Fantasybookspot - News Feed

Cory Doctorow Tour Schedule

Fri, 09 May 2008 13:19:58 -0400

Come check it out at

http://us.macmillan.com/Tour.aspx?id=51&publisher=torforge

Read More/Post Comments

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow free download

Mon, 05 May 2008 10:25:50 -0400

Little Brother by Cory Doctrow can be downloaded for free by going here.

Synoposis:

Marcus, a.k.a “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works–and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems.
But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.

When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.

Read More/Post Comments

New Crime/Noir Issue of Storyglossia

Thu, 01 May 2008 14:01:47 -0400

Storyglossia handed the editorial reigns over to Anthony Neil Smith for this issue.

http://www.storyglossia.com/28/cover.html

STORYGLOSSIA Issue 28, May 2008
ISSN 1545-2824

The Crime/Noir Issue

Table of Contents

-Guest editor Anthony Neil Smith's introduction
-Must Bite! Vicki Hendricks
-Cheer Megan Abbott
-Funny Face Greg Bardsley
-Everything Must Go Ray Banks
-Young Junius Seth Harwood
-Star's Jar Kate Beauford
-I Came Home Sunday Night Louis Wittig
-The Cigarette Story Barry Graham
-No Story Bonnie Nadzam
-Exit Wounds R. Christopher Knight
-A Place for Violence Kevin Wignall
-The Humming Heather Fowler
-Crash Where You Land Scott Miles
-Cut Me to the Quick Robert Skinner
-The Helper R. Narvaez
-Return Finbarr McCarthy
-Identity Crisis Kyle Hemmings
-The Bicycles Were Gravestones Fred Zackel
-Felonies for which I was Never Apprehended: Chapter One hundred and Eight. Adam Cushman

Del Rey offering Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Betrayal as free e-book

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 05:01:38 -0400

Del Rey is offering Book One in the series, Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Betrayal, by Aaron Allston, as a free downloadable PDF, audio book, and eBook. The free book offer starts at 9AM today (29 April) and runs through midnight on 13 May. The book is available on www.legacyoftheforce.com.

The free book giveaway is a prelude to the release of Book Nine, the final book in the series, Invincible, by Troy Denning, which Del Rey is releasing in hardcover on 13 May.

Via SFScope.

Read More/Post Comments

Hugo nominated The Cambist and Lord Iron by Daniel Abraham online

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 03:58:58 -0400

The Hugo nominated story The Cambist and Lord Iron by Daniel Abraham has been released online. It was published in the Jon Klima edited anthology Logorrhea.

You can read it here.

Read More/Post Comments

The Ancient By R.A. Salvatore chapter excerpt (FBS Exclusive)

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:40:02 -0400

Chapter 3:

ROCKS, ALWAYS ROCKS

“Rocks, rocks, it’s always rocks!” the young and strong man complained, his muscular bare arms glistening with sweat. He was tall, more than halfway between six and seven feet, and though he had lost considerable weight on this multi-year journey, he did not appear skinny and certainly not frail, his lean muscles standing taut like ropes. A mop of blond hair covered his head, bespeaking his Vanguard heritage, and he wore a scraggly beard. Even though his superiors disapproved of it, they would not enforce their rules against facial hair when they possessed no implement to easily be rid of it. He stood on a slope of brown dirt and gray stones – fewer near him now, since he had already tossed scores over the ridge so that they would roll down and bounce near to the wall the man and his companions were repairing. He hoisted another one, brought it near his shoulder and heaved it out, but it didn’t quite make the lip and began to roll back his way. He intercepted it with a few fast strides, planting his foot against it and holding it in place before it could gain any real momentum.

“Catch your breath, Brother Cormack,” said an older monk, middle-aged and with more skin than hair atop his head. “The air is particularly warm this day.”

Cormack did take a deep breath, then gathered up his heavy woolen robes and pulled them over his head, leaving him naked other than a bulky white loincloth.

“Brother Cormack!” the other monk, Giavno by name, scolded.

“Always rocks,” Cormack argued, his bright green eyes flaring with intensity, and he made no move to retrieve his heavy robe. “Ever since we came to this cursed island, we have done nothing more than pile rocks.”

“Cursed?” Giavno said, shaking his head and wearing an expression of utter disappointment. “We were sent north to frozen Alpinador to begin a chapel, Brother. For the glory of Blessed Abelle. You would call that cursed?” As he ended he swept his arm up to his left beyond the ridge and to the small stone church the brothers had constructed. Though the square structure was no more than thirty feet on any side, since they had placed it on the highest point of the small island, it dominated the view.

Cormack put his hands on his hips, laughed, and shook his head helplessly. They had departed Chapel Pellinor in Vanguard more than three years before all full of excitement and a sense of great purpose. They would travel to Alpinador, home of the pagan barbarians, and spread the word of Blessed Abelle. With their gemstone magic and the truth and beauty of their message, they would save souls.

But they had found only battle and outrage, and their every word had sounded as insult to the proud and strong northmen. Running for their lives more than proselytizing, the band had become quite lost in short order and had stumbled and bumbled their way along for weeks, and with the freezing winter closing in all around them. Surely the nearly two-score monks and their like number of servants would have found a cold and empty death, but they had happened upon this place, a huge lake of warm waters and perpetual steam, a place of islands small and large. Father De Guilbe, who led their expedition, proclaimed it a miracle, and decided that here, on these waters, they would fulfill their mission and build their chapel.

Here, Cormack mused, on a lump of rock in the middle of the water.

“Rocks,” Cormack grumbled, and he bent low and picked up the heavy stone again. This time he heaved it far over the ridge line.

“The lake teems with fish and food, and have you ever tasted water so fine?” said Giavno, his voice wistful. “And the heat of the water saved us from the Alpinadoran winter. You should be more grateful, Brother.”

“We were sent here for a reason beyond our simple survival.”

“Patience,” Giavno argued, a predictable answer and oft given, but something about Giavno’s inflection as he spoke the last word gave Cormack pause. He looked over at his Abellican brother, then followed the older monk’s wide-eyed stare to the water behind them.

Cormack saw the powries – bandy-legged, bandy-armed, barrel-chested dwarves – floating in on their flat raft just an instant before they began springing into the water near the shore, bursting into a wild charge, brandishing their weapons.

Cormack whirled about, took a few running strides, and leaped high into the air, crashing into a pair of dwarves before they cleared the surf. One went down, the other staggered back, and Cormack set himself quickly and launched a circle kick that caught the standing dwarf on the side of its chin before it could fully recover from the unexpected assault. Its dull red beret, the item that defined the powries who were also known as “bloody caps,” went flying away and that dwarf, too, tumbled under the water.

“Out, or they’ll be sure to drown you!” Giavno cried, and he accentuated his point by thrusting forth his hand and loosing the power of the stone he clutched: graphite, the stone of lightning. A bright blue bolt sizzled past Cormack to strike the raft, sending powries tumbling, but as the bolt dispersed into the water, Cormack felt a nasty sting about his legs.

Behind Giavno and beyond the ridge another pair of monks cried out the warning.

Cormack sloshed toward the rocky shore with all the strength he could muster. He half-turned as he went and managed to somewhat deflect the barrage of clubs that came spinning his way. More than one hit home, though, and by the time he got out of the water, he sported a large welt on one arm and a bruise on the side of his face that threatened to swell his right eye closed.

“To me!” Giavno called to Cormack and the other pair, and just ahead of the dwarves the young monk ran. Reaching his companion he skidded low, grabbed up a stone, and turned as he rose, launching it at the nearest pursuer. The missile hit the dwarf squarely in the chest, briefly interrupting its howl. But only briefly, for the tough creature slogged through the strike and closed fast, smacking wildly with its club.

Cormack didn’t retreat; in fact, he surprised the dwarf by coming forward within the weight of the club, rolling as he went to further absorb the blow. It still blew his breath out, but Cormack fought through that and caught the club as he turned, then turned further, taking the club with him and yanking it from the surprised dwarf’s hands. He snapped off a quick smack against the dwarf’s head, then pivoted the club fast and sent it out spearlike at the next powrie in line.

That one waved its arm to deflect the missile but misjudged and whipped its hand past too quickly. The red-bearded dwarf did block the throw, however – with its face, its nose, more specifically, and its head snapped back.

“Yach, ye mutt,” the powrie growled, reaching up to grab its busted proboscis, and taking away a palm full of blood. The dwarf sneered and growled louder and started for Cormack with more purpose.

But it stopped suddenly, looking confused, and staggered down to one knee.

Cormack had neither the time to acknowledge his luck nor pat himself on the back for a perfect throw, for powries were made of tough stuff and such a strike wouldn’t normally bring one down, temporarily though it might prove. As soon as he had let fly the missile he retracted his throwing arm and drove it down to the side, slugging the initial target in the head.

The dwarf wrapped its strong arms about Cormack’s waist and drove him to the side, intent upon bearing him to the ground. The monk worked his legs frantically, trying to stay upright, and repeatedly hit the creature with his pumping right hand. Blood flew but from his knuckles and not the dwarf, for surely Cormack felt as if he was punching stone instead of flesh!

The monk didn’t relent, though, nor did the powrie, taking him far aside from Brother Giavno and the other two monks, and the group of a half-dozen powries bearing down on them. Another lightning bolt shook the ground, and the lead powrie began to dance wildly, arms and lips flapping, his thick red hair and beard straightening to full length and shivering in the air. He danced and hopped, managing another step forward, but then fell over.

The other five rumbled past, ignoring rock missiles, and the club-fight began in earnest.

Cormack continued to work his legs frantically, continued to punch at the dwarf, but on one slug the stubborn little creature turned about, purposely putting its face in line with the man’s flying fist. Cormack scored a solid, stunning hit, but square dwarf teeth clamped upon the side of his hand and bit down hard.

Cormack thrashed and tore free his hand, breaking out of the dwarf’s vice grip in the process. Even as he jumped backward with the powrie coming in immediate pursuit, the monk launched a heavy left hook that snapped the dwarf’s head to the side.

A right cross staggered the powrie even more and gave Cormack the opportunity to square up against the dwarf.

“Yach, but I’m to scrape the skin from yer pretty face!” the stubborn powrie promised and came on.

A trio of stinging left jabs put the dwarf back on its heels.

Cormack retreated a bit more; his reach was his advantage, he knew, and when he looked at his opponent, who seemed like a walking block of rock, he figured it might be his only advantage.

* * * * *

Giavno swung hard with his makeshift wooden mace. He scored a solid hit, but the powrie pressed him relentlessly. How the monk wished that he still had the mace he had carried when he had left Chapel Pellinor, a spiked weapon of wonderful balance and weight. But alas that mace, and all of their other metallic items, was lost to them, corroded by the constant steam that floated about the islands of this hot lake.

Giavno hit the powrie again, cracking the block head of the weapon against the back of the turning dwarf’s shoulder. The monk rolled his shoulders, thrusting forth his free hand in time to deflect the dwarf’s smashing response. And as that powrie staff slipped by the monk wrapped his arm over the dwarf’s hands and bore in hard against his enemy.

Big mistake, Giavno realized as soon as he slammed against the dwarf, who didn’t budge an inch. For now his advantage -- the length of his arms -- was lost, and the powrie fast squirmed and twisted free its hands, clamping them about Giavno’s waist and tugging him along as it fell into a roll.

Another powrie closed into the wrestling pair, whacking away at Giavno with a weighted stick, raising welts under the monk’s heavy brown robes.

Giavno grimaced through the pain and managed to turn about to see his two companions, both fighting valiantly and fiercely against a trio of dwarves, trading punch for swat. At one point in the roll the dwarf loosened its grip, and Giavno quickly set his feet and thrust forward, scrambling toward his friends. As he had hoped, one of the powries broke away to intercept, launching a flying tackle at the monk and bearing him back to the two pursuing dwarves.

Still clutching his graphite stone, Giavno fell into its depths. He got smacked with a staff and punched on the side of his head. The dwarf who had tackled him twisted him about as if to break him apart. But Giavno held his concentration and sent his energy into and through the stone, and jolting sparks of electricity fired out in all directions around him.

The powries fell back, were thrown back, and Giavno sprinted for his companions. He glanced over at Cormack with sincere, almost fatherly, concern, but reminded himself that Cormack had secured his position on this mission to Alpinador precisely because he had shown himself to be the finest young fighter at Chapel Pellinor.

Cormack would get back to the three brothers, Giavno told himself, and prayed.

* * * * *

“Ah, ye’re that one,” the dwarf said, nodding and smiling, and spitting a line of blood at Cormack’s feet. “Yer blood’ll make me beret shine all the brighter, then.”

It howled and brought its staff up above its head, leaping forward.

But Cormack had anticipated the move and was moving as well, diving down to the side and lashing out with his top leg. He didn’t hit the dwarf but slid the kicking foot past him, then bent his knee and brought the leg back in at the back of the dwarf’s knees. The powrie halted its swing and overbalanced backward for a second as Cormack’s calf drove in hard against the back of its knees.

That was naught but a ruse, though, as the unfortunate dwarf soon learned. Cormack rolled out farther to the side, then reversed his flow, throwing his hips over and locking his scissors’ grip on the dwarf. The powrie tried to fight the inevitable pull but had no leverage against the prostrate and rolling man, and Cormack’s trailing leg drove the dwarf over, forward and to the ground. The staff went flying and the powrie hit hard, just getting a hand underneath in time to stop its face from smashing against the stones.

Cormack continued the roll to his back, extracting his legs on the last turn. He arched, put his feet under him, and snapped his muscles, lifting him to a standing position over the prone, face-down dwarf. He moved fast into position where he could stomp the powrie’s face into the stone, and even lifted his foot over the back of the still-stunned dwarf’s head.

He hesitated.

He heard splashing and turned in time to see the charge of the first dwarf he had decked, out in the water. It came out with fury – no, not fury, Cormack realized, but with terror.

For behind it emerged another creature, its smooth bluish, almost translucent skin gleaming in the dull and hazy light, its black eyes peering at its prey intently under a protruding brow. A glacial troll, Cormack realized at once and so too had the powrie, judging from the look of terror on its face!

No taller than the dwarves and far lighter, the glacial trolls were nevertheless the bane of all the island societies. Their thin limbs were deceptively strong and their teeth pointed like little knives. And where came one troll, inevitably, came many. Cormack saw that clearly now, the long waggling ears of the ugly goblinoid creatures poking from the surf all about the rocky beach.

The dwarf at Cormack’s feet grabbed him by the ankle and tugged hard. He didn’t resist but let himself fall backward into a roll, one that took him right over and back to his feet.

“Trolls! Trolls!” he cried, and he started toward the beach, yelling at the dwarf, “Faster!”
The dwarf threw his head back as he broke free of the surf and seemed to come on more quickly. Momentarily, though, for when the powrie jerked again Cormack saw the truth of it.

The dwarf staggered forward, slowing, then slumped down to his knees and gave a great exhale.

“Yach!” cried the powrie on the ground before Cormack, and that one leaped to his feet. “Bikelbrin, me friend!”

That call had all the powries pausing and turning, as the truth of their predicament fell fully on man and dwarf alike. Ten of them stood against more than a dozen of the trolls, who were armed with spears tipped with sharpened, barbed shells and not the relatively benign sticks that the island inhabitants generally used to batter each other about the skulls.

The trolls closed on the kneeling Bikelbrin, but so did Cormack, leaping across the stones in full charge. He heard Brother Giavno shout, “To the abbey!” and understood that his three brethren would take that route, but he could not ignore the wounded powrie.

The glacial trolls neared, reaching for their embedded spears. Cormack put on a burst of speed, closing ground, and leaped, turning himself sidelong in mid-air as he cleared the dwarf. He was over the spears before the trolls could fully retract them. One let go of the shaft and threw its hands up to block, while the other stubbornly, and with a sickening wet sound, drew free its spear. That one took the brunt of the flying body-block as Cormack bowled over both of the trolls.

He landed atop them hard, smacking his hand painfully against a stone and his forehead painfully against the back of that hand. A wave of dizziness washed over him, but he knew better than to succumb to it in the midst of vicious trolls. He rolled sidelong, right off the two, who scrambled and bit at him, one catching a tooth on his bare forearm.

Cormack tugged that arm free immediately and managed to slam it down hard on the troll’s face for good measure as he regained his balance.

No faster than the other troll, however, which lowered its spear for Cormack’s belly and thrust it forward.

The trained monk dodged aside and slapped the spear out wider with the flat of his hand. He started for the opening to strike at the creature, but instinct stopped him and turned him about.

Just in time to deflect the thrown spear of another troll.

Cormack jumped back, three on him now and a fourth coming in. To his left came a sharp retort, and one of the trolls he had bowled over stumbled forward and to the ground. Behind it came the furious powrie, running headlong and empty-handed, for he had thrown his staff, spearlike, into the back of the fallen troll’s head. He called for Bikelbrin but ran right past his wounded friend, leaping onto the second of the trolls Cormack had tackled, bearing it down under his thrashing and kicking form.

Cormack stomped hard on the back of the neck of the first fallen troll, ending its squirming. No mercy for glacial trolls, for everyone on that beach, human and powrie alike, knew that the trolls would show none. Up on the ridge all of the powries had disengaged from Cormack’s Abellican brethren and were charging down. To the monk’s relief he saw Brother Giavno extending his clenched fist.

“To the abbey!” Giavno yelled again, and Cormack understood that it was for his benefit alone, a warning to him that his three friends would desert him here. A lightning bolt followed that warning, off to the side where it sent a trio of trolls hopping wildly and weirdly, the residual jolts waggling their spindly limbs in a frenetic dance.

A troll leaped at Cormack, the fourth going for the powrie and its wrestling companion. The young monk dodged a spear thrust, then a second. He turned sidelong, bent back and down as the third thrust angled high, past his head. Cormack’s left hand, his inside hand, grabbed the shaft, and he wrapped his right arm over it just below the seashell tip as he brought it down. He turned to face the troll and thrust his right forearm, now under the shaft, upward at the same time he drove his left hand down. The sudden movement and Cormack’s redistribution of his weight snapped the spear at mid-shaft. As soon as he heard the break, Cormack tugged the remaining troll weapon aside and crashed against the troll, grabbing a firm hold on the broken piece of the spear as he went. He felt that sharp piece drive into the troll’s torso, and he wrapped his left hand about the creature, boring in harder.

The troll went into a frenzy and tried to bite at him, but Cormack stayed too low for that. The frantic creature wasn’t done, though, and it used yet another of its many weapons -- its long and pointed chin -- and repeatedly drove the bony feature hard against the side of Cormack’s head.

Both fell to the ground, Cormack on top, and he shoved up immediately to his knees, his movement pulling free the spear shaft. He flipped it in his hands as he went and came right back at the troll, this time with the seashell head leading.

The troll scrambled and thrashed, slapped and squirmed, but to no avail. Cormack fell atop it again, pushing the spear right through its chest. He tugged left and right, ensuring that the wound would be mortal, and finally he fell aside – to see the other troll, the hit in the back of the head by the thrown powrie staff, standing over him, a rock in hand.

An explosion of bright white light filled Cormack’s head as that troll struck. He covered and rolled and somehow even managed to get back to his feet without being hit again too badly.

But the troll was there, punching and biting at him, and all the world was spinning.

Cormack found his sensibilities just enough to punch out, a stunning right cross that through good fortune alone, connected solidly on the troll’s jaw, snapping its head aside and sending it back to the ground.

Cormack tried to straighten, staggering left and right. He saw the powries and the trolls, one big pile of confusion and fury.

Then he saw the ground rushing up to swallow him.

The sounds receded, the light disappeared in a blink, and Cormack drowned in a cold and empty darkness.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Ancient was released in March of 2008 by Tor and is the second book in the Saga of the First King. The first book, The Highwayman, was reviewed by FBS here.

Read More/Post Comments

Nebula Award winners announced

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 04:38:40 -0400

The Nebula Award winners are in! Michael Chabon grabs his first literary prize of the year. Could he take the Locus and Hugo Awards as well?

Other winners include:

Novel: The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
Novella: "Fountain of Age" by Nancy Kress
Novelette: "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang
Short Story: "Always" by Karen Joy Fowler

Via Science Fiction Awards Watch

Read More/Post Comments

Locus Award finalists announced

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:32:53 -0400

The 2008 Locus Award finalists have been announced, check out the nominees below.

SF NOVEL
The Accidental Time Machine, Joe Haldeman (Ace)
Brasyl, Ian McDonald (Pyr)
Halting State, Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
Spook Country, William Gibson (Putnam; Viking UK)
The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Michael Chabon (HarperCollins)

FANTASY NOVEL
Endless Things, John Crowley (Small Beer Press; Overlook)
Making Money, Terry Pratchett (Doubleday UK; HarperCollins)
Pirate Freedom, Gene Wolfe (Tor)
Territory, Emma Bull (Tor)
Ysabel, Guy Gavriel Kay (Viking Canada; Roc)

YOUNG ADULT BOOK
Extras, Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse; Simon & Schuster UK)
The H-Bomb Girl, Stephen Baxter (Faber & Faber)
Magic's Child, Justine Larbalestier (Razorbill)
Powers, Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt; Gollancz)
Un Lun Dun, China Miéville (Ballantine Del Rey; Macmillan UK)

FIRST NOVEL
City of Bones, Cassandra Clare (Simon & Schuster/McElderry)
Flora Segunda, Ysabeau S. Wilce (Harcourt)
Heart-Shaped Box, Joe Hill (Morrow; Gollancz)
The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss (DAW; Gollancz)
One for Sorrow, Christopher Barzak (Bantam Spectra)

Full announcement can be found here.

Winners will be announced in June at the Locus Awards Ceremony in Seattle, June 21st.

Read More/Post Comments

Mothers and Other Monsters by Maureen McHugh free dowload

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 05:17:02 -0400

Small Beer Press has released Mothers and Other Monsters, a wonderful collection by Maureen McHugh for free online.

Get it here!

Read More/Post Comments

Wheel of Time wallpapers available for the first time starting April 18th

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:56:37 -0400

Wheel of Time wallpapers available for the first time starting April 18th Two Wheel of Time wallpapers will be available for download starting Friday, April 18th, at tor.com www.tor.com This will mark the first time that these WOT wallpapers have been legally available for download. Anyone who visits tor.com can download the WOT wallpapers. Anyone who signs up at tor.com will also be able to download Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn novel in PDF, HTML, and Mobi e-book formats at some time in the next several weeks. Tor.com is an exciting and highly interactive science fiction and fantasy site soon to come. Watch the Skies. www.Tor.com
Read More/Post Comments

X-O MANOWAR: BIRTH preview at VALIANT Entertainment

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:05:01 -0400

VALIANT Entertainment has a preview of their forthcoming hardcover X-O MANOWAR: BIRTH (April 30th) up at their site. It collects issues 0-6 and also includes a new story The Rise of Lydia by Bob Layton and Sean Chen.

The preview can be viewed here.

Fantasybookspot.com has reviewed the issues that will be included in X-O MANOWAR: BIRTH here.

Read More/Post Comments

Small Beer Press: The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories by John Kessel Free Download

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 05:15:13 -0400

Small Beer Press has released John Kessel's collection The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories for free to download!

Enjoy!

Read More/Post Comments

Stephen Baxter's "Last Contact" online for free from Solaris

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:53:28 -0400

To celebrate Stephen Baxter's story "Last Contact" being shortlisted for the Hugo Award, we've decided to place the story online for free. The story was originally featured in the Solaris Book of New Science Fiction.

It can be read at this link:

http://www.solarisbooks.com/books/newbookscifi/last-contact.asp

Read More/Post Comments

Ian Banks' Wasp Factory free audiobook download

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:59:12 -0400

The Independent has teamed up with audible.co.uk to offer readers a free audio download of Iain Banks’ cult classic novel ‘The Wasp Factory’.

Over the course of the week people will be able to download the chapters from this celebrated novel and by Friday 11 April one will have all of the parts you need to make up the complete 6-hour audiobook.

You can download the first part here.

Published in 1984, ‘The Wasp Factory’ was Iain Banks first novel. A powerful and provocative read, this novel tells the story of Frank Cauldhame.

Frank - no ordinary sixteen-year-old - lives with his father outside a remote Scottish village. Their life is, to say the least, unconventional. Frank's mother abandoned them years ago, his elder brother Eric is confined to a psychiatric hospital and his father measures out his eccentricities on an imperial scale. Frank has turned to strange acts of violence to vent his frustrations. In the bizarre daily rituals there is some solace. But when news comes of Eric's escape from the hospital Frank has to prepare the ground for his brother's inevitable return - an event that explodes the mysteries of the past and changes Frank utterly.

Via The Independent.

Read More/Post Comments

Huge Free Book Discovery

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 09:42:18 -0400

I love free books so when I find them I pass them on to you guys.

Softskull has made one of their upcoming releases, Pisstown Chaos by David Ohle, available as a free download through WOWIO.

You need to register and create an account. Then you drop your selections into a shopping cart where they then can be downloaded. There seems to be a limit of three downloads a day.

I had never heard of WOWIO before but it appears that they have a pretty good selection of free downloads other then the usual suspects of public domain stuff. Some of the titles you can get are (click on image below for link):

Read More/Post Comments

2008 Amazon sightings -- 2 new and a reprint

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 11:12:32 -0400

1) The Ghost in Love by Jonathan Carroll - September 2008

"Welcome to the luminous and marvelously inventive world of The Ghost in Love. A man falls in the snow, hits his head on a curb, and dies. But something strange occurs: the man doesn’t die, and the ghost that’s been sent to take his soul to the afterlife is flabbergasted. Going immediately to its boss, the ghost asks, what should I do now? The boss says, we don’t know how this happened but we’re working on it. We want you to stay with this man to help us figure out what’s going on.

The ghost agrees unhappily; it is a ghost, not a nursemaid. But a funny thing happens—the ghost falls madly in love with the man’s girlfriend, and things naturally get complicated. Soon afterward, the man discovers he did not die when he was “supposed” to because for the first time in their history, human beings have decided to take their fates back from the gods. It’s a wonderful change, but one that comes at a price.

The Ghost in Love is about what happens to us when we discover that we have become the masters of our own fate. No excuses, no outside forces or gods to blame—the responsibility is all our own. It’s also about love, ghosts that happen to be gourmet cooks, talking dogs, and picnicking in the rain with yourself at twenty different ages. "

2) The Knights of the Cornerstone by James P Blaylock - December 2008

3) The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives - November 2008

Synopsis:

"A good deal of controversy arose late in the last century over what has been referred to by the more livid newspapers as The Horror in St. James Park or The Ape-box Affair....

So begins the first chronicle in the long and often obscure life of Langdon St. Ives, Victorian scientist and adventurer, respected member of the Explorers Club and of societies far more obscure, consultant to scientific luminaries, and secret, unheralded savior of humankind. From the depths of the Borneo jungles to the starlit reaches of outer space, and ultimately through the dark corridors of past and future time, the adventures of Langdon St. Ives invariably lead him back to the streets and alleys of the busiest, darkest, most secretive city in the world -- London in the age of steam and gaslamps, with the Thames fog settling in over the vast city of perpetual evening. St. Ives, in pursuit of the infamous Dr. Ignacio Narbondo, discovers the living horror of revivified corpses, the deep sea mystery of a machine with the power to drag ships to their doom, and the appalling threat of a skeleton-piloted airship descending toward the city of London itself, carrying within its gondola a living homunculus with the power to drive men mad....

This omnibus volume contains the collected Steampunk stories and novels of James P. Blaylock, one of the originators of the genre, which hearkens back to the worlds of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, a world where science was a work of the imagination, and the imagination was endlessly free to dream.

The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives will contain the original illustrations J. K. Potter created for the novel Lord Kelvin's Machine, plus many more for the novel, Homunculus, and the short stories."

Read More/Post Comments

First Four Chapters of Null-A Continuum by John C. Wright Online

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 06:11:51 -0400

John C. Wright has the first four chapters of his forthcoming novel Null-A Continuum, a sequel to A. E. van Vogt's The World of Null-A, online now.

Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, and Chapter Four.

Read More/Post Comments

Gene Wolfe's An Evil Guest news and additional announcements

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 07:10:06 -0400

"An Evil Guest" Gene Wolfe's forthcoming book, slated for September 16, 2008 release is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com.

The book is described as:
Lovecraft meets Blade Runner. This is a stand-alone supernatural horror novel with a 30s noir atmosphere. Gene Wolfe can write in whatever genre he wants--and always with superb style and profound depth. Now following his World Fantasy Award winner, Soldier of Sidon, and his stunning Pirate Freedom, Wolfe turns to the tradition of H.P. Lovecraft and the weird science tale of supernatural horror.

Set a hundred years in the future, An Evil Guest is a story of an actress who becomes the lover of both a mysterious sorcerer and private detective, and an even more mysterious and powerful rich man, who has been to the human colony on an alien planet and learned strange things there. Her loyalties are divided--perhaps she loves them both. The detective helps her to release her inner beauty and become a star overnight. And the rich man is the benefactor of a play she stars in. But something is very wrong. Money can be an evil guest, but there are other evils. As Lovecraft said, "That is not dead which can eternal lie."

In other news: Centipede Press, publisher of high-end, pricey illustrated limited editions of famous SF and Horror works (along with artbooks), is publishing a high-end, pricey ($225) limited (300 copies) edition of Shadow of the Torturer. Their single image web page about the book is viewable, and they appear to be taking orders.

Cloth - Printed on 100# Mohawk Superfine. Bound in suedel luxe cloth, with seven full color illustrations and a map with a cloth covered slipcase.

Something for completists and collectors perhaps?

Read More/Post Comments

Clarkesworld Issue#19 Online

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 01:24:15 -0400

Featuring fiction from Jeffrey Ford and Jeremiah Sturgill, an interview with K.J. Bishop conducted by Jeff VanderMeer and non-fiction by Tim Pratt.

Check it out.

Read More/Post Comments

IMPACT UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCES FREE COMIC BOOK DAY OFFERING 4th Edition of the Popular How-To Comic Features Orson Scott Card, John

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:55:22 -0400

IMPACT UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCES FREE COMIC BOOK DAY OFFERING 4th Edition of the Popular How-To Comic Features Orson Scott Card, John Howe, Doug Chiang and More!

Impact Books, the how-to write and draw comics, manga and fantasy art publisher, invites readers of all ages to pick up Impact University, Volume 4, on Free Comic Book Day from their favorite comic book store on Saturday, May 3, 2008.

Free Comic Book Day is, of course, a day when participating comic book shops across North America and around the world give away comic books absolutely free to anyone who comes into their stores. Dozens of publishers participate and Impact Books is pleased to continue its involvement in a project that has seen past contributions from its roster of talented artists and writers including Will Eisner, Peter David, Colleen Doran, Dick Giordano, Vince Giarrano, J "NeonDragon" Peffer and Lea Hernandez.

2008's 4th Edition features excerpts from some of Impact's biggest Fall and Spring titles, starting with an introduction from best-selling author Orson Scott Card! Readers are then swept into the world of science fiction and fantasy art with a lesson on robots and vehicles from Academy Award-winning visual designer Doug Chiang. Doug has worked on such films as Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Forrest Gump, and Beowolf. His Impact book, Mechanika: Creating the Art of Science Fiction with Doug Chiang, is out in June.

Next up is a lesson on creating characters with Buddy Scalera's latest Comics Photo Reference: Women and Girls (available now). Our lesson is on how to draw a teen action hero by indie artist Josh Howard, but in the book there's over 1000 color photos with a DVD and lessons from some of the best artists in comics. Thomas Manning provides the next lesson from the no-holds barred Wreaking Havoc: How to Create Fantasy Warriors and Wicked Weapons (available now), written with Chuck Lukacs, Chris Seaman and Jim Pavelec, showing artists how to draw amazing accessories, like armor or weapons, for their characters so they can defend the realm or the beautiful princess.

Of course color will be important for artists and Impact University's lesson plan includes watercolor tips from the book Dreamscapes: Creating Magical Angel, Faery and Mermaid Worlds in Watercolor (available now) by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law and digital computer coloring from Brian and Kristy Miller's book, Hi-Fi Color for Comics: Digital Techniques for Professional Results (available now).

Robots have needs, too, and their anatomy is just as important as the other characters in a comic. That's why Impact University provides a lesson in robotic anatomy from E.J. Su's MechaForce: Draw Futuristic Robots that Fly, Fight, Battle and Brawl (available now). You may recognize E.J. Su's name as the artist on many a Transformers comic, so his mastery of robot anatomy is unquestioned!

And our final lesson brings the master of fantasy art, John Howe, to Impact Books for a lesson in conveying action and movement to the artist's work. John is the conceptual artist for all of The Lord of the Rings films and is known all over the world as the foremost Tolkien illustrator. John's Impact book, Fantasy Art Workshop, from which this lesson is taken, is available now and a new book, Forging Dragons, comes out in October.

Impact will also have comics at their booth at Comic Con International in San Diego, July 25-29, and other comic book and fantasy conventions throughout the summer.
Impact Books are sold wherever books and comics are found.

For more information visit www.freecomicbookday.com and www.impact-books.com.

Impact Books is An Imprint of F+W Publications

Read More/Post Comments

2007 Bram Stoker Award Winners Announced

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:20:16 -0400

Novel: The Missing by Sarah Langan

First Novel: Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

Long Fiction: Afterward, There Will Be A Hallway by Gary Braunbeck

Short Fiction: "The Gentle Brush of Wings" by David Niall Wilson

Fiction Collection: (Tie) Proverbs for Monsters by Michael A. Arnzen and 5 Stories by Peter Straub

Anthology: Five Strokes to Midnight edited by Gary Braunbeck and Hank Schwaeble

Nonfiction: THE CRYPTOPEDIA: A Dictionary of the Weird, Strange & Downright Bizarre by Jonathan Maberry & David F. Kramer

Poetry Collection: Being Full of Light, Insubstantial by Linda Addison and VECTORS: A Week in the Death of a Planet by Charlee Jacob & Marge Simon

Lifetime Achievement Award: John Carpenter, Robert Weinberg

Richard Laymon President's Award: Mark Worthen, Stephen Dorato, Christopher Fulbright

The Dude Who Collected Lovecraft by Nick Mamatas and TA Pratt Online

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 04:56:18 -0400

Chiaroscuro has put online a collaboration by Nick Mamatas and TA Pratt called The Dude Who Collected Lovecraft.

It can be read here. For the PDF go here.

Read More/Post Comments

Harbinger Optioned by Paramount

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 04:29:30 -0400

Earlier this month Variety has reported that Paramount has optioned the comic book property Harbinger with Brett Ratner attached to the movie.

Harbinger is the property of VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT.

Read More/Post Comments

Squid Punk Anthology announced by Jeff and Ann VanderMeer

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 02:25:52 -0400

As announced by Jeff VanderMeer at his blog he and and Ann will be editing Squidpunk for Tachyon that will among others include the talents of Stephen Baxter, Michael Moorcock, Sarah Monette, Paul Witcover, Jay Lake, John Scalzi, Cat Rambo, Matt Staggs, Thomas Ligotti and Elizabeth Hand.

Planned for a 2009 release, Check out the official website for more and future details!

For a direct link to the video go here.

Seriously.

Read More/Post Comments

Huxley's A Brave New World to be adapted to the big screen

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 04:53:05 -0400

According to The Sunday Times, Leonardo DiCaprio will work with Ridley Scott on the first ever film adaptation of Aldous Huxley's legendary novel, Brave New World. Though for years there had been much behind the scenes jousting over the property, Aldous Huxley's granddaughter says, “There is now nothing stopping this film.”

In the film, DiCaprio is expected to play John the Savage, who lives a natural life "while the rest of cloned humanity is lulled into docility with sex, soma (drugs) and feelies (films that also involve the senses of smell and touch)."

Though there are no production or release dates to mention, The Sunday Times indicates that Universal will distribute the film, which, given Scott's visionary work on the similarly futuristic Blade Runner, should at the very least look the part.

Source: The Sunday Times

Read More/Post Comments

85 weirdest storytellers

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:54:59 -0400

The next issue of Weird Tales marks their 85th anniversary. To celebrate they name the 85 weirdest storytellers.

"Readers wrote us in record numbers last autumn when WeirdTalesMagazine.com asked you who, in your book, are the weirdest of the weird: the most influentially strange authors and artists and talespinners of all kinds to work their magic on the world in the 85 years since 1923, when Weird Tales was born. We asked that you not limit your suggestions to just fiction writers, and you responded enthusiastically, naming hordes of filmmakers, songwriters, cartoonists, and more. We took your ideas, added a few of our own, called some top fantasy professionals to put in their two cents, and then dove into the long and arduous process of winnowing the list down to a mere 85 names. "

For the full post go here

For ordering information for the new issue please go here

There is a new Elric novella as well as a bunch of other good stuff.