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Ursula K. Le Guin - Radio Dramas and Documentaries for UK people There is currently an ongoing series of programmes on BBC Radio Four in the UK celebrating Ursula K. Le Guin's 85 years. These include a 2 part The Left Hand of Darkness drama, a 6 part Earthsea drama and a lengthy documentary and discussion on and about Le Guin's 85 years.

The Left Hand of Darkness:
Schedule and On Demand Here:

Science fiction with incredible humanity from a brilliant feminist writer. This is the first dramatisation of Ursula Le Guin's 1969 novel which is as groundbreaking in its approach to gender as when it was first published over 45 years ago.

In a snow-changed city in the middle of an Ice Age on an alien world, one young man prepares for the biggest mission of his life. Alone and unarmed, Genly Ai has been sent from Earth to persuade the world of Gethen to join The Ekumen, a union of planets. But it's a task fraught with danger. Genly is shocking to the natives. This is a world in which humans are ambigendered - everyone can be a mother, and everyone can be a father.

First Minister Estraven is the only person who champions Genly's cause, but their relationship is deeply incomprehensible and troubling. Genly's life is at risk and he must decide who to trust.

Le Guin at 85
Schedule and On Demand Here:

Naomi Alderman talks to leading novelist Ursula Le Guin about her life and work and hears from literary fans including David Mitchell and Neil Gaiman.

Schedule and On Demand Here:

A tale of wizards, dragons and magic by Ursula Le Guin.

Obviously these are all only available here in the UK.

April 14, 2015, 03:40:50 PM
Re: Ereaders vs books
I think this is far from an either or type answer and most people do both with a preference one way or the other.
When Ebooks prevail and if you want a hard copy it may well come off a home printer. I find it sad that the messages written left by friends, relations, lovers and signings of authours will all be gone. The art and illistration
lost along with the smell and touch of a book.
What posed me to ask was finding the inscription from a mad uncle who gave me a copy of the Just So stories for my 11th birthday and thinking one day technology will make an end of this.
I don't think this is likely at all. People who love eReaders love books. People who make art for covers make art anyway and will keep doing it. Fans buy fan art, fanart books, illustrations, ect.
I don't believe in a generation that will know tablets only and be strangers to the look and touch of books.
No, I believe in a world where kids don't read at all.
I see it all the time. You walk into people's homes and you don't see a single bookshelf. Not a novel in sight. Those people don't have eReaders, they simply don't read, and they don't offer books to their kids and don't encourage them to read.
I've babysat kids who can't focus long enough to watch a DVD they like, or involve more than a dozen mintues in a video game.
I mean, I still buy books for the people I love! I never offered anyone a mobi or epub file..

However, in some cases, @Raptori I received enough books of interest for free that my kindle did instantly repay itself.

April 18, 2015, 03:49:42 PM
Re: Rating Books Based on Price Personally, this sort of review pisses the hell out of me. I will report those as inappropriate whenever I see them.

If you have not read the book or bought/used the product then you have no business 'reviewing' it. And by 'reviewing' I mean WaahWaah baby crying because you don't like the price of X. (I suppose it's not like they have anywhere else to vent their annoyance at the pricing of products, but a fake review, and that is what it is, is not the way to do it.)

If you bought a $20 ebook and read it and it's not worth that price to you then comment on your enjoyment of the book itself and then go on to say it's not worth $20 but wait until it comes down in price, etc. It's every bit as stupid as slating a book solely because somebody gave it a bad cover. Neither is the author's fault (unless self-published), and yet they will be the ones most affected.

That said, I don't think an e-book should ever exceed the price of a hardback version. It's just silly, and I feel bad for authors when this happens because the response is predictably negative.

April 27, 2015, 09:00:31 AM
Re: What are you currently reading?
Finished Ancillary Justice. Liked it, but struggled with the seemingly changing and random gender of characters. zombies have been lacking from my TBR pile for a while so starting The Remaining by D. J. Molles next.

Buckle up then and hold on to ya seat.. ;D. I ripped through the first four Remaining books and the two short stories in just over a week. Currently reading the 5th one now.

April 29, 2015, 01:47:45 PM
For those who write short stories... Because of a contract issue related to my First Empire series, I'll be self-publishing my next Riyria book because it is the only way to get it released by the end of the year -- a deadline I can't miss. As part of that release, I plan to also include a short story by what I hope will be a "lesser known" (or unknown) author. I'll be paying more than twice the accepted "pro rate" that anthologies pay.

The reason I'm posting now, is so that people can start working on two things.
  • A query letter to pitch their short to me
  • Their short story

Those that participate will receive:
  • Everyone: a critique on their query
  • Those whose query intrigue me - will receive a critique of their story.
  • One winner will receive the following:
  • structural editing by me and copy/line editing by a professional copy editor which I'll pay for.
  • $0.15 a word for up to 5,000 words = $750

There will be a fairly short window for submission. It will start at the end of my Kickstarter and I'll have just a month to select, edit, and add the work to my larger piece. So, I'm letting people know about this now so they can start working on it ahead of time. I anticipate submissions will occur in August or September.

As for content, ideally I'd like a work of fantasy fiction - and hence why I'm posting here, but what I really want is a good story so any genre is a possibility. If you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

May 04, 2015, 12:34:53 PM
Re: Fantasy Memes and silly stuff about books from the internet
May 10, 2015, 01:37:49 PM
Re: Races in fantasy?
So, I'm going to go against the tide here. I think that, not including the genetics issues, the magic race being of a different color is a brilliant idea. People talk about how some might view this as racist and white saviors and things like that. But, wouldn't that also be considered racist as well? When a person reads your story, if they're so focused on the races that they can't get focused on the main plot, I think that says more about them than it does about you. I'm going to use Peter V. Brett as an example here. Lots of people get so mad over him over the Krasian culture because it mimics the arabic culture in a lot of ways. Ok, so it does. Why does it matter? It may mimic, but they're not actually arabic. They're a made up culture. Some people put the book down over this, while others love it. I fall into the latter category.
So, in the end, do what you feel is right. If you think there are advantages to having another race, and in later books exploring their culture from the inside so we can understand why they do certain things, do it. You're the writer. The story makes sense in your head.
On a side note, despite some people being mad about Krasians, The Skull Throne made number 5 on the New Yourk Times Bestseller list. That proves that race, even though people are crazy sensetive about it, isn't as big of a deal as it's made out to be.

I don't know if my being french, of mixed origins (I'm in decreasing order, french, algerian, spanish, lebanese, russian mongrel!) used to live in multicultural capitals, or anything else, but I honest to god don't give a rat's ass about politics and races in fantasy books.
I mean, in our world different types of people got advantages over other types (sometimes amongst the same cultures) and skin colour appears in those differences often. Anyone can get a very sound, non-racist explanation of the world-wide history of civilisations by Jared Diamond, Germs, guns and steel.
So why not in Fantasy!?

But that is what gets me truly! If you want a realistic world with a realistic pre-history and human migrations, with equatorial regions and a yellow star like ours, ect, ect, then why on earth would only one type of people be of one skin colour?
In a fantasy world were mortal humans evolved and sprawled around, living alongside another race, what prevents your mortals from spreading across the world and getting different skin colour?
Having an all white race and an all black race is illogical because it doesn't hold up for anyone having had a mild interest in science and evolution.

This being said, your mages aren't like other humans. They could always have dark skin, and the way to distinguish from normal mortals could be eye colour, as you said, maybe always purple, or maybe slanted irises? Or ash coloured hair, or totally hairless, ect. Some sort of distinguishing feature beyond skin colour, would make the whole race-related worry totally moot.

May 11, 2015, 03:47:50 PM
Re: Fantasy Memes and silly stuff about books from the internet Gosh, I almost wanted to post this one on the Depression thread, given that a few of us here seem to be of the anxious type, and all of us are readers of course, and some probably geek, and most generally attracted to dragons... Or even on the dragon art thread, but I reckon it belongs here.
It makes me laugh each time but damn it's also sad, I want to hug that poor dragon!  ;D

May 14, 2015, 08:44:35 AM
Coldplay's GoT Musical Thought I'd share :)


May 23, 2015, 01:31:28 AM
Free Fiction Magazines Hello folks,

Thought it would be worth posting a list of online magazines/sites that publish decent fantasy/scifi/horror stories that you might enjoy. Free fiction! It's so good that so many great stories are available for free :D

That said, if you enjoy the free fiction on offer perhaps some of you might find magazines you really enjoy (enough to take out some subscriptions or offer donations). Even if you can't afford to pay, authors and magazines would be very happy indeed if you choose to tweet/blog/post/review about the stories or magazines you enjoy.

This is far from a complete list, and if you find any others offering quality free fiction then let me know and I will add them on.

Abyss and Apex -
Apex -
Beneath Ceaseless Skies -
Betwixt -
Buzzymag -
Clarkesworld -
Crossed Genres -
Crowded Magazine -
Daily Science Fiction -
Fantastic Stories of the Imagination -
Fantasy -
Fantasy Scroll -
Heroic Fantasy Quarterly -
Holdfast -
Ideomancer -
Lightspeed -
Nightmare -
Pseudopod (horror fiction podcasts) -
Shimmer -
Strange Horizons -
Stupefying Stories Showcase -
Swords and Sorcery Magazine -
The Colored Lens -
The Dark -
The Lovecraft eZine -
Tor -
Three-Lobed Burning Eye -
Uncanny -

June 03, 2015, 11:16:25 AM