Nimble Books LLC » SF

Whiney Yang on Yahoo!-MSFT

wfz-admin — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:40:41 +0000

Yang accuses Microsoft of ‘trying to destabilize’ Yahoo

Yahoo founder and chief executive Jerry Yang accused Microsoft of trying to destabilize Yahoo with no genuine intent to buy the company, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Awww. That’s terrible. Those naughty boys!

RIP Robert Asprin

wfz-admin — Fri, 30 May 2008 17:24:23 +0000

Robert Asprin – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[Ann Arbor's own] Robert Asprin passed away [at 62] 22 May 2008, dying quietly in bed where he had been reading a Terry Pratchett novel.

Asprin was important to me because he was a very successful SF writer from my home town. I enjoyed the first few books in the THIEVES WORLD and MYTH series. Too bad his life and career was cut short.

House of Suns (Gollancz) by Alastair Reynolds

Fred Zimmerman — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:38:45 +0000

wfzimmerman’s review: “The latest in a series of consistently outstanding SF novels from Alastair Reynolds. I enjoyed this one a lot.”
Gollancz (2008), Hardcover, 480 pages
tags: sf, science fiction, space opera, hard sf

Science Fiction “must haves”: authors beginning with “A”

wfz-admin — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 13:23:27 +0000

I am beginning a project of organizing my library and deciding what books to keep and what books I want to add. I am working my way through things methodically, beginning with the science fiction section and authors beginning with “A”. Here are my thoughts so far …

Adams, Douglas — there is a single-volume omnibus (is that redundant?) with his collected works. that would be a nice readers’ copy to own. Adams certainly had a huge influence on the history of SF … but not one of my personal favorites. Does it need to be in my collection? I can always get it from the library.

Anderson, Poul — I have a volume of collected stories. What I would like to have: a first of Tau Zero and (maybe) a complete run of the Flandry and van Rijn series.

Anthony, Piers — I’ll deal with his fantasy in a separate section. In the meantime, there is an argument to be made for Macroscope.

Asimov, Isaac — the first unqualified “must” in this section. I want the best possible editions of all the Foundation books. The Robot books are a lower priority. The End of Eternity might be higher than the Robot books.

Who else am I missing? more tk …

Patrick Swayze has pancreatic cancer

wfz-admin — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:06:33 +0000

Patrick Swayze Diagnosed With Cancer, Five Weeks Left to

Patrick Swayze, best known for his role in Dirty Dancing, has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and told that he has just five weeks to live.

Swayze, 55, has been sick with the disease since he was diagnosed in late January with pancreatic cancer. The cancer has since spread to other organs and now the actor/dancer is dying.

For the past month, Swayze has been traveling to Stanford University’s prestigious cancer center in Palo Alto for radical chemotherapy, but his doctors are no longer optimistic that the treatments will be successful, according to the National Enquirer.

Swayze received three treatments of chemotherapy, causing the tumor to shrink, but less than his doctors had hoped for. He was then told that he should prepare for the end.

Way too many people have died recently. Patrick Swayze made some indelible contributions to people of my generation with DIRTY DANCING and GHOST.

David Brin’s THROUGH STRANGER EYES

wfz-admin — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:51:13 +0000

This is one of the better days in the history of Nimble Books. Today we have reached a final agreement with Hugo and Nebula-award winning science fiction author, futurist, and commentator David Brin, and we will be publishing his THROUGH STRANGER EYES, a collection of “Reviews, Introductions, Tributes & Iconoclastic Essays” in the U.S. and U.K. We will be working in partnership with Robert Stephenson of the fine SF publisher Altair Australia who be publishing a simultaneous edition for his markets. THROUGH STRANGER EYES will include essays on figures as diverse as J.R.R. Tolkien, John Brunner, George Orwell, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Charles Sheffield, Richard Feynman, and Ayn Rand.

More to come …

Spider Star by Mike Brotherton

Fred Zimmerman — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 02:00:49 +0000

wfzimmerman’s review: “I’m a few chapters into this and it is terrific so far. Big Smart Objects, astroarchaeology, credible science — this is what SF is all about. I immediately rushed off to order his other book, [[Star Dragon]]].”
Tor Books (2008), Hardcover, 448 pages
tags: science fiction, sf

Singularity’s Ring by Paul Melko

Fred Zimmerman — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 01:56:33 +0000

wfzimmerman’s review: “An impressive debut novel. The multiplexing clones who are the protagonists are creepy at first, but at the end of the book there is a convincing explanation for their existence. One minor nit is that practically every character has a self-descriptive name (is there a word for that? autonym?) Ultimately, a tough-minded meditation on what might lead us to a Singularity and what might happen after it.”
Tor Books (2008), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 320 pages
tags: science fiction, sf

release date for THE SOLOMON KEY is set (but secret)

wfz-admin — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:36:29 +0000

Finally, some real news about THE SOLOMON KEY. According to the publisher, quoted in today’s Wall Street Journal, the release date has been set — but it is a secret. Which is progress! There was no release date at all before. There’s no new news about the content of the book (or any confirmation of the title), but the thrust still seems to be that the book will be set in Washington, D.C. and focus on those wacky Freemason Founding Fathers.

I brought out my SOLOMON KEY pre-book/meta-book in 2005 (!)

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and I have to say it has stood the test of time quite well. It has already made a pretty healthy profit, and among my forty titles in print ranks sixth in lifetime revenue per month.

The content is still sound because book is far less speculative than most efforts in the pre-book genre. I cover Brown’s entire oeuvre, and I include a detailed analysis of Dan Brown’s work habits and narrative strategies, but I didn’t think it wise to go on speculative excursions into the occult and Freemasonry before seeing the published books. I stick closely to what Brown and his publishers have actually said about the book. Judge for yourself if you like my approach: take a look at the Table of Contents in Search Inside the Book mode.

I’ve gotten better at covers since I published this book, but I’m reasonably satisfied with the dominant cover image: Kryptos in the CIA courtyard is still a pretty darned cool piece of Washington architecture, and it’s neat to look at and learn about. I would probably use a different font for the title type. Although the cover colors look clunky, they are keyed off the colors used in THE DA VINCI CODE, so I don’t think there was a principled basis for a better choice.

I will update this book when THE SOLOMON KEY finally comes out, but I am not sure exactly what mechanism I will use — I may update this edition, or I may issue a separate thinner paperback. Either way, I will provide a PDF softcopy to previous purchasers, as stated in the book. (Simply send me proof of purchase using the email address in the book).

I will update this post as publication nears. Until then, enjoy the anticipation!

Cordially,

Fred Zimmerman
Publisher, Nimble Books LLC

AMERICAN THEOCRACY Unpacked: Arguments Disassembled, Implications Explored, and a Way Forward Suggested by W. Frederick Zimmerman

wfz-admin — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 15:23:45 +0000

wfzimmerman’s review: “What I have learned from the LibraryThing reviews:

1) no one really liked the book very much, and some people really hated it;
2) the structure, content, and style, which was a conscious experiment, wasn’t a very successful one;
3) people really hate seeing Wikipedia listed as a source.

Fair enough! Onward…

Cordially,

Fred Zimmerman”
Nimble Books (2007), Paperback, 188 pages