Monitor: New in Paperback: September

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 05:00:00 +0000
Notable books in new paperback editions in September include Norman Partridge's World Fantasy Award nominee Dark Harvest, Jo Walton's Farthing, Ian McDonald's River of Gods, and other books by Robert Asprin & Jody Lynn Nye, Kage Baker, Douglas Clegg, Steven Erikson, Del Howison & Jeff Gelb, Larry Niven, Andre Norton & Jean Rabe, Kit Reed, and S.M. Stirling.

Link: Monitor: New in Paperback: September

Awards News: Jamie Bishop Memorial Award

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 05:00:00 +0000

The new Jamie Bishop Memorial Award, presented by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts for an essay not in English, has been given to Carlos Abraham for "Las utopías literarias argentinas en el período 1850-1950", available in PDF on the IAFA website
» Further information and submission details on the IAFA Awards page

Monitor: This Week's Bestsellers

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 05:00:00 +0000

Terry Pratchett, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., Charles Stross

Link: Monitor: This Week's Bestsellers

Feature:

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 05:00:00 +0000

Howard Waldrop & Lawrence Person review The Nines

The film falls far short of its ambitions. However, perhaps the primary pleasure is the explication of those ambitions, of revealing what the film is actually about. Rather than spoil that, we're going to have to nibble around the edges in telling you what's wrong.

Monitor: New Books, late September

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 05:00:00 +0000
New SF/F/H books in late September include Terry Pratchett's Making Money, Gregory Benford & Elisabeth Malartre's Beyond Human, Junot Díaz' The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and other titles by George Beahm, Algis Budrys, Orson Scott Card & Aaron Johnston, P.C. Cast, L. Timmel Duchamp, Martin H. Greenberg & Jim C. Hines, Ed Greenwood, David Memmott, C.J. Ryan, and Kate Wilhelm.

Link: Monitor: New Books, late September

Monitor: New Books, mid September

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 05:00:00 +0000
New SF/F/H books in mid September include Robert Charles Wilson's Axis, Steven Erikson's The Bonehunters, Matt Ruff's Bad Monkeys, Whitley Strieber's 2012, and other titles by Joe Abercrombie, L.A. Banks, Jack Cavanaugh, Bernadette Gabay Dyer, David Farland, Karen Miller, L.E. Modesitt Jr., Gregory L. Reece, Michelle Sagara, Jeff Somers, and S.M. Stirling.

Link: Monitor: New Books, mid September

Locus Magazine: October Issue

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 05:00:00 +0000

Locus Magazine for October has interviews with Bruce Sterling and Walter Jon Williams, winners of this year's Hugo Awards with complete voting results, and obituaries of Robert Jordan and Madeleine L'Engle. Plus, reviews of books by Charles Stross, Terry Pratchett, Shaun Tan, Rudy Rucker, Stephen Baxter, and others.

• Table of Contents
    Interviews, Data File, People & Publishing, Listings, Reviews...
• Locus Bestsellers
    Rowling, Herbert/Anderson, Erikson, Karpyshyn, Salvatore
• New & Notable Books
    Abraham, Chiang, Haldeman, Le Guin, Schroder, Tan...

Link: Locus Magazine: October Issue

Awards News

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000

This year's Sunburst Award winner, for an SF novel or book-length collection by a Canadian writer, is Fabrizio's Return by Mark Frutkin, published last year by Alfred A. Knopf Canada.
• The award consists of $1000 in cash and a medallion incorporating a 'Sunburst' logo.
» 2007 Sunburst Award winner and shortlist

Robert Jordan Update

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000

John Clute's obituary in The Independent

Locus Magazine: Sample Reviews

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000

Gary K. Wolfe reviews Robert Charles Wilson

Locus Magazine features over two dozen reviews in its September 2007 issue. Here's Gary K. Wolfe on Robert Charles Wilson's new novel Axis -- sequel to Hugo Award winner Spin.

Wilson has always been drawn in two directions at once: his concern with plausible, human-level dramas of community, family, and character on the one hand, and his attraction to whomping large-scale SF concepts on the other.

Faren Miller reviews Brian W. Aldiss

And here's Faren Miller on Brian W. Aldiss' novel HARM.

The long-running battles of science vs. religion, tyranny vs. revolution, play out on Stygia as well as Earth, and HARM offers keen insights into human nature and the ways of the cosmos as a whole.

Monitor: This Week's Bestsellers

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000

Terry Pratchett, J.K. Rowling, Madeleine L'Engle

Link: Monitor: This Week's Bestsellers

Locus Magazine: Guy Gavriel Kay: Finding the Balance

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000

Excerpts from Locus Magazine's September Issue interview.

We're a storytelling species -- a story-making species -- and if we do not construct a narrative of our lives, they feel random. We can rewrite the narrative, looking back, but we want a narrative of our lives and of our family history. For the longest time, the narrative was European history. We grew up thinking that Europeans found the planet, but now that narrative is being recast.

Link: Locus Magazine: Guy Gavriel Kay: Finding the Balance

Locus Magazine: Kathleen Ann Goonan: Make It New

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000

Excerpts from Locus Magazine's September Issue interview.

We don't know everything. Perhaps that's what my books are all about. We're actually very simple creatures who seem very complex to ourselves. And there are fascinating complexities about us, but we don't know everything, and the idea of bootstrapping is very attractive to me.

Link: Locus Magazine: Kathleen Ann Goonan: Make It New

Feature: John Shirley looks back at Soylent Green

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000

It was fashionable to make fun of the film. Yet except for the tech, which was outdated within a few years of the movie, it was not far from our coming reality.

Link: Feature: John Shirley looks back at Soylent Green

Awards News: British Fantasy Awards and others

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000

» Winners of the British Fantasy Awards, announced today Fantasycon 2007 in Nottingham, include Tim Lebbon's novel Dusk, Neil Gaiman's collection Fragile Things, artist Vincent Chong, the Sydney J. Bounds Best Newcomer Award to Joe Hill, and the Karl Edward Wagner Award to Ellen Datlow.

» Locus Online has this photo of Locus publisher Charles N. Brown receiving the L. Ron Hubbard Lifetime Achievement Award (from Joni Labaqui of Author Services) at last month's Writers and Illustrators of the Future Awards ceremonies in Pasadena, California. SFWA News has details of the event, with a group photo and names of the contest winners.

» Winners of the 2007 Quill Awards include Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind in the Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror category, Cormac McCarthy's The Road for General Fiction, and Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret in the Children's Chapter/Middle Grade category. Voting for Book of the Year is open to public until October 10 at www.quillsvote.com.

Robert Jordan Updates

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000

» Los Angeles Times obituary
» New York Times obituary
» SFWA obituary

Monitor: This Week's Bestsellers

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000

Terry Brooks, J.K. Rowling, S.M. Stirling

Link: Monitor: This Week's Bestsellers

Robert Jordan Updates

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000

» Tor Books news release
» News/tributes at CNN, Yahoo News, Boing Boing, Slashdot, Media Bistro, Amazon's Blog (Jeff VanderMeer)
» Tributes by Neil Gaiman, Jo Walton, Scott Lynch, Elizabeth Bear

Death: Robert Jordan

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000

Fantasy writer Robert Jordan, born 1948, died today, September 16, 2007, at the age of 58. Jordan was the pen-name of James Oliver Rigney, Jr. He was author of the bestselling Wheel of Time series that began in 1990 with The Eye of the World and continued 11 volumes through Knife of Dreams in 2005, plus prequel volume New Spring (2004). A twelfth volume, A Memory of Light, remains uncomplete. Before that series Jordan wrote the Michael Fallon historical romance trilogy and seven Conan novels, from Conan the Invincible (1982) through Conan the Victorious (1984).
» Wikipedia
» Making Light
» Tor's Robert Jordan/Wheel of Time page
» March 2006 letter from the author revealing his health condition

Monitor: New Books, early September

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000
New SF/F/H books in early September include Ray Bradbury's Now and Forever and titles by Christopher Barzak, Douglas Clegg, P.R. Frost, Mary Gentle, William Jones, Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant, Bruce McAllister, Chris Roberson, Adam Roberts, and Brian Ruckley.

Link: Monitor: New Books, early September

Monitor: This Week's Bestsellers

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000

Terry Brooks, Troy Denning

Link: Monitor: This Week's Bestsellers

Monitor: Classic Reprints, July - August

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000
Classic SF and fantasy in new editions seen the past two months includes A.E. van Vogt's Slan, Mike Resnick's Ivory, Harlan Ellison's Shatterday, other titles by Christopher Anvil, Peter S. Beagle, Keith Brooke & Nick Gevers, Larry Niven, H. Beam Piper, and movie tie-in editions of Neil Gaiman's Stardust and David Gerrold's The Martian Child.

Link: Monitor: Classic Reprints, July - August

Awards News: Aurora Finalists

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000

Finalists for this year's Aurora Awards for Canadian SF and fantasy, include works by Peter Watts, Karl Schroeder, Robert J. Sawyer, Dave Duncan, Karin Lowachee, and others. Winners will be announced at VCon 32 in British Columbia, October 19-21, 2007.

Death: Madeleine L'Engle

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000

Fantasy writer Madeleine L'Engle, born 1918, died yesterday, September 6, 2007, at the age of 88. Her most famous book was Newbery Medal winner A Wrinkle in Time (1962), a fantasy about two children battling evil while searching for their missing father; it had four sequels, including American Book Award winner A Swiftly Tilting Planet (1978) and An Acceptable Time (1989). L'Engle wrote over 60 books in all, including science fiction and nonfiction. She received a National Humanities Medal in 2004.
» New York Times obituary
» CNN
» Official site; Wikipedia

Locus Magazine/Future History: Forthcoming Books

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000

Selected US and UK titles scheduled for September 2007 through June 2008, from Locus Magazine's September issue, are listed here by month.

Link: Locus Magazine/Future History: Forthcoming Books

Monitor: This Week's Bestsellers

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000

Frank Beddor, Nancy Farmer, J.K. Rowling

Link: Monitor: This Week's Bestsellers

Locus Magazine: Cory Doctorow Commentary

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000

Free(konomic) E-books

Can giving away free electronic books really sell printed books? I think so. The problem with reading off a screen isn't resolution, eyestrain, or compatibility with reading in the bathtub: it's that computers are seductive, they tempt us to do other things, making concentrating on a long-form work impractical.

Monitor: New Books, late August

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000
New SF/F/H books seen in late August include Terry Brooks' The Elves of Cintra, Gary Westfahl's Hugo Gernsback and the Century of Science Fiction, Daniel Abraham's A Betrayal in Winter, plus titles by Peter Butler, David Conyers & John Sunseri, Julie E. Czerneda, David Lynn Golemon, Matthew Jarpe, Richard Kadrey, Tom Kratman, Doris Lessing, Nathalie Mallet, Stephenie Meyer, John Ringo & Travis S. Taylor, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and others.

Link: Monitor: New Books, late August

Monitor: What's In Other Magazines, August

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000
Fiction by Michael Moorcock, Robert Silverberg, Paul Park, John Shirley, Jay Lake, Fred Chappell, Michael Swanwick, and others, and nonfiction and interviews by Michael Moorcock, Jack Ketchum, Richard Morgan, Hal Duncan, Robert J. Sawyer, and Lisa Tuttle, are featured in new issues of Dark Wisdom, Interzone, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Matrix, Neo-Opsis, The New York Review of Science Fiction, Realms of Fantasy, and Vector. Plus: debut of graphic speculative fiction Murky Depths.

Link: Monitor: What's In Other Magazines, August

Monitor: New in Paperback: August

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 05:00:00 +0000
Notable books in new paperback editions in August include Stephen King's Lisey's Story and other titles by Daniel Abraham, C.J. Cherryh, Peter David, Jennifer Fallon, Alan Dean Foster, R. Garcia y Robertson, Joe Haldeman, Elaine Isaak, Violette Malan, Julian May, Sarah Monette, Brandon Sanderson, Karl Schroeder, Martin Scott, Sherwood Smith, David Weber, Margaret Weis, Steve White, and John C. Wright.

Link: Monitor: New in Paperback: August