QUICK BURNS
Gene Wolfe talks dystopian futures, and the chances of star-drive in our lifetime
Among Others: extraordinary, magic story of science fiction as a toolkit for taking apart the world
BOOK RELEASES:
1/25/2011 While Mortals Sleep: Unpublished short fiction of Kurt Vonnegut – The 16 previously unpublished short stories of this collection, taken from the beginning of Vonnegut’s career, show a young author already grappling with themes and ideas that would define his work for decades to come. (Kindle)
1/27/2011 The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie (in the UK – US doesn’t get it until 2/7) Union commander Lord Marshal Kroy coordinates the fight with the aid of a motley group of incompetent, self-important officers. The strangely sympathetic Col. Bremer dan Gorst is officially a royal observer who nurses a burning desire to kill or be killed. Leading a much smaller army against the Union is Black Dow, whose grip on the throne of the Northmen is tenuous and based on fear and brutality. (Kindle)
1/31/2011 The Alchemist by P. Bacigalupi – The first foray into fantasy from Hugo winner Bacigalupi (The Windup Girl) is one of two novellas (the other by Tobias S. Buckell) set in a world where using magic has terrible consequences. Jeoz is a destitute alchemist living in Khaim, a city literally being strangled to death by bramble, a “wormy malevolence” that expands its thorny vines every time someone uses magic.
2/3/2011 License to Ensorcell by Katherine Kerr – a psychic agent and her Israeli sidekick tracking down a werewolf-murdering serial killer in San Francisco. (Kindle)
2/7/2011 Deep State by Walter Jon Williams (Kindle) – The sequel to This is Not a Game, about where alternate reality games and real life cross and meet.
Joe Abercrombie appearing in England 1/27 at Forbidden Planet in London from 6 PM, and January 29 at Forbidden PLanet in Bristol from 1 PM AD
BARE YOUR SWORD
4004 BC (possible minor spoilers)
BOOK CHECK-IN
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
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The Alchemist and the Executioness from Audible.
