Thursday, February 9, 2023

Speculative Fiction Links of the Week for February 10, 2023



It's time for the latest weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web, this week with the best SFF books of 2022, the uproar surrounding horror editor Thomas F. Monteleone, Star Trek in general, Star Wars in general, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in general The Last of Us, Poker Face, Knock at the Cabin, the future of the DC Cinematic Universe, Pathaan and the state of Bollywood in general, tributes to Paco Rabanne and much more.

Speculative fiction in general:
Best of 2022:
 
The uproar surrounding Thomas F. Monteleone:
 
 
Film and TV:
 
Comments on Star Trek in general: 
 
Comments on The Last of Us:  
 
Comments on Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in general:
 
Comments on Star Wars in general: 
  
 
Comments on the future of the DC Cinematic Universe:
 
Comments on Pathaan and the state of Bollywood in general: 
 
Comments on Knock at the Cabin: 
 
Awards:

Writing, publishing and promotion:

Interviews:

Reviews:

Classics reviews:
 
Con and event reports:
 
Crowdfunding:
 
Science and technology:

Free online fiction: 
 
Trailers and videos:
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Monday, February 6, 2023

Hultichia (Maradaine Saga Stories, Book 2) by Marshall Ryan Maresca

 

Release date: February 7, 2023
Subgenre: Fantasy Mystery, Epic Fantasy
 

About Hultichia:

 

A mysterious and disturbing summons brings Aurien Pemmick, an untested deacon of the Church of Druthal, across the border to a peculiar and disquieting kingdom: Kellirac.

Despite being in this antiquated and superstitious place, Pemmick is determined to root out the truth behind the summons. But Kellirac proves to be a place of dangers beyond the natural realm, especially since Pemmick arrives on the eve of Hultichia: a sacred night where the locals claim the dead will walk.

Pemmick's faith is tested against Kellirac superstition, even as his mission threatens to drag him into madness, on the darkest night of his life.


Excerpt:

 

Aurien Pemmick’s entire body was a shrine to his devotion—his feet calloused, every joint ached, his stomach growling with a hunger that had not been truly sated in months— while he kept  a joyful smile on his face and a polite nod to everyone he passed on his slow, painful walk to the High Cathedral of Gorivow. The cathedral was a gaudy, ostentatious structure: polished stone, stained glass, grand doors inlaid with silver, all towering over a cracked and faded square of the city’s threadbare market district. Given the surroundings, Pemmick was surprised to see that active construction was underway—a new wing was being added to the already immense church.
It was not his place to question it, though. He was merely a deacon on his Itinerancy, doing good works in the name of God and the saints until he was ready to be named a reverend and placed in a residency.  Which was exactly why, in all likelihood, Calistair Prenton, the Bishop of Gorivow, had summoned him.
As Pemmick went in the front door, a robed friar ran up to him with disapproving waves of his hands.  
“No, no, no beggars through here. The soup line starts at two bells, and is at the door on Calder Street.”
“I’m not a beggar,” Pemmick said amiably.  “Though I can see why you would think that.”  As was the tradition on Itinerancy, he had travelled on foot with just one set of clothes, so he was dirty and ragged. “Deacon Aurien Pemmick, on my Walk.”
“Your accent’s a bit odd,” the friar said.  “How far has your Walk taken you?”
“However long it is from Marikar to here,” Pemmick said.  “Six, seven hundred miles?”
“And you have your papers?” The friar said, his face still filled with doubt.  
“Of course,” Pemmick took his pack off and dug out his credentials. “I also have a letter from Reverend Andale, telling me to come see the Bishop.”
The friar snatched the papers out of Pemmick’s hands.  “We don’t have an Andale here.”
“He wrote to me, and I’ve known him for years,” Pemmick said. “There’s a signet seal at the bottom.” It was odd, certainly, that the summons even found him on his Walk, but God and the saints must have guided it to him themselves.
“Hmm,” the friar said. He glanced at the seal and the garnet ring on his own finger.  “Come with me to the quarters. I will alert the bishop, but you cannot have an audience with him in this state.”
“Really?” Pemmick asked.  “He’s never met with a deacon on the Walk?”
“It is highly irregular. Come with me.”


Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Apple | Paperback


About Marshall Ryan Maresca:

Marshall Ryan Maresca is a fantasy and science-fiction writer, author of the Maradaine Saga: Four braided series set amid the bustling streets and crime-ridden districts of the exotic city called Maradaine, which includes The Thorn of Dentonhill, A Murder of Mages, The Holver Alley Crew and The Way of the Shield, as well as the dieselpunk fantasy, The Velocity of Revolution. He is also the co-host of the Hugo-nominated, Stabby-winning podcast Worldbuilding for Masochists, and has been a playwright, an actor, a delivery driver and an amateur chef. He lives in Austin, Texas with his family.

 

Website | Podcast | Twitter | Instagram

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Sunday, February 5, 2023

Complete Poems 1965 - 2020 by Michael Butterworth

 

Release date: February 3, 2023
Subgenre: Poetry Collection
 

About Complete Poems 1965 - 2020:

 

 

For more than fifty years Michael Butterworth, better known for his work as a writer, editor and publisher, has also been a quiet unobtrusive voice in poetry, with roots lying both in the small press poetry journals of the sixties and seventies and in New Wave of Science Fiction. His work is distinguished as much for the restless intelligence, wit and intimacy of his voice as a determination, shown in many of these poems, to paint metaphorical pictures of the perils we face due to our poor regard for the fragile biosphere in which we live. In other poems, he finds, within the events of an ordinary life, scope for the transcendent, and in still others his use of nonsense and absurdity playfully captures the moment, puncturing the illusions of the self. Across his work, elements are reiterated but endlessly transfigured –

The effect is at once familiar and yet profound, in language that has the confessional qualities and simplicity of early influences such as Sylvia Plath and the Beats, and the later influence of Zen poets such as Ryōkan. Occasionally the writing is startlingly radical – a reminder of the poet’s beginnings in the New Wave.

A collection such as this one from Space Cowboy Books is overdue, and Complete Poems: 1965-2020 brings to more deserving attention a less heard voice in modern poetry.

Critical acclaim:

"Michael Butterworth's poetry is rolling news from a since-outlawed territory of ideas; bulletins filed from a redacted country, edited out of cultural continuity. In beautifully clear language, human moments are examined as though artefacts dug from the future, or the debris of a missing world. Caught in a jeweller's eyepiece, fugitive impressions from near sixty years of subterranean endeavour here condense to lyric crystal, ringing with the poet's radical and laser-guided voice. This is a wonderful collection, mined from times that aren't supposed to happen. Lose yourself inside it."

- Alan Moore - author of Watchmen, From Hell and Jerusalem

 

Excerpt: 

 


Hardcover | Paperback

 

About Michael Butterworth:

 
Michael Butterworth (born 1947) is a British author, poet, publisher and campaigner who first became known publicly as an author of New Wave science fiction. He later founded the publishing house Savoy Books with David Britton in 1976 and the contemporary art journal Corridor8 with Sarajane Inkster in 2009.
 
 

 

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Thursday, February 2, 2023

Speculative Fiction Links of the Week for February 3, 2023



It's time for the latest weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web, this week with the uproar surrounding horror editor Thomas F. Monteleone, Star Trek in general, Doctor Who in general The Last of Us, Poker Face, Lockwood & Co, Wolf Pack, Knock at the Cabin, the future of The Orville, the future of the DC Cinematic Universe, Groundhog Day at thirty, tributes to Annie Wershing, Lisa Loring and Cindy Williams and much more.

Speculative fiction in general:
The uproar surrounding Thomas F. Monteleone:
 
 
Film and TV:

 
Tributes to Annie Wershing and Lisa Loring: 
 
Comments on Star Trek in general: 
 
Comments on The Last of Us:  
 
Comments on Doctor Who in general:
 
Comments on Lockwood & Co.: 
 
Comments on the future of The Orville:
  
Comments on the future of the DC Cinematic Universe:
 
Comments on Wolf Pack: 
 
Comments on Knock at the Cabin: 
 
Groundhog Day at thirty: 
 
Awards:

Writing, publishing and promotion:

Interviews:

Reviews:

Classics reviews:
 
Con and event reports:
 
Crowdfunding:
 
Science and technology:

Free online fiction: 
 
Trailers and videos:
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