Biting the Bullet — book three in Jennifer Rardin’s Jaz Parks series — is out, and over at Jaye Wells’ blog there’s a memo from Jaz about the challenges of working for a vampire boss. Be sure to bookmark Jaye’s blog (blahg?) while you’re there. Her urban fantasy debut — Red-Headed Stepchild –- will be out from Orbit in 09.
In this week’s Time magazine, Lev Grossman reviews Matter:
The Culture novels (there are eight of them) are about the challenges of a world in which thinking beings must deal with one another across vertiginous gulfs of cultural and technological difference–a world, in other words, both completely different from and identical to our own.
And in an interview at the NerdWorld blog he asks Banks if the Culture is a utopian society, and if he’d live there if given the chance:
Good grief yes, to both! What’s not to like? …Well, unless you’re actually a fascist or a power junkie or sincerely believe that money rather than happiness is what really matters in life.
There’s a terrific review of Matter over at the Onion’s A.V. Club.
“Kings, princes, evil viziers, treachery, and court intrigue share the stage with galactic civilizations, manufactured hollow worlds, interstellar spies, and terminal technologies in Matter, the triumphant new novel in Iain M. Banks’ loosely connected Culture series.”
Read the whole review here, and be sure to check out the lively discussion in the comments.
Walter Jon Williams on sex in novels. (SFW, assuming your work doesn’t object to Nabokov)
The official Iain (M.) Banks website has been re-launched at www.iain-banks.net. Check it out for all the news and reviews, along with some very interesting contests coming up…
Meanwhile, in an interview at io9.com Banks reveals the hidden Thunderbirds influence that runs through the Culture novels:
“Thunderbirds gave me a love of big explosions I’ve yet to shake off. It’s kind of ingrained by now. Almost the first thing I think of when I’ve come up with an idea for a Really Big Artifact is how you could blow the living bijeesus out of it…”
And in the i09 review of Matter, Annalee Newitz sums up her thoughts on the book in the headline: “Iain M. Banks’ New Novel Kicks Ass on a Galactic Scale.”
While at BookPage Gavin Grant writes:
Matter is Banks in top form. His characters—whether human, alien or drone—are spiky, opinionated, diverse, occasionally short-sighted and tragically believable
Fantasy Book Critic has posted an in-depth and engrossing interview with bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson. The interview covers a host of topics, including Kevin’s many collaborative efforts, as well as information about The Ashes of Worlds, the epic conclusion to his Saga of Seven Suns series.
The Ashes of Worlds will be published in the US in July 2008, following the mass market publication of Metal Swarm (book 6 in the series) in June 2008.
More award news, with the shortlist for the 2008 Ditmars being announced over the weekend, and we’re delighted to see Sean Williams’ Saturn Returns and Marianne de Pierres’ Dark Space on the shortlist for best novel. Sean and Marianne were also both shortlisted for the Aurealis Award, and we’ve got our fingers crossed that one of them will win this time. Or perhaps both – is a tie too much to ask for?
Awarded since 1969 in recognition of outstanding achievement in Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror, the Ditmar is one of the premier awards for Australian speculative fiction. Previous winners of the Ditmar for Best Novel include Garth Nix, Peter Carey, George Turner, Victor Kelleher, Greg Egan and – on no fewer than five occasions – Sean Williams.
The Ditmars will be presented at Swancon, the 47th Australian National Science Fiction Convention, to be held over the Easter weekend. Guests of Honour include Orbit’s very own Ken MacLeod and Glenda Larke. Ken’s The Execution Channel is, of course, on the shortlist for this year’s BSFA Award for Best Novel (also to be presented over Easter), and Glenda’s Song of the Shiver Barrens was shortlisted for last year’s Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel.
On the whole, we’re rather pleased with the way 2008’s shortlists are developing.
Iain Emsley has posted a very interesting interview with Mike Carey over at Yatterings. It was largely conducted at last year’s Fantasycon, and covers Mike’s work on the Crossing Midnight and Lucifer comics and, of course, his masterful series of Felix Castor novels: The Devil You Know, Vicious Circle and Dead Men’s Boots. At the risk of annoying Castorphiles the length and breadth of the country, I can also reveal that Mike has delivered the fourth Castor novel, Thicker Than Water, and that it is a magnificent addition to the canon. You’ll have to be patient until January next year for that, I’m afraid, but don’t look at it as waiting – look at it as the perfect opportunity to re-read the first three books.
Ian Irvine has put together a punchy intro to his latest series, the Song of the Tears, and you can catch it now on YouTube. It’s suitably dramatic with music, animation and a fine collection of Ian’s (many) book covers … and what more could you ask from a video clip?!
The Curse on the Chosen was out at the end of last year, and fans can look forward to the end of this year for the epic finale.
Orbit is thrilled to announce that we have pre-empted a three-book urban fantasy series by debut author Jaye Wells in a six-figure deal with agent Jonathan Lyons of Lyons Literary LLC. The first volume, RED-HEADED STEPCHILD will be published in 2009. (more…)
