Ach I just love this. Here’s the Hayakawa edition of Cowl which, being in Japanese, reads from back to front to us then up and down inside. You seriously know your books are going for translation when you see that! I am also highly impressed with the cover picture. It’s quite minimalist but perfectly captures Cowl and his attitude to humanity. Nice one Hayakawa!
I do like to see this. In the ‘New & Future Releases’ on Amazon.co.uk, going through to the Science Fiction section, I find Line War sitting at number two! In ‘Bestsellers’, going through to the Science Fiction section it still remains resolutely at number four. (At the time of this posting) It’s further enjoyable to see that, occasionally, checking back through that last section, as many of six of my books are in the top 100 (though only 3 today), and very often Gridlinked is amidst them. I’m hoping this means there’s those out there who’ve only just discovered my stuff and are starting at the beginning.
Update. From that Jon Courtenay Grimwood review in SFX we have: He doesn’t do combat droids; he does razor-edged combat droids with attitude. He doesn’t do alien tech; he does alien tech clumped like coral round desiccated bodies – floating in deep space with a deep desire to spear bits of his heroine.
Rebrand the Brand The boundaries between the very ill-defined genres of fiction have always been blurred and always will be. This is a good thing as the ground in those grey areas can be very fertile. It has brought us the hardboiled detective Brother Cadfael, Robert Graves’ wonderful family saga, that war/historical/romance Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, and many more besides. But why oh why this continual need to search for new labels? In the genres of science fiction and fantasy this is especially noticeable, and often maddening. I was dumbfounded to discover that Jurassic Park was labelled in a fast-seller list as the genre ‘dinosaur’, and on principle it is highly unlikely I’ll ever read Oryx & Crake. SF&F have an image problem for some, and this is why they try to label parts of it differently. Forever in search of respectability they grope for new names for the fiction they write, read, criticise or publish. But where are they looking for this change in attitude? Who are they actually hoping will look upon them in a different light? Many in the mainstream literati intelligensia sneer at these genres. This is in spite of the fact that they take up about twenty percent of the fiction market, have resulted in many of the most successful films in recent years, and, science fiction specifically, is hugely relevant to today’s culture with its rapid technological change. Where will anyone have first come across videophones, genetic manipulation, satellite lasers, and missiles that think for themselves? In SF, of course. And it is to those who sneer, that those in search of new labels are going cap in hand pleading, “Please, take me seriously. I’m not really involved in that awful science fiction or fantasy stuff!” This is not only insulting to some great past authors, it is bloody annoying for those who are writing SF&F right now. How dare these people grovel for acceptance from those who don’t have the imaginative capacity to grasp science fiction or fantasy? And how gutless they are to not claim these genres as their own. But why seek the approval of the mainstream literati establishment, especially when those seeking that approval often style themselves as ‘radical’? More blurred lines. It is because SF&F have their own literati intelligensia who stand astride the line between SF&F and the mainstream: one group standing with their feet in both worlds. They enjoy the creativity and ideas of the first but loath its status. They like the status of the other but do not enjoy its pedestrian limitations.
Some would also have us believe that what they are labelling is something new. What conceit, what arrogance, or what pretension and ignorance. One can only suppose that they have not read widely enough. There’s also some misapprehension of how the English language works in this age when if you’re bad, man, you’re good, and if you’re cool you’re hot. Like the PC lobby they hope that changing labels changes attitude, when in fact current labels change in people’s perception. And the delusion that this rebranding (for that is what it is) will work, is misguided. It will not cause what has been rebranded to perform better. Perhaps they should call the new thing Consignia Fiction, or Corus Fiction – that should do as much good.
I should have put something up about this a while ago, and only now has a comment on the previous post reminded me. You can find a Polity chronology and encyclopaedia here on the Pan Mac website.
Thanks to all at Forbidden Planet in Shaftesbury Avenue for having me there to sign some books. Blimey, occasionally there was even a queue forming (two people) but, as always, it’s not the number of people turning up on the day, but the huge stack of books I sign that disappears over the ensuing year. Whilst I was there Danie Ware got me to sign this odd thing (rather like an adipose from the recent Dr Who) called a Monqee (I’m guessing that calling it Monkey might result in a certain tea company getting annoyed). This object, currently being covered with signatures rather like the fat boy’s face in the the run-up to that ‘White’ series, is to be auctioned in aid of the Match it for Pratchett appeal You can find more about it on Danie’s blog here. After the signing I as usual slipped off round to the Angel and drank far too much before staggering off home. It was all pretty enjoyable, though Sunday’s depressive post alcohol effects weren’t very nice at all. Thanks to Peter Lavery and Macmillan for buying some of my books at the shop to help replace the ones I didn’t receive! Nice also to have various members of my family along, Simon Kavanagh doing a passable impression of David Tennant, and Neil and Daniel too. 
In a further note. The second picture here is for Jacko on the island of Crete. Yes, the pen you bought me served very well. Oh, also for Jon Courtenay Grimwood, whose SFX review is prominently displayed. Cheers!
Oops. Looks like the first derisory print run of Line War has gone as well, so if you want a hardback 1st edition of it you better grab it quick. For those of you who’ve obtained signed 1st editions from me before now, forget it. Either someone has sticky fingers in the Post Office, or prior to posting, or someone fucked up, because even I didn’t get any copies. Pissed off right now.
INORGANIC ORGANICS I have to wonder how many people actually carry out the quite simple exercise of checking the meaning of words in a dictionary. Doing so, they might learn just how much gobbledegook is being flung at them every day. And just how much advertizers and those with more political motives, are perpetually playing on their fears and ignorance. Hypo-allergenic shampoo, for example, is not one that prevents allergic reaction, just one that contains lower levels of the proteins that do cause an allergic reaction. The compound word means ‘less allergens’ – one of those utterly meaningless statements of which advertizers are fond because there’s less chance of Trading Standards jumping on them. The question you have to ask is: less allergens than what? A patch of stinging nettles? A wasp’s nest? Obviously the intention of putting these buzz-words on bottles is not to inform, but to blind with science. Perhaps realising this people could then ask themselves why fruit additives are good or why washing with herbs will give you an orgasm? At its root, all this obfuscation is playing on the simplistic idea that natural is good and chemical is bad (This ignores everyday facts of life e.g. because we drink chemically-treated water we are utterly free of natural cholera and amoebic dysentry), which brings me, by a roundabout route, to the incredible ignorance surrounding the word ‘organic’. While driving around in rural Essex it’s quite common to see signs up advertising all sort of items for sale – knackered lawn mowers, ancient cars, flowers, honey – and some of the signs display literacy ranging from the poetic to the abysmal. But just lately I’ve been noticing a trend set by ‘greenies’, adopted by supermarkets, and promulgated by stupidity. Now you can buy organic manure, organic cheese, organic eggs… Do the people who started this strange craze have any idea what ‘organic’ means? Could they please explain to me what inorganic cheese, manure or eggs might be? If you are green then you’ll probably think it means items produced without any of those nasty chemical thingies. What utter drivel. Everything is made of chemicals or their constituent elements. They are not something recently created by evil science but something derived from what is already here. Monosodium glutamate (flavour enhancer) … yuk, we don’t want any of that – far too many syllables. Ever wondered why tomatoes enhance a dish? Because they’re packed with MSG. An essential chemical we must ingest every day is sodium chloride: the product of a metal that if held in the hand would result in you being hospitalized shortly after, and the basic constituent of mustard gas. It is also a chemical three oxygen atoms away from being a powerful bleach and weedkiller. How about these terrible sounding compounds: diallyl disulphide, diallyl trisulphide, S-2-propenylcysteine sulphoxide … The list is a long one, but can be contracted to one word: garlic. That which is organic is something relating to or derived from plants or animals, or it is any of a class of compounds based on carbon. Interestingly, a final definition in the dictionary I’m presently studying, is: any substance such as a pesticide or fertilizer derived from animal or vegetable matter. So, organic food that you buy in the supermarket can have been sprayed with a nicotine insecticide or the organic chemical DDT. In fact few insecticides and fertilizers are not the product or organic chemistry, so they are organic. In fact, some of the most poisonous substances on this planet are products of organic chemistry, whether performed in a laboratory or in the more potent chemical laboratories inside living things. Oh my goodness, chemicals, I hear you cry. Sigh. Get with reality. Curare is organic, so why not spread some of that on your wholegrain bread and see how you get on? And next time you buy your organic potatoes, remember they could have been sprayed with the organic compound agent orange and that would make them no less ORGANIC!! Ends
You can buy some of my books here at the Book Depository. Well, it says free delivery on the site and the prices don’t look too bad, but I don’t know how true it is. If any of you give it a go, please let me know how you get on.
Well this is rather nice. As of right now on Amazon.co.uk, Line War is at number 4 in the SF bestsellers (it’s been hanging around there for a while) and number 72 in books overall. I’ve also just been told that the first print run of Hilldiggers paperback sold out last month and that they’re having to reprint, before the actual release date. Other news: I’m 80,000 words into Orbus. Also, very soon, I hope to be posting some news about some, well, Hollywood stuff. I’ve really had to clamp down to prevent myself shouting about this… damn, shut up Neal.
Neal Asher