via Charlie Jane Anders at io9: The Best Science Fiction Would Work Without Any Science At All
What makes a great science-fiction story work? Most people say the acid test is whether you can remove the scientific speculation and still have the same story. If so, it’s not science fiction. But one author says it’s the opposite.
Guest blogging over at Southern City Mysteries, Cassastar author Alex Cavanaugh writes:
No matter where our epic novel is set, all readers must still relate to the story. They need to feel a connection to our characters and setting. The same forces that drive humans must also drive our characters or they will seem alien to the reader (pun intended). They must possess similar needs, desires, and emotions. Create a world that is absurdly alien and no one will identify with the concept. We’re on the right track if we can remove the sci-fi element from our story and it still works as mainstream fiction.
Read More here
by Lisa Hix at The San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. writer gives female superheroes their due
The accoutrements of America’s greatest superheroes line the shelf tops at Amazing Fantasy comics shop: Batman’s handcuffs, Superman’s cape, Captain America’s shield.
Among dozens of items, only one belongs to a female superhero, Wonder Woman’s crown. This Inner Sunset store stocks plenty of books on fierce women, but only Wonder Woman is iconic enough to rank among justice-obsessed demigods, in towering portraits along the back wall.
San Francisco writer and Amazing Fantasy regular Mike Madrid was always partial to the superhero women so often forced to sit on the sidelines, and it was his dream to write about them.
A couple of years ago, he resigned from his job as creative director for the Gap to pursue his own artistic ambitions. In September, he finally published his book “The Supergirls” (Exterminating Angel Press; $16.95), which is receiving raves from NPR and Entertainment Weekly.
Read More here
by Claire Messud at Guernica: Writers, Plain and Simple
Women make up 80 percent of the fiction reading audience in this country. So why, guest fiction editor Claire Messud asks, are women authors so frequently left off the best-of lists, and left out of prestigious book prizes?
Here’s the deal: men, without thinking, will almost without fail select men. And women, without thinking, will too often select men. It’s a known fact that among children, girls will happily read stories with male protagonists, but boys refuse to read stories with female protagonists. J.K. Rowling was aware of this: if Harry Potter had been Harriet Potter, none of us would know about her.
And we don’t change our spots when we grow up. Last year, I was one of nine judges awarding an international literary prize for a writer’s body of work.Our cultural prejudices are so deeply engrained that we aren’t even aware of them: arguably, it’s not that we think men are better, it’s that we don’t think of women at all.
Read More here
By Anne at Seattle Public Library: Transhumanism in the bleak midwinter
At this time of year, when the cool, grey sameness of winter softly wraps us in the bitter knowledge of our own mortality, I find myself squarely in the mood for a little transhumanist science fiction.
What is that, you ask? It’s a highly philosophical body of literature dedicated to the rich question of what would it would mean to be human if science made “death” unnecessary. Your body could be killed, sure, but what if your consciousness were transferred to a new body, or a clone, or uploaded into a purely digital universe? Would you still be the same person if you were wearing different skin? What if an accident occurred and you and a clone lived concurrently, with the same memories–which one would control your bank account? How would you find work if no one born before you ever retired? Would life have as much meaning without death as a counterpoint? The right book in this category could fuel an excellent book discussion.
Read More here
by Charlie Jane Anders at io9: Rediscover The Clanking, Hissing Origins Of Steampunk
K.W. Jeter’s Infernal Devices: A Mad Victorian Fantasy launched the steampunk genre in 1987 (and Jeter also invented the term, in an interview.) Now Harper Collins’ Angry Robot imprint’s bringing it back into print, along with another Jeter Victorian classic.
According to Angry Robot, both Infernal Devices and Morlock Night have been out of print since the 1980s, although Babbage Press claims to have Infernal Devices “in production.” With authors like Cherie Priest and George Mann making waves with new steampunk titles, it seems like a perfect time to appreciate the genre’s roots. Here’s how Angry Robot describes these Jeter books:
“Infernal Devices tells the story of George – a Victorian watchmaker who has inherited his father’s shop, though not his talent. A tale of time travel, music and sexual intrigue, Infernal Devices is a true classic.”
They’ll be out in the U.K. in October, and the U.S. in December.
Read More here
Alicia Lozano at LA Times: Neil Gaiman tells L.A. fan: ‘Trust your dreams, your heart and your story’
Neil Gaiman had a rough year. His father died while the 49-year-old author was working on a screenplay of his 2005 novel “Anansi Boys” and financing crumpled for a film adaptation of “The Graveyard Book.” But standing before a rapt audience (and a wildly diverse one, considering the children carrying copies of “Coraline,” the parents toting “American Gods” and goth kids wielding “Sandman” issues) at UCLA’s Royce Hall on Thursday night, Gaiman was nothing but sprightly storytelling and good omens.
“I always wanted to be the kind of writer who can tell whatever stories he wanted,” said Gaiman, dressed in his ubiquitous uniform of black on black with appropriately shaggy hair and alabaster skin. “It never occurred to me not to be.”
And this is exactly the kind of storytelling that has made Gaiman “the most famous writer you’ve never heard of,” according to the Times of London. At Thursday’s event, hosted by UCLA Live, the journalist-turned-comic-book-writer-and-eventual-novelist breezed through almost 30 years of literary works, ranging from whimsical poems to devilish short stories and culminating with full-blown adult novels.
Read More here
See More Neil Gaiman books (and more) in our Shop
