Rick Wilber's Blog, page 2

Rick Wilber posted an entry

  My new novel Alien Day is all about sibling rivalries, both human and alien. I write about Alien Day and Alien Morning (the first book in the series) in this post for the Tor/Forge blog, and then I mention some other classic science-fiction sibling stories and bring you up to date with some newer novels, too. Take a look. https://www.torforgeblog.com/2021/05/22/some-must-read-sibling-rivalries-in-sff/ 

Rick Wilber posted an entry

I'm very happy to report that the new issue of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine (May/June 2021) features the story, "Tin Man," by Rick Wilber and Brad Aiken. That's the second time Brad and I have collaborated on a story for Asimov's. The story, seen through the lens of baseball, is about technology and its limits, and about changes in life and society. Brad and I hope you'll take a look at it. Here's the link: https://www.asimovs.com/

Rick Wilber posted something

Rick Wilber posted an entry

Here's a teaser for you, the first chapter of my novel, Alien Day (Tor Books), coming out June 1 and available now for pre-pub sales on all the usual online bookstores. The novel is the sequel to 2016's Alien Morning, which was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction novel of the year. Alien Day follows sibling rivalries on Earth and on the alien home planet of S'hudon as brothers, sisters and the all-powerful Mother fight for control of Earth's profits. Here's the link to a great new website, www.mini-story.com that's publishing an interview with me and this excerpt from the novel. https://mini-story.com/author-literary-excerpts/f/alien-day-by-rick-wilber-1

Rick Wilber posted an entry

I had a great time co-authoring this new novelette, "The Hind," with Kevin J. Anderson. Incredibly, for Kevin it was his first sale to Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. https://twitter.com/TheKJA/status/1326596986384994304?s=20

https://twitter.com/WilberSFWriter/status/1327230601846468609?s=20

Rick Wilber posted an entry

   I'm really please to see this great cover for Alien Day, which is in production and will be out on June 1, 2021 from Tor Books. The novel is the sequel to my Alien Morning novel (Tor 2016), which was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel of the Year in 2017.

Set on a near-future Earth and on the alien homeworld of S’hudon, Alien Day explores murderous sibling rivalries, old-school mercantile colonialism, ambition, greed, and the saving strength that can emerge from reluctant heroes called to do the right thing despite the odds.

Will Peter Holman rescue his sister Kait, or will she be the one to rescue him? Will Chloe Cary revive her acting career with the help of the alien princeling Treble, or will the insurgents on Earth take both their lives? Will Whistle or Twoclicks wind up in charge of Earth, and how will the Mother, who runs all of S’hudon, choose between them? And the most important question of all: who are the Old Ones that left all that technology behind for the S’hudonni . . . and what if they come back? 

The novel has some great comments already from early readers. Here's a few:

“A truly original take on first contact, with accompanying threats of world domination and terrorism, all intertwined with nuanced explorations of identity, appearance, and gender. His complex cast of characters (human and S’hudonni) will live on in your mind long after you finish the last page.”
―Alan Smale, Sidewise award-winning author of the Clash of Eagles trilogy.

“Alien Day up the pace of the earlier, with deepening ideas about aliens and how we can respond to them. Wilber knows his stuff and the ride is racy!”
―Gregory Benford

“An original, engaging, wonderfully complex alien world. Very highly recommended.”
―Julie E. Czerneda, author of the Web Shifter’s Library series

“With a wry sense of humor and a host of fantastic characters, Rick Wilber’s Alien Day explores a near-future
where the aliens have arrived and just want to make a profit from Earth. I really enjoyed this. Smartly written
and cleverly plotted, Alien Day is sure to be a hit. Highly recommended.”
―Kevin J. Anderson, New York Times bestselling coauthor of Dune: The Duke of Caladan

“Heather is the most memorable female character I’ve encountered since Wonder Woman showed up in 1941 as secretary for the Justice Society. Beautiful.”
―Jack McDevitt, Nebula award-winning author of Seeker

You can pre-order the book now on all the usual sites. Here's the link for the Amazon site https://www.amazon.com/Alien-Day-Rick...

Rick Wilber posted an entry

Like Kevin J. Anderson says below, when you're stuck at home you can at least let your imagination roam with this new SF Storybundle. Follow the link and name your own price! Yep, my new Rambunctious short-story collection is included.

  Kevin J. Anderson 2 hrs

Why be stuck at home, when your imagination can travel far, far away? I curated a new Adventure SF Storybundle with 13 books about aliens, galactic empires, interstellar travel. https://storybundle.com/adventure Name your own price and get them all.

     

Rick Wilber posted an entry

   I'm really pleased to announce that today, Wednesday, March 25th 2020, is the launch day for my short-story collection, Rambunctious: Nine Tales of Determination, from WordFire Press. Pre-publication reviews and comments have been glowing and I'll paste some of those in below. The book gathers together nine of my personal favorites from the last thirty years of publishing short fiction in the major genre magazines and anthologies. At about 80,000 words, it's a good length, with a novella, some novelettes, some short stories, and a couple of very short stories. Enjoy! The stories include a prize winner ("Something Real," which won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History in 2o12, several stories that made best-of-the year lists, and range from First Contact science fiction to single-parent struggles raising a Down syndrome child. There's some basketball, some baseball, and some Canadian football in the stories here and there, because I come from a sports family and have that background. There are a lot of rambunctious, determined young women athletes, because I've known so many, and there are a few Down syndrome young people because I've known so many of them and raised one of them. I think you'll like the stories. Here are some comments and pre-pub reviews. Because of the current COVID-19 pandemic I'm unable to tour to read and sign copies, so if you'd like a signed copy (either trade paper or hardcover), contact me at my website: www.rickwilber.net and I'll make sure you get one. On to those comments and reviews!

Wilber’s fiction… is rich with sensory specificity, historical verisimilitude, deep psychological kennings, compassion, and plain old joie de vivre. While honoring the stern realities of science—and science fiction—he is also not afraid to exhibit an intuitive, mythic sense of life’s mysteries. … I’d say he’s one of Fantastika’s All-Stars. –Locus  

 “A major collection from what iťs high past time to admit is one of our major writers. Wilber writes with literate flair, compassion, and a deep understanding of human psychology. Highly recommended!” —Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of The Oppenheimer Alternative

 Rick Wilber imparts reality, grit, clarity, and heart to every category of fiction that he chooses to write in…Every story in Rambunctious rattled my cage in an eye-opening, thought-provoking, or heart-stopping way.  Each is a gift."  --Michael l Bishop, award-winning author of No Enemy but Time, Unicorn Mountain, and Brittle Innings

https://books2read.com/u/banlV2

 

Rick Wilber posted an entry

I woke up this first day of March in 2020 to a long and extremely perceptive Locus Magazine review of my Rambunctious: Nine Tales of Determination collection from WordFire Press. The book will be out in a few weeks and I'll be posting material from it and about it over the rest of the month.
The review says two of the stories, in particular, “lend Wilber’s voice a kind of authority and compassion that have helped him carve out a niche identifiably his own. These are sports (usually, but not always baseball) and parenthood, particularly the challenges presented by a child with Down syndrome or an aging and diminishing parent.”
The review also says “The most accomplished and heartbreaking family portrait is ‘Prices.’” (And I'm really, really pleased to see that story praised in this fashion. The story ran in Gulf Stream Review and didn't get any reviewer attention at the time. The story is about a dead father communicating with the trouble adult son who served as his caregiver. The communication may or not be real, but the emotional values, I'd like to think, are very real, indeed.
The review concludes with "Wilber is at his best with families, and the balance between a life of comfortable mediocrity and the chance to do “something real”—as Moe Berg puts it—seems to haunt his fiction and gives it a distinct and memorable, if at times almost elegiac, sensibility.”
I'm truly humbled by that. And yes, that nails my core interest and aim in much of my fiction. I have an adult Down syndrome son I've written about a lot, and a family background in professional sports (my father was a major-league baseball player back in the 1950s) and both of those things crop up a lot in my stories. Oh, and there are a lot of aliens cropping up and and again in my stories and novels; but now, I don't actually know any of those.

   

Rick Wilber posted an entry

    My new short-story collection, Rambunctious: Nine Tales of Determination will be out in spring 2020 in hardcover and other formats in spring 2020 from WordFire Press. The stories are some of my favorites, ranging from alternate history to science fiction to various kinds of fantasy, with women overcoming adversity to a Down syndrome girl overcoming adversity to guys overcoming adversity. But they are all filled with determination. Thus the title. All are reprints. I may, ahem, be promoting this a little more in the months ahead. I hope to launch the book at International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (ICFA) in mid-March of 2020.
    The stories included in the collection are listed below, with a few comments about them here and there.

Rambunctious: Nine Tales of Determination                       

"Today is Today," from 2018's Stonecoast Review and included in Rich Horton's "Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy."

"Rambunctious," from Asimov's, in 2016

"Ice Covers the Hole,"  a novella from F&SF in 1992 (and it grew into the novel The Cold Road from Tor)

"Walking to Boston," a novelette from Asimov's in 2015, which got a nice review in Locus online where the reviewer said "  Wilber is a master of historical fantasy set in this era, giving readers a clear look at the past half century through his eyes. Also coming through clearly: the love between these two."

"Something Real," from Asimov's in 2012, which won the Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History--Short Form

"Several Items of Interest," a novella from Asimov's in 2010, which was included in the audio collection Best Short Novels of 2010, edited by Allen Kaster

"Hope as an Element of Cold, Dark Matter," from Adventures in the Twilight Zone in 1995 (Carol Serling, ed.)

"Prices," from Gulf Stream Review in 2005

"War Bride," from Alien Sex anthology in 1990 (Ellen Datlow, ed.)