Just Arrived, 1/12/10
Posted on January 12, 2010 Posted by John Scalzi 16 Comments
Books that arrived at my doorstep today:
* Total Oblivion, More or Less, by Alan De Niro. Modern day Minnesota attacked by Scythians, and other strange doings. Ballentine/Spectra. Out now, and Alan will be doing a Big Idea piece on Thursday.
* Token of Darkness, by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. A deadly car accident allows a teenage football star to see ghosts; naturally this leads to complications. Delacorte Press, out 2/9.
* The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin. In a mystical land, an unwitting heir to the throne is thrown into a perilous situation. Orbit Books. Out 2/25, with a Big Idea piece planned for the same day.
* The World We Live In, by Susan Beth Pfeffer. The third book in Pfeffer’s series in which a rogue meteor irrevocably changes life as we know it. Harcourt Press, April 2010.
Also, I should note that henceforth I’ll be deleting typo messages after I make corrections; they really don’t add anything to the conversation. However, you have my thanks for making them.
You know what book arrived on my doorstep yesterday? The God Engines.
You know who was late for work because he was up too late reading when he should have been sleeping?
Yeah, it was somebody else. I would never do anything that irresponsible.
No. Never.
Now “Modern day Minnesota attacked by Scythians” sounds interesting. Could they swing by my boss’s office and have a few words with him about this goofy project spec? Really? Awesome.
@Dan yeah it was me :)
very impressed with sub press now under 2 weeks to Melbourne.au
Oooh! I loved Pfeffer’s other two books! You’re so lucky to get to read the third one now.
Earlier today I was asked for three books whose titles made me laugh out loud. If I’d seen the title of Total Oblivion, More Or Less it might have edged out A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius or One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies!
Dang, I read the sample online for 100k, and I really wish I could read the whole thing. :(
Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is brilliant.
I’m reading through an ARC of “The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms” myself, and it’s some of the best fantasy writing I’ve read in a long time. Very character driven, and full of nifty political intrigue.
Yay, Hundred Thousand Kingdoms!
I hope Amazon is quick with my copy.
I will likely start my review of _The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms_ with something along the lines of “I love this book almost without reservation, which those of you who know me will recognize as an exceedingly rare thing.”
Wow, the cover art on The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is amazing.
For those reading 100K, does it feel like the first volume in a trilogy?
I went from being very excited when I first heard about it to having my usual reservations about endless fantasy sagas once I heard it wasn’t stand-alone.
I want to be excited again, should I be?
damn it, again a recommendation of a book who only sells ebooks for Kindle.
I am so depressed.
Espana @ 12:
The power of Google Alerts compels me!
I’m a leeeetle biased, but I don’t think it feels like the first volume of a trilogy. The trilogy is basically three standalone volumes set in the same world. The same overarching problem affects them all over the course of the three books, but each protagonist (each book has a different one) has her/his own plot arc to resolve, and in each case they resolve quite thoroughly. This is partly because I hate hate hate cliffhangers, and partly because I just get bored writing the same people all the time. So hope that helps. =)
España @ #12, I was quite surprised at how very much resolution there was at the end of the book.
Thanks, that is exactly what I wanted to hear.
While I have strong (and well earned, I think) anti-series bias, I am as much as sucker as anybody for a well constructed universe to return to.