Lit Reactor

June 1, 2020

Tachyon tidbits featuring Ellen Klages, Michael Cadnum, Nick Mamatas, James Tiptree, Jr., and Tim Powers

Rick Klaw blog ask nick: Publishing 201, book four: expose, can't catch me and other twice-told tales, earth and skye, ellen klages, gardner dozois, henry wessells, interview, james tiptree jr, josh wilson, Lit Reactor, michael cadnum, muchael swanwick, Nick Mamatas, passing strange, review, rpg, the bible repairman and other stories, the endless bookshelf, the fabulist, the people's republic of everything, Tim Powers, unknown armies, wicked wonders 0

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

Josh Wilson for THE FABULIST interviews Ellen Klages.

Will you be returning to these characters and this world in any future stories?

Well, there’s a story that came out four years before “Passing Strange” called “Caligo Lane,” you can find it online [and] read it for free; it’s also in my short story collection, WICKED WONDERS. It takes place three years after “Passing Strange,” but it is a very short story, 3,000 words, and entirely about Frannie’s magical process, in great detail. There’s also a story that takes place two years before “Passing Strange” about Polly called “Hey, Presto!” And I just finished and sold a story called “Pox” for “The Book of Dragons,” which will be out in July. That takes place in San Francisco in 1969, and both Franny and Polly are in it.

I might continue to revisit these characters, except for Emily Netterfield and Loretta Haskel. I will never go back to them, because at the end of “Passing Strange” they go off on an adventure of their own, and [there are] tens of thousands of ways that could go. I’m sure that if I wrote one version of how their lives unfolded, it would not be the same as what someone else imagined. I won’t write about them because I don’t want to close any of those possible doors.

EARTH AND SKYE praises Michael Cadnum’s short story “Can’t Catch Me.”

I’ve never really thought about how the gingerbread man felt in the story. Or even why so many people were chasing a cookie… but this short story definitely gave a new spin to an old classic. There is something in the way it’s written and the intensity of the story that made me go “duh” of course that’s the way that it was.

Nick Mamatas produces the LIT REACTOR column “Ask Nick: Publishing 201”. The most recent column is on the conventions and conferences.

Here’s a question, variations of which I receive all the time, that I have always refused to answer….until now.

I’ve been publishing fiction and non-fiction for years, but I still haven’t landed a book publisher yet. Many writers I know say they got a break meeting their publisher at a convention. I don’t really like conventions and I can only bring myself to schmooze so much. Should I suck it up and try harder, or are conventions not that important to a successful writer’s career arc?
—Wondering in my Rabbit Warren

I hate this question for two reasons—the first is that it is a Publishing 101 question, and I’m answering 201 questions here. The answer is “No.” The second reason is that the question usually isn’t one. Rather, it is a request for permission: “Please tell me I can just stay home.” All right, you can just stay home. In fact, these days, you have to stay home. But let’s say that one day there will be conventions again…

What makes this question interesting is that Warren is pretty interesting: he’s been writing and publishing for a long time, and already attends conferences and conventions with some frequency. So it’s worth breaking things down a bit.

July 26, 2018

Nick Mamatas’ weird and wild THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF EVERYTHING highlights the work of a refreshingly versatile storyteller

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized elizabeth story, gabino iglesias, ian white, interview, Lit Reactor, Nick Mamatas, Publishers Weekly, review, starburst, the grotto, the people's republic of everything

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY praises Nick Mamatas’ forthcoming collection THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF EVERYTHING.

The 15 stories in Mamatas’s strong collection show impressive imaginative range, cutting across the boundaries of fantasy and science fiction and veering into territory that defies genre pigeonholing. In “Walking with a Ghost,” H.P. Lovecraft is resurrected as an AI and suitably horrified at being (like a character in his fiction) a consciousness trapped in an unnatural form. “Arbeitskraft” follows a Marxist organizer in a steampunk 19th-century England whose efforts to rally a partly mechanized working class are repeatedly undermined by capitalist mendacity.

<snip>

Mamatas (I Am Providence) writes in a witty, sassy style that invigorates all of his narratives, from the social satire “Under My Roof,” about a family that declares its household a sovereign nation armed with nuclear capabilities, to “The Phylactery,” a poignant nonspeculative tale about familial and cultural identity. This collection highlights the work of a refreshingly versatile storyteller.

Ian White at STARBURST reviews the book.

From an AI ghost of H. P. Lovecraft forged from the real-life author’s many correspondences to a Communist revolutionary who discovers the awful secret of the too-hard-grafting Steam-Workers, from the quiet revolution bubbling beneath the streets of THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF EVERYTHING to a new baby under the dubious protection of a Greek charm, and from the perils of social networking and a reality-twisting hitman to a father and son bonding over their homemade nuclear device, Nick Mamatas’ collection of (often very) short stories is a weird and wild descent through the imagination that hits its targets more than it misses. And even better than the stories themselves are Mamatas’ story notes, fascinating biographical insights into how each episode was created and their often-convoluted route to publication.

For LIT REACTOR, Gabino Iglesias includes the collection among Summer and Beyond: Upcoming Books That Should Be On Your Radar.

Mamatas is such a great novelist that it’s easy to forget he also writes superb short stories. This collection is a testament to his short form chops, and a powerful one at that (it packs a decade’s worth of the author’s work under one cover). I’m reading this thing now and can assure you it will be on many end-of-year lists. Get on it.

THE GROTTO podcast interviews Nick Mamatas.

This week, BQ and Larry enter the extended Nick Mamatas universe to learn about horror novels, manga, writing term papers for profit and much more. Join them as the author of the upcoming short story collection THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF EVERYTHING shares his unique and compelling tales and talks about how he manages to produce a new book every year. Mamatas also authored the San Francisco zombie novel The Last Weekend, the Lovecraftian murder mystery I Am Providence, and the forthcoming Hexen Sabbath.

For more info on THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF EVERYTHING, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Elizabeth Story

April 4, 2018

Tachyon tidbits featuring Peter S. Beagle, Jacob Weisman, James Morrow, Peter Watts, and Nick Mamatas

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized bigfoot and the bodhisattva, Interviews, jacob weisman, James Morrow, Lit Reactor, matt hilliard, mylifemybooksmyescape, Nick Mamatas, particle books, peter s beagle, Peter Watts, review, strange horizons, superstardrifter, the architecture of fear, the freeze frame revolution, the new voices of fantasy, the people's republic of everything, writing class

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

Jacob Weisman & Peter S. Beagle (photo: Jill Roberts), James Morrow, Peter Watts, and Nick Mamatas

For STRANGE HORIZONS, Matt Hilliard praises Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weisman’s THE NEW VOICES IN FANTASY.

Of course, the first question to ask of any anthology is: are there some great stories in it? The answer is yes!

For example, I hadn’t read any short fiction from Ursula Vernon before, though, based on her Hugo Award-winning graphic novel Digger—an epic fantasy that manages to be whimsical, humorous, and philosophical—my expectations were high. Her story here, “Jackalope Wives,” takes some familiar themes (it’s essentially a selkie story, one of several in this collection), but manages to pack an outsized emotional heft into its fairly short length. Its storytelling voice gives the text the air of something that is drawn from deeply-rooted folklore, so it’s interesting to note that the existence of “jackalopes” seem to be a recent and rather silly tall tale, made up by a guy in Wyoming in the 1930s and never taken seriously by anyone. I’m not sure Vernon was thinking about cultural appropriation when she made this choice, but regardless it’s an interesting solution to the otherwise thorny issues which surround incorporating myth into modern stories. Instead of taking, say, an authentic Native American tradition and possibly being seen as cheapening it, Vernon has taken a piece of inauthentic kitsch and given it more gravitas. But more important than all that is the fact the story is wonderfully told and fairly unique in choosing an old grandmother as its protagonist.

Carmen Maria Mochado’s “The Husband Stitch” isn’t quite a selkie story, but it’s close, and she gives it a horrific twist that makes it the collection’s most memorable story. The narrator recounts a long life with a single fantastic element, a mysterious ribbon around the narrator’s neck, but which is otherwise filled with mostly normal things: falling in love, getting married, having children, then returning to an empty nest. Yet this biography is imparted in a way that turns a normal life into something both banal and suffocating. Carefully selected details depict the narrator’s life as being completely defined by the desires of her husband. Only the ribbon is her own, yet he wants to possess that as well. Throughout, the narrator freely makes her own choices, yet the story suggests she’s completely trapped by her circumstances.

Had you asked me before reading this collection, I might have said that the distinction between fantastic mainstream works and genre fantasy is that, for mainstream fiction, the fantastic is simply a means to explore a particular theme or idea. Genre fantasy, on the other hand, can be thought of as truly positing a different sort of world and persuading the reader to believe in it for the duration of the story. I think this is still a useful distinction, but it comes close to defining nearly all the stories in this collection as mainstream, so something is amiss. I’ll come back to this in a moment, but for now I’ll observe that two mainstream authors in this collection include some fantastic elements, but the stories feel different because they are not working in any sort of recognizable fantastic tradition. The duck in love with the rock presupposes no reader knowledge, no great dialogue, except a little bit about ducks and human nature. “The Philosophers” likewise connects with Borges and HG Wells but not genre fantasy or older folklore.

In contrast, nearly every other story in the collection is somehow building upon some fantastic tradition or other, more or less directly. Max Gladstone’s “A Kiss With Teeth” is a vampire story, Hannu Rajaniemi’s “The Haunting of Apollo A7LB” is a ghost story that feels like fantasy despite involving the space program, and Sofia Samatar’s “Selkie Stories are For Losers” is, despite its title, a selkie story. “Jackalope Wives” and “Cartographer Wasps” don’t build on any real traditions that I’m aware of, but they are told in the sort of folklore voice often used in traditional fairy tales, and so evoke these traditions for most readers.

MYLIFEMYBOOKSMYESCAPE interviews James Morrow about BIGFOOT AND THE BODHISATTVA.

DJ: What is “Bigfoot and the Bodhisattva” about?

JM: The plot turns on the angst of the Abominable Snowman, Taktra Kunga, denizen of the Himalayas, who feels compelled to devour the cerebrums of doomed yuppie mountain climbers. In a quest to enlarge his soul, my yeti apprentices himself to the Fifteenth Dalai Lama, His Holiness, Chögi Gyatso, who promises to teach him about Tibetan Buddhism. Taktra reciprocates by protecting Chögi from the predations of the Chinese, who for generations have sought to destroy, or at least assimilate, Tibetan culture.

DJ: What were some of your influences for “Bigfoot and the Bodhisattva”?

JM: The biggest single influence was John Gardner’s short novel Grendel, which gamely tells the saga of Beowulf from the monster’s point of view. As I began the project, I assumed I would also draw energy and inspiration from B movies about the yeti—I’m always looking for excuses to collect DVDs of dubious horror and science-fiction films—but it turns out they’re unwatchable, with the exception of an obscure British effort called The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas, based on a BBC teleplay by the prolific Nigel Kneale, creator of the Professor Quatermass cycle.

SUPERSTARDRIFTER enjoys Peter Watts’ forthcoming THE FREEZE-FRAME REVOLUTION.

I was absolutely enthralled by this book. As I said, I’m not certain that I ‘got’ all the intricacies of the science/technology and probably theoretical physics that this ship runs on, but I absolutely loved the premise and the adventure that Sunday and her friends had. I really liked Sunday as a character as well. She’s pretty snarky at times, which I always like in a character. Having her story be in first person, seeing things from her point of view, which I could somewhat relate to as a sometimes-snarky gal who swears a lot… well, even when I didn’t always get it, it didn’t matter. I was never bored with it. I never felt like the really sciencey bits (that didn’t always so much go over my head as smacked me in the forehead a bit) really made this hard to understand or boring. I’m not sure if I can put this more eloquently, lol. You don’t have to be a theoretical physicist to enjoy this story. It’s pretty hard sci-fi which I’m not always a fan of, but I hoped since I liked Blindsight that I’d like this one, and it turns out that I liked this one a lot!

LIT REACTOR is now enrolling students for the upcoming writing class “The Architecture of Fiction” with the award-winning Nick Mamatas, author of the forthcoming THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF EVERYTHING.

Your Instructor: Nick Mamatas, author of LOVE IS THE LAW and I AM PROVIDENCE

Where: Online — Available everywhere!

When: April 17, 2018 – May 15, 2018

Enrollment: 16 students

Price: $350

For more info about THE NEW VOICES OF FANTASY, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Camille André

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

For more info on BIGFOOT AND THE BODHISATTVA, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Richard Braithwaite

Design by Elizabeth Story

For more info on THE FREEZE-FRAME REVOLUTION, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Elizabeth Story

For more info on THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF EVERYTHING, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Elizabeth Story

March 28, 2018

Tachyon tidbits featuring Jane Yolen, Mary Shelley, and Patricia A. McKillip

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized beyond frankenstein: the complete supernatural short fiction, elizabeth story, gabino iglesias, interview, Jane Yolen, lilac wolf, Lit Reactor, mary shelley, patricia a mckillip, review, sarah glenn marsh, the emerald circus, the forgotten beasts of eld, the quirky book nerd, Thomas Canty

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

Jane Yolen (photo: Jason Stemple), Mary Shelley (Richard Rothwell), and Patricia A. McKillip (Stephen Gold/Wikimedia Commons)

LILAC WOLF AND STUFF praises Jane Yolen’s THE EMERALD CIRCUS.

This is absolutely as much fun as the cover implies. Jane reimagines so many stories that we are familiar with. She takes sometimes real people, and adds something fantastic. How did Has Christian Anderson become such a beloved author of children’s tales? She has one about Queen Victoria and even Edgar Allen Poe.

She takes these stories and carves out a little piece and makes it her own. Her use of language was so enjoyable. She clearly can weave a story. I will be looking for more from her when my own must-be-read list finally dwindles.

Gabino Iglesias at LIT REACTOR includes Mary Shelley among 10 Female Authors Who Changed My Life.

Shelley made a big impact on me…twice. The first time, I was about thirteen and already a fan of Poe, Lovecraft, King, Laymon, and Stoker. Then came Shelley’s Frankenstein, which blew my mind. It was a strange, wonderful, weirdly emotional mix of science fiction and horror that moved me. It was also beautifully written and spoke to anxiety about scientific advances in ways my teenage brain couldn’t quite comprehend. The second time came many years later, when folks started telling me she hadn’t written the book. She was too young. She was too uneducated. In fact, they said, the corrections Percy Bysshe Shelley made to the original pages, which are housed at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, “prove” that she didn’t write it. Well, fuck all that noise. Hearing that talk, which always came from white dudes who wanted to be writers, was more proof a woman can’t achieve anything without some dudebro doing everything in their power to minimize the achievement.

In an interview with THE QUIRKY BOOK NERD, young adult author Sarah Glenn Marsh discusses her inspirations.

Patricia McKillip is probably my biggest influence. Her writing is the strongest and most beautiful I’ve ever read, and I wish I had a style as elegant and mysterious as hers. If you’re not familiar with her work, here are some titles I love: Ombria in Shadow, Winter Rose, and THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD.

For more info on THE EMERALD CIRCUS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

For more info on BEYOND FRANKENSTEIN: THE COMPLETE SUPERNATURAL SHORT FICTION, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

For more info about THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Thomas Canty

October 25, 2017

Tachyon Halloween tidbits featuring Ellen Datlow

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized Ann Monn, annie neugebauer, bookhub, children of lovecraft, city south magazine, darkness, darkness: two decades of modern horror, elizabeth story, Ellen Datlow, gabo kiadó, ginger gomes, hungary, jake markey, john coulthart, kristina wright, lisa morton, Lit Reactor, lovecraft unbound, lovecraft's monsters, necronomicon providence, nightmares, nightmares: a new decade of modern horror, nihil, this is horror

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

Jake Markey for THIS IS HORROR reports on his experience at NecronomiCon 2017.

During the Guests of Honor panel at NecronomiCon Providence this year, moderator s.j. bagley asked each of the guests to define Weird Fiction. There were intelligent, elegant responses (all of which have slipped right out of Ol’ Uncle Jake’s brain because he was so enchanted by the Guests to actually take notes, haha) but the summation of it seemed to be that while horror fiction contracts the world of the reader, weird fiction expands it. It takes the feeling of things are not what they seem and alters it into something closer to things are not what they seem but we’ve got to live with it anyway. The goal is destabilization, to knock the reader off their feet a little, to throw a Dutch angle into their life and show them something that will make them rethink the world as they know it. Weird fiction unnerves. It alters. It twists. Survival’s not even the primary goal in a lot of Weird stories. It’s acceptance.

Of course, the best part about defining the Weird is if you ask twenty different people you get twenty different answers, so let’s all just agree that it’s a thing and if you’re anything like me, you love it.

I had the pleasure this year to meet each of the Guests of Honor. I rode elevators with Stephen Graham Jones and Ellen Datlow, sat beside Peter Straub, chatted with Nnedi Okorafor, had drinks with Kij Johnson, and besides their influence on the past, present, and future of Weird Fiction, the one thing they all have in common is that they’re all incredibly nice and generous with their time. I’m hoping there might be a story or two here you haven’t read before, and that it might lead you to pick up more fiction by the Guests, or to get more Weird Fiction in general.

Instead of single stories this month, I’m going to recommend three excellent anthologies by another of NecronomiCon Providence’s esteemed Guests of Honor: Ellen Datlow. All three of these Lovecraftian anthologies are filled with tremendous stories by a variety of tremendous writers, and all are worth your time. If you want an education in modern weird and horror authors, get these three collections and read them front to back. Your mind will be properly blown.

For CITY SOUTH MAGAZINE, Ginger Gomes suggests great and horrible October reads.

NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR edited by Ellen Datlow, 2016

As 24 of the best horror stories from 2005-15, these tales represent the breadth of horror from psychologically chilling to all-out terrifying. A great representation of what readers can expect from horror today.

Gabo Kiadó announces their plans for the Hungarian edition of DARKNESS: TWO DECADES OF MODERN HORROR.

We publish the horror anology written by Ellen Datlow, DARKNESS, with twenty-one years of horror film production. Datlow is one of the oldest people in the industry, working for more than thirty-five years as a science fiction, fantasy and horror novelist, has produced more than a hundred anthologies, and in 2014 he was awarded the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award.

We are still working on this publication so we will be able to contact you later on (the above cover is just an illustration, we make your own). For the time being we only include the authors’ names: Clive Barker, Edward Bryant, Thomas Ligotti, George RR Martin, Peter Straub, Dan Simmons, Pat Kelly Link, Gene Wolfe, Steve, David J. Schow, Joey Carol Oates, Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link, Gene Wolfe, Steve Marshall Smith, Dennis Etchison, David J. Schow, Rasnic Tem, Ramsey Campbell, Terry Dowling, Glen Hirshberg and Joe Hill.

Translation from Hungarian courtesy of Google

Both LIT REACTOR and BOOKBUB recommend Datlow’s latest anthology HAUNTED NIGHTS (co-edited with Lisa Morton).

Annie Neugebauer at LIT REACTOR:

Compiled by multi-award-winning editor Ellen Datlow and leading Halloween expert Lisa Morton, with the backing of the Horror Writers Association and published by Blumhouse Books, this anthology looks set to be a juggernaut in the field of seasonal horror. Out this year, HAUNTED NIGHTS includes sixteen all-original stories from genre favorites like Stephen Graham Jones, Jonathan Maberry, and Kate Jonez. Additionally, it’s the only collection on this list that specifically includes related holidays like Dia de los Muertos, All Souls’ Day, and Devil’s Night

Kristina Wright at BOOKBUB:

Sixteen never-before-published chilling tales that explore every aspect of our darkest holiday, Halloween, co-edited by Ellen Datlow, one of the most successful and respected genre editors, and Lisa Morton, a leading authority on Halloween.

In addition to stories about scheming jack-o’-lanterns, vengeful ghosts, otherworldly changelings, disturbingly realistic haunted attractions, masks that cover terrifying faces, murderous urban legends, parties gone bad, cult Halloween movies, and trick or treating in the future, HAUNTED NIGHTS also offers terrifying and mind-bending explorations of related holidays like All Souls’ Day, Dia de los Muertos, and Devil’s Night.

For more info about LOVECRAFT’S MONSTERS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by John Coulthart

For more info about NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Nihil

Design by Elizabeth Story

For more info about DARKNESS: TWO DECADES OF MODERN HORROR, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Ann Monn

May 26, 2017

Ellen Klages’ WICKED WONDERS is absolutely gorgeous

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized bookshots, elizabeth story, ellen klages, five books about, gabino iglesias, ian white, Lit Reactor, review, smithereens, starburst, tor.com, wicked wonders

Photo: Scott R. Kline

For STARBURST, Ian White praises Ellen Klages’ WICKED WONDERS.

The best short stories, especially those which deal with wild, wonderful and fantastical themes, often read like poetry. There’s a certain beauty to the way in which they crystallise their subject, draw us into the very essence of the tale, and then leave us wishing that we could spend much more time inside their fragile, beautifully sculptured worlds. Ellen Klages is one of those writers, and this fantastic and diverse collection reveals Klages at the very height of her powers.

<snip>

In many ways each story is so very different, and Klages doesn’t like to be pinned down by genre. But, in many other ways, they all have something in common – most of Klages protagonists are children (even her adult protagonists don’t seem to have quite abandoned the child inside them) and there is a wonderful innocence-mixed-with-knowingness to her writing, a kind of confidential ‘sitting around the campfire’ kind of storytelling, that not only makes her characters immediately identifiable but also allows her to examine older, more grown up experience through the prism of childhood. There is genuine magic in each one of these stories – even those stories where magic is not an element – and Klages prose is so exquisite that this is the type of book you’ll want to read out loud, just to hear how the words sound on your tongue. Absolutely gorgeous.

Gabino Iglesias gives the collection the Bookshots treatment at LIT REACTOR.

Some are serious and some are funny, some are sad and some are witchy, some are packed full of promise and others drip melancholy. All of them are worth your time, and most of them point to Klages’ sense of wonder, love for language, and great humor. This last element is also on display at the end of the book, where readers are invited to figure out which three facts are lies after reading “10 Facts About Ellen Klages.” While I’m not a fan of sentences like this one, WICKED WONDERS is, and I hate to say it, fantasy for those that don’t like fantasy.

SMITHEREENS enjoys the book.

How does one speak about a short story collection? Of course, some stories will be great and others less so. As they are set in different genres, it’s harder to find a unifying theme without appearing vague and pointless. I will just venture to say that Klages’ main characters are often young girls and that she has a very authentic voice that adds to the charm of the story. There are often a big sense of humor in these stories, and mostly a happy ending, which makes for entertaining, light read. There are ventures into genres that I do not read usually, like fantasy or farce or SF, but most keep us readers grounded with realist details.

<snip>

But the collection overall reminded me what the power of a good story is: to entertain, to put you in someone else’s shoes and to let your imagination run loose for a little while.

At TOR.COM, Klages contributes FIVE BOOKS ABOUT… Bad Girls Dance Where They Want To.

Growing up, I was not a good girl. Good girls follow the rules, listen to their mothers, don’t make a fuss. They are quiet, polite, proper, and well-behaved. I rarely managed to pull that off. Branded a bad girl, I was sent to my room, grounded, and even—once or twice—threatened with expulsion from my stolid, conservative high school.

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

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

December 13, 2016

Tachyon tidbits featuring Daryl Gregory, Ellen Datlow, Lauren Beukes, and Ann VanderMeer

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized angela matano, ann vandermeer, anthology, campus circle, clara bacou, dan jones, daryl gregory, elizabeth story, Ellen Datlow, gabino iglesias, horror, lauren beukes, Lit Reactor, move adaptation, natalie zutter, nightmares, nightmares: a new decade of modern horror, nihil, slipping, slipping: stories essays & other writing, steampunk, steampunk iii, steampunk iii: steampunk revolution, tor.com, we are all completely fine

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

Daryl Gregory, Ellen Datlow (credit: THIS IS HORROR), Lauren Beukes, and Ann VanderMeer (CHION WOLF / WNPR)

At TOR.COM, Natalie Zutter mentions Daryl Gregory’s World Fantasy and Shirley Jackson Award winning WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY FINE in (Almost) Every SFF Adaptation Coming to Television and Movie Theaters!

Optioned for: Television (Syfy)

What it’s about: Psychotherapist Dr. Jan Sayer brings together the final girls (and final boys) of various horror-movie scenarios for a support group. But in trying to help these survivors, Dr. Sayer unwittingly unlocks the supernatural evils buried within their consciousnesses.

Status: After Wes Craven’s death in 2015, Syfy announced that it still intends to move forward with a number of projects, including WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY FINE.

Angela Matano for CAMPUS CIRCLE suggests that Ellen Datlow’s thrilling NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR makes a good holiday gift.

A kind of sequel to her era-defining anthology DARKNESS, Ellen Datlow’s NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR brings together the venerable editor’s picks for the best tales of terror of the last ten years. Old masters like Gene Wolfe are represented alongside younger favorites like Robert Shearman and Livia Llewellyn, with a slew of stories to get under your skin.

At LIT REACTOR, Gabino Iglesias includes three Tachyon contributors among the 11 Nasty Women Dominating Weird Fiction.

Ann VanderMeer

Editor and publisher extraordinaire, Ann VanderMeer is one of the few editors who seem to have a hand on the pulse of weird fiction in such a way that she can predict what the next thing will be as well as find the best voices in an overcrowded market. Besides the Hugo Award and World Fantasy Award that sit on her shelves, VanderMeer was also the editor-in-chief of WEIRD TALES for five years and is currently an acquiring editor for TOR.COM. If she touches it, teaches it, or suggests it, it’s good. And she’s been doing it for thirty years.

Ellen Datlow

Datlow has been one of the best anthologists around since I started reading. Simply put, I don’t remember not having her anthologies around. Whether it’s horror, science fiction, or fantasy, she knows what’s good. In terms of awards, this space is too small to list them all, but know this: if it matters, she has received it or been nominated for it.

The most beautiful thing about this list is that I could go on forever. I just read and reviewed Lauren Beukes’ SLIPPING, for example, and it was amazing. The point is that weird fiction is full of nasty, magical women doing truly fantastic work, and I hope you go explore what they’re doing.

For information on WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY FINE, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

For more info about NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Nihil

Design by Elizabeth Story

For more info about STEAMPUNK III: STEAMPUNK REVOLUTION, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Dan Jones (Tinketbots)

Design 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

November 15, 2016

PIRATE UTOPIA is a rollicking, full-bodied, intelligent satire

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized alternative history, book shots, bruce sterling, christopher brown, dieselpunk, fiume, john coulthart, Lit Reactor, max booth iii, pirate utopia, review, Rick Klaw, strange alliances, thierstein.net, warren ellis

STRANGE ALLIANCES praises Bruce Sterling’s PIRATE UTOPIA.

The result is that PIRATE UTOPIA is a rollicking, full-bodied, intelligent satire of a country that might have been a world player, had not events conspired against it in real life.

With his style of narrative and the story itself, Sterling has really managed to capture this sense of frenzy as the characters search for the truth, gathering ideas like pebbles on a beach which they pile up to fortify their political microcosm while they create their vision of a new and improved world. It is a world which undergoes more than one uncomfortable transition, leaving some citizens on the sharp end of a great deal of unpleasantness as the political climate shifts leaving them high and dry.

The writing on its own rattles along splendidly, but complemented by John Coulthart’s incredible propaganda-style artistic renditions, PIRATE UTOPIA takes on the air of a manifesto which would have been bought by the inhabitants of the nearly-real Fuime and clasped close to their chest in reverence.

Alternative history of places that are still relatively recent, particularly ones situated in such politically volatile locations can be hard to pull off, but Sterling’s over the top writing and characters mesh brilliantly with what actually happened to Fuime just after the First World War.

Given the recent political events, there is plenty here to make a reader laugh, while at the same time feel very unsettled, as PIRATE UTOPIA picks its outrageous way through Fuime’s alternate history.

Max Booth III at LIT REACTOR gives the story the Book Shots treatment.

This is a very short book occupied by an impressive cast of characters—most of them grabbed straight from history, although used in ways you might not entirely expect. This is a Futurism novel that looks at the past rather than the future. It’s an alternate history clusterfuck of brilliant, whacky world-building and hilarious, bizarre characters.

When you have an oxymoron for a title, there’s really no way to predict what awaits you, and PIRATE UTOPIA exceeds all expectations. Also, make sure you stick around afterward for the impressive special feature essays and interview with Sterling. They’ll help you make sense of what the hell you just read.

THIERSTEIN.NET appreciates the book as well.

The book kicks off in style, with an introduction to the topic by Warren Ellis: “Futurism, the business of the future, is the act of telling stories of about what’s next”. Of course, the Futurists had their own slant to how they saw things develop, being “drunk on speed, technology, youth, violence, war – the car, the aeroplane, the industrial city”. And, incidentally, being a precursor/influence on Fascism.

This is followed by a Cast of Characters (most of them historically correct), the actual story in 6 chapters, an Afterword by Christopher Brown, an Interview with the Author by Rick Klaw (loads of interesting background in this!), Notes on the the Design by the John Coulthart, and Biographies of all involved (and no, Warren does NOT live in London).

The book is covered in Coulthart’s (himself a World Fantasy Award winner) illustrations – proto communist propaganda/futurist graphics, most of them full page. He references both the futurist artist Fortunato Depero as well as Soviet Constructivism as influences; I found his work impressive and worth savouring – it gives the book a further dimension, and I think that number of those pieces would make rather magnificent wall pieces.

Sterling himself sees this as partly an alternate history of this futuristic enclave (a “speculative counterfactual”), but also as Dieselpunk, or ‘Military Engineering Fiction’.

The whole story really took me back to Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day – this feels like it is filling a minor, outrageous, and transfixing gap in that larger setting and story. Which I’m loving, of course.

Do I have to mention that this is a strong recommendation?

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

Cover and illustrations by John Coulthart

September 16, 2016

Peter S. Beagle’s SUMMERLONG is a delicate and interesting work of speculative fiction

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized a fine and private place, Ann Monn, bookshots, elizabeth story, gayle surrette, interzone, leah dearborn, Lit Reactor, magdalena korzeniewska, maureen kincaid speller, peter s beagle, review, sfrevu, summerlong, the last unicorn, the quidnuncinc

Four new reviews for Peter Beagle’s excellent SUMMERLONG.

In INTERZONE 266, Maureen Kincaid
Speller praises the book.

My relationship with
Peter S. Beagle’s writing is a long one, and enduring. I read THE
LAST UNICORN in the early 1970s, and was enchanted by it. A year or
so later I found a copy of his astonishingly accomplished first
novel, A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE, which similarly delighted me. It
must be galling for any writer to be remembered best for their
earliest work, but there it is. Beagle has written some excellent
fantasy novels since, and some wonderful short stories, but somehow
nothing has ever quite hit the spot, for me at least, in the same way
as those two early novels. Until now.

Which is not to say
that SUMMERLONG is a faithful replica of either novel. It is quite
definitely its own thing but while clearly showing its relationship
to A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE in terms of atmosphere, and THE LAST
UNICORN in terms of plot, the latter noted by other reviewers.

The question I have
asked myself all along is whether SUMMERLONG is a retreat to an old
and reliable formula. However, I don’t think this is the case.
While SUMMERLONG undeniably revisits earlier themes, there is much
about it that is fresh and new, not least the portrayal of a tender
long-term relationship between two older people (a genuine rarity in
modern literature, and certainly in modern fantasy writing). The
fantastical elements are undoubtedly more evanescent than in the
earlier novels but that is perhaps unsurprising given the worldy-wise
natures of our protagonists. If, as we are often told, change is the
only constant, then SUMMERLONG seems to suggest that while change may
be slower to come as one grows older, it will nonetheless arrive, and
in the most shocking and inconvenient ways possible. SUMMERLONG
reminds us that we can never taken anything for granted, and that
includes our assumptions about a much-loved and familiar writer.

Leah Dearborn at LIT REACTOR gives the novel the Bookshots treatment.

Beagle spends his time crafting a world through small moments and little details— silent dialogues of caught glances or shifting eyes, the kinds of clothing characters wear or what they like to cook for dinner. In SUMMERLONG, these details read as more than mere character development, they’re also a convenient camouflage for the more fantastic elements. The author leaves a sparse trail of bread crumbs for readers to follow, stomping on the brakes whenever there’s danger of too much information leaking at once. Just when something unusual happens, the story quickly slips back into a smokescreen of dinner party conversation.

In short, SUMMERLONG is a delicate and interesting work of speculative fiction that should please old Beagle fans and win him a few new ones.

At SFREVU, Gayle Surrette enjoys the work.

The story builds slowly throughout. The points of view moves among Abe, Joanna, and Lily, but it keeps the reader engrossed as the relationships shift and change and the background of the characters are revealed to the reader. The ending is inevitable, but the changes in the lives touched by Lioness may or may not be for the best. But only the characters themselves can attest to that, while the reader may think things could have been different.

An excellent story of love, relationships, and responsibility with much to think about after the last page is read.

Photo: Paul Todisco

THE QUIDNUNCINC loved SUMMERLONG.

Where I come from we have those amazing transition days from summer to fall, where the sun is still warm, but the rain and the wind remind you that October is close, you begin to smell pumpkin and apple pies from every corner, you see people beginning to wrap themselves in warm scarfs and sweaters, still bearing the sun-kissed skin on their faces. It is one of the most beautiful seasons of the year, for me at least. Like one of those days, Peter S. Beagle’s upcoming novel, SUMMERLONG, is charmingly quiet yet deeply thoughtful, with an ambience that will keep readers spellbound to the final page. It is the kind of read you will engage in from beneath you warm blanket while the rain is sweetly whispering its words on the window and you are reminiscing amazing, wild memories of summer. You are going to taste that book, smell it and feel its warmth from the cover to the very last word in it.

SUMMERLONG relies upon Beagle’s literary mastery for its success. The setting on a small island outside of Seattle becomes an extra protagonist to the story as our characters conduct their day-to-day lives. From the fish markets of Seattle to the quiet peace of island life, Beagle paints a vivid picture of the community in which these characters live, and sets the foundation for the changes he will visit upon them. It’s a strange novel, blending the monotony of day-to-day living with the world of myths and legends, and even in the spots where it is uplifting, you can’t help but catch a hint of sadness and melancholy, as the choices that allow the characters to find new joys or ease their pain bring entirely new problems.

<snip>

If I have to strip it to basics SUMMERLONG is a rather deep exploration of both points of view in the grand myth of Persephone and Hades, too, so it’s actually rather rich in contemplation. It is very introspective and I often found myself distracted by my own thought, because I found pieces of my own doubts and struggles connected with the characters’ battles. It was an eye-opening read. I did surface from in as a melancholic mermaid from an ocean of thoughts and feelings, but I found a lot of hope and content, just like those last rays of sun that sneak in-between the falling autumn leaves.

I loved it. I lived it.

And I think you should tool

For more info on SUMMERLONG, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Magdalena Korzeniewska

Design by Elizabeth Story

For more info on A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Ann Monn

September 8, 2016

SLIPPING is wonderfully evocative

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized brad k horner, collection, donde acaba el infinito, essays, horror, keith lawson, lauren beukes, Lit Reactor, review, science fiction, slipping, slipping: stories essays & other writing

Brad K. Horner on his eponymous site praises both Lauren Beukes and her debut collection SLIPPING: STORIES, ESSAYS, & OTHER WRITING.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

<snip>

This is my fourth Beukes and I was thrilled to get the ARC, not merely because the author is fantastic with mixing genres, being as solid in hard SF and mystery as she is in wonderfully evocative and detailed and interesting prose set within South Africa.

<snip>

But she also evokes wonderful and interesting flavors for her settings, too, bringing out some of the most interesting and sharp details like all of the best writers I’ve ever read. She is completely conscious of the issues of South Africa, but she’s just as evocative about the alien worlds featuring the problem of slime molds, the kind of world that makes cyborgs, or even a meme’d out inner-world. 🙂

She’s weird, and I love weird. Everyone should be reading this author and start tracking her wonderful talent with characters. That’s where she shines the most. 🙂

image: LaurenBeukes.com

At LIT REACTOR, Keith Lawson asks the important question, Why The F*ck Aren’t You Reading Lauren Beukes?

Well, as I mentioned in the introduction, Beukes just doesn’t give shit. She’s going to write the kind of story she wants to write and the publishing marketers be damned.

She absolutely will not be classified into a single genre. Of her four novels she’s written an urban fantasy, a high tech thriller, a serial killer thriller, and a horror novel. But here’s the thing, her urban fantasy, ZOO CITY, is also a mystery novel coupled with social satire. Her serial killer novel, The Shining Girls, is also a time travel epic. And her horror novel, Broken Monsters, well, that shit’s a straight up horror novel. But it’s got a great police procedural and coming-of-age story mixed in there to boot. (Plus, for all of you Stranger Thingsjunkies, the Duffer Brothers seemed to have pulled a huge part of their major plot point out of
BROKEN
MONSTERS.)

More or less, these are intense, read in one sitting novels that have a little something for everyone. Beukes’ voice is compelling and conversational, as if when you’re reading her, she’s sitting right in front of you telling you these intense, thrilling, and incredibly fucked up stories, and no matter how horrified you are, you can’t stop listening to her. You won’t stop, because you absolutely have to know what’s going to happen next.

<snip>

But if you’re a See’s Sampler kind of reader, Beukes has her first mixed collection (short stories and essays), SLIPPING, coming out from Tachyon Publishing in November. And even though I’m just starting to make my way through it, from what I’ve read so far, it’s pretty damn good.

The Spanish-language DONDE
ACABA EL INFINITO reviews SLIPPING.

The order of the
stories (I have the habit of reading anthologies in order, I will
never break anything), is particularly well thought out , it creates
a very interesting speech, in addition to the narrative, as the book
proceeds, is improving. If something has always surprised me Beukes,
it is its ability to play different genres and themes, and transmute
them into his own style. Science fiction, horror, thriller, fantasy.
Hybridization of genres is something I have always stressed this
South African author. And so, an anthology of his stories, I think it
is the best way to start with his work. Another point in favor of
Lauren Beukes, is that almost all the protagonists are women and tend
to the development of an internal problem not usually read on male
characters. That is, the focus character focuses on other problems or
personal identity. The stories deal with issues such as government
corporations, the effects of television and social networks in
culture, and especially domestic violence or gender. Adding this to
his stories often occur in South Africa (others in Japan or
Pakistan), these elements make it an extremely interesting author.

<snip>

In general, the stories have a dark tone, decadent, showing that we have already known universe with THE SHINING GIRLS or BROKEN MONSTERS. Characters who survive, broken characters, broken worlds. As for the part of non – fiction, I recognize that it was prejudiced, but has surprised me a lot to find really interesting pieces, such as how the author began working as a journalist. Especially the text entitled All the Pretty Corpses, where it ’s a tough to media criticism and expose his way to murder victims (especially women) and how this was the seed of his famous The bright. In short, I think Lauren Beukes knows of what he speaks. They are current social issues that affect us all, regardless of the country where they live. Both fiction and non-fiction, Beukes proves to be a committed author with society. Something I start to miss in current science fiction.

(Translated from Spanish by Google)

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

Cover art by Clara Bacou

Design by Elizabeth Story

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