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

Lauren Beukes, Daryl Gregory, Alyssa Wong, and Nalo Hopkinson (photo: David Findlay)

Ellen Klages (photo: Scott R. Kline), Pat Murphy (Lawrence Person), and Tim Powers (Matt Gush)

For PANK, Gabino Iglesias names Lauren Beukes’ SLIPPING: STORIES, ESSAYS, & OTHER WRITING as one of the best books of 2016.

One of the first authors to come to mind when thinking about writers who can move in and out of a plethora of genres while simultaneously sounding fresh and unique, Beukes has become a household name thanks to novels that are a bizarre, scary, wildly entertaining mix of science fiction, crime, and horror, and this collection offers more of that.

Ian Rogers named, without comment, Daryl Gregory’s WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY FINE as one of his favorite novellas of 2016 and Alyssa Wong’s “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers,” which will be in the forthcoming Peter S. Beagle/Jacob Weisman anthology THE NEW FANTASY, as a favorite short story.

UNCANNY shares both text and audio versions of Nalo Hopkinson’s “Can’t Beat ‘Em.”

“Yeah, that’s some clog,” the plumber said. She pulled the metal–and–rubber snake out of the bathroom sink. Marisella wrinkled her nose at the gunk sticking to it. Whatever it had caught on in her drain had warped the metal and torn away bits of the rubber.

Marisella asked, “Can you fix it?” and, more softly, “Will it cost much?”

Cover art by Julie Dillon

The plumber smiled at her. “Not a thing, hon. This one is Management’s liability. They’ll pick up the tab.”

Well, that was a relief.

Leah Schnelbach at TOR.COM compiled Leave Your Heart in San Francisco with 10 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Stories! While no Tachyon titles were included, the list did feature works by Ellen Klages, Pat Murphy, and Tim Powers.

San Francisco has always been a beacon of hope for non-conformists, artists, and poets. Set in 1940, Klages’ San Francisco features whimsical cities within the City—The Magic City of the World’s Fair glitters atop an island created from artifice and illusion; Chinatown is a self-contained world bursting with “exotic” food and enticing nightclubs—where people can experience pulp adventures and find true love away from the prying eyes of conventional society.

In this San Francisco, six women will discover that their lives are entangled in ways they never could have predicted, and that life and love in this city are far more mysterious than they ever thought possible.

Twenty years after a plague wipes out Earth’s population, San Francisco has become a utopian haven for artists and non-conformists who are seeking a meaningful life in the midst of death. Unfortunately, an autocratic general nicknamed Fourstar is building a military empire in the Valley—he already has Sacramento, Fresno, and Modesta, and he plans to annex San Francisco next. A young woman follows a vision to the city, and warns the inhabitants of the General’s plans… but what hope is there for a group of peaceful artists against an army?

Luckily, the ghosts of San Francisco have no intention of giving up on their city, and soon the artists are finding help in a most unusual place: the city’s past.

So many of the titles on this list riff on San Francisco’s noir tradition that it’s nice to find one that explores the city’s relationship to poetry. Richard Blanzac is a rare book dealer living in 2012, and he’s used to sifting through piles of dross in search of literary classics. When he receives a box from the niece of a little-known poet Sophia Greenwald, he’s ecstatic to find an autographed copy of Howl under a pile of cigarette butts. There is also an old Ace Double Novel, and copies of Greenwald’s own poetry.

Before he can figure out what to do with it, however, Greenwald’s literary executor insists that he must destroy every copy of the poems (which seems an odd request from a literary executor) and before he can process that, he realizes his office is dissolving around him, and finds himself in San Francisco, in 1957, speaking to the much-younger literary executor, who turns out to be Sophia Greenwald herself. And she still needs him to destroy her poetry, because an apocalyptic cult is determined to use it to end all of existence. Which is a lot to process, and that’s before the Sumerian god gets involved…

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

Cover art by Clara Bacou

Design by Elizabeth Story

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

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

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

Cover art  by Camilla André

Cover design by Elizabeth Story