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Future Treasures: Waking Up Dead by Nigel Williams

Future Treasures: Waking Up Dead by Nigel Williams

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Nigel Williams is the author of over sixteen novels, including the bestselling The Wimbledon Poisoner and its sequels. His latest novel is the tale of a ghost who hangs around, trying to unravel the suspicious circumstances of his death…. and in the process, learns a few surprising secrets about his family. The Saturday Times says ““This has the best opening chapter of the year, if not the decade…. This black comedy is Williams’s best since The Wimbledon Poisoner.” And Country Life magazines calls it “A very funny work… Under this master of suburban comedy we have a breathtakingly hilarious hybrid of Blithe Spirit, Noises Off and Miss Marple… will have you falling off your deckchair with mirth.”

Retired bank manager George Pearmain is, apparently, dead. According to the behavior of everyone around him, it would seem that he is no more. Not only that, but his mother has also passed away too — and on the eve of her 99th year, poor dear. Not only that, it could be that they were both murdered.

He feels fine otherwise.

As George’s family gather for the birthday-celebration-that-never-was, he hovers around the house, watching and listening, entirely unseen. As a result, he makes all sorts of discoveries about himself, his wife Esmeralda, and his supposedly happy family…

One of internationally bestselling author Nigel Williams’ best books to date, Waking Up Dead is both a screamingly funny cozy mystery and startlingly strange ghost story asking the question: What would you do if you could bear witness to your own demise?

Waking Up Dead will be published by Thomas Dunne Books on August 23, 2016. It is 332 pages, priced at $26.99 in hardcover, and $12.99 for the digital edition. The cover was designed by David Baldensingh Rotstein.

Return to Balumnia: The Stone Giant by James P. Blaylock

Return to Balumnia: The Stone Giant by James P. Blaylock

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oie_930526XfElVMASix years after the second Balumnia novel, The Disappearing Dwarf, James P. Blaylock returned one last time to the series with The Stone Giant (1989). Instead of continuing the adventures of Master Cheeser Jonathan Bing, Blaylock went back in time to reveal the origins of the scandalous, piratical-looking Theophile Escargot. If the previous volumes seem inspired by the adventures of Mole and Rat in The Wind in the Willows, this one reads Toad all the way. Click on the links to read my reviews of the other two Balumnia novels: The Elfin Ship and The Disappearing Dwarf.

A secretive, conniving fellow in the two previous volumes, here we get a peek into just how Escargot’s mind operates, and what leads him to leave Twombly Town and take to the roads and high seas in search of adventure. Stirred by a fit of pique, he steals a pie his wife had locked in the cupboard. This act of domestic thievery eventually leads him into the path of certain dangerous characters, which convinces him to get out of town as fast as he can.

Escargot’s wife regularly locks all the pies she bakes in the cupboard, doling them out to him only a slice at a time in order to get him to lead a respectable life, get a job, and attend church. Unwilling to do any of those things, one night, while his wife and their daughter, Annie, are sleeping, Escargot breaks the locks and steals a peach pie. He then wanders off for a stroll in the moonlight.

When he comes home the next morning (after a run-in with a pack of goblins), he finds the door to his house padlocked and a note inviting him to never return home. Most of the town, long familiar with Escargot’s approach to life and responsibility, is on his wife’s side, leaving him with nowhere to turn. Living on river squid and apples, he relocates to a drafty, abandoned windmill for shelter while he tries to figure out what to do next.

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New Treasures: Ann and Jeff Vandermeer’s The Big Book of Science Fiction

New Treasures: Ann and Jeff Vandermeer’s The Big Book of Science Fiction

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The Big Book of Science Fiction-smallHow big is The Big Book of Science Fiction? An informal survey shows that it’s quite likely the biggest book every covered at Black Gate — bigger than Otto Penzler’s The Vampire Archives and The Big Book of Adventure Stories, and even bigger than Ann and Jeff Vandermeer’s previous record-holder, the 1152-page The Weird. It is 1,216 pages in two columns, weighing in at a staggering 750,000 words.

But as I keep telling Alice, size isn’t everything. The Big Book of Science Fiction has been receiving accolades since the day it was published, Here’s a snippet from one of my favorite reviews, from Brit Mandelo at Tor.com.

A stunning and satisfying retrospective… This is a complex and fantastic project — one I think they’ve succeeded admirably at to make an academically useful and pleasurably readable collection… Each piece in the collection is preceded by a brief write-up of the author, their life’s work, and their story in the context of the world and genre alike. While each introduction is short, the inclusion of them enhances the stories immensely…

There are classics here — for example, Leslie F. Stone’s “The Conquest of Gola” — that I’ve seen in most of these types of collections, but there are also new classics, stories that seem strikingly necessary to a rich understanding of the field but have not been previously collected or acknowledged as part of the canon. To balance those two urges is a high end goal, and to my eye, the VanderMeer duo have succeeded… I couldn’t ask for more, truly. It’s diverse, wide-ranging, engaging, and fun; the stories are introduced well, juxtaposed better, and the overall effect is one of dizzying complexity and depth.

The Big Book of Science Fiction was published by Vintage on July 12, 2016. It is 1,216 pages, priced at $25 in trade paperback and $12.99 for the digital edition. See the complete table of contents here.

Self-Published Book Review: Saint Death by Mike Duran

Self-Published Book Review: Saint Death by Mike Duran

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If you have a book you’d like me to review, please see this post for instructions to submit. I’ve received very few submissions recently, and I’d like to get more.

St.DeathDisclosure: Mike Duran edited a story of mine for Coach’s Midnight Diner once. I’m also Facebook friends with him, and got to know him a little in person at a con last year. I think I can still be objective in reviewing his novel.

Saint Death is the second in Mike Duran’s paranormal noir Reagan Moon series. I’ve read a number of his stories before, from the religious supernatural fiction of The Resurrection and The Telling, to the more bizarre stories like Winterland. But his self-published Reagan Moon novels are where Mike seems to have hit his stride. Or perhaps, they’re more along the lines of the type of fiction I like to read.

Paranormal reporter (or paparazzi, as some people call him) Reagan Moon has been hunting ghosts all his career, but he never really believed in them until he had an undeniable experience with the supernatural in The Ghost Box. At the climax of that adventure, Reagan was struck by lightning, and the odd, perhaps supernatural, cross-like Tau that he wore was fused with his chest, preserving its shape in a Lichtenberg figure. The lightning also gave him what he calls stormgifts, such as a strange intuition, a limited ability to heal others, and most weirdly, the ability to teleport—except the teleporting is more like moving between worlds, and punching a hole through anything standing in the way in this one. But using the stormgifts is hard, requiring an effort of focus and will that are difficult for Reagan to summon, and each time he uses them, the Tau scar seems to grow.

Reagan’s troubles take on a supernatural aspect again when a tip from his patron, and fellow gifted, Klammer, sends him to an LA ranch to look for someone called the Shroud. There he finds a Santa Muerte shrine, a wannabe vampire, and a cult priestess named Etherea, threatening to summon the archangel of death for another go at the Tenth Plague of Egypt, the killing of the firstborn. Fortunately, Reagan is assisted by his guardian angel Bernard, his shapeshifting almost-girlfriend Kanya, and the members of the Imperia, an eclectic collection of fellow gifted, whose abilities are consuming their bodies just as Reagan’s is.

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Future Treasures: Summerlong by Peter S. Beagle

Future Treasures: Summerlong by Peter S. Beagle

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A new novel by Peter S. Beagle is a major publishing event. His last novel, I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons (2007), mysteriously never appeared in print, but The Last Unicorn (1968) was ranked the #5 All-Time Best Fantasy Novel in the 1987 Locus Poll. The Folk of the Air (1986) and Tamsin (1999) both won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and The Innkeeper’s Song (1993) won the Locus Award. He’s won virtually every accolade our field has to offer, including the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards.

His long-anticipated new novel Summerlong, a bittersweet tale of passion, enchantment, and the nature of fate, arrives next month. Kirkus Reviews calls it “A beautifully detailed fantasy,” and comic writer Kurt Busiek (Astro City, The Avengers) says it is “An urban myth for adults… a book of magic, wondrous, tragic and unending.”

Our previous coverage of Peter Beagle includes Ryan Harvey’s 2011 article “How to Support Peter S. Beagle with The Last Unicorn Blu-ray,” and our 2010 post on The Secret History of Fantasy.

Summerlong will be published by Tachyon Publications on September 13, 2016. It is 240 pages, priced at $15.95 in trade paperback. The cover is by Magdalena Korzeniewska. Read the full details, including an excerpt, at the Tachyon website.

Wondrous Flights of Space Operatic Fancy: Eva L. Elasigue’s Bones of Starlight: Fire on All Sides

Wondrous Flights of Space Operatic Fancy: Eva L. Elasigue’s Bones of Starlight: Fire on All Sides

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I had the privilege of meeting Eva L. Elasigue at this year’s Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards Weekend (which I attended with several other members of Black Gate‘s Chicago crew, including John O’Neill). When she described her novel Fire on All Sides to me, it sounded magical. Well, you had better believe that it will lead you on a dazzling journey. The novel, which marks the beginning of a series titled Bones of Starlight, centers around multiple plot threads.

The first focuses on a detective named Derringer. He falls for the whimsical Karma Ilacqua, whom he meets while delivering an important parcel to her hotel room. Tantalizing romance ensues. You’re with the couple all the way until misfortune rears its ugly head.

The same goes for the second story, which centers around the enchanting Princess Soleil. She and her parents and siblings, all members of the Imperium, eagerly await the Pyrean Midsummer. The duty of performing a staggeringly beautiful aria to mark the occasion falls on Soleil. But before the event begins, the Princess falls into a mysterious coma. Even after the royal family summons the help of the Aquarii, a race of musical (and tentacle-armed) beings, a cure remains elusive.

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A Hard-boiled Private Eye Who Becomes a Wizard’s Henchman: A Wizard’s Henchman by Matthew Hughes

A Hard-boiled Private Eye Who Becomes a Wizard’s Henchman: A Wizard’s Henchman by Matthew Hughes

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I’ve posted the first chapter of A Wizard’s Henchman for a free read.

For quite a few years now, I’ve been imagining a far-future civilization called the Ten Thousand Worlds, which occupies an arm of the galaxy known as The Spray. The time I’ve been writing about is just before the universe suddenly and arbitrarily shifts from a basis of rational cause-and-effect to a new regime based on magic. When that happens, technological civilization will collapse and the age of The Dying Earth will dawn, with its grim thaumaturges, haunted ruins, and louche decadence.

Whether they live on grand old, long-settled worlds or strange little planets in odd corners, virtually none of The Spray’s multitude of inhabitants knows that disaster impends. A handful do, and they are preparing for the great change.

Until now, I’ve written only about the handful and I’ve always taken the overarching story just to the point where the cataclysm is about to break upon the Ten Thousand Worlds. In A Wizard’s Henchman, for the first time, I go all the way.

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New Treasures: Skyships Over Innsmouth by Susan Laine

New Treasures: Skyships Over Innsmouth by Susan Laine

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Airships! Cataclysms! Lovecraft! Horrors beyond imagining! And airships! Really, you had me at airships and Lovecraft.

Susan Lane lives in Finland, and is primarily known as an author of Erotic Alternative Cowboy Romances with great titles, like Lone Wolf and His Cool Cat and Twist in the Saddle. She’s also written the 5-volume Lifting the Veil series of supernatural romances. Skyships Over Innsmouth seems to be her first foray into straight-ahead post-apocalyptic Lovecraftian steampunk… but then again, she seems to have essentially invented it, so she’s free to do it her way. Airships! Lovecraft! This woman has definitely cracked the code for literary cool, and my wallet is helpless before her. That awesome cover doesn’t hurt, either.

Skyships Over Innsmouth was published by DSP Publications on August 2, 2016. It is 200 pages, priced at $14.99 in paperback and $6.99 for the digital edition. The gorgeous cover is by Stef Masciandaro. Get more details (and read a sample chapter by hitting the “Show Excerpt” button) at the DSP website.

Where Epic Fantasy, Uncanny SF, and the New Weird Collide: The Stars Askew by Rjurik Davidson

Where Epic Fantasy, Uncanny SF, and the New Weird Collide: The Stars Askew by Rjurik Davidson

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Rjurik Davidson’s Unwrapped Sky was one of the most intriguing works of weird fantasy of 2014. Scott Westerfield called it “An amazing debut… Rjurik Davidson works the sharp edges where epic fantasy, uncanny science fiction, and the New Weird collide.” One of the most fascinating things about it was the marvelously realized fantasy city of Caeli-Amur, home to men, minotaurs, and ancient magic. Hannu Rajaniemi said, “Rjurik has a brilliant, fecund imagination, and I absolutely love the setting… Caeli-Amur is one of the more memorable cities in recent fantasy.” The Stars Askew is the long-awaited sequel, on sale now from Tor Books.

With the seditionists in power, Caeli-Amur has begun a new age. Or has it? The escaped House officials no longer send food, and the city is starving. When the moderate leader Aceline is murdered, the trail leads Kata to a mysterious book that explains how to control the fabled Prism of Alerion. But when the last person to possess the book is found dead, it becomes clear that a conspiracy is afoot. At its center is former House Officiate Armand, who has hidden the Prism. Armand is vying for control of the Directorate, the highest political position in the city, until Armand is betrayed and sent to a prison camp to mine deadly bloodstone.

Meanwhile, Maximilian is sharing his mind with another being: the joker-god Aya. Aya leads Max to the realm of the Elo-Talern to seek a power source to remove Aya from Max’s brain. But when Max and Aya return, they find the vigilants destroying the last remnants of House power.

It seems the seditionists’ hopes for a new age of peace and prosperity in Caeli-Amur have come to naught, and every attempt to improve the situation makes it worse. The question now is not just whether Kata, Max, and Armand can do anything to stop the bloody battle in the city, but if they can escape with their lives.

Read an original story in the same setting, “Nighttime in Caeli-Amur,” published free at Tor.com.

The Stars Askew was published by Tor Books on July 12, 2016. It is 411 pages, priced at $25.9 in hardcover and $12.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Allen Williams.

Future Treasures: The Gate of Sorrows by Miyuki Miyabe

Future Treasures: The Gate of Sorrows by Miyuki Miyabe

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Miyuki Miyabe is a best-selling novelist in her native Japan. Her first fantasy novel Brave Story won the Batchelder Award for best children’s book in translation from the American Library Association in 2007; her second, The Book of Heroes, appeared in English translation in 2010. It was followed by Ico: Castle in the Mist (2010), inspired by the classic Playstation game Ico.

The Gate of Sorrows is  a departure from her previous work — and yet strongly linked to it. It’s an adult novel, set in the same universe as her children’s book The Book of Heroes. It goes on sale in hardcover in two weeks. Here’s the description.

A series of murders shocks Tokyo’s Shinjuku ward, but Shigenori, a retired police detective, is instead obsessed with a gargoyle that seems to move. College freshman Kotaro launches a web-based investigation of the killer, and comes to find that answers may lie within an abandoned building in the center of Japan’s busiest neighborhood, and beyond the Gate of Sorrows. In this adult sequel to Miyabe’s The Book of Heroes, you will meet monsters from other worlds and ordinary horrors that surpass even supernatural threats.

The Gate of Sorrows will be published by Haikasoru on August 16, 2016. It is 600 pages, priced at $26.99 in hardcover and $9.99 for the digital version. It is translated by Jim Hubbert. Click the images above for bigger versions.