Posted on July 24, 2015 Posted by John Scalzi 27 Comments
As we head into the weekend, a baker’s dozen of new books and ARCs for your delectation. Any of these books make you hungry to read? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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Does the Tor marketing crew ever accidentally send you ARCs of your own books?
Woohoo! The Fifth Season is here!
Nora Jemisin is one of my favorite writers!
New China Meiville is always a good thing.
Lots of unfamiliar names and titles this time around. So: Jemison, Mieville, Hines.
Mieville, Tucholke, Delany.
Woo hoo, new China Mieville!
I wonder if the NIGHTFALL book has anything to do with the classic Asimov story.
Haar:
Accidentally? No. They do send me some on purpose.
Really, autumn can’t come quickly enough. Fifth Season, Sorcerer to the Crown, Ancillary Mercy… does the publishing industry *want* my head to explode?
Mieville and Jemisin, please!
New Jemisin! :D Excuse me while I update my wish list.
China Mieville never bores me, and “slasher girls….” Who doesn’t want to read a book by that title? It’s like the first time I heard the phrase, “Abraham LIncoln, Vampire Hunter” we knew that no matter how awful, I’d see it and probably like it. If it seems like your old place is getting full of books, just whistle–I’ll jump in the truck and come take care of your surplus lit problem.
I’ve really been digging Jemisin’s work. I assume this is a new series?
Sigh.. not an author, title, or spine art that peaks my interest this time around. And having been around explosions (and even caused a few) … hmmmmmmmmmmmm… I ain’t sure where that title is going, but a real one has lots more than 3, and 2 less than 3. I can’t explain it…
Mieville I feel has been creeping deeper into the sort of literary equivalent of onanistic navel-gazing that swallowed Alan Moore some years ago; a sort of reification/worship/obsession with writing as an art and an artform over writing as entertainment. In Mieville’s case I became disenchanted several books ago. So I can’t say I’d pick up this latest.
Jemisin I trust to produce something entertaining enough; I enjoyed the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms books (although I found whatsisface in /The Killing Moon/ so annoying I never picked up the second Dreamblood book).
Delany I’ve never really been able to get into; the same with Hines. In Delany’s case it may just be that by the time I came across him his work seemed dated. The others I don’t know well enough to pass judgment upon.
Isn’t the James Frey book one of those written under his “you write it, I’ll take full credit and most of the money” contracts?
China. Any new book by him is a reason to rejoice but a new shortstory collection: serious party time!
@Erin: Yep, new series, new world.
@Fletcher: Second Dreamblood book focuses on different POV characters for the most part — there’s nobody who would qualify as a “his” from the first book, anyway — though I can’t promise that you, personally, would find the new characters pleasant.
Since you’ve long been my favorite science fiction author, it’s a rush to see Devil’s Pocket in your pile.
N. K. Jemsin is an author on my list to start reading, but if I had to pick one…. Without a doubt it would be the Delany, which I HAVE to read!
Mieville, Jemisin and Delaney.
If I were to choose one off that pile to read next, it’d be the Jim C. Hines.
What Marion Deeds said.
CHI-NA MIÉ-VILLE
*clap clap clapclapclap*
I’m reading the Mieville at the moment, and it’s extraordinarily good. Short stories, each of which is bending my brain in amazing ways, and at least half of which I wish were full length novels.
That said, I’m really looking forward to the Hines too.
Oh, squee! New Mieville, Jemisin, and Khanna! I’m not super into tie-in books, so I’ll probably give Hines a pass, though with enough praise, I might give it a shot. I do really enjoy his stuff, after all.
Joining the chorus of China Miéville fans. Someone tell me where to start with Jemisin – I’ve heard tons of good things. Title of the week honors go to “Devil’s Pocket” (super-evocative) and “Slasher Girls and Monster Boys.”
@lawduck: Honestly, that depends on you. She hasn’t got any interminable million-book-long serieses, so that kind of logistical problem isn’t really a thing! You basically have three options until Fifth Season comes out:
* her short fiction, which you can browse via the bibliography on her website (it has links)
* her Hundred Kingdoms trilogy, for fantasy with a more classically epic feel — gods! mortals! love! revenge! the fate of the world!
* the two Dreamblood books, for a *slightly* smaller scale (city-states rather than, y’know, the entire universe) and hella moral ambiguity