For those of you following along at home, we are having genuine progress with my long-delayed anthology, Godlike Machines.  Originally due for publication in 2008, it has been delayed at the publisher for some time, but yesterday brought the copyedits of the book, which is very exciting.  There’s also a cover (I’ve seen a draft but not the final), and if all goes smoothly, there will be copies of the book at Aussiecon 4. At the moment the book is only available to members of the SF Book Club, but I remain hopeful that we can get it out to a larger audience. It features original hard SF novellas by Stephen Baxter, Cory Doctorow, Robert Reed, Alastair Reynolds, and Sean Williams, and a reprint by Greg Egan “Hot Rock” (it was to have been original to the book).

More news as it transpires, but this book is coming out this year, and honestly there was a time when I wasn’t sure it was going to happen at all – I’m excited and very pleased.

Last night I finished reading Amelia Beamer‘s The Loving Dead and I really enjoyed it.  It’s a romantic comedy (sort of) featuring zombies, zeppelins, and employees from a popular U.S. retail chain. There are all sorts of reasons I liked it so much. Some are probably unique to me, but some aren’t. The book is funny, sexy and a bit off-putting at times (there are flesh-eating zombies here, after all). It’s also, for me, a real trip down memory lane. Part of the story is set in a friend’s house where  I used to spend a lot of time and part of it in an area of Oakland where I lived for a year. It’s also told in Amelia’s voice. I can hear her reading this out loud, telling the jokes that her lead character tells, and being brave and kick-ass in pretty much the same way.  Those personal things only add, though, to what is a very good first novel.  Even if you’ve never been in the Oakland hills, wandered through Piedmont, or worked in a retail outlet, The Loving Dead has a lot to offer you.  Highly recommended. (You can read the book online for free now at ameliabeamer.com, but you’re going to want to own your own copy – trust me.)

The full table of contents for my special Guest-edited issue of Subterrean magazine is now online. I was approached to do this some time ago and had a real ball doing it. It drifted a lot from the initial concept, which was very hard SF, but I think in the end it works really well. I have favorites, of course, but I’m not saying which ones are which.  Every story has its strengths. I will point out that Peter Beagle’s fabulous ‘Inkeeper’ novella “Return” will also be published as a stand-alone book late this year, while the whole issue will remain online for you to enjoy. So, check it out!

• Fiction: The Naturalist by Maureen McHugh
• Fiction: Under the Moons of Venus by Damien Broderick
• Fiction: Brownian Emotion by Tom Holt
• Fiction: Elegy for a Young Elk by Hannu Rajaniemi
• Fiction: Return: An Innkeeper’s World Story by Peter S. Beagle
• Fiction: The Bodhisattvas by Gord Sellar
• Fiction: What We Take When We Take What We Need by Daryl Gregory

Oh, and many thanks to Shaun Tan for letting us use his gorgeous cover art from the Australian edition of Margo Lanagan’s Tender Morsels. It’s a wonderful image and suits the issue well.