Lost worlds and ports of call

Category: fiction (Page 5 of 11)

The Human Front

Learned today that Ken MacLeod’s novella, The Human Front will appear as a paperback on April 1st. The book includes an interview with MacLeod, as well as two essays on his social philosophy. I’m not sure if the interview and essays appeared in his collection from NESFA, Giant Lizards from Another Star, but the novella is there, as well as poems and other stories, essays and much more.

Kipling poems discovered

It’s amazing how scholars are unearthing long lost literary items. In this case it’s 50 poems by Rudyard Kipling (colonial apologist, natch), found while renovating a Manhattan house and elsewhere.

Kipling, like many humans, had his flaws, opinions that changed over time. Once pro-war, he turned bitterly anti-war after the death of his son in 1915.

“His texts have never properly been studied but things are starting to change,” said Pinney. “There is a treasure trove of uncollected, unpublished and unidentified work out there. I discovered another unrecorded item only recently and that sort of thing will keep happening. It is a tremendously exciting time for scholars and for fans of Kipling.”

 A three volume edition of his poems is due to appear in March, the first ever complete edition of his verse.

The Office of Mercy

From NPR, a review of Ariel Djanikian’s debut novel, The Office of Mercy, published on February 21 2013.

The government in question here is America-Five, one of a series of heavily guarded, technologically advanced communities that were founded after a worldwide disaster essentially destroyed most of civilization. America-Five is an attempt at a utopia; its scientists are at work on making humans immortal, and its citizens have only occasional attacks from tribes of people from “the Outside” to fear.

The young Natasha is assigned to work in the Office of Mercy, which is in charge of killing all the Outsiders it can find. Like everyone in America-Five, she’s been taught this is a necessary act of kindness. But when she’s sent Outside on a mission, she meets members of the Pine tribe, and starts to question the humanity of the government’s constant “sweeps.”

Amazon’s description has this fascinating paragraph:

The Office of Mercy is speculative fiction at its best with a deeply imagined, lush world, high-stakes adventure, and romance that will thrill fans of Suzanne Collins, Margaret Atwood, Justin Cronin, and Kazuo Ishiguro.

 

C. L. Moore – queen of pulp

One of the few female pulp writers (at least to gain great attention and acclaim), C. L. Moore wrote stories for Weird Tales and Astounding Science Fiction. She wrote classic stories about characters like Jirel of Joiry and Northwest Smith. Kirkus Reviews has a nice write-up of Moore’s life and fiction. After the death of her husband and collaborator Henry Kuttner, she switched to writing for Tv in the late 1950s, and then stopped writing altogether after her second marriage. She remained active in the sf community, but sadly her fiction is mainly out of print.

American poet writes poems in Norwegian

From the Norwegian broadcasting corporation, a story about Rebecca Dinerstein, a young American poet who spent a year in Norway, learned Norwegian, and published a collection of poems entitled “Lofoten.” She is just 25 years old, and when she received a scholarship to travel abroad, elected to visit the chilly and foreboding northern climes of Lofoten. The collection contains poems in Norwegian and English side by side.

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2024 Anders Monsen

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑

css.php