Transreal Fiction New Titles – w/e 27th April 2024

in hardcover:

Harlan Ellison (editor) – Dangerous Visions reprint of the groundbreaking 1967 anthology; also in softover

in softcover:

Anthony Ryan – The Traitor final book of his Covenant of Steel trilogy, following on from The Pariah & The Martyr
Max Gladstone – Wicked Problems volume 2 of his Craft Wars series after2023’s Dead Country, itself a sequel to The Craft Sequence.
Djamila Morani – The Djinn’s Apple orphaned in the sumptuous Caliphate, Nardeen must discover why her family were killed, and the significance of a mysterious manuscript!
Francesco Dimitri – The Dark Side of the Sky in rural Italy a retreat called the Bastion might be run by con artists, or maybe it does hold secrets…

Richy Craven – Spirit Level troubled office worker Danny can see ghosts (including his recently deceased best friend) – but only when he’s drunk!

Marie Brennan – The Market of 100 Fortunes the latest novel set in the Legend of the Five Rings world

Transreal Fiction New Titles – w/e 20th April 2024

in hardcover:

Mark Lawrence – The Book That Broke the World sequel to The Book That Wouldn’t Burn
James Logan – The Silverblood Promise vol 1 of The Last Legacy Lukan vows to discover his estranged father’s murderer. Great fantasy romp!
John Wiswell – Someone You Can Build a Nest In she may be a monster but her hunters are worse!
Judy I. Lyn – Song of the Six Realms exotic adventure inspired by Chinese mythology…
Rogba Payne – The Dance of Shadows a budding musician must become a Shadow Wielder to fight back against a colonising empire…
Taran Matharu – Dragon Rider fleeing a coup, prince Jai steals a dragon egg to try to bond with the soon to hatch dragon!
Leigh Bardugo – Familiar a maid is persuaded by her mistress to use her minor magical skills to help her at the Court in madrid but the maid sees her chance!

Scott A. Howard – The Other Valley hike out the valley in one direction and you’re 20 years in the future! Go the other way and you’re 20 years in the past! But travel is very strictly controlled…
Sylvie Cathrall – A Letter to the Luminous Deep in an undersea civilisation two people try to solve the mystery of their brother & sister’s disappearance.after a sea-quake, and the puzzle they were working on…

Scarlett Thomas – Sleepwalkers a couple find their honeymoon on an idylic island reveals a very dark mystery…

in softcover:

Adrian Tchaikovsky – Lords of Uncreation last volume of The Final Architecture trilogy
M. Darusha Wehm – Shores of a New Horizon a Terraforming Mars novel; problems with a contaminated ice asteroid, which was meant to be their water supply…
Edward Ashton – Mal Goes to War another sequel to Mickey 7 (recently filmed as Mickey 17) and 3rd in the series after Antimatter Blues
Aliette de Bodard – A Fire Born of Exile companion novel to The Red Scholar’s Wake
David Musgrave – Lambda set in a parallel world with a small population of semi-aquatic humans living alongside normal humans…

Olivie Blake – One For My Enemy power struggles between two rival families…
Donna Glee Williams – The Night Field plague has descended on the People and Pyn-Poi must climb the unclimbable cliff to confront the Ancestors…

Matt Wallace – Savage Company the Empire’s pressganged, disposable shock troops are known as the Savages but they are a secret from the general population…
Brent Weeks – Night Angel Nemesis part 1 of The Kylar Chronicles, sequels to his Night Angel trilogy
Salinee Goldenburg – The Last Phi Fighter demon hunter Ex agrees to guide a woman though a treacherous forest…

Ted Chiang – Stories of Your Life and Others new cover design on his short story collection
Aaron Worth (editor) – Out of the Past the latest anthology from the British Library and their Tales of the Weird series, subtitled Tales of Haunting History

Jack Dann – The Fiction Writer’s Guide to Alternate History only taken 6+ months for my suppliers to get this! A guide of how to write it, and the pitfalls to avoid, subtitled A handbook on Craft, Art, And History

art, etc:

3dtotal Publications – Frank Frazetta: An Artists’ Tribute h/c with 17 different artists discussing Frazetts’a art, and producing their own tribute works…

Brian Sibley – Maps of Middle Earth h/c with 160 pages of illustrated (b&w drawings) text about the geography with 4 loose poster maps (smaller than before) of The Hobbit, the classic Middle Earth map, Numenor and Beleriand. Previously available with larger posters in a slipcase.

Transreal Fiction New Titles – w/e 6th April 2024

Please note that the shop will be closed next week – the week ending Saturday13th April – open again on Tuesday 16th April

in hardcover:

David Weber – Toll of Honor the latest Honor Harrington book!

Robert Jackson Bennett – The Tainted Cup on the fringe of the Empire where strange magics and contagions are rife, a weird murder has been committed…
Lucy Holland – Song of the Huntress trying to resist the Romans, Herla makes a dread pact with the Otherworld King which will last for centuries… Her previous historical novel, Sistersong, was very good.
Barbara Hambly – The Nubian’s Curse the latest Benjamin January case…

in softcover:

Brandon Sanderson – Tress of the Emerald Sea his latest Cosmere softcover
Thomas D. Lee – Perilous Times the slumbering knights haven’t been awakened for help since the Battle of the Somme…
Kate Mascarenhas – Hokey Pokey gothic ghost story set during a blizzard in a big modern 1920s Birmingham hotel!
Shannon Chakraborty – The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi from the author of The Daevabad Trilogy, which began with The City of Brass

L. M. Sagas – Cascade Failure the 1st in the Ambit’s Run series; Jal is a Guild deserter but ends up crewing on a Guild spaceship which discovers a massacre on an apparently abandoned planet – and a survivor!
Subodhana Wijeyeratne – Triangulum Dawn & her Golden Swarm with other family and allies have kept the peace in the Nine Worlds for 3,000 years but that may be about to change!

Martha Wells – The Book of Ile-Rien omnibus volume with revised versions of both The Element of Fire & The Death of the Necromancer (first published in 1993 & 98)

Ann Leckie – Lake of Souls short story collection
Kellie Wells – God, the Moon, and Other Megafauna short story collection

Lavie Tidhar (editor) – The Best of World S.F. volume 3
Harlan Ellison (editor) – Dangerous Visions re-issue of the ground-breaking 1967 anthology. Again, Dangerous Visions & The Last Dangerous Visions should follow in June & October! H/C editions will be available as well as the softcovers.
Robert Silverberg & Martin Harry Greenberg (editors) – The Wildside Press Treasury of Great Science Fiction Short Novels 15 classics from the 1940s to the 70s! Many now might be considered novellas…

art, etc:

Square Enix – The Art Of Final Fantasy XVI the latest large h/c from the franchise

magazines:

Shoreline of Infinity – issue # 37: Spring 2024

Transreal on Holiday!

Please note that the shop will be closed for a week in April, from Sunday 7th to Monday 15th inclusive. Open again on Tuesday 16th April.

Transreal Fiction New Titles – w/e 30th March 2024

in hardcover:

Adrian Tchaikovsky – Alien Clay an outspoken professor wants to study a distant planet’s alien ruins but ends up in a labour camp there instead…
Hao Jingfang – Jumpnauts during a tense standoff between the 2 major power blocs in 2080, a signal is received from deep space which may change history!

Sebastien de Castell – Play of Shadows 1st in new series Court of Shadows in the world of the Greatcoats.

Oliver K. Langmead – Calypso epic wide-screen space adventure & exploration, told in verse!

in softcover:

Nicholas Binge – Ascension an expedition to climb the tallest mountain in the world, which has just appeared sticking out of the South Pacific!

Rebecca Yarros – Fourth Wing Violet is forced to join an elite dragon-rider training programme!
Constance Sayers – The Star and the Strange Moon a budding film star disappears but maybe she’s living inside her final film…
C. E. McGill – Our Hideous Progeny in the mid 19thC a niece of Victor Frankenstein tries to reconstruct a dinosaur!

Mike Ashley (Editor) – Fear in the Blood the latest in their Tales of the Weird anthologies from the British Library; subtitled Tales from the Dark Lineages of the Weird

art, etc:

Mike Trim – The Future Was Fab: The Art of MT softcover full of b&w & colour concept art & sketches of aircraft, spaceships, etc., mainly for Jerry Anderson projects! F.A.B.
Peter de Sève – Local Fauna: The Art of PDS large h/c, full of fantastical cratures, etc. including concept art for films such as the Ice Age franchise, Mulan, A Bug’s Life & Finding Nemo!
Jeff Smith – RASL 450+ page h/c with the complete collected comic about ‘a dimension-jumping art thief with personal problems’, from the creator of Bone. Full colour.

magazines:

Locus – issue # 758 March cover date

Transreal Fiction New Titles – w/e 23rd March 2024

in hardcover:

Snorri Kristjansson – The Hidden Legion the exploits of a secret Roman Legion in the early 1stC!
Should have had it several months ago!

in softcover:

Charles Stross – Season of Skulls the latest of the Laundry/New Management novels
Sarah K. Jackson – Not Alone Katie and her young son must travel across the toxic wastelands of a near future Britain seeking safety…
J. Michael Straczynski – The Glass Box Riley is imprisoned in a dreadful new facility run by a future fascist government…
Stephen Graham Jones – The Angel of Indian Lake 3rd in the trilogy which began with My Heart is a Chainsaw & Don’t Fear the Reaper

Faith Hunter – Rift in the Soul the 6th of her Soulwood novels…

Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay (editor & translator) – The Inhumans and Other Stories: A Selection of Bengali Science Fiction includes the 100+ page title story by Hemendrakumar Roy and 3 other shorter works

art, etc:

Mimahamu – In the Wind: The Art of Mimahamu full colour softcover
Tatsuyuki Tanaka – Cannabis Works 2 hardcover; no drug content that I could see!

PIE International – Cheerful Local Package Design to Make Souvenirs Stand Out hundreds of photos of examples of packaging, etc!
PIE International – Graphic Design for Shops & Cafes in the Age of Social Media hundreds, maybe a thousand+ carefully set photos of all sorts of stuff! From hairstyles to washing machines to do-nuts!

magazines:

Character Design Quarterly – CDQ issue # 28

Transreal Fiction New Titles – w/e 16th March 2024

in hardcover:

Peter V. Brett – The Hidden Queen vol 2 of his Nightfall Saga, after The Desert Prince. Signed copies available!
Lyra Selene – Feather So Black Fia is a changeling and has been tasked by the High Queen to enter Fae and retrieve the princess Fia was swapped for…
Analeigh Sbrana – Lore of the Wilds 1st of a pair of books; Lore will do anything to gain some magic of her own and free her village…

Natasha Pulley – The Mars House Stirling is a top dancer, now a climate refugee, fled to a partially terraformed Mars, where he encounters an anti-immigration hereditary senator…
Chris Sugden – High Vaultage private investigators in a very steampunk London… Looks fun!
James Goodhand – The Day Tripper recovering from an attack,Alex finds he’s lost 15 years, and the next day, another nine!
Thomas Olde Heuvelt – Oracle in the present day the wreckage of a 18hC sailing ship appears in a meadow… Translated from Dutch by Moshe Gilula
Grace Curtis – Floating Hotel Carl is an ex-stowaway, now manager of a grand, inter-planetary cruising hotel!

Ursula K. LeGuin – Annals of the Western Shore omnibus edition of Gifts, Voices & Powers published by The Library of America (2020)

in softcover:

Mark Lawrence – The Book That Wouldn’t Burn volume 1 in The Library Trilogy. Ecar has grown up living a a vast, city-sized library…
T. J. Klune – In the Lives of Puppets a very mixed family set out to recover their vacuum cleaner friend, who has been kidnapped for re-programming…
T. Kingfisher – A House With Good Bones on a visit home Sam finds everything is now a bit odd…
Brandon Sanderson – Rhythm of War the complete 4th volume of The Stormlight Archive. 1370+ pages!
Owen King – The Curator revolution in a steampunk era, magical city…
Grace Curtis – Frontier in the arid, desertified future, a spaceship brings the first visitor to Earth for a century…

Doug Johnstone – The Collapsing Wave sequel to, and set 6 months after, The Space Between Us. Vol 2 of the Enceladons Trilogy
Jane Hennigan – Toxxic a sequel to Moths, in which a plague almost wipes out all men

art, etc:

Square Enix – The Art of Final Fantasy XVI hardcover with full colour art
Ian Miller – The Art of IM welcome reprint. Hardcover

Transreal Fiction New Titles – w/e 9th March 2024

in hardcover:

Brandon Sanderson – The Sunlit Man Nomad flees from the Night Brigade by skipping through the Cosmere… The last of his ‘kickstarter’ novels!

Katherine Arden – The Warm Hands of Ghosts a nurse arrives on the Western Front during WWI looking for her missing brother and hears stories of ghosts, and the fiddler, who can offer oblivion to those who seek it…

in softcover:

R. J. Barker – Gods of the Wyrdwood part 1 of a new series from the author of The Bone Ships trilogy. I thought it was excellent.
Ian Esslemont – Forge of the High Mage Paths to Ascendancy vol 4
C. G. Piper – The Dawn and it’s Light vol 4 of The Night and it’s Moon
Sylvia Bishop – On Silver Tides in the early 19thC communities of Silvermen live & work along the canals, and they have the ability to breath underwater. But Kilda’s young sister is different…

T. L. Huchu – The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle 3rd in the Edinburgh Nights series, which began with The Library of the Dead
Terry Pratchett – The Last Hero re-issue of this Discworld story, heavily illustrated by Paul Kidby

Nathan Tavares – Welcome to Forever Fox is a top memory editor but finds that the attack which damaged his own memory has also destroyed all the back-up archives…
Patrick Chiles – The Long Run 1st in his new Interstellar Medic series. Melanie is driving home one night when she is abducted by aliens who need her medical skills… A bit like Prostho Plus (1971) by Anthony, but a doctor, not a dentist!
Neal Asher – War Bodies his latest epic novel, set in The Polity

Ursula K. LeGuin – A Fisherman of the Inland Sea short stories (first collected 1994), unfortunately printed without a contents page

art, etc:

3dtotal Publishing – Inspired By Nature subtitled A Guide to Designing Botanical Characters full colour h/c; looks very good
Akem – Mythic Texture includes a short story Brief Chance of Moonlight by the artist

magazines:

Locus – # 737 February cover date with 2023 in review & obits for Howard Waldrop, Terry Bisson & David Drake

Brian Stableford

I was very sorry to hear of Brian’s recent death – he was one of the authors that consolidated my interest in science fiction when I was growing up.
I first read him back in around 1970 when I read his two Sidgwick & Jackson hardcovers from the library – The Cradle of the Sun & The Blind Worm, followed soon after by 1971’s paperbacks of In the Kingdom of the Beasts and Day of Wrath (followed belatedly by the 1973 UK printing from a different publisher of part one of the trilogy, The Days of Glory!
But before The Days of Glory came out here, in 1972 DAW Books started publishing him with To Challenge Chaos (DAW #7, iirc, with a great psychedelic Kelly Freas cover)

And he was off! The Hooded Swan set, The Daedelus Mission set, the Tartarus trilogy, the Asgard books (published here as the Centre trilogy) – I read them all as they came out, maybe 30 books in total up until around 1990. 20 years of churning out exciting, mid-list sf novels… He carried on, but I fell by the wayside. I didn’t take to his Genesys books, and we had supply problems with his Emortality series, which also seemed to come out in all the wrong order… He was also doing more horror titles, which I wasn’t particularly into, and my reading of him dropped off sharply!
He wrote, translated & edited a huge amount of work after his higher profile mainstream publication fell off, often published by Dedalus Books – he was an authority on the roots of gothic and science fiction.

I only met him once, that I recall, back in the late 80s, which I was very pleased to do as he was a major figure in my reading at one time, and brought a wealth of imagery and ideas to his books. The six Dedalus Missions each tackled a different ecological problem that had arisen on each colony planet humans had settled on. Grainger & the Hooded Swan spaceship (early example of a neural interface, also with a mind-inhabiting alien intelligence) visited a host of strange, complex societies over their six adventures… Whole civilisations of Uplifted creatures in his Deus Irae trilogy.
And, especially early on, great (or maybe terrible!) names! Craig Star Gazer, Julius Watchgod, Adam December, Mark Chaos!
I’ve not read anything by him for a decade – must change that soon!

Transreal Fiction New Titles – w/e 2nd March 2024

in hardcover:

Eliuza Chan – Fathomfolk humans live in the upper levels of the flooded city of Tiankawi but sirens, mermaids and others scheme in the polluted waters below…
Jay Kristoff – Empire of the Damned 2nd book in his Empire of the Vampire series (also the title of vol 1 )

in softcover:

Noah Medlock – A Botanical Daughter two Victorian horticulturalists with their own botanical garden try to breed an intelligent fungus…

Laure Eve – Blackheart Ghosts a nearly drowned stranger begs a retired King’s Champion for help to defeat a conspiracy against the Crown…
Jennifer Thorne – Diavola during a family retreat at a villa in Tuscany Anna is warned not to open the tower door…
Rina Vasquez – A Kingdom of Shadows sequel to A City of Flames

Jessie Douglas Kerruish – The Undying Monster subtitled A Tale of the Fifth Dimension the latest novel in the Tales of the Weird series from the British Library. Post WW1 black magic & Norse mythology in the Home Counties!

art, etc:

Edgar Allan Poe & Raul Garcia – The Fall of the House of Usher nice-looking h/c graphic novel of the 1839 classic by Poe. The style reminds me of German Expressionism; There are also several pages of preliminary art, etc. together with the complete text of the novella.