New Procurements and Book Expo Swag

Sorry for the slow last week. I was at Book Expo America a bit and also had plenty of work to do at night if I wasn't out with friends.. Firstly, for those who don't know Book Expo is the largest American based publishing event every year that last 3 or 4 days depending on programming. Nearly every publisher is there and most are giving out what they hope will be important books for them in addition to hundreds of author signings.

This is my fifth Book Expo. This year I decided to take a quieter role instead of running around and grabbing every book I could I focused on the ones that I was most interested in and decided to chat a bit more with various publishers to see what they had cooking. I stopped by the Pyr booth to hear about their YA happenings. At Orbit to ask about the shorts program. And checked in with a dozen other mostly genre related publishers. I still made time for a few signings (Scalzi, Vinge, Grossman, etc.) and missed two I really meant to get to. Sorry Lev Rosen and Ernest Cline!  Well on to the swag. And let's start things off with the signed ones to add to the drool worthiness.

First on the pile is Chuck Klosterman's second novel The Invisible Man. He was quite a friendly guy and harrier than I remembered. I love his essays so I have my fingers crossed that his fiction will be as nearly funny. Next is Ernest Cline's debut novel Ready Player One, which isn't actually signed, but I'm too tired to retake a photo. He did a signing that I missed, but I was able to get a copy the next day. Thank you very much Random House. Than we have Lev Grossman's hotly anticipated sequel The Magician King. Who remembered me for our interview months back when I did an early review of The Magicians. Following is Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson who just happened to be in signing the final copies of what I think will be the Sci-Fi hit of the summer. Lastly, are signed copies of The Children of the Sky by Vernor Vinge and Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi who were signing together, which made things easy to see the two greats. I would have liked to talk with both for a bit longer, but did manage to ask Vinge about his time frame for when the Singularity will happen.  He still predicts around 2030.

The above are just a couple galleys I grabbed. Starting off is The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch which is a historical witchcraft novel placed in mid-1600 Germany. It has been getting rave reviews since Amazon Connect did a release a year back. Next is a middle reader I got for a family member called Captain Awesome to the Rescue. How could I resist that? Below that is Michael J. Sullivan's first Riyria Revelations omnibuses from Orbit entitled Theft of Swords, which looks deliciously fat. Next is Spontaneous Happiness by Andrew Weil because couldn't we all use a little bit more? Lastly, is the prolific Harlan Coben's Shelter, which a certainly family member should enjoy. The next photo are the review copies that showed up the last two weeks.

Dead of Veridon by Tim Akers is the second in the Jacob Burn cycle of Noird Steampunk novels, which should be read quite soon since I usually get to Akers quickly.  Eclipse Four edited by Jonathan Strahan would be my first taste of this cross genre anthology that usually pleases short story fans. Zendgi by Greg Egan is his latest hard Sci-Fi effort. I'll probably read Egan's summer release The Clockwork Rocket before this though. Next is The Nebula Award Showcase 2011 edited by Kevin J. Anderson, which looks like all kinds of fun. Lastly, but not leastly is Dancing with Bears by Michael Swanwick, which is the start to a new Steampunky series featuring con-men. Sounds like a good time to me.

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REVIEW | The Heart of Veridon by Tim Akers
REVIEW | Swords & Dark Magic edited by Jonathan Strahan & Lou Anders
REVIEW | Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson
BEA 2010 Show Rundown and Swag