New Books and ARCs, 3/18/16
Posted on March 18, 2016 Posted by John Scalzi 32 Comments
And here we are, with another just lovely stack of books and ARCs that have come to the Scalzi Compound. What looks good to you? What would like to take home to your very own bookshelf? Tell me in the comments!
I’m intrigued by Geek Parenting. SF, memoir, advice?
The Paper Menagerie sounds intriguing.
I have a copy of the Geek Parenting book. It’s a collection of short (1-2 page) bits of parenting advice tied back to parent/child relationships in popular geeky media.
The Claire North book. I find her interesting and readable — and growing as a writer, which is so intriguing to watch.
The Paper Menagerie was one of my favorite stories from the Podcastle fantasy podcast. And I’ve never read anything by Ken Liu that I didn’t enjoy.
http://podcastle.org/2011/07/12/podcastle-165-the-paper-menagerie/
Calamity was very good. I was worried that there wouldn’t be enough time to wrap everything up – and the ending really was rushed, if I’m honest – but it all worked well enough for my taste.
The Last Girl looks interesting, though the Amazon page is a bit confusing. It’s book one of The Dominion Trilogy but also book 1 of 2, and is also the best-seller in Hard-Boiled Mystery, though that might only be confusing because I’m using a different definition of “hard-boiled.”
Geek Parenting looks good, but part of me is hoping it’s entirely devoted to why Pa Kent is a great parent in the comics and the “Lois And Clark” TV show but a truly shitty one in “Man Of Steel.” I suppose that can’t carry an entire book, but I do hope it compares different versions of the same characters.
I read an ARC of Sleeping Giants several months ago and liked it. It has been interesting to watch the marketing process and rave reviews of something that I’ve already read. I’d be interested in the thoughts of someone whose opinion I respect but know that you rarely review these books.
I’m curious about the geek parenting book, I admit.
Another Ursula Vernon book! I have the Harriet the Hamster Princess series on semi-permanent order for our library; in fact, Ursula Vernon is mostly on my semi-permanent order list, period. HiLo 2 also is on my order list. I’m happy to see more J titles sneaking in.
Christopher Farnsworth is very good, although I wish he’d write another President’s Vampire novel.
Calamity? Oh you lucky bastard, I want that SO much, but I’m stuck here at school with Orgo quizzes and stuff taking up all of my time…
I read that Farnsworth title as “KILLFIE” and thought, is that like a selfie a murderer would take?
I saw the North book Hope pop up as an Amazon pre-order yesterday. I liked Harry August and Touch enough that she jumped on to my instant-buy list. Still haven’t got around to reading the Gameshouse novellas on the TBR pile.
Hamster Princess! (For read alongside) And for myself, the Ken Liu collection, to be read when I don’t mind having every emotion yanked out of me.
Another new Claire North book? She keeps a steady pace! Each and everyone of her books has such an interesting concept augmented by her skillful writing and great sense of character development. She just might be my new favourite author.
I’m interested in Hamster Princess, having heard Vernon talk about it.
The Hamster Princess! Vernon is hilarious.
“Calamity” was great. Not as strong of a finish as Sanderson’s cosmere-related series (the end of “Bands of Mourning” was a major Wow, and it’s not even the final book in the sequence!), but still good. The usual Brandon Avalanche near the end, and a couple poignant scenes too.
I’ll have to check out the Ken Liu story collection – always wanted to read something of his and this looks like a good way to get started.
How have I missed the Hamster Princess thus far? Must remedy that status asap.
(Also, it is so encouraging to me to see that you, too, get spam comments. I expect it to be deleted soon, so invisible to the majority of readers, but just seeing it for this brief moment helps me know that it happens to major bloggers too. :-)
I got an ARC of Sleeping Giants at Geek Girl Con last year, and really enjoyed it. Sort of Pacific Rim meets Ancient Aliens, but told via interviews and records. Not very thought-provoking, but very fun.
Calamity reminds me that I need to catch me up some Brandon Sanderson*. Sadly I’m so tied up with reprints of The Shadow** (magazine form) that it might be a while… ~weird, sinister laugh!~
*Brandon is one of the few others I had a chance to chat with early in his career and was an all round nice guy, at least in my eyes.
**John, how do you think you would do keeping up with Walter B. Gibson–AKA “Maxwell Grant”– at 1.4+ million words in 10 months? On an old fashioned no-batteries-included Corona TYPEWRITER? Knocking out an 80 page magazine story in 5 days, twice a month? The man was a typing machine.
Autocorrect, may the (non-existent) gods damn you to what ever you think is hell. Authors is NOT, I repeat NOT!!!!!1! “others”. Sigh. Autocorrect fapping itself in the window.
Ken Liu! Ken Liu! Ken Liu!
Wait, was that my outside voice? *sidles back into lurkerdom*
Also Ken Liu! I love his short stories – I look out for the in the mags I get :). And yes, Geeky Parenting sounds interesting too.
I have to apologize to John Scalzi since I have decided to replaced him as my favorite author with Brandon Sanderson. I’ve nearly caught up with all of his new and old books recently, and his world-building and characters are just so original and varied. But keep on working, John, and maybe you’ll climb back up there, man. :)
I was given a ARC of Sleeping Giants a few months back and enjoyed it a lot.
I think this is the first time I’ve seen a book in one of these kinds of posts where I’ve already read the book unless it was some sort of reprint.
Geek Parenting would go nicely on my office bookshelf. I work with kids/families and I’ve got quite a few geek parents who would probably love learning Lessons from the Geekdom :-)
P.S. Long live John Perry!
About 3/4 of the way through Paper Menagerie and every story has been well worth reading.
I’ve loved every Claire North book I’ve read–can’t wait for her next!
CLAIRE NORTH! I’m trying to claw that book out of my monitor screen. ARGH! MUST READ!
I’m most excited about the second volume of Judd Winick’s “Hilo.” It may be a graphic novel series primarily aimed at pre-teens, but it manages to have something funny and heartbreaking that touches adult hearts too.
Aside from being a best-selling author or librarian, what ways might I get such ARCs sent to me? The series Hamster Princess just screams “you must read at least one just for the premise”.
The first Hamster Princess book was huge fun; I’ll be reading it to my granddaughter shortly. Whether or not she likes it, I’ll be picking up the new one. I recently got a precis of the next couple of books and will be picking them up as well.