Fred Gambino's Dark Shepard Launched

Fred Gambino’s first novel, Dark Shepard, launched May 14th from the award-winning UK publisher, Newcon Press. Dark Shepard, the novel, is not to be confused with The Art of Fred Gambino: Dark Shepard, his 2014 art book from Titan Books. (Fred is a famous book cover artist and Hollywood/game conceptual designer and has been working on the Dark Shepard universe for decades.) The book is brilliant and the most cinematic novel I’ve ever edited&emdash;if somebody doesn’t pick this up as the next movie franchise, they’re missing a sure thing. I mean, he’s already done the movie trailers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aettbKa5sws

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmvq3pSx1Xs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VpCVSleFd4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwjFhaQ5tx8

Review of S.W. Mayse's Shadow Matter

My review of Shadow Matter is now up at Ottawa Review of Books.

Book Launch for The Traitor's Son

May 7, 2024 was the official launch of the late great Dave Duncan's novel, The Traitor's Son, which I edited and shepherded through to publication on his behalf.

The Traitor’s Son is one of Dave’s few science fiction novels, and his most political. It’s about a narcissistic leadership that knows the (distant colony) world is dying but hopes not in their lifetimes and continues to ignore the problem for their personal enrichment. It’s a pretty obvious allegory, but wrapped in a daring-do adventure novel.

It’s also about people’s assumptions about inherited identities and how that can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The launch was held in Calgary in the 300+ seat Patricia A. Whelan Performance Hall in the main branch of the public library.

The launch was from publisher Edward Willtett's Shadowpaw Press, and organized by Robert J. Sawyer, whose trade paperback edition of The Downloaded is similarly from Shadowpaw. Sawyer was kind enough to share his launch with Duncan's. Turn out was good (especially given the terrible weather that day).

I reviewed The Downloaded for The Ottawa Review of Books. Given I was the editor on The Traitor's Son I can't really review it for ORB but can say here I thought it up to Duncan's usual high standards.

Duncan's next book, Corridor to Nightmare will launch Saturday, August 17, at Calgary's When Words Collide convention.

Another Flash Fiction Published

My flash fiction, "Garbage In, Garbage Out", was published in the Summer 2024 issue of Sci-fi Lampoon (May 5, 2024). It is another in my series about Fami and his AI Watch.