Solaris Editor Spotted In New York

Solaris Editor, George Mann, was spotted in New York, as this set of photos shows. This particular evening, he was attending novel readings with Paul Di Filippo and Ellen Datlow, amongst others.

For your viewing pleasure, here are a couple of snaps. Contrary to his Striking White Shirt, George assures us he was not waiting on tables for the evening.

He was far too busy chatting about Solaris to the great and good who were present. For more information, check out the Locus website

—Mark N

Something for the weekend

Why, I was browsing around the SF and Fantasy section in Waterstones when I saw these.

The first Solaris books have hit the shelves!

—Mark N

What do you do if you own over 14,000 books?

Why, you build around them, of course. If that's not your thing, you could just keep stocking up on Billy Bookcases, like we do in the office. Except, it doesn't look quite as cool, does it?

Also: We're inching ever closer to Doomsday. This time it's due to the environmental challanges we face. Finally, we're learning; but only, it seems, when it impedes on our daily lives. How very humanistic… Gaia still won't be happy, you know.

One last thing: another reason to love the iPod. You can now get Choose Your Own Adventure books for it! Will there be a dancing hipster silhouette for this? Probably not. But you can certainly try to find The Abominable Snowman instead.

—Mark N

Eric Brown Reviews In THE GUARDIAN Newspaper

Solaris author, Eric Brown, is now reviewing Science Fiction and Fantasy books in The Guardian newspaper. You can see his first reviews here.


Eric is author of the wonderful Helix. SF legend, Stephen Baxter has this to say about it: "Eric Brown's Helix is a classic concept – a built world to dwarf Rama and Ringworld – a setting for a hugely imaginative adventure. Helix is the very DNA of true sf. This is the rediscovery of wonder."

-Mark N

I've suspected this for a while...

...but apparently we're all from Mars.

Christian

Books you shouldn't bother to read

Published in The Times by an anonymous source...

They have this, for example, to say about Lovely Bones: "Emotional porn anyone? The people who write manufactured pop tunes that get you on the key change, know exactly what notes pull the heartstrings."

I'll admit a devil in me likes this sort of thing, although it would be more fun if it wasn't anonymous. Then it would get all gloves-off-I-know-where-you-live.

And haven't we all got a few we could add to the pile...?

—Mark N

Kind Words

Two early reviews of our books.

Read a review of Bitterwood.

Read one of The Solaris Book of New SF.

—Mark N

Sculptures

The Jonathan Carroll blog links to this amazing gallery of scultpures by UK-based artist Ron Mueck.

As Carroll advises, make sure you look the whole gallery of photographs.

— Mark N

The Girl In The Glass, by Jeffrey Ford

To avoid in-depth conversations with family this Christmas, I sought refuge in The Girl In The Glass, by Jeffrey Ford.

Being in publishing, you read all day, and so reading for pleasure becomes a little difficult—you always feel you're reading to learn more about the industry, or sometimes just can't read any more. I can't say how wonderful it was to relax with a book written by an author in full control—so I just kicked back, in safe hands.

The Girl In The Glass is set in the Long Island area of America during the Depression. It is a time where spiritualism is seducing what wealthy people remain. You get an idea of some people refusing to look inwardly in times of desparation—people with more money than sense. Wealth is a powerful thing, and this becomes more apparent later on in the book.

The tale concerns a band of spiritual mediums (in reality, con artists), led by the gentleman's gentleman, Thomas Schell. He's the best there is. We follow the narrative of his assistant, a seventeen year-old Mexican immigrant, Diego—who poses as Ondoo, an Indian mystic. I won't bog you down with plot detail—there are many good reviews via the medium of Google—but essentially we follow a truly unusual cast, and see their involvement in a murder mystery. It's all because of a seemingly real ghostly vision: the girl in the glass. It becomes the most surprisingly gripping narrative I've read all year.

Seemingly simple, filled with historical information (but not, as some authors may do, vomited forth to bury the reader in useless detail just because they researched it), it is a delight to read. It is rich in symbolism, full of charming characters, and took off in a direction I couldn't see coming at all.

The prose is elegant, clipped, fast; the narrative pace is as perfect as you'll get. The Girl In the Glass touches on the fringe of fantasy; but I'm not sure where, as a bookseller, you'd put this on the shelf. Is it crime or fantasy? Sometimes I'm not sure if the fantasy elements are more subtle than you think.

So just take it off the shelf and read it instead. And you may as well find out where the rest of Jeffrey Ford's books are. You'll want them, too.

— Mark N

Who says selling books doesn't pay?

Amazon.com founder, Jeff Bezos, has a new toy to play with. His company, Blue Origin, hopes to offer cheap space flights as soon as 2010.

I wonder if you'll be able to buy them online, and how expensive it'll be? I am so screwed if they do an offer on that and fiction together.

— Mark N

Steampunk. Opedia.

Do you like a bit of Steampunk action? If so, then bow down to Steampunkopedia. Everything about the sub-genre you could wish for. You can even subscribe to their RSS and "never run out of steam". You see what they did there?

Happy New Year!

— Mark N

Happy Holidays

One final post before the fog closes in completely, and we're trapped, only to stumble around aimlessly as ghosts, clutching our Christmas cards and corporate (more importantly, free) wine.

Santa has come already, or rather Eric Brown has delievered the manuscript of Helix.

Deadlines have been hit. Chocolate has been consumed.

Merry Christmas from Solaris!

—Mark N

Pre-Christmas notes

Been a bit quiet on here, for which we apologise. The Solaris editors have been down the pit trying to haul out nuggets of literature before the Christmas break. Also, Marco took us down the pub yesterday (bravo!).

Interesting things:

Should you have strayed past here, stray over here as well. M John Harrison has a new blog.

Stray here too—the Science Fiction Book Club has a wonderful round-up of book reviews and author interviews.

—Mark N

Your Science Fiction Life

The BBC has come up with an interesting little website called My Science Fiction Life. Its aim is to build the 'ultimate' SF timeline for the UK, covering everything from books to comics to radio. You have to sign in and register, but I think it's about audience participation. So you give as well as take!

—Mark N

That Champagne Moment

Ladies and gentlemen, the first Solaris titles have just rolled off the presses!

Christian

Was Bin Laden an Asimov fan?

Giles Foden in The Guardian seems to think so.

Spooky.

Gawd 'elp us if he was a fan of John Norman.

— Mark N

China Miéville Interview

Locus has an interesting feature on China Miéville. This is in connection with Miéville's forthcoming title Un Lun Dun, a Young Adult book.

I'm a big fan of this guy, and look forward to seeing what his next offering is.

— Mark N

Solaris SF Anthology reviewed... by Lou Anders!

Two doses of Lou Anders in two days. He's got some good things to say about our Solaris Book of New Science Fiction.It gets the Lou Anders Endorsemet, which is praise indeed.

— Mark N

Lou Anders's looks at his progress on 'The 50 Most Significant SF&F Books' list.

And by 'most significant', I mean it's a heavily US-weighted popularity contest.

Lou Anders checks off his progress on the 'most significant' SF and F books of all time, published between 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club. Where are your China Miéville fantasies? Where are your Viriconiums? Where are your Iain Banks novels?

Some good stuff on there, though. But that's the thing with these lists, isn't it? We love to argue about it all.

—Mark N

As I Lay Dying...

…I died then got up and bit someone's neck. William Faulkner penned vampire movie. And it's heading to a cinema near you. Sometime.

— Mark N

It's Alive (almost)!

Now, as far as I can recall from my uni lectures on what makes something (biological systems) alive—self-replicating, self-awareness—they're getting pretty damn close. Plus this fella has wireless power. And it's discovered it's true nature, so I'd like to think of it as a Buddhist robot.

— Mark N

Waterstones top SF and F of 2006. And Nova Swing.

Michael Rowley, SF and Fantasy buyer (and imports dude) gives us a rundown of the great and good of the genre this year.

George and I were lucky enough to be at Worldcon this year with Michael—a very good man indeed. A lot to say about the state of the genre. He's brought a lot of US imports into UK stores, and is always keen to push range.

But BEHOLD! the picture of M John Harrison's Nova Swing. I was lucky enought to lay my paws on a proof copy of this stunning book. If you have any care for the literary end of SF, this is what you should be asking Father Christmas for. Nova Swing has a wonderful retro feel to it, as well as characters that I wish I could write. Or meet. Or women I could sleep with. I could ramble on here about how good it is, but you already know that this man can write, don't you?

—Mark N

If you want to write for Solaris...

You darn well better follow these essential writers' guides, or else.

- marco

O.J. Simpson to tell us how he would've done it.

Bookninja comments on this little travesty in publishing, just in time for Christmas. So O.J. Simpson is to explain how he would have committed the murders, if he'd have actually done it.

This is the brain child of Ms. Regan, of Regan Books. Other titles she published include one by Jenna Jameson, the sex-film star: How to Make Love Like a Porn Star, for all you die-hard romantics out there.

Nice to see a quality publi$hing $chedule these days, isn't it?

—Mark N

Robin Hood: Prince of Wales

Stephen Lawhead says so. Our offices being in Nottingham, I thought it was only right to show this one. Apparently, he didn't hide in Sherwood, but somewhere in Wales.

"In short, then, Lawhead's point is that Robin and his fellow outlaws could not have escaped the Sheriff of Nottingham for long if they had lived in a nice little woodland picnic spot, with lots of space between the trees."

Although, as Lawhead says, "I've got a long-term fascination with all things Celtic, and particularly Welsh." He adds, "Look, I'm a fantasy writer first and foremost, not a historian."

So there you have it.

—Mark N

All my Rock 'n' Roll dreams come true (nearly)

Thanks to some enterprising chaps in Australia, we can now all rock out like [insert name of favourite guitarist here]. Sadly, you still have to know the finger positions for the various chords but I'm sure before long they'll invent a brain chip that bestows musical talent upon the wearer, though this is a pretty good start.

Christian

Now, where's my jetpack?

It might be because we work within just a few short, tree-hugging hops of the old Flying Bedstead testing grounds at Hucknall, north of Nottingham, but we're mad keen on properly "futuristic" aircraft technology here. So it's with no little delight that we read the new proposals for a Flying Wing design of super-aircraft. Now, where's my personal helicopter, my meals in pill form and my greatly increased leisure time? -- marco

Tolkien Home For Sale

J.R.R. Tolkien's home is up for sale. One careful owner, round windows, low roof. Comes with own wizard. Don't worry about the Nazgul, guvnor, they're on ASBOs, they won't give you much gip.

A million notes you say? You know what, if they threw in Liv as Arwen, I might starting consulting the bank about a deposit.

—Mark N

Celebrity Flops

I for one am very happy about this sort of thing. Having propped up the counter at a couple of bookstores, it was at the time you got many of these things flooding in and flooding out, and it was very depressing to see people buying books on nobodies. Like most people who worked in bookselling, you were there because you loved literature—sff, crime, literary, whatever. Biographies were great—so long as there was a life to discuss. Bill Clinton's for one is a great read.

But I love this sales stat:

Chantelle

Living the Dream

DEAL: £300,000

SALES: 4,000 (published 26 Oct)

This is what happens when publishing becomes commercial. It is SO ironic that at a stage where things are most conservative in the industry—"oh, but will it sell?"—the losses are potentially huge.

—Mark N

Brain Enhancing Drugs

Um... I left an article about something around here somewhere...

Oh yeah, here it is. Science fiction becomes fact, yadda yadda. Brain enhancing drugs to be a reality sometime in the next 20 years. You could pop a pill to do well in that exam, or maybe you could impress a lady by memorising pi to a hundred decimal places.

Could do with some of that.

…Hang on, this isn't my comfy chair… Is this the toilet or the kitchen? Nurse? Nurse!

—Mark N