links for 2008-01-23
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Not of This Fold by William Shunn (PDF)
A preliminary Nebula ballot nominee; originally published in the chapbook An Alternate History of the 21st Century
Archive for January, 2008
The Book Swede on Wastelands
Another new review of Wastelands today, this time from The Book Swede. He claims to be a bit of a newbie when it comes to short fiction, and I’m happy to say that Wastelands seems to have inspired him to try more:
For some reason, I’ve always shied away somewhat from short stories — perhaps I thought there just weren’t enough words to do any "proper" story justice, or that somehow I was being cheated out of a really good read … and as a result, this anthology is the first I’ve ever read. Perhaps I thought … well, whatever I thought, I was wrong. Very, very wrong. […] A very good anthology, and, for a short story newbie like me, a good taster of what it’s all about. A very high 9/10. [whole review]
Doomsday, a film by Neil Marshall
There’s a new post-apocalyptic film coming out this spring called Doomsday, by Neil Marshall, director of the pretty good horror flick The Descent. Go check out the trailer.
It looks pretty good. For about half of the trailer I was thinking "This could be the best post-apocalyptic movie ever," but my enthusiasm diminished somewhat when the biker-punk cannibals showed up. Still, I remain cautiously optimistic.
Wastelands vs. The Waste Lands
A Mr. Ryan Chap posted a two star review of Wastelands over on Amazon, which would be fine…but his review is about The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower, Book 3 by Stephen King), not about my anthology.
If you have a moment, please go report his review as inappropriate, and mark it as "not helpful," would you?
I suppose it’s an easy mistake to make. But come on, one book is by Stephen King, one book has a story by him in it. It’s not so hard to tell them apart, is it? If you’re going to get your hate on, you’d think you’d take the time to make sure your target is the one you were aiming for.
links for 2008-01-22
Small Beer: Now with Dragons and Skulls
On the Small Beer Press not-a-blog, Gavin Grant shows off the latest proposed logo design, this one by Theo Black:
There’s some other cool designs to check out too, but I think this one would be impossible to beat in my eyes. Not sure how well it would work on the spine of a book, however.
"Retrospect" by Ann Miller
Ann Miller, whose story "Retrospect" appears in the February 2008 issue of F&SF, said in an interview that the story actually started as a poem. "I was fooling around with the idea of how different books, if they were sent back in time, would change history and working with the play of ideas when I realized I’d need a larger vehicle to explore the concept properly," she said. "The first line of the story was initially the first line of my poem."
The story concerns a fledging auction agent who unwittingly gets involved with a circle of book lovers who are considering sending a book back in time, Miller said. "As the story develops, the protagonist discovers that the glittering world he has chosen, of high-stakes auction and finance, cannot sustain him and he gravitates toward his new circle of friends whom he feels are more genuine," she said. "They also ultimately betray him, and the unfolding of the narrative involves the choice the protagonist makes, given these experiences, when history has been changed and he has the chance to change it back."
#919
Okay, one more Wastelands publicity post for the day, and then I’ll quit. I see that as of 11:30 today, Wastelands’s Amazon sales rank is up to #919, the highest I’ve ever seen it. And perhaps more startling, not only is it the #1 seller in books by George R. R. Martin, but it’s also #1 in books by Stephen King!
All this translates to it being #44 on Amazon’s science fiction best-seller list.
Sweet!
Wastelands on Hour of the Wolf
I appeared on Jim Freund’s radio show Hour of the Wolf on Saturday morning to promote Wastelands. If you’d like to listen to the show, the radio station, WBAI, has it up on their archives page. For a direct link (which will start the audio streaming), click here.
Bloggers review Wastelands
Daniel W. Powell, on his blog, The Byproduct, posted a nice review of Wastelands. Here’s a snippet:
I can’t recommend this anthology enough. It stands as a definitive collection in the sub-genre, and I have to say that Night Shade Books did an impressive job with the project. Editor John Joseph Adams has a nice eye for strong writing and clearly has read widely in the field. [whole review]
And the Books Anonymous blog had this to say:
I love a good tale of the apocalypse so this book was like a trip to Camden Park (before it became old, dangerous, and creepy). […] I can only give this collection 2 thumbs up because I only have 2 thumbs. [whole review]