Seeds of Change: It’s a Book!
I just went outside to take out the garbage, and look what I found on my porch:
It’s sooooooo pretty!
Tag: Seeds of Change
Today’s Reviews and Interviews
Over at Religion Dispatches, Gabriel McKee has a thoughtful review of Wastelands. Here’s a snippet: “Editor John Joseph Adams has chosen stories that show so much variation, not just in setting but in tone. There are several elegiac tales here, to be sure, but there are just as many optimistic ones, and even one or two comedies. It’s far from a tedious series of stories about savage motorcycle gangs—there’s real diversity here, and you’re hard pressed to find two stories that are alike.“
In other Wastelands news, there’s an interview with me up at Strange Horizons, in which I talk about the anthology, as well as other projects and other topics, including a bit about The Living Dead. There’s also a sneak-peek at the preliminary cover design–at least I hope it’s still preliminary…see if you can spot the typo. I’ve tweaked the cover to correct the error.
Also cool: io9 blogged about Seeds of Change, which they call “terrifically interesting.”
PW on Seeds of Change
Publishers Weekly has a nice review of my forthcoming original anthology Seeds of Change: "This thought-provoking anthology of nine original stories posits near-future paradigm shifts in everything from race relations (in Ted Kosmatka’s vivid and moving “N-Words,” where cloned Neanderthals encounter violent hatred from Homo sapiens) to the morality of uploaded consciousness (in Blake Charlton’s clumsy but charming “Endosymbiont”), with varying success. The hero of Jay Lake’s “The Future by Degrees” invents an energy-saving thermal superconductor only to be pursued by corporations protecting their business, with predictable results. Pepper, the mercenary hero of Tobias S. Buckell’s Crystal Rain, refuses to assassinate a dictator in the morally contrived “Resistance.” Considerably more powerful is Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu’s “Spider the Artist,” which combines African folk tales and advanced robotics in a chilling story about a rising social conscience in the Nigerian oil fields. Despite weak spots, this anthology accurately reflects many of today’s most pressing political and social issues, and will give readers plenty to think about and argue over."
Which, if you truncate it down, looks even nicer: ""This thought-provoking anthology of nine original stories posits near-future paradigm shifts in everything from race relations …to the morality of uploaded consciousness. … Accurately reflects many of today’s most pressing political and social issues, and will give readers plenty to think about and argue over."
Addendum to Review Copy Post
As an addendum to my previous post in which I offered up electronic review copies my anthology Seeds of Change, I just wanted to say that if you all wanted to post reviews to Amazon.com too, well, that would be swell (i.e., cross-post the review on your blog and Amazon).
Get a Free E-Copy of My New Anthology
For all you reviewers and bloggers out there: Prime Books, the publisher of my new anthology, Seeds of Change, is encouraging me to send out free PDF copies of the anthology to folks who might be willing to review it and/or blog about it. If you’d like to see a copy, send me an email (or leave a comment, etc.) and I’ll shoot one over to you.
(Now, bear in mind that the book is not out until August, so we’d want you to hold off your review coverage until then.)
Update: This promotional giveaway has ended. Thanks!
Seeds of Change available for Pre-order
Seeds of Change is now available for pre-order over on Amazon.com. It’s not out for quite a while yet–it’s not due to be published until August–so there’s certainly no rush to order a copy, but pre-orders do make publishers happy.
As a result of this momentous occasion, I’ve decided to add my regular blog’s feed to my Amazon Connect feed, so those of you browsing over on Amazon will get the full JJA treatment, not just the pared-down Wastelands feed.
And just so everyone on Amazon doesn’t rate this post as not interesting, here’s the table of contents for Seeds of Change:
- Introduction by John Joseph Adams
- N-Words by Ted Kosmatka
- The Future by Degrees by Jay Lake
- Drinking Problem by K. D. Wentworth
- Endosymbiont by Blake Charlton
- A Dance Called Armageddon by Ken MacLeod
- Arties Aren’t Stupid by Jeremiah Tolbert
- Faceless in Gethsemane by Mark Budz
- Spider the Artist by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu
- Resistance by Tobias S. Buckell
Seeds of Change ARC cover design
Sean Wallace has posted the mock-up for my forthcoming anthology Seeds of Change:
Well, actually, it’s the cover design for the galley (advance review copy). The book itself is actually going to be a small hardcover, so it’ll have a dustjacket and so the cover will look a bit different in its final form.
Read This: "Manumission" by Tobias S. Buckell
I see via Tobias S. Buckell’s blog that his short story, "Manumission," is available in the latest issue of Baen’s Universe. It’s another tale featuring his character Pepper, who will also appear in the short story "Resistance" in my anthology Seeds of Change later this year.
Go read "Manumission": It is made of awesome.
Cover update & blurb!
Note the slight update to the Seeds of Change cover. On Sean Wallace’s blog, Patrick Nielsen Hayden rightly pointed out that my last name looked a lot like ROAMS instead of ADAMS in that font. So Stephen Segal tweaked the design to make my name more clear (by changing it from capital letters to lowercase).
Also, you might note the nice blurb provided by Robert J. Sawyer, which says "A first-rate anthology of provocative stories." Which was redacted down from:
"Isaac Asimov said science fiction is the branch of literature that deals with the responses of human beings to changes in science and technology. His definition put humans in a reactive role, and essentially had science and technology changing on their own. But we can also be proactive, actively making the future what we want — or what we dread. A first-rate anthology of provocative and disturbing stories gathered by the always reliable John Joseph Adams." — Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of HOMINIDS
That means a lot to me, especially coming from Rob Sawyer. I’ve been a big fan of his for a long time–really ever since I seriously got interested in science fiction.
Cover: Seeds of Change
Here’s the cover of my forthcoming anthology Seeds of Change. It’s a bit different from the mock-up I originally saw, but still pretty hot.
