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Assassin’s Creed – Trailer World Premiere
I’m not much of a video gamer but this looks pretty cool to me. I’m sure I’m missing all kinds of points of interest in this trailer that fans of the game are catching so I’ll ask you: how does this compare to the game as far as look and story etc.?
Book Reviews v. Book Lists
Like the book review, book list making has a place in the life cycle of book promotion. Reviewers have the job of promoting books when they are new. List makers promote books when they are older. Most books will be forgotten, many right after they are published. Only a tiny fraction of books published each year will be remembered at the end of the year when critics make up their Best Books of the Year lists. Being remembered in December helps a book sell into the next year. A subset of those lucky books will get nominated for awards in that second year. Winning can give them life to last into a third year.
After that, there’s not many ways books are consistently promoted. Publishers focus on new books. Writers write their next masterpiece. Readers chase after bestsellers and award winners. This is the second period of dying off for books. Unless a book is lucky enough to be made into a movie or television miniseries, they start fading away like old war heroes. A book might inspire teachers to make it required reading, but that’s exceedingly rare. Some books become hits with book clubs. The primary way older books are remembered is by writers becoming successful, keeping their back catalog in print. Once readers switch from fans of a book, to fans of a writer, they search out an author’s older books. Often, books make a comeback after their initial sales decline when they are discounted in ebook sales. I’ve built quite a collection of classic science fiction by buying $1.99 Kindle books.
Another emerging way older books are being remembered is by being listed on the internet. Book lists are a popular way to attract readers to a web site. The side-effect, older books are being remembered, extending their life.
When readers see “10 Time Travel Books That Need To Be Movies Right Now (If Not Sooner)” it has the impact of a good book review. Since I have already read five of those novels and loved them, I wonder if the other five are just as good. Then if I compare it to “23 Best Time Travel Science Fiction Books” and see that The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August is also on this list, and it was the one that most caught my attention on the first list, I’m even more convinced that I should track down a copy.
She Who Watches by Anthony Pryor
Some books are just a fail with me. In general, I hesitate to give a book a low review just because I did not enjoy it, I mean 80% of a review is in the reader’s perspective. We have all reread a book we once loved and on a second read couldn’t help but wonder what kind of crack we were smoking to have enjoyed the book so much the first time, and visa-versa. But in the case of She Who Watches, by Anthony Pryor I really do not feel much guilt for this review.
The characters were one dimensional. The female characters were particularly offensive to me. There were only two female leads, the first Trish, is apparently the group pump. Her main and only characteristic is sleeping with all the members of the group, well most of them anyways. She is possessed by the demon before she gets through all of them. Her one main scene in the book is the obligatory sex scene with the main character. I’m not sure why the author felt he needed to cut and paste a scene from Fifty Shades of Grey into his book, but he did. Trish boils down to little more than a trampoline for the main character.
Anthony Pryor
The other female lead Kay, was mousy and weak. When she steps up to fight the demon, the main character is surprised, even though in the previous two paragraphs the author goes into details about how one of the male main characters, and even the dog have become more powerful and more committed to destroying the demon after having an experience of seeing a goddess. My only thought while reading this description was, why would he be shocked that she was moved, he wasn’t surprised when the rest of the group was moved and motivated by meeting a goddess!
The rest of the characters were equally one dimensional. I felt no vested interest in their wellbeing and by the end of the book was counting how many pages I had left before I could read something else.
But because of who I am, I am going to leave this review on a positive note. At least the author didn’t kill the dog.
I would like to thank Permuted Press, for providing this book for an honest review.
2016 Locus Award Finalists
The finalists for the 2016 Locus Awards have been announced. Here they are for the novel categories:
- The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi (Borzoi; Orbit UK)
- Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
- Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
- Seveneves by Neal Stephenson (Morrow)
- A Borrowed Man by Gene Wolfe (Tor)
- Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear (Tor)
- The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard (Roc; Gollancz)
- Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand (PS; Open Road)
- The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
- Uprooted by Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
- Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho (Ace; Macmillan UK)
- The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu (Saga)
- Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Solaris)
- The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley (Bloomsbury US; Bloomsbury UK)
- The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com)
- Half a War by Joe Abercrombie (Del Rey; Harper Voyager UK)
- Half the World by Joe Abercrombie (Del Rey)
- Harrison Squared by Daryl Gregory (Tor)
- Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older (Levine)
- The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett (Harper; Doubleday UK)
For the complete list of noms in all categories check out the official press release from Locus. Winners will be announced during the Locus Awards Weekend in Seattle WA, June 24-26, 2016; Connie Willis will MC the awards ceremony. Our congratulations to all the nominees!
What do you think of these lists? Any surprises? Any favorites?
2015 Shirley Jackson Award Nominees
The nominees for the 2015 Shirley Jackson Award have been announced. The noms in the novel category are:
- Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh (Penguin Press)
- Experimental Film by Gemma Files (ChiZine Publications)
- The Glittering World by Robert Levy (Gallery)
- Lord Byron’s Prophecy by Sean Eads (Lethe Press)
- When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord (Mulholland Books)
The Shirley Jackson Awards are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics, with input from a Board of Advisors. The awards are given for the best work published in the preceding calendar year in the following categories: Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story, Single-Author Collection, and Edited Anthology. You can see the complete list of noms in all categories in the official press release.
Our congrats to all the nominees! What do you like from this list? Any surprise inclusions?
