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Cory Doctorow:

Security in Numbers


» Los Angeles Review of Books: John Clute reviews The Book of Silverberg

» LA Times: Jeff VanderMeer reviews Josh Weil’s The Great Glass Sea

» NY Times: Jeff VanderMeer reviews Edan Lepucki’s California

» David Langford’s Ansible 324

» Washington Post: Michael Dirda on horror and specialty presses

» B&N: Paul Di Filippo reviews Alena Graedon’s The Word Exchange

» BBC interviews Robert J. Sawyer about intelligent machines

» Entertainment Weekly’s latest print issue has a full page spread of the covers in different countries for the three volumes of Jeff VanderMeer’s “Southern Reach” trilogy; VanderMeer’s site links to a Flickr album of these covers

» Boing Boing: Cory Doctorow links to a chat with Jo Walton about her recent books

» Guardian: Keith Brooke reviews Jonathan Strahan’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Eight

» St. Louis Riverfront Times: long profile asking Is Ann Leckie the Next Big Thing in Science Fiction?

» Reviews of Lauren Owen’s The Quick by Andrew Sean Greer in New York Times and Elizabeth Hand in Los Angeles Times

» Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies: Octavia Butler’s fictional religion of ?Earthseed? inspires real religious movement

» Winnipeg Free Press interviews Robert J. Sawyer

» NPR’s Cosmos & Culture blog: Jeff VanderMeer and Karen Joy Fowler discuss Are Trout Too Smart To Eat? And Other Surprising Questions

» NPR’s To the Best of Our Knowledge interviews Jeff VanderMeer about his Southern Reach trilogy, part of an hour-long show also featuring Ursula K. Le Guin and Neil Gaiman

» Ellen Datlow’s photos from KGB readings June 18 with Paul Witcover and Eileen Gunn

» KGB readings July 16th will be by Victor LaValle and Sofia Samatar

» Ellen Datlow’s photos from the Lucius Shepard memorial and celebration at KGB bar

» A new PKD site: Philip K. Dick in the OC; with a Facebook page

» B&N: Paul Di Filippo reviews William H. Patterson, Jr.’s Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century

» Washington Post: Nancy Hightower reviews Genevieve Valentine, Emmi Itäranta, Mark Lawrence

» Huffington Post’s “Books That Grow With You” includes this post about Lloyd Alexander’s The Chronicles of Prydain

» Guardian: Eric Brown reviews Claire North, Nnedi Okorafor, James Lovegrove, Neil Williamson, Sarah Lotz

» Christian Science Monitor’s 15 classic science fiction books (mostly the usual suspects)

» Slate: Phil Plait and John Scalzi singing Danke Schön

» KGB Bar will host a Celebration of the Work of Lucius Shepard, June 15 at 7pm, with Ellen Datlow, Robert Killheffer, Laird Barron, John Langan, and others

» Events at Borderlands Books in San Francisco this month and next include Jane Lindskold, Greg van Eekhout, Jo Walton, James S.A. Corey, Juliet Blackwell, MP Johnson, and Richard Lupoff

» B&N: Michael Dirda reviews Edwin A. Abbott’s Flatland, comparing it to Koestler, Orwell, and Burgess

» Mythic Delirium’s June content is now online

» David Langford’s Ansible 323

» B&N: Paul Di Filippo reviews Alan Weisman’s Countdown and reviews new novels by Jo Walton and Mary Rickert

» B&N: Colin Fleming reviews Clark Ashton Smith

» Ellen Datlow’s photos from KGB reading May 21 with Laird Barron and Paul Tremblay

» New York Times Book Review: long review by N.K. Jemisin of titles by Jeff VanderMeer, Chris Beckett, Jo Walton, Marie Brennan, and Daniel Price

» KGB‘s reading June 18th is with Paul Witcover and Eileen Gunn












   
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Tue 22 Jul 10:23 am

Writer Thomas Berger, 89, died July 13, 2014 at a hospital in Nyack NY. Berger’s first work of genre interest is “Professor Hyde” (1961), and he i...

Mon 21 Jul 3:48 pm

The recipients of the 2014 Seiun Awards (the Japanese equivalent to the Hugo Awards) for best translated works published last year in Japan are: Be...








New Books : 22 July

Tuesday 22 July 2014  |  Monitor

Ben Bova's New Frontiers, literary fantasies by Andrei Bitov and Sharona Muir, and other titles by Gwynne, Nevill, Niven/Mandell/Lam, Oreskes & Conway, Sklar & Avery, and Sweterlitsch

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 21 July 2014  |  Monitor

New titles by Terry Brooks and Edan Lepucki debut.

K.W. Jeter: Rockin' in the Steampunk World

Sunday 20 July 2014  |  Perspectives

k.w. jeter
Excerpts from Locus Magazine's July Issue interview

I read a lot of people's blog posts and things, friends of mine, when they came home from San Antonio. Of course they had a great time, but people were saying, 'Gosh, it seems like everybody was so old.' I said, 'Go to a steampunk convention, because that skews way younger.' A lot of the wildness makes some dismiss it as just people running around with goggles on their top hats and corsets on the outside of their dresses. But it's also this anarchic approach to history.

Periodicals: mid-July

Saturday 19 July 2014  |  Monitor

New issues of Analog, Asimov's, Aurealis, and Perihelion

Paul Di Filippo reviews Scott Nicolay and Rhys Hughes

Friday 18 July 2014  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Thank goodness that so many fine and bold small presses have stepped into the breach. They are performing a vital service to the field, and making all us short-story-philes very happy. They deserve our support. Let's look at two such volumes today.

New in Paperback: July

Thursday 17 June 2014  |  Monitor

Charles Stross' Neptune's Brood and other titles by Bova, Dornbusch, Erikson, Gafla, Huso, Jernigan, Kadrey, Mann, Richardson, Ringo, Ryan, Wexler, Williams, and Zahn

Paul Di Filippo reviews Vintage Visions

Wednesday 16 July 2014  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

These sixteen essays all derive from Science Fiction Studies, and appeared from 1976 to 2010, but boast new afterwords. The books they cover date from 1657 (Cyrano de Bergerac) to 1937 (Olaf Stapledon). That's a lot of rewardingly oddball grandparental material.

New Books : 15 July

Tuesday 15 July 2014  |  Monitor

Gardner Dozois' The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-first Annual Collection, Joe Abercrombie's Half a King, Hannu Rajamiemi's The Causal Angel, and titles by Berman, de Castell, Gladstone, Harkness, Holt, Kearney, Turtledove, and Winters

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 14 July 2014  |  Monitor

New titles by Dean Koontz and Ian Doescher debut.

Paul Di Filippo reviews K.J. Parker

Sunday 13 July 2014  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

"Let Maps to Others" is certainly be my favorite piece here. A ironic and blackly humorous account of the rediscovery of a Prester John-style kingdom lost to history involves scholarly rivalry and deceit and royal bull-headedness. It's comic gold where, as in much comedy, the most vile deeds are the funniest.

"Carrying that Weight": A Review of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes


Saturday 12 July 2014  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, properly characterized as the second film in the third series of Apes films, offers a cycle within a single film, as the filmmakers devote two hours of screen time to energetically taking their story back to its starting point. At the beginning of the film, humans and intelligent apes are poised to start fighting, they proceed to fight, and at the end of the film, their issues unresolved, they are poised to start fighting again, only with the promise of bigger and better battles in the next installment.

Periodicals: early July

Friday 11 July 2014  |  Monitor

New issues of Apex, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Clarkesworld, Galaxy's Edge, GigaNotoSaurus, James Gunn's Ad Astra, Kaleidotrope, Lightspeed, Luna Station Quarterly, Mythic Delirium, The New York Review of Science Fiction, Nightmare, and Quantum Muse

Locus Bestsellers, July

Thursday 10 July 2014  |  Magazine

pratchett
Bestsellers from specialty bookstores are led by Terry Pratchett's Raising Steam, George R.R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons, Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice, and titles by Ian Doescher and R.A. Salvatore.

Lois Tilton reviews Short Fiction, early July

Wednesday 9 July 2014  |  Reviews

Reviews of stories in new issues of Clarkesworld, Apex, Unlikely Story, Luna Station Quarterly, and James Gunn's Ad Astra, and of a two-story collection by Peter Grandbois

New Books : 8 July

Tuesday 8 July 2014  |  Monitor

Ellen Datlow's Fearful Symmetries, Edan Lepucki's California, Veronica Roth's Four, Terry Brooks' The High Druid's Blade, and other titles by Currie, Erikson, Green, Herbert, Hodder, Hoover, Jackson, Johansen, and Ouellette

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 7 July 2014  |  Monitor

Forthcoming titles by Veronica Roth and Deborah Harkness are selling at Amazon.

Jeff VanderMeer: South of Reality

Sunday 6 July 2014  |  Perspectives

jeff vandermeer
Excerpts from Locus Magazine's July Issue interview

The other thing that I keep coming up against in my fiction is how people react to something that is inexplicable. We're living on an alien planet to begin with, because we don't even know this world that we are, in effect, colonizing, and subjecting to our will all the time. I really, truly believe that in order to survive as a species (and this is a very science-fictional theory), we need to be able to imagine the world without us in it.

New Books : 5 July

Saturday 5 July 2014  |  Monitor

Thomas Ligotti's The Spectral Link, a book of Ligotti interviews, and other late-June/early-July titles by Blaylock, Cormick, Guran, Johnson, Jones, Kendall, Koontz, Millet, Moore, and Weil

Locus Magazine's New & Notable Books, July

Friday 4 July 2014  |  Magazine

July New and Notable books include Hayley Campbell's The Art of Neil Gaiman and other titles by Adams, Bear & Dozois, Britain, Cargill, Cornell, Datlow, Horton, Johnson, Kelly, Morrow, Patterson, Strahan, VanderMeer, and Walton.

Cory Doctorow: Security in Numbers

Thursday 3 July 2014  |  Perspectives

cory doctorow
From Locus Magazine's July Issue.

There's good news in the Snowden story, and its longevity. The wider public seems to finally give a damn about security and privacy, topics that have been hopelessly esoteric and nerdy until this moment. It makes a huge difference in all kinds of policy questions.

New Books : 2 July

Wednesday 2 July 2014  |  Monitor

Tobias S. Buckell's Hurricane Fever, Paul Park's All Those Vanished Engines, Charles Stross' The Rhesus Chart, and other early-July titles from Ace, Baen, DAW, Roc, and Tor by Ambrose, Cheney, Correia, Gibson, Hickman & Hickman, Kratman, Palmatier, Philip, Rowland, Ryan, Schultz, Shepherd, Wexler, and White

July Issue Table of Contents

Tuesday 1 July 2014  |  Magazine

july issue
The July issue features interviews with authors Jeff VanderMeer and K.W. Jeter, a new column by Cory Doctorow, obituaries of Jay Lake and Daniel Keyes, complete Locus Awards winners and poll results, spotlights on agents Joshua Bilmes and Ginger Clark, and reviews of short fiction and books by Gardner Dozois, Sheila Finch, William H. Patterson, Jr., Thomas Ligotti, Jim Butcher, and many others.

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 30 June 2014  |  Monitor

George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois' anthology Rogues debuts on three lists.

Lois Tilton reviews Short Fiction, late June

Sunday 29 June 2014  |  Reviews

Reviews of stories from Jonathan Strahan's anthology Reach for Infinity and from Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Strange Horizons, and Tor.com, with recommendations of stories by Ian McDonald, Karl Schroeder, Stephen Case, JY Yang, and Yoon Ha Lee

Periodicals: late June

Saturday 14 June 2014  |  Monitor

New issues of Aurealis and Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and what's new this month at Daily SF, Strange Horizons, and Tor.com

New Books : June Supplemental

Friday 27 June 2014  |  Monitor

S.T. Joshi's anthology Searchers After Horror, an illustrated edition of Neil Gaiman's novelette The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains, and titles by Asher, Horn, Kelly, Underwood, Valentine, and Webb

Classic Reprints: May

Thursday 26 June 2014  |  Monitor

A new translation of Arkady & Boris Strugatsky's Hard to Be a God, and new editions of titles by Burroughs, Dick, Hamilton, Ings, James, Moorcock, Pohl, and Sturgeon

Adrienne Martini reviews Tim Pratt

Wednesday 25 June 2014  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's June 2014 issue

Tim Pratt's writing just keeps getting better and better. In Heirs of Grace, his voice feels dialed in. The writing is tight and sassy without wasting one word — and he makes it seem easy.

New Books : 24 June

Tuesday 24 June 2014  |  Monitor

Octavia E. Butler's (previously unpublished) Unexpected Stories, Neil Gaiman & Adam Rex's Chu's First Day of School, and titles by Dellamonica, Martin, Molles, Pillsworth, and Sapkowski

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 23 June 2014  |  Monitor

Diana Gabaldon's Written in My Own Heart's Blood debuts strongly.

Eileen Gunn: Other Lands

Sunday 22 June 2014  |  Perspectives

eileen gunn
Excerpts from Locus Magazine's June Issue interview

All fiction has value, whether it's science fiction or not. It helps people deal with their lives in the present, helps them understand their own emotions and the emotions of people around them. All fiction can take you to other lands, and introduce you to people whose lives and struggles and opinions you can't even imagine until you read their stories.

Paul Di Filippo reviews Green Planets

Saturday 21 June 2014  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

In this era of climate change, when the very fate of the biosphere — and consequently the fate of our species — is up for debate, it's more important than ever that SF exert its intelligence on the ecologies we inhabit. This is precisely the intention and accomplishment of Green Planets, another of the typically outstanding genre-connected critical works from Wesleyan University Press.

Lois Tilton reviews Short Fiction, mid-June

Friday 20 June 2014  |  Reviews

Reviews of new issues of Asimov's, Analog, Clarkesworld, and Apex, with recommendations of stories by Jacob A. Boyd, Robert Reed, and Crystal Lynn Hilbert

New in Paperback: June

Thursday 19 June 2014  |  Monitor

Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Stephen King's Doctor Sleep, Kim Stanley Robinson's Shaman, Cory Doctorow's Homeland, and titles by Ambrose, Barnes, Correia, Davidson, Green, Hoyt, Jackson, Koontz, Lackey, Lawrence, Niven & Harrington, Planck, Turtledove, Wheeler, and White

Paul Di Filippo reviews Laline Paull

Wednesday 18 June 2014  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

What Laline Paull has accomplished here is multivalent: a rumination on nature; a portrait of the struggle between individual and the stifling matrix of society; and a depiction of how humanity might organize itself along different lines. I'd call it, in the end, science fiction at its best.

New Books : 17 June

Tuesday 17 June 2014  |  Monitor

James S.A. Corey's Cibola Burn, Martin & Dozois' anthology Rogues, and titles by Evans, Gabaldon, Hearne, Klaus, Owen, Pehov, Pratchett & Baxter, Pratt, Remic, and Wilson

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 16 June 2014  |  Monitor

Stephen King's Mr. Mercedes and Laurell K. Hamilton's A Shiver of Light debut strongly.

Kameron Hurley: Making Excuses for Science Fiction

Sunday 15 June 2014  |  Perspectives

kameron hurley
From Locus Magazine's June Issue.

The most dangerous lie we tell ourselves is that writing novels shouldn't feel like a job. It encourages younger and newer writers to work for little or no pay. It convinces those with a book or two under their belt that there's something wrong with them when the writing is no longer fun all the time. Worst of all, when we hit bumps along the road, we're convinced we're the only ones to feel this type of burnout, and that there's something wrong with us because of it.

Periodicals: early to mid-June

Saturday 14 June 2014  |  Monitor

New issues of Analog, Apex, Asimov's, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Clarkesworld, GigaNotoSaurus, Intergalactic Medicine Show, Lightspeed, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Neo-Opsis, The New York Review of Science Fiction, Nightmare, Perihelion, and Quantum Muse

Faren Miller reviews Lauren Owen

Friday 13 June 2014  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's June 2014 issue

Early in Lauren Owen's first novel The Quick, library scenes help establish the narrative tone. Evidently splendid tomes, "delicious-smelling volumes," line the shelves of Owen's library...

Locus Bestsellers, June

Thursday 12 June 2014  |  Magazine

sanderson
Bestsellers from specialty bookstores are led by Brandon Sanderson's Words of Radiance, John Scalzi's The Human Division, John Scalzi's Redshirts, and titles by Greg Cox and R.A. Salvatore

Paul Di Filippo reviews James Morrow

Wednesday 11 June 2014  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

What is surprising is its relative brevity, its light-hearted zip, and its rollicking comic tone, compared to the gravitas and black, piercingly satirical humor of his other books. Which is not to say that Morrow's central theme of the role of religion in humanity's affairs is absent.

New Books : 10 June

Tuesday 10 June 2014  |  Monitor

James Morrow's The Madonna and the Starship, Rich Horton's The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy: 2014 Edition, and titles by Card & Johnston, Carey, Itäranta, Johansen, Mann, McCammon, McCleary, McMann, O'Kane, Shea, and Van Eekhout

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 9 June 2014  |  Monitor

Jim Butcher's Skin Game debuts at #1 on three lists.

Lois Tilton reviews Short Fiction, early June

Sunday 8 June 2014  |  Reviews

Reviews of new issues of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and Interzone, with recommendations of stories by Paul M. Berger and Spencer Ellsworth

"If You Get It Wrong, You'll Get It Right Next Time": A Review of Edge of Tomorrow


Saturday 7 June 2014  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Edge of Tomorrow is a film about people who have a job to do (defeating aliens), and they do it very well; and it was made by people who had a job to do (making a successful film), and they did it very well. And if someone responds that such films are not genuine works of art, since they are failing to comment on the human condition, perhaps they are wrong.

Locus Magazine's Forthcoming Books: Selected Titles through March 2015

Friday 6 June 2014  |  Resources

Titles from Locus Magazine's June issue listings of Selected Forthcoming Books by Author are arranged here by month.

Joe Abercrombie: Fiction on the Edge

Thursday 5 June 2014  |  Perspectives

joe abercrombie
Excerpts from Locus Magazine's June Issue interview

There's no right way to do anything, particularly. There's a way that feels right to you as a writer with a certain story. I never feel like anything I do is a manifesto of how it should be done. It's healthy that we’ve got a bit more edge, a bit more range, in epic fantasy now. There's no shortage of stuff that's quite traditional if that's your bag.

Locus Magazine's New & Notable Books, June

Wednesday 4 June 2014  |  Magazine

June New and Notable books include Elizabeth Bear's Steles of the Sky and titles by Benford & Niven, Burnham, Davidson, de Lint, Dozois & Schafer, Gilman, Moore, Riopelle, Strahan, Tan, Taylor, Vance, and Wolverton.

New Books : 3 June

Tuesday 3 June 2014  |  Monitor

Stephen King's crime thriller Mr. Mercedes, the 2nd volume of William H. Patterson, Jr.'s biography of Robert A. Heinlein, Ellen Datlow's The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Six, The Art of John Harris, the US edition of Alastair Reynolds' On the Steel Breeze, and other titles by Anderson, Bova & Johnson, Flint & Gannon, Green, Hairston, Hamilton, Haydon, Hodgell, Irvine, Lackey, Lawrence, Moyer, Pratchett & Stewart & Cohen, Ross, Salyards, Shufeldt, Ware, and Williams

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 2 June 2014  |  Monitor

J.R.R. Tolkien's Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary ranks on two print lists.

June Issue Table of Contents

Sunday 1 June 2014  |  Magazine

june issue
The June issue features interviews with authors Joe Abercrombie and Eileen Gunn, lists of forthcoming books through March 2015, publishing and awards news, a new column by Kameron Hurley, and reviews of short fiction and books by Jonathan Strahan, C. Robert Cargill, Robert Reed, Larissa Brown, Rich Horton, and many others.

New Books : May Supplemental

Saturday 31 May 2014  |  Monitor

Anthologies Multiverse: Exploring Poul Anderson's Worlds and The Book of Silverberg, Alena Graedon's The Word Exchange, Laline Paull's The Bees, and titles by Church, de Lint, Denton, Flint & Gannon, Fox, Fox & Older, Moore, Nix & Williams, Schoen, Thomas, and Williams

Lois Tilton reviews Short Fiction, late May

Friday 30 May 2014  |  Reviews

Reviews of stories from Interzone, Tor.com, Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Apex, with recommendations of works by Anna Tambour, Genevieve Valentine, E. Catherine Tobler, Caroline M. Yoachim, and E. Saxey

Periodicals: late May

Thursday 29 May 2014  |  Monitor

New issues of Bastion, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Black Static, Interzone, Shimmer, and Weird Tales, plus this month's content at Daily SF, Tor.com, and Strange Horizons

Gary K. Wolfe reviews Nnedi Okorafor

Wednesday 28 May 2014  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's May 2014 issue

When it was first announced that Nnedi Okorafor's new novel Lagoon would be an alien invasion story set mostly in Lagos, Nigeria, I imagine I'm not the only one who suspected the tone of the book might well be along the lines of "District 9, take that!"

New Books : 27 May

Tuesday 27 May 2014  |  Monitor

J.R.R. Tolkien's Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, Jonathan Strahan's anthology Reach for Infinity, popular titles by Jim Butcher and Cassandra Clare, and other titles by Archer, Coates, Douglas, Durst, Lindskold, Moon, Pettersson, Waggoner, and Zettel

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 26 May 2014  |  Monitor

Cassandra Clare's City of Heavenly Fire and Jim Butcher's Skin Game both rank high on Amazon lists.

Cynthia Ward reviews Melissa Scott

Sunday 25 May 2014  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Melissa Scott's new novel, Fairs' Point, is the most recent book in the Astreiant series. The Astreiant books are police procedurals, but with a difference: they're set in a secondary world in which alchemy, necromancy, and astrology are working sciences.

New UK Books : April - May

Saturday 24 May 2014  |  Monitor

Nnedi Okorafor's Lagoon and titles by Brown, Hardinge, Heitz, Mamatas, Pinborough, and Watson

Faren Miller reviews Robin Riopelle

Friday 23 May 2014  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's May 2014 issue

Deadroads is a Novel of Supernatural Suspense with elements of the Western's quest, showdown, and vengeance... Riopelle knows what she's doing.

Classic Reprints: May

Thursday 22 May 2014  |  Monitor

A third volume of Kurt Vonnegut novels from Library of America and new editions of Robert Silverberg's anthology Science Fiction: 101 and titles by Benford, Blish, Cook, Dick, Norton, and Sakurazaka

Paul Di Filippo reviews Stephen Baker

Wednesday 21 May 2014  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

In the case of Stephen Baker's debut novel, The Boost, whose focal trope is that of brain implants, the impetus for tackling this bit of standard cyberpunk gear — again, used nowadays mostly as off-the-shelf background hardware — is not, I believe, technical progress, but social and cultural events.

New Books : 20 May

Tuesday 20 May 2014  |  Monitor

Jo Walton's My Real Children, Jonathan Strahan's The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Eight, Kij Johnson's Nebula Awards Showcase 2014, and titles by Baker, Campbell, Canavan, Cornell, Dalglish, Evan Garriott et al, Hirshberg, Modesitt, Scott, and Wu

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 19 May 2014  |  Monitor

Titles by Charlaine Harris, Kristen Britain, and Jeff VanderMeer debut.

Lois Tilton reviews Short Fiction, mid-May

Sunday 18 May 2014  |  Reviews

Reviews of stories from new anthology Rogues, edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, and from second issue of new electronic 'zine Bastion

"Dinosaur Train Wreck": A Review of Godzilla


Saturday 17 May 2014  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Why is it that American filmmakers, blessed with enormous financial resources, state-of-the-art special effects, and long experience in making successful films, have been consistently unable to make a good Godzilla film, a skill long ago mastered by the Japanese?

New in Paperback: May

Friday 16 May 2014  |  Monitor

The Best of Connie Willis, Brandon Sanderson's The Rithmatist, and titles by Campbell, Card & Johnston, Eggers, Flint & Spoor, Karpyshyn, Moon, Weber, and Wellington

Periodicals: mid-May

Thursday 15 May 2014  |  Monitor

New issues of Apex, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Galaxy's Edge, Jupiter, Lightspeed, Nightmare, On Spec, and Perihelion

Gary K. Wolfe reviews Mary Rickert

Wednesday 14 May 2014  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's May 2014 issue

It may be that love has always been Rickert's major theme, and while it sometimes goes off the rails in decidedly creepy ways in her short fiction, it's never treated cynically, and it's never without real power. That power is what finally drives The Memory Garden...

New Books : 13 May

Tuesday 13 May 2014  |  Monitor

Mary Rickert's first novel The Memory Garden, anthologies from John Joseph Adams and Paula Guran, and novels by Cargill, Malerman, Marmell, McIntosh, Painter, and Wellington

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 12 May 2014  |  Monitor

Christopher Moore's The Serpent of Venice ranks in the top 10 on two lists.

George Saunders: Irrational Skills

Sunday 11 May 2014  |  Perspectives

george saunders
Excerpts from Locus Magazine's May Issue interview

What we want in art is to have something go in a way we don't expect, that isn't random, that builds on what we expected, and goes beyond. There's something delicious about that. There's no purpose in it, except the thrill. ... What my students are really training to do is to be that tiny percentage of the population that can actually thrill you with a narrative. That's almost like being a musician or an athlete. It's an irrational or a super-irrational skill set.”

Locus Bestsellers, May

Saturday 10 May 2014  |  Magazine

andy weir
Bestsellers from specialty bookstores are led by Andy Weir's The Martian, Patricia Briggs' Frost Burned, Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation, and titles by Kirsten Beyer and R.A. Salvatore

Paul Di Filippo reviews John C. Wright

Friday 9 May 2014  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

In this installment of his far-future adventure Wright tries something daring which I'm not certain is a complete success. The entire action of the story takes place in the cloistered environment of the Tombs or, towards the conclusion, on the nearby surface. There's no large canvas, no zipping back and forth among stars and down the centuries, as we have come to expect.

Locus Magazine's New & Notable Books, May

Thursday 8 May 2014  |  Magazine

May New and Notable books include Peter Higgins' Truth and Fear and titles by Brennan, Datlow, Elliott, Gregory, Gunn, Pratchett, Priest, Schroeder, Steele, and VanderMeer & VanderMeer

Lois Tilton reviews Short Fiction, early May

Wednesday 7 May 2014  |  Reviews

Reviews of stories from Analog, Asimov's, Clarkesworld, and The Dark, with recommendedations of works by Timons Esaias, Alexander Jablokov, E. Catherine Tobler, and S.L. Gilbow

New Books : 6 May

Tuesday 6 May 2014  |  Monitor

Jeff VanderMeer's Authority, Karen Burnham's Greg Egan, and titles by Anderson, Asher, Britain, Campbell, Clarke, Colebatch & Fox, Doyle, Drake, Fletcher, Harris, Hendee, Hulick, Kenemore, Koch, Martinez, McGuire, Raughley, Saulter, Scott, Swann, Ventresca, and Willrich

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 5 May 2014  |  Monitor

Christopher Moore's The Serpent of Venice debuts on four lists.

Kathleen Ann Goonan: Designing the Future

Sunday 4 May 2014  |  Perspectives

kathleen ann goonan
Excerpts from Locus Magazine's May Issue interview

At Georgia Tech, the students' minds are prepared for science fiction because it's one of the top engineering schools in the world. The students' enthusiasm regenerated my interest in science fiction — its history, its long-running conversation, its boldness in bringing important issues to life.

Periodicals: early May

Saturday 3 May 2014  |  Monitor

New issues of Analog, Asimov's, Aurealis, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Clarkesworld, GigaNotoSaurus, The New York Review of Science Fiction, Quantum Muse, and Star*Line

Cory Doctorow: How to Talk to Your Children About Mass Surveillance

Friday 2 May 2014  |  Perspectives

cory doctorow
From Locus Magazine's May Issue.

I explained to my daughter that there was a man who was a spy, who discovered that the spies he worked for were breaking the law and spying on everyone, capturing all their e-mails and texts and video-chats and web-clicks. My daughter has figured out how to use a laptop, phone, or tablet to peck out a message to her grandparents... When I told her that the spies were spying on everything, she had some context for it.

May Issue Table of Contents

Thursday 1 May 2014  |  Magazine

may issue
The May issue features interviews with authors Kathleen Ann Goonan and George Saunders, lots of publishing news, a new column by Cory Doctorow, an obituary and appreciations of Lucius Shepard, and reviews of short fiction and books by Jo Walton, Jeff VanderMeer, Robert Reed, Steve Rasnic Tem, Shaun Tan, and many others.

Gary K. Wolfe reviews Simon Ings

Wednesday 30 April 2014  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's April 2014 issue

While it's easy to read the headlong future of the novel as apocalyptic, Wolves is a good deal more complex than that, and its balance of an almost ruthless insight into character with speculations on the technology of perception calls to mind few other writers, perhaps M. John Harrison most closely.

New Books : 29 April

Tuesday 29 April 2014  |  Monitor

The US edition of Shaun Tan's picture book Rules of Summer, plus titles by Aguirre, Chan, de Pierres, Kowal, Ochse, Posey, Rawn, Sebold, and Sparks

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 28 April 2014  |  Monitor

Brandon Sanderson's Words of Radiance is the highest ranking adult genre hardcover this week.

Lois Tilton reviews Short Fiction, late April

Sunday 27 April 2014  |  Reviews

Reviews of stories from Lightspeed, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Tor.com, and Strange Horizons, with recommendedations of works by Carmen Maria Machado, Alex Dally MacFarlane, Malcolm Cross, Kai Ashante Wilson, and Dale Bailey

New UK Books : March - April

Saturday 26 April 2014  |  Monitor

David Wingrove's The Empire of Time and titles by Alder, Clarke, Dalton, Fforde, Fowler, Gwynne, Patrick, Saulter, and Torday

Periodicals: late April

Friday 25 April 2014  |  Monitor

New issues of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Subterranean, plus this month's new content at Tor.com and Strange Horizons

New Books : April Supplemental

Thursday 24 April 2014  |  Monitor

Gregory Benford's The Galactic Center Companion and titles by Adams & Howey, Finch, Harte, Lackey & Martin, Maas, and Moore

Russell Letson reviews Daryl Gregory

Wednesday 23 April 2014  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's April 2014 issue

This is a real science-fiction crime thriller: the old evils and insanities are all there, given new twists by the double-edged blades of science and technology. And, like the best crime and SF novels, those moral and philosophical questions linger, after the mere whodunnit puzzles have been solved.

New Books : 22 April

Tuesday 22 April 2014  |  Monitor

Daryl Gregory's Afterparty, David Ramirez's The Forever Watch, a posthumous novel by Dianna Wynne Jones, and titles by Bach, Lackey & Edghill, Lukyanenko, Moore, Newman, Powell, and Trahan

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 21 April 2014  |  Monitor

David Weber & Eric Flint's Cauldron of Ghosts and Laini Taylor's Dreams of Gods & Monsters debut on lists.

New in Paperback: April

Sunday 20 April 2014  |  Monitor

Guy Gavriel Kay's River of Stars, Robert J. Sawyer's Red Planet Blues, and titles by Cherryh, Daniel & Drake, Harris, Knight, Kowal, Marco, Modesitt, and Rawn

"The Colossus of Northern California": A Review of Transcendence


Saturday 19 April 2014  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

I can quickly say that Transcendence passed the Westfahl test for successful entertainment — I never looked at my watch — and it could be briefly described as a polished redaction of a familiar science fiction trope, the harmful results of separating the human mind from the human body. This venerable cautionary tale is founded on assumptions about human nature that are at best medieval: the brain provides our reasoning ability, while the body is the source of our emotions.

Classic Reprints: April

Friday 18 April 2014  |  Monitor

A new collection of early work by Jack Vance, SF Gateway omnibuses by Burroughs, Compton, and Cooper, and other titles by Chandler, Jordan, and Lumley

Lois Tilton reviews Short Fiction, mid-April

Thursday 17 April 2014  |  Reviews

Reviews of stories in new issues of Subterranean, F&SF, and Kaleidotrope

Paul Di Filippo reviews Robert Moore Williams

Wednesday 16 April 2014  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Sometimes reading these humus authors delivers a certain kind of modest, unique pleasure otherwise unobtainable. With them, you don't confront the pressure of being worthy of their masterpieces. They labored in quiet and without expectations or constraints, rewarded so long as they delivered on time. ... By any standard, the forgotten Robert Moore Williams was one such figure.

New Books : 15 April

Tuesday 15 April 2014  |  Monitor

Hal Duncan's Rhapsody: Notes on Strange Fictions, essays on ecology and SF edited by Gerry Canavan & Kim Stanley Robinson, Ellen Datlow's Lovecraft's Monsters, The Art of Ian Miller, and novels by Asher, Bova, Cameron, Davidson, Edwards, Riopelle, and Sullivan

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 14 April 2014  |  Monitor

Ian Doescher's Williams Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back ranks on three lists.

Amish: Humility of a Witness

Sunday 13 April 2014  |  Perspectives

amish
Excerpts from Locus Magazine's April Issue interview

My book was rejected by every publisher I sent it to. One publisher explained in very clear terms why the book had no hope. ... So I'm self-published.

Periodicals: mid-April

Saturday 12 April 2014  |  Monitor

New issues of Aurealis, Kaleidotrope, Mythic Delirium (the final print issue), The New York Review of Science Fiction, and Perihelion

Tim Pratt reviews Alan DeNiro

Friday 11 April 2014  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's April 2014 issue

DeNiro never over-explains, and we rarely learn more about the strange worlds he shows us than what the viewpoint characters know or bother to speculate about, and since angels with flying guns, telepathic aliens, and immense monsters that eat mountains are all everyday occurrences for those characters, there's plenty of ambiguity and unexplained strangeness.

Locus Bestsellers, April

Thursday 10 April 2014  |  Magazine

le modesitt
Bestsellers from specialty bookstores are led by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.'s Rex Regis, George R.R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, and titles by Dayton Ward and Oliver Bowden.

Paul Di Filippo reviews Robert Buettner

Wednesday 9 April 2014  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Buettner carries forward nobly a kind of core SF tale pioneered by writers such as Anderson, Gordon Dickson, Christopher Anvil, James Schmitz, and C. J. Cherryh, offering entertainment aplenty with thoughtful meditations on how humanity can get along with itself — or not!

New Books : 8 April

Tuesday 8 April 2014  |  Monitor

US editions of Christopher Priest's The Adjacent and Pratchett & Briggs' Turtle Recall, Benford & Niven's Shipstar, Laini Taylor's Dreams of Gods & Monsters, and other titles by Armstrong, Bear, Buettner, Jones, Lebbon, Reese, Shepherd, Weber & Flint, and Wilson & Adams

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 7 April 2014  |  Monitor

Split mass market editions of Stephen King's Under the Dome debut.

Lois Tilton reviews Short Fiction, early April

Sunday 6 April 2014  |  Reviews

Reviews of stories in new issues of Asimov's, Analog, Clarkesworld, and Apex Magazine

Periodicals: early April

Saturday 5 April 2014  |  Monitor

New issues of Abyss & Apex, Analog, Apex, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Clarkesworld, GigaNotoSaurus, Intergalactic Medicine Show, Interzone, Lightspeed, Mythic Delirium, Nightmare, and Quantum Muse

Locus Magazine's New & Notable Books, April

Friday 4 April 2014  |  Magazine

April New and Notable books include Robert Reed's The Memory of Sky, collections by Adam-Troy Castro and Pen Peek, and other novels by Carson, Lafferty, McDonald, Sanderson, Tierney, Weber, and Williams

Daryl Gregory: The Numinous

Thursday 3 April 2014  |  Perspectives

daryl gregory
Excerpts from Locus Magazine's April Issue interview

When you grow up in a religion like I did, there are some people you believe are better off — become better people — once they've 'found Jesus,' because of this belief system. Why would you want to take that away from them? In science fiction, of course, we would argue that you need a life without any illusions because that's the stronger choice, but I wanted to have it both ways in the book.

New Books : 2 April

Wednesday 2 April 2014  |  Monitor

Hal Duncan's collection Scruffians!, the first US edition of Chris Beckett's Clarke Award winner Dark Eden, and titles by Addison, Ahlborn, Benulis, Cherryh, Fisher, Flewelling, Gilman, Harris & Kelner, Hughes, Jensen, Kenyon, Knight, Martin, Monk, Schoon, and Takami

April Issue Table of Contents

Tuesday 1 April 2014  |  Magazine

april issue
The April issue features interviews with authors Daryl Gregory and Amish, lots of publishing news, a report about SF in Brazil, a commentary by Kameron Hurley, and reviews of short fiction and books by Simon Ings, Daryl Gregory, Gregory Benford & Larry Niven, Chuck Palahniuk, Seanan McGuire, and many others.



Earlier posts by category:
Monitor | Reviews | Perspectives | Magazine

Earlier posts by month:
2014: March | February | January

2013: December | November | October | September | August | July | June | May | April | March | February | January

2012: December | November | October | September | August | July | June | May | April | March | February | January

2011: December | November | October | September | August | July | June | May | April | March | February | January

2010: December | November | October | September | August | July | June




July 2014

Jeff VanderMeer
K.W. Jeter
Cory Doctorow
Jay Lake
Daniel Keyes

Mailed 30 June 2014


july cover




Locus seeks InternsDigital Editions available



Daryl Gregory and James Morrow in Conversation

Thu 17 Jul

Daryl Gregory: We?re having this conversation by email, but I?m going to pretend we?re sitting in a bar. Even though we live in the same town, and not even a very big one?that?s State College, Pennsylvania, for you readers?I think we see each other more often in other cities, at cons. Is that sad...
Karen Haber Guest Post–”My First”

Wed 09 Jul

You always remember your first time. My first short story — “Madre de Dios” — came about through what might be called an act of spousal self-defense, although he wasn’t quite my spouse at the time. It was 1986. I had just moved to the SF Bay Area. After a decade of working as a journalist?a newsp...





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