I strongly suggest you have a look (and read) at the rather magnificent short story called Burning Stars by K.G. Orphanides, as published in the February Issue (that would be Issue #29) of the Lovecraft eZine.
Set in the world of music, music promotion, and live gigging (of which the author has more than a passing knowledge as far as I'm aware), but with, as befits the publication, a rather sinister spin.
Well written, to the point, and without giving everything away, this is rather a treat. Go read!
Nnedi Okorafor is a US-born writer with roots in Nigeria; her writing reflects both the country and society she lives in, but, especially in topic and setting, her African roots. Besides being a successful writer she also is a professor at the Chicago State University. She has been nominated for, and has won, a number of awards, most notably the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature for her first book (Zahrah the Windseeker) and the World Fantasy Award for best Novel with Who Fears Death. Lagoon is her 6th book, with yet another one (Akata Witch 2 - Breaking Kola) also scheduled for publication in 2014.
Lagoon is a First Contact story, set in Lagos, Nigeria. The aliens have landed – in the sea outside Lagos. The sea is rising due to the huge space ship sitting in it, and the sea creatures (as well as the sea itself) are changing – here be monsters! The city has been scanned with some kind of sonic boom, and 3 people have been taken by a wave 'like a fist of water', have been interviewed, and then put back on the beach. They are Adoara, a professor for marine biology at UNILAG who has problem with her husband and his christian-fundamentalist tendencies; Anthony Dey Craze, a Ghanean rapper/musician, and Agu, a soldier who has just had a violent run-in with his commander and comrades for trying to keep them from raping a women they stopped on the road. Joining them is Ayodele, one of the aliens. They are shape-shifters, so she appears, at least to start with, in the shape of a young woman. She describes the aliens as communicators, as catalysts for change, and as neither our saviours nor conquerors – but here to stay, with us, if we like it or not.
Ken MacLeod is a Scottish SF Writer, with 13 Novels to his name (the 14th, named Descent, is out in March 2014. Review is in the works), plus Omnibus editions, Collections, Chapterbooks, a good number of short stories, poetry – you name it. He's won a Sideways award, and both the Prometheus and the BASFA award multiple times.
The Execution Channel is a stand-alone novel – depending how you look at it's a near-future story based on a slightly variant history since around 9/11, leading to a different but recognisable setting; or, in my opinion, a what-if alternative present, really, with the world in an even bigger mess than it is now; really not in all aspects an improvement on ours. Consider the tag line on the cover:
The War on Terror is over... Terror won.
The UK in this setting seems to be still in one piece (so none of the Federated UK fun from the Fall Revolution series, for example), and still with a strong England/Scotland divide. People are paying in Euros, though, which had me giggle each time...
I would like to draw your attention to this rather entertaining little interview with African-American author Nnedi Okorafor; this is part of an ongoing series titled "The Pop Quiz at the End of the Universe" (a play on Douglas Adams, I would very much suspect) on Tor.com.
"Welcome back to The Pop Quiz at the End of the Universe, a recurring series here on Tor.com featuring some of our favorite science fiction and fantasy authors, artists, and others!
Today we’re joined by Nnedi Okorafor, whose novels includeWho Fears Death (winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel), Akata Witch (an Amazon.com Best Book of the Year), Zahrah the Windseeker (winner of the Wole Soyinka Prize for African Literature), and The Shadow Speaker (winner of the CBS Parallax Award)."
I’m not even going to attempt to count and classify the books and stories which bear Neil Gaiman’s name by now. He has been prolific, he has been successful, his stories have been translated, transformed into films, have spawned meta-fiction, and meanwhile span a huge range of topics, genres, and styles. My favourite is still the Sandman series of graphic novels, with his American Gods novel running a close second, but that’s just me; you are welcome to have your own favourites amongst his oevre. His latest book, ‘Fortunately the Milk’, is just out in Hardback on Bloomsbury Childrens.
Fragile Things is one of (see above) many collections published by Neil over the years. In his introduction he expands on the history of the collection, as well as the meaning behind the title. You see, initially this was planned to be a cycle of 12 specifically written, topically linked short stories, ie some concept album kind of short story collection. So much for plans – what it turned out to be is a ‘normal’ collection of previously published stories, interspersed with some poetry (of varying quality, I felt). Not that that’s a bad thing, mind, all the more so if you can decorate your collection with a Hugo and several Locus award winners…
Anyway, at the front of the book we get a short run-through of the stories in the book, with background on their conception, their writing, their history and meaning to the author; plus an extra, extra-short story. I found myself referring back to this section whilst reading, as, for most of the content, this information adds something extra, and changed the way I looked at some of the stories.
Dan Abnett is a British writer (“writer of wrongs”, as he himself puts it), Embedded is his second “original fiction” novel after Triumff:Her Majesty’s Hero. Don’t be fooled by that, though, he’s an old hand at that writing/publishing/selling books malarkey – he’s the author of a load of graphic novels, he’s written tie-ins for the various Warhammer series and for Dr Who (amongst others), and now he’s on the loose with his own novels, too.
Embedded is the story of a prize-winning veteran journalist, Lex Falk, who visits Planet Eighty-Six (much too recently colonised to have elected a proper name), where there appears to be, according to the Settlement Office, an “(armed) dispute”, most likely between unruly/unhappy factions of settlers. But definitely, positively NOT a war, and especially not between either the US (United Status. No, really), China, or the Central Bloc, where we still have a cold war but cooperation or at least co-existence across, well, over 87 planets now.
Falk is given, as expected, the run-around by the local Settlement Office, Military Directorate, and becomes more and more sure that there is something big, important, and covered going on. To get in on the action he gets embedded in the head of one of the soldier flying off into said dispute – a brand new, unlicensed, and experimental treatment with all attendant risks.
And, as you would have expected, the solid effluent intersects with the air ventilation device, in more than one meaning.
