Nicola Griffith's Blog, page 94

Hild roundup #14

See the roundup of roundups for more reviews, interviews and Hild miscellany than you could possibly want.
REVIEWSBookreporterHild, Sarah Rachel Egelman"From family loyalties to political maneuverings, from the secrets of the written word to the strength of swords, Hild’s is a complex story and a good one for readers wishing to lose themselves in a thick, elegantly told and captivating novel."[I think I missed this one from January but if you’ve seen it before, hey, it’s not the end of the world]
LitStackLitStack Review: Hild by Nicola Griffith, Sharon Browning"Hild is a remarkable novel set in this time; remarkable because of the world in which it is set, and due to the remarkable character upon which it centers.  Remarkable because Hild was a real person, born in 614; and because the life glimpsed in these pages is what we believe it to have been, to the best of our ability to know. Even though it reads like some kind of epic fantasy, familiar enough to follow but strange enough in words and deeds to be otherworldly, it is our own past. […] Yet this is where we came from. This is amazing. This book is remarkable."
Hysterical HamsterBook Review - Hild by Nicola Griffith"the brilliance of this book isn’t the amount of research on show.  The brilliance is how Griffiths brings these characters to life without ever applying a 21st Century gloss on who they are.  If Hild frees her slave later in the novel it’s not because Griffith has turned her into an abolitionist, but because Hild has acted within the bounds of her society and the power she holds."
Seattle Public LibraryLivFun: Book Reviews, Misha Stone"Fans of well-researched and vivid historical novels will devour this tale and wait impatiently for the sequel."

INTERVIEWSWell Read (video)In which I talk on the PBS show about Hild with host Terry Tazioli, then Terry and Mary Ann Gwinn chat about the book and a suggested reading list.
Coode Street (audio)A podcast with Jonathan Strahan, Gary Wolfe, Kelley and me, in which we talk about Hild, fantasy, historicity, reading stances, genre, and more.
MISCELLANEOUSThe Magic of Immersive FictionNot really about Hild, but, hey, my blog... Anyway, I’m teaching a one-day workshop in Seattle, Sunday 4/13. (Since found out it's already sold-out, sorry.)
Hild a Nebula NomineeMuch to my surprise—and delight—Hild is a finalist for the Nebula Award. Award to be presented 5/17 in San Jose. And, oh yep, we’ll be there. And—of course!—there will be beer. Par-ty!
Hild a Lambda Literary NomineeThis is no less of a delight—and a real honour. (Why? I’ll talk about that at a later date.)
Blackfriars is excited!Antonia Hodgson, the Editor-in-Chief of Little, Brown UK and my editor at the new Blackfriars imprint, talk about why she’s excited about publishing Hild. (Me too. Seriously. This is the fruition of so many of my dreams.)

HILD is a Lambda Literary Award finalist

Hild has been nominated for the Lambda Literary Award in the Bisexual Fiction category:Corona, Bushra Rehman, Sibling Rivalry PressHild: A Novel, Nicola Griffith, Farrar, Straus and GirouxIn His Secret Life, Mel Bossa, Bold Strokes BooksMy Education, Susan Choi, Penguin Group/VikingThe Two Hotel Francforts: A Novel, David Leavitt, BloomsburyAs with the Nebula nomination I find I'm in excellent company. This has been a good year for books. Bisexual Fiction is a whole new category for me, and I’m most sensible of the honour. And very pleased. Here’s the full list of all nominees.
The awards will be presented at the 26th Annual Lambda Literary Awards gala, Monday, June 2, 2014 at The Great Hall at Cooper Union, New York. Tickets available here.

PBS interview

The first part of my PBS interview on Well Read just went up on the web. Sadly the usual embed code doesn't seem to work, so you'll have to go look at it on the website.

To see the rest--I talk for a bit longer than the posted twelve minutes, and then later Terry Tazioli talks to Mary Ann Gwinn about Hild and other books (I think; I wasn't there for that part!)--you'll have to watch it on TV. Check here for local listing.

The Magic of Immersive Fiction, a 1-day workshop

On Sunday 4/13 I'm teaching "The Magic of Immersive Fiction," a one-day workshop on how to submerge a reader into the world of your fiction--essentially, how to run your software on their hardware, no matter what genre you're interested in. It runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., in Seattle's University District, and costs $130.
It'll be a mix of writing exercise, discussion, fun, and brain-wrinkling work. With some handouts. (No idea what those might be, yet, but they'll be fabulous...)Nicola GriffithSunday, April 13RegisterThe Magic of Immersive FictionImmersive fiction sweeps you off your feet and puts you right there, right then, living and breathing with the characters. With writing exercises, discussion, and handouts we’ll learn how to create the excitement, sensory detail, and clarity that brings a whole world and its people alive.The class is designed for a maximum of fourteen students and registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. So sign up here soonish. And know that much of your money will go towards keeping Clarion West robust and able to offer the flagship six-week workshop every summer. (If you're an alum of said workshop, you're eligible for a bit of a discount on the  one-day fee.)

There are other one-day workshops this season, too, from Ellen Klages, Rachel Swirsky, and Lisa Gold + Louise Marley. Take a look.

I've taught for both six-week workshop and the one-day workshops, so don't worry if you don't know what to do; I do. I can guarantee you a great day.

Coode Street podcast--Kelley and I talk about stuff

Last night Kelley and I had a lovely intercontinental chat via Skype with Jonathan Strahan and Gary Wolfe, in Seattle, Perth, and Chicago respectively. It's the kind of conversation that would have suited a late night in a hotel bar: Hild, historicity, genre, reading stance and more from four people who love to read and think.

The unedited podcast is up. There's about an hour. Enjoy.

Help me identify this old SF story

My internist eschewed SF a long time ago but--of course!--read it enthusiastically as a pre-adult. And now he's getting interested again.

He's been thinking about a story he read as a kid, in one of the magazines of the day (I'm guessing 50s), something like Analog or Astounding (he thinks it began with an A). But he doesn't remember the title or author.

He's asked me to help him identify it. So I'm asking you. 

Here's the plot as he remembers it:

A ship crash-lands on a planet. The damage is so bad that it will take a long time--generations--to repair. The inadvertent colonists immediately set about the task. The problem? Each generation lives shorter lives than the last. And the rate of reduction in lifespan accelerates. He remembers lots of tension: will they get the ship aloft before they become extinct?

Do you recognise any part of this? If so, please drop a comment, or tweet, or email me. This doctor has gone above and beyond for me and mine; I'd like to return the favour.

I'm reading: Friday 2/28 noon, AWP Seattle

On-site Reading25 for 25: A Lambda Literary Foundation Celebration Reading
Featuring: Rigoberto Gonzalez, Nicola Griffith, and Ellery Washington
Friday, February 28, 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm
Room 615/616/617, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6 

Off-site Reading25 for 25 Lambda Fellows Reading & ReunionR Place
619 East Pine St (206) 322-8828
Friday, February 28, 6-9 pm

(Above info stolen whole cloth from the Lambda Literary website.)

I will definitely be at the first (I'll be reading from Hild) and hope to be at the second--though it depends on other stuff that might happen that day.

Meanwhile, if you don't know what AWP is, here's a handy guide from The Stranger...

HILD a finalist for the Nebula Award

I’m delighted to announce that Hild is one of the eight finalists for the Nebula Award for Best Novel. I’m in fantastic company:We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler (Marian Wood)The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman (Morrow; Headline Review)Fire with Fire, Charles E. Gannon (Baen)Hild, Nicola Griffith (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)The Red: First Light, Linda Nagata (Mythic Island)A Stranger in Olondria, Sofia Samatar (Small Beer)The Golem and the Jinni, Helene Wecker (Harper)The award is presented annually by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) at the Nebula Awards Weekend, which this year will be May 15-18, 2014 at the San Jose Marriott. More info on other nominees here. (Do go look. It’s an excellent way to put together a reading list!)
Kelley and I plan to be there and beam at all the other nominees in person. (And, yep, there will be beer.) Oh, I am enormously pleased about this!

Hild roundup #13

No interviews this week but two weeks' worth of reviews, including two (!) in The Toast. Both long, juicy, and worth your time. If you read just one thing, then read one of those. Seriously.

All previous round-ups here. (Note to insane completists: there’s a lot of stuff. A lot. Don't burst anything...)

If you get to the end of this marathon roundup your reward is another cat reading Hild.NEWSHild is a Tiptree Honor bookAnd will be published in UK by Blackfriars--soon!REVIEWSThe ToastOh Hild, Female Readers of Genre Fiction, and Not Being Game of Thrones, Zan Romanoff"If you are a female reader of genre fiction, you have probably gotten used to being dismissed. You are dismissed within the narratives of the stories you love, which all too often cast you as a lover or a witch, a virgin or a crone, a sexy plot-device on two long, supple legs [..] The good news is that Nicola Griffith’s Hild is the book you’ve been waiting for, the one that has room for you in it: it’s long and smart and beautiful, set in a world so old that the languages and tribes feel supernatural in their distance from our own, and it’s expansively, gloriously, breathtakingly feminist, nearly six hundred pages of story about women that takes them and their complex, active lives seriously."
BookiferHild by Nicola Griffith, Jennifer"This novel imagines a history for Hild, following her from age three to her late teens, and does so in a way which is both utterly believable and entirely absorbing. I really can’t stress that last point enough. […] The bare bones of the story that Griffith imagines for Hild would be remarkable enough, but she doesn’t stop there. Instead, she takes it to another level entirely, exploring the development of Hild’s personality and identity with extraordinary skill and, in doing so, carving out a character of rare depth and complexity."
The Toast (again!)On Hild, and The Joys of Situating, Katherine Beutner"If you read Nicola Griffith’s new historical novel Hild, you’ll learn a lot about life in seventh-century Britain. When you finish the book you’ll find it strange not to be drinking sharp white mead and eating game. You’ll miss the textures of cloth, the aural world of birdsong and snapping twigs, the sense of a battle axe always at your side. Hild’s senses are near-superhuman in their acuity; she’s extraordinary, like many of the characters we love best. But she’s thoroughly grounded in her time, in its political realities and religious uncertainties, and you never get the sense that she’s invulnerable."

The Cannonball ReadDark Ages Lady Fiction, A+, Yes Please"Was sort of uninterested in this book, until I read this blog post by the author. Boom! Sudden interest, give it to me now. And I’m really glad I picked it up. My experience with Hild is the textbook example of why it’s a good idea to read outside your normal genres every once in a while. I don’t read very much historical fiction, and those I do read are usually the ones that have some sort of unusual hook, like TWO MEN IN WWII RUSSIA LOOK FOR A DOZEN EGGS! (City of Thieves) or WOMAN TIME TRAVELS TO SCOTLAND AND HAS LOTS OF SEX! (Outlander). [...] Hild is Nicola Griffith’s examination of the early years of St. Hilda of Whitby, about whom almost nothing is known, except that she was probably one of the most influential women who ever lived. (Really, you should click that link at the top — it’s very interesting.)"
Lindy Reads and ReviewsHild by Nicola Griffith, Lindy"While this isn't a lesbian novel, I did appreciate the significant bisexual content. I also like the way Griffith quietly inserted a reference to her very first novel, Ammonite (1993), by having Begu gift her gemaecce Hild with one of these fossils. […] Readalikes: The Eagle and the Raven (Pauline Gedge); Wolf Hall (Hilary Mantel); The Skystone (Jack Whyte); The Last Light of the Sun (Guy Gavriel Kay); Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley); and Kristin Lavransdatter (Sigrid Undset)."
Room to SpeakFeminist Literature,: Hild by Nicola Griffith, Andrea"There are four ways that Hild stands out as a feminist piece of literature:1) The novel features a powerful young woman, smart enough to influence the men who “control” the politics…2) No emphasis is placed on her appearance or beauty. Griffith’s characterization of Hild is focused on her intellect, not on her desirability as a wife or mother…3) While most of the characters believe Hild to be some sort of witch, the reader is left to wonder if she possesses magic, or if she is incredibly insightful and cunning enough to use this insight to gain influence…4) Breaking down the societal norm of assuming a woman is straight (or if she is not straight then she must be a lesbian). Griffith allows Hild to explore her sexuality and sexual need/desire more fully than is typical in literature."
Wyrt WizardBook Review: Hild by Nicola Griffith"Whether historical fiction, fantasy or another genre, the best novels create a believable world and show it to the reader. In most cases the novelist opens a window to display the world to the reader. Nicola Griffith does much more in her fascinating novel Hild. She pulls the reader right into seventh-century England and gives the reader a vantage point behind the title character’s shoulders. Griffith’s depiction of Northumbria is so vivid that the reader can hear the battle sounds and smell the animals in the barn."

The Bastard TitleReview: Hild by Nicola Griffith"Well, it’s barely February, and I’ve already read a strong contender for my favorite book of the year. Hild was an incredible novel, the kind that will be very hard to top."
Compulsive OverreaderHild by Nicola Griffith, Trudy Morgan-Cole"Hild is the kind of work of historical fiction that can’t be discussed without using words like “epic.” […] In terms of its depth and scope as a historical novel I can’t compare this to anything other than Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall."
The Wichita EagleHild tells the tale of one of the Middle Ages’ pivotal figures, Gordon Houser"Much of the book is about how deftly and delicately Hild manages to use her skills as a woman (girl, really) in a time when men ruled utterly. / Like Game of Thrones, Wolf Hall and many other books about kings, Hild traces the complex strategies of alliances and wars to gain more power."
FrogfatherHild - Nicola Griffith"…the land and way of life for Hild and Edwin and Cian and all the others is immediate and alive in this book… Hild climbing a tree to watch the flight of the birds. Cian desperate to show off his fighting prowess. Edwin nervously watching his gesiths for signs of disloyalty. And everyone trying to make sure they make it through to next summer, and preferably better off than last time. It’s a stunning piece of work."
MISCELLANEOUSSlate—Culture Gabfest (audio)[ff to 33-minute mark]Rebecca Onions endorses Hild, and Dana Stevens says "you had me at '7th-century nun.'"
Small Town Librarian[In which a librarian talks about the podcast of my reading from Seattle Central Library]"Nicola Griffith has the type of voice which is perfect for reading aloud. It draws you in and welcomes you to sit and listen."
Tolkien’s Legacy[Yes, a live event that’s now past. But I’m including it in the hope that someone will give me a report.]Well-known scholars of Tolkien studies and popular culture will discuss the ways in which the works of later authors both develop from and go beyond J. R. R. Tolkien’s works of fiction, especially The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. Panelists will discuss the relationships between Tolkien’s works and recent works such as Nicola Griffith's Hild, Neil Gaiman’s Ocean at the End of the Lane, J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series, George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series, Doctor Who, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, among others.
Hild spotted in the windows of: Kepler's Foyle's SouthbankI was scooping these images (from Twitter? Facebook?) in the UK via my phone using limited WiFi; attached info fell by the wayside. I apologise. If you sent these please get in touch so I can thank and credit you.
And finally, the moment I know you’ve all been waiting for: Talya the Russian Princess (who is served by Anne) has her way with Hild 

How do you feel about SF?

From: Luke

I have got Slow River, which hopefully I shall read some time in the near future. Ammonite has crossed my SF book searching in Waterstones. Hopefully, I'll get to read it at some point. 

How do you feel now about your ventures into SF, particularly those 2 novels? 

Ammonite is now 21 years old. In sfnal terms that's ancient. But when I reread it a couple of years ago in preparation for the Gollancz Masterworks Series republication in the UK I found it still supple. That's the beauty of writing about a distant planet in the far-off future: there are no vacuum-tubes or wired telephones or short-skirted 60s uniforms to stick out like cacti on the Yorkshire moors. I remember trying very hard not to be too specific about technology and although I think I failed in one or two places in general I think I succeeded. The women-only world thought-experiment--seeing women playing all the roles, being fully human in, of, and by themselves--is, sadly, still relevant today. And of course I think the story, the internal change and growth of the central character, works. I am proud of that book.

I haven't read Slow River for... Well, actually I'm not sure how long it's been but I doubt it was this century. But I'm immensely proud of that one, too. I learnt so much from it, about myself and about writerly technique. And I feel for the characters, still. Given that I haven't read it for a while, I can't really comment on how it holds up in sfnal terms. But as far as I know the concepts--of bioremediation, personal handheld communication technology, the elite maintaining an IP stranglehold over industry--still apply. And the seamier side of human nature hasn't changed.

Bending the Landscape, the three anthologies I co-edited with Stephen Pagel, is a slightly different case. The goal of the series as a whole, which seemed so new then, isn't any longer. What Stephe and I did in the late nineties--getting non-genre writers to dip their toe in the great surging creative pool that is non-realistic fiction; persuading straight writers to write queer characters; soliciting trans writers (though I admit to some serious clumsiness on that front and perhaps one day will write a whole other blog post on what I learnt from the experience)--now happens without much fuss almost every day. This makes me nothing but happy.

My short fiction--I don't write much--continues to fall naturally in the spectrum that could easily be published as f/sf today. I have a story, "Cold Wind," coming out from Tor.com in April.

Long-time readers of this blog know, of course, that I've been threatening for years to publish a collection. I think I might finally have enough stories...
Edited to add: and I just heard Hild is a Tiptree Honor book.