nisi shawl

February 7, 2020

Tachyon tidbits featuring Peter Watts, Jacob Weisman, David Sandner, Marie Brennan, and Carrie Vaughn

Rick Klaw blog Carrie Vaughn, cold-forged flame, David Sandner, jacob weisman, james davis nicoll, Locus, marie rennan, mingus fingers, nisi shawl, paul di filippo, Peter Watts, peter watts is an angry sentient tumor, review, steel, the seattle review of books, tor.com 0

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

Nisi Shawl for THE SEATTLE REVIEW OF BOOKS praises PETER WATTS IS AN ANGRY SENTIENT TUMOR.

Profanity is completely appropriate when examining the economic equations that keep cops shooting unarmed black folks. Or when acknowledging the deliberate ignorance with which religious fundamentalists respond to logical arguments against their beliefs. Or when adding up the costs of blithely ignoring the doomful extrapolations SFFH offers concerning global pandemics and climate change. Illustrations in the style of caution-sign icons, at times grim, at times hilarious, mostly both, accompany fifty essays in which Watts does all of the above and more. Like cheering on the Zika virus and experimenting with LSD. (Not at the same time.)

Interior illustrations from PETER WATTS IS AN ANGRY SENTIENT TUMOR by John Coulthart

Plus in the opening bit of the next review, Shawl says this:

Peter Watts has written and published a dozen brilliant books; Riot Baby (Tor.com) is Tochi Onyebuchi’s incandescent adult debut.

For LOCUS, Paul Di Filippo reviews David Sandner and Jacob Weisman’s Mingus Fingers.

The characterization here is superb, with all the players leaping off the page with subtle grace. The evocation of the period is spot-on, subtle and not overdone. The parallel worlds of boxing and jazz extend fine tendrils of correlation into each other. The doings of the actors are multivalent and authentic. And the unreductionist climax rings true. All in all, a wonderful accomplishment, not alone for sentences such as “I looked at Mingus. He had changed, his impossibly spotted neck bent almost to breaking as he loomed over us over us… [as he] moved his hooves along the strings….”The team behind this charming, low-key but powerful tale—David Sandner & Jacob Weisman—blend their voices beautifully into an organic whole that reminds me of the tonality of John Kessel or Karen Joy Fowler.

James Davis Nicoll in his TOR.COM piece Five Sword-Wielding Women in SFF included works from Marie Brennan and Carrie Vaughn.

Recently I noticed an angry person on the internet expressing outrage at the very idea of women, any women, being able to use a sword. Frankly, it’s an objection that’s too stupid for words. While one could certainly respond by mentioning, for example, the Trưng sisters, Madame de Saint-Baslemont, and of course the flamboyantly bisexual and dangerous Julie d’Aubigny, let’s do what we do best, here, and talk about some of the excellent books featuring swordswomen.

January 22, 2020

The Write Now! StoryBundle, curated by Nick Mamatas, features Jeff VanderMeer, Kate Wilhelm, Nisi Shawl, Steve Aylett, Kit Reed, and others

Rick Klaw blog jeff vandermeer, kate wilhelm, Kit Reed, Nick Mamatas, nisi shawl, steve aylett, storybundle, the write now! 0

With Write Now!, STORYBUNDLE empowers you not just to become a better writer, but to discover the myriad ways one can become a writer. The 11 extraordinary books include B OOKLIFE: STRATEGIES AND SURVIVAL TIPS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY WRITER and Monstrous Creatures by Jeff VanderMeer, Starve Better by Nick Mamatas, Storyteller: Writing Lessons and More by Kate Wilhelm, Heart of the Original by Steve Aylett, Story First – The Writer as Insider by Kit Reed, and Writing the Other by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward.

There are as many ways to become a writer as there are writers, and as many styles and voices as there are eager readers for them. One writing guide is not enough, and indeed, one type of writing guide is not enough. The Write Now! StoryBundle empowers you not just to become a better writer, but to discover the myriad ways one can become a writer.

The bundle, perfect for a New Year’s Resolution, to start writing, includes practical guides to the particulars of being a working writer, memoiristic explorations of the writing life, specific deep-dives into issues of representation, and explicit attempts to blow your mind!
STORYBUNDLE

March 6, 2019

The “very best of” is definitely not hyperbole for THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized adam westcott, ahlissa eichhorn, elaine aldred, elizabeth story, hannes hummel, haunted by deadlines, high fever books, infinite text, logan noble, nisi shawl, politics and prose, preview, strange alliances, the seattle review of books, the very best of caitlin r kiernan

The recently released THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN offers a thrilleresque experience.

INFINITE TEXT was excited by the collection.

What is truly intriguing and captivating in Kiernan’s work is her atmosphere and writing style. I will warn readers, however, that aside from the grotesque, there are many instances of swearing in this work (it did not interfere with my personal reading experience). It’s a thrilleresque experience, rough around the edges.

This collection is not for everyone, and that’s okay. Kiernan writes in a dark niche corner of literature, and I think she directs her writings at a very specific kind of audience. I would recommend this collection to you if you enjoy the works of: Shirley Jackson, Victor Lavalle, Nick Mamatas, Angela Carter, David Lynch, H.P. Lovecraft, or Cosmic Horror. If you have not read any of the listed authors, but you want to get out of your comfort zone and try something different, Kiernan might be a great place to start.

Nisi Shawl at THE SEATTLE REVIEW OF BOOKS is thrilled of book’s existence.

A collection rather than an anthology, THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN (Tachyon) hews to one style, uttering its fabulations in one piercingly delicious voice. My personal favorite, “The Maltese Unicorn,” dishes up a Dashiell Hammett-esque crime narrative in a setting filled with bisexual demons and enchanted dildos. Often decay appears as a near-sentient character in the fictional worlds Kiernan constructs; often wickedness and ineffability and fate acquire a palpable, practically tactile presence in prose both teasing and pleasing.

<snip>

Let us be grateful that Tachyon’s Jacob Weisman and Jill Roberts have made appreciation much easier by curating this magnificent selection of Kiernan’s eerily beautiful oeuvre.

Photo: Kyle Cassidy

For HIGH FEVER BOOKS, Logan Noble praises the volume.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A best of collection is a wonderful concept. Especially if you’re writer Caitlín R. Kiernan, who has published over two hundred and fifty short stories. This is her third ‘Best of’ collection, which speaks to the absolute wealth of her bibliography. For THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN, Tachyon and the author decided to draw stories from her limited-edition publications. This is great, because it gives us an opportunity to experience works that we may have missed in the past. The stories within this collection are powerful and diverse, each one polished to perfection. You can see the hours of work poured into every page. I expected an incredible collection (Caitlín R. Kiernan never disappoints), and she truly delivered.

<snip>

While I loved nearly every story in the collection, a few stood out for me. The Ape’s Wife is a sorrowful version of a story we know very well. La Peau Verte is a piece about the truth of fairy tales that ends with a gut punch. The Prayer of Ninety Cats is a horror tale told with a vivid cinematic flair.

‘The Very Best of’ is not hyperbole. This is a collection released by a multiple award winner at the top of her game. Each story is a testament to the power of fiction and the versatility of genre fiction as a whole.

Elaine Aldred of STRANGE ALLIANCES enjoys his first Kiernan experience.

Caitlín Kiernan slips comfortably between the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres, as well as modern nods to epic Gothic horror, at times melding them all together. If you like something dark and unsettling this is the collection for you. Put The Very Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan down for a moment and you will feel the need to keep looking over your shoulder, or find yourself waking up with a sudden start in the middle of the night.

Creating a nagging sense of disquiet is something the author is very skilled at. Stories which slowly detach themselves from reality abound. There are also those which have no connection at all, but because the narrative is divorced from physical reality, there is always the psychology to work on, which Kiernan does ruthlessly, leaving the reader with the sense that they are reading something which might just swallow them whole and not bother to spit them out.

<snip>

I’d never read any of Kiernan’s work until now, but this collection has certainly made me very interested in her writing, so I will hunt out her backlist and be on the lookout for any new work.

Adam Westcott at POLITICS AND PROSE recommends THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN.

For the past several years, Caitlin Kiernan has been writing some of the best weird stories to be published. Now you can score a nice bundle of them in this conveniently priced collection, THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN.

As does HAUNTED BY DEADLINES’ Ahlissa Eichhorn in Horror Novels by Female Authors You Can Buy Now.

I said it once, I’ll say it again; if you’re a horror fan and you’re not reading Kiernan, you’re messing up. Bound in gorgeous cover art, the title says it all. It’s a comprehensive selection and great for both new readers and weathered admirers.

For more info about THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Hannes Hummel
Design by Elizabeth Story

September 17, 2018

Subversive and darkly humorous, THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF EVERYTHING is another must read by the talented Nick Mamatas

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized books bones and buffy, cindy pauldine, eleni sakellis, elizabeth story, interview, Nick Mamatas, nisi shawl, review, shelf awareness, storybundle, tammy sparks, the anarchist bundle, the national heral, the people's republic of everything, the seattle times

A trio of reviews and more about Nick Mamatas’ brilliant, oddball THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF EVERYTHING.

For SHELF AWARENESS, Cindy Pauldine praises the collection.

Nick Mamatas (I Am Providence) creates landscapes in THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF EVERYTHING that are off-kilter yet disconcertingly familiar. This short story collection examines his recurring themes of “the body, technology, [and] materialism” with tales that span conventional narrative, science fiction and dystopian fantasy; dark themes abide, touched with a fair bit of humor.

<snip>

This collection also includes the preferred author edition of Under My Roof, a novel set in the near future when war is constant. A telepathic boy tells the very funny story of his father’s homemade nuclear bomb and the reaction to his declaring their house a new country. Part Kurt Vonnegut and part The Mouse That Roared, it’s a biting and relevant satire.

Mamatas adds author notes at the end of each story. The reader may come away with the feeling that it’s a minor miracle that any of his unusual work sees print–and a very good thing that it does–because his underground aesthetic and slightly skewed imagination give adventurous readers a wild ride.

<snip>

THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF EVERYTHING is a subversive and darkly humorous collection of stories showcasing author Nick Mamatas’s ability to work across a variety of genres.

Nisi Shawl at THE SEATTLE TIMES enjoys the stories.

Bay Area author Nick Mamatas is renowned in his work and in his online presence as witty and perspicacious; his new collection, THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF EVERYTHING (Tachyon Publications, 336 pp., $15.95), will bolster that reputation.

Only “The Glottal Stop,” a fast-and-furious account of a harassed woman’s last date, is original to this book. Many of the rest of the stories, though, are gathered from venues either obscure, defunct, or both.

<snip>

All of which goes to show that the brilliant, oddball speculations of Mamatas surround us on every side. It only takes the focus of this thoughtfully curated collection to bring out their gloriously surprising details.

For THE NATIONAL HERALD, Eleni Sakellis profiles the book and interviews the author.

Author Nick Mamatas’ latest book THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF EVERYTHING is another must read by the talented writer whose family hails from Ikaria. He spoke with The National Herald about his new book and the Greek-American aspects of some of the stories in the collection.

Mamatas told TNH, “THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF EVERYTHING includes a couple of stories about the Greek-American experience, or at least a Greek-American experience— The Phylactery, about a Greek-American man giving his child a filakto, and North Shore Friday which is a science fiction story set in the Ikarian-American enclave on Long Island. The short novel included, Under My Roof, is a modern-dress version of Aristophanes’ The Acharnians. There’s also plenty of dark fantasy and science fiction stories along the lines of the old Twilight Zone TV series and historical fiction as well.”

For those unfamiliar with the term, a “filakto” is traditionally a small cloth pouch made in a monastery and pinned to a baby’s clothes to ward off evil, like an amulet.

Among the 15 compelling stories in the book, North Shore Friday is especially entertaining with solid characters, touches of Greek, and a bit of “typographic trickery” as Mamatas describes it which draws the reader deeper into the thoughts of the characters and heightens the intensity of the story. “I have always been a sucker for typographic trickery,” Mamatas noted in the book, adding that “any book or story that features a disruption of layout immediately attracts my interest.”

Tammy Sparks on BOOKS, BONES, AND BUFFY reviews THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF EVERYTHING.

In the end, I’m very glad I picked up this book. If I hadn’t, I would have missed some very good stories, and that would have been a shame.

Nick Mamatas is curating the The Anarchist Bundle for STORYBUNDLE, which includes selections from Mamatas, Michael Moorcock, Marge Piercy, Dennis Danvers, and Lisa Goldstein.

The Anarchist Bundle, curated by Nick Mamatas: Anarchy is perfectly science fictional—it’s widely derided as absolutely impossible, even as the entire apparatus of state and capital are dedicated to making sure that anarchy never blooms. And yet, constantly, sometimes in venues as small as a household, or across entire nations and a worldwide social class, it blooms. Anarchy is inevitable.

Science fiction is the genre of change. The state and capital may try to forestall the future, contain it, or control it, but they will fail. The books in this bundle are about the weaknesses in authority’s stranglehold, and the fun we can have escaping it. Some science fiction is about anarchy; some is written in the spirit of anarchy and revels in the anarchic.

I’m extremely pleased to bring to this StoryBundle three titles available as ebook for the very first time. Lisa Goldstein’s The Dream Years is a stellar timeslip novel about Surrealism and the Events of May 1968 in Paris, France. Dennis Danvers’ The Watch brings Kropotkin into the twentieth century, with the key to changing the world. My own anthology The Urban Bizarre includes extreme early work by Charlie Jane Anders, Tim Pratt, Jeff Somers, and many more.

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

Cover by Elizabeth Story

July 25, 2018

The grimdark version of a comfort read, Kameron Hurley’s APOCALYPSE NYX is a welcome return to the adventures of the author’s iconic hard-fisted anti-heroine

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized 10 bad habits, apocalypse nyx, bel dame apocrypha, brit mandelo, elizabeth story, kameron hurley, lilianny araujo, nerds of a feather flock together, nisi shawl, review, spanish, spoiler fans, the seattle review of books, tor.com, wadim kashin

More excitement surrounds Kameron Hurley’s APOCALYPSE NYX.

NERDS OF A FEATHER, FLOCK TOGETHER praises the book.

I was worried that some of the politics and technology of Nyx’s world might have escaped me in the years since I read Rapture, but I needn’t have been. Hurley is brilliant at developing worlds that makes little sense on the surface (how are all those bugs powering their cars?) but where the internal logic and the matter-of-fact acceptance from the characters makes it easy to just take everything as it comes. The plots are sufficiently twisty, though not immensely complex or original – but, again, that’s not really the point. Whether you’re coming to Nyx for the first time, or after reading one or more of the novels, what APOCALYPSE NYX offers is the grimdark version of a comfort read: action, well-placed aggression and bizarrely satisfying emotional frustration that will have you reading through your fingers.

Nisi Shawl for THE SEATTLE REVIEW OF BOOKS enjoys the return of Nyx.

Pulled together from novellas published primarily on her Patreon fundraising site, Kameron Hurley’s APOCALYPSE NYX (Tachyon)is a welcome return to the adventures of the author’s iconic hard-fisted anti-heroine.

<snip>

These five glimpses into her passage from an explosives expert fresh off a centuries-old battlefront to a bounty hunter in war-ravaged cities and villages show her being both tender and tough, both reckless and cynical. My favorite story’s the final one, in which Nyx notes how ridiculous it is for a killer like herself to have a panging conscience — but declines a ride home out of the desert from colleagues who set fire to a house full of children anyway.

At the Spanish-language site SPOILER FANS, Lilianny Araujo recommends APOCALYPSE NYX.

Each story is like a wild ride through a minefield in an old truck. They are narrowly drawn, implacably violent, and without apology are light in the exhibition. The reader is pushed into chaos from the beginning, which is both challenging and brutally convincing. I admit that I did not know what was happening at the beginning. Is this real? but in the middle of the second story, Nyx had me holding on to the balls. I got into this so much that I immediately went back to reading the first two stories and was as happy as I think most fans of Grimdark’s fiction will be to read this.

<snip>

I usually talk about issues in the reviews because I think they contribute to what the reader gets from a book. Forget that. Let APOCALYPSE NYX surprise you with its deep representation of a person in constant intellectual and moral crisis, and do not worry about what it means. You will be immersed in love, lust, hatred, revenge, desire, and you will question the value of human life. You will empathize with Nyx for his faults but you will be horrified by his lack of human consciousness. It is a heady mix and very entertaining.

Is it dark night? You can bet your ass yes. Try not to support Nyx while getting rid of innocents who get in the way of the next reward. That’s impossible. And the question of gray morale itself makes a couple of discrete appearances in the stories and in the delicious jokes among your monster crew. If you are reading this review, then obviously you appreciate grimdark. Grab this good introduction to life and the world of Nyx. You will not regret. Highly recommended

(Translation from Spanish, courtesy of Google.)

On TOR.COM, Brit Mandelo appreciates the collection.

It’s a pleasure-read, a set of stories that push the same buttons, but those happen to be buttons I can appreciate. APOCALYPSE NYX isn’t the place to start for a reader unfamiliar with Hurley’s work. For that I’d recommend a more recent novel such as The Stars are Legion (reviewed here as well). However, for a reader who’s interested in seeing a bit of Nyx before the series—Nyx the total fucking disaster of a person, Nyx the monster, Nyx who can’t connect and can’t communicate and lives on the fine line between a death-wish and a death-drive—this collection will scratch the itch.

10 BAD HABITS includes the title among Favorite Reads June 2018.

I am a huge fan of Hurley’s Bel Dame series and this book is a collection of short stories that serve as something of a tangential prequel to that series. Former Bel Dame, turned mercenary Nyx is still a battered and rebuilt veteran of the ongoing brutal war on her world, and here she’s putting together the team she’ll have around her in God’s War. If there’s something of a through line to the book’s stories, it’s Nyx’s struggle to be slightly less awful than the default awfulness of her surroundings. She might not have a completely functioning moral compass, but it works from time to time. Violent bug-fueled science-fantasy is my jam.

For more info on APOCALYPSE NYX, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Wadim Kashin

Design by Elizabeth Story

June 26, 2018

Peter Watts’ irresistible THE FREEZE-FRAME REVOLUTION is compelling science fiction with heart

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized ama, bluchickenninja, chicago tribune, elizabeth story, everdeen mason, foreword reviews, gary k wolfe, l'épaule d'orion, nisi shawl, peter dabbene, Peter Watts, reddit, review, the freeze frame revolution, the seattle review of books, the washington post

Reviews for Peter Watts’ entertaining and provocative THE FREEZE-FRAME REVOLUTION keep flooding in.

At FOREWORD REVIEWS, Peter Dabbene praises the work.

Hard science fiction that reads like a first-person parable, Peter Watts’s THE FREEZE-FRAME REVOLUTION is thoughtful, suspenseful, and unforgettable.

<snip>

Watts, a former marine biologist, deftly weaves hard science, both actual and theoretical, into the book. Those familiar with cutting-edge ideas like Boltzmann Bodies or the Stefan-Boltzmann law and the Alcubierre warp drive will come away satisfied, but the science is so fully ingrained into the narrative that it doesn’t draw attention to itself—a high compliment indeed.

Sophisticated enough for hard science-fiction purists, the book is nevertheless intimately written in a conversational style, as Sunday relates the happenings aboard ship and her interactions with Chimp and the others. There are many examples of Watts’s inventive writing, perhaps most noticeably the use of the gender-neutral pronouns “se” and “hir” throughout the book.

The story’s massive time span invites intriguing questions, as when Sunday asks a crewmate, “How do you tell the difference between going extinct and just, you know, changing into something else?”

The result of all this is an epic of epochs; entertaining and provocative, brilliant and ambitious, FREEZE-FRAME REVOLUTION is compelling science fiction with heart.

Nisi Shawl in THE SEATTLE REVIEW OF BOOKS enjoys the novella.

THE FREEZE-FRAME REVOLUTION (Tachyon), the shortest and latest novel from Canadian Peter Watts, is as brilliant and enticingly acute as any of his earlier and longer work.

<snip>

The mission, after millions and millions and millions of years, goes on under the implacable and inescapable eye of an artificial intelligence tasked with keeping the crew’s nose to an eternal grindstone. How can its favorite human Sunday Ahzmundin and a few thousand others possibly manage to rebel against their superhuman supervisor? With skin-creeping tension, sharply realistic detail, and action moving fast as thought, Watts shows us.

Everdeen Mason of THE WASHINGTON POST declares the tale as one of the month’s top reads.

THE FREEZE-FRAME REVOLUTION (Tachyon), by Peter Watts, is a delicious morsel of hard science fiction. The short novel follows the crew of a construction ship who have spent 66 million years traveling across the galaxy building interstellar wormhole gates for humanity. The group is held in suspended animation, awakened for brief periods by Chimp, the AI that runs the ship.

<snip>

The setup of the book is irresistible, and the science is high-concept, but the story is driven by Sunday’s relationships and her conviction in herself and her companions.

Watts participated in a REDDIT AMA.

Vermilion-Sands

1 point·

10 days ago

Hello. Huge fan….Blindsight is the only book (besides Stan Robinson’s Red Mars ) that I’ve re-read in the last 10 years. Anyway, my question…… What is your recommended reading order of the SUNFLOWER CYCLE ? Can it truly be the publication order?! Thank you in advance.

The-Squidnapper

AMA Author

1 point·

10 days ago

Chronologically, the order is “Hotshot”; “The Freeze-Frame Revolution”; “Giants”; and “The Island”. But each was designed to be understandable whether or not you’ve read any of the others, and Sunday doesn’t even appear in all of them, so go wild.

Duke_Paul

1026 points·

12 days ago

Please, elaborate on your relationship with raccoons and your opinion on the raccoon that climbed a skyscraper yesterday. Also maybe I guess why use tumblrspeak or whatever when referring to yourself as a terrorist…

The-Squidnapper

AMA Author

9 points·

12 days ago

·edited 11 days ago

There is an Ancient Compact Between Squid And Raccoon: I feed them unlimited kibble on the porch every night, and in return they don’t tear the shit out of our organics bin on Recycling Night. Unfortunately there is a loophole;nothing in the compact forbids them from tearing the shit out of our roof. Although I think they may have done so as a retaliatory tariff against the new “raccoon-proof” bins the city has been rolling out. It’s always the innocents that get caught in the middle.

MPRRaccoon is a North American Hero, just as much as little Timmy who fell down the well in that old episode of The Simpsons. Oh, and this just in from The BUG:

‘Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn even went so far as to offer a $1,000 charity donation to “anyone who saves this raccoon. I can’t handle this. Poor dude.”’

https://www.blogto.com/city/2018/06/toronto-sends-thoughts-and-prayers-raccoon-minnesota/

Excuse me for a moment while I wipe myself, and go put on my Rocket t-shirt.

Gary K. Wolfe for CHICAGO TRIBUNE reviews the book.

Sometimes sheer magnitude of scale can lend an epic scope to stories which, at the human level, remain fairly intimate. Peter Watts’s episodic tale mostly concerns efforts by a few crew members to rebel against the artificial intelligence that controls their spaceship, and whose motives they have come to distrust.

<snip>

The real question she faces, however, and what gives Watts’s tale surprising depth, is what it means to be human on an endless mission in an uncaring universe.

BLUCHICKENNINJA highly recommends THE FREEZE-FRAME REVOLUTION.

THE FREEZE-FRAME REVOLUTION is a story about humans living in an unbearable situation. And I think the human character aspect is what Peter Watts has excelled at. The other short stories start involving aliens and they lack something because of this.

This is a hard science-fiction story, if you like books such as Seveneves by Neal Stephenson I would recommend this. It also has elements of artificial intelligence, and the problems which comes from having an all-knowing AI in control of a ship. In some ways it is also similar to The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.

I would highly recommend this book to any reader who enjoys locked room puzzles, political intrigue, and human stories in science fiction settings.

The French L’ÉPAULE D’ORION lauds the narrative and its hidden text.

THE FREEZE-FRAME REVOLUTION is a short narrative that offers a relatively simple and classic scenario, without the philosophical depth that Peter Watts has been able to accustom us in the past. Although it is very far from reaching the heights of Blind Vision, the text offers a certain sense of wonder in view of the extent of what it gives to imagine, but which comes more from its frame than from the scenario itself. even. It is also very accessible for a hard-SF novel and this is undoubtedly its highest quality. The scientific side, always very elaborate at Watts, never disturbs the story.

That being said, you will need to be attentive during your reading as the main text contains a hidden text, and if you find it, you will be rewarded with a revelation that is even more interesting than the main text itself. I would almost be tempted to give him 3 stars just for that. He’s teasing Peter Watts.

(Translation from French courtesy of Google)

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

Cover and design by Elizabeth Story

May 15, 2018

Tachyon tidbits featuring Jo Walton, James Morrow, Nancy Kress, Nalo Hopkinson, and Jacob Weisman

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized danses aériennes, french, grand prix de l'imaginaire, hélène louise, jacob weisman, James Morrow, jo walton, l'arche de darwin, leo and diane dillon, Locus, midnight robber, nalo hopkinson, Nancy Kress, nisi shawl, rainforest writers village, starlings, tor.com

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

Jo Walton (photo: Ada Palmer), James Morrow, Nancy Kress (Ellen Datlow), Nalo Hopkinson (David Findlay), and Jacob Weisman

On her eponymous site, the French author Hélène Louise praises Jo Walton’s STARLINGS.

I really loved this book, which I found astonishingly easy and entertaining to read. (I did not read all the poetry, however, but I did not learn to read poetry in this language. Of course I preferred some stories, but all were good, or very good. And the very good ones were absolutely fantastic! I loved how the characters were immediately likeable and perfectly characterized. As a lot of ideas have been astonishing and frequently funny (even irreverently so!), I’ve been deliciously entertained while reading them from their very beginning and spending some time after their end thinking about them – which is a sure sign of quality stories!

I thank again Netgalley for giving me this opportunity to read a book that I would not have anything spontaneously, even knowing how to author the previously, because of my mistrust of collection of short stories. I very likely will buy the paper book at the first opportunity to re read it. I warmly recommend it to all passionate readers of science-fi and fantasy.

(Translation from French, courtesy of Google)

The winners for the 2018 Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire, given to the best science fiction published in French, were recently announced. Tachyon authors James Morrow’s L’Arche de Darwin (Darwin’s Ark) and Nancy Kress’s Danses aériennes both brought home awards.

Congratulations to all the winners.

At TOR.COM in her History of Black Science Fiction series, Nisi Shawl discusses Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber.

Using variant speech patterns—the multiple patois of the many different Caribbean islands in her background—Hopkinson creates a honeyed symphony of words redolent of the newly settled world of Toussaint’s imported Island culture. Days after finishing the book, its phrases still ring in my mind: “Born bassourdie…What a way things does grow…Music too sweet!” As the prefacing poem by David Findlay declares, for colonized peoples, telling stories in any form of English is a way of appropriating one of our colonizers’ primary tools of oppression. Telling stories that deprivilege the status quo is a doubly subversive tactic, and that’s how Midnight Robber’s heroine, Tan-Tan, overcomes the awful odds against her.

Cover by Leo and Diane Dillon

Hopkinson accomplishes so many wonders with this novel that it’s worth taking time to enumerate them. First, in case you missed what I said earlier, I’ll mention again the sheer beauty of Hopkinson’s prose. Combining the dancing polyrhythms of a panoply of Caribbean vernaculars with thoughtfully interpolated standard English, her dialogue and her vivid descriptions of character, settings, and action move, groove, charm, and chime together in deepest harmony. The story is sometimes funny, sometimes tense, sometimes tragic, and always utterly involving. My favorite passage in Midnight Robber is when Tan-Tan, tired of the live food and alien housekeeping protocols of a douen village, snarks at her reluctant hosts: “Oonuh keeping well this fine hot day? The maggots growing good in the shit? Eh? It have plenty lizards climbing in your food? Good. I glad.”

LOCUS offers photographic evidence that Tachyon publisher and editor Jacob Weisman attended the annual Rainforest Writers Village retreat on Feb 21-25.

Session One (l to r): back: Manny Frishberg, Patrick Swenson, James Van Pelt, Vickie Saunders, Louise Marley, Di Francis, John Pitts, Charles Walbridge, Lee Hallison, Devon Monk, Bob Brown, Julie McGalliard, Che Gilson, Jacob Weisman; front: Kayt Huggans, Elizabeth Stephan, Debora Reinert, Fonda Lee, Honna Swenson, Barb Galler-Smith, Jayne Fury, David Levine, Julianna Hinckley, Barbara Ferrer; not pictured: Kathy Klein, Alexandra Tillson, Uwanna Thomas, Camille Hansen, Laura Staley, Jennifer Brozek. Photo by Patrick Swenson

For more info on STARLINGS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

February 16, 2018

Tachyon tidbits featuring Bruce Sterling, Nalo Hopkinson, Nancy Springer, and Michael Swanwick

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized boskone, brenda noiseux, bruce sterling, el sol de plata, jamaica ginger, josé francisco sastre garcía, lightspeed, michael swanwick, nalo hopkinson, nancy springer, nisi shawl, theaker's quarterly awards, theaker's quarterly fiction, tqf awards

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

Bruce Sterling, Nalo Hopkinson (photo: David Findlay), Nancy Springer (Lyla Ellzey), and Michael Swanwick (Beth Gwynn)

Vote Bruce Sterling’s PIRATE UTOPIA for the TQF Awards 2018.

For the next fortnight TQF readers (and non-readers, if they want) can vote in the faintly embarrassing TQF Awards 2018!

Click here to vote. Anyone can vote, and you can vote for as many items in each category as you like.

The longlist consists of everything we reviewed in issues 58, 59, 60 and 61, in the categories that appeared in the Quarterly Review (audio, books, comics, events, films, music and television), plus categories for best TQF story, cover art and issue. If you aren’t sure what to vote for, click the links provided below to find out more.

Voting will continue until midnight, 25 February 2018, with the winners to be announced in TQF62 a few days later.

LIGHTSPEED (Feb. 2018, Issue 93) reprints “Jamaica Ginger” by Nalo Hopkinson and Nisi Shawl.

“Damn and blast it!”

Plaquette let herself in through the showroom door of the watchmaker’s that morning to hear Msieur blistering the air of his shop with his swearing. The hulking clockwork man he’d been working on was high-stepping around the workroom floor in a clumsy lurch. It lifted its knees comically high, its body listing to one side and its feet coming down in the wrong order; toe, then heel. Billy Sumach, who delivered supplies to Msieur, was in the workroom. Through the open doorway he threw her a merry glance with his pretty brown eyes, but he had better sense than to laugh at Msieur’s handiwork with Msieur in the room.

Msieur glared at Plaquette. “You’re late. That’s coming off your pay.”

Plaquette winced. Their family needed every cent of her earnings, but she’d had to wait home till Ma got back from the railroad to take over minding Pa.

The mechanical George staggered tap-click, tap-click across the shop. It crashed into a wall and tumbled with a clank to the floor, then lay there whirring. Msieur swore again, words Ma would be mortified to know that Plaquette had heard. He snatched off one of his own shoes and threw it at the George. Billy Sumach gave a little peep of swallowed laughter. Msieur pointed at the George. “Fix it,” he growled at Plaquette. “I have to present it to the governor the day after tomorrow.”

As though Plaquette didn’t know that. “Yes, Msieur,” she said to his back as he stormed through the door to the showroom.

The second the door slammed shut, Billy let out a whoop. Plaquette found herself smiling along with him, glad of a little amusement. It was scarce in her life nowadays. “My land,” Billy said, “’Pears Old George there has got himself the jake leg!”

The fun blew out of the room like a candle flame. “Don’t you joke,” Plaquette told him, through teeth clamped tight together. “You know ’bout my Pa.”

On his eponymous Spanish-language site, José
Francisco Sastre García profiles Nancy Springer.

Within the genre of epic fantasy, one of the great continuators of Tolkien’s work, with a style markedly similar to that of the British author, is Nancy Connor Springer (Montclair, New Jersey, 1948). Not too well known in our country, she works in different genres such as fantasy, mystery, science fiction or juvenile literature.

She studied at the University of Gettysburg, where she got the cum laude graduation in 1970. Later she moved to Pennsylvania, where she will work as a high school teacher in McSherrytown. A couple of years later, in 1972, he will begin his literary work, eventually publishing in 1977 his first book, The Book of Suns, a novel which was later republished under the title The Silver Sun.

According to her own account, her love of writing arises because nobody wrote the books she wanted to read, deciding that she would create them herself. This is how works such as the Island Cycle, the King of the Sea.

In Spain his work has passed in a certain way unnoticed, with hardly transcendence, being published in Castilian two of the stories of the cycle of Island, three of the adventures of Enola Holmes and Apocalypse. However, these stories have been so successful that apparently they are going to take to the movies the adventures of Sherlock’s sister.

In the case of the fantasy of the Island Cycle, his style is reminiscent of Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings: a certain lyricism, a narrative in which the characters are sliding through the plot with a rhythm that can sometimes seem slow but is very addictive, which at times accelerates to generate an action that, far from being hard, is it becomes something softer thanks to that more poetic way of narrating; the melancholic aftertaste, the romance, the epic, are integrated in a whole, in a harmonious whole that drags the reader towards a world in which fantastic creatures roam at their ease, a world in which a certain Celtic touch can be perceived at the same time that medieval, with an aftertaste to troubadour that is very pleasant. In the end, I will say that this author is an excellent option when looking for a good and interesting reading.

(Translation from Spanish courtesy of Google)

For BOSKONE, Brenda Noiseux interviews Michael Swanwick.

If you could relive your first experience with any book or film, which one would you pick? What is it about this book or film that you want to experience again for the “first time?”

Reading The Fellowship of the Ring. I was sixteen and a junior in high school, when I picked it up out of a box of books my sister Patty had sent home from college. It was eleven o’clock at night and I’d just finished my homework, so I thought I’d read a chapter or two before bed. I stayed up all night, reading. I read through breakfast. I read all the mile-long walk to school, and I finished the book just as the home bell rang.

I’ve said this before, but it’s true. That book rang me like a bell. Overnight, it made me determined to become a writer. It’s the reason I’m taking part in this mini-interview right now.

When was the last time you dressed up for Halloween? What costume did you wear?

A friend has a themed costume party, where everyone has to dress up as something beginning with that year’s letter. It was T this year, so I went as Tom Terrific. It’s an easy costume to put together once you locate an enormous white funnel for his Thinking Cap.
On reflection, I probably went as grown-up Tom Terrific. Young Tom didn’t have a beard.

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

Cover by John Coulthart

September 21, 2017

Patricia A. McKillip’s THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD is unquestionably a classic of the genre

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized b&n sci-fi & fantasy blog, book wraiths, joel cunnigham, nisi shawl, patricia a mckillip, the forgotten beasts of eld, the seattle review of books, Thomas Canty

The Internet continues to explode about the publication of the new edition of Patricia A. McKillip’s World Fantasy Award-winner THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD, now available in paperback and for the first time as an ebook.

On B&N SCI-FI & FANTASY BLOG, Joel Cunningham includes the book among This Week’s New Sci-Fi & Fantasy Books: A Cyborg Romance, the Future of Global Politics, and the Return of Forgotten Beasts.

More than 40 years after it was first published, McKillip’s World Fantasy Award-winner is unquestionably a classic of the genre, and it reads as timelessly as ever in this new print and ebook edition. It’s the story of a woman named Sybel, who lives alone in a remote castle where she cares for a stable of magical creatures and hunts for a mythical bird, and how her world is shattered by the sudden appearance of Coren, a nobleman who delivers her a child and pulls her into a petty conflict between men. It’s a slender, beguiling story that does more with less, packing a complex, bewitching world and achingly real, frustratingly human characters into a page count that disguises the expansiveness of the ideas within.

Nisi Shawl for THE SEATTLE REVIEW OF BOOKS praises the classic.

As noted above, recent covers for Patricia McKillip’s fantasies are almost always painted by Kinuko Y Craft. Except when they’re not; a new reprint of her groundbreaking World Fantasy Award-winner THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD (Tachyon) is graced instead by Thomas Canty’s art. And why not? McKillip’s soaring prose, lyrics to songs our hearts have forgotten they knew how to sing, deserves Canty’s accompaniment. The feminist underpinnings of the book’s plot — a self-sufficient woman who refuses to be stripped of her autonomy starts a war she swore never to fight — deserve our attention now as much as they did in 1974, when Beasts was first published. If you’ve never read it, you deserve to. Or if, like me, you read it long ago and have made do since with a tiny but affordable mass market paperback, you deserve Tachyon’s elegant trade paperback edition, at least half as beautiful as McKillip’s story. Which sounds stingy as compliments go, but is actually extremely high praise.

BOOKWRAITHS enjoys the fantasy.

THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD is a wonderfully written, richly textured, high fantasy from Patricia A. McKillip. Even though it is quite limited in length, it is still filled with insightful moments and fascinating insights; all of it set in beautifully rendered fairy tale world.

<snip>

What always catches me unprepared whenever I read (or reread) a Patricia A. McKillip novel is her unbelievable prose. It isn’t elaborate or flowery, merely lyrical and purposeful. Every word has its place and its use in her narratives, yet she never feels a need to expound unnecessarily. Important events taking place in pages rather than chapters. Concise, meaningful, and lovely. That is how this author writes, and I only wish more fantasy offerings these days mimicked her style.

As for the story itself, it was poignant, quick, and emotional. Sybel’s life, her choices, and the ones she love caught up in the quagmire she has unknowingly been drawn into. Her words and response to both the child and that which comes later filled with a layer of meaning and depth which will truly touches a reader’s heart strings.

As for any criticisms or complaints, I have none. McKillip has always been a writer I was in awe of, especially her amazing ability to craft an exciting fantasy tale that still finds a place for both dignity and seriousness in its pages, and THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD was no exception, making me wonder only why it took me so long to actually read it.

Lyrical, complex, concise, and emotional, this novel is one I will be readily espousing to lovers of high fantasy, fairy tales, and beautifully writing. Patricia A. McKillip isn’t an author spoken of very often these days, but she should be, because her works are treasures of the genre.

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

Cover by Thomas Canty

September 27, 2016

Meet the brilliant Nalo Hopkinson and the amazing Nisi Shawl

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized california, chuma hill, event, everfair, falling in love with hominids, nalo hopkinson, nisi shawl, reading, riverside ca, signing

Nalo Hopkinson (Photo: David Findlay) and Nisi Shawl (Caren Corley)

The World Fantasy Award winner Nalo Hopkinson, author of the acclaimed FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS, will be reading and signing alongside the James Tiptree Jr. Award winner Niki Shawl, author of the extraordinary EVERFAIR, at Cellar Door Books on Monday Oct 3 at 6 PM.

Cellar Door Books
5225 Canyon Crest Drive
Suite 30A/B
Riverside, CA 92507
(951)787-7807

For more information on FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Chuma Hill

Design by Elizabeth Story

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