Sarah Rees Brennan - Sorcerer and Stone (Free Fiction)

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I reviewed SARAH REES BRENNAN's debut, "The Demon Lexicon", back in March, and found it an appealing YA novel. She has now come up with an idea for promoting her book with gifts and free fiction - a short story entitled Sorcerer and Stone (I haven't decided yet whether the title, as well as some other things, is a deliberate reference to Harry Potter or not), which tells the background of one of the characters in "The Demon's Lexicon". You can read the short story here.

In the Limelight - 2008 Nebula Award winners announced

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The winners of 2008 Nebula Award have been announced yesterday (April 25); the recipients of the Nebula Award are as follows:
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Best Novel: "Powers" by URSULA K. LeGUIN

Best Novella: "The Spacetime Pool" by CATHERINE ASARO

Best Novelette: "Pride and Prometheus" by JOHN KESSEL

Best Short Story: "Trophy Wives" by NINA KIRIKI HOFFMAN

Andre Norton Award for YA fiction: "Flora's Dare" by YSABEAU S. WILCE

Bradbury Award: JOSS WHEDON

Script: Wall-E

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...and the Grand Master Award was awarded to HARRY HARRISON, respectively.

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Congratulations to all the winners! I'd like to thank Larry from OF Blog of the Fallen for breaking the news to me. The nominees from the final ballot are listed here (you can read the long list here), Joe Sherry from Adventures in Reading has been diligently reviewing all the nominated works he could get his hands on (with the exception of the nominated novels) and you can read his thoughts on the nominated short stories, novellas and novelettes. If you're interested in reading the winners and the rest of the nominated work that is available online for free, then follow this link. Finally, you can read about the last years winners here.
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In the Limelight - Nebula Award Final Ballot

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A while ago I posted the preliminary ballot for 2009 Nebula Awards and although I'm a bit late with the news (the final ballot was announced more than a week ago) I'll nevertheless post the latest list. The awards will be announced and presented at the Nebula Awards Weekend on April 24-26.
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Novels

"Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow (Tor, Apr08)
"Powers" by Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt, Sep07)
"Cauldron" by Jack McDevitt (Ace, Nov07)
"Brasyl" by Ian McDonald (Pyr, May07)
"Making Money" by Terry Pratchett (Harper, Sep07)
"Superpowers" by David J. Schwartz (Three Rivers Press, Jun08)

Novellas

“The Spacetime Pool” by Catherine Asaro (Analog, Mar08)
“Dark Heaven” by Gregory Benford (Alien Crimes, Resnick, Mike, Ed., SFBC, Jan07)
“Dangerous Space” by Kelley Eskridge (Dangerous Space, Aqueduct Press, Jun07)
"The Political Prisoner” by Charles Coleman Finlay (F&SF, Aug08)
“The Duke in His Castle” by Vera Nazarian (Norilana Books, Jun08)

Novelettes

“If Angels Fight” by Richard Bowes (F&SF, Feb08)
"The Ray-Gun: A Love Story" by James Alan Gardner (Asimov's, Feb08)
“Dark Rooms” by Lisa Goldstein (Asimov’s, Oct/Nov 07)
“Pride and Prometheus” by John Kessel (F&SF, Jan08)
“Night Wind” by Mary Rosenblum (Lace and Blade, ed. Deborah J. Ross, Norilana Books, Feb08)
“Baby Doll” by Johanna Sinisalo (The SFWA European Hall of Fame, James Morrow & Kathryn Morrow, Ed., Tor, Jun07 )
“Kaleidoscope” by K.D. Wentworth (F&SF, May07)

Short Stories

“The Button Bin” by Mike Allen (Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly, Oct07)
“The Dreaming Wind” by Jeffrey Ford (The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Ed., Viking, Jul07)
“Trophy Wives” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Fellowship Fantastic, ed. Greenberg and Hughes, Daw Jan08)
“26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss” by Kij Johnson (Asimov’s, Jul08)
“The Tomb Wife” by Gwyneth Jones (F&SF, Aug07)
“Don’t Stop” by James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s, Jun07)
"Mars: A Traveler's Guide" by Ruth Nestvold (F&SF, Jan08)

Gardner Dozois (ed.) - Galileo's Children: Tales Of Science vs. Superstition (Book Review)

"Galileo's Children"
edited by: Gardner Dozois
hardcover, 343 pages
publisher: PYR (imprint from Prometheus Books)

Galileo Galilei is best known for his sotto-voce defiance of the inquisition. This, one of the most famous quotes in history - "Eppur si muove" (but still, it does move) - is without doubt apocryphal. The sentiment was surely present, but Galileo was a cautious man, well aware of the fate that befall Giordano Bruno. Some would say that so much of his fame comes from good PR, which made of him a martyr of reason, others look on his work at the fields of physics, mathematic, astronomy and philosophy and see in him a true man of science and ratio (which includes self-preservation, of course) and say without a doubt that he is a true father of (modern) science.

That being said, it is a little wonder, that his name that was chosen for the title of anthology of SF stories that PYR published in 2005, and his tale made the frame in which stories had to fit to be included. But Galileo is not the only great name that found its way on the cover of the 343 pages long book. PYR has left the selection of stories to the veteran of anthologies - Gardner Dozois and he proved that he wasn't named best professional editor for fifteen times in vain. Looking back over the last half a century he selected the stories which in his eyes best encompassed the conflict between the opposites of science and superstition, often written by authors with names as well known as his. Anthology includes thirteen tales:

• The Stars Below (1974) by Ursula K. LeGuin
• The Will of God (1991) by Keith Roberts
• The Way of Cross and Dragon (1979) by George R.R. Martin
• The Pope of the Chimps (1982) by Robert Silverberg
• The World is a Sphere (1973) by Edgar Pangborn
• Written in Blood (1999) by Chris Lawson
• Falling Star (2004) by Brendan DuBois
• Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream (1997) by James Alan Gardner
• The Star (1955) by Arthur C. Clarke
• The Last Homosexual (1996) by Paul Park
• The Man Who Walked Home (1972) by James Tiptree Jr.
• When the Old Gods Die (1995) by Mike Resnick
• Oracle (2000) by Greg Egan

As said, the main theme is the conflict between ratio of science and the intolerance, misapplication of facts, glorification of ignorance and use of all these in propagation of fear and ever increasing control found in every culture known to man. It will not come as a big surprise that the main "bad guy" that embody most of these in many of the tales is (organized) religion. With rampant fundamentalism on all the continents, screaming for return to one kind of so called "true values" or another and seeing science as the root of all evil, that is easy to understand, but nonetheless sometimes hard to swallow. In a way I found it odd. I agree with such a view of the situation, but when faced with such an en-masse fingerpointing I can not help myself but to think over some darker aspects of science.

I love short stories and novelettes. In some ways I consider them the true form of the genre that had lately put quantity over the "idea", which was the yardstick of a tale for better part of the century. Within these still lives that simple, playful "What if..." which, sometimes written softer, other harder and sometimes just for fun, is always a pleasure to read. Then again, perhaps in part such a feeling comes from my Slavic soul, with its romantically fatalistic individuality (LOL). I do hope you will not think worse of me if I confess that for me Clark's 'The Star' with it's simple but profound dilemma and many subtle points still shines most brightly (pun intended) among all of these tales. But if you were to ask me which I liked the least, I could not answer you, because all of the stories are great.

Those among you, that look first at the numbers of Fruitcakes, than at the cover and only then decide whether to read the review, by now probably wonder how come, with all the praise, there are only four (and a half) of our beloved maced barbarians beneath the text? For two reasons, and I have already hinted at both:

• When one thinks about it, it is obvious that the tales were selected for a certain quality. Dozois's introduction offers explanation enough, but nonetheless I got the feeling that the book lacks a tiny bit of balance. There is a prominent "we are in the right" feeling which I found a tad irritating. This, I suppose, also explains the vague but nagging feeling of deja-vu that follows you through the book. It is also true that this impression can be easily avoided, simply by reading one story at a time.
  

• The oldest among the tales was first published in 1955 and only three of them are less than a decade old. This assures us a quality of writing, that is true. Not because new authors would write worse than those decades ago, but because any such tale had already stood and survived the judgment of time and change of generations. This fact will on the one hand without a doubt put this anthology on many of 'must have' lists, but on the other it also represents a weakness of a sort. If one is a veteran reader of anthologies and publications that run such form of SF tales (or, in many cases had just read through award winning tales) he had already read most, if not all, of chosen tales.

So, as said (damn, I think this is the highest mark I've ever bestowed on this blog):

Well folks it's been a while, beeing the end of a school year and all. But now (or really soon) I'm back among the ranks of unemployed, so I suppose we'll be reading more of each other. THX for the wait (especially to ThRiNiDiR, for not skinning me alive, since I've been promising him this piece for the better part of three months). And a BIG "thank you!" to PYR.

The Cathedral (Short Animated Movie)

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"The Cathedral" (Amazon: USA)
by Tomek Baginski (IMDB)
based on a short story by Jacek Dukaj
running time: 6 min 20 sec

Yeah, I know, "The Cathedral" (orig. Katedra) is far from being a new thing. It impressed me back in 2003 when it was nominated for an Academy Award and I'm sure that it was the same with many of you. I rediscovered it now - and was impressed again.

For those who managed to miss it: "The Cathedral" is a short animated movie, made back in 2002; the author is Tomek Baginski (also the author of "Fallen Art"). It was nominated (as mentioned above) for Oscar in 'Best Short Film, Animated' category and won the title of 'Best Animated Short' - Siggraph 2002. It's available on DVD (region 1 format only), but you can also watch it on YouTube. I warn you, though - you should really see it in high-res. :)

But there was one thing I managed to miss - the film is based on a short SF story by Jacek Dukaj. The story, however, is originally written in Polish and was never fully translated (at least not officially; if there is a translation on the Internet I don't know about, feel free to notify me). You can find the translated parts of it here - they are pretty awesome. There are also some other partly-translated short stories on Dukaj's site, along with selected excerpts from one of his novels, "Black Oceans". His only short story that's been fully translated is "The Golden Galley" - you can find it in The Dedalus Book of Polish Fantasy.

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~Trin~

Roger Zelazny - The Great Slow Kings (Short Story Review)

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"Masters," suggested Zindrome, "the half-life of radioactive materials being as ephemeral as it is, I regret to report that only one spaceship is now in operational condition."
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Before leaving work today I thought to myself: "Wouldn't it be nice to read some good short story on the way home?" This of course led to me printing the above mentioned tale (for those touchy on the subject of copyrights, I own at least one tome containing said tale :) ) and a fun bus ride home.
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Like a lot of Zelazny's short stories, "The Great Slow Kings" is concise, witty and most importantly well writen. And while some may disagree I find it slightly satirical.
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We are shown a very busy day of the last two creatures belonging to a highly advanced decadent civilization. Having deduced there might be other life forms "out there", one proposes they might populate their barren planet, thus providing them with some loyal subjects yearning for their wise leadership. The other having agreed to the proposal, they employ their loyal robot helper, the only other inhabitant of their lonely planet, to go forth and find them some subjects. Their life cycles being what they are, the two appear to be immortal and slightly unaware of the passage of time...leading to a very entertaining read.
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Highly recommended even if it would take you more than a meager few minutes to read.
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~ Madwand ~

Isaac Asimov - "The Last Question" (Short Story Review)

"The sound of the Galactic AC startled them into silence. Its voice came thin and beautiful out of the small AC-contact on the desk. It said:

'THERE IS INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.' "

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-I've reviewed two novels lately that are often labeled as “classics” - the first one being ”The Road”, an ingenious near-future post-apocalypse survival story, and the second is “The Forever War”, a much praised military sf that won many prestigious awards. Of course genre “classics” don’t grow on the proverbial tree, but being a fantasy and sf promoting blog, I believe it best to start with the best that can be found. Isaac ASIMOV is another much lauded sf author, if not ‘the author’, out of the golden age of science fiction. His “Foundation” and “Robots” series have done much to separate the term “pulp” from science fiction, as well as made a big name for Asimov. In 2004, a big-budget (but ironically pretty pulpy) sf movie, starring Will Smith as Del Spooner, has been filmed after his novel “I, Robot”.

What I’m offering here is one of his short stories - his most known short story that is also Asimov's favorite. “The Last Question” packs more meaningful content into no more than a few pages than majority of authors manage to accomplish in a lengthy novel. I’ve only read this one short story by Asimov, but it is pretty obvious why he is revered as a master of his trade. The story is short (doh!) and to the point. Asimov manages to touch upon a few topics of which relevance is universal and undiminished to the present day – a few examples: the nature of the Universe, evolution of mankind and technology, transcendence of embodiment and mortality. Some of his ideas are obviously outdated (an analogue computer of the size of a planet etc.) with others remarkably not so; even when concerning the present times.

The story itself is divided into several shorter ones that basically deal with people from all across the future ages, all worried about the absolute end of Existence and with how to reverse the laws of entropy. At some point of the future all the big questions have been answered except for “The Last Question”, that would translate without the fancy words into something as simple as “how to make something from nothing?”. The answer, provided by an all-powerful computer that is in the beginning known as Multivac, but later takes other names, is always the same… The ending may be predicted by the most prescient readers, but not by me; and even if I could predict it I would still think it brilliant.

I am talking about an old-school story in the best sense of the word and it throws a mighty punch at the reader. Not only should it take you no more than a lunch-break to read it, it is also absolutely free (link). Now, is there any reason not to read "The Last Question", any reason at all?

4+/5