SF Tidbits for 2/28/06
By John DeNardo |
Tuesday, February 28th, 2006 at
4:00 pm
- How much do think S&H costs on an $18,000 replica of the robot from the Lost in Space?
- Battlestar Galactica goes collectable card game.
- Karl Schroeder discusses the physics and engineering behind the world of his novel Sun of Suns. [via Schroeder's blog]
- TOR Books may join Baen in selling unencrypted science fiction and fantasy. [via Locus Online, more by Andrew Wheeler and Charlie Stross]
- It’s Chris Roberson Day at Infinity Plus which offers (among other things) Roberson’s short story “Red Hands, Black Hands“, an excerpt from Roberson’s excellent novel Here, There & Everywhere, and a Chris Roberson interview.
- Marvin Kaye’s upcoming SFBC anthology, Forbidden Planets, offers six original novellas (“Mid-Death” by Alan Dean Foster, “Walking Star” by Allen Steele, “JQ211F, and Holding” by Nancy Kress, “Rococo” by Robert Reed, “Kaminsky at War” by Jack McDevitt and “No Place Like Home” by Julie E. Czerneda) about worlds that are difficult and dangerous to visit. [via SciFiWire]
Related posts:
- SF Tidbits Part IX
- SF Tidbits Part XXXII
- SF Tidbits Part XXVIII
- SF Tidbits for 2/26/06
- SF Tidbits Part LX
Filed under: Tidbits
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Tor “may” join Baen? Bubba, it’s a done deal. See my site. You’ve got a quote from the senior editor at Tor saying it is going to happen. They’ve released a list of the books they are coming out first. They’re even doing backlist books! Huzzah! Huzzah! Between Tor and Baen, I think the majority of the SF eBook (let alone plain book) market is sewn up.
Let’s hear it for the Great Editor.
Where’s your roundup of Octavia Butler commentary?
The best Octavia Butler commentary is either Seattle Post-Intelligencer obituary or Steve Barnes’ second posting on her death. Either can be found by perusing a certain blog that modesty forbids me from mentioning (cough cough).
|-)
Fred, did I miss a memo? Are you the spell checker and the fact-checker now?
The “may” was because of Andrew Wheeler’s footwork that traced Patrick Nielsen Hayden’s comments from a supposed “Press Release” back to an old John Scalzi post, all of which seemed like hearsay to me until I see an “official press release” from Tor. I did not see your post (mostly because 90% of my web surfing is through news feeds. Maybe less time spell/fact checking and more time getting your newsfeed up and running…? :-@) And anyway, by using “may” I am, technically, still correct!
Steve, fantastic question. And one that is forcing me to think about what we are trying to do with the blog. Historically, we have not posted news about deaths; this is not some explicit rule that we stated, we just tended not to do it. Speaking for myself, I felt that if I didn’t have something positive to add other than “so-and-so died”, what was the point? Many other sites already provide such content. On the one hand, I like to post commentary-free news tidbits for our readers, but on the other I realize we are not Reuters. We are a fan blog and are not obligated to be comprehensive. We disseminate based on our personal tastes. This helps keep us away from the tedious extreme of posting every little bit of SF minutia. For example, I sometimes question SciFiWeekly’s definition of what constitutes “news”. Do we really care about fringe SF news like “Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher were married in the Los Angeles area on Sept. 24″ (to use one SciFIWeekly reader’s example)? Obviously, the loss of an influential author is much more newsworthy and way more important than celebrity-marriage-of-the-week, but I felt that just reporting the fact of her death without some way of celebrating her life and accomplishments was something of a disservice to any of her fans. (Of course, now that I’m thinking about it, I did read her short story “Amnesty” in 2004 and loved it. So maybe I do have something to share after all…)
The comments are on Baen’s Bar, from Mr. H. himself and confirmed by Jim Baen. Heck, you can even see Charles Stross talking there about his books.
The rate at which Tor issues press releases is about equivalent to their updating of their website (which Baen may be taking over!). So, don’t hold your breath. Instead, open your wallet come June!
“Fred, did I miss a memo? Are you the spell checker and the fact-checker now?”
Huh. Must have. I got a copy. Pete got a copy. Tim got a copy. You didn’t get a copy. You’re not in the loop any more? Oh, my…
:O
Heh heh
Here’s the Baen official list of releases from Tor via the Baen Webscription discussions (as posted by the guy who does the Webscription conversions, postings, updates, money collection, etc., etc., etc., etc.):
=========================
Here’s the Official un-official list of what Tor’s planning. God willing and the creek don’t rise.
June 2006 Tor Webscription titles:
(special accelerated schedule: first half ships in March, second half in April)
=Rainbows= End by Vernor Vinge (accelerated schedule)
=The Clan Corporate= by Charles Stross (accelerated schedule)
(first half ships in March, third quarter in April, fourth quarter in May)
=Beast Master’s Quest= by Andre Norton & Lyn McConchie
=Spin= by Robert Charles Wilson
=Kushiel’s Dart= by Jacqueline Carey
Available in their entirety, starting March 2006:
=A FireUpon= the Deep= by Vernor Vinge
=A Deepness In the Sky= by Vernor Vinge
=Marooned in Realtime= by Vernor Vinge
=The Peace War= by Vernor Vinge
=The Family Trade= by Charles Stross
=The Hidden Family= by Charles Stross
July 2006 Tor Webscription titles
(first half ships in April, third quarter in May, fourth quarter in June)
=When Darkness Falls= by Mercedes Lackey & James Mallory
=Mistborn= by Brandon Sanderson
=The Tourmaline= by Paul Park
=Old Man’s War= by John Scalzi
=Through Wolf’s Eyes= by Jane Lindskold
Available in their entirety, starting April 2006:
=A Princess of Roumania= by Paul Park
=Elantris= by Brandon Sanderson
=The Outstretched Shadow= by Mercedes Lackey & James Mallory
=To Light a Candle= by Mercedes Lackey & James Mallory
August 2006 Tor Webscription titles
(first half ships in May, third quarter in June, fourth quarter in July)
=Dzur= by Steven Brust
=Druid’s Sword= by Sara Douglass
=Rifkind’s Challenge= by Lynn Abbey
=Lord of the Isles= by David Drake
=Mindscan= by Robert J. Sawyer
Available in their entirety, starting May 2006:
=Dragon= by Steven Brust
=Issola= by Steven Brust
=Darkwitch Rising= by Sara Douglass
=God’s Concubine= by Sara Douglass
=Hades’ Daughter= by Sara Douglass
===============
Pretty good list, so far!
I am keeping my fingers crossed for Gene Wolfe, Westerfield’s duo and other favorites from Tor. I really hope that this is a way we can be seeing Sherwood Smith/Dave Trowbridge’s highly excellent “Exordium” series back in “print”!
Lot’s of discussion about this at the Baen’s Bar. Tor authors, Tor editors, Baen authors who also do Tor books, Baen editors, The Great Editor Himself (Jim Baen), and more. Join the fun!
And to make life even more interesting: Baen says that they will soon be announcing a major eBook distribution/service deal along the lines of their Webscriptions service. The publisher is not named, yet, but it is broadly hinted it is a major publisher, with regular NYT-style bestsellers, etc.
Heck, maybe this will make Harriet Klausner a eBook convert!
:O