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…
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
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…
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…
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.
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…
In hardback:
Steven Erikson - Toll the Hounds the 8th volume of The Mazalan Book of the Fallen
James Rollins - The Last Oracle the 4th Sigma Force adventure
Holly Lisle - Hawkspar another novel set in Korre, the same world Talyn was set in…
Jaida Jones & Danielle Bennett - Havemercy interesting-looking new fantasy
in large format:
Stephen Donaldson - Fatal Revenant the 2nd book of The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
Tony Gonzales - EVE: The Empyrean Age a novel based on the interactive computer game EVE…
in ‘B’ format:
Mike Ashley (editor) The Mammoth Book of Extreme Fantasy A kind-of Dangerous Visions of fantasy!
John Seymour - Retrieved from the Future a novel set after the energy crunch…
in paperback:
David Weber & Linda Evans - Hell Hath No Fury the sequel to Hell’s Gate
Jack Campbell - Valiant the 4th Lost Fleet book…
Charles Stross - Halting State near future crime novel set in Edinburgh
Michael Stackpole - The New World the final part of The Age of Discovery trilogy
Lynn Flewelling - Shadows Return the long-awaited 4th Nightrunner book
James Maxey - Dragonforge the second novel of The Dragon Age and the sequel to Bitterwood
Patrice Sarath - Gordath Wood a woman inadvertantly rides through a portal to a mediaeval world…
David Louis Edelman - Infoquake part 1 of the Jump 225 trilogy. Hi-tech sf…
Greg Cox - The Vesuvius Prophecy a novel of The 4400, which is the number of abductees ‘taken’ and later returned with special powers…
Paul Christopher - The Aztec Heresy 4th book featuring Finn Ryan. The 3rd, Rembrandt’s Ghost, was great fun!
Lilith Saintcrow - Night Shift first in a new horror series…
Julie Kenner - Demons are Forever the strapline reads ‘confessions of a demon-hunting soccer mom’. I enjoyed the first one… It’s as if Buffy has grown up and settled down, but is recruited back into her old ways
Marjorie M. Liu - The Iron Hunt first in a new series; another present day demon-hunting demon! Sounds a little different, though!
Brandon Massey - Don’t Ever Tell horror
Al Ewing - I, Zombie a Tomes of the Dead novel… the autobiography of a zombie!
The Dimension Next Door original anthology of stories featuring parallel worlds or alternate dimensions… edited by Martin H. Greenberg & Kerrie Hughes
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Fearful Symmetry two back-to-back stories with the same title with one of them, I assume, set in the Mirror Universe
Star Wars: Coruscant Nights #1 - Jedi Twilight
Eberron - The Darkwood Mask fourth in the Inquisitives series…
art, etc:
Yoshitaka Amano - Mateki’s Magic Flute concepy illustrations for a Japanese production of The Magic Flute
Gary Gianni - The Prince Valiant Page heavily illustrated (mainly in b&w) book about the author’s spell producing the famous strip…
audio:
Doctor Who - The Zygon Who Fell To Earth an Eighth Doctor audio drama; Big Finish #2.6
magazines:
Locus - June cover date
Heavy Metal - Summer issue
Juxtapoz - July cover date
Illustration - #1 re-issue
Piq - #4
Neo - #47
Anime Insider - #58
in hardback:
James Howard Kunstler - World Made by Hand literary, post-breakdown novel; looks interesting
Gideon Defoe - The Pirates! in an Adventure with Napoleon 4th in the series… Good fun!
:in large format:
Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - These Haunted Seas large omnibus edition containing Twilight by David R. George III and This Gray Spirit by Heather Jarman
in ‘B’ format:
Christopher Brookmyre - Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks
Ben Elton - Blind Faith
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull the novelisation by James Luceno
The Adventures of Indiana Jones omnibus edition of the novelisations of the first 3 films…
in paperback:
Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child - The Wheel of Darkness the latest Pendergast novel, the 12th in that background, although he’s not in all of them…
Terry Pratchett - Making Money latest Discworld novel… a few copies actually came in earlier…
Kristin Landon - The Cold Minds the sequel to the The Hidden Worlds
John Twelve Hawks - The Dark River sequel to The Traveller
audio:
Doctor Who - Black Orchid latest BBC cd
Doctro Who - Assassin in the Limelight Big Finish #108
Sapphire & Steel - Remember Me Big Finish volume 3.2
magazines:
Black Static #5
in hardback:
Jacqueline Carey - Kushiel’s Mercy the 3rd in the Kushiel’s Legacy set
Lewis Shiner - Black & White mainstream novel about racial tension and conflict in the fairly recent past of the USA. He’s an excellent writer.
Douglas Preston & Mario Spezi - The Monster of Florence a true crime book, looking at a notorious murder next door to Preston’s villa in Florence…
in large format:
Glen Cook - The Books of the South; Tales of the Black Company omnibus containing Shadow Games, Dreams of Steel and The Silver Spike
Spider: City of Doom an omnibus of 3 reprint adventure novels from the 1930s by Norvell Page. It contains The City Destroyer, The Faceless One and The Council of Evil
H. P. Lovecraft - Necronomicon large softcover of some of Lovecraft’s best stories… also available in hardback
Captain Future featuring the novel The Comet Kings by Edmond Hamilton, along with other stories and articles…
Jonathan Maberry & David F. Kramer - The Cryptopedia an encyclopaedia of weirdness!
in ‘B’ format:
Paul McAuley - Cowboy Angels convoluted parallel worlds story, with added black ops/CIA interference across the different versions of 20th C America. I liked the hardback last year…
Keith Donohue - The Stolen Child a young boy and his fairy changeling grow up with strange memories of their childhoods…
Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind part 1 of a big new fantasy series; I enjoyed reading the hardback…
in paperback:
Robert Charles Wilson - Axis the sequel to Spin
Tobias S. Bucknell - Ragamuffin sequel to Crystal World. Rastas vs Mayans on a forgotten colony planet! 
I liked the first book
Mel Odom - Boneslicer the first book in The Quest for the Trilogy. Three books hold the key…
Martin Millar - The Good Faries of New York good humoured novel about some Scottish fairies adrift in New York…
Brandon Sanderson - Mistborn budget reprint from the author chosen to finish writing the late Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time cycle
Brandon Sanderson - The Well of Ascension sequel to Mistborn; part 2 of a trilogy
L. A. Banks - The Cursed the 9th(?) in the set
Jonathan Maberry - Dead Man’s Song horror
art, etc:
Serenity Blueprint Reference Pack set of blueprints from the film/tv series
The Art of Claudio Aboy the latest SQP volume…
The Art of Walter Girotto
Leong Wan Kok & Puyuh - Astro-Cityzen brilliantly weird art!
Jim Woodring - The Frank Book back in stock. Mainly b&w stories with Frank, Pupshaw and Pushpaw
C’est Bon Anthology #5 b&w graphic collection
Buddy Scalera - Women and Girls the latest in his Comic Artist’s Photo Reference series…
Hellboy - The Companion guide to the comic series
Hellboy II - The Art of the Movie includes the shooting script, together with photos, sketches, storyboards, etc.
Algis Budrys, the man with one of the oddest names in sf! (It’s Lithuanian, btw!)
Sadly he died yesterday, aged 77. I didn’t read very much of his work but he was much admired in the sf field.
His book Who? is possibly his best known - not least because it was filmed and shows up on tv every so often. Once seen, you don’t forget the man in the steel mask! Rogue Moon was also memorable, and I also enjoyed The Iron Thorn.
He was nominated for the Hugo and the Nebula award 7 times, but sadly never won either award.
Another of the names I grew up with gone.
Transreal Fiction is a shop dedicated to selling science fiction, fantasy & related books, together with a limited selection of other merchandise.But really, it’s about books. Transreal Fiction opened in April 1997. The owner, Mike Calder, first sold sf & f books many years ago and has worked in the business either part- or full-time since. For years he also had a respectable job as well, but that’s another story…
The shop is named after the term coined by Rudy Rucker to describe his fiction and I thought it an apt name for a shop specialising in speculative fiction. And, in case you’re wondering, yes, Rudy Rucker was happy to allow me to use of the term as a name for my shop.
