The Week in Review

Welcome to the week in review! Every Friday, we comb through the links and images we found and shared this week, and pull the very best for this post. Consider it concentrated genre goodness from all around the web.

• Genre legend Ray Bradbury died on Tuesday at age 91. Not only was he an amazing author, but he inspired multiple generations of writers and artists, and continues to do so. Mr. Bradbury, you will be missed.
• Tor/Forge Books and Tor.com have announced a brand new e-book store, selling DRM-free titles from Tor, Forge, Starscape, Tor Teen, and Orb e-book titles directly to readers.
• Author Rhiannon Held examines the concept of the “Mary Sue.”
• There was an extraordinary astronomical event this week: Venus transiting the Sun. There are a ton of amazing pictures out there, but Bad Astronomer has some with not only Venus, but Hubble as well.
• The New Yorker has a lovely essay from Ray Bradbury about the inspiration for his story “The Fire Balloons.”
• Happy birthday, Jay Lake! We totally want one of those bobble-heads.
• HBO is now selling replicas of the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones.
• What’s better than M.C. Escher? Combining M.C. Escher with Star Wars and Lego.

The Tor/Forge newsletter went out this week! Check out these fascinating articles from our authors:

• Journey to Planet JoCo: “Todd the T1000″ with John Scalzi and Jonathan Coulton
• Werewolf Anthropology by Rhiannon Held
• Why Is Your Noir So, Um, Dark? by Warren Hammond
• It’s a Character Thing by J. A. Pitts
• Exploiting the Multiverse for Fun and Profit by Paul Melko

And, just to make Friday that much sweeter, here’s a list of sweepstakes and sales we have going on!

• Waiting on Wednesday: Dark Companion by Marta Acosta (Ends 6/13)
• We have a collection of YA ebooks on sale for $2.99 for a limited time!
• Kitty’s Greatest Hits by Carrie Vaughn (Ends 6/19)
• The Far Side of the Sky by Daniel Kalla (Ends 6/19)
• The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (Ends 6/22)
• Earthseed by Pamela Sargent (Ends 6/22)
• Blackmail Earth by Bill Evans (Ends 6/25)
• The Lincoln Letter by William Martin (Ends 6/25)
• Summer Manga Sweepstakes (Ends 7/1)
• An Echo Through the Snow by Andrea Thalasinos (Ends 7/9)