The Mammoth Book of New Comic Fantasy: A Dazzling New Collection of Comic Fantasy Masterpieces from Esther Friesner, Neil Gaiman, Tom Holt, Paul di Filippo, Adam Roberts, Molly Brown and Many More...
"Best of the Year" lists start appearing as early as November, so we are perhaps a little late in asking folks around the community: Q: What were the best genre-related books, movies and/or shows you consumed in 2009? [Also added was this note: They don't have to have been released in 2009. Feel free to choose any combination of genres (science fiction/fantasy/horror) and media (books/movies/shows)...
Let me begin by agreeing with Kim Stanley Robinson: [T]his year the [Booker] prize should probably go to a science fiction comedy called Yellow Blue Tibia, by Adam Roberts. I say this not because Adam's a personal friend (although he is), and not because I've edited some of his other novels (although I have), but because it actually is the most intriguing novel I've read this year. Admittedly, I can't...
Sad news... Ansible reports that Robert Holdstock has died at age 61: Robert Holdstock (1948-2009) died at 4am in the morning of Sunday 29 November, having been in intensive care since his collapse with E. coli infection on the 18th . He was only 61 and will be much missed. All sympathy to Sarah and the rest of the family. Holdstock was perhaps best known for his Mythago Wood cycle, for which he won...
I was in London on Thursday as Forbidden Planet had another of their mega signings bringing together five Gollancz authors: David Devereux, Paul McAuley, Justina Robson, Adam Roberts, Chris Wooding all there signing their new books. Strangely I only spoke to Adam Roberts and Chris Wooding. I was too shy to speak to Paul McAuley [...]
Interviews /Profiles Frightening Journeys interviews Lauren Beukes . The Interstitial Arts Foundation interviews Alaya Dawn Johnson . The Agony Column interviews Scott "SG" Browne (podcast). Innsmouth Free Press interviews Aliette de Bodard . The Future & You interviews Doctor Gregory L. Matloff, C Bangs and Keith Comito (podcast). News Borders' website suspends book sales . Fantasy...
As I catch up on some reading this weekend, a little story out of a tiny west African nation has caught my attention again. Earlier this month, Simon Mann, an ' Eton-educated former SAS officer ' and, as of late, British mercenary, had his 34 year sentence pardoned in Equatorial Guinea. Mann was arrested en Zimbabwe in 2004 along with a shady band of mercenaries in route to Equatorial Guinea. After...
It's twenty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the general collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. Sufficient time, perhaps, for those monumnetal changes to be seen in some kind of historical perspective. A free talk at the London School of Economics tonight will look at the combination of 'power politics' and 'people power' that led to the revolutions. President of the British...
My colleague and friend Professor Adam Roberts, who writes novels and updates his blogs by prestidigitation http://punkadiddle.blogspot.com/ draws my attention to http://www.bookride.com/2009/08/hocus-pocus-1.html an account of “the object of great desire by collectors of conjuring books - it is the first devoted exclusively to magic as a performing art”, Hocus Pocus Junior The anatomy...
La Doug is making a guest appearance over on The Amateur Gourmet! Eating Thai food. With another food blogger. The famous Adam Roberts, no less, who by all accounts (including Doug's) is a lovely, lovely chap. I'm not jealous or...
If 25 years ago you had said that within a few years communist rule would end in Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union would cease to exist as a state – and that all would happen with very little violence – you would have been thought seriously deranged. Yet, in fact, a nuclear-armed superpower did fold its tents, and its empire did cease to exist.
Hilary Mantel at Wikipedia Order Wolf Hall Here Watch the Author Reading an Excerpt INTRODUCTION: This year's Man Booker shortlist about which I did an earlier post turned out to contain several books of great interest to me including the eventual winner. " Wolf Hall" by H. Mantel is historical fiction with strong sff associational ties in superb world building and deep immersion in a distant...
Will the mysteries surrounding the 'wonga coup' be solved now the chief plotter is on his way home from Equatorial Guinea? So Simon Mann , international man of mystery, the very model of a modern day mercenary, is free. Sentenced last year, after a show trial, to 34 years in jail (plus a few million dollars in fines) to be served in the notorious Black Beach prison in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, he...
Adam Roberts, The History of Science Fiction . Although it discusses a lot of fascinating books (and is great for compiling a reading list), Roberts’ account of the commonly accepted history of science fiction (essentially from Shelley and Poe forward) doesn’t add that much new and exciting, and The Cambridge Companion of Science Fiction is still a better book for that general overview....
Keeping up with all of the food news, gossip, and information is like herding cats; it's virtually impossible. Here are just a few of the many interesting blog items I found on the worldly wide webs today: Adam Roberts of the Amateur Gourmet writes a pointed response to Christopher Kimball's New York Times op-ed on the demise of Gourmet. Just as interesting as Roberts' concluding sentence ("Kimball...
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