Shadows of the Apt

Been a while, usual reasons. In this case the endgame of Children of Time 2 (Arachnid Boogaloo) is very mind-consuming, as indeed are some of the things contained therein.

So: I'm moved to do a brief post about podcasts, as it's been a long old while. I'm particularly moved to this because a number of podcasts I've been listening to for years have closed their doors or had a significant change of staff. I appreciate this: podcasting is a crapton of work for something that is given away mostly for free. There's going to come a time when other demands will take over the lives of the presenters, and that's a natural thing. I therefore salute the passing of Dissecting Worlds, one of the first podcasts I ever listened to, and also The Writer and the Critic, both of which will be greatly missed. I'm also waiting to see if another of my favourites, Blurry Photos, will find its feet after losing 50% of its presenters (1 of 2), though so far it is clinging on there.

In rather happier podcast news, the Brave New Words cast, formerly the Starburst Bookworm podcast and still a part of the Starburst magazine family, is holding a new award, also by the name of Brave New Words. This is an award for a body of work, not just a particular book, and the shortlist reflects this. We have Jeanette Ng (whose Under the Pendulum Sun is something I've already written about), Claire North (Whose The First 15 Lives of Harry August is something I've already rhapsodised about, but in this case is flagged up for The Sudden Appearance of Hope which in fact is even better, one of the most elegant, intricate and emotionally affecting books I ever read), Cassandra Khaw (whose Food of the Gods I have read, and it's excellent, and here is in particular singled out for her short story 'Degrees of Ellision'), Margrét Helgadóttir for her editorial work at Fox Spirit (specifically Pacific Monsters, one of her world monster series, the European volume of which I was lucky enough to contribute towards) and Katie Khan (who to my shame I don't know, but I've got her Hold Back the Stars to read.) And finally, your humble author, specifically for Dogs of War which Ed and Al and the gang gave a lovely review to a little while back. I will be at the Starburst Mediacity film festival for the awards where I will enthusiastically applaud the winner, whoever she is.

So, in other happy podcast news, many of my mainstays are still on the road, including the Hugo-Award winning Tea and Jeopardy (author interviews with Emma Newman disrupted by a demonic butler), The Good Friends of Jackson Elias (Cthuloid and other horror in films, books and especially RPGs), Geek Syndicate (Geek media and general weaponised sass), Revolutions (history, currently counting down through the tumultuous year of 1848), and Palaeo After Dark (Three drunk palaeontologists discuss schienshce.) Two of my most recent acquisitions are The Grognard Files, a remarkably entertaining trip down memory lane for the RPGer of a certain age as Dyrk & co discuss the games of yesteryear, and, as of the start of the year, The Hammer House of Podcast, where Paul Cornell and LM Myles have just started to talk through the entire Hammer canon (only 2 films in so it's a good one to grab now while it's easy to catch up) with their usual mix of erudition and elbow-jostling.

Finally, some news of my own. Firstly, The Hyena and the Hawk will be coming out in the first week of April, a little later than I'd thought, but that seems to be a firm date now. Before then, Easter will see the release of For Love of Distant Shores, the third collection of 'Tales of the Apt'. This one is a little different as, instead of a set of unrelated shorts, it features four linked novellas with the same lead characters. Also, anyone who's read the Echoes of the Fall books and ended up thinking "Hold on, are those guys…?" may want to check this out. Finally, just announced from Tor.com, I have a new novella coming out entitled The Expert System's Brother. This is a nice piece of full-on alien world and ecology SF, and the cover by Raphael Lacoste is phenomenal.