Just a quick one: There’s a fascinating post on Tor.com showing the step-by-step process they used to print the hardcover edition of the final Wheel of Time novel. With lots of pictures!
Article here.
Category: Reading
Ascension Point Free Giveaway on LibraryThing
Folks, I wanted to let you know that I’ve just started a giveaway at LibraryThing. I’m offering 100 free copies of ASCENSION POINT, in all of the ebook formats you can think of.
If you’d like to throw your hat into the ring for one of the free copies, here’s what to do:
- Head over to LibraryThing, and create an account (if you don’t already have one).
- Sign up for the Member Giveaway program here.
- Go to ASCENSION POINT in the giveaway list, and hit ‘Request this book’.
- (Optional: Request lots of other books, too! It’s a great program.)
Happy freebooking!
Interview with Ian Rankin at The Guardian
Worth a read here. My favourite bit:
What’s the biggest myth about being a novelist?
That we’re introspective, sensitive souls and have arcane knowledge. I used to think that: whenever I heard that someone had taken 10 years to write a novel, I’d think it must be a big, serious book. Now I think, “No – it took you one year to write, and nine years to sit around eating Kit Kats.”
Important Notice for Kindle Paperwhite Readers
It’s come to my attention that there’s a bug/feature in the Paperwhite that means it displays many, many ebooks in a tiny, unreadable font which the user can’t change. Unfortunately Amazon are claiming this is working as designed, so the only thing we authors can do is reformat our books and reupload them.
And that’s what I’ve just done–a new version of Ascension Point is now live on Amazon.
So, to anyone who has bought the Kindle edition of Ascension Point, and owns a Kindle Paperwhite: please delete the current copy from your device, and redownload it to pick up the latest version.
This has been a public service announcement. THBAPSA.
China Mieville on “Cognition as Ideology: A Dialectic of SF Theory”
Wow. I only just came across this, but China Mieville–Hugo Award-winning author of Perdido Street Station, The Scar, Iron Council and The City and the City–gave an hour-long lecture at the University of Kansas in 2009 where he discussed the scholarly theory and political implications of science fiction, and the distinction between science fiction and fantasy. It’s fascinating analysis from a fascinating writer and thinker.
“The cognition effect is a function of charismatic authority. It is the surrender of the reader to the authority of the text, and the authority of the author function.”
Or in other words, the science in SF need not be plausible for the story to be ‘believable’, and for the reader to happily immerse themselves in the writer’s world–but only as long as the internal logic of the story is consistent, and the author presents the ‘science’ of the story’s universe in an authoritative–or charismatic–way.
Worth setting aside an hour for. Videos embedded below the jump.
Win Free Kindle Books in the ‘Ten Kindle Gems for the Holidays’ Giveaway!
Do you like free books? How about ten free books? And what if all of those books were voted ‘Outstanding in Genre’ by Red Adept Select?
If so, you’ll want to enter the ‘Ten Kindle Gems for the Holidays’ giveaway! It’s completely free, and one lucky person will win all ten books, including a copy of ASCENSION POINT.
You can enter via my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/dan.harris.writer?sk=app_228910107186452, or through the Red Adept Select site at http://redadeptselect.com/ten-kindle-gems-for-the-holidays.
Best of luck!
What Makes the Culture So Great?
Just a quick one: SF Signal asked a group of sci-fi heavyweights what’s great about Iain M. Banks’s Culture novels. (Apart from the obvious answer, ‘everything’.)
Well worth a read, here.
UPDATE: It must have been Culture week on SF Signal, because here is their editor John DeNardo on Kirkus Reviews with a nice newbie’s guide to the Culture universe.
‘The Six Gun Tarot’ Excerpt
On Tor.com here.
“Jim remembered the gun. His frozen fingers fumbled numbly for it on the ground.
The coyote narrowed its gaze and showed yellowed teeth. Some were crooked, snagged, but the canines were sharp and straight.
You think you can kill me with slow, spiritless lead, little rabbit? Its eyes spoke to Jim. I am the fire giver, the trickster spirit. I am faster than Old Man Rattler, quieter than the Moon Woman’s light. See, go on, see! Shoot me with your dead, empty gun.
Jim glanced down at the gun, slid his palm around the butt and brought it up quickly. The coyote was gone; only the fog of its breath remained. Jim heard the coyote yipping in the distance. It sounded like laughter at his expense.”
The excerpt’s nicely written, and intriguing, though it doesn’t tell you much about the story, which Publisher’s Weekly describes as:
“Against the backdrop of Chinese and Mormon mythology and the Civil War, with a bit of Frankenstein for color, the mix of theology, frontier justice, and zombies is merely cover for an intense and irreverent exploration of good, evil, and free will.”
Sounds fun!
‘Foundation’: Another Great SF Short
Tor.com consistently post excellent short stories. I highly recommend reading ‘Foundation‘. It’s by Ann Aguirre.
‘In Ann Aguirre’s award-winning novel, Enclave, humans have taken refuge in colonies below ground. “Foundation” is the story of what drove them there, told through the eyes of a teen who would later have vast influence over the fate of many, and who gave his heart to the one person who needed him most.‘
DAN HARRIS: 10% SCI, 90% FI 