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Welcome to another exciting edition of World Wide Wednesday, with your host Amanda Rutter. We’re going to take a quick look at some of the stories and interesting articles making waves in my usual (can you say ‘usual’ when it is only the second occurrence of the event?) Top 10 fashion.

1) SFX Top 25 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels

As voted for by their readership, SFX recently posted their top 25 novels of all time – and the blogosphere seemed to collectively go ‘huh?’ In a great show of initiative Gav from Nextread and Adele from Un:Bound decided to come up with their own list, and invited comment about the books they’d chosen. How many of the books from the SFX list have you read? Do you think the list by Gav and Adele is more representative of the speculative fiction people are reading these days? Comments below – and also do go and visit their sites to leave your own thoughts on the lists they’ve come up with!

2) Head to head with the editor!

Mark Charan Newton interviews his editor Julie Crisp and the results are genuinely illuminating. They discuss such matters as what Julie looks for in a submission and how much trouble those author egos can be! Thanks to the interest generated by this interview, Julie is now working on a blog post describing the process she works through once a manuscript is submitted – look out for that one on a future edition of World Wide Wednesday.

3) Angry Robot Month

Over at Temple Library Reviews Harry has decided to correct the error of not reading enough Angry Robot books (that would be books published by Angry Robot as opposed to books about Angry Robots!) and is conducting an Angry Robot month. Click here to see the current reviews and interviews of the books and authors from the Angry Robot stable, and do keep checking back to catch up with Harry’s endeavor.

4) Where do you start with Peter F. Hamilton?

I know this is a fantasy site, but I also feel it’s worth highlighting a) other speculative fiction genres and b) handy little articles that help the new sci-fi reader. For your pleasure, Adam over at The Wertzone has done just that! He has taken a good look at the works of Peter F. Hamilton and advised where you should start depending on your personal taste.

5) Pyr Celebrates 5th Anniversary with Essay Contest

Want a free trip to DragonCon? Submit a short essay on this theme: Five reasons why science fiction and fantasy is important to you. Second and third place winners will receive Pyr books. The grand prize winner will receive a trip to DragonCon, in Atlanta on Labor Day weekend. Entries are due by June 1. See all details at Pyr’s website.

6) Steampunk Week

The Book Smugglers decided to answer all those questions you might have about what steampunk actually is – and then reviewed some excellent examples of the genre. The whole week’s worth of fun can be found by clicking here.

7) Cage Match!

Suvudu (Random House’s speculative fiction blog) is currently running a series of cage matches – pitting some of the well-known heroes from speculative fiction against each other. Have you ever wondered who would win in a battle between Jaime Lannister and Hermione Granger? Find the answer over at Suvudu!

8) Sad news from Scott Lynch

The author of The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies has broken his long silence concerning the reasons behind the delay of The Republic of Thieves. Sadly, Scott Lynch has been suffering with bouts of depression – read this story in the words of the man himself in a blog entry named Your Mood and How To Swing It. I’m sure the Fanlit peeps are not alone in sending Scott Lynch our sympathy and best wishes.

9) The Art of Todd Lockwood

In a fabulous coup, Mihai from Dark Wolf’s Fantasy Reviews has managed to snaggle Todd Lockwood for a great interview. They discuss how Todd Lockwood started out, what inspires his work and how much of the artist ends up in the final result. It is well worth reading for an insight into the work of one of the finest artists producing work for fantasy books today.

Art by Todd Lockwood; used by permission

10) And finally….. HUB Magazine

I invite you to hit the link and find out a little bit about Hub Magazine – a free weekly e-zine providing short form fiction in the genres of fantasy, sci-fi and horror. As with any anthology format, it can be a little hit and miss, but overall it gives you a quick fix each week and will open you up to new authors you might not even heard of yet! Go check it out!

And that’s me done for another week. As always, give me love in the form of comments and tell me if you’d like to see anything done differently – and I’ll see you next Wednesday for another exciting episode of World Wide Wednesday.
Happy reading!