Title spotlight - "Ishtar" edited by Amanda Pillar & K.V. Taylor

I am attracted by mythology and although it is not one of my forefront interests it is always there. Therefore most of the times when I came upon mythology aspects and concepts it is most likely for me to not miss that chance. One such opportunity will arise in November when Gilgamesh Press, the little sister of Morrigan Books, will release “Ishtar”, a collection of stories edited by Amanda Pillar and K.V. Taylor. Not only is the mythological concept of the collection of interest for me, but also the three authors of the stories contained within the collection, three rising stars of Australian fiction, Kaaron Warren, Deborah Biancotti and Cat Sparks. Here is a presentation of “Ishtar” and the stories of the collection:

“The 5 Loves of Ishtar” by Kaaron Warren - Follow the path that the goddess Ishtar takes through the eyes of her most devoted worshippers, her washerwomen. Sharokin, Atur, Ninlil, Shamiran, Ninevah and Ashurina share in their goddess’ loves, losses and triumphs, as kingdoms rise and fall in the Land of Rivers.

“And the Dead Shall Outnumber the Living” by Deborah Biancotti - In modern-day Sydney, male prostitutes are dying. Their bones have turned to paste and their bodies are jelly. As Detective Adrienne Garner investigates the deaths, she finds rumours of strange cults and old gods whose powers threaten her city and, ultimately, her world.

“The Sleeping and the Dead” by Cat Sparks - Dr. Anna remembers little of her life before the war, merely traces of the man she used to love. When three desperate travellers rekindle slumbering memories, she begins a search that takes her to Hell and beyond. A search for love and, ultimately, enlightenment.

Book trailer - "Deathless" by Catherynne M. Valente

Last year, one of the titles that draw my attention towards it through its early concept and a quite catchy cover artwork was Catherynne M. Valente’s “Deathless”. I am looking forward for Tor Books to release “Deathless” at the end of this month, especially since I’ve learned about the title last year Catherynne M. Valente’s novel now has a very interesting trailer and a teasing synopsis.

Koschei the Deathless is to Russian folklore what devils or wicked witches are to European culture: a menacing, evil figure; the villain of countless stories which have been passed on through story and text for generations. But Koschei has never before been seen through the eyes of Catherynne Valente, whose modernized and transformed take on the legend brings the action to modern times, spanning many of the great developments of Russian history in the twentieth century.

Deathless, however, is no dry, historical tome: it lights up like fire as the young Marya Morevna transforms from a clever child of the revolution, to Koschei’s beautiful bride, to his eventual undoing. Along the way there are Stalinist house elves, magical quests, secrecy and bureaucracy, and games of lust and power. All told, Deathless is a collision of magical history and actual history, of revolution and mythology, of love and death, which will bring Russian myth back to life in a stunning new incarnation.

Cover art - "Blood of Aenarion" by William King

There is hardly a secret that I am a big fan of Raymond Swanland’s works. Last month I was happy to find that he put his great talent at work for Black Library too, producing yet another amazing piece, this time for a Warhammer novel, William King’s “Blood of Aenarion”. Raymond Swanland gave birth with his drawing tools once again to a very vivid piece of art, dark, powerful and richly detailed. Raymond Swanland is also one of the artists who might change my mind towards the characters featured on book covers, despite my reluctance for the covers that reveal characters depicted in their every detail. Anyway, for Raymond Swanland and his book covers in particular and artwork in general I have only a few words left: Keep them coming!

You can see more of the cover for William King’s “Blood of Aenarion” on the Black Library’s blog.

2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist

Last week the 2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist was announced:

“Zoo City” by Lauren Beukes (Angry Robot)
“The Dervish House” by Ian McDonald (Gollancz)
“Monsters of Men” by Patrick Ness (Walker Books)
“Generosity” by Richard Powers (Atlantic Books)
“Declare” by Tim Powers (Corvus)
“Lightborn” by Tricia Sullivan (Orbit)

Last year the winner was China Miéville with his excellent “The City & The City”. This year the winner will be announced on Wednesday 27th April.

Congratulations and good luck to all the nominees!

In the mailbox

Three very interesting titles popped up this week in my mailbox, all three of them appealing to me and therefore taking positions close to the top of my TBR list:

- "Tymon's Flight" by Mary Victoria (through the courtesy of the David Gemmell Awards commitee);

The World Tree rises up out of the seething clouds like a green mountain, lifting its children up to the light. All creation nestles in its gigantic branches: all take shelter beneath its canopy. There is no world besides this one -- or so the priests in Argos city would have everyone believe. What then if the green God should wither away, or withdraw Her blessings from her children?
Tymon is an orphaned boy growing up at Argos seminary, in the lush heart of the Central Canopy. The Argosian priests have declared science to be a heretical pursuit, and banned travel beyond the confines of the Tree. But Tymon yearns to discover new horizons. He longs to break free of the seminary. When he discovers an interloper in the city baths -- a foreigner, a female, one of the stigmatised Nurian pilgrims brought to the town every year as slaves -- his life changes forever.
Punished for his temerity and exiled to the dry and forsaken Eastern Canopy to serve out his indenture, he finds that there are different ways of interpreting the cosmos beyond those taught to him by the priests in Argos. He discovers that the heresy of Grafting, belief in the mystic "Tree of Being", still persists in the eastern colonies. And he meets Samiha, the girl who holds the key to his own latent powers, as well as the ultimate fate of his world.

- "The Desert of Souls" by Howard Andrew Jones (through the courtesy of St. Martin's Press);

In 8th century Baghdad, a stranger pleads with the vizier to safeguard the bejeweled tablet he carries, but he is murdered before he can explain. Charged with solving the puzzle, the scholar Dabir soon realizes that the tablet may unlock secrets hidden within the lost city of Ubar, the Atlantis of the sands. When the tablet is stolen from his care, Dabir and Captain Asim are sent after it, and into a life and death chase through the ancient Middle East.
Stopping the thieves—a cunning Greek spy and a fire wizard of the Magi—requires a desperate journey into the desert, but first Dabir and Asim must find the lost ruins of Ubar and contend with a mythic, sorcerous being that has traded wisdom for the souls of men since the dawn of time. But against all these hazards there is one more that may be too great even for Dabir to overcome...

- "Son of Heaven" by David Wingrove (through the courtesy of Corvus Books).

The year is 2085, two decades after the great economic collapse that destroyed Western civilization. With its power broken and its cities ruined, life in the West continues in scattered communities. In rural Dorset Jake Reed lives with his 14-year-old son and memories of the great collapse. Back in '43, Jake was a rich, young futures broker, immersed in the datascape of the world's financial markets. He saw what was coming - and who was behind it. Forewarned, he was one of the few to escape the fall. For 22 years he has lived in fear of the future, and finally it is coming - quite literally - across the plain towards him. Chinese airships are in the skies and a strange, glacial structure has begun to dominate the horizon. Jake finds himself forcibly incorporated into the ever-expanding 'World of Levels' a global city of some 34 billion souls, where social status is reflected by how far above the ground you live. Here, under the rule of the mighty Tsao Ch'un, a resurgent China is seeking to abolish the past and bring about world peace through rigidly enforced order. But a civil war looms, and Jake will find himself at the heart of the struggle for the future.

Thank you all very much!

Romanian Steampunk

Steampunk picked a lot of speed lately and became one of the speculative fiction’s most fashionable subgenres. For once, the Romanian speculative fiction market is keeping the pace with the trend of the larger market and brings into play an all Romanian anthology dedicated to the steampunk subgenre. Once again the publishing house promoting the local speculative fiction is Millennium Books, whose work in the field deserves all the best things it can get. The anthology edited by Adrian Crăciun, “Steampunk: A Doua Revoluție” (Steampunk: The Second Revolution), benefits also from the graphical masterwork of Edward Miller, having a beautiful and very suggestive cover. Here is the complete line-up of the “Steampunk: The Second Revolution”:

- Prefață (Introduction) by Ștefan Ghidoveanu
- Plimbarea de dimineață a domnișoarei Vu (The Morning Walk of Miss Vu) by Ioana Vișan
- Cetatea Neagră (The Black Citadel) by Costi Gurgu
- De la țigani (From the Gypsies) by George Lazăr
- Povestea lui Calistrat Hadîmbu din Vizireni, ucis mișelește de nenicul Raul Colentina într-un han de la marginea Bucureștilor (The Story of Calistrat Hadîmbu, Meanly Murdered by Nuncle Raul Colentina in an Inn at Bucharest Outskirts) by Michael Haulică
- Suflete de plumb (Lead Souls) by Ștefana Cristina Czeller
- Lungul drum din cer acasă (The Long Road from Sky to Home) by Marian Truță
- Ultima clepsidră (The Last Hourglass) by Oliviu Crâznic
- Alchimistul (The Alchemist) by Mircea Opriță
- Profeții despre trecut (Prophecies about the Past) by Aron Biro
- Nostalgia revoluției (The Nostalgia of the Revolution) by Florin Pîtea

The title will be available this spring.

Awards round-up

February is the shortest month but this fact didn’t prevent it to offer plenty of action in the speculative fiction awards field. I’ll try to resume a few of them.

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2010 Bram Stoker Awards nominees

Horror Writers Association announced the nominations for the 2010 Bram Stoker Awards:

Novel:
“Horns” by Joe Hill (William Morrow)
“Rot and Ruin” by Jonathan Maberry (Simon & Schuster)
“Dead Love” by Linda Watanabe McFerrin (Stone Bridge Press)
“Apocalypse of the Dead” by Joe McKinney (Pinnacle)
“Dweller” by Jeff Strand (Leisure/Dark Regions Press)

“A Dark Matter” by Peter Straub (DoubleDay)

First Novel:
“Black and Orange” by Benjamin Kane Ethridge (Bad Moon Books)
“A Book of Tongues” by Gemma Files (Chizine Publications)
“Castle of Los Angeles” by Lisa Morton (Gray Friar Press)

“Spellbent” by Lucy Snyder (Del Rey)

Long Fiction:
“The Painted Darkness” Brian James Freeman (Cemetery Dance)
“Dissolution” by Lisa Mannetti (Deathwatch)
“Monsters Among Us” by Kirstyn McDermott (Macabre: A Journey through Australia’s Darkest Fears)
“The Samhanach” by Lisa Morton (Bad Moon Books)
“Invisible Fences” by Norman Prentiss (Cemetery Dance)

Short Fiction:
“Return to Mariabronn” by Gary Braunbeck (Haunted Legends)
“The Folding Man” by Joe R. Lansdale (Haunted Legends)
“1925: A Faall Roiver Halloween” by Lisa Mannetti (Shroud Magazine #10)
“In the Middle of Poplar Street” by Nate Southard (Dead Set: A Zombie Anthology)

“Final Draft” by Mark W. Worthen (Horror Library IV)

Anthology:
“Dark Faith” edited by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon (Apex Publications)
“Horror Library IV” edited by R.J. Cavender and Boyd E. Harris (Cutting Block Press)
“Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears” edited by Angela Challis and Marty Young (Brimstone Press)
“Haunted Legends” edited by Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas (Tor)
“The New Dead” edited by Christopher Golden (St. Martin's Griffin)

Collection:
“Occultation” by Laird Barron (Night Shade Books)
“Blood and Gristle” by Michael Louis Calvillo (Bad Moon Books)
“Full Dark, No Stars” by Stephen King (Simon and Schuster)
“The Ones That Got Away” by Stephen Graham Jones (Prime Books)
“A Host of Shadows” by Harry Shannon (Dark Regions Press)

Nonfiction:
“To Each Their Darkness” by Gary A. Braunbeck (Apex Publications)
“The Conspiracy Against the Human Race” by Thomas Ligotti (Hippocampus Press)
“Wanted Undead or Alive” by Jonathan Maberry and Janice Gable Bashman (Citadel)
“Listen to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews” by Sam Weller (Melville House Publications)

Poetry Collection:
“Dark Matters” by Bruce Boston (Bad Moon Books)
“Wild Hunt of the Stars” by Ann K. Schwader (Sam's Dot)
“Diary of a Gentleman Diabolist” by Robin Spriggs (Anomalous Books)
“Vicious Romantic” by Wrath James White (Needfire Poetry)

The winners will be announced on June 18th at the Stoker Weekend 2001 at Long Island, New York.

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2010 Nebula Awards nominees

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) announced the nominations for the 2010 Nebula Awards:

Novel:
“The Native Star” by M.K. Hobson (Spectra)
“The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms” by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit UK; Orbit US)
“Shades of Milk and Honey” by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
“Echo” by Jack McDevitt (Ace)
“Who Fears Death” by Nnedi Okorafor (DAW)
“Blackout/All Clear” by Connie Willis (Spectra)

Short Story:
‘‘Arvies’’ by Adam-Troy Castro (Lightspeed Magazine 8/10)
‘‘How Interesting: A Tiny Man’’ by Harlan Ellison® (Realms of Fantasy 2/10)
‘‘Ponies’’ by Kij Johnson (Tor.com 1/17/10)
‘‘I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno’’ by Vylar Kaftan (Lightspeed Magazine 6/10)
‘‘The Green Book’’ by Amal El-Mohtar (Apex Magazine 11/1/10)
‘‘Ghosts of New York’’ by Jennifer Pelland (Dark Faith)
‘‘Conditional Love’’ by Felicity Shoulders (Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 1/10)

Novelette:
‘‘Map of Seventeen’’ by Christopher Barzak (The Beastly Bride)
‘‘The Jaguar House, in Shadow’’ by Aliette de Bodard (Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 7/10)
‘‘The Fortuitous Meeting of Gerard van Oost and Oludara’’ by Christopher Kastensmidt (Realms of Fantasy 4/10)
“Plus or Minus’’ by James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine12/10)
‘‘Pishaach’’ by Shweta Narayan (The Beastly Bride)
‘‘That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made’’ by Eric James Stone (Analog Science Fiction and Fact 9/10)
‘‘Stone Wall Truth’’ by Caroline M. Yoachim (Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 2/10)

Novella:
“The Alchemist” by Paolo Bacigalupi (Audible; Subterranean)
‘‘Iron Shoes’’ by J. Kathleen Cheney (Alembical 2)
“The Lifecycle of Software Objects” by Ted Chiang (Subterranean)
‘‘The Sultan of the Clouds’’ by Geoffrey A. Landis (Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 9/10)
‘‘Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance’’ by Paul Park (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 1-2/10)
‘‘The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window’’ by Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Magazine Summer ’10)

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy:
“Ship Breaker” by Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown)
“White Cat” by Holly Black (McElderry)
“Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press; Scholastic UK)
“Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword” by Barry Deutsch (Amulet)
“The Boy from Ilysies” by Pearl North (Tor Teen)
“I Shall Wear Midnight” by Terry Pratchett (Gollancz; Harper)
“A Conspiracy of Kings” by Megan Whalen Turner (Greenwillow)
“Behemoth” by Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse; Simon & Schuster UK)

The Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation:
“Despicable Me” Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud (directors), Ken Daurio & Cinco Paul (screenplay), Sergio Pablos (story) (Illumination Entertainment)
“Doctor Who: ‘‘Vincent and the Doctor’’” Richard Curtis (writer), Jonny Campbell (director)
“How to Train Your Dragon” Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders (directors), William Davies, Dean DeBlois, & Chris Sanders (screenplay) (DreamWorks Animation)
“Inception” Christopher Nolan (director), Christopher Nolan (screenplay) (Warner)
“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” Edgar Wright (director), Michael Bacall & Edgar Wright (screenplay) (Universal)
“Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich (director), Michael Arndt (screenplay), John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, & Lee Unkrich (story) (Pixar/Disney)

The winners will be announced on May 21st at the Nebula Awards Banquet.

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2010 Australian Shadows Awards nominees

The Australian Horror Writers Association announced the nominations for the 2010 Australian Shadows Awards:

Long Fiction:
“Madigan Mine” by Kirstyn McDermott (Picador Australia)
“The Girl With No Hands” by Angela Slatter (Ticonderoga Publications)
“Guardian of the Dead” by Karen Healy (Allen & Unwin)
“Under Stones” by Bob Franklin (Affirm Press)
“Bleed” by Peter M. Ball (Twelfth Planet Press)

Edited Publication:
“Macabre: A Journey through Australia's Darkest Fears” edited by Angela Challis & Marty Young (Brimstone Press)
“Scenes From The Second Storey” edited by Amanda Pillar & Pete Kempshall (Morrigan Books)
“Dark Pages 1” edited by Brenton Tomlinson (Blade Red Press)
“Scary Kisses” edited by Liz Grzyb (Ticonderoga Publications)
“Midnight Echo #4” edited by Lee Battersby (AHWA)

Short Fiction:
“Bread and Circuses” by Felicity Dowker (Scary Kisses)
“Brisneyland by Night” by Angela Slatter (Sprawl)
“She Said” by Kirstyn McDermott (Scenes from the Second Storey)
“All The Clowns In Clowntown” by Andrew J. McKiernan (Macabre: A Journey through Australia's Darkest Fears)
“Dream Machine” by David Conyers (Scenes from the Second Storey)

The winners will be announced on April 15th.

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4th Annual Black Quill Awards

Last, but not least let’s see also the winners of an award. Dark Scribe Magazine announced the winners of the 4th Annual Black Quill Awards, in both Editors and Readers categories:

Dark Genre Novel of the Year:

Editors’ Choice: “A Dark Matter” by Peter Straub

Readers’ Choice: “Sparrow Rock” by Nate Kenyon

Best Small Press Chill:

Editors’ Choice: “A Book of Tongues” by Gemma Files

Readers’ Choice: “A Book of Tongues” by Gemma Files

Best Dark Genre Collection:

Editors’ Choice: “Occultation” by Laird Barron

Readers’ Choice: “Blood and Gristle” by Michael Louis Calvillo

Best Dark Genre Anthology:

Editors’ Choice: “Haunted Legends” edited by Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas

Readers’ Choice: “Horror Library IV” edited by R.J. Cavender and Boyd E. Harris

Best Dark Genre Book of Non-Fiction:

Editors’ Choice: “The Conspiracy Against the Human Race” by Thomas Ligotti

Readers’ Choice: “Thrillers: 100 Must Reads” edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner

Best Dark Scribble:

Editors’ Choice: “The Things” by Peter Watts (Clarkesworld Magazine, January 2010)

Readers’ Choice: “We” by Bentley Little (Cemetery Dance #64)

Best Dark Genre Book Trailer:

Editors’ Choice: “Neverland” by Douglas Clegg - Video Production by Circle of Seven Productions

Readers’ Choice: “Neverland” by Douglas Clegg - Video Production by Circle of Seven Productions

Congratulations to all and good luck to all the nominees!