Speculative Review's topics - tribe.net

BLACK MAGIC WOMAN

2008-02-03T03:05:19Z

It gives me immense pleasure to announce the publication of my urban fantasy novel, BLACK MAGIC WOMAN.

It’s in most bookstores, and available online from Amazon and other dealers.

Here are 13 things you didn’t know about BLACK MAGIC WOMAN -- both the plot and the book itself.

1. The hero (well, one of them), Quincey Morris, is the great-great-grandson of the
Texan who died at the end of the original DRACULA. Contending with
supernatural evil has become something of a Morris family tradition.

2. The book was released in the UK and Australia on January 8th. The North
American release date was pushed back to January 29th because of a problem at
the North American printer.

3. African “muti” magic sometimes involves the use of human organs – which must be “harvested” while the victim is still alive.

4. "White" witch Libby Chastain, Quincey's partner in the investigation, is
bisexual, and a devout practitioner of what she calls "serial monogamy."

5. Jim Butcher, author of the "Dresden Files" novels, was kind enough to read
the manuscript pre-publication. As quoted on the book's cover, he calls BLACK
MAGIC WOMAN "the best manuscript I've ever been asked to read."

6. Quincey Morris is terrified of snakes, having almost died from
snakebite as a young boy. If only he knew….

7. Simon R. Green, author of the John Taylor 'Nightside" novels, was sent an
advance reading copy of BLACK MAGIC WOMAN and said, "This is a novel that's packed with story and engaging characters, and I can't wait to read the next one."

8. "White" magic cannot be used to do harm to somebody -- which doesn't mean
that you can't use it sometimes to kick somebody’s ass, as Libby Chastain knows full well.

9. Waterstones, the largest UK bookstore chain, has designated BLACK MAGIC
WOMAN as its featured SF/Fantasy title of the month. It's got its own display
in each of their 300-some stores. And if that ain’t freakin’ awesome, I don’t know what is.

10. It’s possible to drive off a bunch of zombies without having to “kill” them. All you need is the right magic – and a skilled magician to use it.

11. The South African national police really does have an Occult Crimes
Investigation Unit, although my character, Garth Van Dreenan, is not based on any
real person.

12. Vampires really do hate sunlight. A lot.

13. When you make a deal with the devil, the notes come due in brimstone.

Thanks for indulging me, everybody. I hope I've piqued your interest and that
you'll take a look at my novel. I'm kinda proud of it.

Justin
www.justingustainis.com

posted in Speculative Review - 1 reply

novel ?

2007-09-20T02:56:28Z

ok this is a long shot, but david and i are boggled. ("what seems to be your boggle?")

when i was in elementary school/middle school in NJ, i read this book. it was about an alternative future world where everything was based on astrology. people lived in certain parts of the world based on their signs. their clothing, occupation, home decor, mode of transport (i remember some type of space type travel too, i think) was all based their sign as well. it was also a murder mystery. it would have had to have been written sometime between 1960 and 1986. one of the main characters was a piscean ballerina who had been crippled. i think her name was onde baleine. funny, i can remember a random name, but not the author or the title. during my first year in college, my mom went on a major spree and tossed pretty much everything i had left at home (books, photos, my roller skates; you get the picture) so i never had a chance to grab it before i moved all the way out.

i think it may have been part of a series, but honestly, it's been too long. we've been searching all kinds of websites, wiki's, bookstores etc, under every possible search term and cannot track it down. we've looked at a lot, but i am willing to hear from anyone who thinks they may know my mystery-astro-fantasy-scifi novel.

posted in Speculative Review - 2 replies

Worldcon 2007 in Yokohama

2007-08-27T18:07:37Z

Does anyone know of any podcasts (video or audio) from Worldcon in Yokohama - http://www.nippon2007.org/eng/e_main.html - this week?

posted in Speculative Review - 0 replies

Fantastic Dimensions #1

2007-08-19T21:00:44Z

Well, the first episode of my irregular weblog about fandom, Fantastic Dimensions, is up and on my weblog (address below).

It's a short episode. It's a start. There's more to come.

Please tell your friends! Please leave comments! Please let me know what you think.

Marlin
http://www.doublefeature.com/unconventionaut/
yahoo! messenger = zentinal

posted in Speculative Review - 0 replies

Short Reviews of Recently Read Novels

2007-06-04T00:38:16Z

I wrote these reviews for a different forum unassociated with this site, but I thought that I would post them here as well:

I finally got around to reading _American Gods_ by Neil Gaiman, and it is the best novel I have read in years. If you haven't already read it and you like fantasy fiction, read it. If you like mythology, read it. It easily ranks high among the best fantasy novels ever written.

_Children of Chaos_ by Dave Duncan--Duncan writes fantasy novels that read as if they were written by a fully grown-up adult. This one is no exception. I've read everything of his except about three books, and I've enjoyed them all. He is among my top five favorite living novelists.

_Knife of Dreams_ by Robert Jordan is an improvement over where the massive series has been lately, but I couldn't really recommend the series to someone. The first six or seven volumes are good, but the next three or four stop dead, and there is now a not insignificant chance that Jordan, given his health problems, is not going to finish the thing.

I recently reread the fist seven volumes of The Dresden Files and then the eighth volume for the first time. It is a solid contemporary fantasy series, and Jim Butcher has been showing steady improvement as a writer. They aren't spectacular, but there is something about them that made me want to reread them a fairly short time after I first read them.

_Blood Bound_ by Patricia Briggs is the sequel to _Moon Called_. Both books are good. They are reminiscent of the first several Anita Blake books, before they got boring.

_Paladin of Souls_ by Lois McMaster Bujold is an excellent fantasy. It won the Hugo and Nebula, the top two awards in science fiction and fantasy. Bujold is highly skilled at putting words in a line effectively; the characterization is strong, and the theme is thought inspiring.

_The Hallowed Hunt_ is set in a different part of the above book's universe and features different characters. Good, but not as good as _Paladin_, which would have been a feat, because Paladin will be a perennial classic.

I liked _Good Omens_ by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, but I find Pratchett's humor only mildly amusing and not hilarious, as some people find it. Thematically, it would have been more compelling to a younger me. I have since worked its ideas out to my own complacency, if not satisfaction, and have come to similar conclusions. The characterization is good. They portray eleven-year-olds pretty well, if my recollection serves.

_Anansi Boys_ and _Neverwhere_ by Neil Gaiman--both are good, but not as good as _American Gods_, which is a once-a-decade-type book. _Anansi Boys_ is more character driven than _Neverwhere_. _Neverwhere_ is more cool idea driven.

PS: Is there any way to format posts? I experimented with html and BBS codes using the preview, and neither worked.

posted in Speculative Review - 0 replies

Boskone anyone?

2007-02-11T04:25:20Z

Other than myself, is anyone planning on attending Boskone - http://www.nesfa.org/boskone/ - this coming weekend?

posted in Speculative Review - 0 replies

How to submit a manuscript (x-posted)

2007-01-22T22:02:56Z

This is just too funny...

http://www.sfwa.org/writing/howto.htm

posted in Speculative Review - 0 replies

Help Please

2006-12-10T04:32:52Z

Hello, i've posted a poll over on my LJ, if those interested could take the poll it would be a great help to me. I'm really trying to get a better, wider look at who's online that reads sf/f. Take care.

http://www.livejournal.com/poll/?id=885612

posted in Speculative Review - 0 replies

1632, 1633, and 1634

2006-11-23T23:44:16Z

Anyone read these books? I'm not sure if it's sci-fi exactly, but they are amazing

posted in Speculative Review - 3 replies

Octavia Butler Dies

2006-11-17T14:15:14Z

She fell on her walkway and suffered a head injury.

It's a sad sad tragic loss.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002831388_butlerobit27m.html

posted in Speculative Review - 2 replies

What is New?

2006-09-25T15:40:36Z

I am slow in my reading? What is Hot these days? I need to read More

posted in Speculative Review - 1 reply

Mieville

2006-03-26T18:15:57Z

While it's available:

Fantasy Remade

China Mieville’s New Crobuzon novels

Some months ago, Jennifer Howard used a critical review of Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell to argue that fantasy should be about “high seriousness,” “magic that battles for the soul of the world,” and above all, “the epic sense of Good and Evil, of things larger than ourselves, that makes the best fantasy so powerful and so necessary.” Fantasy allows us to escape the modern age for a little while: “When the news strays so far from the familiar moral contours of the struggle between Good and Evil, it’s tempting to lose ourselves in stories in which this battle is fought in clear terms and on an epic scale.”

Read more here: http://www.nplusonemag.com/

posted in Speculative Review - 1 reply

tangent online

2006-02-23T20:48:04Z

Hey, if you're not reading http://www.tangentonline.com you should be. They have the latest reviews of shorter works in the pro and semi-pro paying spec-fic markets.

posted in Speculative Review - 0 replies

A list of some of my favorites

2006-02-23T17:08:41Z

For whatever it's worth here some that I dig. Would love to hear the favorites of others as well.

Stars my Destination - Bester
Dying Inside - SIlverberg
Dark Materials Trilogy - Pullman
City - Simak
Canticle for Liebowitz - Miller
Flowers for Algernon - Keyes
Perdido Street Station/The Scar - Mieville
More Than Human - Sturgeon
Demolished Man - Bester
Little Fuzzy - Piper

Just a few of my preferred titles. Anyone else?

posted in Speculative Review - 14 replies

Lord!

2006-01-15T11:36:46Z

Ithas been a long time since anybody has posted to this tribe. What are you people reading please? Any good authors you would like to share?

posted in Speculative Review - 8 replies

Aeon SF Tribe

2005-12-10T19:24:16Z

There's now a tribe for anyone interested in Aeon Speculative Fiction. Discuss the stories, meet the writers, get links to the story previews and retailers.

We hope to see you there.

aeonmagazine.tribe.net.

posted in Speculative Review - 3 replies

Would anyone be willing to help me?

2005-08-13T22:35:19Z

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to review my works. They are comic books--but I am trying to better my story as I go, and would love some points of view.
They are downloadable from my web site, first one is FREE---and if anyone likes them, I'll send them #2 and 3 for free as well.

I would just like some feedback from different backgrounds.

Jaime Buckley
Creator of WANTED:HERO
www.wantedhero.com

posted in Speculative Review - 0 replies

house of leaves.

2005-06-07T18:31:50Z

i just found/joined this tribe, wanted to start out by posting my current read: 'house of leaves' by mark z. danielewski.

posted in Speculative Review - 4 replies

Hal Clement, RIP

2005-05-24T04:23:38Z

This obit hit my email recently, prompting me to dust off two Hal Clement books I have - Mission of Gravity and Iceworld. Although "hard" sf has never been my particular love, Mission was one of those classics of the form that a young SF fan had to read, and I do remember it with fondness. Iceworld I recently obtained, but haven't read. It also dates from the early 50s.

Anyway, here is the sad news about the author:

November 5, 2003
PASSINGS
Harry Stubbs, 81; Wrote Science Fiction Novels as Hal Clement

>From Staff and Wire Reports
Harry Stubbs, 81; Wrote Science Fiction Novels as Hal Clement

>From Staff and Wire Reports

Harry Clement Stubbs, 81, a science fiction writer
whose most famous novel was "Mission of Gravity" underthe pseudonym Hal Clement, died Oct. 29 of natural causes in Milton, Mass.

Known for pairing information with imagination, Stubbs was a leader in the world-building science fiction genre ^× in which writers employ plausible science to create a fictional world.

"Mission of Gravity," first serialized in Astounding Science Fiction [now Analog] magazine in 1953, was set on a disc-like planet called Mesklin. The planet had a gravity 700 times that of Earth, and a 6-inch fall could be fatal to natives.

Born in Somerville, Mass., and reared in Boston,
Stubbs became intrigued with science and science
fiction in 1930 by a Buck Rogers comic strip. Seeking explanations, he checked out an astronomy book and Jules Verne's novel "Trip to the Moon" from the public library. He went on to earn a bachelor's in astronomy from Harvard, and after serving as Army Air Forces bomber pilot toward the end of World War II, obtained a master's in education from Boston University and a
master's in chemistry from Simmons College.

Stubbs, who taught high school science for 40 years, published about 18 Hal Clement science fiction books and numerous short stories, as well as scholarly science articles under his own name.

posted in Speculative Review - 3 replies

Adult New Writing

2004-12-02T19:58:03Z

Hey everyone!

I'm writing some kinky sci fi and I'd love some feedback. Here's a bit - you can read the rest at wunderjahr.tribe.net.
*************
Simon ’s next move was to step to the herm ’s right side and then reach over its head with his right hand to grasp its neck and slowly, firmly lower its torso to the hobbyhorse. X smiled at the toppy interpretation of what was usually a bottom ’s game and marked the move on Simon ’s score sheet. Keeping that one hand on the back of the herm ’s neck, Simon leaned over and breathed into its hair, then made one long, slow line down its spine between its shoulderblades with his tongue. Simon ’s tongue disappeared back into his mouth for a second and then reappeared as a flicker across each of the herm ’s shoulders.

Simon moved his hand from the back of the herm ’s neck into the tidy hair at the back of its head and pulled its head back slightly. He moved to its rear and folded himself over it. Starting at its hairline and working his way down, Simon licked every centimeter of skin he could reach without letting go of its hair. When he reached its lower back, he laid a last long lick all the way up its spine. Releasing its hair, Simon stood and spoke. “Finished. ”

A bit of muted applause met this statement, and Simon grinned. After he helped the herm to stand, Simon saluted and stepped out of the arena into the dimness of the seating area. X almost lazily glanced over the anonymous judges ’scores, averaged them with its own score, and then posted the result in the holofield where Simon ’s shortname had been. It wondered whether he would choose enhanced genitalia or tool implants as the happy congratulations died slowly back down.

X restarted the shuffle algos and again stopped them with a touch. It blinked in an effort to hold back a salacious grin seeing that Willduth had drawn the anal fisting assignment. If there was anything less likely to get Willduth flunked, X couldn ’t think of it. Willduth had a real passion for the rhythms and contractions of the sphincters and rectum and her wide grin as she bounded into the arena showed how pleased she was by her luck.

posted in Speculative Review - 1 reply

Aeon Speculative Fiction - Issue One

2004-12-02T19:12:44Z

Æon One takes on a final shape as a heavyweight bonus issue! Stories by Gene Wolfe, Walter Jon Williams, John Meaney, and Jay Lake, as well as the first of many columns by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, head up a première issue PACKED with content.

Also in Æon One: Steven R. Boyett, Gordon Gross, Holly Wade Matter, Lori Ann White, nonfiction by Pat MacEwen, and an introductory editorial in which your humble Æon editors attempt to explain what the heck they think they're doing here.

Like a sample? Here are previews of all the Aeon One fiction:

http://www.aeonmagazine.com/currentissue.html

Æon Speculative Fiction is a quarterly electronic magazine/anthology of fiction and nonfiction of interest to readers of science fiction and fantasy. We publish high-quality speculative stories of all kinds by new and established writers.

http://www.aeonmagazine.com

posted in Speculative Review - 1 reply

Science Fiction and Fantasy reviews

2004-10-11T22:51:27Z

Things are getting a little slow here, so I thought I would make this small offering. This is one of the few sites attempting to take a more literary approach to science fiction and fantasy reviews. Not only that, it’s a lot of fun.

http://www.irosf.com/

posted in Speculative Review - 2 replies

Vernor Vinge

2004-08-22T09:49:51Z

I've read both "Fire Upon the Deep" and "A Deepness in the Sky." I couldn't put either one down, and frequently tried reading them while walking toward home, down dark streets (not recommended).
Has anyone here read "Across Realtime"? I understand they're out of print, so kinda hard to find. Some people think it's his best stuff.
Anyone else here like his stuff?

posted in Speculative Review - 5 replies

John Meaney

2004-02-25T02:22:23Z

Okay, since I found someone to agree with me about British sf writer John Meaney in the Vernor Vinge thread, I thought I'd go into a little more detail here.

John Meaney's first novel (1998? 99?), To Hold Infinity, was pretty amazing, I thought. Stephen Baxter said of it: "John Meaney has rewired SF. Everything is different now." Okay, that's pretty strong hype to begin a career on, but it is a great book.

Following that, Transworld/Bantam started publishing his Nulapeiron Sequence in the U.K., starting with Paradox. The second book is titled Context, and the third, Resolution, will be out sometime this year. Strong, powerful stuff. He has also published a bunch of short fiction in Interzone, the British sf mag. Yank readers have yet to discover him for the most part, but he 's worth seeking out.

posted in Speculative Review - 1 reply

What makes for a good fantastic story?

2004-02-23T17:39:59Z

What are some of the elements that people enjoy about their favorite pieces of fantastic fiction? Is it intricite world building? Philosophy? Character building? All of the above plus more? Out with your secrets damnit!

posted in Speculative Review - 5 replies

Speculative Review's topics - tribe.net

BLACK MAGIC WOMAN

novel ?

Worldcon 2007 in Yokohama

Fantastic Dimensions #1

Short Reviews of Recently Read Novels

Boskone anyone?

How to submit a manuscript (x-posted)

Help Please

1632, 1633, and 1634

Octavia Butler Dies

What is New?

Mieville

tangent online

A list of some of my favorites

Lord!

Aeon SF Tribe

Would anyone be willing to help me?

house of leaves.

Hal Clement, RIP

*Adult* New Writing

Aeon Speculative Fiction - Issue One

Science Fiction and Fantasy reviews

Vernor Vinge

John Meaney

What makes for a good fantastic story?

Adult New Writing