bite me: the week in bite-sized chunks

*Writing from somewhere in a hermetically sealed room* As I am now writing my dissertation/dragging it out screaming, these round ups are focused on what dedicated SFF UK imprints are doing to digitally market themselves, their books and their authors to their fans and wider readerships.

Angry Robot Books: have always done things a bit differently, and prided themselves on it (while still managing to publish this year’s Arthur C. Clarke Award winner, Lauren Beukes). Normally you have to take pains to point out (usually in a 5,000 word essay) the brand of a publisher. ‘Look,’ you might say (but less casual, it is an essay), ‘This publisher has been subtly putting their mark on their books for years because in the left-hand corner, they usually sneak in a little swirl design that could be interpreted (by the more optimistic) as the corner of their logo, without being too off-putting to the general reader.’ Angry Robot, on the other hand, have thought ‘sod the general reader’, or, more likely, ‘the general reader will never read our blog, they will never know the true extent to our geekiness.’ So they have taken the notion of the publisher as a brand and run wildly into the night with it. The Angry Robot Army just got a uniform. From Zazzle UK or USA you can now purchase an Angry Robot hat. And they haven’t stopped there (why would they?). You can buy a t-shirt (either ‘Robot’ or ‘Angry’, depending on what relates to you), a Zoo City t-shirt, an iPad case, a skateboard (they have a mixed target audience), bag, mug, pins, a baby grow (get ‘em while they’re young), and, my personal favourite, a skin to (irony alert) make your phone look a bit like a robot. Maybe that’s the secret to branding. Pick a logo your readers will want to wear.

Orbit: granted, this may be something only I (at the height of my dissertation fever) find fascinating, but back in the 1970s horror author James Herbert was not very happy when his publishers, the New English Library, were marketing his work as pulp. He threw in some political and thriller tropes, and intended to elevate his titles above this ‘throwaway’ fiction status. Now, Orbit are revelling in the pulp. Their covers for Philip Palmers books are absolutely gorgeous, with their plastic figurines, bold, white typography and block, vibrant colours, and the great Lauren Panepinto, Art Director, is ecstatically happy about their pulp connotations: ‘His writing has this fabulous pulp sci-fi feel to it’. In my research, I’ve read a lot about authors, editors and readers bemoaning the popular culture representation of sci-fi, that it is all adolescent ray guns and space battles (extreme paraphrasing). But Orbit are embracing it, and pushing this retro ‘pulp’ writing unashamedly, without attaching the throwaway tag so often associated with it. They achieve this rather well by quoting a Guardian review of Palmer’s Red Claw in the post announcing the book’s launch, which states: ‘Red Claw is a rare treat, an intelligent action adventure replete with intellectual rigour, human insight and superb storytelling.’ If this is the modern day pulp, then sci-fi has come a long way.

bite me: the week in bite-sized chunks

Arthur C Clarke/Angry Robot Books: South African author Lauren Beukes won the 25th annual Arthur C Clarke Award with the excellent Zoo City. Set in Cape Town, this is a Science Fictioner in which people are plagued with their guilt hanging around in animal form, like a His Dark Materials universe where every daeman is a physical manifestation of some horrendous crime. I’m sometimes intimidated by books that win awards – not so with Zoo City – this is an accessible, intriguing and well-oiled read. On accepting her prize (complete with wrap-around Sloth), Beukes said the speech she’d planned went something like this: ‘Curse you, McDonald!’ As Ian McDonald’s The Dervish House originally looked set to win (having been nominated for a Hugo and as it won the British Science Fiction Association’s annual award). But Beukes can prop her books up with her new ornamental bookstand with pride, and in the knowledge that she and her shelf deserve it. Check out the article in the Guardian where it refers to Angry Robot Books as ‘tiny UK press’, which is both adorable and probably soon-to-be inaccurate after this win.

British Library: you know you’ve made it in history when you’re featured in a British Library exhibition, just ask the dinosaurs. Now Lauren Beukes, thanks to her Clarke win, along with China Miéville, George Orwell and Audrey Niffeneger, will be part of an incredibly exciting exhibition on Science Fiction called ‘Out of this world: Science Fiction, but not as you know it’. Available from 20 May through to 25 September this year, the exhibit’s blurb grandly states that ‘Science Fiction is revealed not merely as a popular literary genre but as a way of looking at today’s world and presenting alternatives: radical ideas about science, politics, society, the future… and the nature of reality itself.’ Asking questions like ‘Who are we?’, ‘What is reality?’ and, perfect for a Sunday afternoon pondering, ‘When and how will the world end?’, from earliest writings to modern film, this is bound to be a thrilling, insightful look into a genre that demands limelight, but doesn’t get it nearly often enough. I can’t wait.

Hugo Awards: the nominations were announced at Eastercon last weekend. The full list is on the Renovation website, but the Best Novel category is as follows:

Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (Ballantine Spectra)
Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Gollancz; Pyr)
Feed by Mira Grant (Orbit)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)

Orbit: I bet you’ve been thinking ‘Hey, that A Genteel Black Hole hasn’t been talking about Jim Butcher for a while, I do hope she’s OK.’ Luckily, Orbit have presented me with the perfect opportunity for me to hammer the fan girl love home. They’re currently marketing his Dresden Files short story compilation Side Jobs, which I read this week. These short stories are mostly from existing compilations and slot in-between his main titles, including (insert squeal here) Changes and Ghost Story. Squeal. Side Jobs is a much-needed filler in the extended wait for the next instalment of The Dresden Files, Ghost Story. Aside from the usual prerequisite moments of arousal at inappropriate times of battle (can no one see a bare neck without biting back a primal roar of need?), this was a superbly written master class in the short story form, with the final original novella (I won’t spoil whose POV it is) showing off Butcher’s increasingly developed talent (insert wizard’s staff pun here). Highly recommended.

Voyager: there has been much love for Voyager author George RR Martin in the last few weeks with the airing of the HBO TV adaptation of A Game of Thrones, the first in his acclaimed A Song of Ice and Fire series. Unfortunately, in the past this hasn’t stopped the deplorable torrent of abuse Martin suffered at the hands of so-called fans for the long waits between books (how dare he eat/sleep/breathe when there’s writing to be done?! etc). The sharp Martin cut to the quick, blogging back: ‘You don’t want me to pull a Robert Jordan on you.’ You probably won’t have missed the continued confusion over whether he’s finished/ about to finish/ will never finish A Dance with Dragons, although Voyager have announced a release date of 12 July 2011 (yes, 2011). As for me, I’m currently reading A Feast for Crows in preparation, and, while not a rabid fan (loving, yes, but not foaming at the mouth), I do wonder how short this series would be if he cut out the names of all characters not relating directly to the plot. I am torn between wanting the richness and depth of the universe these names and histories convey, and just wanting the story to shine through without being bogged down by Ser Wainwright of Gallinfry whose claim upon the Bronze Throne was waylaid in 1044 by the damned Water Voles, lead by Ser Hillary the Waterlogged, who came up the river Blessed, following in the footsteps of his great uncle Baldric the Befuddled, whose voyage was doomed when he travelled 217 miles in the wrong direction on the shady advice of Dudley the Duplicitous, his fourth cousin twice removed. Basically I’m just moaning because he forces my brain to function instead of offering me the plot on a plate. Damn him. Meanwhile, oh look, Sean Bean!

bite me: the week in bite-sized chunks

Tor: What is it about cake and books? Atom did it (I’ve just looked at my blog post about that and realised that sometimes I am a total nerd. And not one of those cool nerds, either), and now Tor UK have had an event to celebrate the reissuing of China Miéville’s backlist covers by putting them onto cakes. And they’re right to – designed by Crushed, these new covers are gorgeous, and delicious. They remind me of Neil Gaiman’s now not-so-new covers, with the black background and delicate illustrations embossed with coloured foil. Well, sort of.

Voyager: contain yourselves, epic fantasy fans; George RR Martin’s A Dance with Dragons is going to be published by Voyager on 12 July 2011. Believe that date, it’s actually real this time. It’s book five in A Song of Ice and Fire, a series so excellently executed and horrifically detailed that if, like me, you have a memory that quails at the thought of recalling more than one thing at once, you have four months to re-read the previous books. Or watch the upcoming HBO series Game of Thrones for a reminder sesh; it does have Sean Bean in it. I hear his contracts now state that, should there be a death scene, it must be at least 15 minutes in length. True story. Except for the lies.

Orbit/A Dribble of Ink: Aiden Moher over at A Dribble of Ink interviewed Orbit author Daniel Abraham (The Dragon’s Path, The Long Price Quartet) and the interview treaded close to my dissertation topic. Namely, the accessibility of the genre to people who aren’t necessarily SFF fans (differentiating this, but not altogether separating it, from the commercialisation of the genre). It also brought out Abraham’s irritation for people who want to look sophisticated through their bookshelf, whether they’re reading what’s on it or not (a personal pet hate). Abraham encourages the kind of SFF people might prefer to read via the anonymity of their eReader: ‘There is something at the base of genre – and it’s commercial and accessible and low-class and embarrassing – that brings people to what we do, and I think writers turn away from that at our peril.’ Abraham dubs this – and he’s not alone in this definition – as ‘guilty pleasures’ reading. He encourages writers to write ‘what people are ashamed to love’. Perhaps this is the value of eBooks to SFF. And its more adventurous readers. Perhaps Erotic Fantasy will get its (discrete) moment.

Gollancz: Orion publicity assistant Louise Court has given an interview on her role with Orion and Gollancz on the Book Chick City blog. This is just a lovely insight into her role and her first love, the written word. She also gets in a few plugs for their Urban Fantasy list – well, she is a publicity assistant, after all.

Arther C Clarke Award: the shortlist was announced on March 4 and is as follows:

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes (Angry Robot)
Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness (Walker)
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Gollancz)
Generosity by Richard Powers (Atlantic)
Declare by Tim Powers (Corvus)
Lightborn by Tricia Sullivan (Orbit)

I believe I have some reading to do…

bite me: the week in bite-sized chunks

Angry Robot Books: I feel like I’ve been living and breathing Angry Robot for the past few months, as I’ve just carried out a research project on their digital activities for my MA. Just when I thought I was ready to hand it in, they do something new. I could hardly keep up, which is, of course, exactly why I chose them. They’ve just introduced their ‘Ask the Robot’ feature (by my deadline too, thanks guys), which they’ve set up on a site called Formspring that I’ve only just learned about, but which now knows more about me than my closest friends (‘Can Formspring access all your personal details? Formspring LOVES birthdays, when’s yours and don't you think your Diet Coke dependency is getting out of hand?). Basically you can ask Angry Robot anything and they’ll answer it. All answers will also get copied to their Twitter feed, which cunningly means you’ll want to follow them there too. OK, so you get the odd ‘If a woodchuck could (and would) chuck wood, how much wood would a woodchuck chuck?’ question (‘2’, in case you were wondering). But also this offers the chance for readers to get under their robotic exterior and see how they’re wired. I have 4,500 garbled words and a pie chart that say quite, quite well. Incidentally, that's 4,500 words that would have benefited staggeringly from this feature. First post from user Disgruntled MA Student: 'Dear Angry Robot, why wasn't this feature in place a couple of months back when I needed it the most?'

Lauren Beukes: author of the amazing Moxyland and Zoo City, the Angry Robot writer has just been told by the Hugo Awards committee that she’s eligible for the 2011 Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Voting closes on March 26th and you can vote if you’re a Renovation member, or by joining. If you can afford the membership fee, or you’re already a proud card-carrying member, what are you waiting for? The awards will be presented at the Hugo Ceremony, at the annual World Science Fiction Convention (run by the World Science Fiction Society, who also sponsor the Hugos) on 17th – 21st August, in Reno, Nevada. There are 15 categories in total, not including the Campbell. Also, the award is shaped like a delightful rocket.

Orbit: I was quite distressed earlier as I couldn’t access their site. Am I addicted? *Drinks caffeine to calm nerves* Anyway, Orbit UK have just announced their acquisition of three new titles of Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files (mentioned two posts in a row, it must be a record). The series' crazy-amazing mix of Urban Fantasy and crime noir (as Orbit dubs them) make for genuinely unique books, whilst still managing to contain the usual UF tropes. I’m not sure any cover artist’s work excites me quite as much as Chris McGrath’s designs for this series. Maybe it’s his addition of a stylish hat for the character of Harry Dresden (one he notoriously never dons in the text itself), but Orbit UK’s covers have always been a poorer comparison. Until now. As if they’ve noted my anguish, Orbit UK have melded McGrath’s designs for Penguin/Roc USA, with Little, Brown designer Peter Cotton’s and created these absolute beauties. The latest File, Ghost Story is due out July 26th, a whole four months later than normal. Still, the wait is always worth it. Side note: I am absolutely gutted that I missed their competition to win all of the new covers (and the books too, obviously). And I call myself a rabid fan.

book review: Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

Published by Angry Robots in the UK and Jacana in South Africa, Zoo City is only the second novel from South African writer, Lauren Beukes (following Moxyland), although her work reads with the ease and lyricism of a seasoned pro, which, in all fairness, she is. Beukes has a journalism and scriptwriting background and she isn’t afraid to use these hard-earned skills in her novel writing, which shines through both in wording and style. Beukes is the writer equivalent of a method actor: a method writer. Her research is both academic and physical and she’s been to healers’ markets, visited churches that once housed over three thousand refugees has been thrown out of night clubs, all in the name of fiction. Her methods pay off.

Ex-drug addict Zinzi December is a woman with a past, but that’s obvious from the Sloth on her back. FL (former life) she was a journalist, but now she lives in the South African slums of Zoo City, where most of the residents have been ‘animalled’. She’s become a Mashavi, which refers to both her animal familiar, Sloth, and her magical ability, which for her is to find lost things. Like others in this alternative present, her animal was thrust upon her by the shadowy Undertow, which came for her after her brother was killed by a bullet meant for her. Whether it’s a guilty conscience that has started to manifest physically, a godly punishment or, like the daemons in Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials (something hinted at in the book), part of their soul, being animalled in a society already suffering from other xenophobic attitudes is not conductive to an easy life.

Still paying off drug debts she racked up in her FL, Zinzi is involved with Internet scams as well as using her ability to find lost things – for a price – when she’s implemented in the murder of one of her clients. In need of the money after the police take her payment for that job, she’s forced to break her ‘no missing persons’ rule to find a lost pop princess and becomes embroiled in more murders and shady goings-on in the music world.

Even with the first person narrative, Zinzi – with her fabulous insults and severe personal issues - is a difficult person to get to know, but by the end you feel that you at least understand her for all of her foibles. This is a story that feels personal, and painful. From Zinzi’s touchingly fragile relationship with Benoît, another Mashavi, to the very real history of the country that still haunts them, although it’s Fantasy the magic is more mythological and is not what drives the story. It’s primarily focussed on the broken people desperate to pick up the pieces just to get by from day-to-day and to rebuild some sort of life, and it’s about living with regret, in this case literally with the physical presence of their animals. The fear of being animalled and the inability to get away from your animal if it happens to you adds an element of claustrophobia to the simmering crucible of a society already in troubled times. Although similar to the daemons in Pullman’s universe, the idea of being unable to hide an aspect of yourself – the monkey on your back - is compelling enough, along with the fast-paced plot, that the novel never falls into the trap of being all concept and no substance.

Beukes paints a bleak picture of Johannesburg and human nature in general; it’s a crumbling city where the ridiculously opulent areas are side-by-side with the dirt-poor, like gold teeth in a rotting mouth. I usually enjoy books more that are lighter in tone, but this bleakness doesn’t overwhelm the novel because the theme of redemption is present throughout, driving the characters forward, however unconsciously.

With Zoo City, Beukes shows what can still be done with the Urban Fantasy genre: it’s a wonderful, gritty, unique gem of a novel, filled with witty dialogue and sentences that zing off the page, and, much like her troubled main character Zinzi, is edgy without being alienating and vulnerable without being soft.

8/10