Give it away now

SFX, Gollancz and Waterstones have teamed up to run a promotion on HOUSE OF SUNS. If you buy the current number of that fine periodical (SFX 198, it says on the website) you'll find a coupon that you can take to certain participating branches of Waterstones, and thereby claim a free paperback copy of HOS. That's right - free. Nowt. But there are only 4000 copies, so if you want one, best not hang around.

SFX also ran a brief interview with me in connection with this - read it here.

It's approaching

Jonathan Strahan has some great news: at last, Godlike Machines, which contains my long story "Troika", looks like it's going to happen. Here's the order page on the Science Fiction Book Club:

http://www.sfbc.com/pages/nm/product/productDetail.jsp?skuId=1024024032

And here's the very cool cover:

The downside is that you won't be able to get this unless you're in the SFBC, and to do that you'll need to live in the US and have a credit card - or know someone with an SFBC membership. However, I know that Jonathan is keen to get the book to a wider audience if at all possible, so an orthodox publication isn't ruled out.

Apocalyptic SF - we don't just do cheery and optimistic, you know

I'm still blogging over at Babel Clash (see last post) but in the meantime, it looks as if Mike Ashley's Mammoth Book of Apocalyptic SF has appeared, just in time to be packed for your beachside summer reading. Most of the stories are reprints, but the book does contain new fiction by Eric Brown, Paul di Fillipo, F Gwynplaine MacIntyre, Robert Reed, and myself. Sadly, the book also includes the last new story by the late and much admired Kage Baker.

My piece is a longish story entitled "Sleepover", set off the coast of Patagonia in the 23rd century, after the world has (nearly) ended. The finished cover is slightly different to this, and I was also sent an otherwise identical copy of the book entitled "The Mammoth Book of the End of the World", but I think this is the title they decided to run with.

Blogging at Babel Clash

For the next week or so I'll be blogging at Babel Clash, the Borders science fiction blog. My first post has just gone up.

http://bordersblog.com/scifi/

I just took a ride in a silver (or light grey) machine

This is me just before getting into the front cockpit of this Boeing-Stearman Model 75, a WW2 trainer that is now based at Fantasy of Flight near Orlando. I took a half hour flight and was "hands on" for a good chunk of that time. It was an absolute blast. We did left and right turns at 30, 45 and 60 degrees, as well as some "lazy eights". Prior to this my only experience of flying came through Microsoft Flight Sim, and it's a testament to the realism of that software that it felt incredibly familiar, especially as I was using a stick rather than a yoke.

House of Suns under discussion

Joseph Mallozzi, executive producer on Stargate: Universe has kindly selected House of Suns for discussion as his July Book of the Month.

http://josephmallozzi.wordpress.com/2010/05/15/may-15-2010-julys-book-of-the-month-club-selection-an-anime-recommendation-mailbag/

Excellent!

STS-132

STS 132 launch, post-roll and srb separation. Many thanks to Piers Sellers for giving my wife and I this opportunity to view a shuttle launch, and to Louise Kleba for doing the same last year. It doesn't get much more awesome than this.