So I once again had a lovely time at ICFA, the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts down in Florida. The final day of the conference was interrupted by a tornado passing overhead -- excitement! -- but there was no damage. Just a green sky and the smell of ozone, which Kij Johnson pointed out to me and is indeed pretty remarkable ( Read more... )

...was in San Diego this year. Palm trees, sunshine, a hot tub... True, I spent a lot of time indoors attending readings and events, but wow. What a great location for WFC!

True, the hotel was rather... strange... and had some odd policies (e.g. not issuing guests blankets and barring wheelchair access ramps). But the people more than made up for ( Read more... )

Back from WFC.
Happy but exhausted.
More later.

Oh mighty lj! I turn to you for aid.

I'm looking for examples of high fantasy novels that follow the Tolkienesque pattern in which an agricultural / pre-modern community is threatened by an outside force associated with techology/modernity.

What novels might fit this pattern?

Fellow CW alum DJ Muir has a new story out at Strange Horizons. I have fond memories of The Fourth Board from workshop and I'm excited to see it in print:

Today, the Tyrant will ask Jinli's father to bring out the hao ryl set, sit down with him, and play a game. When the game is decided, the Tyrant will ask Father to bring Jinli before him, and to ( Read more... )

So I never mentioned Sady Doyle's George R.R. Martin piece in part because I didn't think it warranted the attention. Doyle clearly wanted to skewer the series. She makes some good points, she makes some funny points, and she also misses the mark.

Alyssa Rosenburg had a thoughtful response. To this I'd add that I have a problem with Doyle's pre- ( Read more... )

Marie Brennan's fourth and (so far) final Onyx Court novel is out, and it's set in the Victorian period. (Hurray!) For those of us fond of London fairies and Victorians, I think our reading list is set.

I'm terrible at descriptions, so I'll let PW do it for me:

With Fate Conspire

Gifted storyteller and world-builder Brennan returns to the Onyx Court, ( Read more... )

In the Gardens of the Night has been reviewed over at Locus. Lois Tilton calls it a "neatly twisted tale of conspiracies and plots" and gives it a "Recommended" rating. (Woot!)

So, on the advice of a CW friend, I gave Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind another try, and... liked it.

This is unexpected, because TNOTW is very much a wish-fulfillment story about a Super-Talented, Awesome Character Whose Only Flaws Make Him Yet More Awesome. In short, it's the kind of thing I usually despise. But TNOTW works, in part because of ( Read more... )

My very first CW story, In the Gardens of the Night, is now up at Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Thanks to a lively crit session, it is now forever known as the "I want an army of undead concubines!" story. This despite the fact that (spoiler) there are no undead concubines appearing in this story.

I'm particularly proud of the opening paragraph, which I ( Read more... )