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Thursday, April 30, 2009

Spotlight on Selected May Books









The Babylonian Trilogy by Sebastien Doubinsky; reviewed HERE and a highly recommended book for all connoisseurs of fine speculative fiction; modern fantastic city of Babylon in 3 vignettes; first in a projected "imaginary" cities sequence of stories by this extraordinary author

Slanted Jack by Mark VanName (mmpb reprint); Jon&Lobo 2 in a triple cross scheme with an unusual boy wanted by various parties and who is in the care of con-man expert and on and off partner of Jon, "Slanted" Jack of the title; if you are not familiar with this superb adventure sf series get the first one One Step Ahead and this one in preparation for book 3 Overthrowing Heaven which will be a June spotlight book and will have a review here that month. This series is a Personal Favorite

The City and the City by China Mieville - author's name says it all; the one *must* May book; review soon

The Laurentine Spy by Emily Gee - review HERE; personal favorite and a superb book

Fall of Thanes by Brian Ruckley - highly awaited ending of the trilogy; Winterbirth was reviewed HERE, Bloodheir HERE, this one will have an early/mid May review too

Consorts of Heaven by Jaine Fenn (UK only release)- Principles of Angels reviewed HERE was a personal favorite for 2008 and this one has been one of the most eagerly awaited books for 2009; review as soon as I get the book

The Ingenious Edgar Jones by Elizabeth Garner (first US edition) - "once there was a boy with an extraordinary gift.." - this is a book of major interest to us that will be checked out on publication and possibly reviewed here

Twisted Metal by Tony Ballantyne (UK only release) - Robots, robots, robots

Age of Misrule by Mark Chadbourn (first US edition) - Celtic gods wreak havoc in modern London; first in a multi-novel series brought by Pyr to the US public

Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey - Ms. Carey of Kushiel's fame (Kushiel 5 reviewed HERE, Kushiel 6 reviewed HERE, Kushiel 7 which starts a new cycle several generations later with fresh characters to be reviewed asap) in urban fantasy mode


Wings by Aprilynne Pike
A fantasy romance in which a young girl finds out that she is a fairy after living life as a human for so many years and is thrown into a world of mysterious creatures. While fighting off evil creatures the girl is in the middle of a love triangle.

Magic Thief: Lost by Sarah Prienas and Antonio J. Caparo (illus) - Sequel to the Magic Thief series. Comm, a wizard's apprentice hears voices every time he works a spell. After numerous attempts of warning other wizards, Comm decides to take action into his own hands and deal with it himself, where he runs into some weird encounters.

Starfinder by John Marco
No one ventures into the "Reach" and lives to tell about it. After life events cause a shocking change for 12 year old Moth, he decides to run away into the Reach, where another world is waiting for him and eventually the middle of a war that has been on the verge of breaking out.


Edit Later: Robert was kind to comment HERE and add a list of his favorite May books so I added the covers above and remixed a little bit the cover exposition for balance.

"The Legend of Sigurd & Gudrún" by JRR Tolkien
“The Curse of the Mistwraith” by Janny Wurts (Reprint)
“The Ask and the Answer” by Patrick Ness (UK Only)
"Worst Nightmares" by Shane Briant
“Norse Code” by Greg Van Eekhout
"Bad Things" by Michael Marshall (US Debut)


Earlier Monthly Spotlights can be found HERE

7 comments:

Fabio Fernandes said...

The City and the City will be a most reviewed book here - our readers will probably have a DUAL review, by me and Liviu. C´mon, we wouldn´t miss it for the world (or for the worlds, in Miéville´s case. ;-)

ediFanoB said...

I look forward to your dual review.
In the meantime follow the link to a video interview China Mieville chats about the book.

Liviu said...

Thank you for the link; will check it out asap; I am a bit apprehensive about this book since it comes with so high expectations and it seems to be not really fantasy in the genre or even new weird a la Crobuzon sense

The day is released here I will buy my copy.

I know Principles of Angels did not appeal, but Consorts is another book I am really looking forward to - hope to get an arc in time for a pub date rv, but otherwise it's a buy on listing

The other major - for me - third May book I do not have yet is Fall of Thanes, but Sunday at the latest I will get it since then it is scheduled for an e-release

Robert told me about the Garner book a week or two ago and it sounds very interesting - but it all depends on author' style so that is a try on publication

Robert said...

Other May titles that I'm looking forward to include the following:

"The Legend of Sigurd & Gudrún"
“The Curse of the Mistwraith” by Janny Wurts(Reprint)
“The Ask and the Answer” by Patrick Ness (UK Only)
"Worst Nightmares" by Shane Briant
“Norse Code” by Greg Van Eekhout
"Bad Things" by Michael Marshall (US Debut)
...and some others I can't think of at the moment...

Calibandar said...

The one I wasn't familiar with is the Ingenious Edgar Jones which looks very good. I'll hunt for some reviews. Already out in the UK for two years I see.

Interesting feature this.

Fall of Thanes btw has seen no reviews online as yet, pretty unheard of I thought for a fairly big epic release. They must not have distributed arc's.

Liviu said...

Have not heard about Edgar Jones either until Robert mentioned it in an email last week or so; have not seen an excerpt yet - but I was a bit swamped by books recently since I started reading all KJ Parker's novels plus the selected new books that I want to review + a bunch of indies/shorts/weirder fiction, that I did not search that much.

Had an arc of Fall of Thanes promised but it has not arrived (yet) and the book is not out (yet) in stores either. Sunday is the wide release so I will get it then if the date holds.

Robert said...

No ARCs of Fall of Thanes were distributed. Just finished copies whenever they become available...

I'm really interested in The Ingenious Edgar Jones. Hopefully my library will order a copy, but if not, I'll have to get one myself :)

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