Jared Shurin's Blog, page 4

Sci-Friday: Five Great Science Fiction Novels

Every Friday, a few of the newsletters (Substackers?) I follow (hi, ) seem to glom together for the delightfully named ‘Sci-Friday’. These are self-selected Friday lists of science fictional things. I figured, why not?

For those who have been with me since the Pornokitsch days (rip), you’ll remember the joyous madness of the ‘Friday Fives’. It feels good to bring back the ancient blogging art of the last-minute listicle. Like coming home.

I also thought I’d go against type and not write about cy...

In your corner

Corner shop photograph by Massimo Ianetti, via Roman Road London.

We have a corner shop that is, undeniably, the heart of the neighbourhood. It is a tiny establishment that, despite bursting at the seams with stuff, is a place where the proprietor holds court, aided by a rotating council of three or four sage regulars.

He dispenses advice on local schools, the state of the roads, the relative quality of the local takeaways, and much more. He knows my entire family: what we eat for breakfast, when...

Happily Ever After

A long piece for CrimeReads also went live - a modified version of The Big Book of Cyberpunk’s introduction:

Cyberpunk was born of the punk ethos. A genre that, in many ways, existed against a mainstream cultural and literary tradition, rather than for anything definable or substantive in its own right. This is, at least, an argument posited by those who believe the genre peaked—and died—with Bruce Sterling’s superb anthology Mirrorshades (1986). Accepted as the definitive presentation of cyberpu...

The Big Book of Cyberpunk - Release and AMA

So, the good news is, I’ll probably talk about The Big Book of Cyberpunk a little less from now on. In fact, come Friday, I’m writing about romances again! One of them was FILTHY. So you have that to look forward to.

The bad news is, I’m obviously talking about it a lot right now. Sadly, books are, like most cultural products in the year 2023, a ‘now or never’ proposition.

The Big Book of Cyberpunk. Out now. NOW. OH MY GOD, NOW!!!!

A bit like a movie being judged by its opening weekend: if a book d...

The Unthology

To find material for The Big Book of Cyberpunk, I read tons of works: novels, websites, magazines, archives, collections and anthologies. As I went, I noted over a thousand of these into a loose bibliography of items of interest.

From there, I found stories that, based on thematic heft, significance, quality and personal taste, I wanted to include. There were 138.

The final anthology contains 108.

Cliffhanger! Good thing this newsletter is free.

I knew that 138 would be too many, and expected tha...

Lavanya Lakshminarayan optimised her cushion covers

I have a love/hate relationship with the notion of ‘influences’ in books - e.g. the dreaded who are your influences? question to authors.

People only remember the ‘influences’ they want to remember. It disregards sub- and unconscious influences, which are probably more important, and it overlooks the role of ‘mass’ influences which are definitely more important. If you ask me, I’m influenced by Marshall McLuhan and Nelson Algren. Maybe a bit of Gaddis in there, if I’m feeling particularly smug. T...

Lavie Tidhar wants to write a cookbook

Three weeks until The Big Book of Cyberpunk lands - with an audible thud - at bookshops. The bad news is: this massive tome is going to be the ‘focus’ of this newsletter for a while. The good news is: I’m not all that focused of a person. Plus, if you see cyberpunk as the intersection of society and culture and technology and trends and media and crushing despair, well, that’s pretty much what this newsletter is ‘about’ anyway.

The other thing about The Big Book of Cyberpunk is, not only it is a...

The Big Book of Cyberpunk

The Big Book of Cyberpunk is out on September 26th, and it is a beast.

The largest anthology of the genre to date, it weighs in at over 1,000 pages. It covers a half-century of global cyberpunk, with authors from over two dozen countries.

The following is an alphabetical list of the contents. The book itself is organised slightly more whimsically. It is divided up into a series of individual themes, with the intent to demonstrate their evolution (and/or consistency) over time.

There’s also editor...

The 80% Break-up

I’m currently reading through a pile of award-winning romances and analysing the values on display in each one. Why? ‘Cause! (Introduction, Progress, Reviews Batch #1, Reviews Batch #2, Reviews Batch #3, Reviews Batch #4, Reviews Batch #5).

The 80% break-up is a familiar trope to romance readers - or anyone that’s ever watched a rom-com. The bulk of the story is, of course, Harry meeting Sally. They meet. They cute. They face challenges. They cute further. They cuddle. They commit! And, just whe...

The people, not the process.

Bradford Literature Festival remains the highlight of my year. Admittedly, I’m not the most objective guest, but, it has been scientifically proven to be the very best. This year’s guests, as always, were both eclectic and brilliant: authors and academics, but also artists, scientists, politicians, business leaders, content creators, and just plain ol’ interesting people. That combination makes for - if you’ll excuse the prentention - a gloriously ‘salon’-like atmosphere, with fascinating conver...