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Friday Quick Updates: Robin Sloan tonight, Maile Meloy on Tuesday, Steven Brust on Wednesday, The Escapist Expo next weekend, and more
Posted on 2013-09-27 at 18:10 by montsamu
Friday, September 27, 2013: Tonight, Chapel Hill's Flyleaf Books welcomes Robin Sloan, the bestselling author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. The novel started as a 6,000 word self-published short story of dataviz, cryptography, Google, and books. 3 years later, grown tenfold and then some, it would be published to wide acclaim by Farrar, Straus & Giroux before spending 6 weeks on the NY Times bestseller list. Now the book is out in paperback, along with a new prequel short story, Ajax Penumbra 1969, and Sloan is on a nationwide tour in support of the new books, with one lonely stop in the entirety of the southeast: Friday, September 27, at Chapel Hill's Flyleaf Books. There, special printed editions of the "officially" digital-only new short story will be on-hand as promotional freebies to those buying a new book:
Personally, I loved the novel, and the new short story refreshed in my memory just how much enjoyment I found in its pages. It's got everything: Hadoop, dataviz, bookstores, secret societies, encryption, epic fantasy trilogies, excursions to the Google campus, special effects wizardry, typography, San Francisco walks, mechanical Turks, ... I am very much looking forward to hearing the author talk about where he came up with any of this stuff, let alone how he mashed it all up together.
Among other upcoming events: Tuesday sees the first of the Wake County Libraries' month-long series of science fiction panels by local authors, while Quail Ridge Books hosts Mali Meloy for The Apprentices, sequel to her YA/YR debut The Apothecary; Wednesday will see another of those Wake County Libraries panels, while Flyleaf Books hosts bestselling author Steven Brust for new novel The Incrementalists; and next weekend (Oct 4-6) is the second Escapist Expo at the Durham Convention Center, where you can pick up copies of Bull Spec #8 signed by the cover artist, Cynthia Sheppard.
Among other news, Duke University will on October 25-26 host The Race in Space conference, "a first of its kind event that seeks to explore the issues of race, culture and nationality in the colonization of space stations, planets, and stars in space. This two day conference held Oct 25-26 at Duke University will highlight astronauts research, artists and authors who have studied the realities and imaginative events involving the dynamics of race and space settlements." Hat tip to Laura Haywood-Cory via RTSFS for this one, which looks to be a fascinating conference.
-Sam
UPCOMING EVENTS, SEPTEMBER 2013
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Friday Quick Updates: Readings from Daniel Wallace, Allan Gurganus, and Robin Sloan, and plenty of news
Posted on 2013-09-20 at 18:15 by montsamu
Friday, September 20, 2013: Whew! This past week was another packed week of readings, with Clay and Susan Griffith and Natania Barron, The Hinge's Writers' Day at Flyleaf Books, Ursula Vernon's latest "Dragonbreath" book, John Claude Bemis hosting Stephen Messer and other writers, Emily Croy Barker, and Jasper Fforde. (Not to mention a packed weekend of screenings at The Escapism Film Festival.)
And this weekend and the week ahead, there's every bit as much to do, whether James Maxey's ebook publishing class for writers on Saturday morning, to readings from Daniel Wallace, Allan Gurganus, and Robin Sloan, and more.
Some news bits from the past week:
- Asheville writer Nathan Ballingrud's collection North American Lake Monsters gets a fantastic review in the Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB), by John Langan, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Monsters". The collection is out from Small Beer Press, and Ballingrud was a panelist at August's Bull Spec Summer Speculative Fiction Reading.
- Three authors with NC ties are on the coming weekend's NY Times bestseller list for hardcover fiction: Wilmington author Jason Mott's The Returned debuts at #16; Raleigh author Wilton Barnhardt's contemporary/historical satire Lookaway, Lookaway debuts at #25; and Asheville native Marisha Pessl's Night Film is on the list for the third week, at #14
- Durham's Mur Lafferty was announced as a guest writer at Wofford College's Shared Worlds in 2014
And lastly, I clearly had no idea how big a deal the Wake County Libraries was making of local science fiction and fantasy writers in October. What I thought was 2 events turned into 3, then 4, and then, well it ends up being six events:
- October 1 (Tuesday) 7 pm — at the Wake County West Regional Library. With David Drake, Mark L. Van Name, Terrence Holt, and Lisa Shearin.
- 2 (Wed) 7 pm — at the Wake County Southeast Regional Library. With Ariel Djanikian, Clay & Susan Griffith, and James Maxey.
- 8 (Tuesday) 7 pm — at the Wake County North Regional Library. With David Drake, John Kessel, Mark L. Van Name, and Mur Lafferty.
- 10 (Thursday) 7 pm – at the Cameron Village Regional Library. With Jenna Black, Tony Daniel, John Kessel, and Mur Lafferty.
- 13 (Sunday) 2 pm – at Wake County’s Eva Perry Regional Library. With Jenna Black, Clay & Susan Griffith, S. Mark Rainey, and Lisa Shearin.
- 20 (Sunday) 2 pm – at the Wake County East Regional Library. With Tony Daniel, Ariel Djanikian, and James Maxey.
So, October science fiction in Wake County is, I believe, pretty well and covered. Happy Friday, see you next week.
-Sam
UPCOMING EVENTS, SEPTEMBER 2013
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Coming to Town: Emily Croy Barker for The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic
Posted on 2013-09-17 at 16:58 by montsamu
Greensboro native and current New Jerseyan Emily Croy Barker has two events in NC this week in support of her debut novel, The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic, out earlier this summer from Pamela Dorman Books/Viking. The book garnered significant pre-release praise, from iO9 to Glamour to The Los Angeles Times, including being named to the August Indie Next List -- accompanied by a review from The Regulator Bookshop's Tonie Lilley: “The great thing about Nora, the titular ‘thinking woman,’ is that she is completely relatable. Nora, a perennial graduate student who hasn’t made the best romantic choices, lands in another world that is rife with medieval attitudes toward women. She brings an analytical eye to a highly stratified, low-tech, but magical place, and by speaking truth to power she learns new lessons about herself. This beautifully written first novel reverberates with echoes of fairy tales and fantasy literature from Narnia to Harry Potter.” No surprise then, perhaps, that Barker's first stop in the Carolinas will be Wednesday evening at 7 pm at The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, before heading to the Friendly Center Barnes & Noble in Greensboro on Friday.
Barker's novel tells the story of Nora, a graduate student in literature from our world who stumbles through a portal into a fantasy world of enchantment and demons and spellbooks, in the midst of a protracted sort of "Cold War" between Fae and human. I had a wonderful time listening to the audiobook, and I'm very grateful to Barker for her time here for the latest "Coming to Town" interview, easily the longest and most in-depth yet. We talk about Asheville, academia vs. Tolkien, trusting your readers, worldbuilding, and how her jobs as an editor and journalist help her as a writer of fiction. Enjoy!
Q: You set parts of the novel in and around Asheville -- what is it about the Land of the Sky that makes it an ideal setting for both a wedding and a portal to another world? Did you spend much time in the mountains while you lived in North Carolina?
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Friday Quick Updates: The Escapism Film Festival; Brier Creek BN hosts an ebook authors event with Clay and Susan Griffith and Natania Barron; Writer's Day at Flyleaf Books; John Claude Bemis and Stephen Messer; Ursula Vernon; Emily Croy Barker; and Jasper Fforde
Posted on 2013-09-13 at 17:20 by montsamu
Friday September 13, 2013: In lieu of recapping last week, on to today, which sees the first “full day” of The Escapism Film Festival at The Carolina Theatre of Durham — from the Stargate screening at 2 pm through Starship Troopers at 9:10 — after a few evenings of double features and ahead of Saturday and Sunday full-day schedules. Also tonight is a multi-author event at the Barnes and Noble of Brier Creek, with (among others) Clay and Susan Griffith and Natania Barron. Tomorrow (Saturday) will be a multi-hour “Writers Day” at Flyleaf Books, with regional literary publishers, MFA programs, and authors all coming together. More info on all of that below.
And, some news! Mark Van Name has announced the title of his next Jon and Lobo book. Speaking of Van Name, he’s part of two new events in early October at the Wake County Libraries — Monday Oct 1st, a “Science Fiction panel at the Wake County West Regional Library. With David Drake, Mark L. Van Name, Terrence Holt, and Lisa Shearin.” and Tuesday Oct 8th “Science Fiction panel at the Wake County North Regional Library. With David Drake, John Kessel, Mark L. Van Name, and Mur Lafferty.” Both at 7 pm.
Next week is quite full, with events with John Claude Bemis (Tuesday, with Stephen Messer, among others at The Regulator), Ursula Vernon (Tuesday, Quail Ridge Books), Emily Croy Barker (Wednesday at The Regulator Bookshop for The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic), and Jasper Fforde (Thursday at Quail Ridge Books). As always check the latest newsletter for the full event listings, but below (after the flyer) are the next week and a half or so.
See you out and about! I am particularly looking forward to a big welcome for Greensboro native Barker on Wednesday, with conversations hopefully continuing somewhere on 9th Street afterwards.
-Sam
UPCOMING EVENTS, SEPTEMBER 2013
NEW-NEW: 13 (Friday) 7 pm — B&N of Brier Creek hosts an eBook Author Event with (among others) Clay and Susan Griffith, authors of the Vampire Empire series. More info: http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/4552260
NEW-NEW: 14 (Saturday) 2 pm to 6 pm — Flyleaf Books hosts The Hinge Literary Center presents Writers’ Day — “an opportunity to hear from and talk to some of the area’s most accomplished authors and publishers, as well as representatives of graduate writing programs from across the state. … 2:00-2:50: Meet the Publishers 3:00-3:50: Becoming a Poet 4:00-4:50: Becoming a Fiction Writer 5:00-5:50: Considering an MFA.”
NEW-NEW: 15 (Sunday) 4 pm — The Raleigh Review hosts Joseph Bathanti for a special event, “NC Poet Laureate Reading” at their Writers’ Studio and Bookshop, 3039 Medlin Drive, Raleigh, NC.
17 (Tuesday) 7 pm — Author John Claude Bemis, who is serving this year as the Piedmont Laureate for Children’s Literature, is leading a series of roundtable discussions with local children’s and YA authors about writing craft, creativity, and the magic of children’s literature. The series includes events at the Regulator Bookshop in Durham on Tuesday, September 17 at 7 pm, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill on October 5 at 2 pm, and Quail Ridge Books on Tuesday, October 15 at 7 pm. For more information, visit John’s website at www.johnclaudebemis.com or the Piedmont Laureate website at www.piedmontlaureate.com. For the September 17 event at The Regulator, the participants are Stephen Messer (Windblowne, The Death of Yorik Mortwell), Stephanie Greene, Jackie Ogburn, and Frances O’Roark Dowell.
NEW: 17 (Tuesday) 7 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts Hugo Award-winning Pittsboro graphic novelist Ursula Vernon – New ‘Dragonbreath’ in her continuing graphic novel series for young readers.
18 (Wednesday) 7 pm — The Regulator Bookshop hosts Greensboro native Emily Croy Barker for her new novel The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic. Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/158671360996987/
NEW: 19 (Thursday) 7 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts Jasper Fforde – ‘The Song of the Quarkbeast’.
NEW-NEW: 21 (Saturday) 10:30 am — Hillsborough author James Maxey will “be teaching a class on Ebook publishing Saturday Sept 21 from 10:30 to noon at the Orange County Library in Hillsborough.” Register online at: at http://bit.ly/MaxeyEPUB
NEW: 21 (Saturday) 2 pm — McIntyre’s Books hosts Daniel Wallace – The Kings and Queens of Roam.
Posted in Friday Quick Updates
The Exploding Spaceship Reviews 23 Years on Fire by Joel Shepherd and also Interviews the Author!
Posted on 2013-09-12 at 06:18 by angelablackwell
Review of 23 Years on Fire by Joel Shepherd (Pyr, trade paperback, September 10, 2013)
This is the fourth Cassandra Kresnov novel.
Four years before the start of this novel, Sandy and Rhian had claimed asylum from the League on the planet Callay, the new Federation Grand Council location, a few years after the war between the League and the Federation ended. Since then about 50 GIs had arrived on Callay and asked for asylum there. GIs are synthetic biological people created in a lab by the League, but creating them broke the law, and it was concerns over the use of the technology used to create them which started the war. Using the technology to develop artificial brains on the order of humans was banned in the Federation with only very limited use of synthetic biological enhancements allowed for Federation military personnel. In the League use of the technology to provide uplink implants was extremely widespread.
Many of the GIs seeking asylum were the more intelligent higher designations who found jobs in the military or para-military with only a few non-combatant designations finding jobs in data processing or technology. Sandy, the GI with the highest designation of any who sought asylum, works for Callayan Security Agency (CSA) as a SWAT team leader and is seconded at times to the Federal Security Agency (FSA) which used to be the Callayan Defense Force (CDF).
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Friday Quick Updates: Mur Lafferty wins John W. Campbell Award; a new Kickstarter anthology featuring local authors; and the latest events updates
Posted on 2013-09-06 at 18:50 by montsamu
Friday Sep 6, 2013: I say it often but it bears repeating again: What a week! In terms of events, after a weekend of comics events we had David Drake launching new novel Monsters of the Earth on Tuesday, and "The Dark is Rising" author Susan Cooper reading on Wednesday. I'd love to see some pictures and hear some reports "from the field" from those who made it out to these events.
And we have so much more than events to talk about this week. As I reported on Facebook and Twitter on Sunday evening, Durham author Mur Lafferty has just won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Author. The prestigious award, presented since 1973 at The Hugo Awards ceremony at the World Science Fiction Convention which was this year held in San Antonio as LoneStarCon3, recognizes writers in the first two years of their professional careers for their outstanding works and promising futures, with previous recipients including C.J. Cherryh, Lucius Shepard, Karen Joy Fowler, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Ted Chiang, Mary Doria Russell, Nalo Hopkinson, Cory Doctorow, Jo Walton, Jay Lake, Elizabeth Bear, John Scalzi, Naomi Novik, Mary Robinette Kowal, David Anthony Durham, Seanan McGuire, and Lev Grossman, among others. Now, add to that list Lafferty, author of the Orbit and Hachette Audio released The Shambling Guide to New York City. I'll join in with the NY Times and BoingBoing in offering absolutely huge congratulations to Mur!
Another exciting bit of news is that moments ago, a new Kickstarter was launched for an all-original anthology, Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters, which not only has a list of nationally well-known authors (Larry Correia, James Lovegrove, and Peter Clines, with a foreward by Jonathan Maberry) but also a sizable list of authors whose names should be well-known to readers of Bull Spec: Hillsborough's James Maxey, Chapel Hill's Natania Barron, and the frequent co-host of the NC Speculative Night event series, Jaym Gates, along with Bull Spec "alumni" Erin Hoffman.
Meanwhile at bullspec.com, The Exploding Spaceship has been busy as well, with release day reviews of Under a Graveyard Sky by John Ringo and The Undead Hordes of Kan-Gul by Jon F. Merz and a YA edition with reviews of The Woken Gods by Gwenda Bond and When The World Was Flat And We Were In Love by Ingrid Jonach -- and we'll likely see more from Gerald and Angela soon, as they are back from Dragon*Con with stories to tell.
And the coming week is as usual full of things to see and do in terms of sf in the Triangle area -- and beyond. See the listings below for events this weekend in Winston-Salem, Pittsboro, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill, next week's Escapism Film Festival at the Carolina Theatre of Durham, and more. Enjoy!
-Sam
UPCOMING EVENTS, SEPTEMBER 2013
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The Exploding Spaceship Release Day Edition: Reviews of Under a Graveyard Sky by John Ringo and The Undead Hordes of Kan-Gul by Jon F. Merz
Posted on 2013-09-04 at 00:28 by angelablackwell
Review of Under a Graveyard Sky by John Ringo (Baen, September 3, 2013 hardback)
Under a Graveyard Sky is John Ringo’s contribution to the zombie-apocalypse genre. In this story the zombies are not hordes of shambling undead, but the living victims of a viral plague brought about by a bioterror weapon, and Ringo uses real science to explain why the infected people act like zombies.
The Smith family (husband and wife John and Stacey and their daughters Sophia and Faith) are doomsday preppers, people who are trained and ready for almost any emergency, as well as any conceivable end-of-the-world scenario. When John and Stacey receive the “Zombie Apocalypse” code from John’s brother Tom, they walk away from their jobs, pull their daughters from school and allow them to contact no one, load up their supplies, steal a boat, and head out to sea to wait out the carnage.
The family travels up the coast to New York, where Tom is located, but after some adventures in his office building and receiving some vaccine, they head out from the city into the ocean. They end up traveling down the Atlantic seaboard salvaging from groups of zombies and saving non-infected people. Their boat and the salvaged ones travel in a loose fleet of survivors.
Along the way the survivors encounter some larger ships that are infested with the “infected”, but they hope some survivors might be holed-up in some cabins so they fight cabin to cabin. At the start of the emergency, middle-school-age daughter Faith had been very excited to learn that their foes were rampaging zombies and had been very impatiently looking forward to shooting them. Wreaking such havoc loses its charm after doing it for seemingly endless days, however, and Faith and her teddy bear are not nearly as happy to be shooting everything.
John and Stacey Smith love their daughters dearly, but they also know that they need to keep gathering supplies in order to survive; Faith is the one best able to deal with the weapons and tactics needed, and Sophia is needed to drive the boat, so putting their children in harm’s way is unavoidable; Their survival, and possibly that of the rest of humanity, is at stake.
The family dynamic depicted in the story is very believable, with Ringo clearly stating that Sophia and Faith are based on his own daughters.
Under a Graveyard Sky is very much a Swiss Family Robinson-style adventure at sea with most of the other boats being full of monsters. It is a well-researched, plausible look at survival during a bioterrorism emergency. There are realistic gun battles with accurately described weaponry, and naval operations akin to those of the Coast Guard. The Smith family and their traveling companions are well-developed and all very strong characters. We will be seeing more of the Smith family in future volumes. If you like a good zombie tale, then this book is for you.
Review of the Undead Hordes of Kan-gul: Book 1 of the Shadow Warrior by Jon F. Merz (Baen, September 3 release, trade paperback)
Ninjas, samurai, zombies, evil wizards controlling nasty weather and tortuous landscapes, all components for an enjoyable weird fantasy tale with a strong Eastern feel to it. Sort of a literary version of a samurai and ninja buddy movie crossed with a Ray Harryhausen monster movie. Not much gun use, but many sword deaths, so definitely a normal Baen high body count. There are quite nice descriptions of sword fights without being overly detailed to pull the reader out of the battle. There is a female warrior and a female wizard (not the evil one) in the supporting cast and their relationship to the male characters is done well: everyone acts like colleagues, not silly people letting their hormones run their lives.
The plot in this volume is only the beginning of the Shadow Warrior’s wandering quest to prove he is ready to be a full member of his clan, so while the evil wizard and his zombies are dealt with, it is not the end of the quest. This will continue in Slavers of the Silk Road and The Temple of Demons.
Ran is an interesting character who is obviously a bit naïve about the world outside his clan, so he is learning how to deal with other people as he travels. The continuing relationship of the characters will be an interesting component of the later volumes. The landscape descriptions are quite vivid, with everything in the evil wizard’s lair being quite travel-unfriendly due to nasty traps, wild creatures, zombies, and magically-generated bad weather.
If you like a good adventure tale, a quest story or appreciate a good zombie/monster tale then this book is for you.
Posted in The Exploding Spaceship
The Exploding Spaceship YA Release Day Edition: Review of The Woken Gods by Gwenda Bond and When The World Was Flat And We Were In Love by Ingrid Jonach
Posted on 2013-09-04 at 00:06 by angelablackwell
Review of The Woken Gods by Gwenda Bond (Strange Chemistry, September 3, 2013, trade paperback)
This is a story set in a Washington, D.C., where all the pantheons of gods have been awoken and have been prevented from returning from the afterlife if they die, so dead means dead. As a consequence of this strange turn of events there are regular encounters with gods if you are in downtown DC. The trickster gods of the pantheons serve as a court to determine the outcome of problems between the gods and humans. The chaos of the gods’ power interrupts modern electronic communications, so DC is a little technologically backward, which is strange given the many first adopters of technology who live there.
The gods have their powers of myth but can be killed by magical and physical attack, so they fear death because they can’t return to life immediately like they could previously. DC is a weird place because power struggles for jobs, housing, and prestige all have a political bent, so having all the gods added to the mix makes it a very weird place (Your Humble Reviewers used to live in the DC suburbs) with even more strange power struggles.
Kyra is a teen who struggles with a complex family situation: estranged parents who live apart and a dad who is away for work sometimes at odd hours. She is rather rebellious but her dad is so wrapped up in other issues he just tries to ignore it. Her best friend Bree has a TV anchorwoman mom. They have a third friend, a youth named Tam, and the three of them make a sort of strange love triangle, with Kyra the old girlfriend but still friend and Bree wishfully watching and hoping for a chance.
Kyra has an encounter with Legba, a West African trickster god, and things proceed downhill from there. All three teens and their parents are wrapped in a save-the-world-from-disaster scenario which uses the DC landscape and building for things which you will have to read to believe.
This is an exciting urban fantasy adventure which hopefully will get further volumes. The characters are engaging and the setting familiar but with strange twists. One of the most enjoyable young adult contemporary tales set in the US that Your Humble Reviewers have read in a long while.
Review of When the World Was Flat and We Were in Love by Ingrid Jonach (Strange Chemistry, trade paperback, September 3, 2013)
The first comment has to be the wonderfully engaging name, which immediately lets you know it is a romance but has something strange going on, since we know our world is not flat but spherical. It is set in a small town in Nebraska, and the characters are all students at Green Grove Central High School. The story of Lillie and Tom is enjoyable and seems like an ordinary teen romance but Lillie keeps getting memories of them together and in love before they have even been on a date.
When she finally comes to realize the truth about her and Tom’s relationship, it is almost heartbreaking when the older characters try to keep them apart. Tom does some strange things during the course of the book because he is trying to keep from falling for Lillie, but it doesn’t work and he falls in love anyway.
There are the usual bullying activities going on at school and the risk-taking activities of the teens in their off-hours. Things seem like a normal small town until Tom reveals a truth about the universe to Lillie which changes the way she see things forever. This truth pushes the entire book into science fiction and causes you to reflect on Tom’s previous actions in a different way.
For those who like their romance with a great deal of trouble tossed in, like a good contemporary tale with a bit of an SF twist, then this is the novel for you. It has some well-developed characters and supporting cast with some strange and annoying parents thrown in there too. Definitely a small town tale since the teens all seem to drive and some of the scenarios wouldn’t work in a more crowded urban environment.
Posted in The Exploding Spaceship
Friday Quick Updates: Lisa Hanawalt and Brian Ralph, David Drake, and Susan Cooper
Posted on 2013-08-30 at 15:11 by montsamu
Friday, August 30, 2013: Wow, what a week. Readings from Wilton Barnhardt, Marisha Pessl, Jason Mott, and (last night) Richard Kadrey, and now it seems the area is emptying of its creative critical mass as people head variously to DragonCon (Clay and Susan Griffith, Gail Z. Martin, Natania Barron, Laura Haywood-Cory, AJ Hartley, Gray Rinehart, Glennis LeBlanc, Davey Beauchamp, John Hartness, Jay Requard, and Bull Spec's own The Exploding Spaceship, Gerald and Angela Blackwell, among many others), WorldCon (Mur Lafferty, up for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, John Kessel, Mark Van Name, and Warren Buff, among others), and PAX (Richard Dansky among others). If you're out at one of these conventions, check your programs!
Meanwhile there's been a huge amount of local and regional publishing news to share:
- I missed seeing this last month, and now need to scramble to pick up an August issue of Asimov's which includes a new novelette, Stone to Stone, Blood to Blood by Durham author Gwendolyn Clare -- Asimov's will also be publishing another local author, Raleigh's Peter Wood, in an upcoming issue
- Southeastern NC author Mott's The Returned was published on Tuesday, and it continues to collect great reviews and editor's picks, most recently being named a 4-star "People's Pick" from People Magazine
- Lauren Harris published Exorcising Aaron Nguyen (The Millroad Academy Exorcists) in ebook, available on Smashwords and in Kindle, among other places
- Angelic Knight Press published an anthology Manifesto UF with stories from a list of fantastic writers including NC author Teresa Frohock, along with fellow contributors Lucy A. Snyder, Jeff Salyards, William Meikle, Zachary Jernigan, Betsy Dornbusch, and more
- Tor Books released an all-original anthology Shadows of the New Sun which honors the work of Gene Wolfe; in the star-studded list of contributors (Neil Gaiman, Joe Haldeman, David Brin, Nancy Kress, Michael Swanwick, Todd McCaffery, and Wolfe himself, among others) is Pittsboro author David Drake, with a new story "Bedding" -- see an excerpt from the foreward and the table of contents posted at Tor.com
- Zack Smith, who does so much for the Triangle area's creative community through his coverage at the Independent Weekly and other online venues -- see his fantastic recent interview of Richard Kadrey -- is the lead story writer in the new issue of the Regular Show comic book, #3, now out in stores from "Kaboom!" comics -- check it out and then let Kaboom! know what you think via their contact form
- Gray Rinehart's stories have been appearing with increasing regularity in places like Analog and Asimov's, and his new filk album Truths and Lies and Make-Believe is out, both in digital and excellent-looking physical CD formats (cover design by Christopher Rinehart, using photo by Paul Cory, see below)
- The cover for Durham author Monica Byrne's debut novel The Girl in the Road (Crown, May 2014) has been released (see below)
- And! the latest issue of The Blotter ("The South's Unique, Free, International Literature and Arts Magazine") is out, with stories and poetry and art and more, including a little Bull Spec independent bookstore events calendar spot
- UPDATE: And a new novella from Lewis Shiner, "Doctor Helios", out in Subterranean Magazine
Whew! In terms of new upcoming events, I did add a few to the September newsletter, notably the September 9-15 Escapist Film Festival at The Carolina Theatre of Durham. Immediately upcoming, this Saturday (tomorrow) sees two of the Triangle's best comics stores continue their month-long anniversary celebrations, with Ultimate Comics hosting an 11 am "memorial" service for "The Death of Ultimate Al" and Chapel Hill Comics hosting a joint signing event with Lisa Hanawalt and Brian Ralph from 6 to 9 pm.
Next week kicks off with Pittsboro author David Drake, who (1) will be interviewed at 10 am on Monday on Carolina Book Beat, (2) will be interviewed in the noon hour on Tuesday on WUNC's The State of Things, and (3) launches his new Books of the Elements novel Monsters of the Earth on Tuesday night at the Cary Barnes & Noble. Then on Wednesday September 4th, Quail Ridge Books hosts Susan Cooper, the Newbury Medal Award winning author of The Dark is Rising series.
See you next week!
UPCOMING EVENTS, AUGUST 2013
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The Exploding Spaceship Special Pre-Release Dragon Con Edition: Review of Torchwood Exodus Code by John and Carole E. Barrowman
Posted on 2013-08-30 at 04:14 by angelablackwell
This book doesn’t release in the US until later in September but for those of you at Dragon Con, John and Carole have promised to have copies available so they can sign them. So go find them in the Walk of Fame!
Review of Torchwood Exodus Code By John and Carole E. Barrowman (US paperback Sept 24, 2013 UK Hardback Edition September 13, 2012, UK paperback August 15, 2013)
A new Captain Jack adventure written by the Captain himself along with his sister!
Captain Jack is trying to investigate why some women have been driven crazy by their senses. He tracks the problem to Peru where he experiences some fantastical landscapes and meets some very interesting characters. The first chapters are set in 1930s Peru and in Part One Jack’s story alternates between past and present. Jack has evidence of alien involvement but it is not clear exactly what is going on nor why.
Gwen appears in Part Two of the book, directly following an appearance by Rex at the end of Part One. Jack meets up with Gwen, Anwen and Rhys about a third of the way into the book in a very unexpected and violent way. Gwen had been trying to keep from becoming a victim of the female madness and she has discovered something in Cardiff which is alien and connected to Jack in some way.
Eventually Jack is able to put some of the pieces together and solve the mystery which involves odd sensory input, a boat trip and some ancient Incan ideas. The Incan civilization is explored quite a bit in the book, with some views into older and modern ideas and how Jack fits into it somehow. This isn’t a culture which is a common background for books in English so it adds an even larger feel of mystery and magic to the book.
This is the best Torchwood book published to date, so if you are a Torchwood or Captain Jack fan then this is a must-read. If you aren’t familiar with the characters but like a good mystery, there is enough background in the book to figure out the cast of characters. There was a long delay in the release of this volume in the US, but hopefully the Barrowmans will be able to write more adventures for Captain Jack and the rest of Torchwood since we aren’t getting more on the TV.
Posted in The Exploding Spaceship
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