Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. It was Independence Day in the States and we blew up a respectable amount of stuff in celebration. I personally managed to unwittingly turn a Chinese lantern into a floating fireball of death. An unknown insect made a suicide dive into my wife’s cornea, but nobody was permanently damaged and we all had a good time. Despite the ongoing festivities, I managed to find a few links for you. In the coming weeks, if you find something interesting you think everyone should read, drop me a line via the contact form and let me know, or just post it below. Let’s get started:
1) 10 Classic SFF Books that were Originally Considered Failures: Fellowship of the Ring sure turned out to be a real stinker.
2) Free Kitty Norville: Tantor is releasing the first audio chapter of Carrie Vaughn‘s Kitty’s Big Trouble for free.
3) Really bad SFF covers: Some of these are truly awful, and some are not so bad. I personally enjoyed the Space Cat Weasel things. Let’s rename some of these soon.
4) Doh! Germans ship A Dance with Dragons Early: Oh boy. Watch out for spoilers. The web is apparently crawling with them after Amazon Germany started accidentally shipping Martin‘s highly anticipated release way too early.
5) 60 Rules for Short SF (and Fantasy): Terry Bisson writes 60 rules to follow when writing short fiction. This is all pretty solid advice. I did find it amusing that he used the word “quotidian” in the rule about ordinary language.
6) 2011 David Gemmell Award Winners: A solid lineup with several of my favorites.
I’m trying so hard to avoid looking up Dance with Dragons spoilers. I keep reminding myself that I spoiled myself massively for Deathly Hallows and that I’m pretty sure it impacted my enjoyment of the book!
Pretty fun stuff! I love the awful covers. It may just be current political events, but the alien in the Moon Pool cover looks like he should be saying, “Honest, officer, I’m just giving her a ride home from work!”
We actually discussed that Moon Pool cover when I reviewed that book a few months ago. The book is really quite good!
If you want funny SFF covers, add this to your RSS feed:
http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk
It’s hilarious!
I also looked at 10 Classic SFF Novels That Were Oiginally Considered Failures, and read some of the comments about China Mieville (odd choice for the topic, but anyway. . .) One person complained that Mieville’s “words got in the way.” That’s like ordering the chocolate decadance cake and then complaining that there’s too much chocolate flavor.
Dance of Dragon spoilers from Germany!?!?!?
Leave it to ze germanz. ;)