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A Must-Read Short Story by Jesse Bullington

Jesse Bullington, well regarded for his debut novel The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart (and who soon will become even more highly regarded when his next novel, THE ENTERPRISE OF DEATH, goes on sale March 25), has quite a remarkable short story up at Beneath Ceaseless Skies entitled “The Adventures of Ernst, Who Began a Man, Became a Cyclops, and Finished a Hero.”

If you’re already familiar with Jesse’s work, you’ll already have some idea as to what to expect.

If you aren’t yet familiar, this is the perfect introduction.

(And visit his website, if you want to know more.)

LA Fans: Have Tea with Gail Carriger April 10

Fans in the greater Los Angeles area (that is to say, a good part of SoCal) will be pleased to know that Gail and Donna Ricci, familiar to all as the model for Alexia Tarabotti on the covers of SOULLESS, CHANGELESS, and BLAMELESS, will be hosting a tea in Pasadena on Sunday, April 10, 2011. Full details will be provided to ticket holders; tickets are limited.

Gail will be happy to answer questions and sign books at the event. She highly recommends that hats be worn. Stylish, silly — so long as they’re memorable.

Ingredients for a Fantasy Battle

As a writer you take your inspiration wherever you can find it – from everything you read, watch, play, experience and particularly like or don’t – and I’ve always found myself as much influenced by film, TV, and computer games as I am by books. In writing The Heroes, then, the fantasy war-story of a single great battle told from various points of view on both sides – and which I’ve occasionally pitched as Lord of the Rings meets A Bridge Too Far – war films, and scenes of battle of all kinds, from the fantastic to the brutally realist, were just as much on my mind as books on the subject. Here are some of my filmic touchstones for summoning up a realistic fantasy battle…
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Joe Abercrombie in Time Magazine

Joe Abercrombie’s latest, THE HEROES, appears on Time Magazine′s “Short List of Things to Do” this week:

Here’s what to do while you wait for George R.R. Martin’s next fantasy novel: read Joe Abercrombie’s. It’s a magnificent, richly entertaining account of a single three-day battle — complete with balletic Kurosawan violence — that leaves behind no heroes, only survivors.

As a huge Kurosawa enthusiast, and the kind of guy who fast-forwards to the battle scenes in movies, let me second that. If battles are your thing, this book is for you— it’s pretty much ALL battle.

You can get a bit of background on the book with these video interviews with Joe: Part one, Part two, and Part three.

So… ready to take the field? If for some reason you are still having  doubts, let us reassure you — the Union needs you, and there’s plenty of room for new recruits. Dive into the battle here with this excerpt — just try to keep your head down.

Cover Launch: GERMLINE by T. C. McCarthy

Here’s a fresh new cover launch for everyone this gloomy Monday. For your viewing pleasure, I give you GERMLINE by T. C. McCarthy. It’s a story about a journalist in the vein of Hunter S. Thompson who is embedded with a group of US soldiers in a near-future war. It’s a fabulous look at what a war in the future could be like, but the perspective of the character we see it all thru keeps it really grounded and human. It reminded me simultaneously of The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein, and the Transmetropolitan comics written by Warren Ellis. The author has experience in the CIA and works in biotechnology, so the books are amazingly well-informed, and plausible.

What’s also cool is we just finished the cover for Book 2 (no, I can’t show you yet) and the story is awesome. This is definitely going to be a series to keep up with. Each book is going to be told from the perspective of a different person in the war.

Anyway, back to the art! Steve Stone did the photoillustration and I just love the tone and texture. It definitely says military, definitely says future-but-not-too-far, and it really captures that there’s more going on under the surface here. I love the textures Steve worked in.

Here’s a little teaser: (more…)

The Orbit posse at the SFX weekender!

We’re all back in the office now, getting back to normal life after our incredibly fun, appropriately raucous and strangely surreal time at the SFX Weekender. We’ve been looking though our photos, which we feel we ought to share with you.

To be honest, there are certain things we can’t really tell you about – e.g. what shapes were being thrown by Rose Tremlett and myself on the dancefloor to Craig Charles’ DJ set, how unreasonably scared we were of the Stormtroopers, how many dubious sausages of questionable origin were consumed throughout the weekend, and how funny a certain agent doing the “mime-walking-down-the-stairs” trick outside our chalet window was . . . but the majority of the weekend is rather accurately documented in the below photos.

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New Excerpts from THE DRAGON’S PATH and LEVIATHAN WAKES

Over at the newly launched Danielabraham.com you can read two new excerpts from THE DRAGON’S PATH (by Daniel Abraham) and LEVIATHAN WAKES (by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck writing as James S.A. Corey.) These are two of the most hotly anticipated  launches of the year (see here and here for some early buzz,) so  if you’re a fan of fantasy or space opera, this Spring/Summer is going to be EPIC. Read on below for the excerpts.

The public gaol of Vanai had once been a menagerie.  In ancient days, the dragons themselves had stalked the wide square and bathed in the great fountain at its center.  At the perimeter, a deep pit, and then great cages rising three stories high.  The dragon’s jade facades were carved with figures of the beasts that had once paced behind the iron bars: lions, gryphons, great six-headed serpents, wolves, bears, great birds with breasts like women… Read More


The Scopuli had been taken eight days ago, and Julie Mao was finally ready to be shot.

It had taken all eight days trapped in a storage locker to get to that point.  For the first two she’d remained motionless, sure that the armored men who’d put her there had been serious…Read More

Return to the Winter Kingdoms

Gail Z. Martin’s The Sworn is out now! A whole new series set in the world of The Chronicles of the Necromancer, The Sworn and the sequel out next summer, The Dread, make up a new duology following the adventures of Tris Drayke and his allies.

“Well written and full of action, this grabs the reader on the first page and refuses to let go until the very last page.” — RT Book Reviews (4 Stars)

“Fans of Martin’s previous series as well as those who enjoy the large-scale fantasy of George R.R. Martin and Robert Jordan should enjoy this series opener.” — Library Journal

“Martin’s launch of a new series in the world of her Chronicles of the Necromancer books (The Summoner, etc.) is fun and accessible…a solidly told story and very friendly to new readers.” — Publishers Weekly

“Top notch, engrossing fantasy.” — sfrevu.com

Also, check out Gail’s site for a list of upcoming appearances and events! Or follow her on twitter at @gailzmartin.

Science Fiction Isn’t Predictive, Except When it Is

The general public often thinks science fiction writers are supposed to predict the future.

Science fiction writers, of course, know better.

Sometimes, all the same, fiction and reality unexpectedly — and uncannily — overlap.

The narrative of Walter Jon Williams’ new novel DEEP STATE, correlates in any number of ways with the ongoing situation in Egypt. He writes about how he came about he did this, and what he thinks about it, both as the latest Big Idea at John Scalzi’s Whatever, and on io9.com today.

Check out what he has to say — then go read the book, to see for yourself.

The Windup Girl: SF at its very best

The winner of an extraordinary five of 2010’s major international SF awards, and named by Time Magazine as one of the top ten novels of the year, The Windup Girl has garnered Paolo Bacigalupi incredible critical acclaim since UK publication in December:

‘The Windup Girl embodies what SF does best of all: it remakes reality in compelling, absorbing and thought-provoking ways, and it lives on vividly in the mind’ – Guardian

‘Vigorous and compelling… the action scenes, related in taut, breathless prose, can be stunning.  Tremendous entertainment’ – Independent on Sunday

‘Pitch-perfect writing… It’s science-fiction as warnings of the future, as social commentary, and as just bloody good storytelling… SF at its very best’ – SFX

‘Deserves all of the critical adulation already heaped upon it… one of the finest SF books we’ve read’ – SciFi Now

‘One of the best debut novels of recent years’ – Salon Futura

International praise

‘Bacigalupi is a worthy successor to William Gibson: this is cyberpunk without computers’ – Time Magazine

‘Clearly one of the finest science fiction novels of the year’ – Publishers Weekly

‘An exciting story about industrial espionage, civil war, and political struggle, filled with heart-thudding action sequences, sordid sex, and enough technical speculation for two lesser novels’ Cory Doctorow

‘It’s ridiculous how good this book is’ Techland

‘Postmodern Bangkok springs to life in Bacigalupi’s brilliant dystopian tale of culture clash, recalling the best of China Mieville and Neal Stephenson’ Library Journal