The Stargate: Atlantis Book Club

Theodore Judson's The Martian General's Daughtermade its second appearance on Stargate: Atlantis last night, in the episode "First Contact." This one is a much better cover-shot than in the previous episode. Thanks to John-Mark for the screenshot, who has several more posted on his blog. Thanks also to Joe Mallozzi and the rest of the Stargate team for arranging this.

Where's my jetpack?

Oh. It appears this guy has it.

A Swiss man has become the first person to fly solo across the English Channel using a single jet-propelled wing.

Yves Rossy landed safely after the 22-mile (35.4 km) flight from Calais to Dover, which had been twice postponed this week because of bad weather.

The former military pilot took less than 10 minutes to complete the crossing and parachute to the ground.

The 49-year-old flew on a plane to more than 8,200ft (2,500m), ignited jets on a wing on his back, and jumped out.

Hello, future. So glad you could join us.

Todd Lockwood's The Stormcaller, From Sketch to Finish

Over on Tor.com, art director Irene Gallo has just posted "Todd Lockwood's Stormcaller, from Sketch to Finish" a very in-depth breakdown of the evolution of the cover for our forthcoming title, The Stormcaller: Book One of the Twilight Reign,by Tom Lloyd. With quotes from Yours Truly and a LOT of commentary from Lockwood himself, and 20 different sketches, roughs and detailed close-ups, the post is well worth checking out.

Justina Robson on Keeping It Real

As I reported earlier, writer/co-executive producer of Stargate: Atlantis Joseph Mallozzi featured Justina Robson's Keeping It Realon his blog's book club discussion. I'm a few days late on gettting the link up, but Justina has now answered, indepthly, all his readers questions. The full interview is up here. And here's one of my favorite bits:

The demons and devils were really refreshing to work on for me. I’ve been a Christian fundamentalist of a kind in my youth, and an occult student, and a devotee of all things theological and then I discarded formal approaches and religions altogether for a kind of atheism and went on a more personal kind of spiritual quest, which I am still on. But I used to have very fixed ideas and literal notions of all kinds of things and being able to finally sift through all that and find my version of what the truth is was just tremendously exciting and liberating. Of course it’s just my version and although I’m passionate about writing this stuff and feeling it’s true I know it’s only a way of seeing things. Hence the book’s title.

And, of course, the third book in the Quantum Gravity series, Going Under,was just recently released. You can read a substantial excerpt on our new sample pages site here.

Shatner on the "Machine Where You Suck in the Air with the Molecules"

Via SFSignal. On the one hand, I'm disturbed (though not surprised) that Shatner doesn't seem to know what the teleporter is called. On the other hand, he makes a good point. The fact is, Star Trek has to ignore half the implications of its teleporter/replicator technology for the sake of drama, because the truth is that it would eliminate death entirely in just the way he understands.

The Stormcaller - Free Online Reading

Check out this enormous excerpt from the soon-to-be-released fantasy epic, The Stormcaller: Book One of the Twilight Reignby Tom Lloyd.

I am really excited about this book. I'm not the only one:

"Magical creatures and high speed action scenes... packed with detail without being too heavy. The Stormcaller shows how high the bar has been raised with its sheer vision and inventiveness." —SFX

David Louis Edelman Reading Tonight

The Barnes & Noble in the Spectrum Center in Reston, Virginia will be hosting David Louis Edelman tonight, Wednesday, September 17 at 7:00 pm. He’ll be reading from and signing copies of MultiReal.Come on by if you are in the area! The store is at 1851 Fountain Drive, Reston, VA 20190, phone number 703-437-9490.


Check out the recent praise for MultiReal:

• io9: “I’m in it for the long haul, because it feels like Edelman is writing about real people and real issues, in a thrilling, engaging way. And that’s rarer than it should be.”
• Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist: “This is one sequel that delivers! No middle book syndrome for David Louis Edelman… The Jump 225 trilogy remains one of the very best ongoing science fiction series on the market.”
• Bookgasm: “Infoquake’s strengths have carried over to its sequel… With Infoquake and MultiReal, [Edelman]’s got new archetypes aplenty, and he doesn’t need old tropes to slow him down.”
• Chicago Center for Literature and Photography: “(Rating: 8.8 out of 10) This is a series that genre fans will definitely want to check out, and an individual chapter here that could very well garner a Hugo nomination next year.”
• Through a Glass, Darkly: “Even for a reader who loves laser battles and big explosions, MultiReal still comes across as extremely satisfying and fun.”
• Death Ray Magazine (not online): “A mix of cyberpunk and The Wall Street Journal… Where Edelman does excel, and the true focus of the book, is exploring the economics and political powers behind new technologies, their development and routes to market and the social and moral implications of such advancements.”

Joe Mallozzi is Keeping It Real

Stargate: Atlantis executive producer Joseph Mallozzi is Keeping It Real. Or rather, he's open for questions for this month's selection in his book discussion group, Justina Robson's Keeping It Real.Justina herself will be stopping by later to answer his readers questions. Meanwhile, he describes the book as:

"It’s a fun read that pokes fun at fantasy tropes and certain genre-specific narrative conventions while also offering up a cast of colorful, nicely-developed characters... Our protagonist Lila Black is particularly well-drawn and sympathetic, a woman struggling to reconcile herself to a tough post-traumatic existence. Her inevitable encounter with the elf who nearly killed her, and the ensuing sacrifice that neatly parallels her past ordeal, is surprisingly poignant. Inventive in its world-building, engaging in its humorous, fast-paced narrative, Keeping It Real is a promising start to the Quantum Gravity series."

Sean Williams' Advice to New Writers

I always knew Sean Williams could write. I didn't know he could speak. Sean recently gave an address to the winners of the Writers of the Future contest, and Shaun Farrell, of Adventures in SciFi Publishing, was there to record his speech and interview Sean afterwards.

Sean's talk is full of tremendous advice for those just starting out, and his interview covers a range of topics, including his new Star Wars novel, The Force Unleashed. The podcast is available via iTunes but can be accessed directly from the link above. Thanks to WotF for letting it be recorded and Shaun Farrell for doing so!

Joe Abercrombie Speaks (again)!

Joe Abercrombie is interviewed by Andrew Brooks on SFRevu,
wherein he says many things about the just-released Last Argument of Kings, and the trilogy it completes, including:

I read a lot of history, and my observation has been that failures, mistakes, and idiocy are frequently much more important in the course of events than successes. I hadn't seen that much failure and stupidity in fantasy so I was keen to redress the balance. I wanted my characters grimy, flawed, and difficult, as I have observed real people generally to be, so it made sense that my mismatched group of champions should mostly despise each other throughout. A couple learn grudging respect for one member of the team or another, but in the main they hate each other just as much at the end as they did to begin with.

John Berlyne also reviews the book for the site, and says, "The First Law is, I strongly believe, a seminal work of modern fantasy. It is a benchmark sequence that should be regarded as an example of all that is truly great in today's genre fiction. It stands way above the vast majority of the marketplace, tainted as so many fantasy works are with the lofty and portentous myth cycles bequeathed to us by Tolkien. Instead, Abercombie's work reflects today's harsher world within its pages. This is fantasy come of age, a tale for a modern generation, a story for the selfish -- for a harder, more self-aware audience, for people who live in today's litigious, cynical, unforgiving society. You know who you are! Very highly recommended."