Dis-Functional Family

 

Matt Fraction's FF is the one I go to when I want something different from my superhero comics; this isn't the gonzo science fiction title that it was under Jonathan Hicman. This story looks like it might just be a slow motion train wreck and I mean in a good way.

Scott Lang, Ant-man, is a damaged man trying to keep things together for the sake of the team and children he's been given charge of. Medusa, ever a favorite, is an enigmatic haughty woman with her own agenda yet to fully emerge. She-Hulk may just be the heart of this team being the most stable and thoughtful,of them. Ms. Thing, Jonny's rocker girlfriend come superhero wearing the Thing suit made by Reed Richards for Ben to use on his days of being human, is a wild card to me and more I see of her the more I'm liking her. The dynamics of this team are so different but still reminiscent of the familily of choice nature of the Fantastic Four.

Mike Allred's artwork is so niche only you'll know if its for you but I love the clean ness of his lines and the way to me it is reminiscent of Jack the king Kirby.

This books seems to about morality, choices and the repercussions that come from differing opinions about what is right.

 

With Jonathan Hickman mentioned above I have to mention this new title from this week too. From Image Comics comes a comic I've not had the chance to read yet but think is worth a look....East of West. I'll give you the solicitation info and you but ill say this first Hickman wrote some great science fiction stories on his FF series runs but they are that slow building kind of thing so patience may be necessary....

"OUT OF THE WASTELAND"

The things that divide us are stronger than the things that unite us. A Sci-Fi Western set in a dystopian America where all hope for the future rests in the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse...who just happen to be trying to kill the President of the United States.

One of the most exciting new books of the year, this is EAST OF WEST, a brand new, ongoing, monthly comic from the award-winning team of Marvel's FF, JONATHAN HICKMAN and NICK DRAGOTTA.

 

 

This week we also got the first issue of the "cosmic Avengers" title Guardiens of the Galaxy. I have yet to check it out and won't post about it till I do but I have hopes for awesomeness. I recall when the Guardiens were a team in the 30th century and made up of the odd characters Starhawk, Charlie 27, Martinex, Yandu and Captian Vance Astro. They're we're great future analogues to the Avengers with their similarities to some of the original and early iconic Avengers. This week ill be doing a spotlight on Wednesday about Science Fiction comics I have been enjoying.... and maybe about this incarnation of the Guardians....

 

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Hugo Award Nominees .....

I've been waiting for this one since I'm probably going to become a supporting member of World Con to vote this year... The list looks fantastic and features lots of my favorite writers... I will take some time over the coming week and post about my thoughts on some of these but here it is without comment...( Here is a link to the post on Tor.com.)

The finalists for the 2012 Hugo Awards have been announced. Congratulations to all.

 

Best Novel

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)

Blackout by Mira Grant (Orbit)

Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)

Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas by John Scalzi (Tor)

Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed (DAW)

 

Best Novella

After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress (Tachyon Publications)

The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon Publications)

On a Red Station, Drifting by Aliette de Bodard (Immersion Press)

San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats by Mira Grant (Orbit)

“The Stars Do Not Lie” by Jay Lake (Asimov's, Oct-Nov 2012)

 

Best Novelette

“The Boy Who Cast No Shadow” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Postscripts: Unfit For Eden, PS Publications)

“Fade To White” by Catherynne M. Valente (Clarkesworld, August 2012)

“The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi” by Pat Cadigan (Edge of Infinity, Solaris)

“In Sea-Salt Tears” by Seanan McGuire (Self-published)

“Rat-Catcher” by Seanan McGuire (A Fantasy Medley 2, Subterranean)

 

Best Short Story

“Immersion” by Aliette de Bodard (Clarkesworld, June 2012)

“Mantis Wives” by Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld, August 2012)

“Mono no Aware” by Ken Liu (The Future is Japanese, VIZ Media LLC)

Note: category has 3 nominees due to a 5% requirement under Section 3.8.5 of the WSFS constitution.

 

Best Related Work

The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature Edited by Edward James & Farah Mendlesohn (Cambridge UP)

Chicks Dig Comics: A Celebration of Comic Books by the Women Who Love Them Edited by Lynne M. Thomas & Sigrid Ellis (Mad Norwegian Press)

Chicks Unravel Time: Women Journey Through Every Season of Doctor Who Edited by Deborah Stanish & L.M. Myles (Mad Norwegian Press)

I Have an Idea for a Book… The Bibliography of Martin H. Greenberg Compiled by Martin H. Greenberg, edited by John Helfers (The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box)

Writing Excuses Season Seven by Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler and Jordan Sanderson

 

Best Graphic Story

Grandville Bête Noire written and illustrated by Bryan Talbot (Dark Horse Comics, Jonathan Cape)

Locke & Key Volume 5: Clockworks written by Joe Hill, illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW)

Saga, Volume One written by Brian K. Vaughn, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)

Schlock Mercenary: Random Access Memorabilia by Howard Tayler, colors by Travis Walton (Hypernode Media)

Saucer Country, Volume 1: Run written by Paul Cornell, illustrated by Ryan Kelly, Jimmy Broxton and Goran Sudžuka (Vertigo)

 

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

The Avengers Screenplay & Directed by Joss Whedon (Marvel Studios, Disney, Paramount)

The Cabin in the Woods Screenplay by Drew Goddard & Joss Whedon; Directed by Drew Goddard (Mutant Enemy, Lionsgate)

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro, Directed by Peter Jackson (WingNut Films, New Line Cinema, MGM, Warner Bros)

The Hunger Games Screenplay by Gary Ross & Suzanne Collins, Directed by Gary Ross (Lionsgate, Color Force)

Looper Screenplay and Directed by Rian Johnson (FilmDistrict, EndGame Entertainment)

 

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

Doctor Who: “The Angels Take Manhattan” Written by Steven Moffat, Directed by Nick Hurran (BBC Wales)

Doctor Who: “Asylum of the Daleks” Written by Steven Moffat; Directed by Nick Hurran (BBC Wales)

Doctor Who: “The Snowmen” Written by Steven Moffat, Directed by Saul Metzstein (BBC Wales)

Fringe: “Letters of Transit” Written by J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Akiva Goldsman, J.H.Wyman, Jeff Pinkner. Directed by Joe Chappelle (Fox)

Game of Thrones: “Blackwater” Written by George R.R. Martin, Directed by Neil Marshall. Created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (HBO)

 

Best Editor, Short Form

John Joseph Adams

Neil Clarke

Stanley Schmidt

Jonathan Strahan

Sheila Williams

 

Best Editor, Long Form

Lou Anders

Sheila Gilbert

Liz Gorinsky

Patrick Nielsen Hayden

Toni Weisskopf

 

Best Professional Artist

Vincent Chong

Julie Dillon

Dan Dos Santos

Chris McGrath

John Picacio

 

Best Semiprozine

Apex Magazine edited by Lynne M. Thomas, Jason Sizemore and Michael Damian Thomas

Beneath Ceaseless Skies edited by Scott H. Andrews

Clarkesworld edited by Neil Clarke, Jason Heller, Sean Wallace and Kate Baker

Lightspeed edited by John Joseph Adams and Stefan Rudnicki

Strange Horizons edited by Niall Harrison, Jed Hartman, Brit Mandelo, An Owomoyela, Julia Rios, Abigail Nussbaum, Sonya Taaffe, Dave Nagdeman and Rebecca Cross

 

Best Fanzine

Banana Wings edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer

The Drink Tank edited by Chris Garcia and James Bacon

Elitist Book Reviews edited by Steven Diamond

Journey Planet edited by James Bacon, Chris Garcia, Emma J. King, Helen J. Montgomery and Pete Young

SF Signal edited by John DeNardo, JP Frantz, and Patrick Hester

 

Best Fan Writer

James Bacon

Christopher J Garcia

Mark Oshiro

Tansy Rayner Roberts

Steven H Silver

 

Best Fan Artist

Galen Dara

Brad W. Foster

Spring Schoenhuth

Maurine Starkey

Steve Stiles

 

Best Fancast

The Coode Street Podcast, Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe

Galactic Suburbia Podcast, Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Presenters) and Andrew Finch (Producer)

SF Signal Podcast, Patrick Hester, John DeNardo, and JP Frantz

SF Squeecast, Elizabeth Bear, Paul Cornell, Seanan McGuire, Lynne M. Thomas, Catherynne M. Valente (Presenters) and David McHone-Chase (Technical Producer)

StarShipSofa, Tony C. Smith

 

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Zen Cho

Max Gladstone

Mur Lafferty

Stina Leicht

Chuck Wendig

 

 

 

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Scott Sigler Sunday.... (Well Monday actually)

Yes I know you may be he for my Sunday Comics feature and that is coming but I MUST represent for the FDO Scott Sigler. That acronym stands for Future Dark Overlord if you don't know and Scott Sigler is pretty much the king of the podcast novel. He is one of the few who parlayed giving his fiction away for free into a publishing empire, well at least a publishing phenomenon. He did not do this with erotic fan fic or with crazy cool dance moves while dressed classy he did it with good fiction well edited and stories personally told with passion and determination. So why am I going own about Scott?

Look at the poster above, The Rookie softcover for forty one cents and the Rookie plus the Starter for less the the cost of a fru fru espresso drink, or four dollars ten cents, before you add shipping that's pretty crazy right? Well before Scott got his St Martins contract for Infected, Contagion, and more he made a April first attack on amazon with his modern hard science horror thriller Ancestor and got to almost the top of the Amazon charts ( and would have if not for a book about a certain boy wizard ). This time around he wants to put this science fiction crime sports story into the hand of as many people as possible.

Now I'm not too much of a sports fan but I'm a big fan of this particular series of the FDOs. Honestly the story of Quinten Barnes and the GFL team the Krakens is pretty much my favorite. The story has a lot in common with epic fantasy and the players in this drama are greatly flawed and conflicted people and the growth and changes they go through are wonderful to follow. Now I recall listening to the original version of The Rookie, profanity and all, as a podcast from the FDO himself back in the day and loving the hell out of this mixture of crime stories, science fiction and sports drama worthy of a HBO series treatment (hint hint HBO). When he decided to go to press with it on his own with the backing of his fans he reworked it a bit and launched it as a YA series (really he just removed the profanity beyond that the story was largely unchanged)

Scott has maintained his weekly output of free podcast serials of his fiction from the early days of podcast fiction with Earthcore to this day, always there for the listening. He is as loyal to his fans as they are to him, hell as time has gone on he has added more projects to his plate rather then resting on his past successes.

So forego that extra fru fru coffe drink and order yourself some awesomeness in printed form .... April First ... Go do it its not a joke and you'd be a fool not to if your a action adventure and speculative fiction fan.... Make his take over that much closer....

For the FDO....

Excelsior

 

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Wanted Dispatch International Tabletop Day edition...

As a longtime gamer I love the idea of International Tabletop Day put out there by Felicity Day and Geek and Sundry. Wil Wheato's vlog has done a lot to make me want to game regularly again and I hope gamers in the audience got some games on today. Now on with the wanted posters.....

April looks to be both a hourglass shaped month with two very spare weeks sandwiched between large release weeks. Here are the high points next week April 2nd

 

Without a Summer by Mary Robinette Kowal continues the story of Jane Ellsworth and Mr. Vincent with this third regency era volume. The elevator pitch for the first book Shades of Milk and Honey went something like this is the book that Jane Austen would have written if magic existed in her world. Mary works very hard to maintain the language, social norms and history of the period slightly altered for the existence of illusionary magic adding which pays off in spades; I'm a fool for her writing. Here is the copy about the book from her website that can be found here.

Jane and Vincent go to Long Parkmeade to spend time with Jane’s family, but quickly turn restless. The year is unseasonably cold. No one wants to be outside and Mr. Ellsworth is concerned by the harvest, since a bad one may imperil Melody’s dowry. And Melody has concerns of her own, given the inadequate selection of eligible bachelors. When Jane and Vincent receive a commission from a prominent family in London, they decide to take it, and take Melody with them. They hope the change of scenery will do her good and her marriage prospects—and mood—will be brighter in London.

Once there, talk is of nothing but the crop failures caused by the cold and increased unemployment of the coldmongers, which have provoked riots in several cities to the north. With each passing day, it’s more difficult to avoid getting embroiled in the intrigue, none of which really helps Melody’s chances for romance. It’s not long before Jane and Vincent realize that in addition to getting Melody to the church on time, they must take on one small task: solving a crisis of international proportions.

In addition this month Glamour in Glass, last years Jane Ellsworth nove is being released in soft cover version. This novel as past readers will know is up for the Nebula award for this year and really is even in my mind with another novel that I hope will get the award. Mary has a unique voice as a writers and can write anything from these regency magical novels to science fiction mysteries that have also been up for awards. As you may notice I only review books I like and her work is really due a review by me...

 

The Exiled Blade by Jon Courtnay Grimwood

I had the chance to read the first book in this series and it was such a wonderful alternate history mixing the most corrupt political times of Venice with vampires, werewolves, Muslim and Viking themes. Jon Courtney is obviously in love with history and the ways that things could have gone awry. His characters here have the best and worst hat humanity has to offer in its hopes and dreams and its fears and greed. Based on my enjoyment of the first - The Fallen Blade - with its multiple viewpoints, plots counterplots and manipulations. To me this is the fictionalization of the fact work called Wolrld lit only by Fire.

Jon's fiction is rich and complex and I encourage you to try any of his books wither they be this, his modern Persian urban fantasy of the weird fiction that is Swamp Butterflies. Here is the copy about this volume...

Venice stands victorious. It has beaten back the German emperor's army and the Byzantine navy. The Duchess Alexa's party at court is strong again. Her niece, Lady Giulietta, will be the next Regent, and possibly the next duchess. Giulietta's lover, Lord Tycho, will sit beside her.

But no one is prepared for the fury of Prince Alonzo, exiled regent and traitor to his city. No one is prepared for the harshest winter Europe has ever known. As the canals of Venice freeze and wolves cross the ice from the north, Alonzo's plotting brings the Venetian empire to the very edge of destruction.

 

 

Weird Detectives edited by Paula Guran

Looking at some of the things I'm looking forward to its no surprise that an original short fiction urban fantasy collection world be in my sights. The Table of Contents for this one alone is a draw with the talent lined up and that is just the big names. With this one my only fear is that I'll find another couple authors I' have to start reading. This one in from a favorite publisher of mine - Prime Books and looks great. Take a look at their site here and this is their copy about the book and the impressive line up of authors.

 

Paranormal investigators. Occult detectives. Ghost hunters. Monster fighters. Humans who unravel uncanny crimes and solve psychic puzzles; sleuths with supernatural powers of their own who provide services far beyond those normal gumshoes, shamuses, and Sherlocks can provide. When vampires, werewolves, and thing that go bump in the night are part of your world, criminals can be as inhuman as the crimes they commit, and magic can seep into the mundane—those who solve the mysteries, bring justice for victims or even save the world itself, might wield wands as well as firearms, utter spells or simply use their powers of deduction. Some of the best twenty-first century tales from top authors of the century’s most popular genre take you down mean streets and into strange crime scenes in this fantastic compilation.

Contents (alphabetical by author):

“Cryptic Coloration” by Elizabeth Bear

“The Key” by Ilsa J. Blick

“Mortal Bait” Richard Bowes

“Star of David” by Patricia Briggs

“Love Hurts” by Jim Butcher

“Swing Shift” by Dana Cameron

“The Necromancer’s Apprentice” by Lillian Stewart Carl

“Sherlock Holmes and the Diving Bell” by Simon Clark

“The Adakian Eagle” by Bradley Denton

“Hecate’s Golden Eye” by P.N. Elrod

“The Case of Death and Honey” by Neil Gaiman

“The Nightside, Needless to Say” by Simon R. Green

“Deal Breaker” by Justin Gustainis

“Death by Dahlia” by Charlaine Harris

“See Me” by Tanya Huff

“Signatures of the Dead” by Faith Hunter

“The Maltese Unicorn” by Caitlín R. Kiernan

“The Case of the Stalking Shadow” by Joe R. Lansdale

“Like a Part of the Family” by Jonathan Maberry

“The Beast of Glamis” by William Meikle

“Fox Tails” by Richard Parks

“Imposters” by Sarah Monette

“Defining Shadows” by Carrie Vaughn

A Matter of Blood by Sarah Pinborough

This one ties into the last in that its a police procedural with occult overtones. It's been around a while but this next week sees its US publishing date. Ever since I was a kid along with genre stories I've been a follower of crime and police stories. I read about this one and was curious. Here is the Publishers Weekley site's coverage...

In a near-future London of financial insecurity and increasing social inequity, Det. Insp. Cass Jones is saddled with two challenging but otherwise mundane cases: one involving the deaths of two boys, apparently gunned down accidentally during the attempted assassination of a notorious crime lord, and the other involving a nihilistic serial killer called Man of Flies. Then Cass learns his brother, Christian, has murdered Christian’s wife and son before turning the gun on himself; Cass’s affair with Christian’s wife is quickly uncovered, and Cass’s fingerprints are found on Christian’s gun. The occult overtones and heavy-handed corporatist futurism are minor distractions from the heart of this book, which is a perfectly acceptable British-style police procedural centered on a cop who is just morally compromised enough to drive the plot and idealistic enough to be an impediment to the true villains. While clearly a series launch, this competent novel can be enjoyed on its own merits, albeit more for the investigation than the speculative elements. (Apr.)

Here also is Sarah Pinborough's website to see what she is doing now.

 

Blood Trade by Faith Hunter

The blogger at My Bookish Ways brought my attention back to this series that starters with the title Skin Trade. His series has my attention because it apparently pulls on Native American myths and folklore of the Skinwalker. I know little else other then this and it is in the above mentioned and linked blog's site here is the text posted there...

Blood Trade by Faith Hunter (St. Martins Press-April 16th)

Synopsis-Jane Yellowrock is a shape-shifting skinwalker who’s always up for a fight—even if it means putting her life on the line…

The Master of Natchez, Mississippi has a nasty problem on his hands. Rogue vampires—those who follow the Naturaleza and believe that humans should be nothing more than prey to be hunted—are terrorizing his city. Luckily, he knows the perfect skinwalker to call in to take back the streets.

But what he doesn’t tell Jane is that there’s something different about these vamps. Something that makes them harder to kill—even for a pro like Jane. Now, her simple job has turned into a fight to stay alive…and to protect the desperately ill child left in her care.

Here is a link to Faith Hunters web site.

 

River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay

One of the first fantasies I read that felt based both British history and Shakespeare was Guy's book Tigana and it was one of those books that made me cry and that one more the once. Guy is a marvelously talented writer and I hope to get to the first book in this series based on ancient Chinese history Under Heaven. I could say what I think is true but ill just let Penguins website copy convince you if it can...

In his critically acclaimed novel Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay told a vivid and powerful story inspired by China’s Tang Dynasty. Now, the international bestselling and multiple award-winning author revisits that invented setting four centuries later with an epic of prideful emperors, battling courtiers, bandits and soldiers, nomadic invasions, and a woman battling in her own way, to find a new place for women in the world – a world inspired this time by the glittering, decadent Song Dynasty.

Ren Daiyan was still just a boy when he took the lives of seven men while guarding an imperial magistrate of Kitai. That moment on a lonely road changed his life—in entirely unexpected ways, sending him into the forests of Kitai among the outlaws. From there he emerges years later—and his life changes again, dramatically, as he circles towards the court and emperor, while war approaches Kitai from the north.

Lin Shan is the daughter of a scholar, his beloved only child. Educated by him in ways young women never are, gifted as a songwriter and calligrapher, she finds herself living a life suspended between two worlds. Her intelligence captivates an emperor—and alienates women at the court. But when her father’s life is endangered by the savage politics of the day, Shan must act in ways no woman ever has.

In an empire divided by bitter factions circling an exquisitely cultured emperor who loves his gardens and his art far more than the burdens of governing, dramatic events on the northern steppe alter the balance of power in the world, leading to events no one could have foretold, under the river of stars.

 

So that is the dispatch for the week. Next week I will have more for you

 

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Another Russia...

 

Peter Higgins Wolfhound Century is a novel that is very hard describe in few words. So I'll say this about it; fans of weird fiction, alternate history, police procedurals and psychological thrillers would probably be equally entertained by it but there is more going on then meets the eye or is revealed in detail. Told from multiple jumpinng viewpoints Higgins reveals the layers of power deception manipulation and honor present in his alternate Russian landscape under the hand of a Stalinist police state. Wolfhound Century builds the stage and characters upon which the fate of which of two competing realities rely and ultimately the choice of which will exist. Peter built his world from bits of Slavic folklore and history creating a setting as foreign as any second world fantasy, making a urban fantasy that is like nothing else I've read recently.

The lanscape of this country is huge taking days to cross even by the fastest trains available with vast tracts of mysterious forests, hidden mythic people and many many secrets. In the background if this novel there is a long faught war with a foerign power, a war of attrition that is draining the nation dry. Vissarion Lom, a man tryimg to be a good cop, is called from his backwater posting to be assigned to flush out a terrorist and expose a traitor in the city of Mirgorod wher he will be a relative stranger. Lom is a chit in a much bigger game as are all the other players; the artists, the teacher, the daughter and the leaders and The manipulative spirits. Jumping between perspectives and creatures Peter unveils a story that shows that there are two realitis, two nows fighting for control as much as the people fight each other for power. One an ordered and confined world desired by the fallen stone angels that war in the heaves and the other a wild and chaotic world of the folklore and the woods where the rains can drown and the trees and winds speak. Peter writes with the wild weird creative flare of Mieville and Vandermeer as one blurb says of Wofhound but his prose is sparse rather then dense more accessable and allowing the reader to fill in the blanks.

As a political thriller this novel delivers on all promises. It is one of those novels where the chapters are short and make you think I'll read just one more late into the evening. In addition the the investigation and espionage plot there is unrest in the populace leading to protests which are harshly put down by the police with the cruel efficiency you would expect. It's characters are filled with an understandable paranoia of others and a wariness of their fellow citizens. There are clandestine meeting in cabarets and bars and several scenes of threats and torture. Wolfhound Century takes you to wonderful places too it is not all grim and dark and exposes some of the greatness some characters can rise to along with the depths to which some can fall.

The setting has elements that belong in a dystopian steampunk novel and others that could be in a pulpish urban fantasy. It is a hard book to classify and that is a great thing. The gloom of the rain filled streets and the atmosphere of paranoia is reminiscent of 1984, with characters packed and ready to run if the state ever showed at their door. Lom is a good cop in this game and that makes him a suspect and a liability since he's not corruptible. Everyone in this world is probably a pawn in someone's game and that includes some of the most powerful.

Because of the depth given to the characters and the wide range of the story and worldbuilding this is a speculative fiction novel that may make that jump to wider readership pulling in readers of Scandinavian thrillers and police proceduals set in the Soviet Union like Child 66 from Tom Rob Smith. With its often gloomy atmosphere and many rainy scenes I was often reminded of Blade Runner and noir crime novels I was such a big fan of in the nineties. I think this is something not to be missed for fans fantasy and thriller fiction of all type; I'm anxiously awaiting the second volume with the developments in the last few chapters I'm really wondering where it all will lead.

I received my ARC from the publisher but would happily have paid to read it.

Wolfhound Century is from Orbit Books (website here) and will be released Tuesday March 26th. Please go check out Peter Higgins' website here take a look around there is a very moody book trailer, character tidbits and other goodies to come. Last of all here is a link to a sample chapter via Orbit Books.

 

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Sunday Comics

Sorry I'm a couple weeks behind on this one but I like to comment of books I've gotten a chance to read....

Paul Cornell is one of the comics, tv and speculative fiction writers whom I will pretty much follow anywhere. He's bounced back and forth between Marvel and DC for the last couple years and it looks like he's going marvel at the moment. If anyone could make the very overexposed character Wolverine who seems to be in almost every corner of the Marvel Universe interesting again. The first issue here drops you into the story in medias res which is usually people's first issue of most comics.

Reading this was a good deal of fun showing the humanity in this often relegated to berserker killer status character. Alan Davis and Farmer on the art makes me fell I'm reading classic Captain Britain from as they say back in the day. The issue is short on explanation but deep on feeling. At this price point its hard to do it but I have to give Mr. Cornell the time to build this story. It is nice to see Logan being just a normal guy... or at least as normal as a ancient mutant hero can be.

 

I've mentioned Captain Marvel by Deconnick before and this may become a monthly thing because this is such a good book. Ok reading the letters to the Cap. Editor are saying thi gs about the art but this is a book about the characters, their stories and lives. Ok yes there are dinosaurs and super villains and cosmic powers with women who can fly to the edge of space but beyond all that its about a woman named Carol Danvers her friends and how much they love and respect her. I really love this book and your should do the reader in you a favor and try it out.

Oh and those comments about the artistic changes. Comics go through that inconsistency all the time, I happen to love the diversity of styles of art that have graced this great book. Sebela has a style that is like no one else out there. This book has so much in common with my other must have these days Hawkeye; its about the characters as people.... look at my comment about the Wolverine title about about him being just this guy. Captain Marvel is just this gal named Carol who cares so much about the people round her that she has to do something to help.

 

 

 

The other really cool thing that I have to comment on is the Marvel Universe APP on the iTunes Store. The subscription available costs 10 or so a month and gives you access to the whole electronic library Marvel has posted. You can see a bunch of cool stuff from about 6 months or more ago for free, sure you don't get too many to view but there is enough that is cool that downloading the APP for free that even if you do not want a subscription its worth it if your into superhero comics; I got to read the first issue of the Age of Apocalypse book by David Lapham last week and a couple of great Ultimate Universe books this week that has wetted my appetite for more and I'm thinking that 10 a month is pretty affordable compared to the cost of ebooks or physical ones. I still love supporting local stores but access to such a big library is appealing. I'd say if you have to option check it out.

 

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Wanted Dispatch March 23rd

This week is pretty big for speculative fiction readers across the spectrum of sub genres. So in the words of the Joker from the Dark Knight here we go....

Wolfhound Century by Peter Higgins

Wolfhound Century is one of the books I expect to be on many award lists next year. Comparisons to the weird fiction of China Mieville and Jeff Vandermeer are very apt; Peter Higgins novel of and alternate Stalinist Russia is dense with the weird of Slavic folklore, paranoia and intrigue. It is honestly a hard novel to pigeonhole as any one thing genre wise. The setting is the kind of thing Phillip K Dick would love, dark, moody often gloomy and raining and the range of characters too are akin to those of Dick. This is one that is worth getting in its hard cover version, don't wait a year for the trade version. Curious you can go here to see the moody book trailer and read a bit of this weird thriller police procedural.

Prior to its March 26th release check back for my full review... I got lucky enough to get an ARC to read...

The Good The Bad and The Infernal by Guy Adams

I may have posted about this book last month with all my weird western enthusiasm and it is still right up my interest alley so I'll mention it again. I've known about Guy Adams for a while since I check out what Solaris Books puts out pretty regularly but up till now I have not checked out his work, guess this is the one that has hooked me. I grew up watching The Wild Wild West and really dug the Adventures of Brisco County so when I head the title say the cover, shallow me, and read this I was on board this train. Chek out the blurb for the book and see if its something. You need too.

One day every hundred years, a town appears, its location and character different every time. The town’s name is Wormwood and it is a gateway to heaven itself.

Guy Adams has conjured up a remarkable Steampunk Wild West replete with gunslingers, soldiers of fortune, mechanical menaces and monstrous animals in his first book for Solaris. In The Good, The Bad, and the Infernal, only the brave and resourceful will survive...

Wormwood is due to appear on the 21st September 1889, somewhere in the American Midwest, and travelling preacher Obeisance Hicks and his simple messiah hope to greet Wormwood’s arrival. But so do Henry and Harmonium Jones and their freak show pack of outlaws, the Brothers of the Order of Ruth and their sponsor Lord Forset (inventor of the Forset Thunderpack and other incendiary modes of personal transport), and an aging gunslinger with a dark history.

The Marching Dead by Lee Battersby

This is the sequel to the novel The Corpse of the Rat King. It sounded pretty good in a gritty Joe Abercrombie, Richard Morgan kind of way, you know the blending of sword and sorcery sensibilities with epic fantasy world building. I do like fantasies that lean this way and I'm going to have to backtrack to the first volume sometime but as Angry Robot has the second volume just about out I just might dive in here and hope to find my water wings. Here is the cover copy....

Find the dead a King, save himself, win the love of his life, live happily ever after. No wonder Marius dos Helles is bored. But now something has stopped the dead from, well, dying.

It’s up to Marius, Gerd, and Gerd’s not-dead-enough Granny to journey across the continent and put the dead back in the afterlife where they belong.

The Extinction Machine by Jonathan Mayberry

Several years back I read a great contempory thriller that pitted Joe Ledger against a "zombie plague" version of terrorism and it was pretty excellent all told. The characters were beautifully messed up individuals and the book both made me laugh and creeped me out. Now I've missed the intervening adventures of this paramilitary group but I still like the whole idea and Jonathan Mayberry is a very cool writer so I hope to catch up with old friends with this one. Please go check Jonathn's work out at his website here and he has a piece of short fiction in the first issue of the online horror magazine Nightmare... It's cool and remiscent of IT by King in a very good way.

Solaris Rising 2 edited by Ian Whates

Solaris publishing has been publishing these original short fiction collections since they started in the book making game. The editors choose a great stable of authors to pull from and a good number of the stories either are award winners like Mary Robinette Kowal's Evil Robot Monkey or end up being in one if not more of the years best collections that grace the shelves every year. Ian Whates looks to have again chosen great writers to spotlight both recent favorites and classic among this group. Go take a peek at the great stuff coming from this small publisher, they have never failed to make me feel I got more then my money's worth....

Looking at the few authors spotlighted on the cover; with the likes of Paul Cornell, James Lovegrove, Allen Steele, and epic fantasy author Adrian Tchaikovsky I know this will be good ride.

Black Feathers by Joseph D'Lacey

This novel from Angry Robot has the endorsement of Stephen King so I'm intrigued enough to take a look and black feathers to me calls to mind crows and I like those avian scavengers. Apparently this novel promises to be an modern apocalyptic fable filled with menace and magic. If that and the use of the name King has you intrigued here is the blurb that will tell you a bit more.

It is the Black Dawn, a time of environmental apocalypse, the earth wracked and dying.

It is the Bright Day, a time long generations hence, when a peace has descended across the world.

In each era, a child shall be chosen. Their task is to find a dark messiah known only as the Crowman. But is he our saviour – or the final incarnation of evil?

The Atomic Age by Adam Christopher

Lastly this week I've got another sequel from the people at Angry Robot Books. A little over a year back Adam Christopher's pulp era hero novel Empire State came out, he tagged it with a Creative Commons license to allow people to play in his universe. Now he returns witha second volume. Ill let his blurb sell it but I will say I have a soft spot for both pulp and superhero stories....

The Empire State is dying. The Fissure connecting the pocket universe to New York has vanished, plunging the city into a deep freeze and the populace are demanding a return to Prohibition and rationing as energy supplies dwindle.

Meanwhile, in 1954 New York, the political dynamic has changed and Nimrod finds his department subsumed by a new group, Atoms For Peace, led by the mysterious Evelyn McHale.

As Rad uncovers a new threat to his city, Atoms For Peace prepare their army for a transdimensional invasion. Their goal: total conquest – or destruction – of the Empire State.

I've got some books I mind to spotlight next week... A mix of old and new... Tell me does that appeal to you or should I stick to what will be on the shelves on the Tuesday following the dispatch....

 

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Kickstarting the End....

Bradley P. Beaulieu the author of The Lays of Anuskaya series which started with the Winds of Khalakovo a couple years ago from Nigh Shade Books has made the choice to kickstart the final novel in the series Tje Flames of Shadam Khoreh. Taking the high road on the reason for the break with his publisher he is simple going it on his own and that is admirable. The final book at this point, four days into the campaign, the book is assured in all the forms he has promised - trade paper, eBook and limited edition hard covers so if you are a fan of second world epic fantasy with strong Eastern European influences and all the bells and whistles like maps, appendixes and dramatis personai should take a peek. There are plans to

Though I have a copy of the existing volumes I have yet to dive in and looking again at the reviews about the books I can't imagine anything more up my alley interest wise. People compare it to reading the work of Steven Erikson, in the way readers are plunged head first into the world, and the few that have read it all compare it favorable with GRRM's Game Of Thrones. The little I have read has very much its own feel Bradley is creating something new an totally his won and reviewers say so much that says to me that this can stand well alongside the modern classics.

Here is the link to his kickstarter for this project. You can get the eBook for the final volume pretty cheaply and the complete series for the cost of one trade paperback or a couple of mass market paperbacks these days. At higher levels you can get all the trade versions with consistent cover design or hard covers. He put together a short fiction collection earlier through Kickstarter that I wish I had gotten a chance to support. Thought I'd point your attention this way.

 

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Wanted Dispatch 16 March

Shattered Pillars by Elizabeth Bear

Elizabeth easily crosses genre boundaries without using initials or pseudo names; she has done hard SF, historical fantasies of differing types and now a second world fantasy based on the Silk Road. The first novel in this series, Range of Ghosts, is one that has been on my ever growing must read list and that is based on how much I loved the series that started with the award winning Hammered.

You can go here to read and sample chapter and below is the cover copy about the book.

Set in a world drawn from our own great Asian Steppes, this saga of magic, politics and war sets Re-Temur, the exiled heir to the great Khagan and his friend Sarmarkar, a Wizard of Tsarepheth, against dark forces determined to conquer all the great Empires along the Celedon Road.

Elizabeth Bear is an astonishing writer, whose prose draws you into strange and wonderful worlds, and makes you care deeply about the people and the stories she tells. The world of The Eternal Sky is broadly and deeply created—her award-nominated novella, “Bone and Jewel Creatures” is also set there.

 

 

Curve of the Earth by Simon Morden

One of the series I had hoped to get into last year was the Metrozone trilogy starring the character Samuil Petrovitch and sadly it fell through the inevitable cracks between all the other great reads that came out. Orbit publishing has now collected that into one volume and will be adding to it next week. Here is the information about the original and a teaser about the new book Curve of the Earth.

Welcome to the Metrozone – post-apocalyptic London of the future. Whilst the rest of Britain has devolved to anarchy, the M25 cordon protects a decaying city filled with homeless refugees, street gangs, exiled yakuza, crooked cops and mad cults. And something else; something new and dangerous.

An action-packed new science fiction thriller set in the world of the Philip K. Dick Award-winning Samuil Petrovitch novels

Welcome to the Metrozone – the post-apocalyptic London of the future, complete with homeless refugees, vicious street gangs and mad cults. A dangerous city needs an equally dangerous saviour: step forward Samuil Petrovitch, a Russian émigré with a genius-level intellect, extensive cybernetic replacements, a built-in AI with god-like capabilities and a full armoury of Russian swear words. Brilliant, selfish and cocky, he’s dragged the city back from the brink more than once – and made a few enemies on the way.

So when his adopted daughter Lucy goes missing in Alaska, he has a good idea who’s responsible and why. It never occurs to him that there’s a chance he could be wrong, and looking for one woman on the dark, frozen slopes of the far north could tip the delicate balance of nuclear-armed nations.

This time it’s not a city of twenty-five million that needs rescuing: it’s the world . . .

Here is a link to the book with an extract for your reading pleasure.

Ghostland Past Dark by Chandler Klang Smith.

I don't know much about the author beyond the blurb for the book that I will post below. I like a bit of weird and horror to the fiction I read and ChiZine publishing is one of the smaller publishers that choose great stuff to put in print. Their books cover many sub genres but all have a touch of the twisted about them from the westerns of Gemma Files to the collections of genre bending short fiction. If you order the physical editions of the books directly from the most include an eBook for you while you wait for the real thing. Here is the blurb that attracted my attention to this novel.

A hostile stranger is hunting Dr. Show’s ramshackle travelling circus across 1960s America. His target: the ringmaster himself. Struggling to elude the menace, Dr. Show scraps his ambitious itinerary; ticket sales plummet, and nothing but disaster looms. The troupe’s unravelling hopes fall on their latest and most promising recruit, Webern Bell, a sixteen-year- old hunchbacked midget devoted obsessively to perfecting the surreal clown performances that come to him in his dreams. But as they travel through a landscape of abandoned amusement parks and rural ghost towns, Webern’s bizarre past starts to pursue him, as well.

Along the way, we meet Nepenthe, the seductive Lizard Girl; Brunhilde, a shell-shocked bearded lady; Marzipan, a world-weary chimp; a cabal of drunken, backstabbing clowns; Webern’s uncanny sisters, witchy dogcatchers who speak only in rhymes; and his childhood friend, Wags, who may or may not be imaginary, and whose motives are far more sinister than they seem.

Queen Victoria's Book of Spells edited by Elled Datlow and Terry Windling

I'm kind of a fool for short story collections and particularly ones that promise to be magical alternate history. This collections has the second element that draws my attention, a plethora of women writers including some my favorite short fiction authors; Catherynne M Valente, Theodra Goss, Delia Sherman and the author of another book on my wanted list Elizabeth Bear.

Tor.com has been covering the stories in this volume wetting my appetite to get a copy here is a link to one of those posts.

Next weeks dispatch looks to be quite long and one book may just get a full review this next week.....

 

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Wanted Dispatch March 9

This week I've got a little bit of this a little of that... Some if its been out a couple weeks the rest coming on the twelfth....

Zachary Jernigan's novel No Return has gotten so many good author blurbs and recommendations; I have faith that it will live up to all this praise and have hopes to love it as much as they did. It's an epic fantasy book that some people compare to Dune in the world building, see what I mean of high praise. Elizabeth Hand quoted on the cover mentions one of my favorite series of books by Gene Wolfe too, that being the Book of the New Sun; I pretty much have to buy it based on those two comparisons the only classic missing is the Amber books of Zelazney.

Here is the link to his site. The author last month ran a giveaway that I entered and for the people who did not win he got a consolation prize that was cool also - that being a e-book of Scourge of the Betrayer by Jeff Salyards which is also pretty cool (I read part of it as an ARC).

Here is the cover copy of this audacious sounding novel

On Jeroun, there is no question as to whether God exists, only what his intentions are. Under the judgment of Adrash and his ultimate weapon, a string of spinning spheres, warring factions of white and black suits prove their opposition to the orbiting god with the great fighting tournament of Danoor. From the Thirteenth Order of Black Suits comes Vedas, a master of martial arts, Churls, a warrior woman and mercenary and Berun, a constructed man made of modular spheres possessed by the foul spirit of his creator. On the other side of the world Ebn and Pol of the Royal Outbound Mages have formed a plan to appease Adrash and bring peace to the planet. Ebn and Pol each have their own clandestine agendas, which may call down the wrath of the very god they hope to woo.

The book that I am reading at the moment reminds me of reading Parcival. This is an epic fantasy novel set firmly in a medieval European history. It has all the things that do it for me when it comes to historical fantasy, references to enough hat feels real to root me in the era; Miles calls to mid the images of knights in dented tarnished armor and foul talking men at arms and archers. This novel is full of bloody battles that somehow ar at the same time gritty and grim but never descends into antihero fiction.

The red night is the story of men versus the "wild" and it is filled, as most of my favorite stories are, with broken flawed characters as much at war with themselves as they are with the "wild" that is the enemy. The Red Knight feels like Arthurian myth and after lots of second world fantasy mayshaps this is the book I needed to encounter... and though I am reading an arc I consider it among my wanted.

Here is a link to the Traitor's Son series website where there I apparently some free fiction and a lot of other cool looking content.

If I were to choose a genre for this month and stick to it it might just be Urban Fantasy. Last year I read an awesome UF novel that could have been written by James Ellroy or Jim Thompson; it was called City of the Lost by Stephen Blackmoore. In February this year another novel snuck out hat I might have missed. This novel looks to be another anti-hero pulp action romp but not with a new take on zombie that was City.

This time around his player is a necromancer bounty hunter and it reads with the same umph and power as the tale of Joe Sunday coming to terms with his new status quo. I think I forgot how much I like crime fiction. If you like a little anti with your hero you need to read either City of the Lost or Dead Things.

As always here is the link to the authors website and I know there are some free and addictive chapters available there to entice you in.

Dana Cameron's Seven Kinds of Hell is another of the UF offerings if this year and this one hits next Tuesday the 12th. I am unfamiliar with her fiction but I'm willing to give it a chance, she has a long publishing history in the short fiction market with this same UF world. Check out the cover copy to see if its something you might want to look at....

Here's the story: When archaeologist Zoe Miller's cousin is abducted by a vicious Russian "businessman," she must come to grips with a haunting secret: unknown to even her closest of friends, Zoe is not entirely human. She is a werwolf and the daughter of the "Fangborn," a secret race of werewolves, vampires, and oracles.

Here is a link to her website for you to tak a look. I have to admit the pretty cover is the hook that has got me but some times covers do not lie about how good a book is.

In terms on science fiction this last week saw the release of M John Harrison's Empty Space hat continues the story of the rich universe that he began with the amazing novel Light and continued in the equally cool Nova Swing. Harrison writes science fiction hat explores both the depths of his characters and the philosophical depths of the massive and imaginative worlds he dreams up. He is very much in my mind one of the writers who was a big influence on the crazy weird that inspired China Mieville. For me reading his fiction is like returning to my teens and encountering the mind expanding science fiction/fantasy of Gene Wolfe. Here is the copy that Night Shade has on their website for the book :

One of science fiction’s premiere stylists, M. John Harrison has received abundant praise and awards for his wildly imaginative ideas and transcendent prose. Now he returns to the richly complex universe of Light and Nova Swing with a stunning new novel that braids three glittering strands into a tapestry that spans vast reaches of time and space:

In the near future, an elderly English widow is stirred from her mundane existence by surreal omens and visitations.

Centuries later, the space freighter Nova Swing takes on an illegal alien artifact as cargo, with consequences beyond reckoning.

While on a distant planet, a nameless policewoman tries to bring order to an event zone where ordinary physics do not apply, only to find herself caught up in something even stranger and more sublime. . . .

Ill leave you with hat for the week and a tentative promise that there are reviews on the way....

 

 

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Wanted Feb. 2nd update

Caitlín R Kiernan yesterday was able to reveal that she shares the 2013 Tiptree award with Kiini Ibura Salaam for her short story collection Ancient, Ancient. Caitlín's novel The Drowned Girl with its unreliable narrator Imp has won one of the more respected awards for speculative fiction. The Tiptree is an award for writing that expands and explores gender, relationships, mores and social issues the come with come with that topic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ancient, Ancient by Kiini Ibura Salaan is a book I read about in the summer or autumn last year and was one of the books I was thinking of finding before the corvid in my was distracted by another shiny but the cover, description and the exotic name of the writer stayed with me. Here is the blurb from the Tiptree site.

In Ancient, Ancient, Kiini Ibura Salaam’s startling stories combine science fiction, fantasy, and mythology in a sensuous exploration of what it means to live while struggling to define self and other. Salaam’s language is poetic and sensuous — a unique and original voice. The stories are ambitious and challenging, demonstrating excellent range in both storytelling style and imagery, from the mundane to the fully fantastical. Salaam is particularly interested in agency in oppressive social realities and explores how oppression works on our gendered bodies.

 

 

The rest of the list of nominees cover books I have recently mentioned and have been on my to read list here is a link to the Tiptree site.

And here is a list of the short listers: Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear, Rituals by Roz Kaveney's, Up Against It by M.J. Locke, 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson ( another Nebula Nominee) , Jagannath Stories by Karin Tidbeck, Firebrand by Ankaret Wells, and the short story "The Receptionist by Lesley Wheeler from the collection The Receptionist and Other Tales. I spent some time checking out the ones I knew nothing about last night and I'm pretty interested I reading all of them and well I have read bits of Jagannath which is excellent.

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Sunday Comics....

So just so you know I'm old enough to recall when the Sunday comics meant Blooms County and Calvin and Hobbs. I think that new comics day superhero wise was Tuesdays before it was Wednesday... Anyway old home day over on to the main show....

If you are not reading the blog The Savage Critics, never had the pleasure to know Brian Hibbs or the people at Comics Experience or Amazing Fantasy in San Francisco let me tell you about one of the best books in comics at the moment. It's. Matt Fraction's Hawkeye. I am so glad that I read columns by Brian Hibbs that broke my Marvel boycott a half dozen months ago and checked out Hawkeye.

I loved the character during the eighties and nineties having followed his mini series, the long run he had as the leader of the West Coast Avengers and well I followed him through good writers and bad. Lots of bad to be honest. This title redeems all that. This is Clint Barton when he's not an Avenger, its him training someone and being a good guy, a good neighbor and friend. I like Climt and would love to call this guy a buddy and I'd offer him a Caucasian if he dropped by for a movie or something. Here is the column by Brian that got me to check it out. Oh and it's one of those usually done in one Comice that just don't happen much these days. Oh and the art is always pretty sexy.

 

Immonen's Journey into Mystery is another reason why we need more women writing comics. The story she has been telling following Sif the old female back up character for Thor is so bloody entertaining in this new book. The very pretty art does not hurt either but the story here focusing on the very driven and very tough heroine. Journey, though set firmly in the Marvel universe, is very much a sword and sorcery comic that does not flinch at bloody minded adventures and has lots more in common with Conan comics then it does with its superhero brethren.

Journey into Mystery has all the things I want from a fantasy comic; multiple realms and realities, magical portholes, giants, berserkers, gods, seers, magic and lots and lots of swordplay and blood, not all of it red. This is a bargin for 2.99 a month and I for one hope its getting sales to warrant it a long run. Looking into the future solicits it seems a second Thor background character will be appearing soon, the one time alien who could life Thor's hammer....

 

 

These two books could not be much more different Hawkeye is about Clint Barton living his life in small ways and JiM is about Sif living loudly and with bold and reckless choices....

 

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Wanted March 2nd

Ok this seems to be the dispatch that I'm most like to get out weekly so welcome to the weekly post there at deadwood... The Wanted Column and my spotlight on the Nebula Nominees and some new books...

Due to my absolute enjoyment of the Alabaster graphic novel (reviewed here) and the fun I've had starting to read The Red Tree and the preview chapters of Blood Oranges I'm very interested in getting a copy of The Drowning Girl. Caitlín Kiernan is the kind of crossover writer somewhere between fantasy and horror that is really up my alley these days; maybe I played too much Call of Cthulhu in the day and watched too much Twilight Zone as a child.

 

Here is what Brit Mandello of Tor.com has to say about it and here is a short bit of cover copy....

India Morgan Phelps-Imp to her friends-is schizophrenic. Struggling with her perceptions of reality, Imp must uncover the truth about her encounters with creatures out of myth-or from something far, far stranger...

Maybe its just me.... I have some existential issues but I hope to get a copy soon...

Tina Connolly is not a name I'm familiar with but I do recall the striking cover of this novel and the idea of a "Woman in the Iron Mask" novel is attractive to me so I'll likely try to get a reading copy of this at some point soon. Again now with the cover copy;

Jane Eliot wears an iron mask.

It's the only way to contain the fey curse that scars her cheek. The Great War is five years gone, but its scattered victims remain -- the ironskin.

When a carefully worded listing appears for a governess to assist with a "delicate situation" -- a child born during the Great War -- Jane is certain the child is fey-cursed, and that she can help.

Teaching the unruly Dorie suppress her curse is hard enough; she certainly didn't expect to fall for the girl's father, the enigmatic artist Edward Rochart. But her blossoming crush is stifled by her own scars, and by his parade of women. Ugly women, who enter his closed studio...and come out as beautiful as the fey.

Jane knows Rochart cannot love her, just as she knows that she must wear iron for the rest of her life. But what if neither of these things is true? Step by step Jane unlocks the secrets of her new life -- and discovers just how far she will go to become whole again.

Ever since the short story "Evil Robot Monkey" and learning that Mary worked on the puppet-centric kids show Lazy Town that I and my girlfriend watched in Belgin while house-sitting in Holland I've been a fan. Mary also is one of the four writers that works on the podcast Writing Excuses which I'm pretty much addicted to since I hope to write something worth reading someday. Glamour in Glass is her second novel and a sequel to her first novel Shades of milk and Honey which she would pitch thusly : "this is the novel Jane Austen would have written if there was magic in the world"

Theses are not my normal grin gritty noir likes, oh she can write that but its nice to read something out of my element sometimes and her research into the real early 1800 brings this alternate history a lot of realism.

 

N.K. Jemisin is an author I have known I need to read for a couple of years having heard other authors sing the praises of her first series that started with the novel "The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms". I've had a copy of that novel for a while now and have yet to make the time to read it and here comes another series by her and look the first one is nominated for the Nebula. Me I'm guessing its time I read her work rather then reading her great posts and comments on Facebook. ... Here is the cover copy of it for you :

The city burned beneath the Dreaming Moon.

In the ancient city-state of Gujaareh, peace is the only law. Upon its rooftops and amongst the shadows of its cobbled streets wait the Gatherers – the keepers of this peace. Priests of the dream-goddess, their duty is to harvest the magic of the sleeping mind and use it to heal, soothe . . . and kill those judged corrupt.

But when a conspiracy blooms within Gujaareh’s great temple, Ehiru – the most famous of the city’s Gatherers – must question everything he knows. Someone, or something, is murdering dreamers in the goddess’ name, stalking its prey both in Gujaareh’s alleys and the realm of dreams. Ehiru must now protect the woman he was sent to kill – or watch the city be devoured by war and forbidden magic.

Though not as outrageously and fittingly pulp as the original cover here is the one I kinda hope gets the nod from the judges this year. Saladin Ahmed's Throne of the Crescent Moon is probably my favorite read from last years stack that I got through. I really did love his mix of older seasoned retired heroes and a new generation of adventurers in this book, maybe it was growing up with my grandparents or maybe it was Saladin's obvious love of the heroic traditions he was drawing from but I have nothing to say but if you love fantasy heroic adventures and are wanting a new voice here is the one I'd suggest. It's not as sprawling and doorstopish as some but its more heart poured into it then many multi volume sagas.

Here is my review of the book from several months back, I hope I did it justice.

 

 

 

 

 

So that's all of that for the moment.... I'm going to hit the collections and YA book up for the award next week.... I will be covering some of this next weeks releases later in the week but I have to do this today...

 

The second InCryptid novel from Seanan McGuire comes out this next Tuesday and may be on store shelves already. Seanan writes so many different genres and does them all well and anyone interested in good adventure fiction pretty much can't go wrong with her books. Here is the cover copy for the first novel Discount Armageddon and this one for you to check out:

Discount Armageddon (March 6th 2012, DAW) introduces us to Verity Price, journeyman cryptozoologist, ballroom dancer, and former reality television star. She's on assignment in Manhattan, researching the local cryptid community while she pursues her dance career. It's a cushy job...at least until local cryptids start disappearing, and all signs start pointing to a man from the Covenant of St. George. But is Dominic De Luca really to blame? And if she casts her suspicions in the wrong place, is she going to survive the experience?

Midnight Blue-Light Special (March 5th 2013, DAW) takes us back to Manhattan, where Verity Price is finishing her journeyman assignment, and starting to wonder what she's going to do with the rest of her life. It's a complicated question, made harder by all the things she's trying to juggle. Does she want to be a dancer, a cryptozoologist, or something else altogether? Where does Dominic De Luca fit into her future? And what's all this about a Covenant purge? It's going to take some pretty fancy footwork to survive this dance number, much less get the winning score...

And so that was a lot but there is so much good stuff coming out this month that I hope to post more of these then just the Saturday dispatches .... Take care all...

G

 

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