News & Notes – 9/16/2017

September 16, 2017 News & Notes 4

News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, and other cool stuff

 

Book News

 

Literary Losses

Jerry Pournelle, science fiction and technology author, died Sept. 8, 2017, at the age of 84. A long-time collaborator with Larry Niven, the duo was probably best known for their classic The Mote in God’s Eye (1974), which was nominated for the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Awards. But Pournelle also wrote SF on his own, under his own name and the pen name Wade Curtis. In addition to his SF writing, Pournelle served in the Korean War, earned his Ph.D. in political science, spent years working with the defense and aerospace industries, served as president of the SFWA in the 1970s, and wrote a monthly technology column for Byte magazine (later Byte.com.) He may also have been the first author to write a novel on a computer. Pournelle’s politics have been variously described as extremely right or libertarian, which did not always endear him to the wider SFF community, particularly in recent decades.

Pournelle’s death came barely a week after he attended DragonCon, following a sudden illness.

Obituaries and tributes: SFWA; SyFy.com; The Verge.  Tor.com offers a review of Pournelle’s A Spaceship for the King alongside a look at the author’s life and career.

Bibliography and Biography: Goodreads; Wikipedia

 

Worth Reading

 

Free Fiction Online

  • “Henosis”: N. K. Jemison’s creepy take on literary fame and literature prizes. (Uncanny magazine)

 

Book & Movie Announcements

 

Awesome Lists

 

Bookish Quote

 

That’s it for this week!

4 Responses to “News & Notes – 9/16/2017”

  1. Bea

    The article about the Voynich Document made me laugh when I saw it on Facebook. At that time, I was reading a book where it was a mysterious, possibly dangerous religious document and part of a conspiracy. Ooops!