April 21, 2013
Reviewing Activity
I neglected to mention over here that Bracket #5 of the Fantastic Reviews Battle of the Books was won by Keith Brooke’s Harmony (published in the UK under the title alt.human). Congratulations to Keith Brooke, who becomes our fifth winner, joining Elizabeth Bear, James Renner, Ian Tregillis, and Paolo Bacigalupi.
Also, my full review of Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear, the winner of the very first Battle of the Books, is up at Fantastic Reviews. New Fantastic Reviewer Patty has also posted a review of God’s War by Kameron Hurley.
Finally, at the Fantastic Reviews Blog, I have made a Story Recommendation of the Week for “The Visited” by Anaea Lay, while Patty was kind enough to post a Story Recommendation of the Week for my story “The Long View.”
A lot of cool stuff to check out!
April 3, 2013
Book of the Week
The Book of the Week from my collection is the first American paperback edition of The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien. This is the Ace “pirated” edition. Read more about it, and about why so much of this book is omitted from the animated Lord of the Rings films, at the Fantastic Reviews Blog.
February 26, 2013
Nice Review for “The Long View”
Reviews for the March/April 2013 issue of F&SF are starting to come in, and Chuck Rothman at Tangent Online was exceedingly kind in discussing my story “The Long View,” concluding:
Van Aaron Hughes has written a powerful work of tragedy with an ending whose sadness stayed with me.
Thanks, Chuck! Lois Tilton was not quite so kind over at Locus Online (“Unfortunately, the story is all recitation and never comes to life.”), but she has been tough on a lot of terrific writers, so I can certainly live with that.
February 25, 2013
Story Published
The March/April 2013 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction has been spotted in the wild (specifically, at the newsstand of my favorite place to shop for new books, The Tattered Cover in Denver). This issue contains my story “The Long View,” alongside stories by such major authors as Naomi Kritzer, Sean McMullen, Deborah J. Ross (aka Deborah Wheeler), Albert E. Cowdrey (who has two stories in this issue, one under a pseudonym), among others. On a sad note, two of the authors in this issue passed away before seeing their stories appear in print — rest in peace, Mark Bourne and Steven Utley.
F&SF is one of the three most important print magazines for science fiction and fantasy, along with Analog and Asimov’s. While “The Long View” is my seventh published story, it marks my first appearance in one of the big three magazines, so a very special occasion to me.
“The Long View” is a science fiction piece, set on the first insterstellar spaceship. The story begins:
What makes a person decide to desert everyone she knows and leave the whole world behind?
My name is Emzara Ghali-Gordon, and the first time I did it was easy.
If you happen to get a chance to read “The Long View,” by all means let me know what you think. Even if you don’t like it, I’m excited just to know that people are reading something I wrote.
February 18, 2013
Fall 2012 Battle of the Books Winner
I forgot to mention here that last week, over at the Fantastic Reviews Blog, I announced the winner of the belated Fall 2012 Battle of the Books: The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi. (Go here for the full bracket of the Fall 2012 Battle of the Books.)
Congratulations to Paolo Bacigalupi, who joins Elizabeth Bear, James Renner and Ian Tregillis as FR Battle of the Books champions. The Drowned Cities is YA science fiction that has plenty to offer for adult readers as well.
With the Fall 2012 bracket decided, I next turn my attention to Battle of the Books #5. Here is the bracket for that Battle. I will try to continue to post a decision every other day, as we continue to work through our backlog.
February 11, 2013
Reprint Publication
Stupefying Stories has put together a FREE e-anthology of stories by new authors currently eligible for the Campbell Award, the 2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology. It includes reprints of my stories “The Dualist” (my Writers of the Future Contest winner), “Random Fire” (originally published at Abyss & Apex), and “The Burbles” (an odd little Bizarro flash piece originally published at The Dream People). It also includes stories from over 40 up-and-coming writers, including multiple other Writers of the Future winners, several friends of mine, and a whole lot of talented people (most of whom are irritatingly younger and better looking than me). It’s a great resource if you’re interested in nominating for the Campbell Award, and plenty of terrific reading even if you’re not. Click here for a free download in both ePub and Mobi formats, if you’d like to check it out.
January 10, 2013
Summer 2012 Battle of the Books Winner
Over at the Fantastic Reviews Blog, Amy has announced the winner of the Summer 2012 Battle of the Books: The Coldest War by Ian Tregillis. (Go here for the full bracket of the Summer 2012 Battle of the Books.)
Congratulations to Ian Tregillis, who joins Elizabeth Bear and James Renner as FR Battle of the Books champions. From Amy’s description, it sounds like The Coldest War is a very original alternate history fantasy, well worth checking out.
With this bracket decided, I step back into the judge’s role for the belated Fall 2012 Battle of the Books. Here is the bracket for that Battle. To get us caught up, I will be posting a decision every other day as long as I can keep it up.
January 7, 2013
Story Recommendation of the Week
Head over to the Fantastic Reviews Blog for my Story Recommendation of the Week, for “The Woman Who Fooled Death Five Times” by Eleanor Arnason.
December 19, 2012
Story Recommendation of the Week
Head over to the Fantastic Reviews Blog to read about “Write What You Want” by Eric James Stone, my Story Recommendation of the Week.
December 11, 2012
Story Recommendation of the Week
My Story Recommendation of the Week is “Old Soul” by Adria Laycraft, from Tesseracts Sixteen. Head over to the Fantastic Reviews Blog to read about it.
