Via Juliet McKenna I have discovered a blog called The Digitalist. It is a production of the “digital team” at Pan Macmillan. Straight off I am impressed to discover that Pan Macmillan not only has a “digital team”, but they have been allowed to have a blog. This sounds very constructive to me. But what about the content? Well, the thing that caught Jules’ attention, and mine, is a the start of a series of postings by Sara Lloyd entitled “A book publisher’s manifesto”, which purports to be a meditation on the future of publishing a digital world. Some of it comes across as vacuous marketing-speak, but there’s plenty in the two sections posted thus far to suggest that Ms. Lloyd has indeed thought quite a lot about the topic. She may also have read The Diamond Age (or if she hasn’t I think she’d enjoy it).
Books
Jordison on Blish
At the Guardian Book Blog Sam Jordison continues his exploration of Hugo winners with a look at A Case of Conscience by James Blish. It sounds like Sam will enjoy Hyperion when he finally gets to it. And for his next column he promises us his take on Starship Troopers, teasing us with the statement that he thinks the book is “barking mad”. Brave boy. I shall be looking forward to that little slap fest.
The Gender Theory Review
A few weeks back, before my life went crazy, I promised you (and particularly Larry) a review of a book about Gender Theory. I have finally written that review, and you can find it here.
Want This Book
The Shadow Year
The latest Jeff Ford novel has slightly more of a supernatural element to it than The Girl in the Glass, but probably nowhere near enough to please genre purists. The Shadow Year is basically a great novel about a geeky kid in 1960s America (and my, doesn’t that seem a like ancient history now) whose neighborhood is threatened by a stalker and possible serial killer. It is, to some extent, a schoolboy detective novel, except that it is much more realistic and scary than Scooby Doo. You can read this for the fantastical elements, and the is supposed to be scary, but if you did you’d be missing out on a great novel about fairly ordinary people. I loved it. Nice one, Jeff.
The Magician and the Fool
Barth Anderson’s new novel is nothing like The Patron Saint of Plagues. It is good in entirely different ways. If you happen to like Tim Powers novels and tarot cards and weird urban magic then The Magician and the Fool is a book for you. If you were expecting another near-future biotech thriller then you’ll be disappointed. Me, I happen to like both. I’m weird like that. But you knew that, didn’t you.
Guardian at the Clarke
The Guardian has not one, but two reports from the Clarke Award ceremony. This is progress, even if Sam didn’t quite realize that the event was taking place in the middle of Sci-Fi London.
Sam’s reports of conversations with the jury sound like it was very much a typical Clarke Award with much debate happening behind closed doors. Good to see that the jurors were working hard.
Many congratulations to Richard. I’ve not read Black Man / Thirteen yet, but Abigail Nussbaum makes it sound very interesting. And not to worry, Mr. Scalzi, I don’t think this presages a shock sweep of awards by people named Morgan in 2008.
The Born Queen
Greg Keyes’ Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series has come to an end with the final volume, The Born Queen. I’ve been very much enjoying the series, and I’m pleased to say that the final book does not disappoint. It does, in the way of such things, get rather melodramatic at times, but Keyes has a very interesting approach to the problem of putting vast magical powers in the hands of his leading characters. There’s an obvious debt to a certain other famous fantasy book, but it would be way too much of a spoiler to explain. Suffice it to say that it is a pleasure to be able to recommend a 4-volume high fantasy series.
On Hermione
Over at Yatterings my friend Iain has a long and interesting essay on the role of Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter novels. Having only read one Potter book I’m not in a position to comment much, but I think anyone interested in Feminist approaches to literature will find it interesting.
Class Marketing
Borders sent me a 25% off voucher for my birthday.
Dead Men’s Boots
Mike Carey has a nice set-up with the Felix Castor books and could, if he wanted, keep churning them out forever. Except he’s a rather more modern writer, and therefore he has a concept of story arc. Sooner or later we knew we’d fine out why London is suddenly full of the walking dead. With Dead Men’s Boots we know a bit more. Also Carey has upped the ante a little, and the more he does so the more Castor comes to sound like John Constantine. Here. for example, he’s having a chat with a demon:
“So how was your trip?” Moloch asked, in the same tone of metal grinding against bone.
I made a so-so gesture. “Too many Satanists,” I said.
He nodded sympathetically, but his smile showed way too many teeth to be reassuring. “Our little fifth column. Yes. If it’s any consolation, they all get eaten in the end.”
All in all, however, I much prefer Juliet to Etrigan.
Mike is a GoH at the Bristol Comics Expo. I hope I get a chance to meet him.
The Science in Fiction Project
Via Peggy at Biology in Science Fiction I learned about The Science in Fiction Project, a web-based initiative to find and review fiction that deals intelligently with science. I sure don’t have the time, but I figured that some of you might. More details here.
Supervillainz
Supervillainz is not your normal superhero novel (if indeed there is such a thing). It is a small press publication (from Suspect Thoughts Press) which won something called the Project QueerLit contest and was also a finalist in the transgender category of the Lambda Literary Awards. In the front of the book author Alicia E Goranson says:
This book is dedicated to the next author who writes fun, believable trans folk into popular lit.
Perhaps that means Ian McDonald for Brasyl, but I may be missing someone. Anyway, Goranson does the job. Supervillainz is all about how two plucky trans people (one male, one female) and a bunch of assorted genderqueer friends (which Karen Burnham insightfully described in her ICFA paper as a Scooby Gang) take on a superhero group backed by right wing industrialists. Because there are many different types of trans people, I suspect some trans folks will be very annoyed to find a book that portrays them as part of a sexually enthusiastic lesbian community, but Bit and Devon are indeed fun and believable people and may well be very representative of their particular corner of transdom. Compared to the usual science fiction fare, in which trans people are either used as window dressing or to make a political point, it is all very refreshing. I’m not going to recommend the book as great literature, but it has a lot of interesting things to say. More in Karen’s review.
Nothing But Red
Peter Wong, who contributed a number of comic and movie reviews to Emerald City, writes with the following news:
Nothing But Red is a benefit anthology inspired by the brutal honor killing of Du’a Khalil Aswad. That killing, which occurred one year ago today, inspired TV series creator Joss Whedon to write an impassioned essay condemning the murder. Editor Skyla Dawn Cameron was inspired by Whedon’s piece to solicit from fans essays and art for what became Nothing But Red. Among the 70 contributions to the book is my essay “(A Woman’s) Blood Cleanses Honor.”
Proceeds from the book benefit Whedon’s favorite charity Equality Now. This organization works around the world to push for justice and equality for women.
The book is available via POD and e-book by ordering from this link.
For more information see the International Campaign Against Honour Killings and the Nothing But Red blog.
GeekPunk – the New Trend?
A while back on SF Awards Watch we posted about The Brief Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao, a book which today has been revealed as the winner of this year’s Pulitzer Prize for fiction. From the novella published in The New Yorker it does seem like Junot DÃaz is a really good writer, but equally poor Oscar is a really pathetic nerd. I mean, Blake’s 7??? (That will get me into trouble.)
Anyway, it appears that DÃaz is not alone, and if the New York Times can use the deaths of two old men who happen to blog as proof that blogging is bad for your health then surely I can use two books about nerds to claim evidence of a startling new trend in mainstream literature.
The other book is All Shall Be Well; and All Shall Be Well; and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well (yes, that is the title) by Tod Wodicka. There’s more about it on GalleyCat, but the important evidence is as follows:
Burt, the novel’s protagonist, is a vehemently faithful medieval reenactor, who dresses in handmade garb and refuses to drink coffee because it’s “out of period.” He tries to give up all his possessions and journey to Prague to reconcile with his estranged son, but don’t let your sympathy build up just yet. “I wanted Burt to be an unlikable asshole,” Wodicka says, “and in the earlier drafts, he was even more of one than he is now.”
(Note to Mr. Scalzi – I think “Burt” is the character’s first name, though I could be wrong.)
So there you have it. Two data points, so it must indicate a new literary movement, right? As to why? Well, obviously some of these mainstream types are running scared. They have seen how successful SF is these days, and how other mainstream authors are using SF themes in their work in a desperate attempt to stay relevant in today’s technology-obsessed world. Rather than give up and join the flow, they are busily writing books about how awful those SF types are in a desperate attempt to turn the tide.
Well, that’s my theory anyway, and I think it holds up at least as well as the NYT one about the dangers of blogging does (if not a lot more so). Now if you’ll excuse me I’m off to write a proposal for a novel about a greedy entrepreneurial geek who makes a fortune running science fiction conventions for his sad, nerdy friends but gets into blogging and dies of a heart attack at 25.
More Guardian Bloggery
Over at the Guardian book blog Sam Jordison continues his quest to review every Hugo-winning novel. He is now up to 1958, which means Fritz Leiber’s The Big Time, a book about time travel which, as one of the commenters points out, managed to have a picture of Amy Winehouse on the cover even though she hadn’t been born when it was published. There’s not a lot else to report, but do get on over there and bump up the hit counts, otherwise poor Sam might get the plug pulled on his series before he gets a chance to read some of the better Hugo winners.
Thunderer
This one was always going to be pretty much a slam dunk. It is edited by Juliet Ulman, Jeff VanderMeer has been enthusing about it for some time, all the signs were good; and they were right. Some people may find Thunderer a bit slow, but it has a lovely vision of the fantasy city that somehow connects Viriconium and New Crobuzon to the Multiverse without ever seeming derivative. Ignore the “a novel of high fantasy” on the cover – there’s not an elf or knight or princess in the book; just a bunch of thieves and intellectuals. Here’s a quick quote for you:
“That’s the true face of evil in this city,” Olympia said. “The true modern monster works entirely through disingenuous statement to the press.”
I would have liked to see Arjun on the cover though.
Mapping Through Time
Every so often you are in the middle of a book and you see a news story that just seems to belong with it. So here am I reading Felix Gilman’s Thunderer, and here are the Long Now folks talking about a project at UCLA that produces computerized maps that not only show how a city is now, but how it has changed through time. Professor Holbach would be fascinated, I suspect.
A Brazilian on Brasyl
One of the things that always worries authors (and reviewers) is setting a book in a far away place and then discovering you got it all wrong. It is worrying for the author, because he may end up offending a lot of people, and it is worrying for the reviewer because she can’t tell if the author has done a superb job or is going to end up with egg on his face. Emerald City closed before I got to read Brasyl, but had I written a review I would have made worried noises about how the book would be received in a country that I know has a love of science fiction. Well, I need worry no longer. Thanks to the magic of Facebook, I now have a friend in Brazil, and he loved the book. Money shot:
Through three main characters, both believable an empathic, McDonald explores the nature of Brazilian people. Even if he hasn’t lived in Brazil, doing his research in a couple of visits to São Paulo, Bahia and the Amazon, and reading the few books about Brazil available in English, McDonald was able to capture, with amazing precision, the Brazilian spirit. And he did this without clichés, without hullabaloos, but with critical observations regarding the importance Brazilian people gives to beauty, soccer and TV. Besides, geographically everything is right and linguistically, it is better than most foreigners trying the language of Camões.
I note also this this is the only review of Brasyl I have read that acknowledges the fact that the hero of one of the three strands, Edson Jesus Oliveira de Freitas, is both bisexual and a transvestite. Gary Wolfe noted one of them. Everyone else has either been blind to this or has chosen to ignore it.
Anyway, congratulations to Ian, Hugo voters please take note, and a small raspberry to the Clarke Jury.
War on Bookstores
Paula Guran has some very disturbing news about a new law in Indiana. Paula’s link to the original story is broken, but you can find it here. The Indianapolis Star also has coverage.