New Books, 9 December
* Baxter, Stephen : Ultima
(UK: Orion/Gollancz 978- 0575116870, £20, 560pp, hardcover, November 2014)
• Nominal Publication Date: Thu 27 Nov 2014
• Proxima #2
SF novel, second of a duology following Proxima (2013), about a 27th century colonization of a planet circling Proxima Centauri.
• Orion’s site has this description.
• Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides previews.
• Russell Letson reviews the book in the December issue of Locus Magazine. ” ‘‘Ultima’’ can mean ‘‘farthest’’ as well as ‘‘last,’’ and that extremity would seem to be the destination of this second volume, though it takes its time getting there and wanders through some genre spaces that do not at first seem much related to the cosmic gosh-wow promised by the vatic opening and closing passages of Proxima. (Part of me wonders whether Baxter is seeing how many SF tropes and traditions he can fit into one big narrative framework.)”
• Purchase this book from Amazon
• (Directory Entry)
* Ellinger, Jordan, & Richard Salter, eds. : Fantasy for Good
(Nightscape Press 978-1938644207, $22.99, 374pp, trade paperback, December 2014)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 9 Dec 2014
Charity anthology of 30 new and reprint fantasy stories.
• Authors include Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazny, Ken Scholes, George R.R. Martin, David Farland, Alan Dean Foster, Piers Anthony, Neil Gaiman, Carrie Vaughn, Nnedi Okorafor, and Jay Lake.
• The publisher’s site has this description and order page.
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)
* Jemisin, N. K. : The Inheritance Trilogy
(Orbit 978-0316334006, $20, 1472pp, trade paperback, December 2014)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 9 Dec 2014
Omnibus of three novels — The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (2010), The Broken Kingdoms (2010), and The Kingdom of Gods (2011) — plus a new novella, “The Awakened Kingdom”.
• Orbit’s site has this post about the volume, with a video.
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)
* Johansen, K. V. : The Lady
(Pyr 978-1-61614-980-2, $18, 435pp, trade paperback, December 2014, cover illustration Raymond Swanland)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 9 Dec 2014
• Marakand #2
Fantasy novel, second volume in a two-book set, about an assassin eager to die in order to free himself of a curse, following The Leopard (June 2014).
• Pyr’s site has this description.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “Johansen has found a winning combination: the modern epic fantasy penchant for a cast of thousands and the golden age feeling of a tale of Conan or Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser dueling with gods gone mad.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)
* Klima, John, ed. : The Best of Electric Velocipede
(Fairwood Press 978-1-933846-47-7, $17.99, 348pp, trade paperback, November 2014)
• Nominal Publication Date: Mon 1 Dec 2014
Anthology of 34 stories that first appeared in the small-press ‘zine Electric Velocipede, which published 27 issues from 2001 to 2013.
• Authors include Mark Rich, Alan DeNiro, Hal Duncan, Jeffrey Ford, Catherynne M. Valente, Patrick O’Leary, Richard Bowes, KJ Bishop, E. Lily Yu, Aliette de Bodard, and Ken Liu.
• The publisher’s site has this description and order page.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “Those who persevere—or prefer to skip around rather than reading straight through—will find plenty of gems worthy of individual consideration.”
(Thu 4 Dec 2014)
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)
* Page, Shannon, & Jay Lake : Our Lady of the Islands
(Per Aspera Press 978-1-941662-06-9, $29.99, 524pp, hardcover, December 2014)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 9 Dec 2014
Fantasy novel set in the world of Lake’s Green, completed by Page following Jay Lake’s death earlier this year.
• Per Aspera’s site has this description and order page.
• Publishers Weekly includes it among its Best SF/fantasy/horror books of 2014.
• Publishers Weekly gives it a starred review: “Page has done a phenomenal job of completing Lake’s work after his death, honoring his contributions and vision while giving the novel an emotionally authentic, coherent voice.”
• Faren Miller reviews it in the December issue of Locus Magazine: “Though co-author Jay Lake died of cancer early in 2014, the healing in Our Lady of the Islands is not wish-fulfillment. This collaboration with Shannon Page was largely written by the time he became too sick to work (four years after they first planned it, a year before he died). Thanks to a publisher’s query, Page completed it, beautifully. Per Aspera now releases it in an edition fine enough to honor the bittersweet, but ultimately triumphant, survival of a very special book.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)
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