Vídeo: Presentación de La maga y otros cuentos crueles en la Semana Negra 2015

El vídeo de hoy corresponde a la presentación de La maga y otros cuentos crueles, en la Semana Negra de Gijón. Participan la autora, Elia Barceló, y la editora, Carmen Moreno.

¡Espero que os guste!

Novedad: Dream Paris, de Tony Ballantyne

Esta semana se ha publicado Dream Paris, de Tony Ballantyne, secuela de Dream London. Ésta es la sinopsis de la novela:

The geography-warping invasion that took over London has been defeated, but thousands of Londonders are missing...Tony Ballantyne reveals a world where reality can no longer be relied upon, in this amazing sequel to Dream London. 

Anna is doing her best: there are lots of other seventeen year olds who are living alone in the partially rebuilt ruins of London. She hopes that by keeping things clean and tidy and by studying hard she can keep the dreams away...

But then a tall, dark stranger with eyes like a fly enters her life. He claims to know where the missing people of London have ended up. He might even know the location of Anna's missing parents. Anna can help, but to do that she will have to let go of what little normality she has managed to gather around herself and begin the journey to Dream Paris..

Crowdfunding: Uncanny Magazine Year Two

La muy recomendable revista de relatos de ciencia ficción y fantasía Uncanny Magazine ha lanzado una campaña de crowdfunding para financiar el segundo año de sus ediciones bimensuales. Esta publicación ha sido, para mí, uno de los descubrimientos más agradables de los últimos meses, con relatos de gran calidad literaria y especulativa, por lo que creo que merece la pena echarle un vistazo (y apoyarla en este crowdfunding, si os parece interesante). 

La campaña ya ha conseguido su principal objetivo por lo que habrá al menos seis números más de la revista. Los editores, Lynne M. Thomas y Michael Damian Thomas, ya tienen confirmados a autores de la talla de Aliette de Bodard o Mary Robinette Kowal. Si se consiguen aún más fondos, se contempla la posibilidad de ampliar el número de relatos originales incluidos en cada número.

La campaña está activa hasta el día 11 de septiembre y se puede participar aportando distintas cantidades, con recompensas que van desde números de la revista en formato digital a encuentros con los autores y editores de la revista, pasando por subscripciones por un año completo y libros autografiados. 

Novedad: A Better Way to Die, de Paul Cornell

Hoy se pone a la venta A Better Way to Die, una colección de relatos de Paul Cornell. Estos son su sinopsis y contenidos:

Paul Cornell has written Doctor Who for the BBC, Batman & Robin for DC, and Wolverine for Marvel. He has won the BSFA Award for his short fiction, the Eagle Award for his comics, and shares a Writer’s Guild Award for television. He is one of only two people to be Hugo Award nominated for all three media.

A Better Way to Die is his first ever short story collection, providing a comprehensive overview of his work. Featured here are both his contributions to George RR Martin’s Wildcards series and all the Jonathan Hamilton stories, including “One of Our Bastards is Missing”, shortlisted for the Hugo Award in 2010, and “A Better Way to Die”, winner of a BSFA Award in 2011.

With an introduction by John Scalzi, the eBook edition contains 21 stories, representing almost all of Paul's published short fiction to date.

1. Introduction by John Scalzi

2. Sunflower Pump

3. The Greys

4. The Deer Stalker

5. Horror Story

6. Michael Laurits is: DROWNING

7. Global Collider Generation: an Idyll

8. Secret Identity

9. The Occurrence at Slocombe Priory

10. A Map of Lychford

11. The Sensible Folly

12. More (Wild Cards)

13. The Elephant in the Room (Wild Cards)

14. A New Arrival at the House of Love

15. The Ghosts of Christmas

16. Tom

17. Ramesses on the Frontier

18. Zeta Reticuli

19. Catherine Drewe

20. One of our Bastards is Missing

21. The Copenhagen Interpretation

22. A Better Way to Die

Ebook en oferta: California Bones, de Greg van Eekhout

Hasta fin de mes se puede adquirir el ebook California Bones, de Greg van Eekhout, a precio promocional en varias tiendas online (Amazon ES - 3,29€; Kobo - 3,36€). Ésta es su sinopsis:

When Daniel Blackland was six, he ingested his first bone fragment, a bit of kraken spine plucked out of the sand during a visit with his demanding, brilliant, and powerful magician father, Sebastian. 

When Daniel was twelve, he watched Sebastian die at the hands of the Hierarch of Southern California, devoured for the heightened magic layered deep within his bones.

Now, years later, Daniel is a petty thief with a forged identity. Hiding amid the crowds in Los Angeles--the capital of the Kingdom of Southern California--Daniel is trying to go straight. But his crime-boss uncle has a heist he wants Daniel to perform: break into the Hierarch's storehouse of magical artifacts and retrieve Sebastian's sword, an object of untold power. 

For this dangerous mission, Daniel will need a team he can rely on, so he brings in his closest friends from his years in the criminal world. There's Moth, who can take a bullet and heal in mere minutes. Jo Alverado, illusionist. The multitalented Cassandra, Daniel's ex. And, new to them all, the enigmatic, knowledgeable Emma, with her British accent and her own grudge against the powers-that-be. The stakes are high, and the stage is set for a showdown that might just break the magic that protects a long-corrupt regime. 

Extravagant and yet moving, Greg van Eekhout's California Bones is an epic adventure set in a city of canals and secrets and casual brutality--different from the world we know, yet familiar and true.

Novedad: Liar's Island, de Tim Pratt

Ayer se puso a la venta Liar's Island, una novela de Tim Pratt situada en el universo de Pathfinder Tales. 

Ésta es su sinopsis:

Rodrick is a con man as charming as he is cunning. Hrym is a talking sword of magical ice, with the soul and spells of an ancient dragon. Together, the two travel the world, parting the gullible from their gold and freezing their enemies in their tracks. But when the two get summoned to the mysterious island of Jalmeray by a king with genies and elementals at his command, they'll need all their wits and charm if they're going to escape with the greatest prize of all-their lives. 

From Hugo Award winner Tim Pratt comes a tale of magic, assassination, monsters, and cheerful larceny, in Pathfinder: Liar's Island, set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

Novedad: The Apex Book of World SF 4, antología de Mahvesh Murad

Hoy se pone a la venta la antología The Apex Book of World SF 4, editada por Mahvesh Murad.

Estos son los relatos incluidos:

Vajra Chandrasekera (Sri Lanka) — "Pockets Full of Stones" 

Yukimi Ogawa (Japan) — "In Her Head, In Her Eyes" 

Zen Cho (Malaysia) — "The Four Generations of Chang E" 

Shimon Adaf (Israel) — "Like A Coin Entrusted in Faith" (Traducido por el autor)

Celeste Rita Baker (Virgin Islands) — "Single Entry" 

Nene Ormes (Sweden) — "The Good Matter" (Traducido por Lisa J Isaksson y Nene Ormes) 

JY Yang (Singapore) — "Tiger Baby" 

Isabel Yap (Philippines) — "A Cup of Salt Tears" 

Usman T Malik (Pakistan) — "The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family" 

Kuzhali Manickavel (India) — "Six Things We Found During The Autopsy" 

Elana Gomel (Israel) — "The Farm" 

Haralambi Markov (Bulgaria) — "The Language of Knives" 

Sabrina Huang — "Setting Up Home" (Traducido por Jeremy Tiang) 

Sathya Stone (Sri Lanka) 

Johann Thorsson (Iceland) — "First, Bite a Finger" 

Dilman Dila (Uganda) — "How My Father Became a God" 

Swabir Silayi (Kenya) — "Colour Me Grey" 

Deepak Unnikrishnan (The Emirates) — "Sarama" 

Chinelo Onwualu (Nigeria) — "The Gift of Touch" 

Saad Z. Hossain (Bangaldesh) — "Djinns Live by the Sea" 

Bernardo Fernández (Mexico) — "The Last Hours of The Final Days" (Traducido por el autor) 

Natalia Theodoridou (Greece) — "The Eleven Holy Numbers of the Mechanical Soul" 

Samuel Marolla (Italy) — "Black Tea" (Traducido por by Andrew Tanzi) 

Julie Novakova (Czech Republic) — "The Symphony of Ice and Dust" 

Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Netherlands) — "The Boy Who Cast No Shadow" (Traducido por Laura Vroomen) 

Sese Yane (Kenya) — "The Corpse" 

Tang Fei — "Pepe" (Traducido por John Chu) 

Rocío Rincón Fernández (Spain) — "The Lady of the Soler Colony" (Traducido por James y Marian Womack)

Vídeo: Presentación de Retrofuturismos en la Semana Negra

Hoy os traigo un vídeo de la presentación de la antología Retrofuturismos en la Semana Negra de Gijón. Participan Elia Barceló y Noemí Sabugal.

¡Que lo disfrutéis!

Ganadores de los Premios Hugo 2015

De madrugada se anunciaron los ganadores de los Premios Hugo 2015. Podéis verlos a continuación, en negrita, junto con el resto de nominados:

MEJOR NOVELA

• Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
• The Dark Between the Stars, Kevin J. Anderson (Tor Books)
• The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison (Sarah Monette) (Tor Books)
• Skin Game: A Novel of the Dresden Files, Jim Butcher (Roc Books)
• The Three Body Problem, Cixin Liu, traducción de Ken Liu (Tor Books)

MEJOR NOVELA CORTA

• Desierto
• Big Boys Don’t Cry, Tom Kratman (Castalia House)
• “Flow”, Arlan Andrews, Sr. (Analog, Nov 2014)
• One Bright Star to Guide Them, John C. Wright (Castalia House)
• “Pale Realms of Shade”, John C. Wright (The Book of Feasts & Seasons, Castalia House)
• “The Plural of Helen of Troy”,  John C. Wright (City Beyond Time: Tales of the Fall of Metachronopolis, Castalia House)

MEJOR RELATOS

• “Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Earth to Alluvium”, Gray Rinehart (Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show, May 2014)
• “Championship B’tok”, Edward M Lerner (Analog, Sept 2014)
• “The Day the World Turned Upside Down”, Thomas Olde Heuvelt, traducción de Lia Belt (Lightspeed, 04-2014)
• “The Journeyman: In the Stone House”, Michael F. Flynn (Analog, June 2014)
• “The Triple Sun: A Golden Age Tale”, Rajnar Vajra (Analog, Jul/Aug 2014)

MEJOR RELATO CORTO

• Desierto
• “On A Spiritual Plain”, Lou Antonelli (Sci Phi Journal #2, Nov 2014)
• “The Parliament of Beasts and Birds”, John C. Wright (The Book of Feasts & Seasons, Castalia House)
• “A Single Samurai”, Steven Diamond (The Baen Big Book of Monsters, Baen Books)
• “Totaled”, Kary English (Galaxy’s Edge magazine, July 2014)
• “Turncoat”, Steve Rzasa (Riding the Red Horse, Castalia House)

MEJOR OBRA DE NO FICCIÓN

• Desierto
• “The Hot Equations: Thermodynamics and Military SF”, Ken Burnside (Riding the Red Horse, Castalia House)
• Letters from Gardner, Lou Antonelli (The Merry Blacksmith Press)
• Transhuman and Subhuman: Essays on Science Fiction and Awful Truth, John C. Wright (Castalia House)
• “Why Science is Never Settled”, Tedd Roberts (Baen.com)
• Wisdom from my Internet, Michael Z. Williamson (Patriarchy Press)

MEJOR CÓMIC

• Ms. Marvel Vol 1: No Normal, G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona & Jake Wyatt, (Marvel Comics)
• Rat Queens Volume 1: Sass and Sorcery, Kurtis J. Weibe, Roc Upchurch (Image Comics)
• Zombie Nation Book #2: Reduce Reuse Reanimate, Carter Reid (The Zombie Nation)
• Saga, Volume 3, Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples (Image Comics)
• Sex Criminals, Vol. 1: One Weird Trick, Matt Fraction, Chip Zdarsky (Image Comics)

MEJOR PRESENTACIÓN DRAMÁTICA (FORMA LARGA)

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, Ed Brubaker, Anthony Russo & Joe Russo ((Marvel Entertainment, Perception, Sony Pictures Imageworks)
• Edge of Tomorrow, Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth & John-Henry Butterworth, Doug Liman (Village Roadshow; RatPac-Dune Entertainment; 3 Arts Entertainment; Viz Productions)
• Guardians of the Galaxy, James Gunn & Nicole Perlman, James Gunn (Marvel Studios, Moving Picture Company)
• Interstellar, Jonathan Nolan & Christopher Nolan (Paramount Pictures, as Warner Bros. Pictures, Legendary Pictures, Lynda Obst Productions, Syncopy)
• The Lego Movie Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, Dan Hageman, Kevin Hageman, Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, LEGO System A/S, Vertigo Entertainment, Lin Pictures, Warner Bros. Animation (as Warner Animation Group))

MEJOR PRESENTACIÓN DRAMÁTICA (FORMA CORTA)

• Doctor Who: “Listen”, Steven Moffat, Douglas Mackinnon (BBC Television)
• The Flash: “Pilot”, Andrew Kreisberg & Geoff Johns, Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg & Geoff Johns, David Nutter (The CW; Berlanti Productions, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television)
• Game of Thrones: “The Mountain and the Viper”, David Benioff & D. B. Weiss, Alex Graves ((HBO Entertainment in association with Bighead, Littlehead; Television 360; Startling Television and Generator Productions)
• Grimm: “Once We Were Gods”, Alan DiFiore, Steven DePaul (NBC; GK Productions, Hazy Mills Productions, Universal TV)
• Orphan Black: “By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried”, Graham Manson, John Fawcett (Temple Street Productions, Space/BBC America)

MEJOR EDITOR (FORMA CORTA)

• Desierto
• Jennifer Brozek
• Vox Day
• Mike Resnick
• Edmund R. Schubert
• Bryan Thomas Schmidt

MEJOR EDITOR (FORMA LARGA)

• Desierto
• Vox Day
• Sheila Gilbert
• Jim Minz
• Anne Sowards
• Toni Weisskopf

MEJOR ARTISTA PROFESIONAL

• Julie Dillon
• Jon Eno
• Nick Greenwood
• Alan Pollack
• Carter Reid

MEJOR SEMIPROZINE

• Abyss & Apex, Wendy Delmater
• Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine, Andromeda Spaceways Publishing Association Incorporated, editores David Kernot & Sue Bursztynski
• Lightspeed Magazine, John Joseph Adams, Stefan Rudnicki, Rich Horton, Wendy N. Wagner, & Christie Yant
• Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Scott H. Andrews
• Strange Horizons, Niall Harrison

MEJOR FANZINE

• Black Gate, John O’Neill
• Elitist Book Reviews, Steve Diamond
• Journey Planet, James Bacon, Chris Garcia, Alissa McKersie, Colin Harris & Helen Montgomery
• The Revenge of Hump Day, Tim Bolgeo
• Tangent SF Online, Dave Truesdale

MEJOR FANCAST

• Adventures in SF Publishing, Brent Bower, Kristi Charish, Timothy C. Ward & Moses Siregar III
• Dungeon Crawlers Radio, Daniel Swenson, Travis Alexander & Scott Tomlin, Dale Newton , Damien Swenson
• Galactic Suburbia Podcast, Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts & Andrew Finch
• The Sci Phi Show, Jason Rennie
• Tea and Jeopardy, Emma Newman & Peter Newman

MEJOR ESCRITOR NO PROFESIONAL

• Dave Freer
• Amanda S. Green
• Jeffro Johnson
• Laura J. Mixon
• Cedar Sanderson

MEJOR ARTISTA NO PROFESIONAL

• Ninni Aalto
• Brad Foster
• Elizabeth Leggett
• Spring Schoenhuth
• Steve Stiles

PREMIO CAMPBELL AL MEJOR ESCRITOR DEBUTANTE

• Wesley Chu
• Jason Cordova
• Kary English
• Rolf Nelson
• Eric. S. Raymond

Ebook gratis: Fire with Fire, de Charles Gannon

La novela Fire with Fire, de Charles Gannon, que fue finalista del Premio Nebula 2013, se puede descargar gratuitamente en Amazon España. Ésta es su sinopsis:

2105, September: Intelligence Analyst Caine Riordan uncovers a conspiracy on Earth's Moon—a history-making clandestine project—and ends up involuntarily cryocelled for his troubles. Twelve years later, Riordan awakens to a changed world. Humanity has achieved faster-than-light travel and is pioneering nearby star systems. And now, Riordan is compelled to become an inadvertent agent of conspiracy himself. Riordan's mission: travel to a newly settled world and investigate whether a primitive local species was once sentient—enough so to have built a lost civilization.

However, arriving on site in the Delta Pavonis system, Caine discovers that the job he's been given is anything but secret or safe. With assassins and saboteurs dogging his every step, it's clear that someone doesn't want his mission to succeed. In the end, it takes the keen insights of an intelligence analyst and a matching instinct for intrigue to ferret out the truth: that humanity is neither alone in the cosmos nor safe. Earth is revealed to be the lynchpin planet in an impending struggle for interstellar dominance, a struggle into which it is being irresistibly dragged. Discovering new dangers at every turn, Riordan must now convince the powers-that-be that the only way for humanity to survive as a free species is to face the perils directly—and to fight fire with fire.

Novedad: Zer0es, de Chuck Wendig

Esta semana se ha puesto a la venta Zer0es, la nueva novela de Chuck Wendig. Ésta es su sinopsis:

An exhilarating thrill-ride through the underbelly of cyber espionage in the vein of David Ignatius’s The Director and the television series Leverage, CSI: Cyber, and Person of Interest, which follows five iconoclastic hackers who are coerced into serving the U.S. government. 

An Anonymous-style rabble rouser, an Arab spring hactivist, a black-hat hacker, an old-school cipherpunk, and an online troll are each offered a choice: go to prison or help protect the United States, putting their brains and skills to work for the government for one year. 

But being a white-hat doesn’t always mean you work for the good guys. The would-be cyberspies discover that behind the scenes lurks a sinister NSA program, an artificial intelligence code-named Typhon, that has origins and an evolution both dangerous and disturbing. And if it’s not brought down, will soon be uncontrollable. 

Can the hackers escape their federal watchers and confront Typhon and its mysterious creator? And what does the government really want them to do? If they decide to turn the tables, will their own secrets be exposed—and their lives erased like lines of bad code? 

Combining the scientific-based, propulsive narrative style of Michael Crichton with the eerie atmosphere and conspiracy themes of The X-Files and the imaginative, speculative edge of Neal Stephenson and William Gibson, Zer0es explores our deep-seated fears about government surveillance and hacking in an inventive fast-paced novel sure to earn Chuck Wendig the widespread acclaim he deserves.

Novedad: The Trials, de Linda Nagata

Ya está a la venta The Trials, la secuela de The Red, de Linda Nagata. Ésta es la sinopsis de la novela:

In the wake of nuclear terrorism, a squad of elite soldiers must combat artificial intelligence and seek justice in this military political thriller, a sequel to The Red. 

Lieutenant James Shelley and his squad of US Army soldiers were on a quest for justice when they carried out the unauthorized mission known as First Light. They returned home to America to face a court-martial, determined to expose the corruption in the chain of command that compelled their actions. But in a country still reeling from the nuclear terrorism of Coma Day, the courtroom is just one battlefield of many. 

A new cycle of violence ignites when rumors of the elusive, rogue AI known as the Red go public—and Shelley is, once again, pulled into the fray. Challenged by his enemies, driven by ideals, Shelley feels compelled to act. But are the harrowing choices he makes really his own, or are they made for him, by the Red? And with millions of lives at stake in a game of nuclear cat-and-mouse, does the answer even matter?

Ebooks en oferta: Women in Sci-Fi Bundle

Story Bundle nos ofrece, hasta el próximo día 27, la posibilidad de adquirir a precio de oferta una serie de ebooks de ciencia ficción escritos por mujeres. Hay dos modalidades diferentes (una pagando un mínimo de 5$ y otra pagando al menos 15$) y se incluyen obras de autoras como Nancy Kress, Linda Nagata o Kristine Kathryn Rusch. 

Si se pagan al menos 5$ se obtienen los siguientes libros:

• Near+Far, Cat Rambo
• Crossfire, Nancy Kress
• Memory, Linda Nagata
• The Phoenix Code, Catherine Asaro
• Recovering Apollo 8, Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Pagando al menos 15$ se obtienen también las siguientes obras:

• The Diving Bundle, Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• Stars, antología editada por Mike Resnick y Janis Ian
• Strong Arm Tactics, Jody Lynn Nye
• Forgotten Suns, Judith Tarr
• Starfarers, Vonda N. McIntyre

Novedad: Press Start to Play, de John Joseph Adams y Daniel H. Wilson

Ayer se puso a la venta Press Start to Play, antología editada por John Joseph Adams y Daniel H. Wilson que contiene relatos de ciencia ficción sobre el mundo de los videojuegos. Tengo una copia de evaluación de este libro, así que espero poder ofreceros pronto una reseña completa.

Estos son los relatos incluidos en el libro:

• Foreword—Ernest Cline
• Introduction—John Joseph Adams
• God Mode—Daniel H. Wilson
• NPC—Charles Yu
• Respawn—Hiroshi Sakurazaka (traducido por Nathan Collins)
• Desert Walk—S.R. Mastrantone
• Rat Catcher’s Yellows—Charlie Jane Anders
• 1Up—Holly Black
• Survival Horror—Seanan McGuire
• REAL—Django Wexler
• Outliers—Nicole Feldringer
• —Chris Avellone
• Save Me Plz—David Barr Kirtley (reprint)
• The Relive Box—T.C. Boyle (reprint)
• Roguelike—Marc Laidlaw
• All of the People in Your Party Have Died—Robin Wasserman
• RECOIL!—Micky Neilson
• Anda’s Game—Cory Doctorow (reprint)
• Coma Kings—Jessica Barber (reprint)
• Stats—Marguerite K. Bennett
• Please Continue—Chris Kluwe
• Creation Screen—Rhianna Pratchett
• The Fresh Prince of Gamma World—Austin Grossman
• Gamer’s End—Yoon Ha Lee
• The Clockwork Soldier—Ken Liu (reprint)
• Killswitch—Catherynne M. Valente (reprint)
• Twarrior—Andy Weir
• Select Character—Hugh Howey

Novedad: The House of Shattered Wings, de Aliette de Bodard

Hoy se pone a la venta The House of Shattered Wings, la nueva novela de Aliette de Bodard, de la que nos adelantó algunas cosas en una de sus charlas en la pasada HispaCon (podéis ver la grabación vídeo en este post).

Ésta es la sinopsis de la novela:

Paris in the aftermath of the Great Magicians War. Its streets are lined with haunted ruins, Notre-Dame is a burnt-out shell, and the Seine runs black, thick with ashes and rubble. Yet life continues among the wreckage. The citizens retain their irrepressible appetite for novelty and distraction, and The Great Houses still vie for dominion over France's once grand capital.

House Silverspires, previously the leader of those power games, now lies in disarray. Its

magic is ailing; its founder, Morningstar, has been missing for decades; and now something

from the shadows stalks its people inside their very own walls.

Within the House, three very different people must come together: a naive but powerful Fallen, an alchemist with a self-destructive addiction, and a resentful young man wielding spells from the Far East. They may be Silverspires' salvation; or the architects of its last, irreversible fall . . .

Vídeo de la Semana Negra: Presentación de Los rostros del pasado, de Rodolfo Martínez y Felicidad Martínez

Para comenzar con los grabaciones de las presentaciones de la Semana Negra de este año, os ofrezco hoy el vídeo de la presentación de Los rostros del pasado, de Rodolfo Martínez y Felicidad Martínez. Participan los dos autores, presentados por Germán Menéndez.

¡Espero que os guste!

Novedad: Power Surge, de Ben Bova

Ya está a la venta Power Surge, la nueva novela de Ben Bova. Ésta es su sinopsis:

Six-time Hugo winner Ben Bova brings us Power Surge, a gripping political thriller on the cutting-edge of science and technology 

Dr. Jake Ross came to Washington, D.C., to make a difference. As the science advisor to a newly-elected freshman senator, Jake has crafted a comprehensive energy plan that employs innovative new technologies to make America the world's leader in energy production while simultaneously boosting the economy and protecting the environment. The facts--and the science--are on Jake's side, but his plan soon runs afoul of entrenched special interests, well-funded lobbies, cynical bureaucrats, pork-barrel politics, and one very powerful U.S. Senator. 

To keep his plan alive and secure a sustainable future for America, Jake needs a crash course in the way Washington really works. Everyone keeps telling him that his plan has no hope of succeeding, but Jake is determined to prove them wrong even if it kills him . . . something that certain hostile parties may be all too happy to arrange.

Ebook en oferta: Off to Be the Wizard, de Scott Meyer

Hasta final de mes se puede adquirir en Amazon España el ebook Off to Be the Wizard, de Scott Meyer, al premio promocional de 0,99€. 

Ésta es la sinopsis de la novela:

Martin Banks is just a normal guy who has made an abnormal discovery: he can manipulate reality, thanks to reality being nothing more than a computer program. With every use of this ability, though, Martin finds his little “tweaks” have not escaped notice. Rather than face prosecution, he decides instead to travel back in time to the Middle Ages and pose as a wizard. 

What could possibly go wrong? 

An American hacker in King Arthur’s court, Martin must now train to become a full-fledged master of his powers, discover the truth behind the ancient wizard Merlin…and not, y’know, die or anything.

Novedad: The End of All Things, de John Scalzi

Esta semana se ha completado la publicación de todas las entregas de The End of All Things, de John Scalzi, que, además, se puede ya adquirir también en formato novela. 

Ésta es su sinopsis:

Hugo-award winning author, John Scalzi returns to his best-selling Old Man's War universe with The End of All Things, the direct sequel to 2013's The Human Division

Humans expanded into space...only to find a universe populated with multiple alien species bent on their destruction. Thus was the Colonial Union formed, to help protect us from a hostile universe. The Colonial Union used the Earth and its excess population for colonists and soldiers. It was a good arrangement...for the Colonial Union. Then the Earth said: no more. 

Now the Colonial Union is living on borrowed time-a couple of decades at most, before the ranks of the Colonial Defense Forces are depleted and the struggling human colonies are vulnerable to the alien species who have been waiting for the first sign of weakness, to drive humanity to ruin. And there's another problem: A group, lurking in the darkness of space, playing human and alien against each other-and against their own kind -for their own unknown reasons. 

In this collapsing universe, CDF Lieutenant Harry Wilson and the Colonial Union diplomats he works with race against the clock to discover who is behind attacks on the Union and on alien races, to seek peace with a suspicious, angry Earth, and keep humanity's union intact...or else risk oblivion, and extinction-and the end of all things.

Ebook en oferta: Lord of All Things, de Andreas Eschbach

Ya ha estado en oferta en otras ocasiones, pero hasta final de este mes tenéis una nueva oportunidad de adquirir el ebook Lord of All Things, de Andreas Eschbach, por 0,99€ en Amazon España.

Ésta es su sinopsis:

Winner of the 2012 Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis for best German science fiction novel, Lord of All Things is also a story about love against all odds. 

They are just children when they meet for the first time: Charlotte, daughter of the French ambassador, and Hiroshi, a laundress’s son. One day, Hiroshi declares that he has an idea that will change the world. An unprecedented idea of how to sweep away all differences between rich and poor. 

When Hiroshi runs into Charlotte several years later, he is trying to build a brighter future through robotics. Determined to win Charlotte’s love, he resurrects his childhood dream, convinced that he can eradicate world poverty by pushing the limits of technology beyond imagination. But as Hiroshi circles ever closer to realizing his vision, he discovers that his utopian dream may contain the seeds of a nightmare—one that could obliterate life as we know it. 

Crisscrossing the globe from Tokyo to the hallowed halls of MIT to desolate Arctic islands and Buenos Aires and beyond—far beyond—Lord of All Things explores not only the dizzying potential of technology but also its formidable dangers.

Novedad: Chasing the Phoenix, de Michael Swanwick

Ayer se puso a la venta Chasing the Phoenix, la nueva novela de Michael Swanwick. Ésta es su sinopsis:

Chasing the Phoenix: a science fiction masterpiece from a five-time Hugo Award winner Michael Swanwick! 

In the distant future, Surplus arrives in China dressed as a Mongolian shaman, leading a yak which carries the corpse of his friend, Darger. The old high-tech world has long since collapsed, and the artificial intelligences that ran it are outlawed and destroyed. Or so it seems. 

Darger and Surplus, a human and a genetically engineered dog with human intelligence who walks upright, are a pair of con men and the heroes of a series of prior Swanwick stories. They travel to what was once China and invent a scam to become rich and powerful. Pretending to have limited super-powers, they aid an ambitious local warlord who dreams of conquest and once again reuniting China under one ruler. And, against all odds, it begins to work, but it seems as if there are other forces at work behind the scenes. Chasing the Phoenix is a sharp, slick, witty science fiction adventure that is hugely entertaining from Michael Swanwick, one of the best SF writers alive.

Novedad: The Dark Forest, de Liu Cixin

Hoy se pone a la venta The Dark Forest, de Liu Cixin, la continuación de la estupenda The Three-Body Problem. Ésta es su sinopsis:

The universe is a forest, patrolled by numberless and nameless predators. In this forest, others are hell, a dire existential threat. Stealth is survival. Any civilisation that reveals its location is prey. 

Earth has. And the others are on the way. 

The Trisolarian fleet has left their homeworld and will arrive... in four centuries' time. But the sophons, their extra-dimensional emissaries, are already here and have infiltrated human society and and de-railed scientific progress. Only the individual human mind remains immune to the sophons. This is the motivation for the Wallfacer Project, a last-ditch defence that grants four individuals almost absolute power to design secret strategies, hidden through deceit and misdirection from Earth and Trisolaris alike. 

Three of the Wallfacers are influential statesmen and scientists, but the fourth is a total unknown. Luo Ji, an unambitious Chinese astronomer, is baffled by his new status. All he knows is that he's the one Wallfacer that Trisolaris wants dead.

Ebook en oferta: Great North Road, de Peter F. Hamilton

Hasta fin de mes se puede adquirir en Amazon España el ebook Great North Road, de Peter F. Hamilton, al precio promocional de 1,59€. 

Ésta es la sinopsis de la novela:

Great North Road is a standalone science fiction adventure from Peter F. Hamilton, the author of The Night's Dawn trilogy.

When attending a Newcastle murder scene, Detective Sidney Hurst finds a dead North family clone. Yet none have been reported missing. And in 2122, twenty years ago, a North clone billionaire was horrifically murdered in the same manner on the tropical planet of St Libra. So, if the murderer is still at large, was Angela Tramelo wrongly convicted? She never wavered under interrogation, claiming she alone survived an alien attack.

Investigating this potential alien threat now becomes the Human Defence Agency's top priority. St Libran bio-fuel is the lifeblood of Earth's economy and must be secured. A vast expedition is mounted via the Newcastle gateway, and experts are dispatched to the planet - with Angela Tramelo, grudgingly released from prison. But the expedition is cut off deep within St Libra's rainforests, and the murders begin. Angela insists it's the alien, but her new colleagues aren't sure. Did she see an alien, or does she have other reasons for being on St Libra?

Artículo invitado: Scott Wilbanks sobre su proceso de escritura

Es un placer y un honor tener a Scott Wilbanks, author de The Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster (que reseñé hace unos días) compartiendo con nosotros algunas pinceladas de su proceso de escritura. Podéis averiguar más cosas sobre Scott en su página web y contactar con él tanto en Facebook como en Twitter. 

¡Espero que os guste este artículo invitado!

(Nota: También podéis leer este artículo en inglés/You can also read this article in English)

Mi proceso de escritura, por Scott Wilbanks

Cuando me enteré de que Sourcebooks había ofrecido mi “proceso para escribir misterio, ficción histórica y romance” como un tema de artículo para blogs, entré en pánico y envié un correo a mi compañera y lectora crítica. Jennie, escribí.  ¿Qué proceso? ¡Yo no tengo ningún proceso!

Después de tres años trabajando juntos, puedo asegurar que sí que lo tienes apareció en mi bandeja de entrada al día siguiente.

            Exasperado porque no hubiera sido más explícita, simplemente le mandé dos símbolos de interrogación como respuesta. 

            Todo lo que recibí de vuelta por mi malhumor fue una palabra.  Piensa.

            Eso hice. ¿Y sabéis qué? Sí que tengo un proceso.

Escribo en ondas.

Para entender qué quiero decir, empecemos por el principio.

Cuando escribí la primera frase de mi manuscrito, no sabía nada del oficio de escritor. No debe de ser una sorpresa, pues, que mi novela no empezara con una premisa, o incluso un concepto; esos términos ni siquiera formaban parte de mi vocabulario en aquel momento. Soy una criatura visual, así que, por el contrario, todo empezó con una imagen en mi mente. Imaginad dos mujeres (una joven excéntrica del San Francisco actual, con una obsesión por las ropas victorianas, y la otra una viaje cascarrabias maestra de escuela de finales del XIX viviendo en un campo de trigo en Kentucky) que comienzan a cartearse de forma bastante agitada a través de un buzón de bronce situado en un terreno mágico entre ellas. 

Con esa imagen fija en mi mente, tiré para adelante a todo motor, juntando un conjunto de flujos de conciencia mal escritos en poco más de meses; cuatrocientas páginas en total. 

Mirando atrás, eso no era escribir. No en mi opinión. No en el sentido del arte de escribir. Pero si pensáis visualmente, como yo, me proporcionó un esquema sobre el que comencé el proceso de “añadir color”, o, como lo llaman otros, revisar. 

Y ahí es donde llegan las ondas.

Mi pensamiento no es lineal, así que no puedo escribir en línea recta, progresando de una escena a otra. 

Por el contrario, aprendí a plantearme preguntas, Instead, la primera de las cuales fue:  ¿qué pasaría si Annie (mi protagonista) leyese sobre un asesinato ocurrido más de cien años atrás en su línea temporal pero para el que aún faltan tres días en la de Elsbeth?

Esa pregunta fue como una piedra arrojada a un estanque. Fue la causa, y las respuestas que generé fueron el efecto, creando pequeñas ondas que se desplazaron hacia fuera por todo mi manuscrito. 

Cuando tuve una respuesta satisfactoria a esa pregunta, simplemente me hice otra, tirando otra piedra cuyas ondas se expandieron desde el punto de origen a la vez que impactaban con las ondas creadas por la pregunta previa. 

Seguí haciéndome preguntas con un propósito en mente. ¿Cómo podía poner las cosas más difíciles a los protagonistas? Más precisamente, ¿qué obstáculos podía ponerles para hacerles tropezar, tanto en el paisaje de sus viajes interiores como en el de los exteriores? Si una pregunta no les suponía un reto casi insuperable, la descartaba. 

Reuní suficientes preguntas para que mi manuscrito pareciera la superficie de un charco durante una lluvia de primavera, en el que las ondas se expanden y se intersecan, chocando unas con otras. 

Y aquí viene lo interesante. Descubrí que no había ninguna pregunta de las que me había hecho que no afectara a todas las demás, cambiando su respuesta de algún modo. Mi manuscrito había desarrollado capas.

Pero os podéis preguntar cómo se relaciona esta técnica con la escritura de géneros. En el aspecto más básico. Para mí, al menos, escribir en esos géneros consistió menos en el proceso y más en el tipo de pregunta.

Guest Post: Scott Wilbanks on his Writing Process

It is a pleasure an a honor to have Scott Wilbanks, author of The Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster (which I reviewed a few days ago) sharing with us some insights on his writing process. You can find more about Scott at his website and reach him at both Facebook and Twitter. 

Hope you enjoy this guest post!

(Note: You can also read this article in Spanish/También podéis leer este artículo en español)

My Writing Process, by Scott Wilbanks

When I found out that Sourcebooks had offered my “process for writing mystery, historical fiction, and romance” as a potential topic to blog sites, I emailed a panicked message to my critique partner.  Jennie, I wrote.  What process?  I don’t have a process!

After three years of working together, I can say that for certain that you do popped up in my inbox the next morning.

            Exasperated that she hadn’t spelled it out for me, I merely typed two question marks in response.

            All I got in return for my peevishness was one word.  Think.

            So I did.  And you know what?  I do have a process.

I write in ripples.

To understand what I mean, let’s start at the beginning.

When I wrote the very first sentence of my manuscript, I was completely lacking in the craft of writing.  It should come as no surprise, then, that my novel didn’t begin with a premise, or even a concept—those terms weren’t even part of my vocabulary at the time.  I’m a visual critter, so, instead, it began with an image in my head.  Picture two women—one a young, modern day San Francisco eccentric with a penchant for Victorian clothes, and the other a cantankerous, old schoolmarm living in turn-of-the-century Kansas wheat field —pen pals who get off to a rather rocky start, depositing their correspondences in a brass letterbox that stands in some common magical ground between them.

With that image lodged in my head, I plowed ahead full throttle, throwing together a stream-of-consciousness compilation of badly written words in a little over two months—four-hundred-fifty pages in all.

Looking back on it, this was not writing.  Not to me.  Not in the sense of craft.  But if you think visually, like I do, it provided a sketch over which I began the process of “adding color,” or as others call it, revising.

And that’s where the ripples came in.

I’m not a linear thinker, so I can’t write in a straight line, progressing from scene to scene.

Instead, I learned to ask myself questions, the first one being: what if Annie (my protagonist) reads about a murder that took place over a hundred years ago on her time line, yet will take place in three days on Elsbeth’s?

That question was like a pebble dropped in a pond.  It was the cause, and the answers I generated were the effect, creating little ripples that radiated outward throughout my manuscript.

When I answered that question to my satisfaction, I simply asked another, dropping another pebble whose ripples expanded from the point of origin while also impacting the ripples created by the prior question.

I kept asking questions with one purpose in mind.  How could I raise the stakes for my protagonists?  More to the point, what obstacles could I put in their way to trip them up, both within the landscape of their inner journeys and their outer journeys?  If a question didn’t challenge them to the breaking point, I discarded it.

I came up with enough questions for my manuscript to look like the surface of a puddle during a spring rain in which the expanding ripples intersected, and crashed over one another.

And here’s the interesting thing.  I discovered that there wasn’t a question I asked that didn’t affect every other question, changing its answer, in some small way.  My manuscript was becoming layered.

But how does this technique related to genre writing, you might ask.  In the most basic way.  For me, at least, genre writing was less about the process, and more about the type of question.