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Locus Magazine Celebrates the Heinlein Centennial
Yesterday's Tomorrows: Graham Sleight on Robert A. Heinlein	Heinlein at 100: roundtable discussion with John Clute, Gary K. Wolfe, Graham Sleight, Charles N. Brown, Amelia Beamer
Locus' August issue has Heinlein tributes by Willis, Haldeman, Niven, Varley, Pohl, Bear, Kondo, Brown, Bova, Silverberg, Robinson (Spider), Robinson (Frank M.), Letson, and Wolfe
Special to Locus Online Movie Reviews: Gary Westfahl on The Invasion; Howard Waldrop & Lawrence Person on Stardust and The Simpsons

Thursday 30 August 2007

»   Death: Joe L. Hensley

SF and mystery writer Joe L. Hensley, born 1926, died August 27, 2007, at the age of 81. He began publishing SF in 1953 with stories in Planet Stories and Beyond Fantasy Fiction, and later wrote suspense novels and occasional SF, collaborating with Harlan Ellison and Alexei Panshin. His last novel, Snowbird's Blood, is due for release in 2008.
» SFWA obituary has details of funeral services on Friday, August 31st.
» Private Eye Writers of America post.

•   Locus Magazine: Sample Reviews

Gary K. Wolfe reviews Connie Willis

Locus Magazine features over two dozen reviews in its August 2007 issue. Here's Gary K. Wolfe on Connie Willis' retrospective collection The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories.

Connie Willis is, of course, the premier humorist working in SF today, possibly the premier humorist the field has ever produced. And her favorite subject is death.

Faren Miller reviews Brandon Sanderson

And here's Faren Miller on Brandon Sanderson's novel The Well of Ascension.

What happens after you bring down the Dark Lord of the Evil Empire? That's the question Brandon Sanderson tackles in The Well of Ascension, middle book in what will be the Mistborn trilogy.

Tuesday 28 August 2007

•   Monitor: This Week's Bestsellers

Terry Brooks, Neil Gaiman, J.K. Rowling

Friday 24 August 2007

•   Locus Magazine: Heinlein at 100: A Roundtable Discussion

Excerpts from Locus Magazine's August Issue Heinlein Centennial Celebration, with John Clute, Gary K. Wolfe, Graham Sleight, Charles N. Brown, and Amelia Beamer.

I want to open with a conclusion we all seem to share: all modern science fiction is based on Heinlein. He's the elephant in the room. It doesn't matter if anyone's reading him now; he set the course of modern science fiction.

•   Locus Magazine: John Scalzi: Color in the World

Excerpts from Locus Magazine's August Issue interview.

A book is an operating system. You set up a stage and give the reader some particular details and instructions in the world; how they use that operating system about the world is pretty much up to them. I don't write a lot of description because I find it boring, and also because I don't think it's necessary.

Thursday 23 August 2007

•   Monitor: New Books, mid-August

Tuesday 21 August 2007

•   Feature:

Yesterday's Tomorrows: Robert A. Heinlein

Graham Sleight's "Yesterday's Tomorrows" column from Locus Magazine looks at classic works by Robert A. Heinlein.

Rereading Heinlein's stories now in conjunction with those of his contemporaries is to be struck by how much he was in command, right from the start. He somehow found, or brought into being, a language for describing the future so much more sophisticated than anything else that had been seen. How could you not pledge allegiance to it? Watching his emergence in those first few stories must have been like seeing an adult walking into a room full of children.

•   Monitor: This Week's Bestsellers

Sherrilyn Kenyon, William Gibson, Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson, J.K. Rowling

Sunday 19 August 2007

•   Awards News Update: World Fantasy Awards

In a one-time change of procedure, this year's World Fantasy Convention has officially announced the winners of the Life Achievement Awards, to be presented at this year's convention in Saratoga Springs, New York — the winners are Diana Wynne Jones, who will be unable to attend for health reasons, and Betty Ballantine, who will attend.

•   Feature:

Gary Westfahl reviews The Invasion

One could reasonably expect that this latest version of the story will have something new to say about what contemporary people see as the greatest threat to their personal liberty. Clearly, that question was very much on the minds of screenwriter David Kajganish and director Oliver Hirschbiegel, and their consistently interesting film provides at least three answers for the attentive viewer.

Tuesday 14 August 2007

•   Monitor: This Week's Bestsellers

Harry Turtledove, J.K. Rowling, Stephenie Meyer

Monday 13 August 2007

•   Feature:

Howard Waldrop & Lawrence Person review Stardust

This is a nice, light romantic fantasy that's reasonably faithful to Neil Gaiman's original novel. You'll laugh in the right places, you'll tear up in the right places, and it's a good date movie. At this point in the dog days of summer, that's more than enough.

Sunday 12 August 2007

•   Awards News: World Fantasy Awards Nominations

Finalists for this year's World Fantasy Awards include Stephen King, Ellen Kushner, Scott Lynch, Catherynne M. Valente, and Gene Wolfe for best novel, plus Jeffrey Ford, M. Rickert, Joe R. Lansdale, Ellen Asher, Gary K. Wolfe, and others in categories for novella, short fiction, anthology, collection, artist, and special awards professional and non-professional.

Saturday 11 August 2007

•   Monitor: What's In Other Magazines, July

Friday 10 August 2007

•   Monitor: New Books, first week August

Tuesday 7 August 2007

»   Awards News

Finalists for the year's British Fantasy Awards include Best Novel nominees Chaz Brenchley, Mike Carey, Mark Chadbourn, M. John Harrison, Tim Lebbon, Scott Lynch, Sarah Pinborough, Mark Samuels, and Conrad Williams... plus Ian McDonald, Neil Gaiman, Ellen Datlow, John Picacio, Julie Phillips, and others in categories for novella, short fiction, anthology, collection, artist, small press, and non-fiction. • Winners will be announced at Fantasycon, 21-23 September 2007 in Nottingham, UK.

•   Monitor: This Week's Bestsellers

J.K. Rowling, Jasper Fforde

Monday 6 August 2007

»   Awards News: Mythopoeic Awards Winners

Mythopoeic Awards winners, announced last weekend at Mythcon in Berkeley, California, are Patricia A. McKillip's Solstice Wood, Catherine Fisher's Corbenic, Christina Scull & Wayne G. Hammond's The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide, and G. Roland Murphy's Gemstone of Paradise: The Holy Grail in Wolfram’s Parzival.

»   Awards News: Sidewise Awards Winners

Winners of this year's Sidewise Awards for works of alternate history, presented last weekend at TuckerCon/NASFiC in Collinsville, Illinois, are Charles Stross' The Family Trade, The Hidden Family, and The Clan Corporate in the long form category, and Gardner Dozois' "Counterfactual" in the short form. (SFWA News)

•   Monitor: New Books, end of July