Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: August 2018

SHORTS: Roanhorse, VanderMeer, Theodoridou, Moore & Kuttner, Divya

Our exploration of free and inexpensive short fiction available on the internet. Here are a few stories we’ve read that we wanted you to know about.

“Welcome to Your Authentic Indian ExperienceTM” by Rebecca Roanhorse (2017, free at Apex Magazine, $2.99 Kindle magazine issue)

Accolades have been pouring down on this 2017 SF short story, which won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, and is also a Sturgeon Award nominee, a Locus Recommended Short Story, a Apex Magazine Reader’s Choice Winner. Additionally, Rebecca Roanhorse won the Hugo’s John W.

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom: Murder and mayhem at Disney World

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow

I picked up Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003) because it’s set in one of my favorite places in the universe: Walt Disney World. I grew up less than an hour’s drive from the Magic Kingdom, so I’m intimately familiar with the park and, though I’m now middle-aged, I never get tired of visiting. I love the idea of a far-future science fiction story set inside my favorite theme park.

Jules is a man who’s over 100 years old but looks to be in his 20s due to rejuvenation techniques and the ability to back yourself up with a clone.

Sunday Status Update: August 26, 2018

We’re reading a lot of fun books this week!

Bill: This week Glen Cook’sreturn to the Black Company, Port of Shadows, was quite disappointing, though I highly recommend the series. Meanwhile, The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French, had an engaging storyline but was marred for me by problematic language/tone aimed at women. Outside the genre, David Frye’s book Wallswas an interesting look at, well, walls. Specifically walls meant to keep bad folks out (think Great Wall).

August 26th, 2018. Tim Scheidler | Status Update | no comments |

Castle in the Stars: The Moon King: Artwork raises the overall result

Castle in the Stars: The Moon King by Alex Alice

Castle in the Stars: The Moon King is the second installment of Alex Alice’s graphic story involving a 19th Century space race between the two hostile nations of Prussia (led by Bismarck) and Bavaria (ruled by “Mad” King Ludwig.

Book one tells of the attempt to prove the existence of “aether,” a substance that along with flight would potentially be a nearly limitless source of energy. The first book ended on a cliffhanger, with the prototype space vehicle unexpectedly taking off with more on board than expected.

August 25th, 2018. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Robert Jackson Bennett returns to FanLit to talk about FOUNDERS

Robert Jackson Bennett returns for a record-setting fifth interview with Fantasy Literature. He sat down with Bill and Marion to talk about his new release Foundryside, the first in his brand new THE FOUNDERS TRILOGY. Three commenters (U.S. only) chosen at random will receive a free copy of Foundryside.

Bill and Marion: Your last work, THE DIVINE CITIES trilogy, received a slew of critical acclaim, including a Hugo nomination for Best Series. Did that affect at all your decision to make FOUNDERS TRILOGY a multiple book series?

August 24th, 2018. Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds | Robert Jackson Bennett | Author Interviews, Giveaway! | 29 comments |

Zeroboxer: The truth will set you free

Zeroboxer by Fonda Lee

Carr “The Raptor” Luka has been rising in the ranks of zeroboxers — men and women who fight in zero gravity. He’s just signed with an agent, been assigned a brandhelm (publicity manager), procured a sponsor, and he hopes to be able to compete for the championship title. As political tensions rise between the residents of Earth and Mars, Carr’s success becomes a point of pride and an inspiration for Earth, “the old dirt ball.”

While on a publicity tour, Carr discovers some information about a crime that someone close to him has committed.

Blindness: Nobel Prize-winning post-apocalyptic fiction

Blindness by José Saramago

Originally published in Portuguese in 1995, José Saramago’s Blindness is a post-apocalyptic novel about pandemic blindness and the consequent dissolution of a society. Both the novel and the author have received acclaim, and Saramago won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998. I liked Blindness, but I found it overrated.

Many readers will find this novel thoughtful and complex. The hero is a woman who does not lose her sight but nevertheless accompanies her suddenly blind husband when he is sent into quarantine.

Thoughtful Thursday: SFF BFFs (giveaway!)

Speculative fiction heroes have all kinds of people with whom they interact. They have sidekicks, mentors, hot exes with emotional baggage, and nemeses galore – but a lot of them don’t seem to have many friends. It’s not a big surprise. Being a best friend to an SF main character is a high-risk activity.

Sometimes the faithful sidekick fulfills the role of friend, but how many main characters have someone who is, plotwise, mainly a friend? That’s the person who will come bail you out, who offers a shoulder to cry on and provides a much-needed reality check when you’re going off the rails.

August 23rd, 2018. Marion Deeds | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 13 comments |

Evolutions: An odd but mostly pleasing science-in-the-form-of-myth collection

Evolutions: Fifteen Myths That Explain Our World by Owen Harman

Evolutions by Owen Harman is one of the quirkiest popular science books I’ve read, for both good and ill (mostly good). While it’s not the book I’d offer up as the go-to for learning about the history of the universe and life, it’s a lyrical look a’slant at those things in a mythic style (somewhat akin, roughly, to Italo Calvino’s Cosmiccomics) whose different take is worth a look.

August 23rd, 2018. Bill Capossere | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

The Remnant: A long but satisfying finale

The Remnant by Charlie Fletcher

“No more hope. No more heroes.”

The Remnant (2017) is the third and final book in Charlie Fletcher’s OVERSIGHT trilogy. You need to read the first two books, The Oversight and The Paradox, before opening this one, or you’ll be hopelessly lost. I’ll assume you have since I won’t be able to avoid some spoilers for the previous books in this review.

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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