Adam Roberts's Blog, page 12

Well I Like Ebrei, and I Like Zombi, but Which Is Better? There’s Only One Way To Find Out …

From semi-editor Lavie Tidhar, I learn that an Italian edition of Jews Versus Zombies is now on the cards (including my story 'Zayinim', at which, as I have already noted, I worked assiduously for months, perfecting and titivating the sentences, balancing the structure, refining the narratorial voice and undertaking whole weeks of detailed zom/hebie research). Which is molto cool-o. Lavie has more news though, for it seems the volume has become the focus of the high-powered academic attention of which it is so richly deserving. He reports:

An academic at Wesleyan University is giving a lecture based around Jews vs Zombies at the Association for American Religion meeting. Here is the description:

Tza'ar Ba'alei Chayim? Jews as Predators and Prey in the Zombie Apocalypse

There is an ongoing debate in Judaism around whether "stewardship" or "dominion" is the proper way to define our relationship to the rest of creation. What does it mean to have control over the Earth? And how do we practice tza'ar ba'alei chayim, concern for the suffering of living things, from our place at the top of the food chain. The short story collection Jews vs Zombies pushes those questions to their logical, and sometimes illogical extreme by plunging us into the post-zombie apocalypse where humanity is no longer the alpha predator. As both predators and prey, the Jews in these stories have to navigate new ethical concerns that Genesis never imagined.

Rave, Rave Against the Dying of the Light

So my latest, and in all likelihood last, collection of SF essays and reviews is now out -- Rave and Let Die: the SF and Fantasy of 2014 (Steel Quill 2015). 269 pages of material, including several never-before-published reviews of books, a lo-o-ong introduction overviewing the state of the genre, and a sort of short-story to finish things off. Steel Quill is an imprint of Ian Whates's NewCon press, so contact him for hard-copies; or you can buy the eBook for the insultingly low price of £2.99 over on amazon.

What else? Well, today (Saturday 12th Sept) there was a Forbidden Planet signing event: that's Ian on the left, James Lovegrove in the middle, and on the right it's ... no: wait. Isn't that George Clooney!!? [peers closer at photo] No. No -- my mistake. That's me on the right.

Judging

The University of Glasgow 'Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities' group is running a writing competition. You might want to enter it, you know.

We are pleased to announce a creative-writing competition for science fiction on the theme of medicine, health, and illness.

Science fiction has a long tradition of medical stories: Frankenstein (reanimation), The Island of Doctor Moreau (surgery, tissue grafting), Brave New World (eugenics), Flowers for Algernon (disability), I Am Legend (contagious disease), The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe (terminal illness), Woman on the Edge of Time (psychiatry), Never Let Me Go (cloning, transplantation) … and many others. Our creative-writing competition is intended to stimulate new work in this fruitful area.

We invite science-fiction short stories (and also self-contained novel excerpts) of up to 3000 words that address themes of medicine, health, and illness. Some possible ideas for work might be:

Future/alien medicine and doctors

Computerized/robotic healthcare

Engineered diseases and alien plagues

Future/alien conceptions of health and illness, including mental health and illness

Utopian/dystopian visions of health, illness, and medicine

Cosmetic and/or elective surgery/transplantation/modification

Present and future disabilities, and their social/cultural (de)construction

Public health and population health, at a global or galactic level

Alternate medical history (what if a medical pioneer had died young, and/or a particular discovery/advance never been made?)

Entries should be no more than 3000 words, and no entrant may submit more than two entries.

The top three entries, and up to seventeen runners-up, will be published in the competition anthology.

First Prize: £300

Second Prize: £200

Third Prize: £150

Runners-up: £50

Entry is free of charge and open to anyone over 18. Please see the full competition rules.

Entries should be submitted by the deadline of 31 January 2016 using the online form.

I mention this here because I've agreed to be a judge. So, enter, and I will be all ...

... on your work.

Unfilmable

The evergreen i09 has a list of 'The 10 Most Unfilmable Books (That Absolutely Must Be Made Into Films)'. You could click on the link, if you wanted to, and find out which ten unfilmable books they think should be so honoured. If you wanted to.

Thing Itself, The

As SF Signal notes, this is coming soon. Currently slated for a 17th December 2015 release. It's the novelisation of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason the world has been waiting for. Also, it solves the Fermi Paradox. You're welcome.

Landor’s Cleanness

I've neglected this author website rather shamefully, and from now on I shall try to be a little more assiduous with updates. Starting with notice that the TLS has reviewed Landor's Cleanness (Oxford Univ. Press 2014). Not wholly dithyrambic, but a pretty positive judgement overall by Jacqueline Bannerjee. I can't deny the 'rather desperately chatty', nor that Landor's reputation is probably unsalvageable. But I'm happy with 'noble', 'close, well-considered and best of all honestly questioning', and 'worth waiting for' is like that old ad for beer. Heineken, was it? Later on she calls it 'a big publishing event', which is nice, if clearly untrue.

2015 John W. Campbell Memorial Award Finalists

The Campbell finalists' list has been announced. And here it is:

Nina Allan, The Race (Newcon Press)

James L. Cambias, A Darkling Sea (Tor)

William Gibson, The Peripheral (G.P. Putnam's Sons)

Daryl Gregory, Afterparty (Tor)

Dave Hutchinson, Europe In Autumn (Solaris)

Simon Ings, Wolves (Gollancz)

Cixin Liu (Ken Liu, translator), The Three-Body Problem (Tor)

Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven (Knopf)

Will McIntosh, Defenders (Orbit)

Claire North, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (Redhook)

Laline Paull, The Bees (Ecco)

Adam Roberts, Bête (Gollancz)

John Scalzi, Lock In: A Novel of the Near Future (Tor)

Andy Weir, The Martian (Broadway Books)

Jeff VanderMeer The Southern Reach Trilogy (FSG Originals)

Peter Watts, Echopraxia (Tor)

You'll notice that Bête is on that list. You'll notice, too, how chuffed I am at that fact.

Alan Jacobs on Bête

Hard to think of a contemporary writer-critic I esteem more highly than Alan Jacobs. Over at his 'New Atlantis' blog Text Patterns, he gives his reactions to reading Bête.

Caroline Edwards and me, 12th May 2015

Hope to see you there.

Looking Forward: 2016

Nothing finalised yet, but it looks like this could be an early-ish 2016 release.