Cemetery Dance Announces New Norman Partridge Anthology - Johnny Halloween!

Cover Artist: Alex McVey

That cover is correct. The October Boy is back!

I discovered Norman Partridge after a recommendation from Joe Schreiber and I haven't looked back since. After the outstanding Dark Harvest (my review) which Schreiber recommended, I picked up his next collection, Lesser Demons (my review), and only found more to love. Partridge's prose is paradoxically perfect. It's heavenly prose married to hellish content. It's dense but incredibly readable. It's heavy on metaphor and symbolism but the end result often evokes a unforgettable image. It's bloody but beautiful.  It's just damn good.

So far I've been unable to track down his other short fiction collections but I've made a point to keep track of what Partridge has been up to. Yesterday on his blog, American Frankenstein, Partidge announced a new collection complete with a return to the world of the excellent Dark Harvest.

"Given that little slice of history, it's with great pleasure that I announce Johnny Halloween is back at Cemetery Dance, this time as the lead story in a special Halloween collection due this fall. Along with a fantastic Alex McVey cover, Johnny Halloween features a half-dozen tales of the darkest season, including a new story set in the world of Dark Harvest.

That's right. The October Boy returns in the pages of Johnny Halloween -- and this time he's got a shotgun and one bad döppelganger on his tail. There's also a brand new introduction and a nonfiction piece on the Zodiac Killer ("The Man Who Killed Halloween"). You can check out all the details right here, plus snag a $15 coupon for a future purchase if you preorder the book in the next seven days.

In the meantime, keep your eyes on the shadows. Listen for the whisper of that October wind. It's coming your way... and sooner than you might think."

He also posted the Alex McVey cover to the anthology. Normally, I wouldn't be the biggest far of that cover art but if you've read Dark Harvest it captures the essence of the October Boy perfectly. And the more I look at it, the more I like it. The textural elements that look like knife slashes are subtle but brilliant and the block lettering for the title and Partridge's name is an excellent font choice. I don't think the "Johnny Halloween" necessarily matches the "Tales of the Dark Season" but I can forgive that small issue.

You can order Johnny Halloween from the Cemetery Dance website, which also provides a bit more detail about the contents of the collection.

Norman Partridge's Halloween novel, Dark Harvest, was chosen as one of Publishers Weekly's 100 Best Books of 2006. A Bram Stoker Award winner and World Fantasy nominee, Partridge's rapid-fire tale of a small town trapped by its own shadows welcomed a wholly original creation, the October Boy, earning the author comparisons to Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, and Shirley Jackson.

Now Partridge revisits Halloween with a collection featuring a half-dozen stories celebrating frights both past and present. In “The Jack o' Lantern,” a brand new Dark Harvest novelette, the October Boy races against a remorseless döppelganger bent on carving a deadly path through the town's annual ritual of death and rebirth. “Johnny Halloween” features a sheriff battling both a walking ghost and his own haunted conscience. In “Three Doors,” a scarred war hero hunts his past with the help of a magic prosthetic hand, while “Satan's Army” is a real Partridge rarity previously available only in a long sold-out lettered edition from another press.

But there's more to this holiday celebration besides fiction. “The Man Who Killed Halloween” is an extensive essay about growing up during the late sixties in the town where the Zodiac Killer began his murderous spree. In an introduction that explores monsters both fictional and real, Partridge recalls what it was like to live in a community menaced by a serial killer and examines how the Zodiac's reign of terror shaped him as a writer.

Halloween night awaits. Join a master storyteller as he explores the layers of darkness that separate all-too-human evil from the supernatural. Let Norman Partridge lead you on seven journeys through the most dangerous night of the year, where no one is safe…and everyone is suspect.

I'm not quite ready for summer to be over, but if fall promises another Partridge collection, I won't be as sad to see it go.

Covering Covers: Shades of Milk and Honey - Mary Robinette Kowal

Cover Artist: Terry Rohrbach of BaseArtCo

I'm reading Shades of Milk and Honey now. I find this cover very peculiar. It's by no means bad -- the homage to period paintings is beautiful and the font choice feels natural with the art. I just feel like the marketing is going in two different directions (assuming of course, that this book will be shelved with the science fiction and fantasy books and not with period pieces over in Regular Lit). That would mean that the people the cover is most likely going to appeal to will not see it and the people who are mostly likely going to see the cover, won't pick it up. And I'm afraid that this possible distinction could negatively impact the beginning of a hugely promising career. Hopefully, I'm just plain wrong (about the negative impact, not the hugely promising bit).

If you are of the science fictiod and fantasy mindset and would not pick up this book based on the cover, at least read the summary of the book:
I do think that the cover is indicitative of the story. As of the halfway mark, Shades of Milk and Honey is a very quiet, intimate novel, especially compared to what I am used to. Shades is focused tightly on the two young girls and their attempts to find a desireable husband. So many of the books I read threaten the end of something major (be it planet, universe, fantasy world, United States, human race, etc.) and this change of pace is very welcome. In her short fiction, Kowal's stood out for her exceptional dialogue and for crafting realistic human relationships in only a few pages. So far, her debut novel is more of the same.

Shades of Milk and Honey is exactly what we could expect from Jane Austen if she had been a fantasy writer: Pride and Prejudice meets Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. It is an intimate portrait of a woman, Jane, and her quest for love in a world where the manipulation of glamour is considered an essential skill for a lady of quality.

Jane and her sister Melody vie for the attentions of eligible men, and while Jane’s skill with glamour is remarkable, it is her sister who is fair of face. When Jane realizes that one of Melody’s suitors is set on taking advantage of her sister for the sake of her dowry, she pushes her skills to the limit of what her body can withstand in order to set things right—and, in the process, accidentally wanders into a love story of her own.

Shades of Milk and Honey comes out from Tor on August 3rd. Look for a review in the next few weeks.

Fast Fiction Friday: Swirsky, Abraham, and Barron

This week's Fast Fiction Friday features Rachel Swirsky, Daniel Abraham, and an update on Laird Barron.

---

A Memory of Wind - Rachel Swirsky

Featured as an original story on Tor.com. Nominated for a Nebula award. Available for free Kindle or iBooks download.

Tor.com just celebrated their second anniversary. In just two years, they've quickly established themselves as a reputable publishers of online fiction and with stories like A Memory of Wind it's easy to see why. This heartbreaking story is written from the perspective of Iphigenia, a character from Trojan War mythology who was sacrificed in exchange for a favorable wind. While not a lot is mentioned a lot about Iphigenia in the original Greek myth, Swirsky fleshes out her character and the circumstances surrounding her death. Featuring a split perspective that is both aware that she will be sacrificed to the gods and slowly losing a sense of who she was, A Memory of Wind overflows with haunting prose that transforms Iphigenia from a minor sidenote into a tragic victim. I can't say that Swirsky deserved to win the Nebula (as I haven't read the winner) but this is the type of fiction that gets you on the short list for sure.

---

The Cambist and Lord Iron - Daniel Abraham

Originally published in the Logorrhea (2007). Nominated for a Hugo Award. Reprinted in Leviathan Wept and Other Stories. Can also listen at Podcastle.

The Cambinst and Lord Iron is the first entry in Daniel Abraham's first collection from Subterranean Press and another award nominee. A simple man works as a cambist (exchanger) and he soons attracts the attention of Lord Iron, a man with too much money and not enough to do. Iron challenges the lowly cambist to determine exchange rates for not one but three exotic transactions, each more abstract than the last. It's the cambist's solutions to these problems that really make the story and although the last solution fell a little flat for me, these aspects keep the story fresh and unique. Rather than getting lost in the tangle of overworked prose that often plagues short fiction, Abraham writes with a direct style and an economy of word that make his stories read effortlessy. That's not to say you won't want to read them again. I'm really looking forward to the rest of this collection.

---

Catch Hell / Strappado / --30-- - Laird Barron

Originally published in Barron's 2nd Collection, Occultation.

I've been reading Laird Barron's 2nd collection collection and for whatever reason, I decided to skip around from story to story rather than reading them in order. After reading most of the stories I felt that while fantastic, they were starting to be a little too similar for my taste. Then I read the last 3 stories (Catch Hell, Strappado, and --30--) and realized that they were ordered the way they were for a reason, staggering the Lovecraftian Horror that is Baird's specialty with more unique but equally disturbing stories. I'm not going to get into detail right now but expect a full story by story review of Occultation next week.

SFF Masterworks Blog / Review: The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick

I've just posted my first review over at the SFF Masterworks Review. You've probably heard about it from some of my fellow reviewers but if for some reason you only read Stomping on Yeti (it's okay if you do), grab your s'mores because I'm going to retell the legend of How the SFF Masterworks Blog Was Created.

Now, I own a lot of the Science Fiction Masterworks titles. All of them in fact. Shamefully, I've read very few of them. In this case, a few equals 8. Out of 125+

So when I saw a post on Larry's excellent OF Blog of the Fallen about Thing's He Would Like To See Posted Online, one of the bullet points his wishlist read

"A group of people, over the next year or so, to combine to review all of the Gollancz SF and Fantasy Masterworks books. I would imagine that 10 reviewers, covering 5-10 books each over the course of a year, could achieve this without emptying their savings."

So I said to myself. I can be that group of people! One quick dictionary check later, I realized that I can't be a group, not by myself anyway and so I reached out to Larry to see if he was willing to back up his blog post and join in a group blog dedicated to tackling these 125+ books. Fortunately, he was and so we set out to assemble a Round Table of the Greatest Bloggers In Existence!^TM (or whoever else was interested in participating that day on Twitter). We are currently at 12 reviewers (see who here) and growing and still have room for more, if you want to join in the fun. And by fun we mean rereading suppossed SF classics that may or may not be horribly dated...

Anyway, my first book was Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle. It was definitely one of those books that you think you know a lot about but when you read it, it's nothing like you expected. Everyone knows it's an alternate history in which the German's win World War II, right? But what I didn't expect (and maybe should have) was the thematic depth that Dick created in his work. There's a lot of mind bending philosophy (no surprise with PKD) under a thin layer of post war intrigue and it's really no surprise that the book has ended up on so many classic lists.

You can read the full review here. I'd recommend checking the site regularly. There are a lot of good reviewers (full list) reading a lot of good books (full list SF and F).

My next Masterwork is Greg Bear's Blood Music so if you are interested in reading along, that's the one.

Yeti Review: Ghost of Manhattan - George Mann

30 words or less: Ghost of Manhattan delivers on its promise of " steampunk superhero" but fails to deliver a logical plot, deviating wildly to reach a frustrating and seemingly random conclusion

Pros: Prose reads quickly and effortlessly; Action sequences are well written and fun.

Cons: Ending and its twist are not set up at all and conflict with previous world building effort; Secondary characters get little to no development; Identity of "The Ghost" is drawn out for far too long; Some of the action sequences feel out of place.

The Review: For better or worse, a lot of books are defined by their endings. A great ending will stick in the mind of the reader. A terrible one will see the book flung across the room in disgust. Unfortunately, the current state of my copy of Ghosts of Manhattan suggests it is one of the latter.

Simply put, the conclusion to Ghosts of Manhattan is inexplicably poor. The best endings are ones that are completely unpredictable but in hindsight, perfectly arranged. The ending of Ghosts of Manhattan doesn't just come out of left field, it comes from a whole different sport and one that the first two hundred or so pages never even hinted was being played. Imagine if the Great Gatsby ended with an alien invasion led by the robot disguised as Daisy or if zombies killed Ric at the end of Casablanca. The seeming randomness of the final scenes was so problematic that the text itself was actually revised between the ARC edition and the final print run. In fairness to the work, I reread the final version to see if my qualms were addressed. They weren’t.

From the beginning, Mann introduces us to the world of Gabriel Cross, a mash-up of Jay Gatsby and Bruce Wayne who spends his nights fighting crime as a vigilante known only as The Ghost. Like Batman, The Ghost has no actual superpowers, relying instead on gadgets and guns to clean up the streets of an alternate 1920s New York City. Unlike Batman, The Ghost has no problem killing people, making it difficult to sympathize with an often brutal enforcer. Mann’s version of the 1920s features coal powered cars, holographic communicators, and rocket powered airplanes giving it the steampunk vibe promised in the “Steampunk Superhero” tagline, albeit in an eclectic fashion.

The jumble of worldbuilding elements is further compounded by the inclusion of more supernatural elements ranging from semi-sentient men of clay to xenobiological curiosities. There seems to be no limit to what can occur in Mann’s steampunk world and the lack of internal cohesion grows more and more evident as the story progresses. The plot seems to create the setting rather than the setting influencing the plot. This is a subtle but important distinction in the craft of genre worldbuilding and one that is largely responsible for the disappointing ending.

Before the veritable train wreck of the final chapters, Ghosts of Manhattan does manage to provide the fun, fast paced read it is advertised to be. Detective Felix Donovan and The Ghost cross paths in their investigations of The Roman, a new gangster who has been making his name killing city officials in grotesque fashion and leaving a pair of ancient coins on the victim’s eyes. The investigation soon becomes personal as The Roman’s henchmen attempt to abduct Cross’s love interest, Celeste. Before long, Donovan and Cross team up to find the Roman and put an end to his heinous crimes.

In true pulp fashion, the book is more about the providing action than depth, resulting in several excellent fight sequences and a paper thin cast of characters. The action itself is the highlight of the novel and aside from the rather contrived and implausible rocket powered biplane chase it is all grand fun.  Writing prolonged action without losing a sense of spacial awareness is very difficult and the Mann's scenes play out like an action film. There is a fluid grace to this aspect of his prose, allowing for narrative focus amidst the chaos. Despite any misgivings about the subject matter, there is no denying that Mann manages to keep the plot moving and the pages turning.

Ghosts of Manhattan appears to be the first book in a sequence of “Ghost” stories. There is no denying the latent potential within the world of George Mann's steampunk superhero. If Mann can tighten up his plotting and find a better balance between character and action, future installments of this new series may be excellent indeed. Series debuts are often the weakest of the bunch (see The Dresden Files for proof) as the introduction of characters often comes at the expense of their development. Unfortunately, potential and actual are two different things and until Mann delivers on the pulpy promise hinted at in his action sequences, I can’t recommend Ghosts of Manhattan.

SF Masterworks Meme

You may have seen this list making it's way around certain portions of the SFF Blogosphere including some of my compatriots (Larry and Niall) at the SFF Masterworks Reading Project (catchy name right?). As a project contributor (and accused mastermind), I figured I needed to keep it going.

This one is simple and potentially shameful. Bold the books you've read. Italicize the ones you own but haven't read.

I - Dune - Frank Herbert
II - The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
III - The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick
IV - The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester
V - A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller, Jr.
VI - Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke
VII - The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
VIII - Ringworld - Larry Niven
IX - The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
X - The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham
1 - The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
2 - I Am Legend - Richard Matheson
3 - Cities in Flight - James Blish
4 - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick
5 - The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester
6 - Babel-17 - Samuel R. Delany
7 - Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
8 - The Fifth Head of Cerberus - Gene Wolfe
9 - Gateway - Frederik Pohl
10 - The Rediscovery of Man - Cordwainer Smith
11 - Last and First Men - Olaf Stapledon
12 - Earth Abides - George R. Stewart
13 - Martian Time-Slip - Philip K. Dick
14 - The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester
15 - Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner
16 - The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin
17 - The Drowned World - J. G. Ballard
18 - The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut
19 - Emphyrio - Jack Vance
20 - A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick
21 - Star Maker - Olaf Stapledon
22 - Behold the Man - Michael Moorcock
23 - The Book of Skulls - Robert Silverberg
24 - The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells
25 - Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
26 - Ubik - Philip K. Dick
27 - Timescape - Gregory Benford
28 - More Than Human - Theodore Sturgeon
29 - Man Plus - Frederik Pohl
30 - A Case of Conscience - James Blish
31 - The Centauri Device - M. John Harrison
32 - Dr. Bloodmoney - Philip K. Dick
33 - Non-Stop - Brian Aldiss
34 - The Fountains of Paradise - Arthur C. Clarke
35 - Pavane - Keith Roberts
36 - Now Wait for Last Year - Philip K. Dick
37 - Nova - Samuel R. Delany
38 - The First Men in the Moon - H. G. Wells
39 - The City and the Stars - Arthur C. Clarke
40 - Blood Music - Greg Bear
41 - Jem - Frederik Pohl
42 - Bring the Jubilee - Ward Moore
43 - VALIS - Philip K. Dick
44 - The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K. Le Guin
45 - The Complete Roderick - John Sladek
46 - Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said - Philip K. Dick
47 - The Invisible Man - H. G. Wells
48 - Grass - Sheri S. Tepper
49 - A Fall of Moondust - Arthur C. Clarke
50 - Eon - Greg Bear
51 - The Shrinking Man - Richard Matheson
52 - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Philip K. Dick
53 - The Dancers at the End of Time - Michael Moorcock
54 - The Space Merchants - Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth
55 - Time Out of Joint - Philip K. Dick
56 - Downward to the Earth - Robert Silverberg
57 - The Simulacra - Philip K. Dick
58 - The Penultimate Truth - Philip K. Dick
59 - Dying Inside - Robert Silverberg
60 - Ringworld - Larry Niven
61 - The Child Garden - Geoff Ryman
62 - Mission of Gravity - Hal Clement
63 - A Maze of Death - Philip K. Dick
64 - Tau Zero - Poul Anderson
65 - Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke
66 - Life During Wartime - Lucius Shepard
67 - Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang - Kate Wilhelm
68 - Roadside Picnic - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
69 - Dark Benediction - Walter M. Miller, Jr.
70 - Mockingbird - Walter Tevis
71 - Dune - Frank Herbert
72 - The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
73 - The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick
74 - Inverted World - Christopher Priest
75 - Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle
76 - H.G. Wells - The Island of Dr. Moreau
77 - Arthur C. Clarke - Childhood's End
78 - H.G. Wells - The Time Machine
79 - Samuel R. Delany - Dhalgren (July 2010)
80 - Brian Aldiss - Helliconia (August 2010)

81 - H.G. Wells - Food of the Gods (Sept. 2010)
82 - Jack Finney - The Body Snatchers (Oct. 2010)
83 - Joanna Russ - The Female Man (Nov. 2010)
84 - M.J. Engh - Arslan (Dec. 2010)

In summary:

I've read 8 out of the 80 released titles
I own 79 out of 80 (all in the Masterworks format no less)

Glorious, Glorious Shame

Oh the shame. Go ahead. Say it. I deserve it.

Can anyone guess why I decided to kick off the project?
In my defense, I doubt there are too many readers out there who have read more that 50% of these books. In fact, I bet you 10 Internets that you haven't.

In true meme fashion, feel free to post this list on your own site, highlighting the book you've read or own. If you've read more that 40 of these titles feel free to make fun of me. Either way, be sure to include a link back to the SFF Masterworks site. Hopefully, this will inspire more than a few readers to finally get to that dusty tome that they've always intended to read. I know it's helping me.

I recently finished PKD's The Man in the High Castle. My review should surface over on the Masterworks blog in the near future.

Covering Covers: The Buntline Special - Mike Resnick

Cover Artist: J Seamas Gallagher

I think it's safe to say that Steampunk has finally arrived. At first, it seemed like the Steampunk movement was all style and no substance but the lineups of 2010 / 2011 appear chock full of boiling water and bronze gears. One such title is Mike Resnick's The Buntline Special: A Weird West Tale. I've yet to read many Steampunk titles but this one is sure to make the shortlist based on the excellent cover alone. Prostitutes and ray guns! And even though I typically don't like the overly stylized font, it works here. It seems to flow directly from what I presume are powerlines, creating a cohesive feel. Very pulpy and very cool.

Speaking of cool, I also have it on good authority that Gallagher is doing some interiors for the novel. If his interiors are even half as impressive as the work Keith Thompson put together for Leviathan, The Buntline Special could be something special indeed. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of details about this book right now, but Lou Anders did provide a teaser or two over on the Pyr blog.

We've just signed with [Mike Resnick] for The Buntline Special: A Weird West Tale. Picture a fractured America, steampunk technology, cowboys, rayguns, Native American shamans, and, drum roll please, zombies! I feel very safe guaranteeing that the West will never be the same.

The Buntline Special comes out from Pyr this December.

Books Received: Late June

It's about time I started mentioning the books I've sent for review. I've reached the point where I am getting them at a faster rate than I can read them (and that's not counting the books I still buy for myself). I want to read them all (or at least 90% of them, I've gotten some strange books) but unfortunately, I just don't have the time.

So I'm going to put together a brief biweekly post to make sure the books I receive get at least some coverage here at Stomping on Yeti.

---

Title: The Way of Kings
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Publisher: Tor
Edition: ARC
Release Date: August 31st, 2010
Blurb: Widely acclaimed for his work completing Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time saga, Brandon Sanderson now begins a grand cycle of his own, one every bit as ambitious and immersive.


Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.
One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar’s niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan’s motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.

The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.

Speak again the ancient oaths,

Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.

and return to men the Shards they once bore. The Knights Radiant must stand again.

---

Title: The Last Song of Orpheus
Author: Robert Silverberg
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Edition: ARC
Release Date: September 2010
Blurb: In the course of his extraordinary--and prolific--career, Robert Silverberg has made an enormous contribution to imaginative literature. In The Last Song of Orpheus, his longest story in more than a decade, Silverberg has given us one of his most remarkable accomplishments, a resonant recreation of one of the central myths of western civilization.

In this mesmerizing narrative, Orpheus--wanderer, demigod, and master musician--recounts his own astonishing story. That story ranges from the depths of the Underworld, where he attempts to rescue his beloved but doomed Eurydice, to the farthest, most dangerous corners of the ancient world, where he journeys in search of the legendary Golden Fleece. It is a tale of men and gods, of miraculous encounters, of the binding power of inescapable Fate. More than that, it is a meditation on the power of the creative spirit, and on the eternal human search for balance and harmony in a chaotic universe. Beautifully constructed and masterfully written, The Last Song of Orpheus is Silverberg at his incomparable best, showing us a deeply familiar series of scenes, themes, and characters from a fresh, wholly original perspective.

---

Title: Strange Wonders: A Collection of Rare Fritz Leiber Works
Author: Fritz Leiber
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Edition: ARC
Release Date: October 2010
Blurb: In regards to Fritz Leiber, I believe that publication of such unpublished and uncollected works only strengthens his literary greatness. Through fragments, drafts and practice writings, we can clearly see the evolution from Leiber, the amateur, to Leiber, the professional. We are exposed to the clear way in which he dedicated his life to the written word and trained his abilities to produce the award-winning masterpieces that we read even today. While some may object to such a volume, I ask them this—is not the dream just as important as the empire that had been built from it? Are not the blueprints and sketches as impressive as the buildings and the artwork? We must place all this into perspective, and see that publishing such works is not a smear upon Leiber’s legacy. Rather, it completes a full circle. If we are asked to be thorough in the biography of an individual, then we must also do so for their bibliography.

— Benjamin Szumskyj, from his Introduction

---

Title: Out of the Dark
Author: David Weber
Publisher: Tor
Edition: ARC
Release Date: September 28th, 2010
Blurb: Earth is conquered. The Shongairi have arrived in force, and humanity’s cities lie in radioactive ruins. In mere minutes, over half the human race has died.

Now Master Sergeant Stephen Buchevsky, who thought he was being rotated home from his latest tour in Afghanistan, finds himself instead prowling the back country of the Balkans, dodging alien patrols and trying to organize the scattered survivors without getting killed.

His chances look bleak. The aliens have definitely underestimated human tenacity—but no amount of heroism can endlessly hold off overwhelming force.

Then, emerging from the mountains and forests of Eastern Europe, new allies present themselves to the ragtag human resistance. Predators, creatures of the night, human in form but inhumanly strong. Long Enemies of humanity…until now. Because now is the time to defend Earth.

---

Title: The Dervish House
Author: Ian McDonald
Publisher: Pyr
Edition: Final Copy
Release Date: July 27th, 2010
Blurb: It begins with an explosion. Another day, another bus bomb. Everyone it seems is after a piece of Turkey. But the shockwaves from this random act of 21st century pandemic terrorism will ripple further and resonate louder than just Enginsoy Square.

Welcome to the world of The Dervish House; the great, ancient, paradoxical city of Istanbul, divided like a human brain, in the great, ancient, equally paradoxical nation of Turkey. The year is 2027 and Turkey is about to celebrate the fifth anniversary of its accession to the European Union; a Europe that now runs from the Arran Islands to Ararat. Population pushing one hundred million, Istanbul swollen to fifteen million; Turkey is the largest, most populous and most diverse nation in the EU, but also one of the poorest and most socially divided. It's a boom economy, the sweatshop of Europe, the bazaar of central Asia, the key to the immense gas wealth of Russia and Central Asia.

Gas is power. But it's power at a price, and that price is emissions permits. This is the age of carbon consciousness: every individual in the EU has a card stipulating individual carbon allowance that must be produced at every CO2 generating transaction. For those who can master the game, who can make the trades between gas price and carbon trading permits, who can play the power factions against each other, there are fortunes to be made. The old Byzantine politics are back. They never went away.

The ancient power struggled between Sunni and Shia threatens like a storm: Ankara has watched the Middle East emerge from twenty-five years of sectarian conflict. So far it has stayed aloof. A populist Prime Minister has called a referendum on EU membership. Tensions run high. The army watches, hand on holster. And a Galatasary Champions' League football game against Arsenal stokes passions even higher.

The Dervish House is seven days, six characters, three interconnected story strands, one central common core--the eponymous dervish house, a character in itself--that pins all these players together in a weave of intrigue, conflict, drama and a ticking clock of a thriller.

---

Title: Passion Play
Author: Beth Bernobich
Publisher: Tor
Edition: ARC
Release Date: October 12th, 2010
Blurb: The daughter of one of Melnek’s more prominent merchants, Ilse Zhalina has lived most of her life surrounded by the trappings of wealth and privilege. She has wanted for nothing and many would consider her lot a most happy one. But there are dark secrets even in the best of families and Isle and the women in her family have learned that to be beautiful and silent is the best way to survive.

However, when Ilse fianlly meets the colleague of her father’s selected to marry her, she realizes that this man would lock in her a gilded cage. In her soul, she knows he is far crueler and more deadly than her father could ever be.

Ilse chooses to run from this life. Her choice will have devastating consequences and she will never be the same.

But she will meet Raul Kosenmark, a man of mystery who is the master of one of the land’s most notorious pleasure houses…and who is, as Ilse discovers, a puppetmaster of a different sort altogether. Together they will embark on a journey that will reshape their world.

Lush fantasy. Wild magic. Political intrigue and the games of seduction and treachery to gain control of a kingdom. PASSION PLAY is all of these and more. It is the journey of a woman who must conquer her passions in order to win all that she desires.

---

Title: Blood Song
Author: Cat Adams
Publisher: Tor
Edition: Final Copy
Release Date: June 8th, 2010
Blurb: In this fast-paced urban fantasy, Adams (Magic's Design), the joint pseudonym for C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp (the Sazi series), introduces readers to a new world full of treachery and action. Tough-as-nails bodyguard Celia Graves protects the rich and famous from ghosts, demons, and other supernatural entities. While guarding the prince of a tiny European country, Celia is caught in a vampire ambush that leaves her wounded and partially transformed. Now she has to figure out her new limits and powers, destroy her sire before he can control her, and put together the pieces of a larger plan in which she's just a pawn. The story line and setting will draw in readers from the start, but late revelations may have them paging backwards to pick up on clues, and some answers will just have to wait for the sequels.
 

---

Title: The Office of Shadow
Author: Matthews Sturges
Publisher: Pyr
Edition: ARC
Release Date: June 3rd, 2010
Blurb: If 2009's Midwinter was the Dirty Dozen in Elfland, this thrilling sequel is Magical Mission Impossible. Former lothario Silverdun becomes a priest, but finds himself bored. When his government recruits him as a spy, he takes the offer and is shocked when they demand he learn extraordinary physical and magical skills. Silverdun, scholarly former soldier Ironfoot, and deadly empath Sela are assigned to discover the origin of Einswrath, the city-killing weapons unleashed in the previous Seelie/Unseelie war. Standard spy tropes—training sequences, double agents, betrayals from within—take on new life when melded with high fantasy, and Sturges has an easy ear for dialogue and character. Silverdun's backstory is nicely fleshed out in the process, though fans of the first book should be warned that the other characters appear briefly or not at all.

---

Title: Deathbird Stories
Author: Harlan Ellison
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Edition: ARC
Release Date: December 2010
Blurb: Ellison. Harlan Ellison. He wrote this book midway toward the earliest acclaim of a career that now goes into sixty years. He’s still with us. the enfant terrible has become an eminence gris but the tongue remains sharp, the wit unpredictable, the manner still singular. He has outwritten and outlived his caste, and the words in this book carry the fire and truth of his career.

---

Title: The Neutronium Alchemist
Author: Peter F. Hamilton
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Edition: Final Copy
Release Date: July 27th, 2010
Blurb: Subterranean Press is proud to announce volume two of The Nights Dawn trilogy, one of modern space opera’s classic series.



Now the primeval evil has left Lalonde behind to spread its malign presence across the unsuspecting worlds of the Confederation. The possessed have acquired a chilling range of superhuman powers that can defeat most conventional weapons. Technology cannot defeat them. Fear multiplies like wildfire across the planets and asteroid settlements which make up the Human Confederation, the precursor to conquest and surrender. But even surrender fails to bring an end to the torment, for the possessed will not stop their campaign until their victory is absolute, with every living human taken.


Against this force the Confederation Navy is struggling to contain the threat, a battle it will ultimately lose. It seems as if individuals can make very little difference. Then out of history, Dr Alkad Mzu returns with the Neutronium Alchemist, the single most destructive weapon ever built. And she is determined to use it to avenge the death of her homeworld. It falls on Captain Joshua Calvert to try and stop her, but he’s not the only one hunting her down in an increasingly lethal universe. And not everyone thinks the doomsday device should be neutralized.

---

Ten books in two weeks. Now you see what I said about more books than I can read? You can see the historical list of books received here.

Fast Fiction Friday: Partridge, Ballingrud, and Barron

I've been reading a lot of short fiction recently to help discover new authors and to get a sense of the writing styles of many of the Authors Worth Watching who haven't been able to crank out a novel just yet. It's been enjoyable for the most part. But even though I read the short fiction, I rarely talk about it.

That is going to change. From now on, as I read short fiction I'm going to sum up my thoughts in a Fast Fiction Friday post to appear whenever I manage to read some short fiction during the week. I will still feature reviews of collections and anthologies but as I find it difficult to sit down and read an anthology from cover to cover, I'd like to make mention of the stories while they are still fresh in my mind.

This week I've been on a horror kick reading stories from Norman Partridge, Nathan Ballingrud, and Laird Barron.

---

Red Rover, Red Rover - Norman Partidge

Printed as an accompanying chapbook for preordering the Subterranean Press anthology Lesser Demons.

Red Rover, Red Rover might be the single best short story I've read this year. It's simple, powerful, and timeless. This would be a perfect ghost story to tell around the campfire, regardless of the audience. Two boys investigate the ghost of a drowned girl in the local lake and end up discovering more than they ever imagined. I've said before that Norman Partridge writes American Horror and Red Rover is exactly that, evoking memories of Stand By Me albeit with a somewhat darker edge.  While the story ended a little bit before I would have liked it to, the conclusion was both surprising and fitting. I don't know what the best way to get your hands on Red Rover, Red Rover but I highly suggest you do.

---

North American Lake Monsters - Nathan Ballingrud

Originally published in the The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy (2008) and edited by Ellen Datlow.

Nathan Ballingrud is an up-and-coming horror writer and while I've found some of his stories to be excellent, North American Lake Monsters felt a little flat to my tastes. I'm fairly sure the titular Monsters are the dysfunctional family staying in the lakeside cabin, not the mysterious bloated corpse washed up nearby.  I tend to like stories that either have characters I can connect with or speculative ideas that consume my imagination. Ballingrud's didn't really delve into the physical monster enough to my liking and between the bitchy wife, the angsty teen, and the ex-con husband whose crime is never mentioned, there wasn't enough to like about these characters to make me feel for them. Yes, they all can be monsters but what of it?

---

Mysterium Tremendum - Laird Barron

Originally published in Barron's 2nd Collection, Occultation.

I've been reading Barron's latest collection off an on for about a month now, mostly because I find his stories to be a little too disturbing for light reading. This week I worked through Mysterium Tremendum, another story in what appears to be a linked series of tales hinting at some unimaginable horror lurking just beyond reality. Two couples plan a camping trip in the Pacific Northwest using a recently discovered almanac of the occult and (as typically happens) discover more than they anticipated. While the Lovecraftian Horror that Barron concocts is purposefully hard to wrap your head around, there is no denying that whatever macabre monstrosities he creates, they are downright chilling in all the right ways. Barron builds up the story slowly in a profoundly unsettling fashion, something that seems to happen in most of his work to great effect. The only criticisms I can raise are the four main characters felt a little too similar and were easily confused and that certian portions of the story felt a little superfluous (although it might have added to gradual build-up of tension). But definitely one of my favorite stories in the collection so far.

Covering Covers: Behemoth - Scott Westerfeld

Over at io9, they've got an exclusive first look at the cover art of Behemoth. Behemoth is the follow up to Scott Westerfeld's excellent Steampunk YA novel, Leviathan which garnered fantastic reviews last year (my review) and more recently won the Locus award for best YA novel.

While this cover matches the newly debuted US paperback cover, I think this photorealism on this cover detracts from what made either of the original covers [below] great in the first place.

This new cover is particularly disappointing as art is such an integral part of this series. Keith Thompson's wonderful interior sketches bring the "dieselpunk" world of Leviathan into sharp focus. It's extremely impressive how well his art works with the book. So when I saw this obviously photoshopped oversaturated cover, I couldn't help but be severly underwhelmed.

I really hope this is only one of the covers and there is a stronger US or UK cover out there.

YetiStomper Picks for July

With July comes the begins of the second half of the year. While I think the first half of 2010 presented a much stronger showing, there are still quite a few great books in the future, both stand-alones and series continuations. I've also noticed and significant uptick in the number and quality of anthologies. I haven't the slightest why that is but it's cool to see nonetheless. The 2nd month of summer brings us a dozen titles worth mentioning.

Note: I've noticed I've been rambling on in past YetiPicks so I am going to tighten up my blurbs and save everyone some time. If you want to know more about the books, go through the links or use the mighty and all-powerful Google.

The Dervish House - Ian McDonald

Stand-Alone SF Novel. A sure contender for all the top SF prizes, The Dervish House is Ian McDonald's first new novel since 2007's absolutely fantastic Brasyl. Like River of Gods and the aforementioned Brasyl, The Dervish House is McDonald's take on a future state of a particular country or culture, in this case, Turkey. I've been waiting for this book for a while and expect great things. (July 27th from Pyr)

Masked - Lou Anders (ed.)

Superhero Themed Original Anthology. Genre superstar editor Lou Anders continues his output of themed anthologies with Masked. Originally titled With Great Power, Masked promises superhero prose, a subject that is actually fairly underrepresented. Anders assembled both prose authors and comic book writers for this anthology and the Table of Contents looks great. I'm particulary excited for the Daryl Gregory, Mike Carey, Chris Roberson and Bill Willingham stories. (July 20th from Gallery)

Tongues of Serpents - Naomi Novik 

Temeraire, Book Six. Novik returns to her dragon filled alternate history with Tongues of Serpents. Capt Will Laurence and Temeraire are back and this time destined for Australia and a prison colony in the midst of political upheaval. The Temeraire books have all the fun of dragon centered stories but the additional benefit of alternate history elements, making them some of (if not) the best dragon fantasies being written today. (July 13th from Del Rey)

The Fuller Memorandum - Charles Stross

The Laundry Files, Book 3. Have you ever asked yourself what would happen when you pit Lovecraftian Horror against your company's IT guy? Probably not, although you may have wished it upon him. Stross's Laundry Files series does just that, mixing science fiction, horror, spy novels, and more than a bit of geekery in a fairly absurd but completely unique fashion. I'd almost call it Urban Science Fiction. (July 6th from Ace)

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance - Sean Williams

Star Wars Novel. Now Star Wars novels are frequently not worth focusing on too much. If you read SW you know they are coming and if you don't you aren't going to jump on midway through book 83. Fatal Alliance is a bit difference as it is the first piece of fiction in a completely unexplored era in Star Wars history. Focusing on the characters and backstory of next year's absolutley huge The Old Republic MMORPG (Bioware/Lucasarts), Fatal Alliance is set three and a half millenia before A New Hope at a time when the Jedi of the Old Republic maintain an uneasy peace with a less than trustworthy Sith Empire. (Check out this awesome trailer for more info). Fatal Alliance represents a great jumping on point for anyone interested in the upcoming MMORPG or Star Wars fiction in general. (July 20th from Del Rey)

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection - Gardner Dozois (ed.)

Year's Best Reprint Anthology. I don't think I need to say much here. Hall of Fame editor Dozois continues his Year's Best series with hundreds of thousand of words of outstanding fiction. While I feel like these books could be improved by publishing fewer stories, there is still plenty to be excited about with these anthologies. (July 6th from St. Martin's Griffin)

Gateways - Elizabeth A. Hull (ed.)

Frederick Pohl Inspired Original Anthology - Pohl is one of the true grandmasters of science fiction and it shows here with the number of absolute genre giants that have written original pieces for this tribute anthology. I mean there are a lot of good anthologies but few have the historical weight that is present in the Table of Contents. Wolfe, Silverberg, Haldeman, Brin, Niven, Benford, Bova, the list goes on and on. One nitpick is that while this claims to be an original anthology, I believe a few of the stories are reprints. Still, wow... (July 6th from Tor)

Black Lung Captain - Chris Woodring

Tales of the Ketty Jay, Book 2 - Unfortunately a UK-only release, Black Lung Captain is a return to the universe of Retribution Falls. Fun, adventureous science ficiton, Retribution Falls got stellar reviews and I think the entire British Empire is excited for Black Lung Captain. One comparison I've seen thrown around on multiple occassions is "Firefly" and if that holds true it should be impressive indeed. (July 29th from Gollancz [UK only])

Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour - Scott O' Malley

Scott Pilgrim, Book 6. This might be my most anticipated book of the bunch. Scott Pilgrim is a blend of video games, music, teen love and angst, and general geekery that is also being made into a movie later this year.  The absurdity of the story is only surpassed by its unexplicable charm. This is the last book in the series and will see Scott Pilgrim battle (yes, battle) the seventh and final ex-boyfriend of Ramona's. If you like indie comics and are looking for something unique and hilarious, look no further than Scott Pilgrim. (July 20 from Oni Press)

Virga: Cities of the Air - Karl Schroeder

Virga Omnibus Reprint, Books 1+2. Schroeder's SF adventure series didn't get the attention it deserved in it's hardcover print run and Tor is giving it another go with a set of trade paperback beautifully covered by Stephan Martiniere. Sun of Suns and Queen of Candesce will be combined into Virga: Cities of the Air and the third book Pirate Sun will be reprinted later this fall. The Virga series currently sits at 3 books though two more are currently planned.  (July 6th from Tor)

The Lifecycle of Software Objects - Ted Chiang

Stand-alone SF Novella. Chiang's longest work to date concerns the best way to develop artificial intelligence, particularly if said intelligence is more human than your typical AI. I've already read and reviewed Lifecycle (review here) and while I was impressed with Chiang's evocative prose I found that it felt like Chiang was having a little difficulty with the longer structure. Even so it's stil a quick, enjoyable read and I've seen a few other reviews that didn't have the same issues with the ending that I did. (July 31st from Subterranean Press)

The Hounds of Avalon - Mark Chadbourn

The Dark Age, Book 3. Chadbourn concludes his The Dark Age trilogy and 2nd Age of Misrule Triptych with The Hounds of Avalon. While the cover looks like a oversized yorkshire terrier, these books are full of rich mythology and adventure as the UK attempts to survive an invasion of legend (June 3rd from Pyr)

---

The clear favorite for YetiStomper Pick of the month has to be The Dervish House. McDonald is just that good and anyone not reading his stuff is doing themselves a disservice. I typically have a YetiStomper Debut to focus on as well but I don't have any new debuts on my radar in July. Please let me know if I'm missing something. Anyway, as always, if you are interested in more details regarding any of the above books, just click on through the Amazon links. I'm more interested in telling you why I recommended them rather than simply what the books are about. Let me know if there is anything I may have missed in the comments.

And which one of these covers is your favorite? My vote goes again to The Dervish House. Gateways is pretty strong as well.
You can view previous installments of YetiStomper Picks here.

Buckeillgalupian Goodness Arrives July 6th

No that's not a race of metaphorically altered humans straight out of Gulliver's Travels 2: Steampunk Boogaloo. It's what you get when you combine up-and-coming authors Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell.

Like Bradgelina, but... I'm so sorry...

A few months back, the news broke that Buckell and Bacigalupi were writting a pair of fantasy novellas set in the same shared universe. He compared it to those old Ace paperbacks which were two SF novellas published back-to-back. Sounds cool, no?

Today, Buckell mentioned that the pair of novellas, entitled The Alchemist and The Executioness will be available on July 6th in audio format on Audible.com. Sounds a lot like Metatropolis, which Buckell also worked on. Now, I'm not a huge fan of audio (can't concentrate on just audio without closing my eyes, which leads to in-insomnia but for certain projects its worth the time. Still, how awesome would it be to see a resurgence of those doublesided books?

I don't have any more details on the actual story itself but given the work these two have put out it should be high quality. And Bacigalupian fantasy could be very, very interesting to say the least. I'll be listening.

Update: Buckell has provided a short Twitter blurb:

Short version: A world where magic has unintended consequences, a father struggles to save his world and a mother sets out on a quest of a vengeance.

Not much to go on but unintended consequences sounds fun and makes me think of the magic in Pushing Daisies.

Hannu Rajaniemi to the US!

Making the rounds on Twitter this morning when I saw some good news for Worth Watching Author Hannu Rajaniemi (and every US fan of science fiction).

Hannu's much hyped debut novel, THE QUANTUM THIEF, will be coming to the US next May in a Hardcover edition from Tor.

Quoting from John Jarrold's livejournal:

Susan Howe, Rights Director at Orion, has sold US rights in three novels by Finnish science fiction novelist, resident in Scotland, Hannu Rajaniemi to Patrick Nielsen Hayden of Tor pre-emptively, in a significant deal.


World rights in Hannu’s debut novel, THE QUANTUM THIEF, plus two further books were acquired pre-emptively by Simon Spanton of Gollancz (who publish in September 2010) from agent John Jarrold for a high five-figure sum in pounds sterling, on the basis of one chapter, in 2008. Tor will publish in hardback in May 2011.


‘I’ve known Patrick for twenty-five years and his team at Tor will do a marvellous job – Hannu and I couldn’t be happier,’ said John Jarrold.

If you don't know anything about The Quantum Thief, here's what Charles Stross had to say on the subject.

However, it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up when I read it, and I think Hannu's going to revolutionize hard SF when he hits his stride. Hard to admit, but I think he's better at this stuff than I am. And "The Quantum Thief" is the best first SF novel I've read in many years.

And a plot summary.

Jean le Flambeur is a post-human criminal, mind burglar, confidence artist and trickster. His origins are shrouded in mystery, but his exploits are known throughout the Heterarchy - from breaking into the vast Zeusbrains of the Inner System to steal their thoughts, to stealing rare Earth antiques from the aristocrats of the Moving Cities of Mars. Except that Jean made one mistake. Now he is condemned to play endless variations of a game-theoretic riddle in the vast virtual jail of the Axelrod Archons - the Dilemma Prison - against countless copies of himself. Jean's routine of death, defection and cooperation is upset by the arrival of Mieli and her spidership, Perhonen. She offers him a chance to win back his freedom and the powers of his old self - in exchange for finishing the one heist he never quite managed . . . The Quantum Thief is a dazzling hard SF novel set in the solar system of the far future - a heist novel peopled by bizarre post-humans but powered by very human motives of betrayal, revenge and jealousy. It is a stunning debut.

Congratulations to Hannu!The UK always seems to have a ton of quality science fiction that doesn't seem to get published accross the pond so I am glad to see that a least a few of the gems are making the trip.

Great News Everyone! [Futurama Premieres Tonight!]

Bender's Back Baby!

After 7 years and change, Fry, Leela, Bender, and co are back! Zoidberg, Lrrr, Morbo, Clamps, Hedonism Bot, I've missed them all.

Comedy Central picked up Futurama for an additional 26 episodes. Suppossedly, it's to be split into two 12 episode "seasons" with two specials but I haven't been able to confirm that with a source.

To be fair, I'm being a little cautious. The four direct to DVD movies were nothing special (the first was good, the rest were disappointing) but I am optimistic that that was just a result of the format and not of a lack of ideas. Futurama might just work best in 20 minute chunks not as full length feature films which allow jokes to become stale. I'm really hoping that it doesn't pull a Family Guy and devolve into a stale parody of what it once was. io9 has seen the first two episodes and they thought they were good. Not "Roswell That End's Well" or "Luck of the Fryrish" good but decent nonetheless.

They also have an interview with creator David X. Cohen who provides some information about what to expect from the new season.

If you are looking for more Futurama news, check out Got Futurama a great fansite with all the latest news.

Here is the first 90 seconds from the new season.


If you haven't watched Futurama in a while or *gasp* never watched it, here is a 7 minute video summing up the first five seasons.

Futurama	Thursdays 10pm / 9c
Recap-O-Rama: 5 Seasons in 7 Minutes
www.comedycentral.com
Futurama New Episodes Futurama New Episodes Ugly Americans

Plus, the entire cast is back.

Well the voice cast at least. Although they tried to change it.

And for the sake of discussion, what's your favorite episode? Mine might have to be A Big Piece of Garbage or Why Must I Be A Crustacean in Love? or The Problem with Popplers or... I forgot how much I loved this show.

And then there's my alltime favorite quote from Season 2 Episode: The Deep South. Click here to listen.

Futurama Season 6 premieres on Comedy Central at 10 PM ET / 9 CT.

I'm excited are you?