New Books and ARCs, 8/5/16

A super-sized stack of books and ARCs has come to the Scalzi Compound this week. What here lends itself to your particular reading tastes? Tell us in the comments!

27 Comments on “New Books and ARCs, 8/5/16”

  1. I should replace my copy of Zoo City with this new one; the one I have bugs me for how on the spine the title reads top to bottom and the name reads bottom to top.

  2. My Books To Read pile is shamelessly teetering and my budget has already toppled.

    However, “Lucy and Andy Neanderthal?” Now I have got to read the blurb on that. Toon / manga or comedy or satire or something else. Whatever it is, that jumped out at me, along with the font and the little toon heads, from among all the other cool titles.

  3. :snerk: Oh, wow, that looks epic! Maybe next month. :D Yes, it’s a graphic novel (actually, it’s cartoons). Looks fantastic. Amazon gives it 4.5 out of 5 stars from 15 reviews. about 93% are 4 or 5 stars, 7% gave it a 3 star rating. No 1 or 2 star ratings at all. The reader comments give high approval from the grownups and the kids alike, largely parents saying how much they and their kids love the book and want more. The editorial review says it’s for Grades 2 through 5. However, given the number of adults who like it, it’s clearly suitable for anyone, kids, teens, adults. This also says the author / cartoonist is the same one who did Star Wars Academy, for which I’ve only seen a cover art of “Vader’s Little Princess.” But that looks good too. So, looks like the Neanderthal kids get a thumbs up. Lucy and Andy are sister and brother Neanderthal cave kids. Seems there’s a wandering baby, some teens, cave paintings, a mammoth, and so on, involved. The review says the chapters end with notes from an “archeological team” at the site of Lucy and Andy’s cave, and a note by the author at the end on some things about real Neanderthals, pointing to resources for further reading, probably on a kid-friendly level. Win-win.

  4. The top two I already have in hardcover and have read. I’m about 4/5 through Dr. Gribbleflotz and loving it; one of my favorites of all the 163X universe books. Might try the Drake and the Hoyt.

  5. The two 163X books are on my list to acquire – seeing as how I’m following the series.
    David Drake’s Redliners is one I re-read every couple of years.
    And On To the Asteroid is now on my when in paperback list.

  6. You can’t go wrong with Brendan DuBois, and since I already read this one – the subtitle is “A Novel of Alien Resistance” by the way – I can recommend it highly.

  7. I’m hoping the appearance of the Zahn/Weber book in paperback means that the sequel I’ve been waiting for will appear soon (“A Call to War” I think).

  8. YOU GOTTA LOOK AT BETWEEN WORLDS. DO IT RIGHT NOW. I got a galley a few months ago, and the “enhanced reality” that comes from viewing the art with their phone app is SO COOL. I would have lost my dang mind if I’d had that as a ten year old.

  9. I LOVE Weber’s Safehold Series, but havent gotten to his other stuff yet. I should get around to that. I didn’t know he had collaborated with Zahn!

  10. Redliners, A Call to Arms, and TWO 163x books? Oh, you are in for a good week!

    General rule, anything by Timothy Zahn is good. Drake is good but best when he’s working with Eric Flint. Weber is awesome if you like the military and/or small badass women with lots of kids*. TBH the ultimate alternate history and/or mil-SF book for me would be Timothy Zahn writing the aliens and/or the antagonist, Eric Flint writing the human civilians, and Weber writing the military characters, so that they balance each others’ weaknesses (Zahn doesn’t have weaknesses, but Weber tends to focus on Great Men of History a bit too much and Eric Flint tends to strawman military types and center-right sorts).

    I’m still waiting for the next “mainline” 163x book, because the Ottomans are going to attack Vienna and oh BOY that’s going to be exciting!

    * David Weber tends to write about a lot of short, tough women with a lot of kids, possibly because his wife is a short woman with three kids and he apparently loves her very much, which I think is sweet.

  11. I’m thrilled the new printing of Moxyland is out! I’ve been wanting to get that for a while.

  12. Moxyland – great book but darker than a very grimdark thing.

    I preferred Zoo City.

  13. I was loving the 16– series, but then it seemed the books split into a network of books and short stories written by other authors, with no clear continuation of the main storyline, so I lost interest.

  14. Jeffrey Brown is a VERY good cartoonist who went from indie published awkward autobio books to finding a way to latch onto a hot licensed property like Star Wars while still keeping his personal quirks and sense of humor intact. The fact that he’s now able to take the audience from the Star Wars books and hopefully parlay them into his own series is even better.

    Buy the Neanderthal book for your kids, but be prepared to enjoy it yourself. Just don’t make the mistake of buying his earlier autobio books for your kids. No, no, no, that would lead to incredibly awkward conversations…

  15. @Steve Timberlake (@Linkmeister) : Thanks. Looking forward to March, when it’s out.

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