2011 Locus Award Winners

The 2011 Locus Award winners have been announced.  For the Science Fiction novel category, Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis won, which I really think I’m going to have to check out now.  Kraken by China Mieville won, which I read and didn’t think was that great or incredible (I actually think Mieville gets a little too much praise and recognition that what he deserves from what I’ve read of him), and honestly I loved the other nominated novel, Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay far more.  Super congratulations to N. K. Jemisin for winning First Novel for Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, totally deserved it!  And Warriors edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois won for best anthology, which is good, because it was a truly great anthology.

BookBanter Book reviews and interviews are mentioned and linked next to the author and/or title.

 

Science Fiction Novel

• WINNER: Blackout/All Clear, Connie Willis (Spectra)
• Surface Detail, Iain M. Banks (Orbit UK; Orbit US)
• Cryoburn, Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
• Zero History, William Gibson (Putnam; Viking UK)
• The Dervish House, Ian McDonald (Pyr; Gollancz)

Fantasy Novel

• WINNER: Kraken, China Miéville (Macmillan UK; Del Rey)
• Under Heaven [BOOKBANTER REVIEW], Guy Gavriel Kay [BOOKBANTER INTERVIEW] (Penguin Canada; Roc)
• Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor (DAW)
• The Fuller Memorandum, Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
• The Sorcerer’s House, Gene Wolfe (Tor)

First Novel

• WINNER: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms [BOOKBANTER REVIEW], N.K. Jemisin [BOOKBANTER INTERVIEW] (Orbit UK; Orbit US)
• The Loving Dead, Amelia Beamer (Night Shade)
• Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
• The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajaniemi (Gollancz; Tor)
• How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu (Pantheon)

Young Adult Book

• WINNER: Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown)
• Mockingjay [BOOKBANTER REVIEW], Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)
• Enchanted Glass, Diana Wynne Jones (HarperCollins UK; Greenwillow)
• I Shall Wear Midnight, Terry Pratchett (Gollancz; HarperCollins)
• Behemoth, Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse; Simon & Schuster UK)

Novella

• WINNER: The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang (Subterranean)
• Bone and Jewel Creatures, Elizabeth Bear (Subterranean)
• “The Mystery Knight”’, George R.R. Martin (Warriors)
• “Troika”, Alastair Reynolds (Godlike Machines)
• “The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window’”, Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Summer ’10)

Novelette

• WINNER: “The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains”, Neil Gaiman (Stories)
• “The Fool Jobs”, Joe Abercrombie (Swords & Dark Magic)
• “The Mad Scientist’s Daughter”, Theodora Goss (Strange Horizons 1/18-1/25/10)
• “Plus or Minus”, James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s 12/10)
• “Marya and the Pirate”, Geoffrey A. Landis (Asimov’s 1/10)

Short Story

• WINNER: “The Thing About Cassandra”, Neil Gaiman (Songs of Love and Death)
• “Booth’s Ghost”, Karen Joy Fowler (What I Didn’t See and Other Stories)
• “Names for Water”, Kij Johnson (Asimov’s 10-11/10)
• “Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time”, Catherynne M. Valente (Clarkesworld 8/10)
• “The Things”, Peter Watts (Clarkesworld 1/10)

Magazine

• WINNER: Asimov’s
• Analog
• F&SF
• Subterranean
• Tor.com

Publisher

• WINNER: Tor
• Baen
• Night Shade Books
• Orbit
• Subterranean Press

Anthology

• WINNER: Warriors [BOOKBANTER REVIEW], George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois [BOOKBANTER INTERVIEW], eds. (Tor)
• Zombies vs. Unicorns, Holly Black & Justine Larbalestier, eds. (McElderry)
• The Beastly Bride, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (Viking)
• The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin’s)
• Swords & Dark Magic, Jonathan Strahan & Lou Anders, eds. (HarperCollins)

Collection

• WINNER: Fritz Leiber: Selected Stories, Fritz Leiber (Night Shade)
• Mirror Kingdoms, Peter S. Beagle (Subterranean)
• What I Didn’t See and Other Stories, Karen Joy Fowler (Small Beer)
• The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson, Kim Stanley Robinson (Night Shade)
• The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny: Volume Five: Nine Black Doves, Roger Zelazny (NESFA)

Editor

• WINNER: Ellen Datlow
• Gardner Dozois
• Gordon Van Gelder
• David G. Hartwell
• Jonathan Strahan

Artist

• WINNER: Shaun Tan
• Bob Eggleton
• Donato Giancola
• John Picacio
• Michael Whelan

Non-fiction

• WINNER: Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century: Volume 1: 1907-1948: Learning Curve, William H. Patterson, Jr., (Tor)
• 80! Memories & Reflections on Ursula K. Le Guin, Karen Joy Fowler & Debbie Notkin, eds. (Aqueduct)
• Conversations with Octavia Butler, Conseula Francis (University Press of Mississippi)
• CM Kornbluth: The Life and Works of a Science Fiction Visionary, Mark Rich (McFarland)
• Bearings: Reviews 1997-2001, Gary K. Wolfe (Beccon)

Art Books

• WINNER: Spectrum 17, Cathy & Arnie Fenner, eds. (Underwood)
• Bob Eggleton, Dragon’s Domain (Impact)
• Donato Giancola, Middle-Earth: Visions of a Modern Myth (Underwood)
• Shaun Tan, The Bird King and Other Sketches (Windy Hollow)
• Charles Vess & Neil Gaiman, Instructions (Harper)

Pulled from TOR.com

06/29 On the Bookshelf . . . “7th Sigma” & “American Gods: Author’s Preferred Edition”

       

A captivating cover and I’m just a sucker for anything cool sounding to do with time travel.  So looking forward to this from Steven Gould.

Also received a review copy of the new tenth anniversary edition of American Gods by Neil Gaiman, referred to as the “author’s preferred text.”  It was ten years ago that I first discovered Neil Gaiman with this book, and I still have that first edition, and published my review in February 2002.  And then when I opened the book, discovered this thrilling surprise . . .

09/28 On the Bookshelf . . . “One Salt Sea”

I has a new Toby Daye book.  Nuff said.

06/27 On the Bookshelf . . . “Snow Queen’s Shadow” & “The Revisonists”

   

This will be my first Jim C. Hines book, who I’ve been looking to read for quite some time.  And with The Revisonists, I’m a sucker for any good sounding time travel story.

“White Horse” Progress Report 22

WORDS WRITTEN:4,485

TOTAL WORDS: 50,398

REASON FOR STOPPING: Hit word goal for the week; finished chapter thirteen and fourteen; hit 50,000 words

WORDS FOR THE WEEK: 5,083 words

This week has been a good and productive one for the writing of White Horse, as I’ve been sticking with my 500 words or so a day, or making up for it when I didn’t quite hit it, and today after a long session with The Unwritten writing group, I got a lot of words down on the page, finished the long chapter I’d been working on, and managed to start and finish another one.  Ended up writing almost four and half thousand words today at 4,4,85, but I kept pushing myself with three different writing sessions during the day, with the goal of hitting the 50,000 word mark, which I did reach and then passed, ending the day and word count for the week at 50,398.  Which is good, because tomorrow I’ll be able to work on other projects after getting so much done with White Horse today.

Now, technically here’s what the word counter meter currently reads with today’s writing:

Yay, I reached that 50k mark, but alas, it is not the end of the book; but I knew a while ago that I would likely be surpassing the 50k mark when this story, which was originally conceived as a novella, continued to grow and grow and become a full-length novel.  I’m now adjusting the word count goal to 75k and I believe this to be a good estimate for how much more I need to finish the book.  Of course, that’s not set in stone, and who knows how much longer the characters may want to hang around, telling their stories.  Anyway, here’s the current word count meter:

And now for some work in progress:

I gingerly got to my feet, almost losing my balance for a moment, and took a few steps away from the dog I obliterated.  For the first time, I saw the torn flesh and fur of the animal, matted with an immense amount of blood.  There were puddles of red growing on the ground.  Then I looked down at myself and saw I was completely soaked with the animal’s blood.  I then felt the cold wetness of it, touching my bare flesh, the weight of it pulling my clothes down.  I gagged, but swallowed, forcing myself not to vomit.

What’s on Tap For BookBanter . . . Simon Pegg, John Barnes, & Cameron Stracher

Simon Pegg

Coming up on BookBanter on July 1st is an exclusive written interview with Simon Pegg, know for his popular movies, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Paul and the truly fantastic TV series, Spaced.  He has also written a very entertaining biography, Nerd Do Well.

 

John Barnes

John Barnes is the author of numerous books, including the most recent post-apocalyptic books — the first and second of a trilogy – Directive 51 and Daybreak Zero.

   

Cameron Stracher

Cameron Stracher is the author of the entertaining young adult dystopian novel, Water Wars.

The Man Behind the Truth: An Interview with James Rollins

James Rollins is the bestselling author of numerous books, including Excavation, Amazonia, and his popular Sigma series, including Black Order, and The Doomsday Key. He has been interviewed on BookBanter previously, which you can listen to here.

In this interview, he talks about the story behind The Devil Colony, what research it required, how much traveling he did for the locations mentioned in the book, as well as when we might be getting some answers about who The Guild really are. To read the interview click here . . .

To enter the BookBanter Boon giveaway for a copy of The Devil Colony, click here.

BookBanter Boon #10: “The Devil Colony” by James Rollins

With the release of James Rollins’ latest thriller, The Devil Colony, along with the brand new interview between Rollins and BookBanter, we have another special BookBanter Boon giveaway, this time for a beautiful finished copy of the book in question, The Devil Colony.

Here are the basic rules:

1. Anyone in the US can enter.
2. To enter simply leave a comment on this post.  The question for you for this BookBanter Boon is how far back into history do you think the mysterious Guild goes?
3. Entries will be accepted from June 21st until 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time on June 30th.
4. The winner will be randomly chosen, contacted, and announced on this post on July 1st.

If you have any questions, please email me at alex@bookbanter.net.

“The Devil Colony” by James Rollins (William Morrow, 2011)

James Rollins’ latest book, The Devil Colony, does everything a thriller should with a compelling storyline, travel to exotic and unusual places, elements of the fantastic, and lots and lots of action.  Rollins describes his novels as rollercoaster rides, which The Devil Colony may well be, and reveals this author’s storytelling and writing abilities at their very best.

In this new SIGMA Force novel, Rollins blends some shocking and relatively unknown American history with cutting edge science that defies the mind.  Deep within the Rocky Mountains of Utah an incredible discovery is made of Native American mummies buried in a cave beneath the ground, as well as a number of priceless gold artifacts with some very strange ancient writing on them that doesn’t seem to be Native American.  As the artifacts are brought to the surface, a terrible explosion rips through the air, causing a number of deaths.  Thought to be an act by a radical Native American group, the truth is revealed to be far more dooming as some unusual activated element has been brought to the surface and seems to be eating through matter of any kind with no end in sight.

The SIGMA Force are called in to investigate, with Painter Crowe who is looking to help his niece – who has become tied up in the whole catastrophe – however he can, while Commander Grayson Pierce does his own research with some help from the beautiful and enigmatic Seichan.  This mystery will take them from the mountains of Utah to the volcanoes of Iceland to the impenetrable vaults of Fort Knox to the renowned geysers of Yellowstone.  It will also take them one important step closer to the ancient and secretive order known as the Guild, until it is realized that far more is at risk when a geological chain reaction is set in motion that could have devastating effects for the entire planet.

While The Devil Colony certainly seems to push the boundaries of the conventional thriller, Rollins is careful to back up his incredible storylines with meticulous historical and scientific research, which he goes into detail with in his foreword and afterword, as he does his best to explain to readers the story behind the ultimate question of this book: Was America founded on a lie?  Read the book to find out the story behind this and the supposed twelfth colony, known as the Devil Colony.

CLICK HERE to purchase your copy from Bookshop Santa Cruz and help support BookBanter.

Originally written on June 20, 2011 ©Alex C. Telander.

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06/19 On the Bookshelf . . . “The Book Without Words” & “The Poisoner’s Handbook” & “Inmate 1577″

       

Picked the first two on sale.  Can’t go wrong with Avi and I’ve been looking to get a hold of a copy of The Poisoner’s Handbook since it came out a year or two ago.  And finally there’s the next Karen Vail thriller from Alan Jacobson, involving Alcatraz in some way; what’s not to like?