Futures 2 Anthology Launched

Futures 2 Anthology, featuring the best stories from Nature magazine's Futures column, was launched at WorlCon on Friday evening. The anthology is available in various e formats, and includes my story World Wire Web, along with a host of well known authors and fabulous stories.

I was at the launch party where I met editors Henry Gee again and Colin Sullivan for the first time, as well as several of the other authors.

WorldCon Approaches

LonCon 3 - WorldCon - the World Science Fiction Convention, starts at the Excel Centre in London on Thursday. I'm going on Friday and Saturday - it's only an hour's drive from my house. This will be my first WorldCon so I'm pretty excited, especially as I'll be attending the book launch for the Futures 2 anthology.

Spanish Review

A nice review on Smashwords of my short story collection Paralelismos:

Un gran descubrimiento. Me ha encantado, es un libro de ciencia ficcion al 100%, me ha enganchado des de el primer momento. Las historias son inmersiva y te metes de lleno en ellas. Se desarrollan todas con un ritmo perfecto que te mantiene sumergido de principio a fin, quedándote con ganas de más.

Which roughly translates as:

A great find. I was delighted, it's a science fiction book 100%, I was hooked from the first moment. The stories are immersive and you get right into them. All are developed with perfect rhythm that keeps you immersed from beginning to end, leaving you wanting more.

Appearing In Somebody Else's Collection

A while ago I worked with Ken Schneyer on one of his short stories Grapple With Thee, a minimaly sfnal futuristic legal / political tale of corporate greed and single-mindedness.

Ken has been nominated for the Nebula and Sturgen awards and his work has appeared in many top-notch magazines, so it was a pleasure to work with him. It's even more exciting that Ken's first collection is being published imminently in print and ebook format by Stillpoint Digital, and Grapple With Thee is included among the thirteen stories therein.

Entitled The Law and the Heart, the collection is described thus:

Exploring the seams where humanity and technology, society and individuality intersect, Nebula- and Sturgeon-nominated author Kenneth Schneyer presents thirteen mind-bending, thought-provoking tales of near and far futures that will amuse, amaze, and unsettle. The law will change, and the heart will change, and the heart will change the law. These stories confront the question of just what makes and keeps us human.

 

 

I'm looking forward to getting a copy soon.

 

The Sound of Reviewing

The first review of IGMS #38 is up at Tangent Online, 'the genre's premiere review magazine for short SF & Fantasy since 1993.'

Of 'The Sound of Death', reviewer Michelle Ristuccia concludes by saying:

As hard as Jones works to present the reader with a profoundly alien world, he puts equal effort into painting Ek-Lo-Don as a sympathetic character solving a mystery that plays on the aliens' human-like nature.

 That's pretty much what I was aiming for, so I'm happy with that.

Side Show Freaks

My post on the story nehind the story of 'The Sound of Death' is now online at the IGMS blog Side Show Freaks.

The Sound of Death at IGMS

My 6300 word alien murder mystery is now on line at IGMS with absolutely awesome artwork by Scott Altmann.

This is my 7th pro sale and a story I'm really proud of.

From the editorial:

Our cover story is "The Sound of Death" by British author Gareth D. Jones, proving that while murder is universal, exploring an alien world and culture through the eyes and ears of a detective investigating that murder is an event not soon forgotten.

Book Review: Freefall by Mercurio D Rivera

I have read and enjoyed several of Mercurio D Rivera’s ‘Wergen’ stories in ‘Interzone’ over the past few years, so I was very pleased to receive a review copy of his new novella ‘Freefall’, set in the Wergen universe.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

The Gondolier in Thai

I attempted unsuccessfully to make contact with various Thai SF sites, so having failed to find this translation a home I thought I'd kick off the new year with The Gondolier in Thai.

ผู้พายเรือกอนโดลา

หัวเรือกอนโดลาที่ดำสนิทของฉันได้ตัดผ่านน้ำที่สงบนิ่งของลำคลอง เรือที่มันปลาบนี้ได้รับใช้ฉันมาอย่างดีเป็นเวลาหลายปีแล้ว บรรทุกผู้โดยสารมากมายผ่านการเดินทางทางน้ำของเมืองภายใต้การนำทางของฝีมือคนรุ่นแล้วรุ่นเล่าของบรรพบุรุษของฉัน

พระอาทิตย์กำลังตกลับเมืองเก่าแก่แห่งนี้ เปลี่ยนสายน้ำให้เป็นดั่งริบบิ้นสีหมึกที่ทาบอย่างสวยงามอยู่ระหว่างสิ่งก่อสร้างหินทรายเหล่านี้ ฉันสูดอากาศเย็นของยามค่ำสู่ลมหายใจลึก ๆ

มีที่ใดที่จะสวยงามมากไปกว่าเมืองแห่งลำคลองที่น่าอัศจรรย์นี้อีกบ้างไหม เมื่อเรือเข้าจอดอย่างสงบนิ่งที่ท่าเทียบเรือ ฉันหยุดเพื่อที่จะเพ่งมองขึ้นไปในท้องฟ้าที่มืดมิดแห่งดาวอังคารด้วยความพึงพอใจ

 

จบ

Translated by Mei Lim

Hiking Review

Several months later, Hiking in My Head has been reviewed at Diabolical Plots, home of the Submission Grinder. The last line of the review sums up what most readers seemed to think:

'An odd tale I had to read twice to partially understand it.'

Strangely, I had to write it twice before I understood it!