After reading hundreds of stories and days of painful deliberating, I can cheerfully announce the Table of Contents for Volume Two of the Mirror Shards anthology.  Congratulations to all who made it.

Mirror Shards: Volume Two

I’m more than pleased to announce my Kindle best-selling novelette The Cageless Zoo is now available in audiobook.  The ultra-talented Arielle DeLisle was the narrator and audio producer.  If you enjoy easy-to-access science fiction with a twist of light horror, then give this story a listen.

Visiting the galaxy’s only Cageless Zoo should be a special treat for Melandre and her children. Except she’s still trying to reckon with her husband’s recent death and how she’s going to raise two highly independent children on her own. As their visit quickly falls to chaos, Melandre learns that family is the only thing left she has to rely on.

The Cageless Zoo audiobook can be found at Amazon, iTunes, and Audible for $6.95.  Free copies are available with a trial subscription to Audible.

The final book in the Gamers trilogy – CODERS – is now available in all formats.  I’m proud to be releasing the last book in the trilogy, and also a little bit sad.  I won’t be spending any more time with Gabby or her friends, and it was time I truly enjoyed.  I hope you readers have enjoyed it as much, and more, than I have.

When Gabby infiltrates the Southlands, reality becomes a dangerous game.

Desperate to reach Zaela before war erupts, Gabby takes a chance that puts her life in peril. She asks the Coders to send her into the Southlands as a spy, a request she quickly regrets. Now she faces a new enemy, one that knows everything about her and exposes her weaknesses in a game for her life. But before she can win, Gabby must wrestle with old wounds and finally come to grips with the person she was meant to be.

The novel can be purchased by e-book at Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords for $6.99, or as a paperback for $16.99.

Robots do the craziest things.  Like jumping thirty feet onto a building.  When the robot apocolypse comes, there will be nowhere to hide!

Read more about it at io9.

A fan of the Gamers trilogy sent me her drawing of Gabriella DeCorte, reality-hacker extraordinaire.  She’s looks a bit younger than she exists in the novels, but the budding young artist hits the essence of Gabby with her drawing.  Well done and thank you for sharing!

More quadrotor fun and with ALL the math.  Vijay Kumar explains how they work and what the possibilities are for their use.  As for me, I’m putting them in my latest novel.  Swarm!

Note: The video is seventeen minutes long, but your reward for watching through the hole thing is a spectacular demonstration by a quadrotor swarm.  Enjoy.

Every year the SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) gives awards to the best of that year and that award is called the Nebula.  The Nebulas are different from the Hugos which are more of a fan based award for speculative fiction.  Getting a nomination for a Nebula requires impressing your peers, while earning a Hugo involves dazzling your fans.

Here are this year’s nominees for the Nebula:

Novel

• Among Others, Jo Walton (Tor)
• Embassytown, China Miéville (Macmillan UK; Del Rey; Subterranean Press)
• Firebird, Jack McDevitt (Ace Books)
• God’s War, Kameron Hurley (Night Shade Books)
• Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, Genevieve Valentine (Prime Books)
• The Kingdom of Gods, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

Novella

• “Kiss Me Twice,” Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s Science Fiction, June 2011)
• “Silently and Very Fast,” Catherynne M. Valente (WFSA Press; Clarkesworld Magazine, October 2011)
• “The Ice Owl,” Carolyn Ives Gilman (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction,November/December 2011)
• “The Man Who Bridged the Mist,” Kij Johnson (Asimov’s Science Fiction, October/November 2011)
• “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary,” Ken Liu (Panverse Three, Panverse Publishing)
• “With Unclean Hands,” Adam-Troy Castro (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, November 2011)

Novelette

• “Fields of Gold,” Rachel Swirsky (Eclipse 4, Night Shade Books)
• “Ray of Light,” Brad R. Torgersen (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, December 2011)
• “Sauerkraut Station,” Ferrett Steinmetz (Giganotosaurus, November 2011)
• “Six Months, Three Days,” Charlie Jane Anders (Tor.com, June 2011)
• “The Migratory Pattern of Dancers,” Katherine Sparrow (Giganotosaurus, July 2011)
• “The Old Equations,” Jake Kerr (Lightspeed Magazine, July 2011)
• “What We Found,” Geoff Ryman (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September/October 2011)

Short Story

• “Her Husband’s Hands,” Adam-Troy Castro (Lightspeed Magazine, October 2011)
• “Mama, We are Zhenya, Your Son,” Tom Crosshill (Lightspeed Magazine, April 2011)
• “Movement,” Nancy Fulda (Asimov’s Science Fiction, March 2011)
• “Shipbirth,” Aliette de Bodard (Asimov’s Science Fiction, February 2011)
• “The Axiom of Choice,” David W. Goldman (New Haven Review, Winter 2011)
• “The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees,” E. Lily Yu (Clarkesworld Magazine, April 2011)
• “The Paper Menagerie,” Ken Liu (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March/April 2011)

Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation

• Attack the Block, Joe Cornish (writer/director) (Optimum Releasing; Screen Gems)
• Captain America: The First Avenger, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely (writers), Joe Johnston (director) (Paramount)
• Doctor Who: “The Doctor’s Wife,” Neil Gaiman (writer), Richard Clark (director) (BBC Wales)
• Hugo, John Logan (writer), Martin Scorsese (director) (Paramount)
• Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen (writer/director) (Sony)
• Source Code, Ben Ripley (writer), Duncan Jones (director) (Summit)
• The Adjustment Bureau, George Nolfi (writer/director) (Universal)

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Book

• Akata Witch, Nnedi Okorafor (Viking Juvenile)
• Chime, Franny Billingsley (Dial Books; Bloomsbury)
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Laini Taylor (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Hodder & Stoughton)
• Everybody Sees the Ants, A.S. King (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
• The Boy at the End of the World, Greg van Eekhout (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
• The Freedom Maze, Delia Sherman (Big Mouth House)
• The Girl of Fire and Thorns, Rae Carson (Greenwillow Books)
• Ultraviolet, R.J. Anderson (Orchard Books; Carolrhoda Books)

While I haven’t read every offering on the list, I have done pretty well with a majority of the short fiction, so I’m going to give my picks for the best of those categories.

Novella

I’ve read all of these stories except for Ken Liu’s, which pains me because I’m a huge fan of his writing.  So this pick will be a partial pick since I’m not exactly choosing based on the full list.  And it’s almost a blessing that the list is one short, because I loved every one of these stories and adding another would be difficult.

My three favorites are: The Ice Owl, The Man Who Bridged the Mist, and With Unclean Hands.  Each one of them transported me into a different world and each one left me wanting to know more.  Kij’s story in particular reminded me of George R.R. Martin’s With Morning Comes Mistfall.  Both stories remind us of the preciousness of mystery.

But my final pick would be With Unclean Hands.  While The Man Who Bridged the Mist and The Ice Owl told me great stories, With Unclean Hands provoked my thoughts about the roles of guilt and violence in a society.  I won’t elaborate much more than that, so I don’t spoil the plot, but that story is the one I’ve thought back to most often since reading it.

Novelettes

I’ve read most of this category as well, but I doubt I would pick anything else than Ray of Light.  This was the first story I’d ever read by Brad R. Torgersen and when I was done, I realized that he was one hellava writer.

Science fiction often becomes guilty of being a downer too much (though I love downer stories just as much as the next guy.)  Brad shows us with this story that science fiction can elevate man’s spirit in the face of technological tragedy and he told the tale with such skill that I was left with elation by the end.  And that’s why I would pick Ray of Light as the best Novelette in 2012.

Short Story

I’ve read all but one of these stories and for me, the choice came down to two stories: Ken Liu’s The Paper Menagerie and Nancy Fulda’s Movement.  Most of the others – while skillfully told and even in some cases creatively told – did not pull me into the story.

If I could I would pick a co-winner, but picking does involve, well, picking.  So I’ll buck up and make a choice.  Movement makes a great case to be the winner.  It’s lyrical, flows and dances like a dream, and illuminates a unique point of view with a strong, clear voice.  In some respects, I expect Movement to be the winner, but since I’m picking I’m going to go with The Paper Menagerie.

Both stories make me sympathize with a viewpoint that I’m not familiar with.  I’m not a mute autistic or a first generation Chinese-American, but after reading these stories, I have a tiny insight into what that would feel like.

Add to that humanistic view the practical magic of tiny paper animals that gallop around the room, go “Rawrr-sa,” and exist on the breath of a dying mother, and I’m sold.  The Paper Menagerie wrapped its fingers around my heart and tempted me with magics of a child’s heart.  So that is why I would choose The Paper Menagerie as my winner for Best Short Story.

I wonder if I’m the only one that has visions of Phantasm when they watch this video.  The technology is fascinating, but there’s something about the eerie way they move together that creeps me out.

My favorite Dr. Suess book performed by people straight out of his imagination.

A couple of years ago, when practically no one knew what augmented reality was, I put together a prediction about the future of augmented vision.  A recent development from the leader in augmented vision, Vuzix, made me realize my prediction might not be far off.

Engadget recently reported about the state of Vuzix’s AR vision line (taken from the floor of CES 2012.)

The end result is that Vuzix is promising a $350-600 AR vision line available in 2013.  This model is built off their military line used for creating the next generation of super-soldier.

So how well am I doing on my prediction?  Back in early 2009 I put together this info-graphic to show when we’d be seeing real augmented vision.

Some of the predictions are moving along and others are lagging.  It appears that AR glasses might be closer than I first thought, thanks to DARPA funding.  It’s still too early to tell how widespread usage might be or what could be done with them, but it’s still interesting to watch how my fictional worlds of The Digital Sea and Gamers might come to pass.  Hopefully, leveraging the wonders of Moore’s Law, we see them sooner rather than later.