Call for Cybils '11 Panelists!

It's that time of year again. The air has started to take on that Autumn feel, the school buses line the streets in the mornings, and the Cybils have put out the call for panelists. For anyone who isn't familiar with them, the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards, aka the Cybils, are a series of awards given each year by the children's book blogging community to the best children's and young adult books of the year.

This is not one of those casual blog awards that go around from time to time; the Cybils are serious business by people who are passionate about children's and YA books. We have structure and organizers and criteria (literary merit AND kid appeal) and our own internal tracking database. Nominations will open to the public from October 1 to 15, and anyone can nominate. Following that, two rounds of panelists will read the books. The round 1 panel reads the long list of nominated books to choose a shortlist of finalists. The round 2 panel reads the finalists and chooses a winner.

Being a panelist is hard work, but a lot of fun. It's great to participate in such an intense reading and discussion panel with other people who love books as much as you do. To be a panelist, you must blog about children's or YA books at least some of the time, and you must be able to commit the time to read and discuss the books. (Round 1 panelists don't have to read all the books, but should plan on reading at least 3-4 books a week from October through December).

Click here to learn how to apply to be a panelist. Submitting an application doesn't guarantee you a slot, because we always get more applicants than slots, and competition is fierce. If you're applying for one of the Fantasy and Science Fiction panels, I'll be looking for people who are widely read in the genres and show depth and breadth of knowledge about SFF. (For example, paranormal is included in the SFF category, but if that's all you read, you don't have breadth). If your blog doesn't show of your SFF geekiness to it's fullest extent, please feel free to let me know in the comments anything that would help me to fairly consider you. Pictures of you in costume at a con count for bonus points.

New this year the Cybils has added a book apps category! Applicants for panelists in this category must have an iPad. If I weren't already doing SFF, I'd be all over this category. Also, as an experiment this year, we will be allowing nominations of books published as ebooks without a corresponding print edition, with some limitations, in the YA Fiction and SFF YA categories only. So if you're applying for those two categories, be prepared to read some ebooks. (All panelists have to be willing to read ebook review copies, but in all other categories there must be a corresponding print edition). Read more about the changes here.

Let the games begin! May the odds be ever in your favor.

17 ways humanity's first contact with aliens could go down

The Syfy Channel's DVICE blog posted this great slideshow, based on a report from scientists at Pennsylvania State University and NASA's Planetary Science Division. DVICE spiced it up with pictures and references to classic SFF, but the original report, "Would Contact with Extraterrestrials Benefit or Harm Humanity? A Scenario Analysis," looks equally fascinating. The authors of the report are Seth D. Baum, Department of Geography, Pennsylvania State University, Jacob D. Haqq-Misr, Department of Meteorology, Pennsylvania State University, and Shawn D. Domagal-Goldman, NASA Planetary Science Division. How awesome is it that these serious research institutions are actually thinking about things like this?

17 ways humanity's first contact with aliens could go down

NPR Top 100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books

NPR has posted a list of the top 100 science fiction and fantasy books, as nominated and voted on by NPR's audience. As you would expect, this is a terrific list of books. I enjoyed perusing the list and rediscovering old favorites that I'd forgotten, like Rendezvous with Rama, The Left Hand of Darkness, and The Crystal Cave. I was pleased to discover that I've read at least 53 of the top 100, with a few more that I might have read but can't remember for certain.

Save the Monstrumologist for a chance to win!

I just heard the sad news that Rick Yancey's excellent YA Monstrumologist series is being discontinued by Simon & Schuster. The loss of this series would be tragic, because there's nothing out there like it. It has a classic horror feel, real literary value, and plenty of action and suspense. Here's my review of book 2: The Curse of the Wendigo

Stephanie Reads is offering a chance to win a complete set of the series, including the new book due out next month, The Isle of Blood. The books will be autographed and personalized by the author. All you have to do to enter is to write Simon & Schuster and ask them to change their decision. Click here for more information and to enter.

Book Review: The Boy at the End of the World

The Boy at the End of the World
by Greg van Eekhout

Fisher's first moments of life could end up being his last. Born from a pod of bubbling gel, he comes to awareness in a lab that is collapsing around him. Fisher manages to escape with the help of a slightly dysfunctional (and humorous) robot that Fisher names Click from the noise that the robot makes. Fisher is the only "specimen" who survived the destruction of the Ark, which was built to preserve the species of the Earth, so he may be the last human left. Accompanied by Click and a young Mammoth that Fisher calls Protein, Fisher sets off to find out if there are any other humans surviving anywhere.

The Boy at the End of the World is a delightful post-apocalyptic novel that strikes the perfect tone for middle-grade readers. It's amusing, touching, and occasionally scary (the nano Intelligence that they meet is quite creepy), and it touches on themes of friendship and what it means to be human.

Fisher has "darkly pigmented" skin, giving this book bonus points for diversity. Here is an interesting post from author Greg van Eekhout talking about Fisher's skin color, the development of the cover, and his own background.

Buy The Boy at the End of the World from:
Amazon.com
Your local independent bookseller through IndieBound
Barnes & Noble

FTC required disclosure: Reviewed from ARC. Review copy provided by the publisher to enable me to write this review. The bookstore links above are affiliate links, and I earn a very small percentage of any sales made through the links. Neither of these things influenced my review.

Book Review: The Map of Time

The Map of Time
by Félix J. Palma

The Map of Time is an ode to the Victorian era, and in particular to those Victorian writers like H.G. Wells and Bram Stoker who were the forerunners of genre fiction. It's a clever book, with a self-aware narrator who speaks directly to the reader and makes sly asides, and multiple stories that connect in surprising ways. However, it takes more than clever writing to make a good book, and this is one that I didn't enjoy.

One problem is just that this isn't really the time travel science fiction story that I expected. I can't say too much about this without spoiling things, but I think this is a book that will appeal more to literary fiction readers than science fiction/fantasy readers.

If that were the only issue, I would put it down to either inadequate marketing, or my own misunderstanding, and leave it at that. However, there are other problems with the book. The writing style relies too heavily on long, expository passages. The first hundred and fifty pages are a slog, although it does get somewhat better after that. The characters are unlikeable; there wasn't one character that I could truly say I liked or admired, and a few that I outright disliked.

The thing that bothered me the most, though, was the misogyny that permeated the book. Women are objectified and treated with contempt, by the narrator as well as the male characters. The few female characters are portrayed as frigid, empty-headed, or incredibly gullible.

There are two "romances" in the book. The first one involves a wealthy young man who, after seeing a portrait of a Whitechapel prostitute, becomes obsessed with her, stalks her, and pays for her services. And this is the foundation on which their romance is built. Do prostitutes really fall in love with their clients? Pretty Woman aside, I don't think it's credible.

I don't want to spoil anything, but it probably won't come as a surprise to anyone that this woman falls victim to Jack the Ripper. When her "beloved" is offered the opportunity to go back in time and save her from the Ripper, it never occurs to him to go back a little further and save her friends who were also killed by the Ripper. For that matter, it never occurs to him to go back even further and save her from becoming a prostitute in the first place. Of course not, because his own happiness is the important thing and the woman is just an object serving that purpose.

The other romance in this book involves a man concocting an elaborate lie (involving time travel, of course) to get a young woman into bed. When she seems about to acquiesce, he feels a little bad, but then reassures himself that she's only "getting what she deserved." Um, really? This sounds more like a foundation for rape, not romance.

I understand what Palma was trying to do in this book: in the letter from the author at the beginning of the ARC he talks about immersing himself in the Victorian era. Palma was trying to channel the Victorian writers and write from their perspective. However, while he may have emulated their style, I don't think that he has the skill of a Dickens or Wells or Stoker, and even with the biases of earlier centuries, none of those writers wrote with such a misogynistic point of view. By coincidence, the last book I read before reading The Map of Time was Bram Stoker's Dracula, which plays a part in The Map of Time. In Dracula, Mina is actually quite a heroic character, and while the men in the book do treat her with Victorian sensibilities — there's much talk about protecting her, for example — it's clear that they also respect her.

I've read some glowing reviews of this book, so not everyone shares my opinion.

Content advisory: sexual content and graphic descriptions of Jack the Ripper's murders.

Buy The Map of Time from:
Amazon.com
Your local independent bookseller through IndieBound
Barnes & Noble

FTC required disclosure: Reviewed from ARC. Review copy provided by the publisher to enable me to write this review. Some of the bookstore links above are affiliate links, and I earn a very small percentage of any sales made through the links. Neither of these things influenced my review.

What's your favorite fantasy world?

Underland Press is inviting readers to nominate their favorite secondary worlds for possible inclusion in their forthcoming book, If You Lived Here: The Top 30 All Time Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Worlds. Some of my favorite science fiction and fantasy books are those that take you on a trip of the imagination to elsewhere. There's so many great science fiction and fantasy worlds; which ones will you nominate? Click here to submit your nominations. My only complaint is that the nomination form only has space for three nominations. I don't know that I can pick only three!

Harry Potter Exhibit

A few weeks ago, when we were in New York City for Book Expo America, we went to see the Harry Potter exhibit at Discovery Times Square. This is a wonderful exhibit of props, costumes, and set pieces from all of the movies, and I highly recommend it to any Harry Potter fans. Even if you aren't a fan of the movies (I've never liked them as much as the books) it's still a wonderful experience to see real-life versions of all the amazing things from the books: the Fat Lady, the Sword of Gryffindor, the horcruxes, even Dobby and Kreacher.

The exhibit is organized into thematic groupings, such as Quidditch, the common room, and the various classes such as Defense Against the Dark Arts and Potions. You can see the Marauders' Map and try to puzzle out the margin notes in the Half-Blood Prince's potions book. There are even a few interactive areas where you can sit in Hagrid's chair (it's big!), throw a Quaffle, and pull up mandrakes.

The exhibit runs through September 5 and advance tickets are recommended.

Harry Potter Exhibition information

Buy Tickets

Canadian Prix Aurora Awards Announced

Last month, the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association announced the finalists for the Prix Aurora Awards for the English language awards:

www.prixaurorawards.ca/wordpress/

(Thanks to nominated author Craig Russell for the news)

The Fellowship of the Rings Extended Edition in Theaters Tonight!

See The Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition in theaters for one night only TONIGHT, June 14! The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers will show on June 21, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King on June 28.

From the press release:

The events will begin with a new and personal introduction for each film from The Lord of the Rings™ director Peter Jackson captured from the set of his current film, and The Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hobbit, and will be immediately followed by the Extended Edition feature presentations which altogether include nearly three hours of additional feature footage carefully selected by Peter Jackson.

For more information and to purchase tickets:
http://ping.fm/6Ulqh