Diverse Books

SFWA named in lawsuit

Markus — 2007-03-26T14:07:32+00:00

The SFWA, who provide services to writers and administer the Nebula awards have been sued:

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. ("SFWA") has learned that it, along with a number of others, has been named in a lawsuit filed in the Superior Court of New Jersey by Barbara Bauer and the Barbara Bauer Literary Agency ("plaintiffs").

With respect to SFWA, plaintiffs are asserting claims for defamation and interference with prospective business advantage for alleged statements made on the "Writer Beware" website. SFWA is a non-profit corporation providing assistance to the writers' community.

"Writer Beware," founded in 1998, assists the writers' community with balanced and responsible information on various literary issues. SFWA is investigating the claims, plans on vigorously defending its rights, and will respond through the litigation process.

Corpus Delicti is the appearance of Barbara Bauer on their Worst Agents list - somehow we feel that this lawsuit is not going to help their reputation, either...

Neal Asher - The Skinner - Review

alexmc6 — 2007-03-21T10:56:54+00:00

Markus reviews The Skinner, the first book in the 'Polity' series (4 books so far) by Neal Asher, and finds it fast paced, captivating, fascinating, and, in classic Neal Asher vein, slightly gory and OTT. Good stuff, then... worth reading for the planet's ecosystem alone!

The book kicks off with Keech, Janer, and Erin arriving on Splatterjay, named after it's most (in)famous founder/settler/criminal's nickname (Jay 'Splatterjay' Hooper), although the name is also the defining characteristic for the planet's rather unusual and violent biology.
The three protagonists are not your standard fare, either…

Read the full review on Diversebooks

Gollancz Future News (plus competition!)

Markus — 2007-03-13T18:56:10+00:00

Welcome to the latest outing of the Gollancz newsletter! As well as soaking up the warmth of the appropriately SFnal warmest winter since people started worrying about this sort of thing, Gollancz has also been basking in the glow of our authors' success on the shortlists for the two major UK SF awards. The British Science Fiction Association Award for best novel features M. John Harrison's Nova Swing, Jon Courtenay Grimwood'sEnd of the World Blues and Roger Levy's Icarus on a shortlist of five. Look out also for The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow published by our sister list Weidenfeld and Nicolson. The BSFA award should be announced at Eastercon. Which happens at Easter.

And then on 2^nd May the Arthur C. Clarke Award will be presented. A shortlist of six titles includes Nova Swing,End of the World Blues, and Adam Roberts' Gradisil. Good luck to all.

And in the States, the seven-book shortlist for the Crawford Award for best new fantasy writer (previously won by our own Joe Hill, whose Heart-Shaped Box we publish later this month) includes The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. The award will be announced in March at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts. Read on for more news about the book.

Away from the awards but equally satisfying in its own way was the release of Locus magazine's recommended reading choices for 2006. Locus is the leading genre magazine and we were especially thrilled to have nine Gollancz books, plus one from Orion Children's and one from W&N, recommended from a year that has been a very strong one for the genre as a whole. Steve Baxter's Emperor, the aforementioned End of the World Blues, Nova Swing and Justina Robson's Keeping it Real were picked out on the SF list and Mary Gentle's Ilario and James Morrow's The Last Witchfinder made the Fantasy list. The first novels list had two of our fantasy debuts from 2006: Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself and Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora. Ursula Le Guin's Voices was on the YA pick, and in Collections, Al Reynolds' Galactic North and Steve Baxter's Resplendent were recommended. Both Steve and Al featured in the Best Novella section too, with, respectively, 'The Siege of Earth' (from Resplendent) and 'Nightingale' (from Galactic North). Again congratulations to all. The Brits really are coming. OK so Scott and Ursula are American but they're both Gollancz author so that's nearly as good . . .

For those of you who don't have access to a shop that stocks Locus magazine, do check out their website. As well as being possessed of immaculate taste in genre books (!) Locus is the home for some of the most interesting commentary and reviewing of SF and Fantasy and is particularly invaluable as a source of any information worth knowing on what is going on in the worlds of SF and Fantasy publishing. Check out their SF links page which is a doorway to all sorts of SF goodness, whether it be online magazines and message forums or links to author blogs. Now that's quite enough trumpet blowing.

What else has been happening at Gollancz towers? *reaches for trumpet* Fans of Scott Lynch will be delighted to know that the sequel to The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies is now safely delivered. Second book blues on the Seas? Absolutely not. The new book hits the waves and sees the Gentleman Bastards embroiled in some fantastic action with Pirates. Pirates like you've never seen before. We've also taken delivery of superb new novels from Ian McDonald, Paul McAuley and Richard Morgan. 2007 is already shaping up to be fantastic year for the list.

We're also just putting the finishing touches together on the production of a very exciting new book that hails not from the UK but from Poland. Andrzej Sapkowski's The Last Wish . Sapkowski's already immense in Europe (2,000,000 copies sold) and come April when we publish The Last Wish he's going to make a real splash here too.

Oh and just wait until you see the debut novel by young American author Patrick Rothfuss that we've just acquired. The Name of the Wind is a wonderful epic fantasy just perfect for everyone who enjoys Robin Hobb and Trudi Canavan. You don't mind waiting for it until September do you?

Simon, Jo and Gillian
Gollancz Editorial Team

Karen Traviss - City of Pearl - Review

alexmc6 — 2007-03-07T11:30:42+00:00

Markus reviews City of Pearl, the first in the Wess'har Wars series by Karen Traviss, and finds this profound new yarn on Ecology, peaceful co-existence (or not), and Social Structures well written and highly entertaining:
"If Karen can hold that level of writing and storytelling then this will be a series to look out for, and look forward to indeed!"

Read the full review on Diversebooks

REVIEW: "Knowledge Power: Intellectual Property, Information and Privacy", Renee Marlin-Bennett

Markus — 2007-03-06T13:28:24+00:00

Robert Slade reviews Knowledge Power: Intellectual Property, Information and Privacy by Renee Marlin-Bennett, and doesn't think it lives up to its promise:

True, as with David Brin's "The Transparent Society", Marlin-Bennett promises a unique premise, in this case a tie between privacy and intellectual property. Unlike Brin, in this book the link is not strongly demonstrated. We are, therefore, left with a somewhat simplistic review of the topics listed in the title.

Neal Stephenson - Zodiac - Review

alexmc6 — 2007-03-01T10:01:13+00:00

Markus reviews Zodiac, the 2nd novel by Neil Stephenson, and is enjoying it enormously:
Maybe not his most sophisticated writing, but definitely up there with the most entertaining books I’ve read. Like, ever. Belongs on top of your reading pile!

Sangamon Taylor (ST to his friends) is an activist with GEE, the Group of Environmental Extremists, in their Boston office. He is a wizard with a Zodiac (a u-shaped semi rigid inflatable dinghy, usually with a serious outboard motor, for those not familiar with such matters), and a self-professed professional pain in the arse. Especially to big Chemical Industry Corporations...

Read the full review on Diversebooks

Change in book listings for Alien Vampire Story

Markus — 2007-02-28T13:42:06+00:00

T. M. Moore writes Destiny's Forge, ISBN 978-1-4116-1162-7, has been reissued under a different ISBN and is changed on the Google Book Search.

Iain Banks - Canal Dreams - Review

alexmc6 — 2007-02-23T16:13:17+00:00

Markus reviews Canal Dreams by Iain Banks (no middle initial here), and is intrigued; with the first half, at least.
The story itself plays on 3 ships, marooned in the middle of the Panama Canal during a new Panama crisis, when they are boarded and taken over by local 'freedom fighters' – but neither the focal passenger (world renowned cellist Hisako Onoda), nor the freedom fighters are all they appear to be, and so the stakes, both political and personal, keep rising…

Read the full review on Diversebooks

The Caledon Crystal

Markus — 2007-02-23T11:02:02+00:00

Annette M Musta informs us of her first novel, The Caledon Crystal from the "War of the Crystal" series:

A young wizard must travel through time on a perilous quest to claim her birthright, a precious jewel with the power to obliterate the all of human history.

I am the author of this work. As with most first novels, my book is lost in the gigantic publishing machine. I am initiating my own grass-roots marketing campaign to generate sales. I would like to trade links, have the book mentioned on your site or blog.

You can contact me at amusta1@att.net, more details on the book can be found at http://www.emrysaureus.com/
Thank you,
AMMusta

Near-future Bio-Terror Thriller: Greg Bear - Quantico - Review

alexmc6 — 2007-02-07T10:53:17+00:00

Markus reviews Quantico, a near-future SF thriller on Bioterror, and the FBI special agents chasing the terrorists, by Greg Bear, and find it a captivating read - part thriller, part military/police, part hard/biological sf; all parts well executed.
Quantico is cop Valhalla. They say good cops go there when they die. Every day you solve crimes, make arrests, study hard, work out, do target practice, and at the end of the day you get together with your fellow agents in the boardroom, swig back some beers, and laugh. Hardly anybody gets hurt, nobody locks their doors, everyone knows the rules, and the bad guys always lose.
Just like real live, then…

Read the full review on Diversebooks