Simon Brown’s first published story “The Return of Idomenus” was the start of an ambitious project to re-tell the Iliad in a cycle of science fiction and fantasy stories. Twenty five years later that project was completed with the publication of Troy by Ticonderoga Publications.

The book is one of the highlights of the Australian publishing year, an essential addition to any library of good science fiction and fantasy. At the moment, you can either buy it from somewhere like the Australian Online Bookshop or from the publisher.

In the meantime, if you’re not familiar with Simon’s Troy, you can sample some of the stories here:

• “A New Song For Odysseus”,
• “Why My Wife Left Me, And Other Stories, By Diomedes”,
• The Dreaming Seas Beneath Cassandra and
• The Mark of Thetis

Be sure to buy a copy. It’s a fine small press title, and won’t last long. And yes, he really does look a bit like Clark Kent. Oh, and if you’re feeling inspired, you can go read the original too.

…thing ever! I thought Robert Sabuda’s Dinosaur pop-book from last year was cool. I was even getting into the whole idea that the new book on Prehistoric Sharks that he has coming out was cool. But then I went to his website, and found this! A Maurice Sendak pop-up book tribute to ’30s Movie Monsters. That is almost too cool to imagine. Don’t know when it’s coming out or anything, but click on the link above and check out some of the draft work that’s been done. Awesome!

According to amazon.com, the word yumeko appears 240 times and the word zofia 105 times in Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling’s The Faery Reel. It’s a terrific anthology, but weird info to publish!

I obviously read, or at least look at, a lot of short science fiction and fantasy stories. Increasingly these stories are coming out in original anthologies from both small presses and trade presses, and they contain some terrific fiction. What I’m finding more and more difficult is keeping track of all of these anthologies, and being sure that I see them when they come out. With that in mind, I’m at the very least going to blog about books that I know are coming out, and might even start up some kind of registry. With that a quick initial mention of a few anthologies that have come to my attention recently.

First up is Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling’s Salon Fantastique: Thirty Original Tales of Fantasy. This one’s due out in September/October of this year and can be preordered from Amazon. Ellen and Terri are one of the best and most important collaborative editorial teams to work in the fantasy field, and all of their anthologies are terrific. This one looks especially good. On that, be sure to keep an eye out for The Coyote Road, due out in 2007.

Second is Peter Crowther’s Forbidden Planets. This is the fourth paperback original anthology that Pete’s edited for DAW, following on from Moon Shots, Mars Probes, and last year’s Constellations. I’m actually reading this one at the moment, and it has some terrific stories by Alastair Reynolds, Ian McDonald, Jay Lake and others. It’s due in November 2006, and if you’ve read Pete’s other anthologies, you’ll know what to expect here.

Third is Lou Anders Fast Forward 1. The first in a new original anthology series due out in early 2007, and featuring a cool John Picacio cover, it has some great people in it and looks like it should be fascinating. Lou has edited a couple anthologies in recent years, Live Without a Net and Futureshocks, both of which featured some extraordinarly good short fiction. What I like about his anthologies is that they’re very focussed. They are based around a strong, clear idea, and Lou really makes his books work.

And last for the moment is Marvin Kaye’s Forbidden Planets. It’s due from the SF Book Club in June, and includes original novellas by Robert Reed, Nancy Kress and others. I though Kaye’s The Fair Folk was one of the best fantasy anthologies of last year, and I’m looking forward to this one. I’d also take my hat off to the Club, who have published some great novella books of late. I think Gardner’s One Million A.D., for example, is terrific and Charles Stross’s “Missile Gap” (from that book) deserves to make the Hugo ballot next year.