May
23rd
2013
Posted by: Simon Morden in: From the Author, News and Updates
Tags: appearances | Pandemonium | The Lowest Heaven
News from Greenwich is that not only are the hardback books going quickly (reserve your copy here), but the tickets to the exclusive ‘after dark’ extravaganza are also disappearing fast – get them here.
And there’s been two reviews of the anthology so far, both of them, er, stellar. The first was from Starburst, which mentioned me by name (which was nice), and the second from Tor.com (which unfortunately blows the cryptic meaning of my title out of the water – so, spoilers).
Niall Alexander on the Tor blog puts it very well – and is certainly the mood which I was going for.
There can be no questioning the value of this artful anthology: it’s as inspiring as it is inspired. But The Lowest Heaven is also a timely and ultimately touching reminder of what we stand to lose by turning inwards as opposed to venturing again into the unknown. Granted, the universe is vast—and vastly dangerous, I dare say—but consider the wonders we stand to discover; the places, the races!
I will definitely be there – the train tickets are booked, and I’ll be dashing about the South like a dervish for three days – I’ll have my signing pen with me.
May
9th
2013
Posted by: Simon Morden in: From the Author, News and Updates
Tags: appearances | Joey HiFi | Pandemonium | The Lowest Heaven
Pandemonium’s latest is almost on us, and, (selects random accent from data bank – settles on cod Northern) “By ‘eck, lad, it’s reet grand.”
You all know from his work on Thy Kingdom Come what a fantastically awesome artist Joey HiFi is. The cover for The Lowest Heaven is utterly wonderful. If you look very closely at Mars, you’ll even see a tiny representation of the Pacific in orbit around it, from my story WWBD. Joey talks more about the process on the National Maritime Museum’s blog, and how the anthology ties into the Visions of the Universe exhibition by the Royal Observatory.
The table of contents is, er, impressive. I think that’s the right word. Behold:
- Introduction by Dr. Marek Kukula (Royal Observatory Greenwich)
- “Golden Apple” by Sophia McDougall (The Sun)
- “A Map of Mercury” by Alastair Reynolds (Mercury)
- “Ashen Light” by Archie Black (Venus)
- “The Krakatoan” by Maria Dahvana Headley (Earth)
- “An account of a voyage from World to World again, by way of the Moon, 1726″ by Adam Roberts (The Moon)
- “WWBD” by Simon Morden (Mars)
- “Saga’s Children” by E.J. Swift (Ceres)
- “The Jupiter Files” by Jon Courtenay Grimwood (Jupiter)
- “Magnus Lucretius” by Mark Charan Newton (Europa)
- “Air, Water and the Grove” by Kaaron Warren (Saturn)
- “Only Human” by Lavie Tidhar (Titan)
- “Uranus” by Esther Saxey (Uranus)
- “From This Day Forward” by David Bryher (Neptune)
- “We’ll Always Be Here” by S.L. Grey (Pluto & Charon)
- “Enyo-Enyo” by Kameron Hurley (Eris)
- “The Comet’s Tale” by Matt Jones (Halley’s Comet)
- “The Grand Tour” by James Smythe (Voyager I)
Arts by Joey, edited by Jared Shurin and Anne C Perry. That’s not the end of the Joey HiFi love, either. The limited edition hardback version has a fold-out map of the solar system. It is a thing of wonder and beauty, and I can’t wait to see it for real.
There is a launch, on the 13th June, at Greenwich, at which I will (with luck and a following wind) be signing, along with as many of the others who can make it. The limited edition hardcover is only available from the Royal Maritime Museum. Accept no substitutes! After the 13th, the paperback and ebook will be released through the usual outlets. But you want that hardback, don’t you?
April
10th
2013
Posted by: Simon Morden in: From the Author, Metrozone
Tags: art | Freezone | Metrozone
It’s all fairly self-explanatory: a Freezone logo is something I’ve been toying with for a while, and finally came up with a design I was both happy with and thought reflected the ethos of the Freezone. It’s on a Creative Commons licence, so you’re free to put it pretty much anywhere you like – it has a permanent page here, and a link to the 640×640 image.
April
7th
2013
Posted by: Simon Morden in: From the Author, Metrozone, News and Updates, Reviews
Tags: Metrozone | reviews | SFRevu | The Curve of the Earth | Tzer Island
“The Curve of the Earth successfully opens a whole new chapter for Petrovitch in the best possible way by exploring whole host of new avenues, hopefully leading to many more adventures.”
http://upcoming4.me/news/book-news/review-simon-morden-the-curve-of-the-earth
“Morden peppers the swiftly moving story with high energy action scenes, some of which are impressively original. To the extent that The Curve of the Earth feels like an extended set-up for the next novel in the series, it at least whets my appetite for whatever might be coming next.”
http://www.tzerisland.com/bookblog/2013/3/23/the-curve-of-the-earth-by-simon-morden.html
“Great dialogue, great characters, great settings – this takes post-apocalyptic worlds to a new height, with sensational results. Absolutely riveting!”
http://www.booksmonthly.co.uk/adfan.html
“I just slammed through it, and it’s a blast.”
http://www.sfrevu.com/php/Review-id.php?id=14414
April
5th
2013
Posted by: Simon Morden in: From the Author, News and Updates
Tags: appearances | Eastercon | Metrozone | Thy Kingdom Come
(now with added hyperlinks!)
There are very good reasons why I didn’t do a day-by-day blog of Eastercon. The first reason is because the convention hotel and the one I was staying at were separated by a bus journey, and nipping back to my room to file a report would have taken a significant chunk of time out of every day. The second reason is allied to the first, in that I didn’t want to lug my steam-powered laptop around with me (and in the event, the con hotel wifi was taking a beating without me adding to the bandwidth). The third reason is probably the most important, however: I was having too good a time to stop. Click to read the rest of this item…
March
23rd
2013
Posted by: Simon Morden in: From the Author, News and Updates
Tags: appearances | Eastercon
All will become clear shortly.
My itinerary for eightsquaredcon, the Eastercon 2013, is as follows:
Friday, 9pm in Rowan – “Underground London” with Paul Cornell, Roz Kaveney, and Anne Lyle: Take one London. Add magical society hidden from most people. Mix in famous places from the city, and optionally garnish with police procedural. Why is this such a great recipe?
Saturday, 11am in the Conservatory: “Genre get-together: science fiction” with all the other skiffy writers.
Sunday, 1pm in the Boardroom: “Advice for Writers: Setting” with Darren Nash (moderator), Chris Beckett, Aliette de Bodard, and Gaie Sebold: Practical experience and observations on writing believable and detailed environments.
Monday 11am in Rowan: “Selling Space” with John Coxon, Tracy Berg, John Dallman, Anne Lyle: How do you fund space exploration, particle accelerators and other costly scientific endeavours? Why do countries do this, and why are corporations taking an interest? How does academia make its fund-raising media-savvy?
I’ll also be in for the BSFA awards on the Sunday evening, hoping to pick up a gong on behalf of Joey HiFi and the Jurassic London crew.
However, the Ben Jeapes thing: let me explain. Actually no, let me sum up. Ben is having a book launch at Eastercon with Clarion Press. Ben cannot be there. I am standing in for Ben.
All clear? Excellent: I’ll see you in the Conservatory at 8pm on Friday, then. I’m still uncertain as to whether I’m supposed to be signing them, but I could be persuaded…
March
19th
2013
Posted by: Simon Morden in: From the Author, Metrozone, News and Updates
Tags: Degrees of Freedom | Equations of Life | Metrozone | Orbit | Philip K Dick award | Samuil Petrovitch | The Curve of the Earth | Theories of Flight | Thy Kingdom Come
Or, as my editor said on the phone yesterday, “It’s really difficult to embargo a book these days…” The Curve of the Earth has been spotted up and down the land, and other lands, previous to this day, and The Evil Tax-dodging Corporation Which Must Not Be Named (no, not the one that sells coffee, or mobile phones. The other one) seems to have been shipping copies since the weekend. But today is the Official Launch, so I should really post about it.
It’s a funny old business really. Here I am, in the middle of the final edits for Arcanum, and a book I wrote a year ago is coming out now. There’s a slight feeling of “is this happening to me?” about it, an air of bemused detachment, because while I lived and breathed this story during its creation, and then all over again for the edits, it’s now in my past, while for many of you, it’s in your present or even your future. This launch is certainly less nerve-wracking than the bang-bang-bang release of the first three books. I’m older, and a lot more sanguine, for one thing. More confident even (thanks again, Philip K Dick award!). What I’m looking forward to most is hearing what you think of it: Petrovitch is all grown up. He’s been at more-or-less peace for ten years. Then … this happens. And dear Lord, he’s angry. Not incandescent angry, but coldly calculating angry. Which makes him far more dangerous to both his enemies and his friends.
Do you need to have read Equations of Life, Theories of Flight and Degrees of Freedom to enjoy The Curve of the Earth? Actually, no. The story will probably be richer if you have, but I’ve written it in such a way (avoiding the as-you-know-Bob infodumps) that it’s not necessary. Orbit have kindly released an ebook omnibus if you need to catch up, but you can reasonably do that afterwards if you want, just in the same way it’s not necessary to have read Thy Kingdom Come before starting on Equations. Someone told me they’d read the original trilogy in reverse order. Okay, not recommended, but hey.
However you choose to read about Petrovitch, his world is now four books and a short-story collection long. Enjoy responsibly. You can, of course, hear from the man himself in this exclusive interview posted at the Orbit website. It’s a bit sweary (as you’d expect) but it’s quite enlightening. It was recorded just before the events of The Curve of the Earth, so it should give you some idea to his state of mind at page 1…
March
19th
2013
Posted by: Simon Morden in: From the Author, Metrozone, News and Updates
Tags: Equations of Life | Metrozone | Panini
As you can probably guess from the title, the French language rights to Equations of Life (or “Les équations de la vie” as we’ll be calling it from now on) have been bought – by Panini France. Ce qui est agréable.
Also, where was Google Translate when I was struggling with both French and German at school? Kids today, eh?
March
10th
2013
Posted by: Simon Morden in: From the Author, Metrozone, News and Updates
Tags: Eastercon | Joey HiFi | Thy Kingdom Come
Comrades! Some running dog capitalist has put a copy of Thy Kingdom Come on Amazon UK for £100. Which is a startling amount of money, especially when there are 8 unsold copies (the only unsold copies, in fact) appearing on the NewCon Press stall at this year’s Eastercon for the original (and best) price of £25, a large proportion of which goes to the Red Cross. Ian Whates of NewCon has shown himself to be a fellow traveller in that he’s not taking a cut either.
But – don’t buy them until I’ve signed them, which I should have done by Friday lunchtime. Alternatively, buy them and leap out unexpectedly at me while I’m holding a drink, and I’ll do the honours. Because all the smart money is on Joey HiFi’s cover winning a BSFA, right?
Just to remind you of the awesome… 
