Janine Cross novel makes Library Journal list of best 2005 genre fiction

Janine Cross's novel Touched by Venom (Roc), the first book (of three) in the Dragon Temple Saga, has been named to Library Journal's list of the best genre fiction of 2005. Says LJ:

An independent-minded young woman in a male-dominated society angers the Dragon Temple's dragonmasters, bringing disaster on her family and clan and setting the girl on an odyssey that will change her world. The jungle setting and tribal civilizations of this exciting debut novel vividly evoke the rain forests of Africa and South America.

Others on the list are Terry Bisson's Numbers Don't Lie (Tachyon), Sunstorm (Del Rey) by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter, Andrew Eschbach's The Carpet Makers (Tor), and The Necessary Beggar (Tor) by Susan Palwick.

Cory Doctorow story makes BSFA Awards short list

Cory Doctorow's short story "I, Robot," published in Infinite Matrix, has made the short list for this year's British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) awards for short fiction, presented annually by the BSFA based on a vote of its members and members of the British national science fiction convention, Eastercon. The awards will be presented on April 15 at the 2006 Eastercon, Concussion, in Glasgow.

Other short-listed stories in the short fiction category are "Bears Discover Smut" by Michael Bishop (SciFiction), "Bird Songs at Eventide" by Nina Allan (Interzone), "Guadalupe and Hieronymus Bosch" by Rudy Rucker (Interzone), "Imagine" by Edward Morries (Interzone), "Magic for Beginners" by Kelly Link (Magic For Beginners and F&SF), "Soft Apocalypse" by Will McIntosh (Interzone) and "Two Dreams on Trains" by Elizabeth Bear (Strange Horizons).

There's a full article on the BSFA awards shortlists on the SFWA site.

Nina Munteanu story featured in Polish SF mag

Nina Munteanu's short story, "Virtually Yours", originally published in Hadrosaur Tales, reprinted in Neo-Opsis Science Fiction Magazine then translated into Hebrew in Bli Panika has been translated into Polish and featured in the SF magazine, Nowa Fantastyka (January, 2006 issue).

Matt Hughes story bought for Best Short Novels of 2005

Matt Hughes reports that edtior Jonathan Strahan has asked for his story "The Gist Hunter" (which originally appeared in Fantasy and Science Fiction) for a Science Fiction Book Club anthology, Best Short Novels of 2005.

Simon Rose's novels now available in USA

Simon Rose's first three novels, The Alchemist's Portrait, The Sorcerer's Letterbox and The Clone Conspiracy are now available in the USA; there's a recent U.S. review of all three books here. Simon's fourth novel, The Emerald Curse, will be published in the spring. A brief plot synopsis has already been posted to the Amazon Canada and Indigo sites, where it is already available to preorder.

New M. D. Benoit novel out

The second novel in M. D. Benoit's Jack Meter Case Files, Meter Made, is now out from Zumaya Publications. And here's the cover!

Derryl Murphy/Peter Watts story chosen for Year's Best SF

"Mayfly," written by Derryl Murphy and Peter Watts for the anthology Tesseracts 9, has been chosen for the Year's Best Science Fiction anthology edited by Gardner Dozois.