geek’s guide to the galaxy

July 21, 2017

Tachyon tidbits featuring Peter S. Beagle, Ellen Klages, James Patrick Kelly, and Joe R. Lansdale

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized elizabeth story, ellen klages, geek's guide to the galaxy, hap and leonard, idw publishing, interview, James Patrick Kelly, Joe R. Lansdale, jussi piironen, kristi chadwick, library journal, life has a funny way of sneaking up on you, lifehasafunnywayofsneakinguponyou, mother go, peter s beagle, review, savage season, short scary tales publications, the overneath, wicked wonders

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

Peter S. Beagle (photo: Rina Weisman), Ellen Klages (Scott R. Kline), James Patrick Kelly (Bill Clemente), and Joe R. Lansdale (Karen Lansdale)

LIFEHASAFUNNYWAYOFSNEAKINGUPONYOU provides the first review of Peter S. Beagle’s forthcoming collection THE OVERNEATH.

Yet another incredible collection of short stories from world renowned Fantasy Author Peter S Beagle. I was extra excited for THE OVERNEATH because I’d heard it featured a story about our very own Schmendrick the Magician. But imagine my delight when I discovered not one but two Schmendrick stories!!

Peter S Beagle just has an incredible skill for putting together both short and full length stories. I have been in love with THE LAST UNICORN my whole life and I continue to adore every single thing Peter writes. THE OVERNEATH is no different. A fantasy lover’s heaven from start to finish.

At LIBRARY JOURNAL, Kristi Chadwick praises Ellen Klages’ WICKED WONDERS.

Klages’s (PORTABLE CHILDHOODS; Scott O’Dell Award–winning THE GREEN GLASS SEA) second collection of short stories highlights a decade of the writer’s work, articulating childhood wonders, supernatural situations, and sometimes the mere spirit of speculative fiction itself.

VERDICT Klages’s fans won’t be disappointed by these poignant and relatable tales that push the barriers of the fantastical realism and beyond.

GEEK’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY interviews James Patrick Kelly.

“It’s a truism that the field doesn’t acknowledge that very few, if any, science fiction writers have any idea of economics,” Kelly says in Episode 264 of the GEEK’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY podcast.

In Kelly’s new novel MOTHER GO, opposition to a colony ship steadily mounts as the launch date approaches because a vocal ‘Earth First’ faction doesn’t want to see so much technology and talent depart the planet forever. Kelly thinks that’s an all-too-plausible scenario.

“Is that really what Joe Six-Pack is going to want to spend his money on, to make sure that some future, future, future, future generation is going to have a happy life on some world going around Tau Ceti?” Kelly says.

Sci-fi often makes interstellar travel look easy, with characters jetting around the galaxy using FTL drives. But such technology will probably never exist. Instead space travel would be slow, dangerous, and grueling. “The galactic cosmic radiation of being exposed in a starship, even a well-shielded starship, is such that it probably is really a problem,” Kelly says. “You’re going to be exposed to galactic cosmic radiation for decades, and that isn’t good for you.”

SHORT SCARY TALES PUBLICATIONS is publishing the first graphic novel starring Joe R. Lansdale’s iconic characters Hap and Leonard. The hardcover, limited will be followed shortly with a trade paper edition through IDW Publishing.

A rip-roaring, high-octane, Texas-sized thriller, featuring two friends, one vixen, a crew of washed-up radicals, loads of money, and bloody mayhem.

Hap Collins and Leonard Pine are best friends, yet they couldn’t be more different. Hap is an east Texas white-boy with a weakness for Texas women. Leonard is a gay, black Vietnam vet. Together, they steer up more commotion than a fire storm. But that’s just the way they like it. So when an ex-flame of Hap’s returns promising a huge score. Hap lets Leonard in on the scam, and that’s when things get interesting. Chockfull of action and laughs, SAVAGE SEASON is the masterpiece of dark suspense that introduced Hap and Leonard to the thriller scene. It hasn’t been the same since.

For more info on THE OVERNEATH, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

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

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

January 16, 2017

The must-read PIRATE UTOPIA is masterfully told

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized best seller, borderlands books, bruce sterling, carol cooper, china mieville, geek's guide to the galaxy, interview, john coulthart, m.e. warlick, max ernst and alchemy: a magician in search of myth, pirate utopia, podcast, the last days of new paris, the village voice, wired

For THE VILLAGE VOICE, Carol Cooper reviews Bruce Sterling’s PIRATE UTOPIA, China Miéville’s THE LAST DAYS OF NEW
PARIS, and M.E. Warlick’s MAX ERNST AND
ALCHEMY: A MAGICIAN IN SEARCH OF MYTH.

Well, it’s 2017, a century-plus since Zurich’s Cabaret Voltaire first raised the flag of Dada derision above the senseless carnage of World War I. The founding group of Dada expats soon attracted many other bohemian rebels seeking freedom from existing social, aesthetic, and governmental norms. Of course, as Bruce Sterling’s new novella, PIRATE UTOPIA, points out, the pro-war, pro-nationalist Italian Futurist movement was winning followers at the same time, and their manifestos ultimately supported the rise of Italy’s Fascist Party.

Dada believed it could subvert authoritarianism with ridicule alone, but Dada was wrong. That’s why, after only eight years, the international Dada underground was rather abruptly supplanted by André Breton’s more strategically organized Surrealist project. Surrealism prospered — as documented in M.E. Warlick’s Max Ernst bio, as well as by China Miéville’s THE LAST DAYS OF NEW PARIS — and former Dada loyalists switched allegiance in droves.

The lesson here is that art and liberation movements that aspire to effective forms of dissent need to do their homework and store lots of different tools in their activist toolbox. While it may seem unlikely that two science fiction novels, plus one comprehensive artist biography, could mentally prepare creative communities for drastic social change, never underestimate the value of a broad historical perspective.

Miéville, a left-leaning British fantasist with a Ph.D. in international relations, is also a celebrated practitioner of “New Weird” fiction. Sterling is a science fiction writer from Texas, long famous (along with William Gibson) for spearheading the Cyberpunk and Steampunk movements. Both typically write genre fiction with a view toward helping readers grapple with some of our era’s thornier socioeconomic problems.

When Sterling decides to craft a black comedy about a short-lived soldier-citizen republic on the Adriatic (commandeered between 1919 and 1920 by Futurist poets and fighter pilot Gabriele D’Annunzio), he is doing more than playfully distorting actual people and events. He is showing us how cultural production can be manipulated to make fascist bombast and violence fashionable. From 1914 to 1919, the theorists of Futurism became so aesthetically sophisticated that they were able to brand their crackpot paramilitary occupation of Fiume with signature songs, gestures, jargon, logos, textile designs, postage stamps, manifestos, and flags. All this made their revolution highly recognizable and marketable. Little wonder that many Futurist survivors of WWI (like Mussolini) were able to ride media-savvy Futurist propaganda right into Italy’s Fascist ruling class.

Bruce Sterling discusses PIRATE UTOPIA on WIRED’s GEEK’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY podcast.

AUTHOR BRUCE STERLING is best known for his futuristic science fiction, but he’s equally comfortable writing about the past. His new novella Pirate Utopia is an alternate history set just after World War I, and takes place in the real-life city of Fiume (now Rijeka), which experienced a brief period as an independent state run by artists and revolutionaries.

“Believe me, what went on in the Fiume enterprise was truly one of the weirdest things that happened in the 20th century,” Sterling says in Episode 238 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “It’s really, really a strange business.”

Fiume served as a breeding ground for radical ideas, everything from socialism to anarcho-syndicalism to fascism. Sterling says it’s hard for many people to understand the allure of fascism, but that it makes more sense when you look at it sort of like a big-budget sci-fi blockbuster that overwhelms your brain with its dazzling special effects.

“There’s a kind of rhetorical trick that goes on in science fiction, and in fascism, that kind of says, ‘Don’t really worry about what this means for the guy next door,‘” Sterling says. “That it’s so cool and amazing that you should just surrender yourself to the rapture of its fantastic-ness.”

As an example he cites the ending of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE
ODYSSEY, in which astronaut David Bowman is transformed into a superhuman entity called the Star Child. Sterling says the image is so striking and awe-inspiring that few viewers ever think to ponder the potential downsides of the Star Child.

“It’s not like anybody voted on the space baby,” he says. “It’s not like an ethics commission wrote on the space baby. It’s not like anybody says, ‘What if the space baby turns out to be cruel to certain ethnic minorities?’”

Sterling believes that it’s important to retain your ability to be moved and inspired, but equally important to be selective about the images and ideas that you choose to invest in.

“If you don’t have a sense of wonder it’s like you’re dead inside,” he says. “But your sense of wonder can be used to trick you. You can have a sense of wonder over a thing that’s basically a conjurer’s trick, or a con job, or a rip-off.”

In December for the second consecutive month, the book appeared on the Borderlands Books best seller list.

Hardcovers
1. BABYLON’S ASHES by James S.A. Corey
2. ARCANUM UNBOUNDED by Brandon Sanderson
3. REJECTED PRINCESSES by Jason Porath
4. MISTBORN (Leatherbound Special Edition) by Brandon Sanderson
5. PIRATE UTOPIA by Bruce Sterling
6. INVISIBLE PLANETS edited by Ken Liu
7. FANTASTIC BEAST AND WHERE TO FIND THEM By J.K. Rowling,
8. ALL THE BIRDS IN THE SKY by Charlie Jane Anders
9. CROSSTALK by Connie Willis
10. DEATH’S END by Cixin Liu

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

Cover and illustrations by John Coulthart

January 11, 2017

PIRATE UTOPIA is unapologetically political and wildly entertaining

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized alternate history, artur coelho, bruce sterling, dieselpunk, fiume, geek's guide to the galaxy, intergalactic robot, john coulthart, pirate utopia, review, richard dansky, the green man review

For THE GREEN MAN REVIEW, Richard Dansky praises Bruce Sterling’s PIRATE UTOPIA.

Sterling writes here with a nod to the comedic stylings of a Marx Brothers movie; the tone is always slightly madcap, even when the characters are discussing murder, revolution, and of course, flying torpedoes and death rays.

Which is fitting. The book’s set in the minuscule independent state of Carnaro just after the end of World War One. Led by a gaggle of inspirational Futurists with titles like The Prophet and the Ace of Hearts, it’s a radical experiment in independence and piracy, in the workers controlling the means of production and the rich getting it in the shorts. When we first arrive, the city of Fiume is full of revolutionary ferment, often against itself, and our hero is a half-deaf Italian engineer named Secondari, who’s sort-of-kind-of taken over a local torpedo factory belonging to the formidable yet sentimental Frau Piffer, a Corporate Syndicalist in training. And if you think that sentence was confusing, wait until you try to figure out how things actually work in Fiume.

Sterling has some fun with the historicity of it all, pausing here and there to take gleeful potshots – some literarily literal – at various historical characters. Mussolini, here a heroic newspaper editor, gets a couple of rounds in his lil’ Duce, courtesy of an ex-wife, while Hitler takes a bullet for a comrade before ever amounting to anything, and Woodrow Wilson gets poisoned by Communists. Then, Harry Houdini shows up with H.P. Lovecraft and Robert Howard in tow, and let’s just say things get weird.

The novella ends with shocking, but appropriate abruptness. At the last, Carnaro’s revolution has reached its ultimate phase; there’s nowhere else for it or Secondari to go. The reader is left with two simultaneous and opposing conclusions, one particularly depressing and pertinent in the age of Trump, and one quiet and hopeful and, dare I say it, human.

There are a few other bits in the book, of the nonfiction variety. The introduction is written with typical acerbic aplomb by Warren Ellis; in the back are an essay on the real-world historical underpinnings of the story by Christopher Brown, a lengthy interview with Sterling conducted by Rick Klaw, and a short essay on design by John Coulthart. All add depth to the main narrative, supporting the main event and sometimes putting it into rueful context. As for the book as a whole, it’s unapologetically political and wildly entertaining, a rare enough combination to make casual readers sit up and take notice.

Artur Coelho on the Portuguese site INTERGALACTIC ROBOT is fascinated with the book.

Interestingly, this PIRATE UTOPIA occupies the same conceptual space DIFFERENCE ENGINE, the novel four hands (with William Gibson) who became the cornerstone of steampunk . Pirate Utopia inspired by a time and specific place in European history, leading the reader to a delirious and blending historical figures and the vertigo of futurism. Not the speculation informed about futures, but the artistic movement of conceptual break with the past and fascination with the mechanical acceleration that was born in Italy in the early years of the twentieth century.

Sterlig crosses in this intriguing novel elements of its aspects of cultural intervention. Intellectual property, social progressivism, and technolocalculture intersect with echoes of vibrant cultural movements of the past, absurd points in recent history, and the feeling that interesting things are passing on the fringes of the quiet continuum of historical becoming. It’s not Sterling in his classic best, he’s a master looking for a new voice, and showing that he clearly enjoys the process. Complementing the book are illustrations by John Coulthart inspired by the futuristic and constructivist aesthetics, which replicate a bit of fascination with the mechanical vertigo asserted by Marinetti in his classic manifesto. And if doubts persist rises Sterling has become native, there is collected in the book a fantastic interview where cyberpunk veteran discusses the turbulent history of the twentieth century in southern Europe and the importance of fantascienza as gender merger between FC, speculative fiction, fantasy and Fantastic.

(Translation from the Portuguese courtesy of Google)

On January 14, Sterling joins the GEEK’S
GUIDE TO THE GALAXY podcast to discuss PIRATE UTOPIA.

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

Cover and illustrations by John Coulthart

October 5, 2016

NOT SO MUCH, SAID THE CAT once again proves that Micheal Swanwick is amazing

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized collection, elizabeth story, geek's guide to the galaxy, hungary, interview, michael swanwick, not so much said the cat, podcast, review, science fiction, sf mag, short stories, wired

The Hungarian SF MAG raves about Michael Swanwick and NOT SO MUCH, SAID THE CAT.

A genre of literature has its masters, and one of those special American writer Michael Swanwick . He is part of a series where Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link, Ted Chiang, Ken Liu and Robert Reed is: we are all a little prose form is quite amazing. As Michael Swanwicket think more highlights from this description, the diversity, that we do not find two narratives are ugyanolyant, both in substance and form an ever-renewable, regulations exciting publishing the author speak.

<snip>

Michael Swanwick requirements of the common feature is that the real story was concerned. Swanwick tells the reader entranced. The stories immediately bevonzanak relatively short cover element is a world opened up, which would require an average of 300 pages talented writer. In many women, at first seems to be lost, but a strong and developing the main characters and supporting cast is unique, character shapes, the problems are personal and szívbemarkolók, science fiction and fantasy elements of the treatment is well done. In fact, sometimes also combines these elements, and the first not to be decided on what we read. At the end of most of the writing just sorry that we can not continue to read novels much longer. Stylistically, almost every expression, it is in place, the geometrical precision with words Swanwick.

The science fiction short stories in literary history all started with a dry kitchen syllabus was reported most were experimenting with style, wild ideas here, and it does a good job Swanwick. The well-contrived situations and in all of there is a hint of humor, wit, which certainly makes digest the often otherworldly adventures.

Postscript: the preface. It’s amazing this man. The book attempts to outline the preface of previous steps taken since 1980, the first publication to where you are now. Five Hugo- a Nebula- in a fantasy world and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, after a multitude of memorable writings still be able to describe what he hopes will one day be as good a writer as much as possible. Michael Swanwick every aspect is amazing.

(Translated from Hungarian by Google)

Photo: Beth Gwinn

The WIRED podcast GEEK GUIDE’S TO THE GALAXY interviews Michael Swanwick.

“The thing about short fiction is that it doesn’t really pay,” Swanwick says in Episode 222 of the GEEK GUIDE’S TO THE GALAXY podcast. “For the amount of time that I’ve put in on these stories, I probably have not earned back—even with the collection—minimum wage.”

That lack of pay has caused many of Swanwick’s peers to give up on short fiction altogether, a fact he finds terribly upsetting. A few years ago he spoke with a friend who was reminiscing about the days when he would spend months carefully crafting a single short story, and lamenting that he could no longer afford to do so.

“My friend doesn’t write short fiction any more because it’s just not profitable, it’s not worth his time,” Swanwick says. “And his novels are doing very well. But I really, really miss his short fiction, because he was one of the best.”

Swanwick believes that short fiction serves as a proving ground for new ideas, and that more of it means more innovation and experimentation. He citesWilliam Gibson’s short story “Burning Chrome,” which served as a test case for Gibson’s classic cyberpunk novel NEUROMANCER.

“It’s really a bad idea to write something new at novel length, because you don’t know whether you can do it or not,” Swanwick says. “But you can risk a short story, and if it works in a short story, you know that you can take it to novel length.”

He fantasizes that someday a MacArthur-style grant may make it possible for more writers to focus on short fiction. But until that time, authors will have to do whatever they can to scrape by. Swanwick’s books all include a grateful tribute to the “M.C. Porter Endowment for the Arts,” a humorous reference to his wife Marianne. It’s a tradition that goes back to his first novel, IN THE DRIFT.

“At that time she was certainly earning more money than I was, so there was a degree to which she was actually supporting me,” he says. “So I would put it in as a gentle little joke.”

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

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

September 20, 2016

Meet the sensational Michael Swanwick, author of NOT SO MUCH, SAID THE CAT

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized elizabeth story, event, geek's guide to the galaxy, main point books, michael swanwick, not so much said the cat, podcast, signing, wayne pa

Photo: Beth Gwinn

Join five-time Hugo Award-winner Michael Swanwick in celebration of his new collection NOT SO MUCH, SAID THE CAT at Main Point Books (Wayne, PA) on Sunday, September 25 at 4:00 PM.

And if you can’t make the signing to hear Micheal Swanwick’s talk (or even if you can), catch his appearance on the Sept 24 episode (#222) of GEEK’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY.

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

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

September 16, 2016

Tachyon tidbits featuring Bruce Sterling, Joe R. Lansdale, Hannu Rajaniemi, and Patricia A. McKillip

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized brian dennehy, bruce sterling, christopher brown, deadline, denise petski, elizabeth story, Ellen Datlow, geek's guide to the galaxy, hannu rajaniemi, hannu rajaniemi: collected fiction, hap and leonard, ilana c meyer, Joe R. Lansdale, john coulthart, lius lasahido, patricia a mckillip, pirate utopia, podcast, review, snow white is dead, snow white rose red, speculition, sundanceTV', swamp noir, terri windling, texas noir, Thomas Canty, tor.com, warren ellis, wired

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

Bruce Sterling, Joe R. Lansdale (photo: Karen Lansdale), Hannu Rajaniemi (Soppakanuuna [CC BY-SA 3.0 ]/Wikimedia Commons), and (Stephen Gold/Wikimedia Commons)

SPECULICTION praises Bruce Sterling’s forthcoming alt history, dieselpunk adventure PIRATE UTOPIA.

George Orwell’s HOMAGE TO CATALONIA is a wonderful piece of journalism recounting the civil conflicts in Spain prior to WWII. Detailing the plights of the communists, marxists, fascists, anarchists, nationalists, and the conservative and liberal sub-units each consist of, it provides a fascinating view into how complex political ideologies can be in practice. The Spanish civil wars something little discussed globally in the years since, they have become almost a footnote to the world war erupting soon after. Another politically complex conflict nearly elided by time is the happenings in the Free State of Fiume in the years directly following the first world war. Likewise a milieu of anarchists, liberals, fascists, etc., the small region was a hotbed of human political interest for a short period of time, and almost as a natural expansion, military tension. The 1920s simultaneously blustering for the wonders of the future modernism seemed to promise, it was wild times in Europe. Satirically glamorous, Bruce Sterling’s PIRATE UTOPIA (2016, Tachyon) captures a comically refined view of the proceedings as only Bruce Sterling can.

A book may ultimately be just words on the page, but Tachyon’s investment into the production of PIRATE UTOPIA makes a strong case for books being something more. The story’s ideology rooted in radical Futurism, it’s only appropriate that the art fit the scene. And the work of John Coulthart is spot on. The edgy, advertisement/propaganda-style page inserts and chapter breaks, as well as bits of real-world Futurist art, flesh out the story in abstract style. Emphasizing the era while providing great eye candy, his art makes PIRATE UTOPIA a visual treat. (See examples here.) And not only does Coulthart provide art, he also provides a commentary on his work in the book in the reference material. The novella likewise featuring an Introduction by Warren Ellis and Afterword by Christopher Brown, topping matters off is a lengthy interview with Sterling, himself. In short, what was a roughly 130 page story becomes almost 200 pages of rich, varied content—art to fiction to non-fiction.

It is unfortunate
when first impressions form final expectations. For many readers in
science fiction, Bruce Sterling, with his novels THE ARTIFICIAL KID
and ISLANDS IN THE NET, and perhaps most particularly due to editing
the MIRRORSHADES anthology, will forever be tied—anchored, even—to
the aesthetic of cyberpunk. Wary of the artistic limits of the
sub-genre, however, Sterling took steps away in the 90s. Trying new
ideas and combining politics and technology in deceivingly satirical
fashion, Sterling has since singularized his m.o.. No longer part of
a larger wave of sub-genre, there is absolutely nothing like
DISTRACTION, THE CARYATIDS, and LOVE IS STRANGE: A PARANORMAL ROMANCE
in genre. A Bruce Sterling story is now identifiable by style alone.
With its idiosyncratic sense of humor, abstracted reality, political
depth, and overall peanut-gallery perspective, PIRATE UTOPIA is
another perfect example.

Denise Petski at DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD reports that Brian Dennehy and others have joined the cast for the second season of SundanceTV’s HAP AND LEONARD.

Brian Dennehy has joined the Season 2 cast of SundanceTV’s HAP AND LEONARD in a recurring role. He’ll play Valentine Otis, a sheriff and all-around boss-hog in Marvel Creek.

Along with Dennehy,
the network announced additional cast as production begins on the
second season. Irma P. Hall (A FAMILY THING) joins as recurring,
along with Dohn Norwood (ALL THE WAY, HELL ON WHEELS) and Evan Gamble
(THE VAMPIRE DIARIES), and Tiffany Mack (WICKED LOVE) and Cranston
Johnson who board as series regulars. Episodes will be directed by
Maurice Marable (VEEP), Abe Sylvia (NURSE JACKIE) and Tim Southam
(HELL ON WHEELS).

James Purefoy and Michael K. Williams as the titular HAP AND LEONARD (James Minchin/SundanceTV)

HAP AND LEONARD was
created by director-writer Jim Mickle and writer Nick Damici based on
Joe R. Lansdale’s novels. Season 2 will be based on Lansdale’s
1994 book MUCHO MOJO, the second in the Hap and Leonard series, which
revolves around the death of Leonard Pine’s Uncle Chester.

WIRED’s GEEK’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY interviews Hannu Rajaniemi.

Hannu Rajaniemi is a science fiction author, a self-described “recovering string theorist,” and co-founder of the biotech startup Helix Nano. Recently he and his friend Sam Halliday got their hands on an EMOTIV Epoc headset—a very simple brain scanner—and started wondering how it might be used to tell stories. The result was a piece of experimental writing called “Snow White is Dead.”

“‘Snow White is Dead’ is what we ended up calling ‘neurofiction,‘” Rajaniemi says in Episode 220 of the GEEK’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY podcast. “It’s an interactive fiction piece, like a Choose Your Own Adventure, but without conscious choice.”

It appears that Barnes and Noble has new copies of the out of print HANNU RAJANIEMI: COLLECTED FICTION for sale on their site. We at Tachyon have no idea where those copies came from since we sold out of the 2,000 limited copies shortly after its publication last year. So if you’re looking for copies of this amazing collection, head over there and get yourself a copy. Just be warned that YMMV.

For TOR.COM, Ilana C. Myer revisits Patricia A. McKillip’s classic short story, “Snow Queen.”

Once upon a time, in a metropolis in deep winter, a girl had her heart broken. She gathered her things from a high-end rental overlooking Times Square into a wheelie suitcase. She took the subway back to the basement apartment she shared with two other women, looked ahead to a plethora of winter days, and wondered how to go on. That was when she discovered a short story, “The Snow Queen” by Patricia McKillip. The girl was saved for another day. One day followed the next. And the winter did pass—eventually.

Cover by Thomas Canty

So I admit that when I first discovered this short story about heartbreak, self-reliance, and healing, I was probably its ideal audience. I came across it in SNOW WHITE, BLOOD RED, an anthology of fairy tale retellings edited by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow. Returning again more than a decade later and in quite a different frame of mind, I was wondering how it would hold up to scrutiny. It turns out, so many lines and phrases stuck in my head down the years, not only due to emotional resonance but because the story is exquisite, luminous and delicate as the tracery of ice filaments on a windowpane. Masterful rhythms make it into a prose poem, laced with knife-edge wit and psychological insights. Take for example the Snow Queen’s assessment of a girl’s face: “How sweet, Neva thought, to have kept that expression, like one’s first kiss treasured in tissue paper.”

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

Cover and image by John Coulthart

For more info about HANNU RAJANIEMI: COLLECTED FICTION, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Lius Lasahido

Design by Elizabeth Story

February 15, 2016

FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS distances readers from well-worn tropes and techniques

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized african heritage month, afrocaribbean, afrofuturism, alternative futurisms, amber troska, charles yu, chuma hill, collection, daniel josé older, elizabeth story, falling in love with hominids, geek's guide to the galaxy, halifax public libraries, interview, it's a hardback life, karen lord, karin lowachee, nalo hopkinson, nisi shawl, people of colo(u)r destroy science fiction, podcast, science fiction, sunil patel, ted chiang, the pinocchio theory, tobias buckell, university of california riverside, walter mosley, wired

Photo: IRFAN KHAN/GETTY IMAGES

Amber Troska at IT’S A HARDBACK LIFE enjoyed FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS, her first Nalo Hopkinson experience.

Nalo Hopkinson’s stories are hybrids, blending science fiction and fantasy, Western and Afro-Caribbean influences, pain and joy, the real and the unreal. She has a particular talent for blending the magical and the mundane in surprising ways.

As a writer of short stories that are specifically fantasy and science fiction, Hopkinson demonstrates her understanding of how a story needs to follow it’s own internal logic to be successful; any outside, novelistic standard of structure or expectation is thrown out the window in favor of internal integrity.

I could draw a lot of comparisons between Hopkinson and other current short story artists– like Kelly Link or Elizabeth Bear– as far as the ideas of internal vs. external logic and the strength of so many different voices, but Hopkinson also has a non-Eurocentric approach that sets her apart and further distances readers from well-worn tropes and techniques. This is my first experience with Nalo Hopkinson, but it certainly won’t be my last.

THE PINOCCHIO THEORY delivers a lengthy, spoiler-rich discussion of the short story “Message in a Bottle,” which appears in FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS.

For the reader, the same thing plays out on a metalevel. “Message in a Bottle” takes up the traditional science fiction figuration of extraterrestrial aliens; it shows us how this figuration works in hegemonic groups’ fears of other human beings as aliens; in the way the narrator cannot help seeing children as aliens; and finally in the unassimilability of other (alien) species to our own.

On the WIRED podcast GEEK’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, editors Nalo Hopkinson, Nisi Shawl, and Sunil Patel discuss PEOPLE
OF COLO(U)R DESTROY SCIENCE FICTION.

Nalo Hopkinson on her background as a writer:

“I was lucky growing up. I am the daughter of a library technician—my mother—and an actor/poet/playwright/teacher—my father—and living in the Caribbean we were very keyed in to the literature of the region. I knew that people of color could write, and that we could write whatever we wanted to. When I started writing science fiction I did have to do the sort of ‘unhooking’ of my brain. The first story that came to mind was the default kind of fantasy—white people set in some part of Europe—and I sat with it, because it wasn’t making me comfortable, and I completely changed it. But I knew that I could do it, and I’m kind of blessed that way, and it really hurts me when I see people that don’t have that advantage.”

Nalo Hopkinson co-organized the yearlong Alternative Futurisms, an exploration of ethnic futurisms, hosted by the the University of California, Riverside. Previous guest authors have included Daniel José Older and Walter Mosley.

“Throughout 2015-2016, the Sawyer Seminar on Alternative Futurisms is helping to build bridges amongst the various zones of scholarship and creation in people-of-color futurisms and fantastical narratives,” said Nalo Hopkinson, co-organizer of the yearlong seminar, a professor of creative writing and an award-winning author of science fiction and fantasy. “Following a successful fall quarter, which included a conference, film screenings and panel discussions, the winter quarter is focusing on creators of people-of-color science fiction and fantasy.”

Art by John Jennings

Upcoming events include a panel discussion on Caribbean science fiction and fantasy with Karen Lord, Karin Lowachee, Nalo Hopkinson, and Tobias Buckell and readings by Ted Chiang and Charles Yu.

Learn more about Alternative Futurisms at the University of California, Riverside page.

Without comment, the Halifax Public Libraries included FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS among their recommended reads for African Heritage Month.

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

Cover art by Chuma Hill

Design by Elizabeth Story

June 18, 2014

James Morrow and Tobias Buckell on being an atheist writer

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized david barr kirtley, elizabeth story, geek's guide to the galaxy, James Morrow, the madonna and the starship, tobias buckell

On the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy, host David Barr Kirtley discusses writing and blogging as an atheist with guest geeks James Morrow and Tobias Buckell.

For more on The Madonna and the Starship, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover and design by Elizabeth Story.

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