Book II of the Wave Trilogy

To mark this seminal occasion, I’ve written a series of blogs on Jofletcherbooks.com.  And here they are:

On Happy Endings

On Losing Gracefully

On Soapboxes

On Heavenly Bodies

From March 6th to 10th, I’ll have sculpture at London’s Affordable Art Fair in Battersea. And since you’ve been so good, here’s a recent Irenicon review at Goodreads. And also a nice picture of some old gentlemen.  Right then, be off with you, young scallywag.

40 winters' worth

I never posted about the Irish SF convention which took place last month. Thanks to Gareth Kavanagh for inviting me onto two panels. The first was on Alternative History. If you missed it, read my article on Fantasy Faction. I confess that I felt slightly hypocritical taking part in a deconstruction of this misunderstood sub-genre, considering how I’ve opined elsewhere that authors ought resist being corralled into sub-genre. What can I say? I’m weak.

The second panel, on Realistic Relationships in SFF, was moderated with aplomb by Celine Kiernan. I was afraid it would be a dry subject but it turned out to be enlightening, for me at least -I can’t speak for the audience but they looked happy enough. We began by probing the unspoken assumption here that realism is always and everywhere a good thing.

From the moment the novel appeared in the late 18th century there was a certain type of critic who insisted that it should be an improving rational form. They hated the penny-dreadful travelers  tales and Gothic Horror that people, you know, liked. Only when the great Victorian novel appeared, with its grand themes and plodding realism, did they see possibilities. Today these people dismiss Fantasy and Science Fiction as infantile escapism. The correct way to deal with idiots is to ignore them, but the charge some writers get terribly flustered. It results in the type of low-Fantasy where everyone suffers from gangrene and dies in childbirth. If that’s your thing, well and good. Just don’t insist everyone wear the straight jacket. There’s room in this asylum for everyone.

Is the relationship between Ahab and the Whale realistic? No, thank goodness. The world of legend is a world of heightened values, heightened emotions, and, yes, heightened relationships. You don’t turn up at an opera, and complain that everyone’s singing. The real question is do we believe it? And that, as any magician will tell you, has very little to do with reality.

AH

That’s issue 66, with a great big Iron Man on the cover. What are you waiting for? There’s a Harry Potter quiz in the back! Here are some pictures from Irenicon’s launch.

Me and the redoubtable Jo Fletcher.

Pitching hard... There's Ian Drury in the background...

Scribble, scribble, scribble

I could tell you how wonderful the convention was but Fantasy Faction have already done that, here. We had a busy few days subsequently in London, signing books in Forbidden Planet and Goldsboro Books. The marvelous folk at Jo Fletcher Books have been working hard to get the book noticed and I was positively giddy to see it in Waterstones on Oxford St.

Here’s a thoughtful review from Mihir Wanchoo of Fantasy Book Critic and, online at last, Jon Courtenay Grimwood’s Sfx Review.   Cheerio - AH

Winter's been canceled

This is my interview with Stefan Fergus of Civilian Reader

You can read the full text of Ellen Trevan’s review here but this is an extract:  ”Think House of Flying Daggers colliding with a Roman Empire and you’re starting to get the idea. The martial arts described are brilliant, they flow like water down the river as individuals effortlessly scale alley walls and traverse rooftops without disturbing a single slate.”

And here’s another by Erik Lundqvist of iwillreadbooks.  The Eastercon launch is at 6pm on Saturday. Get on down!

A

Thar she blows!