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Tuesday, August 28, 2007

New Book Releases, Giveaways, Covers, etc.

While researching for the September installment of Monthly Spotlights, which will go live this weekend by the way, I realized that I overlooked a few books that were due for release today. So, without further ado:

Death and the Devil” by Frank Schätzing. Release Date: August 28, 2007. A popular and best-selling German author, Frank Schätzing is best known for “The Swarm” (2004), which was translated into English and optioned as a major motion picture in 2006. “Death and the Devil” is actually the author’s first novel and is making its English debut courtesy of William Morrow. Expect an epic tale of political struggle, conspiracy, unlikely alliances, and murder in a richly detailed Cologne in the year 1260…
Official Frank Schätzing Website
Order “Death and the DevilHERE

One For Sorrow” by Christopher Barzak. Release Date: August 28, 2007. Author of numerous short stories—have appeared in The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror, Strange Horizons, Nerve, Realms of Fantasy, et cetera—and a teacher of writing at Youngstown State University, Christopher Barzak’s debut novel “One For Sorrow” mixes a ghost tale, love story, coming-of-age and thriller elements into a package that is “as timeless as The Catcher in the Rye and as hauntingly lyrical as The Lovely Bones…”
Official Christopher Barzak Blog
Order “One For SorrowHERE
Read An Excerpt HERE

Ilario: The Stone Golem” by Mary Gentle. Release Date: August 28, 2007. Since debuting in 1977 with “A Hawk In Silver”, Ms. Gentle has established herself as “one of the most important and idiosyncratic contemporary British speculative fiction writers”. Set in the First History universe which includes “Ash: A Secret History”, Ms. Gentle once again pushes the boundaries with “The Stone Golem”, the story of hermaphrodite Ilario in a fascinating alternate medieval world that began in “The Lion’s Eye”…
Official EOS Books Website
Order “Ilario: The Stone GolemHERE

Moving on, it has been brought to my attention that I failed to mention the winners for a number of giveaways from last month. So, congratulations to the following:

Nathan Hall (Florida) who won a whole SET of Neal Asher’s books thanks to Pan MacMillan.

Michael Bell (Missouri), Travis Dunn (Oklahoma), SL Smith (United Kingdom), Serenity Carlisle (Florida) and Kurt Herbel (Virginia) who won a copy of Scott Lynch’sRed Seas Under Red Skies” thanks to Bantam Spectra.

Jesse Dixon (South Carolina), Sanjay Srinivas (Texas) and Josiane Mills (Nevada) who won a SET of Sean Williams' The Books of the Cataclysm including “The Crooked Letter”, “The Blood Debt” and “The Hanging Mountains” thanks to Pyr Books.

Charles Franz (Virginia), Joey Edwards (Kentucky), Andre Kern (NY), Richard Novak (Illinois) and Natalie Gaffar (Nebraska) who won a copy of Mike Carey’sThe Devil You Know” thanks to Hachette Book Group USA.

Charles Nelson (Canada), Dennis Forbes (Tennessee), Cheryl Quinn (Massachusetts), Laura McLendon (Alabama) and Laura Shangraw (Vermont) who won a copy of Nicholas Christopher’sThe Bestiary” thanks to Random House.

Michelle Harvey (Florida), Jimmy Coleman (Alabama), Gloria Dornin (Virginia), Sarah Ulfers (Minnesota), Lisa Richardson (Oregon), Lewis Levine (Massachusetts), Janet Wetzel (Iowa), Patricia German (South Dakota), Shannon Elpers (Kansas), Phyllis Jackson (California), Rachel Haas (Minnesota), Dremain Moore (DC), Mitch Davis (Texas), David Rosenfeld (New Jersey), Philip Weiss (Washington), Tamalynn Dixon (Arkansas), Libero Della Piana (NY), Gabe Nickelson (Texas), Katrina Kidder (Ohio) and William Siravo (Pennsylvania) who each won an advance, uncorrected proof of Joe Abercrombie’s "The Blade Itself" thanks to Pyr Books.

In case anyone is wondering, here is how I run the giveaways and choose the winners:

1) At the specified deadline, the form for the giveaway is disabled.
2) I use a random number generator to select the winners.
3) Emails are sent out to the winners declaring they’ve won and requesting their mailing information. If a winner doesn’t respond within seven days from the time I sent the email, they forfeit the prize and a new winner is selected. I’ll try to email a warning a two, but seven days is the max.
4) Once I have all of the winners’ information, I forward it to the publishers who will then mail out the prizes.

As far as listing the winners’ on Fantasy Book Critic, I won’t post anything until ALL of the winners have responded. So, the reason why it took me so long to mention the above winners is because of my recent move, but also because some winners never responded and I had to select new ones. You may wonder why I just don’t have participants submit their whole mailing address. Part of the reason is that in the past, I’ve had trouble with users submitting false addresses or providing inaccurate information, especially with international residents, which resulted in packages lost or returned. So that’s why I prefer contacting the winners personally and confirming their mailing information. I may change this format in the future if winners continuously fail to respond to their messages, but for now I’ll keep it as it is unless anyone else has a better suggestion...

Anyways, staying on the subject of giveaways, just a reminder that the current batch of giveaways start ending this week with the deadline for Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen HERE, Lian Hearn’s Tales of the Otori HERE and Charlie Huston’sThe Shotgun RuleHERE all ending TODAY at 11:59AM PST. The giveaways for SIGNED Copies of David Anthony Durham’sAcaciaHERE and Lois McMaster Bujold’sThe Sharing Knife” Duology HERE end TOMORROW (Wednesday, August 29, 2007) at 11:59AM PST and Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan GIVEAWAY ends on Friday, August 29, 2007 at 11:59AM PST. For Douglas Clegg’sThe Vampyricon TrilogyGIVEAWAY you have until Tuesday, September 4, 2007 at 11:59AM PST to enter.

As far as new giveaways, I have a few starting out next week, but you’ll have to wait until then to find out which ones ;)

Finally, in news, I’m way behind on a lot of stuff, but a couple of things really jumped out at me, and even though you probably know all about it already, please indulge me :)

First off, if you haven’t heard yet, Dabel Brothers split from their publishing deal with Marvel Comics. I don’t know the specifics behind the divorce, so I won’t speculate. All I’ll say is that Dabel Brothers was successful before Marvel and that they’ll be successful after Marvel, and if their latest announcement is any indication, the company is off to a great start. Basically, Dabel Brothers is adapting Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein trilogy with the first issue set to hit in early 2008. As a fan of Mr. Koontz, I think this is pretty cool news and I can’t wait to check the comic book out and whatever else the Dabel Brothers have up their sleeve ;) Thanks to Newsarama and The Fantasy Review for the heads up.

P.S. The accompanying cover is actually for Dean Koontz’s next novel “The Darkest Evening of the Year”, which comes out November 27, 2007.

Lastly, just wanted to share some covers with you that have been circulating online. First, we have the cover to Patrick Rothfuss’ sequel “The Wise Man’s Fear”, which is due out sometime in 2008. I know that Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist and A Dribble of Ink have already posted the image, but it’s such a nice cover I had to add it to the site :)

Next, thanks to The Gravel Pit, I came across the cover for Greg Keyes’The Born Queen”, which is slated for a March 25, 2008 release and concludes The Kingdoms of Thorn & Bone series. While the series isn’t the most original fantasy epic out there, I have to admit that it’s been a fun and enjoyable ride so far, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how it ends.

And lastly, here’s the cover for Clive Barker’sMister B. Gone”, which comes out October 23, 2007 for UK readers and October 30, 2007 for the US. There’s nothing really special about the cover, but I just wanted to take this opportunity to talk about the book some since I’m such a huge fan of Clive Barker and it’s been years since I last read one of his books. While it’s on the short side (224 pages), my expectations are high :)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looking forward to the Born Queen as well (my pleasure for letting you know about the cover) because, admit it, the final book of a series always is something special.

Aidan Moher said...

If The Born Queen is anywhere near as good as The Blood Knight then we are in for one hell of a ride!

Thanks for the linkage, dude!

~Aidan
A Dribble of Ink

Robert said...

Anytime guys! Shawn needs to update the Greg Keyes website by the way ;)

Aidan Moher said...

Indeed he does! From what I understand, though, he's having a hard time getting a hold of Greg these days (Greg's been moving, writing, and raising a newborn so he's, you know... busy).

~Aidan
A Dribble of Ink

Tia Nevitt said...

Another one for my debut calendar! Thanks!

Robert said...

Greg indeed sounds like he's got a lot on his plate and I can sympathize :)

Tia, "One For Sorrow" looks like a good one. I hope to pick up a copy soon :)

Anonymous said...

I know this is pretty old, so you've probably already read it, but it seems like the Dabel Brothers aren't doing to well.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/?column=13

Robert said...

Stuart, thanks for the link. I actually did see that article. It's an interesting read, but it seemed based on a lot of hearsay and I don't like to make any judgments unless I have concrete facts...

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