Archive for February, 2008

Books Received

Orphan’s Journey (ARC)
Author: Robert Buettner

Book Description: In the years since the last Slug War, Jason’s command style hasn’t made him any friends in the Army.Now, in an effort to keep him out of trouble, the Army has sent Jason to the vast, Earth-orbiting resort called New Moon.At the core of this enormous space station is a starship, a relic from the last war. When a test run of the ship goes wrong, Jason, along with a handful of others, will be torn from orbit and thrust into space.Now, stranded on an alien planet, Jason realizes that not only are his friends are looking to him for rescue, but an entire planet sees him as their only hope.

The Host (ARC)
Author: Stephenie Meyer

Book Description: The author of the Twilight series of # 1 bestsellers delivers her brilliant first novel for adults: a gripping story of love and betrayal in a future with the fate of humanity at stake. Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed.Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie’s body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn’t expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.Melanie fills Wanderer’s thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves-Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body’s desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she’s never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.Featuring what may be the first love triangle involving only two bodies, THE HOST is a riveting and unforgettable novel that will bring a vast new readership to one of the most compelling writers of our time.

Marseguro (mass market paperback)
Author: Edward Willett

Book Description: A BATTLE FOR SURVIVAL ON A DISTANT WATER WORLD | After a worldwide disaster strikes Earth, the planet is taken over by a fanatical religious theocracy. Scientist Victor Hansen flees with a staff of non-genetically modified humans and young members of his newly created race, the Selkies, to Marseguro, a distant water world. But their peace and freedom is threatened when a traitor calls forth a strike force from Earth, and Victor’s own grandson, Richard, is with them. What Richard Hansen discovers may alter not only his own destiny but that of Marseguro and Earth as well.

Mystery Date (mass market paperback)
Editor: Denise Little

Book Description: Flirt with the unknown in 17 unusual tales of blind dates | When people embark on blind dates, they never quite know what they will find-and the dates in these mostly modern- day urban tales go far beyond the usual expectations. Here, these 17 romantic hopefuls encounter surprise first dates with the likes of Zeus and William Shakespeare; Medusa wreaks havoc upon Internet predators; a woman is cursed to see the truth about her dates after drinking a little wine; and more. | All of these very different dates begin with the hope that romance will result. Some will find a happily ever after, while for others there will be no "ever after" at all…

Pebble in the Sky (hardcover)
Author: Isaac Asimov

Book Description: One moment Joseph Schwartz is a happily retired tailor in Chicago, 1949. The next he’s a helpless stranger on Earth during the heyday of the first Galactic Empire. Earth, as he soon learns, is a backwater, just a pebble in the sky, despised by all the other 200 million planets of the Empire because its people dare to claim it’s the original home of man. And Earth is poor, with great areas of radioactivity ruining much of its soil–so poor that everyone is sentenced to death at the age of sixty. Joseph Schwartz is sixty-two. This is young Isaac Asimov’s first novel, full of wonders and ideas, the book that launched the novels of the Galactic Empire, culminating in the Foundation series. This is Golden Age SF at its finest.

Poison Sleep (ARC)
Author: T.A. Pratt

Book Description: The bad girl of the magical underworld is back and badder than ever | Someone wants Marla Mason dead. Usually that’s not news. As chief sorcerer of Felport, someone always wants her dead. But this time she’s the target of a renegade assassin who specializes in killing his victims over days, months, or even years. Not to mention a mysterious knife-wielding killer in black who pops up in the most unexpected places. To make matters worse, an inmate has broken out of the Blackwing Institute for criminally insane sorcerers—a troubled psychic who can literally reweave the fabric of reality to match her own traumatic past. | With her wisecracking partner Rondeau reluctantly in tow, Marla teams up with a “love-talker” whose dangerous erotic spells not even she can resist. Together they’re searching the rapidly transforming streets of Felport for a woman who’s become the Typhoid Mary of nightmares, infecting everything—and everyone—she touches with a chaos worse than death itself.

The Lost Ones (ARC)
Author: Christopher Golden

Book Description: Bestselling author Christopher Golden brings his epic, innovative trilogy, the Veil, to an astonishing conclusion as the mythic realm of heroes and monsters becomes the site of humanity’s last—and greatest—showdown. | In the world of the legendary, every myth and folktale is real. That is what Oliver Bascombe learned on the other side of the Veil, where humanity’s legends have hidden away for centuries. But even legends have legends, and Oliver has learned of a prophecy that many believe he and his sister, Collette, have come to the Two Kingdoms to fulfill. Before they can discover the truth, the Bascombe siblings must help to stop an apocalyptic war that threatens to destroy the Two Kingdoms, unravel a conspiracy, and prevent a powerful sorcerer from severing the world of humans from the realm of the legendary forever. | But first Oliver will have to plot an escape from an impregnable palace dungeon where he and his allies have been imprisoned . . . for regicide. | As old heroes and friends ally themselves for one last battle, even older enemies stand arrayed against them. Is humanity ready to face its legends head-on? For Oliver Bascombe, the price may be dearer than even he could ever imagine.

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New Earths

Check this out: There may be more Earth-like planets right here in our own Solar System, out on the edges in the Oort Cloud. From BBC News:

Rocky planets, possibly with conditions suitable for life, may be more common than previously thought in our galaxy, a study has found. New evidence suggests more than half the Sun-like stars in the Milky Way could have similar planetary systems. There may also be hundreds of undiscovered worlds in outer parts of our Solar System, astronomers believe. [via io9]
 

I’d love to see some stories that explore this idea. (Hint, hint.)

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Go Read This: "The Rapeworm"

In case you missed it, the first issue of the new horror magazine Noctem Aeternus is now available. It’s 100% free–all you have to do is sign up for a free email subscription to receive the magazine in PDF format. I haven’t read much of it so far, but I did read Charles Coleman Finlay’s story, "The Rapeworm," and was blown away by it. He’s written lots of great stuff in the past, and this one ranks right up there with his finest work to date. Go check out the magazine, if only to read Charlie’s story!

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Realms of Fantasy reviews Wastelands

The April 2008 issue of Realms of Fantasy magazine, which is shipping to subscribers now, features reviews of both Wastelands and Eclipse One. About Wastelands, reviewer Jeff VanderMeer says that rather than being a depressing book, as he initially thought it would be, he "found Wastelands hopeful rather than despairing." He also found it "relevant to the uncertain times in which we live," and added that the stories "display a full understanding of the worries and real problems that might eventually threaten civilization as we know it."

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Tor.com: Watch the Skies

Go on over to Tor.com and sign up for their newsletter–as a reward for doing so, you’ll get some free ebooks. The first is Brandon "Finishing the Wheel of Time" Sanderson’s The Mistborn. And next up is supposed to be John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War.

I got the first book via email the other day. It looks like it’s just the typesetting file converted to a PDF, so it’s not an ideal ebook–I wouldn’t want to try to read this on a hand-held device, but I guess I can’t really complain since it’s free. I do wonder, though, how much effort it would have taken to convert the text to a hand-held-friendly format.

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