Praise for Kosher Guide and the VanderMeers

Rick Kleffel at The Agony Column believes that the amazing productivity of Ann and Jeff VanderMeer is thanks to an army of inter-dimensional clones working sweatshop hours to produce weird fiction for you, the people. We here at Tachyon can neither confirm or deny this, however we do urge you to enjoy the fruits of the VanderMeer labor force, and while you're at it, check out Agony Column's review of Kosher Guide.

Meanwhile, at the Barnes and Noble Review, Bill Tipper sits down with Ann and her Evil Monkey husband to talk Kosher Guide, Kosher Law, and the imaginary animal they'd most like to eat.

Last but not least, Rick Klaw from San Antonio Current is happy to see a Passover-season comedy.

What's coming from Tachyon

At Tachyon, we actually have *two* slogans: "Saving the world, one good book at a time" and "Smart Science Fiction and Fantasy." Here some Tachyon titles that will smartly save the world in the months to come...

The Third Bear
Jeff VanderMeer
July 2010
Compared by critics to Borges, Nabokov, and Kafka, an inventive contemporary fantasist continues to amaze with this surreal, innovative, and absurdist gathering of award-winning short fiction. Exotic beasts and improbable travelers roam restlessly through Jeff Vandermeer's darkly diverting and finely-honed tales.

The Very Best of Charles de Lint
July 2010
The finest stories of this popular pioneer of urban fantasy and creator of the mythical city of Newford have been chosen by Charles de Lint — and his fans — and gathered in this extraordinary collection. These are retold fairy tales and new modern myths that redefine magic, whether it's found in a heroic, selfless act or sitting two tables away at your local café.

The Secret History of Fantasy
Peter S. Beagle, ed.
August 2010
In this exciting canonic volume, Peter S. Beagle introduces readers to the other side of fantasy fiction. As epic sword-and-sorcery fantasy became popular, gifted writers rediscovered older fantasy classics and redefined the genre in their own unique voices. Contributors include Gregory Maguire, Francesca Lia Block, Stephen King, Yann Martel, Patricia McKillip, and more.

The Search for Philip K. Dick
Anne R. Dick
September 2010
This highly-revealing biography and memoir reveals the inner workings of one of the twentieth century’s most important writers through his tumultuous relationship with his third wife. Even after their marriage collapsed, Philip K. Dick continued to haunt Ann Dick, appearing in her life at random intervals and then retreating again. Upon his tragic death, she spent many years researching his life, resulting in an unrepresented portrait of both the man and her life with him, for better and for worse.

Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded
Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, eds.
October 2010
Steampunk Reloaded takes up where the highly popular first Steampunk anthology left off. Herein you will find ample new evidence of the burgeoning Steampunk tradition, from the light and humorous to the decidedly more serious. Clockwork contraptions, outrageous dirigibles, and insane inventors hold court, lovingly collected in classic tales as well as original art, fiction, and nonfiction. Contributors include William Gibson, Jake Von Slatt, Cherie Priest, Gail Carriger, and many more.

Flaming Zeppelins
Joe R. Lansdale
November 2010
Join the disembodied head of Buffalo Bill Cody, Annie Oakley, Sitting Bull, Frankenstein (a.k.a. The Creature), the Tin Man, Captain Nemo, the Flying Dutchman, and the inestimable Ned the Seal, as they embark upon a spectacular set of non-stop Steampunk adventures. For the first time, these two epic chronicles, partly-inscribed by a courageous young seal on his trusty notepad, are collected together in one volume.

Crucified Dreams
Joe R. Lansdale, ed.
February 2011
Crossing noir with the supernatural, this luridly visceral anthology attacks polite society and plunges into the unthinkable horrors lurking in its underbelly. These are savage tales of private dicks, serial killers, pitiless demons, recalling the wino in the gutter who was an opera singer before his throat was slit.

Sleight of Hand
Peter S. Beagle
March 2011
This extraordinary collection of new fiction reveals a magician at the height of his powers, a storyteller who is more mesmerizing with every tale. From the top of the Berlin Wall to the depths of the darkest seas, gods and monsters battle their enemies and innermost fears, yet mere mortals make the truly difficult choices. Whether melancholy, comedic, or deeply tragic, these tales are suffused with a luminous misdirection that reveals far more meets the eye.

***

Your future reading list just got a whole lot more interesting.

SF in SF: Book launch! Movies! Author readings! Get read for an awesome April

First on Wednesday, April 14th SF in SF will host a very special book launch party/film night. Come join us for a double feature, free popcorn, and the ONLY NorCal event for the new anthology, The Bleeding Edge.

The Bleeding Edge anthology is edited by William F. Nolan and Jason V. Brock, and contains never before published work from Ray Bradbury, Joe R. Lansdale, Cody Goodfellow and many, MANY more.

At the launch party you'll get to see not one, not two, but FOUR fantastic authors: William F. Nolan, John Shirley, Frank Robinson, Jason Brock, and Cody Goodfellow. Feel free to bring books from home for signing! The launch party will be from 6 to 7pm in the Variety Preview room. Then stick around for the SF in SF film night!

Our films for the 14th are Charles Beaumont: The Short Life of Twilight Zone's Magic Man. This is the Northern California premiere. If you've watched The Twilight Zone, you've seen his work: "The Howling Man", "No. 12 Looks Just Like You", "Printer's Devil", and more. No Twilight Zone fan will want to miss this. We'll follow the documentary with a special screening of Beaumont's The Circus of Dr. Lao.

Bar proceeds and tips will benefit the Variety Children's Charity of Northern California.

Then save the date for Saturday, April 17th when SF in SF presents authors Gail Carriger and Blake Charlton!

SF in SF--that's Science Fiction in San Francisco for those who haven't caught on--is proud to present authors Gail Carriger (Soulless) and Blake Charlton (Spellwright) as part of our author reading series.

The reading will be April 17th in the Variety Preview Room. The reception and cash bar will begin at 6pm and the readings will start at 7pm. As always, proceeds from the bar will benefit the Variety Children's Charity of Northen California.

The power of steam

top to bottom: Steampunk shoppers, Rina Weisman and Howard Hendrix, Steampunk trilobyte

Folks who were lucky enough to attend this weekend's Nova Albion Steampunk Exhibition would have found us in the dealer's room with our Steampunk anthology and a pile of other steam-powered reading materials (and free posters). We were alongside some spectacular costumery, jewelry, and items far too mysterious and strange to adequately describe.

The monster manual with Manischewitz

My favorite review to date of The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals is up on io9. Chris Hsiang (a.k.a. Grey_Area) just *gets* us, calling the KG, "the ideal gift for anyone who has tried to make a saving throw vs. petrification using a dreidel."

Terry Bisson is not left behind

Our own Terry Bisson, author of Greetings and Numbers Don’t Lie, has been busy. In addition to moderating the monthly SF in SF reading series, he is now editing Outspoken Authors, a line of elegant, edgy, political fiction for PM Press. The series has a great lineup, including The Lucky Strike by Kim Stanley Robinson, the forthcoming Mammoths of the Great Plains by Eleanor Arnason, and Terry’s own The Left Left Behind. Lucky Strike is Kim Stanley Robinson’s classic alternate-world story of the Enola Gay bombing. As with all PM reprint volumes, it comes with the author's new introduction and an interview. Eleanor Arnason and Terry Bisson have contributed original works. The Mammoths of the Great Plains involves genetic engineering, the American Indian Movement, and, you guessed it, mammoths. The Left Left Behind features Terry’s satiric take on the popular Christian movement/publishing phenomenon.

PM Press is putting out some of the most provocative, cutting-edge ficiton and nonfiction around. Check them out.

Darrell Award nomination for Andrew Fox

Our very own Andrew Fox has been selected as a finalist for the 2010 Darrell Award for The Good Humor Man. The Darrells are an annual award given to authors who live in or have written about the Mid-South region of the U.S. The award's motto is "Promoting Literacy in the Mid-South by Recognizing the Best Published SF, Fantasy and Horror."

The Darrells will be presented at MidSouthCon on Saturday, March 13th. Congratulations Andy - and good luck!

The Nova Albion Steampunk Exhibition Is This Weekend

So be there!

This is the weekend to travel back in time to an alternative past of clockwork leviathans and difference engines. Strap on your corset, grab your goggles, and head out to Emeryville, California for Nova Albion!

The fun is from March 12th to the 14th. Come for a day or stay the whole weekend.

Tachyon will be there, bringing you the best in Steampunk literature (also, posters!) so don't forget to stop by our booth and say hello.

For more information about the Steampunk Exhibition, check out this io9 article, or go right to the Nova Albion website!

The Hotel...in Palo Alto

In the "small world" category, I had the pleasure of meeting Terry Weyna *in person* today at the Joe Hill signing at M is for Mystery (more about that soon). Terry's a terrific reviewer and coincidentally, she had just posted her review of The Hotel Under the Sand in Reading the Leaves. I love this part: "The Hotel Under the Sand is the kind of book that you resolve to send to your nieces and nephews even before you have finished the first page." Exactly how I felt too.

Rain Taxi Interviews James Patrick Kelly & John Kessel

Matthew Cheney at Rain Taxi Review of Books has just posted his interview with Tachyon editors James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel.

The focus is on the editing duo's series of anthologies, which spotlight the blurred line between science fiction and literature, particularly The Secret History of Science Fiction. The result is a fascinating interview that examines alternative viewpoints on genre and gives insight into Kelly and Kessel's editing process. Here's a preview:

MC: In some responses to the book from within the SF community, I've seen people working very hard to try to support what seems to me a fairly rigid interpretation of Samuel Delany's idea that science fiction is a language of its own that requires different reading protocols from other types of fiction. There seems to be an idea that people who are not regular SF readers cannot understand SF stories because there is something so inherently different in SF that you have to be a special breed to be able to make sense of it, and that stories such as those of Gene Wolfe can only be understood by people who are members of the sci-fi cult. But plenty of SF readers can't make any sense of Gene Wolfe stories and plenty of people who don't read SF regularly actually really love Gene Wolfe and have done wonderful close readings of his work. Have your ideas about readers and texts changed from putting the books together and seeing the reaction to them out in the world?

Kessel: I don't think Delany and others who have followed his reasoning are wrong about the different reading protocols of science fiction. But that definition of SF applies primarily to SF that takes the future for granted. The kind of immersive SF that Heinlein wrote and others followed.

But the argument we make is that 1) lots of SF isn't that sort, and 2), as you say, these protocols are learnable, and too much can be made of them. Historical, fiction, for instance, also involves immersion in a strange background whose understanding comes from picking up cues set by the author. Any fiction set in a culture alien to the reader (a novel set in Heian Japan, for instance, as read by someone from 21st-century Iowa) also presents difficulties of reading. Yet we don't hear many claims that historical fiction cannot be understood by non-historical fiction readers.

Read the rest of the interview here

SF in SF: join us for Chaz Brenchley, Malindo Lo & Steampunk films!

On Saturday, March 13th SF in SF welcomes authors CHAZ BRENCHLEY (aka DANIEL FOX) and MALINDA LO.

6:00PM - Cash bar and reception opens
7:00PM - Author readings begin

CHAZ BRENCHLEY (aka DANIEL FOX) - Chaz
Brenchley has been making a living as a writer since he was eighteen. He is the author of nine thrillers, most recently Shelter, and two major fantasy series: The Books of Outremer, based on the world of the Crusades, and Selling Water by the River, set in an alternate Ottoman Istanbul.As Daniel Fox, he first went to Taiwan at the millennium and became obsessed, to the point of learning Mandarin and writing about the country in three different genres. The result: the books Dragon in Chains, and Jade Man's Skin. Daniel Fox weaves the ancient myths and legends of feudal China into a fantasy world of brutal war and brittle passion,
immortal gods and mystical creatures.

MALINDA LO - a local author with one of the
most astonishing and remarkable debut novels out there, Ash. A beautifullywritten and fully realized retelling of Cinderalla...with a twist. Ash is a starred selection of the ABA's Rainbow List, it is a nominee for the Andre Norton Award, was a finalist for the 2010 William C. Morris Award, and was a Kirkus Best Young Adult Novel of 2009. Formerly an entertainment reporter, Malina was awarded the 2006 Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for Excellence in LGBT Journalism by the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and has master's degrees from Harvard and Stanford universities.

Each author will read a selection of their work, followed by Q & A moderated
by author Terry Bisson. Booksigning and schmoozing in the lounge
afterwards.

Books for sale at event, courtesy of Borderlands Books

And don't forget, Wednesday March 10th is the STEAMPUNK FILM FESTIVAL

We will be showing:
The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello (30 mins.)
Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog (40 mins.)
Perfect Creature (88 mins.)

The SF in SF Steampunk Film Festival is in conjunction with the Nova Albion Steampunk Exhibition being held in Emeryville, CA, March 12, 13, and 14. More about the convention can be found here: http://www.steampunkexhibition.com

Come in costume!

Absinthe cocktails at the bar, with an absinthe-flavored giveaway before the movies!!

$10 suggested donation at the door or bar benefits Steampunk Conventions (to help bring back Nova Albion in 2011)

Reception and cash bar opens at 6:00PM - bar proceeds benefit Variety Children's Charity

Movies begin at 7:00PM - FREE POPCORN!