2010: A Who Odyssey

My Favorite Books

I'm interviewed at My Favorite Books today. Here's a taste:

Lately, I've been acquiring titles that I am thinking of as "post-steampunk," or rather, steampunk that has migrated out of Victorian settings into fantasy, urban fantasy, and other alternate historical settings. We'll have books in this category out in 2010 from Adrian Tchaikovsky, Mike Resick, Tim Akers, George Mann and the writing team of Clay and Susan Griffith.

Those aren't post steampunk covers pictures. I just like the art.

Time, Unincorporated

Presenting: Time, Unincorporated 2: The Doctor Who Fanzine Archives: (Vol. 2: Writings on the Classic Series)

Which includes:  Me, pontificating on the dark side of the Doctor.

Here's the book synopsis from Mad Norwegian Press (why is he mad?):

In Time, Unincorporated, the best essays and commentary from a range of Doctor Who fanzines are collected and here made available to a wider audience. In spirit, this series picks up the torch from Virgin's Licence Denied collection (1997), concentrating some of the most delightful, insightful and strange writings on Doctor Who into a single source.

Volume 2 of this series contains nearly 75 essays that examine every era of the classic Doctor Who series that ran from 1963-1989, as well as the FOX TV movie (1996). The essays stem from a wide array of venerable fanzines such as Enlightenment, Shockeye's Kitchen, Burnt Toast, Faze, Dark Circus, The Whostorian and more. Collectively, the essays derived from these sources form one of the most diverse compilations of Doctor Who writing ever produced.

As a bonus, ten of the essays were written exclusively for this volume by the likes of Matt Jones (Doctor Who, Torchwood), Simon Guerrier (The Slitheen Excursion), Pyr Books editorial director Lou Anders, and Jim Sangster (TV Heaven).

Swords & Dark Magic - Table of Contents

As promised, the Table of Contents for

Swords & Dark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery

edited by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders

coming June 22, 2010

from Harper Eos

"Introduction: Check Your Dark Lord at the Door" - Lou Anders & Jonathan Strahan
"Goats of Glory" - Steven Erikson
"Tides Elba: A Tale of the Black Company" - Glen Cook
"Bloodsport" - Gene Wolfe
"The Singing Spear" - James Enge
"A Wizard of Wiscezan" - C.J. Cherryh
"A Rich Full Week" - K. J. Parker
"A Suitable Present for a Sorcerous Puppet" - Garth Nix
"Red Pearls: An Elric Story" - Michael Moorcock
"The Deification of Dal Bamore" - Tim Lebbon
"Dark Times at the Midnight Market" - Robert Silverberg
"The Undefiled" - Greg Keyes
"Hew the Tint Master" - Michael Shea  
"In the Stacks" - Scott Lynch
"Two Lions, A Witch, and the War-Robe" - Tanith Lee
"The Sea Troll's Daughter" - Caitlin R Kiernan
"Thieves of Daring" - Bill Willingham
"The Fool Jobs" - Joe Abercrombie

Limited coming from Subterranean Press too.

The Man Behind the Magic

AgeofMisrule and forthcoming The Silver Skull (Swords of Albion)author Mark Chadbourn is the latest guest on Shaun Farrell's magnificent podcast, Adventures in SciFi Publishing. Mark and Shaun discuss spy-fantasy, Mark’s love of history and mythology, and how Mark balances a fulltime television career with novel writing demands.

John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats on the Colbert Report

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
John Darnielle
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Michael Moore

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Mountain Goats - Psalms 40:2
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Michael Moore

Story, Story, Story

Fantastic interview with Leonard Nimoy over at SciFiChick.com. I'm particularly struck by this question and response:

How do you feel about the current state of science fiction on TV and film? 

Well, I’m concerned about the positioning of story in terms of importance. When I see a lot of explosions and a lot of chases, I’m not terribly impressed. I think there are three terribly important elements that must be given a priority position in science fiction as well as in any other kind of drama. The first is story, the second is story, and the third is story. Story, story, story, story, story. If the story is compelling and interesting, I think all the rest will find its place.