Posted on March 3, 2015 Posted by John Scalzi 33 Comments
And now caught up on books that had come in before this week! (One of the books here is pixelated out because it was featured before.) See something that speaks to you? Tell us about it in the comments.
Taunting the tauntable since 1998
John Scalzi, proprietor – JS
Athena Scalzi, editor – AMS
About the site
What's the Big Idea? Authors explaining the the big ideas behind their latest works, in their own words. See the latest Big Ideas!
Authors/Editors/Publicists: for information on how to participate, click here.
Bernard Cornwell’s The Pagan Lord. Great series!
Venusian Gambit and Old Venus? Is Venus trending now? Why doesn’t anyone tell me these things! What color is The Dress on Venus? And do Venusian Weasels ride on Venusian Woodpeckers on Venus?
Oooh The Library at Mount Char. I definitely have my eye on that one. And I think Saga is sending me a copy of The Grace of Kings. Yay!
I’ve got a story in Old Venus. It’s my attempt at a Jeeves and Bertie romp. Nerd points to anyone who spots the classical Greek error.
Been looking forward to the Venusian Gambit!!!
ZOMG Rachel Hartman’s SHADOW SCALE, sequel to SERAPHINA, which I greatly enjoyed. I’ve been looking forward to it.
And a book by Naomi Novik. I liked her Temeraire series a lot, I’ll have to check out UPROOTED.
The 163X series used to be a lot of fun, if soapy, to read. Eric Flint appears to have turned it over to a bunch of new writers. That’s not a horrible plan, but none of the books that Eric hasn’t at least co-written have been as good.
The Ken Liu novel and the Martin/Dozois anthology are on my wishlist.
(One hopes that Ken Liu will not be so seduced by the novel-length side of the Force that he would stop writing his outstanding shorter works.)
Just finished my copy of SHADOW SCALE: soooo worth the wait – but it makes me want to read SERAPHINA again, and then reread…which can only be a good thing, I guess.
I just read a good review in Publisher’s Weekly about “The Grace of Kings” by Ken Liu. And once again, I wish I had all the money in the world to order all the SF/Fantasy for my library.
I’m reading Novik’s “Uprooted” right now. So far, I’m really enjoying it!
THE GRACE OF KINGS is Ken Liu, so, of course. And Shadow Scale looks good.
Old Venus and the Novik, please.
SHADOW SCALE! So impatient for my copy to arrive.
I received a good handful of these last week, and this week I’ll be running a giveaway contest including copies of Uprooted, The Girl at Midnight and Shadow Scale. Later this evening I’ll be announcing the giveaway here.
Shadow Scale!!!
Uprooted would be my first choice. Shadow Scale looks interesting too.
Why is GRRM writing something other than Winds of Winter?
I just read Shadow Scale, it was excellent! Left my brain kind of warped from keeping up with it, in the best way. Highly recommend.
I want to check out the Naomi Novik, I liked others of hers.
John, my daughter’s trip to Florida just got postponed due to the weather in Baltimore. Any chance of picking up that copy of Shadow Scale from you to console her?
@alent1234, be…cause he feels like it? (Although from the spine of the book, it would appear he’s just editing this anthology, not necessarily contributing to it. And, hey, easy money — plus, we know he must enjoy this kind of work from the number of anthologies he’s edited.) Seriously, the man can work on whatever he wants in whatever order he wants. It’s not like he owes you (or me, or anyone) something specific on a specific date. I mean, unless you’re his editor using a Cunning Disguise.
As far as the stack itself, I started at the bottom and had my usual Scalzi-ARC mumblings of “Oh, good title… sounds good… eh….” before hitting the Novik — woo, I love me some Naomi Novik — and then getting to the top. Seas of Fortune is out! Seas of Fortune is out! Woo! (I’m off to the Baen site to get the electronic edition.)
I know that Flint’s whole shared-universe hasn’t been the hit with some other folks that it has been with me, but personally I love it — and I’m just as fascinated by and thrilled with the 163X books as I have been from the original. That wonderful mixture of the sublime and the ridiculous — who can forget “Two! four! Six! Eight! Who do we appreciate? SCOTSMEN! SCOTSMEN Yaaaaaayyyyyyy!!!”, I ask you? — with a reasonably historically accurate alternate universe is right up my alley.
One other thing — and sorry not to aggregate, but I didn’t think of this until after I’d posted; for that matter, I’m not so sure this won’t be Hammered for being off-topic, so I’m going into this knowing that:
Eric Flint is pretty much the only Baen author I’m enough of a fan of to read on a regular basis — I’ll buy other Baen authors when the mood strikes me or when I think a particular book looks good, but it’s only Flint and the other 163X authors I specifically go and seek out. Which is not to say I have any kind of disdain for Baen’s other writers — they just don’t happen to write the kind of SF I enjoy. That sort of thing is usually published by Tor.
What leisuresuitlarry said…
Eric Flint is an excellent story teller and the first several books in the 163x universe were a joy to read but I just can’t go there anymore. He turned the 163x universe into a authorial cat box; some good bits but a whole lot not, and worse, ceded (lost) control of the storyline. It looks to me like a social support system for Baen’s stable of authors so I suppose successful in that regard, but this reader has long since moved on. Not without regrets mind you as his characters are superbly realized and fun to read.
Incidentally, I am not a fan of David Drake (don’t hate him, just not the type of stories I read) but his collaboration with Eric Flint with the Belisarius Series made for a smashing alternative history series. I would love to see those two work together again.
Ah… a tempting list! So hmm… the Ken Liu looks like a book I’d better read in e-form. (Hope it’s available) Old Venus, of course. But the one that caught my eye immediately is The Pagan Lord by Bernard Cornwell. I really like his work, but I can’t help but wonder why this one is so slender a volume. The usual Cornwell novel works really well as a door stop in a pinch.
Yeah the 16xx books were great in that they were historically accurate, relatively liberal in conception of the social order, and fun as hell. But the quality got very iffy after a while and I don’t have the patience to slam into a bad novel like I did when I was 16. (read all of battlefield earth, dear god that was a horrible book).
I just started reading the Doomsday Equation after reading about it in the big idea. Interesting premise.
Shadowscale and uprooted are already on my wish list for this year. And the venusian gambit seems interesting too
I’ve never read any of them, but there are four in that stack that caught my attention!
Defiant looks awesome!
I was given a sample of Uprooted (the first couple of chapters, I think) at the American Library Association conference lat year. It really hooked me. Glad to see it in your stack o’ goodies.
Whoa! A new Naomi Novik??? I’m all over that!
Is it just me or is the second from the bottom book illegible? Why would a publisher do that?
And yeah, add me to the list of folks who loved the 16XX series until Eric Flint handed it off.
Sarah M.: he pixilated it out because it had already appeared in a previous stack.
Ah yes. If I had only READ the text he posted originally that would have been clear.
Grrrr! Arrrgh!