Matt Ruff's Blog, page 42
February 7, 2012
The Mirage: in stores today!
Yes, I am excited.
Here's a quick round up of reviews so far:
Publisher's Weekly (STARRED REVIEW) — "Both entertaining and provocative, exactly what the best popular fiction should be."
io9.com — "An addictive, fascinating read, which keeps you guessing."
John Clute — "excellent"
The Seattle Times— "One of the most daring 9/11-inspired novels to emerge after that horrific day more than a decade ago."
Locus magazine — "A Man in the High Castle for the age of global terror."
The Associated Press — "A unique and compelling read… the juxtaposition of realities provides keen insight into the real world."
The New York Post — "Like Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, in which Nazi-sympathizer Charles Lindbergh defeats FDR for president, the premise behind Ruff's alternate-history novel is chilling."
The Mirage book tour kicks off on Thursday evening at 7 PM at the Elliott Bay Book Company. I'll be doing a reading followed by an onstage conversation with The Stranger's Paul Constant. Then on Saturday at 1 PM I'll be at the Ballard branch of the Seattle Public Library — that event is sponsored by Secret Garden Bookshop. From there I'm off to Portland and Sunriver, Oregon. You can find the full schedule of my book tour events here.
A few other bits of publication related news:
I have a guest post up this week on the Seattle Public Library's Shelf Talk blog. It's here.
I've also written a Big Idea essay for John Scalzi's Whatever blog, which should post on Thursday.
The nice folks at Schuler Books in Michigan, who hosted a dinner for me last month, are celebrating The Mirage's publication with an official Matt Ruff week. I'll have a guest post up on their blog on Friday. In the meantime, if you're in the neighborhood, why not drop by and ask if there are any new novels they'd recommend to you?
Big thanks to everyone for their support and good wishes. I'm going to go bounce off the walls some more now.
February 6, 2012
The AP and the New York Post review The Mirage
"An alternate history of the events surrounding 9/11 creates a unique and compelling read in Matt Ruff's The Mirage." — Jeff Ayers, for the Associated Press. Full review here.
"Like Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, in which Nazi-sympathizer Charles Lindbergh defeats FDR for president, the premise behind Ruff's alternate-history novel is chilling." — the New York Post. Review here.
"A Man in the High Castle for the age of global terror"
The February issue of Locus magazine, on newsstands this week, has a lengthy review of The Mirage by Tim Pratt, who does me the honor of summing up his feelings about the novel with a Philip K. Dick comparison: "In The Mirage, Matt Ruff has written a Man in the High Castle for the age of global terror." It's a great note to start off publication week.
Books in stores tomorrow!
February 3, 2012
The Seattle Times reviews The Mirage
Money quote: "…one of the most daring 9/11-inspired novels to emerge after that horrific day more than a decade ago."
Full review here.
February 2, 2012
The Mirage gets two thumbs up from the SF blogosphere
io9.com has posted Charlie Jane Anders's review of The Mirage. She liked it:
The Sept. 11 attacks and the Iraq war have reverberated through science fiction and fantasy for over a decade, giving us plenty of stories of terrorism, wars of occupation and clashes of cultures. But Matt Ruff's The Mirage, which comes out next week, might just be the ideal prism with which to refract your memories of that brutal decade and see them anew. Plus it's an addictive, fascinating read, which keeps you guessing.
Full review here.
Meanwhile, in his Scores column over at Strange Horizons, John Clute shares his thoughts about The Mirage. I love what he has to say, but I also have to warn you, because it's as much analytical essay as review, he gives away some key plot points, including the ending. So, BIG SPOILER ALERT! If you'd rather be surprised, bookmark that last link until after you've finished the novel. In the meantime, here's the money tweet:
February 1, 2012
The Mirage is on this month's Indie Next list
IndieBound has posted its February Indie Next List of "inspired recommendations," and The Mirage is on it, with a blurb from one of my favorite independent booksellers, Tegan Tigani of Queen Anne Books:
"Here's another page-turning, mind-reeling masterpiece by Ruff. Imagine a world where the United Arab States is threatened by Christian fundamentalist terrorists, a world where a few good Homeland Security Agents have to fight corruption and conspiracies to protect all they believe in. I predict this is the novel that everyone will be talking about in 2012. And it's not just provocative, it's a darn good read!"
Thanks, Tegan!
And speaking of Queen Anne Books, I will be there for a reading and book-signing on February 28th at 6:00 PM.
January 30, 2012
Read a sample of The Mirage
We're just over a week from publication now. To whet your appetite, here's a link to a PDF of the Mirage prologue and first chapter: MIRAGE EXCERPT. Enjoy!
Also: The Bad Monkeys 99-cent ebook sale ends tomorrow. Don't miss it!
January 26, 2012
Wireless keyboard suggestions?
For when I'm on the road during book tour, I'm looking to get a keyboard that I can use to type longer email messages and blog posts on my iPad2. The obvious choice would be Apple's own Wireless Keyboard, but I thought I'd throw it open to the hive-mind. Does anyone have any other suggestions for keyboards worth considering? (I already have an iPad cover that I really like, and the covers with built-in keyboards I've looked at haven't impressed me much, but it might be nice to have a keyboard with a stand the iPad can sit in while I'm typing.)
January 24, 2012
In two weeks…
Books will be in stores February 7, and the book tour kicks off on February 9 at Elliott Bay. (For those of you who can't make that reading, I'll also have a Big Idea essay on John Scalzi's Whatever blog that day.)
Meanwhile, the Bad Monkeys 99-cent ebook sale is still running through the end of January. Don't miss it!
January 19, 2012
Surfing the snowpocalypse
We're in day 2 of Seattle's annual snowstorm. By East Coast standards the amount of snowfall is trivial, but because the city's main snow removal plan is called thirty-three degrees Fahrenheit, even an inch or two, if it sticks, is enough to shut everything down.
Fortunately we still have the Internet, from which I learn that our neighbors just up the hill are enjoying themselves:
More pics here. It's too bad the zoo is closed today, or I might risk a slip on the ice to go say hi to the penguins.
Meanwhile, over in Russia (via Alexis Madrigal of The Atlantic), a crow experiments with winter sports:
It occurs to me that, because I live on a hill, there is a snow-covered rooftop within easy jar-lid-throwing distance of my second-floor balcony. And of course, crows are extremely common around here.
Hmm. Whatever shall I do with my afternoon?
