Books

Luna

~ Cheryl

Having read f2m: the boy within, I decided that I should get on and read Luna by Julie Anne Peters [buy isbn=”9780316011273″] as well. It is a rather more famous book, being published in the US and having been a National Book Award finalist. It is also a very different book.

To begin with, Luna appears to me to be more emotionally intense. I’m not a great expert on YA books, but it felt to me that that book was aimed at slightly older kids, despite the fact that the characters in the two books are round the same age (late teens). Alternatively it could simply be that Hazel Edwards is used to writing for younger kids, and carried some of that over into f2m.

The more crucial difference, however, is that Luna isn’t really about a trans kid, it is about her sister. The story is told from the point of view of Regan, who is younger than Luna but is forced into the role of responsible adult thanks to Luna’s emotional turmoil and the dysfunctional behavior of their parents.

To some extent the book is an accurate portrayal of the emotional problems that accompany transition (and believe me that can mess up the strongest individual), but at the same time I spent a lot of time thinking that the characters were getting pushed around by the author in order to create increased, and probably unnecessary, drama. There are times when the book does the traditional farce thing of setting up a potential disaster and then ensuring that every character does exactly the necessary stupid thing to make it happen.

The problem with this, of course, is that the book could easily be seen as giving out the message that having a trans sibling is a total pain the butt and the sooner you can get rid of her and get your own life back the better. This is not a helpful message to be sending.

The book will undoubtedly be devoured by MtF teens — because let’s face it trans people are inveterate devourers of other people’s transition narratives when they are trying to make their minds up what to do with their lives — but even there it may be somewhat troublesome. Luna’s easy access to money never quite rang true to me, and the vast majority of trans teens simply won’t have that safety net. Consequently Luna’s story is of rather less help than f2m, where poor Finn makes do with part time work and is always short of cash.

Having said all that, simply having a book like Luna out in the world is of enormous benefit to trans people everywhere. It gets the message out that being trans is something that happens to ordinary, well-educated kids. Peters also does a good job of showing how Luna knew she was a girl from a very early age, and that any half-intelligent parent should have spotted the signs and could have done something about it, although the reactions of Luna’s parents are much more typical of what trans kids can still expect. In some ways Luna is a horror story of how badly parents, and expectations of gender roles, can mess up kids’ lives.

f2m: the boy within

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

For various reasons I have been reading a fair amount of YA fiction of late. Part of that has been checking out trans-themed books for teenagers. This is one of them. f2m: the boy within, is not science fiction. It is, however, relevant to my South Pacific Tour because Hazel Edwards is from Melbourne and her co-author, Ryan Scott Kennedy, is from Wellington. I understand that Hazel will be at Worldcon. I have no idea whether Ryan will be at Au Contraire, but I’m sure he’ll be very welcome if he decides to turn up.

The book tells the story of Skye, the lead singer and guitarist in an all-girl punk band, who decides to transition to male. He adopts the name Finn, and goes through the usual problems with family, friends and the authorities on his journey to be true to himself.

As kids’ books goes, this one appears to be fairly in the educational camp. While the subject matter is liable to cause conniptions amongst religious fundamentalists, the book itself is very approachable and non-confrontational. It is exactly the sort of book that I can imagine a progressive school approving of. Sure Finn is something of a rebel, and plays very loud music, but there’s nothing here any sensible parent could object to, and the treatment of the subject is honest and informative.

I’m sure that trans kids will devour the book hungrily, but I’m hoping that the real intended audience is non-trans kids, especially those who suddenly discover that one of their friends is trans.

Judging from her website, Hazel has an established career as a writer of books for children. She has also been to Antarctica, which is very cool in more ways than one. Ryan appears to have provided the expertise on trans people and punk rock, which is equally cool without the need for thermal undies.

The book was originally published in Australia, but there’s a Lightning Source edition available from The Book Depository [buy isbn=”9781876462901″] and you can also get it on the Kindle.

Anyone know of any similar books? I have a copy of Luna by Julie Anne Peters [buy isbn=”9780316011273″], and I’ve reviewed one or two fantasy books.

The 2010 Hugo Award Showcase

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

Here’s a book I have been waiting eagerly for. Last year Sean Wallace approached WSFS with a suggestion for an anthology of Hugo-nominated short fiction. The first of these books is now available, and very splendid it looks too (thanks in no small part to a fine Donato Giancola cover).

The book is edited by Mary Robinette Kowal who does a fine job of introducing each story, save perhaps for “Evil Robot Monkey” where she is reduced to a shy, embarrassed, “Um. I wrote this.”

Only 9 of the nominated pieces of short fiction are included. (I have posted the table of contents over on the official Hugo Award website.) I don’t know why the other 6 stories are missing, but I suspect a combination of cost and contractual issues. Ted Chiang, for example, is very particular about how and where his work is published, which may explains why “Exhalation” is absent.

The book is special to me for two reasons. Firstly it has the Hugo Award logo on the spine. Kevin and I are always very pleased to see it in the wild. Also the last few pages of the book list all of the nominees and winners for the 2009 Hugo Awards.

Quite what value the book has in an age where everyone who cares deeply about the Hugos gets the entire fiction slate in their voter packet is perhaps questionable, but I for one love paper books and am very pleased to have such a fine anthology on my bookshelves (well, in the piles of books on my floor). I’m also very pleased to think that kids can once again go into shops and see the words “Hugo Award” clearly displayed on a book. Here’s hoping it creates a few more fans.

If all goes well, the Hugo Award Showcase will be a regular feature of the publishing schedule for many years to come. Prime might even go back in history to cover previous years. But for that to happen you folks have to buy the book. [buy isbn=”9781607012252″].

A Genre Like Any Other

~ Cheryl ~ 24 Comments

It is Booker Prize season again, and therefore time for wailing and gnashing of teeth around the blogosphere.

First up, if you want to see the long list, it can be found here.

And now the controversy. Last year, you may remember, Kim Stanley Robinson complained about the lack of recognition for his type of novel, and Booker judge John Mullan made a complete ass of himself by saying that the award didn’t look at science fiction because SF is, “bought by a special kind of person who has special weird things they go to and meet each other.” Unsurprisingly, a few noses were put out of joint.

This year the chairman of the judges, Andrew Motion, has tried to head off any discussion by insisting that, despite the apparent lack of SF on the list, the jury did not “consciously” exclude it. That, of course, is exactly the same argument put forward by people defending all-white-male award lists. It is the “I’m not racist/sexist/etc., it is just that the books by white men are better than anything else” argument.

Motion compounds this with a foray into victim politics. According to The Guardian he said, “the Man Booker prize was an award for literary fiction and there were plenty of prizes for crime and sci-fi.”

That, of course, is as clear an admission as you can get that the Booker is not a general award for the “best” books of the year, but actually a very specific award for a very specific type of book: “literary fiction”.

Remember, the whole point of genre is that it is a marketing tool aimed at helping readers find “more like this”. Books are identified as belonging to a genre if they have common tropes, a small subset of expected plot structures, and generally are predictable. People whose reading is confined to a particular genre are people who don’t like reading outside of their comfort zone. Clearly Motion is one of those people.

Exactly how a “literary fiction” novel is identified is not clear, though I’m sure that Motion will know one when he sees one, just as Damon Knight did for SF. Anecdotally such books have been about middle-aged university professors with unhappy marriages who have affairs, and indeed sex seems to be an important trope as Motion bemoans the lack of it in this year’s potential nominees. The important point, however, is that “literary fiction” is not defined by being well written, it is defined by the fact that it conforms to the expectations of the literary fiction genre. A book that is well written, but does not conform to the expectations of “literary fiction” is, in Motion’s eyes, not a potential Booker candidate.

On the other side of the fence, Paul Graham Raven argues that we in the SF ghetto should not care if Motion and his pals don’t read our books. Indeed, we should worry if they did, because if they outside world ever finds out what we are up to, and starts to like it, our art will be horribly polluted by their attention.

This is exactly the same argument I am used to hearing from the crusties at Worldcon. “Don’t pay any attention to the likes of Dragon*Con and Comic-Con,” they wail, “if the sort of people who attend those events came to Worldcon our little club would be ruined, ruined I tell you!”

There’s a certain type of person who likes living in a ghetto, who likes having exclusive interests that few other people share. Often such people feel better if the outside world despises them, because it makes them feel even more special. And if that’s what they want to do, fine, but they shouldn’t expect everyone else with similar interests to want to stay in the ghetto with them. After all, for the writers (and publishers) there is money at stake; lots of it.

Of course popular culture has already invaded the science fiction ghetto. For the most part SF outsells literary fiction very nicely thank you. SF&F books can often be found on the NYT best seller lists. Sometimes they are by big names such as Rowling, Pratchett and Gaiman; in other cases they are franchised works such as the Star Wars novels (some of which are written by favorite authors of mine such as Karen Traviss and Sean Williams). So it is, I think, ridiculous to argue that SF would come to any further harm by being associated with the Booker.

What that association would do, however, is improve the sales prospects of some of the best writers in our field. Because while the Booker judges might think that their prize is only for that small subset of books that they identify as “literary”, the media and the book trade treat it as a prize for the best book of the year. Books that make the long list can expect a huge bump in sales, and the winner is guaranteed a print run in the millions.

That is why the Booker matters. If Motion and his pals want to have an award just for the sort of books that they like, that’s fine by me, but they have no right to claim that their little genre is any better than anyone else’s genre, and the media and book trade should not treat them as if it is.

The funny thing is, of course, that last year the Booker went to an historical novel, Wolf Hall, which is most definitely not a work in the literary fiction genre. Furthermore, this year there’s at least one other apparent historical fiction book on the long list. Except that, as I noted a few days ago, it is actually the first book in a trilogy of novels about immortality, with at least one immortal character in it. So despite Mr. Motion’s protestations, the Booker judges do have an SF novel on the list. It must have been the lack of talking squid that confused them.

Cheap Books

~ Cheryl

The kind people at Waterstones currently have a 3 for 2 offer on their entire SF&F section. My apologies to all those writers out there who think that 3 for 2 offers are the work of the Devil, but for UK readers there is a chance of saving some dosh. Especially as The Fuller Memorandum is now available. (Although of course my local Waterstones did not have it in stock.)

Spoilt for Choice

~ Cheryl

I haven’t been writing very much about books of late. That’s not because I haven’t been reading any. It is because I have been very busy. The reading has been awesome. Indeed this is one of the best years for fantastic fiction that I can remember. Here, for example, are three absolutely terrific books, any one of which I’d be happy to see carry off major awards next year:

  • Kraken, China Miéville [buy isbn=”9780345497499″]
  • Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay [buy isbn=”9780007342013″]
  • The Dervish House, Ian McDonald [buy isbn=”9781616142049″]

If that’s not enough for you, William Gibson has a new novel, Zero History, due out in September. People who have seen it say it is one of his best works.

Then there are some awesome newcomers too. I’ve already enthused about N.K. Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms [buy isbn=”9781841498171″]. Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fear’s Death [buy isbn=”9780756406172″] (not a first novel, but a first adult novel) is a very powerful book. Hannu Rajaniemi’s The Quantum Thief is getting rave comments from those who have seen it. And of course we shouldn’t forget Paolo Bacigalupi’s Ship Breaker [buy isbn=”9780316056212″]. All in all it is very exciting.

A Little Linkage

~ Cheryl

Yeah, I’m busy. But because I love you lots here are a couple of quick links (with apologies to Twitter followers who have already seem them).

Firstly some totally awesome Lego renditions of Escher paintings. Many thanks to MEG for pointing me at them.

And secondly the good folks at The Book Depository are running a 6th birthday special whereby if you introduce some of your friends to their services they send them 10% off vouchers. And if one of your friends uses the voucher you’ll get one too. I note that I don’t get any vouchers for plugging this, even though I have a few hundred readers, but if anyone would like me to introduce them to this rather fine book service then let me know. Otherwise just go there yourself. They are remarkably useful if you like to read books by US small presses and you are stuck somewhere remote. And they are not Amazon.

Guardian Gets Sensawunda

~ Cheryl

It is Hugo time again at The Guardian’s Book Blog. This time Sam Jordison reviews Larry Niven’s Ringworld. I think Sam pretty much nails it when he says that the Ringworld itself i the star of the book, and the sense of wonder that it generates in the reader is what makes the book work, for those of us for whom it does work.

Of course it won’t work for everyone, and as ever the comments are full of people telling Sam that they didn’t like the book, some of them implying that his review must be “wrong” because of this. There are no books that are universally liked.

Which brings us neatly to a lovely blog post by Glenda Larke about book reviews. Normally I get very tired of bloggers writing about reviews, because such posts consist mainly of people putting forward rules for reviewing, or complaining that reviews are all badly written. Glenda, however, does something new and refreshing. The extracts quotes from a bunch of reviews of her latest book and juxtaposes them. The range of opinions is delightfully varied.

Melbourne Does T (Again)

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

Last year I reported that Melbourne-based writer, Alison Goodman, had produced The Two Pearls of Wisdom, a YA fantasy novel with a positive portrayal of a trans character. This wasn’t entirely innovative. There are non-fantasy books with MtF trans characters, notably Luna by Julie Anne Peters, and there are books such as Lauren McLaughlin’s Cycler and Recycler that use fantasy to create the gender change. But until now I wasn’t aware of any YA or children’s books that featured an actual FtM character. Step forward another Melbourne writer, Hazel Edwards, whose new book, F2M: The Boy Within, does just that. I am rather proud of my former home town, and I’d love to meet both Goodman and Edwards while I’m there for Worldcon.

Of course if any of you know other YA or children’s books that include FtM characters I’d love to hear about them.

In Bath With David Mitchell

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

OK, it is a silly title. But it is there for a reason. Barring a miracle that means I can buy my way back into the US, I’m going to be living near Bath for a long time. Yes, the town has a silly name. It has that name because it is home to a famous public baths. They have been there for around 2,000 years — possibly a lot longer. The joke should be getting old by now. It certainly will do if I have to field bath jokes every time I write about the place. OK?

The point of this post, however, is to talk about the David Mitchell reading I attended. It had a beautiful venue: St. Swithin’s Church in Bath, the present incarnation of which was built during the Georgian period and shares the architectural beauty of that age. Checking the history of the place, I discovered that Jane Austen’s father, George, was the curate there, and William Wilberforce was married there.

This was perhaps appropriate, because the book that Mitchell is on tour promoting is set in the Georgian era. It is not, however, set in England. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet [buy isbn=”9780340921562″] takes place primarily in Japan, and the lead character, as you have probably noted, is a Dutchman. Mitchell noted that his Dutch translators believe that they have produced the most authoritative version of the book, because it has the characters speaking the language they are supposed to be using.

That should give you some idea of what Mitchell is like: self-effacing, jokey, and really very charming. He has the same natural ability with an audience that has made Neil Gaiman so popular with his readers. Of course if Neil had been in Bath there would have been a queue of 300 people for the event. Mitchell isn’t such a draw, but on the basis of yesterday (and the books of his I have read) he should be.

One of the things that can trip up an unwary author is the Q&A session. Galley Cat had a feature yesterday on painful audience questions. Mitchell had to deal with one fairly early on as his second question was all about cultural appropriation. He did very well. He opened by noting that the lady questioner probably gets irritated by male authors who write unconvincing women, and said he deals with that by asking his wife to check his female characters. OK so far? Good. Then he added that his wife is Japanese. Clever.

One thing that I didn’t expect in Bath was an audience full of science fiction fans. For all that Mitchell clearly knows his SF very well, he’s not known for his SF. That doesn’t stop him talking about it. One question was about his apparent interest in the transmigration of souls. He answered it by talking about Doctor Who (specifically “Tooth and Claw”, which he correctly noted was written by Russell Davies). Mitchell then went on to note that one character in The Thousand Autumns is on his 28th life, and will appear again in his next novel, which is set in the present day. (Mitchell has a habit of carrying characters through from one novel to another, even though the stories are not connected.)

Another question that Mitchell handled rather well was that old favorite: “Who are your favorite writers.” Many authors hate this one as they feel it puts them on the spot to choose amongst their contemporaries. A classic way of dealing with it is to pick people who are dead. Mitchell began to do that, starting with Anton Chekov. Then he turned the tables on the questioner, saying that he’d name three of his favorites if she would do the same. I was impressed that she was up to the challenge, and she had some good (mainstream) picks. Mitchell, however, went for some very interesting people.

His second pick caused my ears to prick up: it was Wellington writer, Elizabeth Knox, whose Dreamhunter [buy isbn=”9780374318536″] I reviewed for Emerald City. Mitchell wasn’t aware of that book, but had read Vintner’s Luck [buy isbn=”9780099273899″] and was very impressed with it. I was not surprised that I was the only person in the audience who had heard of Knox, and that’s why my copy of The Thousand Autumns is inscribed: “To Cheryl, fellow Knox-admirer.”

Mitchell’s third pick was Catherine O’Flynn, on the basis of her book, What Was Lost [buy isbn=”9780955647642″]. This one I had not heard of, but it the reviews suggest that it is part mystery, part ghost story. I’ll have to pick up a copy.

It did not escape my notice that two of Mitchell’s three recommendations were women.

I refrained from asking the question I wanted to ask during the main session. Goodness only knows what the rest of the audience would have made of it. But I was able to ask it when I got the book signed. When I reviewed Cloud Atlas [buy isbn=”9780375507250″] I noted a bunch of SF references in the book, including a classic piece of Heinlein. I got into a bit of trouble over that. It was pointed out to me that Mitchell doesn’t mention Heinlein anywhere in the book, and the idea of advertising on the Moon could have occurred independently. After all, a Booker-nominated novel giving a nod to Heinlein? Ridiculous, right? So I asked Mitchell, and he smiled broadly. “The Man Who Sold The Moon”, he responded [buy isbn=”9780671578633″]. Having done a bit of Googling today I discovered that Heinlein was not the first SF writer to come up with the idea of lunar advertising, but at least I can assure you all that David Mitchell really does know his SF very well.

Catch-Up Linkage

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

Because I have been busy for the past three days…

– One of the reasons I love cosmology is the timescales over which things happen. This story, about a star eating a planet, explains that the poor planet may only have 10 millions years left to live.

– Over at Deep Sea News Dr. M discusses what the effects of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico might be.

– Oliver Morton has a round-up of interesting discussion about the “artificial life” story, including Ken MacLeod’s article for The Guardian.

– Rose Fox has a fun new book out.

– That “gay couple” prosecuted in Malawi? Apparently not a gay couple at all. Natacha Kennedy explains.

– There will be a Tolkien Art Exhibition in Gloucestershire in August.

– Tero explains why Ã…con is so much fun (hint: chocolate!)

– There’s a new issue of Yipe! out.

Linkage Ho!

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

Hmm, teh intrawebs appear to have been busy of late.

– The European Union has caught up with the fact that Wikipedia articles can tell lies about you and there’s nothing you can do about it. There is muttering about legislation.

– At Knowledge Problem Mike Giberson reports on the power of anecdote. Kevin and I are often frustrated at how often fannish online debate is derailed by someone insisting that something that is generally agreed to be broadly correct must be utterly false because his personal experience contradicts it. The UK press commented on how often the participants in the leader debates during the election used personal anecdotes (“I met someone who…”) to make policy points. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts have decided to study this problem, designing an experiment to test the power of anecdote to overcome statistical evidence. To make it tough for the anecdotes they used accountants as their subjects, and yet the anecdotes still proved more powerful. Human beings are scary creatures.

– In Barcelona researchers are using virtual reality to put men’s minds into women’s bodies. Quick, someone grab Rush Limbaugh and stick him on a plane to Spain.

– Forbidden Planet International points me to a Financial Times article about the current state of the Tintin franchise. Ignore the gossip and scroll down to the sorry tale of Bob Garcia who has been fined €50,000 for publishing small-press books about Tintin. French fans have an appeal going to help Bob pay. You can find them on Facebook.

– Anil Menon has posted a long and thoughtful essay about the Ramayana on his blog.

– It may be only 1mm long, but the copepod is the strongest and fastest animal in the world.

In Lieu of Conventions

~ Cheryl ~ 5 Comments

One of the main things I am going to miss about not being able to go to conventions in the USA is sitting around listening to smart, well-informed people talk about books. Two of those people are Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe, and I’m delighted to see that Jonathan has just put up a podcast of the two of them chatting. It is an hour long and full of good stuff. Well worth listening to if you have any interest in books and reviewing.

For those of you who do not want to listen to the whole thing, the highlights are probably the bits where they talk about the most interesting books that are coming out this year. Here are the books they think we should be reading:

  • Kraken, China Miéville [buy isbn=”9780333989500″]
  • The Dervish House, Ian McDonald [buy isbn=”9780575080522″]
  • Zero History, William Gibson [buy isbn=”9780399156823″]
  • The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajaniemi [buy isbn=”9780575088870″]

And you know, I think they are dead right.

My Small #1b1t Contribution

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

No, I don’t have time to get involved, but here are a few comments.

To be honest, the thing I remember most about American Gods was having to persuade Neil to turn up at Worldcon in San José without letting on that he had won. He was certain he had no chance, and also he was in the middle of writing the screenplay for Beowulf at the time and rather busy. Thankfully he did make it, and also made that famous acceptance speech. He also treated Kevin and myself to a fabulous sushi dinner after the con to thank us for nagging him into turning up, because he’s that sort of guy.

None of that, however, has anything to do with the book. For that, all I can offer is the review that I wrote of it back in 2001. I don’t claim that it is in any way definitive, and I suspect that the main thing #1b1t will prove is that there are as many ways of reading a book as there are readers.

Some Brief Linkage

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

Because yesterday I was offline most of the day and the RSS flood backed up again.

– My friend Roz gets her poetry published in The Guardian. Cool stuff!

– My friend Neil gets the first chapter of his Hugo Award winning novel, American Gods, published in The Guardian (which is, of course, all to do with the One Book, One Twitter thing).

– Michael Moorcock has a new non-fiction book coming out, and John Coulthart has done some utterly amazing design work on it.

– The BBC has been to Sci-Fi London and reviews a Swiss science fiction film (though sadly the director is dreadfully ignorant about science fiction in Switzerland — how can he not have heard of Maison d’Ailleurs?).

– And finally, Deep Sea News has a depressing but probably accurate assessment of how BP will get off the hook as regards environmental damage from the Deepwater Horizon spill because the Bush Administration gutted the country’s environmental agencies and fostered a climate of disbelief in science. (Then again, maybe because BP are “foreigners,” the Rethuglicans will support going after them. I’m waiting for Sarah Palin to demand that all foreign oil assets in the US be nationalized.)

Gone Shopping

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

Today I went up to the cottage to verify that BT have indeed activated the phone line. They have, so I’m looking good actually be moved in a week from now. I also too the opportunity to have a look around Bath, and found some rather nice shops I hadn’t noticed before.

My first port of call was the Bath branch of Kitchens. Tom Abba had recommended their Bristol store at the weekend, but it is a bit of a way out of town and I didn’t manage to make it that far. The Bath store is fabulous and has some of the most helpful shop assistants I have come across in ages. I will be going there a lot.

Marjorie told me that she remembered seeing a cheese shop near there. I knew there was a cheese stall in the market, but I didn’t remember an actual cheese shop. Marjorie was right, it was there, and this being Bath they have apparently been around since 1797, so I have no excuse for having missed it (although that may only be their London store).

Paxton & Whitfield are serious cheesemongers. They are suppliers of fine cheese to Her Royalness, and to Charlie the Royalspawn. They sell only the best. This could bankrupt me. I came away with some Cornish Blue, which is indeed lighter and creamier than Stilton, as advertised. The star of the show, however, (and not on the P&W website) was an aged Mimolette. This is a french cheese from Lille that comes in an Edam-like ball but is absolutely nothing like the blandness we expect from supermarket Edam. The aged cheese is as brightly orange as the oldest Goudas and just as flavorsome. Recommended (if you can afford it).

Finally on my list of places to check out was Toppings bookstore. That was a recommendation from Colin Harvey, who is obviously a fellow of excellent taste. Toppings is a seriously good bookstore. The place is packed with books; they offer you tea or coffee; they do lots of readings; and they seem to know their stuff. This is an independent bookstore I’d happy to patronize (as opposed to rather too many of such places that are more interested in patronizing their customers).

Net result, very happy Cheryl. Bath is a good place to shop.

Some Brief Linkage

~ Cheryl ~ 4 Comments

I ought to write something more intelligent today, but I have had a frustrating evening struggling with really badly written web sites and I’m not in a good mood. In lieu of anything from me, here’s some other folks:

– Sam Jordison reviews Mary Renault’s Fire from Heaven for The Guardian;

– The Independent gets the low down on gay animals, including talking to Bruce Bagemihl of Biological Exuberance fame;

– The Economist discovers that gender development is even more complicated than anyone thought;

– Jennifer Ouellette takes a look at an amazing gestural user interface;

– Kay Holt and Sarah Goslee write about ecosystems for Science in my Fiction. (So how come women never submit science articles to Clarkesworld, hmm?)

Silversands Launched

~ Cheryl

Today’s project was to attend and report upon the Bristol launch of Gareth L. Powell’s new novel, Silversands. Publisher Chris Teague and a host of Bristol fans, not to mention many of Gareth’s family, were on hand at the splendid Shakespeare Tavern (serving ales at Bristol docks since 1777) to wish the book well. Gareth read briefly from the book, and I recorded his performance. Here it is on YouTube.

Some Quick Linkage

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

Because I have been too busy staring at airline web sites trying to minimize the cost of the Worldcon trip to do serious blogging.

– Damien G. Walter makes the case for serious fantasy on the Guardian book blog.

– Our right wing loonies in the UK generally don’t have bombs, guns and pretty white uniforms, but they do stand for Parliament.

– Joe Hill’s magnificent collection, 20th Century Ghosts, is currently on sale for 99c to Kindle customers.

– People of Canada, your trans community needs you.