Both Seeds of Change and The Living Dead are featured on the "new and notable" page of Amazon.com at the moment.
Also, Big Dumb Object reviews Seeds, in which the reviewer singles out Ted Kosmatka’s "N-Words," Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu’s "Spider the Artist," and Ken MacLeod’s "A Dance Called Armageddon."
Rose Fox of Publishers Weekly interviewed me for the PW Genreville blog. It’s for a feature called "Nuts & Bolts," so as the name implies the interview sort of explores how Seeds of Change was born and how the book came together.
Also, Scott Marlowe posted a nice review of the anthology on his blog: "If you’re looking for a healthy dose of thought-provoking literature leavened by a hefty shot of entertainment to put an exclamation on these final summer days, I highly recommend Seeds of Change."
And John Klima gave me a nice write-up for Tor.com, in which he talks about my anthology projects, and gives special kudos to Seeds of Change.
Another new review of Wastelands just appeared in Some Fantastic. The reviewer, Matthew Appleton says all kinds of nice things about the stories in a very long and detailed review, and sums up: “Wastelands is an excellent anthology that belongs on the shelf of any SF fan, and not just fans of post-apocalyptic fiction. It’s hard to imagine a better way to spend $15.95 on a themed collection of short fiction.” [PDF]
It’s a really nice analysis of the stories he talks about in detail—well-worth a read whether you’ve already read Wastelands or not.
Dorothy Emry reviews Seeds of Change for Static Multimedia, giving it 3.5 out of 4 stars: “Nine short stories equal one great read in Seeds of Change, the latest anthology edited by John Joseph Adams. The authors contributing to this collection serve up works that range from tragedy to comedy–each of them thought provoking.”
Ms. Emry goes on to post some additional thoughts on her MySpace blog, saying “The authors featured in Seeds could well be part of the next generation of big names and Adams is to be commended for gathering them in this anthology.”
Static Multimedia also reviews Wastelands, calling it an “exceptional collection” and giving it four-out-of-four stars.
And last but not least, NVF Magazine (New Voices in Fiction) has an interview with me which doesn’t focus on any one project, but instead pries a lot of background information out of me. The format can be a bit hard on the eyes, so I’d suggest hitting CTRL + A to select all the text on the page to make it a little easier to read.
My sister, Becky Sasala, has just opened up a "virtual bakery" called Baked by Becky. She doesn’t just make cakes, but designer cakes such as those seen below. And by “virtual bakery” she means that there is no actual bakery—unless her home kitchen counts–but she does do real baking, so you go, you place an order for something and you get an actual cake, not, you know, something photoshopped to look like a cake.
Ciprian Rosu of the Techcurse blog found the Seeds of Change trailer and likes what he sees: “Of all the browsed trailers this one amazed me the most AND it made me curious enough to actually order the book. It felt like watching a short documentary about our near future. Quite the hook for my elitist intellectual approach to technology. Further research led me here: http://www.seedsanthology.com/. That’s my Catch of the week-end, a smart book with a smart trailer attached.”
The post.apocalyptic.world(karma) blog has a thoughtful, rave review of Wastelands: “Wastelands is the kind of book which will not allow you to work, sleep, socialize – barely eat – while it’s new and unbroken in your hands. Still, it would be a shame to dilute the stories through one hasty, over-zealous fit of reading. Wastelands is the book you read once straight through, enjoying the imagery, imagination and prose. Another, slower read-through is almost a must. There is a meaning (although, not always a lesson) to unravel in each of these stories, and it is up to the reader to figure it out for themselves.”
Matt Staggs talks about apocalyptic fiction and says some nice things about Wastelands: “This is pretty much the fiction anthology I’ve always looked for and never could find. It’s perfect, lots of great stuff, and I can’t praise Adams and Night Shade Books enough for bringing it to book shelves.”
Bibliophile Stalker reviews Wastelands: “John Joseph Adams assembles a wide variety of apocalypse-related fiction in Wastelands ... What you end up with is a diverse anthology covering topics like religion, war, and exploration while containing elements of horror, comedy, and even sense of wonder.”
I don’t know if you can still order it, but Kerrang Magazine recently released an Iron Maiden tribute CD featuring covers of IM tracks by a variety of metal bands, including Metallica, Trivium, Dream Theater, Coheed and Cambria, and DevilDriver, among others. I think these five tracks are the standouts, with the Metallica being the standout of the standouts. Now, I say this as someone who’s become disillusioned with Metallica and doesn’t necessarily expect them to knock everything out of the park as I once did. I have to say though, their cover of “Remember Tomorrow” kicks some serious ass. (Also, they recently did an awesome instrumental song called “Ecstasy of Gold” for an Ennio Morricone tribute album.) You can listen to “Remember Tomorrow” on Metallica’s MySpace page. You can listen to some of the other songs and learn more about the album at Kerrang’s “Maiden Heaven” mini-site.
Also, speaking of Metallica, their new album comes out Sept. 12. After hearing “Remember Tomorrow,” I’m really excited to see what they’ve done on this one.
Do me a favor, if you have a moment. Please go and Digg this item about Seeds of Change. It’s an experiment. You like experiments, don’t you?
BTW, does it make anyone else sad how often lists of categories include entries for music, video games, movies, tv, etc., but *don’t* have one for books? Digg even has one for comics & animation, but no category for books!
