Bone Dance, by Emma Bull

Bone Dance
Emma Bull
1991

When it was first published Emma Bull’s Bone Dance was nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards. Given that each nomination came from a different pool of readers, it’s an impressive achievement. There is some overlap, sure, but the Nebula is peer voted, the Hugos are fan voted, and World Fantasy is a juried award. Which is to say: Holy crap!

Which is to say that years later, Bone Dance has a lot to live up to.

Bone Dance is the story of, and is narrated by a character named Sparrow. Sparrow’s gender is not made clear in the first half of the novel, and I’m not going to write much about what happens in the second half, but what I am willing to say is that I initially read Sparrow as being female. I suspect the cover art has something to do with this, but it is also the impression I got from the text.

Sparrow is…well, Sparrow is a collector and a seller. Sparrow makes deals and finds rare artifacts from the past – movies, CD’s, and the related. See, this is a post apocalyptic world where the city is called The City and it runs on barter. That’s what Sparrow does, [she] makes finds stuff and makes the Deal. Sparrow’s problem, one of them anyway, is that occasionally [she] blacks out and when [she] wakes [she] is someplace else – sometimes an unknown part of the city, with no recollection of was done or said or why.

The first half of the novel (or so) sets all this up, gets Sparrow into some trouble with very dangerous people, and fairly well keeps the reader in the dark as to what is happening. The second half of the novel reveals the background to what was going on and some of the history of how the apocalypse happened that we are now in the post of. Emma Bull also challenges everything we thought we knew about this world and more specifically about Sparrow. Things ain’t what they seem. Gender isn’t inherently essential to Bone Dance, but since gender is part of identity, I’m being purposefully vague as to what is going on. Besides, Bull herself is vague on the details in the first half of the novel. My gender choice to describe Sparrow is entirely tied into how I read the character for the first half of the novel.

Of course, just by pointing this out I call attention to it that might not have otherwise been there. If I don’t mention gender do you think about it?

Switching gears: What I found exceptionally cool is that The City is Minneapolis. Emma Bull never explicitly states that, but the first hint was when the Nicollet Mall was referenced. I just made an assumption at that point. Then I-394. I’m sure if I were more familiar with Minneapolis I would have picked up a lot more early on, but alas, I am not. But the locks and dams, I-94 to Cedar, and later the names of surrounding suburbs pretty well nails The City as Minneapolis.

Not that this really matters. It doesn’t. The City *could* be any city. I just like seeing SFF set in Minnesota.

Bone Dance is subtitled “A Fantasy for Technophiles”, which is to suggest that while there are strong fantasy elements (things that don’t and can’t exist), it is set in a SF milieu. Post apocalyptic, lots of broken down technology. That sort of thing. It’s post apocalyptic urban fantasy where urban fantasy simply means fantasy set in an urban environment (like War for the Oaks) instead of paranormal romance.

There’s something else I want to bring up – the chapters of Bone Dance are built around cards of the tarot, and there are three definitions given on each chapter beginning. I very much believe this is important and that Emma Bull didn’t waste her time putting that information into the book. My confession, though, is that it didn’t make a lick of sense to me. Not as I was reading the book and not going back and looking at some of that those chapter headings. I can’t make head nor tail of them. I suspect that this will enhance the reading experience of some, but it was a distraction for me.

The first chapters of the novel did not completely sell me on the forthcoming narrative. But once Emma Bull drew me deeper into the central mystery of what is happening to Sparrow and to the core conflict of Bone Dance, then I was hooked.

I don’t know if Bone Dance was the best novel the year it was published or if it was truly stronger than other novels not nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards. What I do know is that Emma Bull can tell a good story and this is a stronger novel than her excellent debut War for the Oaks, and that Bull has improved with each of the three novels I have read (in publication order, mind you). Emma Bull is a major talent and Bone Dance is a strong novel that is not without its flaws (it can get a bit confusing, and even as a narrator Sparrow is not entirely a sympathetic character…which isn’t necessarily a flaw), but as a whole, Bone Dance is a solid and mostly impressive novel. It’s worth the read.


Reading copy provided by Tor Books.


Other Review
Territory

Shadow Unit: "Getaway"

I’m two weeks late on this, but I finally read the new Shadow Unit episode.

Way to completely rip out my heart and pour lemon juice on it, Emma, thanks.

“Getaway” is the fourth episode of Season 2 and it is a Chaz centric-episode. If you’ve read the first season, and you should have, “Getaway” is the episode where we really get the fallout from Refining Fire. Well, part of the fallout. I’ve been anticipating something in particular since Season 1 ended and while I still expect it, the Powers That Be aren’t pulling the trigger on it. Yet. Because I still believe.

But what I really want to say about “Getaway” is that this is one of the heartbreakingly best stories in Shadow Unit, and that bar was already set extraordinarily high.

You could jump in and just read the story without knowing what came before, but the impact would be severely lessened by not knowing Chaz from the previous episodes. The thing about this Chaz-

But…holy God…


(don't forget the DVD extra for this ep)

Top Nine Author Discoveries of 2008

There is something to be said about talking about books. After all, that’s what we read. But, just as much fun as discovering a great new book is discovering a great new author. Or, even discovering a great older author. It’s all new if you have never read an author before.

So, in honor of authors, those wonderful people who write the wonderful books, here is a list of some of the authors I encountered for the first time in 2008.


1. Emma Bull: It all starts with Shadow Unit. (in 2008, almost everything stars with Shadow Unit). Bull's story "Breathe" opened the first season of Shadow Unit and I was sold. It was much later in the year before I was to read War for the Oaks or Territory, but when I did there was no longer any question that Emma Bull wasn't a writer to watch, she was a writer I MUST read.

2. Joe Abercrombie: I've read the first two entries in his First Law trilogy and both The Blade Itself and Before They Are Hanged deliver brutal epic fantasy goodness. I have no doubt that the third volume will do (has done) the same. I'd confess to a man crush on Abercrombie's fiction, but that would just be weird.

3. Scott Westerfeld: John Scalzi's Why YA post inspired me to pick up one of Westerfield's novels and I ended up with a copy of Uglies in my hands. I quickly ran through Pretties, Specials, and Extras (apparently I never did write that review) and when I finished, I hoped Westerfeld might have one more book left in this series, though I can't imagine what it would be. You can pretend that Westerfeld's work is just YA (if you ignore his fully adult novels) and thus not worth reading, but you'd be wrong and you'd miss out.

4. Ellen Klages: It's all about Portable Childhoods. The short fiction of Ellen Klages is outstanding, so much so that in early 2009 I fully expect to read The Green Glass Sea (which was a short story in Portable Childhoods). Klages is a writer I'm keeping my eye on.

5. Nancy Kress: If you read short fiction and stumble across any of the major magazines and anthologies, or watch the award lists, you'll probably come across a story from Nancy Kress. This year I read my first collection of Kress's short fiction (Nano Comes to Clifford Falls) and my first novel (Dogs). I want to read more.

6. L. Timmel Duchamp: Alanya to Alanya was an eye opening experience. It is a very political novel, a feminist novel, and yet I think it has (or should have) a wider appeal than one might expect if you only look at the labels. The novel helped push me to think about gender and power in ways I had not previously. The second book in the Marq'ssan Cycle, Renegade, is a pyschological battle of will, and in the next two months I intend to read the third volume.

7. Nick Mamatas: Oh, this is primarily based on Under My Roof, but that's enough. I also read Move Under Ground this year and while good (and quite possibly more impressive as it reads like Kerouac), Under My Roof is a true standout. I've got a copy of the anthology he edited with Jay Lake (Spicy Slipstream Stories) on my shelf to read. The man can write, but he also has a solid editorial eye (he was editor of Clarkesworld Magazine)

8. Liz Williams: Between Snake Agent and The Demon and the City I know I want more Detective Inspector Chen (there are two more published and an additional two in the works), but I also want to read some of the other stuff Liz Williams wrote. Detective Inspector Chen is future urban fantasy detective fiction where Heaven and Hell are real, bureaucratic, and interact in human affairs. Good stuff. Real good.

9. Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu: I'll be honest, Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu is the one novelist on this list from whom I've only read one book (Ellen Klages would have been the other, but it was a collection of stories and I count those differently). In this case that one book is The Shadow Speaker. I don't believe I've encountered much fiction set in Africa (it's out there, I know), and this tale of technology and magic is a beautiful story told well.


I posted a similar list last year, so if you were curious who I discovered for the first time in 2007, well, here you go.

Liavek!

Yesterday I made my first trek over to Uncle Hugo’s bookstore, which, like any good bookstore, is wall to wall filled with books. Ahh, but Uncle Hugos is a SFF bookstore, so it is wall to wall with nothing but SFF. New and Used. It is a delightful place to which I am definitely going to return.

As soon as I walked in past the back issues of Asimov’s and F&SF I knew I was in one of the local branches of heaven. I wanted to look for a copy of Elizabeth Bear’s Carnival and the fifth Wild Cards volume. I was in the store for ten minutes before I remembered what I wanted to look for. I never did remember Wild Cards, but I saw the Bear and decided not to pick it up this time. Almost picked up Caine Black Knife and Fast Forward 2, but I kept browsing, kept remembering stuff.

And then I saw it. Liavek.

It’s nothing I was ever looking for, but as soon as I saw it I knew I had to get it. Liavek is a shared universe anthology created and edited by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull and was published back in 1985. I know nothing about the world, except that it is from Shetterly and Bull. Including tax, it only cost me $2.15, so you can’t beat that!

Here’s the contributor list:
Emma Bull
Gene Wolfe
Patricia C. Wrede
Nancy Kress
Steven Brust
Jane Yolen
Kara Dalky
Pamela Dean
Megan Lindholm (later known as Robin Hobb)
Will Shetterly
Barry B. Longyear

Not bad. There’s a couple of writers I’ve never heard of, and some I have heard of but haven’t read, but given that Bull only had one previous publication credit (a short story – she was two years away from publishing War for the Oaks), and Shetterly’s first novel Cats Have No Lord came out that same year, it’s a solid lineup of writers who would go on to have successful careers. According to Wikipedia, six of the contributers were part of the same Minnesota writers group, the Scribblies (Bull, Wrede, Brust, Dalky, Dean, Shetterly)

World Fantasy Award Nominee: Territory

Territory
Emma Bull
Nominated for the 2008 World Fantasy Award: Novel

Does the world have enough takes on the story of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and the town of Tombstone? Do we really need another one?

When it is written by Emma Bull the answer is yes.

Set in 1881, sometime before the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Territory features all of the characters readers would expect: Wyatt, Doc, the Clantons, Johnny Ringo, the Earp brothers, and the wives of the Earps. And yet, these are not the principal characters of Territory. Emma Bull won't do the obvious here. The leads are Jesse Fox and Mildred Benjamin.

Mildred works in one of Tombstone's newspapers as a typesetter. She is a widow and secretly writes adventure stories. Jesse Fox comes to town as a drifter, having shot a man trying to steal his horse, Sam. Jesse is more than just a drifter, of course, he was educated in the East, has a Chinese friend (and consider the history of the Chinese in America and in building the transcontinental railroad - this friendship is remarkable), and has something of a secret.

Bull dances around the edges of Tombstone, bringing Mildred and Jesse through the lives of the Earps and Johnny Ringo's gang. Through Mildred we see the other side of the Earps: the women. Through the women we get a completely different Tombstone story, one which generally gets lost in the glamour of Wyatt Earp. Through Jesse we see another side to Johnny Ringo and the harsher side of Wyatt.

Emma Bull makes Tombstone come alive in ways that the movies don't, and creates a visceral experience with Territory. Tombstone lives and breathes here. She also infuses the story with a special kind of magic that twists the Tombstone story into something else entirely.

Territory is not simply a Western and is not simply Tombstone told from other perspectives. Jesse Fox possesses a form of Earth Magic and he isn't the only magician in Tombstone. Who the others are will be left for the reader to discover, but this magic brings an entirely new dimension to the Tombstone story while somehow staying faithful to the Tombstone story that knowledgeable readers will understand.

Let's not mince words here. Territory is an outstanding novel. It is so good that having only read two of the World Fantasy nominated novels, I would be shocked to find a better one than this.

Emma Bull blends historical figures and events with magic and a story of her own imagination and tells the story in plain language and keeps the reader in thrall to her storytelling.

Oh, and the one character perspective I haven't mentioned yet: Doc Holliday. Whether or not there is historical evidence on how Doc spoke and what the cadence of his dialogue should be, Emma Bull absolutely nails the reader's expectation of Doc Holliday. Moreover, at no time does this characterization feel like cliche or an aping of Val Kilmer's portrayal of Doc in the film Tombstone. It would have been easy for Bull to fall into that trap, but Bull's Doc Holliday feels authentic. Bull gets into Doc's head.

Readers should show up simply for Bull's portrayal of Doc Holliday, but they should stay for the rest of the show. Emma Bull is the real deal and she delivers the goods here.

Shadow Unit: Season Two News

There’s been some happenings going on over at Shadow Unit lately. Besides the now twice weekly mini story updates covering the time between seasons, there have been a couple of announcements.

First, Leah Bobet and Holly Black have been added to the writing staff. Bobet gets episode two, Black gets the season finale. Those are some big shoes Holly Black needs to fill given just how outstanding a job Bull and Bear did with Refining Fire.

Second, we have an episode list.

• 2.1: "Lucky Day", written by Emma Bull and Elizabeth Bear
• 2.2: "Sugar", written by Leah Bobet
• 2.3: "The Sin Eater", written by Emma Bull
• 2.4: "Getaway", written by Emma Bull
• 2.5: "Wind-Up Boogeyman", written by Elizabeth Bear
• 2.6: "Cuckoo", written by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull
• 2.7: "Smoke & Mirrors", written by Elizabeth Bear
• 2.8: "Not Alone", written by Holly Black

Can’t wait!

future posts

The next week or so should feature the following entries

• A multi-part wrap up of Fourth Street Fantasy, which has been an awesome experience
• a link filled post trying to cover the range of responses to the TOC of Eclipse Two.
  
• A review of Pretties, by Scott Westerfeld
  
• A review of Dogs, by Nancy Kress
• A review of Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow

And then I'm sure I'm going to come up with something else that I'm just not thinking of right now because I have to leave soon to get back to the Con.

I do have to say, and I'll expand on this in the Con wrap up, that Emma Bull is full of awesome and an absolute delight in person.

Shadow Unit: The Complete First Season

Elizabeth Bear and Emma Bull wrapped up the first season of Shadow Unit with their short novel Refining Fire.

Shadow Unit is a blend of The X-Files, Criminal Minds, and probably a half dozen other police procedural / supernatural type programs. Rather than being broadcast on television, the collective minds of Bear, Bull, Sarah Monette, Will Shetterly, and Amanda Downum have delivered over the course of seven short stories and one novel a full season story arc that most television shows would kill for. Except that Shadow Unit would never be broadcast, except maybe on HBO or Showtime.

The teaser description of Shadow Unit from the website:

The FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit hunts humanity's nightmares. But there are nightmares humanity doesn't dream are real.

The Behavioral Analysis Unit sends those cases down the hall.

Welcome to Shadow Unit.

They had me from hello.

Shadow Unit is a division of the FBI much along the lines of The X-Files where the Anomalous Crimes Task Force works on cases involving what has come to be called The Anomaly. The Anomaly is *something* that can take over a normal person, give that person some extra power and strength, and tends to push that person to do some really bad things. Local police and regular FBI can’t handle these sorts of cases, they don’t know what to look for or how to respond to it. Shadow Unit, colloquially called the WTF (yes, it means what you think), does.

Our Creators have written a series of stories with an exceptionally strong and well defined character list. With each episode the reader learns more about the characters. Some episodes will focus more on one or two characters not featured in a previous episode, but the strength of the series is that we are given a core group of characters to follow and fall for, and feel for. They make mistakes, but they are quite competent at their jobs. They are all at various stages of their careers and understanding of the Anomaly. They all have their backstories and over the course of this first season, we get a good look into the backstories of several of the characters, or at least enough of a look to feel like we know who they are.

I could not be more impressed and more thrilled with the Shadow Unit stories.

Shadow Unit is fairly interactive, with 8 stories, character livejournals (they respond!), various teasers, artwork, a message board frequented by three of the four primary authors (Sarah Monette doesn’t come round much, if at all).

Season Two should begin sometime next year, and I have heard it suggested there are plans for five seasons. One can only hope.

One comment I want to make about Refining Fire. Damn, it was good! Bear and Bull split up the finale into five parts, released over five days and each day I was left wanting more. By the end of the story, I was short of breath. Seriously. I had fear for Chaz, fear for the other agents, a bit of disgust at Reyes (and yet, I’m sympathetic towards him and I don’t know his backstory), and chills at the storytelling. If this isn’t nominated for awards next year, I just won’t understand.

The whole season is available to read for free online. If you like what you see, perhaps shoot a couple of dollars in the direction of the creators via the links on the website. This is professional level work provided gratis from professional writers. A couple bucks wouldn’t hurt, eh?


Episodes:
1. "Breathe" by Emma Bull
2. "Knock on Coffins" by Elizabeth Bear
3. "Dexterity" by Sarah Monette
4. "A Handful of Dust" by Will Shetterly
5. "Ballistic" by Sarah Monette, Emma Bull, Elizabeth Bear, and Amanda Downum
6. "Endgames" by Emma Bull
7. "Overkill" by Elizabeth Bear
8. Refining Fire by Elizabeth Bear and Emma Bull

Teasers and Deleted Scenes

Artwork

Playlists

Character Livejournals

Emma Bull’s essay on the origin of Shadow Unit

Message Board

There is more than a little bit to do and see here. I loved every moment of Shadow Unit's debut season, and am now eagerly awaiting Season Two. They should really get paid for this, and paid well. It's damn fine work.

Refining Fire begins

I will have you all know that the season finale of Shadow Unit has begun. "Refining Fire" is a (short) novel length story that will close out the first season (hopefully of many) of Shadow Unit...the best damn thing going. "Refining Fire" is written by Elizabeth Bear and Emma Bull and will be posted / published in five parts over the next week.

Go read. Now.

You'll thank me later.

Shadow Unit: Episose Six is live

Episode Six of Shadow Unit is now live. "Endgames" is written by Emma Bull. Bull is the author of the season premier, "Breathe". Haven't started Shadow Unit yet? I just linked the first story and "Breathe" is a GREAT introduction to Shadow Unit.

Only two episodes left in the season, including the novel length season finale.

another list of books...

I like lists. I could make a list of pretty much anything and be happy. In my younger days (I’m staggeringly old now) I made lists of favorite songs, bands, baseball players, wrestlers, books, movies, food, etc. Anything, really. Recently I’ve been thinking about making a list of the books I would like to read. This would be different than my list from a couple months ago of the 2008 publications I am looking forward to. This list won’t include the three Elizabeth Bear novels coming out later this year (or Dust, published in January), George R. R. Martin, Scott Lynch, Raymond Feist, Terry Brooks, or any other “major” author who has a publication scheduled sometime in the next 12 months. Rather, this list is going to be of the books which sometimes are a bit overlooked. This is subjective, of course, because the book that I don’t talk about often may be the book that someone else can’t stop talking about. I imagine that most people reading this list will have read (or heard of) some of these books, but this is some of what I’d like to read this year (or next).


Unwelcome Bodies, by Jennifer Pelland. The first (and only) Pelland story I have read is her Nebula Nominated story “Captive Girl” and I was impressed enough that I want to read more of Pelland’s work. While I know that she has several stories available on her website, I would rather hold her debut collection Unwelcome Bodies in my hands. It’s just the kind of reader I am. Once we get past the “major” releases of 2008, I find myself thinking more about buying a copy of Unwelcome Bodies if I have the available funds. Given that I don’t buy many books, I think it says something that I’m even considering spending money on this.

Caine Black Knife, by Matthew Stover. Heroes Die and The Blade of Tyshalle are two criminally overlooked and under recognized novels, and even though Stover is -also- a popular Star Wars author (he’s one of the best), I’m not sure his original fiction gets noticed the way I think it should. This third novel following Hari Michaelson will be a must read the moment it is published. Stover’s blend of fantasy, science fiction, violence, and balls to the wall writing is not to be missed. Stover is likely not for everybody, but fans of the genre (and fans of hard edged writing) should give Stover a shot. Think a darker-toned Scott Lynch.

Territory, by Emma Bull. This is an acclaimed release of 2007, but I know Emma Bull first as the creator and co-writer of Shadow Unit. Because of how much I love Shadow Unit and that Bull’s work there is quite strong, now I want to read some of her novels. I suspect Territory is the place to start.

Soldiers Live, by Glen Cook. It may be unfair to have Soldiers Live on this list because I know I will read the book this year. It is the final Black Company novel. After the goodness of Water Sleeps, my interest in Glen Cook and The Black Company has been revitalized. I just wanted to use this spot to throw a little bit more attention at Glen Cook and The Black Company.

Shadow Matrix, by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I have a soft spot in my heart for the Darkover series. Looking back, the writing isn’t that strong, but I have enjoyed the culture clash blend of low tech fantasy with a technologically advanced science fiction society. I have only two Darkover novels left that to read that were at all penned by Bradley and I believe this one was at the most only partially written by Bradley. Still. If there is such a thing as a guilty pleasure in SFF, Darkover is mine.

Fathom, by Cherie Priest. No clue what this is about, but I love her Eden Moore books and I don’t see nearly enough people talking about Cherie Priest. Myself included, I suppose. This is one of two novels published by Priest this year. The other is a more limited edition from Subterranean Press (Those Who Went Remain There Still)

AI War, by Daniel Keys Moran. I first read The Long Run years ago back in high school and the book hit me at just the right time. The story of Trent the Uncatchable was exciting, dangerous, fresh, and fun. But this was the Second book in the Continuing Time sequence. It took me several years to find the first book, Emerald Eyes, and I was very disappointed. It was a rough effort. But then, I found the third book, The Last Dancer, last year and was pleasantly surprised. While not quite hitting me like The Long Run did, Moran kept me glued to the page all the way through. The AI War is forthcoming sometime in the next year or so. I think...and I hope. It's going to be published, right?

Windhaven, by George R. R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle. I’ve read every other novel length work Martin has published, so this is a good time to finish up his longer fiction before I go hunt down all of his short story collections so I can get a hold of the stories not published in Dreamsongs. I finished The Armageddon Rag last week and seriously, the man range is breathtaking.



I don't have anything to say about the below books because I don't know anything about them, but I've heard some goodness about the titles. Just don't know anything about the content.

Grey, by Jon Armstrong
Raw Shark Texts, by Steven Hall
The Secret History of Moscow, by Ekaterina Sedia

Shadow Unit: Episode 5 is live

"Ballistic", the fifth episode of my favorite tv show that never was, has gone live tonight. "Ballistic" was written by Elizabeth Bear, Emma Bull, Sarah Monette, and Amanda Downum.

Can I say excitement?

Well, I'm sure I can, but every two weeks I most look forward to a new Shadow Unit story being posted. The only bad thing about this being the fifth episode is that after "Ballistic", there are only three more episodes left. And then what am I supposed to do? Read them again, I suppose.

The final episode of Season 1, "Refining Fire", is a (short) novel length effort from Bear and Bull. Given that Bull and Bear have individually delivered my favorite two episodes of the season, I can't wait to see what they collectively bring.

Shadow Unit: Knock on Coffins

"Knock on Coffins", written by Elizabeth Bear is up at Shadow Unit. This is the second full episode of the season, after Emma Bull's "Breathe".

"Breathe" was a great start to Shadow Unit's first season and with Bear being one of my favorite writers I have high hopes for "Knock on Coffins".

Emma Bull and Shadow Unit

I think Emma Bull just found herself another fan. I had the chance to read the first full Shadow Unit episode today, Bull’s “Breathe” and it is everything I hoped it would be and more.

The teasers over the last couple of months gave clues to the various characters but here Bull sets everything up, defines some of the terminology, more fully introduces the characters, builds a mystery as to this “host”, and all together tells a damn fine story.

Flat out – “Breathe” is a good story and a *great* introduction to Shadow Unit. It whets the appetite.

Shadow Unit

Shadow Unit has its premiere "episode" tonight. The episode, titled "Breathe", is written by Emma Bull.

After weeks and months of anticipation, Shadow Unit has arrived.

Locus: 2007 Recommended Reading List

Locus has posted its 2007 Recommended Reading List and there are some damn fine novels and stories on this list.

I haven't read too many of the novels, but quite a few were already on my reading list and I even own a few which I haven't read. I'll enjoy chipping away at some of these, and I think Emma Bull's novel Territory is going to have to get moved to the top of the list soon. I've heard nothing but goodness about it, and I'm loving her brainchild Shadow Unit, so what's keeping me?

Shadow Unit Goodness

Everyone reading Shadow Unit? Until the official "episodes" start in mid-February we have been given 5 teasers so far and three easter eggs (that I'm aware of). Think of Shadow Unit as the new tv show that won't be strike shortened, the one with a secret FBI Unit investigating "anomalous" crimes.

I rather like the Paine Lake teaser.

Teaser 1 (Intro)
Teaser 2 (Paine Lake)
Teaser 3 (Hafidha)
Teaser 4 (Madeline Frost)

Teaser 5 is currently on the front page of Shadow Unit and will be until this Thursday night (new updates on Thursday and Sunday PM)

Hidden on the pages are Easter Eggs, like DVD bonus content. I've found three so far.

Easter Egg 1
Easter Egg 2
Easter Egg 3

The creators of Shadow Unit (Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette, Emma Bull, Will Shetterly) have also created livejournals for various characters. I'm aware of three right now. There is no fourth wall, the LJ's are written from the perspective of the characters and, in general, they are like your average person's LJ with the occasional tidbit thrown in that I let people at the Message Board dissect.

LJ's
Daphne Worth
Charles Villette
Hafidha Gates

The kicker of the LJ's is that they'll link to real people and non-Shadow Unit LJ's. Like I said, no fourth wall. The characters aren't characters here, they're people too.

Shadow Unit can be, potentially, a fully immerse environment and I'm very excited about it. I am most looking forward to the actual episodes (first one written by Emma Bull, second by Elizabeth Bear) when we get deeper into the stories and content and not just the interesting, but short and incomplete teasers.

Shadow Unit

From the collective minds of Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette, Emma Bull, and Will Shetterly comes an online collaborative work called Shadow Unit.

From Bear’s posting:

The brainchild of the amazing coffeeem (Emma Bull), Shadow Unit is, more or less, the website for a serial drama in internet form. Or possibly it's a fan site for a TV show that doesn't exist.

Over the next couple of months, the site will be updated on a weekly or biweekly basis with new information, vignettes, character sketches, character bios, a community message board, and other exciting things.

And starting in mid-February, there will be a series of novellas and novellettes, and one complete novel. Approximately one story every two weeks for sixteen weeks (though we are still tweaking the schedule), comprising the first season (of hopefully many) of a television show that doesn't exist.

Some of the content will be free. Some will be by subscription. (Subscriptions will be extremely reasonable.) There will be DVD extras, deleted scenes, background information, character-based digressions, and I dunno what all else.

(I hope it is okay I copied this much from Bear's livejournal)

I had to chance to read the opening posting on Shadow Unit and I'm very intrigued. Considering the collective talent involved, I am very excited for this. Not sure how much the very reasonable subscription fee will be for the extra content, but right now I'm on board.

I’ve been aware of this project for a while now, but Shadow Unit’s homepage was pretty well blank for a while and I wasn’t sure what this all meant other than Bear calling it “secrit project” and seeing it linked from time to time.

Should be interesting.