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Friday, April 30, 2010

Spotlight on May Books

This month Robert Thompson provided most of the book titles with additions by Cindy Hannikman, Liviu Suciu and Mihir Wanchoo. We are featuring 60 books. This month there were considerably more new sff releases but we tried to limit ourselves to a reasonable number and we chose the books most in tune with what's reviewed here.

The release dates are US unless marked otherwise and the books are first edition unless noted differently. The dates are on a best known basis so they are not guaranteed; same about the edition information. Since information sometimes is out of date even in the Amazon/Book Depository links we use for listings, books get delayed or sometimes even released earlier, we would truly appreciate if you would send us an email about any listing with incorrect information.

Sometimes a cover image is not available at the time of the post and also
sometimes covers change unexpectedly so while we generally use the Amazon one when available and cross check with Google Images, the ultimate bookstore cover may be different.

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“Ship Breaker” by Paolo Bacigalupi. Release Date: May 1, 2010.
“The Hypnotist” by M.J. Rose. Release Date: May 1, 2010.
“Deceiver” by C. J. Cherryh. Release Date: May 4, 2010.
“The Prince of Mist” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Release Date: May 4, 2010.
“Well of Sorrows” by Benjamin Tate. Release Date: May 4, 2010.
“Tell-All” by Chuck Palahniuk. Release Date: May 4, 2010.

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“A Taint in the Blood” by S.M. Stirling. Release Date: May 4, 2010.
“The Dragon and the Stars” by Derwin Mak, Eric Choi & Tess Gerritsen. May 4, 2010.
“White Cat” by Holly Black. Release Date: May 4, 2010.
“The Princess and the Snowbird” by Mette Ivie Harrison. Release Date: May 4, 2010.
“Shade” by Jeri-Smith Ready. Release Date: May 4, 2010.
“The Red Pyramid” by Rick Riordan. Release Date: May 4, 2010.

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“Marks of Cain” by Tom Knox. Release Date: May 6, 2010.
“Apartment 16” by Adam Nevill. UK Release Date: May 7, 2010.
"Still Sucks To Be Me: The All-True Confessions of Mina Smith, Teen Vampire" by Kimberly Pauley May 10, 2010
"The Golden Spiral" by Lisa Mangum Date: May 10, 2010
"The Rise of Renegade X" by Chelsea M. Campbell Date: May 11, 2010
"Monster Slayers" by Lukas Ritter Date: May 11, 2010

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“The Nearest Exit” by Olen Steinhauer. Release Date: May 11, 2010.
“For the Win” by Cory Doctorow. Release Date: May 11, 2010.
“The Unincorporated War” by by Dani Kollin & Eytan Kollin. Release Date: May 11, 2010.
“The Legions of Fire” by David Drake. Release Date: May 11, 2010.
“Much Fall of Blood” by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint & Dave Freer. Release Date: May 11, 2010. “Five Odd Honors” by Jane Lindskold. Release Date: May 11, 2010.

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“Migration”
by James P. Hogan. Release Date: May 11, 2010.
“Fever Dream” by Lincoln Child & Douglas Preston. Release Date: May 11, 2010.
“The Ark” by Boyd Morrison. Release Date: May 11, 2010.
“Moonshine” by Alaya Johnson. Release Date: May 11, 2010.
“The Fire Opal” by Regina McBride. Release Date: May 11, 2010.
“Illyria” by Elizabeth Hand. Release Date: May 13, 2010.

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“The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet” by David Mitchell. UK Release Date: May 13, 2010.
“The Mask of Troy” by David Gibbins. UK Release Date: May 13, 2010.
“Restoring Harmony” by Joelle Anthony. Release Date: May 13, 2010.
“Super Human” by Michael Carroll. Release Date: May 13, 2010.
“Occultation” by Laird Barron. Release Date: May 15, 2010.
“Blood Oath” by Christopher Farnsworth. Release Date: May 18, 2010.

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“Flight of Shadows” by Sigmund Brouwer. Release Date: May 18, 2010.
“The Kings of Clonmel” by John Flanagan. Release Date: May 18, 2010.
“Worldshaker” by Richard Harland. Release Date: May 18, 2010.
“The Enemy” by Charlie Higson. Release Date: May 18, 2010.
“The Dragon's Secret” by Donna MacQuigg. Release Date: May 19, 2010.
“Absorption” by John Meaney. UK Release Date: May 20, 2010.

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“Wolfsangel”
by M. D. Lachlan. UK Release Date: May 20, 2010.
“Destiny’s Star” by Beth Vaughan. UK Release Date: May 20, 2010.
“Speak to the Devil” by Dave Duncan. Release Date: May 25, 2010.
“The Machinery of Light” by David J. Williams. Release Date: May 25, 2010.
“The Devil in Green” by Mark Chadbourn. Release Date: May 25, 2010 (US Debut).
“Banners in the Wind” by Juliet E. McKenna. Release Date: May 25, 2010.

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“Stealing Fire” by Jo Graham. Release Date: May 25, 2010.
“30 Days of Night: Fear the Dark” by Tim Lebbon. Release Date: May 25, 2010.
“SpellCrash” by Kelly McCullough. Release Date: May 25, 2010.
“Perchance to Dream” by Lisa Mantchev. Release Date: May 25, 2010.
“The Necromancer” by Michael Scott. Release Date: May 25, 2010.
“Land of the Burning Sands” by Rachel Neumeier. Release Date: May 25, 2010.

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“The Gardener” by S.A. Bodeen. Release Date: May 25, 2010.
“The Extinction Event” by David Black. Release Date: May 25, 2010.
“The Crown of the Blood” by Gav Thorpe. UK Release Date: May 27, 2010.
"Vegas Knights" by Matt Forbeck. UK Release Date: May 27, 2010.
“Leviathan Wept and Other Stories” by Daniel Abraham. Release Date: May 31, 2010.
“Clementine” by Cherie Priest. Release Date: May 31, 2010.

6 comments:

Liviu said...

As usual, a quick update of my plans for reviews from the above; in April I said the following:

"For April the sure reviews from me are: The Emerald Storm (with Cindy, read), A Mighty Fortress (read), Bitter Seeds (read), A Desert Spear (with Mihir, read), Up Jim River (read), The King of the Crags (preorder), The New Model Army (preorder), Tome of the Undergates (preorder),Dragonfly Falling (done), Ghosts of Manhattan (done), The Noise Within (have, tbr soon), Orphaned Worlds (read), Grand Central Arena (read), Conflicts (preorder)

Then time allowing A Magic of Dawn (plan to get on publication), while The Poisoned Throne, The Hittite, Windward Passage are books I will look at as they become available"

I reviewed most of the above except for Tome that got an un-review, Grand Central Arena (next), Conflicts (not released/received yet) and Orphaned Worlds which may get a mini-review only for time constraints; I also reviewed Magic of Dawn and did a mini-review for The Hittite and I will check Windward Passage as soon as I see a copy, while I disliked The Poisoned Throne thoroughly for reasons explained in my mini-review on Goodreads and will waste no more time talking about it

From the may books the only sure reviews from me are: Migration (read), The Unincorporated War (have, next read), Absorption (pre-order) and the masterpiece that is The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (read and one of my top 2 novels of the year so far alongside The Folding Knife though for May I may review Cloud Atlas which is a top book of the 00's for me and review Thousand Autumns for its US release in June) and most likely I will review Stealing Fire too, while I will try Deceiver and The Prince of Mists too; in rest there are the April books remaining and then I will start on some June books since that month has a ton of great books for me, of which I read quite a few so in the second half of May I will start reviewing those.

Anonymous said...

Cindy,

I seem to recall that you were going to read Rachel Neumeier's Lord of the Changing Winds. I see the second book is out in May. Do you still plan to read this as I'm curious about this author.

Thanks!

Jennifer

Liviu said...

Hi,

I saw the comment here and at the other post and while I hope Cindy looked at the book and can give you her impressions too, I read Lord of the Changing Winds and I put some impressions on Goodreads:

"I liked the writing in this one - tense, emotional and captivating - while the characters, especially the Griffin Mage Kairaithin and Bertaud were very interesting, though Kes was more of a standby, necessary character than I expected and the naming conventions were excellent, but I found the world building very unconvincing - the maps and distances described both there and in the text give the three countries involved small areas and considering the level of development, small populations too so the number of soldiers, the wealth of the countries... were very unconvincing as for the rest of the world, nothing and I just do not buy that 3 small county like countries are isolated like that; so all in all the book almost crashed my suspension of disbelief and I hope the next installments will do considerably better on the world building front; a B from me"


I may try the sequel but it is not that high a priority

Cindy said...

Sorry Jennifer for answering this later!

I have much the same problems that Liviu had, I still plan on writing up a review but it wasn't a stand out WOW book for myself. It was an alright book. If I get my hands on the second I'll give it a try but it might not be till June :)

I'll write up a longer review in a week or so. So that will help you a little better!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Liviu,

I appreciate taking the time to answer my question.
Actually your comments doesn't discourage me as much as you would thought as I think the plot and characters count alot for me. I think alot of authors struggle with imaginary geography (I wince at implausible geology, being a geologist myself) but it is a fantasy world and sometimes those things do not matter too much unless they are central to the story.

Jennifer

Liviu said...

I also tend to give authors wide latitude in world building but in Ms. Neumeier debut there was not quite enough to compensate imho; however for example the Castle novels of Steph Swainston which suffer also from the too little geographical space for the scope of the novels are among my big time favorites because of Jant's voice and of the weirdness of the Shift, while the inventiveness/triple voices of the Wanderers and Islanders series of Steve Cockayne is just amazing in the first two volumes at least, though the last falters a bit, while again the world building is not that convincing if you think a little about it

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