• Ian R. MacLeod: Multi-award winner Ian R. Macleod’s story Second Journey of the Magus is the main featured fiction in the Winter 2010 issue of Subterranean Online.

• Elizabeth Moon: A long excerpt from SHEEPFARMER’S DAUGHTER (the prologue and first two chapters, no less!) the first in the DEED OF PAKSENARRION series, is available at the Orbit web site, promoting their recently released omnibus edition (see this previous post).

• Lavie Tidhar: The Feb 2010 #41 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine has Lavie’s brand new story The Language of the Whirlwind. There are also back issue links to two other stories by Lavie, The Dying World and 304 Adolph Hitler Strasse. And if you want more by Lavie, check out this link at Free Speculative Fiction Online, which should keep you going for a bit!

• Aliette De Bodard: Aliette has a page on her website with a fistful of links to stories she has dotted about the internet. Well worth the effort.

To celebrate the release of the third of Night Shade Books‘ Hengis Hapthorn novels, HESPIRA, the publisher  are giving away two complete sets of these books in a competition over at Fantasy Book Critic. There are other wonderful items in the prize fund too – not least *slipcased editions* of Subterranean‘s SONGS OF A DYING EARTH (signed by all the contributors) in which Matt has a story, plus TEMPLATE and POSTSCRIPTS 15 both published by PS Publishing (again, these are signed copies).

To enter follow this link to Fantasy Book Critic and follow the instructions. the competition closes on February 24, 2010 – 11:59AM PST.

Good luck!

• Check out Aliette’s web site for more examples of her wonderful writing.

And the My Favorite Books blog is running an exlusive excerpt from Servant of the Underworld – check it out if you want to wet your appetite for this superb historical fantasy thriller, which will be published January 7th by Angry Robot.

If you want up-to-date information on Iain’s public engagements, this is the place to visit…

• Iain Sinclair’s Official Unofficial Web Site (Sanctioned by author)

Check out this review at Bookgeeks.com and if that intrigues you, nip over to Concept Sci-Fi via this link where an extract of the novel is available. And here is an interview with the author for good measure.

• Reviews are starting to come in for Iain Sinclair’s new book Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire and we’ll be posting news of them here as they come in. For starters, here’s a four star write-up from today’s London Metro paper.

• Check our previous post for details of specific Hackney related events that are coming up and don’t forget to listen to BBC Radio 4 next week, when Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire will be being featured as Book of the Week.

• The Observer carried a wonderful interview with author Iain Sinclair on February 8th , 2009. ‘The brilliant chronicler of uncharted, often unloved, parts of Britain has stayed close to home for his latest epic – a bittersweet love letter to the London borough of Hackney. He takes Rachel Cooke for a stroll round his patch – no ordinary walk, as the visionary author beautifully evokes the area’s rich history while reflecting on his own memories of the urban landscape.‘ The piece is available here online.

• And if all this coverage is wetting your appetite for the book (and how can it not?) the publisher Hamish Hamilton has made an except of the book’s opening chapter available online. Click this link for the pdf.

“A reader recently emailed me, mentioning how intrigued he was at finding a fantasy series in which gunpowder and eighteenth century weaponry can be found alongside dragons and daemons. I really appreciated that comment! Because in writing this series I wanted to evoke an Age of Reason not unlike our own and confront the enlightened thinkers and scientists with the raw forces of an ancient and powerful magic that they can neither explain away nor begin to understand.” Follow this link to read more…

And if this wets your appetite and you’d like to investigate Sarah’s wonderful fantasy novel further, follow this link for an excerpt of the first chapter, available to read free at Randomhouse.com.

The February 09 issue of Apex Magazine leads with a brand new Lavie Tidhar story entitled Dark Planet. Follow this link to read it free online. Also in this issue is the latest of Lavie’s entertaining essays in his Confessions of a Book Junkie series – be sure to check out the back issues for more of these if you missed them first time around.