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Win a copy of the absolutely stellar DRIFTWOOD by the never disappointing Marie Brennan
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The fine folks at THE CURIOUS SFF READER are giving away DRIFTWOOD by Marie Brennan.
I enjoyed DRIFTWOOD so much that I definitely want to share the love and give you the opportunity to win a copy of this book. The publisher will give out:
1 physical copy (U.S. only)
1 eBook copy in the format of your choice (open internationally!)
To enter the giveaway, you just have to comment under this post, include where I can reach you (Twitter handle or email address) and if you are applying for the U.S. or international giveaway. I will pick a winner at random on August 20th and privately reach out to the winners! For the U.S. giveaway, you have to be comfortable with giving me your address that I will send out to the publisher.
They also reviewed the novel.
I didn’t expect to love DRIFTWOOD as much as I did, I knew nothing about it before picking it up except that it was written by the author of the well-known Memoirs of Lady Trent, a series that I haven’t read. However, after reading the first few pages, my curiosity quickly morphed into enthusiasm. Brennan’s writing style is engaging and managed to pull me into the chaotic world of Driftwood in a couple of paragraphs. I read this book twice and, each time, in less than a day. I first read it in May and I wanted to refresh my memory before writing this review by reading it again more slowly but… I couldn’t stop turning the pages! Guess I’ll have to read it a third time.
Highly recommended to any fantasy lovers!
BETWIXT THE SHEETS felt much the same.
DRIFTWOOD by Marie Brennan is one of those rare stories you don’t quite see coming. I don’t mean in the sense that the twists of the tale itself are unpredictable, though at times.. that too is true, but rather in the way that it is so much bigger, so much more impactful and moving than one might ever suspect.
[…]
Actually, this is easily one of my favorite reads this year and I had no idea it would be. I thought it a quaint sounding story with an interesting premise, but my hopes could not have readied me for what it really was.. an absolutely stellar tale.. and I desperately hope there will be more.
ELITIST BOOK REVIEWS enjoys the book.
DRIFTWOOD is a collection of these stories and how Last made life more livable in Driftwood. How he helps people come to grips with post-apocalypse–and preserve some of their culture and dignity in the process. They are stories of a strange place that no one quite understands. Of a mixture of people who were never meant to be neighbors. And they are stories of coping with loss.
Marie Brennan never disappoints.
WORDS LIKE STARS continues the praise.
The entire structure of Driftwood and its workings is not only well drafted and detailed, but I felt the sadness, hopelessness and sorrow that so many of these people feel at the fact that places eventually come to their end, and so do the people that belonged to them. It puts one in the place of Last while reading, thinking of what it must be like to exist as he has—to see so many that he cared for lost and gone, but remain, eventually alone and needing to start again.
Brennan participated in an REDDIT AMA for r/fantasy. As a bonus, she provided a link to a photo of hers along with her answer to each question!
vorpalcheeseknife
Do you see Driftwood as part of a series? And, if so, do you see it as a series of short stories or will there be Driftwood novels?
MarieBrennanAuthor Marie Brennan
In a sense Driftwood has always been a series, because it started out as short stories, which then got linked together into the book. I doubt I’ll ever write a full-blown novel there, in part because I feel like that’s antithetical to the setting: Driftwood is a place of fragments, not coherent wholes, and a novel is a big coherent whole. But I may very well write more short stories, plus I have a half-baked notion for a novella in the setting, so there may indeed be more in the future, even if it isn’t a conventional novel.
Photo: the old waterfront in Gdańsk, Poland: https://www.swantower.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Gdansk-Zuraw-night-1-1024×726.jpg
Win a copy of THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES by R. B. Lemberg, which exemplifies modern speculative fiction at its best
Rick Klaw blog civilian reader, giveaway, interview, james latimer, m1 books, r., r. b. lemberg, review, the fantasy hive, the four profound weaves 0
For THE FANTASY HIVE, James Latimer praises R. B. Lemberg’s THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES.
The prose is simple but elegant, unafraid to use repetition for emphasis or rhythm, or to leave other things to the reader’s imagination (description is sparse, for example). The story wears its themes on its sleeves, so to speak, tackling head-on the challenges of change vs. stasis, and the danger of being chained to a past, or to people who don’t want what’s best for you. It’s a story about trans characters and trans experiences, but a story that (I hope) anyone can understand, relate to, and enjoy.
In conclusion, THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES is modern speculative fiction at its best, exploring important issues through compelling characters, fantastic settings, and exciting stories. It’s also a gorgeous book, if the illustrations in my digital ARC were anything to go by
The fine folks at M1 BOOK REVIEWS are giving away a copy of THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES.
The publisher for THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES has offered one free digital copy of this book to someone of my choosing. To have a chance of winning, just send me an email at mibookreviews@gmail.com saying you want it and what the best email address for getting it to you would be. That’s it. I will pick a random person from who emails in and get the email address to the publisher to email you your book.
A winner will be announced on September 4th (which is publication day).
CIVILIAN READER interviews Lemberg.
Let’s start with an introduction: Who is R.B. Lemberg?
I am a queer, bigender immigrant writer, editor and academic originally from Ukraine, Russia, and Israel, now living in Kansas. My favorite genre is epic fantasy, but I write science fiction, magic realism, slipstream, and sometimes even horror. I also write poetry and non-fiction. I have a wide range, and I’m rarely bored!
Your debut novella, THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES, is due to be published by Tachyon in September. It looks really interesting: How would you introduce it to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?
THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES is a novella that follows two transgender elders on a journey of identity and adventure — they must learn to weave from Death itself to defeat a tyrant who hoards the bones and souls of his victims. The book is a stand-alone, set in my Birdverse universe. I’ve been publishing in this world since 2011, but only short work so far. Each story set in Birdverse stands alone, but together they add up to something greater — a rich tapestry of many perspectives, stories, and lives. The Four Profound Weaves is the first Birdverse book in print — the rest of the published pieces are online. It’s a good gateway into the world — you do not need to know anything else.
The extraordinary Brian Aldiss was born 95 years ago
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Science Fiction Grandmaster Brian W. Aldiss’ prodigious output of over 100 books began with the collection Space, Time and Nathaniel (1957) and grew to include the science-fiction masterpieces Non-Stop (1958), Hothouse (1962), Greybeard (1964), Frankenstein Unbound (1973), The Malacia Tapestry (1976), and the Helliconia Trilogy (Helliconia Spring [1982], Helliconia Summer [1983], and Helliconia Winter [1985]). The short story “Super-Toys Last All Summer Long” served as the basis for the Stanley Kubrick-developed Steven Spielberg-directed movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Frankenstein Unbound was adapted to film as Roger Corman’s Frankenstein Unbound (1990), and the 2005 picture Brothers of the Head derives from the 1977 novel of the same name.
His numerous short stories and essays have been collected in Space, Time and Nathaniel, Starswarm (1964), The Book of Brian Aldiss (1972), Science Fiction Blues Programme Book (1987), Supertoys Last All Summer Long and Other Stories (2001), CULTURAL BREAKS (2005), The Brian Aldisss Collection: The Complete Short Stories (The Complete Short Stories: The 1950s [2013] and The Complete Short Stories: The 1960s Parts 1-4 [2015]) and many more. Among Aldiss’ several volumes of nonfiction are the pioneering book of science fiction criticism Billion Year Spree (1973; revised as Trillion Year Spree [1986 with David Wingrove]), … And the Lurid Glare of the Comet (1986), The Detached Retina: Aspects of SF and Fantasy (1995), and An Exile on Planet Earth: Articles and Reflections (2012).
Cover by John Picacio
As an anthologist, Aldiss produced many influential collections such as Penguin Science Fiction (1961), More Penguin Science Fiction (1963), Yet More Penguin Science Fiction (1964), Best Science Fiction (1967-75 with Harry Harrison, Volumes 1-6), Galactic Empires Volume One (1976) and Two (1976), The Penguin World Omnibus of Science Fiction (1986), and The Folio Science Fiction Anthology (2016). His amazing output, also, included eight volumes of poetry.
Aldiss’ works garnered him a myriad of awards and accolades, including the Hugo, Nebula, Campbell, Locus, British Science Fiction, Ditmar, and Eaton awards. In 2005, he was awarded the title of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to literature. The electronic pop duo Echoes In Rows released a song entitled “Brian Aldiss” in 2010.
In his usual excellent form, Lavie Tidhar’s thought-provoking UNHOLY LAND is a tale that you won’t forget
Rick Klaw blog baltimore jewish times, baltimore science fiction convention, carolyn conte, central station, d. h. aire, lavie tidhar, lydia schoch, r/printsf, reddit, review, sarah anne langton, the violent century, twitter, unholy land, zeno literary agency 0
Cover by Sarah Anne Langton
At REDDIT in r/printsf, user pick_a_random_name praises Lavie Tidhar’s UNHOLY LAND.
Tidhar is on his usual excellent form here. This is a thought-provoking book with so many layers that I certainly haven’t unpacked them all.
[…]
It’s an intensely political book on an inherently controversial subject, but a book I’ll be thinking about for a long time to come.
ZENO LITERARY AGENCY reveals the forthcoming French edition of UNHOLY LAND.
Lavie Tidhar‘s acclaimed novel UNHOLY LAND is due out in France next year! To be published by Editions Mu as AUCUNE TERRE N’EST PROMISE, we wanted to take this opportunity to share the stunning cover.
Cover by Sarah Anne Langton Cover by Sarah Anne Langton
Carolyn Conte for BALTIMORE JEWISH TIMES recounts D. H. Aire’s discussion on science fiction and Judaism at the Baltimore Science Fiction Convention, where he recommended Tidhar’s CENTRAL STATION.
A worldwide diaspora has left a quarter of a million people at the foot of a space station. Cultures collide in real life and virtual reality. The city is literally a weed, its growth left unchecked. Life is cheap, and data is cheaper. When Boris Chong returns to Tel Aviv from Mars, much has changed.
Via Twitter, Lydia Schoch shared a quote from Tidhar’s THE VIOLENT CENTURY.
“Perhaps it is always summer, in the place where we are young.”
— Lydia Schoch (@TorontoLydia) August 10, 2020
― Lavie Tidhar, The Violent Century pic.twitter.com/VIgLV0BWZb
THE VIOLENT CENTURY cover artist Sarah Anne Langton showcases a series of posters based on the book.
The complete previews from DRIFTWOOD by Marie Brennan
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In celebration of the release of Marie Brennan’s DRIFTWOOD, Tachyon presents glimpses from the book that “celebrates the death-defying power of love and everlasting memory.” (Karen Lord, author of Redemption in Indigo)
The previews included:
Kameron Hurley’s MEET ME IN THE FUTURE is inventive and unique
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Via Twitter, Paul Semel gives his brief review of Kameron Hurley’s MEET ME IN THE FUTURE.
Finished reading Kameron Hurley's "Meet Me In The Future: Stories"https://t.co/Ik3YMM4eNE
— Paul Semel (@paulsemel) August 8, 2020
📖🚀🪐
As inventive and unique as her best novels.#books #reading #ShortStory #ShortStories #SciFi #SciFiBooks #ScienceFiction #ScienceFictionBooks @KameronHurley @TachyonPub pic.twitter.com/HHlA9NIMPQ
This excerpt featuring Kameron Hurley from Becca Anderson’s The Book of Awesome Women Writers ran on the book’s site.
KAMERON HURLEY a resistance movement historian writes future fiction.
Kameron Hurley is a science fiction and fantasy author as well as essayist who uses her writing to explore the future of war and resistance to oppression. Her fiction includes vivid female characters such as her 2018 book APOCALYPSE NYX’s bounty hunter Nyx, who must navigate a dystopian world and deal with challenges like giant bugs and contaminated deserts as she works to survive. Her short fiction was first published in 1998, and she has been writing novels since 2010. She is the author of The Light Brigade (2019) and The Stars are Legion (2017) as well as two trilogies, the Worldbreaker Saga and the award-winning God’s War trilogy.
She was born in the Pacific Northwest and earned a bachelor’s degree in historical studies at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, going on to receive a master’s degree in the history of South African resistance movements from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal in Durban, South Africa. Her nonfiction has been published in journals including The Atlantic, The Village Voice, Entertainment Weekly, and Writers Digest, and she writes columns about writing and the publishing industry for Locus Magazine. In 2014, her essay “We Have Always Fought: Challenging the ‘Women, Cattle and Slaves’ Narrative” (2013) won a Hugo Award; that same year, she also won the Hugo for Best Fan Writer. Hurley is also the author of the award-winning essay collection The Geek Feminist Revolution (2017 Locus and BSFA winner, nonfiction); she is an active blogger who posts reflections on topics including how not to burn out living in a “gig economy” and resisting nihilism. Amusingly, she refers to the sphere of her thought and writing as “the Hurleyverse.” She lives in Ohio, where she is cultivating an urban homestead.
Design by Elizabeth Story
For LOCUS, Hurley contributes the essay “Of Men and Monsters.”
While the world undergoes another cycle of necessary upheaval, it has become increasingly certain that I am likely to be spending the next couple of summers just as I have been spending this one: within the same few blocks of my house, gardening, doing dishes, writing books, tearing my hair out over finances, being careful and critical of the news, and trying to be kind to myself in an effort to prolong my own life.
Because living in a slow apocalypse can get to you, with the knowledge that nothing is certain except uncertainty as the world is remade. For all my restlessness, though, I have hope. America’s anger, our community’s anger, gives me hope.
We aren’t dead yet. Not quite yet.
Join World Fantasy Award winners Lavie Tidhar and Silvia Moreno-Garcia in conversation
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Via Mysterious Galaxy, Lavie Tidhar, author of the John W. Campbell Award winner CENTRAL STATION, celebrates his new book By Force Alone with a conversation with Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of the New York Times bestseller Mexican Gothic, on Sunday August 16, 1PM PT.
The livestream is hosted by Crowdcast! To view and register for the event click here!
With the enjoyable KITTY’S MIX-TAPE, Carrie Vaughn proves yet again that her short stories are as good as her novels
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The positive reviews keep coming for Carrie Vaughn’s forthcoming KITTY’S MIX TAPE (not due until October but currently available for pre-order from your favorite bookseller or direct from Tachyon and for reviewers via EDELWEISS and NETGALLEY).
WORDS I WRITE CRAZY enjoys the collection.
5/5 Hearts 5/5 Books 5/5 Stars
I really enjoyed reading this collection of short stories, it was really fantastic to be back in Kitty’s world, and we did get a few from Kitty’s perspective, so that was really great! I really enjoyed spending more time in this world!
[…]
Loved reading this collection of stories, it was such a great read and I would love to have more time in this world, regardless of who stars in it!
As does PAT’S FANTASY HOTLIST.
While we eagerly await whatever comes next for Kitty and the others, this one should scratch that itch. Like its predecessor, KITTY’S MIX-TAPE is sure to please all the Kitty Norville fans out there!
Carrie Vaughn proves yet again that she is nearly as good a short story writer as she is at writing novel-length projects.
THE REVIEW CURMUDGEON shares similar sentiments.
Carrie Vaughn is that unusual thing, a novelist who is also a good short story writer, and while I’ve read standalone short stories of hers that are better than many of the ones in this volume, that isn’t to say these aren’t good. And if you’re a fan of the main series, you’ll probably enjoy these glimpses into other characters’ lives and other places and times.
WRITERS DRINKING COFFEE interviews Vaughn.
We welcome a NY Times Bestselling author to the coffee house, as she takes a break from WorldCon. Come hear how Carrie found her way into writing, her thoughts on genres and trends, and how she measured her own success and KPIs as a writer of commercial fiction.
Tachyon tidbits featuring Cory Doctorow, Nick Mamatas, Joe R. Lansdale, Peter Watts, and Daryl Gregory
Rick Klaw blog a rose is a rose is a rose!, a short walk down a dark street, before we blog, canadian sf/f hall of fame, Canvention, cory doctorow, daryl gregory, hap and leonard, interview, Joe R. Lansdale, kali krew, Nick Mamatas, Peter Watts, pluralistic, sci-fi & scary, shilpa garg, the freeze frame revolution, the people's republic of everything, we are all completely fine 0
The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.
Cory Doctorow
Photo by Jonathan Worth, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0Nick Mamatas
Photo by Tristian CraneJoe R. Lansdale
Photo by Karen LansdalePeter Watts Daryl Gregory
On his PLURALISTIC blog, Cory Doctorow announces his induction into the Canadian SF/F hall of fame.
I just got an email asking if I could be free on August 15 for Canvention, the annual Canadian national science fiction convention, because I am being inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association’s Hall of Fame.
Needless to say, my answer was a very enthusiastic yes.
CSFFA administers Canada’s Aurora Awards and the Hall of Fame, a juried prize that I am unbelievably stonked to be receiving.
https://www.whenwordscollide.org/canvention.php
This year’s Canvention is
a) Online
and
b) Free
BEFORE WE BLOG interviews Nick Mamatas.
You’ve written a lot about the importance of short fiction, and your love for it. If you were trying to hook people unfamiliar with your work with some of your short fiction, what would you recommend?
I’d recommend my recent collection THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF EVERYTHING, which collects the “best” (I guess!) of my last decade of short work.
In addition to your fiction, you’ve written a lot of writing advice—some at LitReactor, some collected in your book Starve Better, and elsewhere. I appreciate that your advice is never the overly reductive advice found elsewhere. You also run plenty of creative writing classes. What do you enjoy about this? What are the concepts you hope the students learn?
Ultimately, I’m a formalist, and so I have a knack for seeing structures that undergird plots and themes. I’m not a very commercial writer, but I have good commercial instincts as an editor, and so I teach as an editor. I’m very prescriptive. Cut those first three pages! Make sure your protagonist is always doing something and not just being pushed around by the universe! Learn that words have connotations as well as denotations! People almost never scream dialogue, but they may shout it. Those words are not synonymous. Stop typing BANG! when a gun goes off in your story, and stop writing sentences about eyes doing things, e.g., “His eyes hopped around the ballroom, looking for the punch bowl.” That sort of thing.
I want my students to learn that the ego is always the enemy, whether it says “I’m great!” or “I’m awful!” Many people sign up for creative writing classes out of a need to be punished. It’s bizarre. Just stay home. I also want my students to consider the possibilities that language isn’t a poor substitute for direct brain-to-brain communication, but can be deployed with sufficient dexterity that even the shortcomings of language can be used to make something more interesting. Think of a rock song that keeps the buzz of a guitar being plugged into an amp, and the squeal of feedback, to add sonic information to the song even if those sounds wouldn’t be transcribed on sheet music.
A SHORT WALK DOWN A DARK STREET shares a short sample from Joe R. Lansdale’s “Hyenas,” which appears in HAP AND LEONARD.
When I drove over to the nightclub, Leonard was sitting on the curb, holding a bloody rag to his head.
At SCI-FI & SCARY, The Kali Krew Presents Tempting Titles featuring Peter Watts’ THE FREEZE-FRAME REVOLUTION.
Along similar lines, Shilpa Garg on A ROSE IS A ROSE IS A ROSE! offers 10 eXtraordinary Book Titles.
WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY FINE by Daryl Gregory
Oh, I’m worried already, and I don’t even know who all are in danger. Why are they telling me they are okay? Clearly they’re not okay. They should tell me about it. This is a brilliant book title which will make you dive into it right away.