Here’s a sf/f/h book-related meme for a lazy Saturday…
For EACH of the following questions, name 1 or more science fiction, fantasy or horror book titles…
- The last sf/f/h book I read and enjoyed was:
- The last sf/f/h book I read and did not enjoy was:
- A sf/f/h book that I would recommend to new sf/f/h readers is:
- A sf/f/h book that I would recommend to seasoned sf/f/h readers is:
- The sf/f/h book I most want to read next is:
- My favorite sf/f/h book series includes:
- I will read anything by this sf/f/h author:
- The first sf/f/h book I read was:
- The sf/f/h book I’m most surprised that more people don’t like is:
- The sf/f/h book I’m surprised so many people do like is:
- The most expensive sf/f/h book I own is:
- The number of sf/f/h books I own and have yet to read is:
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Books
And so ends another week of Free Fiction. I’ll be spending today at Keycon 30 in surprisingly-not-frozen Winnipeg, Canada. But as a special treat that’s somewhat akin to having porridge for five days in a row, I’ll leave you with Part 5 of my five part serialization of The Raven’s Head Dagger and the Custom of the Seas.
What’s special about today’s free fiction?
- Daily Science Fiction has a story from Mari Ness
- Books One and Two of the Skye Morrison Vampire Series by J.L. McCoy are free on Amazon
- Freda Warrington‘s Little Goose has five different extracts at five different places as part of her “Gorgeous Grave-throbber” Tour
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Tagged with: Amazon • audio fiction • fiction • free • free ebooks • free fantasy fiction • Free Fiction • free flash fiction • free horror fiction • free science fiction • serialized • serialized fiction
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Free Fiction
The winners of our giveaway for Conservation of Shadows by Yoon Ha Lee have been chosen and notified.
Congratulations to:
- Carolyne B.
- Jeff N.
- Michael H.
- William W.
- Michal K.
You will be receiving your prizes soon!
Thanks to everyone who entered.
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Contest
REVIEW SUMMARY: The May issue of Lightspeed features two new and two reprint stories in both the science fiction and fantasy categories. This review covers the four stories being published for the first time in this issue. In addition to the short fiction, Issue 36 includes feature interviews with authors Karen Russell and Gregory Maguire and cover artist Giuliano Brocani.
MY RATING: 
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The fantastic original fiction offerings in this issue of Lightspeed emphasize relationships set against the backdrop of mythology, end of the world, and parallel universe scenarios.
MY REVIEW:
PROS: Unexpected outcomes; familiar story ideas examined through a new lens; satisfying endings; imaginative world-building.
CONS: The focus on relationships over science fictional or fantastical concepts may not be to every reader’s liking. One of the original works has some potentially disturbing imagery.
BOTTOM LINE: The May 2013 issue of Lightspeed, from an original fiction standpoint, is quite good and comes highly recommended from this reviewer. The authors do not shy away from weighty issues while offering up interesting backgrounds against which they allow their dramas to unfold. As these stories become available on the website it would be a shame to pass them up.
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Book Review • Books
By
Derek | Friday, May 17th, 2013 at
12:29 am
REVIEW SYNOPSIS: Though it starts strongly, the sophomore journey of the fresh-faced crew of the starship Enterprise covers too little new ground.
MY REVIEW: 
SYNOPSIS: When a rogue Starfleet agent attacks a secret archive, Captain James T. Kirk is tasked with hunting him down and terminating him.
MY REVIEW:
PROS: Good opening sequence; strong interaction between Kirk and Spock; good turns by Karl Urban and John Cho.
CONS: Anemic, especially in its revelations; far too derivative of the previous movie; laughable emotional sequences; action scenes that drag on far too long.
Star Trek Into Darkness, director J. J. Abrams’s follow-up to 2009’s Star Trek, is everything its predecessor was, only too much more so. This isn’t necessarily a good thing, though several good things work in its favor. Abrams’s gamble with making over Gene Roddenberry’s classic space opera with a new perspective on a much-beloved universe and fresh faces on seasoned characters reaped a handsome payoff, though astute audience members wondered if he could sustain what often seemed a one-picture trick. They had a right to question how a crop of young actors possibly could play roles so identified with elder thespians that they wove their dramatic tics into the fabric of their characters. Loyal fans, by contrast, knowing the full future history of the United Federation of Planets and the floor plans of the NCC-1701 U.S.S. Enterprise down to the last rivet, expressed honest trepidation at possible revisions to Roddenberry’s timeline, to say nothing of its philosophical underpinnings. The resulting Star Trek was an entertaining if occasionally brainless affair, balancing well the expectations of both a summer movie crowd and faithful Trekkers despite dangling plot lines and scientific rationales bent into configurations that would snap the most pliable rubber.
But it worked even after the novelty wore off, and proffered challenges for a sequel. Could Abrams and company make a follow-up that was less cluttered with the need to make the new timeline work and more focused on the things that made Roddenberry’s utopian vision compelling—namely, character and story?
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Tagged with: Star Trek • Star Trek: Into Darkness
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Movies • Star Trek
Coming in 3 months — It’s SofaCON!
SofaCON is an Online International Science Fiction Convention run by Tony Smith of Starship Sofa.
Join the crew of the Hugo Award winning StarShipSofa, their special guests, and friends from all over the world as a new tradition begins: SofaCON, An Online International Science Fiction Convention. This live, history-making event will focus on those who are creators, scholars, and fans of the best of speculative fiction. Over the years StarShipSofa has brought together a global community of science fiction lovers; it’s time for old and new Sofanauts alike to meet in a real-time, interactive virtual venue to celebrate the genre they love.
Meet stellar authors. Watch exclusive interviews and lectures. Ask questions and offer comments. Enjoy the SF convention experience from the comfort of your home. Don’t miss this inaugural event!
I am also pleased to announce that JP and I will be guests at SofaCON. Stay tuned!
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Events
PleaseDontSuck, pleaseDontSuck, pleaseDontSuck…
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Tagged with: Monsters • Pacific Rim • robots • Trailer
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Movies
Bad days is a web series that shows that life is not always peachy keen just because you have super powers.
Take, f’rinstance, Superman. Is there trouble in paradise for The Man of Steel and Lois Lane?
Watch a Superman-centric Bad Days!
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Tagged with: Bad Days • friday youtube • Superman
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Humor
Titan has posted the cover art and synopsis of the upcoming novel Ecko Burning by Danie Ware, sequel to Ecko Rising.
Here’s the synopsis:
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Tagged with: Cover & Synopsis • Danie Ware • Ecko Burning • Ecko Rising
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Books
Interviews & Profiles
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Tidbits
Vin Diesel is back. And if that doesn’t scare you, maybe the new trailer for Riddick will. It seems like it has more in common with Pitch Black than it does with The Chronicles of Riddick.
Prepare for the latest chapter of the groundbreaking saga that began with 2000′s hit sci-fi film Pitch Black and 2004′s The Chronicles of Riddick.
The infamous Riddick has been left for dead on a sun-scorched planet that appears to be lifeless. Soon, however, he finds himself fighting for survival against alien predators more lethal than any human he’s encountered.
The only way off is for Riddick to activate an emergency beacon and alert mercenaries who rapidly descend to the planet in search of their bounty.
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Movies
By
JoshVogt | Thursday, May 16th, 2013 at
10:00 am
It’s almost a given these days, especially with fantasy books–you open up the front cover and an enormous map sprawls out before you, denoting various continents, kingdoms, murky forests, coastal ports, and all the other bits and jots composing the world. Sometimes these locales have colorful names, such as Shadowlands of the Dark Lord, Bottomless Pit of Apathy, and Do-Not-Go-Here-istan. Other times, they’re a gibberish of glottal coughs and apostrophes.
However they’re named, though, so often these maps and representative lands are simply indicative of where the story happens rather than what the story is about. They’re just a reference point for those readers who dearly want to know if the heroine’s quest to save a hapless prince from a dragon took her through the pleasant town of Orcsg’utyo’u or not.
What if we tried a different perspective? Let’s strap on our Boots of Anti-Blistering, grab a wizard’s walking stick, and head off across worlds where the geography is as integral to the plot as the main characters themselves.
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Tagged with: Bradley Beaulieu • Brandon Sanderson • Felix Gilman
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Book Review • Books
Over on the Kirkus Reviews Blog today, I take a look at an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s At The Mountains of Madness.
From the article:
Published by Sterling, this volume adapts Lovecraft’s At The Mountains of Madness in a classic style reminiscent of Hergé’s Tintin. In the story, Professor Dyer leads an expedition to Antarctica in September of 1930. With a biologist, engineer, physicist and meteorologist, and a geologist on board, their mission is to take core soil and rock samples from areas of unexplored Antarctica, run tests, and report their findings back home. By November, they enter McMurdo Sound, and the adventure begins.
Click over and check out the rest of the review.
Tagged with: At the Mountains of Madness • h.p. lovecraft • Kirkus
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Books • Web Sites
In 2001, When Jack Skillingstead entered Stephen King’s “On Writing” competition, King selected Jack’s entry as one of five winners. In 2003 Asimov’s published Jack’s first professional sale. “Dead Worlds” was a finalist for the Sturgeon Award and was reprinted in two Year’s Best anthologies. Since then Jack has sold more than thirty stories to professional markets. Golden Gryphon Press issued a archival quality hardcover collection of his stories in 2009. Also in 2009 Fairwood Press published Harbinger, a science fiction novel. Both books were nominated for Locus Awards.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Jack recently…
Kristin Centorcelli: Jack, your brand new novel, Life on the Preservation, will be out at the end of May! Will you tell us a bit about yourself and your background? Have you always wanted to be a writer?
Jack Skillingstead: Yes, May 28 is the pub date. Life on the Preservation is my third book (I’ve been publishing in professional markets since 2003), though it’s the first that will receive wide distribution. Of course, I’ve wanted to write since an early age. I remember thinking about it in a very conscious way when I was about twelve years old. It seemed like the only option, and it still seems that way. It wasn’t so much that I wanted to be a writer — you know, the guy with his byline in a magazine or on the cover of a book. I wanted to be able to do it. Find the good stuff, if there was any, and present my unique vision. I thought it would take a long time, and it did. I was raised in a working class environment, and that sort of defined my prospects in the mundane world. While my siblings were taking out loans and working jobs to pay for college degrees I was exclusively focused on writing and reading. What made it harder was that, despite all my efforts, I was a terrible writer in those days. But there was a spark. I came very close to selling my early efforts. In retrospect, thank God I didn’t. It would have ruined me. I wasn’t ready.
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Interviews
Middle school…the final frontier!
I’m going to take a moment to examine why I find this so nerdishly charming in so many ways…
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Tagged with: Middle School Musical • Star Trek
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Music • Star Trek
Something’s very rotten on a sailboat in the middle of the North Pacific. I’ve got Part 3 of my contemporary fantasy novelette, The Raven’s Head Dagger and the Custom of the Seas. For those of you who like coming late to things, there’s a Part 1 and a Part 2 as well.
What’s special about today’s free fiction?
- Tor has a story from George RR Martin’s Wild Cards shared world: “The Button Man and the Murder Tree” by Cherie Priest
- Books One and Two from Christopher Buecheler‘s The II AM Trilogy
- Books One and Two from Jay Swanson‘s The Vitalis Chronicles
- Silvia Moreno-Garcia has posted the first chapter of her upcoming contemporary fantasy novel, Young Blood. Read it and then give her all your money (it’s crowdfunding, so that’s what you’re supposed to do)
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Tagged with: Amazon • audio fiction • fiction • free • free ebooks • free fantasy fiction • Free Fiction • free flash fiction • free horror fiction • free science fiction • serialized • serialized fiction
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Free Fiction
Interviews & Profiles
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Tidbits
Mighty Mur Lafferty has a new book coming out called The Shambling Guide to New York City. It’s a fun and funny look at being human in the increasingly supernatural city of New York.
Here’s the official description:
A travel writer takes a job with a shady publishing company in New York, only to find that she must write a guide to the city – for the undead!
Because of the disaster that was her last job, Zoe is searching for a fresh start as a travel book editor in the tourist-centric New York City. After stumbling across a seemingly perfect position though, Zoe is blocked at every turn because of the one thing she can’t take off her resume — human.
Not to be put off by anything — especially not her blood drinking boss or death goddess coworker — Zoe delves deep into the monster world. But her job turns deadly when the careful balance between human and monsters starts to crumble — with Zoe right in the middle.
And here’s the trailer (and more goodies!)…
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Tagged with: Book Trailer • Mur Lafferty • The Shambling Guide To New York City
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Books
