Saturday, November 19, 2011
More on Weird Fiction Review and "A Rising Thunder", first 2012 release read (by Liviu Suciu)
Last week I talked about the recent launch of Weird Fiction Review and also about the recent anthology Odd? and I thought I will finish it this week to have a review in the weekend. I read more stories for a total of some 10 of its 19 stories read to date and I have to say that so far Odd? is very impressive. As I want to savor the stories and do them full justice, it will take me several more days to finish Odd?, so look for a full review next weekend.
But in the meantime, some more goodies have appeared on Weird Fiction Review and Mr. Vandermeer was kind enough to let me know about them:
But in the meantime, some more goodies have appeared on Weird Fiction Review and Mr. Vandermeer was kind enough to let me know about them:
"Weirdfictionreview.com is happy to bring to your attention a new original webcomic, “Reading the Weird” by Leah Thomas.
“Reading the Weird” is a quest-journey undertaken by the mysterious Mary and an axolotl named Ed (who may or may not be the creature from the famous Julio Cortazar story) undertaken due to the power of a book of stories titled The Weird.
Along the way, they encounter monsters, delve deeper into the mystery of the book, and reveal their own personal secrets. The first three episodes are now up on WFR.com, with nine more to follow. Episode four will focus on Jorge Luis Borges’ “The Aleph” and George R.R. Martin’s “Sandkings”.
The process of creating the comic was also a journey of discovery for the young creator of the comic, 22-year-old Michigan State student Leah Thomas, a talented writer who attended the prestigious Clarion Writers Workshop in 2010 and has just started making her first story sales.
That journey is also real, because The Weird is an actual book—a 750,000-word, 100-year overview of strange, dark fiction, containing over 115 stories. As Thomas details in this great interview, encountering many of these stories for the first time was the adult equivalent of her childhood experience with Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, the classic written by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell. “Reading the Weird” is Thomas’s first comic for the public, and even within the 12-part series shows her growth as a creator in interesting ways. We hope you enjoy it.
Weirdfictionreview.com site turned to Kafka and writers allied with Kafka, with an exclusive online posting of John Kessel/James Patrick Kelly’s introductory essay to their new anthology Kafkaesque: Stories After Kafka. Also we featured new translated fiction and an interview with iconic Czech writer Michal Ajvaz, along with fiction by one of the best Finnish writers of her generation, Leena Krohn and an appreciation of The Other Side’s Alfred Kubin."
“Reading the Weird” is a quest-journey undertaken by the mysterious Mary and an axolotl named Ed (who may or may not be the creature from the famous Julio Cortazar story) undertaken due to the power of a book of stories titled The Weird.
Along the way, they encounter monsters, delve deeper into the mystery of the book, and reveal their own personal secrets. The first three episodes are now up on WFR.com, with nine more to follow. Episode four will focus on Jorge Luis Borges’ “The Aleph” and George R.R. Martin’s “Sandkings”.
The process of creating the comic was also a journey of discovery for the young creator of the comic, 22-year-old Michigan State student Leah Thomas, a talented writer who attended the prestigious Clarion Writers Workshop in 2010 and has just started making her first story sales.
That journey is also real, because The Weird is an actual book—a 750,000-word, 100-year overview of strange, dark fiction, containing over 115 stories. As Thomas details in this great interview, encountering many of these stories for the first time was the adult equivalent of her childhood experience with Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, the classic written by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell. “Reading the Weird” is Thomas’s first comic for the public, and even within the 12-part series shows her growth as a creator in interesting ways. We hope you enjoy it.
Weirdfictionreview.com site turned to Kafka and writers allied with Kafka, with an exclusive online posting of John Kessel/James Patrick Kelly’s introductory essay to their new anthology Kafkaesque: Stories After Kafka. Also we featured new translated fiction and an interview with iconic Czech writer Michal Ajvaz, along with fiction by one of the best Finnish writers of her generation, Leena Krohn and an appreciation of The Other Side’s Alfred Kubin."
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Last week I also talked more about the 2011 releases that I have read so far and the 2012 books that have slowly started to make their way here. Though slightly delayed by an editor's illness, the earc of the new Honorverse offering, A Rising Thunder, has just been released by Baen and it can be bought HERE in multiple drm-free formats, while the first 8 chapters are available for free.
As I used to literally visit Webscriptions 5+ times a day during the waiting period, I saw it reasonably fast upon release this Thursday and bought my copy on the spot, while late that day my plans to open it and read a little and leave it for a more leisure read on Friday evening, got blown to bits when I simply could not put the book down and stayed way too late to finish it.
Of course as a March 2012 release in stores, I will have a full review then but in the meantime a few thoughts here (no spoilers):
"While as known for some time A Rising Thunder is a first half of a bigger book - there was a split as the original ART became way too big, but the good news is that the yet unnamed second part is in final editing and it should be available in late 2012, early 2013 - and it shows a little, ART is considerably better than Mission of Honor which was way too predictable and more of a "dot the i's and cross the t's novel" than anything else.
I loved all the little interludes and they interspersed well with the main political and military developments; there is a special "phone" call with an interesting aftermath and that was perfectly done too. All in all a great installment that starts for good the new Honorverse direction with a bang and left me wanting more asap, while confirming the status of the series as my #1 ongoing sff one."
You can read an overview of the series HERE and reviews of At All Costs, Storms From the Shadows and Mission of Honor, as well as of the recent YA series debut that takes place centuries before, A Beautiful Friendship, while I would note that Mr. Weber inserted a great reference to this last book in A Rising Thunder (the telepathic treecats have "memory singers", who well, remember...)
Last week I also talked more about the 2011 releases that I have read so far and the 2012 books that have slowly started to make their way here. Though slightly delayed by an editor's illness, the earc of the new Honorverse offering, A Rising Thunder, has just been released by Baen and it can be bought HERE in multiple drm-free formats, while the first 8 chapters are available for free.
As I used to literally visit Webscriptions 5+ times a day during the waiting period, I saw it reasonably fast upon release this Thursday and bought my copy on the spot, while late that day my plans to open it and read a little and leave it for a more leisure read on Friday evening, got blown to bits when I simply could not put the book down and stayed way too late to finish it.
Of course as a March 2012 release in stores, I will have a full review then but in the meantime a few thoughts here (no spoilers):
"While as known for some time A Rising Thunder is a first half of a bigger book - there was a split as the original ART became way too big, but the good news is that the yet unnamed second part is in final editing and it should be available in late 2012, early 2013 - and it shows a little, ART is considerably better than Mission of Honor which was way too predictable and more of a "dot the i's and cross the t's novel" than anything else.
I loved all the little interludes and they interspersed well with the main political and military developments; there is a special "phone" call with an interesting aftermath and that was perfectly done too. All in all a great installment that starts for good the new Honorverse direction with a bang and left me wanting more asap, while confirming the status of the series as my #1 ongoing sff one."
You can read an overview of the series HERE and reviews of At All Costs, Storms From the Shadows and Mission of Honor, as well as of the recent YA series debut that takes place centuries before, A Beautiful Friendship, while I would note that Mr. Weber inserted a great reference to this last book in A Rising Thunder (the telepathic treecats have "memory singers", who well, remember...)
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2 comments:
AAGGGHH, such a tease on the Weber book! I can't wait...
I read it. I have read all of them.
Thought is was one of the poorer ones but that is perhaps because it was the first half of a book and most the the great twists and turns in Honorverse have come in the later half of the books. Lot of new poorly developed characters and very little Honor. I look forward to the rest of the book but I wish they hadn't done it this way.