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

Nalo Hopkinson, Anne R. Dick (Craig Lee for The New York Times), Michael Swanwick (Beth Gwynn), and Lavi Tidhar (Kevin Nixon. © Future Publishing 2013)

Danika Ellis’s much belated top 10 books of 2015 includes Nalo Hopkinson’s FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS.

For SF SIGNAL, James Wallace Harris delivers an overview of the various Philip K. Dick biographies.

PKD
had five wives, two of which wrote biographies. I loved THE SEARCH FOR PHILIP K. DICK by
Anne R. Dick (married to PKD 1959-1965) because she influenced THE
MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE.
And Tessa B. Dick, (married to PKD 1973-1977) has wonderful insight
into Phil’s later mystical writings. I wished Kleo Apostolides
(married 1950-1959) and Nancy Hackett (married 1966-1972) had also
written biographies, so we’d have complete spousal coverage of
Dick’s writing years.

Also at SF SIGNAL, Carl Slaughter interviews Michael Swanwick about his Darger and Surplus series. The duo’s first adventure was included in the collection THE DOG SAID BOW-WOW.

CARL SLAUGHTER: What are Darger and Surplus, i.e., what species?

MICHAEL SWANWICK: Aubrey Darger is human, a Londoner, and the product of the slums of Mayfair. Sir Blackthorpe Ravenscairn de Plus Precieux, known to his friends as Surplus, is a citizen of the Demesne of Western Vermont, a proud American mongrel, and the creation of the gene-mills of Winooski. Though he walks upright and has full human intelligence, he could not be mistaken for anything but a dog. I believe he has quite a bit of American foxhound in his genome, but in this I could be mistaken.

CS: Which one comes up with the moneymaking schemes? Which one makes the decisions? Which one gets into the most trouble? Which one cracks the jokes?

MS: They are both talented confidence artists, so their schemes could come from either, but Surplus defers to Darger as having the deeper depth of lore and the greater cunning. He, however, is more fast-thinking in a crisis. The two are so commonly of one mind that a suggestion from one is almost invariably accepted by the other. As for trouble… Surplus has a particular weakness for women which frequently gets him in hot water. Darger only rarely becomes romantically involved but when he does he is incapable of taking it lightly. It’s hard to say which tendency causes them more grief.

It’s the strangest thing, but I’ve never heard either make a joke. I must think on that.

CS: Do the stories appear in short or long fiction or both?

MS: Both. The characters invented themselves in a story called “The Dog Said Bow-Wow,” at the end of which they accidentally set fire to London and decided to go to Moscow to run a scam on the Duke of Muscovy. It was the first time I’d ever written characters who would enjoy being run through one of my stories again, so I let them take the lead. I write down their adventures as I discover them.

MY BOOKISH WAYS included Lavie Tidhar’s CENTRAL STATION among its May 2016 Must Reads in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.

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 on THE SEARCH FOR PHILIP K. DICK, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Josh Beatman

For more info on THE DOG SAID BOW-WOW, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Ann Monn

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

Cover by Sarah Anne Langton