pornokitsch

Has Samsung given us the greatest fantasy story of all time?

Today's Stylist featured an advertisement for the new Samsung Galaxy Note 8, impartially illustrating the difference between books (BAD) and the e-reader on the new Samsung Galaxy Note 8 (UTTERLY AMAZEBALLS).

Not sure about you, but I'm a little worried that Samsung thinks this is reading at its "best".

YE OLDE FASHIONED PHYISIKAL BOOK

Double K(DK) is being persued by vicious enemies and is injured in Souron’s sneaky trap.. He decided to go into The Darkest Forest..where even little light cannot go through..

The Darkest Forest.. traces of human, animals, even wind, but any evidence of escape cannot be found in this death place.. no one knows what exists, what can survive.. but, DK does not have any other choice

he has bleeding too much  and it is a matter of time before he gets caught.

Darkness, heavy fog,, does not allow DK to see even an inch ahead..

He finally takes a step into the silent death place.. “I know this smell..I can even predict how many dead animal bodies are rotting when I walk on them.. How long can I last? I cannot get caught by Souron’s Army although I meet my death here.”

DK is lying down on his horse, his old friend, ‘Thousand’. Even Thousand’s beend shot by an arrow on his leg and back, he is protecting and sharing his heat with DK and walking into the darkness.

“A day? A week? A month?.. how long have I been in this forest?I dont know I can survive this night. You never give me up Thousand even you also have dreadful injuries. Thank you so much my friend..
But I shall stop now.. I want to meet my death. I am too weak. I cannot fight with Souron anymore.. I shall go to meet my parents..”

DK close his eyes on Thousand……then…. ‘Splash’…. ‘where am i going? how deeper will I go? It is as cold as ice but I feel easy and peace.. I am sorry Thousand but I want to meet my parents [and] it is..

The Lowest Heaven - Paperback pre-orders & Forbidden Planet Launch!

We're releasing The Lowest Heaven in its non-limited formats, and we'd love it if you could join us for the fun.

We'll be at Forbidden Planet with piles of paperbacks on the evening of Wednesday, 3 July, alongside authors E.J. Swift, Lavie Tidhar, Esther Saxey and David Bryher. We'll be signing, shmoozing and eventually heading to the pub. Plus, the crafty people at FP have whipped up some special bookplates based on Joey Hi-Fi's design.

Here's the Facebook whatnot with the details.

Even if you can't make it - now's a lovely time to start pre-ordering the book from Forbidden Planet (bonus: signed). (It will be carried by Amazon US & UK, the National Maritime Museum and other retailers as well.)

That fated July day is also when the ebook comes out - those with digital readers will be able to snaffle it on both Kindle and Kobo.

British Fantasy Awards: Non-Fiction Category

A little song, dedicated to our friends over at Fantasy Faction, Ansible, The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature, Stephen Volk and Diana Wynne Jones.

"Was a time when I knew the earth."

...thus begins Sam Sykes' "Wish for a Gun" from A Town Called Pandemonium. 

In many ways, that's how we felt when, coming home last night, we discovered that A Town Called Pandemonium and "Wish for a Gun" are both finalists for the British Fantasy Awards. 

A huge congratulations to all the contributors to A Town Called Pandemonium. As a shared world, it was a shared effort, and the ten authors, two editors and one badass illustrator who worked on it should all be enormously proud of themselves. And a separate-but-still-incredibly-hearty congratulations to Mr. Sykes, whose "Wish for a Gun" is an amazing piece of work. 

We pity the competition, because, as Sam writes: 

"Ain’t know what the earth is until you put someone in it."

(Just kidding. Honest. Congratulations to them too!)

----

A Town Called Pandemonium is available on the Kindle (UK / US) and Kobo. Last we checked, there were a few remaining copies of the limited edition at Forbidden Planet (they're signed by multiple contributors, including Sam Sykes) [Update: they're not on the website, but I do think they're in stock. Maybe.]

Underground Reading: A Touch of Death by Charles Williams

This is the latest installment in our scheme to review each and every Hard Case Crime publication, one every week. You can follow along here.

A Touch of Death (2006) was first published in 1954. Like many of Charles Williams' other books, it first appeared as a Gold Medal paperback. Although commercially and critically successful during his lifetime, Williams is now almost entirely out of print - both Joe Lansdale and John D. MacDonald have referred to him as one of the most "neglected" writers of his era. (Happily, it now looks like Mysterious Press have released many of his works for the Kindle, although with covers that make them look like cheap porn.)

Lee Scarborough is a former football player in need of some fast cash. He swings by an apartment complex, hoping to sell a car, but the lead dries up. Fortunately, another opportunity awaits - Diana James (sunbathing, attractive, utterly amoral) spots a fellow spirit in Lee. A bit of fencing results (Lee thinks she's propositioning him, which, she is, but not in that way), and Diana lets Lee in on the chance of stealing $120,000. Apparently a chap named Butler got himself killed after robbing a bank. No one knows where the money is, but Diana's pretty sure that it is still in Finley's house. Diana will play driver/scout/etc. if Lee breaks in, searches the place, and steals the stolen money. Sort of a meta-crime: no one can possibly complain.

Lee needs money and it doesn't take much convincing for him to take this first step down the slippery slope of eeeeeevil. Yet - perhaps Lee doesn't go evil enough. He breaks into the Butler house (as planned) but then finds that the dead man's widow, Madelon, is still there. Lee's considering his hasty exit when someone else breaks in - someone with a gun and a grudge. Rather against his best interests, Lee winds up tackling the gunman and saving Madelon's life. She's too drunk to realise what's happening, so, Lee kidnaps her - half for her own protection, half out of blind panic. When Madelon sobers up, she and Lee are in a remote cabin... and she's pretty pissed off.

Post-script: We're gonna need a bigger boat...

I'm going to combine the 'post-script' (book purchasing) and 'everywhere but here' (stuff that's happening) updates from now on. They're both sort of... bloggy, self-indulgent entries. We'll see how it works out. Bear with me as I figure out how best to talk about myself.

First up, latest purchases/new cause for groaning floorboards & concern from the downstairs neighbours:

Lee Hoffman's The Legend of Blackjack Sam. Dunno. Ace Western. It is a thing. I read a lot of Westerns ahead of A Town Called Pandemonium - with the expectation that after that book was done, I'd never return to the genre. Who knew I'd actually enjoy it so much? (Any Amount of Books)

Alice Thompson's Burnt Island. A reminder of the house rules - I don't list review copies. But if I buy a proof for a few quid, then woohoo! Anyway, the back cover sounded intriguing. The reviews I've read since then make it sound a bit... not my thing, but it is a teeny little book. Worth a shot. (Any Amount of Books)

Arthur C. Clarke's The Sands of Mars. First edition, first novel (second book), with dust jacket... and weirdly cheap on abebooks. Anyone know the story with this? I would've thought this was a proper 'jump for joy' rarity, but the average internet price is unspectacular. (Any Amount of Books)

Gary Northfield's The Terrible Tales of the Teenytinysaurs! with a sketch! Of DINOSAURS. This book is pure, unadulturated wonderful. We actually bought three copies, one to save, two as gifts. (Gosh! Comics)

James Smythe's The Machine. I am collecting the bejeesus out of this guy. Great book. Glad to have the hardcover. (Foyles)

Jonathan Grimwood's The Last Banquet. A review of this will be up next week, I think. But, for now, it should suffice to say that I am delighted to have picked up a proof to go with the copy I was sent to review. This book is really, really excellent. (Cecil Court)

"Essential" Epic Fantasies: Wrap-up

This week's listing activities have been a lot of fun - and goes to show that the internet loves a list.

Between the four of us, Liz, Justin, Tansy and I selected 165 different "essential" epic fantasies with 201 picks (Liz took a bonus pick). I figured that, before I put the whip down and let the dead horse be, it was worth doing a bit of poking around in the numbers. 

Download all four lists as a CSV file here. 

Here's how the math works out:

Books with multiple selections:

Chosen by all four of us:

• George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (1996)
• J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (1954)

Chosen by three of four (rebel in brackets):

• Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel Trilogy (2001) [Jared]
• David Eddings' Belgariad (1982) [Liz]
• Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth (1994) [Tansy]
• Homer's Odyssey (8th century BC) [Justin - who was perverse, and chose the Iliad]
• The Dragonlance Chronicles (1984) [Liz]
• Joe Abercrombie's The First Law (2006) [Tansy]

18 were chosen by two people. 

Below the jump... selections by gender, authors with multiple selections, how the bloggers overlapped and a few personal thunks about all the stuff I got wrong.

The Lowest Heaven - Launch Day!

The Lowest Heaven is out today!

Our latest anthology is published to coincide with the Visions of the Universe exhibition at the National Maritime Museum, and the book is officially released this evening at the Museum's late night event.

Tonight's shindig features readings from several of the contributors, telescope workshops, comics from The Phoenix, music, comedy, poetry, alcoholic wizardry from Bompas and Parr and, of course, one of the most amazing exhibitions of astrophotography ever assembled. (Tickets are free, but booking is necessary.)

Many of The Lowest Heaven's contributors will be attending, including Sophia McDougall, Alastair Reynolds, Simon Morden, E.J. Swift, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Mark Charan Newton, Lavie Tidhar, Esther Saxey, David Bryher, James Smythe, Matt Jones, Marek Kukula and the (elated) editors.

Each story in The Lowest Heaven is themed around a body in the Solar System, from the Sun to Halley's Comet. The stories are illustrated with photographs and artwork selected from the archives of the Royal Observatory, while the book's cover and overall design are the work of award-winning South African illustrator Joey Hi-Fi.

Tonight we'll be selling the limited edition - 100 hardcover copies, exclusive to the Royal Observatory. These are individually numbered and will be signed by all of the attending contributors (see above for the star-studded list). The hardcover has full-colour, full-page art, with dust jacket and boards designed by Joey Hi-Fi. Joey also designed a special treat: a fold-out chart of the Solar System that is bound in to every copy of the limited edition. 

The paperback and ebook editions will both be released in July.

Early reviews of The Lowest Heaven:

"Visually beautiful with an incredibly high quality of fiction. Highly recommended." - The List

"The whimsical, the hard-core science stories and the outright strange; overall it is a well-crafted ensemble and the solar system theme never seems like a constraint... Starburst has no hesitation in recommending it to any serious reader of science fiction." - Starburst Magazine

"This back and forth between the actual and the fantastic underpins The Lowest Heaven's exploration of space, both as we know it and as we can only imagine it.... There can be no questioning the value of this artful anthology: it's as inspiring as it is inspired." - Tor.com

50 Essential Epic Fantasies (Part 2: 1982 - 2013)

The latter half of my picks for "Essential" Epic Fantasies. You can find the first 25 - and a bit of explanation - here. 

A quick reminder that the the rules are as follows:

• No more than one book or series from each author. For example, J.R. R. Tolkien could go in for The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings series, but not both.
• No collections or anthologies.
• You can only list books that you have read. 
• Definitions of "essential", "epic" and "fantasy" are left open for interpretation.

Don't forget to check out the lists composed by Liz Bourke, Justin Landon and Tansy Rayner Roberts as well!

This half of my my "Essential" list are about the changes - or lack thereof - happening in the epic fantasy category. 

Let's get stuck in, starting with one of the greatest revisionist epic fantasies of all...

When Dreams of Yith Went to The Swap Hole

Rex Weldon was a pseudonym for Duane Weldon Rimel, a personal friend of H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith and other writers of the "Lovecraft Circle".

Mr. Rimel was the editor (with Francis Towner Laney) of The Acolyte, the first Lovecraft-related amateur magazine. He also contributed to some of the earliest fanzines, including Fantasy Fan.

Rimel's short story, "The Music of the Stars", considered one of the key contributions to the making of the Cthulhu Mythos.

His Mythos poetry, "The Dreams of Yith" was later revised by Lovecraft, with possible notes from Robert Barlow and Clark Ashton Smith as well. One of Rimel's original stanzas follows:

Amid dim hills that poison mosses blast,
     Far from the lands and seas of our clean earth,
Dread nightmare shadows dance - obscenely cast
     By twisted talons of archean birth
On rows of slimy pillars stretching past
     A daemon-fane that echoes with mad mirth.
And in that realm sane eyes may never see -
     For black light streams from skies of ebony.

Rimel's other titles include A Wife for the Taking, Limit for Laura, Party Wife, Neighborhood Swap, Sex Schedule, Bedroom Bingo, Swap Hole, Twin Stud Swap, Robyn and Her Sisters, Brothers and Sisters, Your Wife for Mine and Arouse Me!