Before he died, Aaron Swartz wrote a tremendous afterword for my novel Homeland — Aaron also really helped with the core plot, devising an ingenious system for helping independent candidates get the vote out that he went on to work on. — Read the rest
Four more books have been added to the final week of the third Humble Ebook Bundle: John Scalzi's Hugo- and Nebula-nominated novella The God Engines; Dia Reeves's Bleeding Violet; Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill's Arcanum 101; and Ryan "Dinosaur Comics" North's To Be or Not To Be, a bestselling, choose-your-own adventure version of Hamlet. — Read the rest
The Humble Ebook Bundle continues to rock, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for a bundle of great name-your-price ebooks, including Scott Westerfeld's Uglies, Steve Gould's Jumper, and Holly Black's Tithe. Also included in the bundle is an exclusive audiobook of my novel Homeland, read by Wil Wheaton. — Read the rest
The Humble Ebook Bundle is going great guns, with a collection of recent and classic books from both indie and major publishers, all DRM-free, on a name-your-price basis. Included in the bundle is an exclusive audio adaptation of my novel Homeland, read by Wil Wheaton, who also appears as a character in the novel. — Read the rest
As mentioned yesterday, the DRM-free, independent audiobook of my novel Homeland is available from the Humble Bundle for the next two weeks, along with a collection of brilliant science fiction and fantasy from authors ranging from Scott Westerfeld to Holly Black. — Read the rest
For the past two months, I've been working on a secret project to produce an independent audiobook adaptation of my bestselling novel Homeland, read by Wil Wheaton, one of my favorite audiobook voice-actors (and a hell of a great guy, besides!). — Read the rest
In the tradition of August's book-review roundup, I've pulled together a collection of my favorite young adult reviews from the past decade. Hope you — and the young adults in your life — enjoy these as much as I did! — Read the rest
I've written several times here about Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series, a collection of outstanding dystopian YA science fiction novels about a world where everyone is forced to undergo cosmetic surgery at the age of 16. Westerfeld concluded the series in 2007, but now he is revisiting the world in manga form, co-creating a series of graphic novels with Devin Grayson and Steven Cummings. — Read the rest
Greg sez, "Check out this collection of all-new flash fiction from some huge names — Neil Gaiman, Lev Grossman, Scott Westerfeld, Michael Moorcock, Gene Wolfe, N.K Jemisin, IO9 contributing editor Ann VanderMeer, and tons more — based around a fantastically monstrous illustration by Las Vegas artist Jeremy Zerfoss. — Read the rest
Does perfecting the art of the 5-paragraph analytical essay make you a better creative writer? How important are things like grammar, spelling, and syntax for a fiction stylist? Do test scores or grades in high school English class reflect your chances for creative success later on?
Scott Westerfeld's Goliath ships today, concluding his fabulous steampunk YA trilogy that began with Leviathan and continued in Behemoth. This alternate history of WWI is set in a world divided into two technological camps. On the Darwinist side, scientists manipulate the "life threads" of animals to create useful synthetic animals ranging from little "message lizards" that can parrot brief phrases up to enormous organic zeppelins that are part whale, part hydrogen-breather. — Read the rest
Locus magazine has announced the finalists for this year's Locus Award, a popular science fiction, fantasy and horror award voted on by the magazine's readers. I reviewed several of these; I've hotlinked them to their Boing Boing reviews, in case you're interested:
From the last days of WWI, Paleofuture brings us this illustration for a "trench destroyer" that graced the Feb, 1917 cover of Hugo Gernsback's The Electrical Experimenter: "The design of this mobile dreadnaught, with its steel-tired, spoked wheels, suggests that its inventor may have been influenced by agricultural tractors or perhaps an amusement park Ferris wheel. — Read the rest
Last summer the immortal Michael Swanwick offered to write a story a day for the 42 days of the Clarion West Writer's Workshop . If you donated $10 to Clarion West, you could get your name (or your cat's) in a story written especially for you by Mr.
Rae Mariz's debut YA The Unidentified is a thrilling, engaging polemic about the corporatization of kids' lives in the guise of a mystery story.
In the future, the US education system has gone bankrupt, and has been rescued by the private sector, who convert giant malls into heavily surveilled school buildings in which all education takes place as a series of sponsored games that, on the one hand, deliver tailored, creative curriculum, but, on the other, commodify all learning, social intercourse and creativity, turning it all into trends and products that are sold back to the students and the wider world. — Read the rest
Carla Jablonski and Leland Purvis's Resistance: Book 1 is the first installment in a series of historical comics telling the story of young children who aided the French resistance during the period of Nazi occupation during WWII. Told from the point of view of two young children in a rural French town who, as their Jewish neighbors are rounded up, hide away their Jewish playmate in a wine-cave, and so find themselves working their way into the resistance. — Read the rest
The 2010 Locus Magazine Awards for science fiction were handed out today — many of the winners were reviewed here as well (links below). You'd be hard pressed to find a better reading list of great contemporary SF:
YA author Scott Westerfeld has a great post about Ceara Sturgis, the top student at a Mississippi high school who saw every mention of her purged from her senior yearbook because she is a lesbian. Scott puts the fight to dress how you choose and express your gender identity in your own way into historical context, noting that this year marks the centenary of "Explicit Legalization of Pants in Kansas! — Read the rest
Mark and I have rounded up some of our favorite items from our 2009 Boing Boing reviews for the second-annual Boing Boing gift guide. We'll do one a day for the next six days, covering media (music/games/DVDs), gadgets and stuff, kids' books, novels, nonfiction, and comics/graphic novels/art books. — Read the rest
Mark and I have rounded up some of our favorite items from our 2009 Boing Boing reviews for the second-annual Boing Boing gift guide. We'll do one a day for the next six days, covering media (music/games/DVDs), gadgets and stuff, kids' books, novels, nonfiction, and comics/graphic novels/art books. — Read the rest
