Covering Covers: Scratch Monkey - Charles Stross

Cover Artist: Gregory Manchess

Hot off the presses, Subterranean Press is offering a previously unpublished Charles Stross novel, Scratch Monkey, for what looks to be an extremely short time. Somehow or other, they acquired a very limited number of copies (the entire print run was 800 books) and Stross is a tremendously popular SF author. If you are interested in scoring yourself a copy, head over to Subterranean Press and order immediately. I wouldn't be posting this if I hadn't already guaranteed a copy of Manchess's fantastic artwork for my own bookshelf.


Regarding the book itself, I understand it to be one of Stross's earlier novels. I'll be interested to see how Stross's writing has evolved over the years although I'm a little apprehensive as to why the book wasn't published in the first place. Hopefully, it's a question of length and not one of quality. There's certainly no denying the Strossian characteristic of the summary:

Scratch Monkey is the 2011 Boskone Book by Boskone’s Guest of Honor Charles Stross. It contains his previously unpublished novel, Scratch Monkey, an essay about writing the novel (Scratching, and a second essay about a writer's view of publishing. The novel is set in the distant future, when humans have spread through the galaxy, physically and virtually. We are not alone; we have created a race of AIs, the Superbrights, to administer and expand the virtual side of our presence in the Milky Way. Oshi Adjani works for a Superbright, traveling to worlds where her Boss cannot go, and solving the problems he has set her. One success reveals a secret of the Superbrights, so the Boss forces her into one last, deadly mission, with her freedom as her reward for doing the impossible. The full-color dust jacket is by Gregory Manchess, the Boskone 48 Official Artist.

The aforementioned essay is comically titled "Scratching The Itch" and as a fully fledged bibliophile, I can tell you that this book promises to do just that. Exclusive content, limited print run, and gorgeous cover art? I'm just glad they didn't stick a three figure price tag on this guy. I've already ordered my copy. If you are legitimately interested, sooner is better than later.

Ever Wish You Could Pay Me To Go Jump In A Freezing Cold Lake?

Good news! Now you can.

[Author's Note: Please forgive the personal nature of this post. The only other time I will post on this topic is with proof of completion. Regular banal content will resume shortly]

This year I'm returning to the Polar Plunge circuit for the 2011 Chicago edition to raise money for The Special Olympics.

That splash is me, immediately regretting my decision.

The Special Olympics mission is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community.

If you don't know what The Special Olympics is all about, they are essentially an organization whose primary goal is to provide arenas for children and adults with intellectual disabilities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy, and participate in a world where they are frequently excluded for being "different". Besides the events themselves, they also promote understanding and respect for a demographic that is all too often marginalized or maltreated.

FTW!

It's an organization that is very near and dear to my heart. My younger (and awesomer) brother Peter was born with Down Syndrome and he's enjoyed countless Special Olympics events over the years. He loves geeking around just like me, and while I disagree with him about the quality of Spiderman 3, I couldn't ask for a nicer brother. I'm really hoping he can come jump in with me this year.

I did the plunge two years ago on a balmy 42 F degree day (the water temp was 33 F), and I would need Neil Gaiman's literary expertise to properly illustrate exactly what that feels like. My best effort would be to imagine getting slapped in the face by an Eskimo with a frozen halibut who hasn't paid the heating bill because he spent all of his money on liquid nitrogen and Vanilla Ice tickets. On Hoth.

Yeah. That cold.

Then double that and add three. It's cold, mind numbingly so.

So when I end up curled in the fetal position at the bottom of my shower, your support will help me remember why I did it in the first place.

Hopefully my donation total will surpass the water bill.

If you want to contribute, you can sponsor my insanity here. You could also sponsor my wife (who committed to plunge if I raised over $500) here. No donation is too small and any amount will be appreciated.  If you don't, normal posts will resume tomorrow, and you can forget you ever read this.

Thanks!

Quick Thought of the Day

"I don't judge a book by its cover but a good cover will get me to judge a book"

My (Almost) Dinner With Ken Scholes

I jetted out of work today at a quarter to five with the intention of driving out to Schaumburg to participate in a little meet and eat with fantasy author Ken Scholes.

He's excited for pizza.

Now, I was looking forward to it. I've never really done the convention thing and "local" book signings always seem to be out of reach. (Note To Publicists: a book signing in Oak Brook, IL is not a book signing in Chicago.)

A two hour drive (each way) is not "local"

But when I went to retrieve my car, it apparently had gotten a head start. After a few frantic moments, my wife and I discovered that, fortunately, it hadn't been stolen. It had just broken THE CHICAGO CODE.

www.cityofchicago.org/revenue... discreet

You see, after the snowpocalypse a few weeks back, the snow never melted. It just got pushed to the edge of the road, sharing the room that us Chicagoans use to park our vehicles. A fortnight and a few sixty degree days later, some of that snow has melted - apparently enough to free up a space between my tires and the curb. Even though I was parked in line with all the cars on my street, that curbside gap made us "road obstructions" and earned every car on the steet a trip to the local impound lot. Bear in mind, my car had been parked in the same spot for over a week: I didn't start to obstruct traffic until yesterday.

The orange color means it's full of vitamins.

So instead of an enjoyable evening spent conversing with one of my favorite authors over pizza and drinks, I journeyed to Lower Lower Lower Lower Wacker. For those of you familiar with Chicago, Wacker is the street next to the river. Lower Wacker is the street below that, with garage parking for high rise hotels. It's also where the car chase scenes for The Dark Knight were filmed. Lower Lower Wacker is the street below that, where hotels receive shipments of food in exchange for dumpsters full of refuse. At this point, the pigeon to pedestrian ratio is borderline incalculable.

He's was just trying to reach sunlight...

[As an aside, you should have a relatively simple way for pedestrians to get to a towing yard. For some reason, I can imagine a lot of people going there sans cars. Just a thought. Or you could space your stairways blocks apart with no discernible direction between them. Your call.]

I'm pretty sure James Cameron just made a movie about this.

Flash back to the pedestrian yeti, black with grime and weary with travel. One level below Lower Lower Lower Wacker is hell. The level below that houses the impound lot. I suspect Orpheus had an easier time with retrieving Eurydice.

How much? I thought Sisyphus had it bad.

As ridiculous as the whole situation was, I didn't take it out on the unfortunate minons. The employees at the impound facility didn't deem my car to be obstructing traffic, they didn't schedule the towing, nor did they tow the car itself. They're just doing their jobs in a city where not everyone has one. So I was polite and friendly, despite my irritation at missing my dinner with Scholes. I got my car in a relatively quick amount of time, probably about 45 minutes (only about 2 hours in DMV time) which is more than can be said about the divorcee whose driver's license didn't match her credit card, the middle-aged man whose credit card didn't have room for a $190 charge, or the probable illegal immigrant whose only form of ID expired in 1996.

The only thing worse than being here is working here.

At least my $170 towing charge (in addition to the $75 parking ticket x2) earned me a renewed respect for the relative financial security I'm fortunate to possess. There are a lot of people out there for whom getting a car towed would be much more than an inconvenient adventure.

Yeah, kind of like that.

So I didn't get to meet Mr. Scholes or return home with a signed book or two. I'm a bit disappointed but at least I gleaned a story out of it. There's no denying it was an interesting experience, albeit one I'm not keen to repeat.

How was your Thursday? Anyone make it to dinner with Ken?

Covering [Hypothetical] Covers: Behemoth - Scott Westerfeld.

Over on his blog, Scott Westerfeld is showing off the German cover of his latest book, Behemoth. Hidden behind the jump, is what the US cover would have looked like if vengeful demons had not possessed the art director over at Simon Pulse.

Cover Artist: Unkown.

Excuse me while I go print this out and Scalzi it to the edition I already have, which sadly looks like this:

Cover Artist: Unknown

Blegh.

If you don't understand my frustration, here is what the original Leviathan cover and the what-should-have-been cover to Behemoth would look like side by side.

Barking spiders, what were they thinking?

YetiStomper Picks for February

Yeah, yeah, it's late, I know. I blame it on the epic Thundersnowpocalypsageddon that ravaged my city last week. You better get reading, it's almost March.

King of the Crags - Stephen Deas

A Memory of Flames, Book 2 - Deas returns to his dragon centric world with the gorgeously covered King of the Crags. If you haven't read the first volume, The Adamantine Palace, imagine a stirfry of flying reptiles, political intrigue, and legendary prophecy covered in treacherously dark chocolate sauce. (February 1 from Roc)

The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore - Benjamin Hale

Stand Alone Novel - This is one of the 2011 Debuts that I am most interested in. Now, I don't know a lot about the author but I do know that I rarely see a premise as intriguing (or as weird) as Mr. Hale's debut novel. Essentially, Bruno Littlemore is a fictional memoir written by the world's first chimpanzee to develop the capacity for speech. To make matters more bizarre, it's also a love story. (February 2 from Twelve)

Thirteen Years Later - Jasper Kent

The Danilov Quintet, Book 2 - It's 1825 and thirteen years (obviously) after the climactic events of Twelve, trouble has found Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov once again. For whatever reason, Russian history and blood-thirsty monsters seem to work well together - a fact that Jasper Kent takes full advantage of as he continues to expand the scope of his planned quintet. Kent is crafting an outstanding tale of epic proportion and I can't wait to see where this goes. (February 8 from Pyr)

The Heroes - Joe Abercrombie

Realm of The First Law, Book 5 - This is must read fantasy. Abercrombie's first trilogy challenged all preconceptions about what a fantasy trilogy should be. His follow up, Best Served Cold, returned to the same world with a vengeance, wreaking havoc on the idea of revenge. In his latest, Abercrombie takes on war itself, redefining what it really means to be a hero. While Abercrombie works within the boundaries instead of expanding them, his execution is flawless and I have never read a better action writer. Abercrombie is the reigning king of blood soaked fantasy - don't miss out.  (February 7 from Orbit)

Desert of Souls - Howard A. Jones

Dabir and Asim, Book 1 - After years of Western European overload, don't be surprised to see other cultural elements creep into your fantasy novels. While I don't have the numbers to back it up, I would posit that manuscripts featuring Arabic and Islamic influences probably didn't sell like Twilight rip-offs over the last decade. But just because publishers weren't buying them doesn't mean they weren't being written. As irrational avoidance gives way to acceptance again, a lot of these overlooked books are going to reemerge. One such book is Howard A. Jones's Desert of Souls. The first in a series of novels further expanding Dunne's shorter work, Desert of Souls features a pair of 8th century Arabic adventurers as they attempt to determine the fate of a lost city said to be destroyed by God himself. Think Arabian Nights as written by Arthur Conan Doyle. (February 15 from Thomas Dunne)

Midnight Riot - Ben Aaronovitch

Peter Grant, Book 1 - Ben Aaronovitch has done something which I didn't think possible - replaced Joe Abercrombie. Not as the reigning king of fantasy mind you, but as the alphabetical alpha (or double alpha as the case may be) of the science fiction and fantasy department. As such, Aaronovitch will likely be the first name greeting hungry eyes in search of new books and I wouldn't be suprised if the former Doctor Who becomes a fast favorite, particularly for fans of Harry Dresden or Felix Castor. Peter Grant, Aaronovitch's protagonist appears to be a melding of the two, combining the paranormal police portion of Dresden with the British flair and necrocommunication skills of Castor. Midnight Riot was also just published in the UK as Rivers of London and will soon be followed up by a sequel, Moon Over Soho. (February 1 from Del Rey)

YetiStomper Pick Of The Month: Normally a hard decision, this month's pick is simple - The Heroes. I don't mean to take anything away from any of the other titles; Joe Abercrombie's fifth book is just that good, not to mention the fact that the chapter entitled "Casualties" is the Platonic Ideal of how to write an action sequence. With memorable characters, tight plotting, and more than the recommended daily dose of witty banter, The Heroes is flawlessly executed fantasy.

YetiStomper Debut Of The Month: Despite only picking six books this month, three are actually debut novels. While the alternate history and Arab inspiration behind The Desert of Souls is intriguing and I'm always a sucker for paranormal procedurals like Midnight Riot, the premise behind The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore is simply to unique to pass up. Add in Hale's literary accolades and you have a debut that is hard to pass up.

YetiStomper Cover Of The Month: Cover art for genre fiction is all too often riddled with stereotypes. Cloaked warriors wielding swords against fantastic beasts. Spaceships streaking across a strangely hued planet. Whatever the hell Baen is trying to do. And then there are the dragons, king of all cliched cover creatures. But even as traditional as they are, it's hard to pass up a cover as well executed as that of King of the Crags. I love the blue tones, the detail of the dragons, and the clean lines of the text treatment. Who says you can't reach the target audience and still stand out from the pack?

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. I'm guessing there is something I'm forgetting with only two books on the radar.

You can view previous installments of YetiStomper Picks here.

RIP Brian Jacques

Over the weekend, the world got a little less wonderous with the passing of Brian Jacques, bestselling fantasy author mostly known for his tales of Redwall Abbey. Brian passed away from a heart attack at the age of 71.
Personally, Jacques's work had a huge impact on my childhood and I doubt I'm the only child who explored the woods intent on stumbling upon his world of imaginary talking rodents. Some of my fondest memories are lazy summer days spent in the company of noble mice, vile rats, cunning foxes, and epic badgers and his words were one of the things that drew me into genre fiction.

I expect to have some more thoughts later on Jacques and the impact of his work but right now my thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends. Brian Jacques was an amazing writer whose words captured the imaginations of millions of children, he will be missed.

Covering Covers: Flashback - Dan Simmons

Cover Artist: Unknown

This. Please.

Artists take note - this is a great cover. It's striking without being off-putting and simultaneously recognizable and mysterious. It attracts the right kind of attention, the kind that isn't accompanied by weird looks on the bus. Reagan Arthur has hit a home run, and based on the brief summary provided, I wouldn't be surprised if Dan Simmons has done the same.

The United States is near total collapse. But 87% of the population doesn't care: they're addicted to flashback, a drug that allows its users to re-experience the best moments of their lives. After ex-detective Nick Bottom's wife died in a car accident, he went under the flash to be with her; he's lost his job, his teenage son, and his livelihood as a result.


Nick may be a lost soul but he's still a good cop, so he is hired to investigate the murder of a top governmental advisor's son. This flashback-addict becomes the one man who may be able to change the course of an entire nation turning away from the future to live in the past.


A provocative novel set in a future that seems scarily possible, FLASHBACK proves why Dan Simmons is one of our most exciting and versatile writers.

Versatile...I guess that's one way to describe a genre author that was drafted into the "big leagues" of literature. Simmons has dabbled in niche markets with his last few books - it's only a matter of time before he gets the mainstream attention he deserves. Look for Flashback in the "respectable" section of the book store this July.

Yeti Review: Red Harvest - Joe Schreiber

In A Few Words: Disappointing in almost every way, the only thing scary about Joe Schreiber's Red Harvest is the fact that a major house considered it publishable.

Pros:
-It's only 241 pages.

Cons:
-Arguably unedited
-Repetitive plot ignores all of the inherent potential in the setup
-Entire plot threads do nothing but detract from the story

The Review: Brainless. Stumbling. Grotesque. Unrelenting. It's doubtful that Joe Schreiber was trying to be "meta" in writing his latest novel. At the same time, it's hard to ignore the similarities between Red Harvest and the single-minded zombie hordes contained within. The recipe behind Red Harvest is a standard one: an unexpected outbreak of an unknown pathogen results in a zombie menace from which the uninfected must escape. Yet even with the variety of spices found in Lucas's far, far away galaxy, it's about as palatable as a plateful of raw gray matter.

And it's certainly not the extra flavor that ruins the dish. Star Wars tie-in fiction has never claimed to be high art. Intended to sell first and entertain second, critical acclaim might not even be on the list of priorities. But even with lowered expectations, Red Harvest marks a new nadir for a franchise that has been slowly declining for over a decade.

Essentially, Schreiber's latest boils down to a repetitive sequence linked together more tenuously than the entrails of one of his victims. Wasting no time on character development, Schreiber quickly assembles his cast of paper-thin characters - Hestizo Trace (Jedi Botanist), Rojo Trace (Jedi brother and Liam Neeson wannabe), the Black Orchid (talking plant) and Darth Scabrous (generic bad guy) - before throwing them into the plot. After a brief setup and a little Force magic to introduce the zombie threat, Schreiber's writing soon devolves into little more than copy-and-paste carnage. The zombies surprise, attack, get "killed", are presumed dead, surprise again, infect someone, and are finally dismembered or eluded. It's splatterpunk at it's most gratuitous and it fails even at that.

The highest compliment I can pay to Red Harvest is that the first fifty or so pages are merely forgettable. Until page 53, on which Schreiber blatantly "borrows" [read "plagiarizes"] a key quote from 2009's action/revenge film Taken. Everything is downhill from there.

"Listen to me, Trace told him. I don't know who you are, but I am in possession of a very special set of skills. If you bring my sister back right now, unharmed, then I'll let you go. But if you don't, I promise you, I will track you down. I will find you. And I will make you pay." [pg. 53]

After this, it only gets harder to keep reading, and judging from the gradual decline in quality, the assigned editor might agree. That is, if an editor actually touched the manuscript after the outline phase. Based on the sheer number of awkward metaphors and continuity screw-ups, I wouldn't be suprised if they hadn't. And these aren't minor fanboy nitpicks about the number of fingers a particular alien has or the way that a character's motivation contradicts a single line of movie dialogue. These are blatant errors, the "Wait...What?" lines that force you to reread prose that in no way deserves it. At one point, a character slits his wrists in one scene and is alive and well in the next. At another, Schreiber apparently forgets which character bit another, temporarily reversing the vector/victim relationship. Maybe the editor assumed that he understood resuming a plot thread where it left off isn't optional, but Schreiber apparently likes to push the boundaries of what is considered acceptable narrative.

Even as egregious as these "hard" errors are, they are almost welcome in comparison to the softer ones; those of story direction, pacing and thematic structure. It should be simple - a lone Jedi Knight has to stay alive in the midst of a bloody battle between cut-throat Sith and bite-throat Zombies, relying on her wits and the self-interested nature of evil to survive. By turning them against each other, she just may escape the planet alive, possibly in the company of a redeemed soul or two. Throw in a few meditations on the corrupting nature of evil and power and a handful of unique set pieces and you should have a winner. Instead, the Sith students are written like Slytherin drop-outs, turning a batch of potential adversaries into a cadre of whining red shirts. Instead of a dynamic conflict that changes with the ratio of Sith to Zombies, Schreiber gives us the same encounter again and again with no direction or distinction.

Schreiber also missteps with the inclusion of the entire Rojo Trace subplot. Even without the unforgivable Taken reference, his character contributes little to the book and if anything detracts from his sister's character by implying that she is incapable of saving herself. Gender politics aside, his role is completely superfluous as further evidenced by the illogically rapid pace with which he moves through his portion of the story. In not quite three pages, Rojo manages to connect the dots between footage of getaway vehicle and the identity of the bounty hunter, the Sith Lord who hired him and the location of the Sith Academy through a sequence of coincidences that would leave the cast of CSI rolling their eyes. It's like an outline with transitions and there is no reason why Rojo wasn't red penned out of narrative existence.

The only fathomable excuse is that at a mere 241 pages, the editor couldn't cut anything and still justify the $27.00 price tag on the jacket. Or even worse, the manuscript was turned in at 400 pages and what went to print was the "good" stuff. Either way, the end result is pure and utter drek and the reason why tie-in fiction has the reputation it does today.

The scariest thing about Red Harvest? The fact that it sold enough copies to get on the New York Times Bestseller List.

Urban Fantasy Updates

Here are a few updates on a few of my favorite urban fantasy series including Harry Dresden, Felix Castor, Sandman Slim, and everyone's favorite trampstamp heroine, Jayne Heller.

Dresden Delay

[via The Mad Hatter] Without spoiling anything, I will say that the events of the appropriately titled Changes have left fans eagerly anticipating Butcher's follow up, Ghost Story, due out this spring. Unfortunately for them, they'll have to wait a little bit longer to find out what happens to Harry Dresden next.

At MarsCon, Jim Butcher broke the news that Ghost Story was being pushed from its scheduled slot in March to one in late June. As to why, Jim was paraphrased as saying:

“It came down to, readers could either get a half-assed story in April, or a full-assed one in July!” 

Now anyone familiar with the Dresden Books or Codex Alera knows that Butcher has cranked out books at a ridiculous pace for years. They should also recognize that with each book, Butcher has become a better writer - most likely the reason behind the "decrease" in productivity.

I'll take fewer, better books any day. Look for Ghost Story on July 26, 2011.

---

Don't Forget About Felix

US fans of Felix Castor may still be wondering what happened to Felix Castor after 2009's Dead Men's Boots. Mike Carey's US publisher, Grand Central, has inexplicably stopped publishing subsequent entries, despite owning contractual rights to the books. UK fans are a bit better off, having access to Thicker Than Water (Book 4), and The Naming of the Beasts (Book 5) but are still without any concrete conclusion and no sign of the sixth entry on the publishing calendars.

After some digging, I was able to find a brief update from Carey on the message board of his infrequently updated website.

Book 6 is scheduled for a late 2011 release; and yeah, you're right, mastadge [message board user] - it's the one that answers the big questions that have been hanging in the air ever since the first book. We finally get to find out why the dead are rising now, after so many millennia of human civilisation, how Hell fits into the spiritual ecosystem of Castor's world, and what the "great project" that Moloch talked about was really meant to achieve.


But I've got two other novels to finish first, which is why there's this long delay. There was a fair amount of contractual skullduggery to get sorted after I finished writing book 5, but it's all good now, and it's all definitely going to happen.

Carey doesn't really mention what's going on with his US publisher (aside from possible contractual skullduggery) but it is nice to know that the series will continue, if only in the UK. Luckily, any American fans clamoring for more Castor can purchase the British editions via Amazon or the Book Depository.

I'll be sure to provide more info when I have it.

---

Sandman Slim Bulks Up

[via io9] - This week news broke that Richard Kadrey has signed a contract for three additional books in his Sandman Slim series after the third book Aloha From Hell fulfills the original contract.  Aloha from Hell promises to close out the first loose trilogy but it looks like the second set of books will continue the plot from the first.

When asked about the series extension, Kadrey told io9.

James Stark (aka Sandman Slim) has plenty more to say and do and kill and break and when I explained this to my publisher they agreed to continue the series if I let them out of the crawlspace under the abandoned slaughterhouse. I'm thrilled to be continuing Stark's story and I'm sure that once I've hosed down the good folks at Harper Voyager they will be too.

Glad to see his dark sense of humor isn't limited to his writing. Along with the new books, it was also announced that new global imprint Harper Voyager would be bringing Sandman Slim to British and Australian bookstores in 2011 saying:

Richard hasn't been published previously in the UK, and everyone (author, agent, and Voyager staff on both sides of the Atlantic) is thrilled that we could use the new global Harper Voyager to do a joint, cooperative deal for continuing the series in the US and to bring both his backlist and upcoming frontlist Sandman Slim books to the UK/ANZ.

Harper Voyager Executive Editor Diana Gill also added this about the content of books 4-6.

In terms of the story, Stark is in even more trouble than before-so far he's dealt with revenge, a zombie plague, and having to return to Hell to stop an immortal, but the end of ALOHA FROM HELL turns everything upside-down.

Kadrey's world is rich and inventive-there's a reason he's won praise from all over the map in terms of authors and reviewers—and there are a lot of adventures for Stark to come. Without ruining ALOHA FROM HELL, let's just say that there was no way we could leave things as they were: we knew we had to find out what happens next!

Look for Aloha From Hell late this year with more to follow.

---

Black Sun Rising

Daniel Abraham (as M.L.N. Hanover) has published three entries in his Black Sun's Daughter sequence with the fourth, Killing Rites on tap for fall of this year. Abraham just announced on his blog that he is just about done with the manuscript and expects to turn it in to the editors at Pocket within the week. Killing Rites promises the return of the scene stealing Midian (from Unclean Spirits (Book 1) as Jayne and her band of exorcists travel to Taos, New Mexico.

Books 5 and 6 are currently uncontracted but Abraham seems confident they will make it to bookstore shelves. The series is currently slated for 10 books and I really hope I get to read them all if only to see Jayne, Choygi Jake, Ex, and Aubrey battle demons in Dubuque, Iowa.

---

2011 Debuts: Call for Comments

This is the last one. Really. Not the previous post where I claimed that it was the last time I would mention 2011 debuts. Or the one before that. It's the last one, I swear.

Probably.

I asked this at the end of each of my spotlight posts but I want to ask one more time:

Which debut books are you looking forward to reading in 2011?

Have at it.

2011 Debuts: Index / Release Calendar

To close out my look at Debut Authors for 2011, here's a list of every book I mentioned, neatly organized by release date.

January 2011

• God's War - Kameron Hurley - Jan 18th

February 2011

• Midnight Riot - Ben Aaronovitch - Feb 1st
• The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore - Benjamin Hale - Feb 2nd
• The Desert of Souls - Howard Andrew Jones - Feb 15th

March 2011

• Up Against It - M.J. Locke - Mar 1st
• Engines of Desire - Livia Llewellyn - Mar 15th
• Wolfsangel - M.D. Lachlan - Mar 22nd
• Equations of Life - Simon Morden - Mar 29th

April 2011

• Kat, Incorrigible - Stephanie Burgis - Apr 5th
• The Unremembered - Peter Orullian - Apr 12th
• The Winds of Khalakovo - Brad Beaulieu - Apr 19th
• Hounded - Kevin Hearne - Apr 19th
• Soft Apocalypse - Will McIntosh - Apr 19th
• Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti - Genevieve Valentine - April 25th

May 2011

• The Quantum Thief - Hannu Rajaniemi - May 10th
• America Pacifica - Anna North - May 18th
• The Falling Machine - Andrew P. Mayer - May 24th

June 2011

• The Mall - SL Grey - June 1st
• Leviathan Wakes - Ty Franck (as James S. A. Corey with Daniel Abraham - June 15th

July 2011

• Bluegrass Symphony - Lisa L. Hannett - July 1st
• Heaven's Shadow - David S. Goyer and Michael Cassutt - July 5th

August 2011

• Southern Gods - John Hornor Jacobs - Aug 1st
• The Mostly True Story of Jack - Kelly Barnhill - Aug 2nd
• Machine - Jennifer Pelland - Aug 12th

September 2011

• The Princess Curse - Merrie Haskell - Sept 1st
• Debris - Joanne Anderton - Sept 27th

Late 2011

• How the World Became Quiet: Myths of the Past, Present, and Future - Rachel Swirsky - Late 2011
• The Girl of Fire & Thorns - Rae Carson - Late 2011
• Unwrapped Sky - Rjurik Davidson - Late 2011

2012 and Beyond

• Nightshifted - Cassie Alexander - January 1, 2012
• The Helix Game - Ted Kosmatka - January 12, 2012
• Throne of the Crescent Moon - Saladin Ahmed - Early 2012
• Ironskin - Tina Connolly - Early 2012

Enjoy!

2011 Debuts: Looking further...

In the course of my research I found a few books that I would have easily made the list of promising 2011 debuts except for one thing - they don't come out in 2011. Now I don't know a whole lot about these books themselves but I do know enough about the authors from their short fiction to know that whatever they write, it will be worth reading.

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Title: The Helix Game
Author: Ted Kosmatka
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: January 12, 2012
Synopsis: In the future, genetic engineering becomes an Olympic Sport.

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Title: Throne of the Crescent Moon
Author: Saladin Ahmed
Publisher: DAW
Release Date: Early 2012
Synopsis: Legendary SF/F publisher DAW books will publish three books set in Ahmed's 1001 Nights-inspired heroic fantasy world The Crescent Moon Kingdoms which is also the setting for his short stories “Where Virtue Lives” and “Judgment of Swords and Souls”

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Title: The Croning
Author: Laird Barron
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Release Date: Late 2011 / Early 2012
Synopsis: "It's about an elderly man who discovers his wife has kept some dark secrets from him over the course of their marriage. Or, high concept: Wilford Brimley Goes to Hell"



"On the surface it’s written in the vein of the quieter haunted house, occult-type novels of the 1970s. There’s something of a Bluebeard and Rosemary’s Baby vibe at play – a retired professor spends the summer alone at his wife’s ancestral farm in Western Washington. He pokes into her family history and begins to discern an alarming and insidious pattern of black magic, ritual sacrifice, and much hairier things. Matters descend into the realm of the untenable.


For anyone out there who has read “The Broadsword” or Mysterium Tremendum, The Croning progresses deeper into that particular subset of my Pacific Northwest Mythos. This isn’t your dad’s haunted house story."

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Title: Ironskin
Author: Tina Connolly
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: Early 2012
Synopsis: Jane Eliot wears an iron mask.


It's the only way to contain the fey curse that scars her cheek. The Great War is five years gone, but its scattered victims remain -- the ironskin.
Now Jane returns to the war-torn country to help a fey-cursed child. Helping the unruly Dorie suppress her curse is hard enough -- she certainly didn't expect to fall for the girl's father, the enigmatic artist Mr. Rochart. But her blossoming crush is stifled by her own scars, and by his parade of women. Ugly women, who enter his closed studio -- and come out as beautiful as the fey.
Jane knows he cannot love her, just as she knows that she must wear iron for the rest of her life. But what if neither of these things are true? Step by step Jane must unlock the secrets of her new life -- and discover just how far she will go to become whole again.

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I'm reasonably sure that these won't be the only debut novels in 2012 but I do know they are the ones I'll be waiting for most.

If you can't wait that long, I'd suggest taking a look the previous posts in my 2011 Debut series. You can find the full index here.

2011 Debuts: Young-Adult and Middle Grade

For the penultimate entry in my series of debut spotlights, I'm targeting a younger demographic than that of my average reader. Still, some people (who aren't me) have kids, and in a world where Twilight is the industry standard for successfuly "young adult" fiction, they could use all the help they could get to find some quality recommendations. So without further adieu, here are a few books that might keep the kids entertained. Although if they are anything like I was at that age, a few books might only last a week.

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Young Adult

Title: The Girl of Fire & Thorns
Author: Rae Carson
Publisher: Green Willow / Harper Collins
Release Date: November 1, 2011
Synopsis: Princess Elisa is a disappointment to her people. Although she bears the Godstone in her navel, a sign that she has been chosen for an act of heroism, they see her as lazy and useless and fat.


On her sixteenth birthday, she is bartered off in royal marriage and shipped away to a kingdom in turmoil, where her much-older and extremely beautiful husband refuses to acknowledge her as his wife. Devastated, Elisa decides to take charge of her fate and learn what it means to bear the Godstone. As an invading army threatens to destroy her new home, and everyone at court maneuvers to take advantage of the young princess, Elisa becomes convinced that, not only is her own life in danger, the whole world needs saving. But how can a young girl who has never ridden horseback, never played the game of politics, and never attained the love of a man save the world? Elisa only knows she's going to try--so long as she doesn't have to give up pastries.

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If your kids haven't quite reached young adult status yet, I would suggest any of these middle grade adventures along with Kid vs. Squid or The Boy at the End of the World by Greg Van Eekhout.

Middle Grade

Title: Kat, Incorrigible
Author: Stephanie Burgis
Publisher: Atheneum
Release Date: April 5, 2011
Synopsis: Twelve-year-old Kat Stephenson may be the despair of her social-climbing Step-Mama, but she was born to be a magical Guardian and protector of Society--if she can ever find true acceptance in the secret Order that expelled her own mother. She’s ready to turn the hidebound Order of the Guardians inside-out, whether the older members like it or not. And in a society where magic is the greatest scandal of all, Kat is determined to use all her powers to help her three older siblings--saintly Elissa, practicing-witch Angeline, and hopelessly foolish Charles--find their own true loves, even if she has to turn highwayman, battle wild magic, and confront real ghosts along the way!

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Title: The Mostly True Story of Jack
Author: Kelly Barnhill
Publisher: Little Brown
Release Date: August 2, 2011
Synopsis: When Jack is sent to Hazelwood, Iowa, to live with his crazy aunt and uncle, he expects a summer of boredom. Little does he know that the people of Hazelwood have been waiting for him for a long time. . . .


When he arrives, three astonishing things happen: First, he makes friends-not imaginary friends but actual friends. Second, he is beaten up by the town bully; the bullies at home always ignored him. Third, the richest man in town begins to plot Jack's imminent, and hopefully painful, demise. It's up to Jack to figure out why suddenly everyone cares so much about him. Back home he was practically, well, invisible.


The Mostly True Story of Jack is a tale of magic, friendship, and sacrifice. It's about things broken and things put back together. Above all, it's about finding a place to belong.

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Title: The Princess Curse
Author: Merrie Haskell
Publisher: Harper Collins
Release Date: September 1, 2011
Synopsis: A retelling of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses", in which an herbalist's apprentice in 15th century Romania attempts to break a curse and instead discovers a door to the Underworld.

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Again, I'm sure I missed some excellent debut authors. Feel free to correct my oversights by leaving any additional recommendations in the comments.

The next entry in the series will look out past 2011, highlighting some debuts that aren't slated for this year but are no less anticipated.

You can the full index of highlighted 2011 debuts here.

2011 Debuts: Literary Crossovers and Short Fiction Collections

Today's debut preview shines a light on a few authors who may or may not be grateful for the attention. list. Literature and genre rarely play nice but when they do get together, they make one hell of a couple. Michael Chabon, Neil Gaiman and China Mieville are only a few of the author who have made their careers off border straddling novels chock full or rich prose, challenging ideas, and original concepts. Will these authors make a name for themselves?

Literary Crossovers

Title: The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore
Author: Benjamin Hale
Publisher: Twelve
Release Date: February 2, 2011
Synopsis: Bruno Littlemore is quite unlike any chimpanzee in the world. Precocious, self-conscious and preternaturally gifted, young Bruno, born and raised in a habitat at the local zoo, falls under the care of a university primatologist named Lydia Littlemore. Learning of Bruno's ability to speak, Lydia takes Bruno into her home to oversee his education and nurture his passion for painting. But for all of his gifts, the chimpanzee has a rough time caging his more primal urges. His untimely outbursts ultimately cost Lydia her job, and send the unlikely pair on the road in what proves to be one of the most unforgettable journeys -- and most affecting love stories -- in recent literature. Like its protagonist, this novel is big, loud, abrasive, witty, perverse, earnest and amazingly accomplished. The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore goes beyond satire by showing us not what it means, but what it feels like be human -- to love and lose, learn, aspire, grasp, and, in the end, to fail.

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Title: America Pacifica: A Novel
Author: Anna North
Publisher: Reagan Arthur
Release Date: May 18, 2011
Synopsis: Eighteen-year-old Darcy lives on the island of America Pacifica--one of the last places on earth that is still habitable, after North America has succumbed to a second ice age. Education, food, and basic means of survival are the province of a chosen few, while the majority of the island residents must struggle to stay alive. The rich live in ""Manhattanville"" mansions made from the last pieces of wood and stone, while the poor cower in the shantytown slums of ""Hell City"" and ""Little Los Angeles,"" places built out of heaped up trash that is slowly crumbling into the sea. The island is ruled by a mysterious dictator named Tyson, whose regime is plagued by charges of corruption and conspiracy.

But to Darcy, America Pacifica is simply home--the only one she's ever known. In spite of their poverty she lives contentedly with her mother, who works as a pearl diver. It's only when her mother doesn't come home one night that Darcy begins to learn about her past as a former ""Mainlander,"" and her mother's role in the flight from frozen California to America Pacifica. Darcy embarks on a quest to find her mother, navigating the dark underbelly of the island, learning along the way the disturbing truth of Pacifica's early history, the far-reaching influence of its egomaniacal leader, and the possible plot to murder some of the island's first inhabitants--including her mother.

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Short Fiction

Next up is literarure's little sister, the short story. Like the hard stuff, short stories can be frustrating and amazing at the same time and it take a really skilled writer to put together a good collection. Early collections are more often than not compilations rather than true collections but there are those gems that manage a mix of distinct stories that also become more than a sum of their parts. Here are three very strong authors who I expect might provide just that.

Title: Engines of Desire: Tales of Love & Other Horrors
Author: Livia Llewellyn
Publisher: Lethe Press
Release Date: March 15, 2011
Synopsis: Death and pleasure. Freud's Todestrieb, his statement that ''libido has the task of making the destroying instinct innocuous, and it fulfils the task by diverting that instinct to a great extent outwards....The instinct is then called the destructive instinct, the instinct for mastery, or the will to power.'' Few authors have spun stories of Thanatos and Eros as skillfully and powerfully as Livia Llewellyn. In his introduction to this volume, Laird Barron writes ''Scant difference exists between exquisite pleasure and pain.'' An orphan girl with a mind for anthracite falls into the hands of a cult worshipping an entombed god. In the Pacific Northwest, evergreens lull prepubescent girls into their trunks to serve as wombs. A suburban housewife troubled by her present encounters the sixteen year-old girl she ached to touch in her dreams. These ten stories promise to indulge a reader's sensibilities, their fears and desires.

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Title: Bluegrass Symphony
Author: Lisa L. Hannett
Publisher: Ticonderoga Publications
Release Date: July 1, 2011
Synopsis: Ticonderoga Publications is more than well-pleased to announce a forthcoming collection of stories by acclaimed writer and master crafter of unsettling tales Lisa Hannett.
The collection is titled Bluegrass Symphony and scheduled for publication next year.
Since her first publication in 2009, Lisa Hannett’s stories have appeared in numerous anthologies including titles by Twelfth Planet Press and Ticonderoga Publication’s groundbreaking paranormal romance anthology, Scary Kisses. She has published stories in Clarkesworld Magazine, Fantasy Magazine and has tales forthcoming in Weird Tales and Steampunk Reloaded.
Bluegrass Symphony deals with cowboys and fallow fields, shapeshifters and rednecks, superstitions and realities in harsh prairie country — and a whole bunch of other things thrown in the mix.

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Title: How the World Became Quiet: Myths of the Past, Present, and Future
Author: Rachel Swirsky
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Release Date: November 1, 2011
Synopsis: Rachel Swirsky's 1st short fiction collection. It's about time.

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Just a few titles between these two categories but I am always looking for more. As always, if you have any related suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments.

Otherwise, come back tomorrow for my look at 2011's offerings for debut YA and Middlegrade fiction or check out the full index of 2011 here.

2011 Debuts: Urban Fantasy and Horror

After yesterday's foray into fantasy, it's time to move on to its inbred sex-starved cousin of the municipal variety. As a subgenre, Urban Fantasy doesn't look to be going anywhere any time soon. Not only do all the major players return,  they've also got a few new faces to contend with in the private investigator / witch / nurse/ vampire / nurse / waitress / werewolf / lover / guilty pleasure business.

Despite my proclivity for poking fun, I'd be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy the occasional Urban Fantasy. There are a lot of Twilight knock-offs or Dresden Dopplegangers - you just need to figure out what's worth reading and what's pure drek. Hopefully these promising new series will be the start of something special...

Urban Fantasy

Title: Midnight Riot (US) / Rivers of London (UK)
Author: Ben Aaronovitch
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: February 1, 2011
Synopsis: Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut.

But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

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Title: Hounded
Author: Kevin Hearne
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: April 19, 2011
Synopsis: Atticus O’Sullivan has been running for two thousand years and he’s a bit tired of it. After he stole a magical sword from the Tuatha Dé Danann (those who became the Sidhe or the Fae) in a first century battle, some of them were furious and gave chase, and some were secretly amused that a Druid had the cheek to defy them. As the centuries passed and Atticus remained an annoyingly long-lived fugitive, those who were furious only grew more so, while others began to aid him in secret.

Now he’s living in Tempe, Arizona, the very last of the Druids, far from where the Fae can easily find him. It’s a place where many paranormals have decided to hide from the troubles of the Old World—from an Icelandic vampire holding a grudge against Thor to a coven of Polish witches who ran from the German Blitzkrieg.

Unfortunately, the very angry Celtic god who wants that sword has tracked him down, and Atticus will need all his power, plus the help of a seductive goddess of death, a sexy bartender possessed by a Hindu witch, and some good, old-fashioned luck of the Irish to kick some arse and deliver himself from evil.

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Title: Nightshifted
Author: Cassie Alexander
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date: January 1, 2012
Synopsis: Nursing school never prepared Edie Spence to work with vampires.

When Edie's heroin-addicted brother overdoses, she's given a choice at the County Emergency Room: she can watch him die or buy him an unconventional treatment by quitting her current job and transferring to Floor Y4. She agrees to transfer and finds herself in the bowels of the County hospital, working with vampire-exposed humans and were-creatures in their mortal phases. Caring for her new patients is stressful enough -- and when she rescues an abused little girl from a vampire prince, she realizes that saving her brother may have come at the cost of her immortal soul.

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Horror

I apologize for the short list of horror recommendations. In my defense, A) There aren't a lot of high profile horror novels, debuts or no. B) A lot of the newer writers are writing short fiction. C) Horror isn't my strong suit.

Title: Outpost
Author: Adam Baker
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Release Date: April 14, 2011
Synopsis: They took the job to escape the world
They didn't expect the world to end.

But the world beyond their frozen wasteland has gone to hell. Cities lie ravaged by a global pandemic. One by one TV channels die, replaced by silent wavebands.

The Rampart crew are marooned. They must survive the long Arctic winter, then make their way home alone. They battle starvation and hypothermia, unaware that the deadly contagion that has devastated the world is heading their way...

Kasker Rampart: a derelict refinery platform moored in the Arctic Ocean. A skeleton crew of fifteen fight boredom and despair as they wait for a relief ship to take them home.

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Title: The Mall
Author: SL Grey
Publisher: Corvus
Release Date: June 1, 2011
Synopsis: Dan works at a bookstore in a deadly dull shopping mall where nothing ever happens. He’s an angsty emo-kid who sells mid-list books to mid-list people for the minimum wage. He hates his job

Rhoda has dragged her babysitting charge to the mall so she can meet her dealer and score some coke. Now the kid’s run off, and she has two hours to find him. She hates her life.

Rhoda bullies Dan into helping her search, but as they explore the neon-lit corridors behind the mall, disturbing text messages lure them into the bowels of the building, where old mannequins are stored in grave-like piles and raw sewage drips off the ceiling. The only escape is down, and before long Dan and Rhoda are trapped in a service lift listening to head-splitting musak. Worst of all, the lift’s not stopping at the bottom floor.

Plummeting into the earth, Dan and Rhoda enter a sinister underworld that mirrors their worst fears. Forced to complete a series of twisted tasks to find their way out, they finally emerge into the brightly lit food court, sick with relief at the banal sight of people shopping and eating. But something feels different. Why are the shoppers all pumped full of silicone? Why are the shop assistants chained to their counters? And why is McDonald’s selling lumps of bleeding meat?

Just when they think they’ve made it back to the mall, they realise their nightmare has only just begun…

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Title: Southern Gods
Author: John Hornor Jacobs
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Release Date: August 1, 2011
Synopsis: Recent World War II veteran Bull Ingram is working as muscle when a Memphis DJ hires him to find Ramblin' John Hastur. The mysterious blues man's dark, driving music--broadcast at ever-shifting frequencies by a phantom radio station--is said to make living men insane and dead men rise.

Disturbed and enraged by the bootleg recording the DJ plays for him, Ingram follows Hastur's trail into the strange, uncivilized backwoods of Arkansas, where he hears rumors the musician has sold his soul to the Devil.

But as Ingram closes in on Hastur and those who have crossed his path, he'll learn there are forces much more malevolent than the Devil and reckonings more painful than Hell . . .

In a masterful debut of Lovecraftian horror and Southern gothic menace, John Hornor Jacobs reveals the fragility of free will, the dangerous power of sacrifice, and the insidious strength of blood.

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Now, It's not the most comprehensive slate but as I said, I can always use some help in the Horror department. Recommendations of new authors are always welcome in the comments.

The same goes for Urban Fantasy - finding the diamond in that rough is much too dirty for my liking. But I'm always happy to take a look at something someone suggests is worth digging for.

Come back tomorrow for a rather respectable look at a few literary crossovers and those agonizingly brilliant things I refer to as short fiction collections.

If you are looking for more 2011 debuts, check out the full index (including science fiction, fantasy, and steampunk) here.