A Few New Orbit Covers

Orbit's Spring/Summer releases have been making their way out in the Internet ether and many are looking quite good.  Some of these covers are not completely final, but should be close to the end product.

2313 is Kim Stanley Robinson's first book since Galileo's Dream and is the start of him working with Orbit.  Originally 2312 was slated to be released in February, but got pushed back to May.

The year is 2313. Scientific and technological advances have opened gateways to an extraordinary future. Earth is no longer humanity’s only home; new habitats have been created throughout the solar system on moons, planets, and in between. But in this year, 2312, a sequence of events will force humanity to confront its past, its present, and its future.

The first event takes place on Mercury, on the city of Terminator, itself a miracle of engineering on an unprecedented scale. It is an unexpected death, but one that might have been foreseen. For Swan Er Hong, it is an event that will change her life. Swan was once a woman who designed worlds. Now she will be led into a plot to destroy them.

Caliban's War is the sequel to Leviathan Wakes, which was quite the start to a series so I'm eager to see where Franck and Abraham take it from here. The second book in the Expanse series should be out June 2012.

We are not alone.

The alien protomolecule is clear evidence of an intelligence beyond human reckoning. No one knows what exactly is being built on Venus, but whatever it is, it is vast, powerful, and terrifying.

When a creature of unknown origin and seemingly impossible physiology attacks soldiers on Ganymede, the fragile balance of power in the Solar System shatters. Now, the race is on to discover if the protomolecule has escaped Venus, or if someone is building an army of super-soldiers.

Jim Holden is the center of it all. In spite of everything, he’s still the best man for the job to find out what happened on Ganymede. Either way, the protomolecule is loose and Holden must find a way to stop it before war engulfs the entire system.

The King's Blood is Abraham's next Epic Fantasy following in the footsteps of The Dragon's Path, which I just loved this year and proves there is plenty more to explore in the genre.  The Dagger and the Coin series continues in May.

War casts its shadow over the lands that the dragons once ruled. Only the courage of a young woman with the mind of a gambler and loyalty to no one stands between hope and universal darkness.

The high and powerful will fall, the despised and broken shall rise up, and everything will be remade. And quietly, almost beneath the notice of anyone, an old, broken-hearted warrior and an apostate priest will begin a terrible journey with an impossible goal: destroy a Goddess before she eats the world.

Orbit has plenty more and is still pushing out plenty of omnibuses as they have The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks and King Maker, King Breaker by Karen Miller planned for next year.

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Cover & Table of Contents Unveiled for Life on Mars ed. by Jonathan Strahan

Science Fiction stories about Mars have been popular within the genre for more than the past century starting with The War of the Worlds and with a particular upswing in the 1950s spurred by Ray Bradbury and the pulps of the day. Life on Mars looks to revitalize the well trod upon Martian landscape yet again with a stellar crew of contributors and another inspiring cover piece by Stephan Martiniere. To say this is an amazing group of authors given the topic is something of an understatement. Reynolds, Baxter, Doctorow, McDonald, and Robinson all in the same volume with new stories! Plus what is probably one of Kage Baker's last written stories. Behold the full table of contents:

1. “Attlee and the Long Walk” by Kage Baker

2. “The Old Man and the Martian Sea” by Alastair Reynolds

3. “Wahala” by Nnedi Okorafor

4. “On Chryse Plain” by Stephen Baxter

5. “First Principle” by Nancy Kress

6. “Martian Chronicles” by Cory Doctorow (novella)

7. “Goodnight Moons” by Ellen Klages

8. “The Taste of Promises” by Rachel Swirsky

9. “Digging” by Ian McDonald

10. “LARP on Mars” by Chris Roberson

11. “Martian Heart” John Barnes

12. “Discovering Life” by Kim Stanley Robinson

I'm very curious about Doctorow's piece. Maybe an homage to Bradbury? The anthology is being pitched to a YA audience, but it should play well with adults as well. Also, the McDonald story might have something to do with the YA novel he recently sold to Pyr. Either way this will be a can't miss for Sci-Fi short story or Mars fans. Life on Mars is scheduled to be released in April of 2011 by Viking.


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REVIEW | Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson (Spectra)

Robinson's Galileo's Dream is a Sci-Fi book unlike any other I've ever read. At its heart Galileo's Dream is Robinson's blood and tear soaked letter to the man responsible for igniting the scientific process. Told through someone very close to Galileo, Galileo's Dream reads more like a biography of the legend that has become Galileo, but gives the reader a deep appreciation of the long and painful life full of triumph and devastation he went through on his way to becoming a Scientific revolutionary.

Galileo's Dream starts at what most would consider the height of his fame before the infamy from the Church took over.  The bulk of the narrative takes place in Galileo's time and begins when he is coming in to prominence around his creation of telescope. The story gives a perfect rendition of how Galileo implemented what is now known as the scientific process.  We also learn about the daily life in the 17th century and how engrained religion was to its people.

Robinson uses a lot of Galileo's personal correspondence interspersed throughout the narrative, which gives the work a strong historical aspect unseen in most Science Fiction. At times the story can be overly dry and take longer to move along as Robinson strives to keep an accurate record of all of Galileo's follies, foibles, and foes.

There is definitely a space opera bent to this story as well. Galileo is visited by a mysterious stranger who's suggestions often lead Galileo back to or into a new train of thinking he hasn't explored much. Eventually he travels to the far future with this stranger where humanity is still at odds with one another and an important decision is being debated. These sections are very cloudy at first, but as Galileo learns more the situation is revealed. One tiresome part was how Galileo kept having his memory wiped, but never cleanly from these advanced people.

The future sections were far too brief for my liking, in their instances not their length. It did feel right for the visits to be short, but in the last half of the book we only visit this time period a couple times which left a lot of questions unanswered about the future. In a way I think that is precisely what Robinson was going after as a fundamental question in the book is that our future in not knowable and if it were would it change our actions and therefore the future? But this also had me wondering if Robinson forced himself a little to divorce more material from the latter time frame in lieu of revealing more about Galileo.

Galileo's Dream is a challenging, but rewarding reading experience.  Galileo comes alive as he earns his moniker of The World's First Scientist. I give Galileo's Dream 7.5 out of 10 Hats.  For long-time Robinson fans this will be a must. However, historical science buff will get the most out of the reading experience. The work just begs the question: If Galileo was instead brought to a more contemporary time what would he think of our world?


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