New Titles – w/e 29th November
in hardback:
Orson Scott Card – Ender in Exile the 10th Ender novel, a direct sequel to Ender’s Game
Eric Flint & Virginia DeMarce – 1635 : The Deesden Incident the latest Ring of Fire/1632 novel
Christopher Anvil – War Games the latest volume of his stories, edited by Eric Flint. Includes the novel The Steel, the Mist, and the Blazing Sun and 17 other stories…
R. M. Meluch – Strength and Honor the 4th adventure of the spaceship U.S.S. Merrimack
in large format:
James Barclay – Ravensoul part 4 of his Legends of the Raven series
Holly Phillips – The Engine Child new, exotic fantasy
Michael Moorcock – Elric : the Sleeping Serceress the 3rd of The Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone includes 2 novels, short stories, etc.
in ‘B’ format:
Chris Wooding – The Fade subterranean war in vast cave systems on an alien planet! I enjoyed the ‘C’ format edition last year…
in paperback:
John Ringo & Julie Cochrane – Sister Time the latest of Ringo’s Legacy of Aldenata series; the first of which was A Hymn Before Battle…
Charles Stross – The Clan Corporate the UK edition of the 3rd Merchant Princes novel
Bud Sparhawk – Vixen a ‘deep sleep’ colony ship arrives at their new star system…
Wm. Mark Simmons – Dead Easy the 4th in his Almost a Vampire series, which began with One Foot in the Grave
David Sherman & Dan Cragg – Recoil the 3rd part of the Starfist: Force Recon series
Juliet Marillier – Cybele’s Secret historical fantasy set in old Istanbul…
Carlos J. Cortes – Perfect Circle thriller set in the heart of the Congo, where a mysterious discovery is made…
Jenna Black – The Devil’s Due the 3rd in her series that began with The Devil You Know
James Rollins – Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Chrystal Skull novelisation of the recent 4th film
David Mack – Lost Souls the 3rd part of the Destiny trilogy of Star Trek novels…
Star Wars – Death Star novel set at the same time as the original films, by Michael Reaves & Steve Perry
Forgotten Realms – Swordmage part 1 of the Blades of the Moonsea series, by Richard Baker
Forgotten Realms – Shadowrealm final part of The Twilight War set by Paul S. Kemp
Forgotten Realms – Plague of Spells the first book of the Abolethic Sovereignity by Bruce R. Cordell
Dragonlance – The Firerose Ogre Titans book 2 by Richard A. Knaak
Robert E. Howard – Black Hounds of Death volume 5 of the Weird Works of REH series…
Warhammer – Mechanicum The 9th book of the Horus Heresy
art, etc:
Frederick Burr Opper – Happy Hooligan hardback of the classic strip
Frank Frazetta – The Fantastic Worlds of Frazetta volume 1 hardback with some beautiful stuff!
Frank Frazetta – The Definitive Frazetta heavily illustrated guide to all his work
Olivia – Betty Page hardcover
Olivia – Second Slice I’ve not had this title in for years!
Chris Hart – Drawing Wizards, Witches and Warlocks his latest book on the techniques of drawing…
magazines:
Locus November cover date
Juxtapoz December cover date
Anime Insider #63
Otaku USA December
SFX Christmas issue
SFX Lucasfilm Special
gift:
Pythonopoly back in! The first order sold out almost immediately.
Dave McKean & Rachel Pollack Vertigo Tarot available again aftre several years!
Cthulhu – I Want You small poster in the style of the Uncle Sam enlistment poster
New Titles – w/e 22nd November
in hardback:
Jim Butcher – Princep’s Fury the 5th in his Codex Alera series…
Christopher Paolini – Brisinger the 3rd in the set. I have no idea why it’s so late arriving.
Michael Swanwick – The Best of Michael Swanwick excellent Subterranean Press collection…
J. R. R. Tolkien – The Father Christmas Letters
in large format:
The Ancestors three novellas by L. A. Banks, Tananarive Due & Brandon Massey
Star Trek Corps of Engineers – Wounds 7 novellas which first appeared as e-books in 2005
in paperback:
Jim Butcher – Captain’s Fury the 4th in his Codex Alera series…
Brent Weeks – Beyond the Shadows the concluding volume of his Night Angel trilogy
Russell Kirkpatrick – Dark Heart volume 2 of The Broken Man
John Levitt – New Tricks the sequel to Dog Days
Deborah Chester – The Crown book 2 of The Pearls and the Crown
R. Garland Gray – The Rebel Lord the first Darkscape novel…
Justin Gustainis – Black Magic Woman the 3rd Morris & Chastain Investigation
Alex Archer – Swordsman’s Legacy the 15th Rogue Angel adventure
Lynsay Sands – Single White Vampire romantic vampire novel…
Fantastic Four – Doomgate by Jeffrey Lang
James Axler – Death Cry the 45th of his Outlanders series…
Joe Haldeman & Martin H. Greenberg (editors) – Future Weapons of War high-powered anthology
Katherine Kurtz – Dernyi Checkmate the 2nd of her original Dernyi series…
magazines:
Interzone #219; December cover date
calanders:
Origami Fold-a-Day Calendar
Barrington J. Bayley
Barry Bayley, author of such books as The Garments of Caen (in which clothes definitely maketh the man) and The Zen Gun, died of cancer recently.
Another of the old guard gone!
New Titles – w/e 15th November
in hardback:
Jane Lindskold - Thirteen Orphans volume 1 of her new series Breaking the Wall. Looks very good
L. E. Modesitt, jnr. – The Lord-Protector’s Daughter part 7 overall of The Corean Chronicles
Todd McCaffrey – Dragonheart big, new Dragonriders of Pern novel, by Anne McCaffrey’s son…
in large format:
Henry Kuttner – Elak of Atlantis 6 stories from the roots of modern heroic fantasy… 4 of these tales first appeared in Weird Tales in the 1930s; the other 2 were in Strange Tales around the same time
in ‘B’ format:
Sarah Eyre & Ra Page (editors) – The New Uncanny subtitled ‘tales of unease’
in paperback:
Andy McDermott – The Tomb of Hercules ancient artifact thriller…
Glen Cook – Cold Tin Sorrows reprint of the 4th Garrett, P.I. adventure…
art, etc:
Winsor McCay – Little Nemo In Slumberland v2 big hardback which covers the years 1920 – 1926. One of the classic, ground-breaking comic strips…
Spectrum 15 edited by Cathy & Arnie Fenner the hardback edition…
Chris Ayers – The Daily Zoo following medical treatment, the artist decided to draw an animal a day for a year while he recovered… some great stuff!
Jasmine Becket-Griffith – Gothic Art Now an overview of current goth-inspired art… (hardback)
Francis Tsai – 100 Ways to Create Fantasy Figures more inspirational than technical…
Roger Dean – Dragon’s Dream described as the 3rd in the trilogy, following on from Views and Magnetic Storm. Looks fascinating, as it goes into his technique, rather than merely reprinting his art.
Luis Royo – Fantastic Art restock of this large retrospective hardback
Sarah Varon – Robot Dreams cute graphic strip
Sonny Liew (editor) – Liquid City vol 1graphic anthology
Cthulhu Tales #8
Fallof Cthulhu – Godwar #3
Zombie Tales – Oblivion the first graphic collection
Zombie Tales – The War at Home #1
Warren Ellis & Paul Duffield – Freak Angels graphic collection
Neo #52
New Type (Japanese) October cover date
calanders:
Luis Royo – Dome large wall calendar featuring images from his ‘Dome‘ project (a hardback on the project is also available)
audio:
Doctor Who – The Krotons original tv soundtrack, with linking narration…
games:
Reiner Knizia – Cthulhu Rising 2-player game from Twilight Creations
Friday: a new herd of various critters – mammoths, wolves, aardvarks, and many more!
details on an updated ‘cuddly critters’ page soon…
Michael Crichton
Michael Crichton died of cancer on Tuesday.
I first read him back in the early 70s when I bought The Andromeda Strain, which was, I think, his first novel. I enjoyed it, although it did seem rather dry, and I later enjoyed the film made of the book… I liked it enough to pick up The Terminal Man (although maybe it was the weird cut-a-way cover that clinched it!) and, in 1976, the paperback of Eaters of the Dead, with the dense black illustrations by Ian Miller; great stuff, and I still like Miller a lot today.
I continued reading him and feel he probably peaked with the book Jurassic Park; excellent, adventurous stuff but a couple of years later my expectations were dashed by how poor the sequel was. I was on holiday abroad, but felt I couldn’t wait a week to buy it back in the UK, so I bought it knowing I’d have to lug it around with me – big mistake. It’s still on the shelf at home but I’ve not felt any interest in re-reading it… I did continue to read his other books occasionally but finding them less satisfying; I solved Airframe very early in the book, Prey was The Andromeda Strain diluted and inverted so the problem was on the outside, not the inside…
His trave/autobiography book was an interesting read, and he certainly seems to have led an interesting life, together with writing or creating several iconic popular cultural books, films and shows…
I’m not sure if I’ll read anything in memory of him, but I’ll probably dig out my old Eaters of the Dead and admire the illustrations, at least. Or I might even pull down The Lost World and see if it’s better than I remember… Or, actually, as somebody best known latterly for film and tv work, maybe I should just watch some top dinosaur movie action on dvd!
New Titles – w/e 8th November 2008
in hardback:
James P. Blaylock – The Adventures of Langdon St.Ives hefty volume collecting several short stories and the two novels, Homunculus & Lord Kelvin’s Machine, which all feature the titular steampunk hero…
in large format:
Glen Cook – A Fortress in Shadow an omnibus edition of mid-80s Dread Empire books, The Fire in His Hands & With Mercy Towards None
Sergei Lukyanenko - The Last Watch 3rd in the Watch trilogy…
in paperback:
Ian Douglas – Galactic Corps the 2nd in the Inheritance Trilogy
Matthew Jarpe – Radio Freefall the blurb describes it as Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress meets cyberpunk… His first novel.
Mel Odom – Seaspray volume 2 of The Quest for the Trilogy!
David Drake – The Mirror of Worlds the 2nd part of Crown of the Isles, itself the concluding portion of his Lord of the Isles series
Janny Wurts – Stormed Fortress the Aliance of Light volume 5, or volume 8 of the Wars of Light and Shadow…
George R. R. Martin (editor) – Inside Straight a new Wild Cards collection; apparently the 18th overall, although I had thought it was the 19th…
Predator – South China Sea thrilling adventure from Jeff Vandermeer
Dragonlance – The Survivors part 2 of The Anvil of Time by Dan Willis
Forgotten Realms – The Fractured Sky part 2 of the Empyrean Odyssey by Thomas M. Reid
Eberron – The Queen of Stone the first part of the Thorn of Breland series by Keith Baker
Tomes of the Dead – Anno Mortis by Rebecca Levene
art, etc:
Spectrum 15 edited by Cathie & Arnie Fenner the latest annual collection of the best f&sf art from Underwood Books
Brian Ruckley
Congratulations to Brian and Fleur, who have recently returned from their Honeymoon in Barbados!
(And volume 3 of The Godless World is apparently still on schedule for a May release date…)
