ken and robin talk about stuff Archives

ken and robin talk about stuff

April 17, 2020

Tachyon tidbits featuring Kameron Hurley, Lisa Goldstein, Daniel Pinkwater, Peter S. Beagle, Patricia A. McKillip, and Nalo Hopkinson

Rick Klaw blog adventures of a dwergish girl, cal poly pomona, comic years, cory doctorow, daniel pinkwater, dreams of distant shores, ivory apples, john r edlund, kameron hurley, ken and robin talk about stuff, lisa goldstein, meet me in the future, nalo hopkinson, otherwise award, patricia a mckillip, peter s beagtle, pluralistic, teaching text rhetorically, the forgotten beasts of eld, the secret history of fantasy 0

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

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi won the 2019 OTHERWISE AWARD with Kameron Hurley’s MEET ME IN THE FUTURE included among the Honor List.

The full HONOR LIST:

Kylie Ariel Bemis, “Dreamborn” (in Maiden, Mother, Crone, edited by Gwen Benaway, Bedside Press 2019)
Meg Elison, The Book of Flora (47North 2019)
Akwaeke Emezi, Pet (Make Me a World 2019)
Kameron Hurley, Meet Me in the Future (Tachyon Publications 2019)
Innocent Chizaram Ilo, “Of Warps and Wefts” (Strange Horizons, March 2018; reprinted in Transcendent 4: The Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction, edited by Bogi Tackás, Lethe Press 2019)
Mary Robinette Kowal, The Calculating Stars (Tor Books 2018)
Laurie J. Marks, The Elemental Logic series (Fire Logic, Earth Logic, Water Logic, and Air Logic, Small Beer 2019)
Yukiko Motoya, The Lonesome Bodybuilder (Soft Skull Press 2018)
Rivers Solomon, The Deep (Gallery / Saga Press 2019)

Congratulations to all.

Cover by Carl Sutton
Design by Elizabeth Story

KEN AND ROBIN TALK ABOUT STUFF recommends Lisa Goldstein’s IVORY APPLES.

Adolescent Ivy’s great-aunt Maeve wrote the beloved novel IVORY APPLES with the help of the muses — supernatural beings that enter Ivy’s life and bring desperate, dangerous occult seekers there as well. Goldstein veils female bildungsroman with imagination and myth in another assured modern fantasy reminiscent of her excellent 2011 modern fairy tale THE UNCERTAIN PLACES.

Cory Doctorow on PLURALISTIC is very excited about Daniel Pinkwater’s forthcoming ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL.

IOW: this is a book with every single thing I love about Pinkwater novels. Reading Daniel Pinkwater – as a kid and as an adult – was hugely important to my development as a writer and a human being. Meeting another Pinkwater fan is always a sign that you are among good people.

Cover by Aaron Renier
Design by Elizabeth Story

December 15, 2016

A trip to Bruce Sterling’s PIRATE UTOPIA is worth booking

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized alternate history, borderlands books, bruce sterling, christopher east, dieslepunk, emory bookstore, fiume, john coulthart, ken and robin talk about stuff, pirate utopia, review, science fiction

More praise for Bruce Sterling’s singular piece of work PIRATE UTOPIA.

KEN AND ROBIN TALK ABOUT STUFF recommends the book.

Alternate history diverges in 1919 with the arrival of the Pirate Engineer in d’Annunzio’s poetic-Futurist dictatorship in the Adriatic city of Fiume, although lots of other changes bubble up at the same time, such as H.P. Lovecraft becoming an advance-man for the U.S. Secret Service. Sterling never really advances his plot, preferring to curvette around the larger question of the appeal of fascism, but this trip to slightly-alternate Fiume is worth booking. The John Coulthart design and illustrations kick the book up to Recommended.

On his eponymous blog, Christopher East enjoys the novella.

Manic, gonzo, and politically charged, Pirate Utopia is a singular piece of work, mining obscure corners of history to vivid, surprising effect. The storytelling isn’t particularly streamlined, but sheer invention more than makes up the difference. Sterling’s pirate utopian antiheroes are rather appalling, but their ambitions are rendered palatable with buckets of quirky humor and clever alt-history easter eggs that insert historical figures at key moments, a kind of celebrity stunt-casting. The ending is abrupt, but services the larger political point of the piece, which seems particularly timely.

It should be noted that Pirate Utopia’s print release is beautiful, with exceptional art and design by John Coulthart. I suspect this will be one of those idea-driven works that doesn’t appeal broadly, but will delight a chosen few, particularly Sterling enthusiasts.

The book made the Borderlands November best seller list.

November Bestsellers

Hardcovers
1. ARCANUM UNBOUNDED by Brandon Sanderson
2. REJECTED PRINCESSES by Jason Porath
3. GHOST TALKERS by Mary Robinette Kowal
4. INVISIBLE PLANETS edited by Ken Liu
5. PIRATE UTOPIA by Bruce Sterling
6. CROSSTALK by Connie Willis
7. DEATH’S END by Cixin Liu
8. THE BLOOD MIRROR by Brent Weeks
9. GOLDENHAND by Garth Nix
10. ALIEN MORNING by Rick Wilber

Emory Bookstore selected PIRATE UTOPIA as their book of the day for December 8.

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

Cover and illustrations by John Coulthart