F&SF regular Matthew Hughes a free electronic copy of his new novel Template:

Special offer for reviewers, bloggers, newsgroup posters and people who just like to talk about books in public: in May, PS Publishing will release Template, a stand-alone Archonate novel that I consider to be my best work yet (even though it was written in 2003). I will send an rtf file of the book to anyone who commits to review, blog, post or otherwise harass the world about it. Just send me an e-mail at "himself(you know what symbol goes in here)archonate.com" and I’ll shoot you a copy.

James Nicoll, meanwhile, is trying to organize a review-a-thon:

I find it tremendously annoying that Hughes is not better known than he is. My cunning idea is that it might be fun if a bunch of reviewers on LJ should all agree to read and review Template on the same day. LJ doesn’t lend itself to the same kind of communal participation as rasfw but I think this could be worthwhile. Any volunteers? [Current Target Date: May 11th] I probably should have encouraged people to mention this on their blogs and livejournal accounts. Consider this said encouragement.

I also find it tremendously annoying that Hughes is not better known than he is. I read an advance copy of Template, and I have to say, it’s one of the best–if not the best–things Hughes has written to date. So please consider participating in the review-a-thon. Or just go out and order a copy!