The Link King

A few pre-Hugo links (and others)…

• Pablo Defendini has been reviewing the covers of the non-Tor nominees for Best Novel, and hosting discussions about the covers of the two Tor nomines. So you can read his thoughts on the covers of The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Halting State and Brasyl, and comment on Rollback and The Last Colony
• Small Beer Press have released Benjamin Rosenbaum’s new collection The Ant King and Other Stories — which I am currently reading — as a creative commons download.
• Two great posts about race, racism, metaphor and allegory in fantasy fiction, in aid of IBARW. See also the discussion on Nic Clarke’s review of Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• When we were talking about the Clarke Award the other week, BSFA Awards Administrator Donna Scott reminded people that they can start submitting their nominations for this year’s BSFA Awards; elsewhere, Kev lists his first nominations for this year’s BSFA Short Fiction Award.
• John Clute reviews The Gone-Away World
• Adam Roberts reviews a new edition of Mervyn Peake’s Collected Poems
• Karen Burnham reviews Stephen Baxter’s Flood.
• Roz Kaveney reviews The Minutes of the Lazarus Club by Tony Pollard
• A discussion about Hothouse at The Asylum
• It’s a good year for sf by men, apparently
• Following on from Gollancz’s SF4U, Future Classics and Ultimate Fantasy promotions, meet (and win) the Terror 8.
• An interview with Richard Morgan. A bit more about the reaction to The Steel Remains — specifically the sexuality of the protagonist — here.
• Other stuff at the Gollancz blog (which doesn’t seem to have an RSS feed), Greg Bear on creating cities at the end of time and Stephen Baxter on coping with the end of the world.
• Jeff VanderMeer is a little disappointed with the World Fantasy Award nominees
• James summarises Worldcon, as seen from the other side of the world. See also: Worldcon vs the Democratic National Convention