THE UNIVERSE BOX Just Got A Starred Review in Publishers Weekly!

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I just got a starred review (this is good) from Publishers Weekly. It's the kind of review that every single writer in existence either secretly or overtly believes they deserve. So, rather than synopsize it and sound like I'm full of myself, I'll just post the whole thing below:

The Universe BoxMichael Swanwick. Tachyon, $18.95 trade paper (304p) ISBN 978-1-61-696450-4Five-time Hugo Award winner Swanwick (Stations of the Tide) swirls together myth and science in this wildly inventive collection. A frequent theme is the interaction of humanity and technology, which is probed poignantly in the bittersweet “Artificial People,” narrated by a newly sentient robot who falls for one of the scientists on her team, and “The White Leopard,” about a man who is able to see through the eyes of his leopard-shaped military drone. In “Requiem for a White Rabbit,” animatronic escapees flee a life of misery in an amusement park. The epistolary “Timothy: An Oral History” imagines the consequences of a scientist in an all-female society engineering a male child in a lab. Swanwick’s wry humor comes through in “The Warm Equations,” a space exploration story helmed by the arrogant Dr. Osborne, and in “The Star-Bear,” about a Russian émigré poet who meets a bizarre celestial being. All of Swanwick’s stories awaken insights into the mystery of being human in an increasingly mind-bending technological world. This is an author at the height of his powers. (Feb.)

And now that that's over and done with, it's back to work for me. I'm currently wrestling with a story that wants to be dull and predictable. I, however, want it to be exciting and surprising. One of us is going to win this argument if it takes all month--and it's not going to be the story.

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