Cover Art & Synopsis | Finch by Jeff VanderMeer

Cover Art
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Jeff VanderMeer released the (almost) final cover art and a synopsis for his upcoming novel Finch

Finch by Jeff VanderMeer

Cover: By the amazing John Coulthart. For a larger version, click here. An interesting fact–John tells me the cobblestones in the picture are from a photo he took while we were walking through Paris together; er, sans blood. (This design is semi-final, in that a blurb will probably occupy the space under my name.)

Publisher: Underland Press, October 31, 2009, trade paper

Description: A noir thriller/visionary fantasy set in the failed state of Ambergris, 100 years after Shriek: An Afterword. The gray caps, mysterious underground inhabitants, have re-conquered Ambergris and put the city under martial law, disbanding House Hoegbotton, and controlling the human inhabitants with strange addictive drugs, internment in camps, and random acts of terror. The rebel resistance is scattered, and the gray caps are using human labor to build two strange towers. Against this backdrop, John Finch, who lives alone with a cat and a lizard, must solve an impossible double murder for his gray cap masters while trying to make contact with the rebels.

Nothing is as it seems as Finch and his disintegrating partner Wyte negotiate their way through a landscape of spies, rebels, and deception. Trapped by his job and the city, Finch is about to come face to face with a series of mysteries that will change him and Ambergris forever.

You can find VanderMeer’s blog HERE.

An Aside | 2008 Nebula Award Longlist

Asides
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It’s that time of year again, the 2008 Nebula longlist has arrived and I’m glad to see several friends of the blog make the list! One has to wonder how many times Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind will keep showing up on these lists, even two years after first being published!

The Nebula Awards are voted on, and presented by, active members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. Founded as the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1965 by Damon Knight, the organization began with a charter membership of 78 writers; it now has over 1,400 members, among them most of the leading writers of science fiction and fantasy.

The Nebula Awards Weekend will be held April 24-26 at the Luxe Hotel Sunset Boulevard, with the awards presentation banquet to be held on the UCLA campus to tie in with the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

Novels:

Abraham, Daniel: A Betrayal in Winter (Tor, Jul07)
Barzak, Chris: One for Sorrow (Bantam, Sep07)
Bull, Emma: Territory (Tor, Jul07)
Doctorow, Cory: Little Brother (Tor, Apr08)
Goonan, Kathleen Ann: In War Times (Tor, May07)
Le Guin, Ursula K.: Powers (Harcourt, Sep07)
McDevitt, Jack: Cauldron (Ace, Nov07)
McDonald, Ian: Brasyl (Pyr, May07)
Pratchett, Terry: Making Money (Harper, Sep07)
Rothfuss, Patrick: The Name of the Wind (DAW, Apr07)

Novellas:

Asaro, Catherine: The Spacetime Pool (Analog, Mar08)
Benford, Gregory: Dark Heaven (Alien Crimes, SFBC, Jan07?)
Eskridge, Kelley: Dangerous Space (Dangerous Space, Aqueduct Press, Jun07)
Finlay, Charles Coleman: The Political Prisoner (F&SF, Aug08)

Novelettes:

Bowes, Richard: If Angels Fight (F&SF, Feb08)
Flynn, Michael F. : Quaestiones Super Caelo et Mundo (Analog, Aug07 (Jul/Aug07 issue))
Gardner, James Alan: The Ray-Gun: A Love Story (Asimov’s, Feb08)
Goldstein, Lisa: Dark Rooms (Asimov’s, Nov07 (Oct/Nov 07 issue))
Kessel, John: Pride and Prometheus (F&SF, Jan08)
Kosmatka, Ted: The Prophet of Flores (Asimov’s, Sep07)
Moles, David: Finisterra (F&SF, Dec07)
Sinisalo, Johanna: Baby Doll (The SFWA European Hall of Fame, Tor, Jun07
(trans. from the Finnish by David Hackston))
Wentworth, K.D.: Kaleidoscope (F&SF, May07)

Short Stories:

Allen, Mike: The Button Bin (Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly, Oct07
(Reprinted in Transcriptase)
Cassutt, Michael: Skull Valley (Asimov’s, Nov07 (Oct/Nov 07 issue))
Finch, Sheila: Stranger Than Imagination Can (The Guild of Xenolinguists, Golden
Gryphon Press, Sep07)
Ford, Jeffrey: The Dreaming Wind (Coyote Road, Trickster Tales, Viking Juvenile, Jul07)
Henderson, Samantha: Bottles (Realms of Fantasy, Apr07)
Hobson, M. K.: The Hotel Astarte (Realms of Fantasy, Jun07)
Johnson, Kij: 26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss (Asimov’s, Jul08)
Jones, Gwyneth: The Tomb Wife (F&SF, Aug07)
Kelly, James Patrick: Don’t Stop (Asimov’s, Jun07)
Nestvold, Ruth: Mars: A Traveler’s Guide (F&SF, Jan08)
Plante, Brian: The Astronaut (Analog, May07)
Rickert, Mary: Holiday (Subterranean #7, Sep07)
Scholes, Ken: Summer in Paris, Light From the Sky (Clarkesworld Magazine, Nov07)
Van Pelt, James: How Music Begins (Asimov’s, Sep07)

Scripts:

Stanton, Andrew: WALL-E (Pixar, Jun08)

Congrats to all the nominated! You can find the web site HERE.

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