book launches
Jul 18, 2008
Sun of Suns audiobook is out
The complete, unabridged text is available for download from Audible.com, and soon on iTunes
You can listen to the complete text of the novel, read by Joyce Irvine. This is the first of three rapid-fire releases coming from MacMillan audio--the next two books in the series, Queen of Candesce and Pirate Sun, should be made available within the next few weeks.
To get it, bounce on over to the page at Audible.com. And enjoy!
Jul 14, 2008
Read the Prologue to Pirate Sun
It's out in three weeks... here's a teaser
“One thing I can guarantee,” said Venera Fanning. “There has never been a prison break quite like this one.”
The barrel-shaped tugboat was so old that moss had spread continents over its hull, and tufts of grass jutted from its seams like hairs from an old man’s chin. The powerful drone of the vessel’s engines, as its small crew tested them, put a lie to any impression that it was feeble, however. In fact the bone-rattling noise of the test quickly drove Venera and her small group away from the drydock framework that enclosed the tug.
Venera turned away from it and squinted past the light of Slipstream's sun. The city of Rush spread across half the sky, its gaily bannered habitat cylinders turning majestically among wisps of cloud. It was mid-day and the air was full of airships, winged human forms, and here and there cavorting dolphins.
One figure had detached itself from the orderly streams of flying people, and was approaching. Venera saw that it was a member of her private spy network, a nondescript young man dressed in flying leathers, his toeless shoes pushing down on the stirrups that drove the mechanical wings strapped to his back. He hove to and she admired the sheen of sweat on his shoulders as he saluted. “Here's the latest photos.” He proffered a thick envelope; Venera took it, forgetting about him instantly, and tore it open.
Her fingers rose of their own accord to touch the scar on her jaw as she looked at what the pictures revealed: the planes and corners of a stone prison that hovered alone in cloudy skies. Not one building, but six or seven that had been lashed together over the decades, the blocky, boulder-like edifice hung half-wreathed in its own fog bank. The blocks, spheres and triangles of the Falcon New Prison were of various architectural styles and colors, literally thrown together and hybridized with clumsy wooden bridges and rope-and-chain lashings into one cancerous monster whose only common element was that all its windows were barred.
With no gravity to flatten it, the composite prison was stable enough; storms were rare on the edge of civilization and there were no obstacles for the place to run into in its endless drift. The New Prison was a child of neglect, a forgotten mote on the fringe of the vast cloud of worker's dormitories, collective farms and planned cities that was Falcon Formation. Most of the cargo delivered here was on a one-way journey.
Venera intended to make an unscheduled pick-up.
May 12, 2008
French mass-market edition of Permanence
Now available from amazon.fr!
My second novel, Permanence, has been released in a beautiful mass-market edition. The cover art is cool--it shows Rue's Ediacaran fossil pendant, which figures prominently in the story.
Amazon describes the novel like this:
La jeune Rue Cassels est née et a toujours vécu dans le Halo, cette région riche en naines brunes située à mi-chemin entre le Système solaire et les Mondes illuminés. Fuyant la tyrannie de son frère Jentry et l'ambiance interlope de la station d'exploitation cométaire Allemagne, elle s'empare d'une navette pour rejoindre Erythrion. Chemin faisant, elle fait valoir ses droits sur un objet stellaire non répertorié, ignorant que sa découverte aura des répercussions sans précédent. Avec ses combats spatiaux, ses énigmes extraterrestres plus anciennes que l'humanité et ses planètes exotiques décrites avec minutie, Permanence est un roman palpitant, s'inscrivant dans la mouvance du Nouveau Space Opera illustrée par des auteurs comme Iain M. Banks, Peter Hamilton ou Alastair Reynolds.
My first novel Ventus is also available in Folio SF mass-market format.
Apr 30, 2008
Collective Intelligence
I contributed to this massive tome, edited by Mark Tovey, which explores the nascent science of collective decision-making
Collective Intelligence expert, editor of WorldChanging Canada, and all-around polymath Mark Tovey has released a huge collection of essays optimistically entitled Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace. There's contributions from dozens of experts in this nascent field, as well as activists and stakeholders in a variety of different disciplines who are experimenting and refining the ideas behind CI. To name just some of the people involved in this project: Tom Atlee, Howard Rheingold, Jerome C. Glenn, Jaron Lanier, Thomas Malone, Pierre Levy, Thomas Homer-Dixon, Alex Steffen--and myself. I contributed a short fiction piece that starts the whole collection off. There's an afterward by former prime minister Rt. Hon. Paul Martin.
Collective Intelligence is not yet a mature field, either in terms of research or application. This book accepts that, and asks what first steps are needed to get us on the road to understanding CI. There's a healthy dose of skepticism--Jaron Lanier provides a good dollop--and I have my own reservations about the ultimate power of this idea; but it has to be explored, and CI may just turn out to be the key to the next step of human social evolution. We owe it to ourselves and our children to find out, and this book starts the process off with a bang.
Apr 28, 2008
Audiobook schedule for Virga books
I don't have specific dates, but here's what I know
Tor has told me that they're going to release the Virga books in audiobook format (through MacMillan's audio division) on an aggressive schedule. I don't have exact release dates, but here's the general timing--and it's quite tight:
- Sun of Suns will be out in June
- Queen of Candesce will be released in July
- Pirate Sun will be out in August, essentially simultaneously with the release of the print version.