Germline and Beyond: How my Short Fiction Links to the Subterrene Novels

Caution: this isn’t a blog post about fiction as much as it’s a post about a weirdo. Me. Because you’d have to be weird to (a) hammer out three books in 1.5 years, (b) write one that wins a major genre award, and (c) figure it would also be easy to also generate a short story and two novelettes to compliment the books’ universe. But that’s exactly what I did. Why? Because people fascinate me in the number of ways they can be ridiculous and murderous, and sometimes I wonder: where will war take us in the future and will people ever change?

Germline, my first book and winner of the Compton Crook Award, is a gonzo-like account of futuristic front lines — the way an outsider sees things, someone not indoctrinated to the military lifestyle and who feels like a teenage outsider going in, an adult alien coming out. But where Germline is a coming of age story, Exogene is something different. Truth be told: I don’t know what it is. Exogene goes deep into the mind of the artificial, a manufactured human-like creature whose path to existence includes brutality too bizarre to be fiction. Some readers dig it. Wildly. Others can’t relate, and that’s just fine. The characters are strong women who find it difficult to tolerate incompetence or cowardice. Looking back, the main character, Catherine, took over the story and I had to follow her lead, a mind that dragged me in some strange directions. I was listening to a lot of The Distillers and Spinerette at the time so Brody Dalle may have seeped in through the cracks.

Then there’s Chimera. If Germline and Exogene are character studies about a man who can’t handle war and a girl who rejects it, respectively, then Chimera is a study of someone for whom war is a natural habitat: Stan Resnick. I’ve seen this. These types of soldiers exist — ones who genuinely thrive in settings that would make most of us want to huddle under a rock and stay there until everything dies down. And by the time writing began for Chimera, a few silly comments regarding Germline came in, comments suggesting it was an Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket derivative (because anything that features a reporter from Stars and Stripes has to be channeling Full Metal Jacket, right?). Neither movie entered my thoughts in writing Germline. But to poke a finger in the eyes of these critics, I watched Apocalypse Now — over and over and over — and decided Chimera would address the enigma of Richard Colby.

(more…)

First contact with alien life . . . how will the world react?

David Brin's new science fiction novel EXISTENCE, about first contact with alien lifeDavid Brin’s upcoming science fiction novel EXISTENCE (UK |ANZ) centres around the discovery of an alien artifact floating high in Earth’s Orbit. It also boldly suggests that our continued existence was never a given. So we wanted to ask, what could First Contact mean for mankind? Are we on a tipping point? Read on for a collection of short excerpts from the book – and see this instance of First Contact from multiple angles . . .

In all of human history, only a few cultures ever managed to guide themselves across such a transition after making contact with superior outsiders, without first passing through long generations of intimidation and victimhood. Or tearing themselves apart . . .

 THE MOMENT OF DISCOVERY

Gerald Livingstone is a galactic garbage trawler, clearing up the residue of mankind’s now long-forgotten forays into the galaxy. The strangely alien artifact he stumbles across calls to him subliminally . . .

Could this really be a messenger from some alien civilization?

Bare fingertips hovered over the translucent surface, causing ripples to flow, as if preparing to meet him at the point of contact. Whatever lay within . . . it somehow knew. It sensed the nearness of living flesh.

What if it really is alien? And dangerous?

He couldn’t help suddenly imagining the oblong ovoid — gripped between his thighs — as something out of science fiction. A cuckoo’s egg. Perhaps a Trojan Horse. “Contamination” could work both ways. Might it be a terrible mistake to touch the thing? (more…)

Assassins, dreamworlds and a plague of nightmares: welcome to THE SHADOWED SUN

The fantasy novel THE SHADOWED SUN by the multilple-award winning N. K Jemisin - featuring assassins, dreamworlds and a plague of nightmaresThere are books that come along that I don’t just thoroughly enjoy, but that I feel intensely, overwhelmingly privileged to work on. THE SHADOWED SUN is one of those novels.

I don’t need to tell everyone what a stunning high fantasy writer N. K. Jemisin is. Her talents are already widely acknowledged, given that her debut novel THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS (UK | US | ANZ) was nominated for pretty much every fantasy award out there.

But even so, I underestimated just how utterly captivated I would be by THE KILLING MOON (UK | US | ANZ) and THE SHADOWED SUN (UK | US | ANZ ), books 1 and 2 in the Dreamblood duology. I didn’t think anything could top the Inheritance novels, but if it’s possible I was even more intoxicated. I09 seemed to agree when they said:

The Dreamblood duology is sure to cement Jemisin’s place as one of the most exciting and innovative new fantasy authors of recent years.

There’s something beautifully poetic about a little girl’s dreams becoming a plague upon a city.

Both novels in the Dreamblood duology are based around a religion of dreaming. It’s a dual world, where the realm of dreams is as real a place as the realm of waking. Where a soul that wonders in the dreamworld can find peace or be lost to ever-lasting torment.

In the city of Gujaareh, the priests of the dream goddess are able to harness the magic of the sleeping mind. These priests are both revered and feared, as they can use this gathered magic to either to heal . . . or kill those judged corrupt. And they move silently across the rooftops of the city at night to administer the chosen judgements. (more…)

Police Procedurals, the Internet and Porn: Charlie Stross on RULE 34

the cover of Charles Stross's futuristic crime novel RULE 34
The B-format paperback of futuristic crime thriller RULE 34 has been released this month

Rule 34 of the internet is, “if it exists, there is porn of it. No exceptions.”

(Please do not attempt to test this rule using Google with safe search switched off. That which is seen cannot be un-seen . . .)

It’s hard for us to remember today that mass adoption of the internet is less than twenty years old. Although the first routers were switched on in 1969, the net remained a toy for academic and computer industry researchers for its first twenty years. I first met it in 1989, in the course of a computer science degree; even as late as 1993, the idea that one might get internet access in one’s home was kind of outlandish.

It took the invention of the world wide web – which many people today mistake for the internet – to make it visually accessible and appealing to the masses. But in the following 20 years, it became probably the most pervasive single communications medium in human history, extruding tentacles of connectivity into our pockets by way of smartphones, infiltrating our working lives and our dreams. Not to mention our nightmares.

Back in 2010, contemplating the idea of writing a police procedural novel set perhaps ten or twelve years in the future of the internet, I found myself trying to get a handle on police practice and computing. Policing in the 21st century UK has been changing bewilderingly fast; the Home Office has, over a decade and a half, been engaged in a project of systematically replacing the main body of our criminal law (which accreted over centuries) with a properly designed, fit-for-bureaucratic-purpose replacement body of legislation. Similarly, the practice of policing has undergone successive upheavals, both in response to scandals of injustice (corruption and the fitting-up of suspects for crimes they didn’t commit) and in an attempt to grapple with maintaining order in a rapidly changing society. But policing the UK is an enormous job. You can’t get a handle on it by talking to any one person; they can only give you a worm’s eye view of what they’re involved in. In actual fact, the various British police forces employ around as many officers as the armed forces have soldiers, sailors, and airmen: and the range of activities they’re involved in is extraordinary, from handling specialist poison-sniffing dogs (used in the Scottish borders for protecting endangered raptor species from farmers and gamekeepers) to guarding nuclear reactors – by way, of course, of the Saturday night public order circus at pub chucking-out time.

Kibitzing on the anonymous blogs of working cops, you run across all sorts of illuminating rants about the day to day irritations of the job: from the best type of boots to wear when pounding the beat all day (German or Dutch paratroop boots are the business), to the headaches of the modern desk sergeant’s end-of-shift hand-over (passing your colleague the personal mobile numbers of all your constables, making sure you’ve got the correct logins and passwords on the various databases you need to update with every incident), and gripes about IT services. IT services? Well yes: policing doesn’t revolve around scraps of paper any more, the back end is as heavily automated as any other large cumbersome enterprise – and this was in 2010, remember. It’s all a far cry from the police procedurals of yore . . . by which I mean 1990.

So where, I wondered, was policing going in 2022? And, more to the point, what is policing going to entail in the world of the Internet of Things – when 3D printers have become as pervasive as personal computers in the late 1980s, so that dreams and nightmares that currently only exist on the net can extrude themselves into the physical world? What’s it going to be like, when organized criminals (whose business acumen is usually so poor that they turn to crime because they can’t compete in legitimate markets) finally begin to catch up with modern business processes? And what sort of police are we going to need to maintain order in such a chaotic and rapidly changing world?

Welcome to RULE 34. That which is seen cannot be un-seen. No exceptions!

A Fork in the Road, by Giguhl

everybody's favourite demon cat
Sometimes a demon, sometimes a cat – Giguhl has something to say.

Editor’s note: this letter was found wrapped around a brick thrown through our office window last night. We’ve deciphered the contents (phonetic spelling, crude drawings, demons don’t go to school after all) in the hope of drawing the culprit out into the open. . .

Hello mortals. It’s me again – your favorite demon sex symbol, Giguhl. Orbit asked me to stop in again since my last visit was the most popular post in the history of this blog.*

This time I’m here to celebrate the release of BLUE-BLOODED VAMP, which is the epic conclusion to the series about my boss, Sabina Kane. A lot of people are talking about this book because they’re really worried about what’s going to happen to me now. I won’t lie, facing an eternity where I am not the star of an urban fantasy series is a bleak prospect. I’ve become so used to the groupies and piles of money. **

the fifth book in the Sabina Kane vampire series
Even though Sabina is on the cover, Giguhl says he's the star of this series. We

Luckily, in addition to being a role model for the youth of America, I am also an entrepreneur. Witness my resume, which includes being the champion of Demon Fight Club and managing a roller derby team. I am never one to sit idle, I have decided upon a new career now that my days as the savior of humanity are done.

I’m going to be an author.

I just blew your mind, right?

Look, I’ve been watching Jaye Wells do this gig for like five years now. From what I can tell all it involves is eating a lot of carbs, tapping away on a keyboard, cussing at the screen, punching the delete button and then drinking wine directly from the bottle. Easy peasy.

My first story will be an erotic coming of age tale about a changeling faery, who leaves home to find sexy adventure in the mortal realm with a billionaire CEO who likes silk neckties. It’s partially a memoir about my friend Pussy Willow combined with a little creative license I’ve gleaned from watching the Spice channel. I’m going to call it 50 SHADES OF FAE.*** 

Anyway, I’m still working on it all, but I’m pretty sure that I’m going to be a bestseller right away. Jaye tells me I’m deluded and that I should stick to be a sidekick. I think she’s just jealous of my good looks, brilliant marketing mind and impressive modesty.

While I wait for every editor on earth to fight over the privilege of paying me eight-figures for my opus, you should probably go ahead and read BLUE-BLOODED VAMP. Tell Jaye I sent you so she’ll put a good word in with those incredibly good looking and witty editors at Orbit. 

Giguhl out!

 *I’m probably lying about this. 

**What? I totally have groupies. Mortal ladies are suckers for a bad boy. The money I am totally lying about. But who needs money when you’re up to your pitchfork in adoring ladies?

***Don’t even try to steal that title, mortals. I mean it!

Books 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the Sabina Kane series 'starring' Giguhl.

How will the world end? Some thoughts from 2050 . . .

Existence, a new novel of our future from the award-winning science fiction author David Brin, author of the Uplift novels, EARTH, and THE POSTMANIn the year 2050, will we still be fretting over the end of the world? A dark bit of quasi-fictional non-fiction . . . and some between-chapter excerpts from the upcoming science fiction novel EXISTENCE (UK | ANZ).

A Myriad Paths of Entropy

Does the universe hate us? How many pitfalls lie ahead, waiting to shred our conceited molecule-clusters back into unthinking dust? Shall we count them? Today, our means of self-destruction seem myriad – though we at Pandora’s Cornucopia will try to list them all! So adjust your AI-ware, your im-VR-sive wraparounds, your omnivision eyeptics and dive right in.

At one level, none of this is new. Men and women always felt besieged. By monsters prowling the darkness. By their oppressive rulers, or violent neighbors, or capricious gods. Yet, didn’t they most often blame themselves? Bad times were viewed as punishment, brought on by wrong behavior. By unwise belief.

We modern folk snort at the superstitions of our ancestors. We know they could never really wreck the world, but we can! Zeus or Moloch could not match the destructive power of a nuclear missile exchange, or a dusting of plague bacilli, or some ecological travesty, or ruinous mismanagement of the intricate aiconomy.

Oh, we’re mighty. But are we so different from our forebears? (more…)

The Bandit King – New Historical Fantasy Released Today!

the cover of The Bandit King a new historical fantasy by Lilith Saintcrow

THE BANDIT KING  is the eagerly-awaited sequel to Lilith Saintcrow’s ebook-exclusive historical fantasy THE HEDGEWITCH QUEEN, and it’s released today!

If you’re in the US you can purchase it from these retailers.

In the UK you can buy the ebook for one month only at a special price, meaning that should you fancy getting a bit closer to royalty after the Jubilee festivities, you can get both THE HEDGEWITCH QUEEN and THE BANDIT KING  at a great price.

Tristan d’Arcenne killed his King. Now he is faced with betrayal, war, and the mistrust of his Queen. She should mistrust him, for there is nothing d’Arcenne will not do.

The Bandit King approaches . . .

You can find a sample chapter of THE BANDIT KING here.

Ten Things I Will Never Do

THE SPIRIT WAR by Rachel AaronNow that the fourth Eli Monpress book, The Spirit War, is officially out, I feel the time has come to make some commitments. Three books is a long time, but four? That’s an investment. You, gentle reader, have stuck with me through two years, multiple covers, and an omnibus makeover, and for that you deserve something concrete. So, without further ado, here are ten things I swear to you on my still living mother’s grave that I will never do in the Eli series.

1. I will not place all power in an easily losable object

This is a classic, and better writers than I have fallen for its simple charms. But the Eli Monpress books have always been about personal problems on a global scale, and ain’t no one getting out that easily. So, despite the absolutely insane amount of epic magic flying around in the final Eli books, there is no Tesseract, One Ring, Sword of Omens, or Holy Grail. I know I’m killing my merchandising options here, but art requires sacrifice.

2. It will not end in a wedding or an awards ceremony

I couldn’t book John Williams or Hans Zimmer to do the music, so the plot had to be rewritten. Also, Eli refused to wear anything that might make him look respectable. A man has to think of his reputation.

(more…)

Wallpapers for CALIBAN’S WAR by James S. A. Corey

God, I love this series. So much so… I think all of you should titivate that calculator on steroids you have on your person with the absurdly cool art from CALIBAN’S WAR (US | UK | AUS) by James S. A. Corey by Daniel Dociu.

Bring it on.

BRING IT ON!!!

Below are all the wallpaper download links. If anyone needs a specific dimension… you’re on your own.

BA HA HA HA HA

Just kidding. Let us know and we’ll hook you up. :)

 

1024 x 768 | 1280 x 800 | 1440 x 900 | 1680 x 1050 |1920 x 1200 | iPhone | iPad | Facebook

Prometheus, First Contact and David Brin’s EXISTENCE

Poster for the movie Prometheus and how it relates to David Brin's science fiction novel EXISTENCEOn Friday night I could barely contain my excitement. I – along with thousands upon thousands of  people across the country – had tickets to PROMETHEUS, undoubtedly the most talked-about science fiction film release of the year so far. And where better to see it, but the glorious Empire cinema on Leicester Square, in 3D.

The air was filled with anticipation as we all crammed through the doors and were handed our 3D specs. And then when the opening scenes began, with sweeping views across spectacular landscapes on Earth, enhanced by the 3D effects (probably the most unobtrusive and therefore effective I’ve seen in a movie so far) – we knew that this was going to be something big. And then, when the shadow of a city-sized spaceship began to darken the landscape, it began to feel truly epic.

What bigger a subject is there than first contact with alien life?

Existence, a new science fiction novel from David Brin about first contact with alien life - and how it relates to the Prometheus filmI couldn’t help but constantly draw parallels with David Brin‘s new novel EXISTENCE, and not just because of the 3D effect (with our first edition featuring a very cool 3D cover). But because at the heart of EXISTENCE is the discovery of an alien artefact floating in Earth’s orbit, picked up by a galactic garbage trawler. It appears to be a message in a bottle, an invitation to “join us” from another sentient species out in the vastness of the universe. At the same time, another artefact is found in the ruins of a sunken beach-front mansion, which warns humanity away from making contact with this other life form.

This highlights the question which forever prods at us and teases us. It’s the dilemma at the very centre of both PROMETHEUS and EXISTENCE: would making contact with an alien life form be a good idea? Would these (presumably more intelligent) beings have an inherent desire to help humanity, to set us straight, sort out our squabbling, or offer us a shiny new planet when we’ve trashed our own beyond repair? Or would they in fact just try to eat our faces, use us as lovely host organisms and generally be bad news for the continuing future of mankind?

Now we all know that PROMETHEUS is a prequel to the other ALIEN films, so could safely assume that these otherwordly creatures were not going to be our BFFs. But what a thrilling experience to see the journey up until that point: where we hope to find out that mankind can have a meaningful and significant place within the universe by uniting with another sentient species. And then how awesomely epic to see those hopes dashed in spectacular, breathtaking and violently dramatic ways?

I’m glad to say that my expectations for PROMETHEUS were certainly met. The special effects are magnificent – the kind where you have to pinch yourself to remember that this isn’t real footage, and that massive organic-looking Titus of an alien spaceship did not actually just rise from behind them yonder hills. And even if it sometimes seems that the need for great effects can take over from the need for flawless acting, the performance of Michael Fassbender more than made up for it, as the eerie robot David. The pace of the film was also a real strong point. There wasn’t a single moment when my concentration lapsed and the plot was sturdy enough (although not as strong as the original ALIEN movies). Overall it was a totally enthralling, enjoyable experience.

If I was going to have one small criticism, it would be that the characters seemed a tad nonplussed when they finally discover solid proof of alien life. Whereas the beauty of EXISTENCE is that it really focuses on the question of how proof of alien life would affect mankind. What would the initial evidence of alien life mean for all different people in different walks of life? Would the politician try to veil the truth from the general public? Would the journalist become set on letting the public know what they’re in for? Would the anti-technology prophet claim that the only way to survive would be to end democracy? What would it mean for each  of us? How would the world react? Is this the end, or a new beginning?

I won’t give any spoilers, but what happens all feels frighteningly, awe-inspiringly real. EXISTENCE is set a few decades in the future, but who knows if the day when we’ll actually be answering some of these questions is closer than we think? Let’s see if 2012 might really be as significant a year as the Mayans thought…

PROMETHEUS is at cinemas nationwide now, and EXISTENCE (UK | ANZ) will be released on 21st June 2012 with a limited edition 3D cover.