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

Ellen Datlow, Cory Doctorow (photo: Ed Schipul [CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons]), Patricia A. McKillip (Stephen Gold/Wikimedia Commons), and Bruce Sterling

At the Center for Fiction, Ellen Datlow participates in the discussion H. P. Lovecraft: Past, Present, and Future on Thursday, March 23 at 7PM.

The
enduring influence of H. P. Lovecraft can be seen everywhere…if you
know where to look! We’re inviting Paul La Farge (THE NIGHT OCEAN),
Victor LaValle (THE BALLAD OF BLACK TOM), Ellen Datlow (LOVECRAFT’S MONSTERS), and W. Scott Poole (IN THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS: THE LIFE
AND EXTRAORDINARY AFTERLIFE OF H.P. LOVECRAFT) to explore the ongoing
relevance of his work on fiction and creative writing. The Center’s
Events Producer and long-time Lovecraft fan, Rosie Clarke, will
moderate.

Cory Doctorow is one of the keynote speakers at LibrePlanet 2017: The Roots of Freedom, March 25-26, 2017 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Stata Center in Cambridge, MA.

Cory Doctorow, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Beyond unfree: The software you can go to jail for talking about

Cory
Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and
blogger — the co-editor of BOING BOING and the author of many
books, most recently IN REAL LIFE, a graphic novel; INFORMATION
DOESN’T WANT TO BE FREE, a book about earning a living in the
Internet age; and HOMELAND, the award-winning, best-selling sequel to
the 2008 young adult novel LITTLE BROTHER.

Serving as a special consultant to the Electronic Frontier Foundation on several occasions, he is currently working with them on Apollo 1201, an anti-Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) campaign. He co-founded the peer-to-peer free software company OpenCola, and serves on the boards and advisory boards of the Participatory Culture Foundation, the Clarion Foundation, the Metabrainz Foundation and The Glenn Gould Foundation.

THE
INFAMOUS JENNISFORA STRIKES AGAIN reveals the personal importance of Patricia A. McKillip’s THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD.

Now, the other birthday I missed I was about to do a post on, and I let myself get distracted. I am blaming Mardi Gras. Although, it is really just poor planning. Patricia McKillip’s birthday was right at the end of February. Her FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD for a long time was one of my favorites. I had a rare edition, which I lent to a friend. The friend got the impression I gave it to her. And, it disappeared into the nether. I believe it got re released and I bought the new edition, but of course it isn’t the same. The picture of the cover art in the quote post is from the edition I originally had. One thing I learned from this, I have not lent out a book that I care about since.

Cover for the forthcoming Tachyon edition

I
live in a small apartment, so my paperbacks have been in storage, and
so, knowing what I have isn’t something readily available to me at
the moment, but maybe someday I will have it organized. That edition
of FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD was from the late seventies and for a
while would have been worth considerable money depending on its
condition. A pristine copy could easily go for over seventy dollars.
Considering i found it was the Salvation Army for maybe 50 cents at
the time, it was a great loss.

Unfortunately,
I had a fair amount of rare books that I gave away without realizing
it. It is a lesson that I hope I have learned for good now.  McKillip
was a good writer, FORGOTTEN BEASTS reminds me of Peter S. Beagle’s
THE LAST UNICORN. Both deal with exotic beasts, and the importance of
having an identity. McKillip focused on the name. The name of
something had magical power, and knowing the name of the being could
give you power over it. The power of a name is an old one in fantasy.
At least back to Tolkien, and I would say back to the original tale
of Rumpelstiltskin; names and knowing names have always been a big
deal.

BOING BOING reports on Bruce Sterling’s annual SXSW Interactive Festival closing night speech. This year’s iteration is titled “The Future: History that Hasn’t Happened Yet” and is available for streaming via SOUNDCLOUD.

This year, Bruce addresses himself to the idea of technological obsolescence of humanity, the robots-will-take-our-jobs, AIs-will-do-everything, Universal-Basic-Income despair that there is no reason for us to be here anymore.

Assuming his customary mantle as gadfly of the tech set, Sterling sets about to prick the consciences and egos of technological triumphalism, enumerating a bunch of possibilities for what a post-work society might look like, before wiping them all away with a jeremiad about the reality of the human condition through history, a woo-the-muse-of-the-odd moment that says the future will be weirder, but brighter, than we presently imagine.

For more information on LOVECRAFT’S MONSTERS, visit the Tachyon site.

Cover and illustrations by John Coulthart

For more info on CONTENT: SELECTED ESSAYS ON TECHNOLOGY, CREATIVITY, COPYRIGHT, AND THE FUTURE OF THE FUTURE, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Ann Monn

For more info on CONTEXT: FURTHER SELECTED ESSAYS ON PRODUCTIVITY, CREATIVITY, PARENTING, AND POLITICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY, 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