Washington Post on the Moon

Adrienne Martini, of the Washington Post, reviews four SF novels in her article "Spaceships, Gunfights and believable characters, too." She reviews works by Emma Bull, Joe Haldeman, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, and our own Alexis Glynn Latner. Speaking of Hurricane Moon,she says the novel is " a compelling work that creates believable worlds informed by hard science but populated with credible characters who aren't just mouthpieces for technological wizardry."

She goes on to say that, "By the end of the book, both the science and the spirit are joined in a union that is strong and dynamic. Hurricane Moon... is a resonant achievement."

Isn't It Romantic: The Blade Itself in RT

Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself,as reviewed in Romantic Times magazine, October 2007:

“Abercrombie kicks off his series masterfully with a heroic fantasy without conventional heroes. Its clearly the characters that take center stage here. Their dialogue is full of cynicism and wit, their lives full of intrigue, battles and magic.”

Also awarded 4 ½ stars and defined as “Fantastic — Keeper.” Sweet.

Meanwhile, a Reader Review on SFFWorld, from PapaJ, which describes the book as "tight, character driven and with characters that are 'believable' and ones that I could identify with easily, yet complex and mysterious. The universe feels expansive yet is without the fluff of detail that bogs down many fantasy novels... All round well balanced, tight, quality fantasy fiction."

NSS on Hurricane Moon

Chairman of the Space Books Committee and one of NASA’s first ten women flight controllers Marianne Dyson has reviewed Alexis Glynn Latner's Hurricane Moonas the featured book for October for the National Space Society. Which is a very cool person and a very cool place for a review of a book about planetary colonization indeed. And her verdict? Well, she has an interesting discussion of whether or not moons are essential for the stabilization of climate. But she concludes, "For those of us entertained by contemplating starship designs, planetary choice criteria, and biological considerations, this book has it all. But the book is also a great read for those who enjoy science fiction about people making choices based on the kind of world and future they want to build for themselves. What kind of people will sign up for one-way trip to an unknown world? What sort of challenges will they face? Will they be willing to change their plans, their minds, even their own humanity to survive beyond the stars? I highly recommend Hurricane Moon to anyone who wants to imagine life on another world."

Remember, of course, that you can visit Alexis online at her website or her group blog, and that you can read the first three chapters of Hurricane Moon online here.

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…"

Joel Sheperd Attains Critical Mass

Don D'ammassa's Critical Mass reviews Joel Shepherd's forthcoming Killswitch: A Cassandra Kresnov Novel,which he calls, "Space opera the way it ought to be written."

"My favorite android is back. ...Espionage, battles, secrets revealed, escapes, political intrigue, personality clashes, high adventure, outer space – it’s all here. Easily the best of the three. I hope there’s more on their way. Most novels with this general background get caught up in the military content and forget about the characters. Shepherd manages to keep everything in balance. "

And, of course, we're still excited about Publishers Weekly's "Robert Ludlum meets Elizabeth Moon in this classic military SF adventure, buoyed by Shepherd's knack for balancing crisp action with characters you can really root for."

Adventures in the Multiverse: Michael Moorcock Podcast

Shaun Farrell's always magnificent podcast, Adventures in Scifi Publishing, has just uploaded his extensive interview with fantasy master Michael Moorcock, discussing his imminent work, The Metatemporal Detective.

Almost the entire 45 minute podcast is devoted to Mike, who talks about the origin of the Sir Seaton Begg character, all his literary allusions, his connection to the Pyatt novels, etc... He also discusses classic science fiction writer Alfred Bester, contemporary literary writer Michael Chabon, the origin of his multiverse, the differences in how he is published in the US and the UK, and much more besides.

Listening to it now myself. My favorite quote: "Tom Paine, addressing the Americans before the Revolution said - I think it's in Common Sense - that it was unseemly that such a large nation should be ruled by such a small one. And I think that's true of the science fiction and fantasy world, that it's such a very large nation indeed being to some extent ruled by a very small nation of critics. Because in terms of sales, you know, there are a lot of literary writers I know who would give a lot to have the kind of sales that many science fiction and fantasy writers have."

It should be noted too that Shaun is holding a contest to give away three copies of The Metatemporal Detective. Entry details are on his website.

The Blade Itself - Frustratingly Good

Rob H. Bedford's latest review on SFFWorld is up. This time, he proclaims his "frustration" with Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself. "Abercrombie is a damned frustrating writer. He writes so well and his story is so infectious it is difficult to stop reading and even thinking about the layers of his story and world."

Very gratifying to me are the comparisons with George R R Martin, Greg Keyes, and Scott Lynch. "The novel bears some comparison to Greg Keyes Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone and Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire for the multiple points-of-view and aforementioned wide screen action..." and "One thing I like a lot about Abercrombie’s writing was something I enjoyed about Scott Lynch’s writing – attitude."

I've never read GRRM's fantasy (I know, I know), but Keyes' The Briar Kingis a favorite of mine as well as a yardstick for quality, whereas I picked up the Lynch when I was considering The Blade Itself specifically because I knew that Gollancz had marketed them together in the UK and I wanted to see how they compared. (I found them tonally very similar, which was one of the many data points that encouraged me to pick up Abercrombie.) So yeah, Rob, couldn't agree more!

River of Gods Borderlands Bestseller

I was thrilled this morning to open up my newsletter from San Francisco independent genre bookstore, Borderlands Books, one of my favorite bookstores on the planet, to discover that the recently released paperback of Ian McDonald's River of Gods tied for fourth place with Michael Swanwick's new collection, The Dog Said Bow-Wow, on their Borderlands Best-Selling Titles for September, 2007 in the trade paperback category. Here's the full list for the category:

1. Butcher Bird by Richard Kadrey
2. Grey by Jon Armstrong
3. Reaper's Gale by Steven Erikson
4. The Dog Said Bow-Wow by Michael Swanwick tie with
River of Gods by Ian McDonald
5. Nova Swing by M. John Harrison

Here's Borderlands' contact information, if anyone wants to help boost the book in the rankings!

Update: Somehow I missed this in my first read of the Borderlands newsletter: The Blade Itself - The First Law, vol. 1 by Joe Abercrombie (Pyr, Trade Paperback, $15.00) - Ben and several customers are raving about this grim heroic fantasy debut. Ben says "A fantasy novel that combines a famous barbarian who is sick of 'the lifestyle,' an up-and-coming nobleman who is so selfish you just want to slap him, a state-sanctioned torturer who is trying to see every angle in a twisted political labyrinth, and a curmudgeonly ancient wizard whom no one belives. Throw them all together, have them embark on a tale only hinted at in this fist novel, and you have the beginning of a truly unusual and wonderfully captivating series. Buy this book -- and this is from someone who doesn't read fantasy!"

Reader Response: Kenyon and Latner

My director of publicity received this very welcome email from an enthusiastic reader. I asked and we have received permission to repost it here:

Ms Maxick,

I don't usually take the time to provide this type of feedback to publishers, and I haven't read many SF novels written by women, most likely an unconscious (but not excusable) bias. Two of your authors are a worthy exception - Kay Kenyon and Alexis Glynn Latner.

I recently finished reading Kenyon's Bright of the Skyand thoroughly enjoyed how she presented complex character development, surprising plot twists, and epic space opera. So much so in that I scrounged around, found, and bought two of her earlier novels to enjoy her writing style, creativity, and wit.

I'm currently reading Latner's Hurricane Moonand am struck by how much detailed originality and humanity she's packed into the classic SF plot of settling on a new world. I'd bet really 'good' money that I'll be watching for new novels by her.

I've perused & bookmarked your website to learn more about your SF books, etc and will be returning to it regularly. Thank you for publishing these two authors and for putting Pyr science fiction on my entertainment radar screen.

Darryl

Something Old, Something New

The Not Free SF Reader chimes in with some thoughts on my anthology, Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge.They "definitely" recommend the book, and say "The stories are good, the average rating being 3.53, which is a bit over what you hope for from a book, and is rather well done in a new original project as opposed to some sort of reprint... it is a book that is well worth looking at."

Meanwhile, Michael Swanwick reprints an essay he originally ran in the NYRSF called "A Nettlesome Term That Has Outlived its Welcome." The essay is about the way the term "fix-up", originally created to mean a novel assembled out of previously published material and which covers some of the greatest works in the field (as in Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles, for example) is now perhaps a derogatory term that does more harm than good. Along the way, he discusses Jack Dann's marvelous The Man Who Melted,a novel which "didn’t make it big, the way later Dann novels such as The Memory Cathedral and The Silent would. It was much too intensely personal for that. But it’s one of those neglected books that nevertheless contain a great deal to interest the intelligent reader."