the british fantasy society

June 15, 2022

Excitement abounds for Sam J. Miller’s debut collection BOYS, BEASTS & MEN with interviews, reviews, a book trailer & more

Rick Klaw blog Ancillary Review of Books, andrew liptak, arley song, BC Clark, boys beasts & men, buzzfeed, clarkesworld, delphic reviews, disciples of boltax, gary k wolfe, interview, just geeking by, Locus, margaret kingsbury, Melody Bowles, Neil Czeszejko, review, sam j miller, the british fantasy society, trailer, transfer orbit

The release of Sam J. Miller’s debut collection BOYS, BEASTS & MEN launched with a flurry of activity, all positive. Though the book is already sold out at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop (more copies on their way), copies should be available from your local bookstore and as always directly from Tachyon.

Cover of BOYS, BEASTS, & MEN, a collection by Sam J. Miller. — Cover by Jennifer O’Toole
Design by Elizabeth Story

**Andrew Liptak, in his Transfer Orbit newsletter, not only reviewed the book and interviewed Miller but also offered the first look at the book trailer!**

It’s a superb roundup of a prolific author’s short stories: tales that deal with complicated, messy lives of people trying to make their way through life, faced with uncertain and dangerous worlds.
Transfer Orbit

Collections are always interesting to read from short fiction authors, because of the curation involved. What was the determination that you made for each story to be placed here?

I was fortunate to be able to be very picky here, because these actually represent less than half of my published stories!

Ultimately I wanted to include the stories that got the best response from readers – including ones that got award recognition or were anthologized – but I also wanted to be able to tell a broader story about masculinity and monstrosity and patriarchy, which are obviously super important themes in my work, and these seemed like the best stories with which to tell that story.
Transfer Orbit

A whole host of reviews appeared for the collection including contributions from Margaret Kingsbury in “20 Amazing New Science Fiction And Fantasy Beach Reads“ (BuzzFeed), **Gary K. Wolfe at Locus, Melody Bowles from The British Fantasy Society, BC Clark at Ancillary Review of Books, Neil Czeszejko at Delphic Reviews, Just Geeking By, and Disciples of Boltax.**

All 14 of these brilliant, character-driven short stories are perfectly crafted, subtly altering reality using SFF elements while managing to fully explore the repercussions of doing so with the conciseness a short story requires.
20 Amazing New Science Fiction And Fantasy Beach Reads (BuzzFeed)

Miller is clearly one of the generation of writers thoroughly comfortable with genre hopping (or genre-ignoring, or genre-pillaging), and BOYS, BEASTS & MEN is no exception to that. . . . Given the pain and joy that Miller can so vividly evoke, it’s both an admonition and a celebration.
Locus

Overall, I enjoyed the wide variety of stories in BOYS, BEASTS & MEN. Not every story was a hit for me, but they were certainly all memorable. If you like your fantasy and sci-fi with realistic grit to ground it, pick this one up.
The British Fantasy Society

Sam J. Miller’s stories collected in BOYS, BEASTS & MEN are fire in about the same way a blast furnace is. They are full of evolving, disintegrating, and re-assembling identities, a funhouse hall of molten mirrors. These stories burn away façades to reveal true histories full of fierce magic. Histories queer as all hell’s furies unleashed. Histories often uncontrollable by those who bend the course of the story. An able craftsman, Miller harnesses the powers of the twin underground rivers of loneliness and desire to channel the rage and hope of his characters. And through that craft, Miller brings tales of justice regained and character reframed
Ancillary Review of Books

BOYS, BEASTS & MEN is a phenomenal short story collection that brings to mind a pack of wolves, with each story pulsing to its own heartbeat, straining at the leash that affixes it to the whole with bestial vigor.
Delphic Reviews

To be honest, the entire anthology is mesmerising. Miller’s writing is witty and hard-hitting, drawing out stories from angles that most people don’t tend to see.
Just Geeking By

The stories in this collection run the gamut from scary to angry to sad to kind but they all have a raw humanity that I loved. I recommend this book highly and hope to read more from Mr. Miller in the future.
Disciples of Boltax

**Arley Song for Clarkesworld interviewed Miller.**

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know about this book?

That the incredible Amal El-Mohtar wrote the introduction! And it’s amazing! Seriously made me choke up when I read it. In 2014, when my short story “We Are the Cloud” (included in the collection) was published in Lightspeed, it got some super homophobic reviews, which suuuuuuuuucked—any LGBTQIA+ SFF writer can tell you that queering the genre means coming up against a whole lot of really vicious trolls—and Amal wrote the most beautiful review/defense of the story; that’s how I knew she’d be the perfect person to do the introduction.
Clarkesworld

January 15, 2021

Tachyon tidbits featuring Carrie Vaughn, Lauren Beukes, and Peter S. Beagle

Rick Klaw blog adriana gionea, Carrie Vaughn, fevered scribblings, ian hunter, in calabria, lauren beukes, peter s beagle, post modern, r/fantasy, reddit, review, romanian, slipping: stories essays & other writing, the british fantasy society, the immortal conquistador 0

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

Ian Hunter for THE BRITISH FANTASY SOCIETY enjoys Carrie Vaughn’s THE IMMORTAL CONQUISTADOR.

[F]ans of Vaughn’s Kitty series will be well-pleased to learn more about the origins and adventures of a much-loved supporting character.

Cover art by Rebecca Harp
Design by Elizabeth Story

At REDDIT r/Fantasy, BitterSprings praises Lauren Beukes’ SLIPPING: STORIES, ESSAYS, & OTHER WRITING in /r/Fantasy Review Tuesday – Review what you’re reading here! – January 05, 2021.

This is a collection of Beukes’ shorter works and like most short story collections there are the ones that grabbed me and the ones that didn’t. Thankfully the hits vastly out number the misses. A lot of the stories focus on the theme of commodification – of bodies, of the poor, of women. A lot of them are harrowing. Hits include The Green and the titular story.

Don’t skip the non-fiction section, especially if you’ve read her previous novels, there’s some interesting reflections on her research for Shining Girls and Zoo City. 4/5

FEVERED SCRIBBLINGS mentions Peter S. Beagle’s IN CALABRIA among 4 Random Fantasy Books You Should Totally Read.

Were you a fan of The Last Unicorn book/comic/movie? If you were, you should totally check out Beagle’s 2017 unicorn book. An Italian farmer, Claudio Bianchi, starts noticing a pregnant unicorn visiting his farm. An aloof man, he decides to ignore it, but finds out the unicorn might have come to him for help.

On the Romanian site POST MODERN, Adriana Gionea names the fantasy as one of the 33 books to read during the winter holidays.

The winter holidays are also the ideal respite that allows you to plan your next summer vacation. For many, Calabria is an attractive destination. It is no coincidence that they will be attracted by the title of the novel IN CALABRIA. This novel combines inspired picturesqueness, the suspense of gangster movies, love and magical realism.
Translation from Romanian, courtesy of Google

September 9, 2020

A fascinating and rewarding creation, Marie Brennan’s DRIFTWOOD is charming, meditative, and often poignant

Rick Klaw blog bill capossere, blue book balloon, driftwood, fantasy literature, marie brennan, Mikaela Silk, reading reality, review, the british fantasy society

A quartet of reviews for the fantastic DRIFTWOOD by Marie Brennan.

At FANTASY LITERATURE, Bill Capossere praises the book.

DRIFTWOOD (2020) is a charming, meditative, and often poignant collection of linked stories by Marie Brennan that mostly succeeds both in its individual tales and as a whole, though I had a few issues. But given that one of those is it was too short, it’s still an easy book to recommend.

[…]

I absolutely love the setting, which serves up endless potential for stories, since each one reveals a new world to us. Driftwood has a bit of a Calvino-esque feel to it, particularly Invisible Cities, one of my all-time favorite works of fiction. You’ve got visits to different worlds (cities), a sense of the fantastical, each new setting told as a story, some lyrical language. And, as with Calvino, a bit of a haunting sadness. Brennan uses the rich potential of the setting premise to deliver some beautifully original images/ideas, which I won’t ruin by noting here.

As does BLUE BOOK BALLOON.

A collection of simple stories, each self-contained but building into a cycle that is more than the sum of its parts, DRIFTWOOD is a fascinating and rewarding creation, conveyed in prose that can range from the solemn to the bitter to the darkly humorous but is never less than engaging. Brennan is at home sketching the linguistics of a world, bringing alive a marketplace (‘…a thousand spices, each one distinct on the tongue. Aromatic flowers that danced in the gentle air, their seeds spreading I the ceaseless light. Serpents doxing in the warmth, sold as pets, as sacrifices, as food…’) or imaging its complex religious life as she is evoking the long-lived, continually reborn bar, Spit in the Crush’s Eye or describing with great flair the adventurers who brought the balloon to Driftwood and sought to map it – undermining the solemnity of purpose expected in a fantasy novel by saying they did it simply because it seemed a fun thing to do. Everyone might be doomed, swirling away into the pit, but there are lives to live and people here to live them. Finding a calm place between denial of the inevitable and obsession with it seems to be key – in Driftwood as in our own world(s).

READING REALITY adores the mosaic novel.

Escape Rating A+: Some books are just WOW! And DRIFTWOOD is definitely one of those books.

[…]

Many of the stories in DRIFTWOOD have been previously and separately published, but together they make a surprisingly wonderful and cohesive whole. A whole that is entirely too short but begins, middles and ends exactly where it should. A beautiful puzzlement and a fantastic read

For THE BRITISH FANTASY SOCIETY, Mikaela Silk feels much the same.

I’ll admit I was unsure about this book when I first started reading, but it drew me in bit by bit and I was enthralled by the time I finished reading.

With its unique setting, ‘Driftwood’ offers a refreshingly different take on the apocalypse. There are no zombies, no nuclear or natural disasters, no tales of people resorting to looting or cannibalism. Instead, it focuses on the deeper and more personal aspects of an apocalypse. The question of what people will do when their world and their culture and their civilisation is disappearing, slowly slipping away to an inevitable doom, is endlessly fascinating. The most interesting feature of this is the variety which Brennan’s setting allows; from those who try to deny the inevitability, such as the King of the Miqerni, to those like Noirin who simply want to ease the loss and for the memories of her people to last as long as possible.

December 26, 2019

THE NEW VOICES OF SCIENCE FICTION gives plenty of hope that the future of future fiction is in good hands

Rick Klaw blog black gate, hannu rajaniemi, jacogb wesiman, james van pelt, jason sanford, judith merrill, lettie prell, Locus, paul di filippo, review, samantha mills, strange alliances, the british fantasy society, the new voices of science fiction 0

Hannu Rajaniemi and Jacob Weisman‘s THE NEW VOICES OF SCIENCE FICTION continues to impress.

Cover art by Matt Dixon Cover design by Elizabeth Story

For LOCUS, Paul Di Filippo praises the anthology.

By this, am I declaring these new voices unoriginal? Far from it! I am honoring them as shining bright avatars of all the classical gods and goddesses of SF who came before them. Deploying the toolkit and concerns bequeathed by their literary ancestors, they are extending the reach of the genre not by plowing under everything that was built before and salting the earth, but by erecting new superstructures on old foundations—or perhaps new eco-communes in the shadow of dinosaur cities. It’s the way the field has always moved forward, and this volume gives plenty of hope that the future of future fiction is in good hands.

STRANGE ALLIANCES feels much the same.

These writers demonstrate the breadth of concepts and worlds with which science fiction writers can create a delicious buffet of stories for readers to gorge themselves on and that, for emerging writers in the genre, there will always be plenty of room for stunning originality.

John C. Adams of THE BRITISH FANTASY SOCIETY continues the trend.

The anthology itself is so varied that, whatever your taste, you’ll find plenty that sparks the quivering dread of what’s to come which is a hallmark of a truly excellent volume of SF.

At BLACK GATE, James Van Pelt showcases Jason Sanford’s and Samantha Mills’ tales from the book to illustrate his feelings.

THE NEW VOICES OF SCIENCE FICTION entertained me consistently, and moved me several times. Weisman and Rajaniemi picked winners for the table of contents.

Contributor Lettie Prell discusses science fiction versus speculative fiction, name checking legendary editor Judith Merrill and THE NEW VOICES OF SCIENCE FICTION along the way.

I remembered editor Judith Merrill had written on the topic of science fiction and speculative fiction, and dug around in my bookcase till I found it, in the introduction to SF: The Best of the Best, published in 1967 by Dell. I was humbled to read her words: “Science fiction as a descriptive label has long since lost whatever validity it might once have had. By now it means so many things so many people that—even though there are more and more people to whom it means something—I prefer not to use it at all.” And here I’d so blithely offered a definition to the class that, in retrospect, doesn’t begin to cover it all.

Merrill goes on to explain why she used the initials SF in the anthology’s title: “[It] allows you to think science fiction if you like, while I think science fable or scientific fantasy or speculative fiction, or (once in a rare while, because there’s little enough of it being written, by any rigorous definition) science fiction.” Wow, and this was back in 1967. Fast-forward to an anthology like THE NEW VOICES OF SCIENCE FICTION (Tachyon, 2019), and her words about the term would fit just as well.

June 27, 2018

Kameron Hurley’s bloody-knuckled space noir APOCALYPSE NYX is your favorite action TV series in book form

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized alasdair stuart, apocalypse nyx, bel dame apocrypha, booksandpieces, elizabeth story, god's war, kameron hurley, megan leigh, review, the british fantasy society, the illustrated page, tor.com, wadim kashin, you tube

For THE BRITISH FANTASY SOCIETY, Megan Leigh praises Kameron Hurley’s APOCALYPSE NYX.

The book is a collection of short stories set between the first and second books of the Bel Dame Apocrypha series, following mercenary Nyx and her team as they complete a series of dangerous and ethically questionable jobs. Hurley delivers short, sharp tales of investigation and inevitable show-down in a format reminiscent of a case-of-the-week TV detective show. The characters and setting of the narratives complement this format, leaning heavily on pulpy tropes that made both golden age science fiction and detective stories shine. Each story gets quickly to the point and is full to bursting with action scenes.

<snip>

As with all of Hurley’s work, her biggest strength lies in her fearlessness. She doesn’t shy away from the provocative but neither does her work feel like it touches on these issues just for effect. Sex is dealt with in frank, honest terms – with women’s sexuality at the fore. Transgender and non-binary identifying characters appear with little fanfare, making them a normal part of that world. All these things Hurley covers without batting an eyelid. Few writers are so brave.

Nyxnissa, Hurley’s mercenary protagonist, is also refreshingly brazen in construction. Very often, writers hesitate to have characters that could be considered as traditionally unlikable as Nyx. Not only is she deeply flawed – she lacks self-awareness and compassion, she’s stubborn and cruel – but she is also lacking in certain skills. Nyx is not gifted at absolutely everything like far too many ‘heroes’. Instead, she’s given consistent and interesting flaws that require her to think quickly and respond in different ways.

Verdict: If your favourite action TV series were distilled in book form, this would be it. Not for the faint of heart, APOCALYPSE NYX unapologetically pulls you along for the ride.

Both THE ILLUSTRATED PAGE and BOOKSANDPIECES (beginning at 1:26) are looking forward to the collection.

From THE ILLUSTRATED PAGE:

Otherwise, I’ll certainly be reading APOCALYPSE NYX by Kameron Hurley this month. I’m so excited for this short story collection!

In Playing Favorites with the Clarke Award Shortlists, 1987-2018, Alasdair Stuart at TOR.COM discusses the first book of Hurley’s Bel Dame Apocrypha trilogy, God’s War.

And last, but by no means least, God’s War by Kameron Hurley was shortlisted for the Clarke in 2014. Hurley, like Atwood, doesn’t know how to turn in bad work. Her books are shot through with savage humour, brutal violence, relentless pragmatism, and a cheerful willingness to do the thing the reader is least expecting. That’s true of everything I’ve read of Hurley’s, starting with her the first book of her Bel Dame Apocrypha trilogy, God’s War.

Nyx is a former Bel Dame, a government assassin on a world that’s locked into a centuries-old holy war. Nyx is very good at not dying. She’s arguably better at making other people die. She’s very bad at following orders—which makes her the perfect choice for a mission that’s as vital as it is terrifying and almost impossible.

Hurley drops you in at the deep end, here, and it’s glorious. Within the first fifty pages, you’ve been introduced to the world, the bug-powered technology that drives it, the negotiable nature of biology, and everything that you need to know about Nyx, her team, and her profoundly flexible morals. It’s intoxicating, overbearing, and refuses to let you go, so you dive further in. A few hundred pages later, the novel lets you resurface having explored the horrors of Nyx’s world, the people who she chooses (and the few who choose) to stand with her, and the terrible choices she’s continually forced to make. Sand-blasted, bloody-knuckled space noir, the Bel Dame Apocrypha novels are unlike anything else I’ve read and God’s War is just the beginning. The new Nyx collection, APOCALYPSE NYX, will be out this summer, and there’s never been a better time to catch the former Bel Dame in action.

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

Cover by Wadim Kashin

Design by Elizabeth Story

Tachyon Publications

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