Sunday, July 22, 2012

New Scifi & Fantasy releases: Week of July 22

Posted by Simcha 4:46 PM, under | 7 comments

This week's New Release list is pretty short, which I have to admit is a bit of a relief for me since having my kids home for summer vacation has me too wiped out to spend time composing lists. I might even be too tired to read (yes, the situation is that drastic). I remember the days when summer vacation was a time that I actually looked forward to *sigh*

Now if I could find that magic book that would keep my kinds enthralled enough to stay out of mischief. 

Hope you guys are having an enjoyable summer full of good books to read and plenty of time to read them.

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Science Fiction 



Jack Glass
Adam Roberts
Publisher: Gollancz
Release Date: July 26 (UK)

Jack Glass is the murderer. We know this from the start. Yet as this extraordinary novel tells the story of three murders committed by Glass the reader will be surprised to find out that it was Glass who was the killer and how he did it. And by the end of the book our sympathies for the killer are fully engaged. Riffing on the tropes of crime fiction (the country house murder, the locked room mystery) and imbued with the feel of golden age SF, JACK GLASS is another bravura performance from Roberts. Whatever games he plays with the genre, whatever questions he asks of the reader, Roberts never loses sight of the need to entertain. JACK GLASS has some wonderfully gruesome moments, is built around three gripping HowDunnits and comes with liberal doses of sly humour. Roberts invites us to have fun and tricks us into thinking about both crime and SF via a beautifully structured novel set in a society whose depiction challanges notions of crime, punishment, power and freedom. It is an extraordinary novel.


Fantasy 



Trinity Rising (The Wild Hunt, Bk 2)
Elspeth Cooper
Publisher: Gollancz
Release Date: July 26 (UK)


The future holds nothing but blood and death . . . and Teia fears there is nothing she can do about it. Her clan is riding to war, but her secret, untrained gift of foretelling has shown her they are riding to their doom. If she cannot turn them from their course, her only hope of saving them will be to betray them to their sworn enemies.

Gair is mourning his past . . . but there is no time to dwell on his grief or hunger for revenge. Pursuing an artefact from the Founding Wars, he travels deep into the hostile southern deserts. As religious tensions erupt into bloody violence around him, he must make an impossible choice: save innocent lives or sacrifice them in the hope that thousands more can be saved later.

And all the while, his grip on his powers is failing.

Urban Fantasy 



Thirteen (Women of the Otherworld, Bk 13)
Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Release Date: July 24

A war is brewing—the first battle has been waged and Savannah Levine is left standing, albeit battered and bruised. She has rescued her half brother from supernatural medical testing, but he’s fighting to stay alive. The Supernatural Liberation Movement took him hostage, and they have a maniacal plan to expose the supernatural world to the unknowing.

Savannah has called upon her inner energy to summon spells with frightening strength, a strength she never knew she had, as she fights to keep her world from shattering. But it’s more than a matter of supernaturals against one another—both heaven and hell have entered the war; hellhounds, genetically modified werewolves, and all forces of good and evil have joined the fray. 


Dragon Justice (Paranormal Scene Investigations #4)
Laura Anne Gilman
Publisher: Luna
Release Date: July 24

WE KNEW THE JOB WAS IMPOSSIBLE WHEN WE TOOK IT...

In my time with PUPI, formally known as Private, Unaffiliated Paranormal Investigations, I've seen a lot. Learned a lot. And not all of it's been good. But what we do-make people accountable for crimes committed with magic-is important work.

Still. Even I need to take a break every now and again. Or so I've just been told (ordered).

So hey, vacation. Maybe I'll finally figure out what's going on with the "special bond" between me and the boss man, Benjamin Venec. Venec seems to like that idea-he's invited me down to join him on a jaunt to Philly. But no sooner do I arrive in the City of Brotherly Love than we're called in to look at a dead body.

And that's when life gets really complicated....

In my time with PUPI, formally known as Private, Unaffiliated Paranormal Investigations, I've seen a lot. Learned a lot. And not all of it's been good. But what we do-make people accountable for crimes committed with magic-is important work.

Still. Even I need to take a break every now and again. Or so I've just been told (ordered).

So hey, vacation. Maybe I'll finally figure out what's going on with the "special bond" between me and the boss man, Benjamin Venec. Venec seems to like that idea-he's invited me down to join him on a jaunt to Philly. But no sooner do I arrive in the City of Brotherly Love than we're called in to look at a dead body.

And that's when life gets really complicated....

Young Adult



Cuttlefish
Dave Freer
Publisher: Pyr
Release Date: July 24

The smallest thing can change the path of history.

The year is 1976, and the British Empire still spans the globe. Coal drives the world, and the smog of it hangs thick over the canals of London.

Clara Calland is on the run. Hunted, along with her scientist mother, by Menshevik spies and Imperial soldiers, they flee Ireland for London. They must escape airships, treachery, and capture. Under flooded London's canals, they join the rebels who live in the dank tunnels there.

Tim Barnabas is one of the underpeople, born to the secret town of drowned London, place of anti-imperialist republicans and Irish rebels, part of the Liberty—the people who would see a return to older values and free elections. Seeing no farther than his next meal, Tim has hired on as a submariner on the Cuttlefish, a coal-fired submarine that runs smuggled cargoes beneath the steamship patrols, to the fortress America and beyond.

When the Imperial soldiery comes ravening, Clara and her mother are forced to flee aboard the Cuttlefish. Hunted like beasts, the submarine and her crew must undertake a desperate voyage across the world, from the Faeroes to the Caribbean and finally across the Pacific to find safety. But only Clara and Tim Barnabas can steer them past treachery and disaster, to freedom in Westralia. Carried with them—a lost scientific secret that threatens the very heart of Imperial power.

7 comments:

I feel as if I would never get caught up on the Kelley Armstrong series.

Jack Glass has definitely got my attention, with the protag being a murderer - quite different.

I'd like the Cooper one :)

Stephanie: The problem with this book is that the synopsis is so awkwardly written that I can't even bring myself to read the whole thing, and this doesn't reflect well on the book itself.

Ryan: I didn't know you were wanted to. I think I read one of her books once but I must not have enjoyed it that much if I didn't read any other.

Blodeuedd: I think I had been meaning to read one of Cooper's books but never got around to it. I'll have to look her up and see.

I really need to catch up on the Kelley Armstrong series. I love that series but I'm woefully behind. Cuttlefish looks interesting and I'm not normally drawn to those. Hm...

I've been falling behind on the new releases lately. I do have Thirteen on it's way to me, and a few here I would like to start the series of. Thank you for the list!

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