Reviews from SF Crowsnest and Interzone

I've got two reviews to share with you, one online and one on the stands. First up, SF Crowsnest reviews Charles de Lint's Promises to Keep:

"Charles de Lint has always written tales along the edge of fantasy. Inhabiting his city of Newford are creatures and places that invade your dreams or are only glimpsed out of the corner of the eye. Some of ancestry of apparently normal people lies in the mystical. Those still in touch with their roots can touch the magic of the Earth. Most of the inhabitants are unaware of what is there. For the reader, it is a journey into mystery."

Then, Interzone reviews Kafkaesque: Stories Inspired by Franz Kafka. Interzone is a fantastic SF/F magazine, and one of the few left. They've got stories, reviews, interviews and much more to share, so if your local bookstore doesn't stock it, put in a request! Here's a little of what they have to say about Kafkaesque:

"The oldest story here is Kafka's own 'A Hunger Artist' (1922) in a new (and previously unpublished) translation by John Kessel. A man asserts himself through inverting his desire for food, using it to practice an art. The graphic version captures the elements of voyeurism, transformation, and the confusion of the roles of human and animal in the minds of audience and performer. The most recently published story is Terry Bisson's 'The Cockroach Hat', from 2010, a short and utterly deadpan piece that could have been written by someone called archy."

Preview and order the current issue, or subscribe to Interzone here.

Battle of the Books!

Book battle!! Charles de Lint's Eyes Like Leaves is competing with some stellar fiction over at Fantastic Reviews Blog. What is a Battle of the Books? Each book in the competition is read 25 pages at a time, and the reviewer (for most books on the bracket the reviewer is Aaron Hughes) picks the book he most wants to continue reading. As someone who has a large 'to be read' pile, I think this is a great idea.

Eyes Like Leaves has defeated The Scar in round two and now it's off to the semifinals. It will be up against Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card. Come follow along, there can be only one!

See the full bracket here!

Jeff VanderMeer's Webcomic Situation

File this under Awesome: Jeff VanderMeer's short story, "The Situation," has been adapted into comic form! You can view the first part for free on Tor.com, and parts 2 and 3 will be up on Thursday and Friday. The art is by Eric Orchard, who brings VanderMeer's strange worlds to life with just the right amount of vibrant creepiness. A fantastic adaptation.

"The Situation", as well as many more of his best stories, can be found in Jeff VanderMeer's collection, The Third Bear.

Tachyon's Gone Weightless!

We are very happy to announce that Tachyon ebooks will now be available on Weightless Books. Weightless Books is a DRM-free ebook store for independent publishers. Tachyon is joining Small Beer Press, Blind Eye Books, Less Than Three Press, and many more on the Weightless team.

Weightless carries ebooks in all formats, and you can even send books directly to your Kindle from their site. New books are added every Tuesday, so have a look, then come back for more.

Book Reviews, Attack the Block, and Authors Ryan Boudinot and Ayize Jama-Everett

Happy Monday! SF in SF has some awesome authors speaking this week, but I'm going to start off by sharing some reviews.

First, Fresh Fiction takes a look at Charles de Lint's Promises to Keep:

"A clear and stunning view revealing the secrets of Newford." Nice! Read the rest of the review here.

Functional Nerds loves Kafkaesque! They say "It's an extremely rich and potent collection..." and you can read the rest of the review here.

SF in SF movie night kicks off a new year this Thursday with Attack the Block, a fast, funny, and gritty tale of aliens attacking the slums of South London. Did you miss this one when it came out in theaters? (I didn't, and it was AWESOME) Well, now's your chance to see it.

Doors and cash bar (proceeds go to Variety Children's Charity) open at 6PM, movie starts at 7. And there's free popcorn!

All SF in SF events take place at:
The Variety Preview Room Theatre
The Hobart Bldg., 1st Floor — entrance next to Citbank on Market St.
582 Market Street @ 2nd and Montgomery
San Francisco, CA 94104

Finally, SF in SF will be hosting Ryan Boudinot and Ayize Jama-Everett this Saturday the 28th! Both are first timers at SF in SF, so this will be an extra fun event.

Ryan Boudinot is the author of Blueprints of the Afterlife and The Littlest Hitler a Publishers Weekly Book of the Year. You can read his column at The Rumpus over here.

Ayize Jama-Everett is the author of the debut novel The Liminal People. Check out his website to learn more about this terrific new author.

Once again, doors and bar open at 6, event begins at 7. Check above for the address.

See you there!

io9 Reviews Eyes Like Leaves

Eyes Like Leaves hits shelves next month, but if you're curious about it now, io9 has just posted a long, excellent review (though beware, there are spoilers).

"What looks at first glance like a pretty traditional epic fantasy turns out to be something a bit darker, and stranger. And it does wind up raising some fascinating questions about how we come to be the people we are. Would you expect any less from Charles de Lint?"

Check out the full review here.

The Quill and Ink book blog has just posted a short but very sweet review of Promises to Keep, saying it was "beautifully written" and giving it five stars!

Read the rest of the review here.

John Kessel and James Kelly on The Prosen People

All this week, John Kessel and James Patrick Kelly will be guest blogging over at the Jewish Book Council's blog, The Prosen People. Today's post, Kafka: A Man as Puzzling as His Stories, is a must-read, and don't forget to keep checking back all this week.

Where we're at in 2012

We here at Tachyon have been hard at work to bring you another great set of books and believe me, we have been working HARD. There are some great books out there from our friends in the publishing world, and we contribute our own unique and wonderfully distinctive books.

We bring you canonic anthologies from the diverse genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. We take our time working through many ideas in a day to try to find books that will fill our ideal of "smart science fiction and fantasy" and make them entertaining and well executed. The possibilities seem endless and our staff are constantly discussing projects, covers, designs, ideas, authors, stories, the state of publishing, the existence of the supernatural, random thoughts on the disappearance of bees (oh sorry), and other topics too numerous and strange to describe here.

Not only are we hard at work acquiring new books, we are putting finishing touches on our 2012 books. We are also creating a new website that is more interactive, more user-friendly, and a place that you will want to visit regularly.

Anyway, look us up in the coming months for new books on the horizon and a new website to celebrate another year. 2012 marks our seventeenth birthday and by 2013, we will be in business for eighteen years. Not far from the big 2-0!

Read a book. Buy a book. Support your community, your stores, and your imagination.

Jim

A Very Kafka New Year

Happy 2012, everybody!

Here's how I like to start my year: forwarding on another awesome review of Kafkaesque! We're quite proud of this one, and it's great to see the love continuing into a new year.



From Underwords book blog-

"Each story within Kafkaesque offers something new, interesting and very Franz Kafka. The quality of the collection is superb and will provide hours of mind-boggling reading enjoyment."

read the rest here