It’s a time for friends birthdays. It was Gardner Dozois’ birthday on Sunday. He just turned 59. And my friend Rob Hood turned 55 today. Happy birthday to them both!!
All posts by Jonathan Strahan
More Treasury
Bill over at Subterranean Press has just posted the final table of contents for The Jack Vance Treasury. It’s taken some conversation between Terry and I, a little back and forthing on whether this story should go in or whether it should be that one, but we’ve ended up with about 225,000 words of stories. You can see the final list here. I’d really like to thank John Schwab and everyone at the Vance Integral Edition who didn’t just make the project easier, they helped substantially to make it possible. Without their digital files, we’d have been scanning and proofing until doomsday (shudder).
I’ve also seen a near-final copy of the cover by Tom Kidd, which is just lovely (the b&w sketch on the SubPress page doesn’t do it justice), and George Martin has written a wonderful appreciation for the book. The other thing that is a real highlight is the interstitial material. Jack has written a brief preface for the book, and we’ve managed to source comments from him on almost all of the stories which will run as afterwords (the main source of these, for VancePhiles, was the 1976 The Best of Jack Vance). We’ve also managed to include a biographical sketch written by Jack which hasn’t been widely seen. Given that Jack’s always preferred to let his work speak for itself, this additional material provides some interesting context on this major writer.
As to when you’ll be able to get the Treasury, actually buy one – I think probably in the first quarter of 2007 (Jan/Feb most likely). When I’ve got solid information on that I’ll post it here. In the meantime, you can pre-order the book.
New Year’s Bests!
Well, the day is at hand. You can now pre-order both Science Fiction: The Very Best of 2005 and Fantasy: The Very Best of 2005 directly from Locus Press. All of the hard work from Liza, Tim, Kirsten, Amelia, Karlyn and CHARLES has really paid off. I think the books look terrific, and hope you agree. Many thanks to the fabulous John Picacio for the cover art too. This has been a real community effort, with all of the contributors and everyone from Locus pitching in to make it happen. I’m proud of the books, think they look good, and they’re starting to get great reviews which is very encouraging. If you think you might be interested, you cancan now pre-order or if you’re attending LAConIV you can buy copies direct from the Locus table.
Polyphony 6
So kids, there are a lot of anthologies out there. More and more all the time. So, you need something you can depend on, something cool and great to read, something with dependably high standards. Deb Layne and Jay Lake have been delivering the goods for five years or so with the Polyphony series of anthologies. Deb’s just posted the table of contents for Polyphony 6. If the idea of new stories by Robert Reed, Howard Waldrop and Steve Utley (authors of Custer’s Last Jump!!), Pam Sargent, Barry Malzberg, Tim Pratt, Nina Hoffman, and top notch Aussies like Jack Dann, Ben Peek and Anna Tambour gets you interested, go order one now! This sort of book deserves your support, so go do it. Now. Go. Really.
Year’s Best SF reviewed
The Locus reviews for this year’s various year’s bests aren’t out yet, but the first reviews are showing up. Many thanks to Sean Wallace who just sent on a copy of the Publishers Weekly starred review for Science Fiction: The Very Best of 2005.
Science Fiction: The Very Best of 2005
Jonathan Strahan. Locus (www.locusmag.com), $17.95 paper (340p) ISBN 0-978-62100-9. Cover by John Picacio.
Given the existence of two long-running “best of the year” SF anthologies edited by Gardner Dozois and David Hartwell, one might wonder at the need for yet another such volume. Still, veteran Strahan (Fantasy: The Very Best of 2005) shows excellent taste in his 14 selections, starting with Michael Swanwick’s charming “Triceratops Summer,” in which a glitch at a research facility temporarily transports dinosaurs to the modern world. Other high points include James Morrow’s “The Second Coming of Charles Darwin,” in which evangelicals send an AI disguised as a tortoise back in time to destroy all evidence of evolution on the Galápagos Islands; Bruce Sterling’s “The Blemmye’s Stratagem,” which concerns an alien living on Earth at the time of the Crusades; Susan Palwick’s “The Fate of Mice,” in which an intelligent lab mouse must decide where his loyalties lie; and last but not least, Ian McDonald’s powerful “The Little Goddess,” in which a girl in a far-future Nepal becomes the latest incarnation of a deity. (Sept.)