m. c. de marco

Last month I pondered the extent to which the Arab Spring and Occupy Everything are socially-driven acts of creative destruction. Creative destruction is defined as a “process of industrial mutation that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one.” The mutation, in this case, is reactionary responses to established interests, mostly driven by or assisted by social media. Governments and power structures are falling, but the replacements aren’t immediately ready in the wings. (more…)

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“Warning: review contains necessary spoilers for book 1, Never Knew Another When We Were Executioners is the sequel to Never Knew Another, one of my top 10 books of 2011. This trilogy follows an unnamed narrator and her husband, both Walkers and priests of the Goddess Erin, as they investigate the death of a demon-child, [...]

“Please welcome David Constantine to The Qwillery as part of the 2012 Debut Author Challenge Guest Blogs. David’s debut, The Pillars of Hercules, will be published in March by Night Shade Books. Thanks to all of you for hosting me on the Qwillery; it’s great to be here. And for your consideration I’d like to [...]

“In a street market, Anderson Lake—a prospector for a US agribusiness giant—comes across an entirely new fruit. Drawn by the promise that it might lead him to the Thai kingdom’s seed banks, he follows a trail that leads him to the backstreet club run by dissipated expat Raleigh. Here he encounters Emiko, the “windup girl” [...]

Two years ago, on the same day but miles apart, Finn Darby lost two of the most important people in his life: his wife Lorena, struck by lightning on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, and his abusive, alcoholic grandfather, Tom Darby, creator of the long-running newspaper comic strip Toy Shop. Against his grandfather’s dying [...]

Enormity is the strange tale of an American working in Korea, a lonely young man named Manny Lopes, who is not only physically small (in his own words, he’s a “Creole shrimp”), but his work, his failed marriage, his race, all conspire to make him feel puny and insignificant–the proverbial ninety-eight-pound weakling. Then one day [...]

J. M. McDermott returns to Dogsland in the stunning novel When We Were Executioners, book two of a sweeping fantasy series that revels in the small details of life. Corporal Jona, the demon-stained Lord of Joni, died in the woods. His lover, the Senta Rachel Nolander, is a demon-tainted fugitive, running from the wolfskin-clad priest [...]

Gemma Fae Cross, a tough-girl amateur boxer whose fiance is running for congress, has just made a startling discovery about herself. She is half faerie–and not just any faerie, but a tooth faerie. A hybrid of fae and human, Gemma is destined to defend the Olde Way and protect the fae–who are incapable of committing [...]

“I have to admit – I haven’t read anything quite like J.M. McDermott’s Dogsland Trilogy (Never Knew Another, the recently released When We Were Executioners, and the forthcoming We Leave Together). A seemingly straightforward fantasy narrated by the unnamed female of a husband/wife team of wolfskin-clad Walkers – shape-shifting members of a religious order whose [...]

“John Love begins his debut novel with a crash-landed Sakhran trying to reach safety across a very hostile desert, showing in this doomed character a broad-brush picture of the humanoid race’s warlike character … and if the fierce, relentless, predatory Sakhrans can’t stand against Faith, what chance has humanity?” Read the full fantastic review at [...]

Jeff VanderMeer named God’s War by Kameron Hurley and Dancing With Bears by Michael Swanwick in his top 12 reads of 2011, “In 2011, “the field” continued to shift and fragment and in the process proved itself to be exciting, deep, and passionately engaged with the world around it. The mammals are partying with the [...]

Three years in the making, it's I'm Not the Road, Whisperado's first full-length album. Fourteen songs--twelve Jon Sobel originals,...

Noting the propensity of "social" Internet services to pat themselves on the back for their role in various uprisings against...

“My last “what should I read next” poll had a clear winner with Throne of the Crescent Moon, which has already been receiving high marks (I liked it as well, but that comes later). Being a bit of a contrarian I wanted to also pay some service to the low-runner in the poll: Faith by [...]

12 NSB books make the Locus 2011 Recommended Reading List! We’re immensely proud that 4 of our New Voices were included in the First Novels section, Of Blood and Honey, God’s War, Seed and Soft Apocalypse all made the cut. Once you’ve read these you should check out the second novels from these awesome authors–Kameron [...]

“An anthology is a bit like a buffet. You’ll find dishes you’re familiar with, those you usually avoid and lurking in between, the dodgy, odd looking stuff you’re not willing to try, but do anyway and either discover a new favourite or spend the rest of the night nursing a rebellious tummy. With its impressive [...]

Care for the chance to win a free book? How about potentially winning fifteen free books, from a wide variety of fantasy authors (including several Pyr authors)?

Presenting the Crossing the Streams multi-author book contest.

Good luck. :-)

Black Gate gives an awesome and thorough review of Never Knew Another, “J.M. McDermott’s third book, Never Knew Another, is a secondary-world fantasy tale told in a sparse yet elegant style, about hunters seeking dangerous magical prey — and also about two people drawing closer to each other without knowing it, despite having to hide [...]

“Contrary to the article that graced this blog last week, I have been known to choose a book to read (or not read) based on genre. Usually I do it to avoid things I know I won’t like, as opposed to trending toward things I know I will. For example, I hate paranormal romance and [...]

“Alien Contact is an intelligently edited anthology of 26 first contact stories. And thankfully, Mr. Halpern has decided to mine the last 30 years for his selections, eschewing more well-known and oft-reprinted old favorites from earlier decades. So, this is a huge anthology favoring more contemporary SF and it acquits itself wonderfully. I do not [...]