New Arrivals - mid November '07

Here's the pick of the crop from my latest trip to the P.O. Box:

Swiftly by Adam Roberts (UK Proof)

'Swiftly' by Adam RobertsA rather intriguing alternate history-meets-literature premise this time out from Adam R: following Gulliver's return from his well-publicised Travels, the British Empire has grown rich on the slave labour of Lilliputians; but France has enlisted the aid of the Brobdingnagians and launched an invasion of the British Isles.

I'm still waiting on confirmation from Adam, but I think the novel is an extended riff on the 'Swiftly' tale first published on SciFiction.com in 2002, which would certainly explain why the new novel has the same title as Adam's Night Shade Books anthology, in which 'Swiftly' (the story) also appears. Confused? You might be...

Shooting War by Anthony Lappé and Dan Goldman

'Shooting War' by Anthony Lappé and Dan GoldmanI've been looking forward to seeing this graphic novel adaptation of the original webcomic ever since Joe Gordon heralded it a year ago and I was fortunate enough to be sent a copy by UK publisher Weidenfeld & Nicholson.

It's a vicious satire on America's war in the Middle East, set in 2011 and told from the point of view of a video-blogger who becomes caught up in the ongoing media frenzy after he captures the terrorist bombing of his apartment block on his blog and is catapulted to stardom as a result.

I read a couple of the early webcomic installments and thoroughly enjoyed them. Roll on a bit of free time.

Matter by Iain M. Banks (UK Proof)

'Matter' by Iain M. BanksYes, I too have been blessed with a copy of the proof that everyone's been bragging about receiving, and which I'm jolly and properly grateful for my copy of.

Matter is the new Culture novel and I didn't realise that it's the first for seven years, so no wonder it's being billed as the 'science fiction publishing event of 2008'.

All I have to do now is find a slot in the old reading schedule for 593 pages of brand new Banks. Shouldn't be too much of a chore... :)

The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V.S. Redick (UK Proof)

'The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V.S. RedickI was first told about this one a while back by Robert's agent, John Jarrold, who very klindly sent me over a couple of proof chapters by email, which I thought were very promising indeed. Gollancz's Simon Spanton has subsequently bought the trilogy for UK publication and now the UK proofs are out...

Judging by my earlier first impressions, this weird-ish (although it could of course get much weirder) fantasy, set on a legendary, 600-year-old sailing ship, should appeal to fans of Scott Lynch, China Miéville, Alan Campbell and co. This one's heading towards the top of the 'to-be-read' list and I'll let you know when I've had a crack.

Gorgeous cover art by Edward Miller as well, which is always a bonus.

Plus:

Black Man by Richard Morgan

The UK paperback of Richard Morgan's Black Man is definitely worth picking up if you haven't already got a copy of the hardback. Highly recommended.

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Good Omens is one of my very favourite comic novels, which I must have read four or five times already. Very nice indeed to see it republished in a handsome hardback edition (and a bargain at only £9.99 - less on Amazon.co.uk, of course...)

November 21, 2007 | Filed Under Books | 4 Comments 

Schedule Watch: Orbit and Tor UK

I've just received the latest update to the publication schedule for Orbit Books, and I've been hanging on to a schedule that Tor UK sent through a few weeks back.

Personal highlights for me look like they'll be:

Orbit

That'll do for Orbit for now. I'll pick a few more from 2008 next time.

Tor UK

Time to start planning a bit of a to-be-read list re-organisation... :)

August 15, 2007 | Filed Under Books | 21 Comments 

'Matter' by Iain M Banks - cover art revealed

My mate Ed Ashby seems to have managed a bit of a coup. Or at least, I'm assuming so as I haven't seen the cover art for the brand new Culture novel, Matter [Amazon] splashed across all the sf news blogs just yet.

In fact, I don't know if it's even official. It's on the Little, Brown website, sure, but there hasn't been a post to the Orbit Books blog... so either this is actually an early draft artwork that some LB website intern has managed to upload by mistake and the guys at Orbit are going to kill me, or it really is the finished product and very few others have seen it yet, in which case, full kudos to Ed!

Of course, the other possibility is that I've had my head under a rock, everyone has seen this already and the previous two paragraphs - plus the newsbite I just posted to UKSFBN - will come back to haunt me (cue a rash of comments with links to 'New Banks cover' posts written months ago...)

But just in case this is still news to a few folks, here's the artwork:

'Matter' by Iain M.Banks

Update, 19:05 hrs: Yup, it's official!

August 9, 2007 | Filed Under Books | 2 Comments 

Forthcoming titles of note from Orbit UK

Orbit UK sent through their publication schedule for the next 12 months yesterday. A few titles of particular interest (personally speaking) leapt out at me from the list:

Looking forward to all of those (plus the merry hell that they'll be playing with my reading schedule). And I'm sure Orbit would like me to point out that all publication dates are provisional at this stage and may be subject to potential change etc.

March 15, 2007 | Filed Under Books | 6 Comments 

New Arrival - The Steep Approach to Garbadale

Had a busy couple of weeks on the arrivals front - evidenced by the five hours I spent yesterday putting together the latest Books Received item for UKSFBN - and one item in particular was a real stand-out for me:

'The Steep Approach to Garbadale' by Iain BanksThe Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks

Right then, laddie! Straight to the top of the 'to be read' pile for you... Iain Banks's latest non-sf novel; this time it's about the lives, loves, machinations and manipulations of a family that invents and makes millions from selling a best-selling board/computer game called Empire!.

Let's face it, it's got to be a winner for anyone who has spent as much time as I have staring at a strategy-game-filled monitor; especially as I know - from various things I've both heard in person and read at a later date - that it's not just a love of good malt whisky that I can claim to have in common with the esteemed Mr Banks; it turns out that we're both (hopefully recovering) Civilization addicts as well...

I first had my suspicions when I read about the world-spanning empire-building game that Banks's main character played in Complicity, although I don't think that was called Empire! at the time... Anyhow, I do remember confronting Mr Banks (gently, mind) after a signing session back in my W'Stone's Deansgate days. "Do you play Civ?" I enquired. "No, no, no, no..." he replied, with much head-shaking. But I did rather suspect at the time that the shaggy-bearded one was perhaps protesting just a tad too much, and merely wanted to avoid the inevitable attempt at geek-conversation to follow...

And indeed, my suspicions were confirmed when, at a publisher-funded curry night during Eastercon up in Glasgow a few years later (but still a few years ago), Mr Banks and I actually had that conversation and he admitted that yes, he was partial to a bit of Civ from time to time... although by that time the game was up to version 2 or 3, I forget which. But he did confess, and we chatted, and it wasn't too geeky, honest...

Next thing I hear, the publicity-line for the new book is that for the first time in his career he actually delivered a manuscript horribly late, because he lost a whole three months playing Civ IV and eventually had to wipe the game - and all those pesky save-files - from his machine if he was ever going to get any work done at all, ever. But hey, we've all been there, right? (At this point Jo usually rolls her eyes and adopts the look of the long-suffering Civ-widow...)

So, anyhow, yes. This one will definitely be next, just as soon as I've finished conquering the Mongols reading Richard Morgan's Black Man.

Honourable mentions also for proofs of the new Ian McDonald and Justina Robson novels... if only there was another 12 or 13 hours in the day...

February 26, 2007 | Filed Under Books | 2 Comments 



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