Posted on December 15, 2014 Posted by John Scalzi 37 Comments
Some heavy-duty titles in this collection of new books and ARCs that have come to the Scalzi Compound here in Mid-December. Which ones do you like? Share in the comments!
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The Worlds of ERB!
Ooh! And the David B. Coe.
Ah, the conclusion to Ringo’s awesome zombie series – cannot wait!
It really says something about an author when they can write about something from a ridiculous political point of view – and still tell an amazing story. Ringo can do this; not many can.
Oh, wow, Shadow Scale! I’m very much looking forward to that one, Rachel Hartman’s follow-up to her 2012 debut, Seraphina.
Hey, a new Paolo Bacigalupi novel!
Just in time for Christmas!
Oooh, Paul McCauley! God bless us, everyone!
And I am so excited that I spelled his name wrong!
Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Water Knife!! Alas, won’t be out until May, 2015, so Santa’s not going to be able to bring it to me this year…
Really looking forward to The Water Knife.
“Slavers of the Savage Catacombs” is a heavy metal band name if ever I’ve heard one. Opening act for Mega-Death, at least.
Count me in for Rachel Hartman’s “Shadow Scale” and Paolo Bacigalupi’s “The Water Knife.” And there are no doubt more in that impressive stack that I don’t yet know I want to read…
Shadow Scale! FINALLY. I’ve been pining for it ever since Seraphina.
Ooh- reminds me that I haven’t yet tried Sharon Lee’s mystery series.
If you have not been reading Ryk Spoor’s Arena series, check it out. You are in for a treat. “Gosh,Wow!,”Golden-age style SF for current sensibilities.
Heh. Spheres is in the pile a little more than one year after the Big Idea that talked about it! :)
(that’s http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/11/05/the-big-idea-ryk-e-spoor-4/ )
Shadow Scale! I’m so excited.
Yay, Shadow Scale! Excited for that, and for the Water Knife.
And, although I have never heard of the author, I am intrigued by anyone with the name Ryk. E. Spoor.
They all look interesting, but from the comments I can see that I should go track down Seraphina. So I’m not ready for Shadow Scale, but I can see the excitement it’s generated.
This looks great. (And the link is so interesting!)
Spheres of Influence is fantastic, though I found it nearly as frustrating as I did enjoyable because of all the elements it introduced but did not flesh out to my satisfaction. Granted, it’d be about 14,000 pages long if it even tried, but that is not my problem.
Strands of Sorrow was a pretty decent end to the series, but it definitely felt rushed. We get three books full of essentially incremental progress and then this one seemed to really rev up the pace to arrive at a stopping point. It also didn’t resolve at least two questions that have been going since the first book, one of them pretty darn major in my opinion. Ringo did avoid a few of the annoyances that bugged me in the earlier books, but lost those brownie points with the barely-disguised cameo at the end, which just, no.
If it sounds like I’m conflicted about enjoying John Ringo books, that is not an unfair statement. Still, if you think you’d like to read about a heavily armed and ridiculously competent family basically solving a zombie apocalypse by their lonesome, you owe it to yourself to pick up this series.
Well, here are mine for today. Naturally, Baen still doesn’t supply me (hehehe). But I’m fascinated by Shadow Scale, as my batch this week includes the new paperback of Seraphina. So could the sequel be far behind?
Thomas M. Wagner, why doesn’t Baen supply you? And — bonus question! — what’s the joke with that?
Ryk, it’s the second time the book shows up: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/10/24/new-books-and-arcs-102413/
Vincent: Yes, I recall; it’s still cool to see it show up *again* a year later. :)
Peter: I’m about as frustrated about that as you. However, to write a coherent STORY I have to resist the urge to run down every single concept and detail it out.
_Challenges of the Deeps_ will at least address a FEW of those concepts in more detail.
Absinthe: It is a rather unusual name, which is useful for an author; people remember it!
If you decide to go grab one of my books, just remember that _Spheres of Influence_ is a sequel to _Grand Central Arena_, so you probably want to get that one first. _Spheres_ *does* have a “what has gone before” section, but of necessity it really strips out a lot of stuff that gets referred to later.
The spine art on The Water Knife is very interesting.
The Spoor and Lee I have and have read and enjoyed; the “Burroughs” I have and have read some of and mildly enjoyed. The others are all by authors I’ve never heard of except for Ringo, whom I don’t read any more. I turn 78 on Thursday, so I’ve largely stopped looking for new authors to follow; can’t really keep up with the ones I know I’ll like.
I didn’t recognize any of those, but liked the spine of “Shadow Scale” enough to go look it up on Goodreads. It’s apparently the second in a series by Rachel Hartman. The description of the first book begins:
“In her New York Times bestselling and Morris Award-winning debut, Rachel Hartman introduces mathematical dragons…”
…and I stopped there, because you had me at MATHEMATICAL DRAGONS. Sold!
I love the Arena series by Ryk.
Shadowscale! I even went by Rachel Hartman’s blog a few times in the last year to see when it would be coming out. Not in Germany yet. Just saw the German translation of Seraphina in the bookstore today.
Sharon: I think because I’ve been less than kind to a couple of their star writers. (But there have been Baen titles I’ve really liked as well. Fascinated to see a new David Coe from them.)
Yeah, I’m looking forward to David’s new one, too.
Thank you for answering.
I’m excited about Shadow Scale too, although the wide release is still a few months away. For those wondering, it’s the second and final book in Seraphina’s story. Rachel Hartman is planning further books set in Goredd, but not directly connected.
Rachel’s blog mentioned the German cover for Shadow Scale just the other day, so I suspect it will be released there eventually.
I very much enjoyed Carousel Seas.
Rachel Hartman’s “Shadow Scale” and Paul MacCauley’s “Something Coming Through” for me, never of which I knew about until just now. Good job, ARC book stack!
Not that I’ve read my copy of Hartman’s “Seraphina” yet, but her comic “Amy Unbounded” was amazing, so I have great anticipation for her two novels.
As a Chromatics fan in good (and long-time) standing, I will certainly have to consider “Clash of Eagles”, even though I am not usually an alternate history fan.