Sunday Comics May 26

Ok this first one is a bit of a surprise to me I am mentioning it. I have never been a big Scott Summers fan, hell I always kinda disliked him but the art in this book and the fact that the are a couple of x-women in it I like got me to pick this up. The art in Uncanny Xmen by Frazer Irving is so bloody good, creating both a truly otherworldly atmosphere for the real of Dread Dormammu, giving even deactivated Sentinels a sense of gravity to them. Between his portrayals of the characters artistically and Bendis' writing. Think I have been missing out on something good here.

I was a big fan of the old New Mutants title and Illyana, Macik, was one of my favorites, I dig the White Queen, Magneto and the now turncoat Angel (old School version) to me almost hooked with the preview pages last month. The developments with the Shield side of this story with Maria Hill are particularly interesting.... the fact that SHIELD are showing up in so many comics makes the marvel universe feel a lot more interconnected.

Guess you could tell I liked it... Oh and big reveal for fans of Dazzler....

I gave you a warning last week and here is the follow through... Katheryn Immonen delivers again with Journey Into Mystery with her Sif centric comic. Now the majority of this book focuses on the fallout of last months Fenris romp through the forests of Asgaurdia. So as not to ruin anything about the plot there are developments that take Sif into the outer reaches of the solar system, we get a cameo by Iron Man along with some gratuitous property damage. My horse headed space bound hero does not appear much but what we get of him is beautifully illustrated and filled with the innocence I associate with him. Next months issue can't come too soon since I have to see the payoff on the bomb dropped in this issue....

 

 

 

In addition I snatched a copy of the extra sized Daredevil by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee too see if all the praise for the book was well placed and I was not disappointed. If you like street level adventure, realistic art and real character stories this is your beast. Matt Murdock and Foggy have not had a better writer in a long long time and this is so much more real then the old dated and (anti occupy wallstreet) Frank Miller days.

This issue progresses the story built up out of the last issue introducing Ilari and let's us know who is behind Matt's current troubles. I missed out on the stories leading to this but it stands on its own very well. There is a backup focusing of Foggy as he is dealing with some very real world issues..... Loved the whole thing....

May have to add this for a while....

 

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Wanted Dispatch May 25

This is a biggish week compared to the rest of the month... I've also got two reviews coming for a couple of these....

The Eighth Court by Mike Shevdon

Years ago I did one of my early reviews of Mike's first real history inspired urban fantasy pulling from Britian's rich fae traditions. He presented characters that we both grounded and real yet very magical and complex. The series now has three books with The Eightfold Court coming out. Here is a link to Argry Robot Books website where you can find an exerpt. And though it tells you little here is the synopsis...

The Eighth Court has been established, but petty rivalries and old disputes threaten its stability. The mongrels that make up the court are not helping, and Blackbird enlists the help of the warders to keep the peace.

Has Blackbird bitten off more than she can chew, and can the uneasy peace between the courts continue under such tension and rivalry?

 

Ghost Spin by Chris Moriarty

Since I write this so often I think I need to start keeping a " I really need to read this girl/guy's work" list. I recall having paid attention to the fact that Chris won the P.K. Dick award and I tend to really enjoy the books that that panel tends to pick both for their short list and the overall winners. I now next to nothing other then the coming synopsis so I'll let it speak for itself...

The Age of Man is ending. The UN’s sprawling interstellar empire is failing as its quantum teleportation network collapses, turning once-viable colonies into doomed island outposts. Humanity’s only hope of survival is the Drift: a mysterious region of space where faster-than-light travel—or something far stranger—seems possible. As mercenaries and pirates flock to the Drift, the cold war between the human-led UN and the clone-dominated Syndicates heats up. Whoever controls the Drift will chart the future course of human evolution—and no one wants to be left behind in a universe where the price of failure is extinction.

When the AI called Cohen ventures into the Drift, he dies—allegedly by his own hand—and his consciousness is scattered across the cosmos. Some of his ghosts are still self-aware. Some are insane. And one of them hides a secret worth killing for. Enter Major Catherine Li, Cohen’s human (well, partly human) lover, who embarks on a desperate search to solve the mystery of Cohen’s death—and put him back together. But Li isn’t the only one interested in Cohen’s ghosts. Astrid Avery, a by-the-book UN navy captain, is on the hunt. So is William Llewellyn, a pirate who has one of the ghosts in his head, which is slowly eating him alive. Even the ghosts have their own agendas. And lurking behind them all is a pitiless enemy who will stop at nothing to make sure the dead don’t walk again.

Fearsome Journeys edited by Jonathan Strahan

This is the fantasy companion to the Solaris Rising anthology of original science fiction. I for one really look forward to seeing the mini epics that these storytellers can come up with and how it may just relate to their novels. This one has so many of my current favorites including: Saladin Ahmed, Elizabeth Bear, Daniel Abraham and a new Coral Sword story from Jeffrey Ford. You can go here to see the full table of contents and get a hint as to the offerings; personally I like getting the fun little sword and sorcery gems that come from books like this.

 

 

 

 

Life on the Preservation Jack Skillingstead

Here is another list I could start to keep the "I know this author for their free short stories I read or heard via podcast". Jack here falls into the podcast category and I recall liking his sense of the odd or offbeat. Here is the synopsis from Solaris Books:

Inside the Seattle Preservation Dome it’s always the Fifth of October, the city caught in an endless time loop. ‘Reformed’ graffiti artist Ian Palmer is the only one who knows the truth, and he is desperate to wake up the rest of the city before the alien Curator of the human museum erases Ian’s identity forever. Outside the Dome, the world lies in apocalyptic ruin.

Small town teenager Kylie is the only survivor to escape both the initial shock wave and the effects of the poison rains that follow. Now she must make her way across the lasted lands pursued by a mad priest and menaced by skin-and-bone things that might once have been human. Her destination is the Preservation, and her mission is t o destroy it. But once inside, she meets Ian, and together they discover that Preservation reality is even stranger than it already appears.

Any Other Name Emma Newman

Emma has been leaking out tidbits of this world (The Split Worlds) for a couple of months or at least weeks in preparation for this volume to come out. Here is a link where you can read an exerpt of this novel. I have an ARC that I hope to get through and have a review out for this one next week on the heels of the two urban fantasy reviews I have for you this week. Here is a bit of synopsis from Angry Robot Books....

It’s been an interesting year…

Cat has been forced into an arranged marriage with William – a situation that comes with far more strings than even she could have anticipated, especially when she learns of his family’s intentions for them both.

Meanwhile, Max and the gargoyle investigate The Agency – a mysterious organisation that appears to play by its own rules – and none of them favourable to Society.

Over in Mundanus, Sam has discovered something very peculiar about his wife’s employer – something that could herald a change for everyone in both sides of the Split Worlds.

 

The Blue Blazes by Chuck Wendig

Ok here is the other Chuck Wendig book I mentioned earlier this month. This one I have a review brewing for and I will say I quite loved the book in short. This is the kind of urban fantasy that borrows from the noir crime fiction tradition much like one of my favorite UF reads of last year City of the Lost. Here is a link to a bit of exerpt from Angry Robot (you have to scroll down a bit to see the exerpt.

The world Chuck envisions is pretty twisted but its so compelling, I want to write more and more about it here but I'll keep that for the review... Here is a brief synopsis

Meet Mookie Pearl.

Criminal underworld? He runs in it.

Supernatural underworld? He hunts in it.

Nothing stops Mookie when he’s on the job.

But when his daughter takes up arms and opposes him, something’s gotta give…

The Shambling Guide to New York City by Mur Lafferty

Mur is another one of the writers I now of from the world of podcasting; she has been doing free speculative fiction for as long as just about anyone so its absolutely fabulous she finally has a big publisher contract. This urban fantasy is some thing completely different, you can hear herself reading the book for free from her website here and fans of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett should really take a peek here because Mur has that kind of approach to humor.... Oh and this is the other books that will get the review treatment this week....

 

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Kickstarted Comic

Now as you may know I post weekly here about comics and on my gaming blog I post a lot, almost exclusively, about Kickstarter projects that look great but I have been remiss in mentioning projects I have backed. A while back, last year, Gail Simone and Jim Calafiore kickstarted a original graphic novel called Leaving Megalopoils. Anyone who knows me or has read a bit of my blog probably has come across my praise for Secret Six, the comic they did at DC before this whole new 52 thing. It was one of the few comics I looked forward to every month, Gail's writing and imagination never failed to impress me and I loved her portrayal of all those often stereotypes villain types that starred in the comic.

This week Jim put up some sample pages of his artwork for the kickstarted book and they look absolutely fan freaking tastic. Here is a link to the page where you can snag a download PDF of the pages in question as well as some nifty wallpapers for the book. Its one of the projects I'm happy to have found and backed and look forward to seeing in the flesh so to speak. Take a peek, this has the look of something great all over it....

 

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Sunday Comics May 19

Only have a few for you this week.... The first is the beginning of a dare I say it crossover...

Kelly Sue Deconnick has been building up to this story for months with the beginnings of Carol's health problems, the threat of further complications if she flies the reappearance of Deathbird to the dinosaurs rampaging in an issue a few months back. So Captain Marvel is her own hero with her own life and can take care of her own problems and friends; we have seen her do it but this reminds us that though she is a strong hero she does have friends that do have her back.

This issue brings back Jessica, Spiderwoman to the storyline and pulls in Thor too but also raises some questions about Ms Danvers herself. Since the story is from her point of view as a reader I have to wonder if she is a completely reliable narrator, happen to love well told tales that question the reliability of the storyteller herself and Kelly Sue may be playing that game but whatever game she is playing I'm happy to play along. We have five four more issues to see where this may go so it will be an interesting ride no matter which turns she takes I think...

 

 

The other title I would like to mention because it bring to a conclusion the story that involved one of my long time favorite characters - the Inhuman Medusa. This seems to keep happening but what can you do Matt Fraction Kelly Sue's partner happens to be writing some pretty fine comics too and they are coming out the same weeks. Now I would not say FF is the same kind of fun as Hawkeye but is defiantly fun. Matt seems to be building the relationships in this team and the characters are beginning to really support one another in a very Fantastic Four family kind of way. Sure I do think this story may have been better overall if the build up was longer but we have Dr Doom waiting in the wings and I am happy to be moving along and getting hat royal redhead back in the fold so she can be more then just a side story...

Its funny I'm really enjoying the kids and Darla Too as I mentioned about the last issue with the Yancy Street Gang....

Have a great week next Sunday I'm likely to be going great guns about Beta Ray Bill being back.... Just a warning.... Such a fan boy....

 

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Wanted Dispatch May 18...

Tis a short week of new books so I'll be throwing some other things your way given today is the announcements of the Nebula's which I hope to watch live streaming....

 

 

The Red Plague Affair by Lilith Saintcrow

Anyone who is watching Elementary or anxious for the fourth series of Sherlock with bent towards the Urban in their fantasy should possibly take a look here, especially those digging the Sherlock and Jane Watson bromance. Taking the premise if not the names to a setting where sorcery and deductive geniuses about in an alternate Victorian Britian Lilith Saintcrow has branched away from her modern Urban Fantasy roots. Now to be honest I have yet to read her work but I've had a couple of book for a few years now but this one I have my eye on now that Elementary is at the end of its season. Reviews for the previous volume The Iron Wyrm Affair are pretty varied with readers either loving or hating the book so this one may just be a roll of the dice sort of affair so I'd say best bet if you are intrigued like myself go to the Orbit website here and read the exerpt to get a feel for the writing style. There is apparently also a novella out there that may also be worh a go since even one of the negative reviews raved about it.

I will say this if the interplay between the protagonists is anything like that on Elementary it will be with a read...

 

Professor Moriarty The Hound of the D'urbervilles by Kim Newman

By no means new having been published by Titan books back in 2011 this novel has the kind of weird quirky style you might expect from the writer of the Anno Dracula series of novels. Written in the voice of thug, roustabout and one time soldier of the crown Sebastian 'Basher' Moran (portrayed in the us show Elementary by the always thuggishly cool - ) this is an engrossingly readable companion to the ramblings of Watson about Holmes as penned by Doyle. Go here to the Titan Books website and read the exerpt from the novel. I very much enjoy seeing the world from multiple viewpoints and this one is a lot of fun... in that brutal antihero kind of way that the Brits write so well.

Blood and Bone By Ian C. Esslemont

I may have mentioned in the past or perhaps not that one of my favorite epic fantasy novels is Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson and following close behind it is the first novel by Ian Esslemont Night of Knives. Both these series is set in the world they share as a setting for their major fictional works, the world of Malazan with its long, tortured and dark history. Where Steven's novels are kind of all one late tale Ian tends to write self contained stories leaning more to the personal style stories of sword and sorcery over the ensembles that Epics lean towards.

I may have a large stable of authors I like to recommend so sometimes I need to be reminded of ones I have not talked about in a while and Ian is one of these that I have to think about more often. Here is a link to the exerpt on the tor.com website and will give you a taste of his writing style.

The Drowning Girl by Caitlín R. Kiernan

Lastly this week I'm going to mention the book I'm currently reading and is one of the selection of great novels up for the Nebula this weekend. Caitlín's novel about the very troubled woman nicknamed Imp is a great haunted memoir. Its told in a format which mirrors the way that memories come back to and just begs to be read aloud and I find myself doing so at times without thinking about it. Now its already won a couple awards including the Tiptree and deserves the praise it gets. Now its up against another couple favorites of mine, Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed, Glamour in Glass by Mary Robinette Kowal and The Killing Moon by NK Jemisin, and a couplei have to read. I will be happy whoever wins from the options; all of the options are good and you should defiantly check them all out to see if any of them are your thing....

 

Good luck to all the nominees have a great awards evening...

 

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City guides for the Uncanny

Ok, you'll have to excuse my use of the comics reference but when it comes to Mur Lafferty finally getting a big publisher contract I though a little comic nod in order. I first became aware of her through her I should be writing podcast and Playing for Keeps, her superhero tale that helped keep me sane in a kinda crazy making job. Mur had worked in both long and short form fiction and is the current editor for the Escapepod podcast among many other creative projects.

I recently finished the ARC for The Shambling. Guide to New York City and will giving it a full review soon but here are the cover

And a link to Orbit Books site for the book trailer

 

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Sunday Comics May 12

I'm avoiding most of the big titles this week with one exception to hit one one of the AU titles and one that I was not initially hooked on but picked up some issues last week with Free Comic Book day and I'm sad I only have a couple of the issues.

First up I will hit the one high visibility title that I have mentioned before and that is Wolverine by Paul Cornell and Alan Davis. This issue brings in what will likely be the more Logan back up cast then the Wolverine supporting cast that we normally see. Again I don't help but continue comparing this to Matt Fraction's magnificent Hawkeye. So Logan has some normalish friends that he meets up with at a superhero bar. At least one of them has been kicking around the fringes of the Marvel universe a while now.

The story is still building for this first story arc and I think there is some neat little foreshadowing going on in this issue. Yes there is a good amount of action too, Logan loses costume it's yet again and he gets off a couple of great quips during the story. Its still pricey as books go but if you mis likening the little Canadian from your early Xmen days this is the title that will make you like him again.

 

This is the one AU title I have read so far and I'll tell you all why; the draw here for me beyond my love of the Captain Marvel comic, Captain Britain and the MI13 group it was Al Ewing the writer. As a fan of 2000AD and the new pulps of Abaddon books I now Al Ewing can write some great, weird and different feeling heroes. Anything outside the US, Latveria and the Savage Land get very little screen time in most Marvel books so its good for a reminder that there are heroes back across the pond and who better to write an alternate universe one shot then someone used to having to tell a story in just a few pages. Al reminds us that there is a vital and little utilized group of heroes that I really miss and want to have back

Art wise this one was also a draw and kind of clinched it for me. Butch Guice and Tom Palmer get world every so often (about as often as we see the UK heroes) and have a more realistic and restrained style that suited this one shot story given that a couple of the heroes seem much more like normal people then the four color ones we also know and love. I also enjoyed the nod to old home make pixilated video games. YMMD but in my honest opinion it was worth the extra money this week.

 

Last the book I picked up nine months ago and checked out again last week. Dennis Hopeless' Avengers Arena is definitely a Battle Royal look at the marvel YH (young hero) universe. If you did not look at it your missing out like I was; this book takes heroes from the very fun Runaways, Avengers Academy the much overlooked UK marvel stories and a couple others and hands them to the laughable villain Arcade. This time though this time the murderous little foppish trickster is taking his byline seriously abducting these kids from around the globe putting them on an island that's a bit survivor and a hell of a lot like the novel and movie from Japan Battle Royal.

In issue one Hopeless and the magnificent Kev Walker on art duties set the scene having Arcade abduct his cast tell the contestants the rules then proceeds to kill one of them to show them he means business this time. No silly pinball or video game knockoff death traps. These kids are here to kill off the weakest links till there is just one left. The issues I've managed to get and read including this weeks give us more character interaction then violence and in the case of some of the players we get snippets of their origin and story along the way. Kev Walker is great at drawing expressions that tell you more about the characters then just the dialogue alone. I'd say this is one to pick up in trade paperback.

 

I missed the middling issues where we lost a character or two maybe and the one that gave the Arcade background story and that one may be key here. Arcade I think has more going on then he is letting on and though he is absent from all but the first issue in what I have read but the tension created between the "teams" leaves his grandstand from issue one lingering in the mind. I find I can't wait for next months issue; funny somehow this title is now up there with Hawkeye, Captain Marvel and Fearless Defenders for me. W

Well that's me this week... Check out Avengers Arena it is another pretty fun title.....

 

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Dial W for Weird

Hugo Award winning "new weird" fiction author China Mieville is an oddly perfect choice for writing Dial H (for hero). His novel and short stories often defy easy categorization as anything specific creating a decoupage of various imagined elements and populates it with extraordinarily normal and human creatures. Anyone looking to see what his writing is like should grab the short story collection "Looking For Jake" it's his most easily approachable and digestible feasts and may be the most like the experience of reading Dial-H. China's fiction has taken us to places where mysterious streets and alleys pop in and out of existence waging some sort of assault and investigators try to figure out their intent, where a force known as torque twists reality and creates the bizarre like trees that sprout cockroaches and remaking of the body is commonplace and most recently where beasts swim through earth like whales through water and people hunt them on giant tunneling trains. Set along the dark fringes of the DCU he's exploring just how strange he can make the lives of Littleville.

Nelson Jent, our hero, for all intents a quitter; overweight, ex boxer with an apparent hear condition gets caught up in something way bigger then just patching things up with a friend that tries to help him out. China throws us into the story of the town of Littleville, CO far removed from the big city heroes of Gotham and Metropolis much as he does his character in his attempt to rescue his friend. This first story arc that includes the first six issues of the comic and the stand alone issue zero sets up the Nelson as hero trying to learn and cope with the strangeness that come with using the artifact of the seventies that transformers him into random heroes, the rotary dial of an old style phone. Each new hero is weirder then the next he become Chimney Boy who can leap across rooftops and smother people with noxious fumes, and Captain Lachrymose who is fueled by others distress as Superman is powered by the yellow sun. Nelson is not the lone hero or meta human in Colorado he's followed my a silver masked character through a couple of issues and fights some equally bizarre opponents in the course of the story. The cast is quickly expanded to two with the inclusion of Roxie Hodder and these two and their relationship easily carries the story along without the need for a kitschy iconic villain to keep you hooked. There are mysteries a plenty in this book as odd mysteries are one of the things Mieville excels in as an author and the resolution of such, if they are resolved, with him are always gateways to more deeper issues.

The art chores on these issues are handled by Mateus Santolouco, David Lapham, and Riccardo Burchielli in a style that favorers thick lines with pretty heavy inks and benefits from detailed colors from Tanya and Richard Horie. Covers drawn by Brian Boland never hurts a book and this one is no exception to that rule but the insides are not your normal fare these days and bear more resemblance to the pages from old Swamp Thing from the late eighties and nineties then slick modern superhero artwork. With all the odd, silly and down right crazy characters and powers China comes up with in the course of the issues is needs its own style and the artists DC gets for this have got that in spades.

If the idea of touring a through a possibly psychedelic mash up of American comic tropes and the twisted storytelling and humor of a great British author appeals to you or if your a fan of the storytelling style of 2000AD and want more along those lines this is a collection to take a peek at. My thought since the zero issue is self contained is to find hat story in the collection, its last one, Nelson and Roxie are not the heroes since its set long ago in pre telephone times.... how does that work well take a look. China Mieville seems to be having lots of fun building a mythology all on his own with Dial-H, one that takes the basic premise and takes it to where there are no longer cords or phone lines and really he doesn't need them with the gonzo ideas he's got going....

 

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Wanted Dispatch May 4

May 7 is a banner week for one of my new favorite writers Chuck Wendig.... He's appearing in a couple of this months series of weeks and a review will be coming for one of them...

Gods and Monsters: Unclean Spirits by Chuck Wendig

The only work of Chuck's I've read so far is the awesome bully comeuppance story Shotgun Gravy Novell that I absolutely recommend. Chuck has has been well praised for his UF series that started with Blackbird starring the foul mother anti-heroine -. I've also read the preview chapter (link to tor.com here) of this book and the one ill be posting about at the end of the month The Blue Blazes. Chuck is a pull no punches kind of guy on his blog Terribleminds and in his fiction. He even has a YA fantasy novel coming this month I believe.

So, about Gods and Monsters, seems that the gods have become outcast from the heavens and occupy a place here own earth. Our hero - has a bone to pick with them. The tone of this reminds me Garth Ennis's comic Preacher and Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim but with a more mythological bent to it. Read through the preview and though I think there will be a learning curve here I'm on board for the delicious looking dark ride from Abaddon Books (go check their site for more dark creepy pulp action goodness)

Here is the blurb from the publisher:

The gods and goddesses are real. A many-headed pantheon—a tangle of divine hierarchies—once kept the world at arm’s length, warring with one another for mankind’s belief and devotion. It was a grim and bloody balance, but a balance just the same. When one god triumphed, driving all other gods out of Heaven, it was back to the bad old days: cults and sycophants, and the terrible retribution the gods visit on those who spite them.

Five years ago, it all went wrong for Cason Cole. He lost his wife and son, lost everything, and was bound into service to a man who chews up human lives and spits them out. Now, as the man he both loves and hates lies dying at his feet, Cason is finally free. And no gods, demi-gods, acolyte, or monstrous abomination is going to stop him from getting back what’s his...

Wendig is a massive talent with a huge online following and Gods and Monsters is a brand new world he has created for Abaddon Books. Pat Kelleher is to continue the series with the e-title Gods and Monsters: Drag Hunt, which will launch online on the same day as Unclean Spirits.

The Fictional Man by Al Ewing

Al Ewing's name will be familiar with readers of 2000AD and fans of the neo-pulp novels from Abaddon Books (hmmmm sensing a theme developing). If you are not familiar with the very British coupling of serious storytelling with absurdist often punnish humor you are very much missing out if that sounds like your kind of thing. Al Ewing writes like Terry Pratchett if he was influenced by the cynicism of Bill Hicks or Louis CK. Now that is just my take on the experience of reading his work. He is the blurb for this book from the fine people at Solaris Books (linkey right here earthlets).

Hollywood: Divorced, alcoholic and hanging on by a thread, Niles Golan is writing a remake of a camp-classic spy movie. The studio has plans for a franchise, so rather than hiring an actor, the protagonist will be “translated” into a cloned human body. It’s common practice; Niles’ therapist is a Fictional. So is his best friend. So, maybe, is the woman in the bar he can’t stop staring at. Fictionals are a part of daily life now, especially in LA. It’s getting hard to tell who’s a Fictional and who’s not. If he does this right, the studio might bring one of Niles’ own characters to life. Somewhere beneath the movie, beneath the TV show it was inspired by, the children’s book behind that and the story behind that, is the kernel of something important. If he can just hold it together long enough.

Shield of Sky and Space by Erin Hoffman

This is the third novel in this epic fantasy series by Erin Hoffman who is known pretty week in video game circles for the games she has created and written for. Taking her love of the elements of epic fantasies and adding the tropes that fuel many of the best Japanese style role playing games The Chaos Knight is something that is a new take on fantasy storytelling and is for sure its own beast and well worth taking a stab at. This world has a setting that is reminds me of playing turn based fantasy games back. In the day without the clunky if cute graphics and without the wait to see how things turn out turn by turn. Here is the blurb from Pyr and if you ever were a video RPG player this is a definite one to check out....

Vidarian Rulorat, called the Tesseract, a powerful magic-user whose abilities spread across multiple elements, finds himself at war with the Alorean Import Company, a powerful cabal of merchants wealthy enough to buy nations. By opening the gate between worlds, Vidarian released the Starhunter, goddess of chaos. With her coming, wild magic returned to the world of Andovar, bringing with it shape-changers and strange awakened elemental technologies, including many-sailed ships powered by air magic, and mechanical automata lit from within by earth and fire. Now, Vidarian discovers that the Alorean Import Company is determined to eliminate two-thirds of this new life on Andovar in the hopes of hoarding more magic for themselves in a new, worldwide plutocracy. Along with his human, gryphon, and shapechanger allies, he must stop the Company if he is to safeguard any future for the diverse life of Andovar, including his and Ariadel's newborn daughter. With the existence of whole species hanging in the balance, Vidarian is locked in a race for the future of the world

Now the next two books have been among my wanted since I read about them months ago... One by an author I love, Neal Asher, and the other by a newcomer, Michael j Martinez, and I sure hope to see them on the shelves... you see these are two of the books yet to come from Night Shade Books and may get stalled by the troubles they find themselves in right now.

 

Zero Point by Neal Asher is well known for his post scarcity singularity-punk stories with the Spatterjay and The Cormac series of novels and this one is not one of those. He is trying something new and its been out in Europe for a while so long that this is the second book in The Owner series. Since Night Shade has already published the first we can only hope this does not get stuck in legal limbo....

The second book in The Owner trilogy from space opera legend Neal Asher

Earth’s Zero Asset citizens no longer face extermination from orbit. Thanks to Alan Saul, the Committee’s network of control is a smoking ruin and its robotic enforcers lie dormant. But power abhors a vacuum and, scrambling from the wreckage, comes the ruthless Serene Galahad. She must act while the last vestiges of Committee infrastructure remain intact – and she has the means to ensure command is hers. On Mars, Var Delex fights for the survival of Antares Base, while the Argus Space Station hurls towards the red planet. And she knows whomever, or whatever, trashed Earth is still aboard. Var must save the base, while also dealing with the first signs of rebellion. And aboard Argus Station, Alan Saul’s mind has expanded into the local computer network. In the process, he uncovers the ghastly experiments of the Humanoid Unit Development, the possibility of eternal life, and a madman who may hold the keys to interstellar flight. But Earth’s agents are closer than Saul thinks, and the killing will soon begin.

 

The Daedalus Incident by Michael J Martinez

I'm just going to let the text from Night Shades Site to hook you..

Mars is supposed to be dead…

Bizarre quakes are rumbling over the long-dormant tectonic plates of the planet, disrupting its trillion-dollar mining operations and driving scientists past the edges of theory and reason. However, when rocks shake off their ancient dust and begin to roll—seemingly of their own volition—carving canals as they converge to form a towering structure amid the ruddy terrain, Lt. Jain and her JSC team realize that their routine geological survey of a Martian cave system is anything but. The only clues they have stem from the emissions of a mysterious blue radiation, and a 300-year-old journal that is writing itself.

Lt. Thomas Weatherby of His Majesty’s Royal Navy is an honest 18th-century man of modest beginnings, doing his part for King and Country aboard the HMS Daedalus, a frigate sailing the high seas between continents…and the immense Void between the Known Worlds. Across the Solar System and among its colonies—rife with plunder and alien slave trade—through dire battles fraught with strange alchemy, nothing much can shake his resolve. But events are transpiring to change all that.

With the aid of his fierce captain, a drug-addled alchemist, and a servant girl with a remarkable past, Weatherby must track a great and powerful mystic, who has embarked upon a sinister quest to upset the balance of the planets—the consequences of which may reach far beyond the Solar System, threatening the very fabric of space itself.

Set sail among the stars with this uncanny tale, where adventure awaits, and dimensions collide!

So May 7th brings us a little bit for everyone.... Till next week... Take care...

 

Posted with Blogsy