My main interest lies in science fiction and especially towards space opera and military scifi so take this list for what it is, the books I enjoyed most this year.

Best First Releases

These are the best of the 61 first releases I read this year (for details see the 2010 book index)

10. The Quantum Thief (The Quantum Thief book 1) [Debut]
by Hannu Rajaniemi
Published by Gollancz

The Quantum Thief is like a Finnish Tango, it got a strange rhythm to it and it takes you places you never imagined before. It is a great debut novel by Hannu Rajaniemi and probably a future classic.

9. Servants of the Underworld (Obsidian & Blood book 1) [Debut]
by Aliette de Bodard
Published by Angry Robot

Aliette have found her culture and settings in central American pre-colonization Aztec country. This is about a murder mystery investigated by Acatl, High Priest for the Dead. In many respect it reminds of traditional mystery novels but the setting is the sacred city with its priests, worshipers, warriors, pyramids, temples, cults and living gods. This is a great book if you want to try a different kind of fantasy, set as it is outside the traditional western or Japanese settings. It is a standalone novel in a series. The next book Harbinger of the Storm is already on its way in the mail.

8. Darkship Thieves (Darkship Thieves book 1)
by Sarah A. Hoyt
Published by Baen

There are many authors that try to channel Heinlein but it is Sarah A. Hoyt that comes closest this year. This is a really mesmerizing book, I started reading and after a few pages I was in the world Sarah A. Hoyt created experiencing it from the slightly disturbed mind of a captivating young woman. Athena Hera Sinistra is as much a handful as her name, but it is a handful easy to love as a reader. Book two Darkship Rebels will be out late 2011.

7. The Noise Within (The Noise Within book 1) [2nd Novel]
by Ian Whates
Published by Solaris

The Noise Within is a well cooked space opera with black ops, intelligent ships, ai-interfaces, alien mysteries and intelligent guns. Great military action just the way I like it, there is a few mysteries that awaits answers in the next book The Noise Revealed that is due in March 2011.

6. Dreadnought (Clockwork Century book 3)
by Cherrie Priest
Published by Tor

I have really discovered steampunk this year and it all started with Boneshaker. Dreadnought has it all a feisty female protagonist, airships, war machines, secret conspiracies and zombies. I had great fun reading this one.

5. Veteran (Veteran book 1) [Debut of the Year]
by Gavin Smith
Published by Gollancz

This is the debut of the year for me. Gavin G. Smith is new but he writes like a pro. Veteran is an excellent read. It got mysterious aliens, conspiracies, realistic battle scenes, fast pace, lots of wow moments and wonderful characters. I would say this is a mixture of heavy metal, cyberpunk and classic sf. It is definitely military science fiction at its best and I would recommend it to a wider audience. I can’t wait for his next book War in Heaven (coming in June 2011).

4. Oath of Fealthy (Paladin’s Legacy book 1)
by Elizabeth Moon
Published by Orbit

Elizabeth Moon is a fantastic story teller with vivid hearty characters you can’t help falling in love with, which she proves again with this one. Oath of Fealty is a mature, competent and fulfilling read. It is also a great start of a series that also works as a standalone book. Elizabeth is another author that writes characters the way I like them.

3. Mission of Honor (Honor Harrington book 12)
by David Weber
Published by Baen

This is a monumental book in the Honorverse, this ends the original storyline with Haven and starts a new darker one with the Alignment as the antagonist. I like David Weber he writes entertaining military science fiction about formidable easy to love characters.

2. Blood and Iron (Penrose book 2)
by Tony Ballantyne
Published by Tor UK

It is such a fantastic different world of robots and the story deals with a pivotal moment in its history, when the first humans return. Book one, Twisted Metal left many mysteries unanswered that are revealed in this novel.

1. The Technician (A Polity Universe book)
by Neal Asher
Published by Tor UK

I love Neal Asher’s agent Cormac novels set in the same universe as this sequel that deals with one of the great mysteries in the original series. What happened to the races that dominated the galaxy before humanity? Good fast paced fun in this thrilling adventure. Maybe I should also tell you Asher is very vivid in all the gory details of this alien ecology.

Best New-to-me Book

1. Raft (Xeelee Sequence book 1) by Stephen Baxter (Gollancz 1991)
2. Julian Comstock by Robert Charles Wilson (Tor 2009)
3. Shadow of the Scorpion (Agent Cormac prequel) by Neal Asher (Tor UK 2008)
4. The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner (Methuen 1975)
5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic 2008)

• Keeping it Real (Quantum Gravity book 1) by Justina Robson (Gpllancz 2006)
• Harmony (Harmony book 1) by C. F. Bentley (Daw 2008)
• Sun of Suns (Virga book 1) by Karl Schroeder (Tor 2006)

Honorary Mentions

There were many good books this year. In no particular order…

• WE by John Dickinson (David Fickling Books)
• Absorption (Ragnarok Trilogy book 1) by John Meaney (Gollancz)
• The Black Lung Captain (Tales of the Kitty Jay book 2) by Chris Wooding (Gollancz)
• Guardians of Paradise (The Hidden Empire book 3) by Jaine Fenn (Gollancz)
• CryoBurn (The Vorkosigan Saga book 12) by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
• The Orphaned Worlds (Humanity’s Fire book 2) by Michael Cobley (Orbit)
• The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive book 1) by Brandon Sanderson (Tor)
• The Machinery of Light (Autumn Rain book 3) by David J Williams  (Spectra)
• A Mighty Fortress (Safehold 4) by David Weber (Tor)
• Pleasure Model (Netherworld Trilogy 1) by Christopher Rowley (Tor)
• Watch (Www book 2) by Robert J. Sawyer (Ace)
• Up Jim River (The January Dancer book 2) by Michael Flynn (Tor/Tantor Media)
• The Crucible of Empire (Jao Empire book 2) by Eric Flint & K. D. Wentworth (Baen)
• Victorious (Lost Fleet book 6) by Jack Campbell  (Ace)

The Ones That Got Away

There are some books I didn’t come around to this year for different reasons but I suspect are really great. Maybe next year. I know I am probably forgetting a few.

• Surface Detail by Ian M. Banks
• The Evolutionary Void by Peter F. Hamilton

I will not talk about the ones that disappointed me this year, they got all the publicity they deserve in my reviews.

This was a great year. Can I have another? please.

Related posts

• 13 SF Books for the Rest of 2010 July 5, 2010
• New Science Fiction to Read 2010 January 9, 2010
• Best Science Fiction Books of 2009 December 31, 2009

You can read my teaser for next year on Almanac of forthcoming SF Books

War in Heaven (Veteran book 2) by Gavin G. Smith (Gollancz) July 2011

My review of Veteran.

The high-powered sequel to VETERAN sees an unlikely hero make an even more unlikely return to take the reader back into a vividly rendered bleak future. But a bleak future where there are still wonders: man travelling out into the universe, Bladerunneresque cities hanging from the ceilings of vast caverns, aliens that we can barely comprehend. Gavin Smith writes fast-moving, incredibly violent SF thrillers but behind the violence and the thrills lies a carefully thought out story and characters who have far more to them than first meets the eye. Never one to avoid controversy Gavin Smith nevertheless invites you to think beyond the initial shock of what you have just read. But in the meantime? Another fire-fight, another chase another flight of imagination.

Final Days (Final Days book 1) by Gary Gibson (Tor UK) April 2011

My reviews of the Shaol Sequence: Stealing Light,  Nova War, Empire of Light

From Tor UK: Final Days by Gary Gibson follows the lives of a few key characters as a cataclysmic event is unleashed in Earth’s near future. This is a twenty-third-century thriller revolving around the slow uncovering of a conspiracy that irrevocably dooms the Earth, set against a backdrop of interstellar colonies. The story takes advantage of current cutting-edge ideas about the creation of artificial wormholes for interstellar travel, and their implications for practicable time travel. Action-packed and fast-paced, this is a thrilling SF adventure and a wonderful start to Gary’s new series.

Bringer of Light (The Hidden Empire book 4) by Jaine Fenn (Gollancz) July 2011

My Review of Consorts of Heaven, Principles of Angels

Book three Guardians of Paradise will be out in September

Jarek Reen is trying to save a lost world. He discovered the primitive theocracy of Serenein by accident, and now he wants it to take its place in human-space. To do this he needs a shiftspace beacon – without it, there is no way to find the planet again. The beacons were made by the Sidhe, the race that originally gave humanity access to the stars – and dominated human-space for millennia, before a coalition of human rebels and Sidhe males brought the evil Sidhe females down. Most people think the Sidhe are long dead, but Jarek knows better: a renegade female Sidhe is one of his companions, and a male Sidhe gave her and her lover the special powers that made them Angels, very unusual trained assassins. Jarek’s only hope is to find Aleph, the hidden system where the last Sidhe males are rumoured to live. But even if he can persuade these eccentric, introspective beings to put aside their interminable internal squabbles, he still has to persuade Serenein that joining the rest of humankind.

Sea of Ghosts (Sea of Ghosts book 1) by Alan Campbell (Tor UK) April 2011

I also found a very rough cover on Speculative Horizonts.

Sea of Ghosts is the terrific new novel from Deepgate Codex author Alan Campbell. Set in a world of entropic sorcerers, poisoned seas, the Drowned, drug-addicted dragons, Deadships and a powerful sisterhood of telepaths, and featuring ex-soldier Colonel Thomas Granger, this is an incredible novel of imaginative fantasy with strong characters, non-stop action and tremendous descriptive world-building. I’ve just finished editing it and have had to go back and read it again just for the sheer pleasure of it! We’ve got a terrific jacket design from artist Larry Rostant and this will be a lead fantasy hardback for Tor in 2011.

Product description

When the last of the Gravediggers, an elite imperial infiltration unit, are disbanded and hunted down by the emperor they once served, munitions expert Colonel Thomas Granger takes refuge in the unlikeliest of places. He becomes a jailer in Ethugra – a prison city of poison-flooded streets and gaols in which a million enemies of the empire are held captive. But when Granger takes possession of two new prisoners, he realises that he can’t escape his past so readily.

Ianthe is a young girl with an extraordinary psychic talent. A gift that makes her unique in a world held to ransom by the powerful Haurstaf – the sisterhood of telepaths who are all that stand between the Empire and the threat of the Unmer, the powerful civilization of entropic sorcerers and dragon-mounted warriors. In this war-torn land, she promises to make Granger an extremely wealthy man, if he can only keep her safe from harm.

This is what Granger is best at. But when other factions learn about Ianthe’s unique ability, even Granger’s skills of warfare are tested to their limits. While, Ianthe struggles to control the powers that are growing in ways no-one thought were possible. Another threat is surfacing: out there, beyond the bitter seas, an old and familiar enemy is rising – one who, if not stopped, will drown the world and all of humanity with it . .

Order from: Amazon US | UK | sfbok

Three hundred years in our future, in a world of alien infiltrators, religious hackers, a vast convoying nation of Nomads, city sized orbital elevators, and a cyborg pirate king who believes himself to be a mythological demon Jakob is having a bad day: “Nothing gets in the way of a hangover like being reactivated by your old C.O and told to track down an alien killing machine. The same kind of killing machine that wiped out my entire squad. And now it’s in my hometown. My name is Jakob Douglas, ex-special forces. I fought Them. Just like we’ve all been doing for 60 bloody years. But I thought my part in that was done with. My boss has other ideas. If I didn’t find the infiltrator then he’d let the Grey Lady loose on me. And believe me; even They’ve got nothing on her. So I took the job. It went to shit even faster than normal. And now I’m on the run with this teenage hacker who’s had enough of prostitution. The only people I can rely on want to turn the internet into God. And now it turns out that They aren’t quite what we’d all thought. I’ve been to the bottom of the sea and the top of the sky and beyond trying to get to the truth. And I still can’t get far enough away from the Grey Lady. All things considered I’d rather be back at home deep in a whiskey bottle.”

Veteran is a fast paced, intricately plotted violent SF Thriller set in a dark future against the backdrop of a seemingly never ending war against an unknowable and implacable alien enemy.

Information

Veteran is Gavin Smith’s debut novel and it is dedicated to Ruth & James Nicoll. I believe that they are “The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary” – James Nicoll and his wife. I found the quote online and I just had to include it here. English’s actions as described are appropriate to the novel.

The Author

Gavin Smith is new both to me and the world but he writes like a pro. I had to check inside if it was a pseudonym for an established author. Gavin Smith is 35. Born in Dundee he now lives in Leicester. He has a degree in Media Production (specializing in script writing) and a MA in Medieval history. He owns his own marketing company.

World building

Earth is a gritty place with social segregation after a long war with the alien Them and Gavin paints it well even though the story is written in first person. There are flashbacks to the time Jakob Douglas fought in the war that explains a great deal. There is also a lot of discussions that sometimes slows down this otherwise fast paced story but makes it clear to the reader what really is going on.

Plot

The plot is in short that Jakob Douglas is reactivated to hunt down one of Them. Then he discovers that there is more going on than meets the eye and become the hunted himself. He must fight back to stay alive. Which he eventually does after a number of adventures in some spectacular and intriguing places with names like Rigs, Crawling Town and Atlantis.

Characterization

The characters are what I really love with this story. They are gritty and twisted but in a good way. Jakob is no superman he has lots of luggage from the war to carry around but he grows as the story grows. But no one grows more than Morag, first the story play her as an almost insignificant figure which reflects the way Jakob and the others  treat her. This is something she resents but it is also her driving force to grow later in the story where she becomes principal.

There are a great many other notable characters both friends and enemies that easily takes up life in the mind of the reader.

The banter and bickering is excellent and that is a huge plus for me.

My view

Veteran is an excellent read, I had trouble putting it down. This is one of the best books I read so far this year. It got mysterious aliens, conspiracies, realistic battle scenes, fast pace, lots of wow moments and wonderful characters. I would say this is a mixture of Heavy Metal, Cyber Punk and Classic SF. It is Military Science Fiction at its best and I would recommend it to a wider audience. I can’t wait for his next book.

Related Posts

• New Science Fiction Books in July 2010 – Revisited
• Cybermage’s Summer Reading 2010

To keep you a bit exited (hopefully) I can tell you what’s been in my mail this week (all payed for by me):

1. Veteran by Gavin Smith
2. Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding (Tales of the Ketty Jay 1)
3. Blood and Iron by Tony Bellantyne (Robot Wars 2)
4. The Bloodstained Man by Christopher Rowley (Netherworld 2)
5. Harmony by C. F. Bentley (Harmony 1)
6. Stealing Light by Gary Gibson (Stealing Light 1)

Books are new once. But in the current distribution system books are released in different countries at different times as new releases and that makes perfect sense from a marketing point of view. A new release can also be an old book being republished which is good. Marketing is good, I want people to read more books but I also want new SF books, published for the very first time to have their own place here on my blog. This is my selection of new for the very first time, books that interest me.

There are many excellent bloggers out there with selections of new releases that might interest you. I can recommend Fantasy Book Critic’s extensive list or that you use the link section here on Cybermage to check out new releases yourself.

New Books On order

Title: Blood and Iron
Author: Tony Bellantyne
Series: Penrose / Robot wars 2
Genre: Science Fiction
Hardback: 448 pages
Publisher: Tor UK
Order: Amazon US | UK

Appointed Commander of the Emperor’s Army of Sangrel, Wa-Ka-Mo-Do of Ko tries to establish relations between the existing robot population and the humans who have recently arrived on Yukawa.

On the continent of Shull, Kavan forms the Uncertain Army and is marching to Artemis City. Upon discovery that the city’s generals have made an alliance with the humans, he retreats to Stark where he plans the eventual overthrow of Artemis and the humans.

Meanwhile, Karel is heading South, hoping to be reunited with Susan, his wife. As he walks, he hears more of the stories of the robots, and begins to understand something about his place on the world of Penrose.

But with limited resources and tensions growing between robot and human it’s only a matter of time before problems arise. And it’s becoming more and more apparent that the humans are a lot more powerful than the robots first expected…

Title: Veteran
Author: Gavin G. Smith
Genre: Science Fiction
Paperback: 400 pages
Published: Gollancz
Order: Gollancz | Amazon UK

Three hundred years in our future, in a world of alien infiltrators, religious hackers, a vast convoying nation of Nomads, city sized orbital elevators, and a cyborg pirate king who believes himself to be a mythological demon Jakob is having a bad day:

“Nothing gets in the way of a hangover like being reactivated by your old C.O and told to track down an alien killing machine. The same kind of killing machine that wiped out my entire squad. And now it’s in my hometown.

My name is Jakob Douglas, ex-special forces. I fought Them. Just like we’ve all been doing for 60 bloody years. But I thought my part in that was done with.

My boss has other ideas. If I didn’t find the infiltrator then he’d let the Grey Lady loose on me. And believe me; even They’ve got nothing on her. So I took the job. It went to shit even faster than normal.

And now I’m on the run with this teenage hacker who’s had enough of prostitution. The only people I can rely on want to turn the internet into God. And now it turns out that They aren’t quite what we’d all thought.

I’ve been to the bottom of the sea and the top of the sky and beyond trying to get to the truth.

And I still can’t get far enough away from the Grey Lady.

All things considered I’d rather be back at home deep in a whiskey bottle.”

Veteran is a fast paced, intricately plotted violent SF Thriller set in a dark future against the backdrop of a seemingly never ending war against an unknowable and implacable alien enemy.

Title: Heavy Metal Pulp: The Bloodstained Man
Author: Christopher Rowley
Series: Netherworld 2
Genre: Science Fiction | Cyberpunk
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Order: Tor | Amazon US | UK | B&N

I liked the first book, it was a tight little book. Read my review of Pleasure Model. No cover yet.

Following the explosive events of book one, Pleasure Model, Detective Rook Venner, Mistress Julia, and Plesur are on the run from the government troops trying to kill them and from a shadowy group that wants to capture Plesur alive for its own purposes. What secrets have been implanted in Plesur’s head—and why are they worth killing for?

Caught between these two powerful rivals, the trio hides out in the lawless New Jersey territory. Betrayed by gang members looking to collect the bounty on Plesur’s head, the three are separated, and Rook and Mistress Julia find themselves in mortal danger. Julia, given as a prize to a gang member, finds herself in chains, but not without her own means of fighting back. Rook, forced to fight for his life in the gang’s bloodthirsty gladiatorial games, must stay alive long enough to rescue Plesur, but time is running out.

The Bloodstained Man is a fast-paced, adrenaline-filled ride through a future where pleasure has a price, and Plesur holds the key to a secret that could rock the country to its very core

Other New Books of Interest

Title: Is Anybody Out There?
Editors: Nick Gevers & Marty Halpern
Genre: Science Fiction
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: DAW
Order: Amazon US | UK | B&N

Beyond our skies…and imaginations.

Are we alone in the universe, and if not, who else-or what else-is out there? Here are thought-provoking stories that explore such questions as: Do intelligent species invariably destroy themselves by nuclear war or ecological collapse? Are the sentient aliens that do exist just too far away? Do they exist in forms beyond our comprehension? Are they among us, but undetectable? These are just some of the possibilities explored by a stellar lineup of contributors.

Title: Who Fears Death
Author: Nnedi Okorafor
Genre: Supernatural
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: DAW
Order: DAW | Amazon US | B&N

I have been interesting in getting into some African science fiction for some time now.

• Review on Fantasy Literature

In a far future, post-nuclear-holocaust Africa, genocide plagues one region. The aggressors, the Nuru, have decided to follow the Great Book and exterminate the Okeke. But when the only surviving member of a slain Okeke village is brutally raped, she manages to escape, wandering farther into the desert. She gives birth to a baby girl with hair and skin the color of sand and instinctively knows that her daughter is different. She names her daughter Onyesonwu, which means “Who Fears Death?” in an ancient African tongue.

Reared under the tutelage of a mysterious and traditional shaman, Onyesonwu discovers her magical destiny-to end the genocide of her people. The journey to fulfill her destiny will force her to grapple with nature, tradition, history, true love, the spiritual mysteries of her culture-and eventually death itself.

Title: Threshold
Author: Eric Flint & Ryk E Spoor
Series: The Boundary
Genre: Science Fiction
Hardcover: 320 pages
Cover art: Bob Eggleton
Interior Illustrations: Keith Morrison
Publisher: Baen
Order: Baen | Amazon US | UK | B&N

When the strange fossil she’d discovered had ended up giving her a trip to Mars, Helen Sutter thought she’d gone about as far as any paleontologist would ever go in her lifetime. But when you’ve also married A.J. Baker, overconfident super- sensor expert for the only private agency in space ? the Ares Corporation — and your best friend Madeline Fathom Buckley is a former secret agent who’s just signed on as the chief of security for the newly created and already embattled Interplanetary Research Institute of the United Nations, there’s always somewhere farther to go.

The newest discoveries will take her, A.J., and their friends Jackie, Joe, and Madeline to the mysterious asteroid Ceres ? and beyond, in a desperate race to Jupiter’s perilous miniature system of radiation- bombarded moons. The next gold rush is on ? for alien technology, hidden in lost bases around the system. And there are people willing to do anything to get it ? even plan the first interplanetary war, four hundred million miles from home!

Books I have on order

Title: Blood and Iron
Author: Tony Bellantyne
Series: Penrose / Robot wars 2
Genre: Science Fiction
Hardback: 448 pages
Publisher: Tor UK
Order: Amazon US | UK

Appointed Commander of the Emperor’s Army of Sangrel, Wa-Ka-Mo-Do of Ko tries to establish relations between the existing robot population and the humans who have recently arrived on Yukawa.

On the continent of Shull, Kavan forms the Uncertain Army and is marching to Artemis City. Upon discovery that the city’s generals have made an alliance with the humans, he retreats to Stark where he plans the eventual overthrow of Artemis and the humans.

Meanwhile, Karel is heading South, hoping to be reunited with Susan, his wife. As he walks, he hears more of the stories of the robots, and begins to understand something about his place on the world of Penrose.

But with limited resources and tensions growing between robot and human it’s only a matter of time before problems arise. And it’s becoming more and more apparent that the humans are a lot more powerful than the robots first expected…

Title: Veteran
Author: Gavin G. Smith
Genre: Science Fiction
Paperback: 400 pages
Published: Gollancz
Order: Gollancz | Amazon UK

Three hundred years in our future, in a world of alien infiltrators, religious hackers, a vast convoying nation of Nomads, city sized orbital elevators, and a cyborg pirate king who believes himself to be a mythological demon Jakob is having a bad day:

“Nothing gets in the way of a hangover like being reactivated by your old C.O and told to track down an alien killing machine. The same kind of killing machine that wiped out my entire squad. And now it’s in my hometown.

My name is Jakob Douglas, ex-special forces. I fought Them. Just like we’ve all been doing for 60 bloody years. But I thought my part in that was done with.

My boss has other ideas. If I didn’t find the infiltrator then he’d let the Grey Lady loose on me. And believe me; even They’ve got nothing on her. So I took the job. It went to shit even faster than normal.

And now I’m on the run with this teenage hacker who’s had enough of prostitution. The only people I can rely on want to turn the internet into God. And now it turns out that They aren’t quite what we’d all thought.

I’ve been to the bottom of the sea and the top of the sky and beyond trying to get to the truth.

And I still can’t get far enough away from the Grey Lady.

All things considered I’d rather be back at home deep in a whiskey bottle.”

Veteran is a fast paced, intricately plotted violent SF Thriller set in a dark future against the backdrop of a seemingly never ending war against an unknowable and implacable alien enemy.

Title: Heavy Metal Pulp: The Bloodstained Man
Author: Christopher Rowley
Series: Netherworld 2
Genre: Science Fiction | Cyberpunk
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Order: Tor | Amazon US | UK | B&N

I liked the first book, it was a tight little book. Read my review of Pleasure Model. No cover yet.

Following the explosive events of book one, Pleasure Model, Detective Rook Venner, Mistress Julia, and Plesur are on the run from the government troops trying to kill them and from a shadowy group that wants to capture Plesur alive for its own purposes. What secrets have been implanted in Plesur’s head—and why are they worth killing for?

Caught between these two powerful rivals, the trio hides out in the lawless New Jersey territory. Betrayed by gang members looking to collect the bounty on Plesur’s head, the three are separated, and Rook and Mistress Julia find themselves in mortal danger. Julia, given as a prize to a gang member, finds herself in chains, but not without her own means of fighting back. Rook, forced to fight for his life in the gang’s bloodthirsty gladiatorial games, must stay alive long enough to rescue Plesur, but time is running out.

The Bloodstained Man is a fast-paced, adrenaline-filled ride through a future where pleasure has a price, and Plesur holds the key to a secret that could rock the country to its very core

Other Books of Interest

Title: Is Anybody Out There?
Editors: Nick Gevers & Marty Halpern
Genre: Science Fiction
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: DAW
Order: Amazon US | UK | B&N

Beyond our skies…and imaginations.

Are we alone in the universe, and if not, who else-or what else-is out there? Here are thought-provoking stories that explore such questions as: Do intelligent species invariably destroy themselves by nuclear war or ecological collapse? Are the sentient aliens that do exist just too far away? Do they exist in forms beyond our comprehension? Are they among us, but undetectable? These are just some of the possibilities explored by a stellar lineup of contributors.

Title: Who Fears Death
Author: Nnedi Okorafor
Genre: Supernatural
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: DAW
Order: DAW | Amazon US | B&N

I have been interesting in getting into some African science fiction for some time now.

In a far future, post-nuclear-holocaust Africa, genocide plagues one region. The aggressors, the Nuru, have decided to follow the Great Book and exterminate the Okeke. But when the only surviving member of a slain Okeke village is brutally raped, she manages to escape, wandering farther into the desert. She gives birth to a baby girl with hair and skin the color of sand and instinctively knows that her daughter is different. She names her daughter Onyesonwu, which means “Who Fears Death?” in an ancient African tongue.

Reared under the tutelage of a mysterious and traditional shaman, Onyesonwu discovers her magical destiny-to end the genocide of her people. The journey to fulfill her destiny will force her to grapple with nature, tradition, history, true love, the spiritual mysteries of her culture-and eventually death itself.

Title: Threshold
Author: Eric Flint & Ryk E Spoor
Series: The Boundary
Genre: Science Fiction
Hardcover: 320 pages
Cover art: Bob Eggleton
Interior Illustrations: Keith Morrison
Publisher: Baen
Order: Baen | Amazon US | UK | B&N

When the strange fossil she’d discovered had ended up giving her a trip to Mars, Helen Sutter thought she’d gone about as far as any paleontologist would ever go in her lifetime. But when you’ve also married A.J. Baker, overconfident super- sensor expert for the only private agency in space ? the Ares Corporation — and your best friend Madeline Fathom Buckley is a former secret agent who’s just signed on as the chief of security for the newly created and already embattled Interplanetary Research Institute of the United Nations, there’s always somewhere farther to go.

The newest discoveries will take her, A.J., and their friends Jackie, Joe, and Madeline to the mysterious asteroid Ceres ? and beyond, in a desperate race to Jupiter’s perilous miniature system of radiation- bombarded moons. The next gold rush is on ? for alien technology, hidden in lost bases around the system. And there are people willing to do anything to get it ? even plan the first interplanetary war, four hundred million miles from home!

Veteran is a fast paced, intricately plotted violent SF Thriller set in a dark future against the backdrop of a seemingly never ending war against an unknowable and implacable alien enemy.

Check out the synopsis on Walker of Worlds, it sounds awesome.

It comes out in June 2010. I am going to order it now.