Friday Quick Updates: Kotecki/McHugh at Quail Ridge, new James Maxey audiobook, a new monthly sf reading group, and ConTemporal visits UNC-TV

Posted on 2013-03-08 at 17:46 by montsamu

Well, another Friday has come around, and while there’s “only” one event on my calendar this weekend (Nathan Kotecki and PT McHugh at Quail Ridge Books on Saturday at 3 pm) there’s some other things to report as well:

• James Maxey is interviewed on Gail Z. Martin's Ghost in the Machine Podcast
• Maxey's first Dragon Age novel, Bitterwood, is now out in audiobook format
• There's a new monthly sf reading and discussion group starting up, to be held every third Thursday of the month at Raleigh's NC Museum of Science, led by Kate Maddalena. (More info below.)
• Also newly announced is a UNC-TV pledge drive volunteer opportunity, as part of a ConTemporal group to also promote this summer's convention. (More info below.)

March 9 (Saturday) 3 to 4 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts: “Two NC authors share their visions of the strange with us on Saturday, March 9, at 3 p.m. Nathan Kotecki brings us The Suburban Strange. Celia discovers girls at Suburban High are having near fatal accidents on the eve of their 16th birthdays. Can 15-year-old Celia solve the mystery before her own next birthday? For ages 14+. PT McHugh presents Keeper of the Black Stones: Stone Ends, the first book in a new series. It’s a thrilling combination of fantasy and historical fiction with a likable, funny hero in Jason Evans. For ages 12+.” More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/301390523317829/

March 15 (Friday) 6 pm — Wake Forest’s Story Teller Book Store hosts “A Gathering of Authors” including paranormal fantasy author Steve Stone. More info: http://www.storystorewf.com/index.php/Events.html

March 16 (Saturday) 9 pm — Historic downtown Pittsboro’s Davenport & Winkleperry hosts THE COURT OF AIR: A Steampunk Fairy Tale Ball: “Lovers of Fantasy and Faerie come and escape to a land far, far away… Featuring an early performance by THUNDER & SPICE.”

March 19 (Tuesday) 7 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts A. J. HARTLEY - With Children’s Fantasy Darwen Arkwright & The Insidious Bleck.

March 21 (Thursday) 7:30 pm — Interest meeting for a new monthly sf reading and discussion group, run by Kate Maddalena at Raleigh’s NC Museum of Science, to be held every third Thursday. PDF flier with more info: http://bit.ly/161TWtK

March 22 (Friday) 7 pm — B&N of Cary hosts Hugo Award winning Pittsboro graphic novelist Ursula Vernon for book #8 in her Danny Dragonbreath series of graphic novels for young readers, “Nightmare of the Iguana”. More info: http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/4231658

March 23 (Saturday) 6:15 pm to 11:30 pm — ConTemporal 2013 will be promoted live on UNC-TV as part of taking phone calls for a UNC-TV pledge drive. “We will be taking pledges live on TV from UNC TV viewers. Please come dressed to show off your best Steampunk costuming! Costuming is not required but strongly encouraged. Why: UNC TV will be promoting ConTemporal 2013 live on air as part of this event. We must have a minimum of 20 volunteers to qualify for promotion. Please invite your friends, family and anyone interested in Steampunk and ConTemporal.” Training for volunteers begins promptly at 6:30, at 10 T.W. Alexander Drive in Durham. More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/533874939997393/?ref=3

Posted in Uncategorized

The Exploding Spaceship Release Day Edition Review of Shadow of Freedom and A Few Good Men

Posted on 2013-03-05 at 21:39 by angelablackwell

Review of David Weber’s Shadow of Freedom

This is the newest Honor Harrington book, but since this volume depicts events which are occurring simultaneously with those in A Rising Thunder (the previous volume), Honor herself is not present.

The story in Shadow of Freedom is told from three main viewpoints: Michelle Henke and various components of her Tenth Fleet, Anton Zilwicki and Victor Cachat plus their shipmates, and the Mesan Alignment headquarters personnel. We see how Anton and Victor make the decision to head to Haven (they show up there in A Rising Thunder) and the repercussions of the peace treaty that results from Eloise Pritchart and Elizabeth believing the info about the Mesan Alignment, both in the Tenth Fleet and in Mesan Alignment headquarters.  The newsfeeds are given the information about virus-based nanotech assassinations, the two new types of drive and how the Mesan Alignment has been planning for 600 years and has been playing Manticore against Haven so everyone will be weak and easy for the Alignment to conquer. This of course quickly gets back to the Mesan Alignment, causing them to get into massive security breach mode.

Admiral Gold Peake is in the Spindle system at the beginning of the book. After deploying light attack craft (LACs) and dispatch boats to all the systems in the Talbott Quadrant, she heads to the Montana system and sends the other group of capital ships to Tillerman.  Because of the attack on the Manticore System by both the Mesan Aligment and the Solarian League Navy (SLN), all Manticoran merchant vessels have been pulled from Solarian space (this was discussed in the previous volume).  The governor of the Saltash System does not believe the reports he has been getting about SLN surrendering and/or getting wiped out by the Royal Manticoran Navy, so he impounds some Manticoran merchant vessels.  Henke sends a few ships to change his mind or liberate the merchies by force.

Soon after this is resolved she gets information that the Mesan Alignment has been fomenting rebellion on planets in the Talbott sector and the Madras Quadrant: the Mesans are arming local rebel groups while claiming to represent Manticore and promising Manticoran naval support when the groups are ready to rise in revolt. To prevent a public relations disaster in her quadrant, Henke decides that any of the rebel groups who actually manage to make contact with the fleet will be treated as if they had been in contact with Manticore all along. This sends ships to the Mobius system when the Mobius Liberation Front manages to get 2 messengers off to the fleet. Also the reader sees the setup for a similar situation in the Seraphim system in about 90 days.

This volume lets readers see some of what was going on in other parts of the universe while Honor was doing her thing in Haven and Manticore in the previous book.  Familiar supporting cast are seen, like Anton Zilwicki and his daughter, Admiral Gold Peak, and the government of Spindle (where they have 450,000 POWs still from the battle in the previous book).  Also we meet a marine with a treecat in the Tenth Fleet who acts as Henke’s lie detector and part of her security, who hopefully will be given a larger role in later books. This volume basically fleshes out the supporting cast who cannot be seen when Honor is somewhere else and whose stories do not fit in the mainline Honor volume, sort of A Rising Thunder, Volume Two.

There are plenty of space battles in this volume, although most use only a few Manticoran ships, and marines see action in several engagements on the ground. Some new supporting cast members are introduced on planets we have not seen before, like Cinnamon in the Saltash System, Mobius, and Seraphim who hopefully will reappear as the plot continues on their planets. The most interesting element in the volume has to be the in-depth treatment of Michelle Henke, as herself, as an admiral in charge of the Tenth Fleet, and as the Queen’s cousin. She has always been there as Honor’s friend, and in most of the volumes has been present either on Honor’s ship or in her fleet until Honor gave her a reaming out for not living up to her potential.  In this volume, she is really the central character as Admiral Gold Peake of the Tenth Fleet, much like Honor is in most books from this universe.  She is an interesting character who hasn’t received as much attention as she deserves, most likely for lack of space, since Weber tends to run long not short in most Honorverse volumes.

If you like space battles, or intrigue and interstellar politics then this volume is for you. The bad guys are too numerous to count and the stupidity of the Solarians is off the scale, but it is a fast moving well plotted volume which gives you a more complete picture of the state of the Honorverse.

If you are interested in the Honorverse, join David Weber in celebrating 20 years of Honor Harrington at HonorCon 2013 in Greenville, South Carolina on November 1-3, 2013. You can find more information at www.honorcon.com .

Review of Sarah A. Hoyt’s A Few Good Men

This is a book from the Darkship universe which overlaps the timeline of Darkship Renegades. The main character is Luce, or Lucius Dante Maximilian Keeva, the son of Good Man Keeva. He is released from prison by a break-in after spending 14 years in solitary. He makes his way to his father’s house after learning that his father and little brother are dead, in order to assert his right to be Good Man. With the help of the Keeva hereditary retainers, the Remys, Luce takes charge of Olympus Seacity. The Remys are the family of Luce’s deceased partner Ben. Luce doesn’t really want to be Good Man, because of the experience of what his father did to him, but he realizes that if he does not do it, then other Good Men will take the territory, execute the Remys and kill many of the citizens.

As Luce learns the truth about his father and the other Good Men, he really wants to change things. When given the opportunity to help with a rebellion he agrees, even though this will bring war.  Luce does his part and has to spend months away from his friend Nat, doing public relations work.

Luce is a very tortured, reluctant hero whose journey is filled with psychological episodes in which he hears his dead partner Ben. Eventually Ben’s ghost and Nat convince Luce that acting as Good Man and supporting people’s rights is the best choice even if the consequence is war. This eases Luce’s conscience about taking his father’s title, but he is not really leading, only taking orders/suggestions from his retainers.  So at first he is being used by the rebellion, but gradually he pays more attention to what is going on around him and actually takes charge of things.

The politics of earth and the inner workings of the rebellion give the reader a much better view of Earth society than what is depicted in the Darkship novels. This book has only one main character instead of the two in the Darkship books, and Hoyt appears to have an easier time keeping the plot moving with only the one to worry about. Luce is a character you care about much more than the Darkship characters because his personality is much more likable. He is a people person and is motivated more by helping others than by selfish reasons.  He loves the Remys and shows this in the way he follows their suggestions without thought, rescues them from the bad guys and leads them in the rebellion. The way his character grew from taking orders to giving the orders would never have worked if Nat’s parents had not been parental figures to Luce, whom he trusted and loved instinctively even when his memories of them were faint because of his time in prison.

It will be interesting to see how the events in this book are viewed by the citizens of Eden, because now humans on earth have more rights than they did, but it is still a far cry from Eden’s combination of anarchy and dictatorship by the Energy Board.  Hopefully Thena and Kit can bridge the two societies to help each other get everyone’s basic needs met.

This is an excellent choice for readers of science fiction adventure with an interesting likable hero. The plot is exciting and fast moving with interesting locations described on a post war future earth. It is not as dark as some post war fiction, but not a happy place to live either.  The secondary characters are fleshed out, particularly the Remys. Hopefully, we will get to see how Luce and Nat deal with the aftermath of the war and see how they manage their dream of relocating.

GBLT Content Note: Luce is a gay man who is imprisoned along with his partner because his father does not want people to know his son is gay (because of cloning, the father apparently thinks this reflects on his own sexuality).  The partner dies while in prison.  Being gay is illegal in this universe, but Luce uses his influence to change this. Luce, Ben, Nat and Max are all gay characters that are treated by Hoyt as part of a family group where everyone knows but no one cares (except the deceased father).  The love shown by the couples in the book is done very well, in the sense that it is the same as that of different sex couples. There are no depictions of sex, but it is implied to have occurred.  The relationship of Luce and Nat is very special and done very well because both are grieving a lost partner who was a family member of the other (Max was Luce’s brother and Ben was Nat’s uncle) so you can tell they are attracted to each other and spend a great deal of time together but both are too wounded to speak of or act on their feelings until very late in the book.  Nat’s siblings help Luce pull out of his depression when he has not heard from Nat for several months during the war, so it is clear they accept Luce as part of their lives before Nat and Luce actually come out and say anything. Obviously, Luce and Nat’s stubbornness to discuss the issue did not prevent their true feelings from being seen by observant younger siblings.  So this book has positive, realistic depictions of gay couples and their families regardless of the inclusion of gay=prisoner at the start of the book.

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship

Friday Quick Updates: Ariel Djanikian, David Drake, Unpublished Games, StellarCon, ...

Posted on 2013-03-01 at 19:57 by montsamu

Even if you’re not heading over to StellarCon today (or Saturday, or Sunday) there’s enough to do in the Triangle this weekend to make a mini-con of it without straying too far from US-15/501. Meanwhile!

• Mur Lafferty's superhero novel Playing For Keeps is in the "Bundle of Holding", a pay-what-you-want, DRM-free bundle of fiction ebooks from a big list of RPG writers including Mur, Matt Forbeck, Chuck Wendig, and more. Check it out: http://murverse.com/playing-for-keeps-in-the-bundle-of-holding/
• Andy Magowan ("Freedom Acres", Bull Spec #4) has a Kickstarter going for pre-orders and supporters for the first D-Town Brass albums of dirty funky dance jazz, with one album being "live" and the other sound engineered and all vinyl'd up. Check it out: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/400845409/d-town-brass-1st-album

1-3 (Friday to Sunday) — StellarCon37 at the Greensboro – High Point Airport Marriott  with author Eric Flint, artist Richard Case, and game designer Steve Segedy. More info: http://stellarcon.com/

2 (Saturday) 11 am — McIntyre’s Books hosts Ariel Djanikian discusses her dystopian love story, The Office of Mercy. Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/503033603093082/

2 (Saturday) 1 to 8 pm — Durham’s Atomic Empire (formerly Sci-Fi Genre) hosts a “Mini Unpublished Games Festival”, free and open to the public. “Games being presented at this event include Roman Conquest by Josh Young, Dorobo by Rocco Privetera, Havok & Hijinks by Adam Trzonkowski, Fog of War by David Perry, and Cows vs. Chickens by Matt Wolfe. This event boasts a pair of games from the same family Hunting Dice by Zachary Gurganus, and Duck Blind by his father Tom Gurganus!” More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/140356026130296/

2 (Saturday) 2 pm — David Drake will be at Circle City Books in Pittsboro to sign the new paperback edition of The Road of Danger and read from a forthcoming book — the bookstore was recently written up in the LA Times for its fantastic mural of a bookshelf (which features one of Drake’s books, “With the Lightnings”: http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-now-thats-a-wall-of-books-20130123,0,3947937.sto). Per The Herald-Sun’s Cliff Bellamy: “Drake’s visit will be co-sponsored by Davenport & Winkleperry Café.  The reading will be at 2 p.m. at the café, with the book signing to occur across the street at Circle City Books & Music, 121 Hillsboro St., Pittsboro. For more information, call 919-548-5954″. Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/141226659379466/

9 (Saturday) 3 to 4 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts: “Two NC authors share their visions of the strange with us on Saturday, March 9, at 3 p.m. Nathan Kotecki brings us The Suburban Strange. Celia discovers girls at Suburban High are having near fatal accidents on the eve of their 16th birthdays. Can 15-year-old Celia solve the mystery before her own next birthday? For ages 14+. PT McHugh presents Keeper of the Black Stones: Stone Ends, the first book in a new series. It’s a thrilling combination of fantasy and historical fiction with a likable, funny hero in Jason Evans. For ages 12+.” More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/301390523317829/

15 (Friday) 6 pm — Wake Forest’s Story Teller Book Store hosts “A Gathering of Authors” including paranormal fantasy author Steve Stone. More info: http://www.storystorewf.com/index.php/Events.html

19 (Tuesday) 7 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts A. J. HARTLEY – With Children’s Fantasy Darwen Arkwright & The Insidious Bleck.

Posted in Uncategorized

The Hardest Part: M. David Blake on the 2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology

Posted on 2013-02-27 at 13:00 by montsamu

M. David Blake, whom I know simply as Marc, has the deepest memory for fandom and sf of just about anyone I can think of. He keeps up with novels, with short fiction, and even the fanzines. And! He’s currently in his second year of eligibility for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, as I was lucky enough (very lucky!) to publish “Absinthe Fish” in Bull Spec #5 back in 2011, easily the most critically well-received short story from Bull Spec’s run so far. He’s also taken up editing, including Stupefying Stories 2.1 last November. But! His most recent, and fairly Herculean if not downright Sisyphean, project was putting together a massive anthology of Campbell-eligible authors, The 2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology, “Containing 80 complete short stories by 43 different authors, as well as additional information about another 58 potential candidates, the 2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology is your guide to the newest science fiction and fantasy writers who are helping to define the future of the genre.” It has introductions from Marc, and from (among others) Spider Robinson and Lev Grossman, primarily talking about what the Campbell means to them. Here, Marc writes not so much about the award itself, but about the process of hunting down and wrangling these stories and authors together into one place.

By M. David Blake:

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer is one that seems both especially meaningful to me, and especially problematic.

New writers are only eligible for a two year period after their first “pro” sale — defined by the award administrators as being at least three cents per word, for a total of at least $50 — and the clock automatically starts ticking at that point… but a very large percentage of them never realize they are eligible, and so they don’t bother to tell anyone. And every time I run into a new writer, or discover that an acquaintance has nudged that little tick-tock timer enough to start it running, I get excited and tell them about the award.

Sometimes their responses surprise me. “Oh, I’ve not had that many things in print yet.” “Oh, I’m not well-known enough for anyone to nominate me.” “Oh, I’ll wait until next year when I have out, and then I’ll say I’m eligible.”

Each of those approaches is a passive form of self-rejection. If you tell me that, you’re essentially saying, “I’m not good enough (yet).” And from a certain perspective, self-rejection is sort of understandable: as writers, we all battle with a little inner voice that undermines our confidence, and the rejection letters that almost invariably accompany our career choice don’t do anything to stifle it.

The problem is, your timer really does start running down, whether you’ve announced your eligibility or not.

Over the past two years I’ve gotten to know a lot of eligible writers. Some of them stand a really good chance of being nominated this year. Some of them didn’t know about the award, or their eligibility, until I explained why it mattered. Some of them really were still “unknowns,” because their stories appeared in venues small enough that they didn’t attract much attention. Some of them knew they were eligible but assumed they didn’t stand a chance of getting on the ballot, so they hadn’t even tried to publicize their work.

A week and a half before Christmas I asked a group of them, “Assuming I can talk Bruce into letting me put it together, how many of you would be interested in contributing to a reprint-only, free — and no pay in this case, since it would be all reprints and basically a way to ensure distribution for as many eligible writers as possible — Campbellian “Spotlight” super-deluxe issue of Stupefying Stories presents…?”

With very few exceptions, they wanted to participate. The few who didn’t either couldn’t obtain their reprint rights in time for inclusion, or else had very good reasons for electing to not share their limited works that freely. We spread the word, and soon new writers who had completely evaded my radar began to contact me for details.

A handful even offered exclusive previews of upcoming, not-yet-released works, and I wound up having to set a rule that hadn’t even been considered when conceiving the project: No writer would be allowed use any story that had not yet been published, or anything that fell outside of the two year window around which their eligibility was calculated. (I hated having to make that rule, because it meant I had to turn away some incredible stories. Fortunately, each participant who offered a preview was also able to supply an alternate selection.)

Knowing so many eligible writers led to a few small challenges. How should an anthology of this nature be structured, to avoid any appearance of stacking the deck? I wanted each participant to be presented in the best possible light, and without any perception of bias. Alphabetical order was one simple solution, as was making sure each participant’s website had been listed. I also didn’t allow myself to comment on any of the individual writers, despite the fact that there were wonderful things I could share about a few of them, and several whose careers I enthusiastically follow.

Simply putting each of the participants on equal footing wasn’t enough, though. For a project like this one to have any value, it couldn’t simply focus on the writers who had chosen to participate, while pretending they were the only viable candidates for the award. A fair amount of additional time went into tracking down other eligible writers, locating the details of their qualifying sales, and getting links to their websites for any who had an online presence. I wanted this anthology to be as all-inclusive as possible, and tried to make it so.

Ultimately, that was the hardest part… because despite my best efforts, I was still learning about newly-eligible writers for several weeks after the anthology was released.

This year we managed to assemble eighty complete stories and two novel excerpts, from 43 of the eligible candidates for the 2013 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. We managed to track down a supplemental list of another 58 writers who either elected not to participate, or who we didn’t learn about in time to approach for the anthology. There are even more names listed at Writertopia.com, because none of us knew they’d qualified until after the 2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology was out the door, and I would encourage anyone who is able to nominate writers on this year’s Hugo/Campbell ballot to investigate all of them. Readers and writers need each other, and the window of Campbellian eligibility is an excellent time for the two to connect.

As for next year, I’ll get an earlier start on tracking down names.

The 2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology is a free download in either ePub or Mobi format. The deadline for casting nominating ballots is March 10.

Posted in The Hardest Part

Release Day Triple Feature: Ariel Djanikian, Tony Daniel, and PT McHugh

Posted on 2013-02-26 at 17:36 by montsamu

Three books by local authors make for a crowded release day today, with post-apocalyptic fiction, a Star Trek novel, and a YA time-travel historical fantasy book as well. And! Each author has at least one upcoming event to check out:

The Office of Mercy: A Novel by Ariel Djanikian (Viking Adult, February 21) — Debut novel for this new Chapel Hill author: “Weaving philosophy and science together into a riveting, dystopian story of love and adventure, The Office of Mercy illuminates an all-too-real future imagined by a phenomenal new voice in fiction. Twenty-four-year-old Natasha Wiley lives in America-Five—a high-tech, underground, utopian settlement where hunger and money do not exist, everyone has a job, and all basic needs are met. But when her mentor and colleague, Jeffrey, selects her to join a special team to venture Outside for the first time, Natasha’s allegiances to home, society, and above all to Jeffrey are tested. She is forced to make a choice that may put the people she loves most in grave danger and change the world as she knows it.” (Chapel Hill) — Audiobook coming in March from Tantor.

Star Trek: The Original Series: Devil’s Bargain by Tony Daniel (Pocket Books/Star Trek, Feb 26) — “Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise are sent to evacuate the Federation mining colony Vesbius, a frontier settlement that is on the brink of an extinction-level event, threatening the lives of all the colonists and the disruption of ore production vital to Starfleet. However, the colonists refuse to abandon this settlement, not wanting to leave their claims. It is after these irrational decisions that Spock suggests that perhaps an unexpected ally could aid the colony and help complete the mission…” (Wake Forest)

Keeper of the Black Stones (Stone Ends) by PT McHugh (Glass House Press, Feb 26, 2013) — “Awkward in his own skin, shy around girls and worried about anything and everything, Jason Evans is just like a million other teenage boys in high school, with one very large exception: he has been given a gift that allows him to jump through time. A set of stones has fallen into his lap that gives him access to any place - and any time - that he chooses. But along with that gift comes the responsibility of stopping the man who is using those very stones to travel through time and change history for his own purposes. A man who is now holding Jasons grandfather hostage, and threatening the worlds very existence. Jumping through time with his best friend and body guard, Jason must enter the world of Medieval England, learn its customs, navigate unimaginable danger, and help Henry VII win the Battle of Bosworth, in the name of finding his grandfather, rescuing a beautiful girl from the clutches of a corrupt church, and destroying the one man who pledges to turn history inside out.” (Raleigh)

RELATED EVENTS:

FEBRUARY 2013

NEW: 26 (Tuesday) 7 pm — Flyleaf Books hosts Ariel Djanikian reads from her science fiction novel The Office of Mercy. Author Djanikian now calls Chapel Hill home, so let’s get out to welcome this new local author! Here’s a Facebook event to pass around: https://www.facebook.com/events/539125676117811/

MARCH 2013

NEW: 2 (Saturday) 11 am — McIntyre’s Books hosts Ariel Djanikian discusses her dystopian love story, The Office of Mercy.

NEW: 9 (Saturday) 3 to 4 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts: “Two NC authors share their visions of the strange with us on Saturday, March 9, at 3 p.m. Nathan Kotecki brings us The Suburban Strange. Celia discovers girls at Suburban High are having near fatal accidents on the eve of their 16th birthdays. Can 15-year-old Celia solve the mystery before her own next birthday? For ages 14+. PT McHugh presents Keeper of the Black Stones: Stone Ends, the first book in a new series. It’s a thrilling combination of fantasy and historical fiction with a likable, funny hero in Jason Evans. For ages 12+.” More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/301390523317829/

APRIL 2013

NEW: 9 (Tuesday) 7 pm — B&N of Cary hosts Tony Daniel and David Drake for The Heretic. More info: http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/78969

Posted in local-author-release-day | Tagged ariel djanikian, PT McHugh, tony daniel

March newsletter: Ariel Djanikian, David Drake, Nathan Kotecki, A.J. Hartley, Ursula Vernon, and more

Posted on 2013-02-25 at 19:32 by montsamu

Vol 3. No 3. February 25, 2013:

Welcome a bit early to the March 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 Office of Mercy reading event tomorrow (Tuesday, February 26!) as new Chapel Hill author Ariel Djanikian debuts her debut novel at Flyleaf Books. And just a few days away, for those not making the commute over to Greensboro-High Point for StellarCon, is David Drake's signing at new Pittsboro bookstore Circle City Books on Saturday.

Looking back on February (so far!) it's been quite a busy month, with Kim Harrison, Cory Doctorow, and Brandon Sanderson all bringing in packed, standing-room-only audiences. The Exploding Spaceship logged a report on the Harrison event, and Calvin Powers provided a video of the Doctorow event, and if you have some pictures, audio, or video of anything else going on last month, send it my way.

Meanwhile, there are some new local books which came out in the past few weeks:

• 2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology edited by M. David Blake (Rampant Loon/Stupefying Stories, Feb 8) — free e-anthology “Containing 80 complete short stories by 43 different authors, as well as additional information about another 58 potential candidates” for this year’s John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, including locals Rebecca Gomez Farrell, Mur Lafferty, Rich Matrunick, T.C. McCarthy, and more.
• Six Heirs (The Secret of Ji, #1) by Pierre Grimbert, translated from French by Matthew Ross and Eric Lamb (AmazonCrossing, February 19) — Translator Ross hails from the Raleigh-Durham area; also available in audio, read by Michael Page for Brilliance Audio — “From France’s most celebrated author of fantasy. The Known World is a sprawling region ruled by mortals, protected by gods, and plied by magicians and warriors, merchants and beggars, royals and scoundrels."
• The Office of Mercy: A Novel by Ariel Djanikian (Viking Adult, February 21) — Debut novel for this new Chapel Hill author: “Weaving philosophy and science together into a riveting, dystopian story of love and adventure, The Office of Mercy illuminates an all-too-real future imagined by a phenomenal new voice in fiction.
• Star Trek: The Original Series: Devil’s Bargain by Tony Daniel (Pocket Books/Star Trek, Feb 26) — “Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise are sent to evacuate the Federation mining colony Vesbius, a frontier settlement that is on the brink of an extinction-level event, threatening the lives of all the colonists and the disruption of ore production vital to Starfleet. However, the colonists refuse to abandon this settlement, not wanting to leave their claims. It is after these irrational decisions that Spock suggests that perhaps an unexpected ally could aid the colony and help complete the mission….”

• NEW: February 26 (Tuesday) 7 pm -- Flyleaf Books hosts Ariel Djanikian reads from her science fiction novel The Office of Mercy.
• NEW: March 2 (Saturday) 11 am -- McIntyre's Books hosts Ariel Djanikian discusses her dystopian love story, The Office of Mercy.
• NEW: March 2 (Saturday) 2 pm -- David Drake will be at Circle City Books in Pittsboro to sign the new paperback edition of The Road of Danger and read from a forthcoming work.
• NEW: March 9 (Saturday) 3 to 4 pm -- Quail Ridge Books hosts: "Two NC authors share their visions of the strange with us on Saturday, March 9, at 3 p.m. Nathan Kotecki brings us The Suburban Strange.
• NEW: March 19 (Tuesday) 7 pm -- Quail Ridge Books hosts A. J. HARTLEY - With Children's Fantasy Darwen Arkwright & The Insidious Bleck.
• NEW: April 9 (Tuesday) 7 pm -- B&N of Cary hosts Tony Daniel and David Drake for The Heretic.
• NEW: May 29 (Wednesday) -- Quail Ridge Books hosts JOHN SCALZI - Hugo Winner With The Human Division at 7:30 pm.
• NEW: June 27 (Thursday) -- A sf-themed even from the NC Symphony: 'Join George Takei, “Mr. Sulu” of Star Trek fame, as he guides you through the galaxy accompanied by music from E.T., Star Wars, Close Encounters, and,of course, Star Trek.'
• NEW: July 28 (Sunday) -- The annual NC Browncoats "Can't Stop the Serenity" charity screening of Serenity at the Raleighwood Cinema Grill.
• NEW: August 3 (Saturday) 7 to 9 pm -- Quail Ridge Books hosts the annual Bull Spec summer speculative fiction event. This year it is an absolutely fantastic lineup with Karen Lord, Nathan Ballingrud, Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, and Will Hindmarch all coming up from the Shared Worlds Teen Writing Camp at Wofford College. We had a blast hosting Ann and Jeff back in 2011 and it's sure to be another great evening.

PS: Here's a handout flyer in PDF and JPG:

FEBRUARY 2013

NEW: 26 (Tuesday) 7 pm -- Flyleaf Books hosts Ariel Djanikian reads from her science fiction novel The Office of Mercy. Author Djanikian now calls Chapel Hill home, so let's get out to welcome this new local author! Here's a Facebook event to pass around: https://www.facebook.com/events/539125676117811/

MARCH 2013

Posted in newsletter

Friday quick updates: Feb 22, 2013

Posted on 2013-02-22 at 20:10 by montsamu

Hopefully some of you were among the excellent crowds at the Cory Doctorow and Brandon Sanderson events this past week. Speaking of crowds, there’s sure to be quite a few people taking in both the Nevermore Horror Film Festival this weekend in Durham, and the sf convention MystiCon in Roanoke, VA. Here’s what coming up in the next two weeks:

[And here’s a handout flyer for wide distribution!]

FEBRUARY 2013

22-24 (Friday-Sunday) — Durham’s Carolina Theatre hosts the Nevermore Film Festival. More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/440070299375523/

22-24 (Friday-Sunday) — MystiCon in Roanoke, Virginia, with Orson Scott Card, Larry Elmore, Rich Sigfit, and more. More info: http://mysticon-va.com/

23 (Saturday) 3 pm and 7 pm — Hillsborouth author John Claude Bemis is a participant on the Murphey School Radio Show at the Shared Visions Retreat Center at the Historic Murphey School in Durham, NC. “Spend a couple of hours laughing and singing along as we raise the roof of the historic Murphey School auditorium, a 1936 WPA project that has been lovingly restored by the Shared Visions Foundation as a nonprofit retreat and community center. This event will be recorded live!  PLEASE ARRIVE 1/2 HOUR BEFORE SHOWTIME!!!   For the 3:00pm show, doors will open at 2:15pm with the pre-show warm-up beginning at 2:30pm. Due to live recording, anyone arriving after 3:00pm will be admitted during intermission. For the 7:00pm show, doors will open at 6:15pm with the pre-show warm-up beginning at 6:30pm. Due to live recording, anyone arriving after 7:00pm will be admitted during intermission.” This is a ticketed event with a sliding for-charity scale: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/302008

26 (Tuesday) 7 pm — Flyleaf Books hosts Ariel Djanikian reads from her post-apocalyptic fiction novel The Office of Mercy. Author Djanikian now calls Chapel Hill home, so let’s get out to welcome this new local author!

MARCH 2013

1-3 (Friday to Sunday) — StellarCon37 at the Greensboro – High Point Airport Marriott  with author Eric Flint, artist Richard Case, and game designer Steve Segedy. More info: http://stellarcon.com/

2 (Saturday) 2 pm — David Drake will be at Circle City Books in Pittsboro to sign the new paperback edition of The Road of Danger and read from the forthcoming The Heretic – the bookstore was recently written up in the LA Times for its fantastic mural of a bookshelf (which features one of Drake’s books, “With the Lightnings”: http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-now-thats-a-wall-of-books-20130123,0,3947937.sto

9 (Saturday) 3 to 4 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts: “Two NC authors share their visions of the strange with us on Saturday, March 9, at 3 p.m. Nathan Kotecki brings us The Suburban Strange. Celia discovers girls at Suburban High are having near fatal accidents on the eve of their 16th birthdays. Can 15-year-old Celia solve the mystery before her own next birthday? For ages 14+. PT McHugh presents Keeper of the Black Stones: Stone Ends, the first book in a new series. It’s a thrilling combination of fantasy and historical fiction with a likable, funny hero in Jason Evans. For ages 12+.” More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/301390523317829/

Posted in Uncategorized

The Exploding Spaceship Reviews The Queen is Dead by Kate Locke and Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card

Posted on 2013-02-22 at 16:36 by angelablackwell

Review of The Queen is Dead

This is the second volume of Locke’s Immortal Empire series. The Spaceship reviewed the first volume, God Save the Queen, in our 2012 fantasy reads here: /2012/12/25/what-to-do-with-that-gift-card-part-1-fantasy-reads-for-2012/ .

Xandra Vardan continues her adventures in a quest to find the people who are experimenting on halvies (half-blood vampires or werewolves).  She begins to accept that she is the queen of the goblins and this is in turn places obligations on her from the plague of goblins.  Her werewolf boyfriend and his pack (which includes Xandra’a sister Ophelia), also have demands and obligations on her.  She runs about in fantastic steampunk fashions sneaking into buildings, being kidnapped and chased, rescuing humans, halvies and goblins and of course having some romantic times with her werewolf.  Some of the mystery is resolved in this volume but of course the person with the most knowledge is killed before Xandra can get any information out of her.

This volume ends with Xandra’s world on the brink of war between the goblins, humans, werewolves, vampires and halvies.   The next volume, Long Live the Queen, is due out this October, which is a Good Thing because Your Humble Reviewer read this one in less than 24 hours.

Locke’s London is a very interesting mix of Victorian and modern with most of the action taking place within walking distance of the River Thames between Victoria Station and Covent Garden. Your Humble Reviewer having walked that area frequently, it is sometimes easy to visualize where Xandra is going and at other times the differences make it a bit strange to figure out the geography. There is a map in the front of the book however, which is useful to track where the characters are running about. The areas south of the river are completing missing their modern development and so are very different.

Her chapter titles are literary allusions to sources like Shakespeare and Nietzche and are sometimes humorous if viewed again after reading the chapter. Xandra shows a more mature view of her siblings, father, mother, and stepmother in this book than in the last, realizing why they might have done some things she considers wrong, but at least she is able to see the motivation behind their actions.  She is still a hothead and quick to want to fight, but she has been eating things more appropriate for a goblin and so has more self-control than she did in the first volume.  Her siblings are growing and changing as well, so the characters all seem like real siblings with changing relationships as life experiences shape them.  Hopefully there will be many more volumes of this strange vampiric Britain.

Review of Shadows In Flight

The newest volume in the Ender’s Game universe has come to paperback (Tor February 2013). Card has returned to the story of Bean, last seen in Shadow of the Giant when he disappeared during the war and was thought dead by everyone on Earth except his wife and her parents. He took the three children (all of whom share a genetic defect with him) and left in an FTL ship in the hopes that a cure for that defect (heightened intelligence accompanied by gigantism and a greatly shortened lifespan) could be found on Earth and sent to them via ansible. This volume starts on the ship Herodotus several years later when the children are 6 years old. The three children have all learned to do adult jobs by this point and each has their own specialty. Carlotta is an engineer, Ender a biological scientist and Cincinnatus is a soldier. Even genius 6 year olds fight among themselves and have sibling rivalry, but this suddenly becomes less important when the ship is going to pass near another ship so close there is no way they will not be detected. What they find on the ship changes their views of the universe, and it will change that of everyone on Earth as well. The exciting plot and the tone of this volume are more like the original Ender’s Game than some of the volumes in between. The main characters are similar to their parents, Bean and Petra, so the thought processes and adult level thinking in children are like that of the original book. Almost two-thirds of the book is space adventure dealing with the ship and its consequences so this is a change from the war and political intrigue of recent volumes. Orson Scott Card will be the writer guest of honor at Mysticon in Roanoke, VA February 22-24, 2013.

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship

Release day: Six Heirs (The Secret of Ji #1), translated by Matthew Ross

Posted on 2013-02-19 at 17:53 by montsamu

Well, we’ve had release day posts for quite a few books now, but this is still a first for Bull Spec. It’s not an author or artist or editor, but rather one of the translators whose local ties warrant the book’s mention here. So, without further adieu…

Six Heirs (The Secret of Ji, #1) by Pierre Grimbert, Matthew Ross (Translator), and Eric Lamb (Translator) — in print/ebook from AmazonCrossing — narrated by Michael Page for Brilliance Audio. Here’s the publisher copy:

From France’s most celebrated author of fantasy. The Known World is a sprawling region ruled by mortals, protected by gods, and plied by magicians and warriors, merchants and beggars, royals and scoundrels. Here, those with the gift of the Erjak share a psychic bond with animals; a far-reaching fraternity unites criminals of every persuasion in a vast army of villainy; and upon the mighty river Alt, the dead will one day sail seeking vengeance on the enemies of their descendants. But for all the Known World’s wonders, splendors, and terrors, what has endured most powerfully is the strange legacy of Ji. Emissaries from every nation—the grand Goranese Empire; desolate, frozen Arkary; cosmopolitan Lorelia; and beyond—followed an enigmatic summons into the unknown. Some never returned; others were never the same. Each successive generation has guarded the profound truth and held sacred the legendary event. But now, the very last of them—and the wisdom they possess—are threatened. The time has come to fight for ultimate enlightenment…or fall to infinite darkness. The first book in the highly acclaimed Ji series, available for the first time in English.

Anyway: Congratulations, Matthew!

Posted in local-author-release-day | Tagged matthew ross, secret of ji, six heirs

Video for Cory Doctorow's talk at Flyleaf Books

Posted on 2013-02-18 at 00:05 by montsamu

Calvin Powers, as he’s done for some previous events, has posted a video from Cory Doctorow’s talk on privacy and technology and other topics at Flyleaf Books yesterday. While I certainly have more to say about the excellent, interesting, and frankly inspiring event, the video is definitely worth sharing around. Check it out!

http://goo.gl/0S2nP

[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“614”] photo by Calvin Powers[/caption]

Posted in Uncategorized