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March 10, 2020

Tachyon tidbits featuring Best indie publisher 2020, Lisa Goldstein, Rebecca Roanhorse, Gordon Van Gelder, and Ann & Jeff VanderMeer

Rick Klaw blog Amazon, andrew liptak, ann vandermeer, best of 2020, catalan, edgar cotes, Gordon Van Gelder, graham sleight, hannu rajaniemi, ivory apples, jacob weisman, jeff va, la lectora, lisa goldstein, Locus, rebecca roanhorse, reedsy, san francisco public library, sf by the bay, the new voices of science fiction, the new weird, tor.com, welcome to your authentic indian experience 0

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

REEDSY named Tachyon Publications as one of the Best Independent Publishers 2020.

This San Francisco-based small press has been publishing thoughtful speculative fiction since 1995, sweeping up a full slate of high-profile nominations on the way, from the Hugo to the Nebula and beyond. Their sustained excellence has earned them legendary status in the eyes of hardcore sci-fi fans, although they occasionally dip into other, less speculative genres like memoir and mystery. Tachyon Publications’ bread and butter are its famous science fiction short story collections, which routinely earn glowing reviews from the likes of Booklist and Library Journal.

Graham Sleight in his Year in Review 2019 for LOCUS comments on Lisa Goldstein’s IVORY APPLE S.

Lisa Goldstein’s IVORY APPLES (Tachyon) was a delightful and thoughtful contemporary fantasy about family and history from one of the field’s most underappreciated authors.

At TOR.COM, Andrew Liptak reports that Amazon Has Optioned Rebecca Roanhorse’s “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™”, which appeared in Hannu Rajaniemi and Jacob Weisman’s THE NEW VOICES OF SCIENCE FICTION.

Rebecca Roanhorse has announced that her Hugo and Nebula Award-winning short story “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™” has been optioned by Amazon Studios for a potential film project.

Cover art by Matt Dixon
Cover design by Elizabeth Story

San Francisco Public Library shares Gordon Van Gelder’s talk at the reception for SF by the Bay on Feb. 15, 2020.

At the Catalan site LA LECTORA, Edgar Cotes cites Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s THE NEW WEIRD in his article “A weird story of two cities“.

In the introduction to THE NEW WEIRD (2008), Jeff and Ann VanderMeer defined it as follows: “A type of alternative, urban literature that subverts preconceived ideas found in traditional fantasy, using realistic and complex real world models as a starting point for creating scenarios that can combine elements of both science fiction and fantasy”. Despite the ambiguity of the definition, a number of authors, such as Alastair Reynolds, Clive Baker, KJ Bishop, Mary Gentle, or Justina Robson, endorsed this manifesto and set up a transgressive work that overturned the most incarcerated models. a certain kind of fantastic literature.
Translation from Catalan courtesy of Google

June 8, 2017

James Morrow’s THE ASYLUM OF DR. CALIGARI is a small masterpiece

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized Amazon, b&n sci-fi & fantasy blog, io9, James Morrow, jeff somers, madame griselda, review, the asylum of dr caligari, trevor atherton

For MADAME GRISELDA, Trevor Atherton praises James Morrow’s THE ASYLUM OF DR. CALIGARI.

The novella is a fascinating look at the devastating effects of World War One and the flowering of modern art. The narrator is an American, Francis Wyndham, who has seen the famous Armory Show in New York and decides that he wants to become a painter. He finds a job peeling potatoes on a passenger ship and makes his way to France, where he looks up Picasso in hopes of apprenticing himself to the renowned artist.

<snip>

When I see an opening like this, I am struck by two things: the author has an awesome way with words and a wily sense of humor. But it is this very tongue-in-cheek stodginess that allows the book to maintain a foothold in reality while following such a wild and unbelievable plot. In some ways, the piece reads like a dream or an elongated fairytale, though I think neither comparison is sufficient to describe what is really a small masterpiece of speculation on the horrors of war and the power of art.

James Morrow was born in 1947 and has turned out over fifteen novels and novellas, including TTHE LAST WITCHFINDER (2006), GALÁPAGOS REGAINED (2015), and THE MADONNA AND THE STARSHIP (2014). Though he is sometimes identified as a science fiction author, he calls himself a “scientific humanist,” and his work has often contained a satirical look at politics or religion. THE GODHEAD TRILOGY (1994-1999), for example, discusses what happens when God dies, leaving an enormous corpse. Such imagination is evident in THE ASYLUM OF DR. CALIGARI, as well.

Jeff Somers at B&N SCI-FI & FANTASY BLOG includes the novella among The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of June 2017.

Morrow crafts a plot that takes every unexpected twist and turn possible in less than 200 pages. It starts with the quietly mediocre farm boy Francis Wyndham, and his life-changing visit in 1913 to an exhibition of modern art. Wyndham heads to Paris and sets himself up as a North American gypsy folk artist. He fails to get much attention for his work, but is offered a job at an art therapist at an asylum run by the mysterious Dr. Caligari. Wyndham soon learns that Caligari viewed World War I as a work of art, and has created a painting imbued with strange and disturbing powers that can drive anyone who looks upon it to do his bidding. Wyndham finds it’s up to him—and a ragtag bag of misfits—to fight back against the doctor’s monstrous plans to profit at the world’s expense.

AMAZON and IO9 also include the book among their best of June selections.

For more info on THE ASYLUM OF DR. CALIGARI, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Elizabeth Story

May 2, 2017

Seems like everyone is recommending Ellen Klages’ WICKED WONDERS

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized Amazon, b&n sci-fi & fantasy blog, cheryl eddy, elizabeth story, ellen klages, io9, jeff somers, wicked wonders

Photo: Scott R. Kline

On B&N SCI-FI & FANTASY BLOG, Jeff Somers includes Ellen Klages’ WICKED WONDERS in The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of May 2017.

Klages offers up a collection of short fiction that wanders across the spectrum of sci-fi and fantasy—and beyond, dipping a toe or two into non-genre tales. Along the way, her vibrant imagination finds deep pleasures in unusual premises, including an astronaut on Mars who discovers her pregnancy has determined her fate, ladies who lunch ever-so-politely delving into a dark side of quantum mechanics, and a player trapped inside a series of board games, and at the mercy of a fairy queen. Klages surprises in each story, but maintains a sense of humanity and warmth throughout that transforms her tales from narrative experiments into powerful observations of the human (and non-human) condition.

Cheryl Eddy at IO9 mentions the title in 20 Amazing New Scifi and Fantasy Books to Add to Your Reading List in May.

The author of THE GREEN GLASS SEA presents her second short-story collection of “lyrical stories with vintage flair” (topics include: life on Mars, gambling with fairies), with an introduction by Karen Joy Fowler.

AMAZON includes the collection among its Best Books of the Month: Science Fiction & Fantasy.

For more info on WICKED WONDERS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

March 3, 2016

Get Joe R. Lansdale’s HAP AND LEONARD RIDE AGAIN for $1.99

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized Amazon, ebook, hap and leonard, hap and leonard ride again, joe lansdale, Joe R. Lansdale, kdd, kindle

James Purefoy and Michael K. Williams as the titular characters in SundanceTV’s HAP AND LEONARD

In celebration of last night’s premiere of SundanceTV’s HAP AND LEONARD, Amazon is offering Joe R. Lansdale’s HAP AND LEONARD RIDE AGAIN for only $1.99!

This offer is only good for today (Thursday, March 3, 2016).

”No one currently working the field demonstrates more convincingly and joyously the deep affinity between pulp fiction and the American tall tale.”
—Kirkus

Hap and Leonard don’t fit the profile. Hap Collins looks like a good ’ol boy, but his liberal politics don’t match. After a number of failed careers, Hap has discovered that what he’s best at: kicking ass. Vietnam veteran Leonard Pines is even more complicated: black, conservative, gay … and an occasional arsonist.

“a perfect introduction”
—Booklist

Join in on Hap and Leonard’s gritty Texan crime-fighting adventures. Discover four pieces of bonus material only found in this e-book. Now the Dixie Mafia and small-time crooks alike had best be extremely nervous.

“East Texas charm, profane wit, and strong characterization, with enough snappy dialogue to keep a smile on your face … excellent entertainment, edge-of-your-seat action one minute, gut-busting humor”
—Adventures in Genre Fiction

Introduction: An Appreciation of Joe R. Lansdale by Michael Koryta
Joe R. Lansdale, Hap and Leonard, and Me by Bill Crider (original to this edition)
Veil’s Visit (with Andrew Vachss)
Death by Chili
A Bone Dead Sadness (only in this edition)
Not Our Kind (original to print and e-book edition)
The Oak and the Pond (original to this edition)
The Boy Who Became Invisible (comic book script, only in this edition)
Joe R. Lansdale Interviews Hap Collins and Leonard Pine
Interview with Joe R. Lansdale by Rick Klaw (original to this edition)
The Care and Feeding and Raising Up of Hap and Leonard (original to print and e-book edition)

For more info about HAP AND LEONARD RIDE AGAIN, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Elizabeth Story

January 8, 2015

Get the ebook of the acclaimed WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY FINE for only $1.99

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized Amazon, daryl gregory, elizabeth story, horror, kindle daily deal, novella, sale, we are all completely fine

Today’s Amazon Kindle Daily Deal is the Daryl Gregory’s clever and creepy We Are All Completely Fine.

Here’s your chanced to pick up the book that everyone is talking about for only $1.99!

This offer is only good for today, January 8, 2015.

“[STARRED REVIEW] This complex novel—scathingly funny, horrific yet oddly inspiring—constructs a seductive puzzle from torn identities, focusing on both the value and peril of fear. When enigmatic Dr. Jan Sayer gathers survivors of supernatural violence for therapy, she unwittingly unlocks evil from the prison of consciousness. Harrison, a cynical monster-hunter, wallows in lethargy. Suicidal Barbara burns to read the secret messages inscribed on her bones. Cantankerous Stan is the lone survivor of a cannibal feast. After paranoid Martin sees slithery spirits lingering around volatile Greta, a powerful young woman decorated with mystically charged scars, ancient evils usher the rag-tag survivors to a battle with the Hidden Ones, exiled deities trapped in prisons of flesh. Gregory’s beautiful imagery and metaphors bring bittersweet intimacy and tenderness to the primal wonder of star-lit legends. Isolated people, both victims and victimizers, are ghosts in a waking world, blind to their encounters with living nightmares. Blending the stark realism of pain and isolation with the liberating force of the fantastic, Gregory (Afterparty) makes it easy to believe that the world is an illusion, behind which lurks an alternative truth—dark, degenerate, and sublime.”
—Publishers Weekly

“…a clever and creepy horror tale…”
—Library Journal

“Clever, and filled with the creeping dread of what’s in the flickering shadow next to you and what’s just around the corner that suffuses the best horror. I loved it.”
—Ellen Datlow, Bram Stoker, World Fantasy, and International Horror Guild award-winning editor of The Best Horror of the Year series

Selected as the Horror After Dark Top Horror Read for 2014
“[Gregory’s] plotting, characterisations, and yes, the writing itself, is all that good. In short, this one completely blew me away….”
—Horror After Dark

“Charming and horrifying—you won’t be able to stop reading it.”
—Tim Powers, award-winning author of Declare and The Stress of Her Regard

“Daryl Gregory’s We Are All Completely Fine is bitchin’ fun and as wicked and strange as a motorcycle leap through a ring of fire without your pants on. Loved it.”
—Joe R. Lansdale, author of Cold in July and the Hap and Leonard series

“Daryl Gregory is a writer I would happily follow into any dark place he wanted me to go. This is a labyrinth of a story, intricate as a spider’s web—and like a spider’s web, each piece informs the whole. Beautiful.”
—Seanan McGuire, author of the October Daye series and Half-Off Ragnarok

“A superb, haunting tale by one of our very best writers. Gregory’s characters are already in therapy; you may want to join them after reading this spicy, disturbing mélange.”
—Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Red Planet Blues

“Lovecraft meets Cabin in the Woods in this tale of survivors of various supernatural horrors who come together in a support group to try to heal….fascinating”
—Fantastic Reads

“Gregory (Pandemonium, The Devil’s Alphabet, et. al.) has done it again with yet another singularly unique, genre-blending masterwork about a support group of victims of paranormal violence who realize that their nightmarish traumas are all related. This creepy concoction of supernatural fiction, mystery, and horror is a dark little literary gem that readers will absolutely cherish.”
Paul Goat Allen, Barnes & Noble.com

“[Gregory’s] most tightly constructed and compulsively readable novel to date, and a small gem of what we might call post-horror horror.”
—Locus

“I read this book in two hours on the plane home from Loncon and just holy shit. It is gripping from start to finish.”
—The Book Smugglers

“… funny in that dark and sarcastic way only people faced with unstoppable horror can be funny, and when you’re finished you’ll wish there was more.”
—Daytona Beach News Journal

“We Are All Completely Fine is something refreshing and unique—a short horror novel that is as much about relationships and people learning from one another as it is about the horrors that they are ultimately facing… .”
—LitReactor

“…a little horrific, quite deep, and plenty surprising.”
—Bookworm Blues

“We Are All Completely Fine is a remarkably seductive piece of supernatural horror, drawing the innocent reader into the web by dealing with a familiar situation… .fascinating and engrossing… ”
—Thinking About Books

“This book is fast-paced, creepy, suspenseful, and yet surprisingly uplifting, with fleshed out characters I genuinely cared about… . This book is seriously awesome. Someone chain [Gregory] to a desk so he stops doing anything other than write.”
—SF Book Reviews

“I’ve not encountered many authors in the horror genre who flex literary muscle as well as Gregory. His approach was perfect for the story vehicle.”
—Out of My Mind

“Intriguing world building, characters tinged in tragedy, a history of darkness and things on the periphery…. this is an awesome novella….”
—Read or Dead

“Not for the faint of heart, We Are All Completely Fine is a great read!”
—Bibliophilic

“Gregory does a masterful storytelling job here….”
—MT Void

“A must read”
—Buzz Feed

“This novella is mindboggling in it’s scope, a too brief glimpse into a ‘mythos’ as staggering as Lovecraft’s. The seed from which a thousand nightmares can spring, an unexplored jungle of imagination that bodes well for stalwart explorers of horror! Highly recommended!”
—Horror After Dark

“This is a scary, funny, bittersweet, fantastic book, and Gregory’s imagination is twisted and wonderful.”
—My Bookish Ways

“…creepy paranormal elements and wonderful writing…”
—Not Yet Read

“…brilliant, creepy….”
—Relentless Reading

“We Are All Completely Fine is not your typical horror novella. Yes, it is dark and creeping with mysterious dread, but it is also charming, clever, and even hilarious at times. Released by Tachyon Publications, We Are All Completely Fine is an intricate story that uses metafiction as a way to self-reflect on the horror genre tropes we have all come to love, while paralleling them with a stark realism.

“The premise of the novel is a fresh take on the horror genre and speaks to our society’s fascination with wanting to know, from a safe distance, what it is really like for survivors of such trauma as we empathize with their pain. The novella is a quick read that both casual horror fans and hardcore horror fans alike will enjoy.”
—The Shed

For information on We Are All Completely Fine, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story.