Books: November 2005 Archives
I headed into The Brief History Of The Dead (US/UK) completely cold, not knowing anything about it. It is due for publication in February 2006, but I managed to get a proof copy from the publishers website. Free books! That's what I like. The cover is gorgeous (dreamy swirls and embedded silver twirly bits) but decidedly non-genre, reminiscent of Cloud Atlas in fact, so I was unsure as to what to expect.
The first chapter of this book was published in the New Yorker and has since been optioned for a film. And it is indeed an intriguing first chapter, throwing us straight into The City Of The Dead. The book rests on the premise that once we die we live in a city between earth and heaven, for as long as someone alive remembers us.
Not too sure about this book. Can't imagine Vader ever saying "Make yourself comfortable". I think I'll pass and imagine myself how Vader hunted down the remaining jedi.
The Alien Online has a great interview with Jon Courtenay Grimwood, who talks about his new book 9Tail Fox.
I decided I wanted the next book, 9Tail Fox, to have a beginning, a middle and an end, in that order. I also wanted to limit the locations and keep the time line tight, kind of like writing a novel without overdosing on the mental CGI.
Jon Courtenay Grimwoods latest book, 9 Tail Fox is reviewd by SFX, getting 4.5 stars (out of 5). Just the mention of a fox in a JCG book gets me excited because in Pashazade the best bit for me was the crazy in-head fox. (If that makes no sense then read it!)
Another one to add to the wishlist.
Feeling intelligent? Want an answer to the question "Can the antidote to today's neoliberal triumphalism be found in the pages of far-out science fiction?" The read Back to utopia in The Boston Globe, an analysis of err... stuff. I'll finish reading it when I've woken up a bit more.
Accelerando is a collection of nine stories, first published in Asimov's and "fixed up" into a novel, many of the stories have been award nominees on their own. I had previously read, and enjoyed, the super dense high-tech post-cyberpunk first chapter "Lobsters" so I was eagerly awaiting the novel.
Via SFSignal , J Allard (XBox develpoment chief) insisted that his developers read Snowcrash, to try and provide some inspiration.
In fact Allard is ambitiously going for the Metaverse,
"The Xbox 360's project code-name was Xenon, and an expansive 147-page Allard-authored primer called the "Book of Xenon," based heavily on the virtual world notions set out in Snow Crash, spells out the guidelines of that project."
I'm somewhat sceptical that a games console will get there anytime soon, consoles have too muc of that arcade heritage in their attitude. However MMOG's such as Second Life seem to be heading in the right(/) direction.
The Cult has a great interview with Neil Gaiman, which includes some interesting insights into his writing habits...
"If I'm on a novel, I'll normally write in a notebook and stay in the notebook because there's nothing, and nobody, in the notebook to distract me. Nobody's trying to pop up an urgent message. I'm not going to suddenly decide to check the origin of a particular word, and Google it-and look up four hours later in the middle of some eBay auction."
Jonathan@Notes From Coode Street has compiled his top 18 stories that Ellen Datlow has published online between 1995 and 2005. There's big names in there, Terry Bisson, Elizabeth Hand, Kelly Link, Ian R. MacLeod, Lucius Shepard, Dan Simmons, Walter Jon Williams etc. Wow.
The next step is for someone to provide links to them al! (Lazy web I nvoke thee!)
Paul Goat Allen has inteviewed John Meaney for Barnes & Noble.com. Nice interview, he comes across as both intelligent and witty.
Via Emerlald City, Jay's Handy Guide to Genre Definitions made me laugh.
Via SFSignal, another list of books! This time The Guardians best Geek novels.
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is at number one.
I've read 14 of the 20 books on the list. Not bad, my sort of list. Like Jack at the Guardian I'm surprised that SnowCrash didn't come higher, it's one of my favourite novels, and hey it has avatars and samurai hacking and neurolinguistics and wikipedia+googleearth and the first two chapters are awesome.
Also there's a comment about the lack of votes for John Brunner. I've read Stand On Zanzibar which is amazing and available as part of the Gollancz SF Masterworks series. I haven't read The Shockwave Rider which seems tricky to get hold of in the UK (at least according to Amazon who are charging £10 for a paperback!).
The agony column has an excellent audio interview with Richard Morgan, plus an introductory article. (It's really nice to hear an English accent in a SF podcast for once!)
The site also has a large back catalogue of interviews which is cool. No podcast feed that I can find though :-(
Via Locus, here is Amazon.com's best SF&F books of 2005.
The Algebraist is at number one (on my to-read pile) and Accelerando is number two (currently reading it), which seems reasonable. Can't really comment on the rest of the list as I haven't read them.
I quite fancy reading some Richard Morgan books, Woken Furies is at number ten on the list, the blurb "cyberpunk noir SF" sounds enticing to me! And of course I'll read Anansi Boys at some point too.
The Anchorage Press has a nice article on / interview with David Marusek, who's blog is also worth reading. Counting Heads sounds like a great novel, everyone is raving over it at the moment.
Remember, remember the 5th of November...
To celebrate a 400 year old act of terrorism / struggle for freedom (delete depending on point of view) why not read some Guy Fawkes Science Fiction?
How about V For Vendetta?
"The story of Guy Fawkes was a major inspiration for Alan Moore's post-nuclear dystopian science fiction graphic novel of a fascist Britain, V for Vendetta."
Here's what you get if you search for "Science Fiction" on Google Print.
Unfortunately it's mostly covers only. Haven't yet discovered a book that I can search through fully.
