Pyr Podcast Roundtable

Today, episode 61 of Speculate: The Podcast for Writers, Readers and Fans, features a special roundtable podcast with Pyr editorial director Lou Anders, Pyr authors Brenda Cooper (The Creative Fire) and E.C. Myers (Fair Coin and Quantum Coin), and freelance copyeditor Gabrielle Harbowy. They say:


"We set a new record for single episode participation in this show with four distinguished guests: Brenda Cooper and E.C. Myers (authors of The Creative Fire and Quantum Coin, respectively), freelance editor Gabrielle Harbowy, and Pyr Books‘ editorial and art director Lou Anders speak for an hour on what has made Pyr such a successful speculative fiction imprint, where it’s been and where it’s going in the future. This wide ranging discussion also looks at the finer points of how good editors work with good authors, how important a good cover is to an equally good book, and what makes Dragon Con such a scary (and amazing!) event every year. Our shows normally don’t run this long, but we hope you’ll agree the extra discussion we got with all of these fine people was worth the extra time. If you like what you hear, don’t forget to check back next week when we’ll start a new series of shows on the work of Joe Abercrombie. Until then, thanks as always for listening, and please continue to spread the word about the show!"

Interview and Reviews

James Enge  drops by Suvudu to share five facts about his forthcoming novel, The Wolf Age. See "Take Five with James Enge" for  what powers a magical zeppelin and why the Grateful Dead are cool. Meanwhile, Sam Sykes, author of Tome of the Undergates, answers "8 Shoddy Questions" on SFFNews today, including #8, "Who would win in a fight between a Koala Bear and a Wombat?" Sam was also recently featured on John Scalzi's The Big Idea, in which he explained that "crotch stompin'" was just the icing on the cake in his examination of what it truly means to be an adventurer. And Twelve author Jasper Kent has an excellent interview up at Pat's Fantasy Hotlist.

Meanwhile, here's what they are saying about our books:

The Dervish House by Ian McDonald:  “McDonald flawlessly weaves the different characters and plotlines together with a masterful touch as he draws upon current events to chart the probable future of Turkey. The protagonists are fully developed against the backdrop of the vividly imagined city of Istanbul while emerging technology holds the potential to change everything. Sci-fi just doesn’t get much better then this.” -Monsters and Critics, September 25, 2010

Blood of Ambrose by James Enge: “Blood of Ambrose is slick, weaving a dark tale of despair and death as our heroes struggle to save their kingdom and, as the book moves forward, the entire continent as a darker and far more dangerous adversary is revealed. Enge’s style is more show than tell and for Blood of Ambrose this works magically as the Two Cities of the Ontilian Empire seem to breathe life throughout the pages…It seemed too soon when I reached the end, so well had Enge penned this barbaric and epic tale. I fully understand now why the book was recently nominated for Best Fantasy Book of the Year.”-Shiny book Review, September 16, 2010

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie: “Three days of rabid reading later, if there is one word that should unequivocally never, ever be used to describe The Blade Itself, that word would be ordinary. This is the type of book that spoils you, the kind of book that makes nearly everything else on your bookshelf look mediocre, the kind of thing that could forever wreck “ordinary” fantasy for you…Maybe my inner geek is showing, but reading The Blade Itself put me a little in the mind of watching the original Star Wars movie.” ​-The Little Red Reviewer blog, September 21, 2010

The Cardinal’s Blades by Pierre Pevel: “…this is a wildly entertaining read with delightfully broken characters. Were I ten again, I'd be running around the park with sticks, pretending to be the half-dragon Saint-Lucq. Also like Dumas, The Cardinal's Blades isn't "great literature" - there aren't deeper themes or higher ideals at stake: this is a book of swashbuckling excess, and should be celebrated as such.” -Pornokitsch.com, September 17, 2010

Hateful Heroes

I recently was asked to contribute to an online list of favorite literary villains. It got me to thinking about hating our heroes, too. There is something delicious and compulsively readable about a hero who is a complete ass. Are you looking for a way to reclaim your story idea from the doldrums? How about reconfiguring your protagonist into an infuriating, sometimes repulsive, anti-social genius?

Does someone come to mind immediately? If you mentioned Gregory House of the TV medical show, you're on my wavelength.

I think the show was a bit repetitive this past season, but I kept watching just for the vile doctor. Here is a brilliant hero who is hard to like, but who makes everyone around him seem pathetically common and boring. His healing is solely (so far) for the purpose of testing his diagnostic skills.You've doubtless heard that House is a take-off on Sherlock Holmes . . . another hero--like Scarlet O'Hara, and many others--who doesn't bother winning our empathy.How do the writers get by with this?

My take is that these maddening heroes behave in anti-social ways that we often wish to. Normally we might not want to hurt feelings, but aren't there times--perhaps lots of them--when you just want to let go and say what you mean, no matter how cynical and thoughtless it might be--just to shake up the status quo? Just to tell the truth for once? These hateful heroes do so with the charm (Scarlet) or wit (House) that we would love to have.

Part of the secret to these great characters is their attractive qualities that more than make up for their delicious indulgences. House saves lives with his uncanny deductions. He is also quite funny. (Hmm. Make note to self.) Scarlet is magnetic, attracting every male (and female) in the room. But House is the stronger character. He has a big personal quality that she lacks. He is self-aware. He knows that he despises himself. Ordinary people would whine and deny. Not House. Without realizing it, we admire his self-knowledge.

Another bit of genius: the writers keep giving us moments when House will surely cave in. We hope for his redemption; we think we see moments. . . we desperately want him to believe in something. We are hooked on House. Notice how the writers constantly craft moments when we are led once again to hope. This is the real underlying drama of House--beyond the sick patients and the love lives of his fellow doctors: will House be redeemed?

For another study in dark heroes, read Joe Abercrombie's First Law series (a fantasy.) You may disagree with me that the torturer Glokta is a protagonist (at least in the first book), but do take a look at this masterful rendering of a shockingly cruel character whom we find irresistible.

OK, and for my list of favorite villains in fantasy, horror, and science fiction. From SF Signal.

Blood of Ambrose is Joe Mallozzi's Book of the Month for July

Stargate writer/producer, avid reader, and all around great guy Joe Mallozzi has announced his June and July selections for his Book Club reads. For those who don't know, Joe picks one or more titles a month, invites his many fans to read them along with him, and then invites the authors in for a lengthy Q&A. I had the honor to be the first such guest, but he's gone on to have scores of authors on, including our own Justina Robson, David Louis Edelman, and Joe Abercrombie, as well as our friend & frequent cover artist John Picacio. Now, he's chosen James Enge's Blood of Ambrosefor his July selection, and before that, our friend Michael Moorcock's Elric: The Stealer of Souls,(the new Del Rey edition with the fabulous interior artwork by John Picacio). Both great choices and I'm excited to see the interviews with both authors. Meanwhile, Enge himself is over the moon to be in the same post with Moorcock. Who wouldn't be?

Watch Real Live Authors Talk, Breath, Shrug and Scratch Themselves

Two video interviews with Pyr authors have cropped up recently.

David Louis Edelman is interviewed by the long-running show Fast Forward.

Joe Abercrombie is interviewed by Sci-Fi-London.

Both interviews are worthwhile and informative. Who knew these guys could talk as well as type?

A Host of Pyr Reviews & a Podcast!

Okay, playing mad catch-up:

A podcast with Joe Abercrombie on the Dragon Page. Their description: "This week, Mike, Summer and Mike talk with Joe Abercrombie about Last Argument of Kings,the third book in The First Law Trilogy. We talk about the characters and the more contemporary feel of their speech, the more intimate nature of relationships and intrigues, and about how the buzz about these stories surround the writing style of the battle scenes."

Meanwhile, Patrick Rothfus, he of The Name of the Wind,raves about Joe Abercrombie (and Brandon Sanderson) on his blog: "The books are good, really good. They pulled me in. Well-developed world. Unique, compelling characters. I like them so much that when I got to the end of the second book and found out the third book wasn't going to be out in the US for another three months. I experienced a fit of rage, then a fit of depression, then I ate some lunch and had a bit of a lay down... I will also say this. This isn't some cookie-cutter fantasy. It's refreshingly realistic, but also very gritty and dark. It might even be fair to call it grim. You have been warned." Of course, I should point out, the books are all three available in the US now...

Discover Magazine on Fast Forward 2: "It’s a great collection, with a good mix of stories ranging from hard science fiction to near magic realism. Stand outs for me included 'True Names,' a novella by Doctorow and Benjamin Rosenbaum set in a post-post-post-human universe, and 'An Eligible Boy,' written by Ian McDonald, that takes place in the mid-21st century India that McDonald has used as the backdrop for his 2004 book River of Gods." Our friend and frequent commentator Rene also has a nice review on her blog, Little Bits of Everything: "This is a fantastic anthology that I look forward to rereading. I sincerely hope that Fast Forward becomes an annual anthology; the first two volumes are incredibly strong."

Over at Adventures in Reading, Joe Sherry reviews Mike Resnick's Starship: Mercenary. I was struck by a particular comparison he made - "This may be an odd comparison given the length and success of Mike Resnick's career, but Starship: Mercenary is a fun military science fiction novel that fans of John Scalzi's work will want to jump right into. There is a certain comparison and similarity in style." This struck me because I read the manuscript for Mercenary within a month of The Last Colony and thought the same thing.

Also a positive review of Stalking the Vampire at Monsters & Critics: "...features offbeat humor, amusing dialog and a zany cast of characters that is sure to entertain the most jaded sci-fi fan and spark plenty of interest in an emerging series."

And here Intercontinental Ballistic Discourse discusses a host of Mike Resnick works, including the extant Starship series: "I’ve got to say: wow! The characters are engaging, the story is fast and entertaining, and the plots are believable. My favorite form of science fiction is loosly described as military science fiction, or sci-fi that takes place around a starcraft or some form of governmental space navy and this series started off that way and branched out to something even more."

Whew!

Heard Round the Web

On her blog, science fiction author Nancy Kress discusses, "The Point of Fiction." She opinions, "It is: to decide what matters. Fiction explores this point through all sorts of subsidiary questions: What is worth expending effort on, struggling to obtain, sacrificing other things for, maybe even dying for?"

I am interested in this, and in how it can be applied to the specific Point of Science Fiction.

Meanwhile, Of Blog of the Fallen asks "Do SF/F authors have to be SF/F fans in order to be good writers?" Lots of interesting comments, and lots of names you may recognize in the comments as well - including Solaris book's Mark Newton and The First Law trilogy scribe Joe Abercrombie. My own opinion, expressed a few times already therein, that while there is no point reinventing the wheel, a good book is its own justification. And a bad book, well...

Finally, speaking of Joe Abercrombie, here he is speaking to SFX. A sample, from his advice to writers: "The best thing I've found, if you're not writing anything good, is just to sit in front of it and write something bad. Put in some chair time. Then when you come back later in a better frame of mind, you may find some gems in the rubbish you produced. You may even find what you wrote isn't that bad, and with a bit of sharpening up you have pure gold...”

2008 Hugo Awards Nominations List

The 66th World Science Fiction Convention has made public the 2008 Hugo Nomination List. And I am delighted to report that, counting the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Writer, Pyr has no less than four people on the ballot!

In the Best Novel category - Ian McDonald's Brasyl(published by Gollancz in the UK)

In the category of Best Professional Editor, Long Form - Yours Truly

And up for the John W. Campbell, both Joe Abercrombie (who I share with Gollancz) and David Louis Edelman.

I also have to extend my congratulations to three artists who have graced Pyr covers, Bob Eggleton, Stephan Martiniere, and John Picacio. And to our author Mike Resnick, for his Hugo nomination in the short story category for "Distant Replay" (published in Asimov's April/Nay 2007 issue).

A huge congratulations to all the nominees across the board!

Joe Shoots His Mouth Off

A great interview with Joe Abercrombie over on SF UK Book News. Even though it deals with the conclusion of The First Law trilogy, there's no spoilers for us US folks. My favorite bit:

UKSFBN: Throughout The First Law you've taken great and deliberate delight in subtly subverting established fantasy conventions. Given that you freely confessed, last time you talked to us, to doing this on purpose, will you also admit to having increased the satire levels in the final volume, or has the trope-bashing been kept to a minimum this time around?

Joe Abercrombie: "The trope-bashing is certainly still going, more than ever in a way, since the trilogy is a single story and it perhaps diverges further and further from what the reader expects as we draw near to the end. Epic fantasy is a genre full of clichés, so you can't really write in it without reacting to them yourself in some way – whether you embrace them, consciously reject them, or try to twist them to your own evil purposes.

"But, you know, for all the attempts to do something surprising and rework the formula and all that, I hope that what I've delivered first and foremost is a cracking fantasy tale. I'm aiming more for Unforgiven than for Blazing Saddles, if you like. A re-examination of the classic form, perhaps, a self-aware comment on it, perhaps, but also a solid example of the form. I'm not taking myself too seriously (despite appearances), but I'm not taking the piss either.

"Not too much, anyway."

Abercrombie on Abercrombie

A wealth of Joe Abercrombie over on SFCrowsnest. First, they reprint his blog entry on the influence of George RR Martin on his work (The Blade Itself,Before They Are Hanged,and the forthcoming Last Argument of Kings), then Joe is interviewed by Aidan Moher in "The Joe Himself: Joe Abercrombie Interviewed." On his early influences:

As a kid I was very into the Lord of the Rings, and read it every year for a while. Wizard of Earthsea also had a strong effect on me. So did Michael Moorcock (particularly Corum and all the crazy names). I watched Conan the Barbarian many times more than is healthy for a teenage boy (there's boobs in it, and I'm not just talking about Schwarzenegger's). I started playing an awful lot of roleplaying games around this time, and with supplements from that, early fantasy-styled computer games such as Dungeon Master, Bloodwych, and Legend, cracking through a load of Dragonlance, and David Eddings first two series (or are they the same series with different covers?) I probably glutted myself on the cheesier end of the fantasy spectrum. Nothing wrong with cheese, you understand, as long as you get some fibre in your diet at the same time.

Joe Won't Shut Up

Joe Abercrombie is interviewed by John Joseph Adams on SciFi Wire today. Discussing his hit fantasy The Blade Itself,Joe says he was aiming to write, "Something with the action and adventure, the magic and mystery, that readers look for in a fantasy, but focused very much on the characters rather than the world. I tried to make those characters as surprising, as morally ambiguous, as funny and horrible as I've found real people to be. I wanted to write something that was really capable of surprising the reader, and above all I wanted it to have a sense of humor without being all-out pastiche."

Ecstatic About Fantasy

Author, editor and blogger Jeff Vandermeer offers a round-robin interview of four new faces in fantasy on the Amazon Editor's Blog, Omnivoracious. In Heroic Fantasy Part I, he talks with our own Joe Abercrombie, author of The Blade Itself,as well as new writers Karen Miller, Brian Ruckley, and Brandon Sanderson. Additional interview material, which didn't make it into the Amazon Blog, is available on Jeff's website, Ecstatic Days.

Joe says: "I try to write fantasy...with all the grit, and cruelty, and humour of real life, where good and evil are a matter of where you stand, just like in the real world."

Update 10/26/07: Jeff informs me that Heroic Fantasy Part II is now online. Here is Joe Abercrombie on his literary influences: "Off the top of my head and trying not to get too pretentious--Charles Dickens (for weird and wonderful characters and dialogue), Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (for how people really behave under pressure), James Ellroy (for shocks and surprises in both plot and character), Philip Larkin (for fearlessness, brevity, and withering cynicism). Okay, so that was pretty pretentious, but hey, I'd stick J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Moorcock, and George RR Martin in there with 'em. That's quite a dinner party, thinking about it. Then a lot of writers of history as well--let's pick out Shelby Foote for his Narrative History of the Civil War. But I'm a film editor by trade, and so I tend to find a lot of inspiration in film and television as well--everything from Manga, to Westerns, to Film Noir, to Cop Shows."

Interview: Joe Abercrombie

Joe Abercrombie is interviewed today on Fantasy Book Critic. They talk about The Blade Itself, the whole of the First Law trilogy and beyond, movies, books, video games and much more. Many words of wisdom and mirth.

Words of wisdom: "What’s more important to you? Your family and friends or your house? One’s your life. The other’s the setting for it. That’s a no contest in my book. Worldbuilding’s great, in its place, I just don’t feel that it should ever cramp the characters or the story. It should always be revealed in passing, as the background for the action, never be the focus of anything."

Words of mirth: "You’ve got to change and develop, even if that’s going to mean some wrong steps along the way. But never say never. Dead horse flogging can be a surprisingly profitable business and daddy needs a swimming pool…"

Not Your Average Joe

Aidan Moher interviews Joe Abercrombie on his website, A Dribble of Ink. They talk about his debut fantasy novel, The Blade Itself,out this September from Pyr. And the lack of the obligatory fantasy world map.

"I wanted my readers to feel like they were right there with the characters – right inside their heads, if possible – part of the action rather than floating dispassionately above it. I wanted to tell a story as close-up as possible, so you can smell the sweat, and feel the pain, and understand the emotions. I want a reader to be nailed to the text, chewing their fingernails to find out what happens next, not constantly flipping back to the fly-leaf to check just how far north exactly Carleon is from Uffrith, or whatever. The characters often don’t know what’s going on – they don’t have a conveniently accurate map to hand, why should the reader?"

Meanwhile, check out Joe's new website, and lookee here, we've put the first 63 pages of The Blade Itself online!