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Happy Birthday to the National Book Award winner Lisa Goldstein
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Author of 14 novels, Lisa Goldstein burst upon the literary landscape after winning the National Book Award for her first novel, The Red Magician (1982). She followed that tour de force with The Dream Years (1985), which garnered her a World Fantasy Award nomination. Goldstein followed those up with a string of acclaimed works including A Mask for the General (1987; Arthur C. Clarke nominee), Tourists (1989; an expansion of the lauded short story), Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon (1993), Summer King, Winter Fool (1994), Walking the Labyrinth (1996), Dark Cities Underground (1999; Mythopeic Fantasy Award nominee), The Alchemist’s Door (2002), THE UNCERTAIN PLACES (2011; winner of Mythopeic Fantasy Award), Weighing Shadows (2015), and IVORY APPLES (2019). She also penned a pair of novels as Isabel Glass: Daughter of Exile (2004) and The Divided Crown (2005).
Cover by Ann Monn Cover by Elizabeth Story
Goldstein’s many respected short stories have been collected in Daily Voices (1989) and Travellers in Magic (1994). Her story “Paradise Is a Walled Garden” won the 2011 Sidewise Award.
All of us at Tachyon wish the amazing Lisa a very special birthday. May the magic never end.
R. B. Lemberg’s dazzling THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES already has established itself as a queer must-read
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In REVUU (Autumn 2020), Kris van der Voorn loves R. B. Lemberg’s THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES.
A breath of fresh air is blowing through the literary scene, and amidst it is the voice of R.B. Lemberg. This queer, bigender immigrant from Eastern Europe and Israel has taken it upon themselves to force feed the public a beautiful debut masterpiece of inclusivity and diversity: THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES.
[…]
In this stunning debut, Lemberg raises matters that normally would be too sensitive to discuss, had it not been for their own experience with them. Most poignant is their treatment of trans-related topics. In addition to showing the struggle that can exist in a trans person’s life, Lemberg also celebrates the experience of being able to be one’s true self. Lemberg shows this conflict of identity within ‘The Nameless Man’, as he struggles with his former life, but they are delicate with how this experience is portrayed. His story feels like a love letter to the character and his struggles.
[…]
THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES already has established itself as a queer must-read. It normalises the notion of same sex and polyamorous love, of genderfluid characters and the use of pronouns other than “he” or “she”. At the same time, it is a book that does so in such a fluent, easily explained manner that no reader would ever feel like they require more knowledge of queer jargon to understand the story. In short: In THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES, Lemberg succeeds not only at constructing a fictional world that displays all the most important political points of the LGBTQIA+ community, they did so in a non-threatening and remarkably smart way. The book enacts the commitment to inclusivity it describes. Certainly, it is a debut, and there are some small elements that Lemberg ought to improve upon in future work. For example, they could have been more elaborate on storylines and character development. For a first-time author, however, Lemberg does it so well, and it is exciting to think about what can come after this. They have woven a fairy tale of inclusion that rises to the complexities of our time.
FOREST OF GLORY wants to read the book.
I love Lemberg’s Birdverse stories, so I’m very excited for this novella set in that world! It features trans elders and textiles!
LGBTQ READS offers up recommendations including on for THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES.
Get to know Kimberly Unger and her debut novel NUCLEATION
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In celebration of the release of NUCLEATION, which BOOKLIST recommends “for fans of Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon and Martha Wells’ Murderbot series,” Kimberly Unger engaged in a virtual tour.
On FACEBOOK LIVE, Unger sat down for a chat with the incomparable Cat Rambo.
Unger contributed essays to both Mary Robinette Kowal’s MY FAVORITE BIT and John Scalzi’s THE BIG IDEA.
My favorite bit of NUCLEATION is front and center from the very first page, in fact it’s the bit that got me to write the entire rest of everything.
MY FAVORITE BIT
NUCLEATION is a story about a top-tier pilot who operates robots (waldos) by remote from a billion miles away via a quantum communication link. When the story opens Helen Vectorovich is at the top of her game. She and her partner Ted have been awarded the very first, very public shift on a multi year mission that will open up a whole new set of resources for the Earth colonies. It’s a big deal, a big honor and they… are… rocking it.
My name is Kimberly Unger and I am here to talk to you about one of the Big Ideas behind my debut novel, NUCLEATION.
THE BIG IDEA
At some point, we stopped plunging headlong into the great unknown and did the smart thing, the safe thing. We let the robots go first. We send probes and satellites and rovers and landers, we peer through telescopes and send out radio signals. We bounce frikkin’ laser beams off everything in frikkin’ laser beam range. All of this, every signal, every nuclear-powered tin-can, gets out there before we do.
Why?
Because we don’t want anyone to die who doesn’t have to.
She, also, participated in a REDDIT AMA at r/books.
vorpalcheeseknife
You write about virtual reality and work for a video game company. How does your day job inform your fiction?
Agiliste AMA Author
The biggest takeaway I have from my day job experience is really about where people and technology intersect. What happens when someone has a problem with a games interface or what kind of mindset do you develop when you are used to working with alpha or beta builds of software. Helen’s tendency to just “hack around” problems, rather than calling IT for a fix is definitely informed by my work experience, for example.
llh23
Wow, did not hear about NUCLEATION till now, but I am ordering right away. It looks fantastic.
Who was your favourite sci-fi author when growing up? And who is your hidden gem that not enough people read? Mine is John Wyndham.
Agiliste AMA Author
Fabulous! I hope you enjoy it.
I was (and still am) a card-carrying Asimov fan. He had an ability to extrapolate against existing technology that really came across as believable, I could see how to get to that future from here.
Ron Goulart would be my pick for hidden gem. It’s been a very long time since I read those books, but when I was younger I used to haunt my local used books stores looking for copies his work.
Paul Semel, on his eponymous site, interviews the author.
NUCLEATION sounds like it’s a cyberpunk sci-fi space opera story. Is that how you’d describe it?
I’ve always thought of it as a “nanotech space opera.” My team at Tachyon has been referring to it as a “vROP” (VR Opera) because that kind of telepresence is my key to everything when you’re piloting by wire. There was a challenge here, about how to get that fast-actiony feel while dealing with world-spaces that really are tiny. The “eenies” (this universe’s version of nano-bots) are the size of an orchid seed, so an all-out clash between two massive armies can fit on the palm of your hand. VR is a great medium for adjusting the perceptual sense of scale and giving a physically tiny (but critically important) event the gravitas it deserves.
Now, while NUCLEATION is your first novel, you’ve previously written some short stories and novellas. Are there any writers who had a big influence on Nucleation but not on anything else you’ve written?
There are a handful of writers who unknowingly contributed. Long before VR even became a thing, Eric Nylund’s Signal To Noise really cemented the idea for me of VR as a functional computing metaphor (much the way your Windows desktop is a metaphor) rather than a far out there concept. I also loved the shared virtual spaces of Diane Duane’s Omnitopia as a way of life, and Walter Jon Williams’ Aristoi and the idea that nanobots can go rogue figures in there as well.
TOR.COM shares an excerpt from the novel.
The Golfball was reaching the end of its line drive—the hole in one an orbit around an orphan star. No planets depended on that burning ball of resources for life. Nothing would suffer when it launched its payload and started consuming every asteroid within reach. The starship-sized jump-gate would take a year to complete, after which the job of stripping Otlyan23’s asteroid ring of every valuable asset could begin in earnest.
“Mark local time 24:48:16.” The NAV’s voice wasn’t in Helen’s ear, precisely. She didn’t have ears out here. Different bodies took time to get used to, and ears were a luxury item. The vibrations of sound shivered along the walls of the Golfball’s interior and filtered through receivers placed along her spine. “Station live. Station live. Station live.”
“Live and well, Ted. Operator Helen Vectorovich, personal identifier T4T4-957.” She responded automatically, rattling the words and numbers off without thinking. Helen was only the first shift on this year-long project and every shift started this way, every mission, every time. She refocused her vision as Ted worked to unlock the capsule controls from his station in the Fishbowl, a billion miles away. The lights around Helen brightened, moving from hibernation blue to heartbeat yellow. System after system came to life after two years of silent spinning through the black of deep space. From Helen’s perspective through the eyes of the waldo, the room opened up like a cathedral, lights and buckypanels rising around her to a point just over her head. In real-world terms, the whole space was the size of a basketball, but from inside the waldo it was oh, so much bigger than that.
Bruce Sterling’s forthcoming ROBOT ARTISTS & BLACK SWANS looks very interesting
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Though not due until March 2021, Bruce Sterling’s ROBOT ARTISTS & BLACK SWANS: THE ITALIAN FANTASCIENZA STORIES is already generating some excitement. It is currently available for pre-order from your favorite bookseller or direct from Tachyon.
CIVILIAN READER comments on the collection in their New Books (October), a listing of books for review.
This looks like a pretty interesting collection — and one of stories by an author I have not got much experience reading. Looking forward to giving it a try.
STACKING THE SHELVES includes the title (without comment) among books they received and plan on reviewing.
This week’s list looks like a lot of books that take place elsewhere or elsewhen or just else. Sounds good to me!
Tachyon tidbits featuring Elly Bangs, David Ebenbach, Jane Yolen, Peter S. Beagle, Richard Lupoff, and Brian Aldiss
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The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.
Elly Bangs David Ebenbach Jane Yolen
Photo by Jason StempleRichard A. Lupoff
Photo by George Katechis [CC BY-SA 1.0], via Wikimedia CommonsBrian Aldiss
Photo by John Lawrence
BOOKS. BONES, & BUFFY reveal of four exciting upcoming 2021 sf books has both Elly Bangs’ UNITY and David Ebenbach’s HOW TO MARS.
This sounds crazy! I love the Mad Max comparison, and it’s got a road trip kind of vibe to it. Can’t wait!
This sounds like it has a bunch of elements I love in my fiction, and the quirky cover and title definitely get me excited to check this out!
WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF BOOKS 7 Most-Favorable Reviews in October 2020 includes Tara Campbell’s review of THE MIDNIGHT CIRCUS by Jane Yolen.
Yolen is often dubbed “the Hans Christian Andersen of America,” but that should not be misunderstood. Her work is not Andersen Americanized: sanitized, watered-down, Disney-fied. It is true to the real tradition of Andersen: mesmerizing, haunting, and often not for the faint of heart. This collection teems with Yolen’s weird, folkloric verve. Her menagerie of stories is distilled from a cauldron of fairytales, legends, and history, featuring everything from selkies to shapeshifters; witches, weavers, and warriors; and angels murderous to ravenous. Her foreword and endnotes offer additional context for the work, creating a satisfying — if often unsettling — reading experience.
HIDDEN IN PAGES praises the audiobook of Peter S. Beagle’s IN CALABRIA.
Overall this made me want to go and read Beagle’s other books. It is beautifully written and magical in a gentle way. Beagle does an amazing job with description and with creating very human characters that are easy to care about.
ZINES TO THE FUTURE shared the groundbreaking zine creator Richard Lupoff’s last interview. Richard passed away just a few days before the ZINES TO THE FUTURE Exhibit opened.
As for the comics-oriented material in Xero, that was the product more of impulse than planning. I’d been out of the army for a while, and Pat had just got her college degree. We were starting to move through the science fiction world in New York, and a number of our friends were publishing fanzines. This looked like fun, and we decided to create one of our own. We didn’t have many connections to call upon for material, so we wound up creating most of the first issue ourselves.
I remember Pat writing two fine pieces. One was a book review of Brood of the Witch Queen, a fantasy novel by Sax Rohmer. The other was a survey of the career and works of Mervyn Peake, author of the Gormenghast novels. Our only outside contribution was a review of the film of Psycho, based on the novel by Robert Bloch. The reviewer was Harlan Ellison.
At which point I felt that I needed to write something, too. I had a certain nostalgic feeling about the comic books I’d enjoyed so much in my childhood — especially the adventures of Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family. So I wrote a memoir of my days as a fan of Captain Marvel. Called the essay “The Big Red Cheese” after a term applied to Captain Marvel by his arch-foe, Dr. Thaddeus Bodog Sivana.
Xero 1 had a circulation of less than one hundred copies, but we received enthusiastic letters of comment, and many readers offered to write memoirs of their own, about their favorite comics. Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, Captain America, Bulletman, Spy Smasher, Tarzan, the inhabitants of The Lost World . . . Eventually this series grew into two volumes, All in Color for a Dime and The Comic-Book Book. My friend Don Thomson co-edited these books with me, and we had planned on a third volume, to be called The Best Comics Ever, but Don’s untimely death prevented our completing the project.
Documentary photographer Wendy Aldiss is running a KICKSTARTER campaign for My Father’s Things, the photo essay that began the day after the influential Brian Aldiss died.
The pictures create a portrait of the person and prompts thoughts of our own possessions, what we keep and what we dispose of.
Possessions are a universal theme. Separated from their surroundings these objects lead us to contemplate the intrinsic value of design and the singular virtues of everyday things, and to consider the importance that we attach to our own material possessions, and what will become of them after our passing. For those who have already had to deal with the disposal of a relative’s things it will resonate with their own experience.
My Dad (he was my Dad as well as my father) was Brian Aldiss, one of the most important voices in science fiction, writer, poet and artist, and so some of the photos in the book reflect this; not least his awards, early science fiction magazines and many, many books. Plenty there for Science Fiction fans to enjoy. There is also all the everyday stuff of life; playing cards, soap, family snaps and tea bags.
This month’s Tachyon 25th Anniversary eBooknanza free book will be grandmaster Peter S. Beagle’s compelling IN CALABRIA
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Cover design by Elizabeth Story
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 on every last Wednesday of the month, we will be giving away a free ebook to everyone subscribed to our newsletter prior to that Wednesday. 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.
Peter S. Beagle’s story of an Italian farmer encountering a gravid unicorn, is reminiscent of his 1968 masterpiece THE LAST UNICORN. But the new book emphasizes the interior transformations caused by this mythical animal. A simultaneous affair between 50-ish widower Claudio Bianchi and a fierce motorcyclist young enough to be his daughter reads alternately as metaphor for the irrationality and vulnerability of love and as simple wish fulfillment. The unicorn colt’s sire, black and furious, appears near the book’s end as counterbalance to the dam’s white beauty, a compelling vision of the positive masculine principle lacking in Beagle’s early work.
—Seattle Review of Books
From the acclaimed author of The Last Unicorn comes a new, exquisitely-told fable for the modern age.
Claudio Bianchi has lived alone for many years on a hillside in Southern Italy’s scenic Calabria. Set in his ways and suspicious of outsiders, Claudio has always resisted change, preferring farming and writing poetry to the company of others. But one chilly morning, an impossible visitor appears at the farm. When Claudio comes to her aid, an act of kindness throws his world into chaos. Suddenly he must stave off inquisitive onlookers, invasive media, and even more sinister influences.
Lyrical, gripping, and wise, In Calabria confirms Peter S. Beagle’s continuing legacy as one of fantasy’s most legendary authors.
A novella about love in a world of hardship, loss, magic, and recovery. Beagle’s unicorns have never been more bewitching, impossible, and genuine. I cherished every page.
—Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and After Alice
Happy birthday to the incredible Michael Swanwick
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One of the most acclaimed science-fiction and fantasy short-story writers of his generation, Michael Swanwick won an extraordinary five Hugo Awards in six years (1999-2000 and 2002-2004). His stories also garnered World. Swanwick‘s other acclaimed novels include In The Drift (1985), Vacuum Flowers (1987), Jack Faust (1997), Bones of the Earth (2002), The Dragons of Babel (2008), Dancing with Bears (2011), Chasing the Phoenix (2015), The Iron Dragon’s Mother (2019), and City Under the Stars (2020 with Gardner Dozois). Fantasy, Theodore Sturgeon, Asimov’s Readers’ Awards, Locus, and SF Chronicle awards. Swanwick’s Stations Of The Tide (1991) won the prestigious Nebula award for best novel.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story Cover design by Ann Monn Cover by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
The many collections of Swanwick’s numerous acclaimed short tales include GRAVITY’S ANGELS (1991), TALES OF OLD EARTH (2000), CIGAR-BOX FAUST AND OTHER MINATURES (2003), MICHAEL SWANWICK’S FIELD GUIDE TO THE MESOZOIC MEGAFAUNA (2004), THE DOG SAID BOW-WOW (2007), The Best of Michael Swanwick (2008), Solstice Fire (2013), Season’s Greetings (2014), NOT SO MUCH SAID THE CAT (2016), The Postutopian Adventures of Darger and Surplus (2020). Omni, Penthouse, Amazing, Asimov’s Science Fiction, New Dimensions, and Full Spectrum number among the many venues with Swanwick’s short fiction.
Cover by Freddie Baer Cover by Michael Dashow Cover by Michael Dashow Cover by Michael Dashow
A frequent contributor to the New York Review of Science Fiction, he previously published the controversial essays on the state of the science fiction and fantasy fields: “The User’s Guide to the Postmoderns” (1986) and “In the Tradition…” (1994). Both essays were collected in THE POSTMODERN ARCHIPELAGO (1997). Swanwick contributed to the serialized The Witch Who Came in from the Cold (2017).
All of us at Tachyon wish the extraordinary and amazing Micheal a spectacular birthday.
R.B. Lemberg’s hopeful THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES is perfect for those looking to escape into a fantasy world
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R. B. Lemberg’s debut book THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES continues to enthrall readers.
For WE ARE BOOKISH, Kelly Gallucci includes Lemberg’s novella among 2020 and 2021 Books by Trans and Nonbinary Authors for Your TBR.
R.B. Lemberg’s debut is on shelves now, and perfect for those looking to escape into a fantasy world. Weaver Uiziya is awaiting the arrival of her exiled aunt to learn the art of the Four Profound Weaves, which would allow her to create carpets of wind, sand, song, and bones. She discovers that she isn’t the only one waiting for Benesret. A trans man from a different land has arrived in their desert town to ask Benesret for a new name. The two decide to team up to find Benesret and along the way discover far more about each other and themselves.
Artur Nowrot at WYSZNUPANE feels much the same.
There is a structure that lends itself well to fantasy or a certain strain of it: a great evil descends and destroys the sheltered home of a young protagonist, sending them out into the world, on a journey where they will come into their own and defeat the evil. If you look hard enough, you can see the bones of that plot in R.B. Lemberg’s The Four Profound Weaves, but they twist that plot skillfully, introducing elements that change the story and make it very different from your typical Campbell-flavoured fantasy.
[…]
If there is anything that can topple dictators, it’s helping those who were hurt by them and a collective struggle. There will be bodies, dead or wounded, but eventually they will reach such numbers that their weight will crush the oppressors – as long as we, the living, keep remembering, and giving them voice, and pushing onward.It is a grim note of hope – with an awareness of the terrible cost of fighting for justice – but it’s hope nonetheless.
GARIKI6’S SCIFI/FANTASY REVIEWS AND OTHER THOUGHTS praises the work.
This setup creates a story about hope and life (although the story instead refers to these concepts as hope and death), and about making one’s own destiny that is truly wonderful and must be read to be experienced. I’m sure someone can go deep into how this story takes the queer experience and makes it into a powerful tale of self-understanding and recognition, and it absolutely is, but well this is so short I don’t want to go too in deep. Read this, it’s great.
In The /r/Fantasy Monthly Book Discussion Thread, REDDIT continues its fascination with THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES.
I really loved the way the story developed from a search for personal meaning to a larger story of understanding and healing and bravery in the face of more powerful forces. The way emotions were central, not only in the storytelling but in the magic of the world itself, was also very powerful. […] And then the conclusion hit all the right notes for me, wrapping up the loose ends without feeling too perfect. Overall a beautiful book, and hopeful about a future of continued resistance to oppressive power structures, which is just what I needed at the moment.
TinyFlyingLion
Marie Brennan’s DRIFTWOOD is one of the best books of the year
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KIRKUS includes Marie Brennan’s DRIFTWOOD among Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2020.
An exciting delve into a conglomerate land filled with magic and mystery.
FOREST OF GLORY enjoys the book as well.
This is a mosaic novel. It’s several stories set in the same world but written at different times, put together with a framing story. I liked the setting of these a lot! It’s a bunch of worlds that have all ended that somehow get glomped up together. I liked all the little bits of culture and how most of the stories focused on urban places.
Rich Horton on STRANGER AT ECBATAN recalls his many reviews of Brennan’s short stories.
I haven’t done a Birthday Review in a bit, and it occurred to me that I had never done a collection of my Locus reviews of Marie Brennan’s short fiction … and I realized that there are some people whose birthdays I don’t know. But that’s no reason not to post about their wonderful short stories! So here is what I’ve written about Marie Brennan’s short stories in the past dozen years or so:
Locus, March 2008
The Fall On Spec has three nice fantasy stories – each managing to be somewhat traditional and yet quite clever and original. Marie Brennan’s “Nine Sketches in Charcoal and Blood” tells of a curious group of seemingly related people at the auction of a dead man’s effects – what sinister secret links them to each other and the dead man, and on what are they bidding?
Locus, January 2009
I was particularly impressed by Marie Brennan’s “A Heretic by Degrees” (Intergalactic Medicine Show, December). It’s set in a strikingly artificial setting – I was reminded of Ted Chiang’s “Exhalation” and Will McIntosh’s “Linkworlds”, to name two other 2008 stories. Brennan’s story opens it what seems a somewhat conventional fantasy world, as the new Councillor Paramount feels pushed to heretically suggest that they look “outside the world” for a cure for their dying King. And soon the Councillor is journeying to a series of strange quite separately and increasingly small “worlds”. Brennan does not content herself with simply displaying this odd universe – we get a similarly odd, and unsettling, explanation, as well as a satisfying and unexpected solution to the Councillor’s (and the King’s ) problem.