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Archive for April, 2009
Ian R MacLeod’s Song of Time takes home the Clarke Award!
Posted by Paul Raven on April 30th, 2009 at 13:03
Yes indeed – it was my great privilege to be at the Apollo Cinema by Piccadilly Circus last night for the 2009 Arthur C Clarke Award ceremony, and my great thrill to hear the winner announced as Ian R MacLeod for Song of Time.
And if it was a thrill for me, you can believe it was even more so for others – Ian himself seemed genuinely shocked and humbled to have won, and gave one of the briefest and most heartfelt acceptance speeches I think I’ve ever witnessed, while Pete spent the rest of the evening wandering around with the dazed but happy look of a man who isn’t sure whether or not he’s dreaming, but who has no wish to wake if he is.
So, on behalf of PS Publishing, I’d like to once again extend our congratulations to Ian, as well as to all the other authors and publishers nominated for the award – as was pointed out at the ceremony, the Arthur C Clarke Awards are primarily about celebrating great science fiction, and in that respect everyone was a winner, regardless of the name in the envelope.
Once Pete returns to PS HQ tomorrow, he should have some congratulatory words to share; so please consider this a placeholder sent ahead of a more erudite and qualified spokesman! But I know I’m safe in saying that Pete and all of the PS Publishing crew are about as proud as we could be right now. :)
Starfall pratfall: Paul McAuley’s missing introduction to Baxter’s Starfall
Posted by Paul Raven on April 30th, 2009 at 9:00
Here’s a classic example of the inherent dangers in being a publisher. While at EasterCon, our illustrious chief was resting from the rigours of the dealer’s room when a very mischievous-looking Paul McAuley marched up to him wagging a finger. “You are in such trouble,” he announced.
It turns out that Pete had arranged for Paul to write an introduction to Stephen Baxter’s new novella Starfall , which he duly did… back in August 2007. Then Pete promptly forgot all about it – a mistake which I am reliably informed cost him dearly at the hotel bar! Anyway, after a severe telling-off, Paul took it all in his stride – and now we’re running the missing introduction right here, so enjoy.
***
Many science fiction authors have written serial stories or novels that share the same backdrop and characters, but only a handful have constructed meticulously imagined, chronologically consistent future histories that link individual stories or novels into a framework encompassing substantial vistas of time, space, and human development and transformation. The first true future history was created by Olaf Stapledon in his novels Last and First Men, Last Men in London, and The Star Maker, starting in the teeming metropolis at the heart of the British Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century, and accelerating through aeons and galaxies to a final encounter with the being at the heart of creation. It’s a masterpiece, but a chilly one, its story of the evolution of symbiotic cosmic consciousness visionary but remote. A few years later, in the pages of Astounding Science Fiction magazine, Robert A. Heinlein charted a smaller scale but no less ambitious future history that, beginning the day after tomorrow, conscientiously chronicled mankind’s climb from the cradle of the Earth to the near stars. The long evolutionary and cosmological perspectives of Stapledon (and H.G. Wells) have been absorbed and developed by many British writers, most notably Arthur C. Clarke, and Greg Bear and Robert Reed have given them an American slant, but Heinlein’s model has provided the blueprint for most subsequent science fictional future histories, because it easily accommodates the kind of genre-friendly stories of enterprise and boldness that are dwarfed to irrelevance to Stapledon’s cosmological Agape. The future histories of Poul Anderson, James Blish, C.J. Cherryh, and Larry Niven, amongst others, derive much of their structures and tropes from Heinlein’s pioneering framework. The Xeelee Sequence, the future history created by British author Stephen Baxter (like Stapledon, he was born in Liverpool), owes something to Heinlein, too, but Baxter has skilfully blended vigorous straight-from-the-heart-of-genre narratives of bootstrap ascension and hard SF extrapolation with Stapledonian perspectives to create something new and different: an ambitious and ferociously detailed future history whose span is no less than that of the entire universe, from the Big Bang twenty billion years ago, through some ten billion years of human history, to the long, slow dying of the light that dwindles away into timelike infinity.
The universe of the Xeelee Sequence teems with life: life, and the evolution of self-aware consciousness, are part of its fundamental properties. Life arises wherever it can and invariably gives rise to Mind; Mind seeks to spread everywhere and to survive for as long as possible. And by everywhere, I mean everywhere: an entire civilisation evolves and seeks refuge in the yoctoseconds after the Big Bang before symmetry is broken and the laws of physics crystallise; other strange and wonderful empires rise and fall before the quagma froth cools enough to allow creation of baryonic and dark matter, and the beginning of a great war between the Xeelee, powerful champions of life based on ordinary atoms and electrons, and the patient and inscrutable dark matter photino birds. Twenty billion years pass before the war between the Xeelee and the photino birds intersects with human history, and humans painstakingly claw their way up from the status of lowly pawns in the hands of enigmatic and casually cruel aliens to great players on the universal stage.
Of that very first species of intelligent being, the monads, Baxter remarks ‘[they] cared nothing for humans, of course, or for quagmites, or Xeelee, or photino birds, or any of the rest of the universe’s menagerie at this or any other age. But they like their universes to have story; and it was living things that generated the most interesting sagas.’ It could stand as a credo for the entire Xeelee sequence. Stephen Baxter doesn’t shrink from tackling the dismayingly inhuman implications of vast abysses of past or future time, but the universality of life introduces perspective, motion and plot into every part of his Stapledonian cosmological framework. It’s great, heady, mind-bending stuff, meticulously mapped onto cutting edge speculations about the birth pangs of the universe and the ultimate fate of all known time and space, constantly enlivened and driven forward by the narratives that its vast range of life generates.
Baxter introduced the Xeelee Sequence in 1987 with his first published short story, ‘The Xeelee Flower’, and explored its entire timeline in four novels (Raft, Timelike Infinity, Flux and Ring) and more than twenty short stories that were later linked and expanded into the novel Vacuum Diagrams. These early works fully embody his virtues: a swift narrative pace; transparent, uncluttered prose; vivid characters defined by action rather than introspection; and above all, accomplished and imaginative exploration, expansion and reworking of SF’s core themes. His characters contest for living space with a panoply of bizarre aliens in a galaxy crammed with ancient wonders and secret histories; his stories reinvent the baroque excesses of space opera and brace them with imaginative exploration of ideas from stellar zoology, cosmology, quantum theory, exotic mathematics, and much else. Narratives froth with moments of shock and awe, and those sudden reversals of scale that induce the metaphysical dizziness sometimes called sense of wonder. Sentences stride confidently across centuries; paragraphs encompass millennia. Individual voices carry the story forwards, but the story is always bigger than the individuals who are caught up in it. And these voices often have a distinctively British accent. Baxter’s sympathies more often lie with chippy but doggedly competent scientists, engineers, and common soldiers than officers, self-made billionaires, or politicians of any stripe; there are overt references to Brunel and echoes of the history and equipage of the British Empire; and above all, his narratives are infused with an elegiac tone characteristic of British SF. While there’s a constant sense of the indefatigable endurance of human spirit characteristic of genre narrative, it isn’t the can-do optimism and frontier heroism of much American SF, but a calm and sober perspective that wryly acknowledges its small but significant place in the cosmological drama. In the long run, time triumphs over all.
In addition to the novels and stories of the first iteration of the Xeelee Sequence, Stephen Baxter has also published the Victorian alternate history Anti-Ice, and The Time Ships, a very fine hard SF sequel to H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine. He’s written a trilogy of novels based on extrapolations of NASA plans and technology; a series about a species of intelligent mammoth; an alternate near-future trilogy revolving around a space entrepreneur; and a stand-alone novel, Evolution, that chronicles the story of the development of the human species from dinosaur-dodging burrowers to simplified descendants. He’s also published novels in collaboration with Arthur C. Clarke, a biography of the pioneering Scottish geologist James Hutton, and is currently working on a series of counterfactual historical novels. The list is by no means comprehensive. Restless, energetic, and ambitious, he is fast becoming the contemporary default voice of British SF. And in addition to all of the above, he’s also returned to the Xeelee Sequence, with yet more stories, the Destiny’s Children quartet, and now this, the novella you hold in your hands.
Starfall is set during the expansion era, when human beings have just begun to venture onto the starry stage. It’s A.D. 4771. Twenty billion years ago, the war between the Xeelee and the photino birds began. A billion years ago, photino birds infested Earth’s sun. About 1700 years ago, the Solar System was opened up by the development of wormhole technology, and exploration of the near stars began. Now, Earth rules a fragile but tyrannical interstellar empire, and its colonist subjects have begun to fight back, planning a war that will span fifty years. Those who have followed part or all of the Xeelee Sequence so far will find intriguing hints of the past and future history of the human enterprise; new readers will discover a story, bristling with refurbished space opera tropes and original ideas, that crisply delineates and dispatches vast ventures and springs more than a few surprises along the way.
It’s time to put away the programme.
Overture.
Curtain.
Lights…
Paul McAuley
London, August 2007
Wednesday reviews roundup for 29th April
Posted by Paul Raven on April 29th, 2009 at 12:20
Well, it’s all high excitement here in Camp PS – tonight sees the Arthur C Clarke Award ceremony taking place in London, and we get to find out whether Ian R MacLeod’s Song of Time has made the grade!
But excitement aside, there are duties to be fulfilled – it’s Wednesday, which means it’s time to round up the last week of review coverage. Onwards!
Let’s kick off with Stephen Baxter‘s new Xeelee novella, Starfall. The Fix‘s Ziv Wities found one of the plot twists a bit frustrating, but provides the following summary:
Earth has established an empire among the stars, but Imperial rule is paranoid and tyrannical. The novella describes the colonists’ rebellion against Earth – a massive military operation that must be carried out in total stealth, and under relativistic speeds. For the rebellion to have any chance of success, the final preparations must be made 60 years before the first shot will be fired, and no one can be allowed to uncover it in the meantime…
This setup makes for an exciting tactical exercise, for building suspense as the day of open attack draws near, for exciting, unusual space battles, and for depicting the calculating minds necessary to wage war under such conditions – as well as the harsh circumstances that compel them to do so. In all these, Baxter does an excellent job, and any reader who likes space battles, tension, and scientific speculation should enjoy the book greatly.
Aaron Wilson of the Soulless Machine Reviews blog was unreservedly enthusiastic, however:
There is a lot of story packed into this 89-page novella, a story of galactic war full of intricate battle plans and last minute strategy that will consume you, pull you through the plot, as a black hole devours time and space. Told from multiple perspectives that keep you guessing as the story unfolds, you are transported into a multi-world future that doesn’t know the danger that exists in a shimmering pool of mathematical possibilities that resides in one of Earth most protected bunkers deep be bellow one its most populous cities.
That’s Baxter for you – high-grade big-canvas sensawunda science fiction, every time.
Next we have a triptych of reviews from Stephen Theaker of the eponymous Theaker’s Quarterly, now up to issue #28. He’s been reading and enjoying Sebastien Doubinsky‘s Babylonian Trilogy:
Overall, a well-written, exciting and thought-provoking book. It’s a book I suspect I won’t really understand until I read what other people have to say about it, but that wasn’t a barrier to enjoying it, and the sense that it will repay further consideration is a good thing: a book that you know you’ve probably misunderstood is much better than one that leaves you thinking, glad I’m done with that!
Joe Hill‘s Gunpowder also made a big impression:
… now science fiction fans can find out what all the fuss is about. This superb novella took hold of my attention from the very first page and never released it. If I didn’t read it in a single sitting, I’ve no memory of what else I was doing that day! It’s a familiar scenario – gifted kids and the military that wants to exploit them – but the writing is so wonderful, the character touches so exquisite, the narrative so brilliantly focused.
The story starts out small – the relationships between the boys and their handler/mother – but opens out to so much more. I won’t say what, because it should all come as a surprise – but it’s all cool stuff. It’s tragic, moving, epic and glorious, and all in a mere eighty pages.
As did The Witnesses Are Gone by Joel Lane:
… this is a brilliant book. It combines perfectly certain English, American and Japanese traditions of horror, as exemplified by M.R. James, Lovecraft and Hideo Nakata. But this isn’t a Frankenstein monster of influences sewn together; somehow Lane makes it seem as if they were all part of the same tradition in the first place [...] Perhaps the book’s biggest achievement is that you’re left wanting to see the films described, despite the inevitable consequences for your sanity…
This was a superb book, one that I read in a single sitting; I refused to let myself sleep until I’d reached the end. And once I’d reached the end, I found it very difficult to sleep…
And that, I suspect, is what every horror writer longs to hear someone say about their work.
Finally we’ve got a few ‘retro’ reviews of older titles. Liviu Suciu of Fantasy Book Critic explores Rhys Hughes‘ Crystal Cosmos, billing it as an ‘overlooked masterpiece novella’:
Dense and worth at least one re-read, I liked this novella a lot, but I felt a bit cheated of a masterpiece since 80 pages are just not enough to do justice to the wealth of ideas introduced here.
[...]
Highly, highly recommended if you can get a hold of a copy.
Elsewhere, Kent Allard of the alarmingly-named Dead in the South blog sings the praises of Justice and Wilbanks‘ Dead Earth: The Green Dawn.
Dead Earth: The Green Dawn is a superlative addition to the current zombie-fiction trend. Set in the New Mexico of the near future (2048), it is a story from the perspective of a young sheriff’s deputy named Jubal Slate, as he watches his world come to an end. An infection breaks out, from a disputed source (A military experiment gone wrong? An alien invasion?). Jubal doesn’t know how it begins; he just has to deal with its effects. He watches as a wave of illness sweeps his beloved town, people sicken and die, and then are resurrected as zombies. (Flouting a horror convention, the zombies are referred to as such in this story.) All Jubal can do is try to escape with his fiancée. The story is exhilarating, shocking and funny.
The one complaint I would register is it’s too short. However, this is billed as the prelude to subsequent books, and I’m eager to see them.
And that’s about it for this week. As always, click on the cover art to be taken directly to the catalogue page for any of the books above, or just pop over to the PS webstore to have a browse.
And don’t forget that the current upgrades on anniversary gift boxes will expire on the turn of the month, which means that if you want to get nine PS novels for a bargain price with a trade copy of Secret Histories as the tenth title, you’ve only got a day left to make your order!
- Nine trade novels, plus a trade edition of Secret Histories – £100 [US$150 approx.]
- Nine slipcased novels, plus a trade edition of Secret Histories – £200 [US$300 approx.]
Recent acquisitions
Posted by Paul Raven on April 28th, 2009 at 15:20
We thought it was high time we told you about the latest stories and books we’ve bought for future publication. So, feast your eyes on this little list of top genre fiction talent:
- Terra Damnata – a novella by James Cooper
- The Boys are Back in Town – a reprint of Christopher Golden‘s wonderful time-travel novel, with additional material
- A double-collection from Carol Emshwiller in the style of the old Ace Doubles, with introductions from Ursula Le Guin and Phyllis Eisenstein
- A PS Showcase collection from Rjurik Davidson
- A PS Showcase collection from Rio Youers
- The Lives of the Savages – a ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ novella by Robert Edric
- Transparent Lovers – a novella by Scott Nicholson
- Cinema Futura edited by Mark Morris – an all-SF-movie follow-up to Mark’s Cinema Macabre
- Long Shadows, Nightmare Light – a collection from Mark Morris with an intro by Christopher Golden
- Gorel and the Pot-Bellied God – a novella by Lavie Tidhar
- an as yet untitled collection by Catherynne M. Valente
- The House of Canted Steps – a novel by Gary Fry
- Clowns at Midnight – a novel by Terry Dowling
- Dark Eden – a novel by Chris Beckett
- Eater-of-Bone – a collection of novellas from Robert Reed
- Quartet and Triptych – a novella by Matt Hughes
- It Happened in New York – an anthology edited by Harrison Howe
- Shaka II – a novella by Mike Resnick
As you can see, plenty to look forward to! Frankly, I don’t know how Pete manages to get anything done at all with the amount of awesome material he gets sent to read; I suspect he has either a time dilation device or a brace of clones stashed in the office…
We’re going to make a monthly feature of announcements like this, so keep your eyes peeled to see if we snap up a new gem from one of your favourites!
Wednesday reviews roundup for 22nd April
Posted by Paul Raven on April 22nd, 2009 at 14:01
Wednesday rolls round once again… where is this year going so quickly, I ask you? Epistemological musings aside, here’s a handful of recent PS reviews from the blogosphere.
First up, Liviu Suciu waxes lyrical about Sebastien Doubinsky’s Babylonian Trilogy at Fantasy Book Critic:
The Babylonian Trilogy is just a plain weird but mesmeric book made out of three independent but interconnected novellas all taking places in a modern but “fantastic” city of the title which is a mixture of an European contemporary city and an US metropolis.
[...]
Overall I enjoyed tremendously The Babylonian Trilogy and while it is definitely not for everyone, I highly, highly recommend it for connoisseurs of fine literature of the absurd, weird and fantastic.
For me Sebastien Doubinsky instantly became an author to follow based on this magnificent work.
They don’t come much more unequivocal than that!
Next up, Charles Tan tucks in to The Painting and The City by PS’s very own Robert Freeman Wexler:
On one hand, it’s difficult to talk about Robert Freeman Wexler‘s prose because it doesn’t easily fit most categories. On the other hand, this fresh voice is a welcome reprieve from the typical styles one is acquainted with. And it’s not immediately evident how Wexler succeeds in making his prose effective. For example, a good chunk of the novel is exposition, whether it’s the setting to the description of the characters. But it’s not intrusive or boring and sustains your interest. The effect it produces isn’t exactly one where The Painting and the City is an adrenaline-pumping novel, keeping you awake until the wee hours of the morning, but rather it has a hypnotic appeal that’s both soothing and disturbing (especially later on in the book).
[...]
Wexler conjures an unfamiliar but welcome atmosphere as well as combining elements of literary fiction with genre. There’s a layer of sophistication and complexity in The Painting and the City but at the same time, one can simply enjoy it on the most basic of levels.
Charles also has an interview with Paul Di Filippo, discussing (among other topics) his recent PS Publishing collection Harsh Oases:
“Humor is my baseline response to the world. Class-clown in elementary school, yippie joker in high school, and so on. I have to work to DEVIATE from humor! “Life is too important to be taken seriously,” is my motto. Humor alleviates the continual suffering and grief and angst we all experience. Think about this analogy: are you more grateful for Springsteen’s “Rosalita” or his “Tom Joad”…?”
And finally there’s a review of Will Elliott‘s circus-psych-horror debut The Pilo Family Circus by Maud Newton at the NPR website:
In her glowing introduction to Australian writer Will Elliott’s gripping debut, The Pilo Family Circus, [Katherine] Dunn offers comparisons to Kafka, Chandler, Swift, Orwell, King and The Three Stooges. The blend may be hard to conceptualize, but Elliott’s story of a young man unwillingly inducted into a lethal clown act mixes horror, satire and slapstick into a brutal but timeless parable.
[...]
The force of the story is almost entirely psychological. The Pilo Family Circus invites the reader to consider where anyone, when pressured — and given the power — to do great evil would draw lines. At night, when JJ takes off his face paint, Jamie weeps as he remembers everything his darker twin has done. Luckily, he is paid for his work in strange white powder that helps him forget, for a time. Still, the incompatibility between the two selves continues to mount. In the circus, as in life, it is not clear until the end which side of his character will prevail.
Newton was covering the Underland Press paperback edition; the PS Publishing edition contains exactly the same story, but bound and presented with our accustomed (and some might say obsessional) attention to quality… an ideal collector’s edition of a first novel by a writer destined to do big things.
###
As always, click on the cover art to be taken directly to the catalogue page for any of the books above, or just pop over to the PS webstore to have a browse… and pay special attention to our Anniversary Gift Box offers!
As announced at the beginning of the month, the ten-novel Gift Boxes have been upgraded (for the month of April only) by one of the random ten books being exchanged for a trade edition of Secret Histories, John Berlyne’s long-anticipated bibliography of Tim Powers. Which is, quite frankly, a ridiculous bargain, and this offer will not be repeated – so go take advantage before we come to our senses!
- Nine trade novels, plus a trade edition of Secret Histories – £100 [US$150 approx.]
- Nine slipcased novels, plus a trade edition of Secret Histories – £200 [US$300 approx.]
More Catastrophia acceptances
Posted by Paul Raven on April 21st, 2009 at 13:05
Here’s the latest news from Allen Ashley, still hard at work on his Catastrophia anthology (which is due to be published by PS in late 2010). Take it away, Allen:
I have accepted two more stories for this exciting anthology. The stories are “Happy Ending” by Simon Clark and “A Hard Place” by Carole Johnstone. Simon should need no introduction as he is the author of many fine novels including Blood Crazy and Night of the Triffids (the official sequel to the John Wyndham classic); Carole is a newer British author who has recently featured in Black Static (TTA Press).
The anthology is now half full or better, depending on how many words I use in my editorial. I’m replying to everybody within the three-month deadline. So, thank you to all of you for your patience, especially those authors from whom I’ve requested rewrites or more time in which to make a decision. The submission period closes on 31st May 2009; any stories received after that date will not be considered.
So, you’ve got a little more than a month if you want to submit a story for consideration! But make sure you read the full submission guidelines first, won’t you? Good luck!
PS Publishing titles nominated for Shirley Jackson Awards
Posted by Paul Raven on April 16th, 2009 at 14:39
The shortlist for the 2008 Shirley Jackson Awards has just been announced, and yet again we’re very pleased to see a couple of PS publications in the line-up.
Darrell Schweitzer‘s Living With the Dead is in the running for Best Novella, and Jeff VanderMeer‘s The Situation is up for Best Novelette; you can catch the entire list at the Shirley Jackson Awards website. There are some real heavy hitters in all the categories, and it promises to be a close contest – so bravo to all the nominees, and best of luck!
Wednesday reviews round-up for 15th April
Posted by Paul Raven on April 15th, 2009 at 14:14
To be fair, it’s a bit of a stretch to label this a ’round-up’, as there’s only one review to share this week. But that’s not really surprising given the Easter holiday has just been and gone, right?
If you want to split hairs, though, you could call this three reviews… though they’re all on the same webpage and about the same book. The title in question is Sebastien Doubinsky‘s Babylonian Trilogy; here are some snippets from the reviews:
Read this book! I would have been thoroughly impressed by it even if I wasn’t given the great pleasure of creating its cover art for PS Publishing. Assuming I was fortunate enough to stumble upon it without that incredible assignment. Lucky me. Possibly lucky you, if you pre-order this title from PS Publishing this minute. Right now. No, that can wait. This can’t. Tick tock. Tap tap tap. Now, for piss sake!
And:
Overall I enjoyed tremendously The Babylonian Trilogy and while it is definitely not for everyone, I highly, highly recommend it for connoisseurs of fine literature of the absurd, weird and fantastic.
For me Mr. Doubinsky instantly became an author to follow based on this magnificent work.
And:
… a well-written, exciting and thought-provoking book. It’s a book I suspect I won’t really understand until I read what other people have to say about it, but that wasn’t a barrier to enjoying it, and the sense that it will repay further consideration is a good thing: a book that you know you’ve probably misunderstood is much better than one that leaves you thinking, glad I’m done with that!
In summary, then: The Babylonian Trilogy is weird, but it’s all the more awesome for that. So click on the cover art and buy yourself a copy!
Wednesday reviews round-up for 8th April
Posted by Paul Raven on April 8th, 2009 at 14:02
Crikey, it’s Wednesday again already! Where does the time go?
Philosophical musings on the variable velocity of time’s arrow aside, it’s time to collect up the past week’s review coverage of PS Publishing titles. We’ll start with a couple of mentions for John Grant‘s police-procedural-with-a-twist, The City in These Pages. First of all, Brian of Bookspot Central says:
The City in These Pages is a mix of SF/F and a McBain-esque police procedural. Mixed in with this is a healthy dose of absurd. Most of the story is like an oil & vinegar dressing that has been shaken really well because the elements of the story are blended really well. But the separation of the dressing occurs when the story takes a veer at the end that may shake some readers; It’s a fairly abrupt moment that changes the story into something else entirely.
Meanwhile Kent Knopp-Schwyn of Hellnotes has this to say:
The City in These Pages is replete with snappy dialogue and sharp repartee between Pincus and Moto, the two lead detectives investigating a string of hilariously grisly murders in 14th Precinct of New Amsterdam. As this is a PS Publication, the reader constantly expects something new or fantastic around every corner or that the tale takes place on a far-flung world set in some strange new universe. Instead, Mr. Grant provides just enough detail to keep the reader off balance continually guessing as to where and when the story actually takes place.
[snip]
Very cagily, Mr. Grant, drops in concepts and ideas about the cosmology of existence that call into question the very existence of the fictional world of which he writes. Particularly, these notions call into question the actual nature and reality of New Amsterdam and all the characters therein. In the end, the resolution to the solution to the mystery and the discovery of the killer’s identity is less important than the story itself and the reader’s enjoyment thereof. Make no mistake; this is a very brisk and enjoyable read – effective on many different levels.
You can’t say fairer than that, eh? And now we’ll move on to a very different sort of procedural mystery, as Gumshoe Review takes a look at The Last Book, the latest novella from Serbian metafictional master Zoran Živković:
Živković has indeed given the reader a convoluted, complex, and absorbing mystery with all the elements of the classic mystery. Since the story is from Lukić’s point of view, we know what he knows and how he feels about the other characters. But, as the reader, we’re free to reinterpret his observations to fit the facts as we’ve learned them. No matter how you interpret what has happened and what you believe will happen, you’ll find yourself pulled deeper and deeper into the mystery. What is killing these readers? What is happening to the book they were reading? Is it a re-enactment of The Name of the Rose? If not, then what is going on?
Always the story morphs, changes, moves the characters about, plays with our expectations, and finally reveals the answers in such a way that you’re not sure you should believe your eyes.
And hey, look – not all of our reviews come from the internet! Here’s Gary K Wolfe in the latest issue of Locus on Paul Witcover‘s Everland & Other Stories:
As Elizabeth Hand points out in her introduction to Paul Witcover’s collection Everland and Other Stories, Witcover’s fiction has been “fearless in its refusal to remain locked inside the borders of genre” since his first published story in 1984—long before genre slippage had become the stuff of movements and manifestos—and if his name isn’t one of the first that comes to mind when such movements are discussed, it’s probably his own fault. His rate of short fiction production is just short of tectonic; four of the twelve stories here originally appeared in the 1980s, three appeared in the intervening decades, and five are original to this collection. Having five Witcover stories appear all at once, by his standard of prolificacy, would seem to officially count as a something of a fit. Fortunately, it’s a fit we should be glad to witness…
[snip]
At his best, when he avoids contrivance and lets the story find its own logic—as he does here, in “Left of the Dial,” and in varying degree in most of the tales in Everland and Other Stories, Witcover convinces us that he’s a voice we’d like to hear far more from, and one who, but for the sparsity of his output, might well be thought of in terms comparable to Elizabeth Hand, Jeffrey Ford, and a handful of others involved in renegotiating the uses of the fantastic.
That’s a pretty strong recommendation right there. And talking of strong recommendations, Graham Sleight at Strange Horizons is bedazzled by the contents of Powers: Secret Histories, calling it:
… a labour of love, and nearly perfect in what it chooses to do.
The first 170-odd pages are mainly taken up with a Powers bibliography, divided into three sections: novels, short fiction, and material by “William Ashbless,” the fictional poet who appears in The Anubis Gates and has been used as a pseudonym by Powers and James Blaylock. Each bibliography entry for a given work starts with its first edition, and then proceeds in chronological order through other editions, including non-English language ones. Many of these are represented by their cover art, nicely reproduced in colour. The bibliographic listing itself is astonishingly accurate—I could find no errors or gaps in it—and will surely be a basic reference for Powers scholars. Berlyne is especially assiduous at noting when states of a particular book are rare, and he clearly has collectors in mind for much of his approach.
… the second half of Powers, which gathers together juvenilia and early material for Powers’s novels. The greatest amount of text is on The Anubis Gates, a book where it seems the author went down a number of blind alleys before arriving at its final form. Powers presents both a substantial excerpt from a first pass at this material, “To Serve in Hell” (pp. 223-277) and then a chunk of the “proper” first draft of the novel (pp. 285-304). There’s also a full outline of the book and reproduced manuscript pages. Other books get similar treatment, though not at such length. The text is often enlivened with Powers’s drawings, which he seems to use to give himself an early visual sense what characters look like. Throughout, Powers is thoughtfully designed, presenting text and illustrations so that each reinforces the other’s argument.
Seriously: if you’re a geek for Tim Powers, you owe it to yourself to buy a copy of this book. Years in the making by a card-carrying Powers obsessive and packed with the sort of material that collectors can usually only dream of seeing (let alone owning), it’s a treasure-trove of awesomeness.
And speaking of treasure troves, genre fiction ubercritic John Clute has good things to say about the forthcoming The Very Best of Gene Wolfe:
Each of these tales, and almost all of the other work assembled in The Best of Gene Wolfe, expands like fractal origami under the gaze; there is no room in a review (which must stop before it properly starts) to do more than point.
What is pointed at is each word. The only way to read Gene Wolfe is to knock first, to glue your eyes to the carapace and peer into the world inside, like a blind man suddenly gifted with sight. The only way to read Gene Wolfe is to read Gene Wolfe.
In truth, Clute is talking about the regular trade run of this collection that Tor have just released, but he mentions that our version also includes the exclusive story Christmas Inn that Wolfe wrote for PS back in 2007 and an introductory essay by no less a luminary than Kim Stanley Robinson. If you’re a die-hard Wolfe fan – or perhaps just looking to a convenient introduction to his shorter works – this is an indispensable title. So order now while stocks remain; pre-orders on this book are going very briskly indeed!
And to close the proceedings for the week, a couple of shorties. At SF Revu, there’s a brief mention of Christopher Golden‘s special pamphlet story, The Hiss of Escaping Air:
A nicely told tale of jealousy, anger, and revenge. The ending is a bit of a surprise and leaves you wondering what will happen next — or even if something will happen.
Meanwhile, Liviu Suciu at Fantasy Book Critic is extremely impressed by Douglas Smith‘s PS Showcase collection, Impossibilia:
If you can get hold of this relatively rare collection you will truly enjoy it. Highly, highly recommended.
Phew!
As always, click on the cover art to be taken directly to the catalogue page for any of the books above, or just pop over to the PS webstore to have a browse… and pay special attention to our Anniversary Gift Box offers!
As announced last week, the ten-novel Gift Boxes have been upgraded (for the month of April only) by one of the random ten books being exchanged for a trade edition of Secret Histories, John Berlyne’s long-anticipated bibliography of Tim Powers. Which is, quite frankly, a ridiculous bargain – so go take advantage before we come to our senses!
- Nine trade novels, plus a trade edition of Secret Histories – £100 [US$150 approx.]
- Nine slipcased novels, plus a trade edition of Secret Histories – £200 [US$300 approx.]
And if you’re at Eastercon this coming weekend, be sure to say hi to the PS Publishing gang… who will be found mostly in the dealer’s room and the bar, I’d guess! :)
Wednesday review roundup for 1st April
Posted by Paul Raven on April 1st, 2009 at 18:53
I decide to skip last week’s reviews round-up as I only had one link to mention. Time has proven me wise (or at least wiser than I usually appear, which isn’t saying much), as the last few days have brought with them an avalanche of coverage. So, let’s get to it!
First up (and last week’s lone link), Andrew Monge of Horror Drive-In adds his voice to the growing chorus of praise for Joe Hill’s Gunpowder:
Hill does an exceptional job with characterization as well as detailing the relationships the boys share with their mother and each other, made all the more impressive considering the story is only 81 pages in length. The love and friendship they share feels genuine, and gives the latter parts of the story believability and emotional power.
Gunpowder is also one of three titles tackled by I E Lester at Polu Texni:
… quite dark in tone. If you imagine a cross between Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, Lord of the Flies and the X-Men you’re in pretty much the right area. A group of kids with “The Talent” make up a colony on an inhospitable world. Their job is to convert this world to one suitable for human habitation using their creative gifts. As you would expect though the military wants their powers to be put to an entirely different use.
The real strength of this story though isn’t its plot. In fact the developments are predictable. What makes this a winner though is its mood. Hill has taken you into the world of these kids; he makes you feel their world not just see it.
Lester also had good things to say about John Grant’s The City in These Pages:
Due to its sf overtones this is very unlikely to be read by traditional crime story fans. That’s a great shame for the majority of this book would be just their kind of thing. David Langford’s introduction compares this to Ed McBain’s tales of the 87th Precinct and it’s a very apt one.
But this comparison can also be extended to the classic PI novels. Grant has nailed the style down perfectly. It’s gritty yet full of humour. The city is a grim place and full of danger, yet people love it. You can imagine this is a world where people will compete to tell gory tales, each trying to outdo the next – trying to prove how their neighbourhood is more violent and more scary then everyone else’s. And running through it all is a mystery just as implausible and surreal yet easy to accept as any in the classic pulps.
And Terry Bisson’s Planet of Mystery:
… a cross between old-school science fiction – very much of the type you would have seen in the 1940s pulp magazines – and escapist fantasy. The first manned expedition to Venus reveals just about everything we knew about the planet was wrong and beneath the thick near-impenetrable cloud clover is an earth-like world populated by amazons and centaurs.
This reads like a modern version of an Edgar Rice Burroughs tale. It has the unashamed invention of a whole world, in this case a total re-imagining of Venus. But there is also a certain amount of the modern in the story. For one thing the mission commander doesn’t just accept this world. He questions himself, his sanity rather than just accept what he sees. And despite what seems a hopeless situation (having lost the landing craft) he never gives up on the mission and determines he will get back to Earth.
Elsewhere, Kelley Jensen of SF Crowsnest has been on a PS short fiction binge, starting with Paul Di Filippo’s Harsh Oases:
Anthologies put together by one author can be daunting – even your favourite writer can get a little monotonous after a while. Paul Di Filippo manages to surpass any of these preconceived notions with Harsh Oases, his 13th collection of short fiction.
[...]
There are nearly twenty stories in this collection and in an effort not to make my review as long as the book itself I’ve picked only a few highlights to touch upon. However, be sure not to miss “Personal Jesus”, which is worth reading not only because it’s a Depeche Mode song, and the final piece, a collaboration with Rudy Rucker, “Elves of the Subdimensions”.
(My copy of Harsh Oases is still sat on the shelf, taunting me for having not yet found the time to read it. It’s a hard life being a publicist for a genre publishing house, y’know… all you ever want to do is ignore your work and lock yourself in the stockroom for a few months. :) )
Furthermore, Ms Jensen tucked into Postscripts #17, the final issue to be classified as a magazine before #18 ushers in the era of Postscripts-as-anthology:
I find a good short story falls into two categories: There is the complete story, the novel miniaturised, which is a nearly perfect art form. These are hard to capture but constantly illustrated by such writers as Douglas Smith. Then there is the glimpse – short stories that briefly illustrate an idea that could become so much greater than themselves. These stories can re-visit beloved universes or travel to those we want to see again.
“A Prison Term Of A Thousand Years” by Adam Roberts is just such a story. Between prison terms of just over a thousand years (no, the title is not figurative) you are given glimpses of not only how the world changes in a thousand years, but how it can remain the same. By the second term of a thousand years, you figure out what he’s being imprisoned for.
All the stories in this collection piqued my interest in some way.
The Fix‘s Val Grimm also took a look at Postscripts #17, summarising its contents as follows:
Birds teach moral lessons in the jungle. Memorably awful family vacations mark an English boy’s summers. A long-lived man marvels at the society he missed. Bitter scientists compete for access to a dead inventor’s secrets. Weird and punnish events occur at the first ever World of Music Beyond Sense festival. Small gods haunt the boozy streets of Soho. During the French Revolution, hidden riches tempt an adventurer for hire. People hire out their brains while they sleep at night. Stories written by AIs outsell those by human authors. Two children have a memorable outing with their uncle. A ghostly visitation mars two siblings’ inheritance of a chest full of beautiful stones.
As is usual with reviews at The Fix, each story is dealt with individually. I hope you’ll forgive me for picking this bit out, though:
The standout in this issue of Postscripts is Ian R. MacLeod’s “The Camping Wainwrights.” Evocative language and imagery, metaphorical and psychological depth, and a carefully directed though seemingly meandering story thread all demonstrate his skill and thoughtfulness.
Well, you don’t make it onto the Clarke Award shortlist for just anything, y’know. ;)
Also at The Fix, Ziv Wities takes a look at Joel Lane‘s novella The Witnesses Are Gone and, while not finding it quite to his own taste, suggests it should do well with its target readers:
… I’m sure The Witnesses Are Gone will find its admirers. Fans of Lovecraftian horror will probably enjoy this story greatly, as will any reader who enjoys the suspense of anticipating where the next blow is about to fall. This is a novella which is exactly what it seems to be; if the general description appeals to you, I can safely venture that you won’t be disappointed.
And finally, Guardian blogger Sam Jordison rounds up the Clarke Award shortlist, with the following words about Ian R MacLeod’s Song of Time:
According to the Guardian’s own Eric Brown, McLeod is “one of the country’s very best literary SF writers” and this book has drawn comparisons ranging from Stendhal to Moorcock. It’s about an ageing musician of the future looking back on her long life against the backdrop of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan, and is supposed to contain lots of superb writing about music and a few less impressive passages about willies: “I stroked his resolutely flaccid penis”; “I can’t remember if I ever noticed before that penises could float”.
Don’t let the latter put you off though, because this is an outside contender.
Penis gags aside, being described as an outside contender is pretty high praise… but then the Clarke Award is renowned for never going quite the way anyone expects. It’s a cliché to say “it’s an honour just to be nominated”, but as with all clichés it has a root in truth. I know for a fact that Ian MacLeod, Pete and the whole team are over the moon for Song of Time to be on that list, regardless of whether it wins or not.
***
As always, click on the cover art to be taken directly to the catalogue page for any of the books above, or just pop over to the PS webstore to have a browse… and pay special attention to our Anniversary Gift Box offers!
As announced earlier today, the ten-novel Gift Boxes have been upgraded (for the month of April only) by one of the random ten books being exchanged for a trade edition of Secret Histories, John Berlyne’s long-anticipated bibliography of Tim Powers. Which is, quite frankly, a ridiculous bargain – so go take advantage before we come to our senses!
- Nine trade novels, plus a trade edition of Secret Histories – £100 [US$150 approx.]
- Nine slipcased novels, plus a trade edition of Secret Histories – £200 [US$300 approx.]
Powers: Secret Histories launching at Eastercon… and lurking in gift boxes!
Posted by Paul Raven on April 1st, 2009 at 12:00
Hi all;
Despite the fact that it’s still sweater-weather here on the Yorkshire coast, British summertime is now officially upon us (the clocks went forward one hour during the night) and so I’m now in my shorts until at least early November. Feels good.
Secret Histories on sale at Eastercon, plus limited edition artwork
As I type this, Easter is just 10 days away and with it, of course, EasterCon. We’re looking forward to it immensely, not least because we’re going to have copies of the trade edition of Secret Histories, John Berlyne’s gargantuan “much-more-than-a-mere-bibliography” bibliography of Tim Powers, available to tie in with Tim’s Guest of Honour appearance.
The books were printed last week and were bound and jacketed on Monday 30 March, so it’s fair to say they’ll be pretty much “hot off the press.” It’s just possible we’ll have a few copies of the multiple-signature two- and three-book editions there as well but we’re not promising that.
Those of you unable to attend Eastercon can still order your copy of Secret Histories through the PS Webstore – act now, before they all disappear!
- Ultra-limited deluxe three-volume edition
- Slipcased two-volume edition
- Limited single-volume edition
We’ll also have specially produced full-colour prints of Dirk Berger’s magnificent artwork for the book, signed by Dirk, Tim and John. These are limited to 12 of each of the eight designs and, costing just £25 apiece, they’re sure to be popular.
Secret Histories and Planet of Mystery as gift box upgrades
If you quite fancy a copy of Secret Histories but can’t bear to splash out the full price on just one book, you’ll want to take advantage of this month’s Gift Box upgrade.
For the month of April only, both of the novel Gift Boxes will include nine random titles of the specified format from our backlist PLUS one trade edition of Secret Histories.
This offer will not be repeated, and represents a massive bargain – make your order quickly before we change our minds!
- Nine trade novels, plus a trade edition of Secret Histories – £100 [ US$150 approx. ]
- Nine slipcased novels, plus a trade edition of Secret Histories – £200 [ US$300 approx. ]
The novella Gift Boxes are upgraded this month with Terry Bisson’s Planet of Mystery in the same edition as the other nine titles - another bargain price for a well-received novella by a master of the genre as one of ten deeply discounted books. Make an order right away!
- Ten trade novellas, including Terry Bisson’s Planet of Mystery – £40 [ US$60 approx. ]
- Ten jacketed hardcover novellas, including Terry Bisson’s Planet of Mystery – £100 [ US$150 approx. ]
New Xeelee novella from Stephen Baxter, plus more Eastercon bargains
Also due to be available at EasterCon is Stephen Baxter’s latest novella Starfall, a new outing into Steve’s popular Xeelee sequence. With just 100 pre-signed and jacketed £25 copies up for grabs, convention attendees will have the opportunity to get Steve to sign a copy of the 500 £12 trade editions for them. Those of you unable to attend can order as normal from the PS Webstore at the links below:
- Starfall by Stephen Baxter (hardcover) – £12 [ $US18 approx. ]
- Starfall by Stephen Baxter (signed and jacketed hardcover) – £25 [ $US37.50 approx. ]
And as if that weren’t enough, we’ll have a good-sized spread of recent PS titles out on display on Andy Richards’s tables… including a few convention-only special offers.
We’ve bought a few new books and a few new stories for Postscripts but we’ll tell you more about those a little farther down the road – suffice to say Postscripts-wise that unsigned copies of the first of the new-look bigger-sized editions should be ready by the end of April. We’re currently trying to track down one of the two signing sheets which seems to have gone adrift so the signed edition my not go out until May.
Also due in May is The Very Best Of Gene Wolfe… for which the 100-copy slipcased edition (additionally signed by Kim Stanley Robinson, whose 7,000-word essay on Wolfe’s work introduces the proceedings) is selling fast.
March newsletter giveaway recipients
Only one of our two randomly drawn email addresses responded to us in March; Angela Beckles of London was the lucky recipient of all three trade editions of Stephen King’s The Colorado Kid, but that means the slipcased edition of The Day it Rained Forever rolls over and joins this month’s prizes…
… namely two trade edition copies of Secret Histories itself! So keep an eye on your inbox – if you don’t notice the email about your name being drawn, you’ll miss out on your prize.
Stay well… and happy reading! And if you’re going to be at EasterCon, be sure to say Hi!
Best
Pete