Archives
Quill & Quire review raves about Song of the Sword
I was pleasantly--very pleasantly, as you'll see--surprised to discover a review, the first I've seen, of Shards of Excalibur: Song of the Sword in the September issue of Quill & Quire, Canada's magazine of book news and reviews. The review, by author Robert J. Wiersema, almost gave me a heart attack with the first sentence, though. It begins: Authors who incorporate, interpret, or subvert Arthurian legends in works of contemporary fantasy take a huge risk: the failure rate of such books is staggeringly high. Gulp. Fortunately, he continues with: Every so often, though, a writer is skilled enough to utilize the stories of King Arthur and Camelot to significant effect. ...A nice blog review of Lost in Translation
Mass-market paperbacks have a short shelf life, but that doesn't mean people aren't still reading them long after they're hard to find in a bookstore. Case in point: a nice new review of my first book for DAW, Lost in Translation, just popped up at Scott's Corner, a blog I was hitherto unaware of, but now, of course, can't recommend highly enough! The eponymous Scott has nice things to say: This was a great book, headed by two well drawn characters. The book alternates POV chapters between the two characters. The S’sinn are sufficiently alien, and Kathryn is a great viewpoint character. It's an interesting ...My review of Globe Theatre’s production of Marion Bridge…
...has already shown up online, even though it won't appear in print until tomorrow. This is the first time I've seen something I've written pop up that far ahead of the ink-on-paper version, though maybe I just haven't noticed until now. The review begins: I confess that I went into the opening night performance of Marion Bridge at Globe Theatre feeling skeptical. The premise, after all, sounds like the set-up to a joke: "A nun, an actress and a soap-opera addict walk into a kitchen ..." Not only that, the fact the three are sisters home together — in Cape Breton, no less — for the first time in years because their mother is dying made me fear I faced a turgid ...Nice mention of “bleak and beautiful” Marseguro
"Bleak and beautiful" is a nice phrase. Even nicer when it's applied to my DAW SF novel Marseguro, which is what happened today in Strange Horizon's review of 2009 by its corps of reviewers...one of whom is my fellow DAW author Kari Sperring (author of Living With Ghosts), who said this: The Hugos were rather predictable, but the Canadian Prix Aurora went to Edward Willett’s bleak and beautiful Marseguro, a novel which has not received the attention and acclaim it deserves. I would never be so forward as to apply the phrase "bleak and beautiful" to my own work, but it's nice to know Kari feels that way about it! As for the ...Terra Insegura makes a top-10 books of 2009 list…
...from blogger and reviewer Shaun M. Duke at The World in the Satin Bag. He puts Terra Insegura at No. 6, just ahead of (ahem) Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Here's his entire list, and here's what he had to say about Terra Insegura: 6. Terra Insegura by Edward Willett One of the few science fiction novels I reviewed and loved this year, Willett's sequel to Marseguro is exactly what science fiction needs: action, awesome ideas, and good characterization. No more good vs. bad plots. There's so much grey in Willett's book that it makes you really think about everything, from what occurred in the previous novel to what ...My review of Saturday’s Regina Symphony Orchestra concert…
...is in today's LeaderPost. It begins: There's something surreal about watching a symphony orchestra decked out in iterations of green and white playing Prokofiev and Mendelssohn, but even if clothes make the man, they don't make (or unmake) the concert, and the Regina Symphony Orchestra gave another terrific performance Saturday night at the Conexus Arts Centre. The highlight was Prokofiev's "Second Piano Concerto," considered one of the most difficult pieces of piano music ever composed -- and yet, so well played by soloist Hung-Kuan Chen that if conductor Victor Sawa hadn't told the audience how difficult it was they might not have suspected it -- unless they were among the half of the crowd who could see Chen's fingers flying up ...A nice review for my book Disease-Hunting Scientist…
...comes from Children's Literature (via the Barnes & Noble page for the book): "Science is a verb." that is what science teachers tell their students, and this book describes just that. I found the book to be an exciting collection of seven scientists doing their jobs, and sometimes I was jealous. As scientist, Marta Guerra, describes, "for people who like to do fairly exciting things… you feel like you are actually helping people, [disease hunting in Uganda] is a wonderful experience." The book is scientifically accurate, and, with a bird flu expert hinting about new emerging pandemics, the book is very current. It ...My review of Robert Michaels’s concert with the Regina Symphony Orchestra…
...was in yesterday's Regina LeaderPost. It begins: It's a cliche, after a concert on a chilly Saskatchewan night, to say something about the performer heating things up inside despite the world outside having turned prematurely white. But if there were ever a performer to whom that cliche was perfectly suited, it would have to be Robert Michaels, the Juno Award-winning guitarist who joined forces with the Regina Symphony Orchestra for Saturday's Flamenco Fire concert, the first in this year's Shumiatcher Pops Series. From the opening number, it was easy to imagine, as Maestro Victor Sawa suggested, that you were sitting in Spain's Sierra ...The centre of the universe likes Marseguro & Terra Insegura!
OK, I should probably explain that the centre of the universe is a blog. The blogger, who goes by the handle Cenobyte, writes, in part: There is just enough nerd factor in these books to make them sciencey, and there is just enough of a fabulous story to make them fictioney. In fact, both of them are the perfect blend of those two things... There are themes of racism, colonialism (don't those two go hand-in-hand anyway), civil rights, and, ultimately, survival. Terra Insegura is more than a sequel; it takes everything that happened in Marseguro and ramps it up a notch... Willett's characters are fascinating and real, although at times are frustrating as hell...But what really makes these books for ...A new review of Terra Insegura…
...showed up today on the LiveJournal My Den. After a brief description of the plot, the blogger writes: But once on Earth, several things become apparent. Richard has the tactical skills of a tomato plant, the alternately revered and despised Victor Hansen turns out to have had a lot of skeletons in his closet and arch traitor Chris Keating is annoying. Really annoying, ‘Gilmore Girls’ annoying. This is an okay read with plenty of action, reversals of fortune, cunning plans and Richard brooding. There are hints that there could be a third volume in the series which would be nice. Heh. "Tactical skills of a tomato plant." This is not, alas, an unfair description of poor old Richard. And I'll ...
Edward Willett is a The Shards of Excalibur, Book 1: Song of the Sword
My new YA fantasy novel, coming in October from Lobster Press
Before the Lady called her, Ariane’s life was a mess. Two years ago, her mother disappeared. She bounced around different foster homes until her aunt finally took her in. The meanest clique at her new high school has decided to make Ariane their prime target. And to top it all off, she is having frightening premonitions, and they are becoming more intense. The moment water touches her skin, she sees visions of a lake, a lady, and a sword. When a staircase opens up in the middle of Wascana Lake and the water begins singing to her, she has no choice but to answer the call….
Marseguro
Winner of the 2009 Prix Aurora Award for Best Long-Form Work in English
Water world Marseguro is home to the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from human DNA. When an unmodified human seeks revenge on a Selkie by activating a distress beacon taken from the remains of the original colony ship, a strikeforce is sent from Earth to eradicate the genetic abomination. Yet Marseguro will not prove as easy to conquer as the Earth force anticipates…
Terra Insegura
Finalist for the 2010 Prix Aurora Award for Best Novel in English
Marseguro, a water world far from Earth, is home to a colony of humans and the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from modified human DNA. For seventy years the colony has lived in peace. Then Earth discovers Marseguro, and a strike force is sent to eradicate this “abomination.” But Marseguro has created a genetically tailored plague to use against Earth’s Holy Warriors. With the enemy defeated, the people of Marseguro feel they are safe. But Chris Keating, the traitor who signaled Marseguro’s location to the Holy Warriors, has fled to Earth, unknowingly carrying the deadly plague within him. The people of Marseguro feel they must send a ship to Earth with a life-saving vaccine. Only time will tell what awaits them when they reach their destination.
Lost in Translation
Kathryn was a human empath whose world and life had been destroyed when the alien S’sinn slaughtered her parents before her very eyes. Jarrikk was a young S’sinn, an unproven warrior who’d seen his flight mates slaughtered by the humans who’d sought to colonize his world.
As humans and S’sinn found themselves on the brink of war, these two Translators had to work together to find a common ground and avert catastrophe. But whether their Translators’ oath and training could overcome the enemies leagued against them was very much in doubt…
Archives
Historic Walks of Regina and Moose Jaw
Ten walks to points of historic and architectural interest in the cities of Regina and Moose Jaw (eight walks for Regina, two for Moose Jaw).
Disease-Hunting Scientist
The true stories of six real disease hunters. Epidemiologists travel the world trying to keep us safe from deadly diseases—from high-tech labs in Canada to remote villages in Africa. Learn how these “disease detectives” are coming up with new ways to fight disease, and find out if you have what it takes to become an epidemiologist, too!
The Bounty Mutiny
The Bounty was a British ship visiting Tahiti in 1789 when some of the crew overthrew the captain, William Bligh, and set him adrift in a tiny boat with sailors loyal to him. The mutiny resulted in a number of trials–both of the men who mutinied and of Bligh for losing command of his ship. These fascinating events have been the source for numerous Hollywood movies, most recently The Bounty. The Bounty Mutiny: From the Court Case to the Movie explores the famous case and the movies it inspired.
