Books

A Taste of Arabic

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

I spent yesterday evening in Bristol for a Festival of Ideas event involving three Egyptian authors. The main thrust of the event was to show how Egyptian literature is involved in, and reacting to, the political changes in that country. This was interesting in itself, but the main attraction for me is that one of the authors involved is a science fiction writer, and he now has a book available in English translation, thanks to Bloomsbury whose Arabic literature imprint was behind the event.

First to be introduced was Khaled AlKhamissi. His book, Taxi, is the most “literary” of the three. It is composed of 58 fictional conversations that the anonymous narrator has with different taxi drivers. The point here is to illustrate how the Egyptian man in the street (or at least in the taxi cab) thinks about the current political situation. It looks like a lot of fun as well as being deadly serious.

Ahmed Khaled Towfik is a literary phenomenon in Eqypt. He has written over 500 books, though most of those are novella length. As well as SF he writes horror and medical thrillers. There will be a lot more about him in the interview, which has been promised to Locus, but I have started reading his book, Utopia, and am impressed this far. The Independent‘s reviewer loved it.

Finally we had Ahmed Mourad who is one of the few authors of political thrillers in Egypt. He’s a photographer and film-maker as well, so I’m expecting so really good action scenes in Vertigo. I was interested to note that, while AlKhamissi talked about his family’s love of Tolstoy, and Towfik talked to me about reading Asimov, Clarke and Ballard, the younger Mourad said he grew up reading the books of Ahmed Khaled Towfik. Novel reading is apparently a relatively new hobby in Egypt, and it is good to know that the new generation of book readers has SF available.

I don’t want to comment much on the actual politics as I know so little about it. I will say that I thought these three men were incredibly brave. AlKhamissi has spent some time in prison, as have most of his family. But it is worth noting how these guys saw the struggle. Asked what their hopes and fears were, they talked about how they expected to see the rich ruling classes impose a new leader who was very much like Mubarak. AlKhamissi talks of the revolution, not as removing a dictator, but as an attempt to win independence from the USA. As with when the UK used to mess with African politics, it is where the guns and the money come from that really matters.

Above/Below – A Fascinating Project

~ Cheryl

One of the best ways to get yourself noticed as a small press is to undertake very interesting projects. Twelfth Planet does this brilliantly. The latest book of theirs that I have uploaded is Above/Below, a back-to-back double containing two linked stories: “Above” by Stephanie Campisi and “Below” by Ben Peek. I quote from the blurb (which is once again top quality):

A tale of two cities, the stories Above and Below make up two halves of another in the TPP Doubles series. Written by Stephanie Campisi and Ben Peek, designed to be self-contained and complete as individual narratives, the two parts can be read in either order, yet also form a single narrative that has been intricately woven and designed to create a single, novel length story. It is a work that suggests not a single way of reading, but rather two, with conflicting morals that will continue to test the reader’s certainty in who, in the cities of Loft and Dirt, is in the right.

Obviously you can’t turn an ebook upside down the way you can with a traditional “double”, book, but Charles Tan has created two versions of the book, one with “Above” first and the other with “Below” first. You can choose which one to buy.

Book Review: Love and Romanpunk

~ Cheryl

Slowly but surely I am managing to spend more time on the computer, and that means I can get back to telling you about all of the great books I have been reading. So, without any further ado, it is time for a bit of love, and Romanpunk. For all the lowdown on Latin literature (as channeled via Tasmania), check out my review of Tansy Rayner Roberts’ highly entertaining chapbook.

Two Great Books

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

The trouble with running a bookstore is that you are tempted by far more books than you can possibly read. Today is a case in point. I have just added two new books to the store, and I want to read them both.

First up is ODD?, the first volume in a new series of anthologies from Ann & Jeff VanderMeer. Is this weird fiction, or is it just odd? Who cares, when you have a list of contributors like this: Jeff Ford, Michael Cisco, Nalo Hopkinson, Hiromi Goto, Rikki Ducornet, Leena Krohn, Caitlin R. Kiernan and many more. Also very temping from my point of view is that the Krohn is by no means the only translated story in the book. There are a whole bunch of people whose work will be very new to you. Excited? Check it out (including the cool video trailer that Jeff has had made for it – linked to from the store).

The other new book is our second offering in the Twelve Planets series of Australian short collections from Twelfth Planet Press. This time we have Thief of Lives by Lucy Sussex. I have written enthusiastically about Lucy’s work before (for example here), but she has not been published much outside of Australia. Now, by the magic of ebooks, I’m able to bring you a sample of her work that you can get easily and cheaply. How good is Lucy? Let’s just say that none other than Karen Joy Fowler contributed the introduction. It is rather cool too. Read it here.

Trans History Follow-Up

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

So today is National Coming Out Day. I was going to write something about trans people and “stealth”, but with BristolCon less than 2 weeks away I’m rather busy so I’ll leave that for TDOR next month. In the meantime, here’s a bit of history.

My recent post about the Jess Nevins article on io9 revolved around the fact that ideas abut trans people have changed significantly since 1906. Indeed, the Western world had no such concept then (though many other cultures did). However, it turns out that there is a concept that fits the book that Jess reviewed quite well.

This morning I listened to an interesting podcast of a talk that Juliet Jacques gave to the Westminster Skeptics. It is called “Thinking critically about transgender issues”, which I think only works if you don’t know much about such things. Then again, that probably fits most of Juliet’s audience, and it will have done them some good. What the talk does provide, however, is a fascinating review of Western attitudes towards trans people from the 19th Century onwards.

The key piece of history, as far as Jess and the book The Anglo-American Alliance is concerned is the concept of “sexual inversion”. This was popularized by Henry Havelock Ellis, an early sexologist, via his book, Sexual Inversion, and later through Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness, which uses similar terminology.

Havelock Ellis’s ideas conflate what we now consider to be separate phenomena: sexual preference, and gender identity. The character of Margaret in Gregory Casparian’s novel closely follows the character of the “invert” that Havelock Ellis describes.

Of course the interesting question here, and one which Juliet touches on, is whether our (still developing) ideas of trans people are just as much a product of our culture as the invert was of early 20th century society. However, even if they are, going round telling people that they are “doing trans wrong” is not terribly helpful.

On a related note, BBC1 is screening a documentary this evening called “Me, My Sex and I”. It is a look at what are unhelpfully called “Disorders of Sexual Development” and might more usefully be understood as natural variation in the development of sex organs. The blurb for the program estimates that almost 1 in 50 people are born with some sort of intersex condition.

(Oh, and the programme is not available in Wales or Scotland. *sigh* But it will be on the iPlayer.)

Gender Identity does not equal Sexuality

~ Cheryl ~ 4 Comments

Dave Langford pointed me at this post on the io9 website by Jess Nevins. It is about a book called The Anglo-American Alliance. A Serio-Comic Romance and Forecast of the Future by Gregory Casparian. It was published in 1906, and Jess thinks it is “the first lesbian science fiction novel”.

The book clearly depicts a love affair between two people raised and living as women. They are depicted as a classic (stereotype?) femme and butch pair. Given attitudes towards homosexuality at the time, the book can’t be faulted for saying that they take great pains to keep their affair secret.

At the end of the book, however, Margaret, the butch partner, makes contact with a “famous Hindu ‘Vivisectionist and Re-Incarnator’ Dr. Hyder Ben Raaba” who transforms her into a man. The couple then marry and live happily ever after. Jess notes:

An Anglo-American Alliance would have been better (and extraordinarily progressive) had Aurora and Margaret lived happily ever after as women, it must be admitted. Nonetheless, An Anglo-American Alliance is the first science fiction novel with a pair of lesbian lovers as heroines, one of whom becomes science fiction’s first transgender hero.

Well yes, technically anyone who undergoes a change of gender is indeed a trans person. Also, without having read the book, I can’t say whether Margaret comes across as more of a trans man than a lesbian. But if she does then the book isn’t about lesbians, and if she doesn’t then she isn’t really a trans person.

Yes, I know, I’m splitting hairs, but let me explain why this is important. Firstly, gender identity and sexuality are not the same thing. Trans people come in all shades of sexuality. Some are straight, some gay or lesbian, some bi, and some eschew sex altogether. There’s no correlation. However, one of the most pervasive and harmful myths about trans people is that they are homosexuals who can’t stand the shame and social ostracism that they suffer because of their sexuality, so they have themselves surgically altered to allow them to appear straight.

I’m sure someone can point to a few examples of such behavior, but it is by no means common in the trans community. It is, however, the main reason why trans people are despised by significant numbers of gays and lesbians. I don’t blame Casparian for making this assumption — he may well have never met a trans person, and he’s certainly by no means the only person to suffer this confusion. I am, however, a little disappointed that Jess and io9 should let the issue go unexamined.

Also, I really must re-read Triton. I’m fairly sure that Delany gets the idea that a gender swap is not a fix for being gay, though Bron is such a sourpuss at times that it is hard to see anything making him happy.

Frawgs In Store

~ Cheryl

I’m delighted to be able to announce that the entire output of Cheeky Frawg Books is now available for purchase in the Wizard’s Tower Bookstore. Currently all but one of the books is by Cheeky Frawg’s owners, Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. However, I know they are working with a lot of good people to bring out other books. I’m particularly looking forward to the promised Finnish translations. Also the book design is by my good friend Neil Clarke, so I can guarantee it is good. As Jeff notes, every book is lovingly hand-crafted, using only the finest 1s and 0s.

Right now you can buy the fabulously silly Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals, lavishly illustrated by the brilliant Jon Coulthart. If you have ever wanted to know how to cook and eat a Mongolian Death Worm and other equally bizarre beasts, all in an appropriately kosher fashion, this is the book for you.

Cheeky Frawg is also offering Balzac’s War, a small collection of short stories set in the world of Veniss Underground (yes, with meerkats), and a long essay by Jeff on the works of Angela Carter, not to mention more fiction by Jeff and Amal El-Mohtar.

Selling good books makes me happy. I’m sure it makes Ann and Jeff happy too. And it might even make Jeff’s friend Evil Monkey slightly less grumpy.

Lemistry

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

Here’s a book all serious SF fans should be interested in: a tribute to the great Stanislaw Lem. The contributors include Brian Aldiss, Adam Roberts, Andy Sawyer, Ian Watson, and Toby Litt. And Lem himself, as the book contains translations of three stories that have never been available in English before. For further details, click here.

Can you say, “Best Related Work”? I suspect this has a good chance. The main issue is going to be availability outside the UK. It is on the Amazon.com site, but is listed as “out of print or limited availability”. Let me know if you want it and are having trouble getting it.

The Aussies Are Coming!

~ Cheryl

One of the things I love about selling ebooks is that it enables me to bring books from wonderful independent presses from all around the world to the attention of my customers, wherever they might be. Today I have added my first book from the acclaimed Australian publisher, Twelfth Planet Press. They are doing some fabulous little chapbooks featuring Australian women writers, and the first ebook from the series is something I’ve been excited about for some time: Love and Romanpunk, by Tansy Rayner Roberts.

Why am I excited? Well it is Tansy for a start. Also, just read the blurb. A review will follow, when I get some time to do serious writing.

Not Just For Kids

~ Cheryl

The Bath Festival of Children’s Literature is taking place at the moment. You don’t see much science fiction or fantasy at the main Bath festival, but when it comes down to books for kids there is plenty of it about. Not surprisingly, therefore, the audiences for the SF&F readings attract people of all ages, including me.

I was in Bath today because I wanted to meet Philip Reeve as he’s kindly agreed to attend BristolCon (apparently his first SF convention since going to Eastercon as a kid — so we need to make him very welcome). I’m delighted to say that he’s excellent on platform as well as being a fine writer. The draft programme has him on a panel I’m moderating, along with Al Reynolds and MD Lachlan. I’m looking forward to it.

On stage with Philip was his Scholastic stable-mate, Moira Young. She’s a debut YA novelist, and despite living in Bath turns out to be Canadian. While this might be her first published novel, it is by no means her first time on stage. She’s been an opera singer, and if I remember rightly a stand-up comic as well. I would have loved to get her to BristolCon, but she’s going to be touring North America in October. She told me that she will be in San Francisco, so BASFA folks should look out for her.

Moira’s book is Blood Red Road, and it is being marketed to the Hunger Games audience. While it does star a tough young girl, it is actually more of a post-apocalyptic Western. Moira cited John Wayne movies as an inspiration. The short section she read was very good, and I’m looking forward to the whole book. Heads up, Canada, you have a good one here.

From Russia With Steam

~ Cheryl

Thanks to only being able to spend a few hours a day on a computer (and having to give priority to paid work) I am very behind on writing reviews. I have, however, managed to put together one for Ekaterina Sedia’s Heart of Iron. You’ll have to take my word for it that it contains enough to satisfy both alternate history fans and readers of steampunk romance. Seriously. Read the review for more details.

And if you like the sound of that, you can buy the ebook for just £2.99.

September ChiZine Releases

~ Cheryl

Over in the Wizard’s Tower bookstore we have two new releases from ChiZine Publications.

The first is Pattern Scars by Caitlin Sweet. I don’t know much about this one, but it appears to be a new take on the issues of being able to foretell the future.

The other books is Briarpatch by Tim Pratt. This isn’t a Marla Mason book, though what it is isn’t at all clear. The Briarpatch of the title is described as, “either the crawlspace of the universe, or a series of ambitious building projects abandoned by god, or a tangle of alternative universes, depending on who you ask.” Anyway, Tim is a friend, a fine writer, and one of the few people who can claim to have won a Hugo when Neil Gaiman was a nominee in the same category. I’m sure it will be a fascinating book.

More Chinese SF

~ Cheryl

Those of you wanting to read more science fiction translated from Chinese might want to check out Zero and Other Fictions by Huang Fan, translated by John Balcom. It looks like only the title story is SF, but it does make up the bulk of the book, and although it is from a university press it is only $20 hardcover.

More Books

~ Cheryl

I’m finally starting to get through adding August’s new books to the Wizard’s Tower Store. This is lots of computer work, and it is doing my shoulder no good at all. So next up I am off out to buy a small, light wheeled suitcase, because I don’t want to risk a backpack for the trip to London. After that, yet more books, and the September magazines.

But before I go, a quick word about some of what I have added. First up I’d like to highlight Polar City Blues by Katherine Kerr (£2.99). This comment in the blurb caught my eye:

“In some ways Polar City Blues is my tribute to the classic SF I read as a teenager. In other ways, it’s a heavily Revisionist book, where the Hero is female and the Object of Desire is male. Mostly, however, it’s a fast-paced adventure story complete with dead bodies, hookers, drugs, mysterious aliens, and several high-speed chases both on the ground and elsewhere.” — Katharine Kerr

Also I see that the Book View Cafe folks are continuing to do great things with omnibus editions. You can get all four volumes of Jay Caselberg’s Jack Stein stories for just £7.99, and all four volumes of Steven Harper’s Silent Empire series for a mere £4.99. What can I say? Value.

Mr. B’s On Radio 4

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

Yesterday evening the Radio 4 arts programme, Front Row, did a feature on the fabulous Mr. B’s Emporioum of Reading Delights bookstore in Bath. The programme centers primarily on the Bookshop Band and the songs they have written for the evening readings. It also includes comments from Patrick Ness.

The programme is available via the Listen Again service. The section on Mr. B’s begins at around 21 minutes in. That will be up for a week. There’s also a highlights podcast of each week’s shows, but I don’t know if Mr. B’s made it into that. Many thanks to Sarrenah for the tip-off about this.

I popped into the store today while I was in Bath to check on the details. They were understandably very happy, and hugely grateful to Patrick who was apparently instrumental in making the feature happen.

Of course I had to buy a book, and I was pleased to spot the latest volume of Malcolm Pryce’s spoof noir mysteries set in Aberystwyth. I reviewed the first volume, Aberystwyth, Mon Amour, in Emerald City. The latest volume has an SF theme. It is called The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still, and in it Louie Knight has to discover whether the supposedly long-hanged gangster, Iestyn Probert, is indeed dead, has managed to escape justice or, as local rumor has it, was abducted by aliens. I’m looking forward to it.

Also while I was in the store a young man came in to pick up a book he had ordered: Triplanetary by E.E. Doc Smith. I told him about BristolCon. I see that a membership has come in this afternoon. I love it when things like that happen.

Gaiman v Mullan – Smackdown?

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

As many of you will know, Neil Gaiman has been attending the Edinburgh Book Festival. As part of the entertainment he was interviewed on stage by the critic, John Mullan, who has something of a track record of looking down his nose at SF&F. The event was podcast by The Guardian. How did it go?

I was amused at the beginning to hear Claire Armistead introduce Neil as someone who had become very popular in the USA, as if it was necessary to excuse featuring a writer who was unknown here in the UK. However, Mullan very wisely stuck to letting Neil talk, which is something Neil does very well. There is one section in the middle where Neil talks about the relationship between fantasy and reality, but unless the podcast has been cleverly edited it doesn’t appear to have been in response to an attack from Mullan.

If you listen to the podcast you can hear Neil talk about the origins of American Gods, and about his hopes for the planned TV series. He does not mention that the book won a Hugo, or how he reacted at the time, which is probably just as well. In addition he talks about which writer he thinks wrote rather too much, and which one he wishes would write more. Enjoy.

Off to Bristol (Again)

~ Cheryl

Tonight is the launch event for Gareth L. Powell’s new novel from Solaris, The Recollection. We’ll be at Forbidden Planet from 6:00pm to 7:00pm, and in a pub thereafter. We haven’t decided which pub yet, but there will be tweetage when we do.

Two Gender Links

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

No, not me being shouty this time. Other people.

First of all over at the excellent Bad Reputation blog, Juliet E. McKenna talks about writing female characters in fantasy fiction. Juliet does an excellent job of steering a middle way between the people who claim that women were irrelevant in mediaeval societies (save presumably to be raped or rescued) and the desire to avoid something that is as unrealistic as farm boys discovering that they are the long lost heir to the throne.

Also check out the comment from Elizabeth Moon who talks about men who tell her that they don’t read books by women, or with women characters. And worse:

A woman at a booksigning told me proudly that her sons would not read books by women or with girl characters–as she was providing their reading material, it was clear that she approved and probably created their attitude.

*sigh*

Meanwhile over at Fantasy Faction there is an interview with Mark Charan Newton. The interviewer spends several questions talking to Mark about the LGBT characters in his books. As I have said before, I was very impressed by the way Mark went about researching the trans character, Lan. His responses to the questions are very good too.

Pictures of a Drowning Girl

~ Cheryl

On Kyle Cassidy’s LiveJournal today there was news about a new book he’s putting together. The idea is to do a collection of stills from a (fictional) movie of Caitlín R. Kiernan’s forthcoming novel, The Drowning Girl, a Memoir. The project is being funded on Kickstarter, and ordinarily I’d send you over there to donate. But this is Kyle, so of course it is funded already. In less than a day.

What I’m hoping is that all this enthusiasm for Kyle, who is magnificently talented at what he does, will rub off on Caitlín. I thought that her previous book, The Red Tree, was magnificent. (And so did the World Fantasy jury.) Amazon says the new book is due out in March. I’ll be getting a copy.

Introducing Sarah Zettel

~ Cheryl ~ 4 Comments

Yes, more books. 🙂

I’ve uploaded another 8 books from Book View Cafe today. Two of them are by Sue Lange (Uncategorized and We, Robots), but with apologies to Sue I’d like to focus on Sarah Zettel here.

Zettel is another example of a woman who has abandoned science fiction to write what publishers think of as “women’s books”. These days she’s doing vampires, and mostly what we have is her four-volume Arthurian fantasy romance series. If that’s your sort of thing, I recommend the omnibus edition, Paths to Camelot, which is much cheaper than buying all four volumes, and being an ebook does not have to be set in minuscule type to make it small enough to carry.

However, we also have one of Zettel’s earlier books, Fool’s War. This is a book that has been on my “to read” pile for a while, though the paper copy is stranded in California. Not only is the book space opera by a woman; the lead character, starship captain Katmer Al Shei, is a devout Muslim. That’s not something you see every day.

Also the book has a landscape cover (by Donato). I’ve not yet checked it on the iPad to see how it looks, but hey, why not? Ebooks are not constrained by physical shape, after all.