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
Lets start with the paperback release of one of novels of the year in 2007, Heart Sick by Chelsea Cain from Pan Books. In my 
Then we have the next in the Joe Pitt series by Charlie Huston from 
Changing from Brooklyn to UnLondon not to be confused with London as UnLondon is where all the lost and broken things of London end up and some of it’s people too. China Mieville has been on the radar for a long time. But he tends to write very thick novels; Perdido Street Station (880 pages), The Scar (624) and The Iron Council (400 pages). OK, they get shorter as you move along but the first one at over 800 pages is a little scary. He’s also been nominated for and won various awards so it’s got to a good 800-plus pages. Anyway, Un Lun Dun is his first Young Adult novel, which btw he also illustrated. Two girls called Zanna and Deeba enter the strange wonderland that is UnLondon, but they arrive at a dangerous time. It’s a frightened city looking for a hero. Look for a review soon thanks to Pan.
Speaking of Pan. Pan/Tor were kind enough to send me this month’s paperback releases. As well as Un Lun Dun. First is Bloodmind by Liz Williams, 
I’m not sure the other two are quite me but you never know. The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi explores using DNA of the dead and turning it into prefect soldiers for the Colonial Defence Force. It seems that three alien races have joined forces to hinder Earth’s expansion into space. But a turncoat scientist knows the biggest military secrets who’s helping the alliance. I think that’s right. Actually, it’s probably clearer to see the entry on 
And lastly moving from Military Sci-Fi to paranormal romance with Dark Moon by Lori Handeland. The Romance Reader had this to say:
The big release of the month has to be Iain M. Bank’s return to Culture with Matter from Orbit. I’ve said before that I’ve only read one Bank’s novel, his first Culture novel, and didn’t get into it. But as Matt pointed out I really should. I’m going to read The Player of the Games at some point and see how I go. The other interesting thing about this release is the audio version is getting pre-released on 
We also have The Domino Men by Jonathan Barnes from Gollancz, a sequel to The Somnambulist. Barnes brings the Victorian events of The Somnambulist bang up to date with a tale that brings together every conspiracy theory you’ve ever heard about the royal family and the true story about where the power of Number 10 really lies. Look for a review of The Somnambulist very soon. If you can’t wait Fantasy Book Critic 
And finally two translations. The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski from Gollancz is seven interlinked short stories and follows;
Finally, we have a retelling of the vampire myth in Let The Right On In by John Ajvide Lindqvist by Quercus.
Starting with a collection of tales by a master of the genre. Gollancz are releasing The Necronomicon: The Weird Tales of H.P Lovecraft. I’ve read a few stories by Lovecraft and this collection of just over 1000 pages looks likes it’s going to be a definite edition for new readers, fans and collectors. As a writer Lovecraft has a had an influence of some of my favourite writers like Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Charles Stross and his ideas have seeped into popular culture.
Next is the Black Swan paperback The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I’m not sure what to make of it. The blurb goes like this; ‘The story of a young German girl who steals books, of her family and the Jewish boxer hidden in their basement as they struggle to survive in Nazi Germany when the bombs begin to fall. ‘ The twist is that it’s narrated by Death. The other other novelist that personifies Death is Terry Pratchett even giving him his own series of Discworld Books. It seems that Mark’s take is very different. It’s had excellent and long reviews in a 
This paperback has had a long road to a paperback release. Back in Oct 2006 Penguin released The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters as a 10-book series of chapbooks before releasing the complete hardback in January 2007. What’s it about? ‘Miss Temple didn’t come to the city for an adventure - she came to find a husband. But, when her fiance, Roger Bascombe, threw her over for no reason, Miss Temple decided to find out why. Yet, following Roger to a masked ball (one with a most sinister purpose) will take Miss Temple very far from the respectable world she has always known.’ It’s had mixed reviews which is putting me off. I think I’m going to have to read a few pages to see if the writing is engaging.
Continuing my support of debuts here is one with a very dodgy cover. Die With Me by Elena Forbes. This time we move to crime and to a newish publisher Quercus. It’s had some good reviews 
Now this one I’ve picked up and put down so many times when I’ve been browsing my local bookstore. It’s calling to me. It might be the Western wanted poster effect cover or it might be that I have an unhealthy obsession with debut authors. I love the synopsis on Amazon,
Were now moving into space with Debatable Space by Philip Palmer a debut from Orbit. ‘Flanagan (who is, for want of a better word, a pirate) has a plan. It seems relatively simple: kidnap Lena, the Cheo’s daughter, demand a vast ransom for her safe return, sit back and wait. Only the Cheo, despotic ruler of the known universe, isn’t playing ball. Flanagan and his crew have seen this before, of course, but since they’ve learned a few tricks from the bad old days (being particularly bad if you happen to have been one of the myriad sons or daughters the Cheo let die rather than give in to blackmail) and since they know something about Lena that should make the plan foolproof, the Cheo’s defiance is a major setback. It is a situation that calls for extreme measures. Luckily, Flanagan has considerable experience in this area…’ There’s a great interview with Palmer over at 
I enjoyed reading Charles Stross (see 
Speaking of books by writers I enjoy, White Night by Jim Butcher is the ninth book in 
A Stephen King release is always something to look forward to and contrary to earlier reporst from the man himself he shows little sign of slowing down. Hodder & Stoughton have got a wonderful painted cover for the Duma Key and it explores the tortured of an artist, ‘DUMA KEY is the engaging, fascinating story of a man who discovers an incredible talent for painting after a freak accident in which he loses an arm. He moves to a ‘new life’ in Duma Key, off Florida’s West Coast; a deserted strip, part beach, part weed-tangled, owned by a patroness of the arts whose twin sisters went missing in the 1920s. Duma Key is where out-of-season hurricanes tears lives apart and a powerful undertow lures lost and tormented souls. Here Freemantle is inspired to paint the amazing sunsets. But soon the paintings become predictive, even dangerous. Freemantle knows the only way forward is to discover what happened to the twin sisters — and what is the secret of the strange old lady who holds the key? The story is about friendship, about the bond between a father and his daughter. And about memory, truth and art. It is also is a metaphor for the life and inspiration of a writer, and an exploration of the nature, power and influence of fiction.
And finally for now is the sequel to Vellum by Hal Duncan. Ink from Pan Books has had some great reviews like this one from 