Cover Unveiled for You by Austin Grossman

A few years back Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible flipped the superhero story giving it from the point of view of the villain. You, Grossman's latest book looks to give us the videogame experience from the side of the programmers. The cover itself doesn't do much for me as the color is a bit bland, but it does give a sense of the content at least. Here's the blurb:

A novel of mystery, videogames, and the people who create them, by the bestselling author of Soon I Will Be Invincible, Austin Grossman.

When Russell joins Black Arts games, the hottest studio in the game industry, he meets an eccentric crew of nerds hacking the frontiers of both technology and entertainment. But when their revolutionary next-gen game is threatened by a mysterious software glitch, Russell finds himself in a race to save both his job and the people he has grown to care about.

The bug is the first clue in a mystery leading back twenty years through real and virtual worlds, corporate boardrooms and high school computer camp, to a secret that changed a friendship and the history of gaming. YOU is a thrilling, hilarious, authentic portrait of the world of professional game makers; and the story of how learning to play can save your life.

Could this be Snow Crash with a funny angle? I sure hope so. You will be out March 26th, 2013. Mark that another as one to watch for next year.

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Me in the Aether

No, not that kind of aether. I'd probably not be able to type had I been around that. I'm out there in the Internet aether being interviewed by Mieneke over at A Fantastical Librarian. In it we chat bookshelves, rating, and negative reviews. Enjoy my nattering!

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Giveaway for the complete Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. LeGuin

To celebrate the re-release of Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea books with an all new matching looks Houghton Mifflin has given one of you a chance to get the set for free. I can't overstate enough how much of an effect these books had on me growing up and I definitely found it confusing that it was called a trilogy even though there were 4 books and later a fifth plus a short story collection placed in the world. The new look would have certainly caught my 12-year-old eye.

To enter the giveaway email madhatterreview (AT) gmail (dot) com with your full name and snail mail address in the body and "EARTHSEA" in the subject line. One submission per person so multiple entries will get you disqualified. The deadline is midnight November 1st at 11:59 PM. I'll announce the winners on the following day or as soon as I remember. This contest is open to the US only. The winner will be selected via random number generator per usual. These will ship out sooner after the contest so if you have a young reader in your life it could be the perfect holiday gift.

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Cover Unveiled for The Tyrant's Law by Daniel Abraham

Daniel Abraham's The Dagger and the Coin has become one of the most solid Fantasy series over the last 2 years and the covers so far while being quite nice in a traditional yet modern sort of way have so far gone the weapon route for art, but this time for the third book, The Tyrant's Law, Orbit is treating us to some flaming monsters! Magic has been part of the books though not the focus, but stakes certainly seem to be rising in that area. Here's the blurb, but those who are behind in the series may just want to keep it to gazing at the cover:

The great war cannot be stopped.

The tyrant Geder Palliako begins a conquest aimed at bringing peace to the world, though his resources are stretched too thin. When things go poorly, he finds a convenient target among the thirteen races and sparks a genocide.

Clara Kalliam, freed by having fallen from grace, remakes herself as a "loyal traitor" and starts building an underground resistance movement that seeks to undermine Geder through those closest to him.

Cithrin bel Sarcour is apprenticing in a city that's taken over by Antea, and uses her status as Geder's one-time lover to cover up an underground railroad smuggling refugees to safety.

And Marcus Wester and Master Kit race against time and Geder Palliako's soldiers in an attempt to awaken a force that could change the fate of the world.

The Tyrant's War will be out in May and like the first two books will be an immediate get for me. Also, Abraham along with his co-conspirator Ty Frank will also be writing a Han Solo POV novel in the Star Wars universe under their James S.A. Corey name though no release date has been announced. This also reminds me I have to get to Caliban's War soon. Maybe it will be my Thanksgiving vacation treat...

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New Procurements

This past weekend I went through my stacks and donated more than 70 books to the local library. But does the fact that I am always running out of space stop books from showing up? Not in the Hatter household. Starting this weeks' newest additions is the slipcase version of American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s edited by Gary K. Wolfe that I pre-ordered months ago. It is a beautiful package all around. Even with bound-in ribbon bookmarks!

Of the nine novels I only own the Bester. Here's the content's:
Frederik Pohl & C. M. Kornbluth / The Space Merchants
Theodore Sturgeon / More Than Human
Leigh Brackett / The Long Tomorrow
Richard Matheson / The Shrinking Man
Robert Heinlein / Double Star
Alfred Bester / The Stars My Destination
James Blish / A Case of Conscience
Algis Budrys / Who?
Fritz Leiber / The Big Time

I also finally bought Caliban's War as I feel a Sci-Fi kick coming on. I missed out on Libba Bray's The Diviners at Book Expo this year despite several attempts at nabbing a copy so when I finally spotted it at a bookstore I had to buy it.

In the review copy department quite a few interesting reads caught my eye. Topping is the next Hap and Leonard novella, Dead Aim, from Joe R. Lansdale's. A couple debuts I've had my eye on showed up: Max Gladstone's Legal Magic Thriller Three Parts Dead and Christopher Bennett's Only Superhuman, featuring enhanced humans in space. Lockhart's second Lovecraft inspired anthology The Book of Cthulhu II looks just as good as the first, which I still have to finish. The Tainted City is Country Shafer's sequel to The Whitefire Crossing, which I missed last year, but I just nabbed it for free from Amazon. Grab it now as it is only free for a short time. Another debut, Ironskin by Tina Connolly closes things out. This might be one my wife will try at first as it is influenced by Jane Eyre.

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