Monthly Archives: May 2004

Just read Greg Benford’s new story, The First Commandment, over at Sci Fiction. It’s basically “The Nine Billion Names of God” retold, this time naming all the beasts and the world ends, as opposed to counting all the names of god. It’s ok, but not as special and weird as Christopher Rowe’s very cool The … Continue reading »

Phases of the Moon Though I doubt I’ll review it myself, I thought I’d make some comment here about Robert Silverberg’s forthcoming career retrospective, Phases of the Moon. It is, as I’ve suggested below, big, covering six decades of writing, reprinting 23 stories with extensive notes and such, and all in a handsome 600+ page … Continue reading »

What were once vices are now habits… The title of this post comes from an old Doobie Brothers lp and it’s always struck a chord: the way it refers to the journey from passion overindulged, and then become commonplace, expected rather than enjoyed: vices truly become habits. The reason I refer to it now is … Continue reading »

Narrative strategies I just finished reading Charlie Stross’s next novel, Iron Sunrise, sequel to Hugo nominee Singularity Sky, and I think it’s a superior book to its predecessor in most every way. It’s interesting, engaging, brings more of the conceptual depth of his short fiction into play at novel length, while still preserving a lot … Continue reading »

No, I get excited about this. You can never get enough good news. I just sold another anthology, and I’m really excited about this one. It’s an original young adult science fiction anthology, tentatively titled The Starry Rift: Tales of New Tomorrows, and it’s due out in hardcover in mid-2006 from Viking Children’s. There are … Continue reading »