Something fun to get started this week: I have a four year old son, and we read lots of Dr. Seuss books together, so I took a look at this post from io9 when it popped up on my RSS, thinking it might be fun to show him. Yeah, not so much. What they call “equal parts disturbing and charming” is for me really more about 95% disturbing. If the heads hadn’t been, you know, mounted… it might be different.
One more io9.com link: Richard K. Morgan is one of my favorite current science fiction writers. He’s been a guest at my Beyond Reality discussion group in the past, and he’s just an extremely intelligent guy who also happens to write brilliant books. His novel Altered Carbon is going to be a movie, and io9 basically asks: Could Hollywood do justice to the novel? My humble opinion, based on some other SF adaptations from the past: no.
Here’s some great advice from Andrew Liptak, who started as a slush reader and is now Editorial Assistant at Lightspeed Magazine. It’s also an interesting look at behind-the-scenes work at the magazine. Speaking of: I’ll have a great interview with a certain Publisher/Editor-in-Chief coming up here at Far Beyond Reality soon!
Remember that great review of The Warrior’s Apprentice I linked to a while back? The one for The Vor Game, the next book in the Miles Vorkosigan series, is now up over at Drying Ink. Great series, great review. You’re missing out if you’re not reading these books. (Despite, as the review points out, some of the awful covers that have been stuck on these books.) By the way, both of these novels are available together in the Young Miles omnibus edition. Which is available as a mass market paperback. For cheap. Seriously, what are you waiting for?
I’ve mentioned SF Signal’s Mind Meld’s before. Here’s another great one, about a certain little website that sells, you know, books and stuff, and its effect on publishing. Worth a read.
Here’s a great review, at one of the most elegantly designed SF&F blogs out there: Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal, now up at Fantasy Cafe … (Seriously, how pretty is that website?)
… and another great review, this one of Planesrunner by Ian McDonald here at SF Site. I reviewed this one too, and I’m kinda annoyed because I wish I’d made some of the points this reviewer makes!
I’m a fan of Joel Shepherd, a talented and woefully under-appreciated Australian writer who has one great fantasy series and one great SF series so far. (Which reminds me: I’ll get some reviews of his books up here soon.) Anyway, for people who are already aware of this well-kept secret, or even for those who are not, Joel just posted a great prequel story to his excellent A Trial of Blood and Steel fantasy series. And even better: if you have a Kindle or a device that can run the Kindle app, you can now read Sasha, the first book in the series, for free.
Brandon Sanderson is such a big name in fantasy right now that, if you have any interest in the genre, you probably have a good idea of what he’s written even if you haven’t read his actual books. What you may not know is that many of his books are apparently part of one vast setting called the Cosmere. I had a vague idea of this, but wasn’t aware of the links between the current books. Adam just posted a great summary of Sandersonland as it stands today at the Wertzone. (My take: I like some of Sanderson’s books are pretty good, and some just so-so, but man do I love this kind of thing. Complex settings, shared characters, subtle links… Awesome. This article single-handedly got me a lot more interested in reading more of his books.)
And finally, as promised last week and just in case you missed any, here’s a look at the other posts I wrote for this site, affectionately called The Week That Was at Far Beyond Reality:
– Review: The Magicians by Lev Grossman
– Review: Songs of the Earth by Elspeth Cooper
– Review: Chasing the Moon by A. Lee Martinez
… and that’s it for this week!
Far Beyond Reality 