The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles from around the web.

Joe R. Lansdale (Karen Lansdale), Peter S. Beagle (Gage Skidmore), Alastair Reynolds (Barbera Bella), George Saunders (Beowulf Sheehan/ZUMA Press)

Glenn Dromgoole of the ABILENE REPORTER-NEWS recommends HAP AND LEONARD.

Joe Lansdale: “Hap and Leonard” is the title of a crime-fighting series that debuted this spring on the Sundance cable channel, based on two of Joe R. Lansdale’s favorite fictional characters, straight white liberal Hap Collins and gay black conservative Leonard Pine.

As a way of introducing the unusual duo to viewers, Tachyon Publications produced a 240-page paperback collection of short stories and novellas under the title “Hap and Leonard” ($15.95). If you haven’t read any of the dozen or so Hap and Leonard novels, start here. You’ll no doubt want to read more.

At the Portuguese site RASCUNHOS, Cristina Alves includes Peter S. Beagle’s SUMMERLONG on her wish list.

Peter S. Beagle is best known for his book The Last Unicorn but it was the tales (We Never Talk About My Brother and The Rhinoceros who quoted Nietzsche ) I discovered more stories ranging from the fantastic and strange, often in mundane scenarios.

(Translated from Portuguese by Google)

Jonathan Strahan of NOTES FROM COODE
STREET is happy that Alastair Reynolds’ SLOW BULLETS received a Hugo nomination.

I could have named another handful of stories, but I loved all of these. Any would have made a terrific winner, and I’m delighted Al Reynolds’ story actually made the final ballot.

ELECTRIC LIT’s Rebecca Schiff includes George Saunders, contributor to Jacob Weisman’s forthcoming INVADERS: 22 TALES FROM THE OUTER LIMITS OF LITERATURE, in Contemporary Innovators of the Short Story: A Reading List.

I hated the first George Saunders story I read. The story was “Sea Oak,” anthologized in the O’Henry Prize stories of 1999, and it confused and bothered me. “What the hell was that?” I thought, after I finished reading it. “I’m ready to get back to the rest of these stories now. Give me affecting realistic fiction, thank you very much.” Of course I don’t remember the other stories anymore. “Sea Oak” is a Saunders masterpiece, the story of a male stripper and his dead aunt Bernie, who never had anything nice in life and so comes back from the dead to give the narrator some memorable financial advice—“Show your cock.” Saunders has figured out a way to write about poverty in America, to cut through the clichés and sentimentality. “At Sea Oak, there’s no sea and no oak, just a hundred subsidized apartments and a rear view of FedEx.” There’s also a made-up TV show called “How My Child Died Violently,” a title that works because it has both consonance and assonance, for writers who want to learn how it’s done.

For more info on HAP AND LEONARD, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Elizabeth Story

For more info on SUMMERLONG, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Magdalena Korzeniewska

Design by Elizabeth Story

For more info about SLOW BULLETS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Thomas Canty

Design by Elizabeth Story

For more info about INVADERS: 22 TALES FROM THE OUTER LIMITS OF LITERATURE, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Goro Fujita

Design by Elizabeth Story