Lou Anders, Hugo Nominated Editorial Director of Pyr Books, joins us from Comic-Con to discuss his two newest anthologies, Masked and Swords and Dark Magic, co-edited with Jonathan Strahan. We also discuss science fiction conventions, the sophistication of modern superhero fiction, the new Sword and Sorcery, the power of io9, and forthcoming titles.
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Show Notes:
We spend so much time lamenting the demise of short fiction, so I am pleased to share two NEW magazines hitting the e-market. Flagship and Spectra are both digital magazines, available in various formats. We will reveal full details of the art contest in next week’s episode. Thank you to everyone who has expressed interest.
Promo: Podculture
Promo: Sideways in Crime
Podcast: Download (Duration: 55:34 — 38.2MB)
That would be reassuring to know that people are reading more. From what I hear scifi could still be doing okay, though I understand, in terms of sales, top of the list is Romance, followed by Crime, then, Fantasy and SCIFI.
I liked what Lou had to say about superheroes and fantasy, and while it’s not a case of reinventing the wheel some new, dynamic elements are being introduced and played out.
I re-watched Unbreakable last night, which was I think a failed attempt to do something new with the superhero genre. There are always good things about M. Night’s films, but they often fail at the finishing post. A very unsatisfactory ending. The best part was about the disintegrating relationship and the family dynamics.
I read the sample from Masked on Amazon – reads great, and I definitely want to read the whole book now.
Enjoyed this episode quite some, but it’s hard to pick a favorite segment. Probably talking about MASKED (and how to pronounce this word to your transcription software) and the run-down of the authors and their previous projects. Definitely enjoyed hearing about the Stargate producer’s “8 month ordeal” of writing a prose story.
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I too, hope that more people are reading, as Lou said. Sam, MASKED is a hard word to say! 🙂