Page 10 of posts by: montsamu

The Hardest Part: Ian J. Malone on Red Sky Dawning

Posted on 2015-05-08 at 15:28 by montsamu

Durham author Ian J. Malone's 2013 science fiction debut Mako introduced a team of five "thirty-something" friends who become the first-ever group to beat the (fictional, at least for now!) video game "Mako Assault". Flown to meet the game's mysterious designer, they learn that the game's intent was far more than entertainment: the game was designed to train and identify just such a group of human players, desperately needed in an interstellar war. (If you're thinking of The Last Starfighter you may be on

Posted in The Hardest Part | Tagged ian j malone, mako, red sky dawning

Paul Kincaid's From the Other Side, April 2015: awards coverage, big announcements, new books, and more

Posted on 2015-05-01 at 15:27 by montsamu

From the Other Side, April 2015

By Paul Kincaid

[Editor’s Note: From the Other Side is Paul Kincaid’s monthly column on books and news from the other side of the Atlantic.]

So we are back in the middle of the Awards season, starting with the presentation of the BSFA Awards at Eastercon. I wasn’t there, so I can’t give any details except that I didn’t win. So I hereby announce the creation of the Sad Bulls to ensure that the right me wins all awards from now on.

Actually, the winners were: Best Novel – A

Posted in From the Other Side | Tagged paul kincaid

April newsletter: SFWA Southeast reading series kicks off April 24; lots of award news including Hugo, Tiptree, Gemmell, and Wellman updates; and! in May: Mary Robinette Kowal and Marie Brennan visit Quail Ridge Books

Posted on 2015-04-21 at 18:45 by montsamu

Vol 5 No 3. Tuesday, April 21, 2015: No, you didn't miss a newsletter in March; I did. We didn't have too much going on in terms of readings, and then all of a sudden, every time I thought I was about ready to send out the newsletter, another huge piece of news would roll in, or a new event would come across the wire, and here we are mid-April with all kinds of fantastic things coming right up! Let's start with what's on the immediately upcoming EVENTS calendar:

• April 24 (Friday) 7 pm -- The SFWA South

Posted in newsletter

The Hardest Part: Piper Kessler on Frequency

Posted on 2015-04-17 at 15:03 by montsamu

On Thursday, April 23, 2015, Motorco will screen three seasons of the immensely popular lesbian sci-fi original series Frequency, which features cast, crew, and settings from the Triangle area. Fans will be treated to scenes and storylines from the first three seasons, including unreleased episodes from the current season (three) and exclusive content from the upcoming fourth season. The event will be emceed by Tracey and Matthew Coppedge of The Lowdown Show. Produced by KV Works, Frequency boasts over four

Posted in The Hardest Part | Tagged frequency, piper kessler

Paul Kincaid's From the Other Side, March 2015: remembering Terry Pratchett, covering The Kitschies, and new books from Kazuo Ishiguro, Tom McCarthy, Antonia Honeywell, Paul McAuley, and not Adam Roberts

Posted on 2015-03-31 at 18:43 by montsamu

From the Other Side, March 2015 By Paul Kincaid

[Editor’s Note: From the Other Side is Paul Kincaid’s monthly column on books and news from the other side of the Atlantic.]

So the embuggeration won. We always knew it would, but even so … The first thing Terry Pratchett ever said to me was “Sorry.” I’d been organising the programme for a science fiction convention, and a publisher I’d never heard of contacted me to ask if we could invite one of his brand new authors as a guest. We didn’t know the author

Posted in From the Other Side | Tagged adam roberts, kazuo ishiguro, paul kincaid, terry pratchett, the buried giant, the kitschies, tom mccarthy

The Local Scene: Donna Glee Williams

Posted on 2015-03-05 at 19:56 by montsamu

[Editor's Note: New column The Local Scene will introduce some of North Carolina's fantastic roster of authors and their books, monthly on first Thursdays.]

North Carolina author Donna Glee Williams was born in Mexico, the "daughter of a Kentucky farm-girl and a Texas Aggie large-animal veterinarian." Having grown up "mostly" in Maryland, she lives in "the hills" of North Carolina, adding that "the place I lived the longest and still call home is New Orleans." By day she leads seminars on a variety of

Posted in The Local Scene | Tagged donna glee williams, the braided path

The Hardest Part: Robert Creekmore on Afiri

Posted on 2015-03-04 at 19:10 by montsamu

North Carolina author Robert Creekmore's initially self-published his first novel Afiri through Amazon.com last year, but quickly withdrew it from commercial publication when he discovered that he could not make it continually available for free. After considering his options, in late February he elected to simply make the novel available as a PDF download from his website. With readers from North Carolina to Saudi Arabia, the move has paid off in more ways than one. Creekmore describes the novel as

Posted in The Hardest Part | Tagged afiri, robert creekmore

Paul Kincaid's From the Other Side, February 2015: Iain Banks and Ken MacLeod's Poems, E.J. Swift's Tamaruq, Naomi Foyle's Rook Song, Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Signal to Noise, Jonathan Barnes' Cannonbridge, and much more

Posted on 2015-03-03 at 16:39 by montsamu

From the Other Side, February 2015 By Paul Kincaid

[Editor’s Note: From the Other Side is Paul Kincaid’s monthly column on books and news from the other side of the Atlantic.]

Most poignant publication of the month has to be Poems by Iain Banks and Ken MacLeod (Little Brown). The book came out on 16th February, which would have been Banks’s 61st birthday, and also, incidentally, the 31st anniversary of the publication of The Wasp Factory. The book was planned before his death in 2013, and includes 50

Posted in From the Other Side | Tagged bsfa, ej swift, iain banks, jonathan barnes, kameron hurley, ken macleod, naomi foyle, neil gaiman, paul kincaid, silvia moreno-garcia, the kitschies

Friday Quick Updates: Oak City Comics Show on Sunday, and Wake County Library's "Let's Talk Sci-Fi" series kicks off with Drake and Van Name discussing Heinlein

Posted on 2015-02-28 at 19:27 by montsamu

Saturday, February 28, 2015: A belated Saturday edition of "Friday Quick Updates" this weekend, ahead of several events today and tomorrow. First! Today Ultimate Comics hosts comics creator/author/illustrator Chris Giarrusso (G-Man Super Journal, Mini Marvels) for a day of signings and quick sketches:

This appearance is ahead of Giarrusso's appearance at the Oak City Comic Show tomorrow (Sunday, March 1) at the Hilton North Raleigh/Midtown, with a fantastic lineup including Mick Foley, Tommy Lee Edwards,

Posted in Friday Quick Updates

The Hardest Part: Uri Kurlianchik on Tales from an Israeli Storyteller

Posted on 2015-02-24 at 13:17 by montsamu

Israeli author and game designer Uri Kurlianchik was the first person with whom I had a Google audio chat, way back when we were discussing edits on his short story "The Sad Story of the Naga" in Bull Spec #2. (Or it might have been about his choose-your-own-adventure project I never figured out how to publish in a magazine?) Over the years now, I've enjoyed hearing his stories of teaching kids to play roleplaying games -- the foolish or genius things that "his" kids try both in and outside of the rules and

Posted in The Hardest Part | Tagged uri kurlianchik