Kathryn Rusch's and City of Ruins is one of the five finalists.

The Endeavor Award is given for a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book written by a Pacific Northwest author or authors and published in the previous year. It is named for H.M. Bark Endeavour, the ship of Northwest explorer Capt. James Cook. The award is announced annually at OryCon, held in Portland, Oregon. The next award will be presented at OryCon 34 (November 2012) for a book published during 2011. The award is accompanied by a grant of $1,000.

The other finalists are:

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake, Tor Books;
River Marked by Patricia Briggs, Ace Books;
Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson, Doubleday; and
When The Saints by Dave Duncan, Tor Books.

The judges for this year are; Gregory Benford, Lawrence M. Schoen, and Susan Shwartz.

Congratulations to all the nominees!

2012 Sunburst Awards

Cover art by Raymond Swanland

The nominees for the 2012 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic have been announced. We are very excited to see that K.V. Johansen's Blackdog is a nominee in the adult category.


The Sunburst jury says this about the book: "Blackdog is everything high fantasy should be: a tale of wars among gods, demons and wizards that also works as an oddly compelling social-cultural coming-of-age novel. The Blackdog has, through a multitude of incarnations, protected the living goddess, Attalissa, who manifests in the world as a human. This time, over many years, she is driven away from her power-giving lake and grows up among the caravanserai of her new Blackdog, the caravan guard Holla-Sayan, and learns to be a more moral human/god. The characterizations of the young girl and her anguished, shape-shifting protector, as well as other gods, friends, and a demonic enemy, are profound & moving. This is a strongly imagined fantasy world, its peoples rendered with both wit and insight."


The Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic is a juried award to recognize stellar writing in two categories: adult and young adult. The awards are presented annually to Canadian writers with a speculative fiction novel or book-length collection of speculative fiction published any time during the previous calendar year. Named after the first novel by Phyllis Gotlieb (1926–2009), one of the first published authors of contemporary Canadian science fiction, the awards consist of a cash award of Cdn$1,000 and a medallion which incorporates a specially designed "Sunburst" logo. The winners receive their awards in the fall of every year.

2012 Chesley Award Finalists

ASFA, the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists, have released the finalists for the Chesley Awards. The cover artists for three Pyr novels are finalists in the category of Paperback Books:

Justin Gerard for Hearts of Smoke and Steamby Andrew P. Mayer
Lucas Graciano for The Goblin Corpsby Ari Marmell
Jon Sullivan for The Curious Case of the Clockwork Manby Mark Hodder

I'm also thrilled at the news that I've just received my fifth Chesley Award nomination in the category of Best Art Director. I'm tremendously humbled to be sharing this honor with fellow nominees Matt Adelsperger (WotC), Irene Gallo (Tor), David Palumbo (Night Shade Books), and Jon Schindehette (WotC).

The Chesley Awards were established in 1985 by the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists to recognize individual artistic works and achievements during a given year. The Chesleys were initially called the ASFA Awards, but were later renamed to honor famed astronomical artist Chesley Bonestell following his death in 1986. The awards are presented annually at the World Science Fiction Convention.

Congratulations to all the nominees! 

Clay and Susan Griffith on USAToday's Happily Ever After

Clay and Susan Griffith, authors of the Vampire Empire trilogy, joined the USAToday's Romance Blog, Happily Ever After, for a video interview. Check it out:






The third book in the trilogy, The Kingmakers, is coming this fall. The Greyfriar and The Rift Walker are available now.

Planesrunner nominated for Sidewise Award

This year's nominees for the Sidewise Award for Alternate History have just been announced. We are very excited to find Ian McDonald's Planesrunner, one of our first young adult offerings, nominated in the category of Alternate History, Long Form.   The winners will be announced at Chicon 7, this year's Worldcon, in Chicago, Illinois during the weekend of August 30.  This year's panel of judges was made up of Stephen Baxter, Evelyn Leeper, Jim Rittenhouse, Stu Shiffman, Kurt Sidaway, and Steven H Silver.

Congratulations to Ian McDonald and all of the nominees.

Short Form

* Michael F. Flynn, The Iron Shirts (Tor.com)

* Lisa Goldstein, Paradise Is a Walled Garden (Asimov’s, 8/11)

* Jason Stoddard, Orion Rising (Panverse 3, edited by Dario Ciriello, Panverse Publishing)

* Harry Turtledove, Lee at the Alamo (Tor.com)

Long Form

* Robert Conroy, Castro's Bomb (Kindle)

* Robert Conroy, Himmler's War (Baen Books)

* Jeff Greenfield, Then Everything Changed (Putnam)

* Ian R MacLeod, Wake Up and Dream (PS Publishing)

* Ian McDonald, Planesrunner (Pyr)

* Ekaterina Sedia, Heart of Iron (Prime)

* Lavie Tidhar, Camera Obscura (Angry Robot)

The Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were conceived in late 1995 to honor the best allohistorical genre publications of the year. The first awards were announced in summer 1996 and honored works from 1995. The award takes its name from Murray Leinster's 1934 short story "Sidewise in Time," in which a strange storm causes portions of Earth to swap places with their analogs from other timelines.

           

For more information, contact Steven H Silver at shsilver@sfsite.com or go to http://www.uchronia.net/sidewise.