New Procurements

The past few weeks have been a book invasion of sorts. I've gotten lots of review copies and made quite a few purchases mostly at the Borders closeouts because I just cannot help myself. The first two photos are review copies and the second two the purchases.

Den of Thieves by David Chandler caught my eye a few months back. I'm hoping it is fun caper type read as the series is being released in quick succession. The next four are high on my to-read list as three are from series that I've been enjoying quite a bit.  Aloha from Hell is Richard Kadrey's latest Sandman Slim novel. I expect epic badass-ness. Machine Man by Max Barry story about one man's desire to improve his body mechanically. Singularity anyone?.Fenrir is M.D. Lachlan's sequel to Wolfsangel that I completely fell for earlier this year. The Rift Walker is the second in the Vampire Empire series that started so strongly with The Greyfriar. Than we have Mirror Maze, which is a Victorian Fantasy that I can't decide if I'm interested in or not. I think the cover is throwing me off. Holding up all the other books is the thick The Time in Between by Maria Duenas, which is getting some heavy comparisons to The Shadow the Wind as it is also translated from Spanish. We shall see if it is that worthy.

White Tiger by Kylie Chan has long been in gestation and the start to the Dark Heavens series, which sounds a little like American Gods in China.  It was first to be part of Angry Robot, but when Harper decided to focus its attention on making Voyager an international imprint it was moved over to Voyager. The series is being released in quick succession with Red Phoenix and Blue Dragon following at one month intervals starting in late August with White Tiger.  Next I got a big package from Edge Publishing who haven't been on my radar until recently, but they've got a heck of a new list of books coming out. To start is Circle Tide by Rebecca K. Rowe just sounds awesomely crazy. Here is a brief part of the description that immediately nabbed my attention:

Noah is a rebellious son of privilege caught up in a brutal murder in a city ravaged by the eco-catastrophe Circle Tide. Promising his dying friend that he'll deliver a highly confidential datasphere, Noah plunges into a gritty subterranean world where he collides with knife wielding monks, a crew of oddball hackers and a smart intelligence bent on his destruction.

Than I have Technicolor Ultra-Mall by Ryan Oakley and again looks like a great concept novel. Here is a bit from the author's description:

It’s a satirical and ultra-violent dystopia about consumerism. In a world where people live in giant malls, a young man tries to escape the crushing poverty of the section where he was born. But his gang doesn’t want him to go. Hilarity ensues.

Tesseracts 15 is the latest in the long running anthology focused on writers from Canada. I haven't read one in the series for quite sometime, but we all know I like a dose of short fiction from time-to-time, but one of the others from Edge will probably come first.

Q: A Novel by Evan Mandery looks to be a twisted take on the love story where the protagonist is visited by a future version of himself and told not to marry the love of his life. Handing the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist is a new author to me, but he is also the author and screenwriter of Let the Right One In, which is one of the best vampire movies I've seen in ages so his take on zombies certainly could work. Stands a Shadow by Col Buchanan is the sequel to Farlander, which I liked well enough to see how things go this time around. Count to a Trillion by John C. Wright is the start to a new Space Opera series. Now on to the buy piles.

The Magician King by Lev Grossman is one of my most anticipated titles this year. Even though I have a galley I decided to wait for the final version as Grossman said there were some big changes between drafts.  Next are Paul Malmont's first and third books. Have you heard of Malmont before? Well you better take notice now. I finished his second book The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril and it is one of the finest pieces of adventure fiction I have ever read so I of course had to get his other books Jack London in Paradise and The Astounding, The Amazing, and the Unknown immediately. Each uses real writers of the past as main characters with Chinatown doing great justice to the pulp era. Turn Right at Machu Picchu by Mark Adams has gotten a lot of buzz and I've always been enamored by Machu Picchu so I'm interested to see what he has uncovered. Last is America Pacifica by Anna North is a very well reviewed Dystopian, which I always seem to be in the mood for. I'm not sure what that says about me and I am probably better off not knowing. Those last 3 books were all Borders closeouts with Jack London costing me only 2 bucks! Shazam!

The above are a bunch of purchases mostly from Borders close-out sales except the first two. Perched on top is Never, Never Stories by Jason Sanford, which is signed and numbered that I ordered from the author. I've been a fan of Sanford's short fiction for a while. Next is The Mammoth Book of New Comic Fantasy, which makes me wonder what happened to the Mammoth Book of Old Comic Fantasy? This is actually the book club edition that I found in a remainder store in southern New Jersey. Germline by T.C. McCartny is a military Sci-Fi debut. Swamplandia is one of those books I've hemmed and hawed about from nearly a year and I finally went for it. The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai was a total impulse buy. How to Talk to a Widower finishes out my collection of Jonathan Tropper books. Hopefully by the time I get to it he'll have his next announced.

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