SFcrowsnest.net: The genre media magazine

Two of the biggest names in contemporary science fiction – Peter F. Hamilton and Alastair Reynolds – have spoken about their work in a fresh new anthology of SF from Solaris.

The authors of the Night's Dawn Trilogy and the Revelation Space series are both included in Solaris Rising – the first in an exciting new series of anthologies set to reaffirm Solaris’s proud reputation for producing high quality SF.

"Original fiction anthologies are the lifeblood of SF, the proving ground for new ideas and themes, as well as a great place to discover new writers,” Alastair Reynolds. “Solaris Rising fills a vital need, and I'm very pleased to have been a part of it."

In a book full of boundless variety, energy and imagination, award-winning editor Ian Whates gathers the most accomplished writers in the genre including Ian McDonald, Paul di Filippo, Stephen Baxter, Adam Roberts, Pat Cadigan, Eric Brown, Alastair Reynolds and Peter F. Hamilton.

"When Ian asked me to contribute to this anthology and showed me the other names involved I never hesitated,” Peter F. Hamilton.  “Even though my story isn't quite SF in the true sense, I'm still pleased it managed to get in there."

Bizarre futures, gritty other worlds and strange realms, Solaris Rising exemplifys the diversity and innovation that continue to make science fiction the most thrilling genre there is.

£7.99 (UK) ISBN 978-1-907992-08-7   $7.99/$9.99 (US & CAN) ISBN 978-1-907992-09-4

Why are even non science-fiction people reading and enjoying iSly, the new, sci-fi book by Stanley Gerson? One answer can be found in its five star, reader review at Amazon:

“. . .Great read, even for non Sci-Fi lovers. . .by luvtoread. . .

iSly is a science fiction story about robots that prompts its readers to think about the major issues of human survival, today and in the future. . .I normally don't enjoy reading sci-fi novels but when I read the short description of this book it reminded me a little of I, Robot with Will Smith and so I decided to give it a try, I really enjoyed reading this book.”

Luvtoread's comment draws on other themes that emerge in the book: androido-tech dystopia vs. eco-friendly living, androids salvaging human society, android, computer, runaway—called a singularity, and can humans and androids be friends?

Reader reviews are good; books are selling. Why not have a look at the book, iSly? (Just point your search engine to): www.islydroids.com/ ; the cover alone is an attention grabber. Imagine having your own copy to read and show your friends.

I'd like to introduce you to Subtext, a new reading app that just launched on the iPad. We have two big speculative fiction titles on our featured bookshelf that may interest your readers: Game of Thrones with expert notes from GRRM’s editor Anne Groell and lead researcher Elio Garcia (also one of the founders of Westeros.org) and Machine Man with behind-the-scenes annotations by author Max Barry.

An in-depth article by fantasy blogger Sean Collins on the creation of the annotated version of Game of Thrones is available here: http://boiledleather.com/post/11906766558/the-annotated-a-game-of-thrones-im-over-the-moon. The Subtext app is free--with free previews of both books--and available for download now: bit.ly/GetSubtext

We are a digital reading company with a vision to power the first community of readers, authors and experts inside every ebook. Subtext makes it simple and fun to read with friends, family and like-minded readers--even if they are miles (or pages) apart. For Subtext's launch we have collaborated with several major publishers--including Penguin, Random House and Simon & Schuster--to offer consumers a collection of eighteen books enhanced with notes and media from authors, critics and experts. The app has also been featured in Publishers Weekly, Gizmodo and TechCrunch.

From sci-fi to soaps, Hollywood to Hi-De-Hi!, the Winter Memorabilia Show has it all! Held at NEC Birmingham on 19-20 November, Britain’s biggest collector’s show features a stunning line-up of special guests from the world of film, TV and sports.

This year’s guest list includes KAI OWEN (Torchwood); SIR DEREK JACOBI (The King’s Speech, I Claudius); COLIN BAKER (Doctor Who); ARTHUR DARVILL (Doctor Who); BRUCE BOXLEITNER (Tron, Babylon 5); BRUCE DAVISON (X-Men, Star Trek Enterprise & Voyager); JOHN CHALLIS (Only Fools And Horses); BARRY HOWARD (Hi-De-Hi!) and Doctor Who companions KATY MANNING, SOPHIE ALDRED, DEBORAH WATLING, SARAH SUTTON and FRANCES BARBER.

Other stars meeting fans and signing autographs include MARSHALL LANCASTER (Ashes To Ashes, Life On Mars); ANTHONY VALENTINE (Coronation Street); IAN OGILVY (Return Of The Saint); ALEXANDRA BASTEDO (The Champions); SUSAN JAMESON (New Tricks, Coronation Street); PETER EGAN (Ever Decreasing Circles); FENELLA FIELDING (Carry On Screaming, The Avengers); MARTINE BESWICK (From Russia With Love, One Million Years B.C.) and many more!

The Winter Memorabilia Show will also play host to cast reunions from classic British comedies ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES and HI-DE-HI!, iconic sci-fi movie VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED and cult horror CAPTAIN KRONOS - VAMPIRE HUNTER.

Meanwhile, guests lined up for the show’s Sports Memorabilia area include ROY KEANE; DENIS LAW; TREVOR FRANCIS; NICKY BUTT; TIM WITHERSPOON; JOHN McGOVERN; TOMMY SMITH; KENNY MORGANS; HARRY GREGG; ANDY GRAY; ALEX DAWSON; TONY MORLEY; GORDON COWANS; GARY SHAW; DES BREMNER; DENNIS MORTIMER and KEN McNAUGHT.

For new special guest announcements and to find out which days the stars will be attending Memorabilia, please visit www.memorabilia.co.uk/birmingham/guests

For tickets to Memorabilia, visit: www.memorabilia.co.uk/birmingham/tickets

Theme Planet by Andy Remic

Blazing into action on 8th December in the UK and 29th November in US & Canada

£7.99 (UK) ISBN 978-1-907992-10-0
$8.99 (US & Canada) ISBN 978-1-907992-11-7

Also available as an eBook

It’s better than sex! It’s better than drugs! If you haven’t been sick yet, you soon will be...

Welcome to Theme Planet, an entire alien world dedicated to insane rides, excessive hedonism and dangerous adventure - the No. 1 destination for fun-seeking human holidaymakers galaxy-wide!

Amba Miskalov is an Anarchy Android – beautiful, merciless and deadly. Sent to Theme Planet on a dangerous assassination mission, Amba stumbles upon a plot to undermine and destroy Earth’s all-powerful Oblivion Government – and its Ministers of Joy. Will Amba remain loyal to her creators and tormentors, support the enemy – or just annihilate them all?

The writer behind the popular Combat K novels returns with a new series set in the world of The Anarchy – another blistering SF journey that fans will love and new readers will find full of action infused adventure!

It’s Thursday, and just a few days to go until we can legitimately scare the local kids out of a year’s growth when they call around trick-or-treating with their little plastic tubs. Heh heh! Man, I do so love this time of year . . . and Nicky and I have bought new masks! Hoo hoo . . . I can’t wait.

We’ve pretty much got in signed copies of all the titles we launched at FantasyCon with just Book of Horrors - Little Green God.jpgthe Gutshot signing sheets still going the rounds.

Also going the rounds are the sheets for the PS/CD edition of Stephen Jones’s A Book of Horrors—believe me, that’s going to be quite a book. Anyway, everyone who ordered signed copies of the most recent titles (excepting Gutshot, of course) should be receiving their books by the middle of November . . . and that includes our wonderful Lifetime Subscribers (we love you guys)!

Also quite a book is the special slipcased edition of Stephen King’s 11.22.63. And we have a special treat for people who are buying it from PS because we’ve arranged with Hodder & Stoughton to print up special dust-jackets at our own expense (the volume is issued without a DJ, in line with previous 1,000-copy King editions in the past from Hodder). We’re expecting it to hit our doors in the next week or two.

Scream-Quietly.jpg

We’ve got all manner of fabtastic stuff about to go to the printers including Scream Quietly, Stephen Jones’s 550-page 33-story celebration of the work of Charles L. Grant, which also features essays from Nancy Holder, Stephen Jones, Nancy Kilpatrick, Stephen King, Tom Monteleone, Kim Newman and Peter Straub.

We’re aiming to launch the book at the British Fantasy Society’s pre-Christmas knees-up at the Mug House in London on 9 December (also the historic date of the first cremation in the United States, back in 1772—hey, you learn something every day here at PS . . . c’mon, admit it!)

And finally, thanks to Publishers Weekly’s recent decision to accept pdfs for its reviewers and not insist on actual printed-up ARCs (Advance Reading Copies or Uncorrected Proofs), we’re drawing a line under the expensive and time-consuming practice of producing ARCs. To celebrate, we’re clearing out all of our ARC copies at £4.99 plus postage for the novellas and £8.99 plus postage for everything else. We have multiple copies of most of them and single copies of a few. Each title has a number registered and that number will be reduced as copies are sold. When they’re gone, they’re gone. Here are the titles:

    HELLO SUMMER, GOODBYE
    THE INHABITANT OF THE LAKE
    OSAMA
    GHOSTS KNOW
    CATASTROPHIA
    RED GLOVES
    DIVERSIFICATIONS
    NESTED SCROLLS
    IN THE TIME OF WAR
    WAKE UP AND DREAM
    IMPOSSIBLE STORIES
    THE COLORADO KID
    WHAT WOLVES KNOW
    THE CITY BEYOND PLAY
    STARSHIP SUMMER

Go ahead, treat yourself. You won’t see their like again.

CLEARANCE SALE UPDATE
Last week we slashed the price of all remaining paperbacks to just £2.99, many of which are signed — we are now down to the last one or two copies at the most. Likewise, the novellas, novels, plus a cracking array of collections and anthologies all priced at under £10 have sold well and will soon be gone for good. And finally, we have just a handful of signed slipcased editions which we are virtually giving away at £12.99.

PAPERBACKS - ALL £2.99

    Night of Knives [unsigned paperback novel by Ian Cameron Esslemont]
    The Cosmology of the Wider World [signed paperback novella by Jeffrey Ford]
    20th Century Ghosts [unsigned paperback collection by Joe Hill]
    I Am The Bird [signed paperback  novella by T.M. Wright]
    The Voyage of Night Shining White [signed paperback novella by Chris Roberson]

NOVELLAS

    I Am The Bird [signed jacketed hardcover by T.M. Wright]  £6.99
    In Springdale Town [signed jacketed hardcover by Robert Freeman Wexler]  £6.99
    Dead Earth: The Green Dawn [signed hardcover by Mark Justice and David T. Wilbanks]  £4.99
    The Mermaids [signed hardcover by Robert Edric]  £4.99
    The Mermaids [signed jacketed hardcover novella by Robert Edric]  £6.99
    Twelve Collections and the Teashop [unsigned hardcover novella length collection by Zoran Zivkovic]  £4.99
    Hereafter and After [signed jacketed hardcover by Richard Parks]  £6.99
    Vault of Deeds [unsigned hardcover by James Barclay] £4.99
    Planet of Mystery [unsigned hardcover by Terry Bisson] £4.99
    The Enigma of Departure [signed jacketed hardcover by Nicholas Royle] £6.99
    The City in These Pages [unsigned hardcover by John Grant] £4.99
    The Economy of Light [unsigned hardcover by Jack Dann] £4.99

NOVELS & COLLECTIONS

    Dandelion Wine 50th Anniversary Edition [unsigned hardcover novel by Ray Bradbury]  £9.99
    The Wandering Soul Essays & Letters by William Hope Hodgson [unsigned jacketed hardcover collection by Jane Frank (editor)   £9.99
    Impossible Stories [signed jacketed hardcover collection by Zoran Zivkovic]  £9.99
    Where or When [unsigned jacketed hardcover collection by Steven Utley]  £9.99
    Promised Land [signed hardcover novel by Jack Dann]  £9.99
    The Collected Ed Gorman, Vol 1: Out There in the Darkness [unsigned hardcover collection by Ed Gorman]  £9.99
    The Collected Ed Gorman, Vol 2: The Moving Coffin [unsigned hardcover collection by Ed Gorman]  £9.99
    The Grin of the Dark [unsigned hardcover novel by Ramsey Campbell]  £9.99
    Hello Summer, Goodbye [unsigned hardcover novel by Michael Coney]  £9.99
    Cage of Night [unsigned hardcover novel by Ed Gorman] £9.99
    The Last Book [unsigned hardcover novel by Zoran Zivkovic] £9.99
    The Pilo Family Circus [unsigned hardcover novel by Will Elliot]  £9.99

SLIPCASED

    Where or When [signed slipcase collection by Steven Utley]  £12.99
    Random Walk [signed slipcased novel by Lawrence Block]  £12.99
    The Pilo Family Circus [signed slipcased novel by Will Elliot]  £12.99
    Cage of Night [signed slipcased novel by Ed Gorman] £12.99

http://www.pspublishing.co.uk/

Winter resident Tony Thorne three collections of speculative stories, set in and around the magical Spanish island of Tenerife, are seeking a publisher/printer in Spain. The first English language book was published in the USA by the Whortleberry Press, and in Europe by Etcetera Press.  English Paperback and Kindle eBook copies of all three volumes are available now from Amazon, and other outlets.

         Volume 1    Volume 2     Volume 3              The Author   
            Pic1          Pic 2              Pic 3                     Pic 4
 
INTRODUCTION by Harry Harrison:  “Tony Thorne has the mind of a scientist and the soul of an artist.  His science and technology are correct, his extrapolations wonderful and ingenious. But then – surprise!  A blackness may descend – or a brilliant flash of black humour.  Read and enjoy…”  Harry Harrison is the legendary American author of more than 20 novels, several film scripts, and many collections of short stories.  His books have been translated into over 30 languages.
 
Tony‘s first volume in his TENERIFE TALL TALES trilogy, won a New York `Best Read on the Beach´ Festival Contest in the Science Fiction category. Review copies of the next two volumes in the series, entitled MORE TENERIFE TALL TALES, and EVEN MORE TENERIFE TALL TALES are now available directly from the author via his website.
 
Volume 1 Review by Rhetta Akamatsu, USA - “An exotic island, one of the Canary Islands, Tenerife certainly seems like an appropriate place for adventure. And when a scientist and design engineer with a taste for Science Fiction decides to set his speculative tall tales there, amazing adventures do, indeed, ensue. Set, for the most part, in the near future, the tales use very believable twists on emergent technology, sometimes ours and sometimes possibly from some other place entirely.  What Thorne creates in Tenerife is a world where the reader never knows what to expect under the sea, in caves, on the land and in the air. The island becomes, in various tales, a land where animals act as intelligently as humans, where attempts to handle environmental issues have very unexpected results, where exotic locations and experimental science create sometimes dark, sometimes humorous, and always amazing and utterly intriguing results.  Tony Thorne's grasp of the science that looms just over the horizon and his love for Science Fiction come together, in these stories, to create speculative fiction of the very best kind.”
 
Website:  www.tonythorne.com