#jacob olson

[komododad1]

The Leader of the Opposition - the Hon. Jacob Olson, MP (Weskeshkee North) - addresses reporters during a press conference shortly into his tenure. The following year he'd lead the Farmer-Labor Party into a blowout victory in the general election.

[tachyonpub]

Lyrically compelling, THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN is a collection to be read and savored

The impending release of THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN has the internet all abuzz. 

Becky Spratford for RA FOR ALL praises the book.

The result is a volume that presents a mere snapshot of her genius, showcasing how she plays with gender, creates tension that progresses to the level of nightmare, and crafts a story where beginnings and endings don’t matter, rather it is about the characters, their struggle, and really humanity itself. Yet despite the darkness at each story’s core, there is also beauty in these lyrical compelling, and intriguing tales that are nearly impossible to stop reading. Fans may have read some of these stories before, but many readers who have more recently been introduced to works of writers with more mainstream attention like Carmen Maria Machado, Jeff VanderMeer, or China Mieville, will be glad to find this volume on your shelves so that they can discover a writer who inspired them all.

At REVIEWS AND ROBOTS, Jacob Olson was impressed.

THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN is a collection of stories that defies expectation. You’ll find fantasies to startle and impress the imagination. Horrors to shock and enthrall you. Most importantly, you’ll find a brilliant writer that gives you every detail, no matter how gruesome or grotesque. Kiernan’s talent oozes off the page, forcing itself into your mind, leaving you startled by how skilled one person could be. The stories gave me chills at times, and I was in awe of these strings of words that acted more like spells than stories. It’s a collection to be read and savored.

Photo: Kyle Cassidy

Nick Cato for THE HORROR FICTION REVIEW enjoys his further dive into Kiernan’s works.

I’ve read a story or two from Kiernan over the years, but never read a novel or collection (and she has many of both). So when given the chance to check out her latest collection I figured it was high time to dive in. While most of the tales here are dark fantasy or sci-fi, almost all have elements of classic, sometimes extreme horror.

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These are 20 previously published stories, so this might not be of much interest to long time fans. But for this newbie, it has made me a fan, and a big one at that. Kiernan is easily one of the best writers of weird fiction working today and I'm looking forward to digging into her catalog.

ESPRESSO AND BOOKS likes their first exposure to Kiernan’s works.

I don't know why I haven't read anything previously by Caitlin R. Kiernan! Her writing is beautiful and really draws you into the stories. This book is a collection of short stories. The stories range from sci-fi to full out horror. There is a darkness to her writing style that really gives these stories an edge. I will definitely have to check out more by her!!

The Italian site WEIRDIANA mentions THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN.

Edited by Tachyon Publications, the collection includes twenty stories published between 2003 and 2017, testimony to the talent and originality of the Irish writer, best known for the novel   The Drowning Girl.

THE HERO COMPLEX and BOOK BUM were both attracted by the cover.

THE HERO COMPLEX:

Granted, I’ve only read Kiernan’s The Red Tree, but that book has, somewhat literally, haunted me (that is at least a double pun, good lord) since I read it two years ago. I’m so excited to dig into a collection of her short fiction — and that cover art!

I am easily seduced by good cover art, what can I say?

BOOK BUM:

I’ve never heard of Caitlín R. Kiernan before, but you know me… I’m a sucker for a short horror story collection! I also love this mesmerising & disturbing cover for this one.

B&N SCI-FI & FANTASY BLOG and IO9 included the title among their things to look forward to in February.

For more info about THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Hannes Hummel Design by Elizabeth Story

[komododad1]

In the final weeks of the 1992 Aubrysian Federal Election campaign, the governing United Party - bleeding in the polls - ran an attack ad against opposing Farmer-Labour party leader Jacob Olson.

The TV spot would go down in infamy as the "fangs" ad.

The 30 second long ad featured several unflattering pictures of Olson from an FL rally - all of which had him prominently displaying his fangs.

The ad was interpreted as many as saying Olson was dangerous not due to his policy proposals, but due to his wolf heritage. Outrage immediately ensued.

At the order of the Prime Minister, the UP pulled the ad less than 24 hours after first airing and did not air the remaining ads in the series. But the damage was already done.

While the ad alone almost certainly did not cause the UP's mammoth loss in '92, it turned a defeat into a total rout.

[tachyonpub]

Jane Yolen’s highly recommended HOW TO FRACTURE A FAIRY TALE delights and fascinates

At REVIEWS & ROBOTS, Jacob Olson praises Jane Yolen’s HOW TO FRACTURE A FAIRY TALE.

I’m a lover of fairy tales. I’ve long collected various editions of the Grimm and Andersen stories, reveling in their intricate illustrations and terrifying tales meant to scare children into behaving. Our culture has changed these stories since their inception, their modern retellings meant to enchant in lieu of fear.

HOW TO FRACTURE A FAIRY TALE is that rare addition to the genre – a modern take on the tales that doesn’t seem forced, that sticks with the enchanting cadence of fairy tale storytelling while still feeling fresh. I was delighted by the changes made to tales I know well, and fascinated at the stories I had never read.

PURPLE PEOPLE READERS enjoys the collection.

What I most appreciated is how Yolen reworked some of these stories to relate to today’s world, and others are just timeless. I found each story to be moving and speak to something universal about our world, which is what fairy tales, at the end of the day, are supposed to be for. As usual with short story collections, some stories spoke to me more than others, but there wasn’t any story that I felt was a letdown; I enjoyed them all.

I highly recommend HOW TO FRACTURE A FAIRY TALE to any fan of fairy tales, but I especially see a lot of value in using this as a teaching tool for writing and studying fairy tales.

Photo: Jason Stemple

Paul Semel on his eponymous site interviews Yolen about her latest book.

HOW TO FRACTURE A FAIRY TALE is a short story collection. But is there a common theme to these stories, or some kind of connective narrative like what Ray Bradbury did in The Illustrated Man?

These are all fractured versions of previously published fairy tales. Some of them based on tales that are well known — “Three Billy Goats Gruff,” “Red Riding Hood,” “Cinderella,” “Rumpelstiltskin,” etc. — and some of them on much lesser-known stories. I know a lot of folklore, and have done some dozen books based on folklore, including Favorite Folktales From Around The World, Gray Heroes: Elder Tales From Around The World, and Not One Damsel In Distress. But all the tales in HOW TO FRACTURE A FAIRY TALE are reworked, torn apart, put together, some standing on their heads or tails or twisted in other ways. Plus in the back — as in the first volume of stories I did for Tachyon, THE EMERALD CIRCUS — there is full back-matter. In this instance, which stories I am fracturing, where the ideas came from, little points of special interest, and always a poem of mine; some published before, some brand new for the volume.

The stories in HOW TO FRACTURE A FAIRY TALE are fantasy tales. But do any of these stories, or this collection as a whole, also fall into different subgenres of fantasy, or combinations of them?

There’s folklore, occasional frisson of horror, some flat-out humor, legends, and one or two almost edging into science fiction. All twisted.

Are there any writers, or specific stories, that had a big influence on any of the stories in HOW TO FRACTURE A FAIRY TALEe but not on anything else you’ve written?

Interesting question. Probably Terri Windling, Ellen Datlow, Angela Carter, and Isak Dinesen because they have all taken and fractured old tales. And their stories sing. But they have also all had a big influence on my actual writing career, or my choices of adaptations, or pointed me towards stories or ideas that I hadn’t considered before.

For more info on HOW TO FRACTURE A FAIRY TALE, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

[scitechman]

Toeing the Line: Study Finds Brain Cells That Signal Path of Travel

Toeing the Line: Study Finds Brain Cells That Signal Path of Travel

Imagine you’re navigating a city like New York, or any other that’s laid out on a grid. Suppose you run into a roadblock as you’re heading north. How do you know that you can turn to your left, say, and then take a right at the next intersection to continue in your original direction? According to research from the University of California San Diego, it may be thanks to some newly identified neur…

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