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Greetings:
And welcome to the latest issue of the Pyr® newsletter. This issue, we're going to look at John Meaney's Resolution, catch up with Mike Moorcock and Kay Kenyon's good news, and look at some exciting awards nominations and Year's Best round-ups.
So here we go.
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Say You Want a Resolution...
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 John Meaney's Nulapeiron Sequence of Paradox, Context, and Resolution was collectively called, "a hard science fiction
masterpiece" (Barnes &Noble's Explorations SF Newsletter) and "a glittering jewel in the crown of the new British space opera" (Charles Stross).
It's my personal favorite space opera of the last decade, and I believe that Meaney is an utterly visionary writer whose praises I was singing long before I became his first US editor. The sequence has drawn comparisons to Dune, for its elaborate world-building and scope, as well as to the works of Jack Vance and Greg Egan. The Times called Meaney "the first important new SF writer of the 21st century," and I don't think they were exaggerating.
Later this month, we'll be bringing the third volume of the Nulapeiron Sequence out in trade paperback. You can follow the links above for chapter excerpts from all three books. Meanwhile, the following description gives you an idea of the scale and scope of his imagination:
"The war against The Blight is over, and the subterranean realms of
Nulapeiron have a chance for peace. But Tom Corcorigan, revolutionary
and war hero, newly married and longing for the quiet life, knows that
a greater force threatens his world: the p***t-consuming Anomaly,
which has absorbed billions of humans and alien beings into itself.
Tom's association with the disembodied Eemur's Head, the
flensed and bloody remains of a powerful Seer, changes him into
something more than a poverty-stricken Lord. The spacetime-warping
science of Seers and Oracles penetrates the heart of reality, bringing
new enemies and allies into Tom's life. And his 'story crystal,' a gift
from a mysterious mu-space Pilot, reveals more of the Pilots' history
and true nature, and the existence of their home in a universe no
ordinary human being can experience: the strange, shifting, living
fractal city that is Labyrinth.
Soon the Anomaly, an evil far more powerful than its
offspring Blight, rips into the world, decimating the human realms.
Among the free humans who survive in the floating terraformer spheres
of Nulapeiron's skies, only the forces commanded by Tom Corcorigan have
a chance against this omnipotent invader. For only a Warlord who is no
longer human, who is willing to sacrifice everything, can deliver
humanity from darkness.
 Resolution concludes the trilogy of Nulapeiron tales
featuring Tom Corcorigan, bringing the story to a triumphant climax and
revealing the devastating secret of the Oracles' creation."
See?
Oh for a few hundred million dollars so we could film this. Can you imagine?
"John Meaney is a spectacular writer; he makes SF seem all fresh and
new again. ...
he's one of the most original voices, and most insightful thinkers, the
genre has ever produced." - Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Hominids
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Moorcock: 50 Greatest Post-War UK Writers
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The Times Online have released their list of The 50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945. Quite a few genre names on the list, including Tolkien, Lewis, Pullman and Rowling, and also, coming in at number 50, our own Michael Moorcock.
They say, "Most of Moorcock's 80-plus novels are unashamedly pulp. But
he wins his place for a series of genre-crossing novels linked by a
taste for metafictional devices - he often appears in them himself and
characters occur and recur in 'historical' and 'fantasy' guises." They
discuss his major works and his influences on such notables as William
Gibson, Neil Gaiman, Iain Sinclair and Peter Ackroyd. (But do they say "unashamedly pulp" like it's a bad thing?)
 Meanwhile, Andrew McKie reviews The Metatemporal Detective for The Telegraph, in a piece called "Michael Moorcock: His Own Private Multiverse."
McKie opens by crediting Moorcock with bringing the term Multiverse to
quantum physicists and philosophers, then describes his latest as,
"tremendous fun for fans of Sherlock Holmes, or perhaps Sexton Blake,
so long as they are prepared for occasional forays into the milieu of
Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, as well as Robert E Howard,
creator of Conan the Barbarian... This is all pastiche, and Moorcock's
fans will not be surprised to find that it is astoundingly
sure-footed....I think it, on the whole, terrific. "
And, uh, unashamedly pulp, right?
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Sean Williams Podcast
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 Sean Williams is interviewed on the wonderful Adventures in SciFi Publishing podcast, available via iTunes and as a direct download. Sean is talking about his brilliant space opera, and not his Pyr novels, but we love him enough to point it out anyway. (Also interviewed, best-selling author Kevin J. Anderson.)
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Gradisil Up for the Pee Kay Dee
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Big, big news. Adam Roberts' near-future, near-space revenge epic, Gradisil, has been short-listed for the Philip K. Dick Award, presented annually "for distinguished science
fiction published in paperback original form in the United States." Congratulations, Adam! We're thrilled. Like John Meaney above, I was reading Adam long before I worked with him, and I think Gradisil may be his best to date. But that's hard to say when it's all so good. Anyway, this is tremendous news. (Remember: sample chapters online here.)
From the press release:
2007 Philip K. Dick Award Nominees Announced
 The
judges of the 2007 Philip K. Dick Award and the Philadelphia SF Society
are pleased to announce seven nominated works that comprise the final
ballot for the award:
GREY by Jon Armstrong (Night Shade Books)
UNDERTOW by Elizabeth Bear (Bantam Spectra)
FROM THE NOTEBOOKS OF DR. BRAIN by Minister Faust (Del Rey)
NOVA SWING by M. John Harrison (Bantam Spectra)
GRADISIL by Adam Roberts (Pyr)
ALLY by Karen Traviss (Eos)
SATURN RETURNS by Sean Williams (Ace Books)
First
prize and any special citations will be announced on Friday, March 21,
2008 at Norwescon 31 at the Doubletree Hotel Seattle Airport, SeaTac,
Washington.
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Year's Best Science Fiction
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Gardner Dozois has posted the contents of his forthcoming The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Edition. I'm thrilled that "Sanjeev and Robotwallah" by Ian McDonald has made the list, as it appeared originally in my own Fast Forward 1. This is anothe of Ian's tales from the near-future India of his novel River of Gods, so I'm sure you will all be glad to learn that we are planning a collection of the lot for later in '08. Meanwhile, here's the full Year's Best TOC at SFScope. More stories from Fast Forward 1 are slated to appear in the other Year's Best volumes too! And, of course, Paul Di Filippo's wonderful novellete, "Wikiworld," is still available online for free. |
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That's it for this issue. As ever, be sure to see the coupon at the bottom of this newsletter, and please feel free to check out our entire catalog and drop by our blog.
Have a Happy New Year,
Lou Anders
Editorial Director, Pyr®
an imprint of Prometheus Books
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was also starred (and went on to make their 
