Context Has Hit the Shelves

Context: Further Selected Essays on Productivity, Creativity, Parenting, and Politics in the 21st Century, by the ever-entertaining Cory Doctorow, is now for sale!

Context is a followup to Cory's earlier collection, Content. A stay-at-home dad as well as an international activist, Doctorow writes as eloquently about creating internet, real-time theater with his daughter as he does in lambasting the corporations that want to limit and profit from intellectual freedoms. Cory has written a guide to how the technology we use every day shapes our lives. Context is as much a warning against selling our privacy for convenience as it is a celebration of the infinite creative possibilities of the internet.

And now to kick things off, here's a review from Booklist:

"Part Poor Benjamin, part Dr. Spock, Doctorow is by now a wise, trusted guide in this messy—but eminently navigable!—world in which we’ve landed."

read the rest here

The New York Journal of Books gives its two cents (twice)

We've got two very nice reviews coming up in the New York Journal of Books. Here's a snippet from their review of Context by Cory Doctorow (October release):

"A blueprint for well-considered decisions.... Cory Doctorow's Context is a treat for those who live in the digital world—as well as for those who would like to know more about it."

And for Kafkaesque, edited by John Kessel and James Patrick Kelly (coming out in November):

"All of the works collected in Kafkaesque prove both edifying and entertaining.... A fine, intelligent, and exquisitely bizarre collection of fiction."

Who will make Charlie Sheen go away?

Today on Forbes.com, Todd Wilms orchestrates a virtual meeting of the minds, interviewing three experts on the future of social and mass media, R. "Ray" Wang, CEO of Constellation Research Group; Dr. Andreas Weigend, Professor of e-commerce and former Amazon.com executive; and our own Dr. Rick Wilber, media professor, sf author, and editor of Future Media.

Addressing the topic of "Where are we going?", Rick comments:

"We are about 'the now' and digesting data right in front of us. So, what if a celebrity or athlete or leader could transmit their reality to you - you could, in effect, be in the head of that person. MIT currently has a retinal prosthetic device they are testing that will allow stimulus to enter directly into the brain, bypassing your eyes. Now, imag[ine] that you could be in the head of anyone who would transmit that data out. Imagine not just watching Lady Gaga perform in pay-per-view simulcast at home, but being in Lady Gaga's head while she performs – in essence, being Gaga. For that matter, how much would some kid pay to be in Eli Manning's brain for passing tips, or to experience a great legal argument in front of the Supreme Court?"

"We thought the internet was going to be THE disruptive event for us – and to some degree it has. But TV and the internet are melding together in many ways. This would be the first time since the 1950's that something really came in and change the game for us. Who would watch TV when you could experience another person whenever you wanted? It would be a total revolution and it is not too far away. These are the things I have been thinking about."

Wilms muses, "Now, who is going to step up and solve how to make Charlie Sheen go away?" We at Tachyon wish we knew.

Praise for The Bible Repairman and Sleight of Hand

Two books, no waiting!

Tim Powers got a short but sweet review for The Bible Repairman and Other Stories in the Denver Post yesterday. It's a quick one, but worth checking out:

"Powers specializes in hidden histories and all of these stories present a very real exterior and another world inside its cracks."

The Bible Repairman was also given a featured review on SF Site: "Powers' first new collection since 2005 assembles five stories and a novella, where he exhibits his extraordinary talent as a fantasist and his uncommon imaginative power."

Meanwhile, here is a review of Sleight of Hand at Strange Horizons: "With its engaging and wide-ranging selection of fantasies, Sleight of Hand seems the perfect book for an author to publish in the same year that his towering status in the field has finally been formalized with a World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, proving as it does that this achievement lies not only in the past, but remains very much a thing of the present."

Green Man Reviews Bible Repairman and Other Stories

The Green Man Review has a short-but-sweet review up for Tim Powers' new collection, The Bible Repairman and Other Stories.

"Fans of Powers’ work should have no qualms about picking up The Bible Repairman, as it offers many of the pleasures of his longer works distilled into smaller bites....an excellent collection."

Click here to read the entire review.

SF in SF Author Night: Nancy Kress & Jack Skillingstead

This is a great weekend to be a science fiction and fantasy fan in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Not only is the Tachyon Publications Sixteenth Anniversary Party this Sunday, but this Saturday SF in SF will host Nancy Kress and Jack Skillingstead!

Nancy Kress is the bestselling author of Beggars in Spain and Dogs. She's won four Nebula Awards and two Hugos, and is a frequent teacher at the Clarion writer's workshop.

Jack Skillingstead is a fantastic and prolific short story writer. You can find his work in Asimov's SF, F&SF, Realms of Fantasy and in numerous anthologies. His first collection is Are You There and Other Stories.

SF in SF Reading Night
Saturday September 10th
The Variety Preview Room Theatre
The Hobart Bldg., 1st Floor — entrance between Quiznos and Citibank
582 Market Street @ 2nd and Montgomery
San Francisco, CA 94104

Doors and cash bar (with proceeds to Variety Children's Charity) open at 6:00pm, event starts at 7:00.
Email: sfinsfevents@gmail.com

You're Invited! Tachyon Turns Sweet 16!

Tachyon Publications is turning 16! That's 16 wonderful years of saving the world, one good book at a time. If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area (or not, it's worth the trip) come celebrate with us at our birthday party this Sunday at Borderlands Books in San Francisco.

When: Sunday September 11th, 2011 from 2:00 - 4:00 PM (well, probably longer)
Where: Borderlands Books, 866 Valencia Street, bet. 19th & 20th
Who: You! Your friends! And some of your favorite authors! Plus the Tachyon crew will be there, since it is our birthday.

Special guests include:
Peter S. Beagle
Nancy Kress
Jack Skillingstead
Kathleen Bartholomew

There will be cake! and food! and freebies! Plus: author readings and the Emperor Norton Award presentation and a super-secret surprise tribute to Kage Baker (hint: think silent science-fiction cinema...)

We love our birthday parties because every year it gives us a chance to thank the readers that have supported us all these years. We hope you'll join us as we toast 16 fantastic years, and we look forward to 16 more!