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Book Review: The Burning Dark by Adam Christopher

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Captain Abraham Idaho Cleveland is a hero, but he certainly doesn’t feel like one. His gambit at Tau Retore to defeat an immense Spider ship was, charitably, a pyrrhic victory. Worse, he has a bum mechanical knee from the experience. Also, in keeping with tradition, instead of being immediately cashiered out of the Fleet, he has been given one final mission. There’s a space station around a mysterious star that radiates an almost evil, alien sort of light. It’s being decommissioned, and ‘Ida’ has been given the task, the privilege of overseeing that decommission.  But why does no one on the station know that he is a hero? And why are people disappearing or just acting strangely?  And most importantly, who and what is that signal Ida is getting in a forbidden radio band on his homemade radio set?

Blog Posts

My Superpower: Kip Manley

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My Superpower is a regular guest column on the Skiffy and Fanty blog where authors and creators tell us about one weird skill, neat trick, highly specialized cybernetic upgrade, or other superpower they have, and how it helped (or hindered!) their creative process as they built their project. Today we welcome Kip Manley to talk about how knowing he doesn’t know a damn thing relates to City of Roses. ———————————————– There’s this proverb, and you have to imagine I’m opening a drawer as I say this, in the cheap pressboard desk between us, and I’m pulling out a bottle with a little green label, and a plain white paper cup, and where are my manners? Would you like some, too? Rye whiskey, but you know what they say:  makes the band sound better. I don’t know how it got such a reputation as rot-gut. Is it really such an acquired taste? Maybe it’s just that it’s hard to make well, and bad rye’s just that much worse than bad scotch, or bad bourbon. Anyway. Ice is in the bucket there, if you like, and would you look at that:  there’s a second paper cup, just for you.

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

196. Fran Wilde (a.k.a. Chadwick’s Prodigy) — An Interview at ICFA

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http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode196InterviewWFranWildeAtICFA/SandF%20–%20Episode%20196%20–%20Interview%20w%20Fran%20Wilde%20at%20ICFA.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSTowering cities, the history of death, and waste, oh my!  Fran Wilde, author of the upcoming Bone Arrow from Tor (coming in 2015, which is far too long to wait), joins us to talk about such mundane things as waste management in cities built to the heavens, proper disposal of the dead, plagues, and writing words on websites.  Needless to say, we had a blast! We hope you enjoy the episode! Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 196 — Download (MP3) Show Notes: Fran’s Website Fran’s Twitter Cooking the Books Fran also has a story in the April/May 2014 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction, which should still be available in print at your local newsstand or via various online retailers.  The story is entitled “Like a Wasp to the Tongue.”  Check it out! You can also support this podcast by signing up for a one month free trial at Audible.  Doing so helps us, gives you a change to try out Audible’s service, and brings joy to everyone. Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks!  Thanks for listening.  See you next week.

Announcements and Errata

A Note on Hugo Awards and The Stars Change by Mary Anne Mohanraj

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Today is the deadline for Hugo Award nominations.  If you haven’t voted yet, get your ballot filled out right now!  We are, of course, eligible in the Best Fancast and Best Fanzine categories, along with a lot of other wonderful folks.  So…vote! In the interest of ballot-related things, I’d like to draw your attention to Mary Anne Mohanraj’s The Stars Change, which we talked about briefly in an upcoming episode recorded at ICFA this year (along w/ Cecilia Tan).  I knew I wouldn’t be able to get the episode up in time for folks to listen to it pre-ballot-deadline, so I promised to write a little post about the book.  In short, it’s an intriguing work, and our discussion covered such interesting topics as sexuality, Sri Lankan politics, and more.  If anything, this post should serve as a reminder that it is, in fact, eligible this year. Here are some details about the book, which is published by Circlet Press:

Blog Posts

My Superpower: Marianne de Pierres

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My Superpower is a regular guest column on the Skiffy and Fanty blog where authors and creators tell us about one weird skill, neat trick, highly specialized cybernetic upgrade, or other superpower they have, and how it helped (or hindered!) their creative process as they built their project. Today we welcome Marianne de Pierres to talk about how the power of resisting organization relates to Peacemaker. ——————————– So here’s the thing:  I have an uncanny and deep-seated ability to resist being organised. It’s quite the talent. I mean I’ve written nearly twenty novels, raised three sons and worked at various day jobs. It’s hard to know how it was at all possible really, because the moment someone says, “Oh, you can manage that, no problem, you just need to be well organised”, a veil descends across my mind and my limbs become heavy. I begin to daydream and can find endless distractions in odd and obscure time-gobbling pursuits; my junk drawer needs sorting, the car needs a vacuum, I simply must read this article about prescriptivism versus descriptivism in linguistics, all the twitter feeds of people I don’t know, and my favourite advertising-riddled celebrity gossip blogs.

Blog Posts

Mining the Genre Asteroid: The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany

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A council of the people petition the King for a ‘magic lord’ to rule over them. Not a wise thing, what this parliament of craftsmen ask. No indeed! But rather than deny them their request, the lord of Erl is bound to grant it, following tradition immemorial. He sends his son Alveric to Faery to get himself a Faery bride. And so Alveric begins a grand quest to win and keep as his bride the King of Elfland’s Daughter. Getting his bride to be, as Alveric and the people of Erl will find out, is the simplest part of the whole venture. Dealing with the consequences of an unhappy bride, and the infusion of magic into Erl, are much bigger problems for them to face…

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