Alien Surfaces
This year’s Transreal Fiction Edinburgh Fringe Art Exhibition is entitled Alien Surfaces.
It mainly consists of a collection of prints by respected nexialist (a person who combines knowledge from different disciplines), Madeleine Shepherd. The prints are inspired by surfaces described in classic works of science fiction and fantasy. Expect a different kind of science fiction art as Shepherd’s work distorts real images to create a semi-abstract representation of the imaginary using a variety of photographic techniques to render alien planets, landscapes, buildings, skins, vegetation and artefacts from works by Aldiss, Ballard, Lovecraft, Vance and others…
These are not exact representations of the scenes, rather another imagining of how the words could be interpreted…
Our Lady of Darkness
Delusion's Master
These are the covers of some of the works re-interpreted; a gallery of them can be seen at this Flickr page: Alien Surfaces cover art
Or images of some of the actual art can be seen at the official Alien Surfaces site…
New Titles – w/e 2nd August
in hardback:
Arthur C. Clarke & Frederik Pohl – The Last Theorem the final novel from ACC; Frederik Pohl is 88…
Galen Beckett – The Magicians and Mrs. Quent a period fantasy from a new author; looks interesting…
Naomi Novik – Victory of Eagles the UK edition of the 5th Temeraire book
Doctor Who Short Trips 23 – Defining Patterns & Short Trips 24 – The Quality of Leadership
in large format:
Elizabeth Bear – New Amsterdam alternate history
Gregory Frost – Lord Tophet a companion novel the the recent Shadowbridge…
Tim Scott – Love in the Time of Fridges another zany sf novel from the author of Outrageous Fortune
Michael Moorcock – Elric: To Rescue Tanelorn the 2nd in the Chronicles of the last Emperor of Melnibone…
in ‘B’ format:
Ray Cummings – The Girl in the Golden Atom first published 1923! The Bison Books edition.
Christopher Moore – Bloodsucking Fiends & The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove the latest 2 reprints…
in paperback:
Joe Haldeman – The Accidental Time Machine just what it says!
Philip Palmer – Debatable Space
Richelle Mead – Storm Born her latest urban fantasy…
Angie Fox – The Accidental Demon Slayer lightweight urban fantasy
Sarah Monette – The Mirador 3rd in her Melusine series…
Allan Cole & Chris Bunch – The Far Kingdoms reprint; #1 of the trilogy
John W. Campbell – The Black Star Passes this first appeared in 1930; classic space opera!
Cordwainer Smith – We the Underpeople omnibus containing Norstrilia and other related stories
David Drake – Other Times Than Peace short story collection, with several quite long pieces; one’s 100 pages
Alan Dean Foster - Exceptions to Reality short story collection, which includes a new Pip & Flinx adventure
Maurice G. Dantec – Babylon Babies translated from French by Noura Wedell; this has been filmed as Babylon A.D. , which is due for release very soon. Near-future thriller…
Drew Karpyshyn – Ascension the 2nd Mass Effect novel
Carl Hiaasen – Nature Girl more crime in the Everglades…
On the Prowl 4 novellas from Patricia Briggs, Eileen Wilks, Karen Chance & Sunny
Steve Niles & Jeff Mariotte – Eternal Damnation the 3rd 30 Days of Night novel
Brian Keene – Ghost Walk
John Saul – The Devil’s Labyrinth
Tess Gerritsen – The Bone Garden
Douglas MacKinnon – The Apocalypse Directive
P. J. Parrish – South of Hell
Douglas Clegg – The Queen of Wolves the final part of the Vampyricon trilogy
Gord Rollo – The Jigsaw Man
John Farris – Baby Moll from 1958
magazines:
Locus – July cover date
Juxtapoz – August cover date
Neo – #48
Anime Insider – #59
Fall of Cthulhu – #14
Fall of Cthulhu – The Gathering graphic novel
The Worlds of H. P. Lovecraft vol one. 4 stories adapted by Steve Jones & Octavio Cariello. b&w
Tiki Joe Mysteries – The High Stakes Patsy b&w crime by Mark Murphy
art, etc:
Digital Art Masters volume 3 60 artists talk about their work, with a lot of examples… Published by Focal Press.
Eric Joyner – Robots & Donuts great-looking art book, mainly of robots,but also with donuts!
Glenn Barr – Sparrow art book #8
Sparrow box 1 six illustrated hardbacks in a slipcase, which includes Sparrow books 1 – 5 plus a number ‘0′ of Ashley Wood’s sketches and ideas…
apparel:
Cthulhu slippers. Green indoor footwear! Should fit most sizes of feet, as the padded material will fit snugly at the ankles…
New Titles – w/e 26th July
in hardback:
Richard Morgan – The Steel Remains a switch to writing fantasy…
David Weber – By Schism Rent Asunder the sequel to Off Armageddon Reef
L. E. Modesitt, jr – Mage-Guard of Hamor the 15th Saga of Recluce novel, set on the distant continent of Hamor…
Star Wars – The Clone Wars a novelization of the animated film by Karen Traviss
in large format:
Kevin J. Anderson – The Ashes of Worlds the final bookof The Saga of the Seven Suns
Star Trek: Myriad Universes – Infinity’s Prism three novels by William Leisner, Christopher L Bennett & James Swallow, each set in an alternate ST timeline
in ‘B’ format:
William Gibson – Spook Country the follow-up to Pattern Recognition
in paperback:
Charles Stross – The Hidden Family the 2nd in his Merchant Princes series…
Simon Green – Into the Nightside omnibus edition of the first two Nightside novels: Something From the Nightside & Agents of Light and Darkness
Patricia Briggs – Cry Wolf an Alpha and Omega novel…
Russell Kirkpatrick – Path of Revenge the 1st of his new trilogy, The Broken Man
Sarah A. Hoyt – Soul of Fire sequel to Heart of Light
Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Ann Scarborough – Third Watch: Acorna’s Children the 10th Acorna title overall…
Tanith Lee – No Flame But Mine the final volume of The Lionwolf Trilogy
Jack Whyte – Standard of Honor 2nd in The Templar Trilogy; the sequel to Knights of the Black and White. Premium size; i.e. 1cm taller than most paperbacks…
The Dark Knight novelization by Dennis O’Neil of the film of the comic…
Warhammer 40,000: The Horus Heresy – Battle for the Abyss volume 8, I think, by Ben Counter…
art. etc:
Juxtapoz Tattoo full colour hardcover of tattoo art put together by the Juxtapoz team…
Cowgatehead
Well, the Grassmarket roadworks and improvements aren’t over yet, but both the pavements outside the shop are finally done, although the road will be re-surfaced in Autumn and I don’t know if they’re re-instating the railings on the opposite side of the road…
New Titles – w/e 19th July
In hardback:
Greg Bear – City at the End of Time a return to big science fiction after several crime novels… also in l/f
Tim Stretton – The Dog of the North The Annals of Mondia #1. Good new fantasy
Steven Baxter – Flood the oceans keep rising much more than you’d think! In the near future catastrophe unfolds
Harry Turtledove – The Man With the Iron Heart an alternate end to the War in Europe in 1945…
in large format:
Greg Bear – City at the End of Time a return to big science fiction after several crime novels… also in h/c
Peter Watts – Blindsight two months after thousands of meteorites burned up in the atmosphere, a weak signal is detected far out in the solar system…
Bryan Collier - 2012; a conspiracy tale near-future British thriller
John Crowley – Daemonomania the 3rd part of his Aegypt quartet…
Robert Leader – The Sword Lord part 1 of the Fifth Planet
Charles DeLint – Yellow Dog signed & numbered limited edition chapbook
in ‘B’ format:
Terry Brooks – The Elves of Cintra Genesis of Shannara #2
Marion Crawford – The Witch of Prague & Other Stories 300 page occult novel and 8 short stories, written in the late 19th/early 20th C. Budget price.
The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance 25 stories new from current writers in the field. Edited by Trisha Telep
Read by Dawn Volume 3 latest horror anthology edited by Adele Hartley, creator of the Dead By Dawn horror film festival…
in paperback:
Jack Du Brul – Havoc the 7th Philip Mercer adventure!
Robert Rankin – the da-da-de-da-da code humourous conspiracy novel
Jennifer Fallon – Wolfblade book one of the Wolfblade Trilogy
art, etc:
Kazu Kibuishi (editor) – Flight Volume Five the latest collection of inspiring graphic short stories…
magazines:
Interzone – issue #217
audio:
Doctor Who – Sisters of the Flame episode #2.7 in the Eighth Doctor series from Big Finish
New Titles – w/e 12th July
Charles Stross – Saturn’s Children the UK edition, with a much more tasteful cover!
Nick Harkaway – Gone Away World weird mainstream novel…
Steven Brust – Jhegaala the latest Vlad Taltos adventure…
John C. Wright – Null-A Continuum a sequel to the 3 Null-A books by A.E.vanVogt…
Chris Evans – A Darkness Forged in Fire book 1 of a new fantasy series, The Iron Elves
Jack Vance – Treasury omnibus edition containing Emphyrio, The Languages of Pao and The Domaons of Koryphon. Not sure Koryphon has had a hardback edition before… And Pao was only a hardback when it first came out, I think. Emphyrio was only a U/M edition, iirc (except for their inclusion in the 40+ volume VIE complete works)
in large format:
Gardner Dozois – The Year’s Best Science Fiction #25 the biggest, and longest-running of the annual anthologies…
David Louis Edelman – Multireal the 2nd part of the Jump 225 trilogy
The Best of Jim Baen’s Universe II edited by Eric Flint & Mike Resnick
Glen Cook – A Cruel Wind omnibus of the 3 original Dread Empire novels; A Shadow of All Night Falling, October’s Baby & All Darkness Met. This series was huge when it was first published in 1979/80, and then almost forgotten about over the years…
in ‘B’ format:
J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows the final part – out at last!
Bill Hussey – Through a Glass Darkly new horror
Stephen Baxter – Weaver the 4th and final part of his Time’s Tapestry set
Paul Magrs – Something Borrowed the sequel to Never the Bride
Christopher Moore – Practical Demonkeeping UK re-issue of his first novel…
L. A. Banks – The Shadows the eleventh in the series that began with Minion…
Victor Gischler – Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse fast-moving, post-Apocalyptical page turner!
in paperback:
Douglas Niles & Michael Dobson – MacArthur’s War a novel of the invasion of Japan. World War II without the bomb
Kage Baker – The Sons of Heaven the final Company novel
Brenda Cooper – The Silver Ship and the Sea on an idyllic, yet harsh, colony world a mysterious spaceship has crashlanded…
Jo Walton – Ha’Penny the sequel to Farthing
Daniel Abraham – A Betrayal In Winter the 2nd part of the Long Price Quartet
Ed Greenwood – Dark Warrior Rising the 1st novel of Niflheim…
David Lynn Golemon Legend an Event Group thriller. Mysterious goings on deep within the Amazon jungle!
Patricia Briggs – Blood Bound 2nd in the series that began with
Whitley Strieber – 2012 the aliens are amongst us!
Holly Black – Ironside the sequel to Tithe, by the author of the Spiderwick books…
Sarah Pinborough – Tower Hill have the residents all gone mad? Or is something worse!
Robert E. Howard – Beyond the Black River the 3rd volume of his Weird Works. 6 short stories.
Warhammer 40,000 – Planet Kill short story collection…
art, etc:
Daniel Simon – Cosmic Motors subtitled ‘spaceships, cars and pilots of another galaxy‘ Some great stuff!
Stephan Martiniere – Quantumscapes more really neat art…
Khang Le, Mike Yamada, Felix Yoon & Scott Robertson – The Skillful Huntsman book explaining the development of one of the Grimm Fairy Tales comic stories… Again some great looking stuff!
art, etc:
Victoria Francis – Favole 3: Frozen Light latest in the gothic series…
David Coleman – The Art of Animal Character Design from b&w sketches to fully realised critters!
Tiki Art Two very kitsch!
Leo Aldebaren – The Catastrophe first of 5 omnibus editions collecting the 10 part series, so this volume also includes The Blonde
Olivier Ledroit & Pat Mills – Collection of Shi the 1st 6 comics
Toy2R & Clutter magazine X a hardback collaboration about designed toys…
Toy2R – Bunny Qee Fiesta Postcard Book 50 designer postcards
Toy2R – Bunny Qee Fiesta Postcard Book 2 56 designer postcards
SQP portfolios:
Steve Fastner & Rich Larson – Petz II: Fangs and Females six b&w prints
Steve Fastner & Rich Larson – Barbarian Babes – six colour prints…
Hector Gomez – Amazons: the Swords of Vengeance 6 colour prints
Blas Gallego – Born to the Blood 6 colour prints
Estaban Maroto – Touch of the Temptress 6 colour prints
Kim DeMulder – War Brides signed portfolio of 6 colour prints…
magazines:
Planet Stories – Winter 1947 facsimile edition
High Fructose #8
Gothic & Lolita Bible Boudoir issue
Cosmode #020
audio:
Doctor Who – The Death Collectors adventure #109 from Big Finish…
BBC Doctor Who adventures – The Sensorites with William Hartnell and readings of Wishing Well, Peacemaker & The Pirate Loop which all originally starred David Tennant on tv…
Today’s view from George IV Bridge
Well, my side of the street looks fine! But the other side is still being worked on… and the rest of the Grassmarket is still fairly chaotic…
The pavement work opposite should be finished before the Festival, and a lot of the other mess tidied up, but then they have to get going again, including relaying the road outside…
Thomas M. Disch
Tom Disch died on the 4th July.
I loved his work. The first novel of his I read was actually his first novel, The Genocides. Great post-alien invasion novel unlike anything I had read at the time – Earth is planted out with enormous alien plants and the remnants of humanity scrape an existance living among the roots, trying to avoid alien pest control!
I read several of his other novels: Camp Concentration, The Puppies of Terra, 334 (probably my favourite; I was looking at the the other day, wondering whether to re-read it or not), On Wings of Song, The M.D. and others, but it was really his short stories I most enjoyed. The collections I have at home all have top stories in them… too many to pick a favourite.
He often addressed weighty themes, and didn’t shy away from down-beat endings, but he was also responsible for writing the story behind a great, uplifting animated movie – The Brave Little Toaster, a wonderful parable featuring household goods on a quest!
I understand he was depressed and took his own life; but he’ll always remain a great writer, and one of my favourite authors both when I was discovering science fiction, and beyond, once I knew a bit about ‘the good stuff’.
I guess I will read 334 now.
New Titles – w/e 5th July
in hardback:
Charles Stross - Saturn’s Children an obsolete android attempts a career change!
Naomi Novik - Victory of Eagles the 5th in her Temeraire series…
Mark L. Van Name – Slanted Jack the sequel to One Jump Ahead
E. E. Knight – Fall with Honor the 6th Vampire Earth book; #5 is just out in paperback…
in large format:
Ann & Jeff Vandermeer (editors) – The New Weird new anthology of new slipstream/weird fiction, with some major contributors…
in ‘B’ format:
Julie Kenner – Deja Demon the 4th in the series that began with Carpe Demon…
Ursula K. LeGuin – Powers 3rd volume following Gifts and Voices…
Christopher Moore – Coyote Blue the reprints continue… good stuff!
in paperback:
Steve White & Shirley Meier – Exodus the 6th (?) in the series that began with White & Weber’s Crusade
Sheri S. Tepper – The Margarets science fiction; Margaret has to track down her childhood imaginary friends…
Adrian Tchaikovsky – Empire in Black and Gold book one of Shadows of the Apt. big new fantasy in which war comes to a long-peaceful land…
Robin Hobb – Renegade’s Magic the final book of the Soldier Son Trilogy. But why did the publisher have to change the cover artist so it doesn’t match the first two volumes!?
Patricia Bray – The Final Sacrifice last part of the trilogy that began with The First Betrayal I’ve enjoyed the previous parts…
Drew Bowling – The Tower of Shadows part one of The Tides of Fate. New fantasy author.
Sherwood Smith – The Fox hefty sequel to Inda.
Justine Musk – Lord of Bones the sequel to BloodAngel
Tim Scott – Outrageous Fortune madcap sf…
E. E. Knight – Valentine’s Resolve the 5th Vampire Earth novel…
David Hewson – The Seventh Sacrament ancient artifact thriller
George Orwell – Nineteen Eighty Four 60th anniversary edition…
Hellboy II – The Golden Army novelisation of the new film…
The Mummy – Tomb of the Dragon Emperor novelisation of the 3rd Mummy film, which is due soon
Kim Harrison (editor) – Hotter Than Hell showcase for the best of the current wave of dark fantasy/romantic horror sub-genre…
Forgotten Realms – Sentinelspire the 4th in the Citadels series…
