Philip Jose Farmer
Another of the old guard passes on.
Philip Jose Farmer died in his sleep on Wednesday, aged 91.
My first encounter with his work was almost certainly reading the first 3 World of Tiers books when they were issued in the Uk in the early 70s. Great stuff, as our hero from Earth fought his way back to his rightful position in one of the strangest universes created!
Other books followed, the Riverworld series, some of his Wold Newton books, The Wind Whales of Ishmael, others… A whole range of styles and settings.
Latterly, I wasn’t so impressed but the work I read in the 70s and early 80s was great!
Not sure exactly what I have at home, but I’ll check what there is and read some of it.
Original Riverworld stories
New Titles – w/e 28th February 2009
in hardback:
Kim Harrison – White Witch, Black Curse the 7th Rachel Morgan adventure…
in large format:
Brian Lumley – Harry and the Pirates the 16th Necroscope title, set in the Lost Years period.
Matthew Sturges – Midwinter fantasy; a prisoner is offered a suicide mission… of course he accepts!
Mark Henry – Road Trip of the Living Dead sequel to Happy Hour of the Damned!
Dave Duncan – The Alchemist’s Pursuit volume 3 in the series that started with The Alchemist’s Apprentice. V2 is also just in as a paperback
Robert Heinlein – The Rolling Stones his 1952 adventure around the Solar System…
Patricia Wrede – Snow White and Rose Red re-issue
in ‘B’ format:
John Crowley – Endless Things the final part of the Aegypt Cycle…
Robert Conroy – 1945 alternate history in which the Japanese don’t surrender after the bombs are dropped… I should have had this ages ago but missed it on the catalogues. His new book, 1942, came in earlier this month…
Thomas Emson – Skarlet vampires in London’s clubland…
Dave Gibbins – Atlantis ancient artifact thriller
Gavin Inglis – Crap Ghosts re-stock of the quirky collection; not all ghosts can be good at haunting!
in paperback:
Keith Brooke – The Accord plotting to destroy VR utopia…
Travis S. Taylor – One Day on Mars the Martian colonies seek independence…
Michael Z. Williamson – Better to beg Forgiveness power struggle on a backwater planet which quickly leads to war
S. Andrew Swann – Prophets part 1 of his new Apotheosis set. Some forgotton human colonies on distant planets make contact with the squabbling remains of Earth’s far-flung empire
Allen Steele – Galaxy Blues the latest novel set on the colony planet of Coyote…
Clive Cussler & Jack Du Brul – Plague Ship the 5th of the Oregon Files, although only the 3rd to be co-written by Du Brul… It’s published as a Premium Edition (i.e. 2cm taller than most paperbacks, but the same width)
Michelle West – The Hidden City the first House War novel, which continues on from The Sun Sword saga…
Anne Bishop – Tangled Webs the 7th book of the Black Jewels…
T. A. Pratt – Spell Games the 4th in the series that began with Blood Engines
Dave Duncan – The Alchemist’s Code the sequel to The Alchemist’s Apprentice
Rob Thurman – Deathwish the 4th in the series that started with Nightlife
Ralph McInerny – The Third Revelation DaVinci Code- like thriller
Conn Iggulden - Lords of the Bow the 2nd of his trilogy about Genghis Khan
Robert Silverberg – 13th Immortal first published by Ace Books in 1957!
Richard A. Lupoff – Sword of the Demon fantasy first issued in 1978…
Carrie Vaughn – Kitty Raises Hell the 5th in the series
Kelly Armstrong – Made to be Broken the sequel to Exit Strategy, featuring Nadia Stafford
Anton Strout – Deader Still the sequel to Dead to Me
Amber Benson – Death’s Daughter the 1st outing for Calliope Reaper-Jones, who is death’s daughter and in an ‘Apprentice’ like way, has to prove herself against the Devil’s protege…
Sharon Lee & Steve Miller – Duainfey shown two futures, Rebecca chooses the apparently glamerous one and is soon deep in intrigue to depose the Fey Queen…
Kari Sperring – Living With Ghosts fantasy where the dead are trying to return
Laura Anne Gilman – Bring It On and Curse the Dark the 2nd and 3rd (I think) of the Retrievers novels, featuring Wren Valere, stealer of magic artifacts…
George Mann (editor) – The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction volume three original anthology, with a strong British flavour…
Julie E. Czernada & Rob St. Martin (editors) – Ages of Wonder original fantasy stories set in the past
Star Trek – Over a Torrent Sea the latest adventure featuring the crew of the U.S.S. Titan
Dragonlance – Renegade Wizards the 3rd in the Anvil of Time trilogy
Warhammer 40,000 – Gunheads an Imperial Guard novel by Steve Parker and Dawn of War II by Chris Roberson, based on the computer game
art, etc:
Sparrow #10 – Jim Mahfood their latest little hardback…
Melanie Phillips – Draw Fairies
Artist Sisters – Box of Stories 2 cute little hardbacks, in a slipcase. Princess La La and the Little Bee by C. J. Metzger is an illustrated short story, and Teenie Tales is a collection of illustrated humourous poems by Miss Mindy!
magazines:
Heavy Metal Spring cover date
Anime Insider March cover date
Neo #56, April cover date
SFX March cover date
Maxwell Grant – The Shadow #25 latest reprint; includes The Gray Ghost and The White Skulls…
Boom! – Fall of Cthulhu; Godwar 4 chapters of the mini series collected in one volume
audio:
Doctor Who – The Transit of Venus a new First Doctor adventure; Big Finish 3.7
Power Cut on Thursday
Apologies to any costomers who came by on Thursday afternoon.
The power went off at about 14.15, cut by workmen at the foot of Candlemaker Row. Initially I was the only shop affected and I got bored waiting in the gloom, so I went out for a bit, only to find when I came back at around 16.00 that all the shops in Cowgatehead were now without power and it wasn’t likely to be back on for at least a couple of hours.
So we all went home.
But it’s fine today, and hopefully they won’t cut another cable…
The Dead Man’s Brother cover
A newly-discovered book by Roger Zelazny!
Languishing for decades before coming to light; he probably wrote it after Nine Princes in Amber, about the time he wrote Jack of Shadows…
It’s published by Hard Case Crime and the text below their logo (upper left on the cover pic) reads ‘It’ll take more than luck to find the Vatican’s missing millions – in the jungles of Brazil!’
Looks awful, sounds exciting!
New Titles – w/e 21st February 2009
in hardback:
Bruce Sterling – The Caryatids 50 years on, the world has become a very strange place…
Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle – Escape From Hell the long-awaited sequel to thier 1976 trip to Dante’s Hell, Inferno…
Lincoln Child – Terminal Freeze sf thriller about a mysterious prehistoric find in the arctic ice…
Albert Sanchez Pinol – Pandora in the Congo a new novel from the author of Cold Skin – one of my favourite creepy books! (It was set on a sub-Antacrtic lighthouse!)
in large format:
Robert Conroy – 1942 alternate history where the japanese have occupied Hawaii… I seem to have missed his 1945, where Japan fails to surrender, so thet’ll be in next week
Catherynne M. Valente – Palimpsest ‘at the train stop beyond the edge of the world is the city of Palimpsest…’
Maggie Furey – Heritage of Xandem due to serious health problems this is her first new book for a while; the first in the Chronicles of Xandem!
in ‘B’ format:
A. Merritt – The Moon Pool one of the classics of early fantasy; don’t know why it’s not got Abraham Merritt on the cover instead of just A.
Christopher Priest – Real-Time World + 2 another short story collection, mainly from the early 70s… Ersatz Wines came out in hardback only a few weeks ago
Doctor Who – The Sontaran Games a short novel by Jacqueline Rayner, published as part of the ‘Quick Reads’ campaign
in paperback:
Roger Zelazny – The Dead Man’s Brother a previously unpublished novel! A thriller/mystery written apparently around the same time as Jack of Shadows, just after the first Amber book
Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter – Firstborn the final part of their trilogy, A Time Odyssey
Scott Mariani – The Doomsday Prophecy ancient artifact thriller
Tom Cain – The Accident Man thriller
magazines:
Black Static #9
New Titles – w/e 14th February 2009
in hardback:
Christopher Moore – Fool the story behind the Fool in King Lear!
Paul Melko – The Walls of the Universe expansion of the poll-winning novella involving doppelgangers and Rubik’s Cubes!
in large format:
Eric Nylund – Mortal Coils a custody battle involving Lucifer… good to see a new novel that isn’t a game tie-in!
Chris Roberson – End of the Century three stories from separate times gradually come together
Kay Kenyon – A World Too Near the 2nd part of The Entire and the Rose trilogy, which takes place in a very strange Universe indeed!
Ian McDonald – Cyberiad Days subtitled ‘return to the India of 2047‘ a short story collection related to his ‘future India’ novel, River of Gods…
John Joseph Adams (editor) – Wastelands: stories of the apocalypse top name anthology with stories from the last four decades (despite the blurb saying only two decades!)
Christopher Anvil – RX for Chaos the latest (7th) collection pulling together all his stories…
in ‘B’ format:
Jonathan Barnes – The Domino Men this looks strangely interesting, or maybe interestingly strange… an oblique sequel the The Sonambulist
Trisha Telep (editor) – The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance fat anthology full of hunky and desirable werewolves, vampires, etc.
H. G. Wells (retold by Eric Brown) – The War of the Worlds the classic story retold briefly, with illustrations and some notes, etc
Bram Stoker (retold by Chaz Brenchley) – Dracula the classic story retold briefly, with illustrations and some notes, etc!
in paperback:
S. M. Stirling – In the Courts of the Crimson Kings the sequel to The Sky People, set on an ectremely different Mars, just as the first was set on a fantastical Venus
Robin McKinley – Dragonhaven I should have had this in a few months ago – sorry! Jake gets a job working on an endangered dragon reserve…
David B. Coe – The Sorcerer’s Plague the 1st book of the Blood of the Southlands, continuing on from the Winds of the Forelands series…
Misty Massey – Mad Kestrel the Quartermaster on a pirate ship has a secret power to control the wind!
Brian Cullen – Seekers of the Chalice fantasy set in Irish myth…
A. Lee Martinez – The Automatic Detective a robot detective in Empire City, where weird science is the hope of tomorrow!
Rachel Vincent – Pride the 3rd in the series which began with Prey…
Jenna MacLaine – Grave Sins the 2nd of the Cin Craven vampire hunter books…
art, etc:
David Saunders – Norman Saunders giant book full of top pulp art from one of the best, collated by his son
Brenda Rosen – The Mythical Creatures Bible encyclopedia of bizarre creatures of legend…
Watchmen – The Art of the Film great looking hardback
Watchmen – The Film Companion behind the scenes… both written by Peter Aperlo
Watchmen Portraits also came in recently…
Cthulhu Tales – Chaos of the Mind collecting 9 of the short stories into one volume…
Cthulhu Tales #11
Fall of Cthulhu; Apocalypse #3, all from Boom! Studios
audio:
Doctor Who – The Mind of Evil original BBC soundtrack, with linking narration…
Doctor Who – The Nemonite Invasion read by Catherine Tate
Michael Swanwick in Transreal
On Saturday afternoon Michael Swanwick dropped by the shop. I had met him a couple of days before and had a fair idea he would… anyway, this is a picture of him sitting on the steps between levels writing in his notebook.
I assumed he was taking notes or something for a future project, but no! When he finished and stood up, he tore the pages out his notebook and presented them to me – a complete little short story, based around the Grassmarket and Featuring Transreal – and myself!
I’m very chuffed!
My very own Michael Swanwick story.
And he signed my own copies of his books, as well as what little of his I had in stock. (see the ‘other collectable books ‘ page for details)
New Titles – w/e 7th February 2009
in hardback:
Walter H. Hunt – A Song in Stone contemporary mystery involving Rosslyn Chapel and the Templars. I should have mentioned this back in November last year…. And Transreal Fiction is referred to, if not actually named!
Thomas M. Disch – The Proteus Sails Again his final novella, published as a nice little dustjacketed h/c by Subterranean Press
in large format:
Lisa Tuttle – The Mysteries this came out some time ago, but I’ve not had it in stock before… a woman’s disppearance has parallels to an ancient Celtic myth… much of it is set in Scotland
in ‘B’ format:
G. W. Dahlquist – The Dark Volume sequel the The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, which I enjoyed a lot. This carries on almost without pause from the end of the earlier book… Weird, quasi-Victorian adventure
in paperback:
Taylor Anderson – Into the Storm the first Destroyermen novel – an aging destroyer in WW2 finds itself on an alternate earth where evolution has taken a different path and the ship and it’s crew may tip the balance of power either way…
Jim Butcher – Small Favour the 10th bookof the Dresden Files series, out ahead of the US edition…
Patricia Briggs – Bone Crossed 4th in the Mercy Thompson series that began with Moon Called…
Kristine Kathryn Rusch – Duplicate Effort a new Retrieval Artist novel; the 7th I think, although, annoyingly, the rest are out of print…
Gail Z. Martin Dark Haven the 3rd of the Chronicles of the Necromancer
William Deitrich – The Rosetta Key the 2nd of the Ethan Gage adventures, following on from Napoleon’s Pyramids. Good historical fun!
Rachel Caine – Undone the first of her new Outcast Season books, which follow on from the 6 book Weather Warden series…
S. L. Farrell – A Magic of Twilight the 1st in his Nessantico Cycle, set in a fantasy Rennaissance…
Margaret Ronald – Spiral Hunt Genevieve Scelan has a scent for magic. Literally.
Marcus Pelegrimus – Blood Blade the 1st in the Skinners series; Skinners keep the monsters at bay, but there are ever fewer of them to do the task…
Forgotten Realms – Unholy the 3rd in The Haunted Lands series, by Richard Lee Byers
Crime Spells – original fantasy anthology edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Loren Coleman…
