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There is excitement surrounding Marjorie Liu’s forthcoming THE TANGLEROOT PALACE and its gorgeous cover
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Design by Elizabeth Story
BEAUTY IN RUINS just can’t wait for Marjorie Liu’s forthcoming collection THE TANGLEROOT PALACE. Though not out until June, preorders for THE TANGLEROOT PALACE are available from all finer booksellers and the Tachyon Publications site.
My pick for this week features a collection of unexpected delights, dangerous magic, and even more dangerous women, with a cover that’s just too gorgeous to resist…
Over the years, many designs were produced by different artists for theoretical theatrical and/or movie adaptations of the short story “The Tangleroot Palace.”
Tachyon tidbits featuring Nalo Hopkinson, Carrie Vaughn, Peter S. Beagle, Michael Blumlein, Kameron Hurley, and Patricia A. McKillip
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The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.
Nalo Hopkinson
Photo by David FindlayCarrie Vaughn
Photo by Helen SittigPeter S. Beagle
Photo by Rina WeismanMichael Blumlein
Photo by Francesca Myman/Locus MagazineKameron Hurley Patricia A. McKillip
Photo by Stephen Gold (Wikimedia Commons)
Congratulations to Nalo Hopkinson on being named the 37th SFWA Damon Knight Grand Master.
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (SFWA) is pleased to announce that Nalo Hopkinson has been named the 37th Damon Knight Grand Master for her contributions to the literature of science fiction and fantasy.
SFWA
The Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award recognizes “lifetime achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy.” Hopkinson joins the Grand Master ranks alongside such legends as C. J. Cherryh, Peter S. Beagle, Ursula K. Le Guin, Anne McCaffrey, Ray Bradbury, and Joe Haldeman. The award will be presented at the 56th Annual Nebula Conference and Awards Ceremony, held online the weekend of June 4–6, 2021.
SOUTHERN TODAY GONE TOMORROW enjoys Carrie Vaughn’s KITTY’S MIX-TAPE.
Absolutely I recommend this to anyone who is a fan of Urban Fantasy, who likes some stakes in their stories, or even those who like some re-imagined historical fantasy.
Dennis Callegari in SF COMMENTARY 104 praises a pair of Peter S. Beagle titles.
A unicorn appears in a field beside the home of a man who lives in Calabria. At first this is his secret; the pain begins after other people discover his secret. The suspenseful climax to the story is heart-stopping. Everything works out for the best eventually, but his main characters have experienced the best and the worst aspects of human behaviour in sunny Calabria.
The most memorable historical fantasy in the collection is ‘The Queen Who Could NotWalk’ (first published in 2013), which has a wonderful surprising-yet-inevitable ending. Other special favourites from this collection are ‘The Story of Kao Yu’ (2016) and ‘The Way It Works Out andAll’ (2011). There are other authors who can write a sentence as well as Beagle, but there are very few who keep inventing sparkling fantasy ideas for decade after decade.
Ian Sales on IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE RIGHT… in his review of Michael Blumlein’s collection All I Ever Dream mentions THE ROBERTS.
The three novellas are probably the strongest works. THE ROBERTS is available separately from Tachyon Publications, and is typical of Blumlein’s work: dense, intense and set somewhere at the intersection of science and technology and human relationships.
Design by Elizabeth Story
At REDDIT r/printsf, Kameron Hurley’s Apocalypse Nyx books get an unexpected mention in Speculative Fiction for mental health?
at first i laughed when i saw “Stars are Legion and The Light Brigade” because i thought you were going to be listing fun, lighthearted reads. but actually Kameron Hurley’s Apocalypse Nyx books (God’s War) helped me a lot with my mental health. They’re gruesome and brutal at times but the main character is such a badass that she makes you feel like you could do anything. It’s a cool series and feels very cinematic.
Smoldero
Patricia A. McKillip for TOR.COM crafts the essay Gingerbread Bricks, Cherry-Stealing Cats, and Other Culinary Disasters.
I’ve been asked if I cook as well as I write about cooking.
It’s a fair question: I’ve been cooking almost as long as I’ve been writing. Writing was something I fell into, much like Alice down the rabbit-hole, when I was fourteen. I sat down one day to write myself a story instead of reading one, and thirty-two pages later—pencil and lined paper tablet—I finished my tale and realized that my predictable world had expanded wildly, enormously, with endlessly diverging and intriguing paths running every which way into an unknown I suddenly knew existed. Having ended one story (which is locked away, guarded by dragons and evil-eyed basilisks, and will never see the light of day if I have anything to say about it), I wanted to start all over again on another.
When or why I decided I needed to inflict culinary disasters on my long-suffering family and others, I don’t remember.
My most vivid cooking memory, even after so many years, is setting my brother on fire with my Cherries Jubilee.
NUCLEATION by Kimberly Unger and THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES by R. B. Lemberg make excellent gifts
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For THE WASHINGTON POST, Lavie Tidhar recommends both R. B. Lemberg’s THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES and Kimberly Unger’s NUCLEATION in A gift guide for the fans of science fiction, fantasy and horror books in your life. (Both titles, along with all the rest of the 2020 titles, are currently 20% off with free media mail shipping on the Tachyon site)
THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES by R.B. Lemberg — a haunting literary fantasy about the fluidity of gender and much else — comes in a handy paperback.
[…]
And for the science fiction fans, here’s a trio of debuts worth checking out: Micaiah Johnson’s tale of parallel universes, “The Space Between Worlds”; Essa Hansen’s space opera “Nophek Gloss”; and Kimberly Unger’s First Contact novel NUCLEATION, all showing that new voices continue to expand the genre.
Like so many others, is Charlie Kaufman a Lavie Tidhar fan?
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On Twitter, Gwilym Eades shares a passage from Charlie Kaufman’s Antkind that references Lavie Tidhar.
Does @lavietidhar know Kaufman mentions him in Antkind? pic.twitter.com/H8TPZq7YCC
— Gwilym Eades (@gwilymeades) November 18, 2020
Over four years since publication, Tidhar’s CENTRAL STATION continues to garner attention and praise.
This is not a long novel, but each of its chapters brings to life so many luminous moments of powerful emotional connection and builds the world of Central Station so convincingly that it feels much longer. I wish it were. It’s one of those books I savor and read slowly to keep it going. For me, Central Station is one of the classics of this century.
SCIFI MIND
So unlike too many science fiction and fantasy novels, this one is a slice of future life with plenty of danger and mysteries. Some but hardly all are thwarted or solved–and then we go on. It’s a kind of high realism, if you like.
MEREDITH SUE WILLIS’S BOOKS FOR READERS #211-215
Describes the life of various people living around a space station in far-future Tel Aviv and reads like a tranquil fever dream. The worldbuilding is extremely strange, featuring everything from robo-priests to vampires that feed on data, but it’s also super super chill.
REDDIT r/Fantasy Best fantasy novel you read in 2020?
Strange, literary fever dream of a sci-fi book set at the base of a space station in far-future Tel Aviv. It’s true slice of life in that it has no plot, but is instead made out of interconnected fragments of the characters’ lives. Chill, relaxing, optimistic, with an incredibly diverse setting and some of the oddest worldbuilding I’ve seen (robo-priests, data vampires…).
REDDIT r/Fantasy Fantasy novels with smaller stakes?
The Romanian BLOGARY enjoys THE VIOLENT CENTURY.
Stylistically, THE VIOLENT CENTURY is one of the most interesting novels I’ve ever read. Although it is not an easy read at all, but one that requires effort from the reader, THE VIOLENT CENTURY is one of the most satisfying and full of wonderful books in recent years.
Translation from Romanian courtesy of Google
TOR.COM publishes the short story “Judge Dee and the Limits of Law.”
The sun had long set over the distant mountains, and the night world was still but for the two small figures trudging silently under the moonlight. One was tall and thin and moved with a precise energy. The other, smaller, kept hurrying to catch up behind. They wended their path over a dirt road threaded through the fields, earth beaten down under the tread of farmers’ feet.
‘There is a village up ahead, master,’ the smaller figure said. ‘If you are in need of feeding.’
The taller one said, ‘One must feed out of necessity, not greed, Jonathan.’
‘Of course, master.’
Jonathan peered ahead. He was grateful for the moon, for without its light he would find it hard to see, unlike his master. Too often in the moonless nights of their passage he tripped and stumbled and, once, would have fallen into a ravine had not his master interceded.
‘A lesson lost on many of the young ones.’ The master stopped, scenting the air. ‘The postulant feeds from fear and hunger; the novice from greed; the lay vampire, if he has reached that far, feeds for it has learned to accept its nature. Not too little to starve. Not too much to bring about one’s own destruction. Do you understand?’
I…yes?’
The master smiled. The smile tore his face in two, revealed his sharp white teeth, reached nearly to those clear and ancient eyes which saw the cruelty of the world long before his companion’s birth. How many decades – centuries – the young assistant never asked. Jonathan was human, and warm-blooded, and young. And his master was Judge Dee.
Image by Red Nose Studio
Also at TOR.COM, Tidhar shares an essay on his anthology The Best of World SF.
I spent the past decade trying to pitch a simple idea to publishers: a mass market anthology of international speculative fiction for the bookstore shelf. The responses varied from, well, no response at all to an under-an-hour rejection (that one still hurts).
The idea is simple and, to me, both logical and necessary. I am of that new generation of writers who grew up in a language other than English, and who decided at some point that our way in is to write in this peculiar, second language. Somehow, we reasoned, against all odds and common sense, we’ll break through into that rarefied Anglophone world, maybe even make a go of it. After all, how hard could English be?
Many of the writers in The Best of World SF do indeed write in English as a second language. Others are translated, thanks to the tireless effort of passionate translators from around the world. As a sometimes translator myself, I know how rarely translators get acknowledged or, indeed, paid, and I made sure that they were paid the same for these stories as the authors themselves.
I was fortunate enough to publish five anthologies of international speculative fiction for the small press in the past decade. The Apex Books of World SF (the last two edited by the fantastic Mahvesh Murad and Cristina Jurado, respectively), are an incredible project, and the unsung Jason Sizemore is my hero for doing them all this time. I promised him he won’t make any money from them when I first pitched the idea, but he’s stubborn fool and still thought they were worth doing—which indeed they were.
Tachyon 25th Anniversary eBooknanza! Newsletter subscribers get your free copy of Patricia A. McKillip’s lyrical, mesmerizing WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD
Rick Klaw blog 25th anniversary, eBooknanza, giveaway, patricia a. mckillip, wonders of the invisible world 0
Cover by Thomas Canty
It’s been 25 years since Jacob Weisman started publishing books, and here we are entering the ’20s with digital giveaways for every newsletter subscriber!
For the whole of 2020 once a month, we will be giving away a free ebook to everyone subscribed to our newsletter prior to the newsletter date. This will be the only time we amp up our newsletter from quarterly announcements of new and upcoming books to monthly. The download link will be good for 48 hours, so if this is a book you’ve been meaning to get, make sure you download it as soon as you can.
This is our thanks for sticking around with us for so long. We look forward to another 25 years with you.
Thank you for being part of our 25th anniversary ebooknanza. You will still get newsletters (and probably some goodies) from us, but on a less frequent basis, so we hope you will stick around.
Endlessly astonishing and impressive fantasist McKillip (The Bards of Bone Plain) travels the shadowy twilight realm between worlds and returns with the raw stuff of dreams.
Publishers Weekly, starred review
Pass through fairy tales into the magic of invisible worlds in these opulent stories by a beloved fantasy icon and author of the classic Riddlemaster trilogy. Patricia McKillip has inspired generations of dedicated readers with enchanting tales that are as romantic as they are unexpected. Her lush, mesmerizing narratives are as deliciously bittersweet as the finest chocolate and as intoxicating as the finest wine.
The bewitching wonders offered here include princesses dancing with dead suitors, a knight in love with an official of exotic lineage, and fortune’s fool stealing into the present instead of the future. You’ll discover a ravishing undine and her mortal bridegroom who is more infatuated with politics than pleasure, a time-traveling angel forbidden to intervene in Cotton Mather’s religious ravings, a wizard seduced in his youth by the Faerie Queen returning with a treasure that is rightfully hers, and an overachieving teenage mage tricked into discovering her true name very close to home.
Mesmerizing…. Any collection of McKillip’s short stories will be a valuable asset to any library and a joy to her many fans.
Library Journal, starred review
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Wonders of the Invisible World
- Out of the Woods
- The Kelpie
- Hunter’s Moon
- Oak Hill
- The Fortune-Teller
- Jack O’Lantern
- Knight of the Well
- Naming Day
- Byndley
- The Twelve Dancing Princesses
- Undine
- Xmas Cruise
- A Gift to Be Simple
- The Old Woman and the Storm
- The Doorkeeper of Khaat
- What Inspires Me: Guest of Honor Speech at WisCon (2004)
It’s our model year blowout. Get all Tachyon books published in 2020 for 20% off! #20for20sale
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Cover by John Coulthart Cover art by Rebecca Harp
Design by Elizabeth StoryCover by Elizabeth Story
Throughout 2020, Tachyon Publications took readers on many adventures and to familiar and strange worlds with the unknown beginnings of beloved characters (OF MICE AND MINESTRONE – HAP AND LEONARD: THE EARLY YEARS by Joe R. Lansdale and THE IMMORTAL CONQUISTADOR by Carrie Vaughn), the boundaries of science (SEA CHANGE by Nancy Kress and NUCLEATION by Kimberly Unger), fantastic uncharted realities (DRIFTWOOD by Marie Brennan and THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES by R. B. Lemberg), werewolves and other creepy imaginings (KITTY’S MIX-TAPE by Carrie Vaughn and THE MIDNIGHT CIRCUS by Jane Yolen), and inexplicable journeys (ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL by Daniel Pinkwater).
All these amazing, acclaimed titles are currently 20% off!
(And as always, free Media Mail shipping on U. S. orders)
Cover by Elizabeth Story Cover by Elizabeth Story Cover by Elizabeth Story based on initial concepts by Francesca Myman
Get yours now before they’re all gone!
Cover design by Elizabeth Story Cover by Elizabeth Story Cover by Aaron Renier
Design by Elizabeth Story
And watch for these exciting titles, coming your way in 2021!
Cover by John Coulthart Cover by Elizabeth Story Cover by Elizabeth Story Cover art by Sana Takeda
Design by Elizabeth storyCover by Scott Brown
This month’s Tachyon 25th Anniversary eBooknanza free book will be Patricia A. McKillip’s lyrical, mesmerizing WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD
Rick Klaw blog eBooknanza, giveaway, patricia a mckillip, wonders of the invisible world
Cover by Thomas Canty
It’s been 25 years since Jacob Weisman started publishing books, and here we are entering the ’20s with digital giveaways for every newsletter subscriber!
For the whole of 2020 once a month, we will be giving away a free ebook to everyone subscribed to our newsletter prior to the newsletter date. This will be the only time we amp up our newsletter from quarterly announcements of new and upcoming books to monthly. The download link will be good for 48 hours, so if this is a book you’ve been meaning to get, make sure you download it as soon as you can.
This is our thanks for sticking around with us for so long. We look forward to another 25 years with you.
Endlessly astonishing and impressive fantasist McKillip (The Bards of Bone Plain) travels the shadowy twilight realm between worlds and returns with the raw stuff of dreams.
Publishers Weekly, starred review
Pass through fairy tales into the magic of invisible worlds in these opulent stories by a beloved fantasy icon and author of the classic Riddlemaster trilogy. Patricia McKillip has inspired generations of dedicated readers with enchanting tales that are as romantic as they are unexpected. Her lush, mesmerizing narratives are as deliciously bittersweet as the finest chocolate and as intoxicating as the finest wine.
The bewitching wonders offered here include princesses dancing with dead suitors, a knight in love with an official of exotic lineage, and fortune’s fool stealing into the present instead of the future. You’ll discover a ravishing undine and her mortal bridegroom who is more infatuated with politics than pleasure, a time-traveling angel forbidden to intervene in Cotton Mather’s religious ravings, a wizard seduced in his youth by the Faerie Queen returning with a treasure that is rightfully hers, and an overachieving teenage mage tricked into discovering her true name very close to home.
Mesmerizing…. Any collection of McKillip’s short stories will be a valuable asset to any library and a joy to her many fans.
Library Journal, starred review
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Wonders of the Invisible World
- Out of the Woods
- The Kelpie
- Hunter’s Moon
- Oak Hill
- The Fortune-Teller
- Jack O’Lantern
- Knight of the Well
- Naming Day
- Byndley
- The Twelve Dancing Princesses
- Undine
- Xmas Cruise
- A Gift to Be Simple
- The Old Woman and the Storm
- The Doorkeeper of Khaat
- What Inspires Me: Guest of Honor Speech at WisCon (2004)
Daniel Pinkwater’s ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL is a fine book by one of America’s most wonderful writers
Rick Klaw blog adventures of a dwergish girl, andrew wheeler, cats coffee break, daniel pinkwater, interview, quote, review, the antick musings of g.b.h. hornswoggler gent. 0
Design by Elizabeth Story
Andrew Wheeler, of THE ANTICK MUSINGS OF G.B.H. HORNSWOGGLER, GENT., enjoys Daniel Pinkwater’s ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL.
But it’s got a wonderful voice in Molly, and a clear point of view and a sequence of interesting people and places to look at. It’s a fine book by one of America’s most wonderful writers, and it’s hugely welcome after such a long absence.
And, perhaps best of all, there’s room for a sequel, or another novel about someone else that takes place after this one. Let’s hope that happens.
Wheeler also created two posts, each featuring different quotes from the book.
And when I talk about how boring it is to live there, and how I wanted to leave, that is not to say that, while boring, life there is not sweet. And I love all the Dwergs. It turns out you can love persons or a place and still find them or it boring, to the point of unbearable.
Quote of the Week: We Gotta Get Out While We’re Young
The idea of getting something to eat in the subway, which is filthy and foul-smelling, struck me as insane, but I suppose if you are a New Yorker in a hurry, and do not care if you live or die, or perhaps do not believe in the germ theory, it’s something you might do.
Quote of the Week: Culinary Standards
On CATS COFFEE BREAK, Rita King and Bonnie Bensur interview Pinkwater.
R. B. Lemberg’s gorgeous THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES offers many pleasures
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Anna Paradox on PARADOX WORLD JOURNAL praises R. B. Lemberg’s THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES.
I love this opening sentence from R.B. Lemberg. It’s not a hook – it doesn’t strain with danger. It’s not a promise. There’s no weight on where the story goes next. The word “alone” suggests that “I” may stop being alone – or may not. The word “in” holds the possibility of “out” but doesn’t coerce that next step. There’s no giveaway to the genre of the story – an old goatskin tent could be historical or contemporary, realistic or fantastic.
I have a third type of first sentence I consider: the seduction. First sentences are seductions when they promise pleasure. I started looking at this sentence, and I wasn’t sure what pleasure it promised. Would I need to make a new category? “I sat alone in my old goatskin tent.”
No, as I looked longer, I saw the pleasures here.
CADL CAST, podcast for the Capital Area District Libraries (Lansing, MI), recommends the novella, starting around 8:04.
Lemberg joins Argo Bookshop’s Trans & Nonbinary Book Club to discuss THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES. Email to sign up.
Thursday December 10 | 7:00PM – 9:00PM
We are thrilled to have author R.B. Lemberg joining us for a discussion of their wonderful debut novella, The Four Profound Weaves!
REDDIT r/Fantasy continues their love for the book and the Birdverse.
Gorgeous novella about two elderly trans people on a quest for a magic carpet. Themes of acceptance, culture clash, and change.
Best fantasy novel you read in 2020?
I liked Grandmother-nai-Laylit’s Cloth of Winds by R.B. Lemberg, which is a prologue to THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES.
What are your absolute favourite short stories in the fantasy genre?
[…]
For longer, novella-length stuff, I enjoyed Ring Shout, The Haunting of Tram Car 015, THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES and The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water!
THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES by R.B. Lemberg a bit of a wild card as it’s a West Asian inspired fantasy. Gotcha! Bet you forgot all about West Asia!
Asian inspired fantasy
Birdverse by R.B. Lemberg – So this isn’t exactly a series, but I read THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES for Bingo, and I’ve read the Cloth of Winds story, and I’d like to go back and read the rest of the stories (or as many of them as I can get my hands on).
Finish some of those series – a challenge and a plan