borne

December 4, 2019

Tachyon tidbits featuring Caitlín R. Kiernan, Joe R. Lansdale, Patricia A. McKillip, and Jeff VanderMeer

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized book riot, borne, boxy robot, broadswords and blasters, Caitlín R. Kiernan, cameron mount, dead astronauts, deadline, denise petski, elizabeth story, hannes hummel, jeff vandermeer, jessica avery, Joe R. Lansdale, patricia a mckillip, review, stephen king, the big book of hap and leonard, the forgotten beasts of eld, the very best of caitlin r kiernan, Thomas Canty, tim lepczyk

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

Caitlín R. Kiernan (photo: Kyle Cassidy, Joe R. Lansdale (Karen Lansdale), Patricia A. McKillip (Stephen Gold/Wikimedia Commons), and Jeff VanderMeer (Kyle Cassidy)

Jessica Avery of BOOK RIOT names Caitlín R. Kiernan as one of

15 Authors Like Stephen King You Need to Add to Your TBR.

Am I ever going to stop talking about Caitlín R. Kiernan’s collection? Probably not. THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN
came along just as I was making the slide from dark fantasy in to
outright horror, and I could not have wished for a better guide. Like
King, Kiernan’s short fiction covers a broad range of subjects and
genres, from science fiction to fantasy to the cosmic horror that she’s
become so well known for with her novella Agents of Dreamland.
Her stories are strange, beautiful, and full of emotion. They have the
sort of staying power that makes them linger with you for months.

For BROADSWORDS AND BLASTERS, Cameron Mount praises Joe R. Lansdale’s THE BIG BOOK OF HAP AND LEONARD.

There are a few slice of life shorts like
“Death by Chili” and “Not Our Kind” and a vignette titled “The Oak and
the Pond,” which are glimpses into the characters’ lives outside of
their big adventures, These are fun to read and provide some more
character development than you might expect, but the stand-out for me
among these shorter stories is “The Boy Who Became Invisible.” It’s
about Hap’s childhood and Hap’s failure when his friend is bullied into
invisibility before the friend briefly flashes back into existence in a
terrible way. It resonates in general, but perhaps because I was the
subject of such childhood bullying it hit home a lot more for me.

Tim Lepczyk at BOXY ROBOT offers an analytical review of Patricia A. McKillip’s THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD.

Patricia McKillip creates a world of magic and beauty. The action
doesn’t hum along, but there’s a dreamlike quality to her writing that
envelopes the reader and floats them along on this journey. It’s hard to
describe, but everything comes together from tone and mood to
description and imagination. McKillip created a wonderful book that is
both quiet and powerful.

DEADLINE’s Denise Petski reports Jeff VanderMeer’s Borne Universe Novels In The Works For Television By AMC Studios.

AMC Studios has acquired the television rights to Jeff VanderMeer’s popular Borne
universe novels to develop as a potential series. The books all take
place within the same mysterious, mind-bending universe VanderMeer
launched in 2017 with Borne, followed by The Strange Bird, and the latest, Dead Astronauts, set to publish today. VanderMeer will serve as an executive producer and creative consultant on the project.

For more info about THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Hannes Hummel
Design by Elizabeth Story

For more info on THE BIG BOOK OF HAP AND LEONARD, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

For more info about THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Thomas Canty

July 7, 2019

Happy birthday to the New York Times bestselling and award-winning Jeff VanderMeer

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized Ann Monn, ann vandermeer, birthday, booklife, borne, dan jones, jacob mcmurray, jeff vandermeer, john coulthart, steampuink ii, steampunk, the big book of classic fantasy, the kosher guide to imaginary animals, the new weird, third bear

Photo: Kyle Cassidy

The New York Times bestselling writer, editor, teacher, and publisher, Jeff VanderMeer has won the Rhysling Award, British Fantasy Award, BSFA Award, the World Fantasy Award three times, and most recently the Nebula and Shirley Jackson Awards for Annihilation (2014), the first volume of The Southern Reach trilogy. Other acclaimed fiction includes Borne (2017), the rest of The Southern Reach trilogy (Authority [2014] and Acceptance [2014]), Finch (2009) and Shriek: An Afterword (2006). Many of his shorter works have been collected in City of Saints and Madmen (2001), The Day Dali Died (2003), Secret Life (2004), Secret Lives (2008), The Surgeon’s Tale and Other Stories (2007; with Cat Rambo), THE THIRD BEAR (2010), and The Compass of his Bones and Other Stories (2011). The film Annihilation, directed by Alex Garland and starring Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tessa Thompson and based on the VanderMeer novel, premiered in 2018 to rave reviews.

VanderMeer co-edited (unless otherwise noted all alongside award-winning editor Ann VanderMeer) several groundbreaking and popular anthologies including The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide To Eccentric & Discredited Diseases (2003; with Mark Roberts), THE NEW WEIRD (2008), STEAMPUNK (2008), STEAMPUNK II: STEAMPUNK RELOADED (2010), The Weird (2011), The Time Traveler’s Almanac (2013), Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology (2015), The Big Book of Science Fiction (2016), and The Big Book of Classic Fantasy (2019). Also with Ann, he produced THE KOSHER GUIDE TO IMAGINARY ANIMALS (2010).

Among his numerous nonfiction volumes are the acclaimed volumes BOOKLIFE: STRATEGIES AND SURVIVAL TIPS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY WRITER (2009), The Steampunk Bible (2011; with S. J. Chambers), and Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction (2013).

All of us at Tachyon wish the multi-faceted Jeff a squidastic birthday, full of fungi and other things that creep in the darkness.

For more info about THE THIRD BEAR, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Jacob McMurray

For more info about THE NEW WEIRD, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Ann Monn

For more info about STEAMPUNK, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Ann Monn

For more info about STEAMPUNK II: STEAMPUNK RELOADED, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Dan Jones (Tinketbots)
Design by Ann Monn

For more info about THE KOSHER GUIDE TO IMAGINARY ANIMALS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by John Coulthart

For more info about BOOKLIFE: STRATEGIES AND SURVIVAL TIPS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY WRITER, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by John Coulthart

July 7, 2018

Happy birthday to the New York Times bestselling and award-winning Jeff VanderMeer

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized Ann Monn, birthday, booklife: strategies and survival tips for the 21st century writer, borne, dan jones, jacob mcmurray, jeff vandermeer, john coulthart, steampunk ii: steampunk reloaded, the kosher guide to imaginary animals, the new weird, third bear

Photo: Kyle Cassidy

The New York
Times bestselling writer, editor, teacher, and publisher, Jeff VanderMeer has won the Rhysling Award, British Fantasy Award, BSFA
Award, the World Fantasy Award three times, and most recently the
Nebula and Shirley Jackson Awards for Annihilation
(2014), the first
volume of The Southern Reach trilogy. Other acclaimed fiction
includes Borne (2017),
the rest of The Southern Reach trilogy (Authority
[2014] and Acceptance
[2014]), Finch
(2009) and Shriek:
An Afterword (2006).
Many of his shorter works have been collected in City of
Saints and Madmen
(2001), The Day
Dali Died (2003),
Secret Life (2004),
Secret Lives (2008),
The Surgeon’s Tale and Other Stories (2007;
with Cat Rambo), THE THIRD BEAR (2010), and The Compass of
his Bones and Other Stories
(2011). The film Annihilation, directed by Alex Garland and starring Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tessa Thompson and based on the VanderMeer novel, premiered in early 2018 to rave reviews.

VanderMeer co-edited
several groundbreaking and popular anthologies including The
Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide To Eccentric & Discredited
Diseases (2003; with Mark Roberts), THE NEW WEIRD (2008; with Ann
VanderMeer), STEAMPUNK (2008; with Ann VanderMeer), STEAMPUNK II: STEAMPUNK RELOADED (2010; with Ann VanderMeer), The Weird (with Ann
VanderMeer), The Time Traveler’s Almanac (2013; with Ann
VanderMeer), Sisters of the
Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology (2015; with
Ann VanderMeer) and The Big Book of Science Fiction
(2016; with Ann VanderMeer). Also with his wife Ann, VanderMeer
produced THE KOSHER GUIDE TO IMAGINARY ANIMALS
(2010).

Among his numerous
nonfiction volumes are the acclaimed volumes BOOKLIFE: STRATEGIES AND SURVIVAL TIPS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY WRITER (2009), The Steampunk
Bible (2011; with S. J. Chambers), and Wonderbook: The
Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction
(2013).

All of us at Tachyon wish the multi-faceted Jeff a squidastic birthday!

For more info about THE THIRD BEAR, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Jacob McMurray

For more info about THE NEW WEIRD, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Ann Monn

For more info about STEAMPUNK, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Ann Monn

For more info about STEAMPUNK II: STEAMPUNK RELOADED, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Dan Jones (Tinketbots)

Design by Ann Monn

For more info about THE KOSHER GUIDE TO IMAGINARY ANIMALS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by John Coulthart

For more info about BOOKLIFE: STRATEGIES AND SURVIVAL TIPS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY WRITER, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by John Coulthart

June 20, 2018

Tachyon tidbits featuring Peter S. Beagle, Kameron Hurley, John Kessel, Jeff VanderMeer, and Ellen Klages

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized borne, campbell award, czech academy of science fiction fantasy and horror, ellen klages, gunn center for the study of science fiction, in calabria, jeff vandermeer, John Kessel, john w campell memorial award, kameron hurley, milan žáček, mythopoeic award, passing strange, peter s beagle, the moon and the other, the stars are legion, v kalábrii

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

Peter S. Beagle (photo: Rina Weisman), Kameron Hurley, John Kessel (Scott Edelman), Jeff VanderMeer (Kyle Cassidy), and Ellen Klages (Scott R. Kline)

Peter S. Beagle’s IN CALABRIA, translated into Czech by Milan Žáček, won Best Translation from the Czech Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.

Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction announced the 2018 John W. Campbell Memorial Award Finalists. While no Tachyon titles were mentioned, several Tachyon authors were honored: Kameron Hurley for The Stars are Legion, John Kessel for The Moon and the Other, and Jeff VanderMeer for Borne.

2018 Campbell Award Finalists

Nina Allan The Rift
Christopher Brown Tropic of Kansas
Louise Erdrich Future Home of the Living God
Kameron Hurley The Stars Are Legion
John Kessel The Moon and the Other
Eleanor Lerman The Stargazer’s Embassy
Paul McAuley Austral

Annalee Newitz Autonomous
Deji Bryce Olukotun After the Flare
Kim Stanley Robinson New York 2140
Norman Spinrad The People’s Police
Jeff VanderMeer Borne
David Walton The Genius Plague

The 2018 Mythopoeic Awards Finalists were announced with Tachyon author Ellen Klages’ Passing Strange among the honorees.

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature

Crowley, John, Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr (Saga Press, 2017)
Hoffman, Alice, The Rules of Magic (Simon and Schuster, 2017)
Kathryns, G.A., Snow City (Sycamore Sky Books, 2017)
Klages, Ellen, Passing Strange (Tor.com, 2017)
LaValle, Victor, The Changeling (Spiegel and Grau, 2017)

Congratulations to the winners and nominees.

June 12, 2017

Tachyon tidbits featuring Michael Swanwick, Jeff VanderMeer, Brandon Sanderson, and Nalo Hopkinson

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized alexander nanitchkov, booklife, booklife: strategies and survival tips for the 21st century writer, borne, brandon sanderson, chris lough, chuma hill, cosmere, elizabeth story, falling in love with hominids, jeff vandermeer, john coulthart, list challenges, michael swanwick, nalo hopkinson, not so much said the cat, Publishers Weekly, the emperor's soul, tor.com, we read a book

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

Michael Swanwick (photo: Beth Gwynn), Jeff VandeMeer (Kyle Cassidy), Brandon Sanderson (Ceridwen via Wikimedia Commons), and Nalo Hopkinson (David Findlay)

WE READ A BOOK selects Michael Swanwick’s NOT SO MUCH SAID THE CAT as their June read.

Steven

That’s probably not good for you, but I’ll try.

For June, I’m picking a book by one of my favorite sci-fi/fantasy authors, Michael Swanwick. I’ve read some of his books before, and we’re going to read a lot more over the course of this book club, which will keep going until we die or hate each other, right?

I’m picking a short story collection, and, Jeff, you won’t be surprised at all when you hear the title. This book club hasn’t been going on long enough for any Internet strangers reading this to know much about us yet, but you’ll know, Jeff. You’ll know.

The story collection is called NOT SO MUCH SAID THE CAT.

Jeff

Cats. I should have known. It’s actually a little surprising that you’ve gone through two book picks without selecting a book about cats in some form or another. In that sense, I am already impressed.

This does actually sound good though. I enjoy short stories and, according to Amazon, Michael Swanwick is the master of short science-fiction. I don’t know that Amazon is exactly the gatekeeper of great literature, but it’s enough to encourage optimism.

For PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, Jeff VanderMeer shares 5 Writing Tips.

Writing the rough draft of a novel might seem hard enough all by itself. But after you have a draft, the work is still just beginning because for most novels revision is the key to success—as is finding enthusiasm for revision to make your manuscript everything you want it to be. Such enthusiasm means not just renewed energy and having a positive outlook after the initial adrenaline rush of inspiration, but also being patient. Often, this means not seeking out “efficiency” in your process. Getting too quickly to where you want to go, getting there too smoothly, is antithetical to thinking through complex issues. You want roadblocks, confusion, chaos, and doubt. Unexpected, wonderful things come out of this approach.

But at some point, no matter how good your partial or rough draft is, you may also have to methodically test your novel—in all ways, from the structure down to the paragraph level. For my new novel BORNE, I made a number of revisions based on taking a step back and thinking about what I wanted the book to emphasize and what the characters told me about the story.

1. Changes to structure can relieve pressure and allow your novel to breathe.

Initially I had thought of the book as being in two parts, and the sort of book where you receive much of the context up front. But as I weighed how much information to provide to the reader and where, I realized I should experiment with a three-part structure because I was in danger of off-loading too much context too quickly on the reader. In novels not set in the present-day, this can result in an undesirable thickness that weighs down scenes. As soon as I mapped out what this change would mean, I felt a huge sense of relief. Suddenly the whole idea of even what scenes had to go where changed drastically.

3. The emotional depth of your story can be affected by how you provide exposition.

A change in structure meant a change in the length of the novel to some degree, but more importantly it meant I had more space for context related to setting and landscape and history to be situated at regular intervals along the way—only in the places it was needed and thus made more active than simply inert exposition. This changed the texture of the novel by making individual moments of description or explanation shorter. The space left behind is filled instead by the emotional lives of the characters—a kind of interiority with regard to the narrator that hopefully deepens the novel and makes it more emotionally complex. Ultimately, then, whereas in my prior Area X novels the setting deliberately seems to devour the characters, the characters in BORNE stand out in stark relief from the setting.

4. A multi-level narrative voice requires detailed attention at the paragraph level.

Because I saw Rachel as an educated, sophisticated voice, the rough draft often had too many words better suited for an essay. I felt this was necessary in the draft to establish voice, but in revision, I cut or changed a number of such instances while leaving others. What I left was enough to signify the kind of narrator Rachel was, but the cuts also supported the changes to structure that resulted in fewer “lumped” descriptions of setting. In a way, the simpler the language became, the more complex the effects. This is because some of the more complex word choices drew too much attention to themselves in the midst of highly emotional scenes—scenes in which I wanted the reader fully engaged in the moment of the scene. However, leaving in several of these complex word choices was essential not just to characterization but to the frame of history through which Rachel tells the story. The diction must move from informal to more formal at moments when Rachel thinks she is imparting something of historical importance. Without the signifiers of more complex vocabulary, I could not make this shift without it being jarring.

Chris Lough at TOR.COM reveals that Mapping Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere Raises So Many Questions About His Future Books.

In fall of 2016 fantasy author Brandon Sanderson officially revealed in the ARCANUM UNNBOUND collection that almost all of his books take place in a single cosmos, known as the “Cosmere”. Along with charts of each star system known about in the Cosmere (here’s an example), the book hinted that characters from the Mistborn, The Stormlight Archive, Elantris, and Warbreaker series had already begun quietly appearing on other worlds (i.e. other books) within Sanderson’s fictional universe.

These “worldhoppers” hold the secret to the larger epic underpinning Brandon Sanderson’s novels and stories, so I got curious…what do we know so far about them?

There’s an inciting event behind all of the worlds in the Cosmere which narratively linked them together and produced the first “wave” of worldhoppers. From Martin Cahill’s “Let’s Talk About Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere“:

…a long, long time ago, there was a singular entity that went by the name/title of Adonalsium. From what little we know, it was a celebrated force of life and creation. But something happened and Adonalsium was shattered into sixteen shards, each of them containing a single aspect of Adonalsium’s cosmological DNA and power, with both positive and negative aspects contained within.

Present at the Shattering of Adonalsium were sixteen individuals, who found the Shards left from the catastrophe and took them up, gaining immense power, and essentially ascending to godhood. With this newfound power, the Shardholders went off to do whatever it is that gods do.

With a consciousness to direct them, many of the Shards began to Invest their magic and influence in certain planets or peoples. Every Shard impacts a planet in a way that allows certain individuals to tap into its own distinct magical power.

This first wave of sixteen Shards–known more recently as Vessels–puts the list of known worldhoppers in the double digits already. This is our framework for mapping The Cosmere-Thus-Far, allowing us to illustrate the relationships between planetary systems in the Cosmere by way of the beings who have “hopped” between them.

LIST CHALLENGES includes FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS among their 100 Must Read Books by Women Authors.

For more information on NOT SO MUCH, SAID THE CAT, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

For more info about BOOKLIFE: STRATEGIES AND SURVIVAL TIPS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY WRITER, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by John Coulthart

For more on THE EMPEROR’S SOUL, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Alexander Nanitchkov

Design by Elizabeth Story

For more information on FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Chuma Hill

Design by Elizabeth Story

May 31, 2017

Tachyon tidbits featuring James Morrow, Nancy Kress, Richard A. Lupoff, and Jeff VanderMeer

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized after the fall before the fall during the fall, amy softa, Ann Monn, b&n sci-fi & fantasy blog, book trailer, borne, elizabeth story, file 770, interview, James Morrow, jeff vandermeert, larry ivie, leah schnelbach, milt stevens, Nancy Kress, read what i like, richard a lupoff, the asylum of dr caligari, the best of xero, the new weird, tor.com

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

James Morrow, Nancy Kress, Richard A. Lupoff (photo: George Katechis via Wikimedia Commons), and Jeff VanderMeer (Kyle Cassidy)

B&N SCI-FI & FANTASY BLOG shares the book trailer for James Morrow’s THE ASYLUM OF DR. CALIGARI.

A new James Morrow book is always filled with unexpected delights. Giant monsters and an homage to Japanese B-movies? A fantastical religious satire about the literal death of God? A Darwinian alt-history tale? Check, check, and check. His newest book, THE ASYLUM OF DR. CALIGARI, offers similar surprises, and rather than spell them out, we’ll let the author do it for you. Below, courtesy of Tachyon Publications, you’ll find the exclusive trailer for the new book, due out June 20, featuring a cameo appearance from an inflatable Edvard Munch painting and some nifty THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI action figures. Enjoy!

Amy Softa at READ WHAT I LIKE praises Nancy Kress’ Nebula award winning AFTER THE FALL, BEFORE THE FALL, DURING THE FALL.

Such an interesting little book. I recommended this to my library when I noticed we needed a fresh influx of science fiction and am so glad I did. Upon closer inspection of my Goodreads account, I see that this is the second book I’ve read by this author. Much of what I thought about her writing of the other story holds true for this one. This is a smart thought-provoking science fiction story that captures your attention and keeps you turning the page.

Of course, it isn’t until the end where we learn what really happen to earth and humanity but the story did leave me with some questions unanswered. The story was a race to figure out what happen and what will happen to the last timeline and the future of all of the human race. The characters, while interesting, if not annoying from time to time, were not what kept me in this story. The mystery and need to know why and how held me to the end. Having finished it I’m glad I read it. Not a terribly big surprise as to how it played out but I can see why it is an award-winning story.

My Rating: 4 Stars

For FILE 770, Milt Stevens reports on Corflu 34, complete with some surprising information about Pat and Dick Lupoff’s THE BEST OF XERO.

Approximately 40 people attended Corflu 34 at the Warner Center Marriott in Woodland Hills, California on April 28-30, 2017. Corflu is a convention for people who publish or used to publish fanzines on paper. Yes, paper. If you want to read more about these atavistic characters, you can go to eFanzines.com.

Auctions at Corflus are lively affairs. This year’s auction was heavy on fanzines from the Los Angeles area such as VoM and Shaggy from the forties. The most expensive single item was a hardback anthology THE BEST OF XERO which included material from Dick and Pat Lupoff’s fanzine which sold for $55. Graham Charnock was making bids in the auction while still being in England. Graham was doing it through a laptop carried by Rob Jackson. At Graham’s requests, Rob would move the laptop around so Graham could get a better look at what he of bidding on. At the beginning of this, I described the attendance as “Approximately 40.” Graham was part of the “Approximately.” How should you count someone who is participating in the con from thousands of miles away.

Leah Schnelbach on TOR.COM interviews Jeff VanderMeer.

Jeff VanderMeer is a master of combining ecological concerns with a dark, weird speculative fiction. His SOUTHERN REACH Trilogy followed an uncanny event that created “Area X”, and the subsequent expeditions to explore the region, mining Nature itself to find the beauty and horror that comes with a radical shift in ecology. His latest novel, BORNE, takes us to a future city, where people attempt to carve out lives after decades of societal collapse and environmental upheaval—you can read Niall Alexander’s review here. Rachel, a young refugee, scavenges for food and tech in order to survive with her partner, a former biotech engineer named Wick. Rachel discovers a particularly mysterious biotech while scavenging, and rather than turning it over to Wick’s experiments, she keeps it, names it Borne, and raises it like a child. Hilarity ensues, as does heartbreak, terror, and musing on the nature of survival and humanity’s role on Earth… and that’s all before you get to the skyscraper-sized flying bear.

VanderMeer is currently on a book tour for BORNE, but he graciously took time to answer a few of my questions about the novel, and to discuss his love of the environment and the “New Weird.” He also shared a video of the Florida coastline that inspired Area X.

LS: Do you see BORNE as a successor to your SOUTHERN REACH trilogy, or more as a departure?

JV: Area X was more about pristine wilderness and BORNE is about ecology in urban spaces, especially in places we think of wrongly as broken or render invisible because we don’t want to think about. I also wanted to explore a situation where a multinational has come in and stripped resources from an area, and what resilience means in that context. And while the SOUTHERN REACH was about in part the lack of ability of characters to connect, Borne is about characters trying very hard to connect. People who are trying to be their better selves even while in extreme situations.

LS: You’ve been a champion of the idea of the New Weird—where do you think the New Weird will/should go in the future?

JV: I kind of laugh when New Weird comes out into the light again, since it’s often kept in the basement in a cabinet with a broken, rusted lock. I’m a champion of the unique voices I love in fiction and labels one hopes slide off so readers can see the work entire and not just the part with the label attached. If there is a brightness that emanates out of writing I adore it is something without a name that makes me drunk with the beauty and sadness and rightness of it. That’s all I want from fiction—to be annihilated and taken over by. What it’s called otherwise, I don’t much care about.

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

Cover by Elizabeth Story

For more info on AFTER THE FALL, BEFORE THE FALL, DURING THE FALL, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Elizabeth Story

For more info on THE BEST OF XERO, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Larry Ivie

For more info about THE NEW WEIRD, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Ann Monn

May 5, 2017

Tachyon tidbits featuring David G. Hartwell, Jacob Weisman, Bruce Sterling, Cory Doctorow, and Jeff VanderMeer

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized Ann Monn, anthology, borne, bruce sterling, charles r saunders, content, content: selected essays on technology creativity copyright and the future of technology and the future of the future, context, context: further selected essays on productivity creativity parenting and politics in the 21st century, cory doctorow, David G. Hartwell, electric literature, elizabeth story, fantasy, glen cook, interview, jacob mcmurray, jacob weisman, jean-sebastien rossbach, jeff vandermeer, john coulthart, john oak dalton, pirate utopia, reading over the shoulder, review, robert e horward, short stories, the third bear, walkaway

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

David G. Hartwell, Jacob Weisman with Rina Weisman at James Cummins Bookseller (photo: Ellen Datlow), Bruce Sterling, Cory Doctorow (Jonathan Worth), and Jeff VanderMeer (Kyle Cassidy)

READING OVER THE SHOULDER delivers a four part review of David G. Hartwell and Jacob Weisman’s THE SWORD & SORCERY ANTHOLOGY.

Anthology Thursday is a series of posts breaking down and reviewing an anthology every month. Because I need to read more short fiction. This month is THE SWORD & SORCERY ANTHOLOGY edited by David G. Hartwell & Jacob Weisman.

THE TOWER OF THE ELEPHANT BY ROBERT E. HOWARD

Brief synopsis: Conan will scale the walls of the Elephant Tower and attempt to steal the fabled gem at it’s heart.

Firstly, I had no idea that Conan was considered Sword & Sorcery let alone that it basically defined the genre. I also didn’t realize Conan was historical fantasy instead of high fantasy. The things you learn when you step outside your comfort zone.

This short had a lot that I really liked and it’s was clear that the author is extremely skilled in writing short fiction. In a handful of paragraphs I felt steeped in the world, a handful more and Conan was a real person with depths waiting to be revealed. The ending felt abrupt but the story had been told so there wasn’t any reason to continue.

<snip>

GIMMILE’S SONGS BY CHARLES R. SAUNDERS

Brief synopsis: Dossouye is a harden warrior woman with a war-bull for a companion. When she encounters two roughians it’s the beginning and end of a very long tale.

This was a great short story! It had everything and it was concise. I loved how it established setting effortlessly…..or appeared effortless. I would definitely read more by this author.

SOLDIER OF AN EMPIRE UNACQUAINTED WITH DEFEAT BY GLEN COOK

Brief synopsis: Tain, a deserter of an empire embroiled in civil war, tries to find his place and purpose in the world.

This was awesome! The style threw me there for the first couple of pages but I grew to love it for what it was. The world is amazing and I’m curious if this is a one-shot or this is a part of one of Mr. Cook’s larger worlds. Either way I want more set in this world…..I need it in my life.

<snip>

SUMMARY

It was great to step out of my comfort zone and experience different aspects of the Fantasy genre as well as different authors. Short fiction has never been something I particularly enjoyed because I like to be invested in the worlds and characters. A few pages only serves to wet my appetite.

As a whole, I enjoyed this anthology. I think most of my issues or complaints dealt with them being short fiction than anything else. It was also interesting to see how the genre evolved over the decades.

I definitely want to continue reading more anthologies. The variation on a theme is nice but also the slightly narrower focus than compared to most short fiction magazines.

John Oak Dalton on his eponymous blog praises Bruce Sterling’s PIRATE UTOPIA.

Next I have to recommend the absolutely bats PIRATE UTOPIA by Bruce Sterling, a post-World War I-era thriller about a little upstart sliver of a country between Yugoslavia and Italy chock full of anarchists and rebels with names like “The Art Witch” and “The Ace of Hearts”–all the more crazy because it is (somewhat) grounded in real events.

ELECTRIC LITERATURE shares a conversation between Jeff VanderMeer and Cory Doctorow.

Twenty-five years ago, Cory Doctorow and Jeff VanderMeer both attended the Clarion Writers Workshop, the premier science fiction and fantasy writing program. Since that time, VanderMeer and Doctorow have each gone on to long literary careers. By chance, their new novels, BORNE (VanderMeer) and WALKAWAY (Doctorow) are being published on the same date this year, April 25th, which got them to talking, which got us to publishing their conversation.

Jeff VanderMeer: Fresh-faced and eager as we both might seem, I’m calling it: we’re pretty much grandpas now. (Literally, too.) Looking back over the past quarter century, it’s pretty clear that a lot has changed. And a lot of it for the good. The genre boundaries are much more fluid now. I’m one of those continual label-evaders so this suits me fine. I’d prefer to shape-shift, in part because my interests and curiosity vectors are always changing. One way I think we are definitely alike is in adapting well to the new environment, if in very different ways.

Cory Doctorow: We’re in the midst of a curious era for nerdy subculture, which is something I’ve been involved with since I started taking the subway to Saturday D&D clubs when I was 9 years old. Back then, it was *really hard* to find other people who found genre sensibilities satisfying. The covers of paperbacks on buses became a recognition semaphore (“I see you are reading a John Wyndham novel; I too, have read of the Triffids!”) Networked communications brought subcultures together — counterculture fashion identities like goth and punk; out-of-mainstream political identities from anarcho-syndicalism to intersectional feminism to (alas) neo-fascism.

VanderMeer: I want to get back to this idea of how the landscape has changed since we started our careers. On the negative side, it can be noisy and time-consuming in how writers are expected to engage on social media. But creatively I find it very positive in the sense that the fracturing of media and of hierarchies leads to all kinds of beautiful cross-pollinations. If there’s one thing I’ve been devoted to my whole career it’s been to breaking down barriers between speculative fiction and realism, if you will — in my fiction but also in the anthologies my wife Ann and I edit. For example, it was great to publish you in THE BIG BOOK OF SF alongside Borges.

Doctorow: I think of it in terms of our communications tools, which always constrain the kinds of experiences we can have. When all you have is live performance, every live tale told is either a stage-play or a puppet show. Invent movies, and all the stories that had been shoehorned onto the stage (but really need to be movies) are liberated from stages and brought to the screen — meanwhile, all the tales that had lurked in potentia, unable to find any expression in the constraint of live performance, finally come to fruition. What’s left behind on-stage is irreducibly stage-like; it’s a purer expression of what you could only ever do onstage. And so on! Youtube gives us “shows” that are 19 seconds long, or 75 hours, things that couldn’t have lived on stage or cinema or TV screens.

Doctorow: On good days, the activist work feeds into my artistic work, each informing the other, or being escape-valves for one another’s pressures. On bad days, the frustrations in one realm blow over into the other — wrestling with activist causes will make art seem like a pointless deck-chair rearrangement exercise. I just try and power through it. How is it for you?

VanderMeer: The same, although my emphasis comes less through the tech side and more through the environmental side. I am working on a nonfiction book about storytelling and climate change, and although it can be depressing to do that research, it’s also enlightening and very hopeful in its way. So many people are engaging with it and in so many different ways. Just this week I spoke to an MFA student whose fiction is heavily into seeing animals in a way more consistent with current animal behavior research and also to someone working on expressing climate change through performance art, along with the guy who leads the energy center at Rice, and my own stepdaughter, who wrote two chapters of the World Wildlife Fund report on sustainability last year. So, between that and hiking, which is all about experiencing our world in the moment, I do feel hopeful to some extent. We shouldn’t underestimate the good we can do day-to-day no matter what the future holds.

For more info on THE SWORD & SORCERY ANTHOLOGY, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Jean-Sebastien Rossbach

Design by Elizabeth Story

For more info on PIRATE UTOPIA, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by John Coulthart

For more info about THE THIRD BEAR, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Jacob McMurray

For more info on CONTENT: SELECTED ESSAYS ON TECHNOLOGY, CREATIVITY, COPYRIGHT, AND THE FUTURE OF THE FUTURE, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Ann Monn

For more info on CONTEXT: FURTHER SELECTED ESSAYS ON PRODUCTIVITY, CREATIVITY, PARENTING, AND POLITICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

April 24, 2017

Meet the New York Times bestselling and award-winning Jeff VanderMeer

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized Ann Monn, ann vandermeer, booklife, booklife: strategies and survival tips for the 21st century writer, borne, dan jones, jacob mcmurray, jeff vandermeer, john coulthart, steampunk, steampunk ii, steampunk ii: steampunk reloaded, the kosher guide to imaginary animals, the new weird, the third bear, tour

The singular talent Jeff VanderMeer is coming your way to discuss his new book BORNE and other fascinating subjects. Be sure drop in and visit with this extraordinary author.