SFF Blog Recap

28 Jun - 4 Jul

Welcome to this week's SFF Blog Recap! I enjoy gathering these very interesting posts every week. I hope you enjoy reading them too.

(The blog posts below are ordered alphabetically according to their Blog Site names. So there's no favoritism. You should have picked a name starting with one of the first letters of the alphabet ;) ).


Pardon Me While I Beat a Dead Horse
Fantasy & SciFi Lovin' News & Reviews

"A few weeks ago I was asked to write a post on another blog about whether women were treated fairly in comparison to men when written as action heroes. You wouldn't think this would be a hard topic to write on-- especially for me-- but let me tell you, I struggled with it. I threw up a post here asking what people thought of when I said "female superhero," originally envisioning the post would be about the more traditional comic book heroines. And while I got some good answers it failed to inspire a real dialog in my head that I could transfer to the page."


Spotlight on July Books
Fantasy Book Critic

"This month Robert Thompson provided most of the book titles with additions by Cindy Hannikman, Liviu Suciu and Mihir Wanchoo. We are featuring 60 books. This month there were considerably more new sff releases but we tried to limit ourselves to a reasonable number and we chose the books most in tune with what's reviewed here. "


2010 at Half
Fantasy Book Critic

"While this year I have done several posts about favorite novels so far, as well as updating my (collated) 2010 Anticipated Book Post with short reports and links to the full reviews when available for 61 of the 90-100 books mentioned there, I decided to do a half-year post too. I read some 97 books published in 2010 so far and I will focus on those."


SF and Fantasy Masterworks Reading Project
Floor to Ceiling Books

"I am pleased to announce a new project aiming to read the full 130+ books in the Gollancz SF and Fantasy Masterworks series. A fantastic group of bloggers has come together to provide this resource: including people such as Larry, Niall and our overlord, Patrick."


Interview: Jon Sprunk
Grasping For The Wind

"Jon Sprunk is the author of Shadow’s Son and its forthcoming sequel Shadow’s Lure, both from Pyr Books."


Guest Post | Mark Charan Newton on the Proliferation of Online Reviews (Help or Hinderence?)
The Mad Hatter's Bookshelf & Book Review

"Some authors tend to be a bit tight lipped when sharing their opinion and some share a bit too much. If you've been following Mark Charan Newton you'll know he skirts close to the second camp and often takes the contrarian point of view just to stir up good conversation."


Show Don’t Tell, And Other Myths
Mark Charan Newton

"It’s been on my mind, so I thought I’d dig up this old article on breaking writing rules, which is fantastic (and which I saw originally via Ursula Le Guin)"


Knowledge: Chainsaw or Straitjacket?
Through a Forest of Ideas

"I've been thinking about knowledge. To be honest, I've always had an ongoing discussion with myself on knowledge, it's use, it's blessings and it's shortcomings. As a reviewer, I suffer from the minority complex that I have not read enough and therefore I am far from entitled to an opinion. Because I lack knowledge, can't compare or know the classics I've the idea that I can't be a constructive contributor to the conversations, which take place at different blogs."


News from the Front
When Gravity Fails

"Anyway, I have so much exciting news for you that this is going to be a long blog post. So strap yourself in, assume the position, etc etc."


Giveaways

Interview – Liz Fichera, Author of Captive Spirit – Plus Giveaway!
Debuts & Reviews

"Liz Fichera is an author living in the American Southwest by way of Chicago. She likes to write stories about ordinary people who do extraordinary things, oftentimes against the backdrop of Native American legends. "


Giveaway! "The King's Bastard" by Rowena Cory Daniells
Fantasy/Sci-Fi Lovin' Giveaways!

"Courtesy of Rowena Cory Daniells I have a copy of The King's Bastard to offer for giveaway."


Giveaway! ‘Tongues of Serpents’ (Naomi Novik)
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review

"Despite things going a little off kilter in the last book, I’m still a big fan of Naomi Novik’s ‘Temeraire’ books and plan to read ‘Tongues of Serpents’ very soon. Here’s the blurb..."


Carrie Vaughn Giveaway!
Pat's Fantasy Hotlist

"Thanks to the good folks at Tor Books, I have two copies of Carrie Vaughn's latest Kitty Norville novel, Kitty Goes to War, up for grabs!"


Win a copy of Daniel Abraham's Leviathan Wept and Other Stories
Pat's Fantasy Hotlist

"I have a copy of the limited edition of Daniel Abraham's Leviathan Wept and Other Stories for you to win, compliments of the cool folks at Subterranean Press."


Win a copy of Naomi Novik's Tongues of Serpents
Pat's Fantasy Hotlist

"I have a copy of Naomi Novik's Tongues of Serpents for you to win, courtesy of the folks at Del Rey."


Free Reading

Free Readin’ | Small Offerings by Paolo Bacigalupi
A Dribble Of Ink

"Hot off the heels of The Windup Girl winning a Nebula Award for Best Novel and a Locus Award for Best First Novel, Paolo Bacigalupi‘s name is on everyone’s lips. Tor.com is jumping aboard the Bacigalupi bandwagon and have published Small Offerings, a short story previously only available in Fast Forward I and the limited edition of Bacigalupi’s short story collection, Pump Six."


Free Fiction: The Last Legends of Earth by A. A. Attanasio
Grasping For The Wind

"For July, you can get an eBook copy of The Last Legends of Earth by A.A. Attanasio for free with the coupon code below!"


Free Library: July New Addition!
Suvudu

"For July, Suvudu continues its fun collaboration with the Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine! This month, we are showcasing Recrossing the Styx by Ian R. MacLeod. For free. Yes, for free. "


Excerpt: Bearers of the Black Staff by Terry Brooks
Suvudu

"Del Rey Books and Terry Brooks have electronically released the first excerpt from his forthcoming novel, Bearers of the Black Staff. It is the first book of a duology set 500 years after the events of his New York Times bestselling post-apocalyptic trilogy Genesis of Shannara. "


Cover art and extract from Ian Cameron Esslemont's STONEWIELDER
The Wertzone

"You can see the current in-progress cover art for Stonewielder and read the first chapter over on Malazanempire."


King's Bastard Free Sample!
When Gravity Fails

"As you're probably aware, Rowena Cory Daniells' King Rolen's Kin trilogy launches at the end of the month with the first book, The King's Bastard (although some sneaky booksellers already have it on the shelves, so you can pick it up right now)."

SFF Blog Recap

7 Jun - 13 Jun

Welcome to this week's SFF Blog Recap! I enjoy gathering these very interesting posts every week. I hope you enjoy reading them too.

(The blog posts below are ordered alphabetically according to their Blog Site names. So there's no favoritism. You should have picked a name starting with one of the first letters of the alphabet ;) ).


And What Kind Of Novels Do You Write, Mr Hoffman?
Babel Clash

"It came as something of a surprise to me when The Left Hand of God was published to discover I had written a fantasy novel and also that I had broken some of its fundamental rules in doing so. For the last fifteen years or so I had shared my life as a novelist with one as a screenwriter and made a fairly good living doing so, but the impossibility of seeing the script I’d written on the screen in anything like the form I’d written it drove me to stop and concentrate on writing more novels."


Forgettable Books
Debuts & Reviews

"Every once in a while, I go through my books, making room on the shelves for new books. I don’t like giving away/trading in old books, but one must be practical. I have no doubt that if I had kept all the books I’ve read over the years, I’d have thousands of them, but who has the room?"


Interview with Tad Williams
Fantasy Book Critic

"Fantasy Book Critic's Mihir Wanchoo was able to take a few moments and interview Tad Williams.

Tad Williams is the author of over a dozen novels and short stories. His latest novel is Shadowrise which is Volumn 3 of Shadowmarch."


Malazan updates
A Fantasy Reader

"Here's some tidbits all related to the gargantuan Malazan project.

First off is the synopsis/blurb for Stonewielder by Ian C. Esslemont, author of Night of Knives and Return of the Crimson Guard. The book is still scheduled for a release this year. This was posted first by Pat at Pat Fantasy Hotlist (here). Greymane, the continent of Korel and the stormriders.... sounds very promising!"


What Should Reviewers Do With Unwanted ARCs?
Genre Reader

"I meant to post this last week after reading a blog where someone was ranting about seeing ARCs (Advanced Reading Copies) on sale on ebay. I wish I could remember the blog so I could link to it, but it isn't one I normally visit. The blog author (and commenters) were up in arms that ARCs are available on ebay..and that the ARCs were often selling for more then the price of the "official" book (the one you can actually buy in stores)."


The Cold Kiss by John Rector
International Thriller Writers

"Every industry has its success stories, the unknown rising to celebrity, or the underdog boxer knocking out the champion. The publishing world is no different. In our case, the underdogs are the self published, and they love to see one of their own breakout. In fact, it's a community that plays an active role in making that happen."


The Tyranny of the First Draft
Karen Miller

"Terry Pratchett said it somewhere, and I think he said it perfectly: The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.

I strongly believe that the biggest favour any writer can do for him or herself is plaster that piece of advice on every available surface and read it frequently – or better yet, daily. Especially if said writer is tackling a novel. Or, worse, the first novel in a series. Because, dear reader, few things are as intimidating as the prospect of writing a novel. And even fewer things are as intimidating as that when you’re a writer without a contract, a writer who’s writing a novel on faith, in hope, without any guarantee that the hours and hours and hours of hard work will achieve anything other than time gone by that can never be recaptured."


Good Hype, Bad Hype
Mark Charan Newton

"There’s an interesting review, and discussion of hyped books here; of the review itself, I’ll say nothing, but it’s the comments section that has, naturally – thanks to Google ego search – got me interested."


Book Blogger Appreciation Week
Neth Space

"The Book Blogger Appreciation Week goes back a few years, and I haven’t really paid it much mind in the past. Really, I was going to let it pass by again – especially with a registration process that includes a dedicated post for judges to look at – but, it turns out I was a bit bored. And all bloggers know that boredom can be a great inspiration, and that on occasion the result isn’t that terrible."


How Old Can a ‘Young Writer’ Be?
The New York Times - Sunday Book Review

"The June 14 issue of The New Yorker, perhaps the premier showcase for American fiction, features a list of “20 Under 40” — that is, 20 accomplished writers under the age of 40. Many of the names are familiar: Joshua Ferris, Jonathan Safran Foer, Nell Freudenberger, Rivka Galchen, Nicole Krauss, Gary Shteyngart, ZZ Packer, Wells Tower."


Comment: When a good book is just a good book…
NextRead

"In an ideal world every book you pick up would by the end be a book you think, ‘well that as a 5+ hrs well spent’. But reality isn’t like that. Not every book you pick up is going to leave you with a sense of hungry euphoria but most now a days should at least get you travelling with them until the end."


An Interview with Anthony Huso
Risingshadow.net

"Risingshadow.net is proud to present an interview with a gifted new fantasy author, Anthony Huso.

Anthony Huso's debut novel, The Last Page, will be published in August 2010 by Tor Books."


Fantasy Films vs. Fantasy Books: Why so Serious?
Voyager Blog

"This time out a particular topic was suggested to me that I might like to write about: that being, why are fantasy films taken more seriously than fantasy books. I’ve pondered on this over the course of a week, and conclude finally that I both agree and disagree with the sentiment."



Free Reading

Free Readin’ | 50 Pages of ‘The Way of Kings’ by Brandon Sanderson
A Dribble of Ink

"The Way of Kings needs no introduction. It’s August, 2010 release promises to be one of the biggest of the year, and Sanderson looks poised to pick up the torch left by Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind, names synonymous with ludicrously long Epic Fantasies."


Free Readin’ | Shadow’s Son by Jon Sprunk
A Dribble of Ink

"Shadow’s Son by newcomer Jon Sprunk, recently released by Pyr Books and Gollancz first caught my eye because of the Michael Komarck cover. Ironic, given my reputation for showing utter dismay every time a hood is present on a cover. Still, the book itself sounds fun (and I liked what Sprunk had to say on this podcast), so it’s been on my radar ever since."


Free Fiction: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer
Grasping for the Wind

"Twilight powerhouse author Stephenie Meyer is offering fans a free online read of her latest novella, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, from today noon through July 5th."



Giveaways

Giveaway! 'Day of the Damned' (David Gunn)
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review

"I reviewed this book back in June last year. I even ran a competition for copies not long afterwards. 'Day of the Damned' is out in mass market paperback though and because it's such a fun read I thought I'd give it away all over again..."


Contest for Brent Weeks / Greg Bear flip Chapbook
The Mad Hatter's Bookshelf & Book Review

"I have a two copies of the Brent Weeks and Greg Bear mini-flip book that Orbit was giving out at Book Expo this year. I grabbed two not realizing it was a flip so that's more for my fine readers. The Weeks half is the first three chapters of The Black Prism and the Greg Bear portion is the first four chapters of Hull Zero Three. This is a very nice chapbook style production with a sturdy cover and the text printed on nice gloss so it should make a good collectible for the Weeks and Bear fans out there."


Win an Advance Reading Copy of Terry Brooks' Bearers of the Black Staff
Pat's Fantasy Hotlist

"Since I won't have time to give this novel a shot prior to its release, I'm giving away my ARC of Terry Brooks' Bearers of the Black Staff to one lucky winner!"


Win a full set of Daniel Abraham's The Long Price Quartet
Pat's Fantasy Hotlist

"The news that Tor Books elected not to publish a mass market paperback edition for Daniel Abraham's The Price of Spring created a bit of a stir among the online SFF community last week. Understandably, no matter how unjust it appears to be, folks need to remember that it's a business decision on Tor Books' part, just as splitting A Memory of Light into three volumes was a business decision. Still, it must have felt like a kick in the balls for the author."

SFF Blog Recap

31 May - 6 Jun

Welcome to this week's SFF Blog Recap! I enjoy gathering these very interesting posts every week. I hope you enjoy reading them too.

(The blog posts below are ordered alphabetically according to their Blog Site names. So there's no favoritism. You should have picked a name starting with one of the first letters of the alphabet ;) ).

Babel Clash

"Once upon a time - and really not all that long ago - it all seemed so simple. We’d build our rockets, go into space, and plant flags. Then we’d go there en masse, as a species - not just exploring, not just bringing back a few soil samples, but establishing ourselves as a permanent presence. Colonising, in other words. But nowadays … the problem with colonising is that, not to put too fine a point on it, it’s a bit, well, colonial. "

• To colonise or not?

A Dribble of Ink

"Disappointment aside, the big question is who’ll fill del Toro’s shoes. The obvious choice, to me at any rate, is Jackson. Despite being a fan of del Toro, he’s always struck me as too dark a director for the project, and one of The Hobbits biggest strengths (and why I much prefer it to The Lord of the Rings, is its whimsical, storybook nature."

• An Aside | Del Toro leaves ‘The Hobbit’ *UPDATED*

Fantasy & SciFi Lovin' News & Reviews

"I'm under no delusions that I am an influential reviewer. Heck, I'm thrilled anyone would ask me to review anything. I review books and movies because it's fun. I like to spread the word about certain books throw in my two cents concerning popular movies. It's an ego driven exercise for sure, but as long as I can get away with it, I'll probably keep doing it.

But do reviews have a meaningful impact in the real world?"

• Do Reviews Matter Anymore?

Fantasy Book Critic

"This book is a re-imagining of the poem Dante’s Inferno and like the original poem; it is about the journey of the narrator and main protagonist Joseph “Joe” Dante. "

• "Dante's Journey" by JC Marino (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

"JC Marino is the author of Dante's Journey. Mihir Wanchoo was able to conduct an interview with this new debut author."

• Interview with JC Marino, Author of Dante's Journey

Graeme's Fantasy Book Review

"When you live in London it’s very easy to forget what a magical place it can be. Think about it... When you’re not in the office, you’re either commuting to it or away from it and you don’t have much of a chance to stop and take a look at where you are. When you get home after a days work (and fighting everyone else on the Underground...) the last thing you want to do is turn around and head back into the thick of it!"

• ‘Kraken’ – China Mieville (Tor UK/Del Rey)

Jack of Ravens

"You don't want to seem like a nutter when you're on public radio. So when the host asks me – as they always do – where do you get your ideas from, I steer clear of the truthful answer: "psychic connections through the aether" or "hypnagogic messages dictated by our mysterious overlords"."

• Inspiration For Writing

The Mad Hatter's Bookshelf & Book Review

"Lou Anders should need no introduction to the regular readers of this blog as his work as impresario of Pyr Books since its inception has been quite lauded as they are now celebrating their fifth year. Anders has been nominated for numerous awards including the Hugo and Philip K. Dick as well as winning the Chesley Award for art direction. He has also edited some well known anthologies such as Sideways in Crime, Fast Forward 1, and the forthcoming Swords & Dark Magic and recently retitled Masked."

• INTERVIEW | Lou Anders Editor of Pyr

Mark Charan Newton

"Just a quick heads-up: I’ll be at the charming Goldsboro Books signing limited edition numbered copies of City of Ruin, from 2pm on Saturday 19th June. These are the only special editions there will be, so if you’re an ebay legend, then this is the time to get a copy."

• Goldsboro Books Signing – 19th June

NextRead

"Now lists are always odd things to make and some can be more controversial than others… but I’ve been looking at the new catalogues from a lot of UK publishers wondering what is going to be exciting to read. And there are a lot of exciting books. There are books that I know I want to read at some point, there are books coming out in a series that I’m catching up with (so would be more exciting if I was waiting for them) and there are books that are debuts that I wanted to try. There are loads of other reasons too why I’m excited but I hope you get the idea. I like new books full stop."

• Personal: Top Five Books from July to December 2010

State of Review

"Tablets priced at about $100 will be unveiled at Computex in Taiwan, which begins Monday – the first major trade show since the release of the iPad in April."

• Rival tablets ready to bite into iPad lead

Through a Forest of Ideas

"Since I started the topic of discussing writing goals and knowing what you want from your imagination, it’s smart to coordinate those goals with a good business sense and aim them so that you can expect a career from this in the end. It seems like I know what I’m talking about, but I can assure you that this is a brand new epiphany, sparked by my last post."

• Series vs. Standalones

Voyager Books Blog

"Unholy Ghosts is the first book in Stacia Kane’s Downside Series & it was phenomenal! It is one of the most grittiest, in your face Urban Fantasies I’ve ever read & I loved it... If you read one new Urban Fantasy series, make it Unholy Ghosts."

• Boy Books and Girl Books

Free Reading

Grasping for the Wind

"I met Elissa Malcohn at Oasis 23, where she sat on a panel intended to introduce readers to new worlds. (It was, in essence, readings from the various authors, most of whom were poets.) Malcohn read a chapter from the first book in her Deviations series, a series that had been picked up by a small press, but never got published due to that publisher’s going defunct. Instead of sitting on her hands, Malcohn decided to release her entire series as free ebooks for readers."

• Free Fiction: The Deviations Series by Elissa Malcohn

Suvudu Free Book Library

"To celebrate the upcoming July 13 release of Tongues of Serpents, the eagerly awaited sixth book in Naomi Novik's fan-favorite Temeraire series, we're delighted to offer the series' first volume His Majesty's Dragon in the Suvudu Free Library for a limited time."

• Free Library: His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik!

Giveaways

Fantasy Book Critic

"In honor of Michael Scott's Blog Tour visit, Fantasy Book Critic is lucky enough to offer 1 autographed copy of The Necromancer by Michael Scott, and a second winner will get a surprise gift."

• GIVEAWAY: Autographed Copy of Necromancer by Michael Scott

Fantasy/Sci-Fi Lovin' Giveaways!

"Courtesy of Grand Central Publishing I have a copy of Procession of the Dead by Darren Shan to offer for giveaway."

• Giveaway! "Procession of the Dead" by Darren Shan

"Courtesy of Penguin Books I have a copy of Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds to offer for giveaway."

• Giveaway! "Terminal World" by Alastair Reynolds

"Courtesy of Penguin Books I have a copy of Distant Thunders by Taylor Anderson to offer for giveaway."

• Giveaway! "Distant Thunders" by Taylor Anderson

Graeme's Fantasy Book Review

"Whatever the reason, I'll be giving 'The Folding Knife' a go at some point soon and thanks to Orbit three other readers will be able to do exactly the same (only if they're from the UK though...)"

• Giveaway! 'The Folding Knife' (K.J.Parker)

"'The Passage' seems to be the book this year that everyone is making a big deal of. If someone hasn't read it and raved about it then they're planning to read it just so they can rave about it afterwards. At least that's what I'm hearing ;o)"

• Giveaway! 'The Passage' (Justin Cronin)

"You've read my review for 'Dog Blood' (What do you mean you haven't? Just scroll down the page a little...), now you've got the chance to win a copy all for yourself :o)"

• Giveaway! 'Dog Blood' (David Moody)

Grasping for the Wind

"Thanks to New Video Digital, I have a copy of, The Guild: Season 3 to give to one lucky winner."

• GIVEAWAY: 1 copy of The Guild: Season 3

"The Indigo Court Series is a new one for me. I’ve been writing the Otherworld Series for a long time, now, and love it—but with the Indigo Court Series I’m exploring darker themes and the books are, in a sense, more magical than my OW Series."

• GUEST POST AND GIVEAWAY: Origin of the Indigo Court Series by Yasmine Galenorn

Pat's Fantasy Hotlist

"Thanks to the cool folks at Subterranean Press, one lucky winner will receive an ARC of Speculative Horizons, an anthology edited by Yours Truly!"

• Win an Advance Reading Copy of SPECULATIVE HORIZONS

"Thanks to the kind folks at Grand Central Publishing, I have three copies of Jacqueline Carey's Naamah's Curse up for grabs!"

• Win a copy of Jacqueline Carey's NAAMAH'S CURSE

SFF Blog Recap

24 May - 30 May

Welcome to this week's SFF Blog Recap! I enjoy gathering these very interesting posts every week. I hope you enjoy reading them too.

(The blog posts below are ordered alphabetically according to their Blog Site names. So there's no favoritism. You should have picked a name starting with one of the first letters of the alphabet ;) ).

Babel Clash

Alastair Reynolds is now blogging at Babel Clash and his first post is an interesting one.

"I wanted to kickoff with some discussion about optimism and pessimism in SF/F (mostly SF, since that’s what I do) because it’s a topic that’s been much on my mind of late, and not least in the last couple of weeks. But let’s go back a bit further than that to begin with."

• Optimism and pessimism - where did it all go right?

Fantasy Book Critic

Mark Charan Newton's City of Ruin has been one of this year's best books for me. You can also read Cara's excellent review here.

"City of Ruin is the second novel in the Legends of the Red Sun series - currently projected at four volumes - and it follows Nights of Villjamur which I reviewed last year."

• City of Ruin by Mark Newton (reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

Floor to Ceiling Books

Aidan runs one of the most successful book blogs on the Web: A Dibble of Ink. Last week, Amanda posted an excellent interview with Aidan.

"The reason I wanted to invite Aidan in to chat is because I am one of the very teeniest and newest book bloggers around, and I thought it would be amazing to find out the perspective of someone who has seen blogs come and go, and knows what it means to run a highly successful book blog. Without further ado, let's get to the questions!"

• A Dribble of Ink talks to Floor to Ceiling Books

Orbit

Can the writers be surprised by the characters that they create?

"When I was about two or three chapters into Land of the Burning Sands, I sent a note to my agent to ask, facetiously, whether she could provide a role for the leading female character to play besides merely serving as the love interest in the story. If I didn’t come up with something important for that character to do, I said, I’d write her out of the book entirely."

• When Characters Surprise You

I think we are becoming a pessimist, selfish, scared and unthrustworthy species in general. Does that cloud our judgment in what's realistic in fiction?

"’ve been seeing some interesting discussions around lately about realism in fiction — to wit, that positive portrayals of various human experiences and relationships were 'unrealistic' and ought to be confined to the lowest forms of genre fiction."

• Alexander and Realism

Pyr-o-mania

I personally don't think that iPad is the right eBook reader mainly because of the display. And I can probably thrown in the battery argument as well. But if you're using your iPad to read books, here's a good article about various iPad eBook reader apps:

"Yesterday, Barnes and Noble released their much-anticipated, long-awaiting B&N eReader app specifically for the iPad. With its arrival, there are now three excellent eReading options, and as a user of all three, I though a follow up to my "My Life in eBooks" post might be due."

• Further Thoughts on eReader apps for the iPad

Science Fiction & Fantasy Novelists

I'm not an aspiring writer, however Coe's good advice may serve others.

"I answered their questions for a while, but soon realized that they were overthinking the process. One of the students seemed to recognize this at about the same time I did. He asked, 'Okay, what is the one thing I should be doing now if I want to be a writer someday?'"

• The Fundamentals

SFScope

Here's the winners of the Canadian The Prix Aurora Awards:

"The Prix Aurora Awards, the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards, are being handed out right now at Keycon 27 / Canvention 30, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada."

• 2010 Prix Aurora Award Winners

Wondermark

If you've ever wondered about "supernatural collective nouns", here's an excellent list for you:

• Supernatural Collective Nouns

Free Reading

A Dribble of Ink

"Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker, a tale of Steampunk Seattle beset by zombies, is hugely popular, into its seventh printing and collecting nominations for both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel. It’s easy, then, to imagine the excitement building for the stand alone follow-up Dreadnought."

• Free Readin' | 'Dreadnought' by Cherie Priest

Pat's Fantasy Hotlist

"Thanks to the folks at Pyr, here is an extract from Ian McDonald's upcoming The Dervish House. "

• Exclusive excerpt from Ian McDonald's THE DERVISH HOUSE

Tor.com

"The city was old, begrimed by time. A place of wind-worn stones and tumbled masonry, its towers tilting and its walls crumbling. Wild sheep cropped the grass that grew between cracked paving stones, bright-plumed birds nested among columns of faded mosaic. The city had once been splendid and terrible; now it was beautiful and tranquil. The two travelers came to it in the mellow haze of the morning, when a melancholy wind blew through the silence of the ancient streets. The hoofs of the horses were hushed as the travelers led them between towers that were green with age, passed by ruins bright with blossoms of orange, ochre and purple. And this was Soryandum, deserted by its folk."

• The Mad God’s Amulet by Michael Moorcock

Giveaways

Grasping for the Wind

"Thanks to Sarah Totton, I have a signed copy of her story collection, Animythical Tales to give to one lucky winner."

• GIVEAWAY: 1 copy of Animythical Tales by Sarah Totton

Fantasy/Sci-Fi Lovin' Giveaways!

"Courtesy of Tor Books I have a copy of Black Blade Blues by J. A. Pitts to offer for giveaway."

• Giveaway! Black Blade Blues by J. A. Pitts

Temple Library Reviews

"The Mylex Five-Shelf Bookcase is a great way to store your books, CDs, DVDs or other items without having to sacrifice style for function. Featuring a sleek black finish, this bookcase has five adjustable shelves to accomodate your storage needs. Perfect for use in the home or office!"

• [Giveaway] Stylish Black Bookcase