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Sunday, October 31, 2010

Spotlight on November Books

This month Robert Thompson provided most of the book titles with additions by Cindy Hannikman, Liviu Suciu and Mihir Wanchoo. We are featuring 48 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 Since information sometimes is out of date even in the Amazon/Book Depository links we use for listings, books get delayed or sometimes even released earlier, we would truly appreciate if you would send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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“The Habitation of the Blessed” by Catherynne M. Valente. Release Date: November 1, 2010.
"Under the Poppy" by Kate Koja. Release Date: November 1, 2010.
“Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded” edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer. November 1, 2010.
“Flaming Zeppelins: The Adventures of Ned the Seal” by Joe R. Lansdale. November 1, 2010.
“Amortals” by Matt Forbeck. UK Release Date: November 1, 2010.
“Holiday” by M. Rickert. Release Date: November 1, 2010.

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“Angelica Lost and Found” by Russell Hoban. Release Date: November 1, 2010.
“Towers of Midnight” by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson. November 2, 2010.
“Echo” by Jack McDevitt. Release Date: November 2, 2010.
“Pegasus” by Robin McKinley. Release Date: November 2, 2010.
“Gilded Latten Bones” by Glen Cook. Release Date: November 2, 2010.
“The Horns of Ruin” by Tim Akers. Release Date: November 2, 2010.

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“The Greyfriar” by Clay & Susan Griffith. Release Date: November 2, 2010.
“Fated” by S.G. Browne. Release Date: November 2, 2010.
“The Ring of Solomon” by Jonathan Stroud. Release Date: November 2, 2010.
“The Broken Kingdoms” by N.K. Jemisin. Release Date: November 3, 2010.
“The Nemesis List” by R.J. Frith. UK Release Date: November 5, 2010.
"The Distant Hours" by Kate Morton. Release Date: November 9, 2010.

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“Full Dark, No Stars” by Stephen King. Release Date: November 9, 2010.
“Empress of Eternity” by L. E. Modesitt Jr.. Release Date: November 9, 2010.
“Seed Seeker” by Pamela Sargent. Release Date: November 9, 2010.
“The Painted Darkness” by Brian James Freeman. Release Date: November 9, 2010.
“Money Shot” by Christopher Rowley. Release Date: November 9, 2010.
“The Flock” by James Robert Smith. Release Date: November 9, 2010.

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“House of the Star”
by Caitlin Brennan. Release Date: November 9, 2010.
“The Sentinels” by R.A. Salvatore & Geno Salvatore. Release Date: November 9, 2010.
“The Boy from Ilysies” by Pearl North. Release Date: November 9, 2010.
“Factotum” by D.M. Cornish. Release Date: November 11, 2010.
“The Painted Boy” by Charles de Lint. Release Date: November 11, 2010.
“Songs of Love and Death” ed. by George R. R. Martin & Gardner Dozois. November 16, 2010.

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“The House of Discarded Dreams” by Ekaterina Sedia. Release Date: November 16, 2010.
“The Way of the Wizard” edited by John Joseph Adams. Release Date: November 16, 2010.
“Luka and the Fire of Life” by Salman Rushdie. Release Date: November 16, 2010.
“Night Star” by Alyson Noel. Release Date: November 16, 2010.
“The Silent Land” by Graham Joyce. UK Release Date: November 18, 2010.
“Hull Zero Three” by Greg Bear. Release Date: November 22, 2010.

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“Surrender to the Will of the Night” by Glen Cook. Release Date: November 23, 2010.
“Midsummer Night” by Freda Warrington. Release Date: November 23, 2010.
“Disciple of the Dog” by R. Scott Bakker. Release Date: November 23, 2010.
“Above His Proper Station” by Lawrence Watt-Evans. Release Date: November 23, 2010. (*)
“Stonewielder” by Ian C. Esslemont. UK Release Date: November 25, 2010.
“Shadowheart” by Tad Williams. Release Date: November 30, 2010.

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“The Bone Palace”
by Amanda Downum. Release Date: November 30, 2010.
“The Spirit Eater” by Rachel Aaron. Release Date: November 30, 2010.
“King’s Wrath” by Fiona McIntosh. Release Date: November 30, 2010.
“Law of the Broken Earth” by Rachel Neumeier. Release Date: November 30, 2010.
“Guardians of the Phoenix” by Eric Brown. Release Date: November 30, 2010.
“The Wolf’s Hour” by Robert McCammon. Release Date: November 30, 2010.

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(*) cover not available yet; I used the one from the first volume of the series

9 comments:

audreygeddes said...

Wow! These are some really great titles coming out. Thanks for sharing :}. The King's Wrath looks especially good. You might also want to check out Kelly A. Harmon's new dark fantasy novel, "Blood Soup," which is set in medieval times. What I love about this one are the complex, vivid, and compelling characters.

Liviu said...

This month the two "major" books for me are The Distant Hours and Midsummer Night, both top 25 books of mine in 2010 and I will review them on pub week.

I also will review The Broken Kingdoms, excellent and on par with 100k Kingdoms but with the same minor niggle of world-limitation (gods explicitly deciding things for mortals, I dislike that..), Greyfriar, light, fun, fast, steampunk sf'nal "vampires and humans" and most likely Echo which I should get next week on publication and I expect to continue the Alex Benedict story with brio - I rvd an earlier installment -

the big unknown is Silent Land which I plan to buy on UK publication though I may check an excerpt first; also The house of Discarded dreams is of interest, could go either "big favorite" or "not for me", again I am waiting for excerpts...

Horns of Ruin (capsule rv done) was a big disappointment and The Nemesis List was almost unreadable, though I persevered for the hype (winner of ...)

Empress of Eternity ( a bit of a surprise since I used to like LE Modesitt sf, though now I vastly prefer his fantasy especially Imager which is a recent top series of mine), Surrender to the Will of Night (another surprise since I liked volumes 1 and 2 but in the meantime I sort of "moved away" ) Seed Seeker and Amortals went on the not-for-me list after thorough perusals

Bone Palace and Guardians Phoenix are to check whenever, while Under Poppy and Habitat of the Blessed are "try if I get a library copy" since the excerpts from both did not scream "read me" at me so will see.

The Aaron and Neumeier series were read and dropped after first volume.

Julie Anne Lindsey said...

Oh. My TBR pile just doubled. Thanks for the heads up...hmmm maybe I can manage to get some of those onto my Christmas list ;)

Bastard said...

Let's see for me this month that are mentioned on the list:

The Soul Eater - Aaron
The Greyfriar - Griffith
Horns of Ruin - Akers
The Broken Kingdoms - Jemisin

Not on the list:

Vicious Grace - MLN Hanover (Daniel Abraham)

Not much UF this time around for me, but some other fantasy books I've been looking forward to, so a decent month all told. The Soul Eater and The Greyfriar are the priority reads for me at the moment. Would mention the new WOT, but I'm a book behind.

Maybe I'll read The Drowning City this month, and see how it goes so maybe The Bone Palace is on the horizon too.

I'm also interested in the Griffin Mage Trilogy so I'll be keeping an eye on reactions to the end of the series.

Anyone knows what has happened to the novellas for The Gentlemen Bastards that was supposed to come out today? The Bastards and the Knives... been highly anticipating it, but it doesn't seem like it has been released.

Unknown said...

I read The Painted Darkness a while ago and quite enjoyed it.

I'm hoping to read Christopher Rowley's Pleasure Model sometime soon--it's supposedly in the mail--and am surprised to see the third in the series being published so soon. Ah well.

Definitely looking forward to reading the Stephen King novellas.

Liviu said...

I've just read Echo at the library this afternoon and it was disappointing though not unexpected that finally the "dated-ness" of the world building - 8000 years in the future a world like ours with some 50's staples (AG, FTL, AI) - caught up with the series and crushed the narrative; in a way the fact that books 2-4 managed to keep that from happening is the biggest surprise, but the author is a great storyteller, among the best such in sf

Since I am scaling down a bit with 2 reviews a week and possibly another post (ss review or some lists or minireviews or such) I won't afford to talk more about Echo beyond this comment since I really want to talk about the books that are worth

Anonymous said...

Thanks again for this list. :) Wish there was a brief synopsis for each title though.

Liviu said...

We used to have that but the posts got way too big; I use direct links to Amazon for US titles and BD for UK titles where there should be synopsis, so just one click away - note also that the links are for courtesy since we do not receive anything if people use them to buy books

Liz said...

Those are some great titles coming out! "Towers of Midnight" looks quite intriguing. Here's another suggestion (we readers simply are not capable of resisting passing on good titles, are we?)-- "Principle Destiny" by David Cleinman. I liked the slightly anachronistic time period and unique locations in the book. And I loved the fact that the heroine was so strong.

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