New Books and ARCs, 12/20/17

For your perusing delight, a baker’s dozen of new books and ARCs that have come into the Scalzi Compound. Anything here you’d like to see under the tree this year? Share which it is (or they are) in the comments!

34 Comments on “New Books and ARCs, 12/20/17”

  1. Dear Santa, I would have asked for Penrick’s Mission if I hadn’t already bought it. May I please be, ahem, have a hamster princess? As you know I have been mostly good all year.

  2. Station Eleven, as many previous commenters note, is an excellent book. It will certainly hold a place alongside other dystopian classics.

  3. I have enjoyed all of Lois Bujold’s “Penric & Desdemona” stories to date. Be advised that “Penric’s Mission” is the 4th (of 6 to date) in internal chronology, and probably not the best place to start. All of these are set in the “5 Gods” universe, perhaps 100 years after _The Hallowed Hunt_ and 150 before _The Curse of Chalion_ according to the author’s notes.

    I have enjoyed most of the 163x books, and particularly the ones in the ‘Vatican” arc, so I will probably get that one soon. I have not read any of the others, and most are by authors whose names I don’t recognize. Who knows which i might pick up.

  4. Station 11 was really interesting. Surviving the apocalypse through culture, not just living hand to mouth. I can only hope if we have to go through something like this, we keep our books and plays and music and art. Otherwise, why bother?

    I, too, have been enjoying the Penric series – but then again, I enjoy everything Lois Bujold writes.

    The Infernal Battalion looks interesting, and I bet it would be great to share with my husband. (who introduced me to Lois Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga).

  5. Dear Santa,

    As I have been a better boy than John this year, and will be paying a lot more in taxes to help out the good people of Ohio, could you please, ah, relocate The Long Sunset from John’s tree to mine? Thanx in advance!

  6. Another vote here for Station Eleven. I’m also excited for Tarnished Gifts – although I suspect I should go back and reread the first book in order to appreciate the story properly.

  7. I’ve read all of Jack McDevitt’s Alex Benedict series, but just haven’t found the time to read the Priscilla Hutchins series. Maybe with a new one out (and I have the rest of the series), it’s time to binge.

    Personally, I liked the beginning of Station Eleven but it lost me at the nasty (spoiler-deleted) villains. Surely there’s a better way to create a sense of community.

  8. I get a bit annoyed whenever a new 163X novel comes out, because I’d love to keep up with the series but I just plain don’t care for most of the secondary authors who are clearly doing most of the writing these days.

  9. Every ARC I look for Peace Talks. Every ARC I leave depressed.

    Nice stack, though! Hope you enjoy them!

  10. Loved Station Eleven, and I’m behind on the Bujold Penric books and need to catch up. Pleased to hear the Jack McDevitt is another Priscilla Hutchins book; I’ve enjoyed those too.

  11. I am having a marvelous time with the Bujold series of novellas. I highly recommend and don’t be put off by the fact that it isn’t the first. She writes so that you can come into these with any story and I think this one would be a particularly great place to start!

  12. OK, how come this stack is more interesting than the top stack that went up today? Should be the same smaller set of interesting in each stack, right? John, do you sort these out in some way? or just the luck of the stack?

    Oh well. Flint, Bujold, several of the others, I’m not good with authors, was terrible in lit classes, I love to read, remember plots but not character names, nor authors. Not stupid, nor ignorant, just a hitch in how my memory works. Or am I being too defensive here?

  13. Loads of authors I like in this pile: St. John Mandel, Wexler, Bujold, McDevitt and Flint.

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