Adam Roberts's Blog, page 27

By Light Alone

I'm pleased as a peacock (are peacocks pleased, proverbially speaking? Have I got the wrong end of the tailfeather?) to have finished my next novel, By Light Alone. It's presently with my editor: July 2011, it seems, is the most likely release date.

In the meantime, I look about this old place and think to myself: 'hmm, needs more content.' So over the next few days I shall provide some.

Tattooed Dragon, out now!

In all good bookshops. There's also a map.

CATASTROPHIA

A copy of Allen Ashely's top-drawer collection Catastrophia popped through the door today. As a contributor (my story is called 'Noose') I got the fancy-pantsy traycased polyautographed hardback edition -- you can see what it looks like over on Ian Sales blog. But you can get your own edition, cheaper than that, over at the PS Publishing Site. I urge you to do so. It's a very good collection:

Did you grow up on a diet of catastrophe novels? Classics such as "War of the Worlds", "Death of Grass", "Day of the Triffids", "Greybeard", "The Purple Cloud" and so forth? Did you hone your teen angst through a diet of disaster stories?

This book won't exactly take you back to that Golden Age . . . because the purpose of "Catastrophia" is to revitalise this sub-genre of Science Fiction for the early twenty-first century. To bring a modern sensibility and craft to the business of ending the world as we know it. These days, there's plenty of catastrophe on screen - whether it be at the cinema or on TV - but we have somewhat let the subject slip in the literary world. No longer!

Award-winning editor Allen Ashley has collected 18 brilliant brand new stories from a mix of established and emerging authors that will take you way beyond Wyndham and well past Wells. Catastrophe stories are alive and kicking.

Buy this book, read this book . . . while we still have a world in which to do so!

Fade - David Gullen

A Hard Place - Carole Johnstone

Up - Andrew Hook

Stephen's Boat - Billie Bundschuh

Noose - Adam Roberts

Check - Robert Guffey

Something For Nothing - Joe Essid

The Phoney War - Nina Allan

Happy Ending - Simon Clark

Nanoamerica - David John Baker

Pixels on a Screen - Patrick Shuler

Scalped - Jet McDonald

Gravity Wave - Douglas Thompson

In The Face of Disaster - Ian Sales

Trouble With Telebrations - Tim Nickels

The Long Road to the Sea - James L. Sutter

Crashes Stuart Young

Hapless Humanity - Brian W. Aldiss

Opowieść Zombilijna

More Polish splendour.

But wait: they haven't translated my name!

Projekt Stalin

Jest to bardzo ekscytujące. The publishers of my soon-to-appear Polish translation of Yellow Blue Tibia, the to-be-called 'Project Stalin' by the to-be-called 'Adama Robertsa', have put together the above promotional You Tube fillum. Is it cool? It is very cool.

Friday 8th October: Birmingham SF Group

I will be talking to the Birmingham Science Fiction Group on Friday: it's in the Briar Rose Hotel, and things kick off at 7:45pm. Come along! We could grab a drink afterwards, if you like ...

Aéroplane

As you can see, this is the Chinese language edition of my Palgrave History of Science Fiction. Nice to see it being disseminated into such a large and important realm, and the 400 pages of idiograms look beautiful, if incomprehensible, to me.

If I'm honest, I am pleased that this book, with its (original, I think) argument about the origins and nature of SF is still in play; although of course it goes without saying that it lacks the quality and influence of Gary K. Wolfe's Soundings.

Gary Numan

That's right: Numan. The estimable Philip Palmer invited to me contribute something on SF Music to his blog -- if I've held back from mentioning his blog here earlier, it must be because his blog is so much more varied and interesting, not to say so much better designed, than mine. But go check out what I have to say about Numan. Then stay to explore the rest of Philip's domain.

Zone NMA review

Jonathan McCalmont's review of New Model Army has just been posted at The Zone. I don't think I've ever read a more pleasurably gobsmacking review of something I have written. I'm a little amazed at myself, and a touch suspicious, how pleased it makes me. Over at his Ruthless Culture site, McCalmont summarises thuswise:

New Model Army is not merely a good book or an enjoyable book. It is a book that has the potential to reinvigorate science fiction as a literature central to the cultural...

The Food of the Gods

Arrived in the post yesterday: the lovely Gollancz SF Masterworks ed of this Wellsian minor masterpiece. It's a lovely cover, even if I'm not entirely sure how it relates to the gigantic subject matter of the novel. (Sings: 'gigantic, gigantic, gigantic'....)