Posts published in: 2013/01

February newsletter updated with tons of new events!

Posted on 2013-01-29 at 20:7 by montsamu

Yup, it always happens. I click "send" on the newsletter and shortly thereafter find out about a long list of upcoming events. Here's a quick roundup:

FEBRUARY 2013

NEW-NEW: 2 (Saturday) 5 to 7 pm — Chapel Hill Comics hosts Jared Axelrod, author of the Tor graphic novel The Battle of Blood & Ink: A Fable of the Flying City. More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/418137048267731/

NEW-NEW: 11 (Monday) 5 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts PETER LERANGIS – Children’s Fantasy With The Colossus Rises.

NEW-NEW:

Posted in events

February newsletter: James Maxey, Kim Harrison, Cory Doctorow, and Brandon Sanderson! More!

Posted on 2013-01-28 at 19:48 by montsamu

Vol 3. No 2. January 28, 2013:

Welcome a bit early to the February newsletter! I'm sneaking this one in ahead of the end of the month to make sure everybody gets a chance to hear about the Witchbreaker book launch party tomorrow (Tuesday, January 29!) as Hillsborough's Purple Crow Books hosts James Maxey for the third book in his Dragon Apocalypse trilogy. More info below in the events, but if you miss it, you're also missing Cheryl's dragon cookies! (As well as, hopefully, the chance to hear James reading

Posted in newsletter

WUNC's The State of Things to air interview with Samuel R. Delany

Posted on 2013-01-24 at 15:32 by montsamu

Today (Thursday Jan 24) in the noon hour Eastern Time, WUNC's The State of Things will have author Samuel R. Delany on in a taped phone interview segment. It will broadcast over the airwaves state-wide at noon, with a re-broadcast at 9 pm. Additionally, at both broadcast times, Internet listening is available through both MP3 streaming and Windows Media streaming, and later today the segment should be available on the show's podcast, to which you can subscribe or check for episode listings both for iTunes a

Posted in Uncategorized

The Hardest Part: Gail Z. Martin on Ice Forged

Posted on 2013-01-23 at 16:15 by montsamu

After six books across two publishers in the world of her Chronicles of the Necromancer series, Charlotte author Gail Z. Martin's new book, Ice Forged (Orbit, January 2013) remains firmly in epic fantasy territory but otherwise starts an entirely new world. While earlier this week The Exploding Spaceship reviewed the book, here Martin writes that yes, indeed, while starting from scratch can be a refreshing change of pace, it was also the hardest part of creating her newest book.

By Gail Z. Martin:

F

Posted in The Hardest Part | Tagged gail z. martin, ice forged

The Exploding Spaceship Reviews Ice Forged by Gail Z. Martin

Posted on 2013-01-21 at 4:27 by angelablackwell

Ice Forged By Gail Z. Martin out January 8, 2013 from Orbit

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship

The Exploding Spaceship Reviews Sunset of the Gods by Steve White

Posted on 2013-01-21 at 3:22 by angelablackwell

Sunset of the Gods Out January 1, 2013 in trade paperback from Baen

2^nd Volume in the Jason Thanou Series

(1^st volume was Blood of the Heroes and 3^rd Volume will be Pirates of the Timestream)

The pseudoscience explaining how time travel works is well done with the author accounting for all of the obvious problems. Reality protects itself so if you

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship

Friday quick updates: Jan 18-19 readings from Hal Johnson, and The Screwtape Letters

Posted on 2013-01-18 at 14:27 by montsamu

Whew! Last weekend's illogiCon was really fantastic; I've leave the con reports to others for now (Natania Barron rounds up a couple, including JL Hilton's, here) but I do have some photos, and I'm working on transcribing the Tim Powers interview as well. It was absolutely fantastic to meet Mr. Powers, whose books really are wonderful reads. I'd been reading (and in some cases re-reading) some of his books ahead of the convention, and even though the convention's past I've kept going on that front because

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged hal johnson

The Hardest Part: Daniel M. Kimmel on Shh! It's a Secret

Posted on 2013-01-16 at 23:55 by montsamu

Daniel M. Kimmel's last book, a collection of sf film criticism entitled Jar Jar Binks Must Die... and Other Observations about Science Fiction Movies was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Related Work; it also contained Kimmel's review of Them!, a 1954 film about atomic bomb radiation creating giant ants which first appeared in Bull Spec #6. Now he's back with another book, this time his debut novel, in which Kimmel takes his often funny and insightful comments about Hollywood and sf filmmaking and turns

Posted in The Hardest Part | Tagged daniel m. kimmel

Day one of illogiCon is here! Also: Gail Z. Martin starts a new fantasy series with Ice Forged

Posted on 2013-01-11 at 15:24 by montsamu

With registration opening at noon, and opening ceremonies and programming (and the dealer's room) getting started at 3, illogiCon ii: Schrodington's Revenge is finally here:

There are readings, panels (I'm moderating one on "The Local Scene" at 5 pm) and then later this evening, a dance, more panels (Liars' Panel, SF as Covert Commentary on the Real World, etc.) and filk gets going as well. There are day passes available, as well as (of course!) weekend-long registrations, so come on by the Embassy

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged gail z. martin, illogicon

What to Do With That Gift Card, Part 2: Science Fiction Reads for 2012

Posted on 2013-01-08 at 17:13 by angelablackwell

Here are some suggestions for what to spend your holiday gift cards on if you are a science fiction reader.

First, a couple of caveats: in order to pare down the number of books we need to cover, we the reviewers are sticking primarily with authors or publishers from the southeastern part of the US, and we gave fantasy and science fiction titles for middle grades and teens their own post.

In order of release date, January 2012 saw Baen’s paperback release of Back to the Moon by Travis Taylor and Les

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship