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Sunday, May 30, 2010

Spotlight on June Books

This month Robert Thompson provided most of the book titles with additions by Cindy Hannikman, Liviu Suciu and Mihir Wanchoo. We are featuring 54 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 Since information sometimes is out of date even in the Amazon/Book Depository links we use for listings, books get delayed or sometimes even released earlier, we would truly appreciate if you would send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.

*******************************************************
"Tomb of the Fathers" by Eleanor Arnason, Release Date: June 1, 2010.
“Who Fears Death” by Nnedi Okorafor. Release Date: June 1, 2010.
“Is Anybody Out There?” edited by Nick Gevers & Marty Halpern. June 1, 2010.
“Distant Thunders” by Taylor Anderson. Release Date: June 1, 2010.
“Lightborn” by Alison Sinclair. Release Date: June 1, 2010.
“The Time Weaver” by Shana Abe. Release Date: June 1, 2010.

*******************************************************“Redemption in Indigo” by Karen Lord. Release Date: June 1, 2010.
“The Shadow Hunt” by Katherine Langrish. Release Date: June 1, 2010.
Stone Spring” by Stephen Baxter. UK Release Date: June 3, 2010.
“The Queen of Sinister” by Mark Chadbourn. Release Date: June 3, 2010 (US Debut).
“The Office of Shadow” by Matthew Sturges. Release Date: June 3, 2010.
“City of Ruin” by Mark Charan Newton. UK Release Date: June 4, 2010.

*******************************************************“Procession of the Dead” by Darren Shan. Release Date: June 4, 2010 (US Debut).
“Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl” by Daniel Pinkwater. Release Date: June 7, 2010. “Moonshadow: Rise of the Ninja” by Simon Higgins. Release Date: June 7, 2010.
“The Passage” by Justin Cronin. Release Date: June 8, 2010.
“Metatropolis” edited by John Scalzi. Release Date: June 8, 2010.
“Dragon Soul” by Jaida Jones & Danielle Bennett. Release Date: June 8, 2010.

*******************************************************“Dog Blood” by David Moody. Release Date: June 8, 2010.
“Shadow’s Son” by Jon Sprunk. Release Date: June 8, 2010.
“Book of Shadows” by Alexandra Sokoloff. Release Date: June 8, 2010.
“The Double Human” by James O'Neal. Release Date: June 8, 2010.
“The Bloodstained Man” by Christopher Rowley. Release Date: June 8, 2010.
“Close Contact” by Katherine Allred. Release Date: June 8, 2010.

*******************************************************“The Anvil of the World” by Kage Baker. Release Date: June 8, 2010 (Reprint).
“So Cold the River” by Michael Koryta. Release Date: June 9, 2010.
“Magic Below Stairs” by Caroline Stevermer. Release Date: June 10, 2010.
"The Blood of Alexandria" by Richard Blake. UK Release Date: June 10, 2010.
“Naamah’s Curse” by Jacqueline Carey. Release Date: June 14, 2010.
"Spies of the Balkans" by Alan Furst. Release Date: June 15, 2010.

*******************************************************“Stories” edited by Neil Gaiman & Al Sarrantonio. Release Date: June 15, 2010.
“The Left Hand of God” by Paul Hoffman. Release Date: June 15, 2010 (US Debut).
“Lost Souls” by Dean Koontz. Release Date: June 15, 2010.
“Lanceheim” by Tim Davys. Release Date: June 15, 2010.
“Zendegi” by Greg Egan. Release Date: June 15, 2010.
“Crossing Over” by Anna Kendall. UK Release Date: June 17, 2010.

*******************************************************“Veteran” by Gavin Smith. UK Release Date: June 17, 2010.
“Blood and Iron” by Tony Ballantyne. UK Release Date: June 18, 2010.
“Blonde Bombshell” by Tom Holt. Release Date: June 18, 2010.
“Swords & Dark Magic” edited by Jonathan Strahan & Lou Anders. June 22, 2010.
“Mission of Honor” by David Weber. Release Date: June 22, 2010.
“The Palace of Impossible Dreams” by Jennifer Fallon. Release Date: June 22, 2010.

*******************************************************“The Map of All Things” by Kevin J. Anderson. Release Date: June 22, 2010.
“The Omega Point” by Whitley Strieber. Release Date: June 22, 2010.
“Ancestor” by Scott Sigler. Release Date: June 22, 2010.
“Nomansland” by Lesley Hauge. Release Date: June 22, 2010.
“13 To Life” by Shannon Delany. Release Date: June 22, 2010.
“Kraken” by China Mieville. Release Date: June 29, 2010 (US debut).

*******************************************************"The Thousands Autumns of Jacob de Zoet" by David Mitchell. June 29, 2010 (US debut).
Nights of Villjamur” by Mark Charan Newton. Release Date: June 29, 2010 (US Debut).
“The King’s Bastard” by Rowena Cory Daniells. Release Date: June 29, 2010.
“Wizard Squared” by K.E. Mills. Release Date: June 29, 2010.
“Imaginalis” by J.M. DeMatteis. Release Date: June 29, 2010.
The Web of Titan” by Dom Testa. Release Date: June 29, 2010.

6 comments:

Liviu said...

An unbelievable month as releases go with 1st editions of Mission of Honor, City of Ruin and Naamah's Curse and the US release of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet front listing for me a set of 25 books I read/plan to read asap/will try from the 54 books above.

We have already reviews of City of Ruin, The Passage, Shadows's Son, The Left Hand of God and Nights of Villjamur and I will have Absorption from May (read), Dragon Soul (read), The Office of Shadow (read), The Blood of Alexandria (on preorder), Naamah's Curse (read), Spies of the Balkans (waiting for publication to get it), Swords and Dark Magic (almost read), Mission of Honor (read), The Palace of Impossible Dreams (read), The Map of All Things (awaiting it), The Thousands Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (read).

I am stuck in Kraken at page 200 - the London setting takes away my suspension of disbelief once in a while, though otherwise the novel is crazily inventive - but I will try to get back to it in a week or so, while Veteran and the May release The Unincorporated War are a bit on the back burner for now, but again maybe I will get to them in a week or two since I want to read/review both.

To try on publication are: Tomb of the Fathers (read some stories with the main character and loved them, Who Fears Death, Is Anybody Out There (though early reviews were mixed), Zendegi, The King's Bastard, while on the UK releases, Stone Spring and Blood and Iron are of interest but I need more reviews to decide if I want to order them unseen.

If in a mood for a comic novel, I will go with Blonde Bombshell since I love Mr. Holt historical fiction

Andrew Leonard said...

Looking forward to quite a few of those!
Thanks for the list.

ediFanoB said...

First of all thank you for this spotlight.

I remember when I read former spotlights. The result was always a longer book list.

With this spotlight it is different:

- I own copies of four of the books
- I read and reviewed one
- I ordered two in advance
- another four have been on my list before

Now I need just to check the remaining books in order to see whether I'm interested in or not.

Liviu you are incredible! It took me five months to read 25 books.

Kraken will be one of the books I planned to read in June.

Liviu said...

Thank you for your kind words; Kraken overflows with weirdness (in the good sense), it's just that the London setting sometimes conflicts with that at least for me; were it set in an imaginary world I would have "devoured" it till now

ediFanoB said...

Liviu,

I like your reviews and recommendations a lot. London is my favorite town and therefore I like stories set in London.

Yesterday I finished another book set in London:
The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder.
A great debut novel which I hope to review soon.

Liviu said...

I read Spring-Heeled some weeks ago (review closer to US pub date Sept) and while I liked it, the first part is a bit unbalanced with the novel alternating between two modes (grimy vs steampunk) without really striking a good balance (eg the trip by Burton and that carriage driver in the run-down part of the city, vs the comic operetta declamations of one of the villains attacking Burton with a sword); but it picks up later and I think the next one will be even better.

Regarding Kraken, I misspoke in the sense that not London per se, but London of today (and any other real city for that of today for that matter) is what tends to disrupt my suspense of disbelief; I just find hard to accommodate technology with magic

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