NextRead

Well it doesn’t look like I’m going to get my July Books round up done until Saturday And there are so many good books to mention and I’ve got the rest of my expanding RSS feed to go through. July hasn’t been the most productive month on the blog.

In other news Amazon.co.uk had The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie at £4.99 so I treated myself. Looking forward to see what all the fuss is about.

Speaking of fuss Paul Kearney doesn’t seem happy with Aiden.

Oh and there is going to be one more Harry Potter-related book.

More later

Tags: Comment, news

This is just a quick post to see if I can post from my new iphone and I can!!

Tags: apple

Here we so again. I can’t believe it’s been three weeks since the last one. I’ve been slowly reading The Hundred Towered City by …. and Superpowers by . Apart from that not too much book related stuff going on. I’ve had some lovely looking review copies that I need to get reading and the July releases post needs doing. But before all that lets take a look at my RSS feeds.

The Torque Control always has some great links and these two are no exception:

• An interview with David J Schwartz on Bookslut. I guess Superpowers really is fan fiction.
• A reminder that I really need to get a copy of Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff for the cover if nothing else.

More links this time from SF Signal:

• The demise of the newspaper book review? Are book reviews in papers really there to sell  books? As I’ve said for a while. Newspapers rarely feature books that I’d want to read with the rare exception of poetry collections and the odd one I’ve missed elsewhere.
• Two pieces of cover art that make me glad I get UK editions! (on the OF Blog…)
• An interview about genre with Michael Chabon in the LA Times. A comment I’d like to explore more is the source of tradition between Britain and America with this side coming from Mythical roots and the other having Puritan origins. I wonder if that’s why we have such different traditions?
• OF Blog again, this time raising the question, Do SF/F authors have to be SF/F fans in order to be good writers? Short answer is no, but you’d better be bloody good. Short short answer, of course you do!
• A short and sweet interview with Joe Abercrombie. I am going to read him I am!
• They have a 4.5/5 review of The Affinity Bridge by George Man.  I want to read a book with zombies, airship disasters and an unsafe Victoria London.
• I wonder if I need a manifesto. Solar Flare has a 5 Point Manifesto for Positive Fandom
• Fantasy Book Critic has a review of An Autumn War by Daniel Abraham which reminds me that I have a copy of the first of the series to read!
• To ebook or not to ebook that is the question? I’m still undecided but I still tend to buy CDs rather than download them, I read only a small percentage of emags and ebooks (non-fiction) and I like the feel of a book and seeing the book mark move. Plus I’m with Nick Hornby who rightly said, to paraphrase, if they ain’t buying books for £4.00 what’s going to make them spend £400 on an ebook reader?
• Some wonderful thoughts for all writers by Neil Gaiman
• Charles Stross wades into an analyse of his own writing.
• More Joe Abercrombie. This time with more Advice for Budding Fantasists.
• More ranting about genre writers as readers….
• And more the subject from Mysterious Outposts.

Moving on I think.

Reading Matters has a review of The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Inidridson, which I got sent recently so looks like moving back to crime for at least one book, though I was also sent Sideways In Crime, which mixes sci-fi and detective fiction.

SF Diplomat asks, Is Online Book Reviewing Sustainable? I really don’t know.

I’ve spent some time reading and replying to some really deep discussions and I’m just under halfway. Look for more in part 2.

Tags: links, Round-Up

Title: Looking for Mr Piggy-Wig
Author: Andy Secombe
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 18 July 2008
Review Copy

Synopsis

It’s twenty years after the ‘New’ Battle of Britain, and rationing is still in force. Our hero, Jack Lindsay, is a private investigator of the old school If he has a weakness, apart from a fondness for garibaldi biscuits, it is for a woman with a sob story - and one has just walked into his office, and into his life. Jack finds himself becoming embroiled in a worldwide criminal conspiracy involving gun-smuggling, political assassination, and a chain of burger outlets.

Comments/Thoughts/Analyse

All the best private investigator stories start with a beautiful woman walking into an office and bringing with them nothing but trouble or maybe that’s just the impression I’ve picked up from the few that I’ve read. That’s what happens to Jack Lindsay and he finds himself into a lot of trouble.

Andy Secombe sets the tone at the start with the banter between Lindsey and his assistant Mango Pinkerton and Jack’s description of the arrival of Marian into the office. You can see that Secombe loves word play and enjoys a surreal sense of humour.

And that sense of fun continues with the rollercoaster of a trip that takes place following that meeting. Secombe keeps everything moving with Jack and the reader thrown in the deep end.  With its futuristic setting Secombe has been able to create a world that’s familiar but at the same time surreal and hopefully our actual future. Thankfully policing doesn’t seem to have changed much and I’m not saying if that’s a good or a bad thing. You’ll have to read it to find out.

There is a lovely mix of characters from Mango with his extreme sense of fashion to Detective Sergeant Lana O’Hara who adds a lot of tension and offers of relief to Jack’s time in the office.  The quest for garibaldis ensures we know what Jack finds important.

I loved every second of it.

Summary

A 21st century detective story that’ll keep you reading and entertained until the end.  And hopefully it’s not the end of Jack Lindsey and Mango Pinkerton as I’d love to read more.

9/10

Tags: 9/10, macmillan, review, review copy

Title: Kethani
Author: Eric Brown
Publisher: Solaris
Published: 6 May 2008
Review Copy

Synopsis

It takes an alien race to show us what humanitiy truly is. This is the irony faced by a group of friends whose lives are changed forever when the mysterious alien race known as the Kethani come to Earth bearing a dubious but amazing gift: immortality.

Analyse/Comments/Thoughts

Kethani is a reality based what if? Quite different for a sci-fi story.  Brown meditates, through a series of linked tales, on the affect on immortality on the human race, but its not just immortality we’re offered, it’s the chance to escape Earth and see the stars.

And what does humanity do with this gift? Sit in the pub. A lot.  And this is the conflict I’m having with this novel.  It’s a small-scale drama with a backdrop of something larger and life changing.  I can’t help feeling a little disappointed.

Here’s why. Brown presents a series of interesting voices and takes on the how, even with promise of resurrection on death, we still need routine and we make connections that we hold on to.  He examines our feelings around death. And all round does a good job.

But he leaves the aliens, well, alien. They’re almost as mysterious at the start as they are at the end. They have enemies but there is not explanation of who they might be or what the conflict is. They have amazing technology but we only get to see it from the surface.

Though the aliens aren’t the focus of this tale. We are. And Brown chooses a narrow focus with a reason so he can explore the wider implications for a group of friends of the aliens arrival. There is a doctor, a teacher, a priest, dry-stone-waller, in other words a mix of intelligent and insightful views to draw from. And there are some impressive insights about how we grow apart when we don’t try and how death can be a freedom as well as a devastation as well as how religion can or can’t transform to encompass new ideas.

On a technical level there is a couple of annoying traits. Everything seems to take place after a heavy snowfall and descriptions are sometimes repeated and some characters are more fleshed out than others. Some of these problems are routed in the fact that some of the sections have previously been short stories and could have been fixed I think with a little more polishing. This might seem picky but I did get drawn out of the story at a few times because of them.

Summary

I’m left with feeling that there was the potential to do a lot more with the alien material especially as it’s unlikely to have a sequel. But if it did it would have to be a different beast.

Putting aside my want to have more alien insight.  Brown shows a skill for examining the human condition and how we look at death in an unconventional sci-fi story. It’s an insightful take that’s well worth reading but it might leave you wanting more, which isn’t really a bad thing, is it?

7.5/10

Don’t just take my word for it

Fantasy Book Critic review
SCI FI Weekly review

Tags: 7.5/10, eric brown, review, Solaris

Here we go again as I try and catch up with RSS feeds and things that I think you might find interesting.

Future Classics

Torque Control point me at a review of the Future Classics books. Shamefully I have the set minus Fairly Land and have yet to get past the first few pages. Always a dilemma what to read next and at the moment it’s almost impossible. Saying that I’ve just read Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon and I’m now reading Kethani by Eric Brown as I’m having a sci-fi thing at the moment so I really should read a couple of them.

Exciting News

Charles Stross has made a few announcements. The most exciting for me is that there is going to be a sequel to The Atrocity Archives and The Jennifer Morgue. He’s also showing off the covers to Saturn’s Children (the UK edition is much much better) and it’s already been reviewed by Chris, the book swede. There is also Charle Stross In His Own Words.

More Exciting News

Rob @ Fantasy Book Critc made my month when he posted a press release from Pyr. Mark Chadbourn my favourite fantasy author has sold his Age of Misrule sequence to Pyr. About bloody time too! But not only that we have the announcement that Will Swyft is getting his own series starting with, The Swords of Albion, which is due for both US and UK release. There’s a post about it on Mark’s blog too.

Lists

SF Signal always has great links. Here is one for 20 British SF novels you should read. I’ve read one of them, Take Back Plenty. So 19 to go!

Strange Reactions

Of Blog of the Fallen has some thoughts a very strong reaction in a review of The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Now I’ve not read it but that one story seems to have pushed a lot of buttons. It certainly makes me wonder and want to read the offending story to see what if it deserves the react it has received. From the passages on OF Blog

it does seem to have a point to make and it’s their just because.

Reviews:

Neth Space reviews Already Dead by Charlie Huston, which reminds me that I need to read Half the Blood of Brooklyn after really enjoying both Already Dead and No Dominion.

Blood Ties by Pamela Freeman is one of those I’m not sure books, mostly books that I think I’m not sure that this is a book for me. Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review has a review that didn’t help me decide one way or the other!! LOL.

He’s redeemed himself with a review of Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory. Sounds right up my alley.

Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky is another I’m not sure. Fantasy Book Critic give it the thumbs up.

Another Fantasy Book Critic review. This one Escapement by Jay Lake seems to suggest that writers can improve He reviews Mindspring, it’s prequel, here.

The Book Swede and his blog reviews Scar Night by Alan Campell.

He also reminds me that The Edge of Reason by Meilinda Snodgrass needs UK release

Realms of Speculative Fiction reminds my I should read something by John Scalzi, Old Man’s War?

The Resurrectionist by James Bradley. Should I? Shouldn’t I?

Write Faster?

Aiden @ A Dribble of Ink points me to a post called Writing at Your Own Pace by David B Coe. Now then how far would writing 10 words a week get me?

Graduated?

Tia @ Fantasy Debut has a great feature called The Debut Gradutes. Though maybe David Bilsborough could have been held back a year? hehe

Tia also has a feature on the opening chapters for The Name of Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, one bit that made me smile was, ‘Patrick Rothfuss backs into his novel like a slow-moving semi tractor trailer’. I bought it on impulse along with another debut called A Good & Happy Child by Justin Evans last week. 722 pages is a lot of reading time and going slow ain’t a good sign though it’s had a excellent reception.

More books?

Fantasy Book Critic has posted his July Round-up of releases. Some that caught my eye are: Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross, The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong, The Midnight Twins by Jacquelyn Mitchard, The Dog of the North by Tim Stretton, Through a Glass, Darkly by Bill Hussey, Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain, especially Sweetheart!

Holy Crap is right

The Fantasy & Sci-Fi Lovin’ Book Review shows off their review pile. I ‘think’ it puts mine to shame.

Sharp Words has a five step plan for book reviewing.

100 Book MeMe

Not that anyone has actually MeMe’d. But that’s not going to stop me crashing the party. He’s my go:

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own so we can try and track down these people who’ve read six and force books upon them.

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – J.K. Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible
(I read this in a really cool course at Rutgers - The Bible as Literature).
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
I hated this novel; I had to read it in an early English course at Rutgers. I still can’t decide if this or Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is the book I loathed the most from my English courses
8 Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles– Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca– Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – C.S. Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – L.M. Montgomery
47 Far From the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby-Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From a Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – A.S. Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet in Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

Shows something about my lack of taste that does. OF Blog, Mostly Harmless Books and Rob’s Blog have more taste.

I think that’s enough for now.

Tags: links, Round-Up

Title: Trading in Danger
Author: Elizabeth Moon
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 6 Nov 2003
Review Copy

Description
Ky Vatta is kicked out of the military academy for what should have been a small act of kindness. For the daughter of a rich trading family it should mean nothing but disgrace. Instead she is offered a captaincy that will take her away from her troubles and set her on a new path.

Her orders from Vatta Trading are simple take her ship to the scrape yard and come back with a profit. But her instincts find more profit and trade along the way and this is how her trouble starts.

Comment
All novels are about journeys. Some are plot driven and some are character driven. I’ve always preferred character to plot. I need someone or something to engage in and someone else’s to see that journey through. Elizabeth Moon has shaped a world and a situation that allowed her to take us on Ky Vatta’s journey through Ky’s eyes.

Moon really gets to the heart of the character by showing more than directly telling us how she handles herself as her and the crew of the Glennys Jones are put in a situation that they never planned. She also intersects this with scenes from other places allowing us, the reader, to see the wider situation so we’re aware of the full extent of trouble that could be coming Ky’s way.

With such a large dangerous backdrop Moon stays tightly focused on the consequences for Ky and her crew. We never get to see the full extend of what they find themselves in and we don’t need to. It is only a backdrop to the changes that take place in Ky, her ship, and her crew and I’m hoping that it’s also creating the basis for their next adventure.

A story about a trading ship could be quite boring, or so I thought, as there are only so many times you can see a ship travelling from planet to planet. Good writers though can make anything interesting; actually they show us what is interesting about anything. At no point was did my mind wander. I wanted to know what could happen next and how Ky was going to get out of it. I found it very hard to put down, which is rare with me.

Summary
Perfectly balanced. Emotional and adventurous. Trading in Danger has one of the most touching and best endings I’ve had read in ages. And the adventure is only just beginning. I’m eager to see where Ky Vatta goes next.

10/10 (I just couldn’t think of anything I wanted done differently)

Tags: Elizabeth Moon, Orbit, review, review copy

I know it is July but I’m beginning to like doing round-ups at the end of the month rather than before. One good thing is that you should be able to buy them now. Another is that I can add links and comments from other places. Also I’m able to include books I might otherwise miss.  These are mostly books released in June but one or two might be books from earlier. Can I ask a favour? Could you let me know in the comments if you found this type of post useful? It takes a bit of time and I don’t mind doing it as long as people get something out of it. Thanks.  *All release dates are UK related unless stated.*

Featured

These are mostly review copies and seeing as publishers were kind enough to send them I think they need first mention.

The Gone Away World

Author: Nick Harkaway
Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd
Release Date: 5 June 2008

Synopsis
The Jorgmund Pipe is the backbone of the world, and it’s on fire. Gonzo Lubitsch, professional hero and troubleshooter, is hired to put it out - but there’s more to the fire, and the Pipe itself, than meets the eye. The job will take Gonzo and his best friend, our narrator, back to their own beginnings and into the dark heart of the Jorgmund Company itself. From rural childhood in Cricklewood Cove to military service in a bewildering foreign war; from Jarndice University to the sawdust of the Nameless Bar; their story is the story of the Gone-Away World. It is the history of a friendship stretched beyond its limits; a tale of love and loss; of ninjas, pirates, politics and strange places. Equal parts raucous adventure, comic odyssey, geek nirvana, and cool epic, this is The Gone-Away World.

Comment

This is one of those big releases coming from the son of John le Carré and reportedly receiving a £300,000 advance. Not that I’m influenced by such things but they are interesting to note. I have glanced at the opening chapter and I’m eager to get to in the TBR pile. It’s quite hefty so it might take me a while. It’s had mostly positive reviews from what I can tell.

Links

Vulpes Libris Review
The TimesOnline Review
the guardian review
Sharp Words review
The Independent review
Sandstorm Reviews review
SFX review
BookGeeks.co.uk review
SFRevu review
telegraph review
Den of Geek! review
marcusgipps review

Superpowers

Author: David J. Schwartz
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: 5 June 2008

Synopsis
A party in a college flat in May 2001, a case of dodgy home-brewed beer, a violent storm. Next day: the mother of all hangovers. What would you do if the morning after the night before brought a banging head, a raging thirst…Oh, and your very own superpower? Meet the all-stars: Harriet (invisibility), Charlie (the ability to read minds), Caroline (flight), Mary-Beth (super-strength) and Jack (faster than a speeding…well, you know). Determined to become costumed crime-fighters, but baffled by the lack of super-villains to tackle, the quintet soon finds that the ramifications of their new powers are more complicated than they anticipated, and that humans (even themselves) are much more fragile than they’d realised. And all the while the clock ticks down to one day in September 2001.

Comment

Superheroes mostly belong in comic books. Their larger than life exploits suit the mix of panelistic art and words. Superheroes are now making taking their place on the big screen with films like the X-Men and Superman Returns. But one place that they seem to have problems is books and it’ll be interesting to read how David J. Schwartz handles it. Again it’s a big-ish release with plenty of positive blogtime.

Links

The Book Swede and his blog review
Katie’s Reading review
Torque Control review
Fantasy Book Critic review
Sandstorm Reviews review

Author: Garry Kilworth
Publisher: Atom
Release Date: 01/05/08

Synopsis
What awaits Jack, Annie and Davey when they are transported back in time to the gothic city of Prague, to search for their missing parents? Trying to avoid capture by the secret police, they find themselves running through dark and dangerous cobbled streets and meet some very shady characters. Where are their parents and who has stolen the key to the time machine? Alchemists, mythical creatures and a man with a hook for a hand hold the answers they’re looking for. Will our young heroes be in time to save their parents from eerie Karlstein Castle? And even if they do, how will they return to the present day without the key?

Comment

I wanted to read this one after seeing the review in SFX. I know it’s primarily a children’s book. Not that that has ever stopped me. I’m still a big fan of cartoons and I don’t think I’m every going to grow out of them. Anyway, I think I’m missing Eastern Europe and the appeal of a gothic story in Prague is very high.

Links

Tobin’s Reviews review
SFX review
The Book Bag review

Astropolis Book One: Saturn Returns

Author: Sean Williams
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: 5 June 2008 (paperback)

Synopsis
When former mercenary commander, Imre Bergamasc, is resurrected in the 879th Millennium, he finds that things have changed during the 150,000 years he was dead. Following a galaxy-wide disaster known as the Slow Wave, the Continuum has collapsed, the bright galactic empire reduced to millions of disparate systems in various states of disarray. Reunited with his old teammates - or, at least, reasonable facsimiles thereof - Imre must piece together both the fragments of his memory and the story of civilisation’s fall. But the more he digs the more suspicion dawns that the two issues are far from separate. Was the Imre Bergamasc he no longer remembers an unwitting pawn in the fall of civilisation? Or was he, in fact, the architect?

Comment

I’ve already had chance to review Saturn Returns:

This is definitely an opening chapter to something deeper and more intriguing from what I can tell of the ending and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens to Imre and his little band next.

I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in the next one.

Links

Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review review
SF Diplomat review
Sean Williams Official Site
Sean Williams ‘In Their Own Words’
SF Crowsnest.com review
The Book Swede and his blog review

More Releases

After Dark

Author:
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: 5 Jun 2008 (paperback)

Synopsis
The midnight hour approaches in an almost empty all-night diner. Mari sips her coffee and glances up from a book as a young man, a musician, intrudes on her solitude. Both have missed the last train home. The musician has plans to rehearse with his jazz band all night, Mari is equally unconcerned and content to read, smoke and drink coffee until dawn. They realise they’ve been acquainted through Eri, Mari’s beautiful sister. The musician soon leaves with a promise to return. Shortly afterwards Mari will be interrupted a second time by a girl from the Alphaville Hotel; a Chinese prostitute has been hurt by a client, the girl has heard Mari speaks fluent Chinese and requests her help.Meanwhile Eri is at home and sleeps a deep, heavy sleep that is ‘too perfect, too pure’ to be normal; pulse and respiration at the lowest required level. She has been in this soporific state for two months; Eri has become the classic myth - a sleeping beauty. But tonight as the digital clock displays 00:00 a faint electrical crackle is perceptible, a hint of life flickers across the TV screen, though the television’s plug has been pulled.

Comment

When I was in uni a tutor recommended After the Quake and even though it’s small collection I’ve not quite yet finished it. But then I do tend to read short stories in bursts and too many by the same author can be a wipe overwhelming. I’m eager to step onto the Murakami ladder. Maybe this would be the place to start?

Links

the guardian review
bookcritics.org review
New York Times review
newsvine review
The Millions review
January Magazine review
the guardian (different reviewer) review
hooked on books review
bookcritics.org (different reviewer) review

Sea of Poppies

Author: Amitav Ghosh
Publisher: John Murray
Release Date: 1 May 2008

Synopsis
At the heart of this epic saga, set just before the Opium Wars, is an old slaving-ship, The Ibis. Its destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean, its crew a motley array of sailors and stowaways, coolies and convicts. In a time of colonial upheaval, fate has thrown together a truly diverse cast of Indians and Westerners, from a bankrupt Raja to a widowed villager, from an evangelical English opium trader to a mulatto American freedman. As their old family ties are washed away they, like their historical counterparts, come to view themselves as jahaj-bhais or ship-brothers. An unlikely dynasty is born, which will span continents, races and generations. The vast sweep of this historical adventure spans the lush poppy fields of the Ganges, the rolling high seas, and the exotic backstreets of China. But it is the panorama of characters, whose diaspora encapsulates the vexed colonial history of the East itself, which makes Sea of Poppies so breathtakingly alive — a masterpiece from one of the world’s finest novelists.

Comment

I’ve only read The Calcutta Chromosome and that was a few years ago. I think it might even be out of stock in the UK. This might be the book check out and start reading some more of Ghosh’s work.

Links

YouTube reading
Times Online review
Times Online (different reviewer) review
Independent review
the guardian review
Independent (different reviewer) review
the guardian (different reviewer) review
FT.com review

Happy Hour of the Damned

Author: Mark Henry
Publisher: Kensington
Release Date: 14 June 2008

Synopsis
Seattle. One minute you’re drinking a vanilla breve, the next, some creepy old dude is breathing on you, turning you into a zombie. And that’s just for starters. Now, the recently deceased Amanda Feral is trying to make her way through Seattle’s undead scene with style (mortuary-grade makeup, six-inch stilettos, Balenciaga handbag on sale) while satisfying her craving for human flesh (Don’t judge. And no, not like chicken.) and decent vodkatinis.Making her way through a dangerous world of cloud-doped bloodsuckers, reapers, horny and horned devils, werewolves, celebrities, and PR-obsessed shapeshifters - not to mention an extremely hot bartender named Ricardo - isn’t easy. And the minute one of Amanda’s undead friends disappears after texting the word, “help” (The undead - so dramatic!) she knows the afterlife is about to get really ugly.Something sinister is at hand. Someone or something is hell bent on turning Seattle’s undead underworld into a place of true terror. And this time, Amanda may meet a fate a lot worse than death…

Comment

Ok, I’m a sucker for urban fantasy and all the reviews I’ve read makes me want to pick up a copy though I might have to wait until it comes out in a cheaper paperback edition.

Links

Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review review
Darque Reviews review
Urban Fantasy Land review
Flames Rising review
Fantasy Book Critic review

Making Money

Author: Terry Pratchett
Publisher: Corgi Books
Release Date: 16 June 08

Synopsis
It’s an offer you can’t refuse. Who would not to wish to be the man in charge of Ankh-Morpork’s Royal Mint and the bank next door? It’s a job for life. But, as former con-man Moist von Lipwig is learning, the life is not necessarily for long. The Chief Cashier is almost certainly a vampire. There’s something nameless in the cellar (and the cellar itself is pretty nameless), it turns out that the Royal Mint runs at a loss. A 300 year old wizard is after his girlfriend, he’s about to be exposed as a fraud, but the Assassins Guild might get him first. In fact lots of people want him dead. Oh! And every day he has to take the Chairman for walkies. Everywhere he looks he’s making enemies. What he should be doing is …Making Money!

Comment

I have a feeling that you either like Sir Terry (he really needs a Knighthood) or you don’t and I’m not sure if Making Money would be a good start, as I understand it it’s a sort of sequel to Going Postal.  After reading 31 Terry Pratchett novels (this is the 36th) I had taken a bit of a break. But I’ve loved almost everyone and they’re timeless and endlessly re-readable, maybe not Mort, but most of the others.

Links
SF REviews.net review
the guardian review
blogcritics.org review
the books bag review
the times online review
Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review review
The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent. review

Island of the Sequined Love Nun

Author: Christopher Moore
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: 5 June 2008 (paperback re-release)

Synopsis
Take a wonderfully crazed excursion into the demented heart of a tropical paradise - a world of cargo cults, cannibals, mad scientists, ninjas, and talking fruit bats. Our bumbling hero is Tucker Case, a hopeless geek trapped in a cool guy’s body, who makes a living as a pilot for the Mary Jean Cosmetics Corporation. But when he demolishes his boss’s pink plane during a drunken airborne liaison, Tuck must run for his life from Mary Jean’s goons. Now there’s only one employment opportunity left for him: piloting shady secret missions for an unscrupulous medical missionary and a sexy blond high priestess on the remotest of Micronesian hells. Here is a brazen, ingenious, irreverent, and wickedly funny novel from a modern master of the outrageous.

Comment

Moore is a writer I really should get around to reading. The last absurd writer that I read was Robert Rankin and I stopped reading him a long time ago when I couldn’t bring myself to read The Sprout Mask Replica. Would this be a good place to start on Christopher Moore?

Links

SF Site review
blogcritics review

Moon Called

Author: Patricia Briggs
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: 5 June 2008

Synopsis
‘I didn’t realize he was a werewolf at first. My nose isn’t at its best when surrounded by axle grease and burnt oil …’ Mercedes Thompson runs a garage in the Tri-Cities. She’s a mechanic, and a damn good one, who spends her spare time karate training and tinkering with a VW bus that happens to belong to a vampire. Her next-door neighbour is an alpha werewolf - literally, the leader of the pack. And Mercy herself is a shapeshifter, sister to coyotes. As such, she’s tolerated by the ‘wolves but definitely down the pecking order. As long as she keeps her eyes down and remembers her place, the pack will leave her in peace. Hardly a normal situation, but then, Mercy Thompson is not exactly normal herself…and her connection to the world of things that go bump in the night is about to get her into a whole lot of trouble.

Comment

Ok, I like Urban Fantasy. The whole vampire werewolf thing needs a new twist. Could this be it?

Links

thebookbag.co.uk review
Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review
Vampire Genre review
Avid Book Reader review

Stealing Light

Author: Gary Gibson
Publisher: TOR
Release Date: 6 June 2008

Synopsis
In the 25th century, only the Shoal possess the secret of faster-than-light travel (FTL), giving them absolute control over all trade and exploration throughout the galaxy. Mankind has operated within their influence for two centuries, establishing a dozen human colony worlds scattered along Shoal trade routes. Dakota Merrick, while serving as a military pilot, has witnessed atrocities for which this alien race is responsible. Now piloting a civilian cargo ship, she is currently ferrying an exploration team to a star system containing a derelict starship. From its wreckage, her passengers hope to salvage a functioning FTL drive of mysteriously non-Shoal origin. But the Shoal are not yet ready to relinquish their monopoly over a technology they acquired through ancient genocide.

Comment

I’m really in sci-fi mood right now and this looks like it’ll be a good one and he’s a new-ish writer to boot.

Links

Fantasy Book Critic review
Graeme’s Fantasy Book review
SFFWorld review

Bloodheir

Author: Brian Ruckley
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: 5 June 2008

Synopsis
As ever greater battles are fought between the Black Road and the True Bloods, so each side in the conflict becomes ever more riven by internal dissent and disunity. Amidst the mounting chaos, Aeglyss the na’kyrim gradually masters the remarkable powers that have been unleashed upon him by his crucifixion. Twisting everything and everyone around him to serve his own mad desires, he begins to exert a dangerous, insidious influence over the course of events both near and far. Orisian, lord of the ruined Lannis Blood, faces not only the consequences of that malign influence, but also the machinations of his supposed allies and the stirring of the long-dormant Anain, the most potent race the world has ever known.

Comments

Having made a rash of my review of Winterbirth, the prequel to Bloodheir. I might read this one for pleasure rather than review rather than embarrassing myself again. I’d like to see where Ruckley is taking the story next though and how the magic works.

Links

Chris, the book swede review
SFF World review
Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review review
thebookbag.co.uk review
Grasping for the Wind review
Pat’s Fantasy Book Review review

The Snake Stone

Author: Jason Goodwin
Publisher: Faber
Release Date: 01 May 2008 (paperback)

Synopsis
It is Istanbul, 1838, and Lefevre, a French archaeologist, has arrived in Istanbul determined to uncover a lost Byzantine treasure. Yashim is hired to investigate him, but when the man turns up dead, there is only one suspect: Yashim himself. Once again, the investigator finds himself in a race against time to uncover the startling truth behind a shadowy secret society dedicated to the revival of the Byzantine Empire, caught in a deadly game deep beneath the city streets, a place where the stakes are high - and betrayal is death.

Comment

I just like the sound of this

Links

Independent review
the guardian review
shotsmag review
EuroCrime review

The Name of the Wind

Author: Patrick Rothfuss
Publisher: Gollancz
Release Date: 12 June 2008

Synopsis
‘I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep. My name is Kvothe. You may have heard of me’ So begins the tale of Kvothe - currently known as Kote, the unassuming innkeepter - from his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, through his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-riddled city, to his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a difficult and dangerous school of magic. In these pages you will come to know Kvothe the notorious magician, the accomplished thief, the masterful musician, the dragon-slayer, the legend-hunter, the lover, the thief and the infamous assassin. The Name of the Wind is fantasy at its very best, and an astounding must-read title.

Comment

I have to read what is probably the fantasy of release of last year. It just has to be done!

Links

Lots!

Strange Horizons review
The Wertzone review
Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review review

And lastly I’m running out of time so here are some quick links to others that take my fancy:

The Vows of Silence Susan Hill
Mars by Ben Bova (Hodder Great Reads)
Michael Tolliver Lives by Armistead Maupin
Absolute Sandman Vol.3 by Neil Gaiman
The Hunt for Atlantis by Andy McDermott
Phantom Prey by John Sandford
Dead Man’s Footsteps by Peter James
Magician by Michael Scott
Earth Inc. by Michael Bollen

Tags: New Releases, Round-Up