Posted on September 18, 2015 Posted by John Scalzi 18 Comments
As we head off into the weekend, here’s this week’s new books and ARCs that have arrived at the Scalzi Compound. Which speaking to you? Tantalizingly? Tell me in the comments.
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As we head off into the weekend, here’s this week’s new #books and ARCs that have arrived at the Scalzi Compound
Deadlands has a line of in-universe novels? *checks Amazon* Deadlands has novels!
Also, that’s a lot of ‘The Noun of Noun’ titles, or is it me?
Silver on the Road is a levelling up by Laura Anne. It’s excellent!
Also, the Livingston is pretty darned good too. Read that too
@Alix in MV, I noticed “The Noun of Noun” title formulation too, as I was typing them into Amazon to check out the ones I haven’t heard of.
Silver on the Road has been on my list anyway.
Of the others, Weighing Shadows has some appeal based on its description and even more based on blurbs from Jo Walton, Nancy Kress, and Charlie Jane Anders.
Beast of Cretacea is a maybe. It sounds like it does “rollicking adventure” well, but I find I don’t enjoy rollicking adventure as much as I used to.
John, what do you do with all the ARCs and promos that they send you? I assume that some small percentage actually get read, and some percentage of that is worth keeping – do you donate the rest to your local library?
The Beast Of Cretacea is a great title, but Amazon tells me it’s just Moby Dick INNN SPAAAAAACE! Like, literally. The main character’s name is Ishmael, for God’s sake. If you’re going to rip off someone else’s story, at least have the decency to file the serial numbers off.
If anyone wants a good SF take on kinda-sorta Moby Dick, try Hunters Of The Dark Sea by Mel Odom. If you can find it.
Woah, another McCammon book already? Nice!
I’m always really curious what ballpark percentage of all these ARCs you actually read. 10%? 50%?
And what percentage do Krissy and Athena read? Do they ever act as your gost-readers?
(sorry for the double post. Follow up thought 5 minutes later)
I guess they must of just released a limited edition of Blue World, since that Mcammon book is over 25 years old. It’s a good book, though.
I’ve also read the Beast of Cretacia, which is a pretty good adventure story, and a sort of homage to Moby Dick, which I’ve never read and am thus unable to really compare/contrast it with.
High recommendation here for the McCammon short story collection. “Night Calls The Green Falcon” is one of my favorite short stories. (Yoyogod, the new edition contains several additional stories over the original mass-market edition, iirc. Tempting, despite my wallet’s protests.)
Mitchell Hogan’s CRUCIBLE OF SOULS won a 2013 Aurealis award in Australia. Looks promising; I got a copy of the new US edition from a Goodreads giveaway.
This rereleasing of Robert McCammon has my little heart all a-flutter. It will be delightful, as a matter of fact, to be able to recommend him to people again; people have to go somewhere after Richard Matheson.
My first thought was the same as Alix in MV: “Deadlands” novels?! I had no idea, I’m in!
I had no idea that Lisa Goldstein had a new book coming out. So failure of marketing by Night Shade Books, but they can thank you for advertising for them.
Blue World, because Robert McCammon
‘Moby Dick In Space’ = explosive decompression and blubber for all. Unless he wears the biggest spacesuit in SF.
Ooh, ooh! Spoiled for choice, but the Jonathan Maberry, Daniel Kraus, and Laura Anne Gilman are especially tempting in my current headspace.