The last time I flew to Montreal, I was seated beside a guy reading a science fiction novel. The cover caught my eye and I made a mental note to check out the author the next time I found myself in a bookstore. A little over a week later, I was on a flight back to Vancouver when I happened to glance across the aisle and notice a woman reading an SF title – different book, but same author. What were the chances? THIS, I decided, was fate – just like that time I got Autumn in New York as the in-flight movie in back to back trips which made me realize I was destined to re-marry Winona Ryder. Or vacation in New York. Anyway, I made a second mental note to remember my first mental note to check out the author the next time I found myself in a bookstore. Fastforward several months to last week when I received a package in the mail. Elated, I tore it open to discover, not the expected return correspondence from Winona, but a little something from my buddy, editor Lou Anders, over at PYR. It was the latest book by THE SAME AUTHOR! Seriously, what are the chances?
Anyway, I dropped the author an email and asked her if she might be interested in doing a little Q&A in support of her book. Turns out she’d be delighted to participate. And so, it gives me great pleasure to announce January’s Book of the Month Club selection…
Diving into the Wreck, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
From the publisher: “Boss loves to dive historical ships, derelict spacecraft found adrift in the blackness between the stars. Sometimes she salvages for money, but mostly she’s an active historian. She wants to know about the past–to experience it firsthand. Once she’s dived the ship, she’ll either leave it for others to find or file a claim so that she can bring tourists to dive it as well. It’s a good life for a tough loner, with more interest in artifacts than people.
Then one day, Boss finds the claim of a lifetime: an enormous spacecraft, incredibly old, and apparently Earth-made. It’s impossible for something so old, built in the days before Faster Than Light travel, to have journeyed this far from Earth. It shouldn’t be here. It can’t be here. And yet, it is. Boss’s curiosity is up, and she’s determined to investigate. She hires a group of divers to explore the wreck with her, the best team she can assemble. But some secrets are best kept hidden, and the past won t give up its treasures without exacting a price in blood.
What Boss finds could rewrite history, cost lives, and start an intergalactic war.”
“Tense and gripping…. The endlessly enjoyable terror of dark, alien, empty spaces brimming with unknowable danger and impenetrable mystery should keep fans of the genre hooked.” —Internet Review of Science Fiction
“Rusch takes the dangers inherent in deep sea diving and memorably puts them into the deep dark vacuum of space, making the exploration of the hulk a much more complicated issue than tends to be the case in the SF.” —Best SF Reviews
It’s an intriguing synopsis, the reviews are great, you have plenty of time to read the book, AND, to top it off, the author also happens to be a Stargate fan. So, when the time comes, in addition to asking her about the novel and whether or not she can introduce us to Winona Ryder, you can also get her SF expert take on things SG-1, Atlantis and/or Universe.
Discussion the week of January 11, 2010 – with author Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
A gentle reminder (please, don’t make me resort to a not-so-gentle reminder that will involve my taking a hickory switch to your bare calf) to finish up this month’s BOTMC pick, Emissaries from the Dead, by Adam-Troy Castro, as it will be up for discussion next week. Also, remember to pick up December BOTMC selection, The Misenchanted Sword, by Lawrence Watt-Evans, well in advance of its discussion on the week of December 8th.
On the SGU front: a third day down and another story broken. We are zipping along! I figure that at this rate, we should have season 2 and most of season 3 broken by the time I’m Tokyo-bound.
Tune in tomorrow for my thoughts on the stretch-run to the mid-season break.
Today’s entry is dedicated to Arctic Goddess.
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