New Procurements with a Limited Edition and Gifts!

The last couple weeks has been quite a blur, but I've gotten a lot of good looking books. Both review copies and a few purchases including a very nice signed limited edition make up this batch. So we can definitely say my book buying hiatus is over. Still I'm surprised I lasted as long as I did. While away I learned I had $10 in Borders bucks that expired that week.  Which meant I had to go to a store. Low and behold that store was having a closing sale with everything discounted. So...Well anyway there are two batches pictured below as I got a bit behind with things and the second includes some early holiday gifts I received.

Everything Changes by Jonathan Tropper - I've been slowly making my way through Tropper's catalog and on break last week I read his The Book of Joe and on my trip to the bookstore I of course had to pick another of his novels up.  I'm starting to like his stories even more than Nick Hornby's work as it is a bit more relatable to me personally.

The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut - I got it in my head that I needed to read some Vonnegut so during the bookstore run I picked up Sirens, which I have never read before. At least not that I can remember.

King Rat by China Mieville - This is the signed and numbered limited edition Earthling Publications did a few years back of Mieville's debut novel, which I nabbed for an insane $27 from a sale they were having. It sports a slipcase and a nice simple leather cover with numerous interior illustrations by Richard Kirk.  It originally went for $85 so I consider this the deal of the year.

Brave New Worlds edited by John Joseph Adams - The latest J.J. Adams reprint collection was sent to me from Night Shade which follows Wastelands in many ways.  This is a massive collection of dystopian fiction from dozens of classic and modern masters featuring a veritable who's who of speculative fiction. Every one from J.G. Ballard and Ray Bradbury to Tobias Buckell and Neil Gaiman are represented. I definitely want to sink my teeth into this one soon.

• Introduction — John Joseph Adams
• The Lottery — Shirley Jackson
• Red Card — S. L. Gilbow
• Ten With a Flag — Joseph Paul Haines
• The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas — Ursula K. Le Guin
• Evidence of Love in a Case of Abandonment — M. Rickert
• The Funeral — Kate Wilhelm
• O Happy Day! — Geoff Ryman
• Pervert — Charles Coleman Finlay
• From Homogenous to Honey — Neil Gaiman & Bryan Talbot
• Billennium — J. G. Ballard
• Amaryllis — Carrie Vaughn
• Pop Squad — Paolo Bacigalupi
• Auspicious Eggs — James Morrow
• Peter Skilling — Alex Irvine
• The Pedestrian — Ray Bradbury
• The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away — Cory Doctorow
• The Pearl Diver — Caitlín R. Kiernan
• Dead Space for the Unexpected — Geoff Ryman
• “Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman — Harlan Ellison^®
• Is This Your Day to Join the Revolution? — Genevieve Valentine
• Independence Day — Sarah Langan
• The Lunatics — Kim Stanley Robinson
• Sacrament — Matt Williamson
• The Minority Report — Philip K. Dick
• Just Do It — Heather Lindsley
• Harrison Bergeron — Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
• Caught in the Organ Draft — Robert Silverberg
• Geriatric Ward — Orson Scott Card
• Arties Aren’t Stupid — Jeremiah Tolbert
• Jordan’s Waterhammer — Joe Mastroianni
• Of a Sweet Slow Dance in the Wake of Temporary Dogs — Adam-Troy Castro
• Resistance — Tobias S. Buckell
• Civilization — Vylar Kaftan
• For Further Reading — Ross E. Lockhart

The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell - Another buy from my Borders run.  I've been hearing the most wonderful things about this zombie novel that I had to finally pick it up. Although thinking about the word wonderful doesn't seem right for a zombie book.  Fiendishly good things perhaps? I'm in the middle of David Moody's Autumn right now so Reapers will probably wait until after the New Year.

Zombies have infested a fallen America. A young girl named Temple is on the run. Haunted by her past and pursued by a killer, Temple is surrounded by death and danger, hoping to be set free.

For twenty-five years, civilization has survived in meager enclaves, guarded against a plague of the dead. Temple wanders this blighted landscape, keeping to herself and keeping her demons inside her heart. She can't remember a time before the zombies, but she does remember an old man who took her in and the younger brother she cared for until the tragedy that set her on a personal journey toward redemption. Moving back and forth between the insulated remnants of society and the brutal frontier beyond, Temple must decide where ultimately to make a home and find the salvation she seeks.

The Horns of Ruin by Tim Akers - I reviewed this only a few short weeks ago, but Pyr was kind enough to send me a finished copy which sports a blurb by a few cool bloggers. It is out in stores now. So grab a copy if you're in the mood for an action packed Swords & Science novel.

Hawkmoon: The Runestaff by Michael Moorcock - The latest in the Hawkmoon reissues just showed up from Tor. I still need to make time for these, but I'll probably try the first Elric omnibus first.

Elfsorrow, Shadowheart, and Demonstorm by James Barclay - The first three volumes of the Legends of the Raven series is coming out quickly from Pyr with Elfsorrow already out and the other two following this month and next.  The gorgeous Swanland covers are still catching my eye. These are covers you want posters of on your walls.

Vampire Federation: Uprising by Sean McCabe -  This is an arc to the first in a series I don't know much about so here is the blurb:

A gruesome ritual murder has stained the Oxfordshire countryside. It's just the first incident in a chain of events awakening Detective Inspector Joel Solomon to his worst nightmare-and a dreadful omen of things to come. Because Joel has a secret: he believes in vampires.

Alex Bishop is an agent of the Vampire Intelligence Agency. She's tasked with enforcing the laws of the global Vampire Federation, and hunting rogue members of her race. A tough job made tougher when the Federation comes under attack by traditionalist vampires. They have a stake in old-school terror-and in an uprising as violent as it is widespread.

Now it's plunging Alex and Joel into a deadly war between the living and the unloving-and against a horrifying tradition given new life by the blood of the innocent.

The Last Hieroglyph by Clark Ashton Smith - The 5th and final volume of  The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith that Night Shade Books has been lovingly been releasing over the last 3 years and was kind enough to send me a review copy of. I haven't read much Ashton before, but it looks like I know have the change.

The House of Discarded Dreams by Ekaterina Sedia - Sedia is now one of those authors that is on my must-buy list and this is the last of my awaited books for this year.  For a bit more on the book look at this earlier post. It took me a few visits to different stores to track a copy down, but now it is mine and will be read before the end of the year.

Mad Skills by Walter Greatshell - Greatshell is a new to me author, but this slim Sci-Fi Thriller was sent from the publisher and I have been looking for a short Sci-Fi novel to try out.

Unconscious for fourteen months after a debilitating accident, Maddy Grant awakens at the Braintree Institute, where scientists have successfully implanted her with a radical technology designed to correct her brain injury. But Maddy is more than cured. Her intellect has been enhanced to process information faster than a computer-an ability that's sending her emotions into overdrive.

To monitor her condition, the institute sends Maddy to the nearby village of Harmony, where she will be free to interact with the community. But Braintree's scientists are not only monitoring her behavior, they're modifying it, reprogramming her personality to become someone else. 

A killer.

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde - The first gift I received for the holidays is Fforde's first foray into the YA scene with an Urban Fantasy. This will be read before the holidays are over.

In the good old days, magic was powerful, unregulated by government, and even the largest spell could be woven without filling in magic release form B1-7g.

Then the magic started fading away.

Fifteen-year-old Jennifer Strange runs Kazam, an employment agency for soothsayers and sorcerers. But work is drying up. Drain cleaner is cheaper than a spell, and even magic carpets are reduced to pizza delivery.

So it’s a surprise when the visions start. Not only do they predict the death of the Last Dragon at the hands of a dragonslayer, they also point to Jennifer, and say something is coming.  Big Magic . . .

Scud The Disposable Assassin: The Whole Shebang Edition by Rob Schrab - The other gift I received. My friend asked what I wanted.  He is a big graphic novel fan so I told him something fun that isn't book 1 of 10 and so I got the complete Scud. He said since I'm a big Atomic Robo fan I enjoy the hell out of this.  I have no doubts.

In the world of Scud, bullets are cheaper than human life. Corner vending machines provide any weapon you might need. The most popular weapons are Scud disposable assassins: Robot hitmen that self-destruct when they kill their target. This volume follows Scud 1373, assigned to take out a hideous female man-eater named Jeff. While fighting the indestructible Jeff, Scud discovers his infamous warning panel in a bathroom mirror. Realizing that to kill Jeff is to kill himself, Scud blows off her arms and legs and hospitalizes her. Her life support bills will have to be paid, and Scud will have to find more work to stay alive.

Songs of the Dying Earth edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois - This massive anthology is in honor of Jack Vance and his Dying Earth series.  So heavy hitters make me want to take a close look. Between the GRRM, Gaiman, Simmons, and VanderMeer this should be quite a treat and I'm hoping it will improve my opinion of the Dying Earth series as I wasn't a big fan of the first in the series.

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