The amazing Dr. Michael Blumlein, author of THE ROBERTS and Longer, will be at Malvern Books in Austin, TX on Sunday, February 17, 1PM.
Malvern Books
Sunday, February 17
1PM
613 West 29th Street
Austin, TX 78705
Ph: 512-322-2097
For more info on THE ROBERTS, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
A
practicing M.D and a
faculty member at the University of California in San Francisco,
Michael Blumlein’s
modest, yet impactful output includes The
Movement Of Mountains
(1987),
The
Healer
(2005),
and THE ROBERTS (2011).
His
novel X,Y
(1993)
was the basis for the 2004 movie of the same name.
Many of his short
stories and essays have been collected in
the Readercon Award winner and World Fantasy Award nominated
The
Brains of Rats
(1990), What
the Doctor Ordered
(2013), All
I Ever Dreamed
(2018),
and Thoreau’s
Microscope
(2018). Blumlein also wrote the screenplay for the acclaimed short
film Decodings
(1988).
All
of us at Tachyon wish the amazing Michael a great birthday.
For more info on THE ROBERTS, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.
Nalo Hopkinson (photo: David Findlay), Nancy Springer (Bob O’Leary), Michael Blumlein, and Suzy Mckee Charnas
At ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, Neil Gaiman announces four new comics set in the Sandman universe including one written by Nalo Hopkinson.
EW can exclusively announce that DC Comics is launching a Sandman Universe line of four new comic series. The books will be overseen by Gaiman but written and drawn by brand new creative teams. They will pick up story threads and themes from The Sandman while also adding new characters and concepts.
The project kicks off this August with The Sandman Universe one-shot special, which will catch readers up on what’s been happening in Dream’s realm. The most salient fact is that Dream has now gone missing, leaving chaos in his wake. Other important developments include the opening of a rift between worlds, revealing a space beyond the Dreaming. Dream’s official librarian Lucien is still in charge of all the books that were dreamed and never written, but now, one of those books has wound up in the waking world, to be discovered by a group of children. The Dreaming also has an important new resident, now that a House of Whispers has appeared alongside Cain’s House of Mystery and Abel’s House of Secrets.
Photo: Craig Mulcahy
Hopkinson will write House of Whispers and explore how the voodoo deity Erzulie ended up in the Dreaming with her titular house. It might have something to do with a comatose woman named Latoya, whose girlfriend and sisters used the Book of Whispers to try and heal her. Now out of her coma, Latoya is suffering from the Cotard’s Delusion belief that she’s already dead, and is transmitting her belief to others, catalyzing them to become guardians of the gap that has opened in the Dreaming.
WAY TOO FANTASY loves Nancy Springer’s forthcoming novel THE ODDLING PRINCE.
I’m struggling with a way to begin this review that won’t sound like I’m incoherently babbling about how much I loved reading this because, for me, it’s just that great a book.
To start off, the immediate thing that grabbed me about this book was the prose. I was hooked from the first page because I fell in love with the way in which this book was written. It’s a very stylistic prose, and at times may feel a bit archaic to some, but this wasn’t a barrier for me and instead felt like an invitation to another time and place. This is just the type of touch that draws me in to a story.
I was so emotionally involved with this book and its characters. There are certain types of stories, or parts of stories, that I empathize with more than others. The thing that makes me weep, that pierces my heart, is when a character, innocently, naively, is yearning to be loved. And then is cruelly denied that love and doesn’t always understand why–why are they not able to be loved? This book has a lot of that, with Albaric having no one, except Aric, who accepts him in this new mortal world.
<snip>
I know it’s only February, it’s early yet and there are a lot of books ahead of me, but this very well could end up being my favorite book of the year. Rated 5/5 stars on goodreads.
Ian Sales on IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE RIGHT… is very pleased with his recent acquisitions.
Some other books by, er, authors I collect. I’ve been a big fan of Blumlein since first reading one of hs stories in Interzone back in the 1980s. Charnas’s ‘Beauty and the Opera, or the Phantom Beast’ is one of my favourite genre stories and it appears in STAGESTRUCK VAMPIRES AND OTHER PHANTASMS. It and THE ROBERTS I ordered direct from Tachyon Publications… and was delighted to discover on arrival they were both signed.
For more info on THE ODDLING PRINCE, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover art by Brian Giberson
Design by Elizabeth Story
For more info on STAGESTRUCK VAMPIRES AND OTHER PHANTASMS, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover by John Picacio
For more info on THE ROBERTS, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
Photo: Mike Koozmin/THE S.F. EXAMINER
The famed Borderlands Books, official bookstore for many a Tachyon event, celebrates their 20th anniversary this weekend with a whole slate of signings starting at noon on Saturday, November 18.
Among the numerous authors in attendence will be Tachyon writers Charlie Jane Anders, Michael Blumlein, Ellen Klages, and Pat Murphy.
1:00 pm
Michael Blumlein, Becca Gomez Farrell, and Nancy Jane Moore
2:00 pm
Richard Kadrey, Ellen Klages, and Pat Murphy
3:00 pm
Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz
Check out the Borderlands Books page for the complete schedule of events.
For more info on THE ROBERTS, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
For more info on WICKED WONDERS, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
For more info about THE SHADOW HUNTER, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover by Rob Alexander
For more info on SIX MONTHS, THREE DAYS, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.
Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, Michael Moorcock, Claude Lalumière (photo: Alexandra Renwick), Joe R. Lansdale (Karen Lansdale), and Richard Lupoff
Mya Nunnally at BOOK RIOT offers A Beginner’s Guide
to the New Weird Genre.
After growing tired of the same archetypes, overdone plots, and types of characters, I found the antidote. New Weird exists to overturn cliches and twist the traditional. Robin Anne Reid once described it as fictions that “subvert cliches of the fantastic in order to put them to discomfiting, rather than consoling ends.”
THE NEW WEIRD ANTHOLOGY BY JEFF AND ANN VANDERMEER
This one is pretty self-explanatory. The Vandermeers offers many short stories that embody what they believe “The New Weird” to be. With amazing entries from M. John Harrison, K. K. Bishop, and Jay Lake, this is definitely a solid, encompassing introduction to the genre.
Also at BOOK RIOT, Vernieda Vergara recommends 14 Dark Fantasy Books to Read and Explore On Long, Cold Nights including Micheal Moorcock’s ELRIC: THE STEALER OF SOULS.
Quibbling aside, there are a few traits common to dark fantasy stories. They may have a gloomy and moody tone. They may portray humans grappling with supernatural forces. And, they may feature an anti-hero as the main character; in other words, the villains of traditional fantasies may be protagonists in dark fantasy books. Like moral ambiguity in your characters? Dark fantasy is the subgenre for you.
Given the loose definition of dark fantasy, I included a variety of novels on this list. There should be something for everyone. And while there are a few well-known classics of the subgenre listed here, I tried to veer away from the well-beaten path.
art: John Picacio
Moorcock’s drug-dependent albino sorcerer Elric of Melnibone has become one of the most recognizable anti-heroes in fantasy. The last emperor of a declining empire, Elric grapples with external threats, family members who want his throne, and a kind of existential malaise. And that’s not even touching the fact that his soul-stealing sword Stormbringer will inevitably bring doom to all he holds dear.
On Corey Redekop’s eponymous site, guest lister Claude Lalumière offers his Top 10 13 Creepy
Story Collections.
1. The Brains of Rats, by Michael Blumlein
2. Tales of Terror and Mystery, by Arthur Conan Doyle
3. Little Tales of Misogyny, by Patricia Highsmith
4. The Melancholy of Anatomy, by Shelley Jackson
5. The Songbirds of Pain, by Garry Kilworth
6. High Cotton: Selected Stories, by Joe Lansdale
7. Tamastara, or the Indian Nights, by Tanith Lee
8. The Collection, by Bentley Little
9. Claremont Tales, by Richard Lupoff
10. This Strange Way of Dying: Stories of Magic, Desire & the Fantastic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
11. Famous Monsters, by Kim Newman
12. The Ends of the Earth, by Lucius Shepard
13. The Cleft and Other Odd Tales, by Gahan Wilson
For more info about THE NEW WEIRD, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover by Ann Monn
Many Tachyon authors will be attending Readercon 28, July 13-16, in Quincy, Massachusetts.
The famed “imaginative literature” event is the only convention ever to be honored by a World Fantasy Award nomination (Special Award, Non-Professional, 2010) for its organizers.
This years Guests of Honor are Naomi Novik and Nnedi Okorafor with Memorial Guest of Honor Tanith Lee.
John Kessel and Rick Wilber at Readercon 24 (Photo: Ed Gaillard)
Tachyon creators scheduled to appear include Michael Blumlein, Ellen Datlow, Daryl Gregory, James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel, James Morrow, Gordon Van Gelder, Rick Wilber, and Sheila Williams.
Readercon offers a massive selection of readings, signings, and panels. To find any of these authors, check out the entire schedule on their site. And be sure to visit the Tachyon table in the dealer’s room.
The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.
Michael Swanwick (Beth Gwinn), Michael Blumlein (Flurb), Rudy Rucker (Rudy Rucker, CC-BY-SA), Jacob Weisman (Jill Roberts), and Peter V. Brett (Karsten Moran)
SPECULICTION reviews Michael Swanwick’s forthcoming collection NOT SO MUCH, SAID THE CAT.
Michael Swanwick had his first short story published in 1980, and in the three and a half decades since, if anything, has proven himself to be one of speculative fiction’s least predictable writers. For any reader who has spent at least a few years in the field and begun to discern the formulas much of genre adheres to, this comes as a blessing. Forever thinking laterally, one simply never knows what they’re going to get with a new Swanwick offering. His latest, the 2016 collection NOT SO MUCH, SAID THE CAT (Tachyon), is no exception.
In the end, NOT SO MUCH, SAID THE CAT is confirmation that, even in the latter phases of his career, Swanwick is still one of the most original acts on the scene. Short fiction as complementary to his dynamic style as his novel-length work, the stories skip and jump, sending stereotypes scurrying to the shadows. The base premises of some of the stories may be tried and true, but in Swanwick’s hands come across as something more, making any collection, including this one, richer and more dynamic for it.
SOMA FM shared their podcast of the Michael Blumlein/Rudy Rucker June 12 SF IN SF.
For KIRKUS in his article The Science Fiction and Fantasy Books You’ll Want to Read in July, John DeNardo recommends Jacob Weisman’s forthcoming anthology INVADERS: 22 TALES FROM THE OUTER LIMITS OF LITERATURE.
For multi-author themed anthologies, any of the following will give you hours of solid entertainment:
- Beyond the Woods: Fairy Tales Retold edited by Paula Guran
- Deserts of Fire: Speculative Fiction and the Modern War edited by Douglas Lain
- Drowned Worlds edited by Jonathan Strahan
- In the Shadow of Frankenstein edited by Stephen Jones
- Invaders: 22 Tales from the Outer Limits of Literature edited by Jacob Weisman
Badali Jewelry is offering an official line of medallions and rings based on Peter V. Brett’s THE DEMON CYCLE. Each piece uses Lauren K. Cannon’s ward designs.
For more information on NOT SO MUCH, SAID THE CAT, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
For more information on THE ROBERTS, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
For more info about INVADERS: 22 TALES FROM THE OUTER LIMITS OF LITERATURE, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover by Goro Fujita
Design by Elizabeth Story
For more info about THE GREAT BAZAAR & BRAYAN’S GOLD, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
SF IN SF, in partnership with the American Bookbinders Museum, welcomes the acclaimed Michael Blumlein and the legendary Rudy Rucker.
Michael Blumlein (Flurb) and Rudy Rucker (Rudy Rucker, CC-BY-SA)
Each author will read a selection from their work, followed by Q&A with the audience, moderated by incomparable Terry Bisson. Signing and schmoozing follows, with books available for sale courtesy of Borderlands Books. Feel free to bring books from home for signatures.
Sunday June 12
Doors and cash bar open 5:30PM
Event begins 6:30 PM
The American Bookbinders Museum
355 Clementina
San Francisco, CA
Suggested $10 at the door to benefit the American Bookbinders Museum. No one turned away for lack of funds.
For more information on THE ROBERTS, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
The Lit Crawl San Francisco Tachyon event at TIME FRAME was an unqualified success. And we have the pics to prove it!
Crowds of people crammed into the shop.
Tad Williams entertained the masses.
As did it Ellen Klages.
Not to be out done, Michael Blumlein joined in.
Not to worry, Tim Pratt also did his part.
The proud and happy Tachyon head honcho Jacob Wesiman watched over everything.
More of the crowd.
And afterwards, dinner.
Tad Williams, Ellen Klages, Jacob Weisman, Rob Hugel, Libby Vega, Carter Scholz (mostly hidden behind Heather McDougal), Heather McDougal, Madeline Robbins, Michael Blumlein, and Jill Roberts
Thanks to everyone who came to the amazing event. Fun was had by all.
All photos by Rina Weisman.
