Wanted Dispatch April 23....

Just realized this week my thought that there were a lot of last week releases (as posted by Tor.com) was really for this week and next week... And they are good overall... Here is the first half of my huge "last" week post....

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

Most likely store well be shelving this in the regular fiction section but make no mistake this is something that could easily share shelf space with China Mieville and Jeff Vandermeer based on the little of the preview I have read. I personally love that writers are exploring the little tapped mythologies of the middle east and blending them into the well near modern day. You can go here and see what the Canadian publisher has released for people to read and see if it intices you.

Its going to be out in hardcover first so I may be waiting for soft cover or possibly an ARC but with it being imminent it may be awhile till I get to read this one...

 

The Grail of the Summer Stars by Freda Warrington

I read a lot of good things about Elfland, the first novel in this series, and was interested but never got around to grabbing the copies I saw and totally missed the second somehow. I know little of the novel other then the fact that authors I love have good hints to say about it.

Here is the synopsis:

The climactic concluding novel in the spellbinding magical contemporary fantasy Aetherial Tales trilogy

A painting, depicting haunting scenes of a ruined palace and a scarlet-haired goddess in front of a fiery city, arrives unheralded in an art gallery with a cryptic note saying, “The world needs to see this.” The painting begins to change the lives of the woman who is the gallery's curator and that of an ancient man of the fey Aetherial folk who has mysteriously risen from the depths of the ocean. Neither human nor fairy knows how they are connected, but when the painting is stolen, both are compelled to discover the meaning behind the painting and the key it holds to their future.

In Grail of the Summer Stars, a haunting, powerful tale of two worlds and those caught between, Freda Warrington weaves an exciting story of suspense, adventure and danger that fulfills the promise of the Aetherial Tales as only she can.

At this link you can find links to reviews and blog coverage towards the bottom of the page.

 

Unnatural Creatures selected by Neil Gaimen

This is a fiction collection I have to mention. Here is a link to the Harper Teen site that has a preview you can view that will give you a look at the contents and the introduction.

Sales of Unnatural Creatures go to benefit a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the creative and expository writing of students and helping teaches inspire kids to write. Seems like a great project and an excellent selection of authors. Here is the blurb...

A griffin, a werewolf, a sunbird . . .

These are just some of the fantastical creatures you'll encounter within these pages. From the cockatoucan, whose laugh rearranges an entire kingdom, to the roving shapeless Beast that lurks in a forest, herein is a collection of rare and magnificent species. Each one will thrill, delight, and quite possibly unnerve you.

Selected by master storyteller Neil Gaiman, the sixteen stories in this menagerie will introduce you to a host of strange, wondrous beings that have never existed anyplace but in the richness of the imagination.

With stories from Neil Gaiman, Diana Wynne Jones, E. Nesbit, and many more, Unnatural Creatures will benefit the literacy nonprofit 826DC.

 

 

Hot Blooded by Amanda Carlson

Yes I'm kind of a fool for urban fantasy especially ones written by women; I love the work of Seanan McGuire really want to read Faith Hunters and Amanda Carlson has been on my list too. The first novel in this series, Full Blooded, is currently on sale as an eBook for 2.99 because of the imminent release of Hot Blooded. Here is the blog page that Amanda has set up, scrolling through it lookes like she has been doing lots of promotion, blog tours and give always of swag for the series.

Here is a link to the sample chapter posted on the Orbit Books website and here is a bit of the blurb from the book

It hasn't been the best week for Jessica McClain.

Her mate has been kidnapped by a Goddess hell-bent on revenge --- but Jessica is playing for keeps.

Because she's the only female werewolf in town...it comes with its own set of rules...and powers.

Aided by two vamps, two loyal Pack members, and one very reluctant human, Jessica must rescue her man while coming to terms with what being a wolf really means.

All in a day's work for a girl.

The second novel in the Jessica McClain series is a full on action adventure featuring one angry Goddess and plenty of monsters, demons, and a few newly risen beasties...(less)

So this week beings a bit of action adventure with some literature and a benefit book.... Next week will be a bit longer...have a good week....

 

Posted with Blogsy

Sunday Comics April 14th

So this may be kind of long compared to my other Sunday Comics posts (this will be posted at dead wood comics also)

The first series I'm posting about earlier this week due to a non-travercy that happened on Wednesday. Saga has been running for the last year from Image Comics by Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Stapes.

To the right is an image of The Will (the romance novel cover type guy without the shirt), a mercenary in this story, he's my favorite from the story, who is one of the many background characters from the love, escape, romance sci-fantasy drama that is Saga.

The story is narrated by Hazel,the child of the main characters, talking about her parents and the trials and tribulations in escaping from the powers that want them dead. Its a setting in which two disparate species are at war Marko and Alanna are from separate sides of this generations long conflict that really should be settled and people could live lives separate from war. Its a sad setting so much like the real world with small minded politicians and real people caught in lives that could be so much better without all the BS that politics creates. The characters are so relateable because the situations though extreme to us are so familiar in that its the powers that be that cause the crap getting in the way. Brian writes characters that are relateable no matter their form wether they be winged, horned, covered with furr of ephemeral and Fiona is such a great expressive artist that even the incidental characters are effective. Issue 11 of the series was totally heartbreaking; I say this as someone raised partially by my grandparents and my grandfather was the father figure in my life.

No matter how extreme and unfamiliar the physicality of the character the players in this drama they are are relateable. Mr. Vaughan has a long history in comics and has written for DC's vertigo line, I liked his run on Runaways at Marvel and am sad to have never read Y the Last Man or his political superhero story Ex-Machina and hope to remedy that soon.

Saga involves both science and magic, politics and ritual. During the corse of the first twelve issues Marco Alanna.and Hazel,their daughter, the narrator, encounter ghosts, giants, soldiers, living ships, the grandparents and that is just the major characters. Saga includes characters with televisions for heads, talking lie detecting cats and all kinds of deviants that Lucas would have been afraid to include in Star Wars. Make no mistake this comic is for consenting adults. It is one of the best comics for the money out there right now; I never feel giped picking this one up at 2.99

Here is a link to the first issue on Image's website there is a collection available of the first six issues that is a bargin at under a tenner. Here is a link to that collection and there is a second collection in the works. Earlier this week there was lots of posts about issue 12 because of something a bit adult in the issue and I fell into the conversation. I have to say sorry for pointing a finger at apple when they were not the ones that made a choice. The comic is still as good as ever and I look forward to my real copy of issue twelve soon.

In my Wanted Dispatch post on dead wood reviews on the 13 th I mentioned a novel by Paul Cornell and today I'll be mentioning that name again with Wolverine #2

Wolverine #1 by Paul was on my list a month ago and I liked the issue but was not flored by it. Issue 2 pictured here justified my love of issue number one. In terms of action its good and kinda standard for marvel being mostly a protracted chase scene with Logan chasing the alien weapon wielding child from the end of issue one. The art by Alan Davis is as good as ever recalling his runs on Captian Britian and Excalibur; the illustrations really pulled me into the issue and made the story fly by.

Paul in this story, helped by the artistry of Alan, brought a humanity to Logan that for me he's been lacking in many stories. I felt the re was a man behind that mask and one that gave a crap about and was affected by the actions he has taken. On the letters page Paul writes a letter to readers telling them of his reasons of taking the job, his respect for Chris Clarmont, and his intent for the book. Paul also plans to answer and read fan mail. I was on the fence till the missile of the issue and now it will be on my pull list monthly. Paul brought me a new view on Logan and I really like it, he's a bit of a mystery again and that is a great thing. Grab yourself a copy you'll hopefully be as surprised as I was.

 

 

 

Issue two of Fearless Defenders was good but Issue 3 really lived up to the promise of Issue one. Characters who you might not expect get pulled into the fray as heroines and no one here is waiting for the big strong male to save them. As with Katherine Immonen in Journey into Mystery the women of Fearless Defenders are the story. Women is fantasy fiction hardly get to play the leading role particularly in fantasy comics (excepting Red Sonija) and its so cool to see females not looking to the men to save the day. Along with Captian Marvel and JiM this is again fresh air right up there with Gail Simone's Batgirl and the Secret Six that I so sorely miss.

Valkyrie is so damaged and easy to relate to Misty is so tough and ready to go Fearless Defenders is one of those third teir titles I so want to survive much like Demon Knights and Frankenstein Agent of Shade and Dial H.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I'm going to give you the link to one of my favorite free online comics too. Howard Taylor is the creator, writer and artist on this series and its been running daily since early 2000. All the archives are free to read, yeas you can buy dead paper versions which I totally support and endorse, but you can read all of it to today on your computer, or your mobile device free.

Howard has developed a unique art style and you can see it develop over the years. He has built a business selling collections, calendars, coffee mugs and recently a kickstarted boardgame. You can go read the entirety of Schlock Mercenary here it will take a while since its a decade plus of comic strips. The is a iPod/iPhone/iPad app you can get for free that not only ca you read the archives but notifies you of new strips daily. Howard podcasts on the weekly Writing Excuses podcast with Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells and the amazing Mary Robinette Kowal. The series is one of the better space opera stories around following Alistair Reynolds and Neal Asher. Go check it all out and check out my book reviews too for more spec fic reviews.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Wanted Dispatch April 13

Ok me fellow genre readers this is yet another spare week as far as new books go but it is oh such a good one.

London Falling by Paul Cornell is imminent here in the US... Hell I'm so exited about this one ill post both the covers for it. Why you may want to know I'm wanting this one so much; Paul Cornell has written for the reborn series of Doctor Who as well as for the Doctor Who novels, he has written some great British influenced comics for DC and for Marvel (including a well respected run of Captain Britian a few years back). He's also one of the genre loving authors on the excellent and award willing podcast the SFSqueecast and in addition to having a marvelous voice his taste in all things genre lines up pretty well with mine ( I've long been a 2000 AD reader and fanboy)

So enough of the gushing about Paul, this novel promises to be an urban fantasy police procedural and I have hopes to love it as much as I love the UF police procedural of Ben Aaronovitch's, Rivers of London (retitled Midnight Riot in the US). UK writers tend to write crime dramas that appeal to me like Like on Mars, Ashes to Ashes, Luther, and the likes of Inspector Lewis, Prime Suspect and Inspector Morse.

Here is the link to the SF Squeecast go listen its so damn good.

Paul tends to write stories that are complex and many layered with characters that hold their cards close to their chest. He is subtle where other writers are brash but has lacks nothing where it comes to story telling. Here is the link for the exerpt on Tor.com. Its coming out hardcover but I think it will be worth it. I have a ARC to read and review and though its Women in Sf and F month I have to read this now.

 

And here is an apology from me though I want to give you more today in terms if the nebulas I have house guests and will have to leave the teat till a Sunday or dispatch supplement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Saga's saga...

Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples' science fantasy drama comic Saga is one I plan to write about in my article about Science Fiction comics but I have to mention this excellent comic read today. It came to my attention yesterday and has been mentioned around the Internet today that Apple has banned the sale of issue 12 out today from sales on its platforms (iPhone, I touch, iPad....). This is over a couple of scenes of homosexual content in the pages of the issue and considering that this is a mature audience title that has shown panels of heterosexual intercourse and several of what might be deemed scandalous or deviant practices in others a bit odd a time to try to put the horse back in the coral. Brian and his partner have made a statement in reaction here and the issue is available still in digital format here and is also out in its physical form at local comic shops. Here is the article I read yesterday.

Saga is the story about a Romeo and Juliet like couple in a science fiction setting where magic exists and set against the backdrop of a generations long war between two distinct factions. Most of the story is about the drama and love between the couple and the characters surrounding them and others drawn into the situation because of their cross breed child. Its the kind of wild storytelling that you'd expect to find of the better image and vertigo comics and most buyers interested in this story are adults. Apple could have filtered purchases to adult customers only if their censors were offended but honestly considering past content I'm surprised at this puritanical action.

Saga is about much more then the violent and sexual images that crop up.

Please note that images linked to in my links are most likely NSFW and you have been alerted to that right here. I'll be getting my issue of this in its real form tomorrow and will likely comment this weekend in my Sunday Comics column on Dead Wood Reviews....and on Dead wood comics

As an update I found this article on IGN and the comic is apparently not banned or censored and is available on the comixology store AND it was not Apple that made the decision to do anything with the issue. It was a misunderstanding about the content rules and was made by Comixology to keep with the guidelines of in app sales. Anyway I will leave this up and apologies for freaking out anyone or confusing anyone. Saga is still a great comic andi will be covering the series this week.... Sorry again..

 

Posted with Blogsy

Help out if you can.....

I spotted this call for help last night on SF Signal last night. Ben Wolverton (16) son of Science Fiction and Fantast writer David Farland was seriously recently and like many people in the US (like myself) has no health insurance. To raise the funds to pay for the care and treatments he will need there is a "Book Bomb" going on today asking readers to buy copies of either Davids's YA thriller Nightengale or his book called Million Dollar Outlines. David is known for both his fiction and his mentoring of other writers including Brandon Sanderson among others. Go to the above link for more information and the links to the book sales sites. If you want to give money directly here is the direct link to the gofundme site where they are funding his medial care.

 

As the SF Signal post about the book bomb asks if you can't donate money to spread the word about David Farland's need as far as you can. Thanks for your time and any help you can give.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Sunday Comics

This week I read a lot of Marvel comics #1s I missed during the last ten years because of that free e comic day a few weeks back. I will say that the best thing I read this week was this and its from this week...

Indestructible Hulk is one of the 3.99 titles that I'm really interested in reading and with Walt Simonson back on as artist it was a must. I'll be honest here I picked up the first issue of this and loved it but with so many books coming out at the 3.99 price mark I opted to wait to read more of it. So jumping in on issue 6 was no problem you could easily get on now if you know a bit of marvel lore. The issue introduces some of the support cast chosen by Banner and the third person boxes in this issue are a hoot. Really great mix of science fiction and sword and sorcery fantasy here. Love the issue best for the week.

Look at the awesome of the above cover.... Tell me you don't want some of that....

 

Red She Hulk was the other cool read of the week and its another that I paid for as a real comic. The adventures of Betty Ross have been a pretty great mix of superhero punch outs and science fantasy weirdness... totally out of the pages of the pulps if they were in technicolor. This is one of the comics I really enjoy monthly but is kind of under the radar till its in my hands. This to me taps into that fringe of speculative fiction that gets called the weird that includes authors like The progenitor HP Lovecraft and the modern artists of the genre like Jeff Vandermeer, China Mieville and Mark Hodder. It's great pulp adventure filtered through the lens of authors like Hunter Thompson.

Next week I'll be doing my sci fi comics feature along with the Sunday comics column, till then excelsior ...

 

Posted with Blogsy

Wanted Dispatch April 6

In terms of new books these next two weeks are pretty lean. This weeks new choice is Reapers Legacy which is the sequel to last years London Eye . Tim Lebbon's young adult teens in post apocalyptic London novel that has been compared to the Xmen when the writing is excellent has been on my to read pile for a good long time and with the sequel immanent it just may be time. Here is the info on the book from the Pyr website:

Two years after London is struck by a devastating terrorist attack, it is cut off from

the world, protected by a large force of soldiers (known as Choppers), while those

in the rest of Britain believe that their ex-capital is now a toxic, uninhabited wasteland.

Jack and his friends know that the truth is very different. The handful of survivors in London are developing strange, fantastic powers. Evolving. Meanwhile, the Choppers treat the ruined city as their own experimental playground.

Jack's own developing powers are startling and frightening, though he is determined to save his father, the brutal man with a horrific power who calls himself Reaper. Jack must also find their friend Lucy-Anne, who went north to find her brother.

What Lucy-Anne discovers is terrifying—people evolving into monstrous things and the knowledge that a nuclear bomb has been set to destroy what's left of London. And the clock is ticking.

I missed picking this up months ago when I saw it at my favorite speculative fiction bookstore in San Francisco Borderlands. The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson is set in the same world as Elantris his first published novel separated widely geographically from its events. The novella is nominated in the best novella category along with Jay Lake's "The Stars do not Lie" (Asimovs Magazine), "After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall" by Nancy Kress (Tachyon Publications), " On a Red Station, Drifting" by Aliette de Bodard (Immersion Press) and "San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats" by Mira Grant (Orbit).I feel kind of a fool for not getting it but its still available. Here is the text from Tachyon's website:

Shai is a Forger, a foreigner who can flawlessly copy and re-create any item by rewriting its history with skillful magic. Though condemned to death after trying to steal the emperor’s scepter, she is given one opportunity to save herself. Despite the fact that her skill as a Forger is considered an abomination by her captors, Shai will attempt to create a new soul for the emperor, who is almost dead from the attack of assassins.

Delving deeply into his life, she discovers Emperor Ashravan’s truest nature—and the opportunity to exploit it. Her only possible ally is one who is truly loyal to the emperor, but councilor Gaotona must overcome his prejudices to understand that her forgery is as much artistry as it is deception.

Skillfully deducing the machinations of her captors, Shai needs a perfect plan to escape. The fate of the kingdom lies in one impossible task. Is it possible to create a forgery of a soul so convincing that it is better than the soul itself?

The other section of the Hugo Ballot I want to mention today is the J W Campbell Award for best new writer; some of the names on the list are there for their second year and have the chance again and I think there are some great people on the list that may be just beneath people's radar right now.

First off Chuck Wendig is someone that if you never read his fiction, really your missing out if you never try his books, you reall need to look at his website and his blog at Terribleminds, its witty informative and will turn you onto some very cool shit. Secondly is Mur Lafferty which is a name I'm very familiar with as a rabid podcast listener; she has been the provider of many a great story wither it be the steampunk influenced Heaven series or her superhero tale Playing for Keeps. She has her first big market novel coming not this year from Orbit books and is well worth your money. Third is the very talented urban fantasy author Stina Leight who has written two novels set in Ireland during the time of troubles pulling on the myths of the British isles and Christian religion. Stina is someone who's work I would recommend pretty much unreservedly. Now I have never read the work of either of the other authors but I have them on my wanted list; Max Gladstone wrote a novel I much want to read called Three Parts Dead that is talked about like the Law and Order of Urban Fantasy and the name I never knew before now Zen Cho is a woman of Malaysian origin who's website and blog have me really intrigued, honestly I think I'd want to vote for them all.

I encourage you to check out all the embedded links above for the authors.... Really any or all of them deserve the award...

 

Posted with Blogsy