clara bacou

September 23, 2016

Tachyon tidbits featuring Bruce Sterling, Nalo Hopkinson, Lauren Beukes, and Kate Elliott

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized brad k horner, bruce sterling, chuma hill, clara bacou, falling in love with hominids, helisinki, interview, joe sherry, john coulthart, julie dillon, kate elliott, lauren beukes, nalo hopkinson, nerds of a feather flock together, pirate utopia, poisoned blade, review, shaina reads, slipping, slipping: stories essays & other writing, the very best of ka, tor.com, worldcon 75

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

Bruce Sterling, Nalo Hopkinson (Photo: David Findlay), Lauren Beukes, and Kate Elliott (April Quintanilla)

Brad K. Horner on his eponymous site gives abundant praise to Bruce Sterling’s forthcoming alt history, dieselpunk adventure PIRATE UTOPIA.

Wow. As an SF novel, it’s really quite gorgeous. I’ve been getting tired of all those overdone WWII alternate histories. This one is a beautiful strike in another direction, and it’s humorous and it’s scary and it pushes all the right buttons for me.

And it’s also pulp in all the grand ways, too. 🙂 Mussilini got his dick shot off while working as an editor, Hitler got shot and killed taking a bullet for a friend. There’s even Houdini, the Spy, Lovecraft his employee, and also Robert E Howard working alongside them. I was hoping to see Clarke Ashton Smith among them, but alas, no. 🙂

I haven’t been so delighted by such a strange book just tickling my sense of wonder in such a way as this. Bruce Sterling has gotten really interesting.

He’s been living in Europe for the last decade, learning so much about these places, and also as an American Cyberpunk author now writing Dieselpunk, I have to say that he’s pushing the envelope again. 🙂 In a really awesome way. 🙂

Bravo!

TOR.COM reports that Worldcon 75 has announced their guests of honor including Nalo Hopkinson, author of FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS.

Worldcon 75 also announced the five Guests of Honor, who “come from five different countries and reflect the diversity in science fiction and fantasy”: Johanna Sinisalo, Nalo Hopkinson, John-Henri Holmberg, Claire Wendling, and Walter Jon Williams.

Crystal Huff echoed her co-chair’s comments, saying, “In the early days, the science fiction community was dominated by the US, and accordingly most Worldcons have taken place either in the US or in English speaking countries. But in recent years this has changed rapidly. Many of the most interesting works today are created in other languages, and those new voices bring new energy and new ideas to the genre. We see the beginning of a new era of diversity, not only in colour, but also in gender, beliefs and abilities. To bring Worldcon to Helsinki is a natural, but important step in this development.”

Worldcon 75 will take place August 9-13, 2017 at the Helsinki Messukeskus convention center in Finland. For more information, check out the Worldcon 75 website.

SHAINA READS is B-A-N-A-N-A-S for Lauren Beukes’ debut collection SLIPPING: STORIES, ESSAYS, & OTHER WRITING.

The excerpt I read was so bizarre that I’ve tried to summarize it for fifteen minutes and have completely failed. This collection from South African author Lauren Beukes either going to be gimmicky as hell or absolutely amazing. I can’t wait to find out which.

Joe Sherry at NERDS OF A FEATHER,
FLOCK TOGETHER interviews Kate Elliott (THE VERY BEST OF KATE ELLIOTT) as part of their 6 Books interview series.

1. What book are you currently reading?

I’m a tag-team reader which means I’m always reading about six books at the same time, but for the sake of brevity I will focus on the SHAHNAMEH, the Persian Book of Kings, by Abolqasem Ferdowsi. This poetic retelling of a prose original was composed in the 10th century by Ferdowsi and became the national epic of Persia (Iran). The story is exactly as advertised by the title: the legendary and historical reigns of various Persian kings. I’m reading it with Tessa Gratton in weekly chapters which we then discuss in a blog post each week at my blog. This September we are reading through the history of Sekander (Alexander the Great). It is fascinating to see how he is portrayed in this version of his story. There are familiar tales told in a slightly altered form as well as completely new episodes not present in the Western history. Also, amusingly, this history claims that Sekander’s father was a Persian king who married a Greek princess. Highly recommended, and very long. We’re reading the Dick Davis translation, done in prose, but there are other versions.

4. How about a book you’ve changed your mind about over time–either positively or negatively?

I avoid re-reading books I loved when I was young for precisely this reason. While some may hold up, others, I fear, will not, and I would rather not lose my rosy affection for them. For example I picked up Robert Heinlein’s RED PLANET as an adult and almost immediately had to set it down again because of how heavily 50s-USA gendered and acculturated it was.

6. And speaking of that, what’s *your* latest book, and why is it awesome?

POISONED BLADE is the second book of the Fives trilogy (which starts with COURT OF FIVES).

The story is set in the country Efea, which was conquered 100 years earlier by a people called the Saroese. Jessamy, our protagonist, is the second of four biracial sisters born to a father and mother who can’t legally marry because he’s Saroese and she’s Efean. The Fives is a game played before large crowds. It’s like a big obstacle course with four obstacles around the outside and a fifth in the center (there’s a greater mystery about the Fives but that is revealed over all three books).

Competing in the Fives is what Jes has always wanted to do (I wanted to write a story about a girl who’s an athlete), but because the sisters have been raised with the father’s rigid cultural expectations she’s not allowed to. In the course of sneaking out to do it anyway she gets caught up in major political intrigue. The story contains generous helpings of my four favorite narrative food groups: determination, love, action, and treachery. Also giant mechanical spiders.

When asked for a pitch, I call it “Little Women meet American Ninja Warrior in a fantasy world inspired by Cleopatra’s Egypt.”

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

Cover and image by John Coulthart

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

Cover art by Chuma Hill

Design by Elizabeth Story

For more info about SLIPPING: STORIES, ESSAYS, & OTHER WRITING, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Clara Bacou

Design by Elizabeth Story

For more info on THE VERY BEST OF KATE ELLIOTT, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Julie Dillon

Design by Elizabeth Story

September 14, 2016

SLIPPING is utterly bizarre and equally addictive

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized blurb, clara bacou, collection, elizabeth story, essays, horror, kirkus, lauren beukes, michael patrick hicks, review, richard dansky, science fiction, short stories, slipping, slipping: stories essays & other writing, the green man review

The reviews have started coming in for Lauren Beukes’ forthcoming debut collection SLIPPING: STORIES, ESSAYS, & OTHER WRITING.

image: LaurenBeukes.com

KIRKUS was fascinated by the book.

An art installation so tactile as to feel alive, a ghost that lurks alongside a promising architecture student, a girl gutted from the inside to make a premiere athlete: all stitched together into a punk tapestry of stories and other short pieces.

<snip>

Utterly bizarre and equally addictive, these pieces demonstrate that Beukes has only tapped the surface of her prodigious and wide-ranging talent with her novels.

Richard Dansky at THE GREEN MAN REVIEW praises the collection.

The key to Lauren Beukes’ fiction can be found in the non-fiction short pieces at the back end of her new collection, SLIPPING: STORIES, ESSAYS, & OTHER WRITING. Beukes’ background is in journalism, and these shorts – some of them little more than brief gut-shots – she takes the reader where her profession took her, into places that are dangerous or forgotten or abandoned by the powers that be, often at the same time. And once there, she zeroes in on that notion of observation, of reporting – on the sheer necessity of the portrayals in the media of incidents and places, in order to get the public to pay some attention and not to ignore, or to swallow easy pre-fab narratives that bear little to no relation to the truth.

And that, then, is why the action of the stories presented in Slipping often feels incidental – it’s because it is. What matters – and Beukes’ decision to sequence the non-fiction after the fiction in the book allows for stunning moments of after-the-fact realization – is the perception of events. Riots are less important than the way they’re spun, and how they affect individuals’ Q ratings. The actions of royalty aren’t as important as feeding the media beast that follows one particular princess around getting what they want – headlines. A kaiju-sized threat gets taken down, not by a giant robot with a chainsword and blasters, but by bad reviews. This, Beukes is telling us again and again, is where the power is in the 21st century, in the eyes of the beholders. The actual events are less important than how they’re spun and how many people they’re spun to.

<snip>

All of which is a roundabout way of saying that for readers whose idea of a science fiction story starts and ends with the action of the plot, then Slipping might offer some confusing surprises. Time and again Beukes cozies up to old-school tropes, only to spin away to observe the chaos from a position that is more knowing, if not exactly safe. But that, I suspect, is the point.

In his listing of books read in August, Michael Patrick Hicks, author of EMERGENCE, discusses the collection.

So, August was kind of a light reading month, and I spent much of those 31 days preoccupied with writing a novella that will be coming out in October (stay tuned for details!). Not listed here is a book I read at the start of August, a collection of short stories and non-fiction essays by Lauren Beukes. The publisher, Tachyon Publications, asked me to blurb this one, and I was honored to do so.

And here is Hicks’ blurb:

“SLIPPING is a rare surprise, and one that demonstrates Beukes wide-ranging talent. Whether she’s writing about corporate branded future punks and celebrants, or the downtrodden casual menaces of daily life, from a compilation of tweets to a handful of remarkable non-fiction essays, her stories prove, repeatedly, that she is a masterful writer and that she has a voice that absolutely must be heard. Hold on tight to this one—you do not want it to slip away.”

For more information about SLIPPING: STORIES, ESSAYS, & OTHER WRITING, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Clara Bacou

Design by Elizabeth Story

September 1, 2016

Tachyon tidbits featuring Joe R. Lansdale, Lauren Beukes, Lavie Tidhar, and Ellen Datlow

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized blood and lemonade, central station, charles tan, clara bacou, coode street podcast, elizabeth story, Ellen Datlow, gary k wolfe, hap and leonard, hap and leonard: blood and lemonade, Hugo Awards, ian mond, james bradley, Joe R. Lansdale, jonathan strahan, lauren beukes, lavie tidhar, pages and pints, podcast, review, Rick Klaw, sarah anne langton, science fiction, slipping, slipping: stories essays & other writing, swamp noir, texas noir, the geek curmudgeon, video, you tube

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

Joe R. Lansdale (photo: Karen Lansdale), Lauren Beukes, Lavie Tidhar (Kevin Nixon. © Future Publishing 2013), and Ellen Datlow (THIS IS HORROR)

Editor Rick Klaw at The Geek Curmudgeon reveals info and the cover for Joe R. Lansdale’s forthcoming HAP AND LEONARD: BLOOD AND LEMONADE.

The book HAP AND LEONARD: BLOOD AND LEMONADE is a mosaic novel of sorts. That’s when you take a bunch of related stories and connect them with adjoining pieces ala THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES and the like.

Here’s some copy I threw together to help explain the book. I hope the fine folks at Tachyon can gussy it up a bit.

Since their first appearance in Savage Season through the recent hit SundanceTV series, the unconventional ass kicking duo of Hap Collins and Leonard Pine captured the hearts of fans everywhere. Now in this unconventional novel, creator Joe R. Lansdale explores the beginnings of the decades long friendship between the white, liberal, good ‘ol boy Hap and the black, Republican, gay, Vietnam veteran Leonard. The complicated tale of violence and humor, set in the racist, homophobic late 60s East Texas, introduces the two boys who grew up into the men, who become far more than friends. They call each other brother.

Watch for BLOOD AND LEMONADE this March.

PAGES AND PINTS reviews Lauren Beukes’ debut collection SLIPPING: STORIES, ESSAYS, & OTHER WRITING.

SLIPPING is an
interesting compilation of stories that tackle topics ranging from
the frightening future of technology/social media to issues of
extreme poverty and race. While some stories are particularly heavy
on the science fiction (“Unathi Battles the Black Hairballs” and
“The Green”) others like “Smileys” and “My Insect Skin”
are made all the more chilling by their realism.

While each story in
this collection is unique, they all have that one piece in common
that make me so passionate about her previous novels – there’s a
sense of some underlying real world threat in even the most intensely
science fiction story lines. Much like Margaret Atwood’s THE
HANDMAID’S TALE, the reader is left with feelings of unease, that
though what you’ve just read is fiction, it still hits too close to
home to not make you nervous.

SLIPPING ends with a
brief collection of non-fiction that helped to make her fiction even
more meaningful. “Adventures in Journalism” gives an intensely
personal description of Beukes career as a journalist in South
Africa, while “All the Pretty Corpses” shares insight into how
THE SHINING GIRLS came to be and why gender issues (sexism, domestic
violence, etc.) play such a prevalent role in much of her work. I
felt that this glimpse in Beukes’ own life and personal experiences
made her fiction even more meaningful.

Lavie Tidhar’s CENTRAL STATION was the subject of COODE
STREET ROUNDTABLE 7.

Welcome to the seventh episode of The Coode Street Roundtable. The Roundtable is a monthly podcast from Coode Street Productions where panelists James Bradley, Ian Mond, and Jonathan Strahan, joined by occasional special guests, discuss a new or recently released science fiction or fantasy novel. With James busy with housemoving and such, we’re joined by award-winning critic Gary K Wolfe.

If you’re keen to avoid spoilers, we recommend reading the book before listening to the episode.

Charles Tan shared video of Ellen Datlow accepting her recent Hugo Award.

And of Datlow presenting the Hugo Award for Best Short Story.

HAP AND LEONARD: BLOOD AND LEMONADE cover by Elizabeth Story

For more information about SLIPPING: STORIES, ESSAYS, & OTHER WRITING, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Clara Bacou

Design by Elizabeth Story

For more info about CENTRAL STATION, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Sarah Anne Langton

August 29, 2016

SLIPPING is a dizzying array of the incomparable Lauren Beukes’ stories

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized clara bacou, colleciton, elizabeth story, essays, horror, jennie bailey, lauren beukes, review, richard kadrey, short stories, slipping, slipping: stories essays & other writing, starburst

For STARBURST, Jennie Bailey enjoys Lauren Beukes’ debut collection SLIPPING: STORIES, ESSAYS, & OTHER WRITING.

SLIPPING is a
dizzying array of stories, a “greatest hits” from a prolific and
imaginative writer. There’s a mash of scenarios and genres from
alternative histories to Manga, cyberpunk to feminist fairy tale.
It’s kick-ass speculative fiction with brains and heart.

While the short
stories outbalance the non-fiction pieces, Beukes’s journalism has
a zippy, thoughtful, and compelling style to it. Her passion for
social justice shines through in her articles about South Africa and
women. (I defy you not to get all the feelings when you read the
letter to her five-year-old daughter.) This section also demonstrates
underlying themes that inform MOXYLAND, ZOO CITY, THE SHINING GIRLS,
and recent novel BROKEN MONSTERS. For budding writers this will give
you a valuable insight into the writing process; you can see how
non-fiction seeps into fiction and how short stories can be developed
into longer pieces. (If you’re inspired you should definitely slip
on the muse-skin gloves from the opening story and try typing!)

Beukes’ writing is
incomparable, however, if you haven’t read her work and love
writers like Jeff Noon (VURT, AUTOMATED ALICE), William Gibson
(NEUROMANCER) mixed with the unflinching ballsiness of writers like
Emma Jane Unsworth (ANIMALS) then you’ll absolutely love Lauren
Beukes.

Richard Kadrey,
author of the SANDMAN SLIM series and THE EVERYTHING BOX, praises the collection.

Lauren Beukes is one
of the most talented writers working today. Moving from witty to sad
to horrifying, she makes it all seem effortless. We’re lucky to
finally have her short work in one place.

For more information about SLIPPING: STORIES, ESSAYS, & OTHER WRITING, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Clara Bacou

Design by Elizabeth Story

August 19, 2016

Tachyon tidbits featuring Patricia A. McKillip, Joe R. Lansdale, and Lauren Beukes

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized books bones and buffy, clara bacou, cold in july, dreams of distant shores, elizabeth story, in the mouth of dorkness, Joe R. Lansdale, lauren beukes, patricia a mckillip, podcast, review, slipping, slipping: stories essays & other writing, tammy sparks, Thomas Canty, whisky with my book

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

Patricia A. McKillip (photo: Stephen Gold/Wikimedia Commons), Joe R. Lansdale (Karen Lansdale), and Lauren Beukes

WHISKEY WITH MY BOOK praises Patricia A. McKillip’s entertaining DREAMS OF DISTANT SHORES.

I picked this book off of NetGalley because of the beautiful cover. Thomas Canty is the artist of the piece titled By the Window. After further research I learned that he is an illustrator and cover designer in fantasy fiction. He is said to have pioneered a ‘New Romantic’ style of illustrations. I could not find much more on the artist himself, but I did find this Pinterest page https://www.pinterest.com/na8e/thomas-canty/.

The cover illustration is just an hint of what is inside. Patricia A. McKillip displays an amazing imagination in Dreams of Distant Shores. Each story is unique. Each story has vivid setting and engaging characters. The imagery is absolutely beautiful. Surprises are the norm in these tales, so prepare to be entertained.

IN THE MOUTH OF DORKNESS Podcast announced via Twitter their second Film Club selection.

The 2nd #ITMODFilmclub selection has been announced – Cold in July!! Tweet us topics! Read @joelansdale’s book too!

Tammy Sparks on BOOKS BONES & BUFFY lists her recent acquisitions.

SLIPPING by Lauren Beukes. I adore this author, and so I’m curious to see what her short fiction is like. Big thanks to Tachyon for the review copy!

For more info on DREAMS OF DISTANT SHORES, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Thomas Canty

For more info on COLD IN JULY, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

For more info on SLIPPING: STORIES, ESSAYS, & OTHER WRITING, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Clara Bacou

Design by Elizabeth Story

August 18, 2016

Attention reviewers, booksellers, and librarians: Tachyon titles now available via Edelweiss

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized bruce sterling, clara bacou, dreams of distant shores, edelweiss, elizabeth story, john coulthart, magdalena korzeniewska, michael swanwick, not so much said the cat, patricia a mckillip, peter s beagle, pirate utopia, slipping, slipping: fiction essays & other writing, summerlong, Thomas Canty

Select Tachyon titles are now available to review through Edelweiss.

PIRATE UTOPIA by Bruce Sterling

SLIPPING: FICTION, ESSAYS, & OTHER WRITING by Lauren Beukes

NOT SO MUCH, SAID THE CAT by Michael Swanwick

SUMMERLONG by Peter S. Beagle

DREAMS OF DISTANT SHORES by Patricia A. McKillip

These copies are only for reviewers, booksellers, and librarians. For more details, visit Edelweiss.

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

Cover by John Coulthart

For more info about SLIPPING: FICTION, ESSAYS, & OTHER WRITING, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Clara Bacou

Design by Elizabeth Story

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

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

For more info on SUMMERLONG, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Magdalena Korzeniewska

Design by Elizabeth Story

For more info on DREAMS OF DISTANT SHORES, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Thomas Canty

August 10, 2016

Reviewers, bloggers, and librarians get the bestselling Lauren Beukes’ debut collection SLIPPING

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized clara bacou, collection, elizabeth story, lauren beukes, netgalley, slipping, slipping: fiction essays & other writing

Review copies of the award-wining Lauren Beukes’ debut collection SLIPPING: FICTION, ESSAYS, & OTHER WRITING are now available via NetGalley.

These copies are only for reviewers and librarians. For more details, visit NetGalley.

And while you are there, check out the other Tachyon titles for review.

“Lauren Beukes is one of the most talented writers working today. Moving from witty to sad to horrifying, she makes it all seem effortless. We’re lucky to finally have her short work in one place.”

—Richard Kadrey, author of the Sandman Slim series and THE EVERYTHING BOX

SLIPPING: FICTION, ESSAYS, & OTHER WRITING

by Lauren Beukes

A Punk Lolita fighter-pilot rescues Tokyo from a marauding art installation. A young architect’s life is derailed by an inquisitive girl who happens to be a ghost. Unwitting recruits discover biohazardous plants on an inhospitable planet. Loyalty to a favorite product can be addictive when it gets under your skin.

In her edgy and satiric debut collection, award-winning South African author Lauren Beukes (The SHINING GIRLS) never holds back. Ranging from Johannesburg to outer space, Beukes is a fierce and captivating presence in the literary landscape.

Fiction

Muse
Slipping
Confirm / Ignore
Branded
Smileys
Princess
My Insect Skin
Parking
Pop Tarts
The Green
Litmash
Easy Touch
Algebra
Unathi Battles the Black Hairballs
Dear Mariana
Riding with the Dream Patrol
Unaccounted
Tankwa-Karoo
Exhibitionist
Dial Tone
Ghost Girl

Nonfiction

Adventures in Journalism

All the Pretty Corpses

Judging Unity

Inner City

On Beauty: A Letter to My Five-Year-Old Daughter

For more information about SLIPPING: FICTION, ESSAYS, & OTHER WRITING, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Clara Bacou

Design by Elizabeth Story

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clara bacou

Review copies of the award-wining Lauren Beukes’ debut collection SLIPPING: FICTION, ESSAYS, & OTHER WRITING are now available via NetGalley.

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