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Visions of Paradise (Free subscription) | yesterday
This is the fifth time I’ve picked my favorite books of the preceding decade, and I cannot help but wonder how many more chances I will have to do so in the future? Twice more? Three times perhaps? Scary thoughts. Before I begin, here is a brief review of my selections from past decades: The 1960s: Best Novel : Lord of Light / Roger Zelazny Best Short Fiction : The Star Pit / Samuel R. Delany...
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Books,
C. J. Cherryh,
Clifford D. Simak,
Elmer Kelton,
Fine Arts,
Frederik Pohl,
George R. R. Martin,
Jack Vance,
John Varley,
Kim Stanley Robinson,
Marion Zimmer Bradley,
Michael Bishop,
Michael Bishop,
Michael Chabon,
Orson Scott Card,
Roger Zelazny,
Samuel R. Delany,
Sports,
Toni Morrison,
Ursula Hegi
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Earth and other unlikely worlds (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
A few years ago, Jonathan Lethem published an essay in The Village Voice, ‘Close Encounters: The Squandered Promise of Science Fiction’, in which he decried the close-mindedness of the genre and sketched an alternate history in which Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow won the Nebula instead of Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous With Rama in 1973, leading to a reconciliation...
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Stomping on Yeti (Free subscription) | 11/17/2009
Over at a Dribble of Ink , Aidan is showing off , praising , promoting , acknowledging that the cover for the 2010 Swords & Dark Magic anthology has been released. I don't normally post covers Im not impressed with but this is an anthology I'm really looking forward to. To be fair, it's not a terrible cover but it's definitely not as strong as it could be. I think this is a case where the anthology...
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This Writing Life (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
November 13, 2009 Kristine Kathryn Rusch has written a whole slew of articles on the freelance business that can be applied to writing novels or running just about any type of business. She's recently written a series on "success." Highly recommended. In response, writer Brad R. Torgersen wrote a checklist of when he will be a successful profession writer. It looks like this: (X) …...
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42 Challenge (Free subscription) | 11/07/2009
I've finished the challenge. Since 42 is the perfect number for this challenge I won't add any extras to my list. I will be back when the next challenge launches in December. I had loads of fun doing the 42 Challenge. It ended up being one of my favorites. My completed list is: The Perfect Infestation by Carol Emshwiller Seafarer's Blood by Albert E. Cowdrey Dance of Shadows by Fred Chappell All in...
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Visions of Paradise (Free subscription) | 11/01/2009
Before the Science Fiction Book Club fell victim to a “re-organization” by their new owners a few years ago, assistant editor Andrew Wheeler was publishing a series of original collections of novellas that contained some of the best stuff being published at the time. They included four volumes of Jonathan Strahan’s Best Short Novels as well as such original novella collections as...
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The World in the Satin Bag (Free subscription) | 10/28/2009
There was an enormous book sale here in Gainesville over the last few days and I thought I’d let you all know what I got (a lot of stuff, actually). Next time, in April, I don’t think I will be going quite as all out, mostly because I don’t have as much need for a lot of books anymore. I intentionally went this year trying to find things to use for my research, and now I’m only...
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Fine Arts,
Greg Bear,
Greg Bear,,
Jack L. Chalker,
James Morrow,
L. Sprague de Camp,
Leigh Brackett,
Neal Stephenson,
Norman Spinrad,
Poul Anderson,
Walter Wangerin, Jr.,
Walter Wangerin Jr.
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SF Signal (Free subscription) | 10/20/2009
Lou Anders has posted the table of contents for Swords & Dark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery , the anthology he co-edited with Jonathan Strahan, which will be available June 22, 2010 from Harper Eos: Introduction: Check Your Dark Lord at the Door by Lou Anders & Jonathan Strahan "Goats of Glory" by Steven Erikson "Tides Elba: A Tale of the Black Company" by Glen Cook...
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Visions of Paradise (Free subscription) | 10/18/2009
The late 1960s were my “Golden Age” of science fiction, and I discovered most of my favorite writers during that era: Robert Silverberg, Clifford D. Simak, Roger Zelazny, Jack Vance, Ursula K Le Guin, and the subject of this review, Samuel R. Delany. Delany has published the least f&sf of anybody on this list, but because of that his average quality has probably been higher than any...
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Rough Edges (Free subscription) | 10/08/2009
This is another recent release from Nonstop Press , the publisher of the Robert Silverberg book I posted about earlier in the week. It’s equally as entertaining, too, if more awkward in its size. Don’t expect me to define what a cult magazine is or why some magazines were included in this book and others weren’t. One of the editors, Luis Ortiz, covers that in his introduction. The...
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Rough Edges (Free subscription) | 10/05/2009
I’ve probably never read as much of Robert Silverberg’s work as I should have: several of his early science-fiction novels from the Fifties, a couple of his pseudonymous sleaze novels published in the Sixties, and maybe a dozen short stories ranging throughout his career. Lately, though, I’ve been thinking that I really ought to expand on that and especially need to read some of his...
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Pat's Fantasy Hotlist (Free subscription) | 09/29/2009
Thanks to the kind folks at Voyager, I have five copies of Songs of the Dying Earth , a Jack Vance tribute anthology edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, up for grabs. For more info about this title: Europe . Here's the blurb: Jack Vance was a seminal figure in the development of modern fantasy, so much so that it’s nearly impossible to imagine the genre as we know it today existing...
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Visions of Paradise (Free subscription) | 09/26/2009
In my collection I have 48 sf books written by Robert Silverberg, and another 36 sf books edited (or co-edited) by him. That seems like a lot, but in some ways it barely scratches the surface of his career output. His website lists well over 100 sf books written by Silverberg and more than 80 sf books edited or co-edited by him. And I suspect those totals are somewhat short of the true total as well....
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