Orbit Books is looking for your bad ideas about SFF covers

I thought this was an interesting use of Orbit's marketing team:

Here at Orbit we’re very proud that our books tend to be smart, sophisticated — dare we say, awesome? (yes, we dare) — but there’s still a part of all of us that loves the look and feel of a truly, epically bad SFF book cover. And since we don’t get a chance to publish books that fit that profile we thought we’d call on our readers to help us create one — or at least create the jacket for one. Over the next few weeks we’ll be asking for your help coming up with the most ridiculously bad high-concept SFF book cover in the universe – think Wyvern II: The Wyverning, or Martian Under the Doormat. (We know you can do better) Once we’ve settled on the titles we’ll work out the reading line, the blurbs, and cover elements. And then, with your help, our fearless Orbit US Creative Director Lauren is going to design a cover for it that will present it in all its mad glory.

Leave feedback here. I for one can't wait to see what terribly wonderful (or is it wonderfully terrible?) covers they come up with. Orbit's covers are generally very well executed. I somehow see a dragon and maybe a flying saucer/space ship charging at one another with all guns ablaze. Yes, I imagine the dragon having some sort of weapons meshed with his skin or maybe part of armour or well maybe his space suit. And he has to be breathing fire in space because we all know in the vacuum of space that is possible. Hmmm for a title I'll say Showdown in Space.

MINI-REVIEW | The Fan Man by William Kotzwinkle (Vintage)

William Kotzwinkle is best known as the author of the novelization of E.T. The Extra Terrestrial and the Walter the Farting Dog children series. Most people don't realize what amazing adult fiction he has written such as his Doctor Rat, which won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1977 along with a lot of other counter-culture themed novels. Kotzwinkle is also the author one of my favorite reads earlier this year The Bear Who Went Over the Mountain (pub. 1995) about a bear who happens upon a manuscript and decides to try to get it published, which leads him on an incredibly funny journey to bestsellerdom. Kotzwinkle manages to stretch what sounds like an ehh idea into a book that is a complete joy to read. I would recommend Bear to anyone, even those not interested in speculative type reads although it is more in the vein of a Muppet movie for adults. After reading Bear I was eager to get into some other Kotzwinkle books, which led me to The Fan Man, one of Kotzwinkle's earliest works and is still something of an underground classic having been in print more than 35 years. The Fan Man is a week in the life of Horse Badorties told from his point of view in his very own hippie language circa 1970. Horse is not a horse. Horse is an aging hippie burn-out with a serious case of ADD who somehow makes everything he wants happen. Well, kinda. He is not the down and out type. He has everything he needs in his piles of trash and somehow finds anything he could ever want when he wants it until he sees something else he wants. It takes a little while to get use to Horse's voice as every fourth word is Man. As in "Hey Man. What's going on, Man." But once you get use to that it is an amazingly silly journey with the Knight of the Hot Dog as he goes on missions that quickly turn into wanderings in NYC. At first I thought I would get burned out on Horse, but quickly grew on me. I was constantly shocked by the different levels to Horse as he interacts with people. Surprisingly, Horse is something of a musical genius with his moon lute and leads a choir of young ladies whom he is hoping to eventually bed. Nearly every page had me chuckling as Horse switches between pure lucidity to ramblings no one even in a drugged out state could follow. Overall, I was surprised how fresh a book written 30 plus years ago still holds up. It was nice to see how NYC looked back than as well when it wasn't such a clean place. This was when the West Village was still very much the center of counter culture. At a breezy 200 pages this can easily be read in a couple sittings as most chapters are only a few pages and Horse's thoughts and dialogue drew me in. I give The Fan Man 8 out of 10 Hats. Now if only Kotzwinkle would write the follow-up to Bear which is supposed to be Bear for President I'd be a very happy reader. Book link: US Europe Canada

REVIEW | Moxyland by Lauren Beukes (Angry Robot)

This is a tough one for me to review, because quite honestly I'm not sure I liked it. However, I'm also not sure I hated it. It almost seemed like Beukes set out to write a cyberpunk 1984 of the new generation without much else in mind. It certainly had some good concepts going, but it was a bit too heavy handed and on the predictable side. Moxyland is a very rough book. I don't mean the writing; although it takes awhile to get use to the near future speak as the characters talk in abbreviations, technophile, and made-up words in nearly every sentence. I had the same problem with Snow Crash at first, but I came to appreciate it. The characters are all very rough as is the world they live in, which is a near-future dystopian Cape Town, South Africa where corporations run pretty much everything. At first I thought I was in store for something along the lines of Ian McDonald's River of Gods, but it is nothing that philosophical or as well realized. Moxyland is Beukes's take on the old Orwellian theme of Big Brother watching and controlling the populace. Split into 4 character views it seems like another point of view or major theme was needed to bring the work up another level. Of the 4 POVs I only connected with one of them and it wasn't even the do-gooder character that it should have been. Some good concepts included the importance of everyone being plugged in with their phone, how it can be used against you, and how being "disconnected" is as close to death someone in this society can be, which is an idea coming more and more true everyday. There was also a fairly interesting storyline about one of the main characters being part of a corporate experiment involving nanos that can make you unnaturally healthy, but they also display a sort of advertisement on your skin. One of the characters plays games for money. Sort of like how people nowadays pay for magical swords on eBay for games like EverQuest. I think this is the idea that should have been explored a bit more especially since the lives of everyone being connected is so important. Maybe mixing more of the Game World with the real world would have done it for me. Everything just seemed so vague. Like more detail was needed to get some of the concepts across better. Another problem I had with is the title. Moxyland refers to a children's game one of the character plays, but it is only relevant to 2 chapters and the cuddly and ferocious creatures have no bearing on the story at large. The ending was a bit of let down as I was expecting something bigger, better, and more original. Overall, I didn't find Moxyland as thought provoking as the author intended. What could have been a decidedly discussion worthy book turned into more of a mishmash of themes not explored well enough and kneecapped by characters you can't identify with. I give Moxyland 5 out of 10 Hats. Book link: US Europe Canada

REVIEW | The Affinity Bridge by George Mann (Tor)

George Mann's The Affinity Bridge was another book eagerly picked up at Book Expo, although it had been on my list to buy. My copy is signed by Mann with:

Watch out--there's evil things lurking in the fog!-George Mann

It certainly lived up to those sentiments as a zombie plague is running rampant in London, but that is a bit of a fake-out as the zombies or Revenants as Mann likes to call them is more of a B story line at best. I've long been a fan of steampunk and The Affinity Bridge brings the steam in spades. If H.G. Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle somehow worked out the science and had a son it would probably have been George Mann. There are clockwork automatons, airships, ghosts, mad scientists, and spades of other things in this entirely strange Victorian setting Mann has concocted. The Affinity Bridge is very much an homage to Doyle's Sherlock Holmes style while still very approachable for modern tastes. The main characters start off very stuffy, but as the work progresses I found many layers yet to be revealed. Newbury has demons that I was yearning for Mann to set free, but alas he is holding out on us. I thought his female assistant Hobbes was a bit one dimensional until something that happened at the very end, which made me question her purpose and skills. Newbury is investigating a series of mysterious murders when he is called away by Queen Victoria to look into an airship crash. The Queen is being kept alive by means of technology, which was intriguing. The dialogue flows well and there is plenty of good action as Newbury battles Revenants, Automatons, and even a few other things. However, some of the solutions to the mysteries do present themselves to Newbury a bit too easily on more than one occasion, but his body does pay the cost for that ease time and time again. I also worked out the big connections fairly early on, but it didn't ruin the experience at all.

The Affinity Bridge is sheer fun and will keep you pushing forward to see how the investigative team of Charles Newbury and Victoria Hobbes solves the mysteries. I give The Affinity Bridge 7.25 out of 10 Hats. The series is expected to be at least 6 books long so it makes me wonder if Mann has an over arcing theme in mind for the rest of the series or if it will merely be more episodic. And just who will be his Moriarty? There were shades of massive intrigue towards the end involving Hobbes that could open this world wide. I'll definitely be checking out future volumes. The 2nd volume The Osiris Ritual is to be released in July in the UK, although no date has been announced from Tor on the US release. Sometime next year Mann will release Ghost of Manhattan in the UK as well, which judging by the description is set in the same world as The Affinity Bridge, but not with the main characters from the series. New info thanks to Lou Anders @ Pyr: Ghosts of Manhattan will be released in the US April 2010 by Pyr. I find the US and the UK covers brilliantly detailed and beautifully illustrated. You have to take a look at it up close to appreciate all the little embellishments on both.

There is also a free short story called The Shattered Teacup set in the same world, but before the events of The Affinity Bridge available as an: eBook or as an audio book from Snowbooks the UK publisher of the series.

Book link: US Europe Canada

Subterranean Press 50% Off Sale on Forthcoming Titles

Subterranean Press is having an amazing sale on forthcoming titles until July 3rd. You have to buy 5 titles minimally which could end up being a bit pricey, but you won't be able to beat the savings elsewhere. If they had included their edition of Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself I would probably be more apt to partake. I've already pre-ordered Scalzi's Metatropolis and The God Engines and you can't combine previously placed orders with this special so I'll probably hold back. Here is the list of books that apply to this sale:

• Angelic (Kelley Armstrong);
• Not Less Than Gods (Kage Baker);
• The Ebb Tide (James P. Blaylock);
• Where Everything Ends (Ray Bradbury);
• Alpha and Omega (Patricia Briggs);
• Forever Twilight 2 (Peter Crowther);
• The Dark Volume (Gordon Dahlquist);
• The Onion Girl (Charles de Lint);
• Nick and the Glimmung (Philip K. Dick);
• Crystal Nights and Other Stories (Greg Egan);
• The Evil in Pemberley House (Farmer and Eckert);
• The Reality Dysfunction (Peter F. Hamilton);
• Crimson Shadows (Robert E. Howard);
• Scenting the Dark and Other Stories (Mary Robinette Kowal);
• Son of Retro Pulp Tales (ed. Joe R. Lansdale);
• Unchained and Unhinged (Joe R. Lansdale);
• Screaming Science Fiction (Brian Lumley);
• In Between (R. A. MacAvoy);
• Songs of the Dying Earth (ed. Martin, Dozois);
• Purple and Black (K.J. Parker);
• The Club Dumas (Arturo Perez-Reverte);
• Hazards (Mike Resnick);
• Thousandth Night & Minla’s Flowers (Alastair Reynolds);
• The Last Colony (John Scalzi);
• Metatropolis (John Scalzi);
• The God Engines (John Scalzi);
• Judge Sn Goes Golfing (John Scalzi);
• Collected Stories (Lewis Shiner);
• The Terror (Dan Simmons);
• The Skylark (Peter Straub);

Also, I just ordered a signed limited edition of The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon from Random House. Most people don't even realize they have a program such as this running. Check it out here. These editions are the regular first printing but they come with an autograph page which is also numbered. They are usually limited to under 100 copies, but in the case of The Angel's Game it is only 50 copies. A letter of authenticity is included as well from Random House. Similar editions of World War Z by Max Brooks and The Dresden Files: Storm Front Vol. 1 graphic novel are available amongst a few others.

Add on from comments: Almost forgot. To get free shipping from Random House enter SHIPPING in the promo code section when checking out.

More info on The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Grasping for the Wind has got a link to an excerpt from The World in the Walls, the novel (Quentin Coldwater is infatuated with) from the novel, The Magicians recently reviewed here. I was also altered to a bunch of sites related to the book and its related world:

• You can explore Fillory here: www.emberstomb.com
• Read excerpts from author Christopher Plover's Fillory series here: www.christopherplover.com
• Explore Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy's: www.brakebills.com
• And there is also www.themagiciansbook.com

See my review of The Magicians here.

REVIEW | The Magicians by Lev Grossman (Viking)

I picked The Magicians up on my trip to BEA this year. I hadn't heard anything about it previously, but that is what BEA is supposed to be about. To find those gems you might not otherwise have come upon and The Magician is one of those gems. The Magicians is a pastiche of The Once and Future King, The Chronicles of Narnia along with the Harry Potter novels only aimed at adults. I read Lev Grossman's Codex a couple years ago and was severely underwhelmed so when I started The Magicians the bar was set fairly low. Having said that it is a truly magical and entertaining read, but make no mistakes this is not a book for children. Instead of very young people learning magic or getting involved in fanciful worlds his characters are college aged and in most cases very flawed. The Magicians deals with what people have to go through in order to learn magic properly and the consequences of getting involved with this world. What if you could do anything you wanted? Or go anywhere? What would you life mean? Those are the questions Grossman posits as you journey with Quentin Coldwater on his quest to become a magician and his obsession with Fillory and Further, a thinly veiled Narnia series he is infatuated with. There are sexual indiscretions and many morally questionable situations as the character make their way through the world. There is a good amount of action although most takes place in the last 1/4 of the book. Yet the book flows easily as I kept wanting to know what was next. The story starts with Quentin getting invited to take an entrance exam to a magic school very mysteriously. Brakebills, is a very exclusive school for people who show a high aptitude for magic. This isn't hogwarts. The description of the way the students are taught is more reminiscent of Law School than anything else as most of the work is reading, rote memorization, and repetition of magical exercises. My biggest issue with the book is most of the characters do not develop much as they go along and are a bit dry with personality. One of the most interesting characters, Penny, is missing from a large chunk of the book as if the author forgot about him for 200 pages. However, Penny's disappearance is somewhat haphazardly explained. Once Quentin and his friends graduate from Brakebills and are forced into the real world it is very clear they have no place in it.

Eventually Quentin and his friends journey into a world very similar to Narnia, which is a bit too much on the nose for me at times, but it does have its place as all the pieces do fall into place well. They encounter many magical and mythological creatures. A bit more background on the Fillory world would have been nice, but it does get filled in a bit towards the end. A couple of the major treads were a bit predictable, such as the revelation of a missing character from the Fillory series and another related character. Yet these flaws do not take away from the enjoyable reading experience. The ending is fitting and leaves the character open for a succeeding adventure, but gives you closure on pretty much everything. Quentin's final transformation is actually quite interesting and I'm eager to see what other worlds Grossman has in store for him. I give The Magicians 8.5 out of 10 Hats. Grossman has grown quite a bit as a fiction writer and it shows. The core audience for The Magicians is probably people who rarely read fantasy or those who want to reminisce a bit about the books they read growing up. Those who are very well read in the fantasy genre may consider the concepts a bit over done, but Grossman does manage to stand apart and create a world where actions have very definitive repercussions.

• You can explore Fillory here: www.emberstomb.com
• Read excerpts from author Christopher Plover's Fillory series here: www.christopherplover.com
• Explore Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy's: www.brakebills.com
• And there is also www.themagiciansbook.com

Book link: US Europe Canada

Which fantasy writer are you? Apparently I am Lian Hearn

Neth's posting alerted me to this one. I actually took this over a week ago, but after first seeing the results I didn't agree. Re-reading the description it is actually pretty accurate of my tastes in general. I think I was thrown off being called Lian Hearn. I read Lian Hearn's first Otori book and I thought it was decent, but not enough to read further into the series. Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart was a better use of Asian mythology. Well here are my results: Lian Hearn (b. 1942)

-3 High-Brow, 3 Violent, 29 Experimental and 17 Cynical!

Congratulations! You are Low-Brow, Violent, Experimental and Cynical! These concepts are defined below.

Lian Hearn is the pen name used by Australian author Gillian Rubinstein when writing the Tale of the Otori series, beginning with Across the Nightingale Floor (2002). The trilogy (which has spawned a sequel and a prequel) was a great success, becoming bestsellers world-wide and being published in more than thirty countries. Part of the reason for the series' success is probably that it is traditional fantasy but with a twist: The books are set in a country resembling feudal Japan, rather than some vaguely European environment. This setting gives Hearn a great opportunity to explore themes such as war, revenge, power hunger and clashes between cultures, all of which makes for an occasionally very violent tale, where nothing is ever coated in sugar. The books also feature at least one strong and very believable female character. While there have been Japanese-style fantasy written by Westerners earlier (such as the Book of Years series by Peter Morwood), Hearn uses the brilliant technique of describing her world from inside, calling typical Japanese phenomena by generic names rather than exorcising Japanese terms. Thus, swords are called swords, not katanas, we hear of wrestlers and realize that they are sumo wrestlers, characters eat bean curd rather than tofu, etc. All in all, Hearn has successfully expanded the borders of what can be done within the genre, while still writing for a mass audience!

You are also a lot like C S Lewis.

If you want something more gentle, try Orson Scott Card.

If you'd like a challenge, try your exact opposite, Susan Cooper.

Your score

This is how to interpret your score: Your attitudes have been measured on four different scales, called 1) High-Brow vs. Low-Brow, 2) Violent vs. Peaceful, 3) Experimental vs. Traditional and 4) Cynical vs. Romantic. Imagine that when you were born, you were in a state of innocence, a tabula rasa who would have scored zero on each scale. Since then, a number of circumstances (including genetical, cultural and environmental factors) have pushed you towards either end of these scales. If you're at 45 or -45 you would be almost entirely cynical, low-brow or whatever. The closer to zero you are, the less extreme your attitude. However, you should always be more of either (eg more romantic than cynical). Please note that even though High-Brow, Violent, Experimental and Cynical have positive numbers (1 through 45) and their opposites negative numbers (-1 through -45), this doesn't mean that either quality is better. All attitudes have their positive and negative sides, as explained below.

High-Brow vs. Low-Brow

You received -3 points, making you more Low-Brow than High-Brow. Being high-browed in this context refers to being more fascinated with the sort of art that critics and scholars tend to favour, while a typical low-brow would favour the best-selling kind. At their best, low-brows are honest enough to read what they like, regardless of what "experts" and academics say is good for them. At their worst, they are more likely to read what their neighbours like than what they would choose themselves.

Violent vs. Peaceful

You received 3 points, making you more Violent than Peaceful. Please note that violent in this context does not mean that you, personally, are prone to violence. This scale is a measurement of a) if you are tolerant to violence in fiction and b) whether you see violence as a means that can be used to achieve a good end. If you are, and you do, then you are violent as defined here. At their best, violent people are the heroes who don't hesitate to stop the villain threatening innocents by means of a good kick. At their worst, they are the villains themselves.

Experimental vs. Traditional

You received 29 points, making you more Experimental than Traditional. Your position on this scale indicates if you're more likely to seek out the new and unexpected or if you are more comfortable with the familiar, especially in regards to culture. Note that traditional as defined here does not equal conservative, in the political sense. At their best, experimental people are the ones who show humanity the way forward. At their worst, they provoke for the sake of provocation only.

Cynical vs. Romantic

You received 17 points, making you more Cynical than Romantic. Your position on this scale indicates if you are more likely to be wary, suspicious and skeptical to people around you and the world at large, or if you are more likely to believe in grand schemes, happy endings and the basic goodness of humankind. It is by far the most vaguely defined scale, which is why you'll find the sentence "you are also a lot like x" above. If you feel that your position on this scale is wrong, then you are probably more like author x. At their best, cynical people are able to see through lies and spot crucial flaws in plans and schemes. At their worst, they are overly negative, bringing everybody else down.

Author picture from http://www.lianhearn.com/, used by kind permission. Take Which fantasy writer are you? at HelloQuizzy

George R.R. Martin Breaks His Silence on A Dance With Dragons

Martin recently comment about his progress with A Dance With Dragons:

"I almost hate to say anything here, for fear of jinxing it... but for what it's worth, the last six weeks or so have been the most productive period I've had on A DANCE WITH DRAGONS in... well... a year at least, maybe several."

He has miss his self-imposed deadline of the start of June to ensure an October publication, but this is still wonderful news that he is getting there. I'll still keep pushing back my re-read of A Song of Fire Ice until he says the manuscript is off to his Publisher though. Also, I'm about a third of the way through The Affinity Bridge by George Mann. Very good stuff so far.

REVIEW | The Ridiculous Race by Steve Hely & Vali Chandrasekaran (Henry Holt)

The Ridiculous Race is an aptly titled hilarious travel narrative of two friends racing around the world in opposite directions for an expensive bottle of scotch. The twist is no airplanes are allowed. Both authors are comedy writers on different major shows. Hely for American Dad and Chandrasekaran for My Name is Earl. Judging from the writing I would have thought they'd be writing for the opposite shows just based on how off-the-wall Chandrasekaran antic's are and how grounded Hely seems. Chandrasekaran is most definitely not against pulling something underhanded and starts off shamefully with a scene involving a pair of hand-cuffs. The Ridiculous Race grew out of one Steve and Vali's friendly get-togethers in which they always try to out do one another. One almost thinks that they actually wanted to write a book together before they decided what it would be. Nevertheless, the outcome is a hilarious journey around the world by two guys without a clue. The narrative switches between Hely and Chandrasekaran from their sometime immature points of view, which makes this a very breezy read. Chandrasekaran certainly causes a lot of comedic scenes along the way as it seems like he would love to cause an international incident, while Hely is a little too planned out at times although about halfway around the world he loses the drive in the race and decides to just have a good time. Not to say Hely is less funny than Chandrasekaran as Hely certainly has a way with words. When he described a sauce he tried as turtle mucus I couldn't stop laughing for a couple pages. Yeah it is that type of humor at times. If you've been in the mood for some traveling and can't get away this will give a good flavor of travel abroad as each author visits many wonderful places and describes them differently than most other writers ever would. I give The Ridiculous Race 7.5 out of 10 hats for the pure entertainment value. Also, if you are into humor it will certainly leave you chuckling here or there. Chandrasekaran certainly has a slapstick style of humor all his own. Book link: US UK Canada