green man review

June 18, 2020

Tachyon tidbits featuring Marie Brennan, Lavie Tidhar, Pat Murphy, and Jaymee Goh

Rick Klaw blog a flock of lawn flamingos, curious fictions, driftwood, green man review, jaymee goh, lavie t, marie brennan, pat murphy, robert tilendis, the curious sff reader, the shadow hunter, the violent century, top 5 hunting grounds this summer season! 0

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

THE CURIOUS SFF READER praises Marie Brennan’s forthcoming DRIFTWOOD (not due out until August, but available for pre-order from your favorite bookseller or direct from Tachyon and for reviewers via EDELWEISS and NETGALLEY).

Another surprising new favorite book was Marie Brennan’s DRIFTWOOD. I wasn’t aware of this book until I received an impromptu eARC on my Kindle, courtesy of the wonderful folks at Tachyon. This book is not coming out until August so I’ll have a review published closer to its release but I loved it! It’s about fragmented worlds drifting out toward their inevitable end in a mysterious place called Driftwood. I read this book in less than 24h while I was travelling and I couldn’t put it down!

The Violent Century; cover by Sarah Anne Langton — Cover by Elizabeth Story

They also enjoyed Lavie Tidhar’s THE VIOLENT CENTURY.

As you can expect with Lavie Tidhar’s works, it’s a challenging and unconventional read that deals with important and heavy topics. I talked about this book with my friends and family while I was reading it and it sparked some really interesting discussions. I would highly recommend this book to everyone.

Robert Tilendis for GREEN MAN REVIEW is having an immense amount of fun discovering the work of Pat Murphy.

The question of the appropriate relationship between order and chaos is given a lighter treatment in “A Flock of Lawn Flamingos,” a story originally anthologized ten years before it was reissued as a chapbook. Joan Egypt, an anthropologist between field trips, moves into Live Oak Estates, “a pleasant little townhouse development in a pleasant little California town.” It doesn’t take long at all for Joan to encounter Mr. Hoffer, head of the Live Oak Estates Homeowners Association, the kind of officious apparatchik who seems all too prone to accept such responsibility. It becomes a game of one-upmanship — within the Association rules, mind you — on the kind, size and number of lawn ornaments allowable. Mr. Hoffer’s problem is that Joan is both smarter and more imaginative than he is.

I did go back to THE SHADOW HUNTER, which, as you might guess, turned out not to be a typical last Neanderthal story at all. Sam isn’t really the last Neanderthal, he just happens to be the only one around now. “Now” itself is somewhat fluid: Amanda can see what has happened, Cynthia can see what will happen, and Roy Morgan has found a way to get there. Sam, however, can see an emptiness in life as it is lived now, and sticks stubbornly to the ways of his people — not altogether strictly, but enough that others begin to see that reverence of spirit is at least as important as anything else in dealing with life.

I could mention the standard things about characters and momentum, pacing and climaxes, but they don’t really matter. They’re all exactly where they need to be when they need to be there. Murphy’s what I call a “strong writer,” in such command of her medium that those questions become pretty much irrelevant. These books all just sort of flow over you, even if you’re not in the mood for another last Neanderthal story.

So — great fun, amazing substance. Who could ask for anything more? Find Pat Murphy’s books and read them. You’re in for a treat.

CURIOUS FICTIONS published Tachyon editor Jaymee Goh’s new story “Top 5 Hunting Grounds This Summer Season!”

The waters are warming, and the trenches are releasing us from work and school. Not sure where your family pod should go to hunt food this year? Come one, come all, sea people, and check out this list of the year’s best destinations for hunting prey!

5. Air Terjun Syaitan
It’s far inland and getting there can be steep, but that’s what makes this spot the perfect place to hunt for humans! Every holiday season there will always be daredevil students who risk their lives knowing that they could dash their bones on the rocks below. Getting there is a fun challenge, as you have to take the underwater river system of Guning Palau.

June 18, 2020

Daniel Pinkwater’s ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL is just so darned nice that it could cure your whole day

Rick Klaw blog aaron renier, adventures of a dwergish girl, daniel pinkwater, green man review, jennifer stevenson, review, telophase, the bibliosanctum 0

Cover by Aaron Renier
Design by Elizabeth Story

At GREEN MAN REVIEW, Jennifer Stevenson enjoys Daniel Pinkwater’s forthcoming ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL (not due out until September, but available for pre-order from your favorite bookseller or direct from Tachyon and for reviewers via EDELWEISS and NETGALLEY).

If I had a daughter, I’d want her to be just like Molly, and I would totally read this book to her.

But I don’t have a daughter. I’ll have to settle for reading it to my husband, another Pinkwater fan.

The Dwergish girl is a strong and gentle soul. This book is just so darned nice that it could cure your whole day. Let Molly and her Dwergish ways bring order to your chaotic world.

TELOPHASE offers similar sentiments.

ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL has a strong voice which, I admit, is Pinkwater’s voice and much the same in all of his books but I never get tired of it. It’s also packed full of Pinkwater’s usual run of weird and quirky characters. The end teases a continuation of the story, and should that come to pass I would absolutely love it.

Highly recommended. I’m going to buy a hard copy when it’s published so I can throw it at my nephew when he’s old enough to appreciate it.

THE BIBLIOSANCTUM is excited about the book.

Also in the package was ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL by Daniel Pinkwater, a story which sounds as charming as its cover and title! To see what I mean, here’s the first line of the book’s description: “Molly O’Malley is a clever, adventurous girl. She is also a Dwerg. Dwergs are strange folks who live very quietly in the Catskill mountains, have lots of gold, and are kind of like dwarves (but also not!).” I love it! Definitely going to read it later this fall as we get closer to the release date.

May 5, 2020

Tachyon tidbits featuring Jane Yolen, Adam Stemple, Nancy Kress, Bruce Sterling, and Jaymee Goh

Rick Klaw blog adam stemple, bruce sterling, curious fictions, excerpt, green man review, interview, jacob weisman, Jane Yolen, jaymee goh, Nancy Kress, paul semel, review, rich horton, sea change, short story, the doll in the museum, the last tsar's dragons 0

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

GREEN MAN REVIEW runs the first several chapters of THE LAST TSAR’S DRAGONS by Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple.

Your revolution is a lie.

There were no heroes, no great causes. Just slaughter, suffering, death.

And dragons.

Oh, you thought those a myth? Tales your grandfather told you?

No, the dragons were real. Bolvan, the dragons are why you won! The only reason there aren’t dragons today is that Uncle Joe slaughtered the reds during the Great Purge, and in ’23 a pack of larcenous Chinese eunuchs blew up the dragon barns in the Forbidden Citywhile trying to destroy evidence of their embezzlement.

I see you smiling, you indoctrinated young fool. You see a man who has turned against the revolution that employed him for nearly thirty years. A man convicted of corruption and treason and worse, and you think I would say anything to avoid the firing squad. But in truth, I am old and weary and no longer afraid to die. I just want someone to know the truth.

So it falls on you, young man, to hear the true tale of the revolution, dragons and all.

Cover art by Anabelle Gerardy
Design by Elizabeth Story

Paul Semel, on his eponymous site, interviews Nancy Kress about her new book SEA CHANGE.

To begin, what is Sea Change about and when and where is it set?

Sea Change spans a few decades beginning in 2005 and ending in 2033. Most of it takes place in Seattle. It’s about a lot of things, but the primary concern is genetically-modified crops. This is, I know, a spectacularly controversial subject. And, I believe, a necessary one. Usually people come down hard on one side or the other, without nuance. “Frankenfoods!” “Luddite!” I wanted to depict a near future that takes into account the genuine complexity of GMOs.

Sea Change is also “about” ocean algae blooms, government control, and chess. But since all stories are primarily about the characters who inhabit them, this is a story about Renata and Jake. In fact, if I were titling my novella now, I would call it Sea Change: A Love Story. Unfortunately, I didn’t think of this in time and Tachyon would not be happy to change the title at this late date.

In celebration of Bruce Sterling’s birthday, Rich Horton offers a collection of his Sterling short fiction reviews, many of which will be included in the forthcoming collection ROBOT ARTISTS AND BLACK SWANS.

Locus, June 2009

The March-April Interzone features a Bruce Sterling story – not that he was ever gone, but Sterling seems “back” this year, with a new novel and now “Black Swan”, gritty and savvy, with a journalist lured across multiple timelines, chasing wild tech not to mention a revolutionary version of Nicolas Sarkozy.

Locus, September 2009

And Bruce Sterling offers a clever fantasy about an Italian auto executive encountering the devil – or something like him – in “Esoteric City” (F&SF, August-September). The story is fun, original – certainly worth reading, but at some level it struck me as insubstantial.

Review of Subterranean 2: Tales of Dark Fantasy (Locus, May 2011)

Another story I particularly enjoyed comes from Bruce Sterling. “The Parthenopean Scalpel” concerns an assassin who has to flee the Papal States after the too clumsy success of one of his assignments. In exile he falls in love – but a certain Transylvanian intervenes. The story rides on the well-maintained voice of the main character, and the backstory of Europe in the turbulent middle of the 19th Century.

CURIOUS FICTION S published Tachyon editor Jaymee Goh’s new story “The Doll in the Museum.”

Little doll, buried under dust and sand,
Little doll, what do you have in your hands?

“It’s obviously a sacred figurine,” my date said. “And you can tell it was from a matriarchy, given how many female shapes there are.”

“Uh-huh,” I said, non-committedly.

“It was obviously a fertility cult, too, you see how big the hips are.”

I stifled a yawn. In my head I could see the hands, my hands, folded across my belly. I tried not to think about it; I hate my stomach. It bulges too much.

This museum display made me feel comfortable, though. There was just one in this case, with a sign next to her full of words about who had found her, where, and what she possibly represented. She pressed her hands on her belly, too. It was found somewhere in Mesopotamia, one of the earliest ever figurines. Clay.

My date was trying to hustle me on. He majored in History, although I was unclear how that mattered when he’d never taken a class on the ancients. Still, he seemed so sure that I found myself nodding along. As he droned on, I pressed my palm against the glass, staring at the figurine.

Something in my hand—a piece of cloth, with scribblings on it. I knew what those marks were. I felt the insides of my cheeks pressed against my teeth in a smile, the crinkling of my eyes in pleasure, the deep breath containing the surge of triumph.

March 5, 2020

Carrie Vaughn’s THE IMMORTAL CONQUISTADOR is recommended to anyone who enjoys vampire fiction

Rick Klaw blog Carrie Vaughn, green man review, review, robin hood, sinew and stell and what they told, the ghosts of sherwood, the heirs of locksley, the immortal conquistador, the speculative chic, tor.com, warner holme 0

Cover art by Rebecca Harp
Cover design by Elizabeth Story

For GREEN MAN REVIEW, Warner Holme praises Carrie Vaughn’s THE IMMORTAL CONQUISTADOR.

Overall this volume works quite well as a standalone. Although part of the Kitty Norville series, this volume can be recommended to anyone who enjoys vampire fiction, and can also be enjoyed by a reader who is not familiar with the series. Indeed for one who does not want to track down the first volume this could be an excellent book for determining if Carrie Vaughn’s supernatural fiction would be of interest.

At SPECULATIVE CHIC, Carrie Vaughn contributes a “Blast From the Past” guest column on Robin Hood.

My obsession has led somewhere. This summer, I make my own contribution to the Robin Hood genre with two novellas, The Ghosts of Sherwood and The Heirs of Locksley. Rather than try to retell a story that has been told so well already, I’m trying something a little different: moving the story forward, and telling about Robin and Marian’s children. On the one hand, writing a Robin Hood story feels very daring and dangerous. How much hubris does it take to think I can add to this mythos! On the other, Robin Hood is clearly a giant playground that has room for just about everyone. How could I not want to go there?

TOR.COM offers Vaughn’s original short story, “Sinew and Steel and What They Told“.

I am cut nearly in half by the accident. The surviving fibers of my suit hold me together. I am not dead.

And this is a problem. I expected to die in this job, in my little scout runner, blasted apart, incinerated, torn to pieces with nothing to recover. All that would follow would be a sad memorial service with a picture and an old set of boots on a table. That is how scout pilots usually die. But I am just cut almost in half. And the doctor on my ship, Visigoth, is very good.

My biologics are mostly shut down with shock, though I’m dutifully trying to monitor the pain. It’s all-enveloping, a fist squeezing my brain. My mechanics are in full self-repair mode, overheating because there’s so much to knit back together. Because of them, I have survived long enough that I will probably not die. This is going to be awkward.

From my own internal processor I send out an emergency signal to piggyback on ship comms, so that maybe someone can come and explain.

On autorecovery, my half-exploded runner manages to slam into its berth on the Visigoth and rescue crews are standing by. Once they seal all the locks, I try to help them peel me out of the cockpit but it’s not really working. There are many pairs of hands and shouting voices.

February 25, 2020

Easy to recommend to a newcomer or a fan of Hap and Leonard, Joe R. Lansdale’s OF MICE AND MINESTRONE is laden with the irresistible combination of relaxed badinage and playful threats

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Though not due out until April, praise for Joe R. Lansdale’s OF MICE AND MINESTRONE garners a lot of praise.

KIRKUS enjoys the collection.

The dialogue throughout is worth the price of admission, not as stylized as Elmore Leonard’s but laden with the same irresistible combination of relaxed badinage and playful threats that sometimes spiral into serious consequences while still remaining playful.

The 17 down-home recipes contributed by Lansdale’s daughter, Kasey, many of them as chatty as the stories, are a bonus.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY feels much the same.

Full of humor, gritty drama, and insightful observations, the five stories in this rewarding collection from Edgar winner Lansdale (The Elephant of Surprise) concentrate on the early years of his two mismatched East Texas private eyes: Hap Collins, a straight, white liberal; and Leonard Pine, a gay, black conservative. Lansdale packs a punch in the standout “Sparring Partner,” in which the pair, as high schoolers, are hired by a ruthless boxing manager to train a weakling college kid and a giant named Man Slayer.

GREEN MAN REVIEW further agrees.

Overall this collection was an excellent piece of regional fiction, focusing on character while reflecting the times and difficulties very well. Like any collection of short stories there are stronger and weaker pieces. However, even the weakest in this collection is worth reading. While the initial stories only feature one of the leads, all help to paint a clear picture of the pair as human beings. These stories evoke the likes of Elmore Leonard, and manage to feel so reflective that one can almost taste the food. Easy to recommend to a newcomer or a fan of Hap and Leonard as a whole.

September 6, 2017

Tachyon tidbits featuring Ellen Klages, Peter S. Beagle, Kage Baker, Nancy Kress, and Jo Walton

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized b&n sci-fi & fantasy blog, beggars in spain, ellen klages, fran wilde, green man review, jo walton, kage baker, marissa lingen, mind meld, Nancy Kress, passing strange, peter s beagle, rahul kanakia, the innkeepers song, The New York Review of Science Fiction, wicked wonders

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

Ellen Klages (photo: Scott R. Kline), Peter S. Beagle (Paul Todisco), Kage Baker, Nancy Kress (Ellen Datlow), and Jo Walton

For THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION, Fran Wilde reviews two recent Ellen Klages books.

In a similar way, Ellen Klages has combined physics and magic in not one but two books published during the turbulent spring of 2017. More than that, PASSING STRANGE, a novella from Tor.com publishing, and WICKED WONDERS, a collection of short stories from Tachyon Publications, seem at first glance to be entirely separate entities, but they, too, connect when folded properly.

Side characters in PASSING STRANGE, including Franny and Polly, have featured stories in WICKED WONDERS. These moments where the books meet up feel like magic in their own right as the world suddenly becomes bigger within the boundaries of Klages’s plots.

Klages is practicing a certain magic of her own between the two books because Franny isn’t the only one who combines magic and physics. The cartographer has a second counterpart in WICKED WONDERS: Mrs. Zeno, who with a friend splits a piece of cake into particles that allow many worlds to exist at the same time in “Mrs. Zeno’s Paradox.”

Klages says in her story notes that she folded together manners and physics to arrive at “Mrs. Zeno’s Paradox.” This is something she does again and again: folds disparate ideas and themes together to form new worlds.

That Klages is toying with the laws of physics both on and off the page as a cat plays with a string or as a magician connects torn pieces of paper into a unified whole will come as no surprise to those who know her. That she’s laid this unity across two spectacularly different, altogether wonderful books and invited us to play along as well?

That’s the magic of it.

GREEN MAN REVIEW recounts some kind words that Kage Baker said about Peter S. Beagle’s work.

Our What Not is about Peter S. Beagle, who is not only of one our best storytellers ever, but also without doubt one of the best loved as well. We decided to ask some of the many writers who’ve passed through our pub, errrr, offices what their favorite piece of fiction by him was, and why so. Their answers run from the obvious choices, i.e. THE LAST UNICORN, to some that greatly surprised us.

Kage pondered her answer — ‘How to decide? THE LAST UNICORN probably had the greatest effect on me, reading it as I did at an impressionable age and learning there that fantasy could cut through the mannered, medievalist crap and speak sharply of real life. I SEE BY MY OUTFIT delighted me and still does, as it must delight anyone who has ever been young, dumb, brave and ON THE ROAD. To take off across the country on motor scooters (of all things), sleeping in tents, trusting in fate, having adventures — yeah!! But my all-time favorite Beagle character I met in THE INNKEEPER’S SONG: the little, little fox with soft fur…’

At B&N SCI-FI AND FANTASY in Mind Meld: Science Fiction, Technology, and Society, Marissa Lingen discusses BEGGARS IN SPAIN by Nancy Kress and Rahul Kanakia recommends Jo Walton’s MY REAL CHILDREN.

When I was fifteen, one of the science fiction novels I fell in love with was Nancy Kress’s BEGGARS IN SPAIN. I go back to it over and over again as an influence, especially for questions like this one about science and society. Kress’s genetically engineered Sleepless form a subculture of their own, with new paradigms and ways to relate. They face suspicion, fear, and prejudice from the larger culture–and form their own suspicions, fears, and prejudices towards it. The substance of the book is the resolution of that tension from both sides: finding an interrelation and a coexistence even when it felt like there was nothing that either could give the other. I think a lot of smart teenagers need that message: that isolation and withdrawal are not the answer, no matter how much it may feel like it in the throes of high school. I’ve carried that essentially ecological view with me ever since.

One of my favorite science fiction novels of the last decade was Jo Walton’s MY REAL CHILDREN. This book, which won last year’s Tiptree Award, concerns one woman whose life diverges as the result of a fateful decision early in the book. From thenceforward the book is told in alternating chapters that detail the two very different courses her life takes. Both of her lives have their ups and downs, their joys and sorrows, but they are far from equal. In one she finds enduring love, friendship, and meaningful work, and in the other she must struggle to find anything worth holding onto. Both lives also take place in very different futures, and these futures influence the course of the lives, but they do so subtly. The stunning climax of this book really brought home to me the truth that every life is so singular and unique. In our fiction we’re often tempted to turn our characters into avatars of their times. We think people who live in totalitarian dystopias have to be sad and oppressed, while people who live in forward-looking Galactic Empires must obviously be full of zest and adventure. But the truth is clearly much more nuanced than this, and it’s in analyzing this interplay between the personal and the global that MY REAL CHILDREN really has something new and fresh to contribute.

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

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

November 18, 2016

Tachyon tidbits featuring Peter S. Beagle, Lauren Beukes, Lavie Tidhar, and Alastair Reynolds

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized alastair reynolds, announcement, born a crime, central station, clara bacou, collection, elizabeth story, fantasy, gollancz, green man review, lauren beukes, lavie tidhar, michael dashow, peter s beagle, review, robert m. tilendis, sarah anne langton, slipping, slipping: stories essays & other writing, slow bullets, the overly attached reader, the rhinoceros who quoted nietzsche, Thomas Canty, trevor noah, uk

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

Peter S. Beagle, Lauren Beukes, Lavie Tidhar (Photo: Kevin Nixon. © Future Publishing 2013), and Alastair Reynolds (Barbera Bella)

For GREEN MAN REVIEW, Robert M. Tilendis praises Peter S. Beagle’s THE RHINOCEROS WHO QUOTED NIETZSCHE AND OTHER ODD ACQUAINTANCES.

Peter S. Beagle lives and writes in a universe where anything can happen, and probably will. He is also one of those writers whose books should carry a warning label.

However, I can’t tell you what the warning label should say. Perhaps “Watch for Turns of Phrase.” Phrases do turn, in unexpected ways that just carry the reader along and not until later do we realize that was a very surprising thing to say. Or maybe “Danger! Perfectly Normal Bizarre Events.” They are very bizarre, and in Beagle’s hands are perfectly reasonable, almost expected, even though we have no idea what will happen next.

That said, it is only fair to point out that THE RHINOCEROS WHO QUOTED NIETZSCHE is a survey course in Beagle. Included are stories and essays dating from as early as 1957 (“The Telephone Call,” which Beagle cites as the first story he ever got paid for, and which, as he quite rightly notes, reeks of CATCHER IN THE RYE because, as he says, “in 1956 it seemed to me … that the only way to write real people was in the manner of J. D. Salinger.”), to pieces first published in this volume.

The entire collection is suffused with that particular magic that seems to belong only to Peter S. Beagle, although there are others who own close variations, including Patricia A. McKillip, who contributed an Introduction (“Under the Zucchini”), and who remarks on something that gave rise to the first warning above: Beagle pulls poetry out of ridiculously sublime places, turns of phrase and juxtapositions of images that seem to come from some secret treasure house to which only he has the key. Even his introductions to the sections of this collection are worthy of note.

To anyone familiar with Beagle’s work, this collection is a must-have. For those who have yet to encounter him, perhaps this caveat is most appropriate: “Warning! Magic Ahead.”

In a review of Trevor Noah’s BORN A CRIME at THE OVERLY ATTACHED READER, Lauren Beukes receives an unexpected mention.

BORN A CRIME is an insightful memoir that strikes the perfect balance of historical and personal. I learned a lot and it gave me a better context for what I already knew. It made me laugh and cry. I know I love a book when I’m giving everyone around me daily updates! If you are interested in the subjects addressed in this book, you might be interested in the short article Inner City by Lauren Beukes. Her short story collection SLIPPING is coming out in November, which features some stories about South African culture.

On his eponymous site, Lavie Tidhar announces the slip-cased edition of his acclaimed CENTRAL STATION.

This special collectors edition of Central Station is strictly limited to 100 hardcover signed copies in slipcase. The book is designed by Pedro Marques, and the slipcase cover and back art reproduces the fantastic Sarah Anne Langton travel poster artwork. You can pre-order them here – once they’re gone, they’re gone!

Exclusive to this volume is the first appearance in print of “Crabapple”, a part of Central Station that was not included in the final novel from Tachyon.

Gollancz on their blog reveals the UK edition of Alastair Reynolds’s Locus Award-winning and Hugo nominated novella SLOW BULLETS.

We are thrilled to share with you the cover for Alastair Reynolds’ Slow Bullets. The cover art was designed by Thomas Canty with cover design by Elizabeth Story. From the author of the
REVELATION
SPACE series comes an interstellar adventure of war, identity, betrayal, and the preservation of civilization itself.

SLOW BULLETS will be available in hardback and ebook on the 16th February 2017.

For more info on THE RHINOCEROS WHO QUOTED NIETZSCHE AND OTHER ODD ACQUAINTANCES, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Michael Dashow

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

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

Cover art by Thomas Canty

Design by Elizabeth Story