46 Comments on “New Books and ARCs, 8/8/14”

1. The Penguin Book of Witches looks interesting.

2. I think they shouldn’t let people under 30 do book spine design. Who can read the fourth book from the top? Light gray small font on a white background? Whoever did that is a bad person and they should feel bad. Grumble grumble reading glasses my lawn grumble.

3. Why the separate postings for Baen vs. everyone else?
   (Conspiracy-minded persons would see this as highlighting the divisiveness in the SF world…)

4. Mia, I noticed that too and I’m even more interested now that I see it’s a collection of nonfiction:

   “From a manual for witch hunters written by King James himself in 1597, to court documents from the Salem witch trials of 1692, to newspaper coverage of a woman stoned to death on the streets of Philadelphia while the Continental Congress met, The Penguin Book of Witches is a treasury of historical accounts of accused witches that sheds light on the reality behind the legends. Bringing to life stories like that of Eunice Cole, tried for attacking a teenage girl with a rock and buried with a stake through her heart; Jane Jacobs, a Bostonian so often accused of witchcraft that she took her tormentors to court on charges of slander; and Increase Mather, an exorcism-performing minister famed for his knowledge of witches, this volume provides a unique tour through the darkest history of English and North American witchcraft, never failing to horrify, intrigue, and delight.”

5. A new K. J. Parker? Ooooh! Intrigued…..

6. I bought the K.J. Parker book based on the description at Goodreads. After seeing it here first, of course.

   You really ought to find a way to get a cut for all the books you sell!

7. Thank God nobody likes it it is boring change your status to BOROOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! GOT YA FUCKER

8. Stross, Pratchett & Parker.

9. The Pratchett, definitely. I did not know he’d published any nonfiction.

10. Nolaviz:

    Baen sends all their stuff for the month in one package, while everyone else sends them a book at a time. Sometimes I mix them up, but I didn’t this time, mostly because when I got the Baen package, I was “Oh, I forgot to post a picture of books this week. These will do” and then did and then remembered the other pile in the other room.

    So: No conspiracy, just laziness.

11. JS – and so Hanlon’s razor is yet again demonstrated. *g* Charity, mine fen, charity.

    Stross’s Equoid – wait, wasn’t this in the Hugo bunch? Huh, Amazon shows a kindle version and a hardback (*looks at hb price* OMG, for a NOVELLA?) so this must be a trade reprint. (Which I get, considering the price of the hb. But the kindle version is…wow. Quite reasonable.)

    I’ve only just started reading Pratchett. I think I might well check out his nonfiction collection.

12. Keranih:

    The hardcover version is from Subterranean, which means it is a signed, limited edition. Thus the price.

13. Huh. Thanks, that makes much more sense. And so completely justifies the trade reprint.

14. Equoid is available for free on tor.com. The hardback is a very nice cloth bound edition from Subterranean Press (their signed, numbered leather bound edition is sold out). Some people still have bookshelves, you know :)

15. (actually, I misread the site — it’s the trade edition that’s sold out at subterraneanpress.com, they still have copies of the limited version.)

16. What a wonderful life you live. You write successful books for a living, and then get free books from publishers and book stores to read at your leisure.

    I want to be like you when I grow up!

17. Ooo Stross and Parker! *bounces a little*

18. Pratchett! I have it on preorder so I’m glad to see it in the wild :).

19. TWO Pratchetts? Wow. (A Slip of the Keyboard and that !#$% grey on white that Don Whiteside was commenting about.)

20. I read Equoid online and liked it. Can’t read the 4th one down. The Pratchett looks interesting. I <3 Discworld (… and pretty much all the other Pratchett I've ever read …).

    Others drooling over KJ Parker pique my interest. :) [Googles …] Ooo, a short story collection, even better, $7 (Kindle), 500 pages. Nice! Thanks!

21. Public Service Announcement: The 4th one down is also Pratchett: “The Globe: The Science of Discworld II. (Published 2002; I guess this is a re-issue … ?) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Science_of_Discworld_II:_The_Globe

22. Do you know that you can now scroll all the way down the front page, and every single post is books?

23. I haven’t been envious of your ARCs until now…

    Pratchett. Yeah. Drooling….

24. Parker has a new book out? Purchased!

25. Oooo, K.J. Parker collection! And double Pratchett action.

26. Pratchett & Pratchett, please. I’m treasuring everything Pterry can give us for as long as he can.

27. Weird. I looked for the K J Parker eBook – not on either amazon.com or amazon.ca.

28. The Pratchett and the Stross, pretty much goes without saying.

29. I really liked Equoid. Read it on Tor.com when it was announced for a Hugo. I hadn’t read any of the Laundry novels up to that point but now I’m thinking I should.

30. The cover of The Midnight Queen has me drooling. I recognize that this means I never really progressed past twelve years old, but nevertheless… And of course the KJ Parker!

31. The Penguin Book of Witches, for sure!

32. I had completely forgotten I ordered the K.J. Parker book until it showed up unexpected. Woo!

33. I’ve got to read the Penguin Book of Witches. Great title.

34. Ah Equoid – a charming story of a girl and her horse. Stross must be going soft.

35. While the Pratchetts are tempting (because you can always count of Terry for a good laugh if nothing else) I’d like to throw in for Beth Cato’s The Clockwork Dagger. I’ve been running across press for it for months and just missed getting an ARC when I was at the ALA Annual in Las Vegas. Now I’m waiting for the release date and it’s like an itch I can’t scratch. I don’t know quite how Cato (or, at least, her publisher’s publicity department) managed to hook me so with this one, but there it is.

36. I read the Tor review of Academic Exercises. I’m interested in it because it critiques/skewers the culture in which I’ve spent my entire working life.

37. I’m looking forward to reading Chmpanzee, myself.

38. Equoid is awesome! And I’ve been looking forward to the Beth Cato book . . .

39. A slip of the keyboard by Terry Pratchett looks good :)

40. Do you read most or any of the ARCs you get?

41. How did you decide on which new books?

42. Stupendous: he’s answered that here: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/03/08/because-people-ask-book-acquisition-details/

    segmation: He gets the new books that the publishers’ publicity departments decide to send him.

43. I cannot help but notice that among the top three books, there are a penguin and a chimpanzee, but NO OCTOPUS.

    This conspiracy has been noticed.

44. Terry Pratchett is still writing, gods all bless.

45. Pratchett, Pratchett, Pratchett!!! :D

    BTW, you may or may not be aware that the next Australian Discworld Con (aptly titled Nullus Anxietas) happens to fall the weekend after your appearance at SwanCon, in Sydney… Hint hint… ;)

46. The midnight queen sounds good