New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books February 2012 revisited

Jan 312012

These are my picks for February.

For a look longer into upcoming releases see my almanac of forthcoming books.

Article 5

(Ember 1) by Kristen Simmons (Tor) – amazon uk us

New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., have been abandoned.

The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.

There are no more police—instead, there are soldiers. There are no more fines for bad behavior—instead, there are arrests, trials, and maybe worse. People who get arrested usually don’t come back.

Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that things weren’t always this way. Living with her rebellious single mother, it’s hard for her to forget that people weren’t always arrested for reading the wrong books or staying out after dark. It’s hard to forget that life in the United States used to be different.

Ember has perfected the art of keeping a low profile. She knows how to get the things she needs, like food stamps and hand-me-down clothes, and how to pass the random home inspections by the military. Her life is as close to peaceful as circumstances allow.

That is, until her mother is arrested for noncompliance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. And one of the arresting officers is none other than Chase Jennings…the only boy Ember has ever loved.

Exogen

(Subterrene War book 2) by T. C. McCarthy (Orbit) – amazon uk us

Exogene (n.): factor or agent (as a disease-producing organism) from outside the organism or system. Also: classified Russian program to merge proto-humanoids with powered armor systems (slang).

Catherine is a soldier. Fast, strong, lethal, she is the ultimate in military technology. She’s a monster in the body of an eighteen year old girl. Bred by scientists, grown in vats, indoctrinated by the government, she and her sisters will win this war, no matter the cost.

And the costs are high. Their life span is short; as they age they become unstable and they undergo a process called the spoiling. On their eighteenth birthday they are discharged. Lined up and shot like cattle.

But the truth is, Catherine and her sisters may not be strictly human, but they’re not animals. They can twist their genomes and indoctrinate them to follow the principles of Faith and Death, but they can’t shut off the part of them that wants more than war. Catherine may have only known death, but she dreams of life and she will get it at any cost.

Echoes of Betrayal

(Paladin’s Legacy 3) by Elizabeth Moon (Orbit/Del Rey) – amazon uk us

The action continues fast and furious in this third installment of Elizabeth Moon’s celebrated return to the fantasy world of the paladin Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter. This award-winning author has firsthand military experience and an imagination that knows no bounds. Combine those qualities with an ability to craft flesh-and-blood characters, and the result is the kind of speculative fiction that engages both heart and mind.

All is not well in the Eight Kingdoms. In Lyonya, King Kieri is about to celebrate marriage to his beloved, the half-elf Arian. But uncanny whispers from the spirits of his ancestors continue to warn of treachery and murder. A finger of suspicion has been pointed toward his grandmother, the queen of the Ladysforest elves, and that suspicion has only intensified with time and the Lady’s inexplicable behavior. Clearly, she is hiding something. But what? And why?

Meanwhile, in Tsaia, the young king Mikeli must grapple with unrest among his own nobility over his controversial decision to grant the title and estates of a traitorous magelord to a Verrakaien who not only possesses the forbidden magic but is a woman besides: Dorrin, once one of Kieri’s most trusted captains. When renegade Verrakaien attack two of Dorrin’s squires, suspicion and prejudice combine to place Dorrin’s life at risk—and the king’s claim to the throne in peril.

But even greater danger is looming. The wild offspring of a dragon are on the loose, sowing death and destruction and upsetting the ancient balance of power between dragonkind, humans, elves, and gnomes. A collision seems inevitable. Yet when it comes, it will be utterly unexpected—and all the more devastating for it.

Singularity

(Star Carrier 3) by Ian Douglas (AvonEos) – amazon uk us

There is an unseen power in the universe—a terrible force that was dominating the galaxy tens of thousands of years before the warlike Sh’daar were even aware of the existence of Sol and its planets.

As humankind approaches the Singularity, when transcendence will be achieved through technology, contact will be made.

In the wake of the near destruction of the solar system, the political powers on Earth seek a separate peace with an inscrutable alien life form that no one has ever seen. But Admiral Alexander Koenig, the hero of Alphekka, has gone rogue, launching his fabled battlegroup beyond the boundaries of Human Space against all orders. With Confederation warships in hot pursuit, Koenig is taking the war for humankind’s survival directly to a mysterious omnipotent enemy.

Ashes of Candesce

(Virga 5) by Karl Schroeder (Tor) – amazon uk us

A world of endless sky, with no land, no gravity: this is Virga. Beginning in the seminal science fiction novel Sun of Suns, the saga of this striking world has introduced us to the people of stubborn pride and resilience who have made Virga their home; but also, always lurking beyond the walls of the world, to the mysterious threat known only as Artificial Nature. In The Sunless Countries, history tutor Leal Hieronyma Maspeth became the first human in centuries to learn the true nature of this threat. Her reward was exile, but now, in Ashes of Candesce, Artificial Nature makes its final bid to destroy Virga, and it is up to Leal to unite the quarrelling clans of her world to fight the threat.

Ashes of Candesce brings together all the heroes of the Virga series, and draws the diverse threads of the previous storylines together into one climactic conflict. Blending steampunk styling with a far-future setting and meditations on the posthuman condition, Ashes of Candesce mixes high adventure and cutting-edge ideas in a fitting climax to one of science fiction’s most innovative series.

Also of interest

Tooth and Nail by Jennifer Safrey (Night Shade) - amazon uk us
Guardian of Night by Tony Daniel (Baen) – uk us
The Fourth Wall (This Is Not a Game 3) by Walter Jon Williams (Orbit) - amazon uk us
Arctic Rising by Tobias S. Buckell (Tor) – amazon uk

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New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books February 2012

Books 2 Responses »

Jan 162012

These are my picks for February.

For a look longer into upcoming releases see my almanac of forthcoming books.

Article 5

(Ember 1) by Kristen Simmons (Tor) – amazon uk us

New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., have been abandoned.

The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.

There are no more police—instead, there are soldiers. There are no more fines for bad behavior—instead, there are arrests, trials, and maybe worse. People who get arrested usually don’t come back.

Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that things weren’t always this way. Living with her rebellious single mother, it’s hard for her to forget that people weren’t always arrested for reading the wrong books or staying out after dark. It’s hard to forget that life in the United States used to be different.

Ember has perfected the art of keeping a low profile. She knows how to get the things she needs, like food stamps and hand-me-down clothes, and how to pass the random home inspections by the military. Her life is as close to peaceful as circumstances allow.

That is, until her mother is arrested for noncompliance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. And one of the arresting officers is none other than Chase Jennings…the only boy Ember has ever loved.

Exogen

(Subterrene War book 2) by T. C. McCarthy (Orbit) – amazon uk us

Exogene (n.): factor or agent (as a disease-producing organism) from outside the organism or system. Also: classified Russian program to merge proto-humanoids with powered armor systems (slang).

Catherine is a soldier. Fast, strong, lethal, she is the ultimate in military technology. She’s a monster in the body of an eighteen year old girl. Bred by scientists, grown in vats, indoctrinated by the government, she and her sisters will win this war, no matter the cost.

And the costs are high. Their life span is short; as they age they become unstable and they undergo a process called the spoiling. On their eighteenth birthday they are discharged. Lined up and shot like cattle.

But the truth is, Catherine and her sisters may not be strictly human, but they’re not animals. They can twist their genomes and indoctrinate them to follow the principles of Faith and Death, but they can’t shut off the part of them that wants more than war. Catherine may have only known death, but she dreams of life and she will get it at any cost.

Echoes of Betrayal

(Paladin’s Legacy 3) by Elizabeth Moon (Orbit/Del Rey) – amazon uk us

The action continues fast and furious in this third installment of Elizabeth Moon’s celebrated return to the fantasy world of the paladin Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter. This award-winning author has firsthand military experience and an imagination that knows no bounds. Combine those qualities with an ability to craft flesh-and-blood characters, and the result is the kind of speculative fiction that engages both heart and mind.

All is not well in the Eight Kingdoms. In Lyonya, King Kieri is about to celebrate marriage to his beloved, the half-elf Arian. But uncanny whispers from the spirits of his ancestors continue to warn of treachery and murder. A finger of suspicion has been pointed toward his grandmother, the queen of the Ladysforest elves, and that suspicion has only intensified with time and the Lady’s inexplicable behavior. Clearly, she is hiding something. But what? And why?

Meanwhile, in Tsaia, the young king Mikeli must grapple with unrest among his own nobility over his controversial decision to grant the title and estates of a traitorous magelord to a Verrakaien who not only possesses the forbidden magic but is a woman besides: Dorrin, once one of Kieri’s most trusted captains. When renegade Verrakaien attack two of Dorrin’s squires, suspicion and prejudice combine to place Dorrin’s life at risk—and the king’s claim to the throne in peril.

But even greater danger is looming. The wild offspring of a dragon are on the loose, sowing death and destruction and upsetting the ancient balance of power between dragonkind, humans, elves, and gnomes. A collision seems inevitable. Yet when it comes, it will be utterly unexpected—and all the more devastating for it.

Singularity

(Star Carrier 3) by Ian Douglas (AvonEos) – amazon uk us

There is an unseen power in the universe—a terrible force that was dominating the galaxy tens of thousands of years before the warlike Sh’daar were even aware of the existence of Sol and its planets.

As humankind approaches the Singularity, when transcendence will be achieved through technology, contact will be made.

In the wake of the near destruction of the solar system, the political powers on Earth seek a separate peace with an inscrutable alien life form that no one has ever seen. But Admiral Alexander Koenig, the hero of Alphekka, has gone rogue, launching his fabled battlegroup beyond the boundaries of Human Space against all orders. With Confederation warships in hot pursuit, Koenig is taking the war for humankind’s survival directly to a mysterious omnipotent enemy.

Ashes of Candesce

(Virga 5) by Karl Schroeder (Tor) – amazon uk us

A world of endless sky, with no land, no gravity: this is Virga. Beginning in the seminal science fiction novel Sun of Suns, the saga of this striking world has introduced us to the people of stubborn pride and resilience who have made Virga their home; but also, always lurking beyond the walls of the world, to the mysterious threat known only as Artificial Nature. In The Sunless Countries, history tutor Leal Hieronyma Maspeth became the first human in centuries to learn the true nature of this threat. Her reward was exile, but now, in Ashes of Candesce, Artificial Nature makes its final bid to destroy Virga, and it is up to Leal to unite the quarrelling clans of her world to fight the threat.

Ashes of Candesce brings together all the heroes of the Virga series, and draws the diverse threads of the previous storylines together into one climactic conflict. Blending steampunk styling with a far-future setting and meditations on the posthuman condition, Ashes of Candesce mixes high adventure and cutting-edge ideas in a fitting climax to one of science fiction’s most innovative series.

Also of interest

Tooth and Nail by Jennifer Safrey (Night Shade) - amazon uk us
Guardian of Night by Tony Daniel (Baen) – uk us
The Fourth Wall (This Is Not a Game 3) by Walter Jon Williams (Orbit) - amazon uk us
Arctic Rising by Tobias S. Buckell (Tor) – amazon uk

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New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books January 2012

Books 2 Responses »

Dec 172011

These are my picks for January.

For a look longer into upcoming releases see my almanac of forthcoming books.

Blue Remembered Earth

(Poseidon’s Children Book 1) by Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz) - uk us

Formerly known ass the 11K trilogy . This is the first volume in a monumental trilogy tracing the Akinya family across more than ten thousand years of future history…out beyond the solar system, into interstellar space and the dawn of galactic society.

One hundred and fifty years from now, in a world where Africa is the dominant technological and economic power, and where crime, war, disease and poverty have been banished to history, Geoffrey Akinya wants only one thing: to be left in peace, so that he can continue his studies into the elephants of the Amboseli basin. But Geoffrey’s family, the vast Akinya business empire, has other plans. After the death of Eunice, Geoffrey’s grandmother, erstwhile space explorer and entrepreneur, something awkward has come to light on the Moon, and Geoffrey is tasked – well, blackmailed, really – to go up there and make sure the family’s name stays suitably unblemished. But little does Geoffrey realise – or anyone else in the family, for that matter – what he’s about to unravel. Eunice’s ashes have already have been scattered in sight of Kilimanjaro. But the secrets she died with are about to come back out into the open, and they could change everything. Or shatter this near-utopia into shards . . .

In the Mouth of the Whale

(Quiet War Universe) by Paul McAuley (Gollancz) - uk us

Quite contrary to my usual taste in singular protagonists I liked the Quiet war books event through the multiple protagonists .

This new novel in the same universe takes place a thousand years later.

You can read an excerpt here

Fomalhaut was first colonised by the posthuman Quick, who established an archipelago of thistledown cities and edenic worldlets within the star’s vast dust belt. Their peaceful, decadent civilisation was swiftly conquered by a band of ruthless, aggressive, unreconstructed humans who call themselves the True, then, a century before, the True beat back an advance party of Ghosts, a posthuman cult which colonised the nearby system of Beta Hydri after being driven from the Solar System a thousand years ago. Now the Ghosts have returned to Fomalhaut, to begin their end game: the conquest of its single gas giant planet, a captured interstellar wanderer far older than the rest of Fomalhaut’s system. At its core is a sphere of hot metallic hydrogen with strange and powerful properties based on exotic quantum physics. The Quick believe it is inhabited by an ancient alien Mind; the True believe it can be developed into a weapon, and the Ghosts believe it can be transformed into a computational system so powerful it can reach into their past, collapse timelines, and fulfil the ancient prophecies of their founder.

In the Lion’s Mouth

(January Dancer 3) by Michael Flynn (Tor) - uk us

The January Dancer was wonderful and Up Jim River was enjoyable so this is one of my most anticipated books of the year.

It’s a big Spiral Arm, and the scarred man, Donavan buigh, has gone missing in it, upsetting the harper Mearana’s plans for a reconciliation between her parents. Bridget ban, a Hound of the League, doubts that reconciliation is possible or desirable; but nonetheless has dispatched agents to investigate the disappearance.

The powerful Ravn Olafsdottr, a Shadow of the Names, slips into Clanthompson Hall to tell mother and daughter of the fate of Donovan buigh. In the Long Game between the Confederation of Central Worlds and the United League of the Periphery, Hound and Shadow are mortal enemies; yet a truce descends between them so that the Shadow may tell her tale. There is a struggle in the Lion’s Mouth, the bureau that oversees the Shadows—a clandestine civil war of sabotage and assassination between those who would overthrow Those of Name and the loyalists who support them. And Donovan, one-time Confederal agent, has been recalled to take a key part, willingly or no.

Transmission

(Ragnarok book 2) by John Meaney (Gollancz) - uk

I loved book one Absorption. All the characters make me want to come back and know how it goes for them. The aliens are lovely or mysterious and we have only started to scratch on the main plot, it is still much of a bloody mystery to me but it is so compelling to follow. This sequel is high on my most anticipated books for 2012.

The second volume of Meaney’s epic Ragnarok space opera trilogy. The dark matter in the universe is alive and is seeking to pervert human history to its own ends. Its influence has reached back into the dark ages, to the centre of the 3rd Reich and 600 years into the future. The Ragnarok universe not only provides a stunning SF rationale for Norse mythology but posits a world where pilots are locked into symbiotic relationships with their ships and the cities can come alive.

Boneyards

(Diving 3) by Kristine Katheryn Rush (Pyr) - uk us

Kristine is definitely one of my favorite authors at the moment. The Diving started with Diving into the Wreck and City of Ruins and continues now with Boneyard. Time to learn what happened to the Destiny Fleet?

When multiple Hugo Award winner Kristine Kathryn Rusch decided to put her stamp on classic space opera, readers wanted more. Now Rusch’s popular character Boss returns in a whole new adventure, one that takes her far outside her comfort zone, to a sector of space she’s never seen before.

Searching for ancient technology to help her friends find answers to the mystery of their own past, Boss ventures into a place filled with evidence of an ancient space battle, one the Dignity Vessels lost.

Meanwhile, the Enterran Empire keeps accidentally killing its scientists in a quest for ancient stealth tech. Boss’s most difficult friend, Squishy, has had enough. She sneaks into the Empire and destroys its primary stealth tech research base. But an old lover thwarts her escape, and now Squishy needs Boss’s help.

Boss, who is a fugitive in the Empire. Boss, who knows how to make a Dignity Vessel work. Boss, who knows that Dignity Vessels house the very technology that the Empire is searching for.

Should Boss take a Dignity Vessel to rescue Squishy and risk losing everything to the Empire? Or should Boss continue on her mission for her other friends and let Squishy suffer her own fate?

Filled with battles old and new, scientific dilemmas, and questions about the ethics of friendship, Boneyards looks at the influence of our past on our present and the risks we all take when we meddle in other people’s lives.

Boneyards is space opera the way it was meant to be: exciting, fast moving, and filled with passion

The Great Game

(The Bookman 3) by Lavie Tidhar (Angry Robot) – us

Quite lovely steampunk alien invasion mystery that started with The Bookman and continued with Camera Obscura in 2011. Can probably be read standalone like the other books.

“The Great Game: The Bookman Histories”. The Lizardine Empire is under threat. When Mycroft Holmes is murdered in London, it is up to retired shadow executive Smith to track down his killer and stumble on the greatest conspiracy of his life. Mycroft’s protégé, the young Lucy Westerna, returns from Abyssinia with an ancient device that wrecks havoc when activated, summoning into being deadly machines that look like giant tripods. And across the ocean, in Vespuccia, a young Harry Houdini faces death… and the return of an enemy once thought vanquished. The Great Game is played in the shadows… and no one is safe. A new century is about to dawn, and the world would change forever. And in the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania an old man weaves a web of dark deceit that would bind them together, in life… and in death. Airship battles, Frankenstein monsters, alien tripods and death-defying acts: The Great Game is a cranked-up steampunk thriller in which nothing is certain not even death.

File Under: Steampunk [ Alternate History! Victorians Bite | End Of Days | Oooo-Laaaaah ]

Dark Eden

by Chris Beckett (Corvus) – uk

This sounds interesting but also a bit creepy.

A marooned outpost of humanity struggles to survive on a startlingly alien world: science fiction as it ought to be from British science fiction’s great white hope.You live in Eden. You are a member of the Family, one of 532 descendants of Angela and Tommy. You shelter beneath the light and warmth of the Forest’s lantern trees, hunting woollybuck and harvesting tree candy. Beyond the forest lie the treeless mountains of the Snowy Dark and a cold so bitter and a night so profound that no man has ever crossed it. The Oldest among you recount legends of a world where light came from the sky, where men and women made boats that could cross between worlds. One day, the Oldest say, they will come back for you. You live in Eden. You are a member of the Family, one of 532 descendants of two marooned explorers. You huddle, slowly starving, beneath the light and warmth of geothermal trees, confined to one barely habitable valley of a startlingly alien, sunless world. After 163 years and six generations of incestuous inbreeding, the Family is riddled with deformity and feeblemindedness. Your culture is a infantile stew of half-remembered fact and devolved ritual that stifles innovation and punishes independent thought.You are John Redlantern. You will break the laws of Eden, shatter the Family and change history. You will be the first to abandon hope, the first to abandon the old ways, the first to kill another, the first to venture in to the Dark, and the first to discover the truth about Eden.

Shadows in Flight

(The Shadow series (Ender) 5) by Orson Scott Card (Tor)

Like the first Ender books where the best the same has been true for the Shadow book.

Bean flees to the stars with three of his children – the three who share the engineered genes that gave him both hyper-intelligence and a short, cruel physical life. The time dilation granted by the speed of their travel gives Earth’s scientists generations to seek a cure, to no avail. In time, they are forgotten – a fading ansible signal speaking of events lost to Earth’s history. But the Delphikis are about to make a discovery that will let them save themselves, and perhaps all of humanity in days to come. For there in space before them lies a derelict Formic colony ship. Aboard it, they will find both death and wonders – the life support that is failing on their own ship, room to grow, and labs in which to explore their own genetic anomaly and the mysterious disease that killed the ship’s colony.

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New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books December 2011

Books 2 Responses »

Nov 302011

These are my picks for December’s new releases.

For a look further into upcoming releases see my almanac of forthcoming books.

Count to a Trillion

(Book 1) by John C. Wright (Tor) - uk us

I love Space Opera and superhuman stories. John has been writing for a while but has so far flown under my radar which is weird since he wrote Null-A Continuum, a sequel to A. E. van Vogt’s Null-A series. I loved the original series. This is something along the same kind of superhuman lines.

US blurb: Hundreds of years in the future, after the collapse of the Western world, young Menelaus Illation Montrose grows up in what was once Texas as a gunslinging duelist for hire. But Montrose is also a mathematical genius—and a romantic who dreams of a future in which humanity rises from the ashes to take its place among the stars.

The chance to help usher in that future comes when Montrose is recruited for a manned interstellar mission to investigate an artifact of alien origin. Known as the Monument, the artifact is inscribed with data so complex, only a posthuman mind can decipher it. So Montrose does the unthinkable: he injects himself with a dangerous biochemical drug designed to boost his already formidable intellect to superhuman intelligence. It drives him mad.

Nearly two centuries later, his sanity restored, Montrose is awakened from cryo-suspension with no memory of his posthuman actions, to find Earth transformed in strange and disturbing ways, and learns that the Monument still carries a secret he must decode—one that will define humanity’s true future in the universe.

UK blurb: John C. Wright burst upon the science fiction scene a decade ago with the “Golden Age” trilogy, an innovative space opera. He went on to write fantasy novels, including the popular “Orphans of Chaos” trilogy. Now he returns to space opera in “Count to a Trillion”. After the collapse of the world economy, a young boy grows up in what used to be Texas as a tough duellist for hire, the future equivalent of a hired gun. But even after the collapse, there is space travel, and he leaves Earth to have adventures in the really wide open spaces. While humanity, and Artificial Intelligence grow and change, he is catapulted into the more distant future and becomes a kind of superman.

Mecha Corps

(The Armor War 1) by Brett Patton (ROC) – uk us

A debut military science fiction no less. Human soldiers fighting in robotic armor is not original but it should be entertaining.

Matt Lowell is in hell – and there’s no place he’d rather be. At a training camp on the backwater planet Earth, he and his fellow cadets are learning to ride Mechas: biomechanicals sporting both incredible grace and devastating firepower. Their ultimate aim is to take on the pirates of the Corsair Confederacy, who are constantly invading Universal Union territories.

Yet before they survive a battle, they have to survive their training. Although their robotic avatars are their greatest weapon, they may also be their greatest weakness…

Planesrunner

(Everness 1) by Ian McDonald (Pyr) – uk us

I meet Ian McDonald at Eurocon2011. A really nice guy with an original voice in science fiction. Desolation Road and Ares Express are still my favorites. No way I would miss his YA debut.

There is not one you. There are many yous. There is not one world. There are many worlds. Ours is one of billions of parallel earths.

When Everett Singh’s scientist father is kidnapped from the streets of London, he leaves young Everett a mysterious app on his computer. Suddenly, this teenager has become the owner of the most valuable object in the multiverse—the Infundibulum—the map of all the parallel earths, and there are dark forces in the Ten Known Worlds who will stop at nothing to get it. They’ve got power, authority, and the might of ten planets—some of them more technologically advanced than our Earth—at their fingertips. He’s got wits, intelligence, and a knack for Indian cooking.

To keep the Infundibulum safe, Everett must trick his way through the Heisenberg Gate his dad helped build and go on the run in a parallel Earth. But to rescue his Dad from Charlotte Villiers and the sinister Order, this Planesrunner’s going to need friends. Friends like Captain Anastasia Sixsmyth, her adopted daughter Sen, and the crew of the airship Everness.

Can they rescue Everett’s father and get the Infundibulum to safety? The game is afoot!

Artemis

by Philip Palmer (Orbit) – uk us

This is my second go at Philip Palmer after Hellship this summer. I like his writing especially the alien characters so I decided to give him a second try even if the ending of the last book was weak.

Artemis McIvor is a thief, a con-artist, and a stone cold killer. And she’s been on a crime-spree for, well, years. The galactic government has collapsed and the universe was hers for the taking.

But when the cops finally catch up with her, they give Artemis a choice. Suffer in prison for the rest of her very long life, or join a crew of criminals, murderers, and traitors on a desperate mission to save humanity against an all-consuming threat.

Now, Artemis has to figure out how to be a good guy without forgetting who she really is.

Earthbound

(Marsbound 3) by Joe Haldeman (Ace) – uk us

Joe Haldeman doesn’t require any presentation. Starbound was a bit underwhelming but I want to know how it ends.

The mysterious alien Others have prohibited humans from space travel-destroying Earth’s fleet of starships in a display of unimaginable power. Now Carmen Dula, the first human to encounter Martians and then the mysterious Others, and her colleagues struggle to find a way, using nineteenthcentury technology, to reclaim the future that has been stolen from them.

Galactic Courier

(John Grimes Saga 3) by A. Bertram Chandler (Baen) – uk us

The John Grimes saga is uncomplicated pulp science fiction but I like it.

Number three in a three-volume collection of the legendary John Grimes of the Galactic Rim series. Classic Star Trek meets the high seas. If space travel is going to be anything like sailing the oceans, then A. Bertram Chandler has surely caught its absolute essence in his Grimes novels. Here are the crowning tales of Grimes’ career – the Grimes “Rim Commodore” stories. In these tales, Grimes has found his true calling out on the edge of galactic civilization. He’s the sheriff of a realm where pioneer colonies and parallel dimensions overlap, and a starship captain must be prepared for adventure in ALL possible worlds.

Includes an astounding (as in, mostly published in Astounding and Analog by legendary editor John W. Campbell) cornucopia of Grimes novels bringing together all previous Commodore Grimes tales in Star Courier, To Keep the Ship, Matilda’s Stepchildren, Star Loot.

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New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books November 2011 revisited

Books No Responses »

Oct 312011

Here are my picks for November revisited.

For a look further into upcoming releases see my almanac of forthcoming books.

Across the Universe

by Beth Revis (Razorbill 2011) – Amazon US | UK

This YA novel caught my eyes since the original list. A female protagonist on a generation ship is my kind of story. I am looking forward to get to know both her and Beth Revis.

What does it take to survive aboard a spaceship fueled by lies?

Amy is a cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed. She expects to awaken on a new planet, 300 years in the future. But fifty years before Godspeed’s scheduled landing, Amy’s cryo chamber is unplugged, and she is nearly killed.

Now, Amy is caught inside an enclosed world where nothing makes sense. Godspeed’s passengers have forfeited all control to Eldest, a tyrannical and frightening leader, and Elder, his rebellious and brilliant teenage heir.

Amy desperately wants to trust Elder. But should she? All she knows is that she must race to unlock Godspeed’s hidden secrets before whoever woke her tries to kill again.

The Ascendant Stars

(Humanity’s Fire 3) by Michael Cobley (Orbit 2011) – Amazon US | UK

Humanity’s Fire, another great space opera will be over in next month. It started with Seeds of Earth and continued with The Orphanded Worlds last year. The Ascendant Stars is the third and final volume. Michael Cobley is a writer to watch out for, I really love the worlds he creates.

Battle-ready factions converge above Darien, all with the same objective. The goal is control over this newly-discovered planet and access to the powerful weapons at its heart. Despotic Hegemony forces dominate much of known space and they want this world too, but Darien’s inhabitants will fight for their future.However, key players in this conflict aren’t fully in control. Hostile AIs have infiltrated key minds and have an agenda, requiring nothing less than the destruction or subversion of all organic life. And they are near to unleashing their cohorts, a host of twisted machine intelligences caged beneath Darien. Fighting to contain them are Darien’s hidden guardians, and their ancient ally the Construct, on a millennia-long mission to protect sentient species. As the war reaches its peak, the AI army is roaring to the surface, to freedom and an orgy of destruction. Darien is first in line in a machine vs. human war – for life or the sterile dusts of space.

Master of the House of Darts

(Obsidian and Blood 3) by Aliette de Bodard (Angry Robot) - Amazon US | UK

Aliette de Bodard debuted last year with her aztec murder mystery with cosmological repercussions Servants of the Underworld. Harbinger of the Storm the second book in the Obsidian & Blood series was an action packed Aztec mystery opera with magic, interventions from the gods and more twists and turns than the first book. It even has a love story with amusing snippets here and there, I love formidable women. The stories are self-contained and works standalone, but you will not want to miss out on the first.

Death, magic and intrigue in this hotly-anticipated follow-up to Servant of the Underworld. A sumptuously-detailed Aztec world, which will appeal to fans of magical fantasy, historical drama, political intrigue and murder mysteries.

THE AZTEC EMPIRE TEETERS ON THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION.
As the political infighting starts within the imperial court, Acatl, High Priest for the Dead, makes a macabre discovery in the palace: a high-ranking nobleman has been torn to pieces by an invocation – and it looks like the summoner belongs to the court itself…

File Under: Fantasy [ Aztec Mystery | An Inside Job | Ancient Magics | The Gods Walk! ]

The Ninth Circle

(Tour of the Merrimack 5) by R. M. Meluch (Daw) – Amazon US | UK

Characterization is an important part of my enjoyment when I read, and I am very happy that I found Rebeca M. Meluch (I hate that female writers have to hide their gender to sell more books), she writes characters that are easy to love and root for. The series is a healthy mix of military action, mystery, humor and sex. It is fast and fun read. I can warmly recommend this series to any lover of military science fiction with strong characters.

On the distant world of Zoe, an expedition finds DNA-based life. When alien invaders are also discovered, Glenn Hamilton calls on the U.S.S. Merrimack for help. But the Ninth Circle and the Palatine Empire have also found Zoe. Soon everyone will be on a collision course to determine the fate of this planet.

Firebird

(Alex Benedict) by Jack McDevitt (Ace 2011) – Amazon US | UK

The Alex Benedict stories are filled with aliens and mysteries. The characters are what makes it though. Chase and Alex are among my favorite characters. It is more mystery solving than action.

Forty-one years ago the renowned physicist Chris Robin vanished. Before his disappearance, his fringe science theories about the existence of endless alternate universes had earned him both admirers and enemies.

Alex Benedict and Chase Kolpath discover that Robin had several interstellar yachts flown far outside the planetary system where they too vanished. And following Robin’s trail into the unknown puts Benedict and Kolpath in danger…

Wolf Among the Stars

by Steve White (Baen) – Amazon US | UK

It is a while since I read anything by Steve White. Eagle Against the Stars and Legacy was quite entertaining.

A near-future Earth has shaken off the devastating colonization by alien Lokaran invaders and totalitarian rule by the alien’s puppets, the Earth First party. But now Earth is flung into galactic intrigue and war. The Lokaron empire teeters on the edge of a fratricidal meltdown and a cabal of ancient enemies hope to use Earth as a proxy to destroy the empire and rule over a new Galactic Dark Age.

Now Captain Andrew Roark, the son of heroes of the rebellion and an officer trained in Lokaran space warfare tactics, joins with a highly capable Lokar who opposes the empire but wishes to see it transformed rather than destroyed. Together they must uncover a conspiracy to control Earth, and then obtain the secret key to defeating it. War for galactic control looms, and freedom for Earth—so recently escaped from under the boot-heel of one oppressor—is once again in the balance.

Seed

by Rob Ziegler (Night Shade) – Amazon US | UK

I liked the blurb on this one.

It”s the dawn of the 22nd century, and the world has fallen apart. Decades of war and resource depletion have toppled governments. The ecosystem has collapsed. A new dust bowl sweeps the American West. The United States has become a nation of migrants -starving masses of nomads who seek out a living in desert wastelands and encampments outside government seed-distribution warehouses. In this new world, there is a new power. Satori is more than just a corporation, she is an intelligent, living city that grew out of the ruins of Denver. Satori bioengineers both the climate-resistant seed that feeds a hungry nation, and her own post-human genetic Designers, Advocates, and Laborers. What remains of the United States government now exists solely to distribute Satori seed; a defeated American military doles out bar-coded, single-use Satori seed to the nation”s starving citizens. When one of Satori”s Designers goes rogue, Agent Sienna Doss-Ex-Army Ranger turned glorified bodyguard-is tasked by the government to bring her in: The government wants to use the Designer to break Satori”s stranglehold on seed production and reassert themselves as the center of power. Sianna Doss”s search for the Designer intersects with Brood and his younger brother Pollo – orphans scrapping by on the fringes of the wastelands. Pollo is abducted, because he is believed to suffer from Tet, a newly emergent disease, the victims of which are harvested by Satori. As events spin out of control, Brood and Sienna Doss find themselves at the heart of Satori, where an explosive climax promises to reshape the future of the world.

The Other

by Matthew Huges (Underland) – Amazon US | UK

Liked this blurb too. It seems a bit more light-hearted and it is by a new-to-me author too.

Meet Luff Imbry, an insidiously clever confidence man . . . He likes good wine, good food, and good stolen goods, and he always maintains the upper hand. When a business rival gets the drop on him, he finds himself abandoned on Fulda—a far-off, isolated world with a history of its own. Unable to blend in and furious for revenge, Imbry has to rely on his infamous criminal wit to survive Fulda’s crusade to extinguish The Other.

Hailed as the heir apparent to Jack Vance, Matthew Hughes brings us this speculative, richly imagined exploration of society on the far edges of extreme. A central character in Black Brillion, Luff Imbry is at last front and center in Hughes’s latest rollercoaster adventure through a far-future universe.

Daylight on Iron Mountain

(Chung Kuo 2) by David Wingrove (Corvus) – Amazon US | UK

Corvus is planing to reprint 20 rewritten Chung Kuo novels the upcoming years. The series is set in a future dominated by Chinese culture that goes to drastic steps to conquer and control the world. Son of Heaven was first in March. I enjoyed the story a lot and it was a swift read and it remembers in some aspects on old classics like Buck Rogers but with a lot more food for thought. Son of Heaven is an entertaining start of a new series and the premise is believable if a bit twisted. It builds on the fear of the yellow danger once again perhaps current with China buying up Africa and becoming the engine of the world economy. But it is also up close and personal and the characters feel real. I think I will enjoy the next nineteen, the second novel Daylight on the Iron Mountain is out next month. This one gets a warm recommendation from me.

Seventy-five years in the future… Earth is ruled by China … Cities span entire continents… History has been erased…

2087: Japan lies under a radioactive cloud, its denizens wiped out. America has been subjugated, its inhabitants dispersed in the world of levels. The banner armies of Tsao Ch’un – the Son of Heaven, supreme ruler of Chung Kuo – are mobilizing against pockets of resistance in the Middle East.

But even the Son of Heaven cannot live forever. Already the envoys of the Seven Dragons are being turned away from the Black Tower. Faced with the capricious behaviour of an aging tyrant, the Wheel of Dragons is about to turn against its master.

In the depths of the world of levels, far below the towers of genetics mega-corporations and the AI-controlled villas of the elite, far from the patrolling attack craft of Tsao Ch’un, the anger of the people is becoming outright rebellion.

The fight for the new world is just beginning.

Welcome to the future.

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