Happy New Year everyone! Let's hope that 2011 is as good, if not better, than 2010 for all things speculative.
For my first post of the year I will list some of the books that are on my ever-growing 'To be read' pile plus those on my Kindle. The plan is to read all the books listed and review them here on Speculative Book Review. Saying that, my lists are likely to change as new books are released... what books I read are largely determined by my mood at the time of selection!
BOOKS
I buy a lot of books, more than I can read at any one time. It is a weakness of mine... I love browsing in bookshops, whether it is a Waterstones, secondhand bookshop or charity shop, I cannot resist the lure of those shelves. And I treat Amazon in a similar fashion... I can spend hours surfing the site - reviews, discussion forums, Listmania, bestseller charts, they are all sources for new reading material. These days I try and buy from the marketplace sellers rather than brand new, especially as I read a lot of older books by authors that are new to me.Top 10 To Be Read: Hardcover
"A fantastical reimagining of the American West which draws its influence from steampunk, the American western tradition, and magical realism"
2. Bringing Forth the End of Days by Simon Law [science fiction/post-apocalyptic]
"In 2013, the Earth is robbed of oxygen by a mysterious green gas that covers the planet. Accusations run wild on the blame for the poisonous gas and nuclear warfare results. As plant life withers and dies, a rebirth of technology and surgery are able to combat some of the effects of the poisonous gas on the planet. Ten years pass and, in a desolate world, the few remaining survivors see what appears to be other humans living in the oxygen-deprived atmosphere. Uniting in an effort to find more survivors, the group sets out into the bleak wilderness. But one participant is hiding an important secret."
3. Songs of Love and Death: All-Original Tales of Star-Crossed Love ed. Gardner R. Dozois & George R.R. Martin [speculative fiction anthology]
"IN this star-studded cross-genre anthology, seventeen of the greatest modern authors of fantasy, science fiction, and romance explore the borderlands of their genres with brand-new tales of ill-fated love. From zombie-infested woods in a postapocalyptic America to faery-haunted rural fields in eighteenth- century England, from the kingdoms of high fantasy to the alien world of a galaxy-spanning empire, these are stories of lovers who must struggle against the forces of magic and fate."
4. The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson ed. Jonathan Strahan [short story collection]
"Kim Stanley Robinson has been an ongoing force in the Science Fiction genre for over twenty years, with his novels (Year's of Rice and Salt, Forty Signs of Rain) crossing over to the mainstream, and routinely appearing on the New York Times best sellers list. During the 80s and early nineties, his short fiction continued to push the boundaries of science fiction, defining the science-focused side of the science fiction genre. Award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan worked with Kim Stanley Robinson to select the stories that make up this landmark volume."
"Set against the breathtaking vista of a world filled with mystery and magic, Cloud Permutations is a planetary romance with a unique South Pacific flavour, filled with mythic monsters, ancient alien artefacts, floating islands and a quest to find a legendary tower... whatever the cost."
6. The Library of Forgotten Books by Rjurik Davidson [short story collection]
"In this collection, PS Publishing presents the short works of Rjurik Davidson, whose protagonists wander dark cities of dreams, ravished by love and tormented by destiny..."
7. The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafón [fantasy/young adult]
"It’s wartime, and the Carver family decides to leave the capital where they live and move to a small coastal village where they’ve recently bought a home. But from the minute they cross the threshold, strange things begin to happen. In that mysterious house there still lurks the spirit of Jacob, the previous owners’ son, who died by drowning.
With the help of their new friend Roland, Max and Alicia Carver begin to explore the suspicious circumstances of that death and discover the existence of a mysterious being called The Prince of Mist— a diabolical character who has returned from the shadows to collect on a debt from the past. Soon the three friends will find themselves caught up in an adventure of sunken ships and an enchanted stone garden, which will change their lives forever."
"A parody (with dragons) of Stieg Larsson's global bestseller, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO"
9. The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima [fantasy/young adult]
"Times are hard in the mountain city of Fellsmarch. Reformed thief Han Alister will do almost anything to eke out a living for himself, his mother, and his sister Mari. Ironically, the only thing of value he has is something he can't sell. For as long as Han can remember, he's worn thick silver cuffs engraved with runes. They're clearly magicked-as he grows, they grow, and he's never been able to get them off..."
10. Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon by Lisa Goldstein [fantasy]
"Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon is set in an imaginative recreation of Elizabethan London, a rich, intense city overflowing with life and action, a city of spies and booksellers, alchemists and playwrights, poets, witches, plague and salvation. A series of strange events links the lives of an ordinary woman, a bookseller in St. Paul's, and the great writer Christopher Marlowe, as the Faerie Queen and her court invade London in search of the Queen's son, the reborn King Arthur. Marlowe must become in effect a detective, and Alice, strangely favored by the fairies, must become a heroine in a struggle against evil forces. The culmination of this extraordinary fantasy, a battle between the opposing dragons of good and evil, is certainly one of the most weird and enchanting events in all contemporary fantasy. Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon is a big, delicious fantasy adventure filled with strange creatures and ordinary people, famous characters, and mysterious historical doings. It is a triumph of entertainment and one of the finest fantasy novels of the decade."
Top 10 To Be Read: Paperback
"Catherine is the only legitimate heir to the de Medici fortune. When her uncle recalls her to Rome to use her and her dowry as a precious pawn in his political maneuverings with the crowns of Europe, Catherine chooses Tommaso as her personal chef and head of her household. Catherinesplans dont include being sold as part of the Popes treaty with France."
2. All the Windwracked Stars by Elizabeth Bear [fantasy]
"It all begins with Ragnarok, the end of all things, the battle between the Children of the Light and their tarnished brothers and sisters. But in Valdyrgard, three survive: the least of the Valkyrie, a valraven to be her steed, and the Grey Wolf whose betrayal sparked the final battle. And because they still live, Valdyrgard is a very long time dying.
More than two thousand years later, Muire still walks the streets of Eiledon, the last human city, while her valraven hides in a distant valley. But the Grey Wolf has come hunting in Eiledon."
3. In the Night Garden (The Orphan's Tales Vol.1) by Catherynne M. Valente [fantasy/short stories]
"Secreted away in a garden, a lonely girl spins stories to warm a curious prince: peculiar feats and unspeakable fates that loop through each other and back again to meet in the tapestry of her voice. Inked on her eyelids, each twisting, tattooed tale is a piece in the puzzle of the girl’s own hidden history. And what tales she tells! Tales of shape-shifting witches and wild horsewomen, heron kings and beast princesses, snake gods, dog monks, and living stars–each story more strange and fantastic than the one that came before. From ill-tempered “mermaid” to fastidious Beast, nothing is ever quite what it seems in these ever-shifting tales–even, and especially, their teller. Adorned with illustrations by the legendary Michael Kaluta, Valente’s enchanting lyrical fantasy offers a breathtaking reinvention of the untold myths and dark fairy tales that shape our dreams. And just when you think you’ve come to the end, you realize the adventure has only begun…"
4. Fledgling by Octavia E Butler [science fiction]
"Fledgling, Octavia Butler's new novel after a seven year break, is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly inhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: She is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted--and still wants--to destroy her and those she cares for and how she can save herself. Fledgling is a captivating novel that tests the limits of "otherness" and questions what it means to be truly human."
"...is many things. Sweetly strange. Liberally scattered with brilliance. A magical lens on the stuff of life that moves and makes us. These are stories of the real world made beautifully unreal: of transformation, love, zombies and brothers fired from cannons. They are the stories you have been waiting to read."
6. Fallen Angel by Kim Wilkins [dark fantasy]
"Sophie Black is a journalist who doesn't believe anything she can't see - until her latest interviewee tells her a tale of time gone by which Sophie can't seem to get out of her head. Three sisters, daughters of a caustic, blazingly intelligent blind poet names John Milton find their loyalties tested by the arrival of a fallen angel named Lazodeus. Set against the twin backdrops of the modern urban ritual magic scene and the bustle and colour of Restoration London, FALLEN ANGEL is a tale of angels and devils, art and lies, and sibling rivalry at its most irretrievably complicated."
7. Wizard of the Pigeons by Megan Lindholm [urban fantasy]
"Seattle: a place as magical as the Emerald City.
Subtle magic seeps through the cracks in the paving stones of the sprawling metropolis. But only the inhabitants who possess special gifts are open to the city's consciousness; finding portents in the graffiti, reading messages in the rubbish or listening to warnings in the skipping-rope chants of children.
Wizard is bound to Seattle and her magic. His gift is the Knowing – a powerful enchantment allowing him to know the truth of things; to hear the life-stories of ancient mummies locked behind glass cabinets, to receive true fortunes from the carnival machines, to reveal to ordinary people the answers to their troubles and to safeguard the city's equilibrium.
The magic has its price; Wizard must never have more than a dollar in his pocket, must remain celibate, and he must feed and protect the pigeons.
But a threat to Seattle has begun to emerge in the portents. A malevolent force born of Wizard's forgotten past has returned to prey upon his power and taunt him with images of his obscure history; and he is the only wizard in Seattle who can face the evil and save the city, his friends and himself."
"Moirin is alone, and far from the land of her birth, with nothing but a few resources of her own to draw upon, and few friends she can call upon, in what is about to become a nation of enemies. She has her natural ability with a bow, for survival, and a facility for languages - and then there are the gifts of her gods: a small ability for foretelling, for concealment, and to coax plants to grow. Alongside them all she has the gift of Naamah: the gift of desire. Yet these are small advantages against the challenges she will face - betrayal, treachery and indoctrination - and some of them may not prove to be advantages at all. There is a long, difficult journey ahead of her, in her search for Bao, the young Ch'in warrior who carries a piece of her soul as well as her heart, and harder decisions to make. Whether she can forgive a deliberate betrayal; whether she will fight against all odds for her love; and whether, when all believe her dead and her life and her religion hang in the balance, Moirin can sacrifice her beliefs, or will hold true to her goddess even in death..."
9. A Plague of Angels by Sheri S Tepper [fantasy]
"Atop a twisting, canyon-climbing road, a witch lurks in a fortress built strong to keep out dragons and ogres. In another part of the countryside, a young orphan is maturing into a beautiful woman in the enchanted village that is her home. Somewhere nearby, a young man is seeking adventure after running away from his family's small farm. Suddenly a strange and terrible prophecy sets off a chain of events that will bring these three together in the heroic, romantic and thrilling tale of an age-old battle. "
10. Chimera by Rob Thurman [science fiction]
"Ten years ago, Stefan Korsak's younger brother was kidnapped. Not a day has passed that Stefan hasn't thought about him. As a rising figure in the Russian mafia, he has finally found him. But when he rescues Lukas, he must confront a terrible truth-his brother is no longer his brother. He is a trained, genetically-altered killer. Now, those who created him will do anything to reclaim him. And the closer Stefan grows to his brother, the more he realizes that saving Lukas may be easier than surviving him..."
KINDLE
I have recently acquired a Kindle and am filling it up quite quickly. There are a wide range of books available in this format, from out-of-copyright classics (most of them free to download!) to many of the latest releases. However, in my view, the pricing structure needs to be looked at... I object to paying over £7.50 for an electronic copy - after all it is only 1 file that is copied to each purchaser. Despite this personal gripe, I will not look for pirated copies of books I want to read. I prefer to wait for the price to drop to a more realistic sum, or if the author is one of my personal favourites, I will buy the hardback edition to have on my shelves. I am not prepared to steal royalties from any author, especially as I now know that many of them have day jobs and write their novels in their own time. Since learning this I have more respect for writers than ever before and therefore will only download legal copies of books on to my Kindle. Though if publishers want to send me ARCs in Kindle format, I will gladly accept them :-) After all, I cannot get my Kindle version signed by an author, so I will happily purchase a new release book for that purpose. I doubt I will ever stop buying 'real' books!
Top 10 To Be Read
1. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi [science fiction]
"What happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits? And what happens when said bio-terrorism forces humanity to the cusp of post-human evolution? In The Windup Girl, award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi returns to the world of "The Calorie Man" (Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award-winner, Hugo Award nominee, 2006) and "Yellow Card Man" (Hugo Award nominee, 2007) in order to address these questions."*Both Yagiz and I have this book and we plan to do a joint review of it in the near future.
2. Snare by Katharine Kerr [science fiction]
"...an enjoyable, intelligent adventure set on a long-colonised planet whose history, ecology and communities are full of puzzling contradictions."
"...an enjoyable, intelligent adventure set on a long-colonised planet whose history, ecology and communities are full of puzzling contradictions."
3. The Crown Conspiracy by Michael J Sullivan [fantasy]
"...is the first of a six book series entitled the Riyria Revelations. This saga is neither a string of sequels nor a lengthy work unnaturally divided. Instead, the Riyria Revelations was conceived as a single epic tale told through six individual episodes."
"...is the first of a six book series entitled the Riyria Revelations. This saga is neither a string of sequels nor a lengthy work unnaturally divided. Instead, the Riyria Revelations was conceived as a single epic tale told through six individual episodes."
4. Matters of the Blood by Maria Lima [urban fantasy/paranormal]
"Keira Kelly, half-breed descendant of a powerful paranormal family has chosen to live apart from her clan and among humans in the Texas Hill Country. When she experiences a prophetic vision that foretells the vicious murder of her human cousin, Marty Nelson, she vows to determine the truth."
"In AD 2329, humanity has colonised over four hundred planets, all of them interlinked by wormholes. With Earth at its centre, the Intersolar Commonwealth now occupies a sphere of space approximately four hundred light years across.When an astronomer on the outermost world of Gralmond, observes a star 2000 light years distant - and then a neighbouring one - vanish, it is time for the Commonwealth to discover what happened to them. For what if their disappearance indicates some kind of galactic conflict? Since a conventional wormhole cannot be used to reach these vanished stars, for the first time humans need to build a faster-than-light starship, the Second Chance. But it arrives to find each 'vanished' star encased in a giant force field -- and within one of them resides a massive alien civilisation."
6. Insomnia by Stephen King [horror]
"Ralph Roberts hasn't been sleeping well lately. Every morning he wakes just a little bit earlier until pretty soon, he isn't sleeping at all. It wouldn't be so bad if not for the strange hallucinations--and the nightmares that keep coming to life."
7. The Drawing of the Dark by Tim Powers [fantasy]
"When Brian Duffy, an ageing soldier of fortune, is recruited in Venice by a strange old man to work as a bouncer in Vienna at an inn where the fabulous Herzwesten beer is brewed, everything seems straightforward. But his journey is far from it. Pursued and attacked from all sides, guarded and guided by creatures of myth, Duffy is no sooner in Vienna than the city is besieged by the turkish armies if Suleiman. And it becomes apparent that Duffy's presence is no accident and that it is up to him to preserve the West until the drawing of the dark..."
"Step into a world of wonder, epiphany and danger. From the return of old gods to the adventures of the last dragon on Earth, from quantum physics to manticores trained for the circus, this unique anthology takes readers on journeys to realms both distant and oddly familiar. Selected from the critically-acclaimed online magazine Clarkesworld, Realms collects the work of twenty-four visionary writers of short fiction."
9. Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher [fantasy]
"For a thousand years, the people of Alera have united against the aggressive and threatening races that inhabit the world, using their unique bond with the furies -- elementals of earth, air, fire, water, and metal. But now, Gaius Sextus, First Lord of Alera, grows old and lacks an heir. Ambitious High Lords plot and maneuver to place their Houses in positions of power, and a war of succession looms on the horizon. Far from city politics in the Calderon Valley, the boy Tavi struggles with his lack of furycrafting. At fifteen, he has no wind fury to help him fly, no fire fury to light his lamps. Yet as the Alerans' most savage enemy -- the Marat -- return to the Valley, he will discover that his destiny is much greater than he could ever imagine."
10. Paper Cities ed. Ekaterina Sedia [urban fantasy anthology]
"The city has always been a place of mystery, of magic, and wonder. In cities past, present, and future, in metropoli real and imagined, meet mutilated warrior-women, dead boys, mechanical dogs, escape artists and more. From the dizzying heights of rooftops and spires to the sinister secrets of underpasses and gutters, some of the most talented authors writing today will take you on a trip through the urban fantastic. Edited by Ekaterina Sedia, author of The Secret History of Moscow and The Alchemy of Stone."
Check out what books I own and have already read on Goodreads (my profile) and if there are books you know of that you think I would enjoy, please let me know via the Comments below.
