Sale

to Triangulation: End of Time. Story called "Near Absolute Zero". Anthology to be launched at Confluence.

Short post: been *very* busy of late. More extended blogging over the weekend (and especially on May 1).

Podcast Sale!

Of "Transcendence Express" to Escape Pod. I've only sold one story this year (so far), but it sold twice.

It originally appeared in HUB #2, which was in the EasterCon goodie bags, so all you Con attendees do read it! Unfortunately, news that HUB will stop as a print magazine, and will become a full online magazine just reached me. I wish the magazine all the best, and hope they thrive, although personally I do prefer the paper version.

Nevertheless, it'll be interesting to hear what Steve Eley and his people make of this one. I can hardly wait!

So it's been in print, in pdf format (available here) , and will be a podcast. Now it only needs to be turned into a movie...

(Can you notice that I've had a few beers...;-)

Crimewave

When travelling to and from EasterCon 2007, and during lunch, I finally took time to read CrimeWave 9. It's understated design may well be the best CW Andy Cox did, and the stories are -- again -- phenomenal.

I actually stumbled upon CrimeWave via The Third Alternative: I bought an issue of TTA, liked it, subscribed and bought back issues, and subsequently found that Andy was also publishing this thing called CrimeWave. Now crime stories weren't really to my taste, and the crime genre evoked visions of numerous clichés, from closed-room murder mysteries to pedantic detectives to hardboiled tough guys and what-have-you. I mean, with the leading magazines in the field being called 'Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine' and 'Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine', well, how unimaginative can you get?

Still, TTA was good, very good, so I decided to try out one issue of CW. I started reading it with no particular high expectations (rather the contrary), but the first three stories completely blew me away. In retrospect this was because I subconsciously expected the same old, cliche-ridden crime stories. CrimeWave 5 demolished all my preconceptions about crime fiction. All the stories were dark, gritty, visceral without reverting to gore, fresh, sharply written with a very modern sensibility.

Awesome. Superb.

I subscribed and bought all the back issues. Quality-wise, CrimeWave 4 and CrimeWave 7 (pictured above: I couldn't find an image of CrimeWave 5 on the net) are probably better, but number 5 will always have a special place in my heart as it so spectacularly shattered my prejudices.

The thing with the CrimeWave series is that Andy Cox only releases a new one when he has enough top quality stories, meaning only about one per year is released. But when it comes out: joy, pure joy!

So check it out!

350 Word Reviews

There have been complaints in some places that lament the fact that we, at Interzone, use 350 word reviews rather than longer ones. It crops up here, but I’ve seen it in other places, as well. To quote:

If I wanted 350 word reviews of things I'd read SFX but I'd prefer longer more
in depth pieces.

I would vastly prefer the old style of reviews section, where three or four
people an issue would each write at length about several books, to the current
350-words-a-book version.

Maybe people could wonder why there is such a 350-word limit on book reviews. It is, after all, the industry standard. Not only SFX is using it, but the utmost majority of professional publishers. Like, in the UK: New Statesman, Spectator, and the Independent. Or, for reference, check out this overview of the National Union of Journalist, where most reviews mentioned are also 350 words or less. And it's also the same in all the major magazines and newspapers in my country, The Netherlands.

Is this a fossilised habit that refuses to die, or do all these professional, profit-making venues have a certain rationale for it?

A couple of years ago I went to a BeneluxCon in Blankenberge, Belgium. There was a reviewing workshop led by a professional translator and journalist. It was an eye-opener.

The gist of it is that a 350-word book review is more challenging to write than a lengthy one, and if done well is – in general – better for both the reviewer and the reader, and also better from a publicity point of view.

Quite probably, the 350-word limit originated from the fact that print magazines and newspapers only had a limited amount of space available. So, in order to get a broad range of reviews for a broad audience, reviews were kept short and concise.

For a modern print publication, this is still an ongoing concern. In the internet age, one could argue, space limitation is not an issue anymore, so (much) lengthier reviews can be published. Still, even professional online venues like SciFi Wire don't do that. Simply because the reasoning behind it is not sound.

The internet is the gathering place for people with short attention spans. Or, to quote a colleague: "the online reading experience is facilitated by terseness". So in order to snare those rapid surfers, one needs to display brief and succinct reviews, not prolonged protractions from a geeky pedestal. Unless one's main aim is to preach to the converted, but let me give a hint: most professional businesses want to expand their audience.

We expect short fiction writers to be sharp and concise, and not waste a single word. So why should we not expect the same from our reviewers? Should we set the standard lower for reviews? If quantity is more important than quality, then the logical endpoint is spam.

When limited to a 350 wordcount, reviewers must write only about the essentials. It forces them to concentrate on what they really need to say, to get to the heart of the matter. No roundabout reasoning, no self-important side remarks, no bloated blathering, no snarky references for the incrowd. No excess baggage, not a single gram of it. It compels reviewers to develop and hone their craft to perfection. First learn the ropes, the basics before one is allowed to do lengthier essays. Show that you're a professional, build a track record and an outstanding oeuvre before you're allowed more leeway. As mentioned, we expect the same of fiction writers, so why should non-fiction writers be exempt to this?

Well, to me the answer is: no, reviewers are not exempt to these rules, and have to comply to high standards. And about every professional publisher, plus any University course worth its salt agrees with this.

So 350-word book reviews are not a necessary evil, but the industry standard because – when done well – they work. In print and – if not even more – on the internet.

But for those of you that need a refresher, or a primer, here are some links to professional reviewing, and the difference between reviewing and criticism.

So, taking these lessons into account, how would a 350-word, concise and conclusive review look like? One could do worse than check out the professional venues mentioned above in this post, but to put my money where my mouth is, I'll include a review of Blindsight by Peter Watts.

In Blindsight, humanity’s evolutionary destiny is questioned by a First Contact with ominous consequences. A biologist by trade, Peter Watts’s audacious novel challenges our perceptions of consciousness, in a narrative where the science weighs in equally with the fiction, and where each action, confrontation, discussion or character serves the underlying theme. Its intellectual density continuously threatens to collapse into the black hole of its thesis, pulling the reader through a mental event horizon into the unknown.

Warned by a ‘firefall’ event, a crew of humans encounters an alien object on the edge of the solar system: Rorschach, which orbits a brown dwarf, harnessing its huge magnetic field. After initial, indirect, and portentous communications the Earth crew explores the alien craft. The tension increases, and the mystery deepens as the humans enter deeply strange and hostile territory.

It is no coincidence that none of the main characters are baseline humans: each of them – a captain cum resurrected vampire, an hyper-integrated exobiologist whose exosensorium causes synaesthesia, a linguist with a deliberate multi-personality disorder, a major so hyper-linked she and her drones become as one, and an observer who had half his brains removed – illuminate the notion that there are other modes of thinking, different ways of using brain power. Still, these highly augmented humans are no match for the aliens they encounter.

These ‘scramblers’ are more, much more than they seem: the result of a parallel evolution that threatens to outcompete the (unmodified) human race. Already apparent during the study of two ‘captured’ aliens, this realisation becomes undeniable as the confrontation between post-humans and aliens intensifies. And only through the use of all its resources – including the real Captain of the vessel – can the Earth forces, through sacrifice, achieve a temporary reprieve, which enables Siri Keeton – the observer – to get back to Earth to report. If he gets back, and if Earth is the same when he returns…

Definitely not a novel for escapists or the occasional reader, Blindsight is extremely thought-provoking, taking its premise to the ultimate conclusion, showing that the alien without might be closely related to the alien within.

Also, a – much longer – essay on Blindsight is slated for the May issue of the New York Review of Science Fiction. And before everybody accuses me of inconsistency: the NYRoSF is a specific venue for longer critical articles, not a magazine that contains fiction, articles, interviews, and reviews like, well, Interzone.

Finally, if you want a pisstake on book reviewing, look no further.

Interdimensional Intrusions

WARNING!

--Centric has been invaded by an alien planet!--

In a strange environment, even stranger things are happening! Curiouser and curiouser. Reality, fiction, virtuality, and metafiction are overlapping: A company previously known as Oversight, but soon to be revealed as Winfinity (in what is supposedly a fictional essay called "Far Horizon" to be published here), has dumped an entire alien planet into the 'unsuspecting' Centric office in Second Life.

Apart from evoking some surprising new office dynamics -- and let me tell you that those were already quite lateral in the first place -- the people/simulacra/Turing interfaces/I-pointers/usurping self-promoters* have offered a reward for tracing this problem.

Search the snark, but beware: they might be dragons.

Centric accepts no responsibility for those boldly going where only fools rush in, and please sign these release forms where the small print is nano-engraved in a thousand angelic scripts dancing on the atomic head of a molecular pin, you know, to save memory space. Just read it after you've completed the assignement, or not...

You have been informed/warned/warmed up*.

* = delete as appropriate, although some philosophers/ubergeeks/potheads/drunks* have suggested that they might be a superpostion of all of the above.

Update: UH, WHAT? The plot thickens...

RUSH...

...are releasing a new album -- Snakes & Arrows -- on May 1 (and what a great date that is, for me, as will hopefully become apparent tomorrow, here). They're also touring again, and visiting Europe.

Hallelujah!

I've been a Rush fan since 1981, when I was in the last class of 'Atheneum' (the highest level of Dutch high school in those days), when the local café -- we drank mostly beer there, no coffee -- was playing Moving Pictures more than any other album. Circumstances prevented me from seeing them on the Moving Pictures tour, but I did see them on the Signals and Roll the Bones tours when they visited Holland (and missed the Hold Your Fire tour by one day after returning from abroad), and when they released Vapor Trails and weren't coming to Europe, I decided to see them in Toronto: bought a ticket via teh intarweb, arranged a flight through accumulated frequent flyer miles, and saw them in Toronto on July 17, 2002. And even met another Dutch friend who had flown over just for that.

Then they did come to Europe on their 30th Anniversary tour, and I went to see them both in Germany (Oberhausen) and Rotterdam. And getting tickets for these shows was fantastic.

In the old days, in order to get the best tickets, you went to go to the venue in question, or your nearest local post office where sales would start at 9 in the morning on a Saturday. And if you wanted to be sure to get those front seats, then you had to get in line *very* early -- like the evening before -- with your sleeping bag, lots of beer, and food (optional). I've done that, with my brother, several times.

Enter the new century, and a superbly run fan club. The fanclub members (and registering as such on the Rush website is easy) get pre-announcements of the tour dates, and even the chance to order tickets one day before the official sell dates!

So in 2004, instead of dragging these aging bones to the venue or post office, I placed a call to Oberhausen on the Friday before the official sales, arranged tickets for my brother, his wife and me, in the office, and was done in two minutes during a coffee break.

For the Dutch shows, I took the Friday the presales begun off, sat myself before my computer just before 9 o'clock, and had tickets about 5 minutes later.

Chalk one up for progress!

Similarly for the Snakes & Arrows tour: last Friday I called the venue in Oberhausen at 9 o'clock, had to wait a couple of minutes to get through, and since they still had me listed in their system from last time (three years ago), I was done in 30 seconds or so.

Unfortunately, the only places where they do *not* do presale days for the fans this time are Scandinavia and Holland (thanks Mojo -- the Dutch live music monopolist -- but no thanks). Since we already had tickets for the nearest German show (about a 90 minutes drive), my brother and I decided to leave our sleeping bags where they were -- hidden in some closet -- and log in with the rest of all the Dutch Rush fans this Saturday morning at 10 o'clock.

In the first few minutes we couldn't get through, but around 10 minutes past 10 I had five tickets booked, paid, and downloaded (in Holland you can print out your tickets yourself nowadays: they have a unique barcode, and that barcode is scanned on entrance. If someone had copied your ticket -- or you had given them the PDF file -- then the first one with that unique barcode comes in, and all the rest not, and might get charged for illegally trying to enter), and my brother was busy providing his payment details (there was some frantic cell phone traffic, as well). All set in about 15 minutes.

I'm not twenty anymore, and prefer 10 to 15 slightly stressful minutes behind my computer to spending the night in a sleeping bag in front of the Ahoy (the Dutch venue where they will perform) ticket office. I'm happy those days are past.

Now, onwards to May 1, to check Snakes & Arrows, and, if all goes well, something else...

NB: even those not interested in the band should check out Neal Peart's autobiographical novel Ghost Rider: a harrowing account of the tragic events that disrupted his life, and how he survived ('learnt to live with' would be an understatement).

Last Chance: Amityville House of Pancake Omnibus, Volume 1

Because it will be out of print in a couple of weeks. "But," the more publication-savvy among you might protest, "how can a POD book go out of print?"

Well, because one of its authors has sold her novella to another publisher, and the contract for AHOP was up, anyway.

Adrienne Jones (re-)sold Gypsies Stole My Tequila to Bedlam Press, where it will be released as a paperback and a limited edition hardcover. For more info, check Adrienne's LJ, where she spills the beans (and where you might congratulate her, if you, unlike me, have an LJ account. I already did so in other places).

And while I am, of course, a little bit jealous, I am very happy for Adrienne, as Gypsies Stole My Tequila is a heck of a novella. Well deserved.

Since I, together with Jack Mangan and JD Welles, have had the honour of sharing a ToC with her in AHOP 1, you could do worse than purchase a paper copy (or an electronic one) before it really is out of print. Together with the afore-mentioned, brilliant Gypsies Stole My Tequila (and yes, I've already begged her to send me a short story for Interzone, but apparantly she only likes them big) you get The Girl in B33, Dirk Moonfire and the Nefarious Space Women, and my own Cultural Clashes in Cádiz.

See it as an investment: it'll multiply in value the moment Adrienne Jones hits megastardom, replacing both J.K. Rowling and Stephen King. Oh well, maybe not quite, but she is very, very good (no guarantee for sales, alas), and you never know. Or Jack Mangan might hit the big time (his podcasts attract healthy numbers of downloads and comments). Maybe even I --

*pinches himself and wakes up to the cruel, cruel world*

-- where was I? In any case, you can check out reviews of AHOP 1 on Tangent Online, Barnes & Noble, or SFReader (and even customer reviews on Amazon).

Nefarious blurbage:

The story builds to a satisfying climax during Carnival, which in de Vries’s capable hands is perhaps as exciting and visually stimulating as the real thing.

(Douglas Hoffman on Tangent Online)

"Cultural Clashes in Cadiz" by de Vries is a time-travel adventure set in 13th-century Spain that pits a rogue time-traveler against the two trackers closing in on him. The story's conclusion -- where the traveler's reasons for illegally going back in time are finally revealed -- is as mind-blowing as it is brilliant.

(Paul Goat Allen on Barnes & Noble: how could they fire such an insightful reviewer?)

If you liked AHOP 1, there are also AHOP 2 (out of print already, although some dealers still have copies) and AHOP 3: check out the Creative Guy Publishing catalogue.

(And now I'm off to hypnotise some unwary editor into publishing Cultural Clashes in Cádiz...;-)

Shaun Tan's "The Arrival"

Sometimes, one of the most beautiful books you read doesn't have words. Like Shaun Tan's The Arrival. It's not a comic, as there is no accompanying text or speech balloons. The whole narrative is told through pictures, and as such is an absolute tour de force. Also, in terms of The Arrival's theme, it makes sense, very much so.

The graphic narrative (my best term: it's not a novel, nor a comic book, nor a picture book) tells the story of a migrant from the migrant's viewpoint (actually, I think it's meant to convey the migrant experience in general: so a migrant from any culture trying to resettle in any different culture about anytime in the last couple of centuries. Tan aims for the sky and -- for my money -- mostly succeeds), and therefore the language of the strange culture in which he arrives would initially be unintelligible anyway. So the lack of words substantially increases the migrant's sense of estrangement and bewilderment.

The technique works very well, as evidenced by this panel:

A native woman explains the migrant how to use the local transport system. It's depiction is crystal clear, while at the same time the exotic setting is highly evocative. A high wire balancing act, and Shaun Tan really pulls it off. Both the country from the migrant(s) -- later on he meets other immigrants -- and the country of arrival remain undeniably outlandish.

Still, there are strong indirect autobiographical hints (Shaun Tan's father came from Malaysia to Australia), such as the huge dragon tails in the picture below from the migrant's home country, to the strange animals in the country of arrival (see the two animals in the top right drawing of the above panel), reminiscent of Australia's marsupials, who are unique in the world.

The nameless -- but definitely not faceless! -- migrant meets other migrants who did not leave their country because of poverty (which supposedly was the migrant's motive), but because of repression, as depicted in the haunting drawing below:

Magnificent stuff, and this high level of accomplishment is maintained throughout. With reluctance, I'll refrain from posting much more gorgeous drawings from Shaun Tan's website, excepting this final panel that is one of the best renderings of the passing of the seasons that I have ever seen:

I can't recommend this wonderful book high enough. I bought it together with the spiffy Shaun Tan calendar, and I urge you to check out the vendors on the bottom of Shaun Tan's webpage, or you can order both from Amazon UK.

Dead Reckoning

Saturday I received the new Threshold album. Dead Reckoning has phenomenal cover artwork -- you can hardly go wrong with a zeppelin, and certainly not with five of them -- and superb music to boot.

Anticipation had built up considerably for me, as the radio edit of "Slipstream" was playing on their website and myspace site weeks in advance, the "Pilot in the Sky of Dreams" single and videoclip (on youtube) were released online two weeks before the official album release.

It's a phenomenal way to make fans hungry for a new release, and has become the common way to do this in the music industry. One wonders if this might be copied by the publishing industry: say, release a sample chapter (or a sample story if it's a collection or anthology) online, followed by a podcast of another chapter (or story). For example, Paul Di Filippo's "Wikiworld" was put online, and this was widely announced, e.g. on Boing Boing, before the release of the Fast Forward 1 anthology edited by Lou Anders. With the addendum that the music industry in general has larger budgets than the publishing industry.

Anyway, Threshold: I got interested in the band when I read a review of the debut album Wounded Land in a Dutch music magazine (then called SymInfo), where the reviewer really liked the melodic parts, but really hated it when the huge guitar riffs came chugging in. It sounded exactly like the kind of music I was looking for: I bought the debut album and have been a fan ever since. It's also why I think that reviewers should be honest all the time: in this case even a negative review sold the album to me, as I could correctly estimate from the review that this album would be to my taste.

Apart from making great music, the 'progressive metal' they play has top class lyrics. Threshold is one of the thinking man's metal bands, and is one of the examples I give when I point people to intelligent heavy metal (not unlike explaining people that there is something like intelligent SF, although for my money heavy metal is culturally more accepted than SF). Bass player Jon Jeary used to write most lyrics during the first half of the band's career, but since he left keyboard player Richard West has taken over that role with verve.

Also, Threshold is one of those rare bands that keep trying to develop and reinvent themselves, and with Dead Reckoning they have managed to get both a heavier and a more accessible sound, effortlessly mixing monster riffs with earworm choruses, subtle piano chords with heavy grooves, inventive structures with hooks sharper than knives, and thoughtful, poetic lyrics with thoughtless headbanging action.

Over the years, the band have become good friends, as well, and when they tour I hope to have a talk and a few beers with Karl Groom, Rich West and the others.

In the meantime, you could do worse than check out the band's website (or myspace site), where they play the radio versions of "Slipstream" and "Pilot in the Sky with Dreams".

EasterCon and World Fantasy

I've just booked Contemplation, the 2007 EasterCon in Chester (with special thanks to Roy Gray for helping me out). I've also booked World Fantasy in Saratoga Springs, New York (got a very good deal for the Amsterdam -- Newark flight).

At EasterCon I'll be mostly busy manning the Interzone dealer's table with Roy Gray. I had some big plans with Convoy which fell through when Convoy fell through (and also because of some developments in my private life), so I'm doing Contemplation more low-key (no IZ party like at LACon IV). Still, I'm looking forward to meeting old friends, and a few new ones (like Gareth Lyn Powell, whom I've only communicated with over the internet). Do feel free to come by the IZ table and talk with Roy and me. We are very communicative (even if we might try to sell you some IZ/TTA swag).

World Fantasy in Saratoga Springs will be my first World Fantasy Con. There will be plenty of good friends there, but I'm especially looking forward to meeting a lot of people who I only know online. So far, I'm not doing an IZ dealer's table there -- logistics are a nightmare -- so will mostly network and hang at the bar.

Also, sparked by Edmund Schubert's comment on my previous post, I might sugget a panel topic.

Hope to see some of you there.