Is it Wednesday again already? These come round awfully quickly! Welcome to World Wide Wednesday, and FanLit’s quick guide to the Top 10 most interesting events of the last week on the Internet.
1) Book Covers: A Reader Survey
With all the discussion about cover art, and cliched representation of book contents, The Book Smugglers have decided to ask the readers what they feel about the subject. There will be future results posts after the Smugglers have compiled all the replies, which I’ve no doubt will be brought to you on a future edition of WWW! Go and vote in the Reader Survey now!
2) Fandom and Piracy
Charles at Bibliophile Stalker has just completed the fifth part of an essay on fandom and piracy — click through to his website to find the first four parts of this thoughtful contemplation of who commits piracy and why they do it.
3) The Nature of Blogging
A few of the old guard in the blogging hierarchy have recently posted on the nature of blogging. Nextread asks us “Should a blogger spend your money for you?” and discusses how reviewing might affect who purchases what books — there are some very interesting comments continuing the discussion. James at Speculative Horizons rants a little on those people who start blogging just to get the free books. Both worthy posts that constantly question why bloggers are doing what they do. Larry at OF Blog of the Fallen has also commented recently on the growth of more social blogging.
4) The Arthur Clarke award shortlist
As I pointed out last Wednesday, the shortlist for the Arthur Clarke award was on the verge of being announced. We now know the six novels that are shortlisted, and Niall at Torque Control has handily rounded up the various links and commentary on the books put forward.
5) Award Season!
It is clear that the literary award season is upon us! As well as the Arthur Clarke shortlist being announced, the BSFA Best Novel award went to The City and The City by China Mieville, the Hugo nominations have been revealed, the Gemmell award shortlist has been published and the Australian Shadows winners are now known. There are some fabulous books being discussed thanks to these various awards — hopefully you’ll discover a new author!
6) Eastercon!
Over the Easter weekend, one of the largest conventions held in the UK took place — known fondly as Eastercon, it is four days of panels, trading and fun, descended upon by fans, authors and industry people. There are a number of reports to be found on the Internet, including this one and this one.
7) Do you like zombies?
At the moment zombies are big news, especially with the fact that Romero is releasing his first book through Headline later this year. With the general zombie love-in, Niall at the Speculative Scotsman talks about the speed of zombies!
8) Where to start with Guy Gavriel Kay?
In a second edition of what looks like an ongoing feature, Adam over at the Wertzone introduces us to the work of and advises us where to start with Guy Gavriel Kay. This is a classic fantasy author who has received glowing reviews from the FanLit crew, and we urge you to head over to the Wertzone and then decide which of his books to pick up first! (BTW, we’ll be posting two reviews of GGK’s new novel, Under Heaven, in the next few days. In short, we loved it).
9) April is Sci Fi Appreciation Month!
Over at the Walker of Worlds, Mark Chitty has decided to host a Sci Fi Appreciation Month during April — this will include guest reviews, features, interviews and competitions celebrating everything to do with science fiction. For both veterans and newcomers to the genre, this will be well worth a visit throughout April.
10) Scrying the Fantastic
Lastly, let me bring you a new resource for UK-centric readers. A group of bloggers (including me) have set up Scrying the Fantastic to alert you to new releases from your favorite UK publishers. (FanLit tracks US publication dates on our new release page, so it’s nice to have this additional resource because publication dates often vary in the UK).
And that’s the lot, dear readers! Please join me again next Wednesday for another World Wide Wednesday.
Good round-up of recent awards, events and posts. The UK bloggers are on a roll after Eastercon!
There is an excellent Guy Gavriel Kay interview on this new collaborative Speculative Fiction blog with a review of Under Heaven here
Great job. I’m still laughing at the comic. Sooooo true. :thumb: