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

'Dead Men's Boots' by Mike Carey - Click for ordering info from Amazon.co.uk

Mike Carey's third Felix Castor novel, Dead Men's Boots [Amazon] is almost upon us: publication date September 6th. (Amazon seem to have the wrong artwork there...)
I've been promising myself that I'll put aside some time to dive into something by Charles Stross and I might just start with The Jennifer Morgue [Amazon], which is also out early next month, in paperback, and follow that up with Halting State [Amazon], which is due in January.
The third part of K.J. Parker's Engineer Trilogy - The Escapement [Amazon] - will be published in December. Hopefully it'll improve on the rather slow pacing of the second volume (memo to self: pull finger out and post about that one, you finished it weeks ago...)
I've already read Debatable Space [Amazon], the debut novel by Philip Palmer, which is due to be published in January. Space opera with an acid twist, well worth trying out.
Jim Butcher's next Dresden Files novel, White Night [Amazon] is another January title. One for the must-read shelf.
And who isn't looking forward to Matter [Amazon], the new Iain M Banks Culture novel? Due February.

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

Tor UK

The Waking [Amazon] by T.M. Jenkins looks like an intriguing sf / thriller amalgam. One for the old pool-side, read-til-I-drop holiday later in the year, maybe...
That man Stross again... Tor are publishing the UK edition of the first part of his Merchant Princes series, The Family Trade [Amazon] will be out in November.

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

August 15, 2007 | Filed Under Books | 21 Comments

Highly Recommended Reading: 'Scar Night' by Alan Campbell

I've been meaning to read Alan Campbell's debut novel, Scar Night [Amazon] ever since I received a proof copy from Macmillan / Tor UK about a year ago, but for some reason there always seemed to be just one more book to go before I got around to it. But now I have, and I'm extremely glad indeed that I finally made the effort.

There's a distinctly Miévillean air to the setting for Scar Night: the city of Deepgate squats astride a vast and quite literal abyss - suspended from and supported by a network of immense chains, with streets made of rope and plank bridges and buildings that exist in permanent danger of toppling to the darkness below - into which the city's dead are cast, in order (so the holy books of the priests tell Deepgate's populace) to swell the ranks of an army being gathered by the god Ulcis so that he might storm the gates of heaven, overthrow the usurper who cast him down, and lead his followers to glory. It's a wonderfully gothic, sumptuously insane vision: a city driven to exist on the constant brink of disaster by the dictates of religion (read into that as much metaphor as you like).

The city - and by extension the novel - is populated by a varied cast of eclectic and fantastical characters. The prinicpals and supporting cast largely comprise: two angels (one, Dill, is a callow youth struggling to find both acceptance and a place in his world; the other, Carnival, is a periodic murderer struggling to avoid being slain for her crimes), Rachel Hael the Spine assassin (assigned to guard and train the young angel), Presbyter Sypes the Patriarch of the temple (grown old and bent over by the weight of the secrets on his shoulders), Devon the Poisoner (a twisted genius and mastermind behind the city's very worst and nastiest weaponry who is gradually falling prey to his own alchemical experimentation), Mr Nettle the net-scavenger (who loses his daughter to the abyss but vows to regain her... if only he can first find and regain her soul) as well as diverse guardsmen (red-shirts, all), aristocratic aeronauts, Heshette tribesmen (the city's ancient and implacable foe), the priests of the temple and their Spine guards (who are all 'tempered' to remove any trace of emotion... well, all but Rachel, that is) and a few more besides, whose roles are somewhat central to the unfolding of the plot, and so will have to remain shrouded in mystery for now.

The prose itself is very good indeed. Alan Campbell's writing is very easy to read, and the visuals come thick and fast. He blends character development, background information, plot exposition, atmospheric description and action scenes with with most definite aplomb. All in all, he writes with the easy, flowing style of an expressive, imaginative, confident writer; a style that's all the more impressive when you occasionally remember that this is still his first debut. If he's this good now then I look forward to reading his work in five or six books' time, by which time he should be superb.

Highly recommended to fans of China Miéville, Jeffrey Ford, Jeff Vandermeer, K.J. Bishop, Steph Swainston, Scott Lynch... you know, the usual crowd. One to watch in years to come as well, definitely, starting with the second part of The Deepgate Codex, whenever that one's due...

Author info: www.alancampbell.co.uk / anurbanfantasy.blogspot.com
Ordering info: Amazon
Publication info: May 4th 2007 (paperback edition), Tor Books, UK