Search Results for: Walter Jon Williams

Vintage Treasures: The New Hugo Winners, Volume III and IV, presented by Connie Willis and Gregory Benford

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The New Hugo Winners, Volume III and Volume IV (Baen, and May 1994 and November 1997). Covers by Bob Eggleton The Hugo Winners, Volume I and Volume II, edited by Isaac Asimov and collected in one big omnibus by the Science Fiction Book Club in 1972, was one of the top-selling science fiction books of the 70s, and Volume III (1977) was gladly received by readers. But by the time Volume IV and V were released in the mid-80s, sales had…

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The Fantastic Realms of Luis Royo

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Realms of Fantasy covers by Luis Royo. Row 1: October 1997, April 1998, October 1998. Row 2: December 1999, October 2001, December 2002. Row 3: October 2004, August 2005, June 2006 Three days ago I wrote a quick piece about a pair of late 90s Ace paperbacks by Cary Osborne, Deathweave and Darkloom. The thing that first attracted my interest — as it often is — was the great covers for both books, in this case the work of the…

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Quatro-Decadal Review: Asimov’s Science Fiction, November 1989, edited by Gardner Dozois

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An unappealing cover by Wayne Barlowe, more on that in a second After the somewhat uninspiring November 1989 Analog, I turned next to Asimov’s, and found it to be pretty good. Editorial — “Half Done” by Isaac Asimov Starting with the quote ‘Half done is hardly begun,’ Isaac Asimov (That’s Dr. Asimov, if you’re nasty) jumps into looking at how we conceptualize and compare time. Starting with the fact the Earth is 15 billion years old, half of that is…

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New Treasures: The Best of David Brin

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The Best of David Brin (Subterranean Press, July 31, 2021). Cover by Patrick Farley Subterranean Press has done a flat-out fabulous job of producing memorable single-author collections over the last decade. For one thing, Subterranean mastermind William Schafer has terrific taste. He edited a delightful small press magazine (titled, appropriately enough, Subterranean) for many years, and demonstrated admirable skill at selecting and editing short fiction. For another, he’s been working at it tirelessly for decades, and it shows. He’s produced…

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New Treasures: The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman

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The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman(Tor Books, May 2021). Cover by Marie Bergeron Christopher Buehlman has accumulated an impressive rep with some powerful horror novels over the past decade. Those Across the River was nominated for the World Fantasy Award, The Lesser Dead won the American Library Association’s award, and The Suicide Motor Club made The Best Horror Books of 2016 list at the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog. His latest is an interesting departure — the kick-off for an…

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Stormbringer, Stargates, and Fighting Sail: Ten Classic Unplayed RPGs

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Empire of the Petal Throne (PDF version of 1975 TSR edition), Bunnies & Burrows (Frog God Press, 2019), and Stormbringer (Chaosium, 2nd edition, 1985) People seemed to like old RPG covers. Here’s a more pointless variation: the first ten interesting RPGs I acquired but never found players for. Empire of the Petal Throne Number one: that classic, M.A.R. Barker’s Empire of the Petal Throne, one of or possibly the first complex, non-faux Medieval European settings for an RPG. Professor Muhammad…

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The Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog on the Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of November 2019

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It’s December already. Hard to believe, I know. But it’s true. It’s many ways I’m not sad to have November in the rear view mirror. For one thing, the weather was terrible. More importantly, it brought disturbing changes to one of my favorite genre websites, the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog, which fired all their freelancers on November 26th. I don’t know if the ongoing changes will also impact folks like founding editor Joel Cunningham, or Jeff Somers,…

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Vintage Treasures: Strange Dreams by Stephen R. Donaldson

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Bantam Spectra cover by Gervase Gallardo Twenty-five years ago oversized trade paperbacks fantasy anthologies were few and far between. Today they’re the default, but in the early 90s, when original anthologies routinely appeared as mass markets paperbacks, you had to be something special to warrant the deluxe trade paper format. (Nowadays, of course, the mass market anthology is long dead, but that’s a subject for a different post.) Strange Dreams was something special. In the early 90s Stephen Donaldson was…

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Birthday Reviews: Daniel Abraham’s “Pagliacci’s Divorce”

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Daniel Abraham was born on November 14, 1969. Daniel Abraham won the International Horror Guild Award for his story “Flat Diane” in 2005. The story was also nominated for a Nebula Award. His story “The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics” was nominated for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Seiun Awards. Abraham has two additional Hugo nominations in collaboration with Ty Franck using the pseudonym James S.A. Corey for their novel Leviathan Wakes and for ther series…

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Birthday Reviews: October Index

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January index February index March index April index May index June index July index August index September index October 1, Donald A. Wollheim: “Blueprint” October 2, Edward Wellen: “Barbarossa” October 3, Ray Nelson: “Time Travel for Pedestrians” October 4, Gary Couzens: “Half-Life” October 5, Zoran Živković: “The Whisper” October 6, David Brin: “Just a Hint”