Catching Up on Books and ARCs, Part 3
Posted on June 10, 2013 Posted by John Scalzi 52 Comments
Still catching up on books and ARCs that came in when I was on tour (and some that have come in since). I’ll note for the record, however, that I actually bought Scatter, Adapt and Remember because Annalee Newitz is a pal and also it looks really good even if it uses the Oxford comma in the title WTF.
What here looks good to you? Let me know in the comments.
Hellfire looks interesting
I like that Scatter, Adapt and Remember.
Joe Abercrombie’s The Heroes is great. And I have enjoyed, and can recommend, his others. 10/10
I think I’ll read Scatter, Adapt, and Remember just for the comma. Ok, and based on the recommendation. :)
The Oxford comma for the win!
The Shining Girls is flat-out incredible.
I’ll second Ell’s motion/comment: Oxford comma 4Eva!
Oxford commas ROCK!
The Heroes is a great primer for the Abercrombie books. Also a great way to pass the time waiting for the next Game of Thrones book. Similar dirty, gritty fantasy. But otherwise totally different and awesome.
grabs Harlan Ellison and runs…….!
Second (third? fourth?) the recommendation on The Heroes. Though definitely not something to read if you want to come away happy, smiling, and elated.
And of course Harlan Ellison. As I’ve said here many times, John’s writing reminds me very much of Harlan.
Harlan Ellison is always good, especially if you want to feel the effects of LSD without actually dropping any.
You’ll pry my Oxford comma from my cold, dead hands!
Shining Girls. It’s amazing.
What! You besmirch the Oxford comma, sir? Step back, I say. Oxford commas have and will continue to serve us well in the English writing world.
Since there were no limits on how many titles I could recommend, definitely The Shining Girls and Scatter, Adapt and Remember are on the list. The Ellison books aren’t fantasy or SF. They’re his 1950s and early 1960s short stories of crime and juvenile delinquency. I had Pyramid paperback editions of them from years and years ago, and remember being chilled by them.
BTW, did you hear the story of the unsold Ellison story about a murderer who got rid of his victim by cutting the corpse up into little pieces and then flushing the remains down the john? His crime gets foiled when his attempt to dispose of the corpse clogs the toilet. Ellison’s title for the story was “Only Death Could Stop It.”
I’m looking forward to Hellfire.
I think I’ll have a copy of The Shining Girls, please.
When does “The Battle for the Oxford Comma” come out?
Do I see R-in-a-circle registered-trademark symbols after the author name on the spines of those Harlan Ellison books?
You do. He has trademarked himself.
I have about 100 pages to go in The Shining Girls and didn’t finish it last night only because at 1 a.m. I realized I had to get up in 5 hours to go to work. Great read.
I’m looking forward to Burdens of the Dead. Mercedes Lackey is one of my favorites, and her co-authors in this series add a good historical background.
I agree with kennelliver: recently read The Heroes and found it to be a great and fascinating read. Going to explore more Abercrombie stuff based on that and found it a good introduction to his work, a nice jumping in book that is free-standing in a larger world.
Any stack of books with Harlan Ellison is a good stack of books.
Hellfire looks great. I love the series.
I’ve always had a high opinion of Scalzi; now that I know he removes Oxford Commas (aka Serial Commas), he is a Serial Comma Killer – only one word removed from a Serial Killer. This is deeply disturbing.
All attempts at snark aside, of course the Oxford Comma is superior – it removes the potential for confusion, and at a small cost in pixels.
Going to a reading/signing tonight for The Shining Girls. Haven’t read it yet but I have heard great things about it.
I liked Wen Spencer’s “Eight Million Gods”. It jumped around a little too much for me to say I ~really~ liked it, but there was a lot of Shinto information that I’d never seen before. Lot of research went into that book. Prefer her Elfhome series, but that’s just a personal quirk.
BIg fan of the Oxford comma here. Glad Im not the only one popping in just to say that.
OXFORD COMMA FOR THE WIN!!!
‘The Heroes’ isn’t quite free-standing, it includes several characters from the earlier trilogy.
Not that it’s any of my damn business, but how is Harlan? His website is woefully without information.
I don’t think I’ve seen an ARC book photo here before where I own 3 of the books: Scatter, Heroes and Shining Girls. Need to get reading…
All right-thinking people use the Oxford comma. “I’d like to thank my parents, the queen of England and the Pope” being the G-rated example. This being the not-so-G-rated example. Definitely NSFW, FYI.
I just started Scatter, Adapt, and Remember. It is very well written, and the subject is fascinating. If not a bit depressing.
I loved The Heroes, can’t wait for The Shining Girls, and enjoy the precision of the Oxford comma.
It’s fun to speculate about the future.
I think it’s the guy who wrote ‘Icebones’ who wrote a somewhat awesome
and somewhat silly future of everything.
Yes, Baxter Evolution.
Because of the title I’ve added “Scatter, Adapt, and Remember” to my ‘decide
later/wish’ list.
Best future history book ever might be swanwick michael bones of the earth
because none of it happened: Just as we don’t exist: We are an unusually large
quantum fluctuation of nothing becoming the universe.
Which, of course, means that when Dawny kicks me in the shins for blocking
her goal it doesn’t hurt.
Just finished Scatter, Adapt, and Remember – a quick light non-fiction read with interesting ideas, and very enjoyable.
Are these new editions of Ellison’s classics?
PWStrain: You might be looking in the wrong place. At http://harlanellison.com/heboard/index.htm he indicated recently (4 June) that having just been examined top to bottom, he’s doing well for having just turned 79 – possibly to his surprise: “[…] apparently I am doing just fine, and have no reason to complain.”
didn’t know wen spencer had a new one out. will have to check it out.
@Fig: I see what you did there.
Harlan Ellison (now how do you make the registered trademark symbol on an iPad?). Uncle Harlan is a litigious man, so watch it! Do not violate the trademark! Maybe ALL CAPS -as in HARLAN ELLISON? Or better yet -He Who Must Not Be Named! Wait, that’s taken.
Ok, I’ve never heard of the term “Oxford comma” so I punch it into Google, check the Wikipedia
page which comes up, and go back to reading – in about fifteen seconds (I’m a slow typist).
Then it struck me just how I would have found that out twenty years ago, and how the world
really has changed.
Will
How quickly do you read, John? A stack like that would take me months!
But then, I only read at bedtime.
shining girls, scatter,adapt and remember, and 8 million gods all look interesting and are going on ‘the list’!
You can have my Oxford comma when you pry it from my cold, dead, and properly-punctuated fingers.
I just finished Scatter, adapt, and remember. very good. Interesting discussions of mass extinctions and the theory that we are in the 6th one now. (not the idea of ‘oh, look, 90% of the world just fell over and died’ but rather a discussion of the timeline for a mass extinction over a long period of time.
read it,
Anything by Harlan Ellison
is right up my alley! Not to seem thick headed, but what is ARC??
I am looking forward to Hellfire, it is book 3 of a really good series. The author was challenged about her ability to write a Military SF, as she normally writes more Romantic novels. Of course, telling someone they can’t do something, in this case showed that they could!
Scatter, Adapt, and Remember just edged on to my TBR list, regardless of comma usage.
Meanwhile, when Oxford commas are made illegal, only outlaws, rebels, and English majors will use them.
the heroes and hellfire sound good