Reviewspam, spam, spam, spam...

Wotcher!

Right, some reviewery.

Niall Alexander at the Speculative Scotsman simply loves the new edition of Eric Brown's Engineman:

Engineman is an elegy of addiction, at its core, a lyrical and indelibly persuasive fable of one man's hunger for something greater, something more. And it is that rare - not to mention precious - thing in science fiction: a cracking good story over and above an account of awesome future tech.

Liviu at the Fantasy Book Critic site is similarly effusive about Paul Kearney's Corvus:

A page turner that will keep you hooked until the end... we somehow want both sides to win. Corvus (A+) delivered what I expected of it with brio and reinforced the standing of Paul Kearney as a master of military fantasy.

Brian Sammons, of the Innsmouth Free Press, has offered up a review of Ellen Datlow's multiple-award-winning Poe as part of Poe Week:

Poe-heads rejoice! Poe is usually used as a starting-off point, a place to give some Poe flavor or theme, but then the stories usually go off on their merry way in a wide range of directions... consider this one highly recommended by me.

Schweeeet.

Please do go and read the reviews and give these kids your love.

Cheers,

David

Poe Week!

Hey all,

Over at Innsmouth Free Press they're celebrating Poe Week later this month. For now, they're asking for submissions for their Poe Haiku competition. There are some pretty neat prizes, too.

Why do I mention this? Well, what better way to celebrate Poe Week than with a copy of Ellen Datlow's Black Quill and Shirley Jackson Award-Winning Poe-themed short story anthology, Poe.

< /CHEEKY >

That is all.

Cheers,

David

'Poe' wins the Shirley Jackson Awards

The Shirley Jackson Award for an Edited Anthology goes to....

Poe: 19 New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Ellen Datlow (Solaris Books)

The winners were announced at Readercon 21, the Conference on Imaginative Literature, in Burlington, Massachusetts. Read about the winners in the other categories, here.

The Shirley Jackson Awards were established in 2007 for 'outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic'. They were created in honour of Shirley Jackson's contribution to the genre, most notably her novels The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

-

Poe Gets Another Nomination

Honestly, I think Ellen's going to get sick of attending posh parties...

The Poe anthology's up for another award. This time it's the Shirley Jackson Award for horror, given in honour of the author of The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. And, of course, we're in it twice.

Poe's up for the best Edited Anthology category, and the short story "Strappado," by the awesomely-named Laird Barron, is up for the best Short Story category.

The Awards will be given out at Readercon 21 in Burlington, Massachussets this July.

Congratulations, Ellen and Laird! Great work.

David

Hugo Nominations: Onward to Victory! (We hope)

Hey all,

If you post it, they will vote. The Hugo Award, in the apallingly unlikely event that you haven't heard of it, is the daddy of science fiction and fantasy awards. It's a big, big, BIG deal. And one of our contributors, noted novelist and Doctor Who author Paul Cornell (pictured right), has been nominated in the short story category for his piece, "One of Our Bastards is Missing" (click link for a free download of the story), which first appeared in the Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Three.




Furthermore, Ellen Datlow (pictured), editor of the Poe horror anthology, has been nominated for the best short-form editor (essentially, the category for anthologists). You may also remember that Poe won the Black Quill and was nominated for the Bram Stoker. Now, Ellen's put a few strings to her bow in the last year, but we like to think Poe's one of the reasons she's up for this.







This is brilliant news for both Paul and Ellen. We're really pleased for them.

Cheers,

David

Poe Goodness

Hey kids,

Poe, Ellen Datlow's anthology of short horror stories inspired by the classic American author Edgar Allan Poe, has been critically acclaimed over and over and listed in "Best Of" lists all over webland, and now it's starting to show up in the awards lists. Two recent accomplishments are:

Dark Scribe Magazine's third annual Black Quill Awards were announced last month, and Poe won the "Readers' Choice" in the Best Dark Genre Anthology category. This is a fairly new award, but already becoming an influential achievement, so congratulations to Ellen and her authors for that one.

Most excitingly, the Horror Writers' Association has announced the nominees for the coveted Bram Stoker Award, and Poe's been nominated in the "Superior Achievement in an Anthology" category (I also note that Ellen's in there twice, with a Lovecraft anthology for Dark Horse Books, so well done, Ellen). This is pretty much the big one, and even just being nominated is a serious achievement. Fingers crossed for the announcement.

Awesome results all round.

David

Friday links

• Joel Glover has reviewed Juliet McKenna's Irons in the Fire for the David Gemmell Awards website. Review can be read here. Don't forget to get involved and vote for all your favourite Solaris Books!

• There's a year-end review of Ellen Datlow's anthology New Tales Inspired by Edger Allen Poe at the Dark Recesses Magazine website, which charts all the celebrations in 2009 which marked the 200th anniversary of the gothic author's birth. Linkage here.
  

• Last but not least, The Innsmouth Free Press (what a great name for a great site!) has reviewed Brian Lumley's book of Cthulhu Mythos tales, Haggopian and Other Stories, here.

Have a great weekend, everyone! Be seeing you next week.

-Jen

-