Matt’s Bookosphere 7/23/08

Hal Duncan offers “Notes on Strange Fiction: Magic”

Seattle attempting to lure WorldCon with “green” appeal

The Dark Knight, the War on Terror, and Science Fiction’s Moral Authority

LOTS MORE AFTER THE JUMP

Jacek Yerka to provide illustration for Kiernan’s “A is for Alien”

Review: “Vicious Circle” by Mike Carey (with bonus Q&A)

Nick Mamatas on “canned arguments” and Dr. Horrible

Cool art exhibit on J.G. Ballard

What’s in the latest issue of “Weird Tales?”

Who’s up for some “Spicy Slipstream Stories?”

Review: “A Guide to Folktales in Fragile Dialects” by Catherynne M. Valente

Eerie Paul Jessup has an article in Erie Life Magazine

How publishers spot the next big sellers

Theodora Goss: Beyond Competence

“Hellboy: Oddest Jobs” features selections from Joe R. Lansdale, China Mieville, more.

Robert McCrum’s Top Ten Books of the Twentieth Century

“The future is voodoo. It’s an altar to a feral Christ composed of toxic waste, computer chips, and gothic fetish objects. It´s Philip K. Dick. It’s magical realism where Abraham works at 7-11 and Cain is the local drug lord, Job works on Wall Street and Mary Magdalene is a New York DJ.”

Michael Cisco is very angry with Prime Books

Quick preview of Sandman 20th anniversary poster

Doctor donates classic sci fi collection to university library

Mary Robinette Kowal is building Jay Lake a new colon

David Moles to Jonathan McCalmont: “Sour grapes.”

Review: “Maps and Legends” by Michael Chabon

How PDFs changed Charles Tan’s life, and thoughts on e-book piracy

Ten steps to a simpler life from Matt Mitchell

Christopher Priest’s Top Ten Slipstream Books

In 1992-3, there were more requests for Ph.D. funding on Angela Carter than on the whole of the eighteenth century.

Mind-meld on world building: Tim Pratt, Gene Wolfe, Kage Baker, Larry Niven, Jay Lake, Alastair Reynolds, Matt Hughes, Daniel Abraham, Tobias Buckell, Ekaterina Sedia, Holly Black

Joe Sherry, Who I am, What I do, Why I do it

Sitting down for writing tips with Neil Gaiman

Share a book from your shelf that might be considered “low-brow” but you enjoy it anyway

A visit to Dave Eggers’ “Superhero Supply Company”

Octavia Butler essay on racism (via SciFi Standpoint)

China Mieville’s Top Ten Weird Fiction Books

Toward a more vibrant sword-and-sorcery community

“Just in case you thought hand-wringing over science fiction was an English language thing”

The new burden of the memoirist

Promotional video for Jeff Carlson’s new book “Plague War”

Using Tarot cards to plot your novel

Interview with David Schwartz, author of “Superpowers”

On the death of the LA TIMES BOOK REVIEW

Review: “Broken on the Wheel of Sex” by Jack Ketchum

Win a copy of “House of Whispers” by Margaret Lucke

Larry revisits the Crack Manifesto

…and proposes a fantasy version of Godwin’s Law

Clockpunk.com open for beta viewing

Interview with comic book author Andrew Drilon,

On judging books on their covers

On The Joker and the Trickster archetype

Ed Champion revisits some of his critics’ favorite jabs

Win a copy of Terry Brooks’ “The Genesis of Shannara”

The world’s twenty-five most modern libraries

Mike Brotherton: “Still confused about the Singularity?”

Paul Di Filippo – author of the week

DC to launch thriller imprint: Vertigo Crime

Review: “Frontier Cthulhu” (Yeehaw, Cthulhu Fthaghn?)

The life-cycle of a trope: Sci Fi’s tragedy of the commons?

Can you name this story?

What’s the difference between a convention and a conference, and what are you likely to find at both?

Jules Verne the subject of Eaton SF Conference

“So, for those of you living in a blissfully unaware state where books are either good or eligible for use as a table-leveling device, here’s a breakdown of the relative social prestige of various genres”

How do you pronounce author Martin Millar’s last name?

Bruce Sterling to keynote at Austin GDC

More Starlinks from Mike Brotherton (get a little sci with your fi!)

Bookporn from John Joseph Adams

Auction: A Unique Lovecraft Memory Box

On symbolism vs. literalism, literary vs. genre

Five favorite SF novels

Jeremiah Tolbert asks, “What are some of your favorite bad 80’s SF films?”

Re:(imagine) the (once and) future of fantasy and SF (via Paul Jessup)

Six Tips on Promoting Serial Novels

And it continues: Should writers read the genre that they write?

Specimen number six from Jeffrey Thomas

Readercon fracas: “Another Kind of Truth”

Larry at OFBLOG has “the key to being an elitist”