Los Angelenes can attend a release party for Dani Kollin and Eytan Kollin’s Prometheus Award nominated novel, The Unincorporated Man, to be held May 26th at Barnes & Noble’s flagship store at the Grove.
Category: books (Page 16 of 18)
The current novel I’m reading is British writer George Mann’s Ghosts of Manhattan, a steampunk alternate history novel by Pyr Books set in early 20th century New York. So far two very interesting aspects in the first couple of chapters. The first is a snarky comment about politicians by a cop, the second that the protagonist is a superhero/vigilante who fights crime outside the law, much like Batman, Spider-Man and the like. I don’t know where the book will end up, but despite a few rough stylistic edges and odd cliches, it is holding my attention. I’m sure I’ll end up writing a review for the next Prometheus, if there is a next Prometheus. 
This weekend I received a massive review copy of a book, Sic Semper Tyranis. A novel by Seamus Branaugh subtitled “A novel of liberty and the future of America” this appears to be the first fiction publication from Silver Lake Publishing. Their web site currently does not have any information that I can find about the book, but as I have yet to crack the shrinkwrap, I know fairly little about the novel at the moment. I intend to review the novel for Prometheus, but its fairly long so I am not sure when the review will appear, though it should be sometime this year.
Recently Sunni Maravillosa posted about a new libertarian publisher, Near Space Press. Their first book is a novel by Carl Bussjaeger entitled Net Assets, in both e-book and trade paperback formats. Originally published in 2002, Net Assets was selected for the Freedom Book of the Month Award by FMN. It will be interesting to see the other books they intend to publish, and if there is a market still for libertarian science fiction.
Like Patton Oswalt, I have been reading Michael Shea since high school. That’s when I picked up a copy of the 1985 Grafton edition of A Quest for Simbilis, a novel originally published in 1974 by DAW (years later I would come across a copy of the first edition in a used book store for next to nothing). Shea’s first novel was an authorized sequel in Jack Vance’s Cugel universe, before Vance wrote his own sequel. As soon as I discovered Shea’s other books I bought copies, including the dark fantasy In Yana, The Touch of Undying, the Lovecraftian tale The Color Out of Time, and his uniquely own character, Nifft the Lean. In 1988 I bought the gorgeous Arkham House edition, Poylphemus. I also acquired some novellas published by various small presses, as well as the two Nifft sequels, The Mines of Behemoth and The A’rak. I reviewed the latter in Lawrence Person’s magazine NOVA Express. At one point I was trying to collect all of Shea’s short stories, until Centipede Press published all but two in The Autopsy and Others a few years ago, in a very handsome and expensive limited edition.
The I heard news last year that a new Shea novel was in the works, a hardcover edition called The Extra. Published in February 2010, this novel expands on the original 1987 short story (first collected in Polyphemus), about a futuristic movie set where people actually die as part of the movie concept. The extras are paid to battle deadly animatronic spiders the size of humans.
Expanding a short story into a novel is nothing new among sf writers. Dan Simmons turned a very short story into the massive novel Carrion Comfort in the late 1980s. But taking 20 years between the two forms probably is a little unusual. Would the times have changed too far for the story to work? In this case, even though the dystopian setting is more in tone with an Escape from New York/L.A. scenario, the non-stop action required by the characters is timeless. I read the book in one day, so compelled by the tense action and plot. A chapter into the book I stopped a re-read the short-story, just so see where it held to the original line and where it diverged. There were two major changes, one being the main character’s name, the other being a death that never happened in the novel. The background was a little confusing, with the Zoo and ‘rise people not clearly delineated. Still, the rest of the book was pre enjoyment.
Shea speaks about the novel in a brief interview, stating he is blending genres, from horror to sf, in his current fiction. This is true for many of his stories, such as “The Autopsy,” or “I, Said the Fly” and even “Polyphemus” where humans exploring another world encounter great horror that is merely “nature, red in tooth and claw.” That in itself contains an element of horror.
Shea is currently working on a the sequel to The Extra, called The Siege of Sunrise. He is a master of language and character, and the tense action in this book is perfect for the movie set sketches and background.
A few days ago I received a copy of Michael Shea’s latest novel, The Extra. Glancing at his list of published books I saw one that I failed to recognize, Copping Squid, a collection of Lovecraftian tales. Some of the stories in this collection I have read, but others are new, so being a major Shea fan I had to buy a copy. Glad to see more of Shea’s books getting published, and especially his novel The Extra getting lots of attention in the online press.
The Libertarian Futurist Society announced this year’s finslists for the Prometheus Best Novel Award, for fiction published in 2009.
I have not yet read a single one of the nominees, though I admit to some surprise that Harry Turtledove has two books in the running. I have read only a handful of his books, and (my opinion only) I find them far from gripping and engaging in the manner I expect from an award winning novel. As for the other nominees, I read Card’s earlier novel, or rather, skipped huge chunks to get through it out of sheer sense of obligation. I enjoyed Doctorow’s Little Brother, but have read nothing else by him, and the Kollin brothers debut with their novel. Am I just losing touch with modern SF? I found the recent list of Hugo finalists also distressingly banal and uninteresting. It has been a long while since I truly enjoyed most of the new books I read, and I seem to read fewer each year. There is no sense of wonder in today’s SF, or maybe that’s just me. In movies, everything is a reboot. I expect more from books, but maybe the magic has faded. I get more out re-reading Jack Vance these days.
I finished Paul McAuley’s latest novel, Gardens of the Sun, his sequel to The Quiet War. I actually liked most of this novel better than the first. McAuley seemed more comfortable with his characters and the events of the story, although several main characters from the first book either died or underwent radical change. Excellent hard sf novel on a grand scale, so for the most part the characters played their parts and drifted off, exit stage left.
Gardens of the Sun
I also read Sarah Hoyt’s novel, Darkship Thieves, a book that focused very much on the characters, especially the female protagonist. This character tended to be unsympathetic almost until the end, while her male co-star sulked a great deal throughout the novel. The book was far from unfavorable, and I am planning a longer review in Prometheus, but I have not processed all my thoughts about this book yet.
Darkship Thieves
What a master of style and images. Just finished her novel, Nights at the Circus, about a half woman, half swan trapeze artist at the turn of the 19th into the 20th century, and the journalist who follows her across Europe and Siberia. Bawdy, breathtaking, funny, bizarre, and brilliant. I had read several of Carter’s short stories in her collection Burning Your Boats, but this was her first novel I tackled. I think I need to add her to the list of authors worth searching for at the local used book store.
I just finished re-reading Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, two stories I vaguely remember having read many decades ago. Since then my perceptions of the two stories have been clouded by movies, popular culture, and dim memory. I both stories very surreal, almost bizarre, with characters spouting nonsense and misdirection. Yet digging deeper there are some very interesting metaphysical notions, as well other critical insight into the workings of morals and language. I have not seen the new Tim Burton movie yet, but as for the stories, I think they are ones that are strange and curious, though I am not tempted to return there.
