UK SF Book News

Dear Reader -

UK SF Book News has been put into hibernation and won't be updated for the foreseeable future.

The site may return in some form, at some point, but in the meantime, please visit one of the following rather excellent sf / fantasy / horror / comics & graphic novel news websites or blogs for all your genre fiction update needs:

• Ansible
• British Fantasy Society News
• British Science Fiction Association
• Forbidden Planet International Blog
• Irish SciFi News
• Locus Online
• Sci Fi Wire
• Science Fiction Awards Watch
• SF Scope
• SFX

And just in case the site doesn't come back any time soon, I'd like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all the publishers, authors, editors and creators who have given their time, their support and their books to the site (and its predecessor, The Alien Online) over the past few years.

Darren Turpin
UKSFBN Admin
May 8th, 2008

Just a quick one via Matt Williams at the Graham Masterton e-bulletin list:

"Message from Graham Masterton: 'I will be signing books at Waterstones in Culver Square, Colchester, Essex, around mid-day on May 10 2008, if you can have any books you need signing!'"

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The Birmingham SF Group has been in touch to tell us about the next in their ongoing series of author talks:

"On Friday 9th May the Birmingham Science Fiction Group welcomes award-winning author Ian R. MacLeod, to talk about what he's been up to recently.

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From an Ablaze Media press release:

"Ablaze Media is pleased to announce the launch of Peckerwood, a new series of comedy graphic novels. The first book, Peckerwood: 24 Minutes, will be available in comic shops from June 2nd 2008. It is a wickedly funny, irreverent parody of the TV show 24.

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The UK edition of M.M. (that's Mike Marshall to you and me) Smith's short and rather personal novel, The Servants - originally published as a limited edition novella by Earthling Publications in the US - has now been published by HarperCollins.

The Servants introduces us to eleven-year-old Mark, who is trying to come to terms with the break up of his parents, dealing with his new step-dad and having to move from London to Brighton away from his friends and familiar life. His mother's strange behaviour and an argument with his step-dad sends him fleeing the house and he finds himself having tea with the old lady in the basement flat – the flat she shares with the ghosts of the servants that ran the whole house a long time ago…

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Continuing its spooky roadtrip across the dark heart of America, the Supernatural TV series has just been renewed for a fourth season of adventure-packed demon hunting. The merchandising departments are now catching up (with what most of us have known since season one, about how good this show is) and we can finally get our sticky mitts on Companion books to the first two seasons of the show.

The Season Two Companion was released last week and joins the Season One Companion, released last October. Both volumes were written by Nicholas Knight and give an excellent insight into the inner workings of the show with episodes summaries; interviews with the cast and crew about the overall show and individual episodes; and snippets of trivia about dialogue, place names and music. Plus a sixteen page full colour glossy picture gallery featuring behind the scenes photos and those all important publicity shots of the Winchester boys, Sam and Dean.

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Andy Remic, author of War Machine, Spiral, Quake and Warhead has dropped us a line to let us know about a bit of work he's been doing on his website.

"I've recently re-vamped my 'site to make it a) more pleasing to the eye, b) easier to navigate, and c) contain less crap and superfluous content.

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From a Forbidden Planet press release:

"Forbidden Planet is pleased to announce a signing by Eric Brown. He will be signing his new book, Kéthani at the Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR, on Saturday 10th May from 1,00 to 2.00 p.m.

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A quick note from the editors of Serendipity:

"In a Herbie-like ball of fun, issue ocho has arrived. Serendipity 8 has some really great stories, notably 'Blue' by Elaine Walker and Stefan White's magical 'Five and a Half Feet of Julie'.

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From an Immanion Press press release:

"Eternal Vigilance: From Deep Within the Earth - the debut novel from Technohorror author and horror industry entertainment journalist Gabrielle S. Faust - has been described as: 'if Anne Rice went cyberpunk' and tells the futuristic tale of the vampire Tynan Llywelyn...

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From an Inkermen Press press release:

"Conceptual Breakthrough: Two Experiments in SF Criticism by James Holden and Simon King (with an afterword by Adam Roberts) is available now [actually, it was published in December 2007] in paperback, priced £9.95.

"Why isn't science fiction criticism as bold or as startling as science fiction itself? Could it be that SF criticism usually addresses itself to only two questions: how to define SF, and how to police its boundaries?

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From a Forbidden Planet press release:

"Forbidden Planet is pleased to announce a signing by Jamie McKelvie. He will be signing his new collection, Suburban Glamour: Volume One at the Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR, on Thursday 8th May, from 6.00 to 7.00 p.m.

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From a Humdrumming press release:

"With a new week comes a new announcement! A new title, and a new reason to shout 'HUZZAH!'

"Today's joy shall be un-bounded as we declare Gary McMahon's very first novel - Rain Dogs - as available for ordering in its numbered and signed First Edition, with the quantity limited to only 200 copies, including a probing and thoughtful Foreword from that well known bon-vivant and Man About Town: Conrad Williams.

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The folks at Orbital Manga have been in touch to tell us about a special even they're hosting this weekend:

"Manga Fans this is your chance to meet the author and artist from the new manga graphic novel Demon Prince: Children of Gaia. Don't miss this opportunity to see the artist from Dimensional Manga in action, sketching on some pretty big pieces of board!

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Here's the latest round-up of the books and magazines that have been sent in to UKSFBN in the past two or three weeks. As always, many thanks indeed to the publishers concerned for bringing these titles to our attention.

Click on any of the book covers for ordering information from either Amazon.co.uk or the book's publisher.

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New title news from Scottish horror and dark fantasy author William Meikle:

"At first it's a simple lost son case, but for Glasgow PI Derek Adams things turn quickly to the twilight zone. Soon he's on a remote island and up to his hips in mer-women, shape changers and ancient fisher cults. Running back to the city doesn't help; there's mayhem on the streets. An ancient god is waking up, and only blood will stop him.

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From a Titan Books press release:

"Twenty-two years ago, Sam and Dean Winchester lost their mother to a demonic supernatural force. Growing up, they have learnt to hunt and kill the paranormal evil that lives in the dark corners and on the back roads of America…

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From an Alt.Fiction news update:

"Derby City Council has confirmed the line-up for Alt.Fiction 2008, the third annual one-day festival of science fiction, fantasy and horror writing, which takes place on Saturday April 26th.

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From an Orang Utan Comics press release:

"UK comic studio Orang Utan Comics has been nominated in three of the categories for this year's prestigious Eagle Awards.

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From a Forbidden Planet press release:

"Forbidden Planet is pleased to announce a signing by Stephen Hunt. He will be signing his new book, The Kingdom Beyond The Waves at the Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR, on Saturday May 3rd, from 1.00 to 2.00 p.m.

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Multi-genred author of horror, science fiction, TV and movie tie-ins and more, Steven Savile, dropped us a line to let us know about a couple of new book deals he's recently secured:

"First up, I've just signed up with Fandemonium / MGM to write a trilogy of novels set within the Stargate SG-1 universe, featuring all of our favourites from the series - Daniel Jackson, Teal'c, Sam Carter and of course Jack O'Neill.

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From a Titan Books press release:

"The dark underworld of espionage and crime is lit up by the fatal charms of the gorgeous Modesty Blaise: high priestess of pulp crime and goddess of cult thrillers!

"Adventurer, spy, smuggler, racketeer and all-round bad girl, Modesty is as stylish as she is smart, as lethal and beautiful as a Japanese fighting sword! Originally published in the Evening Standard in the 1960s, Peter O'Donnell's Modesty Blaise provides crime thriller storylines with sass, wit and a touch of glamour, that has wooed celebrity fans such as Quentin Tarantino.

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The following received via a message sent to the 'Matching Funds With Terry Pratchett' Facebook group:

"Calling all fans of Terry Pratchett and Raj Persaud! On 1st May the Alzheimer's Research Trust will be hosting an exclusive dinner at a private venue in London.

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Locus Online reports that the winner of this year's James Tiptree Jr. Award, the annual literary prize for "science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender", is The Carhullan Army [Faber & Faber, UK] by UK author Sarah Hall.

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Our introduction to Police Officer Donal Riordan, in last year's Bone Song, was imaginative, dark and brooding. Taking a side-step across genres, from SF to Dark Fantasy, writer John Meaney created a strange world of purple skies and gargoyle-haunted streets, populated by even stranger denizens, then he set them on the trail of a murder mystery that spanned planets.

Now Riordan is back for more adventures in Tristopolis, a city fuelled by the bones of the dead that are burned in huge reactors beneath the city's surface. Riordan is adjusting slowly to being dead. He can sense the presence and the thoughts of his fellow zombies. He can see better, hear more accurately and he's tireless. But none of this will necessarily save him as he begins to investigate who is behind a plot to ensorcel the entire population of Tristopolis.

We tracked Meaney down and quizzed him about his extraordinary new series…

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Over the weekend of April 18th - 20th, the market town of Shrewsbury in Shropshire will host the sixth annual Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival.

Here's the introduction from the Festival website: "Since 2003 the town has hosted this international event which attracts around 40 full-time, professional cartoonists and caricaturists from the UK and abroad.

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